my garden... oh how I love thee...

So finally... my garden... I love going out and seeing how the veggies are doing... makes me feel like i'm somehow embodied with the spirit of mother earth. In reality-speak: I can't believe I didn't kill these already!
My cucumbers are my 1st loves. They were the first to show me love by showing up, plump and happy. I think that they are the right size for pickling, you know those big, huge 9-inch pickles, but I'm content to pluck one and just eat it in it's natural glorious state.










Then there are my tomatoes... What's not to love? Other than the fact that they are taking forever to ripen that is! I read somewhere that you can eat fried green tomatoes; I think that's a movie name... odd. Anyway, Shayne volunteered to speed up the ripening by digging 3" down and around the plant to kill the plant which will speed up ripening of it's fruit when faced with it's impending death. That's just cruel! He's not even allowed to speak to my tomatoes for suggesting such a thing! He did say that he want's to give a go to Hydroponic tomatoe cultivation for year round tomatoes. I say that I'm not ready to have a greenhouse full of tanks of bobbing tomotoes in my back yard. I'm gonna pass. Anyway, the big green beauties are my first ever Beefsteak Tomatoes, they are supposed to be huge! Then there are the cherry tomatoes, my favorite! I didn't get a good picture of my romas, but they are coming along.










Then we have my zucchini, not a word is said about their phallic nature or the fact that they are growing OUT of their garden boxes. They are delicious, though I've only had one so far (pan grilled with portabella mushrooms and butter... yum!) ... I think I need to make some more of that!

In the presence of extreme cuteness!

I just had to share... is this outfit not freakin' adorable?? I had a little extra time one morning this week and Jo wanted wear here hair down since she'd had it braided most of the week before. Dad didn't like the halter top but I think she worked it! And she even put on some of her Cinderella lipgloss. Would you believe that she went to day care wearing this outfit and came back home without a spot on it? The must have really liked it if they kept her away from the blue paint!

Metaphysical ascension...

Why the change? However subtle?
Because I am ascending the pit of self doubt, and anger...
I woke this morning feeling a bit of a change,
on a metaphysical level that is... I am evolving...

I don't need the black anymore, it served it's purpose in
absorbing all of the negativity that was eating me alive...
Green and it's pastures....

Today I'm feeling... productive... sort of...

So much has happened in the past few days, I don't know where to start!

First, I've talked to dorkfish about garage doors for 2 two days in a row. She won't sell me one, but I'm sure that she had fun hearing me complain about it. I'm still amazed at how she sounds like she's 12 years old on the phone. She's going through a lot right now but she seems to be doing it with style. So much so that she finally got off her arse and finished my CJ... the one from earlier this year, lol! I got that in the mail this past Saturday and it brought tears to my eyes to see it. That's another blog at another time... I don't want to get mushy at work.

Let's see, I cultivated my first zucchini on Saturday, he was just over 9-inches long... get your minds out of the gutter!... I discovered that there about 10 more coming along nicely. I took tons of pictures of my lovely garden as well... of course I forgot to post them... I'll do that later.

I listed some things on the Bay. I need to accumulate $600 by August 20th. Wow, that's a month away. I need to do this for my Chicago trip as I can't rely on any of the 'family' income for this trip. So far I'm at $150... I just need to get off my butt and list things... my MIL's impending visit (that she keeps cancelling) has really been putting a cramp in my power to focus on what I need to do! I'm just going to start throwing things on the Bay and letting the money pile up. Actually, I think that given Paypal's record for deciding to freeze your account for questionable activity once you get a certain amount of money in it, I will transfer the money to my bank and withdraw it... I'll just keep a cash can. Plus that way I won't be tempted to spend it on things I stumble upon... like the set of Zig Markers I got for $30... can't have anymore of that. The good thing is that I have been asked to create a digital scrapbook of the venue for the site that is sponsoring the Chicago meet and greet! Lovely... only I would turn fun into work.

What else? Hmm... I cleaned my ass off yesterday. I got up at the buttcrack of dawn and started cleaning downstairs. I overhauled the kitchen, all that I have left in there is to remove everything from inside of the cabinets and reorganize them. I overhauled the family room and tossed a lot of clutter out, steam cleaned the carpets too. Tristan did laundry all day as well as helped me. Shayne? Oh him... yeah... well, he had to go into work for 6 hours and when he got home he helped sort through all of the clutter in the family room until he decided that his tummy hurt and he couldn't do anything but go take a nap. So I finished the room myself. The boys are putting all of the newly cleaned and dusted furniture back... before I get home infact... or they'd better not be in the state. Tonight, I'm scrubbing down the 3 bathrooms and clearing my boxes of Ebay ripe stuff out of the upstairs hallway. There is something refreshing about having a hallway with nothing in it.

Lastly, I went to the football team meet and greet on Friday. It was alright. Shayne of course made it unbearable with his lack of planning or consideration for the comfort of his family. He only brought 1 adult lawn chair and 1 chair for Jo. So imagine how much fun it was eating.

On a serious note... I really need to put forth a lot more dedication to working out. I'm tired of being heavy. I am 5ft 9" tall... I can carry a lot of weight well enough, but I don't want to carry a lot of weight. Now that the family room carpet has been steam cleaned, I should be able to do my floor excercises with little complaint... It was filthy! I can't believe that the boys don't clean up after themselves! I showed Shayne the dirty opaque water and he just shrugged! 6 months worth of spilled coffee, soda and lord knows what else! I am so getting lighter colored carpet soon! The dark green color lets them get away with too much!

Anyhoo! I guess I go and finish up my work here so that I can maximize my goofoff time later. No scrapping tonight I predict... I still have to make a card, but it has just gotten easier to not scrap... I did come up with a few cool sketches though!

...

Scrapping Hiatus... progress report...

It's now been almost 4 weeks since I've scrapped anything. How am I feeling?

Scared:
I've now gotten used to being surrounded by scrap stuff and not indulging. I want to go back to scrapbooking, but everyday that I don't jump back in, it gets easier to think about not going back. Mind you, there is no way in this fuzzy blue planet that I'd let my stash go to waste! I WILL return, I'm just afraid that it will be like starting over. I really want to get my hands on the Deluxe Designs Pages by Design Template kit! I've run out of sketch ideas, yup... tapped out at 45 sketches! If I had that I'd at least be able to play with the notion of scrapbooking more.

Still a little Angry:
I put myself out there and poured myself into someplace...and I got kicked in the teeth. I am getting over that but that doesn't mean that I don't still feel a little tingle of anger when I think of all that I could've brought to the site had I been given half of a chance. But honestly, if my personality is not understood, I guess that means that I'm not meant to be allowed into the "family". Oneday, when I grow up, I'm going to let go of this juvenile need for acceptance and validation. Until then, I'll deal with my anger. Oneday, store owners will understand and be able to differentiate between a person committed to a site and a person committed to a DT call. The easiest way to tell that is by how much they put into the site during and after the call. Nothing makes me angrier than to see a site where the newly appointed DT have reduced the frequency of their presence on the site down to the bare minimum, meanwhile the loyalists brush the dust off and try to find reasons to stay on the site that decided that they couldn't do as much for the place as the "popular" scrappers. See... told you I still felt some anger.

Giddy:
This whole thing has taught me that I can have some control over my hobby. I put it on a shelf and despite it's constant crying and begging, I've kept it in it's timeout. Control means a lot to me; I need to have it, without it I lose myself. I came dangerously close last month, I don't intend to do that again. I'm happy that I can now spend time focused on something else. I'm glad that I have found a renewed interest in my book club. I'm glad that I've found time to walk with my son and play with my daughter. I'm glad that when I'm feeling tired, I can just waddle my arse into the bedroom and go to sleep without having to worry about deadlines. I'm ecstatic that there are a handful of people who wish me well and want me to return, they are my lifeline; they are what keeps the possibilities open.

In all, I've learned quite a bit about myself in the past few weeks. I want to learn so much more and I want to get so much more done. This week I am going to focus on over hauling my house so that when I do step back into paper creativity, I won't be distracted by any guilt related to my inability to keep a clean house. The most important thing that I've learned is that scrapbooking doesn't have to be all encompassing and that friends can exist outside of their commonalities.

Sweet Rewards...

Well, I had a pretty productive weekend, if I do say so myself!

I kicked it off by talking to an acquaintence that I think is now safely upgraded to "friend" status. She lives in Indiana and she is just as sweet and funny as can be. We are driving up to Chicago together next month. She has been having some financial and medical issues and needed a shoulder, which I gladly lent. We are pretty alike in some regards and she thinks Tristan and Jo are just to die for... did I meantion that she is safely tucked away in Indiana? lol

Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market with one of the ladies from work. I took Jo with me because I try to avoid leaving her alone in the presence of a lot of testosterone. We had fun once she got used to Karen and accepted her fate. She was like a little tigger; bouncing all over the place and having a ball. A good time was had by all and I will never in my life, EVER spend $40 on just produce again!

Sunday, well I got Shayne up super early to start cleaning the garage. He tried to pick fights with me a few times, but I knew right from the start that he was looking for a way to get out of doing his share. He finally conceded that I wasn't going to let him off that easy when he uttered (with much provocation in mind) that I just liked to make his life difficult and that's why he never wanted to do anything with me. I was like, "oh yeah? ... well, sorry about you luck dude... take this out to the garbage please". So we accomplished cleaning 1/2 of the garage... then it got too hot to be cooped up in that room... so I went outside. If I am nothing else, I'm ass backwards.
So I commenced to spending 8 hours in my veggie garden. I weeded and I weed whacked. I picked raspberries, and thinned the raspberry bushes after I'd gotten all I wanted from them.
I mowed around the beds and put down black plastic tarp to kill everything growing between my raised beds (Next week we will 2 tons of small pebbles delivered and they will be dumped on the plastic between the beds... it'll make for a nice little garden area don't you think? The one thing that really surprised me was the tomatoes. The other was my cukes. I knew the tomatoes were flowering last week. Well yesterday I discovered that they had gone well beyond just flowering. I have about 30-40 Beefstakes (green of course) on the vine, about 20 Romas and well, I refuse to count the cherry tomatoes! I can't believe I'm going to have my own home grown tomatoes soon! I feel so "mother earthy"! The other surprising thing was my ignorance when it comes to cucumbers. I didn't know that the darned things grow under the leaves. So I thought that my cucumbers were just not taking this year. Well while cleaning up the weeds in the middle of the box, I inadvertantly rested my hands on a nice fat one (which poked me) ! I lifted up a bunch of vines to discover that I have about 40 of those babies partying under the leaves! I picked some of the largest ones and ran (not walked) indoors to get a taste. It was THE best cucumber I've had in a while; no funky after taste, no pesticides, no wax! It was juicy and awesome... even better when cold! I can't wait to have a cuccumber sandwhich when I get home! Cream cheese and dill... here I come! I also discovered a zucchini, but only one of those, so we shall see! I'll try my hand at photographing veggies and post them here.

So all in all, I had a great weekend... and I'm walking like a stiff scarecrow to prove it. Tonight, I will have a fantastic time in my kitchen... I'll be armed with nothing but a bottle of cleanser and a toothbrush! It's supposed to be 100 degrees today, so I am going to try to get it done super fast so I can retreat to my airconditioned bedroom.

Oh... and Shayne is putting a window AC unit in my scrap room! Isn't that sweet? 4 new units came with the house when we bought it 3 years ago... (neither of us care for central air) but we got new windows a few weeks later so we've only really needed 1 of them. Well, with the tree gone in the back and the front of the house, now we have a lot of sun exposure, so with heat comes discomfort. It's going to be really nice to scrap in cool comfort... thought I know I'll be sick within a week of getting it...something about airconditioning makes me ill. I'll deal with it.

A shift in trends?

I was thumbing through my Creating Keepsakes mag yesterday and I noticed that their usually trend saturated layouts are changing. What's up with that? I thought that doodling was the new it and anyone not desiring to scribble on their layouts were shunned but I saw that the majority of the layouts were non-doodle layouts. Is this their way of moving away from the E. Flannigan flourishy style? or is there something new on the horizon that we are yet to find out about.

I did notice that hand written journaling and journaling period is making a comeback. I like that, it's making scrapbooking more personal. Tristan, my resident 10yr. old scrapbooking expert was looking as some of my idea books and he asked me point blank, "why bother do all of this if you aren't telling a story?". My little avid reader loves to read my thoughts of him, his sister, the moment, what ever... as long as there is a story. I too noticed that when I took my books to VA my family would skim past any layouts that didn't have journaling right out where they could see it and stopped to read every word that i'd wrotten (for the ones with hidden journaling.. well it was hidden because I didn't want just anyone reading it). I guess he has a point, but I can also make a good argument for layouts that feature pictures that speak for themselves. Sometimes words just muddy the waters... try explaining that to a 10 year old!

I'm selling my husband.
If anyone needs a techno-geek with a good sense of humor, let me know. I personally am tired of living in a pig sty and having him contribute to it on a daily basis. So... I'm accepting any offer over $.25.

I need to clean my house, clean sweep style. I'm tired of the clutter, I'm tired of the boxes of stuff that we'll never use. I'm going to just start in one room and start moving stuff into piles; KEEP, SELL, and TOSS. My goal is to have the toss stuff tossed, the sell stuff sold on Ebay or donated to charity and the keepers kept in their place! That's it! I'm done! No more! I have a 2300sq.ft home and there is disorder and chaos in all of the rooms! ALL OF THEM! Seriously... how hard can it be to put a magazine back in the rack when you are done sitting your duff on the throne? And how about replacing the toilet paper rolls... not sitting another roll on top of the empty one?

Okay... I'm done ranting... for now...

Good Morning by the way!

I'm all ready to go... and waiting...

My mother-in-law just postponed yet another visit. I would rejoice but I'm really getting tired of putting my house and family through the rigors of keeping the house rediculously clean. You see, my mother-in-law is a not so neat and organized person. If my house isn't clean, she'll take it as a get out of jail free card and leave her her stuff all over the place... if the house is clean she usually restricts the damage to the bedroom that she is sleeping in. This is important to me.

Anyway, I finished putting everything away and getting to know my stuff in my craft room. It was pretty hard fondling everything but not being able to come up with any ideas for how to use them at the moment. It is my biggest fear that I'm going to wind up with a creativity block if I don't scrap everyday... but that's another bridge over another river.

So... i will share the unveiling of my new (improved?) craft space. First... a before picture:
**Click to enlarge if you really want to see my junk... Jenn... no peeking**










As you can see, I was pretty cramped with the sewing machine crammed over by the tv, and any sewing would mean that the kids couldn't watch any tv at all because my big butt would be the main attraction! OH... and these pictures are sans new computer...














Now I have my computer, desk and sewing machine all aligned and out of the the way!
I didn't do much with the drafting table other than adding those cute black and white caddies ($3.50 each on clearance!) they are perfect for my metalgrams and foam stamps! All of the paper that used to sit on the table has been migrated to my bookshelf...














And there is my beloved sewing machine... I have to blow the dust off of it, but I will be a sewing fiend by this weekend! Ain't my computer pretty? It's the main reason that I get so little scrapping done! It's evil! If you look close enough, you'll see the little horns and pitchfork... bad bad computer! bad!

and lastly, my shelf, out of the way and shelves bowing under the weight of all of my crap... but most importantly is the little cubby that I made for the television that allows the kids to watch cartoons to their hearts content, without the intrusion of my posterior region.

So I guess that settles it... I'm ready to go when I get ready to go huh? Now if I could just down size a bit more... less clutter makes Jae' a happy scrapper.

Benadryl... do not take while sleeping... & a mental update.

I was having a really good dream in which Shayne and I were sitting on the porch talking about something. It was a good dream because we were communicating and there was no tension or ill will to speak of. The odd thing is that I kept feeling something scratching me and I repeatedly told Shayne (in dream mode) to stop scratching me, even though he was across the room. Anyway, the scratching persisted and I finally snapped and yelled for him to stop scratching me.
He opened his mouth in utter shock and said "Mommy wake up", only his voice was Jo's voice.

... needless to say, I woke up to find my littlest midget trying (and failing) to get herself onto my king sized bed. The poor thing resorted to scratching my arm and leg to wake me up because that was all she could reach. So, of course I picked her up and went back to sleep cuddling her little sleepy body.

Moments like that make me so thankful to have been allowed to be a mother.

It was a benadryl night (I broke out in hives yet again, all over my hands) so Shayne had to make sure that I got up when he got home. Sitting here now thinking about how he game me a little kiss, told me to wake up and then pulled me out of bed with such gentleness makes me regret all of the vile, evil (hey! same letters!) things that I wished on him for forgetting to clean up his grilling mess the evening before. I'm sure he'll set me straight by leaving another mess for me to clean up... so I'm not going to mull over that for very long.

Tristan, love of my life, my genetic copy, my walking, talking, living, breathing garbage disposal, well he has suddenly increased his interest in scrapbooking. He spends hours just studying my stash and telling me how awesome my scrapbooking is. He asked last night (at about 11pm!) if he could make a page... the Benadryl said heck no!). But tonight I will surprise him after our walk (4 miles a day baby!) and give him some pictures to scrap. I think he will love it. Providing it's not as hot as I think it's going to be up there. As good sign that I am on the right track is the fact that I'm not twitching at the thought of him going through my stash or him using my Bazzill.
I WANT to share this with him, if he gets nothing else from me, I would like him to at least get that. Why is he so interested in scrapbooking though? Somebody please tell me?

I also gave serious thought to giving up scrapbooking for good (on the 4mile walk, all types of life altering thoughts come to mind). I know that I am on the right track to do just that, especially since it is getting easier and easier to not be on the computer at night. I only peek in on Scrapitude and answer any pm's that I get from acquaintances on other sites. Online scrapbooking has left me with a bad aftertaste, but I know that I have to go back. I guess this is
what one would call Step 1?

The way I see it, it's going to be a 4 step process:

Step1: Break my dependency on the online community. Get it out of my system and learn to find interest in my un-cyber life. Figure out how things went so bad and how to emotionally disconnect myself from my need for acceptance.

Step2: Reorganize your priorities to maximize the time that I now have to do other things. Focus on other projects that have been back burnered and work on remembering why I started scrapbooking.

Step3: Fit scrapbooking back into my life, but not as a number 1 (or 2, or 3, or 6) priority. Scrap for myself, my family and my friends. Don't share with any both the people who are invited into my sphere (if you are reading this, consider your invitation served). Get reacquainted with my style and learn to follow my heart while scrapping.

Step4: Return to the online community. Again, doing so doesn't move scrapbooking up on my priority list, instead I have to manage my allotted scrapbook time to allow online playing. Submit if I must, but I probably won't submit for any calls or contests for a while.

It's been 2 weeks since I've scrapped anything. I still have 2 unfinished layouts waiting for finishing touches, but I just can't bring myself to touch them while I am in emotional turmoil; they will be a labor of love and I don't want them tainted with bad juju. When you see them, you'll understand why.

So how when I know that I'm ready to return? When I can feel in my heart that scrapping is a hobby and a gift to my family and friends. When I no longer feel the need to garner approval or self worth through my pages. When I can scrap what I want to, how I want to without asking myself how 'others' will see it.

Will this every happen? Jeepers I hope so! I have 40+ packages of adhesive to abuse!

I'm sooo stoked!

I recieved a huge box in the mail today!

I scored a huge lot of adhesives and tearing edge rulers on Ebay! Look what $124 can buy!


































I was down to my last box of herma dotto when I hit my slump... now I'm ready to go when ever I start up again. Some women get giddy over diamonds.... I'm ready to squeal over adhesive... scrapper at heart...

Of course, that means that I've blown all of my scrap stash fundage... time to make somemore!

Ch..ch...ch...changes....

What a weekend!
I got pretty much nothing done that I NEEDED to get done...
but I accomplished a lot that I WANTED to get done!

Number one on my list was improving the energy flow in my creative space. SOooo...
I pulled the sewing machine out of it's cluttered corner and propped it on a desk that I brought BACK upstairs (it was just collecting junk downstairs) and sat the whole shabang next to my workdesk/hutch. Now I can sew without hinderance... I can't wait to see how this changes my scrapping since the sewing machine in now 18" away as opposed to across the room in a hard to get my fat butt into corner.

On a serious note... I need to declutter my life. I think that doing that will make it easier to deal with all of the day to day bs that I have to deal with. I want to have a nice uncluttered house that is easy to digest visually! Even my sewing room is a picture of organized clutter. I started off having my living room as the only uncluttered space, now that is cluttered as well because people just like to drop their junk where space is available.

I know I can't do it alone but it's looking more and more like I'm going to have to. I can't get back into any types of hobbying until I free the energy flow in my house...

I guess I should just go ahead and sell it all then...

...4th of July... let's not and say we did...

The 4th was pretty much a bust as far as activities went. We went to Walmart... we went to a very pitiful Bay Days Carnival (way overpriced and the rides looked a little lax on the upkeep) and we cooked out. My city decided not to host fireworks this year, so that was pretty disappointing for the kids.

The big story is the 4 hours of awful thunderstorms that had everyone on edge from midnight - 4am! It was an on hard and fast for 35 minutes then off for a very silent 10-15 min. type of deal.. all I could think of was the possibility of a tornado touching down! Of course 4 hours of downpour made for very over zealous mosquitos the next day, so poor Jo has clusters of bug bites on her legs, despite the OFF! that we doused her with.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Saturday, the neighbors' idiot son backed his car into our fence! Thanks to my EasyShare I was able to get pictures of the incident right after it happened and the 3 laughing teens who went to survey the damage after the moved the car to the front of the house, and the damage to the fence that Shayne was reluctant to investigate. I'm almost certain that if they hadn't seen me out there with my camera minutes after the incident, they wouldn't have confessed to their lady that I assume was the mother. As it was, she showed up at our door a few hours later with kids in tow to apologize and offer to fix out fence. Alls well that ends well.

I ready Dave Pelzer's book yesterday "A Child called It" I believe it was called... it broke my heart and made me much more aware of how easily some can slip into abusive behaviour and the impact that that can have on a child. It also stirred up a desire in me to kick his mom's teeth in, but that's violent J talking. The fact that that little boy grew up to be a successful man with a family of his own and a message to share, well that just amazes me, he could've allowed his abuse to destroy him and he didn't. It took 3 hours for me to read it... it was that riveting and painful. Now I have to read the sequels. Another good book is "Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold, but I would only reccomend it to those who can stomache the reality of our violent world.

I guess I can't really complain about the time that I got to spend with my family, but I had hoped for something more... memorable and a little less disappointing for the kids.

...all in the name of smaller butts...

4.5 miles...
That's how far I walked today. Speedwalked rather. While pushing a jogger stroller. Tristan complained all the way to the school where we stopped for 30minutes for playtime. Then he complained about the extended route that I chose back home... even though it took us past a convenience mart where I bought them some drinks and chips for the rest of the mile back home.

How do I feel now?
Like somebody beat the crap out of me! I know that I did a good thing for my quest for thighs that don't touch... but damed! I have to keep moving because when I let my thighs rest they rebel when I try to mobilize again. You'd think that they would want to stop bumping up against each other. I'm not giving up though... I love feeling like I've done something productive. Much more productive that the little mile that I was doing everyday at work. I swear once I reach my goal I will never go back to this! If I so much as think of eating something that will put fat back on thighs I'll smack the taste out of my own mouth!



























On another note, I miss scrapbooking. I've come close to breaking a couple of times this weekend but I've set goals for myself and I'm going to stick with them. To appease my urge I bought an entire set of Plaid Tearing Edge Rulers and a bunch of adhesive on Ebay. It's hard to not scrap when I get to take pictures like this, but at least it gives me something to look forward to.

I think that next on my list is to go transparent with my layout template system. I currently have a cardstock system set up to help me figure out my layouts, but I like the one that Deluxe Designs has set up using transparent templates... might as well since I have time on my hands right?

Whirlwind weekend...

I wonder where my so called long weekend has gone? Here it is, already Monday morning and I am feeling like I haven't accomplished much-though the sand in my hourglass is rapidly vacating.

So what DID I do?

FRIDAY: I went to the grocery store-with 2yr in tow- right after work, came home to a dinner partially prepared and a husband who already had one foot out the door. After a lovely grilled chicken, corn nibblet and cheesy garlic toast dinner (completed by moi), I started laundry and tried to set my mind in order. We finally settled down and watched Nanny McPhee which was extremely entertaining... Highly recommended for anybody with young impressionable kids who don't listen, lol.

SATURDAY: Didn't do much as Shayne worked the night before and having come in at 6am he wasn't much for family festivities till at least noon. Tristan went to his first ever swimming pool party... tons of fun was had by all... we sat on our duffs and watched some meaning less TV shows until we got brave enough to go and work in the garden which was being visited by a very angry sun.

SUNDAY: After much debate and frustration, I decided to treat Tristan to a couple of Matinee's at the theater down the way. We took in the 11:15 showing of Superman Returns (excellent) and the 2:15 showing of X-Men:Final Battle (also excellent!) right afterwards. After the theater, we hit the Dollar Tree on our way home... I hit the proverbial jackpot let me tell you!















They had a lovely shipment of Miss Elizabeth Alpha Rubons and metal tags and brads in this time, so of course, always preparing for my return to scrapbooking, I indulged! The rubons are all on 4.5 x 14" sheets, the Chunky Alphas are just under 1.5" at their largest (letter D) and 3/4" at the smallest. The Tiny Alphas are about 1/2". I think they were a bargain at $1 per pack (The Chunky and Random white came with A-N on one sheet and M-Z on a second sheet, so they were actually $2 for the complete alphabet ... still a bargain!

TODAY: Well... I have to go look for my new running sneakers, grab the jogger stroller and go for quick walk before the sun pops out and looses it's mind again.... so I guess I should do that.
Shayne decided to work this morning because they are going to pay employees triple time (NOT triple time and a half) to for every hour worked today... the building is going to be opened for 12 hours he's going to work 8 and then come back home. Pretty awesome getting paid for 24hours in an 8hour day and we will used the proceeds from this day to finish the front patio.

Okay... off for my walk...more later!