52 layouts/Photos week 4

Im slacking. I did a LO this weekend, but I used old pictures. My new pictures are trapped on my hard drive until I can print. I am having issues. So anyway here is my new LO with my old photos and also some new photos from this week. I love these pics of my kids. They were playing babies. The girl was the mom, the boy was the dad (yes I have told them brothers and sisters dont marry! lol) and they had 13 babies. Anyway they were cracking me up.

Why Arent You Laughing??

So my boy comes in the room this evening. I looked up at him but truth be told I was giving the computer the majority of my attention. The boy says, "Hey how come kids dont work in restaurants?"
My reply "Huh?"
The Boy: "Why dont kids work in restaurants?"
Me: "uuhhhhh i dunno?"
The Boy: "Because Kids dont work!!!" Boy falls down with laughter, boy continues laughing. Boy looks up. Boy speaks: "Why arent you laughing?"
Me: "huh? I'm confused"
Boy: "its funny mama, laugh!"
Husband yelling from other room: "He is telling you a joke!"
Me: wha???
Boy: Laugh mama!!
Me: makes small laughing sounds, still completely confused.
Boy: I will be back to tell you more jokes in a minute. I have to go make them up, these are my OWN jokes, mama
Me: ::Thinking::: your own? no kidding. LOL

And so I sit waiting for my humor impaired child to come back and tell me some more jokes.

I Got Nothin'....

Nothing but ants!!! All over my freaking house! Everytime I turn around I am cleaning up ants... not just a few either I am talking gazzillions (I am sure thats a number.)! They are everywhere. The more it rains (we are going on our 5th day straight) the more ants suddenly decide my casa es su casa. Its driving me nuts. Thank God its the weekend because I cant stand another day of getting up at 5:30am and then whipping out the raid and vacuum to take care of more unwanted guests. So on Saturday that crap can wait until 7am!

Things that make me curse!

That would be 3 pounds of powdered sugar on my floor. The top came off of my rubbermaid container. It was a new container... I would not recommend purchasing this brand at all. It was a huge feat to clean this mess up. I am not proud to say that I let loose with a string of very bad words in front of my little guy. I do suspect he was trying not to laugh at me. I was acting like a two year old...but omg it was such a huge mess and I was already exhausted.

More Mailboxes

These are the two I made for my kids. I tried to make the boy's a bit less girly. I think he will like it. I had a little accident with the flags. I had been popping them off because it was so much easier to cover the box. Well when I went to put them back on they wouldnt go. So I popped out the rivet and used a nice jewelled brad to hold the flag in place. Its a little loose but they still stand up fine and now they are prettier so I guess it was a happy accident. I am out of mailboxes so I guess its back to scrapbook pages.

52 week update... I have the pics, I have layout... but I am having printing issues to get the pic on the layout.... so technically I am done, I just need to print the pics and then post it...hopefully later this week.

Target Mailboxes

These are altered mailboxes from Target. There is a learning curve I believe when it comes to these things! It was much harder than I thought it would be!! There is great tutorial here. I will say I find it much easier to just pull the flag off then to try and go around it. I have had no problems reattaching the flag. I find it easier to use a liquid glue (I use tombow aqua adhesive), it makes it easier to slide the paper a bit and get it straight. These two boxes will be given to my kids' teachers for Valentine's Day. I think we will fill them with cookies or chocolate. Yum! I kind of wish I had bought a few more mailboxes (I bought six, but they are so fun to do!)

A Little Rant...

Ok, so I am still sick. Its a curse I have... I never get sick enough to stay home, just sick enough to feel and look crappy and yet be able to put in a full days work. All week I have been craving (and I mean CRAVING) oatmeal cookies (homemade no store bought crap) and yet I have been feeling too crappy to pull out the mixer and make some. So all day at work I dream of oatmeal cookies and then I get home, feed the children, read to them, play with them (ok ok we watch wheel of fortune together but HEY i am sick) put them to bed and then... its cookie time...but no cause now I am about to fall down dead... so instead of cookies I get half a bottle of nyquil then I crash out until 5 am when i get it up to do it all over again.

Side Note: Its probably a good thing I havent made cookies. I mean I have been trying to lose weight forever, I work out 4 days a week and still nada...so really I should probably try avoiding cookies instead of chasing after them.

Scrappin' Stuff

Layout I put together using Mother's Day pics from a couple of years ago. yeah... i am always behind. Its American Crafts paper...Queen and Co, brads and flowers...if ya care about such details. Its a little blurry, as I scanned it and stitched it together... i can never get that to work just right.

I am so in love with this kid!

He loves that his hands can be considered weapons! Oh and he wants you to know thats his old belt...he is a "gold" belt now!

Sick

ugh, sick,sick, sick!!! I thought I was hung over... (I may or may not have partaken in quite a bit of vodka at a very wild party over the weekend) but no its not a hang over, its some kind of horrid cold, sore throat, stuffy head, runny nose thing! My voice is going too. At least once its gone I can stay home from work. Of course it will probably just hang in there enough for me to make it to Friday. Suppose to take a cycle class tonite to. Definitely need to get the exercise in after i went on a chocolate binge yesterday. Anyway thats my Monday, hope yours is going better!

52 Layouts- Number 2

These are my babies reading on the couch yesterday. The boy loves the girl to read to them. i love how they look all cuddled on the couch.

Ok so today I was tagged by Tezra.
I was just thinking I needed something to talk about

The rules of the game:
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven facts about myself….

1. I was kicked out of church choir at the age of 11 because "my voice was not pleasing". I have not sung in public since. In fact the only people who have heard me sing since are my kids and husband.

2. I can draw pretty well, but I need to look at a picture or the actual thing while I am drawing. I dont draw very well from memory. I am a pretty good painter too, but again I need a visual.

3. I am 34 and I feel OLD. I do not believe that crap about 40 being the new 20.

4. I teach science and I LOVE it.

5. I hate math. I still have math anxiety.

6. I love cats. I have 5 cats, 6 if you count the one the neighbor abandoned that I still feed.

7. I have never smoked a cigarette. My own brother wont believe me but its true.

I think the rest of the rules required me to tag someone....but well, I am tired so I am just gonna say...if you wanna be tagged leave me a comment and tell me your playing. I would love to come read all about you.

Winners!

Here are the winners of the RAK!
Inara
Nicole P.
Connie
Scraprageous

Please email (derbylea at mac.com) me your mailing info and I will get your stamps out right away. Congratulations!!

Last of the Christmas Shots

I just thought these were too cute not to post. Especially the boy. He loves that little guitar. He stands next to Mr.Iamderby while the Mr. is playing guitar hero. He thinks he is playing too. Too funny.

My First Ever RAK*

Welcome to my first ever RAK*. I picked up a few extra of these Mike's stamps (studio G, 1 dollar stamps...very popular over at CKMB) today on a quest for a new cricut cartridge. So here's what you do: leave me a message in the comments. You have until 11:00pm (PST) Monday (January 7) to leave me a comment. I will put all the names in a hat and draw 4 lucky internets to receive one of the stamp packs pictured. I will post winners on Tuesday. Make sure you check back, so you can send me your information if you are a winner! Good luck!

*RAK= random act of kindness

52 Layouts

So Erica (see her here) had the great idea to take one photo a week, make one LO a week and then post it. I think this is the perfect motivation to stop scrap shopping so much and get to scrapbook making. So heres my first LO. Now technically these are some old photos...but I just downloaded and edited them..so I am counting them. After this I will take a new one each week. Oh and this LO is for last week.

Are these not the cutest jars ever? I bought them for my new shelf... to store ribbon and other scrapbooking goodies. I got them at Ikea and they were a steal at 2.99 for a set of 4. I simply had to have three sets.
Speaking of Ikea... they have fabulous deals but why, for the love of G*d to they have to include the most horrible instructions ever for putting together their furniture? We bought a new desk/hutch thing for our desktop computer. It was very simple in design but the instructions...OMG the instructions! All the instructions are pictorial, there is not a single word on them. They always show an uphappy little dude in the beginning... yeah he is me. I nearly had a mental breakdown putting that thing together last night. Not to mention it took hours... as in 5 hours!! It was the most frustrating thing ever. I dont think I will be buying anymore furniture items there!

Duncan

My new cat Duncan is quite the scaredy cat. He has mostly hidden under my bed since his arrival to our family on December 9th. Finally he has decided to venture downstairs! He has such soft fur and a great purr its too bad he spends most of his time under my dusty bed. He has been coming down the past week to eat and get a drink of water. Previously he had only been sneaking down in the middle of the night. I am hoping soon he wont feel the need to run under the bed whenever we make a sudden movement.

Scrap Corner

I give you some pics of my "new" scrapping corner. "New" in that even though the corner was already there it wasn't inhabited by this table or these things on the wall. The big wall shelf (in the corner) I had already taken possession of earlier in the year. The table is a gate leg table so it folds up nicely, yet is very sturdy... it used to be behind the couch as a sofa table. The wall shelves all were in the house previously with the exception of the big white one.
That is the new making memories embellishment center. This thing retails for 80$. I did not pay 80$. If I had I would have been sorely disappointed because while I really like this shelf it is not very well put together, the painting appears to have been done by 5 year olds for one thing. The back has a few hair line cracks and the wood(? not sure if its actual wood) working is definitely subpar. I got it for 40$ so I think 40 is a reasonable amount for a shelf of this quality. It was a huge PITA to hang on the wall but I did it all by myself.
On the table is my new cricut, which I am quickly learning to love. Also on the table is my OTT lite which I am not certain how I ever lived without. That thing puts out so much light.
Overall I am pretty happy with the set up. Now I know that a decorator would probably be choking over my combo scraproom/formal living room but I dont care. And really how formal of a room can you have with two children running amuck, jumping on sofas, dancing on tables (Fun daddy lets them do these things NOTme!) and cats scratching up my clearance PB slipcovers? Anyway I am thrilled with it and have been happily scrapping there for the last few days.

Bake Much?

My kids love to make cookies. Here is our gingerbread extravaganza from last week. I think I have made at least 500 cookies in the last month. So I am done for awhile. I dont plan on baking another cookie until Valentines day. On V day I might make some heart shaped sugar cookies. I did try a new recipe this past christmas, it was a chocolate cookie with an andes mint melted on the top. Oh it was so good! Anybody else out there like to bake? Whats your favorite cookie?

Scrappin' Stuff

Finally busted through the scrappers block and made some new pages. These hi light our year (2007). It actually took 4 pages but I am too lazy to wait for blogger to upload all four.

I made myself a scrapbook corner in our living room, I am sure some interior decorator would call it atrocious but I am happy I have a spot to work that is not the dining room table. I have so many supplies now, I truely need a room but unless one of these kids decides to skip jr high, highschool and most of elementary school and head straight to college, I am stuck with the corner for at least a few more years. Someday we will be able to buy a bigger house but today I am thankful for what I do have.

December Review

If I were a better blogger I would have blogged these seperately, on different days, taking care to relate the humorous story that went with each one, but lets face it, I am a much better blog reader than I am blog writer. So here are some pictures from our december.

Some decorations on our mantle... I scaled back to two barbies this year, I have dozens.

My kids opening presents from their aunty. My son did not get that you cant complain if its something you didnt really want. He told his nana, " I did not want this! I want action figures!" It was damn funny but we had to punish him because seriously that kind of stuff reflects badly on ME! LOL

Baby girl decorating our tree from Longs Drugstore... only 20 dollars. It was completely crooked and had big holes all over it but thats what I get for taking the easy way out and letting the hubs pick the tree out all by himself.

Baby boy at his singing program for preschool. Isnt he adorable? (He is the one in the red sweater vest.)

Just another way we celebrate the holidays...

Thats my hubby's head. I did the artwork. It was totally his idea! Then of course the kids needed reindeer too. They got them on their legs and tummies (since they both have a full head of hair)

Burning the Candle at both ends

Yup, thats what I am doing. I am totally exhausted and my list is still a mile long. The shoppings done, but not the groceries, pies to be made, relatives coming in from out of town, gifts to be wrapped. Sigh sigh sigh... I will deal with it tommorrow! If I dont get back on here before the big day, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!

Funny Old Photos

Too bad TKW doesnt play WBW anymore because I finally have some material. I scanned these old pictures in the other day. I found them in a tattered old envelope at my mom's . She wouldnt give me the originals.

This is me and my dad. I must say I look pretty cute. My dad? Well it was the 70's. Check out our couch? Did people really think that was attractive? My mom still has that crocheted blanket! Who would of thought of that color combo? My grandma actually...lol. She did beautiful work but really the colors leave much to be desired. In the way back on the shelf you can see the plastic statue of Michaelangelos David. That naked guy caused much laughing among me and my grade school friends as the years went by. I think my mother still has it in her bedroom.

Here we are at Disneyland circa 1980 or so. Dont you just love my dad's and brother's athletic socks??? Crazy! Those shorts I am wearing were hideous. You remember the ones with the little stripe down the side? Yeah, thats them.

Anywho I hope you enjoyed the little flash from the past. I just love looking at old snapshots.

New Kitty Update

Duncan decided to exit the bed at 12:30 last night! He hopped up on top of the bed and began purring loudly next to my ear. He would not go away and until I pet him for like 20 minutes in the middle of the night! Like having a toddler, I swear. Anyway he seems to be settling in. I am keeping him in my bedroom for another day or two because he is such a scaredy cat. My other cat Tiger is not amused with all the attention we have been bestowing on Duncan. Hoping those two will be able to come to terms soon. I promise pictures soon.... i have been lazy.

New Kitty

So I adopted a new kitty today. He is fat and gray. He goes by the name of Duncan and currently he wont come out from under my bed. I sure hope he gets over this crap soon. I wanted a cat to pet and love not sweep my floor clean of dust bunnies. Its only day one, so there is hope.... Pictures to come (as soon as I get him out from the bed! lol)

I should know better...

I let my husband buy the tree without me present. Oh it is a sad little tree, pathetic almost. Huge hole on one side. Where did he find such a sad little thing I thought to myself. Turns out Longs Drug store. Did you know they sold trees? Cheap too. Only 20 bucks. Well the kids are happy. The tree is about to fall over under the weight of the zillion ornaments the children put on. I will have to post a pic. Maybe tommorrow... tonite I need sleep.

Christmas Decorations

Well I have finally got the outdoor lights up. I did it myself. If I had waited for Mr. Iamderby I would have been waiting on Dec. 24th. So I got out the ladder and hoisted those things up myself. And then because babygirl was begging I went and bought one of those deer and stuck that out there too. Next I hauled out all the Christmas boxes from the garage and shed. And with two very eager children I started to unpack them. So lots of decorations are out, just not up properly. Maybe some pics once they look good.

Cookies...cookies...cookies!!!

OMG I am so tired. I ended up making 20 dozen cookies. Three varieties. Non stop baking from saturday to Sunday. CRAZY! Heres some pictures:

Blah Blah Blah

We are off to my father's this weekend to see my little brothers play. My little brother is in highschool....he is 19 years younger than me. He is in the 12th night. Not that I am biased or anything but I think he is a fantastic actor. I keep telling him when he makes it big in Hollywood he needs to save a spot on his staff for his big sissy. I am sure there is a job I can do thats way better and pays more than what I have now! We are coming back on Saturday because I have a lot of work this weekend. It seemed like such a good idea when I first thought of it... whats that? You dont know of my craziness? Ok here it is: I decided to sell my homemade cookies (not to be braggin but I bake fabulously) to raise money for a new digital camera for my yearbook students. So this weekend I will be making 16 dozen cookies... ummm yeah thats alot. like 192 I believe. I am going to be tired.

Another card and some whining

So I whipped out these bad boys tonite. I used some OLD supplies... that ribbon? yeah bought that for my wedding favors....12.5 years ago! That glittery paper? Dollar tree- 3 years ago! LOL Anyway I think they turned out nice. Papertreyink stamps, cuttlebug embossing folder, stickles glitter if your interested in that type of thing.

On to the whining... I miss my damn cat, alot! I think I may need a new one. Yah I know I have five others in the backyard but really only one likes to come in, one is a cat the neighbor abandoned and it hates me, and the other three are pretty much feral. We trapped and neutered them and they only want food... cant pet em. So today I am feeling all bad about my cat and what do I get in the mail? A sympathy card from our vet, signed by his whole staff. So I had to cry some more. Hoping I will get over this soon.

Sweet Baby!

It's babies like this that make people like me want more kids. This sweet little girl is so quiet and adorable. She just slept and slept. So peaceful. Yah I wanted another, but then I remembered my own spawn. They did not sleep and sleep. They screamed and screamed. LOL They were adorable but no sleep was had for about 4 years. Anyway this cute litttle baby is just a week old and she belongs to a very good friend of mine. She and her husband are the best parents. And I am so happy for them, that they got to add this sweet little girl to their family.

Christmas Cards Anyone?

I send them every year but this will be the first year I make them. I have gotten off to a pretty good start. This is my latest. I love the non traditional colors. Those stamps come from papertreyink.com I highly recommend them. Awesome service, reasonable prices, cute stuff.

New Project.... PHOTO FRAMES

This is my first attempt. It was oh so easy, really if you have never done it before you need to try it. Amazing all the cool things you could do to jazz up the photo frame. The frame starts as basic wood. I got mine at Michaels for a buck. Can't beat that price. Then I added some gorgeous basic grey paper, covered chipboard, paint and ribbon. Whole project probably runs about 5$ in price and an hour or so in time. This frame I made for my friend's birthday. Since then I have made three more, its kind of addicting actually.

Frank...in pictures

I was scanning these for my daughter and I thought well why not share some photos of Frank, in his prime. We ended up putting him down on Saturday. It was a hard day for all of us, but we know we did the right thing. Thank you to everyone who left me comments and sent me emails, truely it made me feel much better.

Frank put up with alot. This picture was from a photo session for Christmas cards in 2002
Frank was always a good sport about dressing up.
Frank was always on the lookout for a good place to sleep.
Frank also liked to sleep in our car when it was parked in the garage.
This is right after we first adopted him, most likely 1999. I think it was definitely pre-children.
We have dozens of pictures of him napping with our kids.

A Tribute to Frank

Frank is my cat. I love him. He was my first baby. When my husband and i bought this house it came with a cat. We didnt know it at the time, but we soon found out when he showed up each night looking for food. He waltzed right in the door and hopped up on the couch as if he had lived here forever. We thought he was a girl. We named him Drooly, because he would drool when you would pet him. I put a pink collar on him... oh the indignity of it all! Poor Frank.

After a month Frank was in need of medical attention. So we took our new pet to the vet. We discovered that Drooly was a boy. A neutered boy, but a boy nonetheless. So we took off the pink collar and we decided Drooly was too feminine. And so he became Kitty and shortly after that I just "knew" his name was Frank.

Frank is the best cat that ever was, and this comes from someone who adores cats. Frank has a heart of gold, Frank never once raised a paw to either of my kids although they both deserved it many times. Frank loved to sleep with us at night and lounge around on the couch during the day. Frank is picky. He would eat only dry food, his favorite was Wiskas. He wont eat now. He loved ice cream, especially mint chip. The kids loved to feed him. Frank kept me company while my husband was at work before the kids came along. Frank sat with me through my first Thanksgiving all alone. He had wiskas, I had spaghetti o's. Frank would be shoved into the cat carrier without complaining. Frank would be picked up by my son without a meow. Frank tolerated the irritating little dogs that our relatives constantly bring to our house. Frank is a cat beyond compare. Did I mention I love him?

Frank's kidneys are failing him. He no longer wishes to eat. He sits all day. He can barely walk. This happened so quickly that I still cant believe its my Frank that I am taking to the vet tommorrow. His bloodwork says he is in pain, his face says he is in pain. So tommorrow he is taking a one way trip to the vet. I am beside myself. I could cry all night and still it wouldnt be enough. I will miss him. My heart hurts. And everytime I think I am all cried out, I cry a little more. So tonite I will sleep with my kitty one last time, I will kiss him and pet him and see if he wants some mint chip ice cream. And tomorrow I will help him leave this world peacefully. And still I will cry a little more.

New Project... Christmas Baskets!

After the Halloween baskets....I dont know how many of these I will make. But these first two were lots of fun. I got the idea here: CambriaTurnbow I used my new nestabilities dies and cute papertreyink stamps. I love these little stamps, they are awesome! Everything at papertreyink is pretty awesome, I have another order arriving tomorrow! LOL, I love to shop almost as much as I love to make stuff.

I feel like I should post....

but honestly I have nothing to say! My life is that boring. I havent made any new projects, the Halloween baskets about did me in! It was fun for the first 5 or 6 and then after that it was a PITA!

Anyway no big plans, no fun projects, the kids have been fairly mellow, the job is moving right along. HMMMMMM.. Ok I have it! Book review time:

I am America (And so Can You) by Stephen Colbert



I LOOOOOVE this book! If you enjoy the tv show (on comedy central) you will love this! Even my republican husband likes it. It is so funny. This guy is so smart and his comedy is so good! Definitely a great idea for a Christmas present, I would think.

Things I thought I would never have to say....

When you become a parent you expect you are going to have to explain lots of things (such as: why you use a fork to eat, why you dont pull the cat's tail, why you shouldnt play in the street....) but there are some things I thought I would never have to explain. Some things, I thought, are self explanatory... I mean they are so flippin obvious even a monkey could understand them... And yet I find myself saying, all the time, things I thought I would never have to say:
* Don't lick the soccer cleats
* Don't put makeup on the cat
* Underwear is not for playing with (every stuffed animal was wearing a pair)
* Make up is not the same as watercolors
* You may not live under the dining room table
* You can not be a unicorn when you grow up
* Do not try to dig you boogers out with a fork
* You can not sit on the baby, even if he cries too much

What are some things you thought you would never have to say.....

My babies!

My witch and my Anakin. He was very upset at the people who called him Luke, Mace Windu, and Obe One. He kept telling people no no no I am Anakin! Luke is my son! LOL