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.

Happy New Year!

I know... I'm so totally pathetic I'm on my blog three hours before midnight on New Year's Eve. Thing is, I've NEVER been a New Years (or 4th of July) person. I hate that these are the two holidays when people go out, get drunk, and act stupid. I sat and thought about it and I think I've gone out three New Year's in my entire adult life. I had a date one year (in my mid twenties); I watched Tim's band play at a party one year; and one year Tim and I spent at Disneyland. At midnight, we were standing on the bridge to Sleeping Beauty's castle watching the fireworks and listening to big band music. It was really cool because alcohol is prohibited and the park stays open until 2:00 AM. Actually, that was the year I was pregnant with Caitlin and didn't know it, yet. So, I guess it's been 18 years since my last New Years date. :-)

Today, Johanna and I went to Archivers to make some ornaments. No, not Christmas ornaments... VALENTINES ornaments. I have to say, they turned out SO CUTE! She did 90% of the work, too. I'll take a picture of them tomorrow when I have have some natural light. She really knocked my socks off at what a great job she did and we had great fun. Of course, I did not bring my camera. Bad, Karen, BAD!

Tonight, Miss Teen Thang is out at a sleepover. Miss J is chatting on the phone with her friend about Webkins. Tim is watching reruns of Smallville and I am here with you. Oh, what an exciting life we live. NOT. LOL That's okay, though, I'm living the dream.

Basic Grey has come out with a new line for Valentine's Day and it is FABU! I bought one of the paper packs to play with. It's muted off-pink and brown. Totally adorable and will work for males or females. That's what we used for Johanna's ornaments. I can hardly wait to have the pictures to go with it so I can dig in!!

Friday, it looks like I'm going to be scrapping with my pals who moved to Columbus. Ed and Linda will be coming down for the day. I can hardly wait! It's only been a few weeks, but it's just not the same without them. Don't get me wrong... Lori and I never met a stranger, but there's no one else like THESE scrapping buddies.

I can tell I'm kind of back in my groove. First, I didn't RACE to take the Christmas decorations down, like I have the last several years. I'll take everything down and put it away on Monday when the kids are back in school. Also, I was ahead of the game on Christmas shopping and now I have 3/4 of Johanna's Valentines finished. Not bad progress. I'll finish them for her on Friday and then I'll be home free for awhile. I'm starting my job hunt with extra energy next week, too, so I'm back in my groove just in time!!

I guess that's about it for now. No new pics or layouts, but I promise to have something to look at tomorrow. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Holiday Pages

I've finally found a little mojo (very little) to get a couple of pages done about the holidays. One is from Christmas Eve / the fourth night of Chanukah. The other is from Christmas morning. Still more pictures to scrap, but I'm not going to even think about getting all of them on one page. Besides, if I scrap them separately, I'll have some for each of the girl's books.


They're really simple, but I like them.

New Week = New Year

It is incredible that New Years is just a few days away. Tim is just finishing up five days off work. It has been a very relaxing five days for him, which he deserved. I will refocus my efforts to find a job beginning next week, too. I can't say I'm excited about that, but I've enjoyed my six months at home.

Caitlin shared this picture with me today. She spent last night and all day today with friends. I'm so happy when she does that, because she always comes back with great pictures to scrap. Her friend has quite the knack for creative photo editing. Actually, I really want to learn how to do some of these effects, myself.

I think that is so cool and can only imagine what I can do if I learn this. She said she'll teach me, but we'll see.

I hope you like the new look of the blog. I think it's a little easier on the eye and it's a little bit wider format. I'll play around with it some more to see if I can make it more interesting and interactive. I still have so much to learn.

Tomorrow is cleaning day so we'll be at home. Tuesday I think I am going to take Miss J scrapping. I really want to see Bedtime Stories, the new Adam Sandler / Disney movie, so I think we'll do that on Friday.

I guess that's about it for now. It's been quiet, so not much to tell. Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Past

Well, another Christmas has now come and gone. It was a good one. The girls were thrilled with their presents and we had a wonderful time with friends. I have a few pictures ready from the last couple of days that I'll post tonight. Not much to tell but that we are all happy and exhausted.

We celebrated the fourth night of Chanukah with Lori and Sam. We all had such a fun and relaxing evening together. A little pizza, lots of sweet treats, a few gifts and the evening, I think, was a success. I love the picture, below, of the lit menorah in front of our tree. I'm so happy that our friends celebrate the season with us!


Johanna got a new "Fur Real" friend this year. She has named her new [toy] puppy Otis, after my brother's blonde lab. It really is a cute toy! I responds to commands to lay down, give you his paw, and shake. Very cool.


Even the cat wanted to get in on the fun! :-)


We hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season!!