So, we stopped at our favorite local farmstand yesterday to buy some fresh sweet corn. And here's what we found:

Not a soul in site, all the goodies done up in bags with prices posted and the cash box. Full of money. In plain sight.

I LOVE it! I love that I live in a place where, not only do you not have to lock your doors at night, but we rarely do at all. Really, only when we go on vacation or out of town for more than overnight. And we leave the keys IN the car - at home, anyway. Yeah, it's a small town. Okay, there's not that much to do around here. But that's okay - I'm a "type Z" personality, anyway. I like the slow pace. I like that no matter where you go, you're bound to know somebody. I like the fact that there's never any bad traffic. Heck, there's never any traffic at all! (Actually, I LOVE that little fact of life!)

So, does it disturb me that I must leave my hard-earned - okay, Chris's hard earned - money out in plain sight - stuck under a rock just beggin for someone to steal it? No - because I'm so happy that I live in a place where you can trust most people. And, for heaven's sake, if someone comes by to buy tomatoes or corn or peppers and feels it necessary to take an extra quarter or two - or the whole dang thing - then let 'em have it. I'm willing to donate to their destitute situation - or their hunger for an ice cream cone down the road - whatever. It's all for the good of living in the wonderful little town that I do...What I get to take away is the happy truth that I still live in a world where you can use the honor system!

We had a lovely time in Blackwell at the family reunion. THIS is what we mostly did:

It was perfect swimming weather pretty much the whole time and this is just the greatest swimming hole. They are all on top of this huge rock that lies just under the surface. It's surrounded by a very deep creek bed. The water was super comfy, not too cold. Many of us (including moi) went snorkeling. Some jumped off the cliff, as seen here:

That's Dustin in mid jump. But almost everyone was in the water at some point. And when we weren't doing that, we were hanging out on the deck, painting rocks, riding bikes up into the canyon, reading, playing lawn games, or the family favorite, eating. It did end up raining Monday morning, but that just made it slightly easier to pack everything up and leave as planned.

It seemed a little more low-key this year. There were some people missing, most noteably, of course, was dad. I guess, also, with the kids being another year older, they weren't quite as noisy, wild, etc. So, it was nice. But - last night in my own bed - oh yeah, baby.

And we have now acquired the MOST ungodly hot, humid weather. UGH! When we came home yesterday, we opened up the house a bit because it was a little stuffy and actually cooler outside. But in the time it took to go see "Hairspray" (LOVED it), this super-oppresive humidity rolled in. Dang! So the house is again closed up for the day to try to keep it OUT!

Dustin has now moved back home, temporarily anyway. He had his last night of work at Russell's last night and today starts work at a restaurant in Hughesville. He's secured an apartment in H-ville, but can't get in until September 1st, so he'll be camping out here until then. That will be nice. And it will be SO great having him 10 minutes away as opposed to 50 minutes! (Especially as he doesn't yet have a vehicle!)

Now we only have to get M&M back to this area...and, unbelievably, it appears that they will be making that move next summer! I'm starting to allow myself to believe it a little bit. They, too, will be living with us for a time. I can't express in words how fantabulous this will be. Both boys together again AND right near US! WOOOOHOOOO! Ahem. I'm just trying to restrain the emotions until it's actually happening.

I've been away from my scrap room (and my circle journal projects) for 4 days now and I hear it calling my name....I still have 4 layouts to complete and have mailed by the 25th. Time is closing in. I'm off.

I've been creating! I can't stop! I don't want to stop!

I've noticed an interesting trend, too, which you can see in these last two layouts that I did. Well, it's interesting to ME anyway! I've been leaving scraps of papers and elements from the previous layout on my scrap table when I start the next project (because they're coming so fast - for me) and those pieces/elements are influencing, or making their way into, anyway, the next layout to come. For a while it was a green thing. Now I'm on a pink/orange thing. Notice the same alpha-letters in both layouts.

Tomorrow we head back up to Blackwell for our, probably, last Barlow family reunion. Dad B. always treated the fam to this and, now that he's gone, the sibs are using estate money to fund one last reunion. Now, it's not like we don't see each other often - we do. But not everyone all at once. And...even this time, not EVERYone is coming. The especially noteable person not in attendance will be, of course, Dad himself. We'll miss him...

It's supposed to be stinkin' HOT, too (as it is now...) which, up there, is EXCELLENT news! I'm gonna just keep my swim suit on and be ready to jump in that creek at any given moment because it cools you off for hours afterwards. Can't wait for that.

And Chris and I have another "coffee moment" planned one morning. We'll pack our bikes with coffee and nylon folding chairs and ride up into the canyon, find a nice place to look out and then sit down and enjoy a lovely cuppa joe. Wonderful way to welcome in the morning - which we will have to do EARLY to beat the heat!

I predict several trips to the Cedar Run G.S. for ice cream as well... I'm not bringing much to do - basically reading and photo taking. That's about all the heat will allow for me energy-wise (when not helping in the kitchen, etc.).

It's late. I'm mostly packed, but have a few things to get together in the morning so I think I'll actually hit the hay!

Ah, Dustin has arrived. Chris went down to pick him up after his work. Let the reunioning begin!

Some pretties blooming on my deck:

I love how, in that top photo, the orange flowers look kind of spikey, harsh, but they open up to be gorgeous. And this one, right above. Wow, It's so lovely, so pure and fresh looking. Just love those. I forget what they're called.

We've been having some cloudy weather, with sparse rain lately. The rain could definitely step it up a bit, we really need more. People's wells are getting low and up in Williamsport the grass is brown and crunchy. At least here, in the woods, we manage to stay fairly green.

I'm still in super-scrapbooking mode. Still working on the circle journals that I'm in. Well, one anyway. The other one has hit a snag, but, hopefully it will resume soon. The delay allows me to work more on the other one, for which I have 8 more layouts to prepare - by August 25th. I don't think that will be a problem at this point because, thank the Lord, I have TIME!

I'm loving having time. Free time. Yes, I have the regular things I must do and maintain, but they're not very demanding right now, which is great because I'm craving all this free time. Tonight I was even perusing my new Cooking Light magazine and pulling out recipes I want to make! I do have cleaning/organization urges, but the scrapping is taking precedence over that right now and not working up a sweat is equally appealing. I think I'll save the cleaning for the cooler weather.

And now - it's TIME - for bed!

Summer goodness.

Yes, people, I actually BAKED! This is something that I do enjoy - on my own timetable. In fact, I'm learning a lot about my own timetable these days...

At ScrapinstyleTV (my fave scrapbooking site) there was a huge weekend of online challenges to compensate for those of us that had to stay home and weren't able to attend one of the biggest scrapbooking events of the year - the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) show. It was called a cyber "crop". Now, in scrapping terms, a "crop" (probably derived from the fact that you often "crop" your photos prior to scrapping them) is a gathering of scrapbookers for the purpose of making scrapbook pages. Often, the idea is to make LOTS of them in a short amount of time. Personally, I've never really been interested in this because, a) I want, no need, to have ALL my supplies (all fiftygazillion of them) in front of me when I scrap and, b) I am a slow scrapper. I have no desire to "speed scrap".

Okay. SO. There must have been a dozen or so challenges at SIS this weekend - all with prizes for the "winner" of the challenge. A challenge is when someone challenges, dares, etc. you to do a scrapbook page or project within certain parameters, i.e. there was a "1, 2, 3, 4" challenge where you were to make a page - in this case "1" page, using 2 photos, 3 patterned papers and 4 embellishments (hence, the 1, 2, 3 and 4). And the subject was to be "great friends".

Now, I really enjoy a challenge. I like that some of what you are to do has been decided already for you. BUT - all of these challenges had to be completed by the end of the day (that is, whichever challenge you decided to participate in, your work had to be in by midnight Saturday). THEREIN is where it really became a challenge for me. As it turns out, many of the deadlines were extended and there's even two challenges that won't be decided until about an hour from now. But I didn't know that when I started on Saturday a.m.

So I did seven of the challenges. For two of them, I was albe to use one layout for two different challenges.

Please forgive me for the uber-long explanation, but having said that and having done these challenges, here are some things I've learned about myself:

1. I am a slowwww scrapper. Well, I already knew that. But the point has really been driven home to me this weekend. I like to think about a project for a long time in my head before I ever sit down at my desk. Roll it around in my brain like you would a fine chocolate in your mouth until it melts. And the thinking part, as long as that takes, is just half of the lengthiness...

2. I am a meticulous scrapper. As much as I love the fresh and funky, thrown together style that's so popular right now, I am just anal about lining things up and balancing stuff and having everything JUST SO. For me to depart from that - which is what I've been trying to do of late - takes me even longer! It's like trying to learn how to play a song on the guitar when you've never heard it before. Yeah. Hard. In my defense, I am a very organized person and so, not surprisingly, I scrap that way, too.

3. I really enjoyed the process and was happy to just scrap all weekend (said weekend would be excluding yesterday, but including Saturday and today...) and I'm a better person for it. I don't need to win. It's not about winning - it's about stretching yourself and having fun and getting some great scrapping done.

4. That's a lie. I want to win. I want praise and admiration from other scrappers, I want recognition for my amazing skills and I want prizes.

5. But that is NOT going to happen. Because I scrap just like ME and not like what is really popular and it's okay, sometimes really nice, but NOT amazing!

6. And I'm really, truly, okay with that. Because I LOVE TO SCRAP and it really isn't about what other people think. It really is about self-expression and preserving memories and doing what makes ME happy, ultimately.

So, yeah, it would be awesome to win, but I know I won't. But what I really love about this website is that whenEVER I upload a layout that I've done, someone will make a nice comment about it. And I do lots of the same for other scrappers. Because we like to encourage each other and it's just an encouraging, supportive website.

So, this weekend was fun. It WAS challenging! And I DID learn a lot about myself. Will I ever do another challenge? ABSOLUTELY! I love the push myself to think differently than I might have otherwise. I love having someone ELSE think of an idea! But, I will only do challenges when I have time and I can roll it around in my brain...

like you would a fine chocolate in your mouth until it melts.....

Sure do love those guys...love to see them together...love to hear them play music together...love that they love each other. And it may be happening on a more regular basis sooner than later because now the latest on the front from M&M is that they may be moving back to - not only our half of the USA, but, well, possibly even our half of the house. Ok, it won't be quite that intimate, well, maybe for a while, but I have all confidence that they WILL want to get their OWN place soon enough after moving here. (Hear me, you guys???) :) No, seriously - heck, yeah! I am serious!

Well, I can't really let myself wrap my mind around it because, what if? Nope. Can't go there yet. I'll still have to see it to believe it...

So I've walked twice now in the last 3 days. (It'll never happen on Sunday a.m.) And I am eating better. I really want to make a change - I must.

So, anyway, Chris and I go to the fair tonight. For what purpose? To eat nothing but greasy fried crap. WHY, oh why do I do that to myself. Because I'm certainly sitting here regretting it now. My tummy is NOT happy with me! And, sorry for the details, but I'm sure I'm gonna - well, let's just say I think I'll take a good magazine and place it in the bathroom this evening before I go to bed. A magazine that I'll be interested in looking at for a while.... Ew.

Oh, in that scrap page up there, I actually made the pattern on the paper with all the letters. I stuck a bunch of alphabets down on white cardstock, then inked over them and then removed the stickers, revealing the white underneath. It was time consuming, but I really like how it turned out.

Well, I'm off to bed. and to get my magazine. for later. ugh.

The heat wave has finally broken. I feel like I can breathe again! Ahhhhh...

So here's what's happening on my Friday the 13th:

.slept in 'til 8:15

.had a lovely (UNhot and humid)devotion time on the front porch with my rye toast and cuppa coffee

.fixed a 2nd cuppa and watched 2 whole, lovely, uninterrupted hours of scrapbooking on QVC (yes, I bought one thing)

.hopped in the car with Chris to head to Williamsport. I got my hair cut while Chris ran to ML to make a deposit.

.visited the brand spankin' new scrapbooking store which was, like, a block from where I got my hair cut (I will be back!)

.went to the "Homemade Days" in Brandon Park where we hunted up Judy, who is selling some jewelry she made. I bought these:

Aren't they cool? The rest of the day should pan out as follows:

.Chris is making pizza (from scratch) while I scrap (if I get off the computer in time!)

.a little more scrapping after supper and then i have to watch "What Not to Wear" on TLC.

.must make myself stay up uber-late b'cause there's two MORE hours of scrappin' on the Q at 1 a.m.! (Thankfully, I can sleep in Saturday all I want!)

Sounds like a pretty good day! Hope yours was, too!

We're havin' a heat wave....

I used to have this game when I was a kid called "Park and Shop". I loved that game and always did very well. The idea was to choose "errand" cards and then maneuver your way around the board to get your errands done before the other players. This actually could be one of the things that greatly influenced my need for organization. No - wait - it was my perfectionistic parents. Oh, well. I did well at the game and any time I have a day like this (which, now that I'm "retired", I guess I will be every Tuesday - my "errand" day!) I think of that game. Here's how it went: McD's (ok - I admit that I love their sausage biscuits and the iced coffee didn't hurt, either); AC Moore to spend my 50% off coupon; Big Lots to check for a hammock pillow (got one); Wal Mart for the usual and then some; Merrill Lynch to make a deposit and ask Christine a question; and, finally, Wegman's to get groceries. I actually spent less money than I deposited! :)

But, DANG - it was HOT out there! I can't believe I ever drove a car without air conditioning. Man, if I didn't have that for all my running around, I'd be as melted as a box of chocolates left on the back seat while I did my shopping would have been.

Here's a sample of some new stuff I made:

I got the idea for these tags from one of the fabulous "Fashionistas" (i.e. design team members) on ScrapInStyleTV - my fave new scrapping website. The whole site has a "fashion" theme going on. And one of the cool things they do is weekly "webisodes" that feature interviews with scrapping "personalities" or projects, whatever. So last week there was one that featured a project using old (or "vintage" as I like to say) record albums to make postcards. I needed some tags and translated the idea to tags. They turned out pretty well and so funny with the whole fashion theme going on...

Well, now I'm going downstairs where it's cool to crash in front of the tube...relief!

My sweet little Rocky... Isn't he a cutie? Hard to believe he's 13 years old!

What am I doing up so late? It seems like this terrible habit I've had lately. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I chugged a huge soda while watching "Transformers" earlier this evening at the movies. (My review: super-fantastic if you like great effects, lots of crash-bang action and really big metallic monsters. I think I prefer the fuzzy ones.)

I've been having so much fun (another reason I'm up so late) playing at my favorite new scrapping website ScrapInStyleTV. It's a great, positive and fun place. And I found out tonight that I have a chance to win this new book - by leaving a comment at Nic Howard's blog, here. I'd love to win it because it's all about the kind of scrapping I like to do the most - scrapping the ordinary, everyday things in life. (Did ya notice the name of my blog - or see the previous post and scrap page? See what I mean?)

Off to bed - finally!

So, I've been playing with digital scrapbook kits...finally! Yes, finally I have time! I made two yesterday and the one above is the second one. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Don't know really what I'll do with it though - mainly post here and on my favorite web galleries. But, I can't print it out because it's 12x12. Well, I supposed I could make it smaller, but the other reason I don't think I'd print is because it will be flat - even though I did some stuff to make it look layered (i.e. drop shadows). Anyway it was really fun - and time consuming. So now - back to the hands-on stuff because I need to do some layouts for the circle journals I'm in!

So, I'm in bed the other night watching Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels and she's in NYC and she's visiting a restaurant called "Dips". It features fondue. (Go figure.) Dang, that looked so good. All I have to go on is the fondue that our friends, David and Teresa make and it is deeeelicious. Mmmmm. Totally made me want some.

Oh, did I mention that when I'm watching this the other night, we had already been invited to D&T's for dinner Saturday (meaning tonight)? It's true! But I didn't know what they were serving.

Well, by now, I bet you've figured out that they, indeed, by some miracle of nature, had fondue. And, oh my goodness, it was just as deeeeelicious as I remembered. What great timing! In addition to the bread and cheese you see above, there were also veggies to dip in the cheese. And there was hot oil for doing meat - we had beef, chicken and shrimp - plus two delectable dipping sauces for the meat (which we dipped everything in). One was a cilantro ranch sauce and one was a sesame ginger sauce. Can I tell you - this was a FONDUtastic meal. And I love how fondue takes a while to eat and you chat, and sip and dip and on and on.

Well, if that wasn't enough, there was bavarian chocolate at the end. We could drizzle it on little cheesecakes AND also dip into it such delicious little goodies as pound cake, rice crispie treats, marshmallows, strawberries and bananas. The bananas were hands down the best thing skinny dipping into that chocolate. WOWSERS! That definitely pushed me over the edge of delightfully satisfied to FULL!!

All of my fondue cravings have been quenched - for the time being anyway. I'd better be careful what I watch on the Food Channel next!

Happy birthday to me! Oh, and happy anniversary, too. It's kinda sad that the first time I was wished happy birthday was when I signed in to msn.com to check my hotmail. Yep - MSN wished me happy birthday! In all fairness, I should say that Chris had already left for work when I got up. Hey, it's summer, no job AND it's my birthday - I can sleep IN! :)

I don't think there's going to be one special thing today, but we are planning a little jaunt to NYC to have dinner at our fave restaurant - Nino's - and to visit the Met. Museum of Art again. I think this will have to entail an overnight stay.... Working on finagling that...

Well, I'm involved in another circle journal. This time it's for the SIS website, which, by the way, I must say is so super cool. It was started by the wife of a member of the Christian Rock band Audio Adreneline and it is very "weighty" in the spiritual realm. Meaning that God is discussed, praised, included in the scrapping a lot and there's even a prayer request room on the message boards. And, mostly, the gals (and a few guys) on there are not only very talented scraptually, but also very fun, nice, supportive and women of high integrity and character. I can say this because I spend a lot of time (late at night, it seems) on the message boards and it's very apparent. VERY cool. It's an awesome community.

Anyway, I very much digress.... SO, I'm doing another circle journal with about a dozen other women this time. We have each picked different topics and they'll all be SO fun to scrap! Mine is "things you want to do before you die". Here's the cover page to my album:

I liked that quote for an inspiration to thinking about what ELSE you might like to do with your life before you die. I think it will be a fun subject as well. I can't tell you how many attempts I made at this page. Okay, I WILL tell you - 3 to be exact. Ripped the middle out 2 times. I'm happy with it now. And NOW, I'm going to go spend the rest of my birthday/anniversary (oh, that's 55/32 by the way) scrapbooking! Yeeha! :)

This is where we've been this week... This is Blackwell, PA, where we rent a little cabin on an offshoot of this bigger creek (Pine Creek). It's at the base of what we call the "PA Grand Canyon". Oh, it's lovely. And sooooooo relaxing. And after all the wedding stuff, that's what we really needed. LOTS of relaxing!

Mission accomplished!

We biked, swam, hiked, grilled, ate out, had friends up, read, watched the wedding video, went to bed early and got up - well, okay, early. But we like that. All so wonderful and regenerating. I think my favorite part, though, is getting up and taking my coffee out to the little porch and listening to all the birdies sing as we watch the creek gurgling in front of us. We just kept saying, "now THIS is the life!".

NOT that we have it bad here at home, mind you! It's pretty darn swell here, too. But up there - people don't know our phone number and there aren't projects and responsibilities calling our names. And there's no creek 20 feet in front of our porch. Or a bike path 50 yards away. That's why they call it a "getaway"!

In other news, we found out last night that we are officially done with Fresh Air in all it's entirety. We retired as chairs last year (this being our first year off), but we said we'd have Dennis (our umpteenth Fresh Air child in 23 years of hosting...) as long as he wanted to come and then that would be it. Well, he couldn't come last year and last night I found out he's moving to ALASKA of all places - with his sister. How she came to that I'll never know, but if he thought PA was culture shock, he better hold on to his hat, socks, whatever, cuz they're gonna get knocked off! Can we say g-r-i-z-z-l-y b-e-a-r? Well, we'll miss Dennis and all his antics. He was like part of the family for sure....

So - our summer is now (with the exception of VBS this coming week) truly FREE. Wow. For the first time since we've had kids! I think I can handle it!

This is a page for a scripture circle journal that I'm participating in. You create an album with a theme and my theme is "Words of Encouragement". Everyone is to share a bible verse that is encouraging to them (mine is on the page in the book just before the page above - it's Ps. 104:24, 33) and then scrap about how/why that verse encourages you. Then you send your whole album off to the next participant in the circle and they add their pages and send it on, etc. Everyone starts a book this way, so, hopefully - if everyone sends the journals around - at the end you end up with your album full of layouts by everyone in the circle. Cool, huh?

And TODAY - we are heading up to this very gorgeous place that I'm looking at - the PA Grand Canyon, specifically, Blackwell, PA - for a much needed week long getaway. We're packing now and I can feel the relaxation coming....just knowing we'll be there with nothing to do but bike, swim, read, eat and hang out... bring it on!

Presenting...

...Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Barlow!

Our long-planned-for day has finally come - and gone. And what a fantastic day it was! We were concerned about rain, but instead we had extreme heat. A fair trade because all the fairy maids and the fairy queen, Miss Martha, got to walk out of the woods as planned. It was truly magical. The rain did come later, but only after we were already under the tent eating and listening to the band and then it brought a very relieving cool-down. Everyone had a great time, the vows were beautiful and, well, now we are just enjoying the aftermath of food and visitors and memories of the day. And some napping. I quit taking photos shortly after the one above because I figured everyone else was taking them, including the professional photographer, and so I knew I'd be getting those. Can't wait to see all the photos and to preserve all the memories (i.e. scrap 'em)!

What will we do now????

I love my new chair! And even though it goes really nicely with that blue rug underneath, it also goes fantastically well with the new rug we just got. I'm loving that, too. So, okay, I think we now have all the furniture secured. Chris is going to install some track lighting in the living room, but not until (way) after the wedding.

Chris brought Dustin up today and he's here for the week now. He got a new job, but he doesn't have to start until the 12th, so that will work out great. He can stay the whole week with us.

The Methodist church at the end of our driveway had a turkey dinner tonight. We thought we were getting there early by going at 4:30, but we actually had to wait for about 1/2 hour. Geesh! It was good. It's just kind of a fun thing to do, too. Real old-timey and country.

I'm off to get my beauty sleep b'cause we leave in the a.m. to get the newlyweds-to-be at the airport. They'll be in the air in about 3 hours from now....Godspeed...

Here's my latest scrapping creation. Yes, I have actually had time to scrap - at, like, 1 a.m.! This was for the 1st challenge at SIS - you were to take a pic you've been wanting to scrap and do it "andy warhol" style. I really like how this turned out. A bit of a stretch for me, cuz I usually do more "pretty, tidy" things, but I've been loving this style and want to do some more.

Chris has all the crap from the basement loaded in the truck and is dumping it at the, yes, dump - as I write. Whew. THAT was the last BIG project and now we're just down to regular little stuff like making up the beds, vacuuming, sweeping off the porch/deck, etc.

I am pretty good. I have a few little things on my own personal list - dust my scrap room (wouldn't let the cleaning ladies touch it!); re-arrange the CD's (like move some of 'em to a different location); make signs for our driveway/church parking; arrange/refill candles; tweak the last little bit of clutter (i.e. get RID of it) and that's about it.

But, baby, toNIGHT, we are going to celebrate! Chris and I are going to Franco's and enjoy a well-deserved "we did it" meal. I could almost get teary-eyed when I think about all that's been accomplished around here. Amazing. Okay, I had to exercise a bit of the push and prod and threaten technique, but we ARE still married and, well, it WORKED! :)

OH - the little reddish-orange chair we ordered to replace the queen-anne thingy that just didn't work anymore came today. I am LOVE, LOVE, LOVing it! It just looks GREAT in there with the sofa and pillows. I'll blog a picture of it soon. It's too cute. AND we got the new sofa/bed and ottoman for the TV room. Would you believe I haven't even been downstairs to see it in my own house since it came? I'll have to take a little walk down there. :) I KNOW we're gonna be lovin' that, too, and our BACKS will thank us as well. It will also be nice to have another bed for guests OR for when it's too stinkin' hot to sleep upstairs and we sleep in the lovely, cool "lower level". It IS a queen-size bed, so I know that will be happening.

Lastly, the rug we ordered online from Lowe's is in, so we'll go take a peek at that tonight and, if we like it, we'll figure out how in the heck to get it in the truck and bring that baby home and neatly deposit it underneath our gargantuan new sectional. It's "arts and crafts" style, so I hope the color works, b'cause the style would be perfect in our ever-evolving living room.

Well, I must go shower and get ready for our DATE! Yippeee!

It's another stellar day in PA. (Hey, that rhymes!) But really, God, can you pleeeeease save one of these fab days for June 8th? I'm sorta happy it's supposed to start storming Thursday. For one thing, I won't have to water the plants, but for another thing, just how many perfect days in a row can you have? The odds are it can't last another 10 days, so we have to have some bad weather to break the cycle (and then start a NEW beautiful day cycle).

I found this new scrapbooking website and I'm so addicted. The site was started by the wife of one of the members of Audio Adreneline (a Christian band), so that's cool right from the start. But it's a new community, so I like getting in on the ground level. But most of all - the art/scrapping of many of the "SIStahs" is, like, WOW. I love that style. I've been soaking it in (til way into the wee hours) and can't get enough. There's a great challenge on right now that I'm getting ready to do a page for, but I feel I should finish the guest book for the wedding first. That should happen today (if I ever get off the computer).

I made a list for the guys for yesterday and everything got done and then my dear friend Deborah invited us for dinner, so that was a lifesaver. Didn't know WHAT in the world we were gonna eat. I'm not shopping til Thursday, so my cupboards are a little bare.

Today Dustin is going to mow and slap one more layer of paint on the basement door. And then tomorrow it's clean up the crap day. Upstairs, b'cause those raging cleaning ladies are coming to do the bedrooms and upstairs bathroom Thursday (hence, my grocery shopping trip that day) and the basement so that Judy can have a clean place to do the flowers for the wedding.

Then......there's, like, a doorknob to install and wastebasket to purchase and WE ARE DONE. Oh, no, wait. We're still getting more stuff delivered Friday - a new living room rug and chair and a new sleeper sofa (i.e. COMFORTABLE - FINALLY) for downstairs (and an ottoman for said sofa). Presuming that all that stuff will INDEED be delivered on time, we should, dare I say it?, be FINISHED on Friday! I think Chris and I shall go out and do a pre-wedding celebration Friday night. We (especially he - and Dustin) have been working out patooties OFF!

Speaking of off, I'm off to work on my Experiencing God study and then scrappin' (i.e. guest book...)

Getting ready... Matthew sent us a little preview of his wedding attire. Now Chris and Dustin need to go and get theirs. I think that will happen tomorrow evening. I picked up an outfit at the Dress Barn when I went to Madison. Click here and "turn" the page with your mouse to page 6 - it's the outfit on the left.

Tomorrow I'll be working on the guest book and Chris and Dustin will (hopefully) finish up the few remaining projects around the house. The place is looking pretty good. There's still some furniture to arrive (again, hopefully) this week. And little odds and ends. But, I think we're pretty good to go.

I went to my 20th "Ladies LYFE" conference this weekend. It was a celebration of their 25th anniversary doing the conference. The speakers were great and the group of ladies I went with were great. We had a fun time. I have to say, I was really tired. Can't seem to get enough sleep these days (so why, I might ask myself, am I writing this at 1:44 a.m.). Well, I'm sleeping at the wrong times, maybe. I did have a big nap this afternoon. I just think I'm a little consumed with the whole wedding thing. Though I totally am looking forward to it, it's going to be wonderful!

Okay, I'm off to bed!

Here's a little "random questions" quiz I just picked up. It's fun to do!

1. Do you like cheese? Yes. My little secret pleasure is using cottage cheese as a dip for chips...

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? uh, NO!

3. Do you own a gun? Does Chris's rifle count?

4. Do you dance? Oh, yeah - we even have an annual "dancin' on the deck" party! (Though my body protested quite "loudly" this year when I went to bed...)

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Sometimes, depends on what I'm there for.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? I'd rather have a cool cat.

7. What's your favorite Christmas song? Mary, Did You Know (Kathy Mattea version)

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I'm a coffee girl

9. Can you do push ups? Sure! I LOVE the orange-cream kind!

10. Is your bathroom clean? It is now, since cleaning ladies came yesterday...

11. What's your favorite piece of jewlery? My Chico's silver watch

12. Last thing you ate? Ok, I confess - those orange peanuts... (I think I'm gonna be sick...)

13. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex? A barcalounger in front of a wide-screen TV and a remote.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? Appropriate Diet Disorder? Yes! (see question #12)

16. Middle Name? Lynn

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
1. "why don't I go to bed?????"
2. "my feet hurt"
3. "why did I eat those orange peanuts?"

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought recently.
1. a green market umbrella for the deck
2. contact solution
3. lamp finials

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:
1. water
2. coffee
3. Fresca (but not that regularly - maybe once a week...)

20. Current worry? I'll forget something really important for the upcoming wedding at my house.

22. Favorite place to be? In my home

23. How did you bring in the New Year? This is the first year I think I fell asleep before the new year. I honestly can't remember, so it wasn't exactly life-changing...

24. Where would you like to be right now? In my bed

27. Do you own slippers? Who doesn't?

28. What shirt are you wearing? My peach Glen Arbor, MI tee with a hoodie I got in FL on top of it.

30. Favorite color? turquoise blue

31. Could you be a pirate? Huh?

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't

33. What's in your pocket right now? The only thing I dislike about these pants is they don't have pockets!

34. Last thing/person that made you laugh? Seeing/hearing Sanjaya sing on the American Idol finale tonight....

35. Best bed sheets as a child? white background with a tiny floral pattern. I had plenty of time to bond with 'em b'cause my parents put us to bed at 7 p.m. - in the summer!

36. Worst injury you've ever had? A "broken", (i.e. lliquified) wrist. I knew I was in trouble when the orthopod told me in the busy waiting room full of mostly children, "I'm saving you for last..." He knew I was going to make noise....

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 3

38. Who is your loudest friend? I'M all my friends' loudest friend!

40. Does someone have a crush on you. My cat

41. Do you wish on shooting stars? I only wish I'd see more of 'em...

43. What is your favorite candy? M&M peanuts, hands down!

43. Television or Internet? Mostly internet

44. What song do you want played at your funeral? Here comes the bride!

45. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Watching Laura Geller on QVC

46. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I hope that noise isn't the bear getting into the bird feeders again!

47. What is your last thought before going to sleep? The point is to have NO thoughts SO I can go to sleep...

48. What do you like to do to relalx? Soak in the hot tub in the winter and "read" (with my eyes closed) on the hammock in the summer.

49. Do you like to shop? Only for scrapbooking supplies and, ok, food.

50. Can you wink? Comin' atcha, baby! ;D