The {Real} Roxann

Random thoughts on a Tuesday....

2011-04-19T21:29:00.006-04:00

RANDOM THOUGHTS BY {THE REAL ROXANN} FOR TUESDAY, APRIL 19th, 2011...

First:
On my mind today has been my home state. Oklahoma. And the 16th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. It hardly seems that it's been 16 years since the day America first changed.

I was teaching in my classroom, when word came down that we were on "lockdown." The concept was there, but we certainly had never had to use it. And it wasn't long before Big Daddy was summoned to the news station and told to "bring a bag" because he was going to Oklahoma City and it was unknown exactly how long he'd be gone. This was one of the hardest things he's ever had to do during his 20 year long career. While he was gone, I was consumed with watching the coverage, 24/7 when I was at home. And I cried. Alot. And I took photos of all the amazing signs all over my town.
I didn't know anyone that died. But, we knew of people who lost someone. And really, everyone lost something that day. Always remember. I remember.

Second:
I am damn, sick and tired of these damn migraines. Yep, I said it. Damn migraines. I. AM. SO. OVER. THEM. I've been trying to get totally detoxed from Diet Pop, so I have to wonder if that's not part of the problem. Part of the problem is probably weather/allergy related. And lastly, it's probably just me. My lack of good health, overall. So, I did cave today. I had a large Diet Coke from Wendy's and guess what? Migraine gone in an hour. Grrrr!

Third:
Today we had a thunderstorm that reminded me of Oklahoma. I really miss a good ole' crazy-ass Oklahoma thunderstorm. The kind that has lots of lightening and thunder. And even a few random twists in the clouds for good measure. The kind that makes your hair stand on end and the kind that are sure to cause damage. Yes, the kind that are so amazing to watch, you stand out on your porch watching, even knowing there is a risk in doing so. (this is what drives stormchasers.....and yes, it is sort of like the movie Twister, but not as hard core) Even though, I've had a tornado right over my head and it ripped the roof off my apartment building and slammed a dumpster into my car....and yet, I miss it. It's just part of me. Bring it on, Ohio... Bring. It. On. (I guess there's a possiblility of thunderstorms tonight....WOOT!!)

Fourth:
I feel like I'm drowning in laundry. Piles of both dirty and clean laundry. The laundry of 6 people is ca-ray-zee!

Fifth:
I'm dreading going to the dentist tomorrow. Not like some people do, but I have my certain amount of dislike. I never realize how much I hate it until I'm sitting in that chair and realize how I'm gripping the arms of that dental chair like a madwoman. And worst of all....I know she's gonna yell at me. (well, maybe not YELL, but certainly lecture.) Both the hygenist and the dentist. Why? Because I have gum disease. Fabulous. Last time they gave me some special mouthrinse to use to get rid of inflammation. Did I do it? No. Shoot, by the time I get to bed, I brush and fall in. Dead. Tired. So, I'm getting yelled at.

Sixth:

Damn. I just realized I'm out of gas. Forgot to fill-up today. Shoot. And unfortunately, the cost of said fill-up will be something like this! $$$

Seventh:
Big Daddy has to work late tomorrow. Or perhaps, I should say, later. Darn, I hate those nights.

Eighth:
One of my positions is Secretary of the Elementary PTO. And today I looked for like an hour for the minutes I wrote last month to type up for tomorrow's meeting. I had put them in the bag I took on our Spring Break trip, thinking I'd be "ahead of the game" and get them done a few weeks ago. What was I thinking?! Like that would really happen! Ha Ha! And due to my trying to plan ahead, I was behind. Darn it. Luckily, I found them and got that done. Along with 100 ice cream cut outs today. (500 to go) And also 64 Easter teacher gifts. (only have to stamp the tags and tie them together now.

Ninth:
I guess I should tell you that I am not currently traveling and doing my job. Why? Mostly, no work. And my lack of motivation to search out a new job. I loved my job. But, it was a hardship on everyone. But, most of all, me. If you've flown in the last few years, you know why!! I miss teaching. I miss seeing my travel buddies. But, I don't miss the kiddos crying because "mommy's going out of town." Again. The best thing about this aside from being home all the time? I might actually scrapbook for myself. Shocker. I have things brewing around in my head, so you just never know what I might do next. (and if you need a personal scrapper....give me a call.)

Tenth:
I have a new addiction. Coin Dozer on the iPhone. You know the game at Chuck-E-Cheese, filled with all the coins and you insert a coin and it flips it onto the base and a little "pusher wall" comes out and slides the coins forward and you try to make them drop off the end? Yep, that's the one. Well, now I can play it for free. And I've sucked Big Daddy in, too. I'm embarrassed to say that we each have 5 versions of the game and we have a constant need to "do our Dozers." Oh geez, we need therapy. Clearly.

Eleventh:

I'm attempting to get more healthy and lose weight. If you see me or talk to me, encourage me. It's realllllllllllly hard.

Twelfth:
A friend lost her husband last week. He was 41. Four months younger than me. TRAGIC. It's been hard to watch this friend and her children hurt. And I often don't know what to say. I hate that. This is the second time this has happened to me in the past 14 months and both times, I've been at a loss of words. What can I say? Nothing. Nothing is going to make it go away. Nothing is going to make them feel better. And I hate it. Please say a prayer for both of these strong women. KC and DG. Darn, downer again.

Thirteenth:
If you know me, I am not good at landscaping. Which is ironic, since I am an artist. Well, here's the proof that I am a moron. (THIS IS WHERE HILARIOUS PICTURE OF MY LANDSCAPING WE STARTED GOES.) We started putting in this gorgeous border, not taking into consideration that our yard is sloped. Yep, straight to the side as it goes across. Our border looks ridiculous. And if it ever stops raining, we'll be pulling that out and redoing it with more of a retaining rock. To our neighbors, sorry you have to look at it!

Fourteenth:

I just took a shower. And as my thoughts distracted me, I conditioned my face. Yes, hair conditioner on face. I guess it should be silky smooth. But, if I look a little greasy tomorrow, give me a break.

Fifteenth:
Public Service Announcement: SUNSCREEN IS GOOD. (or perhaps a hat!) Remember, that if you part your hair in early Spring after a long Winter, wear a hat in the sun. And give me a break if you see flakes in my hair. Yep, my scalp is peeling. I know, I'm awesome.

Lastly:

This post is dedicated to my DZ Sisters, who according to the posts on FaceBook, miss my blog! I was asked to "come back" and that makes me happy!! I love you guys......

And I just realized there was a lot of "downer" to this post. Sorry about that. I guess that's what's on my mind today.

Well, crap, I just deleted the cutey-cute signature, too. Figures.

Is it possible?

2011-02-11T17:39:00.002-05:00

Has it realllly been a year?!!!!

SOME GREAT NEWS!!!!

2010-02-03T14:14:00.008-05:00

I'm so excited to announce...
I'm a new Design Team Member of
TWO CHICKS DESIGNS!!!!!!

How exciting is that?? (Pretty stinkin' exciting!)

TWO CHICKS is run by a wonderful girl named Christie and she sells all the cutie-cute Scrapbooking shirts that you see at the scrapbook conventions!

This is the next t-shirt I want to get! It's so cute!!
But, if this one doesn't suit you....then pick one of the many, many more!

So, I am so excited about this.

Because....I get to start creating with some of this fun stuff just released at CHA LAST WEEK!!

The whole collection is called Chicken'N Stuff!
HOW CUTE IS THAT?!!!

And individually known as Chick'N Noodles:

Which is a collection of single color ribbons, both print and solids.
Chick'N Noodles has over 12 yards of trims, cords, ribbons, laces and fibers to use for all your crafting needs. And being that I am addicted to ribbon, this product is right up my alley!!!
(or would that be down on my farm?!)

Next up is Chick'N Feathers:
Which is a collection of all kinds of soft embellishments for your page! These could include flowers, padded appliques, crochet flowers, real feathers, and more!

And last, but certainly not least is Chick'N Feed:Now, for being chick'n feed, this is some darn good stuff! (ha ha!!)
I just love this stuff! This could include rhinestones, including flowers, sequins,
glass pebbles, acrylic accents, brads, clips and buttons!

And, just for the release there are some Limited Edition Rainbow Chick'N Stuff!
If you're interested in those, go thee here and check them out!

I love them all!

So, stay tuned! Soon, you'll be seeing some new creations by me for Two Chicks!

Well, darn blogger...

2010-01-22T16:45:00.004-05:00

Sorry I took so long to Post....

So, I typed up a huge post...and stupid blogger WILL NOT let me copy and paste it! I am so irritated. I tried to copy it a few days ago, but couldn't get it to do it. I assumed I WAS doing something wrong. Well, nope, Big Daddy confirmed it wasn't me. ARGH! I am so frustrated.

DARN! I have to retype the whole thing!!! Boo!!

So....without further adieu...this is the other days blog post:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to admit it, I've been intimidated to start blogging again. What? Me? The girl who used to document her whole life is hesitant about blogging again? Doesn't that seem a bit dramatic? But, honestly can you blame me? (and if you know me at all...drama is to be expected!) I haven't blogged on a regular basis since we left Kansas over 13 months ago. Will you still love me and my blog? Will you still read and comment? Or have you moved on without me? Will you care if I come back?

Truly, I have tried many, many times to pick up where I left off, but it was just too hard. Trying to decide how to start again. And how to explain where I had been and why. I mean, my blog name is "The Real Roxann" and I pride myself on being real. Being honest. And I always try to blog real...meaning a real, true and honest look at my life and my feelings...the good, the bad and the ugly.

There were some serious situations going on in our home during the end of the year 2008. Life felt very uncertain: hard, scary and way stressful! It started the end of October and continued for several months after we moved to Ohio on Dec. 19th, 2008. The things that were going on were so serious. And we couldn't talk to anyone about it. And so I couldn't blog about it. And keeping it all inside was so, so hard.

As our daily struggles became weekly struggles and then became monthly struggles, I didn't want to blog. I just couldn't use my blog as a constant place to whine and moan about how much life sucked then. I didn't want to do it and I figured that no one would want to hear it.

Believe me, I know that despite our struggles, we have it pretty good. But, that doesn't mean it's all sunshine and roses. The past 15 months have been some of the hardest times so far. Sometimes rocky. Sometimes filled with fear, uncertainty and the underlying questions of whether or not we had made the right decisions and how to deal with the complications caused before and after the said decision.

And I just couldn't bring myself to blog about it. And then, there is the privacy issue. Since much of this revolved around my husband, I had to be very careful of what I could say. Because in his business, you never know who is reading.

Anyway, as things started to get a bit easier as the months go by. I really wanted to blog again. But, I could not figure out where to start. Should I explain where I've been? Should I share the things you missed? Should I tell you about the changes in our lives? Should I tell you about the struggles?

Bottom line, if I am who I say I am. Real. Then, I have to.

Towards the end of our time in Kansas, we were facing some very troublesome conditions. Big Daddy’s job situation was horrible. The management at his station didn’t know what the hell the were doing and managed to dismantle nearly 2 years of blood, sweat and tears he had put into that station. He was turning that place around and they came in and ripped it apart. It was horrible and a blow that he took personally. (although, it had nothing to do with him. When you work for a family-owned business and you are not part of the “family,” you can often be taken for granted and disrespected. And, that along with the fact that Ike’s boss, the General Manager was fired with NO warning and her job, along with his own, was dumped into his lap, for a measly $10K more a year. (his boss was making mid-6 figures!) With that addition, the stress level in the workplace had become unbearable and the environment had become hostile. It became clear that we had to go. For my darling husbands sanity, it was not an option to stay. (my sanity, too!)

So, we began the job search again. Not believing we were we “doing this again.” For heaven’s sake, we hadn’t even been in Kansas for 2 years.

In short time, the job interviews were coming in. Some seemed interesting, some seemed downright frightening. (hello…job in Bakersfield, CA?!!! Um, no thanks! I don’t want to move to the “armpit” of California!)

Anyway, after some interviews and some opportunities…
The job in Columbus, OH was the front runner.

So, the house was listed and within weeks of the decision to “move on” we were moving! Between that and trying to maintain some sense of normality and not let anyone know of our plan to leave, it was a difficult time.

At first, Big Daddy was going to move without us, as we had done before. But, it became clear to make it through these trials, we needed to all be together. So, in a last minute change of heart, the decision was made that we’d all be going!

Key the calls to the new company to request a bigger corporate apartment and new arrangements. Then, key Mama to take care of all the details for everyone to move in less than 3 weeks!

And 2 ½ weeks later, on Dec. 19th, 2008, we moved the 900 miles from KS to OH, with 2 completely loaded cars. We had us, the 4 kids, the Winter clothes, the Christmas presents, the dog, the cat, the 5 fish (loaded in a makeshift “tank” constructed of air tubing and an empty milk jug.)

The journey was exciting and progressing fine, until we stopped at a roadside motel, looking for a decent place to stop and rest. And after paying, Big Daddy deemed it disgusting and we were moving on….. Then, Marinne got sick on both ends. We ended up just pressing on and driving all night long to get her settled.

We arrived in Columbus at 5:30am and so began our new life here.

It was hard, those first months. Everyone was terribly homesick for Topeka, for we loved it so much there. We missed our friends. We missed our life there. This was a hard adjustment!

And then, the depression set in. For everyone, from Big Daddy all the way to the baby girl.

After all, we were a family of 6, downsized from a 2000 sq. ft. house to a 1100 sq. ft. apartment, in the middle of Winter.

But, as Spring came, we found ourself with only a few weeks left in our Corporate apartment and our house in Kansas still on the market after 4 ½ months. Talk about scary.

But, we progressed with house hunting on faith. And we found a beautiful home. See PHOTOS of HOUSE here. And we closed on March 27th…with just a few days to spare on the timetable. And within days, we closed on our house sale in KS. It was awful, we lost a TON of money, but at least it was done.

And since then, we’ve very slowly tried to find out new life. Over the Summer, we spent parts of June and the entire month of August in Oklahoma. We were really missing home.

It wasn’t until Fall, that we really started settling in.

We’ve been working on getting furniture for a formal dining room, we’d never had before. And now, we are preparing to replace the furniture that we’ve had for over a decade, that is completely falling apart. That’s the plan for later this month.

And finally, we are finding a new “normal.”

Ike is very stable in his job. He’s already received 2 promotions in the year we’ve been here….and just completed an excellent score by the General Manager of the station in his 1 Year Review!!! Way to go Big Daddy!

Ike bought a motorcycle he’s been re-doing and that takes a lot of his time. And he’s doing honey-do’s around the house…which amounts to putting up more storage and building a room for Logan in the basement!

Logan is excelling in 8th grade, despite the fact he is carrying 3 classes that are high school level. Poor baby has hours of homework every night! He's got a 3.844 GPA!! And just last week, he’s been chosen as one of 15 students in the entire school to join the Science academic bowl team! Woot!

Jensen has finally settled in nicely. Loves his teachers. And they love him. Really making progress in reading. Made scads of friends. And if he has his animals, he’ll be just fine. (he’s just like his Aunt Sis.)

Griffin is progressing great in First Grade. He’s reading like a champ and has made a good friend who lives on the next street over. (unfortunately, John is moving to New Zealand next year!) He’s found a love for Lego’s this Fall…and got almost nothing but Lego’s for his birthday. (his choice!)

Marinne is getting big. I decided to keep her home and home school her, rather than send her to preschool. She knows letters, colors, shapes, numbers and she can do most of Griffin’s first grade Math. She’s on a path of educational excellence, just like her older brother, Logan. AND we enrolled her in Ballet, Tap and Tumbling at a dance school in our town. She loves it.

And me….I’m still scrappin’! And I’ve become a busy PTO mom again. And I unpacked my scraproom. It’s basically done, but I’m constantly pulling things out as I use them, so it’s always a work in progress. And over the past few weeks, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. (since Dec. 22nd) I’ve cranked out work for 2 manufacturers and I’ve done 20 cards, 3 projects, 1 2pg. Layout and 2- 1pg. Layouts! No wonder I’m tired!!!!

And add to that, Logan had strep, Griffin had an upper respiratory infection, 2 ear infections and a sinus infection.

Marinne had a birthday on Dec. 23rd and she turned 5. Yep, FIVE!!!! Can you believe it? (especially my Savannah friends….)

Christmas, New Years and the end of Christmas Break….and here we are in 2010 and I've just had my first scrapbooking trip for the year and preparing to go to Portland for Trip 2 this week.

I guess, since I didn’t blog last year and I’m lame and didn’t send out Christmas greetings of any kind….I guess I’ll give you sneak peeks of our life last year.

Any other suggestions of what you’d like to hear about and how I can make up for lost time?

Please…just love me again……

Roxann

I'm coming back....I really AM!!!!

2010-01-10T10:47:00.002-05:00

Last year was so difficult, over-all that I just didn't want to come on here and use my BLOG as a big, fat whine-ville.....so I didn't blog.

Unless it was reallllly important!

But, I've missed you. And I keep getting emails that you miss me. So, I'll be back very soon.

Unfortunately for time sake, I am designing for 2 companies for CHA and I'm swamped right now. I leave on Thursday for California for a Scrapbook Expo. And I'm flying home on a red-eye all night on Monday morning! GAG!!! So, I may not get to it until I return. But, I promise it's coming!!!!

Love,
Roxann

The New {HOUSE}

2009-04-14T17:01:00.016-04:00

Well, here it is, my friends.....our new HOUSE!!! I'm just so in love with it!

So...come on in and I'll give you a little tour! This is my front door. It's black, just like my shutters. And I have a little peeky window,
so I can see who is out there! (Don't worry, I have an alarm system, too!)

And don't you just *love* my wood floor?! It's real wood, not laminate! (although, I've had laminate before and realllllly like it....this real wood floor is gorgeous!) The wood goes from the front door into the guest bathroom, down the hall, in the kitchen and in the dining space.

When you stand at my front door, you can see down the entry hall to my kitchen! And what a kitchen it is! I love it. White and bright, with LOTS of space and
I'm loving all the brand new appliances! I am SPOILED!!!!!

When you turn the opposite way, you are looking into our big Family Room or Den, as some people would call it. It's a really big room with a marble fireplace with gas logs!
It's so fun to light that baby up while it's still cold outside at night!

(and the little door to the left is my laundry room, which even has a big, deep sink in it! *loves* It's smaller than I would like, but I'm sure I'll live! :) When you walk thru it, it leads to the garage. Nope, no pics of that....it's boring~)

Back inside, standing in the kitchen, you look into my formal Dining Room. Don't you just love that chair rail and the crown molding?!?! Oh darn, now that I have 2 eating spaces, I guess I'll be forced to go out and buy some new dining furniture!!!! (Sorry, Big Daddy....ps. leave the credit card on my bedside table!
Ha Ha Ha!!)

When you stand in the dining room and look towards the front of the house, you will see our Formal Living Room. What a nice space! More crown molding, a patterned wall treatment
and windows with wood blinds....what's not to love?!?

Then, turn your body to the right and your looking back at the front door! (We just made a big tour circle!) There are 2 doors to the right of front door....the first is ::drumroll, please::
MY SCRAPROOM!! And next to it, is the guest bathroom! So, when you come over and we stay up super late scrappin'...we only have to walk a few feet to get to the potty!

Let's check out MY SCRAPROOM!!!!!!

Take a peek into the door! Isn't my window beautiful?!?! And I have a tall, vaulted ceiling! (and a kid in the hall ruining my picture!)

And here's that guest bath and the banister leading up the stairs! And a peeky into the guest bathroom! Up the stairs, we go! (hmm...I'm now thinking I should have videotaped this tour!)

Anyway...look to the right.....3 big bedrooms a full bathroom and a huge linen closet! Then, look to the right at the top of the stairs and you have the master bedroom,
walk-in closet and bathroom! This picture is actually in the room and shows the little cubby corner where our big mirrored dresser and hutch will fit perfectly!

We have a vaulted ceiling and lots of space!!! And now a peeky into the master bathroom.

Luv, luv, luv the tall cabinets and double sinks! Woot Woot!! And when you look at that bathroom window, I have a perfect view of the 614 acre federally protected wildlife preserve!!!! It's marshes and ponds and has birds and animals galore! I haven't seen all of these animals, but from what I hear there are 300+ species of birds over there, deer, raccoon, ducks, geese, brown bats and who knows what else. I'm cool with that, as long as they stay over there! If I came face-to-face with any of those critters...I'll freak!!!
(you must remember, I am a C.I.T.Y. Girl!!!!!!)But, for now, I am enjoying the views! (and sounds!)

SO Peaceful out here!

And I can't wait to get completely unpacked and settled!

So, who's gonna be the first to come visit?!?!

IT'S TIME........

2009-04-14T11:12:00.002-04:00

to SHAKE this BLOGGY up!!!!!

As you see...changes are under way!

Too bad I have NO CLUE how to do this stuff~
(anyone want to help me?)

HTML experts...email me!

Kare Bear

2009-04-08T22:23:00.002-04:00

I'm heartbroken to say that Kari passed away today in the arms of her mother. It was peaceful and it was time. She's an angel now.

Thanks sincerely for all the prayers. They were answered. It was time for her to no longer suffer and God took her home.

Love,
Roxann

Prayers Needed!

2009-03-28T22:06:00.004-04:00

I just had to update only to say one thing..... this sweet baby <--------------------------right over here is Kari. Kari is the 9 month old daughter of my dear friend and college roommate, Jenny and her hubs, Jeff. Kari was born with a serious heart defect and just this last week, this little sugar had a full-on heart failure. (of course, this is my layman terms of what happened) Technically, it was Congestive Heart Failure.

Jenny had made plans to come see me in Ohio the week this happened. They didn't make it because her older daughter was sick with a fever. And thank God they were at home, rather than my house when this happened....close to Kari's Doctors. Don't think I was disappointed that they couldn't come, but I am so glad they didn't. I am glad they were home and could get Kari to where she could begin getting help very quickly!

Sweet Kari needs your prayers. And so do her momma and daddy, and brother and sister, Jeffrey and Katie.

So please, take a moment and hug your babies. And give thanks for your healthy children. Jenny and Jeff are so strong and are fighting for their girl. And Baby Kari is a fighter, too. But, all the fighting can make you very tired! So, pray for strength and pray for baby Kare Bear!

Here is a link where you can read about Kari and her journey. Here's the link for the charity set up by Kari's parents to help children like Kari.

Please know I am fine, just very, very busy. I'm currently in Kansas, preparing for the movers who come on Monday to FINALLY make our move to Ohio "official!!" I return to Ohio on the 2nd, to meet the movers on the 3rd. In the meantime....email me or call me on my cell! I miss you all!!!! (ps...thanks for all the comments, posts on Facebook and emails telling me how much you guys miss my blog! It will be a little longer, but I will be back. I promise!)

FOR JAMIE (and all others who are concerned about my well-being!

2009-03-10T07:08:00.003-04:00

Hey friends. It's me. Still Alive. I've had nothing for breakfast and I plan to watch PS. I Love You on the DVD player tonight.

TV STARS!!!!

2009-01-19T11:15:00.004-05:00

Ever since these boys were babies, they've been exposed to TV. Both boys were less than a day old when they were filmed the first time to be shown on the News. (Yes, it's shameless bragging, but a job perk to show off your beautiful offspring on tv for all to see! We even had some people so inspired by the beauty of our babies, that they actually sent GIFTS to the TV Station for the baby! The downside, when Logan was born at 10:01pm (1 minute into the nightly news...) they wanted to come film me and the baby RIGHT THEN to use THAT NIGHT! Breaking news...you know! Well, I basically said there was no way in HELL that was gonna happen!!!! And believe me, you don't mess with a new mom who's been in labor on pitocin (the devil's drug!) for 12+ hours. You just don't. (if your smart, anyway....)

Anyway, I digress.....

So, there have been times while we were in Topeka that they have called on my kids to do certain things for the news. (offspring of the business tend to understand a bit better.....) So, anyway, they were doing a feature called "Kid Cast" to help with the weather forecast. They wanted kids from 7-13 to come tape the Weather Almanac.

These are the highlights.....

The computer monitor with the video marker before the teleprompter starts rolling...

Stand By..... Logan in front of the green screen. (in case you didn't know, almost all
weather is shot in front of a green screen, so they can use a
"Chromo-key" to super impose the weather graphics.)

Big Daddy giving the close-up approval. (see you can see the graphics now!)

Now, Jensen's turn....I LOVE this photo! I think it's so cool showing the teleprompter that he had to read and him in front of the green screen! Very cool! And a shot of Jensen's Full-Screen with the graphics. I love how Big Daddy is watching in the background. He looks "unconcerned." Meaning, he wasn't worried about the boys performance, at all. (even though reading on the teleprompter was a real challenge for Jensen, since reading is harder for him. And to do it out loud AND on camera.....HE DID GREAT.
They both did!

And here are the links where you can see what actually aired on the News.

Jensen

Logan

I'm so proud!

BUSTED

2009-01-19T11:13:00.002-05:00

Well...I've been called out.
My good friend TS has gently reminded me that I never posted anything from Marinne's birthday on the blog.

Yes, I have to make up for lost time.

I'll get right on that......

Jenny II: And the Original Frying Pan Named Jenny

2009-01-15T11:34:00.007-05:00

Meet Jenny -------------->

She's a good pan. I've had her for over 15 years. (a gift from my college roommate and BFF Jenny) So, of course, we named the frying pan Jenny.

Now, I know you must think I am crazy, naming a frying pan. But, it's not so crazy when something so simple reminds you of someone you love! And that's just the way it was, every time I would use Jenny the frying pan, I'd think of Jenny.

So, let me tell you about Jenny. I met Jenny our Freshman year and we became fast friends. And very close. We had as much in common, as we didn't. But, she has a warm, loving heart. And this drew me to her.

In 1990-1991, she and I lived together. I told the story in another post here, about a hilarious joke we played on our roommate. (just scroll to the bottom of the post when you see me and a pretty, pregnant blond girl!)
**ps...this story is really funny and worth looking up to read it**

She was one of my Maids of Honor in my wedding. (yes, I had two...I just couldn't choose one of the other)

Then, later when Jenny and I were pregnant with our first children, she lived with us for a short time while her hubs was in Grenada. I was her labor coach for lamaze and with her when she gave birth.

She and I were really great friends...and after 20 years, we are still in touch! Well, after we met this Summer and I saw her for the first time in years.....we have been talking about old times. One of the things I told her was about Jenny. She had no idea I still had the old frying pan. I told her I did, but that she was falling apart. Her handle was about to fall off, she has stains on her that WON'T come off and she's all scraped up from old age (and being abused by teaching Logan how to cook.) She cracked up.....she had no idea! (Much to my husband's chagrin, I just can't bring myself to throw Jenny the frying pan in the trash!)

Now, if you remember, when I told you about Jenny in my last post, she was 8 months pregnant. Well, she had her baby in August. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Kari. And when Kari was 5 days old, it was discovered that she had a life-threatening heart condition. It's been a hard and heartbreaking road. But, Kari is doing well for now.

So, imagine my surprise when I came home from running errands one day and found a giant box on my doorstep. I had no idea what it could be....until I saw the return address on the box. And then, I burst into laughter! Because I knew what it was......

JENNY II

------->>

What a fantastic surprise! It's true, Jenny loves me. (Jenny the girl, not the frying pan) My gosh, she has a very sick baby and she still made the time to get out and get me a frying pan!

And it's a nice pan, too! It's Calphalon! So, she spoiled me, too!!

Thanks Jenny for Jenny II. I will enjoy her!

But, I love you!

Artistic Genius....a shameless brag.....

2009-01-15T10:44:00.006-05:00

Let me tell you about this picture....Marinne loves this sketch toy. She had a baby version when she turned 2, then last year we upgraded her to this bigger one. She draws on it nearly every single day. So much so, that it's falling apart. (see the weird black splotchies above the letters MZ.

Now, as a person who has a degree in Early Childhood Education, I was FLOORED when the Princess brought me this picture she had drawn. The only reason she brought it to me was that she asked me to draw a picture of our doggie, Barclay. (which I did...it's the 3rd figure from the left....and that was hard in such a small space!)

So, why was I surprised? Well, if you know about art and child development, there are many things about this picture that are remarkable for a child of only 3 years old to accomplish.

First, she has included a "ground line" in her picture by actually scribbling to indicate where the ground is. Then, she included a "sky line" in her picture, provided by drawing the sun and placing it in the proper location in relation to what she drew.

In addition, her people have more than just a basic circle and dots. She has provided faces, bodies, arms and hair (on the adults.)

When she brought it to me, she told me that this was our "Family" and she drew Daddy, Momma, L, J, G and herself, but she needed me to draw our dog. I was impressed to see that she actually drew the right number of people (6) and that her 3 older brothers are actually "above" her. Like she is littler than them. She "gets" that. (although, she is known for calling them her "friends" as much as she calls them her "brothers.") And that's ok with me!

And lastly, she said that the MZ was her name. She recognizes that her name begins with a "M" and she is quick to point out "that's my name" anywhere she sees the "M." Such as the Macy's sign or at McDonalds. She recognizes that her name starts with an "M." I think that's pretty smart!

So what does all this mean? Well, if you look here, you can see that some of what she is doing is in the Schematic Stage of Art Development. And the typical age for that is between 5 and 8 years old. (and she's not yet Four at the time she drew this!) I'm telling you, she a genius!!

And I'm not a big prejudiced!! (ha ha ha!)

ENOUGH BLOG NEGLECT!!!!!

2009-01-06T10:18:00.006-05:00

I am a bad blogger.
I deserve to have my blog baby taken away.
But, I'm gonna do better. I swear it! I miss the bloggy!

Seriously....

Well, we are in Ohio. It's cold. It's sleeting and supposed to be turning into snow. The roads were already getting slick when I dropped off the boys at school. And it 2 hours, we'll be out again. Not exactly lovin' that!

Logan started school today. Look at this beautiful Middle School. I hand-picked this school system for the things it can offer our children. The High School is directly across the parking lot from the High School and the Middle School Gymnasium and Cafeteria is in between these two schools. It is really nice that all the schools are together. And when I saw these buildings, well, I was certainly impressed. Beautiful! Griffin's school is just around the bed from Logan's school. It's looks the same as the Middle School. Very nice. And quite impressive. Griffin is very excited to be back in school. He misses his friends. He was so cute getting loaded up this morning to go. I'll be posting some pics of his first day later. I need to upload them first.

Then, adjacent to that is Jensen's elementary school. But, he won't be going till tomorrow. The enrollment secretary was out yesterday, so we have to wait until today to get him fully enrolled. Believe me, he's overjoyed to score another day off! And I'm enjoying just him and Marinne this morning.

Well, I'm off to pick up the Kindergartener!
More later.....

I suck....

2008-12-31T00:00:00.001-05:00

I want to post, but I am just so overwhelmed by everything these days, it seems like just another thing on the "to do" list. I have lots to share and I hope I'll find it in myself to do it tomorrow.

Forgive me, ok?!

And by the way, Happy 2009!!

I, for one, hope it it's a thousand times better than 2008 was to us!

WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I DOING UP!?!?!?!

2008-12-17T07:06:00.002-05:00

...why don't you ask my brain that?!

Because I woke up for the second morning before 5:30am and I CANNOT shut my brain off.

ANNOYING!!!!!

I have all these crazy (and not so crazy) thoughts swirling around in my head. My gosh, there is so much to do/remember/think about when you move across the country. I am so petrified I am going to forget something obvious.

So, I know you are thinking, "Hey Roxann...why don't you make a list?!" Well, of course, my friends I have done that. I have 3 pages of notes in a spiral notebook. But, I am worried I have forgotten something. And considering, we aren't "completely moving" at this point, it makes it a little different this time.

You see....after doing this cross-country move 2x before, we decided that this time, we just can't stand to be apart. You see when we moved to Georgia, Ike went first and the kids and I stayed for about 5 weeks with Ike living in Georgia without us. It was HARD. So hard, that we moved after 5 weeks and all of us lived in a 1 room Marriott hotel for 3 weeks. Yep, that's 5 people in a hotel room...including a toddler. Ask me how fun that was?!?!? Ha ha!

When we moved to Kansas, again, Ike moved without us. This time was even harder because we had another child (baby girl) and she was only a week into her 2nd year when daddy left. This time we made it 4 weeks apart and then moved to KS and lived in our house with no furniture or anything for almost a week. (yep, slept on the floor on a blow-up mattress, which was great until on the 3rd night Jensen's cat dug his nails into it and then the mattress was a lost cause!!) At least we had heat!! Because it was freezing in Kansas!

So, this time, we decided that we were all going together.

Period.

So, we were committed to making that happen. So, we are moving into corporate housing. We will be taking only the bare essentials with us. (ya know...clothes, personals, important papers in the safe...that kind of stuff) We just can't take it all right now. There would be no place to put it. We are moving into a 3-bedroom condo and it looks really nice on the internet, but we know that with 6 of us, we know it's still going to be cramped.

So, for me, I know I ABSOLUTELY CAN'T live w/out my scrapbook stuff for up to 4 months (which is how long we could be living in this condo...at least, this is how long Ike's company is paying for it....while we try to sell our house in Kansas.) So, I am trying to pack the BARE ESSENTIALS....meaning my basic supplies....and then some MUST HAVE stuff.
But, if you are a designer like me, the thought of not having access to my beloved supplies is about to give me a fit! But, the reality is, I can only take a SMALL PORTION of my STASH! Which completely sucks!!!! (ha ha ha! poor me!!!) And this is giving my panic!

Many people are asking me....how can you just move and leave you stuff behind. (not just scrapbooking stuff, but all your stuff?!) Well, it's quite simple. We've learned the hard way, that being together is more important than the stuff.

After all, it's just STUFF!!

If someone stole our stuff, would I be upset. Well, of course, I would. But, again, it's just
STUFF!!!!

It can be replaced.

Our family and being together is what it's all about.

And considering Big Daddy starts his job on Monday, Dec. 22nd, the thought of spending Marinne's birthday (the 23rd) and Christmas and New Years apart, was just too much to bare. So, we just AREN'T doing that. We are going...TOGETHER!

Besides, we have two of the nosiest neighbors ever, who as annoying as it's been while we've been here, will come quite in handy now that we are leaving all our stuff! (Seriously, we call one of the ladies, Mrs. Kravitz...ya know, the nosy neighbor on the classic show Bewitched!) So, she will keep an eye on things...and she'll tell my friend Kelly, who will keep me informed and who has a key to the house, so she can keep an eye on things! It will be ok. It has to.

Ok, well, I've chattered on for over 30 minutes and it's 6:30am.

Time to wake up the sometimes moody 7th grader and get him movin'!

Talk to you soon, my lovelies!
I miss you.

NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY........

2008-12-15T07:54:00.002-05:00

.....this is my current state of being. NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY!

I absolutely CANNOT believe that we move to OHIO in 4 days!!!!!

It's been a crazy last few weeks! And it's been very hard to keep up everything on my blog updated. (sorry about that!) But, parts of it I couldn't help. For instance, I couldn't let on that Big Daddy was interviewing for new jobs....because that could have jeopardized his job here. So, I had to keep my mouth shut. (which believe me...is VERY hard for me to do!! Just ask my dad....I'm famous for it!)

This morning it's 3.7degrees here in KS. The wind chill is -17 below. And it snowed last night. As a parent, I think that's reason enough to cancel school....but alas, the kids still have school. Ridiculous, in my book! I think if it's single digits, then school should be cancelled! But, that's because I don't want my babies to be chilled to the bone!

The house is on the market for one week tomorrow. We had one showing the first day, but nothing since. (although, the realtor says we've had some hits online that have asked for more info....) I was disappointed we didn't score any showings on Sunday. But, it is a week and 1/2 before Christmas, so I don't know why I am surprised. Hopefully, it will sell w/in a few months!!! PRAY that it will. A house sitting on the market 850 miles away, will be a HUGE stressor again (since we just did this less than 2 years ago....that time, the house in GA was on the market 6 months! OUCH!!) I just want it to sell, so we can get a house in Ohio quickly.

As most days leading up to this move, I have a busy one today. I have a doctors appointment in 52 minutes at 8am. Then, we have the Chem-Dry carpet cleaners coming at 10am, so the fun part of that is keeping Miss Priss out off the way while the give the carpets a once over. Then, at lunchtime, I have a meeting at Logan's school with the school Psychologist to get his "gifted" testing records, so we have them before we go. This should help make his transition a bit easier!

I start packing/loading tomorrow. It's hard to decide what we absolutely need to take NOW and what can wait until our next trip home to officially MOVE. But, bottom line, it doesn't really matter, as long as there is Target and our family is together. Things don't matter, but THAT does.

Alas, due all this crazy, I probably won't get Christmas cards done....and I'm taking some time off from my scrappin' DT's. It's hard on me. Because it's such a huge part of me. But, I am thankful that I work for some super understanding people. (can you believe I haven't scrapped in over a month!!!!!) I miss it so.

And speaking of scrappin'....I owe everybody my final "travel" update from the CKC-Seattle show. I really need to get that on here. I promise to try to do it very soon!!! (as if I don't have other things to do...)

And last but not least....I miss you guys! I hope everyone is doing GREAT!

xoxoxo

~Roxann

O-H-I-O

2008-12-11T10:22:00.005-05:00

The time has come when we can finally announce where we are moving......

Columbus, Ohio!!!!!!

Wowza!!
I am excited!!!!!!!

The season for Birthdays!!!

2008-12-06T12:05:00.004-05:00

For those keeping track, Jensen just had a birthday in October, Griffin's is in November and Marinne's is in December. It's a very busy time for us!

(and obviously, you can see that Big Daddy and I must be super amorous in the Spring...just like the woodland animals!! Hee hee hee!!)

So, this child had his Sixth Birthday in mid-November.Logan made him this birthday cake...it was a layered cake and it didn't work out so well.
(at least it tasted good!)

Some facts about Griffin at 6 years old....
...He's 75%-ile on weight and height.
...He is funny, always keeping us laughing.
...According to his Kindergarten teacher, he's absolutely perfect!
(exactly where he needs to be in school!)
...He has a crush on Miss Anderson, his Kindergarten teacher.
...He has a wild imagination for story-telling!
(He told me he had a substitute teacher one day because Miss Anderson bazooka barfed in the computer lab and had to go home....that DID NOT happen!
But, believe you me, his story was quite convincing!)
...His favorite color is green. Especially bright green.
...His favorite food is pizza.
...He is a *FANTASTIC* KID!!!!!!!

Make a wish, Big 6 Year Old! The birthday hat came from Miss Anderson at school!

The cake gets the big *thumbs up* from Griffin!!

Max

2008-12-06T11:25:00.004-05:00

On the weekend before Griff's birthday, his teacher sent him home with Max and a giant backpack full of fun things for him to do. There was a journal, which we had been instructed to fill out about Max's adventures with Griffin.

There was also books along w/ read-along tapes. And a book of Science experiments to try out. So, we set out making the plans for the weekend w/ Max.

We decided first to try a Science experiment. Griffin picked one with apples.
We were to take an apple and cut it into pieces. We made a chart to place them on. One apple was supposed to be left alone. One was to be sprinkled with water. And the last one, we were to sprinkle with lemon juice. Then, we were to check the apples in 3 hours. And then, in 12 hours. So, we did the first one a dinnertime and checked it at bedtime and there was very little change. Except the apple left alone was just barely brownish.

Then, in the morning, we checked them all again. The apple left alone was completely brown, the one with water was slightly browned and the one in lemon juice was still almost completely perfect. Then, we talked about why it would be this way.
Griffin thought this was so cool!!! On Saturday, Max got to ride in the car so we could go to Chuck-E-Cheese as part of an early birthday celebration.

I think it's safe to say, Max really enjoyed himself!!! When we left CEC, we went to Toys R Us because they had sent him a giftcard for $3.00. So, of course, Griffin picked a giant box of Nerds candy.They gave him a birthday crown and a balloon to wear while doing his shopping.
So, this worked out well for when we were having him look around to make his birthday list of things he wanted. (it was a good thing his real birthday was still a few days away! We had some major shopping to do!!!)

When we got home, we had a tired boy and a tired bunny!! Goodnight Griffin and Goodnight Max!!

Then, on Sunday afternoon, Griffin and Max were going to read/listen to the books on tape...which seemed like a good idea, until the tape player ate the cassette tape.
(Now I remember why CD's and IPod's are AWESOME!!!!)
So, Griffin kinda freaked out, but I told him I'd offer to pay for the tape so Miss Anderson could get a new one and then he was happy.

All in all, I think Griffin and Max had a great weekend!!!!

TEN Years Old?!?

2008-11-22T14:02:00.008-05:00

How in the world can this kid be 10 year old?!?
And in true form of a ten year old...he wanted McDonalds for his birthday lunch.
It wasn't fancy, but it was exactly what he wanted. Well, minus a Limo.
We decorated the living room with streamers and balloons and we tied yellow balloons to his chair. We even covered the door of his room with streamers, so you had to break thru them to get out of his room! Hilarious!!! And as previously discussed in this post, he had wanted a limo. But, when that didn't work out he had chosen to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for his party. So, we went there for dinner that night. It was our family, Mimi and Papa and our best friends here,
Kelly and her kids C, C and O. It was super fun!

We pigged out on pizza, salads and pop before we went to play the games!

And believe me, we had plenty of tokens!!
(this was only part of them....) J's favorite game is Skee Ball. And his sister tried to keep up with him.
Hilarious, I'll tell you! She doesn't get the "roll" the ball, rather than "throw" the ball! And then, it was WISH MAKIN' time!!
Too bad for him we used trick sparkler candles!! Heh! Heh! Heh!

(Logan made the cake...he's insisted on making all his sibs cakes this year!)

Then, it was on to the gifts!
Of course a new WebKinz was in order....AND a pile of Nintendo DS games.
He was a HAPPY CAMPER!!!

Then, it's time to cash in tickets.....He looks pleased with his loot, wouldn't you say?!

Happy Birthday Jensen! We LOVE you!!!!

Paper Mache'

2008-11-22T13:24:00.004-05:00

Curses to the 4th Grade teacher who made us do the Paper Mache' project!!!!!!!! Yes, Jensen had an assignment to make a paper mache' animal based on one of the animals from the book, Bunnicula. So, his choices were a cat, a dog or a bunny. Jensen chose the cat, of course. (his favorite) And yes, it was his assignment, you know who was in charge of this project. Ya, me! (Big Daddy was in until the going got rough.)

So, with no paper mache' experience...I had no real clue what to do. but, I hate Elmer's glue, so I was hoping we could avoid that. Thank Goodness for Google! I quickly learned that flour and water could be used to make a "glue." And that sounded good to me. So, we began to cut strips of paper and mixing up the glue. And then the FUN began!

And by FUN...I mean we needed to Paper Mache' each other!!

Serious mess!

The drying cat base.... made from 2 balloons, some toilet paper tubes, newpapers, masking tape and the flour/water glue. It took over 24 hours for this thing to dry!!! Talk about down to the wire!! And then, the painting... And finally, "Chester the Cat" is finished!
(after 3 days work!) Not bad, if I say so myself!!!

Creating Keepsakes Convention - Kansas City

2008-11-19T09:39:00.010-05:00

(don't ask about the hammer...it's a message for Alex Ann!)
Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

CKC - Kansas City was *crazy fun* !!!!

Of course, this is my "home show" now that I live in Kansas, so it was fun just for that reason. It's fun when you know you will see someone that you know. And I did see a few people I know from Kansas.
But, I met some new people, too.

First of all, there are all the wonderful women in my classes!
I swear I have never met anyone that wasn't nice since I have lived in Kansas and it was the same way at the CKC Convention! Such nice girls!

Classes were fantastically fun! I just so love teaching!!

The biggest *fun* and the biggest challenge were one in the same. Alex Ann and I worked this show together, just the two of us. (Remember, you met Alex Ann here.) Yes, we had 3 booths and I was in charge completely for the first time. (nervous, I was so nervous!) But, we had trouble finding local help, so Alex Ann and I were on our own. But, we still rocked it! (normally, we hire local women to help in the booth....but this time, we had no one respond to our adds looking for workers) So, AA and I both rose to the occasion and really made it work the best we could. And it was GREAT!
She and I make such a good team. We really work well together and
we just had the BEST time!!! We are like sisters of something. We laughed so, so much! I totally love that girl!!!!

So...one cool thing was that we had the BRAND NEW Glue Glider Pro adhesive gun by Glue Arts! This thing is highly sought! And if you haven't seen it... here it is! It's so stinkin' cute, isn't it?! And it's so easy, too. All the cartridges are interchangeable. To switch to a different type of adhesive, you just pop out the cartridge in the gun and pop in the desired one, lickety split!
How cool is that?!

So, on the first morning of the convention, I'm working in the booth when a lady asks me about the Glue Glider Pro. I turn around to find....
CATHY ZIELSKE!!!

Oh. My. HotDog!!!!!!

Cathy Z is asking me for advice/info about something!
WOWZA!!!!

So, after deeming her as ~famous and fantastic~ ...both of which she graciously denied....I told her everything I knew about the new GGPro and she decided she had to have one! (and why not, Scrapbooks 'n Stickers has them bundled w/ the gun, and one of each of the 3 refills for 20% off the total price!) So, Alex Ann took a picture w/ my Blackberry to document my awe! FYI...Cathy Z is so nice and completely down to earth! REALLY enjoyed meeting her!! Take her class some day so you can meet her too!

Another highlight of the KC trip was meeting this fantastic chick! Even better was that I didn't realize she was coming.....ps...isn't she the darn cutest thing you ever saw?! Yep, she is. Even cuter in person! And SO NICE!
So, this is Charlotte. I met her online at Scrapbook Nook message board. She is friends with my *bestest girl* amber and therefore, my friend by association. So, I am working, demo'ing Bind-It-All and this cutey-cute girl came over and said, "YOU must be Roxann!" (well, I looked at her and she looked familiar -- so I figured she must have been in my class....NOPE...it was Charlotte from Scrapbook Nook!) WOO HOO! I was so excited!!!
I was so happy to meet her...and she was so super nice! We are trying to get a time to get together to scrap...and I hope we do very soon!

The most nutso part of the show was that we had a shoplifter. Not just us, but us and 7 other vendors were victims, as well. They got 2 packs of $4 KaiserCraft brads from us. (good stuff, she chose to steal...but reprehensible behavior, to say the least!) So, I am working hard, but all of a sudden I am approached by the head of CK and he asks if I can come with him for a moment. I could tell he was serious, so I was inside sorta freaking out. Well, as I followed him down the aisle, I leaned forward and said, "Did I do something wrong?" He turned and said, "No, we have a shoplifter." Well, if you know me, I really started freaking out. I hate cheating and stealing and it makes my stomach hurt! I'm just such a goody goody, that anything like that gives me a serious stomachache. So, I got the pleasure of identifying our merchandise and then identifying the accused. Then, I had to give the police officers my personal information. And the whole time, the accused is sitting right there, handcuffed in a chair, not 4 feet from me. Showing absolutely NO remorse. Apparently, this wasn't her first time. All and all...a nerve wracking experience. But, it mad me MAD, really MAD.

I worked so hard and on Saturday night, my hands, feet and ankles were so swollen, they looked like this....OUCH!!! I couldn't even get my ring on! The signs of hard work and not enough water!

The big thing I learned this weekend was about this:
THE OFFICE

Obviously, I've heard of The Office. I've seen the commercials. And of course, Ike has seen it a few times and has told me how funny it was. Well, Alex Ann is a huge Office fan, so she was making jokes from the office, that I really didn't get since I have never seen it. So, after hearing her talk about it all week, and knowing that Ike likes it, I bought Season 1 of The Office on DVD and brought it home to him. (after all, his job has been very stressful,so I thought it would be good for him to laugh!) And we got addicted to it. Over then next 3 weeks we watched every season, every episode of The Office.
I thought since I'm just a mom, I figured I wouldn't be able to relate or think it was funny. I was wrong. This show is stinkin' hilarious! So, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! Rent it today and start the laugh marathon!

"That's what SHE said...."

Lately my life......

2008-11-19T08:38:00.004-05:00

....has been over-the-top, out-of-control and generally way too busy.
And way too much "serious stuff" going on.

My somewhat cool blog has turned into a ghost town and I have highly neglected it. But, sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. Know what I mean?!

So....how is everyone?! I miss your comments.
(of course, if I don't post...I deserve it!! Ha Ha Ha!!!)

So, I'm gonna try to play some "catch-up" today. Stay tuned!

Presidential Election 2008

2008-11-07T09:48:00.003-05:00

I voted. Yes, I did.
I took photos. Yes, I did.
No matter which way the election was to go,
this was History in the making.
And I was part of it.
I hope you were, too.

What an awesome thing.

HALLOWEEN 2008

2008-11-04T18:59:00.016-05:00

aka...

....why does Barbie dress so sleezy?!

Now, I am sure you are thinking, "What the heck?!"

Well, you'd understand if you've met my little angel. You see, when she had her 1st Halloween, she was only 10 months old. Of course, she had no choice, her Halloween outfit was completely up to her momma. (that's me)

Well, considering I had a bee costume that ALL 3 of her brothers had worn at one time or another, so of course, she HAD TO wear that. The problem? Well, it was clearly a boyish bee costume! (You see, it all started when Logan was a baby...he was called "busy bee" by my mom and my dad. So, when I saw the bee costume, I knew he had to have it.) Well, down thru the years, the costume was passed down.

So, I did what any crafty, scrapbooking mom would do.....I remade the costume and ramped it up a few notches to the girly side! Alterations included, ribbons added to both sleeves and, making them into a ruched look. Then, black lace which actually had a bee pattern weaved into it was added to the bottom of the legs. I sewed a tulle skirt that went around the costume and made a fantastic bee crown and my darling was the Princess Bee. (the direct descendant of the Queen Bee...ME!) Don't you just love her crown, bee antennae and her matching bracelet w/ bee charm?
(again...all made by me!)

Fast forward to Marinne's 2nd Halloween. She was 22 months old.

In the interest of being money start...I had purchased and adorable and
SUPER GIRLY good witch costume on clearance at W-Mart for like $3 on clearance! Yay me! So, as Halloween approached, I pulled it out to try it on the Princess and although, she was wiggly, I got it on her and it was perfect. (and Adorable!) But, she was very vocal, that she didn't like it. "No Mommy. No dress."

Well, GREAT..... (but I honestly thought she'd change her mind when she
saw her brothers dressing up and she'd go with it.

Well, GUESS AGAIN!

She refused to wear it....

No Mommy. No dress. NO THAT DRESS!

So, this is what she wore...and you can see...she was not happy, either way!

So, as Marinne's 3rd Halloween approached, I was really getting excited. Within the past year, she had really started showing a preference of PINK, PINK, PINK and GIRLY! So, I was really looking forward to costume shopping.

So, after checking out the offerings at every single store in town, we ended back up at W-Mart. I really loved all the beautiful, super girly costumes. I especially love the Fairy costumes, but she wouldn't have anything to do with them. Finally, she picks a costume that was smooshed up and even missing the paper that shows you "what it is" and declared, "This is the one I want to be!"

Well, I still don't know WHAT it was, but she did look cute! What was she anyway?

A Fairy?

A Butterfly?

I'm still not sure. But, she loved it! So, that's all that matters!

So...fast forward to this year.

We started looking at costumes as soon as they hit the stores.

And as the days went on, every time I went to ANY store with costumes, I'd take her and the boys to look. (well, Logan thinks he's too big...so, he was just along for the shopping!) And the bigger boys were quick to form their dress up opinions...but Marinne would commit to nothing!

Finally, about 10 days before Halloween....she made a choice.
It was a blue Princess Dress. The problem? It was 1 size too big. But, it was the only one and she really insisted that was the only one that would do. So, we bought it and I figured I'd just take it in so it would work.

Then, suddenly, 4 days before Halloween.....She no longer wanted to be a Princess!

She NOW wanted to be a Mermaid.
(she has been a bit obsessed with Mermaids and fish lately...I blame Barbie again. They have recently released some new Mermaid Barbies. And between that and the Dora Mermaid merchandise, specifically in the form of little girl panties...
she wants to be a mermaid.

So, we looked everywhere in town for a Mermaid outfit....with NO luck.
(all I could find were size 8-10 or bigger...Marinne wears 5T)

So, finally, after one last trip out....Marinne picks out a $30 Barbie Cheerleader outfit. It's Hot Pink and it's sparkly....what's not to love?!

Let me just tell you.....it should have been name Barbie the inappropriate cheerleader!

For heaven's sake, I had to get a size 4-6 because that's all they had.
(my point is...it was actually bigger than her actual size.)

Well, we took it home and tried it on my sweet little baby was showing off
WAY TOO MUCH SKIN!!

Like 3-4 inches of middriff!
So...my immediate job was to figure out what she'd be wearing under it.

And then, I had to decide how I was going to keep it ON her, because it was too big!

So...moving on to Halloween!

On Halloween Day, I decided to take Marinne Trick-Or-Treating at one of our local malls. So, when I went to dress Marinne in her cheerleader outfit....she wouldn't do it. Seriously! She kept telling me she was "scared" of it. Argh! So glad I spent that $30 on it!!! Ha ha! So, I said, "Ok, we don't have to go. And she brought her last years "unnamed" outfit and said, "I want to wear this"...so that's what she did!

Although, this has been in the dress up box for the past year and you can see that the headband, which she INSISTED she HAD TO wear...was no delapidated. So I took the remaining tulle pieces and tied them in the back of her hair and put the headband on w/ out the tulle ribbons on it! Little Stinker!!!!

We did this....but the mall was much smaller than I had thought...and it didn't take too long. For that matter...you can see that some of the "candy people" weren't being too friendly, so we got out of there!! (she looks grumpy, huh?)

So, then we went across the street and went Trick-Or-Treat at Daddy's tv station.

(mainly because I wanted her daddy to see
she was not wearing the $30 barbie outfit!)

I slipped daddy a lollipop to put in Miss M's Princess bucket!
(don't worry Big Daddy, I knew you wouldn't be prepared, so I got your back!)

On to the BIG NIGHT............

Who knew it was possible...at the last minute she decided to be the
Barbie Cheerleader! (I swear...this child is gonna kill me!) :) PS....nice cheezy smile!
(and since I took the pictures in the dark...I couldn't see her expression!)

And mommy did her part to return the inappropriate costume back to something appropriate for a 3 year old to wear on Halloween! Yay mommy!

Honey was a Star Wars Guy of some importance.
Don't ask me which one...I have no clue.
Something like an Imperial, Grand Storm Trooper something or other!All I know is that he's stinkin' cute!

Jensen recycled last years Ninja outfit.
(notice his hole in the knee of his pants....this has been a well-loved "dress-up" outfit)The only thing added was some new killer Ninja swords that were on his back!

I wonder how much longer he'll still want to dress up. He just turned 10.
Next year he'll be 11. (i know you can do math...i'm just talking to myself!) Anyway, last year Logan turned 11 and he determined he was "too big" to dress-up. But, he was also in 6th grade at 11. Jensen will be in 5th grade next year. I guess we'll see.

Speaking of Logan...he didn't dress up....and every single time I tried to snap his picture he zoomed away on his scooter that he spent a few days trickin' out with LCD lights so it would be lit while we went around T or T'ing. So, I have no pic. (stinker!)

Daddy came home from work early.....and in about 45 minutes hung orange lights in both trees, put up the spider web stuff, put "woody" aka Jason out on the porch and intalled the black light and the strobe lights w/ scary sounds on! Not bad for a quickie decorating job!

(Well..Woody was made last year. The boys and Big Daddy made him. He's made of 2x4's and old clothes, shoes and a hockey mask. He has a machete' but it fell. And this year a girl told me they weren't coming because they thought Woody was real! They were convinced he was gonna jump out and scare the fire out of them!

I love the random Trick-or-Treating picture....

And I had to include this one for a few reasons:
#1 - It's like the big brothers are one on each side of sister, protecting her.

#2 - It kills me how M is actually looking into the house like, "where are you?"

#3 - And lastly, click on the picture to make it big and notice the giant safety pin I used to hook M's skirt to her shirt, so it wouldn't fall off. Now, that's classy! :)

And I had to include of this one of the wicked decorations on this house around the corner from us....how cool is this?!?! Hope everyone had a FANTASTIC Halloween!!!!

The Projects

2008-11-04T18:34:00.004-05:00

This is the result of the struggle.....the layout I did of my Momma.

I love it. The papers from the Melissa Frances Breast Cancer Page Kit are so
beautiful and combined with my feelings I put into the journaling, it was easy to
make it perfect. I loved her so very much and this layout was very hard to do.
But, I am so very glad I did it. Now that I've completed one, I want to do more.

But, emotionally, I was exhausted.

So, instead, I put together this sweet little "Think Pink" gift basket.
(supply lists for both projects are available at The Paper Mill Store Blog!)

I don't know anyone that has breast cancer right now, so if you know someone who is in a fight against breast cancer....leave me a comment and tell me how this person is special to you and I will draw a name on Friday. If I choose your name, I will send the basket to the person of your choice. (and it's filled with Milk Chocolate!!)
It might just be the right thing to brighten someone's day!

Finally, I'd like to thank all my loving friends who left me a comment or emailed me after my "Struggling..." post. You know each and every one of you are so important to me and you guys keep me inspired. You make me believe I can do anything.

Thank YOU!

Struggling.....

2008-10-27T22:30:00.003-05:00

Right now I am struggling.

For my design team assignment, we are emphasizing breast cancer awareness.
We've teamed up with Melissa Frances and I have some of the most beautiful and fun papers,
ribbons, stickers, embellies and rub-ons to work with. But, they have a breast cancer theme.

And as much as I try to push myself to "think outside the box," all I can see is the "breast cancer'dness" of these products. I find myself sitting at my desk for hours, doing nothing but looking at the papers and thinking of my mom. (you see, the box, although beautiful was my emotional cop-out of not really scrappin' a picture that means something to me)

And the other line is called "thankful."
Well, I'm not thankful I lost my mom. I hate it.
The only thing I'm thankful for is that she didn't have to suffer longer than she did.

So, for now, I have sick kids.
A husband who is out of town.
And a deadline Friday for at least 2 more projects, a month-end report and lots to upload.
(usually, it's just not this hard.....)

And I'm struggling.......

A Beautiful Memento Box

2008-10-27T12:38:00.003-05:00

What do you get when you take
WorldWin Cardstock from The Paper Mill Store.com,
add some patterned paper from the Melissa Frances Thankful collection
and use the Crafter's Companion to form it into something?!

THIS BEAUTIFUL MEMENTO BOX!!

So, if these photos make you want to see more...go to
The Paper Mill Store DT Blog
and get the step-by-step directions
to put this fantastic box together.

And once you've walked thru it once, step-by-step...
you'll want to make a million more boxes! It's just so fun!

My Tally for the Week....

2008-10-25T18:30:00.002-04:00

2 kids w/ strep throat

1 kid w/ Fifth Disease

1 dog w/ vomiting and diarrhea

1 husband who claims he's getting sick

and me, who somehow pulled a muscle in my chest which is making me further believe in the statement, "better living thru pharmaceuticals!!" Thank goodness for pain meds!!

LIMO?!!!!!

2008-10-22T13:15:00.005-04:00

....more like LAME-O!!!!!

So, Jensen had a birthday.
(can you believe he's 10?!)

And for the past 4 months, he's had one request for his birthday.
He's wanted to have his party in a LIMOUSINE and take all his friends to McDonalds in the LIMO and then they'd cruise up and down the street while they eat their food and chill out in the LIMO.

Well, the last time I rented a LIMO was before Jensen was born, so I really had no clue how much it cost, but I thought I might be able to rent one for about $150. And, that's about what I would have paid for his party, anyway, once it was all said and done. The money would have just been spent a little differently than a usual party.

So, I set out to find my baby his LIMO.

Well, as you guys know, I live in Kansas. And although, I live in a city in Kansas, it's not one of the huge ones. I mean, we don't even have an airport here. (which reduces my pool of LIMO options, because we have no "airport" limousines that may have been an option in a bigger city.)

So, I consult the phone book.
(there are just some things that nothing beats the yellow pages for)

Well, as you might guess, there is not that many to choose from, but there seems to be 3 companies and so I begin my phone calls.

The first company I call, answers...."Hello?"
(this was my first clue that this one might not work out...)

I say, "Um, is this xxxxx Limousine?!?"

"Uh, YES it is."

"Oh, ok...I thought I might have the wrong number."

Pause.

"You don't. What can I help you with?"

Well, I explained what I was looking for and he explained to me they have 2 LIMOs....one traditional, one stretch H2 Hummer.
And then he drops the bomb.
They rent for $135/hr or $145/hr.depending on which you choose.......
2 hour minimum....plus 20% tip to driver.

WHAT?!?!?!

That's a total cost of over $300!!!!!!

THAT was my reality check.

I asked if they ever considered renting the LIMO for less than 2 hours.
After all, the kid only wants to go to the McDonalds drive-thru and wants to eat...how long could that really take. I mean, does he really need to drive around for 2 hours? Well, I'm thinking we get the food, eat and then go to the house to open presents and have cake.

I was quickly told that WAS NOT an option.

Well, THANKS SO MUCH FOR CRUSHING A BOYS BIRTHDAY DREAM!

So, I call the next company.

And again, I am met with a similar scenario.

Then, I call the last company.
(I am starting to feel the desperation of a mother on a budget and the thought of having to see "that face" on my child and possible tears when I tell him that there is no way he'll be having his LIMO Party.)

So, this one, a woman answers.
And, I can tell she's on a cell phone. And she's at home.
AND I can hear loud, noisy kids in the background.

Ah, GOOD!, I think to myself. She's a MOTHER.
Someone who can understand my plight and what I have now come to believe are the unrealistic birthday wishes of a child.

So, I ask about her LIMO's and she gives me the list of the 2 she has and then begins to tell me the prices. Well, her LIMO's are a tiny bit better in price....$125/hr.....2 hr. minimum.....20% tip to driver.

Still....way out of budget!

I begin to explain my dilemma to her.

And she, calmly explains to me that there is no way she could do that.
After all...she says....even if you take the car out for an hour, not 2, I have to pay $100 to have it cleaned.

What exactly was she thinking we were gonna do in this LIMO
that would warrant a $100 cleaning bill?!?!?

So, I hang up...defeated.

For Heaven sakes Lady...have a heart.

Rent me the limo for an hour

and

HAND ME SOME STINKIN' ARMOUR ALL!!!
I'LL CLEAN YOUR LIMO MYSELF!!!

FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At this point, I'm thinking...
"How can I call a funeral home and ask in a socially correct way
that if no one has died and their LIMO is just sitting there,
could I rent it for an hour for my child?"

But, in my mind, my fear is...all my birthday photos of the
LIMO will have xxxxxx Funeral Home on them.

Photoshop, anyone?!?!

Ha ha ha!

In the end, I gave my son a dose of "real life."

Me: "Sorry, sweetie. We can't afford it.
I know you're disappointed and I am, too.
But, we need to come up with another plan.
How about a bowling party?!"

Jensen: "I want Chuck-E-Cheese."

Well, FAN-Stinkin'-TASTIC.

Someone kill me now!
(Just run me over with a LIMO! I can give you the numbers!)

Seriously?

2008-10-21T09:12:00.002-04:00

So...this is my life....

*a pre-teen who has a gnarly case of strep throat
(the pediatricians words, not mine)

*a 3 yr. old girl, who was woke up early due to all the excess unexpected noise due to situation with dog. (story to follow later in list) This girl came outside w/ no pants on (but carrying them) because she wanted to come outside w/ me and the dog. And now, who is sitting on her bed upset because the girls at the bus stop laughed at her for having no pants on.
(mind you, it's 48degrees outside)

* a kindy kid and a 3rd grader, both of who stayed up too late messing around and neither of which want to get up.

*a dog who is puking and has the big D, too!
(hence the 6am discovery of said fact and the following bath, crate cleaning and then disinfecting of everything within
a 30 yard vicinity of the dog and his crate!

*me, dry heaving, because I don't do icky animal anything
(this list includes, but is not exclusively limited to animal vomit, poop, eye boogers, slobber, snot or any animal smells. Seriously, a trip to the vets office, where the smell is concentrated can upset my stomach for a few hours!!)

*a cranky husband because he helped with the dog and now is running late to work and stressed because of this fact.

* the kindergartener just realized he left his backpack at home....running back from the school bus stop.... screaming, "mom, I forgot my backpack!" the whole way!
(I'm sure any neighbors who might be sleeping in really appreciated that!!)

*a headache, probably due to all listed above, but mostly
due to lack of sleep and stress

It's 8:19am....
...and I'm exhausted.

It's a glamorous life...but someone's gotta have it.

Don't be jealous!

Holy Crap!!!!

2008-10-19T12:43:00.002-04:00

(is it wrong to say that on a Sunday?!)

So...you all know how much I admire the work of Emilie Ahern. To be honest, I can't even remember how I came across her work in the beginning, but once I started blog stalking her, I couldn't stop. Between her inspiring work and her awesome personality...."she had me at hello!" (remember what movie that's from?!) So, time passed, and as it did...I began to feel like I knew her. And I started leaving comments. And eventually, she left me comments on my blog.
And so began our online friendship.....

If you don't remember Emilie and I got to meet back in August at the CKC show in Valley Forge, PA. I knew we'd be friends. (read it here!) She was wearing the same shirt I own and had worn the day before we met! Kindred spirits, I tell ya!

So...imagine my surprise when I found THIS, this morning!
(although, she had sent me the pic of the LO a few days ago...
I had no idea it was going on THE BLOG!!)
So, color me happy!!

(Isn't it amazing this LO is Hybrid? It looks like it has so much dimension to me!)
That just goes to show you just how much talent Emilie has!

Thanks, Emilie for making my day! Your the sweetest!! :)

QuicKutz Silhouette FOR SALE!!!!

2008-10-16T10:10:00.003-04:00

So....are you in the market for
a digital craft cutter?!

Up for sale is my
QuicKutz Silhouette!

I truly love this machine. The trouble is...when my laptop died, Big Daddy bought me a new one and it's a MAC. Well, the Silhouette is only MAC compatible with the use of Adobe Illustrator. And anyone who knows me KNOWS that I have the computer skills of a Raccoon! (do not ask me why I chose raccoon, but you get the point!) Point is...it's just sitting!

And that makes me sick.

This wonderful machine has been sitting in it's box unused for over 9 months! So, I've decided to sell it.

I have the original box and all packing material. I have all the manuals and cords and supplies that came with the machine. (shoot...I only used it less than 10 times, total.) I even have the little QK Pick-up tool, that helps you remove the shapes from the adhesive mat after you've cut them. (which I'll just throw in to be sweet!)

I paid $300 for this machine and it's been barely used.

If you are in the market for one or thinking of treating yourself, let me know ASAP. If not, it goes on ebay this weekend.......
(I just wanted to offer it to you guys first.....it's nice to get something used from someone you know and trust!!!!)

WANNA WIN A BIND IT ALL v2.0?!?!?!?

2008-10-16T09:25:00.003-04:00

That's right, we are having a fantastic contest over at Scrapbooks 'n Stickers!

Join in on our scavenger hunt and fun challenges for the chance to win the BRAND NEW ~ PINK ~
Bind It All v2.0!!!!!!!

So, head on over to SNS.com for your chance to win the Pink BIA and a prize package worth over $100!!!!

Are you feeling lucky?!?!? Then, go to SNS.com NOW!!!!!

Look for new updates tomorrow!

2008-10-15T23:47:00.000-04:00

I have so much stuff to catch you up on......

CKC- Hartford, CT

2008-10-15T22:05:00.009-04:00

CKC - Hartford, CT
Oct. 1st - 5th, 2008
Scrapbooks 'n Stickers Booth

Hartford is so beautiful. I really am loving the New England states. They are really filled with so much beauty. As we were coming in for our landing, I couldn't help but snap a few pictures out the window of the airplane. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed because I had expected some better color, but after talking to the locals, I'm about 2-3 weeks too early for the really good color.

Once I was at the baggage claim, Aly was there waiting for me!
We hugged hello and went to hail a cab.
(geez, I feel so New Yorker!)

I had to snap this pic of Aly and I in the cab, because I've not been in a cab since I was a small child (and I don't have a picture of that, I just remember doing it once on the way home from the airport in Tulsa.)

The Scrapbooks 'n Stickers booth looked really nice. I am really in love with my Bind-It-All section. I seem to have it down to a fine art now. And more booth pictures....
Yummy Fancy Pants! And KaiserCraft....(with Aly and Alex Ann!)

After my class on Friday, Angie from Boxer was the next teacher in my room. So, I had to get her to take a photo with me!She's such a nice girl! She and her mother work and travel together and I've had the pleasure of getting to know them while traveling this year. Angie's teaching this dog bone chipboard album class that is just so stinkin' cute!!!

When I came out of my room after class (and wasn't in such a hurry) I noticed the fantastic view out the window in the upper floor of the convention center. I told you it was pretty! After that it was back to the booth to take on my role as the Bind-It-All Queen! Ha ha!

Well, during explaining the fantastic features of the Zutter Bind-It-All...I made some new friends. But, I can honestly say this story is abou the funniest thing that has ever happened during my demo-ing. These girls were thinking of getting a BIA and they wanted to know if it would punch a clipboard. (which of course is a wood) Well, I went and got a piece of clipboard and let them try it. Well, they were so impressed...they could not believe that it could cut it. So, she wanted to see if it was really hard.....and she cracked it in half!!! (But, she didn't mean to. It embarrassed her. It surprised me. And her best friend really gave her a hard time!! So, they decided to use the 2 halves as keychains. (after all, we've already punched the holes in it with the Bind-It-All!) So, we decided to take it all the way, adding Best to one half and Friends to the other half!! And of course, they broke off a piece for me to keep!!! Ha ha ha!
(Hi Nancy and Lisa!!!)

And then, they bought the Bind-It-All!!!!
(of course they did!!)

The next day before we left, we received
the sweetest thank you card from some ladies from the crop the night before....and look what is says on the inside...... ....ahhhh, how nice is that?!? Thanks, Ladies!!

Now, when I travel, I often don't have time to shop and when I do, I am often looking for something specific. Now, you know you are a scrapbooking sicko when you get super-excited over
your purchase at the convention and it's THIS!!!! Yep, it's an entire box of Kokuyo Dot 'n Roller refills!!
(I'm sick, I'll tell ya!!!!!!!!!)

So, that was my purchase 5 minutes before the show closed!!

The next morning, (Sunday) I caught my flight home. It was early, really early! And I got this shot before landing in DC. How pretty is this photo?!

And then, when I was on the ground in Washington, DC...I looked out the window at the airport to see the Washington Monument!(See it thru the fog?)
How cool is that?! I was so moved, I almost wanted to miss my flight home and go sightseeing instead! I've always wanted to go to Washington, DC and now I know I must go there someday!
And I really want to take my family to see it.

Anyway, Hartford was a blast, but I was glad to go home for 2 days before I started it all over again! I leave for the next CKC on Wednesday!

I'm off....

2008-10-01T10:53:00.005-04:00

....to CKC-Hartford, CT!!!

This is me at Gate A-8 at the Kansas City Airport. This girl has the weight of the world on my shoulders. As much as I love my job, I am seriously wishing I was staying home today. There are just times where you feel like you need to be home. And this is one of them.

But, I will go. And I will do my job to the best of my ability. And I will have a great time. Because that is me. And how can I not have a great time doing what I do? I just wish I was going into this trip as the happy-go-lucky girl that I normally am.

If you can't tell....I am exhausted! I slept one hour last night.
Big Daddy might have slept a total of three. That is not enough!! Big stuff going on in our lives. Can't really go there yet. Have to be careful what we say. Because you never know who's reading.

I'm sorry for the cryptics. But, it's what I have to do. If your a friend who has my email address, shoot me an email and I'll fill you in.

For now, call me overwhelmed.....

xoxo~
roxann

If you have a minute....

2008-09-29T23:08:00.002-04:00

HOP right over the THE PAPER MILL STORE.com blog and give us your opinion!

We've got a little poll up and it only takes a moment!!

AND EVEN BETTER.......

Leave us comment to let us know EXACTLY what you think about the changes!

We would so appreciate it!

Scaredy Cat!

2008-09-27T14:28:00.005-04:00

MEOW!!!!Who wants to make this Halloween Kitty?

Go check it out on the Paper Crazy Blog for the full instructions.

Every single time I look at him....I just crack up!

(and you can learn how to make my trademark "spit ball spider!"

The Surgery...

2008-09-23T09:25:00.006-04:00

....a story in hospital excellence.

(an essay for Emilie)

So, when I walked into the hospital last Friday for my Pre-Op visit, I was pleasantly surprised. You see, I had never been there before for treatment or an emergency since living in KS. (knock on wood) I know, with 4 kids that seems like a miracle!

As I was saying, I was pleasantly surprised. I wish I had brought my camera, but I wasn't expecting such a nice hospital. It felt like a hotel. Nice, clean, classy. A beautiful tall fountain in the lobby and a view up where you can see all the rooms on the inside of the hospital. It was quite impressive. Marinne was with me and she declared, "Mommy, I love that water!" And I agreed, it was very relaxing.

So, we do the Pre-Op stuff and it only took an hour. Not bad at all.

So, on Surgery Day (Wednesday) I was to be there at 10:30am for my 12:30pm surgery. (boy was I glad I didn't have to be there at 5am!) Surprisingly, I was quite calm. (which is not like me at all....) You see, I've been putting off this procedure for over a year because I was so scared of doing it. (ya, I'm pretty much a big chicken)

Anyway, I was calm, until the hospital called at 9:04am and asked "if there was any way I could come right now?" YEA, RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been sitting here at my house just chillin', waiting to get into the shower in a bit. I had plans to shave my legs. I had plans to keep from showing up all "sasquatch" if you know what I am sayin'?! (omgosh, did I just say that out loud?!?!)
But, the fact remains that since they were going to be workin' in the area,
I wanted to make sure things were in tip-top shape! (just doin' what I can do
to help the process at the hospital!)

So, back to the phone call. So, then she explains that someone's surgery got cancelled and the doctor is now running ahead of schedule. So, I say, "Well, if that's what I need to do, I can be there around 10am." (we live like 20 minutes away w/ the drive time due to stoplights at every corner!) And it's now 10 after 9am and I'm still on the phone with the surgery nurse. So, now I am in a HURRY.

I went from "nice and calm" to "panicked and stressed" in about 60 seconds.
(but that was due to the fact I DO NOT deal with change well!)

So, fast forward 25 minutes and we're on our way to the hospital....
(it doesn't take long to "get ready" when you aren't allowed to wear makeup!)

The thing that took the longest was the check-in. When I got there, I had to wait about 10 minutes (still, nothing compared to what I've had to wait at any other hospital. I've waited longer than that for something when I was in LABOR!)

They quickly got me into a Pre-Op Room and I was quizzed and given a hospital bracelet and a gown. (by quizzed, I was asked what my procedures were and made sure I verified the info on my chart and bracelet was all correct.)
Thorough.....I like that in a hospital!!

Before I could even get out of the bathroom and dressed in my hospital gown and my sexy maternity underwear hey gave me to hold the maxi pad I needed!
(thought I was done with maternity anything.....HA! HA! Guess Not!!!)

(these are disposable underwear that could be cut off me when they were ready for surgery....and yes, my body betrayed me by starting my period again about 10 days early....one finally betrayal before I made up my mind that I was done with these insane and out of control menses. This just help justify in mind that the time is now and that I really need to do this. Even if I am scared to death.)

So, while my 2 nurses were waiting for me to get the maternity undies on, they were already getting things done for my surgery. When I came out, I was quizzed again about my hospital bracelet and what procedures I was having.
(Like I said, they were THOROUGH!)

Then came the anesthesiologist.
More quizzing. More health questions. More clarifications.
Then, a shot in the IV to help me relax.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, ANESTHESIOLOGIST!!!!
I think I might love you.....

The part I was dreading more than anything else was here....the IV.
(like I've said more than once, the worst part about having babies is the IV!!!)
I hate needles. And I DEFINITELY HATE IV'S!!!!!

So, while they were looking for a place to put my IV....I was panicking. And I was trying to ignore them. I took that moment to more closely examine my room.
I first see this picture, which is what I was focusing on while she gave me the IV numbing shot.
(thank you kind nurse for that, even if it burned a little...)

{to Emilie: I have no idea what a school house has to do with a hospital, but at least there was no one getting accosted in my hospital room!!!} To others: if you don't understand this go read HERE.

After she finished, we had to wait a few minutes for the numbing to take effect. So, I let my eyes wander off the schoolhouse to the wall in front of me....and I see this.(oh ya, I'm in a Catholic hospital.....) And as I was receiving my dreaded IV, I was concentrating on Jesus and I actually forgot to breathe, until the nurse said, "Honey, are you breathing?! Because we prefer our patients breathing!!"

(the funny part was the last time I was near a needle was here and
while I was in pain, I forgot to breathe and nearly passed out! --
p.s. scroll down to the story and pictures of my tattoo story!! :)

And when one nurse asked if I was breathing, the other nurse was done with the IV.
And it was NOT THAT BAD! I LOVE THAT NUMBING SHOT!!!!!!!!!!

And with that, we were ready to go!

Now, I was scared, but I am very ready to be done with the monthly madness!
So, I was ready to go.

They allowed Big Daddy to walk down the hall with us to the "goodbye spot"
and then we were allowed to say our goodbyes. I was strong (possibly because it was all happening so fast, there was no time to panic.) But, Big Daddy, well, he's an old softie and as he told me goodbye and he loved me, he was starting to cry.
It was so. very. sweet! (this guy never cries!)

So, they wheeled me away.
And I was now more worried about him than me!

The next thing I knew, we are in the Operating Room.
It was super freezing in there!
The anesthesiologist began explaning what they'd be doing.

And when he finished, they asked me if I was ok or had questions.

But, the only thing on my mind was Big Daddy.
So, that's what I was talking about.
And it was the last thing I remember.

And then, I found myself with a nurse by my side....glued to the heart monitor.
I was waking up.
She started talking to me.
Asking me how I felt.

She explained to me that she was carefully watching my heart rate.
Because, apparently, it was way too slow.
It was in the low 40's, about half of what it should have been.

So, she calls the anesthesiologist over. He, too, is concerned and orders
something that started with an R to get my heart going.

After 10 minutes or so, it had not worked.

So, the nurse calls anesthesiologist over again.
More concern over low heart rate which is still too slow.

This time, he pulls out the big guns.....Atropine.
(I recognize it from the show ER....and I get a bit nervous.
Because I know they use it when they have a code blue....)

And even after that....my heart rate only hit the upper 60's, but they were
no longer really concernes as the were with the 40's.

Once I was stable, she was asking me what my pain level was
based on this chart on the wall. For the record, I said it was a 3 or so.
And she gave me the good stuff. Morphine.

Then, she asked me how old my 4 kids were.

I said, "How did you know I have 4 kids."

"You told me," she responded.

As soon as you came to, you asked me if you were ok....
...because you had 4 kids and a husband who need you.

......Well, if I say something I don't remember saying, I'm glad it was that.

And when Big Daddy was brought to me, I was so glad to see him.
And he was so sweet and loving and so glad to see me.
He was starting to cry again....and he says I'm no longer allowed to be
wheeled away on a gurney. It was harder for him than he had expected.

And once I was stable and awake, they said I could go home.
And seriously, within 5 minutes they let me change my clothes and
they had a person there to wheel me to the car.

Now, that's what I call service!

(When I had my daughter, it took about 3 1/2 hours to be released! Insane!!)

**After I got home I took a L-O-N-G nap! And I was awakened just before 5pm by my cell phone. It was the doctors office. And they had run a urinalysis before my surgery and if you can believe it, I have a wicked Urinary Tract Infection.
Well, that explains a lot..........so I'm now on BIG TIME antibiotics, too!

--------------------
I just want to thank everyone for your concern, prayers and phone calls.
You guys are just *FANTASTIC*!!

The thing that has surprised me the most was how exhausted I've been since then.
And I'm 6 days post-surgery, and I still don't have a lot of stamina.
But, everyday I'm feeling stronger.

(Now....I've been asked by a few what exactly I had done.....It was a triple procedure that they do together, but the motivating factor was the "endometrial ablation."
This is the procedure that should help with my periods from hell. But, in tandem with that, the do a scope looking for cysts or any other problems that may be causing the bad periods. Then, a D&C has to be performed before they do the ablation.)

UPDATE

2008-09-18T19:34:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to jump on real quick and let you know I am just fine. Surgery was successful, although I did have a slight problem in recovery.

(My heart rate dropped to 42 and they couldn't get it to rise.)

and

I've had some pretty wicked cramping, although I am feeling much better today.

All and all....it wasn't that bad.

I have some pics I want to share....but they are on Big Daddy's camera phone.

So...look for the full story soon.

Interesting photo....

2008-09-16T09:05:00.003-04:00

When I went to take my dog out this morning, I was surprised to see the moon. The sun was up (as you can see it shining on my neighbors house) and just above the trees was the biggest, brightest FULL MOON!

It was very beautiful and peaceful.

It's cold this morning...49 degrees. But, it's forecasted to be 79 degrees by this afternoon. To be honest, I hate this particular time of year. Why? Because you have to dress for cold in the morning and hot for the afternoon, which warrants both sets of clothing to be out for each child! I cannot keep up with the laundry, nor do I have the bedroom storage for everything to be out at once! And, it drives me CRAZY!!!!!

Anyway....it's shaping up to be a busy one. I have *super fun* scrapbooking projects to finish up for The Paper Mill Store.com and get sent in. So, be looking for those very soon on the blog.

I have a lunch date with a new friend today. Exciting, but I am nervous, too. This girl's hubby works for Big Daddy and she's currently on maternity on leave. So, we decided to do lunch. The funny thing is...why am I nervous? Well, because I want her to like me, of course. But, my husband is her husband's boss....so shouldn't she be nervous?! (now that I think about it, I bet she's nervous, too.) Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to it. As I've mentioned before...I am very lonely here. (although, I love it here!)

Then, there's tomorrow. Tomorrow, I am having some female surgery. NOT looking forward to that at all. Because I. AM. TERRIFIED. IV's. Anesthesia. Possible complications. Side effects of all of the above.

I wish I didn't have to do it.

So, say a prayer for me. (and Big Daddy, too. After all, he's gonna have to deal with his anxiety-ridden freak of a wife tomorrow --and probably tonight-- while I am dreading having to do this)

I might be missing in action for a few days....but, I'll try to check in to let you know I'm fine.

xo~

Roxann

Awards All Around!

2008-09-11T09:07:00.018-04:00

BOY...AM I FEELIN' THE LOVE!!!!!! :)

So, I've been awarded the "I LOVE YOUR BLOG" award
4 times recently! And for me, this is very exciting! (because it proves that you are still reading -- even though many of you NEVER leave me some Blog Love in the form of a comment! Busted!!!!!)

I received the award first from my dear friend, Jamie. Who I miss so much. Who I am compulsively addicted to checking her blog multiple times a day, just in case she posts twice. (which she often does, darn overachiever!) Hee hee hee!

So, one day I am checking her blog and I find my self nestled just after Cathy Zielski in the list, with the sweetest sentiment ever!

Here's what she said, "Roxann Walker - Because she's embedded herself in my heart like a tick in a hound's butt. (I don't really know what that means, but it sounds pretty profound right?)"

Seriously, I laughed out loud!!! But if you know Jamie, than you know that this a serious declaration of love and adoration!! (but, do not hug her!)

Then, within days, I hear from another Savannah friend and inspirational scrapper, Deiha, that she has chosen me for the I Love Your Blog" award. Short and Sweet, but still means so much! Thanks, D! Seriously miss scrappin' with you!!

And just when I was realizing that I was running hugely behind with listing those two awards, I received the "I Love Your Blog" award a third time from a super sweet, very talented scrapper that I've had the pleasure of getting to know better this year, Kory Dordea! Thanks, Kory! And congrats on the baby!! :)

And before Robin realized I suck for forgetting her in this list, she also nominated me for this award IN THIS POST! Aw, Robin, please forgive me! You know I am one of your blog stalkers and art admirers. I just really do suck! So, everyone go check out ROBIN'S BLOG here and leave her a comment! She's starved for attention like me!
(We know people stalk us, but no one ever comments. So, make her day and do it! :)

*So now that I know I'm loved I'm gonna pay it forward by following these rules:

(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog. (2) Link the person you received your award from. (3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (4) Put links of those on yours. (5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated.

Since I knocked out #'s 1 and 2, let's see what we can do about numbers 3, 4 and 5!

Here's the thing, since I was nominated 3 times, do I nominate 7 blogs or 28 blogs?

Oh, the dilemma's of life.....

Well, I think should do 7, so I'll just start nominating those!!

My Blog Stalk List:

#1 - Emilie Ahern. I stinkin' love this girl! She is so funny. So smart. She cooks and teaches me how to freeze stuff on her "Freeze Happy" blog. And, she's a wicked cool scrapbooker! And she has two of the cutest redheaded girls you ever saw! And when I was able to meet her at CKC-Valley Forge...she forever implanted herself in my heart! What else do you need for a good blog?!? She's got it all!

#2 - Jamie Danford. Former owner of Savannah Scrapbooker. Fruit loop lover. Fabulous scrapbooker. Inspiring "Try-It Tuesday" poster. Mother. Wife to a redneck. Funny. Beautiful. And my good friend. As I mentioned above, I stalk her several times a day. Love ya girl!

#3 - Amber Winward. Oh, where do I even begin to share my love for this girl?!?! My Mormonlicious friend. One that teaches me about faith. Fellow mother of four. Cute kids and a seriously cute baby! Hilariously funny! Kick butt scrapbooker! And inspiring in so many ways! And after this Summer, one hell of a SURVIVOR!!!!! (((huge hugs to you, my friend)))

#4 - Sherry Piper. This girl is like the sister I never had. We are so alike and yet, so different. We are kinda like a Reese Peanut Butter Cup. Chocolate and Peanut Butter are good alone, but FABULOUS TOGETHER!! We have matching tattoos, which will always bond us together! I miss you, Sherry!! (but we'll always have Charlotte!)

#5 - Tam at Momma Song. Because sometimes she's funny. Sometimes introspective. Sometimes just talking about life with her two crazy boys. (aka...the natives) Because she brought me through my years in Georgia. And because I brought her through pregnancy and single motherdom (due to deployment.) And because I miss her, too.

#6 - Kate O'Brien. Kate must be included on my list because I love her blog. She's so fantastic. My favorite thing about Kate is that she inspires me! I like how her work is so REAL and True and Honest. And back before she became the "next big thing" in the scrapbooking world, she offered to build my original super cute blog banner/blog for me and I was a perfect stranger. Over time she became my friend. I wish her only the best. Now, why is her blog down, you ask? Well, because of snarky, hateful women. That's why. If, and when her blog is back, I'll be adding it to my blogroll. (with Kate's permission, of course!)

#7 - Kory Dordea. Kory is such a sweet girl. She's a great scrapbooker. And she's finally beat the battle with infertility and is pregs w/ her first child.

Other faves of note: Check my blogroll on the side --------------------------------->

Mommy's First Addiction!

2008-09-08T21:06:00.006-04:00

...a pink Crackberry Curve!
(I mean BlackBerry Curve....isn't it pretty?!)

You've heard me speak about the Big Daddy's Blackberry aka "Crackberry" in reference to the News Director in this post. And as much as I hated his....I ended up with one a few days ago. And now I am wondering, "HOW IN THE WORLD HAVE I LIVED WITHOUT THIS?!?!!?"

Crazy!!

But, the best part of all is.....it didn't cost us a dime!

You see, back 2 years ago when Ike bought me my first pink razor phone while we were in Savannah, we signed a 2-yr. contract w/ verizon. Well, they have this program called "New Every 2" and I actually finished out a full 2-yr. contract. For this feat, they rewarded me nicely with $100 off a phone of my desire. And with the $70 mail-in rebate on the crackberry, it made the $169 BB Curve......FREE!!!!

Woot!! Woot!! Oh, yeah!

Charlotte - Wedding Trip

2008-09-04T08:55:00.012-04:00

I had a little girl who had completely convinced herself into believing that she was not going on an airplane, no matter what. She was scared. She kept saying, "I'm going to Aunt Sis's house, but I am not going on an airplane." We kept trying to prepare her what it would be like, but no matter what...Marinne was convinced she wasn't doing it. That is, right up until we arrived at the airport and had this airplane...... fly right over our heads! Immediately she screamed,
"THAT'S the airplane I'M GOING ON!"
(sure, baby...whatever you need to believe!!! ha ha!!!)

And that was all she needed. The up close and personal and she was ready to go. She spent our "wait time" watching the planes come in and out. Griffin did, too. But, he was way more nonchalant than his sister!
They were WAY EXCITED, but she was still a bit nervous, too! But, when it was time to load "those passengers who might need a little more time" they were ready to go. (UM, ya...with 6 traveling together, 2 of them being their first time and a total of 4 children....we qualify!!!)

Once we decided who was sitting with whom, it gave me time to drag out the ol' camera and snap some pics..... ...priceless, really!

And then, we were off.....heading toward the runway.

Griffin and Marinne pulled out the Safety Card and paid attention to what the Flight Attendent said. (I did not tell them to do this.) Again, priceless!

Believe it or not, Griffin took a nap. And Marinne spent most of the time doing this. She just loves these "Kitty, Puppy, Safari in My Pocket" toys!And we made it just fine. Except a few slight squabbles involving window shades being up or down. The kids were PERFECT!!!!!

(obviously the stern talks/threats did work!!!!!!!!)

And then, we were in North Carolina!
(but did not get to Sis's house in Salisbury until after Midnight!)
(yawn....very LONG day!)

Before we left town, I had a deadline....I got the project done and I loved it. But, I didn't have time to take the photo's. So, I threw it in the old suitcase and decided I'd do it in Charlotte. (like I've had to do a million and one times!) But this time, it did not go as planned.

Sometime, in flight, an entire bottle of hairspray I packed in my suitcase for Marinne's wedding hairdo, exploded in my suitcase! WHAT A MESS!!!
And my poor project and the beautiful wedding card I made for my niece were both in the firing line! Damn!!! I was so upset!!!
(but thanks to Big Daddy's fantastic photoshop skills, it appeared on the TPMS Paper Crazy blog in FINE FORM!!!! WOOT, Big Daddy!)

Anyways, on to the wedding.....we did all the normal stuff.....

Up first on the list.....

GO GET THE TUXES and TRY THEM ON.

Simple, right?!?!
(After all, I did wait until only 4 weeks before said wedding to take all the kids to be fitted, so no one would outgrow jackets, vests, shirts, pants or shoes. We took them to the "big" store in Tulsa to have it done. Although, Big Daddy had his measured here in Kansas. And he did his only 2 weeks before the wedding..... ya know, the schedule of the New Director puts Tux Try-ons pretty low on the list of stuff to do!!!)

Well, you'd think it would be simple.....

UM.....NOPE!!!!!

We got the 4 tuxes and headed to the fitting rooms, taking up the whole place ourselves!!! Logan in one room, BD in one room and me with Griffin and Jensen and Marinne in the last room.

Well, I knew we were screwed the minute I unzipped Jensen's tux bag and found pants that were size 5T - Griffin's size. (but, I just figured they switched the names....) So, I reach over and unzip Griffin's tux and pull out the pants......WHICH ARE THE EXACT SAME SIZE AND LENGTH AS THE ONES IN JENSEN'S TUX BAG!!!!!!!!!!!! (Jensen boys size 9!)

I said, "Ike, we have a major problem in here!"

So, I call the girl over and show her and they start freaking out.

She starts asking me dumb questions....
"...did you let the waist out?" (i'm aware of how they works)
"...did you mix them up...." (um...they are the SAME SIZE...DUH!)

And, that's when my patience ran out. We have a wedding in 27 hours and the tux store is a 1 hr. one-way drive. And we now have determined that Griffins tie has a stain and his shoes don't fit.
Jensen's pants are Griffins size and a mile too short.
Jensen's shoes are too small, his pants, shirt and vest are all too small.
Big Daddy's pants and vest are too small.

But, Logan's was perfect....and HOLY CRAP how handsome he was!!!

After a pile of phone calls and some panic....it was finally all re-ordered.
And if you can believe it....they let the legs out of the Griffin-sized tux pants and Jensen wore them....and they more or less worked! Seriously!
So, they ended up wearing the exact same size pants! CRAZY!!

So, we went home (another hour) knowing at 10am on Saturday morning we had to go right back and PRAY that everything gets there and that it all fits! Talk about some stress......

~WEDDING DAY~

So, Saturday morning, it was back to the tux shop 1 hour away...

...some issues were fixed, some weren't.
Big Daddy's shirt had a stain, but we hid it under the tie.
Jensen was wearing a shirt that didn't fit, but they got the rest worked out....if you count his pants as "worked out." It was more like
making due with what we had to work with!!
And Griffin's tux jacket sleeve, we discovered, was not even hemmed.
(and we paid like $150 for each tux x 4!!!!!!)

Um...ya...we were not happy.
AND THIS IS A WELL-KNOWN, National TUX CHAIN!!!!!!!!

Anyway, yes...we demanded some refund on that!

ONTO the GOOD STUFF.....

The Beautiful Bride....our gorgeous niece, Kamryn.
It's so hard to believe that this beautiful, grown-up girl was our flower girl 16 years ago when she was only 7 years old. Now, she's all grown up!

The bride and her flower girl, Marinne. And look at this little angel!

Now, you must understand when we went and bought this dress, my girl hated the attention. Everyone in the bridal shop was oohing and aaahing over her. And my daughter threw her face into my lap and refused to get up and let us even see if the dress actually fit.

And as we bought shoes, ruffle socks and talked about the
"PRINCESS DRESS"
Marinne would act embarrassed and tell us don't say that.
(like she didn't want to talk about it...)

So, the concern all along was would she even walk down the aisle?!

She did it at the rehearsal, but she stopped part of the way down when she ran out of the few practice petals we gave her. Just stopped. She thought she was done. (I joked we better cram those rose petal in the basket, so she won't stop 1/2way down.) So, we made sure she had lots.
(now it did not help matters that Ike joked that if she had "left overs" she should just dump them out up there...I could have killed him!!!)

And when there are actually people in the church, well, that ups the odds she might freak out and not do it. After all, she's only 3.

We shall see, we shall see.....

************
It's showtime!!!

Logan was in charge of gifts.
(and spent the wedding helping his dad video the wedding)

Jensen was in charge of the guestbook.

Now, this is funny. While preparing him for his job, it was discussed that their might be certain family member who we really wished wouldn't be at the ceremony, but definitely would be there. So, as this was discussed, Jensen joked his job would be to keep them out.

He had his spiel down pat.

(to the guest we wish was not there...)
J: What's your name?
guest: Mr. XYZ
(checking list)
J: Sorry, not on the list....go to the end of the line.

Or this one:

J: Hello. Name?
guest: Mrs. ABC
J: Thank you for coming. Would you please sign the guest book?

Bottom line, he was a cutie pie and did a great job!!!

Here comes the ring bearer........and now the flower girl! She did it! Success!!!!
(although, she did stop where I was sitting in the front of the church cheering her on....and I had to remind her to keep going up to the front.)

And remember what daddy told her?
When she got up to the front by the Maid of Honor, she grabbed a huge handful of the petals and threw them down! (but it was cute!!)

And as for their time on the stage, Griffin did really well.
(he's almost 6 and can understand the importance,
I was really proud of him!)

As for Marinne, she did great, too.
She was absolutely silent.
But she was....
incredibly

B.O.R.E.D!!

(well, except when papa was teasing marinne from the front row --
and marinne mouthed "stop it" to him!!

Now, THAT, was funny!

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Adam Moose...
And here's a picture I snapped of the bat that was flying around the top of the chapel. (see it in the left light, to the right of the light)

When we arrived for the wedding, there was a city animal control officer trying to get the bat. (he failed) And my poor niece was so freaked out!

I didn't get a chance to take any pics of the kids until the reception.

~Reception Time~

Marinne.....Jensen....Logan.....Griffin......Kami and her brother, Eric.....Eric and his mother (Ike's sister) Trying to encourage Marinne to dance.....Dance floor fun! And I *love* this one of my niece!
It's just so "her!"This was so hysterical...they had these cans and giant 5lb. paint buckets under the truck hiding...and when they pulled out...HOLY CRAP was it noisy!!! So funny, those groomsmen! And I hate to admit it, but this my most favorite picture of all....just one of eight we took trying to get one that's good. And I was overjoyed to see this one....ONE GREAT FAMILY PHOTO!!

Ike and Roxann
L to R: Griffin, 5 3/4, Logan, 12, Jensen, 9 3/4 and Marinne, 3 1/2.

CKC - Charlotte, NC

2008-09-01T21:28:00.014-04:00

So...who's ready to hear about my latest travel adventure?

As I dig out from under all the things I didn't do when I was traveling the first few weeks of the month, I am finally (mostly -- I was still hoping to receive a few pic in the email, which I didn't get...boo hoo!) ready to post about my *super fun* trip to North Carolina for
Creating Keepsakes Convention - Charlotte!

Now, I was looking forward to this trip so much. Number one, because I LOVE MY JOB! Number two, because I knew I was going to teach Taste of Scraptique twice to 2 SOLD OUT rooms and that is SUPER EXCITING! And last, but NOT LEAST, I had my Bestest Buddy, Sherry coming up from Savannah to work in the booth for the weekend!!
(and we had not seen each other in a WHOLE YEAR!!!)

Now, I know you must be asking yourself, why was I so excited to see her?

Well, short and sweet...I love her. She's a total sweetie and we had only gotten super close in the last year I lived in Georgia. And we were seriously sad when I moved. Last Summer, she came to Topeka in June. You can read about our adventures here and here.

Then, I went to Savannah in August of last year (the plane tickets were a birthday gift from Big Daddy- yep, he rocks!) And while I was there we had a TON of fun! From shopping for Kristine's "personal" wedding shower (purrrrrr!) to eating at our favorite Mexican place to getting spur of the moment decision, matching tattoos!! Read about that here.
Anyway, as much as we are alike, we are different.

And, we are great friends!

So, when I knew we might need some reliable help....I was quick to throw Sherry's hat in the ring to my boss as a possibility. And Sherry was quick to accept the invite! Yay!

So, as the date neared, I was getting excited, but I was just so busy at home. This time I was flying from Kansas City International Airport, which is actually in Missouri. It's about an 1 and 1/2 hour drive from my house to the airport. And upon further inspection of my plane ticket, I realized that I was going to need to be on the road no later than 3:30am to make it in time to catch my 6am flight. Well, at Midnight I was still waiting on the last load of laundry to dry and by the time it did and I packed it....it was about 1am.

So, I went to bed. But, as soon as I hit the pillow....I started panicking.

What if I don't wake up?

What if the alarm doesn't go off in an hour and a half?

What if I turn it off and go back to sleep?

What if I hit snooze and I'm late and miss my plane.

Will Kim kill me? (pause) Yep, definitely.

I WAS UP.
Bottom line, I was so freaked, there was NO WAY I was sleeping!!

So, at 2am....I took a shower.

But, unfortunately for me, I slipped while shaving.
(possibly...fell asleeep?!?!)

Take my word for it...
...shaving while slipping and/or falling asleep is BAD.

(just ask my poor leg!)

So...you remember those cuts that you got when you were like 13 years old and just learning how to shave. You were clumsy and scared. And it seemed no matter how careful you were, you almost always got nicks and sometimes cuts? Well, this cut was one of those BAD BOYS! Started burning the minute it happened. Blood pooling in the shower. BAD!
And when I got out of the shower, it took me like 30 minutes and the help of about 7 bandaids to get the whole thing contained. Seriously.
(THANK GOD I DID NOT GO TO SLEEP.....I WOULD HAVE BEEN SO LATE!!!)

So, I got on the road at 3:25am or so. Went to get gas and hit the highway.

I was really exhausted. But, cold air , loud music and some major caffeine were sure a big help to me and I made it to the airport just fine, with about 50 minutes to spare.

Sherry's morning started around the same time as mine.
Sherry drove up the 4+ hours from Savannah on Thursday morning, as well. As soon as Sherry arrived in Charlotte, her first "assignment" was to pick me up at the airport. Now, it's hard to load bags and say hello and give a good solid hug at the Arrivals loop at the airport, but we did it anyway! I was so happy to see her....and we laughed to find out that we have the EXACT SAME HAIRCUT!

After we got out of the airport and headed to the hotel to pick up boxes that had been shipped to us. Well, that was supposed to be easy, after all we were following a GPS in Sherry's van. Well, not so. Every single way we tried to reach the hotel, we kept encountering
NO TURN signs. After about 10 minutes of driving in a circle downtown (which the Charlottonians call uptown) --with much frustration, we "accidentally" turned because somehow "we just didn't see that sign" and made it to the front of the hotel!

After the hotel "found" our boxes, we loaded them up we went to the convention center.
After more search and find...and another few wrong turns....we found where we needed to be. As we turned the corner at the conventions center loading dock, we came face to face with this... (blurry photo...a drive by photo shooting!)...it's the SEI semi. (And the same thing that I freaked out about seeing the first time I worked for Kim. For scrapbookers, that semi means there's good stuff in that there!!!!)
I had to laugh because I felt that way the first time I saw it...now it's just old hat to me!

When we got there, Bev and Leanne had been there for a bit working before we arrived and the grid was up. Sherry snapped this picture, because she was like WOW!(what a mess, right?! And this is only one booth space, we always have 3 or 4 booths, so it's really this mess X 4!!!) This is how it starts! See....it's ALOT of HARD WORK!
So, after a quick meet and greet...we got busy!

We worked our little buns off and the girl kept working as I set off at 6pm to teach my Scraptique class. I had 100 women signed up for class, so it was a big one!

It was a *FABULOUS* class! I had so much fun!!!! And as I was getting started, I got a shout out from a couple of girls from Savannah about 1/2 of the way back. OLD FRIENDS who drove up from Savannah to come to the convention!!!! And they were in my class!
HOW EXCITING!!!!!! (Hi Girls!!) And it was so hot in there....I made some new friends and even one who gave me her paper fan, so I am wasn't as hot as I was!!!

After class, I went back to the booth and we worked until 10pm on the booth.
(They kick you out at 10pm...we weren't done, but we had to go!)

Then we had to hoof it a few blocks back to the hotel. (with the parking costs being anywhere from $8 to $18, we did a bunch of walking this trip!)

We picked up some dinner TO GO at the sports bar in the hotel, because we were all so exhausted we just wanted to veg out. (remember, I never went to bed and it's now about 11pm) So, we find our room on the Concierge level (woo woo) and open the door.

Look at this....NICE..........and see that white thing at the end of the bed? Yep, that's one of those white hotel robes! How cool is that? (except they only gave us one....and there are TWO of us! So, we ordered up another robe for the 2nd night. We were too tired to care on this night!)
And we had a bag of nuts by the bed and mints on the pillow. Classy!

And here are the remnants of our bed picnic. We had quesadillas and nachos, which we split. (have I mentioned we BOTH LOVE MEXICAN FOOD?) And we followed that up with a piece of divine carrot cake that we shared, until we were about to burst! Not Classy! And there is also a pic of the water bottle we shared because we were completely outraged that if you weren't paying attention and drank THIS BOTTLE OF WATER.......they will charge you $4.00!! Isn't this picture hilarious?!?! I was going for "Outraged!"

(ok, ok..I know I look like a demon spawn...but again remember....no sleep last night, flew 1/2way across the country, worked all day building booth and working on booth and taught 1 1/2 hour class to 100 women and it's now Midnight.......I WAS DEAD TIRED!!!)

Cue....passing out..............

FRIDAY MORNING....
(opening day of show)Here are Sherry and I on opening morning in my beloved Bind-It-All Section.
(Have I mentioned recently how much I Y my BIA?!?!)

This photo was taken like 5 minutes before the show opened. And as soon as the doors were opened, I heard the feet of some crazy lady running....and I was thinking....wow, she's looking for a good deal! And one moment later....she slammed right into me!
Turns out....I was what she was looking for!!! It was my old friend Trish R. from Savannah! (you see....she had emailed me quite a while back to ask if I was working at CKC-Charlotte and I told her I wasn't, because at the time my nieces wedding would be the same weekend. Well, along the way, the date got moved back a week to get the church. And at the last minute....Kim needed me to go. So, I went.)

Anyway, Trish had run into the other Savannah girls and they told her I was there teaching, and apparently she was a little excited!!!! (because, I wasn't supposed to be there!
Isn't that sweet?!?

So, that was a super happy start to my Friday! A huge hug from a good friend!

So, on Friday night, I taught Scraptique again. Another *spectacular* class with a bunch of *fantastic* ladies. Oh, man I had some sweeties in this class! Really enjoy this one!

When I was finished, we walked back to the hotel and went to get dinner.
Surprisingly, I can't remember what we ate for dinner. I have no idea.....

After dinner, we went back to our rooms. So, of course, Sherry and I had to take some silly "bathrobe" pictures, since we made sure we had 2 robes this time. Ya, were pretty much dorks! On Saturday, I was able to snap this picture with one of the "Savannah girls," my friend Joy P., while she was doing the altered clipboard make-n-take in the booth. Cute pic!
It was nice to see you, Joy!

And lastly, I wanted to include this photo with my friends from Rusty Pickle, whose booth was directly across from ours this show. It's Alaina, ME and whatever his name is?!!!!
(this is totally a joke....every single show he puts a different name on his nametag. And this show I even threw out some suggestions of what he might use as his alias next show!
I'm not naming him, just in case......)

And...I'm looking forward to next time.......

Back to School Projects....

2008-08-31T19:50:00.007-04:00

I love this little notebook. I saw it in my head and thank goodness I have access to the papers from 13 different paper mills with my The Paper Mill Store Design Team. So, it was very easy to find exactly what I was looking for in terms of paper. In this project I used papers from both TPMS and WorldWin Papers and then used my Bind-It-All to bind it together. I STINKIN' LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MY Bind It All!!!
(go to Scrapbooks-n-Stickers if you want a great deal on the BIA! ----
tell Kim in the notes that Roxie sent ya!)

Anyway, I made this before my 2nd trip to North Carolina for my deadline.
I finished it, but wasn't about to photograph it in the sunlight before leaving because it was dark when I finished it and it was still dark when we left for the airport.

No biggie, I think.....I'll just do it in North Carolina. Well, wouldn't you know it....the thing of hairspray that I packed for Marinne's flower girl hairdo BLEW UP in my suitcase....saturating the tip of the pencil and various items in my suitcase.

OH MAN....DID THAT SUCK!!!!!!!

Thank goodness, the wedding clothes were encased in plastic!!!!!!!

So, thanks to Big Daddy and his photoshopping skills, he was able to produce a photo that is indicative of the project before it was ruined with hairspray, but in reality....
...well, it's not good. BOO! (but, Yay to BD for coming to the rescue!)

And here's a coordinating collection I did........pretty much a little bit of everything!

The layout matches the color pallet, but I actually used a photos from Logan's last day of school last year. (because that's what needed to be scrapped!!) But, the layout can easily be used for the first day of school, just by changing the title!

I used the Maya Road Sheers for the first time....What a NICE product!!!
The next project was an altered lunch sack gift bag.
What better to give a gift to your teacher in?!?

And why not bring an apple for the teacher, with a super cute tag attached
and some school supplies with pizazz?! An altered composition notebook
and an altered eraser both personalized with her name!!

The next project is a post-it-note holder. Isn't it cute?!?! I've been making these for about 8 years or so. I used to make them out of a real "chipboard" I bought at Hobby Lobby years ago, which was like a very thin wood.
I hand cut them with an exacto knife and put them together.

I used to make them for teachers gifts when Logan started Pre-K like 8 years ago.
But, I often did it at the end of the year, when I knew the teacher better and
made them using color schemes that matched the teacher's preferences.

It's a great thing to carry a notepad in your purse!

(Step-by-Steps for this project are available on TPMS DT - Paper Crazy Blog.)

And last but not least, is the super-cute pencil holder for the teachers desk.

I just had to stickle one boy and one girl....it just had to be done! :p

As a former teacher, many people do not realize exactly how many school supplies teachers buy for their own classrooms. ( I sure did when I was teaching full-time before I had kids! And I suspect that teachers are doing it more and more these days!) School budget cuts and the slow economy just make it worse these days.

So, I thought this was a great gift!! A pencil holder and dozens of pencils!

Add a little tag that says, "Help Yourself!" and it'll make any teacher happy!

Yes, School Started on August 13th......

2008-08-30T22:11:00.009-04:00

...and yes, I am just getting around to getting these up on my blog.

But, before you start busting my chops as a bad mommy....just remember that between Aug. 14th and Aug. 25th, I made TWO TRIPS to Charlotte, NC and back. The first was for CKC-Charlotte, I came home for 3 days and the went right back to Charlotte for all my children to be in my nieces wedding. (so if you add that up....I was gone away from home
9 out of those 11 days!)

CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY FOR SURE!!!!!!

(further clarifying my insane post about the cookies!)

Anyway.....onto the back to school story and pics. I'll apologize in advance for my over-indulgent "mommy post" for Back to School. But, darn it, if I have to have a baby going to Kindy and a kid going to Middle School on the same day....you'll just have to understand and be patient with me.

(or possibly make me a sympathy card.....let me know if you need the address!)

Ha ha!

So, here is the middle schooler. He picked out a new outfit to try out his locker and look around. I didn't have the heart to make him change, so I didn't. (he'll just have one less "new" outfit clean for the beginning of school.)

The way it works in our middle school is the kids are divided into teams of 125 +/- kids. And there are 4 teams. Everything Logan does is with his "team." They have the same teachers, the same classes and the same lunch period. In my opinion, this is great. It'll be like he's going to a smaller school within his school.

And, as you can see, Logan is on the Comet team!
(and he's also getting annoyed with his mom wanting to take photo's)Anybody want to bet he lets me take NONE next year?!?!?

I snuck this one while he was working his locker combination for the 27th time.
(just kidding.....it was more like the 8th........)
So, we let him practice a bunch.
Met his EO teacher.
Toured the entire school.
Found his classes.
Practiced the locker a few more times and went on.

Of course, two days school starts they have "School Supply Night," where you bring in your supplies and also meet your teacher. Before we went, I had to take a pic or two, of course.

Jensen in the tree.... (where else would HE be?!) Sitting at his desk... Meeting his teacher. Then, we were off to Kindergarten.

The CUTE Kindergartener. Who was seriously impressed by his "cubby."

And excited to meet his teacher.
(does anyone else question if she's even of legal drinking age?!?!)

Showing off his favorite spot in the room.....the manipulatives area. And his spot on the carpet for group time. And we couldn't start Kindy without a picture with the principal.
She's great and the cutest little thing ever!

ON TO THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Up at 6:25am, to be at the bus stop by 7am.
Totally sucked.
For him.
For me.

Logan was not wanting to do the picture thing....
....and I swear, no other kids were around to see! And off he went..... I was happy for him....and it was harder for me than I thought it would be.
(I took this shot from the porch, so nobody would see me.)

So, I came in and had a 30 minute break before I have to get everyone up for
"go to school - round 2." It's nice to have the absolute quiet alone.
I haven't really had anything like that before.

Then, at 7:30am, I get up the two younger boys.
Their bus comes at 8:14am, and they are to be at the bus stop at 8:00am.

Grabbed these shots before going to the bus stop.

Jensen - Fourth Grade

Griffin - Kindergarten And onto the bus.(It absolutely broke my heart, but Griffin insisted on riding the bus to school. His older brothers do it and by golly, he was bound and determined he was going to do it!
Ripped my heart out. Of course, I followed that bus to the school!!!!!!!!)

Once at school....Griffin put his bag in his cubby.
Then, we did a quick pic w/ his teacher. (still not convinced she's legal)
And then there was work to do on the table. (reading books!)

I snapped this from the hallway outside his room....then, I cried. After that, I snuck down to 4th Grade on my way out of the building...and snuck a
picture from the hallway of Jensen sitting at his desk.
(well, as sneaky as you can be w/ a D-SLR w/ a flash!!! Ha ha!)

And after a long quiet day with the princess.....I was overjoyed to see smiles
when they came running towards me at the end of the day!!

Griffin wasn't swallowed by the giant backpack he was "required" to have!
And I had a great photo of Jensen, but I just realized it had his full name and school on it...so I have removed it. And I'm just too tired to go edit it now....sorry!

Clearly I am insane.....

2008-08-28T09:11:00.005-04:00

...because I was up at 6am and off to the store to buy supplies to make dozens of chocolate chip cookies for Jensen for school.

They are having a bake sale to raise money for the folks in Chapman, KS that were devastated by a tornado back in mid-June this year.

I knew the bake sale was on Friday (yes, I know it's Thursday) but what Jensen failed to tell me until 9:45pm last night was that he need the cookies on THURSDAY!!!
(so they could mark prices on all the cookies)

Since I was exhausted, I was not going to the store at 10pm.
Just was not. gonna. happen.

So, what do I do instead?

I drag my happy a$ out of bed at 6am to go to Dillons and purchase cookie making supplies! AcK!!

(and somehow I thought this was the better option?)

See....like I said, CLEARLY INSANE!!

It's nice to be APPRECIATED!!!!!

2008-08-27T19:50:00.004-04:00

One really awesome thing about working for WorldWin Papers is this....being appreciated.

I knew last month that in addition to the payment I had received for my work, I had won a design team incentive for my Haunted House album. Remember this little beauty?!

Pretty awesome to win something, huh!?!

And when I got my $50 American Express Gift Cheque, the envelope contained something even better...
...a very sweet, handwritten note from Chris L., one of the managers of the company. Now THAT really means something.......

So...I cut all my hair off.....

2008-08-25T11:50:00.002-04:00

I'm liking it pretty well. It's definitely a lot cooler!! (although, it took me a few days and several tries to figure out the correct formula of fixing and hair product
to get it to NOT go flat like it did in this picture, but you get the idea.)

It's also a bit shorter on the front sides than I intended, but it will grow!

This is my attempt of doing a self photo of the back of the haircut.

See...it is really pretty short. Cut off like 7 or 8 inches!!

What a FANTASTIC trip!!

2008-08-09T14:56:00.012-04:00

Another city, another CKC Convention...

Welcome to Valley Forge, PA!

I've never been to Philly before and if you can believe it, I never even made it to get a "real Philly Cheese Steak!"
And I didn't get to see the Liberty Bell, either.

I was actually pretty disappointed, but some trips are just like that. This one we were real busy and I taught a lot of classes, (6 classes for a total of 7 teaching hours) so we didn't even go out for a relaxing dinner until Saturday. And we went to this Irish pub and the food was so good! Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Anyway...on to the good stuff!

The booth...we had lots of great product.
KaiserCraft...if you've not heard of them, check them out here. They really caused a splash at CHA-Summer!

Prima....flowery goodness. An addiction for sure!

Fancy Pants...YUM!! I just love the About A Boy line.
With a bunch of boys to scrap for, I am always looking for boy lines that I love. And this one fits the bill!
And of course, Bind It All! My single most favorite scrapbooking tool this year! What fun! And the Round-It-All is a close 2nd Place! And have you had a chance to check out the DreamKuts? If not, and you love to make cards....
this tool is fantastic!!!!! See all the Yummy Bind-It-All bags hanging on the back wall! Love 'em!!! This is Alex Ann. She was my roommate this trip and she's so funny! She's has 3 kids and she's like a super mom!

The best thing about a job you travel for, besides going to all the neat places I get to go, it getting to meet people. If you've met me in person or know me, you quickly figure out that I am a social butterfly. I am most happy when surrounded by people and if those people happen to be scrapbookers, than I am overjoyed because we all share a common bond. And this trip was a treasure trove for making and actually "meeting" new friends!

First, there are all the wonderful women in my classes! What a bunch of sweeties!!!! Smart and talented women, who could possibly teach me a thing or two about scrapbooking!

(and I met one new friend, who we both swear that we know each other, but couldn't find the connection....talk about driving you crazy! But, she and her friends were so sweet!)

Then, I had a red-headed beauty who was quick to chat and smile ever time I ran into her after class! I love people like her! (I just wish I was better with names.....it's just so hard when you meet hundreds of people in 3 days!!!)This is a pic of me and my friend Kelli! I met her thru the online scrapbooking site... ScrapbookerOnline.com. Those women on there are such a blast and so talented, too!

This is a pic of me and my new friend Julie. What a doll she is! She even offered to cook me dinner on Saturday night because she was grossed out by the dinner (if you can even call it that) that Alex Ann and I ate during the crop on Friday night. Isn't that so sweet!?

Julie is the mother to one little cutie-pie little boy and based on how sweet she was to us....I can tell she's a rockin' awesome momma! (and she's smart to boot -- a college professor!!) Like I said, I'm lucky to get to meet people like this! She sat with Alex Ann and I and kept us company while we worked at the crop. Then, she helped us with boxing stuff up and even offered to carry stuff. How sweet is she?!

I also met a new friend from Technique Tuesday...Sylvia! She was teaching the TT classes before and after my classes on Friday and Saturday (we were sharing the room!)

I wish I could have taken her class...I heard lots of good reviews! And who doesn't love Technique Tuesday?!

(and then I learned my friend Ana from TT has moved to my home state of Kansas...about an hour away! We are trying to make plans to crop together very soon! YAY!!)

One of the best things about this trip was my plan to meet up with Kim Frantz, who is a talented designer on the WorldWin Papers and The Paper Mill Store Design Teams with me.Since our team is spread all over the US and Canada...these opportunities to meet don't always present themselves. So, I was very excited to be able to hook up with Kim!

And we had a lot of fun taking this silly photo! (note to my boss, Kim H.....did you know the GGM works on leather purses and the RIA can stand in for a haircut?!)
I know...we are dorks! But, we were having FUN!!!

(and if you click on the FUN picture, you can watch a silly movie that Kim made of our short time together.....ignore me flitting around like a "Breck Girl"....nervous habit. Plus, I was checking on the booth to see if Alex Ann needed help.)

So, as much as I was looking forward to this trip already....I was OVERJOYED when out of the blue, one of my favorite scrapper idols sent me an email (yes, little ole' me) and asked if we could meet, since she was coming to the convention just for fun!!! And that was and easy answer for me....YES!

So, while I was talking to Kim...along came Emilie Ahern. (and Linda Barber was with her!) Turns out Emilie had been calling my cell phone trying to find me, but I couldn't get a signal in the convention center, so I didn't know. Bummer!
And she was looking for me!!! YAY! So, I intoduced Emilie to Kim and Emilie introduce Kim and I to Linda. (Linda works for Simple Scrapbooks and also is on the American Crafts Design Team. She's super talented, too!)

We all visited for about 10 minutes and took some quick photos. I love this one of Emilie and I.

Isn't she so cute?!?!
And she INSPIRES ME so much!
(and has two of the cutest red-head girls you've ever seen!)

And she has the same taste as me, too. She was wearing a shirt that I own, too. (It's one of my favorites...in fact, I had worn it 2 nights before while teaching my first class!)

Emilie....YOU TOTALLY ROCK!!!!!!!

Now, for the HUGE celebrity sighting story....

...so, on Thursday morning on the way to set up I passed a women on the way to the gym. She had her hair pulled back and at first it didn't compute. I smiled and said hi...like I would to anyone....and as we were equal to each other, I saw her eyes and I realized it was Stacy Julian.

Well, you know me and my mouth, and I exclaimed, "Shut Up! You're Stacy Julian!" (and I probably would have given her a playful shove when I said Shut Up...if we had been face-to-face, rather than passing each other!)

Stacy laughed.

I loved that I met her. Being real. On the way to work out.
Not in the "mode." I know "the mode." You have to get yourself there to successfully do this job.

It's hard being "on" all the time. When sometimes all you want to do is collapse. Or be alone. Don't get me wrong. I do love it. LOVE MY JOB. But, sometimes it is hard.

And I found Stacy to be very "real." Friendly. Accommodating to my Sophmoric crush on her. And she was kind.

I introduced myself. We discussed a mutual friend. (Hi Lain!)
I met her mother. (who Stacy looks like) No autograph. No photo. Just her time. And I was overjoyed!

Just that quick moment in the hallway, made me so happy! Great way to start the convention.

So, although I knew she was around...I didn't see her for a few days. She was teaching classes. I was teaching classes.

But, on Saturday morning, I was counting my class kits at a table and Stacy was at the next table over signing autographs and taking photos. So, I moved over next to her when there was a lull in the line and I was happy to learn she remembered me. (seriously, when you meet as many people as she does...I didn't think she would. But, she did.) And you know what...I found her to be funny, kind and genuine. Very Real. And that's good in my book!

I thought about getting her autograph. But, I don't have her book with me. Or a copy of Simple Scrapbooking.
So, I choose to skip that.

But, I did ask for a photo. And she was gracious and this photo makes me super happy! And reminds me of a woman who inspires me.

WANNA WIN A ZUTTER ROUND IT ALL?!?!?!

2008-08-07T14:14:00.004-04:00

So...do you want to win a Zutter Round-It-All?!?!

This fabulous corner rounder will cut acrylic, chipboard, clipboard, leather, tin and about 6-9 sheets of cardstock at a time and round it into a perfect corner. THIS TOOL ROCKS!!!!!!

So, if ya wanna win one....go thee right now to the Scrapbooks 'n Stickers Blog and leave us a comment there on why you think you deserve to win the RIA!

But get there quick, the drawing will be on Sat., Aug. 9th!

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU!

xoxo~
Roxann

"water-color, misty memories"

2008-07-28T09:48:00.003-04:00

This is a challenge from my friend, Emilie. And it sounds pretty fun, so I thought I'd do it.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

( I am leaving to go to my work trip today, so don't fret if it takes me a minute to respond. I will respond, I promise!)

Reveal of the CHA project....

2008-07-26T20:28:00.008-04:00

CHA was last week and because this project was lovingly created for the show, I had to wait until my DT Coordinator gave me the green light to share it on my blog. I had to wait for it to show up on The Paper Mill Store DT blog.

I really struggled at first designing my CHA project. I had been assigned a mini-album and I finally chose to do a Halloween album. So, I had this idea of using 3 pieces of chipboard to make the house "3-Dimensional" and then fill in between with cardstock pages as needed. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I was excited to try.

First, I drew some sketches on some pages from a white Marriott hotel paper pad. (do you think I travel enough or what?!?!) Once I had the 3 chipboard pieces figured out...it was time to put the plan into action. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I was like a woman obsessed. All I did was eat, sleep and dream about the haunted house mini.
(i know...it really is an illness......)

Keep in mind, this album is 100% my handiwork. Every single piece was drawn out by hand and then cut with a Fiskars craft knife. I spent a few hours cutting out that tree alone!! The entire album is made of WorldWin Papers cardstock and chipboard.
All embellishments are handmade except the few sequins that are in the book and the sequins I used to make the roof tiles. Everything else is handmade.

And 5 days and some 60-ish hours later....my mini was finished!

Let me know what you think.....

Now, I'd like to take a moment here and note a few things.

Number one, I had to take these photos in full sun before I sent the album. They are really bright and actually a bit overexposed, despite me trying to fix them in iPhoto. Any color that seem harsh, is delightful in real life.

Number two, I was betrayed by my most favorite white pen. For some reason, it was really rubbing off the cardstock. When I took these photos I had not realized it was happening. IRL it isn't as noticeable, but in the pics it looks awful. I went back an erased all these marks with my favorite adhesive remover square....and all was well again. But, I apologize for the messy looking photo. I've never seen this pen do that before, but most of the time, my layouts aren't rubbing against each other, as they do in this mini album. (and because the album was used in person as a display item for our booth....I didn't need to retake pictures that were clean.

Here are some close-ups of some of the details:

First: The pain was Black Soot Distress Paint by Ranger. Isn't that crackle paint look awesome. Tim Holtz is a genius and that's all I can say about that...... This was so fun to play with!! (and it was my first time and after one trial/error try, it was pretty easy to figure out!) And the glitter is Stickles, also by Ranger. (my favorite color ~ Black Diamond...oh, Black Diamond, I cannot live without you!!)

Ok, now here's the funny thing. See the spider hanging down off the tower? Well, he was made with the "spit ball method." You see, I wanted a 3 -D spider and I knew I didn't want to buy one, so I figured out how to make one. I tore up a bunch of WorldWin Papers Deep Heritage Black paper into little pieces. Than I ran water over them to make them stick together. I squeezed the water out and rolled them into a ball, but I didn't want to wait the time to figure out if that was going to work. So, I squirted some Sakura Crystal Lacquer into the ball and let that dry. It worked like a charm. Then I added the Stickles Magenta eyeballs to make him look a bit more sinister! (although, he still mostly just looks cute!)

(see photo above!)

Vellum and Acrylic moon, Crafty Board and Ruche tree.
(see my little owl peeking out?) Strangely enough, I had a really good time making these tombstones!!

The photo above and below both have the wonderful Elan Metallic cardstock in Obsidian. It has so much glitter in it! I LOVE IT!!!!! And it's available in so many wonderful colors! You should get some and play with it!

These gumdrop candies were so fun to make. I knew I needed a way to make 3-D candy and as you can see above, making the candy corn was easy. It took me a while, but I tried something that worked like a charm to make these wonderful gumdrops! You won't believe what they are!!!

Here's my GINORMOUS SUPPLY LIST!!!!!

WorldWin Papers / Crafty Board

WorldWin Papers / Deep Heritage Black / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Orange Dream / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Groovy Grape / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Terrific Teal / ColorMates

WorldWin Papers / Sunshine Yellow / DoubleMates

WorldWin Papers / Black / Cascata
WorldWin Papers / Pink / Cascata

WorldWin Papers / Cocoa / Ruche

WorldWin Papers / Plum / Metallic Vellum
WorldWin Papers / Silver / Metallic Vellum

WorldWin Papers / Obsidian / Elan Metallics

WorldWin Papers / Black Stripe / High Gloss

Zutter / Bind It All Machine
Zutter / Black / 3/4" O-Rings

Sakura Hobby Craft / 3D Crystal Lacquer

Acrylic

Accucut / Circle Shape (only partially used for moon)

Ranger / Black Soot / Distress Crackle Paint

Ranger / Black Diamond / Stickles
Ranger / Orange Peel / Stickles
Ranger / Aqua / Stickles
Ranger / Icicle / Stickles
Ranger / Diamond / Stickles
Ranger / Purple / Stickles
Ranger / Magenta / Stickles

Clearsnap / Black / Color Box Cat's Eye Chalk Ink

Tsukineko / Jet Black / StazOn Ink

Tsukineko / VersaMark Watermark Ink

Walmart / date stamp

Signo / White / Uni-ball Pen

Too Marker Products / Pink / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Clear / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Turquoise / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Black / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Orange / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Lavender / Spica Pen

Zig / Pure Black / Artist Pen

Marvy Uchida / Orange / Liquid Applique'

Therm-O-Web / Zots Mini 1/4"

GlueDots / Pop Up

GlueDots / Vellum

Stampin' Up! / Sun Sparkle / Stampin' Glitter
Stampin' Up! / Coral Crystals / Stampin' Glitter
Stampin' Up! / Razzle Berry / Stampin' Glitter

Marvy Uchida / Embossing Heat Tool

WesTrim / Black / 24 gauge wire

Horizon Group USA / Craft Sequins

Novtex / Magenta / Sequins

Stampin' Up! / 12" Guilliotine Trimmer

Fiskars / 12" Trimmer

Fiskars / Heavy Duty Craft Knife

Creative Memories / Self-healing Mat

Walmart / 1" foam brush

Anita's / Grey / acrylic paint

ribbons/fibers: Offray, Michaels, Wrights, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's

Family......

2008-07-25T18:18:00.003-04:00

So, my brother and his family came thru Topeka on their way home from a wedding and we met at the Arby's right off the highway so we could at least have a meal together before he had to get home for his job.

Of course, we had to get a picture of all the cousins together... Jensen 9 3/4, Griffin 5 1/2, Abbey 13 1/2, Marinne 3 1/2, Logan 12, Elley 11. And a successful picture is rewarded with a "silly" picture!
(seriously, try getting a good picture with 6 kids and one of them being 3 years old!)

This is my brother, Randy.
He's awesome and I love him!

This is my sister-in-law, Lori. She's so funny.
I was chasing her with the camera.
She took a picture of me, so I took one of her.
She's laughing so hard, her eyes are squinty! Then, she agrees to pose....but it's too late, she's still laughing so much she's squinty! But, you can see her marvelous personality!!All in all it was a good visit, but WAY TOO SHORT!

It's Hot In Topeka

2008-07-21T19:10:00.001-04:00

People! It's seriously hot in Topeka.

Just ask Beth, she knows!!!! :)

GEO-CACHING

2008-07-21T11:03:00.013-04:00

Meet the GPS....Meet the hunters.... Meet the "fearless leader" and his hunters.... Now, if your asking yourself, "what in the heck is a geocache?" Here's a short answer. It's a scavenger hunt of sorts. A global scavenger hunt. You see, people hide these "caches" with stuff in them. Then, the register them, listing the GPS coordinates and some basic clues to help you find the cache. Then, you and your treasure hunters take your GPS and search for the cache. There are caches pretty much everywhere.

And while geocaching, we explored more of our city in one day than we have learned the entire 1 1/2 years we lived here. It was fun!

Some beautiful nature shots, and photos of the hunters
taken during the journey....

And a park bench he found w/ his name on it.....

After following the tricky clues and looking for a good 30 minutes in the humid day....we had to give up the search for this first geocache. Which was a total bummer, because this cache included a diabetes "travel bug" which is a medal that stands for diabetes awareness. Ike really wanted to get this one for me. But, alas, it was not to be today....

So, off to cache #2.
This one was at Mount Hope Cemetary in Topeka.

I have to be honest, I like cemetaries. (I know...you probably think I am weird. I just think they are so peaceful. And my love for them really comes from Bonaventure Cemetary in Savannah. From the moment I saw that place....I was in love with it. Now, this cemetary can't hold a candle to that, but it was still peaceful none-the-less.

This was a multi-cache, which means that there are several clues that lead you to other clues that lead you to the cache. Did you follow that?

So, the first clue led us to this tree. The clue had something to do w/ a fork or something like that....see, in the "fork" of the tree..... So, the fearless leader lifted Indiana "Griff" Jones up to retrieve the clue.

Off following the clue to find the Stage 2 of this cache....

Daddy lifted "The Princess" to retrieve this clue....
{I absolutely love this picture, don't you?!}

Reading the clue....

Off to search for the final phase and retrieve the cache.....
...and THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, Oh Man....we were ExCiTeD!!!!!

A cache can be filled w/ almost anything.
Toys, pencils, coins, jewelry, pins, travel bugs or whatever.
So...we dumped it out and everyone picked something.

This is what we took:

A tiny Sketcher photo book for Marinne.
Coins for Griffin and Jensen.
A special rock for Logan. ( he wasn't there, but we didn't want to leave him out.....)
and A breast cancer awareness bracelet for Mommy.

We left: 3 hot wheels, a stuffed lamb and the tin man.

Those are part of the rules....you never take something without leaving something in it's place.

Returning the cache to its hiding spot....

On the way out, I spotted this little angel, looking over the memory of someone.
It kind of touched me....

A smaller cemetary, another cache...and a storm moving in...

And our last cache of the day, at a small corner park in our city. This park has a gazebo with some benches under it.
So, I caught this photo of little Missy sitting still, which doesn't happen often! Looking thru the top of the gazebo.
(this reminds me of a picture I might have taken in Savannah.) And a quick photo of the kids in the gazebo....

And the next cache is found.....

Griffin loves anything green, so we got him this green martian and
left a coin in it's place. He really thought this guy was funny!

And our final cache was at another tiny neighborhood park.
They had this gate w/ a "W" on it. I love wrought iron gates and
this one reminded me of Savannah, again. And right when I shot this photo, the sky opened and it began to rain.

Geocaching, expedition one.......over.

Go try Geocaching...it was super-fun!!!

Anybody Wanna Go to a Picnic!!

2008-07-17T01:09:00.003-04:00

With Summer in full-swing, what could be a better time to invite your friends to a picnic?!?!

Supplies:

WorldWin Papers / Crafty Creations

WorldWin Papers / Light Berry Red / ColorMates

WorldWin Papers / Light Heritage White / ColorMates

WorldWin Papers / Deep Heritage Black / ColorMates

Fiskars / 12" trimmer

Coluzzle / cutting system, circle template

EK Success / 3/4" circle punch

Colorbox / Black / Fluid Chalk Ink

Ranger / Black Diamond / Stickles

Signo / Uni-ball pen

Zig / 2-way glue

Pioneer / Photo Glue Stick

Growing Like WEEDS!!!!

2008-07-11T14:13:00.002-04:00

....they surely are!!

And getting a decent picture of all four of them is insane!!!
(but I managed to get this one, which is ok) And these are some of the outtakes from the other one, which I cut out the kids and blew them up. And a single of Marinne, who poses on command! (usually, anyway!) There are none of Logan because he had Marinne on his lap and then refused to pose alone. PRE-TEENS! ARGH!!

(Now, go ahead and leave me a comment to tell me
how gorgeous they all are! You know you wanna!!!!) :)

Whatever happens at the hospital...stays at the hospital!

2008-07-09T09:35:00.003-04:00

NOT!!!!!

Seriously, whatever you do...do not give my dad pain medication, a muscle relaxer and an Ambien before putting him to bed for the night. Trust me on this one!!!!

But, this is exactly what they did. And my dad was NUTS! He was talking in his sleep, although most of it was unintelligible. Well, all except when he screamed, "Jerk!" in the middle of the gibberish. Scared me to death when he screamed that in the silence.

Then, about 2 1/2 hours into the night, just as I had finally dozed off on that super-comfy couch bed/torture device. I heard a noise and looked over to the bed. And I thought to myself, why is there a guy in a neck-brace leaning over my dad?

UH.....IT WAS MY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (it only took a minute for my brain to catch-up and realize what was going on.) I jumped up and screamed, "Dad, what are you doing?!"
And he responded he was going to the bathroom.

My dad had not been allowed out of bed. He had not gotten up at all on his own, nor was he allowed to. (too much pain and too unstable) Well, he had decided he needed to go to the bathroom and he was going. He went right over the lifted bedrails! (when previously, he couldn't even lift his head to move his pillow)

So, he went and I got him back into bed, although he was quite unstable.

I scolded him and told him YOU CANNOT GET OUT OF BED WITHOUT HELP.

He promised he wouldn't. (liar!)

More gibberish, thrashing, noise from him. But, finally I dozed off again.

And I was again awakened by a noise. He was sitting on the bed removing the leg plumpers (to prevent blood clots). Again, I jumped up and got onto him. So, I helped him to the bathroom again. And when he was finished and we were almost back to the bed...he started to fall. I just grabbed him. (ok...all this jerking around after major back/neck/hip surgery is not good!) But, I got him back into bed without him hitting the floor. And this time, that really scared me.

So, I called for the nurse to ask a question about the iv....and I told her what had happened. She was not happy. So, she scolded him big time and set his bed alarm. If he shifted in a way that indicated he was trying to get up...the bed alarm would go off to alert us. (me in the room...and the nurses at the desk)

Well, he set that alarm off 3 more times in the next 2 hours. So, needless to say, that was the end of my sleep. (I got a total of 45minutes, plus 2 hours..broken up)

But, we finally made it through the night in one piece! But, we were both tired!

He got to go home on Thursday night....so he's doing just fine. Thanks for everyone's calls and emails checking on him.

As of yesterday, he's still moving slow. His voice is getting a bit stronger, but not completely back to normal. It's a long recovery (3 full months of wearing the neck brace) but we are confident he will be just fine!

My Dad

2008-07-03T00:32:00.002-04:00

Well...for those of you who have been asking about my dad, he's doing fine. He's in a lot of pain (which is to be expected.) But, he's doing fine. Things were a bit stressful yesterday, with his surgery that was supposed to be 4 hours turned into 6 hours. And his recovery room times, which was supposed to be 1 hour and turned into 2 1/2 hours before we couldn't take it anymore and asked if he was ok. They finally got him out of recover and into a room at around 5pm. (we were headed to the hospital at 4:30am....it was a LONG DAY!) But, the good news is that he's fine. It's going to be a long recovery, but we just hope that it will all be worth it when he's all healed up. And we pray that the constant pain he's been living with will be gone.

So, with my dad still in the hospital and me spending the night there with him tonight, I thought it might be a good time to share the card I made for him for Father's Day. I just love this! It's some delicious Eames paper and WorldWin Ruche, Crafty Board and DoubleMates. If you've never seen this Eames Paper...you should get some, it's available at
The Paper Mill Store.com

I'm almost OUT

2008-06-30T10:26:00.004-04:00

...of scrapbook deadline insanity!!

Almost.

I still have an end of the month report to do and send something to try to be published.

(now you know why I've been missing in action....I had 3 deadlines to meet!)

And I have to drive to Oklahoma for my dad's surgery tomorrow.

Trying to finish up laundry.

Pack the kids. Pack myself.

Pack my scrapbook stuff for deadline while I am gone.

Remember everything I am supposed to remember.

Logan's baby turtle just died. Gotta go deal with that.

Crap.

Sweetness

2008-06-25T09:36:00.002-04:00

See this beautiful girl, my dear friend Amber? Well, she had her little bundle of sweetness and here he is!
(it's a camera phone pic, so bear with me!)

Little cutie......Jayce Richard
Weighing in at 7lbs., 2ozs.
(3 weeks early, I might add!)

He was born on Monday at around 11am.
Amber called me not long after to deliver the news. (no pun intended)
And this little punkin' just makes the sweetest little squeeks
while he is sleeping. It's the cutest ever!

I only wish I was there to cuddle him myself!

Congratulations Amber and Rick!
He's beautiful!

I never thought 39 was that OLD.....

2008-06-25T08:50:00.003-04:00

...UNTIL NOW!!!!

In the less than 2 weeks I've been 39, I've gotten out of bed twice unable to move.

That's right, kids...I COULD NOT MOVE.

Last Saturday I got up and my neck was shot. Serious pain.
I took 4 Advil and a "hot as I could stand it" shower....because I had to go teach a scrapbooking class. No time for an aching neck! Luckily, that worked and all was well.

UNTIL YESTERDAY.......

When I opened my eyes yesterday, it was clear, I was in trouble.

I barely shifted in the bed to get up, and I was rewarded with the HOT FIRE PAIN surging through my neck, back and shoulders. DOUBLE OUCH!!! I had a spot at the base of my neck, top of my shoulder blades and right in the middle that was on FIRE! I about died. I took 4 Advil, hoping for the same luck as on Saturday and left to drive Jensen to Summer school. In the car I learned the hard way....DO NOT TURN YOUR HEAD TO THE LEFT OR THE RIGHT!!! That hurt so bad!!!
(but this restriction doesn't work real well for driving!)

So, I came home in extreme pain and went to bed.
(where I remained for most of the day because it hurt to do anything, including just sitting up!) And this was not good for getting anything done!

Around 1:30, I was really hurting...so Big Daddy told me to take a Naproxen Sodium, so I did that and laid down with Marinne for her nap. And when I got up, the Advil had worn off and I was very frustrated I wasn't feeling better.

So, I went to sit in our hot tub, which helped a little.

Then, I took another blazing hot shower, which helped more.

And for the rest of the night, I just hurt.

But, I just got up and I'm feeling fine!
(well, a little stiff...but mostly fine....that counts for something!)

Good thing, because I have too many scrappin' deadlines for this!!!!!!

HAVE A GOOD ONE!!!!