Crazy Beautiful

Happy Hump Day! :)

2009-11-11T10:22:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone has been having a great week! I've been having an amazing one, best week I've had at home in a loooong time! Now that the winter is here John hasn't been having to work 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. I never really realize how much it sucks never seeing him until we get to spend 2 whole days together. That hasn't happened since last year! We haven't really done much. We DID actually get to go see a movie on Monday though, our first one in forever since we can't take Alex to the movies. We saw Zombieland, I love it! It was an added bonus that Bill Murray made an appearance in it too, I've loved him since I was tiny. :)

I've definitely been inspired to scrap lots. I scrap a lot when I'm happy!! Here are the layouts I've made this week:

I'm working on more today as well, yay!

Now I am off to post on the Paper Crown blog real quick. I haven't been blogging on there as I should be. I have so many photos of all the new stuff in store, I'm so behind!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! :)

Love,
Jill

Happy *Belated" Halloween!

2009-11-05T22:27:00.005-07:00

From Jill and Alex, Alice in Wonderland and Optimus Prime! lol.

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, things have been insane around here, which is still no excuse but, ya know. :)

Alex and I went down to Texas for Jennifer's big halloween party, it was lots of fun!! Photos from the party are above, obviously! John couldn't come because of work, bleh. :P Big surprise right?? He can never do anything because of his job! He was sad he missed out though. Next Halloween we are for sure spending it together.

Since I've been home I've been busy getting ready for my Christmas card class at Paper Crown on Saturday. The class is from 1-4, if you live in the OKC area there are still spots open! :D Once again here are the cards we are learning to make:

I've also been making lots of fun Christmas cards like crazy for a big Art Expo going down at Paper Crown December 5th. There will be a bunch of gals there selling lots of goodies, it should be lots of fun, I'm excited!!

Now that all the crazy Halloween season is over I can finally rest and take it easy for awhile! Thanksgiving and Christmas are sneaking up real fast though, I can't believe it's already November!

Since I'm so behind on blogging here are my latest cards and layouts. I wish there were more, 6 things in 2 weeks?? Pathetic! For me, that is, lol. :)

I made this one for my sweet friend, Kristen! She also sent me the Cosmo Cricket chipboard, along with a bunch of other cute things, isn't she the best?? :)

Now I am off to scrapbook some Christmas pages! I'm sorry this post is a little short and sweet but I figure all the pictures make up for it, lol!

I hope everyone has a great Friday!! :)

Love,
Jill

Introducing...

2009-10-17T21:35:00.004-06:00

Our new DOGGIE!! Here's Layney!! :)

She's a 10 month old boxer. We just got her on Wednesday night and I'm already head over heels in LOVE with her! She's such a sweet heart, so loving and cuddly. She loves to play and she is perfect with Alex! Alex loves playing with her, she's pretty good at tiring him out too! lol. Besides the times when she's playing with Alex she pretty much never leaves my side. She sleeps with me every night too, pretty much sleeps on TOP of me actually. :) I love it though!

The only downside about adopting a 10 month old dog is if they're not potty trained you're going to be in a little bit of trouble! Her old owners kept her outside all the time, she's never really been inside. We want an inside dog, plus boxers aren't supposed to be kept outside all the time, their breed isn't made to handle extreme temperatures. Since she's never been in the house until now she doesn't know NOT to go potty inside. She's already learning though, so I'm not too worried about it. She hasn't even had ONE accident today, which is major progress!

She's such a smart doggie as well. She's learned our house rules SO fast. She already knows not to chew on things, she's minding that rule for the MOST part, lol. She's already learned what "sit" and "come" mean, which is pretty amazing! Her old owners never taught her any commands either, so we knew we were going to have some work on our hands!

Anyways, I'll stop going on and on about the dog. I'll admit I'm getting a little bit obsessed already! ;) I went out for a girls night yesterday with some new Mom's that I've met in my area, and my super cool daycare lady. I almost didn't want to go because I didn't want to leave the dog, pathetic huh?? lol!! I had such a blast though, it's nice actually getting to know some people around here. I'm just making myself come out of my shell. I always forget about how shy I am until I end up in a new setting. I'm getting over it though. Being shy is laaaame. I hate it! lol.

On Thursday Alex had his very first field trip with his day care! We went to the pumpkin patch, it was so much fun!! All the kids went and most of the parents. There were hayrides, a petting zoo, pony rides, games, lots of stuff! I couldn't believe how cool it was. I've never been to anything like it before! I can't wait to scrap the pics I got from that day. :)

He kept calling the pony's "Camels", lol. Don't ask me why!

His lil bestie, Logan.

He LOVED feeding the goats! We had to go back and feed them a couple times, lol!

Here's the one lone layout that I finished on Thursday:

More Sassafras Monster paper for my little monster! :)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Love,
Jill

Boooo

2009-10-14T13:39:00.004-06:00

I'm back! Only a couple days after my last blog post, yeahhh! :D Since I've been work free all week and it's lookin like I'm going to be a LOT this winter (Thank you lord! :)) I've had so much time to play and scrapbook!

Today I've been catching up on chores and running errands. Now I'm about to sit down and finish a layout that I started last night! Here's one that I finished yesterday:

I'm lovin the new Sassafras! All the cute little monsters totally remind me of Alex, my little monster! :)

I also HAD to scrapbook our new house, before I didn't feel like it anymore, lol.

Made a couple of baby cards. I made them as an excuse to use these cute American Crafts baby stickers though, NOT because I'm knocked up! I've already gotten a couple questions when people saw the cards, but no, swear I'm not, lol!

Here's a couple new pics from my super (not) exciting week! lol.

New BATHROOM pic! Every girl's gotta have one! There's my crappy camera in the pic too! Sighhh, someday I WILL get a new one! :)

Here is my baby (aka, Jewel) in a dress! Jennifer P came to visit last week with her pug and of course she had to bring some puppy dresses along. Once I saw them I HAD to put one on Jewel! lol. She was pretty pissed, as you can probably tell from the pic! Don't worry, I only left it on for a couple minutes! :)

Well, I had better be off to go get ready for our NEW DOGGIE to come home!! John and I decided to adopt a 10 month old boxer. She's very sweet, very good with other animals and she's already potty trained, which is a big plus! John's getting her from a guy he knows that works for the cable company. The guy bought the dog for his 13 year old daughter and she doesn't take care of it. So sad. :( I'm so excited to get her! I love boxers and that dog is going to be spoiled rotten, just like Alex and our cat, lol! I will put up lots of pics this week! :)

I hope everyone is having a great week, be back soon!

Love,
Jill

Omg

2009-10-11T01:00:00.005-06:00

Wow, I've become one of those people that only posts to her blog every few weeks, aughhh! Not anymore. I've been so busy with our move and everything that comes along with it, yuck. We are finally all moved and settled into our new house. I still have lots of work and decorating to do, but everything is finally unpacked. We had some plumbing problems as well but I finally got all of those cleared up too. I've discovered that dealing with plumbers is no fun! lol.

Now that I finally have free time I've actually been scrapping more, hooray! I'm getting back into the swing of things. :) Today I made a bunch of cards- again! I've been on a card kick, don't ask me why. I kept getting irritated because nothing that I was scrapping was turning out to my satisfaction but now things are finally coming together for me. I've been having fun with all the new American Crafts, looove all their releases this season! I know I've said that before but I'm saying it again! :)

Here are another two cards that I made last week for my Christmas card class that I'm going to be teaching at Paper Crown on November 7th. We'll be making 4 cards total.

Yikes, that reminds me that I haven't updated the Paper Crown blog in a few weeks too. I'm getting on that tomorrow! I have lots of new stuff to blog about!

I made this layout last week with a kit from ScrapBuck. Laura Soloman sent it to me, she's the best! It's full of little boy stuff, so of course I'm going to have to scrap pics of Alex with all of it!

In other news we have decided to get a PUPPY! John and I discussed it awhile back and we weren't going to get a dog for awhile, but all of a sudden he has changed his mind and wants one so bad! We found a lady giving away husky puppies, I left her a message today, I'm really hoping that she gets back to me tomorrow. I think huskys are sooo pretty and they totally remind me of Alaska. :) I'll make sure to keep everyone updated. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Tomorrow I'm putting aside some time to go visit all of my friend's blogs, I miss you all! :)

Love,
Jill

2009-09-26T22:03:00.007-06:00

Hiii! I am a tired girl today. I spent most of the day packing, moving junk to the new house and unpacking!! Plus running back and forth to the furniture store, bleh. It was a lot of work but I'm soo excited we are actually moving stuff in, we're making progress, yayyy!!

So, I have been trying to figure out how to decorate the new house. I'm going to copy a bedroom out of a magazine I think. It's going to look all modern and semi funky. Just a LITTLE funky, I'm not going to go TOO crazy. Plus, I can't get too girly when it comes to colors, John would freak out, lol. So, this brings up a question for all of my bloggie friends. Where do you go for your decorating ideas? Does anyone know of some good websites or magazines with good ideas? I need all the help I can get!! I'm still trying to figure out what color I'm going to paint my scrap room too. I was going to go with green since I love it so much, but now I have to make the bedroom green since John doesn't like any colors besides blue and green. Such a typical man, sighhh. So alas, my bedroom is going to be blue and green, but it's still going to be MY way, with black, tan and white mixed in. Sounds like a fair compromise, right?? :) I can't wait to get it all put together!

I got Alex this bed set for his room, he's soo excited about it!! I'm trying to make his room a little haven for him, somewhere that he will always want to spend time in. He hasn't slept in his own room for over a year and it's driving us nuts. Once we move into the house we're making him sleep in his room like a big boy. :)

Since I'm a bad girl and I haven't updated my blog since last Sunday I have lots of fun pics to share! We went to the state fair on Monday. The OKC state fair is HUGE! John and I were amazed! We're used to the state fairs in Montana and Alaska and those are pretty sad and small compared to this one, lol. We even got lost a couple of times! Alex had such a blast. We've taken him to the fair for the past couple of years but he was just 1 and 2, so he didn't have the kind of fun that he did this year. I had so much fun just WATCHING him, watching his eyes light up everywhere that he looked, it was soo cute! He's such a spoiled boy though, we took him on every ride he was big enough to ride, let him play a ton of games and bought him more carnival food than anyone should eat! My purse was stuffed with a bunch of stuffed animals and prizes and we had to haul around a life sized sponge bob all night, lol!

Here's the Poopie, John and I during our night of fun:

Gettin off of our first ride!

The Ferris Wheel!

The is ma funnel cake... step off beetches!

Bowling!

They also had a pretty cool petting zoo. I was surprised how good it was! Alex was pretty stoked that they had a Zebra. He was scared to feed the animals at first but he warmed up to it after watching John and I feed them for awhile. :)

The highlight of the night for ME was the Fireflight concert!! OMG. Seeing them was seriously a Dream. Come. True. I'm not being overdramatic either! I'll admit, I'm a little obsessed, lol! Alex actually liked the concert too! He was pretty fascinated by the band, plus I held him and we danced, sang and cheered the whole time! :)

I tried to stay afterwards to meet the band but they had to wait for the second band to finish playing first. Alex was getting cranky and it was really late, so we ended up having to go home. STILL, it was such a great night! My fav concert to date, no question! :D

Here's a pic of the lead singer Dawn, walking on stage. I probably almost passed out from screaming at this moment!

Dawn in all her glory, singing her heart out! She has the most amazing voice, WOW. Even John admitted they were good. What a good boy! :)

So that was our fun Summer '09 fair experience in a nut shell for ya! :D

I almost forgot that I DID actually squeeze some time in to create a little this week! I am teaching a Christmas card class at Paper Crown on November 7th. I'll be teaching the class how to make 4 cards. Here are 2 of the card examples so far, I'm almost done with the other two as well! :)

I'm making sure not to pack away my scrapbook stuff until LAST. I don't want to be without it! lol.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I am off to bed so I can get up tomorrow morning for another full day of packing and moving! :P

Love,
Jill

Sooo much packing!

2009-09-20T21:19:00.003-06:00

Hey there!! How was everyone's weekend? Mine was okay. All I really did was pack, plus clean, plus a little more packing. It almost seems like I JUST unpacked everything into this little apartment, even though that was over a year ago and it has sure been a long year! We're getting REALLY excited to move in to our new house though. We're now just waiting on the builder to get a few last minute things done. They finished building our fence and putting up our blinds last week and all they have left to do is installing the garage door opener and a few paint touch ups, yay!

My best Montana friend Sarah was here all of last week, she left on Saturday though, I didn't want her to leave. The week went by so fast it barely seems like she was here! We had a blast though. I took her to lots of fun places here in OKC, we did a TON of scrapping and scrapbook shopping. We even took a road trip down to Texas just to go to the scrapbook store there, lol. I miss her soo much already it isn't even funny! Sighh, I wish she would permanently move here with me! :(

We took lots of fabulous pics while she was here to remember her trip by though! Here are my favs:

I wish we had taken more. Oh well, at least we took some. Now I have to get busy so I can start scrapping them! I bet she'll have all of hers scrapped before me though!

This week I finished three scrapbook layouts that I'm using to teach a Halloween layout class at Paper Crown at the beginning of November. I don't know the exact date yet but I'll post it when I know! Here are two of the layouts, the third one would NOT scan well because it was just so lumpy!

I'm pretty stoked to be getting ready for classes again. I was seriously slacking there for awhile, since I've been working so much. Hopefully I won't have to work as much soon and things will go back to how they were last year. HOPEFULLY. I liked working part time, I got so much more scrapping done back then! lol. I'm also working on my Christmas card class that I will be teaching in November also. I'm making the cards with the new American Crafts christmas line, I LOVE it! I'm so in love with the AC stuff that they came out with this season. :)

Anyways in other news, the state fair is going on this week in Oklahoma City. One of my favorite bands, Fireflight, is going to be putting on a concert at the fair tomorrow!! I almost pooped my pants when I found out about it, lol!! It's a family concert, so I'm making John AND Alex go with me! I am SO getting pics of Alex at his first concert, plus I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get to meet the band, although I think I might faint if I try to even say "Hi" to Dawn, the lead singer, lol!! I'll let ya know how it goes. ;)

In other music news the new Three Days Grace CD comes out on Tuesday, yayyy!! I have been waiting for this day for 3 years! lol.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and have a great week!!

Love,
Jill

P.S. While packing this weekend I went through all of my scrapbook paper. I threw a lot of old stuff away but there is a pretty big box of paper that I didn't want but couldn't bear to throw away. If anyone wants a box of older (no more than a couple years old), but pretty paper, email me at jilly122684@hotmail.com. I'll send it to the first person who emails me their mailing info. Help me get this box outta here! lol. Thank you! :)

2009-09-14T17:02:00.005-06:00

Hey There! Sorry it's been so long, I've been saying that a LOT lately though! We have been super busy getting ready to move, taking care of all the paper work headaches, plus working. :P

However, this week I'm not working, just taking it easy and having fun. My best Montana friend Sarah got here on Friday, yayyy! I missed her SO much and it is amazing having her here! She'll be here until next Saturday. She and I have been scrapbooking every night since she's been here. Since the weather's been a bit dreary we haven't done much else, besides go to the scrapbook store and out to eat, but hopefully we'll be able to for the rest of the week. It's supposed to stop raining tomorrow, thank goodness! I'm not a big fan of the rain, makes my hair flat. :)

Speaking of hair, I got mine cut last week and I LOVE it. It's way shorter and much much easier to dry and curl in the morning. :) I made a layout about it this weekend too, lol.

Sorry the scans a little lumpy and crooked. It's the big, pretty Prima flower's fault!

I also made a halloween banner that I have yet to take a photo of. I will soon! I'm also working on christmas cards and halloween layouts for my new classes that I'm going to teach at Paper Crown next month. I'll put the dates up on my blog when I have them!

I'm getting super stoked for halloween- already! It's my second favorite holiday. The decorations are the best, I love costumes, candy, plus black kitties. What's not to love about it? Alex is getting all excited about it this week since I've been scrapbooking with all of my halloween supplies. He keeps asking me to put on his costume already, lol! We already have his transformers costume since he was scared of it last year and wouldn't leave it on for even 10 minutes! It still fits and since he never even got to wear it why not use it for a second year?? :) I know he won't be afraid of his costume this year!

Here are a few cards I whipped together last weekend using the new American Crafts halloween papers and chipboard! I love me some AC.

AND... some pics of our new house! Just of few of the outside and a couple from the inside. I took pics of everything in the house but it doesn't look like much since there's nothing it in yet! It still needs to be cleaned also, but it's nearly ready! :D All they have to do is put in our blinds and finish building the fence, yay!

My boyfriend is America's #1 DORK. He's kinda cute though. :)

Master Bath

Fireplace in living room

Biiig living room!

Kitchen

Here's the only photo that Sarah and I have gotten so far since she's been here, not the best. :P Alex looks like a dork and my hair is all bleh from the rain! We will take a ton more this week though, for sure!

Here's the only pic I got of Alex at his friend Joy's birthday party on Saturday. Isn't he precious?? I love this pic!

Well I am off, it's been so hard concentrating on blogging because there's so much going on in here today, lol. The computer desk is right by my kitchen and everyone's in here, augh! I hope everyone is doing well, be back soooon!

Love,
Jill

Sorryyyy

2009-08-25T19:01:00.005-06:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I blogged... again!! These past couple weeks haven't been the best, but things are looking up.

My Nana, aka, my Grandma (I called her Nana all my life), passed away last Monday. She lived in Trinidad, so I wasn't able to go to the funeral. My mom is still down there, shes taking care of everyone and everything there at the moment. She's hoping to come back to the US within the next couple weeks. I really hope she does soon. I know this has been hardest on my mom. She's been down there for almost 2 months taking care of my Nana and all of my great aunts. It's been really hard on her neck too, she still has a lot of healing to do. My Nana passing is really sad, but we were all expecting it. She was in a lot of pain and we're really glad that she is pain free and at peace.

Besides that things have been pretty good! I try as hard as I can not to dwell on the sad and bad things in life.

John and I found out that we can buy a house now!!! We fought the system and finally have made it happen. :) We just made an offer on it yesterday! Hopefully we'll get good news tomorrow. I have my heart set on this house now! It's brand new, 4 bedrooms and beautiful. I already have decorating ideas swirling around in my head. Here's the pic off the website, it's the only one I have so far. If we get it I can guarantee that there will be a TON of new pics of it!

I'm just so relieved that we're finally making this happen, so relieved that I don't have to stay in this apartment for another year!

I have only finished a few cards through out this past week. Bummer! :( I am seriously going through scrap withdrawls! I'm hoping to get some major scrapping done this week. I made this layout of Jenny, Julie at Sisiversary a couple weeks ago:

I am the BasicGrey featured designer of the month at scrapbook.com this month! I am so honored that they would ask me. Thank you so much to Kelly Goree and BasicGrey! :)

Ummm... let's see... that's pretty much all my updates, just working a ton, dealing with house hunting headaches and all the other normal stuff. :)

OH- it was John's birthday 2 Sundays ago! I got a few pics, they're pretty bad but oh well. Least I took some right?

The kitty wanted some too. She's SO not a cat, acts just like a dog. She would have eaten it if we had letter, no joke.

You can see my scrap junk in the background, classy eh?? Hopefully I won't have to keep my scrap junk in the dining room for much longer now!! :)

Alex and I decorated, made him a cake and gave him some new shoes. We went out to dinner later on as well! Nothing too exciting this year, lol.

Oh yeah, and John really needs a haircut in those pics too, don't worry, he got one last week! I gave Alex a haircut as well. PLUS I'm getting my hair cut on Thursday! I have just been wanting to cut my hair shorter and shorter since we moved to this hot and humid environment last year. I rarely ever cut my hair over the past few years before last year because I was obsessed with having long hair. My friend's hairdresser mom cut my hair when I was 19, messed up and cut it ALL off. It must have only been about 2 inches long. I HATED it, it looked so awful I couldn't even stand to look at it! It seemed to take foreverrrr to grow out. Nearly 2 years until it was near my shoulders! I think I'm over the whole being paranoid about my hair being too short thing now. I'm probably going to keep it a little below my shoulders with lots of layers like I used to, plus I think I'm gonna bring to side bangs back, yayyy! I only had them for a short amount of time a couple years back and I miss them again.

Anyways, I hope everyone has been doing great! I need to check up on all my friend's blogs, I miss them!

Be back soon, promise! :)

Love,
Jill

What A Week!

2009-08-15T21:36:00.004-06:00

Hi There! Man, have I had a week or what! I was in Texas with Jennifer TP til Wednesday. I was only supposed to stay until Sunday but lots of stuff was going on that I don't want to eveeeen get into! lol. Everything's just fine with Jen and I, plus our families, so it was nothing like that. No worries there! I don't think there will EVER be any issues between Jen and I, we get along too well for that! :) The issues we were dealing with are now something we can just put behind us, once and for all! It was still awesome to get to spend lots of time with Jenny and Chris though. :) We still had plenty of fun!

Jennifer and I got SOME scrapbooking done. Actually, scratch that. Jennifer got more scrapbooking done that I have EVER seen her do in one day, it was crazy! lol. I think she cranked out 4 layouts, yay Jen! I only finished two though. Oh well, two's better than nothing, right?? :) Jennifer invited two of her friends over that she used to work with back when she worked at a scrapbook store to scrap with us, they were so nice and fun! I think I did more talking than scrapping which is why I didn't accomplish much. :)

Heerrrre are the layouts!:

And I just made this one last night, with my new Nikki Sivils papers! :D I am working on more tonight too. I have been so inspired by all the new products I've been buying! :)

I have also been getting ready for this guys birthday:

Sorry, not the BEST pic of him, I know, he's all squinty eyed! But, he still looks sexy! :D

John is turning 28 tomorrow, yayy! Make sure to wish him a Happy Birthday! :) He's going to have to work all day tomorrow though, so it's not like it's going to be all that exciting for him. :( I'm making him a cake though, his fav kind, and Alex and I bought lots of Transformers Birthday decorations for him, since he's a dork and all, I know he'll love it! All I got for him was a best buy gift card, because seriously, I don't know what to get him!! He doesn't want anything except expensive stuff, like a new cell phone, tinted windows for his truck, new rims for his truck, new flat screen, etc. Yeah right, can't really buy any of that stuff with the money I make! lol. I guess I could, I'd just have to save up for a few months. :P He doesn't want clothes because he hardly wears anything but his work stuff anymore, he kind of wants new sneakers but I know anything I got him he probably wouldn't like because he's so picky! I WAS going to get him a grill but I think I'm just going to have to save that til next year because of our whole not getting a house situation. I know he'll like the best buy gift card though, he's allllwwayyyys blowing our money on CD's and DVD's, so it will for sure come in handy. :)

Oh yeah, tomorrow is also a special day for ME! Three years ago John and I met on his birthday. It's our 3 year anniversary, yayyy! :D I can't believe it's been three years already. I remember writing on my blog about our 2 year anniversary, and it seriously seems like it was 2 MONTHS ago! I'm one lucky gal, lemme tell ya. I've never met a more funny, loving and caring man. Our personalities are so much alike, it's insane. We pretty much never fight. I have never had someone trust me like he has and I have never been able to freely trust someone like I do him. He loves Alex and I more than anything and wants nothing more than to make our lives the best he can. I love him!! :)

Well I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I promise I'm going to get all caught up on galleries and blogs next week. I had this week off of work (which was INCREDIBLE! I have slept so much you don't even know!) and work is where I do most of my gallery and blog cruising. :) I will be back with some great birthday pics! :D

Love,
Jill

Oh yeah, it's also

Only One??

2009-08-07T08:31:00.005-06:00

Helloooo! It's been a week since I posted, I was doing so well at posting to my blog a lot more often, what happened?? I have basically just had a SUPER busy week. Barely any time for scrapbooking, how sad! I've been working all day every day since it's been so busy at John's Dad's company this summer. I guess I had better change my status from "SAHM" back to "Working gal" again, since I'm pretty much working full time again! Lately I've been wishing that humans didn't require any sleep, wouldn't that be nice? Then I could stay up all night scrapping! :) I'm sure nearly everyone wishes the same thing though, never gonna happen. :P

I made this layout on Sunday, but that's all I've done.

I've started a couple more layouts this week but haven't had much success in finding the time to work on them. I plan to most definitely finish them this weekend. Alex and I are driving down to Jenny's tonight to stay the weekend with her, yayyy! I have missed her SO much and it's only been a little over a month since I've seen her! lol. It's going to be so nice to get to chill with her for a couple days, plus we plan on getting lots of scrapping done. We're also going to the Crafty Scrapper on Saturday, which is pretty much the most AMAZING scrapbook store I have ever set foot in! (Sorry Paper Crown, you know I'll always love you the best though! :)) They already have a ton of new stuff from CHA, cannot wait to buy it all! Oh man, my bank account's gonna be back to $0.00 by the time I'm done, lol. I've already done some online shopping today as well, check out these hot little items I bought this week!:

This FABULOUS kit was put together by the talented CandiMandi! She designed the papers too, aren't they soo cute and pretty?? I cannot WAIT to play with these!!

I also ordered two of the Nikki Sivils paper collections. She is rockin and so are these papers! LOVE the cherries, the lamps and couches, wow!!

Here are a few new photos of my Poopie, (aka Alex) that I have taken recently. I feel bad, I am so behind on posting his photos to my photo albums online, PLUS I am wayyy behind on scrapping all of these, but I don't think I'll ever catch up, that's just a given! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Hopefully I'll be back with LOTS of scrap goodness to share!

Love,
Jill

My FIRST nasty blog comment!!

2009-07-31T08:33:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-07-28T13:37:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-07-22T13:32:00.010-06:00

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...

2009-07-20T08:51:00.003-06:00

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...

2009-07-17T09:47:00.005-06:00

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??

2009-07-12T23:52:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-07-06T23:38:00.004-06:00

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...

2009-07-02T23:30:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-07-01T16:36:00.008-06:00

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

Byyye!

2009-06-24T00:25:00.002-06:00

I'm leaving for SISaversary tomorrow morning! I'm so excited! :) I'm guessing I'm not going to get much sleep... since it's already 1:30 and I'm only half packed, haha. Tomorrow is going to be a looong day. I have to drive to Jenny's, which is about 3 1/2 hours away, then we're on our way to Tennessee from there. We're stopping overnight in Conway, Arkansas to stay the night though. Why Conway, you ask?? Because that's where Kris Allen, the winner of Idol this year lives!! We're hoping we might see him. It's a longshot... but you never know, right?? ;)

Here is a layout I just finished tonight, all about how tall I am! I'm only 5'8", but when I was younger I always wished that I was shorter. I don't mind it anymore though. Everyone's first reaction to me, especially when they meet me online and then meet me in person is "omg, you're so tall, you don't look like you'd be tall!" lol!! Just warning you all in advance that in case I meet you I'm not short, k?? :)

Here a few new pics of Alex! He was pretending to be a doggie tonight. One of his new favorite things, lol!

I am going to go pass out now so I at least get a few hours of sleep. Have a great week!

Love,
Jill

Why Oh Why?

2009-06-21T23:13:00.003-06:00

I have received some HORRIBLE news this past week. Sobe is discontinuing their Adrenaline Rush energy drinks! I seriously drink these religiously, at least one a day! I know, I know, they aren't good for me, but I loooove them. I've been addicted to these babies for years! Why would you do this to me Sobe, why?? So now I need a new energy drink to try. I've tried quite a few that I don't like. Not a big fan of Monster, Rock Star, Redbull, any of those. Does anyone have any suggestions? Give me some good ones to try guys, there's gotta be another one out there that I'll like!

For now, I would like to offer a moment of silence for my dear, longtime friend. Goodbye my good ol' Sobe Adrenaline Rush, you've treated me well....

Sighhhh.... okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the fun stuff! :)

Today was a card making day! I was in the moods for cards again. Here are the few I have finished so far. I'll probably make some more tonight, have a ton of ideas, plus I'm so AWAKE for some reason, probably not going to get much sleep again!

Some things I have been excited about as of lately....

Music: The new Red CD!! I put my fav of their new songs on my playlist ---> Even my MOM likes the song, so you know it's gotta be good! :) She usually hates rock music, haha.

TV: I love watching those day time Judge shows. My favs are People's Court and Judge Judy. Yeah yeah, judge me all you want, (haha, judge!), but they are so entertaining! Perfect TV shows to sit and scrap to! :)

TRUE BLOOD started again last week! Let's here it for True Blood, SUCH a great show!!

Fashion: Never was a huge fan of tank tops until this summer. It's too freakin HOT to wear anything else, plus I've toned and tanned my arms a lil more this past year so they look a little better than they have in years! Not great, but not bad either. :D

SISaversary!! Now that I have my babysitter lined up, my money in order and my SUV all ready to go, I can finally let loose and be completely excited about our trip! I absolutely cannot wait! Only 2 days til Jenny and I leave for TN! :)

Well, I am off to try to wind down a get a little sleep. I hope everyone had a great Father's Day and a wonderful weekend! :) I will be back soon!

Love,
Jill

Thank You Pink Paislee!

2009-06-19T12:19:00.004-06:00

Happy Friday everyone!! You have no idea how excited I am that Friday's finally here! It has been a LONG week. We finally found a babysitter! We interviewed with a lady that runs a daycare from home. Alex, John and I really liked it but didn't think we had much of a chance of getting Alex in. She was interviewing 4 different families and only had one spot available, but she called last night to let us know she picked US out of everyone! I was in shock but so so relieved that we finally found a good place for Alex. Now I can definitely go to Sisaversary! I was so scared that I was going to have to cancel if I couldn't find a sitter in time. I would have been so disappointed. No worries now though, that's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. :)

I was super stoked today when I saw the Pink Paislee Blog!! I have the honor of being their Guest Designer this month. :) I LOVE their products, they are one of my favorite Scrapbook brands ever! Thank you so much Pink Paislee! :)

Here are the cards and layouts that I created with their "Enchanting" and "Fetching" lines:

I had so much fun making them! Like I said on their blog, their papers and embellishments are so fun and easy to create with. :D

Well, I am off to do more "Spring Cleaning", even though it's practically already summer! I spent all of yesterday organizing, cleaning and throwing stuff away. I have already filled 4 garbage bags full of stuff to give to goodwill and I'm sure there will be more. I don't even know how we collect all of this junk! We just went through all of our stuff last year when we moved! I also filled a HUGE box full of scrapbook stuff to send off to my friend Sarah in Montana. It seriously hadn't used any of it in years and needed to get rid of it. I know Sarah will get more use out of it than I would! I still need to take the box to the post office to mail off to her. I'm a little scared to find out how much it's going to cost to ship. It's HEAVY! Oh well, still worth it. :)

OH, I started a facebook awhile back! It's been so fun chatting with all of my fellow blogger and scrapper friends on there. Add me if you have one HERE!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday! Have a great weekend too! :)

Love,
Jill

2009-06-17T14:38:00.004-06:00

Soo many things to do, so little time! I seriously should start off every blog post with that phrase because it's what I am always thinking to myself!! I wish I could just stop time right now for just a little while, wouldn't that be wonderful?? I'm sure everyone feels the same way that I do! :)

Well, this week I have been running around like crazy trying to find a sitter for Alex. His old one is shutting down and her last day is Friday. There is a daycare center that I REALLY want to get him into but they don't have a spot available for a few weeks. I can't even find a home daycare near me that isn't full, it's soo annoying! I need one so desperately because I am supposed to go to Sisaversary next week. If I can't find someone to watch Alex, I can't go. Hopefully I'll find someone. I haven't totally given up yet, even though things are looking pretty grim.

John also just found out this week that he might have to move to either Texas or Arizona for work some time in the near future. I'm really not happy about it at ALL. I just got used to Oklahoma, don't really want to have to get used to another place all over again. I'll keep everyone updated. It isn't quite official yet.

Anyways, sorry, all I'm doing is complaining! :D I swear I'm usually not THIS much of a complainer!

Other than all that fun stuff, everything's been pretty normal around here. Just hanging out with the boys. Something that I really noticed and started thinking about today is how my cat is really protective of Alex. I know I've talked before about how she acts more like a dog than a cat. She fetches, she gives kisses, she follows me everywhere, those are just a few examples of her dog-like qualities! She's been following Alex around more and more lately. When Alex gets in trouble and we put him in his room, she sits in front of his door until he is allowed to come out. Any time he cries she runs over to him and stays close. When he runs around on the porch she watches him intently the whole time, especially when he gets close to the railing. When she rides in the car with us she sits in HIS lap now, not mine! I'm not too happy about that though, lol. She used to be my little driving buddy and she'd sit on my lap or my shoulder, but not anymore. :( I am SO pleased that she follows Alex everywhere now though, follows him around like she's his protector or something. It's just so sweet, I love my kitty. :) Although I am a little bit confused as to WHY she follows him around. He is so mean to her sometimes! All the hair pulling, the hitting, she doesn't try to run away, just sits there and takes it like a man. I think she likes it at times!

Well, here's a layout that I made on Monday, while watching the new Charm School and New York Goes to Work, might I add. Love those shows!! I like Daisy of Love too. Ahh, trashy TV is so enjoyable!

I really need to get movin and get more scrapping done! I'm so behind on photos it's unreal! I really need to get me the new October Afternoon "Cherry Hill" and "Ducks in a Row" collections. Those might inspire me a little bit more if I had them. :) They are SO cute! I'm also still dying to get my hands on the Sassafras Lass "Bungle Jungle" collection. I have been good and haven't been buying as much Scrap stuff lately. It's really hard though! :( PLUS Summer CHA is coming soon. I know I'm going to totally break down once that stuff starts coming out for sure, haha.

I've been working really hard on clearing old junk out of the house. Kinda like Spring cleaning, but in the summer! Guess what that means?? I'm going to be doing a TON of giveaways!! Here's my first givaway, which is an Etsy one. Just trying to get rid of a bunch of junk I made for the craft fair earlier this year. So here it is! One lucky winner will win all this stuff! The pink thing is a scarf, I think it might be hard to tell from the pic. Just sign this blog post and I'll draw a winner this weekend!

I hope everyone is having a great week, I'll be back soon!

Love,
Jill

Happy Saturday!!

2009-06-13T17:42:00.004-06:00

It has been SUCH a busy Saturday today!! Well, we're probably not as busy as MOST people are on a Saturday, but for Alex and I it was. :) John has started to work Saturdays again for the past few weeks so Alex and I usually just chill at home during the day. We had to run errands today though, HOURS of them. It's my fault, I just put everything off all week. We went to the park after that, then came home. I got to sit down and watch a movie while Alex napped. It was amazing! It's been so long since that's actually happened! lol.

Here's a couple cards that I've finished so far. My LSS just got these new Anna Griffen, Crate Paper and Prima papers. They are soo bright, happy and pretty and they all go so well together! I'm having a ton of fun with them today. Today is a "card day" because I've been in a card making mood all day. :)

Here's a layout from earlier this week:

Love love love that pic of my Grandpa and Alex! :) You all knew that though!

Here are a few pics of my boys that I took at the park the other week. I love taking photos of them playing together, so cute! :) I have a TON of these park pics, I've just been lazy and haven't edited most of them yet.

OH, Alex has just recently entered his "Why?" stage. It's kinda cute, but drives me nuts at the same time! This is how many of our conversations go:

Me: Alex, take your toys to you bedroom please.

Alex: Why?

Me: Because we need to clean the living room.

Alex: Why?

Me: Because it's messy and we need to clean it.

Alex: Why?

Me: Because I'm your mom and I said so.

Alex: Why?

Me: Because I'm super smart and the best mom in the whole world!

I have to take advantage of the situation and brain wash my son a little bit. ;) Maybe it'll stick with him later on! lol. I love that Alex is to the point where I can pretty much have full conversations with him. He's so smart! :D It's so fun to just hang out with him every day, now that he's growing into more and more of an actual little person. You know what I mean? He calls me his best friend, it's so cute!

Well I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I am exhausted and going to bed before 10 PM on a Saturday, sad huh?? :D

Love,
Jill