Saturday, January 31, 2009

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!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

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!

Monday, January 19, 2009

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.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

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!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

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!

Friday, January 9, 2009

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!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

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!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

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!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

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.