What I did on Sunday

Went to bed Sunday morning at 3 a.m. after sitting up with Rog watching a movie; got up at 6:15 when Max determined it was time to go out and eat. I finished the layout of Jeremy with Jaren and then did the layout of Maddie with Roger. After finishing these, we went to Costco to pick up some 12x12 prints, then came back to the South Side and had lunch (and a pitcher of margaritas) at La Hacienda.

Afterwards we came home and took a 2 hour nap. We then went to a graduation party for a great niece and found a home for sale in a great neighborhood and about $20,000 below assessed value.

We left the graduation party and Roger accompanied me while I went and took some nighttime photos at Gray's Lake, the Temple for Performing Arts, and the Capitol.

Next we washed the car and when we finished that we visited Wally-World (at 10 p.m.) to buy car wax and other miscellaneous stuff. Got home at 11 p.m. and did a 2-page layout of my memorial photos. It is now 2:32 a.m. and I'm going to head off to bed because 6:15 comes REAL EARLY!.

Lest We Forget.....

It is Memorial Day Weekend and yesterday as an extended family we visited the cemeteries. We started out the day at Sunset Memorial Gardens to visit Grandpa Bob's grave (Roger's father). The kids questioned why Maxine didn't have two dates like Grandpa Bob's. It was explained to them that she was still living and when she passes on, the second date would be added.



After we left Sunset Memorial Gardens, we picked up G.G. and went to Laurel Hill Cemetery, where my dad and most of my mom's family is buried. We only visited my dad's, though, because she can no longer make it up the hills to their gravesites. Tomorrow I will go back out there and plant flowers and clean up around my grandparents, great grandparents, and uncles and aunts sites.

While visiting my dad's grave, Mia notices the stone to his right with G.G.'s name on it. She asked if I was going to put flowers on that one also. I explained that G.G. was still living, to which Cailey, in her big sister voice, enunciates each word with an exclamation point at the end of each word, reminds her that we talked about this when we visited Grandpa Bob's and Grandma! Maxine! is! still! living! and! when! she! dies! we! will! then! place! flowers! there! It was so cute. I have to admit that I think Laurel Hill's military section is the prettiest of all the cemeteries in Des Moines at Memorial time when they have all the flags lining the street. My dad always loved it too.
From Laurel Hill we went across town to Glendale to visit Jason's grave, along with my Uncle Jack's and our good friend Dirk's grave, who was also my cousin's husband. It was getting too hot for G.G. by this time and she stayed under a shade tree near Uncle Jack's grave while we walked up to Jason's. His stone, along with all the babies' in the area, need lots of TLC cleaning them up as they are flat to the ground and the grass grows over them. I was cleaning up around Jason's and the baby boy's next to his. Luke started cleaning up some other babies stones and I think he would have been happy to stay there all afternoon cleaning.




Then we visited my brother's site at Resthaven Cemetery. We all chipped in and had Denny's name added to their military wall of honor, and they just finished engraving it the day before. Cailey was so fascinated and spent a lot of time in front of Denny's name tracing it with her finger. It was very touching.

Mid-week update

I've managed to scrap a few pages. I need to complete the layout of my 365 photos for last week and get to Costco and pick up 3 weeks worth of layouts. Have managed to get out on my bike a couple times and gone to soccer games.

What Grandma Has Been Doing

Wow, I didn't realize it has been20 days since I last blogged. Work has been zapping me and I haven't been doing much. Here's what I've done since last posting:

1. Watched the girls play soccer
2. Watched Dancing with the Stars and rode bike
   
3. Board meeting; watched American Idol and Dancing with the Stars
   
4. Board meeting; watched Luke play soccer; watched American Idol
   
5. Swine flu n/k/a H1N1
6. Swine flu n/k/a H1N1
7. Chillin with Jaren
8. American Idol
9. Dancing with the Stars (Go Shawn)
10. Bike riding
11. Mowing andweeding
12. Scrapping
    
13. Shopping & planting flowers
14. Watched girls play soccer
15. Watched Luke roll around on ground during soccer game
16. Dinner with family at Scornovaccos
    
17. Watched American Idol
18. Watched Dancing with the Stars (Go Shawn)
19. Mowing
20. Shopping and planting more flowers
21. Chillin with Jaren
22. Dinner with Roger at Macaroni Grill
23. Scrapping
    
24. Breakfast with family for Mother's day
25. Wii bowling; had my best games last weekend--a 604 series for three games with my high game a 224. Spent a couple nights bowling with my sis too.

Today I went to the zoo with Luke, his other grandmother, and his preschool class. What is this--my 7 or 8th visit in 2009. Had a great time. I need to post some of my pictures and scrapbook pages. I'll try to do that before another 20 days have passed.

And Finally, pics from the soccer game

And here's one last posting for the day from the girls soccer game last Sunday. Cailey is in the larger photo on top and Mia in the bottom two. Now I'd better get ready for work!

Soccer Practice

Here are a couple pictures of Mia at her soccer practice on Tuesday night. I am a little disappointed in my pictures and promise to get better ones.

While I went to the girls' soccer practice on Tuesday, Grandpa went to Luke's and took these pictures. Looks like he was really enjoying himself.

Soccer and dining out

Been a busy week. Tuesday night I went to the girls' soccer practice. Here is Cailey dribbling the ball and taking time to wave to Grandma. I'll get Mia's pics posted later.
Wednesday I went to Jaren's last swimming class at the Y. The little guy really enjoyed the water and the cold didn't seem to bother him at all.

Thursday night we all went to dinner at Robin's Wood Oven Grill. The food was good, but they ripped us off. I guess we have become spoiled by restaurants offering free refills. The three older grandchildren all ordered juice to drink. Both girls asked for refills. The restaurant charged $2 for each juice times five cups for a total of $10 for juice. Could have bought a couple gallons of juice for this price.

Our bills did not come itemized and Roger's and my dinner was about $5 over what I figured it should have been. Then Roger didn't notice and didn't hear Jeremy say that the tip was included in the price so he added another $7 in tip. Our waitress ended up getting a $12.31 tip from us on a bill that should have been $32. I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon.

More scrapbook layouts

This layout was part of a challenge to use a special filter on a photo.


Did another speed scrap last night at Hummie's World and this is what I ended up with. I'm not really happy with it and need to rework it some before I print it out and add to my scrapbook.

365 Project

Week 14 of 2009.




Week 15 of 2009's Project 365.

GG and the Greats

I just finished this layout. My assignment was to scraplift a scrapper by the name of Ronnie McCray. In the world of Scrapbooking and Cardmaking, "Lifting" ideas is welcomed. A great way to do this is by obtaining ideas from friends, other crafters, books and magazines.

Supplies used:

• Scrappin Cop's Doodle Animals
• Atomic Cupcake Dot Brush
• ScrapSimple Papers: AMC_SSPaper_CreativeExpression_Blend, AMC_SSPaper_CreativeExpression_Wash, AMC_SSPaper_CreativeExpression_Words
• COL_SSEmb_PenInk
• COL_LYOBrush_PenInk
• Fonts: Monotype Corsiva and StoneSerif SAIN

I am Lei-Out of the day at Scrapable.net

I am SO EXCITED! I woke up this morning and went to Scrapable.net's home page and saw the lay out above was chosen Lei-Out of the Day at Scrapable.net. I did this last night as part of a speed scrap using the Artisan Guild's April Kit and the Scrappin Cop's Doodle Alpha. A speed scrap is where you get new directions every 10 minutes and create your lei-out during the timeframe of the scrap. Here's what they said about my lei-out and the instructions we were given:

This beautiful lei-out is the creation of a speed scrap today at Scrapable.net. Here is the lei-out recipe:

1. Choose one photo, one photo only. It must be black and white.
2. Your photo must be framed - however you like.
3. Choose a shape and clip at least 3 of these shapes out of paper. Go ahead and pick your background paper too.
4. There must be a flower on your page somewhere.
5. There must also be stitching and it must be vertical!
6. Your journaling must include a quote and your title must be included in your journaling.
7. That’s it…finished. Add any extra embellishments you want, add shadows, dates, etc.

QueenShakeNBake hit a homerun with this challenge! She chose a fabulous photo, wonderfully coordinated colors and elements and how cool is her title? One technique she used that really adds interest is manipulated shadows. As one of the recipe requirements was to use vertical stitching, she chose to “stitch” down her paper elements. She played with the shadows on these elements to make them appear to partially lift off the page. Overall a very beautiful, creative lei-out!

Hummie's Challenge

I am participating in some scrapbooking challenges. The first challenge is a title challenge--"As you Grow, So do I." Since my kiddos are grown, what came to mind was our "photo tree" we cut down last year. I loved seeing how small the tree was once. You can even see our poodle Lady's chain draped up the tree in the first picture. This chain you can still see a small portion of embedded in the trunk of the tree. Interesting thing about the angle of most our pictures--it is the Fisher's house and not ours that always appears in the background.

The journaling reads:

I was the Jorgenson Family's official photo tree until the summer of 2008 when a summer storm tore me apart.

I was planted one year before Carrie was born and from that point forward all the official family photos were taken in front of me, such as first day of school, holiday photos, and graduation. Even Cailey and Mia's first day of preschool photos were taken in front of me. I don't think the Jorgenson's realized when they had me cut down that a big part of their family history disappeared with me.

Re-Wined Re-Visited

Tonight was the last Re-Wine of the season at the Jasper Winery. Tonight's topic dealt with hooping. Sparkle (Mary) is a certified Hoopnotica Instructor, and she brought some hoops for us use. Two of my sister-in-laws joined me, Barb and Gloria. Gloria and I got up and tried our hips at hooping. For more information on hooping, see http://www.hooping.org/. Now I've got to talk Roger into making me a hoop. It seems he can make about 8 for the cost of buying one. I'd love to learn new moves other than just spinning it on my waist. Mary made everything look so easy.

I didn't do any scrapping last week. Been catching up on my 365 layout and doing some challenges at Scrapable.net.

This lay-out (lei-out) was done for "X Marks the Spot" challenge (lei-out that has the word SWEET in honor of April) and "Snorkeling Lessons" (combining two or more papers). The car I photographed at Hardee's during one of their Friday night car shows.



These were my photos for the 13th week of 2009. Thursday is an out-of-focus finch I photographed at our bird feeder. Friday I visited Jason's grave on what would have been his 31st birthday. It would have also been my Brother's 62nd birthday. My paternal grandmother also was born on the 27th of March. Saturday night Roger and I spent another night in playing Wii games. Sunday I caught some snow still hanging around in my bird bath. Monday night Jeremy and Jaren stopped by for a visit. He had the tongue sticking out thing going on. Tuesday I spent my lunch in my car reading in McRae Park and photographing these geese. Wednesday Roger and I took the girls to their soccer practice.

Jaren at the Zoo

I used Isyndra / Nicole Harnisch's Zoomania kit on this lay out based on a template by Kristin Skjæringrud (14_1). Pictures are of my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson at the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Project 365

Just because I haven't been posting my weekly lay outs for my project 365 doesn't mean I haven't been doing them. I could make up some kind of excuse about my computer crashing or something or other, but the fact is I have just plumb forgot to post them. It appears the last time I posted my project 365 was week 6, so to bring you up to date:

Week 7:


Week 8:


Week 9:


Week 10:


Week 11:


Week 12:

Visiting the Historic Kate Shelley Railroad Museum & Park in Moingona

Yesterday we took a drive to find the Kate Shelley Bridge. While we didn't find the bridge built in 1900 and named the Kate Shelley Bridge on yesterday's expedition, we did visit the Kate Shelley Railroad Museum & Park and walked along the path of an abandoned rail line to the Des Moines River. We were accompanied on our walk by our tour guide, Cubbie.

For more information on Kate Shelley, the museum, and the bridge, see:
The Story of UPRR's Kate Shelley Bridge, by Ken Wall, Jeff Teig, P.E., and Tom McCune, P.E.

Kate Shelley Saves the Train, Based on a true story retold by S. E. Schlosser

Kate Shelley Railroad Museum And Park - Moingona, Iowa

Facebook message from Jeremy & Sarah

Jeremy Jorgenson has something to proclaim to the world. "IT'S GOING TO BE A GIRL!!!!!!"

Sarah Kouma Jorgenson would like to announce that . . . SHE'S GOING TO HAVE A GIRL!!!!

I'm going to have another granddaughter! This will make three granddaughters and two grandsons.

Visiting the Omaha Zoo

Spring break was this past week. Jeremy and Sarah were taking Jaren to the Henry Doorly Zoo and invited me to tag along. Carrie, David, and the kids were also planning on going to Omaha on bacation and visiting the zoo. They, however, were staying there several days at a hotel with an indoor water park. They joined us at the zoo in the afternoon when they got into town. We visited the gorillas, cats, and, orangutans, or as Luke calls them, wammerhammers, aka rangertangers. Unfortunately my wammerhammer pictures didn't turn out too good.

This is a 2-page spread I made using Isyndra's Zoomania kit, available at scrapable.net, based on Elizabeth Weaver's Double Duty Two Page Quick Click available at Digital Scrapbook Place.

Here are better views of the zoo pages: