Tagged!

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!

It's snowing again

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!

Time for more meaningful blogging...

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 Here

The other layout was for the RAK challenge. Kaylie gave me some pictures of her daughter's dog and asked me to do something for her daughter's graduation from the dog's perspective. It was a challenge, but I think it's a kind of fun layout that is completely NOT my normal style!
View Credits Here

Driveby Blogging

I'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!

Hump Day ramblings

Khaila…
18 months! Wow, where has the time gone? I seriously can not believe how fast Khaila has gone from this adorable baby who slept, ate, and pooped, into this little girl who is walking, talking (non-stop), and trying to show me how independent she can be all the time. Granted, I’m wondering if I’ll live to see two at this point (let’s just say it’s been a trying week on mommy’s nerves), but every minute is worth it! Her latest words are diaper, eat, gurt (yogurt), shoe, and hat. That’s by no means all of the words, just the newest ones.

Amazing Digiscrap Race…
This week, the first challenge is to journal about a book. I knew immediately which book I’m going to do my layout about. This book TRULY changed my life with ONE sentence. It’s not a deeply profound and meaningful sentence, but it helped me feel connected to home when I was away from home (600 miles) for the first time in my life. I’d always lived close to my family, so being so far away was unusual for me. In the epilogue to “Theory of Relativity” by Jacquelyn Mitchard, one of the character is writing a report for school and writes about moving to Oregon, “the town, not the state”. That one sentence helped me. The Oregon the author is speaking of is my hometown. And only someone from Oregon knows how funny that sentence is. To this day, I still find my self quickly adding “the town, not the state” any time I’m telling someone where I’m from. That sentence made me feel that I wasn’t so alone. There was someone who understood me, even if it was a character in a work of fiction.

Rambling…
Sometimes it’s very hard to bite your tongue. To stay out of things that really aren’t your business. I’m sure anyone who frequents one particular site I visit on a regular basis knows who/what I’m talking about here. I’m not naming the site only because if there ARE people who don’t go there, I don’t want them to get a false sense of what the site is about or what it’s like based on the current “drama” that’s going on.
Why do some people feel the need to complain for the sake of complaining? Why should there be one post regarding customer service and charity kits and the next morning, another thread, started by the same person about customer service in general? Is customer service important? Heck yeah! But why should they be two separate issues? Not only that, but why are they issues that don’t seem to exist for others???
It just really irritates me that this person has now brought up the lousy service she receives two days in a row? I will continue to bite my tongue (on the boards) about the fact that it truly feels like this person is itching for a good fight and is going to do her best to stir things up. On the other hand, it’s becoming comical, I’m wondering if we’ll have a new daily thread on the latest place that’s giving her bad service. Good Lord, I hope not!

Yeah, no work today!

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!

Forever My Valentine

Comfy Cozy
Both are available at The Daily Scrap!

Fresh Day!

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!

Pity Party or Peace?

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?

Thursday ramblings...

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).

Grrr on YSI!!!

Apparently You Send it wasn't working for downloading the doodles I posted last night. Here's a new link that should work!

Look mom!

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!

Download Keeper Doodles

It's NOT my fault this time!

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!

Time for a new start

I'm moving my blog over here. I wouldn't *have* to, but honestly, I'm not in love with the title. Figure that unless something major changes, I will be a Wisconsin Scrappin Mom for quite some time! And I will always be a Wisconsinite at heart, so it still fits!

The blog isn't pretty yet, that'll come in time.

So it's the last week in 2006. Did I get everything done that I hoped to? Nope! Am I going to sweat it? Nope! I'm going to work day by day to achieve the goals I hope to achieve. It's time to get back to the philosophy I tried to follow when I was dilligently doing Flylady. Make every night better than the one before! The areas I want to achieve, I'm going to chip away at daily.

Here are my 2007 goals:

• Eat healthier. We all need this. Hopefully it'll be easy since my main reason for this is for Khaila.
• Exercise more. I bought my Walk Away the Pounds tapes (which worked very well for me last time I used them) and they are collecting dust.
  
• Do NOT obsess over designing. I'm going to try to work on at least one personal layout every night.
  
• Get organized. I have ACDSee cataloging right now (for the past few hours) and I'm up to 6100 items so far and still going! I'm going to organize every night while I watch the 10pm news.
• In bed by 11 every night.