The hit of the summer

Cost $10.00. Yep. Want to see the happening thing in our household?



At the beginning of summer we found some freezer pop mold that was expensive and flimsy so we passed them up. But later we went into Starbucks and saw these ones on the shelf. They are sturdy, fun, so worth all the fantastic creations they have brought this summer. We've frozen, yogurt, pudding, pop, cool-aid, fruit, etc. and enjoy every single one. LOL!

I've worked on a few more lo's this week - TFL!





I'm still working on the latest HP book. Enjoying it very much so far. I've been reading it to darling daughter a little bit each night at bedtime so it's taking us a little longer to get through it. I've very much enjoyed reading it with her and having discussions about it in the evenings. :D

Tomorrow I hope to lay new flooring in the bathroom so this afternoon I need to prep it. Guess I should get on to it. Have a super weekend!

Wowsers...

The sun finally made an appearance yesterday so we went out to work outside. We washed the siding, gutters, and windows around the house. Mowed the lawn and weeded. Today we finished up and put the equipment away. That's a bunch of hard work!

I also did some cooking for dinner the last couple of nights. One was a new recipe and it was delish. It was a chicken dish that you basted in EVOO, salt, pepper, and thyme. Broiled. Then garnished with sweet salsa. I made up a pineapple and mango salsa with a touch of honey... ymmo!

Some super great news this week in the scrappy world. My partner and I are in the second week of the race and going strong! It's been so much fun! Here's my third entry which was in the theme of Once Upon a Time. The pic here was taken a few years ago on the beach. Its a depth perception shot. Darling daughter was down the beach a ways and then we both turned towards one another and dear hubby took the shot. hehe TFL!



I was also asked to join Dawn Wilson's creative team. She sells at SBB and OAKS. I'm thrilled at the wonderful opportunity. In addition, I have a guest spot for August on Amanda Heimann's CT. She sells at the digichick. How cool to get to work with such amazing designers. What surprises and I'm both grateful and thankful!

Earlier in the week I did work on one other lo. This one I scanned in for a *few* years ago. Again, TFL!



Well, a friend of mine and I are meeting this afternoon for some good ol' girly talk and pedicures. So I'm off and running. Have a great day!

It feels like another season

Perhaps late fall or early winter? It fools my senses. The humidity has dropped but the weather has otherwise not changed. Dreary, dark, damp... sigh.

So today I sit in bed under my quilts with the laptop on. I put my Pride and Prejudice dvd's in the tv to enjoy. Did I mention I was alone this weekend. How better than to spend this weekend? Other than reading Harry Potter... which I plan on picking up tomorrow when I run into town to pick up the kids. :D

The Race is going well and Jen and I finished challenge 2. It was a collab lo that required us to use doodles, flowers, red, pictures and friendshp. So here's what we came up with- TFL!



Later today I plan on clearing off the kitchen counters and recaulking them. Pretty exciting huh? ;)

I hope you all have a super Saturday!

Rain rain go away

It's been raining off and on for a week or more now. What happened to summer? It's been a wet one.

This week we've been couped up in the house for the most part staying dry. But boy has it been humid. Anyway, I wish the weather would change.

I got out some bright sunny pics to scrap and did this lo. TFL!



Today I'm working on the next lo for the Amazing Race with my partner. Fun fun fun. Then this afternoon I thinking of taking the kids bowling.

Well, that's about it for this post. You all have a fantastic Friday!

The Race is ON!

Yep we are off and running, Jen and I.

Yesterday kicked off the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race. Six weeks, twelve challenges, ONE HUGE grand prize drawing. We are off to a great start. :)

Our first challenge was to scrap some museum related and we had to use the word "amazing" in the lo. So here's my first entry-



Some friends linked me up to this newspaper clip generator site and that's how I listed the facts about the museum in the background. It was a fun trip and I enjoyed scrapping this!

For some unknown reason I am up before the crack of dawn this morning. Luckily for me, dear hubby is off the next couple of days, so I shall plan on a nap this afternoon. ;)

And for the record, I DID work on organizing my bill desk the other day. A little more time today and it should be ship shape. lol! No more procrastinating for me.

What do we have children for if nothing else than to live to amuse them. Right? That's what my darling daughter thinks anyway. I've been walking in our neighborhood and you all know I have a pom I adore. (well three actually but one is MINE and the other kinda just adopted me) Anyway, mine (Harry) is very tiny. He loves going with me and is quite the outdoorsy little mate. So yesterday I make up a swaddle of sorts so that he can come with me on my walk. My darling daughter had a GOOD LAUGH at my expence. But alas...Harry LOVED it! He's definately my little baby!

I guess I should go make some coffee up... doesn't look like I'll be going back to bed. You all have a WONDERFUL day!

Today is a good day

I haven't slept well the last few nights but none the less I woke this morning feeling like a million bucks. Yesterday I felt crummy and today I feel so much better! Yay!

Yesterday I took it easy and drank TONS of fluids. I scrapped one lo - SHE LOVES ME



It made my entire week to sign on this morning to DST and find that the lo I just posted above was chosen as a gallery standout. What an honor! I love love love looking through the gallery standouts but didn't expect to see my own there. I'm so surprised and on cloud nine at the moment.

An odd little fact about me- I'm one of those people loathe doing the dishes. I'd rather scrub the toilets then do dishes. Really! Isn't that odd? Anyway, I used to go to great leangths to avoid the kitchen but this summer I decided to make peace with the dishes and I don't mind anymore. Really! Isn't that strange? Now shall I tell you that I've apparently and irrational moved the procrastination of dishes to my bill desk. I've never minded doing the bills and I still don't. But the desk and filing system I have have seen better days. Although I know I just need to tackle that area and spend an hour or two getting it straightened up and the old stuff archived and such, I can't seem to bring myself to do it.

Today. I will do at least some of it today. I know I'll feel better once that is done. Doing it is no fun! lol!

OMGoodness... the collection department of the bank just called AGAIN while I'm posting this and this lady was mean and would not listen. Relentless! GRRRRR! When this is all said and done I very well may move my loan to another bank. This is the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER! It is a nightmare.

And now back to my happy place.... *deep breath*

Today's to do list:

1. balance checkbook
2. wash all bedding
3. organize bill desk
4. archive old bills
5. clean my bathroom
6. exercise

Well that should do it for this post. Hope you all have a SUPER SUNDAY!

No title

Thursday my darling daughter had her best friend come stay the night. She has been looking forward to their sleepover for weeks and missing her terribly since school got out. They had a great time.

Thursday we were still under our extreme weather warning and it was in the 90's. About 9:30 pm the temp. had dropped down to the low 80's and it was really comfortable outside. Earlier we'd blown up air matresses and talked about sleeping out in the tent. The kids were so excited. We were packing blankets and pillows out about 9:30 when the sky lit up with lightening. Then again and again. I nixed the tent idea and we brought our bedding back in and then the thunder started rolling. I live in the PNW. Here I've only seen lightening and heard thunder during storms. There wasn't a storm in this case to it was all very strange. It went on for all hours into the wee morning. It was really amazing.

Also on Thursday - Well to put a very very long story into a nutshell, I made a payment to a bank for a loan we have that they did not credit to my account back in April. The bank notified me in May. I provided all documentation three times to show that the payment was in fact made. This bank "IS RESEARCHING THE LOST PAYMENT". In the meantime they have turned me into collection who calls me at least once a day. They reported this to my credit and have told me so. I have no recourse other than to wait this out and when their research is done then they will clean things up. It has been so frustrating and exhausting! They called again twice on Friday and I finally got so angry I started bawling like a baby. Supposidly this will be resolved by Monday and I was to recieve no more calls per the supervisor. Well, I had two today before 9:00 am. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Last night darling daughter went off to spend the night at her friends house and dear son was invited to a birthday party. The kids at the bday party were going to have an air soft gun party. Dear son's been wanting one for a while so went drove to the mall yesterday and bought him some. I was really pleased to find that Big 5 had a package of two on sale for half off. Yay! Love sales!

I did a quick little lo of two of my little furry friends - Here's the boys.



So with being a little stressed out about the stupid bank thing and such I started getting a great big ol' cold sore on my lip this week. OUCHIE!!! Then this morning I woke and just feel kinda fluish. I plan on just taking it easy today and maybe scrapping a little in bed before the kids come home.

I hope you are all well this weekend and enjoy it!

Is it hump day already?

Sunday we went out in the boat. It was really nice and quiet... just dear hubby and I. On Monday it was a nice day and we had the kids so we went back out on the lake. This time we caught 14 (yes you read that right) 14 fish. The kids had a blast. They were reeling them in as fast as they cast out. I got sunburned that day though something good on the top of my head of all places. I still can't brush my hair all the way down to the scalp. Eeek! Always wear a hat when spending the day out in the sun on the water.

In my neck of the woods we have extreme heat warning on now. It was 100 plus yesterday and today. Hot hot hot and humid. We are doing our best to stay cool though in the house with AC.

Today darling daughter and I have been folding clothes and pairing socks while watching Season One of LOST again. We both just LOVE Sawyer. hehehe

Last night we waited until is had cooled down to a tolerable temp and then went out on a bike ride. There's a five mile loop we like to take. Can I just say... Never again that late in the evening. BATS OUT! Enough said.

Well I'm afraid this is somewhat of a boring post. I need to head off to make dinner and then I'm hoping to scrapbook and of course... with any luck... possibly download by Christina Renee order if I can access the site long enough. Hehehe. Until tomorrow my friends-

It was a nice and quiet day.

I did chores around the house in the morning. It's nice to have a chance to do this once and a while when the kids are away overnight... I feel like I can catch up on the house and even get ahead in the game. ;)

This morning was strange though. It was cool, cloudy, and very gray. After the warm streak this mornings weather felt almost fall-ish. But it slowly burned off and by mid afternoon it was bright, sunshiney and hot again.

After my housework this morning I scrapped a lo - (TFL!)



This was on the 4th. And my dear son was all to happy to show us (in his humble opinion) the advantages of having braces and eating watermelon. What a mess! hehehe.

This evening, dear hubby came home from work and we picked up some movies and Chinese. Yummo! And tomorrow we are spending the day out on the boat. You all have a super super super weekend!

The 4th

was lots of fun. We stuck around home for the most part. We had all the traditional stuff... watermelon, chips and dip, hotdogs and popcicles and such. We let off a few firework in the evening... the kids still love the sparklers. I had a few good picture opportunities and I played with some settings on my camera. Here's one lo I did of darling daughter. :)



And I have an awesome opportunity to play this summer in The Amazing Race digi style of course. This should be so much fun. Can hardly wait to play!

Today we finished watching the movies we rented the other day. We watched Nanny McPhee... now the kids had seen it before now but I had not. It was not one of my most favorite Colin Firth movies (He's Mr. Darcy to me, lol!)but I thought the story was cute and the movie was done well. I enjoyed watching it. The other movies we got really were just older favs of the kids. In the afternoon, we returned the movies and then went bowling for a couple of hours in the nice air conditioned alley. The kids and I had bowled well for us (which means we broke 100, hehehe) and just enjoyed the time out and about.

Remember the neighbors dog and that situation? Well here's an update - it improved a great deal for a few months, in fact, we wondered at times if they still had the dog since he stopped coming altogether. Well he showed up a couple of weeks ago before we went on vacation and was here for a long afternoon before one of the kids came to get him. We haven't been back long and the dog came over on Monday and has been here since. They haven't come looking for him either. I felt bad for him last night since people were lighting off fireworks but he ran and hid under our house. At least he was safe I suppose.

Well, I need to go tuck the kids in for bed. Thanks for stopping in!

Did you know that I am

the meanest mother EVER! LOL! According to the dear delusional son anyways. Yep! Today we resumed some normal summer routines which included daily chores, some educational activities, and no television before lunch time (during the week). He is certain this is a form of child abuse. Poor thing - NOT! LOL! Oh he'll get over it.

I must say - I can hardly believe it is already JULY. That seems crazy. It is so very very nice to be home now. I will enjoy each and every single moment. The end of August will undoubtly seem to come at the snap of fingers, then back to work.

My diet has been okay. I've lost 8 pounds before vacation. That was over a few months so clearly I wasn't putting my best effort into it. However, I figure I didn't put it on overnight so taking it off slowly may be healthier and permenant. I hope anyway. I do plan on getting more excercise from today on. That too should help keep me on the right track. :)

This morning we baked a cake. That should be a nice treat after dinner tonight. It's such a pretty day today. I love it like this because it's in the low 80's and I can sit out under our canopy and enjoy the birds singing as I type in this blog entry. It's perfect weather to be outside enjoying life.

Last night I started another lo and finished it up this morning. Here she is- (thanks for looking!)



Well that's about it for now. Have a Marvelous Monday!!!

okay the new blog header

reminds me of that song... the future's so bright, I have to wear shades. LOL!

Life is definately good around here. We have enjoyed a few days around home. Yesterday the rain stopped and the sun came out a bit. So we were able to unload camping things (tent, sleeping bags, tarps and such) and lay them out to dry. In the afternoon we sat outside under out canopy and played board games. Then after dinner we went to town and bought some soft serve ice cream cones. Yum!

Today we sent dh off to work and then the kids and I went bowling. That is always fun. Afterwards we returned some movies we rented and watched on Friday then went grocery shopping. They picked out a cake to bake tomorrow... just for fun. They both love to cook and every so often they ask to buy a treat like that. :)

The movies... We got ghost rider which was okay. I thought Nicolas has a poor southern accent in it to say the least, but the movie itself was okay. They boys though... they really liked it. Even watched it twice. Ha! Then there was miss potter. Now I really enjoyed this one whereas the boys were a little bored with it. Got to love a headstrong woman! So there's your big movie reviews. Not that you asked. hehe

In that past few days I've done a little scrapping too. Here are a couple I've recently finished.





Thanks for stopping by! Have a super Sunday!