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:

Scrappin Sunday

Did a speed scrap today at Scrapable.net and did completed the lei-out above. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. As I've never speed scrapped before, I didn't know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. It started at 1 with a posting of step #1. Every 10 minutes another step was posted. Here are the steps:

1. Choose 2 photos and make them black and white. One should be larger than the other. Don't make them the same size.....
2. Choose 3 papers. One must be set on an angle and one must be a rectangle.
3. Add 5 and only 5 elements of your choice. No more and no less. This includes your frames, staples, etc.
4. Add at least 2 stars.
5. Add 1 ribbon. And only one ribbon. And you can use it only once and it has to extend the width of your page. It can be flat, curly, etc. Just not a bow.
6. Add one sentence of journaling. It must include a number.
7. Title your lei-out using an alpha....not a font. An alpha.

Supplies used:

2. Three papers, all three are from Nicole Young's kit "Catch a Dream" ~:~ light grunge,sunny skies, and bright sun;
3. Five elements: From Catch a dream kit: baby word art, faded paper frame, and feather wints; VB_SugarBaby frame; and JHI_SSEmbells_Lace2_wide
4. At least 2 stars: From Catch a Dream: Bubble Star Overlay and from Nicole Young's Love is in the Air kit Hanging Stars
5. One ribbon: Misty Cato Birth to 18 months buckled ribbon
6. One sentence of journaling with a number in it.
7. Title your lei-out using an alpha....not a font. An alpha: Used Gelsticker


Summer Fun
I did this lei-out for another challenge at Scrapable.net. This challenge was called "Bling it on." For this challenge I had to use 1 flat ribbon (no more, no less), 1 or more bling elements (diamond, glitter, etc.), and two circle frames (nomore, no less).

Supplies used: Background Paper, beach ball, and life preserver are all from Life's a Beach March Collaborative Kit; flat ribbon I made; bling is from SpinkyDinkScraps and Simply Scraps "Dreaming of Spring" kit; circle frames I made; journaling strips are SNU_SS_EmbTemplates_JournalStrips_10, stitching is from WW_LIFE365_Stitching, date stamp is AWI_BrushSet_StampADate; and font used was DSP WillJenni. I used Atomic Cupcake action Sparkle or Glitter (can't remember which one I ended up keeping).

My Saturday

After working out with my Wii Fit this morning, Grandpa and I loaded the three beagles into the car for a trip to the vet. It is shots and heart worm testing time. When we go to the vet, people were waiting outside with their dogs. I've never seen this place so busy. I guess everybody else wanted to get it done with early. Molly was getting tired walking around outside so Grandpa went in to wait for them to call us and I walked the youngsters around outside. Not too long later Grandpa called us in and we followed him into a room. The technician looked at me kind of funny and asked which one was Molly. She then asked if sheets had been made out for the other two. Since they have been going there for 10+ years, I thought it was a strange question. Then I saw the name on the chart and we realized it was a different Molly they called in. We were ready to leave but she said with three dogs, we could just stay in there. She knew how much we would be contributing to their office expenses I think. So each dog got three shots and heart worm tests. In addition, there was a fecal ran, Molly's shoulder was examined and we had them x-ray it. On top of that, I picked up a one month supply of Molly's medicines--Rimadyl and Lysodern. The total bill was $350 (her medication was $90). I took my camera and got pictures of the car ride down to the vet, inside the vet's office, and a picture of the receipt. I plan on scrapping it tomorrow.

When we got home I saw Carrie had called. The girls wanted to tell me about reading/listening to Black Beauty, a book I bought them Thursday. This was a favorite of mine when I was a youngster. Cailey in a sort of choked-up voice told me it had a happy ending. Carrie then went on to tell me that both girls cried after listening to it. It makes me happy when stories I loved in the 1960s are still making a hit 40+ years later with my granddaughters.

Then we picked up Jaren so his Mom and Dad could go to a movie. We had him about 7 hours and had a wonderful time. We went over to see G.G. and her new kitten. Jaren loves animals.

Tonight I did this lei-out for the Treasure Hunt challenge over at Scrapable.net. It's along the same lines of the challenges I did during the ADSR 4 race. For this one, I had to use one striped paper, 2 plain papers, 4 pictures, 2 different frames, 2 different alphas (pool fun), 2 different fonts, no flowers or hearts, and at least 4 sentences of journaling. I chose this picture of the girls from 2004 when they were 2 1/2 years old playing in the pool in our front yard.

Catching up with Grandma

Grandpa is working 12-hour days this week so I basically come home, fix dinner, and send him off to work. Then I go wild--I bring out the Wii Fit and do some step aerobics and boxing (love the boxing work out). Tonight I went a little crazy and went to the mall to walk. It's hard to call Southridge a mall these days--it's more a ghost town where the punks go to hang out. Did three miles before heading home to watch American Idol. My favorites are still in it.

I've also been trying to organize all my digital scrapbooking supplies and downloading some new freebies. Tonight I did a layout for Linda's "X Marks the Spot" challenge over at Scrapable.net. This month the title is: Spread Some Sunshine and we had to make a unique lei-out using this title. I chose these pictures of Cailey from last June since she spreads the sunshine everywhere she goes.

Jaren you are loved

Here is my last layout of the night. Been working on this all night with custom shadows (while finishing a bottle of wine). Used a kit from Misty Cato, About a Boy, Birth to 18 months.

Bacation

Here's another layout I just finished. I used Misty Cato's "All About a Boy Age 3-5" for this page. The journaling reads, "Luke, for 4 months you are always wanting to go to the zoo. Last week, though, you kept insisting on going on bacation. When asked what you do on bacation you said you go see animals, so that is what wwe did. You and I spent the day together and went on bacation to the zoo. Even though you didn't look like you were enjoying yourself, you did.

What I'm Learning

I'm in Clear Lake at the Chick Nest at a digital scrapbooking retreat. Did get a little sleep last night. I've learned how to warp frames for more realistic shadows and curls and to do reflection photo. The food is great and I'm having a great time. These are a couple layouts I've done.

DigiChick Spring 2009 Challenge

Next weekend I'm going to the DigiChick Spring retreat in Clear Lake with my scrapping buddy Judy. This spring Linda and Kim are offering a CHALLENGE to all participants! Once Linda received our registration fee she sent us access to download Linda's kit "The Good Old Days."

The challenge is is to design a scrapbook page using at least 2 of the papers, at least 4 of the elements, at least 2 photos, and use the theme, "These are the Good Old Days."

Here is my layout:


The journaling reads in the upper portion of the circle: "That's right. When I was your age, television was called books."

The journaling on the sign in the upper portion of the LO reads "Dennis & Debbie about 1955."

The journaling on the postcard reads "1950 Here is a picture of Linda (4), Sandy (7), and Denny (2 1/2) taken in the front yard of our new home on S.W. Bell."

Supplies used from your kit "Good Old Daz" all four backgrounds--1, 3, 10, & 11; Embellishments--E_01_A, E_01_C, E_01_E, E_01_H.

In addition, I made brads using your cream-colored papers. The flower I made using PressPetal1_Daisy template by Brandy Hackman by adding a hue/saturation layer and coloring it cream.

My week

I've been busy playing Grandma this week. On Tuesday I received an Email from Jeremy asking if it was at all possible to take off and go help Sarah out with Jaren. He had been to the doctor the day before with RSV and was receiving breathing treatments with a nebulizer at home. He was running a fever and feeling terrible. I took Sarah some lunch and spent the afternoon and evening helping them out. Friday I took off again to watch Jaren and be available to take Sarah over to the hospital for her glucose test. Afterwards I picked her up and we had lunch with Jeremy and then the two of us went to Costco to pick up pictures, diapers, and wipes.

Then Carrie brought Cailey, Mia, and Luke over after school for me to watch while they went to see Legally Blonde. I had them spend the night so we had a good time and had a slumber party in the living room. I realized I'm too old to sleep on the floor. Luke no longer is demanding to go to the zoo--it is he wants to go on bacation (that is not a typo). This morning he put on his boots and was searching for his coat and kept telling me to come on because he really wanted to go on bacation. Luke built towers with Lego blocks; Mia drew pictures of and made a book about my dogs, Cailey and Luke played Wii, and Cailey put together a puzzle. We had a good time. Grandpa brought out some train tracks and some trains they all took turns driving it. I bought a new kit at one of the ADSR host sites called Pappa's Trains. I can't wait to scrap those pictures. Mia cut out her drawing of Molly, which spanned several pages and then stapled them together. It looked amazingly just like Molly.

Movie Review: Taking Chance starring Kevin Bacon

Last night Roger and I sat down and watched "Taking Chance," the most moving film I've probably ever seen. Kevin Bacon plays Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a career Marine who early in the Iraqi war is assigned a job as a numbers cruncher in Quantico. At night he peruses the casualty lists religiously. One night he sees the name of a young Marine from his Colorado hometown, Pfc. Chance Phelps, on the casualty list. Strobl has never met Phelps, nor does he know of him, but he requests permission to escort the body home. This movie is about the real-life trip from Dover, Delaware, where Phelps' body is prepared, to a small Wyoming town where he will be buried. It turns out that Phelps was not from his hometown after all.

The depth of appreciation, honor and respect that Strobl and Phelps receives on this trip home is very moving, and brings people together in honoring this fallen soldier. Strobl finds that everyone he encounters--the cargo handlers, pilots, ticket agents, airline stewardess, etc., understands and respects this solemn mission in providing the last full measure of honor and dignity to this young soldier who lost his life in that war.

I think the message that I came away with was that Americans do care and are decent people, no matter their view on the war and military.

Week in Review

Been a busy week and I've been slacking posting anything here. So I'll do a week in review.

Friday Roger brought me yellow roses and two teddy bears to work for an early Valentines gift. Then that afternoon we got hit with a snowstorm. Everybody left work but me. I volunteered to stay since I live the closest. Listening to the radio, though, I became a little leery of my treck home because there were accidents everywhere. I sticked around an extra hour. One of our state cars got hit in the parking lot and as I was cleaning my car off, an accident happened right on the corner by work. Saw lots of cars slid into each other on the way home. They were classifying it as black ice.

Saturday was Valentine's Day. Roger and I had Jaren during the afternoon while his parents went to a movie. Then we went to dinner at Johnny's
Steak House.

Sunday we stuck around the house mostly taking it easy.


Monday was Carrie's 33rd birthday--Happy Birthday! Jeremy and Carrie had seminars taking place downtown so I picked them up for lunch at Spaghetti Works. We made plans to get together that night with the rest of the family for dinner at Bravo. I took them back and went home. Sarah dropped off Jaren a little bit later and we took a nap together. We then picked up Jeremy and took him to his school so he could see how much damage had been done by the break-in over the weekend.

Tuesday I was in a Board (translation "bored") meeting all day. During a break I was browsing my newsreader and saw a man had been shot in both legs the night before, along with his dog less than 500 feet from my house. I felt really bad for the dog.

Wednesday I came home to find some man on my front porch. I debated whether to pull in the drive or keep going. Curiosity got the best of me so I pulled in. He approached my car and I saw his stocking cap sad DSM Swat. It was a detective canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone saw or heard anything important to help them prosecute the perps involved.

Thursday and Friday were just another day in paradise.

Today I had lunch with some fellow scrappers I met at Digital Scrapbook Place. There was Judy, Kathleen08, Nicole, and Roadmap4life, along with a couple cuteys.

Project 365 Week 6

Here are my week 6 pictures. Thursday I visited Water Works park on my lunch; Friday took a day of vacation to spend with Luke; my beagle Maddie; my front door; Gray's Lake on a winter day with hints of Spring; and Jaren sitting up all by himself.

What's one skill you've wanted but don't have?

[Today's blog prompt is from Digital Scrapbook Place and was posted by tammy1999, whose blog is called Bangles, Beads and Bows.]

I've always loved to sing. I was born in 1954 and grew up the youngest of four children (there was 6 1/2 years difference between my brother and me and 8 and 11 years between my sisters and me)and was always surrounded by music. I was always singing along with the old 45s and albums.

My family was always pointing out to me, ever since I was a youngster, that I "couldn't carry a tune with a bucket" but that never phased me. I continued to sing.

In junior high I had to select an elective--chorus, band (I never played an instrument in my life), art (I felt at that time I had absolutely no artistic talent), and probably Spanish. I chose chorus because that is what my friends selected and as I have said, I love singing. We had to sing solo parts for the choir director so he could place us. After I did my part, he suggested I should choose a different elective. When that didn't work, it was suggested I lip sync, which is what I did the remainder of that semester.

Years later I met and married my husband, who has a wonderful voice. When I would sing along with the radio, he occasionally would ask me if I ever listened to myself. Of course I listened to myself and I didn't see a problem. We had two children who I was always singing to. FINALLY, I found someone who didn't think they were a music critic. I was in 7th heaven. These two children grew up to have beautiful voices and as they got older would occasionally tease me about my singing. My son grew up and performed in plays, sometimes the lead roll such as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and Father/Noah in Children of Eden; went on to college and got a degree in music education and teaches K-8 vocal music; auditioned for American Idol; and, in 2004 was crowned Iowa Idol. He is married to a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice who has a degree in Music Performance who now gives private lessons in vocal music.

So I would say the one skill I've wanted (or thought I had) but don't have is the ability to sing. However, I have never let my inability or comments from the peanut galleries hurt me or stop me from pursuing my love of singing.

Day Trip to Pella and Ottumwa

Didn't realized it has been a week since I last posted. Came down with my first cold of this winter, about a week after I was commenting on how lucky I had been.

Friday I took a vacation day and had Luke spend the night with me on Thursday night. I didn't bother getting us tickets to Friday Fundays since that isn't his thing. I offered to take him to the zoo (again), even though we had been there six days before. I guess he finally got his fill of the zoo because he chose going to the mall to play instead. We had lunch at Taco Johns and when asked, said he wanted a taco. That was cute to watch him eat it, starting at the folded end. Come to find out it was his first taco. He ate it all.

Then last night we went to the Tropical Wine Fest at the Botanical Center which was sponsored by the Heart of Iowa Wine merchants. Sipped lots of great wine.

Today we did a day trip to a train store in Ottumwa. On our way there we saw this cool house for sale near Pella and I told Rog I wanted to stop on the way back to take a picture (top picture above). This house is on the National Register of Historic Places and has 7 bedrooms and is for sale for $379,000. Guess I won't be buying it. We also stopped at Tassel Ridge Winery and sampled some wine and made a few purchases to add to our wine cellar.

Then because we would be passing Pella I suggested we stop and get some Dutch Letters. There are two bakeries in Pella, a few doors apart, the Jaarsma and Vander Ploeg. However, at 3:00 p.m. both were sold out of Dutch Letters. We did buy some peanut butter and windmill cookies so all was not lost.


Here are my week 5 pictures of my Project 365 in case anybody is interested.

Week 4 of my 365 project

I slipped up this week and didn't take any pictures on Monday or Tuesday. But since I took over 100 pictures on Sunday at the twins' birthday party, and because two girls celebrated a birthday, I chose to post pictures taken on Sunday in the Monday and Tuesday slot. Doesn't Luke look so sweet? A few seconds before this picture was taken was when he quit snoring, opened his eyes, and informed the room he wanted to go to the zoo.

The Zoo

Luke LOVES THE ZOO! He always wants to go to the zoo. I'll take a day of vacation to spend with him at the Playhouse's Friday Fundays and he doesn't want to go...he wants to go to the zoo. So in December, on a 17 degree day, Luke and I headed to the zoo. We went through the inside exhibits and get outdoors. The emu/wallaby area is closed, the goats area is closed, the playground area is closed, Africa exhibits are closed, monkeys are not out, etc. You get the picture? On the day in December we were the only visitors on the 17 degree day. Did I mention it was cold? Luke is having a good time but keeps asking where all the people are. The good news is I could let him run to his hearts content and not lose him.

Okay, so you get the idea he likes the zoo? So last Saturday I am babysitting all four grandchildren while the parents go see Spring Awakening and Grandpa goes to Kansas City to go to a train show. I temporarily wondered what I had gotten myself in for but then reminded myself I used to run a day care with six children full time with a couple extra thrown in after school. Of course I was 30 years younger, but I gave myself a kick in the behind and said I could do it! Everything went great until about 4 p.m. Luke was getting tired but I was unable to get him to lay down because I had a sleeping Jaren in my arms. Luke decided he wanted to go outside. It was cold outside (see a pattern here?) and I told him it was too cold. He informed me he had a coat. I told him I had Jaren and couldnt' go outside with him. He told me he could go outside with his sisters. I informed him it wasn't going to happen. He then decided he wanted to go to the zoo. I tried telling him the zoo was closed (I wasn't lying) and he said it they weren't, it was still light outside. I told him I couldn't get 4 car seats in my car; he said to leave Jaren home. (That wasn't going to happen either). Luckily Jeremy, Sarah, and the her parents arrived to rescue me. The twins, Luke, and I were joining them for dinner at the Spaghetti Works. However, Luke didn't want to go...he wanted to go the zoo. All the way to the restaurant he kept insisting he didn't want to go out to eat, he wanted to go to the zoo. When we got to the restaurant he didn't want to get out of the car.

So today, while Grandpa was napping, I wanted to take advantage of the 48 degree temperature so called to see if Luke and his sisters wanted to go to the zoo, which they did. We had a great time. Today there were a few more people there, but still lots of the exhibits were closed. They didn't mind because they got to go to the gift shop and get a present before we left. Thank goodness for warmer temperatures and the Blank Park Zoo.