I need a 12x12 step program.....

lolol Didn't I just say I was "good" on sb stuff for now? Didn't I just say I wasn't going to shop for a bit? No, I didn't...you can't prove it!! :D I put in this order at Emma's Paperie sometime last week. I was perusing galleries/blogs and came across the sweetest looking page on Melissa Frances' blog. It was a page done by Sherelle Christiansen and the papers were just LOVERLY! They were the Melissa Frances Fresh Twist papers...not sure of the name because my invoice said FRENCH...the packaging said FRESH. I also got a whole bunch of Jenni Bowlin diecut papers and some of those journal stickers that I just LOVE! Either way, I bought all these wonderful goodies at Emma's Paperie which I have ordered from many times before. They always take such care to wrap your packages all pretty like with colored tissue papers and include a sweet treat with your order like chocolates or some hard candy. This time though I was pleasantly surprised to find a roll of American Crafts ribbon tied to my package with some bright pink raffia! YAY..bonus!! So nice...they have excellent customer service, awesome variety of products, great prices...check them out if you haven't already. Oh, and SUPER fast shipping....got my package in THREE days from when I placed my order :)

I also did a few pages this week. The first was kind of "eh" in my opinion..didn't LOVE it, but it was my first for the week and I was just getting my mojo going. I really wanted to document this "ritual" that Mikey and I have before he goes to bed at night. I'm trying to do that more...to do pages with journaling about things I want the kids to remember. The other two, one was about myself and some things I just can't live without...other than my family. And the last one, was a lift off of the Melissa Frances blog using some of those new papers I got. I really LOVE the way that one turned out! I love that pic of Mikey wearing one of Lij's hats! Anyway, that's all for now :)

And the shopping continues...

Does it EVER end? I know I can't be the only one. Do you ever feel like you buy these few things and then you think to yourself "I'm good with things for now...I don't need to buy anything else" and then you go to M's or see the HL ad or get a sneek peek of some upcoming products and the cycle just starts all over again?? Yeah, me neither! LOL :) Well, I spent the night at my sis' house this past weekend. She picked me up on Friday and stayed the night and stayed the better part of Saturday because Miguel was helping at the church selling and delivering bbq plates. Anyway, so we did some shopping on Saturday. We went to M's by Ingram and I bought this new Carolyn Gavin 8x8 pad that I hadn't seen before when I got all my new CG stuff for Mother's Day at the M's off 1604. It's an 8x8 pad of punch outs...flowers...birds..LOVE the birds...viney looking things...it's GORGEOUS. It was $9.99 and I got it with a 40% off coupon. It has 24 sheets, 3 of each pattern. So at 40%, that is a GOOOD deal! Seriously, go look for it...NOW!! You will just fall in love with it and buy it and look at it all day! LOL I also got these rolls of felt border ribbons my sis had told me she had seen way back when I wasn't shopping, but when I could shop, I just couldn't find them anymore..go figure. But they had some, so I got four different colors. Also got a pack of those CG diecuts that we are going to use as prizes for that challenge me and my sis are hosting over on sb.com. I can't remember if I mentioned it here yet. So, I'm going to get the link for it and post it here in case anyone wants to play. US residents only. It's going to a month long thing and it should be TONS fun if we can get at least 7 more players. We also went by a different M's...Northwoods, after her dh got home and I found some of that MM Sabrina line stuff on clearance so I got some of that for prizes too. Along with some cool stuff we found in their $1 bins and a pack of MM Travel line packaging tape that was clearanced for a dollar! We also went by Scrapbook 911, but there wasn't too much I wanted. Well, not true...they had a TON of new DB glittered stuff that I just wanted to buy one of everything of, but knew I couldn't, so I narrowed it down to the "GOTTA have its" and only spent $9 and some change. And I didn't actually spend anything. Mimi let me use my $10 store credit..thank, Mimi :) Also got the new issue of Memory Makers..going to look at it later today. That was about it. I did alot of my cleaning today. So my week as of now is pretty free. So maybe I'll get some more scrapping done this coming week with all my new goodies. Here are some pics to share :)

I'm on a roll.....

My scrappy mojo has been in overdrive lately! Well, maybe not in overdrive, but in the last week, I have gotten five pages done and I think that's pretty darn good! I can't remember the last time I have gotten that many pages done, so I'm pretty happy about that. This puts my LO count for the year at 48...yay!

Other than that, I haven't done much this week. With my mom out of town this week, it's only the kids and myself home since Miguel is at work the majority of the time too, so I haven't had much cleaning or laundry to do either. Which is probably why I've had so much free time to just sit and scrap. Anyway, nothing else new or exciting to report...lol Here are some pics :)

Oh btw, if you see any big, blank spots, that's where my journaling goes. I've since added it, but too lazy to take and upload more pics!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great day and got pampered and all that good stuff. We mothers sure deserve it! Do you ever notice how around Mother's Day there are so many people out at the stores buying gifts and cards and flowers. And for Father's Day, you just don't see as many people. There's a reason for that I'm sure! Not to say that fathers don't deserve some kind of recognition, but in my opinion, we are the ones who bear most of the burden of raising our kids and keeping house and all that good stuff that just never ends! So to all my "mom" friends out there....here's to YOU :)

So today wasn't anything "spectacular". I spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry and keeping Lij and Mikey from going at each other. I am at my wits end with those two..seriously! Miguel picked us up around 5:30 I think it was and I made a quick run to M's because Chon called me and gave me the 411...lol..on those Sassafras Lass pads they had there. Last time we went, they had the Whale of a Tale on clearance from $24.99 to $14.99, but I wanted the Hog Heaven one. So I was going to keep an eye out for that one to go on clearance. And today they were..at the one by Ingram. So were other pads like the We R Memory Keepers ones. So, we swung by there real quick and I got the Sass pad and a We R Memory Keepers one. As well as these Sabrina journaling stickers that were clearanced for .99. I used my GC that Chon gave me AND a 40% off coupon I got yesterday so I only paid $15..YAY :) Afterwards, we went by Miguel's parent's for a bbq, but that wasn't much fun. Everyone was sitting in the backyard, but there were flies everywhere and ants were crawling in my shoes so me and Lij went to sit ont he front porch and that's where we were pretty much the whole time we were there. At least it wasn't hot or I would have been mad and miserable! lol Mikey was running around like a crazy and getting dirty so he had fun. And so did Lij. We just sat on a bench in the front yard and talked and Miguel came up for a TINY while. That part was nice. But I was glad to be home and showered....AGAIN...and in the a/c....thank you God for A/C :)

Yesterday, Miguel had taken me to M's and I picked out my own Mother's Day gifts. I guess that's good because I got stuff I wanted, but it would have been nice to get a card with something heartfelt written inside. I got this awesome new Prima paper pad called Rock Out Bro..think that's what it's called! And this awesome new K&Co stuff designed by Carolyn Gavin...LOVE that stuff! I also got myself a pack of some M by Kay diecuts at Target when we went to get my mom a new coffee maker for Mother's Day. In the late afternoon, we dropped the kids off home with my mom and caught a movie. Miguel had been wanting to watch that Xmen Wolverine movie. It was really good. I was surprised that I loved it. Plus, it's always a bonus seeing Hugh Jackman without his shirt on! Hee,hee :D

What else? I think that's it....my mom is on vaca and left to Las Vegas today. They'll be out there for a week. I hope she wins some money and shares :) LOL Okay, sharing some of my fave pics from today....good night all :)

Number 43

Here's the page I did for the challenge Chon and I are hosting over on sb.com. We picked four products: polka dot paper, a bingo card, trim i.e. Paper Frills, ribbon, ric rac...ect, and the color combo of orange/yellow/blue. I was having a hard time coming up with something I liked until I finally just stopped stressing over it and over thinking it and it just "flowed". It's kind of simple and back to my style of working on a corner of my page and "clustering" stuff. I really love that look though. It seems I'm finding the "styles" that suit me best and this is one of them. Anyway, if you frequent sb.com, come check out our challenge. We will be giving away a nice RAK :)

Another one....

I decided to join in on a challenge over at sb.com. In the whole four plus years I've been on there, I have never done one! This one sounded pretty neat because it had a specific color combo. I love trying out new color combos especially ones with bright and fun colors as this one. We had to work on a white background which I also love doing. And use the colors orange/lime/yellow. I used this cool pic my sis took of Mikey at my Uncle's house on Easter Sunday. I traced some of the papers and the title in black for a little contrast and I just loved the way it turned out! Me and Chon were thinking of coming up with a challenge of our own and posting it over on sb.com. I'm in the process of writing it out and getting all the details down so if you frequent the sb.com board, look for our challenge there :)

FINALLY!

A page I LOVE! This was a lift off of the latest issue of Scrapbooks Ect. Sadly, I think it was the ONLY page I saw in there that inspired me or that I thought "Hey, I want to copy that!" Which is kind of a waste. I mean, scrap mags cost what? Like $6. And to only have liked one thing in there....I should have just looked at it in the store and tried to retain the LO in my head! Don't know how that would have worked though since most days, I can't remember much! That's why I stopped buying scrap mags to begin with, but that day we were doing our grocery shopping and I saw it and just thought I'd get it since I hadn't bought one is so long, but now I know....not to buy them anymore.

So, I really love the way it turned out. And I finally used my Cricut Expression again. This is only the second time I've used it. I really should use it more...it was alot of money to just have sitting there. I really love it though. And I love that I have that option there" just in case". I LOVE that black bordered label I used on there. It's Jennifer Pebbles from 2 Peas. They are printable digital elements. They're called Swank labels I think and I just LOOOOOVE them! I can see myself using them on alot of stuff since I love that whole artisan shape for journaling elements. And yes Chon, I will send you the file so you can save them to your computer too :)

What else? Not much else is going on. Today was Miguel's first day back to work and I missed him terribly :( It's funny, but even after being together for over 5 years, I still get so happy to see his face. When he got home today, I heard him at the back door and I just ran and attacked him...lol..with kisses that is ;) Tomorrow is back to waking up at 6:30 to get Lij ready for school. I just HATE it and can't wait for the summer. I am NOT a morning person...AT ALL. Of course, over the summer, it will be non stop refereeing fights between Mikey and Lij so I don't know which I'd rather do...that or wake up early...hmmm....

Okay, that's all for today. Oh yesterday while perusing the sb.com superstore for one of the hourly challenges (the one I won I think), I came across some American Crafts clear backed alpha stickers that I just LOOOVED. They are that font that I am so crazy about that looks like those old TT Calamity Jane font stamps. Anyway, I got THREE packs! Yes, I'm afraid to run out! LOL But I swear, that is the LAST of my shopping...for a while...or at least today....the week? I'm not making any promises! LOL :D

It's Over....

National Scrapbooking Day AND Miguel's vacation :( I didn't even get any scrapping done today. Except for one 8x8 page for my BOM that I did for a challenge over on scrapbook.com. And I don't even really like the way it turned out. I really wanted to scrap and I really wanted to participate in one of the challenges, but I just wasn't "feeling it". Oh well, it is what it is. I did, however, win a prize over on sb.com for one of the challenges they had. All we had to do was link up six of our fave products from the Superstore. It was just a random drawing and I won!! I was so happy and excited when I saw my name on the list! I was yelling "I won, I won!!" and Mikey and Miguel were just looking at me like I'd lost my mind! lol I can't wait to see what they send me!

So, Miguel's vacation is over. I am glad for the time we got to spend together, for the time the kids got to spend with him, but I'm so sad that he will be going back to work and back to the stupid, crazy hours that he works where we hardly ever see him. I get so used to having him here when he goes on vaca. I'm sure the kids do too and it will be hard to adjust back to not seeing him much at all.

Oh, I forgot, Miguel took me to Hobby Lobby today and I got two more albums. I had to get the American Crafts cloth ones because that was pretty much all they had. I like those, but I really like the Paper Studio ones I had been getting because the spine is thicker so I can put more pages in there. Plus, they were cheaper than the AC ones. I pretty much organized and seperated all of my pages and filled up two albums for Mikey so I needed a new one to start on him. And I have one for Lij that's almost full so I needed one for him as well. The others I have still have room for more pages and those are FAMILY, KIDS (both boys together), ME & MIGUEL (which has pages of us seperately and of us together). I might want to seperate those further later, but for now, that will work fine.

What else?? Hmm...can't really think of anything else that's been going on. It's late and I'm sleepy so I should probably go to bed. Oh, I forgot to mention that Mikey is much better now with his ear/throat infection. And thank God, the OTC stuff I was taking worked and I didn't end up giving it back to Mikey. I felt so much better today! Still blowing my nose alot, but I feel a million times better! Thank you to all who sent well wishes! Okay, really going to bed now...good night!

Oh, I TOTALLY forgot....the winner of the Martha Stewart paper pack and extra goodies is......

APRIL!! (blog is Scrapper forever) April, please email me at laura6615@sbcglobal.net with your mail info and I will get this out to you soon :)

Look what he did.....

Miguel has been doing stuff around the yard since he's been on vaca this week: cutting the grass, trimming hedges, planting grass and he was working on this little project here. I think he did a great job! Those three small plants in the front are Lantanas and they smell so good! The one with the yellow flowers next to the windmill is Esperanza (Hope). He's been wanting to get one of those for a while. We also had plans of making a walkway in the back of the house because right now, there is just a tiny, narrow "path" and when it rains, it is so hard to maneuver off of the carport, down that "path" and to the back porch. But Miguel was so worn out from all this and we hadn't really been doing much since he was busy with these things, so for now, he's giving it a rest. Maybe in a couple of weeks, we can start up that project. I would have helped him more if I hadn't felt so sick.
Which speaking of, I am still sneezing and now I have this throat "thing" where I have to keep clearing my throat and then I get really, REALLY hoarse where you can hardly hear me talking (bet Miguel LOVES that!). BUT....I do feel better...I probably sound worse than how I feel. Yesterday, I felt pretty bad and Lij asks me "Mom, do you really feel bad?" And I say "yes". And he's like "maybe you should go to the doctor...what if you have that 'thing'?" (referring to the swine flu). Aw, crazy Lij. I told him I felt bad, but not THAT bad. I'm sure I'd know it if I had the flu...swine or any other kind! LOL Which btw, I was reading on my homepage headline news that the cases in Mexico are "leveling off". All this stuff that has been going on...geez, what a crazy world we live in! Just makes me think...
OH, today Lij had invited us to a little "talent show" they were having at his school. Not a big production....just something the 5th grade class had been wanting to do so they let them put on a little 45 minute show. Elijah of course, danced to TWO Michael Jackson songs. It is so hard to believe that is MY son up there. My SO shy, won't even look people in the eye son is up there spinning and "ow-ing" to Michael Jackson and the kids are just LOVING him. It was so funny! They are screaming out his name and clapping and just loving it. I was really proud! And so was he :) It was a good little show. There were a couple of little girls from his class who did several little "acts"...dancing and singing. One of the girls, Melanie I think was a good little singer! And that little girl could dance! I was like "wow"! They all did a great job and it was fun to watch!
Afterwards, we just took Lij out for the day since he only had an hour left and Miguel treated us all to lunch at this place called "Freddy's Custard...something or other" lol. It was good. Then we came home and did what old people do....lol...we NAPPED! Well, Miguel and I did. The kids were playing video games.
Right now, the kids are still playing and Miguel went to his ACTS meeting so I'm going to start baths in a bit and "maybe" scrap a page. I really have the itch...especially with all the new goodies I've gotten lately, but sadly...the ideas aren't coming and I'm just not "feeling it". Sometimes, that's just how it is....sigh....oh well!
Tomorrow, we are keeping Lij home from school..since he's been at school all week that Miguel has been home and Miguel officially declared it "Family Fun Day" LOLOL He wants to go downtown and take the kids to several places. Basically, we are going to be tourists in our own city....lol...should be fun...hope it's not humid like it was today...feels SOOO horrible. And hopefully, I'll feel a little bit better tomorrow too. And hopefully, everyone will cooperate and give me some good pictures!! :) Later :)

I'm sick :(

And so is Mikey :( He actually had not been "acting" sick....still his normal, over active self, eating well, no fever, but for like the past two nights, I had noticed that when he was sleeping/laying down, he sounded very congested and was snoring very loudly which happens alot when he has throat infections. I had been giving him OTC allergy meds, but didn't see it helping any so decided to not take any chances and we took him in to see the doc this a.m. Sure enough, throat and ear infection. So, he's on antibiotics and hopefully on the road to recovery. I, on the other hand, am feeling cruddy. And wouldn't you know it....this didn't start until AFTER we left the doc's office or I would have gotten seen myself. I'm taking some OTC stuff myself and we will just see. Don't want to take any chances of just passing it back and forth between Mikey and myself. So if I don't feel any better in the next couple of days, I'm going back myself.

What else? Oh, after we took Mikey to the doc, Miguel dropped me off at Chon's and we hung out for a good part of the rest of the day. We went to M's and she found me two packs of that Martha Stewart woodgrain paper for $2.99. So, I got them both :) One of the packs will go to one of you :) So, if you aren't already a follower, please add yourself and leave me some comments. I'll be picking a winner soon!

I took all my paper scraps folders to Chon's and worked on that. I organized and threw away some...much better now.

Oh, Miguel has started doing some landscaping here at my mom's. It's looking really nice. We got some plants at Home Depot the other day and he was working on that today and yesterday. I'll take some pics and post them as soon as he's done.
What else? If there's anything else I wanted to say, I can't think of it now. I feel really cruddy so I think I'll go for now.