Catching up... AGAIN

After a weekend off last week, we went scrapping again today. We went to a new place and had a lot of fun. Old friends - good times. :-) I was ill-prepared, but I still got two pages done and three well underway. Yay, me!

After the crop I came home and watched Bolt with Johanna. We cuddled up on the couch with the cat and relaxed. I love those quiet moments with her.

Speaking of Johanna, she started Karate this past week. She did SO WELL! I was really proud of her! My little warrior got her gear and is all set to kick some booty. LOL Here is one of the stances she's been practicing.

Last week I signed-up for Facebook. I was reluctant, but Tim talked me into it. He said it was a great way to connect with people from high school. Oh, my gosh... it is AMAZING. In two days I had made contact 30 friends. Some of them I was really, really close with. It has been incredible seeing them now and finding out about their lives since I last saw them. Most of them haven't changed a bit. It's stirred up memories that had a thick layer of cobwebs on them. ;-) Trouble is... it can be very addicting... must step away from the computer. lol

Anyway, I need to unpack my scrap crap and get to bed before Tim starts banging on the floor. lol Thanks for stopping by!

Finally!

Finally, I'm back on-line! Tim hooked-up my scanner yesterday. It took awhile to catch up, but I think I got everything.

Caitlin is in a play. I guess she has a pretty big part, too. She is being very secretive about it; she wants to surprise us. I'm dying to get to a practice to take pictures, though. The play isn't until May, so I'll have to work on wearing her down. :-)

This past weekend, I didn't have any recent pictures to scrap so I went back and found some old ones that I had never done. Below is a page about Johanna's first tooth coming out. The "teeth" that are the title, are flat stickers that I put on pop dots and covered with a heavy layer of diamond glaze. I wasn't sure about them when I bought them, but I'm so happy with how it turned out. The actual tooth is in a shadow box. I made the shadow box from scratch by drawing the tooth and cutting it out. I'm really happy with that, too. (Thanks for the idea, Lori!!)

Speaking of Lori... (sorry, my friend, but I can't resist)... I had a wonderful UNbirthday party last week!! My BFF showered me with lovely gifts and a fresh fruit bouquet. Imagine my surprise... since my birthday isn't for another month! LOL We've had some great laughs over that one! Such a great memory, in fact, that I HAD to scrap it. No doubt this is a birthday I'll never forget... and I won't let her forget it either. LOL! Here is the evidence.

Well, I've been dieting for about a month. I went to the doctor's office to weigh-in today. The good news is, I've lost a grand total of 16 lbs.! Yeah!! I'm SO excited. A long, long, LONG way to go, but I'm really happy with the start. I'll keep you posted.

Today we're enjoying warm weather. Feels like spring, but they tell us another cold front is coming soon. Yuck!

Tomorrow night is Johanna's spring program. I'll have pics from that on Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by!

A Day At The Races

On Saturday, Tim took Caitlin to the motocross races in Indy. Actually, it was Caitlin who contacted one of Tim's old friends and got the tickets for everyone. Tim & Caitlin even got press box seats. The second photo, below, is Caitlin in the press box. Oh, and this took place in the new dome stadium for the Indianapolis Colts. Tim said the place was awesome. The other picture is of Caitlin with her friends. Funny story about the guy withOUT the hat or sunglasses on his head. His name is Drew. He is an Abercrombie model and was featured on an episode of America's Next Top Model. He wants to go out with her, but she just wants to stay friends. I wish I had her problems at 17! lol


The other day, Johanna and I went shopping for a dress and some "clicky shoes." She's never really worn dresses much and was so excited to be shopping for girly clothes. So, I decked her out in the dress, new panty hose, new shoes, and a sweater. She looked SO CUTE!

She has a show they're doing at school in a few weeks that she can wear it to and I think it will also serve as her Easter dress.

Not much else going on. I keep applying for jobs... and I keep getting letters saying they'll keep my resume on file. Watching the news these days, it gets a little scary to think how long it might take. Okay, a LOT scary.

I guess that's about it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Electronic Issues - Good News & Bad News

It's always something. Last week, Tim's computer died. I mean, it fried. It was old and he had been band-aid'ing it for a looooong time. Thankfully, he had everything backed-up on a separate hard drive (yeah!!). He went and bought a brand new computer - rather than the refurbs he usually gets. Only problem is... most of the new computers are coming with MS Vista OS. Many programs that we've been using for years are not compatible with the Vista OS. This includes the software that came with our scanner. I guess the good news for me is that the large-scale scanner is now on my desk. Bad news is... it takes up a LOT of room. We'll figure it all out, though.

Johanna had a sleep-over this weekend and they had a GREAT time! We went to see Coraline 3D. I can't believe I am almost 47 years old and I had never seen a 3D movie. It was really cute! The girls had a blast. I think we're going to have a sleep-over again in a couple of weeks when Tim & Caitlin are out of town. At one point I heard Payton say, "Johanna, I love your mom. Er, I REALLY like her." LOL THAT is what it's all about.

Miss C is doing a lot of volunteer work with a local group that supports people who have had severe brain injuries. I am so proud of her for that. Now she is getting me involved, which is very cool, too. They make a lot of cards. The center wants me to come and give them some help with what they can do more/differently. I'm looking forward to getting involved with that.

Valentine's Day was nice. The girls each got a gift, as did I. I got Tim something I thought was really cool. I found these four stalks of bamboo that were shaped into two hearts. This particular bamboo is supposed to be "lucky bamboo." Tim had a few bad days right before Valentine's Day, so I figured it was the perfect gift to turn his luck around. :-) Here is a picture of it.

Isn't that COOL?

Until my scanner is fixed, that's about all I have to share. Hopefully, Tim will have me all hooked-up tomorrow night. Take care and thanks for visiting!!

Im"poster"

Last weekend, Tim and Caitlin went to a motorcycle trade show. Miss C has always been a daddy's girl, so it's no surprise that she shares his passion for the sport. What was particularly funny, though, was that she was mistaken (repeatedly) for a pin-up model. She was in a booth of Tim's friend. They had this poster with a scantily clad model (as usual). Caitlin was wearing an "Exhibitor's" badge, so many of the men stopping by the booth thought the girl was Caitlin! They even asked her to sign their posters... which she did! LOL!! Here is a picture of Caitlin looking at someone's badge so that she could personalize her autograph. OY!!

How HILARIOUS is that!? Guess what I'll be scrapping next?? :-)

This weekend they'll be at it again. They're going to a show in Indy. Next, they're going to a race in Indy at the end of the month. Don't they know they are SERIOUSLY cramping my scrappy schedule? LOL Just kidding! (Sort of.)

That's about all for now, I guess. Johanna is having a sleep-over on Sunday/Monday because of the holiday. I'll be taking her and her friend scrapping, which should be loads of fun! Then, Monday, we will go to the movies again. This time, I'm toting the camera!

Thanks for stopping by!

Winter Blahs

Clearly I have some catching up to do. I think the brutal cold, snow and ice are taking their toll on me. We've been stuck at home so much that there's really not much to tell either.

Today, it almost felt like spring around here. I opened the curtains and blinds in our bedroom, opened the window a bit, and cleaned my arse off in there. I even guilted Tim into helping me. ;-) It had become a bit of a dumping ground for things without a "home," and today we reclaimed our space. I threw out a LOT of stuff. I vaccumed the heck out of everything that didn't get out of my way. I almost forgot how huge that room is!

I've started a home improvement project - the guest (girl's) bathroom. The wallpaper has been peeled off and the new paint has been purchased. Oh, and Tim rescued a light fixture that actually might work in there. I'm really excited about getting it done. We've got some big framed mirrors around the house, so we're going to replace the early 80's sheet of mirror with a nice, decorative one. I'm usually very good at finishing a project I start around the house. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty obsessive about it. One thing was stopping me, though. I **HATE** the vanity and floor in there. I want to switch both out but have NO IDEA how much that will cost. So, tomorrow morning I am going up to Home Depot to pick out what I like and find out what it would cost to have it installed. If it's reasonable enough, I'll see if I can get Tim on board. We'll see.

I made a layout with the picture I posted below. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but I'm not happy with how it scanned. The page is so bumpy and bulky, a lot of it is blurry. Here it is anyway...

The company that maintains our property really screwed up with the snow removal. We have about a 4' pile of ice and snow in front of our house. They literally piled all that on top of our boxwoods. I'm sure at least six of them are toast. Now we're going to have to submit an invoice to the Board of Managers and see if we can get reimbursement to replace them in the spring. Yeah, right. Wish us luck with that one. Here's the pile where our boxwoods are buried.


And here is a picture of Johanna on top of the pile.


Needless to say, Tim is NOT a happy camper! Who can blame him?

Well, I've got to get up early in the morning, so I'd better wrap up for now. Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to be better and keeping my posts current.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Super Bowl Sunday is finally here! It's half-time now. I'm sad that the black and gold are winning, though. Still hanging my hopes on the red and white.

Anyway, I'm going to quickly post a few more pictures from yesterday because, well, Johanna was just so stinkin' cute!!

The trees were truly beautiful. Thank goodness we didn't lose our power, though.

And here is the ice on our holly bush.

I'd better get back to the game. I'll have some layouts to post tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

What A Week!

Exhausting. That is the word of the week. :-) The kids were home four days this week due to ice and snow... and a LOT of it! We were virtual prisoners in our own home (only a slight exaggeration). Caitlin was a little like a caged animal. LOL Johanna was just bored and mommy needed to "entertain" her. The temps were so cold that I couldn't even let her play outside very long. It hovered around -7 wind chill all week. The bright side... we didn't lose our power.

Today, the temp went up a bit and the wind died down. While I was gone for awhile, Tim took Johanna outside to build an igloo. Here is a pic from the day. I'll finish some more and post them later.

My "Ice Princess." :-)

I'm really looking forward to the Super Bowl tomorrow. I'm praying for an upset and that the Cardinals will win. I'm thinking they are no match for the Steelers dirty tactics, though. I'm sure they'll mame a key player in the first quarter. Boooo! Thugs. I'm not bitter. ;-)

Due to the recent imprisonment, there's not much else to tell. I'll post more pics from today later on and I'm sure I'll have a few thoughts to share about the big game. Thanks for stopping by!

A Breath of Fresh Air

I make a concious effort to keep politics off my blog. I will say, though, that this has been a very emotional inaguration and transfer of power. I am very optimistic for this country's future.

Obviously, I did watch the inaguration on Tuesday. As a matter of fact, I got so caught up in it, I was taking pictures of the TV screen as it was happening. I can be such a loser. LOL Anyway, I was surprised to see the Representative from our District, John Boehner, walk in to the ceremony directly in front of President Obama. Not only is he our Representative, he is our neighbor; literally. He lives about a mile away from us and Tim knows him. How cool is that? That's like -- one degree of separation from the most powerful man in the world! I didn't realize until the next day, when I sat down to get the pictures off our camera, that Congressman Boehner was standing directly behind the President as he took his oath of office. Here is the photo...

He is the gentleman just to the left of President Obama's right hand in the picture.

I really liked the Lincoln "theme" to this inaguration, too. My only real concern was the amount of money that was spent on this lavish day. I know it was an incredibly historical event, but I'm not sure we couldn't have had a meaningful ceremony that didn't cost quite so much. But, enough about politics.

I have to get the kids off to school now. I'll be back later on with more. Thanks for stopping by!

Blast from the past...

When I was in Jr High School, there was a "must read" book called, "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret." It's primary focus was dealing with the changes in an adolescent girl. In my world, it really was a "must read." EVERY teen girl had read that book. Anyway, I digress. For some reason, this book title made me think of a title for a layout about Miss C. I want to call it, "Are you there, God? It's me, the mother of a teenager."

I need to know how to survive the next year and a half. I wasn't 18 until April of my Senior year. My best friend wasn't 18 until the second month of college. My dear teen will be 18 years old one month after the beginning of her senior year of high school. How does the mother of a teen manage that? One week she wants to quit golf. The next week she wants to transfer to the other district high school after the golf season. The next week, she wants to graduate early. Truth is, she can do whatever she darn well pleases at that point. In all honesty, I want my mom. I need her guidance. I need her wisdom. She figured out how to deal with my independent nature. God knows how she put up with me. So, here I am... the mother of a teenage daughter without my mom to tell me what to do. [sigh]

Johanna, on the other hand, is still easy. Today was a holiday from school, so she had a friend over for a sleep-over last night. She and Payton had a great time! They had fun until about 11:30 PM, slept in, had pancakes for breakfast, and then we all went to a movie and lunch. We went to see Bedtime Stories. It was really cute. Lunch was a blast. We have another date for a sleep-over for President's Day next month.

Totally Addicted to HGTV

I'll be the first one to admit it... I spend WAY too much time watching HGTV. I'm totally addicted to it. Today, I got a great idea watching Vern Yip (formerly of Trading Spaces) on his new show "Deserving Design." He took photos of different things in the person's neighborhood, turned them black & white, printed a large copy, and then framed them for the home. I got to thinking about some of the pictures I have that I'd love to see on our walls. I'll share a few of them here.

The first one is a sign right behind our house. It is on a national list of "most stolen street signs" and has been since I was young. I asked Tim to go get this for me but he is just too law-abiding. ;-) There's a funny story behind that sign, too. I was looking for housing when I was in college. I checked out a house on campus with four other girls. I walked in the front door and THIS SIGN WAS ON THE MANTLE! How funny is that!? Wouldn't you just LOVE to live on the corner of "Grinn & Barret"??

This one is of some train tracks by our house. My brothers and I used to walk along these tracks when we were kids. We never played any "chicken" games, though!

This picture is of one of my favorite local places. It is an abandoned factory that made gun powder used for canons and bullets. Lots of history here. Local lore is that it's haunted. We use to go here on Friday nights after the football games to scare the life out of each other. Good times. LOL

I'm going to be doing this project sooner than later! I think pics like these would look great in my hall or at the bottom of my steps.

While I was looking for these pics, I ran across an old pic of Tim and me. I need to think of something really creative to do with it and time is an issue. This is a picture of us at our engagement party at Tim's brother's house. Next month, Tim and I will be celebrating 20 years together! OMGosh... that's SO hard to believe! This picture was taken just a few months later, in May. Needless to say, we have BOTH changed a LOT. My friend saw this picture once and said, "Karen Buck, it looks like he walked up to you and asked you if he could pay you $5 to pose in a picture with him." LOLOLOL! She didn't think we looked like we "belonged" together at ALL. I saw the potential, though. ;-) Now, I have to pay HIM to pose with ME. hee hee Anyway, here's the pic...

To my creative buddies... please share any ideas you might have for something very SPECIAL to do with this picture of me and my sweet hubby.

I guess that's enough fun for one day. Thanks for stopping by!

A Nice Weekend

Thank goodness the bad weather held off this weekend. I was so glad that Lori and I made it to the crop on Saturday. Even though Lori was really tired from her son's sleepover, we had a great time, as always. I got three altered projects done. Not too bad. I was really happy with how they all turned out. One of the things I made was a "lift" of something I saw online. Here is the result:






Except for the monthly calendar stickers and the lines for notes on the back of each month, this is copied from another papercrafter's blog here: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1421590 . You can follow the link in her comments to her blog for instructions, too. She even provides a link to the calendar she used. I used clear stickers from Provo Craft. They are easier to read and only cost $1.49. Another thing I liked about the stickers was that it makes them almost laminated, protecting each page. You could also laminate the printed ones with a Xyron.

Today, as always, it was "Football Sunday" around here. A very sad, sad Football Sunday, though. The Eagles beat NY and the Steelers beat the Chargers. Bummer on both counts!

Caitlin did something very odd today... even for her. ;-) There is a new boy she wanted to go out with tonight. Since it's a school night, she knew she had to really "sell" it to us for us to let her go out with him. They were going to dinner and to his parent's house to watch a movie with them. She actually did a PRESENTATION to get us to let her go out with him! She brought up pictures from his blog, a Mapquest map to his house, his parent's phone number, and all of their names. How could we say no? Well, we couldn't. I can't wait to find out how this one went and to see where it goes. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she had me at, "He isn't an athlete." LOL! Oh, and I saved her presentation to use on a layout... so stay tuned. :-)

Tomorrow it's back to the grind. It's supposed to be 4 degrees in the morning and it's my day to take Caitlin to school at 6:30 in the morning. Yikes! That's a brutal way to wake up.

Thanks for stopping by!

Seek and you shall find...

I have been asking people for years if they knew who wrote the song "A Little Good News Today." No one I asked had even heard of it. Just as I thought I was truly losing my mind, I googled it and found the song! It was written and performed by Anne Murray. I'm going to add a link to it with the other songs listed on my blog. Given the current state of the economy and how depressing Tim and I find the news these days, I thought someone else might enjoy the song, too.

I've gotta run, but I'll be back later with more!

Uninvited Guest

I finally got the pictures off the disc so I can show you the uninvited "guest" we had the other night. I have this pretty Christmas wreath I put on the door the last couple of years. For some reason, both years a bird has chosen my wreath for their [temporary] home. Problem is, when we open the door, it flies off and scares us to death! Well, the other night it decided to fly IN instead of OUT. So, we had the task of luring this little cutie OUT of our house. Thankfully, it exited pretty quickly.

I have to get Tim to stop feeding those birds so close to the house! :-)

Johanna is officially out of daycare now. We can save over $80/week by keeping her at home. I wasn't sure if she'd like coming straight home and not being with her friends after school, but she LOVED it! She kept saying how early it was and how much more time she felt like she had. Her homework has to be done before any electronics are turned on, which is her motivation to get it done FAST.

Not too many stories about Miss C these days because, well, we rarely see her. She is always on the go with friends or on a date. We did grab this picture the other day when I thought she just looked SO cute.

That's about it for now. We're back in our post-holiday groove, so not much to tell. Thanks for stopping by!

Aren't lazy Sundays the BEST?

Today has been just a rainy, lazy day in Cincinnati. It's been that grey skies and drizzle all day. We've watched some unexciting football. Tim made his dad's wonderful goulash for dinner - YUM! Tim and the girls went to the driving range for a short time this morning, too. Other than that, it has been very quiet and uneventful around here today.

Friday, I went to my BFF's house to scrap. Our friends, Linda and Ed, came down from Columbus for the day. I made up page kits so I could be productive. I made three pages on Friday and a page and a birthday card on Saturday... and I didn't spend a dime. Not too bad! Below are a couple of the pages I made.

Tomorrow is Sam's birthday (Lori's son). He admired a cool floor lamp at the store the other day, so of course Auntie Karen had to go and get it for him! His face was so cute when he saw it! I can't believe this tall, handsome young man is the same person who I've known since he was baking in the oven. :-) How the time flies. I love me some SAMMY!

I've got to run and download some pictures. I have more to tell, but just remembered that the pictures I need are still in the camera. BBL!

Traditions

In my mid twenties, I was a nanny for a VERY wealthy family. They had three homes, a private jet, and two nannies... one for each child. The mom taught me a Jewish tradition for good luck. On New Year's day, if you eat lox it is supposed to bring you good luck in the new year. They served them with capers, red onions, and bagel slices. Delicious!! My heritage is German. Our "good luck" food for New Year's is saurkraut. Needless to say... I prefer the lox. When Tim and I met, we adopted this tradition and have been eating lox on New Year's for almost 20 years. We LOVE it, but it's the only day of the year we eat it -- which is what makes it stay special for us. Someone asked me if, perhaps, it didn't work on the years I had luck that wasn't so great. I answered, "If I hadn't eaten the lox on New Year's, it would have been a LOT worse!" LOL Mind you, I do not believe in "luck," but it's a GREAT excuse to have this amazing treat once a year. :-) Not a formal presentation by any means, but here is a picture of our New Year's morning FEAST:

I found this really cool video online today. It is a year passing (in one spot) in 40 seconds. Take a look.

http://vimeo.com/2639782

This afternoon, Tim and I have a "date" with USC (for the Rose Bowl) and the UC Bearcats for the Orange Bowl. This game is HUGE, because the Bearcats have never, EVER been to a bowl game! After they won the finals, the people in the stands threw oranges and flooded the field. It was GREAT!! Wish us "LUCK!" :-)

New Year = New Beginning = = = =

= = = = new opportunities = new blessings... and so on.

Last night, I slept in my chair downstairs. Johanna wanted to sleep on the couch and she wanted me down here with her. No problem. I woke up this morning hearing a phone vibrate. Mind you, I can hear Caitlin's phone when it is on the floor upstairs and I can even hear Tim's phone when it goes off - upstairs, in our bedroom, on the bathroom counter (yes, even on vibrate). Mine is usually either on my scrapping desk or in my purse in the foyer upstairs. Either place... I can hear it. Well, Miss C is at a sleepover, so I ruled her out, so she gets to live another year. It was too loud to be Tim's. I had put mine on silent when I went to bed so I could sleep in. That left one person... one phone. Johanna. It was buried in the bedding when I found it - vibrating away. Only six people have her number, so I looked to see who would have possibly called her after I went to sleep at around 1;00 AM. That person was going to have some splainin' to do. I looked at it... and it was the ALARM! Johanna woke up and I asked her about it. She said, "I set the alarm for 6:00." Great. I asked her to turn it off and came in here. Now, what do I hear? Her snoring. So, now I'm up and she's in LaLa Land. What's up with that!? All I can say is... it's a good thing she's so stinkin' cute! :-)

In September 2007, Fiskars asked me to create a layout for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I created a 2-page layout with photos from the prior 1,552 days... since my final chemo treatment. I think those two pages will always be my favorite. It's called "Moments" - the moments I most certainly would have missed if I hadn't gotten my mammogram. In that respect, I consider that anniversary sort of as my New Year. This year, I did [almost] the same two pages on that anniversary date and have decided to make it a tradition. It will remind me to be thankful for each day and each wonderful moment with my family. Below is the layout I did for this year. (On the back, I put a matching grid with a little information about each picture and the month it was taken.)

I've saved this to post until now, for the "traditional" New Year's Day. (I know you can't read the grid, by wanted to post that for my scrappy friends to see how I did it.) Anyway, I wanted to share our year with you. Each day is a blessing. Don't forget to count them.

I'll be back later with news about the first day of our new year. I hope everyone has a safe, prosperous, and blessed New Year, too.