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.
