Other than that Mrs. Lincoln ...

A barfing child, “interruption of service,” a foam- core castle, a funeral, a CHA party at the Pub, an A-Z wedding album and a story about hand stamps.
I suspect I’m the only one on the planet who can say this describes their last three days.
But let’s try to start at the beginning.
You all are pretty much up-to-date on the wedding album. Karen sent me more photos to fill in R (ring) T (temple) and maybe U (united). This all fits into my story somehow.
As to the CHA party at the Pub, it involves a message board (the Pub) dedicated to scrappers striving to either get published, or be on design teams, or get involved in the craft industry as scrappers in some other way. (as teacher, manufacturers, etc. You get the idea.)
Twice a year a crafters and hobbyists show is put together wherein manufacturers show off their newest goodies to be sold to retailers. It’s a big even for “pubsters” many of whom are on design teams, work for manufacturers or craft outlets ~ the rest of whom are simply excite to see what new goodies will be on their shelves.
But alas, a few unlucky souls don’t get to go to CHA (which happened to be in Anaheim, California this month) so we have consoled ourselves by offering on-line scrapping challenges with prizes offered to winners.
I missed most of the CHA Saturday, because I had friend over scrapping with me while I worked on the wedding album.
But a challenge was offered on Sunday, and I decided to give it a try. The challenge was to put together a scrapbook project using non-traditional items. Since DS-12 had spent the weekend building a foam-core castle for a sixth grade class project, I decided to use foam core and photos of the DS to put together a page.
Unfortunately, I made this decision in spite of the fact that I had other pressing duties, including church and a story deadline. (Well, the deadline was actually Friday, but I knew they wouldn’t need it until Monday, so I had put it off)
My scrambling to put together the layout meant I had to stay up until after midnight to write the news story.
My bad.
When I reached the point that I couldn’t focus anymore, I went to bed and got up early Monday morning to finish the deadline story.
Then, I was assigned the hand stamping story. It’s too long to explain, but I have a link to the story here. http://www.tooeletranscript.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=19297&Itemid=2
Apparently it's a hot topic, because it currently has more hits than any other story in the paper today. The announcement of a new "Hooters" in Wendover is running a close second.
DS-12 was sick, so he stayed home from school while I scrambled to call all of the elementary schools in Tooele County and searched for PTA presidents who were willing to go on record.
I also was working on a story about divorce, and planned to finish it by the Monday at 6 p.m. deadline, but decided instead to go to Wal-Mart, pick up the photos some food for the kids and some medicine for DS-12.
When I returned I found DS-8 asleep on the big chair in front of the television. He had a fever. This was about 6 p.m., DS-12 had been fed and was resting comfortably so I decided it was way past time to have a shower.
When I stepped out of the shower DS-8 appeared in the doorway wanting to take a shower because he felt ill. I started the water (still wearing a towel) and stripped him down when he started barfing.
After cleaning up the floor and getting him in the shower, getting dressed and throwing his clothes in the washer I told my boss I probably wouldn’t be able to get the divorce story to him until the morning. (This morning)
I finally managed to get everyone tucked into bed, including DH, who had been working late and didn’t get home until 11 p.m.
At 6:30 I was up and writing on the story. I made the deadline, but boss and I decided I needed to re-write the story because I didn’t have enough information to make it a good read.
By 11 a.m. I had the kids in the doctor’s office, where DS-8 was diagnosed with allergies and DS-12 was told he had asthma. We were given a handful of prescriptions and an appointment to return in one month’s time to see if the drugs work.
I dropped off the prescription, ran to my scrapbook store to pick up some more letters for the wedding album, ran to the grocery store for soup, picked up the prescription, warmed up the soup and, sigh, made it to my Relief Society meeting at 1 p.m. where we discussed funeral arrangements (for tomorrow) for a woman in the ward.
At 3 p.m. DS-8 called and told me the television wasn’t working.
The meeting ended, I came home, called Direct TV, then Quest, then Direct TV to be told our services had been “interrupted” at the request of Quest because of an outstanding bill. When DH came home he spent an hour on the phone trying to figure out why we still had phone and internet service, but no television service and, according to our bill, the money wasn’t due until Feb. 11.
I’m still not clear what’s going on, but I get to talk to Quest again tomorrow.
Since we don’t have television, the kids are sick and DH is tired, we were all in bed before 9 p.m.
All of us except me, of course. I’m writing this blog in case our internet services get “interrupted” tomorrow.
So that was my weekend. How was yours?

Poems aplenty

I sent out a plea on my scrapping message board for wedding poems, and Thena Smith, a published poet and fixture on the message board wrote these poems for me. Tell me which one(s) you like for the book.

A nnouncing our wedding day , are we
B ride and Groom to be.
C hurch has been chosen and don't forget
D ate of the wedding has been set.
E ngagement is official
F amily and Friends are invited
G ifts are flowing in and we are delighted.
H oneymoon is being planned and oh
I love you so much.
Joined in marriage soon that will be us!
K isses and Hugs will be given galore
L ove letters will be keepsakes along with
Marriage Certificate and more.
Newlyweds we will be
Opening the gifts from our friends.
P arents will be looking on and seeing our grins.
Q uestions and answers of how we met
R eception and dancing ...we will never forget.
Songs played at the wedding will be forever replayed
Tossing the garten and the bridal bouquet...
U shers and Bridesmaids all look at us as we say
V ows to each other on our
Wedding Day
eXtra Special Memories and Moments and more
Yet to come
Zealously, zestfully our life as a wedded couple has begun!

This book was created to celebrate
The love and wonder of your special date.
May it bless you for years to come
As you look and remember special moments
Each and every one.


What can ever forever be
What can last eternally?
Why it's the love I have for you
And the love you have for me.

A Wedding Prayer
It is our prayer For both of you
That your love will bring joy
Your entire life through
And that it will always be
Blessed forever, eternally.

Thena Smith

And so it continues both day and night

go to http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?gallery=1&cmd=display&layout_id=1073240 If you want to see the rest of the pages I completed today.

So far I have finished 17 pages in the Shane and Magon wedding album and No. 18 is sitting on my table half-done.

But, I do need a few more photos. I'm looking for a photo of the ring, the temple, and something Z related. Does anyone have photos of them asleep together?

When cats attack!

If you want to check the progress of the wedding album. I've downloaded eight pages here:
http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?gallery=1&cmd=display&layout_id=1071999

Rats, I've been tagged

TAG!!!"

According to the rules... Each player of this game starts with the "6 Weird Things about Me".(about yourself)...People who get tagged need to write a entry of their own 6 weird things on their own blog, as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog!"

Six Weird Things about Me

1.) Weird body ticks. I can roll my tongue, pick up things with my toes and lick my own nose. (Not that I do it all the time, but I can!)

2) Weird brain. I just think differently than most people. I think it’s the left handed, right minded thing. I spend most of my time wandering around in my brain, and trust me it’s strange up there.

3) Weird choice of profession. I am a journalist ~ which means I should be outgoing, liberal, and a Cracker Jack speller. I am none of the above.

4) Weird phobias. I am totally outgoing in print or on the phone. But talk to me face-to-face and I completely shut down and just listen a lot.

5) Weird mother. I didn’t start with the whole baby-making thing until I was 35 and was 40 when my second child was born.

6) Weird perfectionism. I want the plates in my cupboard to be in the right order, but I don’t care if the kitchen floor is three inches deep in dirt.


So now I have to tag people. I’ll go with Karen, Lisa, Elisa, Sandi, Lea, Susan and LaWana

Snowballing

This little album is snowballing on me. Lisa has sent me photos, for which I will be forever grateful, and the rest of you are giving me great ideas.

The only question now is: What to do with the book when I am finished with it?

Should I keep it for myself?
Should I sent it to the BowlDoggs?

Shoud I give it to Shane's Mother?

I am thinking I will fill in some of the blank letters with poetry.

It should be quite an amazing little book when I am done. Thank you for all of your help!

Another take on the BowlDoggs

Since we don't have nearly enough people making photo albums of Shane and Magon's wedding, I decided I needed to join in the fun.
Actually this, like many of my projects, serves two purposes. A few months ago Lori at Scrappily Ever After gave me two pieces of wood and some rings to make a book. The supplies have been kicking around on my table for quite some time reproaching me for not completing my assigned task of putting together an album for a class.
When Lisa sent me the photos of Shane and Magon I decided I needed to put them in a photo album, but Karen beat me to it. Still, I am going to make a tiny 6X6 album to display, and possibly teach a class at Scrappily Ever After.
I'm using the Crate Avenue line.
Isn't it pretty?
It comes with the punch out letters. I also bought a set of Crate Paper rub on words to help with the journaling, since I wasn't actually at the wedding. BTW Dogg, if you read this, I interviewed the man who designed the staircase in the Portland Temple last week and thought about you.
http://www.tooeletranscript.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=19092&Itemid=
Anyway, after making the A you're adorable page from the supplies on hand I was struck with the idea of making an ABC wedding page. I hope it ends up classy, not cheesy.
So far I have thought of these letters:
A ~ adorable
B ~ bride
C ~ couple
D ~ either dance or dip for that sweet photo of Shane dipping Magon in a big kiss.
E ~ engaged, which could be a problem since I used the engagement photo on the A page. But I could use a wedding announcement from the paper here.
F ~ family (I need photos for this)
G ~ groom
H ~ happy
I ~ icing (a cake in the face photo ~ I need one of these, too)
J ~ joy
K ~ kiss
L ~ love
M ~ marriage or Magon ~ an informal photo of her.
N ~
O ~
P ~
Q ~ maybe quiet moment?
R ~ ring
S ~ Shane
T ~ temple
U ~
V ~ veil?
W ~ wedding
X ~
Y ~
Z ~

As you can see, there are a few holes in my plan. I'm open to suggestions and photos.

My weekend project

I covered the star with paper and ended up with this as my final project for the weekend. Originally, I had planned to glue the wooden star on the frame, but it really didn't work for me, so I guess I'll be displaying it at a set at my local scrapbook store, in hopes someone wants to pick it up as a class project.
You can see how excited Ginger is about the entire project. Let me tell you, in this house everybody is a critic.

Maybe it's not cabin fever.

Okay, maybe it's not so much cabin fever as a strong desire to take a nap coupled with the realization that I'm going to have to work my behind off this week and I should be cleaning something.
We have more snow. the "hello" is under about six more inches of the white stuff.
I would very much like to put a "closed for the season" on my front door and ignore the outside world.
Friday I went and spend a boatload of money for food on sale. Alas, the kids were home when I brought it in the house and they have been on an eating safari. They finished off two cans of Pringles today.
I'm trying to warn them there is no more where that came from, but they are eating their fool heads off. DS-12 is just starting into the teenage boy eat-everything-that-isn't-nailed-down phase and DS-8 has no control when it comes to treats.
Wyo. Sis. DS-12 has also inherited my sloth-like characteristics. DS-8 not so much. He'd love to be going all of the time. Poor kid, he has me for a mother.
Lil Bro. I know the dog problem. Our cat has developed a taste for the great outdoors, so now when we walk outside we kind of have to sidle out the door with one food pushing the cat back inside as we go. She jumps like a deer, so it's a pretty good trick leaving without her.

Cabin fever

Cabin fever does strange things to people.
My DSs have been busy making volcanoes.
DH is calling all of his sisters on the cell phone.
The cat is chasing marbles around in the tub.
And I am spray painting messages in the snow.
I’m kind of working on a scrap book idea, but then again, I’m kind of not working on it as well.
It’s not I’ve lost my mojo as much as it’s in a cabin fever induced stupor.
Rumor has it the cold snap (mid-20s, I know a heat wave compared to Wyoming) is going to break sometime in the next 14 days.
By then I will be sitting in a corner quietly cutting up bits of paper.
Oh, wait, I’m already doing that.

Girl Math

I do believe I’ve figured out how the Coupon Cuties are “saving” all their money. I myself saved 35 dollars, give or take a buck, yesterday whilst shopping.
Granted, I spent twice that much in order to reap the savings, but we’re not talking about that right now, are we?
The first 18 dollars came from Staples. We have heard rumors that they give out 3 dollar coupons for each empty ink cartage returned to their business. Our new(ish) HP printer has six ink cartridges in it. So we’ve been squirreling them away as we change the ink. Yesterday we discovered we were out of yellow ink, so we made the trip into SLC to buy new supplies.
When we turned in our cartridges and were given seven 3 dollar coupons we were informed we could not use them all at once.
Hummmm.
That would have been nice to know.
But in the grand tradition of coupon cuties, DH bought some ink and used three of the coupons for a total of 9 dollars and I bought more ink, using three more of the coupons.
We then went to Michaels (oh my!) where I found a wooden star, Zig pens, ribbon, (on sale, regularly $3.99, now 2 for $5) and scrapbook page frames ($5 each, normally 10 dollars apiece). And many other things I wanted (Stayz-on ink, square paper punches, scrapbook magazines) that I decided not to purchase.
DS-8 decided he had to have a volcano kit, and DS-12 picked up a handful of candy. When we went to the counter I asked the clerk if she had any coupons. I had no idea if Michaels had a current 40 percent off coupon, but it never hurts to ask.
As it happens, they did, so I saved about 5 dollars on the Zig pens.
Quite a lovely savings, if I do say so myself.
Of course, if we had stayed home no doubt we would have ended up saving ~ oh, I don’t know, at least 45 dollars. That does not include the cost of gas and of course eating out, which is mandatory when traveling to SLC.
Nonetheless, I did have a good time, and now I have a wooden star just waiting to be covered with pretty printed paper and ribbon.
I’m feeling so good about my savings I think I’ll go grocery and save another 10 dollars whilst purchasing 100 dollars worth of groceries.
I think that’s what they call “girl math.”

Now I have honey in my hair

Things never go as planned in my world.
The thing least likely to go as planned is resolutions to clean house. I don’t like to do it, so I am easily distracted.
Yesterday was a perfect day for cleaning. I had blocked out several hours for a Relief Society meeting, but the president called and canceled the meeting.
The dish washer was loaded, the master bed was stripped and sheets were doing the clean dance in the washing machine.
I was in the process of hanging a quilt on the wall ~ the better to insulate the room during winter months ~ when I spied my two drawer filing cabinet doubling as a bedside table.
It looked like crap.
Seized with a fit of … well just a fit, as it happened, I decided it was a good time to cover the file with Mod Podge and paper.
I had left over blue and brown MME Bohemian from making my Mother’s Christmas project. And in the time it takes to say “hey, what do ya think you’re doing!” I had opened my trusty bottle of Mod Podge and was slapping a layer of it on the top of the file cabinet.
Unfortunately the file cabinet was warped, and the paper ended up bubbling.
Ginger, our Siamese kitten, thought the swishing motion of the brush was excellent fun and decided to play with me.
I was not amused.
I unloaded the file cabinet ~ (that’s right, I hadn’t unloaded it first, in fact it was still standing in the corner next to my bed) ~ hauled it into the kitchen and began the soaking / peeling process necessary to remove the paper mess.
Ginger thought eating paste covered paper was a great idea, so I cleaned it up with my new carpet sweeper. When I went to dump the hopper I ended up dropping the paste into Ginger’s cat dish.
I quickly emptied the paste covered cat food, washed out the dust pan of the carpet sweeper before the glue and paper became a permanent part of the apparatus and started once again to apply paper on the file cabinet.
Swishing paste, swatting at stray paws and swearing softly and steadily under my breath I managed to apply a sheet of SEI on one of the front drawers.
But it was buckling too.
I quickly put the drawer face down on the tile floor and weighted it down with the first heavy object I could get my hands on … a jug of honey sitting on the kitchen counter.
Alas, the children had not corked the honey particularly tightly and when I brushed my hair back from my face I ended up with honey in my hair.
I eventually managed to cover both drawers with paper and started hot gluing fabric on top of the cabinet. That’s when I burned my finger, started bawling and threatening to kill the cat.
I did not get the kitchen floor mopped.
I did not vacuum the living room.
I did not finish the laundry.
But, I didn’t kill the cat either, so all’s well that ends well.
After putting the cabinet back in its corner, hanging Christmas lights around the quilt, making the bed, excavating the closet and dragging all the laundry down to the basement I realized I was not going to achieve my goal for the day.
But the master bedroom does look a little better.

Chaos Rules!

Stuff on my cat photo of the day. Eight ball in the side pocket.

My goal for today is to calm down the chaos in my life. But if I don't succeed, I know I am not alone.

My noew motto: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, Cola in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WHOO HOO! What a ride!"

Messy people are finding their voice — if not anything else
By JIM AUCHMUTEY The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/09/07

It's that time of year when Americans resolve to unclutter their lives and store the stuff they've accumulated in nifty containers that just happen to be on sale everywhere. January, the National Association of Professional Organizers tells us, is Get Organized Month.
Not so fast, say the authors of "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder" (Little, Brown, $25.99).
In their new book, Eric Abrahamson, a management professor at Columbia University, and David H. Freedman, technology columnist at Inc. magazine, argue that we'd all be better off worrying less about neatness and order.
WHAT MESSY CAN DO FOR YOU
Being like Felix isn't always better than being like Oscar, author David Freedman says.
Robert Altman: The late director was famous for improvising on the set.
Bill Gates: The Microsoft founder sends independent R&D teams in conflicting directions.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: The California governor hates making appointments and has pretty much winged his whole career.
And if it's neat you want ... history's ultimate neat freak:
Adolf Hitler.
Albert Einstein, who appears to be looking for something in his Princeton office, has become the patron saint of the anti-anti-clutter movement.
Freedman talked about the wisdom of tolerating mess from his "moderately messy" home outside Boston.
What's wrong with being neat? There isn't anything wrong with being neat. The real point is that people assume neater is always better, and that's just plain wrong.
In some cases, moderately messier is better. If you're a naturally neat person, I don't see any reason to change.
If, however, you're anxious about being neater or you feel other people are pushing you toward being neater, you're probably fine at the level of messiness you have.
A messy desk is an amazingly effective work-flow system. You keep the stuff that's most important toward the front of the desk and on the top of piles, and the stuff that's less important ends up farther back and at the bottom.
If you file things away all the time, you're not only taking time to file and retrieve and refile, but you're losing all this visual stimulation that tells you where you are in your work process.
Einstein didn't have a neat desk, did he? Einstein had a fantastically messy desk.
A lot of this book isn't just about clutter, is it? It's about the ways we try to deny the randomness and messiness of existence.
Yeah, a lot of the publicity so far has been on messy desks and clutter in the home, but there's something larger going on here. I came to this subject through a new scientific field that sprung up in the 1990s to study the way randomness makes systems more efficient.
It's counterintuitive, but it's true.
You poke some fun at organizers. Is this a profession we really need? I don't accuse professional organizers of causing this drive toward neatness. They're just answering cries for help.
But when you see the way they've become media stars, the way they turn up on the "Today" show or "Oprah" and save people's lives, I think they're driving home this idea that the majority of us who are somewhat messy and disorganized are failing in some way.
We've been made to feel that these extreme cases of people paralyzed with clutter are where we're all headed. That we all have this messiness sickness, and that these organizers are the doctors who are going to cure us.
One of the best parts of the book is when you go with an organizer on an apartment makeover, and the client opens her shower stall, and a pile of organizing paraphernalia falls out.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a lot of the stuff we're buying to organize our stuff is becoming part of the problem.
People are filling their closets with racks and bins and baskets they buy at the Container Store. The fact is, people tend to be somewhat messy. You can get someone to be neater for a short time, but they spring back to the same level of messiness. Did your survey find much gender difference in this matter? Not as much as I expected.
Do people make judgments about messy people? Sure. I have a moderately messy home, and I've had people walk in and say, "Hey, you guys are kind of messy. What's up with that?" It doesn't bother me that much, but it points up how friends and relatives and colleagues and bosses will pass judgment if you aren't neat enough.
Aren't there some situations where we don't want any messiness? We don't want surgeons or pharmacists to be messy. We don't want train engineers or pilots to be messy. I'm an amateur pilot, and I know very well that you have to be ordered and follow that checklist every time if you want to be safe.
But for the most part, the way people criticize somewhat messier people is unfair. We've held up neat and orderly people as heroes in our society and held up messy people as villains or hapless victims of their bad habits. The opposite isn't necessarily true; I just think we all need to be more comfortable with the way we are naturally.

Just bits of my life

I went to an archery competition today for the newspaper. I didn’t expect it to be even slightly interesting.
I was wrong. It was kind of cool.
Archery is one of the few sports that I find interesting. I don’t know exactly why. Maybe because it takes cunning, not just brute force to do well as an archer. Or I may be attracted to the romantic history of the sport, William Tell, and Robin Hood and all that stuff. But it is a rather fascinating sport.
It snowed for most of the day yesterday and it’s really cold today. Sorry Wyo. Sis, I know snow is not a novelty where you live. But my years in St. George have spoiled me somewhat.
I love to watch snow fall, I always have. I love how quiet it makes the world. I am fascinated by the shapes snow makes as it sifts down on top of ordinary objects. But there are two things I don’t like about snow, it’s icy cold and it falls on the roads.
I could even deal with the cold aspect if we could keep the slush off the roads.
Today the sun is shining and it is blindingly bright outside with the light reflecting off all the crystallized flakes. I am torn between a desire to take photos and a desire to stay warm. I think staying warm is going to win today.
I spent part of yesterday working on an altering project for ScrappinTrends. The DT manager sent these huge clips and funky thumbtacks to alter. This was my final project. The boys don’t like it, so I think I did a fairly good job. I must admit, I’ve been pushing the girly envelope lately. It’s been great!

Still snowing, but ....

As promised, here is another layout from my layout a day challenge. In truth, it should be called the layout every other day challenge. I haven't been able to do a lot of scrapping this week due to other obligations.
This layout is a lift from Jacqueline who is also a member of the ScrappinTrends design team. She has a beautiful child, perhaps we could call her the second cutest little girl in the world, we all know Abby is number one.
It's still snowing outside. DH worked late last night, so I went out and shoveled the driveway and walk. It really wasn't bad, the snow is so soft and powdery it was like shoveling feathers. It looks like it's getting a little wetter today.
The boys are home from school today, for end of of quarter, and Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I have four stories on the stove boiling, but at least I won't be scrambling to get things completed on Monday. I have a love / hate relationship with deadlines. I love the rush, but I hate the stress.
Still, I hope to be able to get some scrapping and cleaning done over the weekend. We will see what the day brings.

On the horns of a dillemma

With the combination of my “part time” job, my Church job and my wife and mother job, I’ve been running full tilt all week.
Today it caught up with me and after filing stories for deadline I curled up on the sofa with a blanket and watched the snow fall until I went to sleep.
It was wonderful!
There I was, dozing away having the most remarkable dream about taking a bath in a spectacular room overlooking the ocean. It was so lovely I asked for my camera and started taking photos. But when I looked in the viewfinder to see the photos they were all shots of a cold snowy landscape.
The dream pretty much sums up my life right now. I have visions of beauty, warmth, wealth and comfort. But the reality is a little more wet, white and cold.
Through all this craziness I’ve been really thinking about my job. As in ~ "is it worth it?"
It takes up huge chunks of my time without paying me huge chunks of money. The basic issue is the “work from home” clause.
He is a typical schedule.
I call someone and get an interview (if I’m lucky)
I do the interview and write the story.
I file the story.
Then things get dicey.
Usually within 15 minutes to 15 hours after the story is filed, I get a call back from an editor asking a question, wanting me to make some more phone calls, etc.
If I can answer the question from my notes, all is good.
But, if they come up with a new direction for the story I call back the source, leave a message, wait for the source to return my call and wait, and wait, and wait.
I plan my life around the writing and filing, not the waiting and waiting.
Since I am usually on deadline, I don’t dare take a shower, go grocery shopping, etc. because I’m waiting for the phone call, which, more often than not does not come.
Can I charge the company for these waiting hours?
Probably not.
But I’m tied to the phone, which limits my life rather sharply.
Tuesday I snuck away from the house / phone to go grocery shopping and stopped by my local scrapbook store. The owner is unexpectedly expecting a child. She has problems with pregnancies, as in she has a tendency to premature delivery. I was asking her what she planned to do about the pregnancy and the store and she said she was going to hire more help.
Then I told her my job situation and asked if she would be interested in taking me on as an employee. She said “absolutely.”
No terms of payment, hours, etc were discussed. But now I have options.
Which leaves me on the horns of a dilemma; should I stick it out with my newspaper job, which (in theory) does give me a measure of independence and allows me to be home with my children. (Not to mention the free camera, this is no small consideration in my world) Or, should I jump ship and work for the scrapbook store.
Or, third option, get really creative with my finances. Like the Coupon Cuties I interviewed yesterday, save $500 a month in groceries and stop working all together. //http://www.tooeletranscript.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=18874&Itemid==
I don’t have any answers. But I sure as heck have a lot of questions to consider.

Since I have nothing else to do ...

Just because I am a complete idiot with nothing better to do with my time, (*snort*) I started a layout a day challenge in January.
Nothing bad will happen if I don’t do the daily layout. I joined because I wanted to get back in the scrap room after a long Christmas vacation from creativity.
But the downside is I’m scrapping instead of blogging.
So I have decided to treat you all to samples of the layouts I am creating. Won’t that be fun for everyone?
I thought so.
Here’s the layout I put together yesterday.
DSs hate it. Too girly, they don’t like the doodles, etc.
I think it’s kind of cool.

A great day for our family

My DS-8 is officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was baptized today at the Stake Center by his father.
It was a low-key event. Partly because of the storms we have had all weekend, and partly because of Glen’s* surgery in Idaho Falls, none of the family was able to attend. The bishop wasn’t there either, because he was with his grandson in the temple that day.
Nonetheless, we did get him baptized and confirmed without incident.
Well, there could have been an incident.
If you look closely at the photos, you can see DS-8s legs appear to be black under his jump suit. When he dressed himself, he pulled the jump suit on over his black Sunday slacks. I thought it looked a little odd when they came out of the dressing room, but we were trying to get to the chapel for the opening exercises, and I was juggling DH suit coat and dry clothing, so I didn’t notice.
On second though, I should have noticed that while I had DH shirt and coat, and DSs shirt, I didn’t have the slacks for either one of them.
But fortune favors the absent minded. DH looked down, noticed DSs legs looked black, and took him back to the dressing room to change him before he ended up getting baptized.
If he had not, we would have been obliged to re-baptize the boy (you have to be dressed all in white) and he would not have had any dry clothes to wear home in the freezing weather.
After the baptism, we were sent to the Primary room for the confirmation. But as that room was full, we ended up in the nursery. Only two people got to sit on big chairs, me, as mother of the baptized, and Adam, as the one about to be confirmed.
It was a strange little party of women sitting with their knees up around their ears as the blessing was offered, but DH did a beautiful job and of course I cried.
It’s hard to get good photos of a baptism. We are not allowed to photograph the actual ceremony or the font, or the chapel. So we ended up shooting DH and DS in the hall. I tried to get something a little more artsy at the confirmation with DH (on the left) and the second counselor in the bishopric, with mixed results.
I am very proud of Adam taking this step, even though he did it in relative obscurity. I think of all the people who have gone before him, from my Mother ~ who claims she was baptized in Crow Creek in a red dress with her father wearing wading boots, to my DS-12, who was baptized with his two cousins ~ and I am so pleased to see Adam undergo this ordinance.
It’s a great start to the New Year.

*(Glen is my mother’s husband. I suppose I could call him my step-father, but while he is a very nice man, he is not my father)

Snow Day

It’s been snowing for two days straight. I don’t expect to have a lot of people turn out for my DS-8s baptism. Heck, I don’t think we would go if it wasn’t our son.
DH shoveled everything out last night and I planned to run to Stansbury Park to do a story, go grocery shopping and drop the bills in the mail before people expecting money decided it was time to turn things off.
But after several vain attempts to contact the people I planned to interview in Stansbury I looked out the window and decided I could make do with what we had in the house.
In my case making due involves calling for pizza and eating the Jr. Mints left over from Christmas. I really don’t like Jr. Mints, and vowed not to eat them. But then again, they are covered with chocolate.
As to the bills, I paid some of them by phone ~ so I should be able to stay on line, warm and have working light switches for a few more days.
I’ve been putting stuff on my cat, again.
You do that sort of thing when you are snowed in and don’t want to clean toilets.

Just a note

DS-8 is getting baptized on Saturday. Family members are invited. If you want more information, please, drop me an e-mail.

2006 in review

Writers note: I planned to post this entry earlier, but DS-8 asked me to tuck him in, then he started to act like he was going to throw up, so I have spent the last hour calming him down. He is currently asleep in my bed. Now I am left to decided if I want to sleep on the couch, in his bed or in my bed with his rear end in the small of my back all night.
Just your average day.
I started out the year with such good intentions, and I did accomplish many of my goals, But 2006 proved to be quite a roller coaster ride. So many things in our lives started to spin out of control.
Here’s praying we can gain control in 2007
January
I joined the FlyLady group and cleaned my sink, broke in the crock pot and fixed up a paper cupboard in my scrap room. Then I went to a Ya-Ya pajama party, became a member of the Scrappin Trends design team and helped the boys with their science fair projects.
February
With the arrival of my first design team package I fell in love with 3 Bugs paper, which I used to make a cigar box clock. I covered an art show, started writing my life list, took DH to a Valentine’s Day dinner and made my first real life connection with on line friends ~ who gave me a box full of Prima flowers.
March
The best photo of my month long challenge came on the first day with a shot of the Red Hatters. I watched DS-7 win a blue ribbon at the science fair, ate at Virg’s and picked out a “big chair” for the family room in the basement. Then I started soccer season with Adam, Celebrated Pi day and DH birthday, and decided I was made to scrap with Crate Paper.
April
This was the month we bought a cat flap and began the long process of training Katie how to use it. We visited IFA so we could play with the new chickens and DH and DS-11 went to the fifth grade maturation program together. We went to Wyoming where we spent Easter with the family, taking photos of the nieces and nephews and raiding Mom’s button and ribbon stash to add to my scrap booking collection.
May
I was gifted with an Iris cart for Mother’s Day ~ at last a great way to store my 12X12 scrap paper. The family went to Salt Lake City to watch DS-11 sing in a swanky concert hall and we celebrated the decision on the part of the governor to pick the golden spike rail road as the official state quarter of Utah.
June
During the first week of June I had high ambitions, and I spent time making flowery cards and refinishing a folding chair with spray paint and paper. This was the month I took second place in the ScrappinTrends Crate Paper friends mini-album contest and watched as the boys played backyard baseball. We spent the last two weeks getting ready for Mom to visit, then entertaining her and my sisters after she arrived. On the last day of June we took a road trip across the Salt Flats.
July
We started July by taking a road trip to Vernal where we learned about how large Utah’s deserts really are, stopped in a visitor’s center in Colorado, and visited the Dinosaur Quarry a week before it was closed because it’s slipping off the mountain side.
We celebrated Independence Day, took the Sorenson’s to the Aerospace museum at Hill Air Force Base and visited the “hillybilly” sister over Pioneer Day weekend. This was also the month we discovered termites in the basement, mourned the loss of Katie Cat, who was hit and killed by a car in front of our house, and watched while DH and his brothers tore a hole in the wall to get rid of the termites.
Toward the end of the month I took delivery on an assortment of furniture sent to me by my Mother and taught my first scrapbooking class at the local scrapbook store.
August
In August I took the children to the Tooele County Fair while the exterminator sprayed for termites. I was so busy getting the boys on and off the whirling rides I didn’t notice I had won $57 dollars for my scrapbook entries, including taking the best in show. I settled on “Sagey” black and “Sensible Hue,” for the colors in my living room and rearranged the living room furniture. I covered a frog jumping contest for my work, sent DH and the boys back to school, and DH started a second job at Flying J to pay for the termite damage.
September
DS-11 became DS-12 and had a sleep-over birthday party in the basement with several of his friends. We went to Hogle Zoo as part of the birthday celebrations. I had a case of décor envy after doing a story on a shabby chic home in Stansbury, then I painted some of my second-hand donated furniture black.
October
After writing a story about a woman who hand carved stamps for her travel journals, I tried my hand at the art and discovered I suck at it. We filled our cat craving by babysitting “Boo” for a day or two, I applauded as both boys took first place in the Reflections contest for their photography, and found the glob willow in the back yard had split in two after an early snow storm. We took the boys to Lagoon and saw the Halloween decorations and wandered around in a corn maze as part of my job. I dressed up as a Viking for Halloween. Well, at least I wore the horn hat.
November
Ginger, a Siamese kitten joined our family and sent a lot of time sitting on my lap, computer, keyboard while she adjusted to the family. The boys and I made paper chains while DH and his brothers patched the termite wall. I made Christmas cards, (I didn’t send them, but I did make them) and folded German stars, while celebrating Shane’s wedding from afar. I finished the month suffering with an ugly sinus infection and DH was out for nearly a week with a sore throat.
December
I earned a little extra scrapping cash by doing make and takes at the local scrap book store, trimmed the tree, suffered fro the cold and discovered Target is a great place to go Christmas shopping. I spent a week of going to parties while trying to make a scrap book for Mom, helping a friend put together a scrapbook for her mother in law, and helping the boys put together a gingerbread house. Then we celebrated DS-8 birthday with a bowling party before celebrating Christmas together as a family. I spent the last week of the year cleaning and organizing my scraproom, getting ready for another year of fun.
Somewhere in there, between July the death of Katie and the termite battle, my boss Mike left and my new boss, Jeff was hired.
Here's to a more productive 2007!