July update

It has been a while since I have posted.  Time flies!  Racing season started.  We went on a cruise at the end of May and then to Michigan for July 4th.  Also, we are making changes inside and outside the house!  The basement renovation has finally been finished.  Tom is cleaning out the garage and I am finally moving everything into my scrap room!!!  Plus we are getting everything out of the sun room so we can pull up the carpet and put down flooring, then we will add a sliding door to the back and a deck across the back of the house.  And getting the front professionally landscaped - something low maintenance for me.  I have gone out a couple times to pull weeds and after only 5 minutes bending over, my back is so locked up!  Ugh, my mind still feels young but not the body!!

So, the grandkids are growing.  Harley is more spoiled and loving every day.  And summer will soon be over! All in all, life is good :)

February Update

So, I am making some changes in my life!  I recently decided to become a Pampered Chef consultant, as well as my other two paying jobs, the wife and homemaker thing, mom, grandmother, etc...  I am probably out of my mind!  But I have always loved their stuff and well, any extra $ would help!  The basement project is still awaiting the new check from the insurance company.  Our public adjuster is dealing with the insurance company's adjuster.  We finally have a contractor waiting to start.  He is also willing to finish my scrap room while they are doing the basement!!  I am so anxious for it to be over!!! 


Scrapbooking??  My bags are still packed from the crop I attended 2 weeks ago.  I need to unpack everything then repack for a crop this Saturday.  Nearly every waking moment at home has been consumed with finishing transcripts for Westville PD.  And I still have a few to finish for East Greenwich.  Hoping to put that money toward the scrap room project then after that finish saving for our Bahamas cruise in May! I cannot wait to get away again!!!


We recently celebrated Piper's first birthday!!! 


Well, back to work...  One more hour here then home to pack and type...  Type and type

2018 - Getting Motivated

I cannot believe we are well into 2018 already.  The year has started out well.  January flew by in many ways.  We have actually had decent luck this year [knocking on wood] so far.  I won't get greedy and ask for more.


Anyway, I am scrapbooking so much more.  Actually joined some Blog challenges through Facebook and watched some UTube tutorials.  I feel that I am changing my style in a good way and loving my work more.  I have some wonderful friends to thank for that.  Most of them I met through my favorite online store and message board, www.acherryontop.com  


In January, I joined a 30/30 challenge on A Cherry On Top where the requirement is to complete 30 layouts in 30 days.  As of today I only finished 15.  Fortunately we have until Feb. 5th so I am going to finish them!!  I also joined a challenge of 30 days no spending!  Adhesives do not count and we were allowed 1 cheat day.  Well...  When I bought the adhesive, I foun so many great paper pads, Thickers and stickers at AC Moore that were on sale AND that I actually could use with the projects I am working on.  So, that was my cheat day.  BUT they did not have the adhesives I needed.  They only sell glues.  And I really love the tape runners.  SO I paced an order at A Cherry On Top.  I cheated again, lol!  But I am well stocked now!


No, my scrap room still is not done.  Again I am at the point where I am searching for a handyman to finish the painting around the door and windows, finish putting up the trim.  It is probably just a day's work.      


Anyway, here are a few of my favorite layouts that I finished recently

Selfie

Well, after a month it has become obvious that this blog is nothing more than my online diary.  And another way for me to talk to my BFF - myself!  It just means I can actually say what is truly on my mind.  Nobody will ignore me because they don't want to hear that I have had a bad day.  I do not have to pretend that my life I wonderful.  But I have some place to really vent and get my feeling out.

Today I took a selfie, which I have done before.  But 9 out of 10 times, they get deleted.  I do not like the way I look.  I am my worse critic.  This one however, turned out okay.  I even put it on Instagram.  I have been fighting depression lately, worse than normal.  I am to the point where I cry nearly every day.  Everything seems to be out of my control, I am having health issues and I just do not want to get out of bed most days.  And when I get home I try to go in the scrap room (which Tom has finally started working on again!) and I end up just sitting there.  I started packing more stuff up and getting it out of there.  The only thing I seem to be getting done - slowly - is going through and getting rid of things.  I am packing bags and boxes for Purple Heart.  Clothing, books.  I am getting rid of little knickknacks that used to mean so much to me.  I feel as if nothing means anything to me anymore.  Well the exception seems to be my dogs - some days.  But they let me know when they have spent too much time alone.  Another thing I cannot control.  Right now I am watching the clock...  praying 3:30 comes and I can go home, grab some wine and crawl under the covers until the alarm screams at me to get up and try to survive another day.

It's Finally Over!

So after 3 days of racing, I am relieved to say the season is finally over for us!  Baby is getting washed and taken apart and the motor will go out to be looked over and freshened up.


Now, onto our fall project...  The sun porch is loaded with boxes and shelves from my scrap room.  We started redoing the scrap room nearly 2 years ago.  Then racing season started and Tom never got back to my room.  So little by little I moved more stuff back into the room...  Well, bought a new cart and set of shelves and some storage bins.  And scrappy supplies, rather than digging through boxes for what I wanted to work with.  Can you blame me?  So now he has decided he wants to put a deck on the back of the house and change the rear windows of the sun porch into a sliding door so the dogs can go in and out from there rather than the driveway side.  NOW  he wants to start that.  Um...  That room cannot be started until our first project - THE SCRAP ROOM - is done and all those boxews and shelves are out of the sun room.  THEN Harley's crate is still in the room.  That needs to go to the basement.  And I have a large wood and glass entertainment center full of scrapbook stuff and my collection of James Patterson books that need to get boxed.  I am getting rid of that entertainment center and just using a smaller shelf, downsizing all the crap I had collected over the years and stuck   under that cabinet behind the closed doors!  I really like the ladder style bookcases and think I will put that, a chair or two in the sun room when its done but mostly keep the area open. 


So, I have a plan, and I intend to set it in motion.  Wish me luck because I will need it to keep my husband on track!

I'm On A Mission

I have been working off and on for over a year with organizing and purging my scrapbook supplies.  Also with remodeling my scrap room.  Hubby got the ugly brown wallpaper off one wall and painted it.  Then racing season started.  Winter came and he still did not work on the room again.  In February my cousin came out from Montana to see us and visit the great state of NJ and our shores for the first time.  He is young and dose not like to sit still.  So he went out and chopped up nearly all the fallen trees for us then on rainy days he'd go in my scrap room.  He got the rest of the wallpaper off.   He needed to get back to Montana though to renew his driver's license or he would have stayed longer.  We are still waiting on his return!  So, my scrap room still sits in limbo.  Most of my stuff is in boxes in the back room.  But I am really getting antsy to finish the room.  To the point that I am going to do it myself!  We have 2 more weeks of racing season then my weekends will be free and I am finishing that room!  In the meantime, I have gone back to the purging and organizing part.  I just donated a box of cardstock to the library for kids crafts.  I have bought different sized bins that are stackable to keep things separated.   And my latest and greatest purchase is here and all set up. 
  So, instead of actually  scrapbooking right now, I am organizing!  I will post some before, during and after pictures soon!

TGIM

What does that mean?  Thank God Its Monday.  Never thought those words would come out of my mouth, lol!  We had the grandkids this weekend.  It was an awesome weekend but WOW!  Those BOYS are supercharged.  No sugar added!  They had a blast at the race track Saturday night and I had them "help" me clean up the house before we left so they were both given $5 at the track to spend.  THAT was a huge success too.  Sunday we had the boys, as well as our niece Maykayla (11) and Kristen's niece Addy (4) so we all played outside all day, had burgers and dogs on the grill and washed Aunt Krissy's Mustang.   The Mustang has been out of commission and kept in the garage for the past 5 years.  We are finally going to get it back on the road! 


So, it was a completely awesome and perfect weekend!  AND we are doing it again in 2 weeks.  Until then, I am sleeping!  The dogs are still hung over from the weekend, even Harley who NEVER stops playing!