Slept our day away....

well almost. Stopped off at Menards on the way home this morning after work to look at their patio furniture. We wanted a small table and a couple of chairs. I knew I didn't want a table with a glass (or plastic) top like the last one because it's too hard to keep clean and looks dirty all the time. Plus we didn't want chairs with cushions. You either can't sit on them when they get wet or you have to take them off every time you are done sitting outside. Then comes the question of where to put them. That means purchasing a storage unit for the cushions. So this is what we ended up getting. We even went with a smaller table than we had originally planned. We actually didn't think they would have one this small, but I love it. It's big enough for what we need. David assembled the chair (notice that is singular) but there wasn't bolts for the 2nd chair. I called Menards immediately and they said they would have the bolts waiting for me tomorrow when I go back into town. These chairs are extremely comfortable and am looking forward to using them.

These were the wonderful beverages we had with our anniversary meal. He had the beer and I had the Strawberry Margaretta. Our meal consisted of the same thing we had for my birthday (we were both thinking of trying something different, but the last time it was so good we couldn't NOT get it). He did have the french onion soup instead of a salad but said the salad was better. Now we're back home and I'm ready for bed already. Tomorrow is my birthday/anniversary.....it will be 18 years for David and myself and I'll be 56! Where did those 56 years go? Any one have a clue?

Not a lot going on....

unless you count that I spent most of the time at work last night trying to pass a kidney stone! It must have been fairly small, as David did not have to take me to the emergency room and have them pump me full of morphine! That was definitely a plus. I was in the bathroom about 20-30 times, though (and that is NOT an exaggeration). I'm not sure if it's passed or just stopped moving. I guess the next couple of days will tell. Feeling okay now, but that could be because it isn't traveling at the moment.

Anyway, that's my excitement for now. We are thinking of going back to Lexington on Saturday evening for our anniversary dinner. We really enjoyed the Fireside Inn a lot.

David is out mowing and I'm heading off to bed. Didn't get much sleep yesterday and I'm pretty sure it was because I wasn't feeling well. But tomorrow is another day and it has to be better.....right???

And I always like to post some kind of picture, so here's the plant I have hanging outside my kitchen window

Today is the 25th again....

Today picture taking will be totally different from last month. We are to take pictures of an inanimate object from different angles, in different lights and arranged with other objects. Plus we will still take the consistent shots:
+ clock when I wake (done)
+ each meal
+ view from front window
+ self-portrait
+ clock when I go to sleep

Well, off I go to get my first meal and shot! (it's 5:32am)

This is how we spent our Saturday

and we loved every minute of it!

David washed his new baby...

I planted my flowers (well some of them anyway)...

and Susie watched from the front door!
After David washed the Torrent, he decided to drive to E.Peoria and show his parents. They didn't even know we had gotten it yet and his dad (especially) is a big car lover. Was a beautiful day for a drive for him.
I stayed home and planted more flowers. I did some on the deck and am going shopping for more tomorrow. A great day outside, felt more like a Sunday.
The kids are off camping at Clinton Lake....had a very rainy Friday, but yesterday should have been great. Kendra called me at one point on Friday to have me check the weather radar to see if it was going to clear up (plus she was bored). Glad they are going to have some good weather, as it's supposed to be in the low 80's tomorrow.

Oh, YEAH....

a 3 day weekend! Gotta love that! We ran back into Jackson's this morning (during all that rain) and bought some flowers for the front of the house. Still need to get some hostas and some more planters, but this will do for now. Hopefully I can get stuff in tomorrow. Also bought a gorgeous basket to hang outside the kitchen window, but need to get a picture of that yet.

Went here for my birthday dinner:
It's the first time we have been here (it's in Lexington) but it won't be the last. David got the prime rib "special" for only $17 and it was more than worth the money. He also had the twice-backed potato, carrots, salad and homemade bread with iced tea. I had the strip steak for $18, backed potato, carrots, creamy chicken vegetable soup and homemade bread with a strawberry daiquiri. We got the "sampler platter" appetizer with cheese sticks, onion rings, fried mushrooms, potato skins and jalapeno poppers. Our total bill was $53 (so without the appetizer and fancy drink we would have only spent $40, which was a great bargain for such wonderful food). And you don't have to deal with any stop lights or traffic to get there from our house. A definite hit on our list of restaurants. Great day off for me!

More pics

of our new baby.....

We are really enjoying it. We've already gotten our first diagnostic report from OnStar. It checks -engine & transmission -emissions system -air bags -antilock braking -the OnStar system -remaining oil life is 95% -mileage is 99miles -tire pressure on each tire is 33 ............so how very cool is that?

Bought these pork steaks at Schnucks yesterday. There were six of them and we broke them down into 3 packages because they were so big. Took the pic of David thru the screen.


We both laughed at this that we received in the mail today. Guess I did marry a child after all! But now I can go send him to some fun things during the summer!

New family member....

well kinda!
It's a 2008 Pontiac Torrent. We are now a 1 car family......we want to give it a try and see how it works for us. Working the same hours and having the same days off, we are thinking this might work. We'll see.....

We went grocery shopping this morning and ended up with $30.70 in coupons! That made me happy. The back end of the Torrent is smaller than the Rendezvous was, but the groceries still fit. The nice thing is the backseat is larger, and I'd rather have the extra room there anyway. It is equipped with OnStar (for when you lock keys in your car....you can call them and they can remotely open the doors because is has GPS tracking). Plus there is a car phone installed that is hands-free. Got a lot of features that we have to figure out yet. Rides nice......

Plus we have a 3-day weekend coming up! I had forgotten all about the holiday and David and I both got it off. We are going to buy flowers Friday and hopefully I can get them all planted this weekend.
Friday evening we are going out to eat for my birthday, maybe in Lexington at the Fireside Inn. Then Sunday it's the 4th Indiana Jones movie at the new theatre. A full weekend of fun!!!!!

What a beautiful sky today.....

I'm in Normal heading to Menards to meet up with the kids and see this gorgeous sky and of course had to take a picture. How wonderful is this?!!

Then I see the kids picking out flooring for their living room and front porch:
I gave them Autumn's birthday presents from David and I. I went to Gordman's and bought a couple of WebKins (a rhino and the beagle), plus a purse to carry some of them in, a pair of purple sunglasses for her with sparkles on them. Then it was off to Target to buy her clothes. Got 3 tank tops in purple stripes, pink stripes and turquoise stripes, shorts to match each, then 3 t-shirts in those colors plus a pair of dark blue and black shorts also. They will be camping during her birthday on Tuesday, so wanted her to have her gifts.....after all a 5 year old needs presents!
Came home and David cooked brats outside, plus we spent time watching our 3 bunnies in the back yard playing tag. They are just too cute.

Mid-week

and not a lot is going on. Got a lovely e-message from the granddaughter yesterday telling me she loves me. Ahhhhh, isn't that sweet. She's the best!

It was a good mail day today:

My May/June 2008 issue of Organize magazine. Am not sure if I'm going to keep up the subscription.....needs to get a little better for me to keep going. Also got my June2008 issue of CK, which I'm paid up until March of 2009 and will definitely be renewing that. I really like this magazine, but am not very happy with the new format they introduced this year. The pages are not as sturdy and the format just isn't appealing. But I love the content.
Then there was the arrival of my 2" square punch....finally. I had been putting off getting this, even though I wanted to use it for my Library of Memories class (and beyond) but when I went and ordered it, they were out of stock. But it came in within a few days and it has arrived. Now I have no excuse to do my cold storage photos. Need to get busy on that.

We left work early again today....5am this time. Stopped by Schnucks, picked up some grub and now it's still only 6:19am and I wouldn't normally be off work yet. Gotta love that.

Well, the gossip at work is Andy and Janice are moving in together. He's leaving his wife of a whole 10 months and was only faithful to her for 2 months of his marriage (if that). What a heel.....now how am I supposed to look the two of them in the face? What is wrong with people? Why did he go ahead and marry Ildi in the first place? Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!


Okay, I blew right through this 2nd in the "twilight" series. Great book and now:

I'm about 1/2 way through the 3rd book. "Breaking Dawn", the 4th book in the series, is supposed to be out in August this year and wrap things up. Glad I didn't start reading these sooner so I wouldn't have to wait sooooo long for the last book. Great books and love the vampire theme. Always been a draw for me.

Happy Mother's Day

This was waiting for me at the PO when we stopped Saturday morning. From LeRoy? Hum, wonder what and who it is from? NOT! Must be something to do with Mother's Day from my girls. Called them after I opened it in the car to thank them. Kendra said when she was here for the garage sale, she looked around my scrapbook room and saw I had black picture frames and thought this would be perfect. And since my room is black and pink, I took the most perfect "pink" picture of Autumn and got Kendra's "pink" pictures of Trina's prom.....so guess what's going in the frame. The candle is Vanilla Honey and smells great.


Just got off the phone with them and the Bradfords are painting the living room ceiling today. Yesterday they spent the day painting the room a light grey. Can't wait to see the end results.

We went to Mary & Dave's yesterday for Mother's Day. Stopped by Jackson's and bought Mary some flowers for outside, a shepard's hook to hang them on and some tomatoes to go with lunch.

We also took Kentucky Fried Chicken, some potato salad David had made (was great) and I made pound cake and took strawberries and Redi-Whip. Strawberry shortcake is Mary's favorite. Everything was a big hit and we had a wonderful day.

And you know me and animals of any kind.......
From one extreme to another:s1600-h/05-10-2008+My+Babies+2.JPG">

David and I went to see Iron Man today at the Wehrenberg Theatre and this was his first time. He LOVED it just as much as I had. We will definitely be going there again. Hopefully for the new Indiana Jones movie on the 25th of this month.

Wonderful day

We took off work 45 minutes early because we were done on our machine. Stopped by Schnucks and got the rest of the fixin's for Saturday's food that we're taking to Mary & Dave's. Got the pound cake in the oven right now with the strawberries in the frig (along with some Redi-Whip). I bought blackberries for us here at home to have on the cake Sunday.
The above is what we saw on the way from the cemetery (took flowers for mom for Mother's Day).


Then on the way to the PO here in Hudson, we came across this in our "big downtown" area......an ice cream shoppe. We had just been saying this is just we needed in town. We will definitely have to patronize this place to keep it in business!




Then David went out and cut these for me. They really belong to our next door neighbors, Margaret & Charlie, but she said I could have some if I wanted. They are hid behind their huge shed in their back yard and they can't even see them from their house. They hang over into our yard.....LUCKY ME!


I called Forget-Me-Not Flowers (where we keep an account) and ordered Aunt Georgia flowers to be delivered for Mother's Day. Got pink roses mixed in with other spring flowers. She will love them. Also called in Susie's meds and will pick them up tomorrow morning. Good day all around!.......OH

AND TIFFANY is GONE for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another Thursday

at my house. It's garbage day and David got rid of some of the junk from the garage sale. He only puts a little bit out at a time so they aren't overwhelmed. I did laundry and am getting ready now in the PM to iron a few shirts.

Today was Library of Memories class, which was supposed to be a break week (I was hoping to get caught up from the last couple of weeks). But now Stacy has reworked the class syllabus and we have a project to do. I need to get on the ball and get things caught up. I don't have all my memorabilia sorted from 2 weeks ago; from last week, I don't have


According to our class syllabus it is a break week. This is not exactly true (sorry!) I have tweaked the syllabus, with the intention of spreading a few assignments out and hopefully creating more time for you, to focus on key ideas and processes. You do get a bit of a break, but I am going to encourage you to spend some time working on digital triage. I am also going to share a perfectly optional, and very FUN project that will capture the spirit of a library approach in four mini books.


I'm thrilled that we have several digital scrapbookers joining us in our 2008 session. These girls have their own section on our message board and discuss things that I, for the most part, cannot add anything intelligent to! The other day I noticed a post by Terri …

I love the flexibility of digital tags especially being able to tag one photo with multiple tags; something that you can't do with one print … I do use my physical drawers for older prints, leftovers that I printed and didn't use on a page (I'm a hybrid scrapper), and pics that other people give me (Christmas card photos, school pics, etc.)

I've given a lot of thought to the issue of virtual category drawers getting too big. I didn't really want to take the tags off after I used them. So initially Stacy suggested adding a "Scrapbooked" tag when I scrapped a pic. But after a while I didn't really feel compelled to keep track of that any more. I mean, just because I've scrapped a photo doesn't mean I won't want to use it again. Now I just leave the category tags on there and I don't use the extra tag. I can envision a time when some categories get to big and then I'll scrap and/or purge; but I think that will be a while. I think the other beauty of virtual categories is that we can handle a larger volume of pics than would be practical in physical drawers. The ability to search and narrow by multiple keywords allows that to work effectively.

Regardless of how you scrapbook, the vast majority of us are now shooting with digital cameras and therefore working with digital files. I agree with Terri that while digital triaging can be challenging and requires some trial and error, it has some advantages over our category drawers. I know that the more closely your digital organization mimics your physical organization, especially with regards to main categories and sub-categories in your US category drawers, the easier it will be find what you need, when you need it (more information in the handout.)

Please note that there is not a voice message this week. Our classroom will be refreshed with all new information on Thursday, May 22nd, when we begin our last month together and shift our focus to scrapbooking!

Enjoy!


p.s. Please continue to post assignments to our gallery and do check back next Thursday, as I have a surprise to share! :)

So, now it looks like I've got another assignment to do. Better get on the stick, because on Saturday we are planning on going to Dave & Mary's for Mother's Day celebration. We are taking flowers and Kentucky Fried Chicken. David has already made potato salad and I'm getting the stuff to make pound cake and take fresh strawberries (which is Mary's favorite dessert). Then Sunday David and I are going to see "Iron Man" at the new movie theatre. He hasn't been yet and is looking forward to going. What I like best, besides the stadium seating and rocking chairs, is that I don't have to take cash but can use my debit card!

The "Big Shot"....

It's here!!!! Yipee!!!

I'm soooo excited. I tried it out last night with my QuicKutz dies, BossKuts, Sizzlets, Big Dies and embossing folder. Works so easy and cuts soooo well. I was having trouble cutting my BossKuts with either the QuicKutz tool and the old Sizzix die machine. This was like butter. Looking forward to many new ideas. Now I need to get some more Big Dies and the long strip ones.

Work 2 hours of overtime today that we voulenteered for. Figured it would help pay for the about item and David wants the money for his trip to Chicago. Easy money!

It's "sleep all day Tuesday"....

at my house.Since we are off Saturday and Sunday nights, we don't get much sleep before going to work on Monday nights.....thus the "sleep all day Tuesday" phrase. Always look forward to that and make sure I don't make any kind of plans for that day. David is already asleep on the couch in the family room and I'm getting ready to head upstairs now.....it's 8:57am. I should be able to get 9-10 hours in!!!!!

Just wanted to post a pretty something to look at. These are in my side yard.

Did it yesterday....

I sat down and started working on this on Saturday, but ended up with Justin in my room talking. When I explained what I was doing with this album, he said "well, that's pretty dumb"....out of the mouths of babes. Anyway, here's the top page and bottom page. I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of time on the background, because they are hardly visible. I can't wait til I get several months in here and look to see the differences. The only thing is I don't have the 3 little pictures (2"X2") that I'm planning on putting on the bottom page as they haven't arrived yet from SanpFish. I'm also thinking of putting ribbon tabs on the flip-up pictures on the top page. Maybe later today.....

I'm thinking of doing this next year....take 12 photos of specific things (like the front yard, myself and such) and then put each picture on a different page. Then at the end of a year I would have 12 photos of the same thing on the same page and you can really look at the differences. It's just something I'm pondering right now.

Today is bill paying, laundry and ironing. Not much else. David is off to see Dr. Vales for his regular appointment to check blood pressure and such, drop 2 big boxes of garage sale clothes off at the mission and stop by the PO to tell Billy that he has an old generator for his son-in-law.

Garage sale was great....

David ended up making $441.50, Allen made $203, Jared made $46, Justin made $52 and Mary made $25...for a grand total of $767.50. Not a bad haul for 1 day. Then David has his $150 in overtime so he will have $591.00 to take to Chicago with Al to the big sports show this summer.



The boys and I had a good time. Kendra, Bill, Autumn & Trina came out and we shopped awhile. Kendra brought her Ozark scrapbook she just finished so I could see it. Wonderful job! Was kinda cold and windy, but we went around the entire block (which is about the size of 3 blocks). David's dad came over just to get out of the house. Mikey from work stopped by with his son Curt. Mrs. Freeman was there once while I was gone and then came back later to see me. I had a card and money for her to purchase tulip bulbs for David. He just passed away last month and this was their request instead of flowers at the funeral. Jackie (Kendra's best friend growing up) stopped by with her two children. She looked great and I was thrilled to see her.

It was also Trina's prom. When they left here, they were on the way to the mall to get her hair done. She was excited and nervous, as this was her first prom. But being a freshman, she will now have experience that her friends won't. Kendra called right after they took before pictures to tell me they were posted on her blog. I stole some and here they are:




She and Chris look wonderful together. Like the white tux with pink accessories, they match so perfectly. And these are her first flowers, so how special is this. Makes a grandma want to cry! Kendra called this morning to talk. The "prom girl" was still asleep but KC did find out she had a good time. She sure is growing up on us!

My new acquisition.....yesterday was Lisa Bearnson's day on QVC and this is what I purchased. I have been wanting this black and pink Big Shot since it came out but have put off getting it. I'm glad I waited. It comes with a frame die, flower die, flower and stem die and a floral embossing folder. Plus I can use it with my QuicKutz and not have to use the handle anymore (which isn't very convenient. Can't wait to get it.

Well, the garage is in full swing,,,,supposed to start at 8am, but the guys have been open since 7:15 and it's going good. Glad it's their deal and not mine, though. I did stop at Krispy Kreme and bring home 2 dozen donuts for everyone. Bill, Kendra, Trina and Autumn are on their way out and we are going shopping. But today is also the BIG 1ST PROM DAY for Trina. I'm sure she is excited and I can't wait to see them all.

Hoping to get online later and do some scrapbooking....there are a few free classes online. We'll see.

Got it done....

well, almost. I'm talking about my "25th of the Month" album. I took it to work the last 3 days and worked on getting the layouts done during my first breaks and lunches. I still have to decorate the front,,,,,,,but I decided to go with the papers that were provided in the kit with the calendar and use the front as is. I want to put chipboard words on the front and froo froo it up a little. The pictures below are the plain front, inside cover (where I will explain the album and concept) and the 2-page layout for April.



On each month page there are pre-written journaling lines with either parenthesis or quote marks around them. Many of the ladies covered these with paper, but I chose to leave them and will do my journaling there.

Today is "Kit of the Month" on Lisa's Bearnson's site. It will be uploaded at 10am, my time. Can't wait to see what it is. I don't always order it, but like looking. We will see. Well, I'm off to watch a little TV "Wire in the Blood" on BBC that I DVR'd and then I will be back to check on the "Kit".

Oh, and we got off an hour early today.....HOORAY!