Happy Birthday Tim!!!!!!

Today is my nephew Tim's champagne birthday, turning 19 on the 19th, pretty cool huh?
Tim is an amazing young man whom I have blogged about before, but here is a pic of the adorable fella anyway. Boy oh boy do I love this kid...ummm...I mean man...really I do...it's just hard to wrap my mind around LOL
Been busier than a one-armed paper hanger but I promise to come back and try to post more this weekend.
Logan made me a beautiful ice candle that I am dying to show you all, but since it is currently -45 Celcius with the windchill there is no way I am going outside to snap a picture right now.
have a lovely day everyone

All Moms...You Have to Watch this

Okay, so one of my favorite stops on my Blog Travels is to the blog of Dawn Meehan, her blog is called "Because I Said So"...anyway, if you are a mom, had a mom, are about to become a mom or know a mom, you can relate to this.
Dawn's blog always makes me giggle, I can so relate to this woman LOL

Check out her blog video, the 12 Days of Christmas...it literally brought me to tears...of laughter that is...this could be me...only she has better hair and more guts, cuz there ain't no way you'll catch me singing online

Oh My! It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas???

Okay I knew it had been a bit since I posted, just didn't realize it had been this long.
You all know how it is when the holiday season starts, right?
So, between shopping...ughhhh...Christmas get togethers and events at the schools etc, I have been scrapping,surprised? Yeah, me too!
Yesterday I went and volunteered at the Royal Canadian Legion, they put on a Christmas lunch for all of New Prospect School. Both Evan and Carly went and really enjoyed it. They had the whole shebang, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, ham, dessert, hot chocolate. A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow Logan will have his turkey dinner at Pinewood School and I'm sure he will enjoy that as well, but I'm not volunteering for that one, tomorrow is my scrapping day with Courtney...yeah!
So, here's a few layouts that I have done in the last little bit. Hope you enjoy, and remember you can click them to make them larger.
The first bunch was all made with the November Lovebug Kit, I loved this kit!





This is one of My Girls, Amanda and Courtney, these gals just make me smile!

Those of you who read my blog on a more regular basis than that with which I post to it, will remember the dreaded Webkinz incident, right?

And just a few randoms, one of my current "make me smile" layouts is the "Have Her Cake and Eat Her Too", just makes me happy.

My Boy is Off on his BIG adventure

Well this morning started at about 5 am, had to get up to have my boy Logan (11) to his school for 6:30 to begin their big adventure. He and his fellow Fine Arts students are on the way to Winnipeg for a packed trip. They will be arriving back home around 1:30 am, with any luck LOL
Their first stop is at The Forks for a trip to the Manitoba Theatre for Young People to see "Rich". They should enjoy this as it has received rave reviews and is all singing, dancing and skateboarding, what teen or pre-teen wouldn't enjoy that, huh?
Their next stop is at the Planetarium for a showing of "Planets Around Us. Logan isn't big on science, but neither was I and I always enjoyed going to the Planetarium so I'm sure he will be intrigued.
From there they are going to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and then heading off to of all things, the opera! WTH??? Okay it doesn't appeal to me, but these are Fine Arts students and this is a great opportunity for them. Apparently tickets to this opera start at about $95 a person, but our school has arranged for our guys to watch the dress rehearsal and they are doing it for only $10/person, so what the heck.
Now the opera they are watching is Il Trovatore which again means nothing to me, but the cast is apparently top notch and are very famous in that genre, who the heck knows?
I know Logan will have an absolute blast, unfortunately, me, the worry-wart mother that I am is sitting here with her stomach in knots and will remain like that until my boy is back home safe again. I am somewhat more relaxed than I normally would be as today is my Mom's birthday, and since I firmly believe she is our Guardian Angel and watches over us all the time, I know that today she will keep an extra special eye on my boy, so that is my comfort thought of the day.

Just for you Terry

Okay so my sister Terry took a little dig last night and reminded me I hadn't added any layouts recently, so here with absolutely no babbling (do you believe me yet?) are some recent creations.
Oh, and if you aren't Terry,you can look anyway *wink*








Oh, that wasn't enough??? Okay how about a few more...







oh, okay since you insist, how about just a few more, but that's it, I swear, I have other things to do today you know......

Are my kids freaking adorable or what???

Prepare yourselves, tis another bragging mom moment coming up.
Here are the proof sheets from the kids' school pictures.
It was so hard to pick just one pose with these cuties I tell ya.
Can't wait to get the real photos back!
Remember you can click on each image to make them larger.
And NO, my children do NOT have "lifetouch" tattooed on themselves, they are watermarks you goofballs.
And YES, Evan did indeed cut his own hair the week before pictures, that's another story for another day...sighhhhhhhhh

In Remembrance

Well Remembrance just passed and I can't believe I didn't post about it or post pictures, my bad...sigh
So it was cold and yucky that day, and Evan was supposed to go in the parade with his Beavers troop and I told him it was cancelled because it was too cold. The guilt got to me, so 15 minutes before he was supposed to be at the Royal Canadian Legion, I started the van and went and picked him up at school.
So glad I did, it is so important for our children to understand the sacrifices that were made on their behalf so they can enjoy the freedoms they have each and every day.
Here is my darling boy carrying the Beavers flag, and here is one of the reasons it is so important to remember. This is my Uncle Howard who served in the war and sacrificed one of his legs in doing so, I sure do miss you Uncle Howard!

APPRENTICE IS A HIT!

Holy canoli, once again I am floored by the overwhelming response to a Lovebug event.
My Lovebug Apprentice kicked off on Monday, November 10th and I was expecting a nice little showing of about 20 players...we are now at 47 and the talent and fun are overflowing the site.
I am so totally thrilled with this turnout, and my "favorites" file in the gallery is overflowing with layouts that I fully intend to scraplift.
Sign ups for the event are now closed, but please pop in and play along just for fun if you like, or just browse around and enjoy all the lovely eye candy the players are turning out.
Hope to see you there!

LOVEBUG APPRENTICE STARTS TOMORROW!

Who loves The Apprentice?
Ever wonder how it would play out on a scrapbooking forum?
Well, now is your chance!

Join us starting Monday November 10th (sign ups will remain open until the 14th) on the Lovebug forum to play along. The game will run through the New Year so lots of time for fun, inspiration and competition.

Watch the forum for the official sign up thread.

This event will encompass a variety of things, including challenges, posting, shopping, games etc etc...maybe even some blogging if you choose.

All current, past and new members are welcome to join in the game and as always, no judging will take place. Everyone has an equal opportunity of becoming "THE APPRENTICE"

How will this be like "The Apprentice"?
* it will have tasks that you can complete or choose not to complete
* it will have prizes
* it will be challenging and fun

How will it be different from "The Apprentice"?
* absolutely no one will be fired
* there won't be any cut-throat antics, (but there will cutting of paper and there will be silly antics, of that I am sure!)
* I have way better hair than the Donald

So, who is up for it? Can't wait to get started!

Beautiful Birthday Greetings and translations.

So this evening after dinner, Evan disappeared, we found him hard at work at my desk, with his dad blocking my view as little Ev made me a card. You can see it in all it's glory here...






The translation is:
(front of card) Happy Birthday Mom! To Mom From Evan
(inside of card) I will always love you no matter what. I'll always.
Incredible Me E. Hi!

And of course not to be outdone by her brother, Miss Carly decided she should make one too, and to get one up, she used color on hers LOL







Translation:
Happy Birthday Mom! To Mom from Carly
(inside) Happy Birthday Mom. I'll always love you no matter what. I hope you never leave us. I hope you feel nice and good.


Gee, does Carly's sound familiar to anyone? LOL
And I don't know where the "i hope you never leave" thing comes from either...weird..my family is a freak show without the tent I tell ya.

Logan of course is too mature to make a silly card, Lord save me from pre-teens.

And Paul, well what Paul gives me is just plain none of your darned business...bwahahaha...now those who know me, that is just plain old fiction.

Have a wonderful evening everyone, and thanks to each and every one of you who emailed me, posted on Lovebug, posted on my Facebook or called me today with your birthday wishes, I was touched beyond words...Mwaaaaaaaa....sloppy kisses for all

And the Lovebug is BACK! YEAH!!!!!!

My beloved Lovebug is back online, the forum is back up and running and so is the store, the gallery is on it's way to being back.
Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding
Huge thanks to Allan for working his butt off to get us back up quickly and easily (well easily for us, not so much for him LOL), but we sure do appreciate it.

Productive Weekend

Well since Allan is still diligently working on getting Lovebug back up and running, I thought I would share a few of the layouts I completed this weekend at a local crop.
The crop was a big success for me, not so much for the organizer, sadly I think she barely broke even, for some reason participation was very very low. Maybe I'll have to organize one myself and see what I can do.

Anyway here they are, remember you can click on them to see them larger. Most of these are completed using up my neglected Lovebug kits that piled up on me over the summer. They are awesome kits and I had a blast playing with them finally.
This first one "You" was for the Big Picture Scrapbooking Class, Design your Life by the amazing Cathy Zielske..if you missed out on this class, keep your eyes open if she offers it again, you will NOT regret it!

Lovebug Update

For those who may not have received it, the following is an email that Denise has sent out. Also please note everyone that with the server being gone, I can not access my events email so if you need to contact me, you can either through this blog or at my personal email address.
Let's all send good vibes out to Denise and Allan who are working so hard to get us all "back home"

We're still here .........................

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But it appears that our host server is not! We woke up Sunday morning to no site and after trying to get a response from our host server with no luck we decided it was time to change hosting companies.

Allan is diligently working on getting the site transferred to the new host and will hopefully have it up and running some time tomorrow.

We can't access any of our Lovebug Scrapbooking emails at this time or our admin panel to process orders. As soon as the site is back up and running we will get the orders shipped out out ASAP.

We apologize for the inconvenience and we thank everyone for their patience.

LOVEBUG site is down

For all those who have emailed me since yesterday and those who haven't but read my blog, yes indeed the Lovebug site is down, there are issues with the server.
Denise and Allan are aware of the problem and have put in a support ticket so hopefully it will be resolved soon.
Personally I am going through withdrawal, I feel like I am completely disconnected from my peeps...sighhhhh
Guess I have no choice but to actually do some housework, that bites LOL

Okay Megan, but you know you should be studying

Well my most lovable niece Megan called me today from Thunder Bay and of course had to remind me that I hadn't updated my blog in awhile. Poor thing, university is such a breeze for her that she has time to read my blog..isn't that touching LOL?

Been busier than a one-armed paper hanger (no offense to any one-armed paper hangers who might be reading) the last few weeks, and since DH is home this week on holidays, my schedule has completely flown out the window. It's a good thing I love the man or I just might have to kill him...anyhooooooooo..

Will try to post tomorrow once I get some things scanned that I wanted to share with you all, more proud Mom moments, but for now how about a few layouts that I actually got done recently?

These first two were done for the amazing Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class, I swear I will meet this woman some day, I could really party with her, she is as nuts as I am. Both layouts are based on sketches by the Divine Ms Z and the "design your life" logo in the centre of the layout was designed by her as well.




These 2 layouts were just ones that I finished the other day as well. For the "Words to Live By", I painted the background cardstock, added some unused Thickers and painted over them as well to create a little collage background.
"The Door" was one that started out as something different and as I looked at the photo more, the journalling ended up being what popped into my head as I reminisced.
**remember you can click on the image to see a larger view, the "Words to Live By" is special since I found this note pinned to Logan's door and it did my heart good to see him putting up this little reminder for himself. Love that boy!

UNbelievable fUN at the UNcrop!

Further to my last post about so many of my Lovebug pals attending the Crop for Kids this weekend, I am feeling very Alice in Wonderland and am having an UNofficial, UNsanctioned, UNscheduled, UNline crop at Lovebug.

Come on over and join in the fun, I'll be posting challenges in honor of all my Lovebug friends at the CFK throughout the weekend, so pop in often and see what is going on and play along with us.

The more the merrier..

UNcrop You are UNvited!!!!!!

Instead of Pouting..

Well since so many of my BC online friends are lucky enough to be attending the BC Crop for Kids this coming weekend, and I am not, I have decided to do something productive instead of pouting. My girls Denise and Margo will both be teaching at the event, so if you are lucky enough to be attending, be sure to stop in and tell the girls that Kat says "hello". Several other online friend will also be there teaching and scrapping so say "hello" to them too for me.

While all my girls will be cropping away (and no doubt crying in their glitter at the sad fact that I am not there with them *wink*) I am going to do a little impromptu online crop for the rest of the Lovebugs who aren't going.
So, if you want to come and play with us Friday Sept 26th sometime in the evening and throughout that weekend, pop by the forum, the more the merrier.

Myself and the rest of the Team will also be having an official online crop on the weekend of October 3 - 5, lots of challenges and fun, so hope to see you there.
Back tomorrow (she says hopefully) with some fun photos and maybe even a little video from my Evan's birthday party yesterday.

A Way Funner Post

After my little venting post of yesteday, let's make things more fun, shall we?

Here are some great little things that make me smile...enjoy!

Principles of Fun

In The Motherhood

Things I Have Learned In My Life


And this video clip, (taken by accident by my dear friend Tanya) when I was in Toronto in 2005. This is my "go to" when I am feeling down and need a good chuckle.
There is a tad of colorful language (not too much), so make sure no kids around.
Are these laughs not the best, that's my girl Tanya cackling. I MISS YOU GIRLS!

Have you ever been disappointed?

By people you thought were friends? Okay so those I am speaking of for the most part are only "online" names to me, but I feel we have formed friendships. Now most of these are genuine and true and mean more to me than words can say.
But there are others who I "thought" were like that that have disappointed and saddened me of late.
You all know that Lovebug is my online home, I adore the place and the people there.
I work hard to put up fun and different events for our members and time and time again my ideas have been "borrowed". For the most part I take it as a compliment, but when it comes to those who have played them with me on there and "know" me, and then take the ideas to other sites and take them on as their own ideas, it just really gets to me. A simple, quick email of "I loved what you did with the Canada Games/Olympics event, would love to share it with others, is that okay?" or something like that would go a long way, kwim? And yes that was a BIG hint about what the most recent "borrowed" (using the term loosely as I am striving to be polite) was, and the worst part is several other "friends" took part in the borrowed event and didn't bother to tell me I had been plaguarized either. If only ideas could be copyrighted huh?
When I began at LB, I borrowed an idea for a contest from a dear friend Traci who had an amazing online site (sadly she has sold it and I don't play there anymore, long story for another time), but before implementing the idea, I talked with Traci at length and got her approval and when I posted the contest, I gave her all the credit for the original idea, it's the right thing to do, isn't it? Or am I just too worried about "right" and "wrong", who knows? LOL
Sigh, I guess I just take these things too seriously, don't I? I know where the idea came from and I know how hard I worked at it (along with the rest of my team) and I can rest easy knowing that I did it myself, I wonder if my "friends" can say the same thing, I don't think so...
Anyway rant over, going to play will all my lovely new scrapping goodies that arrived yesterday and put myself in my happy place.

The Beckoning of Lovely

Reading the blog of one of my fav people Cathy Zielske this morning has prompted me to do several things today.
I am going to library, I need to find a book, called Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
byAmy Krouse Rosenthal.
The other thing I am doing is right now, I am posting this link to this video and I hope that you will all take a few minutes and watch it. It is completely awe inspiring and amazing.
Sending happy thoughts and wishing blessings to you all.
I don't know what I am going to do, but I am determined that this will be something I will participate in in some way.

Oh for the love of Pop Tarts, I have a runaway son

Well, my boy Evan ran away last night...here's how it began
3:55 pm home from school, Evan eats 2 granola bars, 1 bowl apple sauce
5:15 pm supper time, Evan eats 1 large baked potato, 2 plates of barbq ribs and 2 plates of peas and carrots
5:45 pm Evan is foraging in the cupboards, spots the Pop Tarts (now if you know me you know that it is very rare there is anything like that in my house so he is instantly psyched)
5:46 pm Mom (me) says "there is no way you can still be hungry, get out of the cupboard and put those Pop Tarts away"
5:46 1/2 pm Evan slams the cupboard, glares at Mom and yells "that's IT! I am OUT of HERE!"
5:47 pm much slamming and grumbling from Evan's room
5:49 pm Evan exits his room carrying an overnight bag and reiterates "I am OUT of HERE!"
5:50 pm Mom says "Don't forget a jacket, it's going to get cold tonight and don't forget you aren't allowed to cross the road by yourself"
5:50 1/2 pm Outside door slams amid more grumbling of which I am certain I heard the words "that woman makes me crazy"
5:55 pm Mom peeks out the back window to see where her wayward son is...
5:56 pm Mom the scrapbooker can't resist a few shots and sneaks out the door to snap a few pics **PLOT POINT - REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO GET A LARGER IMAGE- **


6:00 pm Aforementioned wayward son notices Mom taking photos and slumps into the house amidst more muttering, again of which I am certain that I heard the words "her and that freaking camera"

6:15 pm Mom is so thoroughly amused by the incident (and the fact she now has some great shots to scrapbook, backs down and allows the boy a Pop Tart... but alas she is too overcome with the giggles to take a picture of the boy eating it, might have to stage that photo later for the effect LOL
And being in a Google kind of mood, I stumbled upon this today and thought it so totally appropriate