Organization Challenge!

So...I took before pics of my scrapping space and I'm too chicken to post them!!!
It's seriously bad looking. I put everything in cardboard boxes when I moved it from the dining area to the office and then I started making cards and Christmas stuff in that chaos!!! Not pretty. LOL!! I'll post them once I get the space cleaned up. I just can't bring myself to show you the wreckage without giving you something pretty (or at least clean) to look at as well! :D

So, while you're waiting, here's something that is pretty to look at! The afore mentioned Christmas card!!! :D

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!! :D

One extra kid and one extra dog...

...added to the mix shouldn't seem like that big a deal. Oh, lordy it is! :D I babysat my cousin's 5 month old son today and last night we became foster parents to my hubby's nephew's 1 1/2 year old beagle mix! Neither of them are potty trained!!!

Now, Maverick has an excuse (he's a baby) and he wears a diaper so it's much less messy. Bentley, however, should have been trained by now. This is obviously why my sister-in-law got fed up with watching said pup for her nephew and we have been tapped to be puppy foster parents.

So, no shower for me today!!! No scrapping, no putting away of Christmas stuff, nothing!! Oh, wait. I did get a load of whites in the wash. Baby steps! LOL! Fortunately, Maverick was only for the day. Bentley will be here for about six months. I see lots of "accident" cleaning and twice daily loooong walks. Beagles are notoriously high energy according to my dad. I'm trying to stay positive and think of the weight loss this may bring and not about the cold, rainy winters we have here in Oregon.

I can think of no positive side to having to clean up puppy pee so I need some help from you. Have you ever house trained a dog? I haven't. Our dogs were all over a year and already trained by the time we got them. I did take a few classes in college and high school that covered training a dog and I got good grades. There was no practical exam however and I need your tips. Please, please, please help us!!! Bentley has to sleep outside until he's trained, poor guy. It's not too horrible though, because the dog house is heated. (We have a whippet and he can't be outside without a heated house to warm up in.) But, we'd like Bentley to be able to hang out inside without having to go out every few minutes.

Please help!!!

Please!!!

Thanks, guys!!! :D

Five down, one to go!

Yep, I'm talking about Christmas get togethers. This must be a record for us! Here's how it all went down (and will go down)...

Sunday night----"Christmas" dinner at my mom's house with my oldest step-brother and his wife and their three (awesome) kids because they won't be able to make Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The kids are getting older so I was relieved that the gifts I got them went over well. However, according to Nathan, Cody gives the best gifts!!! LOL! Way to go, little brother! :D

Monday morning---I drive out to SE Portland to go pick up my brother. I was supposed to get there by 10:00 and back to my house by 10:30 but due to a few issues (a still frozen ham and a slight delay while Andrew bathed Mickey so he could go with me) I don't think we got back until after 11:00. We ate, opened presents and hung out. My dad got Mickey a four foot fish pillow!!! It's huge! :D And, Cody got Mickey his first Mickey!!! :D Dad got me stuff for my camera; a lens, some filters, a lens cap leash, a new lens and an instruction manual!!! Score!! Cody got me some books and movies. The books he got me are the trilogy that has The Golden Compass and 365 things to do with your toddler (because Mickey now qualifies for that title!!). The movies are Waitress and Knocked Up. Andrew and I watched that and it is so funny and some of it hit sooooooooo close to home!!! Good stuff!

Monday evening---Head out to Silverton to have dinner with Andrew's father's side of the family. We were told to bring desserts but, it turns out we were supposed to bring salads. Ooops! Oh, well. You can never be too rich or have enough dessert options! :D

Tuesday morning----8:00 am...our little family opens stockings and we show Mickey the box that has his high chair in it. He is thrilled. Not really but, Momma is so it's all good! :D We ordered a canopy for our Sport Trac as our gift to each other. My gift to Andrew this year was that he didn't have to buy any gifts at all. So, I got to fill my stocking myself this year. I got socks, an ornament (we all got our initials this year) and some scrapbooking goodies!!! Yeah, baby!!!

Tuesday morning----10:00 am...we head over to my mom's house to open presents with everyone who was at mom's on Sunday night except the five who can't make it. So, it's Andrew, Mickey and I, Cody(my brother), Doug(my uncle), Granny, Mom and Larry(my step-dad). We eat, open presents and take a group picture!!! Yep, I got my Granny to sit still for six pictures!!! I think it's a record! :D

Tuesday afternoon---2:30 pm...we arrive at Andrew's sister's house for Christmas with his immediate family. Four out of his five siblings and their SO's and kids and Andrew's folks waited for us to open presents (due to Mickey needing a nap, we got there a little late to eat with everyone) and then we played games. Andrew's family is big on games and it's a lot of fun! I played Wii Home Run Derby and beat my hubby twice!!! It ruled!! Little man got pretty tired, well, to tell the truth, so was I. So, he and I went home and Andrew is still over there playing cards!! :D

So, that's five out of the six. Our sixth Christmas affair will be with Andrew's mom's side of the family. We go out there the Sunday after Christmas and shocker of all shocks...eat!!! :D

I'm hoping that next year, we'll be in a big enough house to have everyone over. Maybe not all at the same time but, enough that we don't have to drive any where!!! LOL!!!

Hope you all had a fun and relaxing Christmas...or six!!! :D

He walked!!!

Mickey walked today!!! Three steps!!!





Right after I put the camera down!!! LOL!!! :D


Picture or no, it was a great moment!!! :D

Finally!

I finally finished my last Christmas cards today!! :D

I did a huge send out of cards on Tuesday and had a dozen or so more to make. (Note to self-don't make such complicated cards next time!) I was hoping to get them all done yesterday but between being a mom, and a gift wrapper (for my sister-in-law), and a hair cutter (for my dad) and then having my neice come by to visit her cousin, I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked. Oh, well. I always like getting my cards right up until Christmas (and sometimes after) so I'm hoping other people do to! Well, that's my justification, anyways! LOL!

Now, it's on to baking!!! :D

One More Handmade Ornament

I'd forgotten to get a pic of this little one! Sorry little guy! Hope you all like it!

I found the instructions for this ornament on Splitcoast Stampers. It uses the two tag punches from Stampin' Up!!! Totally clever, you must check it out!

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/tag_punch_star/

I used the paper from my star and pinecone ornaments (MME Kaleidoscope Birthday Girl) and a shimmery vellum. This vellum rocks! I can't wait to use it on something else.

Santa Sighting in Canby!

Yep, Santa drove by our house the other day on a fire truck!! The Canby Fire Department was out and about collecting food for a canned food drive. There was a really cool looking older fire truck with lights all over it that Santa was in and another truck (blasting it's horn) and a bunch of people walking next to it.

Since we don't get the local paper, we didn't know ahead of time that it was happening. I ran and got Mickey up (I had just put him down for the night and he doesn't like loud noises when he's by himself) and made Andrew run outside in his bare feet with a bag of food I hurridly gathered.

Such a neat holiday happening! Thanks, Corina, for blogging about your Fire Dept Santa and reminding me about ours!

Oh, and I didn't have time to mess with my camera settings so, what you see is what you get! Sorry about that. I promise to try to be a better photographer!!! :D

Tagged again!!!

I've been tagged again by my vertically blessed friend, Joscie (rhymes with bossy!). :D So, without further ado...here are seven more random things about me!



1. I've never broken a major bone. I've broken fingers and toes but nothing major.



2. I've never had a major surgery. The closest I've come is getting my wisdom's out and having general anesthesia for that.



3. I've never gotten over liking cartoons. I'm a kid at heart and that's the way I like it!!! :D



4. I've shrunk 3/4". I used to be 5'10" and when they measured my height during my pregnancy, I was 5' 9 1/4"!!! Where that 3/4 of an inch went, I'll never know!!!



5. I've always liked kids and animals. Wherever I am, if there's a kid or an animal, I'm usually down on the floor playing with them. Love them!!! :D



6. I've always liked cottage cheese. As a baby, I loved it and I still love it now! Yummy on salad, or with fruit, or with crackers or on it's own. YUM!!!



7. I've always wanted to be a mom. When I was in high school, I said I wanted a dozen kids! Then, I switched to 2 or 3. Now that I've got Mickey, I'd like four! He's a really good kid.

There it is. Seven more random things about me. :D Now, if you want to play along, go to your blog and post seven random things about you.

Tag, you're it!!! :D

Homemade Christmas Ornaments!

I love making ornaments! They are so fun and quick and easy! One of my favorite ornaments is one I made in kindergarten. It's a clay star with a circle in the middle and my picture in it. I painted the whole thing orange and covered it in glitter! I must have known that I was going to go to OSU!!! LOL!

I made star ornaments for everyone in the family (including the cat and the dog) with a picture on one side and our names on the other. I made two extra stars, too. They say "Hettwer Family" and "Christmas 2007".

To make the glittered glass balls, I coated the insides with watered-down Aileen's craft glue and then some Martha Stewart glitter. That Martha's got some great glitter, really fine and gorgeous colors! (Make sure you water down the glue first! I made one where I forgot and added the water after the glue and it's a little uneven! Ha!)

I got the instructions to make the pinecone ornament here. http://inkspirations.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-here-tutorial-for-pinecone-balls.html Very cool, and easier than it looks.

Tears and Squeals...

...were seen and heard by my hubby this morning because, I got picked to be on a design team!!! It's my first ever and I am sooooooo excited! I'll be on the team for four months and I'm soooo excited! (Have I mentioned that I'm excited!!)

The company is Fresh Pages and they have a great take on kit clubs. The kits (and there are a few each month to choose from) are designed not only by them but, you can send in your ideas for the perfect kit!!! And, if they pick your kit to offer that month you get one for free! Screaming good deal and screaming good idea! :D

So, go check out http://www.freshpagesco.typepad.com/ to see my name in lights!!! Well, actually, green type!!! :D

I did it!!!

I put up our Christmas lights all by myself!!! I've never done it before and I did it first time out of the gate without falling off the ladder! My dad came over and played with little man while I did it. It was a great day for putting up lights...sunny and 60!!! Amazing for Oregon in December!

There was one minor snafu. I had checked each strand indoors and then put them up one at a time. Once I plugged them all in, half of one strand was out!!!! Argh!!! Fortunately, my mom was able to stop by on her way home so I could replace that one strand. It went really quick.

I used about 2/3 of a box of gutter clips...of the four boxes of 100 clips and 2 boxes of 25 eaves clips that I bought. Whoops! Wasn't sure how many I needed and didn't want to have to run back to the store. LOL!

Anyway, they are up and on and I can't wait for Andrew to get home and see them!!!

If it stays dry tonight I'll post pics! :D

Go Beavs!!

Today was the Civil War. And, my team won!!! There were like a million overtimes but, I don't know how many because I quit watching at halftime.

Why would I quit watching my alma mater halfway through the game, you ask?? Good question. (You guys always ask good questions! ;D)

Well, it's because I am an OSU jinx. Whenever I watch, they start to lose. They were ahead when we showed up at my SIL's to watch the game and then it started to go back and forth, we'd be ahead, it'd be a tie, we'd be ahead, then back to a tie!!! So, I had to quit watching.

When I was in college, we lost every game I went to!!! I am an OSU jinx. So, I will now wear my OSU shirt, dress little man in head to toe orange and black and not find out the score until after the game is over.

And, that is how I found out we won today. My dad called me!!! I was too chicken to look online and find out myself! LOL!!!

I got tagged!!!

Oooops, I got tagged a few days ago and forgot!! :::blushing:::

So, I have to list seven random things about myself.

1-I'll read anything. Seriously, I read the salad dressing bottle at dinner and the cereal box at breakfast. The same ones I've read hundreds of time before. I read the shampoo bottle in the shower and, when I'm not driving, I try to read every sign I pass.

2-I own over 2,000 books. This should not shock you now that you've read number one. :D

3-I am living proof that intelligence and commen sense do not always go hand in hand. I got a 1380 on my SAT's. However it took me (and my mother) a while to figure out that was a good score because I got a 690 in verbal and a 690 in math and we didn't realize that we had to add the two together. My hair was much lighter then. LOL!

4-I like trees. They make me happy. I finally realized last year that the reason I've always wanted a pear-shaped diamond in my wedding ring is because it looks like a leaf. Yep, I'm a weird one. :D

5-I love my feet. They are my mom's feet. Long and slender with long and slender toes. Long toes. My index toe is 2 inches long. (Yes, I just measured it.)

6-Ditto my hands. Andrew and I have the same length fingers and he is 6'3"!!! When he went to buy my ring (see #4) he asked for the saleslady with the biggest hands. The gal said, my hands are big and he just laughed at her! LOL!!!

7-I love candy. Love it. I have a deep, pure and unending love for candy. Little kid candy. Gummy grapefruit, lemonheads (and orange, cherry, grape and apple, too), Laffy Taffy, Runts, Nerds, Smarties, Neccos, Red Vines...mmmmmmmmm, candy!!! :D

OK, there's my random seven. If you've made it this far and want to join in (you may be weirder than me) consider yourself tagged!!! :D

Sick...again.

So, I got sick the first time before CKC-Seattle, then I got sick after Bunko and now, I'm sick again!!! Booger got sick on Monday, worse on Tuesday, better yesterday and still not quite healthy today. I started getting sick Tuesday night, worse yesterday and the same today! Argh! I think he takes after his dad. Because, Andrew has not gotten sick this entire time. Seriously. I know. Seriously. Although, I guess I should be grateful. When he gets sick, he really gets sick. Temps of 103 and walking pnuemonia are what I've dealt with when he gets sick.

Anyway, Little Man and I have to brave the outside world today. I want to make some of those cool pinecone ornaments. Check them out here http://inkspirations.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-here-tutorial-for-pinecone-balls.html . And, I need some refill blades for my craft knife. But, the real reason we have to go is because we only have two diapers left in the whole house. And, a side effect of Mickey being sick is well, we go through a lot of diapers. So, now I'm waiting for him to wake up and then off we go. :D

Happy Turkey Day!!!

I love family. I love my family, I love Andrew's family, I love YOUR family. Seriously, ask me to come to a family function, and I'm there! I've stood in as one person or another at my friend's family Christmas party and family reunion so many times that they finally started inviting me in my own right!!! LOL!

So, for all of you spending time with your family or your friends or your friends that have become family count your blessings. They are one thing to be very thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm dreaming of a ....

....healthy Thanksgiving! :D I've been fighting a cold for about three weeks and yesterday I got some other bug on top of it and I'm just not feeling great. I'm really hoping this all goes away by Thursday.

...finished bathroom!!! Seriously, I'm starting to get a little miffed. My darling, wonderful, beloved hubby cut seven tiles this weekend. Seven tiles. Saturday and Sunday. Seven tiles. He watched every football game they showed as well as classic bowling from '86 and two golf tourneys so, I'm sure he thinks he got a lot done since he cut seven whole tiles. >:(

...clean scrap area!!! I think I've come up with a new plan. Andrew (seven tiles) doesn't really use the office that is "his area". So, I'm going to take over half of it. I'll move all the office stuff into the roll top desk in between the living room and dining area and move my scrap stuff into the office. I can put my white cubes in the corner to the right of the doorway and no one can see them until they walk in the room. Right now, my scrap area is in direct line of sight from the front door. Not cool.

...restful Black Friday. I normally go all nuts on Black Friday with my good friends the Boens. We go to Fred Meyer first (gotta get the half off socks) then hit the malls. It's a lot of fun and chaos. I went last year with Mickey but I think it'll be harder now that he's older. So, no waking up before the crack of dawn on Black Friday...unless of course, people tell me all about the great things I could be getting. :D

Happy Veteran's Day!!!

It's Veteran's Day today! Hug your local veteran!!!

I hugged mine!!!

Love ya, Dad!!! :D

Nice Blogger, Good Blogger...

...okay, lets hope Blogger's havin' a better day today! :D



Here are the goodies I bought at Noel's LSS, Lasting Memories. Awesome store!! Awesome! Has sooooooo much stuff. A little pricey (just a little bit) but so worth it because of the selection!!

This next awesome pile of yummy-ness is the goodie bag that was handed out in Ali Edwards 10 Best class. So cool, and so unexpected! There's that lace cardstock that Erin reviewed, a Heidi Swap mask(I love those things, I have a cool LO that I need to post that uses one), 7gypsies stickers, wordfetti(have you guys seen the new Christmas wordfetti??? If I hadn't bought everything at the convention I'd so be tempted!!), Scenic Route journaling stickers, a cool acrylic album by d. reeves, some really cool Christmas stickers, Basic Grey rubons and basic black brads. And...I won a book! I actually won her second book but, she let me trade for her first...after I bugged her all weekend! LOL! Not really, but you know you've been seen by someone a little too often if they start remembering your name when they are meeting hundreds of women at the same time!

This last pic is all the Technique Tuesday stamps I bought at the convention. I got a mini set at the album crop and I bought another mini set at Lasting Memories (see first pic!) The only individual letters left were Q, X, Y & Z. I bought X & Y and the gal was curious why, and I thought you all might be to. I'm going to use them for titles and accents. "10 reasons "Y" I love you" and "X"O"X"O using flowers or circle accents for the O's. Things like that! :D

So, that's all for now. I've got a few more product pics to share and then a bunch of pics of the girls!!! (And, a one of Ali being a really good sport!!)

Some Cool CKC Photos!!!

Hmmmm, someone shopping. Great pic, Erica! LOL! Actually, this is a great pic! This is the amazing Luv2talk! And, the astonishing thing about it is...she's not buying albums!!! Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

We interrupt this post to inform you that Blogger is throwing a temper tantrum. Blogger is now getting a time out and we will resume this post at a later time!!!

My Son, the Cow!

Here's a pic of the three of us on Halloween at the Boen's house(my second family!).

Little man had a great time as a cow. We visited about five houses and Mickey came home with a ton of candy and wasn't allowed to eat any of it! Momma took it to CKC-Seattle with her and gave it away at the Thursday night crop! LOL! Sorry, Booger! Maybe next year! But, he wasn't without treats. My mom got him some Gerber star puffies...his favorite!!!!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!!! :D

What should I be doing now?

Mainly, getting ready for CKC-Seattle. I can't wait!!!

-friendship pages to make
-house to clean
-laundry to do
-clothes to pack
-class stuff to pack
-goodies for the girls I meet
-tile to buy for the shower
-ceiling to paint

Those last two are things Andrew wants me to do before I leave. I think he's dreaming, don't you??? LOL!!!

I'm back...and he's one!!!

So, we've now spent three nights in a row at our own home!!! Still no shower but DH and I will be picking out tile on Wednesday so hopefully, that will be working in a week or two. In the meantime, it means daily trips over to mom's for a shower. :D Oh, and no door yet either. Not that we ever close it when we are alone but, if someone else comes over, it may be a bit of a problem. LOL!

I've got laundry to do, a scrap area to clean, a CKC to pack for, a baby to wean and an office to clean. The office is really what I'm dreading the most. It is located right across the hall from the bathroom and has no door. There is drywall dust and blown insulation all over everything. And, tons of little things to dust and a lot of the bathroom stuff was in a laundry basket right in the doorway. It is soooo dirty! So, I'm doing something else right now and telling you all about it! LOL!!!

In other news...my little baby is one year old!!!! His birthday was Sunday and we had a big party for him. There were a ton of people there. We thought about just us and his grandparents but, his aunts and uncles and cousins all love him so much, we knew they'd feel left out. It was my first time throwing a birthday party and I think it went well. However, we won't be doing such a big event for every birthday. We'll just have a potluck or go out to dinner with the family. But, first birthday's are special.

Mickey had a great time. Everyone wanted to hold him and he got to eat a little bit of pizza and some cake! Yes, I gave him his own cake. I expected a cake bomb to go off but, he was actually very restrained. I think it's because he's used to having all his food in small pieces and wasn't sure what to do with this huge thing in front of him. I don't think it registered as food to him! LOL. He did do some lovely finger painting with the frosting though.

He had his one year doctors appointment today and it is official. My son is one tall drink of water. At 30 3/4" tall he's in the 80th percentile for height and at 20lbs 12 oz he's only in the 25th percentile for weight. Oh, and he's almost in the 100th percentile for head size!!! LOL!!! He is definately starting to resemble Andrew and my body types!!! (Well, mine before I had him!!!) Tall, thin and big heads!!! Seriously, I have a big head. Andrew's hats almost fit me. Just a little loose. Anyway, I wasn't suprised by this info about Mickey. His 12 month clothes are a little loose and very short and he just crawls right out of his 18 month pants. Our family has no butts!!! ;)

Oh, and my cousin's baby, Maverick was at Mickey's party and he weighs almost 18 lbs, wears size 12 months clothing and is almost into size four diapers. Why is this news worthy??? Because he's only 3 1/2 months old!!!! Yep, he is so trying to catch up to his BFF, Mickey. :D

Mrs. misses stuff! :D

So, it is Tuesday night and I'm in my parents house in SunRiver, using their dial-up internet access to try to reconnect with my MB gals. So slow. So, so slow. I feel for the gals who always have to use dial up.

Here is a list of five things I miss right now.

1-Andrew. I seriously miss him. We did spend Thursday night through Saturday morning in Kah-nee-tah for the Oregon Ground Water Association fall convention. So, we got to spend a little time together but he had to attend meetings and classes.

2-My bed. I love my bed. It has the right amount of pillows and the mattress is super firm. Love that.

3-Mickey's bed. Well actually, he misses it, but I miss him sleeping all night in it. Sleeping in the Pack-n-Play for three weeks has totally disrupted his sleep patterns. He now wakes at one or four or two or three or all of them, which means I do too. Not fun, not fun at all.

4-My house. I miss my kitchen and everything I'm used to. I miss not having all my scrap supplies here. (Although, I did bring quite a lot with me!!! LOL!)

5-My TV. I know that's pathetic but, as a SAHM, I keep it on while Little Man naps. Anyway, in Central Oregon, Matlock and Perry Mason just aren't as cool as they are in the Willamette Valley.

So there's my little whine. Now here is your reward for listening to me. LOL! I figured out how to post pictures. :D

Unfortunately, I keep getting an error message from Blogger stating that they are aware of the problem and are working on getting it fixed. Figures!!! Hahahaha! :D

But, I promise, I'll post some pics of Little Man and some cools photos from the Mt. Angel Oktoberfest and our local fair.

Going PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness!

I decided to change my lovely green blog to pink for the month of October. Just a little visual reminder that we need to do our part to support breast cancer awareness!!

Peace out!!! :D

I almost forgot!

OK, so I did forget. :D I wanted to post a link to little man's Halloween costume.

http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/bab/435563375.html

He's going to be a cow this year!!! I keep wanting to call it his first Halloween but, it's actually his second. He was only 10 days old for his first one! :D

So, for the cow costume, I'm going to get him long black pants and a long-sleeved black shirt. What should I do for his basket? I'm sure there has to some cute idea that would go with his cow costume. Any brilliant ideas???

Tired, tired, tired...and Toilet Links! :D

Little man is not lovin' sleeping at Hotel Mommy (well, Hotel Grandma, to him). So, I get woken up a few times before our normal six a.m. wake, eat and sleep till eight ritual. I'm really starting to notice it. I'm cranky and seriously, I feel boring. Blech!!!

However, it is allowing me to be really annoying over on the scrap smack blog. I just don't think they should be smacking normal people. Products that fail and classes that consistently get cancelled and things that they pay for, I'm fine with. Makes the pro's in the industry a little more accountable and warns fellow scrappers to avoid bad products. I don't get the need to smack scrap "celebrities". And, I'm not tolerating them smacking people I know and like!

On to more mundane items. Here's the latest update on the remodel.

Gutted? Check
New plumbing? Check
New wiring? Check
New exhaust fan? Check

Next up, Andrew has to find a way to get the drywall from the store to our house without it getting wet or broken. Then he can install the insulation and drywall and subflooring.

We only have a week left as the solo guests of Hotel Mommy. I'd really like to have a functioning toilet before my folks come home but, it's not looking good. Once he gets the above items installed we still have to get the floor tiles laid and then they have to set for 24 hours and then I think we can install the toilet.

Oh, yeah. And, we have to buy the toilet!!! Hahahahahaha!!!

Here's what I'm liking right now.

http://www.americanstandard-us.com/products/productDetail.aspx?area=bath&cat=3&col=&prodID=1626

I want to get a porcelain lever handle to go with the faucets we got. Here's a peek...

http://www.americanstandard-us.com/products/productDetail.aspx?area=bath&cat=11&col=&prodID=553

We got them in Satin PVD (aka Brushed Nickel). Our house was built in '55 and I really didn't want something too modern. Besides, Andrew and I are sooooo not modern, trendy people. :D

Next time I post from my house I'll try to post some pics. Hopefully, that will be sometime this week! Wish me luck!!

Bathroom Mayhem and Hotel Mommy!

I'm writing this blog from Hotel Mommy!!! We are actually staying at my folks house while Andrew guts our one and only bathroom. Fortunately, Mom and Larry are out of town for two weeks so we aren't in each others hair. :D I don't think that being awakened by a screaming child at one in the morning is what a couple of sixty year olds really want to experience! LOL! And, being awakened by my step-dad bellering on the phone to Japan at six in the morning is so not something Mickey and I need in our lives right now! ;)

DH is actually over at our house right now. He wanted to stay there tonight to remove the toilet and the flooring under it. We're getting a dipsty dumpster delivered (say that five times fast) in the morning. So, I'll be filling that bad boy with the tile and other goodies that he's removed today. I took out all the towel bars, toilet paper holder and medicine cabinet and I'm really proud of myself! I was pregnant with my first one when we redid the kitchen so I slept on the floor while he did demo! Hee!

What are we doing to the bathroom you ask?? Well, I'm glad you asked! We are gutting that bad boy! The only thing that will remain is the bath tub. It's cast iron and it fits the spot it's in perfectly so it stays. Andrew is putting in new subflooring, tile floors, new drywall on the walls and ceiling, new insulation, new wiring, new toilet, new vanity, new countertop...well, you get the picture. He's doing it all too! Love that man of mine. :D The only thing that we will have someone else do is texture the drywall and the ceiling. I'll paint and assist Andrew (read: fetch tools, drinks and make food).

After this is done, I'm going to start campaigning to get the laundry room redone. I really want to get these done sooner rather than later. I mean, if we're gonna spend the money, I really want to enjoy it before we sell the house next year! Besides, that room is gonna rock when it's done!!

I'll try to figure out how to post pictures on this so you can see the demo in progress! And my cute demo-ee! :D

Whirlwind Week!

It's been almost a week since I last blogged and boy, the stuff that has happened.

1~Crafter's Garage Sale...was a success! We sold a lot of stuff and met some really cool people! Some of them even want to take a mini book class from me! Coolness!

2~Oktoberfest...it was Mickey's first one ever! Well, he attended last year, in utero! He loved it! He ate teriyaki chicken, sauerkraut and Marionberries and got to see some of his cousins. I think his favorite was petting the sheep and a llama. Good times!

3~Bathroom remodel...was planned in about 24 hours! I realized that my folks two week trip to the East Coast would be the perfect time for us to remodel our one and only and tiny bathroom! We can stay at their house during this and not be in their hair or feel like we are imposing. And, they only live a mile and a half away so it's not a big drive to work on the bathroom. So excited because now we'll actually get to enjoy this before we move in about a year! Yeah, baby!

4~Lost a loved one...my father's aunt Laverne died on Sunday. She was 90. My dad is in Eastern Oregon hunting so I've been trying to get a hold of him for a few days to tell him. We are going to the funeral on Saturday. Laverne was such a neat lady. She had a keg of beer and a live band at her 80th birthday party!! She always was full of life and love and passed that on to her family. Miss you already, Aunt Laverne!

5~Our new driveway...was driven on for the first time! It is so nice now! We can park two cars side by side and two deep and then two more single file behind them. With five siblings each, being able to park six cars off the street is a good thing!

6~Kid Watch...at my gym is now acceptable to Little Man again!!! He wasn't having it for a while and that made it hard to get in a work out! So, he's been cool with it for three workouts in a row so far! Way to go, Mickey!

7~Teeth...Mickey now has eight of them!!! He got two more in three days! Little Man is growing up!

Well, that's all the big stuff. There's been quite a lot of little stuff too! New back gate, making hair appointments (required FIVE phone calls!), getting car stuff taken care of...all the while doing the normal SAHM stuff! :D

Anyway, I'll be leaving Friday and won't be back until Sunday so, unless something fabulous and eminently blogable happens...see ya Sunday!!!

Selling the Goods!

So, my mom and I are having a crafter's garage sale tomorrow and Saturday. So, I'm trying to put an ad on Craig's List and for the first time, it's hating my photos!!! So, now I'm loading them into Photobucket, resizing and reposting them. Argh!!! Andrew wants to go look at house stuff and I can tell he's getting restless! Thank goodness for football and chips and salsa!!! :D

Argh!!! Photobucket is so slow!!! Only halfway through four photos!!! Ah, well. At least we have an ad in the Canby Herald.

So, I posted the ad on Craig's List with no photos. I'm trying to link it to a bulletin on My Space and my ad is not showing up yet!!! Seriously, Craig, get the lead out! :D

Ahhh, finally!!!

http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/gms/421886358.html

I'm so bad...and so good!!!

Bad, first. (It's more fun!!!)

I just added another class to my CKC-Seattle schedule!! I'm taking Acrylic Mania II on Saturday morning at 8:00 am. This is the morning after the Friday night crop!! I'm so glad I'll be able to drink caffeine again, otherwise I don't think I'd make it! :D

BTW, I told all this to my mom and she thinks it's good that I'm adding more classes!! (See, I told you my mom rocks!)

And now for the good!!!

We had a garage sale this weekend and I made some mad money for my trip!! Whoo-hoo!!! :D

And, we are having a crafters garage sale this coming weekend to sell supplies and such. Hopefully, it's a sucess. We advertised it in the local paper and I'm thinking of putting flyers in the local Post Office and places like that. So, I'm purging my stash and making money at the same time! Wahooooo! :D

Oh, and now for the reason my mom is advocating more classes. On Saturday, Andrew watched Mickey during the garage sale. I missed him almost the whole time! We actually stopped by the house on our lunch trip and I couldn't see him because he was napping and I was afraid to wake him. So, mom thinks that if 5 hours bugs me, 3 days are gonna kill me unless I have a lot of distractions!! LOL!

Other stuff I want at CKC-Seattle

I must keep adding to this so that I'm not tempted to buy now!!!! I've already been bad and gotten some of the Big Lots ribbon! (Bad, Erica...bad, Erica!!) :D

~QK Magpie storage container in white
~Graph paper by Scenic Route
~some really cool expensive new goody*

*this was suggested to me by my mom as she handed me $50.00 the other day!!!! Love my mom!!! (She's paying me for watching her house this weekend and for two weeks the end of this month. I think she's feeling a little guilty because my b-day is during those two weeks.)

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!!!

My First Entry

So, I decided that since I created this blog quite a while ago, I should actually blog something!!!

Mickey update--Little man has SIX teeth now! I'm going to start transitioning him away from pureed baby foods (goodbye Gerber) and get him into eating what Andrew and I eat. Which also means that Andrew and I must start eating better! No more dinners of just chips!!! And, veggies at every meal. Anyone have good suggestions for easy ways to cook the not so common veggies? Variety is the spice of life, ya know!?

Scrappin'-So, they made the calls for SOY today on CKMB and today I submitted a page to CK. First time I've ever done that. Kind of exciting. I think I need to get a little more serious about my scrapping. I don't want to make it feel like a job but, I get so much more done when I scrap every day. Even if it's just for a short while.

Besides, I have such a huge stash going on, I need to scrap or it'll take over our little house! LOL!!!