I haven't scrapped much in the past couple months, I just don't have the motivation to do much in the creative way. But, here are a couple things that I have managed to squeak out. The card was for a little boy that is suffering from a life threatening illness and this sweet little boy only wanted to receive Christmas cards, well how can you turn that down? So, I sent it on it's way a few weeks ago and only hope that it brightened his day a little bit. I also managed to finish a scrapbook page, this is of my daughter and her friend getting manicures and drinking chocolate from Starbucks....two of lifes greatest pleasures!!

Franken--skulls

So,here's my attempt at holiday cards for Halloween, and my attempt at making some kind of new decoration for the home. I got the Frank idea from here.

The fact that he was so easy to make was, in fact, the reason he got finished in the first place. I have a hunchback guy that stands about 3' tall that I have all painted, but haven't put him together yet..........he's been done for over 8 years. Wow, that's just sad. There is alot to be said for fast and easy!!

I guess I'll shoot off these cards to my nieces and nephews and hope that they get them before Saturday!! That will actually make me feel pretty dang good, instead of my usual, making cards and hording them for no apparent reason......off to find postage!!

There just are no words!!

This................is what happens when you turn 63!!! Happy Birthday dad!! LOVE your goofy self!

My wonderfully goofy daughter!!!

I just love this girl....she has such a fun way about her. She can be a total goof and doesn't care. She has started making home videos of herself, singing at the top of her lungs and dancing along with the music, it doesn't matter if she's totally off key, this girl just wants to have fun!!!

Love this

http://deseretbook.com/video/embed/343

Stagnant...........

that's been me......for way too long now. I've just been on cruise control with really no direction, no motivation, no challenges. Well, I'm done for now, I've had enough and it's time to wake up and get movin. I'm gonna set some goals and organize my life and keep on top of things so that it's not so overwhelming. My friend and I are going to start scrapbooking with challenges, sketches, etc, so that should help the scrappy mojo get it's motor goin.

Also, I'm going to be getting back to the gym...actually that has been one thing that I've been good and consistent with over the past 19 weeks....I did take one whole week off to veg, but am now back to it, and it feels really good.

I really want to get back into some decorative painting, using my scroll saw and gettin busy on some fun projects. So, I've got a game plan and am ready to go!!

Something that helped get me out of this slump is that I won $50 worth of stamps from Unity Stamp Co!!! How freakin cool is that????? I can't wait to get them and get busy makin some fun projects. I will be better at takin pics and posting them!! That's the goal anyway!

Some more photo fun

Man, I'm having so much fun with these frames, and special effects using photoshop. Look how cool these are..........yes I'm way excited and I didn't get a little carried away with the stamping on the collage,but I think it's a pretty cool little tool. Fun stuff, if you haven't played with PS then I highly suggest you do. Now I just have to go back to the beginning and learn the basics!! :)

Woo hoo.........I love it when I finally "get" something. lol. I've been wanting to learn Photoshop for really long time, actually I still don't know it, but I'm taking a class on frames, masks etc from Jessica Sprague and I'm loving it!! I do need to go back and take it from the beginning, but learning all these cool, fun ways to edit pictures is amazing and makes me really want to learn all I can about photoshop. Here are a few pictures that I've played around with.
It's so much fun and I can't wait to see what other awesome things I can learn to do with photos!!

WA State

If any of you have never been to WA and get the chance....TAKE IT!!! I flew up for the weekend to visit my girl Erin last month and am so glad I did. I've been to WA before and have seen the tulip and daffodil fields, which are absolutely amazing, I've seen VanCover which is breathtaking, and this last visit I got to get out on the ocean and see Jones Island and Roche Harbor. AWESOME!! It is so green....it's completely foreign to this desert rat. I truely felt like I was in a completely different world. Plus, when we out on the boat, I was freezing. I'm all bundled up, shivering, teeth chattering away and the people we were out with were in shorts and tank tops..lol. Yeah, I felt like a dork! Oh well, it doesn't take much for me to be cold, I'm used to walking outside in the summer and having the hot air pretty much bake me from the inside out...yep, it's that hot.

Just so you all get a hint of how gorgeous it is up in WA..here are a few pics!

I had such a great time and look forward to my next visit!! :) Thanks E!!

Graduation!

It's really hard for me to believe that my son has graduated. I mean, where did all the years go? One day he's this little blue eyed boy with the mullet and long ringlets, and the next, he's turned into a young man, with a chiseled jaw and muscles. Man, I was so not ready for this. The graduation though was really good and the after grad party was great. He had a good time and that's all that matters. Now, here are a few pics of my handsome young man!!!

sketch #18

not quite finished with this one, but I'm not going to worry about taking another pic...

Just a Quickie!!

Quickie update......

Had a great mothers day, my son came for the weekend from Vegas. We went to see Wolverine, (not much better than seeing Hugh running around buck nekkid!!) I participated in a 5k walk, met some fantastic and inspiring people that are part of Transformation.com, and had a great dinner with my parents.

On May 12th, my baby boy turned 18~ :(
I can't believe he's old enough now to vote.
We are preparing for his graduation on the 8th of June, and are gearing up for the summer. Ash usually spends a few weeks in Vegas with her dad, and I'm left to my own devices... ;) While it does get lonely, I do enjoy the time, I just need to make sure I do something productive and not waste it......hmmmm, maybe some painting is in order.

Oh, and my 20 year class reunion is coming up................that coupled with an 18 year old, sure does make it hard to not feel like my life is half over.......well, I guess if I live to be 76, then it is half over. ;)

I'm going down to Cali.....

Well, we are actually back from Cali and have been for a few weeks, but I'm just now getting around to posting pics!! I was really lookin forward to this trip because I haven't had a real vacation with my kids since their dad and I divorced 7 years ago. The interesting part about this was that their dad, (my ex) invited me to go with them. I thought, eh what the hey. We get along better now than we ever have and it would be nice for us all to go on a fun vacation together as a family. SO we did!!! And, get this...........we had fun!!! My ex and I were even talking about how nice it was that we could get along well enough to do this, and it was the second vacation we had ever taken where we didn't fight!! Awesome!! So we loaded up and headed out from Vegas. Our destination Knotts Berry Farm, Downtown Disney, and the beach!

We went to Crescent Bay which is in Laguna, I love that place.........it is so very cool. The shopping is fantastic and the shops are fun. We went to the Candy Baron, check that out!! Rows of barrels filled with candy..........all kinds of salt water taffy, hard candy, licorice, candy from when I was a kid.....it's really cool and brought back some fun memories. Remember the wax bottles that were filled with colored liquid that you could just chew for......well not for very long before ya spit it out, but that's not the point! They had snaps, razzles, foot high pez dispensers, you name it, they had it. It seriously is a super cool place. We ended up spending about $35....just on candy. HOLY COW!!

Ashlie, always ready for pictures, me and my kids, me and Jordan, dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.
Me and Ash at Knotts, and Logan, Ashlie's pride and joy!

We had such a good time, ate good food, laughed so hard we cried, and just enjoyed spending time together.. I hope that this is something we will be able to continue doing, as it is a blessing to spend time with my children and for them to spend fun times with both their parents!

On a quest

to become a coupon queen. Well, maybe trying to be a queen of coupons is a little too far reaching....maybe a princess? Or a lady in waiting...yeah that's probably more like it. I've tried the coupon thing before and I've had limited success, however, I really want to change that. I'm very impressed with people that can cut their grocery bills by more than half, or especially with the ones that can walk out of Walgreens or CVS and actually paid pennies out of pocket. So, im heading into research mode and scouring different websites for the easiest way to figure this game out. There's all kinds of information out there, lots of websites that offer free samples and coupons, different techniques on how to organize coupons, which stores to shop....all in all there is just a lot of information out there that can be a little overwhelming. So, I'm just going to take some time reading up on info and then start a game plan. I found this cool site Couponing 101 which has a TON of really good information, plus kind of breaks down the good deals, free deals and other great savings on the site. Check it out, and if anyone out there has any other great tips, hints, or websites..please feel free to share!!

52 sketches #11 & 13

Just a quick post with a couple LO's.... I have pictures from our vacation to CA & Lake Havasu a couple weeks ago that I'll post....um, sometime in the next decade!! :)~

UGH!

So Im sitting here watching the Bachelor..........what crap!! and thought I would just post a few LO's based on sketches from 52 sketches 52 weeks.......

This pic of my son was taken 16 years ago and is my all time favorite pic of him. Crazy how in May this kid will turn 18!!!

Okay, so back to the Bachelor, who in their right mind would go on a show like that to find true love? Helllooooo..........no way in hell would I want to try to get to know a man let alone date one while 24 other women were all vying (sp?)for his attention. How can you get to know someone on the level to propose when the situation isn't even reality? UGH, that's all I have to say!!

So, this sweet sweet girl is such a blessing to me. Ever since her dad and I divorced almost 7 years ago, it's been mostly just her and I. Jordan did live with us on and off for a couple years and we loved it when he was with us, but in the end, he decided to finish out school in Vegas.

So, it's just been us girls for the most part. She is sweet and a little sassy at times, she's a total goof and is really lovable. She loves to cuddle which is good for me, because I'm not a huggy touchy person, so it helps me get more comfortable with cuddling. ........ She plays violin, LOVES soccer and the color green. She collects My Little Pet Shop pets, and Webkinz...I won't even go into how many she has. She could open her own store!! This picture is a couple years old, so at present time come next Friday she will officially be a teenager. AHHHHH!! She hasn't gotten too outta control though and I'm hoping we can keep it to a dull roar. I'm not so good with lots of tears and raging mood swings.....anyway, just wanted to do a little tribute to my awesome kids, just very blessed to be their mother!

Love these kids!!

I do have to say that this is one of my more favorite pics of Jordan, my all time favorite one is him when he was about 14 months. I just finished a LO of that picture and will post it soon. He's grown into such a great young man. He's kind and respectful, he's polite and well behaved, he is really really good with little kids, and hasn't given his parents too much trouble. Really as parents (even divorced parents) we couldn't ask for better kids. We've really been blessed. I don't say this just because I think so....I had one of the coaches from his baketball team come ask me if I was Jordan's mom and he just wanted to tell me that my son was a very good kid and that he was pretty impressed with him. Mike has had several people who know Jordan from school tell him the same kinds of things....it's just a good feeling to know that other people think highly of your child. Jordan is pretty quiet, loves music, loves video games, and loves to just hang with the family. I'm going on vacation with my ex and our kids next month........I know kinda weird...but we've actually gotten to the point where we get along and can be friends, and I haven't been on any kind of vacation with the kids for years......so I am really looking forward to it.

I hate workin out..........

but, I definitely feel so much better when I'm done. I have a membership to Gold's but am shamed to say it's been weeks since I've been. Part of the reason is that it's so dang crowded after work, and I havent' been able to drag myself outta bed before dark thirty a.m. in .......well like forever......so I kinda quit going. I have however, been working out at home. I have a good selection of workout dvd's so I feel that I have a variety and can taylor it to my time schedule. I've actually been going home sometimes at lunch to get a quick 20 minute workout in.........I know, I was wondering if I could even get my heartrate up in 20 minutes, but..............I've been doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred........and it rocks!!! I've only done level 1 so far, but have been doing it pretty consistent, I can tell I'm getting stronger and can do more pushups, situps, and my endurance has increased!! Yay, and all in 20 little minutes!!! I also rotate it with the Firm, and Turbo Jam..both of which I love too!!

So...........as much as I hate the workin out while I'm in the middle of it, I sure do LOVE it when I'm done!! Now, if I could just learn to control my eating.......I might just have a chance at losing some weight.......UGH!!

sketch 3,4 & 5

Here are my takes on the last 3 sketches over at 52 sketches 52 weeks. I still have to do #6 which needs to be done by Sunday......I'm always pushing it till the last minute! Ok,so I can't find my LO for sketch #5...I think that's because I probably accidentally deleted it out of my picture files, cuz I don't know what I'm doing and my files are a mess. Not much of a surprise there......

So, I'm really excited because I just ordered a Cricut Expression..and I'm hoping that I'm not so technologically challenged and intimidated by the thing so that I will actually use it! I also ordered some stamps from Unity Stamp Co. and am excited about getting those little goodies too!

Ok, so I gotta get started on my next LO.............later!

Senior Night!!

I keep getting reminded every now and then that my son is a senior (yes, I'm in denial). I don't want to think about my sweet baby boy officially turning into an adult in May and graduating in June, and entering the big bad world. I want to stop time and keep him right where he is forever, nice and safe, not a child anymore, but not yet an adult. (Sigh) I know, I know.......time moves forward, children grow up, and I just have to accept that fact. I don't want to, but I know that it's gonna happen regardless if I want it to or not.



So.....that takes me to Senior Night. My parents, Ash and I drove to Vegas Thursday night for the Wildcats last home game. All the seniors (cheerleaders and basketball players) were walked out on the court by their parents or a family member. The moms were given roses and the team members received a huge framed team picture signed by the members and coaches. Then since there were only 5 seniors, all 5 got to start the game!!! That was pretty stinkin cool. Jordan plays, but hasn't started and it was super cool to hear his name announced in the starting line up!!! The student council made huge signs with all the players names on them..here's Jordan's. His really was the best and biggest..I think the girl who made it kinda likes him. ;) In my opinion, she's got excellent taste!!!

Tag, now your it!!!

I've been tagged by Lindsay over at 52 sketches, now I have to turn around and tag a few people. I'm kind of a computer dork and hope I get this right. The directions are as follows: go to your picture file, open the sixth folder and post the sixth picture and describe it's story.

This picture is my sister and her beautiful family. They live clear on the other side of the state, up in a little piece of paradise called Eden, Ut. I just spent a couple days with her this week when she came down for an appt. We don't get to spend a lot of time together, but we do talk often. She is my only sibling and we are closer now than ever. Love ya sis!!!

Now I'm gonna tag

Stephanie

Twila

Krista

Now you must go and tag 6 other people. I only did 3 cuz I'm at work...shhhhh, don't tell!!