Just another day…

I spent today doing more and unpacking boxes of books. A lot of which I had not planned on bringing with me. I wonder where I can get rid of them here in Pocatello. Any how…My friend in Snoqualmie Washington called and got me set up with Arbonne. Now I can get my stuff directly and with the consultant discount too. How good is that? We talked and got caught up. Then they had to run off to piano lessons. Me I took a little nap, not long enough but it was nice. Now I’m marinating some beef for FAJITAS! There was so much beef I took the extra and am marinating that in teriyaki sauce. I’ll cook that a little later and dry it for beef jerky. The last batch was sooo good. Well Phil should be home soon so I better get ready to cook those fajitas. Mmmm, I’ll leave you with my short haircut photos. It’s a little messy since I had just washed it.

Sorry I got busy and didn’t post I’ve got to eat now.

As per request

Ok Angie I don't have much but here is the potato field that was next to the one we were gleaning earlier in the month.

Then there's the field we were gleaning in. With a whole bunch of homeshoolers.

WOW! Don't Faint!

I'm going to post again! Yeah I know I missed Monday but it was a busy day that I got nothing done in. Let me go back just a little bit to Sunday.
We had a great day Sunday. We got up had breakfast, and made it to church with time to spare! After church they had the clothing exchange. It was great timeing becuase Francis managed to pop the button on his last pair of pants that fit him. It's getting way to cold for shorts so we had planned to go buy him pants after church. I got like 4 pairs of pants for him a nice warm jacket for the winter weather (that we will not be used to.)and a bunch of shirts. For Bryce I got a whole bunch of sweat shirts and a jacket for him too. I even got something for me! Then Phil had this wild idea that we would drive out to American Falls to see what it is like out there. You know what it is? Miles and miles of Potato! Fields! We came home and teriyaki beef for dinner. It was good! Then we went to Wal Mart and spent a hundred dollars on groceries. Well maybe not all of it on groceries. We got each boy a pair of sweat pants, and other sundries. Not bad for a Sunday we only spent 10 bucks on cloths instead of 100 bucks. Oh and the left over teriyaki beef. I dried it and WOW! What great beef jerky it makes. I'm going to have to do more next time so we can have more jerky.

Monday well can you guess? Yep it was ALLLLLL day. Francis is supposed to do the dishes now since that is his Boyscout homework. HA! Funny! Isn't it? So then we had our home bible study group. We have such a great time there. Right now we are studying the book of Nehemiah. Great book for leadership, but I won't go there. After bible group we came home and basicly snacked our way through the kitchen. Which as I sit here still needs to be cleaned up. I know bad mommy!

TODAY I went to get my hair cut. I'll post a picture when I can. Photoshop is being a pain. I think it caught what ever my Paint Shop Pro Photo has. Because it is going sooooo slllloooowwww! First I couldn't find the place. Might have helped if I had looked on the corect side of the street when I passed it. (DUH!) So I went home a googled it. Then I went back out boys in tow to find the place. She wouldn't have room till 1pm so we went to the scrap store for some fall emblies. Then I took the boys to McDonalds. They spent some time playing in the play structure before we had to leave. When we got there the boys had finaly decided that they wanted to have their hair cut too. My hair is short short short. Just it grows so fast I have no choice unless I want to get it cut weekly. Sorry not that rich! Then on the way home we stopped at Staples for some lamps. (We left them all behind in Vancouver. My niece loves them.) After that we stopped at Parrishes for Bread. Only place in town that I know of that sells Harpers Honey wheat bread. Good stuff! Only 65 cents a loaf too. Now we're home and this week seems to be give mom a hard time week. Hopefully I can have some time now to do a few scrap pages. Because as far as the boys go I GIVE UP!

Oh and before I go don't forget to stop by the Butternug Squash Store and check out The sale Christy is having in honor of Henry turning 3! Everything is 30% off! till October 22nd.
Also my pal Melany has made these really cool Brass Christmas Elements that she is giving away FREE!
And to my family in Hawaii. I Love You! Be Safe. God Bless!

So much for a nap

The escrow papers arrived and it was off to meet with Phil and the mobil Notary. Then to the Fedx drop off at Kinkos. Well that nightmare is apparently over. Pray it is folks! Pray Hard!
Then I took the boys to McDonalds for lunch and then to the Farr's Ice Cream factory for and ice cream cone. Yeah, I know expect tummy aches and gas later but is was soooo good. Now I'm going to go do some paper scrapping before Francis had Boy Scouts.

BOOK SALE! HOOO!

Yep this morning was the book sale at the Pocatello Library. Talk about crowded. The books were only 25cents and 50cents. Now that's what I call a deal. We were parked out front before 8am since we had to take Phil to work this morning and he works across from the library. The sale didn't even start till 9am. The boys got a bunch of books and a 3D puzzle! Of course the whining is getting to me now. It shows that the kids got up at 6:30am. I even got a book for myself and some science books for homeschool. And it cost us only 12 dollars! Now that's a DEAL! I'm going to make the boys take a nap now before I have to strangle someone. OH! And no Escrow papers yet. Just twiddling my thumbs and waiting. Heck I'm going to take a nap too.

OK enough with hiding

I just have no idea where to start. The stress of trying to close this escrow is killing me. I mean it litterally! If you ever get a mortgage don't get it with New Century. They jerked the escrow company around untill today the day escrow was SUPPOSED TO CLOSE!!! Of course yesterday Phil talked to about a dozen people there and they all said someone else handled it untill the last person said the first person he talked to was the person to talk to! So we sent them around a 120 requests via fax. Think that got their attention. At least it had to have used a lot of ink or toner up. So now I can't find a Notary that works on Saturday. It's Pocatello folks where the sidewalks get put away on the weekends. Well at least I see the end in sight. I'll be gald to get rid of New Century.
Aside from that piece of annoyance today was abslutely gorgeeeeouuus! The homeschoolers had a hike today and I actually survived the 2 hours out there. I hurt now but it was so wonderful out there today. The Chiropractor appointment this morning probably had a lot to do with it though.I took about a hundred pictures. I'll edit this and insert them so you can see what a wonderful fall day it was today.
OK I'm back and here is a few of the pictures from today. Probably one of the last great days of fall.
























Other than that for the immediate past I have sooo much more I really would like to write about. My pal Christy has some great new kits out too. One is Fun in Flannel. A nice warm fun kit that I used for these layouts. I just hope the photos end up where I want them. I really hate the restrictivness of this Blogger Beta.
Have Bear...


Then there's this fun one from a few years ago when Vancouver, Washington had that big snow.
Snowmen


She also had another kit called Scarborough Faire. You might have noticed the blinkie for it in the sidebar. I managed to find this photo from Oregon Craft and Floral years ago. And the castle in the Christmas room.



Now I'm going to finish with the photo download and get those posted before I go pick Phil up from work.

I've been Tagged!

OKAY! I've been tagged a few times now so I guess I should do my list of seven songs.
"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to."
I think video player is a good indication of what I'm into right now though.

1. Held by Natalie Grant
2. 2 sets of Jones' by Big Tent Revival
3. You and Me by Lifehouse
4. 100 Years by Five for Fighting
5. Bless the Broken Road by Selah
6. Remember Me by Mark Schultz
7. Come to Jesus by Kenneth Cope

Now who shall I tag? That hasn't been tagged yet...
1. Elizabeth she has a myspace account.
2. Heidi St. John
3. Tracy
4. Oh I don't know! I'll find 4 more people. All you bloggers out there watch out! here I come. Oh I know! Sandie
5. I think Lisa might have a blog.
6. I don't know I'm really out of names now!

Fractured Fugal Friends

Something I haven't thought of in a long time. That is the Once a Month Cooking gig. I remember when I was a working mom and did this for about a year or maybe it was two. It sure came in handy when Francis started baseball season. I found this link through an ad on the GottaPixel site so I though I would share it.

Why Oh Why?!

Why did I decide to try the Blogger Beta? What a mess this has been. Where I could do almost anything by tweaking the html before now it won't work! The new improved make it a no brainer version is a nightmare! My Photobucket can't post from there now! On the test site I tried to use the new improved template. NOT! I cant' do diddley squat with the test site. Beware of the new templates that Blogger is trying to say is better. They are what you see is what you get don't try to change the header or the background or we will tie you up by your thumbs! I am soooo glad I do the test blog thing or else I would be like really crying right now! So be warned the new Blogger Beta is a bust! Don't Do IT!

I Know!

It's been over a week since I posted anything. My bad, I know. It has been busy and just so much I woul like to write about I don't know where to start. How about I point out that I have made some changes to my blog. What do you think of the changes. Small changes but changes any way. Now I will leave you with my nerd score. heehee

Where Was I?

The question everyone is asking today. Where was I? 5 years ago today? I remember turning on the tv in the hotel room in Hawaii after a phone call from my mom. We were visiting for a week and just 1 day before the end of our stay. We sat there looking on in horror as the second plane appeared and flew into the second tower. It had to be some show it couldn't be real is what we were thinking, but every chanel had the same thing. There were people in the lobby freaking out because they couldn't leave the island and there was now where for them to stay. We spent the day doing our planned activities but when ever we go back and visit Sealife Park we will always remember 9-11-01. Good thing I have family there we spent the next 5 days sleeping on my mothers floor before they allowed anyone to fly. A lot of people, innocent people died that day just because we have the freedoms that we have. It is truely another day that will live in infamy. So never forget the innocent, the Firemen, and Police that gave their lives that day. A day that should have been like any other.
Ok I have to add if ever faced with the situation that those on that last flight did. I pray that I may act so bravely. Click on the title and remember the men, women, children, public servants, and our military today. God Bless AMERICA!

How's my New Blog Topper?

My pal Melany put one together for fun and so I thought I would change the look of my blog. Here's her freebie template.
Also Christy is now selling a set at the Butternug Squash Design Store. For only $3.75! How's that for a deal! I'll be changing my topper again later this week with one of Christy's templates. So come back and check it out next weekend.

What a great Labor Day!

Monday we were invited to a brunch/ bbq. One of the families and the new church we are going to invited us over. Funny the same family that called Qwest about their phone bill and invited us to visit their church when we got here. I tell you God works in mysterious ways. Anyway, we got up kind of late around 9:30am. Then as we got our slow day started, the phone rang. It was Wayne saying hey breakfast is just about ready you had better come on over now. So we threw ourselves together and headed over. You know google maps have roads that have not been put in yet. Well we figured it out anyhow

When we got there, several other church members were already starting breakfast. I finally got to meet Tracy! She was the one that Phil talked to and invited us to this wonderful church to begin with. It was fun getting to know everyone, the pastor and his wife were there too.

It’s amazing how comfortable we feel with these people. It is also amazing how many of them are homeschoolers. That was my connection to this church. Funny how I mentioned it to the woman from the Pocatello Christian Homeschool Association and it turned out to be her church too!

After a tour of the house, we followed everyone else and went home for a nap. (Didn’t happen) Turns out that the Turners had an extra microwave and bold, as my husband is he actually asked for it. (Good thing I wasn’t there when it happened.) So again, God provided a much needed item. Bryce had a one-track mind after that. POPCORN! It’s the only thing he can make on his own. LOL! Thank You Tracy and Wayne! Bryce Loves The Microwave!

We went back around 5:30pm for the Bar-b-q part of the day. I was stuffed! I mean it was hamburgers, sausages, potato salad, pasta salad, chips, and so on but it was soooo good. The kids had fun playing and we adults socialized some more. We were there until dark talking and getting to know each other. Phil had to work early the next day so we had to leave. We gathered up the boys said our good byes and went home to a hot shower and bed. After I went and got Bryce some microwave popcorn. Can you believe the one track mind that boy has!

I know that this is where God wants us. We feel so oh I don’t know familiar with the people here in this church is the only way to describe it. Like God has told us in our hearts about all these wonderful people already.

That is how our Labor Day was in a condensed version. I do still miss my old neighborhood and friends but I now know that God has so much in store for us here too. I can’t wait to see what it is.

What my major should be.

It figures at one time I almost abandoned the business field to go study engineering. Who knows maybe I should have.

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major! Chemistry 100% Anthropology 100% Psychology 100% Biology 100% Engineering 100% Linguistics 92% Philosophy 83% Mathematics 83% Sociology 83% Dance 75% English 75% Theater 67% Art 67% Journalism 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!! created with QuizFarm.com

What a Blast!

Well today was kind of a lazy day. I spent most of it fighting with the printer software so I could hook my laptop directly to the printer since we had to use it near a phone jack for a fax. Sooner or later Phil will figure out the server thing.
Then we ran out to Wal Mart for groceries. not to bad most of what we needed for the next 2 weeks. We still need to go out to Freddy's for the rest but not bad. Then we ran to Home Depot for a garden hose left the old one behind. Thought it went in the trailer but I guess it didn't.
Then came the fun part of the night. The Butternug Squash Design Team had a chat in the DST chat room. There sure were a lot of people there, and Christy gave away some great prizes. Of course we got on the subject of her blog and poor Henry. Or should I say poor Christy and her car that smells like old cheese and a goat died in it. LOL! If you haven't visited her blog you really need too. http://www.motherhood-unscripted.com/ Annny way we got on some weird combinations of subjects and it all started sounding just tooo bizaare (spelling?) It was like spam, poop, squid, chocolate, sushi, goats, and cheese and who knows what else. LOL! I sure hope some of the gals who were there show up at the forum so we can get to know them better. Oh and better yet some of the husbands started to read over shoulders. I guess we were just getting too wild.
Now I'm just sooo pooped out.(the tired type of pooped) I think I'm going to take a shower and read alittle then sleep. Got church tomorrow and more going on at the BSD Forum. See you there.

Got the Car Today!

Today we drove Phil to work so we could have the car and run some errands. Did I mention we are now a single car family. Yeah had to leave Phils little puttputt behind. Any how the Pocatello Main Library is like accross the street kitty corner to Phils work. We went in and got Francis a huge! book to read. Gee when did he start reading high school stuff? He's only in 5th grade. Bryce went bonkers and wanted almost every book he could get his hands on. LOL! I need to take advantage of that.
Then we ran around to the dollar stores looking for a toilet bowl brush. Can you belive there was not one to be had! Got a few other cleaning items but nothing really. Can you believe that! At the Dollar Tree at that! I was low on gas and put 10 gallons in. You know that the gas is like 10cents cheaper here than in Washington? It still cost me 30 bucks. OUCH!
The boys were hungry so we stopped at the Eddys Outlet Store to check it out. It is actually the Wonder Bread Outlet. So we got some bread and treats for the boys. We then went home for sandwiches for lunch, and treats after. They actually took naps if you can believe!
Then we ran to Wal-Mart for some things. Yes it is cheaper here for a lot of stuff even at Wal-Mart I could see the price difference. I still didn't get out of there without spending too much money but now I have to take some of the stuff back since they won't work. Can you blelieve that the bathroom has no towl rack! and now shower curtains? I also got the stuff for doing dishes. I'm going to be doing my dishes by hand for awhile again.
At home I made some meatloaf for dinner which turned out delish. I also made mashed potatoes. Mind you I was boiling them spuds when I realized I couldn't find my potato masher. Well female inginuity to the rescue! I used my Pampered Chef mini wisk. Remember that trick now it turned out just perfect! Dinner was soo good that I was going to use leftovers to make a meat sauce for spaghetti well not any more. There wasn't much left we ate so much. Maybe it was all the fast food for the last 3 weeks that made a home cooked meal taste so good. Even Bryce and his finickyness(word?) ate it and talk about how good it tasted. LOL! Remember trick to get kids to appreciate home cooked meals OD them on fast food! Then it was just spending the evening getting our stuff organized. Hooking up my washer and dryer. Working on fixing my desk since the leg broke in the move. That's about it. I'll write more about tomorrow later.

IDAHO OR BUST!

At least that is what the side of the U-Haul truck should have said. None the less for some ironic reason our U-Haul said Idaho Hagarman Fossil Bed. We would be moving to Chubbuck Idaho and passing right through the Fossil Bed area. Go figure… Any way if you heard Phil has been relocated to the Pocatello Qwest Office and he started today(well yesterday now) After our quick jaunt up there for the weekend to rent a house we came home and proceeded to pack. Tuesday we got the truck. Phil had the unreal fantasy that we could have everything packed and loaded by Thursday. BOY! Was he dreaming! By Wednesday he finally understood me and the need to want to take almost everything we owned to Goodwill.

Thus began the massive purging of “stuff”. I now have no bed just the mattress. I also have no dressers. No bedroom furniture at all. (Hmm, I need to go shopping) The boys have just their dressers. We gave away our china hutch, our butcher block, and any large pieces of furniture that we felt couldn’t fit on the truck. I donated all the clothes that we no longer used or didn’t fit. I even went through cookbooks, and school books. I donated a ton of small kitchen appliances’ and even my electric cooker, with the stand that it goes on. Crystal and glassware too! Even then we had to rent the larges trailer that U-Haul has! I took us all week to load the stuff up with just the 2 of us and the new neighbors’ boy Jeff.

Phil’s sister came one evening with Al. He helped Phil load the washer, dryer, and fridge. They even got the storage cabinets loaded. Then Terry came back the next day and helped. It really helped to have someone else tell me you don’t need it send it to Goodwill.

By Friday morning it was crunch time Mike his nephew came by and helped move the last of the stuff to the garage. We worked until 3:30am on Saturday morning. Woke up at 6am Saturday finished loading the trailer. We loaded the kids up and were on the road by 10:30am or there about. We drove, and we drove and we drove, and gave in some where around Bliss Idaho at 1am and slept for 2 hours. We were on the road again by 2:50am. We stopped and got a cup of bad coffee, (yuck!) and were on the road again.

We arrived around 6:30am at the rental house in Chubbuck. We messed around with the truck and trailer for a little while snapped at each other and went in and laid down. That was it for about 2 hours. At 8:30 we started working on unloading the trailer. We hadn’t eaten yet so by 12:30pm Bryce and I ran to Fred Meyers for some “real food”. When we got back the people from the church that we are going to be attending here had arrived after service, and were quickly unloading the truck. The women helped with setting the kitchen up. That’s still not complete but they really helped get me started. What took us a week to load the guys unloaded in less than 4 hours. Are they AWESOME! OR WHAT?!

After they left we ran to the Dollar Tree (did I mention there’s a new one here?) to get a broom and other items that we had to leave behind due to no room on the truck. When we got back we again crashed for about and hour. Then we returned the U-Haul and trailer. After taking a shower we all just slept really hard.

Oh did I mention that through all this I had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling so great. After sleeping all night I felt a little better, but then my nose started running. I think exhaustion is what it is. My body just gave out! Right now I’m just so tired I almost didn’t finish this, but I know that there are those out there that are watching the blog to see how the move went. Now I’m going to go get some more sleep.

Good Night!

Real Quick Before...

the internet dies. Yep the truck ran out of room. I have too much c**p. I have donated and given away so much stuff and I still have too much stuff! Pray for us that this doesn't kill us. The cost is way more than QWEST has given us and we still need to sell the house! That's the other thing pray that the house sell fast! It was listed this afternoon so hopefully when we vacate the house it will sell faster. Again Pray! Thanks for all the prayers so far! I know they are working because thinks could have been worse. Hugs till later.

I thought I was tired Sunday

well I was mistaken! Now I really am tired. We have most of the major heavy stuff loaded in the truck. We filled the dumpster a second time with just mainly the junk littering the boys room. There is so much more to go and we still have to shampoo carpets and touch up paint. I just maybe seeing if I can get a cleaning crew in here later. The real estate agent will be here tomorrow afternoon and we will get the house listed. Just pray it sells fast. I can't afford to make another housepayment and pay rent. Qwest paid it for the first month but after that. Lets just say the house has to be sold. I'm so tired I can't think straight or type straight either. I'm really making use of the backspace key tonight. Well it's of to bed and more packing tomorrow. We need to be on the road Thrusday. The truck needs to be turned in on Friday in Pocatello. Again pray for us as we embark on this new journy that God has planned out for us.

We're BACK!

It's been a looooong weekend. I'll tell you more about it. We just got back and cleaned out the car. We left Pocatello at 11am mountain time, and it's now 12:50am pacific time. Tell you how long it was? Just think we will have to do it again on Thursday! At least it will be one way to Pocatello then.

I am so tired.

What a long day today has been. We woke up extra early so we could go to the early service at church today. We actually woke up at like 6:30 so we got there more than early enough for the 8:30 service. It was an emotional day for the kids and us. This was our last service at First Evangelical. The congregation did a prayer for us. I did ok until the end of service then I started to cry. We then went around and said good-bye to all of our close church friends. So when we got home around noon I was already pretty drained.
Phil then tackled the garage, and broke down the two huge warehouse style storage-shelves that he has had for years. Took that to his nephews’ house, and unloaded a bunch of stuff at Good Will. While he did that, I tackled boxing up the last of my cookbooks. So all the books are now pretty, much ready to go.

On top of all that, we had a little planning session and now it looks like instead of leaving on the 26-27^th we may now be moving it up to the 22^nd for packing the truck and driving to Pocatello before the weekend. Why is it every time I open my mouth I end up with less time? I really need to learn to stop asking for a game plan. (Quick I need a swift kick!)

Now I just soooo tired! Both emotionally and physically tired that is. I just hope I can sleep and don’t end up staring at the ceiling again. The boys look tired and act as if they’re on speed or something. I guess it’s a combination of being tired like me and the excitement of moving so far away. So far, God has pretty much arranged the move for us we just seem to be following in some prearranged plan of his. I just wish the move were over already. I miss my friends already, and we haven’t even left yet. There is so much more I could say but I really need to go take a shower and get some rest. Tomorrow I tackle getting a small dumpster and getting my allergy shots early, along with finding another allergist in Pocatello. More later, Toodles!

Taking a break here

while Phil and Mike go get more boxes. Yesterday the official word came "downhill" so to speak. We are going to Pocatello Idaho! Phil needs to report August 28th for orientaion at the Pocatello office. We will have approximatly 5 days prior to that to pack the house. He will fly down and report for work fly back then have 6 days to load the trucks drive everything to Pocatello, unload, help unpack and report for actual work on Tuesday. Looks like it will be a busy month. Sorry if I don't get any layouts posted until after that. Hopefully my computer will be fully set up again by Sept. 5th. Until then I will be mostly on my laptop. I have a lot less on there to work with so layouts will definatly be scarce.

Warm Fuzzies!

Got this from my friend Christys blog. She got this from PajamaMama. This is what she had posted on her site.

We’re so quick to point fingers, place blame and criticize the people in our lives. It’s easier to point out a fault than it is to praise a strength. It’s easier to mention something that needs to be done better than it is to acknowledge something that’s been done well.

Therefore, I christen today (and the next few days) “Bloggin’ Good Blogger Days” in the blogging community. Your mission, shall you choose to accept it (and you will), is to go to as many blogs as you can and point out at least one good thing about the author of that blog. Do your best to give them a warm fuzzy feeling. Show your appreciation, admiration or plain old joy.

Tell them why something they did touched you, why a choice they made shows the true fabric of their moral being. Just go BE NICE to every blogger who’s blog you read today. And don’t be shy, either!!

Plus, post an entry similar to this one on YOUR blog and ask people to leave warm fuzzies in your comments. Spread the love, people!

Maybe if we take a week to engage in warm fuzzies, they will become a more permanent part of our daily lives, both on and off the computer.

In review:

1. Leave me a warm fuzzy in my comments.

2. Post a similar entry (or copy and paste this one, giving credit) on your own blog.

3. Leave a warm fuzzy on every blog you visit today.

4. Sit back, read your own warm fuzzies and feel, well, warm and fuzzy!

My turn to push my favorite site.

Yep! That's right it's my turn. My friend Christy has completely revamped her site at Butternug Squash Designs. She has redesigned her forum, it is soo pretty. On top of that she has added a gallery there too. You have got to go check it out. The forum when it's hopping can be a real blast. It can get a little crazy sometimes. Especially if we don't get enough sleep becuase we're too busy chatting. Oh! That reminds me she also added a chat room in there too. She has done so much work you reeeeeally have to go check it out.

As a matter of fact right now she has a Sketch Challenge that just started. The prize is a $20 Gift Certificate to her store! How awesome is that!

On top of all that she is also going to move her release date for new kits to Wednesday. Gives you a chance to stop and shop since then you don't have to try to hit all the new release sales at once on Friday. So stop by and visit us and check out my gallery there. I'm going to try to finish moving all my layouts over there by the end of September. See the moving to Pocatello is going to slow me down alittle but I will get it all moved eventually. Later I will try to post my latest layouts here. Maybe later tonight. Toodles!

Here I am again

another night of not being able to sleep. Tonight Phil signed the papers saying what his preferences are for the layoff. We are going to request Pocatello as our first choice, and Boise as our second choice. I called the real-estate agent today to get the ball rolling there. I am now getting the nerve up to tell my friends that we will be gone in like a month. As soon as Phil gets the up front money to go looking for a new place we will probably go and look for a place to live. Of course our real-estate agent is really an awesome agent. We've seen her at work so we know this for a fact! I'll have her line up some places for us to go see when we go to Idaho, in the mean time she can work on selling the house. I tell you a forced move is no fun. I will probably be lucky to make my one layout a week commitment right now, but that's just the way it will be. I just hope we can pull if off by Labor Day weekend. Well I'm going to take some Advil and head off to bed to stare at the ceiling.

I guess it's not Salt Lake City that we're going to be looking at but Pocatello Idaho.  It's a scary thing trying to figure if we really want to up root our family to move.  I have just spent too many nights laying and thinking.  I just need to stop thinking.  But it looks like that's what we're going to be doing.

Over at Rossi Farm

they have an area for kids complete with mini tractors.  At the time Francis was obsessed with

tractors and such.  Before we left

Francis had to try out the little John Deer tractors.  I happened across this photo and am not sure

what we used to photograph it with.  I

scrapped this with the kit Delightful Daisies by Christy Sturm at Butternug

Squash Designs.  The Word art is from the

kit Joy by Vera Lim at Vera Lim Designs. 

The Date stamp was a freebie from Jen Star Designs.

Ok I know it's been awhile since I've updated or posted a layout.  So here is one I did for the newest kit out at Butternug Squash Designs.  I'll put the credits below the layout.

One of the old photos

I took with this cheap digi cameral that DH had for all of about 1 month.(Talk

about a piece of trash!)  Francis fell to

the floor playing around with Bryce.  Then

Bryce did the same thing.  Then I saw

this cute layout at Rakscraps by heb1976 and decided it needed to be

scraplifted. I used the kit Delightful Daisies by Christy Sturm at Butternug

Squash Design. Tag is from her kit True Blue Buddy, and the fiber is from the

Conservatory Collection. Font is Crack Babies from Dafont

Do You Like Bubble Wrap?

Hee hee too much fun. Found this from a link on JennStars Blog. It was too fun to pass up. So I'm going to post it real quick like before I go off to bed. Bubble Wrap is Fun!

You Have Got To Check It Out!

Over at Butternug Squash Designs the new Gallery is up and running! The Creative Team has started posting layouts too. I tell you I wish I know how Christy gets it all done. I get tired just looking at all that she does for the site, design a new kit or 2 every week, and take care of her family on top of it all! I tell you is is just awesome. I am glad to know her. She also has a chat room set up too! I am sooo excited! Tomorrow I'm going to get started and upload some of my latest layouts into the gallery. Stop by leave a note in the forum and post a few layouts too.

Surplused AGAIN!

Yep Qwest is going to close the Portland CS office. Phil just got his 90day notice this Thursday. I am totally bummed. They say if he works in one of the wireless kiosks in the mall he has the potential to earn more money than he does now. Then again we could move to Salt Lake City and he would have the same position. I'm really hoping he will be one of the people offered to go there as a manager, that would mean a raise. If anyone out there in homeschool land, and digiscrap land lives there and can give me some insight I would really love it. Right now we are so up in the air about everything. I don't want him to rush with a decision, but then again if the potential to move is there I want him to make it known too. If you know what I mean. I still haven't told the co-op or anyone local about it. Phil's family I know would not want us to move. *sigh* What to do, what to do.

Or this one?

Madelines' Birthday page 2?

Wellllllll...I'm still not sure which one to post but I chose the one that says Madeline not the one that says Queen of the day!  I figure that I'll post both of them either way.  You can tell me which you prefer.

Madelines' Birthday

Ring Ring

Do you know how difficult it is to find the driver to the USB cord for your phone? Well I do! You know it has taken almost 2 days of searching the internet? Well it did! So if anyone out there has been to the Sprint store and gotten a cable (and of course they don't carry the drivers)with no driver! Try out this site. FutureDial
Hopefully this will help some poor soul out there searching the internet like me.

On another note I sure hope others out there had a great Fourth of July. We sure did. We of course did our annual party at our old neighborhood. With great food, great friends, and of course great fireworks! This year Ken managed to not try blowing of a few fingers. It was Paul who did the oopsy and had a motar go off on the launch pad. EVERYONE got showered with sparks. They were this very pretty blue color but still not fun. Phils mom and step dad came to watch the show, but his sister and brother inlaw had to work which was a bummer. This year surprixingly Phil even let Bryce blow up things. Which really jazzed him. I could have taken photos but I always had to wait till backs were turned since I always got these hammed up poses. I do wish they wouldn't always do that so I could just once get that special light in their eyes that says just how happy they are at the moment. I did get some awesome firework shots though. Check them out! While I go run some errands.

Happy Fourth of July America!

A piece of word art from the kit Army of One at Butternug Squash Designs says it all. This is for all the service men and women out there risking their lives for our freedoms. The right to free speech, freedom to worship as we please, freedom to even put down the Predsident of the United States of America. It all comes at the expense of lives. Good American Men and Women that are out there everday fighting for us. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

scraps-n-more.com

As Featured Artist this month I got to play with the Design Team at Scraps n More.  The sponser this month is Hambly Screen Prints.  What an awesome assortment of paper to work with.  I think the pirate paper and the gold swirly paper were my favorites though.

Dreams?

Well I have to say that Madeline looks dreamy in this photo. Considering I took all these really cute photos of her.  This is one of the layouts I did for the Butternug Squash Creative Team.  Here's my posting with the layout, and thanks to Gina Miller for the Sketch.  I just love how it turned out.  I think I'm going to get this printed out for her mom and my SIL. 

I have all these great photos I took of Madeline and this great sketch from SBB Sketch Challenge. So I put this together using the kit "Conservatory 5 - The Pinks" By Christy Sturm at Butternug Squash. I ran VP on the photo using the "Dreamy" filter, changing it from softest to softer.

Cool something new

I finaly figured out how to direct link my blog and photobucket.  I'm rock'n and roll'n now!
This photo is a crop of a picture I took from a distance. Phil and Francis were going down to the beach to put their feet in the water and I stayed with Bryce in the car since he fell asleep. This one didn't have a negative because it was taken on one of those Advantix cameras. Since it was for panoramic shots the crop is not a very good one. I ran it through VP using the landscape filter. I used the kit Seaside Vacation by Christy Sturm at Butternug Squash.

This is a picture of Steven and Rowan. You can see Rowans ears there. I’m not sure what Steven was offering Rowan but it sure caught his attention. I used the freebie Cheery Paper Set and Jellie Freebies from Vera Lim for this layout. I created the stitches myself.

What American Cities Best fit your?

I guess I'm not too far off the track. Number one on the list shows why I'm a Hawaiian gal at heart. Born and raised. LOL! Second not quite on the mark but close I am in Washington.

American Cities That Best Fit You::

80% Honolulu

75% Seattle

65% Austin

65% Denver

60% Miami

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Doin' the Fly Lady Thing!

Yep, my house is officialy a disaster. Well maybe not quite that bad, but bad enough. I'm taking advantage of the 100 degree weather we're going to be having and just holing up in the a/c and cleaning house. That should make my mom happy to read this. IF she ever does. LOL! I'm going to go through the Fly Lady list and try to do as much as possible. I figure I'd take a little break and sit a the computer for a few minutes. I now have 3 kids upstairs playing and soon it will be more like 5 or 6. YIKES! I hope the living room ceiling doesn't cave in from all the jumping around. LOL! Breaks over and it's back to the. UH OH! I hear crying. Gotta GO!

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

Will it never end?

I'm still not done scanning. Just taking a break to get some scrap pages done. I did a few more for Christy and I'm working on some paper scrap pages for Scraps n More. I'm really loving the quality of the photos coming off of the negatives I've scanned. It just takes sooooo lonnnng to do each photo. I swear the process for each photo takes about 30 minutes for each one. figure a strip has 4 to 5 photos that's 2 to 2 1/2 hours for just one strip. a roll of film takes almost a day. But that quality makes it so worth it. I'm so glad I held out for the scanner that I did get. Got to start saving up those Amazon.com GC again for more Photography Equiptment! First though Phil needs a wireless microphone system for the camcorder.

Yesterday we went to my SIL for a bar-b-que. It was great. I took a picture of the wall in her backyard. She painted it and put up plant hangers for hanging plants and some old window frames. It looks so good! Looks like something from oldworld Italy or something.
Of course you need to put the door in it's place and the wall will be finshed. Anyways we had totally FLAME BROILED burgers LOL! and blackened hotdogs. It was great! After wards we let off some fountains for the kids. Since my niece won't be in town and my SIL will have to work on the Fourth of July. I'll get those pictures resized and posted later.

Scan, scan, scan...

I can tell you what I'm going to be doing for the next week or two. Scanning negatives into the computer so I can do layouts. I finaly got that negative scanner that I wanted. Phils work has been giving him gift certificates for bonuses. I wish it were cash but I guess I will just have to live with what I can get from Amazon.com. LOL! (I need to get some smilies loaded for this blog) Now I just need to figure out what I want to scan first and scrap. I know what the next few kits from Christy will be so that gives me something to work with and plan ahead. Maybe! You know how I can go off on a tangent and forget where I was going. (I think those are senior moments I'm not sure.) I need to dig up more of my Hawaii photos, those will be just perfect. *sigh*

On another note summer vacation here has finaly started for the public school kids so Francis has more temptation to go off and play. I still want to make sure he does some studying during the summer though. I think I will make a morning list for him so he can get certain things done and over with then he can go play. I'll try that for a week or two and see if it survives. His CAT scores were way high, but I wouldn't want to get to comfortable and go backwards in his studies. There has to be a way to work some science and history in this summer after all those are the fun subjects right? If anyone has ideas don't be afraid to sling them my way. I'm open for any suggestions.

Back to the scanning and scrapping. Bye for now.

Scrapped The Movie

I was wondering were this link went to. If you haven't seen this check it out.

Site Update!

I actually pulled it off! I re-designed my site with 3 columns. Thanks to Thur's Templets. It took me a few days of messing with it but I got it. He even has really good directions on how to make changes when putting your blog together. Of course all those days in high school punching in code helped too. Never thought I would remeber some of that stuff after all these decades. LOL! Let me know what you think and if there is a better slide viewer around.

Just A Warning!

If the blog disappears it's because I'm going to mess with it and try to add a column on the left side. And who knows what else. If my ability to type is any show of how well it will go I have a feeling I'll be bald by the time I figure it out. So don't worry I'll be back. I also made a blinkie for the co-op so if your in the co-op your welcome to use it.If your not part of the co-op but homeschool, or are in a state that we are not in I am working on a generic blinkie for homeschoolers.

Busy, busy, busy...

This week has started out busy already. Now that summer has started WATCH had a "Pit Stop" for us homeschoolers. We got to listen to and meet some great homeschool icons that was really encourging. I was considering going back to the unit studies way of homeschooling and I am really feeling that it is the right choice. Seems every where I turn God is putting signs in front of me telling me so.

I also got my first assignment as a Creative Team Memeber. It is such a gorgeous kit! Called "Conservatory 1-The Reds". It will go live on Friday and if you have ever taken a vacation some where tropical this kit is for those photos. I immediatly thought of Hawaii (where I am from) when I saw this kit. I even did 2 layouts with it using some photos taken when I went to visit my mom.



Then Christy sent me a second kit. Boy is she fast! So I threw this layout together since I was playing with the filters in Photoshop and got this painted look to some photos I took at Fort Stevens last year during the Civil War Re-enactment. This kit is called "Conservatory 2-The Purples" This kit will also be live on Friday at butternugsquash.com. Get it then since it will be at a special price for Friday and Friday only.

I Did It!

I made it on the Creative Team at Butternug Squash Designs! I'm so excited! I hope I can do this and live up to expectations. Time to take the camera out and start snapping lots and lots of photos. Also Christy the BSD site owner has changed to her own domain so you can find the shop at http://www.butternugsquash.com/store/. Check out all her kits. I just love them and all the textures. Best of all she loves getting requests for kits. Keeps her creative juices going. Thanks for reading, and to start you off heres a layout I did last night of Bryce sleeping after a really long day. I call this on Mr. Popular.

A Time To Remember...

Today is Memorial Day and it's a time to remember all the soldiers that gave their lives for us. All the freedoms we have came at an expense. The expense that was paid with American lives. Lives we should never forget. At the same time we should also remember those that fell at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. Always remember never forget.

Scraps-n-More

Scraps-n-More Is open again! There's a new owner and a total forum revamp! The place is hopping and there's a bingo game getting ready to start. Check out the weekly challenges, or the All About Me section. Stop on by introduce yourself.

Allergy Season STINKS!

Or if it does I sure can't smell it. I started out with the normal sneezing and sniffles. By Saturday I couldn't breath my asthma was so bad. If I could just get my body from trying to kill me I would love it. It seems like all it wants to do is squeeze my lungs till there is no air left in them. Mind you my husband and son also have severe airborn allergies, and we're all feeling like we're at deaths door. I know it sounds like I'm whining and I AM! I just want it to go away and to be all better. I don't want to be this way through out the pollen season. So pray for me and Phil, and Francis. We need a miricle and for our allergies to go away. Wimper, whine, wimper.