Projects

Sometime in December I made a pet sympathy card for a co-worker who had to put her cat down. Now me, I'm not a big pet person, but I do know that a loss is a loss, it doesn't matter if it's a pet or person. A couple of people were kind of ribbing on her about how upset she was and I felt so bad. So I made her this very simple pet card to show her that I care. I was kinda at a loss, but I think it turned out cute. :)

Speaking of at work, I have a corner desk, that basically looks into a corner, but I have a door right there too. But when I'm looking at my computer, behind the monitor there is a bulletin board. It was a plain ugly board and we typically don't put anything up there except for a calendar and the birthday list. But that's it. I thought I would make it bright and cheery. I cut up 12, 6" squares and put them on the board. I like it. Every time I look up I smile and it makes me happy. I thought it turned out pretty good even though I messed up the pattern, LOL. :) Everyone that has noticed it seems to like it as well, except for one person who said it was a waste of time.....first, off it's absolutely dead in the office and if it makes you happy, nothing is a waste of time! At least that is my thinking on it. :) Anyway, here is a picture of the board. Yes, it is lacking a calendar right now, I'm bringing in my "Office" calendar on Tuesday. That will make me ever more happy. :D Here is picture of the board. Sorry for the crappy quality, I took it with my camera phone. :)

Looking forward to 2007

During the latter part of a year, it starts to feel a bit claustrophobic. Everything caving in on you, coming to an end. So many projects and things to do, and not enough time to do them. It seems to me that after Christmas passes, things slow down, calm down. A whole new fresh start. I love it. A year coming to an end, a new year with a clean slate.

I'm typically not one to make New Year's resolutions, but this year I am. I am determined to make a change for the better. Here are the resolutions that I posted on Scrappy Chic.

-Decultter.
-Work towards being completely debt free.
-Keep the money that we put in savings in there.
-Start a retirement plan.
-Aim towards working part time.
-Be more thankful for what I have rather than looking at what I don't have. (Essentially be more positive)
-Be more creative and scrapbook more.
-Continue my weight loss journey.
-Make more from scratch. Or should I say attempt to make foods from scratch? LOL. Bread is number one on my list. :)


Now, Denise and Laurie have talked about Mrs. Catherine, and her challenge that she posted. Here is a link to the Mrs. Catherine's Blog. http://www.xanga.com/MrsCatherine/558980602/new-year-new-set-of-challenges--learning-something-new.html

So here are three things that I want to learn how to do in my home that I haven't done yet.

1. Declutter, simplify, organize.
At work people tell me that I am so organized. And there I am. At home, I am to a certain extent, but I know I can do much better. This year I am going to do that. :)

2. Cook from scratch.
Now, Jason and I have been doing this, and I have certain foods that I can make from scratch, and since starting my weight loss journey we have done this more, but I need to learn how to cook healthy meals. I think my first task will be to make bread and rolls. There have been some wonderful recipes posted on Scrappy Chic, so I'm going to try those. I am going to make good use out of that bread machine that Jason and I got for a wedding gift. :)

3. Work towards being debt free.
Jason and I started on this, and did great, but now we need to continue to do it and stick with it. That means limiting eating out (more expensive now since we don't do fast food) and meal planning.

Now I'm going to to a fourth one as well :P

4. Be a more Godly woman.
Let's just say that I have never really followed the His word, and have realized that I need Him in my life. I want to be a wife that Jason will be proud of, increase my homemaking skills and I know that I can't do it on my own, I need Him in my life and to follow His word. Doing so will only make me a better person. :)

Cake Decorating

Growing up, I remember Ma decorating cakes and me "helping" her. Or should I say begging to make a mess out of frosting. ;) I remember helping Ma mix up and color frostings and begging her to let me "practice" my writing on a sheet of wax paper. Flipping through the Wilton books she had. Ma was an amazing cake decorator. I'm sure if she pulled out her cake decorating stuff, she could still whip up a beaultiful cake.

Beginning of December I seen a cake in the Kraft Food & Family magazine, that was looked like a Christmas Ornament. I decided to attempt to make it, and had a ton of fun while doing it. The cake didn't turn out the best, but I had a blast. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

Here's a picture of the cake. :)

At work, I got a gift card for $110 to use wherever I want, but I have to spend it on me. My first thought was to put it towards a wide format printer or to spend it on scrapping supplies. Now, I know that scrapping supplies don't have an expiration date, but I have so many, it is starting to get overwhelming. I need to stop buying and start using them up. So I decided to spend some of the money on cake decoarting supplies. Sure enough Hobby Lobby had a coupon for 40% off all Wilton Products. So off Jason and I went. I ended up getting quite a bit of stuff for about $80. I do need to go back and pick up some other things that I now want after reading my Wilton course books!! So I think I am going back to pick up some more stuff. :) I guess you can say that I now have a new hobby...Cake Decorating. Now let's see how good I can become. :)

Christmas Box

This looks like a simple box. To me this cream and gold colored box means Christmas. For as long as I can remember that box contained *my* Christmas ornaments. Each year Ma buys us or we pick out a new ornament for the year. This box contains so many ornaments...everything from my first Christmas Ornament to one that Grandma Nelson made me that has my picture in it, to various homemade ones. You can see a peek of a dixie cup bell ornament that I made in school. I love my box of ornaments and it just means happiness to me. :)

Now in other news, this is my new Nativity Set that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I love it!

You can click on either image to see the pictures larger. :)

ABC Tag :)

ABC Tag
A - Available or single: Married!
B - Best friend: Jason :)
C - Cake or pie: Chocolate cake or pumpkin pie. Or pumpkin cake muffins. Best of both worlds. :)
D - Drink of choice: Water or Tazo Awake Tea
E - Essential item you use everyday: Glasses! I can't see *anything* without them. Yes, that is true, just ask Jason if he has ever moved them while I'm in the shower. ;)
F - Favorite color: Pink and black!
G - Gummy bears or worms: Bears.
H - Hometown: Kerick, MN or Finlayson, MN
I - Indulgence: Dove Dark Chocolate.
J - January or February: January, my birthday month and a wind down after Christmas. :)
K - Kids & names: Don't have any kids yet.
L - Life is incomplete without? My family and laughter!
M - Marriage date: 08.02.03
N - Number of siblings: 2 sisters.
O - Oranges or apples: Apples, granny smith. Although I do like oranges too. :)
P - Phobias or fears: Someone I know dieing and our house being broke into when Jason is at work.
Q - Fave quote: "Scrapbooking supplies have no expiration dates." or something to that effect...Stacy Julian. ;)
R - Reasons to smile: I have the most wonderful husband and Christmas is coming!
S - Season: Fall and Spring. Mild temperatures and beautiful sunshiney days. (Yes, sunshiney is a word in my book. :P)
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: Whoever wants to! Someone better. ;)
U - Unknown fact about me: Hmmm....I think I'm pretty open, I don't know if I have one. If I think of one, I will edit my post. :)
V- Vegetable you don't like: Asparagus
W - Worst habit: Not exercising.
X - Xrays: Never had any.
Y - Your fave food: Jason's grilled buffalo burgers. YUMMY!
Z - Zodiac sign: Aquarious

Scrappy Chic

To address the anonymous commenter on my blog, who said,

"Is ScrappyChic turning into an in your face religious message board?"

The majority of the members on Scrappy Chic came from Mama Central, which was a religious, Christian Mom's board that covered many of the same topics that we do now. When Mama Central went down, I had the Scrappy Chic domain and hosting sitting there unused and essentially re-opened Mama Central under the Scrappy Chic name and continued to keep the hosting and domain name up. I contacted as many members of the original Mama Central group that I could because I couldn't imagine not having a place to meet and talk to with all of these wonderful ladies. Most of the same forums remain the same and a couple have been added. But essentially most of us came from Mama Central, meaning that when you joined Scrappy Chic, you should have realized that it was a board with religious roots.

I know that I am not the best Christian in the world, and have struggled with God. At one point I have even questioned his existence, but I know that I am a Christian and a believer. I may not go to church, or read the bible daily, but I am a Christian, and God impacts my life greatly and all of the ladies here are inspiring me to be a better person. A better wife. And inspiring me to live through God's word. Being able to talk about God and church is freedom of speech. There is no way I am going to stop the religious posts on Scrappy Chic. Why would I want to stop members from posting inspiring posts or their thoughts and beliefs? If you do not like what is posted on the board or find offense to what is posted on the board, post away there. The topics on the board are always open for a respectful debate.

Amber

Updates

Since it has been forever since I posted, I figured it is time to give a long rambling update. Well, let's see how long this is. ;) And of course it has to be in list form, since I love my lists. :)

I decided to change my template today. Since I updated to blogger beta I changed the color sheme from the default template. I love my pink. :)

Speaking of pink and black I'm working on a pink & black christmas tree.

Since the other scrapbook store closed, I found a new home so to speak. TJ's Pictures and Papers. *Awesome* store. Lots of papers and products I have never seen around here, the latest and greatest so to speak. And the owners are amazing. So nice and one of them Jackie, always asks what I'm working on and to bring what I'm working on in. Great customer service. I can't wait to take classes there. :) I still don't know about cropping there since I would have to actually pack all my stuff up and I make such a huge mess when I scrap.

I'm back to being creative again. I have so many new ideas and things I want to try. I wish I could quit my job and just create and craft all day. That would be heaven.

Jason's surgery on his hand went well and he is getting his stitches taken out today.

I've been moody and crabby lately. And my period is late, after being on time for the last couple months. And before you ask, yes I did take a pregnancy test, and it came back negative. I don't know what's going on with that.

My weightloss is in a lull. I haven't been very good about tracking what I eat, and I'm getting to the point where I just want to throw my hands up and say whatever. But the other part of me wants to keep losing and be a sexy wife for my husband. :) So I'm going to keep plugging away at it, and will be better at it. :)

I really want a treadmill so I can exercise at home. I put it on my Christmas list, now let's see if I get one. I'm guessing not....but I'm still crossing my fingers.

I hate making Christmas lists for other people. I mainly want scrapping stuff, but even if I get specific, no one really wants to buy it.

I suggested drawing names next year for Jason's family, and Jason talked to his brothers and sisters, and that is what we will be doing. YAY! I'm surprised it went over so well. Everyone seemed almost relieved. Glad it worked out. :)

I'm in the Christmas mood. Buying presents, making presents, working on Christmas crafts, even if this time of the year is so hectic I love it.

I will admit that I have already listened to Christmas music!

My scrapping room isn't going to be done by December 1. :( I'm working on packing some of my stuff up so we can have a Christmas tree in the living room. I've packed 9 paper boxes of stuff so far and barely made a dent. I've got a long way to go......I am going to go through my stuff once my room is done and will be posting some stuff for sale again on Scrappy Chic. I really need to pare down.

I realized the other day that my birthday in January is going to be my golden birthday. I will be 24 on the 24th. Gosh, I'm getting old!

I'm going to attempt to sew and make curtains for my scrapping room. Ma, be prepared for phone calls, LOL. I need to find fabric first. :) Who knows, maybe I will be a sewer after all, lol.

I want to be a better sewer so I can make quilts for the house. Nothing compares to wrapping up in a quilt at night or watching tv wrapped up in a homemade quilt. Those store bought blankets just don't do it for me.

I can't wait to start wrapping Christmas presents! I love wrapping presents. Christmas music going in the background. So perfect!

If anyone knows where I can get the Creative Imaginations collections Lovestruck, Skull & Crossbones, Caution Boy, and Caution Girl, I would be eternally greatful! I need all of these collections!

I miss blogging. I should do it more.

Advent Calendars

Last year I made one advent calendar. Here is the pic. :)


This year I made two more. I even used my wishblade to make tags for one, lol. I was impressed with myself, lol.

Thursday's

It's been a bit since I've updated, so I thought I better do that. :)

Jason has been working hard on my scrapping room, getting the walls mudded and taped. I've been freaking out because I don't think that it will be done by December 1. Jason calmed me down and reassured me that it would. Me being the list maker, made a list of everything that we need to do to get my room done and moved into.

This coming weekend we are going to IKEA to pick up the hardwood floors for my scrapping room. This will be our first time laying (or should I say attempting to lay) hardwood floors. It should be interesting to say the least, lol. I also want to look for a small computer desk there. One big enough for my laptop, my wishblade, and a small printer. Nothing fancy. Oooooo, that can go on my Christmas list. A small printer that I can also print photos on. So decent quality.

I took Monday of this week just to have a "Me" day. I spent the day working on Christmas Cards, Advent Claendars, Ornaments, and playing video games. It was a great day and I got a lot accomplished. I really wish I could have one day a week to just do that. Don't have to go to work or anything. That would be perfect. Of course I would love to be able to work part time, but that won't be happening anytime soon, lol.

Speaking of video games, I had an intersting conversation with a friend last night about video games. He said that video games weren't constructive. I agrued back that they were, because you get acheievements, earn points, get a sense of accomplishment, and of course improve hand/eye coordination. After a bit of jousting, he said that they were constructive, lol. It was great fun. :)

I am so very excited for tonight. It is Thursday, that means "The Office" is on! Hooray!!! That is the one show that I follow and have to sit down and watch during the week. If anyone calls while the office is on, I don't even answer the phone, lol. Does anyone else watch "The Office"? I also <3 John Krasinski...he plays Jim on the show and is so good looking. I was reading on 2peas that there was an interview with him in the latest "InStyle" magazine, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to pick that up. Yes, I'm a dork, lol. And with that, I leave you with a pick of the yummy John Krasinski...

Fun over the weekend

Over the weekend I had a bit of fun and did some playing around.

Here on the very top are dice that I made pink with Alcohol inks and then the bottlecaps that I played around with. I made one a pin and a couple are magnets.

The next picture are marble magnets made out of those half marble things by the floral section.

You can click on either picture to make them bigger. :)

What Makes Me Happy

I thought I would do another blog entry. :) Two days in a row, wow, lol. ;) And since I love lists, I'm going to do this in list format....What makes me happy.

*Waking up before the alarm goes off. I don't feel so rushed then.....
*Russian Tea (Grandma Nelson's Recipe of course)*Having breakfast done and on the table when Jason comes home from work.
*Making a huge mess scrapbooking. I feel so creative.
*Making plans and shopping and creating for Christmas. <3 The holiday season. :)*Chocolate cupcakes that have just 131 calories in each of them. So moist and yummy and pumpkiny. Heaven for me.
*Jason cooking supper when I come home from work
*Music. Must have music.
*Silly pictures
*Effer Dares. They make me think outside the box.
*Jason tucking me into bed at night before he leaves for work.
*Comforts from childhood (my brown blankey and Corey)

Scrapbooking

I actually scrapbooked tonight. And to be honest, it was only one LO, but I made a huge mess and totally enjoyed it. Now I just have to get the black ink off of my hands before work tomorrow, LOL. And I ended up not even using the chipboard that I inked, LOL. So totally me.

Anyway, this is from the AMM Bohemia Line, papers and rub-ons, and HS photocorners.

Day 1...continued...Corn Palace

Here we are heading off to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Now some of you may be wondering what in the heck is a Corn Palace, basically it's a building that is decorated using different colors/variations of corn! Inside of the building it has a gymnasium, that was being used for a Polka Festival when we were there. There were also little tables where you could buy items. And also, proof that I did drive. ;)

Day 1 Continued..

Here are more pics of Falls Park. I thought that they were too beautiful not to share. :)

South Dakota, Day 1, in the car & Sioux Falls!

Since I have come to the reality that I don't have the time to create one monster post about South Dakota, I'm going to do bits and pieces of our trip. I don't want to bore you with all 3,000 pics I took or all 900 I printed and put into photo albums, lol.

Here we go! Day 1!

I was fascinated with all these HUGE windmills and of course leaving MN and heading into South Dakota, so I had to take a picture of the sign, lol.




























Here we are at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD. More pics of the falls coming. :) It was WINDY and COLD there. Jason said he would be fine without his jacket. ;) He was freezing. :)

Leaving on a jet plane....

well, not really a jet plane, lol. Jason and I are going on a road trip to South Dakota! And are leaving early tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to it. It should be lots of fun. I plan to take tons of pictures! Don't miss me too much. ;)

5 days and counting

We are leaving for South Dakota about 5 a.m. on Sunday, September 17. This trip has come up so fast! And I've been stressing about it, but I think that stress is finally gone. The main thing that I have been stressing about is clothing. Yes, I realize that is such a small thing in the scheme of things, but I had no casual clothes that fit me after the weight loss. I've only been buying worth clothes. This weekend Jason and I went up north to visit the family and also took the girlies to the Mall and Wal-Mart. Believe it or not I got jeans and capris at Wal-Mart and they fit me good!! The Juniors size 19 jeans are perfect for me. The shirts there didn't fit good, but on the way home we stopped at Target in the cities and they had a ton of shirts that fit me perfect. Hooray! So now I have clothes for the trip.

Last night I started to pack some of the food, and get everything organized. A little bit each night and it will be good. My goal is to have the car completely packed except for food on Saturday so we can head out early, early on Sunday.

Jason and I had a lot of fun this weekend with the girlies. We took them shopping and out to eat and it was just a good time. Lots of fun. :) Lots of giggles and laughter. Love it.

Oh and the ipod works great in the car. We bought one of those FM adapter thingys, and it was great not having to deal with changing CD's every couple of songs. I *love* it. <3 <3 <3 My new favorite toy, LOL.

I was hoping to scrapbook this week, but I don't think I'm going to get to. :( Before we go, I do want to clean up my area so I can come home to a nice clean desk to scrap on.

Vacation!

Jason and I are getting ready to go on vacation on September 17. We are so excited! We are going on a road trip to South Dakota. It is going to be so much fun! Out of all the things that I should be doing for the trip, I'm working on uploading music to itunes to put on the ipod, LOL. Yes, I realize that there are a zillion other things I should be doing, but I'm currently worried about music, LOL. Yes, I realize that I'm crazy. :P But I will admit that I have 4 different lists started. In case you didn't know I'm a list maker. One list is Food to pack and bring, another list is for food and other items to buy before we go, the third list is other items to pack, and the fourth list is a list of things to do before we go.

Yup, I love my lists. I feel so much more organized and prepared when I have my lists. I love them. Maybe I am more organized than I thought I was.

This weekend was a fun weekend, I scrapbooked 2 LO's and started planning out our Christmas card. Now I just need to get a couple more supplies to make up a sample one and see if it's what I want. LOL. Jason and I went to Hobby Lobby today and picked up some stuff, now just to order the rest of what I need. I hope that it is what I want. I should start going through our Christmas Card list, to get a feel for how many Christmas cards to make...I think I need to make about 100 of them...not positive though.

Sketch Challenge

Here is my LO that I did from a Sketch posted by Chele on Scrappy Chic. :) Chele, THANK YOU so much for putting this up on SC. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be scrapping again yet. THANK YOU!!! Your such a great friend. :)






It was based on this sketch:

Break Down

Tonight I had a break down. I don't know if I would call it a breakdown, but that is what I'm calling it. Tonight after work, I went and got my brows waxed and I paid, walked out the door with Jason, and felt tears start to well up. Jason asked where I wanted to eat, and I shrugged and said I don't care. Then I said, let's just go home, because otherwise I'm going to start crying. Then I lost it. The tears started to flow.

What bothers me is that I started to cry for no reason. I still can't figure out why I was crying. I have never done that before. In the past, little things have set me off, but never like this. This was full out crying, sobbing, runny nose and everything crying. I have always been able to hold back my emotions pretty good, not letting anyone know what I truly feel. Wearing a mask so to speak. When someone asks how I am, it's always good, or okay, even if I'm not feeling that way. I have a hard time letting others in, and letting them know how I truly feel. Anyway, back to what happened.

We got home, and I sat down at my computer, attempted to read at a site, and the tears started. Jason came over and gave me a hug. I finished looking through the tears, typed "taking a break" post on the board, and then logged off, went and sat on the couch to try to compose myself. Jason sat down next to me and put his arm around me. I told him not to, because I will cry harder/longer. He moved his arm away, and I started to cry even more. He took me in his arms, and I sobbed. I couldn't help it. Finally I got my tears to pretty much stop and composed myself.

It really bothers me that I don't know *why* I was crying in the first place and that I couldn't make the tears stop even though I wanted to. I don't like that. At all.

Rambles

I figured I should probably update my blog since it's been a while. :) I'm thinking I'm going to do this in list format. I love my lists!!

• I am now down 49.5 pounds. SO close to 50 pounds lost and boy am I feeling good about it!
• Jason and I got new cell phones, work had a great deal on a plan so we signed up. Who knew that I would ever have a camera phone, LOL. I must admit it is fun to play around with it. Now I just need to make it pretty pink! :D
• I am enjoying going clothes shopping these days. It's lots of fun to buy stuff in smaller sizes.
• Jason is being even more romantic now, I love it! The other day he sent me a list of 10 things that he loves about me. Made me cry. He is so sweet!
• My newest eye candy fascination is Joe Mauer, who plays baseball for the Twins. What a cutie! Jason just laughs at me, LOL.
• I went out and bought the Crop-A-Dial yesterday at M's. Haven't used it yet though, LOL.
• I still have not scrapbooked. I *really* need to sit down and make a page. Even though I'm not scrapbooking it doesn't stop me from lurking on 2peas, LOL.
• Speaking of 2peas, there is this *AMAZING* LO that I *LOVE* Very inspiring. http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=956888 I'm seriously thinking about doing a page like that....I don't know though, maybe it will be odd? What do you think of that LO?
• Then, here is another LO, a gal actually stamped her boobs, LOL. WOW, I *never* would have thought to do that. Here is that LO: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=963445

Weighloss Pics for Laurie

Now, how horrible is this! I haven't taken pics of my weightloss. This is the best I can do for you Laurie. :) And these are all crappy pics, but hey, at least you get the drift, LOL. I went back and looked and I started tracking my food on April 5, 2006. A couple days later is what I really started Spark People!

This pic is me, on May 3, 2006.

































And now this is me, as of about 10 minutes ago, on August 8, 2006.

Weekend

It's Sunday night already, boy where does the weekend go!! Jason and I went up north to visit Ma, Dad, and the girlies. It seems like whenever we go up north, the time goes by way to fast! The girlies and I played the board game Life, and actually even finished the game! It was so much fun. And of course, we laughed until we cried, about stupid stuff that I have done lately.

I'm sitting here, half watching VH1's, "I Love the 90's" and OMG, I'm sitting just laughing, just some moments, like OMG, I actually liked that song, ROFL. Oh my, feel like I'm reliving my high school days, what great times.

On a sad note, I got a note today from the LSS that I'm on the design team for and they are CLOSING! I couldn't believe it. The store was doing great and they were going to move into a larger store and everything, but the owner decided that she needs to spend more time with her family. Which is completely understandable, but that means that I simply won't have a LSS here in Roch. I will miss being on the design team, and all of the great people from the store. It is so sad, it was the perfect little store. :(

Great Night

I really enjoyed myself last night. Jason picked me up after my dr's appointment, and we went out to eat at the Macaroni Grill. The Macaroni Grill opened up last year sometime, and we never went there before, so we decided to try it out. It was ok, but we like Olive Garden much better. But it was a great change of pace, and we tried something new. :)

After that we went home, and Jason there was a beautiful bouquet of daisies on the table in our wedding colors. Then we went up stairs, and I got a lovely massage, and then a relaxing bath. And then we went out for ice cream. It was a great evening, just enjoying each other. Truly enjoyed myself. Thanks love, for the perfect evening. :)

3 Years ago today

It was our wedding day!

Wow, where has time gone! It seems like it was yesterday that I was sitting down and planning the wedding. Enjoying looking through all of the wedding magazines and having fun planning it. I want to plan another wedding, LOL. I truly enjoyed it. :)

Of course the day didnt' go off without a hitch, the best man didn't show up for the rehearsal until it was over, and the place where we had our rehearasal dinner had us down for the next night. And then on our wedding day it rained during the ceremony and then cleared up after that. But I wouldn't change our wedding at the cabin, down by the lake for anything. And at the end of the day all that mattered was that we were married. :)

And I'm looking forward to tonight so much. Jason is planning a surprise for me. I have no clue what it is, but I can't wait for it! It's going to be a great night, I just know it. :)

Jason, I love you so much, and am looking forward to many more happy years with you.

New Bras

Who knew that new bras would be so exciting, LOL. On Saturday is was so freaking hot, Jason and I went and wandered around the wall for a while. Before going there Jason mentioned that I should get some new bras and get coordinating panties to go with them. I guess he has wanted that for a while, so while we were at Penny's I figured I would look and try a couple on. I found one that I *love*. And Ma, you will be happy to know that since I'm losing weight, my boobs are shrinking, LOL. I'm now down to a 40C. Much better than the 44D I was buying before and putting a bra extender on it to get it to fit. And if I can say so myself, my boobs look amazing, LOL. And of course it's a *comfortable* bra at that! There is *nothing* better than a good fitting bra, along with matching panties. Makes me feel all sexy. :) So $66 later, I walk out with 3 new matching bras with matching panties.

Oh, and did you know that Penny's has a thing where if you buy 6 bras you get the 7th free and also if you buy 12 panties you get the 13th free? I thought that was so cool! Guess where I am buying my undergarments now, LOL.

Better

I am feeling much better today, actually yesterday evening I felt better. :) Now I hope I am done with this for a while.

Today I am working 7:30-4:30. I *love* this shift! I wish I could work this shift all the time. That extra half hour really makes a difference in the evenings, especially on Friday's since Jason works at 6 p.m. on Fridays.

We are making progress on my new scrapbooking room. We need to go and get mud, tape, and paint now. I do have to still bleach the lower parts of the walls. Home Depot had a customer appreciation coupon for 10% off your purchase, so we are going to use that to pick stuff up. Every little bit saved helps. I can't wait for the room to be done and move my stuff in it and have an actual living room again! That in itself is exciting to me! Jason and I are also going to attempt to lay hardwood floors in the room as well, that should be interesting, LOL. We want the entire house to be hardwood floors, so I'm hoping that my scrapping room goes good, so we can continue to do the rest of the house!

Template and other ramblings

I figured I would change my template since I didn't feel that it was "me" anymore. I know, I know, in the grand scheme of things it's not that big of a deal, but for me, it was. Back when I first started blogging, it was mainly to share some scrapbook thoughts, whatever. To be honest, I haven't scrapbooking for a few months now. How horrible is that? I simply haven't felt like scrapping. I don't know why I chose this template, but for some reason, I think it fits me. I love the colors and style of it. I do wish there were a couple things I could change, if I could figure out how. But overall, I think it is perfect for me, and how I've been feeling lately. Who knows, maybe I will change it again in a few days.

The weight loss is still going well, I am now down 41.5 pounds. I never thought I would be able to lose that much. It is amazing. For the past couple of weeks, I haven't felt like tracking my foods, and have felt on the verge of falling off of the healthy bandwagon I've been on. I feel like I am starting to lose my grip even more so. I don't know why I suddenly feel this way.

I met an amazing friend online a while back. She is a couple years older than me, but I swear we could be twins! We use so many of the same phrases, are just so similar, it's hard to believe that we aren't long lost sisters or something, LOL. We talked the other night on the phone for the first time and hit it off on there as well. Talking to her on the phone made me realize how much I miss having a friend nearby to hang out with and gab and gossip with. It's too bad that she lives in Colorado, well maybe that is a good thing, because I think our hubby's would get tired of us being together all the time, LOL. Although I do think our hubby's would hit off as well, since they are both into video games, LOL.

Last night I went to bed very shortly after I wrote that post, I was hoping that sleep would help me out, but it didn't. I think that what I truly need is a good cry. You know how sometimes, a good cry will help? That's what I think will help, but then I'm not able to cry. It's like you know you need to, but can't. I hate that feeling. I still am down and in a funk. I feel like I'm in a fog and can't get out. I hate feeling like this, I wish it would just go away. I know it's not that simple, but I can wish, can't I?

One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days where everything is going ok, not great, but better than the day before which was hellacious. Which is a good thing, or should be a good thing. Then suddenly, one little thing happens, and it's like *snap* and now your not ok at all. That's the kind of day I had today. And it was one little thing, nothing major, everything should still be fine, but in your mind it's not? I hate days like that. I'm just so frustrated.

Camping

We went camping over the weekend. Down to Money Creek Haven in Houston, MN. It was very relaxing and enjoying. And believe it or not I did not take a single picture. Imagine that. Me a scrapbooker, did not take a single picture, lol. I guess that shows that I truly relaxed and enjoyed myself.

Since Jason had to work on Friday night, we didn't get down there until Saturday morning. We got our tent set up. We bought a new tent this year for camping. It was on clearance for $59. It's a three room tent, sleeps 8, and is big enough so you can stand up straight inside the tent. And yes, I realize that there are only two of us, but it was nice having a tent large enough to put everything in when it rained. Oh, it did rain on Saturday afternoon for a couple hours. Saturday was perfect, in the upper 70's, overcast, not too hot, not too cold. Perfect.

Jason and I did go swimming in the "pool." I don't know what to call it other than a pool, but it's not really a pool, lol. It's basically a man made lake, made for swimming. It's connected to a pond and creek, but has a sandy bottom, and they put chemicles and stuff in it. It's hard to describe, LOL. But we really had fun. And the best news is that I barely got sunburned!!! I got a titch pink, but not bad at all.

Jason and I came to the conculsion that we both want to go camping more. We will see if that truly happens now, LOL. I'm hoping it will. :)

I thought I should post pictures of my purse after Laurie's comment, LOL. And since I posted that list, the checkbook has been added to my purse and the check has been cashed, LOL. Otherwise everything is the same.
This first pic, is my purse closed. (Like my loverly pink chair from IKEA? *Never* thought I would have a pink chair, LOL.)

This next pic, is of my purse with my book in it. Since I don't bring another bag to work, I carry my book around in my purse, LOL. Also comes in handy while I wait in the car while Jason goes to the post office, lol.

This nex picture of my purse without the book in it:

And I realized, not everyone would know what a Mini Leatherman is. So here it is, next to the case all folded up:

And here it is with all of the attachments open. Must be a country girl thing to carry one of these around, LOL.

I will admit, that it has come in handy at work. You would think that our equipment specialists would have tools to work with, when things come up. I can't tell you how many times they have borrowed my Mini Leatherman, LOL. You should have seen their faces when they asked me if I knew where any pliers where, and I said, I know something that might work in my purse. Between their faces and the other secretarys, I about fell off my chair laughing, ROFL.

Now seriously, since I have these pics, I think I need to do a Scrapbook Page about the contents of my purse. I think that would be fun. Very *me* right now as well.

Contents of my purse

On Scrappy Chic I posted a challenege to post the contents of your purse. Here's whats in mine:

Keycard for work
Mary Kay Neutral Lip Liner
Mary Kay Cranberry Lipgloss
Ticket stub from Click
Gum
First Harry Potter Book
Check for Tupperware that I need to cash (doing a clearance type sale at work with another gal that used to sell Tupperware)
Coupon & Card from Divine Memories (Scrapbook store)
Grand Casino Buffet hours & prices
Winter Candy Apple Lotion from Bath & Body Works
Mary Kay Beauty Blotters
Smidget contaier with Ibprofen
Calculator
Full size pair of scissors
Post It Flags (in pink of course, LOL)
Mini Pink Tape Measure
Mini Leatherman Tool
Tide to Go Pen
Nail Clippers
Nail File
Mary Kay Mocha Freeze Lipstick (So *that* is where that went!!)
Keys, home, car, and office
4 pens
1 pencil
2 calling cards
Receipt from Old Navy
Bus Pass
Wallet with discount cards, and credit/debit cards.
$1.10 in change

Lost Clothes

Every now and then, I take off an article of clothing and misplace it. I've been trying to be better at hanging my clothes up and putting them away, but that doesn't always happen. (I'm sure Ma remembers what my room looked like when I still lived at home, LOL.) If I don't hang up my work pants or tops right away, they get set on the back of the couch. The thing I am good at though, is all of the dirties go right into the hamper to be washed. At least 9 times out of 10, LOL.

Now, back to losing clothes. About 3 weeks ago we went up to IKEA and I work a black v-neck shirt. That was the first time I wore that shirt. Now I can't find it. Two weeks ago I wore my new black slip to work, and now I can't find it. Last week, I wore a white tanktop under a shirt to work and can't find that now. I have no freaking clue where these three articles of clothing are. I have tore my clothes a part, looked up stairs, in the hamper, in the washer and dryer and simply can't find them. Also looked behind, in, and under the couches, went through all of the boxes of clothes that I'm getting rid of again, to see if they got put in there. I can't find them!!!

So tell me, if you were a shirt, slip, or tank top where would you be hiding?

4th of July

I hope that everyone had a great Fourth of July!! Jason and I went out to his parents for a while. It was fun for the most part. :) Each year they have a cookout/party and invite the entire family over. This year there wasn't many people at all there. Mainly us kids and the grandkids, and then some of Jason's Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins.

As some of you may know, Jason and I are still having a hard time trying to have a baby. (And yes, this relates to the Fourth, in some way, your just getting the Nelson version of the story, LOL. :P) Jason and I have been trying for quite a while to have a baby, but I thought that things might turn around since I've been losing weight. (35 pounds now, WHOO HOO!) I thought that might be enough to give my body the jumpstart that it needs. I don't even want to think about how long we have been trying.

Anyway, so Kara (Joe's girlfriend/fiance (Joe is Jason's youngest brother)) once again comes up and starts being nosy. (Sidenote here: Joe & Kara have 4 kids together and Kara has another one, but Joe is not the father to that one, and he lives with Kara's parents. And they are not yet married, we just found out that they were engaged again. It's been an on again and off again thing since I've been in the picture.) Asking so are you and Jason trying? When do you think you will have kids? And a zillion other questions. I laugh and say, "Eventurally." But she kept pushing and asking more questions.

I *hate* being put on the spot like that. It's none of her freaking business what we are doing. If Jason and I were able to have kids, we would have already had one by now!! It made me so mad and sad. I just wanted to cry. And Jason and I shared that we were having trouble getting pregnant before, so it's not like she didn't know. It hurts me so much. There is nothing more than I want to do than give Jason the baby that he wants. I almost feel like a faliure that I'm not able to do that.

Since the 4th I've been sad again. I hate feeling that way. I can't seem to shake it, this time either. Usually I can just push it to the side and move on, but I'm having a hard time, this time. I've been going to bed early, and can't seem to get movitated to do anything. I feel like I'm on the verge of falling off my diet and everything. I told Jason that and he said, no your aren't. You can do this. That helped. Knowing that he is there supporting me.

Before I make this post even more depressing, I'm going to go.

Secrets

This was Amy's challenge from SC. I really debated about posting these, and may end up taking them down again. But with everyone else sharing theirs, I thought I would post some of mine. There are some that I will never share here. But all of you that have bosted I admire you. You gave me the courage to post some of mine.

• I attempted suicide my senior year in highschool. I think the only reason why I got out of the mental health clinic was because I knew what they wanted to hear. I wasn't honest with the psychologist I seen after that either.
• It tore me up when I was admitted to the ER after taking dad's pills, and they accusing me of taking illegal drugs. I have *never* took drugs in my life. I wonder if mom and dad believed me that I never took drugs.
• I fantasize about other people.
• I'm very good at pretending I'm happy and all is well when it's not.
• I wonder if I have any half brothers and sisters. Then I remember what my bio-dad did to mom and want nothing to do with him.
• I have more friends online than in real life and I'm ok with that.
• I'm embarrassed about the house I live in.
• Sometimes I wonder why in the world Jason married me. He could have done so much better than me.
• I hate crowds and family gatherings. It's fine if there are very few people there, but I feel out of place and uncomfortable at other events.
• I still can't remember the names of some of Jason's relatives.
  
  
  

Thank you

THANK YOU all SO MUCH for your nice comments. They mean a lot to me. :) But I must confess, that shirt is still too tight to wear outside of the house. I am sucking my gut in, LOL. :)

Laurie--I *feel* younger too, LOL. I never thought I would say that, LOL. But I truly do!

Amy--Thank you!!!

Ma--Yes, it is hard to lose and easy to gain, but it is *so* worth it. I can actually walk up three flights of stairs at work and be hardly winded. Before I would be huffing and puffing when I got up the stairs.

Kandi--I got that outfit from www.torrid.com The shirt was only $7.99 on clearance! The skirt I think was 10 something. Not bad at all! And I love Black Eyed Peas "My Humps" as well!

I will get up and move to any upbeat music. I *love* listening to music in the mornings while I have the house to myself and and dance around sing without anyone seeing me. I crank the radio and let it go. LOVE it. I honestly don't think I could live without music.

Updates

Since I like lists, I'm going to post this in list form :)

• Got a call today that the part for the stove is in. YAY! They originially said that the part wouldn't be in until July 18. Now just to arrange for installation. I called after my dentist appointment to do that and they were closed.
• My dentist appointment today went great! No cavaties and very little tarter and plaque buildup. They were very impressed for being about 2 years since I last went in. Jason is frustrated because he had cavaties and I didn't, LOL.
• I'm now down 33.5 pounds. YAY!!! Another half a pound and I'm halfway to my goal of 200. :)
• Love my music. Just downloaded a bunch of songs from Itunes. Finally used the gift card that I got for my birthday back in January.
• I love my Wishblade.
• Posting from the couch is lovely.
• I'm so happy that Scrapy Chic is being renewed for another year. A great group of ladies there. :)
• Jason just started another message board. And xbox360 board. He seems so happy now that he has a "home" of his own again to play around with. :)
• I've been straightening my hair and putting eyeshadow and lipstick on for work. It makes me feel good about myself. I feel sexy and more confident with my straight hair rather than my curly hair. Isn't that odd?
• Jason's brother Justin got engaged to his girlfriend Tiffany!! So excited for the two of them. They seem to be a really good fit for eachother. And they are Jason and I for wedding advice. I had so much fun planning the wedding, I want to do it again. Jason, will you marry me again so we can have a huge party with all of our families and friends?
• Jason and I went swimsuit shopping for me over the weekend. I *hate* swimsuit shopping. I headed to the dressing room with a size 22 and 20 suits, two different styles. Both were too pic. So then I went and tried on an 18. Still too big, but I liked the style. So I grabbed it in a 16 and it fit perfect. Can you believe that? Me? In a Size 16 swimsuit?? Surprised me, very much. Was glowing the rest of hte day, LOL. Too bad my normal clothes aren't that size yet, LOL.
• I got my order of clothes from torrid. Got some really cut stuff. This outfit is one of them.

I also got a pair of shoes that I *love* I haven't gotten a decent pic of them yet, but I will.

Ok, it's confession time. The song "Honk Tonk Badonk a donk" gets me up to dance everytime it comes on. :)

Now I want to know what song either gets you up to dance around the house or you are embarassed to admit that you like.

20 Questions Challenge

1. What is your middle name? Sarah

2. Did you have an imaginary friend growing up? What was his/her name? Not that I can remember.

3. What is one thing you did that you never told your parents about? LOL, I'm still to young to share them. :P

4. What is your favorite bible verse and why? I would have to say Proverbs 31 because I want to be the best wife for Jason.

5. If you could trade places with one of your friends for a day, who would it be? Why? Honestly, I don't think I would want to. I'm content with my life, and don't want to change anything.

6. Where would you shop if there was not a Walmart? I don't shop at WM. We shop mainly shop at Target and Hy-Vee (local grocery store.)

7. How many times do you go to the grocery store in a week? Typically once a week. Very rarely do we go there more thance once a week.

8. If money was no object, what type of home would you live in, and where? I would want a house with 4+ bedrooms, at least 2 bathroms, out in the middle of nowhere, and it would have a wrap around porch and a swing in the front yard.

9. What is your favorite quick breakfast? Oatmeal. Typical breakfast is one egg scrambled with green peppers, mushrooms, tomoatos, and cheese. Served with whole wheat toast and fruit. :)

10. How many books have you read this year? You mean I'm supposed to count, LOL. I read all the time. Too many to count. I *love* to read.

11. Do you share every aspect of your life with your nearest and dearest friend, or do you keep some in reserve? I keep most of my life in reserve. Share bits and pieces with certain friends.

12. How do you like your coffee? Chocolate Frappuccino count? I don't really like coffee, but *love* the smell of it. Yes, I know I'm wierd. Been told that many times before ;)

13. Do you drink your cold drinks with ice/ or no ice? More often than not with ice.

14. Tanning oil, Sunscreen, or long sleeve shirt and hat? Sunscreen and shade for me!

15. Your favorite : Drizzle,Light rain, strong thunderstorms, or hurricanes? Light rain. Nothing like curling up with a book, reading and listening to the rain fall outside. Very comforting.

16. What do you do to "wind" down in the evenings? Either read or watch TV. Depending on my mood.

17. What is your "life song" that would describe your life right now? I have no idea. ETA: I know, I know. "You Drive me Crazy" by Britney Spears, since I tend to drive Jason crazy lots, LOL. I can't think of a better one at hte moment.

18. If your life was a novel what would be the title? She said what?? (Referring to all the sayings and words I screw up, LOL.)

19. Would you rather be a public speaker, or an usher? Neither, LOL. I would rather sit in the back of the room and not be noticed.

20. Do you go to a hair stylist and if so how much do you spend? I don't have a hair stylist. I just go to the beauty school and get my hair cut. So far so good, and if I remember right about $10 after tip. Can't go wrong there!

Loverly.

Yup, this is just want I want to deal with on a Saturday.


Yup, that is the stove that was installed on April 25. I thought it was less than a month ago, but I guess not.

Already placed a call to Home Depot. They said that they will have someone give me a call back. Great. Just want I wanted to do today.

Oh, and don't mind the hideous carpet in the background. I so can't wait until that is gone!!

Thought I would update again. Man, I'm on a roll this week, lol.

Last night I managed to play a bit of oblivion again on the 360. Lots of fun. Since Jason is working early tonight, I think I just might have to play it again tonight, lol. I think the game is like a never ending one, lol. There is the main quest and then tons of side missions. I'm barely into it. Jason has played much more than me, and has completed the main quest and is working on the side missions. I need to catch up with him, lol

Or instead of playing oblivion tonight, if I can get my pictures printed before Jason goes to work, I just might scrapbook! I need to run to burn the pics to a CD and then run to Hy-Vee to get copies made. Might be pushing it...but I do want to try. I think I just might have to save up for a good photo printer. I have a good color one, but the pictures just don't turn out that good. Disappointing.

Guess what I realized this moring. I'm down *another* pants size! YAY! I'm embarrassed to admit, that I was wearing a 26 pant. Then I went down to a 24, and earlier this week they were falling down, so I decided to try on a size 22. THEY FIT!!! I was so happy! Now I need to go back to Catherine's and get a pair of size 20's so when I drop another size, I can wear them. That way I at least have some clothes to wear to work, lol. I still need to go through my closet and pull out the other clothes that are too big. What a great feeling! I'm not sure what I should do with the too big clothes. I don't know if I should box them up and store them, or get rid of them? I certainly hope that I don't need them again, but then if Jason and I are going to have a baby, I might be able to wear some of them as maternity clothes? I think that I should box them up and keep them for the time being because of that. I don't know though.

My goal is to be able to get back into a pair of jeans that I wore in highschool. I believe they are a size 16 and are my Polo Ralph Lauren jeans. I remember feeling so great when I wore them, so when they didn't fit anymore, I kept them. Still have them. Lol. I so can't wait to wear them again!!

Father's Day is this weekend. Since we celebrated un-mother's day, we are going to celebrate un-father's day, lol. I think we will be going out to lunch on Saturday and see a movie. We seen the new x-men movie a couple weeks ago and that was really good. I wonder what we will see this time. Jason is really big into movies. For the most part, I could take them or leave them, but I do want to see Cars. I think that looks so cute! We will most likely wait and get it from Netflix rather than going to see it in the theatre. I know that Jason wanted to see Nacho Libre and Click, but I don't think that those are out yet. This summer, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 comes out and I can't to see that. We are definitely seeing that in the theatre!! Nothing like Capt'n Jack Sparrow, lol. Even though Johnny Depp is old, he is still good looking, lol.

I'm on day two or three of an awful headache. I have no clue why I have one, and it's starting to drive me up the wall. I've taken both tylenol and ibprofen, and even alternated them (usually that fixes everything, LOL) but nothing is working. The Tylenol and ibprofen, barely touch it, it just takes the edge away. I am very thankful it does that though. Does anyone have any sure fire cures for headaches? I sure could use them!!

Blog Challenge: Summer memories

Thank you Sheila for the challenge, this was lots of fun!

What is your most treasured Summer memory from growing up?
My most treasured memories would probably be going down to the campground about 2 miles down the road and hanging out at the pool and with all of the cute boy campers. Oh my. We had so much fun. Kelsey, lived at the campground (her parents owned it) and we had so much fun. We would be swimming, playing mini golf, playing on the play ground, playing pool, feeding the jukebox in the game room quarters, and just having fun. Most of the time was spent in the pool. Our favorite time was when the Johnson's, who were seasonal campers came up. It was an extended family and the boys were Doug (we re-named him Bubba. Have no clue where we got that name!) and David. We had numerous noodle fights in the pool with them, and Kelsey had such a crush on Doug's little brother (I can't remember his name!) and I had a crush on David, but flirted with Bubba all the time too. All around good time. That lasted what, I think 2 or 3 summers until they sold the campground? Great teenage fun!!

What do you do or have you done to try to rekindle that?
Nothing, I'm married now, can't exactly go around chasing cute guys, LOL. But it was fun while it lasted, LOL.

What is your favorite Summer activity now that you are grown up?
I love going up north and going camping at Lake 12. Nothing beats having a bunch of families around, tents & campers pitched, fishing and swimming off the end of the dock, camp fires at night, and good food. Of course, you can't forget the fireworks that we shoot off the as well. There's nothing like sleeping in a tent, and using an outhouse, LOL. I'm disappointed that Jason and I won't be able to do that this summer over the 4th of July weekend. But we are going camping with Jason's family down at Money Creek and that will be fun. It's different though because it's at a campground and not as private, but still fun! I enjoy camping and cooking over an open fire. Jason remember the first time we went camping, and you couldn't start the fire, I had to, LOL. It's a good thing, one of us was a true camper, LOL. Watching Toby & Randy build fires that had flames going 10+ feet in the air really helped. And no, I'm not kidding, we had to cut some of the tree branches down so they wouldn't catch fire, LOL. The coals were perfect in the morning for cooking over though. :) Lots and lots of fun camping at Lake 12 was.

Early Mornings, Clothes, & Scrapbooking

Lately, I have been getting up early in the morning, before my alarm even goes off. It used to really irk me when i would wake up before my alarm went off, now I enjoy it. Nothing like getting up, having a cup of tea, while you check your mail and the sites that you frequent. So calm and enjoyable. Seems like those few extra minutes really relax me.

Of course, Jason has been benefiting from that as well, since I usually have breakfast all cooked and ready when he walks in the door. I love being able to do that him. I feel like such a good wife, and I love it. :)

Also, thank you all for encouraging me about my look, and reassuring me I'm not too old to be doing this, lol, and playing around. :) I've been debating about dying my hair for some time. I don't know how long it would last if I got it professionally done, but I'm seriously thinking about it. Ma do you remember when my hair was bright red? I should see if I can't find pictures from then and post them. I'm going to look tonight, that is, if I can remember, lol.

Over the weekend Jason and I stopped at Mall of America and I ran into Torrid quick. Bought a couple of things, prices were a bit high, but picked up a couple of things. I just went to their website, and noticed that they are having a sale of 50% off of clearance prices. WOW! Found a shirt that made me chuckle. It says, "I'm a sucker for guys in eyeliner" The one I'm getting says, "my body is a temple, and yes, you may worship here" Cracked me up. Who knows if I will wear it out, but it's fun, and for $7.99, I think it's worth it! While I was at the site, I managed to pick out more things, $132 more, to be exact. Order is placed, can't wait until I get my stuff! It's going to be fun!

After looking through the Goth pics of me and the girls, I think I'm going to do a SB page on them. Do you think they will publish that, LOL. Maybe under, "Your not so typical scrapbookers." LOL.

While I was lurking on 2peas today, I found a link for music videos. Thought I would share with you guys. http://music.peekvid.com/p1/

I also seen an awesome pair of "altered" jeans. I so need to do that with one of mine. They used the HS foam stamps and turned out adorable! I still really want to try this, but need to buy fabric paint first. Wonder if any is on sale at HL this week. I know I have a coupon for them....hmmm...might have to run out there after work! I'm still waiting for their single sheet paper to go on sale for 6/$1 or 8/$1 again. I need to get some more of the sheets that I used up. Never mind that I have thousands of other papers, I want those, LOL. I'm awful. I gotta stop buying stuff. But you know I won't, LOL. I will admit it, I'm a paper whore, LOL. On that note, I will be leaving you, LOL.

I figure it's probably time to update my blog again. As you can see from the pictures on Ma's blog, the girls and I had fun over the weekend. :) I enjoy going up north and seeing everyone. The weekend always flies by though. We always have lots of giggles and laughs, usually about something that I have said, lol.

On the way home from up north, we stopped at IKEA and the Mall of America. We initially went to IKEA just to get another light for the living room. Which was about $8. We ended up spending almost $60 in there! I picked up more little spice jars for my scrapping area, some really cute little tin containers (on clue what I'm going to use them for, but they were adorable!), a bathroom mat, a light, a couple cushions for the kitchen chairs, a mirror, and finally a {PINK} rolling chair for me!! For my scrapping area of course. LOL. Also while we were up there, I found the {perfect} rug for my new scrapping room. It has all sorts of bright fun stripes on it. It is absolutely adorable! We didn't buy that though, maybe next time ;).

At the Mall we only went to three stores, and believe it or not Archiver's wasn't one of them, LOL. I decided to stay away from there since I haven't unpacked what I bought there last time. Now I know a few of you out there scrapbook....how in the world do I get back in the groove and find my mojo for scrapping??? It's been forever since I've scrapbooked.....but that doesn't keep me from buying supplies. I need to get back to using my supplies. Any tips? Any at all? Would love them! :)

Thanks...

Thanks for the comments on my last post. Greatly appreciate the comments. Sue, you mean I can't be a happy goth? lol. I am going to play around some more and see what I think. I'm looking for a red lipstick that I can wear with the look. I think that will look better than the black, although I do like the black. Am I too old to be doing this?

Here is another picture from when we took those.

So it's been forever since I blogged. Not much new, the same old, same old. I still haven't scrapped. Don't know why I'm not the in the mood for it. But I have been playing video games, lol. Jason had me try Oblivion for the xbox360. It was fun, but hard. Jason offered to help me pass a couple things and he had problems too! Since we can customize the characters, we figured that I should just start over and try a new character. I started over at least 4 times. Yesterday Jason discovered that the difficulty level on mine was in the middle and his was on easy! He's just trying to make me look bad. ;)

I got a laptop last week. Love it! Especially since as of Saturday, we have wireless internet hooked up, whoo hooo! Now I just need to figure out how to secure it so other's don't use it. But in the mean time, it's up and awesome, lol. I have just been using my scrappin' table for the a desk though, and moving it and sitting on the couch and stuff. I also got a really cute {pink} laptop bag. Of course I had that before I even had my laptop, lol.


Jason and I went to the mall yesterday to look around. We went into Hot Topic and was seeing what all they had. I found a {pink} glitter Master Chief from Halo2. Now, most of you probably have no clue what in the world i'm talking about, but Halo2 is a video game that I was into last year (still enjoy playing it, but don't play it often anymore, i'm awaiting Halo3 coming out in 2007) and in Halo2 you customize your character (mine was Master Chief, the main character in the same) and I made him pink. So what I bought yesterday was like an action figure, but glittery pink, and also included was an alien action figure so Master Chief could shoot him.

I was also looking at some make up and such, and found a black eye/lip crayon. I thought it might be fun to do my makeup "gothic" type. So when we got home, I took off my normal makeup and started to play around with it. For my first time doing this, i thought it turned out pretty good. I set up a white backdrop and had Jason take some pictures of me. It was a lot of fun. The weird part is I felt prettier when I was dressed up like that than I normally do. *shrug* doesn't make sense to me....but anyway, don't be freaked out by the picture, lol. I think I would like to try to do my makeup like that again, it was a lot of fun!

Cleaning Bug.

It seems like I get the cleaning bug at work more than at home. I wonder if it is because my office is a much smaller space. I dusted all my shelves, filed and tossed a bunch of stuff and even vacuumed my office. As well as everyone else in the office. Now if only I could do this at home. The house isn't that bad, except for all the crap from the linen closet (not a closet, it was a free standing shelving thing) that I doesn't fit in the new chest o' drawers that we are using for a linen closet.

We went to IKEA and bought this to use: http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/56333_XXXXXXXX_S6.jpg
Yes, I know that it's truly a dresser, but where we have it, and the height it doesn't remind me of a dresser. I even bought the cool drawer organizers to go in one drawer. http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/22492_PE107367_S3.jpg Love them. Organizes my make up and such perfectly! With the new storage unit, it really opens up the space more. I think that is what I'm trying to do in the house. Open space. Declutter. Simplify.

We even downsized our kitchen table and chairs. Bought a solid pine table and chairs for two. It works perfect for us! And really opens up the kitchen. :) Can't go wrong with that. Jason found a TV stand to go in the living room to replace the two that we have. Once again, simplifying! LOVE IT!! I couldn't find a picture of the table and chairs and TV stand.

Gotta love IKEA. We have been really happy with all that we have bought from there. You do have to put it together, but Jason enjoys doing that. We were really going to buy a new living room set from them, but they aren't comfortable. I really like the styles that they have, but it's gotta be comfortable. Last thing I want is an uncomfortable couch or chair.

Jason asked me the other day what I wanted to do on Sunday for un-mother's day. I know I picked a keeper if we celebrate un-mother's day. :) So I have to decide what we are going to do, I truly have no idea. Give me some ideas here....for once I'm clueless!

Lists

Since I don't want to get a swift kick in the behind, I figured I should probably update this thing! I think I'm going to do a list format this time. I love my lists!

• Weightloss--As of Sunday I was at 251. That is down 17 pounds from when I started. On the way up north this last weekend, while in the car I made a meal plan for the week. I wasn't sure how they would be calorie wise, but for the most part, my days worth came out ot 1000-1200 calories. That is perfect, it gives me a little wiggle room. On Monday though, after I ate all my meals, I was only around 750 calories. ACK! And the kicker was I wasn't even hungry! But I had some snacks that evening to get me up to 1100. Still under 1200, but I'm not going to worry about that for a day. I also noticed now that I have to think before I put things in my mouth, I don't snack as much. For the most part, I leave all of the snacky food/candy alone at work, and at home, I eat supper and am good. Usually I would snack and graze while making supper and even after. Now I don't. Amazing.
• Scrapbook--I am almost done with my It's About Me scrapbook! All of the pagese are done, I just have to do the journaling. There is a lot of journaling to do in the book...but I've started to hand write it out.
• Wishblade savings--or should I say lack there of? I got my hands on a list of retiring stamps from Stampin' Up! Of course there is a bunch on there that I truly want and a bunch that I sorta want. A gal at Willlow Traders had a bunch of the sets for sale at 50% off. And they were not wood mounted. She used EZ mount on them, so you use the clear acrlic blocks. Less storage space that way! And cheaper shipping! So I bought a bunch of sets off of her $124.50. Not bad, since they were half off!! Even got sets that weren't retiring, ROFL. So a bunch of my wishblade money went there. I was weak. Must get back on the wagon.
• Mother's Day--Mother's day is on Sunday! Last weekend when we were up north, we gave Ma her Mother's Day present. For part of it, I made a little coffee filter book. Turned out adorable, if I can say so myself. And I told Ma not to cry when she opened it, but she did! Then had Julie crying and me too.... And of course, before I gave it to her, I forgot to take pictures of it! So if you want to see it, just beg Ma for some pictures. ;)
• Content---you know sometimes, when you feel life is overwheleming, well lately I feel content. I don't really know why. I'm just all around happy, my goofy normal self. The house has remained fairly cleaned up, I'm scrapbooking. Jason is his normal, goofy, happy self. Life is good. I just feel like, I'm finally doign something right, and am content with home and work and things are good. Love that feeling. I hope that it sticks around for a long time!

Not too much going on around here. Today is Administrative Professional's day, which is what I do, so all of the people I support came into my co-workers (also administrative assistant) office, sang, and brought food in honor of us. Of course the food that they brought was Chocolate Cake Bars, Cherry Cheesecake, and Special K bars. They refused to each anything until we went through the line....so I had the smallest chocolate cake bar and special K bar I could find. I already inputted it into Spark People, and supper will be hard to get through without going over in calories, but it should work fine. And even if I do go over a bit, it won't kill me.

I weighed in again on Sunday night and I'm down a total of 11 pounds. That makes me very happy! The only bad thing is that my new pants and clothes that I just bought are getting too big. I went shopping way before I was planning on losing weight.....that makes me sad, since I love some of these clothes. I was reading a post on the message board over at Spark People about how 1 can of pop takes 12 gallons of water to get completely out of your system. I thought that was interesting. I need to see if I can find that post again and see if they ever posted the information to support that. I haven't had pop in a long time, it's been well over a month, I can't remember when we stopped drinking and buying it, but it was quite a while ago. And you know, I don't miss it. It's also nice that when we go out to eat, we don't have that extra $4+ added on the bill. So it makes it cheaper as well, if we just drink water. That's nice. Love saving me some money, lol.

Let's see, what else is new....I'm teaching a coffee filter book class at the LSS tomorrow night. I hope it goes ok. That reminds me, I gotta call Jen and see how many are signed up.

This weekend is going to be busy. Saturday we are having a new stove and refrigerator delivered. Yup, we broke down and bought one of each. Flat top stove and side by side fridge & freezer with water dispenser. Our current fridge is about 18 cubic feet and the new one is 25 or 26 cubic feet, can't remember what one! I'm looking forward to all the extra room in there since I've been buying lots of fresh veggies lately. The thing about the water dispenser on the fridge is that our current fridge doesn't have one, so we will have to figure out how to hook it up. We bought the kit and it doesn't look too complicated, but Jason wants to call a plumber in, cuz he thinks he has to do something down stairs in the basement to get the water to run up. I told Jason that Ma could come down and get it all set for us. You should have seen the look he gave me, LOL. It was priceless. I still vote for Ma to come down, cheaper that way, ya know.

This weekend Jason and I are going to go up to Mall of America on Sunday. All we are planning to hit is the Lego Store, Archiver's and IKEA. Speaking of IKEA, I gotta figure out what else I need from there, for my scrapping area. I use the little jars and such to store my ribbon and such in. There was also a really cool cutting board there that I wanted. And since I'm eating healthier, I think I'm going to get it. Sorta as a reward for me. I'm sure I will find all sorts of other treasures out there.

I've been trying to curb my scrapping spend some, and saving some money. Jason and I each get an "allowance" of $50-$100 to spend on whatever we want. I'm saving mine in hopes to get a Wishblade. So far I have $275 saved for it. It's a $450 machine without shipping. So I'm a little more than half way there. Gotta keep saving so I can get that. That means I have to stay out of Hobby Lobby this week since a ton of Scrapping stuff is 50% off. But I need to get some needles so I can sew some stuff on a LO. And fix the button on Jason's shirt. Wonder if I can get them at Target...will have to see!

Time Flies

I was thinking that it's almost the end of April, 2006. I graduated from high school 5 years ago. That is hard to believe. I still have lots of fun, vivid memories from back then. And lots of pictures. I should post a couple from way back then. We had a blast in high school. It seemed like there were constantly sleepovers at our house, in the green house of course! We stayed up all night, laughing, playing truth or dare and talking about boys. Then there were the dances. Oh my, those were so much fun! And running to Duluth or North Branch for shopping. I still can't believe that it's been that long since high school, it seems like yesterday. I wonder if there will be a 5 year reunion. It would be fun to see everyone again and see what they are doing. Tonight, I'm going to dig through my pictures and pull a couple out to scan in. Maybe even start Scrapping my high school years. That will be a lot of fun. Ma, expect a lot of phone calls to help date the pictures, LOL.

4 Pounds down!

Last week I stumpbled across a website called SparkPeople. It's a website where you can track calories, etc. to lose weight. They have a goals section where you can input goals and such as well. I started tracking tracking what I was eating and was horrified at the calories, fat, carbs, that I was eating. I weighed myself the day I signed for for SP and I weighed 268. OUCH! That is awful.

At the during of Jason, I jumped on the scale on Wednesday, April 12. It said I weight 264. Down 4 pounds!! I truly wasn't expecting a weight loss of that much. It shocked me. I was giddy the rest of the night. I hope to be down to 200 or less by the end of the year.

We haven't eaten out since I started SP and I have felt that I have eaten out every night. I steamed shrimp, made a healthy pizza loaded with veggies, it's been amazing. I'm actually shocked at how much food is in my calorie range. I can make this work. I can meet meet my goal. This is the first time that I have been on a diet that I feel I can stick with this.

Now I just need to keep up this enthusiam!

If you want to join SP, go to www.sparkpeople.com and if you would put my user name (AmPooh) in the referral field that would be great! It is a completely free site and offers, menus and such as well. Even a printable grocery list.

Challege: What's eating me

• People who can't read the simple e-mails that I send. How hard is it to read 3 sentances?
• People who refused to go to the room that they are properly assisgned because it doens't work for them. Well then, why in the hell did they reserve it in the first place???? And of course, they do this 2 freaking days in a row.
• People who knit-pick every little thing.
• People who make small problems large problems.
• (I think I have a problem with people today......)
• My hair. It's at the stage where I don't know what to do with it. I don't want short hair, but the long hair isn't looking too good. I'm sick of the style that I have.
• Pants. Why in the world can't I find any work pants that fit me? They are freaking huge in the butt. I could fit another butt in there.
• People who call and ask the same question over and over again.
• People who call and ask for a room, because they don't like the one that they have. When I tell them they ahve nothing available, they wait about 2-3 hours and then have their secretary call to see if I have anything open. Don't ya think if I would have had something open, I would have given it to you? I'm holding rooms hostage here.....
• Work.
• Work.
• Oh, did I say work?
• And people.

That about sums it up today. Aren't you glad you asked?

Laurie...Scrapbooking :)

Laurie, instead of answering you in the comments section, I thought you deserved your own post, LOL.

I haven't scrapped in ages and ages and I am so far behind it isn't even funny
any more.

Don't worry about getting far behind in scrapbooking. In my opinion, it's not about scrapping in any order, and you shouldn't stress if you are behind! In the "Big Picture Scrapbooking" book by Stacy Julian, she said something to the effect that it's ok to not scrap in order, it's ok to be behind, and it's ok to scrap the same picture more than once. That was very enlightening for me. I mean, all along, I knew that Scrapbooking really had no rules, but for someone to come out and actually say it, that was amazing to me! That book really inspired me.

Now some people might say that I sound all conceited and a know-it-all for this, and I'm not that way. I just wanted to share what I learned, and to hopefully inspire someone to not worry about the "rules." Especially since there are none!

Now Laurie, go scrap a page and forget about everything this else for a bit!

My Points

So I've been using mypoints for well over a year now and it's wonderful! Jason and I do a bit of online shopping, so you earn points that way, but mainly I just click through the e-mails that they send me. We have gotten a bunch of giftcards for free this eay! Since I opened the account, I've earned 15,060 points. We almost have another 4,000 ready to redeem! Just have to decide what we want to get this time around.

I *love* my points! We have earned giftcards to Olive Garden, Toys R Us, and I believe even Target. They really helped out with Christmas shopping one year, since money was tight.

If you want to learned more about MyPoints, let me know, and I can refer you and they will send you an informative e-mail. I earn points that way too, so let me know, LOL.

If you have questions, I will do my best to answer them :)

Boring Life

I live such a boring life. I feel like I don't have anything to say that people would like reading. I enjoy reading others blogs, as they share bits and pieces about their lives and cute kid stories. I don't have cute kids stories, and Jason and I aren't that exciting, lol.
Let's see what's happened since I last updated my blog.
-I got my S.H.E. book. Denise, that means I get to send Chele's copy on to you! Do you still want the Tupperware pitcher? If so, I will send them both at the same time. Let me know! I still haven't made up my SHE cards though, bad Amber.
-I worked at Scraps of Time (Local Scrapbook Store) during their used stamp sale. Got some awesome deals and earned money too, LOL. You wouldn't believe what some of the Stampin' Up set's were going for. CHEAP! I got a brand new, never been mounted set for $8. Can't go wrong there!
-This last weekend I went out to eat with some of the gals from SOT (Scraps of Time) and then went back to the store to crop. Was a lot of fun and we are all saying that we need to do it again soon. It was nice going out with just the gals for a while.

-Went up to IKEA 2 weekends in a row, LOL. I got my IKEA Expedit shelf for my scraproom. That means my scrap area is a *DISASTER* but is getting organized.

-Jason and I are going through purging a ton of stuff and trying to re-organize the house a bit. I must admit it's a great feeling!

-Valentine's Day was good! Jason spoiled me, as usual!

-Work is still work. I dream about being at home, working in my crafting area when I'm at work.
-Jason and I are looking into refinancing the house. We got 1 rate back, and I think that it should be lower. Will do a little more looking before we sign anything.

I like my lists, LOL. (Yes, I know I'm weird!)

Not much else, see I told you life is boring!

Rain & Class

Class went very well!! I had about 12 students and they all made the box, whoo hoo! They said that I was very patient and they want to take another class from me. *Shock* So I should see what else I can bring in and turn into a class. LOL.

And it's been raining all day! I left for class about 10:30 and it was a little sprinkley, and it's been rainy all day now.

I also got the Sidetracked Home Executive book from Chele in the mail yesterday, I believe. And I got a couple lovely birthday tags in the mail. Chele and Jen's. They are both awesome!!! Thanks guys!

Oh sorry, went off on a tanget there....anyway, I'm going to try the S.H.E method out. I went and bought the colored cards and dividers today. I'm thinking I'm going to dress the box and dividers up though. I'm a scrapper, how can I leave them alone, LOL. Does anyone do the S.H.E. style? Does it work for you? I'm thinking I'm going to get my own copy of the book off of eBay because I truly think that it will work for me! I really enjoyed reading it.

Springtime!

Yup, you read that right, it's looking like spring out there already! We have no snow on the ground and it's been in the upper 30's or lower 40's all week! Yesterday we grilled outside for lunch. Hamburgers and brats, boy was that good....and the best part is we still have leftovers.....yummy.

Today I'm teaching a class at the LSS on the Ikea box. I'm nervous about it since I don't like to talk in front of people, so I hope it goes ok.

Dinking Around

I'm loving this week off! I'm having so much fun just dinking around, doing whatever I want. It's great!! I'm still working on my big project and haven't done any scrappin' except for that, but that's ok. I'm having so much fun!

I did go and buy a sizzix die cut machine today, now I just need some dies, LOL. Money only goes so far though! So if you know of some cheap places, besides eBay to buy some dies let me know. Or if you are selling them, let me know, I'm interested!

Denise, thank you for showing me that set! Do you know approximately how big the { is? Or even the words?

Today Jason and I are going to give blood. Appointment is at 2 p.m. Should be fun. I haven't given blood since I was in high school. Almost 5 years ago now. Gosh, I'm getting old! Yesterday I turned 23. I feel older...that can't be good, ROFL.

Well, I best be off, want to work a little more on my project. Lots of fun, but very time consuming!!

Bad blogger

Yes, I know, I've been a terrilbe blogger. *hangs head in shame* But in all honestly, not too much is going on.

I'm off work next week, WHOO HOO. I can't wait! I need this time to relax and rejuvenate.

I got the Big Picture book earlier this week. Started reading it today at lunch. *loving* it. I can't wait to finish it and re-read it, LOL. I can definately see how this would change a persons view on scrapping and inspire them. Fav quote so far, "Scrapbooking products don't have expiration dates."

I'm in seach of a stamp that has the { included in it. Anyone know where I can find a set?

I so want a sizzix for my Birthday!

I'm so looking forward to going up north this weekend and seeing everyone. Going to be great fun.

I'm teaching a class at the LSS on the 28th and am nervous.

I'm almost done with work today!

Amber :)