Keep your spandex out of my jeans!

seriously. who actually looks good in spandex jeans? as a person with eyes, I would say: Hollywood. Real people=bad. So why is it that Walmart, in a rural community and having a clientel that is so far removed from Hollywood that we forget how to spell it, they only carry spandex jeans? sad. sad as an observer. Pathetic and frustrating as a buyer.

oh very frustrating. espeically since I have what I like to call guitar hips. I"m sure it helps my husband be subconciously attracted to me, but that shape is not exactly considered classic beauty. I don't like to draw attention to it. Spandex jeans show them off in all their non-size ten, guitar body shape glory.

sigh. I hate Walmart.

PS. I'm off in the morning! see you all on Friday. I am not cool enough to have a laptop so there won't be any updates. Just think of me having fun, playing, pushing scrapbook products and drooling at everyone else's and you should get a good picture of what I'll be up to.

Obviously, I run too slow

cause I got tagged again ;)
The rules for this particular tagging are as follows:
Remove the blog name in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add yourself to the bottom slot.
Amy
Rebecca
Amy
Becky
Amy

(that's a lot of Amys)

Then you get to select five people to pass the love on to. I picked :
Karen
Jess
Ashley
ummmmmmm,
you!


Here are the questions. What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was attending classes at ISU. I was in my fourth year of college and getting closer to my degree. Sarah was 18 months old and a truly adorable character. between classes I got to stay home and be her mommy. we lived in the crummiest appartment on the planet. it wasn't so bad when we didn't have upstairs neighbors. However, when we did, at least once a month their sewage would back up into our shower. I went through so much bleach that year.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
same thing I do everyday. try to take over the world.
ok seriously. I was taking care of my six month old baby and trying to stay sane as my life crashed. lots of nutsy stuff happened last january.

Five snacks you enjoy:
chocolate
bread
cocoa
popcorn
flavored chips. none of this chips and dips nonsense. give me ranch or salt and vinegar or cheddar and sour cream. mmmmm.

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics:
1. I am a child of god
2. I believe the chidren are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way . . . . sorry, hey I was thirteen when I learned it. I just have a good brain that remembers these things.
3. Happy Little Duck (www.bordercrossingmusic.com)
4. just about any hymn in the hymn book. I don't know why, but if it's a commonly sung one, I can even manage the second and third verses.
5. the Brown family tickle song. I made it up, so I should know the lyrics.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. finish fixing up this house so we can sell it and buy something bigger (ie something with a real dining room so I can get the table out of the freaking living room.)
2. join curves so I can be a cute millionaire
3. invest in Steve's music
4. go nuts at the camera store.
5. travel to Europe. Repeatedly. with new camera equipment and my size 10 bum.

Five bad habits:
1. procrstination
2. blinder living (I don't think outside of my own narrow life enough. I need to think about others more.)
3. I eat too much chocolate (which results in a non-size 10 bum)
4. I very seldom make my bed
5. nothing. I"m just like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in everyway. Just ask Steve.

Five things you like doing:
1. scrapbooking
2. Photography
3. baking cookies
4. eating chocolate
5. reading

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get again:
1. size 10 jeans
2. hair below my shoulders. it just doesn't look good on me.
3. cheap bras
4. cheap anything just because it's cheap. waste of money
5. a film camera

Five favorite toys:
1. my camera
2. my paper
3. my kitchenaid stand mixer
4. my couch. (it is too a toy! I show it off to all my friends and everything.)
5. my computer

whew. that's it. I've been busy and that took two days. see procrastinator. ;)

When your kid is too smart:

The draw back to your preschooler knowing his shapes:

Day 1:
Mom: Matt, do you want your sandwich in rectangles or triangles?
Matt: Squares!

Day 2:
Mom: Matt, do you want your sandwich in rectangles or triangles?
Matt: Circle!

Day 3:
Mom: Matt do you want your sandwich in rectangles or triangles?
Matt: Octagon!
Mom: ????
(and he counted the sides to be sure I did it right.)

NIght In

Steve and I have a new tradition. Money has been tight for a couple of months. (blame Christmas.) We never get to go out enough for my tastes even when our budget isn't as squished as it has been this month. So I solved the problem in my own way. We have a night in.

Now we have been doing video nights for a couple of years now after the kids go to bed, but Night In is different. I feed the kids a fun meal all by themselves. After bed time, Steve and I get a grown up meal just the two of us. I use the good china and the pretty wine glasses (filled with water, lol!) We light candles for the table and I leave the table cloth on ;) I love the time we have to sit and talk. If it weren't for the fact that I still have to cook the meal, it would be better than a restaurant. It's quiet and no one is eavesdropping on our conversation. After the meal, we'll do a couple of slow turns, our way of dancing isn't all that different from slow dancing in High School. Just a song or two. And then a movie or whatever. Just the two of us.

we don't leave the house, but I still feel like I'm getting a date. We'll be doing these at least once a month. I'm thinking every Friday we don't have something else planned sounds good.

She's Got Skills

so the other day, Libby decided she didn't want to nap anymore. Really didn't want to nap. I tried letting her cry it out in her crib. She kept protesting. Then, strangely, I hear the crying, continuous and unbroken by breath, come closer to the door. There's a little pawing on the door.

oh yes. my sixteen month old child learned to climb out of her crib. (For posterity's sake: on January 18th at 12:24pm) Just up over the side like that. I put her back in in the hopes that it was a fluke. nope. up and over and out again.

It's just not right. sigh. Bedlam, I tell you. This place is Bedlam.

PS, Cathy, there's a new photo in my photo blog ;)

I've been scrapping

Here's one I whipped up in half an hour last night. (you think I'm fast, but it only makes up for the one I struggled over all day and I still hate it.)

He's at it again

Matt got the Fisher Price learning sounds zoo for his birthday. He said he wanted lots of animals. I figured 26 counts as a lot. There's an animal for each letter of the alphabet and each animal has a letter sticker of the letter they represent. He loves them and plays with them all the time.

the other day he showed me how smart he was though. He brought me the yak and the flamingo and held them up together. He asked:

"is this how you spell wife?"

how smart is he?

Tag, I'm it!

4 jobs I've had in my life:
paper route
dishwasher at a restaurant
Line Cook at Olive Garden
waitress (hated the work, liked the people)

4 movies I'd watch over and over:
Notting Hill
Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn version)
anything with Cary Grant
Pillow Talk

4 places I've lived:
Weiser, ID (with a long e)
Laie, HI
Pocatello, ID
Emmett, ID

4 tv shows I love to watch:
This Old House
Scientific American Frontiers
Brit Com Saturday
History Detectives

(so I'm a PBS junkie, got a problem with that? ;) )


4 places I've been on vacation:
Los Angeles, CA
Oregon Coast
Salt Lake City, UT
Orlando, FL

4 websites I visit daily:
blogs
Squirrels
Pink Martini Designs
2 Peas

4 favorite foods:
chocolate
chocolate
chocolate
chocolate chip cookie dough

4 places I'd rather be right now:
asleep in bed
Hawaii
Vegas, baby!
on a date with my husband

4 Bloggers I'm tagging:
Kristi
Holly
Helena
Carin

I Resolve

This year I resolve to do more.

More scrapbooking

More loving

More writing

More playing

More thinking

More hugging

More sewing

More photographing

More daring

More praying

More connecting

More Living.

I'm tired of going to bed each night feeling as if I accomplished nothing that day. I want to DO. I want to do the projects I have planned for my house. I want to play with my kids. I want to make new friends and spend more time with the ones I have. I want to actually scrapbook instead of just talking about it. I want to dare to write the novel I've had in my head for ten years. I want to dare to submit the children's book I wrote ten years ago. I want to actually have a photography business instead of playing at having a business. I want to meet people. I want to design more scrapbooking products. I want to visit family. I want to spend more time with my love.

I want more life. This year, I will give this to myself.

Yup. Obsessed is the word

It's this time of year when most online perusing scrapbookers start to slather about the mouth a bit. Their conversation gets a bit narrow (if you're not a scrapbooker.) They start to dream in paper. January means CK Hall of Fame contest is around the corner. It means CHA Winter, the biggest trade show of the year. It's when all the new trends for the next year start percolating to the top and we get to see what we'll be playing with over the next 12 months.

I have to say, I'm starting to do the same thing. My conversation lately has included "Las Vegas" in at least every other sentence. I search message boards for signs that other manufacturers have released yet another teaser of the new CHA releases. Yes, it's a bit obesessive, but it's better than obsessing over what type of diaper I'm buying and whether or not Bubba will learn to read before he starts school (signs point to yes.) Well, better for me anyway. ;)

As if all of this wasn't bad enough, I've decided that I will go ahead and enter HOF this year. I'm not expecting to get an e-mail from Scrapbook Answers over the next couple of days, so HOF is the next big thing. It's a good challenge and when I sat down and mapped out what I wanted to do for my entry, I found I was halfway there.

Oh and Scrapworks is also supposed to be making a decision next week. It's all enough to make my poor husband decide that he hates paper.

It's official

I'm going to Vegas! Polar Bear Press invited me to help in their booth. So I get to work with my good friend Kristy Lee and I get to help promote my rub-ons! I'm so excited!

even better: Steve is excited for me. He's been so supportive of me and my goals. This last month it's been more obvious than ever what a wonderful man I married. He's beyond wonderful. He hasn't even thought about me leaving means he gets to be a single dad for five days. Nope, he's just excited I get to go. how's that for perfect?

I can finally tell!!!

ok, I've been keeping a secret for weeks now and I'm ready to burst with the news. (no I'm not pregnant! bite your tongue.)

right before Christmas I got a call from my friend Kristy Lee. She works as the design team coordinator for Polar Bear Press. They were thinking of releasing a line of rub ons and would I be willing to lisence my fonts for it? Heck yeah! So I sent off my fonts for them to review thinking it would be a fun way to make a bit of money, and then it just got better. They asked me to design three rub on sheets for their CHA-winter release! yeehaw!

it's been a total wirlwind ride for me and one of the best things to happen for me in a long time. I'm very excited to be working with PBP. they are such great people and I see good things happening for them and their company. They will have more rub ons besides just mine and three new paper lines besides at CHA. I can't wait to work with it all.

thanks for letting me brag for a minute. I'd show you all my rub-ons but I'm not allowed to yet. You'll just have to go see them at the booth ;)

Libby has discovered writing instruments. I would say crayons or pencils or pens, but frankly, she likes them all. If it makes a mark, she's all over it. or should I say, it's all over her . . . and the wall and paper and books and my fridge and anything else that writing instruments will mark on. Isn't she cute?

This morning I have pen marks all over my arms and hands. I'm so pleased with her tatoo designs I think I'll keep them on me for the next week. Oh wait, they'll do that themselves anyway! oh joy!

I'm sure she's a future artist. In the meantime, I'm buying only washable crayons and pens and if I can find them, pencils too. Markers will all be thrown out immediately.

out of the mouth of Bubba

Matt has a way of saying things that is sometimes just right. Today he called Libby a baby kid. is there a better description for a toddler?

she's trying so hard to be a kid right now. When she finds a shoe, she brings it to me to put on her foot. She runs around with the big kids trying to play with them. She wants to feed herself and only what they are eating. She watches tv with them even though she hasn't a clue what's going on. She wants to be big just like them.

A baby kid. yup. just right.

Just about failed at number seven

I was without internet for four days. The first day, I did alright. I finished Sword of Shannara (and decided it's way too much like LOTR. Balinor the prince who's on the outs with his brother, the reluctant hero that meets the bad guy alone, quest with dwarves and elves, the wizard that guides everybody, etc.) I spent time with my kids. I spent time coughing. lots of coughing. I spent absolutely no time at all working on scrapbook projects.

after four days, though, I was going nuts. How many shannara books can one person read at a time before they go crazy? (2.25 seems to be my answer, despite the pile of seven next to my bed.) There just wasn't enough to do and I have photos to order and communications to make and my sanity to preserve!

Luckily, the internet guy was very helpful and had us up and running in two minutes (well, after the ten minutes on hold. I do not feel that my call was very important to them at all.) and my sanity is back.

I do still need to make my new years resolutions. and they will be resolutions. it's the same as a goal to me and I like the word. it means I'm resolving to do something. The word implies and decision to me. It's more than a goal; a goal is just a nice thing to shoot for. anyway. it will probably be something like be a nice mommy for once, get more scrapbooking done, not take myself so seriously, and get my photo business moving for crying out loud.

but I'm back and you can all be entertained by my lovely stories again. aren't you excited?

The Gift That Keeps on GIving

My poor sister had no idea that that tickle in the back of her throat Christmas day was not in fact just a dry throat. She and her husband provided a gorgeous prime rib roast and salmon for Christmas dinner. She was excited about it and helped prepare it. That evening, she got a fever. She spent the next day in bed with the flu. Needless to say, she shared more than prime rib. five of the ten grandkids got sick. My mom got sick. I got sick. My other sisters got sick. it's been lovely. (and I mean that sarcastically.) Although, I have to say, I am feeling a bit better, even if I didn't get a good nap today.

in better news (that also seems to fit with this entry title) I have been asked to join the Polar Bear Press design team. Polar Bear Press is a small manufacturer, but they have some cute stuff and I'm very excited for the new stuff they have coming out at CHA!

Time to Breathe

that's what tomorrow is. We've been running since Christmas Eve. It's been a great holiday though. the kids are thrilled with their gifts. Joshua and Sarah went running into Grandma's house yelling "We got guitars! We got guitars!" very inexpensive half size guitars, but something they can learn on and decide if it's a skill they want to persue. All Rilla wanted was a Doodle Bear. All Matt wanted was more GeoTrax stuff. All Libby wanted was chocolate. so we're good.

Christmas morning as we're headed into church Steve asks me what time we are opening presents. I tell him not until the next day. He flips. "What? It's Christmas! why not?" scheduling conflicts make it necessary. I explain and the whole time I'm trying to figure out why he reacted so strongly to this news. He really doesn't often care about this stuff. So we get to mom's and I go to say hi in the kitchen. As I'm sitting there visiting, in walks Matty with a little box all wrapped pretty. "open it, Mama." he says. The label reads, "to Amy, from Steve." I got my present a week and a half ago. (a professional camera tripod, btw. with the pistol grip. see he pays attention. isn't he a good boy?) I'm surprised to say the least. "what is this?" "open it." is the only answer I get. I refuse until he comes in the room. So I open it to find a small jewelry box. Inside is a beautiful set of pearls. necklace, earings, bracelet. Of course, I cried. I love pearls. He had hidden the box under my mom's tree so it would be found when we unwrapped presents as a family. He wanted to really surpise me with it.

oh yes, he is a very good boy. :) and he's mine. :)

off for the rest of the week! have a good end to your year. I'll be spending mine with family.

Stop Thief!

this time of year, many bloggers wax nostalgic about the upcoming holiday. I'm not going to do that. Mostly because I'm not a nostalgic sort of person. Once in awhile I'll get a bit misty thinking about my baby growing up, but other than that, nah. Not nostalgic.

So instead of my thoughts on past Chirstmas season and family traditions (which almost all involve homemade candy and board games,) I'm going to tell you about the theives that live next door.

Yes! the thieves! oh they are wiley ones too. It took many-a weeks before I noticed what they were up to. Of course, they were stealing from off the carport and I tend to avoid looking there. It's just a good avoidance technique, works for housework as well, in case you were wondering. Anyway, there I was, washing dishes at my window and I look up to witness my neighbor scampering out of carport and across the yard next door. The bold little stinker was carrying my property right there in his paws!

oh, yeah, did I mention he's a squirrel?

There's actually two of them and they steal my apples. Apples that I don't want anymore and due to my overwhelmingly effective avoidance techniques are still out in the carport long past their peak freshness date. The two will come one at a time about every other day. They carefully sneak up, watching the windows and perching on the apple boxes to be sure there are no witnesses to their crime. Then they grab an apple in their mouths and go scampering across the yard and up the tree next door.

Perching on the branch, they eat through their apples.

Needless to say, our neighbors are getting fat.

Squeemish Men May Skip This Post

Libby has a little game that she gets a kick out of. It started from her habit of putting her hand down my shirt. Yup, I nursed her. I don't know why she does this. It seems to be a comfortable position for her. I think she just likes to feel my skin. I do try to deter her, but it doesn't seem to help much.

Her game is this: she sticks her hand down my shirt then pulls it out and pretends to put something in her mouth and eat it. Then she says "mmm." It's hysterical. The first time she did it, about two weeks after I weaned her, I laughed for five minutes. I knew she missed nursing but it was so cute to see her find a way to tell me this. Now she does it just because it makes Mommy laugh.

Silly girl. Of course, I will make her stop before she goes to kindergarten.

I need more time is what I need

have you seen the google "needs" game? it's getting pretty popular. I saw it first about a month ago and filed the idea away but didnt' do anything with it. then this week Becky played it, so I thought it would be fun to dig up and play myself.

However, I am foiled by my slowness. Aparantly this meme is all over the blogs and done by lots of women named Amy. The game is you type your name needs, so I would type "Amy needs," into the Google search box. you list the top ten results in your blog.

My top ten results were ten blogs written by Amy's who have played the game already, lol! so here it is, my cheater lift of someone else's blog (with my own comments in italics, I didn't stoop to lifting hers):

Amy needs a new pair of shoes--I actually do. I'm just too cheap and picky to find what I want.
Amy needs to either wake up or start getting some extra will-power
I don't believe that Amy needs sex --I think Amy needs to not comment on this one
Maybe what Amy needs to do is to make up to her fans --dude! I have fans??
Amy needs an emergent Caesarean--How do C's emerge? is it a gradual thing? does it come out of truly connecting with my pregnancy? can I have one if I'm not pregnant and never plan to be pregnant again? teehee. that was a fun typo.
Amy needs to manage her time more effectively than ever--so very true.
Amy needs to spend a few years working in office environments. --good. I need the break from my real job.
Amy needs to get to town from the village.
Amy needs roommates--got six thanks, although it would be nice if they paid some rent.
Amy Needs Help!! so true it's scary.

and the one I found on my own not as part of someone else's blog:
Pit bull mix Amy needs some training.


but in reality, Amy needs to get to work. It's time to get serious about candy making. oh and making PJ's so I can have five children in cute matching pj's for Christmas morning. oh and present wrapping. oh and staying sane. that's always on the list.