Not a whole week

I am getting better, but not as good as I was hoping. At least it's only Saturday and my last post was on Tuesday. That much for keeping daily entries. Not going to happen :)

Phil's birthday was on Thursday. Poor guy had such a busy day and was really tired. Gabrielle really wanted to take him out to eat where somebody would sing to him, but he just wasn't up to it, so we wound up at Panera Bread again. They should give us a discount for all the time we are there... Trying to think here, nothing much has happened. The kids have been using the Pool, I am afraid we have a leak somewhere, the filter doesn't get enough pressure, so the automatic sweeper isn't working. It's probably the underground hose from the skimmer to the filter. It was here when we bought the house and that was in '88, imagine how old that thing must be. Soooo, that means we will have to take up the deck boards and dig. Well, not us but somebody. More expenses! Of course now the heater is not working anymore either, might be for the same reason, boy this stinks. I don't swim in cold water, so it's just the kids using it now. Oh well!

We went to Mass yesterday. I proposed trying out a different Church for a change. The endless slow singing in our Church drives me crazy at times. I know, I know, I need to work on my patience....anyway, that particular Church is usually fast, no singing at all. Of course yesterday was Mission Sunday Mass and there was a different Priest from India who happened to like singing and was really slow. How is that for immediate punishment from above!  It was still better than ours :)

I have been working on my 365 pages, here are two more, slightly different

I get too bored using the same format all the time.

 

these were from a recent trip to Ohiopyle, boy was it chilly and wet that day and I almost ran out of gas. Who would have thought that a tourist spot like that had no gas station at all. We were in the middle of nowhere and had to drive more than 10 miles at least to the next station on our way home. What a day! It was a fun place though, I'll have more pages later, oh wait, I just did page 3 yesterday:

 

There will be more, this is not a threat!

just some fun ones. These are all in my Designer digitals gallery.

Okay, have a wonderful Sunday everybody!

A cool link

Somebody posted this link on the DD forums this morning, it's the coolest thing ever. Some people already knew about it, but it was new to me. All you do is drag your photos into the program, then click the button to create a collage and wham, it's done. I saved mine as a PSD file, because I wanted to be able to fiddle with it, but here is the page I created with it

It literally took me 60 seconds to make the collage and it was such fun. You can do different shapes they have there or draw your own. Try it

Jessica Sprague is celebrating her 2nd birthday and there is lots of stuff going on. They are offering a free photo editing class, all you have to do is sign up. What do you have to loose? They also added some new features to the site, like a community similar to facebook, pretty cool!

I actually made it to Karate tonight, I was able to kick better than before but after a while it was really pulling. I was glad when class was over. Then Sabomnim asked me if I could come up in the morning and teach class. Man!!!! I was really planning on staying home and scrapping or maybe getting my bills paid...he has to go look at a new car because his is falling apart, so I have to open up and close the darn place. How could I say no, he didn't have anybody else. Oh well, maybe I'll skip tomorrow night then.

It was a hot one today, the first day I felt like we are having summer here. With piano and this darn computer I never made it to the pool though and tomorrow doesn't look much better. Karate in the morning, then piano for Gabi and Michael, then tutoring. Yuck!

At least I got another 365 page done, I only have 4 more to go just to catch up!

I try to make the facing pages match as much as I can, so it will look better once the book is printed.

I also have to try and catch up with Katrina's photography class, today we got the new lesson and I am still trying to work on the 2 previous ones! The light and that I understand, it's all the buttons I can't figure out...

Oh well, this was supposed to be just a short update, man can I babble or what. Talk to you tomorrow maybe!!! I am trying :)

Just an ordinary day

The only thing that happened today was my Physical Therapy and I am going nowhere with that real fast. My back still hurts after what, like 14 sessions? Argh! Maybe it's a little better, so I am hanging in there...

I tried to find a regular alarm clock radio today for my nightstand, 'cause mine kind of died on me. I could not find one in the whole store of Staples.  That means that now I will have to go to Walmart after all. I hate going there with a passion. It's a pain to park, the people are obnoxious. I don't know where to look, Sears? we don't have too many stores around here.

tomorrow is my piano lesson and I have not practiced one bit. That's the second week in a row. She is going to get out the whip for sure. All I want to do is sit here and design. What's wrong with me? :)

I got a few pages done

I did this one last night, it's sort of a tribute to Phil. He caught a quiet moment with the girls at a party we went to last weekend. I thought they looked so cute!

I didn't realize until after I posted this, that I used the same color scheme as above, too funny. I just thought Rachel looked so cute here

And I finally started with my 365 pages again. We'll see what happens..

I did this one for PixelCanvas. I loved the soft colors and the cool masks that came with Heather's "At the beach" kit. Yoshiko's japanese words are really cool too, I hope I am saying good stuff here, 'cause I have no idea!

Okay, this is a short one, it's late, bed is calling!

Happy Father's Day!

Boy, I am really going from bad to worse, I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post! I guess life just keeps going on and nothing much out of the ordinary happens, so why post?! I know, I know, I will really try to do better, then it will even be less work. It's like the 365 pages, if I had just kept up with them, it wouldn't be so overwhelming now. I have the whole month of May to do and June up to now. Good grief! It just gets so boring, after a while they all look the same and it doesn't feel like art anymore. I need to get moving on those though, because I really want to have that book at the end of the year!

There is nothing new yet with Phil. We are still waiting for the call from the Cardiologist to schedule the Echo and we'll go from there. He is convinced he'll need the valve replacement and it's really bumming him out. Just the idea of spending the rest of your life on Coumadin....he won't be able to much of sports, no skiing, nothing dangerous (not that he does that anyway, but you know what I mean) We'll just have to wait and see.

Summer vacation is great, the kids sleep in every morning and we have a leisurely start of the day, I love that. Of course, what do I do but sit at my computer and scrap or get up-to-date in the galleries. Little Sweetie is such a sweetie. Max and she get along so well, it's adorable. They play together like two lunatics. I took some pictures, haven't scrapped them yet though.

Yesterday one of Gabrielle's birds died, she was sobbing! I have no idea what happened, he was fine one day and the next day she found him all quiet and puffed up and getting cold already. Well, he didn't last til that night. He was really still a baby, we had only had him for a few months. I felt so bad for her...

I am still taking Katrina's class at DebbieHodge.com. She is really good and I have learned a few things. It's still confusing to me though, I will have to go through my notes again. This AV and AE stuff swirls around in my head and that was just lesson 2 :) I also bought 2 books: David Busch's Nikon D300 guide and Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson. They were both recommended to me by Amy L., so they have to be good. It just takes time to go through all of this stuff. I also have this book on Lightroom that I only started. Good Grief, give me more time...

Okay, here are some pages

The first ones of course are of Sweetie, the last one  is Chubby, our other cat, who is not too keen on the new intruder. She is getting better though, she doesn't hiss quite as easily at her anymore. She'll come around eventually.

       

The puppy belongs to friends of ours, I caught him trying to sneak some Hohos off the table and managed to get a blurry photograph, it was just too cute to pass up.

Rachel at the spring recital, I was so proud of both of them to go up there and play, I know they were terrified, but they all did it!

There are two Heritage pages, me, Heritage, yuck! I love doing these though, it's so fun finding just the right papers to give the correct feel.

These pages are for PixelCanvas, you can find all the credits in my gallery there

 

Of course Sweetie pops up everywhere. I still have a ton of fun pictures of her to scrap.

Our pool is finally open and the kids have been using it every day. Good for them! I want them to have fun while they are off school. It's not very likely that we will be going anywhere this summer, unless the news about Phil will be good. Please, keep praying. Thanks you guys, I am so glad you are coming around to see me and I will really try to come and visit you more often too :)

Have a great Father's Day all you guys out there!!

signing off for now...

She is here!

Sweetie that is! We picked her up on Saturday, what a fun day that was! Like I told you before, Katie Pertiet and I had arranged to meet halfway between our respective homes, so we decided to meet in Carlisle. Of course she got there early (Kelly said that's her trademark :)) and since I had left to get there at 4PM I flew the whole way, going 80 mh. The girls were so happy to finally be able to hold her and I was so thrilled to meet Katie and her daughter. We had dinner together and spent 2 hours chatting. It was great. I felt like I had known her forever, she was so easy to talk to! She told me her site has 50000 customers, I couldn't even believe it! That is a lot of people. Anyway, we had a great time or at least I did. Here is a page I made about the meeting

and then I made a double spread about the first meeting with the kitty

I loved this template that Katie made, it's like a book and I left it as big as it came, I kinda liked it! Isn't she just the cutest?    

I didn't touch these pictures, I know they are a little overexposed, so bear with me.

Phil's line came out last Thursday, he is now bottle-less and enjoying his newfound freedom. He is feeling great and if it wasn't for the stupid valve, everything would be so great! The cardiologist wants to wait another 2 weeks before doing the Echo. I guess the hope is that the scar tissue might pull the valve in a somewhat better position?! We'll see. I just keep praying that he won't have to be subjected to the surgery!

I just joined a local CSA, what a great thing that is or so I hope at least. It's a local farmer who sells directly to people via subscriptions in a way. I pay 325 $ for the whole season, or 20 weeks and every week I get a week's supply of whatever is in season. It's all organic and local. this Friday is my first time, I can't wait. My Physical Therapist recommended it, she did it last year and loved it! the supplies were plentiful and great she said. I still have my own garden planted but I always find use for extra veggies!

Here are some more pages I did last week

 

These above are all at Designer Digitals

The one below is at PixelCanvas, which makes me aware of how few pages I made , I need to get busy over there!!!

All right, this was just a short update, I hope you will all keep praying for my hubby, I so appreciate it! I will really try to post more often and to get around to check all the blogs I have been ignoring this last week!

I hope you won't get tired of looking at Sweetie pages, oh yes, I forgot ,that is the name the girls decided to keep, it seemed like a good compromise and Kelly kept calling her Sweetie, so we'll stick with that name. More later!

One more week..

before his line comes out! We are doing really well with it though, changing the bottle in the morning isn't that bad and the inconveniences aren't that great. Good thing he has a couple of baggy pants that won't show the bottle as much when he sticks it in his pocket. Monday we had the Home Health Nurse here to change his port and draw blood. I did not like her at all!!! First she was late and made us really nervous because his bottle was empty. She was more concerned to stay dry getting out of her car  than to get in the house, really, it took her forever to open that darn umbrella of hers and she was late already. Then she went to change the port and dropped the new cap. So she hands hubby the port and tells him to hold his breath while she gets another one. Now that can happen, but she just seemed really unprofessional. I was told to wipe the port for at least 15 seconds with the alcohol pad to make sure all the germs get killed, while she wiped it twice and was done. Huh?? That's his life you are fooling with, all we'd need would be a staph infection. Then she tells me to change the bottle after she is done with the rest, are you kidding me? You are already there gloved up and everything and you make me go wash up and all. That is just ridiculous if you ask me! anyway, I called the agency and told them I didn't want to see her again and to please send our old nurse back. She was soooo much more professional.

Guess what, guess what, I am so excited. I am going to meet Katie Pertiet next Saturday!!! It's the funniest story really. She posted these pics of her daughter with these little kittens and I said in a comment that I would snatch one up in a heartbeat, not really thinking anything of it. Here she writes back that they were available and if I really wanted one, she would arrange it. Knowing that she lives in Maryland I just asked her laughing if she included free shipping. There she answers back that she and her daughter would love to meet me half way to drop the cat of. Now, it's not even her cat, plus she is allergic! It just seems so nice, I was really impressed and how could I say no?! the girls of course were all over me and are already deciding on a name. I took one of the pictures Katie sent me to make a page

Isn't she just adorable? They are going for either Misty or Willow. What do you think? We are all really excited, I can't believe I am going to meet her, she is one of my idols and a great inspiration!

Today my Church choir had their annual get together. We went out to brunch and I took Rachel with me. It was a great place at a  local Hotel. The food was wonderful! Mediterranean salads and grilled fruit and all kinds of goodies. I was stuffed to the gills, I had to literally open my pants once we were in the car! It's going to be back to my diet, I am exploding out of all my clothes, especially since I am not training as much as I used to. which reminds me of my Physical Therapy which seems to help while I'm there, but as soon as I do anything, like planting seed yesterday and pulling weeds, then is back to pain and stiffness. I know it takes time. Enough of that, here are some more pages I did

these are all at Designer Digitals, all my credts can be found there in my gallery (see link on the right). I am taking Pattie Knox's new class at DebbieHodge.com. More digi skillz, it's awesome. We just learned how to rip paper (Spring LO) and how to emboss (Shhh, baby sleeping LO). Really awesome stuff and her instructions are so easy to follow. Of course I will need my papers to do it again, because there is not way I could remember the steps, at least for embossing. The ripping I got down now, but it takes a lot of practice to make it look good. That part isn't easy at all. The strips were easier, the paper is hard, it's so big.  

These two are for PixelCanvas. The girls there made some new kits, they are sooo talented. That's not even all of the new stuff. I have to make a few more pages. the credits for those can be found in my gallery at PixelCanvas (link on the right)

 

Three more days until the end of school. The kids really have a couple of half days and Wednesday they get out at 10AM. Why even go to school? But that's the way it is. Then we are done!!! Yeah!!! No more deadlines and assignments and all that for a while. then Gabrielle is going to be in 8th grade. Scary!!!

All right you all, that's it for today. If I may ask, please pray for my friend's special intention, she would be sooo happy to have people pray for her and I would so appreciate it!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! (or what's left of it)