Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and the coming new year is filled with glad tidings. Christmas day here was laid way back this year. It was our first Christmas without all the children home as Amanda is in Great Falls with Greg's family. Hopefully next year they will be here for the baby's first Christmas. We ate turkey dinner, opened gifts and just hung out as a family today. It is still really cold and snowy outside.

Merry Christmas everyone.

GRRRRRR...................

I am tired of getting sick just when I am suppose to have time off. The week before Thanksgiving I came down with a heck of sinus infection and spent the entire holiday and days off from school sleeping and coughing. Well low and behold we get out of school for 2 full weeks on Friday and I have come down with another sinus infection. I am so plugged and coughing again. I am so sick of being sick.


Christmas is next week and I could care less. I really need to find some mojo to get my shopping down. My tree is looking pretty bare right now because I just haven't gotten much stuff. I really need to figure out some shopping time. Maybe on Saturday, I will head to Dickenson for the day to do some shopping.

Craftshow

Jill and I worked hard at the craft show this past weekend. It was a great succeess and worth all the effort. Here are some pictures from the show.
This is our booth and you can see a varity of the items we had.

Co-Ed 2008

Tonight was Jerad's co-ed. His date was Naccona Frame. Here are a couple pictures from the evening!

Okay I didn't drop off the face of the earth!

Update on some things: Amanda is suppose to be having a boy, but at her last two doctors appointments the dr. said that based on the low heartbeat he would think it was a girl if the ultrasound didn't show it was a boy. So we wait and see what she has. I am not counting either way until I see parts for myself!

Megan is busy at college with school work and tennis practice. I can't wait to go watch her play tennis in the spring. Hopefully tomorrow we get to drive up for the day to hang out and spend some time with her. She came home last weekend and we got to hang out with her.

Jerad just finished up his football season. His season was pretty low but hopefully it will be better next year. They ended the season at 1 win, 8 loses.

My job is going great. I am loving it, keeps me really busy. Jill and I are busy getting ready for the craft show in a couple weeks. Hopefully we sell a lot of stuff and don't have a bunch of stuff left over. I will post some pictures before the show. We are both busy finishing up stuff these last couple weekends.

It's going to be a boy!!

Amanda had her ultrasound today and she is going to be having a baby boy! I will have a grandson!! The name they have picked out is Brayden Michael. I can't wait till February!!

Back from Butte

Well I spent a week in Butte where I was doing training for my new job with AltaCare. It seems like it will be a great company to work for. I am excited to get into the schools tomorrow and start working with the kids. I have a meeting right away in the morning to transfer some cases over to me from the middle school program. Than I will be busy setting up the therapy rooms and making phone calls to set up parent meetings. I am excited and nervous at the same time. This is probably the most challenging thing, I have ever done in my life. I am excited about working with the kids, hoping that my therapy with each of them makes a difference in their lives. I am nervous about all the paperwork and work that I need to do.

When I was in Butte it actually was snowing there! I am so not ready for winter yet. It is hard enough to believe it is already the end of August and school has started. Jerad has his first football game this coming Friday in Livingston. He is pretty excited about football and sports this year. Having that year off with his broken humerous was pretty hard on him. It really made him appreciate things he couldn't do during that time much more.

So next weekend, we take Megan to Billings for college. She is all packed and ready to go. She is pretty excited about it. I will post more about it next week after we get back from dropping her off next week.

Deep in Digi class layouts

I am taking an advanced digital scrapbook class online. These are two of the layouts I made during that class!!

So do you have olympic fever? I am loving watching the olympics. The swimming has been awesome.

So I only have 2 more days before my job ends and I am busy getting ready for my new job. I have been spending the last couple weeks getting ready with lesson plans and stuff to be ready for the kids. Next week I am off to Butte for training all week.

:( Laptop

Well my laptop has died. I took it into the computer shop and they said I might as well just buy a new one because it would cost more to repair than the cost of a new one. I am so bummed out because I use my lap top all the time. I love sitting and working on my digital layouts with it. I am lost with out it and probably will be picking up a new one next week. I don't know if I can make it without my laptop. I figured I would be using it all the time in my new job so I have my case files with me and I don't have to run back and forth between the two schools and can work on my files at home.

We got home from Billings earlier today. Just great to go up and spend the night taking in the fair there. We got up this morning to go to the farmers market. It was great. I got to eat a crepe. Hummmmm heaven. We did a little shopping and headed home.

The end of summer

Wow it is hard to believe that I only have about a week and half before I start my new job. I am getting really excited about it. I did go to the schools this week to check out my "room". The one is going to be a big storage/old classroom in the basement. It will take some work to get it feeling bright and cherry to work with it. I am excited to see what I can do to turn it around and make it a fun place for the kids to hang out. The other school the room is really more like a closet that we will be in. It will have a table and chairs, but no real room for floor space to play or anything. I am going to have to be creative in figuring out what to do with the kids there because the space will be really tight.

I am looking forward to building the program and really hoping that it makes a difference in the lives of these young children. I am glad to see that some of my parents are pretty excited about the program and the good it can bring to their family.

This week I am done working, have to burn up some more of my vacation hours. We are off to Billings to the Fair! The kids have concert tickets to Puddle of Mud and while they are doing that, Sam and I will be sitting in the beer booth having some fun listening to the Bad Larry's. I can't wait to walk around the fair and just enjoy some time together as a family. The older the kids get the harder it gets to have that fun family time together. Hard to believe that Megan leaves for college in just over 3 weeks.

Anyway even though it is only Wednesday, it is going to be a great weekend. Well I am off to get some stuff done around the house and have some play time.

It's Here!!

My New Kitchen Aid

I a so excited my new kitchen aid mixer is here. Amazon was having a one day sale last week and so I treated myself for my birthday and anniversay with this baby. I have wanted one my whole life. I have longed and dreamed about the day I would own one. Well today is that day and I sit here at work. It is all unpacked and sitting on my table just waiting for me to come home and play with it this afternoon. Oh man I can't wait.

I have been on a mission this year to really work on doing the majority of my cooking at home and from scratch. It has been going really great. I have taken to making bread at home now. Each weekend I make 2 loafs of bread. Since I work full-time during the week I do a lot of planning and even some mean prep on the weekend. If I can get somethings prepared and put in the fridge or freezer to pull out and throw in the over later in the week.

I really have enjoyed trying new recipes and getting creative with my menus. We are all eating healthier now that we aren't just opening boxes of hamburger helper. I can't say I notice a difference in my food bill because we just buy different foods. No more prepared food but more fruits, veggies and meats. I can say I have noticed a big drop in our costs for eating out. We just don't do it very often any more. We tend to enjoy grilling and cooking at home. I have taken up canning again and have been freezing and canning beets, and making jams.

I do have to say my favorite thing now that I am in the kitchen is having Sam there helping me cook. It is great when the two of us are working side by side preparing and cooking meals. So enjoyable!!

Madison

This was a great 2 page layout I made with some pictures of Madison taken when i was in Wisconsin.

Cayden

When I was in Green Bay a couple weeks ago, I got to hang out with my nephew's kids on the 4th of July. Debbie and I took them to the park for the afternoon. We had so much fun playing and taking pictures of them. This is just a fun layout I finished up tonight. I was taking Jessica Sprague's Now We Are Rockin' class. Of course I got behind and am just playing catch up but that layout was perfect for the pictures of Cayden.

Summer is flying buy

Seriously where has the summer gone. I can't believe we are already into the end of July. Last week was party week at our house. I had my birthday on the 19th (ewwww 41) but the day was great. I got some stuff done around the house and than hubby took me over to Dickinson to eat dinner, do a little shopping and go watch the races at Southwest Speedway. It was a lot of fun and just a great evening.

Than on the 22nd we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe we have been married 19 years already. Next year for our 20th we are going to take a trip together. We aren't sure where yet but we are kind of in the middle of starting a new chapter in our lives and it is just great getting to spend time together. For all of our marriage we have always had kids running around and traveling with us. Now we are about to be grandparents in February, our middle daughter will be leaving town in just a couple weeks to move off to college. Our youngest will be a junior in high school this year and really doesn't like to travel or do things with us. It is great just getting to hang out with Sam in the evenings when the kids are working. We usually eat dinner together and just visit and catch up on our days.

I already know I am going to enjoy this new chapter in my life. I love spending time with Sam and just enjoying the relaxed lifestyle of not having to run around after young children, being able to just head out of town together for an evening or weekend. I have to say through all the difficult years with little kids, jobs and everything else in a new marriage, I never imagined it would be this great after being married so long. I am loving it.

I am back!!

I drove out to Wisconsin and have been spending time with my family for the last week and half. It was a great visit and I really needed the time with them. My dad had his surgery to remove his last leg. I didn't think I would get to see him before the surgery because it was scheduled for Wednesday, July 2nd but than it was postponed because his blood sugars were up over 550. So I drove out there and got there with several days to spend with my dad before he had his surgery. He was in the hospital while they worked to get his sugars down and under control but it was still great to get to visit with him before the surgery.

He had his surgery on Sunday, July 6th at 8:00 am. The surgery went really well. I am not sure if he realized what life would be like with no legs. I know he was just glad to have it gone so that the throbbing pain he was experiencing would stop. He seemed to be a little depressed after the surgery but was recovering pretty well. He ended up getting moved down to the rehab area so he could begin working to build his arm muscles up and progress in learning to care for himself and hopefully reach his goal of going home. On Wednesday evening he ended up having another stroke and being moved back to the hospital. He is still currently in the hospital and is slowly recovering. Hopefully in a couple more days he will be moved back to the rehab part of the hospital where he can work on learning his skills.

The ultimate goal is to have him able to take care of himself and able to go home by himself in a couple of months. His doctor thinks he will be able to have prosthetics for both legs and walk without having to be in a wheel chair. We ended up moving him out of his trailer because he would not be able to get into the bedroom or bathroom with a chair at all. So if he didn't have his legs on all the time he wouldn't be able to use the restroom. We discussed it with him and decided it would be best to look for an apartment once he is ready to come home.

While I was in Wisconsin it was great to spend time with my aunts and uncles, my sister and brother and my dad. I even got to meet my nephews 3 children and hang out with my niece.

Birthday Boy

Hard to believe my little boy is 16 year old now. Wow it seems like just yesterday we were having little kids running around our house. Now I have a 21 year old, 18 year old and now my baby is 16. I just don't feel old enough to have kids that age. Jerad's birthday was a great relaxing Sunday. I made a bunch of cupcakes and decorated them for him instead of a cake. We seem to eat cupcakes up, but cakes tend to sit and go to waste. We went out shopping and got Jerad a new CD and he got to spend some money at Kmart. Than his dad made him his favorite dinner of baby back ribs that had marinated in bbq sauce all day and than cooked really slow on the grill for several hours. Oh they were melt in your mouth good. It was great to sit and have a family dinner today.

Amanda had her first ultrasound today. Her due date is set for Febraury 11, 2009. Almost 8 weeks along already.

I am heading off to my dad's house on Wednesday, they have moved his surgery up to Wednesday. I won't get to spend a couple days with him now before he has surgery, but I will be there to visit with him and hang out with my sister cleaning and organizing his house for him.

The good thing is that strawberries are ready for picking and door county cherries might be ready by the time I am ready to come home. Oh yummy, I am hoping to bring home several gallons of cherries and strawberries to make some jam and jelly. Oh and I can't forget to bring home some cheese curds for the family. My kids can't wait and even my neighbor loves them. He is in his 80's and use to work in WI back in the 50's. He loves it when I bring home goodies!

:( day

Well my dad still has his one leg, but only for about another week. He will be going in for surgery to remove the leg below the knee on July 6 or 7, it will depend on when they can schedule the surgery. He was going to have it removed last time he was in the hospital last week, but they ended up hearing a faint pulse right before they were going to do the operation. Of course my dad is such a smooth talker, he talked them into waiting to see if opening the vein even a little bit would save the leg. They now know that it wasn't enough to save the leg, but my dad now is to the point he knows they tried everything. He is resigned to the fact that he will be in a wheelchair now. I worry about depression after the surgery. He now talks like he will only be in the hospital a week, than in a rehab facility for a couple weeks than going home. This is so not realistic because my dad has steps to get into his house. He will have to learn to do everything without legs. I am just not sure he will even have the upper body strength to lift himself like he will need to.

I know I am probably on the opposite end of things that my dad, but I don't see him going home after the surgery. He has let himself become pretty lazy about his daily care and thus I think after this it will even become worse. Right now I am trying to figure out when the best time will be to go out and spend some time with him. I am not sure if I want to do it after the surgery or go before and than be there while he is in the hospital. I just don't know. I do know that if there is a chance he will go home we will need to do a lot of work in his house to get it organized so he will be able to get around in a wheelchair. I guess I will have to make a decision this week when I will be going out to Wisconsin.

Diabetes Stinks

My dad has had type 2 diabeties since he was about 38 years old. He is now 70. He had his first leg amputated about 4 years ago after he dropped a log on his foot and it didn't heal and ended up gettin infected. Now his other leg is in really rough shape and isn't getting enough blood supply to keep it alive. This last Friday they did surgery to try and open some of the arteries in his leg. On Saturday, they were set to amputate the leg just below the knee. They ended up getting a pulse so one of the veins had been opened a little bit. The doctor decided to give it another week to see if that was enough to keep his foot alive enough to save it. This coming Monday the doctor will make the decision on if to amputate or not. Either way this is devastating for dad. He could manage with one leg, but now with loosing the other one it is just the end in his mind.

My sister and I struggle with what to do with him. With both legs gone he will be confined to a wheelchair. This will mean his home is no longer accessible for him. It was hard enough getting around in it with one leg and a cane, but having no legs and a wheelchair will just not work where he lives now. More than likely he will be going to a nursing home after the surgery at least temporary. It will depend on his will to rehabilitate and get on with his life. If he wants to be more functional in getting around it will be up to him to learn that process and move forward, or to give into the depression. We will just have to wait and see what he will decide to do for himself.

Hey Grandma!

Okay I am not exactly ready to be a grandma, but I don't really get to pick the time I become one now do I? Well last night Amanda and Greg came over to the house to let us know they are having a baby! I don't feel old enough to have a grandbaby running around the house yet, but than my husband reminded me that when I was her age, I was married and pregnant with my second child. They are so excited. I am sure I will have ultrasound pictures soon! In just 7 short months I will be taking tons of pictures of baby toes and a my first grandchild. While I wish she would have waited a couple more years to enjoy each other a little longer, she has always wanted to be a mother. She will be a great mother I am sure.

On another note, it is suppose to finally warm up this weekend and be fairly nice. I got my rasberry plants and rhubarb in the ground the other day so hopefully they will start growing. I am hoping to get some windows cleaned and painted this weekend so I can get some layouts put in them for the craft show. I really need to spend some time in my scrapbook room this weekend getting some stuff done.

Rain Rain

Go away. I am a little tired of all the rain. It seems to rain everyday here. I thougth we were suppose to be in a drought? I am sure come July I will be wishing for the rain, but right now enough already. It has been so cold and chilly most of the time, that my garden I planted back in April is still trying to breakground. I thought all my seeds were rotten, but it is slowly coming up! This weekend my rasberry plants will be here. I can't wait to get them planted and growing. Hopefully they will come back again next year.

Driver's education.... my youngest is in driver's ed. He got his permit last week on Friday and has been driving us crazy with wanting to go out driving around. He is still a little scary, but he is getting better. We have been having him learn to drive the stick shift pickup. He has been doing pretty good with it. He is saving up for a new vehicle, but hopefully we can talk him into waiting a couple years till he gets ready to head off to college to get it.

Yesterday, Megan and I finished up her application, dorm application and all her paperwork for college at MSU-Billings. It is really hitting me that she will be leaving in just 2 short months. I am so proud of her for taking such a big step and heading off to college. It is such a big step. I am realizing how un-prepared she is (or at least I think she is) because she has never driven in a bigger city at all. We might have to take a road trip this summer so she can get a little practice.

I posted another layout that I have been working on tonight. I am really loving the digi scrapbooking, but I tend to be running out of photos now that I can get several digital layouts done every night.

Megan

I love this fun picture of my daughter and her friend Shain. They always have so much fun together. Sharing the love!! Of course I had to turn it into a layout to add to her album for her.

Megan has finally made up her mind to attend college in Billings. She will be playing tennis for MSU-Billings yellowjackets. That is the same college I received my BA degree from. I am so proud of her for making a decision to leave home and branch out on her own. Off into the big world. I am really nervous for her going off to college in the big city by herself, but I know she will do fine. It has really hit me that in just a couple months I will only have 1 of my 3 children living at home with us.

This summer she is working for the city, teaching tennis lessons and also working in the evenings at Frosty's (drive in dinner). She is saving money big time. I have to start saving to get her that laptop she will need for college.

Spring Cleaning Bug

Well last night it hit me. I usually get the bug about the middle of March but this year with the cold rainy weather it has been delayed. I finally decided to dig out my capri's and start wearing them even though it is still pretty chilly here. But that led to the closet cleaning bug.

I ended up taking all the clothes out of my closet (well half the closet). Some of them I hadn't worn in ages and were covered in dust. I washed, folded and sorted. I got rid of a lot of clothes that I hadn't worn in awhile. I filled up 3 full bags that I will donate this week. It took me about 5 hours to get that half of the closest emptied and restocked with the clean clothes that I know I will wear. I even talked hubby into making me a hanging bar so I can hang all my work shirts up on it. Now that I have a job where I will be wearing dress clothes, I figured I better have a place where I can hang them up and keep them neat and ready to wear to work.

I have half a clean closet now. I will work on the other half tonight hopefully and get it all done. I am amazed at how old some of the clothes are that I have, time for them to go and new ones to take their place. It always feels so good to have stuff cleaned and organized. In my house, I need to do a lot more of it. With three children (well 2 still at home) it seems like for years we were just looking for places to store stuff, never organizing it.

My next project will be to clean off the freezer in the laundry room. The top of that thing seems to be the place that anything that doesn't have an assigned place goes. It is piled so high of stuff that hasn't been used for years. Time to organize and declutter the house. I love the feeling I get when I get a project done.

Happy Saturday!

WOW!! It is hard to believe that we are at the end of May. The weather is getting nice. We planted a new apple and cherry tree today. I saw my first snake yesterday. I am so terrified of snakes that now I can't even go down below the house without looking for them all the time.

I got my new job the other day. I actually found out about it a couple weeks ago when they called, but had to wait till the offer was signed and returned to make sure. I am always so nervous about jinking it if I put it out there too soon.

Graduation & State Qualifier

Well Megan graduated from high school yesterday. It is so hard for me to believe that I have 2 children that have graduated already. Heck my oldest one will be turning 21 in just a few short weeks. Megan's graduation was great. Govenor Switzer spoke and it did a great job. He spoke about the best generation and the opportunity they have to be the greatest generation ever in defining the course this country takes in regards to technology and oil/gas exploration and dependence.

She looked great in her new dress, even though you couldn't see it under her graduation gown. But don't tell her that, she needed a new dress for the occasion. Last night they had the senior all nighter and she won an IPOD shuffle. She had a great time and came home very tired out this morning.

Tonight she has tennis practice than tomorrow they are off on the bus for POLSON. She took 2nd place in the Eastern "a" divisional tennis tournament and the top 4 players go on to State. She is so excited. She is coaching tennis lessons this summer and than will be starting college in the fall.

Sam and I will be leaving for Polson tomorrow. It is about a 10 hour drive and we are going to do it all in one day. So I will update next week with some pictures. I will try to get a graduation picture posted today.

Wow is it May Already

So it is May already. We had snow just the other night and several inches of much needed rain. It has been busy around here getting ready for graduation. Hard to believe Megan will be graduating from High school in just another 2 weeks. She has been traveling so much for tennis. When Amanda graduated, we did the party and everything. Megan's graduation is going to much more laid back. She will be gone to the divisional tennis tournament for 4 days before graduation and will get home late the night before graduation. I am hoping to be up there to watch her at divisionals so won't have time to clean the house for a party or anything. So we aren't going to do anything for her as far as having a party. Right after graduation they are so excited and busy running with their friends and the last thing Megan wants is to have to be home for a party. The senior all nighter party is that night after graduation. We are really hoping that Megan will make it to State Tennis meet this year again and than we will be leaving the day after graduation for Polson Montana. It is clear over on the other side of the state, about 10 hours drive away.

I am looking forward to warm weather this week. It is suppose to be in the 60's this week. I am hoping my rasberry plants come this week that I ordered several weeks ago. I want to get them in the ground and see if I can get them growing.

It was a party!!

We had Sam's birthday earlier this month. It fell on Sunday, which is usually my cooking day. I have really gotten into cooking from scratch and trying new receipies. I love trying different things and experiementing with new foods. Up until a couple months ago I had never made homemade cream cheese frosting or fresh whipped cream. I am enjoying making bread each weekend. I ordered 2 1-1/2 pound loaf pans. I can't wait to make bread this weekend and bake it in my new pans. The bread is great because I make it myself and than slice it up for the week ahead.

Happy Tuesday

Just when I thought spring was in the air last week, the weather changes and we are back in the teens at night and 30's and 40's during the day. Snow is in the air and winte is back. Megas has a tennis meet here this weekend and I am hoping the weather is much improved by Friday. I will settle for weather in the high 40's and 50's, don't want to be too greedy after all it is only the end of April. I can still be happy wearing a sweatshirt around. But I am really tired of frost and snow. I want to green grass and the smell of lilacs in the air really soon.

This layout is just a picture I had of my son at his baptism many years ago. Kind of fun scrapping old pictures. I just wish I could remember the dates or even the year it was taken. I am thinking 94 but it could have been 93, I am just not sure.

Genetics

I love this layout. It explains the role of genetics and how powerful it is between me and my sister's lives. We tend to be more alike than me and other sisters.

Love

This is a layout I worked on today. It is for a challenge I am participating in on two peas in a bucket. The challenge is to use a sketch from Pagemaps and create a layout based off the sketch.

In other news, I did get my garden tilled up this weekend and some stuff planted. I will work on getting the rest of it in the ground this coming weekend. I am really excited about doing my garden this year. I am hoping to get some canning in and some stuff in the freezer. With the economy, we are going to be cutting back on groceries and the things we are buying and making things more from scratch for sure. Heck it is pretty scary that gas is already at the $3.50 level. I remember being in a panic when it hit the $3 mark, now they are talking $4. I can't imagine what it will be like. Cutting back will be in our future for sure.

I have to say I have been trying to do a lot of cooking from scratch lately, and I have really been enjoying it.

April!!

Okay just posting a digi layout I was playing around with. Sam had his birthday last Sunday. He had to work most of the day which was good because it gave me the whole day to plan out and cook a big birthday dinner for him. I made him ribs and coleslaw and for dessert I made his favorite a homemade Black Cherry Forest Cake with homemade whipped topping. It was so delicious. I will have to post pictures when I get them off my camera. It was just a great day.

Spring is in the air. It is cold and rainy today, but by the weekend it is suppose to be up to almost 70 degrees. I love it. I am so tired of being chilled because it hasn't been that warm. Boy when the sun comes out all I want to do is hang out side.

I placed my burpee order yesterday. I am going to give a shot at trying to get some rasberry plants growing in my back yard. I also ordered some seeds so I can get my garden planted. I did a small garden last year but this year I am hoping to make it a little bit bigger. I didn't do a garden for the last 3 or 4 years because I was so busy with school. Now that I am done with school it is nice to just have time to relax and enjoy being out in the yard. My perneial gardens are doing really well. I buy a couple more plants every year and this year I will buy some more and also hopefully can get a water fountain put in. I love just sitting and listening to the sound of water trickling. So relaxing.

Please keep our friend Bruce in your prayers this week. His mother passed away last week and her funeral was last week. Than on Monday he was having chest pains and ended up going to the ER where they flew him to Billings thinking he needed a stint put in. Well it turns out his four valves were almost 100% blocked so he quadruple bi-pass surgery last night. He was out of surgery and doing good last night. I just worry about him, and can't wait till he is home and feeling better.

I will try to get some pictures posted this week. Megan is off playing tennis in Billings and Jerad has a track meet. I should have my camera out.
Take care.

Digi

Playing around with digital elements again. Just having fun learning the different techniques and things I can do with digital elements. This is one of my favorite pictures of my husband. Had a lot of fun putting together this simple but fun layout.

Happy Easter!! It will be a simple day around here. Not much going on. The kids are all off work so we rented a bunch of movies and will be spending the day laying around watching the movies and snacking.

Remembering Shelly

I can't seem to come to grasps with Shelly's death. It has been several months now but it is still just such a shock that I can't believe it. She passed very suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 52. This is my favorite picture of her with Megan at Meg's first confirmation

Loving this layout of the kids first day of school this past fall. Signed up for a beginning photoshop class that starts next month. I have worked on photoshop for awhile but nothing structured where I have learned how to use the program, just my own playing with the program. I am looking forward to learning a lot of new techinques to play with when digi scrapbooking.

just playing around with some fun papers. Really enjoying getting the hang of playing with these layouts.

Nascar baby

I am so excited Nascar starts tomorrow. I can't wait. By the end of the season I am always tired of it, but boy by the time April rolls around I am so excited for it to get started again. Usually because that means FOOTBALL is over and I don't have to spend my weekends listening to it on the tv and the hubby and son talking about it non-stop. I just can't wait to see how well my man JR. does with his new sponsor and team!!!

On a totally different note, I was all excited to sign up for netflix again because now they have it where I can watch movies on the computer anytime. I figured it would be a great way to lay in bed and watch some movies!! Well I got all signed up and have my first 2 movies coming in the mail to me, but I can't watch any movies on my tv. So I call their wonderful customer support and find out that basically my internet provider runs their IP addresses through Canada and thus I can't watch movies on the computer because I am blocked for living in Canada when I actually live in Montana, which happens to be in the US. So I have to get my internet provider to figure out how to stop running my ip through Canada or wait to see if netflix can find a way to approve my IP address. It could be weeks before I get the service that I really wanted in the first place. Bummer

I knitted my first full project today. I got a hat completed and it fits and everything. I am so excited. I can't believe I finished a project!!!

Happy Friday

Boy when I get started on something I forget how addicted I get to it. Here I am doing my digital. Who would have thought sitting around watching the evening news while working on layouts would be a good thing!!!

Really loving the digital. Who would have thought it was this addicting. I bought my first digital kits tonight. I have been having lots of fun with the freebies, but wanted a little bit more.

Going digital

Okay I never thought I would ever enjoy digital scrapbooking. But the more I play with it the more fun I have with it. I am really enjoying spending some of my "free" time playing on the laptop playing with digital. I know I have a ton of stuff to learn but creating has been great.

Busy Busy Week

Hard to believe it is only Wednesday. This week has been so busy for me. I have decided to sell off all my retired Stampin Up stamp sets on Ebay. I have been taking pictures and listing like crazy this week. It has been good for me because I am selling off tons of them. It will be so nice to finally eliminate so much of the stuff in my scrapbook room that I don't use anymore. It really has been suffocating my creativity.

In discussing it with Sam last night, I decided that the old days of just having a table in the corner to work at were the good old days and I want to go back to just having an office in the back room with the computer and a little desk in the corner for my scrapbooking stuff. I am going to purge and clean out so much stuff and get rid of it so I can eventually move back up there.

I have enjoyed having my own room in that I have collected so much stuff. But yet it takes me further away from my family. (The room is in the basement in the corner. I like being able to sit and scrapbook while being around them and listening to them. So my goal is to downsize and just get back to enjoying the hobby of perserving my memories rather than collecting tons of scrapbooking stuff.

 




Just playing around with some free digi scrapbook stuff last night. Came up with this fun layout
for Jerad.

It is done!!

I am so excited. I have been working for the last two years on an album of all my father in laws pictures and memorabilia from World War II. I have spent a lot of time researching information to get the details fo the pictures right. It has been really interesting working on this album. My father in law passed away in 1990 and non of his children wanted to keep the pictures, so I ended up with them. My husband loves having the album.

I went to a weekend crop this past weekend. It was great just hanging out with friends and scrapbooking all day and most of the night. It was great just working on my projects and getting caught up on my stuff.

Saying Goodbye to Moe :(

We got a call yesterday afternoon that my husbands very dear friend Moe, had passed away. He was suppose to be coming to Glendive for a visit and hadn't showed up. A friend of our's got worried when he hadn't showed up and called his wife in Boise Idaho, who called someone in Dillion to go check on him. They figure he had a heart attack on Friday. I am so sad because Moe was such a great guy. He would have given his life for his friends if they had asked. He was just a big teddy bear of a guy that truly appreciated the value of friendship and enjoyed having a good time in life. He will be missed by our family for sure.

On a side note, I had my surgery on Friday. The joy of not eating or drinking anything after midnight because of surgery is not a lot of fun when you don't have surgery till 6:15 pm the next evening. If I had known it would have been so long I would have made sure I got up at 11:45 pm to get a drink or have something to eat. Boy by the time they took me into surgery, I could have ate my own arm off. The surgery was great, but I did end up having to spend the night in the hospital again. I am kind of sick of hospitals right now. Turns out that my incisions had erroded around my bladder and that I also have a staph infection that they had to cut away some of the tissues.

Really hoping this surgery took, because she said if it doesn't they will have to go in and do a pretty extensive surgery to take out all the bladder sling and do reconstruction on it. She said Dr. Rauh has never had that happen before, but hey in all his years of practice he hasn't had but one other erroding scar like mine, so my body is freaky.

Happy Friday :)

Well here I sit waiting. I have been sick for about a week and half. This last Wednesday I finally gave in and called my doctor up because the antibiotics she had given me last Friday didn't seem to be working that well. Anyway after a flying trip to the doctor that afternoon she has decided that my scar from my bladder surgery in November is erroding and that is causing me to be so sick. Needless to say she scheduled surgery today. Well because it was so last minute, I am the last one on the table today, probably having surgery around 2 or 3 pm. I have been without anything to eat or drink since midnight and I don't even have to be at the hospital till noon, and that is only if things are going as planned. I have to call in at 10:30 to see if they are on schedule or behind.

It is funny how water isn't that important until you can't have it. I am so craving a cold drink of water right now. Oh man what I wouldn't give to have some water. So this time I am packing an overnight bag to take to the hospital to be prepared. My doctor said she didn't expect me to have to spend the night, but she also said that last time I ended up being there with no supplies, nothing like leaving the hospital without being able to brush your teeth or comb your hair. So this time I am prepared.

Oh other exciting news, I finally got myself a new IPOD touch and am loving it.

Happy New Year!

I know that I am a little bit late, but I was down for the count sick in bed, thinking I was going to die there for a while. So cut me some slack. Things are on the mend and life is in full swing again. So it is 2008! What is scary is that it really seems like last year everyone was freaking out about their computers or technology not working when we went from 1999 to 2000 and here we are 8 years later already. Boy when they say time speeds up the older you get they weren't kidding. I am thinking by the time I hit 80, it will be making me a little dizzy since it goes so fast already at 40!

Hope you all celebrated and took in the new year, made some resolutions, maybe even already broke some. I know mine is to get healthier this year, but that started off with a bang because I ended up in bed out of my mind sick for 4 days. So getting healthier from that didn't take but a call to the doctor to get on some antibiotics for my infection.

This year will bring with it some exciting changes in our lives.

Megan will graduate from high school, and go off to college in the fall.
Hopefully, Amanda, our oldest will move back out of the house and get her life figured out, and back on track. Funny how kids think they can move out and just party and not pay bills or take responsibility for anything, than boom, life catches up with them.
This year Jerad will hopefully stay healthy, no broken bones, and can play baseball and football.
The amazing thing will be that this year, Valentines Day will be when Sam and I moved in together and have been a family ever since. It is going to be a great new year!