Scrapburbia

Sheesh...

Man oh man...

The list of things to share is long, however, the time is short.

My sister is doing well, she was finally able to come home from the hospital yesterday. It turned out she has blood clots in her lung... which is quite serious. I had no idea that it could be so painful, but it's good thing it is... you wouldn't want those little suckers making their way to the heart unnoticed!

We are busy, busy around here. I am finally getting the hang of the home schooling thing and so are the kids... the prep takes almost as much time as the teaching. ( I know you teachers are just laughing, because of course you already knew that!) I've really got to be organized and plan, plan, plan... which I am pretty good at, but one small interruption such as a knock at the door, a phone call or baby waking up early from a nap, can really send the day into a tail-spin.

If you home school, or have thought about home schooling, then I'm sure you have heard all the related questions. One that surprised me till I thought about it, then it made me wonder and even get a little scared  was, "Do you really want to spend that much time with your kids everyday?" And by-golly do you know what, as it turns out I do. I am enjoying the time with my kids. Truth be told the days flies right by when I am trying to pack in as much school work before 2:30pm as possible. 

I don't have a lot of extra time...but I do feel good about what I've accomplished at the end of the day.

OH, AND GUESS WHAT!!!

You know that California trip I said we weren't able to take this year?

Well... we are headed to California next week for the Scrapbook Expo in San Diego! Woohoo! If you live in the area you're going to want to make sure you stop by, there will be some ridiculously great deals in the Scenic Route Booth!

There is nothing like mixing business and pleasure AND SCHOOL to justify a spontaneous beach vacation! Amelia is studying the ocean in science...so we must go to the ocean, my daughters educational well being depends upon it. I think we'll have to take a day trip to the Scripps Institute, that seems like a pretty good place to learn about salinity, waves, tides and currents to me!

  

I remember going to the Scripps Institute Aquarium when I was a teenager. I made a life plan right then and then there... I was going to go to school there and live in a beach house on the coast. Well, I guess we all know how that turned out, but I still dream about living near the ocean. I am willing to live in a shack on the beach... no fancy accommodations required, the sound and smell of the ocean during every waking moment would be well worth it.  See you in San Diego!!!

History repeats itself...

While driving around tonight we saw some kids on BMX bikes, Jim mentioned that our friend Mikey remembers being obsessed with his BMX as a kid (in the 80's of course)... which got me thinking about how trends may take thirty years to come back... but they always do.

I consider myself a moderately hip grown-up. I left Debbie Gibson, New Kids on the Block and MC Hammer in the 80's... okay well maybe the 90's. But then this crazy thing happens, I hear superstar Justin Beiber on the radio and I JUST CAN NOT TAKE IT... and I switch it to Dr. Laura.(If I am in the car between 1 and 4pm there is a 99% chance I am kickin' with Dr. Laura, maybe that should have been my first clue that I am no longer a hip youngster anymore) 

And that is the moment when I realize the cool thing about being a grown-up is that I really don't care what the teen-agers, well, what ALMOST anybody thinks of me... and that is totally worth giving up Jelly shoes and slouch socks for.

This stuff takes me back... back when I sat on my friends roof smoking candy cigarettes and sipping a bottle of root beer from the 7-11

I would turn my boom box all the way up so i could hear it from anywhere in the house, then when "my song" came on I would sprint to my room, fly across the bed and hit record and hold my breath so I didn't make a sound...

What was I waiting for?

Oh there was a long list of songs that I would charge to hit record for... Kokomo by the Beach Boys is another that comes to mind.

I have an older brother so I rarely had control of the remote on Saturday mornings... but I don't remember complaining too much about the hours of He-man and GI Joe. And yes he had every doll action figure from both programs. We used to bury them in the sand box then flood it till all their little corpses came floating out.

 

Maybe I would have been a bigger fan of GI Joe if Channing Tatum had done it sooner.

 

Ha... and do you remember these? I had about a billion of them, I wonder where they went? (Mom, I don't suppose you know anything about that DO YOU??)

So what was the best thing to come tearing out of the 80's???

 

 PSY-CHE!!! 

This guy gets my vote!

 

If you want to know if you are really a product of the 80's you've got to take this little survey!

My computer needs (well needed) a copy of this book...

Jim has been busy building me a new computer that happily allows me to do the basics, such as check my e-mail. It is mostly finished, we just need to do a few updates and pull some things over like old e-mails and bookmarks. I can already tell my blogging, digi-scrapping, e-mail, and graphic design worlds are about undergo a huge upgrade thanks to my personal in-house genius. Thanks Jimmi!

 

As a side note, are a LOST fan? I didn't get into it until about a year ago when Jim and I started watching it on HULU. We watched the first season and part of the second before our lives got to busy to spend that much time in from of the computer. 

Anywhoo... if you like Hurley as much I do, then you'll be excited to know that he,Jorge Garcia, has a blog, Yay right? You can check it out here!

 
 

Take that!

I have been a little grumpy and out of sorts today...

Usually when I am in such a state a little loud music goes a long way...Today however, I took it to the next level. Today, I tossed a red sock in with the whites, put an airbake cookie sheet  IN THE DISHWASHER, then drank a glass of WHOLE Milk! ... who does that!

While I normally do not condone such reckless behavior, I do feel better.

Besides, the sock was way to old to turn anything pink... I'm grumpy, not crazy.

A little Cliché...

Do you remember about  6-7 years ago when EVERY layout had "Believe" "Dream" and "Explore" on it. Oh and don't forget "Discover"?  I hate to admit I didn't make this layout 6-7 years ago, I made it a month or so ago... BUT I CAN EXPLAIN!

You see, words are not my talent. Witty titles and clever journaling, are not things that come naturally... if at all. But in the photos on this layout, they are ACTUALLY EXPLORING! So it's okay right...?

The kids are EXPLORING my sisters backyard, the most amazing "backyard". She lives in a condo with a river running through the back, as in 15 feet from her back door...as in she can hear a lovely "gentle meandering" water sound... ALL THE TIME!

About 4 years ago I EXPLORED (heehee) the Parade of Homes for the first time. I'd never been before and didn't really "get it" My mom and a friend were coming up to go and invited me to come along... 

Okay, let me paint a picture of one of the "houses". Three floors, three kitchens (including one in the master bedroom) three sets of washers and dryers (including one in the master bedroom) Probably a bazillion bathrooms, a theater... not to be confused with the Sports bar which had 5 TV's including one in the floor... You catch my drift right?  Now, I know what you're thinking, cause I was thinking it too... "Can you imagine what it would take to keep this place clean!" (Not to mention I could lose my kids and not see them for a week in it... maybe they're hiding in the indoor basketball court or ballet studio?)

ANYWAY... the pièce de résistance was the pool. The house has three floors, each with a patio or deck that leads out to the INDOOR pool. Each patio or deck has at least one set of beautiful deck furniture, TV, and a grill. And don't forget the hot tub and fireplace on both the pool deck and in the master bedroom... Now why would I consider selling a kidney to be able to live here? (Ha, as if a kidney is would fetch enough to afford this behemoth...)

In a word... WATERFALL. Yes the indoor pool had a waterfall. You could leave the doors to the house, including the master bedroom open (never having to know what the REAL weather was like in the REAL world) and hear a waterfall from anywhere in the house. Taking a bath, making dinner, doing homework... all to the most beautiful sound on earth... a waterfall. Be still my heart...

It's a good thing I don't have an extra 5 Million bucks and I am way too chicken to give up a kidney... 

Save the date!

About a month ago I decided that I needed to organize my albums. Over the last few years I had just been throwing layouts in so they would be safe, but since I don't scrapbook in chronological order, my albums were a mess!  Most of the scrapbooking I was doing was for Scenic Route, either classes, ads or trade show booths so they were essentially  sorted by Scenic Route release dates :)

I got very ambitious and pulled EVERY layout out of the 15 or so albums that I have and proceeded to put them into piles according to year... at which point, I am embarrassed to admit that I had a problem.

There were several layouts (several as in probably half) that didn't have dates... I know right?

How lame is that, I am taking the time to scrapbook, preserve memories, take nice pictures and safely put them in albums... but I can't be bothered to put a date ANYWHERE on the layout? And to make matters worse, when I carefully pulled back a photo to see the date on the back, I had either printed it myself and there wasn't date or the photo developer didn't include a date in the printed data. I can just see your mouth gapping open in shame and astonishment... and I call myself a scrapbooker!

But alas, all was not lost... There are photos after all and my memory is terrible but I was able to put them in somewhat correct order... thanks to these...

..."before and after" photos.

In the summer of 2005, 2 days before Amelia was starting 1st grade, she gave herself (and Josh) a haircut. As you can see it wasn't slight trimming of the bangs or maybe a little off the sides... no, no she went ALL THE WAY... to a MULLET! You can see from that classy date stamp that the "after" picture was in October, 3 months after the incident. I'm sure you've been through some version of this trauma so I only need to say IT WAS BAD... very bad. 

Two good things did come from the experience though.

1. Amelia has not cut her hair since then... I swore I would shave her head if she did, and I guess that worked. (Heaven help me I would have done it!)

and 2. As I was sorting through undated layouts I could estimate a general timeline based on Amelia's current, um... hair situation.

and well... after all of that I did learn a very important lesson...

DATE EVERY LAYOUT FOR HEAVEN SAKES!!!... so far, I have.

Just wondering...

Sometimes you just "Don't know what you don't know" -if you know what I mean... you'd never have know about that one website, or a sale at your favorite store or maybe the best new brand of scrapbook supplies if your friend didn't tell you... maybe you read about it online somewhere? 

Those golden nuggets of info can be priceless.... agreed?

So I'd like to pose a question and just let the answers fly... if you've got answers, we want to hear about it. Go ahead and include any links that might be helpful too. If you've got a question you're "Just Wondering" about, either post it in the comments or e-mail me and we'll get it out there... I'm looking forward to your questions... and cannot wait to see the answers!

What's your drink at Starbucks? What's your favorite online store? Who make the best "boy" products and where the heck can you find them? Got it?

Alright, so... Hmmm.... my first question is gonna be... let's see....

Okay, If you could buy every scrapbooker one, single, must have item... what would it be? 

So close I could kiss his toes...

Gah!

He

is

coming

back!!!

 

Jim and I and my brother and sister went the last time Jack was in town... I in fact was so excited, that I pre-bought tickets... and not just any tickets... pit tickets.

 That meant that I was so close I could have kissed his toes, which was completely true, not that I would have. Never the less, the comment was entirely unappreciated by Jim...

 Jim, I promise I won't kiss his Jack Johnson's toes... or even suggest that I might actually want to, if you'll go with me again!

Puh-lease!?