Monday, February 28, 2011

Last touches

the guys were here today and finished installing the shower door. That took forever!!!! All day Friday and a few hours this morning. I really like the way it looks though, very sophisticated. We had issues with the commode, it was driving me crazy, not wanting to flush and getting clogged all the time. Poor Gary (my main man) must not have been able to sleep thinking about the cause, so he came down on Sunday and took the whole thing apart again. He called me to take a peek at what was going on. Here he was trying to be extra efficient and added another seal of beeswax. Well, installing the toilet on top of it pushed the wax into the drain and clogged it almost completely. Now it works like a charm, I love it!
The painter is coming on Monday and I still have to buy towel rings and those kinds of things to complete the room. I am loving it!
I think we decided to do the kitchen next. Of course Gary is not letting me forget about it, he already sent a guy to measure, next is a guy for the floor heat. He cracks me up, trying to line up his work :) Well, I can't blame him. I don't know how we will live through that one, where does one cook for all that time? Well, we had a gentleman here taking measurements and he is getting some layout versions done for us to look at. From there we will pick cabinets etc. Exciting stuff, isn't it?

The weather around here has been such a pain. A week ago we had such warm weather, we were running around in short sleeves. Then a couple of days later it went back to freezing and snowing. Today it's raining, we even had a thunderstorm this morning. I haven't seen lightening in months! Kind of liked it!

Today it's going to be going back to Karate after 3 weeks of absence. I really have to force myself, I have become so lazy lately! I do have to do something though, I gained something like 10 pounds over the last few months! Yikes!

Everything else is going like always. I finally finished editing the photos from New Year. They came out nice, I think. I hope they will be happy with them.




that little guy is such a doll baby!



as for scrapping, I don't seem to be quite as prolific as I used to be. Of course with all that's been going on around here, it's no wonder LOL. Here is what I have done
My 365 pages for last week:


and the rest :)

Gabrielle with those holes in her Jeans....

Rachel all dolled up for Formal :)



one of her swim meets...




I got my hair done on Friday, I always feel so much better when my color is right again. I refuse to age gracefully :) We cut the back a little shorter than the sides, next time we'll chop off another inch or so. I am working up the courage for it.

Well, this is it. On Thursday I will do lunch with a friend whom I haven't seen in months. I am excited about that, I do miss her! She just landed a job as a tour guide in Italy. What a dream come true!!!! I'll have her bring me back some italian goodies. Boy do I miss Italy sometimes. Maybe it's just the carefree youth of those days that I miss, but I really would love to go back and see it all again. Some day!

Okay, back to the grind, dinner is waiting to be finished. Talk to you soon. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some pics of the bathroom. There are still stickers on the glass, I don't like that look, so you'll have to wait :)



Thursday, February 17, 2011

Check- up

His that is. It was on Tuesday and everything went well, all the heart functions are good. There is just one little area that showed something, like a small vessel that might be occluding. It also could be nothing, so we will repeat the tests in 6 months, just to be sure. We are a little bummed out, it would have been nicer, had there been absolutely nothing, but it really is not that big a deal when one thinks about it. It's one of the small vessels and sometimes the body creates collateral bypasses spontaneously anyway. Let's just hope for the best.

Gabrielle had swim meets all week, she is getting better, but the girls always get beat. I don't think they won once the whole season. Of course it doesn't help that a lot of the girls don't show up and then they are missing out on points. That is part of being on a team I guess. Of course we haven't been to Karate all week because of that...well, Monday is her last meet and then it's back to normal.

The bathroom is getting better and better, now we have tile on the floor and the granite for the stoop, shelves and window sill just came today. Yay! The shower door should be coming any day now, everything is slowly falling into place. Now to decide on a color for the walls. The painter is coming tonight to look at the job and I have no idea yet. Help!

The sunroom is insulated and re-plastered. I really love it, I like sitting in there now, it's such a comfortable, airy room. The ceiling looks cool, they suggested this neat pattern and I like the way it came out. Of course we will have to get that painted now too. It never ends!


this is what it looks like. (don't you love the whole where the light is supposed to be?)

look at what my floor looked like...

I will be cleaning that thing forever!!!

We went to see the movie Rite on Sunday, we loved it, pretty scary but good. I don't know why the reviews are so bad... then we stopped for dinner at the Hongkong buffet. The kids always love it there. Those weekends get to be expensive!

The chat on Saturday went well. I had so many notes and links, I wasn't even able to present them all. I had to open 3 threads in the forum just to get them all in there. It was fun, but boy, it sure isn't easy to cut and paste and follow the conversation at the same time. Poor people must have thought I was ignoring them LOL. If you were there and felt ignored, please forgive me, I didn't do it on purpose, that chat always moves so fast and I have to look in 3 different places for my stuff....oh well.

Here are my pages for the week

find it here

The Scrat page was for the 30 minute chat on Saturday. That is always such fun! You can see it



I just now finished the latest set of 365 pages...

and here

I just love that project, it gets to be monotonous, but the results are great. We all love looking through the older years. Simple is the motto for this year :)

Yesterday I got to talk to my younger sister on Skype, it was so good to see her. She looks as cute as ever!

Okay, that was just a brief recap of the week. Hope all is well with you and I shall talk to you soon!


Friday, February 11, 2011

Don't miss it!

tomorrow is the big day! All day chat at designerdigitals.com
check out the schedule here
My chat is at 8PM and I will be talking about colors (well, one color in particular) I have been working all day to get it ready, I hope you'll like it! It should be fun and Katie always has the most wonderful freebies for everybody. I really like what she made for me :) So you better come and join me.

On a different note, I have no idea where this week went! Our bathroom is slowly (very slowly) taking shape. Gary (my man Gary) is doing a great job, it's just so detailed, so it's taking a long time. Plus he is by himself. I see the little details he adds that make it special.
Day before yesterday we had a crew here blowing insulation in the sunroom ceiling and walls! I simply cannot believe the difference! They did one half of the room the first day and in the morning I went in to feel the walls. There was a 10 degree difference! Now we have a room that is comfortable, no more shivering when entering LOL. We should have done this a long time ago! Now I wish I could do the whole house! The only thing is that they had to drill holes all over the walls that will have to be fixed now. The plasterers are coming on Monday to take care of that. I am excited that we finally are getting some things done. Now we are talking about doing the kitchen! We'll see! I can only imagine what that will cost us! Just getting a door for the shower was unbelievably expensive! That's what you get for building a large shower! I am loving the way it looks though!

Today I got 8 GB of ram in the mail. I followed their instructional video and replaced it myself. At first I didn't notice any difference, but then it must have settled or something, because I could click through LR without a pause or anything! That has never happened before! I am so happy! (See, it doesn't take much, does it? :))

Tuesday was Phil's checkup and everything was good. Another thing to take off the checklist, we won't have to worry about it for another year! He has his follow-up appointment on Monday, hopefully there won't be any hidden bad news :)

The other day I got a skype call from my BIL in Germany! It was so cool, he called my sister and we were able to chat while looking at each other. The girls were going crazy, asking stupid things and just being goofy. Technology is awesome!

Here are some pages I did




Wow, they almost go together, I didn't even realize that. I took so many photos of Rachel that one day and I really liked them, so I want to use as many as I can. Time to do some pages of the other kids too! Oh yeah, I forgot, I finally ordered prints of my pages from ScrappingSimply. I had pre-ordered several hundred prints, so I thought it would be a good idea to finally get some stuff printed and put into the binders I have. I can't wait to see what they look like

and last week's 365 pages are done too:


I like using the double page spread for them, so much more room and keeping it simple makes my life easier. They all become boring after a while anyway, so this format is perfect.


Yesterday I finalized the photo for Sarah and placed an order for a fracture. I promised it to her as a belated Christmas present. I even photoshopped a barrel onto one of her dogs. We had it on Jake when I took the photos in the snow, but then we forgot it for the re-shoot. I really don't think you can tell, can you?

I wanted to straighten it out a little more, but it chopped of the paws and I didn't like that, so this is it! I hope she'll be happy with it. Well, if she isn't, tough! :)

Well, it's been a long day, I literally sat here for hours getting all those links in order for tomorrow, I hope this will be somewhat informative for everybody! Don't forget now! Come for the fun, come for the freebie, come to drive me crazy! It'll be fun!!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

They lost!!!

The Steelers that is. I can't believe for once I watch a stupid football game and the guys have to loose.  Gabby had to explain everything that was happening since I don't have a clue, too funny. I had made a lot of food to have some semblance of a football party for her and Phil. Plus she had invited a school friend who had never been here before. Maybe they would have won if I hadn't made that big a deal about it? :) Nah!!! Oh well, I'm sure there are a lot of sad people today, I can't even imagine all those who went to see the game in person, paying thousands of dollars....glad it wasn't me!
Our bathroom is slowly taking shape. The grout went up the other day. Hopefully it will speed up a little now. We also got an estimate to get some insulation blown into the ceiling and walls of our TV/Sunroom. It's always so cold in there, I hope this will do the trick. They should be coming this week sometime and then the plasterers will return and fix the ceiling in there. Plus we have a mystery floor finish. Ever since we had it refinished, or at least for the last several months, the finish gets sticky every time we wash it, and we only use water on it. It's awful! The guy was here to take a look and told me to let it dry and he would return. Well, I haven't seen him back yet..time to call him again. It never ends.
My car is making all kinds of noise again. I just had it fixed a few months ago, because the engine light was on and it sounded like a truck. Now the same thing started again. I have an appointment on Wednesday. Like I said, it never ends....
We haven't had any new snow lately, thank goodness. I hope it stays that way, I am so ready for spring. Gabby's snowman died a slow death with the rising temperatures last week. It was so funny to watch. Every day he would be a little more bent over until she finally had to put him to his final rest. Of course I had to document that :)


I took a little walk (maybe 10 steps) through the backyard the other day, in order to find something to take macro photos of (for a challenge), found some and made that into a page too


Gabby and Catie had a snowball fight last week when they built the snowman, they were a riot to watch


and I did the page for the week. Here is the snowman again :) And I was finally able to get those pictures of Sarah without any snowflakes. I have to get them done today, I promised she would get them today when I go for my lesson.


Yesterday I spent most of the day uploading pages to ScrappingSimply for printing. I marked some 297 pages. Good thing I preordered printing credits when they had their big sale, so it's not costing me anything now. I can't wait to see them, people say that their quality is excellent.

Well, time to get the kids moving, it's another school day....
Have a great Monday!



Tuesday, February 1, 2011

progress

The bathroom that is. I would have never thought that it would be such a tedious job to get all those little details done. Yesterday we had the guys here who did the plaster. They did a fabulous job, it looks so nice. Today Gary (my guy :)) started putting some tile on the wall. Wow! Every time I look in there, I have to smile. I know I am going to love it!

This is what it looked like yesterday


and this is today



It's so nice to see it taking shape now. Our new window should be coming in any day now also :)

The kids had another snow day today. We were supposed to get this really bad ice storm overnight and it was icy in the morning but a few hours later all the roads were fine. A delay would have been sufficient, but how do you know so early in the morning. Now they are calling for more of the same. Yikes! Of course other states are being slammed, so I can't complain.

I haven't had much time to do pages these last few days, so I only have this



Not much to show for, I know. I have been working on some other stuff, but can't show it yet. I have also been adding photos to my website, man this takes forever! :) That's the nature of the beast, I suppose.

We went to see our friends in Altoona on Saturday with a little trip to Sam's and then dinner with 2 more  couples. It was fun! I love to see them all, we really don't meet often enough. She had her little grandson with her, he is such a doll!



He is all smiles almost all the time, unless he is really tired. Can't blame him for that I guess! We got to see our other friends' brand new house, total awesomeness! They had my kitchen LOL. Wonderful dark wood floors and dark cabinetry. I loved it! Lots of inspiration for my future new kitchen :)

Well, I better scrap some more, this was really a lame post. Stay safe and warm! Ciao!



Never say Never!

Well, here I am creating my very own blog! I was always very sure I would never get into this blogging "thing", but here I am. I hope you will enjoy finding out a little about my not so interesting life!