I think I have some serious dentist issues...

You would think that it was me going off to the dentist tonight to have cavities filled and a tooth pulled the way I am feeling right now, instead of Bryce. I'm glad I scheduled it late enough in the evening that Mark could take him, because I am not sure I would do well sitting there and waiting. At least I can keep myself busy doing things here at home. It must be the mom instinct coming out in me full force. Ugh.

I can't say that I ever had any horrible experiences at the dentist as a kid- nothing traumatic in any spectacular way. I guess all of the stuff I had done over the years just didn't leave a favorable impression. I should go eat some dinner, but I really don't feel like it with all of these butterflies in my stomach at the moment. I guess I will go empty the dishwasher and clean up everyone else's dinner mess and see if I can't calm myself down a bit first.

birthday and weekend LOs

It was a very nice birthday. Nothing spectacular in any particular way, just lots of little things- getting a Starbucks coffee in the morning while I waited for the twins to have their molars sealed at the dentist (Startbucks is right next door to the dentist office), finally taking a few minutes to go exchange a DVD I got a long time ago that was a duplicate for something else, getting birthday wishes from my mom and friends, dinner at the Olive Garden with well behaved children and getting a small chocolate cake and ice cream to enjoy at home. I got the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" to watch too, but haven't actually watched it yet LOL. I have until Wednesday night.

I had quite a couple of LOs in the works over the weekend and finally managed to finish them up today, and Dani gave us the go-ahead to show off our LOs with the kits that are coming out Feb 1.
These are with wonderful boy kit called Hard @ Play- I found it fit a lot of the photos I brought home from my parents' house taken in the 70s too ;) and she also has a second set of Creative Crop shapes coming out that I used on these first two.

I loved finding the set of pictures of the first house my parents bought because I saw so many things in them that I remembered being in the house all of the years that I was growing up. Some pieces still grace the shelves and walls of my parents' home today. Here's a list of what the labels say: mobile made by Richard; printer's block wall art made by Richard, it hung on the wall outside my bedroom; wrought iron candlestick; bookshelves; Linda's first Navajo rug; Richard's childhood rocking chair; indian basket and pottery; jester bust, LP cabinet; green desk, used as the sewing machine table later; various sculptures & carved bear; owl mobile & balancing children; highchair; piano; my parent's bed headboard
pg2 labels: hanging light from family room; painting from family room; tilting flood light; blue/green plaid couch; blue/green wallpaper, a common color theme for many years; blue metal cup (there was a matching gold cup too!); knight sculpture

credits: By Dani Mogstad: Hard at Play; Creative Crops 2; SayIt! journaling strips (all coming Feb 1 to DesignbyDani dot com); Kitschmas Cheer: jewels, sequins and glitter stickers, filmstrip frame from So Diva! Addon; Doodle swoosh from I Heart Mom by Shawna Clingerman
fonts: TXT Abrasive

My second birthday portraits. I had that lime green and hot pink dog for the longest time
credits: Everything by Dani Mogstad: Hard at Play; Creative Crops2; little flowers; stitched heart from Crazy Love; fonts: CK Jolly Elf

When I stopped in a the Starbucks to get my coffee Saturday morning I was checking out the cute Valentine pottery and other beverage containers and lo and behold I found oen of the 'Make your own' coffee tumblers I have been looking for for months. So, I treated myself to that as well as the cup of coffee. I used Dani's other kit coming out in Feb- Crazy Love. This Valentine kit has fabulous funky colors and lots of neat embellishments! I only used a very small sample on my tumbler insert. The kids think it is really neat that their faces are on my cup and Brenna keeps running off with my cup to look at it.

credits: Crazy Love by Dani Mogstad; Coffee Tumbler insert template by myself

And one last one with one of Mish Gasser's funky new products available at Plain Digital Wrapper- hand painted hearts. A group of my friends have challenged each other to use swirls and doodles on our LOs since a lot of us admit to not feeling terribly comfortable with using them. It just has to be the right kind of LO for me to use them, I think.

credits: Dirty Love Letters Papers by Amanda Roberts; Handpainted hearts and lace by Mish Gasser at PlainDigitalWrapper; doodles from A Beautiful Mess by Lisa Whitney at scrapartist; cardstock letters from Crazy Love by Dani Mogstad (coming Feb 1 at designbydani); stitches by Dani Mogstad; LO inspired by "My Heartthrob" by Sharon Laakkonen, in Creating Keepsakes magazine, Feb07, pg 37
fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate

Bryce has his big dental appointment tomorrow evening- filling 2 cavities, a deep cleaning, and pulling that baby tooth that won't come out. I know I am dreading it more than he is! I'll be glad when it is all over. Beth and Carissa had good checkups this time thank goodness. Even with the dental plan we bought all of the work everyone had to have done is putting a rather large dent in the bank account. Hopefully getting everyone in for cleanings on a regular basis will help prevent these things in the future!

Memorial Service Slide Show

Now that I finally have a fast enough connection to share this, here is a link to the slide show I put together for my Dad's memorial service. It is about 100 MB and is a 15 minute wmv file that is viewed in Windows media player. As far as slide shows go, it's nothing fancy- there were options I didn't even have time to consider playing with- but we all love watching it and seeing pics of him and hearing music we know my Dad loved.
http://www.yousendit.com/download/eoBxUTM%2Bp3l5TA%3D%3D

For family members: you can DL if you like, but I put a DVD copy and CD with pics and the wmv file version in the mail for you on Wednesday. Hopefully you will get it soon!

and with that we are off to the grocery store! Have a great day everyone!

Altered goodness!

As part of Dani's altered team I've been having fun exploring some more of the possibilities of using digital kits off of the computer. Here's a quick look at the projects I've been up to :)
You can go check out the Girl Talk blog, where the first monthly altered week is almost over, to see instructions and what the other team girls have been up to (great stuff over there!!). If you look carefully, you might just find a little treat I'm sharing with everyone from one of these projects ;)




With that, I'm going to sign off. I need to get dressed and head to the grocery store to buy some food for tonight. It's Trinitycrop night and I am looking forward to sitting and gabbing with my friends!

LOs galore!

I've been busy scrapping since I last posted (gee, are you surprised? I bet not LOL). Here's a quick rundown of the latest I've been too lazy to upload here since posting to blogger was such a royal pain on the slow connection.

Let's start with the couple of LOs I've done with recent photos. If there is journaling on the page, I'll put it below the LO like usual so you all can read it, but I'm just going to link you up for gallery credits this time since there are so many!

journaling: While we were at the mall shopping for clothes, the girls finally had a chance to get the Build-A-Bears that they had been wanting with the gift cards and money they recieved for Christmas. Beth and Carissa both went for the limited edition bears that have magnets in their hands and face so they can blow kisses; Brenna chose a bunny. Beth and Brenna chose fairy outfits and Carissa got the valentine heart dress.
Credits can be seen HERE

journaling: It was the first snow storm of the 2006-07 winter season, and the 4 inches or so of snow on the ground caused the first snowday of the school year. The kids had a blast playing outside in the backyard. Bryce started a snowball fight with Beth and Carissa, then quickly came to realize that he was outnumbered as they both worked together to pelt him with their large snowballs. Before too long, Bryce came inside and Beth and Carissa were free to try and build snow creations. Beth built a snow town and together they made a mini snowman. The snow was so light and fluffy that it didn’t pack well and it took most of the snow on the ground to build those two things. Sarah stood at the back door the whole time the big kids were outside, watching in envy that they were out and she wasn’t. She even tried to sneak out the door in her socks when someone came in to get something.
Credits can be seen HERE

The Amazing DigiScrap Race came to RAKscraps last weekend, and one of the challenges we had going on for everyone to celebrate was a LO swap. Robin and I swapped some of our photos and scrapped a LO for each other with them. Robin sent me these cute pics of her niece, Kylie, celebrating her first birthday. Here's what I came up with. It's kind of funky and fun- I've been trying to explore some other scrapping styles a little, and I enjoyed using some swirly brushes and doodles on this.

Credits can be seen HERE

and here is the LO Robin scrapped for me using pics of myself with all of the grandparents and great-grandparents I could find. I still haven't found a pic of me with Grandad Al. We've been looking for one for several years and haven't been lucky enough to come across one yet.

Credits can be seen HERE

here's some more 'vintage' LOs I've done this week. I'm really enjoying scrapping these pictures. I wish I had been able to start doing this while Daddy was still around though so that he could tell me some stories to add to these. I know he would have enjoyed seeing what I did with the photos.

Credits can be seen HERE

Journaling: I'm not sure exactly when these pictures were taken. I found them in envelopes that had pictures of Keesler AFB and also pictures of Ralph doing skits at Putnam City Baptist Church. So, I am guessing that they were taken sometime during his early years in the Air National Guard, maybe when he was home on leave.
Credits can be seen HERE

journaling: This was the first house that Richard and Linda owned. They purchased it in 1971 after Linda graduated from OU with her PhD and Melinda was born. They moved in during March. Though I don’t remember living there, I look at these pictures and see numerous things that graced our home while I was growing up. Many of the art pieces are still on the shelves of their house today.
Credits can be seen HERE

Credits can be seen HERE

journaling: I know Daddy loved me. I can see it on his face in these pictures and it was there in his eyes whenever we were together. I could hear it in his voice whenever he called to tell me something or just to talk. He showed his love in so many ways through what he did every day- working to help provide for his family, fixing things that were broken even if they really weren’t worth saving because it was important to me, driving me to oboe concerts and sitting through them with me even when he would have rather been somewhere else, taking the time to listen when I had something to share, giving me a hug and a kiss when I needed it, looking for things he knew I wanted or would enjoy, coming to help with the twins and Brenna after they were born, playing with and enjoying his grandchildren, and always being available to help when I needed him.
Credits can be seen HERE

Credits can be seen HERE
(I did this LO for Robin's new sketch challenge at RAKscraps! You can grab the template for a limited time :)- get it here and join in the fun!)

journaling: This is one of the few photos I have found of the house on Woodrow in Tulsa.
It was taken in the upstairs living room. The Christmas tree in this picture was the same one that we put up every year that I can remember. I see so many ornaments on the tree that I remember hanging every year as a kid- the plastic snowflakes, the blue tinsel garland, the God’s eyes and felt lions that my mother made, the plastic angel pair, and my favorite elves that were the addition to the collection this year. There were 3 in blue, red, and yellow. Megan and I are holding two of them in the top corner photo.
Credits can be seen HERE

Credits can be seen HERE

Oh, and a little toot! for me. My "Richard's Years in Review" LO won a gift certificate to Gina Miller's store. Yeah! and with my new speedy connection I can enjoy shopping for some goodies next month. - I'm waiting a bit to use it since a big sale is coming up ;)

The best birthday present ever!

Technically my birthday isn't until tomorrow, but I got my birthday present about 2A last night. That was when Mark finally got the wireless DSL connected and working! I am so loving being able to cruise around the internet and DL the files I need to get at lightening quick speeds. I'm not sure how we managed to go this long on dial-up. Yes, I do actually. I have totally awesome friends who have let me be a leach on their internet connections for over a year when there was something I couldn't get on my own connection. Thanks guys! you are the best!

I can actually talk on the phone and be on the internet AT THE SAME TIME!! How novel is that? haven't been able to do that in 10 years LOL!

We have a new email addy, but since we haven't got things all set up correctly to get the mail the way I want, keep using our old email addy for the time being. We have a few days yet before we have to dump the netzero account. I'm hoping to be able to hang on to that addy for use when we travel, but we don't know if it can be done or not. I'll send out the new email addy to people I think need to know it when we've got it all straightened out to our satisfaction ;)

the rest of the week

So, the rest of the week was uneventful. Again, a good thing! They were forcasting a large snowstorm to hit us Thursday night; it did snow some, but not nearly as much as the first said might fall. School and work proceeded as normal on Friday morning, though Mark did get to come home about an hour or so early. More snow is supposed to start falling in the next hour or so. They're predicting 4-7 inches this time, I guess we will see ;)

Several department stores around town have been having huge clearance sales on their fall and winter clothes lines. We have been out stocking up on kids' clothes- you can't beat 75% off, even at the used kids' clothes places usually! Of course that means that the closets and drawers had to be cleaned out too. I need to go through the twins' closet again still, but Sarah and Brenna are done and Mark went through all of Bryce's clothes this evening too.

And while we were at the mall, the girls finally had a chance to get the Build-A-Bears that they had been wanting with the gift cards and money they recieved for Christmas. Beth and Carissa both went for the limited edition bears that have magnets in their hands and face so they can blow kisses; Brenna chose a bunny. Here are what they named their critters: Beth- Sparkle, Brenna - Hoppy, Carissa- Lovely. Beth and Brenna chose fairy outfits and Carissa got the valentine heart dress. Technically Brenna didn't have nearly enough funds left in her gift money to pay for her bunny, but Mama and Daddy were generous and covered it anyway. I dont' think she would have understood at all if we had said that she didn't have enough to get one and therefor couldn't join in the fun. Call it a belated Christmas gift.
Bryce chose to save his christmas money for the time being. I don't think he has settled on anything in particular to spend it on yet.

We've been trying to work on getting a higher quality version of the slide show of my Dad's pictures done, and after 3 days of trying and about 5 different versions we still don't have one that is completely right. If the graphics look good, the wrong music file was attached. Once we found the correct music file, things keep going wrong with the titles or a photo being left out. It's nuts! We're beginning to feel very lucky that we were able to come up with a useable version with no major mistakes in time for the service after only 2 tries. The computer uses tons of processing power when it outputs the show to a wmv file, and we kept having problems with the computer just shutting down in the middle of generating the show. We finally decided we should check the innards of the computer and see if it needed to be cleaned out- yep, it was awfully dusty in there! I was a bit amazed at how just about everything had to be unscrewed to get it open. the battery, HD and DVD drive had to be completely removed and more screws taken out to finally get down to where the heat sinks and processor could be seen. Everything seems to be in working order so far, and Mark didn't even have any leftover mystery screws when he was done LOL Hopefully that has fixed the problem. The laptop is running much quieter now too!
Once we finally get a good wmv file, we have to convert it to something that can be read by a DVD player- that should be loads of fun (and bad files) too!

Sarah has had a cold for the last week and has not been sleeping well at night. She seems to be slowly improving, though I am not feeling so well myself now tonight. So, I think I will finish with showing off the rest of the layouts I've done this week.

journaling: I found this picture of Daddy in Grandma Doris’ photo album of her trip to visit us in Pullman. Daddy drove to OKCity to pick her up and then gave her a tour of the country on their drive to Washington. This picture was taken on the deck on the back of our house. The picture windows of the the livingroom and masterbedroom can be seen down the side of the house behind him. He is wearing his favorite denim hat, which he wore for almost 10 years for everything from running errands, working in the yard, and relaxing on vacation or at home.
credits: Chambray Shirt by Amanda Rockwell and Kelley McDonald, a Perfect Pairs kit at SweetShoppe; LO template by Misty Cato; fonts: CK Thick Brush and CK Invitation

journaling: This Lone Star quilt was made by my Dad’s cousins Faye and Pernie. When Daddy received it, it was in bad shape- much of the stitching was coming out and the whole thing was ready to fall apart. My Dad knew their old neighbor on 27th St., Elma, was a quilter so he asked her if she would restore it. She agreed, but only if he would help her. So, my Dad learned to quilt. He spent several hours a week at Elma’s house for almost a year, learning to quilt and chatting with her while they worked together. We now have a restored family heirloom to remember not only Faye and Pernie by, but also my Dad.
credits: Grandma's Attic by Audra Little at DigiScrapShak; holes and stitches by Tracy Blankenship; fonts: CK Heritage

journaling: If we were buying a shirt as a gift for my Dad, we all knew that a plaid one in the colors brown, red and blue would be liked and worn by him. Looking back through all of the years of photos, I found him wearing lots of different plaid shirts. Striped shirts in the same colors were his second favorite. He often wore his dress shirts with one of his silver indian bolos instead of a tie when he didn’t need to be formal. I think I will just about always see him wearing a plaid shirt in my mind when I think of him.
credits: First Love by SweetShoppeDesigns; sketch template by Traci Reed for DigiScrapDivas; chipboard and silver actions by Atomic Cupcake; fonts: Impact, TXT LongHand, TXT Annesia, Fulton Artistamp

journaling: Sarah’s favorite gift Christmas morning was the Glo*e bear that Santa brought. I found this surprising since she had also received 2 Dora dolls as well. I think she found the glowing, changing colors fascinating, and he is very soft. He turned out to be a big comfort to Sarah Christmas night as we drove to Spokane, lulling her back to sleep when she woke.
credits: Family Traditions paper pack from the Wonderland Collection by Jeanine Baechtold and Jen Reed at Scrapdish; Already Embellished LO template by Gina Miller; sequins and alpha by Correen Silke; circle stitch by Karen Hunt; fonts: TXT Longhand and
TXT Romanesque

A special request to family members! If you see anything wrong on my layouts of Daddy, please let me know. Or, if you have anything to add too!! I can change dates and text really easily, so don't be afraid to tell me if I have a date wrong or remember something incorrectly. Leave me a comment or send me an email, please! :)

Adjusting

Well, we made it home from Spokane in one piece late Saturday night with no exciting stories to tell about our travels. Which is a good thing when it comes to travel. We spent Sunday at home getting the van unloaded, grocery shopping, taking down the Christmas decorations, and just generally adjusting.

I spent the better part of my time during the week before the memorial service going
through every single picture and slide I could find in the house, scanning them, and putting together a slide show for the memorial service. It turned out great, but I have to say that trying to learn to do that when it was so important to me to do it right in his honor, was not ideal. Thankfully Mark was able to help me out with the music and sat and moved titles around on
all 200 or so slides so they wouldn't get cut off the morning of the memorial service while I showered and got ready to go.

About 100 people were there, including all of the family who were able to come, which my mom was pleased about. Several old friends from Pullman, my mom's boss (which she was very surprised about since she had only told him of my Dad's death the day before), and even one of his doctors were in attendance. My sister and I sobbed through practically the whole thing. The
kids were very good and thankfully Sarah gave up running up and down the aisle about halfway through and fell asleep in my lap. Several people told my mom that was the best memorial service they had been to (and knowing the average age of the members of my parents church, that is a quite a compliment LOL!). My mom says it was mostly due to my slide show, I know it
was a big part of it, but there was so much more to the service that made it wonderful.

So, I came home with hundreds of photos of my Dad, as well as a few from my childhood I had been wanting, on my computer. I, of course, have started scrapping a few already. I really do find it helps to get some of the stuff I am feeling out and onto a scrapbook page. I actually did this first one on Christmas Eve and posted it in the galleries, but didn't have a chance to get it put up here.

journaling: I am thankful for all of the time that my parents have been able to spend with us over the years. I am thankful that they have been able to come see us when it became too expensive for us to all go see them at their home regularly. I am thankful that they enjoy spending time with their grandchildren and that the kids love to see and spend time with their grandparents. I am thankful that my parents call every week to keep in touch and let us know what they have been doing. I am thankful for all of the traditions that my parents have continued from their families and the new ones that we came up with once we moved to WA, many of which I continue with my own family now. I am thankful for the stable family that they have provided. I am thankful for the love and committment that they have to each other. I am thankful for the love they have always given to me.
credits: Thanksgiving Blessing Paper Pack by Jeanine Baechtold at Scrapdish; Chipper Swirl by Karen Hunt at SBB; hearts by Meredith Fenwick, Twine and Twine bow from Carpe Diem by Dani Mogstad and Shawna Clingerman; LO based on sketch by Kim Smith for December 06 RAKscraps sketch challenge; fonts: Pushkin

With it being the start of a new year, there are a lot of 'year in review' challenges going on right now at the scrapbook sites. I took a template made for a year of photos and used it to show a progression of pictures of my Dad. Jen's 'Moments in Time' kit at computerscrapbook.com was just perfect for photos of him. Browns, blues, turquoise, black and reds are always the colors that come to my mind when I think of him.

credits: Moments in Time by Jen Reed at computerscrapbook.com; Year in Review LO template by Gina Miller; fonts: TXT Romanesque

I just loved my parents' Christmas tree this year- it was decorated in turquoise and gold with touches of red.

journaling: After 42 years of collecting ornaments, not all of them will fit on the tree at once, so my parents chose to use a southwest theme for their christmas tree this year to go with the turquoise garland Megan gave them for christmas.I loved the blue and gold combination with just a touch of red. It was a perfect compliment to their home. I will always remember this tree as the last one Daddy helped decorate.The gentle, yet striking, colors and the images of his favorite cowboy and indian art as well as the places that he loved will always remind me of him.
credits: Moments in Time by Jen Reed at computerscrapbook.com; holes and stitches by Tracy Blankenship; Rubon action by Atomic Cupcake; fonts: TXT Romanesque and TXT Brush Script

And lastly, I continued collecting pictures to scan when we started cleaning out my Dad's office a bit while we were there. He had pictures (and just about everything else you can imagine) stashed in the strangest places. I found my mom's high school graduation picture in a frame on top of one of the bookshelves. When I took the frame apart to scan the photo, I found a note from my mom tucked inside saying that it was a birthday present to him.

journaling: I found this hand-colored photo of my mom from her senior year in high school sitting on a shelf in my dad’s office. When I took the photo out of the frame to scan it, I found a note to my dad tucked behind it saying that the photo was a birthday gift for him. I love knowing that he treasured and kept these little momentos, and it makes me wonder what other gems from the past might be hiding in his office where we least expect it. ~Melinda, January 8, 2007
credits: Just a Memory by Robin Cabana; envelope from Frolic in the Garden by Kathryn Balint; stickpin from Eclectic Collage by Shabby Princess; lace brushes by Michelle Coleman at Scrapartist; fonts: CK Heritage

I've been trying to catch up with stuff that got put aside when we left in such a hurry Christmas day. I'm not sure I've made a big dent, but a few things are done. There is still a lot more to do. The kids went back to school today. Yesterday was a teacher 'workday.' We are expecting another snowstorm Thursday night through Friday. Why do I have a feeling that school will be cancelled again? and with Monday next week being a holiday, it will probably be another long weekend. They posted on the district website that middle and high school classes will be extended by 15 minutes a day starting next Tuesday to make up snow days already. I don't know how many more snowdays the elementary kids can have before they have to start making up missed days too, but it can't be too many more. It is going to be one long winter.

Well, the kids are home from school and it is Tuesday, so that means we will go to the library when Brenna and Sarah wake up from their naps. I've got some altered projects I started before Christmas and need to finish up tonight. Talk to you all later!