HOLY MOLY!!!

Check out my CKMB buddy Shaina's laundry pile!!

http://just-because-i-am-me.blogspot.com/2007/08/excessive-laundry-take-peek.html

This gal's got props from me for her patience with all that!!! Can you imagine??

And I thought I had it bad with just Andrew and the baby. My hubby likes to come home and take off his grubby work clothes, then put on clothes to go do yard work, then take a shower and put on clothes for the rest of the evening. Why can't he just wear the work clothes to mow the lawn??? Are pump mud and grass that incompatible???

I really don't mind doing the laundry or folding/hanging it. What I put off is putting the folded clothes away. We have a small house without a lot of storage space and putting it away is an exercise in precision. It's not unusual for me to have three laundry baskets of clean clothes folded in the laundry room.

What's your laundry story???

Finally, I can walk through my living room and not cringe! I spent today moving stuff around and getting a new gate set up for little man. Put some of the stuff he doesn't use anymore in storage for the next little one and took down the camping mats that I had wrapped around chairs to keep him out of the kitchen. (Don't ask, it worked and it was all I had. :D)

I've got so much to do tomorrow! My mom's finally back in town and we are going for our walk in the morning. Then, I'll shower and get ready and go pick up my niece's so we can go to....the car dealership! Yep, way cool! Hah!!! There's a recall on our '02 Explorer Sport Trac that I have to get taken care of before it self-combusts and takes the house with it! And, when we bought the vehicle they only gave us one key so I'm finally getting around to getting another ignition key made. (It has a chip in it so I can't just run to the corner store. Blech!) The nieces are required for this trip for a few reasons. 1-They are great and I love to spend time with them and 2-The waiting room at the dealership is small and dirty and not a good place when it comes to keeping a 10-month old entertained.

After that, it's back to my house so I can give the girls some old beads I found while I was purging my craft supplies. Then, a gal that responed to my Craig's List ad is going to come over and go through my old Stampin' Up! stamps and hopefully buy some. (More $ for CKC, baby!!)

Finally, it's off to the vet with the cat. The girls are once again going to come in VERY handy with this because my vet always has me come in with the animal and hold it during the exams and shots.

Then, I'll take the girls home and Andrew and I can eat leftover lasagna (thank goodness for leftovers) and I'll be able to take a load or two of stuff to my dad's for the garage sale in a week!

All in all, it'll be a go-go-go day and I really should be in bed!! Hah! ;D

Almost two weeks!!!

That's how long my freeze lasted!!! :D I was too tempted by the ribbon deals at Big Lots. I've been lusting after those ribbons for so long and $2.00 each was waaaaaaaay too good a deal to pass up.

So, to get myself back on the wagon, I will start a list of goodies I would like to buy at CKC-Seattle.

~Basic Grey Magnetic Mat~have heard great things about this bad boy and can't wait to try it out.
~New Basic Grey Lines~I'll probably end up buying at least two of them!
~New Scenic Route Lines~They are so great for kid LO's!!!
~A bunch of class kits~Gonna check out what my buddy, Jackie (Jross25) does in her classes and buy the kits if I love them!!! I also want to scope out what the rest of the CKMBr's take and get their kits if possible. I love kits! :D

So, what else should I have on my list? The more that's here, the less I'll buy before CKC! It's all about re-freezing!!! :D

I've been doing something else!!!

So, I've actually been doing stuff around the house instead of living on the computer and scrappin'!!

I snuck over to Andrew's work and dropped off five presents for his 35th b-day. I had them all around the shop. Everyone there thought it was great! These were his presents from Mickey and the tags read "i" "heart(actual heart not the word)", "u", "da-da", "heart(actual heart not the word) Mickey". He had to get them all together in the right order to read them. It rocked! He says he doesn't like attention but he called me as soon as he got all five and read the message and told me how much he liked them. And he has thanked me at least three times since then!!!

I've also gone through each and every article of clothing I own and purged like a mad woman. I took ELEVEN grocery bags of clothes to my dad's for a garage sale!!! ELEVEN!!!!

I've also taken almost everything non-baby related out of my son's room. (It's now in the hallway and our bedroom but, I'm going through it to purge for the sale.) It's made me realize that I need to get a rug for his room. The one in there was fine when it was my craft room but light green with pink hearts just isn't cutting it for him now. :D

Andrew and I also went out to dinner together, without Mickey, for the first time since he was born! We went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in downtown Portland. Yummy! I do have to say that I am very grateful that we had a $75.00 gift card for there, otherwise our bill would have been ridiculous!!! Little Man stayed at his Aunt Kathy's and had a great time. I'm always worried that he'll fuss the whole time we're gone but he really loves his aunts and uncles and cousins and does great when he's with them. Phew!!!

Oh, and I've caught up on the laundry* and switched little man's car seat. He is now the proud owner of a convertible car seat! This should take him a while to outgrow. It's good for up to 50 lbs!!!

*OK, I still have to put it away but, at least it's clean!!! :D

I've been tagged!!!

OK, I've been tagged twice now, once by Liz and once by Joscie so I've decided to actually get off my duff and do my duty! :D

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. ***IF you have already done your middle name than do the State that you live in with new adjectives!*****
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts. ***Or state if you have already been tagged before!***
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.Here is mine:

Here goes...

B-Babbler. I like to talk, a lot. My parents used to call me, Erica the mouth of America!
R-Reader. I love to read, a whole lot. I can read extremely fast and comprehend quite a lot of what I read. This was the secrect to my awesome test taking abilities in school. ;)
E-Educated. I like knowing things. I like educational TV, fiction that has true facts in it and channeling my inner Cliff Claven by knowing the scientific answers to questions like why is the sky blue.
E-Excitable. I still love looking forward to things like Christmas, my family reunion, my trip to CKC-Seattle or the county fair. And, I can get to the point where I'm bouncing off the walls with anticipation. Drives Andrew nuts sometimes! LOL!

OK, I'm off to find four people to post!

I tagged:

1. Julie (scrapperdays)
2. Ingunn (smultringunn)
3. Nicole (crop-a-holic)
4. Latrice (Scrap Addict 13)

1st Temptation

Tonight I faced the first temptation to melt my freeze. I'm working on a LO of my little man's first foods and I got two of them in the wrong order. The names of which I'd already written on the one piece of black Bazzill I have. It's not something that I can salvage. I don't even have any DCWV in black.

My first thought was to go to the LSS tomorrow morning so I can finish this LO. (I've been a little stuck and Justin F. Mojo showed up tonight) But, I decided to be strong. And, I checked the Bazzill I ordered from QVC and it has black!!! So, I'm going to wait the two weeks to finish this LO. I'm really bummed, but that's how it has to be.

The house search continues...

If you read a few posts down, you'll know that I want a goat and Andrew may actually be on board with it. We had discussed getting a goat (or goats) after we buy a new house and we actually had one in mind. One of Andrew's customers is retiring and moving to the coast and told Andrew that he'd call us first when he put his place on the market. His place is just outside of town, has a large shop and would be great for what we need. Well, we just found out that although he's just retired, he's not moving for THREE years!!!

That is just not going to work. We've got two adults, one infant, one dog and one cat living in 988 square feet! Our current house has three teeny bedrooms (one of which has the doors removed and is our office/cat's room), one bathroom and four of the tiniest closets ever! My scrapbooking stuff is in a roll top desk and some Target cubes in the dining area. Sounds good except it's an area, not a room and it is the first thing you see when you open our front door. It looks awful, especially when I'm in the throes of creativity(read: stuff flung everywhere) or stuck on a LO(read: stuff laying out for days). So, we were just kind of making due until we were able to buy this guys home. Oh, and we want to have another kid sooner than later and in this house it would be just ridiculous! Possible, but ridiculous! LOL!

So, the house search is back on. Ideally, we want anywhere from 2 to 5 acres, just outside the Canby city limits and in the Canby school district. We'd like four bedrooms with at least two baths and a large shop on the property with an office in it for the business we will be buying in a few years. I'd also like a large area for entertaining our families and another area for all the kids to hang out without driving the adults nuts. (Andrew and I are both one of six kids so our family functions can get huge to say the least.)

In real life I'll settle for something in the Canby school disctrict with room to build a shop and at least three bedrooms with room to expand later on. In the meantime, my honey is keeping his eyes peeled when he's out on calls and bringing home flyers. And, I'm looking online and driving around the area looking too.

I'll be so happy when we finally find a place and are able to move. I'm so tired of my house being in a constant state of disarray from not having enough room to put things away. It gets so frustrating I'm almost wondering if we should just buy a larger house in town and then in a few years buy our dream property. I don't think Andrew would go for it though. We're both country kids and the only redeeming factor about our house now is the very large lot we live on.

Well, I'm off to go try to purge my closet in the never-ending search for more space...wish me luck!!! :D

Freeze!!! It's the spending police!

OK, OK, I know I said that Frugalities was off limits. However, I have a really good excuse.

I have no self-control! :D

So, after a Frugalities order and a QVC order today, I have come to the hard decision that I must document my freeze. And, I must set up some rules to minimize thawing.

Rule 1-I may only order once from Stampin' Up! between now and CKC-Seattle. (And, I must keep my order as small as possible. Hopefully, mom needs, er, wants a lot of stuff so I can stay a demonstrator. :D

Rule 2-I may not buy adhesive. (I just bought the Glue Dots set from QVC, that should hold me until CKC)

Rule 3-I may not buy refill blades. (Just bought two packs at local Kroger (Fred Meyer))

Rule 4-No buying scrappin' stuff at non-scrap stores. (Used to do this to get around previous freezes.)

Rule 5-The Treasure Box Club is allowed. However, previous kits and extras from previous kits are not.

Rule 6-If I follow the above rules, I may purchase the new Simple Scrapbooks when it shows up in the afore-mentioned grocery store. (I already subscribe to CK and Scrapbooks, Etc!!!)

Rule 7-Must go through one category of scrap items per week in order to purge for fund-raising crafters garage sale.

OK, that's it. Seven rules. Hopefully, it's my lucky number. I know it's not a traditional freeze but rules 1, 5 and 6 will keep any mini-thaws from being full-on melts. And, rule number 7 will remind me weekly of just how much stuff I have.

So, do you have any tips on helping me stay frozen??? Or on just increasing self-control?

:D

I got his goat!!

Well, hopefully, mine! We went to my step-brothers house to give a belated b-day present to my nephew and I had Andrew check out their goats.

Why is this blog-worthy?? Because when we move in a few years, to a place with some acreage, I want a goat!!! And, whenever I tell this to Andrew he rolls his eyes at me. So, tonight on the drive home I asked him what he thought of their goats and he said, "They're pretty cute."

Whoo-hoo!!! I'm so getting a goat!!! :D

Permission to be bad!!!!

Ok, folks! You must go out and buy a Blizzard at DQ today. DQ is donating all proceeds from Blizzard sales today to the Children's Miracle Network.

According to the lovely, self-proclaimed, know-it-all of CKMB (luv ya, Em!) charity ice cream has no fat or calories.

However, she did forget to say how much better it tastes and that ice cream is high in calcium. So ladies, do your part to prevent osteoporosis and help out the Children's Miracle Network!

I think I'll be having a mint M&M Blizzard tonight. Yummmmm!

Pre-CKC-Seattle Registration Jitters or....why I shouldn't be allowed to use the hyphen!!!!!! (or exclamation point!!!!)

I'm just now getting nervous about registering for CKC-Seattle! I've never registered online before, just signed up at CKC-Portland for one class. But this time I'm going without little man so I can go nuts with the classes!!! Here's what I'm hoping to take...along with some comments from the peanut gallery!!!

Thursday

Thursday Night Album Crop---------Totally looking forward to this, it will be a great way to start off our weekend. :D

Friday

Ali's Top 10-----------My friend and I decided to take this lecture class early Friday morning, so we can recover from staying up late and in our zombie-like state just absorb the awesome fabulousness that is Ali Edwards!!!
Basic Grey - Latest and Greatest--------------I love Basic Grey and I've heard nothing but good stuff about this class...and they are using the just released lines!!!! Woo-hoo!!!
10" x 20" Canvas Wall Hanging------------Another class that I've heard great things about. I checked out their website and the picture's not that clear, but it looks awesome!!!
Friday Night Crop-------------My friend Jackie (jross25) is really looking forward to this. It's her first official crop ever!!!! Go Jackie, it's your birthday! Go Jackie!!!!!

Saturday

Keep it Simple, Make it Quick, Get it Done with Metropolis----------I love, love, love this paper!!! Especially on LO's for little man.

Anywho, wish me luck registering tomorrow!

Online happenings. :D

So, we got back from our camping trip yesterday. Went pretty well, actually. I was a little worried because the normal group of people we hang out with weren't going to be there. But, it was good. Made us expand our social circle and made me learn the names of more people. (I'm horrible at that, it takes quite a while before I remember someone's name)

Anyway, I went online yesterday and so much had happened!!! One, I got a pm on CKMB from hickschick, she was able to post the picture of the SOY LO she did. Months ago, when she was working on this LO she sent a request for some of those Queen & Co heart charms so she could finish her LO. ~Kim~ had sent her some and she couldn't find them. Well, I had just gotten some in a grab bag I had purchased online!!! I was so excited that I got her address and mailed them right away! How cool, to help someone finish their SOY submission! Here it is!!!
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHI3ytn0yl2I7zSooT1N0qF3dvZ5m1iC8WDsKYmplp3yr86yfa2sdhATggzGmxTjuSOw103OnlG9jKf2mwuuq1N6gqFP3gqbnabkA7UDX2gG6CBez-DyD-R2K4vRL1MfbT-TIQzFLRksNl/s1600-h/P1010001.JPG

And, keep checking her blog for the rest of her amazing submission! http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/

She's got great style and uses a lot of stamping in her LO's!!! Gotta love that!!! :D My new fav LO of hers is "You See Lifes Colors". Awesome!!!

The other really cool thing that happened is that Liz (hickschick) and Ali Davis found my blog and I now have two comments!!! Why is this cool you ask??? Because, I'm still trying to figure out how to place a link to my blog on CKMB!!! And, because they have awesome blogs and awesome scrappers to boot!!

(Yes, awesome is my word du jour, previously I was all over "fabulous"!)

Husbands!!!!

Or, I should say, my husband!!! Sometimes he tries so hard to do good and it just backfires because he tries to do it on his own and not have me help.

Case in point, packing for our camping trip this weekend. He loaded all our camping stuff in the back of our truck. Why is this bad, you say? Many reasons. I need to get the trucks oil changed and go to the store and I'm always afraid someone will jack stuff out of the back since we don't have a canopy. And, he filled the cooler with beer and water. The cooler that needs to have food in it too!!! So, now instead of stacking a case of beer and a case of water, I need to figure out how to fit in 30 cans of beer and 48 bottles of water!!!!! Oh, and did I mention the truck bed is completely full and we need to fit ourselves in the front bucket seats, our son in his car seat in the back along with at least two bags of clothes, a stroller, a plastic container with all the non-perishable food and another container with baby stuff (dipes, wipes, life vest, etc.)

So, instead of reducing the amount of stuff I have to do today, because of my husbands "help", I have to unload almost the entire truck and repack!!! ARGH!!!!!

Side note: We are camping where it will be in the 80's during the day and 40's at night!!! I hate packing for trips like that, it almost doubles the amount of clothing you need!

Secret Online Love!

Ahhhh, frugalities.com. You are my secret online lover! I must go to your website daily to see what the discount is today. I've only known you for a few weeks now and I've already ordered from your bounty three times!!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. And, our relationship is one of those good things. I need to save for an awesome trip to Seattle I'm taking this November.

Yep, Jackie and I are going to Seattle-CKC. We've got a hotel room and we are meeting tomorrow during her lunch hour to discuss what classes we should register for. Can't wait!!!