I'm BACK!!

What ever did I do BEFORE I had a computer??? I have NO idea! LOL Our internet was down since early last week because of some kind of mix up with our internet service at our old house and here. I spent SO many hours talking with different people at AT&T before they finally figured out what was wrong and were able to fix it! So it's been up and running again since last night...thank God! I felt so disconnected from the world...literally...lol. I got to do lots of other things while the internet was down...like nap...LOL...and spend time with Mikey of course. Hmm...I don't even know what I haven't posted about. Not much has gone on...yes, my life is not that exciting! I had a somewhat "nice" birthday. Things didn't go according to "plan", but it was a nice day...much needed one on one time with Miguel. I went by that new J's on my birthday and picked myself up a few goodies for only $20! All of their paper craft stuff I think was 40% off so I got some pretty good deals. Colorbok I think had some really cool new stuff that I've never seen before...some XY&Z stuff or something like that. I also went by M's at The Quarry because I had a gift card, but couldn't find anything I wanted...nothing at all :( That might be a good thing though. Miguel also took me to Victoria's Secret to buy me a bra. For those of you who know me, I HATE bra shopping because it is SO hard to find one that does what I want it to do! I had the woman there do a "fitting" and I was pretty much right on target as far as the size I had been buying before. I did find though that going up a cup size made a BIG difference. And after trying on about TEN bras, I found one I was pretty happy with! It was funny because Miguel said something about getting myself a few bras and some undies if I wanted and I'm like "ummm...do you know how much this bra costs?" He guessed $12...LOL...WAY off!! I usually buy my bras at T's or WM and pay about that for them there which probably has alot to do with the fact that I can't find a good one. So I guess if you want a good bra, you're going to have to pay more than $12! LOL I told him that's why I don't shop there (because he's always trying to get me to buy stuff from Victoria's Secret). I do have to say that the bra I bought is so comfy and holds the girls pretty well!! :) We also had ice cream from some little shop there at The Quarry and just walked around which was nice because like I said, we never really get to do that. We didn't end up having enough time to come home and shower and stuff which was a bummer because I had planned on getting "dressed" for dinner and had bought myself an outfit and everything. I was wearing a tshirt and ratty old shorts so we ended up just eating at Jason's Deli. I had a YUMMY Chicken Ceasar salad, but something must not have been good because almost as soon as we left, I got a HORRIBLE stomache ache. Thankfully, we were right by my sis's house and she was home...thank God...and I got to utilize her facilities and take some Pepto. We were going to catch a movie, but by then, I didn't feel much like it anymore and all the showings for "Nights In Rodanthe" were over so we just made a pit stop at WM for some photo paper and headed home. Without going into too much detail, things "went down" on Sunday and we are taking a little seperation for a while....I think he needs to get some things prioritized in his life, so that's "kind of" bumming me right now, but I'll live. No more talk about that!
Yesterday, Mikey and I took a little trip to Crossroads and I used the gift card my friend Melissa sent (thank you!!) and then some...lol...and got myself a few scrappy things. I also picked up a few beads and stuff to make some charm bracelets I had been wanting to make for me and my sis. Maybe I'll do that later. I feel like creating, but not very "scrappy". I think that's pretty much all that's going on. Here's some pics to share. The alpha stickers and glue, ect are what I bought with my HL gift card. The other stuff is what I got at Joanne's. Oh, and I also did a quick LO some days ago...still in the smaller size. TFL :)

Happy Birthday...

to my very good friend Melissa.

I am posting this via my sister because I am without internet access...Aaahhhh!!!! I am going out of my mind...literally...and not because of Mikey...OK...some of it IS Mikey;) I do not know when it will be back up again. Hopefully by Monday.

Melissa, I tried to email you, but I couldn't remember your address as it is saved in my contacts and I can not retrieve them at the moment.

I received your card in the mail yesterday. It was a very nice suprise. It made my day:) I was touched by your words...sniff, sniff...tear:) I hope you have a very nice day even though Drew is away. I hope you got the package I sent in time for your birthday. I hope you liked it. If you received already please post a comment on my blog so that I know it reached you:)

That's all folks. I'll be back as soon as I can:)

A Quick Page

Okay, so as everyone can see, I have stuck with my 8.5x11 size. It's just so much faster and easier to "fill up". It's like I can still get my creative fix even if I'm short on time! I used a pic from this past weekend at the pumpkin patch. Since it wasn't that great of a pic either, it was better that I was able to print it out a smaller size to fit my page. The cutting out of the flowers from the Daisy D's pp and the rub on were the most time consuming. Darn those Creative Imaginations rubons! I have so many of their swatchbooks and for some reason, they are just so darned hard to rub off! Anyone else have this problem? I've noticed it with ALL the CI swatchbook rubons I have. Do rubons "go bad" if you've had them for a long time? Like, are they harder to rub off? I don't know. But I just LOVE them so much, so even though it irritates me how long it takes to adhere sometimes, I still have a TON of them! LOL I printed out three pics today and had planned to do three pages, but I got stuck on my second LO then didn't have the time to get to my third one :( Mikey is finally asleep now, but I'm crampy and PMS-y and not so in the scrappy mood anymore...maybe tomorrow. Well, here's my page. TFL :)

Forgot to mention that this LO was inspired by the latest Pencil Lines sketch :)

Lovecreek Orchard...or BUST...

So I wanted to take the kids to a pumpkin patch this year. The kids had never been and neither had I. I looked up Lovecreek Orchard online and saw all the fun activities they had for their pumpkin patch and thought that would be the perfect family day trip! WRONG!!

I set my alarm really early...8:00 a.m..that's early for me! LOL So that I could get ready before the kids were up and have our bag packed and stuff together. And then make breakfast, eat, clean up and leave. We had lots to do too other than the pumpkin patch. We had to go to Target to return a jacket I had bought Lij there on Friday. He wants to be Michael Jackson for Halloween and I found this awesome jacket there that totally resembled the red and black "Beat It" jacket. But when I got it home and looked at it more closely, I noticed that it had some black marks on the front. So we had to take that back and get another. We also had to pick up a birthday gift for Miguel's friend's daughter because we were invited to her party that afternoon at 5:00. I also had to run by the post office to mail some packages, go by Party City to get Lij his sequined glove, go by the bank to pull out some money from the ATM, do our grocery shopping, go to the pumpkin patch and be back in town for the party! Whew!! That's alot of stuff....NOT gonna happen! Miguel left the house at about 9:00 to get his parents vehicle, didn't get back until 11:30 WITHOUT their truck. We didn't leave our house until about 12:30, did all our running around, gassed up and didn't end up heading out to Medina until 2:40! We got lost, the kids were getting very frustrated and hungry on the long ride...I don't blame them. I had even joked about it to Miguel and said that what if we got there and the place closed at five. Well, I wasn't too off. When we got there, the place closed at FOUR and it was 4:05! The grounds were still "open" so we got to take some pumpkin pics, we built a scarecrow, and the kids painted some pumpkins, but the pony and hay rides were over and it was just too hot and sunny and the kids were already hungry and thirsty and I had a HORRIBLE headache from all the hay. We stayed about 45 minutes and then left to eat at a Sonic we had seen nearby on our way in. The kids were a bit happier after that and Mikey fell asleep on the way back into town. We got to the party about six thirty and most of the guests were gone. We stayed for about an hour...Mikey jumped his little heart out on the Moon Bounce, but I sat the whole time trying not to puke from my horrible allergy headache. We didn't do our grocery shopping after all. We got home, I bathed Mikey with me, took two Benadryls and went to bed! WHAT A DAY! I didn't even get many good pics! Too much sun and squinting and uncooperative kids!Remind me NEVER to take a long car trip with the kids again...NEVER!!

Oh, on Friday, me and Mikey met Chon at Crossroads and we went and did a little shopping. I got myself some nice jeans and some cooool lace at Wal Mart. Oh, I also got some nice scrapping goodies in the mail for my birthday from some scrapping friends. It's for this birthday swap thing we've been doing all this year. LOVED it all :) Oh, and I got my birthday gift from Chon...LOTS of nice things!! Thanks, sistah!! :) That's pretty much all that's been going on the last few days. Tomorrow is cleaning day and back on the treadmill because my leg feels ALOT better finally. So, maybe some scrapping later in the week. Now for some pics :)

The last three pics were taken at my sis's house...they go all out on Halloween decorations! Mikey loved it!

And the scrapping continues....

I have had this picture in my computer since LAST Halloween! I FINALLY scrapped it!! Whipped this LO up real quick after Mikey went to bed tonight. I am seriously thinking of scrapping strictly in this size now! Another plus that I didn't think of before is that I can just buy 3 ring binders to put these LOs in. I'm not too picky about what the "album" looks like...I just want them "in" something. And you know how sometimes you can find really cute 3 ring binders at Target and stuff like that...I'm thinking this will be more cost efficient as far as that. Anywhere I can save some money right now is always good :) So, here's my LO. Oh, and if anyone knows any good sites for this size with sketches, do tell :)

More scrappy goodness :)

I just have to say that I am really loving the smaller sized LOs...really! So much quicker and even if there's not alot of "stuff" on there, it still looks "full" you know? I used a lift of a lift in my October issue of Scrapbooks Ect. It was from the "Make It Yours" section and it was a LO by Sande Krieger. I am really trying to make an effort to document certain things in our lives. Even though I'm not the kind of scrapper who scraps solely to keep record of such and such events...it's more of my creative outlet. There are some things that I want to record and remember. One of them being how Elijah is staying with his bio dad this year in order to go to a good private school. It has been a big, HUGE adjustment for both of us and I miss him TERRIBLY since we've never really been apart for very long. I know that it's a good opportunity for him and his dad as far as his dad getting to be a part of his daily life which he never really had the chance to do before. Now, I'm the "weekend parent". It's hard, but we're getting through it. And I have complete trust in his dad as far as knowing that Lij is being well taken care of...no worries there. Anyway, here's a page I made documenting that. TFL :)

A Page and a Pumpkin

I was able to get another quick page done late tonight after Mikey went to bed. I should have been asleep too, but this is my little "quiet" time. I used the new Pencil Lines sketch with the OWL word "keep" for this one. Our 5 year anniversary is coming up on Halloween so this was fitting.
Miguel has been bringing home pumpkins. For those of you who don't know...he works for a produce company. So, I got one of the smaller ones and "decorated" it. I remember doing this once for Lij when he was in Kindergarten. They had a pumpkin decorating contest and I used the pieces from his Mr. Potato Head on it...it was so cute! Mikey only has this Easter Bunny Potato Head so I used that! I think it looks pretty cute! Wish I had different Potato Heads. I know I've seen them at the store. That would look pretty neat. To have a table set up with all of our different Potato Head pumpkins! LOL Anyway, it's late so...good night :)

A new size

I threw one more page together today. This time I experimented with a size I haven't worked in for quite a while....8.5x11. I have been meaning to because I see alot of people creating them in this size. It seems easier than 12x12 sometimes...less space to fill and I can print out smaller pictures. I might stick to this for a while. Then again, I always say that and then don't! LOL Anyway, it was lift from a blog I happened to find called She Scraps. I loved all the fun embellies and different papers. I used the last of my little owlies on it too so time to make some more! Did anyone else try making any? Tomorrow is cleaning day, so I really don't think I'll get any scrapping done, but then again..who knows. I need to get back on the treadmill too, but I don't know how that is going to go because my left leg is still hurting and now feeling a bit stiff...maybe for lack of exercising it the last couple of days? I've been stretching it, but that's about it. My tooth has still been aching a bit too....ugh...I don't want to go to the dentist :( Well, here's my LO...have a good night :)

Forgot to mention too, that besides the green sheet of paper I cut for the background, the rest was all from my scraps which I have ALOT of and really need to use more often! A challenge for myself?

Happy Scrappy Day

I got three LOs done today...yay!! That puts me at #102! I think me and Chon are tied now with the ones she did today. I think she also did 3. The first was a lift of her "Thankful" LO. The second was from a sketch on Creative Scrappers. And the third was inspired by two different LOs from an sb.com neighbor. I believe her name there is ScrappyDaisy or something like that. I really love the way all three turned out! We got a good day of scrapping and some good eats :) For lunch, I made chicken fried steak and Chon made the mashed potatoes...Betty Crocker of course! it was YUMMY!! This may or may not be the last of my scrapping for a few days. I've been having a bit of a toothache and my allergies have been bothering me. Gosh, I really, really, REALLY hope I don't have to go to the dentist! I HATE the dentist! Okay, here are my LOs. TFL :)

I'm back

At last...a new LO! I just hadn't had the time. Mikey keeps me pretty busy and by the time he goes down, so do I! Last night I planned to scrap after I put Mikey to bed, but I'd taken a Benadryl because my allergies were bothering me and I ended up falling asleep too! So today while Mikey took a semi late nap, I worked on this page inspired by the awesome Sasha Farina! LOOOVE her work to pieces!! This puts my LO count at #99...only one more to go! Me and Chon are planning a little scrappy time this Saturday since Miguel will be in Mexico..again..for the ACTS retreat. The kids can hang out while we play :) So I'm sure I'll hit my goal that day.

On the work out front, I ran SEVENTEEN minutes nonstop today!! WOOOOHOOOOO!! That is a BIG deal for me! I think that's the most I've ever ran nonstop. It was roughly 1.200 miles. Yesterday, I ran 15 minutes nonstop and that was my goal today too, but I was able to hang in there for two more minutes. I think I might have over done it though because my left ankle and knee are hurting. Tomorrow is strictly walking at an incline to rest my poor legs! But I'm happy about my time today and I hope I can stay there or add more time. That's all for now! :)

Oh, Miguel remembered how much I love Gerber Daisies and brought me some last night :)

A Mini

I saw this gorgeous mini book on the Pink Paislee blog and decided to make one of my own. I already have a BOM in progress...a little 8x8 one, but thought this would be really cute and a whole lot faster to finish. Chon is making one too. Her theme is "Words to Live By" or something like that...cute theme I thought! I decided to make mine about the things that matter the most to me. One page has a picture and the opposite is for journaling. I left out the journaling because I want it to be private :) Miguel was kind enough to point out to me that my book "didn't close"...LOL It's a little chunky inside and it doesn't, but who cares? I like it that way :)