Just a quick note to tell everyone THANK YOU for all of the well wishes yesterday. It was a great day. And last night Mom came over and watched the kids while Marty and I went out. Thanks Mom! Right now, it's very early and we're packing for our trip to Houston/Galveston.
If you're looking for the freebie, scroll down to the post from July 27th. The contests run until Tuesday, July 31st.
I'll leave you with a video. No music today. One of my contests is to tell me your best joke. Well, Debi sent me some links to a few Will Ferrell videos. I LOVE Will Ferrell and this one is cracking me up! Enjoy! Talk to you on Wednesday when we get back!
Good morning! Guess who is 37 years old today? Yeah ... that would be ME! So, being my birthday and all, I get to do whatever I want. Unfortunately, we can't have a weekend-long blog party like we did last year because I'm headed out of town tomorrow. So, we'll just have to make the most of the day! Let's get started with some music!
Are you dancing yet? Don't worry. You will be by the end of the post so don't go away. There's a contest and a freebie. You just have to get through all of my blabbering first.
I sat down yesterday, like I have for the past several years on the day before my birthday, and created a layout to commemorate another year. I had the idea to put a circle for every year I have been alive. Turned out to be a lot of circles! But here is the end result. See the layout credits here.
FREE SHIT!
What fun would this party be without a door prize? So here you have it ... a brand new kit called The Grand Illusion. But before I give you the download links, I have to tell you to keep reading because there is a contest in just a minute. And now, proceed to download the papers and elements.
Here are some layouts I have created with the kit.
What's that? The song is over? Here's some Rihanna to keep you dancing!
THE CONTESTS
Contest #1 ... WIN MY SHOPPE! Use the above kit to create a layout. That's it. No other rules. I'll pick my favorite and that person will receive a link to every one of my kits! To enter, email me a link to your layout before Tuesday, July 31st. My email address is Robyn at ScrapArtist dot com.
Contest #2 ... TELL ME A JOKE! Most of you know by now that I have a pretty warped sense of humor so don't worry if the joke is a bit 'off' because you won't offend me. Just leave me a comment with your best joke. I'll pick my favorite 3 and those people will win a limited edition ATC kit. I made the kit a few months ago as a prize for 22 people. But three of the prizes went unclaimed so I'm giving them away here.
I'll announce the winners on Wednesday here on the blog. That's it for now. Like I said, I will be out of town starting tomorrow so have a great weekend!!
I challenge all of my blog readers (well, those of you who are digital scrapbookers) to take both of my challenges this week. I know a lot of you already play all of the time but I would love to see some new faces! Each week on Tuesday, I post a new Heritage Challenge and Christine (Fiddlette) and I alternate weeks for the Altered/Collage Challenge. So what are you waiting for? Get scrapping!
I'm still in Little Rock and I need to get to work. But before I left Dallas, I got a request for some blog music. Just call me DJ happyrobyn! Here we have Rascal Flatts: These Days going out to a very special friend!
As a sidenote, Rascal Flatts will be in town on Friday night. They must have heard it was my birthday! LOL!
Here's a fisherman's wet dream! (Oh don't be such a prude. You know it's a good pun!)
We went out to the marina by our house yesterday. It has been pretty much under water most of the summer because of all of the rain. But the water has gone down a few feet with the last couple of days of dry weather so we thought we would give it a try. The kids like to go out and feed the fish. You can see why by looking at these pictures. There are SO MANY fish that it's almost scary. I think they would eat you alive if you fell in! In the last picture, you can see that the water is still way up by the sign.
Marty and I used to come out to this marina when we were dating. There's a restaurant called The Oasis and they have a bar upstairs that has live music on the weekends. Lots of fun times there! But a different experience altogether with kids.
That's all I have for today. It was a pretty uneventful weekend. However, I did manage to give Nick and Mackenzie a haircut and we talked Austin into going and getting a trim. He's not so shaggy anymore. Today we went to see Ratatoulle with the kids (it was good) and then lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse. And tonight I have to pack. I'm going to Little Rock tomorrow. Our full-time girl at our gym there is going to part-time and I have to make sure they are transitioning well. So ... it will be a few days before I post again.
How about a good fishing song? Here's Brad Paisley: I'm gonna Miss Her.
It is a well-known fact that I hate shoes! I would say that I spend at least 95% of my life barefoot. I don't know when this happened because I used to be one of those girls who had about 100 pairs of shoes in her closet. But over the years, my shoe supply has severly dwindled. I think working barefoot for the last 5 years has played a huge role in my disdain for shoes. Currently, my biggest requirement when buying a pair of shoes is that they are easy to get off! Hands-free is preferred.
Where is she going with this?
I promise ... I am getting to the point! Anyway, I was at Kohl's yesterday looking for an anniversary present for Marty. And there they were ... right in the center isle ... my perfect shoes! I think the proper term is "slide sandals" but I always call them "soccer sandals" because that's what all of the soccer players wear. Anyway, I have pretty much worn out my current pair and this pair at Kohl's was screaming my name! I grabbed my size and off I went.
(Photo note: Lauren wanted to take a picture so here we have me and Austin right after I got home from work today. I know, I know ... he needs a haircut but I can't talk him into it!)
Well, I put them on this morning and had no idea that my feet could feel this GOOD! LOL! Every step is like a mini-massage for my feet. I didn't even realize the sandals had these "little spikey things" (as Lauren calls them) that are just awesome! So what are you waiting for? Go get ya some! Here's a link: Adidas Addisage. You won't regret it! Here are some close-ups.
And I have just officially proven that I can post about anything! Let's see ... music about shoes? Hmmm? How about Barenaked Ladies: Shoebox? Michelle will like this. I know she's a BNL fan. Check out her post here. Lots of great pictures from the concert she went to not very long ago! Front row seats at a BNL concert in Canada ... unheard of!
Off to a pool party with the kids. We're going to one of those places with the big water slides so it should be fun. I think I'll wear my new shoes!
It's no secret that I love cowboys and country music! Those of you in my Digital Art Quirks ATC swap received this Country Chic ATC last month. And you all must remember "hot cowboy" who made an appearance at my blog birthday bash last year. WHAT?! You don't remember him? Let me see if I can refresh your memory...
Anyway, when Christine posted our Altered/Collage Challenge at Scrap Artist this week, I was all over it. The theme? The Wild, Wild West! Actually, I thought I would go a different direction with my layout but this is just what evolved. I saw these Cowboy 10 Commandments on a nice framed picture at a roadside shop (see above ATC) a couple of months ago and thought I would use them because they cracked me up.
The Cowboy 10 Commandments 1. Just one God. 2. Honor yer Ma & Pa. 3. No telling tales or gossipin’. 4. Git yourself to the Sunday meetin'. 5. Put nothin’ before God. 6. No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal. 7. No killin’. 8. Watch yer mouth. 9. Don’t take what ain’t yers. 10. Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff.
Credits:Everything is by Maya at Scrapbook Graphics (except the cowboy). Background paper, journaling paper, hinge and rusty brads from Weathered Treasures. Gun and bottles from Wild West. Bandana and sheriff badge from Howdy (kit is now retired). Hand from Free Spirit. I found the jointed cowboy on the Internet at a party supply store and I fiddled with him and blended him into the background. Fonts are Antique Type and Typewriter. Created in Photoshop CS2.
And now for some music. I confess: I love Will Smith! I have ever since The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. However, this song is from one of his worst movies ever (Wild, Wild West, 1999) but the song is great. And the video cracks me up. Poor Salma Hayek. Good thing Will Smith was there to stop that pesky spider from crawling all over Salma's boobs!
How cool is this ... my good friend Krista thinks I'm rockin'! She has nominated me for a "Rockin' Girl Blogger Award." Thank you so much, Krista! This means I get to nominate five people. If I nominate you, it's your turn to nominate five others. Let's see, I'm going to nominate:
I've had Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry video on my blog for a few days. She's lookin' pretty hot in the video so I thought I would cool it down a bit today. Here we have little Stacy Ferguson in about 1986 when she was in Kids Incorporated. I know it's hard to believe that is Fergie singing a Lionel Richie song to some random creepy clown! But here she is...
And speaking of random stuff, another friend emailed me this quiz today with random questions so I thought I would just answer them here instead of emailing the responses.
What time is it? 11:29 pm
What's your middle name? Marlyn (See scrapbook page here.)
What is the most recent movie that you have seen?Hannibal Rising (Didn't like it.)
A movie you have seen more than 10 times?Valley Girl (Love Nicholas Cage!)
Place of birth? Saginaw, Michigan
Do you lie about your age? Nope. I'll be 37 next week.
Favorite food? Steak (medium rare)
What's your natural hair color? light brown
Ever been skinny dipping? Hasn't everyone? (That's a yes.)
Ever loved someone so much it made you cry? Yes.
Ever been in a car accident? Several but never a bad one and none that were my fault!
I don't feel like talking today. Between kids and work, I'm all talked out. But I have listened to this song by Fergie about a thousand times with Lauren today. It's kind of a teeny bopper song but after about the tenth time listening, I realized it has a pretty good message. And I can't stop singing it.
Have you ever had one of those days that just seems to go on forever? Well, I had one yesterday. Not that it was a bad day. Marty and Austin are out of town so that left me with only 3 kids at home. I had to work since it was Saturday morning. My 9:15 class was packed so a few weeks ago, I made this really dumb decision to add an 8:30am class. What was I thinking? Oh well. It just means I have to get up a little earlier. But since Marty is out of town, I had to take the kids with me to work. My alarm went off at 5:55am like it always does but I pushed the snooze button for almost an hour! Then I got ready, read my email and told the boys to get dressed. Then I had the unpleasant task of dragging Lauren out of bed. We were all ready and headed to work at 8:00. One of the kids snapped this picture on the highway.
The kids were really good while I taught my two classes so I took them to Chili's for lunch as a treat. Of course, they noticed right away that the 2 banks right next to Chili's were having a big grand opening celebration with bounce houses, firetrucks, balloon animals, a rock wall, etc. So I told them that we could go for a few minutes after we ate lunch. Lauren immediately found the face painting booth and got a pretty little flower on her cheek. I thought it was cute.
Right next to the face painting booth was the 24-Hour Fitness booth. I filled out an entry form to win something so that we could spin the wheel. Prizes were t-shirts, key chains, day passes to the gym, etc. The wheel must have had about 30 spots on it and the grand prize was a 6 month membership to 24-Hour Fitness. Well, I let Nick spin the wheel for me and what do you think it landed on? That's right! We won the grand prize! So, lucky for me, the gym isn't even built yet. But when it opens in November, I'm going to be really in shape! LOL! Actually, it's right on my way to work so there really won't be any reason for me not to go.
After the fun at the booths, all of the kids wanted to attempt the rock wall. They have tried them a few times in the past but none had ever made it to the top and rung the bell. Here is Lauren's attempt. You have to realize that Lauren has the patience of a gnat! She looked cute in all of the gear and went up a few rocks and then jumped off. She was done and wanted to go back to the face painting booth.
So while Nick and Mackenzie had their climbing turns, Lauren was doing this to her face! ROFL! I thought the flower was cute but this butterfly was just awful! However, those of you who know Lauren know that she does everything her way and doesn't care what other people think! I guess this is a good thing.
Back to the rock wall... Mackenzie's turn. He is a little guy with lots of determination. Up, up, up he went and rang the bell. He's a money-oriented guy like his daddy and asked if he could have a dollar for making it to the top. I said, "sure." And then he went up another time and is expecting 2 dollars now!
That was a lot of work so he had to get a big drink! That's some high quality H2O! (Has anyone else watched The Waterboy with Adam Sandler a million times? Cracks me up every time I see it.)
And now it's Nick's turn. Nick is my very cautious kid. He really, really wanted to get to the top. I think he tried about 10 times. But he got too hot and just didn't make it. However, he did get further than he has in other times he has tried. I give him the big heart award!
Obviously, the whole time the kids were climbing, I was standing at the base of the rock wall taking pictures. After all of the kids came down, the guys that were helping everyone with the gear told me it was my turn. Um ... I have never climbed a rock wall before but it seemed like fun. I was wearing flip flops so I went barefoot (I hate shoes anyway!). Surprisingly, it was pretty easy. So I thought I was done. But they made me go up again so they could time me and take my picture. I made it in 32 seconds.
After all of the fun at the grand openings, we finally went home. Lauren wanted to spend the night at a friend's house so I packed her up and drove her over there and that left just me, Nick and Mackenzie (my two!). I say that they are "my two" because Marty and I always joke about the kids. Lauren and Austin are just like him and Nick and Mackenzie are just like me. It's so true in so much that they do.
After we dropped Lauren off at her friend's house, we headed to the pool. We have had a couple of really nice days with no rain! It was in the upper 90's so it was good swimming weather. We stayed at the pool for a couple of hours and then went home and waited for Mom to come over. She came to babysit while I went scrapping with some friends.
I am NOT a paper scrapper so I mainly went to eat, drink and chat with my friends. I did manage to get one page scrapped in the 4 hours I was there but it is terrible! There were 6 of us and we laughed so much! Somehow we got to talking hot country music artists. And then they wouldn't shut up about Keith Anderson. I have heard his music before but had never seen a picture. (But I have now ... look to your left!) A couple of them had been to his concert recently and told me I had to go to KeithAnderson.com. Somehow this turned to talk of tattoos, belly rings, tan lines, and other unmentionable things. Don't you see the correlation here? I guess you had to be there.
I actually got home fairly early. I think it was only about 10:30. Then Mom and I talked for a little while. I went to bed a little after midnight after the longest day in history!
I will leave you with a Keith Anderson video: Picking Wildflowers.
You may have noticed that my blog got a facelift. I hope you like it! I missed the red bike so it's back.
I've been going on and on for months about our new house. Thanks to all of you who have suffered through pre-construction talks, realtor problems, construction, closing, and my inability to get everything organized. Well, I told you that while Lauren and I were in Cleveland, Marty pretty much finished organizing the house. Of course, I have been home for a few days now and some of his work has been undone! LOL! But this is about as good as it gets at the England house so, as promised, here are some inside shots. I'll just do the downstairs today. The floor plan is below. However, our house is just a bit different than this because we have a third car garage and our patio is extended a little. But the rooms are all correct so come on in for the tour! (If you want to see any of the pictures larger, just click on them.)
Of course, you walk in where it says entry. If you look straight ahead, you will see the staircase and the living room through the foyer. I gave you a close-up of the plant thing in the nook. Why??? Well, because I made it and I'm proud of it!! LOL! I'm not very crafty so this is about as good as it gets. The vase was like $100 bucks but it had a little chip in it so we got it for $8. And then we found the sticks and marbles at Michaels. So the total cost was under $20.
We're still standing at the front doorway. If you look to your right, you will see the messiest room of the house ... our office. I'm a little embarrassed. I thought of cleaning it for the picture but why even try. This is just what it always looks like. In our old house, we could just close the doors. But now we have French doors. We didn't think that through very well! Now look to your left and you will see the formal living room. This is one of my favorite rooms. I have lots of old family pictures on the walls. The couch and chair are Marty's grandparent's furniture. And the rocking chair was a gift to me from Marty when we had Nicholas. You can't see very well but the table has a bunch of old photo albums on it. A couple of them belonged to my great grandmother. And inside the table, I have some old books, family bibles and other memorabilia.
Finally, you get to move out of the front doorway ... but not far! If you walk into the formal living room, you will see that it is connected to the formal dining room. There is a hallway that goes past the butler's pantry and into the kitchen but we will come back to that.
Now you need to go back in the foyer and walk straight ahead and you will see the living room. We decided not to have a television downstairs (except in our room) so this is mainly just a sitting/reading room. The walls still need more stuff on them. And if you look on the fireplace mantle, you will see stuff that needs to be moved. Somehow that picture of me and Marty just landed there and I need to hang it up at some point. My mom loves the picture frame because it just has some random family in it ... you know how picture frames come with pictures already in them?
Are you keeping up with me? Now we are walking out of the living room. If you look up, you can see the walkway upstairs and if you look straight ahead, you will see the foyer, staircase and formal living/dining rooms.
Now turn to your right and there's the kitchen. I love the kitchen! I'm not sure why because I don't cook much but it is a really nice kitchen. The island is huge! All of the countertops are granite and there's a nice tiled backsplash. If you look at the picture below right, you will see both of the most controversial items of the house!! LOL! I NEEDED the double oven and a larger sink (you know ... for when I'm soaking the pans I don't cook with!). Marty didn't think we needed either one. Well, as you can see, I got both of these things but I did have to compromise a little. I'll show you where in just a second.
Here's the compromise! I wanted ceramic tile all through the living room. But Marty wanted carpet. As you can see, he got the carpet and I got the double oven and big sink. Now back to the tour. You are now looking at the breakfast nook and just past that is a little computer desk. It currently has Marty's REALLY old laptop on it. Sometimes it will connect to the Internet and sometimes it won't. I never use it but the kids do sometimes.
We've been in the kitchen too long. Let's walk past the refrigerator and you will come to the little hallway that connects the kitchen to the formal dining room. To the left is the butler's pantry. I had to look that up online. Apparently you use a butler's pantry to keep your fine china for dinner parties and stuff. Whatever. We use it for storage and booze! You can see Lauren is eyeballing it already. I suppose we will have to have a locking butler's pantry before long! And to the right, we have our pantry. You can't really tell from this picture but this is the biggest pantry I have ever seen!!! From the door to the back wall, it's almost 9 feet! Crazy big but very nice for holding lots of snacks for the kids.
Now we're going to go past the living room and down the hallway. You will pass the coat closet and a powder bath. And then when you get to the end of the hallway, we will turn right. Now we're in the room I spend the second most time in ... the laundry room! Pretty exciting! We're going to get another refrigerator for this room but right now, it just has the washer and dryer, a cabinet and the litter box. Let's get out of here! Turn around and go straight ahead. You can see my bedroom.
But before you get in my room, turn right into my bathroom. This is a pretty cool room. It's like a big hotel bathroom. Marty decided he wanted slate all on the floor and in the shower. It turned out really nice. I couldn't get a very good picture but Marty and I each have separate sinks (not a double sink ... totally separate vanities). And the bathtub is nice but I haven't used it yet. It's really just a glorified drinking fountain for the cat! If you walk all the way into the bathroom, you will come to some sliding mirrored doors. If you open them, you are in the closet. It's big but it's a mess. It holds our clothes as well as Marty's baseball card collection.
And that concludes your tour of the downstairs of my house. I know I didn't show you my bedroom but the bed isn't made and there's nothing on the walls yet. Very boring. It's just a regular room with 3 windows and a door out to the patio.
Thanks for coming along. I'll try to get the pictures of the upstairs this weekend and take you on that tour although I can't promise clean kids' rooms or playroom!
My music selection today was easy. The radio station the kids listen to must play this every third song. I like the song but I'm hearing it a bit too much. It's Chris Daughtry: Home. And I'm playing this because I finally feel like we are home. Marty and I will celebrate our 12th anniversary next month and the whole time we have been in transition, knowing that we would be moving in just a couple of years. We plan to stay in this house until all of the kids are gone ... and maybe even longer than that.
Good night! I'm off to enjoy my evening. Marty took Austin to Arkansas with him this weekend so the house will be more quiet than normal. I'm planning to go scrapping with some friends tomorrow night if I can talk Mom into babysitting (what do you say, Mom??!!).
So you didn't get enough excitement from my post yesterday? Well, today's installment is the second half of my trip to Cleveland with Lauren. Since we didn't go to sleep until really late after the wedding (I think I finally crawled in bed at about 2:30 or 3:00am), we slept in pretty late. Then at about noon, we all headed up to the church to watch Laura and Jason open their wedding presents. I spent the afternoon with a friend I hadn't seen in years and when I got back, Lauren, Dad and I went sailing again. It was really windy. We only put up the front sail and it was still really tippy. Lauren was a little scared at first but then got used to it.
We sailed out pretty far and watched the sun set. This reminded me of all of the summers I spent at my grandparent's cottage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I used to always go down to the boat and watch the sun set. This trip really reminded me how much I love being around the water.
After the sun went down, we sailed to a little cove where the water was more calm and dropped the anchor and went swimming. The water actually wasn't as bad as the last time we went swimming. I think it was because it was getting dark and the air was cooler so the water felt warmer.
After our quick swim, we needed to head to the marina because it was getting pretty dark. Lauren steered the boat all the way in. She really is a natural at boats. It was fun to watch her and she was so proud of herself. We were the last boat to come in for the night.
We left the marina at about 10:30 and went and got a pizza. Lauren thought it was pretty cool that we were eating pizza so late at night.
The following day was Monday and our plane didn't leave until 4:50pm so we had some time to kill. We went to a park close to my dad's house. Let me tell you ... Ohio has some really cool parks! There is so much to do at the parks. Anyway, this particular park was a nature trail and instead of staying on the trail, we decided to wade through the stream. It was fun. My other sister, Jenna, came with us so it was nice to get a chance to talk to her. And Lauren thought it was neat that we could walk right through the water.
After wading through the water, we went up to the nature center and my step-mom met us there. But we couldn't stay long because it was time to head home and to the airport. I had to get a picture of Lauren in Dad's car. She LOVED it because it is a convertible. She told me that Cleveland had more convertibles than she had ever seen! I think I know what she will be asking for on her 16th birthday!
The last picture is Lauren on the plane. This was actually our worst experience of the whole trip. The plane was overbooked and they had Lauren sitting in the seat in front of me instead of next to me. She was really scared and neither of the people we were sitting next to would switch. I couldn't believe it! I finally threw a fit with the stewardess and she let us sit in the back row which was normally reserved for the flight attendants.
Marty and the boys were waiting for us when we pulled up in the driveway. Nick gave me the biggest hug I've ever had. He would not let go! And then when we got inside, there was an awesome surprise ... the whole house was clean and organized! Marty is just the opposite as me. When I'm gone, he stays busy constantly. I become a slob when he's gone! But the good news is that my house is finally presentable so maybe I can do a few posts soon with pictures of the inside of my house.
And, as always, I'll leave you with some music. Here's one of my favorite artists singing one of my favorite songs ... Keith Urban performing You'll Think of Me. It's the live version and it's great! Make sure you watch the last minute of the song. It's the best part. Keith is hot!
I was never a big fan of The Drew Cary Show but this song just works for this post. Press play then carry on!
Originally, Lauren and I were supposed to spend the night at my mom's house Thursday night and my step-dad was going to take us to the airport. But me being me, that didn't happen. I wasn't close to being packed or ready to go Thursday night so we just drove ourselves to the airport. It wouldn't have been a big deal but the plane left at 6:45am and we had to get up REALLY early. My plans to go to sleep by 9:00 the night before went out the window when Marty brought home our new television for the media room. I think I finally went to bed around 11:30 and still hadn't packed. So when my alarm went off at 4am, I didn't feel very refreshed! But I got myself ready and packed. Lauren had slept in her clothes so I didn't have to worry about getting her dressed. We got to the airport, parked in remote parking, the bus came about 2 seconds later to take us to the terminal. Then we checked in and went through security. Lauren thought it was funny that we had to take off our shoes. While in line, these guys in front of me were whispering to each other because apparently there was a famous baseball guy behind me. I just thought it was some old man. Anyway, I ended up meeting Bobby Brown. Very nice guy.
Just as we got to the gate, they started boarding the plane. Everything went so smoothly which is a weird feeling for me because I am always running late. Lauren loved the plane ride. She has been in a plane before but was too young to remember it. She took several pictures of the clouds. Then when we got above Cleveland, she told me it was the most beautiful city in the world! She thought the lake (Lake Erie) was too cool!
We got to Cleveland half an hour before we were scheduled so by the time my dad found us, we already had our luggage. We were at his house by 11am and the wedding rehearsal didn't start until 5pm so we headed out to Dad's sailboat. Lauren had never been on a boat before and was really nervous at first but that didn't last long. It was a good day for her first sail because it wasn't too windy and even with both sails up, we weren't tipping much at all. She really enjoyed driving the boat. But when we got out about a mile or so, she decided she wanted to swim. So Dad dropped the anchor right there in the middle of Lake Erie and we all jumped in. BRRRRR! I'm used to pools in Texas. Big lakes in Cleveland are COLD!
At about 3:00 we decided we had better head in or we would miss the rehearsal. It takes a long time to sail back and then cover all of the sails, etc.
We didn't get back to my dad's until after 4:00. Lauren and I were a mess and had to drive to our hotel, check in, shower, get dressed and drive back to the church ... all before 5:00. That didn't happen! We finally made it to the church at 5:35 ... exactly the time when the flower girl was supposed to head down the aisle. Got there just in time! The story of my life.
After the rehearsal, we had a nice picnic at a pavilion by the lake. Had hamburgers, hot dogs and watched the sun set with everyone in the wedding party.
Lauren and I got back to the hotel at about 10:00pm and we were looking out our window (which overlooked the indoor pool) and I heard someone yelling my name. That kind of freaked me out but then I realized it was my sister's fiancé. His whole family was staying at our hotel so Lauren and I went down to the pool and swam until it closed at 11:00. By the time I gave Lauren a bath, it was after midnight and she zonked out immediately ... still holding the balloon she had gotten at the picnic.
Saturday morning we slept in late. We didn't have a car because Dad had dropped us off at the hotel. So Lauren and I decided to walk to the shops that were just down the street. They ended up being farther than I thought and I had to carry Lauren a little of the way because she was being lazy. Then at about 1:00, Dad came to get us and we went to the church to get ready for the wedding which started at 3:00. Lauren had fun in the bride's room. And she was a beautiful flower girl. She spread the petals just like she was supposed to. The wedding was really nice.
We had to hang around at the church for a long time for pictures so we took a few as well. Here are some of Lauren, me and my dad.
The reception hall was gorgeous. The food was delicious. The wine was free-flowing (read as "Robyn drank way too much of it!"). Anyway, the party lasted from 6:00-midnight. Lauren had a blast dancing and I had a great time dancing and talking to relatives I hadn't seen in a very long time. That's me and my Great Uncle Don (my grandma's brother).
Lauren was pretty tired when the reception was over but she was starving and I had promised to take her to Burger King. Who knew that Burger King's in Ohio were not open until 2am?! Oh well, I ended up taking her to a convenience store and she picked out some Cheetos. Great dinner! LOL! She finally crawled in bed a little after 1:00. I think that may be the latest she has ever stayed up.
WOW! This is turning into a huge post and I know that no one really even cares (well ... maybe Mom!). This one is mostly for me to remember the trip. So I'll end it here so I'm not late for work. But tomorrow you get to hear about days 3 and 4 of our trip. I know you are so excited about that!
Lauren and I got back from our trip to Cleveland last night at about 8pm. I forgot how hectic my real life is. I had planned to write a big, long post about our trip but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow. But be prepared ... TONS of pictures! We had an awesome trip!
In the meantime, most of you know that I host the Heritage Challenge and co-host the Altered/Collage Challenge (along with my good friend Christine) each week at Scrap Artist. These are posted each week on Tuesday. We call it the Twofer Tuesday Challenge. Well, I just posted both challenges and I thought I would share a quick layout that I created early this morning. The Altered/Collage Challenge this week is called "Repeat That Please!" The challenge is to repeat elements or pictures at least 5 times on your altered or collage-style layout. This is my sample piece and it is called "Closure." It is totally full of meaning for me although looking at it, you just wouldn't get it so I'll explain some of it. The girl represents me and my life. I have had many different experiences in life but the face is always the same because it is always me. You really never know where you will end up, however, in the center, it says "'Be Here Now" meaning that you should always live in the present. The colors represent emotions. There are seven faces because 7 is an important number to me. I know I am rambling but it all makes perfect sense to me.
Credits: I created this with a bunch of my own stuff. The background paper, hat, ric rac, wings and faces are from La Femme. Torn paper is from Nature (I recolored it). I made the paint dots with ArtRage. Word art is by Maya at Scrapbook Graphics (Quirky Quotes). Font is 4990810. Created in Photoshop CS2.
Here's some music for you. It's Green Day: Holiday. Because we just got back from an awesome holiday! (And because I hear the kids playing it upstairs!)
What a busy day we had yesterday! And you can't believe how many pictures I took so I'll post a small sampling here. We got a fairly early start to the day because we wanted to go to the zoo. My Mom's house is on the way so we stopped in to see her. I don't have enough pictures of the two of us together so I had Marty take a couple for me. Her house is great for pictures because it's like a jungle. There are trees and green stuff everywhere you look!
After our quick stop at Mom's, we were off to the zoo. However, it started pouring as soon as we got in the car. But that didn't deter us. We have had to make do this summer and just go places even if we get wet. It rains every day! By the time we made it to the zoo, it had mostly stopped raining and we had fun. Marty says I never enjoy the zoo because I'm too busy taking pictures. While we were riding the monorail, he said, "You act like you've never been to the zoo before!" Whatever. I kept the camera out. But then I missed a few shots because we couldn't stop laughing about the dik-diks! Who thought up that name anyway? Oh look at the cute little dik-diks!!! Still makes me laugh!
Here are a few of the pictures I took. (If you want to see any of them bigger, just click on them.) Marty will kill me for posting the one of us together because he thinks he looks funny. But everytime we go anywhere, I have to take one of those pictures where you hold the camera in front of you and hope for the best. The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. While on the monorail, there was a great shot of the Dallas skyline. The one where the kids are underground is in the mole hole. And Nick, Austin and Lauren are dressed as zookeepers in the picture where they are wearing big clothes.
After we left the zoo, we stopped by our gym and did a little maintenance since we were closed for the holiday. Even though we have only been in the new building less than 3 months, there were lots of paint touch-up spots. So we did that and a few other things while the kids played in the gym.
We finally got home at about 6:00 and just hung out until it got dark so we could do fireworks. We did sparklers and bottle rockets and poppers and some firecrackers. I burnt the crap out of my toe with a sparkler. Those of you that know me well know that I never wear shoes. Well, perhaps next year I will rethink that while doing fireworks. But I wasn't the only one. Marty burnt his head. But the kids were fine and that's all that matters, right?
Firework pictures never come out well, but I played around with a couple just for fun. That's Mackie on the left and Nick on the right.
The city of Grand Prairie does their fireworks show over the lake by us. So at about 9:30, we had a really good view of that from our upstairs windows. We could also see Cedar Hill's fireworks show which was going on at the same time. So it was nice not to have to drive anywhere to see the fireworks and we got the kids in bed by 10:00. It was a very long day.
I won't be posting for several days. I'm spending the night at my mom's house tonight and they are driving me and Lauren to the airport early Friday morning. My sister is getting married in Cleveland on Saturday so I'll be in Ohio all weekend. And for those of you who asked ... yes ... we finally found some sparkly silver shoes for Lauren to wear in the wedding. Thanks for your concern. LOL!
And you know I can't end a post without some music. I've been talking a lot about pictures in this post so how about one of my favorite songs ... Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow.
We're planning on having a fun time at the Dallas Zoo today. Then tonight, hopefully it won't rain and we will be able to watch the fireworks that they shoot off over the lake. Now that we have moved, we should be able to see them from our back yard. Marty took Nick to Shreveport with him yesterday and on the way home, they stopped at a roadside stand and got quite a few fireworks that we will light. We are just barely in city limits so hopefully they won't come arrest us.
I went searching for God Bless America on YouTube and I found this version by Celine Dion which is a little odd to me since she is Canadian but that's ok ... all of my kids are Canadian/American so it seems appropriate.
And here we have the only semi-patriotic layout I could find. This is little me in about 1973. You gotta love that hair! Happy 4th everyone!!! Be safe.
When I woke up this morning, I thought it was going to be a really, really crappy day. But then I realized that everything just seemed to be going my way. Marty and I have weighed on Monday mornings for years. Well, the scale was very friendly to me today. Three pounds less than last week. I don't know where it went because I've been eating like a pig as always, but whatever! It is bathing suit season after all! Pretty soon I'll look just like I did in this picture from 1995! ROFL! Hey ... is that a wine cooler in my hand? Ignore that! (I know Becky will have something to say about this!)
The real reason I thought it would be a bad day was because I was really worried about our cat, Eddie. I let him outside before I went to work on Saturday and we had not seen him since and I was sure he had headed over to the woods by the lake that is close to our house. I have heard coyotes howling over there so you can guess what I thought had become of poor Eddie. We didn't know exactly what we were going to tell the kids. Lauren was especially concerned about him. He's her buddy.
But when I got home from work, there was a message from Animal Control that they had picked him up. So I packed up all of the kids (plus a friend that was over playing with Lauren) and we went to get him. However, when we got there and I told them which animal I was there to pick up, the lady paused for a second and told me that Eddie had been "involved in an altercation with a dog." So I immediately assumed that he was injured since he has no front claws. But that wasn't the case. It turns out that Eddie bit a Bulldog. Apparently Eddie was sleeping in some random backyard and when the owners let their dog out, Eddie freaked out. Kind of a long story but the end result is that we have to pay $212 for the dog's vet bill. That's on top of the $45 I had to pay to bail him out, along with the promise that I would get his shots up to date (they are 2 weeks overdue). I guess he's worth it! LOL!
In other good news, it seems that we have sold our old house!! IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!! We put it on the market in October of last year and have had lots of lookers but no takers. So today, we got some lowball offer but we countered and they accepted. They have already put down their earnest money so as of right now, it looks like a done deal. That's a big load off! Bye bye old house!
There was actually a break in the rain today and I promised the kids I would take them swimming. But as soon as we got home, we had to go pick up Eddie and by the time we got back it was about to rain again. So what's a good mother to do? That's right ... take them swimming in the rain. Fun stuff. We stayed until it started pouring.
Then after it stopped, Lauren wanted to jump on the trampoline with me. She doesn't weigh enough to make it bounce (at age 7, she only weighs 41 pounds!) so she likes to hold my hands and jump. We had a lot of fun on the wet trampoline.
And again, I have talked your ear off about absolutely nothing. Does anyone really read this anyway? I know Mom's out there ... and Becky and probably Christine. Leave me a message and just say hi! Sorry I have been so out of touch. Summer is really crazy at the England house.
I'll leave you with some feel good music ... It's A Great Day To Be Alive by Travis Tritt.
