Did you notice my new header?

The Dani's Girls are having a little contest to update your blog header. Show us what you can do with some of Dani's stuff and you could win a GC to her store! See this post for details.

We're just waiting now

Yep, now we are just waiting to hear some results. Bryce and I were up until 2A watching Flash episodes. We got up at 6. Mark and I only had to prod him once each to get him out of bed and up and dressed. One of the EEG machines was not available for some reason, and of course they had scheduled another person at the same time. So, we had to wait until the lady before us was done- about 30 minutes. Bryce was having a hard time staying awake at that point since they had a news show on the TV and that is just so interesting to an 11 year old (not!). We found him a ScoobyDoo movie to watch while the technician put all of the electrodes on his head- that took about 20 minutes and by the time he was finished with that the EEG machine was ready for him. I opted to wait in the waiting room since the room was going to be dark during the test, and I didn't want to fall asleep too. I tried to prod the technician for a little info about what happened during the test, but he didn't tell us anything. Since we don't have a neurologist, we have to wait for the hospital neurologist to read the results and then convey them to the pediatrician's office, and then call us.

storm went past us

thank goodness! You can see a photo of the funnel cloud at 9news.com
Definately scary! that is not something that usually happens up in the mountains here. They were saying that we might get heavy rains and hail from this as it passed by, so Beth and Carissa and I went and cleaned up the backyard, putting the chair cushions and toys away in the deck box and shed before we left for their dentist appointment. In the end, nothing much happened. There was some thunder and lightening west of us, the wind picked up a little, and there were a few large drops of rain- and that was all.

As far the dentist appointment goes- good report on that too. No cavities for either Beth or Carissa, and they are good for 6 more months. We have to watch a permament tooth of Beth's that is coming in a bad direction because of a lack of space. I have a feeling we will be shelling out the bucks to an orthodontist for both Bryce and Beth fairly soon.

And we are beginning the keep Bryce up marathon. The goal is to keep him up until 2A and then get him up again at 6 for some breakfast before we have to head to the hospital. We got a set of DVDs from the library of the old Flash tv series. I have a feeling we will be watching a few of those tonight ;)

What a day

I took Bryce in for an eye exam yesterday, just a regular checkup since he hadn't had one in a while. During the exam the Dr. thought he had a seizure- he said he wasn't feeling well and then collapsed and twitched for 30 seconds or so. It was probably triggered by the bright flashing lights. He looked very pale for several minutes afterwards. Of course I was off walking around the mall during all of this because they were running behind and the girls were going stir-crazy after sitting and waiting for 35 minutes past his appointment time.

We happened to have an appointment with his regular doctor for a routine checkup this morning. Bryce is scheduled for an EEG tomorrow morning at the hospital. Hopefully that will provide some clues as to what is going on.

The other big news at the moment is the tornado that is touching down in the mountains near Woodland Park and Divide west of us. It is moving slowly toward us. I have to take the twins to a dentist appointment in a few minutes. It will probably just be a severe thunderstorm by the time it gets to us, but the large hail potential is very high.

Not feeling terribly well

Sarah was sick all this last week, and it seems I caught it too. It's settled into my sinuses and throat and just making feel 'blah.' I'm trying to sit still at the computer and get caught up on a few things. I'd like to scrap, but the creative energy just isn't there.

Who said summer could come?? It has been around 90 here for the last week and that is just too hot! I don't think I could live in the southern part of the US, I'd never leave my house because of the heat most of the year.

I did get a few things done this week despite not feeling great- some paper crafting for Altered Art Chicks was Wednesday's activity. I love the paper and scissors every once in a while, but I was grumbling "this wouldn't happen if I was doing this on the computer" a lot of the time that day. I kept dropping, misplacing, and losing things and it was getting frustrating LOL

Mark has been enjoying the summer days with the older kids and taking them out hiking quite a bit. They are out again today. Last Sunday, since Sarah was sick and couldn't go to church, he took them up the back side of Pikes Peak. He said he was going to stop halfway and come back down again, but wouldn't you know it they just kept going and went all the way to the top and back. So, now my kids have climbed a 14er. I've got some pics on the old digicamera, but I haven't taken them off of it yet. So you will have to wait a bit longer to see them. I hope they all put sunblock on today as they all got quite burned last weekend and haven't healed up completely yet.

Dani Mostad has an incredible new kit out today at SweetShoppe- a gorgeous tropical theme kit she created with Miriam Lima. I just love the grass skirt, flowers and stitched paper swirls in it! It's on sale today too!
yes, that is me sitting next to the friendly gorilla in the LO on the right of the above ad LOL! I dug out an old collage picture frame collecting dust under my dresser so I could get that picture out and scan it to use with this kit. I always thought that picture was so funny! It was taken the spring break before Mark and I got married on our family trip to Hawaii by Daddy. I was missing Mark so much on that trip and wishing he was there with us, but he was working in Germany and had to miss all of the fun.

journaling: We were shopping in downtown Hilo one afternoon when we spotted this lonely gorilla dressed in a sunbonnet, bikini top and grass skirt sitting outside a shop. He looked so loney, my Dad made me sit down with him for a picture. Ahhhh, to be young and in love, and with your Dad in Hawaii instead of your fiancee. Melinda March 1990
credits: Mahalo by Dani Mogstad and Miriam Lima at swetshoppedesigns; fonts: TXT Scribbeletti

and Dani has a whole slew of things in her bargain bin at designbydani. They will disappear soon, so if you've been wanting any of them you'd better go grab them!


I'm hoping I can get Brenna and Sarah down for their afternoon nap soon. I think I will try and write the article for the DSAguild that is due at the end of the week. I've had it roughed out for a while, I just need to flesh everything out now. Since I don't feel much like scrapping, that is probably the thing to do. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Wasting some time with Mish

I saw these on Mish's blog the other day, and since I'm putting off getting into the kitchen to do dishes and get tonight's dinner in the crockpot.....

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

You Know Some State Capitols

You Got 15 State Capitols Correct You may just be a very good guesser. Or you actually do remember something from elementary school!

Do You Know Your State Capitols?

-I think it is more that I am a good guesser, or maybe there is some well-buried elementary school info in my head. I always thought having to memorize the capitals of every state was a waste of my time and energy- who really cares? or needs that info most of the time? I learned them for the test and promptly forgot them, or so I thought......

Your IQ Is 110

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

I always did hate logic questions :-P another who cares? sort of sentiment ;)

Happy Birthday Daddy

credits: Ensenada by Audra Little at mydigitalmuse; paper tears by Jen Caputo at scrapbookgraphics; Vintage Frame by Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics; ribbon wrap, digiscrap tabs and stapled border by ChristinaRenee at funkyplayground and christinareneedesigns; Beauty Mark by Two Sisters Designs at scrapartist; Clockworks by Linda GilBildal at scrapartist
fonts: Horsepuke and Typewriter

Today was my Dad's birthday, and with father's day tomorrow too, and my parents anniversary on the 12th I've been thinking about and missing him a lot. So, I scrapped a couple of pages for my book with some pictures of him this morning and afternoon. I've been wanting to scrap the birthday picture all week, but just couldn't do it. After a false start last night and losing what I had done to an internet attack of some sort (blocked by my firewall, but I still had to reboot and lost everything), I pressed on today and got it done. I also did this one with some of our wedding photos and this gorgeous kit I couldn't resist buying when it was on sale earlier this week by Sylvie Sausan.

credits: Romantica by Sausan Designs at scrapbookgraphics; dried rose and rose petals from Altered Touches elements by Birgit Kerr at digitalscrapbookingartisansguild
fonts: CK Heritage

and this is an old LO, but I really love the photo. The picture was taken just a couple of weeks after Daddy was diagnosed with cancer in 2005.
For quite a few years now I've been making my Dad pecan pie instead of cake for his birthday. Usually it was whenever Momma and Daddy came for their summer visit, so it wasn't necessarily actually on his birthday. But, we always knew what it was for when I did make it. Here's the family recipe I use; this recipe is from Doris, my Dad's mom, and it is a classic pecan pie. Yum! I think I will make one in a couple of weeks when Momma is here visiting again to purchase her house here. If you would like a copy of the recipe for your collection too, just click on the picture ;)

Only one more week of Stargate SG-1 on SciFi. I'm going to be really sad when it's over. Friday nights on SciFi are about the only shows left that I actually watch regularly, so for one of them to end makes me very sad. I've been watching it for years and it is one of my favorite shows. Daddy actually got me started on it since SG-1 originally aired on Showtime and we didn't get any premium channels (still don't). He would record them for Megan and I and then send us the videotapes to watch. Stargate Atlantis will still be on, but I don't like it as well. I actually find the Wraith stories pretty darn creepy; last night's show had a Wraith 'theme' to it and I listened to it more than watched it. Big, ugly, nasty bug creatures jumping out and sneaking up on you from poorly lit tunnels- yuck, yuck, and yuck! Thankfully they haven't had too many episodes featuring the Wraith this season. I guess it will do once SG-1 is over, but it won't be the same.

Sarah has been running a fever and had diahrrea since yesterday, and threw up in her bed last night too. I don't know if she caught what Brenna had earlier in the week or it if is something different. I don't think she and I will be going to church in the morning. Once the medicine kicks in and brings her fever down she acts fairly normal- she is singing along with Dora and the pirates right now since she feels better- but when the medicine wears off the fever comes back.

Well, it seems I was elected to go out and get pizza for dinner tonight, and I need to get some more milk and ibuprofen for Sarah too. So, I'll sign off for now. Happy Birthday, Daddy- we miss you!

I'm a Dani's Girl for 6 more months!!

Dani's released the names of her team for the next 6 months, and I'm on the list again :D In addition to altered projects I'll be helping run the GirlTalk blog with Melissa Lewis, and we're cooking up some fun stuff! There are a number of familiar faces to me on the team this time. I've worked with a few of these ladies at RAKscraps and Scrapdish over the last couple of years, and it will be nice to work with them again.

It's up! go have a listen!

It was neat to hear them gushing about my Fireworks LO on the Dishin the Digi Coast 2 Coast show this afternoon. My LO is second up, so it is about 6 minutes into the show ;)
Click here to go to the show!

and no, I don't have any super secrets about how I got the fireworks photos to turn out so well. I LOVE the auto mode on my camera, and I play with things a lot. It turns out that the auto mode pics where the flash went off turned out the best this time around. I probably have 4 or more pics that are only so-so or just plain bad for every one that I actually used on that LO ;)

reasons #8 and 9 why I love digiscrapping

#8: take the project to the craft store to match ribbon- go to the grocery store after the craft store stop to get fixings for next day's dinner- get home and find that the chicken I just bought leaked all over the project on the way home, through 2 layers of plastic, and now the project is ruined before it is even finished. I just ripped off the printed layer and printed another. It won't take too much longer to get back to the point I was at before, but what a pain!

#9: you don't have a table covered in paint, glues, ribbons and other crafty things to clean up when you are done with 'crafting'. What a mess I made today!

I do love getting out the paints and ribbons and all that occasionally, as I love turning my pretty computer creations into things that can be appreciated all of the time. It sure makes me appreciate the ease and speed of doing my scrapping on the computer though!

Baby Bird Rescue #2

I took a couple of bags of garbage out to the garbage cans this morning and thought I would go take a peek at the nest and see if either Mama or Daddy Robin were around anywhere. I was hoping to get a hint of whether any of the babies were still up there in the nest. As I get near the tree I don't see the nest up where it should be, so I look down and what do I see?
This little guy was looking up at me from down in the grass and the nest was laying next to him. The wind has been pretty steady again today and the nest was knocked down again. This nest has been up in the tree since last year, at least, so I don't know why it keeps falling out of its cradle in the branches. Maybe having baby birds moving around in it makes it unsteady? I put little bird back in the nest and went to get my kids so they could see him before I put back up in the tree again.

We asked the neighbor kids if they wanted to see the baby bird, and were told "we did this morning." huh? It turns out the nest had fallen out of the tree earlier and they had put it back up in the branches, and now it had fallen down again. There were 2 baby birds this morning they said. Only one little bird to be found now. There are quite a few cats that roam the neighborhood, so maybe one of them became a mid-morning snack? So, out of the 4 baby birds that hatched sometime last week, we are now down to one. He's bigger than before and his feathers are starting to come in now, so hopefully we can keep an eye on him and help this little bird fly out of the nest in the next few weeks.
After oohing and ahhing over him a few minutes more, I got a tall ladder out and put the nest back up in the tree. I wedged it in there really well, so I guess we will see if it stays put for a while. Here's hoping anyway!

reason #7 why I love digiscrapping

Why is it that I can have 45 colors of ribbon and fibers in my stash and STILL not have anything close to what I want to use???? I guess we have to go to the craft store later after nap time is over.

Weekend Scrapping

somehow with all of the our "of the house time" this weekend, I still managed to get some LOs done. And because I'm showing off LOs, I'll toss in the ones I got done earlier in the week too ;)
Let's start with a few about my favorite year and half old.... playing catch-up with this one:
credits and journaling can be seen HERE. I love all of the glitter in Rachel's Esprit kit!

She always loves to get close to the animals and give them a hug, so she was very happy when the goat at the petting zoo cooperated.
credits and journaling can be seen HERE

a couple of pics that I snapped on Saturday morning after the Colorado Wranglers were done singing.
credits and journaling can be seen HERE

a couple of pags with new releases by Dani- this first one is with her new summer theme kit, Heat Wave. None of my summer/swimming pictures matched the color intensity of the kit so I decided to go with a pic from the Balloon Classic instead. The Balloon Classic is always over Labor Day weekend, so it is most definately associated with summer in our minds.
credits and journaling can be seen HERE.

Dani and Kimberly Giarrusso are re-releasing their July 4th themed kit, Yankee Doodle Candy, at the SweetShoppe for the upcoming summer holiday. I just love the lime green with the traditional red, white, and blue- definately gives it a fun extra punch!
credits and journaling can be seen HERE.

and finally a couple with some gorgeous stuff from the SophiaSarducci shop. The bubble overlays by Antonia Rafaello are great! you can hardly tell where the bubbles in the pictures end and the bubble overlays begin. These are the best ones out there that I have seen.
credits and journaling can be seen HERE.

and we had a little adventure with some strong winds and a robin's nest in a tree in our front yard. I'm not too optimistic about the long term outcome of the adventure since I haven't seen the parents at the nest in a couple of days now. But, we tried. SS had a fabulous grab bag event last week (don't wait, it's ending soon!) and this LO uses a few of the goodies that were in it and the June edition beads.
credits and journaling can be seen HERE.

I am determined to fire up the printer and get some altered things done today. I was hoping to get to them last week, but the writing portion of a couple of assignments took longer than I hoped, and if I don't keep chipping away at the list of things I need to make layouts with I quickly get snowed under in that department. Mark is out of town for the night for a business trip, so I can slack on dinner a bit tonight and spend a bit more time getting messy with crafts.
And speaking of altered items, digicraft chat for June at RAKscraps is tomorrow night. Come join me in the fun for instructions and discussion of this project. I even have sponsor prizes to hand out this month!

There's lots of fun stuff planned for the summer at RAKscraps- we're tying all of the events and challenges together with a movie theme. check it out! And you won't want to miss the tutorial in the June RAKfile that will be coming out at the end of the week- it's a great technique I know you will use again and again ;)

Out and About

We've been out and about a lot this last week. Yesterday was Mark's every other Friday off and we went out on a hike in Red Rock Canyon. It's a fairly easy trail most of the way, but add a 20 pound toddler and 10 pound backpack to your back and things get a mite more difficult. I'm definately sore today. It was a beautiful day, if windy, and we got some nice pics. Mark and the kids were on a mission to find as many wildflowers as they could. We saw about a dozen and Mark was able to identify most of them last night with the help of the internet.

The kids have been going to Vacation Bible School at the church one of my friends attends this last week and have really enjoyed that. Brenna especially liked being able to be a big kid this year and go herself. For today's final wrap-up they had a pancakes and biscuits and sausage gravy breakfast, followed with a concert by the Colorado Wranglers. Several of this group sang for many years at the Flying W Ranch here in town and they always put on a good show. I definately thought it was well worth giving up my sleeping-in morning to have dutch-oven cooked biscuits and gravy and some great cowboy music.
Singing the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" song. Scotty gets dressed up in his squirrel costume for this funny diddy.
We bought a couple more of their CDs so that we could enjoy more of their great western-style cowboy and gospel music. They are singing out at the Ponderosa now, and since we aren't planning any major vacation trips this summer we might just buy some tickets to go enjoy dinner and a show. It sure makes me wish Daddy was still here to enjoy it with me though. This next week was my mom and dad's anniversary, my dad's birthday, and father's day too. I think I'll be needing to keep the box of tissues handy.

we're off to enjoy a BBQ at a neighbor's house. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Very cool tip for PS/PSE users- go check it out!

Christine Smith posted this little tip on her blog last night about the Place command in Photoshop. Very cool! Love that it will put the file name on the layer automatically! http://christinesmithdigital.blogspot.com/2007/06/rock-your-photshop-world.html

It only works for PSCS2 and above. TracyB uses PS7 and it doesn't work for her :(
It works in PSE4 and 5, but not in PSE3. In the case of PSE3 and PS7 and PSCS, the place command only sees 'parsable' file formats (pdf, pdp, ai, and eps) and not jpg and png files that we usually use for digiscrapping.

My LO will be featured on DiscTalkRadio next week

something happened during the show uploading at DiscTalkRadio and they lost the second half of the show for this week, so they have to re-record and my LO will be on next week's show.

more tooting for me!!!

Wow! I have to say that getting emails lately has been a joy LOL! I just got word that my July 4th 2006 Fireworks LO (look in the previous post) will be on the Dishin' the Digi- Coast 2 Coast show on DiScTalkRadio. The show will run from 06/05- 06/11.

Tooting the horn

The dance recital went well. No music goof-ups this time, and the routine went off without a hitch. I was very proud of them tonight. It was a really long evening, it was 3.5 hours of dancing with a 15 minute intermission- and can you believe this was the second evening of recitals? they had the first evening yesterday, and I'm sure it was just as long. The girls were inspired by the advanced tapping groups and are wanting to try out for the Petite Ensemble in the fall, which is an audition tap group. So, I guess I will be looking into when the Petite Prep class will be held this summer and see if it might work into our mish-mash of plans. Ms. Toni said it wasn't necessary to take the prep class to get in, but if they are really serious about wanting to be in it that it would help.

Now that I've tooted the horn for my daughters, I'm going to toot a little for myself. It has been a whirlwind of three weeks. First, I win one of the prizes for my Seamstress ATC at scrapartist. A week ago I am asked to write an article for the digitalscrapbookingartisanguild ezine for July on altered art. That same evening I am asked for permission to use my "Junk is Just Junk" LO in the June Tid-bytes ezine at Scrapbook-bytes. My "Daryl & Anna's Wedding Day" page 1 LO is the scraplift of the week at scrapbookgraphics, and today my Seamstress ATC makes an appearance in the Scrapgypsies June newsletter! I didn't know that was going to happen so I was very pleasantly surprised to open it up and find it there :) I'm not normally one to go around talking about myself, but it has felt really good to get some extra recognition for things I think I do well :)

I'll leave you with some eye candy for what I've been able to to get done this week. Things have been pretty busy, so I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. That seems pretty typical these days LOL
journaling and credits can be seen here

journaling and credits can be seen here

and I seem to have been in a partriotic mood this week, as I have done three fireworks/July 4th related LOs.
journaling and credits can be seen here
journaling and credits can be seen here
journaling and credits can be seen here

I joined the Altered Art Chicks creative team about a month ago, and this last week I was finally able to get my first project done for them. I have a HUGE box of goodies to play with, so there will definately be more of the like coming in the future. You can see more pics of this little album here

Happy Birthday Robin!

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Robin! I hope you have a great day!!

credits: Little Day by Sausan Designs, flower and leaves from Sorta Shabby by Jessica Bolton, both at scrapbookgraphics.com; font: Baby Boston