Off to Vegas and Offline for a Few Days

I am counting down the minutes until I depart for four wonderful days in Las Vegas. Every year, I meet my sisters and mom for a girl weekend. We just hang out and catch up. Fun Fun. Momma Bear just had her second knee replaced so not too much boogie-ing down this year (not that there ever is). Have never won THE jackpot (have one 10,000 pennies once) so have to keep going back to keep trying. ;)

I just saw on Mel's blog that someone posted a freebie using her Just for Fun kit. Have to say, I love that kit. Great colors and elements that you can use for many different looks. You can get the freebie at her store at http://studiomcadesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=56. Here are a couple of pages that I made with her Just for Fun kit.

This is Going to be Expensive!

We are starting to gather bids for fixing our "skylight." The first bid was over $20,000!! Oh my! The insurance adjuster finally came and immediately OK'd a new roof and new wall. They are still deciding on whether to replace the floor or just try to "buff" out the nice warping. Now we have to figure out where we are going to stay when they do all this. I don't think they are going to replace the studs in the wall but have to bleach them to keep the mold at bay. Little one can't be around when that happens.

I am so looking forward to this weekend. It is sisters (and mom) in Las Vegase time. We meet once per year in Vegas for a girl weekend. It is something we look forward to every year. Good to just chill and catch up. Mommy Bear just had her second knee replaced so won't be running from slot to slot but will have fun nonetheless.

Here is a photo of our unexpected Ike visitor.

But...when little one is around and smiles at me....all worries go away.

Credit to PillowGirl's It's All Me kit....love this kit. So very versatile.

A New Week

A new week started today. It has been awhile since I have worked a full week with the holiday week, then Ike interrupting two weeks. I might just have to take a day off this week to work my way back into full time. ;)

Little one has been "hanging" out. Since Rilee started walking, every trip through the backyard meant a slide down the slide. Now, I am wistful for those calm days of sitting down and joyfully sliding. Now it is grab onto the bar above the slide and swing and giggle. All the while, my heart pounds and my hands are ready to grab in case of a little hand slipping.

Credits to MCA Designs Conrad kit. Love the colors of this kit.

Hubby was feeling left out so had to scrap one of him and little one. They are best of buds - reading, playing, drawing and just hanging out.

Credits to Kathy Goldstein Super Star Daddy Freebie from Ahh Scrap!

Grand opening for New Store - MCA Designs

Most of my layouts are created with either MCA kits or her commercial items. I have so much fun with these kits and designs. Now, Mel of MCA Designs is opening her own store. Time for more shopping!!

Summer is Officially Over

We are enjoying some great weather, not too hot and not too humid. Mother Nature's payback for the recent hurricane that passed through. This weather must be enjoyed by being outside....any old excuse will do. So, little one and I pushed her car around, fed the ducks in a nearby pond, and played with the dog. To cap off the day, I decided a swim would be nice. Since summer is winding down, the pools have been open only open on weekends in September. So, beings that it is a weekend, we suited up and drove to the pool... only to discover it closed. Guess I should have checked. Once I did check I was informed that due to the hurricane, the pools will not reopen again until May, next summer!! Little one was NOT happy about this. She loves to play at the pool. As a consolation, we filled up the plastic dog pool in the back yard for a little splash time.

Had a little time to scrap today during little ones nap. Am trying to expand from my normal. For this layout, I used several MCA overlays to gurnge up the paper and the frame. I also used a couple of MCA elements from her Just for Fun Kit (the brown circle and the brown smudge). The swirly with stars came from Random Inspirations Lullaby Lamb kit (have got to use that kit for a couple of Rilee sleeping photos...as it will be perfect!) I also played with colorizing things. I am not real thrilled with the way the title came out so this may change in the future....but, here it is. Little one's first skinned knee.

Catching up

We are still sorting how the hows and whys of insurance, Fema, etc to help us fix the house. The tree is now removed and moved out of the yard. We have tarped the roof. We are waiting on a quote from the contractor and our insurance guy before we can move forward. Hubby has really worked hard in getting the yard and house cleaned up.

Work was up and running yesterday and today so have been busy trying to catch up. (The rest of the world did not take a break while we were digging out from Ike.) People are sympathetic about the problems we have had but that only goes so far.

Have had a chance to scrap a bit. Here are a couple of pages.

Credits: Pillow Girl's It's All Me from MyScrapShop.com Love this kit.

We Are Back!!

Ike came, conquered and moved on. Ike hit us about 2:30 am on Saturday. Have to admit, we slept through much of it....until "thump." (As an aside, thumps in the middle of the night in the middle of a hurricane are probably not good things.) The house kind of thumped. Hubby walked through the house but did not see anything except some water in the kitchen so thought we had cracked a window. Was still dark outside and power was out so we listened to the wind and snoozed a bit. At daylight, we saw the damage. One of our large oak trees fell over and landed on the house. When I say fell over, the roots were pulled from the ground and it just tipped over. Yes, the wind was that strong!

In the backyard, we have many trees...oak trees, pine trees and a couple of sweet gum trees. (If a tree had to fall, we would root for the Gum tree, which is a nasty tree that drops these spiky balls that serve no purpose and are impossible to rake, trip the child and hurt the dog's paws.) Unfortunately, the tree that fell was one of the nice shady oak trees. It toppled onto the roof over the kitchen.

The elbow of the tree punched a nice hole in the roof. As Ike did not dump that much rain (only about 4-5"), we were able to keep the water somewhat at bay. Then came a thunderstorm. We haven't seen rain like that since the monsoon season when we lived in Flagstaff. In a fairly short period of time, we had another 12" of rain. Really hard. Really big drops. Really wet. Hubby, and our friend staying with us during the storm, rigged an inside gutter system to catch some of the water. Between this system (which caught about 10" of water), the tarp and all of our neighbors pitching in towels, we kept most of the water confined to just our kitchenette area. The walls are puckered and, 2 days later, still wet. The wood floor is looking a bit warped. But, we are all ok so life goes on.

The power went out Saturday morning and just came back late this afternoon. Also, telephones (cell and land lines) have been out. I was able to get the occasional text message out but that was iffy. (I could see that the number of voice messages on my cell kept growing but did not have enough service to actually check messages.) We did have water and gas. So we could shower and cook. Mother Nature cooperated (after Ike and the thunderstorm) and gave us some nice not so hot, low humidity days making the last couple of days quite bearable. (No hairdryer though so not a pretty sight.) We are so thankful that the house is in tact and all our friends are OK.

This evening was the first time we have had TV. We are really sorry to see the devastation in Ike's path. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all that were affected by this storm.

The Calm Before the Storm

We are in kind of like a scary movie scenario. The heroine goes about her daily business but you, the viewer, knows there is something bad lurking around the corner. The skies are a bit overcast and we feel a gust of wind every now and again but we would never know that a hurricane is just about to hit. Of course, you would have to be living under a rock to not know that a hurricane is coming as every media outlet is following this and all the stores are closed. So, have a nice day off of work and nothing to do but wait for something bad to happen.

Little one, the mutt and I went on a nice long walk this morning. We stopped at a couple of parks along the way so had a jolly good time.

A friend of ours, her two dogs and two cats will be staying with us tonight and for who knows how long. She lives in a trailor out in the woods just a bit further north from us. So, we all thought it best for her to stay with us. The dogs will be no problem and our mutt will love having the company. The cats will be another matter. Our mutt hates cats. We will just use this as an opportunity for a little cat training. ;) (The photo below is our mutt pretending she is so innocent. I believe our friend's cats are quite large....will be interesting to see who "wins" this weekend.)

Enjoy the weekend. Ours should be interesting. Hope to get some scrapping done as I have some beautiful new kits of My Scrap Shop, Pillowgirl's Its all me. Can't wait to play!!

Watch out for Ike

We are in the "hunker" down zone north of Houston as Ike heads our way. Unfortunately, it looks like we will be on the "dirty" side of the hurricane, which means high of winds, possible tornados, and lots of rain. We have put away the outside furniture and little ones toys. We are not boarding up the windows but have some tarps available, in case something does go through a window. As work is closed tomorrow, it is just a waiting game. I am sure we will be fine.

Ike is a bummer on another front. I was scheduled to take tomorrow off of work for a "me" day. I schedule all my yearly appts around my b'day so tomorrow was physical, dentist and hair cut. Now, all have been canceled. Work is canceled. Ike is not supposed to hit until Saturday at 2am so tomorrow will just be hanging out.

Hear is a page that I did last week for the GDS Supreme Team Contest. I did not make it through to the next round. Oh well. It was the first contest like that I have been a part of. I learned a lot and will try again in the future. AS the storm comes through, will look at this and look forward to seeing the sun again.

CRedits to: "Mom's garden" designs by Helen Ehrenhofer from GDS

Almost a Crisis

Bear went missing Sunday. Bear is a requirement for a peaceful night's sleep and/or nap. At bed time, bear was nowhere to be found. Earlier, little one had kept bear in her grips after her nap and as she played in and around the house. We did not notice that she left bear somewhere until we were heading for bed. No bear....no sleep! After hunting high and low, bear was found and all was good for the evening. Yikes! Maybe we need to get a back up bear...will have to try to remember where we got bear in the first place. The photo below is little one with the infamous Bear and substitute bear.




Things are having a consistent tendency to not be where I have left them. At first, I thought I was just getting forgetful (there is that). More and more, the culprit is the munchkin. Yesterday, I played tennis at lunch. After showering and trying to primp a bit, I noticed that my "face" bag was nowhere in my bag. Had to go a la naturale for the rest of the day. Not a pretty sight. Once I discovered it missing, I remembered little one taking my makeup bag for a walk around the closet....it never made it back to my bag.

Actually played and won a tennis match today (and yesterday). Yesterday, we played to 5-4 on serve. Today started out with my opponent winning the next two games, then I won the next three to end 8-6. In some ways, it was just a battle for second...as it was so hot that we have to count the sun as the winner. The next round of this tournament I meet the number 1 seed....oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Hopefully, will at least get some good exercise.

I am on the CT for My Scrap Shop. I received my first kit yesterday. Pillowgirl's It's all me kit. Very girly. Can't wait to do some scrapping. Will hopefully have some time this weekend!

Happy hump day tomorrow.

Summer is winding down. Today was the first morning where you could feel a bit of cool in the air. It was nice to play outside today (warm in the sun but cool in the shade). While it was fun playing on the slide and the swings, going swimming was just a bit cold (for me...little one did not seem to mind).

We have had to put away the crayons. The rugrat was on a one little girl path to color the house entirely in Crayolas prime colors. Now it is one crayon at a time with full and total supervision. OK...that was the plan but she is a quick little bugger and we are still seeing a few picasso drawings show up on the fireplace, floor and chair.

Haven't had much time to scrap lately. Did manage one page. Since Grandparents day is tomorrow, this is appropriate. This is little one and Grandma sharing a laugh from Grandma's last visit in August.

Credit: Funky Girl Kit by haynay at Ahh Scrap

Uh oh! Little one just about crawled out of her crib tonight. She did not want to go to bed and decided she would take matters in her own hands. She lifted her leg up and actually got it hooked on the top. Luckily she did not have the strength YET to pull herself up and out. I cannot believe she is big enough to get her leg up that high.

Another testament of her age is her first sit on a potty chair. She thought it was great fun sitting on her chair and pushing the little handle to make the "flush" sound. We are no where near potty training but someone suggested that it goes better if they are comfortable with their chair.

Still scrapping in my spare time. Was playing around last night with blurring and saturation. The following layout is little bit's first trip to the beach.

Credit: Afterglow by Courtney Wilson of Plain Digital Wrapper