Two Peas is wonky right now so I'll Blog

Typical Thursday I guess. I joined the DW 2006 Calendar Challenge on the General Scrapping board. I know my scrapping skills need work. The challenge is to do 4 layouts a month. I'd be happy if I did 4 layouts a month. I'm also on the search for the Stacy Julian book. We'll see what happens this weekend maybe I'll take a drive to AC Moore. I'll call first though since it is 30 miles away.

I'm also wondering where winter went. It's 41 degrees and raining. Let me tell you that my husband is not happy. He's a snowmobiler wondering when he's going to get to ride. I haven't been in a couple of years, but I'd like to go. I know it's only December but still.

My friend who is a Stampin Up demonstrator is organizing a Stamp Away Camp. I had fun last year and I'm going again this year. It's the only time I get away by myself so I'm excited about it. It's at the very end of March and I know it will come quickly.

Well my time is up, seems I have to get back to work. So maybe I'll add more to my blog later tonight. If not at least I blogged.

Toy R Us threw up in my house!

I guess you could say my kids are well loved but geez! Next year I'm going to be more diligent on getting toys given away before Christmas.

Other than the toy explosion it was a great Christmas. I got an AC Moore gift certificate and Ali Edwards book. My friends had gotten me some scrap themed gifts as well. And of course I got other gifts not related to scrapping.

I've signed up for the Stacy Julian class on the Big Picture website (sorry haven't learned how to link yet) Sounds like it will be fun.

Sophia posted the following challenge so I thought I'd play along. I really want to start blogging more.

2005 In Review
JANUARY
1. Did you have a new year's resolution this year?: Yup, get better organized and lose weight.
2. Who kissed you at midnight?: my dh
3. Did it snow where you live?: yup
5. Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop?: nope and I enjoy just watching it from my TV. Large crowds scare me.
FEBRUARY
1. Who was your valentine?: dh, dd and ds
2. What did your valentine get you?: flowers
3. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class?: yes
MARCH
1. Are you Irish? yes
2. Did you wear green on St. Patty's Day?: yes
3. What did you do for St. Patty's Day?: just dinner. Oh and I make Irish soda bread every year.
APRIL
1. Do you like the rain?: light rain yes, downpours no
2. Did you play an April Fool's joke on anyone this year?: nope
3. Did you get tons of candy on Easter?: no
MAY
1. What's your favorite kind of flower?: petunia
2. Do you like the spring? yes
3. Finish the phrase: "April showers bring...": May flowers (and weeds)
4. What would you think of as a spring color?: pink
JUNE
1. What year did you graduate from school?: 1991
2. Did you go on any vacations last June?: nope
JULY
1. What did you do on the 4th of july? BBQ at inlaws
2. Did you go on any vacations during this month?: nope
AUGUST
1. Did you do anything special to end off your summer?: after dd was done with day camp we took a vacation to Delaware to visit realtives. Very nice
2. What was your favorite summer memory of '05?: Our vacation in Delaware
3. Did you go swimming a lot in the summer?: no
4. Did you go to the beach a lot?: only on vacation
SEPTEMBER
1. Did you attend school/college in '05?: no
2. Who is/was your favorite teacher?: Mrs. Ronkese she was my 3rd grade teacher.
3. Did you like fall better than summer?: no
OCTOBER
1. What was your favorite halloween costume ever?: The year I dressed up like a clown
2. What's your favorite candy?: snickers
3. What did you dress up like this year? a cowgirl
NOVEMBER
1. Whose house did you go to for Thanksgiving?: MIL and Aunt Carol's
2. Do you like stuffing?: LOVE IT
3. What are you thankful for?: my family, our health
DECEMBER
1. Do you celebrate Christmas?: yes
2. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe?: yup
3. What do you want this year for christmas?: clothes, gift certificates for scrapping stuff
4. What's the best present you ever got for christmas?: jewelry
5. Do you like cold weather?: cold yes, freezing cold no
6. How would you rate your year on a scale of 1-10?: 8

The tree is finally up!

The only thing left to do is put the tree skirt down, but I have to vacuum first and quite frankly I'm too tired!
It took 3 hours to decorate the tree, and I mean just ornaments. Julia helped so that was part of it. And every ornament is in it's own box. And need hangers to be put on before it can get hung so that's the majority of time. But I'm glad it's done. I was also able to make some cookies. Nothing too exciting. Just plain sugar cookies. There is still more to do, and the push is on. But I'll get through it and the holidays will be fun!

Holiday Quiz

First these are my kids. My friend finally was able to get a picture of them for me.
And now a holiday quiz I took from Sophia's Blog http://sophiacorbridge.typepad.com/sentimentsbysophia/

1. Holiday: Christmas or New Years? Christmas
2. Cookies: Sugar or Gingerbread? Sugar
3. Decorations: Santa or Snowmen?
4. Decorations: Reindeer or Elves? Reindeer
5. Colors: Red or Green? Red!
6. Colors: Gold or Silver? Gold
7. Tree Topper: Star or Angel? Angel
8. Stocking Stuffer: Chocolate
9. Tree: Real or Artificial? Real but I might be adding Artificial and then I'll have two trees. One of each.
10. Cartoons: Charlie Brown or Rudolph? Can't choose on that one I love them both. 11. Movie: It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol? How about Jim Carey in the Grinch that stole Christmas.
12. Stocking Stuffer: Jewelry or Gift Card? Depends on where the gift card was for.
13. Christmas List: I plead the fifth
14. Drink: Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot cocoa but I do like Egg Nog
15. Holiday Ghost: Past, Present, or Future? Present!
16. Vacation Spot: North Pole or Winter Wonderland? Winter Wonderland!
17. Holiday Song: Jingle Bells or Silver Bells? Jingle Bells
18. Holiday Song: Silent Night or O' Holy Night? Do I have to choose? BOTH!
19. More Fun: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Love em both
20. Lights: Clear or Multi-Colored? Clear
21. Ornaments: Bulbs or Bows? Mixture of everything from bulbs to bows, to handmade
22. Tree Decor: Ribbon, Popcorn, or Garland? Ribbon
23. Gifts: Wrapping Paper or Gift Bags? If it's a normal shaped item wrap it. Otherwise, bag it!
24. Better To: Give or Receive? BY FAR, to give! That’s why I’m broke at the end of December...but it feels so gooooooooood!

If anyone else sees this feel free to do it and pass it along.

That Christmas feeling!

I love sitting in the dark at Christmas time with just the lights on. We don't have our tree yet so I enjoy this.

Oh and my Elf name is Pink Sparkly Toes. (http://www.jokesunlimited.com/christmas_elf_name.php) I got it off Peg's (from Two Peas)blog.

Insurance Companies bite!!!

My 2 yr old ds turns in his right foot when he walks. He's had a brace since July. I had him going to a foot doctor but just recently they told me it's not his foot it's his hip that's turning his leg in. So I want to take him to a pediatric orthopedist. I want to know what they think. So after calling around to a few different ones and being told they don't accept my insurance, I call my insurance company today to find me a pediatric ortho. They don't have any on their list. That means they don't cover them. Well isn't that special. Thanks for nothing. Luckily I'm already working with my county regarding getting Greg speech and physical therapy so they are now helping me find a pediatric ortho. Still though it's very stressful.
Okay I'm done whining now.

Christmas Traditions

It's been awhile since I blogged. Although I have been reading blogs I haven't done mine. So after reading others Christmas Traditions I will post ours.

My dh's family the Leland's get together, and I mean everyone. Uncles and Aunts and Cousins. I think there are about 60 of us. Maybe more with all the little ones and we have dinner and sing Christmas carols and then Santa brings all the kids presents. It's a lot of fun.

Christmas Eve is then at his dad's house. And Christmas for both sides of the family is at mine on Christmas day. It's a lot of running but it's nice to be with the family.

Traditions are still being created, my dh isn't a big Christmas person so it's pretty much what I do. But make sure that 2 things off my kids lists are from Santa and they go under the tree but unwrapped.

The gifts in the stocking are unwrapped also. We always get a real tree. I have a nice mixture of new ornaments and my parents ornaments since they don't put up a tree anymore. Also dh's ornament collection. He's 38 so he's got quite a few. I buy the kids and dh ornaments every year.

I'm sure there are more they just aren't coming to me now. I'll try to post some pics of our mantle later tonight. That's one of my favorites that is decorated.

I'm on vacation!!!!

That should be a good thing right? The plan was that I have 2 days without the kids and 1 day with them before Thanksgiving. Christmas shopping on Monday, errands, Hair cut and color on Tuesday and appointments for kids on Wednesday. Kids? Plans? Yeah right. Imagine that. DS (who turns 2 tomorrow) wasn't feeling good. So I took him to Urgent Care on Saturday. Double ear infection and white stuff on his throat. Even though he's been on antibotic since Saturday and hasn't had a fever since Saturday. I can tell he's still feeling crappy so we stayed home today. And I'm probably going to have to reschedule my appt. But my baby is so worth it. I'll post pics of him tomorrow on his birthday.

Love it!

This is my pod. My secret santa rocks!!! Love the new Danny O from k&Company and all this ribbon.

Never thought taking a picture a day would be so hard. But then again I've got so much going on. Between work and my ds (2 in 5 days)who is getting 2 days of PT and 2 days speech therapy a week for having low muscle tone. And regular everyday house and family stuff. Hopefully I can make it through the rest of the month.

November 8th POD

November 8th POD

It's offically cold. It's been wavering at night for a couple of weeks. But my dh has lit the woodstove. It probably won't stay lit but it's cold enough tonight. I love the woodstove. I love the heat it gives off. I love the smell of the wood. I'm just a country girl I guess.

Hanging things

Two things were done today, the hanging of the masks that hung in my dh's grandfathers bar and our outside Christmas lights. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! Is she nuts? Nope I've learned that you should put them up while it warm out. So out they went this afternoon. It was another beautiful day. It's 3 weeks till Thanksgiving. When I used to hang them then I'd usually freeze. So better to hang them now and light them later.

Now let me explain the pictures. While no they aren't my first choice to hang in my house, I will admit that I have decorated every other room in the house so I have to be fair and let him decorate the bar/playroom. The sign came from the bar his grandfather and then uncles owned. The masks all hung on the walls. So up they went. I have to admit they don't look half bad up there. And they will be a major conversation piece. It's really cool to have a piece of my husbands family's past so it's all good.

What a fun day!!

First it was a beautiful fall day here in the Catskill Mountains. I got to go a scrapbook store, which since the closest I have to that near me is AC Moore and that's 30 miles away. So that was a thrill. I got to meet Suzy and Lizz who were just awesome. Had a blast working with canvas. It was so much fun. And I'm getting sooo many ideas.

I also got the new Sketches book and one of the Scrapbooking on the Wall books. My friend who I went with got the other one. And Suzy was nice enough to autograph them for us. So that's what my pics of the day are of, my shopping trip splurge and my project.

TFL

Okay so I fell asleep yesterday and missed posting POD

Geez! I even missed like the final minutes of CSI. I don't know if they showed Grissom going after the other bug guy or not. Showing him he was wrong. All I know was I woke up and Without a Trace was in Mexico. Anyways enough babbling. The POD of 11/3/05 is the picture of the Monahan's Reef sign. It's located in our playroom. It hold a very important memory for my dh. It was his Grandfather's then his Uncles ran it after his grandfather died. This will be the wall of honor I guess you could say. It starts with the sign. Then other pieces of the bar that are in storage will be hung here. As well as some pictures of his deceased grandparents and uncle who will still hold very dear to our hearts.
Todays POD(11-4-05)I had taken with my cell phone, but it appears I cannot download it to the computer. I have to find out how to get the software or whatever I need. So I took a picture of the picture on the cell phone. It kind of loses the effect I was going for. I had taken a picture of my clock in my car that read 5:00pm. Because it's the start of the weekend for me!! Yippee!!

As I mentioned in an earlier thread. I get to go see Fairyscrapmother tomorrow. Plus go to the SS that I've been trying to get to for awhile. Whoo hoo! I'm so easily amused can't you tell. Oh well. Hopefully I'll have great photos of tomorrow.

Photo of the Day

Here is my Nov 2nd photo of the day. My dear dd spent part of the night being sick. So I kept her home just in case. Lord knows I should be at work but I can also use this day to my advantage. I am going to Creative Gatherings on Saturday to take a class with Fairyscrapmother (Suzy) I can't wait! So I'm doing laundry and some cleaning so I can go guilt free.

Photo a Day

Well on my favorite site Two Peas there is a Photo a Day challenge. I'm going to try and partake in it. It'll be hard because there are some days that just seem to busy. And I don't always get on the computer every night but as long as I get the picture I'll get it on the my blog when I can. So here is Nov. 1st photo of the day.

Monday's good or bad?

I'm hoping after last week that this week is better. There was the most horrible accident in my area last week 6 people died all because a 25 year old girl was driving too fast. Made me wake up a bit ya know. Even though I didn't know one person in that accident it bothers me so. Make sure you tell your loved ones you love them. You just never know!

Anyways, I had a wonderful surprise today. I got RAK'D First time ever too. I got great stuff, some ribbons, Junkitz paper, tacks, tokens from doodlebug, rubons, twill stickers. And more. Thanks Pat!

It's Thursday

It’s Thursday. Yay! That means tomorrow is Friday. Woohoo! It’s also my dh’s 20 year high school reunion. Heehee, I’m laughing because there is 6 years age difference with us and I haven’t had my 15 yet. I only pick on him a little. I actually like his class better than my own. We went to the same school. Although we didn’t know each other back in school. Our classes were small, his class was like 60 people. Mine was 75. Anyways it should be lots of fun. Today I have to Greg for his brace, he walks with his right foot turned in. He already has a nighttime brace today is the walking brace. I have no idea what it will look like other than it fits inside his shoe. I’m sure it won’t slow him down any. He’s like the energizer bunny.

One of those days

You know them, you know all about them. I’m sure you’ve had them, well today is mine. Leaving for work this morning it’s 7:25 Greg is already in the car I came back into the house to get my bags and I’m saying to myself. I feel like I’m forgetting something. But I have my lunch, mountain dew’s, charger for pda since the battery is low and I need it today. Oh well. Half way to the sitters, oh yeah, I forget to put on eyeliner, brush my teeth and take my pill. Good thing I keep a tooth brush at work huh. I have mascara in my purse, that’s better than nothing. I’ll worry about the other when I get home.
Get to work, listen to a funny story about a coworker. Go to get my breakfast out my bag the baggie is wet. One of the cans of mountain dew has a hole in and has leaked in the bottom of my bag. AAAGGGHHH! The charger plug put a hole in the can. So I take everything out wipe it off. Nothing major although some of my pics did get wet but at least they are saved on the hard drive at home.
Good things are coming after work I have to run to Walmart (not so good) buy some stuff then I’m going to my friend’s house who is an Stampin Up Demonstrator. We are going to play with the new Hodgepodge Hardware kit. I’m so excited. Being where there are no lss, and I never get to AC Moore or JoAnn’s this is like my only chance to get all the metal stuff. So cool. I’ll upload what I make tonight or tomorrow. Depends what time I get home.

I'm still learning

Here I am still trying to learn how to blog. I read some of the others at 2peas and they are so cool. But it's not like I've spent alot of time checking things out either. Dang that job I have, it gets in the way of all my fun!! Oh well. By the way the pic is of my kids. Love this shot.

God Bless London

When I got to work today and heard the news about the bombings in London. I was stunned to say the least. The pictures of the bus, terrifying. I brought children into this world and this is what they have to look forward to? While I hope my children experience everything they want and are able to go wherever they want. But things like this scare the tar out of me. No one can control it. If they want to bomb they will. I send prayers to everyone over there.
I don't know anyone in London, and I don't really know anyone who knows anyone. But I am sad today.

What Two Peas can teach you.

I've learned alot in the 8 1/2 months that I've become a fellow follower of 2 Peas. For anyone in my family who may read this, it's twopeasinabucket.com a website where fellow scrapbookers can shop, talk about everything and anything and learn alot from each other. I started following the pub board pretty regularly in December. Everyone there cracks me up. Everyone has something to offer whether it be photo tips, journaling, industry related items. Or things not related to scrapbooking. The latter being the most fun usually. I've learned that I have SO MUCH more to learn about scrapbooking and that is a good thing. I want to learn more. I want to grow as an artist (which I am surprisingly) I want to learn to journal better and leave my family with something important. Who know if anyone from 2 Peas will even read this. But thank you everyone of you for contributing just a little bit. Your praise warms my heart on my not so strong layouts. And I will get better as I learn from all of you.

Okay so I'm a bit lax in blogging

Why I started this blog, who knows, wanted to be "in"? Still not sure. But just wanted to do some updated of our lives.

Julia graduated PreK on Saturday. How cute is that. She had a little graduation hat, sang some songs for all the people that were there to watch their kids. She has changed so much in the year since she went to school. Next year is the big time. Kindergarten and riding on the BIG bus. We'll miss Ryan the bus driver. He waits for us, if we are not out there on time. lol

Greg is Greg, a crazy kid who puts all things in his mouth ( found a dime today) and never stops except to rest for 30 second intervals. Or if Moose A Moose is on. (noggin-what a great channel)

The snake that didn't get away...

Okay I know it was only a garter snake but it was long and big around and scared the crap out of me. I hate snakes and so does my husband. And when I was in the garden the other day and jumped he knew what it was. We have a rock wall surrounding our garden, yes I know they like to live there so it's like we invited them. But I don't want them. Usually when I work in the garden I bang the shovel on the rocks to let them know I'm coming so they can slither on into their hole and not scare me. Well my hubby who has been dubbed my hero, he got the snake on Sunday. Now Julia wasn't scared to look at while it was dead. I made sure I was still a good 10 feet away. And my hero he threw it in the woods and never looked back.
I'm still shivering just thinking about it.

Getting on the blog train...

Not quite sure why I've decided I need to do this. Who actually is going to read what I have to say? But hey why not.

Who is Leland and why do I want to know about his life? Well Leland is not a he, it is a they. That is our name. And I thought maybe I would ramble about our life. Although I can't say that it's an exciting life. Hubby and I work. We have 2 cute kids and 2 cats who run our lives.

First ramble, as I drove home from work today I noticed something. And I know it's not just the area I live in. I am in a rural area (30 miles to closest mall) Only major store here right now is Wally World and Dollar stores. How pathetic is that! Anywho, what is up with people and the trash in their yards? Now neat freak I am not. And I'll admit my counters have clutter, and the living room usually looks like Toys R Us threw up in there, but people if the car doesn't run get rid of it. Pick up the garbage that's on the ground. Get rid of the appliance that died just don't make it a flower bed!!!! I know there are extreme circumstances, someone could be ill or you don't have a truck to get rid of it. But you must know somone who has a truck. Geez! And lawn furniture is not the sofa that isn't good enough for the living room anymore. Know what I mean????

Well that's my first blog I guess. Aren't you glad you read it?