They Lived Happily Ever After

How awesome is this picture? I LOVE it. This is my Grandma and Grandpa McCorry. Boy I miss them. They were such good grandparents. I am very excited about putting together a layout using this photo. I will be using supplies from Shabby Pink Designs and this will be sold as a kit. I am thinking it will include papers from Graphic 45 as well as some cool stuff from Prima and Jenni Bowlin among other things. I want this layout to document what awesome grandparents I had and how much they loved each other. They weren't all mushy with each other or anything, but I knew they loved each other deeply. I can remember grandma's shock and tears when she realized grandpa might not make it thru the night following a bad stroke. I remember Grandpa being in rehab following a previous stroke and that even though he was in the hospital and in a wheel chair, he made sure he got Grandma an Anniversary card. How awesome is that? I sure knew they loved me too and loved their family. I don't think there was anything they wouldn't have done for any one of us. So stay tuned for the layout itself. Hoping to get to work on it at least by Thursday. Might have something up by the weekend. We will see what time will allow.

Have you seen these cool bags? The are Lean Cuisine lunch bags and they are selling them here. I guess $5 from each bag goes to breast cancer research. Aren't the bags cute? If we weren't on a strict spending freeze I would have ordered one or three today! Ha. It would be hard deciding between the 3 designs because they all have pink! Ha. I think they are insulated too. Saw this on the Hungry Girl E-mail today as well as these...












I am in love with the hostess 100 cal packs. I think they are a dieters best friend... and now they are coming out with twinkies! Yum... I was disappointed it wasn't November yet so we couldn't pick some up tonight on grocery night! You can bet I will be watching for these.

Among things that are now fitting, I have a coat that I bought about 10-12 years ago that I was really looking forward to wearing again. It is like a baseball jacket with the sleeves being a dark green suede and then the jacket part is navy blue. Well it really needs to be cleaned from hanging in the closet for so long, plus there is like make up or something on the front of it. Since it has suede sleeves, we can't take it to just any old dry cleaner, it of course has to be someone that does suede/leather. Darrel took it in for me today only to find out that it will be at least $50 to clean. Um I think the coat cost $50 when we bought it!! I do not want to pay that amount to have it cleaned but really could get a lot more use out of the coat and don't want to wear it dirty either... So, any advice? I was wondering if I could spot clean the front maybe and use like suede cleaner like you would for shoes on the sleeves? I looked up the web site for that dryel stuff and it said its not for leather/suede.. Grrrr. Any ideas anyone??

Went walking today and discovered a great way to keep the stinking ipod earbuds in my ears... earmuffs over the earbuds!! Ha!! The wind was like icy today and I needed my artic 180 earmuffs to keep warm. I had on a sweatshirt, my sweatshirt jacket, pink fleece scarf and gloves and earmuffs. It was just about right. Although I have to say it was more comfortable walking in my old t-shirt and shorts. I think I should get extra walking points for the added weight of all the clothes! Ha. Ha. Ha. Not to mention wind resistance! Ha! Extra clothes, wind and all I got in 3.8 miles in 64 minutes and my mph was like 17:10!!

Did you see the cool stuff Ali E. has been posting on her blog lately? I love this Halloween mini book. I love the combo of the acrylic album and then all the different sizes of pages and ephemera in it. Same thing with her December Daily album. I would love, love to do this! I always have good intentions and then don't get it done before December and then can't keep up either! I just have to try this one more time this year.

There are a couple of DT calls out I am thinking of submitting for... I miss designing for The Scrapping Spot since my term expired. My LSS The Doodlebug is looking for a DT for next year. I'm thinking of applying for that. I think it would be awesome to work with them. The other one is for a kit club. I am trying to figure out how much I have time for and I want to do more designing for Lisa and Shabby Pink too so lots to consider.

I am off to bed. Blessings!

The Birthday Girl

So here is the beautiful birthday girl. This was her reaction to the monkey card I made for her. I was hoping she would like it.... looks like I scored huh? She was tickled! It was so cute and I am glad I got a picture at just the right moment. We had a nice day with my brother's family. Look at the cool birthday cake Stacy made for the girls.




















How cute is that? Lauryn's birthday is in July. However, they were on vacation then (I think) so we never got together to celebrate. So, Stacy made a birthday cake for both of them. Isn't this the cutest? She didn't even need a special pan. It was pretty yummy too. This picture was when both girls were trying to get the last candle to go out... It was NOT cooperating.














We almost had the perfect picture of the two of them blowing out the candles but the digi camera of course picked that moment to not cooperate. I think the batteries were low, and then with low light, it was taking forever to charge enough for the flash. Oh well, I am happy with what we got. Darrel shot this one. I was giving him a hard time about not zooming in... NOW before you are too hard on me... I was just picking on him - teasing wise. Why you ask? Well he is MR. Professional photographer. Seriously. He is good and has shot some weddings, etc. So there have been several times when I am shooting a picture and he is standing there going "are you zoomed in enough?" "do you want to turn the camera the other way?" UM, see? Wouldn't you take the opportunity to tease him in return? Ha. Ha. Ha. Love you honey.



















This was Lindsay's reaction to her Webkinz Monkey from Uncle Darrel and I. Another score I think. Thank you Lindsay's Mom for the good suggestion.
















Was not feeling the greatest this morning so I stayed home and rested. Later this afternoon when I was feeling better I put together this layout. I had purchased a kit a year ago from Kitpeas with this Scenic Route Salem Halloween line. I am normally not a Halloween kind of girl but I like scenic route and thought this was cute. I've been wanting to use it every since and was feeling in the holiday mood so I pulled these pics of Lauryn, Lindsay and Ethan getting ready for trick or treating back in 2004... OK who can believe how long ago that was? So I had some fun with my usual layering and mixed title kind of thing. I also made the little half pumpkin jack o lantern thing. I drew him on the patterned paper and then tore him out and inked him. This was a fun one. Next I am going to be working on the heritage/vintage kit for Shabby Pink Designs. Can't wait to get started on that. I think I am using a wedding picture of my Grandma and Grandpa.

OK, have you met Hoops and Yoyo? The little pink and green Hallmark creatures? They crack me up! I sent my sister Jen an E-card from them last week and we've been giggling about them every since. This T O D A Y one is the one we've been laughing over. Then today she sends me this one about movie night... I am still laughing over "its not a tumor..." because we joke about the way Arnold says that in Kindergarten cop allll the time. Houston we have a problem was pretty funny too... So now I have hoops and yoyo interactive desktop on my laptop.... You can check out their free downloads here. I know, I am 42 not 12 so why is this so entertaining to me?

So I didn't get to walk today because of not feeling great. I missed it and was feeling completely guilty for not going. I WILL GO tomorrow. I tend to stress and obsess when I have to miss. I DO NOT want to get off track and I refuse to give myself any room to do so. My Mom was just asking me last night what was different this time. I have a hard time answering that question because I am just not sure. However I can name several things that are different, and maybe that is the difference. OK, did that make any sense at all? Anyway, One of them is giving myself no room to take a day off. I refuse to say well I won't worry about what I eat today, it's my birthday.... or Christmas or something like that. (However I do not stick to "diet food." I have eaten normally, but changed portions and frequency. Yesterday I had birthday cake and ice cream, but I had the points to do it. I have done that since the beginning and have lost 53.8 lbs doing it that way.) I have always done that before and it was always the beginning of the end. Not doing that this time. I have also prayed continually that God will help me and give me the strength to do whatever it is I need to do to have victory in this. I think you have to be at the point where you are willing to do whatever it takes. The third thing I would say is my support and prayer group. It has been amazing having a group of people behind me, supporting me, praying for me and cheering me on. It was kind of amazing, yesterday after cake and presents, etc., I said "who wants to go for a walk?" and the whole family went for a walk. We did 2.7 miles as a group and when everyone stopped at the house, I kept going and Darrel went with me. I walked back up to town and then around the block a few times and stopped at 3.8 miles! woo hoo!!

Do you ever get so busy you quit doing the things you enjoy? I mean when your schedule is full of course the first things to go are things like reading or scrapbooking right? Thing is I was realizing Saturday and yesterday that when I do that, I am cutting the things that I might most need. I really enjoy reading. It relaxes me. Yesterday I picked up a book I've been reading (The Memory Keepers Daughter) even though I haven't picked it up in a while. Just 15-20 minutes to read and I was relaxed and enjoying myself. Scrapping or crocheting or something are the same way. I like have a need to create stuff... So I wonder when I think I am doing good or the right thing to cut those things when I have no time, am I really not helping myself? I am beginning to see and feel when I am most stressed and on time overload, I almost need that creating time or reading time more. I think I handle the stress and time stuff better then. Does that make any sense??? It's like I get into a project or a book and I'm like oh yeah, I forgot how much I love this... this is just what i needed. I'm probably just weird right?

Well I need to go make a grocery list. We do groceries every other Tuesday and always have a list. Things is I HATE making a list... yet I can't shop without one. Certainly can't shop without one when trying to stay on a budget.... so - off to make a list I go. You should see my list too. I have a sheet I made in Word that has all the grocery store categories/aisles in the order we come to them in the store so I can group all the things we need. I mean Super Walmart is a HUGE place and I HATE getting to the deli end and finding out I forgot something back in the shampoo aisle... So this helps eliminate that. Hope your week started out well. Blessings!!

Monkey Girl....

Tomorrow we are going to a birthday party for our niece Lindsay. This girl likes Monkeys. We got her a webkinz monkey for her gift. So today it occurs to me that I have a felt (fancy pants) monkey left over from a Scrapping Spot kit and that maybe it would make a cute card. Well I forgot I also had some of these cute Fancy Pants papers from the same kit, so viola! Here you have a cute monkey birthday card for a sweet girl! I used my white inkssentials pen to outline the monkey a bit so he would stand out a little better and I added on the googly eyes. All of the pat. papers are from the Fancy Pants About A Boy line. I just cut some strips and used my scallop circle punch to do a little layering cause you know I cannot keep myself from doing that! ha. The little tags on the Monkey's hand are making memories epoxy tags. This was fun, fun to make and I liked the square size! I used my create-a-lope set for the card and matching envelope. Fun, fun stuff. Hope she likes it.

Went walking today and I'll tell you what.. these days I do not know how to dress to go! Will I be too hot or too cold? Do I need a jacket? Scarf? Gloves? Plus do you know how confusing it is to be sweaty and cold at the same time? I swear I can't figure out if I want a hot or cool shower when I get home! Ha. Ha. ha.... Well yesterday my sister mentioned to me that walmart had fleece scarves and gloves on sale. I replied that I might have to check that out cause I probably need a pink one for walking! Ha. She replied that I should look cute when I'm walking since evidently I have such an audience these days! Ha. After that though I remembered that last year a friend had given me an old navy fleece pink scarf and gloves. When we walked last night, my neck was cold, and I wasn't so sure I didn't want some earmuffs too! Ha. So today I wore my pink scarf and gloves with my t-shirt and sweatshirt. It felt great for about the first 10 minutes, well ok, 5 minutes... and then I was already too hot. So I unwrapped my scarf and just let it hang loose and took off the gloves and then with my sweatshirt I was about right. So I guess I need layers like that at this point because when I was near the water I was wanting the scarf wrapped back around me! Ha.

Now... about the sweatshirt. Over 7-8 years ago, the owner of the company I worked for got all of his employees these very nice, insulated sweat shirt jackets. At the time I remember struggling with what size to order. I went with a smaller size because at the time I was trying to lose weight and figured it would fit... um wrong... of course it was too small and until now I have never gotten to wear it. My husband was enjoying it for quite a good little while until I asked him if he could please not wear it out before I got a chance to use it.... ha. ha. So here we are 7 years later and I wore it to walk in yesterday and today. It is nice and it is WARM. No wonder he liked it. Plus... it is a size smaller than I've worn in quite a while and it FITS!! yay!! I am realizing though that I have no idea what fits.. I am so used to wearing things big and loose so I can hide in them that now when something fits like its supposed to, I feel like its too small. However, I don't want to wear huge loose things anymore because I am realizing they just make me look bigger and I don't want to do that either. I want to be able to see the weight loss! Wouldn't you? I've worked HARD to get this far and will keep working hard and I want to see it and enjoy it. OK, did I just share all that? Yes, I guess I did. Smile.

NOW second problem I am having lately is being cold!!! I mean its October, not January and we haven't even been like in the 50's yet and I am cold! I am sitting her now in 2 shirts, my flannel pj pants, pink fluffy socks and fur lined slippers... One other time when I lost weight, and it wasn't near this amount, I remember being cold. Is that a weight loss thing? Do you get cold because you've got less insulation going on or something? ha!! Not a bad problem to have or anything just wondering how many layers and socks I'm going to need when winter hits! ha.

My walk today went great. I walked my regular route, except for adding a back part of the campground on my way back thru. I got in 3.56 miles in 1 hour and 1 minute! So coool!!! That means I walked all those hills in the better time now! I love it!! I was thinking while walking that instead of saying I'm going walking, I should more accurately say I going to go climb some hills! The walking is a breeze, it's all the hills that are the problem. I did it again today too... After adding on the back part, where you come out, I could go to the right back to the main road which was not a hill or I could go left back to the main road and it has 2 HUGE steep hills... I was tired, I was 2/3 of the way thru and still I went the way that made me climb the 2 hills...

With our current spending freeze, I have been just creating and adding to my wish list on scrapbook.com... It's kind of pretending to shop by placing it in my wish list cart! Ha. A girl can dream right? Some cool things I found and added today were the BG Chocolate chip chipboard albums here, The basic grey new lines like offbeat here, not to mention urban prairie and the others. I also love Ali E's new acrylic stamps, the Cosmo Cricket christmas line, a new glitz stickles set and all the new mm paperie journaling books. Love those.... Now, should some rich, long lost relative like to just get my whole wish list for me... you can have a peek at it here.

Well church will be here early in the AM so I am off to bed. Hope you are having a great weekend. Blessings!

This week

Is there anything better than a fall evening sitting around a campfire roasting a hot dog or a marshmallow? Especially if you are sitting out in the country in the Indiana hills smelling all the awesome fall smells with the perfect chill to the air? If there is, I can't think of it at the moment. Probably because I just returned home from such an evening. This past weekend Darrel's parents came for a visit and stayed with us from Friday thru Sunday. On Monday they headed to a town about an hour or so away from us where they used to live and where Darrel's Mom grew up. They've been staying with family there since Monday. They are headed home tomorrow, but tonight, there was a get together with all of Darrel's cousins for a traditional hot dog roast... OK, they call it a weiner roast but I have always hated that w word.... so I am going with hot dog OK? Yes, I know, I have issues. It was a nice evening. The food was good and the company was better. We had a nice visit and it brought back some good memories. The last time we got to attend one of these 2 of Darrel's sisters were also with us and his Auntie was still with us too. I remember that night so clearly. Sitting around the campfire, enjoying the heat from the fire, singing hymns together as Darrel's cousin played his guitar. I had Auntie on one side of me and Darrel's Mom on the other. I can close my eyes and hear her clear alto voice in my ear and remember how I was enjoying the harmony. I remember looking out over the hills and thinking I was making a memory. I was too. Darre's Auntie passed away not too long after that. It was like God was telling us that time was coming or something. wow. So, very thankful to have another family evening together and yet another good, good memory.

Here is another picture of Darrel with his cousin Jack and his wife Mabel and their son Mark. The hot dog roast was at Mark's house. He built us the perfect fire and they always host such a nice evening. We talked of getting together in the spring for a pig roast!














While Phyllis and Ray were with us, Darrel and his Dad worked on putting a puzzle together. It's kind of a family tradition For Darrel's family to do puzzles and play board games or cards when they get together so it was nice to see them enjoying a puzzle together. They almost completed this one and said it was HARD. It's still sitting on a small table across the room from me now waiting for the last handful of pieces to be put into place. The completed picture is a Norman Rockwell print, I think called "The Shiner." It's a cool picture.

Um, OK, so yes, you are right... I'm weird. I took a picture of my lunch. You can't trust us scrapbookers not to take a picture of anything. WHY did I take a picture of my lunch you ask? Because I *heart* chicken salad lately. When I was a kid I wouldn't have been caught eating chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad.. YUCK. I did not like mayonaise. Or at least I thought I didn't. Do your tastes change when you become an adult or do you just wise up and try the good things you've been missing out on? Ha!! Recently my friend Twila got me started on the Tyson Premium Chunk Chicken Salad Kit. It is yummy, only 6 points, and so easy to grab for lunch. Well this week I also made some chicken salad with just a regular can of the tyson chunk chicken and some light miracle whip. YUM. Very good and good on the Sara Lee Delightful bread which is only ONE point for TWO pieces... Yes, you read that right. Good stuff. I have also discovered it is quite yummy to scoop up your chicken salad with a baked lays potato chip... Try it!

So you knew you wouldn't get away without me talking about walking right? ha!! I was very limited on time today because I had to be ready to leave for the hot dog roast. So today I figured I'd just set out from home to save the time driving over to the park and back. I remembered that my nike+ had a feature where you can set it for a certain amount of time for your workout so today instead of just having it track my walk, I told it I wanted to walk for one hour. I figured this would help me to be gone from home exactly one hour which was all the time I had. Well the nike+ people have thought of everything. It is very cool. While you are walking the voice tells you that that it's been 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. up until 30 minutes. Then it said to me "you are half way." After that instead of saying how much time I had done, it started telling me 20 minutes left, 15 minutes left, etc. The last 5 minutes it tells you every minute how much time is left. Well I figured I wouldn't be able to get my distance in today since I was cutting my time a little short. (I've been doing 64-65 minutes to get 3.5 miles) However, I figured if I walked keeping my speed as good as I could, that at least I could cover as much distance as possible in the time I had. Now, here is one of those "who am I and what happened to the Deanna we all knew" moments. I can walk over to the park in 15 minutes. Once I got there I headed towards the campground area. When I was about there I thought well, I could just keep to the main road today and probably make it to the end and back in the time I have. If I go thru the campground, I have a couple of huge hills to climb. I thought well the main road would be easier. You'll never guess what happened next.... I thought "well I'm not interested in easier... I want the best workout I can get..." Me. I thought that. I seriously wanted that. I know, I'm stunned too.... So yep, you guessed right, I went thru the campground. It felt good too! Thank you Jesus. So got thru there, headed back towards the entrance and wanted to hit the gate with about 15 minutes left so I'd end up home right at the 60 min mark. Well I still had like 20 minutes left so I headed down towards the beach a bit. I was trying to figure out where to turn around and here again I thought well, I'll go to the top of the hill just where you hit the permanent camp spot section... UM I wanted to go to the top of the hill? I can remember when this started and I AVOIDED the hills so they wouldn't like Kill me dead... bwa ha ha ha ha!! As I was turning around at the top of the hill two older guys were sitting at their campsite and one said something like "only 100 laps to go" I smiled and laughed. Then he said "you're wearing me out just watching you...." That made me smile. So I got home and guess what? It was 59:59 and I had done.... 3.5 miles!!! I shaved a couple of minutes off my time!!! Woo hoo!! I never thought I'd get my full distance in the limited time. Yay me! Who knew I could love this so much huh?

I have had NO time to scrap lately or blog for that matter. Sorry so long between posts. I know when you follow someone's blog its disappointing sometimes to keep checking for new posts and finding nothing.. I'm still here!! Don't give up on me. I am hoping to have some new scrap stuff to share SOON. I will get a sneak peak up for you on the items I am using to design a new page kit for Shabby Pink Designs. It's going to be a vintage LO using items from Prima and Graphic 45. Very cool papers. I also have an idea in mind for a Halloween LO that I've been in the mood to do just for me. I've got some cool scenic route halloween stuff from last year that I never used. Hoping to finally have some time Saturday.

Hope you have a great Friday. Blessings!

The Famous Group Photo

This looks like a normal group shot right? Nice picture huh? Well you would have to know what came before it to understand. On Thursday my Mom, my sister Jen, Sis-in-law Stacy and niece Lauryn and I went to what is called Covered Bridge. It's a annual fall festival in southern IN that has all kinds of flea market, antique and craft vendors and all that yummy fair food. We try to go every year. Here is a shot of the covered bridge. Isn't it cool?













We walked, and walked and walked and walked... all day. Good point to that though is that you walk off all the food you eat! Ha. So at the end of the day as we were walking back to the car, I wondered aloud if any of us had long enough arms to hold out the camera and take a group shot of the 5 of us if we squished our heads together. I was pleased when everyone wanted to go ahead and try it. So here is what we came up with the first time.














OK, just one problem.... there are only 3-1/2 of us showing. For whatever reason, we found this hilarious. So we all squished together again, held the camera out and got this one....














HA!! Now we got Mom in but we lost most of Jen.. At this point we are like, well why don't we just use the timer on the camera. We figured we could set the camera on the hatchback of Stacy's car.. Here is what we came up with that time...















This has to be my FAVORITE. Can you find us at the bottom of the picture?!! That is my hand. About half way thru the timer count down we realized that the camera was pointed shall we say just a little too high?? So now Mom (I think) said why don't we ask that lady to take our picture.. That is how we came up with the first one I posted. Now that came out good, nice picture right? But did we stop there? Nope.. Why? I have no idea... I think we were having too much fun trying to cram all of our heads into the one shot. We were giggling like idiots by this point... So, OK, we do all the discussion, Mom's head needs to be this way, hold the camera higher this way, ok you guys squish down.... and here is the next one...













Were we happy with that one? NOPE... Some more discussion about who needed to move where... much more giggling and a few more shots.















Nope. Wrong again... where did the top of Jen's head go? Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.















OK, last try.... Everyone ready? Here we go...














OK, so part of my face is missing... no biggie. Can't see any extra chins that way! Ha. Even though we have some missing body parts in just about every shot... these have to be some of my favorite pictures ever. I love how much fun we were having. I love how we were all laughing and smiling and I think the pictures show what a good day it was.. Matter of fact Lauryn decided several times it was her "best day ever." She got to miss school, go shopping with the girls, and she even got to have steak for dinner at Ryan's. Too cute huh?














So I mentioned all the walking.. well prior years, the walking about killed me. Seriously. About 3-4 years ago, the first time I went with my family (I had gone with some girlfriends before that) by the end of the day I was exhausted and in pain. A few people wanted to hit one or two more booths, but we were headed for the car. I asked if I could go ahead that way and got the keys from Stacy. By the time I got to the parking lot I was in tears. Literally. I didn't feel like I would walk one more step and the car was still a ways away. My back hurt, my feet hurt, my hips hurt... oh my goodness I just wanted to lay down and die right there. I made it to the van and pulled myself together and never said anything to anyone. I was always embarrassed you know? Who wants to admit its that hard on them. In the years after that, I'd get tired and there is not like any place to sit down but I'd try to get a little ahead of the group and find a spot to rest till they caught up. Last year I remember being SO happy that everyone stopped to look at blankets and there was a big hay bale nearby and I got to sit while they looked. That was heaven. This year, I walked the whole place.. no problem. Just normal tiredness by the end of the day. Wow - it is quite a change for me.














Besides the walking, the place where we usually eat lunch (this pic is Mom & Lauryn at lunch this year) was another problem. This is because you have to walk down this big hill to get there and then up a hill to get back out. It is a steep ramp like incline. I used to HATE having to go down there because I knew I was going to have to get back up and it would be hard and I would be tired and out of breath and not able to keep up with everyone. Again I never mentioned it, just did the best I could. Well this year? I probably looked like I was showing off, but it wasn't about that. I RAN back up that hill and it didn't bother me one bit. I wanted to do like Rocky at the top and jump around with my arms in the air. It felt SO GOOD to be able to do something so easily that used to kill me.

So guess what I did today? Darrel's parents are with us visiting, but since I didn't get to walk yesterday and Thursday had been at Covered Bridge, I really wanted to get out and hit my regular route. I headed out and decided to walk over to the park today so I could get in a little extra time and mileage. It was cold! First day I needed long sleeves and gloves. I figured I'd warm up soon enough though. Well today it was feeling good I felt like I could just go and go and go... had my ipod going, had a favorite song playing (Mercy by Duffy) and thought to myself I could get a little sassy walking attitude going here... I was ready to start singing and dancing as I went... Bwa ha ha ha. Got to the park to find about 92 buses and 3 times as many people there. There was a big multi school cross country track thing going on. Now there was a time that would have turned me right back around. Today? Didn't care. I was walking and feeling good and I did not care or worry if everyone was looking at me. Just kept going. I went to the left and finished the first section of the park pretty quick and was still wanting to go so much I realized I could hardly keep up with myself! Ha. How funny is that? I headed to the right side of the park and walked my whole normal route too. Got down near the end where I turn around and um like the whole stinkin race caught up with me! Here come like 30+ runners and all these people running along with them and shouting and cheering... goodness.. that was a little weird. Anyway, did all that and then usually I'd get in my car and drive home. Today I had to walk home. Made it all the way home, still feeling good and having energy and not thinking to check my nike+ I headed in the house. Darrel came to see me at the door and I'm looking at my nike+ going oh man!! That stinks... he's like what... 2.9? I said NO. He said 3.9? I said No. He's like what then.. I had done 4.59 miles... 4.59.... so close to 5!!! FIVE. I did almost 5 and I wasn't even like exhausted... I wanted to go run around the back yard to get that last little bit in.. Ha!!! I did almost 5 miles in 78 minutes. NOT bad huh?

You know what else losing weight does? It made me not mind going to the DR. I had an appt. Friday for follow up on my thryoid and a sore knee. How fun was that.. no really. I did not even get into the exam room without 2 people telling me they had seen me walking. Then the DR walked in the door and looks at me and grins (and he is sooo nice anyway) and then like does this little peek at the chart and says "I thought you looked like you'd lost weight! I had to peek at the chart and see!" He was so kind and encouraging and said he was proud of me. Then he tells me I should be a motivational speaker! HA! Is he serious?! He said I'd be good cause I had a great personality for it and was doing so well... I told him well I give all the credit to God. I did tell him too that I had started an online support group. He still thinks my thyroid might not be at "theraputic" levels so they took blood (my favorite thing ever....NOT) and are checking my levels again. He also wanted to see how my choleterol, sugar, etc. had changed. First time I am looking forward to hearing those numbers.. Then we talked about my knee. He thinks it is fine and that the more I lose the better it will get. Did you know that for every 5 lbs you lose, you multiple that by 4 to 5 lbs and that is the amount of less pressure on your joints. So for 53 lbs lost so far (yes 53 yay me!!) he said that means there is 200 lbs less pressure on my knee. WOW.. Did everyone like know this but me? I wanted to say well then how did my knee like function at all then before... dang...



















Did you know its sweetest day? I remembered the other day but figured we'd just let it pass since we aren't spending right now. Well look what my husband gave me last night? I opened the box and I'm like "serious?!!" He's like why? I said how did you do that if we aren't spending... plus... I had just the day before looked at my bottle of Passion and realized it was almost empty and was sad because I'd have to wait for Christmas and hope to get some.. I had not mentioned this to him. He said he's had that bottle since last Christmas. He got it for me and then found out my Mom had bought me some too. He was going to return it and then decided he'd just hang on to it for another occasion. So he's had it all this time. I do not have that kind of patience. So glad he does though because it made this so fun!!! Yay for favorite favorite perfume!!

Wow guess I had a novel to write today.. you get me going on the whole walking/ww subject these days and I have just a little bit to say.... ha. ha. ha. Um that would be another change... Who am I again?

Have an awesome weekend. Blessings.

Yes, that is me....

Yes, that is me in the picture. This is my high school senior picture. I came across it the other day and just stared at it. I mean I wasn't very popular in high school. My whole school career actually. There were lots of kids and even teachers that were happy to make fun of me and tell me how fat and ugly they thought I was. They did a really good job of it too becasue they even had me convinced. You know what though? I saw this picture and looked at that girl and thought... well what was wrong with her? She doesn't look so huge to me. I'd be THRILLED to be that size now. She might even look pretty, happy, like someone I'd be friends with. Well I am friends with her now and I am not listening to all the negative stuff anymore. Can someone tell me why, why, why is the negative junk people say soooo easy to believe as truth and the good stuff, well, then I tell myself they were just being nice... Ridiculous isn't it? Does anyone else do that? Anyway, I didn't hate high school. I was a good student, liked art and band, was in the top 10% of my class, was in the gifted program and was even nominated for the National Honor Society. I didn't make that last one though. I was really disappointed about it too. But back to the picture. I decided I liked it and it went with some cardstock and a rub on I was wanting to use and so I decided to scrap it! I had painted the cardstock to go with that last layout I did of Darrel and his Mom. On that one though I had decided I liked the Kraft cardstock better. So I had this one, then I had the large gold Glitz designs rub on that I applied to the left side and I liked it with the white cardstock and it just came together from there. I am loving the Kaiser wood embellies lately. The scolls and butterfly are both Kaiser. I layered on a K & Co butterfly sticker.
















This past Sunday at church we had a "Faith In Action" Sunday. I guess a lot of churches across the country participated. The idea behind it is to not just go to church, but be the church. We can be the church by getting out into our community and serving and loving others. So that is what we did. We had about 200 people taking part in 20+ projects at homes in our town that needed help. There were paint crews, chain saw and weed eating crews, free lunch for the town, free health screening with bp checks and sugar checks, etc., we had a 2 hour gas buy down at the local gas station where we chipped in 10 cents a gallon for anyone who came in for gas. We also had a group there washing windshields, headlights, checking fluids, etc. Other crews were picking up trash along the road. I was on photography and walked the whole town about twice over. Darrel worked with his buddy Mike and they did small repairs. It was very , very cool and I am sooo glad we did it. Also part of the day was a blood drive with the Red Cross. I did not give blood. It takes 3-4 techs and sticking me about 6 times just for a blood test. Even once they get a vein, they can usually hardly get a whole vial. Darrel did give blood. He seemed to be doing fine afterwards until he mentioned he was dizzy. Next thing we knew he passed out. Oh my goodness.. not fun. Several ladies from church helped us and took very good care of us. He came around and laid down for a bit. He ended up having to lay down twice more before he got to feeling OK. 2 other men has similar troubles. Everyone was surprised it was the big ol guys having such problems. Once we finally got home Sunday he was OK and is doing OK now.

OK, tonight I got home later than normal. I didn't think I had time to walk because it was going to get dark. It has been a BUSY week and we have out of town company coming on Friday for the weekend. So I didn't want to miss because I know there will be other days I am going to have to miss. So I decide if I hurry, I can get in 1/2 hour at least. As I am heading down the driveway, it starts to just barely spit a little rain. Now, 6 mos ago, that would have been plenty to turn me right back around for the house. Not these days though. I kept going. I thought well if it gets worse I'll turn around. It kept sprinkling and I got 15 minutes away and turned around so I'd get home before dark. Well then it really started raining. The first half I was worried Darrel would get worried and come get me too soon. Well now I realize even though I am totally getting rained on, I am not minding it. I was actually enjoying it. The cool rain felt good and the sky looked cool and it was peaceful. Then it starts to rain harder... now my eye makeup which I hadn't taken time to take off is running into my eyes and starting to sting. Not fun.... Now I am pretty wet and worrying about my ipod. I take that off and stuff it in my shirt and keep walking. 5-6 cars passed me and I am wondering if they are thinking I am nuts... At this point I am expecting to see my husband but keep walking to get home. One car stops and asks if he can give me a ride. He was very nice, but I didn't feel comfortable getting in his truck so I said no thank you and told him I was almost home. Finally got home and was pretty soaked. I walked in the door and Darrel looks at me like open mouthed like why am I wet. He had been inside putting away groceries and hadn't realized it was raining that much. Since I left in a hurry I had forgotten my phone. Weird thing.... none of it really bothered me that much. That is how much I WANTED to walk. I enjoyed it. Other cool thing, I put in 1.7 miles, and my pace was 16:58 min per mile. I hardly noticed it. I was not sweating, I was not out of breath, it was like I had just gotten warmed up compared to the 3-3.5 miles I've been walking every day. Cool huh? I love it and I love love love the change in me. Thank you Jesus!

Picked up some cool goodies at Lisa's today for Shabby Pink Designs. I am going to design a heritage kit using some of the cool new Graphic 45 papers and some great new Prima stuff! Stay tuned for a sneak peek sometime soon! Blessings!!

The famous walking route

So today I ended up with a map of the place where I walk! Darrel walked with me afer work and today there happened to be someone at the gatehouse. Since the summer ended, there hasn't been someone there very often. I've been wondering when the park officially closes and if I will be able to get in after that so as we walked by the gatehouse, Darrel stopped and asked about it. The girl told him the park closes 10/31 and she didn't know if the gates would be closed or if you could come in after that. So she gave him this paper with a phone number to call and it also had a map of the park! Cool. It was interesting to me to see my walking route on a map. Looking at it, I'm like wow... that is pretty great. Especially, when I could see the points where I used to have to stop. So I thought I'd share. If you click on the photo of the map, it should come up bigger for you...assuming you are interested that is! Ha. I marked with a red pen where I walk. I always drive down to the beach parking lot and leave my car there. Then I walk up to the first permanent camping area and make the loop there. When I get back to the main road, I follow that up and around the gatehouse to the entrance to the main campground. I walk thru the campground as its marked and then back to the main road and out to the end of the park. When I get to the end, I turn around and head back the same way. Until today, most of the time on the way back, I'd just stay on the main road rather than back thru the campground area. But today... I was feeling energetic and decided to go back thru that area. It added a good little distance to the walk. Usually to get 3 miles in, I have to go back thru that first permanent camping area but today I didn't need to. We got back to the beach and walked that last tenth of a mile loop. I hit the nike+ to hear we were at 58 minutes and 3.3 miles... Well then of course I was like well I can't stop that close to an hour, so back around that last tenth 2 more times till I reached 60 minutes and 3.5 miles! yay me - I even managed to not collapse... !! It feels so good to make those longer distances. I've been realizing too that my legs actually feel GOOD climbing hills. When did that happen? When did I cross over to the dark side ? Bwa ha ha ha ha ha.... I also marked on the map an X on the road where the lake is on both sides of the road. When I first started walking this park, that was as far as I could go before turning around. When I increased my distance, I made it as far as the .9 dumpster where I have that marked. Then I increased to being able to walk the whole main road. Now I have added the walks thru the campground areas to increase the distance up to 3 miles and beyond. It is soooo cool to look back and see the progress.

After our walk we headed home and Darrel made us some patty melts for dinner. Yum. Haven't' had one of those in the longest time. Good thing I had little else to eat today because that sure racked up the points. It was yummy and worth it. Now Darrel is sitting next to me racing Crash Bandicoot.... you know, PS2. He loves video games. I don't mind them either so sometimes for date night we will play them together. We have always enjoyed the "Crash" games since he first got his PS1 and it came bundled with Crash Warped. I like that he likes to do things like go shopping with me which I enjoy and I like to play video games with him which he enjoys. It's fun to share each others interests and favorites.

I finished my leaf garland! It came out soooo cute. I love it! The only problem I had was what kind of adhesive to use. I always have the hardest time with felt. Wet adhesive wants to soak in and things like glue dots and runners don't want to stick to the fibers of the felt. I finally ended up using my xyron X. It worked pretty good as long as I managed to pick up the leaf without pulling all the adhesive off on my fingers. I should have asked Nora what she used! Ha. I will take a picture and post it tomorrow maybe. I might have a LO to share too if I get time to work on it. On the last LO I did with Darrel and his Mom, I had painted a second piece of cardstock because I wasn't sure if I wanted the kraft or a white background. I chose the kraft, but still liked how the white piece came out. I had bought a big 12" glitz designs rub on at the doodlebug crop and that just happened to end up laying with that piece of painted cardstock. I loved the look so then I wanted to do a LO with those 2 things together. So that is what I am working on now.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Have I Mentioned I Love Fall Stuff?

So yes, I did it! I got myself a bag of candy corn and a can of peanuts and got out my trusty spoon and mixed them together in my clear pumpkin jar!! I love it!! I don't care if I eat another bite. I could just sit here and look at it cause it makes me smile! I know.... I'm weird. By the way though, it does taste pretty yummy. You sure don't want/need much at once though cause it's rich! Candy corn must be pure sugar x2 I swear! Ha. Played with some Rhonna Farrer frames that I purchased a while back at 2 peas. Doesn't it make the photo look cool? I just may have to try that digi scrappin yet. Nah... then I couldn't play with my pretty pink scissors right? There is always hybrid scrapping!














OK - How Awesome is Nora Griffin? Remember me mentioning I was chosen for a gift on her blog? Well look what showed up in today's mail? She not only sent me lots of cool wool felt leaves, she sent the jute twine too!!! It's like a garland kit in a bag! Ha. I cannot wait to put it together. It is at the TOP of my to do list for tomorrow night. Thank you, thank you, thank you Nora. You are so sweet and I appreciated this soooo much.

In other random things from today....
My friend Lisa is launching her new web site for Shabby Pink Designs!! Please be sure to check it out here. Isn't it beautiful? I love it!! Check it out! There are even a few things I got to help with shown here. I am planning a trip to Lisa's one day this week to raid her stash for some goodies to come up with a vintage kit. How fun! Mom, don't you have a picture of Grandma & Grandpa from their wedding? I need a scan!

I am updating my ipod with a few podcasts from the church we used to attend in IL. We miss getting to hear our Pastor from there speak so how cool that I can hear him on the web now!! Check that out here.

Went for our walk today. Little ways into our route, Darrel asks if I want to take this other road we haven't tried before. I say sure. UM big mistake.... I think that road was one long, long continuous hill. I made it though!! yay me. Got in over 3 miles in about 52 minutes and I did not die! Ha. I was also noticing as we were walking that somewhere along the line I got to where I could actually speak and hold a conversation while walking 3 miles. Used to be I couldn't talk while walking my little 1/2 mile! Cool. Love to notice improvements like that.

I am happy to report there were NO snakes in my office today. And don't think that I wasn't checking. There were however about 40 million flies... We had a big fish fry on Sunday night. They fry the fish in the cookers outside and with all the in/out, the flies all manage to find their way in. I did my best to reduce the population with my trusty fly swatter.

Lesson learned... when it's been dry outside and your husband decides its time to mow.... SHUT THE WINDOWS.... I went walking to town yesterday and when I was coming back up the driveway I could see all the dry dirt billowing out behind the mower. Guess where else it ended up? Oh, covering just about every surface in the house. I swear I have mud on the counters.

Did you hear about Misty leaving Dancing With The Stars? Did you see the video of when she got hurt? OH my goodness!! I couldn't believe how loud the sound was when she tore her achilles tendon. OUCH. I felt so bad for her and sorry to see her go. She was getting good too.

Lauryn has another Cross Country meet tomorrow. I am praying the rain will hold off and I will get to go. I plan to walk over like last time and get my walking in too.

How come to do lists never seem to get shorter? They somehow only get longer. Seems like soon as we accomplish 1 or 2 things, 3 or 4 things slide into the slot that they left. We have spent allllll summer trying to get the porch furniture refinished and in case you haven't noticed its fall now. We still aren't done. Add any project like that to keeping up with mowing a couple acres and work and just regular housework and you can forget getting any remodeling done. Maybe this winter huh?

Noticing LOTS more color on the trees. I am soooo stinkin excited about that. Love, love, love fall color and am soooo excited about walking among the beautiful trees. I know, I'm weird. I think I already mentioned that.

Well I hope you have a good Monday and that you have a blessed week. I am in such a creating mood for some reason I hope to have some more layouts to share soon. Thanks for checking in!

SNAKE!

OK, we will get to the SNAKE in a minute. First, wanted to share a couple of new layouts. This first one may be a new favorite. I took this picture of Darrel & his Mom this past August when we went to celebrate her 80th birthday. LOVE this picture. I had some fun with some stuff I had from a Studio Calico kit and then some additions of my own. The papers are mainly October Afternoon. Love the vintage look. I also used some K & Co. Blue Awning flowers and a journal card. The "MOM" is new fabric thickers from American Crafts. I am also loving these new mini bingo cards from Jenni Bowlin. (as you can see because I used one on both layouts! ha!!) This was a fun LO for me because I just played with paint and inking and stitching and my alpha stamps, you name it. Really pleased with the results. Very much a me LO in my style. Now this next one was for fun!

When Lisa and I attended the Doodlebug Crop a few weeks ago, I picked up these papers on our late night shopping trip. They are the Cosmo Cricket Mr Campy Line. How cute are these? Love the retro look about them. At first I had no idea what I would use them for, but then it clicked! Walking pictures. I had just had Darrel take these pictures when I was walking at the campground... Walking... hiking... campground.. Perfect!!

OK - lets talk about the snake... So I am at church this morning. Got there at 8:30 and headed straight for the sanctuary because I was supposed to be in the sound booth for video tech. and I was running about 5 minutes late. Got done with that and headed back to my office (I work at our church as the Secretary). Opened my door, turned on the light, took 2 steps in and JUMPED and backed up... UMMMM There was a SNAKE in the floor. Be very impressed that I did NOT scream. At first I thought someone was messing with me like my boss or some kids and that maybe it was plastic. I mean why would there be a live snake in my office right? PLUS I hate practical jokes and so I was feeling self conscious. Darrel came walking up about that time and I said there was a snake in my office. He looked at me like I was NUTS... and then looked in and guess what... there was a snake in my office!!!!!! Have I mentioned that? He went in to check it out and I am saying "is it fake?" Rita, a lady from church had walked in with him to look (and um why was she not going the other way?) and she's like "um no, I see it doing its tongue - it's real!" There was a REAL snake IN MY OFFICE....and yes I am shouting. So Darrel grabbed a box lid and the garbage can and caught it. Then everyone that had come to see what was going on had to look at the snake in the garbage can. He took it outside and let it go in the corn field... Now I am thinking I would have liked to see it dealt with like Mamaw used to.. that involved the snakes head and a shovel! I mean what if he likes my office and comes back!!! And HOW did it get there? I spent the rest of the morning being completely grossed out and wanting to put my feet up on my chair... Thank goodness it wasn't like under my desk and UM HOW LONG has it been in my office? YIKES. It wasn't very big. Maybe 12"?? But I don't care!! Is there any such thing as a small enough or good snake to be in your office???? NOPE!!! Everytime I walked in that room since I am checking the floors and the corners. I asked Mark if he had done that to me... and he insisted that he might have done a plastic snake, but not a real one because he doesn't like them either.... YUCK... Let's pray I don't dream about snakes tonight. Did I mention YUCK?!!!

Went walking to town today just to go somewhere different. Got in 3.1 miles. It was HOT. What happened to fall again? I vote that once fall temps come, they stay! I am sooo done with hot for this year. Yesterday I walked at the campground and the nice lady that talked to me the day before was out in front of her camper. She offered me some water. Wasn't that nice? Then as I kept walking, they were still having their Halloween weekend thing so there were hayrides and kids trick or treating, etc. It was cool. One guy had a wheel barrel full of cold drinks and he offered me a drink too. I love when people are nice like that. How sweet. Still makes me smile.

Heading to bed for the start of the work week. Hope you have a good one! Blessings!!

She keeps going, and going, and going....

Last night I was still thinking about all the nice things the lady at Prides Creek said to me and was saying to Darrel it was funny how she had said "I see you out walking and I think there she goes again..." Ha! I told Darrel it made me sound like the energizer bunny..... and then I said well that's appropriate because after all, IT'S PINK! Bwa ha ha ha ! Now I'll be out walking today thinking of that and grinning and giggling to myself.... its a wonder people haven't started calling me the crazy walking lady.....

Do you read Nora Griffin's blog? I love reading her blog. She has the coolest scrapping style and I love, love her house and the cool way she has that decorated. I would love to go just look around at everything. A few nights ago she posted a picture of her mantle and this cute leaf garland she made. You can see it on this post. She offered to send the leaves to someone who commented. Well I love that garland and guess what? She picked me! Yay. That was a nice surprise last night. Can't wait to get these. I have e-mailed with Nora once or twice before and she has always been so sweet and kind. Thanks Nora!!

OK, have you seen these? These are the new Making Memories Paperie Journaling books. LOVE them. I mean love, love, love them. I have started a wish list for all the things I can't buy at the moment and these are right at the top. How did I miss these at CHA? I spotted these in an E-mail I received from Scrap Supply. They have the whole new MM line here. Great stuff!!

Another love is Cats Life Press Stamps. (yes, I know the picture is sideways.... it isn't when I look at it and then when I upload it turns it??? oh well. ) Do you have any? Have you heard of them? I first heard about them on Nora's blog and also Ali E's blog. I wanted to try them too so I ordered a couple. They are my fav. Great quality stamps and I love their images! Their newest images are here. I really like the vertical and horizontal calendars like this:




















(yes, again its sideways... .made you look! bwa ha ha ha !!) I also like the days of the week one. YES these are also at the top of my wish list. How cool would these be on a layout??

We did watch a movie last night. It was "No Reservations." We liked it. I was surprised actually at how much we liked it and that it was good. No sex, no language, just a good feel good kind of movie. I'd reccommend it. It was tooo funny when the little girl threw away the truffles. I do not blame her. YUCK.

Heading out to walk for a bit and then I think I will do some scrapping. Have a fabulous weekend! Blessings.

Cravings....

I used to think this sounded completely gross... I mean candy corn is SO sweet and why on earth would you want to eat it with peanuts? When I worked at Joliet Valves (when we lived in IL) the other girls in my department (accounting) seemed to love this stuff and they had a bowl full every year. They always used the red skin spanish peanuts which made it even more yuck to me. DO NOT like peanut skins... ugh... So, anyway, fast forward to the Doodlebug Crop. Someone had brought this for a snack and Lisa was eating it. She asked if I liked it. I told her I hadn't had it. Since the two of us are so much alike (well except for some food things) I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try. It was SO GOOD. The person that made it for the crop had mixed candy corns and dry roasted peanuts. Loved it. I just had a smidgen. Good thing.... um lets just say candy corn and peanuts have lots of points on their own so you sure don't need a cup full mixed together! Ha. I had no idea that it tastes like a salted nut roll or like a payday candybar! How come no one told me? OK, maybe I wasn't listening. So now... I am totally craving this stuff. I am going to have to make some. I keep saying make like you really have to cook something up... ha. ha. ha. Just need to pour two bags together don't I? Is there a certain ratio of nuts/corn you want? Is there like a pouring recipe out there somewhere? I have one of those clear glass pumpkin jars and I am thinking it would be totally cute full of this stuff! I might need to hit the grocery store still tonight. Good thing I can see one from my front window! Ha.

I forgot to share my award!! Look!!!! I not only won 1 exercise challenge in my lifetime.... I WON TWO!!! This totally needs to go in my blog sidebar. We are on round three now and I am ahead. Is that amazing or what? I mean if you are someone who has actually like MET me... would you think this was possible? I used to avoid the outsdoors, heat, sweating, like the plague... Now I go outdoors on purpose to get sweaty! Ha. How'd that happen? Used to be the ONLY way I got sweaty was if I walked outside on one of those 110% humidity days and that alone made you sweat. Now? I am like walking my buns off getting sweaty and wanting more! It feels SO GOOD. I used to get crabby if my husband parked too far away from the door at the mall.... and um walking in would achieve the sweatiness... Now I have been purposefully going to the ladies room at work that is farther away to get in a little extra walking. I know, I know, I am asking myself these days... who am I? Where did that other girl go?

So tonight is date night.. Since we are on a spending freeze, that means date night at home. First thing we did was head over to Pride's Creek for a walk. Well what a cool night to go. They are having this fall/halloween thing over there this weekend. They were doing a weiner roast, face painting, hay rides etc. plus like almost every camp spot was full and almost every spot was all decorated. Now I am not a big Halloween fan, but love fall decorations. It just felt sooo fall to walk thru and see all the lights and pumpkins and decorations. Tons of people had blow up stuff and mums, etc. plus its like the perfect temperature. I even varied my route a bit tonight to go more by the campers. It was a good walk and added a little distance. We got 3.3 miles in and walked about 56 minutes. I was feeling really good and eneregetic and felt like I was really moving. There are lots of spots at the camp ground that people keep like on a permanent basis. They have satelite dishes and decks built, plants in the ground etc. Those people are there fairly often and I am getting to know some of the faces. I have never really met anyone though. I am usually going at as high a speed as I can and am like totally anal about not stopping..... Well tonight, we were making a last loop thru this little camp area where its all permanent spot kind of campers. We walked by one way and this lady smiled and waved at us. We did the same. As we came around the other side of the loop she was walking back to her camper. She stopped us and said all these nice things to me. She's like "You are so motivating! I see you out here all the time and I'm like there she goes again. You are inspiring me to want to go. You look great!" I was so surprised to hear all that from a stranger. I mean to say I look great? Or that I am motivating? Wow. I told her thank you and that I was more surprised than anyone at how much I liked to walk and how good it felt. I told her that God had changed me. She was really sweet and we all introduced ourselves and she said maybe next time I'd see her walking. wow. God is so cool and I am so surprised at how far reaching what is happening to me has been. Thank you Lord. That was such a blessing this evening.

My sweet husband is in making us a homemade pizza and told me to go sit in my chair. Is he not the best? What a treat for date night. We might watch a movie as we enjoy our pizza. I think we have one sitting here from Blockbuster that we need to send back. Probably need to cancel that online thing too..we've enjoyed it, but just aren't watching them like we were and it would save some $$..

Hope you have an awesome weekend. Blessings.

Late Night Thoughts

About midnight, 65 degrees in the house, fall air coming in thru all the windows, sitting here in my soft fluffy pink robe, my pink slippers, my soft pink and red flannel PJ pants and my favorite T-shirt enjoying my first cup of Hot Chocolate (for the season) in my favorite pink cup.....


















Isn't the cup cool? My sister gave it to me. This is my fav. hot chocolate mix too. YUM. It's only 3.5 points for a cup too. Yay. I am so not a morning person and am a total night owl so this is a relaxing peaceful time of day for me when I can stay up a bit and enjoy it. Tomorrow is my day at home so I tend to be up a bit later on Wednesday nights. Was sitting here trying to figure out my to do list for tomorrow and decided I felt like a bit of blogging.

Didn't get to walk today. Had work for the day, home for dinner, then headed back to church for Bible Study and choir rehearsal. Doesn't leave any spare time. If I am planning on walking on future Wednesday's I will have to get my fanny out there in the morning. I am thinking I am going to have to switch to mornings anyway once the time changes because I think it will be dark at after work time. Been praying about that. Don't want to get off track.

I got an E-mail from Scrapbook.com a few minutes ago showing all the pink products they have for sale. Don't they know we are on a spending freeze at the moment? No fair sending e-mails full of pink scrapbook products! Did you know you can search their site by color? Cool! Here is the pink stuff. Did you know you can get the acrylic albums in pink? Look here. I need to add that to my wish list. I definitely want one of these zutter round it alls too! Nice of them to make it in pink. I noticed this planner too. Anyone have one of these? Is it any good? I am such a planner kind of a girl.

Was reading my friend Dawn's blog and she mentioned there was an IKEA store near her. I think she said 15 minutes away... I'm like wait! There is an IKEA near where I used to live now?? Cool!! I had no idea. I need to find out where so we can go there next time we go back north to visit. I used to live in IL near the Chicago area. We moved to Indiana 7 years ago. Was just checking IKEA's web site. She must be talking about the Bolingbrook location. Why did they build all the good stuff after I moved? I swear... the town we lived in used to have like a Wendy's and a grocery store. Now... there is our favorite pizza place, scrapbook store, chinese place a big chain grocery store, etc... See, they wait till I leave. Ha! Dawn and I used to work together. We had lost touch when we moved. She is a scrapper too and had had seen the link to my blog on scrap scene when they mentioned the crochted butterflies I did for The Scrapping Spot. That was how she found me! Small world huh? You should check out Dawn's blog. She has a cool scrapping space and just got some nice storage pieces from IKEA.

Somehow, this is like the only/best photo I ended up with of my Dad for his 65th birthday.



















I will have to have a talk with my husband since he was playing offical photographer! ha. At least this one turned out nice. It's funny we are singing to him and he is sitting there with a fork in his hand like he is ready to dive into that cake! Ha. That plan has my vote! I think everyone should get to have the cake pan and a fork on their birthday! Kidding. Here is a picture of Lauryn, Lindsay and Ethan singing their song and Mom & Dad's church Sunday night. They did an AWESOME job. How cute is little Ethan?















Here is a shot of Darrel and I doing our duet again. Really love singing with my husband. We need to start working on a new song for next time at our church.

I've been thinking some more about this weight loss stuff... How come when you need to lose weight people tend to treat you like "don't you know how big you are? why don't you do something about that.. how hard is it" Am I right? If you have weight issues I bet you have dealt with that. However, now that I have been losing weight people say things like "congratulations" and "I'm so proud of you" and "losing weight is such hard work, you are doing so great." Does that make sense to anyone? I mean usually the bad stuff like the first comments are from strangers and people who are trying to be mean. The nice things have been from people who love and care about me. I was just thinking wouldn't it be great if I could get the people now to change the thinking of the mean people? I'd like them to understand that of course we'd like to do something about it. It is NOT just that easy OK?! It's different for everyone and everyone has their own issues..... OK, stepping off the soap box.

Finally got my scrapping stuff unpacked. If I can manage to get my walking done, dinner cooking, laundry laundering, and my housework done early tomorrow, maybe I will have a little scrap time. I am thinking chicken and noodles for dinner. Sounds yummy. I really like having the one day a week at home to get housework, laundry, etc. done and at least the one good meal a week cooked for my husband. We also enjoy kind of a date night on Thursday evenings watching Survivor and CSI together. We love Survivor! Are you watching? Plus I guess tomorrow night on CSI we will find out what happens to Warrick. I think that is his name.

OK time for bed. Hope you are having a blessed week.