I've been tagged

Thanks Laura...remind me again NOT to read your blog ;) Ok so to answer quickly:

the 7 songs I am listening to recently:

1. how to save a life- the fray
2. Bad Day- daniel something
3. London Bridge- fergie
4. My Humps- Black eyed peas
5. Hollaback Girl- Gwen Stefani
6. everyday - dave matthews band
7. avril lavenge (spelled probably totally wrong...but I love her stuff)

YUM-o and other ramblings

EVOO- who knew? I've been watching Rachael Ray now on daytime and I've never watched her before..but man we just had a condensed version of her Ravioli Lasagna and YUM-o it was delish....I can't wait for Kev to try it!!!!!

I am going to be ordering her books now..love the 30 min dinner ideas..so up my alley!

What have we been up to? An impromptu visit to Herrin to visit my dad who was doing poorly..he's still in the hospital...I took all of his bills...visited his house and got him set up to come here for rehab (hopefully)...I left him in the VA there - confused and dazed and hopefully will have him near us soon..it's SO frustrating to deal with a loved one's medical care from hours away :(

I did manage to scrap ONE page while I was there...am I in a giving mood to SNEAK peek an upcoming kit? Hmmm....

My type A Personality

LOL

You Have A Type A- Personality

You are one of the most balanced people around Motivated and focused, you are good at getting what you want You rule at success, but success doesn't rule you. When it's playtime, you really know how to kick back Whether it's hanging out with friends or doing something you love! You live life to the fullest - encorporating the best of both worlds

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Yep it's true...AG got 7 inches cut off her beautiful head. Why? Am I nuts? I am of course nuts..that goes without saying...BUT my baby kept scratching herself - in sleep, during the day and if her nails were even a little long she'd scratch it raw...when I figured it out her back was a series of little jabs and nail marks and all red and bloody. So what's a Mom to do? I took her in finally and asked them to cut it to her shoulders. Now I did almost cry! And Katie DID cry but what can you do? She loves it shorter and still scratches her back like a cat on the carpet, bed, etc when she's getting changed but I'm hoping in time she's not doing it in her sleep anymore.

Just to be safe I switched out all of our detergents at home too and the only thing left to take out of the mix is our OxyClean which I adore...so we'll see if it works with Tide Free first!

In other news...my life.....a mess...I'm somehow the liasion for my Dad during this latest health crisis..except he's not doing well at all. He's in a nursing/rehab facility right now but is currently not making ANY sense and is kind of out of his mind and he's constantly thinking things are happening that aren't and consequently is getting up and ripping out his wound vac (he had to have a toe amputated due to a staph infection- complications from diabetes)....and then FALLING..thankfully he's only ripped open skin at this point..but my gosh!

Anyway I never realized how hard it is to manage someone's healthcare with no advance directives..with only a POA document he signed upon going into the hospital 2 mos ago and that I still haven't seen...and being 6 HOURS away (12 hours round trip)...we are making another trip out to his place this weekend to deal with all of this..and I might have to retain an attorney now. I'm so annoyed. He hasn't payed any bills (i'll be doing that) and all this other stuff.

My brothers have been as helpful as they can be...but when dad's lucid he demands I handle it all..not them. Annoys me to death too.

Anyway if I am not around that is why. It sucks up every minute it seems...I'm either on the phone...or getting called or emailing my family updates...scary when you have to say update #2 and list a date. *meaning multiple updates throughout the day*

And this past weekend Kev's company rented out Six Flags...it turned out to be a beautiful day for going...the kids all got to ride on rides..AG went on her first roller coaster- the kiddie one and hated it...pretty funny considering she only wanted to ride the batman adult one :) But she loves rides....and kept saying that was most awesome or GUACAMOLE (short for Holy Guacamole!)

She also was too funny at Scarf and Barf after (Steak and Shake LOL)- she asked her daddy for some Uglin Rings...(onion rings- she calls onions UGlins) and he said I thought you didn't like Uglin's...and she told him..Daddy (patiently like explaining it to the simple minded LOL)- I don't like Uglins but I like uglin rings...makes perfect sense to me!

Katie went on big roller coasters....I refused to let her go on Superman and Viper and a few others but she did the Eagle, Whizzer and some Cajun one. Fun..she's a thrill seeker..must get that from her Uncle Tom. I went on more rides than I ever have and my neck hurts to prove it but I hate coasters!

Mikey is just like me..nothing too spinny or roller coasters and the poor guy was too TALL for the kid rides so he was bummed out.

Here ya go with some photos! :)
Doesn't even seem too short now does it? But it is! :) Ok I had two more to show ya but you'll have to see em scrapped..stupid blog....I'm about to switch to a PAID one if this keeps up....
Anyway the one was of anna putting her hand in front of my camera telling me NO more pictures LOL and the other was a group shot of the kidlets :)

One more

sorry gotta share it..my fave layout lately..but also one other for the girls..they'll know who they are.....but this is what scrapbooking is and how it works withOUT photos on a page also :) Ok so this is it..my work...the bliss layout is one I did for my brother and his new wife....I can't wait to help them get it together actually! :)



Enjoy.....if I do this gift album I'd do it as below...not to be confused with the quilt project :) Thanks!

Death to Smoochy

or death by layouts ;) I have a few more I want to share...not sure which ones to start with. And this blog is acting tempermental. Kev got a new toy..that's one layout I need to share and lucky you- it just HAPPENS to be a sneak peek of an upcoming kit! And then one on our trip to the apple orchard..fun time...it really was a wonderful day..and then a layout of Katie that I fussy cut again and my new favorite layout :) Hmm I'll do them in bits and pieces maybe :)

Depending on how much y'all nag me!

Hmm do I share more than one here? Do I huh, huh? Do I sound like Bonni? Do I ? LOL it's the curls..we can't help how we are you know!

Ok maybe ONE more for now..which one..decisions, decisions.... ok so this is the one I meant..with more fussy cutting...it also shows you that colors are not just boy/girl ones..this paper just screamed to me to be put with this photo..probably cause her jacket is beige ;) So my night tonight...well it's GREY's anatomy and I stupidly scheduled us to work. Duh! :) But we'll muddle through and I've tivo'd it...I love my PVR (for us Dish network ppl) what did I do with the tv before I could pause it? LOVE it! We've been swamped in preorders arriving all the time..I can't wait til we can catch our breath a little....and we totally rearrange the store..I mean moved tons of stuff and everything's a jumble these days..can't wait to get some more organization done down there! Ok that's it for now..will sign on again in a few days with more sneaks :)

Wanna a sneak?

Hmm should I? It's a blackmail pic of my eldest :) But it's so dang cute..poor kid..ok I will...it's an upcoming novie kit :) Loving it! isn't she stinking cute? I'm a lucky mom! :)

Be Original

That's all I'm saying...a recent layout I did that totally rocks..I can say that since it took me HOURS to cut all of it..thanks JESS :) So that's fussy cutting! And believe me I got pretty dang fussy with it. Where I have been? Well it's been an eventful month so I will try and summarize :)

Around 8/20 my dad entered the VA hospital system in a different state....what a horrid experience...he's doing much better and the great news is that today they are transporting him BACK to the VA hospital near his house in Marion, IL. I've had nothing but calls to make the whole time he was there....his belongings got stolen (cell phone, clothes, checkbook, wallet, etc) and I've been arguing with them up to today to try and get it resolved. They think I am going away..no one bothered to tell them tenacious is my middle name! :) So then Kev went to Vegas..and what happens in Vegas so does NOT stay in Vegas...cause if it did he'd not have brought back his stomach flu last week..this 1 week after the last flu he gave me (notice a trend? I do! ;) Anyway he came home on a friday after a week away and I honestly thought we'd have a romantic evening. Let me preface this by saying..three kids...so getting them all in bed was trying to get my planets aligned correctly and Pluto not being a planet anymore....it took some doing.

So set scene: Kids in bed..me getting a nice apple dessert together (folks mind out of the gutter..it was apple crisp..not a code word ) ....and then I get "the" call....he's sick and oh btw..he's spewed all over his car...um ok..he said he did not want me touching it..to just leave stuff out on the porch. Which I did and had a little pity party for the fact that I'd not be getting anything but vomit...maybe even shedding a few tears ;) And then I pulled myself up by my bootstraps (not those kinds of boots..geez Bonni..knock it off...figuratively speaking) and put a jacket on over my sexy lingerie (yes this time it's the real mcCoy) and cleaned his car. Ugh. And double ugh. In vents, down steering column. Anyway. About 1 1/2 days later..guess who gets it. That's the thanks I get. I begged him next trip to please leave all souvenirs there ;)

I managed to steal Anita's mojo (scrapping) that is and now I've done a few good layouts..i'll upload them here and there

More from me in a bit!

How we've spent our fall time so far...

school's been back for one week...we managed to take them out of school last tues to go hear Uncle Tommy play on navy pier...isn't Tom's girl Nic a beauty? She's a doll too in personality! We all love Aunt Cole :)

anyway it was dreary and cold and rainy but me, mom, riss and the kids braved the rain to meet up w/Tom, Nic and Dave's wife Vicky there...it was good to see her..she looked great too....but I think by then it was raining harder and I put the camera away...but my brother's camera has lots of pics of all of us because the kids took over the camera :) That's always scary...Vicky and I were laughing about them shooting our nose hairs...:)

Tom played a great 2 sets and then we headed back to our little town an hour away..thank goodness Mom drove as I was beat....this weekend we headed to Herrin, Il where my dad lives to pretty much scrub his house clean. :( He's in the VA hospital with some serious medical issues (what else is new) and we tried to convince him to sell the house and move back up by us. The 6 hour drive (one way) is killing all of us..but I don't think we made any headway :(

That's about it here..I have to head to the grocery store possibly or at least out to lunch...and then I hope to come back and scrap this afternoon...I owe Laura pages for Dennis's album but I really want to scrap something personally for me too...sigh Nothing like guilt.....hopefully I can accomplish both!

The last time I scrapped it wasn't my own pics. :) Ok that is it for me...headcing out here soon!
isn't this one just screaming for a layout? LOL I had just said no pizza...mean mommy- of course nice nana caved! 2 times I might add!

You know it's bad/Lia Sophia/and Katie's first dance!

when they make you do word verification when you click on image and give me some bs about how I might be hijacking this blog ROFLMBO Oh man..maybe I should quit..nah......

So Mom is selling Lia Sophia jewelry...if you'd like to do a party of her please email her or me....she's at siggy2@sbcglobal.net She loves what she does and I love the jewelry. I just did a show for her and earned $300 worth of jewelry..and you can do a book party too!

And the last thing..Katie had her FIRST boy/girl dance for the whole middle school 2 days after she started...I was hyperventilating as was another mom..we sent them off together..with strict rules and another mom there watching them ;) And of course SHE loved it...me- not so much. Not looking forward to the next few years!

so it worked finally

and I wasn't gonna be picky kwim? So no zoo pic...look for it online on a layout some time :) This is K's first day of MIDDLE school...wah wah sob sob..I mean it was as hard sending her as it was to kindergarten the first time...why is that???????! Also the bus arrives here at 6:41 am...you've gotta be KIDDING me..that's gonna make for a fun year right? She already missed it one day when the bus driver decided to come earlier and just start the route....I had quite a few choice words for them when I called them :)
Mikey..my middle guy...Grubtart all cleaned up..he looked so HANDsome his first day...you'll notice in layouts he had two different shirts on...he had to change because his breakfast was WIPED onto his shirt...grr....it was also hard to let him go..the little guy at the bus stop without his big sister to watch out for him... I worry about him constantly.
And little tootsie here...this was after I told her she wasn't going to school this year..her response after this..."duh Mo-om I am TOO going to school this year...WITH Mikey". Poor thing...she's not even going to preschool because she refuses to enter a class without me or apparently Mikey now. She's handling the adjustment well I think...thank goodness! ;)

Apparently I am sucking up

all the server power with my photo uploading because now it's acting wonky again..here's the zoo pic and some others...if it works I'll come back in and edit what y'all are looking at! :)

Playgroup fun

We are finally getting our act together to actually be at a playgroup..we belong to two groups now for parents who adopted internationally...and we've made it to all of one playgroup outing..our Chinese New Year's Party in Feb I think? That's a bad, bad track record right?

Well I found a unique way to make sure you attend at least one more outing- HOST it ;) Here you can see Anna being oh-so-sweet to push one of her little friends on a swing....what you do NOT see is that for some reason Anna dislikes the younger kids and babies and walks around being mean to this innocent angel. Yep my kid a bully..great...she got a timeout at playgroup. I am so glad we aren't adopting again..how to explain that the baby that you are terrified of is now your sister? LOL She's literally terrified of our neighbor's baby.....what is the deal ? She's also afraid of trees and bushes...our future trip to the aboretum should be a blast

Seriously we had a ton of kids here and after the house looked like toys threw up all over but it was FUN...I can't wait til our next outing!

Oh and we took the kids to the zoo...we have a membership....it's great fun! We are going to renew too...but here they are with Katie's best friend after jumping onto the polar bear :)

Sick of me yet?

now we get to Tall Ship Festival and the fountains of Navy Pier...I've scrapped a few of these..will have to share a latest layout or two also huh? I'm a little behind. I've done my layouts for the 3 scrappers, 3 ways of Freakie's..but I'm not allowed to share those...I've also done the auction layout that Joan won but alas I haven't scanned that one yet.

And may I say I surprised myself..because she sent me dreaded WINTER pics...the pics themselves..adorable but I am not a winter girl. So therefore I jumped out of my comfort zone to do them.

Ok, ok the Tall Ship Festival..find August to read about it..sorry I'm not retyping..just sharing photos of it!

Some of my faves if you will!

This little cutie

almost got Kev to say he wanted to adopt again...but we are pretty much on the no track again. I keep waffling too. SIGH...the timing is all wrong right now..but I'd love to go back.

This is our friends' new adorable baby! :) Her big sister is from AnnaGrace's town..and we all adopted together there.....made for a nice reunion. You can see the three girls below :) The big sister also shares AnnaG's bday and wore AnnaG's baptism gown at her baptism....which was from China...following all that?

Anyway we hosted and had one big family stay with us..it was a riot..and amazingly calm considering the parents were outnumbered by kids two to 1 :)

We took them to Riverwalk near us...it was nice to walk around..I'd like to do that again when we have time to visit the fountains, etc

We can't wait to see how everyone's grown in a year or so!

More CHA stuff

Hey I am behind...this dumb blog was broken forEVER! Here are some more. I particularly love Linda fondling MY personal scrap stuff LOL

For the first time ever I brought Katie with me....she was a wildwoman doing make and takes with Mom for the first day..by day 2 she was WORN out and bored. :) She hung out with Jess (I think her personal idol!) and had a great time though overall.

The Chatterbox Guys were so jealous that we kept taking pics w/the My Mind's Eye Guys..so we had to share the love :) Even Jess got out from BEHIND the camera on that one...

I think we even broke Linda of thinking how much fun it was!


I love the picture of the DT...I must have been working on that first order with Janet at Am Crafts at the time. It's amazing how stressed I am and it's only the first booth. Of course the bagpipe playing dudes walking through scared the beejesus out of me as did my mom after she picked up her motorized cart..she came whipping around the corner on TWO wheels....Lance was having a laughing fit over the site of her yelling..outta my way ;)

Overall a fun time...I was with a HUGE entourage so I didn't get to spend as much time with any of them that'd I have liked to. CHA is a horrid busy time for me with placing orders and such but at least there is plenty to see and do to amuse yourselves...right? I hope? LOL

Kung Fu Grip

yep it's the man who caused us to have a giggle fest at 2am during CHA....what can I say..we are easily amused, no?

:) HOLY cannoli it worked..I get images again..consider this a warning..it's gonna be a photo fest for a while now ;)

well it's official

no matter what I do I can't get the *(&%&% image uploaded..something is odd in Denmark...so you get me in all my glory writing. BORING ;) Bonni said she couldn't believe I updated....HA she never does her blog.....

I cleaned my scrap desk this past week...got a big ol box to donate and labeled everything. Did that stop me from loading up on new stuff? Heck NO...I've got Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket and Heidi Swapp filling my drawers..it's all so pretty. Anna has her own drawer now and loves to "scrap" with me. She told Jess- scrapping makes me happy.... LMBO The kid has got it honestly at least!

She's SO funny lately. I mean just so much fun to be around. Knock on wood she's in her own room after I lay down with her at night and mainly sleeping mostly through...the sleep for ME is amazing. I'm much nicer to be around! ;)

Ok this blows..come on admit it..no photos...man I am steamed....and I don't know how to fix it....I'm hitting the dumb image button..but nothing! Nada, zip...Kev won't look at it I bet...hmm

Has it been that? long????!

I mean long enough that your friends and family email you and tell you- um update the blog dangit LOL I've been busy ok? I mean truly busy....July was jam packed with one thing or another! Then we caught our breath in August and I swear it's almost over!!!!!

I'll try and upload some photos of the things we've been doing. Just wrote this whole thing about adopting and decided to erase it...when I have something to say I'll say it enough said!

Ok so what have we been up to? Well Kev's mom got out of the nursing home- YAY to her..months ahead of schedule and she's walking with a walker! So we saw them in the beginning of August..and then we went to the Tall Ship Festival..what a wonderful day. I'd advise skipping eating on Navy Pier- rip off city....but the festival was so nice...and then the kids literally played for 3 hours in a fountain in a free park right in front of Navy Pier..they loved it!!!!!
Ok so I am remembering why I didn't update..I was doing this before and the dang thing would not load my images! So it's happening again..will try one more time!!!!!
Hmm still not working..not sure what I am doing wrong....one more chance and then forgetaboutit!

a HA the wedding pics

of course part of my week...here's just a glimpse:

1. The laser printer breaking when I had 50 boxes to label that HAD to ship
2. Me throwing a hissy fit at said printer and getting paper jammed.
3. Me grabbing a pen and getting it all exploded on my hands...
4. Me grabbing my head with said hands and getting it on my face- ink that is.
5. Losing my whole long post on the wedding for my blog....ARGH
6. Riss going nutso and saying she wanted to move into her own place- she can't even remember where she put something and thinks she can live alone
7. Riss trying to quit babysitting for me and yet still wanting me to pay. Um what?
8. Fixing scanner -who knew that restoring the settings after not having it scan right for months would work.

Needless to say that's why I've been so absent....that and CHA...so the wedding was so NICE. :) I got over the fact that the coordinator was SO rude to me - and luckily for her I didn't just step out of the aisle on her runner but had to WALK on it all the way down the aisle to the crying 3 yr old to get her up the aisle for the wedding. :) I apologize now to my brother and Vicky for my butt being on their video. But i did warn the videographer that I'd have to go and do it...I just KNEW.

Anna looked adorable..the kids looked great...Mikey danced the night away. What a guy..he won over quite a few ladies hearts there.

I had fun dancing my legs off..too bad we had one family member pick a fight with his mom in front of everyone....ppl just don't know how to behave. The band was awesome...and I can't wait to see the professional pics....I have a few I'll share but not today..everyone is in the pool waiting for me and the damn alarm clock that Anna set and woke me up with this am is ringing like crazy. it's this huge number from limited too that katie's friend got her for her bday. it sucks if you ask me ;) It's loud and like a fire alarm. UGH

Peace and out...one pic for ya Ok two or three :) I love them all and you'll see some on recent layouts too.......
forget it..twice now I've uploaded two things and it's disappeared....so I'll do more later!