25 Random Things About Me

1. I used to win ribbons for my gymnastics (floor work only) when I was in 3rd grade. Then I hurt my knee and I've never been able to go back. I'm glued to the TV when Olympics gymanstics is on. And I still think of those gymanstics meets at the gym at William Jewell that my mom would take me to and sit through all those other kids just to watch me.

2. My dream job is to be a backup dancer for Britney Spears. I'm obsessed with her. So much so that I don't want to be her I just want to be one of her backup dancers.

3. I'm a die hard Royals fan. We've had season tickets to 20 games for many years now. In the past we have always done this with another couple, various couple friends over the years. This year we're on our own. Just me Kevin and the kiddos. They love it. And they are really great at the games. People always ask me how I get them to sit there that long. I feed them constantly. What can I say? My kids take after me and they love to eat. Carter's been singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game for the last few weeks. I'm counting down to opening day. And I"m excited they signed Zack Grienke to a 4 year deal.

4. I managed sending almost 7 million emails in December. My husband calls me a spammer. I call it email marketing. What? If you sign up it's not spam!

5. I'm addicted to Starbucks - grande nonfat light whip white mocha. No seriously. I'm friends with one of my baristas on facebook and we email back and forth. When I was pregnant with Carter, my second, she was pregnant with her first. Long story short she was the first person I told that I was preggers again, other than my husband, I think only because it was weird that I ordered decaf that day and she did a double take. Turns out we were due something like 2 days apart and both had boys via c-sections. Ok I'll stop there.

6. I love Mexican food. But not with my Starbucks.

7. I was a cheerleader in highschool. And in college. One year at UMKC for Roos basketball. I even got a scholarship for that. All of the other girls thought I was shy because they had cheered together before so they had a clique going and I just didn't know when to interject. This is funny to me now.

8. I hope my kids have as good of a relationship with each other as me and my brothers do.

9. I loved dogs until I had kids. Now they are just more work. But someday I'll have a Golden Retriever.

10. I watch the Amazing Race, American Idol, The Office. I like to quote The Office in my Friday morning meetings at work. Sometimes our CEO sounds just like Michael Scott.

11. I love the internet and I'm so glad I get to use it all day for my job. We're encouraged to be on facebook, twitter, blogging, etc. I can consume a lot of information at once. But I'm really impatient when it's slow. I also hate it when something is underlined online but it's not a link. It's a weird pet peeve I have.

12. I'm an excellent multi-tasker but with each kid I find I have to write things down more or I forget. They suck your brain cells.

13. I still consider myself a runner even though I haven't run in four years. I still wish I could find a way to get back into it. Someday.

14. I won the Opal Heatherly writing award my senior year in highschool for creative writing. I'd like to get back to writing more.

15. My current creative outlet is scrapbooking. I love to scrapbook pictures of my kids.

16. I don't like people who don't work hard or aren't resourceful. If you could find it if you tried why should I find it for you?

17. I used to work at J. Riggings, J. Crew and Abercrombie and Fitch. I can fold a sweater with a paper insert, space hangers evenly and make a mean poplin wall. I met one of my best friends working in retail.

18. I'm not naturally blonde anymore. But I'm still blonde. And it's true, we do have more fun.

19. I hate the cold. HATE IT. I also hate static electricity.

20. I wish I could be tan without getting cancer or orange hands.

21. I worry that my dad will lose his job. I remember when this happened when I was in 6th grade and my mom had to go back to work full time. I remember watching my parents balance the checkbook at the dining room table and my dad looking for work for more than six months until he got another job.

22. I was in the business fraternity at UMKC - Delta Sigma Pi. But other than that I was a GDI.

23. I went to Northwest Missouri State University for one year.

24. I am a Google Adwords Qualified Individual.

25. I love that I am off every Thursday because it means I never have to work more than 3 days in a row. I love the Thursdays when I take my one of my kids to do something special so they get some mommy time.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Not posed, I promise. Caption this.


I'll start...

Really enjoying his cartoons.

It's not the size, it's how you use it.

Cabin Fever

Last week started out with Carter being sick and me leaving work early on Monday. It ended with Anna being sick and me getting in another partial day on Friday. Yesterday I felt achy and very sleepy. Took a two hour nap and have basically been a pharmacy dishing out drugs to anyone who wants them.

I feel covered in germs. The kids have runny noses and this horrible wet cough and keep forgetting to cover their mouths, and seem to always hack up a lung near or around my food or face. The house definitely needs a detox.

Anna was still running a fever at 2 am last night.

This is the time of year when I am done with winter and unfortunately have about 3 more months to go. The tornado sirens actually went off on Friday night when it was snowing. Very bizarre. We were going to call 911 because the announcement kept saying to take cover immediately, which of course we didn't, but we couldn't find the phone - the only benefit I've decided to having a non-cordless phone from the 80's. Everyone knows that tornados come in April between 4-6 pm, not in January at 8:30 pm.

It's bitterly cold and snowing again today. The kind of cold where it is also blusterly windy and even though you are wearing a sweater, coat, hat, mittens and scarf you are cursing the weather and seriously asking yourself why you live here because it's not possible that anyone actually enjoys this. It makes me not want to leave the house, which is good for my pocketbook but bad for my mood and motivation.

And means the kids watch entirely too much TV and the house is destroyed because somehow they manage to move toys from the top level to the bottom level and everywhere in between in about 2 minutes flat. Carter keeps asking "Go Bye Bye?" every five minutes. I think he's tired of being here.

They are yelling "HIP HIP HOORAY FOR SNOW. CMON CARTER LET'S RIDE TO THE PARADE IN SNOW." Then hopping on their ride on toys and driving around the house. Don't you have big wheels inside your house for transportation?

We watched Miss America (or whatever beauty pageant was on tv last night) for about 5 minutes last night and I thought it was hysterical that although it was the swimsuit competition rocking out to JT's Sexy Back and each tiny tall model was wearing an itty bitty black bikini Anna only seemed to notice the hair color of each model. "She has the same color hair as me" or "She doesn't have the same color hair as me" and of course "You have that song in your car mommy."

So c'mon SPRING!

Jazz Hands

Life

We had my work holiday party last night at Dave and Busters. We always do this in January since December is always so crazy. I have been there 5 years as of this month. I think most people get a clock after they've faithfully worked at their company for 5 years. I wasn't exepecting anything.

I got two roundtrip tickets anywhere in the continental US. And some very kind words from Neal. Very surprised. And thankful.

Yesterday during the day my car did that dreaded thing it occasionally does. It says Brake Failure and you push the accelerator to the floor and it doesn't go and then it says Reduced Engine Performance. Then I turn on my hazards, try not to freak out, put the car in park, turn it off, wait, turn it back on. Then it says Engine System Service Required and a bunch of other crap and still says Brake Failure. I then call someone to come meet me. This time I turned the car off for about 5 minutes and when I turned it back on it was fine. This was Kevin's idea which was a good idea since every time this has happened before I tow it in to the dealership and they can't figure out what's wrong with it. So annoying. It happens like once a year.

Today I took Anna to the dentist for a filling. It was also between two teeth so she needed two fillings. And he said the first one was pretty deep so that tooth may still go bad. Great. I didn't ask what happens at that point. I'm not sure I want to know. She did great.

Big Bundle Of Joy

I realize these pictures may be TMI for some of you, but I think most of you reading have kids so you probably won't blink an eye. Carter was so big they had to use forceps to get him out. This might not be unusual in most cases except I had a C-Section. I remember hearing "big head" "big baby" and he was - 9 lb 2 oz. All I could say the first day was "I can't believe I had a 9lb baby" and was very thankful I didn't try to vbac. They also said my uterine lining was thin so it wouldn't have been a good idea. I plan to fill in his birth date, time, weight and length in the blue card on the left. I just have to dig up the details. Honestly, I don't remember except the weight.

New Baby Brother

It's kind of hard to see but click on the Left layout and look in the background behind Anna and Kevin. There is another baby in an incubator and it is so tiny. Then look at Carter. He sprawls the whole thing. The ones with me are when he is about 1 to 1 1/2 hours old, when I am first getting to hold him. The ones in the nursery with my parents and Kevin are all right away, before I got to hold him.

Layout


This is me


This is me on morphine

On the day you were born

I need to add some journaling to the two blank blue blocks, about how he had to have formula right away to help bring some numbers down they were concerned about. And about how we brought Anna with us to the hospital to help her "get it" and then she left with Papa and Grandma after he was born and came back later to visit me. This outfit with the grey sweatpants and black shirt are the only clothes I wanted to wear at the end of my pregnancy with Carter. Jeans were so uncomfortable, probably because I turned out to have a toddler, not a baby.

Layout


Left


Right

Hunting Eggs - a layout with 18 pictures!

Again, love that Uchida Square Punch. You can easily get 12 photos on 12x12 page. American Crafts ribbon on the lower right that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby this weekend. Love Elsie embellishments on lower right (again Hobby Lobby clearance).

Layout


Left


Right

If Sonar was a cat...

he could fit into the house Kevin built him.

Flower Girl + Tips for Alphabet Letters

I'm a scrap maniac lately. Did this LO yesterday, along with an Easter one I'll post tomorrow.

This LO uses a bunch of leftover KI Memories chipboard flower pieces I forgot I even had. The letter stickers I've also had for years and not used because there was only one of each letter.

But wait - you say - there are two l's and two r's in "Flower Girl".

Candi and I have become the queens of transforming letters into other letters. I cut the K into an L and cut an N into an R, even rounding the corner. Genius we are.

Other letter tips - cut the tail off a d or q to make an a. Turn a n or u upside to flip to the opposite letter. Cut the tail off an h to make an n (or u). I've even turned a V upside down to make it an A.

Both


Left


Right

Propped Up

These square letters are my favorite go-to letters. If you don't know, I'm obsessed with letters. I find each scrapbooker is obsessed with at least one item. For my friend Candi it's paper and adhesive. These letters come in a package that has a sheet for each letter in the alphabet and each sheet probably has 25 letters. So these have lasted me awhile. I would LOVE to buy more and stock up. Problem - they are really hard to find. They are DCWV (Die Cuts With A View) Monogram Sticker Stack the Clear Stickers (slightly transparent to have the paper show through) but I would also take the non-clear. Most sites only carry this aesthetic now which is a little too country or 1800's looking to me.

However, I just did search again on Google this morning and found them on this site so I ordered one each of the vellum, clear and cardstock. And as if you didn't before you're sure to be seeing these letters all over my layouts now!

Left

Right

I need to fill in the age and date in that tag on the lower right.

X-MAS

This layout also uses that big square punch for the photos on the right. Love that I can get 7 photos on a single page by using that heaven-sent puncher. I cut the patterned squares out of a sheet of patterned paper. This was the year Santa brought a trampoline, baby dolls and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Big Sis

She was so proud of him and still is. I love her smile where she is just beaming on the left. I also love the ones of him just looking at her, already looking up to her, and taking it all in. The pictures really say all the words in this layout to me and because they were all taken at different times, each one of them, with different background and colors, I chose neutral paper and limited embellishments.

Left


Right

Having a Ball

Here's one of Anna and Kevin from two summers ago playing baseball. Looks like I used some of those same buttons on this layout too.

Love these single page layouts. They go fast. I am inspired to do these by scrapbooker Jamie Waters, another blog I follow. Here are some of her single    page    layouts.

This one also uses my favorite new tool - the 3 inch (or maybe it's 3 1/2 inches?) giga punch. It's the biggest square punch they make. Used the 20% off a single item coupon at Archivers but the 50% at Michael's would be better.

Play

This is one of my favorite layouts. Love this picture of Carter that was taken on the way back from Nashville when we stopped to visit Chip and Step and were all at the park.


That adorable little boy threw up all over me last night. My internet connection prevented me from posting this last night. Just as I clicked Publish it died. So I still consider myself meeting the daily posting commitment I made :) Look for another layout later today.

Baby Boy

Last week I was a sucky blogger with hardly any posts. So this week I'm posting daily. Look for a post with a recently new scrap layout every day this week.

Here's one I did of Carter. This picture was taken at my brother in law's wedding in Nashville in April 2008.

"Mommy you're a good cook when you don't fire dinner."

That's right, I totally started a fire in the oven tonight. Everyone's salmon was done except Kevin's cause I had made his a little thicker and I wanted to finish it off so I put it on the top rack just for 2 more minutes under the broiler. I even set the timer. Opened it up to check it right before the timer and flames were all over. My reaction.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Anna who was already eating at the table started to flip out.

Think. Close the oven door.

Enter Kevin who took it from the oven and put it in the sink and doused it with water. Smoke everywhere. We had to open the windows and let the 20 degree bitter wind blow through the house to air it out.

The kids were all worked up about it. We talked about fire all through dinner.

Kevin ate tortilla cheese rollups while the rest of us enjoyed the potato chip crusted salmon. Sorry babe. Especially sorry if I ruined the oven.

"Mommy you're a good cook when you don't fire dinner." Thanks Anna.

Week In the Life Album Completed

Earlier this fall (yes about 3 months ago) I followed the Week In the Life project with Ali Edwards. I completed nearly all of the album by Thanksgiving but just recently added the final touches and got around to taking photos since it wasn't blowing 80 mph or 20 below outside.

Monday - Friday each have two two-page layouts. Saturday and Sunday each have three two-page layouts, just because I had more pictures on those days.

I created a formula of
Layout 1
Left Page: Large photo with ribbon
Right Page: Divided page protector with photos & pattern paper

Layout 2
Left Page: Back side of divided page protector with photos & pattern paper
Right Page: Journaling with ribbon

The journaling uses two of the Ali Edwards Digital Designers downloads which I customized into one for my purposes. I did this part in Photoshop.

Cover


Opening


Monday Left


Monday Right


Monday Left


Monday Right


Tuesday Left


Tuesday Right


Tuesday Left


Tuesday Right


Wednesday Left


Wednesday Right


Wednesday Left


Wednesday Right


Thursday Left


Thursday Right


Thursday Left


Thursday Right


Friday Left


Friday Right


Friday Left


Friday Right


Saturday Left


Saturday Right


Saturday Left


Saturday Right


Saturday Left


Saturday Right


Sunday Left


Sunday Right


Sunday Left


Sunday Right


Sunday Left


Sunday Right


Close