Some More Snow

We had a light dusting of snow this morning that pretty much has melted away. Still, it was fun to yell "Snow!" at Chloe this morning and open the blinds so she could see. The kitties wanted to go outside, but nothing doing. I suppose they would have run right back in, but you never know. I don't want to be chasing kitties in the cold.

I'm running a load of dishes in our new dishwasher. It was installed Friday night, and we've already used it a couple of times. I think Ray just ran a load that first night because he could. LOL! It's a lot nicer than our old dishwasher, nice options, nice configuration, and running it has been very quiet! We used to run our dishwasher sometimes just to drown out our Noisy Cursing Neighbor, but this one won't work for that! Luckily, N.C.N. has calmed down a bit lately, so maybe we won't need to invent another way to drown him out.

We also had an electrician come out on Friday. We have been having problems with one of our heaters not turning off. Turned out to be a problem with our thermostat, but the electrician also replaced the circuit breaker. Ray said he had a look like he had just prevented a house fire, so it was a good thing he did! I've been so afraid to run the heat constantly, that it's been pretty cold in here the last few weeks, and I caught a nasty cold.

Yes, I'm sick again. I'm feeling a lot better today than I was on Friday and Saturday. Still have a bit of a cough, but much better.

Yesterday, I was able to get my 365 Project pages scrapped, and also made a little mini notebook with one of my new tools, the Bind-it-All. It punches holes for binding, and then binds your project with O-wires. I used coasters, covered them with patterned paper, and used white papers for the inside pages. I tied little ribbons on the wires. It looks pretty nice!

I'm currently on the lookout for a new printer. My old faithful HP Photosmart 7350 died. I liked it because I could print photos in various size from 2" x 3" to 8" x 10, but also print out text for Chloe's school work on it. That's what I'm looking to replace, but the HP site recommends replacing it with an All-in-One printer that's pretty big, and has too many options for my needs. And I'm not sure if it will print the little 2" x 3" pics, either. Can't find many printers that specify that they will print that size.

Ah....Sunday...onto my and Ray's Birthday Week!

Inauguration Day

I had to work today, but I got there early so I could get some things out the door before watching the Inauguration on TV. Our firm had a TV set up in our cafeteria, and droves of people came to watch the ceremony. We filled up the cafeteria, standing room only. It was a great experience, watching with so many of my co-workers. There was much applause and the feeling was very hopeful.

Above is my picture of the day for today. Too bad that guy was sitting in front with the funny green hat! Oh well, that is life, and that is my life.

Foggy Monday

It's foggy out this morning on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I love this kind of weather; it's not too cold, and the misty fog is pretty.

A few of us in our condo complex got together and hired a vent cleaner to come out and clear out the laundry vents. He'll be coming out this morning, I don't know the exact time, though. I spent a little time in the laundry "closet" earlier, getting stuff out of the way so he can work on the inside vent.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours working on scrapbooking pages. Joining the 52-Week Challenge on Facebook, and doing the 365 Project has really inspired me to get some pages done. It's also been pretty cool to see other people's takes on these challenges. In fact, there's a new sketch up in the 52-Week Challenge that I'm planning on checking out today.

The new Stampin' Up! catalog starts today, also. Some of you may know that I'm a hobby demo for SU! I didn't order any catalogs this go-around, so am waiting for my comp catalog, as well as it being posted on the SU! site today so I can take a look at the new stamps. Much like the stickers I talked about earlier, stamps and papers and pens just make me happy.

MONSTER JAM

Ray took Chloe, me, and his friend Randy to the MONSTER JAM at the Tacoma Dome last night. Chloe and I had never been to one, but I'd seen some of the monster truck rallies on TV once.

It was a nice time. They had several monster trucks competing against each other. My favorite was the Jurassic Attack one, which was actually driven by a woman. She did a great job, until the axle fell out and she couldn't complete the freestyle.

The fan favorite was the Gravedigger, which, of course, won. There was much selling of Gravedigger merchandise, including this little hat that we saw many kids (and adults!) wearing. Below is a pic of a little boy that was sitting in front of us, wearing his Gravedigger hat:


One sad thing that we found out today was that a 6-year old boy was killed during the show when debris flew up into the stands and hit him, and another person was injured. We didn't know that there was something that serious going on, we saw some activity across the stands, and thought it was a fight getting out of hand. Didn't realize. My heart goes out to the family.

Valentine Stickers

I love stickers...or I should say, as a kid, I loved stickers. I loved getting a fresh new pack with new designs. I loved the feeling that I had 3 sheets left when I used up all of the ones on one page. I loved sticking them on things and feeling like I was decorating the world. Making things prettier. LOL

I saw this pack of valentine stickers at Hallmark the other day and all of those wonderful feelings came rushing back, and I had to take a picture of them. So many beautiful stickers!

School Concert

Chloe had her band concert last night. She's in the 8th grade band, and plays the trombone. She's really good at it, and we enjoy listening to her play. I only get to listen to her play at the concerts now, as she does her practicing when she comes home from school, when she's at my parent's house. I miss hearing her practice like I did when I was on my sabbatical.

At the concert, the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade bands played, and the orchestra played from the 6th grade. I noticed an improvement in the orchestra, even for a 6th grade group. The bands played a lot of seasonal and wintery songs, which I liked. All in all, it was a nice time, and I really enjoyed watching Chloe play. There's just something about that pride you feel when you watch your child doing something well that they worked hard at mastering.

In the pic, she's on the far left, one of the only two trombones in the 8th grade.

Ahh...Sunday

I never liked Sundays...they're the day before Monday! However, today has been a nice day. I spent a lot of the weekend scrapbooking, and got 4 layouts done. I was able to find some pictures for the 52-week challenge sketch on Facebook, and uploaded that page to the Classy Coordinates Gallery (today is the deadline - cutting it close!) I think that the weekly challenge will help me get a lot more pages done and adds some extra motivation. I forgot how fun it was to see everyone's pages, to comment on them, and to read the comments on mine!

I also managed to get some organizing, laundry, and grocery shopping/menu planning done (the last two with Ray's help). Ray also went and picked up a new dishwasher yesterday.

Our dishwasher is very old, and has lately been making some scary noises. I haven't been able to find out the cause of the noises, and Ray figured it was probably about time to replace the beast. We should be having the new one installed as soon as Ray can set a date and time with Sears.

I made some Cinnamon Streusel muffins this morning (from a mix), but they were pretty good. Nice change of pace for breakfast. I had enough to put away some in the freezer, and some to take some to work for breakfast. Below is my picture of the day for my 365 project.

Saturday!

Finally, it's Saturday. It was a long week at work, with lots to do, making me tired when I got home.

On the bright side, I've been able to take a picture (or a few) each day this past week for my own 365 Project. I finished scrapping the pictures from the week this morning.

I've also signed up for a 52-week challenge on Facebook to do the challenge layout from their sketch each week. So far, I have not been inspired by the sketch this week, which has one regular size picture, and 3 2"x2" pictures. I usually have more pictures than that for a layout, so I'm trying to figure out how to use it.

Also on Facebook, I've managed to connect with a lot of people that I knew. It's been pretty cool. One of the girls (Jen) I just added to my friend list was a girl that I used to babysit when I was 12 or 13. She and her brother (also a friend on FB) were my favorite kids to babysit - they were so sweet! She told me that I was *their* favorite babysitter, too, and remembered that I used to bring them Star Wars pictures to color, and that I used to let them stay up really really late! Ha ha!! I remember that...we had such fun!

Happy New Year and a Happy Birthday!

The pic above is of BL napping. She always curls herself into cute little balls, or holds onto her tail. She also snores. She's a very pretty kitty, and keeps us amused constantly.

I rang in the New Year with Ray and Chloe, we played Wii games and ate snacks all night. I didn't make any resolutions this year, I just want to work on the same things I always do. However, two of the things I'd like to do more of is stamping and scrapbooking.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I read about a kit designed by Becky Higgins (from Creating Keepsakes magazine) called "Project 365". She had a kit on sale (now sold out) that made it easy to document your whole year by taking one picture a day, and putting them and the journaling into a binder each week. I thought that would be a good idea to try something like that. Chloe and I went to the local scrapbook store (LSS) and picked up a 12x12 ring binder. I usually use post-bound albums, but this one holds a lot more pages.

I decided to do the weeks from Saturday to Friday, so I would have a chance to actually scrap on the weekends. I have more time on the weekends to do any projects, so I thought this would work best. I'm giving myself the flexibility to not have to take a picture every day, as long as I have 7 pictures a week for the upcoming weeks. I already have a few pictures for this first week, and am planning on doing some layouts this weekend.

Also want to say Happy Birthday to my Mom!! I hope you have a wonderful day! *hugs*