Suzy Homemaker

Just call me that today! I've been working on projects(way too many) and I got a wild hair to cook chili, cornbread and make fudge today! I love when Christmas starts to come up. There is just this overall sense of wanting to bake and make stuff for people. Plus the shopping is pretty darn good. Speaking of which, I'm such a sucker for a coupon! Sephora just sent me one which is great because I want to get Ryan some new cologne! Ok, so here's what I've made. A count down calendar. I found this a Julie Jane Paper Co. in Vegas. The store was nice and I loved that they have all these great projects packaged up and ready to go! I made this (less the picture) in my hotel room Tuesday night.

And there is this calendar for 2009 from Basic Grey. I am so glad I didn't buy it at the Expo, because low and behold Michaels had it and I got it for half price! So here's a few sample pages. It's a lot more labor intensive than I thought. The pages are pre-printed, so you're just adding the stickers and chipboard stuff, but that kind of takes awhile to piece everything together. Plus I'm outlining a few things and inking. But you get the idea.

I'm making 2 more of these as gifts. They are reallylovely in person. I'm also working on teacher gifts and making my own Christmas cards using my Cricut! Everything is cut, I just need to glue it down and print out pictures.

I also wanted to give an update on my grandma. She is almost 100% recovered from the surgery. In about 2 weeks she starts chemo again. I have mixed feelings about it. The doctors say it will only be about 30-40% effective. Which I would take that chance too hoping it would be more effective......but I just don't want her to be so sick if she only has such a short time left, which they say is about 1 year.

We have our typical Thankgiving plans. Spending the day at my parents. My grandma is driving in with my cousin Danielle. Danielle flew in from Seattle this past weekend. She wants to shop on Black Friday with me. I wasn't planning on going, it's usually just chaos, but I'm sure it'll be fun. No plans the rest of the weekend. Just thankful that my grandma is here and able to leave the house and spend one more Thanksgiving with us. I will definitely be taking lots of photos this holiday! Have a Happy Thankgiving!

Late posting

I'm so sorry for taking way too long to post about the Bremers. That Saturday was chaotic and then we left the next day for Vegas. If you read my comments, here's what Karen said;

Hey - we are fine! House is safe! We lost 15 in my neighborhood, 6 on our street, one was across and over one house. Very close call. Randy stayed behind to fight the fire with our neighbor who has a water truck. They saved all but one house on our side of the street. Our heart aches for our wonderful neighbors who have lost their homes. They are "registering" so we can all throw them a "shower" and get them back on their feet. Thanks for your kind thoughts. It is good to now be home again.

I was so thankful to hear this. Saturday was a really scary day for a lot of people. Everyone I know that was threatened ended up being ok. Thank God! I hope we never have to relive this kind of experience again.

We left Sunday and it was crazy with the freeway closers. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to get to the airport, but it worked out just fine. We had a great time in Vegas. Though I was extremely disappointed with the overall customer service at the Wynn. I had about 6 different incidents where the customer service lacked and when I finally complained, they only offered to give us a late check out. Totally not acceptable in my eyes. On the upside, Ryan won $600 playing craps! That made the rest of the trip alot of fun! I splurged and went and bought him a new ipod~ which he totally deserves and then did some damage at the Fashion Show Mall. Which I love that mall! Went to three different scrapbook stores and got lost going to one of them. After being lost, their customer service really made me mad. They had a sample, a really cute sample that I wanted to know how to make. I had the product in hand and asked if I could take a picture. I was told "no." They don't allow photos of any samples. I said I'm from out of town and want to make one for myself. They said, "buy the instructions for $5." Yeah, no thanks. I was really appalled. Hopefully my mental notes won't fail me. We came home to Zachary having bronchitis and Ryan & I both having some sinus cold thing going on. Today we set up our new computer. Loving it! And tomorrow is a lazy day with a birthday party mid day. Sunday I work and then it's a short week for the kids and Thanksgiving! Love this time of year. Have a great weekend!

Prayers needed....

As many of us So Cal residents know, this is "fire season." Unfortunately I have word that these fires may have claimed Karen & Randy's house. They are my employers & friends and my heart just aches. When the fire in Yorba Linda broke out it was on their street. They were able to evacuate and get a few things. Most of her neighbors have lost their homes. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and when I hear more I will post. Thanks.

Back Home

I got home Saturday night from my Grandma's. I really enjoyed the time with her and was so happy to help. My mom is there now and today my sister flies in and will be there a week to take care of her. Grandma is doing a lot better. Her wound finally closed up, but she had to go back in on Halloween to have a boil removed. I guess this sometimes happen when you have an open wound that heals.....a boil forms under the skin. So that is now healing. She's learning how to eat differently because her body can't take a lot of fiber, dairy or sweet foods. I'm hoping that by Thanksgiving she'll be able to leave the house. The cancer is still in stage 4, but the quality of her life right now is better than it was 6 weeks ago.

Ryan & I are headed off to Vegas on Sunday for 5 days and my mother-in-law will be staying at our house with the kids. We are so looking forward to this trip. He's got a little business to take care of and then it's time for fun! Yesterday we went shopping for some clothes for us. Ryan got some trendier shirts, pants and shoes and I got a killer pair of boots and some cute clothes. I'm having a little bit of buyers remorse on the boots, because I wonder how much will I really wear them? Ryan loved them.....thought they were "sexy" and likes that look of the jeans tucked in to the boot. We'll see, I'm kinda short and will try that out before I wear them out. When the mood strikes Ryan to shop, he's a lot of fun to go with. My brother came over and watched the kids for about 5 hours while we hit Nordstrom Rack and the mall.

The kids have today off and we're leaving shortly to go get my sister from the airport. Apparently she missed her first flight, so she's due to arrive about noon now. Just planning on staying home the rest of the day and playing with my cricut! I heard from the manager of Michaels that they are going to have an amazing sale on Thanksgiving night on Cricut product. Hmmm.....gotta watch for that! Have a great day!

Still here...

I didn't leave this week to go to my Grandma's. After realizing that the kids had a lot going on with Halloween, we decided I'd go out there the day after Halloween. So I'll be gone the 1st-8th. I'm looking forward to spending time with her. Zach will be going too. I'm thinking I'll have to have some crafts for them to do! I'm dragging my scrapbook supplies with me. I'm already working on a list of things to bring for Zachary. We can't be away from the house, because she's that unstable. But she is doing somewhat better. The recovery from the surgery has really been super hard. So I may not get to blog until I get back.

I have to share what I bought. It was SUPER IMPULSIVE! I've not even had one inclination to buy this, but when they offered to make payments......ooooooh I was suckered in!

HSN offered a flex pay for 5 months! It came with 4 cartridges and FREE SHIPPING! That's huge because the package weighs 26lbs! So here's the link in case you need one too!

Ryan asked if this was my Birthday/Christmas present. I said, "No way! It's my, 'sorry you didn't get to go to New York present!!!" He did laugh......

Hoping this shows up before I leave. If not I spoke to my UPS guy today and he said I can have it re-routed to grandmas! Woo-hoo!!!

Tomorrow Zach has his Harvest Parade in the morning. He's going to be either Darth Vader or a Storm Trooper. Big surprise. Austin hasn't said one way or the other if he's dressing up. I keep asking him, but he's just doesn't seem interested. I think he's too young to give it up, but I know that "kids now a days" are much younger doing things we never did. So if this is the age a costume is given up, so be it. However, my big kid is dressing up. We tried to find this, but had no luck. Not sure what the plan B is yet.

It's bath time so I better run!

This could be a long post

First off I want to share what we did today. Austin has minimum day this week and we were able to go over to Disneyland to see all the great decorations! I don't think I've ever been during this time. I always manage to go right before or right after. We had a great time. We met up with Jenn who signed us in. Thank you bunches! And not only for that....the compassion and understanding you have for what is currently going on with my grandma. Then I met up with an old friend and her three boys. I'm really glad I did this. There had been some time that has lapsed in our friendship and though it is hard to mend old wounds, we realized there was just a huge misunderstanding. We sat in bugsland and just talked it out. Cleared the air, and had a few tears. It felt wonderful. And it was like we picked up right where we left off. I'm looking forward to the growth of this rekindled friendship.




My Grandma. Well it's not good. She is still trying to recover from her surgery. I don't know if her quality of life will ever be the same. She was told on Monday that the chemo treatment that they could do would only give her about a 15% chance of working and all it would do is give her a little more time. There is a second one, but unfortunately she needs to be 100% from the surgery and she's far from that and it would only work about 35%. Next week Monday I'm driving out there and spending the week taking care of her. We're all taking turns. My mom, aunt, uncle, cousins and even my sister flies in in November. It's just heart wrenching. Today I had a counseling appointment~it's really to help her with Austin and what needs to be worked on, but this one I had to talk about my grandma. I had to cancel a few because of being out there. So she asked if I had told my grandma what I love about her and what I will cherish. No, I hadn't. I know it sounds easy, but you just want to be so upbeat that you don't want to be too melancholy. So she said to write it down and tell her next week. I will do this. As hard as it may be, I need to tell her.


There's a party in my tummy! Check out the Yo Gabba Gabba shirt I found at Wal-Mart! A whole $7! Zach loooooves Brobee.




This weekend is the Spooktacular Crop at the Bee. I bought this book to make his chili for it. If I really had MORE time, I would make his Chocolate Smores Bread Pudding. His stuff is EASY! I'm all about simplicity!





I'm also looking forward to going to Ontario Expo for a few hours
Friday morning. I so hope to find this! Please, please someone have it in stock! And I'm hoping they are there. Ok, I need to go to bed. I'm over tired and have tired cried out eyes. I think I cried three times today. Once at counseling, once when Jenn & talked and then with Jamie. Man I'm a big blubbering mess! Goodnight!

Looky what showed up today!

I got one today to demo! I can't wait to try it out. It's only about 2lbs! And no big bulky cartridge. It's about the size of a memory card for your camera! The Bee will be getting these later this month. Watch for emails about demos in the next couple of weeks!

The Wynn. That's where I'm going next month with Ryan for 4 days! He has a business trip for 2 days and we're gonna make it a little longer so we can have some "adult time." Hoping to catch a show the night he has his dinner and then we want to see this.

Gotta run....we have football now. Ok I just previewed my post....why is it when I put breaks in the paragraphs it runs it altogether???

Frustrating....

It's almost mid October?

Where has the time gone lately? We as a family are just maxed out on our schedules. Zachary was asking me about fall today and if it was fall and why haven't the leaves changed colors? Well I guess it's fall? In a weird Southern California way. For us fall always starts with Santa Ana winds and fires!

My grandma is finally out of the hospital! She didn't come home until yesterday late. I just hope that the new chemo will work, because she definitely can't go through this surgery again.

Austin's team won! (he's #4) They are 7&0. I love watching his games. It would be awesome if they went all the way! The one other team that is also 7&0 (North Long Beach) played before us and stayed to watch our game. I guess their sizing up the competition.

Today I had some errands to run and I wanted to share these cute t-shirts for boys that Gymboree has for Halloween. Then I picked up a new pair of Vans for Austin.....so funny to see the styles throw back to when I was in Jr. High/High School.

This weekend I'm scrapping alllllllllllllllll weekend with my friend at her condo in the desert. I so need this before the big move. I think I'll be about quantity and not quality. I just need to get as current as possible. This is my hobby and I think it's become my collection of stuff, because I don't make much of anything!

Sunday is our 5th Anniversary. I'd say it doesn't seem like it.......but it really seems like it should be like our 7th!

I can't post my pics.....darn you blogger! Maybe later.

Monday

What is up with this heat? I am SO over it being hot!

I'm a little sad today......I had to list our show tickets on Craigslist and Stubhub. My mom cancelled our airline tickets and hotel. Hoping maybe in the spring we can go or next year the same time. If anybody knows of anyone going around the 15th -21st, I have 18 show tickets to sell! 6 to each of the following:
Little Mermaid Thursday Oct 16th 8pm @ Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Mamma Mia! Friday Oct 17th 8pm @ Winter Garden Theatre
Jersey Boys Sunday Oct 19th 3pm @ August Wilson Theatre
We paid a lot for these and I would take a reasonable offer. So please.....pass the word!

I'm driving out to Palm Desert tomorrow to stay with my Grandma for the week. No one else can help until Friday, so I'm taking my turn. I'll be kidless.....which is important, but have a lot to look after with my grandma, I'll spare the details. She's doing a lot better! Still no estimate on when she'll be going home, but she's starting to have much better days. Thank God! I'm taking small scrapbooking projects with me. I'm notorious for starting and never finishing. I can sit in a chair and just work with a few pieces. Everyone stays with her from 7am-7pm. She has a nightnurse that comes in from 7pm-7am. I'm not a big reader, so I'm hoping this will work out ok.

Does anyone watch Dexter? Last nights episode had a scrapbooking reference and I couldn't believe it! I guess it's only funny to a scrapbooker. But what a weird show to have that in there? Bummer, can't find a clip.

Ok I've been summoned to play a game. Have a great week!

Friday

This week seems like a blur....I woke up around 5am and couldn't figure out what day it was! I've been on mental overload, and it'll probably be that way for some time.

My Grandma. We thought things were going better, but then got more bad news yesterday. I guess I haven't wanted to admit this is "the end" and still don't feel that way, but we keep being told it is. Denial, yes I have it bad. So grandma now has to go to assisted living for a while. Not sure how long? Her wound is going to be kept open to heal. My mom is driving out there right now and hopefully tonight or tomorrow she'll have some more clear answers. My uncle has been there all week with her. I might go out Sunday, but that all depends if they move her that day. Again.....just waiting.

Something else we're in denial about........NY. My mom just can't bare to cancel everything, but knows we can't be away during this time. I think I just need to take the intiative.

On a lighter note.....we're moving! I'm sooooooo happy! This house is super nice and just down the street. I cannot wait. We are renting, because we hope in the meantime or by the time the lease is over, we'll be in our own home. But, this house is perfect for us! I'll share pics when we move.

I'm going to post the "Tour de Crop" photos on the Red Bee's blog, so check them out here.

Photos from today. We went to the park for a few hours, just Zach and I.

I was reading Annie & Joann's blog and they are doing "The week in the Life" journaling and it made me want to share what I made at Creative Escape. It's called "The Good Book," Finding good in everyday, even in the littliest of things. Designed by Kollette Hall.

Karen reminded me to finish it......so instead of trying to finish the whole year, I did my journaling for September and have done my journaling on a daily basis for about the last week. It's amazing how inspired and great you feel when you actually write it out. You can't see it in these pics, but we were given a notepad and you write on that and insert the pages in the pockets. After the month is over, you go back and post pics of that month. Tonight I'm going to work on finishing up the months and get my September pics in it. I'll post more pics of this as I work on it. I think it is a really great way to journal and reflect on the day to day things.

Tomorrow brings us our last football game of the season........but then we start playoffs! That could go as late as the end of November. If you have boys and want them in football it is the BIGGEST commitment ever! Well, I need to help Zachary, he's making play-doh gingerbread men. I'll have to share those later!

Monday

Well today my Grandma had her surgery bright and early. Everything went ok. They bypassed the cancer which is good news, but weren't able to do anything about the tumor. The doctor said again, "this is just to make her comfortable in the meantime." The ovarian cancer is super aggressive and trying to just take over. She is to start chemo again when she gets out in about a week. It was really hard to see her yesterday. She was hooked up to so many machines. But her spirit was up as much as she could be. I really don't know how much time she has....the doctor said it could be anywhere from 6 months to a year, so I don't know if she should try to go to NY? We're just all waiting and it will seriously be a very last minute decision. I just want to say "thank you" to all that have either called or emailed, listened or just posted. It means a lot. I am close to her, its like she's more than just my grandma. Any ways.....if I seem scatter brained just understand my mind is totally else where. Thank you!

So on to some other things......did you know the library is closed of Fridays??? Oh Zach was mad. So off to Borders we went and bought some Little Critter books.

The Tour de Crop was SO MUCH FUN! I'll post pics later. I bought some cool stuff for my new scraproom....which I'll share more on that later!

Gotta run...time for homework.

Update

Well, it's not good. My Grandma has a blockage in her colon and it's the ovarian cancer. She has to have surgery on Monday to have it removed and while their doing that, they are going to try and remove the tumor that is pushing on her kidney. I feel so bad for her. I just wonder how much more can she endure? They don't really know what her recovery will be like until they are done. It could be as serious as her having a colostomy bag for a few weeks. Which if that happens she can't go to NY. And already she's saying she isn't going to go, which I totally understand. On Sunday I'm going to go visit her in the hospital.

So with all that........NY is possibly going to be cancelled. I think we should still go, I know my grandma will say that, but my mom & aunt are on the fence. If we cancel we'll be out so much money. I don't know what will happen with the flights. My grandma used all her miles to pay for 6 airline tickets. Would they let her get all the miles back? Or am I committed to an airline ticket that will need to be used in the future? And then all the show tickets. We have 21 tickets! How would we sell those??? So needless to say I'm on pins and needles. I want to go, but I understand the anxiety.

Then this morning I read this

That's a little unnerving considering we bank with them. Is anybody else a little freaked out with what's going on in the economy?

So with all my stuff going on, my friend called me late yesterday and said, "Hey wanna catch movie?" Yeah! That's just what I needed to get my mind off of everything. We saw this

Such a chick flick....and really good. Then I think we just talked for about 2 hours after.....thank you, I need it. See you Saturday ;)

Speaking of Saturday, I'm hosting the Tour de Crop at my work and I'm really looking forward to it. Come if you can!

Today I'm not doing a whole heck of a lot. I asked Zachary if he wanted to do like 3 different things and he said no to all of them and said he just wants to go to the library. Love that he loves books so much. Maybe I can sneak a pedicure and manicure in there somehow. Have a great weekend!

My Grandma

I haven't said much about her here lately, but I'm starting to get really worried about her health. I hadn't called her in about 2 weeks (I was in AZ and then got sick) and needed to, so I did this morning. She sounded terrible. Like death was knocking on her door. About a month ago I mentioned that her tumor had grown and was pushing on her kidney. She had the surgery the day I left for CE and I spoke with my mom and she was doing fine, but what they had discovered was really bad. The cancer has spread to her lungs and to her spleen. I called her the next day to see how she was doing and she seemed really upbeat and positive. At this time she had 6 weeks before our trip and was going to go through some intense chemotherapy. I got home and then got sick and just let too much time pass before I called. So today when I called, she could barely talk. Said she's been throwing up for the last 3 days and can't keep water down. Her friend Alice was there trying to help.....but she's just as old as my Grandma. She mentioned she wanted to go to the hospital because she is in so much pain. Soon as I got off the phone I called my mom. Great...she's at a conference. So I try her cell....voicemail. I'm thinking I need to get out there. One 80 year old lady can't take care of another! My mom calls me back and says, "I have bad news...." Oh jeeze.....I gulp....."Grandma is in the hospital and their doing tests, I'm on my way out there now." I'm waiting for her to call to tell me what's going on. We also talked about NY. It doesn't look like she'll be going. I'm really trying to keep a positive outlook on this. Maybe she just happened to catch the flu? Because what she is describing is how I was sick with the flu. I so hope it's nothing serious, but I am really worried. Please keep my Grandma in your thoughts, she needs all the prayers she can get.

New York

I leave in 3 weeks! It seems as though it came super fast! Can't wait.....just wanted to share!

Monday

Just wanted to say HELLO~trying to get my home back in order. I worked ALL weekend. The anniversary was a great time. I taught all day. I love teaching scrapbooking stuff. I have the Tour de Crop this weekend so I have little things I need to get ready for for that. Can't wait!

Austin's football team is undefeated! I'm going to miss Saturday's game :( Austin is also becoming more conscious of fashion and has decided "skinny jeans" are what he wants. Do you know how hard it is to find slim skinny jeans? My son is SO skinny that the slims are too big and I told him he has to wear a belt.

So I know I talked about the City program in my last post and about moving & money, but how strange is it that we found the perfect place to move to in the mean time? We weren't really even looking. Just figure we'd stay put until we hear from the city. Anyway, we really want this house (to rent) but not sure if it's in the cards for us financially. We've been fortunate enough that since we got on a budget two years ago that we don't ever fight about money. It's all there in black & white....either you have it or you don't. So I'm wondering if we take this plunge will it stress us out too much? In my head I can visually see us there, but in my heart I just worry. How do you know when you should just take a chance?

We got a letter!

It's from the city Economic Development Dept. Something we've been waiting patiently for. Like 16 1/2 months waiting for. So Ryan tears into it. It's not exactly what we thought, but here's the jist of it. The Redevelopment Agency is remodeling a 22unit townhome community. It will have 2 and 3 bedroom homes that range from 1200 to 1500 sq ft and will be sold at the moderate income pricing, ranging from $300K to $333K. Construction starts in 2009 and will be done in 2010. We were "chosen" to be considered and need to submit paperwork. So it's good.....but such a long wait. As most of my friends know we have been on this "list" with the city hoping to get first time buyer assistance. I had a friend do it and it was very successful, but just takes a long time to be called. I have mixed feelings about this. As much as we want to say YES! we really don't want to live in a townhouse. And it's a tri-level one at that. I'm not ungrateful, but worried if we pass it up, will we be bumped again? Such a dilemma. Ryan is going to call the city on Monday. Hopefully they can answer some questions we have.

Today I took Zachary to California Adventures. First off....it was hot! Soon as we got in we rushed right over to the new ride, Toy Story Mania. After about 20 minutes in line it breaks down. So we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more. Finally we get out of line and do other things to kill time....because we really just wanted to go on that. He didn't understand and it kind of started the melt down. "I want to go home, I want to ride Toy Story, I want to go to Build-a-Bear." Ugh.....please stop whining. So we find a happy medium, Camp Grizzly or at least I think that's what it's called. He whined a little and then started getting into it and then an allergy attack. Zachary has really bad allergies. His eyes are red and watering, he starts scratching his head, sneezing and then hives start to break out in the creases of his arms. So now I have to convince him I have to go to the bathroom to get him away from whatever is making him break out and wash him off. Once we leave and get to the bathroom and rinse off....all the signs start to disappear. That's when I suggest Build-a-Bear. This was his treat for working on his chart for the last 3 weeks. Zachary had regressed about a month ago and stopped pooping. Most everyone knows that he did this from the time he was 4 months old until about 9 or 10 months ago and then one day he figured it all out. No more medicine, no more charts and then last month he just stopped. So the chart came back and he's back on track.....This was his first trip to Build a Bear. He only got clothes. He got to pick one outfit, and he picked Daddy's favorite football team the 49er's. It's so stink'in cute! He now wants a Build-a-Bear birthday party. I think that would be fitting for a 5 year old who loves stuffed animals. Well now I'm rambling and I'm being called to help..... I'll be working a lot this weekend, it's the Bee's Anniversary sale and there are some great things going on! Have a great weekend!

Catching Up

Well it has been one heck of a week with being sick! Today is the first day I feel 100%. Whatever this strain of flu I had was bad. I managed to go to Oak Glen, but I probably should have stayed home. I really pushed myself. I'm adding a slide of the pics I took, thought that was more fun to look at! In the last two weeks both my boys have started school and I'm loving the routine of "normal." Though I hate that Ryan is gone all night on Tuesdays. "It's temporary" I keep telling myself. With the way the economy has taken a down turn, it's SO important that he's getting his MBA. My uncle has now been out of work for 6 months. They are super stressed out. He doesn't have a college degree and though he has a ton of experience, companies have their pick of the litter. Why hire a 50 yr old man that makes 4x's what a 30 yr old will do for less? What a total drag. Tonight is Back to School night at Austin's school. I'm looking forward to it, but it stinks cuz it's a Tuesday. Gotta do everything solo. Well, I'm going to watch my tivo'd Oprah and work on my unfinished projects from Creative Escapes. I'll share them when I'm all done.

The flu has made it's first apperance

On me! I have been SO SICK! It started Wednesday night with chills, then by morning I had a fever and terrible stomach cramps and was super nauseous. It followed up by lingering on Friday, and last show of a fever was about 7pm and still the stomach cramps all through the night. Today I feel better, but the stomach cramping is just miserable. I hope it's gone by tomorrow morning, we have plans to go to Oak Glen. I'd hate to cancel.

Speaking of canceling.....I'm missing our Back to Crop today. I love hosting the events, but I knew I was just in no shape to do so. Hope our croppers enjoy the day!

Creative Escape

What an amazing event! The classes, the people, the food, the feeling......just left me completely inspired and not so overwhelmed any more. If you ever get the chance, GO! It's worth every penny. Karen & I are already planning on going next year. We had the most amazing time. Here are some pictures that I took;

We made lots of new friends and networked with ALL the teachers. We have some great things in the works for January when CHA is here **wink, wink**

On our way home we stopped here

They were actually closed and had a class going on. I called and said, "please could we visit!" So Diane said to come on down and we were so glad we did, because we ran into Debbie Schuh that taught at our store and the owner from Paper Tales. How cool is that? What a beeauuutiful store!

I got home late last night and today I'm trying to recover my home......3 boys minus 1 mom for 5 days = a BIG MESS! Gotta run and get Zachary and then Austin, hope you enjoy the pictures!

Labor Day Weekend

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I know I sure did. We were busy, busy. I took the kids to Buccaneer Bay on Friday and followed that up with scrapping at the Bee with Candice & Cheri later that night. Saturday brought us our first official football game and Austin's team won! Yeah Bengals! I have never seen Austin so passionate about anything. He wants to be early to practice and the games.....he tries to get dressed about 2 hours before, but I do make him wait so he doesn't sit around and sweat. After the game, a quick pizza party and then I met back up with Candice & Cheri to scrap some MORE! I didn't get much done, but they are a lot of fun to be around and so inspirational. I worked Sunday and started getting my projects pulled together for our Back-to Scrap Crop. Zachary hung out with Grandma, Ryan studied and Austin played with friends. Today we SHOPPED all day with my mom. Ryan played golf with my dad ;) The boys scored some good deals on school clothes and backpacks and mommy got some new blingy sandals for $8! I took my mom to Chick-fil-a for lunch, she's never had it before! Today they were giving away a free 3 piece strips to everyone! So I got 4 and that's what we had for dinner!

After we left Kohl's we headed to Tilly's and Nordstrom Rack, where I found shoes for NY. This is huge. You have to have comfortable shoes or your feet will hurt. Last time I didn't bring the best selection of shoes.....especially for night time. I thought a pair of black boots would look cute. Yeah it did, but boy did my feet ache. So here's what I found; the one on the left is by Cole Haan and have the Nike air cushion in them. The have a little bit of patent leather around the top and then the side has more. These are my "night time shoes." The shoes on the right are by Skechers and are my day time shoes. They both are soooo comfortable. I also picked up this bag a couple weeks ago to take with me. It will hold everything! We leave in 44 days! I can't believe how quickly it is approaching.

I leave in a just a little over 24hrs for Creative Escapes with Karen and cannot wait!!! I'm starting to get really excited. I don't even have half of my homework done or my supplies packed, but I'll be tackling that tonight and all day tomorrow! Speaking of tomorrow.....it's Austin's first day of school. Yeah! Zach starts next week. I'm sure I won't have time to blog until I get back, so have a great week!

Oh....layouts as promised. I need to figure out how to do a flickr account so I can update more often.