Friday, December 14, 2007

I just got this fabulous digital kit by Katie Pertiet over at designerdigitals.com and couldn't wait to pull out some of my (many) "vintage" photos to scrap. I guess I'm old enough to be considered vintage at this point! :) The photo is, I believe, at our house in Ohio and, obviously, pre-Dave. That's Barb and I (I'm on the right) in the nurse get-up and seated are John and Sue. There's nothing like being a kid at Christmas time. I wish I could get back that feeling of wonder and magic that you have when you're little. Now, at 55 years of age, I only get it in little mini-bursts of nostalgia that hit during a favorite carol, or while I'm looking at my lit tree with all the lights off or while I'm watching a favorite Christmas movie...

We had a beautiful snow all day yesterday. We ended up with about 5-6 inches. Not too bad, but still so pretty. All the areas schools and etc. were closed. That's another thing I don't remember happening as a kid. We had tons of snow in Illinois, where I did most of my school years. But I don't recall the school closing because of it - except for once. I do remember one time that my Mom just insisted that we wear boots to school that day. Pft. NOT cool. Wouldn't be caught dead in those clunkers. So I didn't listen. Apparently, she knew something that I didn't. We had a huge snow that day - and this time I do remember getting out early, but I had to trudge home from the bus - a long block - in regular shoes - in a good 8-plus inches of snow. It could have even been more because our driveway wasn't plowed and I remember it being really hard to walk through... The moral of the story is, kiddies, ALWAYS listen to your mother! :) My feet were soaked and frozen by the time I got home...

Tonight we're heading up to Williamsport to Franco's for dinner with Bob and Kellie. I usually end up getting their wonderful ginger/tamari grilled salmon. Yum - I can taste it now. After dinner, we're going to the Wmspt. Chamber Choir and Orchestra concert. We've been doing this for several years and it's always so wonderful. Gorgeous music to get you in the holiday mood.

We're pretty much set for our trip to AZ. I still have to do one more thing with M&M's album, which I'm going to do in just a minute. And then all I really have to do is wrap up a few more gifts and get everything ready to mail. I'm mostly done with that, too. It seems like there are little loose ends to tie up - forEVER!

Well, they're calling for yet another Saturday into Sunday snow "event" tomorrow. It looks like church could be in trouble again. Ouch. (I say this as the treasurer...) And we were going to have our "family business" meeting afterwards - which has been cancelled twice before now. We'll have to see what happens, but it doesn't look good at this point.

One thing I'm SO grateful for is that it looks like clear sailing for driving to H-burg Tuesday night and flying away Wednesday a.m. Whew! I don't care what it's like when we get back (I shouldn't say that...) but I just want to GET there with no trouble. I can't wait!

Off to tie up loose ends! :)

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

My latest digi. I wanted to use the newest ad challenge template by Katie Pertiet from this great web site. I decided to stick yet another picture of M&M in there... I'm going to be doing some more winter photos that I haven't scrapped yet. There's another one of them I want to scrap - so brace yourselves! :)

Well, today I did my absolutely LAST bit of Christmas shopping. You know how you just have odds and ends, seemingly forever... SO. I'm DONE! Now I must finish up a few little projects (for which I did the shopping). I can do that tomorrow.

We had a really fun little program at church last night. A Christmas "extravaganza". Well, I don't know if you could quite call it that, but those teens ROCKED it. There is some amazing talent amongst them. And one of them was ill and she just bit it and truly did a fantastic job. You would have never known she was ill if you didn't already know - which I did... I sang my "classic" Mary, Did You Know. I was going to have Matt accompany me on the guitar, but he didn't make it (which I was prepared for). But Emily played the piano whilst I played the guitar and it turned out well. Surprisingly well, actually. Because when I first started practicing it a couple weeks ago, my voice was NOT up to par. I was beginning to think my solo days were over. (Now, I'm not talking GREAT here - just my norm...) But it's amazing what you can do if you just practice!

A horrible thing happened on the way to church though. I wanted to get there at 6 p.m. (a half hour early) and we left a tad late as it was. It had been raining and freezing, so stuff was icy. I wasn't sure about the road, though, so I was being cautious anyway. And a dog - like a chocolate lab type - ran right in front of me. I hit the brakes as much as I dared not knowing if the road was slick or not. But, dangit. I hit that dog. Sigh. It was a horrible thud and I was just sick. Chris jumped out and went looking for it and a neighbor even came out, too. They spent about 10-15 minutes and couldn't find anything but it's choke collar. The neighbor said they weren't familiar with that dog at all. It was very hard to get my composure back and then I ended up getting to church with about 5 minutes to get set up and all. No practicing. Afterwards a couple people that I told about it totally made me feel better by telling me about the dogs they'd hit and the dogs they had that had been hit - without ever hurthing them! I was really surprised by that. But I did feel a little better. Because I know I didn't kill it instantly or anything. Ugh. I hope it's okay...

Well, after finishing up my projects tomorrow, there's a few household things to do and a few Christmas events to attend and then my attention will be turned to getting things packed for our trip to AZ. In fact, we've already begun getting a few things around. I'm going to clear the dining room table and continute along that vein and even start putting a few clothes/outfits together. Just so I don't have to think about it at the last minute...

So off to bed with me to dream about Christmas present!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Yes, I can say we have officially begun winter around here! I found this template at designerdigitals.com (by Kellie Mize) and knew immediately that I wanted to use it to showcase how beautiful winter can be around here. I only need to walk out my door to see all of this! I don't mind winter cold as long as there's snow to make it beautiful. Although these photos are of winters past, we do have snow on the ground now. It's snowed twice already, so, hopefully, we'll actually have it around this year. Global warming? Pft! Not around here!

Just wanted to share the layout. I'm off to spend another day scrapping wedding photos. I only have three more 2-page layouts to do! Woohoo! I've been gathering an assortment of cool winter/Christmas projects, but at this point I think they're going to have to wait until next year...too busy now!