All Boy

Here is another page I scrapped from my day with grandson #1. This picture was taken while he was sitting on the "Mountain" at the playland with the Merry-Go-Round lights in the background.

Luke and Grandma

Yesterday Luke and I spent a "Just Grandma and me" day--Clubhouse at the Playhouse, Merry-Go-Round at Southridge, playing in the playground at the mall, lunch at Taco Johns, shopping at Target for Hot Wheel cars, and looking at the scrapbooks I've created.

I took my camera to the mall and played around with shooting in RAW format and then I fine-tuned them with Photoshop Elements 6.0. (I would love to play with Adobe Photoshop to see what I am missing sometime.) The above layout was created with the following supplies: Amy Martin template from the Prima Hybrid's Blog Party; page curls from C. Haskell's Ciao Bella kit (a bonus kit with my January Bella Scraps Magazine);
ScrapGirls ScrapSimple Embellishment Templates: Torn Edges, and ScrapSimple Paper Templates Child Described (BoyDescribed).

Just Grandma and Luke

Took a day of vacaton today to spend with Luke. We went to the Friday Fundays at the Playhouse and then to Southridge Mall to ride the Merry-go-Round, play and eat lunch. Then home for a nice nap.

Valentines Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. My dear sweet husband bought me some beautiful red roses. He's such a sweetie and a keeper. I made him a couple Valentine gifts and fixed him a sirloin steak dinner. We then went over and picked up Luke to spend the night with me.

Lukey photographs Grandpa

Enjoyed another Saturday where Roger didn't have to work! He's been pursuing his new hobby of collecting N-gauge trains and track stuff, a lot of it on eBay. I have been scrapping and driving him to his dealers (trains that is) to look at and purchase stuff. I did get to water aerobics this morning. Other than that, we have spent the day in our "home" office, back to back, pursuing our interests, all while drinking a fantastic bottle of wine we bought in the fall of 2006 during our vacation in California. The wine is Cellar Cats Red, an Alexander Valley Zinfandel.

Our fantastic grandson Luke (a.k.a. Lukey) loves to take pictures, and I let him use my Nikon D40X to take pictures whenever he likes. He sometimes cuts off the head, but I feel he is doing great--especially since he is only two years old.

I'm dreaming of ... summer flowers

This week we were hit with 10 inches of snow (or more) and I've been dreaming of summer flowers. Above is a layout I've been working on. I created the background paper using Cottage Arts Natural 7 Paper Pak after seeing a tutorial over at there on creating textured photo blends and custom papers with the Naturals paper series.

Because of my Raynauds, I decided to see if I could find some shoes to keep my feet warm. Some suggestions were for wool clogs and so I ordered some and they arrived yesterday. Boy are they warm and comfortable. I bought a pair of Haflinger German clogs that are 100% boiled wool.



I bought mine at footsmart.com.

Star Power

This is what I have been working on tonight. I love this picture of Cailey with her sunglasses. This was taken last Spring on a Friday I took off work to visit preschool with the girls, then take them to lunch at McDonalds before heading to the Playhouse for Friday Fundays.

I used Jen Reed's 'Majestic You' kit I got over at Scrapwow.com

the Graduate

Been spending a quiet Sunday scrapping today. I have gone through some old photos and scanned them in. This was the day Carrie graduated from Truman State University with her degree in education. It was the summer of 1999. It was a very proud day for Roger and me.

Molly B. Goode

Got up this morning and decided to scrap some pictures of Molly I ran across from 1999. Molly was four when these pictures were taken; she is now 12 1/2. She's starting to show her age these days with limping and taking longer to get up from laying down. She was our first Beagle and she taught us a lot about how to secure a yard to keep her from escaping. As a pup, she also loved to chew up my shoes. I don't know how many pairs of tennis shoes she chewed up. Our daughter Carrie was already away at college when we added her to the house and when Carrie was home from school for a break, it never failed I would get a call from her, "I hate this dog." Molly was forever bolting out the door and taking off and boy could she run. We later would put in an underground fence which really did work (for her anyway).

Scrapping this page brought back some fond memories I have of Molly. Although I really love my other two dogs, when Molly was our only dog, I took her everywhere with me and could get her to obey commands to stay or drop so I could photograph her. She made many trips to Kirksville, Missouri with me to visit Carrie or pick her up. She was a real good traveler. She would go to sleep as soon as the speedometer would hit 45; as soon as I had to slow down to go through a town, she would wake up and look out at her surroundings. Then when the car would pick up speed again after leaving a town, back to sleep she went.

{Supplies used include Sunset Papers and Sunset Elements from the Daydream Collection by Meredith Fenwick over at Prima Hybrid; Fonts were Amazone BT and arial; program used was Photoshop Elements 6.0.}

Future Cheerleaders

My granddaughters, Cailey and Mia, are registered in a cheerleading class at the local YMCA. The photo above is from a series of pictures the Des Moines Register posted on their Website.

Confessions of a Pioneer woman

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is one of my favorite Weblogs. She's funny, an awesome photographer, and has some great recipes on her site. She's nominated for a 2008 Bloggie this year---if you have a minute, check out her site. Then go vote for The Pioneer Woman for Best Writing of a Weblog and Best Food Weblog! She deserves it.

A Lazy Sunday

So here it is, 3:38 PM and I am still in my PJs. After a day where I was on the run the whole day, Roger and I have been pursuing our hobbies today and I have found no reason to get dressed. Roger has been checking out train car auctions on eBay and bought a set and has now headed off for a nap. I have been busy scrapbooking pictures I took yesterday at the granddaughters 6th birthday. I've finished three pages and now am heading to the sofa to either watch the boxing match I recorded last night or read. Here are the pages from their birthday I created using Sugar Alpha & Goodies by retrodiva {designs}™ and Torn 2Pager QuickClick Template Created by Jamie Heyl available at Digital Scrapbook Place:

Bella Scraps Magazine

I've just learned of a new online scrapping magazine, Bella Scraps. The first issue was released on the 15th. Every issue comes with a Featured Designer exclusive kit! This issue's designer is Christine Haskell and she has made a wonderful kit--Cia Bella!
As a bonus for purchasing my subscription before the release date, I received a special prize package, includng a collaboration add-on to Cia Bella kit by Miriam Lima and Holley VanDenBerg and PDQ template by Kim Hill of CGEssentials. Using the Cia Bella and PDQ template, I created the following layout last night from Grandma and Grandpa's visit to the Botanical Center with the grandchildren:

A few of my favorite things...

Had dinner last night with my family--Roger, Carrie and David, Jeremy and Sarah, and my three beautiful grandchildren. Carrie, the girls, and I made Puppy Chow, Caramel corn, and Reindeer treats. Had a great night.

You've got to check out Straight No Chaser's 12 Days of Christmas:

What is Grandma doing today?

Today is Saturday, a day I should be out shopping till I drop. Last night I was driving the "sled" (a/k/a Marquis) and my PT was in the garage. This morning I woke to a light snow and it has continued to fall all day. Because of my recent driving record, Roger did not want me to take the sled out today but I had shopping to do at Hobby Lobby, Best Buy, Hy-Vee, and either SouthRidge or Jordan Creek Mall, plus I planned on going to Aspen to work out. When I went out to start the sled to jockey cars around I found out it wouldn't start, and so I couldn't get the PT out of the garage. So here I am sitting at home with no book to read and nothing worth watching on TV.

The good news is that Sandy came home from the hospital yesterday and my Mom today. Yea!!! My Christmas wish is that they both are able to stay out of the hospital until the end of t his year at least.

I am scrapping some pages of pictures I took last Sunday when the grandchildren were over to help decorate the tree. Here is what I just got finished working on. I'll post some more later.

Winter Ice Storm

We were hit by a winter storm today and I decided not to venture out and took a day of vacation. We were first hit by ice and then some snow. We didn't get as much snow as expected, and we lucked out on the ice too. Fifteen miles south of here they had ice one inch thick. Because of my experience last Thursday night on the ice and hitting one car and getting hit by three others, I think I made a wise decision. It gave me plenty of time to reestablish my computer (after the fourth crash in six months) and take some pictures.

Decorating the Tree

The grandchildren came over on Sunday to help me decorate the Christmas tree. Luke, who is two, wanted to place all ornaments on the same branch.

Cailey and Mia went outside afterwards to play in the snow and make snow angels. Luke wanted to go outside too, but he didn't have snow pants so we only let him go outside for a little while.

Thoams the Train

Today we went to Boone with the grandchildren to spend a day with Thomas the Train. There were all kinds of fun things to do and buy. We rode a train that was pushed/pulled by Thomas, rode a trolley car, and did some shopping and playing with trains. We took a few pictures (roughly 500) and here is one of Luke and me when he first spots Thomas.

Vacation Day 2--Epcot Center

We arrived here in sunny Florida late Tuesday night and visited Animal Kingdom yesterday. We also spent some time in our pool. Today we spent the entire day at Epcot Center and had a good time. Cailey's shoe broke and Carrie went and bought both girls some red Disney crocks. Mia and Luke bought stuffed Nemos and Cailey got a couple buttons for her shoes. Here are a few pitures Ive taken.

Countdown to Disney World

In less about 43 hours we should be in the air headed to Disney World. Not sure if I'll have a chance or not but I plan on trying to post to this blog during our vacation with a few pictures. Check in next week to see what we have been up to.