Scrapping Pink!!

So you know that I am lovin' the color Pink, right?

This weekend, my BFF Tracy walked the 3 Day for Breast Cancer. I am so PROUD of her... I can't wait to see pictures of the whole thing. Maybe she'll leave them on the card (hint! hint!!) so I can add a few to this layout I did for her this weekend:

It was a make-n-take from the Scrap Pink event at the Zone that Jill and I went to. We had sooo much fun scrapbooking all day for Breast Cancer! The original page was kind of similar to this one but well, if you ladies know me, you know that I can't have the same page as everyone else and the designed page was a little too simplistic for me. So, I took it back, added a bit more and viola! This page was completed... If Tracy couldn't scrap with me, I decided to scrapbook for Tracy!

My friend, Jill, is a newbie scrapbooker but she took to it like a pro... she completed over 10 layouts, even stitching on one. It was fun to work with her and help her get going. We definitely pulled her over to the power of the dark side (she's originally a card maker) with this scrap.

The ScrapPink event at the Zone was awesome. The goodie bag for Saturday had a $10 adhesive pack (good thing because I ran out of adhesive and the Zone was out of the refills for my favorite kind!), a pink bracelet, the Write Stuff journaling book (gave to Jill since I had it already and she didn't), and a 4 pack of Vellum writers. I LOVE VELLUM WRITERS!! Yippee!! There were 2 make-n-takes (the page and a card) as well as several raffles. I was hoping to win the big enchilada - a $275 crop weekend at a local scrapbook retreat but alas! It wasn't meant to be. Instead, I won one of the 4 runner-up prizes! It's this great messenger bag from New Balance, official shoe sponsor of the 3Day. It was full of great scrapbook stuff: kits from Bo Bunny & Adornit, a minibook for summer vacation, rubons, ribbon, a Scrapbook & Cards Magazine, a Fiskars alphabet, and chipboard. Fabulous!!

While I was at ScrapPink, I did a boatload of pages, at least for me. My goal was 8 and I almost got there - didn't finish the last one. Just ran out of time... Here are a few I did:

This first one is about Annde's first Spartan football game. She wasn't too interested in the game so she played with her kindergarten-on-the-go game kit the whole game. It was still fun for Steve, Dad, and I... I absolutely loved this paper but it was for a local HS team. (I covered up their name and logos with pictures. :) Annde wanted you to know she took most of the small pictures herself! (which is why Dad and Steve's heads are cut off...)

Here's my favorite one from the weekend. I used a new Stampin' Up paper kit and went wild and crazy with the doodling. This page documents my Superwoman complex. Isn't this page totally me? Originally it was titled Me @ 35 but Steve mentioned that I still have 3 months to go before I turn 35. Oops!! Must have been too much glue stick, eh?

Here's a page about Annde's need to get completely filthy every day. We thought it was bad at Lynne's, but man! We've had to throw out 2 shirts and a pair of socks this week because even after soaking them for hours in stain remover and washing them 3 times, we couldn't get them back to anywhere close to stain free or white. Sigh! I think the page is cool because it's totally bright and girly but my kid gets dirtier than the boys.

I'll post some of the other pages later this week.

While I was scrapping, Annde went to her first Cider mill with Dad this weekend. They had a blast and Dad took great pics for Mom to scrap. (I'll post some tomorrow...) He even picked up brochures. Haven't I trained him well? Unfortunately, donuts + junk food + cupcake batter from the ones they made after the Cider mill trip = Annde puking all night. No church or 3 Day closing ceremony on Sunday since Annde was sick all night. She didn't even wake up to throw up. I guess she really can sleep like the dead! We just hung out on Sunday and played...

PSHHHEEWWWWW... Well, off to work now. Check out the Pink Sketches blog for my layout about Fantasy Football and I'll check in here later. Have a great Monday!

A lot of Letters: SSS & the PTA

My sweet Secret Sister for Scrapdango (SSS) sent me a wonderful gift for September... Wow! What a tongue twister!! Say that 5 times fast. :) Here's a pic of what I received... I love the charms - I can't wait to distress them with chalk ink... In the package, she challenged me to scrap some 2 page layouts with the product. The colors are great for Fall so I will have to play with this package this weekend at the SCRAP PINK event at the Zone. I can't wait to go! My buddy Jill is coming with so I am sure we will have a blast!!

Last night, I went to the PTA meeting, fully intending to just keep my mouth shut and hand down. I ran into and sat with Annde's new friends parents. {Emerson is such a cutie - I think my daughter has a thing for blond haired, blue eyed little boys because Emerson looks a lot like Jeffrey! Fortunately for Annde, Emerson seems to really like her too.} Emerson's mom is co-chairing an activity in November (Creation Station - it's an arts & crafts fair for the kids) so I agreed to help when she asked.

I also somehow ended up as PTA Historian. I was talking to the President of the PTA when I was getting a pink shirt for Annde and she asked if I signed up to help on any of the activities. I said, yes but that I was going to try and take lots of pictures at the events because I was a scrapbooker and she asked me to be the Historian (on the Executive Board). She told me what the job involves - anything I want to do - and I said, Hey! I can do a scrapbook... How hard is it to scrap 2 pages (one for me and one for them) at the same time? I want to participate more with Annde's classroom but being a working mom, I just don't have the time to donate as some of the other moms. So this was the perfect spot for me. Plus, Annde got some free Stepanski clothes out of the deal! I can hear my hubby saying, "I thought you weren't going to spread yourself too thin...." but since I already scrapbook alot and there is only 1 or 2 activites per month, it won't be too hard to keep up.

Well, back to work... Have a great day everyone!

A long ... long... post

Wow... I am soooo behind in posting on my blog. Last week was crazy busy and this week is turning out the same. Tonight will be my first PTA meeting. My hubby warned me to "not overextend myself" ... ahahahaha! He knows me WAY TOO well! Don't worry, dear hubby, I'll keep my pen in the bag, at least for now.

This weekend is Tracy's 3-Day walk for Breast Cancer. I am sooo proud of her. She raised over $3200 and even though her foot is hurt, she's still going to do it. If you are in Detroit, don't forget to waive at the thousands of walkers and thank them for being BOLD!

I also picked up my Zone kit for September - it was full of fun Fall stuff! The papers were a little wild but you know me, no pattern is too out there! There was some awesome paper about Home and I realized that I haven't done a page for the album about our home?!?! Shocker, eh? I did a house book when we bought it to show everything we've changed but I never did a page about living here. 8 years is enough time, don't you think? Plus the cardstock stickers (lower right side of pic) are just awesome! The Zone is also doing the cutest mini-book class using this product line... check their blog (link on right side of my blog).

The only weird thing in my kit was the bucket. Yep, a paint bucket... At first, I was going to do a candy bucket for Halloween but I wouldn't get it back in time to use with Annde this year so I have to come up with another idea... Here (as promised a while ago) is the mini fishing book. It was my altered item for last month and has all these little sliding windows. It was a pain in the butt to get the pictures/paper to work but I love the results!
Here's the cover... It rained ALL weekend so this paper I found at the Zone worked so well!

It's blurry but here's the close up of the window on the cover... Annde got up SUPER early because she was so excited. This is the first page of the book and it shows the campsite and Kevin's trailer. They spent a lot of time in it once the rain started coming down. The 3 windows slide open to reveal the inside of the trailer (left side) and Kevin & Annde inside in the rain (right side)...Before the rain started coming down, Annde got to play around the campsite. Here was her enjoying a ice cream cone, playing with bubbles and in the playground, and annoying (playing) with Sam, Kevin's dog... The windows open up to reveal Sam chasing Annde and Annde getting stern with Sam since he wouldn't play catch with her.

The next page is about Annde playing in Lake Huron. The campsite is right on the beach and Annde had so much fun rolling around in the sand and then playing in the water before starting all over again. I love how the lower portion of the page turned out, using those little raised blue dots. You can't see it easily but I love this 3-D look in the book. The last set of pages is about smores (her first time), having to eat inside, and having donuts for breakfast (because they didn't require a fire to make).

Finally, the back cover shows the only picture of Steve from the weekend and explains that Mom was at a Scrapbook Retreat so it was just Annde, Kevin and Dad... I thought it was cool to document that this trip was a special trip for her and Dad...Here's some other pages I've done recently for different challenges...

Well, that's all for now... {Phew!} What a long post! I'll leave the Breast Cancer books I did for Susan for later this week. Have a great day, everyone!

Annde's First Day

Today, Annde started her new school, Stepanski Pre-Kindergarten School. She goes 4 afternoons to her actual class and "wraps around" in the morning in their child care program. She is super excited and had a great day, other than the whole eating thing. (explained later)

Here is dad explaining about a lunch box and showing her what was in it to eat... Mac -n-cheese, cheesy crackers, grapes, tortillas, and some oreos. She only ate about 1/2 of it... Here is her and Daddy posing for Mommy. Like the outfit? Annde picked it out, down to the socks!Annde and Mom, posing for the camera.


Here's Dad explaining about Milk Money... She actually bought milk for snack - which she used to dip her oreos in... That's so Daddy-like!!

Family shot... Can you tell Mom's holding the camera?

"I think I am ready to go!" Don't you just love the matching headband? Cutie Pie (the tiger) went with in the car but not inside. Annde was very sad about it but I think she understood why he needed to hang with Mom instead...



"Mom! Stop taking pictures!!" Annde coming down the stairs. I wanted a full picture of the outfit... she just didn't give me the smile to go with it...



Dad helping Annde put on her backpack at school. We were blessed that Steve got to stay home from DC this week and be there on her first day...

Here's Annde and Steve walking to her morning (Child Care) classroom. Aren't they just so cute together?
Annde barely waited for Mom to sign her in before she was off to play with the magnets. That's my girl! Go for the science stuff first!! :)
All in all, I would call it mostly successful. Annde had a "good time" at her afternoon class and her morning Child Care was "okay". She played with a little girl named Emily and somehow managed to soak her socks, but not her shoes... Hmmm.... She was still excited to go to class today, even if she "didn't learn anything new, Mom..." My little over-achiever!

Our only hiccup today involved food. This was a big deal for us because Lynne dealt with everything and now we have to provide or buy from the cafeteria. I decided to start with providing breakfast and lunch and buying the snack/milk. That would have worked well if she actually ate the breakfast. I walked in and the first words out of her mouth were: "Mom, they didn't let me eat breakfast!" Sure enough, her breakfast bag was still in her cubby. I asked and no one seemed to be able to tell me what happened. Then, on the way home, she told me she ate part of her lunch for snack with the milk. I asked her what the snack they gave her was (maybe she didn't like it) but she said that they didn't give her one. (They told her to get one out of her lunch.) Well, I paid for a snack and she's going to get that darn snack or I want my money back!


This morning, I had a talk with the main teacher. I had Annde sit down and eat first. The teacher said that yesterday she got so excited about playing that she didn't ask until it was too late to eat breakfast. I hated to be the bad guy on Day 2 but I let her know that I didn't approve. Annde needs to be told to eat, not to have to ask to do so. So, from now on, she's eating when she gets there and she's not waiting until the 8:30am "Let's eat together" because this way, I know she's eating her breakfast. Another parent agreed with me and put her kid at Annde's table to eat too. So, in the end, I hope this is solved. I did tell inform her teacher she was to get snack for the next 2 weeks since I paid for it (the teacher's excuse from yesterday was she didn't know Annde got snack... Isn't that why I have to turn in the schedule the month before (Sept was due mid-Aug) ... so they could inform the teachers? Apparently not!).

I can't wait to pick her up and see how today went!

I have some scrap stuff to post but I'll do that later... In the words of Annde, "Peace out!"

As I Mature...

I got this from Megan at Scrapdango (Thanks, sweetie!!) and it made me laugh at times and think at others... So, I figured I would share with each of you...

As I Mature
I've learned that you cannot make someone love you.
All you can do is stalk them & hope they panic and give in.
I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people are just a-holes.
I've learned that it takes years to build up trust
and it only takes suspicion, not proof, to destroy it.
I've learned that you can get by on charm for about 15 minutes.
After that, you'd better have a big willy or huge boobs.
I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to others -
they are more screwed up than you think.
I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless we are celebrities.
I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first,
the passion fades and there had better be a lot of patience to take its place!
I've learned that 99% of the time when something isn't working in your house,
one of your kids did it.
I've learned that the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon
and all the less important ones just fade away.

It's been a bad week at work ...

I'm having a bad week at work. Sigh! I just love quality/manufacturing issues and the insanity in which we have to deal with them. It's caused me a lot of frustration to deal with things so I have been scrapbooking like a demon to rid myself of all that negativity... Sometimes, it just crops back into my pages as sarcasm though.

Case in point: this page from last night. The pictures are really cute and Annde loved this gift. So, I wanted to scrapbook it. You see, Uncle Kevin gave Annde a 7-piece band set for her birthday, with a harmonica, castanets, tamborine, and all the other fun things that kids love to use to make noise (note, I didn't say music... I said noise). She absolutely loves it and continues to play with it every time she 'finds' it on the shelf. I had to do a page about it to remind myself later when Uncle Kevin has kids to get him back... Who said that scrapbooking is just preserving memories without a purpose! I love how it came out and Annde loves the gift. Isn't that all that matters?

I grabbed a sketch - this time from Scrapdango's Carrie - and created this page:

I used that great Scenic Route Liberty collection that I love so much. This is the 5th page I have done from it and still have some left over! I love how the page doesn't look exactly like the others ones (see my Pink Sketch for week 4, for example)... And, just because I love a challenge, and Carrie challenged us to make a card using the same sketch and materials, I made this birthday card...

I also had some product left over from my DT kit and decided to do this page about Parent Points - that's what Steve and I call our reminds about our parenting abilities. The thought behind parent points is to remind ourselves of the good when we encounter the bad. This page was done after Annde went to the dentist and was diagnosed with cavities...

I am very much looking forward to the weekend and hope your week is going better than mine... Enjoy!!

Ready for Preschool - the Search for the PERFECT backpack.

When I was in the Zone for the crop with Stacy - I saw this paper FLYING off the racks... It was soooo cute and they had each grade level, including paper, stickers, and 3-D stickers. Of course, I had to buy and scrap with it. So here it is! This is a page about getting Annde's first school supplies. I mixed in a note from her daycare teacher (hidden in the file folder) that says that Miss Jackie is 100% sure Annde will do amazingly in her Pre-school class. It was so sweet of Miss Jackie to write the note so I had to make sure to include it. And, while I wasn't going to scrap these pics, the fact that she found a pink and green (her 2 favorite colors) Little Pets (the last one in the store!!) backpack just cracks me up.

The Bee Saga continues... and other stuff...

So, last week, I wrote about the Wall of Bees. We won that round, with the help of an exterminator. I was pretty happy that they were gone and we could relax in our home again. Then, it started... that's right... They're back! Steve caught bees in the house twice this weekend. Once in the bathroom upstairs and once in the our bedroom. Hmm... I guess we didn't get rid of them and they are coming in from somewhere else.

So, Steve is off to call the exterminator again. Luckily we signed up for a year service instead of by the visit. We think they have managed to get into either the bathroom vent tube or the attic somehow. Sigh...

Funny thing though... The "bee" wasn't a bee! Annde sees it sitting - dead - on the window sill in our room (Dad went to get some bee spray) and says to me, "Mom! That's not a bee... that's a wasp! They like ripe fruit! They must be after the yummy plums in the fridgerator... Don't give them any cause they are for me. Dad said so!" Priceless, eh?

We also took Annde to her first college (Michigan State whooped up on Eastern Michigan) football game. Decked out in her new cheerleader outfit and a big white bow (her choice), we sat in the end zone area. Too bad Annde just wasn't interested. After 5 minutes, she asked for her "workin' book cards" (they are educational flash cards she can write on with a dry erase marker). She did them and colored in some small coloring books for the whole game. When Dad asked if she wanted to sit on his lap and watch the game (in the 3rd quarter) she said, "Nope, Dad, I'm still learning..." She's my little STUDENT athlete, eh?

The other funny thing is now, in addition to running in circles in the backyard, she puts objects in the way to play her "runnin' and jumpin' game". Guess she's going to be a hurdler, eh? :) Must be something in the genes...

Pink Sketches #4

So, here's the sketch for this week over at Pink Sketches:

This was a difficult sketch for me because Kelli specifically asked for 2 page layouts and I don't scrap 2 pagers very often. I'm talking about 1 - 2 per year. However, I had these pictures from Tracy, which were all larger in size. Perfect! They fit in the scheme very well... And I got to use some cool products from Scenic Route in the process.

I also made this journal cover for Tracy. We're doing some scrappy journals for the Have More Fun class Stacy Julian is teaching over at BPS...

I did a couple of other layouts too. I'll get them posted later on...

If You Grew Up on the Hill...

I found this group on FaceBook about Los Alamos and the list had me rolling on the floor laughing. It is TOO hilarious if you are from LA. So, for those of you from the Hill Top, here is the list so you can laugh your butt off too....

* Are still trying to forget Middle School because you had to be a Grey-tailed Hawk, not a Red-tailed Hawk
* Were a Topper - What the heck is a Hilltopper anyway? Bet you checked out his package, too!
* Sported green and gold (but never in Espanola because you didn't want to get kidnapped, gang-raped, and shot)
* Have never actually been to Espanola
* Fell in love with Espanola when you finally realized you could buy anything there...ANYTHING.
* Fell even deeper in love with Espanola when you discovered they have a Super Wal-Mart there--ahem, not that you would ever be caught dead in a Wal-Mart.
* Have to drive through Pojoaque, all the way to Santa Fe to get to a mall.
* Thought about putting a cow on the overpass because you heard cows can't walk down stairs
* Actually put a cow on the overpass
* Worked at the Hill Diner
* Worked at Sonic
* Stalled your car on Conoco Hill
* Know the "real" story behind the Peggy Sue Bridge
* Partied in the Concrete Caves (but just that one time)
* Tried to find the secret underground tunnels
* Instigated a fish massacre at Ashley Pond because, well, lets face it, the fish eat the bread and while you're not looking the ducks eat the fish
* Straddled the metal cast of Little Boy at the Bradbury Science Museum while trilling the song from 2001: A Space Odyssey
* Have a parent with an IQ higher than you and all of your siblings combined but they can't seem to operate the washing machine or the garage door opener
* Don't know where your parents work but know its somewhere in the mountain
* Can't tell your friends what your parents do for a living because you don't know
* Still can't tell your friends what your parents do for a living because you think you know what they do, but you know you shouldn't know
* Can't tell your friends what you do for a living because you'd have to kill them
* Knows what a Q is
* Know what a TA is
* Went to the Black Hole
* Picked a fight with Ed Grothus
* Laughed when Ed Grothus tried to mail the President of the United States a can of "Organic Plutonium"
* Ran off a small cliff to get away from Ed Grothus
* Know you're not supposed to play in Bayo or Acid Canyon but you don't know why
* Went to Bayo or Acid Canyon anyway and used a Geiger counter you got from Ed Grothus to measure the radioactivity of local plant life
* Ran away from Bayo Canyon after you found the cemented pipes and the plaque that says the site will be safe in 2216
* Are afraid to drink tap water
* Know at least 10 people at any given time who have cancer
* Still believe that no one in Los Alamos gets cancer because of the Labs
* Went swimming at the Blue Whale
* Remember the Sports Bag and the golfer's paradise green carpet inside.
* Tell science jokes to your hs/college/grad school professors and they don't get the punch line...ever.
* Are often startled by a loud bang rolling down from the mountain that rattles your eyeballs and windows, only to be told that its thunder when the sky is blue, or that its a snow plow in the middle of June, or (and this is the best one) its an airplane even though the airspace over LANL and the town site is closed.
* Have ever found the secret underground tunnels (ok, seriously, if this is you I wanna talk...secretly)
* Were hospitalized after you spent a day shivering in Hell's Hole because you only brought one flashlight and no spare batteries.
* Went Roller Skating at the United church on Friday nights... as long as the boys and girls didn't skate TOO close together
* Went cliff jumping in the Mountains
* Thought about how ironic it was to build a plutonium plant on the side of a volcano... that's still active.

Post another one if you know one...

Labor Day stories

A buddy on the Scrapdango blog, Sarah, did something really cool on her blog about Labor Day - specifically she wrote about her"labors" with her kids... So, I wrote down her questions and I thought how cool would it be to remind myself about Annde's birth. I challenge you to do this too!

How long was your labor?
According to me: about 15 hours (see next question)
According to the doctor: 3 hours & 40 minutes. (post water break)

How did you know you were in labor?
I was having consistant sharp pain every 5 minutes for about 6 hours before I went in (the 1st time) and my water broke (the 2nd time). I knew I was in labor because
1. It hurt
2. It was consistent just like the doula told me it would be
3. I felt pressure
When I went in the first time (after about 1 hour of consistantly 4-5 minute apart contractions), they told me that I was having Braxton Hicks because there was no way that I could play Cubis (solved all 30+ levels multiple times) and be in Labor. I told them that they didn't realize the level of my pain management. I was experiencing everything the doula told me to expect and they told me I was wrong. So, they sent me home. I had some broth, a shower, and went to lay down on the bed and my water broke - HAHAHAHA!! I WAS RIGHT! So, we packed up and back we went... As my BFF Tracy says, "A mom's intuition is usually right!"

Where did you deliver?
Next town over, Pontiac.

Drugs?
Hell, yeah! It took them 2 times to do it right though... The first shot was for a normal, average woman - not a 6'3" 200+ lbs woman. The booster got it right though... I went from 3 to 10 in about 10 minutes.

C-section?
Nope. Annde did the traditional thing. Guess I do have those "good birthing hips" that my college track coach (Vic the Weasel) told me I had...

Who delivered?
One of my OB's partners.... who barely arrived in time to catch Annde. Her head was already mostly out before she got there... They told me to stop pushing and keep my legs together until she could get there.
If any of you know Annde, you know how hard it is to:
1. Get her to stop doing anything she doesn't want to
2. Keep her from moving.

And I'm adding other interesting facts:
She was 7 lbs 3 oz, 20 1/2" long, and out in under 4 hours with one push. My little impatient, stubborn little girl... :)

It's gone to the bees...

Well, this month (or last 30 days) has been expensive for the household... Between the hole in the garage, the tree coming down, the drainage issue, the boat breaking, the truck breaking, and pre-paying for Preschool & wrap around care, we've managed to spend A LOT of money.

Now, we have a bee problem.

We put up a new roof and gutters this year, which didn't sit as low as the old gutter/roof combination. So, we have exposed fascia boards. We got new siding quoted but could justify the costs with us putting the house up next year for sale. Well, the bees like us now. Really like us... "as in want to live in the house with us" like us. They found a crack in the wall by the exposed fascia and moved in... literally. We have bees in the outside wall of our bedroom.

We've tried the "flooding" technique at night (which isn't wise, necessarily, because we have a 2 story house and if a bee flies out, in the dark, it would be hard to see where you are falling...) as well as 8 - yes 8! - cans of bee spray in the last 7 days with NO success. Today, the exterminator is coming. Hopefully, he can kill them... The sound in the walls is driving me nuts.

On a good note, yesterday was our Anniversary. We didn't do anything exciting for it but it was nice to relax together for the weekend. Steve bought me this beautiful mixed bouquet. We were going to go to the Tigers game together today (to celebrate) but between the bee guy coming, Annde's dentist appointment, and some work stuff, it isn't going to work out... bummer!Look at this cool journal I made! I am participating in Stacy's Have More Fun class and instead of creating another scrapbook for me about the 30 days of September, I decided to create a diary sort of journal and follow along somewhat with her daily topics (if they fit). I used the Coordinate Collections left overs from my August Veggie kit. That's "5" layouts and a card out of a $15 kit. Fabulous! I made one for Tracy too... I'll post that later in the week...


I also did another page last night - about buying Annde's first backpack. I still have to take the picture of the layout and then I'll get it up...

Have a great day, y'all!

I'm Little Miss Chatterbox today...

Hey y'all... Happy Post Labor Day...

We had a very relaxing and quiet weekend! We shipped the kid off to Grandma & Grandpa's so we could spend some quality time together with our anniversary coming up tomorrow. We ended up getting a lot done and doing some fun stuff.

Friday night, we went to Arts, Beats, and Eats downtown. We go every other year and this year was very disappointing. Other than seeing someone win a $1 million in a lottery job, there was a lack of good art work and the food was overpriced. After spending $30 to get a beer and an appetizer each, we left and went off to try the Irish Tavern in Waterford. It's this little bar that our friend Kevin's niece bartends at. It changed ownership a year or two ago and it looks nicer but we had never been inside. What a great place! For $20, we got big hamburgers w/ fries and a large draft. It was totally worth it... one of those little hole-in-the-wall joints that is a great find. If you are in our area, you should try it out!

Saturday, I spent all morning on my knees laying 2'x2' pavers to fix the rest of the side of the house (where our hole in the wall and drainage issue was). I got it done in a couple of hours but completely neglected to protect my knees. Now, they are bruised and sore... My hubby kept telling people I had carpet burns... He wishes!! AHAHAHA That night we watched UM lose (YEAH!), MSU lose (Boo... although they played a decent game...), and played Putt Putt. Yeah, putt putt! Tee Hee... We haven't done that since we were dating...

Sunday, we went and got the kidlet back... Little Miss Chatterbox kept our ears ringing until bed time!

Monday was also lots of fun. We took Annde school shopping and she got her backpack and lunch box. I can't believe how big she's getting!! We then took her to play putt putt (bored after 10 holes as well as hit her ball into the lake) and Steve took her on the gokarts. FUN!!! Then, we spent time at the beach (since the boat's dead) and ate dinner with the fun side neighbors (I love BBQ). I learned that my *new* backdoor neighbors like to smoke the wacky weed... I sat down next to Annde on the swing set and the smell was overwhelming. I'm going to have to watch that one and possibly say something to them if it happens again (like smoke in your own house or away from our fence, dude!)

I also got some cropping done. These pages were done with my Zone DT kit. (The colors are a little funky... Taking pics at night sometimes does that) I played around with them using the Pink sketches for the week and totally love what I came up with!! I just need to take a picture of the 3rd layout I did, retake the pic of one I did for Tracy, and take a bunch of pics of the really cute little mini fishing book...

This is a page about Annde leaving Miss Lynne's Daycare...
And this is a page summarizing the summer and how much fun we had!

On a totally "bummer" note - I have a product warning. Don't signup for AT&T home service (cable/phone/internet). We just got burned on this big time! They came to our door - as well as our neighbors - to sign us up. Steve thought it sounds good so he signed up for the 30 day trial. They did Tim's house first (fun neighbors) and it took them 3 days to put it in. Then they did Perry's (other side) and not only did it take them 15 hours to put it in, they did a HORRIBLE job running the lines - think white house with black cables wrapping around it and going in the middle of the front of the house! So, when they got to ours and told us that they would have to "cut our satellite cables to run theirs in it's place", Steve said no - we'll just take the internet & phone. Thank goodness he did! The internet was super slow and kept crashing the browser. We upgraded to the best service available and STILL had problems. So this weekend, he cancelled it (our 30 days aren't up for 7 more days). Today, they cut off our phone service. Okay, fine... we went back to Vonage where we have been for the last 3 years (with no issues, mind you). Only, AT&T won't give us back our phone number. They claim they now own it. We've had the same phone number through 2 apartments and 2 homes for the last 10 years and now we have to change it to have a house phone... or give in and pay $200!!! (to rejoin their service!) WHAT A BUNCH OF FREAKIN' CON ARTISTS! They have crappy service and they think we are going to give them more money? Are they smokin' the weed the neighbors are? Seriously!! So, we have a new number. If you need it, post a comment and I'll send it to you. I tried to catch everyone in my address book but I could have missed a few...

Well, Adios for now... Check ya later!