boo!

I couldn't resist sharing these pictures even though I wanted to wait til' I get them scrapped! Now is when I need a little kodak easy share printer to go with my camera. I didn't think I wanted one but maybe it would come in handy when I need to scrapbook into the wee hours :)

AEzine challenge

I completed a scrapbooking challenge this week - a layout about your creative confidence. I had a lot of fun with it and made mine an 8x10 so I can frame it and hang it in my workspace when I'm low on confidence. I'm not always quite so brazen as I was feeling this particular day...

aladdin eyes

i arose this morn to put in my contacts and what did my eyes find? that aladdin toothpaste and contact lenses don't mix well. abby has a minor obsession with my contact lense cases. actually she really likes to play with tiny objects and this qualifies, plus it has two compartments to put things into and two lids to cover the compartments. this looked pretty cool, like a 4-year old's science project. the toothpaste had morphed into these little gel bubble looking things and the contact solution was a nice hue of "bliss blue" for all you stampin' up! color-holics out there! i thought about trying to rinse the contact really well and then thought better of it! it was past time for a fresh pair anyway.

ah, they keep things interesting, don't they? you never know what you'll find lurking around my house...

new stamp club projects!

I momentarily remembered the reason I started this blog. It was to share the Stampin' Up! and scrapbooking stuff that I do. I've been getting ready for my fall stamp clubs and have one tomorrow night. Here's a little peek at what we'll be making. The card is a technique called "glitter window". You punch out a square in 2 layers of cardstock for the front of the card and then layer in between a packing tape window with glitter smushed in the middle. Make sense? It's really cool in person and just a neat little twist. I love the alphabet called Whimsical Alphabet used to spell Halloween but it wouldn't all fit so I just started with the "o" in the middle and worked my way out, carefully spelling frontward and backward to make the wrap-around word.

The baby food jar is just a little idea I had for us to do for the fall, Thanksgiving season. The idea is to write things that we're grateful for on the slips of typing paper and count our blessings, literally! The jar can be kept in a prominent place like the kitchen windowsill as a reminder of how blessed we are...

running on empty!

I was talking to my friend, Mel, a few minutes ago. Apparently she frequents my blog and is checking out what I've written. She seemed to be tired of checking for no new news and although she loves Lilly's cute little picture, she's seen it dozens of times now and said, "Just go blog something!!!!" So here I sit. I seem to be in a writer's block...I'm not sure what to attribute it to and really, it doesn't matter anyway.

I was trying to think of what I've been up to, and well, it's kinda funny actually. I've become an exercise-aholic. Not to worry, it won't last long. Don't send the guys in white coats for me just yet. It all started when Mike decided to train for the St. Jude's Children's Hospital marathon (this December). Being slightly competitive, I decided to go for the gusto, too,and try the 5K. I mean, he can't have all the fun, right? I actually trained for and ran in a 5K about 7 years ago in Conway and met my other friend, Melanie, and became a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator because of her. Anway,2 kids and 40 pounds later, here I am. So I started my training program about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Brandy Files tries to run with me when she can and my friend, Becca, talked me into running the Swamp Sister (Nun Run) 5K at Arkansas Post. It was yesterday afternoon. AR Post is a national park in the middle of nowhere. Literally. In fact, most of the run was through the woods, beside the river, and there was no sign of getting to grandma's house anytime soon. Scary. Becca has been doing much better with her training than I have so she quickly left me eating her dust, making me the last of the runners. I wanted her to go on and do her best. I'm so proud of her. I just kept my eye's peeled for the walkers, making sure they didn't bypass me. It was a great time and I did place 3rd in the women's age 20-29 division. It was quite an honor to get my medal since there were only 3 of us in the age division :) That cracked me up!

Please check out Monticello Live and leave a comment. Make sure you say I sent you so that I have a better chance of winning the iPod (you'll see what I mean) and getting with the times. I have wished for one countless times during my recent exercise escapades. I could have used it in the 5K, big time! I had a LONG, LONG, time to think about nothing. Mostly my thoughts were,
"Where is the 1-mile marker?
Oh my gosh, I might die here in the Swamp Sister 5K and the alligators will eat me!!! Where is the 2 mile marker????
Surely I've gone at least 3 miles already.
My legs can't handle this much body,
I can't breath,
etc, etc, etc."

This all went on for over 40 minutes. All this to say, I might have done better had I had an iPod and could've been jammin' to, to, well, who knows; but I would've been jammin' fo' sho'. Just kidding, but go check out Monticello Live. It's Monticello's new online newspaper, basically, and it's great! Go! Now! Help me win!

october 1

so, what does a blogger blog about when a blogger has nothing to blog about? hmmmm- i'm not sure but we're finding out! i guess the old addage "no news is good news" applies here! i can't even think of a funny that abby has said over the last few days besides blurting out the word "constipated" at a restaurant friday night. she used a big word for such a sweet little girl. i asked her if she wanted a fried pickle and she said loudly, "no, mom, that will make you constipated." not sure why she thinks that pickles will do that to the human body but go figure. my little shy one has begun to slowy come out of her shell. this week she also blurted out to me that a man had his hair in a pony tail "like a girl's hair,momma" i told her it was fine and prayed he was hard of hearing since he was standing 5 feet away in my kitchen. then told her we would discuss it later so as to not embarass the man. i didn't tell her that her daddy's dream is to have zz top hair as an old man and that's partly why the prickly go-tee right now. one can only hope that his dreams change over time.

no telling what she's telling her preschool teacher. it's probably best that i don't know everything! good thing we're just "normal, ordinary folk" and the teacher has probably heard it all before :) at least that's what i tell myself!

oh, and since i believe that i must have a picture to post with each new blog, here's a recent one of lilly eating-we seem to like taking pictures of her eating since it's such a huge part of our day. eat baby food or mush, drink bottle, clean up baby, clean up mess, repeat 50 million times. anyway, they're so cute i could spend all my time staring at them! it makes the clean up time worth it!