Oh my!

Here is my Graci....she is a great kitty, but so weird! I have been working on this one for a little bit and really liked how it turned out. I love the colors! Nothing special, but it works for me! Love the new Heidi Swapp circle mirror that I played with! I ordered a package of all of them. :)

Normally I am very good with plants and I have tons of them in my house.....but I was left in charge of one plant at the library this summer and it is not doing so well. I decided to bring it home to see if I can love it back to life before the librarian comes back to school! :)

Going, going, gone

So my hunny is at work again. Before he left I made sure to load up on pictures that I could scrap in my loneliness....something to look forward to!

I have been at training for the past 2 days and it was BEST training that I have ever been to! I have NEVER ran out of time and wanted more! Kim Clark, from Caldwell, was the BEST presenter we could have had! I am keeping my fingers crossed that there is a way we can teach together soon! (I am always thinking!) And the ball is rolling for school to start. I have most of my school shopping done, of course I always watch Staples and Target for good sales so I cannot say I am done. The 4th grade team is meeting Friday to get the schedule finalized and I am so excited! As a school we made AYP last year, and we are going to rock it again this year, our kids are on fire! :)

Here are some pictures we took while Josh was here! I love them! :)

So many ideas going on in my mind!

1 year

1 year ago today we were married! Josh took me for dinner and it was very sweet. I am very lucky to have such a great guy to put up with me.....but mostly it is me putting up with him! :)

Random things

Last night Lori, Bella, and I took a class at the fabulous Lori Renn's house! She is wonderful! We made a page and two super cute cards. She is working on things for another class and I am so excited!! She took me into your "palace of creating" and I could have looked around for hours! Truly a neat lady!

Because I am a blog stalker I found this neat idea to post 101 random things about yourself. I thought it looked fun, and so give it a try! I am excited to see what people put down for themselves!

1. I am 27 years old
2. I was born in Dickinson, ND
3. the same hospital as my mom
4. I have one younger sister, Johnna
5. she is about the best sister and friend I could ask for
6. My dad is my hero!
7. We will be married for 1 year on Monday, July 28
8. We moved to Idaho 2 days after the wedding
9. It took until about April for me to not hate it here
10. and my husband for moving me here! :)
11. I graduated HS in Sidney, MT
12. there were 99 in my class
13. and the year was 1999
14. yes, our prom song was "Party Like its 1999" by Prince
15. and we did! :)
16. I went to college at Dickinson State University in ND
17. took my 4 1/2 years, but I got my degree in Elementary Education
18. to say I had a BLAST is an understatement!
19. I then moved to Deer Lodge, MT to teach
20. hands down the HARDEST thing I ever had to do
21. I was ALL BY MYSELF.....
22. Still brings tears to my eyes
23. I was there for 1 year when I met my now husband, Josh
24. He moved into my apartment shortly after that
25. We were engaged 10 months later
26. and married a year and a half later
27. it only took that long because I was working and going to school full time
28. I earned my Masters degree in Educational Technology from Lesley University
29. I am about to start my 5th year of teaching
30. I teach 4th grade now
31. I have a student teacher working with me this fall
32. I am downloading the Sex and the City soundtrack on itunes as I do this
33. I LOVE Sex and the City and have every season on DVD
34. same with Friends
35. I would have all of ER's but I have only found seasons 1-4
36. and I do watch them!
37. I LOVE to scrapbook!
38. I have decided I am not the best, but I love doing it!
39. I do not even wait to think about the money I have spent on scrapbooking!
40. I have three babies
41. two are long hair mini dachshunds
42. and one kitty
43. Lilli is black and tan and 14 months old
44. Maggi is choc. and tan and 11 months old
45. Graci is gray and they think about 5 months old
46. She just had her front claws removed
47. and did not even miss a beat.....still beating up the dogs!
48. They are the CUTEST animals around!
49. We spoil them like they are our kids!
50. And talk to them like they are!
51. I almost have more scrapbooked pages of them than anything else!
52. I am a huge Denver Broncos fan and have been since I was 5
53. all because my dad is a Raiders fan.....they hate each other!
54. My dad took me to my first game along with 2 other friends
55. Monday Night Football in Denver vs. Raiders....so much fun!
56. Josh & I went to Denver for a game last year
57. I have went to Sex and the City movie three times in the theater
58. and cannot wait for it to be out on DVD
59. I do more laundry than most people
60. only because I wash EVERYTHING
61. my husband teases me to remember that the animals can not go in the washer
62. I am not girly, but I try to be
63. and my sister tries even harder to make me.....
64. because she is so girly! But she gets me loads of goodies for it!
65. I drink at least a pot of coffee a day
66. and then diet coke and diet dr. pepper in the afternoon and evening
67. I think the creamer is my favorite part of the coffee
68. Thanks to Sonic, I drink even more pop!
69. I change my favorite song almost daily.
70. One day I want to have "real" kids
71. three boys....no girls for me! :)
72.We have already talked about names....and agree!
73. My favorite food is Mexican
74. the "not real" stuff and the "real"
75. But I LOVE Tammy's hash brown casserole
76. and a good steak!
77. I am completely computer addicted...
78. blogs, email, bill pay, I NEED it all! :)
79. I LOVE Las Vegas!
80. I have been there 3 times, and would go back any day!
81. Must be the gambler in me!
82. I have also been to Europe
83. Our HS French group went
84. I took two years of French but do not remember very much of it!
85. We went to Paris and London for a total of 18 days
86. London was much more exciting.....
87. and I was so disappointed because of all the talk about wonderful Paris!
88. We were there for my 17th birthday
89. and the drinking age was 16....
90. Need I say more?
91. I want to visit Italy one day
92. I work best under pressure
93. Actually I do not know for sure, but that is the only way I work! :)
94. My favorite color is purple
95. But I always find everything in other colors and like that more
96. I am not good at making friends
97. Trying to work on that......just not sure why it is.
98. I trust way too much in people
99. Not sure if this is a strength or weakness
100. I get my feelings hurt A LOT because of it!
101. I really like who I am.....now!

Putting up with me! :)

Josh came home from the grocery store last night and said that he needed these to put up with me! The non-alcohol sparkling apple cider that comes in the cute wine bottle, for the kids to feel special when they drink it!

Well it now comes in "6-packs" and he could not resist!

Don't worry.....he is not allowed to go to the store by himself very often! :)

Cross your fingers

So I take a lot, I mean A LOT of pictures of my dogs....they are my babies! I am just practicing my picture taking skills so when we do have real babies I will know what I am doing! :) Today's whole picture taking time starting because Josh left the fridge open as he did something across the kitchen, and turned around to find Lilli helping herself to anything and everything in there!

Then there is us (and me with my summer look - NO makeup and NO doing my hair!).....almost married for 1 whole year!! Now, I know that this is not a huge amount of time, but I can not get over how fast it went!

Keep your fingers crossed for us.....we found the most PERFECT house......it is what we want, and it is in our price range!! A few things have to fall into place correctly first and we will sign an offer for it on Monday.....so exciting, but so scary!! The realtor told us that because it is a "short sale"- whatever that is, it could take 2 weeks to a month to hear back from the bank......seriously, I do not do well with waiting!! Just keep those fingers crossed for us!

His hair just fell out!

So this is our nephew, Curtis. We meet them yesterday at the water park, and had a blast! When we first saw each other I noticed the "balding" spot on Curtis' head and asked him if he cut his hair......and he replied, "No, it just fell out!" How funny is that!
Then there is Graci....poor thing goes to have her front claws removed tomorrow morning. She has to stay over night, just to make sure that everything is okay with her. So sad! Here she is relaxing on the couch.....after she terrorized the dogs for over 2 hours!

Sunday excitement

Not to much going on here.....just getting caught up on all the little things. We did go to the Snake River Stampede last night, it was pretty fun too! I have a friend that I graduated high school with that was in it.....he is sitting 5th in the nation right now, so that was very exciting to watch him! My sister is going to go with his wife to Vegas for the finals in December, now that would be a good time! :)

Here are two layouts that I finished. I had started the family one a long time ago and for some reason had put it away.....found it yesterday and finished it up! Now that was a good feeling, about 10 minutes for a compete layout! :)

We are going to Roaring Spring today with Josh's sister, Lori and her family. Josh is so excited, just like a little kid! He is already talking about which slides I have to go down with him! I am not so excited.....I HATE wearing a swimming suit! I just got a new one, but I still HATE it! I wish I could just find the perfect one that would make me look 100 pound lighter, tan, all of that good stuff! It is just so depressing......but I am sure we will have fun!

And the pond......we are renting (and looking at houses to buy!) so Josh cannot dig up the backyard. Sounds simple, you just do not have a pond then. WRONG! He put one in that is above ground.......I don't even know how to explain it. But he loves it! It is nice to sit outside at night and look at it, and the sound is so peaceful! Here is my "trying" to take a picture of it.

Anyone else notice that summer is more than half over?

Hello! I am NOT ready to go back to work yet!

Something red

Here is my something red.....right out the backdoor is my favorite chair for sitting outside and relaxing.....and my baby, Lilli, already in it!

Shimmerz paint......

So exciting! I got my new Shimmerz in the mail today! They are so fun to work with, check out their blog at:

http://www.shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com/

I had to make something with them right away, and so I made a card for my dear husband, Josh. Out 1st anniversary is on the 28th and I love to make him cards instead of buying them. I think they mean so much more.

Besides, I love how he tells me that I am "so good" at it! :)

So this card was not made with any exciting new paper or ribbon, just scraps that I had saved for something special. I used these colors because they were the colors from our wedding.

As for the Shimmerz I used Mint and Lilac. I painted the chipboard letters and then stamped the hearts, from Close to My Heart's All My Love set, and painted over them with the Shimmerz. I did use the ink colors "Twilight" and "Amethyst", waited for them to dry and painted right over top of them! I LOVE the shimmer and color they add!

I pretty much started to paint anything that I could get my hands on.....I have some flowers that I stamped and then "Shimmerz" up! I will have to get working on them ASAP!

I am entering this card into a little contest that they are having.......so I am taking a few pictures with different views of.

Its a rough life.....

In my newly formed "single life" I have many things I need to do in just one short day......sleep in, drink a pot of coffee while reading the paper, watch TV (I am totally becoming a soap junkie) and program it for the shows I want to watch throughout the day, play on the computer (I am becoming a blog stalker), drink more coffee while scrapbooking, play with the animals, call my husband, who is working, and tell him I am bored, pretend to clean the house.....

The most stress I had today was taking the garbage to the curb. In my defense there is a hornet nest under the handle I so I had to maneuver it in a pretty funky way...but its there!

It is a rough life.....I know this! I am not sure how I will get back into the swing of the whole school thing.....and it is coming up.

Some new creations that I finished today. I also cleaned my area! I love having a nice, clean area to work in!

Have a GREAT rest of the day, and week!

Late night work

So this is what I have been up to lately.

I love to stay up late and work.....seems that is when I find my best ideas! I stayed up last night with my sister-in-law, Lori, and we worked and talked, it was so nice! I never know what to take with me when I go somewhere else to work so I did not finish a page but I was able to get four pages going.....I needed to sew, stamp, all that fun stuff when I got home. But that is way the lighting on these pictures is not so great.....I was getting to frustrated but wanted to get the pictures taken tonight! :)

I made the hanging board for my classroom and I love it! I am going to make one with the dogs and the kitty. I love to have pictures up at school, but I need to use the minimal amount of space and this is PERFECT!

And know Lilli has gone into heat, gotta love that! She is 15 months old and this is her first time, they are suppose to go into it every 6 months. She is such a brat that she wanted to do it on her own schedule! Put they look so cute in their "panties" that I had to get a picture!

Have a GREAT week!

Nothing....really, nothing!

I was at the school most of the day. It feels so good to have things so organized already, and to be helping our new team member! I would never have guessed I would be like this! Makes me want to start school! Last year at this time I was still stressing over the wedding, the move, a new job, teaching summer school, and finishing my Masters! Crazy to think that was almost a whole year ago!

I have been in a scrappin' slump.....not feeling too creative......but I did finish these three last night. I have had loads of time with Josh gone, but just not feeling it.

Have a great weekend! I am going to a BBQ at my sister-in-law's, Lori, and I am excited! I need to see someones wonderful work, and of course the kids! (The plan is to get a few minutes of work time in....)

Queenie

Today is Thursday and I have been having a good day! I went to work, turns out they were testing the fire alarm system all day long so I had to send the kids home. Darn! :) I came home and decided I was not going to waste the day off (that I was getting paid for!)......I have cleaned the bathroom, kitchen, living room, laundry room, and even got a few more things ready for a garage sale I am having next week.

I love how my house looks when it is clean! I just feel better. I am now working to get things back together in my scrappin' area. This is usually the one area in my life that IS organized so I go crazy when it is not!

I have the one wall covered with things that make me feel good, it makes the area somewhere I WANT to be! I got a calendar from my sister-in-law, Lori, that I am so excited to get working on. To make this happen faster, I hung it up blank. I figure this will drive me crazy faster, and something nice will come out of it! (yes, I have to trick myself!)

And my beloved "QUEEN" sign. My dad has called me "queenie" for as long as I can remember.....stands for "the queen b*t@h!" No idea where that would come from......but my mom bought that for me at Christmas and I love it! I added a few things to make it sparkle! :)

Then of course I got pictures of my babies......

Home Sweet Home

There is just something about home, MY home, that I LOVE. I had a GREAT time on my trip, and Tammy was ever so kind to put up with me and my dogs....thanks for the dancing Tammy :)........ but it feels so good to be home. I love to sleep in my own bed, I love to take a shower in my shower, I love the smell of my candles burning, I love making a pot of coffee in the morning, I love the dogs chasing the poor cat around, I love the phone ringing and knowing its going to be for me....... I just love being home!! I still hate to get the mail because I know those bills are for me.......

I am so glad that I went to Deer Lodge.......I don't know how to put it into words.......but I needed that trip to know and figure things out. Since we left there last year (11 months ago, and I cannot believe that!) I have missed it everyday, every single day I thought about it. I would try to figure out what I would be doing if I was there and who I would be with.

Now I do not know what I missed so much anymore. I thought I had so many friends there, and so many great things happened there.....I don't know what I thought........ But this time I saw that it is not the same, and it never will be again. It made me not miss it anymore, and as scary as it is to say, Deer Lodge is not home anymore. (Now that is something I NEVER thought was going to come so easliy to say for me! )

I will always miss a few people there......and that is still so hard, but of course their lives have changed to. I know that these changes needed to happen, but it is hard to work with it when you are not there for the whole big move. I am so glad that Tammy and I were able to spend so much quality time together! I miss that sooooo much!

And Teegan......that will always get me.....that little guy is the cutest thing in world and so special to me for so many different reasons! I was there with him almost everyday for 3 years! I saw the potty training, and the learning to talk (and making up his own language....moo max were fruit snacks!), the first day of preschool, and really just growing....and I hate to miss that. We carried on a conservation this weekend, granted it was about my dogs (who ARE his cousins) trying on his clothes while he was with his dad. He was worried that they were too big and the dogs would trip and fall......one of the single cutest things I have ever heard/seen/done.

Okay, enough is enough already! I am not even making sense! Of course I have some pictures to share from my trip......cannot wait to get creative with them! (Please notice in the picture of the three of us girls out I am the only one without a drink in front of me! I am guessing I had already drank mine and was having another made.......)