Busy weekend...

Emily and I are in Tampa for her very first dance competition. She danced this afternoon and that dance took 2nd and qualified for the Nat'ls competition in July. The girls did a fantastic job on stage and they all looked like they were having a great time. Since this was Em's first experience, we only put her in one number this year so we really weren't there for long.

The morning started off very challenging. Em was in a mood and man oh man...I was almost ready to leave and go home. LOL! I think she was nervous but man, she wasn't very nice to me AT ALL. Then, a friend of mine was helping with me with her bun and scraped her head with a bobby pin. The tears started almost immediately...I was worried we'd have to do her makeup again. But, I got her calmed down quickly and no damage was done. We took a walk outside and got a few pictures. This seemed to cheer her up and get her back on track. There was a cool fountain outside and this is one of the shots that I took by it...

Alex and Josh drove over to watch her dance. We had lunch together and they headed back home to Orlando. Em and I drove to St. Pete and to visit WHIMSODOODLE. They always have the coolest stuff at the expos but I'd never seen their shop. It was definitely worth the 30 minute ride. What a fun scrapbook store!!! LOVED IT! I may try to visit two other stores tomorrow. One is very close by, the other is a little drive. A scrappy buddy might come over to visit me while I'm in town. She's willing to take me to the one that's on the other side of town. I'm just not sure if I'll have time to get there and back while Em's doing workshops. The one that's close is only like 4 miles away...I can run there and back in no time. LOL

On the way back, we stopped by Walgreens for snacks, drinks and Advil for my headache. Em and I have gotten along beautifully all afternoon. We've just hung out at the hotel...doing NOTHING. We've watched Enchanted and played Webkinz...we even ordered room service for dinner.

Now, we're off to bed. Workshops start bright and early tomorrow morning and the wakeup call is coming in at 6am.

Before I close...here are a couple of the other photos that I took today... This one was taken just after we had some of her makeup on and the eyelashes. I love her hair down around her face like this...but I cannot get over how much older she looks in this shot!
This is just a quick shot taken in the dressing room. I wanted to get a great shot of her in a mirror with the lights around her face. It was so wicked crowded in the dressing room though...there just wasn't any way to get that done. Oh well...maybe next time.

Goodnight my friends...I'm off to tuck my little one in and get some sleep. It'll be another long day tomorrow!

Photo a day...a couple days to post

I've taken my pics each day but haven't had the chance to get here and post them. So, with Wednesday being my day off, I thought I'd do this first thing this morning. I've got a list of things that I need to do today, but this will be the first thing that I can mark from my list. Today's photo has a lot of meaning so I'll start with it and then go back to the last couple of days...they're not as exciting as today's photo, IMO. LOL

Today's photo of the day. Emily woke me this morning with a "I made you coffee this morning, Mommy". And within a few minutes, she was standing at my bedroom door with this towel and coffee cup in hand. She had pulled the stool out of the pantry, grabbed one of my favorite cups, added the splenda and milk and voila. I have to say, she did a great job too! A little heavy on the milk, but it didn't make it "undrinkable". Alex makes a fresh pot of coffee each morning and sometimes greets me with my cup waiting for me when I wake up. I have to say, this cup of coffee topped it all. What a sweetheart my little girl can be sometimes. I love days like this! I wish I'd have thought to take this shot this morning while Emily was holding this in her hands...but I was struggling to wake up today and the camera wasn't right next to me anyway. So, I've staged this one...it still has a lot of meaning. KWIM?
Feb 4th, my mess!!! I joined a card swap at Willow Traders. I haven't participated in a swap like this in some time, so I figured, why not? So, Monday night, I gathered my stuff together and moved to the family room so that I could spend some time with Alex AND work on my cards. I took my photo of my mess. Or at least, part of my mess. This was taken after I'd cleaned up a bit. I did leave it all on the table though and finished last night. Alex doesn't like the mess to be left overnight...but didn't say anything about it this time. I finished the cards last night and the mess will be picked up today. So the photo of the day for the 5th is a shot of my finished cards. I used some old patterned paper from my stash and a stamp from AUD DESIGNS I love the colors and designs of this My Mind's Eye paper. I know I've had it for well over a year...if not two years. I will probably add a bit of stickles in the center of the flower on the stamp though. I feel like the cards still need something. The theme of the card swap is "GIRLFRIENDS" so this stamp worked perfectly. Oh, and I used the template from this month's SHEETLOAD E-Zine. This has become one of my monthly favorites. Check it out! I'll get these packaged and in today's mail. One more thing off the to-do list! YAY!!!

Now I'm all caught up on the photos and the laundry is ready to be folded and a new load started. Laundry...sheesh...the story of my life! Maybe THAT should be tomorrow's photo, eh?

Can it be???

Emily planted a tiny little garden of her own last summer. Its just a patch of space in a corner of our backyard. She planted a bunch of seeds, watered it a few times and that's about it. Right now, it looks like a patch of weeds, and not much else.

Well, except for this...
Today, Emily noticed that a nice sized stalk with these tiny yellow buds, was growing in her garden. She insists that they are the sunflowers about to open. (because she remembers THAT'S where she planted the Sunflower seeds) Me, knowing absolutely NOTHING about flowers and gardening, can only hope that she's right. How cool would this be? She'd be so excited to have her own sunflowers. And if they ARE sunflowers about to open then maybe it'll encourage her to get out there and pull some of the weeds that she's nurturing. LOL I'll have to remember to check on these in a few days to see the progress...and maybe I'll take another picture of them too.

Oh, and I need to add too...I mentioned the Photo a Day thing to Em on Friday and she asked if her "sunflowers" could be my Photo of the Day today. She's right on with helping me get this going. She's such a cool kid!

Can you say DORK????

This is Koda...our dork of a dog. She does silly things...like toss her food kibbles in the air and pounce on them...recently she ran into the sliding glass door, even though we had left it OPEN for her to come in and out. She just isn't the smartest dog in the world...but she is a sweetie. And I love her.

Since we put Sunny down back in December, Koda has learned to be the focus of attention. I think she's enjoying not having to share the attention with Sunny. Even though she was always figuring out a way to get most of the attention anyhow. She's not very photogenic...not like Sunny. Sunny would almost smile for the camera. I have to fight with Koda to get her to sit down long enough for me to snap the pic...and she won't look at the camera for anything. Oh well, we'll keep her.

Alex and I are headed to our favorite little Irish Pub tonight for PUB TRIVIA. The first Saturday of each month we head over to meet some of the other Crew parents for a fun night of trivia and beverages...and sometimes some good irish food too. (tonight's one of those nights)

Maybe I'll take my camera and get a shot or two there. Of course, Alex will probably tell me to leave the camera at home. Darn it.

Layout a Day and now a Photo a Day

Well, January 2008 has come and gone already. And I'm pleased as punch to say that I participated AND finished the "Get a L.O.A.D of This" class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The goal was to do a layout a day (L.O.A.D) and post it in the class gallery. There were prizes given out daily, but I didn't win any of them. I'm still waiting now to hear if I won either one of the big end of the month prizes. I doubt I'll win, but it sure was nice to start scrapping at home again!

Since I did so well in the layout a day thing, I'm now going to challenge myself in a "PHOTO A DAY". Each day, I'm going to take a photo of "whatever" and post it here with a little note about it. This will give just a little glimpse into my every day life. Nothing exciting...but it'll be fun to journal a bit more and to see what fun and excitement might happen each day. HA!

Today's photo is of Emily. She woke me at 4:30 this morning crying and complaining that her throat hurts really bad. I gave her drink and a throat lozenge and sat up with her for a little while to make sure she didn't swallow the lozenge in her sleep. When it was time to get up for the day, she had a low grade fever, glassy eyes and you could just tell that she wasn't feeling well. Poor baby girl. She's been either on the couch or in my bed all day. She just feels awful! She was supposed to have dance rehearsal this evening and we were camping tonight with the crew team. Looks like those aren't happening. Instead, we're here together...pumping her with gatorade and motrin...hoping she's feeling better by Monday and certainly better by next weekend's dance competitions.

I'm off now to work on cleaning up the scrapbook room. After a month of scrapping, things are in a bit of chaos in here right now. I might even scrap again later...if I get it all cleaned up and I can get Emily in bed at a decent hour.

Wish me luck!

Well Darn It...

Nothing like a tag to remind me that I'm a loser when it comes to blogging...to get me over here and post again, my wonderful friend Chris tagged me and I've promised her to do this...so here goes. (and yes Chris, I do love ya, girl! Tagging me or not, LOL)

Let's see...7 random things about me:

**I adore Chris Daughtry...I think he's perfect. Of course, this is my fantasy...that this man is perfect. I'm not really sure there is such a thing. But, for now, Chris Daughtry is the perfect man, in my eyes!

**I was married before I had even graduated from High School. I actually had to go for an extra semester to get the credits needed to graduate. I started that last semester in September and got married in November. Looking back now, I wish I'd waited. But, then again, I learned a lot from that failed marriage and chances are, had I "NOT" married then, I wouldn't have my two awesome boys, Brooks and Kyle.

**My favorite girl scout cookies are Peanut Butter Patties. I can eat an entire box of these in one sitting. I'll put a box of them on the kitchen counter and grab one every time I walk by. Then, before ya know it, they're ALL gone. And now that Emily's selling girl scout cookies, I'm looking forward to those PB patties. LOL

**Ever since I discovered ribbon in my scrapbooking, I can't seem to get enough of them. I have to really force myself NOT to buy them when I see really fun patterns and designs. I have so many ribbons now that I really don't have anywhere to store them all. And I hate the thought of getting rid of any of them because you never know when I might actually NEED that particular piece of ribbon.

**I can't stand to wash whites. I don't mind doing any other laundry but the whites are always the LAST load to do and sometimes waiting to do them means that they don't get done on laundry day and Alex runs outta underwear or t-shirts or even both. Folding all the underwear and sorting the socks...BLECK!!

**I don't mind cooking but don't cook as often as I should. With everyone being so busy, the last thing I want to do is cook. But, I get bored with eating out too. If I could afford it, I'd pay to have someone cook for us. Ahhhhh...to have a good meal waiting for me every evening. What a life that would be! LOL

**I don't like the water all that much. I'll hang out in the pool with the kids in the summer but I don't like the ocean. I'm afraid of the waves and also of deep water. I can swim but get extremely nervous if Emily tries to hang on me in the deep end. And I will NOT swim in the lake and have no desire to water ski or any other water sport like that.

So there...my 7 random things about me.

I think I'll tag my friends Heather and Jessica now. And they'll be happy to see that I've updated my blog again too. LOL

Here are the rules of the game:

· Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

· Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.

· Tag random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

· Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Where DOES the time go??? Really?????

OK...OK...where have I been??? HOLY SMOKES, I didn't realize it'd been nearly THREE freakin months since I posted to my blog. Thanks to my friends Jess and Heather for pointing this little tidbit out to me. Goodness...time flies. I get so tired of hearing myself say that. Maybe I should take a breather and regroup?

Lets see...where to begin?

I'm still at Piktails. And enjoying it for the most part. I'm hardly scrapping anything anymore, but have done a few page samples for the store and have put together a class sample or two also. I'm not one to "create on demand" so coming up with class ideas is a stretch for me. Most of my things are on a whim...if it looks good, I'll do a class. I don't mind the teaching part of things...it's the coming up with the ideas that I suck at. I really miss scrapping for myself but my room has become the catch all for the rest of the house and most of my regularly used scrappy things are at the store. I really should bring them home and get busy doing something for "ME" each day. Sounds like a great idea anyway.
When I'm not working, I'm usually at the dance studio in the evenings. Emily decided to give THREE classes a shot and Dance Co. this year. She's in one company number and an alternate for another. I hope that she gets picked up for the second company number. It's really a cute dance and I really hate to put in all this time, money and effort for her to have to sit and watch the others perform the dance. Only time will tell, I suppose. So, she's in a tap, ballet/jazz combo and a musical theatre class...and both numbers for company are Musical Theatre. These pictures here are from a performance that they did last weekend at a dinner for the Foundation for Fighting Blindness. It was great to see the girls perform this and do so well at it too. It only took them about 4 weeks to learn it and it came together beautifully! And they all looked so cute in their grass skirts costumes too. This picture here scares the daylights out of me. Where is my baby girl???

Of course, when I'm not at the dance studio, most of the rest of that time is spent doing Crew stuff. I'm doing the registration stuff for the second year in a row and am also heading up the Ad Book for our regatta in the Spring. If you'd like to buy an ad for our book, give me a shout. It could just be a little "shout out" to Josh or to the team...or a business ad too. All proceeds help support Boone Crew. Sorry for the shameless plug...but every bit helps. LOL .
These next few pictures were taken during our weekend in Chattanooga at the Head of the Hooch Regatta. After a loooooooooong Mears bus ride up, the team did their magic by rowing on the TN River. Josh's 4 took 8th and his 8 took 19th. Not bad at all, if you ask me. They'd love to medal of course...next year is another poke at it. How awesome would that be...to medal at the Hooch in Josh's Sr. year!!
It's so hard to believe that this is Josh's THIRD year on the Crew Team. I remember when he came home just a few weeks into his Freshman year and said that he wanted to give this a shot I swear this boy EATS SLEEPS and DREAMS rowing. He's pretty good at it too, from what I gather. (proud mommy moment, of course).

Today was our last regatta of the Fall season. We take somewhat of a break, practicing on a modified schedule now till after the Holidays. We all worked hard to pull the first annual Head of the Giblet Regatta together. It was a success and to celebrate, a few of us are headed to the Claddagh Cottage for a celebratory pint.

Until next time...

First day of school!!!!

Today was the first day of school for my kiddos. Stupid me...left the ONLY memory card that I own in the card reader at work on Saturday. I work tomorrow and will have to take my pictures on Wednesday morning and "pretend it was the first day" as Josh says. LOL

Speaking of work...check out the blog that I created for the shop. www.piktails.blogspot.com

Off to bed though...got my new Papercrafts in the mail today. Going to check it out while I doze. Gotta start getting up earlier so that means I need to get to bed earlier too.

night!!

Hello hello...

Checking in from work actually. Its Saturday and usually our busiest day but so far, I'm the only one here this morning. It's very quiet...I think I need to at least turn on the radio. So far, I've updated our e-mail list, sent the latest e-mail to the new addies and now I'm updating here. Fun, eh? I could scrap today...I've got my stuff here and a few pictures too. So many fun things to scrap with her too. Maybe in a bit.

Things are going well for us. School starts back up in just 9 more days. Summer vacation is coming to an end. I think Josh and Emily are both ready to kick back into their school day routines. The fun of getting up every morning and seeing friends, crew practice, dance classes...always something to do. We're in the part of the summer where everyone tends to get bored and school starting up will be welcomed. Emily's "meet the teacher" is on Monday and she can't wait. Josh will be picking up his schedule sometime this week too. Let the fun begin!

Last weekend was my friend Wendy's 40th birthday. We spent the night at the Embassy Suites downtown for the party. Her son put together 40 different hints and we all had to set out for a digital scavenger hunt to find the places based on the clues. OMG...what fun that was! My friend Candy and I hopped in a Pedi-cab and had the driver take us all over the city looking for our answers. Add a little alcohol on all parts (except for the driver) and the night was a HOOT! Both teams claimed to have won but I'm really not sure which team had the most right answers. We were having so much fun that we didn't even bother to check them out! I'll have to post a few pictures soon. Would do it here but don't have my camera with me.

The day after the party, Wendy took her closest friends, in a limo, to a local spa. Oh my goodness!!! I must admit that I've never spent time at a spa before. Nothing against them, I just have a tough time making time like that for myself. Which really isn't a good thing, but its something that I just don't do. (like waiting till I can't stand it anymore and THEN getting my haircut, usually out of desperation) Anyway, at the spa, I had a mini pedicure, an hour long facial and an hour long swedish massage. I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven! That's something that every woman should do for herself at least every few months! I'm hooked now! (and am seriously thinking of making an appt. for my mom and I to go sometime soon :))

Well, I'm off for a bit once again. I think I'm going to get my stuff out and work on a scrapbook layout or two. I have some pictures and paper pulled already. Maybe I'll see what I can do with them.

Later!!!

Guitar Hero...

We picked up Guitar Hero II this weekend, along with a guitar. OMG...what a fun game. I really suck at it, but we're all having a blast with it. Today I picked up the 80's version...the latest one. Love it too, but I keep failing the songs cuz, like I said, I suck! LOL

Oh, and I think I forgot to mention...Kyle's here for a few days! YAY!! We're not doing much really...just hanging. Went to lunch today and were going to go bowling but had eaten too much and decided to just go school shopping instead. Got a few things for Emily and school supplies for both kids. Josh didn't find any clothes really. Maybe at AE??? We'll see...

Off to play one more song before I go to bed.

A quick little update...

Since I've been so lax in posting.

I'm still loving my new job. The store is coming together so nicely. The customers that we've met are all so great. I love chatting with so many people throughout the day. This is definitely my DREAM JOB!

I go in a little later today. We're having a crop there tonight. It's our second crop actually, since opening. And we have 14 people signed up to crop! Can you believe that???? I'm working the crop and actually hope to get a few pages done too.

I scrapped a two pager at work this week that I absolutely LOVE! I took my camera to work with me to take a picture of it but realized when I got there that I'd left my memory card at home in the card reader. Oops. But, the card is back in the camera and I plan to take it to work with me this afternoon too. Maybe I'll take a few pictures from the crop too.

I'm off now to get a few loads of laundry done and some stuff pulled to take to the crop. Sure was nice to sleep in this morning. I've been burning the candle at both ends this week and it had caught up to me by last night. Was good to get some extra sleep.

For now...I'm off. Thanks for reading.

Where I've been spending my time...

I took my camera to work with me today and took a few pictures of the store. To show everyone where I'm spending a lot of my time these days. You can't really tell by the photos, but it's a pretty good sized shop, IMO. Two thousand square feet of scrapping goodies!!! So bright and open...so fun to be there!
Looking at these pictures as I put them on here, I realize that there's a lot of white space on some of the walls. This isn't the case now though...we had a HUGE order of goodies come in from EK Success yesterday and it took us till today to get it all stocked in and put up on the shelves. The white space is being filled by the day.

I got to play with the ribbon spools today. Anyone that knows me well, knows how much I adore ribbon. So that task was just up my alley! I moved the ribbon shelves to the other side of the register and arranged it all neatly on those shelves. I gotta say, Deb's got some yummy ribbons there too. Even more ribbon came in yesterday and today that I might need to find another shelf to put it on. I'm telling ya...there's a BUNCH of ribbon! I wish I'd gotten a picture of that area. Maybe on Friday when I go back to work.

We have a table set up with a few of the classes that we'll be having in July too. We're working on putting together the calendar now to have it out for customers on Thursday. So many folks have asked about classes so we don't want to wait too long to get them going. Right now, I think we're focusing on the Bo-Bunny album kits. We've assembled a few of them already and will start taking sign ups pretty soon. Oh, and the ribbon is set up just behind this table now. Had I waited till later in the day to take these pictures...oh well. (This table also only has the upcoming class projects on it...everything else has been moved to other places throughout the store)

I also got to put up a bunch of "tools of the trade" too. We checked in the trimmers, punches, scissors and lots more. Man...its so fun to see it all coming together!

So, if you're in the area and get a chance to stop in...we'd love to see ya!

For now, I'm off to read more of She's Come Undone and then to dreamland.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

Sunday night...

Almost bedtime actually. Time for me to start getting to bed at a regular time again. Even though I don't go into work until 10am, there are some days recently when I didn't even get outta bed till after 10. Time for that to change. I'd like to start getting up at 7 each morning. To give me time to chill, read e-mail, hit my favorite scrapping sites and enjoy a peaceful cup of coffee...before heading to the shower to get ready to leave for work.

I worked again on Friday. Got a great two page spread done for the 4th of July. Debbie and I have talked about packaging it up as a page kit for the month of July. Fine by me, really. I also did 4 cards with the leftovers from the baby boy layout too. I love to do cards with the leftover scraps. And it sure helps to bring the cost of each page down too.

This weekend was a big movie weekend here. The kids and I went to see Ratatouille on Friday night. What a great movie!! We all loved it!

Then on Saturday night, Alex and I went to see Ocean's 13. Another great movie! And of course, looking at George Clooney for those couple of hours...who am I to complain?! YUMMMM!!!!

Alex and I also took a ride over to Piktails on Saturday. He wanted to see the store that I was working at and he actually said that it looks great. Debbie thanked him for sharing me with her and said that she loved having me there...and Alex told her that that was good because I really loved being there too. Hehehehe...I guess it shows that I'm really enjoying this, huh?

Today was spent doing laundry, having a late lunch/early dinner for my neice's birthday and working on that album kit by Bo-Bunny. Dinner wasn't too bad. I had a Grilled Grouper sandwich and fries while both of my sisters and my neice all sat at the bar eating steamed oysters. YUCK!

I let Josh drive there and back...this meant driving on the interstate for one of the first times ever. His girlfriend's dad had let him drive on the Expressway one time, but he's never driven like that with ME in the car before. The child really makes me nervous. I guess that's normal though...I think. He smarts off at me every single time I tell him something about how he's driving. Drives me INSANE! I think I need to sign him up for driver's ed through the Safety Council.

I got the Bo-Bunny book all but finished and was working on the cover when I realized that I was missing a sheet of the PP. At first, I thought I had cut wrong and didn't leave enough of the paper. But then realized that there were supposed to be two sheets, not just one. Whewww! Made me feel much better. I think we carry that paper at the store actually. I'll just grab it and get it finished first thing tomorrow. We want to get it out and on display so that we can start taking sign ups for it for the class.

I've learned the basics of the register already and tomorrow I will learn how to check new merchandise in. We've got a HUGE order coming in and we'll be spending most of the day getting that stocked in, I'm sure! But, I can't wait...there's just something about opening a box of scrappy goodies! We're also putting together our calendar for July and maybe August too. That'll give us a lot of things to look forward to...and the customers too!

Until next time...goodnight!

HI HO...HI HO...

It's off to work I go! And yes, I'm extremely excited about it too!

I've not worked outside of the home in almost 9 yrs and lately I've been feeling...well...I couldn't really pinpoint it, but a friend of mine posted something today that hit home for me. I'll share a bit of what she shared (name withheld)...

I feel like I am bobbing in a very small dingy set adrift in a vast ocean.

Somewhere out there is a tropical paradise of happiness – I just have to point my Good Ship Lollypop in the right direction. The only problem is that I don’t have a compass, and I can’t find the Northern Star.

and...

I am not the wife, mother, friend, daughter… the PERSON I want to be. I need to step back and re-evaluate what I am and what I want.

I wasn't really sure how I was feeling but when I read what my friend wrote about herself, a little lightbulb went off in my head and I suddenly had this feeling of "OH MY GOSH...I COULD HAVE WRITTEN THIS!!"

All of these feelings have led me to think about finding something to do with my time. I was originally going to wait till school starts back in August but something came open that I really couldn't turn down.

Someone that I worked at the auction with many moons ago, has decided to open a scrapbook store. I'd heard this rumor but hadn't heard anything more since the first part of the year. But on Thursday, Debbie contacted me, out of the blue, to see if I'd be interested in teaching SB classes at her new store. I told her that I wasn't sure about the teaching but that I was thinking about going back to work part time. After a couple more conversations and a few details worked out, I'm now a part time employee of PIKTAILS Scrapook store in Hunter's Creek.

Right now, the store is open but we're still in the very early set up stages. People are free to come in and shop the stuff that she has already stocked on the shelves but the calendar and class schedules will be out very soon...and TONS more merchandise is already on order and will be coming in regularly.

For right now, my job is to work on display pages and class kits. We're working on getting the place decorated with page samples and black and white photos throughout the store. It's a work in progress, but the progress is certainly coming together nicely.

Today, I worked on the a Bo Bunny album kit to sample for a class and also a two page sample layout to display on the wall. I certainly cannot complain about scrapping all day and getting paid to do it. Eh?

Oh, I got to chat with a few customers and I had a quick lesson on the cash register too. Hopefully our EK Success order will be in tomorrow!! Ahhhhh...the smell and feel of a fresh box of scrapping goodies!

I'll post the link to the store as soon as the website is up and running!

For now...I'm headed to bed. Didn't get much sleep last night. My mind was racing with ideas and I was like a kid trying to sleep the last night before going back to school.

Till next time...good night!

HE'S HOME!!!!!

Josh got home last night...just before midnight. We're so happy to have him home too! We stayed up till after 2am listening to his stories and looking at the pictures that he took on his trip. And I must say, he got some really fun shots too! I've taught him well!

We all slept in this morning. I didn't get up till 10:45. YIKES!

Josh unpacked his suitcase and gave everyone the goodies that he brought home for us. And of course, the sure sign that he's home...a picture of his room and what it normally looks like. HA...the child hasn't been home for a full day yet and his room is DESTROYED! LOL

My boy is HOME!!

So sad...

Well, it's official...our Sunny girl has Cancer. Our sweet canine companion...the girl that has been such a great big part of our family for the last 9 1/2 yrs. has an aggressive type of cancer that started with a lump by her anal gland. Its spread to her lymph nodes already and according to the vet, it's probably in other areas of her body too. Surgery to remove the lump will be painful and basically not an option because it's already spread. Chemo and radiation aren't recommended due to the severity of the Cancer. Basically, we'll put her on anti-inflammatory drugs, immune boosters and vitamins...and make the most of the time that she has with us.

Right now, she's not showing any signs of discomfort. When she does, we'll take the measures that need to be taken. Right now though, it's too tough to even think about life without her here.

Sunny has been the best dog EVER. A faithful, loving companion. The protector of the household. She was dealt a tough hand...having to have a blood transfusion to save her life as a puppy...having hip dysplacia and having bilateral hip surgery at 16 months old...and now this. Luckily, we've spoiled her rotten and we are positive that we've given her the best life possible, outside of the other issues she's had to deal with.

It's going to be so hard to see her go.

The picture here was taken today...she's lounging on Josh's bed. Snuggling his body pillow. What a good life she has.

In my inbox this morning

I woke up this morning to a bunch of pictures from the kids in New Zealand. Josh said that some of the kids are taking pics with their phones and then sending to a blog that they're using to share some stuff with the folks back home. These two made me happy because they're two of the few shared that have Josh in them.

I don't know anything about these pictures other than the fact that the first one was apparently taken at a Sound Studio of some sort. I assume Josh and the other person were posing as anchormen? Josh is wearing a curly wig and this get up just cracked me up. That's my boy...always being a goof.

Of course, the second picture is again, Josh being a goof. Some of the kids had their faces painted for a Rugby Match. I think he said that New Zealand was playing France and they painted their faces to support the NZ team. There were a few other pictures shared...one looking as if they were posing as KISS band members...tongues hanging out and all. LOL I really cannot wait for Josh to get home and give he his commentary on these pictures and the ones the "tons" of pictures that he promises that he's been taking too.

They're on their way to Australia today...and more fun to begin soon.

I've been scrapping more too. (the image here is clickable to see a larger pic of this layout) So far, I've finished 6 of the 11 challenges posted at Lifetime Moments. I didn't get anything done yesterday or today and with a new challenge posted each day, I could fall wayyyyyyyy behind really quickly. I have a new set of pictures sitting on the desk right now, just waiting to pick paper to go along with them. I'm planning on using one of the LM challenges with them, so wish me luck.

Emily and I have played together a lot today. We spent a lot of time in the pool actually. She loves to have me in there with her. I'm usually a big wimp unless the water temps reach close to 90*. Water temps are at about 84* and with 92* air temps, the water was actually quite comfy. We got out to get her drawers cleaned out in preperation for a garage sale we're having this weekend. By the time we were finished, it was storming. It was still fun to play like that for a while.

Now, to figure out what's for dinner. I'm thinking chicken salad sandwiches and fruit salad. Nice and light for this hot day.

Finally!!!

Josh called again today and I finally got to talk to him. It seemed that everyone else was talking to him but me and I was beginning to get a little upset. The last time he called, I was working concessions to help pay for Crew this next season. He sounds so happy and like he's having a GREAT time! He loves New Zealand and said that he thinks it's gorgeous over there. He also said he can't imagine Australia being better than New Zealand. I told him to just wait...he'll be impressed with the Aussies too, I'm sure! Oh, and he assures me that he's taking PLENTY of pictures and might even need to buy a new memory card while he's there. That's my boy!

I've been keeping myself busy with scrapping this week.I found my mojo last week while working on my circle journal and its still hanging around. I think I've done a double page layout and 3 or 4 different single page layouts...AND 2 cards too. I love it when the mojo comes to stay for a bit too.

Once again, I'm playing along with the folks at Lifetime Moments for their Summer Scrapfest. Its a little different this time though...no more mad scrapping to get as many possible points as possible. This time, they're posting a new challenge each day. At first I wasn't sure if I'd like this way, but this week they threw out a new bonus. If the temperature reaches 87* in Wixom, MI. then that day's challenge counts as THREE points. That sure makes it a bit easier to earn the points. Two days this week have been eligible for the bonus...but according to weather.com, things will be a bit cooler over the next few days.

Another great thing with this session is that we have all summer to get the challenges complete. It's not a scrap each day thing, unless you make it that. I've completed three of the eight challenges posted. And there's plenty of time to get the others done. I hope to get a couple more done, maybe even get caught up, over the weekend.

For now, I've got a kitchen that's screaming for attention and a load of laundry to be folded. Until next time...

He called!!!

But I missed the call, darn it! Emily and I were on the couch watching the recording of "So You Think You Can Dance" and I didn't hear the phone ringing till it was too late. Josh called to let us know that things were going great!

He said that it was about 40 something degrees and that the hot springs were steaming alot. They'd gone swimming last night...I assume it was in the springs. It was about 5:30am there and they were up and getting ready for breakfast and then a busy day was planned ahead. He sounded tired but said that he had "little to no" jet lag.

Emily and I just stayed around the house today and got things cleaned up. Em was a great helper. It was a rather productive day...so the time went kind of quickly. Tomorrow we're going to check out a gymnastics camp. If we like it, Em will go the remainder of this week and maybe another week this summer. I think it'll be great for her to have something to do and a gymnastics camp will be right up her alley. The dance studio has a camp for two different weeks in July, but I think Em would enjoy getting out and doing something before then.

And for now, I'm listening to my latest audio book and cleaning up the scraproom.

Until later...

Loooong but GREAT day here!

All packed and ready to go!!!

Today was the day that Josh left for his People to People trip to New Zealand and Australia. We started the day with a breakfast at our favorite local/family owned breakfast place, Conway Cafe, before heading to the airport.

I couldn't believe the number of people at the airport today. Gosh...there was hardly room to move. And this wasn't just from our group either. I'm assuming that maybe Tropical Storm Barry had a bit to do with it. The P2P plane to LA wasn't delayed though...maybe it was just a crazy busy travel day?

Josh was so excited about this trip...but a little nervous too. I guess that's to be expected. He said that he felt like he was forgetting something. I told him that this is "normal" when you're headed away from home. I think he was just ready to get on the plane and get on their way. Here's a fun pic that I took of Josh and his girlfriend, Teri...they were sure having fun, eh? This was a much more pleasant site than another student and his girlfriend. Oh my goodness...it's a wonder she didn't make it on the plane with him...she was literally attached to the boy. Playing kissy face, sucking on his ears, him holding her with her legs wrapped around his waist. And yes, this was all in public...it was rather sickening, IMO. And had that been MY SON and his girlfriend...it would have certainly been broken up. I even thanked Josh and his girlfriend for NOT acting like that...EVER.

I had to leave the airport, before Josh even headed to security, to rush home and get Em ready for her dance recital. Her call time was 1:00 for a 2pm recital. We cut it a little short...getting there a couple of minutes after 1, but with plenty of spare time before show time.

Recital was beautiful, as it always is. The dancer's at our studio really know how to put on a show. I love to watch them perform. Its a LOOOOOONG show, but fun, nonetheless. Emily didn't dance until a couple of numbers before the end, but it was so worth the wait, IMO. She shined on that stage...smiling from ear to ear...dancing her heart out. This was the first year that she looked like she was genuinely having fun and knew the dance very well. And I'm such a sap...I was almost in tears watching her. Also grinning from ear to ear. And she turned the right way this time too! After how many times of saying "did you know you turned the wrong way again?" I saw her think about it first and then turned the right way. Woo hoo...way to go, Emily!

Next year's dance classes will start in August. Emily's enjoyed this year so much that she wants to be in THREE classes and possibly Dance Co. next year. Oh dear...am I ready for that? I told her today that Dance Co. might have to wait till Josh is finished with Crew and goes to college. Was that bad of me? I think I could do the time thing (key words: I THINK)...it's the cha ching that scares me! LOL

The day is almost at an end now. Josh called to tell us that they made in to LA safely. They'll be leaving for their 16 hour flight to New Zealand in the wee hours of tonight. I'm sure we'll hear from them tomorrow, when they get there. Until then, I'll be in touch with a few of the other parents of the students on this trip. Only 19 more days till Josh returns. I'm sure gonna miss that kid!