Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Mini Photo Shoot!

Finally, we had the perfect combination this morning. We had the camera with us and it was nice out and we weren't in rush. So we stopped at this little rest spot which is pretty much just a semi-circle off the side of the road into Waverly from our house and took some photos. Still I am not happy lol. I hate taking photos because I always think I look so big. I wear a size 6 for Pete's sake and the pants I am wearing in this photo are a Junior Small so I know I am not disillusioned lol. Oh well, it is still nice to have some new photos of Alex and I. I have been scrapping the same 2 year old photos of us over and over again lol.

















Charles' Middle School Prom - Semi-Formal - Mixer - WHATEVER is this Saturday night so I am trying to wait patiently to get the form for pictures. If I get too antsy I may just stop at the school on our way home later and ask for one. He doesn't want to take pictures but TOO BAD lol. I want photos taken darn it! We are going to get his clothes Friday and OMG Guess What? He asked for "regular" clothes!! You know, the kind that don't sag down his butt!! I couldn't believe it, he even asked for a tie!! I nearly fell over! Either he is growing up or trying to give me a heart attack and kill me lmbo. When I figure out which I will let you know! Haa haa.

OK gotta fly! BBL!

Monday, April 28, 2008

The Weekend post

I typed up my posts over the weekend so I could speed things up when I got here to the coffee shop lol. All personal posts are here at the top. If you are looking for just my Scrapping info scroll down in this post to get to it ;)

SATURDAY

Another insane weekend lol. Did I tell you that since last Friday - the 18th - we have had a minimum of 3 boys at our house? For almost a week we had 4 here. It started out with one friend of John's and one of Charles' then it ended up being 2 of Charles' friends and now it's down to just one friend. Feeding 4 boys is a workout on both you and your wallet LMBO It was pretty cool though having them all here. They played video games, went to work for the guy up the road, helped clean up the house (which is what I liked best lol) played regular games, watched movies, went to the pond to go swimming, road bikes etc. It was very cool indeed. Of course we also took them to the coffee shop with us when we made it there too.

Today John helped me with the garden. I have been wanting to do it before it was too late. I have some seeds and bulbs I wanted to plant as well as a few Marigolds (they are great at keeping ants and other insects away). The problem was, as we found out at the last minute, that the roots from old plants and the grass and weeds were horrendous. I couldn't just get them out with a spade like I am used to doing. So we went yesterday and got a hoe and a shovel and today John helped me dig out the first area. Here is a shot as he is swinging away with the hoe.




Of course we had a heckuva time since I can't really do a lot. I start to get sore quickly because I guess my muscles and stuff still need time to heal. John swung away and then hopped on the shovel like a jack rabbit until the dirt was all turned up. Then we went back in and starting shaking out the roots to keep the good soil and made a mound about 3 feet in width and about a foot and a half high. Then the neighbor came by with his tractor and hauled it away for me, wasn't that nice? I am still trying to get used to friendly people. He is also the man that the boys go to work for so we know him already. He has the goats behind us and those awesome white furball dogs lol.

Of course we came across a lot of bugs while we were digging. We found a huge nest of the bugs I have always referred to as "Pillbugs" they are grey in color and kinda remind me of little armadillos and when you touch their belly or their feet they curl up in a ball. John got a kick out of those. Then there were crickets, worms and spiders - ACK I can do without the spiders thank you very much. Then we saw something really creepy. It reminds me of a grub although I am not sure if that's what they are or not. Look at this thing, isn't it big and nasty?



We found a couple of smaller ones too but EEEWWWWWWW. So we managed to get this first spot cleared out enough to start planting. We put in 5 plants alongside the stairs and then planted 36 Marigold plants. I am hoping they spread out soon, fill in the gaps and keep blooming to keep the bugs away. I bought some other flowers too but they are more for fill than anything. I haven't found many other plants that I want right now that are in my price range. It seems they haven't gotten all of their deliveries yet or maybe they just don't carry them here in Tennessee. I figure I will keep looking for another week or two and see what they come out with, otherwise I will just have to make due with what they do have. They did have some pretty Azalea bushes so I might get a few of those. Two of my Irises bloomed already but they die so quickly. Daffodils seem to grow wild here, everywhere I look there are tons of them. Except for my property lol. We only have like two spots where they are growing and there aren't very many. Anyway, here is a shot of the area John and I worked on today. He really did an awesome job.




So that was mine and John's day. Charles & Robie (the kid who has been here the last few days) went into town and hung out with a bunch of the other kids from school. They went in and saw Alex at work and told me that he was having a good day lol. Poor man, it's his birthday today. I cut flowers from the yard and put them on the table along with his cards and his birthday breakfast. It stinks that he had to work today but at least his day seems to be going well. He has to work Monday & Tuesday though because one of the girls had to take off because her grandmother passed away this morning. So our visits to the coffee shop will be short on those days. That's one of the reasons why I am typing my posts on a day to day basis here at home. That way when we get to the coffee shop all I have to do is copy, paste and post lol.

Sunday

Well we finally got our lawnmower and as you can see, the lawn can really use it lol.




Only thing is, it rained LOL Isn't that just our luck? Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we will be able to get it started. Today was spent mostly on the inside of the house, trying to clean up and get things straightened out. Laundry is almost all done, dishes done and I have a pot of sauce and meatballs cooking on the stove. The only problem with it being up there cooking is that it's making the boys very hungry lol. The keep trying to get into the pot and steal some ;) I am working on a garden kit now so I can do layouts with all the cool photos I have been getting.

MONDAY

Today we had to run up to Dickson to bring some paperwork over to the hospital and drop some other papers off at the boy's doctors office. We stopped at Loews and grabbed some pots and herbs so I can get my little herb garden going. I love having all the fresh herbs in the kitchen and now that we have a kitchen window it will be nice to have them up on the sill. I already have tomatoes, basil & green peppers planted outside in pots to start them going. Once they are big enough I will transplant them into the ground but we are still getting cold snaps here so I like being able to just bring the pot in the house if one of them pops up.

Have you seen my new designs?

PERSONAL USE:









Commercial Use:








If you go to my Moo Two Designs Store now you can get in on my sale! Right now through Midnight May 3rd (NDSB Day) You can get my personal Designs for 40% off and Commercial Use Designs for 20% off!

OK I gotta run for now but will be back in a bit with some more sale information ;) Cya!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Wow how awesome!

My friend and fellow designer Kymm - aka Creative Chaos - has presented me with an award! It was so wonderful to see this here today for me, especially after the last few weeks of feeling icky. Love ya Girl!


For those of you receiving the Award, here are the rules:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/

Make sure you visit the link above. There are crafts of all kinds shown; you are bound to come away inspired!

5) Show these rules.

Here are my 5 picks:

Shannon Fahrnbach
- An excellent Scrapper and wonderful friend. Check out her wonderful designs and amazing outlook on life with 4 kids!

Carla Ware - OMG What can I say? This is one fantastic Lady! She has been my friend and mentor from day 1 and I love her lots!

CanDesigns
- ANOTHER FABULOUS Lady. She is a fellow redheaded New Yorker so need I say more? I love this woman, tough as nails with a heart as big as all get out!! LOL Her designs are awesome and she has the energy of a #7 Express Train!

Beachnut's Creations - Doreen's become one of my best friends ever (and she's a big reason why we moved to Tennessee right Scarlett? lol) Check out her life on the railroad and all of her wonderful layouts.

and last but NOT least

Tracy Rundle
- Another wonderful friend and budding Designer. She offers up freebies, and has lots going on in her life! Check out her designs, life and wonderful layouts and see how they do it "Down Under"

Go check out their blogs and leave them lotsa love ok? I will be back with sale information and other juicy little tidbits either later or first thing Monday ;) Thanks to everyone who sent well wishes, they mean a lot ;)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Nope not a blood clot

Pffftt, ok so I finally got the results back (seemed like forever) and there's no blood cot. Everything is clear so what is the pain? No one knows, it seems to be a mystery. But at least it has been subsiding and I won't have to go on blood thinners YEAH!! I am done with hospitals. I should be good for another 15 years or so lol.

OK so today I will be getting back up to speed with my stores and stuff so you should start seeing new things soon. I am going to have sales too so as soon as they are all set up I will be sure to let you know.

Right now I am going to get some stuff up at my stores and see about putting the notification e-mail thingy on here so if you want you can sign up and get notified when I post new things. I had a bunch of people ask me to do that so I am going to see what I can do ;)

TTYL!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Yep, probably a blood clot

Pfftt, like Doreen says, when I do it, I really do it lol. I went for my follow-up check up yesterday morning and decided to mention the fact that I have piercing pain on my right hand side causing shortness of breath and subsequently having the capability to stop a sneeze in it's tracks. I asked if it was the anesthesia still trying to work it's way out of my system or a gas pocket etc. Yeah...... uhhhh NO. No gas in me, not the anesthesia, blood clot woman. Pfffttt. for the love of God, leave me alone already ya know? I mean really. So I needed at CTA scan so they can see my blood and probably put me on blood thinners. Pffttt, hello people, I am allergic to the IV Dye they use - it sends me into respiratory arrest so NO, can't do that test, so we need to special order a dye from Nashville so that we can use Nuclear Medicine and make your shadow glow ROFLMBO. So at 7:30 this morning I became a human glowworm and am awaiting the results of the test. In the meantime the chest pain I had has almost completely subsided for now but it's during the day and the pain usually hits me the worst at night when I lay down. Either way we will see I guess. By the time I got home yesterday it was almost 3 and no time to come to the coffee shop which really stunk cause I was looking forward to it.

So I am trying to get back into the swing of things and now that some of the pain has subsided in my chest I should be able to move about more freely. The incision and all the other collateral damage from the surgery has made no nevermind to me because I am almost totally healed already lol. The Doctor was still amazed, he looked, poked and prodded and I didn't even flinch and I was up and moving around and he was in shock lol. He's like you do realize that you had a large section of your intestine removed? I'm like "Yeah, I know...sooooo???" LOL Ah well, ok gotta go for now, things to do.

I should be back on a fairly regular basis now so look for some things coming out new in my stores ok? Gotta pay the $40K medical bill .....LMBO sigh.

Have a good one ;)

Friday, April 18, 2008

Just because I promised

I am going to post but it's gotta be fast because I have to go. John's friend should be sleeping over this weekend, probably tonight and if I know Danny he will be at our house this weekend too lol. A house full of boys, that's what I need to feel better lol. ACK!!

I am feeling better and trying to get my mind back on designing and I think maybe a sale is in order as well ;) A little thank you for all of the kind words and well wishes I have gotten.

The boys are on Spring Break as of 3:00 today so they are amped. We wanted to do a little mini vacation over to Nashville for a day or two but I don't think we will b able to now with the way things have gone. Maybe during the summer we can go for a week or so. We'll see.

OK I gotta go pick up the boys prescriptions before heading home and beating the bus home lol. Have a GREAT weekend!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Home from the Hospital

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am among the living... thanks in HUGE part to the Incredible Medical Staff at Horizon Medical. I will post more this week but for now here is the cliff notes version. I had a blockage which sent me to the emergency room on Tuesday night, they admitted me early Wednesday morning and by Wednesday evening they had operated on me and taken out 18 inches of my intestine and a piece of my colon. I am out now I got home this Monday and have a couple of pics that I won't place here but will post links for those who want to see. My postings will be sporadic for a bit again but hopefully not for too long as I have been healing quickly.

I have to go now and go get something to eat and rest but I will be back this week I promise ;)

Monday, April 7, 2008

Toasted Orange Freebie

Here's a little freebie for you that I call Toasted Orange. I know Spring is here, Summer is coming but I LOVE these types of dark, rich colors and just figured I would give it to you ;)

As always, please no file sharing, send people here to my blog to download if you think they would like it. Also NO MAKING OF QUICKPAGES TO GIVE AWAY. That is still stealing even when it was made with a freebie. Click on the image to be taken to your download area. There are two files there. A little LOVE is nice too ;)




Enjoy!

Surprisingly busy weekend

WOW what a weekend. We were all prepared for our regular relaxing weekend but it did not turn out that way. First we found out that the scavenger hunt which had to be postponed on Charles' birthday was rescheduled for Friday. Charles & Danny (who is like a family member now - it's weird when he isn't here lol) left the house at around 9:45 Friday night and headed to the church. At about 10:45 they came back with the Pastor and needed a piece of cardboard to make a sign and a can of tuna fish LMBO. Charles was rushing and running like a maniac through the house. Then they left and called us at 12:45 because now he needed a baby picture of himself. They had to get a photo of someone picking their nose at a stop light and for 400 extra points they had to pick up road kill ROFLMBO. I am surprised Charles didn't get sick right there but he wanted to win. His team consisted of him, Danny (of course lol) and another kid named Cody (I think). Well anyway, road kill and all paid off. They won first place! They each got a medal, a gift certificate to the local movie rental place and a gift certificate to Dairy Queen! He was laughing so hard when he was telling me about the road kill and he got home at 6:50 the next morning! They were back at the church by 2 but then they tallied everything, ate a ton of food and all passed out. Well until Charles' snoring kept people up and they smacked him with Pepperoni LOL. Here he is sporting his medal:



Yes now wait, there's more. Saturday he slept a little of the morning (which is when I took the photo) then we hung out and watched movies and stuff. John went to his friends house so the house was really quiet.

Saturday night Danny came over and spent the night - apparently to germinate on us cause he had one of those "foghorn" coughs that rattled the frame of the house lol. They all passed out by midnight but come Sunday morning John was up bright and early because he needed to be at the church at 6:30 to help set up. Set up for what you may ask? A Carnival/Picnic of course! Pffftt, I had no idea. So they both went to services and stayed for the celebration afterwards. John came home with oodles of candy and balloons and he had one of those squiggly mustaches painted on his face like Snidely Whiplash ROFLMBO. Of course the boys sent a balloon up to heaven for their Dad. It's something we do on all the holidays and on his birthday. Charles was hanging with Pastor Scott and they were doing pull-ups on the pavilion lol. After they got back John went back over to Ethan's house and Charles, Danny & I watched a movie and then Danny went home. John ate dinner over there and Charles & I ate at home then played with the puppies from the neighbor next door. They are soooo cute aren't they?




(**Edited to say I was typing another whole paragraph and Blogger blinked and erased it all so this paragraph may not be as interesting because I am angry that I have to redo it all again arghhhhh)

ANYWAY, after Dinner Charles & I walked the 1/4 mile to Ethan's house to pick up John. He usually gets a ride back but I keep telling him not to, that he needs to leave early enough to be home before dark because it's not right to take advantage of someone's kindness. Alex works nights so we don't have the car otherwise I would get him. Anyway on the way home, the boys led me through the darkness. Why did they have to lead me ? Because one of my contact lenses had started making my eye tear so I took it out and because I have night blindness so I don't see very well. So now I was not only having a hard time with what I was seeing and telling what things were because of the night blindness but now I had only one contact in (I am legally blind with a -1100 in both eyes lol) so now I had depth perception issues as well lol. It was funny, one child on each side of me holding my arms and laughing at me. At one point I asked if that was mud or a ditch off to our right and Charles was like " Oh my God Ma! You really are blind. Come on let's walk over and see what it is" I was like "Nuh Uh !" and John was just laughing away. Then they were each holding my hand and started swinging my arms. So I said "Hey ya know if ya swing hard enough we may build up momentum and fly home" Wrong, bad, bad thing to say LOL The next thing ya know they are both swinging my arms away feverishly lol. Needless to say my theory was wrong and we had to walk the rest of the way lol.

Anyway, that was our weekend, it was fun and too darn short lol. I did mange though - on a business note - to get 6 new items completed and they will all be in the store by Wednesday the latest ;)3 new kits and 3 new commercial items and this is in addition to the Commercial Use Grab Bag I have up ;)

OK gotta go. Take care, have fun and scrap it all ;)

T

Friday, April 4, 2008

Mixed Post

Well I really need to learn to start typing a post in a Notepad document so then all I have to do is go ahead and cop and paste. What a pain not having internet at home yet. We aren't sure where we will be living in the next couple of months and we don't want to pay a ton of money to have it installed and then have to pay to transfer the service and move the equipment. We are looking into buying a house now sooooo. We might buy the one we are in but, like I said we aren't sure yet.

On the personal side the boys are doing awesome! Charles is going into High School next year and we had orientation the other night. They have to fill out their 4 year plan and turn it into the school. He is going to take the University path so we had to check out the classes for that one. This year he is in Foundations I in Math because he didn't have all his records when we first got here. Now there is Foundations II and then Algebra I and Algebra II. His Principal is talking about him taking Algebra II next year! That's an 11th grade class, he has to pass his tests and stuff but from what they have seen he can do it, so he put Algebra one on his list, he doesn't want to jump the gun. He just got a 9 on his test Thursday and the next highest test score was a 77 so he was pretty proud. He's gotten 100s all week in Social Studies and taught the teacher a few things about computers lol. Science he had a strong 90 - that's what his teacher told me, but ya know that's a B - 94 and up is an A but I told him not to worry about it, that's a great score! He turned down the offer to play football but is going to join the baseball team at the high school next year so that will be good. He hangs with his friends still here at home and goes to the church at least once a week.

John has been getting a bunch of A's then messed up and got a 0 on a test because he forgot to bring his book so he couldn't take the test. They are strict, but better that way I think cause then they will learn to do things right the first time. He's back to using all the big words lol He hadn't done that in a long time but now he gets a kick out of it again. He spends a lot of time out with his friends and twice a week goes to the church by us. He's having a ball.

OK onto business - Check out the Grab Bag sale over at Divine Digital this weekend! I have a commercial use grab bag up for sale. It has 3 new Designer products in it ;)

Today is Commercial Use Freebie Friday over at Moo Two Designs so go by the Blog and grab todays goodie ;)

Have you checked out the Challenges going on over at Stone Accents Studios. My SAS-Y Impromptu Challenge is going on now. It's a two parter so be sure and come and be part of the fun!

I will have a few new things in the stores for you next week so be sure to check back! I am also working on 3 more freebies for you - kind of a preview of what's coming ;) And my wonderful, awesome girls - Doreen & Tracy - will be making a few goodies for you all too so you really don't want to miss out on anything!

Have an awesome weekend!