yet another page.

another new page..Credits here. At least this way I can show off some of my recent pictures. I'm in the process of checking out other blog options....I'm so frustrated right now with blogger that it makes me barely want to post any updates...

Today Alyssa started Tae Kwon Do and loved it! There was only one other girl in the class and lots of boys, but she got in there and fit right in. I was impressed with how well she did for her first day. She's also starting ballet this week. Interesting combination huh? hehe So our life just got a LOT busier...TKD 2x a week and ballet 1x, plus we already have Girl Scouts once every 2 weeks. She still wants to get into some Piano lessons too, so I guess I need to find an instructor for that. Thankfully none of these things so far are very far away, but I'm sure it's still not going to be fun packing ourselves up 3x a week to run here and there when it gets reallly cold. It's going to make my evening routine a little different, with later dinners too, but I'm sure we'll adjust soon. It'll be good to get out more. Since her lessons are at the local community center/gym, they also have babysitting and classes and stuff for me. We signed up for the family membership, so while she's in her lessons, I'm going to drop Ky off at the babysitting (good for her to play with some other little kids too) and work out or go to one of the excersize classes- will give me an hour to myself plus help me lose this extra weight. This week I'm just watching Alyssa and letting Ky get used to the idea of being dropped off in the babysitting. Next week I may go walk or do something I can leave if they have to call me out. Ky did great tonight when I left the room, but after about 45 min they had to bring her to me..said she was just ready to go and they couldn't console her any more. Though really, I'm not sure the lady was the type to have tried that hard, but it's ok..that's why this week we're just easing into this.

Other news..hmmm We carved the pumpkins Sunday morning before Eric went to work (if I can get blogger to let me add anything...I can post some in here). He had Saturday off (first day off in like 16 days), and the girls spent most of the day doing stuff with him to catch up on some daddy time and to give me some free time to work. Today was so warm that Eric took Ky out with him all morning to work on the fence and get some outside time - mommy got to sleep in a bit :)

I've been really busy getting a bunch of designs ready for the store. DSS is still down right now while they move to a new server, but it should be back up in the next couple of days, and I'll have lots of new goodies, a couple kits and several charm packs. There's a rumor there will be a big sale for the reopening next weekend too! hehe

A good scrapping friend of mine, Kelly (Kellbukley) has been scrapping some of my recent pictures too. She needed to do several fall themed ct pages, so I sent her a bunch (and I mean a bunch hahaha) of my pictures and she picked out a few to scrap. Since I don't think I'll be able to add previews of them into this post, I'll give ya the links. You HAVE to go see these (and leave Kelly some love while there) - they're beautiful! Thanks again sooo much Kelly.
Fall Photoshoot
Brrr
Beautiful Girl
She's working on another right now of Alyssa too..I'll share as soon as she's done.

Well..I need to go get some more of my previews ready and get to bed before it gets much later. I have been staying up way too late the last few nights, and tomorrow I have to go help out at Alyssa's school for their Halloween party and events tomorrow. Eric took the day off too (whooohooooo), so he'll be going with me too.

later gators!

Some more scrapping....

A new layout from last night using some of those new pictures I've been taking but can't post yet cuz blogger is being a snot. Maybe it's time to switch to typepad...hmmm
Credits here

Tonight we'll be scrapping Mother's Day (or any pictures of your mother or you as a mother...) The flowers are the bonus this week for posting by 11:59 PM Saturday night. Sketch will be given as well.

New items in the store this week

New kit in the store this week. I'm having trouble posting anything and adding any text to blogger for some reason..errr...will have to post some of the fall pictures later...this is making me crazy to even try to put these preveiws in here.

Summer Charms

Summer element pack - comes with 5 gold charms, 5 silver charms, gold and silver chains, gold and silver connectors and brads (brads not pictured). In the store now!

Colorable Alpha in the store

Colorable alpha with some bonus elements and an overlay. Also in the store this week!

We had a good weekend

Despite Eric having duty this past weekend, we managed a pretty relaxing time. When Eric got home from work on Friday night we took the girls to a local farm/pumpkin patch before it got dark. The girls had a great time and I got a few pictures. Ky was more interested in all the little farm cats running around and chased them all over. After purchasing our pumpkins and some colorful mums to decorate with we headed out to dinner.

Saturday was duty for Eric and the other Girl Scout Leader for Alyssa's troop and her kids came over for a couple hours. We ordered pizza for lunch and then Brenda and I worked on some troop planning while the kids played their little hearts out. After they left Alyssa went down the street to play with another little friend for a couple hours while Ky took a nap and I did some work. Once Eric came home, he got a few fence pannels up before it got too dark, and then in the evening Alyssa and Daddy had a movie night while Ky and I played downstairs.

Sunday we planned to go to the park and take some nice fall pictures, but it was soooo cold we decided it was just too cold to play outside. I took a few fall pictures from the porch, the deck, and the kitchen window and then Alyssa and I just lounged around while Ky napped. When Eric came home the kids were just dying to go outside, so I bundled them up to go play for a bit while Eric worked some more on the fence. I went ahead and put some warm clothes on too and grabbed the camera. I layed Ky in the yard in some leaves to take some pictures, and the poor baby was so cold she didn't even move! We got several really cute shots before we were just too cold to stand it any more. I think the temp was a little less than 40 degrees, but felt like 30. BRRRRR (I am posting from my laptop before going to bed, so I'll have to add some pictures later).

Today I took Ky outside since it was a bit warmer to take her 18 month pics before Eric left for work. It's helpful to have him help control her while I try to take the pics. I got several cute ones before we came back in and Eric left for work. Then I planned to wait for Alyssa to come home so I could take both kids to the park after we ran to the vet, but by the time Alyssa got home it was 38 degrees again! ugh. So...no park again, just a run to the vet.

Well..I'll have to post all the pics tomorow...Eric is working 12 hours every day this week and will be getting home REALLY late so I have to be able to get up and get Alyssa ready for school. I need to go to bed early so I can get enough sleep. I'm about an hour later than I planned now, so hopefully I'll do better tomorrow! ha.

Night for now...

Scrap an Event Chat

Where should I go?

So...I talked to my best friend, Janelle today. We decided we should pick somewhere and meet for a weekend. I haven't seen her in 2 years now when my family last went to visit her family for her little girl's first birthday. Now we each have another kiddo and haven't had a chance to meet up again for 2 years now. So, the problem now? Where do we go? Who knew given the entire country, it would be so hard to pick A CITY to go to. I'm starting a brainstorming list, but anyone out there that actually reads this have any ideas for a girls weekend getaway? We're not party people, so somewhere we can hang out, catch up, relax, maybe get pampered, and maybe see some fun sights would be great. hmmmm

My computer was out again all day today, and when Eric came home he changed out the network card and now it works again (knock on wood). I'm so behind again on things and I can't believe tomorrow (well today now since it's 1:30 in the morning already) is already THURSDAY? Where did the week go? I need to make my freebies for my chat on Friday night (we'll be scrapping Christmas this week), and I have a loooooong list of things to catch up on as well. It just never ends and this computer crap is not helping. It's just one thing after another every other day. Even though my computer is fixed now, I've lost all the email that was in my inbox! I'm HOPING Eric can find that or get it back for me tomorrow night. Cross your fingers somethign else doesn't come up and this stupid computer is fixed now... I may scream and throw it pretty soon. LOL

Well, I'm trying to decide what to do tonight..go to bed early (praying the computer still works tomorrow) or suck it up and stay up tonight for a while longer so I can work on my freebies for Friday. hmmm

why why why????

All day yesterday and today my comptuer worked fine while I had no desire to really work on anything. So tonight I was surfing the net looking at some pics on a friends website for a bit. Eric comes home, changes out some network cable (I have no idea why..he just did after looking funny at the network box). After that, he goes up to take a shower and I go to actually work on some design....and guess what??? Everything started freezing up. So, I log out of hello (where I was talking to a friend and my mom) and restart. Now NOTHING wants to work again. siiiiiigh. This is so ridiculous. I truely am not meant to design anything lately. What's the deal? I guess I need to give in, forget about a todo list (it just stresses me out) and just work on Eric's computer to at least try to get OPA's new website content all together. Maybe I could then get SOMETHING done and feel a little less frustrated. So, I guess I'm watching the end of this xfiles show that is on and just going to bed for the night. MAYBE something will work for me tomorrow. I am going to try and take Ky's 18 month pics tomorrow..maybe my camera will be more cooperative than my computer. Though I will need my computer to help me look at them when I'm done! ha uuuugh. :( night night

Home from Chicago

Well I headed up to Chicago on Saturday afternoon to meet up with some gals from SBB. I meant to leave in the morning so I could go into Chicago and meet up with Lisa W and see some sights and then go back down to Napperville where the SBB gathering was for the crop Saturday night, and to stay with Raechel, Amy, and Robin. Well...I know this is hard to believe for those who know me..but I can actually be a little nervous and shy about heading out to meet a bunch of people by myself. I was afraid I'd end up by myself, hanging out in a hotel all alone, and just plain wishing I was home. On top of that, Eric was actually off for the weekend, and I really wanted to take the girls to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures and such...so I just had a hard time motivating myself to leave Saturday morning. I kept debating whether I should really go or not. I was kinda nervous about driving all the way into Chicago by myself too and didn't really want to pay $40 to park just for a couple of hours....so...I DID finally decide to go, but I left at 12:30 so I just went straight to the hotel in Napperville, hoping I'd be there in time to do a little shopping or something in the area with the girls there. I didn't get there till 2:30 and by then when I called Raechel she said they were already on their way back, so I just went ahead and checked in and waited in our room. About 3:30 Raechel called to tell me they'd be there in about 20 min and to meet them in the lobby and we'd go right to dinner. So I went downstairs after about 15 min and waited......They hit trafic and got lost and such so didn't show up at the hotel until almost 5 PM. By then it was just too late to go out because we needed to be at the hotel by 6:30 for when people might start arriving for the crop. So we ordered in some pizza. I went down to the hotel bar with Robin Cabana about 5:30 and we got a drink and relaxed for a bit and just chatted. About 6 we went back to the room to eat the pizza and gather our things to go downstairs for the crop. About 11 people total showed for the crop, but we didn't get much scrapping done since we were all so busy giggling and having a good time. I thought I took more pictures, but turns out I only took 5! How sad am I? lol Thankfully some of the other girls took more pics and shared them with all of us. Jen Caputo even got a good group shot of everyone.

So...Saturday night Amy and Raechel turned in as they had early flights out and Robin and I sat up chatting till some late hours and then we slept in Sunday morning. We headed out into Napperville to find somewhere to eat lunch and then I finally headed back home about 3:30. Turned out I had a good time. I only wish I could have met up with Lisa W and the other girls downtown to meet them too, but I just didn't have time to go into Chicago and I didn't want to pay $40 to park for just an hour or two - not to mention, it's another hour drive or even an hour by train from Napperville into Chicago. SO...maybe another time. I hope.

Today..I've been soooo tired. I fell asleep on the couch last night after we got home from dinner and the girls went to bed, slept about 2 hours and then got up and checked email and such for abotu an hour. Then I went to bed and actually slept about 8 hours. Then after being up for a few hours this morning, I passed out again and slept for another 2 hours before Eric left for work. I was dragging all day and finally got a bit of energy after the kids were in bed tonight and started on a scrap page. I figured I could be done with this page in about an hour or so and go to bed early, but NO..simple pages always take me forever. LOL

So...here's my page from tonight finally. These are my girls with my friend Shayna's boys last month when we went home. We met up at Chick-fil-a for lunch and the kids had a great time playing in the play room together for about an hour. We braved it and attempted to get a picture of all four of them before we left, and actually managed a few with all 4 looking at us and sitting.

Credits here

OK and with that...I am going to bed now. It's late and all I've done today is load the dishwasher, take care of the kids, and scrap this one page! LOL Mabye I'll have some energy again tomorrow so I can get back to some design that I'm behind on, and some OPA work I REALLY need to get done.

Family Beach picture

yay! Finally a new page scrapped. See full credits here.

2007 Calendar Templates

Now available in my store at Digiscrapshak.com Get it this wekend for ONLY $5.00!!!

see you there

More computer trouble...

Would you believe? Yep...STILL having computer problems. Seems like everytime I sit down to work or I start to actually get caught up, my computer won't work again and I have to shut it off for several hours. While it's doing it's COOL down, I can work on my laptop, but since I can't access any of my files, I can't really do much other than surf the net. :( When I CAN get on, I've been working on a calendar template - it will have 12 LO templates, and each month's overlay for 2007, this way you can put in any kits you want to use and mix and match the templates you like best. I HOPE to still have these in the store tomorrow. I had meant to have 2 other things up this week, but I don't know that it will happen at this point. siiigh.... So in other news..I bought the girls winter coats, snow pants and snow boots last week because the weather for today predicted SNOW! Can you believe SNOW already? YIKES! Well, they did need the warm coats as it was 32 degrees this morning when Alyssa left for school, but there was no snow. Alyssa was sad, but I'm sure she'll see it soon enough. OH we had a bit of real excitement tonight! I lit the fireplace tonight since it was getting chilly and Alyssa was looking forward to the fireplace...it works so well and produces so much heat! I was in the bathroom giving the girls' their baths when the fire alarms started going off! I had to run around opening doors and windows and figure out how to turn the things off! OOPS. LOL Well, I'm making a quick post for now...getting the kids ready for bed and posting via hello for now. I'll post whatever goodies I have ready for the store tomorrow, and I should have nice little blog freebie/gift for you all soon too (all computer willing).

Rant coming....

My computer isn't working AGAIN...it's been down Thurs night, all day Friday and now again today. It's actually our network acting up, but because all my files are saved on a HD on the network, I can't access or save anything so I can't work on much of anything. I did some unpacking yesterday to get something done. I also spent hours looking for stuff so I could get all the patches on Alyssa's GS uniform and then we went out for an hour or so to sell her fall product. Dinner took me forever..wasn't going well and I burnt the PEAS! come on! lol About 4 yesterday I truly felt like just going back to bed and starting over...nothing was working for me. So then Eric came home and fixed everything in a few minutes. WHEW so happy I could catch up on stuff finally. So I finished up some freebie stuff to send Lisa, then helped Eric do some more unpackign in the office. He went to bed about 1:30 or so and I was going to work on some other stuff I had due today...and sure enough..computer wouldn't work again. So after trying for a little while I gave up and just went to bed. Today it finally allowed me to check my email and work on things. I logged in to catch up on the forums at SBB and DSS, then went to the bathroom and was going to work on the stuff due today...when I came back...everything was down again. :-( I guess I'm just meant to do any designing this week. ugh. Have I mentioned my dryer sucks now too? It doesn't dry! It requires running each load for 80 min about 5 times to finally get the load dry enough to take it out. So needless to say, it takes days to do each load of laundry. Eric is working again - both days this weekend and then said he's working 12 hour days again Mon and Tues...sigh... I'm beginning to get really lonely, and he's gone so much I can't really get out to meet anyone. I think this is why I've way overcommitted myself to things...keeps from foucusing on how alone I am. Plus, I suppose I volunteer too in hopes that I will get to meet someone and it gets us out of the house some. I feel like I'm becomming such a hermit. Days just run together here, the only difference between a week day and weekend day, is that Alyssa is here on the weekend days to hang out with me. :-(.....ok...sorry...one long rambling post (did it in hello where I can't hit return)....done with my woe-me rant and rambling...

Scrap an Event Chat Tonight at SBB

We'll be scrapping about friendship tonight! Join me in the chat room at SBB at 11 PM Est.

I am still alive

Sorry I haven't done any real blogging in so long. It's been a couple of tough weeks. My brother left last week to go to Iraq and every time I thought (and even still now) of him it would just bring me to tears. I'm not so much scared that he will be hurt, he's really going to do a relatively safe job (well, as safe as one can actually be in a war zone), and in my heart I really know he'll be ok, but for some reason I'm still just really upset about it. Maybe it's just the idea that my little brother has to go and be in such a horrific situation. I know my parents are having a really hard time sending their only son, and baby off to war and that may be part of what upsets me - knowing how hard this is for them. I think of his wife left behind, and though I know she's very strong and will keep herself busy, I remember how hard it could be to get through even the regular 6 month deployments with my husband. I don't think I can even comprehend saying good bye to him for a year to go to a WAR. I guess it will just take time from all of us to accept his being gone and worry less about him. He's called my mom a couple of times now and says he's ok and it's not as bad as he expected, but he's not in Iraq yet...he's in Kuwait for a couple of weeks right now. We're planning to try and do care packages for him each month to let him know we miss him and are thinking about him. I know Alyssa is really upset too about him being gone, but she doesn't really understand the danger of where he is. She just knows he's gone for a long time and he's fighting the bad guys. sigh...

In addition to worrying about my brother a good online scrapping friend of mine lost her son in a freak skateboarding accident. He was killed immidately upon impact. I've been thinking about her and praying for peace for her and family every day. I just can't imagine that I'd even be able to function, and yet she is so strong and has such awesome faith - she truly is amazing. The digi communitiy is so wonderful, over 40 designers came together so we could make an amazing kit in her honor. The kit turned out HUGE and ended up split into 6 kits! All the procedes from the sale of the kits goes to my friend Gina and her family to help with the costs of Nick's funeral and such. You can pick up this gorgeous kit at SBB. The entire thing is $20 or get the individual parts for $5 each.

Gina, I continue to think and pray for you every day. I hope the coming days as everyone returns back to "normal" things are not too terribly painful for you.

So I haven't been blogging because my mind has been busy worrying and thinking of my brother and my family, and Gina's family, and last week I was just so tired. Eric has been working many 12 hour days last week and this week, and I've just not been getting all the sleep I need between going to bed late and getting up early. It's been tough adjusting to Eric's new schedule since getting out of the Navy, but lately it's been even harder with him working weekends and 12 hours days too.

On to some other more chipper news...

Have I mentioned I LOVE my new fridge? lol We got a newer and larger fridge when we moved into this house and I really really like it! I can get so much more in the freezer and the fridge, and the water dispenser measures out water for me! This is so handy...when you're cooking, or filling up something large! You can set it to whatever amount you need and let it go while you grab other stuff. No getting out measuring cups either. ha! the little things...what can I say...easily amused I guess. hehe The only down side...keeping stainless steel clean and free of little people finger prints is a pain the butt! LOL

Speaking of new things...we also got a new vacuum...very cool too. Now I have one upstairs and one downstairs so I don't have to drag it up and down the stairs to clean. :-) The upstairs one cleans quite well, pushes very easily, and is very handy for cleaning the stairs too.

Another new love - the PLAY ROOM! At first Kyleigh would barely have anything to do with it, but it turns out it's because it was a HUGE mess and she couldn't find anywhere to sit in there and play. I spent many hours last week cleaning it up and getting everything organized and put away in there, and now she actually plays in there! yay!! This is great when I want to sit down and work on the computer for a little while because the playroom is downstairs with the computer room (it's really all one big room that we've divided up using the furniture) so I can watch her while I work. Eric still has to make the new shelving for the playroom, but for now it's functional and the kids like it, and so does mommy! hehe

oh..a rant now...SO frustrated with the phone company. Let me recommend..if you move or want to set up phone service with AT&T, DON'T DO IT ONLINE! They give you free installation if you do it online, so we though GREAT we can save $40! YEAH..they sure make you work for it! There system SUCKS! It keeps restarting while you're going through it, and we had to call them to put our address in the system so we could do it anyhow. After about 10 attempts, Eric finally got all the way through the process and it gave him a number, said they'd hook us up this week on Monday between 8-12 and sent him an email saying they had our order and would be sending a confirmation email in 3 business days. Well, Monday came (mind you the order was done last week about tuesday), we still hadn't received an email, Eric didn't writed down the phone number because he expected it would be in the email, and about 2 PM, noone had still come or called. So, I called them. Found out somehow their system input us as a completely different city and told them there was already service at that address, so they just didn't finish the order. Didn't bother to contact us or anything. After a good 1 1/2 hours on the phone I had a new order finally placed for the correct city, a new phone number, and they told me they couldn't come hook us up now until next week on Wed! I was a little upset since I'd already waited a week and didn't care to wait another, but we really don't have much choice. Not a lot of phone choices here. They had me call the installation department and they told me they could come this Friday! Still not as soon as I'd like, but better than having to wait until next week. SO...we'll see if they actually show tomorrow and if my phone finally works!

Well this posting has taken me a few attempts to get this much down, so I think I'll call it enough for this round. Will have to come back with more info later.

Tough week, but some scrapping this weekend

I really need to blog..but it's been a hard week physically and emotionally...

so for now...a couple pages I finally scrapped.

{Water Day}

credits here

{Hugs}

credits here