the girl who is hinting

the girl who's house is TRASHED!

What is it about Christmas that just generates more work? for me! Who bought all the presents? Who braved Wal Mart on Christmas Eve to get something for the unexpected guests so they'd have a present to unwrap? Who cleaned the house prior to guests' arrival? Who wrapped all of the presents? Who refereed the Christmas chaos? Who made a big ass breakfast to follow? Who got stuck with cleaning it up? And who is stuck with cleaning up the rest of the house today? I'll tell you this...it wasn't Santa Claus!



Yeah, I know...bitch, bitch, bitch. Hey, I'm entitled!

Anyway, here is a little photo essay of making Christmas cookies for Santa. Evidentally, to make the proper cookie for Santa, one must do a LOT of tasting. My Zack quote to go with these pictures is: (after hearing Mommy admonish Matthew for the umpteemth time NOT to stick his fingers in the dough, Zack says) "Yeah! 'Cuz you'll get your DNA in the cookies and then Santa will eat your DNA!!! Right Mommy?" Um, yeah...right. lol!

Enjoy! I hope everyone else had a great holiday...in spite of my whining, I did!

the girl who is getting ready for Santa

presents bought?

well, um, mostly

house clean?

well...sheesh...not really

presents wrapped?

lol! that's funny!

cookies for Santa baked?

I bought dough in a roll, does that count?

um, yeah...I'm totally ready!

I even need to take a better pic of my tree! it kept coming out blurry...I suck, lol!

For fun...track Santa here and play some cool holiday games here (go to the office max tab on the bottom right...they are so much fun!)

And just to enable my scrappy buddies, beautiful stuff here to drool over!

Have a very Merry!

The girl who is looking back

So...back on January 11, I blogged about a few resolutions. Lately Life has been going pretty good and its all happened towards the end of the year. I've been thinking about those resolutions and thought I'd re-read that post and see where I am now.

Resolution #1: when certain circumstances have been resolved, I am looking for a new job. If I have to work, let it be a nine to fiver, Mon-Fri.

Well, thanks to the fabulous Jen, I have accomplished that. True, I did it with two weeks left in the year...but I did it! And,might I say, after a mere two days on the job I can already tell I am just going to love it. Everyone I've met has been so welcoming, my new boss is incredibly understanding and funny (even if she does wear a tiara and expect to be addressed as "Her Royal Highness") and I have such confidence in what I'm doing. Ok, so I've learned maybe five things in two days, still...it's just nice to be doing something where I feel like I'm useful, not merely a babysitter. Maybe that's why I started hating my old job so much...it wasn't difficult, anyone with a week's worth of training could do it. I'm going to feel useful at my new job, like my skills mean something. And that means alot.

Plus the pay is TONS better and the schedule (once we figure out the babysitting) will be much better too!

Oh, and those "certain circumstances" those were my husband and his employment. I'm happy to report that THAT has been resolved as well, to the very much better!

Resolution #2: I will try to scrap, and I will try to catch up, but I will not feel guilt if I cannot attain my goals.
I'm really not sure if I've "kept" this resolution or not. I've scrapped, but not regularly and lately for calls and contests. But...I've been good with that. So I just finished scrapping Halloween from 2005? What's wrong with that? I've done more recent stuff to. I've been scraping what I've "felt" like scrapping, not chronological. I'm resigned to never "catching up" and I'm totally fine with that! I did just complete 10 layouts over the weekend plus an altered box and 2 altered calendars. (check out here...praise me,love me!) And I did most of it for a call. But you know what? That call motivated me to scrap. It had a deadline and I put it off and finally scrapped in a mad, manic three day stretch. It was wonderful. You know what? Yesterday I did a little mini-album in an altered box for DH's b'day. In TWO HOURS! It was a mad rush, and there are a few things I'm going to "fix" now that I've already given it to him, but it was AWESOME to just let go and be spontaneous. I'll share a secret that will shock and amaze my scrapping buddies...I didn't pre-plan it or sketch it a bit! And it turned out rockin! So much so, I might use it as my altered item for Provo Craft. I'll post pics after I "improve" it.

Resolution #3: get published

At the beginning of last year I had already had one layout requested. In September, I finally got to see it in print. Wow! Since then, I've made it to the finals (along with the Jens) in the Effer's Last Scrapper Standing and had 4 layouts requested for pub as well as receiving an assignment for a layout from a publisher. I'm not bragging or gloating, I'm just ecstatic that it's happened and want to share. I may never get anything else pubbed again, and I'll be happy!

Resolution #4: try and find ways to get the happiness back.

I think that resolution 1 & 2 really are ways to accomplish #4. And I am happier now. I will be happier a month from now when we've had time to kick out some debt, and even happier six months from now when I look back at life a year prior. Things are looking up and I'm looking forward to more happiness.

And to leave you with a happy smile on your face...this ornament makes me smile.

the girl who knows

My response to an older Effer Dare, an entry into the Pub Calls Blog for the Dream Street album, a tribute to both Kristina Contes and Island Jen, and one of my favoritest layouts ever!

the girl who is FREE

Yep. Last day at the good ol' HRH. As much as I grew to loathe the place, I will be missing alot of the people there. I'd still refer people to work there and I'd still visit if I had the moolah (and didn't mind paying $6 for a liter bottle of water). It just didn't work for me, personally.

But, damn! Am I glad to be out of there!

I get to be unemployed for FOUR WHOLE DAYS! Woot!

the girl who is sharing a public service announcement

This is for the Jens and their Star Wars obsessed hubbies.

Just doing my part to educate the public!

the girl who is determined to have a date night

So, since I am leaving my job I turned in all my "star cards" (hey, nice job! cards) and got dinner for two at the restaurant in the hotel. DH and I were all set to go out on a "date" yesterday and we just couldn't find a babysitter!

So I changed the reservation to tonight and lo and behold, no sitter again.

Well, I needed to use this up before my exit so I asked hubby about taking the kids with us.

***insert evil look of death here***

So, no go on that but I really wanted to use this up! So I went and got take out. Hubby had the kids fed, bathed and in bed by the time I got home. We ate our dinner and then...well, then he went to his computer to play WoW and I went to go try out my new sewing machine courtesy of Santa Mom.

Sigh! The romance never stops in this house!

lol! Really, I'm fine with it. We're spending time together just doing our own thing. So its cool. At the risk of TMI, we sort of took care of the romantic end of things already today.

Now I'm off to practice sewing hearts and junk on paper.

the girl who is counting down...

A week from today will be the last day at my current job. I've been letting people know slowly, but surely and it's kind of nice to hear the sincere, "We'll miss you!'s" A couple of people have even pulled me aside to share their "escape plans."

And still work insists on trying to take advantage of me. I give a final date and they ask "as a favor" could I extend that date?

Really!

I'm thinking not so much. No incentive you know. Plus all the "favors" I've done for little or no thanks and the fact that my "favors" became taken for granted...well, these are just a couple of the reasons I was looking for other employment.

5 more shifts and I am outta there and off to alter staplers and roladexes and tape dispensers!

the girl who is in awe

I could never be so coordinated! My Dad originally sent this to me with the heading, "This guy can sure handle his balls!" I saved it and watch it every now and then, and now I'm sharing with you!

Of course, I had to go look it up on YouTube to link it here and discovered something...high school is playing out on the internet. (Big surprise, huh?)

Here is the back story. Chris Bliss is a guy who became famous for his juggling in the '70's. So much so, that he opened for musical groups on their tours, including the Jackson 5. This particular routine has always been popular--so much so that it is his signature piece. Imagine, 22 years of doing the same routine over and over. Yet he still makes it look impressive.

Enter Jason Garfield. He is a juggler for the 21st century and Chris Bliss is nothing but a "hack" to him. I'm sure that if I were a professional or serious amateur juggler I would know his name, but he's just a big, beefy, balding guy with a chip on his shoulder to me. Oh yeah, and he juggles. And he's impressive too, however...he cannot resist "dissing" Chris Bliss. (Say that 5 times fast)

From Jason:

It's fine if people like watching chris bliss's routine They should just understand that they are not seeing great juggling. They are seeing a performance that they enjoy for other reasons. Nobody should come away from his video thinking that they have seen a great juggler. His routine isn't about demonstrating how good of a juggler he is, yet people think that he is because they don't know any better. If you understand that his juggling skill is very basic, and that you like his performance because of any other reason, then we agree. Although his choreography is also not the best of its kind and with three balls it's very easy to choreograph a routine with tricks as easy as the ones he's doing in his video. And he lacks grace, and it goes on too long in my opinion. But if you like it for any other reason, maybe you liked the song, then it's perfectly fine for anyone to get enjoyment out of it as long as they understand why they like it and know that his juggling skill is very very basic and the routine is not technically challenging. If you think he's a good juggler, you are wrong. I taped a 5 ball version because...well because Penn asked me to. It is a parody and nothing more. A lot of jugglers have been getting emails from their friends telling them to watch the chris bliss video, thinking that we'll like it. It is upsetting to a lot of us that our friends would think that we would like chris bliss's routine. We know better. We see it for what it is and are not fooled by the music and the sloppy choreography. So now we direct our friends to this video to set them straight in case any more of them tell us how great he is.

Really? Is that necessary? That would be like me saying that Lisa B. is a hack because she uses stickers on her layout and nobody does that anymore, we make our own embellishments now. (keep in mind, this is just an example using the first scrap celebrity name that popped into my head!) Ok, fine. That may be the case, but Lisa B. helped bring Scrapping into the mainstream and helped popularize it among our generation as a fun past-time, just as Chris Bliss helped popularize juggling and earned a name for that routine. Expectations have changed, horizons have broadened and yet, he still does the same routine. Why? Because it is a good routine that people like. Professional jugglers may not agree, but do you juggle for professional jugglers or do you juggle for your audience? (Keep in mind, Chris Bliss is really a professional comedian now, who just happens to juggle)

So in a roundabout way, I'm sort of sharing a lesson. Do what you love for you and for who your intended audience is. Somewhere, someone out there will think you're amazing.

the girl who knows something

I know how Miss Jen solved her little problem.

And I am EXCITED!!!!

I am sooooooooo looking forward to work tomorrow when I get to give my notice.

I just gotta say....Thanks Miss Jen for thinking of me and having confidence that I would be the right person for the job. Not only do I get to go back to an office environment, at higher pay, 9-5 no weekends and holidays off...but I get to work with one of my best scrapping buddies!

Presents for the boss are going to be so easy!

WOOT!