steph's stuff

Weird? I think not.

Room cleaning system to come tomorrow, but I promised this post first. Lisa tagged me and now I need to tell you 7 weird, random or strange facts about myself. Hmmmm.....I'm pretty much your normal, dorky, mom type, but here goes:

1. I will do anything to avoid laundry.
2. I don't think I've done a paper-only scrapbooking page in almost a year. My pages are all either hybrid or digi. Keep in mind that hybrid = typed journaling, editing your photos, title work on the computer, etc...
3. I am the oldest of 23 grandchildren on my dad's side.
4. I have a web design business that I hardly tell anyone about and I don't know why.
5. I went for months without drinking Coke. Until this week. It's like crack, I swear. I'm craving it like nobody's business.
6. My favorite book of all time is Little Women.
7. I'm still addicted to ER - have never missed an episode.

And that's it. Not too weird, I don't think. So, if you're reading this, you're tagged!!!!!!!!

Random Life Stuff

So much going through my head that I can't focus on it all. Lucky you - you get a bunch of nonsense in this blog post:

• the new laptop is working out pretty darn good!
• the new online AUTOMATIC DAILY back up program is the way to go.
• my mom gets here tomorrow night and will stay through next Monday
• she turns 60 next week so we're doing a party for her before she goes
• the problem with my mom turning 60 is that it means i turn 40 soon. more on that later.
• my honey has our bathroom almost completely done! we're finishing tiling this week and it's done.
• we have a new keep-the-kids'-rooms-clean system and it is totally working!!!!
• i have 9 loads of laundry to do. ugh. ugh. ugh.
• that shopping trip emily and i went on this weekend was for bras for her. she doesn't need them, but changing for gym is becoming an issue, so a little sports bra is doing the trick.
• buying a bra for your first born is hard to do. really, really hard to do. seeing the strap under her clothes about makes my heart leap out of my chest.
• remember that 40th birthday i mentioned? well, my honey is taking me a 3-night, 4-day trip anywhere i want to go. we've never left the kids before. never.
• where should we go on the trip???????????
• oh, and the trip will be in january - just in case you need to know that to help me plan my trip. :)
• p.s. lisa - i got the tag - catch ya tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!

Fall

Fall has finally hit Northern Indiana! The leaves have finally started turning, the pumpkin patches are in full swing, and it's getting chillier. We're hoping to go apple picking this weekend, but Tom is tiling our shower, so we may have to miss apples this year. And I'm okay with that - I've waited over 2 years for my bathroom to get done and it's getting done!

I did have a chance to go on a field trip with Elizabeth's 1st grade class last week and we had a ball! Hayride, pumpkin patch, farm animals, and corn maze - fall in Indiana!

Em and I have a big shopping trip today, so I've gotta run. More on the shopping trip later!

Music

We've been hearing a lot of music around the house these days. Both girls are now taking violin lessons and their new teacher is just phenomenal. Elizabeth has learned twice has month in the past month than she learned all of last year. It's so cool to hear both girls play together and help each other remember the right notes or correct their fingering. I don't have many pictures of Emily and her violin yet, but I need to get them. Love this one of Elizabeth practicing in the den last week. :)

Speaking of music, when traveling with Wendy on our trip, I called home on Sunday morning to see how Tom and the kids were doing. And I couldn't hear a thing on the other end because the music was so loud. Tom is a classical music freak, Beethoven to be specific, and he loves to blare Beethoven when I'm gone. I love that our kids see that side of their dad! And, the darn silly parakeets LOVE classical music. These silly little birds start singing along with the music and never stop until the music goes off.

And on another musical note, I lost the contents of my iTunes library when the laptop died. Never thought to back that up. Argh. I still have most of the music on my iPod. Someone told me not to plug my iPod into the computer because it will sync with the empty library and I won't have anything left on my iPod, either. That seems backward to me. If they sync, wouldn't I be able to put the music from my iPod back into my library? Anyone know?

DQ

In our house, DQ = Drama Queen. And we have 2 of them. But, one truly holds the title and just occasionally lets her little sister borrow the crown.

An example - Emily is working on a leaf project for school. A huge project that they've had 2 months to work on. And she's ahead of schedule and just about done for a Nov. 5th deadline. One of the things she wanted to include for extra credit was a picture of her with one of her trees. So, we headed outside and I told her to stand in front of her tree. And this is the pose I get.

Vanna White or The Price is Right women don't have a thing on her!

Oh, and the funny thing about another kind of DQ in our house. Dairy Queen is not known as DQ. Because Emily could read as a preschooler and generally was smarter than both Tom and I by the time she was 2, we had to come up with unusual code names for things if we wanted to keep them from her. We couldn't simply spell things out. So, our code was to switch the letters one or more letter forward in the alphabet. So, DQ is ER. And M&Ms are O&Os. Brilliant, aren't we?

And, as a I write this, I realize that there is another kind of DQ drama going on right now in the scrapping world. Dork that I am didn't even put that together with this title until I was writing this all out. But, let's not go there, shall we? Believe me when I tell you that I have enough drama in my life already!!!

Debbie does ...

oh wait, wrong story! Sorry!!

(*eta: you have to go read Wendy's post, too - it's hysterical. and, unfortunately, everything she says about me is totally true)

Okay, so the trip started off with me, by myself, in a rental car driving to Wendy's house as fast as I could go. Well, okay, not quite that fast. As fast as a little Chevy Malibu hatchback would take me.

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And then I picked up Wendy and we hightailed it towards Iowa. Why Iowa? Well, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is exactly halfway between Stef's house and mine and Wendy was on my way, so we let her tag along. ;) We totally had to stop at the Iowa sign over the Mississippi River and take shots of each other.

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And when we got to the hotel, we noticed something a bit unusual. The hotel had a fake front - like a Hollywood set, but not classy, well-designed or anything else Hollywoodish. Just a fake front. And the front of the hotel had signs for a Livery and Stables. Hmmm.... When we walked in, we noticed a sign for Kitty's Lounge. Wendy had the bright idea to ask the hotel manager why the Kitty's Lounge and the manager told us that the hotel was based on Gunsmoke. Oh. Well, so much for the Best Western we thought we had booked. Gunsmoke it was. And we didn't get any pictures of the hotel because it was raining. We had planned to do a big photo shoot, a la Tara Whitney style, but missed our chance. We did, however, get to take Stef to visit Starbucks for the first time. Yep - she was a Starbucks virgin.

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We planned the weekend to have no plan. Well, I did, anyway. Stef and Wendy are more spontaneous. :p Anyway, with no plans and no agenda, we ended up shopping all day Saturday. Whew - that was a big surprise, wasn't it? And, as good scrapbookers will do, we took our cameras into the dressing room. It started with Stef and Wendy choosing matching outfits.

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But, not wanting to be left out, I was easily talked into joining them.

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And, of course, matching shopping bags.

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And, other than that, the weekend was spent full of silliness, tears, and lots and lots of laughter. Wendy's big thrill was leaving "Whiskers" as our name at restaurants and hearing "Whiskers, Party of 3" over the intercom. We looked for Stef's hair a couple of times, compared bras and jeans, looked at boob scars, snarked a bit, had a few margaritas and some gin and tonics, compared how many times our husbands called us or didn't call us, and generally had the time of our lives. :)

Whiskers, Party of 3

The scene - Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The characters - 3 almost-40 something moms who ran away from home for a long weekend.

The reason - just to be together!

Things overheard during the trip include:

• "Whiskers, Party of 3. Your table is ready."
• "Where is my hair?"
• "You can't order spaghetti and meatballs!"
• "Kitty's Lounge"
• "How many times did the other husbands call?"
• "I won't try on a pink bra."

Those, and other stories, coming soon to a blog near you.

Stay tuned.

(The new laptop just arrived and has to be set up, but you don't want to miss these stories and photos.)

Comfort Zones

Comfort zones are so..........well..............comforting, aren't they?

I've spent much of the past 3-4 works working out of my comfort zone in many different areas and the stress is wearing on me. A new job, being home alone, trying to lose weight, retraining myself to have a schedule - it's all been new and some of it has been scary and it's all out of my comfort zone. And I'm managing, but there are days that I really struggle. Mondays, I've realized, used to be some of my favorite days. Now, I dread them because I'm home alone all day. I'm really trying to schedule in some time with friends during the week and that is definitely helping. And the trip to Cedar Rapids on Friday will really help. :)

Another issue that I'm dealing with (and I'd really love some help on this one) is what to do with my photography business. I've had some very happy clients from my photo shoots, but I've never advertised at all. And I've been very encouraged by everyone who wants me to continue the business, but I'm at the point that I need to advertise in some form or another. And that's way out of my comfort zone. And I'm not sure where to start. Along those lines, I was asked to participate in an art show and sale in a few weeks by showing some of my photographs. I turned the offer down. And then I was asked again and I couldn't find a way to gracefully turn down the offer, so I said yes. And now I'm in total panic mode. I wasn't allowed to choose my photos - they asked for certain ones even, so that's even more scary. And basically everyone I know from school and other community activities will be at this show - it feels as though I'm exposing my inner self to everyone. It's just killing me.

And, I have to get all these pictures framed and, usually, those decisions are really easy for me. But, I have a mental block right now. So, I need help. I'm thinking that I'm going to just use white mats and black frames like I do for all of my pictures that I put online. What do you think? Here's an example of one of the photos that will be shown.

Happy, happy days

Two totally fun weekends coming up!

• Tomorrow is World Card Making Day! For those of us in the paper crafting industry, it's a fun thing. Trust me! And Scrapsupply - one of the stores that I am honored to design for - is having a huge day - lots of awesome cards and even cooler prizes! So, come and play with us tomorrow!!
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• And next weekend, I'm going to Cedar Rapids, Iowa!!!!!!!!!! Why Cedar Rapids, you might be asking. Well, because it's half way between me and Stef. (See her #16 in her post where she lets Whiskers the cat out of the bag. ) We've been saying for months now that we needed to get together and Wendy and I have also been saying for a year now that we needed to do a roadtrip to see Stef, so a couple of weeks ago, a flurry of emails went back and forth and we all threw darts at a map to see what was in the middle and Cedar Rapids won. So, next friday, I will hit the road west, pick up Wendy somewhere along the way, and we will hightail it to Iowa where we will meet up with Stef and spend the weekend gabbing. I am so excited that I'm virtually speechless. I can't quite believe that we're really doing it, but we are!!!!!!!!

Other happenings.

The Great Computer Debacle of 2007 (as coined by Stef) should soon be over. But, I'm not going to whine in this post. Although I'm sorely tempted to because it's still going to be weeks before my new computer arrives, but I won't.

So, other happenings.

• Elizabeth got her hair cut. At first, she wanted to go really short like Emily did, but then common sense took hold of her and she opted for something more girly. Because not being able to have a girly hair style would totally have ruined her life. And mine, believe me. So, here's the grown-up version of the 1st grade Libby.

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• I found a way to digi scrap with a mouse on dh's computer. I know this may sound very, very strange to the rest of the digi scrapping world, but I can't use a mouse. It's true. And very weird, I realize. But, I've been using laptops for almost 10 years now and have only digi scrapped with a touchpad. And I'm darn fast at it, too. But, I've got some digi elements on my external hard drive, added photoshop to dh's computer and I'm up and running. Well, okay. Not really up and running, but I'm plodding along. Here's a teaser.

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• I've gone 4 days without any legal assignments and I'm loving it!!!! And now that I've said that out loud, I'm sure I'm jinxing myself.
• Halloween seems to come earlier and earlier every year and we have our costumes already. Emily is going to be a bride (although she's now regretting this costume and wants to be something scary - sorry, girlie - once the costume has been bought, it's a done deal), Elizabeth is going to be an American Idol contestant, and Andrew is going to be Spider Man. And I will spend the next 4 weeks putting on and taking off costumes and putting them back on and taking them back off and the kids will be sick of them by the time Halloween actually rolls around. Happens every time I let them get something early.
• We're going apple picking this weekend and I can't wait. We've been going every single year since Tom and I met and it's still one of my favorite things to do. (Not to mention that I'll burn through a 2gig card on my camera.)
• I'm planning a weekend trip for next weekend. Sooooooooo excited I can't even stand it!!! More about that later, I'm sure.
• I'm missing Maine something horrible right now. It's the season, I think.
• Tom had to rent a car this week and somehow he managed to get a burnt orange car. I don't know how he does it, but he always manages to find a way to relate everything and anything to the University of Texas. (UT colors are burnt orange and white) Needless to say, he's a little thrilled to be driving this car.
• I'm off to clean the house and try to feel as though I'm earning my keep around here. Have a great day!