Happy New Year!

Wow we are in 2007! Can you believe it?? I swear I feel like I was just watching the news as people were gathering supplies to get ready for the big Y2K scare... and now it's 7 years later! That is completely insane!

So I got the best little item the other day... and I'm so excited about it! I got a new Nikon D80 digital camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so set on getting the new Canon Digital Rebel xti, but after reading a ton of reviews and then going to look at them, we walked away with the Nikon. It takes the most amazing pictures!! Now I'm no photographer by any means, but I tell you, the pictures are amazing. Poor Ellie is getting super annoyed at me taking 500+ pics of her! Poor thing, maybe one day she'll see my face out from behind the camera!

Tomorrow is going to be a mommy day. I'm off work and Ellie is going to the sitter. I have plans to do nothing!! Maybe a pedicure and lots of scrapping! That's the plan.. we'll see how that goes! Other than that, nothing too exciting to report. I only had to work 3 days this week, so that was nice.. next week it's back to 5 days!! UGH! I know I'm a big complainer! Have a great weekend Ladies!

ahhh a moment

(warning.. a long post ahead!!)
I finally have a moment to breathe and to post an entry. Things have been crazy busy as usual. LOL and to think I thought I might actually rest this week!!

Christmas was wonderful and of course we all went way overboard. I realized this year that we went above and beyond in our gift giving. I'm not sure what we were thinking. Not that I would get rid of anything, just that it's way too much. I have a 20 month old child who needs/wants nothing. That's crazy. Even my extended family went nuts for Ellie this year.

DH was very good to me as well. He bought me some clothes, actually a couple of shirts and then the same shirt in a different color! This is such a man thing to do. We were joking about it and he called it the "Noah's Arc of Ann Taylor Loft" 2 of everything.. LOL. Needless to say, the pairs will be going back and traded in for some pants. And this is pretty cool, anyone who knows me, knows that I am a complete salsa nut.. well he bought me salsa of the month club. So every month I will get 2 salsas from all over the country. Coooooool huh! Then I got a tripod. I casually mentioned I wanted one and now I do. I did take some cool pics of the tree with it:

Now what's very cool about this pic is that I took it using my manual mode.. no automic on this one! LOL I'm getting very excited about exploring my camera, which is just a simple sony. But hey it has to have some potential right???? I'm actually in the market for a new one, but I have to wait until the new year.

In fact.. head on over to Mydigitalmuse.com, they are started a book club on this book: Understanding Exposure I'm looking forward to it.
As far as scrapping goes, I am officially on Sara Amarie's creative team. She saw the wonderful post by Amy Knepper about her retirement and team, and asked me to be on her team. The rest is history :) I officially start in January. She was selling at PDW, but since they closed, she will be starting at Oscraps.com in the new year.

I'm also on Kimberly Geswein's guest creative team for January... I am so excited about this! She has some awesome fonts and templates. In fact, my header is made with one of her blog templates :) Her stuff can now be found at mydigitalmuse.com

Here is a page I finished:

This is from Michelle Coleman's Merry Little Christmas Kit at scrapartist. I spent way too much money there during their 12 days of xmas sale.

And one last thing, here are the 2 things I made which will be available tomorrow at the digiscrapshak:

and if you made it this far.. thanks!

Merry Christmas!!

Here is the card we sent out this year!

One More Day!!!

One more day until I am off of work for a full week!!!! Yipee!!! Can you tell that I am excited? I have most of my shopping done too, just one more little thing to pick up and then after that it's all about relaxing.... LOL right!!!

I got a page done today:

and since I'm feeling lazy go HERE to see the credits :) Other than that, Ellie is still doing good. Her shiner is getting better and the swelling is starting to go down. She is still silly as ever. She has started doing this funny dance when she hears music playing, I swear it looks like "go go" dancing with her arms going up and down. I'll have to get a video of it, because it's hillarious! Ok with that I'm off to bed!

RAKS Add on!!

Hey everyone!! So check out this amazing add on kit at Scrapdish!!! I just love the colors this month!! You can find it HERE!



Isn't it great!!!! And look at the fun thank you card I made to give to parents/kids :)

The Update

Well it's all over now and thank goodness! I was a long hard day for Ellie.. she wanted NOTHING to do with the nurses or doctors. If they even looked at her she screamed. My husband Jeff kept a running blog of the day and emailed it out. Here it is:

6:00am - Well the morning started off great Ellie was in a great mood and played in the car all the way to the Hosptial unaware that something ominious was approaching..

6:30 - Admiting took forever, we visted three waiting rooms in the journey to the pre-op

7:30 - Preop blues set in with Mommy and Ellie figured it out she was not going to Daycare today. She typically enjoys electro gadgets, but not today and particularly not the ones that had to touch her (pulse/ox/temp). She did get a lovely orange gown which I think of as a precurser to a straight jacket. Positive side our Dr as it turns out 5 years ago seperated conjoined twins in Denver so Mom felt much better.

8:00 - scratch what I said about Mom feeling better because this is where it all fall apart. It is go time both Mom and Ellie are crying and in a humane way the pryed her away from mom and took Ellie screaming down the hall. Weird silence sets in as her muffled cry fades away and you realize you can't be there for her now and it feels empty.Tick tock it is all a matter of waiting now.

9:30 - Mr. Little congratulations it’s a ….eewww tumor, growth weird thing that had hair growing out of it. Initial prognosis is it is not an evil thing, but pathology results will be run non the less and the doc described how big this thing was - lil bigger than a marble and very fleshy hard mass. The surgery went fine and there we no complications so a good sigh of relief, now the wait till we can see her and feel her stare of what did you do to me.

10:00 - Trip the lights fantastic! So Ellie started to wake up from surgery and the post op nurse came out to get us. She is breathing and looks like our child - quick check of the ankle bracelet and yep this one is ours, but she is mysteriously calm and quiet. Why did I think that because as soon as the anesthesia wore off and she was aware and wanted nothing to do with anyone, but mom.10:05 - Will you stop poking me! Well she developed a hematoma and the swelling started, they all came to see if they needed to take her back, but the sutures held, but a little pressure on the spot and some demerol to stop the pain things seemed to calm down.10:15 - In Steve Irwin's wet dreams! … wrestling alligators sums up the fiasco that ensued in getting her ready to go home. First they had to get some stats and she reacted like a shell shocked alien probe survivor very timid and untrusting. Then the best part - removing the drip IV tube, well Ellie helped in removing the bandages, seemed like a fun game round and round and round till the IV was exposed. Think that stopped her? We had a gusher, she yanked out the IV and covered Mom, Nurse, blanket and Rae (her stuffed rabbit) in blood which was like capping an oil rig fire. She was flailing her arm around and we needed to get it contained. Amazing a little gauze some pressure and an elmo bandage all better.

10:30 - all smiles when we walked outside the hospital, it was over and she was too tired and doped up to care about anything else expect to get home and go to bed. Get home and she did the drunk walk into the house and walked right to her high chair - guess she was hungry. Well things are quiet she is sleeping and then we begin the every 4 hour Tylenol for pain ritual. No sleeping tonight, but it will be worth knowing it she is safe.

Here are some pics:

(Ellie right before surgery)

(Here we are right afterwards.. before the incision became huge and before the wrestling!)

And here is Ellie today:

Anxious

So tomorrow is Ellie's surgery. I know it's supposed to be an easy procedure, but I'm still nervous and anxious! In fact, all day I was in a state of denile. Oh I guess I should mention what she's having done... she is having a cyst removed off of her right eye.. in fact if you look at the picture on my header you can see the bump on her eyebrow. It started out the size of a small pea at 6 months of age and has grown ever since. We along with the doctors decided it was time to come out. Mainly because it's getting so big and I don't want it to scar. Plus the doctors said that these can become infected... so out it goes. Needless to say, as little as it is, the thought of handing her over to a nurse as she cries is not my idea of a good time.. :(

We have to be at the hospital at 6:30 am and she will have it done at 8. She can't have anything to eat past midnight and no liquids after 5 am. Hopefully we'll end up waking her up in the morning, put her in the car and head out. So cross your fingers and wish us luck!!

On a different note, I feel like I have some mojo back in the scrapping realm. Now mind you I have lost all creativity as far as designing goes! LOL Here are a few pages I have done:

(credits: Robin Cabana's new Just a memory Kit available at Scrapbook-bytes)

(credits: Jen Wilson's Kate kit, pin and overlay by shabby princess)

(credits: Peppermint Lane kit by Laura Alpuche of the Digichick)

Well that's all I have to report.. I'll check in tomorrow or Thursday and let everyone know how it went!

A New Look

So I updated the look of my blog..what do you think???? I was getting tired of my 'lil sweetie and decided to show off Ellie instead! :)

Thing are crazy as usual! I do have a new kit out at Digiscrapshak! Here is a pic of it:

Other than that not too much in the scrapping realm. I'm not sure if I posted this or not but we ended up dropping out of our new house that was being built :( The market is horrible right now and the value was going down, and we would have to sell our current house for alot less money too.. so needless to say it would have been a very bad investment for us. I am bummed but also feel a huge level of relief. We took our current house off the market today and I must have had at least 7 realtors call me.. they must be desperate. That's how bad the market is! I guess in about a year we will make this house into a rental. Now this may be me complaining and don't get me wrong, I love my house. But mentally I was done with it. I know that it's plenty big for the 3 of us, but I was really hoping for something bigger... I'm spoiled I know. Plus, I packed up all of my scrapbooking stuff, cookbooks, pictures, etc... and the thought of unpacking it now just bums me out. See I'm a HUGE complainer.

Diet.. so I was down a total of 18 lbs and the past few weeks I have just been dragging my feet. I think I have gained at least 3 lbs back!!! Seems like I'll find any excuse to cheat! Ugh!!! The holidays don't make it any easier too... someone please help me get my motivation back!

Ellie has a horrible cold and cough. I have a feeling I may be home tomorrow with her. She is also having her surgery next week to remove the cyst on her eyebrow. I'm not looking forward to that at all.

So in a nutshell.. I"m bummed about the house, I'm gaining weight, I'm not getting any pages done and Ellie has a cold. Could I possibly whine anymore???? Ok sorry about this if you actually made it to the end!

Happy Turkey Day!!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We are headed to my family's restaurant (it's closed for the day) to all get together and eat. There should be about 30 of us!!! Makes it much easier than having it at some one's house.

I survived the wild weekend and I'm still trying to catch up on some sleep! Maybe this will be the weekend!!


Don't' forget to head over to the Digiscrapshak tomorrow for the "Black Friday" sale!! Lot's of goodies, including my little mini kit!

Have a great day!

Busy as a Bee!!

So everyone is healthy again.... thank goodness (knock on wood!) and since everyone is better I'm back to work full time :( I really miss hanging out with Ellie. On top of it all now she has MAJOR seperation anxiety stuff going on.. I even walk away and she screams!!! I'm hoping this is just a phase.
I have a new kit out:

It's called "Family Traditions" and it's perfect for you Thanksgiving photos or even heritage photos!! It can be found HERE.

Here is a LO I did with it:

(credits: papers/elements by me, date stamp by Heather Roselli, template by Lie Fhung)

I also did this LO with Jen Reed's A Little Mix 2 paper pack (date stamp by Heather Roselli):

I have a crazy weekend ahead of me. It's my mother's 60th Birthday so tomorrow night we are going to the Barbara Streisand concert and then Friday we are all heading out to Las Vegas for the weekend. Pretty much most of my family here in Phoenix is going, plus my cousin from Idaho. It should be lots of fun! Then Sunday I fly back and head to the Dixie Chicks concert that night.... phew... by Monday morning I should be completely exhausted.

Ellie had her pics taken last Saturday.. they turned out pretty cute. Here is the link to see some of them. With that I'm out of here :) Have a great weekend!!! Can you believe next week is Thanksgiving already????

Happy Halloween!!!

We've had quite a week around here.. first last Wednesday I spent all day in the ER :( It ended up being a nasty intestinal virus, but they thought it was my appendix at first. Needless to say, it was horrible. Jeff then had it over the weekend, as did my babysitter. So last week I worked 1 day!

Then on Saturday Ellie had a high fever and she has had it since. We went to the doctor today and they think it may be Roseoloa Virus. Which is contagious! *sigh And of course this all is happening on Halloween. I think we will take her to just a couple of houses right here and then bring her back home. She is ok if her fever is down, but when the medicine wears off, it shoots right back up.. last night it was 104!!!

We went to get a pumpkin last night and of course everyone is out of them.. plus my other stuff is packed away and impossible to reach with all the other boxes, so I really dont' have any decoration up! Pathetic! LOL

Anyway, have a good night and eat lots of Candy!!!!

My Secret!

So many people have asked me if I'm pregnant.. the answer is NO! Even my mother called me after reading that post :) So here's my secret:



Here is my store!!
I'm now officially selling some designs!! I know I won't make millions, but hey I love designing and if I can make just a few dollars (say lunch once a month) then I'm happy!!! I'm starting with just 3 kits:

So that's my secret :)

Jeff and I have had a terrible cold all week. I'm on antibiotics because I have a cold on top of a sinus infection... fun stuff :( I sound horrible. But the good news I'm on the upswing now! Scrapping: I've lost my mojo again. Everything I scrap looks horrible to me. Thank heavens for templates!!

Grey's anatomy: Why doesn't Meredith tell McDreamy about McVet??? Of course will the show lose it's thrill if they end up together so soon??? And how funny is Izzy trying to figure out what to do with her millions.. my thoughts are that she will pay off all of her friend's loans and end up coming back to work. Surely she won't rip up that check.. that would be dumb! Ok enought rambling!

Back from some R&R

Well Jeff and I got away for the weekend and drove out to San Diego! We had a great time. The weather was completely yucky, but it didn't matter, we still had fun. We got into San Diego Friday evening, checked into our hotel (The Westgate) which was completely beautiful..then headed to Old Town and had the best Mexican food I've ever had! We ate at this place called Coyote Cafe and it was absoultely delicious!!!! I'm a chips & Salsa nut and I endulged big time!! LOL

Saturday we headed to La Jolla for a bit.. we got to see lots of seals:

Then we drove out to Temecula and hit the wine scene!!! Jeff and I are complete winos, so this was great! We hit about 6 wineries and tasted lots of wine. Needless to say by the time we were done I was feeling very good :) Here is Jeff next to some vines:

We then headed back to our hotel and rested and then head out for dinner. We had some yummy Indian food and then headed back to the hotel. We were so burnt out from drinking and then eating that we just basically passed out from exhaustion!!

Today we headed out to the Hotel Del Coronado and had their Sunday Champange Brunch... one word... AMAZING! I completely gorged myself!!! My diet completely flew out the window this weekend and boy was it worth it! They had a chocolate fountain!! I've never seen that much flowing chocolate!!! LOL We walked around the grounds a bit and then drove back home! Here are some pics of us and the Del.

And with that I'm out of here.....

Addicted, Obsessed, Insane....

whatever you want to call it, I'm completed hooked on TV lately!!! So in case you were all wondering where the heck I have been, here's my line up:

Sunday: Extreme Makeover Home Edition (makes me cry everytime!), Desperate Housewives (still addicted) and Brothers & Sisters (new show, only seen it once, but am looking forward to the next one)

Monday: Deal or No Deal (if Ellie is asleep), Heroes (very cool) and then Studio 60 (Cracks me up!!!)

Tuesday: NCIS, and House (might even catch Friday Night Lights this week since House is reruns until Halloween!)

Wednesday: Criminal Minds and Jericho (freaky idea, but good)

Thursday: My Name is Earl, The Office, Grey's Anatomy (LOVE... LOVE... LOVE It!!!), and Six Degrees (so far pretty good.. has great potential I think)

Friday: Sometimes Ghost Whisperer

Saturday: hmmmm... not too sure on this, but I do watch Saturday Night Live if around and awake

So that's my schedule Lately! I figured I'm escaping reality, because I have just been insanely busy lately. We put our house on the market yesterday and getting it ready has been a nightmare. I'm kind of a pack rat, so I've had to go through EVERYTHING and get rid of clutter. The house does look pretty good, so now hopefully it'll sell. The market has really slowed down here, so I'm crossing my fingers.

I do have a little secret I'm holding......hmmmmm..... trust me I'll spill the beans when I know I can.

Ok I'm off for now, but I'll be back sooner this time.

Busy!

Well I actually feel like I have somewhat of a social life lately :) I've been pretty busy going to lots of fun things! I went to the Tim McGraw/Faith Hill concert 2 weeks ago, went to a Diamondbacks baseball game last Saturday, Had bunco on Wednesday, Went to a friend's going away party on Friday night and then last night I went and saw Martina McBride in concert.. PHEW! And Jeff was so wonderful and watched Ellie most of these nights! BTW, the concerts were wonderful and yes, I am a country music fan :) I like alot of types of music, but country is probably one of my favorites.

Ellie update: She still has diarrhea.. we are going on day 18. Actually, it is getting better, instead of 7 diaper changes a day we are down to only 2.. (of course I change her diaper more than that, but you know what I mean!) I took her to the doctor again on Tuesday and we are getting samples and doing some lab work on them to see what's going on. Hopefully nothing bad.

This week all the new shows start!!! YEAH. Can I just say that I am so ready for them to start. I'm definately excited for Grey's Anatomy. Plus there are a lot of new shows that look awesome! Tonight it's the Amazing Race! I love that show.

Scrapping.... I actually got some pages done, but I'm too lazy to upload them today.

Oh and I joined LA Weight Loss this week. I'm down 5.5 lbs. Fingers crossed I loose some weight. Ok enough rambling....... :)

Time is flying right by!!!

So things are crazy as usual. I wish I could report something completely exciting and thrilling, but I can't *sigh*.

Ellie has had diarrhea for 11 days now. Trust me that is not exciting. She is feeling fine, eating well, just going to the bathroom a ton. We went to the doctor and they said if it lasted 14 days they would take some samples, but that they thought it would be ending soon... hmmm... that was on day 8.

So this moth for the avatar challenge, I decided to go with a school theme!! It is so fun to see everyone's school pics! Here is mine:

I was in 1st grade and both of my teeth were missing, so I was trying to hide it. Didn't work out too well!!! So if you haven't done so, head over there and post your school avatar!!! Speaking of avatar.. here is the prize I am giving out for the last avatar challenge. I finally finished it today and I really like it!

So I have a myspace account.. nothing really on it.. basically I did it so I could read my brothers. Anyway, my really good friend from Highschool found me and emailed me. I havent talked to her in about 18 years!! It was really cool to get the email from her. Funny how life changes so much and yet part of you remains the same. I wonder if kids today will stay in touch more with their friends now that they have the capability to do so. My parent's moved from Kansas to Colorado when I was a Junior in HS. I pretty much lost touch with everyone. Now, it's so easy to stay in contact with people. You are constantly talking to them on your cell phone (free long distance), text messaging or even emailing them. Crazy to think about really. Ok i'm rambling enough. Tonight Jeff and I are headed out with friends to a baseball game. Ellie is with Grandma! And sometime soon I hope to scrap!!

It's official, I'm a working mother!!

So today was crazy. First of all, I got hit in the head with a wooden shoe by a kid. Then it just seemed to go downhill from there. Jeff called and said he would be late and to do dinner without him. That is when I thought about making dinner and realized there was absolutely no way. I did what any mother would do... I hit the drive through!!! So Ellie and I enjoyed our delicious Wendy's. I ate french fries on the way home and handed a few to Ellie, who squealed (sp?) in delight. She's no dummy. And might I add that Wendy's now has a vanilla frosty!!! Ok not as good as the chocolate ones, but still mighty tasty! She LOVED the chicken nuggets.

And no, I don't feel guilty at all!

Survived!

I did it.. I survived my first 5 day work week!!!! And can I tell you I fought it hard. I didn't go into it with an open mind.. I was down right cranky about it LOL!! But now that I look back, it wasn't too bad. I started my new little job today. I'll be working in this small town at their school only on Fridays. When I say small, I mean small. It's a school and a firehouse.. not even a stoplight!!! They have maybe 140 students (K-8) and my caseload is only 12. It should be pretty easy once I get all the paperwork messes cleaned up. My school on Mondays, however, will be a little harder.. and I travel to it. But I am planning on going to the library this weekend to get another book on tape, that really helped last year........ sooooooo if you have a good book to recommend again, this would be the time to do it!!

On a bright note, Amy Knepper is back to designing and her stuff is at the Digichick!!! She asked me to be on the team again and of course I said yes!! Here is the first LO I did with her newest kit "Young & Carefree"

I love the quote. I do see myself in Ellie more and more. It makes me appreciate myself more.. does that make any sense??? Tonight we went in the pool.. I took some great pics. And of course they will be scrapped lol. Ok off to bed! Have a great weekend!

Sad :(

I am so sad!! Today is my last Friday off.. my last 3 day week. Next week I start working 5 days a week. I know some of you are thinking, "quit your bitching", but when you haven't worked 5 full days in over a year and a half, it's pretty depressing. I worry about Ellie. I worry that I'm going to miss out on some of the fun cute stuff she does. I know I will see her in the evenings and on the weekends, but I still worry. I'm a mother, it's my nature to worry. I will only be doing this for 9 months and I just keep thinking I can do anything for 9 months. After that we will be in our new beautiful home and it will be over. It will be worth it. *fingers crossed*

I scrapped, again. Here are my 2 pages:

(credits: "Summer Wishes" Kit by Heather Roselli of the Digichick)

(credits: "Warm Day" Kit by Robin Cabana of Scrapdish)

Today I'm heading to the outlet mall. I have some gift certificates I still need to use, and I figure I should get some nice clothes to wear when I'm working at the schools. When I work at the clinic, it's much more relaxed, since I'm on the floor most of the day, or up to my elbows in food. With that I"m out of here!! Have a great weekend!

Scrapping!

So I actually got some scrapping done as well as some designing!!! Here are the LOs I got done:

(credits: sketch by Gina Miller, papers/elements from Jenn Wilson's Soho Sass Kit)

(credits: Laura Alpuche & Fee Jardine's Vintage Diva Kit)

Then I was feeling creative and went way overboard on my prize for the July Avatar challenge, but here it is:

Nothing too exciting to report lately. I start working 5 days a week again starting on the 14th. I'm really bummed about it. I'm so used to working only 3 days. But I know I will probably end up getting alot more done. I seem to do so much better with my time when I'm busy. When I have extra time, I seem to blow it all away. Definately better under pressure :)

So I won Robin's new Chase Kit!! See her blog for all the details :) I was so excited! The kit is very cool. I just love winning stuff. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's so cool. I know a lady and her job is just entering contests. She has won 3 cars, tons of TVs.. I don't know how many vacations and countless other little things! Crazy huh! That's probably why people like me never win, I dont' have the time or energy to submit 500 entries :) And with that I'm off! Have a great weekend!