Gettin' By

Where is Spring???

After totally teasing us earlier last week with temps in the 70s, Mother Nature dumped 15 inches of snow last Thursday.  This morning, it's snowing again - a heavy, wet, slushy snow.  I went out for a run and came home completely soaked through three layers of clothing.  Even so, there's something amazingly calming about running during a snowfall.  I had the paths to myself and it was so, so quiet.  Which would have been great for thinking had I not been jamming to my iPod tunes. :) 

Not much happening around here today.  It's the official start of Spring Break for both kiddos, but we don't have any big plans. If the weather warms up, we may head up to the mountains to ski for a few days.  Also thinking of catching Monsters vs. Aliens in the theaters and possibly making a trip to the Children's Museum.

Thought I'd leave you with some recent pages...hope you are keeping warm this Monday!

all supplies by KI Memories

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patterned paper (Basic Grey, Making Memories)
letter stickers (Basic Grey, American Crafts)

calendar tag (The Paper Pixie)
buttons (KI Memories)
scallop (Doodlebug)
apparel tag, stitching

patterned paper (October Afternoon)
die cuts (My Mind's Eye, Creative Imaginations)
stickers (Jenni Bowlin Studios)
chipboard (American Crafts, All My Memories)
scallop punch (Fiskars)
buttons, apparel tag, stitching

Tag. I'm It.

I was tagged by the lovely Darcy a few days ago and I'm doing my bloggy duty now and fulfilling it. Here's the scoop:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now. No primping or preparing. Just snap a picture.
2. Load the picture onto your blog.
3. Tag three people to play. Remember, if you are tagged, we will all be heading to your blog to see if you played along.

And here's my shot...courtesy of PhotoBooth. Luckily I have houseguests this week so I'm not in my usual routine of postponing (or just skipping altogether) daily showers.

And here's who I'm going to tag:
Summer (because she apparently needs an excuse to update her blog)
Tina (because - duh! she's a photographer and her photo will be fab); and
Kelly (because I miss her and want to see her cute little face)

Today we are hoping the spring storm that dumped 15 inches of snow yesterday will let up and we can venture outside the house for awhile.  Just a little bit of cabin fever going on here.  Hope you are all staying warm and HEY enjoy the weekend! :)

Three Things.

1. Georgia.  Apparently I neglected to mention exactly WHAT Georgia is in the last post.  I must have gotten distracted by her shiny, shiny paint. My apologies. Georgia is a used Mercedes G500. (The G stands for Georgia, get it??  Yes, I know it's not German.  But Gretel didn't have the same ring to it.)  She's been gently broken in by a previous owner, who was gracious enough to take the huge depreciation hit for me.  She's silver.  She's a tank.  I'm pretty sure one of her doors outweighs me by 100 pounds.  It's an excellent upper body workout just opening one of those babies.  You're gonna have to wait for photos, though, because it's a crappy overcast day and I want to do her justice.
   
2. Houseguests. Our good friends Dave & Alison (who we go to Mexico with each year) are flying into town tomorrow and I have about a million things to get done so I can enjoy their visit.  They are scoping out the area to possibly move here, an idea that makes me insanely happy.  At any rate, if I'm missing from the blog for a few days, it's because I'm out showing them around town and trying to convince them that there is no better place on earth to live than Erie, Colorado.  (Can I get an AMEN?!?)
   
3. A layout.  Yes, I'm excited about my new car.  But I can appreciate the little things in life, too :)
   
   
   patterned paper (Making Memories, Jenni Bowlin, Pink Paislee)
   acrylic sheer (Maya Road)
   chipboard number (Basic Grey)
   stickers (American Crafts)
   border punch (Fiskars)
   butterfly stamp (Studio Calico)
   rhinestones (MAMBI)
   
   
   An editor's note for those who asked about sizing layouts:  My original layout files are jpegs, approximately 800x800 pixels @ 72dpi.  When I upload them to Typepad, I select the Custom Image Options and size them to 450 pixels, with no wrap, and I click the option for a pop-up window (this links to the full-size file). Hope that helps!

Happy Spring! (because that title sounds less ostentatious than Look at My Shiny New Car!)

It's kind of a gloomy dark Monday here, but thanks to my fab Safeway floral department, I've got some gorgeous blooms to admire in celebration of the arrival of spring.  They are almost pretty enough to inspire me to plant bulbs this fall. Then I remember that dirt is involved, and probably sweat.  And isn't buying flowers just as good as growing them? Uh-huh. That's what I thought.

While spring and flowers are nice and all, my big news today is that I bought a car this weekend.  And when I say I bought a car, I mean just that.  All by myself, no husband, no kids...just me. We've been trying for several months now to replace my car with something a little newer (doing our part to stimulate the economy, people!) but car shopping with two kids in tow is a lot like a bikini wax - painful, lots of screaming, and generally no fun for anyone involved.

So on Saturday, I left Mike and my brother-in-law, Ryan, in charge of the kiddos, tuned the television to the NCAA basketball tourney, and made sure the frig was stocked with plenty of beer and juice boxes.  And I headed out to the car dealer, with my negotiating skills honed and Mike yelling something about "budget."

A mere three hours later, with a few phone calls to Mike for moral support, I returned with a new (to me) car. She's a sweet little ride that I've already christened Georgia.  And I love her.  In a completely obsessive, shallow way.  And while it's no secret I am easily distracted by shiny objects, it wasn't just the shimmering exterior that convinced me to buy her.  She's also under full warranty coverage until 2012.  Go me!

So now that I am strapped with a car payment once again, I better get down to working on those billable hours. Right after I go stare at my sparkly new car one more time. Happy Monday folks!

A completely annoying little incident that's just pissing me off.

So I could probably write an epic-length post about little occurrences that are chafing my hide this week.  Like the coffee maker that spewed grounds all over my freshly cleaned counter.  Or another household member (who shall remain unnamed, but happens to go by MIKE) that left me one square of toilet paper on the roll.  Or the cat that decided to defiantly crap exactly SIX inches from the freshly-cleaned box.  Or that moron driver in front of me that won't turn off his turn signal.  CAN'T YOU HEAR THE CLICK-CLICK SOUND, YOU IDIOT???

I am well aware that in the grand scheme of life, these little annoyances are truly irrelevant.  I have lots to be thankful for, and the good things in my life far outweigh the bad.  And for the most part, I can let these things go.  But there's one particular thing that's been bugging me for months now.  So I figured, why not blog about it - it might be therapeutic to just get it out there.  So here's my beef:

Every day when I go running I pass the same lady going the opposite way on the path.  As a fellow runner, I feel compelled to give a little wave and say hi as I pass. This has been going on since January.  And she has yet to even acknowledge me.  She's not wearing headphones and I know she sees me.  Is it too much to ask for a simple nod?  A small wave of the hand to say "Hey!  I see you, fellow runner girl!"  Is her run SO important she can't even take two seconds to be courteous to another human?  Did her mother teach her no manners?! Argh!

There.  I've said it.  And reading back over it, I'm already telling myself, GET OVER IT ALREADY.  See the progress I'm making here?!  So now it's your turn.  What little thing is driving you nuts today?  Feel free to dump it here.  Think of it as free therapy. Only unlike your doctor, I'm allowed to laugh at you. :)

Oh, and happy Friday!

How to make a second grader's day.

Yesterday when I picked Hayden up at school, the fact that he forgot to wear green was overshadowed by his excitement over the completion of a recent art project - an African mask.  The paper bag creation adorned with bright paint and various beads was pretty cool, and I told him as much when he got in the car.

He replied, "I know it's a great mask, Mom.  Everyone was telling me how cool it was.  I even got compliments from the fifth graders.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a FIFTH GRADER to give you a compliment?!?"

Well, yeah.  Those fifth graders are a tough crowd.

And speaking of compliments, you need to go check out this link:  Purdue Compliment Guys.  That story totally made MY day.

Happy Wednesday people!

Going Green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I woke up this morning to the television news, which was broadcasting live from an event in Denver called Kegs & Eggs.  Nothing like a little early morning celebration with green beer and eggs (can you say ewwww?) to kick off the day's festivities.  They interviewed a guy who was already on his third beer and was very proud of his dyed-green beard and mohawk, insisting "My girlfriend DIGS it!"  Alrighty then.

So you would think I would have remembered to send Hayden to school dressed in green today, right?  Um, no.  And I can't even blame it on the beer.  I quickly realized as I dropped him off that he was possibly the only student not adorned in neon green, a fact I'm sure he will apprise me of when I pick him up this afternoon.  Gulp.  Bad mom.

To try and make up for my St. Paddy's Day faux pas, I'll leave you with a green page featuring my Riely girl.  I originally did this page for the last Simple special issue, Scrapbook Play with Photos, but a modified version appears in the magazine.

Here's hoping the luck of the Irish is with you today!  Enjoy!

No title today. Blame it on the Girl Scouts.

I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it's been shown to improve brain function, but obviously my morning meal of Girl Scout cookies and coffee isn't helping me much. Sugar!  Caffeine!  Woo hoo!  I'm all amped up, and yet, I can't think of a title for this post.  But should I let that stop me from rambling on?  Of course not!

So we celebrated Mike's birthday this weekend (it was on Saturday) by going to the Colorado Oil & Gas Association's annual Chili Cook-Off.  Lots of spicy chili and light beer were consumed.  Which, I found out on Sunday morning, is not the best way to prepare for a long run.  Let's just say I now have a keen awareness of the port-o-potties (or lack thereof) on my running route.

We also made a trip to Ultimate Electronics to pick up MIke's gift of an insanely large television on which he can watch the NCAA tourney. And then I can use it to watch HGTV and figure out how you make an insanely large black box fit into your living room decor.

I did get some scrapping done last Friday in between some feeble attempts at laundry and housecleaning. I promised myself for every chore done, I could eat one Thin Mint.  You'd think that since the box of cookies is gone, I'd have a clean house, huh?  Um, not so much.  But once again, sugar! Chocolate! Can I get a woo hoo?!?!

I'll leave you with a page I did for the KI Memories blog. The talented Dusti challenged us to use the lace cardstock as a mask.  I adhered the flower lace to my page and painted over it with pink acrylic.  The resulting block works like patterned paper, I just added a few chipboard buttons to embellish it:

all supplies by KI Memories

And that's all my brain can muster for today.  Have a great Monday y'all!!

Flashback Friday

I regret to inform you that today I will be unable to write a witty blog entry for one or more of the following reasons:  (a) the giant mountain in my closet referred to as the "laundry pile" has toppled over, pinning me underneath.  Please send help.  (b) The rapidly multiplying herd of dust bunnies residing in our house has turned violent, and are attacking me like wild dogs.  Please send help.  (c) I've become infatuated with my new Studio Calico kit and have locked myself in my office and refuse to emerge until I've used every last lovely bit of it.  Please leave me alone.

Feel free to enjoy one of these past posts while I'm away.  Like this one about my encounter with a shady landscaper.  Or the infamous story of Mr. Comic Sans.  Or how about this one, extolling my new "green" habits.

I'll be back on Monday, people!

Who knew a blanket could be so funny?

Last weekend I was in a definite funk. Grumpy, moody and generally being an all-around sourpuss.   In an attempt to cheer me up, Mike suggested we watch one of our Netflix movies together once the kids were in bed.  I'm pretty sure he didn't realize that the two movies we currently have are (1) Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which Hayden is in the process of memorizing the entire script to, and (2) Sex and The City: The Movie.  Can you guess which one I thought might improve my mood?  Hint: it wasn't the one with wookies.

So Mike sat through all two-plus hours of the estrogen-fest, and was generally pretty miserable.  At one point, I think he zoned out and started reciting all the past Superbowl winners in an attempt to not lose his grasp on manhood.  Apparently Manolo Blahniks just don't have the same euphoric effect on men.

I'm pretty sure the only thing that could have made the evening more pathetic for Mike was if I were to wrap up in a Snuggie while we snuggled on the couch. (For the record, I don't own one. Oh wait, yes I do!  It's called a ROBE!)  I have to give props to the inventor of this inane product, if only for the fact that it makes hilarious parody fodder.  And an all-encompassing reason to use the word TOOL.

(Thanks, Christyn, for bringing this insanely funny video to my attention.)

In an effort to repay Mike for watching the chick flick with me, I've agreed to sit through No Country for Old Men this weekend.  Eeeek.