JustaBlog

Finally Back!

Hey I'm back :) Two computer internet issues in a month! This time it rides solely on the backs of the lame comcast people. The internet was down for 9 1/2 days and being the second time it all went down, I have been internetless for like 3 weeks of the whole month! Needless to say me and my poor sales have been not so great this month lol! But honestly, this time has been pretty good.

I scrapped a few times in the beginning of the outage, did some layouts I really like, but then took some time off in general. I didn't scrap, design, nuttin! It was pretty great. I think I am starting to slowly get things in order. We have been going to the pool at the gym with the littles a lot, that is good. The children are finally starting to get the hang of swimming, thank God. It will really be a blessing to be able to take them swimming without such a big "to do".  And it feels good to be being active again. I have started being more diligent with my whole tomato staking thing and the changes in the children are so visible it's amazing. Now hopefully it continues to motivate me to keep up the changes with them. Hopefully to the point that I can keep my composure 100% of the time (we're getting there) and to get the infernal TV off! It's the evenings that are the hardest to have it off for them. Now it would be better if we had some tivos around here to record stuff, but I am just such in the habit of wanting to unwind and watch tv in the evenings. But I can see such an enormous difference in their behavior now in the evenings when they are all watching tv. I need to start trying to make the evenings when we do crafts and whatnot to occupy the time. What do ya'll do in the evenings? The littles are 6,5 and 2 if that helps.
I wish I could say things are better with Clay throughout this time, eh not so much.
Have started going to bed to read around 10:30 - which if you know me if some sort of MIRACLE!!! I usually go to bed at like 2-3 AM! And I have started reading again, which rocks. Wow who would have thought that my computer being down most of the month would be an enormous blessing?! And the house is pretty clean!! And Clay is taking 90% of the laundry to the laundramat to get me caught up - ROCK ON!! So things are looking up. Well the eating... not so much but hopefully will get back in order as everything else does :)
But we have started school back in full force with the children. Finally. And that's a big Thank God again because it has been way too long of a break :) Thank goodness we do year round and that we homeschool so we can catch up when we want, and that Frankie was ahead anyways :) Frankie is going to work on finishing up some first grade stuff the rest of the summer and into the Fall, then we'll start Second Grade. Wanna know what we're doing? I'm finally pretty happy about all we are going to do. First I'll say all the subjects and such he'll be doing, then explain why it seems more overwhelming than it really is. I LOVE homeschooling. It is soooo much fun!

**Note, if  you don't care to read about my homeschooling stuff, and homeschool books, skip this part. For now this is going to remain my main blog as opposed to just my scrapblog so you'll have to bear with me...**
Okay so this year he'll be doing Math, English, Readers/Phonics, lots of reading, read alouds with me, History, Penmanship/Copywork, Science, Social Studies of sorts, Bible, Piana (okay that was a typo but piana sounds so Southern it should stay), and I think that's it :) Seems like some sort of crazy amount for a First/Second grader but it isn't as rigid as it sounds. Everyday during school time, he will do his math, copywork for penmanship, his Readers/Phonics, and English. That's it during formal school time. We use Math U See supplemented with Singapore for Math and am really happy with it. Math U See is great, uses manipulative blocks for hands on work in teaching all skills, and hands on Frankie just eats it up. I am amazed at how easily he learns Math with Math U See. We supplement with Singapore for a few reasons. First, it has all sorts of pretty pictures which if used as his main text would totally distract him (and I am thinking Cassie too) but are so fun as a supplement he looks forward to doing it and that's great. But it also focuses on developing more mental math while Math U See teaches so much of the "why" that they work great together. I don't really like the way SIngapore moves through concepts so quickly. i like the way MUS lets them master each concept before moving on. As far as the Readers/ Phonics, Frankie has been able to read since he was like 2 and reads at such an amazing level now, but he has such a hard time spelling and really has no knowledge of phonics. So we got Rod and Staff Phonics and English. Plus I LOVE that everything is SO Biblically based in R&S. Now on to the other stuff.. Now we are doing the Story of the World for History. I really like it so far. We read the stories, and do the narrations and stuff Monday and Tuesday and do one of the FAB hands on projects on Wednesday Nights. We will be doing the readalouds maybe at the end of school time all together - all 3 children. Bible (we're doing Leading Little Ones to God and the Bible Story Book by Catherine Vos as well as KJV memory verses) will be done every morning not in school time. Frankie has reading times everyday where he reads. Usually quiet time and before bed. And we do a readaloud time everyday where I read to them. We are using the Readers and Read Alouds from sonlight I wish I had it together in my life to not owe the library a million dollars and just get the readers from the library, but alas I am a mess :) So I have been LOVING having all Frankie's reading and my read alouds all together from one place. Makes me actually DO IT which is what's important. Now every Friday we will have a light day and mainly do our Weaver Bible based unit studies. They do a Bible lesson and have social studies and science as part of it, so for fun we will do hands on projects and work on our lapbooks on Friday. The thing is the formal part of the school everyday ( Math, Phonics, penmanship, and English) will only take about an hour and a half probably. BUt by incorporating things in life like Bible, piano, the readers, history projects in the evening, etc. we end up with these days just stuffed with learning. Now I am thinking of doing Rosetta Stone Spanish but that's a computer program that they will think is a treat and Frankie begs me to get it. But it is expensive and will have to talk Mama into buying it :):)
**Okay done with all the school talk.**

On to scrap talk :) All you designers out there - ever feel like you just miss the boat? All sorts of great stuff going on and it never seems to involve you? Argh. Oh well. So... FINALLY after all the internet troubles I am going to get my new little Summer collection in the store. On the last day of June *sigh* If you forgot it,here it is :

But to try and recoop some of my losses being so absent this month I am going to do something I don't do everyday, and I had promised I was going to do most of June (darn computer problems) is have a sale.

So fun stuff! The discounts are taken off in your cart not on the front page of each kit itself. So shop shop, hopefully today ( Friday ) to get the biggest discount. And yes this will be for the new collection too! So now's the time to get it :)

Well I want to stay and ramble on forever but since I am already WAY past my bedtime (It's 11:27 lol) and I need to get all the new kits in the store, I need to go. Nice to talk to ya'll again. And MAN do you guys all blog A LOT. I was shocked when I opened my Bloglines for the first time (who can live without those? what was I doing all that time without them?) and say like 562 entries next to each name!!

Good Night and Good Luck.

Quick Stuff

gonna post before my mom gets home. Planning on cleaning most of the evening so gonna knock this out now. I don't have lots of interesting things to say though. Have had some inquiries into the CT spot. Not sure yet what I am going to do about the CT thing, may be a while before I do anything.

I did finish the elements for the little mini collection called Summer Brunch. They will probably go in the store Friday. Here they are if you want to take a gander.
 

Haven't scrapped much lately if at all. Don't know what's up with that. Did two layouts right after the contest that I really love but nothing, well one layout I pushed out after that but then nada. Might be that I feel guilty these days when I am on the computer. Need to get this house in order. Argh.

Well... ate a few pieces of pizza tonight. Lame. And surprisingly me, being the person who could eat 7+ pieces of pizza EASY, ate 3 pieces and am totally sick. That's a good thing. Well I don't feel good, but at least I will think twice tomorrow. And only had Kefir and a piece of spicy jack cheese all day so I can spare the calories. Just don't like that only a few days in Phase two of the diet changes I eat pizza. But hey, I'll live. Boy I need to start going to the gym though. Why is it so hard to start again? Easier to keep going then to start. Going to work out digging in the garden tomorrow so that will be good. A little movement is good.

Argh well typepad or this keyboard are acting up so I guess cleaning will commence.
Later.

Tip Tuesday and such

Okay so I can't truly commit to a Tip Tuesday since I can be flaky, but it sounded cool. So let's go with it. I have been learning so many new FABulous PS CS tips. So here's a simple though invaluable one.

*TIP* - When dragging a layer to your layout, hold Shift while you drag and it will center it. Love it. Took me too long to learn that.

So now that that is over with.. on to other business. I admit I have been the worse CT having designer ever. I feel for those poor ladies who got on my team right as my life seemed to go crazier than ever. Lu the fab scrapper resigned a ways back, she is designing and such now and beyond super busy. Man that lady is talented. I haven't decided what I am going to do to fill the spot yet. I still have everyone's applications from the call on file so... My guest designer period ended. The FABULOUS Shannon Bieger/dancingirisheyes was just amazing! And she is undoubtedly the sweetest person ever. Check out the AMAZING work she did for me:

Check out her gallery HERE.  And her blog HERE.  She is so great, so stop by and leave her comments and tell her how FAB she is.

My design mojo is still up in the air, but am working through it. Have 4 paper packs done, one element pack for one of them done, and two half done. Hopefully by the weekend I will be done with them and get them in the store.  I have gotten a lot of requests for the fun sequined flowers on my UDS layout. I am putting them up in the store tonight. Here they are:

Also I put up the Warm 4 Kit that spent the month of May at Scrapartist.

You can find these as well as all my other stuff HERE at SBB.   

Thanks everyone for all the encouraging emails, comments and hellos. Times have been tough but I hope they are looking up. I need to be hopeful. I am so pessimistic. Don't we all want to be one of those cup half full people? I do. I want to be someone who can be positive in the worst of times. Who makes other people smile when they need it. I have some of those people in my life - CD I love you :)

I am thinking I might post my UDS contest layouts. Not sure yet but am contemplating it.
Maybe tomorrow.

Oh and to try and force myself to keep track of food intake (umm hadn't been doing it like I should) here's the day's food:

B - Kefir with just stevia

L- Sauteed cabbage and meatloaf

D -  plain chicken breast with lemon juice, and a ton of roasted asparagus. Yummy.
Wow, that's it? Oh had a few tablespoons of pine nuts too. Double yum.

Okay I have been trying to go to bed earlier, so I am off.

Night.

Alive! She's Alive!

Okay I'm okay and not dead :) Thanks to all who have emailed me and for even a thread checking on me that I saw a minute ago at peas (haven't responded yet) So.. my absence. Kind of a combination of things really. But firstly, my internet has been wonky and spent 3 days being down. Now in reality it was because Clay wouldn't fix what needed to be fixed to make it work, and things with us were such that I couldn't ask him or expect him to help me. *sigh* But as the internet was out, I realized that I played games with the children more and generally was a better mother. So part of me didn't care if it came on or not. I believe things are looking better, Clay decided he thinks we should get marriage counseling, and that is a great thing. We really have some issues that need resolving and I am excited to be moving forward instead of backwards. But I just haven't even felt like touching the computer, checking emails, nothing, and when the internet came back on, I just didn't. I just didn't feel like I had the strength to deal with it. Another contributing reason is my just total lack of creativity these days. I managed to do a layout I like, though it took me like 15 hours and it is a simple layout. It was like pulling teeth. Argh. I don't care to surf the net when I can't do any scrapping or designing. Now I did do 4 paper packs that I like but elements are not coming to me. Not sure what to do about that. I think in general it all just came to this point where being on the computer was getting me nowhere. No designing, no scrapping, no desire to talk to anyone, just getting me nowhere on my chores around here, just helping me be a bad mother and wife. So I left it alone. It sat here and the less I used it the less I wanted to. I'm sorry that anyone worried about me, and also very touched. But at least for a few of the days the internet was out, and I had an excuse. I love you guys and it means a lot to me that some of my friends reach out to me like this. So off to other things.

So I went on a diet. Okay not a diet lol. I suck at those. But I am trying to deal with my bad sugar addiction. Since moving here to CA, going through such stress, I really turned to sucking down carbs like a vacuum to deal with it all. I gained 70 lbs or so since moving here and I hate it. So I went on a low carb diet to force myself into sugar withdrawl. I had kefir most of the days to kill of the nasty yeasts in my tummy and recolonate it with healthy strong yeast and bacteria. Today was 10 days with no bread, rice, fruit, honey, potatoes, no nothing. The first few days were really hard. But now my eating habits are already feeling like habits. My new fave things to eat? PIne Nuts lol, Chinese Chicken Salad, Black and Blue Salad, and sauteed cabbage. I could eat those constantly. Man I wish I had a black and blue salad right now! My biggest accomplishement? I have been to three movies with no candy and popcorn. I am BIG BIG about popcorn at the movies. I want extra EXTRA extra butter and will go back half way through the tub to get more butter. Gross right? But man oh so good. But more than anything it is the feeling of constantly putting things in my mouth while I watch. An oral fixation of sorts. My new coping mechanism? Lemon Water. I make a super lemony giant water bottle and drink it during the movie. It is so satisfying to me. Though last time we went I brought a little spicy jack cheese since I didnt' have lunch. But that's fine. No exercise yet except one day of bucketing the hot tub, and scrubbing it for 2 1/2 hours that was hard work. Total weight loss? 12 lbs. Now the first few came off right away since it was water weight and all. But 12 lbs rocks. I am really happy. Clays going to go play raquetball with me tomorrow so that will be great. Exercise is key to weight loss in the long term as well as short. So big pat on the back for me.

Didn't win the USD contest. Nuff said.

Today Frankie had his very first Photoshop Lesson. He is very proud of his work and wants me to make him a gallery at SBB so tomorrow to showcase his new projects in PS. He was like "when does it go online?" lol. To think that at 6 he is all about his work getting online. ha! I will be giving him lessons throughout the summer so you can watch his progress. He is so amazing at computers this will be fun. Here's his fab first lesson. I taught him about the paintbrush, color, paint bucket, and type. Funny to watch him make the brush bigger and smaller using the brackets (umm took me a while to know that tip hehe)

Okay I admit I gave him the faces to work with, but he thought it was sooo cool. Frankie and I are having some issues lately and I am hoping that having something to do together that is "ours" might help tie some heart strings with him. I love that boy so much.

Well I am sorry to announce that I had to resign as DTM at SBB. I tried for so long to avoid it, to try and get things together so that I could stay. But I just couldn't. My life is sooo out of control and honestly I just am struggling to keep my head above water. I went to the store to buy clothes for the children to wear to the movies to see Cars since I had no clean laundry or couldn't find shoes for them. It is out of control. And I just wasn't being able to contribute as a DTM and that is just being a drag on the site. It is sad though. I will be sad though to not have my chat each week. It's sad. SBB is still my fave home though. I post around at other places but SBB feel so "cozy" and comfortable. I will still be selling in the store there just not getting to do my fun weekly chat and participate as a DTM in the fun goings on.

So we went to see Cars. Argh. Adric who loves to watch movies hated it, just wanted to walk around and be loud and Clay had to take him to the car. Cassie spent the whole second half saying she wanted to go home. I think she was bored to death. Honestly I was a bit bored. Frankie enjoyed it, but wasn't mesmerized. Since having watched it, he hasn't asked me for a single Cars toy like he did before it came out. My review? 2 stars. AND, it annoys me that there was something at the very end of the credits that we missed. Look. This isn't X-Men and there is a super secret thing at the end of the credits for the few that stay. This is a kid's movie! 99% of everyone is ready to get the heck out of there as not to deal with grumpy children, ones that need to go potty and ones that want dinner. Annoying that you are supposed to sit with these little children through the WHOLE credits to see a special thing? Lame.

I could ramble on forever but won't. I probably won't be on hello ( miss ya Sonya and CD!) til Monday night and will post at peas in my thread in the morning as Clay is calling me to run to the gas station with him.

Night all.

Hey

Seems my bloglines feed on my end doesn't show the little flower that is on the blog since I edited my post. It might on yours but in case it doesn't, go check out the entry before this one.

It's Off

Well my contest entry is off in emailand. I have agonized over it all day. I stayed up til 4 Am last night finishing it, and have tweaked and touched and talked about it ALL DAY. Honestly. CD can vouch that I sat in front of this computer all day (thank goodness Daddy is home) and just second guessed every tiny part of my entry. And in the end, I don't know that I think my entry is what they were looking for. But like Sonya told me, I feel that I stayed true to my feeling on "trends", and true to my style and I just need to be fine with that. The funny thing is I hate trends. I am the LEAST trendy person you will ever meet IRL. Truly. I swear when I meet those IOD girls here in CA, them and their sheer fabulousness will be SO amazed at my lack thereof lol. I've never been considered a trendy scrapper, and in many ways try and shy away from some trendy things. This entry was my first time using glitter ever I think and might just be my last LOL. So considering I tend to get turned off by trends and can't seem to be trendy, it was hard for me to be put in a position where i was supposed to come up with a trend. I think that when you see my entry you will see what I meant about trying to stay true to who I am. And that may cost me in the contest, or who knows, maybe they will see my idea for what it is. Kind of nerve wracking to have our ability to come up with an amazing new idea put on display and judged. It was different when it was just my art. But to have my mind, my ideas judged is more scary. Michelle I think is putting them all up at midnight tonight so ya'll can see them.

*sigh* Just want it to be over.

Hmm Let's see if I can do this without a link. To celebrate being done... here's one of the little flowers from mt layout :)
If I do this right, you should be able to click on it, get the larger picture of it, and right click and save it. Let's see if I can do it right.

Later.