This is not his dog

This is not his dog, he says.

She’s mine.

I picked her out at the rescue place. I talked him into adopting her.

So, technically, he says, she’s mine.

I’m not sure she knows this, though.

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: family,dogs,pets,random thoughts

I love this

Every once in a while I read something that just so totally speaks to my soul it begs to be shared.

I just read this blog post over on Chatting at the Sky and it was one of those times.

She writes so eloquently exactly how I have been feeling about this phase of motherhood I am living right now. How awesome and inspiring are her words. They feel as if they come from my heart and yet they are from another's. Motherhood is so universal. And yet so many times we feel we are all alone on this journey.

Thanks, Emily, for reminding me that all mothers are experiencing (or have experienced) the exact same thing. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your words and capturing something so poignant.

Weekly Challenge #2 is ready

If you are following along with our Scrap Weekly Challenge Blog, thought I'd let you know the new one is up and ready for viewing.

Here's a hint:

Hop on over and take a look!

The view outside my window

We have snow here today. A rarity in the south. The kids are thrilled; they have the day off school and they are trying to figure out what they can use as an improvised toboggan to slide down our hills.

I am using the snow to my advantage and have told them they must clean their rooms before they can go outside. (hee hee) We will see if it works. I am doubtful as our standards of cleanliness are not even close to each other.

Snow Day Breakfast
popcorn, cantaloupe and cake. Yum.

Buster has decided that he is most definitely not a snow dog and is hiding in my office under a blanket in hopes no one notices him.

IMGP1932

Sydney thinks the white stuff is yummy and it eating all that she can get in her snout. It’s pretty funny to watch.

I am just so thankful –

for the heat we have to keep us warm and the roof over our heads
for SuperMan who is home with us today and will entertain the kids while I work.
for the fact that the Miata wouldn’t make it to the stop sign so he had to stay home.
for my girls’ excitement and joy in something so simple as snowfall.

I am hoping to get some templates posted this weekend. Depends on how much time I spend out in the snow, I think.

Technorati Tags: snow,scrapbooking,southern living,puppies

Looking for a place to print your digital pages?

I just recently tried out a new digital printing service and I thought I would share my impressions with you. You may have heard of Scrapping Simply before, or you may not. I hadn’t, up until this fall. I heard about them through the ubiquitous Facebook. Their current customers raved about the prints and customer service so when they posted a special right before Christmas, I jumped at the chance to try them out.

I had a ton of 8×8 and 12×12 pages I wanted printed. With the special pricing it was such a great deal I got them all done. I had 24 8×8 prints done for less than $25 and 20 12×12 for less than $40. Now, that was with their special discount but still, it’s a darn good deal.

Their website lists the following pricing structure:

12×12, 10×10 $1.99
8.5×11, 8×10 $1.89
8×8 $ .99
6×6 $ .79
5×7 $ .99
5×5 $ .59
4×6 $ .29

They also do canvases and a whole bunch of other things.

I got my prints today and I have to say, I am VERY pleased. The colors are true, the images are crisp, and the prints look really good. I wish I could show you one in person, but I am thinking something would be lost if I took a picture of the picture and posted it. 🙂

I had one small issue – where some of my fonts were substituted from the ones I originally had selected. I called them to ask about it. They were very prompt in responding to my question and it turned out to be a software issue on my end. They were very gracious and helpful and even offered to reprint the pages for me at no cost if I wanted to fix the issue on my end and re-send them. That was impressive. Especially since it was not even their issue to begin with.

So, I will be using Scrapping Simply for more prints. I was very happy with my products.

More scrapping and other news tomorrow. We have had snow here today and the kids have been home from school. Life has been rather hectic around here. 🙂

Technorati Tags: Digital Scrapbooking,Scrapbooking,Scrapping Simply,Project 365,Journal Your Christmas,Creative Memories,Memory Manager,StoryBook Creator

Scrapbook Projects for 2010 – what are you doing?

If you are looking for a little inspiration for your scrapbook pages, or a new project to focus on this year, there are tons available:

There is the now-classic “Project 365” for those of you into a photo-a-day project. You can even purchase Becky Higgins’ new Project Life kit to help simplify the process.
One of the gals from the Blogging for Scrapbookers class (Dolly) is offering her own set of prompts: 52 in 10. It’s a weekly challenge.
Shimelle is offering a free class “Document 2010”
Cathy Zielske is offering a template: Seven Days, to document a week in your life. It’s a cool template, regardless of how you use it.
Simple Scrapper is offering Project 10×12, focusing on the top 10 photos each month of the year.

What am I doing?

Well, I tried Project 365 last year. That required a little bit more diligence and dedication than I had in me.

While I love the concept, life is just too busy/crazy for me to remember to take a picture every day, journal something, and then put it all together. I still have pictures from June/July of my P365 album I need to scrap. Nope, that won’t be me again.

I did buy the Project Life kit, though.

And here is what I thought I’d do.

I’m always taking pictures. Some days I take 5, some zero. But I thought I could use that for the quick and easy scrapbooking to document those little bits of life.

I am also curious about Dolly’s class and Shimelle’s class. So I will probably do a few pages based on their prompts as the inspiration strikes me.

Other than that? I am going to focus on two things:

scrapbooking more STORIES this year.
scrapbooking more about me… what my life is like, my hopes, dreams, thoughts, etc. I want my girls to know what life was like when they were little (when and if they read the scrapbooks when they are older) and I want to document what my life is like right now so I can look back one day and remember life with my little ones.

What about you? What are your projects for this year?

Weekly Scrapbook Challenge #1

Our first challenge is up over on our new blog. Have you checked it out yet?

Dawn’s got a great idea for us –

Think about your goals or things your looking forward to in 2010.
Use up that stash you have had saved for a special occasion
Use a picture of yourself

Are you game?

Here’s the page I created:

Share yours!

I can’t wait to see it!

Technorati Tags: Scrap Weekly in 2010,Digital Scrapbooking,Scrapbooking,Project 365,52 in 10

Our First Weekly Scrapbook Challenge!

Be sure you check out our first challenge post over at the Scrap Weekly blog. It's our first in a series.

Next week is my turn, this week, the challenge is offered by Dawn.

I can't wait to see what you do with it! (Renay!)

The best laid plans

I am a planner. I like figuring out what we’re going to do, when we’ll do it and what we need to do whatever it is we’ll be doing. I like making plans almost as much as I like making lists. I like “executing” the plans (as they say in corporate-speak) and seeing my plans come to fruition.

Life, however, often has other ideas.

And that usually means your plans fly out the window (bye, bye) and you have to adapt and make new plans.

And usually, I’m okay with that.

But there are those times when your plans get changed, and changed, and changed.

And when that happens the only thing you can do is throw your plans out the window and give up any hope of making new plans and just live minute-by-minute. And sometimes, that is when the best things happen. When you throw the plans out the window and just LIVE.

This past week was one of those times.

The original plan (from months ago and part of our yearly tradition) was that we would be heading to my mom’s for the week of New Year’s – we drive down early in the week and hang out there, visiting with family and enjoying a low country boil (it’s a Southern thing – boiled shrimp, potatoes, corn and sausage cooked in a spicy blend) and sit outside by the fire until midnight with our family and friends.

Then, we all got sick.

So, in the interest of not making everyone down there sick, we decided not to go down. And that was okay. I made a new plan.

I figured I’d spend the week tucked in my house, scrapbooking, blogging, and enjoying my family. We made tentative plans with the neighbors for a mild celebration on New Year’s and I went shopping for food to prepare.

Then, we got another change in plans.

My step-dad’s father passed away. Now, this wasn’t really a surprise. He was 89 years old. He had been in increasingly declining health and had really taken a downturn in the last few weeks. We knew it was coming, we weren’t surprised.

So, plan “C” kicks into gear and off we head to my mom’s after all. This time, we’re planning a funeral and working on a menu to prepare for the guests.

And here I have been since Thursday. At my mom’s. And you know what? Although it is not how you would want to spend your time, it has been great. For a change, we have been the ones to take care of them (my mom and step-dad). SuperMan and I spent most of Friday cooking and getting things ready.

Today was the funeral. I was able to be there and stand beside my step-dad for support. It was nice to support him instead of him supporting me (as he has done in so many ways all these years – he’s really been my father for most of my adult life and I love him as if he was).

It wasn’t how we’d planned to spend our New Year’s weekend. It certainly wasn’t what we’d have chosen if we’d been asked weeks ago. But, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Snow – Southern Style

Those of you who live in more Northern climes (WLN!) will probably laugh at my excitement over the piddly little snowfall we had tonight. I have to agree, it’s pretty sad. But when it rarely snows and hardly ever sticks, we Southerners tend to take our snowfall with great glee.

It had been sleeting all day – pretty steadily since around 3PM. My brother (who lives in the Pacific Northwest) had gotten four inches of snow last night and my girls were green with envy. So when the sleet started to accumulate, they were excited. (as was Sydney)