I've been crafty!

It's been a while since I've posted. I've wanted to post, but I've had nothing to share. But now I do. I've discovered altering composition books. I've really become obsessed with it. I've got a ton of them, ready to decorate. I'm even teaching a class at the local scrapbook store. Here's my favorite so far:



And now my second favorite:



I made this one for my Shawna for her birthday. Sorry it was a little late Shawna!



And here's the card I made with the left over scrap pieces! Yay for me!



It really isn't one of my favorite cards. I used a rub on tape for the faux stitching. I didn't like it much. Looks too fake.

Hope you enjoy looking at what I've made. Maybe I'll keep making stuff and posting. I've been busy trying to finish up my chemistry class before next Friday. I have a bit left to go, but I'm sure I'll get it done. I'm going to Nashville tomorrow to visit a friend who's just had WLS. I've talked to her sister and she's doing great! While I'm in Nashville, I'm getting to see my old massage therapist and I'm getting an hour and a half massage!! I'm so excited! It's been a while since I've had a good massage!! Toodles! ~Kim

Happy 4th of July

Hello anyone who's reading! We had a wonderful weekend! On Friday, my hubby and I went to some friends house for a pool party. They have it every year and it was last year when I saw them last. It was great catching up with everyone! I have some pictures of the kids showing off.





Then, on Saturday, we had a definite experience. I ended up bringing Samantha home with me and boy did we have fun. Our friends, Dinker & Dozer, asked us to help them with a job. They own a catering business called on the mark catering and event planner and they were hired by the radio station to cater for the Freedom Fest concert. We were catering in the artist hospitality room. That meant we would be serving Jason Meadows, Tracy Lawrence, and the Charlie Daniels Band. So, Sami & I got there right before lunch. So we helped serve band members (we're assuming as nobody really introduced themselves our anything and I didn't ask.) At about 1:30, everything slowed down. My friends left to go get the food for supper. So it was just me, Sami & Mikey. Then Mikey left so it was just me and Sam. Then this gorgeous lady and pretty cute guy walked in. The guy said he needed to get "this lady something to eat." So, by that point, lunch was pretty scares. So, she ends up getting a little salad, as the guy is sitting there humming, walking around. So, I compliment her hair, as it is absolutely stunning. Then I ask if she's with one of the bands and she said "Yeah, I'm with Jason." and points to the guy who was with her but walking out the door. I asked her if that was Jason Meadows and she said yep. Dang it! A famous person and I didn't know it. She just laughed! Then his bus driver came in and we talked a little bit, but Sami really took a liking to him. She was sitting with him talking the whole time he was eating. Then, he came back for supper, and she kept going and getting his dirty dishes for him and talking and being cute. He left, and then came back with a ball of something. He told me to "give this to that youngin". It ended up being a Jason Meadow T-shirt. I thought it was so nice. I told him that she said she wanted to ask him if she could see the inside of the bus, but chickened out. He told me to tell her to come find him and he'd let her see it. Well, then I said that I was her guardian and I'd have to come too and he said that was fine!! He said look him up once Jason was on stage.

So, after that, a lot of people started coming in to eat. We were feeding people and then all of the sudden there was this cute little puppy running around. So Sami and I started playing with it.



Isn't he a doll?? We were playing with him and I asked who owned him and this guy sitting at the table closest to us said it was his. He told us his name was Tank and he was an english bulldog and he was 9 weeks old. So we just kept talking to his owner, and then my friend's son came and whispered in my ear, "You're talking to Tracy Lawrence." I told him he was a liar. I mean, the last time I saw Tracy Lawrence, he had long blond hair and this guy wasn't him. He was wearing a ball cap, and some glasses and just didn't look like him. Until I kept talking to him and then all of the sudden it hit me and I could see it. I'd been talking to him like crazy and didn't even know who he was! So, here's a photo of Tank, the dog of Tracy Lawrence.



After that, we went out and hung out at the concert until it started. Then, we saw Jason's bus driver sitting over by the tour buses, so we went over to see him. He had us pull up some folding chairs and have a seat. We talked with him while the Froggyland Idol was singing. Then we saw Jason's band come out of the bus and start walking to the stage. Then, out pops Jason. It was pretty cool. So we sat there for a little bit and then walked back over to the front, and then walked back over to where he was sitting. He had gone up to the stage to do some stuff, but then came back. He told us his name, and where he was from. He's married and even has a grandbaby! He's driven tour buses for quite some time now. He's driven for Neal McCoy and even Gwen Steffani. I thought that was pretty cool. Anyway, he never mentioned anything about getting to tour the bus, so I didn't mention it again. He was nice enough to let me take a picture of him and Sami. Here it is:



He was super nice and kept us entertained. After we told him bye, we went back over to the concert. Jason was still on stage. I got a couple of photos of him that were pretty good. Here's one of them:



We didn't stay for the rest of the concert. Unfortunately, I started getting a migrane and was tired from working all day. Plus, Sami didn't really care about staying. She doesn't listen to country music and didn't know who anyone was anyway!

So, we went home and waited for the fireworks. I got a lot of cool pictures. The first one is posted at the beginning of this post. Here are some others:



How cool is that photo? Love how you can see the little squiggles. Here's another one:

It reminds me of a sun in the middle with starburst rays all around!

Well, thanks for reading if you've stayed with me this long! Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday weeknd! Toodles! ~Kim

Happy Doggie & A Card

I've created quite a few cards lately. Here is what most of them look like. I have finally gotten on the boat and started working with "Inchies". It really was fun. And kind of addicting! I just had a ton of them to put on cards. And it left the cards to where I could put whatever sayings I wanted on there as needed. Here's the photo:



I don't remember what all supplies I used. The photo isn't really good...still haven't mastered the taking photos of my projects thing. But, if you can tell, I did get a little stand to put the card on so my fingertips aren't in every photo! I did add little rhinestones to all of the inchies...almost used all of my rhinestones as I had a ton of inchies!! But, they're all on cards now, so I have 20 or more cards that I have for whatever occasion.

Here's a picture of our happy dog!



She's just panting from her long walk, but it looks like she's smiling! I have this on my desktop at work. She's so adorable.

Well, nothing new is going on with me. Oh, except I'm working out with a trainer now at the gym. She's really tough, but I feel better after working out. I still hate exercising, but I know I need to get in shape. I've put a few pounds back on, so I could definitely stand to lose a few. Of course, if I'd start watching my diet better, control the carbs, maybe I'd lose some pounds! Uggh!

My chemistry class is going OK. I've got a lot of assignments to do, so I'll probably be working on school work all weekend. All I really wanna do is sit in the recliner and veg out. I'm sure I'll be doing a whole lot of that! And playing Guitar Hero III on the Wii. We haven't played in a while, so I'm about to get on it. Maybe sometime this weekend I'll do some crafting. If I do, I'll post something. Thanks for reading my ramblings! ~Kim

Random Ramblings

Well, the holes from which my wisdom teeth were pulled have finally healed most of the way up. I'm still having some pain, and I'm out of meds, but I guess I'll survive. I've been so busy I haven't had time to think about the pain.

Lots of things happening right now. Unfortunately, I haven't been too crafty. I've got some projects in progress, but nothing finished to show yet. Well, actually, I do have a photo of a card I gave to one of my friend's kids. She was nice enough to drive me to and from the dentist's office (and Dairy Queen afterwards) when I had my last wisdom tooth pulled. Then, I made another card on Monday while I was sitting around catching up on my TV watching.

I'm getting so stressed out and am procrastinating like crazy over my Chemistry 101 class. I have a paper due on June 4th. I know I've got plenty of time, but I haven't written a paper in years. Especially when I have to defend my position on something. Luckily my husband will be nice enough to proof everything for me to make sure it makes sense. And one of my friends is taking classes towards her Masters right now, and she'll be at my house alot this summer, and she was an english major, so I'll get her to proof my papers too. Yeah, she'll be even better than Jason.

I feel like I've got a list of things to do and have no motivation to do anything. Tomorrow I am starting an exercise program. Since I'm now a student at MSU, I can take classes at the Wellness Center at the college. Tomorrow I'll take a cycling class after work, and then after that I'm working with a personal trainer for a health assessment and then she'll work out a plan for me. I'm excited. I haven't had a personal trainer before. I guess since I am saving so much money by not paying for the gym, maybe I can afford to use the trainer once a week or something. Problem is, I'm now needing to start watching what I eat again, and I'm horrible at planning meals. I went grocery shopping tonight and ended up with $90 of junk. Actually, not a lot of junk, but nothing that went together. So, I'm gonna have to set down and plan a menu and follow it. If I'm gonna exercise and spend time and money for a trainer, I need to stop putting junk in my body.

I've got a ton of stuff I'm gonna do. In the next 9 months, we've gotta change a lot of things in our lives in preparation for the possible steps in the future. We're almost 100% sure we want to start a family. So, we're needing to get our lives organized, house organized, health in good/great shape and start preparing. You hear that if you wait for the perfect time to start a family you never will. Well, we now have a goal of when we want to start trying and a list of things we want to complete before that happens. I need to make it into a checklist type form. Just for me. Heck, nobody ever reads my ramblings, so it is just for me! haha! I'll post a craft item here in the next day or so. Thanks for reading! ~Kim

Starting School and Teeth Removals!

Yep. I'm finally going back to school. In my lifetime, I'm gone to school to do many things. The first after high school experience was going to a tech school to be a medical secretary. I dropped out quickly as I decided I didn't want to set at a desk all day. 2nd try: went to school to become an EMT. 3rd try: two semesters at MSU, majored in partying in the dorm with my new friends and not going to class. (Actually, my major was OSHA, but as a freshmen, the only class I took toward my major was Freshmen orientation.) 4th try: Respiratory therapy. Worked really hard at it to get C's, but stuck with it until I started clinicals. Once I had to go into the hospital and do that job, I quickly quit as I discovered that was NOT a job I wanted. 5th try: Nail technician. I finished school, and I enjoyed doing it alright, but it was hard to build up a clientele and still work to pay bills. 6th try: back to MSU, without a major. Only went to school for one semester, worked 60+ hours a week just to pay rent, so my grades suffered. MSU decided I wouldn't be coming back for the spring semester. 7th: moved back home with parents, and started tech school for graphic communications. FINALLY, found something I liked and was good at. I didn't get a degree, but got enough training to where I was able to get a job. Most of my training and knowledge is from on the job. 8th: I went to broadcasting school. Not sure why, guess I thought I could make some money doing what i do best...TALK. Well, unless you are in sales, there is no money in Radio. So, that was just a waste of $10,000.

So now, I'm just going to school to get my degree. Not sure what in, but I do want a degree. I still work in printing, but now I'm in customer service and LOVE it. I'm not going back to school to get a degree so I can find a new job. I'm taking advantage of the benefits offered to my husband as being an employee of the college. He's too busy with work, so I'm taking advantage of it. I'm taking a chemistry class online this summer, and then next fall, I'm taking an english class online and then a theatre class on campus. I'm excited to go back to school!

Now, onto the teeth removal!! YUCK! A few weeks ago, I had one of my wisdom teeth pulled. I have been having problems with food getting stuck back there around the tooth and the dentist said they should be gone. So, initially, I was gonna go to an oral surgeon so I could be knocked out. Well, he wanted to charge a ton of money. My dentist would only charge $100 per tooth. For $200 vs. $1,000, I decided to suck it up and get it done at the dentist. He gave me some Xanax beforehand, numbed me up real good, and then went to work. Actually, on the first one, he filled a cavity and pulled the wisdom tooth at the same time since they were on the same side. It wasn't bad, just like normal dental stuff, never fun, but tolerable. Well, afterwards, I was having some MAJOR pain. I ended up with a dry socket. Not fun. I had to go in every day for him to pack it with this nasty clove-tasting guaze. It helped it heal, so whatever. Well, I decided after all of that, the other tooth was staying. I didn't want to go through that again. Fast forward a couple of weeks. I start having some tooth pain on my left side. I thought it was from one of my old silver crowns from when i was younger. Nope. I had a huge cavity in my wisdom tooth and that's where all the pain was coming from. So...out it comes! Thursday afternoon I had it pulled. I'm not feeling too great, but whaddya gonna do? I'm just hoping I don't get another dry socket.

Well, I think I'm done rambling. I've got some projects I'll post soon (hopefully). We'll see. Thanks for reading! Toodles! ~Kim

Mother's Day Card

Here's a craft post!! I made this card for my mother for mother's day. It was almost everything I imagined. I saw on someone's blog something similar that I wanted to try and recreate. I don't remember who's it was now, but I was determined to NOT refer to it as I was making the card because I wanted to make a card that was an original. I'm not great at taking photos of my cards yet, but here it is.



The green cardstock is 120# Classic Laid Duplex Cover Brittany Green & Avon Brilliant White. It was something we got by mistake at work and cut it before we realized it was wrong (both sides were supposed to be white, and he started cutting on the white side!) Good for me cause I have a small stash of this paper now! The paper on top is something from the Dollar Tree, Mrs. Grossman's I think. It is pierced and then faux stitched with a Creative Memories fine tipped pen. I scalloped the edges with my cheapo corner rounder from Wal-mart. Finally broke down and bought one even though I have 4 Creative Memories corner rounders from when I was a consultant, but you can't remove the backs to do this, so, whaddya gonna do? I then used my brand new crop-o-dile and put two eyelets in each spot (tried to make it look like a rivet by punching one eyelet, then putting another eyelet in the back side...did NOT like the results...will not try again until someone has a surefire way of doing it!) and then tied the ribbon (came from Wal-mart in a clearance bag with other ribbon scraps. It took me a while to tie the bow, so when I gave it to Mom, I told her to not open it, just squeeze it and read it from the side. She must not have heard me, because five minutes later, she said, "You're gonna have to tie this back for me, cause I'm not gonna be able to do it." WHAT!!!! She said, "If I didn't open it, how could I read it?" I told her I just put happy mother's day in it!! Nothing big!! Anyway, the Morning Glory flower and Mother Teresa stamp was a last minute addition. I took a picture of it before I put the Stampin' Up! clear gloss stuff on it to make it shiny. Is there a secret to using that stuff? I could see the brush marks and was not happy with the look of it at all. I've used it again for another card with the same results, but I'm not too worried about redoing it at this point.

So, there is my latest crafty thing. I'll post something that I'm making for my massage therapist once I have it finished. She's moving to Nashville and leaving me and I'm very, VERY sad. She's great at what she does, and we've became friends over the past two years. So, I'm really gonna miss her. Toodles! ~Kim

GREAT WEEKEND!!

I have had a fabulous, wonderful weekend. I've had weekends like this before that ended up dreadful... I had my 14 year old nephew and 11 year old niece from Friday evening until Sunday night. They usually provide enough birth control for me for MONTHS! This time...well, this time we had so much fun. Don't get me wrong, the boy still had his teenager apathetic attitude, but he's so cute and witty, I overlooked the "I don't care what we do" things. And the girl, she was still super hyper (and I'm sure all of the Snickers and Fruit Roll-ups I didn't monitor her eating didn't help!) but it didn't bother me up until the very end. I just can't believe how much of a joy it was to spend the weekend with them and have so much fun. We went bike riding (Samantha & I) and Jacob skate-boarded with us and we just had the best time, and the whole time I was thinking (and even getting a little weepy) that this is what my life is missing. I hate it that I've started thinking like that. I don't want to give in to the whole having kids thing because it's expected of me. I loved the fact that I thought my life was complete with just Jason, Lucy (the dog) and me. But now I'm starting to feel like something is missing. Maybe it'll pass. Maybe I'm just pre-menstral. Who knows! I know I'm confused as all get out! I guess it doesn't help that I have little Peyton (see post below) that I get to hold and snuggle and kiss all the time and that I don't want him to have to go home. (That really is a big change!) Whenever I am around him, whether it be at our house or theirs, I want to take complete care of him. Feed him, change him (yes, I've even done a poopy diaper...not the last one though because I smelt it as he dealt it and I said NO WAY!), rock him to sleep. EVERYTHING! Maybe that means I'm ready for motherhood...who knows. Jason is still on the fence, but he said yesterday that he knows he'd be a good dad. I think he'd be a great dad. I do question my ability to be a mother. I know I can take care of his/her physical needs (feeding, clothing, bathing, that type of thing) but I'm not sure if I can handle his/her emotional needs. I wonder if I'd be a complete f-up when it comes to parenting. I guess I'll never know until I do it! Can't do it until after February of 2009. We're going to the Keys in Florida with Jason's parents and I don't want to do that in my last trimester, or even being pregnant at all. That's a long trip in a car ride for me, not being preggo. Can't imagine with a bun in the oven!! I'll keep everyone (my two subscribers...one of which is me!) updated! ~Kim

ETA: I had to change some punctuation, but then I also realized that I referred to our possible future child as a HIM. We want to have a boy so much, so we're probably gonna have a girl!! Last night I went to Lowes looking for a bookshelf. I started looking at wallpaper borders and started envisioning decorating a child's room! Then, when I couldn't find a bookshelf, it started the weepiness again. Man, I suck!