My FIRST nasty blog comment!!

Hey all!! Happy Friday!! First off, I'd like to share with all of you my very FIRST nasty blog comment:

Anonymous said...

"sorry to tell you, but life isn't always fair. be grateful that you have a job and a place to live. perhaps this happened to make you appreciate what you currently have. many people are out of jobs and can't find work, not even at walmart or fast food joints. if you can't find a job, then you can't pay your mortgage. it's not because they are bad or lazy people making mistakes, it's probably because they just can't sell their home in this crappy market. so next time you you want to whine about what you don't have, perhaps you need to stop and think about the things you do have. and just be thankful that you aren't living in a tent somewhere with your family."

MY reply:

"Anonymous... perhaps you should have read my WHOLE blog post instead of just part of it, quit being a snot, thanks! :)"

If only he/she had read my whole blog post, they wouldn't have made a big fool of themselves. Sighhh, poor person. :(

This is what I said yesterday, I KNOW people are having a hard time right now, I feel bad for them, and obviously I said so in my blog post on Tuesday, here are the quotes from the post below to prove it:

"I know people are going through hard times right now and it is just awful and I feel bad for them."

"I am just keeping my head up and keep reminding myself that I'm lucky that I have a nice place to live. I'm lucky that I have a job, I'm lucky to have John and lucky that we are able to live comfortably and support our son. I'm very grateful for what I already have!"

I guess the only thing I said that I should have said differently was this:

"It's just a bummer that people like us who are ready in every way to own a house can't because of other people's mistakes."

Instead of using the word "mistakes" I should have used "mishaps". That seems like a better word. I know in some people's cases it was not their fault that their houses were foreclosed on, but I DO know plenty of people who did make "mistakes" as well. I guess it just depends on the area you live in and your situation.

C'mon guys, I'm not that clueless and self centered, lol! Hope I didn't hurt anyone else's feelings by my last post, if you knew me in real life you would know I can't stand hurting anyone's feelings. I'm telling everyone now, that is not something I EVER want to do! I was just speaking from the heart. Hence the reason I started off the blog post with a disclaimer. It's my blog, I get to talk about what I want. I'm not going to pretend my life is all sunshine, rainbows and lollypops, that's not how I roll! :) However, I DO have a good life, I am very grateful for what I have, I am super happy, I say so every day in some form or another. Sure, life could be better, but everyone's life could be better in some way, right?? It could also be very worse, and I thank God every day that I have the life that I have.

ANYWAYS, that's the last rant that I'm going to have on my blog... for awhile at least... lol! I actually got some scrapbooking done last night since I only had to work a half day!

A layout of Alex using the Sassafras "Me Likey" collection. Me likey this paper lots! It makes me happy just looking at it! :)

I also found this card that I made last month. I actually made it in the car with Jennifer when we were on our way to Sisiversary!

That's about it, so sad that's all I've finished in a week, sighhh. This weekend I plan on scrappin up a storm! Paper Crown, the amazinggg scrapbook store here in Oklahoma City is having a 40% off everything sale tomorrow! I will for sure be hittin up that sale. I have to go take pics of all the new products for their blog too, yayyy!

Well I hope all my bloggie friends have a great weekend! Sorry about all the negative-ness on my blog this week, man, let's all wash ourselves of all this negativity! I'm making a promise to myself that August is going to be nothing but an amazing month! :)

Love,

Jill

My Craptastic Weekend!

Okay, I'm going to start off this blog post with a disclaimer, lol!!

This blog post is going to be very negative, lots of me complaining! My weekend sucked, and I'm not going to act like it didn't. I'm just venting a little, please don't think I'm looking for sympathy! If you decide to read this just tell me to suck it up and go with the flow. I know that's what I gotta do, but I gotta vent a little first, lol! :)

So, John and I have been talking about buying a house ever since we moved to Oklahoma last May. We couldn't when we first moved here because we talked to a few banks and they all told us that we have to show proof of employment here in Oklahoma for at least a year. It has been over a year, we talked to our bank, explained our situation, told them our income, credit, how long we have been at our jobs, etc. They told us that we would for sure get approved for a loan. They gave us the go ahead to look for a potential house that we wanted to buy if we were ready.

I spent all of last weekend meeting with realators, looking at a TON of houses, dragging Alex along with me. I felt like crap the whole time because the Wal Mart pharmacy messed up my prescriptions and I didn't get a refill on my meds that I take to regulate my blood levels and whatnot. It sucks when I don't take them, I just feel like pooh. I am now boycotting the Wal Mart pharmacy, someone dropped the ball there and then they all acted like jerks when I got upset that they didn't have my meds. I didn't get an apology or anything, just snotiness. It's all good though, I have my meds and feel better now. Just had to bitch cause that sucked! Pardon my complainy-ness.... again! hee..

Soooo after looking at houses John and I fell in love with a pretty, redone 3 bedroom house. It was very reasonably priced too! We went to the bank yesterday, sure that we were getting a loan. We had the down payment. We both have great credit. We both have had our jobs here for over a year. We have perfect rent and job history. Right when we got there and started giving the loan officer all of our information, he gave us the bad news. Since John works for a contracting company he is basically considered self employed. Since he is "self employed" the bank needs proof that he has been at his job for at least 2 years. TWO YEARS?? I just think it's ridiculous. We tried everything. Showed them proof of employment at our old jobs in Montana. He had been at his last job for 10 years, I'd been at my last job for 3 years. We had proof of rent history from our landlord, we had credit scores, we had a down payment. They didn't care about any of it, they just flat out said no, since John had not been at his job for 2 years. Sighhhh. We talked to several Mortgage companies and they all said the same thing. They have really buckled down on who they will approve for a loan, since so many people have not been paying on their houses. I guess lots of banks have gone bankrupt because of all the houses foreclosing and falling back on them. It just sucks really bad. No offense to anyone, I know people are going through hard times right now, and it is just awful and I feel bad for them. It's just a bummer that people like us who are ready in every way to own a house can't because of other people's mistakes.

Now we have to wait until next year to buy a house. Which means we aren't getting the cute house that we fell in love with. Which means I wasted days and hours of my time looking for a house. Which means my little boy still doesn't get his backyard to play in. Still doesn't get the dog he wants more than anything. Still doesn't get the junglegym that we had picked out for him. I just think Alex deserves the best, and now I have to keep him cooped up in our little apartment for another year.

I talked to lots of my sweet friends about my concerns and disappointment today. Thank you so much for all the advice and kindness to my Facebook friends! (Real life friends too) :) You all made me feel better. I am a strong believer in the saying "Everything happens for a reason". After all the disappointment and getting to talk to John and my friends about it I know that this can be a good thing. I know eventually we will get a house. This just gives us time to save up more money. Gives us time to pay off even more of our debt. Gives us time to buy some of the new furniture we want for a new house. It just gives us more time to get things in order. Maybe by the time we are able to get a home loan we will find a house even BETTER. You never know. I am just keeping my head up and keep reminding myself that I'm lucky that I have a nice place to live. I'm lucky that I have a job, I'm lucky to have John and lucky that we are able to live comfortably and support our son. I'm very grateful for what I already have!

If anyone actually read all that... thank you! :D If you didn't, it's all good, it's just lots of complaining. :P Promise I'm done now! :)

This is me looking hopeful and grateful today... plus happy to be feeling healthy again! :)


Here's Alex, who sleeps like a rock. Just like me! :) Now I know how John feels, and anyone else who has to tried to wake me up in the morning. I have to start waking him up about a half hour earlier in the morning, just to make sure I can get him up! He does look awfully cute when he's sleeping though, despite how annoying it is to wake him up. :)


Here's us AFTER he finally wakes up!! It's an awful pic, quality wise, but I love it, so I'm putting it up!


With the little free time I had this weekend and tonight, I SWEAR I have been scrapping. Right now I'm working on cards that I can't share yet. I get to be featured in the "Artist Showcase" section of CARDS by Scrapbook Trends magazine next March!! I only have about another week to finish the cards for the mag, I just have to make sure they're perfection. :)

I hope everyone is having a great week! Hope you all had a better weekend than I did! I promise my next blog post will be filled with happiness, rainbows, butterflies and lots of creativity! lol. :)

Love,
Jill

I have died and gone to heaven!

Ummm... so who else is drooling all over the Summer CHA sneaks? I know I am!! Here are just a few of my favs I thought I would share.

NEW Sass! Love all the bright colored papers and new felties! I need them all!

Love all the new American Crafts! Sighhh.... I can already hear my wallet crying. Gonna have to buy all the new thickers, all the new halloween stuff, plus more!

I adore this Crate paper line. Isn't it fun?

Newww Fancy Pants!!

Pink Paislee never lets me down! I cannot wait to buy EVERYTHING! I'm also really pleased with the fact that their new halloween line is called "Twilight". I loves me some Edward Cullen!

Wew, gotta quit drooling over all this stuff. I'm going to make sure John reads my blog later tonight, just to show him all the new stuff I'm going to be buying soon. I won't be surprised if he starts crying, lol!

Here's a quick layout that I made last night. It didn't scan well, but you get the jist. I covered the fabric thickers with green stickles... but now I don't know if I like it!


The journaling are lyrics from a song "Wrapped in Your Arms" by Fireflight. It's been my "John" song for a couple years now. He just rolls his eyes when I play it, but I know he likes it, at least that's what I keep telling myself! :) He's the kind of guy that tries to act all manly but fails miserably, he's too caring, silly and sweet for that!

Speaking of music... here's some new music I've been enjoying lately!

I just bought the new Sick Puppies CD last week. It rocks! You can go listen to some of their new songs on their myspace.

If you listen to my playlist as well ----> The first song is by a new band called We Are the Fallen. The band are made up of the old band members of Evanescence, with a new singer. Her name is Carly Smithson, she was on the 7th season of American Idol. As much as I love Amy Lee, the singer of Evanescence, I REALLY like We Are the Fallen now too! You should give it a listen if you can, it's one of my new fav songs!

I hope everyone is having a great Thursday! John and I are stuck at work without ourselves with nothing to do. The rest of the company gets the day off but we have to hang out just in case anything happens and we need to send someone out for a cable emergency! :) Next week I'm bringing my scrapbook stuff, I'm so bored right now! Entertain me please?

I'm sure I'll be back later with more ramblings! Byyye!

A Free Weekend...

And I only made one layout?? What's up with that? I was hoping to get more scrapping done, but it just didn't happen! lol. I did a TON of cleaning, got a full night of sleep TWO nights in a row! Plus I got to hang out with my cool neighbor last night.

What did you do this weekend?

Here are a few pics of Alex and I dancing at Jennifer's wedding last March. John sent them to me from his cell phone. I just thought they were cute. I love my Poopie! :)

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great Monday!

Love,

Jill

Can We Talk About...

How FABULOUS all the CHA sneaks are looking so far?? WOW! I can't wait to get my hands on all of this stuff!

First of all, I ADORE all THREE of the new Cosmo Cricket lines!! I have ideas swirling through my head already looking at all of this stuff!!

I LOVE the new Me Likey line from Sassafras, just ordered this one this morning!

Ohhh, and the glitter thickers that just came out, yummy! Can never have too many Thickers! :)

I'm glad I've been working my behind off lately so I can afford all of this stuff, lol!!

I wish I had photoshop or something here at work. I just spent this morning drawing out a bunch of new layout sketches that I can play with this weekend. I want to either scan them in or create them on the computer to share!! Perhaps I will later. Once I get home though it's rare that I get much time to sit and play on the computer. :)

On to things that are a little more personal... this week hasn't been the best week of my life, by far. First, on Monday a guy that I worked with at the cable company in Montana passed away unexpectantly. Everyone who knew him were in total shock, including me. He was only in his 40's, he was such a nice man. I feel so awful for his family. :(

THEN, on Monday night my Mom called to tell me that my Nana (my mom's mom) had fallen ill and was in the hospital with a bladder infection and a broken arm. She found out on Tuesday night that there is a big chance that she's not going to make it. Now, we knew that my Nana's time was coming because she hasn't been well for many years and has been pretty much bedridden for the past couple years, but it is still so upsetting. I love her so much and haven't seen her for 3 years since she moved back to Trinidad in South America to live with my great aunts.

My mom took the first morning flight to Trinidad on Wednesday morning and I still haven't heard from her. She promised to keep me updated as much as she could but she won't be calling too much since international calls are so expensive. I'm guessing that nothing has happened yet but I just don't know for sure! It's driving me nuts! I'm so worried about my Nana and praying she'll pull through PLUS I'm worried about my mom. As many of you know my mom had major neck surgery a couple months ago and she is still far from healed. I know the plan ride, traveling, walking is going to do some damage, I'm so worried this is going to set her months back from being pain free. I just want my mom to heal! Darn health issues, they make me angry! Why can't everyone just be healthy 100% of the time?? lol!

Anyways, please keep my Nana and my mom in your prayers. They are both wonderful woman who deserve to be happy and healthy. I will be praying constantly this next week. I will keep everyone updated and let you know when I hear from my mom.

Thank you for listening to me rant and complain. I know I've been doing it a lot lately but darn it, this has been a hard year on so many people I know!

Well, I hope everyone is having a great friday! TGIF! I can't wait til this day at work is over!! :)

A New Week Already??

Where did my weekend go?? lol!! It just seemed to speed by for me, but that's how it's been lately. I worked nearly 8 hours a day every last week, I forgot how exhausting it is to actually work full time! :) The paychecks are going to be nice though, lol!

I had this weekend to catch up a little. Cleaned a LOT, scrapped some, chilled with Alex. John had to work all weekend... and he ended up running into a handicapped sign in a parking lot today... It had a big yellow cement block around the bottom. :( He did about $3000 worth of damage to his truck, it really sucks! He is soo embarrassed about it though! He's dreading going into work tomorrow and having to listen to the guys asking him a million questions about it, lol. I told him that even though it was pretty irresponsible and kind of well... STUPID of him, lol, at least it wasn't a bad accident and he didn't get hurt! It'll only take about a week or so to get fixed but until then I have to drive him everywhere he needs to go, what a pain!!

Alex and I had fun taking pics yesterday! I had my camera, and I was taking pics of well.. myself... cause I'm vain like that! lol. Alex came up to me and was like "Take pictures of me laughing mom!" I held up the camera and he started fake laughing. I took about a million pics though, it was adorable and I love how he loves to take pics! You can totally tell by this first one he was faking it, but I'm pretty sure the second one was when I was trying to make him laugh for real!



I'm going to be scrapping these SOON! Well, I have to, there's about 20 of them now! And here's the "vain" pics of me. :) None of these photos are very good quality, it was kinda dark in the room, but whatev. ;)



AND some new layouts!



I journaled LOTS on the last one, which is something I rarely do. The pic isn't even very good quality, but you can read the journaling and why I love the pic HERE if you're curious!

OH, I totally forgot to draw a name for my Etsy giveaway that I posted almost a MONTH ago, I am so sorry!! At least I remembered, right?? lol!! Using the random number generator the winner selected was....

Anonymous said...

Hi Jill! I haven't commented in a long time, but I still read your blog all the time! Hey - if you move to AZ, that is the mecca for scrapbooking - all of the great scrapbookers live there: heidi swapp, just to name one, but there are a ton - I want to move to AZ just because of that - so don't be sad. Texas, on the other hand - don't know too much about scrapbookers in TX! hee.. Keep us posted, Cathy :)

June 18, 2009 7:25 AM

Congrats Cathy!! :D Send me your address and I'll send all your goodies asap!



Check it.... There's a cat on my butt! :D


I hope everyone had a great weekend! Be back soon!

Jill

Happy Belated 4th!

Happy Belated 4th of July to all my bloggie friends! I hope you had a good one! Ours was pretty boring, all our plans fell through so we ended up doing our own thing. PLUS there was a big rain storm that night and we didn't have power for a few hours! That wasn't any fun at all, lol! We came in from the rain, then the power went out. We pretty much just laid there doing nothing the whole time because it was dark and SUPER hot since the AC went out with the power!

Since the weekend the rest of this week has been great! I've been working a lot for John's dad, which is both good AND bad I guess, lol. Good that I'll have more money, good that I'm busy, but not so good because I've barely had a chance to scrapbook this week, sighhh. I'm catching up tonight though! John and I rented some movies so after I'm done playing and cleaning I'm going to go sit down to watch "The Unborn". It looks pretty creepy!

I also got a very exciting call from my bestie, Jenny Toilet Paper today! Her sister in law rescues a pug puppy from the pound a couple days ago, but her hubby won't let her keep it. Jennifer called to ask me if I wanted it! I said "UM... of COURSE I do!!" I've been wanting a dog for FOREVER, but John and I both agreed that it wouldn't be fair to have a pup in an apartment, so we were waiting to get a house before we adopted one. WELL, our lease is up at the end of August and we are planning on getting a house then anyways, so what's the big deal just getting one a month early?? Especially if we're saving it from a death sentance, right??? Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Amy rescued the puppy because it was going to be put down. How sad is THAT?? It is only 8 weeks old! So... John said he had to think about it before we said yes to the puppy, but I think he's going to give in. :) Pray for me guys! Alex and I want a puppy so bad! lol. I know John will love it once we actually have it here too, he is such an animal lover.

Anyways, here a couple layout that I made this weekend.

The first one made the Catwalk at SIS! Woo! Thank you Jan!



Just love the one I made of my kitty! I haven't scrapped her in awhile! She doesn't photograph well either though, since she's black. Did I mention that the pug puppy is black? How perfect is that?? Then I'd have a black cat AND a black dog! Aww!

Sorry about that, as you can tell I have puppies on the mind now! :) Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with good news!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, and have a great Friday! I can't believe it's Friday already, wow!

Love,
Jill

P.S. Did you know that this year at exactly 4:05 AM and 6 seconds, on July 8th something crazy happened? The numbers in the time and date go in order: 4,5,6,7,8,9. That's the only time it will ever happen in our lifetime! Wooaaahhh, just thought that was interesting. :)

Today...

Was the first time in over a YEAR that I worked a full 8 hour shift for John's dad, ugh! Let's just say... I was exhausted after it was over! Only getting 3 hours of sleep last night didn't help much either. I came home and took a long nap, it was nice. :) Now I'm up and awake though, oops! Now I remember why I don't usually let myself take naps, lol! I did get to talk to my mom on the phone for a few hours tonight though, that's always nice. :) It's still hard for her to talk on the phone for long periods of time because it hurts her neck. It's slowly healing, but it's going to be a long process. I just miss talking to my mom! She and I used to talk a couple hours a day pretty much every other day. I just keep praying that her neck will heal quickly.

Anyways, here are a couple new layouts! A couple more that I made during SISiversary:



AND speaking of SISiversary, I have some pics! This is just the start of them, there will be lots more, promise!

My Jenny Toilet Paper, isn't she the cutest??

Me, Beth and Jennifer. I loved meeting Beth Perry, she is awesome, soo sweet and friendly! :)

Bekka and Sasha! I've known these gals for quite awhile on the net, it was so awesome to meet them in person! :) Bekka, you're so cute. Sasha, you are so fun and hilarious!

Jenni Bowlin and Jenny TP! We got to take a class from JB. She is awesome!! Super friendly and talented!

Our first official day! Me, Wedy, Angela, Jennifer and Amy. All great gals!

Just meeee. Jen and I took a ton of new "profile pics". :) I'm still waiting for her to send the rest!

JTP, me and Julie Tucker. I love you Julie!!

Bekka and I again, awww.

I miss all these gals already, plus lots more!

Well, I am going to TRY to get some sleep again. I'm going to go hang out on the couch and watch some Judge Judy. That usually gets me drowsy pretty fast, lol!

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Jill

Cosmo Cricket and SISiversary!

Hi everyone! I am back from SISiversary! I actually got back early yesterday morning, but I needed to re cooperate a little bit. Over 18 hours of strait driving can take a lot out of you!

SISiversary was a BLAST! I met so many awesome ladies, some I had already known from online, some I had never talked to before but they were all fabulous! I kind of wish the trip had been longer, it pretty much flew by for me. If there's another one next year I am for SURE going, I can't wait to hang out and crop with everyone again!

I actually got more scrapping done than I thought I would at the convention. It is so inspiring and fun to scrap with so many talented scrappers!

Here are some layouts and cards that I completed with the new "Early Bird" collection by Cosmo Cricket:





Plus some layouts and cards using Cosmo Cricket products that I have made in the past:












The last three layouts were used in two classes that I taught at Paper Crown last month.

These cards made with the Cosmo Cricket "Mr. Campy" collection were published in the April and May editions of CARDS by Scrapbook Trends:



This layout using some Cosmo Cricket product was published in the May issue of Scrapbook Trends!:


I will be back ASAP with more fun stuff from SISiversary! I got some really cute pics, I can't wait to share! :)

Love,
Jill