Welcome Luke!

I'm an aunt again! For the 22nd time. Yep, you read right. I'm the youngest of 8 kids. This is my brother, Peter's 1st child. Now we all have kids. Welcome to Parenthood, Peter! It's amazing (and tiring) and beautiful. Can't wait to meet our newest addition to the family.

Proof kids live here...

I keep saying I'm going to clean off the fridge, but the truth is...
1) I'm not sure what I want to take off.
2) As soon as I clean it up, the kids think it's time to make something else.
3) It always ends up just like this anyway.

Free Hugs

Click on Free Hugs title above to be directed to a touching video.

Sorry it's been so long...

but my computer is sick. Real sick. It's unplugged and I've been unable to check emails, blog, or keep up with my on-line scrap classes at big picture, my creative classroom, and nyc scraps. I've been going crazy. Feel so unplugged, literally. I finally decided to blog on my work laptop (shhh) just to let everyone know. Just wanted everyone to know I'm not avoiding anyone.

On a sad note... my bff's father passed away last month. He will be missed by so many people who loved him. I'd like to share a story involving him. Back in high school I went to Lesa's house one weekend to pick her up. We did our usual mall, movie outing. I couldn't help but feel like everyone was looking at me as we walked the mall. We went to the food court to eat at Burger King. As we're at the counter ordering our food I heard a couple guys behind me talking about what color polka dots that girl had on her panties. My face flushed. The panties they were talking about were mine. I was wearing light yellow shorts with polka dot undies underneath. They were taking bets if they were blue or black dots. I had not noticed you could see my panties through my shorts when I was getting dressed. When our food arrived I turned and said they were blue polka dots, while quickly grabbing our food and heading to a table. The next day Lesa shared what happened with her parents, and Mr Richard said he had noticed before we left. I couldn't believe he had noticed and not said anything. He let me go out like that?! I was mortified. He thought I had meant for them to be seem. I know kids go through crazy fashion trends, but that's not one I would have followed. Hey, maybe I started that trend. How many times do we see visible bra straps and undies peeking out the top of pants. Okay, so it took 20 years for my fashion faux pas to take hold. Nah, not even I want credit for that one. God Bless, Mr Richard. You will be sadly missed.

Denis Leary Ignorant Comment

Just another entertainer to boycott...

Story taken from http://autism.about.com/b/2008/10/16/denis-leary-calls-out-autism-parents-will-you-join-the-fray.htm?nl=1

Denis Leary Calls Out Autism Parents; Will You Join the Fray?

Thursday October 16, 2008

Getty Images

A few months ago, shock jock radio host Michael Savage received an extraordinary amount of publicity by calling out autism dads:

"I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' "

True, Savage lost some advertisers, but as the credit card ads say - "ads? $5,000. publicity all over the net and on primetime TV? priceless!"

Now, Denis Leary is tapping the same keg - and while I had hoped to avoid blogging on the subject, I was surprised this morning by seeing mention of Leary's ridiculous rants front and center on - AOL! AOL is nothing if not mainstream, so it seems that Mr. Leary has already succeeded in making a nickel off the backs of frustrated autism parents. Here's what he has to say (through the eyes of the Huffington Post):

In his new book, "Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid," the joke-slinging "Rescue Me" star writes about the brain disorder: "There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of shrinks . . . to get back diagnoses that help explain away the deficiencies of their junior morons. I don't give a [bleep] what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you - yer kid is NOT autistic. He's just stupid. Or lazy. Or both."

Autism Speaks has already run a response, which seems to me to be measured and appropriate:

We are deeply disappointed that television personality Denis Leary would misuse his celebrity, compromise his reputation, and exploit the real challenges of individuals with autism in making his recent extremely disrespectful and hurtful comments. His words reflect a complete ignorance of and lack of sensitivity to the true plight of families facing autism. Autism is not a joke. It is very real, especially to the families and caregivers whose lives are forever changed when their loved one receives an autism diagnosis. Autism is recognized globally as an urgent healthcare crisis. Unfortunately, in a country built on the tenets of freedom of speech, sometimes people with access to the media are able to spread harmful mistruths. ...

Of course, this measured response isn't what Leary's looking for. By directly insulting US, the autism moms and dads, and suggesting that our kids are, in fact, lazy and stupid, he's appealing to our lowest instincts. What he wants is a good, solid, knock down drag out fight. Preferably in front of plenty of TV cameras, face to face with Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey - so the story will be presented front and center on every TV station in America.

What worries me is this: Denis Leary may get precisely what he wants.

The Best Husband Ever

As mentioned earlier I was in Minnesota last week. I had driven myself to the airport on Monday since I had such an early flight out and was going to have a late flight back home on Saturday. As I was standing in baggage claim waiting for my luggage, I feel someone touch my arm and say "Hi Mom". I was shocked to see Samantha there. I turned to see Benjamin and John joining us. John knew it was going to be a long travel day for me, so he picked up my favorite sushi rolls (Shannon, Hetti, and Julie) from Oishi Sushi, along with an Iced Tea and some Edamame. That man is the best thing to ever happen to me. He always seems to know exactly what I want or need. He never complains about my running around scrapbooking, or going up to the MN office. He even brings me sushi when I've been out of town. How Wonderful is that?!

Another Week in Minnesota

Well, I was in the Minnesota office last week for Customer Service Week. It's always nice to see everyone. Connects me with my fellow co-workers. Working from home is great, but it's nice to actually see people, too. On Friday my supervisor, Darrin, took the Billing support team to eat at Whiskey Creek. It was yummy. After we all went bowling. It was a riot. Here's a picture of us at Whiskey Creek. L-R: Wendie Engebretson, me, Darrin Wiest, Angie Gamradt, Sarah Anderson, Daina Lowe. (missing were BobbiJo Matt and Micky Clark). I must confess... I love working with these guys. My team rocks!

2nd layout this month!

It really is the simple things in life that make me happy.
1) This is the 2nd layout I've done this month. Yes, I really am excited about that. Why? Because I only did 1 layout in August and 0 layouts in July. So right now I've done twice as many layouts this month than I've done the last 2 months. Thanks to Valerie Salmon and Janna Wilson, and their Got Sketch 102 class. Yeah me, getting 2 layouts done this month!
2) I really (I think) adapted Valerie's sketch to meet my needs. Here's was a 2 page sketch, and I only needed one. Her's had star embellishments that I used for this layout. I'm usually one to follow a sketch pretty much exact, or as close as possible, and I did my own thing with this one. Stepping outside the box there. Yeah me, switching things up a bit!
3) Again, more stepping outside the box. I mixed Junkitz and Reminisce papers on this one. I usually stay within 1 product line when scrapping. Yeah me, mixing product lines!
4) Besides the Junkitz and Reminisce papers, everything else is scraps. Yeah me, using those scraps!

The journaling is hidden. It reads... Benjamin got breakfast brownies in bed for his 2nd birthday. He didn't know quite what to think when we woke him up singing Happy Birthday, but I think he enjoyed his birthday breakfast treat. April 2006.

Layout time

Yeah to GS102. I actually got a page done last weekend. It felt good to create something. My layouts a little plain, but I tend to lean more on the simple side. Benjamin's still a little drink thief. He loves snatching drinks. I really have to be careful when John makes me the occasional "adult" beverage.

Papers and embellishments are CTMH. Title is raw chipboard thickers inked brown.

Hurricane Season

Man I hate hurricane season. Gustav, then Ike. Hopefully that's the last storm that comes our way this season. I used to think the joke about Louisiana having 4 seasons (Hunting, Football, Crawfish, and Hurricane) was kind of cute, but it's just not cute anymore. I've lived here all my life and grew up living through them, but they are just getting worse and more frequent. It's really scary. I'm trying to think of somewhere we could move that we wouldn't have any type of natural disasters. Where in the US are there no earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, mud slides, etc? Does a place even exist? These last 2 storms have made me so cranky.

Meeting Janet Hopkins

I had the pleasure of taking 2 classes this past weekend from scrapbooker Janet Hopkins. She has the amazing job of scrapping for a living and designing for Heidi Swapp. Both of her classes were fantastic and she was so sweet. It's nice meeting scrapbook "celebrities" who are so down to earth. Please excuse the blurry picture (this was by far the better of the two). I guess I really should have asked to take the picture before the margaritas and before 2:00am rolled around. It was a long day.

http://janethopkins.typepad.com/

http://www.heidiswapp.com/

1st Day of School

I'd say Benjamin was excited about his 1st Day of School, wouldn't you?! Hopefully he'll be just as excited about it when I pick him up in a couple of hours. I can't help but wonder what he's doing right now. Can't help but wonder if his teacher is going to be able to handle him. She's got 16 kids in her class and I'm hoping they're not all as active as Benjamin is. We brought him to orientation last night and he Loved his classroom. He got to meet his teacher, Mrs Roxanna, and found where he's going to sit, etc. We went to his classroom first, then we went to Samantha's class. Benjamin asked if he could go back to his classroom, so I brought him to his classroom again. Mrs Roxanna said it was a good sign that he wanted to go back. He has been looking forward to "big boy school" ever since Samantha started at Mount Carmel last year. Hopefully he'll continue to enjoy school. It's so cute to see our little boy so stoked about school. Gotta love this kid!

Anniversary Date Night

My Sister kept the kids so John and I could have date night to celebrate our anniversary. It was nice to go out without the kiddos. We went see The Dark Knight (so-so, Heath Ledger was eery), then went eat at Pimon Thai (Amazing as usual). Then we caught a late night feature, Wanted. Not sure what I thought about that one. It was better than The Dark Knight, but still pretty unrealistic. Angelina Jolie was beautiful as usual. I just love her. Tattoos and all. I have wanted a tattoo since high school. I've thought I'd found what I wanted a couple of times, but always changed my mind. My latest tat I'm thinking of is a fleur-di-lis. One of these days I'll get one. The location changes too. I've always wanted one of the back of my shoulder, but I want one where I'll be able to see and enjoy it. Oh well. Back to my date... This morning on the way to get the kids John and I had one more meal without the kids. Zeus. It was Amazing as usual.

Sixteen Sweet Years

Yes, it was 16 years ago today that John and I got married. Hard to believe it's been 16 years already. Wow. I'm happy to say that we're still together and still incredibly happy. He's an amazing man and I would be lost without him. I will say that I miss the newlywed us, but I wouldn't change it for the experiences we've shared. Here's to us, sweetie!

Twist and Shout @ Magic Springs - Hot Springs, AR

On the last day of our Hot Springs family vacation we spent the day at Magic Springs Amusement park. It was terribly hot, but over all we all had a great time. Benjamin wasn't tall enough to ride a lot of the rides. One ride in particular he threw a fit about not being tall enough to ride was Twist and Shout. You rode in these cute little cars and he wanted to ride it so bad. John stayed with the kids while I went in line to ride. All the riders getting off the ride always looked liked they were just getting off this thrilling coaster. I thought it was so funny because it looked like this cute little kiddie coaster. I was having a hard time figuring out why you had to be 48" to ride. Well, let me tell ya. I'm sooo glad it was 48" because I'm scared what might have happened to Benjamin had he gotten on. There were times I thought I was going to fall out the car and those turns slammed me into the bar that was between the 2 riders. I couldn't wait to get off that damned ride, or should I say torture chamber. It was not fun, it was not thrilling, it was painful. I immediately bruised up. Check out the picture. The picture of me was taken 2 days after, but like I said, I immediately started bruising. If you ever go to Magic Springs, do yourself a favor and skip Twist and Shout. This ride should be banned. I googled it to get a picture of the coaster and found links were someone was actually killed on this ride when it was at another park and in 2006 a 45 yr old women fell out of the car and was hospitalized. I have no idea why this ride is still in operation. Riders Beware.

My Minnesota trip

Last week I had to go up to the Minnesota office for the week. I had a nice trip. Tuesday we had a team BBQ at a co-workers house. It was nice to meet everyones family. It made me really miss my own. Here's a photo of me with one of my co-workers Wendie and 2 of her 3 beautiful girls. Wednesday Wendie and I went eat at Whiskey Creek. It was a new restaurant in town and I had never been to one or even heard of it before. If you ever have the opportunity to eat at one I strongly recommend it. Check em out at www.whiskeycreek.com for locations. Then Thursday we were off to Lakeside to listen/watch Wendie's husbands band, Funky Gumbo. They were a such a pleasure to watch. Check them out at www.funkygumbo.net Hmmm, all that talking about my after hours activities makes it sound like I didn't work at all.

Must see video

Okay, I wasn't able to figure out how to post the video on blogger so I'll just have to share the web address. If you haven't seen this, please check it out. Dancing 2008. I smiled, then cried, then smiled, then laughed, then smiled some more. Amazing. www.wherethehellismatt.com

Journey - Arnel Pineda

Okay, so John told me the other day that he saw Journey on Ellen and the new lead singer sounds incredibly like Steve Perry. I really didn't think very much of it. Then, a couple days later I got an email from my BFF in AR saying that she actually saw Journey in concert and sent me a youtube link to check 'em out. I guess I wasn't all that interested because I never took the time and actually forgot about it. Then, tonight as we're going out for supper John grabs this Journey Revelation CD and puts it in. We listened to it on the way to supper, then as we're on our way back home John asks if I noticed anything about what we're listening to. He tells me we've been listening to the new singer. Now he's got my attention. I thought he was joking, so I looked at the CD case and low and behold... not only does this singer sound incredibly like Perry, but he's Filipino... and kind of hot. I just wouldn't expect to hear that voice coming out of his body. John's watching the DVD right now and I hear it in the background. Man, it amazing how a song can bring you back to a different time and place. Right now I'm back to high school having a blast with my friends. Driving around singing at the top of our lungs with the radio as loud as it can go. Most people I talk to hated high school, but I loved it. I can tell I'll be listening to some Van Halen, Scorpions, Triumph, Rush, etc.

Procrastination Over

I started this layout on NSD weekend at my LSS. Over 1 month later and I finally finished the layout. (I told you I'm a very slow scrapper and rarely bring a layout to completion). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Especially since I'm going to be able to put pictures from 6 years ago in an album. Gotta love that. That makes 3 layouts completed so far in June, and today is only the 7th. Gotta love that, too! Let's see if I can get a 4th done tonight...

I'm 2 for 2 - Got Sketch 101

Wow, I'm actually being productive with this class. I'm 2 for 2 of posted pre-class sketches. Hot Dog! Hopefully the up-coming sketches keep getting better and better.

Got some scrapping done...

Yeah me! I got some scrapping done this weekend. It took me 5 hours Saturday night/Sunday morning to do this layout... AND it was FROM A SKETCH. (I swear it takes me just as long, if not longer, to scrap using a sketch). I've got to be the slowest scrapper on Earth. The sketch was from Valerie and Janna's Got Sketch class I'm taking on-line. Gotta love sketches. Class doesn't officially start until next week, but Valerie hooked us up with a couple of pre-class sketches to get us going. I'm going to work on completing the 2nd pre-class sketch tonight and take pics tomorrow. 2 layouts (almost) in 1 weekend. It's been too long. I miss scrapping. I've GOT to make more time to scrap. I guess I should have more time now that all my shows have finished. Pretty much the only thing I'm watching at the moment is "So You Think You Can Dance". I started watching it last season and I love it, especially Mia and Wade Robson's choreography.

A new addiction?!

Okay, I think I am officially addicted to taking on-line scrapbook classes. www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com , www.nycscraps.com , and now I get an email from my pal, Valerie Salmon, that she and Janna Wilson have teamed up to offer on-lines classes. Woo Hoo, I am so there! The class doesn't even start until June 9th (Samantha's 11th birthday). We're having so much fun and the class hasn't even started yet. They posted a blog roll in the forum and the people taking this class Rocks. I am in awe of soo many of these people. Can't wait for class to start so I can enjoy looking at everyones work. I am so in need of motivation and inspiration and I just know this class is gonna give it to me. I'm taking another on-line class at this very moment and I've been yet to be inspired. I'm a bit disappointed this time.

The ROCKER Wins!!!

It's about time a Rocker wins American Idol, and I'm SOOO glad it's David Cook. This guy is amazing. LOVE his voice. My, My, My. Can't wait to watch (and listen) to his career. I was a big Bo Bice fan, an even bigger Chris Daughtry fan, but I'm an even bigger David Cook fan. Love this guy. Wow. America got it right. Hmmm, I wonder if there will be an even bigger rocker on AI next year?!

Which TV Mom Are You?

Which TV Mom Are You?

My Result: Roseanne Connor

You are Roseanne Connor from Roseanne. You've probably got a sarcastic streak, and you may take some pleasure in embarrassing your brood. But ultimately, your kids know that when they really, really, really need to talk about something, you will listen...eventually. Truth is, you tend to see things from their points of view; you just don't like to let them in on that until necessary.
That's your little secret. And while it may not be your style (or fit your schedule) to compulsively whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, if your kids want to microwave some popcorn and watch TV with you, there's always room on the couch, and even on your lap.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=tvmomogt&c=50652

Apocalyptica Baby!

I am SOOO frickin stoked. I'm going see Apocalyptica tomorrow night (actually Sunday morning) at House of Blues in New Orleans. I have loved these guys for about 12 years. I can't begin to express the emotions their music stirs in me. John has asked me to go see bands at House of Blues before and I've always told him No and that it would have to be someone pretty amazing for me to go there since there's no seating. When he told me Apocalyptica was going I immediately said YES! I honestly can't think of anyone else at the moment that I would stand up all night to see. I sooo can't wait. If you've never heard of them, please check them out. 3 cello players (not sure what happened to the 4th guy) from Finland who frickin' rock.
http://www.apocalyptica.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTozgoj9OQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqUXDdJ3C-c&feature=related

NSD 2008

Sheila, Michelle, Teri, ME, Rebecca, and Lacey having dinner at Casa Ole Saturday night. One of my favorite things about getting together with friends to crop is the food. I love eating out with my scrapping buddies. Also, I love that Simply Scrappin' is right next door to Fresh Market. I went to Fresh Market for the first time Saturday night and I can't wait to go back to Fresh Market for more of those yummy Almond Pillow cookies. I think I'm the only one actually looking forward to getting an even bigger "Fresh Market Cookie @$$", as Teri likes to call it. Life's too short to not enjoy great food.

I actually completed 2 pages this weekend (Thanks Lacey!). That's 2 pages more than I normally do. I like the way Lacey scraps and I think the next time I crop I'm gonna have to try things her way. Simply Scrappin' had an awesome crew cropping at the store. There were some ladies from Mandeville and Lake Charles that were so much fun. Can't wait to crop with these ladies again. Lacey, Teri, Rebecca, Ali, Leanne, and myself were there representing the local girls. What a fun group. Hopefully everyone had as great a time as I did.

Oh no he didn't?!

Well, that'll teach me to leave my little stinker alone in my scrapbook room for a minute. I walked out my room for just a minute and when I returned, this is what I found. Benjamin in the process of taking all my CTMH and SU stamp sets out of their cases. (The iris carts in the back ground contain my wood block stamps). Gez, like my room isn't messy enough without him dumping out my stamps. What a little mess maker. Like I always say... it's a good thing he's so cute and lovable.

Say What?!

A conversation with Samantha as I was bringing her to school this morning...
Samantha: I bet you were good in Social Studies.
Me: Huh, what? I'm sorry I was thinking. What did you say?
Samantha: I bet you were good in Social Studies.
Me: I guess. I liked Social Studies.
Samantha: Yeah, I bet it was easy. You didn't have as much to learn.
Me: Samantha Jane! Get out my car!

Conversation: 4.23.08
Photo: 3.25.08

New Do

John had enough of my David Cassidy hair style and has been asking for me to go short. I went to Robert M's and had him give me a nice short cut. Here are some before and after shots. The after shot isn't very good. I was outside at the end of the day. It's actually cuter than this. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it's been a couple of days now and I'm enjoying it much better now. Seems like when my hair is long it's always in a pony tail anyway. I'm sure I'll be really happy with it this summer. It's already in the 80s here.

Long time no post

Okay, so I've been a bad blogger, but I've been busy. Let's catch up on April, shall we.
Friday, April 4. Met up with 4 remaining Lafayette DHS employees at Tampico's for food, drinks, and catching up. Had a nice time... Yes, ma'am.
Saturday, April 5. Garage Sale at Simply Scrappin'. Sold for $110 smackeroos. Yippee.
Thursday, April 10. Benjamin turns 4 years old. Oh my.
Friday, April 11. Texas Roadhouse and my little buddy didn't want to sit in the saddle. Missed photo op. Brought remaining garage sale scrappin' supplies to best scrappin' buddy, Teri, to bring to another sale in Baton Rouge.
Saturday, April 12. Decided to go to Baton Rouge with Teri and Lacey to drop off garage sale stash and shop at 2 BR stores. Got some great scrappy supplies.
Saturday, April 13. CTMH Stamp class.

I've been having very busy work weeks, in addition to the very busy weekends. Seems like I haven't had a day to just do nothing.
This Saturday I am going cut my hair, going get a mani-pedi, going take a card class and catch up on Creative Cafe projects. So, I will probably have another busy weekend. man-o-man. With all this busy body stuff going on I haven't had a chance to scrapbook. I haven't done any scrapping yet this month and I definitely have a couple of things I have to do. Yes, I have to. Why, do you ask? Because I am Simply Scrappin's Guest Creative Designer this month! I also need to get some photos of me to give to E. I'll probably post some before and after hair cut pics here, too. I've got so much to do and definitely not enough time to do it in.

New addition to the family

Samantha has been asking for a guinea pig from a while. We made a deal with her that if she brought home all A's and B's we'd get one for her. Well, 3rd quarter report card came out and our little girl made honor roll. So, it was off to the pet store to check out the guinea pigs. I had no idea what they were. I had no idea they looked like rats. Ewww. (Also, have no idea when I became such a sissy). To make it worse (I think) Samantha wanted a white one. I couldn't help but think about lab rats when I saw it. I wanted nothing to do with it for the 1st couple of days, but then I heard it. They actually make very cute sounds. Our cat, Ramone, seems to get along with Fluffy pretty well. He's definitely curious.

No, Steve Gleason, Say it isn't so...

John just called me to say Steve Gleason is retiring. Noooooo. I loved watching this guy play ball. When John and I had season tickets a few years ago I had no idea who he was. But, as I watched I noticed #37 always seemed to be in the action. This guy was fast, and he had curly hair sticking out of his helmet. I asked John who #37 was and he said Gleason. I pulled out the program and said Hmmmm. He's a cutie. Since then, my eyes were always on #37 when he was on the field. He seems to be an amazing guy off the field, too. He grows his hair long, then cuts it to donate to Locks of Love. He was also very active in giving back to New Orleans after Katrina. What an amazing guy. You will be missed, buddy. Best of Luck to you. Watching Saints football will not be the same.

Another SB Store Bites the Dust...

I received emails from Valerie Salmon and Julie Scattereggia this weekend that Dave decided to close the doors in 2 weeks of Memoirs in Carmel, IN. This is the store that I'd order some of Valerie and Julie's class kits. The girls there were sooo lucky to have 2 "celebrity designers" there to take classes from. They also decided to cancel DWE4. Bummer. Originally it was planned for this weekend and I couldn't go because of my nephews wedding, but then it got pushed back to April 26th and I was still on the fence about going. I was still leaning towards it, but was waiting to hear what the projects were going to be. It's always sad to hear of a store closing. Even ones 950 miles away. I guess I won't be needing that Customer Appreciation Card anymore.

Date Day

John and I went back to Baton Rouge again today. We had bought a few used cds and dvds from FYE and one of the CDs I bought was a 2 disc set and it had 2 disc Ones in it when I opened it. So it was back to Baton Rouge today to exchange it for another set. John had heard about another great restaurant he wanted to try. We went to P.F.Chang's. We were not impressed. When we got to my sisters to pick up the kids, they had decorated cookies. Looks like everyone had a great weekend. At the moment, Life is very Good.

To Matthew: Thanks so much for the wonderful photos!

Date Night

My wonderful sister, Susan, offered to babysit the kids tonight so John and I could have some alone time. (Have I told you how much I LOVE my sister)? John and I went to Baton Rouge to eat at Superior Grill. He had heard great things about it and let me tell you... it was Fabulous. Everything was Amazing, especially the Margarita. Mmmm. Half way through I couldn't feel my nose. That's the sign of a good Margarita in my book. :-) Then we went see Jumper. It was okay, I guess. I was still a little buzzed, so don't hold me to it. After the show we grabbed dessert at Marble Slab and I had yummy Strawberry Shortcake. It was a great date. Thanks Susan. You're the Best.

We're Back...

and it was horrible. All 4 of us were sick. We tried to make the best of it, but just couldn't do it. Benjamin started running fever on our drive up. Samantha still hadn't totally recovered from being sick the week before. A day or two into the trip, John started running fever too. Then it was my turn again. How miserable, to be at the Happiest place on earth and to be sick. We weren't too happy. We even cut our trip short and canceled on meeting my Dad at Anna Maria Island and decided to just head home instead. We got back Thursday night and tried to get to the doctor on Friday. He was leaving early and suggested we go to the hospital for flu tests. Thankfully it was negative, so evidently we all just picked up some super bug. Can't wait until we're ALL feeling better. We all still have a lingering cough and are still congested. I guess the fact that it's 40 degrees 1 day, then 80 degrees a couple days later isn't helping. We're running the heater one day, then the AC, then it's back to the heater. It drives me crazy.

Here's a couple of Disney pics. Looks like we had a wonderful time, huh? I will say this, every time we go the number of pictures we take is greatly reduced. I only took 184 Disney pics this year. I'd love to go back to 2001, 2002, and 2003 to see just how many pictures I take each time we go. I would have thought I would have taken more being this was Benjamin's 1st Disney trip. I guess the fact we all felt like shit didn't help. Oh well. Also, this was the 1st Disney trip that I had a digital camera. It's a shame to think I took waaayy more pics back when I used film.

And we're off...

to Florida for Mardi Gras break. Blog at ya next week. Off to play with Mickey Mouse and spend a day or two at Anna Maria. Later.

Man, I need this...

Looking through pictures to add to my blog I came across this one. Man, I miss this. This was Summer 2006. My BFF since grade school and I left our kids with our husbands and headed to the beach. It was Wonderful. No responsibility, no fighting, no bickering, just us, the beach, and a few adult beverages. Man, that was the life. I long for that again...

Photo of the day

Okay, I've been working on updating my blog. I'm gonna try to update it more often. (Hope you like the music option I just added). I'm trying to add a daily photo log, but I'm having a hard time finding one to use for blogger. Hmmm. I'll have to keep looking into that one. Until then, here's a photo I wanted to share... I was doing laundry and when I came back into the living room, what did I find? Samantha sitting on the hamper with Benjamin trapped inside. Don't worry, he was enjoying it as much as Samantha, I think.

6 layouts in 1 night!

Wow! I can't remember the last time I was so productive in 1 evening, AND they were all done before midnight. Woo Hoo for me. Basically I'm now all caught up on Halloween. I completed 3 layouts for Benjamin's book and 3 for Samantha's book for Halloween 2005, 2006, and 2007. The layouts are even in their books. Finis. Here's a couple of them.

3rd Birthday - Layout time!!!

Okay, John and I were talking the other day about how fast Benjamin is growing up. We just registered him for prek next year. Our little boy is going to be 4 in April. Amazing. That got me to thinking... I haven't scrapbooked any of his birthdays yet. Not even his 1st birthday. Isn't that horrible?! So, it got me motivated. I went in my room and got his 3 birthday pics together and picked one to scrap. Figured I start with the most recent and go backwards. So, here's his 3rd birthday layout. Sorry for the bad scan. One of these days I'll get better at photographing my layouts (that or I'll have John start scanning and stitching them again). Probably didn't help that I reverted back to my old standing on a chair ways and getting on top of the layout. It's been very rainy and gloomy (and cold) here, so I couldn't go outside to take it in natural light.

Heath Ledger

Oh no. how very very sad. i Love this guy. he's handsome and so sexy. love the voice, the smile, the hair. he was such a tall drink of water. I first saw him in 10 things I hate about you and couldn't think of I thing I didn't love about this guy. i can't believe I'll never see him in another movie. hopefully they still release the dark knight, although I'm not sure I want to see the movie that troubled him so much he couldn't get it out of his head. he'll be so missed. I know I will. God Bless.

Nooooo

Okay, this may sound silly, but I'm so upset. Yesterday I was feeling very sluggish and just down right exhausted, (and cold). I went to make a cup of something warm to drink. I grabbed the cappuccino to see if it had caffeine and OMG, what did I see? My fricking cappuccino has trans fat!! WTF? How did that happen?! i LOVE this stuff. It's not supposed to have fricking trans fat. What am I supposed to drink now?! Silly, I know, but this totally bummed out my whole day. I guess I'll have to switch back to my hot tea, and international coffees. Oh, and it's not just a little trans fat (family doctor says no such thing). It has 1.5g of trans fat. Heart disease is just too prevalent in my family to allow for any trans fat. I can't tell you how many of these canisters I've gone through. Now I'm off to mourn my favorite cappuccino.

You make Me... SO Very Happy.

I really love how this layout came out. Completely out of my comfort zone with this one. I painted a blue sheet of paper with blue and green paints and kind of blended them all together. This is my first painted background layout. This is also my first layout journaling directly on a photo. Also used Heidi Swapp chipboard letters. The page is 12x12 although it's cut slightly on the left hand side to hide blocks holding page down. The photos are also a bit curled up causing the black shadow, but I wanted to get this page copied and blogged as soon as I could. I believe this is also the 1st layout I've ever done for my husband. Lots of firsts on this one. Guess that's why I'm loving it.

Graffiti Stamping in Paint

Okay, I love love love how this came out. Used multiple colors of paint with acrylic stamps.

I never would have thought to use paint on my acrylic stamps. Especially a stamp like this that had a lot of detail. Background is dry brushed, then acrylic stamped (Technique Tuesday) with purple, pink, then orange colored paint. I so badly wanted to put a picture on it and call it a layout. LOL. But, this is for my 6x6 Art Journal. I can see me duplicating it for a layout when I come across the right photo.

6x12 layouts

I've recently started playing around with 6x12 page sizes. I like the smaller work canvas. It's much more doable for me. It was hard for me to get started so the first 2 layouts were basically a 12x12 that I split in half. Not sure why the color in the 1st layout is off. The colors should match the 2nd layout. The 3rd layout is a layout I did for Emily's Got Paint class using Graffiti-stamping with multiple stamps. It's also an ACOT January challenge layout (write a letter and use note paper).