week6

This is the final week of the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race. I have had such a great time! I'll save some of my thought for challenge #12, but I just wanted to let you know that. LOL

I bought ACDSee. It is on sale through the end of August, so get it now! teehee I've been playing with that, re-discovering the thousands of kits (so far I've only organized about 100 of them) that I have. Once I have them all done, I can put all of the stuff from CDs into the program, then everything will be organized. :D
I gotta say, I sure wish I had the program, late Sunday night as I'm scrambling trying to find all the alphas. ugh! Thank goodness the pages don't have to uploaded until midnight Pacific time. ROFL

ttyl...

back from North Dakota

I am exhausted! I think I will go to bed soon (almost unheard of for me! LOL). I had a lovely trip. But the drive on the last day was so exhausting! And, I drank a lot of caffeine on the trip....I normally don't drink any, but driving is not my thing, so I capitulated. And now I think I'm either crashing from lack of caffeine, or from not enough water. Whatever the reason, my head aches and I just want to sleep.
We got back last night, and I've been non-stop since.

I just realized I never posted that I was leaving. ROFL
sorry!
I went to visit my friend in North Dakota (or "Northwest Dakota" as Krillin is now calling it; he's learning the N-E-S-W directions).
I want to continue typing, but my eyes are killing me. I must lay down.

posts about Harry Potter and my trip, coming soon. :D

voter girl -- and don't read this if you haven't finished Harry Potter #7

Today the voting polls opened in the second round of The Next Big Designer at Go Digital Scrapbooking. There are some AMAZING kits! And they're all FREE for a limited time, so head over, grab some free quality kits, and vote for your favorite! **You have to be registered and logged in to see the kits and links.** I had such a hard time deciding, but finally picked it this way: which one would I want to pay money for? This is completely subjective, and my choice isn't currently the top pick (you get to see the results after you vote), but it's not in the bottom 5, so I am sure she'll move on to the next round. I think she was also a top contender for Round 1, I just love her stuff. I just realized I voted for her the first round, too. haha!

Logicgrandma and I made it to the 2nd round of the Amazing Digi-Scrapping Race, which was this last week. Here is my page for challenge #3, titled 3 Wishes;

and for challenge #4, Goal of a Lifetime










I had a lot of fun with these challenges! And might I add, for a noob, my mom is doing really well!

This week will be challenge #5 and #6. 5 has already been spotted at ButternugSquash (such an interesting name...). I am not so good with long journaling, but I obviously have to do this if I want to continue, so I'll try.

I just realized I haven't blogged about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. *sigh* I don't have time right now, as I am leaving for vacation in the morning. The last 3 days have been a whirlwind, as I was planning for the end of August, and then my friend (whose house I'm going to) called and told me that their plans had changed, so why not come out sooner? Well, since the original plans included taking Krillin out of school for a week, I think sooner is better. SOOO....I've been a headless chicken, so to speak, for the last 3 days.

I will leave you with this....when Voldemort killed him, I couldn't finish the book.

I TOLD you I would have spoilers!!

I'm worth $4975!

I saw this on Victoria's blog, and since it is so "in theme" with the last Harry Potter book* (I know, I'm macabre!), I just had to do it! *if you think that was a spoiler, don't read my next post, k? k.

$4975.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2

Mingle² - Mingle

and this, too!
60% GeekMingle² - Mingle

My score could have been higher, as I realized while commenting on Victoria's blog... I forgot that I played D&D way back when it was just born. *sigh* Oh well, at least I know the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

waaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!

I have 2 more chapters to read in the last Harry Potter book (Deathly Hallows).
I am sad.
So many of my predictions are wrong.
At least one of them seems to be right.
and I am sad!
I am bawling like a baby!
I cannot stop the tears!
If you have not read the book, and do not want spoilers, you should probably stay away from this blog until you have finished it.
For I will finish the book tonight, and then I will post about it tomorrow, time permitting.
I am so, so sad!

moley

Yesterday, I was supposed to have a mole removed. I showed up (with P-chan and the boys in tow) for my appointment, and was told I didn't have an appointment. Excuse me? Yes I do. It was finally explained that the procedure was a walk-in type, and that no appointment was necessary, but the doctor that was going to do it, had broken his left hand over the weekend and wasn't in. I recently broke a bone, I know how horrible that is, so okay, I understand that, but I had to drive 45 minutes to get here, not to mention the price of gas right now ($3.09 is the cheapest), and I really don't feel like driving home with getting nothing done. So they asked me to have a seat, and they'd call their boss to find out what to do. Please keep in mind that this is a military hospital. so a few minutes later I was called back, not by a nurse, but by one of the hospital administrators, who apologized for the misunderstanding, yadda yadda yadda, and basically asked if I wanted to wait to see if they could work me in (by this time it's after 2:30pm, and the end of the workday is 4:30pm) -- but no promises; or if I could come back the next day, again as a walk-in. After much deliberation and speaking, they finally made an appointment for me, and actually put me in for 2 time slots, since they weren't sure how long it would take (this surprised me, but it was made clear to me later). Soooooooo...Instead of going home "empty-handed", we checked if Krillin's school checkup could be done (nope, "but you should have called an hour ago, we could have seen you!") so I made an appointment for next week. Then we made sure that all our records were transferred from our previous base (I thought this was already done, but it wasn't) and then we went to my OT clinic (same building) and they were able to see me right then, so that I wouldn't have to come back on Thursday. The good doctor says that my supination (turning my arm to the outside) is better, so now we need to work on strength. yay! I am so glad we didn't have to go with the wacky splint that sounded medieval in nature. And then we went home.
Today was the appointment for the mole. Everything went smoothly. Through the course of the doctor and nurse's talking, I learned that removing moles used to be done at dermatology, but they recently moved it to the general practice side. The "walk-in" procedure was actually 50 minutes total, but I think the doc did a GREAT job! I am concerned about the so-called disolving stitches (they haven't worked all that great for me in the past), but from what the nurse said, it's a beautiful job, so as long as I don't tear the skin apart, there will be very minimal scarring. They had very good bedside manners, and kept asking me if I was okay. At one point, I said, "This is the longest I've been away from my boys in a year! I'm great!" And heck, I've got moles all over the place, maybe I'll just have them all removed.
The whole point of it being removed, of course, is to make sure it's not a bad one. I doubt it is, it was just really bugging me because it was very near my bra strap and would hurt if touched. So, I have a follow-up next week to check the stitches, and they should have the lab results back by then.
Oh, and the boys ran and gave me hugs when I finally returned to the waiting room. Kenshin then told me "Mommy! You were broken! But they fixed you!"

Not much else to say. I'm tired and should be sleeping, so TTYL!

CST member! :D

I was accepted as a member of Anna Benjamin's CST (creative support team). She promised us a nice bra, how could I say no? She is more widely known as Paper Moons Designs, and all of her stuff is free! Check out her blog for freebies and fun stuff! (link in sidebar)

The first challenge for the ASDR-2 was posted on Sunday night...and it took me until today (and really, it's tomorrow right now), to figure out what to scrap about! ugh! I have a few ideas of how I want it to look, and I will really be challenging myself with this page, so I better get crackalackin'!

I have met a new friend! We met at the Lunch in the Park. Her nickname is Beaner! She has 2 boys, who are each a year younger than my 2 boys! We kind of just hit it off right from the start. That day, we sat and talked for over 3 hours! The next day, we exchanged phone numbers, and she left for camping that weekend, and the next Monday we just skipped the park and we all went to her house. I'll have to make sure I can post a pic of her boys; I got the cutest shot of all of them in the lazy-boy chair. Tuesday her car was in the shop, and today was crazy for me, so I didn't get a chance to call her. I'm excited to have a friend here, as LAME as that sounds.

mom+boy

I scrapped a page today!



I really like this one, myself, because of the different fonts I used, AND that I was able to make this picture look SO GOOD! cuz it really sucked at first!
See here:


I love my Photoshop Elements 5!!!!

published!

Well, sort of. I designed a QuickPage with a kit called Kaleidoscope, from ScrappingGarden, and the proceeds benefit the Special Olympics. I, along with several other people, created a SticKit (quickpage) and they bundled them together into a set, called Special Moments. Proceeds from this set also benefit the Special Olympics. Oh, and my page is the one that looks like a sunburst, right there on the main preview. KEWL!

Amazing!!!

Okay, my name is not Amazing, but I have joined in the Amazing Digi-Scrapping Race 2. I've teamed up with my mom, Barbara May. If you haven't heard about it yet, where have you been? Go check out the official Race blog. This will be so amazing! The main host site is Natural Designs in Scrapbooking (NDISB for short). I'm a huge fan of all the designers there, they have such wonderful talent. Pickleberry Pop, RAKscraps, FishScraps, and Plain Digital Wrapper are a few other stores I lerve to shop at. Over $500 in prizes PER winner (thus far)! That means EACH winner (because it's done by pairs) will get the full amount. SO COOL! Mom is still kind of a noob, but I'm going to have fun and get some scrapping done.

accepted

I recently applied for, and was accepted for, a position on Melanie Colbert's Creative Team. What does that mean for me? Free kits! It also means I'll scrapbook more, since it'll be my job to promote her designs. I'm very excited!

I saw a funny icon the other day, and I thought it was so funny!

I think that is so true! So I'll post a few right now.

This one makes me think of the Fergie Ferg song, Glamorous.


I know you feel the same way....


It's been this since December 2005, I believe.

Harry Potter?

I am SOOOO excited about the new book AND new movie! P-chan has some time off from work in the middle of July, so we will be going to the movie, half of that courtesy of the Movie Cash I got from buying chocolate at Walgreens in March. LOL

Found a fun game. It's "20 Q" Harry Potter style. If you are familiar with the story thus far, then the "person" theme is quite fun. P-chan doesn't read the books, but he has watched the movies, so he chose a normal item under "things" and thought it was cool. He stumped the 20Q! :D

Yesterday was Big K's birthday. He turned 5!!! The first thing I said to him was, "Happy birthday! You're 5 today!" He paused, then said, "No, I'm still 4. I won't be 5 until I have cake." Good thing that was on my list of things to do, then. LOL Little K gave Big K a present, but I told them we couldn't open it yet, and we got ready for the day.
We went to lunch at the park, then headed over to McDonald's to use some of their coupons. That particular McD's is having their own birthday celebration, so they had free cake! SCORE. As we ate our fries and cake, Big K looked around and then whispered to me, "Mom, I don't know these people."
"That's okay, honey."
"But they're eating my cake."
ROFL So I explained that the building was having a birthday, too. He liked that. And the lady eating lunch across from us gave him a Happy Meal toy. Oh, he was so happy! Little K did well eating his cake, which I was happy about.
Then we went to the bookstore, and Big K got to pick out a book. He chose one about dragons. And we picked up an anime preview book for P-chan.
The boys fell asleep in the car, which I felt relieved about, because the bookstore was at the Mall, and I just learned that the boys + mall = Hell for me. If they weren't begging to buy something, they were screaming, or begging for money for the machines. I did get some great pictures of them sitting on the cool ride-machines, but I don't ever carry cash, so I had no change. I had to literally drag Little K out of the building. And then Big K freaked out because Little K had pushed the button to open the door, which meant he couldn't do it, and all I was trying to do was get to the car before it started raining. aaaagggghhhh! So anyway, they fell asleep in the car. And P-chan was awake by the time we got home, so he carried BigK in, but LittleK woke up. BigK was asleep until almost 8, at which time we made Bob the Builder cookies (it was too late for cake). We also opened the presents (he got 3 more Thomas & Friends trains). Then it was time for bed. P-chan had bed duty, since I was PMS-y. LOL

okay, gotta finish a scrapbook page. later!

not healing well ... and some musings

As you may know, I broke my right arm (right at the wrist, but still technically the arm bone) back in March, and had the final cast removed at the end of April. It's now about 6 weeks since the cast was removed, and my wrist does not seem to be healing very well. I can do most things fine, but I cannot turn my wrist very far "in" or "out" without pain. I have to use my left hand for some "personal" things, and I also have some troubles with cooking, carrying things, and hugging (my wrist won't bend naturally so that hand kinda sticks out...go ahead and laugh, it's funny ), and it fatigues very quickly. Tonight I learned that riding my bike is a pain in my wrist. gah!
Anyway, I'll be starting Occupational Therapy for it on Monday. Doc says if it's not showing a marked improvement in 6 weeks, I will have to have my arm re-broken. Yes, on purpose! Then he will want me to stay in a cast for at least 8 weeks, to ensure proper healing. UGH!!!
So send happy thoughts my way, so the OT will go well.

Just to prove that I do read the PC Magazine newsletter:
Pimp my Drive Bay
What, the gig just isn't enought for ya?
How a motherboard is made, or Egg Yolk Pie (because the ending makes it all worthwhile)

The boys discovered the Pets area at Meijer today. I showed Krillin one of the hamsters that was waking up and stretching. Kenshin was enthralled with the fish, especially the ones with whiskers, and the snails. oh, and also the step stool that the employees use. LOL He is quite short, after all, so he moved it from tank to tank, running commentary of course. Krillin didn't say as much as Kenshin, but they both agreed that having a pet hamster would be nice. On the way home, Krillin told me that the guinea pig wouldn't be as good, because they die. I didn't get the rest of the story until we got home, because he kept telling me to drive faster. Apparently, the little guinea pig that our neighbors had, died. I don't know how long ago, but Krillin told me they buried it under rocks. "So that's why I want a hamster. Mom, you know so much about hamsters!" And he positively beamed at me! *heart melting* "Oh, thank you for saying that, Krillin."
"Yeah! You knew he was stretching! Remember? When he woke up and he was moving around? And he did that thing, and you told me he was stretching! You know so much about hamsters, so I think we could have one. Do we have to buy it?"
"Yes, you have to buy the pets."
"Do we have money for one?" (He is starting to learn that things cost money, and that we usually don't have it.)
"You will have to ask your dad." Okay, so I copped out in the end. I would love for them to have a pet, but after learning that the guinea pig died, I don't know how they would handle that.
Actually, that was the 2nd "death" I handled today. The boys LOVE to watch the lobsters in the tank in the seafood section. When we got there, Kenshin said, "Oh no! There are not too many!" Krillin looked just as dismayed, and he asked where they went.
"People probably bought them."
"You mean for pets?" His eyes shone so bright, I could see what he was imagining. And so it killed me to say, "No, people buy them to eat them."
Kenshin's head whipped to look at me, and he said, "What!?"
Krillin just looked at the tank with his mouth open, his eyes now horror-stricken.
"Yes, some people eat lobster." and enjoy every savory bite, I didn't add.
They both looked at the tank, and after a few moments Krillin said, "Are they like fish?"
"hhhmmm... kinda, yeah."
"How do people eat them?"
"First they have to cook them. I think they do that in a pot of hot water."
"And do they take off the pinchers?"
"Yes, the pinchers come off before they eat them."
*slight pause* "What do they do with the pinchers after that?"
"I....dunno. I guess they throw them away."
"Oh." He thought about that for awhile, but didn't say anything else about them.

It reminded me of his reaction when I told him about chickens. We live in a subdivision of about 100 houses, just off an almost-dirt road in a little town. It's very windy, quite narrow, and if you don't hit a mailbox, you'll probably hit a chicken. I almost hit a chicken, and made a comment about chicken soup. Krillin (from the backseat) said, "hahaha, we don't eat chickens!"
We had just finished a lunch of chicken nuggets, so I laughed and said, "Yes we do."
"No we don't! That's silly! I'm right, you're wrong."
"A lot of people eat chickens. That's where chicken nuggets come from."
"No! Chicken nuggets come from the store."
Touché. "Yes, but they use chickens to make the nuggets, then sell them at the store."
"But those aren't road chickens!"
"What?"
"We don't eat road chickens!"
I had to agree. I certainly have never eaten a chicken that I saw on the road. then I had to add, "Eggs come from chickens."
"ha ha ha! No they don't."
"Yep, they do. The egg comes out of the chicken's butt." I have NO idea where the egg actually comes out of (and I do NOT want to know), I was just trying to gross him out.
"EEEEEWWWW! That's not right. You're wrong. I'm right."
So I used a reference that he would understand. "Remember on Hard Hat Harry, when he said 'what comes first, the chicken or the egg'?"
"yeah."
"That's because the chicken is the egg's mommy. Eggs sometimes turn into baby chicks."
"Do we have baby chicks in our fridge?"
"No, those eggs went in a machine so they won't turn into chicks."
"Nope! I'm right, you're wrong."
I would not have been surprised for him to say he wouldn't eat chicken, but he hasn't mentioned it since. And now that I think about it, he also hasn't eaten scrambled eggs since. ...