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

Sparks, Beavers and Bugs..oh my!

Well yesterday all 3 kids had good days at school, yeah!
In order of conversation, these are the comments:

Carly - "I had a GREAT DAY!"
Evan - "okay", from his teacher "I had a wonderful day with Evan today"
Logan - (in all his preteen "angst") - "not one single person annoyed me today"

After school was community registration night, of course Paul stopped off at his brother's before coming home so I had to take all 3 rugrats with me (yep, he IS going to pay big time for that!).

Evan (7) wanted to do Karate, so I filled out 5 sheets of registration work, wrote a check for $125 to cover the first session and proceeded in a non-orderly fashion to check out gymnastics for the girl.

$355 for 1 hour/week for her to learn to do somersaults? And I have to GUARANTEE that I or someone I send "volunteers" atleast once a month or I have to pay even more...ummm, NOT HAPPENING!

So we move on to the "Sparks", this is the younger girls version of Brownies/Girl Guides. It is only $125 from Sept - April, 1 evening a week, completely doable. She is very excited about it, they of course do all kinds of arts/crafts etc which Carly adores and all kinds of other fun stuff, plus 3 of her best buds were in line to sign up right behind her so she is a happy girl!

Now back to the Karate thing..Evan spots the Beavers/Cubs booth next to Sparks, he is intrigued. He strolls over with his "I'm too cool for my Spiderman shirt" attitude and strikes up a conversation with the nice gentlemen manning the booth.
Before I know it, he has registration forms in his hand and is giving me a pen...ummm, okay.. He has decided he now wants to be a Beaver, this is cool by me as they teach them all kinds of nature stuff, they do hikes, games etc and it is a general faith-based program as well, and only $150 for the year, he goes 1 evening a week too. So now he is a Beaver.
This of course means we have to go stand in the Karate line again, and I ever so nicely explain to the "nice lady" that I would like my cheque back and to remove Evan from the list, she is not particularly thrilled and gives me one of "those" looks...pfffffffft, whatever lady, he has been signed up for what 15 minutes? Give me a break LOL

Logan (11) is of course doing bowling again he loves it and excels at it, but he has also decided he wants to try curling so he will be doing that as well. Fun stuff I tell ya.

And me, being me, what am I thinking about this? Sparks=pretty pink uniform and sash
Beavers= adorable little brown and blue vest and hat
Curling= new sport with lots of red and blue on the ice
Thought process= TOTALLY ADORABLE NEW SCRAPBOOK LAYOUTS FOR ME!!!

Now, the "bugs" part. Logan, by nature, is not a complainer, last evening he was saying his ear hurt, we assumed he had some water in it from swimming and shuffled him off to bed. By midnight he was still awake and almost in tears with the pain, I as always told him, he needed to decide if he needed to see the doctor or not (my kids hate going to the doctor so if they are even faking a little bit, this is the part where they get miraculously cured), he said he thought he should go. So off we go after midnight, heading to the ER. Yep, his left ear is very red inside and "bulging" according to the doc, so they gave him a dose of antibiotics and a prescription for me to fill today. Poor guy loves his new school and the Fine Arts Program and was all set to go to school today anyway, but he realized he just wasn't up to it, so he is home today.

Well that's it for now, maybe I'll be back late, have some photos to post of my cousin David and his family who came for a nice visit last week.

Have a great day all

Countdown to Freedom LOL

Tomorrow is my light at the end of the tunnel day, all 3 of the kiddos start school, full days and all 5 days woohoo!
Don't get me wrong, I adore my children and wouldn't trade them for anything, but this summer has had me feeling something like this...

Of course you realize that being the pathetic fool I am that I will be excited until approximately noon and then be bored out of my mind, right?
I have such a long list of things I want to accomplish now that school is starting up and we can get back on some sort of schedule.
First on the list is to get back to doing my Wii Fit again, no way was I going to let all of "me" wiggle and jiggle with the kids home to make fun of me, I will keep the jiggling to myself thank you very much LOL

To those who have been emailing about my surgery earlier in August, thanks so much. So far, so good, a cycle has passed and so far nothing so I have high hopes that the ablation is a success, won't really know much until a few cycles have passed though. But, the fact that I have gone over 3 weeks with no bleeding is a positive in my books (sorry if TMI, but since I don't think anyone but my loyal few read this, I feel free to elaborate) LOL

Anyhooooooooo, off to the library, I'll likely be back tomorrow to whine about my boredom and lack of drive to do anything on my "to do" list...

Have a good one everyone!!!!!!!

Woohoo! Tomorow is the BIG day!

Okay so my non-scrapping friends will be eye rolling now, but scrappers will understand my excitement.
Tomorrow is the beginning of the new Lisa Damrosch class, "Product Playground 2" at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I have previously taken 2 of Lisa's classes and I swear she is my favorite teacher ever, she is a ton of fun, more talent than you can shake a stick at and I am beyond excited to see what she has in store for us.
I will be sure to share some creations with you when time allows.
BRING IT ON BABY, I'M GOING TO PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to My Boy Evan and other baby news!

Seems so hard to believe that my middle child Evan is 7 years old today.
WOW! It seems like only yesterday that we were blessed with this little miracle, what joy he has brought to us in these 7 years (okay a few headaches too, but mostly joy LOL)
Since it was his birthday, we took him out for lunch, of course he chose Pizza Hut since he loves the lunch buffet. The waitress overheard us saying it was his birthday and brought him a huge piece of Chocolate Caramel cake, wasn't that sweet of her?
It was a good day at the old Pizza Hut to be sure. Several large groups had made short work of the buffet so we had to wait quite some time for fresh food to be brought out, the waitress felt bad and so gave me a free order of boneless Teriyaki wings (can you say yummy?) and then she gave Evan the cake which goes for about $5. As we were leaving our friend Ina who is a waitress came out from the back with 2 empty pizza boxes and told my kids to load them up with whatever they wanted from the buffet, the buffet ended at 1:30 and nobody else was having it so they stacked them boxes pretty full, talk about a windfall LOL

On an unrelated note, my dear friend Rachel gave birth to an 8 lb baby girl, Sienna Elizabeth last evening at 10:34 pm, I can not wait to see pictures of the little angel and wish I lived closer to BC so I could see them for real. Congrats Rachel, Brian and big brother Kane, welcome to the world baby Sienna, you've got yourself one heck of a mom there baby girl!

Back from Surgery, All is Well

Got home yesterday afternoon after having my endometrial ablation. Things seem to have gone quite well.
Today I am feeling pretty good actually, better than I thought for sure. A little crampy but nothing that I can't handle.
Time will tell how successful it was, will know more once a cycle passes but I still have high hopes, it certainly can't be worse than what it was before that's for sure.

I want to take a few moments to thank everyone for all the emails, posts etc that you made with your well wishes and prayers, you have no idea what they mean to me.

Today I will be taking it easy, DH is busy doing laundry for me and I am planning on spending some time down in my scraproom playing and relaxing.

Again, thank you all my friends, chat soon!

Epson Creative Zone...Cool!

This is a little Brag Book I made using free downloads from the Epson Creative Zone, if you haven't checked it out you really should. Tons of really cool little projects, really simple and free...can't beat that. I combined 2 projects to make it, I used the Travel Brag Book and the Travel Accordian Album one. In between the photo pages I am adding in the blank postcard and the blank journalling sheets so she can do her own journalling later.

I enjoyed it but have to say, digi stuff will never replace my love of paper scrapping, but I can definitely see more combining some of these great Epson projects with my traditional layouts.

My Scrap Room is Doing It's Job!

Well it is working I think.

Now that I have a dedicated scrapping space and can leave stuff out on my desk etc, I am digging in to all those much loved but ignored supplies. I have been playing for 3 days and have got 7, yep 7 layouts done, that's more than I have done in 3 months I swear.

And the best part, I am using up my old stash and old supplies that I couldn't use before when the kids and hubby were invading my space.

So far this week I have:

** painted, I played with my paints that I have had for over a year and half of them weren't even opened yet!

** played with my Stickles - again had for a long time and never used them because of the drying time...woohoo!

** pulled out my Versamark and embossing powders and heat embossed, can't even remember the last time I did that!!!!!

** played with good old glue, did the "rain drop" technique and just plopped globs of glue on the page to mimic rain...way cool!

** played with loose glitter and got it all over me, but who cares it was fun!!!!!

**played with my stamps that are so sorely neglected, love the Inque Boutique Stamp Keeper system by the way, if you haven't seen them, you must check them out! You can see a video of them HERE You can buy them at Lovebug of course. Here's the link.


I hope to snap some pics of the layouts later to share, but right now, I am just having too much fun.

On another note, my kids have been gone since Tuesday evening, camping with my sisters and are due back today. DH and I are so pathetic, we moan about the quiet time and alone time we crave when the kids are here, and by 8 pm on Tuesday evening, we were bored and wishing they were back home. Of course they'll be home for an hour and the wishes for quiet and aloneness will return I'm sure LOL

I'm Moving Out

my scrap stuff out of my bedroom that is.
Finally decided to brave the dreaded dungeon that DH calls a basement.
I have commandeered the "bedroom" (insert garbage dump here) to use as my very own space. It ain't the prettiest place in the world, but now that I have it cleaned out and fumigated (picture that the basement has been used primarily by DH and his friends to watch such thrilling and stimulating things as UFC fights for the past 12 years or so), it isn't so bad.
I have the tables and shelves ready to go, now to move everything down there...geesh what a job..on the plus side I am finding tons of stuff I forgot I had.
It's going to be great I think, I will be able to leave my stuff where I can see it and hopefully use it finally.
Carly keeps telling people that there are NO kids allowed down there when Mom is scrapping, but she qualifies it by saying "unless we are bleeding, then we come down" LOL The kid has the right idea I tell ya.
Now I am hoping that in this pathetic, shopping-challenged town in which I live that I can find some cool, fun and funky stuff to decorate it down there so it is cheerful and happy, just what I need.

In other news, I am finally going to have my Endometrial Ablation done, August 12th.
Thoughts and prayers that the surgery is a success and I can get back some semblance of a normal life again would be appreciated.

Off to bribe the kids to help me carry stuff downstairs...wonder if a Dairy Queen Blizzard offe will do the trick?

Has Anyone Seen My Summer?

Holy crap Batman! It is almost the middle of July and we have had ONE decent day this year...rainy, cold, dreary...UGHHHHHH

Off to take the kids to the pool today, hopefully they will burn off some pent up energy and stop fighting long enough for me to fight the urge to drown them all (come on, relax, you know I am kidding,I wouldn't REALLY drown them...)

Hope everyone else's summer is going better than mine with this yucky weather.

Anyone willing to send some sunshine this way???????

Be back later after swimming and working on the building plans for the ark......

I'm a Grandma! ??????????

To an Eastern Grey Kangaroo LOL

Megan adopted one for Logan, Evan and Carly while she was in Australia. The kids think this is totally cool (way cooler than adopting a WebKinz according to them BWAHAHAHA).

His name is Ugg and he is apparently quite the character. Seems he tried to kill Ranger Tom by kicking him off a cliff or something...figures he'd be "one of mine", huh? LOL

Here is the adoption certificate and a picture of Megan "spooning" with the adorable little creature.

How freaking fun is this!