Shortly

Shortly. I will write a new blog post and get back into the groove of things VERY shortly. I CANNOT believe how long it's taken me to get back to normal after I was out of town. And I'm not really even back to normal yet! But I'll write a nice post about my trip and scrapping and stuff shortly. Very shortly. (This post was mainly for me, because I'm sure you guys don't care that I haven't been posting. But if I post that I'm going to post soon, then I'm responsible to myself for doing just that.)

Lagging behind

   Hey all. I've been so busy this past week because I've been getting ready to go out of town. I actually leave in about 45 minutes. I have some mixed emotions about going. And they are from one spectrum to the other.

   My sister is getting married Saturday! This is amazing news! I am so glad she finally found someone who makes her happy! I wouldn't want to miss her wedding for the world! And I won't...but that doesn't make it any easier to leave. I have never left Maylee for more than one whole day, and never overnight. Now I'm about to leave her for 5 nights and 6 days. I'm almost beside myself. I've had a little mini-breakdown for about 5 days in a row. Brandon says the time will go fast, and I know once I'm back it will seem like it flew by, but I'm really homesick for my babies already. **breath in your nose and out your mouth** I can get through this!

   Anyway, I wanted to post the last few scrap pages I did so I wouldn't be TOO far behind. So, without further ado:

  This was done with Designer House Digital's kit Scarborough Fair.

  This page doesn't have many elements, except for the tags, and I don't have any credits for those. I'm a BAD scrapper, I know! But the photography is done by my friend Valerie. She's a great photographer!

   This page was done with Digital Creative's kit Fresh Attitude. After this little conversation happened, I couldn't wait to scrap it. It was probably one of those you-had-to-be-there-moments for everyone else, but to me it was absolutely hilarious.

   This last one was done with Stuff To Scrap's Color My World kit. Cute, huh?

   Okay, I gotta go wake everyone up and head to the airport. Talk at you guys later!
 

Friday Question #3 and Photo Friday

  Yo, yo everybody. Hope all is well in your world. My world is...itchy. The weather may be beautiful, but the mosquitoes are still out in full force. Maylee and I are bitten all up. I ordered a yard mosquito go-away thingy; it should be here Monday. I hate not being able to go outside and play just because we're so sweet and the mosquitoes like us so much! Stupid bugs.

   You know I'm doing that online backup? I'm glad I'm doing it, but the initial backup is taking FOREVER! The site said the average initial download was 1-2 weeks. Well tomorrow is two weeks and it's nowhere near done. So I went to the site and they evaluated my status and said it would take 28 days from the day I started! Geez!! I know I have a lot of files to backup on my computer, but I had no idea!! Oh well, it's usually okay. It makes things run a little slower with the backup going on in the background, but nothing I can't handle.

   I finally started reading that book I mentioned yesterday, Mockingjay. I actually had to MAKE myself stop reading so I could get this post up. It's great so far. I hope I sleep tonight. When I have a book that I've waited a long time to read and it finally comes in, I have a tendency to want to stay up all night and finish it!

   Well, for my Friday photo, I was looking through my stuff trying to decide what to post. I'm going to try hard not to post pictures of my kid every week. That's too easy! I have bagillions of them! The first Photo Friday I posted pics of my wonderful husband. Last week was a picture of my kid. So this week I'll post a picture of another member of our family...one of our kitties! Her name is JellyBean and we got her as a little kitten about 5 years ago. This isn't the best picture, but I'm in a hurry folks! I got a book burning a whole in my couch, which is worse than money burning a hole in my pocket for me!!

  So, for my Friday questions, I'm taking a little help from everyday life.

How long does it take you to get ready for work in the morning, and why?

   This is kinda a cop out for me, because the answer is so easy. It takes me about 10 minutes to get ready in the morning. I'm not one of these people that has to look like a million bucks every time she steps out the door. It would take a miracle to make me look like a million bucks, anyway! LOL! I have professional looking clothes, and I wear them. That's it! I get up, brush my teeth, throw my hair in a ponytail, put my clothes on and I'm ready! Nope, no makeup. Nope, no spending forever on my hair curling it or straightening it (my hair is straight as a board). I DO put on deodorant! I usually try to remember to spritz a spray of perfume on, but I usually forget. Nuttin' special!! What you see is what you get...that's me for sure!

(I do wear makeup and do my hair if I'm going out with my hubby or friends, but it's not a daily thing. Just FYI.)

Tackle it Tuesday fail and other failures

   Yeah, I didn't do Tackle it Tuesday...at least not on Tuesday. I did get something done this past weekend that I've been meaning to do for a couple of months now. I got Maylee's Pack 'n Play, stroller and car seat w/ bases, took pictures of them and got them online to sell. I posted them on Craigslist and on my Facebook page. Guess where I got a response from faster? Yep, Facebook! I tell ya, I love Facebook!

   Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I've been doing so well with posting! I've been feeling quite stressed this past week and not really sure why. Work is going fine; I love when I'm home...I'm just kinda in some kind of funk. I want out!!! And this weather we're having just might snap me out of it! It's been gorgeous and I'm so glad since we were having such a horrible heat wave that I thought was just miserable. We played outside for a couple hours yesterday and the only bummer was that the mosquitoes were still out. I wish those stupid things would all die horrible deaths. I hate them!

   I do have some inkling why I'm kinda in this funk. I found out Monday morning that a kitty I recently gave away, that I had for more than 8 years, passed away. It made me so incredibly sad. It hasn't even been a month since I gave her away, so I really wasn't over that yet, and then to hear that she had died hit my like a truck. Now if you're wondering, I'm a cat person. If you don't like cats or have never owned them, they are very similar to dogs as a pet, though they don't have a reputation of being that way. Mine greet me at the door, come to their names and love to snuggle. I love my cats. So why did I give her away? Plainly, she wasn't happy. Ever since Maylee's come into the world, she hasn't gotten the attention she was so used to having. I could tell she wasn't happy and all I ever want is for my pets to be happy. That's why one owns pets, for pleasure, for both pet and owner. Heart wrenchingly enough, the people I gave her away to said they think she died of grief. I've heard of that happening to cats before. I don't regret many decisions I've made in my life, but if I had it to do over again, I would not give her away. ***tear***


R.I.P. my beautiful girl, Topey. You and your motorcycle purr will be so missed. I love you.

   Now onto things not so sad. On the home front, Maylee is pretty much home potty trained! Yay, yay, yay! What that means (to me), is that she is potty trained while she's at home. We haven't tried going out with just big girl undies on yet, nor has she gone potty at anyone else's house yet. That's our next step. Right now, our plan is to do the potty chair for two more weeks and get her REALLY comfortable with it and to the point where it's just habit to go in the potty chair (that's what potty training is, though, huh!). Then we'll put the insert thingy on the actual toilet in the bathroom and have her get used to that. Then of course we'll remove that and have her going in the regular toilet. While we're doing this transition, we'll try out going potty at Grandma's and maybe a trip to the grocery store with big girl undies on. I'm so thrilled she's taking to this potty training so easily. We're going to take it nice and slow, because I wasn't even going to start "pushing" the potty training issue until she is 2 1/2 and that's not until November, so she's ahead of "schedule." (That made me laugh out loud! Yeah, like you can schedule a two-year old. Hahaha!)

   My favorite summer shows are coming to a close. Last episode of Burn Notice and Royal Pains tonight. The Closer has one episode left, I think. We love Covert Affairs and that's got a couple of new episodes left, I think. But the new fall season starts in a month, so I'm excited to see my favorite shows come back! I haven't been reading much, really. Suzanne Collins' new book Mockingjay comes out this week and I can't wait to read it. I would highly recommend the Hunger Games trilogy (of which Mockingjay is the final installment). It was such a cool series. 

  Now onto scrapping. I guess this next page I did would qualify as a Tackle it Tuesday project, too! I've been wanting to scrap Maylee's major holidays since...well, since they happened! LOL! This is Maylee's first Christmas Eve at my in-laws. She had a great time! I used Summer Driggs' Believe kit for this.

 This next scrap page was kinda fun. I like it, but I feel like it's missing something. Not sure. I just finally saved it and said okay! This was done with High Four Designs' Behind the Hill kit. I wanted to put what ages Maylee was at the different stages, but couldn't figure out how to put text in and it fit with the aesthetic of the page...you know that kinda magic-y feel? Dunno.

  Hope you all have a great day! I will be posting Friday pic and question tomorrow, so stop back by!

Friday photo & question deux

  It's Friday again! And I couldn't be happier! I've had a normal week at work, not too stressful, so that's good! On the homefront, Maylee's been doing better and better with potty training. I tried a new Crock-Pot recipe out on Tuesday (for Tackle it Tuesday) and was a little disappointed with how the meatballs came out. I know what I'll do next time to make the dish a little better. Needed more spices and less water and less green pepper! I only put one green pepper in it, but because I was slow cooking it, that flavor permeated into things so much that it was like I was biting into a green pepper with every bite. I like green pepper as much as the next gal, but that was a bit too much! I like red and yellow peppers better, anyway (though they're more expensive...what's with that?)

   I haven't done any scrapping this week. Blah. I've just felt like sitting on my butt and watching TV in the evenings. I haven't even been reading in the evenings! Oh well, I get this way sometimes and have to get back in the groove. I have been taking pictures, though! That's one thing it hard NOT to do because Maylee's always doing something that I want to take a picture of! So here's my Friday Photo:

We've been teaching Maylee to kick with her feet. She's getting the hang of it. She'll lie on her belly and try to do the swim arms, but we're going to have to work on that more. She loves being in her little pool, but she also loves to get out and play in the yard. Then she gets filthy and stuff sticks to her and I have to rinse her off with the hose! I know she'll miss summer, but I am ready, oh so ready, for fall. Fall is my favorite time of the year anyway, even years when we're not coming out of a horrendous heat-wave summer. I love crisp evenings and warmer afternoons. If I had my way, it would be between 65 and 75 degrees all year. Okay, it could get up into the lower 80's on REALLY hot summer days. Yeah, if only!

   Okay, time for my Friday Question!

What's the worse injury you've ever had?

  I'm lucky enough to not to have broken any bones in my body...until 3 months before my wedding! Then I did a doozy! I was wearing big chunky shoes (the kind that were popular in the early 2000's) and fell down the stairs at Jefferson College. I was in a back hallway in the Fine Arts building (it was right after play practice...we were doing Quilters and I was one of the singers) and I fell down about 10 (concrete) stairs and broke my ankle. Come to find out, I shattered my ankle! It broke in about 20 places. And since it was in a back stairwell, I laid there yelling for someone to come help me for like 20 minutes. I almost passed out and all that jazz. And as I mentioned before, this was 3 months before my wedding. I almost had to go down the aisle on crutches, but I MADE myself get walking before then.

   I thought of this Friday question because last night I burned myself on a skillet I had just gotten out of the oven. Dummy, dummy, dumb, dumb! And I've done that before, too! My fingers feel much better this morning and I can even type with no problems!

   Hopefully I'll do some scrapping this weekend and have some pages to post next week. Have a great weekend if I don't "talk" to you before then!

Tackle it Tuesday #1

  So Tuesdays are going to be "Tackle it Tuesday" for me. I'm going to try to get something done or accomplish something I've been meaning to do. These things can be as little as painting my toenails or as big as remodeling my house (I actually need to do both of those things...I think one is easier than the other).

   For the first weekly Tackle it Tuesday, I have started using my Crock Pot to make dinner. I came across a slow-cooker cookbook I really liked a couple weeks ago and bought it. It had east-to-hard recipes that were healthy and sounded yummy. I love me some yummy food, and this went well with my new goal of eating much healthier. So this morning I woke up early and made dinner to cook all day for us and be ready and yummy when we come home from work. Sounds great! I'm making spaghetti and meatballs. It was an easy recipe, was switched up to be much healthier and sounded yummy! It used ground turkey and pork instead of beef which saves fat and calories right there. For the extra-easy part, it used a box of low-sodium Stove Top stuffing as the breadcrumbs and of course an egg as a binder. Because the meat is so low-in-fat, the recipe called for a cup of water for moistness. It made about 30 1 inch meatballs. I layered them in the Crock Pot, sliced some green pepper, onions, mushroom and garden fresh tomatoes and put that on top. Then, for more easy, I dumped a jar of spaghetti sauce over the top. When I get home all I'll have to do is boil up some whole-grain spaghetti noodles and dinner is served! Easy, healthy and hopefully yummy! That will be determined tonight.

   I hope to use the Crock Pot a lot more often, as sometimes when I get home from work the last think I feel like doing is cooking dinner, though I do it anyway and then get grumpy, etc, etc, etc. You know the drill. Anything to make life more simple, and of course healthier is a GREAT thing!

  Feel free to do Tackle it Tuesday, too! Together we can tackle the world!!!!

Photo Friday & Friday question

   Hi everyone! We've had blazing heat here the last couple of days (weeks, really) and I'm ready for a cool down! We had a little rain yesterday (pop-up heat storm), so Brandon, Maylee and I went out and played in the rain. I got a few pics of my sexy husband:

Yes, he's a dork. MY dork. He makes me laugh and he DEFINITELY makes Maylee laugh. And he needs a good shave, too (I'm happy to report that he's since shaved).

   I've had a couple of really busy/hard weeks at work. A co-worker took a week off (last week), so I had to do two jobs last week and had to play catch-up this week. I feel like I've done a month worth's of  work in two weeks. I'm GLAD it's the weekend!

  I think to make sure I blog more often, I'm going to do some memes. If you don't know what a meme is, they're basically just questions you answer and hope people answer them with you (at least that's my definition). So my Friday meme is going to be: Friday Question. So without further ado...

Friday Question:

When you were younger, what did you want to be "when you grew up?" What are you actually doing now? Do you still want to be something when you "grow up?"

  This is actually a kinda hard question for me to answer. I knew what I DIDN'T want to be, and that was a teacher. I've always felt that it takes a special kind of person to be a teacher, and I don't have that special something. But I've always loved education and learning and literature, of course. So the natural evolution of things made me turn to libraries. When I was in high school, I thought I wanted to be in either social work or advertising (could I pick two more different fields??!!) I'm so thankful now that I didn't go into either of those. Social work is so sad and advertising is so fake. I find that I'm exactly where I want to be now and I am what I want to be when I grow up...a librarian! Lucky me! Not everyone has a job they love. Hell, most people don't. I don't take it for granted.

   Feel free to copy my question into your blog and comment me a link to your website. Let's have some fun with this!

  I've been putting together this scrap page for a couple of days. Actually, I had one almost done and my PC rebooted to do Windows Updates and I lost it. My fault for not saving it...I know better. So I started over and liked what I came up with the second time even better. 

 The backround and elements are from Penny57 Designs Traisors kit and Cajoline's Rustic Garden kit.

I have so many pictures that I want to scrap and am feeling a little overwhelmed. But I was so excited because this week I won kits from two different designers just for leaving comments on their blogs! I got the Bohemian Chic kit for free from Modern June and bought her Happiness Is... kit for only $1! I won the Diary kit from Mystique Designs. Love, love, love all those kits! And free is great ($1 isn't bad, either)!

   That's all for now. Hope to hear from some of you on my Friday Question. Let's have some fun!