MIA and an Update!

Sorry for being such a bad blogger. I knew that I wouldn't be the best blogger and win any awards, but hey I thought that I would do better than this!! My life has just been crazy the last few months, but I'll take one story at a time, otherwise I'll probably still be typing tomorrow :)

On to some more exciting news, Patrick and I have decided to finally tie the knot. YAY! I am so excited. We set the date for November, but after a lot of talking we decided not to go for the huge, traditional wedding. We are now getting married on August 8th. YES!! Only 2 weeks away. We are getting married in front of our Mayor (this sounds so special) :) Only our very close family will attend. Let me tell you something though, just because it is a small wedding doesn't mean that planning gets any easier! I think in just a few weeks I turned into BRIDEZILLA!!! I calmed down again, everything is on track. The dress is here, Patrick's suit is at the dry-cleaners, cake is ordered, flowers are ordered, appointments are made for hair and make-up, restaurant is reserved; there are only a few more things that I need to take care of, but I think that I am doing pretty good with time, that's thanks to my sister! I just love her to pieces, she has to put up with alot lately and I thank her so much for not running for the hills! :) It is so great to have her around and helping me with everything. Thank you sissy, love you!!!

Women CAN drive!

I think it's funny how men always feel the need to comment on our driving skills and think , hold on, KNOW that they are better drivers than us, which we all know is not true.

This is the result of letting my dear fiance drive my van:

He did this while backing out of the parking spot at Burger King, he stopped for a drink ONLY. And boy oh boy was that an expensive drink!! The good thing about this, I'm off the hook about my driving into the garage door, at least there was no damage when that happened! I think this proves that men aren't better drivers than us :)

Wishing all of you a very Happy Easter ! :)

I know I haven't blogged again in forever, will update this coming week. I have some stuff to share, so please visit again :)

THE AMR ONLINE CROP...

...is officially over, and WOW did we have a blast. There were so many wonderful challenges. On this note I would like to thank everyone who hosted a challenge, you guys did a fabulous job! Thank you to everyone who played along, it was so much fun to look at all of your LOs and learn a thing or 2 more.

Here are some of the challenges that I participated in.

1) Scrap about yourself! Use 1-2 black and white picture/s, 3 patterned papers, 3 embellishments, and a prompt "I am unique because...".

2) This one was a warm-up challenge. Scraplift from any of the DT - members :)
I scraplifted the very creative and talented Jenn (Nygirl)!

3) The next challenge was to use 2 different colors of acrylic paint, 3 pictures, 3 journaling strips, and 3 embellishments of choice!

3) The last challenge was to use only one color and the different shades of it! I think I went on a pink overload :)

I have never participated in an online crop before. I had a blast and can't wait for the next one. Hopefully you'll join us next month :) As always, Happy Scrapping! :)

Snow, Snow, Go Away!

And don't come back this year! Seriously we've had several blizzards between yesterday and today! Right now we're under a Level 2 - Snow Emergency, which means driving is discouraged. Patrick still went to work this morning (I just couldn't believe it). It drives me crazy knowing someone very near and dear is out there in that bad weather, the store closed down early, so now he's back home and I feel better about it :) I haven't made it out to measure how much snow we really got, but my sister said at her house they received about 14" of snow!!! Holy Cow, and it's not supposed to stop until this afternoon! Here are some pictures to share with you!

This Picture is from yesterday! Alot of snow but not that bad yet:

And these are the pictures from today:

And it is still snowing! :)

Now for some scrappy goodness. I made this layout a few months ago. It was a "Lift a Cover Contest" at the CKMB. I just absolutely love this picture of Juliana. It is one of my favorites.

The Journaling is a conversation I had with little miss Juli, it read:

Juliana: Daddy?
Mommy: Where is Daddy, Juli?
Juliana: Work?
Mommy: Yes. What does Daddy do at work?
Juliana: Money?
Mommy: What do we need money for?
Juliana: ME!
-July 16th, 2007

And as always, HAPPY SCRAPPING! :)

"Just because"

This is what I came home to last night. A beautiful bouquet of flowers. I had to stop and think for a second, did I forget about an event? Birthday? Nope. Anniversary? Nope again. I looked at Patrick and he said he saw those at the store and he got them "JUST BECAUSE" that is so not Patrick! He has never ever gotten me anything just because. Totally unexpected and totally sweet of him :) What a sweetheart I have. Now if only I could get him to get me something scrappy "just because" that would so awesome! lol

Please join us for an online-crop at AMR!!!

Please save the date: Saturday, March 8 and here are the times:

2pm-Midnight (Eastern)
1 pm-11pm (Central)
12pm-10 pm (Mountain)
11 am-9 pm (Pacific)

The awesome message board at ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED is hosting another online crop and I’m inviting you! Please come on over and play with us, whether you are already a member over there or not. You do need to be approved to join the MB by the owner Stacey, so you could do that sometime this week. If you think you might, leave a comment below so I can let Stacey know I sent ya’ and which MB name you’ll use. She gets a lot of spammers so it helps if she knows beforehand. Also, when you sign up you can tell her Erika/journeyfan sent you.
Okay, what is an online crop, you ask? It’s a pre-set time when a bunch of people are on the message board at the same time. There is usually a separate forum set up; if not, just go to the Scrapbook forum.

Usually, board moderators and/or just everyday users host challenges for which there may or may not be a prize, also known as a RAK (comes from Random Act of Kindness). If the challenge needs any specific items you might not have on hand, the moderator usually lets you know so you can have it ready when the crop starts. Examples of challenges: “Do a layout that’s all black and white including the photo” or “Make a card that includes use of an acrylic stamp, Basic Grey paper, and scraps from your stash” or “Create a 12×12 layout about a loved one who has passed on, using a song quote.” You get the idea! Once the online crop starts, you’ll have a set amount of time to post your challenges, either in the message board gallery or directly into a post on the message board.

Now, specific to the AMR online crop next Saturday (here is the LINK to the thread about it), Anne Marie will be the official hostess and she will post the Warm-Up Challenge at 2pm EST (11am PST). Then each hour on the hour, a message boarder will post another challenge. These challenges were arranged ahead of time between Anne Marie and anyone on the message board who offered to help. Another reason to make sure you’re an AMR MB member ahead of time: There are already some “heads up, you will need this item” type of posts for the challenges.

These are the ones posted so far:

* 2 colors Acrylic paints (any brand; will be used together on a lo)
* Brush (those 1″ foam brushes are great, but ANY brush will do)
* Plain or Kraft gift bag (any size)
* 1-2 black/white photos of yourself
* Clothing tag (gee, guess you’re all going to have to go out and buy a new outfit, LOL! — no, this can be cut off any existing garment)

Ladies are also posting questions they have about the crop, and kind of chiming in if they hope to “be there.” You know, in a virtual kind of way…

Here is what Anne Marie says about the Challenges Schedule: Non-competitive hourly challenges will be posted with RAKS for participating! A break has been scheduled during the crop … AND you can come in at ANY TIME during the crop and play ANY challenge! You will also have until NOON SUNDAY to post your submissions in the challenge threads. Winners in each challenge will be drawn at random.

(A great BIG THANK YOU to Erika for writing up this information, I couldn't have done a better job)

Scrapbuzz!

My dear friend and hostess from AMR put together this awesome site. I can promise you, this will be your one-stop source for scrap and card tutorials, online classes, freebies, and sketches! You definitely DO NOT want to miss out on this one! Go check it out and send her some love! And as always, HAPPY SCRAPPING! :)

So happy!!!!!

Actually I am more than happy. Many of you know that I have been going to school for quite a while now. I was going for a degree in Nursing, of course I still had to get a lot of prerequisites out of the way first, by the time I was almost done with those I got pregnant and decided to switch my major. I hoped to get a degree in Health Information Management Technology, so I could work from home and still spend time with my little girl, plus our son came along as well. I only have 5 classes left until I get my degree. Yay! Anyway, I thought about it very long and Nursing is something I wanted to do since I was little, so why should I do something I wouldn't be happy with. There are sooooooo many schools that offer nursing classes, but sooooooooo little space :(. How would I ever get a spot now? Well this is where my brother-in-law comes in (he is just one awesome guy, heps me out whenever he can, and I am forever grateful for that! My sister is one lucky gal to have him :) ) He called around and by the sounds of it, I HAVE A SPOT in one of the colleges. The only down part, it doesn't start 'til September, buy hey, that's better than never. I am sooooooo lucky and soooooooo happy you can't even imagine. Just thought I'd share.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

I am just stopping in to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you have a wonderful day :)

Valentines Pics

Why do kids always choose to NOT cooperate when all you want is ONE decent picture? I have tried for a little while to just click away and hope that there is one good one amongst them. No such luck, they finally got uninterested (not that they ever were interested) and left the scene :) Okay, okay, maybe I shouldn't place blame on the kids alone! I think I'm not as good of a picture taker as I thought I was *lol*. Anyways, here is what I did capture. Enjoy:

February pages "My heart loves..."

In the last post I promised you that I would upload the pictures of the LOs that we made in class on Thursday. I absolutely love this LO, probably on of my faves. Hope you like it too. :)

The quote reads: "being deeply LOVED by someone gives you Strength, loving someone DEEPLY gives you courage"

January Pages "Winter Wonderland"

I have been taking several classes at my LSS, but most of my classes are with Rebecca, she is just so darn creative and talented, I don't know how she does it, but she is awesome. Anyway she started this new class that she is teaching once a month. We design 2 pages for that month (jan-winter, feb-valentines, march-st.patrick's day, you get the point). The class includes an album of our choice that we will decorate later on in the year. This way we will have one completed album of the whole year. Well yesterday we did our pages for February, and I am just in love with this one. I will have to take some pics of them and post them a little later.

Thought I would share January's pages for now (they don't have any pictures on them yet, but the snow pictures are perfect for this one :) )

These pages were also published by Designs byReminisce! How awesome is that :) TFL.

I Won?

Yesterday when I got home, Patrick told me that someone had called and said that I entered a drawing at the Kidzapalooza and that I actually won. They just needed me to call them back. So of course that's the first thing I did this morning, she said I entered a drawing for $50,000 or a brand new car. Yay, at this point I could use both. Then she said, well we didn't draw a name for that yet, but in the meantime your name was pulled for a free vacation (3 days, 2 nights - flight and hotel included) to either Orlando Florida, Las Vegas, or Reno! I could really use a vacation as well, but at this point I'm thinking that this is all a hoax. They want you to come to some seminar for 1 hour and then you'll get your tickets. Why don't they just send me my prize? Or why can't I just come pick up the tickets without sitting in a seminar for an hour? I don't have time for stuff like that. I talked to my sister and she told me that they called her as well. Okay so I guess I didn't win, but that's okay. I won an hour more that I can spend with my wonderful kids instead of sitting and listening to something I don't even care about! That's a lot more than I can ask for.

WOW!

Wow, wow, wow. It has been almost a whole month since I updated my blog last. How could I have gone so long without updating. Anyways, I have been keeping pretty busy, a lot going on in my life.

In my last post I mentioned that I was waiting for the snow, so I can finally get some snow pictures. Well, the snow was here and is long gone again (okay it snowed a little yesterday, but nothing worth mentioning really). SO, here are some of the pics that I got of my little bugs, Carson didn't really like being outside. I can't wait to put them on a layout!

Okay, I promise to post more often, and maybe I will be able to post some scrapbook projects soon. Thanks so much for visiting my blog and remember Happy Scrapping!

Winter?

This does not look like winter at all. Doesn't it usually snow around this time of year? We had very warm weather the last couple of days, which is unusually warm for January. I put the kids' snowsuits in the car because I still need some snow pictures of them, well without snow it's a little hard :(. Instead of the kids playing in the snow, building snowmen, this is what the kids were doing yesterday:

Yep, they have been raking and picking up leaves instead. They didn't even need a jacket! Come on! I am not the snow lover, but right now I really do miss it. It was gloomy outside all day yesterday. This is what we had to look at around 4 o'clock, just waiting for the rain:

At 12:30 am it was here, the storm that is. It was just slamming against our bedroom window, so hard that it woke me up and I usually don't wake up that easy. I was just lying there waiting for the kids to wake up from it, to my surprise, they slept right through it :) Right now the sun is shining, but it's not supposed to get as warm today. So I wish everyone a wonderful day. Don't forget to scrap :) Happy scrapping everyone!

Target finds!

Let me tell you, those girls over on CKMB are real good enablers. I didn't think I needed those Mailboxes (and I don't) but I absolutely had to have them *lol*. I know our Target here had them, I saw them when I went there a few weeks ago, but I didn't know what to do with them, so I left without them. Well guess what? Yep, I went back and got myself some and I absolutely love them. Haven't done anything with them yet, but I still think they are super cute. That of course wasn't the only thing I bought, this is what I found:

I can't wait to play with all of that stuff. I'll be sure to post whatever I design. So thanks for looking and as always, Happy Scrapping!

All Moments Remembered Online Class

I looked at all the classes that AMR offered on their opening day and since I am not so good with cards, I chose to do that class. Cards are a real challenge for me, but nowadays everything is *lol*.

Anyway, here is the card that Heather made which is absolutely gorgeous:

And here is my try at the whole thing :D :

It's calendar time!

This is a calendar that I made for my Mom and my Mother-in-law for christmas. I haven't had the chance to put pictures on the one for my Mom yet. I have to do that tonight or tomorrow. I made the calendar on Microsoft word and printed it on white cardstock. I decorated the top half of the calendar. At the end of the year I am getting the whole calendar back and will cut the bottom half off and turn it into a "Year in Review" album for them! Right now the calendar is clipped on a clipboard which I decorated so that they can use it as a picture frame at the end of the Year. TFL!

Ans this is the clipboard that the whole calendar clips on to: