What's up blogging world?

I don't think I ever really have visitors here but it doesn't matter, I still update more so for myself (and maybe my kids to read later on in life).

It's been a while since I've posted anything. My life has gotten a heck of a lot busier than it use to. So much so that I don't even have the time (or determination) to scrapbook and we all know that's one of my biggest passions. But life has turned a nice sharp corner for my family. I've changed jobs and it's been for the better. Great company, close to home, more money...all that jazz. Noah starts Kindergarten in a few short weeks and life for us as we know it (or should I say as we knew it for the last 4 years or so) has drastically changed. I hope to post more often again, like when I remember I even have the darn thing.

In honor of such great changes happening in our life, I have searched for a cute site for blog backrounds and found www.thecutestblogontheblock.com and have added some dimension to my blog. It's a welcome change!

Altered ATG

An ATG is a huge gun like tape dispenser that holds TONS of adhesive on a huge roll. This is wonderous for a scrapper who gets tired of running out of teeny tiny adhesives while in the middle of a project. This gun is normally used by framers (for pictures), but has become a huge tool for scrapbookers. I was fortunate to receive one for Christmas from my mom, however the big thing is to try and alter it (make it your own style). It starts out looking like a regular tape dispenser in it's canary yellow state (see example below). I frequent the message boards at cricut.com and was seeing all the great ways some really crafty women were "altering" their guns. Well, monkey see, monkey do (see completed pics below)!

Original state:

Altered state (backside):



Altered state (front side):



I can finally say that I'm a crafter now and not just a scrapbooker :o)

Back to the Doctors again...

Just a quick update that I went back to the doctors office yesterday due to the fact that my throat is still bothering me. It still hurts to swallow and I began getting an earache that hurt like the dickens. Finally got them to prescribe antibiotics AGAIN. 2nd time in 3 wks. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it works and that it stays away for good this time. Thank you!

OUTTA my scrapping slump!!!! :o)

I'm just so excited that I'm out of my scrapping slump. I finally got the courage to just dive in and use PageMaps as a template for my LO. I'm SO happy I took the dive. I feel like I've finally got a great start to working on my wedding LO's...and we've been married 5.5 yrs, lol. I can't wait to continue using the sketches from PageMaps. It was definitely worth the time to print out every sketch they have to date on their website...that's going back to April of 2004, when I'm assuming the creator began the website. I'm going to make sure to link it to my blog, I feel it's that worthy.

Title is done with both Printing 101 & Teardrop. White portion of the flowers are from AE, then a blue prima and the brad was a silver brad that I tried melting and then embossing! It came out awesome. I used a white glitter embossing powder just hoping that it would come close enough to match the white glitter paper I used for the flower and I think it came out looking pretty much like the same white glitter color. White backround with the scallops was done with AE & a square from George (this is for those who are scrapping savvy and know what all this gibberish is about, lol).



Close up of the flower(s):



I had planned to continue on my crafting streak, but as we had a busy, non stop day clearing out clothes that no longer fit my children, laundry, a host of other house chores, then BBQ'ing and spending the day in the pool (we had to take advantage of our unusually hot April day), I'm SO pooped I think I'll just wait for tomorrow when I have more energy. It's not even 8:30pm here as I type this and I'm seriously considering going to bed...so off I go!

Update

It is NOT strep! Praise halleluia!!! However I still have pain when swallowing and I've been told it could possibly be a yeast infection from the recent antibiotics I took...Ok gross and I had NO clue you could get that any where other than in a woman's hoo hoo. I was also told to continuously take motrin, 800mg, for pain as needed. And boy have I been needing lots. Should have insisted on Rx for it, but either way it helps for bits at a time.

See my "Sick of being SICK!" post

Because I've got the freaking strep AGAIN! Exactly 2 weeks to the day that it started the last time it started again. I'm heading to the docs for some of that awesome antibiotics that helped me the last time. Except this time I know what it is and I can stop it from getting as bad as it was the last time. Oh and I got it again, most likely because it didn't dawn on me that I should probably throw away my toothbrush!!! Eh, it was my first time ever battleing strep so how the heck was I too know? Oh well...live and learn.

April Fools...

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS! Was planning of freaking out my husband in some way, but since he's feeling a bit sick now too I think I'll pass.

I'd love to read comments on any funny April Fools jokes you played on someone or that has been played on you.

Sick of being SICK!

I'm fed up with it! Since the end of Februaray I can't seem to shake being sick. I was sick with the flu at the beginning of March, thrown a couple prescriptions my way and told if I don't get better in a few days fill them and take as directed. I began to feel better a couple days later, so felt I should save my $30 in copays for something more important like, oh I don't know, scrapbook supplies :o)! All month long I'd been trying to coordinate a trip to Sea World with some friends. Our nephew, who works there, gave us some tickets back in December for a final end of season Hoorah! trip with Noah's soccer team. It was rained out that day, game was cancelled and we did Chuck E. Cheese instead. So here we were with free tickets and any chance to go before 3/31. I completely forgot about them until Feb (go figure). Then I was busy with other stuff that by the time I got a couple friends willing to join us it was already late March. So we choose the very last weekend of March (couldn't let those passes go to waste) and wouldn't you know that that very week before our excursion I start feeling a tickle in my throat that slowly progressed to pain when swallowing. I was determined to make the trek and enjoy a beautiful sunny San Diego day with our friend Shamu, so we went. Kids had a blast, tired them out galore, got some great pics of the kids playing with sea creatures and I began to feel worse. I was actually feeling pretty darn good until just before we left. By the time we got home I could barely swallow my saliva, it felt like shards of glass trickling down my throat. I forced myself to eat dinner (man I was hungry!) and I think that was the hardest time I've ever had eating chicken and mash potatoes! MASHED freaking POTATOES even hurt going down. I'd never felt this kind of pain in my life. I mean I've had sore throats before but nothing like this EVER (well that I can remember, lol). So I did some research and it sounded like I had streptococcus, aka strep throat. I was in such agonizing pain that I was ready to have my husband take me to urgent care when I remembered the prescription I was given at the beginning of the month. I knew it was for anitbiotics I just wasn't sure what they were for. I had the flu, a sore throat and some body aches, but I really thought it was stretching it that they would be good for strep. I dug through my car like a mad women, weeding through preschool papers and projects of Noah's, flinging them around but reminding myself I needed to get those in his "memory box", begging God to let me find that white piece of gold fast. It was tucked away in the console of my car! Subconciously, I must have "hidden" it away for the in case I need them (the last time). I run (as fast as a fluffy women like myself can, ha ha ha) back up the stairs to the house and over to the computer to begin my research. The antibiotics that was written was for azithromycin. By the end of my research I find that coincidentally, it's a perfect match for strep (doc must have thought I could have been coming down with it the last time but I never did). I beg my husband to go get it filled at Rite Aid immediately and I think God was looking down on me at that very moment. When Brian returned he says, "Good thing I got there when I did. They were just closing at 7". He left the house at just past 6:45! I'm now feeling much better, still a small bit of pain when swallowing, but NOTHING like it was this weekend. And here I was looking forward to visiting with a friend on Saturday for her daughter's 1st birthday party. Sadly, I don't think we're going to make it as even though I'm feeling better, I don't know what the contagious period is for strep and the last thing she needs is her or her 1 & almost 3 year old coming down with it because of me...Now I'm just praying my kids don't get it either :o(

Some "older" creations

Since I'm back up and running with my blog and I've changed around the name of it (use to be spotlessmommy.blogspot) to reflect more of my personal hobbies besides just my kids I thought it's only right if I shared some of my older creations. I know I have newer layouts that I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of, so I'll have to save that for another time. Right now I'll just stick to a few I have available on my work computer.

This is our family code of arms(one of my album starter pages):

This is one of my first LO's (layouts) I created all on my own with no help when I was still learning:

One of the 2 page LO's I did for my Bridal Shower:

Another 2 page LO from my bridal shower:

My very first 2 page LO ever done, which got me hooked on scrapbooking!


That's all I have the time to share for now since it's time to go home...Keep checking back as I promise that I will continue to update more often and with more creations for those who are as addicted to this hobby as I am!

"New" Blogger

So for a while now (let's say about a year, just to give me a better excuse as to why I haven't blogged since January of 2007!), I've been trying to get into my blogger account. I haven't had the greatest of luck because now it's set up through a google account, which I did not have. This entire time I've been trying to create a google account thru the blogger account and I kept getting errors saying my password was not strong enough or whatever. So I gave up! Plain and simple. Today I was reading a friends blog and thought how much I missed it here and would love to continue with my now year long absent blog, when it finally dawned on me to create an account directly from google and then get into my blog from there. Guess that worked because I'm finally in and back to updating...it's literally been a VERY long time since my last blog...over a year to be exact. At least I'm back in and will update more often now.

Oh yes and since my last entry, I've become scrapbook obsessed, so I'll be posting my "works of art" here from time to time. More so because I can't get into myspace anymore from work which is where I usually had posted my stuff...at least I can get in here to show the world why my house looks like a scrapbook store exploded inside it!

Update on house situation

I was going through my old posts and noticed I hadn't mentioned anything since last year. Well here's the deal. We decided NOT to sell and move. The last problem house was just that. It was still in the process of being built and the owners had it listed at $700,000...totally in our price range. When we put in our offer they came back with a counter of $750,000....totally not in our price range. They wanted MORE $$$$ than they actually had the house listed for which is against tons of different real estate laws. From my understanding, their real estate agent had no clue what she was doing as she should have listed this house as new construction. Anyway, we sat down and talked about what would make us happy to stay put and continue the long and grueling commute....so we decided to build a pool!!! It's being built at this moment and should be done in a few more weeks. Here's a pic of what it "should" look like when it's done!

Notes for memories

This story just HAD to be written down for posterity!

Last night I was getting undressed with the kids to get in the shower. Almost our daily ritual, so nothing new there. My birth control of choice at the moment is the OrthoEvra patch which I always wear on my hip area. Noah's seen it on me a gazillion times but for some reason last night he felt he had to comment on my "bandaid". The conversation went something like this:

Noah: "How come you have that big band-aid on your butt mommy?"
Me: "So that mommy won't have any more babies."
Noah: "You have to wear it so that you don't have anymore babies because you were hurt by babies?"

Not a very long conversation, but enough of one that I couldn't resist laughing my patch wearing ass off at the last question. I was laughing so hard I forgot to give him an answer but once we got in the shower all thoughts of the "band-aid" were washed down the drain along with his shampoo. I've always wondered how my child's mind works...I'm still pondering that question as I'm sure he's still pondering the question of why I have a big band-aid on my butt.

My little girl

I haven't posted in a while and that's just because life gets in the way...

My baby girl is growing too fast everyday. Yesterday we took her to get her first official haircut. We found this new little shop that opened up around the corner from my in-law's and thought we'd give them a try since it was actually a kids salon. I was really happy with the experience. Jenah sat in a little pink car "driving" it around while the girl trimmed her hair and did really well I must add! They cut a little curl off and then in a scrapbooking program from a laptop they created a personalized certificate, picture and all. They took Jen's picture, uploaded it to the program, printed out the certificate, took her curl and glued it to the certificate with a little pink bow. It was only $15 for the whole thing...and it's ready for a page in my scrapbook. The kids salon we took my son to at the time cost $15 for the cut and certificate and all I got was a photocopied handwritten certificate with a bunch of his hair in an envelope. I plan on taking his certificate/hair and doing something similar to the one we received yesterday...at least that'll be 2 pages in my scrapbook, lol!

I'm still learning about scrapbooking and have the concept down. I figured out what I want my book "theme" to be however, I have yet to start my book because, A. I need to find pictures to go with all the page ideas I have, 2. I need layout ideas and III. my kids/house duties occupy a lot of my free time when I'm not working, so it's just been hard to get it started. If you have any suggestions for layouts or different websites where I can find ideas send 'em my way. Maybe the more info I receive, the sooner I'll get motivated to actually start my album :o)

All I want for Christmas is my kids 2 front teeth

When Noah was 18 months old, he had only been walking for 3 months. At around 18 months is when he started to learn that he could "run". While our house was being remodeled, we were living with my parents, who's downstairs living area only consists of tile. One day, he was playing and began to run down the hall, tripped on his shoe and took a dive right into the tile. He chipped his left front tooth, but just enough that really only we could notice.

Fast forward to the future where this story brings you to 3 months ago. Noah was playing outside on a Sunday afternoon, just like any other day. Next thing I know, I've got a screaming 3 year old on my lap with blood gushing everywhere. He face planted right into the concrete. After we could get him to calm down and I could finally assess the damage, I noticed that same tooth he chipped 1.5 years earlier, was now pushed back just slightly behind his right front tooth. It wasn't loose and stayed in that same position for 2 weeks. At about this time is when I started to notice the tooth was discoloring. It was slowly turning a light purple color. I immediately took him to the dentist. He had a baby root canal performed and that then purple tooth has now turned brownish. Why the doc didn't bleach it after I asked him several times to, is beyond me, but that is where my baby boy is left...Brown.

Fast forward again, this time to the present. After arriving home from our 4 day cruise getaway (read last posting for more info), we decide to take a short nap before picking up the kids. As I enter my parents home (who was keeping the kids while on our trip) I see Jenavieve, my baby girl, give me a huge smile to show me how happy she is mommy and daddy are home. But wait...somethings missing from that beautiful smile of hers. What was it? I couldn't really put my finger on it until I picked her up and got a closer look. A chunk of her right front tooth is missing! I give my mom the "What the f*^# happened to my baby?" look and she slowly proceeds to tell us the story. She was getting ready to give the kids a bath and they were both already in the tub playing quietly while she sat and watched them. All of a sudden, Noah decides he wants to play rough with her and takes his belly and knocks her down (as he's done many times in the past), however this time she falls face first (usually it's butt first) and smacks right into the side of the tub, knocking out a chunk of her front tooth. We have her very first dental appointment scheduled for Friday...an event that is sure to make it into her baby book!

So Santa, this Christmas, I don't want nice clothes, jewelry or cool electronics. I just want my babies two front teeth to look exactly how they grew in. To have the cute baby smiles they had, before those awful adult teeth make their way through their gums and give them the ugly "inbetween phase" smiles...

Cruising

My husband and I just got back from a 4 day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico. We'd never cruised before and wanted to test the waters, so to speak. We had a blast and I'm very happy we decided to try a short cruise before committing ourselves to a week long (or possibly longer) cruise. I don't get sea sick so that wasn't really an issue. As huge as those cruise ships are, they really aren't all that big inside. Well they are, but really, there aren't many places you can escape to. We were out to sea all day on one of the days and I quickly began to feel the effects of what is called "cabin fever". You only have so many places you can go, ie. one of several lounges, one of several bars, the outer decks with several bars, one of several restaurants or the casino. See a theme here? We quickly realized that unless you like to drink and party, a cruise may not be for you. However if you do like to eat (as any American does), you'll love cruising. I must have gained at least 10 lbs. in the 4 short days we were on board. If you're not drinking it up with the best of 'em, I guarantee you'll be eating it up with the best of 'em.

Prior to our recent trip my husband and I had discussed taking a Disney cruise with our kids once our daughter turns 3 (she's only 17 months now). With kids you have to plan everything early, no matter what anyone tells you. We were very interested in taking a week long cruise, but with our recent experience, I just don't believe I can be on board a ship for that long with my kids. Not only would the effects of cabin fever take over, but knowing my kids, I know they would feel it too. In our case, though we absolutely loved our cruise, I just don't think I could handle being "trapped" for an entire week on board a cruise ship...well...at least not until the kids are much, much older and able to entertain themselves!

Update:

Our house is still up for sale, however, we're not trying to buy the same house. Confused yet?

We did put an offer in for the house we wanted, but luck was on our side and the owners decided to pull it off the market. Why do I say luck? Because that's just what it was. Though I loved the orginial house we wanted to purchase, my husband did not. He liked it, he just didn't love it like I did. We did however find a house we both loved! It's a little further away from my mom's house; in no way within walking distance like the other. The catcher...it isn't completely done. It's still being built. It's a 5br 3 ba like the other, but we have the feeling no one's been interested in it because, well honestly, it's on a pretty crappy lot. It has no backyard and some drainage issues. The person who designed the house for that lot was/is definitely an amateur and didn't know what they were doing. It's not anything that can't be fixed and hopefully we'll get it resolved before we actually "buy" it. Ohh, how this house is gorgeous problems and all. Now, if we could only sell ours for the amount of money we actually need to get, in order to buy the other.

Anyone want to buy a beautifully remodeled home for no less than $880,000? With the way the market is right now, it looks as if we may be staying put for a while...

Possible move

We weren't even really thinking about moving (ok maybe just every once in a while) from our brand new, beautifully remodeled in 2005, 3 BR 2 BA home. But after Jenah was born, we've occasionally looked at larger homes. I can see my kids growing up in our current home, but honestly, I also see them out growing it too. When we remodeled, we never even thought about storage space, so needless to say, we really don't have any. Lots of our junk is either at my mother's or my mother-in-laws house, because we just DON'T have room for it. It's in a great part of San Diego (Point Loma to be exact). We are minutes from the beach (yet we aren't beach people at all) and just in a prime location to say the least. BUT (and it's a big but), I just can't see us living in it for much longer. We spend WAY to much on gas every week driving back and forth to drop off the kids at day care (a.k.a, my mom), which is a 20-25 min drive. Then I make my way across town to work - another 25-30 min drive. My husband drives 20 mins to pick them up after work since he gets off earlier than I do (in the opposite direction of our home no less) to just turn around 10 mins later and drive home another 20-25 mins. Yah see our weekly pattern? I don't think it helps that we are constantly back up in that area on the weekends either.

Well there is this house up for sale...practically across the street from my mom's, literally around the corner from my brother & sister-in-law's homes. It's a VERY affordable price, especially for that area of town (Mt. Helix to be exact) and was completely built brand spanking new in 2004. We took a tour of it last night...IT WAS GORGEOUS. The pictures online didn't do it justice. All the bedrooms are HUGE! It's a 5 BR 3 BA home on double the lot size we are on now. It has a few minor changes I would make to it, but nothing drastic. Plenty of potential and OH so much storage space. 2 car garage that would actually fit both our cars. Ours now only fits my car and it's only a one car garage. There are just so MANY pros to it, yet there are a few cons. Mainly I will miss my custom built shower with seat and shower head system (4 shower heads in all). It's the house that we built for ourselves and for our children to grow up in. It was our kids first homes...they both came home from the hospital to this home. It has a lot of memories for us, but really that's it. It's just memories that will ALWAYS be there. And I would be bettering my children's lives. Bigger yard, great schools, close to almost all our family...where now it's really just us. I would definitely miss it, there is NO doubt about that. The problem is seeing if we can financially afford it. We'd have to put our house on the market and place an offer contingent on the sale of ours. We'd have to make sure we could actually GET a decent amount of money for ours so in turn we have enough to put down on this house. Oh the stumper...this new house doesn't have any type of fenced yard, so that would be something we'd HAVE to do...It's a tough decision but hopefully, depending on what happens, it ends up being the right decision.

Sing a song

What is it about a 3 year old that makes my heart melt? Lately, it's been his singing! Now is the age when kids begin to learn more things than just talking and playing. They learn to sing. Recently Noah has begun singing a few ditty's that I find so irrisistable. As of now, he knows the Itsy Bitsy Spider and the easier Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If I dare sing along with him, he'll get upset and tell me, "No mommy! I can do it myself". With Itsy bitsy spider, he always forgets the part that goes, "down came the rain and washed the spider out". Noah's version: The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout, out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider went up the [water] spout again! I've tried several times to explain to him that he's missing an important part of the song, but he's so hard headed (he's definitely his fathers son!) he just shoos me off and continues to sing his version. I keep promising myself to try (key word here) to catch it on video, but Noah can be shy enough, that if I do get the camera out of it's hiding place, he'll stop dead in his tracks and give me that 'I won't do it now, because I know you want me to' stare. Ya wanna know another awing moment of it all for me? His little sister swaying her hips and head to the music! Kids...Ya gotta love 'em!

Priceless moment in time

I've been meaning to write this since the other day and just haven't gotten around to it...

So, Jenavieve has become totally fascinated with books. I found a bunch in Noah's room that I had bought for him when he was her age. He never really cared for them. Jenavieve on the other hand, has finally made it worth all the money we spent on them. Right now she has 2 favorites, one which is a Sesame Street peekaboo book. Each page has a character with flaps for hands hiding their face and when you say peekaboo you pull them down to reveal their face...this was her first favorite and since has managed to yank (more like rip) out a few hands during reading time. The next is an animals book that shows the baby animal and then on the following page it shows them doing something, such as sleeping, playing or what ever. The first page has kittens on it...she LOVES kitties. I unfortunately learned that this page was her favorite a week ago when I was sitting on the toilet and was basically forced to read it (more or less show it) from my current location. In the end it really wasn't that bad because I was left with a memory that no video camera would ever capture. I was reading her each page and every time I'd go back to the kitty page, she would throw back her head, close her eyes and give the cutest little squealing laugh...to me it was just a priceless moment in time that only I will remember for as long as my brain will allow it!

We are paci-less!!!!

Last night was the first night in over a week that Noah asked for a shoosha (paci or pacifier for those who may be a little challenged ;-)). I told him that the shoosha fairy took it to give to the "new" babies being born and he then proceeded to explain to ME how she came and got them. He started his story off by saying, "She came in my room when I was sleeping and took the shoosha from under my pillow to give to other babies being born". Now mind you, that sentence took longer for him to say than it took me to type because he seems to repeat words almost like stuttering but not...You'd have to MEET Noah to really KNOW what I mean. So a 30 second sentence took about 5 minutes, since he felt compelled to tell his story of the shoosha fairy to me 2 more times and once more to his dad before it was time for bed. After all that he forgot he'd even asked for one and ONCE AGAIN went to bed shoosha-less without a fight!!!!