just miss kim

bummer, dude

This time next week, I was going to be in Branson with my mom. The performer we were going to see, however, had to change his schedule and now he's not going to be there. So we decided not to go on the trip this fall. Maybe next Spring, when my mom has a new knee and we can really let our hair down and have fun.

So I'm a bit bummed about that one. But I probably needed to stay here anyway. It's Dan's birthday and I was feeling all kinds of guilt about being gone. Not enough that I didn't want to go, but still, it was guilt. And fear that he'd buy a flatscreen TV while I was gone. :P

Just a short post tonight, but I do have a fun CT call for you. I adore Melanie, and love that her CT board is one place where I feel safe in chatting and sharing my life. Her templates are fabulous, and break me out of my box, which I sometimes badly need.

kassidy freebie

Here's a couple I did this weekend with this template:
And a template preview:

You can download it here. Scrap those stories!

P.S. The top layout uses stuff from [ksharonkdesigns] and the bottom one uses Dani Mogstad.

what to do

I really watch very little TV. Especially when compared to my husband.

• CSI -- all three versions
• Top Chef
• Ace of Cakes
• Ghost Hunters
• The Biggest Loser

That's it.

My dilemma is that 2 of these shows are on at the same time tonight. I can only watch 1. I'll have to DVR the other 1. Top Chef is down to 4, the first part of the finale is tonight. Season premiere of CSI New York. How will I decide?

I think CSI is probably going to win. I've been without it the longest, and I'm really jonesing for a good CSI fix. As an added bonus, that guy that plays Danny (Carmine something) is flipping hot. Top Chef is sort of lacking in the eye candy department. So I think that CSI wins.

Now to make sure the other shows record (Ghost Hunters is on 3 times tonight, too, including the season premiere). Dan is not going to be happy because I'll be backing up my DVR with his DVR. He'll survive. He hates when I record stuff on "his" DVR, which is why I got a 2nd DVR. I have issues with having to get my meager list of shows approved by him when he's got something like 60 shows on his season pass. Give me a break.

Eye candy this week is David Duchovny. Emmy suggested him, and I used to really like X-Files. My favorite episode was "Small Potatoes." How's that for a good memory? He's aging well, isn't he?

some Disney layouts

These are some that I did this weekend for the Shutterfly album that I hope to finish before next year's vacation. :)  Most of the stuff on these comes from Mary Fran's shop and the template (which I used for a different layout Saturday and then decided to use for all 5 of these layouts Sunday) is by Jen Caputo. A brief glimpse of our faves:

btw, Dan really hates the main photo of him. I really like it. Since I'm the one scrapping, I use it a lot. I don't care about his pooch belly, I care about the excitement on his face. I'll post a photo of me in a swimsuit sometime just so we're even.

p.s. Expect to see me in a swimsuit on this blog about the time that the Chiefs win the Super Bowl.

figured out how to annoy my kids

Don't do anything all weekend. We've been so busy the last few months that my kids don't know what to do when I say that I just want to stay home all weekend.

Except pout, whine and otherwise beg to go do something.

I plugged in my ipod, turned it up loud, and scrapped for hours on Saturday.

Hey, it's not like my kids are neglected. They've been to Branson, the State Fair, and met the Gramps for breakfast (and got a new computer) the last few weekends. They're spoiled rotten. Sitting at home for a weekend did not kill them.

And it sure helped their mom. Ah, the joy to be found in creating layouts and listening to music. Forgetting about work, about budgets, about the house that needs to be cleaned. Just losing myself in my own world.

Of course, forgetting that I was wearing an iPod and singing along out loud... apparently not cool. I was driving Dan crazy.

I guess honey doesn't like my singing. He has a tin ear though. He kept saying I was off key.

Ha.

And now for a few of the layouts I scrapped in the last 48 hours:

for my mommy

It's a little long, but it's good quality video. 2 weeks!

2 page template freebie

Decide to do something different and give out a 2 pager this week. Here's my one and only sample:
I created this layout about 18 months ago. I heard Travis Tritt's song "It's a Great Day to Be Alive" one day on the way to work, and I thought to myself what a great layout that would make. Little did I know that the very same day, I'd be told that one of my students had suddenly passed away. By the time I did this layout, the casual idea I had one morning on my way to work had become so much more important to me. So there's my public service announcement to treasure every moment you have with any child in your life. Life is too precious to let it slip past.

I hope that you'll take this template and scrap a special child or children in your life. Do it before the memories fade. You won't regret it, even if your dishes do go unwashed a little longer.

You can download the template here . I used a kit by Heather Ann for the layout. And if you do a layout using the template, I'd love to see it. Drop me an email or a link. Nothing I love more than seeing my templates in use!

Oh, and just so this post isn't totally depressing... the story behind the template name. We have a student in pre-K who insists that one of my paras is named "Miss Pinkie." He gets all excited when he sees her, and now half the class is calling her "Miss Pinkie." It's not her name (not even close), but it makes me laugh. So I named this template in honor of Miss Pinkie and all she's done to make this year one that's not without a few smiles.

At Cindy's request, here's Vince Vaughn, barefoot, for your eye candy pleasure. Emmy suggested Colin Firth, but I had no idea who he was. Sorry. I'll put up her other suggestion next week. Cuz I do know who he is.

So my son is serving his first detention ever today. Not sure whether to punish him for getting a detention or slap him on the back and tell him I'm proud of him for finally breaking out of his shell and having some fun. When I got the voice mail that he had detention last Friday, I thought it was a joke. I called Dan to tell him and he said, "Are we talking about our son, Brady?"

Like I'd call him about someone else's son.

I'd tell some more stories, but work is a bit bumpy and by the time I get home from work, I'm drained. Takes everything I've got to get dinner on the table, spend some time with the kids and stumble into bed. So no wit and wisdom from me this week. I'm vowing to spend this weekend doing nothing but wearing PJs and relaxing to try to get some of my groove back. I've been saying that for weeks and it hasn't happened yet, so this weekend I'm going to make it happen. I just need to scrap and read and walk with Dan and relax and get back to "me" for a solid 48 hours.

And if that doesn't work, there's always a bottle of Asti in the fridge.

my one layout

So last night I did a layout. It wasn't all that quick because I resized a bunch of photos so they could fit, but I did like how it came together. And I know I'm a pretty clean and simple scrapper, but it feels a little bare to me. I wanted to add in a touch of something, but by the time I got to that point, my brain was just jello, and nothing felt right. So here's what I had when I decided I was done:

Maybe a little border along the top or something? I was thinking about using Kay Miller's Jungle Boogie for something, but I was just too tired to be creative. What I did use was Melanie Colosimo's Royal Flush  template (which is on sale right now) and the backgrounds are by Gina Cabrera, pulled from several kits.

This is one of my favorite stories from our Disney trip. It was our last morning at Animal Kingdom and we were super early, right at the front of the rope holding everyone in front of the tree of life. A cast member came up to me and asked what our plan was. I said that Dan and Kiah were heading for Everest while the rest of us got Safari fast passes.

That was the wrong thing to say. He moved on, another family said they were going on the safari, he pulled them under the rope and off they went for their own personal safari.

Can you picture me kicking myself? I had a bruise.

So a few minutes after that, another cast member asks us where we're going. We're going to the Safaris, oh yes, we are. She asks the kids if they want to help her out. You betcha they do. So the kids are given this huge honking rope and after the little Minnie/Mickey show, they pull that rope out wide, and the entire crowd waiting to get into Animal Kingdom then walks behind us as we lead them back to the Safaris at a slow walk. When we reach the Safaris, the crowd goes into the line entrance, while we are whisked through a back door and onto the first Safari vehicle of the day (well, except for those smart people who got the personal safari). The black and white photo on the layout was taken by the cast member who originally approached us and asked the kids to help.

Good story, huh? That's the magic of Disney, right there. We did go on our Safari, and then to Everest to get fastpasses. We were on a time schedule that day, and had to leave by a certain time to make it to Disney Studios by 3 pm. While Dan and the girls were using their Everest fastpasses, the ride broke down. It was a very scary hour for me, as I could see their photos on the ride photo screens, but they weren't in the first few groups that walked off the ride. They were still deep inside the ride when it shut down, and had to walk down the equivalent of eight stories to get back to us. I was worried, but the guy beside me, who had sent his two boys on the ride, was even more worried. Due to the time spent at Everest, we ended up not being able to see Festival of the Lion King, which had been the one thing I really wanted to get done that day. OK, one of 2 things I wanted to get done. The other was seeing the Studios' parade, and I did get to do that while Dan and Brady went to see the stunt show. We met back up for dinner at SciFi Dine In Theater (good meal with lots of a/c... it was really hot on this day), and then it was back to the resort to swim before bed. It was one of our longest days of the trip, with no midday break, but the kids held up well.

Consider that a trip report because I have been so bad about getting my trip reports written. :) Sorry 'bout that.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We were pretty lazy, although we did manage to get out and meet my parents for breakfast yesterday. It was just pretty boring around here... laundry, dishes, and me sitting and tagging stuff in PSE, only to decide I wasn't going to use it anyway, so why bother. I have way too much digital stuff, just in case anyone was wondering. More than I shall ever use in this lifetime. But I still have this year's vacation to get scrapped, while I'm already thinking ahead to next year's trip. And don't even talk to me about that half finished trip report. I'll get there. I really will.

Yet I didn't scrap a single layout this weekend. I'll have to do a couple tonight to make up for it, but boy, the inspiration was not hitting me at all.

I think it's the weather. It's got me all restless. 60 on Saturday, 90 on Sunday. Is it any wonder I'm not feeling well? My allergies are raging, and I'm sucking on Zicam. And at that point in the school year where I'm already really tired every morning and my first waking thought is how much caffeine I'm going to need to get through the day.

I definitely have the Monday blues today, don't I? Ah well, let's hope for a happier topic tomorrow....