I'm SO Excited!

I know I keep going on and on about this, but it really has been a long ass time since I last scrapped (well, prior to this set!) I just finished and posted my 4th LO yesterday. I had gotten into it so much, that I had nearly forgotten the fact that we had a birthday party to go to. I looked up at 12:30 and said oh shit, the party is at 1:00. Luckily my daughter was already dressed, and waiting to go. Both my hubby and I had showered the night before, and since it was a pool party at our neighbors, it was pretty low key - so getting ready took no time at all. It was hard for me to walk away from a near finished page, but my daughter's friend turned 6 and she was so excited to go swimming and see him. We ended up having a pretty good time, and I finished my LO when we got home. We'll be returning there all this week, providing it doesn't rain, so she can take swimming lessons with a personal instructor. Don't you worry, I'll have that camera with me and I'll be taking lots of pictures just like I did yesterday. You can check out the new LO here. I've got 3 more to do before 7/7 - and after that, well, let's just hope that I finally get this room straightened out before my surgery and can at least scrap 1 LO a week while recovering!
Enjoy!

I'm on a roll now!

I just finished and posted my newest LO, the one I worked on for the past 2 days. I'm glad to be done. The LO I did was sort of meant to be funny. Now I'm gearing up to start my next page as soon as I think of a theme, and find the pix, paper, and other supplies. So much thought goes into what to do - and sometimes, so much time goes into just doing it! I'm going to try to dig a little deeper on this next one. I really want to pull out a creative edge, and do something drastic, and amazing; not just like something you've seen in every magazine. Wish me luck.
And here's the link to my latest page, enjoy!

Another entry made!

Ok, I'll be honest - I didn't just create this layout - But it is a favorite of mine. I'm trying hard to resist any urges to post any older layouts, as I want to take this opportunity to actually scrap. I'm working on a page, and have been for 2 days. I think tomorrow I will finally be able to start putting pieces of it together, and hopefully complete it. Once done, I will let you know where you can find it. But for now, the 2nd entry can be found here - again please give me your honest opinion, and vote or leave comments if you are a registered user of Scrapbooks.Com. Thanks again, I appreciate your support.
Yesterday while I was hard at work on my next big thing, my daughter said to me, "Mom, I'm glad you back to normal and scrapbooking again". It was an odd but funny comment to me. I hadn't realized I wasn't being "normal" already. I also had no clue that my scrapbooking affected her so greatly. So I'm going to have to make some kind of resolution, though I hate that term, that I will continuously scrapbook at least monthly, if not more often. And no, the area is still not organized. In fact I think it MAY be messier for having ransacked through items looking for stuff!

1 down 6 to go!

Well at least if I want to submit as many layouts as possible, per the contest rules. Now, I have not scrapped in quite some time - quite honestly, I don't think I have in at least a year, as I have not done anything since my mother's death. So I'm both excited and nervous. For a first layout I think I did pretty well, but I know that somewhere within me I can do better. And no, my room is not even half way near being unpacked or organized yet. Yesterday I just woke up and started tearing through stuff on a mission to find the perfect paper, photos, and supplies. Like I said, I'm not sure how well I did, but for being rusty, and the first go, I think I did good. Due to contest rules, I cannot post the layout anywhere else for the time being, but if you would like to see it - and more importantly sign up and vote; the layout can be seen here. Please let me know what you think. I need some feedback, as my mind is going in a million different directions and I was up or felt like I was up half the night thinking about scrap related things - layout, titles, colors. My mind was going nuts, and still is. And to make matters worse, I admit ably have too much stuff; too much paper, too many stickers, die cuts, sets, stamps - lots of duplicates. It's no wonder I can't make any sense out of this room! Look for a huge sale coming to eBay soon!

Things are coming together

As you know I've confirmed my bi-lateral breast surgery; I am having a tissue expander placed in the right side, and having the left side removed (by choice) and having an implant put in it's place. It's not going to be fun, but I have to get this done. Worst yet, this is part 1 of a 3 stage process. After this proves successful, I will have 2 more surgeries to look forward to.
As for our child care dilemma, well that's taken care of too. My surgery was scheduled far enough in advance that Ruben's mom was able to take paid DTO to come out for a week. His little brother will also be coming out and staying for a month - which will greatly help out with Natalie. So here we are with a need to hurry up and at least make the downstairs presentable if not finished before July 23rd. We've bought some bookcases, and have mapped out how we plan to re-arrange the furniture. We still need to buy furniture for the guest room, and hopefully a new dining room set with a hutch. Although the ceiling downstairs needs to be repainted, I think it will probably wait till after (who has time to paint the entire downstairs ceiling, then possibly re-paint every room?)
Aside from that, we've gone ahead and found someone to replace/redo both the downstairs shower/bath and Natalie's shower/bath. We only have to replace the sink our self (easy enough, we've already bought the faucets and we have the know how) and replace the lighting (which we've already bought as well, and know how to do), oh and replace the downstairs toilet (we've already done Natalie's). But it will be 6 to 8 weeks before they are ready to start on that, so it won't be done in time for our guests. My upstairs bathroom is a different thing altogether. Since I have a separate jacuzzi tub, and we are wanting to re-do the little shower that is there, it is going to require a contractor who does custom stuff. The people we are using for our other bath's is New Bath and they only specialize in regular jobs. But for the price we are getting both of those baths redone at, we can hopefully afford a contractor to redo mine. Although extending the patio and getting concrete curbing is out, unless we want to slip into our equity fund, which I'd rather not do. I rather enjoy being (essentially) debt free. I just have to keep telling myself I can't have it all right now. Ruben also says that I should stop adding projects until we've finished the ones we've started. He says finish the inside first, then we'll do the outside. It's just that I need a concrete slab poured in order to buy him a shed and have in built, and if I am going to have concrete guys here I want them to do it all. So he's just gonna have to wait on his shed! Besides once we repaint and finish the bath's, we will be essentially done - I don't want to tackle the kitchen just yet. Besides I kinda like the way it looks, though it could use new counter tops. I just would like to add a little stain to some of the cabinets that have faded. I don't want to replace them - I'm not in the bath's, so why do it in the kitchen? I like the aged, antiqued look.
Speaking of fixing things, after nearly 3 years, I finally decided to give up my wedding ring set for 2 weeks so the jewelers could size it. I kinda figured after not wearing it at Disney, that if I could do that then I could send it in. Ruben was adamant that he did not want me to wear any jewelry in the park in case I lost something. Well he must have had a psychic moment cause when the trip was over I went to put on my diamond tennis bracelet and it had broke where the two links come together. Good thing I wasn't wearing it, that woulda been nearly $3000 down the drain! So since I had to send it in for repairs I figured why not send the ring too, problem is that the ring didn't quite come back the right size. I asked for 6.5 and it still feels loose, maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't want to lose a 3kt. ring set, especially since it means so much to me. Each ring has 5 diamonds on it, and it had been an early 5 yr. anniversary present - that and it is a reminder of our Vegas house, which we had just sold and made a large profit from.
So anyway, that is what's going on around here. Father's Day will be low key. Ruben got a new stereo and speakers for his Ram. We'll pretty much be going shopping - Home Depot and the grocery store, and sticking around here cleaning up and moving things around.
Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there. Have an awesome weekend!
Oh, I also have a new place to showcase all my soon to be made scrap pages. I finally did something with my Scrapbook.Com page, check it out - now if only I can finish my scrap room! That is one thing definitely on the to-do list for this weekend!

In Loving Memory

Today would have been my Mom's 61st birthday if she had not passed away last July from Liver Failer/Chirrosis. Words cannot even describe how I have felt today, but I do know one thing for sure. I do miss her so much. I took for granted so many things in our lives, and now there is no going back, ever. Sure I am still angry with her for some of the things she had done because I didn't agree with them, and I wish to God I would've spoken up in a non-conflicting way then while I had the chance. Just add it to the many other things I wish I would have said when I had the chance. I believe that there are some things that you do not have to say ALL the time, as long as you SHOW it - such as love. But you should always take time to tell someone how much you care about them, appreciate them, respect them, or even that you're sorry, and so much more as often as possible. People need to hear these little things everyday, it boosts our confidence and give us that little pick me up we all need. So today there is so much I could be saying to my Mom, but I believe that she already knows, she hears my daily cries, so today all I have to say is Happy Birthday Mom. I love and miss you dearly!

As a tribute for her birthday, Natalie and I stopped by Michael's yesterday afternoon where we bought a mosaic Inspirations Stepping Stone Kit to make in mom's honor for her birthday. The picture shown is just a stock photo of the kit, but I will be sure to take a few when it's dry. We are actually going to do 2 as we had one of those Handprint Stones that is heart shaped but as a baby, I never could get Natalie to be still enough to put her hand in cement just for an imprint. So now we are going to use the kit and the extra mosaic stones I purchased and make it all pretty and use the stamps from the Inspiration kit and stamp her name in it. Let's just hope these turn out right and not two lumps of cement that look like turds with M&M's in it. As this is supposed to be a tribute and all, so please cross your fingers that they turn out looking beautifully! I can't wait till they are fully cast, so that I can take some pictures for you all!

Pictures

I've loaded hundreds more photos onto my Flickr account to share with y'all. Some pictures are old favorites, pictures of Disney I forgot about, and a new set containing those of my very messy scrap area. I figured that while I am inspired, and wanting to scrap I better take some before pictures so you can see the mess I had to sort through just to make a page. As you'll find, not only are things downright messy, but there are boxes that still need to be brought upstairs in order to be unpacked! It's going to take a lot of hard work and effort to organize this mess, and some of it will have to be done in order to just start a project as I don't even know where to find basic supplies like scissors and glue! Maybe y'all can give me a few ideas, cause while I'm usually an organized person (ask my ex co-workers) I'm not all that into color coding things. I sure wish Cynthia would come help! Anyway, once I've managed to clean up a bit I will be sure to post after pictures as well as whatever layouts I create.

In case you're wondering why the sudden urge to create, well check this out:

Hurricane Season has officially began

Here we are 4 days into Hurricane season and we've already had 2 storms - Sub-tropical Depression Andrea, and Tropical Depression Barry. Luckily neither of those have come close to Louisiana, but in either case, it's not making for a good start. Right now there is a possible developing storm in the Caribbean, which will bring more showers our way at the very least. I myself am tired of the rain. It poured most of the day, and off and on all last week. While the drop in temperatures is nice, the rain itself makes it somewhat difficult to get things done outside - like cutting the ever growing grass and bushes! The federal outlook, announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center, calls for a "very high likelihood" of an above-normal season, with between 13 and 17 named storms, of which 7 to 10 could be hurricanes. From 3 to 5 will be major hurricanes with Category 3 winds or greater. News like that just makes me oh so thrilled to be living here. I just started to really fall in love with where I live, then Hurricane season hits. Now I'm not so sure anymore. I kinda liked it better when I lived somewhere were I didn't have to worry about the weather and making sure that we have a emergency evac kit. I mean really, I hate watching the news, and now I have to just to stay on top of the weather. Ugh! But of course there is always this link here that will keep me up to date on the storms. You know with all this, it's really no wonder why I can't sleep at night! But for now it's at least time to go try, so I guess I'll post more tomorrow. I've been trying to clean up my scrap area as I've been inspired. I'll tell you all about it next time. Till then be safe and happy!