Oh what a beautiful morning...

...oh what a beautiful day, oh what a beautiful evening, everything's going my way.

Remember that song? I believe it was from the musical "Oklahoma". That's what I woke up feeling like today. Cool, eh? After I dropped the girls off at school (it seems really strange to say that), I gassed up Rocket (the girls' name for Rob's car, which is red...Little Einsteins is one of their favorite shows) and buzzed home to begin the systematic declutter of my kitchen. Wanna see what I got done?




Don't look too closely, because there is a pile of papers still sitting on the dining room table. BUT...since we have to eat dinner there tonight, I have a deadline! LOL I'll get the girls to help me shred papers. They love that.

Well, I better get back to decluttering. I'm trying to use the computer time as a reward to myself for getting chores done. Think that will work? Hmmm....

First Day of School!

Well, we made it through the first day. Woohoo! Everything went very smoothly. Uh, well, almost everything. We had the outfits laid out last night. The backpacks were packed. Rob came down early this morning and made the coffe, emptied the dishwasher and got out all the breakfast stuff. We were even running early. Rob kissed all of us goodbye and went off to school We were right behind him.

But.....









I LOCKED US OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!


What an idiot I am! I was so hyper about taking the girls' pictures on the front porch for the first day that I forgot to take my keys as I shut the door behind us. DUH!!! Good think school is only 7 minutes away. I called Rob and he came home to let me back in. I kept apologizing and thanking him. He's such a good guy. He never said a negative word, and didn't yell at me (which I deserved for sure!).

The girls went right into their classroom without incident. There was one little girl in their class who was just wailing. I felt so sorry for her, and for her parents. They were loitering out in the hallway, waiting to see what she would do. That would be so tough.

I had intentions of coming home to clean, clean, clean, but instead I went to Panera to drink coffee with two friends of mine who were also dropping off their kids in the same class. I think I'll clean on Thursday...LOL!

Here is a layout I did of their orientation meeting last week:

Credits: RAKScraps August 06 Mega kit: BG paper and ribbon by Jan Bolton, Notebook paper and binder rings by Kim Jensen; Scrapdish August 06 Mega Kit Add-On Kit: Corkboard alpha by Rachel Dickson, Binder backing - paper by Correen Silke; Scotch tape and crayons by Christina Bartholomew from her School Days kit, available at SBE; Date-It tag pack by Mindy Wade at Plain Digital Wrapper

Now of course I have the photos I took this morning, and already have a layout ready to plop them into. I'll post those tomorrow.

Okay, enough blogging time...gotta go fold laundry and thaw some chicken for dinner. I'm going to make Chicken Paprikas tonight. Yum!

Blogger...ARGH!!

I've been trying to post a new message on here for the past several days and Blogger has not been cooperating with me!! Imagine me making that kind of growling, pirate type sound right now...ARGH! At least it worked this time!

So what have I been doing this week? Hmmm...can I remember? One highlight was Thursday. I took the girls to their "meet the teacher and see the classroom" day at their school. I think I was more excited than they were! They did great. When I took them into the room, they pretty much started playing right away and hardly noticed when all the parents left to go have the meeting with the main teacher. *Sniff* I guess my little girls are growing up. Hmpf.

This weekend we were supposed to go to our area's annual German American Festival, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I think the humidity today is about 99.99% and it's drizzling right now...yuck! It's too bad, 'cause it's a really fun event. Our neighbors dance in the German dancing club and it's so much fun to go watch. And of course my girls love to watch the big girls twirl around in their German dancing dresses. Maybe next year...

Rob has been working like a maniac all week, getting ready for school to start. He's a night owl, so if he needs to work on a server problem or whatnot, he'll come home for dinner and then go back, but he stays until 2-3 am! The other night he went in to find a backup server actually smoking! Not good. But at least we live close to church.

So this week the girls start school on Tuesday. I'll have my camera in hand and will most likely be shedding a few tears, along with all the other moms in the hallway. Maybe I should arrange for us all to go to breakfast or something.

Speaking of breakfast, I have a dear friend in Texas who also has twins who will be starting preschool this year. She suggested we arrange a "champagne breakfast" and chat over the phone while relishing our newfound quiet time. Isn't that great? I'm afraid it won't be a regular thing, though, as she is probably going back to work soon. Bummer.

New product this week...check it out at my store at 1 Hour Scrap.



And some new layouts...

Credits: Something Girly kit by Jeannie Papai; Fonts: Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS

Credits: Boyish Charm kit and Layered Sketch (from Set #4) by Jeannie Papai; Font: OliJo

Credits: Young and Carefree kit by Amy Knepper, available at The Digi Chick Font: MA Flirty


Credits: Vintage Vashon by Amy Knepper, available August 31 at The Digi Chick.
Font: Note This

That's all folks...have a great week!

Last Week of Summer

It's FINALLY time to start school. How great is that? I'm so excited! My girls will be going to preschool this year. It's only two mornings a week, but this means that I get to experience all the fun "school stuff" through them. And, I get two mornings to do what I want!!!

~~~~~

A couple of actually scrapping things (Dawn, you may want to skip this part...LOL!). Be sure to check out Gina Miller's blog today. She has a special coupon good only tomorrow in her newsletter, so check it out.

And I'm excited to announce that Amy Knepper has asked me to be on her creative team! Yay! I love her stuff and I look forward to seeing her "new" style. You can check out her designs at The Digi Chick Boutique. Here's a layout I made with her new Young & Carefree kit:

And here is one I made with her Beachside Holiday kit a while back...


Well I gotta run and go pick up our van, which just had the brakes replaced...another $350 out the window!

I finally picked a name!

Thanks for all the great ideas for the name of my new kit (see the previous post). Here are the two winners:

Paisley Palooza - May's idea

Flannel Pajamas - Debby's idea

I decided to combine the two and I came up with Paisley Palooza PJ's.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to give me ideas!! I'll probably end up doing this again...what a fun way to name a kit.

The kit will be available at 1HourScrap in a day or two.

Help Me Name This Kit!

I'm not the greatest at naming kits, but I usually come up with something. This time I'm stumped! Please help me name this kit. Post your suggestion before Thursday, August 17 at 9pm EST to be entered in the contest. The winner(s) will receive a copy of the kit. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Please leave me your email address so I know how to contact you. Thanks!

New Week, New Stuff

We had a fabulous weekend! Grandma's party was a big success. She really enjoyed herself and even the kids did exceptionally well.

My brother is in town from San Diego for a few days so we're going to be doing lots of "fun uncle" activities, like the zoo, swimming and shopping for princess bicycles. I can't believe they are big enough for actual bicycles...yikes! But that's what he wanted to get them for their birthdays, so that's what we'll do. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~

I finished a couple of new QuickPage sets over the weekend. They should be up in the 1HourScrap store sometime today.


I made this one using Christina Bartholomew's School Days kit. I wish I had some photos to put in this set, but my girls will be starting preschool this year. Maybe I should go back and scrap along with Sue's School Album challenge at RAKs...and get my own school days finished!



I made this set with Christina's Birthday for Her kit, for my girls' birthday party. I always have a tough time scrapping birthdays for some reason (too many pictures, maybe?).

Well we're off to buy the bikes. Wish me luck!

How stinkin' cute is this? A digital grab bag! For only $1.00, I just HAD to go find out what was in it. Even I can afford $1.00!! LOL I won't spoil the suprise as to what's inside, but IMHO, it's well worth it. Tiff Brady is a master of marketing, wouldn't you say?

I found this over at Plain Digital Wrapper. Check out the grab bag here. Hurry though, because the grab bag is only available until tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~

I finally finished my layout for Grandma's 90th birthday, which we are celebrating tomorrow. I know it isn't very fancy or flashy, but I wanted to make it really easy for her to see/read. Grandma is legally blind so I used the black text against the yellow background for the best contrast.

Credits: August Color Challenge Kit by Lisa West (Zephanee) at RAKScraps;
tag by Robin Cabana; staples by Christina Bartholomew; font is Century Gothic

~~~~~~~~~~

Well I better get to sleep. Family gatherings are always so tiring...why is that? Maybe because they require so much restraint? LOL

Nite!

Beauty Treatments

It's Thursday, isn't it? Do you ever lose track of what day it is during the summer?

I'm taking the girls to get their hair cut this morning. My mom is meeting me at the salon (is BoRics technically in the "salon" category? LOL) because I guess she thinks I can't handle taking two four-years-olds to get their hair done. She's probably right. Heidi has been one time, but Gretchen hasn't been yet...could get interesting.

I have to share a recipe I'm going to try tonight. Gina Miller posted this on her blog for all of her readers. I have a ton of cherry tomatoes around here from our garden, so this will be a great way to use them. You can see the credits on her blog.


Okay, we're off to get beautiful! I'm sure I'll have some interesting pictures of this event...

Exciting news...to me, at least...

Well it's official...I just sold my first kit! I haven't done too much kit designing... just for prizes for my RAK chats/challenges. But, I'm on the CT at 1HourScrap, and Christina decided to encourage us to sell our designs there, if we want to. So far I've only sold QuickPages...but I figured...why not try it? This kit is my favorite one I've ever made. Today she emailed and said that someone had actually bought it. Yipeee!!!

My two other kits right now...

Find it here

Find it here

In other news, I took the girls to the park today to meet up with the playgroup from church. It was so nice to see everyone, since we don't meet during the summer. I have found summer to be kind of isolating...KWIM?

Things are shaping up for my grandma's big 90th birthday party on Saturday. My parents are hosting it...thank goodness! DH is in charge of taking pictures of all the guests. I still have to finish up my scrapbook page for her memory book. I find it difficult to "scrap on demand". I have so many good pictures I can't decide which ones to use.

Happy hump day!

Gretchen's first blog entry

Gretchen
1234567890
1234567890
123456790
1234567890
1234567890
fghfG1234567890agGhbnmbvcxzasdffghjkqwertyu3e467890

Polar Freeze!

Yes, you read that right. We are experiencing "global cooling" here in NW Ohio. Today it's only supposed to be 80 degrees and lower humidity! Hallelujah! I hope to take the girls to the park, after we hit the library.

We had a really nice weekend around here. Saturday was just a "stick around the house and not to a whole lot" kind of day. After dinner to took a "ride" in the car (do you remember doing that with your grandparents? I loved that...) and wound up at one of our favorite ice cream places out near our airport. They have this fabulous chocolate crunch dip (which is just chocolate dip with rice krispies in it) and then they dip your whole ice cream cone it. Yum!

Sunday we had Rob's family over for a cookout, and we celebated my birthday and my BIL's bday together. Rob and I have developed a nice little system for entertaining. He does the cooking, and I do the cleaning/table set up/etc. Now, why did it take us 12 years to figure this out? I used to get SO stressed out everytime we would have people over, trying to do everything. He loves to cook, and is a REALLY good cook, so why not just let him do it? I'm so lucky to have him!!

Unfortunately, before everyone came over, I started getting a migraine. I had to lie down for a while but managed to get up and catch the last half of dinner. Things were okay until they were ready to leave. It came back with full force...head, stomach, the whole shabang. I was up half the night and can still feel remnants of it today. Anyone have a good solution for these things?

Okay, I'm off to get beautiful before we go on our excursions. Have a great day!

New Look

So what do you think of my blog's new outfit? I won't lie...I am up WAY too late playing around with this, but I had to get it just the way I wanted it before I could go to sleep. The joys of html...

I took the girls to a park today for a picnic lunch and we had the pleasure of listening to a tuba quartet play a little concert. I used to play the tuba in college, so this was quite a thrill for me. LOL We got to see some geese, ducks and even two beautiful swans. Gretchen took a bunch of pictures. Very fun!

We decided to wash the van this afternoon, and it quickly turned into a water fight. When DH got home, the girls could not wait to soak him. It was so much fun just to get soaked and not care about it.

I better attempt to get some sleep. It's already 4:21am. This insomnia is for the birds.

I Want to be a Kid Again...

Do you ever wish that? I have been wishing that a lot lately...

I watch my girls play, and they have so much fun. I listen to them as they make their dolls and stuffed animals talk, and it's so darn cute. They can make just about anything talk. And they can make anything fun, in a silly, child-like way. I treasure this time with them so much, just watching. Sometimes they even let me play! And then sometimes, when I try to join in and use a silly voice, they tell me..."No Mommy, don't talk like that! Just be Mommy, okay?". LOL

Maybe I'm a bit reflective lately since I turned 34 yesterday. Birthdays aren't always very easy for me ...long, long story which I'll share sometime, but not today. Anyway, I had a great day. DH brought me flowers (he used to have them delivered, but I'm afraid of flower delivery trucks now...another long story), Dave Ramsey's new book "The Total Money Makeover", a Starbucks card, and couple of cool "fashion" pens and a neat back massager thing for the back of my computer desk chair. Gee...is there a theme here? My wonderful friend Patrice even brought me over a gift...a PartyLite lantern that I had been admiring but knew I shouldn't buy. How nice is that?

Last night I went over to my old stompin' grounds, a nearby swim and tennis club that I grew up going to. I literally went there every day, all day, every summer and lived in the pool. I was 12 years old before I realized that not every kid spend all day every day in a pool!

Last night was the club's annual synchronized swimming show...they are still doing them! I was in synchronized swimming there for about 8 years. It's the only real athletic thing I've ever done, and I was even pretty good at it! It was so great to watch the little girls, dancing around in their costumes and doing "ballet legs" in the water. I have so many awesome memories of those times, and even a couple of video-taped shows I was in. Hmm...I really need to do a couple pages about this...don't I?

And with that...we are going to leave Barnes and Noble now...night!