Winding down

Things are calming down~emotionally. My step-grandmother died on the 21st of December and her services were yesterday. What a horrible time of year to lose someone, but then again, as they said at the funeral, it is a great time to celebrate a life. Her services were wonderful...honestly. I have been to so many funerals that seemed rehearsed and so general that they could be for anybody. This was at her church, where she had worked with the Kindergartners for 15 years. Therefore, they knew and loved her and it was obvious. She had also taught Kindergarten at LR for 30 years, so the fact that she loved children permeated the service. She will be missed.

Things are calming down~activity-wise. I have been able to sleep in and rest all day for several days now. Which I need to do since I am sick again. I have this cough that won't go away combined with congestion and sinus stuff. Tobin received an electric griddle for Christmas, so I have been treated to awesome breakfasts in bed for a couple days! NICE! I go back to the doctor on the 3rd, so maybe they can help. I definitely don't want the flu shot! No Way! We are hoping that we get to hear the heartbeat.

I called the tech. support line for my new camera and they walked me through an initialization process that I had never done. It is supposed to help with the image stabilization and blurry shots. We'll see. Here is one from Christmas at the Elliott's. Hunter received a new bow from his dad:
Well, we are going to Arkansas to rent a deluxe cabin for New Year's Eve. We're going with the Fespermans, but they'll have their own cabin. They are way more than I wanted to spend, but I guess we'll splurge. Tomorrow we will hike the Goat's Trail. This is what it looked like on 12-27-05. You can see the HUGE hill that you have to walk up to get out. That will get me for sure; I'll be the last one up! The drop-offs and cliffs are ridiculous, but the views are gorgeous!

Time to relax?

I wish. It seems that the Christmas Break is always filled with "stuff" to do! I really have this desire to run out and search for bargains and get some presents for next year at some killer price, but can't get motivated to spend any more money! How's that for a catch 22?

I do have some pics to post from our different family gift exchanges, but not too many. I finally called the Sony helpline this morning since I was to the point of hating my CyberShot camera so much I was going to return it today. The guy walked me thru an initialization process that seemed to help, for now anyway. About 80% of my shots were blurry and I was VERY ticked out it! The pics themselves shouldn't mean so much, but they do.

Tobin and I went to one holiday party and spent the majority of the time playing old school arcade games rather than visiting. We really didn't know anyone there other than the couple that invited us, which happens to be one of Tobin's best friends. We still had a great time and full turkey meal with all the fixins! They had 5 stand up arcade games with Galaga, Frogger, Dig Dug, PacMan and Mrs. Pacman.....on and on. No quarters needed!
We also played this white elephant game and ended up with a ridiculous gift and a really cool one! Everyone was supposed to wrap and bring something from around the house..no money spent...something you didn't want anymore. Luckily the first item I picked was taken by someone after me that wanted it WAY more than I did. I ended up choosing again and got a brand new real marble cutting board that matches our tile in our kitchen! Hope everyone is enjoying their time off!

Time with Family

I should be cleaning my house, but I will get to that soon. I have enjoyed being with Mel and family. The boys and I have gotten some quality time while Mel ran errands. Here are just a few pics of the boys playing in the BIG ball pit that grandma got them. The crawl through this long blue tube to get inside of the big tent-like structure! She filled it with two bags of colored balls, but there are three doors that the balls can come flying out from! Plus, a BIG hole in the top! HOURS of fun!



The schedule gets fairly busy from here on out. Today at 3:00, my dad's side of the family comes over for our gift exchange and some yummies. After that, I imagine it's back out to mom's. Tomorrow evening will be spent at mom's. We are doing the gift exchange for adults then and kids on Christmas morning. Christmas day has two BIG meals, one at noon and the next at 5:00. That second meal and another gift exchange is Tobin's family. SO MUCH FUN to be had! Tobin and I stayed at home and exchanged our gifts last night. He received an Xbox 360 game he had wanted (Call Duty 4) and I got a silver Ipod Nano. I really like the Touch Ipod's, but can't justify spending that much more. So, he did a great job of picking it out! We needed enough GB space for his music and my music for when we go hiking, floating, camping.....it may be a little while before we can do all of that again, but not too long! So, it was a small, but very nice Christmas between us. We had already discussed getting only one gift for one another and saving our money for baby stuff. We did go out to dinner, which was the most horrible meal EVER. I DO NOT recommend the P'Zone at Pizza Hut by any stretch of the imagination. ICK! NASTY!
And may I say that the evenings are not a good time for me to eat something that I don't like! Ewwwww.

They're almost here!

Well, still 6 hours away, but maybe by the time I finish wrapping all of my presents, it will be time to join the "welcome wagon" as they pull in into mom and Dave's driveway. I know it will be bedtime for the boys, but they always have acclimate to being at grandma's again. This time they have new bunk beds! I just hope they don't fall asleep right before they get here! Koen likes to reacquaint himself with all of the toys that stay at grandma's. I'm sure I will get in trouble for riling them up right before bed. I plan to anyway!

Science Club Trip!

I didn't really feel up to it, but that was the scheduled date, so I suffered right along! I knew they would have a blast! I met the kids at the Discovery Center where I had a game plan to allow them time in the museum, plus each kid got to ride the high wire bike. Hardly any of the kids simply rode the bike across the high wire. NOOOOooo, they had to rock it back and forth and try to get horizontal in order to touch the net wires. lol Near the end of our time there, they all went down into the Immersion Cinema and participated in this really cool computerized activity. They competed against one another in a food web, but this was all on a BIG screen close to the the size of an IMAX screen. Each kid got their own laptop to use throughout the game so they could attain their goal and move on to the next level on the predator/prey activity. I think it was a very worthwhile activity for only $8 a person!
Pregnancy is moving right along. The morning sickness is still in the evening and still alive and kicking. I am starting to show some, but I can't decide if that is just weight gain or what. I know the little baby is the size of a medium olive now! Why is my tummy so much bigger? lol!

With our snow predictions in mind, I talked Tobin into going Christmas shopping with me last night. We started out at the very packed ToysRUs in the mad search for a soft, plush Buzz Lightyear. No luck. Finally found one at Kmart, plus some fun Toy Story coloring books that use markers that only work on those particular pages. I also had some Christmas returns to do and got that out of the way. I tired after 3 places, so we went home and I went directly to bed!

Since the snow never transpired, I have more shopping to do today and then, on to wrapping.
You know, I wither wanted a snow so deep that you had to stay home, or none at all. If we weren't going to be out of school, then no snow is fine with me.

SCARY, but so far, so good!

Well, I have quite the story from my appointment yesterday. I'm going for the short version for Blogger. Tobin was not able to attend due to the rescheduling. I got out of school at 3:15 and my appt ws at 4:00. My car was 80% iced over and I barely got the driver-side door open. I had to wait about 20 mintues for the ice on the windshield to melt enough to scrape. The roads were slick too.

My mom showed up and I am so thankful that I didn't have to go through it alone! Once the doctor came in, he congratulated me and we got ready for a series of quick tests he ran on me. Routine stuff. Then, he wheeled in a portable ultrasound machine which surprised me since yesterday was just week 9. From there, it got weird....

He was very quiet for about 3 minutes and ignored any comments or questions I was spouting out. So, I just laid there.....finally he said, "I can't find your baby." I asked him if it was possible that I wasn't pregnant and he said no. It was close to 5:00 by this time and the regular ultrasound tech had already left for the day. The doctor left the room and my mind went crazy.

He came back and said to get dressed because he was going to try to figure out how to use the big ultrasound machine. He forewarned my mom and I by saying that he was not an ultrasoundographer (new word for me), but he knew that if he asked me to wait until Friday to come back in, my mind would think the worst and that wouldn't be good for my health! So, mom and I were taken to that room and then had to wait for him to finish his other new OB patients. So, there I am, lying on the table, waiting and wondering. I asked mom if it could be dead and she just sat there. Seemed like a long time, but maybe only 30 seconds. She finally said that she didn't think I would still be throwing up and be so affected by the pregnancy hormones if that were the case. That made sense....

Then, his nurse came in and said that she was going to stay and watch him try to use this machine because he had never done it and this was going to be good. Was that supposed to be reassuring that she was in on the entertainment value of the deal....?????? But, she did make me laugh, so I wasn't too bent out of shape. Then, I started wondering why he would take on such a task that he'd never done before...this must be scary.....

It didn't take him long and he got a picture of our little blob....and by that I mean no discernible human features due to the gestational time frame of 9 weeks. He had to point it out to us. What WAS reassuring was that every so often, he would show my mom and I the heartbeat. SIGH OF RELIEF!!!! It was hard to focus on due to our little blob's constant movement! Man! The heartbeat was so incredibly fast though!!! Remember, we're talking about something the size of a pinto bean. According to my books, we're not even to the medium-sized olive days yet!!

So, I greatly appreciated him staying to 6pm to assure me of the health of our blob. I know he didn't have to do that, but he must have been concerned as well, especially considering my age and how long it took us to attain this pregnancy. he even gave us a picture which is currently on our refrigerator! hahaha Ultrasounds pictures are difficult enough as it is, so I decided not to post the white blob. The heartbeat was the main part and of course that is not detectable in the photo anyway. I don't go back until after the New Year. The end of the story is that somewhere along my journey to or from the doctor's office, I punctured one of my tires. I didn't know this until Tobin got home and asked me how long my tire had been flat. I knew that there was a weird sound all the way home from, but the car wasn't pulling one way or the other and there were no other obvious signs of malfunction....oh well. Being the great husband that he is, he changed it after dinner and took it to be fixed today. I got to drive the truck to school and the heated seats were a definite luxury!

Dr. appt cancelled~

Does this look natural?? hahahaha This was taken near the end of the school year last year and my friends were all voting that I held the baby at Suzanne's baby shower. Knowing how long we had tried to conceive, they were trying to send some baby vibes my way, I guess.

Well, my 1st appt. with the doctor as supposed to be yesterday. So, for those of you that have been wondering, we ended up waiting for 30 minutes to find out that the doctor was in surgery and would not be returning to the office. I figure we better get use to that! I would want top-notch care if I were the one on the operating table, so I didn't get too upset. The only thing that really stinks is that Tobin had taken the day off to go with me and he cannot get off for the rescheduled date--tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find out!

More Thanksgiving pics

Thought I would make some collages of Thanksgiving and some of the fun times in Alabama recently. Mel did a great job on the turkey and there were some yummy side dishes made by her friends. My lil' nephews kept sneaking whipped cream off my pie. Koen called it ice cream! He sure loved his new Buzz Lightyears.

It seems that morning sickness may have settled in. I don't think it is the flu stuff that I can't seem to shake. It doesn't seem to hit in the morning though. More late afternoon and evening. I feel nauseated about 80% of the day.

I went home from school on Friday with a fever. I had zero energy

and felt warm, so I went to the school nurse and my temp

was 100.3. I called my doc and talked to the nurse. She chewed me out for being at work and said if it got to 101 degrees that I would need to go to urgent care. Too dangerous for baby development. After some friends/coworkers also chewed me out, I went home and stayed in bed for 17 hours. Going back to work tomorrow, but my energy isn't that great. No temp though.

I wish this was a short week! No such luck! I do need to get some Christmas shopping done this week.....Have a great work week everyone!

Getting better...somewhat...

Well, I thought it might be time to at least let you all know that I'm still around! I am not over this head cold thing, but I am much better that I was just prior to Thanksgiving. It's kind of difficult to get rid of something when you can't take any antibiotics, so hopefully my body will keep on fighting any infection.

I had a great time in AL with my sister and family! The boys were tons of fun and it was great to see Mel and Brian again. Now it will only be a little over 3 weeks until I see them all again since they are driving here for Christmas. i included a couple pics: 1)Brian took Koen and I to the airfield to see the Huey he flies for the Army. Koen was really more interested in the huge puddles of water that Brian let him jump in. 2)Griffin climbed up on my belly and we developed a little game where he zooms in to my face! He just giggles like crazy!

Scrapbook Club went well today after school. We did two single page layouts. I hung up the next layout, a double page spread, and already have 8 signed up. It sure it fun to share my hobby with my students! This Saturday, I am meeting my Science Club at the Discovery Center to ride the highwire bike and an Immersion Cinema. I'll try to get some pics of that, but I probably shouldn't get on the bike!

On that note, the pregnancy is going OK so far, but then again, I'm not THAT far along. Honestly, it hasn't been that enjoyable so far! lol I feel nauseated pretty often and actually threw up today for the first time. Eating healthy has been a chore for me and definitely has to be a conscious effort so I don't grow to be a big as a barn. Dec. 4th is my next appt. Don't get me wrong, we are still excited. Tobin seems to be more excited since I threw up, like that confirms the reality of it all in his head!

I had to teach my Principal's daughter how to keep the basketball books tonight at the 7th and 8th grade games. I did it for 10 years, but the money isn't really worth the long day anymore. We had fun laughing and learning tonight though. I put in a 12 hour day, so I'm headed to bed now. Hope everyone is doing well!

Alabama bound!

I started feeling a cold coming on Friday morning. That is no big shock since I am surrounded by kids all day long and 8 kids had left school by 2nd hour on Thursday. It has progressively gotten worse everyday, even though all I have done is lie around and rest. I am halfway through the new James Patterson book, Double Cross, and really liking it so far. I also like to watch Ellen dance at the beginning of her talk show. She's pretty darn funny. I honestly haven't even felt like scrapbooking or even going through scrapbook magazines. The Tylenol is masking the symptoms, somewhat, but since it is viral, I get to wait it out with no antibiotics. The downtime has been nice, but it is not like me to have this much downtime and no productivity!! I need to find out if I am contagious because I leave at 5am to go see these cute lil' boys and my sister and brother-in-law! Not looking forward to a 12 hour drive, hacking and coughing my way to Alabama, but maybe things will improve here soon! I sure don't wanna get those sweet lil' boys sick! I really can't wait to see them even though I don't have enough energy to act like it. I'm sure that will change when I see them. I'm sure we'll play hard, and then I'll sleep like the dead. Going to bed early tonight for sure! Mel, we'll text or call every few hours on the drive down.....buy some Lysol spray so you can follow me around. LOL just kidding, I think.....

Saturday~

I have been trying to figure out how to tell the story and scrapbook the details for future reference. I know you probably can't read the story on Blogger. It took me 18 pics to get this one! Things just wouldn't cooperate for me. I blurred out the address in case you wondered what is up with the appt. card....

I think I'll take a long walk. It is beautiful outside!

New OB nurse appt~

Tobin attended the appointment with me and we were there for about an hour including the blood draw. They did not let him go with me when they took my blood. Liability reasons, I presume. We then confirmed some medical history info, signed papers, and talked insurance. We were signed up for a gift basket and received a bag of Simulac and Enfamil stuff with several give-aways inside. I was able to ask some of my quirky questions about aspartame, water quality with tap vs. bottled, and regular milk vs. organic. Our new OB nurse was maybe 23 and had never had a child, so she just knew technical info. I can relate to that, so I wasn't irritated with her, but left my questions for the doctor nevertheless.
Results:
The dr. recommended aspartame products are OK, but at a minimum and had no preference with what kind of water or milk I drink, just drink lots of it. I DO have an opinion though.
I plan to ONLY drink organic milk because the hormone levels in regular milk are alarming, to say the least. Check out http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/general/milk.htm
I think it says a lot when American milk is BANNED in Europe due to hormone levels. Yet, farmer's need more production! UGH! Have you thought about why young American girls are maturing and developing at such a young age in this country in the last 10-15 years?????

OH, the doctor was one day later on his predictions for my own prediction of the due date. His estimate is July 11th.

Spirit Days

Just a couple of things...my HCG levels have been increasing "quite nicely" as the doctor put it. I go back this Friday for my new OB nurse appt. Tobin is going with me! :) I imagine we'll learn A LOT!

Recently, it seems that we have had several school spirit days. I try to participate for several reasons other than the obvious. One, I try to wear jeans or a hat whenever possible. Secondly, I'll do just about anything to not dress up to school and be uncomfortable all day. "Camo day" was either last week or the week before and crazy hat day was the day after that. I look kinda silly, so I thought this may provide a smile to brighten someone's day! :)

Tired, but busy

Well, I have spent the weekend scrapbooking or hanging with family, so no complaints! I even managed to go to a nice dinner Saturday night with Sonja, my sister-in-law and friend. We ate at UMI, one of my favorite sushi places. I even ran into my sister, Tricia, and her husband there! In case you were wondering, the waitress circled all of the rolls I could choose from that would be safe and fully cooked. We ordered the Kissy Kissy, the King Caterpillar, and the Touchdown. All 3 were amazing and I'd eat them again for dinner every night this week if possible! LOL

Church was nice this morning. Hunter sat on my lap through most of the service. That was pretty darn sweet. Tobin's parents treated us to lunch at
and I included a pic of Hunter enjoying his ice cream cone!

I even made it to the gym over the weekend.
I'm pretty tired, but finished a quick page of the Hays girls tonight, daughters of some good friends of mine. This is such a sweet pic that I made the page fairly simple to not take away from the adorable picture. The circle idea is a scraplift from Heather. Heather, did you recognize it? Have a great week everyone!

You may want to sit down for this, but....

Although this news may come as a shock to some, many already know what a miracle and blessing this really is for us. It's awfully early(development-wise only!! kinda late in life~), but I can't contain my excitement!!!!!!!!! We need all the prayer we can get, so please pray that all goes well for us! It's strange to be nervous and scared, yet excited with anticipation all at the same time! I have taught this topic to students for 13 years, but never experienced it first-hand! I know I couldn't ask for better friends and family to share this with, not to mention being able to experience this (FINALLY)with the love of my life! We are sooooo happy!

An evening with great friends~

REUNITED!!! Friends in high school and through college, we haven't done a great job of keeping in touch in our adult life. Soooo many memories! Graduation does that to you....You go from talking every day to "catching up" when you can! Lives get busy....but, when they are REAL friends, you know it immediately because you pick up like you haven't lost a day! I have been friends with Tara and Hollie for 20 years and they have been friends for 30 years!!!!! I love that!!

My students~

As many of you know, I am having to teach Earth Science this year, which is NOT my specialty! Two degrees in life science and biology, but only one class in geology. Well, after much research and a seminar on using music in the classroom, this is part of the result. As people, we use more areas of the brain when we musically learn the content and we remember it WAY longer. That's why we never forget the ABCs and can recite many commercials and songs we don't even like. These kids have memorized the lyrics to the "rock song" that covers sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock types! All of my classes have done a wonderful job of playing along and learning the song. I doubt any of them forget the words any time soon! ENJOY!

Sing Along:

Sedimentary rock has been formed in layers

Often found near water sources with fossils from decayers~

Then there's igneous rock, here since Earth was born

Molten lava cooled and hardened, that's how it was formed~

These two types of rocks can also be transformed

With pressure, heat, and chemicals, metamorphic they become!

Happy Halloween!

Well, Tobin and I are hiding out in our house, trying not to turn on any lights so it doesn't look like we're here! Tobin already tripped over a marble plant stand that has been for there over a year! I know, I know...we're scrooges that don't hand out candy! I've just been burned one too many times by kids that 1)don't even attempt to dress up and carry around their pillowcase wanting handouts 2)are taller than me and have NO business still trick-or-treating and 3)kids that are way too greedy and don't like the two peanut butter cups that I hand them and ask for more, or better yet, stick their hand in the bowl and grab as much as they possibly can. Don't get me wrong, I love the original idea and how it was done when I was a kid, and I love the season and the decor. But, from a teacher perspective, the kids will be wound up for the rest of the week on a sugar high for sure!


Tobin and I did enjoy our evening though! We finally went and bought my wedding ring!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited and I LOVE IT! I feel a little weird about taking a picture and posting it, so the important part is that we went together and both had input until we decided on the one that is on my hand right now. Tobin likes the more traditional solitaire and I like the antique look. I like that we compromised and got something we both wanted to see for many years. My eyes do hurt from looking for inclusions so intently through that loop! I will need to get the engagement and wedding bands welded together at some point.


A teacher friend of mine wants 3 Halloween LOs, so here was a quick one put together in about 30 minutes. The next LO is one of my youngest nephew. This lil' ornery guy had been bathed and was ready for bed. He even had Calamine lotion all over his forehead where the the darn mosquitoes had tried to eat him alive. Between mom, Mel, and I, we all thought someone else was watching him. Meanwhile, he decided he was not done with bath time!!!

Nice Weekend!

For those that don't know, this was a wonderful 3-day weekend for me! I survived the parent-teacher conferences on Thursday, but was exhausted by the time I arrived home! Tobin and I didn't get much time together before he left for his BIG hunting week Friday morning. We already missed each other by bedtime Friday night! He has gotten a doe, but will still continue the hunt for a big buck. Friday evening was a planned crop with my friend, Mandy. We didn't get a lot accomplished scrapbook-wise, but got caught up on everything else! It was good to visit with her.
Saturday morning was the Halloween Hustle and I got a cool long-sleeved shirt since I actually showed up! Nothing note-worthy considering my 5K time, since I hadn't exercised for 9 weeks! Saturday morning also involved a class at SG which was actually taught by the HOFer, Allison, which some of you have seen on my "blog-friend" list. The first layout is her design. It was cool to have a few words with her in person since we primarily visit in the blog world only. Saturday afternoon and evening was spent with my friend Hollie. We had a lot of fun visiting and hangin' out. :) I basically scrapbooked all day today as well, had lunch with my mom, visited with Brenda, and played with lil' Hunter some. I am still working on a couple of pages, but decided to post these three layouts.

Quick Challenge Post

This was a page that I have needed to do forever! I tried to get it done in time for the Challenge Blog. Tobin is on his biggest hunting trip of the year right now and I have a friend coming over to scrapbook tonight and another friend coming on Sunday! The Halloween Hustle is a possibility tomorrow morning; however, I haven't exercised since prior to the surgery. We'll see....

Tagged!!!

Well, there is no way to follow the rules exactly because several of those tagged by Allison are the very same ones I would tag. The challenge is mentioning something that I haven't mentioned on a similar tag this past summer. I going to be VERY random on the facts.

Here's the deal: Link to the person who tagged you; Share 7 random facts about yourself; Tag 7 other people and leave them a comment to let them know you tagged them; and, post these rules on your blog!

1. With my clothing hanging in the closet, I organize them by season, style, and sometimes color. Even more ridiculous than that, I have a computer list of what goes together to get the most outfits by mixing and matching tops and bottoms. If you can get any more Type A than that, let me know!
2. I have 9 full scrapbooks which seems fairly amazing for someone with no children of her own.
3. I am halfway finished with my Christmas shopping.
4. I love plants. We have 34 in our home and I have about 20 in my classroom at school.
5. I'm kind of a neurotic recycler. We recycle 3 colors of glass, plastic, paper, tin, and aluminum.
There is really isn't much left to go in the actual trash can!
6. I have big hands and big feet inherited from my paternal grandma.
7. I just started drinking coffee 2-3 weeks ago, but it must be loaded down with a yummy creamer. I like the smell quite a bit more than the taste of plain coffee. I need to stop drinking it before I become physically addicted to it.

Taggees:
Melody
Hollie
Jenny
Cindy
Sonja
Tami
Creasa

Fly-Over!

Last night, the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station flew over the Ozarks. On my street, it was so cool because five different families stood in one driveway and watched together! I'm sure that everyone who drove by thought we were crazy! The shuttle went by first and about a minute or two later, the ISS flew over. They just looked like bright stars flying very fast! Not much of a spectacle if you were expecting to actually see much, but awesome to think about. The same fly-by happens tonight, for those that missed it (Kodi), but it will be around 6:54pm-7:00pm. Same area of the sky~

My Scrapbook Weekend~

Tobin went hunting all weekend, so what do you think I did all weekend? YEP! I organized my new shelf and put things where I wanted them and worked on some pages! I actually finished one double-page LO, almost finished another, completed a single page LO, and I'm halfway through another single page LO. Some of these require me to get over to Scrapbook Generation to create the title or buy some embellishments. I haven't managed to do that yet, but I enjoyed the weekend through and through.
I even managed to go out to lunch with my family Saturday afternoon, ran some errands, and made it to church on Sunday. Otherwise, from morning to bedtime, I scrapbooked and listened to music.
The single page above is centered around my Delta Zeta days in college. I lasted about one year before I decided that sorority life wasn't for me. But, the pic cracks me up since my hair was still the old high school POOF and I had bangs back then. Can you say "volume?" or....."Grand Finale" hairspray?

This is the LO that I started on at SG. It just took me a while to finish it. I like the sepia look.
This is a scraplift of a scraplift. I put it together from my page that I made at the Hall of Fame class @ SG. I changed it quite a bit to fit my needs. Thanks for the original idea, Allison!
I'll post the other pages as soon as I finish them. Have a great week!

More camping pics~

Well, we dodged the bullet on the storms last night. I had a survival kit all ready to go in the interior bathroom with water, cell phone, blankets, flashlight.....! I even put new batteries in our weather radio! I'm thankful not to have used any of it though! The stories on the news are horrific.

Just a few shots of our recent weekend....

Bad blogger!

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted! Kodi, that comment on my last post cracked me up and thus prompted me to get back to it! We have been pretty busy though. School is getting hectic and I feel like I am getting further and further behind! Grades come out soon too! UGH! Plus, Tobin has been hunting a bunch!
We did take a much needed break this past weekend and went camping. It had been a long time since we had been in the great outdoors! We used to go every month! So, we took the hounds and went to Roaring River, after I got out of my MAP conference on Friday. We set up camp, only to break down once we found out we were on a reserved spot. We moved it to the last spot available in the whole park. It was only available for one night, but that worked out since we really weren't that happy there. Tobin had it set in his mind how it was to work out and it didn't go his way, plus neither of us were too thrilled with all of the RV campers so close and constant commotion. The dogs had to be tied up and they didn't like that. Raccoons ate much of our food during the night and I actually got a few pics of that activity from the tent. Tobin got out of the tent and ran them off, but it was too late to salvage any of the food. They actually opened our tote and got the lids off of containers! So, we pulled out of camp around noon on Saturday and drove to an area in the Mark Twain National Forest called Big Bay. We were the only campers in sight and were just uphill from Table Rock Lake! It was absolutely great! The dogs didn't have to be tied up. The weather so so wonderful that I carried my camp chair down to the shore and read my new HOF magazine while Tobin fished and relaxed! I have some neat lake pics, but I cannot get the pics to upload....Blogger said that they were aware of the problem. Here is a cute one of Tobin and Bailey taking it easy on the shore.

I am really thrilled to say that I DID use my coupon on the Making Memories shelf this week! It does have two dowel rods for ribbon and more shelves than the picture on my last post showed. I got that pic online and the one at Micheal's seems better! 40% off the $79.99. I'll post a pic once Tobin gets it on the wall. Of course, I have to use coupons to get all of the neat little containers. Well, off to bed. It was a long day and I am pooped!

Momentarily depressed....but determined...

THIS IS WHAT I WANT!!! I am almost positive that the one in the store had two dowel rods across the bottom for spools of ribbon. I was SOOOOOO excited when Sonja and I saw it last night. It wasn't on sale. $80 and it isn't even real wood, but the design is so cute and the jars are a hard plastic, not glass, which is good. But, they are separate too. I decided to wait for the coupon today...the thrifty side of me kicked in. I sooo need a good organizational system. My scrap room gets to be a mess, in a hurry...continually, and it gets old. Plus, I already have two crown-moulding-like shelves in my scrapbook room that are white, which looks great on the cappuccino walls. So, needless to say, the idea was getting built up in my mind as I thought about it all night and planned what was to go in each jar.....I went to the Ozark Craft Fair today and didn't see anything better, so off I went to buy this with my 50% off coupon! I had BIG plans for getting it hung on the wall tonight and spending the rest of the evening putting fun stuff in each jar! Well, as Micheal's ALWAYS does, they put the entire store on sale and then offered a coupon for 50% off regular priced items. NOTHING IS REGULAR PRICE IN THERE THAT ANYONE WOULD WANT! I was so disappointed and depressed. I stood there, in disbelief, and stared at the stupid '25% off all scrapbook storage' sign and tried to figure out a way around it, as if..... so, little Mrs. Impatient me will have to wait until the sale goes off. Of course, there won't be a 50% off coupon next week. I should just count on that! Tobin gave me permission to go ahead and buy it, but I decided to put this out there and see if any of my scrappin' buddies know of a better organizational system for a better price anywhere else.

I should have some good family pics later on this week. Trevor, Sonja, and Hunter came in town this weekend and we took some outdoor pics. We all had a good time Saturday night over at Tobin's parent's house. This is little Hunter enjoying his popsicle.

Yea! The weekend!

Last Saturday, I took a class at Scrapbook Generation in which I completed most of this layout. I still needed to write and print the journaling and then stitch on the journaling block. This was also the page that I was planning for Amy's challenge, but didn't get to it in time for the blog challenge. I DO like how it turned out! Thanks, Allison, for the sketch idea and thanks to Amy for the challenge to put color and black 'n' white pictures on the same layout. Allison, I also created a Halloween layout using this sketch, but it is on my wall at school! The kids loved it! I stitched a spiderweb and used a candy corn playing card, plus some little ghost stickers and the 3 patterned papers. I'll get a pic this coming week.

Well, Tobin and are are about to leave for our "date night." We are headed to Hemingway's for the all-you-can-eat crab legs and then some shopping around in Bass Pro. We would like to get a heat-sensitive video camera for protection and to watch our house. (LizAnne-you know why) Then, we plan to go to Borders for our usual Seattle's Best latte, music, and magazines!

We may go kayaking tomorrow! Have a wonderfully enjoyable w/e! Happy Birthday Cindy!!!!

Back to normal

My sister and nephews left Thursday morning. I actually managed to not bawl my head off the night before as I said goodbye. I DID stop by again on my way to work though! I snuggled on Griff and hugged my sis goodbye, but Koen wasn't up yet. That was probably a good thing because he is more sensitive and I wouldn't want to upset him with a quick hello and goodbye. Here are a few of the playhouse pics that I promised. Tobin did such a great job with this little house that it had to make the journey back to AL. Koen would carry all of his important things in there (brown bear, pink bear, lion, squirrel...) and then want me to tickle him like crazy! If I tried to leave the playhouse, he would physically try to push me back in! It was great fun! Koen and Griffin even had some peek-a-boo style interaction.

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Tobin is going hunting again , so we had "date night" tonight. We got Pasta Express take-out and he drove us to a park near our house. He had blankets all ready in the truck and we had a little picnic. We planned to do our normal "listen to music-get a frappuccino-I read scrapbook mags-he reads hunting mags" thing at Borders, but we ended up at Bass Pro. Go figure...LOL. It was a nice quiet evening together until he bought a turkey call and practiced all the way home!!!




I spent every evening at my mom's for two weeks playing with them. I won't see them again until Thanksgiving Break. Mom drove down with them and returns this Sunday. Someone always flies down there and journeys back and forth with Mel. It would be difficult to do with two boys in car seats on a 12 hour ride! There is always a DVD to switch out, diapers to change, snacks or juice requests to meet, and so on.
I am in withdrawal mode for now, but I will get used to their absence soon, I guess.