Inkin' & Thinkin'

The Best Anniversary Present Ever!

February 7th is my and Andy's anniversary.  We have been married for 14 years now.  That's all fine and wonderful but on February 7, 2012, I got the very best anniversary present I could ever get.  Of course, it wasn't from Andy, it was from my sister and her husband.  Her name is Adelynn Grace and I already love her so much it hurts!  I haven't met her yet but my sister did send me this one little photo of her from her hospital bed.  You know I couldn't wait to scrapbook her beautiful little face!  So here she is, my sweetest, newest niece...

Credit:  Color My Life by Pretty In Green available at Ginger Scraps

Isn't she amazing?  I can't wait to go and meet her as soon as possible!  Congratulations Brenda and Zach!  Thanks for the greatest anniversary gift ever.  The only thing better would have been if she were my own!  I guess I'll have to settle for yet another awesome niece to love forever!  ;)

 

Random Thoughts...

1.  One of the best things about being a SAHM/WAHM living in a single bathroom house is that I can take a shower at 10:00 a.m. and stay in there until all of the hot water is gone.

2.  When will someone come up with a great supporting sports bra that doesn't roll up in the back when you put it on?  Seriously, I could almost become a contortionist to put mine on....the wiggling, back bending and holding my mouth just right of it all is about enough to make me throw it in the trash!  It's a good thing there are only 6 weeks of soccer season here!

3.  I have been horribly addicted to nerds lately.  I buy the big movie style boxes of them and I crunch on them all day long. 

4.  I'm reading a book by Caitlyn Moran right now called "How to be a Woman" and at times I literally am laughing out loud because I can't believe how funny she is.  At other times, I'm glad no one can see what I'm reading because she is a very direct writer and holds nothing back about herself.  Interesting reading but definitely R to X rated sometimes.  I'm 80 pages in and am curious to see what the rest of this book holds.

5.  I am so relieved to have already purchased my children's "big" Christmas gifts for this year.  What a relief to know that the big stuff is done and now I can simply enjoy the small things. 

6.  On the Christmas side of things...I drew my dad's name for Christmas this year and while I'm not stressed about the girls' gifts anymore, I'm completely and utterly stressed about his. 

7.  I'm getting my hair cut in 15 minutes and I still haven't decided if I want to keep trying to grow it out or if I want my short hairstyle back.  I took a poll last night at dinner and everyone said keep growing it out but I'm not sure I have the patience.  Maybe one more month of trying.  Maybe.  Oooh, my hair magician just called and she's running 15 minutes behind so I have 15 extra minutes to decide!  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

8.  I was going to write 10 random thoughts but somehow the other 3 have left my head (imagine that!) so with this silly thought, I'm only giving you 8.

Have a great day!

 

Ten Years

Ten years.  It really is still so fresh that it seems like yesterday to me.  Andy came home from working the night shift and woke me up and asked me why I wasn't watching the news.  What?!  He usually came in and went to sleep right away.  I grumbled and went to the living room and turned on the tv.  What was happening?  I sat mesmerized while the newscaster filled me in and then the second plane hit.  I didn't move from the tv for hours.  I recorded 16 hours of news coverage that day and I cried.  I had been in those buildings just 5 years before.  I didn't know anyone there but I mourned and I sat in silent shock.  I held my children on my lap and somehow they knew and they were quiet and just snuggled in for the day.  It rocked my world to put it simply.  I had grown up in this safe world where we, as a nation, were untouchable.  Sure, there was Desert Storm but that was when I was in 8th grade and I had no clue about the rest of the world.  I had grown up in a world where terrorist attacks were on the other side of the world and we were never affected.  As I sat and watched the news that day and as I watch the tribute videos today, my whole body is covered in goosebumps and I cannot stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks.   My two youngest girls sat and watched a few videos this morning and Izzy just kept asking why anyone would do that.  Why would they want to kill so many people they didn't even know?  And honestly, I don't have an answer for her other than making it so simple as referring to bad men doing bad things.  I don't know how to explain it to her but I can see she is trying hard to understand how anyone could intentionally kill anyone else.  Yes, it's been 10 years but I will never ever forget the way I felt that day or how it has affected my life since.  Never.

 

This should come with a warning label!

Today, I stepped into the bathroom unsuspecting of anything.  I reached past the shower curtain and turned on the water so I could take a shower.  All of a sudden, my entire lower half is sprayed with cold water!  That'll shock you!  Apparently whoever was in the shower last left the shower handle in the bottom of the tub and left the shower handle turned on.  Awesome! 

So I pick up the shower handle and put it back in the holder and walk to the back of the tub to get in.  I pull the curtain and step in...right on top of a round conditioner bottle!  Talk about fearing for your life!  I rolled backwards as I grabbed the shower curtain to balance me. 

Do you think I dared even shave my legs?!  I decided that this shower could hold no more mystery and danger so I gave it a whirl.  Guess what happened as I was shaving my first leg.  Oh yeah, someone small flushed the toilet and scalded my backside. 

I think I'm going to sport the look of one leg shaved, one not.  I wasn't taking any more chances today!  ROFL!

Thanks kids!

Holy Crow!

Since I broke Andy's computer screen yesterday, I feel like I should leave my computer home for him while I crop this weekend.  Of course, that totally screws up my plan to digi scrap, organize and knit this weekend.  Now I have to pack actual scrapping stuff and I'm in panic mode since it starts tomorrow morning.  I went to the craft house and started going through stamp sets and I decided to start purging some of them.  I haven't really stamped a whole lot since I stopped being a CTMH consultant and I was surprised at the number of stamps I don't feel like I have to keep anymore.  I went through all of the CTMH sets and I pulled out 207 sets that I'm going to sell.  207!  That's insane!  Now the only question becomes where to sell them.  Should I put them on ebay or should I just sell them here on my blog?  And then there's all the pictures to take...207 of them!

When I start thinking about all of that, I wonder if I'll really want to go through the rest of my supplies.  Maybe I'll do one thing at a time.  Stamps this time and paper another and stickers and rubons and embellishments and chipboard and albums and alterable schtuff and punches and punch holders and idea books and holy crow!  There's a lot to think about and a lot to go through.  But I'm feeling like it's time so maybe next week some time I'll start getting the stamps photographed and ready for sale.  Or, maybe I'll just not pack anything to scrap with and I'll take pictures of stamps this weekend. 

Ugh! 

What to pack?! 

I Get The Award Today

for stupid moves, that is.  I felt like doing some deep cleaning today and decided to scour the floors.  So I moved all of the chairs out of the dining room but when I moved the table, I did the dumbest thing ever.  I didn't check the legs of the table for cords.  There's an outlet on the wall right behind our table and sometimes it has things plugged in and sometimes not.  I didn't even think about it today.  Instead I just grabbed the table and started pulling it towards the living room.  Then, before I could even react, I saw Andy's laptop crashing to the floor.  It landed screen down and when Lexi picked it up, she gave me that look.  You know the look...the one that says, "You are in so much trouble right now."  Yeah, that was the look.  I went and looked and the screen shows up on the right side but the left side looks like someone smeared some bright lights down it.  I am sick to my stomach just thinking about it.  The worst part is that I won't even be home tonight when Andy gets home to explain it to him.  Ugh.  I'm so nervous.  I called the computer shop and they'll replace it for $149.00 which makes me even more sick.  So today, I'm going to continue to scrub the floors and pray for understanding and forgiveness and hope that when I walk through the doors tonight after my class that my husband will have cooled down.  Maybe he'll think about how nice I was about him hitting the deer last week and he'll be nice to me too.  Maybe.  Crossing fingers and toes.

Of course I've set him up with a user acct on my laptop.  His user name is: I'm Sorry and I Love You.  His password is:  I 4give U and I love U.  Too much?  I hope it makes him smile.

What a freakin' day.  The good news is that our newly adopted little fish friend is swimming happily with his new friends, the floors look amazing, and I learned a lesson.  Ugh.

It's Saturday, right?

Aren't Saturdays the day you're supposed to sleep in then laze around the house in your pjs watching Saturday morning cartoons and just relaxing?  Then why in the world was I up so early this morning?  I set the alarm last night before I climbed into bed for an hour past my usual wake up and when it started to beep this morning, I was in the middle of a good dream that I didn't want to end, so I ignored the beeping and tried to sleep.  Soon I was back asleep despite the beeping but the dream was a new one.  The next thing I know, it's 30 minutes later and Andy is shaking me and asking me if I wanted to get up with the alarm.  I was mid-dream again so I simply waved him away and tried to keep dreaming.  But it wasn't long after that when Izzy started to stretch beside me and at that point I knew I was done for.  I laid there with one eye open as I watched her sit up (she was sleeping with her head at the foot of the bed) and look around.  So I lifted up the blankets and she crawled up beside me.  I wrapped my arms around her and asked her if she was ready to get up.  She said she wanted to sleep until it was time to go to the birthday party.  I giggled and said she couldn't sleep that long since it doesn't start until 5:00 pm.  And then she giggled too and I knew the day would wait no longer.  So we climbed out of bed and she and I and Andy went for a walk around the pond and then for a drive along the river. 

When we returned home, the two older girls were still sound asleep and now it's time to wake them up and eat huckleberry pancakes with whip cream and walnuts!  Yum!

I hope you're enjoying your Saturday!

Emotional

This morning was a rough one.  It just seemed like everything was wrong...too slow, too early, too whiny, too much teasing...just a rough start to the day.  So I dropped the girls off at school and in the silence and alone of my car, I felt the urge to run.  Run until my lungs burst and then crumple and cry.  It's a good thing I can't run right now or that urge probably would have gotten the best of me and I'd have been sorry afterward.  This body was not made for running.  LOL!  So instead I turned on the stereo and turned it up loud as I drove to the park to meet my friend for our morning walk.  You'll never guess what was playing...it made me laugh out loud...one of those loud, uncontrollable laughs that releases all the emotion...which is exactly what I needed.  It was Pink's Just Like A Pill and one of the lyrics is "Run just as fast as I can to the middle of nowhere, to the middle of my frustrated fears and I swear you're just like a pill.  Instead of makin' me better, you keep makin' me ill.  You keep makin' me ill."

Needless to say, I went for my walk and had some adult conversation and it's all good now.  Do you ever just have one of those mornings?  Now I'm off to get some things done around here.

 

Shoes

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm no fashionista.  It's a rare day that you find me in anything but jeans and a t-shirt or sweatshirt.  I like comfort.  I should probably be reported to the show What Not To Wear.  But honestly, clothes are just not my thing and since I've put on all this weight, finding something both flattering and beautiful is a pretty big stretch (not to mention...pain in the butt).  So I avoid clothes shopping and continue to enjoy the comfort of my jeans. 

But, if there is anything of fashion that I still love to indulge in it is purses and bags and shoes.  I don't necessarily buy them, but I love a good bag.  In fact, I'll stand in line to buy a good bag for two hours (yeah, kinda sad, but true) if the price is right and I just love the bag.  But, that's a story for another day. 

Today I want to talk shoes.  When I buy shoes, I want them to last forever.  I want them to feel good on my feet and I want them to look good.  And they also have to fit the budget.  Yeah, I know, I'm asking a lot.  But honestly, since I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, my shoe needs lately haven't been too out there.  I have a great pair of sneakers that my sister gave me in December that I absolutely love ... love!  They're so stinkin' comfortable and they're trimmed in red so you know I love that!  Beyond that, I have a pair of Keen sandals my mom bought me last summer that I live in as soon as the snow is gone.  Add in a pair of Tevas, which have been my favorite shoe for at least 13 years, and a pair of Mary Jane pumps and I'm good to go. 

But last night, my friend, Stacey, posted this photo of a pair of converse heels and it made my heart beat a little faster.  I probably won't ever buy them, but for a minute, I pictured myself skinny, rocking these shoes!

I could probably even wear them with my jeans and be so happy with that pop of fun on my feet!  So it made me wonder what else was out there in the shoe world that would be as exciting.  So I did a little google search and found the following shoes:

Then, I got sidetracked by the goofy shoes I found so I thought I'd come and share them with you...

I'm not sure how I feel about these...I'm not sure I could handle the shoe between my toes.  But the concept of a bare foot experience is almost enough to make me want to try them.  Almost.

If I happened upon these in a thrift shop, I'd probably buy them because they are just different and fun enough to want to wear them once or twice.  I would probably then have to spray paint them a different color and wear them again.  I'd also have to add a big black flower with a jewel in the center to them.

In a word...ridiculous.  Okay, one more word...stupid.  Who in the world would wear these and why? 

Okay, I'll admit that my sick sense of humor makes me like these shoes.  But would I really ever wear them...probably not.  I think Lexi would love wearing these though and she'd have fun with the concept.

OUCH!  That's pretty much all I have to say about that. 

What the heck is that?  Is it a pregnant woman she's walking on?  I have no idea. 

And lastly...the party girl/hooker boot that I would totally wear just once because if I ran across a shoe like that, I would have to.  However, I would wear them with jeans because in my mind, that would just look much better.  LOL!

Have a great day!

 

Good Music ...

As I was sitting here tonight (Tuesday night), the house was quiet and still (because the kids are in bed, of course!) and I decided to plug into my Zune and work on some layouts and photos.  I put my earphones in and turned on the City Of Angels soundtrack.  I don't know what it is about that soundtrack but it just seems to heal my soul.  I sang along with all the emotion I felt and didn't give a thought to the three sleeping girls.  It felt so good to just belt it out and turn it up!  So I immersed in the music and created a couple of layouts.  When I was finished with that, I converted some photos to JPEG and sorted some digi files.  That felt so good!

It felt so good, in fact, that I turned on the Chicago soundtrack and folded some laundry and then settled in to knit a little more on an Easter goodie I'm making for one of the girls.  That didn't work out that well because the Chicago soundtrack makes me want to dance around and bop my head as I sing along.  Oh yeah, I love a good musical!  How can you not pick up the attitude and want to dance and sing along?  I can't resist it, I'll tell you that much! 

And now it's time to head to bed but the soundtrack isn't over so I thought I'd pre-blog for Thursday (today) and show you the layouts I made tonight.  And if it's not over by the time I'm finished writing, well, I may just have to take it to bed with me and fall asleep to All That Jazz!

I took these pictures last October.  I love autumn and these pops of orange make the corners of my mouth start to turn up.  How I miss autumn's beauty!

Kit:  The Beautiful Life by A+ Designs

Kit:  The Beautiful Life by A+ Designs

And then there was this photo of my grandma at 19 years of age and I just had to scrap it!

Kit:  Awakening by A+ Designs

And because this kit had some great delicate pieces to it, I also made a layout with a couple of the photos from Kaylee's birthday last year.

Kit:  Awakening by A+ Designs

And that, my friends, is all she wrote (tonight).  Have a great day!