October. . . .

Just had my birthday! A really nice one. Went to dinner with the kids and Tim at the Pizza Madness and of course they made a big ole deal of it . . . but it was fun. We had our first snow that stuck a couple of days ago. I am so not ready. Today was a reallly cold day, but I got these awesome shots of the sunset. Love the mountains.

Catching Up !

To catch up . . . . Paige cut her hair . . I mean like super short, like say Pixie short. Good thing she is dang cute. It’s going to be awhile before she is wearing any pigtails. I went to Indiana in August for a visit. Most of the visit was good. I got to see family and friends. LOVE my bro . . . he is so cool. Chae got engaged to Josh. They are planning to be married next October. . . official date (so far) is Oct 16, 2010. Can you believe my oldest is getting married? Can I get another OMG? Josh is great, Tim & I both love him to death, so this is really good news!! The Indiana trip ended badly . . my folks started their BS with me and then Dad and Tim got into it pretty badly the day we left, which was the day Chae got engaged. I was very sad about the whole thing and it took me nearly 2 weeks to recover, but recently have been thinking about calling mom and talking to her. I miss my family, but they can be difficult! On the home front, I am working at the church as the secretary. I am loving it. We are working on lots of good stuff to organize the church. This is SOOO me! Life is good! Or as Tim would like to quote his current favorite song “ God is great, beer is good and people are crazy” ! Amen!

June, Already?

Wow how time flies. I just finished working at Pizza Madness for 3 weeks while one of the girls took a vacation. I was so exhausted from being on my feet and walking non stop for hours, that I came home and pooped out, so it feels like forever since I posted a blog. We had some excitement last night when Paige cut her face right above her lip and we took her down to Pueblo to get some stitches (3 to be exact). It was a small cut, but we wanted to minimize the scarring, so it was probably worth it. She was such a trooper. . . didn't even cry once. Not even when they gave her the numbing shots, which burn like crazy. Her eyes watered up, but that was it. She has the biggest fat lip I have ever seen. I mean, that thing is HUGE. She cut it by playing with those metal horses on a play ground that sit on those metal coils and you can rock on them. She got the thing going too much and it mashed her in the mouth! She lived and we are on to another day . . . .

Busy, busy, busy

I love this time of year, the fresh green trees and plants, everything feels so new! But it is also a very busy time of year. School is getting out; lots of field trips and ceremonies at the school, making plans for summer, planting in my garden, and I am filling in at the restaurant for a vacationing waitress. Not to mention I got a new job as secretary at our church. So many new things! All good and great, but wow am I busy. I actually like being busy, as long as I am not overwhelmed. The kids and hubby are gone this weekend and I plan to have some much needed down time, starting with a nice, long, hot bubble bath - right now!!

Cutting my hair

I finally got tired of the frumpy hair I was trying to grow out. Funny I always think I want it longer, but I hate it when it starts getting long. I just went 6 months with no cuts and wearing it up all the time, but today I cut it off, again. I really like it. It pretty much looks like the picture on my profile again, whichI think is cute and a little sassy. Reminds me of . . . Me! I love a good hair cut. Sort hair, for me, is so much easier than longer hair. Probably because my hair gets too heavy and looks "limp" to me when it is longer. Anyway . . . I am happy with it and Tim likes short hair. I know, most guys don't . . . but it's not those guys I would like to please :)

Mother's Day Card

I finished these up a couple of days ago, but I just kept running out of time to take a picture. I made one for my mom and for my mother-in-law. They are now in the mail and I hope (cross my fingers) that they will arrive in time.

Animals, Animals, Everywhere

We went down the hill to Colorado Springs today and on the way home we saw big horn sheep and a family of foxes. The baby foxes were so cute. I got a few pictures, but they don't quite do them justice. The foxes are in a den across the field from our house! The kids were pretty excited to see them.

Time flies

This week has been a whirlwind, so much going on with field trips and fun events at the school (and everyone anxiously awaiting the final day of school later this month). I finished the 36 handmade invitations, with matching envelopes for the preschool graduation. See the attached pictures. The tag with the date, time, place info slips neatly in the pocket on the front of the card. It turned out pretty cool.

The sun has been out, so I’ve been sneaking in yard work & long walks whenever I can. More seeds have been planted and my flower bed is coming along. I sketched out the “master plan” for the landscaping that never seems to end. The master plan helps me focus on a little bit each year, eventually it all comes together. I am hosting another crop at the church this Saturday and I need to finish up some projects for my attendees to enjoy. . . but the sun is out and I want to play in the dirt mmm what to do, what to do?

Bathroom - After

We painted the entire room and added Wainscoting to one wall and added the border on top (our fist time with wallpaper. Tim found some great (Cheap) creels that go with the theme. I've been looking for some but couldn't find them for less that $30.00. he found these on clearance for $7.50 each. What a bargain shopper. Anyway I really love the way the room turned out. Much more home-y now, fits our "cabin" theme for our mountain home. Maybe we can tackle our bedroom next . . . :)

Bathroon - Before

I mentioned that we have been working on re-decorating the bathroom... this is what we started with. (I don't know why the pictures are so yellow-y). Pretty plain jane standard issue with a new house. . . . off white everything.

Sunny days are here again

Today is so sunny and beautiful. Most of the snow has melted, leaving behind mud . . . but the sky is so blue and clear with the contrasting mountains with their snow caps . . . I am a lucky gal to live here. I took a nice long walk today . . . and Loved it! Planned more of our flower gardens and sat out in the sun while Paige played. What a great day . . . I also finished two loads of launday . . . hardly even felt like work.

Monday . . .

Our weekends seem so busy and full that I look forward to Mondays. Everything gets so crazy and we all get a little lazy on the weekend, so Monday is always a good day to put things back in order. (Ideally, this would happen EVERY Monday, but unfortunately I live in the real world) Today was a good "get back in order" day. I feel balanced now. . . . at least until tomorrow :)

Ever go through you closets?

I just did! Wow, I've been meaning to do this for awhile and just never could get started. I knew it would be a big ole project, and I was right. I had suits in there from when I worked in an office. I sure don't need those anymore. I have 4 huge bags of clothes that I know I haven't worn in over 2 years. . . . Off to the Goodwill they go . . . and WOW I have some space in that closet now. Anyway I've been working on this all day and now I am just starting to put the closet back together, but that might have to wait until after dinner.

Snow in the Mountains

It's, snowing, it's snowing . . the old man is plowing . .. ha, ha. We are suppose to get 2 feet or more today. Tim HAD to go to the Springs (an hour and a half away) for meetings. The way it is coming down, I hope he can make it home. We just lost power! Fabulous. I better get off here and see if i remember anything about using a generator.

Think Spring

TodayPaige and I planted seeds for flowers that Mom sent last year. We are suppose to get a BIG snow, so hopefully that will help push the seeds down and we will get some plants. I guess we will see. I haven't had much luck growing things here in the mountains, we have such a short growing season .. . . but I keep trying. I hope to see pretty little buds coming up soon . . . of course the deer will probably eat them, but oh well. It is fun trying and Paige loves playing in the dirt. (so do I)

Invitation Design Done

I finished up two designs for the preschool graduation invitations. I can't really decide which one I like the best. Of course I had to use school colors, which are always so great - ha! But I am leaning a little towards the 2nd one, however Nicole and Tim feel the 1st one is better. what to do , what to do ?

Catching up

Paige is up really early today (3:30 am). She does not want to go back to sleep so we are trying to watch a quite movie to help. I thought I would work on some scrapbook pages . . . I have a couple of old ones I just haven't been able to finish up. I thought I finished this one from Feb of 2008 . . . . Still not completely happy with it, but it will have to do, perfection is something I am learning to leave behind . . . . man I am sleepy . . . . I hear a nap calling my name tomorrow.

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was amazing. We attended the Good Friday service at church, watched Nicole play soccer, enjoyed a great fellowship breakfast Sunday morning at Church, the Easter service was beautiful and we witnessed 6 baptisms of some of our church family afterwards and then spend the afternoon/evening with great friends with great food. So beautiful, so amazing, so great to hear and share the story of Jesus' resurrection with our kids. Paige (4) asked so many questions and is so curious to learn the story of Jesus. We probably went over it with her 10 times. I love her age . . . eager to learn and curious of everything. The weekend left us all feeling grateful for our Lord and Savior and grateful that he has blessed us so richly; with friends, family, our mountain town, and church family.

Today I am working on preschool graduation invitations. The director there liked the birthday invitations I made for Paige and asked if I would consider making some for the graduation. So off to play . . . and hopefully come up with a nice design.

Cleaning

Today I spent cleaning the house. I know I am a bit nuts, but I actually like cleaning. I try to clean a room or two every day and tidy up as the week goes along, but we have been a bit busy in the last couple weeks, so I have only been able to tidy up. It felt nice to deep clean and now the house is sparkling again. Yey! Tim is great, he always noticies when the house has been clean and lets me know he noticed. Being appreciated is an added bonus. Of course all this cleaning means I didn't get to scrapbook or make any cards. But there is always tomorrow:) We hope to get the wallpaper borer up in the bathroom this weekend, but with Easter that is not likely. I just can't wait to post pictures of the transformation.

Preparing for Easter

I have been working on these Easter baskets for the kids. I finally finished one up. I used a template for a 6 x 6 sheet of cardstock, but I needed a little bigger basket, so I used 12 x 12 paper. I think they turned out pretty nice. I hope they like them.

A Busy Week

Living in a small rural town is mostly good, but finding crafters to hang out with has been a bit of a challenge. So I finally did something about it and hosted a crop at our church. I had blast and met some really neat ladies that I hope to spend more time with. I think half the fun of papercrafting is knowing and sharing with other papercrafters. I am always inspired after looking through other people's galleries or scrapbooks.

On another note we have been painting and redecorating a bathroom and are nearly finished. I hope to post some before and after pictures real soon.

My first blog

Wow! I can't wait i waited so long to do this. I thought it would be more difficult, but it was quite easy. I saw so many of the Splitcoast Stampers with their own blogs, I had to go out and get my own. How fun. I guess I'll be spening the rest of my evening learning all about this new way to spend my time. ha ha! Later.