So apparently my gallery is broken. Awhile back my webhost “upgraded” the server I’m on. Thankfully all the other sites that I resell to were already on the new servers/platform so they don’t have any issues. But my site has been around for ages now and needed server updates I guess. Poop for me cuz some of my stuff broke. Supposedly all this stuff is supposed to be tested in the QA department, but you know how that goes. Just what I wanted… to spend a day fixing things other people broke. Anyway, it’s on my list for tomorrow. Until then I won’t be posting any layouts. Not like it matters, I haven’t had a chance to scan any of the new ones. Hee Hee

I discovered Facebook this week. I’ve had a profile there for a long time after someone requested my friendship, but never spent much time there. This weekend someone requested again and started leaving comments and long story short, I’ve found a new entertaining waste of time. Seriously, the place is like a black hole. You fall in and all time escapes you. Turns out there are all sorts of scrapbookers on there. Go check it out and friend me.

Shelby has a dentist appointment at 8:45am tomorrow. It’s a little after midnight now so I should be sleeping. As a matter of fact Denny is next to me now snoring. Surprise, surprise. Usually I wouldn’t book anything that early that involves kids, but when Denny got laid off they let us know our insurance would end June 30th. So it has been a mad dash to use it while we have it. We have a personal insurance plan set up to kick in, but personal coverage isn’t as good as the worst group coverage. Seems all of them are high on the out of pocket, have nasty prescription coverage and the premiums are still high. Oh well, what can you do?

Off to snoozeville I go. By the sounds of it in here… it might be a night to sleep on the couch. Maybe I should invest in ear plugs.

~j

I pick up tshirts for Denny all the time with funny sayings on them. He wears them to work and everyone, including me, seems to get a good laugh out of it. One of the guys at Wheel to Wheel even got him one once. So the other day when I went to Kohls on the hunt for Father’s Day gifts I saw one that fit me perfectly.

“You can agree with me or you can be wrong.”

LOL, that might be a conversation I have with Denny at least once a week. It’s a running joke around here. It seems that every timeeverytime I tell him he ought to do something one way he never seems to listen, then it backfires on him. Which always leads back to the same quote out of me, “You should have listened to me. Sure I could have been wrong, but not usually.”

I got an email from my mom last night saying how disappointed she was that I mention all my other travels but I didn’t mention the “quality” time she and I spent a week or two ago at a cemetery in Detroit. Yes I said quality time in a cemetery. My mom is big into genealogy and her scrapping rule in life is that she “only scraps dead people.” She is super talented, although she doesn’t seem to think so. Everyone else does, but there is no persuading her otherwise. Anyway, this particular cemetery visit was like the highlight of her entire year so far. I was happy to go along to protect her, lol, and scrape off years of mossy stuff and bird poop off headstones so she could take pictures. Aren’t I a devoted daughter? When was the last time you scraped bird poop off something for your mommy? It was a very beautiful cemetery though! Here are some photos to share…

Elmwood Cemetery

Happy Monday!
~j

Well I did pretty good as far as scrapping goes during my trip. I finished 13. It is all about quality and not quantity after all right? I can scan and stitch them here, but I’ll do it when I get home so I can share some.

I will have to do a quick fix to one of them when I get back. I scratched one of my photos. I uploaded ONE photo to Rite Aid yesterday at 12:30PM and according to the store it didn’t reach them until a little after 9PM. At that point I told them not to bother printing it. That is a crazy amount of time to wait for just one photo if you ask me. If I wanted to wait that long I wouldn’t have used the advertised 1 hour service when I could have just done it at home. Which is what I’m probably going to do today. There is a Rite Aid across the street from me so even though I’m paying more for the print, it’s silly to go out of my way for a cheaper price.

Class kits are going out next week, so if you haven’t ordered yours yet now is the time to do it. I’ll take orders up to probably next Tuesday.

Enjoy your Father’s day. I miss my husband something fierce so Happy Father’s Day to you Denny.

~j

Well I’m writing this from Scrap Palace. The girls and I are on our annual retreat, (Thursday-Sunday). We all take turns preparing meals and snacks, etc. It’s a lot of fun and I haven’t been able to spend that much time with Jeannie and Michelle in awhile so we are playing catchup. I’ve got four layouts done so far I think, which is pretty good progress!

Sadly I haven’t done much scrapping lately and with that comes missing supplies. It seems that a little someone has been helping themselves to my tools. My once stuffed travel tote is practically barren. I’m down to one pair of scissors, one of my liquid adhesives in MIA, as is my paper piercer. After lunch I think we are heading out to a lss nearby so I might have to pick up a few things. *wink*

Just a short post today… valuable scrapping time ya know!

~j

I got an email last week from one of my suppliers that Zutter, (makers of the bind it all), were increasing their prices by 10% to cover the rising costs of freight, etc. Thats a significant jump all at one time. Sadly, I’m sure it won’t be the last company to up their prices due to all the increase in costs. (I’ve heard, but not been able to confirm, that Marvy also will be increasing their prices for the same reason.) Scrapbooking can already add up to an expensive hobby! I remember paying flat 50 cents for cardstock and 25 cents for printed paper… period! I did a layout awhile back that I figure cost around $15.00 to create. It was one page, adding up just the jewels I used on it alone was $12.00, add it the other miscellaneous items, consumables, and photo developing and I’m probably over $15.00 honestly. I don’t think I uploaded it here to the gallery as it was published, so I’ll try to do that later. (The publishing alone was probably worth the cost involved, lol.) Anyway, my design style is very simple, so such a high cost on a layout is saying a lot. I’m stopping at three scrap stores today so I’m going to keep an eye on prices and I’ll let you know.

The end of school is super close now, and I’ve decided for teacher gifts that I’m going to bundle cards and give them. It’s a good generic gift that I figure will be of use. I mean who can’t use a card stash in the house? The gift is also a stress reliever for me as I have a load of cards that I can package up nicely. I don’t have the time for last minute projects and Ethan has two teachers. Last year I did a custom clock for his teacher, but I had planned for it and she was a scrapbooker. I’m sure you all know how that is.

In honor of school wrap up, here is a bit of inspiration for you.

Ethan’s last day of Kindergarten. I took in my cap for the photo. The other moms borrowed it for similar photos of their kiddos. Too funny!

My annual retreat is next week and there are still spots. If you are interested drop me an email or leave a comment and I’ll get with you on the cost and details.

Also, if you are wondering about card kits, which usually ship at the end of the month, they are not going out this month. I had decided to take the month off due to school, my vacation, and retreat. They will resume in June.

Happy Tuesday!
~j

Last week Wheel to Wheel officially announced that they are closing. It has been obvious for awhile, but they didn’t make it officially until last Thursday. Anyway, Denny was laid off today. It was expected, but sad just the same. Mostly because he’s been there for a long time and it was a fantastic shop, full of talent. I don’t know how things went down hill the way they did or who is responsible, and I guess at this point it probably doesn’t matter.

Today was the end of the year celebration at Ethan’s school. All the kids sing and then they honor the graduating 5th graders. It’s cute. And for some weird reason, and it happens every single year, I have a hard time keeping myself from crying. I’m not an emotional person, and it’s not like Ethan is moving on, so I don’t know what my problem is. Like I said, I’m not the emotional type, so it’s pretty out of character for me. I find the whole thing disturbing, lol.

Denny is gone at meetings right now, and I should be cleaning while he is gone. I left here in such a hurry this morning that I didn’t have time to clean up after anyone. Being I didn’t expect Denny home until later in the day I thought I’d have time to get it all presentable before he got home. No such luck… he pulled up in the driveway the same time I did. The kids were excited… and while Shelby yelled, “Yeah Daddy!” I said to myself, “Ooohh not a good sign. He isn’t supposed to be home till 3ish.” And now we know why.

Ok seriously, lots to do… Enjoy your Monday.

????????

~j

This time of year is so busy for everyone, between the end of school and all the other activities that wrap up at the same time, it is enough to make you crazy. Balance that with a regular workload and I don’t know how some people do it. I’m lucky that I work on my own schedule, thus if something needs to get done, I can do it at 2am if I need to. Those that have to fit everything into daylight hours have it a lot worse I think. There just isn’t enough time in the day.

So for some, you know who you are, the end of school kicks them into high gear/warp speed, running around in a frenzy. I’m doing the opposite this year. I’m focused on the last week activities yes, but not overly so. The party is on my mind, but I planned it well enough that everything that can be done, is really already done. The only thing left to be concerned about is the weather, and that, I’m pretty sure is beyond my control. My last check of the 10 day forecast says 81 with only a 10% chance on rain.

The other thing that is getting a lot closer is my annual scrap retreat. This year we are going to Scrap Palace for a few days (Thurs.-Sun.). I’m happy to be so stinkin close to departure. It seems like all I say anymore is, “I miss scrapbooking.” It’s been awhile since I’ve had the time, energy, or concentration to do something for myself. Last night i ordered prints, which I haven’t done in a long time. I used the coupon code for Snapfish that I had posted the other day and got free shipping. Hopefully they turn out ok. I haven’t used Snapfish since I used to mail in rolls of film. I do think shipping was a little high, and had I not had a coupon for free shipping, the price would have stopped me from ordering. That and they charge MI Sales Tax. I think the shipping total refund was a little over 12.00! Is it me or is that a lot? I did have 219 photos, but still, that seems high. I don’t have any idea how quick they ship either. I’d like to have time to sort and pick paper and stuff to match the photos before I go. We’ll see.

Anyway, so my message for today… while everything is getting closer to happening, ending, being due, whatever… I’m not stressing about it. I’ve got plenty of other things I could be stressing about, and I’m sure you do too.

~j

A short post for today as I’m busy trying to get some things accomplished while I’m grounded to the house. My Buick is acting up again and frankly I’m afraid to leave for fear its going to leave me somewhere stranded. Sadly my ‘85 Fiero is more reliable than my stupid ‘06 Buick. Sad isn’t it!

I thought I’d share some photos today from our recent trip. Enjoy!

Shelby loves the camera… can you tell?

Ethan the water slide fan!

This is a rare shot of Dylan. The kid despises the camera.

Have a great Wednesday!
~j

All good things must come to an end I’m told. The same holds true for vacations as we are all back to the old grind today. My trip and time “off” was uneventful and it was nice to get away from things for a bit. I did take the laptop with me and responded to some emails and stuff while I was away, but I didn’t do any real work… no website stuff, no nothing! It was refreshing.

We came home late in the afternoon on Friday and from that point forward spent the rest of the holiday weekend working on the outside of the house. With the inside all done the way we want we have started to really focus on the outside. Denny wants to get as much done as he can before our annual end of the year bash. Thats on the 7th of June, so the clock is ticking. Other than outside clean up and a few tiny things, the party is really all taken care of. The magician, cotton candy machine, and inflatable unit are all booked. I reserved the McDonalds “Orange Bowl” yesterday while I was out and ordered the cases of silly string this morning. Really all that is left is stuffing the pinata and then buying the food, and that gets done at the last minute. Ethan took his invitations to school today so the rsvps’s should start rolling in this week I hope. (In years past it has become obvious that the art of the rsvp has gone by the wayside so I’m crossing my fingers.)

I’m going to start working on my article for the next issue of Michigan Scrapbooker over the course of this week I think. I need to sort through some photos to see what I want to work with. I promised Dilly I’d use some with him in them for the next publication so I’ll be digging to see what I can find that works with my theme.

Besides all that I’m wrapping up the preparations for my annual scrap retreat. We leave on June 12th for Scrap Palace of Romeo. All the planning for that pretty much got wrapped up today with my last email going out with the food information. Feels good to have that done and I can now focus on what I’m bringing. That task alone could take weeks, lol. I need to get some photos printed to work with. I have already done some online supply shopping and I’d like to make a stop at Paper Tales before we leave also. We’ll see what I can fit in. For those of you that need to order prints… coupon code PRTFREE08 at snapfish.com for free shipping on your prints. Offer ends May 29th.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend!!

~j