Photo of the Day

My New Year's resolution for 2009 is to become a better photographer. I'm starting early. lol! Here's my first attempt...

Goals

I've come up with a list of goals; some large, some small. I haven't put a time limit on them, they are just things I want to work on.

1. Find myself a house, or fix this one up if I'm staying here.
2. Finish my Early Childhood Education Diploma.
3. Lose 10-15 lbs.
4. Save up my emergency fund; 3 months worth of bills at first, then 6.
5. Pay off credit card and my mom.
6. De-clutter the house.
7. Use up my old scrapbook supplies (and keep shopping for new stuff, of course!).
8. Make it to Disney World, then start saving for the next trip.
9. Put more effort into friendships (online and off).

What I've done this week to accomplish this stuff:

1. Nothing this week, but I've started my house fund! $40 so far. ;)
2. Wrote a test this week, and am planning on finishing an assignment this weekend.
3. Hopped on my mini trampoline for 15 min. tonight; nothing too strenuous, but it's a start!
4. I get paid tomorrow, we'll see what I can put in here.
5. I'm supposed to get back pay in child support tomorrow; if it comes, I'll put a chunk on my card.
6. Cleaned out from under the living room furniture, and tossed all small toys I found there.
7. Got the shopping part down. ;)
8. I have a fund started for this with $200 in it; am adding a few dollars to it tomorrow.
9. Got talked into going to the Halloween social Saturday night; I'm actually looking forward to it!

A Little Change of Pace

After being reminded, thanks Carole ;) , I've decided to change the purpose of my blog, in the hopes that I'll use it more. I will still post cards and such, when I make something I like, but for the most part, I'm going to use this as a means of keeping track of my goals.

Two years ago, as some of you know, I made it my goal to lose weight. I made most of that goal, losing 60 of the 80 lbs I wanted. But then I lost steam, and have since put 10 lbs back on. I've also taken up a mild form of frugality (I still shop, of course, more than I should) in an effort to be free of the need to be dependant on child support and to pay off my credit cards. I'm also trying to make my life less chaotic by de-cluttering my house.

It seems that I can only focus on one thing, maybe two, at a time. I don't know why this is. So this blog will be my way to combine all of my goals into one spot, to try and keep myself accountable. I have several message boards I post on, but I don't want to post about weight loss on the frugal board, or scrapbooking on the single parent board, etc.

I will try to throw some photos in here to brighten things up though. Goal post to follow. :)

Christmas in September!

I've got a Christmas card workshop on the 20th; we're making 3 each of 6 designs. None are my own design, I believe....I live for combing through the talent at Splitcoast Stampers to find ideas. :)

Here are the ones I have scanned so far.

Finally!

It's been too long since I've done any scrapbooking, so I took the opportunity of using Chelsea's simple, yet nice sketch challenge on LIITD. I love how it turned out! This is the kids and I, hanging out at the daycare. :) Carole, I'll find my very first page shortly and add it!

I'm Alive!

Yes, it's true. I'm still around, just hiding out in my boring little life. lol!

So what's been happening? Not too much. On the home front, my Abba is 6 and heading off to grade 1 in 2 days; she's so excited! Addison is 2, and so like his dad, it's scary. It's a good thing he's so darn cute!

I've finally taken the leap and found a lawyer to get custody and child support legalized. It won't do too much good right now, as my ex jumped off a balcony and broke both feet, leaving him off work for many months, if not permanently. Oh well, who needs him, right?

Here's a few pics of the kids to tide y'all over. :)

The one of Abba was taken in the living room; I had set up an old indoor tent and we attempted s'mores over a candle.

Busy making cards!

I've been trying to keep myself occupied (without resorting to cleaning!), so I've been digging into my stamps. Here's a few, and forget the originality, I think pretty much all of these were inspired by cards I saw on the Splitcoast Stampers site. :)

I've Been Tagged

I don't usually do this, but I'll give it a shot today.

1.Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...Chelsea

2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).

Hmmm, that's a toughie. Are they supposed to be interesting? LOL!
1. I am totally addicted to chocolate. I always loved it, but since having my babies, I NEED it.
2. I am currently enrolled in my third college. I graduated from bible college in '94, library tech college in '96, and am taking my Early CHildhood Ed. through correspondance. I love learning!
3. I currently have 2 different colors of ink on my fingertips, and will probably have 3 totally different ones tomorrow!
4. I cried when reading Charlotte's Web to my daughter.
5. One of my favorite movies is Earth Girls Are Easy. Google it. LOL!
6. I work in the same building I was born in.
7. I am one of the most forgetful people I know. I can remember names and faces from 30 years ago, but forget almost everything from day to day. It's amazing that I don't forget I have kids. ;)

My Young-uns

Thought I'd finally get some updated photos of the kids, so I took them to Chelsea's to play in the yard. :)

New Pics!

I had Shannon take these this morning. I'll have to try and figure out how to edit them so they're side by side with my 'before' shots. lol!

Finally, some layouts!

After working on cards, a wedding gift, and notecards, I finally got to do two layouts last night. "Love Actually" is a movie title challenge I did, using the 6 new colors from Stampin' Up...

"Girls' Night Out" I used the paper pack 'Outlaw', from SU! This was when we went out to belatedly celebrate Chelsea's birthday.

Is that a pig flying by my window?

:) Yes, that's real.

First party!

Yesterday, I had my first home party for Stampin' Up, and only my 2nd event ever for them. The stamp club I took over wanted to take the summer off, so I haven't gotten much practice standing up in front of people, demonstrating. I've gotten a lot of practice ordering though. In fact, I think I've become an expert. LOL!

I'm sure my spending will level off eventually. I've decided that to help in that area, I'm going to give up the store. While I love having access to all the goodies, it's costing me a lot, and half of my customers have moved away. So for the next little while, everything's pretty cheap until it's gone!

These are the two cards we made yesterday, the butterfly curls up in real life, sort of 3-D...inspiration I got from the gallery of Splitcoast Stampers. I'll throw a link in here later if anyone's interested in checking it out.

Back to my old hobby for a while!

After getting a bunch of new stamps and papers, I've started to catch up on making cards again. I need to, I sell them at Sweet Nothings, and I think they've sold most/all that were up there. I'm on a roll! My style is extremely simple, but I like them. :)

Something I've Discovered...

I have learned that I am not the emotional eater I always thought I was. Having become way more aware of what and when I eat over the past year, I've noticed that I don't stuff my face when I'm upset or stressed. And I don't lose my appetite then and eat when I'm happy. I have a serious sweet tooth, plus I munch unknowingly when I'm watching a movie or reading. And those things I do a lot of. So if I make a conscious effort to not have snacks in the living room for my hand to wander over to, I should lose the last 2 lbs I put on this week, right?????

Sorry, no pics yet. For some reason I have trouble accessing my blog at home, so I'm on a foreign computer. :(

Spring is here...sort of.

It's still a little too chilly in the morning (0 degrees this morning), but the sun is shining. I'm back to trying to get in a walk everyday, minus the kids. (Love them, but Abba just walks too slow! LOL!)

I've started back to work at the daycare this week. While I hate getting me and the kids up at 5:30 am, I love the early shift. I'm done around 11 or so, then I get the afternoon to myself. We can hit the beach, or I can leave them there for a little while so I can get some stuff done. It's awesome!

I also painted my living room last week. For those of you who are in the know about Bazzill paper, it's Parakeet green. ROFL! This has been the highlight of June; new, bright paint just makes my day.

It's in the blood...

I already have one scrapbooker in the family; Isabelle loves it. Now, it seems, I have two. And like me, he loves to ink. :)

My Baby's 5 :(

Actually, I'm proud; she's quite a 5 year old (well, tomorrow!) Abba had her party today, and had 6 little friends over, plus Jackson and Tayla. It was a fairly quiet party...which was nice for me. LOL! Addison was sick, so we sent him away for the afternoon, and the girls played very well together. Jackson fit right in, too. ROFL!

Abba loved all her presents, so thank you to everyone!

A Mother's Prayer

Dear Lord,
So far today I've done alright. I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or very indulgent. I'm very grateful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help.





:)

My Goal Outfit

Is now off the wall. It's snug. Very snug. But I got it on! And I didn't even have to lie on the bed to do the jeans up, although it was pretty close. LOL!! I am close to my goal, but the end is coming so slowly, due to my determination slacking a bit.