So it's close! One of these years, I'd still like to get down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras! My dad went down almost 10 years ago and has some AMAZING memories! I was in Louisiana a few years ago and loved the culture but didn't get to "explore" much.
To celebrate, here's a little gift for everyone! You can download it here.
I did SO well there for a bit but then my little blog was lonely again! I'm going to attempt this once more, trying to balance work, design, scrapping, blogging, and everything else into my life as mom is rough stuff! LOL
What I've been doing...
Spending some quality time with this adorable little girl! I'm really trying to figure out a way to be home with her full time, hopefully we'll get that figured out soon! I'm hoping that after a few more things are taken care of, we can rework our budget so I can quit my job. I was home this past week and LOVED it! Even when she was an annoying turd at times, being a full time mom is truly the greatest job in the world!! Unfortunately, tomorrow morning it's back to work for me and to the sitter for her. The one good thing is that her sitter and husband are truly like another set of grandparents to her! They miss her when she's not there. I think it would be harder for me if she wasn't in such a loving enviornment! Oh well, SOON I will figure it out!
I've also been scrapping. This is one of my favorite layouts that I've done recently. I LOVE Toni's products and finally used her Date Tickets and had to use Linky Do's as soon as I got them!
Softly Spring Element Pack
Spring Sequins
Bright Sequins
Here's a little gift for everyone. It's a couple of shapes created from the sequins in the Bright Sequins pack. If you like them, let me know, I might make some more! LOL
I'm writing this now because 99% of the time if I say "I need to blog about...." I don't.
I've been having a bit of a rough time lately. It's been a long struggle being a WOHM. I would love to be a WAHM but right now I'm having a hard time seeing how that will ever happen. More recently, I've had a bit of a struggle about who I am. The reasons for this are completely silly, things like a sudden shift in the look of the scrapbook layouts I create to the music I'm listening to at the time, to how I do the things I do. It's still a bit to raw to go into in depth, but all of that is to tell you the wonderful reminder I was given tonight.
I was talking so someone who I haven't known very long, but she's quickly become a great friend. I told her that I nervous about a decision that is going to be made this week. She reminded me that I've done what I can do and that I need to put it in His hands now. If the answer is meant to be yes, it will be. If not, there's a reason for that too.
From there I started talking (whining) about how badly I want to be a WAHM. Even though it was because she was sick, I LOVED being home with Khaila last week. And tomorrow at 7am we get back in the swing of things. We get in the van and I take her to daycare before heading off to my job.
Through all of this, I was working on a layout and had shown her the progress. She told me that it was good to scrap and keep my mind off of this decision. To think about the WHY and not the HOW. If it's meant to be, it will happen.
Here's the layout I was working on...
I am really starting to miss my camera! I will get it back tomorrow morning, and I'm tempted to go take some pics of the Madison skyline just because I love to look at it from across the lake. Then again, until I get a better camera, it's almost pointless because you see TONS of lake and the skyline, including the Monona Terrace (designer by Frank Lloyd Wright) and the Capitol, is just a mass of specks that you can make out what they are if you already know. But you can bet that I'll be scrapping the pics that are on there right now! There won't be any of Sylas as his grandma did wind up missing his birth (reminds me, I should check the paper to see if he's here yet), but there are some cute pics of Khaila.
I can see!
I went to Eyemart yesterday to get a new pair of glasses. I like these MUCH better than the old ones! And I found out that Khaila broke mine at JUST the right time. The frames are under warranty through 2/4. Now to get her to break them EVERY year right before my warranty runs out! Just kidding, sort of!
Why I love Target...
I had to run to Target to get all of the stuff I forgot to get when I was at Walmart. What other store can you go to Starbucks as soon as you walk in and drink a Carmel Macchiato while you shop??? It almost made up for the fact that they reorganized the store and I couldn't find anything!
The Day has finally arrived!!!!
Today is my debut over at Scrapbook Elements!! As I've said before, I was SHOCKED when Sunni PM'd me, but I'm so happy to be there! Here are a couple of the new items I put up today.
OK, not really, but I might as well be. It was a LONG day yesterday, and we had another rough night. Khaila got up at 3:45 this freaking morning. Well, silly mommy dozed off on the couch and I'd put my glasses up on the back of the couch. Someone climbed up there and I woke up to her handing me my glasses. Minus one arm! So, at some point today we'll get to go to the eye doctor and get new glasses. The good news is that a) they were only $30 and b) they're old and I was just thinking earlier this week that I should really get new ones as the prescription is two years old. I can still see the computer, but that's about all the farther my eyesight goes.
They're thinking Khaila has Fifths disease and that everything will be just fine. We're home again today because she DID develop a fever and I can't take her to daycare with a fever. I'll just be glad when my sweet girl returns!
And now for a bit of news and another snippet...
OK, so I've been talking about how excited I am to be starting a new store and I've had people asking me where it is. I can finally let the cat out of the bag! This Sunday I will be making my debut at Scrapbook Elements!!! I had mentioned in a thread that SBE was one of my dream stores and I got a PM from Sunni later that day telling me to take a look at their requirements and send in the samples they asked for if I was interested. I've been working on getting things ready for a while and I absolutely LOVE the designers that I've gotten to know a bit! I think it'll be a great place to be!
I'm going to NEED them for my eyes today. Khaila woke up about 12:30 SCREAMING. Rick brought her in to me and she wanted no part of that, she head butted me and then got down and came out to find daddy. He tried putting her back to bed because she was acting tired (duh) and she started screaming again. I came out to get her and he checked her bed to see if she'd gotten sick. I was out in the (dark) kitchen with her, but just from the light coming out of her room we could see that her face was RED. And not like "I've been screaming" red, but that bright, orangish red that screams rash of some sort. Rick called the nurse line and they said to call her ped first thing this morning and give her some Tylenol. Her face must've hurt because anytime we went near it to feel the rash (or whatever it is) she'd flinch away. And sure enough, she was back up as soon as that Tylenol wore off. This is the same girl who I normally have to wake up and she resists. She's like mommy, she likes her sleep! Now she's curled up on the couch watching JoJo's Circus all wrapped up in her blankets.
I'm sure my boss isn't going to be happy that at the very least, I'm going to be late today. Today is one of the few days that our sitter watches another kid so I absolutely can not take her in to daycare until we talk to the ped and find out what they think is going on. It's now pretty much the lower half of her face.
This is the part that I absolutely HATE about being a working mom. I have to feel guilty for NOT going to work because Khaila may not be able to go to daycare. That's just twisted! And then I feel guilty if she doesn't feel good and I *do* go to work because then I'm not taking care of my girl. It doesn't help that I've already been told that unless my attendance improves I'll basically never be able to put my name in for a promotion. Oh well. I will ALWAYS be mom first and employee second, so if that means I'm stuck at the help desk forever, so be it!
Here's a layout I made last night using one of the kits I picked up yesterday. It's using Lena's Sweet Nothings kit and a template from Jen Caputo. I loved the kit when I saw it, and I love it even more now! The embroidered swirl is great and I LOVE the flowers!
You know what happens when I get bored? I browse. You know what happens when I browse? I buy! That can equal a BAD day for the paypal account! Take today for example. When I was scrapping at 5 in the morning I couldn't find what I wanted right away to do a layout. So this afternoon I started browsing. What did I walk away with? WAY WAY WAY too much stuff! First, I stopped by ES to check out Lena's new collection. Um, think I own most of Lena's stuff now! I can't pimp everything I bought, so I'll show you my favorite. Besides her collection, I LOVE Sweet Nothings! It's pink which is cool since I have a girl to scrap, but it's BRIGHT! Sometimes I'm just sick of pastels and muted!
Next, it was off to The Digi Shoppe! I LOVE Ashley Olson and realized at 5am that I don't have NEARLY enough! Plus, she's got a special where for every dollar that you spend you get an entry to her raffle! How could I pass that up??? So, I picked up a couple of her kits, including I Like Winter. Look at these papers!!!
And since I was there, I picked up these CUTE Scrunchy Blooms from Misty Mareda. They are the FIRST thing when you pull up her designs and I LOVE them! Can't wait to do a layout with them tonight!
Speaking of TDS, Ashley put out a designer call the other day. Anyone wonder how overflowing her inbox will be with designer apps?? I can't wait to see who the new designers over there will be!!!!
Alright, I'm off to eat some dinner and then I'm going to scrap again tonight. After I complete a layout, then I will see what I feel like! It could just be curling up on the couch with a cup of cocoa!
I did it! I got up early this morning and managed to scrap! And you know what, it felt DANG good! I'm relaxed and in a good mood because I feel like I accomplished something already. That's a good thing because I'm expecting a rough day at work. Entertaining, but rough. We have an employee who got into it with the boss yesterday and I have a feeling there will be fallout today. The reason I say entertaining is because it's sadly comical that a woman who is almost old enough to be my mom acts like such a child. I have two choices when she gets in her moods. I can either get ticked off because people that I'm talking to on the phone can hear her screaming, or I can laugh it off. I used to get upset but it does NO good, so now I laugh it off.
Anywho, here's a quick layout share before I have to get ready for work. I'm noticing a theme in my recent layouts. Most of them have Amanda Rockwell and Toni Berman items in them. Geeze, you'd think I like their stuff or something! OK, so I do. I'm an addict! I can't wait to get BOTH of the Back in Black collections and I've started stalking Toni for new fun stuff.
I missed a PERFECT picture tonight. DANG YOU SYLAS!!!!! Yes, my friend's grandson is being extremely stubborn. Tomorrow, his mama will be 41 weeks and they will talk about scheduling induction. This does NOT make Bev (my friend) happy as she is leaving in a couple of days for Mexico (trip planned before they got pg) and she's convinced that she's going to miss the birth. Besides being a first time grandma, she's a birth junkie if there is such a thing. The first thing she said when I told her I was pregnant was "can I be there for the birth" and I said sure! I wondered if it'd be weird, but she was GREAT to have there with me!
Anyway, back to the picture.....
Tonight, I started cleaning up a bit after dinner while Khaila was still eating. Then Rick starts trying not to laugh and telling her no, so I knew this *had* to be good. I look in the dining room and sure enough, there she sits, BOTH feet up on the table, proud as could be that she managed to break free.
I can't wait for Rick to go back to work tomorrow. I love having him home, but honestly we haven't had much "quality time". He's been into his game again which is annoying for SO many reasons! First, he's PLAYING while I could be "working". Granted, it doesn't feel like work, but I do make a little bit of money from it. Next, it's an interactive game so I get to listen to him talking his way through whatever it is that he's doing. UGH! OK, so mostly I am jonesing to do some scrapping and play with some new stuff I bought but have to wait until I'm on the computer that won't shut down when I start PS! Maybe I'll start working on my ADSR layout before work tomorrow.
Oh, one last thing before I go to bed....
Remember me talking about "Big Butter Jesus"? Heard it on my way to work today. It's firmly planted in my brain! So here I share it with everyone!
**disclaimer**
I'm NOT terribly fond of the video, but it's what I could find tonight.
I was tagged for the first time today by Lena! Am I a geek that I'm excited about that????
I have to name 7 songs that I think are "fantabulous" (Lena's word) at the moment?
1. In My Daughter's Eyes by Martina McBride
2. Stupid Boy by Keith Urban
3. Bumper of my SUV by (why in the world can't I think of her name????)
4. Orinoco Flow by Enya
(holy bejeezeee this isn't as easy as it seemed)
5. (oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten) Where Was I? by Paul Thorn
6. Wiper Blades by Heywood Banks
7. Big Butter Jesus also by Heywood Banks
Does it say something about me that the last 3 are all songs I've heard on Bob and Tom?? Where Was I? is NOT a comedy song and the first time I heard it I kept waiting for it to turn into a comedy and as the second verse started, I realized it wasn't going to. It's a VERY good song, and I got the cd for Christmas. I must say, if you like bluesy music, he's pretty good!
I'm going to tag Stephanie Ogren, Marcie Reckinger, Petra, Michelle Bowley, and Brandi. We'll see if anyone joins the fun!
OK, so a week ago I was praying for snow. I live in Wisconsin and hadn't seen snow since December 1st. Well now I'm done with it! We got a pretty little blanket on the ground, the road crews got it off the streets, and life was good. I wake up this morning and more snow. And it's enough that I don't think my trip to the mall is going to happen today. Oh well, at least I won't spend any money!
I finally got my first kit, a paper pack, and THREE sets of templates uploaded for the new store. I still haven't gotten the go ahead to let the world know, but as soon as I do, you can be sure that I'll be shouting! Here's a peek at a few of the papers from the kit.
Last night I accomplished a HUGE feat for me. I'm by no means the world's neatest person and you could see that as soon as you walked in the house! Last night, I cleaned off our dining room table (now we'll see if I can get Rick to help me keep it that way. Most of the dining room is clean, I just have to finish the desks and the floor around the desks.
THEN came the big accomplishment. I folded ALL of the laundry that was clean and dry and got it put away. The rest of the dirty laundry is by the washer begging to be done today. I'm hoping that when I go to bed tonight, I can have the bedroom clean, all of the laundry done, and tackle the kitchen and living room. And then I need to start paying attention to my house every night!
One other little bit of news....
Khaila's in a booster seat instead of a high chair now! She's been in one at the sitter's house for a few weeks now, so this morning I converted her high chair to a booster and put her at the newly cleaned table! She looks like SUCH a big girl sitting there! I'd take a picture, but I'm STILL waiting for my friend's grandson to arrive so I can get my camera back! The good news is that when I get the camera back, it'll have pictures of a brand new little boy for me to scrap!!!
Off to jump on the blog train! I have to say I LOVE playing the blog train, almost more than the praise game because I love learning more about other people and getting to "know" them through their posts!
I have about an hour before Rick gets home from work and it's time for a break from designing! I found a sudden spurt of mojo and I have to MAKE myself break away a bit.
Thanks to everyone for the support and kind words about all the stuff going on right now. As for the truck, hopefully it'll be fixed tomorrow and I won't be "grounded" anymore. About the job, I'm actually getting used to it. My boss has no kids, it's a large corporation, and apparently the attendance rules are set in stone. Have a young child with repeated ear infections, your own illnesses from being stuck in an office with no ventilation long enough, and your attendance WILL suffer. There's nothing I can do about that other than keep on keeping on and not letting her get to me. And as for the store, I can't say just yet where I'm going, but as I mentioned earlier, it's one of my dream stores and I couldn't be happier! I'm already part of the designers' message group, and let me tell you, these women seem to be some of the nicest out there! I truly wonder how I got so blessed to have two great stores to be part of!
I actually did some scrapping tonight. I entered the Amazing Digiscrap Race and can't let my wonderful partner down, so I did two layouts tonight. The first is my "book" layout that I was talking about the other day.
View Credits HereI'm pressed for time this morning, so there won't be too much blogging. I have about 10 minutes before my stepmom gets here to pick up me and Khaila. Rick's truck is sitting in the parking ramp at work, broke down, so we're on day two of bumming a ride with with Nancy. Luckily I'm a blessed woman and have family that does what they can to help out when we're in a lurch!
Not much is new here, just still getting ready (and finally past the shock) that I'm going to be entering a new store. It's just over a week away and I have to get my first submissions uploaded this weekend so they can be checked and then we'll be ready to roll! In the course of joining this store, I've been re-evaluating everything I do from the style of my design, to the elements I include, right down to the previews I make. I'm very pleased with the first kit preview and anxious to show it off!
In work news, I got a decent review this week but was still told that I won't be recommended for a position I desperately want. She feels that if my attendance is nearly perfect FOR A YEAR she'd feel comfortable recommending me. I'm not letting that get me down, I'm using it as a sign. I just got into one of my "dream stores" and told there's no way I'm going to advance at work for at least a year. Maybe it's time to re-evaluate what I'm supposed to be doing! I'm not saying that I can replace my FT job income by designing, but perhaps I truly am supposed to keeping working on it so my "dream" of coming home to be with Khaila can become a reality!
OK, well it's time to put shoes on Khaila, so I'd better sign off!
Have I mentioned how much I dread going to my job? I'd much rather be able to sit here at home with Khaila, even if that meant spending the nights slaving away to make some money while she sleeps. And yes, I do know that I'd be nuts and want to work if I was at home. It's the ultimate case of "the grass is greener" I guess! It's been fun this morning with Khaila, watching Little Einsteins, playing with her new toys, and now she's shunning me and just wants some alone time. Seriously, she goes into the bedroom, gets up on the bed and just relaxes sometimes. And if we try to get her down, she FREAKS! But when her "alone time" is done, she comes back out and is ready to go again! The upshot is that gives me some alone time to get some designing done, maybe a little scrapping too.
I haven't been doing as much scrapping as I want to do which is sad. I've been so busy trying to get ready to put stuff in a new store that the time slips away and it's time for bed, work, or family stuff without a layout done. Hopefully it'll settle down a bit and I can get to scrapping again.
Why is it that when I don't have my camera Khaila does something adorable? I loaned my camera to a friend who is getting ready for her first grandchild's and doesn't have a digital, so I loaned her mine. And of course Khaila's being a total ham this morning! Her new fascination is a hat that my mom knit for her. She had to put it on for breakfast (very cute w/ her "boy" jammies) and now she's got it on again. Hopefully she'll still like it after Sylas is born and I can get some cute pics!
I'm off to actually do some scrapping, but before I go, I wanted to share my two newest kits! I think my style is really changing and I hope someone else will like the results as much as I do!
It's not even 6am but I'm up, showered, dressed and drinking my coffee. My attitude is much better than it was yesterday which is a good thing! And about my feelings yesterday, yeah, I will be sad if we don't have another child, but you know, it's ok! I came to that realization when I picked up Khaila from daycare last night. She comes running to the top of the steps and smiles and laughs her behind off until I get up there and then tackles me with a hug. How can someone NOT be satisfied with that???
Oh, and I also mentioned something about getting a private message the other day. I still can't say too much, but let's just say I'm doing a little happy dance this morning! Be sure to check back often because there's going to be some BIG news and I'm going to be a very busy girl for a while!
Have you ever wanted something SO bad and then realized that maybe it’s just not meant to be? That’s where I’m at right now. I would LOVE to have another baby, but I’m starting to think that two (or more) children simply isn’t in His plan for us. I don’t know why I feel like this, it’s not like we’ve been trying very long, I’m not “advanced” in age or anything else. I just feel like Khaila’s going to be our one and only.
Maybe it’s because of my depression. Maybe I just can’t deal with continuing to try and this is my way to try and trick myself into thinking that it’s ok. All I know is either my attitude needs to change or I need to come to peace with the thought that Khaila really could be it.
As it stands right now, I’m about the world’s crappiest friend. No matter how happy I am when one of the girls on my board finds out they are pregnant, I get insanely depressed that it’s not “happening” for us. And the number of couples that are pregnant without trying, despite not wanting to get pregnant, or getting pregnant the first month they decide to try is really getting me down. Why is it “time” for them and not for us? Why can’t I just be happy for them? Why am I feeling like I can’t talk to one of my closest friends right now because I don’t want her to confuse my pity party with not being happy for her? Why am I letting this pity party continue, dragging down my entire day and sapping me of energy? Why can’t I just snap out of it and scream, jump, laugh, etc with my friend?? HOW do I get past this feeling?
Tell me what’s wrong with this picture. It’s January 11th, I live in Wisconsin, and across the street from my work, they are MAKING snow for the cross country ski sprints this weekend. Anyone see the problem?? OK, so they’d still have to make some snow because they can’t just let it build up on the streets around the capitol and the skiers couldn’t ski on nasty driven on snow anyway, but they have to make ALL of it. This is pretty much the first time I’ve seen snow in over a month. In Wisconsin. UGH!
It seems strange to be whining about missing the snow. But you know, I’m born and bred here. My birthday is in December. I NEED the snow. Yes, if we were having a normal winter I’d be griping about wanting no more snow by now, but it’s not normal.
Khaila is turning into quite the daddy’s girl, which is very hard now that Rick’s back to working nights. We get home and she starts looking for him. So we wind up calling him so they can talk a little bit. And now in the mornings, she’s going straight to the bedroom when she gets up and wants to climb up and snuggle with daddy. It’s a total pain because she throws a tantrum when I try to get her dressed and cries when we leave. I feel bad because I know she just wants some daddy time, so I’m trying to figure out the best way to handle this.
I’m not going to say anything to jinx myself, but I got a wonderful PM yesterday and may have some exciting news! Let’s just say some of the designers were talking about their “dream stores” and I received a PM from one of mine! Now I’m anxiously waiting to hear where we go from here!
Hobby Lobby at lunch is a BAD thing! Both for the wallet and the diet! I went in to just quick look at a couple of things because I really want to start doing some hybrid stuff and some altered art projects. I didn’t find what I was looking for (hard to do at a sprint pace), but I did manage to spend $35 and ONLY bought magazines! UGH! And I spent just enough time looking there that I didn’t have time to make it to the grocery store to pile on the salad bar, so I ran through McDonalds. The “good” news is that since I’ve been eating healthier, it’s no longer appealing and I bet more of it went in the garbage than my stomach. Guess that’s good for the diet (in a weird sort of way).
Apparently You Send it wasn't working for downloading the doodles I posted last night. Here's a new link that should work!
OK, so you aren't my mom and I highly doubt she reads my blog. But I had to show off (and share) what I did tonight. Please don't laugh, these are the very first doodles I have ever done with my computer. I hope you like them!
When I got home from work today, there was a Fed Ex box sitting on the table! That could only mean ONE thing, my new Wacom is here! I've been playing all night, annoying my friends by sending them screenshots of the hideous doodles I created first, and then just plain having fun, and finally starting to create some doodles I would use on my own layouts! One of my friends said that the way I was doodling away looked like something from high school, hence the name Keeper Doodles!
Hopefully I'll get the hang of this and there will be more to come in the near future! Thanks for stopping by!
Yes, I realize that I'm already a really bad blogger, but it's not my fault, I swear!!!! This time it's the laptop's fault. But we're not going to say naughty words about it because for the first time in a week it's stayed up and running for more than 10 minutes! We aren't getting it fixed because it's just not worth it, so until we get a replacement, Rick and I have been sharing his computer. The bad news is I'm having a very high mojo day and I don't dare start PS on this thing and it's his day off, so he's relaxing on the computer. Oh well, hopefully it'll still be there for me Tuesday when I can "work" again!
I tried something new this weekend. I ordered the Mega Menu Mailer and got to work. I hate coming home, trying to find something to cook, preparing it, eating, and basically running right up until Khaila's bed time. By cutting most of the meals in half, I now have 31 dinners in my freezer, ready to pull out, defrost, and cook! I'll let you know how it goes. Our first meal is tonight, Honey Apple Pork Chops! And the best part, 31 dinners plus other stuff for the week and I spent $148!! That's much better than what I'm used to!
