We Are Painting!!!

Boy, it's about time I got back on here to let you know what we are doing around here! We are painting!!! So far the living room now has green walls with blue above the plant shelves and it looks sooooooo yummy! I absolutely LOVE the green!! It does make the room darker but I don't mind that a bit. Just means we have to open the shades. And the blue looks really pretty above the plant shelves. I'm very pleased with the colors we chose. Still have to do the tan on the stairway walls. And the trim paint isn't on yet. It's going to take a while to get it all done. But that's okay. We are taking a break this weekend.

_____

So, here are some pics of what we have done so far. Stephen and I got the things back up on the plant shelves and I love them so much. There was plenty of room for my birdhouses as well as a lot of my Americana stuff. So I'm excited about how it looks.

_____

This first pic was taken on green paint day. That's Chris resting. He really worked hard for us and we appreciated his help. And Melany made me a 5 gallon bucket full of homemade laundry soap while they were here that day. I LOVE it!! Just pennies per wash load.

Whatever light is in the room makes a difference in how light or dark the colors of the walls are. I love it!

My Americana throw pillows look more country with the green walls. I was a little concerned about how the red, white and blues would look with the green but I'm very pleased with how it all turned out. It's a warm country look now.

I even got my round wooden cheese boxes that I found at a carport sale years ago up on the plant shelf there! I'm excited to finally have a place to show them off at.

The tall birdhouses look really neat up there, don't you think? And the one off by itself is a plant stand my Great Grandpa made. It is holding a birdhouse made out of old wood from a barn back in Indiana. Hope found that for me when she lived back there.
_____

And look how pretty our clock looks on that green wall. The dove cote looks pretty on it too.

And that's what we have been doing! Plus keeping busy at Church. I taught the Family History class last week and will be doing it again this week and next week. I'm loving that. And I'm still reading a lot. Found a new writer that I like. Lynn N. Austin - she is really a good writer. I haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately.

_____

Stephen and I went to The Crackerbarrel for dinner this evening. Just the two of us and it was so nice to have a real date!! We did part of our grocery shopping afterward. That will free up a little time tomorrow.

_____

Take care, Everyone! Look for the simple pleasures in your day!

Happy Tuesday!!

Hi All and Happy Tuesday!! Today will be busy as the Missionaries are coming for dinner this evening and we have to get ready for them to come. I already have the meat in the crockpot. Just have to decide what else to serve with it.

_____

Have a couple scrapbook layouts to show you. Actually, I have more than that but I'll only bore you with two of them.

Thought this one turned out good. A mother's nightmare to be sure though!

And a new pic of Teddy Bear. She is such a cutie! Took this pic just yesterday. Isn't she tiny and sweet?

Pics from our evening with Hope and Jim, Kathy and Phil and Cade and Melissa. We had a nice time with them.

And pics of the remodel in our living room! I'm loving the new plant shelf. Haven't put anything on the new part of it yet. We are hoping to paint soon. Finally got the colors picked out. Just need to get the paint and put it on the walls. Anyone want to come help?????

_____

The guys cut a hole in the slanted part of the ceiling and put the shelf inside of it to help brace it up and make it more weight bearing.

I love how they finished this off. Looks pretty cool!

And look at that smooth curve in the corner!! The guys really worked hard on this and it took them most of the day to get it all finished up. I LOVE IT!!! Thanks, Guys!!

We washed all of the plants and birdhouses off while the shelf was going up. But we haven't arranged them just how we want them yet as we will just have to redo it when we get done painting. So things aren't arranged up there yet. We just put everything up on the shelf to get it out of the way for now.

Life is good! Hope you all have a great day!!

Fun News!!

Hi All! Hope life is treating you well today! I have some fun news I wanted to share. I was chosen as the May SAS-y Princess at Stone Accents Studio!! Here is a link to the layout I did that won me this honor:

http://www.stoneaccentsstudioforum.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=35472

They also gave me this blinky to wear - my "crown". I'm not sure how to post it on here though.

_____

I'm very excited about this. They also gave me a gift certificate for $20 to spend in their store. So I get to go on a shopping spree!! Yay!!!! A girl can never have too many digi scrapping supplies in her stash!

_____

Things are going pretty good here at the moment. Stephen has been working a few Saturdays and that has helped a lot. Stephen R. and Chris came over and built me a new plant shelf that attaches to the one that was already in the living room. They did a beautiful job on it. It was my Mothers Day/Birthday gift from them. They also went all through the house and repaired walls, ceilings, etc., for us. We are getting ready to paint now. I know what colors I want to paint but need to choose the actual tones. Anyone want to come help me do that????? I'll add photos of the new shelf soon. Just need to get them downloaded into my computer first.

_____

Have a great day! Watch out for those simple pleasures!!

Almost June?????

It's almost June????? What happened to May? And April?? And March and February and January????? I'm tellin' ya....time is passing wwaaaayyyyyy too fast for me!! Christmas is now only 211 days, 4 hours and 52 minutes away and the seconds are just a tickin' away on my Christmas clock.

_____

We have a new member of the family! Her name is Teddy and she is a 6 month old puppy who is as cute as she can be. She is a mix of Chinese Crescent and Boston Terrier and is a little feather weight compared to Frankie. We've had her about a week now. She has been an outside dog so we are having to house break her. Our bottle of OdorBan is being put to good use and we are all trying to learn her signals. We've had to jump and run a few times to avoid little disasters. But she is learning and so are we.

_____

We've also had to replace about $25 worth of electronics this past week due to puppy mischief. The first item to bite the dust .... or should I say got puppy chewed ..... was Kodi's earphones to her MP3 player. She was not a happy camper about that. I just told her it was nice she had her babysitting money to buy new ones with. And then Kodi and Shea were upstairs playing games on the computer and Teddy snuck up and got the WII sensor part of the WII and chewed it up too! Right out from under their noses! She just chewed the wires right off of it! I had a good laugh over that one. Kodi said it wasn't funny. But I thought it was! She banished Teddy and her little pillow bed to the landing and shut the bedroom door! How RUDE!!!

_____

Such is life when there is a puppy around.

_____

Getting a little cage for Teddy is sounding better and better to me all the time. I wanted one from the first day. In fact, it was one of the things I said we had to get if we were going to get another puppy, but Stephen hasn't wanted to get one very bad. But he may want to after he gets home from doing his missionary work tonight. Teddy peed on the couch right where Stephen likes to sit! ..... He, he, he, he, he !!!!!!!! ..... Kodi cleaned it up but we ended up taking the covers off the cushions and they are now being washed in the washer. But I don't know what to do about the foam rubber!! I'm going to let Stephen worry about that part of the clean up job!

_____

We bought Teddy the nicest little pillow bed for her to sleep in and she peed in it this morning. So I'm having to wash that already. She hardly ever sleeps in it. She likes to lay under Kodi's desk with her little head and paws on the side of her little bed. So it is being used some. But her favorite place to sleep is up on Kodi's bed curled up next to Kodi.

_____

Here are some pics of Teddy and Frankie. So far they are not wanting to get too close to each other but it is very slowly changing. The first pic was taken on the day Teddy came to our house. That's Kodi and Shea with the dogs. Shea has been staying with us for a few days. It has been non stop laughter and visiting since she arrived. You'd think these girls would run out of things to say!

Teddy

Well, I turn 60 in three more days! That used to be soooooo old. But then there was a time in my life when 20 was old too. LOL !!! Here is a layout I did in honor of my turning 60. I'm determined that it will be a great birthday!

I resigned from being on the Creative Team at SAS. Family History is calling me big time so I decided I needed to give up the CTing for a while. It has been hard to give it up though and so far it's like I still can't let go of it all the way. But I'm getting there. I have continued working on my own personal layouts for my memory books though so here are some of my latest layouts.



We went over to Chris and Melany's a couple Sunday's ago to play games and visit. I took all of these photos while we were there. I found it quite interesting how all activity came to a stand still as all of us gathered around the table to watch little Kayta eat her dinner. And you know how people do with their faces when they watch a baby eat - all the facial movements as we "help" the food go into the mouth and not all over the face of the baby.....it was really a fun "everyday" moment to capture in photos. And it was fun to make a layout about it. Like my journaling says: What is it about a baby that is so magical that a whole family will gather around just to watch it eat?



I love this photo of Menessa kissing Kayta. This little baby is soooooo loved by her family. It's just incredible to watch. Such a joy to see.

More layouts:

This is Stephen R. as a baby:

Our Year Round Christmas Tree - It's all decorated with flags, white daisies and red and white polka dot bows now and looks very Patriotic. We'll leave it decorated that way until at least August, maybe September. Then I'll decorate it for the Autumn months.

These next two layouts are a two pager about Stephen R. getting to go to the High On The Mountain Top Scout Camp. That was such a neat experience for all of us. Click on the layout so it will bring it up closer for you and you can read about the spiritual experience they had while there.

And that's all my layouts for now. I'm still working on more though.

_____

It has been hot here. We hit 107 a week or so ago. Had a few drops of rain but not much. So it was a little humid. We just stay inside where it's cool and nice. Our AC bill is going to be HIGH this time and I'm dreading that. I really believe summer is here too soon again this year.

_____

Hope everyone is doing well. Take a moment to reflect on the simple pleasures in your life. And enjoy the special little moments that come along.

Another April Monday!!

Hi All! It's another warm April Monday here! Hope today finds everyone doing well and being happy.

_____

How was your weekend? Ours was great! On Friday I drove down to Tucson - ALL BY MYSELF - and picked Kodi up to bring her back home. She was sick and feeling like she wanted to be back home again. We had a fun trip back. Came close to running out of gas. Seems like that last quarter of a tank just disappears before your eyes! With a prayer in our hearts we finally got to a gas station. Heavenly Father was taking good care of us. We stopped at a couple places on our way home and ended up buying some books at one of the big bookstores. That was fun!

_____

Chris and his kids came over yesterday and had dinner with us. Melany was sick so she wasn't able to come. We enjoyed having him come and had such a nice relaxed afternoon.

_____

I've made a tough decision to drop out of being a CT member for SAS. I have several reasons for this decision but the main one is that I'm just feeling like I need to get back into family history again and it's hard to devote the time necessary to that when I'm doing the CT work. Maybe I can be a CT again somewhere down the line. And I'll still be doing my digital scrapbooking for my own scrapbooks. I just won't have the obligation to meet deadlines and such. So, here are my final four layouts for SAS.

_____

These first two layouts are done using the kit "Touch of Summer" by Scrapbrat who is a new designer at SAS.

These next two layouts are done using the kit "Blooming Elegance" by Monika Designs. I LOVE this photo! I can't believe how great my little camera caught the sunbeams coming through the trees! That's Nikki in the photo. I was walking her to the bus stop and taking pics as we went.

And that's it. This week I'm going to be busy doing visiting teaching cards and notes and writing letters. Have another birthday pillowcase to get ready to send off with the three that I still haven't sent out yet. Friday is payday again so hopefully I'll be able to do it then. Sunday is my turn to do the lesson in our Family History class. I've already given it once so I just need to brush up on it and make a handout. Get my visual aids boxed up to take. The lesson is on creating family histories. Such as in books about families or a specific family member, making scrapbooks, family newsletters, etc. There are so many ways you can do a family history. It's a fun lesson.

_____

Hope you all take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures today. Keep well and be happy!!

Monday In Arizona!!

Hi All and Happy Monday! It's going to be HOT here today. We are already 89 degrees before noon and it is supposed to hit 98 before today is over. Tomorrow is supposed to hit our first 100 degrees for this year. YUK!!

_____

It has been a busy weekend. We took Kodi down to Tucson on Saturday afternoon. Her friend Shealynn is having a surgical procedure today and wanted Kodi to come down and be with her. So we ran her down there. She plans on being there for a week. So we'll go get her next weekend. It was a nice drive down and back. But we saw three accidents - one with a fatality - on the way home. Traffic was backed up for several miles on the southbound side of the freeway. So we were grateful we were headed home and going north! All the accidents were in about a one mile stretch of road. Weird.

_____

Someone shot a photo radar worker on the Loop 101 last night and the guy died from his wounds. Soooooo sad. No one likes the photo radar. But it takes a pretty sick person to kill a person who is just doing their job to make ends meet for their family. There are so many shootings anymore. Kind of scary.

_____

Church was good yesterday. Loved the talks we had. And the Family History class went so great. I teach my class in there in two weeks. It's the one about writing/creating family histories. I gave it in our "practice" classes a few weeks ago. We as family history consultants each chose the lessons we wanted to be in charge of and then gave them to each other before we opened the class up to ward members. We've had our ward members coming now for two Sundays and have had a great turnout for it. It's exciting.

_____

Stephen's work is still on four day work weeks. We keep praying that things will pick up. We are hanging in there and so far so good. We are being blessed.

_____

We had a lovely Easter weekend. On Bunny Day (Saturday) we went to see The Hannah Montana Movie. I thought it would be all teeny bopper stuff. But it wasn't. It was a very good, uplifting movie. Great story line, a little romance, great country music, beautiful country scenes....We loved it. It wasn't anything like the TV show at all. If you get a chance to see it, do! We went to The Crackerbarrel for dinner afterwards and I tried one of their new skillet dinners. It was to die for!! Soooooo good!! And Easter Sunday Shane came over and made us his famous tacos. They are to die for too!! Stephen R. and Karma and the kids, and Chris and Melany and the kids all came to eat and visit with us. They played games and we all had a nice visit. It was a great weekend.

_____

Well, my CT work at The Cottage ended as quickly as it started. Something happened to the website while changing servers and they ended up closing it down. I did get to work for them for a whole week and got some fun kits. But I'm back to just working for SAS now. Which is probably a good thing as I'm trying to not do so much scrapbooking. I need to work on family history and have a hard time doing both.

_____

Here are some of my latest layouts. This first one was fun. Can you tell who all the eyes belong to?

I got a really nice compliment on this one of Kodi:

And that's about it for this time. I hope you all take the time to notice the simple pleasures around you today!

Happy Thursday!!

Hi All! And Happy Thursday to you! Can you believe Spring is here and it's Easter on Sunday? Hard to believe. Christmas is only 8 months away. 259 Days, 10 Hours, 20 Minutes and 40 Seconds.....no, make that 24...23....22....21...20....... Oh, well, you get the idea here. Time is hurrying on and Christmas will be here before we realize the year is gone!

_____

Things are really good here in our part of the world. It got up to 90 degrees a couple days ago but has cooled back down again. It has been pretty windy off and on, too.

_____

Last night I heard police cars going somewhere in our neighborhood. Sirens, the works. About 15 minutes later I heard five very loud gunshots. And then a few minutes after that the police helicopter was buzzing around. Haven't heard what was going on but it makes me a little nervous about this neighborhood. It isn't as safe as it was 10 years ago when we moved here. Sure wish we could get into a normal neighborhood, in a house with a yard for Frankie so he can run, and where we can have a garden. Maybe some day?????

_____

Stephen is still on 4 day work weeks. He had part of Tuesday off and all day yesterday. But they have work for him today and hopefully tomorrow. We are hoping this doesn't go on for very long. But we are afraid it's a sign of the times with the economy and that it may not go away for a while. I so love having him home with me though.

_____

Exciting news!!! Chad and Heather just let everyone know that they are expecting another new little one come October!! This will be number 8 for them. They have 6 boys and just got their first girl last July. I'm hoping this will be another little girl for them.

_____

And Little Ky is getting baptized on Saturday!! Yay, Little Ky! We are so pleased with his decision to be baptized.

_____

Exciting news - for me - I got an invitation to be on another CT! It blew me away. So now I'm on two teams. I hadn't planned it that way. Everyone thought that SAS was going under and a lot of the designers and CT members left. I stuck around. And when nothing seemed to be going better I went ahead and accepted this new invitation. Minutes later I found out SAS was going to survive. So I'm on two CT teams. My new place is cottagescrapbooks.com. The owner there, Stella, used to be at SAS as a designer. She did a couple of their challenges and I enjoyed participating in them. That's where she saw my work and she liked it. She left SAS to start her own site. Anyway, I've been on her team for about a week now and I'm enjoying it.

_____

Now! Here are the photos of my Spring Tree!! I made bows out of pink, lavendar, yellow, green and blue ribbon to put on it. And there are stems of purple lilacs, yellow daisies and pink carnations tucked into the branches. It's bright and pretty during the day even though all the ribbons are pastel colors. The flowers are brighter except for the pink ones. But at night when the lights are softer and low, all the colors change to shimmery pastel tones. It's really pretty at night with the softer look. So, here are the pics of the tree.

And this is our Kayta. She is the sweetest, happiest baby. Always smiling at us. I thought this photo of her was so adorable. I made this ATC for a challenge at SAS.


I did this layout for a challenge at SAS also.



This layout was done for my CT work at the Cottage. I used the kit Boyish Stuff by Mitsybell. The photo is of Chris and Ky.

This layout is done using the kit New Life. It's the new mega kit for April at the Cottage. The photo is of me and my Aunt Mary on my first Easter.

I used the kit Bella Mia by Darlene Haughin for this next one. The photo is of my Mom. I love how the colors were just right for this photo.

I hope all of you are safe and well and being happy. We have so many blessings to count even during the hard times that are happening now. Remember to look for the Simple Pleasures that are all around you. And have a GREAT DAY!!!