Pixels and my Prince

Candy Tree

2007-03-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

Ok serious sweet tooth warning here! This thing is loaded with yummy stuff. I took Hershey's Kissables, M&M minis, & Skittles all in the snack size packs and made this fabulous Easter candy tree For Thomas for Easter. He is going to get this instead of a basket this year. I also wired in a bunch of hot-wheels cars into the tree. On the bottom filling the flower pot is bite size 3 musketeers bars and a set of easter Thomas the train die-casts as well as some other small toys. It only took about 3 hours to make and it was so much fun. That included making the bows and ribbons.

OK so here is a tiny sneak peek of the Next NDISB Mega scrap kit. There is much much more. It is so fabulous.

The Big 30

2007-02-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

I had been looking forward to turning 30 for a little while. Ready to venture into the next stage of life. If you asked me at 18 what I would be like and doing at 30 things would be vastly different than they are now. It's funny how time, wisdom and Life in general changes your view on things and rearranges your priorities. I am at peace with myself finally for the 1st time in years. I have forgiven myself of past mistakes and am ready to embrace life as a whole. It's funny how not so long ago 30 was old, but now I feel like I am just beginning.

And as if I didn't need a sign that all is well in life, this is what I saw yesterday out my kitchen window. I had to go grab my camera and run and snap a couple pictures.

Thomas still has an awful cough, but he finished his antibiotics, and his fever and wheezing are gone, so evidently he is getting better. Thanks you all so much for your well wishes.

Thomas is sick...

2007-02-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those days where you simply could not agree with a Doctor's diagnosis of something? It's frustrating and makes you angry. Thomas Is one very sick little boy. Friday morning he had a fever and a cough. By noon it was getting pretty bad. I took a listen to his lungs and they were clear, so I told hubby not to worry to much, it just a cold and gave him some Tylenol for the fever, and then tried to make an appointment for Thomas to be seen at the ped's office. No such luck getting him in. They only had one appointment in the urgent clinic available, and it was during my class. I had a 3 hour class I had to go to to maintain my License for the Care Home I run. Got to love those required CEU's in the medical field.
Class is boring as expected, but Gerald calls me and said Thomas is having a hard time breathing. I asked him how hard is hard. Does this warrant a 911 call? He said no not that bad, he just sounds stuffy, but to come home as soon as I could. So I get home and Thomas is passed out sound asleep on the couch. He looked so sweet. I checked him over and noticed, yeah his breathing was stuffy and a little labored, but still not enough to be too worried about. It looked the norm for a kid with a cold. So I let him sleep and started cooking dinner. I tried to wake him up to eat, and of course he didn't want to eat. That too is nothing new. Thomas doesn't eat much when he doesn't feel well. So he fell right back asleep on the couch. I was watching him as I was cleaning up the kitchen and I noticed his breathing was getting pretty labored. Enough to catch my attention and send alarms off in my head. And it takes a lot medically to make me panic or take pause, because I have literally seen it all. So I start counting his respiration's and the panic sets in. 52 resp's a minute, wow that's not good. so I go and get my pulse-ox and put it on his finger. 83 Wow that's not good either. Thomas is still fast asleep but I notice he is wheezing. Now It's time to go to the ER.
So we get to the ER, and they take him back right away, and I fill out the paperwork. They do O2 tests, and X-rays, and look him over, and do the whole thing. A nurse came in and gave him a albuterol and atrovent breathing treatment in a nebulizer as well as prednisone & epi. TJ's O2 sats are much better after the treatment and stay right around 95-96, So it obviously helped. About 1 hours later the doctor waltzes back in with an official diagnoses of Pneomonia and Asthma. Now I listened to Tj's lungs and they were clear. No crackling sounds at all, and the X-ray tech even said they were clear. We had to wait in Xray while they were developed to see if they needed to be retaken. Because TJ was basically hyperventilating and it made it hard to get the Xray. He asked me if I could put on a lead apron and go in there with him and calm him down. I said yes, but he isn't panicked he has been like that all night and that is why we are here in the ER. So the Xrays were a bit blurry, but he said they were OK, and his lungs were clear. So if the Xray shows the lungs are clear and his lungs sound clear when listening to them, how do you get a diagnosis of Pneumonia??? TJ was doing much better and it was late so I took him home. The more I though about it though, the more I simmered and got mad.
I myself have asthma. Asthma is not an issue that you diagnose when a kid is sick. Yes a cold, croup, pneumonia, bronchitis etc can all bring up asthma-like symptoms. Like wheezing and airway constriction, but you never make an asthma diagnosis when A child is sick. You make it when they are perfectly healthy and are having wheezing episodes. You also have to do lung compasity breathing tests, So that just made me mad.
So here we are on Saturday Morning and things are better. Thomas Obviously had something wrong with him. The Zithromax and prednisone he has been taking for 2 days is working. Zithro is a broad spectrum antibiotic thou?? so who knows what exactly. We have been doing his albuterol with an aero-chamber. It is a spacer with a face mask that you spray the inhaler into. It takes both Gerald and it to do it. One has to hold him down while the other puts the mask on him and pushes the spray into it. I feel like a complete heel doing it. Because basically you hold it on his face and all but suffocated the poor kid. He screams out and cries, and holds his breath until he just can't anymore, and with tears streaking down his face he finally will breath in. Oh and he has to do this for 6 breaths. Now the mommy side of me feels absolutely terrible for doing this. I feel like I am torturing my baby. I hate seeing that something I am forcing him to do is making him so sad and afraid. And then there is the medical side of me that A: knows he needs this medicine, and B: thinks " hey crying is good, the louder he screams, the harder he breathes, and better he takes the medicine into his lungs"...I know terrible mommy am I.

February Newsletter Sneak Peek

2007-02-20T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well at last I am finished putting together another great newsletter for the store. We have some fun stuff this month.
If you are not registered to get the NDISB.com ND*zine newsletter I suggest running and doing so. It will be headed toward the email in-box shortly.

Getting the newsletter is the only way to get this fab kit for free.

Pretty Petals and Firestones

2007-02-03T21:32:00.000-08:00

Can I just say. I really enjoyed creating these flowers! they were so much fun. with that I bring to you. New embellishments are in the NDISB store.

11 slightly worn, beautiful and vibrant flowers. Flowers have a wonderful woven silk flower texture with slightly frayed edges. It also comes with 13 beautiful fire gemstones to add a bit of bling to your pages. Use the Gemstones to tack down your flowers on your page. If bling isn't your thing, go with the included brad tack in a variety of metal finishes. You also get a beautiful metal mounting ring, so you can have your Fire Stones with or without the metal rim. These flowers are sure to add that special finishing touch to any page. They even look fantastic stacked with 2 different colors.

So for my loyal Blog readers....The 1st 5 people to buy the elements can get it for HALF OFF!! Use the coupon code Blog-PPFS-50percent to get it for a whopping $1.50! Coupn only good for the 1st 5 buyers, so be quick!

Surgery is scheduled!

2007-01-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Well Lets start off with the Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding I made this weekend. YUMMY! a bit on the swwet side, but I tweaked the recipie to be not too sweet. It was so GOOD!.

Surgery..... Gerald goes in this Wednesday Jan 10th for his surgeries. We have to check in on the surgical floor at 11 am so I am guessing his surgery will be around 1 or so. He will be in the hospital a few days and then gets to come home and rest. The doc said he will be very sore for about 6-8 weeks. He is ready to get it over and get to feeling better, but he is so disappointed the weather forecast is for snow here Wednesday & Thursday and he loves snow. It hardly snows here. The last time it snowed real real good we were also in the hospital LOL. I was having Thomas. Go figure. Thomas and I are going to stay with some close friends who live very close to the hospital. I am happy for that because driving and hour through the snow to get there is not my idea of fun. With the snow it would take twice as long.

We had a blast this past Friday at Gerald company Employee appreciation party. They hold it at the Marriott Waterfront. They went with the Casino Theme again this year since everyone had so much fun last year. We had a really yummy dinner there. Fillet Mingon, asparagus, Garlic potatoes, and an asian salad. Then we watched the annual video slide show presentation and then off to gamble with our funny money. They give you a $1000 in play money to buy chips. At the end of the night you cash the chips in to buy raffle tickets for the door prizes, which were amazing. Tivo's Ipods, Nintendo DS, Diamond jewelry, Gift cards, Flat panel TV's, All expense trip to Vegas, and the list goes on and on. So I settled in to play some 3 card poker. It's really fun. I placed 3 $25 bets out on the table and ended up with a full house which paid me back $3,500. I struck it real good on that hand LOL. We had fun and cashed out with 30 raffle tickets, and ended up winning a goodie bad filled with some country CD's for Gerald and then we won a $50 visa gift card to the local mall for me! I was happy. We headed upstairs to the hotel rooms for the after party. We are not big party animals, but there is something about the company party that makes for a great time. Hey anytime the police show up and tell you to keep it down more than once is a good time.

Thomas turned 3 Saturday. He stayed the night with friends on Friday and we picked him up Saturday and all of us went out to breakfast and then shopping. Thomas made himself a birthday bear at build a bear workshop. It is so cute. Then we all just hung out, got some dinner and we headed home. It was real low key, but Thomas had fun. We decided to wait until after Gerald's surgery to do a party, and even then I think we are just going to have people over for a BBQ and whatnot.

The amazing DigiScrap race has been fun so far. Here are my two projects for the week.

Life.....

2006-12-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

Oh where to start. Lets go with the good first. I picked up the mail last night on our way in from seeing the Neuro-surgeon (more on that later) and was too tired to look through it so I set it on the kitchen counter and went about my buisiness. This morning I look through it. Bills, junk mail, late Christmas cards, etc. But for some reason one of the Christmas cards really stood out. OSBN, Oregon State Board of Nursing was the return address. Now I have no clue why I'd get a Christmas card from them. Turns out, to protect my privacy, and legal issues, they forwarded/mailed a card to me from someone else. Almost 2 weeks ago I had some friends up from out of town. We did some sight seeing and then went out to dinner together. On our way home from dinner we were on the interstate, and saw a really bad accident happen right in front of us. It involved a car rolling several times and landing upside down in the grass median. I stopped immediately and ran to the car. Gerald stayed at our car with Thomas and called 911. Another car stopped at the same time and parked by my car he was an RN who just got off duty at a nearby hospital. He went to the drivers side and I went over to the passengers side. The car was on it's roof in the mud and it was very smashed. Mostly on the passengers side. I dropped down and started to crawl into the car thru the broken window. It was a young boy I was guessing 17-20 years old and he was badly pinned in the car. He was not wearing a seatbelt and since he was upside down in the car he was basically folded in half and smashed down with his full body weight on his neck. He was making gurgling and gasping noises. It stuck me that he couldn't breath, because his windpipe was pinched because of the position he was in. Normally I'd not move a person in this type of predictament, but then I started hearing that voice in the back of my head from all my training that said "the brain starts dying after 2 minutes". So I had to do something. I started to pull on his shoulders, and push his his to try and turn or roll him just enough so that he could breath. I knew from how bad the car was that it would be awhile before they could get them out. They would have to cut the car open. I just stayed with him and asked how he was doing, Was he hurt anywhere. Anything to keep him talking to me. The fire trucks finally got there and took over. It's an amazing "tag your it" changing of the guard. They took over on helping and figuring out the best way to get these kids out of the car. No police on scene yet. I didn't need nor did I want to hang around at this point. I was soaked wet, muddy and the adrenalin was wearing off and I was starting to get cold. So I approached one of the fire crew over at the truck that wasn't actively working on the scene and gave him my Name, drivers license number as well as my Oregon State Board of Nursing ID number. In case anyone had any medical questions down the road. Like say I hurt him more by moving him. So I got home, showered and got cleaned up and warm. So that was my eventful night.

Fast forward to today. The card was from his family. He got to go home from the hospital Saturday the 23rd. Just in time for Christmas. The Doctors and emergency staff told the family that I had saved his life. By my decision to move him it greatly improved his odds for the best recovery possible. He had a serious concussion which is what kept him in the hospital and a broken arm, rib, and clavical, as well as bruises and scrapes, but all heal well. The family said I'm their Christmas blessing and thanked me so much.

So I spent the morning crying over my coffee and rehashed the whole situation in my mind. All the what-if's. Then that turned into Wow that could be Thomas in a few years, then to anger a bit. I got angry at this kid for now wearing his seatbelt. I'm very glad he is OK, I'd been kind of wondering how he was doing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Whats next....Neuro-Surgeon

We spent all day at the hospital last Thursday getting Gerald's Myleogram and CT done. We were there from 7:30 am till almost 4 pm. What a long day I'll tell you. Anyway the doctor called and wanted to see us right away. That's never a good thing right! So we both met at the hospital and went up to see the doctor. He went over the films from the Myleogram and CT with us, and they weren't great. Gerald has some major nerves on 2 different levels and sides being pinched and effected in his neck. Dr Wayson talked to us about the 2 different ways to do the surgery. When we asked which was best he said it is a toss up. If you were 20, no doubt we would opperate from the back, to maintain the range of motion. If you were 60, no doubt we would operate from the front and do 2 fusions, as you aren't going to be around as long, and aren't as active. So with Gerald right smack in the middle, there are a lot of personal and lifestyle issues to factor in. Operating and doing the fusions is a much faster and less painful recovery. Generally 2 weeks and you are back to light duty at work. It is done orthoscopically and is minimally invasive. Going in thru the back requires cutting thru all the muscle in the neck and drilling in thru the vertebrae to widen the nerve channel, which also posses a substanial risk. As the doctor is kind of flying blind so to speak. There are nerves on the back side of the bone, that as he said don't really like being drilled on. He said they really don't like it when they wrap around a drill bit and twist around at 5000 RPM. A joke yes, but a very real scenario. So when it was all said and done Gerald opted for the surgery through the back. He will be out of working and recovering for about 8 weeks. It really takes that long for the all the cut up muscle to heal well. We are going to do the surgery 1st thing when Dr Wayson gets back from a trip he has planned. No date yet, but his assistant is going to get it all approved with the insurance and scheduled for mid January. They are doing a right side Cervical decompression & foraminotomy on the C-5, and a Left and Right side Cervical decompression & foraminotomy on the C-6.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Only a few more days for the Celebrate Good Times Mega Kit HERE. Through December 31, pick up this mega kit for free with any $6.00 purchase. Just make sure you have the mega kit and your purchase in the cart and enter the following coupon code at checkout!

ndisb-8yn-7bg6x3

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that Santa was good to everyone!

Have yourself a "Funky Retro Holiday"

2006-11-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

Well I have officially done it. My very first solo kit it done and in the store for sale. YAY. Now I just sit back (scared to death nobody will buy it LOL) and wait. Anyway Here is a peek at it.

Use this code FunkyRetro-BlogGift and it will save you 25% off the price of the kit. It's good for the 1st 25 people people. You can pick up the kit Here at NDISB.com

In other news. Thomas & I took the day off yesterday. We went out to luncg and to go see Happy Feet the movie. Thomas Loves it and was pretty good for the whole movie.

First dentist visit & Blog winner!

2006-11-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

OK OK sorry I didn't post this last night. I got sidetracked watching deal or no deal and Hero's. For my little shopping spree challange the winner is....drum roll please.....Amanda. She guessed $427. My actual amount spent on all those goodies was $478.89, I saved a heap shopping the Black Friday sales!

Well Thomas went to the dentist Saturday for his very first dental check-up. He was so cute. No cavities! That is always a good thing. I was just a quick look over and a get aquainted type of thing. He will go back in 6 months for teeth X-rays and a more complete check up.

Kit by Kim Christensen, Rad Collection. Template by Gina Miller. Tooth element by Theresa Hernandez in her Fairy tooth kit.

The price is right!

2006-11-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

Wow I am one tired mama, but am to amped on caffine to sleep. I finally got myself to bed just before midnight last night. Oh T-day dinner was so yummy. So anyway I set my alarm clock and went to bed. I got up at 3:30 this morning to go shopping of course! I left Thomas home for the 1st leg of the serious do or die, sleep deprived, crazy people shopping and then picked him up at 9:30 to go out for lunch and more leisure shopping. So here is what I bought. (I'll itemize it all below to make it all easier)

Here is the game! You get to guess the dollar amount I spent. Post a little message in the comments section with your guess. I'll leave it open for guesses through the weekend/Sunday night. Who ever is closest to the actual dollar & penny amount will get my new upcoming kit "Funky Retro Holiday" which I hope to have in the store the 1st part of the week, for free as well as some other goodies and your choice of a Gift Certificate to Shabby Princess, Jen Wilson, or Gina Miller. Happy guessing and please please leave a way for me to know who is who. Anon posts come up as that anon, and I have no way of contacing people thru blogger so leave an encrypted email like mine is mystical_morningATmsnDOTcom. That way I can know who is who and how to send them their goodies. OK here is the itemized list of the goodies I bought.

* one Maxtor 300 Gig external hard drive
*2 toddler stage board games (cooties and ice)
*1 20-pack of hotwheels cars
*3 5-packs of hotwheels cars
*3 hotwheels motorcycles
* one portable DVD player
* Portable DVD player case
*5 packs of double sided matte paper (50 sheets per pack)
*2 boxes of hershey pot of gold candies
*2 small stuffed toys (woody and buzz) from the disney store
*one craftsman flexible drill/screwdriver shaft
*stocking stuffer pack of play dough
*a 1Gig flash/jump drive
* one Dale Jr beanie hat
* 2 diecast car playsets (one resuce and one construction)
* one tonka dumptruck
* one dancing princess barbie
*one jumbo tin of mixed popcorn
*one 6x6 scrapbook with 2 sets on page refills
* bath & body works wallflowers (2 units and 4 boxes of refills)
*three (yes three) 12 inch Bikes

and a run down of misc clothes bought
* 4 pairs of toddler pajamas
* 1 south pole shirt
* 2 4 pack of mens boxer briefs
* one men's belt
* toddler fleece pullover
* toddler pullover sweater
* one toddler T-shirt
* two 10-packs of socks (one toddler & one ladies)

and one thing no pictured because Thomas was real good and I let him pick it for himself and he took it to bed. One Disney store talking tractor toy from the movie cars.

Happy guessing and I hope every one had a wonderful and safe holiday. Hugs

Surgery and a cute layout.

2006-11-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Well I went with Gerald yesterday to see his Neuro-Surgeon. Good and bad news, but much better than we were thinking. We've tried everything from cortisone shots into the disks (ouch), physical therapy, seeing a physiatrist, Taking every combination of painkiller and anti-inflamitory known to man and Gerald continues to get worse, not better. I was wanting straight forward answers about the surgical procedure, how long, length of recovery etc, and he couldn't give us the details. I can understand why, because at this point all the Dr knows from the MRI's is there is buldging and problems, but doesn't know how many nerves are involved. So he needs to get another Mylogram. He had one over a year ago on his low back, It is done as outpatient in the day surgery section. They are going to inject him with radio-reactive dye, and then tip the bed up at a 45 degree angle so it runs to his head and neck. They will then do a PET/CT scan. The radio reactive dye makes it so they can see which nerves are having troubles and which ones are ok. From there the Dr says we come straight back upstairs to his office to look over the results. As he will have them in his office withing minutes after the procedure. Oh the miracle of digital Imaging. Gerald last MRI was digital, and TJ's chest X-ray when he was 1 and got Pneumonia was digital. The hospital is very high tech. So after the mylogram we will know which way the Dr will operate on Gerald neck. If only the nerves around one disk are involved they will operate from the back of the neck. They will remove the disk. Widen the canals in the vertebrae with a specialized drill, and then insert a piece of "bone" where they get bone or faux bone from I don't know. I didn't ask. I will next appointment. The bone is a spacer essentially where the disk was. Over time it will heal itself to the upper and lower vertabrae around it and fuse the whole section together. Now if more than one set of nerves is having issues because of the disks they will not operate from the back. The reasoning is they have to remove the disk to get to the nerves/nerve canal which means multiple fusions and that means severe loss of mobility in the head and neck. Dr said think Frankenstein here. So in that case they operate from the front of the neck. Operating from the front is a lot more dangerous and has a lot more risks, but on the upside because they are going in from the front they don't have to remove the disks and fuse them and such so the healing and recooperation time is much shorter. He will come home in a soft cervical collar. and depending on pain tolerance can even go back to work part time and on light duty about 2-3 weeks after the surgery. In this procedure they carefully slice open the front of the neck and through the muscles in the neck, peel them all away to get to the bone, and then drill out the nerve canals much wider. The discs will still be angry and swollen in his neck, but there shouldn't be the pain and all the numbness in his arms from the pinched nerves since they will have more room with the canals drilled bigger. They stitch everything up and done. Like I said the recovery is really quick compared to the other. We were just so afraid that he was going to have a long and painful recovery from a surgery that didn't really work like in Gerald's lower back. He had 2 surgeries there about 10 years ago and the last surgery when the disk ruptured he was laid up for 6 months. The Dr said they have better technology and procedures now, and also back surgeries always lake longer to heal because the back is in your core, you use it and abuse it even when you don't mean to. So naturally it just takes longer. if they operate from the back it can still be 8-12 weeks before he is feeling better because the bone has to heal and he will be in a lot more pain. So for the time being we are waiting for his insurance to approve the Mylogram which could take up to 2 weeks, and then we can schedule the Mylogram with radiology, which is usually about 2 weeks behind. So we are guessing that mid December he will get his Mylogram and then we can get the specifics and make a plan about the surgery, which again requires approval from the insurance (2 weeks there) before the surgery can be scheduled. I'll keep everyone updated.

With all that said here is a cute LO of TJ's second bithday. I was having such a hard time with his birthday photos because I just didn't feel inspired to scrap them. Until I saw this adorable template from Nina. It was given away at this weeks birthday chat for Tania at NDISB. I altered the temp a bit, but this is the finished product. Papers are by Michelle Coleman at Scrap Artist.

Cars, Apres Ski, and the Flu!

2006-11-15T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well I am finally over having the flu, YUK. Been sick pretty much since Halloween. I am happy to announce that Toy Story is no longer in heavy rotation at the house. It has instead been replaced by Cars the movie. It takes atot to endure that movie over and over and over.

Well the new NDISB newsletter goes out today. I'm proud of myself for meeting deadline even with being sick, and then last night dealing with all the Keely stuff I still managed to meet deadline. I am working on a new and exciting format for the newsletter. Prolly to be released with the January issue. New year new newsletter!

Anyway this is the monthly collab kit for November called Apres Ski Lodge. It is so pretty I love all the cozy Pastels. You can get it at the NDISB.com store as soon as the newsletter hits.

and here is a layout I did using the kit and one of Nina's templates for the November sketch challenge.

Keely Simpson and NDISB

2006-10-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Last week, some information regarding Keely Simpson was brought to our attention. This information warranted further investigation. In the meantime, pending the outcome of this investigation, we determined it to be in the best interest of NDISB customers, and NDISB, to discontinue carrying Keely’s products.

We have attempted to reach Keely directly to verify the validity of this information with no success. As yet, we have not been able to confirm or deny the information. We are continuing to pursue verification and validation.

There were two raffles that were being coordinated by Keely in support of the fundraisers. We know a number of people purchased the Scraps4Shane products as part of these raffles. For a number of reasons, we need to cancel these raffles. Please contact Theresa@ndisb.com if you have any questions specifically regarding these raffles.

If you have any questions regarding this situation, please do not hesitate to contact me at Theresa@ndisb.com.

This is our public statement at the time, but please take faith that much is being done behind the scenes and has been for days now!

Here's to you Mrs. Robinson

2006-10-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

Now why would anyone start their blog post with that as a tiltle. Probably because as I was out running errands with Thomas I saw me a little eye candy. I was backing out of my parking space at Fred Meyer's, and there I saw it. LOL there were 5 young men, And I do mean young. These were High school students. They looked like the huys in the Ambercrombie posters in the windows at the mall OK. I guess that fool ball practice must have just let out becasue they were wearing nothing but their tight football pants. No shirt, nadda. Oh and can I mention that yes they were chisled. So anyway I was all like "Hello hotstuff" in my head of course as I drove by and turned my head. LOL. Now that is something so cliche that a guy wopuld do. I don't know what came over me, but they were Hot! Now I'm not quite old enough to be their mother, but deffinately too old lol. So anyway there's my juicytid-bit for the day.

Grey's Anatomy: Was fantastic! I feel so bad for Izzy. She just stood in front of the hospital all day. And the previews for next week are good. Leaves you wondering if Meredith is preggers. HMMMMM

Next order of buissiness Keelys Charity kits. Keely is in the Hospital with Shane. He isn't doing well. He tok a turn for the worst and had to have another surgery. He had a bad infection and fever, so they had to open him up and put drain tubes in. I feel so heart broken for her right now. She's asked me, Anita, and Theresa to take over the project and get it in the store. I stayed up till nearly 2 am this morning designing papers and elements. I am so tired this morning. There are still so many gaps in the boy and girl kit, as so many designers did not follow thru with their peices they signed up for. So if your a designer and you are reading this and have the inclination to help. Email me ...PLEASE. The kit is set to go out on the 11th and we can't do it all. I'm making some progress on my own kits, but not much. I have this HUGE to do scrap list that seems to be getting bigger not smaller. I have a million projects 1/2 done but never seem to get there lol. I'm a slacker what can I say....NOT.

If you have not signed up for the NDISB.com newsletter I highly suggest you do it NOW. The october customer loyalty kit is beyond fantastic. It is truely some of the best work I have seen from the designers. It is stunning, & beautiful. I am very excited about the upcoming October isue of the newsletter. Well beside me getting to make this months. YAY ME. There aresome awesome contests coming up. with prizes rangeing from gift certificates to a wacom tablet! How cool is that.

I got Tagged!

2006-09-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

By Anita,
So here are the rules to play blogtag:
List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.
Tag 5 friends and list them.
Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people.

Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!
here are my 5 weird things ::

I'm addicted to trashy novels. If it is a Nicole Jordan book or a Linda Howard one, you can likely bet I've read it.

I am OCD about my ears. I use Q-tips like ten times a day and clean them out.

I am also OCD about dryer lint. If someone does laundry and doesn't pull out the dryer lint I freak out.

I get my big toes waxed everytime I get e pedicure. Each of my big toes has a couple hairs and I think they are gross and they drive me bonkers.

I collect Barbies. I love them, and that is kinda odd for someone my age lol.

5 people that i'm tagging ::
Gina Miller
Dani Mogstead
Kim Christensen
Keely Simpson
Shabby Princess

Facelift's & Elmo's

2006-09-20T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well I gave my blog a facelift. While I adore Jen Wilson, I was getting a bit tired of staring at her snow fairy kit lol. So here we are newly decorated and with 3 columns! Yay. Anyway Thomas went out yesterday and rode his 1st horse. I wasn't able to make it, but I was told by him all day long how he rode a horse and how cool it was. Well we started yesterday on next months Collab kit at NDISB and I can say you are all in for a huge treat. It is going to be awesome, and so not the typical fall or harvest/seasonal kit that floods the market this time of year.

On another note I promised myself weeks ago that when this stupid new elmo came out, that we wern't going to get it. Thomas already has way more toys than he needs and many he doesn't even play with. While he adores Elmo and watches elmo practically daily, I didn't think he needed one since he already had a build-a-bear workshop Elmo. WRONG.... Oh how wrong could I be. He has seen this think on commercials and on the news and on talkshows Etc. He is in love with the thing. He cracks up and starts yelling "Elmo laugh". He wants one bad. So I figure We will cave and buy him one. OMG the thing just came out yesterday and all the shelves are empty around here. Then I read Gina's blog and she says it is the same in her area. So what does a girl do???? She calls her Brother in law who is the Store Manager for Target down in California. He assured me that they are getting a new truckload of Elmo tonight and he will personally grab one for me tonight and put it in the mail to us tommorrow. It's not what you know but who you know. lol. So with that dilema fixed the only thing to ponder now is give it to him when it gets here or hide it in the closet and give it to him from the man in the big red suit at Christmas???

Happy Monday

2006-09-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well It was an eventful weekend or week I should say. It started out inncently enough with wanting to put down new vinyl flooring in the back bathroom, and rip out the carpet in on of the bedrooms and vinyl it too. As luck would have it both floors had rot in them. So can in the fix-it crew. After much banging, hammering, & cursing, I finally had 2 nice solid floors that the vinyl guy could come do the vinyl. Oh did I mention we were also having concrete poured outside too lol. It was complete choas. As my stinkin luck would have it there was wall damage to the wall with the guys trying to get the floor out. They patched and spankled it and got it all nice and smooth, but it looked aweful of course so now I was stuck repainting both rooms. I was so pooped. Saturday entailed me stacking an entire dumptruck of firewood lol. But yesterday was mine. My 1st day off in what felt like forever. I got my paycheck saturday and looked at my time sheet. OMG I only got one day off in the entire pay period. from the 1st thru the 15th I only took one day off (and it was actually a half day) because I had to go to court as a witness. No wonder I am so beat down and tired. That alone without all the extra work and construction will do it. So anyway Gerald and I headed out yesterday morning bright and early with Thomas. 1st stop was IHOP for breakfast. Now I am officially glad fall is coming. I was able to get pumpkin pancakes...YUMMY! I love them. So then we headed out to Suavie Island to go do the corn maze. We do it every year and it's a blast. We didi the maze and then Thomas rode on the cow train. He was such a cutie. I was a bit sad. I guess we went to early in the season as the hayrides out to the pumpkin patch were not up and running yet. They don't start till next weekend. I told G it was a bit early to buy pumkins anyway. So we bought some produce at the farmers market there and headed back toward Portland. Cars the movie was still playing and we thought we would take Thomas to go see it again. He just loves anything to do with Cars. We went out to McMenamins at the old Kennedy School. I had never been to any of the McMenamins before and it was so cool. They bought an old closed down elementary school and renovated it. It has like 5 restraunts and bars in it. One of them being the courtyard restraunt. It is all outdoors in a beautiful garden. Some of the old classrooms have even been converted to hotel like rooms. You can stay there. Best of all is the theater. The old school auditorium has been converted to a theater. Now this isn't your ordinary theater. It was full of comfy overstuffed couches and coffee tables. You could bring whatever you bought at the restraunts or bars over to the theater and eat there. It was so laid back and family oriented. I loved it. Can't beat the price either $3 for adults and $1 for kids. It cost all three of us $7 to get in the movie. I had serious sticker shock becasue we normally pay $8.75 per person to go to a movie lol. I am so in love with McMenamins. All the walls were painted with art and murals. It really was fantastic.

OK so I have a little something special brewing on the backburner. You will all be pleasantly surprised. I've been asked to design for a digital store and I finally conceeded and said YES! I have been putting it off and saying no and making excuses to myself. But it is time to do it. I will shortly be releasing 5 whole kits. Can you believe that. I'll be sharing previews as I finish them up here. I'm even going to let you guys name them lol.

OK the ladies at NDISB have really outdone theirselves this month. Look at this fantastic kit. Play All Day is Septembers Customer appreciation kit. Newsletter subscribers can get it free with any $3 purchase at NDISB. So make sure you sign up for the monthly newsletter.

The Uber long catch up post

2006-09-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

I promised a real post soon so here it is. This is going to be long. We had a blast at the Nascar races. I missed the heck out of Thomas. I always do, but it is also very nice to get away without the kiddo too. Our anuual family reunion Camping trip went great. Gerald and I got to meet Aaron's new gir. She was very preggo on the camping trip. She actually had the baby just they other day. A little girl 7 1/2 pounds and 19 1/2 inches. Hmmnnn last I blogged we were just ordering a new car. Well if you can believe it, It finally got delivered, with 3 miles. I way a little PO'ed cuz I wanted to take a picture of the speedometer reading "zero" I said how does a new car get 3 miles on it. I guess from loading and unloading it on and off of rail cars, freight trucks etc. It also has a scratch on the door...more like a gouge, becasue a scratch can buff out. My brand new car is going to the body shop on Monday to get fixed. Can you believe that. Delivered with scratches. Gerald said had it been a regular customer and not a Dodge employee they would never had known about it, because the body shop would have had it fixed, before the customer was even called to pick up their car, but being as Gerald works there and he is the one that oversees all the new cars coming in and coordinates the deliveries, kinda hard to keep him away from his new car. Specially when we were told 6-8 weeks when we ordered it.

Got a 2007 Dodge Caliber, and it came in and all was finalized yesterday Kit is Teresa Hernandez Endless summer kit. All the stuff is stuff I scanner in like the window sticker and my keys and stock tag etc. Check out the arrow. It says "this car built specially for Monica McLain" that rocks!

OK NDISB is having a HUGE sale from Sunday the 3rd thru Monday the 4th. It is Judys Labor day sale ( Celebrating Theresa's Birthday) Happy Birthday Theresa! and everything is a whopping 43% off! Also with any $15 purchase you also get to stick this little beauty in your shopping bag and use the code NDISBLaborday2006 to get it FREE!

And here are some LO's from the camping trip. All are using the fab new kit from NDISB called "Campfire Stories" and is currently the customer appreciation kit and is FREE with any purchase. So what are you waiting for. Run & Go get it!.

Journaling reads: "Thomas found his way to the keg. I wonder where he learned about drinking out of the hose from! Monkey see monkey do...right! All Thomas said was “I drinkDaddy’s beer juice.”

Alpha by Dani MogsteadJournaling reads: "It’s no wonder Steve calls Steph and I Havoc and Fury “The Chaos Twins”! We always Seem to find some sort of prank or make a little trouble every single time we get together. This time It was sneaking off the the bathroom and getting toilet paper from the park bathrooms. Then while the guys were all out playing frisbee golf we TP’ed Daves tent. Then later in the trip Steve booby trapped Dave’s tent with water ballons and zip ties! Poor Dave!"
This last layout feauture's templates by Keely Simpson. She is one of the benefctors of the Guardian Peas kit that I helped design for a few months back. Her 2 year old son Shane has cancer, and they will be basically living in the hospital for the next several months. Now you all know that after the Baby Allie deal I am very pro-active with children's cancer. It breaks my heart everytime I hear of someone with a sick child. So Keely has decided to take a pro-active stance and is selling her templates HERE at NDISB.com. She is also heading up another major kit (well 3 actually), all of which will help offset the cost of Shane's medical care. I am proud to say I will also be a part of this. Keely if your reading this I love you girl and you are one of the strongest women I know! Chin up and prayers are with you. I also urge you all to go to my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night website and give. Every dollar helps in such a big way. YOU CAN DONATE HERE It really is a worthy cause, and it makes you feel good too.

I promise in the next several days to update more!

Campfire stories

2006-08-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

The August Customer Appreciation kit from Natural Designs in Scrapbooking is now available! With any store purchase you can get this incredible mega kit for FREE! All the NDISB designers worked very hard to give you a versatile collection that will be not only perfect for outdoors or camping layouts, but for a large variety of other themes as well. Check out the NDISB newsletter (in your inbox or on the site homepage) for the coupon code!

I promise a real personal update soon!

T minus 8 hours

2006-06-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well I am officially all done packing, with the exception of getting the last minute stuff together for the dog. Thomas and the dog are going to stay with close friends and Gerald and I are headed to California baby. I so can use a vacation. It is supposed to be 102 degrees on Saturday. Nothing but sunshine. Even with the packing done. I have been up since 5 am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I need to finish the invitations for my friends baby shower and get them in the mail before I leave. I just finished organizing and zipping my contribution to the Guardian Peas Mega kit to benifit a couple a Pea-kids with Cancer (Keely if your reading this Huggs sweetie and I hope today is a better day. I'll be thinking bout you alot while I'm gone). Last minute wrote an article for NDISB July newsletter and got my contribution to the July Mega-kit zipped and loaded to their FTP. Now I gotta clean house and get things all in order for the new girl who is handleing thing here at the house while I'm gone. Someones gotta take care of the old folks. Here is a cute pic of the invites.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK so we have this little vacation ritual....The painting of the cars. Here is ours. When I get back I'll share pics of my Sisters, brothers, and Tony's. I'll even share pictures of my parents RV. All 6 of us kids are going to sneak over to the Racetrack Campground where they are parked in the middle of the night and graffi-fy their RV :) You know Window marker drawings on all the windows, toilet paper, shaving cream. Nothing permanant or damaging, but just good old fashioned juvenille fun. My dad has a great sense of humor......my mom on the other hand....we'll just leave it at that. So anyway here is our painted car. Which BTW this is going to be the last big trip we take in this car. sniffle sniffle cry cry (yeah right) The new one will be here toward the end of July. We even got a paper the other day from the dealer saying what our VIN number is, which means they have started building it YAY! See you all next week! TTFN

2006-06-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well The next few days I'm going to be busy packing and all the lasy minute stuff befor the big trip. I so can;t wait to get to california. It's going to be nice to just relax. So I wont be around to much for the next week. See you soon and miss me OK! Here is a new upload for the beachy alphas as a lot of people are still asking for them. You can still leave a donation for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Light the night walk here. For those of you voicing concerns about them only taking Credit cards, and still want to donate. Email me at mystical_morning AT msn DOT com. We will work something out :)

YOUSENDIT LINK

Enjoy!

If you downloaded my Beachy Alpha's

2006-06-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

This post is for you lol. It has been brought to my attention that somehow the letter Y never made it into the zip file. So just for you guys here it is.

Download fro Sendspace
Yousend it Link #1
Yousend it Link #2 for when link one runs out I am so sorry for being an airhead. Also I'd love to see the LO's you all are doing with it. So leave a comment with the LO gallery link or email me. Thanks

newsletter help

2006-06-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Too tired to blog tonight. We have been going non-stop having fun out and about for 14 hours. Went to the grand floral parade, to see Cars the movie, and then to the waterfront festival/carnival. I'll tell you all about it tommorrow. As for at the comments about how to get/sign up for the NDSIB newsletter. Go Here to the www.NDISB.com store. In the top left hand side click the part that says "log in" fill out the for to register for the store. At the very bottom click/check the box that says recieve newsletter. When the newsletter releases you will get an email with a link to veiw the newsletter online. In that same newsletter will come a coupon code for the summer call kit. When you use the coupon, you get it free. The coupons are usually good for 1-2 weeks. Without the coupon code the kit is full price. Hope this helps you all :) Night night.

Crying,crying and you guessed it more crying!

2006-06-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

It's just one of those days. My hormones must be out of whack. I was cleaning house this morning and had the radio on. I swear about every third country music song had me crying either that or it was sappy pull on your hearstrings hour. So I gave up on that and put on of my rock mix CD's in. No way is bouling for soup, greenday, fountains of Wayne going to make me cry. Got that all done, made some lunch and sat down to match up socks while I watched trash TV aka Soaps. All was fine until I popped onto the computer to check my email. I got a donation notice from Active.com which is who hosts the online fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphona Society. I thought to myself YAY someone pledged a couple bucks for my Beachy Alpha. When I looked It was $25. OMG and I looked further And it was Theresa and her wonderful Hubby Ernie (hi green ogre). I instantly started crying because she is the sweetest person in the world, as is her hubby. She is already helping me get a Charity Digital scrap kit together to benefit the LLS in memory of Allie, and she is letting me host it on her site/store. Plus her friendship alone means alot. I never would have remotely expected that after all she is already doing in a million years. So there is crying episode #2. Then right before dinner Thomas was struggling trying to get one of his Cars from up off the kitchen counter. I asked him if he wanted Mommy to come help him. He said " NO, I don't need mommy..I'm a big boy" OH stab me in the heart my baby doesn't NEED me anymore. Welcome sobbing and tearing again! We'll see if he needs mommy tommorrow when he "Needs a cookie" and can't get to them he he he. Funny how toddlers never want anything, they NEED it. His latest is right now. The other night he said " I NEED juice" and paused for a second..."RIGHT NOW" as he smiled. I couldn't help but laugh cuz it was so cute. Big mistake because now his manners, please and thank-you's have gone out the window. Eerything is followed by right now! Well I am off to bed. We have an early and long day tommorrow. Getting up at 6 to head out and meet up with My buddy Tina and her family to go to the grand floral parade at the rose festival. I duct-taped our little claim on the side walk for us wednesday. Then we are taking the boys to go see Cars the movie YAY. and then heading over to the rose festival to pig out on carnival food and let the boys play on the kiddie rides.

Also If you could say a little prayer for my Pea-friend Keely It would be much appreciated. She has been in the hospital with her 2 year old son. Every parents worst nightmare. He got diagnosed with Cancer this morning. You can read her blog HERE.

Shopping, leathal Lemonade, and a freebie!

2006-06-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well today was an interesting day. I had Donna come watch the house today and Thomas and I headed out for a bit of shopping and to me Gerald for lunch. Is't stop Red Robin burger joint. I ordered me a chili chili Cheesburger and a peach lemonade. OMG I so need to pay better attention to menus in the future. The peach lemonade was totally yummy but about 1/2 way thru it I started to feel a bit funny. I looked at the menu. OMG it was an alchoholic drink lemonade lol. So here it is just noon and I have copped me a pretty good buzz lol since I hadn't eaten anything so far today. Well the burger came and was yummy. Thank god that most of my shopping was in the same strip mall as the burger joint lol. So anyway I headed over to the Avenue and picked up some more jean Capris and a couple tops for the trip to California in 2 weeks. I also hit Craft warehouse so that I could pick up supplies. My buddy Tina is having a baby girl and I need to get her shower invites in the mail. I got some cute pink cardstock and a neato pregnant stamp and some ribbon. Oh and Primaflowers and brads. Can you say cute. Can't wait to finish them and show you all. Hit target to pick up the Cars Movie soundtrack. I adore rascall flates, brad paisley, and cheryl crow so this was a must have CD. It rocks! Anyway Cindy Has an awesome new kit called Strawberry Kiwi coming out soon. I'll try to get a LO with it posted later tonight or tommorrow. Man the CT at NDISB has been rocking the last few days. I am so proud of them all, but boy do they keep me busy. I think I am going to have to make a spread sheet to keep up with them! So I made this embroidered alpha a while back and thought I'd post it here for my blog-buddies. For now just a Sendspace link. When You send it is back up I'll load it there too. You know the rules. You take it...You leave a comment :)

Download from Sendspace here

NDe*zine newsletter

2006-06-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

The June edition of the NDISB newsletter is almost ready to be released. Everyone loves a little mid-month news and freebie love right. Make sure you are signed up for the newsletter, because thats the only way you get the coupon code for the free download of "Summer's call". It gets emailed to subscribers. Otherwise you gotta pay for the kit!. OK so can I toot my own horn. Look at the kit preview. See my name there! Thats right I am officially amongst the ranks of "wanna-be" designer lol. Got me some ric-rak, some beachy alphas (which by the way I just renewed the you send it links), and now some papers, and more ric-rac! I feel blessed to be able to be a part of such a rewarding and artistic community every day. You all rock.

Beachy Alpha

2006-06-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

OK so here is the Beachy sand filled Alpha I made. Shanna over at 2 peas insisted she wanted to buy it before I was even done creating it. She was perplexed at how I am not a designer (maybe one day Shanna, when I have more time). For now I'll drop the occasional gift. She said it should be for charity or something, and thats when I decided Heck, I'm doing the Light the Night walk, and am The National Friends Of Allie team captain here In portland. So Why not do it for charity. The download is free, but I would like to ask that those of you who can and want to to Please visit my Light the Night site for the Leukemia and lymphoma society
HERE. You will be able to read Allie's story and the huge impact she made in her short 9 months here on this earth. You can also your contribution there easily online. Thank you and enjoy my alphas. Oh and if you download it leave a comment. I really enjoy reading them. OH and if you dig the pretty blue Background on the preview...Then RUN on over here to acherryontop.com and check out the Waterfall Melodies Collection by Theresa Hernandez. Really cute stuff. She Also sell at NDISB.

You can download the Alpha HERE at Sendspace.comor HERE at yousendit.com Here is another cute LO with the Waterfall Melodies Kit.

Complete and utter chaos. Train wrecks and fist-fights.

2006-06-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the pleasant basics. My girlfriend Tina and her hubby brought their son up from Eugene (about 2 hours from me) so that we could take the boys to the Rose Festival Starlight parade. Her son is only a month Older than Thomas so they are like little buddies, and we get together often to do things with them. We all drove out to the park and ride and then got on the train/tram to go downtown. All was A-OK. The boys loved the parade, and had a blast, both loved all the lights and noise, and people. We all decided toward the end of the Parade to jet out a bit early and get on the train to beat the rush and traffic So we didn't dtay for the last little bit of the parade. So it was about 10-10:15 at that point when we got to the train stop. Frustration quickly ensued as a few trains came by so packed that Tri-met was not letting anyone on them. We stood there as it started raining for an HOUR waiting for a semi-not crammed to the gills train. That wasn't happening. Now let me preface this by saying in the downtown district the train tracks/metal beams are built into the road and a flush so cars and such can drive on the roads people can cross cross walks etc. They decided to start bringing buses in along the train tracks to help get some of these people out of there. They said 2 busses would be along in a few minutes. Yup 2 came by and didn't even stop because they were so full. Finally about 20 minutes later a empty bus was dispatched just for our stop to go directly to the park and ride that our cars were parked at some 20 miles away. Yes finally, So we all get on the bus and everyone files right to the back. We had the wagon for the boys to cart them around in, but we had them walk and I tipped the wagon upright tall and just walked it on the bus and stood in the isle by the back door with it. YAY we were finally going home. The bus starts rolling along and since it was full went right past the next train platform 2 or so blocks up the street. He starts cruising along and then BAM. The whole bus comes to a screetching halt people standing are thrown about. Everyone is trying to figure out what in the heck happened. Mr Idiot busdriver was supposed to take a right hand turn just past the the last train platform and go up the bridge/on ramp to the highway. He didn't He kept on going strait and was driving on the train tracks. Now where he was SUPPOSED to turn is for a reason. Hello the pavement stops, because that is the last place cars are supposed to be. From that point on it is trains only! So there is no concrete. Only metal rails for the train/tram to ride on. The wet tires on the bust basically slide right off of the train rails and sideways into a big (like 10 inch height) curb and then concrete wall! Can you say moron! The busdriver went into some sort of freeze and didn't do or say anything. So this girl starts freaking out and screaming let me off the bus let me off the push and pushing and shoving. Now remember it is wall to wall people on this bus, like sardines in a can. She finally gets thru to where I am, which is right by the door me and the big ole wagon. She is screaming at me to let her out. A: I cant move as it is wall to wall people. B: the bus doors are locked. They will not open. she is grabbing the doors and shaking them and screaming at the busdriver to open the @$*! Doors (yes every curse word in the dictionary plus some you didn't know existed) I am calm and polite. "Mame the doors are looked you can't" I repeated over and over. She is pushing she is swearing at me ETC. I guess she thinks she is going to be the incredible hulk and break down the doors. So the driver finally decides to pop the airlocks on the door and it opens. Evidently I and my wagon couldn't get out of her way fast enough (remember wall to wall people) and she kicks me calls me a F-ing B***H, starts pushing etc. She is straight up freaking out. She got off the bus, and I turn to hubby "They must have let the crazies out tonight" So a minute later She is now trying to get back on the bus. She is screaming at her boyfriend to get his *%#@@* yes more curse words but I'll summarize. Get his but off the bus. Again more pushing and cursing from her. This continues oh 3-4 more times of her trying to get back on the bus, screaming, yelling, cursing, pushing, kicking me etc. She got right up in my face and started cursing me. Lord her breath reeked of beer. I finally said "LOOK B***H!" and that was as far as I got, She decided she wanted to get froggy and swung. So I swung back and just kept going. Tina and Gerald are both yelling to stop. So I let it go....A minute goes by.....AND THEN SHE COMES BACK. Can you believe it. She's swinging and cursing. At this point I have totally had enough of this "Poop" I am tired, cold, pissed at the whole bus/train/time situation soaking wet from the rain. I let her have it. I hit her square in the bridge of her nose, then as she turned around grabbed her hair wrapped it around my hand, slammed her face first into the door, then gave her a kick in the butt as she fell backwards out of the bus toward the ground. A trimet official happened to be walking by at the exact time and she fell into them. She was all screaming let me go, but they carted her off. Everyone on the bus started cheering and couldn't believe all this. She was All this leaving a huge chunk of her hair in my hand. Yes I snatched that stupid B***h bald-headed. The girl sitting in the seat right by where I was standing had pepper spray drawn. LOL. She was going to spray the crazy drunk chick but was trying to do so, so that I wouldn't;t get sprayed. LOL. Craziness. So everyone got off the bus. There was this poor little old lady stuck on it because she was in a wheelchair and the ramps couldn't work because the front door was all in the concrete wall. I was all like I am not leaving her on this bus so I convinced her grandson to help me carry her off and someone else carry her wheelchair. All in all we got everyone off the bus. So I make it over to where Gerald and Tina are down the block a bit and on the corner. Police and trimet are everywhere trying to make heads or tails of things. Now the Trains/trams can't even run because a bus is all stuck on the tracks blocking it all up. This is getting very ugly for folks down town. Might I add that at this point it has been close to 2 hours we have been struggling to get back to our car. So as I walk up to Gerald and give him the report on the little old lady I helped, I hear Crazy chick. There she is talking to a cop and pointing at me and saying "there she is...She attacked me" OH NO YOU DIDN'T just go there. So Tina and Gerald and shane and all go over to the cops. And we all tell them No...She is drunk....She started it. I was just defending myself, and finished it! They finally get the buss off the train tracks, and we are all being questioned and in the meantime crazy chick and her boyfriend disappear. Go figure. They take all my info. Name, addy, DOB etc and say wait right here. So now even if buses trains etc that are coming by we still can't leave. After a bit I am getting really peeved, I finally find a one of the cops and say LOOK. It is cold, we have 2 little 2 year old boys who are also cold and wet, and it is way past their bedtimes, do I really need to stick around for this? He said to go and so shortly after that a empty bus comes going again straight thru to the park and ride some 20 miles away. We are all like thank god. Everyone is all nervous after all that has happened over the last half hour. A lot of the people on the new bus were not on the one that crashed. As we get on we are joking the bus driver to take a right and not go up the train tracks and crash like the other dude LOL. People are all like "crash" what happened So we told them all about the crash and the fist fight. I'm sitting there listing to Tina and Gerald telling me how red my cheek to ear is where she hit me. I'm all like I'd rather be me then her, because she had a big old bloody spot on her face and is missing 1/2 her hair LOL. Gerald was all like, yeah you messed her up pretty good. I was all like hello I am not a confrontational or aggressive person, but I also will only take so much. I let her have it. I told Gerald "you forget I lived in Hawaii for some years. I learned from the Samoan chicks. They are the biggest bunch of mean and tough girls you will find on the planet" So we arrived at the park and ride packed into the cars and everyone headed out. We finally made it home at 1 am and we originally tried to leave the parade at 10 pm. Of al the things you could possibly fathom happening to you in a night none of these was on my list.

For Miss Princess Corina!

2006-06-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Ask and you shall recieve. So I am not a mega-designer...Heck I aint even a designer lol but here is some ric rac for anyone who wants it. My only rule is if you take it leave a comment here. When the you send it runs out let me know and I will renew it.

EDIT: I added a renewed Link. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD both sets from YouSendIt.com

Link #2 both sets at Sendspace.com

Well I've committed

2006-06-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

Gerald took me on a test drive last night in a car with the same engine as the one we want so I could get a feel for the car. I mean seriously you don't buy a car without test driving right. So today the order is official. We have the car order all written up at the dodge dealership. It is of course pending a bit before it can be submitted. Because it is a 2007 car they are not fully in production yet and the dealership has to wait for their next cycle of allocation comes up, which is in about 1-2 weeks. I guess each dealership is only allowed so many at a time...XXX amount based on their size and sales. So technically the dealership can't even order it for a couple weeks. Then it will be about 6-8 weeks for the factory to make it and ship it out. I have never owned a brand spanking new car. Neither has Gerald. I am so excited. Not only am I getting a new car, but I am getting it custom designed and factory ordered. It will even come with a fancy window sticker that says "This vehicle specially built for Monica & Gerald" HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT! My Lunch date is gonna run more like $19 grand, but hey. I ordered EVERYTHING on the car. Even the souped up engine, and stereo. Plus a few aftermarket accessories (at a nice dodge discount of course) So wish me luck waiting patiently.

Stupid lunch date is going to cost me $15 grand!

2006-05-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have so been looking forward to having the car paid off. We only have a few more payments and it is DONE. The blazer was paid off last fall. I was so looking forward to not having a car payment. Just living free and easy. Plus I love my car. I always say I don't know what I am going to do when I drive the wheels off of it and it falls apart. It has everything. It really is a pretty luxury car and we paid only $8 grand for it. Perk of being in the automotive business. So Gerald always haggles me about buying this and buying that. Seems like every other week it is something new with Dodge. I am the reasonable one and always say "NO!" Of course he is only half serious, because we all daydream and say I want right. Well I met him down at his place for lunch. He wasn't quite ready yet so Thomas and I went down to the show room floor because Thomas Loves looking at and playing in the Vipers. They are just really big cool hotwheels cars to him. He is prolly one of the very few kids in America actually allowed to play in them LOL. So of course all the new sales men don't know me and I get ambushed with all their sales tactics. I am like "yo, guys back off my hubby works here, I'm not here to buy a car". I still get the "on come check out our new Dodge Caliber" I'm like NOPE. So about 5 minutes later Gerald comes in. He is all like hey come check out the new 2007 Caliber. So I follow him. Big mistake. I LOVE THIS FREAKING CAR. Why because I can get the seats and dashboard color coordinated with the outside paint LOL. It is like a really big version of being addicted to interchangeable cell phone faceplate-itis. The car even has a refrigerated compartment in the glove box to keep four bottles of pop, juice whatever cold. A 6 disk in the dash CD player with Ipod/mp3 player and satellite radio capability. Also when you open the rear hatch the speakers fold down like a big old boom box. Can you say TAILGATING. So perfect for the Nascar race we are going to next month. Seriously this car has so much. The only downer is it doesn't have the power my car has. My car runs like a scalded dog on crack. It is a big v-6. And I know it every time I go to the gas station. So the trade off is the Caliber gets great gas mileage. About 33 mpg. That's nice. Hubby wants it now that I'm interested. We can get it fully loaded with everything. Heated seats, all the convenience packages etc for about $15 grand. That's with his employee Discount. Regular price for the tricked version is almost $24 grand. Evidently they can't keep these things on the lot. They have sold over 20 of them in the last 2-3 weeks. The blue one I looked at the other day has already sold. They already worked up the financing and We are all approved and such. At this point it is just paperwork. I asked hubby. "what about a test drive" he says Oh I drive them all the time". I'm all like "not for you dummy...ME" So the nearest one in stock is in Eureka CA. LOL. So they are going to special order one just for little old me to test drive. 6-8 weeks I have to make up my mind on the car. The impulsive indulgent side of me is all like "YES", and then there is the adult practical side of me that is all like... Only a few more car payments to go and you will have $300 a month more to scrapbook with!" Oh what to do what to do????? Here is a peek at the car.

Then there is also actually waiting and closer to actually being 2007 getting the SRT version of the Caliber which is supposed to be a mean machine and have the power, but at about $4G more. Sometimes I wish I had never gone to lunch with him that day. Then I would be none the wiser to the cuteness of the car, despite dodge's logo "it's anything but cute" must be the reverse psychology thing at work.

WOW They are looking for more CT members.

2006-05-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

I am posting this as a courest to my NDISB Gals. I so love it there. Here I go being mushy. But when I scrap I feel so lucky to have been chosen by Anita and Theresa to promote their designs. Thjey are such a fun group of girls. Can I even say this, but Theresa's hubby is the site admin and keeps everything technical rolling. He really is the sweetest man and so much fun to have on the forum. So anyway.

Have you ever wanted to be on a Creative Team? We urgently need to fill a number of spots on the Natural Designs Creative Team, so if you are a creative scrapper we want to hear from you!!! As a member of the Natural Designs in Scrapbooking (NDISB) Creative Team you will be asked to:

• Create a minimum of one layout with each product provided and post it in the NDISB Gallery as well as three other nominated major online galleries.

• Help with promotions and include blinkies & links in posts (where allowed) about upcoming events, sales, new product releases, sampler packs & specials.

• Participate in the NDISB community.

What you will gain is:

• All newly released NDISB products at no cost;

• Exposure as a creative layout designer, including in the NDe*zine;

• Should you have a layout or project published using any of our products where the credits are included in the print you will :: earn cool, hard cash ::

* $10 per item if published in a national scrapbooking magazine *

* $20 per item if published in a book

* Please view our kits and collections in the NDISB Store so that you can get a feeling for the design style of the NDISB Designers prior to submitting your application.

So, if you answered “Yes! I do want to be on a Creative Team,” then you need to apply NOW! :: details required in your application ::

• Your name, screen name/s and ISP email address (ie no hotmail, gmail, Yahoo! or other non-ISP based email addresses please);

• What software you use to create your layouts;

• Tell us which digi scrapping communities you are most actively involved in;

• Link to your most complete online digital scrapbooking gallery;

• Details of any design teams that you are currently a member and is that designer/s ok with you being on our team as well;

• If you’ve been published; and,

• A short bio about yourself (ie who are your main scrapping subjects, what motivates you as a scrapper, where you get your layout and creative inspiration from, any other personal details you care to disclose).

NB :: Applications that do not answer all of the above will not be considered. A .pdf copy of the NDISB Creative Team Member Agreement may be viewed here. :: email any questions and your application to us :: admin@ndisb.com. :: applications close :: Wednesday 24th May 2006 at 12 midnight USA EST :: the new team members will be announced :: Wednesday 31st May 2006 on the Designing Naturally and a new JOUR*NEY blogs.

The beginning of "Possibilities"

2006-05-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

So last night the announcements for the second round of Ultimate Scrapper were announced. I was very disappointed to have gotten the boot. To the point of utter shock, but hey you can't win them all right. I know in my heart my LO was awesome (as so many people have told me) but I guess it wasn't what the judges were looking for. So off to bed I went to drown my sorrows in a good movie and some ice cream. It is kind of funny how the movie that arrived Saturday was about looking within, living, and not holding back. I watched Last holiday. It's about a girl who leads an average everyday life. Cooks wonderful gourmet meals while watching along with Emeril. She never eats them, due to watching her figure. But she photographs them and puts them in a scrapbook simply titled "possibilities". Her scrapbook is filled with places she dreams of going, things she dreams of doing, hopes..Everything she wants. It really kind of struck me and reminded me of how years ago I had a photoshopped "wish list" of sorts on the Fridge. I obtained most of the goals on it and as time moved as did we it was lost or misplaced in the move, and I forgot about my dreams and goal. Now back to the movie. She was told by her Dr. That she only had 3 weeks to live. So what did she do. She decided to seize the day and do everything she always wanted to do. She lived out her "possibilities" and made them a reality. Now granted in the end of the movie the Dr realized he made a mistake and she wasn't sick after all, but that Hollywood for you. I was so inspired by the movie that I decided to scrap my own "possibilities" book. Check back frequently to read more possibilities! I am am going to try and do them often..say once a week.

Here is page number one:
Gerald and I would really like another baby. I'd love a little girl. We even already have a name. Montanna Adellynn Jacquette. Tanna-lynn for short. The thought of fertility treatments again and going thru another extremely high risk pregnancy that causes my Auto-immune disease to go totally out of control is frightening. Very frightening. But on the other hand nothing worth while comes easy or without sacrifice right. So days filled with a sweet baby girl is possibility #1.

Credit. Mo Jackson for the ribbons, bows and beads & Shabby Princess for backgrond paper and corner brushes. Papers & Foot brush by me Stock photography for the beautiful baby.

Round 2 of the scrap challenge

2006-05-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well as I mentioned before I made the 1st round of cuts in the Ultimate digiscrapper challenge. This week the challenge was hard. You had to scrap a page about you. Not just you, but truely who you are and see yourself. Talk about scary. So I did it. I laid it all out there. Seeing the LO done was very liberating in a way, almost theraputic with letting go of the past so to speak. Check out my LO HERE and feel free to comment on it (here, there, or both) I could use some encouragement on it since I am scared stiff about it!

Also the NDISB May newsletter will be coming out soon with a fantastic new kit in it call "heart of a mother" it is a must have. And Drum roll please I wrote a tutorial/article on how to do Photo-text cutouts for it!

We found Nemo (battered and fried) and Ultimate scrapper news

2006-05-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

Just more proof that 2 year olds really do say the funniest things. I am so wanting to scrapbook a page called "Thomas-ism's" He truely has so much personality and I laugh much more now that he is in our lives. Ok so we were out and about today and stopped in at Skippers for lunch. Sat down and ate all was well. Thomas Kept saying "Chicken Hot" although it was fish and chips LOL. All I said was let it cool. He was happily eating until some bratty kids at another table started playing and running around the restaurant then he wanted to play. Gerald kept saying no he needed to eat. Thomas wasn't having that. Gerald said "Thomas sit down and eat your fish" in that ever so stern parental voice. TJ just looked up with tears welling up in his eyes and shock on his face. As the tears started rolling down he screamed "NOOOOO. Nemo... Nemo No" Now this must meant that I am a horrible parent because instead of trying to console him right away I laughed, and laughed hard I did. Seriously I haven't seen anything that funny in a while. I turned to Gerald and said " way to go, he was doing just fine calling it chicken"! So needless to say Thomas did not finish his lunch because evidently he thought it was Nemo. Mental note don't let Thomas watch Bambi. He he he.

And for some scrapping news. The cuts for round one of the Ultimate digital scrapper contest were announced tonight. I made the cut! Whoo hoo. One step closer to $1700 in prizes :)

I think I am going to be sick!

2006-05-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Seriously. I just submitted my Layout for round one of the Ultimate scrap challenge (think Survivor meets scrapbooking here) except in week one 200 people get voted off the island. I am so nervous I am making myself sick. Odd thing was I was sssoooo calm cool and collected up until I hit the send button. Now I am freaking out. Is this what the Hoffer's go thru whet it is CK HOF time. If so I don't think I could ever enter. A few days of not knowing is bad enough much less a month. YIKES. So I can't post my LO here due to contest rules, But Yall can go
HERE and see the week one LO I submitted. Wish me luck!

Went to the Beach

2006-04-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Well Sunday it was BE-YOU-TI-FULL outside to we took a drive out to the coast. It was perfect and sunny without being too hot. Thomas Had a blast. We walked around for a bit thru all the cute little seaside shops. gerald even found a NASCAR Shop and was thrilled. I thought I'd have to pry him out with a crowbar. He didn't do too much damage. Just picked up this new camo Dale Jr hat that he was eyeing on Nascar.com

And then we went down on the beach for a bit. Thomas wasn't to sure about the sand at 1st because of the way it shifts under your feet. It didn't take long and he was running up and down the beach playing in the puddles/tidepools, finding sand dollars and chasing (or being chased by) the waves. He had a wonderful 1st trip to the beach.

Great article..A worthy read!

2006-04-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

I think this is an article that EVERY Digi-Scrapper needs to read. Lisa has excelently written it, and with her knowledge I was able to scrap older photos from a stinking 2 MP camera that I never thought I would be able to.

Lisa's Article on Resolution

Spring Photos

2006-04-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to Share some photo's I took of Thomas this past week. I love how the Midnight Sepia looks on these. Enjoy!

Wow what a week! Huge recap

2006-04-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

Where to start. One of my good friends Called me Wednesday to tell me "Surprise" she is pregnant. Why on god's green earth is everyone I know pregnant. Seriously it doesn't help me at all with the baby fever. Oh and baby fever, by the way, Tina found out Last Wednesday she is having a baby girl. I had a little impulse to go shopping. I hit goal's as they were having their grand opening.....well some 15 odd outfits later I left the store. It was such a thrill to buy all those pretty pink and purple girly things. So now of course I really want to have another baby LOL. OK so on to the weekend...

Friday

So Friday afternoon I get Thomas all packed up to drop of at some close friends. They are keeping him for part of the weekend. Yay I get to be an adult. Started out with dinner at one of my favorite places TGI Friday's. I love that place. Then we headed down town to the waterfront to go to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert hall. I got tickets for Gerald back at Christmas to go see Larry the cable guy. Can I say that the opening act was awesome. If you ever get a chance to see PJ Walsh do it. He is amazingly funny. Laughed till it hurt. Larry the cable guy was really good too. All new stuff from his upcoming new CD, which is a must have. So the concert ended and I ran downstairs to use the ladies room. I had a serious dejavue junior high school flashback. As soon as I got into the stall 2 girls started yelling at each other. It was a catfight over who touched who's man. So juvenile. Well at least until one of them punched the other square in the face. Wow that was a surprise. Security broke it up and escorted them out of the building on opposite ends. Now these 2 girls were strangers. Evidently one of them brushed up against the other girls boyfriend. Seriously it is a jam packed crowded place. People will bump into each other there. It really is innocent and can't be helped when you are crammed like sardines into the place. I suppose alcohol likely played a factor in the whole scenario combined with a severe case of insecurity. Anyway as we were walking to the parking garage we passed the girl on the side walk that got hit. I asked her if she was all right, and she said yes. Next thing you know the other girl (with all her friends) comes strutting down the sidewalk and being the instigator she is started it all up again. Now at this point I am baffled at why you would start it up again. Anyway the end result was the 2 girls pushing each other around and yelling and such. The boyfriend tried to break it up and come in between the two girls. Well his crazy- @ss girlfriend screamed for him to put out and lunged after the other girl. He got caught up in it and went head first thru a huge plate glass (we are talking Commercial grade here) window. He had a huge gash all the way across his forehead and down his neck. It looked as if it nearly cut off his ear. I'll tell you even after having 3 drinks and feeling a bit buzzed seeing this...It was very sobering and I immediately went into my "nurse's mode" as Gerald calls it. There was blood all over the sidewalk, and lots of it. The alarm of the store was going off and the police and fire arrived very quick. I was questioned gave my statement, name addy Etc to the police officer, and then Gerald and I left finish heading to the parking garage. Both of us were stunned at what we just saw. A female being stupid and insecure and needing to stake her claim on a man nearly could have cost him his life. The plan of the night was to go see the concert, and then go to the newest country hot spot down town called outlaws, but, we couldn't find it so we ended up at Thunder ranch which in my opinion is a fun place. It is literally a country music version of coyote Ugly! We sayed for a bit. I went up to the bar to buy a drink, and Some chick asked to buy me a drink. Now I don't know how to take that one LOL. I politely smiled and said she didn't;t have to, but she said she wanted to. So I ordered a cherry bomb. Now on the east coast a cherry bomb consisted of 5-6 cherries in the bottom of a glass and a large shot of bacardi 151 poured on top. Eat the cherries and do the shot. Well out here on the west coast it is something totally different. Or maybe times are just changing with the invention of energy drinks. Anyway a cherry bomb out here is a glass with Red Bull in it. Then you have a shot glass with cherry liquor in it. I think it was vodka, but I'm not sure honestly. Anyway you slam the shotglass into the big glass of redbull and slingshot/chug it down. Basically just like a tequila-beer popper. OK so can I say this was YUMMY. So good I swear just like kool-aid. I have never had a redbull before. Anyway I ended up having a few of these, plus my regular captain and coke's that night. It was nice to be able to let my hair down that night. Finally strolled into bed around 2 am after a trip thru the taco bell drive thru :)!

Saturday

Saturday night we had tickets to see Verakai by Cirque Du Soliel. We went with Tina and Her hubby and our friend Ronda. We did a bit of shopping, and headed out to the old spaghetti factory for dinner. Yummy. So Verakai was AWESOME. Really even though they had you crammed in there like sardines. It was truly amazing. I loved all the aerial acrobatics. Crazy costumes, light show, and the music was so vivid and energetic. Really there are no words to describe how amazing this show was. I made Gerald promise me then and there that next time we go to Vegas he has to take me to see "O" which is also by Cirque Du Soliel. We picked Thomas up around 11 and of course he was sound asleep. We go him in his carseat and he woke up. He said "Me Play, Christina fun". LOL my little guy didn't want to go home. He always has a blast with Les and Christina. Even though My good friend Katie Divorced Les, he will always be a dear friend and have a special place in my heart.

Sunday

Sunday morning we did all of Easter glory with Thomas. He Adored his Easter basket and bunny. Tina and Shane came over with Duncan Since they spent the night in Portland. We did an Easter egg hunt for the boys in the yard. They had too much fun and were just too cute. Tina and crew headed back to Eugene around 2 and I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. After being out well past my bed time for 2 nights in a row, I seized the opportunity to turn in early. It was nice. Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Veggie Patch drama again!

2006-04-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well it seems like the "fruity" girls have loved coming over to the "veggie patch" and stirring up continued drama. Posts are being deleted, TOU reporting has gone rampant, as "payback". I perferr the nice quite veggie patch..who knows maybe soon. Now Designers are afraid to post their wonderful gifts. Here is one From Traci Sims. A set of cute Easter doodles.

You can pick it up HERE on her blog

We have a winner!!!!!

2006-04-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

Miss Natalie Putnam Has found it...or possibly my secret hidden link to the online source lol. Natalie girl Shoot me an email at mystical_morning@msn.com so I can get your info for the gift card. Here is the LO inspiration, so y'all can see it.

Contest Update:

2006-04-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Ok still now winner, but people are getting closer. I am going to keep this open until tonight and then I will post a photo of the original LO, and where it was from. So keep looking and keep guessing. It is out there :)

UPDATE: Natalie wants another hint. So I am racking my brain to come up with one.

OK "Simply Beutiful..Especially Creative...Masterfully Rewarding"

Maybe y'all might want to get a Paste Eater AKA paper scrapper to help you out :)

A sunday out and about

2006-04-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a nice family day out. Thomas was rearing to go, and by 8:30 he was saying "go bye bye" "shoes socks, Jacket, go bye bye". So we did. We all got up and dressed and headed out. Stopped at Shari's restaraunt for breakfast and we ate and chit-chatted. We were thinking of heading to the coast, but is was kind of rainy and overcast so we opted for a new indoor experience. We drove out toward McMinville and went to the Evergreen Aviation museum. That's the place that has Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. Can I just say that thing is enormous. The tour was fantastic, and we saw every type of plane imaginable. Thomas had a blast. They had a kiddie area where you could go into and play on some of the planes and helicopters. He was seriously in heaven. We spent several hours there, and it is something we would definitely go back to see. They are building a new IMAX theater next door. I thought it was funny that the signs out front said "Coming soon Summer of 2005" Well your a bit late on that one, LOL. So We left the museum and got like 10 minutes down the road and Thomas was happily napping in his seat so I told Gerald to just drive. Like the old days when we met we would just drive on weekends and see the sites and countryside. I miss those days. We ended up heading out toward the coast anyway, Just south of Tillamook. I am a person that at times gets Corsica. I think it has more to do with Geralds racecar style of driving LOL. Weaving and zigging back and forth around those curvy mountain roads. It wasn't long before I was leaning down in my seat feeling quite yucky. Next thing I know about 5 miles out of Tillamook we are pulled off on the shoulder of the road, with me hanging out the side of the door "doing my bushiness", with a cheering squad. Got to love the enthusiasm of a two year old, as he was laughing and saying " Daddy...Mommy BLAAAHHH" he he he. Here I am wretching my guts out and my oh so dear son and hubby are laughing at me. Go figure. So we into Tillamook, and just to get some time out side of the car we hit Freddy's (about the only real store in this town) to do some shopping. We got Thomas the cutes pajamas. It was a 2 pack of Thomas the train and it came with a real train too. Best of all, there was a sign that said 40% off all children's character Pajamas. So we got 2 Pair's of PJ's and a choo-choo for $18. Pretty nifty, I was stoked. I love finding a good deal. Heck just the trains are normally $10-$19 each! So back in the car we all go and we headed back to Portland. Decided we wanted to stop and get a bite to eat. Now we had been trying to eat at the Cheesecake factory for months now, but evey time we went there was a 2-3 hour wait for seating....Whatever. So we got there about 4:30 and said lets try. They gave us a pager and sent us off shopping. We let Thomas play at the indoor playground at the mall for a bit and then went back to the Restraunt. We finally got a table just a bit after 6. We finally got out of the restraunt at 8, with a very tired and cranky Thomas. I must say the food is so yummy, to die for. But the service was just dreadful. You would think after an 1.5 hour wait and for the price this place charges, that they would be more on top of things. Anyway, Gerald and I shared an order of crabcakes as an appetizer. Thomas of course Loved them too. For an entree, I had the chicken stuffed tortillas with corn cakes and black beans. G had the Shrimp scatter plate, and Thomas had the sliders,which were a little 4 pack of baby burgers. I might say that they totally forgot to bring TJ's food, It took forever to get the waitress attention. And we had a very unhappy and hungry boy lol. So in the end Thomas ended up pigging ot on daddys shrimp and my corn cakes, and G got baby burgers lol. Topped it of with cheesecake. I had the peanut butter chocolate cookie dough cheesecake, and G had the Oreo. Both were unbelievably yummy. Thomas dug it too. So we headed home and tucked little man into bed and I gave the dog a bath. The weekend gal had but Sammy on a leash and tied him outside. He was drentched, shivering and muddy. I could have killed her. I am seriously thinking of telling her to not come back and putting an add in the newspaper and hiring someone else. 2 hours later I finally had all the mud and mats washed and combed out of Sammy. Poor dog is 1/2 traumatized now.

Still no winner!

2006-04-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

Ok so still no winner. Heck no guesses either. Did I make it too hard?? OK so here are some clues.

A: It is a publication that comes out 4 times a year!
B: I adore their paper products and stamps!
C: They make scraping simple and easy!

So the $25 card is yours for the taking!

OOOHHH Trivia is on!

2006-03-31T23:08:00.000-08:00

I am in love with this LO. If you saw it on @ peas or one of the other galleries I post at cool. So anyway here is my confession. It is a scraplift of/inspired by a real life paper LO that I fell in love with. Here is the fun part, a little contest if you will. The 1st person who can tell me where the original is (who, what, where, page # ETC) what ever pertinate info, will be handsomly rewarded with a nice Gift card To.................Drum Roll Please, the Natural designs in scrapbooking Store! YAY. Just leave our comments/guesses here for me to look thru. Good Night & Good Luck :)

Cute Ebay Auction

2006-03-30T22:39:00.000-08:00

One of my "Pea Friends" is doing this auction thru their church. Its a cute one too. Check it out and bid :)

EBAY LINK

I swear to god I am going crazy!!

2006-03-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

And I can;t take it anymore! "Toto, we are not in Kansas any more" I so want to click my heels 3 times and say "there's no place like home" OH crap but this is home. Lets start from the beginning. We moved into this house middle of November. Lots of space. Quite country setting. It's an old farmhouse on 100 acres of existing Christmas tree farm. Two Cows in the back yard and a duck pond. Great place for Thomas to run and play and get dirty. The patients I take care of aren't so bad compared to the old house I was at for 2 years. All is well, Unit a few days later....I see little black sugar ants. Honey we have ants. I call the owner of the home...."Hey we have ants". She knows. It's been a problem for a long time. Call the exterminator. They spray. I ask "will this fix the ant problem. He says "NO, This is for the roaches". Roaches Oh my yuck. Living in places like Guam and Hawaii and seeing Ginorous roaches I quickly decide I'll take ants over roaches anyday. Well evidently the spray works well. We have no roaches. Ants are driving me nuts, but hey. Time goes on. OK ants are driving me nuts. We have used Boric acid, Tero bait, Raid, Ortho...You name it we did it. About a month ago I was in a hurry, plopped a ream of paper down on top of my scanner for the printer. Seconds later all I see is a moving squiggling mass of black. 100's if not thousands of little black ants. I lift up my scanner. OMG they are totally colonized under their. Freaking the hell out screaming Raid, spraying, smashing with a shoe. YUCK I tell you. So as luck would have it the exterminator shows up about 2 hours later for the monthly service. I tell him about the ants and how gross it was and went on to explain how the ants literally did that nearly overnight, because just the week before my computer had a major crash and everything was unhooked and the tower taken into the shop. I had to move the scanner and printer to get the tower out. Crazy. So even though ant control is not on the house contract he treated for them anyway. Now mind you we are still seeing ants. The more we treat it seems like the worse they get. La-de-da. Time goes on. One day I say Honey those squirrels sure are loud. He says what squirrels. Now I see squirrels eating out of bird feeder and running along the gutters everyday so I assumed that the scurrying scratching sound I heard was them on the roof. WRONG Rats. OMG we have ants and rats. We so are NOT dirty people. Call the home owner........OHHHHH This too has been a problem. She tells me where there is a box of rat poison and how to set it up. Christ sake. So all night long you hear these vile creature scratching and doing their thing. I wake up in the morning and go into the walk in pantry and their is broken glass from them knocking jars off the shelves. Cereal and such scattered around. For something so small they sure do make a big mess. Hmmmnnn Kind of like Thomas. So Anyway Time goes on. Today I I again bump the scanner and guess what. Ants galore again. A nice little colony under it again. I can't take much more of this. I am about to set of a nuclear bomb in this house. So I deal with the ants, spray clean up Etc. I go out to the carport to drop some empty juice containers into the recycle bin. Hmnnn no recycle bin. It must be out on the street still since the trash came yesterday. I get it and bring it back to the carport I go to set it down next to the trash can and OMG. It is a big old nasty dead rat. Well at least I hope it is dead. I call hubby at work freaking out and telling him I am not touching it, that it is all his when he gets home. He is all cool as a cucumber and says " Well at least it went outside and died. Otherwise it would sit in the wall or attic and rot and stink. OK Ewwwwe I don't need that mental image. I told him I don;t care if it was outside A: it is still gross, and B: I hate the Rats and ants. Again cool as a cucumber he says "Well dear that is part of living in the country". I'm all like WTF ever, then take me back to the Damn city. and do it now! So now hours later after the rat scenario. I kicked back a cosmo, did a little victory dance and said to myself "Gotcha Sucka" and as I refilled the Decon poison for his little buddies I silently cursed them and said "Die Beyotches". So here I am. My happy moving to the county, isn't at all what I thought it would be. I wonder if the chick from Green acres had to deal with rats lol. For what it is worth I am so calling the exterminators to see if I can personally add ant control to the contract and pay for it myself. The homeowner says they won't guarantee against the ants, but they do the roaches. I'm thinking who cares if they guarantee it or not as long as they are gone lol. Good night and good luck :)

Blog Makeover

2006-03-29T08:35:00.000-08:00

So I worked hard in Dreamweaver and I "Pimped my Blog" lol. Yes I know a bit frilly and girly, But I've always been in love with this Kit from Jen Wilson. Isn't that little slideshow of my scrap LO's just too cute too! So anyway I have been spending way to much time on Gina's Blog lately, because for some reason I have this impulsive NEED to go out and buy a tart burner and candle tarts lol. Or at least go to Michael's and pick up some stuff and may Soy tarts Like Kim Hill did. So Sammy is driving me bonkers. He has regressed in his house training, and has been shredding tissue paper all over the house. I think we are going to go back to the crate training and see if that helps. Thomas just loves that dog, and they play so well together. Seriously, it's like all those old time movies where the dog is boys best friend. Like Lassie or old yeller. When Thomas goes upstairs for nap time, Sammy goes up and lays down in front of Thomas's door and pouts till it is time for Thomas to come back out. Now how cute is that. So the countdown begins....only 85 days until we go to California to the NASCAR races :) Gerald is getting so excited. Me...well it is just another fun photography adventure and scrapbook opportunity.

UUHHGG STUPID BLOGGER!!!!

2006-03-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

So anyway I had a nice post all typed out and everything hit publish and blogger froze. So this time I will skip all the weekend tidbits and go straight to the good stuff.

This is the cutest thing!
So I was surfing around and came upon Dianne Rigdon's Blog. She is starting Rhonna's 21 day challenge. So I was scrolling down and checking out some older posts and I saw this! Of course I ran to her store and immediately bought it (hey she is also having a S-A-L-E) I can not wait to use this. It comes with a template so I can make all sorts of fun little purse shapped cards with all my favorite papers/kits, but it also comes with one ready to go. Just print it out. How cool is that. Totally adorable.

Everyone need to Laugh every now and then!

2006-03-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

Everyone need to laugh every now and then, Even if it is at someone else. So it's been a long week ( more about that later ) but I was surfing the net and came across this hilarious video of people dancing to Shakira. Now mind you some of these people have no buissness shaking their goodies like that lol, but hey it's entertainment. So I snagged it and updated my blog video so you could all laugh too. For my 2-pea purple hippo loving friends maybe soon I can get the purple hippo video on here :). So anyway, I am still having deep seeded issues over my computer crash. I need to get the hard drive out to get it recovered but it is so expensive. We just forked out for Gerald's Nascar tickets. That and the trip to Calfornia and the hotel and all that goes with it is a small fortune. What a good wife I am huh. Sike. I'd take my fixed Hard drive over his Happiness anyday :) Joking, but I am really missing all those photos and lost layouts. On a funny note. I was getting some spring cleaning done today (yes I removed myself from the computer) and Thomas I guess wanted to help. I was "catching cobwebs", brushing them off the celing fans and corners and such. I put the stick down and went to fetch the dust rags and came back to this. Thomas trying to catch his own cobwebs. What a cute little stinker.

Took me nearly half an hour to pry that thing from his hands. He wanted to dust everything, which included lamps, the toilet, and the dog! It felt goo to make a dent in the house. My new patient has been keeping me up alot at night, and I do mean A LOT. It's like having a newborn with colick all over again. On top of that I have been sick. Vomitting nonstop since Monday. I honestly don;t know why either, no other symptoms at all of being sick. Just fatiuge and nausea. I swear it was like being preggo. I had bad morning-noon-night sickness. Now before anyone gets excited..NO I am not pregnant. It just feels like that. I prolly need to go se Dr. Coleman and have my blood drawn and my hormone levels checked again. Sometimes a month or two of birth control is enough to level out and fix my hormones. Maybe it is just baby fever. Every one I know is pregnant. Gerald has been talking about wanting another one too. Who knows well see what the future brings. Deciding to walk down that road again to try and get pregnant, take all those shots and pills, is a really big thing to think about. So anyway now that I have rambled on. Happy Spring to everyone. And happy Birthday to Kim (she's a pea buddy). She even passed the murphy's law tiara over to me durning the falling thru the deck incident. Guess she had a rough week that week too, but thought mine was worse, because she also sent me a lovely gift certificate to her digital shop. Again thank you Kim. Here is the birthday card I made her. I used Tracy Ann's Flury papers and elements. I just adore this kit. I picked it up with the intention of scrapping some rather interesting photos from the Toby Keith concert after party. LO soon!

Thanks for stopping by and do leave a comment. I could be like Gina Miller and say OR ELSE :)

The luckiest Girl & freebie alert

2006-03-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Some days I feel like one of the luckiest girls on earth to be on a Creative Team for such a wonderfully artistic and talented designer. I swear it seems like christmas comes every few weeks working with Anita. I often find myself in awe at the sheer beauty of her work. Her designs have some much depth to them, and something about them evokes emotions deep within oneself. What a joy it was to check my email today and see that her newest project "Whispers of Spring" is being released today. And then when I saw it...even more joy ant how wonderful and vibrant it was. Anita has truely been blessed with an artistic gift. How lucky we all are that she shares it with us. You can view the entire whispers of spring collection HERE and even pick up her fantastic sampler kit version of it HERE

Anita's fabulous new freebie!

2006-03-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

This think is beautiful.You'll have to register, but you can get it HERE

Upload ready!

2006-01-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Just popping in to add the download link for the second set of my country kitchen stuff. Enjoy

CK set 2 download

I've started and now I can't stop.

2006-01-18T16:10:00.000-08:00

Oh my this designing stuff is addicting. I have 100 ideas in my head right now just screaming to be put to paper (digital that is) So I started the country kitchen the other day to test the designing waters, and today I have literally given myself a hand cramp from clicking and designing so much. OUCH, but anyway here is a preview of Country kitchen Part two. I love the linen look to some of the papers and the paint brush strokes on the others. If y'all like it let me know and I will gladly take the time to upload it as a freebie. Off to rest my hand before I give myself carpral tunnel.

OH and on a side note: I got asked to shoot a wedding today. I am so honored to be having this experience. Wedding is in May so I have a bit.

Tag you're it!

2006-01-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

Tag, your it! I 've been tagged by mmy2vce!

1. 4 jobs you've had in your life:. Graphic Artist/Design, Resident Manager/Nursing, Receptionist, and McDonalds (hey I was 16)
2. Four Movies you would watch over and over: The Sweetest thing, Beauty and the Beast (well anything disney actually), Ladder 49, The butterfly effect.
3. 4 places you have lived: Virginia, Guam, Hawaii, Oregon
4. 4 TV shows you love to watch: ER, Nip Tuck, Las Vegas, Inconcievable, but since those stupid NBC exec's can't leave good enough alone and yanked it after the 3rd episode I'll go with Law and order, all of them
5. 4 Places you've been on vacation: Vegas, Sonoma Valley/Napa, Disneyland, Oregon Coast.
6. 4 Websites you visit daily: 2peas in a bucket. Baby Center, Ladies-Connect, and Jasbeanie.com
7. 4 of your favorite foods: Lasagna, Good Mexican. Chineese from House of Louie in Chinatown, Chocolate peanutbutter Ice cream.
8. 4 places you would rather be right now: In a body with less fat lol. Ok so back to the real world, New york during christmas, Mexico on the beach drinking Margaritas with my Mom (she is there this winter. Yes all winter, must be nice to be retired), On a weekend trip/date weekend with Gerald. We don't do that much now that we have Thomas.
9. 4 Bloggers you are tagging: Michelle Pearson, AngeDawn, ZooReturns/Sheri, Azul

Country Kitchen Freebie

2006-01-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well this is my 1st mini-kit (papers and alphas) that I have designed. I hope it doesn't suck and that people actually like it lol. Thanks for looking and leave a little message so I know you stopped by. Here are 2 links to download. Both are the same thing, just giving plenty of opportunity to Download.

Link #1

Link #2

Can You say sexy

2006-01-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

OK so Gerald may not be some buffed and waxed Ambercrombie model, But he's all mine. I adore those 10 extra pounds and love handles. So anyway last night he wanted me to take his picture. Now being today I realize It was probably so he didn't;t have to watch chick flicks. I so wanted to watch that Jennifer Love Hewitt movie "if Only" on ABC, but got distracted and forgot all about it. Darn it. Who know maybe he was just being a sweet heart and felt bad for me. I was supposed to have a sitting yesterday of an 8 month old little girl. Got the studio all set up. Lights, background, props. Everything. And no show. I was so bummed. I really can't wait until we get the upstairs all finished, organized and repainted so that I can have my studio up all the time. Have my very own space, as small as it may be. Gerald even mentioned cleaning the barn out and have me work out there. Now that would be fantastic. It's huge and not used for anything but storing junk. So if it was cleaned up it would be amazing. Then I could ask Santa next year for some "real" lighting. Oh visions of strobes and diffusers are already dancing in my head.

I made my own Paper.

2006-01-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

So I am no designer, but still I am excited about it. I'd like to share it with everyone. I thnk I am going to make a baby kit. Who knows we'll see how it all works out. I am already having withdrawls from my mom. It's one thing to be traveling all the time, it;s another thing to be completely out of touch with civilization for months. They are spending the winter in Mexico and apparently their cell phone won't work in Mexico, so they had them turned off. So no cell phone also means no internet either since that is how they connect. It's only 2 months I keep telling myself I will survive. I have a real photography sitting tommorrow. A 8 month old little girl. I am getting so nervous about it. Hopefully all will go well and I will be posting pictures here of it. Wish me luck.

Birthdays are supposed to be happy times...Right??

2006-01-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Well I spent the whole day out shopping and just hanging out with Thomas. I am having a really hard time with the fact that tomorrow he will be 2. He will no longer be that little guy (like he ever was very little) but instead a big boy. My gosh where does the time go. I feel so blessed to have him in my life. I feel as if time is some how being stolen from me when I'm not looking. Two years... Two whole years have some how passed by so quickly. I so wish I could freeze time right now, Because this..Right now is honestly the best there is. Nothing warms the heart more than those sweet out of the blue smiles, or an unsolicited kiss, which is usually accompanied by "cookie" or "juice". Wow he has the world figured out already. Sucker a woman up then, you'll get what ever you ask for. So anyway back to the shopping. I stopped into Hallmark to pick up a birthday card. Wow, someone should have warned me that doing that at the hormonal time of the month was dangerous. I had about 3 crying fits in there, each card more sentimental than the last. I finally got smart and simply asked the clerk if they had anything with Thomas the train on it as a birthday card. Nope. So back over to the sappy stuff for 2 more crying episodes. The icing on the cake today. As we were all getting ready to head out tonight to get Gerald some new shoes, G asks if we need to grab his Blankie. Thomas shakes his head no, signs and says "all done" (Insert the sound of my heart breaking). All done how can he be all done with his blankie. Here I was clinging to the notion that if he still had a blankie then some how he was still my sweet little baby boy. Be careful what you say at this age, they absorbs it all. Earlier in the day I had made the comment to Gerald on the phone about TJ being all grown up and grown up boys don't use blankies. He took it literally. You will be glad to know though that the blankies presence was firmly demanded at bedtime tonight. So all is well in my little mommy world. I don't care if he 2 or 50.. He will always be my baby.

Scrapping to Photography...A little about me!

2006-01-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

Wow at 28 years old my life has been quite a roller coaster. You know those stupid quizzes in High school what will you be doing in 10 years. Well I am in a totally different place than I thought I would be. Guess I won't hack it as a psychic or fortune teller huh. Not that change is a bad thing. I am very content with life as it is, and feel truly blessed. The object of my contentment, Thomas of course. Well Gerald too, but it is just different with my little guy. Well at any case he loves the puppy we got him for Christmas. It may very well be the death of the poor animal as you can see. How many bear hugs can the poor thing take? Thomas is always trying to pick Sammy up and snuggle with him.