Scrap Happy

It's that time of year....

2011-04-02T11:50:00.003-05:00

Baseball. Without a doubt, Nick's favorite time of the year. We went shopping yesterday and got new cleats, new batting gloves, new pants (since he has grown a dang foot since last summer!), and a new belt... he is ready! He really wants to try pitching this year, instead of catching...his coach is all for it, so we will see how it goes... He had a great time at practice...even though he had a black eye about a minute into it! Yep, started off right! Ball bounced off his glove and popped him in the face, right below his eye. Well, I know it's really baseball season now :)

Be afraid.....

2011-03-30T18:55:00.002-05:00

Yes. It's true. I made scrapbook pages. I told you...be afraid :) hahaha

Looking For....

2011-03-07T19:03:00.003-06:00

Amazon

Ok my scrappy friends - I know a few of you still check my blog once in a while :) - I really want to read this book...however, I WILL NOT pay $75 or more for it. And my library does not have it. Does anyone have this book that I could borrow for a few days? I promise you will get it back with no coffee stains :) Email me if you can help me out... scraphappy33@gmail.com

Thanks!!

Sunday Flickr

2011-02-27T11:45:00.004-06:00

1. Bella mostra di se -, 2. Coconut on the Beach, 3. When Waves Collide, 4. Natures Landscape, 5. Waves, 6. Nature - Clouds, 7. A winter shot, 8. Some photographers wanna get closer to the action!, 9. Between the sheets, Crosby. Explored Frontpage, 10. 3D Splash, 11. Scala Dei Turchi, 12. Brighton Pier I, 13. Cuba Gallery: Beautiful / Ocean / horizon / clouds / sky / beach / Landscape / New Zealand / Portrait / Photography, 14. ubachuva, 15. 2066, 16. Disguised Alien Mother Ship Space Station

Peanut

2011-02-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Gotta say....I really love this kiddo. Happy Birthday, Peanut!

Sunday Flickr

2011-02-13T08:00:00.001-06:00

1. tuesday breakfast, 2. associated foods store double trailer semi, 3. Untitled, 4. Peekaboo!, 5. Buenas noches., 6. Daydreamer, 7. la nebbia gelata, 8. Purple Knees [EXPLORED #46], 9. What one has is all one needs, 10. *, 11. Dancing , 12. 034/365, 13. Sunset Fence, 14. Ninja Cat, 15. the blizzard leaves, 16. *

These....

2011-02-08T18:36:00.002-06:00

* Are so good I wanna cry.
* Might be the death of me.
* Are Evil.
* Are gone...I seriously hopw Wal-mart is OUT!

2011-02-06T11:52:00.002-06:00

In TWO WEEKS I will be in sunny Florida (God, I hope it's sunny!) watching 43 cars doing 200 miles per hour make left turns :) And I. Can. Not. Wait. I love, love going to races and this will be my first Daytona race...and it is "THE" race. The start of the new NASCAR season; one of the biggest hyped races of the year, and one of the biggest parties anywhere. Seriously excited!

Daytona Logo used from THIS (www.Daytonabeach.com) webpage.

January in Pictures

2011-02-02T21:13:00.000-06:00

A photo a day for January 2011

O.M.Gosh!! Finally!

2011-01-04T18:11:00.003-06:00

After 10 years, it's finally HERE - ok, well it's ALMOST here :) hahaha....whatever, the point is that the 6th book of the Earth's Children series is finally coming! I have read this other 5 books in this series at least 5 times...each. And still love them! Can't wait to see what the latest book has in store. And yes, I have already pre-ordered my copy!

What I'm working on...

2010-12-12T08:48:00.006-06:00

I started a new mini - Scenes from a Cell Phone...I have hundreds of pics on my phone and decided a mini book would be the perfect place to scrap some of them...

Here's a sneak peek:

I will post more when I get it done!
Have a great Sunday!

Sunday Flickr

2010-12-05T17:29:00.003-06:00

It's been a while, but here's a Sunday Flickr...

1. snowflake, 2. PTS4, 3. Winter Wonderland for JYC, 4. Untitled, 5. Tavares, 6. se acaba noviembre., 7. The Old World, 8. First Christmas Ornaments - Explored #8 Thanks!, 9. When I say "It's alright", 10. Crisp, 11. blueberry field, 12. chalk, 13. Untitled, 14. Beach Huts In The Snow, 15. Day 333: Instrument of Peace (Explored), 16. 1st December - Xmas Month!

SSC Holiday Blog Hop

2010-12-04T00:00:00.005-06:00

Welcome to Simply Scrapping Crafts First Annual Holiday Hop! We have quite a line-up for you today filled with lots holiday inspired goodies! Our DT has been busy at work in Santa’s workshop creating a sled full of gorgeous holiday projects to help you decorate, scrapbook or use for gifts!. Be sure to comment all of the blogs along the way because we have "hidden" some extra special treats along the way. There is no way to tell where we have them stashed, so be sure not to miss out! Some of our hop hosts are giving an extra entry for becoming a follower. Who doesn't appreciate more chances to win right? All winner will be announced on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 via the DT blogs and also right here in the hop room at SSC. You have until 11:59PM EST tonight, December 4th, 2010 to comment for your chance to win. All you need to do is click on each link and leave a comment as you hop along to the end of the list. Get ready for a Holly Jolly Holiday Hop!

Here are three Christmas tree ornaments I made especially for you!

This one uses a sheer Maya Road mini book page painted with Sheer Gold Shimmer paint. The chipboard bird (also Maya Road) is painted brown and then painted again with glitter paint. A Basic Grey rub-on and piece of ribbon finish it off.

More Maya Road chipboard here...the bird and the tree branch...LOVE these! The branch is painted brown and then covered with clear crackle glaze (Glossy Accents Crackle). For the bird, I started with a base coat of deep red, then covered with pink Distress/Crackle paint from Tim Holtz. Then I glazed it with a coat of Glossy Accents for shine. I added a little Prima flower to the branch and a ribbon to hang. I think this is my favorite :)

This one was very simple also...A clear Meaking Memories frame, backed with some Basic Grey Christmas paper from ages ago, and a 7Gypsies sticker in the middle make the base. The chipboard bird is painted with copper glaze (Making Memories, I think). Then I jsut added a small rub-on on the wing and a touch of bling.

I hope you enjoyed these little ornaments! I know I had a blast making them...

Here are the rest of SSC Design Teams blogs...don't forget to comment on each one...You never know where a prize might be!

Maureen http://stampandscrapwithmaureen.blogspot.com/

Theresa http://procrastinatingscrapper.blogspot.com/

Nikki --- You are here :)

Rona http://scraprona.blogspot.com/

Colleen http://cardsdelight.blogspot.com/

Amy http://amybeansblog.blogspot.com/

Clare http://bearydocardsinc.blogspot.com/

Pryn http://mochavation.blogspot.com/

Tammy http://tmaynard.blogspot.com/

Holiday Blog Hop

2010-12-03T07:55:00.000-06:00

Ok...I know I posted this earlier, but I have no idea where it went. Stupid blogger ate it I think :)
Anyway, fun stuff tomorrow...check it out!

Some pages......

2010-11-20T07:13:00.000-06:00

Here are some pages I have made recently...thought I would share :) All of these were done for challenges at Simply Scrappin' Crafts ... check it out!

2010-10-18T16:00:00.001-05:00

We at Simply Scrapping Crafts would like to thank you for making our very first Blog Hop such a smashing success! We had so much fun creating our projects for you and hope that they inspire you to create ones of your own and share them with us!

As you know, we had some prizes "hidden" on certain blogs. Without further adieu, here is our master winners list:

Barb's Boys...prize hidden on Deb's blog

Julie M....prize hidden on Georgia's blog

Lisa (Purple Place) AND Trina...there were 2 prizes hidden on Theresa's blog

Andrea6760...prize hidden on Rona's blog

Helen...prize hidden on Amy's blog

Terry G (T)...prize hidden on Emily's blog

Denise...prize hidden on Clare's blog

Roxann...prize hidden on Pryn's blog

Again, we would like to thank you for your participation and look forward to bringing you many more hops in the future :) Please do not be a stranger and stop back anytime you would like! We would love to have you :)

THANKS!!

2010-10-18T08:26:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to say THANKS to everyone who stopped by on the hop this weekend!! I hope you all had fun and found some great inspiration!! Check back here later for the prize winners announcement!

SSC Haunted Hallow Hop

2010-10-16T00:01:00.024-05:00

Welcome to Simply Scrapping Crafts First Annual Haunted Hallow Hop! We have quite a line-up for you today filled with lots of tricks and treats! Now what would trick or treating be without candy? Eye candy that is! Our DT has been busy at work in Dr. Jekyll's lab creating just the right formula to inspire your hauntingly sweet projects this year. Be sure to comment all of the blogs along the way because we have "hidden" some extra special treats along the way. There is no way to tell where we have them stashed, so be sure not to miss out! Some of our hop hosts are giving an extra entry for becoming a follower. Who doesn't appreciate more chances to win right? All winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 via the DT blogs and also in the hop room at SSC, which can easily be accessed here . You have until 11:59PM EST tonight, October 16, 2010 to comment for your chance to win. All you need to do is click on each link and leave a comment as you hop along to the end of the list. Are you ready for a frightfully wicked Haunted Hallow Hop? Let's get to hoppin'!

Deb http://debl-longandshort.blogspot.com/

Maureen http://stampandscrapwithmaureen.blogspot.com/

Georgia http://georgiamacdonald.blogspot.com/

Theresa http://procrastinatingscrapper.blogspot.com/

Nikki --- YOU ARE HERE

Rona http://scraprona.blogspot.com/

Colleen http://cardsdelight.blogspot.com/

Amy http://amybeansblog.blogspot.com/

Emily http://www.emilyseyes.com/

Clare http://bearydocardsinc.blogspot.com/

Pryn http://mochavation.blogspot.com/

I created a layout for my project. The circles were handcut to give it a handmade, eccentric look. I just couldn't resist adding layers :)

Have fun hopping!

Fun stuff coming up...

2010-09-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

Just some stuff....

2010-09-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

Here are some recent pages and projects that I did for Simply Scrapping Crafts ... Just wanted to share them here as well.

Also, Nick is having a rough time right now...We are changing meds and trying to get in with a new doctor in St. Louis for another opinion. We are doing some more screening and therapy...just hard to help him right now...

Some pages......

2010-08-28T07:17:00.000-05:00

Here is a whole mess of pages I have done lately....Some are design team work for Simply Scrapping Crafts ... some just because.

Here it is!

2010-08-27T16:39:00.001-05:00

In about 30 days, this will be our new house! So excited, terrified, ready, scared, overjoyed.....Just can't wait!

Finally! Page for August crop

2010-07-25T09:31:00.000-05:00

Super simple, but oh so cute page...I may tweak it a little before the crop, but this gives you an idea of what we will be doing. Email me if you have questions or want to more information about the crop in August.

Can. Not. Wait.

2010-06-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

The New IPhone. Coming June 24th. My contract upgrade date is June 23rd.

there's more...

2010-06-01T18:39:00.000-05:00

Pioneer Woman is still posting "Coming Home" pics....

I'm still crying.

More Coming Home

I Dare You.

2010-05-26T17:16:00.001-05:00

I double-dog-dare you to look at the Coming Home pictures that Pioneer Woman is featuring this week and not break down bawling like a little girl.
I did and I'm too proud to admit it.
These are some of the most incredibly emotional photos I have ever seen.
Awesome, awesome awesome!

Coming Home Part One

Coming Home Part 2

Happy Memorial Day!
Remember those who serve to keep us FREE!

Oh my!

2010-04-20T18:35:00.004-05:00

So about 6 weeks ago Reggie and Chris had an accident. Chris is over 6 feet tall and pushing 200 hundred solid pounds of almost 17 year old boy. Reggie was at the time a 5 month old puppy, weighing in at about 26 pounds. Chris fell. On Reggie. You do the math....

Anyway, Reggie ended up with a dislocated hip (better than the alternative....he would have gotten hit by a car if Chris hadn't fallen on him). The emergency vet set the hip back in place, but warned us that it only works about 50% of the time. Well, of course we ended up in the 50% that didn't work. This past Friday, Reggie had surgery to fix his hip (and make him non-reproductive haha) and rather than share the gruesome after surgery pics, I thought I would show you some sweet recovery pics instead.

He has decided that my bed is where he wants to rest. More specifically, my pillow.

I have a very hard time making him move...

But then Chris doesn't exactly make him either...

Good grief! These two are quiet the pair :)

National Scrapbook Day 2010 Pics

2010-04-19T18:27:00.003-05:00

Flower on the page below...

Blac background with crazy cool purple flowers!

Super fun, super easy, super fast page

More black & white with some fun red accents

Spring, spring spring page!

National Scrapbook Day 2010

2010-04-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

National Scrapbook Day is May 1st and we want to celebrate! Rona, Cynde and I will be teaching 14 pages (yes, that's 14!) plus some super cute cards! We will have prizes and goody bags for everyone who signs up! We always try to teach you something new, and I can promise it will be fun! We will be there from 9am-9pm and classes will be first. If you sign up, you get all the classes and crop time till 9pm. If you want to just come and crop, you will still get the kits for the class projects.
The cost is $45 for everything and space is limited to the first 20 who sign up. You can email Rona (rmallard@semo.edu) Cynde (cyndesharok@hotmail.com) or Me (scraphappy33@gmail.com) to get your name on the list. Please mail your payment to: Rona Mallard, P.O. Box 124, Jackson, MO 63755 to make sure you spot is held.

We really had a great time at the last one, and are looking forward to doing it again! We got caught up with some old friends and made some new ones...always a great thing! We can't wait and hope you will join us!

Rona has pics on her blog of her projects: www.scraprona.blogspot.com
Cynde's blog: www.cyndesharok.blogspot.com

I will be getting pics of mine up as soon as they are finished :) which hopefully will be this weekend!

Easter Pics

2010-04-07T19:29:00.003-05:00

Just some of my favorite pics from Easter....

I want one.

2010-03-28T17:45:00.004-05:00

Ok. I admit it. I'm a cell phone junkie. I love my cell phone. I know I survived many years without it.....but I don't ever want to do that again. I want to have my phone always. And now I have a new desire.....an Iphone. I want one. Seriously. But I will wait. Cell contract is not up until May and rumor has it that a new Iphone will be release in June. So until then....I will just "want" one.

This Dog.

2010-03-25T18:19:00.003-05:00

Costs a fortune.
Has gas.
Chews on my fingers.
Torments the cat.
Loves socks.
Doesn't know when to quit.
Sneaks into my bed.
Sits on my feet.
Destroys tennis balls.
Loves us unconditionally.

Seriously love this dog.

Quickie page....badddd picture

2010-03-24T21:10:00.003-05:00

A quick page I did this afternoon.....sorry about the really bad cell phone picture :)

Another page...

2010-03-22T19:19:00.004-05:00

Playing with Ippity set ... Moon Beam and Heartstrings .... Just love the dangling hearts!!!! So much fun to play with! All the paper came with the kit Rona puts together with her stamps...I addedsome rub-ons, chipboard letters and some extra ribbon.

Some pages......

2010-03-21T15:52:00.002-05:00

The first page was made with the Moon Beams & Heart Strings Ippty stamp kit....love these stamps, and this set is no exception...

I stamped this one a piece of patterned paper and then cut out the pieces, then covered them with Diamond Glaze for a nice shine.

This page uses the What Matters Most set...probably one of my favorites!

I colored in part of the flowers with Copic Markers and white Sharpie....fun!

More later....race is over so I'm headed to my scrapbook room :)

Sunday Flickr

2010-03-21T14:56:00.005-05:00

Ok definitely a themed Sunday Flickr today...but seriously! Look at these faces!!!

1. and they call it puppy love, 2. Argentino!, 3. PeekaBoo!!!, 4. Party Favor =), 5. Nice guys, 6. Troy, 7. Through the eyes of a puppy, 8. Lolla, 9. cute puppy, 10. Renner Omar, 11. Teddy, 12. chocolate, 13. D'argo's Gone Duck Huntin', 14. Bobble Head, 15. Big dog, tiny pup #2, 16. Ditte 2 months, 17. lino(2), 18. Labrador Retriever Puppies, 19. [ Tutti pazzi per UGO ], 20. Boxer puppy says "Shhhhh.... I'm hiding"

I heart Ippity Stamps!!!

2010-02-21T20:14:00.003-06:00

Ok, if you haven't seen the Ippity Stamps yet, you should really go check out Rona's blog and see them because they are fantastic!!! I got several of the new sets in the kits she has been making up and played with them this weekend (yes, I should have been packing more stuff and moving boxes...but I couldn't resist!)

Here's what I did...

That stamp is so fun! You can color it, paint it, glitter it...whatever! Oh, and Yes! I made a card! Shocking I know!

This one is a little hard to see but it's on that white label under the pics.
It says, "it takes courage to grow up and become who you are." I Love This Stamp!!!

I think this may be my favorite! It says, " you are fabulous" and I think I love it!

I used it again on this page!

I made all this out of one kit that comes with paper, ribbon and the stamp set!! I did add a few things here and there...some stickers and chipboard...I had a great time playing with the stamps and have more coming!! Three more sets with kits :)

March Crop - Ippty Do Da Day!!

2010-02-16T21:42:00.002-06:00

Ok, all the info is going out in emails and is on Rona's blog (link on the right....)

Here are the two pages I am teaching...and let me just say, I am not entirely happy with them. I am still tweaking and playing and messing with them, so they might vary a little from what you see here :) i wanted to do quick and easy using stamps as the main embellishment, but I feel like somethings missing.... we will see what I end up with!
The classes and crop should be great and lots of fun!! Any questions, shoot me an email!

Scrappin' fool...

2010-01-10T18:04:00.004-06:00

I have scrapped. A lot.

I played with my new Slice...cutting out the letters...I think I love that thing.

Ok, so this is a reallyyy old layout that I finally put a picture on...but it counts as a done page.

I love this picture and I love this October Afternoon paper.

Playing with the Slice again for the layered flower.

Oh my gosh! I made a card :)

Quick page of my cousins...

I dug deep in my stash to find this paper. It's old but it's still some of my favorite paper ever!

More oldie-but goodie paper from my stash. I am determined to clear out some of my stash - either making pages or getting rid of it.

All in all, it was a great scrapping weekend for me :)

Real life

2010-01-04T21:27:00.002-06:00

Ok I know I typically stick to scrapping stuff and pics around here, but I felt like sharing a bit of real-life today...some of the everyday. If you have know me long, you probably know my youngest son, Nick, is bi-polar with ADHD. He was diagnosed at just shy of 4 years old and has been on a freakish amount of medications ever since. From 2 1/2 years to 4 1/2 years, we went through 8 daycares because no one could handle him. We are on our 4th doctor/psychiatrist. And I couldn't even begin to count how many time we have changed medications. Early Childhood Special Education was a God-send. I don't think he would have been able to start kindergarden with out that program. We have been amazingly blessed with fantastic teachers so far, and special education teachers that are just outstanding. And Nick excels academically as a result. Lately we have noticed him back-sliding...old behaviors beginning to re-surface. Aggresion, inattention, easily frustrated, unable to concentrate or stay on task, anger or crying for no apparent reason...things that we haven't has to deal with on a daily basis for sometime due to a really good mixture and balance of meds. Our old doc recommended a new doc...same facility, just a new doc. One that specializes in kids like Nick; kids that are hard to treat. We saw him today, and new doc decided it was time to try something new...that after almost 2 years on the same combo, that perhaps there was a tolerance being built up or a metabolism shift that was causing his meds to no longer be effective. So I spent the evening waiting for new meds to be ready and dividing up the old ones into smaller doses so we can ween him off the old, at the same starting the new. The next week to 10 days will be rough as his body adjusts to the new combo and gets rid of the old meds. This process always scares me. So much medication in a body so small. And a kid that just wants to be and act like the other kids having even less control than normal over his emotions and reactions...it's very hard sometimes. But then I remember how much worse it could be...so, so much worse. And that's when I stop and thank God for only giving me this battle to fight and pray for those parents who have so much more to handle.

What was I thinking?

2010-01-03T16:16:00.003-06:00

The day before Christmas, I had a bought of temporary insanity that led me to agree to this....

I have no idea what got into me.....

But I think it's here to stay...

This is just too much....

How can I send this away....

Oh my. Yep, I'm done for....

Reggie is the newest member of our family. He is perhaps the most adorable pain-in-the-ass I have ever seen. Technically, he is Chris' dog....he cleans up after him, walks him, talks to him. I tell Chris I don't like Reggie.....don't tell him, but it's not really true :)

6 Grandkids

2009-12-29T20:10:00.005-06:00

Ok, now that Christmas is over and my Mom has her pictures, I can finally share these :)

The only thing my Mom wanted for Christmas was pics of all 6 of her grandkids....

And here they are....

Beckah and Nick

All four of my brother's kids - Leeman, Beckah, Kayden and John

John and Kayden

John and Kayden

Chris and Nick ... not fighting.

Again, Chris and Nick...not fighting.

Beckah

Again the beautiful Beckah

and all 6 of the grandkids.

By the way, Kayden....not happy with this whole deal. He wanted NO part of the pictures. None.

But we took them anyway and my Mom loved the pics. And I am so glad I got some great new pics of my boys and my neice and nephews.

Family Tradition

2009-12-05T16:28:00.000-06:00

There it is. Every year, without fail, I get this picture. Bryon flipping me the bird. You would think that after years and years of me stalking my family with a camera, they would be used to it. And maybe they are...maybe he just like the tradition :)

Ippity Stamps!!!

2009-12-03T19:59:00.002-06:00

LOOK! I made a page! Please try not to fall over.... :)

I gotta say, I haven't been in a scrappin mood in quite some time, but here lately I have been itching to make something and I finally got a chance to sit down tonight and whip something up...

I played with my new Ippity Stamps by Unity Stamps that I bought from Rona...let me just say, I see a real problem developing :) these stamps are awesome! Just awesome!
Really felt good to scrap again... hopefully the mojo lasts :) hahahaha

Thanksgiving Pics

2009-11-28T19:46:00.004-06:00

Nicholas being well, Nicholas.

Kasey Paige

Oh sweet Bailey.

Jacob & Jason

Jacob again...man this kids takes great pictures!

Brittanie. One of my favorite little girls to photograph :)

My cousin Brian...I'm a little disappointed he is not flipping me off :)

and Bailey again, because she is just so darn cute!

Did you miss me :)

2009-09-16T20:10:00.003-05:00

Whoa! Bad blogger! I won't say sorry though, I will just post some pics I took a couple weeks ago...

Can't say you weren't warned.......

2009-07-29T21:26:00.006-05:00

I told you there were baseball pictures coming.... I wasn't kidding.

Catcher. Loved playing catcher. His favorite position. And he was pretty good at it, didn't seem to mind getting hit occasionally...weird, but true.

These were the smallest baseball pants we could find...and they were baggy.

What a swing!

Seriously, this kids has NO butt. I'm not kidding.

Waiting to here when the first place decision game was going to be...

Ready to run....

Again, no butt. Where he got this gene, I have no idea becasue it certainly wasn't from me.

I think this may be my favorite picture of the whole season though :)

Again with the swing...

So good at cheering on his team-mates!

Must. Slide. In. The. Dirt. It's a complution, I tell you. The ball is no where near, and yet he slides...

In the middle of a game, and he stops to cheese for Mom and the camera. So cool.

Catching again...

Super, awesome, great coach! Can't say enough good things about him.

Oh yeah, and those are First Place trophies they are holding :)

Again, in the dirt....

This smile makes all the late nights, mosquitoe bites and sun burns worth it.

I admit it...

2009-07-23T12:21:00.002-05:00

I watch So You Think You Can Dance. There I said it. Judge me if you want, but I won't apologize for loving it :)
Anyway, I love watching dance (I think it has to do with the fact that I can't dance), and this show is great because it helps undiscovered dancers get exposure...sorta like American Idol.

So far this season, there have been two dances that have actually made me cry. If you have a few minutes, watch these...

Melissa and Ade - Dance about a women's fight against Breast Cancer

Kupono and Kayla - Dance about Addiction

Powerful and moving.

Scrappin' Fool :)

2009-07-15T10:43:00.005-05:00

Ok, so the weekend of July 10th, we had a scrappy weekend retreat....and I actually scrapbooked! I got pages done...see:

oh! and fair warning to all three of you that still check this blog :) ... a boatload of baseball pictures coming up soon....

My 16 year old…..

2009-07-07T17:54:00.001-05:00

I now have a 16 year old. He is an officially licensed driver. He bought a truck today. I’m more than a little overwhelmed. I mean, how did I end up with a 16-year old that can drive and owns a truck and has a job? He’s just a rolly-polly fat baby that was just born two days ago, right? No? Huh. Interesting. But seriously, this kids of mine…the 16 year old one? He is a pretty great kid. Sure we fight and bicker and argue…show me a teenager and parent that doesn’t. But he is really a good kid. He helps around the house, has a job, has a hobby that won’t land him in jail, doesn’t drink or smoke or do drugs, goes where he says he’s going to and stays there, doesn’t abuse his phone, gets decent grades…. yep, I’m pretty darn lucky.

Dirt bike riders...

2009-06-16T17:39:00.006-05:00

I'm not sure I have ever seen Nick have as much fun as he did on this little 4-wheeler! I didn't think we would ever get him off of it!

Kylie decided she wanted to learn to ride the dirt bike, so she started off on this little one...made for kids...

She did really, really well...

Till it was time to stop... Guess Chris forgot to tell her where the brakes were...

Showing off on the little bike...

All the little 4-wheeler was very popular...

Chris is getting more comfortable on the dirt bike...

Have no idea what was so funny but it made for a great picture...

Dirt...dirt...dirt...dirt...

Jumping.... fun for them, heart attack for me....

I have no idea....

cute cousins...

Gotta say that these dirt bike ridin' days are some of my favorites...

more later....

He plays ball....

2009-06-12T18:05:00.004-05:00

Where does he get these cheesy faces...

Nice stance!

He loves to play catcher!

What the hell is up with his arm? That can't be normal...

Ready to catch...

Ready to run...

This kid LOVES to play ball! I mean LOVES it! Lives it, breathes it, wants to wear the pants all the flipping time! I was seriously concerned that boredom was going to be an issue with him and baseball...and anyone who knows Nick, knows that when he gets bored, it's not. pretty. at. all. But he is amazingly "IN" the game - he knows everything that is going on and cheers for his teammates and loves his coach! So very proud of this skinny little nut-boy!

Got 6 minutes to kill...

2009-06-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

via videosift.com

Check out this video...

A post and some pics...

2009-05-16T08:57:00.004-05:00

A couple weeks ago I got a phone call from my cousin, Bryon...well I figured that out after he messed with me for a while because I had no idea who it was at first...I mean in 35 years, I have probably talked to him on the phone twice. Anyway, that's not the point... This is, he wanted me to take some pics of his kids for their mom for Mother's Day. Sure thing I said, haul them to Jackson and I will shoot them :) You know what I mean. Here are just a few of the 80-something shots we took that afternoon...

This is his oldest...Michayla (and yes, I know it's spelled wrong) - I think she is beautiful.

I just kept taking shots of her...

Here is one of the whole bunch...good looking group, huh? I'm not pleased with the picture though, too dark, or washed out, or colors are off or something...just looks wrong to me.

This was fun...and only three of them got wet/muddy :)

This ended up being one of my favorites...

Well, and this one...

This is Dalton. He looks like he is incredibly unhappy with this whole process, but in reality he was having a ball. The kid could seriously model for real - he is a natural. He will probably hate me for saying that :)

And then there was this one - Caleb. Good grief this kid is a ham! So much fun to shoot!

And Austin. He had fun too, he would never admit it though...

All in all a good shooting day, we had a lot of fun and got some really great pics I think. They were happy with them anyway :)

More later...

Time-Lapse Across China

2009-05-13T12:07:00.000-05:00

Time-Lapse Across China

very cool video...check it out...

A layout...

2009-04-20T19:42:00.002-05:00

Look! I made a page! Shocking, I know!

Sunday Flickr

2009-04-19T07:51:00.003-05:00

1. Speaketh my soul..., 2. come, daddy, 3. 18°C, 4. hide away, 5. Baby Moo, 6. tuesday's pinkness, 7. circles of circles, 8. The Window, 9. تثور الخيل من قلبي وانا اقول الهقاوي جياد, 10. More Than Words, 11. Springtime, 12. Untitled, 13. The wind swept across my feet, 14. Cloudy skies threatening long-forgotten prairie life; southern Alberta, Canada, 15. Breathing deep inside, 16. spring inside

boys, bikes, sunshine and jumping

2009-04-06T19:28:00.003-05:00

Enjoyed some serious sunshine Saturday and watched the boys jump, ride, slide and crash - just a few times and nothing serious. Still gives me minor heart-failure but I try not to flip out like a sissy-girl. They don't like it and tease me endlessly when I do. I really like watching them ride and taking pictures is a challenge - I think I'm getting better at it! Doug says now I need to lay down and let them jump over me so I can get pics from under them while they jump.... Ummm, interesting idea, but I'm gonna have to say no. I'm blonde, not stupid :-)

Sunday Flickr

2009-04-05T19:01:00.002-05:00

1. Mệt..., 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. i just wana be free., 5. i just wana be free., 6. Toys, 7. ~~Early Morning Stretch~~, 8. Back ( Let's have fun ) .. part 1 ..~, 9. Coppice Babe, 10. Bunch of flowers, 11. Light at the End of the Tunnel, 12. she takes the time.., 13. Longing, 14. I Lov U, 15. these boots, 16. Maybe I didn't treat you quite as good as I could have

Sunday Flickr

2009-03-29T18:57:00.005-05:00

1. Smoke Signals, 2. The only way is up, 3. Cozumel : Money Bar, 4. Sen Yüz Çevirecek olsan..., 5. Untitled, 6. Linen, 7. Fast Food Gulch, 8. still waiting for spring, 9. ~Content, 10. I miss you more than I should, than I thought I could ~, 11. Carpet of Flowers, 12. Untitled, 13. spring sky, 14. PUPPY LOVE, 15. a year of mornings 95:365, 16. Untitled

absolutely nothing....

2009-03-28T10:51:00.007-05:00

***warning***
this post will be about absolutely nothing in particular... random, if you will.
I'm bored. It's raining. The never-ending sound of my washer and dryer are threatening to put me to sleep. If I eat one more co-co puff I might throw up. so here i am...posting links to help you waste time :-)

THIS is going on today, so if you want some awesome inspiration, start clicking :-)

Megan Joy on American Idol makes me smile. I cannot explain why I love her voice! It is so different and unique...I would by an album by her today.

I *heart* these. They were featured HERE. They make me happy. Unfortunately I did not win one of the sets that were being given away.

Can't stop listening to THIS. Seriously love this new song by Rascal Flatts.

And THIS. Oh this song makes me happy! Love, love it! Check it out...

Oh. My. Goodness. This picture is one of my new favorites. Something about little boys and blue jean butts. Too stinking cute!!! And by the way, this is my nephew... so it's okay.

This IS my favorite picture right now. I took this last weekend when "we" went riding. Remember I use the term "we" loosely. :-) although, I did actually get on the dirt bike last weekend and got taken for a ride. It was seriously fun...I think I might do it again. LOL But this picture was boys playing in the mud... and I think I love it.

Tomorrow is RACE day. Look at my boy Kasey qualifying sixth. Look at Doug's boy Tony qualifying seventh. :-) Should make for an interesting time watching the race, no?

For all my Photoshop buddies... how about some ACTIONS. I found this site. Haven't played here too much but did find a couple really cool ones.

THIS post on 2Peas nearly made me choke I laughed so hard!!!

Love THIS. and THIS. and THIS. and THIS. oh yeah, and THIS.

I don't even make cards, and I can't stop looking at THIS site. Lovely, lovely stuff here.

THIS is what Nick is watching right now. If you have never seen this movie, go right now and get it. Now. Run.

If you have never seen HER blog, go there now. Oh my goodness, the yummy-ness is everywhere. And links...oh my does she have the blog links...and don't start clicking them unless you have hours to spend drooling. Seriously. You have been warned.

and now that I have helped you waste a fair portion of your day, I will leave you with THIS. I dare you not to laugh.

more later...
nikki

Busy weekend...wicked tired...

2009-03-22T18:45:00.004-05:00

whew...

more later...

Good Grief!

2009-03-15T16:43:00.003-05:00

okay, I know what you are thinking.... she doesn't post for months and bam! three times in two days. What the heck is up with that? Yeah, yeah, yeah... deal with it.
Anyway I was feeling kinda scrappy this afternoon and since there was no nASCAR race on today (gasp!) I whipped up a couple of pages...

Some fun pics I took of the boys last spring and am just now scrapping...or maybe scrapping again, I don't really remember. But I basically grabbed a couple sheets of paper and started cutting. I have some pieces left that I am going to try to make a few cards out of and use up the remains. I am trying not to add anything to my scraps drawer and desperately trying to use through my stash of stuff... so my plan is to use up whatever I get out, that way I get pages, cards or mini-books donw and I'm left with piles of half-used stuff. Sounds like a good plan, right? We'll see how it pans out :-)
Well, off to fix supper then back to my scrappy table...
more later...

Sunday Flikr

2009-03-14T13:11:00.003-05:00

1. dancing with the moon., 2. I love the sun, 3. An optimist is the human personification of spring, 4. 44/365LOVE, 5. ..., 6. Concrete Jungle, 7. Earthbound, 8. All Roads Lead to the Same End, 9. Untitled, 10. Pulumbago, 11. Gas Works, 12. Summertime Rolls, 13. The dance, 14. No one on the corner got swagger like moi... 155/365, 15. these smiling eyes are just a mirror for the sun . ., 16. Busted! Too Funny.

2009-03-14T12:16:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I have been a very bad blogger...but in my defense I did move so I have had to deal with packing and unpacking...and kids, and school, and work, and scrapbook stuff, and and and... okay so I'm basically just lazy and haven't posted anything :)
Anyway, about a month ago we had Nick's birthday party at the bowling alley... serious fun. Especially if you are 8.
Check it out...

This little twerp is eight now! When did that happen?

Cosmic bowling does some seriously trippy things to cameras.

Picking just the right ball is a big job that requires much thought.

I have no idea. Seriously, no idea.

Wicked trippy things...

Cheese sticks are required when you go to the bowling alley.

This kid is not right. Just not right. I take no responsibility for this...I have no idea where it comes from...his dad maybe? Television? The bus?

Trippy stuff... very, very.

All in all, a very fun time. Kids loved it. Adults tolerated it. beats a clown and McDonalds any day. :)
Hopefully I can post some scrappy stuff soon...really been itching to do some scrappin' since we have had our class things going again...want to play. But now I must clean and do laundry and all that other non-fun stuff...

More later...

6578 ......

2009-02-28T00:03:00.001-06:00

* the number of times Nick says mommy in one day?
* the number of candy hearts I have had since Valentines Day?
* the number of miles I need to walk in order to be rid of all those candy hearts?
* the number of times I have said Crap today?
* the number of times my two " adopted" daughters have made me laugh today?
* the number of times they have said " dude" ?

All good guesses, but no. 6578 would be the number of text messages I had last month. I think I may have a problem :)

Sunday Flickr 2-22-09

2009-02-22T16:32:00.002-06:00

Sunday Flickr 2-22-09, originally uploaded by RaceyGracie1.

Sunday Flickr is back! Did you miss me?

Finally...

2008-12-02T18:24:00.005-06:00

ok, since "someone" commented on the lack of updates recently, I thought I would dazzle you all with some pictures and general babble from yours truly:

See, I am still alive and even let other people touch my camera occasionally.

Took this Thanksgiving at my Grandma's - glad I caught this moment, cause other wise no one would have believed me. The two of them can sit next to each other, be nice and not die.

I'm not sure how it's possible but my niece gets more beautiful every time I see her...

man, I love this kid! He has such an amazing personality! Always laughing and smiling... of course he can stir up trouble with the best of them, but it is darn near impossible to get mad at him.

The daughter of one of my cousins - she is such a neat kid...and cute too! :-)

Here's my nephew again... don't you just want to jump in the leaves with him?

My newest nephew... he like coconut cream pie... why I have no idea. But he really likes it.

Here he is again... man I just want to squish those adorable cheeks!

Okay, enough of that for now...

I realized I never posted any of the pictures from the last time we went riding... remember I use the term "we" very loosely... I just walk around taking pictures and try not to get my ass ran over. now, usually I can handle the boys showing off; jumping riding fast - throwing mud and dirt. But this day...this day they scared me. See for yourself:

Jumping waaaay higher than usual...

running right up on each other...as they are jumping...

darn near turning over...while jumping...

almost going head-first into the ground...while jumping. I'll point out, that it was at this point that I had myself utterly convinced that we were going to the emergency room on this day. Thankfully, we didn't but...damn! the boys were all determined to scare the crap out of me! I think they were doing it on purpose... they won't admit it, but I think they were.

By the way...these two... not scary at all!

more later...

p.s. I am packing and getting ready to move, so look for pics and updates on that ordeal coming soon. :-)

Images from my weekend...

2008-10-29T20:14:00.004-05:00

Fishing...seriously...

2008-10-17T20:03:00.003-05:00

Okay, I admit it... I have always said I hated fishing. Boring. Smelly. Involving bugs. What's to like? Well...apparently it's all about perspective :-)

See the pond ... this is where I spent last Sunday ... fishing. Yep. On a boat, even. Go ahead...take a moment and absorb that...or just laugh like hell.

Anyway... now that you thought you were done laughing...

Check out the smart ass ... most people grab the biggest fish and say, "Take my picture!" Nope, not this one! He grabs the smallest fish (which, yes, was one of mine) and holds it up, grinning like a goober!

Now, I should mention that I did, in fact, catch some fish. Three as a matter of fact. I bait my own hook ... with crickets or worms or whatever that stinky crap is. I can tie on a hook and set my own bobber. I will not, I repeat, NOT touch the fish. This was a source of endless entertainment; you know for the little-fish-holding goober mentioned earlier. Although not nearly as much entertainment as my very nearly falling in the pond as I tried to get out of the boat. I am so amusing...

Anyway, between me, little fish goober and his aunt & uncle, we ended up with a whole mess of tasty fish...which of course had to be cleaned. Not by me, naturally, cause you know...I don't touch them till they are deep fried and crispy. But they did get cleaned ...while I entertained myself practicing my photography skills...

:-)

more later.....

Some pics...

2008-10-16T12:33:00.003-05:00

here are a few of the pics from the photo shoot i told you about...

Seriously! Two of the cutest little boys ever! And they were so much fun! I finally finished editing today and am very pleased with how they turned out ... I will post a couple more in the next few days. I have decided I really enjoy doing these kind of informal, laid-back shoots - they are so easy and fun and different from the typical drag-the-kids-to-sears-and-pose family pics you see so much. These are fun and reflect the personalities so much better - I think that's why I like doing these types of shoots! Can't wait to do more of these!

more later...

p.s. I will be posting some pics and ramblings about my fishing adventure this past weekend (yes, I said fishing) later ... as soon as I edit the pics!

Dirtbike, boys and a yardsale....

2008-10-07T14:57:00.004-05:00

This is Doug.

Doug rides dirtbikes.

See Doug jump his dirtbike.

See Doug racing his nephew.

See Doug trying to freak out his friend, AJ by riding really close.

See Doug getting even closer - see AJ trying to get away.

See Doug really messing with AJ now. About 3 seconds later, Doug passes AJ and leaves him eating dust...literally.

See Doug's nephew jumping, too.

This is Chris.

Chris likes to ride the 4-wheeler.

Chris like to ride fast enough to make his mother cringe and close her eyes.

Actually, they all did that but hey...they're boys! We had so much fun riding Sunday...well, I use the term "we" really loosely, because in reality the closest I got to riding anything was holding the tie-strap while he loaded and unloaded the bikes. :-) I spent the day standing on top the truck with camera in hand taking 260+ pictures, talking to Doug's daughter and hiking the track trying not to get my ass ran over. Only one wreck - Doug - and it wasn't serious...scared the crap out of me, but at least I didn't flip out like a sissy-girl :-)

more later...

p.s. I did a photo shoot Saturday of a great family with two of the cutest boys ever and I will share some pics of that in a couple days!

p.s.s. Don't forget about the scrapbook yardsale this Saturday (10-11-08) at Estes BBQ in Jackson from 3-5pm. There is a crop afterwards - if you are interested, jump over to the Stamps & Scrapbooks blog and let Rona know!

No big secret...

2008-09-23T12:12:00.002-05:00

Ok, Cynde got everyone all worked up over a "secret" that wasn't a secret :-) I just haven't had time to post about it yet...
Remember this picture: CLICK HERE

Well, this past weekend at the Altenburg/East Perry Fair I won not only a blue ribbon with this picture but I also won the Grand Champion of the entire Photography contest...out of 405 entrants. So I got a big purple ribbon and major bragging rights, oh yeah...and $3 - I was super-excited and totally stunned! So that's it...

Sunday Flickr stuff...

2008-08-31T09:02:00.001-05:00

1. L'età dell' oro (the golden age), 2. Tela de araña en flor - Web spider in flower, 3. Wake up, wake up!, 4. Publicis Brasil - Brascan Teaser - 3, 5. I heard wonders, 6. OREO, 7. Her new Chucks, 8. Untitled, 9. tinted, 10. this is not some random field, 11. on our own, 12. 133: SOTTS will make you jump!, 13. Valparaiso Colors at Daylight... 5th one!, 14. :P, 15. Oh, I like to stand here and watch the birds..., 16. e, 17. Don´t make noise (selfportrait), 18. ready for the party......???, 19. Green on Green, 20. Noche de luna llena - Full moon night

My brother's Kids...

2008-08-30T13:02:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Chris and I went to my Grandma's with my brother and his four kids - yes, my brother has four (4) kids - 3 boys (hehehehehe) and one girl. And I seriously can't stop taking pictures of them! They are four of the freaking cutest kids ever...really. Ever. Take a look...

This is the newest one...Caden. Don't you just wanna kiss those cheeks?

Here he is again in black and white...still too flippin' cute for words.

This is Leeman. He is as mischievous as he is adorable...and I think I love him :-)

Here's little John or Bubbie as he is also known. I'm not sure how a boy can be so pretty, but he really is...even with all that dirt on his face.

Here's Beckah...you may recognize her from dozens of scrapbooks pages...I have two boys, so she is the only girl I get to scrapbook regularly - she is my pink-flower-glitter fix.

Here's John with Bubbie and Leeman - they really like their daddy for some reason...

Maybe because he make them do this...

Here's my Grandma and baby Caden...I can't even begin to describe how much I love this woman...

There you go...told you they were cute didn't I :-)

more later...

please send help...

2008-08-23T17:00:00.003-05:00

Remember when I said I was going to start a marathon cleaning session of my scraproom?

Well, I've changed my mind...
I think I am just going to move and start over.
My mom will probably have a heart attack that I posted actual pictures of the mess that has taken over in there. I literally can't see the top of my desk! The floor isn't too bad - a couple piles - mostly pages that need to be put in albums and some magazines. But man, that desk! Anybody wanna help?
Anybody wanna adopt me so I can move out of here and start over?
anybody?

Crap! I guess I better get busy...

more later...

Check me out...

2008-08-22T20:12:00.005-05:00

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1435312067

I'm on Facebook...LOL! I know, I know...like I needed one more thing to distract me from cleaning, working out, scrapping and all the other stuff I should be doing...but this is fun...or at least I think it would be if I had any friends...sniff, sniff :-(
Check out my new hair on that profile pic...what do you think?
I was going to do My Space, but honestly, I just don't get My Space...and besides I really like the little button thingys you can add on Facebook......

Man, I need to get a life..........

more later...

Quickie...

2008-08-20T19:58:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who commented, called and emailed to see how Chris was doing after his surgery! It means a lot to me and him, too...although you know how boys are...he would never say so :-) He went to school yesterday and was fine - totally loved being able to sit and watch PE...hehehehe! He was mad about being required to take it - thinks it's a silly class. I told him to suck it up and get it out of the way.
Oh well...nothing much else going on here...thankfully! I love it when it's blissfully quiet ... and I am jinxing the hell out of myself so I will stop now...
Planning a marathon cleaning of my scrap room this weekend, so I will keep you all posted on that and if I don't return by Monday or Tuesday...please send someone to my scrapbook room to dig me out from under all the crap that I need to throw away, k?
more later...

Home again, home again...

2008-08-17T07:53:00.002-05:00

Well, Chris got to come home yesterday. The doctor's assistant came in around 8:30am and talk to Chris about what he could and could not do and all that fun stuff. I wasn't even there yet - I had to drop nick off with his dad's "friend" (don't ask!) and no way did I think that they would be ready to release him so early on a Saturday...anyway...he called me and asked when I was coming to get him because he was ready to go. I told him I was on my way, and drove just a little faster :-)
Got to the hospital and he was sitting in bed playing XBox360 (yes, they will bring them to the room for the kids, plus movies and stuff!), dressed and ready to go. He told me that we had to go get his script filled for pain meds and then he said I had to take him to Grandma's for some "real food" (that's my Grandma, his great-grandma) and apparently, I am no longer qualified to cook "real food." I warned him about riding in the car so long and being up and about all day, but he was insistent, and had already called her and asked her to make stew!
Well after, a total of two hours in the car, 30 minutes at WalMart, a huge lunch at Grandma's; the boy was whipped! We came home and he spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the couch or on his bed - he was done!
Meanwhile, I got to mow the flippin' yard and do laundry and bring him stuff, so I was beat by 9pm and crashed as well. Hopefully, he will rest today and not try to do much. He doesn't want to miss much school - he is hoping to only miss Monday - but that will depend on how he does today and tomorrow - we'll see.

Meanwhile, back on the scrapping ranch, I know a lot (ok, 2) of you check this blog out for scrapping stuff, so I have to come clean - I haven't scrapped anything in weeks; weeks I tell ya! I have been busy reading giant vampire romance novels, taking pictures of adorable little girls, babysitting for my new nephew, taking kids to the ER, talking with my friend who has a huge family crisis going on right now, being obsessed with Photoshop and Flickr; trying to keep Nick in daycare until school starts, doing mountains of filthy laundry from a son who has been working on a small farm most of the summer, watching a totally boring season of Big Brother, making a lame-ass attempt to keep my house clean and just generally not really being in the mood to scrap. But I feel that changing; the last few days I have been wandering in and out of my scrap room, looking at stuff and touching paper, and wanting to want to scrap - so hopefully soon I will have paper and glue flying and paint and ink under my nails again. Of course, I will have to spend most of an entire day cleaning said room before I can actually do anything...how can it be a mess if I haven't been scrapping, you ask? Well, see it's like this, I'm a piler and when I pick up something that doesn't have an actual home, I pile it somewhere...and lately that somewhere has been my scrap room since it hasn't been getting used for anything else. So I will have to discard or move the random piles of crap before I can actually scrap anything...anyone want to help? No...I don't blame you...it's pretty scary right now!

Well, Chris will be up soon and will be hungry I'm sure...so I better go see what I can find for breakfast...
more later...

My day off...

2008-08-15T20:44:00.003-05:00

I had vacation days to use before the end of September, so I took off yesterday and today. Weee...four day weekend :-) Except...

Chris woke me up this morning at 10 till 6...yes AM on my day off...writhing and crying in pain. And for a tough-guy 15 year old, crying is a BIG deal! Severe pain in his ...wait for it...right side! Yep...his appendix! Off to the ER we went at 6:30 this morning...
ER doc took two looks at him, admitted him to the hospital and scheduled surgery.
He went into surgery at 1pm and was back to his room by 3:30pm. Everything went perfect...Doc did the surgery laproscopically (I know thats spelled wrong and I am too freakin tired to look it up...). He said the nothing had ruptured and he should go home tomorrow (Saturday) and he will probably only miss a day or two of school...yes, the FIRST day or two. Poor kid!
He was zonked when I left the hospital and the nurse said he would probably sleep all night, so I came home with Nick. Headed back in the morning to bring the poor guy home for some serious couch time :-)
He will probably be pissed when he sees the lovely pic I posted of him - it's from my cell phone (I didn't think he would appreciate me dragging the big ol' Nikon in with me :-)
anyway...off to bed for me know...I will post an update tomorrow when we get home from the hospital...
more later...

Reading again...

2008-08-11T19:43:00.003-05:00

Remember this when I said I read…a lot? Well, I was in a non-reading phase for a while…couldn’t find anything I wanted to read. However week before last, I heard about a series of books that really caught my attention…oddly enough, it was the hub-bub of the last book coming out that made me want to read them. For some reason, I tend to jump on the bandwagon of these things right at the end…guess it’s the oblivious blond part of my nature…hehehe! I did the same thing with Harry Potter – started reading them two days before the final book came out & then ended up reading all 7 books in 10 days. Anyway, the series is the “Twilight” series written by Stephanie Meyer and yes, I am aware that these books were written for teenagers…don’t care. A good book is a good book is a good book. And I have to say; this series is absolutely one of the best sets of books I have ever read. Period. Hands down. Teeny-bopper series or not – simply awesome. The writing style is fabulous – the author has a great voice and the story…well, let’s just say I am a sucker for a good vampire/human love story (i.e. my Buffy/Angel obsession). But this story is incredible, really. I started the four-book series on Thursday evening and finished it early Monday morning – yep, 2560 pages in about 4 days. Yikes! Does that mean I need to get a life in a serious way? Ack…sidetracked again…I highly recommend this book series to anyone who loves a good romance – don’t let the teen thing or the vampire thing put you off; this is seriously a great read. I was sad to finish it…

In other news…school starts next week. Yesssss! That means I am done paying for daycare for another summer! This is a very good thing! Chris won’t admit to being ready to go back, but I really think he is. I know Nick is…he talks about it a lot. He really likes school.

Oh yeah, and I watched my youngest nephew Friday night and Saturday day…whew! I had totally forgotten how much work little babies are! He is not quite three months old yet, and man! That kid can cry and eat! Wow! It’s been 7 ½ years since I’ve had to do the baby-thing on a daily basis and I can honestly say, I’ll not be having any more kids. God may have other plans in mind for me and if he does, that’s fine. But as far as I’m concerned, I won’t be starting over now. I really like the fact that mine are old enough to not require 24/7 attention and that they can fix a sandwich for themselves if they are hungry…and that they don’t need my involvement to go to the bathroom. Now don’t get me wrong…I absolutely adore my nephew (well, all three of them actually as well as my niece), but I love being the “Aunt” and being able to kiss him goodbye and send him home with his mommy and daddy.

Ok, enough for now…More later.

some pics and an update!

2008-08-05T19:44:00.003-05:00

remember the photo shoot i told you about? well here's some of the pics from that - these girls are so totally adorable! i could have followed them around taking their pictures all day...so cute!

see what i mean! just beautiful!

really enjoy doing this kind of pics - so relaxed, informal and fun!

update on Chris and the Lyme disease - Dr. says tests say no Lyme, but wants him to finish meds because Lyme often shows false negatives when caught early. plus the meds are making the funky circle rash thingy go away, so that's good.

boys head back to school in a little over a week...please pray for another great teacher for Nick this year! the teacher we had last year was amazing! she really understood him and his quirks and issues. she helped him make great strides towards control and recognizing when he needed to leave a situation. hopefully, we will get another good one! chris will be a freakin' sophomore this year, can you believe that!? totally freaks me out...is he really old enough to be a sophomore? am i really old enough to have a sophomore son? yikes!

ok, well that's enough for now...k?
more later!

drive by...

2008-07-29T21:06:00.002-05:00

quick update to let all 3 of my readers know i'm not dead...super busy right now....
i had a super-fun photo shoot this past saturday with a beautiful family, so i have been crazed trying to get their photos proofed...along with trying to get ready for a yardsale this weekend at my house (email me if you want to know more details about that, as i will have scrapping stuff for sale!) and to make matters worse, they put this new web blocker-filter thingy on our internet at work, so i can't upload pics and post from there anymore...i tell ya, it's like they want us to actually work or something? go figure...
and then we found out this evening that chris may have lyme's disease! ack! anyone know anything about this...if so, email me! doctor said he's pretty sure that's what it is, but did blood work up to be sure. went ahead and started him on meds anyway and will get the blood work back in a few days. seriously, anything else?
well, that's enough whining for now... :-)
i'll be back soon with pics from the photo shoot i mentioned earlier (anyone need pics taken, let me know...i'm for hire...cheap...no weddings)
can't think of anything else right now...
more later...
nikki

Lost in Flickr again...

2008-07-25T08:52:00.001-05:00

Oklahoma Photos I loved today, originally uploaded by RaceyGracie1.

Last night I spent about 2 hours clicking around Flickr again...man, I love that place! So many incredible, awesome photos - just pure inspiration! I love to type in a word to search for and just see what come up. Last night I typed in "Oklahoma" - why? Who the heck knows - it's just what popped into my head, and I have this strange fascination with Oklahoma. Anyway, diversions into my warped mind are not what you want to hear...

I found all these amazing pictures! I just keep looking at them...yes, I know...I need to get a life.
Anyway...enjoy!

I Love Summer....

2008-07-23T17:12:00.003-05:00

Seriously...what is not to love about all this yummy goodness?

We got tomatoes of all shapes & sizes...not to mention colors...

we got cucumbers...crunchy and just plain yum...

we got sweet corn...need I say more?

We got zucchini...which must be fried now...right now.

And then we have these lovelies...

this is what I had for supper last night and I could have died happy.
I seriously love summer.

LOOK! I scrapped!

2008-07-16T09:40:00.002-05:00

I told you all the other day that I acually scrapped something, and see...I did! I had some pictures from the last retreat we had at the store and I made a little mini-book using them! How fun?!
The book is made from 7 Gypsies journaling tags. I also used HS chipboard letters & journaling sopts, a bunch of 7 Gypsies label stickers, some rub-ons from Fontwerks, some bling and a bunch of Prima tape...oh yeah, and a bunch of buttons! Super fun; super easy! Went together really fast and now I have little book to remember all scrappy buddies :-)

Sorry for the crappy pics, but I did it in hurry last night - I had to get the pics done before Big Brother came on last night..yes, it's that time again! Hooray!
Thanks for checking out my mini-book and let me know if you have any questions about it!
More later...

Daytrippin'

2008-07-15T08:02:00.005-05:00

Don't you just love daytrips? You get away from the house for the day. They don't involve a lot of planning or packing (which I hate!). They are usually inexpensive. And the kids think it's a big deal! Yep, love daytrips.
This past Saturday, my brother, his girlfriend and I loaded up my niece and my 2 boys and headed west to Elephant Rocks and Johnson Shut-ins. So much fun! Elephant Rocks was very cool...I hadn't been there in many, many years and no, the rocks havn't changed :-)
Here's Nick and Beckah when we first got there - what the heck is up with Nick's pose? He does this now whenever I point the camera at him... weird.

Here's Chris...I have no idea what the heck he was doing...rock surfing?

Of course, the cheesy..."Look, Mom! I'm holding up this 500 ton rock with one hand!" photo. Gotta love these :-) Doesn't that rock look like the head of a turtle?

For some reason I found this interesting. Keith obviously loves Valerie very much to stand in the middle of a state park and carve this into a post...fine for vandelism be damned!

This is a very cool old building that is not finished or maybe it is, I don't know. I just thought it was neat looking. The sign said it was and engine house where they used to repair train engines back in the late 1800's when there was still an active quarry here.

Look, more big pink rocks :-)

And another one of those cheesy shots...except this rock looks like an elephant's butt...hehehehe!

It really is very pretty up here, and the weather was just warm enough that we were all ready to head for Johnson Shut-ins after lunch!

There were names carved in the rocks everywhere - apparently from the quarry workers many, many years ago. I was fascinated by them - they made wonder about who these men were, how they ened up in a granite quarry in the middle of absolutely no where, what there stories were...interesting...

More big pink rocks...

Here's the old quarry...just gorgeous standing up here looking down...the sign said the water here is over 40 feet deep...cool, eh?

We went Johnspn Shut-ins after we left Elephant Rock, and because of the impending thunderstorm and the abundance of water at the shut-ins, I did not get my camera our while we were there. But it was a good time, loved the water and climbing the rocks. So much fun - I recommend taking the drive sometime this summer, totally worth it.

And speaking of thunderstorms...

Here's the one we followed home...

Thankfully, we stayed far enough behind this that we didn't have to drive in it. Scary cool, huh?

More later...

Can you believe it?!?!

2008-07-14T09:59:00.003-05:00

Ok, I've always said that I would never go digital with my scrapping...but....since I've been playing with photoshop so much lately, I decided to give it a shot. Yep, you read that right...I made a digital layout:

Now before you get all excited and tizzied - I made this using idiot-proof step-by-step instructions from a kit I downloaded from here: Layout kit

I think I might do this again at some point, but I definitely don't see digital replacing my regular scrapping. I love my glue and paint and ink and paper way too much. I love the touchy-feely aspect of regular scrapping, but I can see incorporating some digital techniques into my normal stuff. This was a fun and interesting diversion, and it made me realize that the scrappers who do all digital stuff are waaayyyy smarter than I am, cause this was a simple page and it had me frazzled a couple of times. there is do much detail and so many steps involved in doing something like this. I could have duplicated the same look with real paper in about a third of the time this took. So kudos to all you digital girls; you have my admiration and respect!

Anyway...just something I thought I'd share... pics from this weekend and an actual scrapping project coming in the next couple days...shocking I know! I scrapped! :-)

More later...

Lazy Sunday & Flickr

2008-07-06T17:46:00.002-05:00

Have you ever gotten lost in Flickr? For about three hours? No? Just me then huh? Ah well...so many amazing pictures to be found there! Here's a mosaic of just a few of the wonderful pics I found there this afternoon while I was NOT folding laundry, walking on the treadmill or mowing the yard...

1. the tree, 2. Untitled, 3. Fields of Gold, 4. Untitled, 5. Dainty Daisy, 6. 11, 7. now even newer zealand, 8. In Search Of..., 9. boots & spurs, 10. Cowboys, 11. no bomb can daunt me!!, 12. Flowers & The Tree 花與樹, 13. No Catcher in the Rye, 14. Cherry on the RailRoad, 15. Cow Country #2, 16. Ya gotta love this kid!, 17. Untitled, 18. Alchemy in BW, 19. Kentucky bluegrass?, 20. Untitled, 21. IMG_0988_HDR, 22. kandiliniz mübarek olsun..dua ile, 23. Summer came like cinnamon.., 24. Cow, 25. Untitled

Oh, and Photoshop + Pioneer Woman actions = real problem :-)
Here's another one from the 4th that I just couldn't leave alone...
This is the original...

And here's what I did to it...

PW's quick edge burn action.
I am printing a bunch of these now, so when I finally do scrap again, I will be set for pictures...I will scrap again, too - if I ever leave Flickr and Photoshop :-)
More later...
Nikki

Happy 4th of July....

2008-07-05T15:41:00.009-05:00

yesterday :-)
I was just too busy to post yesterday...ok, I wasn't really, but it sounded good! The only thing I had to do yesterday was spend 2 hours cutting up fruit for fresh fruit salad and then take it to the annual 4th of July dinner/camp-out that we go to. Oh yeah, and eat. A lot. And take pictures like this...

It just made me really happy for some reason.

I did manage to take some pics at the camp ground:

Little Miss H. (They are not my kids, so I'm not using their names) There is just something about beautiful little girls with filthy, dirty faces that I love! Miss H. is a friends little girl and she managed to keep us entertained all day! Well, her and this guy... T-man

Between the two of them, we were cracking up all the live-long day.

Then there was this beauty, Miss S. Simply beautiful...even with the temp-tattoo on her forehead!

Miss H. again ...can you tell I really like these kids?

Check this out...we had a chimney log going in the fire pit...very cool!

So cool, in fact, the cows came to check it out :-)

I forgot my tri-pod, so my fireworks pictures...well, they just suck. But I kind of liked this one for some reason.

Here's Nick (pretending) snoozing in a lawn chair. He asked if it was time to do fireworks so many times that I was ready to rip my ears off by the time it got dark...ack!
Now these next two pics are my absolute favorites from yesterday (besides the grapes..hehehe) but I can't decide which I like better... the one with color

or the one without...

what do you think? Let me know...
and please don't count my kid's ribs - I promise I do feed him...really I do...

More later..

p.s. I used Photoshop Actions from Pioneer Woman on most of these photos.

I Read.

2008-07-01T10:51:00.008-05:00

I read a lot. Scary a lot. But not all the time; I go through phases - sometimes I have three books going at once and will finish anywhere from three to five books a week. then I will slow down for awhile or just get distracted with other stuff and it will take me a month to finish a book. I actually read ALL seven Harry Potter books in 10 days, but I have been reading "The Bell Jar" for about two months. It just depends on what I am reading and what else I have going on. And for the record, "The Bell Jar" is facsinating, but also a little scary - not Stephen King scary; real life scary - so I can only read a little at a time. The Harry Potter books were fluff compared to it!

Anyway...I am working on this right now:

This book will floor you. It is powerful and stunning. It will make you cry. I haven't read a book of hers yet that didn't make me cry, but hey...her books rock!

And just so you don't think I only read deep, thought provoking intellectual books (go ahead, laugh out loud!!!!) here's the book I just finished:

Basically, I'll read darn near anything that's not nailed down, but my favorites are books that make me think and definitely books

that let me escape...wink, wink...

p.s Blogger is pissing me off with this stupid formatting crap...

Some wedding pics...sorta

2008-06-29T21:10:00.004-05:00

Ok, so a few weeks ago Cynde's daughter got married and for some reason she invited all of her crazy scrappin' friends - I'm still not sure why :-) Trust me you'll understand my confusion when you see these pics...

She reserved a table for us waaaaayyyy in the back of the hall...right in front of the beer wagon...hmmmm...does she want us to get drunk or does she not want anyone to see us there...or does she not want anyone to see us drunk? It's all very confusing. Plus, we were right on the edge of the dance floor. Hello! Crazy friends + free beer + dance floor = very funny pics!

DISCLAIMER: I don't feel at all guilty about posting these pictures... I feel very certain that Penne, Cynde and Jodi have numerous and equally embarassing pictures of me that will soon be gracing their respective blogs...so

"I was looking back to see if you were looking back to see if I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me..."

I have no idea...but it was very, very funny!!!!!!!!

She's got her groove on.........

Extremly funny flowers...trust me, you don't want to know!

ummmm...what the heck?

Yep, a good time was had by all and we've got the pics to prove it!

More later...

p.s. Since I forgot to post the lightening pics that Chris took the other night, here's a link to the Flikr album where you can see them if you want: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8441491@N06/

Somewhere over the rainbow....

2008-06-27T08:32:00.003-05:00

Has some fun thunderstorms yesterday evening and early night - and, yes, I said fun. Me, the biggest storm-chicken-shit on the planet actually likes some storms. The ones that are pretty much all show - you know, lots of lightening and thunder but very little actual substance :-) Yeah, yeah, yeah...
Anyway, Chris and I stood outside watching the storm roll in and after it moved off to the south we were treated to the sight above! I was thrilled/shocked/amazed to have actually captured the rainbow AND the lightening! So freakin' awesome! (click the pic to see a bigger version)

Chris went back out after it got totally dark to try for some lightening pictures himself - 'cause, you know if I got one then he has to get one :-) You what...the little twerp got some really great shots! I will post some of his lightening pictures later today for your viewing pleasure and amazement.

Don't forget about the crop tomorrow - email me if you need more info!

More later...

2008-06-25T08:44:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, while wading through some old pics on my computer, I came across these pictures of a very special mini-book I made a while back. I realized I had never shared this book on here before, so I decided to put it up now. I really love this book – is that weird? Eh well…the idea for this book actually woke me up one night and I had to get up and write the idea down so I wouldn’t forget. I wanted a way to tell the stories about difficult or painful times in my life without dwelling on the negative - choosing instead to focus on the positive or the lessons learned. I wrote the journaling as if I was someone else talking about me…does that even make sense?Anyway, I typed the journaling out for each set of pages, since it is hand-written and may be hard to read – the journaling for each picture is on the back of the page.

Picture #2
Inside front cover and page 1 (front & back).
Page 1 front reads: “This girl thought she’d always be Daddy’s little girl.”
Page 1 back reads: She was the center of his world – car rides, special gifts, daddy games. He adored her – she loved him. Then when she was 4 ½ everything changed. He changed. He decided he didn’t want to be a daddy anymore. He left. For years she held onto the hope that he would come back – be her dad again. Over the years, he drifted in and out of her life – until she was 16 and she told him not to come back until he wanted to be her dad. She realized she was okay without him.

Picture #3
Front & back of page 2
Front reads: This girl thought having a new dad would be great.Back reads: She wanted to have a daddy again. Her mom re-married when she was about 7 years old & she thought, cool! New dad plus, bonus – another brother and a sister. How fun! How wrong. He wasn’t fun. He was mean. She watched him hit her mom. She refused to cry when he hit her. She learned about true strength when she watched her mom walk away – even though she was terrified he would follow. Years later, when her mom found husband #4, she learned what it meant to truly have a dad.

Picture #4
Front and back of page 3
Front reads: This girl thought her mom had it easy.Back reads: Her mom got to stay up late. She got to watch TV whenever she wanted. She got to go places and buy stuff. This girl thought it wasn’t fair. She was so very wrong. Her mom had very little time to herself. Her mom had very little money. Her mom worked two and sometimes three jobs just to pay the bills. Her mom did without things she needed so her kids could have the things they needed and wanted. Her mom spent many sleepless nights wondering where the money was going to come from. Her mom worked as a welder, a vending truck driver, a factory line worker – she did sewing and crafts – whatever it took. She sacrificed time with her kids, time for a social life, time for her self – just to make it through. This girl didn’t realize how hard her mom had it – how hard she worked – until she became a mom herself. Then she understood – then she appreciated.

Picture #5
Front and back of page 4
Front reads: This girl thought they would be friends forever.Back reads: They met in forth grade and by fifth grade they were inseparable – two peas in a pod. Partners-in-crime. They liked boys together, got in trouble together, cried together, laughed together. They were best friends. All through Jr. High and High school – hours on the phone, learning to drive, falling in ( & out) of love. After high school, they went to different colleges & the separation began – slowly at first, gaining speed. After her friend divorced this girl’s cousin and remarried, their lived were in different places. They had drifted apart and lived miles from each other. And even though their kids would know each other as cousins do – she missed her friend terribly, she wished her the best in life. She learned to hold tight to the memories because sometimes friends don’t stay friends.

Picture #6
Front and back of page 5
Front reads: This girl thought there would always be time for us.
Back reads: They started dating in eighth grade – she was kind of scared; he was kind of loud. But they clicked. They fell hard. He loved her & she loved him. They talked for hours. They fought like lovers. They broke up. They got back together. They always got back together. They just couldn’t stay apart. Until the day he took his own life. She was lost & blamed herself. Finally she forgave him…and herself. She could move on and always remember.

Picture #7
Front and back of page 6
Front reads: This girl thought he would wait while she chased her dreams.
Back reads: She met him at the end of her junior year and by the start of her senior year, she was a goner. For the second time in her life, she was in love. He was older than her and made her feel special. By the end of her senior year, they were engaged. He was ready to settle down – she was ready to chase her dreams. There was no happy medium. She left; he moved on. Years later she still wonders, “what if…”

Picture #8
Front and back of page 7
Front reads: This girl thought she didn’t want kids.Back reads: She was in college – on her own (more or less). She was chasing her dreams. She was loving her life. She had plans – and she thought kids weren’t in them. She was wrong. She was 19 when she got pregnant. She was scared. She wasn’t sure she could handle it. She discovered that the thing she never thought she wanted was what she needed – and wanted – more than anything…kids.

Picture # 9
Front and back of page 8 and the inside of the back cover.
Front reads: This girl thought he was the one.
Back reads: She was looking for love – she thought she found it. She should have known when he wouldn’t commit. She should have known when he wanted to live together rather than marry. She should have known when he was mean to her son. She should have known when he cheated and lied. She loved him but she didn’t trust him. After almost seven years together, she knew. She left. She took the best things with her – her two boys – that’s all she needed.
Back cover reads: This girl thought she would be okay and that life was good…she was right.

If you made it all the way through all of that, thanks for letting me share :-)

More later...

Holy rotating wall cloud, Batman!

2008-06-24T07:56:00.003-05:00

Ok, I got this email , you know - a forward, of a forward, of a forward - that showed this picture with some lame-ass story about this being the tornado that tragically ripped through the boy scout camp earlier this month, killing four of the young men. I doubted that completely, as the camp was in a remote area and this is obviously not a remote area...anyway, off-topic... So I hopped on over to Snopes , my favorite-ist site ever to debunk these fruity emails, to get the scoop on this picture. (p.s. I check Snopes on a lot of emails, so if you send me an email and I send you back a link to Snopes - please, don't take it personally - I am just doing my tiny little part to stop the spread of crappy junk email.)
Turns out, it is a real photo! Not the one that is referenced in the email, obviously, but a real picture. It was taken in the northeastern Iowa town of Orachard. (link to the Snopes article HERE) According to Snopes, meteorologists reviewed this picture and said that it wasn't an actual tornado - it is a mesocyclone with a wall cloud. Huh? Hmmmm....
I'm thinking to myself several things at this point:

1. If that's not a "real" tornado, then what the heck does a real one look like and do I really want to know the answer to that question...

2. What kind of zoom lense was this woman using to get that close-up and where do I get one?

3. Why the heck was this woman standing there snapping pictures and not running like a mad-woman for the nearest basement?

Seriously, folks, I would have been a screamin-bawling-thumb sucking-pants peeing baby had I looked out my window and seen this not-a-real-tornado winking at me - thinking of grabbing my camera and snapping a few pics would never have crossed my mind. Not once...nope...never...
Ok, maybe once, but I still would have been peeing my pants...
Hee hee hee....
More later...

p.s. Cynde just sent me this in a email, too flippin' funny! You must click this link and watch this...it is everything I say to myself everytime I get one of those emails... http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf
Seriously...watch this!

Fire Tower and Wildflowers

2008-06-22T19:57:00.007-05:00

It was a gorgeous Sunday here - perfect weather! We went to church this morning; kind of sad as it was Pastor's last service. He was called to another place, so we are losing him. I know he has to do what God calls him to do, but it still makes us sad to see him go.

Jeff came to get Nick after church, so Chris and I decided to go to Grandma's - one of our very favorite Sunday pastimes! He has always wanted to stop at this old firetower that is on the way to her house. Since we didn't have Nick with us, we decided today would be a good day. Memories came flooding over me as we pulled into the little gravel parking area - coming here with friends and boy friends in high school - well let's just leave it at that :-)

Anyway...we climbed to the top and I took these pictures....

I love standing at the top of this tower - feeling like I can see forever & feeling so very small in the grand scheme of things - puts stuff in perspective, you know? ...and makes you queasy if you look straight down :-)

So after a detour here, we went on to Grandma's house for lunch and a visit. Chris decided he wanted to fish, so he took off down the road to the pond in the neighbor's field. Grandma and I chatted about flowers and scrapbooking and the new baby one of my cousins had yesterday. After about an hour, Chris came back with these:

He wasn't having any luck with the fish, so he decided to pick his mom some beautiful wildflowers! Aren't they gorgeous! Give me a bunch of these over a $50 vase of roses any day! We decided to take a walk and pick some more for Grandma to have on her dining room table.

This field was absolutely filled with little white flowers! And the bees! You could hear them standing out by the road - just this roaring sound - so cool!

We tried to dig up some of the super-cool orange flowers, but ended up breaking the shovel, so we just picked a bunch of them and went on. Here's a bunch more of the flowers we saw and of course, picked...

Chris went way out into the field to get a bunch of red flowers we saw - he was knee-deep in poison ivy at the time, so that should be fun. Poor kid gets it just walking past the stuff. He was straight in the shower when we got home, so maybe it won't be bad. If you have any great tips for poison ivy relief, send them my way! Gotta say....it was a good day today.

More later...

There's one in every family...

2008-06-19T19:07:00.004-05:00

For as long as I can remember, I've been the unofficial photographer for my family. I'm the annoying one walking around sticking the camera in your face - click, click, click. You know what I mean, you have one in your family, too. Of course, I'm also the one they call when they are looking for pictures, so it's all good. It's not uncommon for me to take a couple hundred pictures at any given family event. Of course, I'll delete a third or more of them because they are crap, but that's still a lot of pictures. Most members of my family really don't mind all the picture-snapping going on. However, there are a few who hide their faces when they see me coming. It doesn't bother me - I just wait till they're not looking and snap away.
And then there is my cousin, Bryon.
He doesn't like it when I take his picture.
Every time we are at a family function, I end up with at least one of these pictures. Him smiling and flippin' me the bird. Without fail - I have about a dozen decent shots just like this. It's become a game of sorts - see how many shots I can get BEFORE I get the "bird" shot. Everyone has little family traditions that need to be remembered...this is just one of mine :-)

More later...

Did you ever just.....

2008-06-18T10:38:00.002-05:00

wanna kick somebody in their stupid head? Good, I'm not the only one! Man, people piss me off sometimes! There is one part of my job that I am totally dependant on someone else to be able to do. I must get a tiny little piece of info from this person in order to do what I am supposed to do. And if I don't do my thing with this piece of info, then well...let's just say it's bad - real bad. And yet somehow, this person manages to NOT do their job AND get pissed at me for not doing mine! How the hell am I supposed to do my part when they don't do theirs? If I drop the ball...fine get pissed at me; yell, scream, kick, throw things - whatever. I have no problem fessing up when it's my fault. But damnit! Don't slack on YOUR job and then call blaming me that it didn't get done! Jeez! And what really burns my butt is that this is not the first time this has happened...or even the second. No, this happens at least once or twice a month. Frankly, I'm tired of getting yelled at for crap I didn't do. Now I have spent half the morning trying to fix the mess created by their lack of doing-their-damn-job crap and have gotten nothing done that I needed to. So very frustrating!

Ok...now on a less bitchy note :-)
Chris came to work with today - he says because he wanted to help me here and not be sitting at home bored all day. However, being the supah-smart mom that I am - I know that it was really because he didn't want to clean his room and he wants to go eat Mexican food for lunch. Can't slip nothing past me :-) Hehehehehe!
More later...

Small Town Girls CROP!!!

2008-06-17T09:39:00.001-05:00

Small Town Girls Crop
Your Small Town Girls have decided to host a crop!!! This will be a simple get-together-and-crop-for-fun kind of thing! This is gonna replace the Classes we were going to do. Time and life got in the way, but don't fret, we are cooking up something great for fall when all the craziness of summer is over!

So......
No classes, no make & takes, no frills - just hanging out, cropping, eating and talking.

We have a small hall reservered for us on Saturday, June 28th all day - starting at 10am and lasting until the last scrapper falls :-)

The hall is located on Highway 61 about 3 miles north of Fruitland - a big Red Barn (don't worry - it's been remodeled!) on the right side of the highway.

The cost per peson will depend on how many show up - the building is $40 per day and we are just going to ask for a small donation to cover that cost.

Food and drinks will be pot-luck and bring your own. Bring snacks and stuff to share and your own drinks (or drinks to share...LOL!).

That's it! Nothing fancy...cheap and fun...We just want to get a bunch of us together to crop and hang out!

Please email me or Cynde to let us know your coming or if you need more directions.
Thanks a bunch and we hope to see you there!

Nikki email: scraphappy33@gmail.com
Cynde email: cyndesharok@hotmail.com

Just some stuff....

2008-06-16T20:48:00.004-05:00

I had a nice looooong weekend....hehehehe! I was off Wed, Thurs & Friday to go with my weekend, so going back to work today...well, it just sucked. Not because I don't like my job...no, just because I had to be at "work" - oh well...whatcha gonna do? Anyway...

Here's one of the pages I did this weekend...

This is Nick.
Nick gets mad.
Really mad.
Not just a little mad.
Really, really mad.
Sometimes,
He's just mad for show -
You know trying to get his way.
But sometimes....
Well, sometimes it's not for show.
Sometimes, he's pissed as hell and
He's not shy about it.
This was not one of those times.
He was mad trying to get his way about something.
Why he was mad?
No idea.
Is it wrong that I was taking his picture?

I also did some pages in my Art Journal - but I'm not sharing those :-)

Scrap Happy

It's that time of year....

Be afraid.....

Looking For....

Sunday Flickr

Peanut

Sunday Flickr

These....

January in Pictures

O.M.Gosh!! Finally!

What I'm working on...

Sunday Flickr

SSC Holiday Blog Hop

Holiday Blog Hop

Some pages......

THANKS!!

SSC Haunted Hallow Hop

Fun stuff coming up...

Just some stuff....

Some pages......

Here it is!

Finally! Page for August crop

Can. Not. Wait.

there's more...

I Dare You.

Oh my!

National Scrapbook Day 2010 Pics

National Scrapbook Day 2010

Easter Pics

I want one.

This Dog.

Quickie page....badddd picture

Another page...

Some pages......

Sunday Flickr

I *heart* Ippity Stamps!!!

March Crop - Ippty Do Da Day!!

Scrappin' fool...

Real life

What was I thinking?

6 Grandkids

Family Tradition

Ippity Stamps!!!

Thanksgiving Pics

Did you miss me :)

Can't say you weren't warned.......

I admit it...

Scrappin' Fool :)

My 16 year old…..

Dirt bike riders...

He plays ball....

Got 6 minutes to kill...

A post and some pics...

Time-Lapse Across China

A layout...

Sunday Flickr

boys, bikes, sunshine and jumping

Sunday Flickr

Sunday Flickr

absolutely nothing....

Busy weekend...wicked tired...

Good Grief!

Sunday Flikr

6578 ......

Sunday Flickr 2-22-09

Finally...

Images from my weekend...

Fishing...seriously...

Some pics...

Dirtbike, boys and a yardsale....

No big secret...

Sunday Flickr stuff...

My brother's Kids...

please send help...

Check me out...

Quickie...

Home again, home again...

My day off...

Reading again...

some pics and an update!

I heart Ippity Stamps!!!