Dora show and other excitement

Ok, I had a whole post written and Blogger ate it. Oh well.

So the Dora Show rocked! Maggie was over the moon and fascinated by it. She was entranced by the stage from the moment the show started until it was over and has been singing some of the songs over and over since then. "Isa turn the wheel, turn the wheel, Isa!" lol It was totally worth the drive up to Atlanta. She had such a great time!

In other news, I can't spill my secret for another while yet. I was hoping to be able to spill this week, but because of scheduling, I have to wait until next week. Oh well. Soon enough. :)

So today tell me about your favorite month. I love October. I love how crisp and clean the air feels in October, plus it's the month that Chris and I got married. :) October in the South is a pretty nice time...you should check it out! So what's your favorite month? I can't wait to hear!

Have a good Monday!

Dora Show and other excitement!

Oh my. We went to the Dora the Explorer Live show at Atlanta's Fox Theater yesterday. Maggie was ENTRANCED! For the first half of the show, her eyes didn't leave the stage once. Well, maybe once--she looked at Tony (Grandad) to get her Dora flag. lol Every now and then she'd exclaim, "There's Swiper!" or "There's Tico!" LOL I thought the show was pretty good, too, though I was admittedly staring at Maggie the whole time. Instead of spending the night, we just drove up yesterday and met Chris' parents for lunch. We went on to the show from there and then drove home afterwards. The car trip there and back was long (about 2.5-3 hrs), but Maggie was terrific. She spent about an hour on the drive up playing with the ring tones on Chris' phone. Oh, the wonder of technology!

In other news, my secret is going to have to remain under wraps for a little longer. I thought I might be able to spill this week, but scheduling means that I can't until next week. :)

So...today tell me your favorite month. Do you have one? Mine is October. I love how the air is crisp and feels so clean in October. I love that you can wear jeans and a t-shirt or shorts and a sweatshirt and be totally comfortable. October is a good football month. Plus, Chris and I were married in October (the 7th), so that's always good for making it a good month. So what's your favorite month?

Happy Monday!

Secrets and changes

Boy, don't you just love having a big huge secret? One part of you wants to scream it from the mountain top, but the other part relishes the juicy feeling of having this idea all to yourself (or mostly to yourself, at least). Mmmmm, secrets are fun. :)

So I'm fairly certain that I've figured out my weirdo feelings of late (exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, etc.). Let's just say that things will be changing, but I've got some work to do on it. It's a good thing, but I'm not quite ready to spill yet. :) Soon. Not yet, though. ;)

Anyway, I feel as if I've turned a HUGE corner. Life is good, and I plan to dive right in and splash around some. :)

So...if you are still reading, how about clicking on the comment button. Tell me the name of your favorite book or author. :) I'm looking for new authors to read!

Yoooohoooooooo

Howdy out there great big world! You know, I added one of those stat counter things just out of curiosity. I wanted to see if anyone actually ever looked at my blog. lol. So it turns out that around 20 people do, though most of them (most of you!) never post anything. Would you say hi today? :) Just say hi and tell me your current favorite digital kit. How about that? :) Fun, huh? lol

So Maggie was hanging out in her crib this morning having a blast with "Tico" and "Benny" and "Swiper"--all from Dora--and the Easter Bunny. That child has the best imagination! I went in to her and turned on the light, but she was happy enough playing with her dolls and her imaginary buddies that she wasn't ready to get out yet. She's got a big girl bed all set up in her room, and she asks to sleep on it lots, but she just doesn't sleep well or stay asleep when she's on it. Those nights tend to be Mommy's up 10 times a night kind of nights. We still try it for naps sometimes and for overnight sleep every now and then to see if she's ready yet. One of these days...

For now, though, I like that she's happy and confined in her crib for sleep--at least I don't have to worry about her messing with stuff when we're all asleep. Yesterday she thought that her drink was on the counter so she went and got one of the kitchen chairs and pushed it over to the counter to get the drink. The other day, she did the same thing and hung out on the other side of our kitchen island while I was finishing up an essay I was reviewing. It was fine until she decided to start rearranging our knife block! :O The knives have now been moved elsewhere, but really, no where is safe right now. Everything from counter level down is totally safe, but there are still some dangers counter-level and up. She's not quite old enough, either, to understand the logic of complicated explanations, and sometimes a stern "No" will make her MORE interested in whatever the thing was. Oh well--we'll solve it, I'm sure. Right now she's watching Dora (Of course!) and doing the "Come on, vamonos" dance. She was going to the store with my mom the other weekend and she said, "Come on, Gran, Let's vamos!" My mom didn't know what to think! lol

Ok, I'm off to try to tidy my house up a little. Today's my day off from the Y, so I need to get busy getting this house into some sort of order. :-)

Don't forget--say hi and tell me what your favorite digital kit is! (If you aren't a digi person and have just wandered across this blog from somewhere else, tell me something else neat! :) ) Happy Friday!!

Blahs lately

Blah blah blah, I've had the blahs lately. I've felt like I'm not doing anything well and that I'm falling short on everything. I'm sure it all goes back to a lack of sleep...hopefully I can catch up on that soon. My semester is over on May 7, so at least I won't have any essays to read and review for a couple of weeks. I can make it a month, right? :) lol So I've been a little quiet lately--not much scrapping done either. I need to do some lifts to get the juices flowing...maybe this weekend.

Oh, I've been working out! Only on the 2nd week this week (how lame!), but so far so good. Last week we did two days of aerobics and one day of pilates. This week it'll switch--two pilates days, one aerobics day. Pilates is hilarious because it doesn't look like much work but I am always SO sore afterwards! Wish me luck--maybe I'm finally going to get things going to make some changes.

Maggie had a great Easter weekend. She's such a crack up these days. She spends most of the day acting out Dora scenes. :) She woke up this morning talking about Swiper and the King and Queen. lol What a funny kid!

Ok, just a quickie post from me. I'm going to try to head to bed early tonight. :) I'm going to try to scrap some more tomorrow. :) Happy Tuesday night!

Oh man, I should be asleep...

It's 4am and here I sit, typing away on the computer

. Finished what I think is a pretty cool layout, though:

Seriously, how cute is this kiddo?!! :) I used Mindy Terasawa's Pocket Full of Posies kit and several fonts (SP Inspired, Waterfalls, Susie's Hand, if you're interested).

For some reason I felt compelled to finish it tonight instead of just going to sleep. I was tired hours and hours ago. Oh well. I'm sure Maggie will be awake in another couple of hours (2 if I'm lucky--30 minutes if I'm not). I'm heading to Pilates at 8:30am to try to start to make some changes in the way I look. That should be interesting on a few hours' sleep.

Off to bed. Just wanted to share the layout. Happy day/night, all! :)

5am and other ramblings

Oh boy, can I just say that I am NOT an early morning person? Maggie has been fascintated by her big girl bed lately and has been wanting to sleep in it for naps. That's fine--she doesn't sleep as long, but she is sleeping in it at naptime. Last night, though, she asked Chris if she could sleep in her big girl bed all night...

She did well--she got up a few times, but they were spaced out about every 3 or 4 hours. Still, though, guess who didn't sleep because of her nocturnal wakings? Yep, me. Oh, and at 5am she was up. UP UP UP. So NOT my favorite time of the day! She was funny, though. O'Neill (the cat) was messing with the blinds on the backdoor asking to go out and she said, "O'Neill, it's really really dark outside. It's sweepy sweepy time." When I reminded her that it was sleepy time for her, too, she said, "No, just for O'Neill. I'm AWAKE!" lol Silly kid.

I have fallen behind on the 21 day challenges, but I keep checking the quotes. I'll get them all finished--just maybe not in the 21 days. :) I'm also doing the recipe swap thing that's listed on several different boards. So far I've gotten about 50 appetizer layouts and 50-something soups--this is going to be an awesome recipe book...really pretty, too! :)

I'm working on the next issue of De-Zine, too. That should be out at The DigiChick this weekend, so be sure to get it. There's some great stuff in there, especially the really awesome kit from the DigiChick designers. Here's a layout that I did with Spring Fever, the kit that you get for free when you buy the $3 April De-Zine:

I used the Spring Fever kit from the DigiChick designers and Fee Jardine's awesome Appleberry Pie alpha (also available at DigiChick). The font for "Chick" is A Yummy Apology. I used a sketch from Angela Spangler, who is a rockin' chick. :) Thanks, Ang!

Off to buy Maggie an Easter dress and shoes today. Nothing like waiting until almost the last minute, is there? I wouldn't be Sinead if I didn't at least try. lol Maybe we'll stop by the Zoo, too, if we make good time at the stores. Happy Tuesday!

A bit of this and a bit of that and a whole lot of nothing...

Not much going on today. Miss Maggie did NOT sleep well last night, which meant that Maggie's Mommy did NOT sleep well, either. After about 4 hours of going in to her every 30 minutes, I gave up and got into the twin bed with her. I haven't slept on a twin bed since I was in college...I NEED my King-sized bed! lol

So a quiet day for us today. I've got to work later, so I'm hoping I can get her to take a good nap. 3 hours of work is just going to crawl past today, I'm sure.

We're staying here this weekend. THere's a birthday party for Maggie's best friend tomorrow, and we're thinking about going to the folksy artsy-craftsy fair at Calico Fort on Sunday. Exciting, right? lol

There's yard work to be done, too. I was looking at our "grass" yesterday and I think that almost every greenish bit is actually a WEED! The Tru-Green chemical guy came by to try to get me to buy his services, but it's $48 a month...surely I can do it for less than that. I'm going to try anyway. We'll see...

Once I get my work done today, I need to catch up on my 21 Day challenges (only 5 days behind--lol!) and do some formatting/layout work for the April De-Zine. That's going to be another rockin' issue, too...can't wait to see how everything comes together.

I think I'm in a bit of a rut lately, scrap-wise. I like what I've been putting together, but they don't seem to get the comments from others like some of my other stuff has done. It's odd, too, because so much of my recent stuff hasn't been posted in the galleries yet because I'm waiting for the De-Zine publication. Ah well...maybe I have pissed off the praise Gods. lol I might do a few scraplifts this weekend to see if I can get the juices flowing again. We'll see...

Happy Friday!

Day 6 of Rhonna's 21 Day challenge

I'm finally getting around to posting my layout for Day 6 of Rhonna's 21 Day challenge. I'm a little slow, but I'll get caught up over the weekend.

I used AmyJo Smith's Grunge Overlay kit and her Touchy Feely 2 kit to create the pink and green papers. What rockin' kits!! You can get them here at her blog or at the DigiChick Boutique. The font is CK Kolette.

I'm heading to bed now...yet another late night for me! Night everyone!

21 day challenge and new layout

Whew--I finally got day 4 of Rhonna's 21 day challenge finished. A sick kiddo this morning interfered with my plans. When I did get to start working on it, it took on a life of its own. It's something different than what I've done so far, but I think I like it. Check out the kit, too--that's Valerie Fowler's new kit Metabolize, available at the DigiChick Boutique. It's an awesome kit to work with!

Kit: Metabolize by Valerie Fowler, Flourish brush by Ashley Olson. Fonts: Waterfalls, SP Inspired, SP Toby Unleashed.

The other layout that I worked on last night is with Mari Koegelenberg's new kit Forget-Me-Not (also available in the DigiChick Boutique!) It was so easy to work with, too!

Kit: Forget-Me-Not by Mari Koegelenberg. Fonts: Roddy, Waterfalls

Big news--my sister found out today that she's having a BOY! Yay for her! She's already got a little girl, so a boy will balance things for them and will give my nephew Will someone cool to play with. We're super excited!

I'm supposed to be at my parents' house right now, but Maggie puked in her bed this morning and then had a NASTY diaper (ENOUGH said there, let me tell you!). She's been fine ever since, so I'm debating heading out after her nap. We'll see how things look then, I guess.

off to get some work done so that I don't have to work all night! :-)

Tired tonight...

Boy, I'm tired tonight. I'm going to turn in early tonight. I'll get up in the morning and, if Maggie lets me, work on my Day 4 layout for Rhonna's 21 day challenge, as well as a couple of other things. We're heading to my parents' house tomorrow morning for the weekend because my godmother and her family are coming into town for a visit. She calls herself my YFG--Your Fairy Godmother--and she's Maggie's GGE--Grand Godmother Extraordinaire. She's SUCH a riot and I can't wait! :)

Happy sleeping, all!

Check this out for a good cause!

Please consider checking out this auction on ebay:

http://tinyurl.com/zkgr3

A friend of mine is raising money for a mission trip to Bangladesh. Her son lost his two front teeth and after wondering, "What good are two front teeth, anyway?" his parents decided to auction his two front teeth off to show him just how valuable some things can be.

Day 3 of Rhonna's 21 Day challenge

Here's my layout for Day 3 of Rhonna's challenge:


Credits: **papers from Valerie Fowler's Trying 2B Girly and Rhonna Farrar's April Free Pea kit. Font is Waterfalls.

I've been tagged

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Online Writing Tutor
2. College Writing Instructor
3. Teacher
4. Restaurant Manager
Four movies you would watch over and over: (in no particular order)
1. Princess Bride
2. Heathers
3. Can't Buy Me Love
4. Beaches
Four places you have lived:
1. Elmore, AL (just outside Montgomery, AL)
2. Willow Spring, NC
3. Carrollton, GA
4. LaGrange, GA (and Navan, Ireland, just for good measure :) )
Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Charmed
2. Bones
3. America's Next Top Model
4. Everwood
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Ireland
2. Florida
3. Grand Canyon/Grand Tetons/Yellowstone
4. Outer Banks
Four websites I visit regularly:
1. http://www.thedigichick.com/
2. http://www.scrapbook-bytes.com/
3. http://www.ginamiller.typepad.com/
4. Earthlink Webmail
Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chicken Nuggets
2. Chicken Tacos
3. Roasted Chicken (gosh, do I eat a lot of chicken or what?!)
4. Roasted Potatoes
Four places I would rather be right now:
1. at the beach
2. in Ireland
3. at the Grand Tetons
4. in North Carolina
Four people I am tagging that I think will respond:
1. Gina
2. Angela
3. Val
4. AmyJo (she's got to have something to blog about! lol)
Four things I always carry with me:
1. keys
2. credit cards
3. cell phone
4. Maggie (seems like it, anyway!)

American Idol...

Woo---what were some of those American Idol contestants thinking this week?! Boy, I wasn't impressed by song choices tonight. I liked Chris (just cause I always do, not so much because he was that good), but his last note was just off. WAY off. Mandisa I usually love but not so much tonight. The song just didn't seem to work for her. I liked Taylor--it was an interesting change for him. Paris did a great job, and so did what's her name--the one who did the Christina Aguilera song (I can't ever remember her name!). I wasn't impressed by Ace or Lisa or Bucky or Kelly or really by Elliot. I don't mind his voice--it's his face that I can't look at. He looks like such a dork when he's singing!

Anyway, I wonder who's going to get the boot. My guess is that it'll be Lisa, Bucky, or Ace. We'll see who it is. :)

Day 2 of Rhonna's 21 Day challenge

Hey...if nothing else, maybe Rhonna's challenge will get me to blog more! lol Anyway, here's Day 2:

Quote by Rhonna Farrar. Papers from Mari Koegelenberg's Country Charm. Fonts are SP Inspired, SP Toby Unleashed, SP Pretty Purkage.

I'll try to get back here later to post some regular posty stuff...gotta get some work done now while Maggie sleeps, though!

Day 1 of Rhonna's 21 Day challenge

So I've been intrigued by Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge. I thought I'd give it a shot. Here's my Day one:

I used Valerie Fowler's Trying 2 B Girly kit and Kim Christensen's stitching from Mellow. The font is Roddy.

Family dinners

Today's blog challenge at DigiChick is to write about a favorite family dinner...

My dad has always taken over the duty of cooking Sunday dinner. This is especially true of the last ten years since he has traveled all week. He's so happy to be back at home with my mom and able to putter around the house and the yard that he really relishes Sunday dinners. Sometimes when the weather is nice he grills steaks outside. Yummm...he also does a big tray of mushrooms and onions, too. :)

During the cold months, though, or if someone special is coming, he usually roasts a chicken or two inside. He makes the chicken drunk by dousing it with a bottle of wine during the course of the cook-time. YUM!! Throw in some super yummy roasted potates, and that's plenty for me to eat! There are usually other veggies, too, like carrots or peas. Dad's specialty with the roasted chicken is his stuffing. It is stuffed inside the bird--a no-no these days, but not something he's going to change. It's not the traditional Southern stuffing (of course--we might live in the South, but most of what we do is VERY Irish, even after 30+ years in Georgia!). He uses fresh bread crumbs, onions, parsley, sage, and butter to put together a bread stuffing that is DE-LISH! :)

I've had some terrific meals over the years, but nothing will ever surpass one of my dad's roasted stuffed drunk chickens with yummy crusty roasted potatoes! :)

Who Invited the Sickies back??

Ack!! Poor Maggie was so sick on Thursday--throwing up every 30 minutes. She just hung out on the couch all day long. She seemed better yesterday, but today she was wiped out for at least half the day. Poor little munchkin. Then she was joined on the couch by Chris, who also seems to have caught this lovely stomach virus. No puking from him, at least, but definite nausea. I thought I was dodging the bullet, but the nausea has hit me tonight. We'll see what tomorrow holds. ICK--i hate the sickies!

On another note, I got the craziest spam comment tonight from some anonymous poster who was telling me about some mystery shopped opportunity. What the heck?

On CT commentary, I'm happily working away on stuff for the next De-Zine. The kit for April is GORGEOUS (just wait--you'll love it!), and we're working with some other neat things, too. I'm also working on stuff for Mari K, Val, and Marsha. I'm so happy when I'm busy! :)

I'd also like to thank everyone who so nicely commented on my HOF layouts. You guys are too sweet! It was nice to share them finally and to get some positive feedback on them. This has been a great experience for me, even though I didn't win. There's always next year, right? :)

Ok, off to get a little sleep just in case I'm up overnight with sickie #1 (Maggie) or sickie #2 (Chris).

Getting back into the swing of things

Whew--it's been a whirlwind of a week! Paula and the boys were here and we all had a blast. Let's just say that this house isn't big enough for 4 kids, though. Everyone got on really well, though, and we spent lots of time at the zoo. I'm going to upload some pictures later. :)

I thought I'd share my rejected HOF layouts here so that they're all in one place. Yep, I got rejected. I don't feel bad, though, because there were only like 5 digi gals who got it and probably another 5 or so honorable mentions. Those are pretty slim odds, really. Besides, I did this for the challenge, and I really think that it brought my scrapping to a new level.

Babbling aside, here are my HOF layouts:

Paper is from Nancie Rowe Janitz's Lime Tea kit. Overlay is from Nancie Rowe Janitz. Photo prongs by Jen Wilson in SBB's Fiesta kit. Stitching from Kathy Moore's New Year's Eve stitches.
Fonts are MA Simple Pleasure and CK Fashion.
Journaling reads: There’s a line in a Steve Martin movie that compares life to a roller coaster’s ups and downs. Steve Martin’s character says that he wishes there weren’t so many downs, but his wife reminds him that without the downs the ups wouldn’t be half as sweet. That’s how I try to think about life. There are, of course, many down moments, and when I’m in the midst of those moments, I might stop and wish that they weren’t happening. Then I see Maggie’s face, and I remember the years of downs that we had while waiting for her to join our lives. Without those downs I wouldn’t have my beautiful child and I might not realize the precious gift that life has given me. So bring on the downs! I can handle the bumps that life throws my way as long as some of the upsare even half as sweet as my beautiful Maggie.

papers from Dani Mogstad--Spring Bouquet, doodles from Angie Briggs, Brad and flower from Taran Conyers' Delight kit, tabs from Gina Miller's Deck the Halls kit, font is 2Peas International.

Papers from Nancie Rowe Janitz's Pink Chocolate kit (ScrapArtist), Chipboard letter from Shabby Princess' Sweet Serenity Kit, Fonts Pharmacy and CK Letter Home

Papers from Gina Miller's Fruit Parfait kit. Soft edges overlay from Michelle Coleman's Free Spirit kit (ScrapArtist), Flowers and brad are from Taran Conyers' Delight kit., Fonts are SP Purkage, Scriptina, and 2Peas International.

The journaling reads: I will never forget the day that this photo was taken, Maggie. You were four days old, and it was just your 2nd day at home. We put you down for a nap in the pram and then spent your whole nap time staring at you in awe and wonder. We couldn’ t believe that you were here--our little girl. We waited so long for you, Maggie. There were many many times along our journey where we thought that we might never be so lucky as to have a little girl--and certainly not a little girl as wonderful as you are ! We prayed so hard to be blessed with a child . We cried many tears and dreamed so many dreams . Little did we know the wonder that reality would bring . You are more than we ever hoped for, Maggie. You are certainly more than we ever dreamed of. Even from the very start, you were not shy about expressing your own personality and letting your preferences be known--no camera flash in your face, please! You are the happiest little girl, and you approach life with an energy that is unmatched. These were some of the things that I wondered about on Day Four of your life. I can’ t wait to see what the years ahead bring! Love, Mommy

Layout based on a magazine ad for the new magazine Wonder Time. Font is Effloresce Antique

overlay and brad are from Nancie Rowe Janitz's Pink Chocolate kit (recolored). Tag and pink paper are from Sara Carling's Sweet Rubbish kit. Stitched flowers are from Sarah Batdorf's Arboretum Guide kit (recolored). Font is SP Purkage.

papers from Michelle Coleman's Free Spirit paper collection (ScrapArtist.com) (green paper is recolored), ribbon created with paper from Michelle Coleman's Free Spirit , eyelet and ring from Shabby Princess' Urban Kiwi kit (ShabbyPrincess.com), alpha from Shabby Princess' Sweet Serenity alpha, quote from Michelle Coleman's Free Spirit kit, green ribbon from Jen Wilson's All Tied Up bundle (recolored), staples from Silly Bird Nut's Taken kit

papers from Gina Miller's Miss Shabby Pants (recolored)., Chipboard letter by me using paper from Gina Miller's Miss Shabby Pants and Atomic Cupcake's Chipboard Action., Fonts are Scriptina and A Yummy Apology.

doodles from Angie Briggs' Chocolate Covered Elements, Fonts are Scriptina and 2Peas International.

Paper by me. The overlay is from Nancie Rowe Janitz's Pink Chocolate kit (recolored). Flower from Kim Christensen's Flowers, Flowers, Flowers set (SBB).
Fonts are 2Peas Goofball, 2Peas International, and 2Peas Peanut Butter.

So there they are, all 10. I know that they didn't win, but I'm pretty proud of them. :) I hope that you (whoever "you" might be) like them. :) Thanks for looking.