Did you know there is a National Scrapbook Day (well, my other crazy scrapbookers friends do but for those of you who may not be in the know) - it's on Saturday! So have fun scrapping!! Here is a little somethin' from the latest round of layouts from Picture Me Perfect - check it out! These gals always inspire me to try new ideas and have fun with product!!

I am celebrating on May 12th with an all day event at Picture Me Perfect because I will be at this all weekend with my hubby. Maybe I will pick up some good realationship advice and can post it on my blog! :-)

So a week ago today I was the smelliest, dirtiest I have ever been huffing and puffing trying to move boxes and furniture and trying not to die of heat exhaustion. I was in North Carolina cleaning out some things from my grandmother's 2nd home. She and my Uncle had been there the week before (and I'll spare you all the family drama that happened for about a month) and I came after as the "clean up crew". I literally booked my plane tickets and made arrangements the week before. I had to leave all my boys behind but I am glad I did because I probably would have taken it out on Matt a week ago today. I don't do well in the heat and they were having a heat wave plus with humdity and going in an out of a house does not help cool oneself down. But I got into work mode and just got it done. The things that I thought would be left behind for me weren't what I expected but I did find some things that made the trip worth it like some of my mother's paitings that were in the garage and some of our fruniture from when her and I lived in NC. I had fond memories of this house and my Mom and I would visit often when we lived about 20 minutes away. My Grandad tried to teach me how to ride a bike in the driveway. I loved the upstairs bedrooms that were just for kids and I would lay in bed at night and hear the train whistle. So I am sad it is no longer in the family but I hope whoever has bought it will take good care of it and restore it since it has fallen apart from lack of visitors.

While in NC, I got to stay with my childhood friend Shannon. We always say of each other "She's the closest thing I have to a sister" and I guess after 30 years of friendship we are. She's always just right there for me and without even trying she just does things that help me out without her even knowing. We can talk and talk and not get tired of each other. I keep telling her we have to be in the same retirement home when we get old but I don't think she believes I am serious. When we are together we always seem to slip in some kind of fun. This time we made last minute plans to see her boyfriend's friend drag race. Wow I had no idea how popular this sport is and all the science behind it. I got educated about drag racing and I tired to understand the best I could but I could have used a translator. Anyway it was fun and loud!!

Shannon also took me to visit Southern Season which is like a Trader Joe's (for those CA folk) but 100 times better with all kinds of dishware, kitchen stuff and home decor. I could have gone nuts in there but I restrained myself. It was only a 4 day trip (which 2 of those are traveling) so it was short and bittersweet.

I have so much else to post like an update on the house flip, my latest layouts for Picture Me Perfect but I'll keep you all anticipating....

Hi all - wow it has been another crazy week. I am heading to North Carolina this Wednesday to Saturday. I am tying up some family stuff on my side but the sad part is I won't even being seeing my family and I am going by myself. I am looking forward to seeing my childhood friend Shannon who will take care of me while I am there and hope to get back out there in the summer when I can spend more time.

Okay one thing about the South - I LOVE Southern accents. I wish I still had mine but it has all gotten washed out of me except when I talk to someone from the South or get mad or excited -then it'll pop out. I also drive my son nuts because I do a good Southern impression and it drives them up the wall. This is a sample of what I heard while making tons of phone calls last week to make arrangements. "Well Ma'm I am fixin' to go to a funeral but let me have you talk to my son." or "I apologize" or "Yes M'am" or "Well, Thank you". All of this of course should be going through your head in your best slow Southern drawl. I have also come to find out that there are differences between how Californians (which I am one now) and how Southerners handle business. First of all you wouldn't get the funeral bit. Second of all if someone was unable to give me the business because I was calling with incredibly short notice they would not apologize - here they wouldn't even care. Third of all and I think this is the most important and what I feel bad about is that I left a ton of messages and then ended up securing some help. What I didn't do is call back all the other businesses to let them know. What I also didn't do is call them back even when then they would call me and let me know they got my message. I even got reprimanded by one for not being polite and letting them know. Normally in CA, for one thing it would be weird for any business to call you back after only trying to call them once and even weirder if they kept trying to call you back. In the South that is just not showing manners. Shame on me!

So I am hoping to eat some grits this week, maybe even hush puppies if I am lucky, gotta drink some sweet tea that's for sure, hear the crickets, feel the humidty, hear the train whistle at my grandmother's NC home and say goodbye to some memories.

So this spring break has been a bit unusual. Matt thought it would be a good idea to go out of town for 4 days to do an estate sale (I am being sarcastic but not the best timing but it wasn't his fault). So after working M-W I tried to make the rest of the boy's spring break fun.

Thursday - Met my friend Marion at Chuck E Cheese. This was our first "date" with all our kids etc. I met her at tennis and she became a fast friend. She likes some of the same weird things I do and she has a funny sense of humor so she makes me laugh. Then I drove over the hill to meet my SIL and her kids and we saw Meet the Robinson's. It was good - a little slow moving but I actually came away thinking about the message which is unusual for a cartoon. Kudos to Pixar for creating wholesome films for the whole family. Then I headed home, rested and then played tennis. Marion was there and we had 4 other ladies.

**if you have a sensitive stomach just skip this part** So we are playing tennis and Marion's 3 kids and my two are all in her van watching a movie. Before we know it, the van door flings open and kids are bailing right and left. Tyler high tailed it back to our van and Timmy was gagging in the parking lot. Apparently, Marion's cute little 4 year girl old gags very easily and get grossed out. She put my husband and son to shame as far as the volume of throwing up noise. So Marion rushed out to help her and I couldn't help but start laughing. I know it was not called for in this situation but I couldn't help it. Then the other tennis ladies want to keep playing - how can play with all that going on! Marion and giggled about it later and I am sure it will be retold again and again. Her son said my son grabbed his shoe to smell to try and distract him from the throw up smell.

Friday - I had a tennis match with Kathy in Sunnyvale in the morning so the kids went to kids park (which they love). It was a rough match. We lost the first set 3-6 and pulled off a tough second set 7-5 where I had to serve at least 10 deuces in a row - I was wiped out. We lost the tie break game 8-10 but as far as I am concerned we won. Then I Picked up the kids ran errands and the kids played at home with the neighbor boys. Then we had a date at Red Lobster - Timmy and I love crab! And I headed up to Suzy's to say hi to the cropping gals and see the new stuff she got in. Their scrapping wore off on me because I went home and scrapped until 1am. I got all my monthly layouts done for Picture Me Perfect - yeah!

Saturday - we were supposed to work on the flip house slate walkway which we got great news this week. We have permits!! So the electrical and plumbing and all the other inside stuff can get started. But it was raining so that was out of the picture. Timmy got to play at a friend's house and Tyler and I went to the rock and mineral show to meet my SIL and nieces. That was actually fun and Vikkee and I were picking out our favorite jewelry. Wish we could have afforded it but the best designs we liked were from a local shop so we know where to go now. Then I picked up Timmy, went to Michael's and now I am home for the day. I hope to get more scrapping and knitting done. And more housework but I am so bad at that lately. But I did do this:

So maybe that is why I am getting some scrapping done! I need to organize some more (Like the stuff under my desk) but least I have space to work now!

Happy belated Easter to everyone. We had a busy day. Matt played drums for two services at our church which is growing and we are seeing lots of new faces there. I watched the babies in the nursery and we had two little girls that looked so cute in their dresses - I wished I had my camera with me. Then we headed over to my SIL's house who cooked another gourmet meal and everything was delicious. Next Easter baskets were given out to the kids and all the Dads hide the eggs for the kids. Then it is the kids turn to hide them for the Dads. It was nice to take a break from our house flip for 1 day. On Saturday, we worked 8 hours and it still looks like we are making little progress. The walkway is all covered in slate now but we still have to do the porch and then do some finishing steps so it looks it's best. I'll post pics when it is closer to being done.

So I have been home the last two days with a sick child. Poor Timmy had an infected tooth that seemed to get so bad overnight so he had it pulled Wednesday. He has had teeth pulled before but this time it is so bad and I've been playing nursemaid.


Maybe I will get to tackle my scrapcloset and could it be - actually do some layouts??



Here is my favorite projects from the latetst round of layouts for Picture me Perfect (used to be Bay Area Scrappers). I know this is for Autumn and it is not even summer yet but this is what I got to work with this month. They are called Creative Cards. Cehck out the link - the other DT memebers came upwith some great ideas on how to use them in mini albums and on layouts.

So nothing like house guests coming over to get you to clean your house. Even though the house guest was a 7 year old classmate of Tyler - I still felt the pressure. :-) This house flip has made our household out of sorts and on top of that Timmy has another play this weekend so it was a week of 3 hour rehearsales and 4 shows. Tyler had the bright idea of putting all the toys in a big box that were all over his room and having me hide it in the garage! :-) I thought that was pretty funny that he came up with that.

Anyway - here is my dilemma. This is my scrap space and it is jammed pack. My problem is that I try to keep the desk part clear but I always seem to end up with a teeny tiny space to work on layouts and it bugs me!! Any suggestions? I know I should purge a lot of the stuff but it seems like I just did that!