Happy Thanksgiving!

I have much to be thankful for on this day of giving thanks. My family (which includes my daughter-in-law would do anything for me), a home to live in, food on our table. I am thankful that Steve has a job to go to on a daily basis. I'm grateful that my health is good. I'm thankful for my friends who I have met through the hobby of scrapbooking. They are the best women.

Enjoy your day and don't eat too much turkey. After all, you must save room for dessert:)

Hi Jen!

That is for my sister who doesn't think I will update my blog today. LOL. Yes, it has been a while again but I have been scrapping so that is a good thing. I have so many supplies so I am trying to put a dent in them. I think it's working. I may have to break this up into a few posts in order to share what I've done lately. Okay- it seems as though blogger won't let me upload pics for some reason. I will try again when I get back home. Check in later tonight Jen:)

Are you ready for Halloween?

When I was growing up we would head out for trick-or-treating with our pillowcases. When we filled it up we would run home and get another pillow case and head back out. We lived in a large neighborhood so we would hit every house on every street. What fun! After I got married and had children, for some reason, Halloween didn't seem fun anymore. There was always the pressure to come up with fun costumes for the kids. It became a task. As the kids grew up and decided to not dress up anymore I was one happy momma! Now the pressure was off and I could enjoy the holiday:) I decorate more now than I did in the past. Steve enjoys it as well. In addition to candy Steve grills hot dogs. Each child, if they want it, gets a hot dog and a cup of warm apple cider. Our house is the big hit on the block. Do you give out anything special to your trick-or-treaters? If so please share.

Speaking of decorations, I just finished my Halloween tree yesterday that you see in the picture. And the little ghostie candles I made last year. Very simple- glass jars painted with white acrylic paint on the outside and a black sharpie pen to make the faces. Can't get any easier than that!

I have been doing quite a bit of scrapping lately so tomorrow's post will be some layouts and projects.

School is in session

Today is the day all parents (and grandparents) wait for. The return to a normal schedule and earlier bedtimes. It's a big year for all 3 grandchildren here. Morgan starts Pre-K. She was very excited and there was no hesitation at all. She hopped right on the school bus with a big smile. Noah is in 3rd grade- the hot shots of their school. Zach is a high school freshman. Sigh... Tonight we are having a pizza party so we can here about everyone's day.

So...did you figure out what Steve and I did for fun yesterday? No? We went shopping and we bought a new car!! I absolutely love it! It is a 2009 Toyota Venza. It is very roomy and has a really smooth ride. We are already thinking about taking a vacation in it.

The {un} official end of summer

Where did the summer go or did we ever really have one? We started off with a very wet spring and went into a mild summer. There were only a couple weeks of really hot weather, however you wouldn't know that by looking at a couple of my electric bills. It was cool out today so we didn't even get in the pool. Steve and I were busy washing windows and windowsills inside and out. We also did something that was fun. Can you guess what it was? Think about it and check back in tomorrow. I'll post a photo of what we did.

First day of school is tomorrow also. The grandkids are all tucked in bed at home in anticipation of their first day back. Pictures to follow of that, as well.

Happy Birthday Michael!

It seems hard to believe that my son is 33 years old today. It doesn't seem possible. I remember going to the hospital around 9 in the evening on a Thursday night. Steve was working at the time so my father-in-law drove me up until Steve could get there. It's a wonder I made it there alive! LOL! Four hours later Michael arrived. He has turned into a fine man, husband and father so I guess we did something right:)

Happy Birthday Michael!

A new look

If you visit my blog once in a great while you can see that I gave it a new look. Nothing like spending a good portion of my day playing with it. LOL. I still want to tweak some things but since this is all foreign to me it takes me a while.

Do you feel like you are being watched when you look at the screen? LOL! I have a couple new layouts to post but may not get to it today. Soon, I promise.

I do scrap occasionally.

I don't seem to play with photos and paper as much as I'd like but that will change in September. I have watched a grandchild, or 2 or 3 for the last 7 years or so, but come September everyone will be in school. Morgan will be in Pre-K, Noah moves on to 3rd grade and Zach will be a freshman in high school.

So, being a non-working woman, I will have all kinds of free time to play. I really hope to get tons of things accomplished and I have one particular project that I really am aiming to at least start and maybe even complete. Can't mention it on here though because someone may read this.

Here are a couple layouts that I have recently done. I love when I can get lots of photos on a layout and it always makes me happy to scrap photos of Morgan. She is an easy subject to scrap.

Time for a change

Okay- so I said I would give my blog a new look on Monday. I didn't say what Monday. LOL! I am not good at editing these things and it is too late to be fiddling. I still want to add a different header but I'm trying to figure it out. Tomorrow is another day.

I have done a little scrapping and promise to share the layouts in another post.

It's just been the normal stuff around here pretty much- trying to keep the gardens thriving in the heat, enjoying the pool with the grandkids and scrapping when I can. Oh yeah...for those that don't know I went back to the hospital and had a procedure called an ERCP done. I kept having the same pain that I was getting prior to the gall bladder surgery. Turns out there was still a gallstone floating around causing the pain. After a week of living on dry toast and water (because that was all I could keep down) evreything is fine now.

Today Corey and I took Morgan for a photo shoot. A photography studio in our area was doing a child model search for new faces in their advertising. Morgan is a hit or miss kind of girl and she was definitely a hit today! We get to see the photos on Thursday. I think my wallet is in trouble. LOL!

Check back tomorrow for another new post with layouts.

Yes- I am a blog slacker

I am not very good at the blogging thing lately. Had not been feeling well again but hopefully that is all in the past. I want to give my blog an updated look but don't have time to do that right now as the grandkids are here.

Look for a more summery looking blog by Monday (I hope LOL!).

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

I am going to be the grandmother of a high school student!!

It is hard to believe that Zachary will graduate from 8th grade tonight. It seems like yesterday that he started kindergarten. As grandparents Steve and I missed a lot of his younger years only seeing him occasionally but now he lives with dad and we see him everyday. Zach is turning into a fine young man and we are very proud of him.

I apologize for the blog absence but I have been busy helping install a pool and trying to get my gardens in order. All of the spring rain we have had has hampered progress of everything. It is raining again today. I do have a couple layouts to share that some of you may not have seen. I will put them in another post.

I'm finally feeling better

It's been a while again...I know. But I think that most of the people that read my blog know why by now. Back on April 24th I had a severe pain which continually got worse. Long story short I ended up at the ER. It was discovered it was my gall bladder. So after a 5 day stay in the hospital I came home after gallbladder surgery. Yesterday was the first day that I had no pain. I spent the day with Christie from the CKMB. She had gotten us tickets to be in the live audience scrapbooking show at QVC. It was a fun experience and a great day.

Today I am getting a manicure and then Steve and I are headed out to buy shrubs and flowers and do some planting this weekend. He will be planting, I will be supervising. LOL!!

I have done no scrapping in the last 2 months or so but have bought all kinds of new goodies so I really need to get something done. After the yard is ready for summer I will get back to it.

I hope everyone has a great Mother's Day!

I'm baaaack!!

Where have I been- you ask? Well, I wish I could say I was off on some tropical island somewhere or at a cabin in the mountains but no. I've just been here at home not doing much. I did fly for the first time in 33 years and went to visit my sister in Georgia. It was nice to have the warm temps and now we are getting some of our own. They are saying it could hit 85 this weekend!

Speaking of flying, Steve doesn't like to fly. He is claustrophobic. Well- he will be taking to the skies this Friday to head to Missouri to his uncle's place. His brothers kept trying to convince him to go so he rolled his eyes and said buy me a ticket. I hit that "buy now" button quicker than he could say "Oh crap- what have I done?" LOL!!

The trip was actually perfect timing because my girlfriend Nanci, who I met through scrapbooking, is driving here from western MD to visit with me for a few days. I will be taking her to Ocean City. She wants to try Mac 'n Manco's pizza that she hears so much about. We have a day of scrapbook shopping planned and a day or 2 of scrapbooking so we will be busy.

Well- I am off to get the usual daily chores done.

Lots of scrapping fun

Last weekend Kit 'N Kaboodles (www.knkclub.com) had a jammie crop. For those of you not into scrapbooking that means you scrap with some girls online for the day- in your jammies. Now that's my kind of day. There were challenges and games and each thing you participated in gained you a point. The person with the most points is the winner of the crop. Guess who won? Yep- you guessed it- me :) There is a prize involved but I don't know what it is yet. When it arrives in the mail I'll show you. So these are the layouts I completed during the crop.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A little of this, a little of that.

Brian turns 27 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN! We are taking him out to dinner tonight, his choice, so I think we are heading to TGIFriday's.

My girlfriend Janell, who lives in Georgia, had her baby yesterday. Welcome to the world Addison Elaine James. She is a tiny little thing weighing in at 5 lbs. 15 oz. and 18" long.

I am so ready for spring to get here. We will get another taste of it this weekend. Looking to hit 70 degrees by Sunday. Goodbye snow! Don't forget to change your clocks this weekend- one hour ahead.

Just a short post right now as I have a dull headache. Look for another one a bit later today with all the scrappy projects I did last weekend.

Happy Birthday Zachary!

I'm not quite sure how it happened, okay- I know how it happened, but today I am the grandmother of a 14 yr. old. Happy Birthday to Zach! We will be celebrating with him tomorrow night. Tonight he heads to his mom's. This is a picture of Zach and I from his birthday last year.

I have been scrapping a little lately and I am glad. I love just spending hours in the scraproom playing around with all my scrap goodies. Last weekend there were some challenges posted at Kit 'N Kaboodles (www.knkclub.com) by the DT (design team) gals. I was able to complete all of them. I made some cards and 2 hanging wall plaques. I am giving the heart shaped plaque to Steve for our anniversary which is tomorrow. I gave Morgan the one with her name on it and she took it right up to her room and hung it on the doorknob.

Tonight is my monthly scrap get-together so a few gals are coming over for some scrapbooking fun.

A fun weekend with the girls

Don't yell at me (Jen), I know it's been over a week since I posted something. LOL. Last weekend I spent time at the beach with my mom, my sisters, a cousin and a family friend. For 12 years we would get together one weekend a year and take a trip to the beach. For whatever reason we got away from going, so I suggested we have a girls weekend reunion. We always have a good time shopping, laughing and eating. The weather was absolutely gorgeous on the 2nd and 3rd day but as you can see by the photo there was snow on the dunes on Friday. The other picture is me and my sisters (l-r) Patti, Jen and me. We're talking about starting the weekend up again so we'll see.

SNOW, SNOW,SNOW!

I think I could be a weather person and predict as well as the ones I watch. When the storm was brewing they told us 2-4" of snow. Then things slowed down and they said 1-3". Well, we woke up yesterday to almost 10" of snow! Of course this brought a smile to Steve's face because he would FINALLY get to use that snow blower he bought over 3 years ago. The kids got to stay home of course, so I walked across the street and snapped a few pictures of them playing in the snow.

The creative juices were flowing here over the weekend and I finally scrapped a layout that I have had in my head for a while. Morgan was a flower girl in a wedding back in August and she looked beautiful and I couldn't resist using this title on a layout.

Today I am off to get a manicure and our tax appointment is tonight. Other than that just getting things together for my girls' weekend at the beach.

February already??

Hard to believe it is February but it is starting off nice. The weather here today is a balmy 53 degrees. There is a chance of a snowstorm on Tuesday so we'll see. Steve would love to use the snow blower he invested in over 3 years ago. LOL!!

We are taking the long trek across the street later to watch the Super Bowl at Michael and Corey's. Michael is doing pretty good since his surgery. He either has a good tolerance for pain or is putting on a good show. He heads back to the doctor tomorrow so he can take a look at the finger.

Signing off for now. I'll be back tomorrow with a layout I finished.

Not a good day yesterday:(

No matter how old your children are you always worry about them. Yesterday was one of those days. Michael (my oldest son for those that don't know) is a well-driller. I think it is one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs. There was an accident at work yesterday and Michael has a broken wrist and he lost the top of a finger. Someone was watching over him because he is lucky to be alive. He has a couple of appointments today so I will update here with more info when I get it.

On a happier note today is Dan's birthday. He is 19. Time sure does fly by too quickly. He also started college yesterday. He said it wasn't a bad day. Hopefully he will hang in there.

I sat back last night and listened to him telling Michael about his first day. Of course Dan comments that he will last longer than Michael did. LOL! But Michael's next comment stuck with me. He told his brother that he wished he had stayed and finished college because then maybe yesterday's accident wouldn't have happened. Hopefully that one statement will stick with Dan as well.

INAUGURATION DAY

What a historic day ahead! Are you going to be watching all the events of the day? I am. I'll be in my scraproom with the TV on if you need me:)

Happy Birthday Steve!

Steve is celebrating his 51st birthday today. His day started early this morning with a phone call from Morgan, who proceeded to sing to him. Wish I was fast enough to record it on the answering machine.

We aren't doing anything special today because he is working into the evening. I did make him a birthday card. He always loves the homemade cards and is a very big supporter of my work. Gotta love him:)

Here I am!

I know I said I was going to get better at blogging daily. I'll get there...soon. LOL! I finally finished mom's calendar and thought I would share a couple of the pages. This was a kit and I just kept it simple- didn't really add anything extra.

IT'S COMING

We have some nasty weather headed our way- snow, sleet, ice, rain. I am hoping we are on the rain end of it but I'm not sure. I don't like driving in snow or ice and tomorrow I need to be out in it. My mom is having cataract surgery and I'll be taking her.

I worked on the BG calendar kit yesterday. It's really nice and I wish I had grabbed one for myself. This one is mom's. I'll share a pic when it is finished, which I'm hoping will be tonight.

I was emailing with my friend, Nanci, last night. She is planning her spring vacation so she can come for a visit. It will be great to see her since we didn't get to the Valley Forge CK convention last year, so it has been a while. I'm looking forward to taking her shopping at the lss here and taking a drive to the beach for my favorite pizza. She says it must be good if we drive an hour for it.

Zachary had his first basketball game last night. They lost by 1 but it was a good game.

EAGLES SUNDAY!!

Happy Sunday everyone. I see I forgot to post yesterday. I guess because we were busy outside taking down Christmas decorations. I did decide to leave the inside ones up for a bit more. I love having the tree up. I finally fixed the post from New Years Day so you can now see the pictures so take a look at Morgan. Thanks to Cindy from the CKMB for helping me get the picture thing figured out.

Last night Steve, Dan and I went with Brian, Lori and her parents to see Jeff Dunham. I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face. If you have never seen his act you can catch him occasionally on the comedy channel. He is a ventriloquist with characters such as Peanut (my favorite), Walter and Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

Today is the big game so we will be watching for sure- Eagles vs. Minnesota. I know the Eagles can pull it off. Dan was a little upset last night because his team (Colts) lost last night in overtime.

I need to scrap today. Have to finish my mom's 2009 calendar. I know...I have been saying that for days but today is the day.

Feeling under the weather:(

About mid-day yesterday I started having some nausea. Not sure whether it's from a pain pill the doc gave me or a stomach bug. I'm guessing the stomach bug. I do feel a little better today so hopefully it was just a 24 hour thing.

I see that my links to photos didn't work so I have to figure out how to do that. Any help is appreciated.

This weekend we are hoping to get the Christmas decorations taken down.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun evening last night. We spent the evening at Michael and Corey's. The kids had a great time playing the Wii. I actually played for the first time and we have had the system for a year. LOL! Morgan and Noah played a round of golf and a couple games of bowling. Morgan was a little upset that she lost the golf match but she got Noah back in bowling.






Today we are having the kids over for dinner and playing some board games.