It's raining it's pouring my old man is snoring...

I have no idea where this post went since I had e-mailed it in an hour ago...so here we go


We got the call at 5:20 am this morning; schools are closed because of the icy road conditions. It’s raining pretty hard and the ground is iceberg cold and all of that snow, well that makes black ice. The kids are doing the happy dance, woohoo no school! Everyone is still asleep with the exception of me. Even the cat is sleeping in today. I can’t, I’ve got 4 more gourmet cheesecakes to make today and a house to clean.

I’m so excited about buying a house…I hope to hear back from our realtor today. The sooner we can get everything arranged- movers and a closing date, the better! My husband is such a catch! So the downstairs of this house isn’t finished but the framing is up for the laundry room, bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a utility room (for the water heater and furnace). So there’s my husband measuring and mapping this all out and he comes up with new down stairs plan with an addition of a craft room! And no, unlike where my scrapbook nook is now, I won’t be re-doing the utility room in this house, LOL! The family room area is huge, too huge really. Keeping that in mind, he’s taken a part of that super sized room and created a space for either a home office or in our case a new scrapbook nook. I tell ya he really is a catch! So now the upstairs bedroom will be our home office/guest bedroom. I’m seriously excited about it! I see that he’s even made a house plan with the room and furniture placement…I love this man!

The OSC movie night was really nice. It was held it at one of the squadrons in their auditorium (it’s nice). It was a small turn out but we did well on our collection of baby items for the Family Readiness Center. Many many packages of diapers, baby wipes, shampoo and more were donated. For each item brought a ticket was given for a chance to win one of my gourmet cheesecakes. You’re never going to believe who won this cheesecake…I did, LOL! What a crack up! I told my girlfriend Kim that I’d trade the cheesecake for the candle basket (she won 2 of the great boutique table prizes). Kim is so generous that she just gave me the basket of candles (it was a laundry basket FULL of wonderful scented candles too) telling me that I’ve been so good to her…she made me blush. So there we are in her truck coming home and I got this brain storm of an idea…how about we surprise someone in the neighborhood with this cheesecake? I knew just the person to surprise too J I know how my friend Amber wanted to be the winning bidder on the cheesecake that I had in our auction last year (the one that ended up selling for $135). It turned into a bidding war and lets just say it got out of her price range (heck it was out of my price range too- and I made it). Then last night she brought in many baby items in hopes of winning. So you can only imagine her surprise when I’m ringing her doorbell at a little before 9 pm and I’m giving her this cheesecake. I think that I made my friend cry tears of joy. I had to laugh when she said “this isn’t the whole cheesecake is it?” my reply “yes it is!” Let’s just say I got many hugs and many thanks and call it good. Kim and I just giggled and reveled in our warm fuzzies. The feeling of giving such a surprise like that to someone who does so much for those around her, well it gave both Kim and I such a sense of true joy and happiness. Only a small handful of people here know that I gave the cheesecake away… my pal Kim, my daughter Hannah and of course my friend Amber and her husband.

Now off I go to get dressed and get myself into cooking and baking gourmet cheesecakes!

We're going to buy a new house!

I'm so excited about this that if I had a tail I'd be wagging it like crazy! We met yesterday with our realtor and the realtor who represents the subdivision contractors. In all we looked at 4 different homes. After the realtor that represents the subdivision left our realtor Angie took us to look at the house we saw last Sunday (the one where the open house was) and one that is half finished that is right next door. Well guess what?!!!! After all that looking around, measuring room sizes, looking at things like closet space, kitchen and bathroom sizes...we've made a decision. It's going to be the last house that we looked at with just our realtor, the one that needs to have the downstairs finished off. There were a lot of things that we really liked about that house, a handful of things that we'd like to alter or improve (changing out that front door is on that list). Getting a gas line over to the kitchen for a gas stove (I'm a gourmet cook who prefers to use gas) and a gas line out to the deck for the new grill that I'm going to buy my husband as a moving in present! Okay so it's for me too, LOL!

So here I am ready and anxious to get stared on the paperwork to buy this house!

My wine glass story

I realized in the middle of the night that I never finished my story about the wine glasses, LOL! That's typical of me...getting off track. Soooooooo anyway my quest for more wine glasses end up with me looking all over the place for something decent looking. I saw some nice ones by Mikasa at Herbergers (that's our fancy department store in Rapid City) and they were nice but I didn't want to pay $50 for a set of 4, especially when I need at least 16 glasses. An idea that Lucien had was to buy plastic ones, ones we can toss into the recycle bin later on when we were done with them, the only ones I saw were $25 for a set of 4- for plastic? get out!

Smack me in the head but I didn't see anything at Target that I liked, and I roll my eyes at myself because I even tried Wal-Mart. For something half ways decent looking the best price was $17.99 for a set of 4, still more than I really wanted to spend. So as a last resort I went to the Ellsworth AFB BX (base exchange- it's like a Target department store for military families). I see wine glasses that I like at a very reasonable price $4.99 for a set of 4 and they look like they will match our Williamsburg Winery stemware. But wait, right next to all of that is that very same set of Mikasa wine glasses that I saw earlier at Herberger's, the price tag on these were $29.99 but wait! There's another tag on the shelf partially covering the $29.99 tag and it says $12.47, woohoo! SOoooooo, I take a box over to the nearest price scanner to make sure of this low price and get this...it scans in at $6.27! I ran and got a cart and loaded myself up with some great looking stem ware at a fraction of the retail price! So for about $25 I was able to get $200 worth of Mikasa stemware. Here's a picture of what they look like...

Happy Valentines Day!

It's cold outside, really cold! It was minus 8 last time I looked, and let me tell you... I don't care to be out in that again! Yesterday the snow plows came while I was out running errands and I had to shovel snow before I could pull up in the drive way, ugh! Well I did it, it wasn't easy by any means but I got it done :-) The really funny thing was that I just finished putting the shovel away and guess what...my husband drives up. Some times you just have to shake your head. But he did help me to bring in the groceries and other items I bought.

I had to get some wine glasses for this Wine and Cheesecake Tasting party we're having this weekend. It's a Mission Support Group thing...each month a different person from the group hosts a party, it gets people together in a non-work environment. So we've been to 2 of these parties so far...the all holidays celebrated in December one was a huge success and the Murder Mystery party was the best New Years Eve party ever! There's this funky Pink Flamingo that gets stuck in your yard and that lets everyone know that the next party is at your house. Usually it gets stuck there in the middle of the night and it's a surprise to you too, LOL!!! This is such a fantastic group of people, I love them all!

House Hunting- Yes we're still in the process, and today we're going to look at 4 more houses. We're looking at buying a new house. Our intentions were to buy a previously owned home and just move in. But alas, that didn't pan out. So here we are onto plan "b" new construction. I am shaking my head at this because this will be in fact our 3rd new house. My m-i-l must be beside herself with this one as her house is something like 105 years old- eek! But with all of that aside I am thinking that we have whittled it down and will be able to make a decision on a house by this weekend. What an exhausting experience this has been. It's rough trying to buy a house on your own without ones spouse being around, especially when there are features that we are both looking for in a house. The 3 car garage is a must, especially with weather like this. Storage space and a working kitchen are essential and a 5 bedroom house seems to be what we are leaning towards. Lets face it, I need a scrapbook room and we really do need a guest room, the inflatable mattress thing isn't cutting it in the least! We have guest room furniture that is in storage, we could actually use it after being in a crate for 4 years.

I've got to get into the kitchen and bake- I've got a charity event tomorrow and one of my prize cheesecakes is going to be raffled off. Then there's also the fact that I've got to bake 5 or 6 different kinds of cheesecakes for the cheesecake tasting party on Saturday.

I'm off like a dirty shirt! Have fun on Valentines Day and most of all...Eat Chocolate!

helping others through my own travels through the world of health care insurance

Here I am trying to set presidence with our insurance company. Blazing the trail so to speak in getting our insurance to pay valid medical expense claims. What happens if a child from the family of a young airmen needs a surgery to correct a congenital birth defect? How will that family pay that $2000 up front? Especially when they don't make the same amount of money as compared to higher ranking individuals? We need to get this out in the open, because this just isn't about us...it's about all military families and their medical claims. I'm working with some terrific people to get this issue out in the open. I hope to help others through my efforts in figuring out which avenues to travel with hopes of getting reimbursed for medical expenses.

Being frustrated..

The military life style just isn't glamorous, LOL! Some folks think ooh and aah about the places you can be assigned to. We for those of us with the B-1 bomber it's not like we can ever get an assignment to cool places like England, Sicily or Germany (don't I wish). Nope we get places like Abilene Texas and Rapid City South Dakota...there's nothing glam about these places what so ever. They're more like hometown places, places where nothing really goes on beyond the hosting of a central state fair. I'm just glad that there's an airport!

Today's frustration is pointed at our health insurance. I know, I know...at least we have health insurance right? Well I remember when all of our health care costs were ZERO. Now look at us...I submit a bill for $2000.00 of which I had to pay up front and I get reimbursed $391.04 talk about feeling ripped off by my insurance company. I'm beside myself. So not only did it take me almost a year to get my daughter her surgery, now I have to fight for the full cost reimbursement of her surgery- which I was promised by our health care provider- augh!
And now I've got a referral to get authorised for a speech pathologist for my daughter to be evaluated for her breathing...Tricare (aka try to get care) doesn't want to pay and United Concordia doesn't want to pay...augh!!!!!! So now I have to go through hoops all over again to get this taken care of. You have no idea how much I wish that I had private health-care insurance!

Guess what...more snow

Yes we have MORE snow. As a matter of fact, it's supposed to snow all day long (nice- yes I'm being sarcastic). Our daughter Hannah has a bad head cold, she's been fighting it all weekend long. So with that we're cancelling Girl Scouts- no need to spread those nasty head cold germs around.

My Sunday wash day has spread over to Monday (again). Lots of sweaters to get washed and to be hung to dry. Towels, with this many towels one would think that we had a swimming pool again, LOL! But ever since Hannah's surgery I refuse to let her use a towel more than once. Call me a germ freak, LOL!

The snow plows have not been down our street. The snow is piling up rather quickly. I have no desire to shovel snow again- I don't care if it's fluffy snow it's still a lot of work!

Now to get to work on some more of my layout sketches. I want to get lost in my scrapbook nook just playing with "stuff" in general.

a creative moment...

A seriously creative moment hit me in the middle of the night, no joke. It’s about 1:30 am and I awake with a terrific layout ideas for some pictures my husband recently took on his flight. He’s got some great aerial shots of Greece, Sicily and a few other places. So being the scrapbooker that I am, I rush to get some paper and a pen and jot down my ideas before they leave me (that has happened in the past- very frustrating). Now to get these pictures printed up and get these layouts in motion! I feel truly motivated to get some scrapbooking done this morning. I love it when I wake up feeling like that!

This reminds me, I need to print my journaling up for my picture a day scrapbook project. I’ve been putting that off for a few days due to all of my running around.

 

  

 

A Happy Surprise!

My husband got back a day early from his TDY- yeah for us!!! I was so surprised to hear his voice in the entry way on Friday afternoon. WOW! The kids were excited so see their Dad home early as well. Then he hooked the digital camera up to the TV and got to see in big size the pictures he took- amazing!

Hannah has a terrible head cold that started on Friday and today Sunday morning it’s only gotten worse not better. I’m going to call off Girl Scouts tomorrow, there’s no need in making anyone else sick.

The death of Anna Nicole Smith and other news...

Praise the Lord, we have funding for our school buses until the end of school (May). I do thank the Lord for miracles great and small. Being without busing here on base would put so many of our military families in hardship situations. There are many families that rely on the base Youth Center for before and after school care. Well if the bus service was indeed cancelled that before and after school care service provided by the Youth Center would no longer be available because of the fact that there are so many children and lets face it, the youth center has access to a 15 passenger van but that can't be relied upon for to and from school transportation, not when you have as many as 40 or more kids that use this service.

I didn't read the news on line nor watch it on TV yesterday. I started reading it today and saw that Anna Nicole Smith had passed away. She suffered so much tragedy in these last few months of her life. It's all just so sad, very very sad. My heart goes out to her baby daughter that will never know her mother, and to her teenage son that she leaves behind.

Looks like Mad Cow Disease is back in the news also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It's been found in Alberta Canada. IS this a cause for concern? I think so.

My have the NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak and the trouble she's gotten herself into. I wonder about the testing that NASA puts their astronauts through...do they preform psychological evaluations on a regular basis on these people? And I was surprised to learn that there aren't any rules or regulations about the astronauts developing personal relationships; as I see it, that can only lead to trouble later on. I was reading on MSNBC about the mid-air near miss accident when a NASA Astronaut was within 100 feet from an airplane full of passengers- here's the link to that story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17049013/ it's an interesting story.

And then there's that idiot in Idaho that stole hundreds of women's panties. What is up with that??? What a perve! Talk about a nut case!

Yup it's an interesting day in the new today!

Snow...it's everywhere you don't want it to be

We have snow. So far it’s been of the light and fluffy variety not that wet heavy kind (hat will break your back when you try to shovel it). I do have to say that the trees have never looked better. I love how they look (especially the pine trees) all covered in frost and snow. I look out the window and see the light glistening off of the snow, it’s beautiful. I see where rabbits have been hopping around looking for a meal or a warmer place to spend the night. It’s all over my kid mobile; I will be shoveling up a storm tomorrow that’s for sure! The only thing I have to say is at least the wind isn’t blowing. It’s a slight breeze at 3 mph…which is a lot better than 30 mph! I made sure to put my wiper blades up so that they don’t stick to the windshield (just a little trick I learned from my hubby back when we were stationed in Maine). I had snow in my shoes; down the neck of my sweater…I was covered in it! It was falling down pretty good when I went out.

 

Now where is that digital camera of mine? It’s off touring the world with my husband. I don’t know how my 35 mm will do at night in the snow. I’ll try first thing in the morning. Maybe if the kids are lucky we will get enough snow to delay school starting by a couple of hours.

 

aaahhhh the delights of base housing will they ever cease?

I'm hoping that today goes much better than yesterday. Although it's not looking too good at the moment...first off I was awake from 2 am until 5:15 am...I love my cat but seriously I'm ready to lock her up somewhere! I think that our cat misses my husband.

So far today the water heater seems to be working. We shall see if the pilot light goes out again. Andrew didn't say anything this morning, then again he didn't say anything after his cold shower yesterday either. So who knows what's in store there!

It hit the local news last night, it's now official...Ellsworth AFB will stop providing bus service here on the base as of March 1st, 2007. For those that thought that the city of Box Elder provided that service they are mistaken. It's a $400,000+ a year contract, basically it comes down to funding. Our base wasn't allocated funding to keep the bus program running. Heck as it is, the 2007/2008 school year will be without bus service too. Yet another reason to live off base.

Yup, another day in my life, LOL! I suppose that I should take a picture of the buses stopping at the bus stop one last time eh? I can put that in my picture a day scrapbooking page and journal about it.

Baby Sleeping

I love making little things and this was something that I made for a friend who recently had a baby. It's just a little something to hang on the door knob when baby is sleeping. I used my Sizzix Sizzlits dies to create the "Sleeping" part and the paper was some scraps that I had hanging around form another project.

Friends are Angels in Disguise

I truly believe that statement! I also believe that things happen for a reason...I'm in the final and last stage of negotiations for this house...if the homeowner decides not to accept my offer then so be it. I do have other options, his is not the only house on the market. Sure I liked the things that he had, but there's also a lot of things that need to get done too (costly things). I talked at length with my friend Cindy today...I was so stressed at the beginning of our phone conversation and by the end I was feeling so good about everything. What Cindy said to me just rang so true...So what if this home owner doesnt accept my offer...it's not as if this is the only house for sale. Amen to that! It was as if I felt this hand on my shoulder right as she was saying these things to me, and this sense of peace washed over me...that's the only way I can describe it. I knew at that very moment that everything WAS going to be okay...no matter what the outcome.

Where I was so worried earlier today, I feel so calm and at peace with it all now. I don't want to be upset over things that I have no control over. I truly think that the Lord has put these wonderful friends into my life for a reason...we all need to reach out and be there for another, as I see it it's like we are Angels on Earth.

Sheesh! is it Monday again?

I tell you, it feels like Monday to me! It's time to put another crazy day on the books for this Air Force Family, no doubt about that!

The cat kept me up from 2:30 am until almost 4 am. I was ready to toss her put into the garage, but since it snowed last night and it was below freezing I didn't do it...I thought about it though! Then of course I woke up late, got the kids up about 45 minutes later than I normally get them up. Oh yeah it's a rough start to say the least. And of course we HAD to get snow last night, so I have to warm up the kid mobile, shovel snow and remove the snow from the kid mobile all before 7:30 am. And of course as I am literally getting ready to walk out the door the phone rings...I see it's a number form on base (I love caller id)...it's my husband calling to let me know that he's arrived safely to his destination. I brief him on the situation with the negotiations with the house and so forth, and let him talk with the one child who is still in the house. I get the kids to school on time and drive on out to Wal-mart. Why do I need to go to Wal-mart so darn early? 1- to avoid any crowds and 2- to get some 35 mm film and batteries for my camera. My husband took the digital camera with him on his trip and I need a camera today to get pictures of our daughter receiving an award today at school. Ah the life of a military wife is not an easy one...not by any means.

Now I'm waiting on a phone call and then to head out to the Realtors office again. One of the hardest parts of this negotiating thing is waiting to hear back from the home owner...has he accepted my bid? Or are we on our way to yet another phase of negotiations?

Well I just talked to my agent...looks like I'm off to yet another phase in the negotiations. I should know more by 12 noon...now if I can wait and not develop an ulcer between now and then. Here's a little known fact...I'm not very good about waiting for things to happen.

It's Tuesday Grommet

It's Tuesday, just another day in this military family's life....My husband left for a TDy to parts unknown. He'll be on the other side of the world, some place warm (warmer than here any way). Meanwhile back at the ranch I'm currently in the process of negotiating a deal to buy a house. Yes you read that right I'm trying to buy a house. I started the process yesterday and am going to give a counter offer today. Please keep me in your prayers as I take this new avenue on living here in South Dakota.

Our son is preparing for a clothing drive for his Jr ROTC class. He's going full throttle here at the house going through all of our closets, weeding out clothes and jackets that are too small. It's a hoot to watch him do this (I've been waiting years for this). You should see his room, oh my gosh I've never seen his closet and drawers so organized! It's a miracle I tell ya, a real miracle! Now only if Hannah would get with the program and clean her room. One miracle at a time right? LOL!

Now to grab a bit of breakfast and feed the birds...I better do it before they become cannibals, LOL!

It's just another Manic Monday...

Today this song mirrors my life...
I met with my friend Cindy and she gave me a tour of her home, it's lovely! She and her family live in the subdivision where we are looking at buying a home. Cindy's house is what is known as being "new construction" where as the house that my husband and I are currently considering is 2 years old. We're trying to make up our minds whether to build a new home to to buy a previously owned home. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. We've already been through the stress of having built 2 homes, doing it for a 3rd time isn't scary to us, we view it as more of a time consuming pain in the neck than anything else. Do I really want to have to go through all of the hassle of picking out door knobs, faucets and light fixtures? Then there's the flooring...be it ceramic tile, vinyl, carpet, hardwood or stained concrete, UGH!!!! Paint chips, siding, wood trim, it gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it! LOL! So we're more interested in a previously owned home more than building a house...at this time. I had a dream last night that I was buried in paint chips, talk about a nightmarish thought...having to look at hundreds and hundreds of paint chips all in various shades of beige and white.

On the lighter side...our daughter Hannah has her 2nd post-op appointment today. I can't begin to tell you how good her ears look! She has so much more confidence in herself and it really shows. She no longer feels so seriously self conscious about how she looks. She's actually had me braid her hair and put it in pig tails for school, by the way- she would never wear her hair like that anywhere else but home before the surgery. This is one of those life changing surgeries.

The laundry is calling me...then again when isn't it? The good side to this, it's only 3 loads:-)

Lent...what to give up?

While at church today I realized that Lent will soon be upon us. With that in mind I've got to start thinking about what I will be giving up for Lent. I gave up fast food a couple of years ago and let me tell you that was a tough one because my husband was deployed at the time. With a husband away for an extended period of time fat food is a Mother's Helper, LOL! But now I don't really give a 2nd thought to buying fast food for us when my husband is away. I'd much rather prepare a meal from scratch and have us gather around the table and enjoy a meal together.
So here I am, wondering what I will give up for Lent...will it be chocolate? Naw, I've got cheesecakes to bake and I need to be taste testing this stuff, LOL! Will it be Beef? Nope, you can't give up something that you really don't eat in the first place...that's considered to be cheating, LOL! How about not buying scrapbooking products of any kind for 6 weeks? I know that I'd break that one, LOL!!!
Want to know what I gave up last year? Nothing! What I did was to "take on" something...something that was very hard for me to deal with at the time. I took it on and guess what I was able to work through the tough times and develop more compassion and understanding. It was an experience that had it's rough spots but with prayer and true devotion to my Lenten promise, I got through it. I'm considering this kind of thing again for this year. I've got a bit more time to think about it before I commit to something.

Super Bowl Sunday

Here it is, the Holy Grail of Sundays...Super Bowl Sunday. I've got junk food galore for the family to nibble on while they are glued to the television. I knew all along the "real" reason why we went to church...to pray for a good game, LOL!!!

But seriously, I love how my husband and daughter enjoy watching football together. I stopped enjoying it a while back. I'd much rather sit back with a good book in a quite corner while the rest of the people jumped up and down rallying on their teams. I figure that today I can get some work done on the computer because the rest of my family are upstairs watching the game :-)

Yesterday we went with our realtor to look at house's that are for sale. I think that we have made up our minds on which one we're going to put a bid on. Please keep us in your prayers as we go into this new endeavor.

a letter to my dear friend...

A dear friend wrote me a letter about her recent disappointment with her husband being passed over for promotion again and I thought that I would share the letter that I wrote in reply...

Some things are harder to work through than others, trust me I know. We know someone out here that finally got promoted to Lt Col 3 years above the zone…so it can happen. The only word of advice I can truly give you is that you need to find a happy place in your heart and stay there. That’s what I did after that major let down last June. My heart was broken when we had that assignment to Hanscom AFB pulled out of our hands. My hopes and dreams of finally being near family were dashed to pieces and I had a hard time getting it together again. I cried for days afterwards. Then that assignment carrot was dangled in front of us again for the fall move cycle…again it was yanked out of our hands. And that’s when I said “skip this, enough is enough! I’m going to make myself truly miserable (and get an ulcer) if I give any more thought to getting out of here". So with many prayers being said asking the Lord to guide me in becoming happy with where I am... I found a happy place in my heart. I soon threw myself into the little things that made me happy. Baking cheesecakes for various charity functions and surprising friends with my cheesecakes for Christmas was another thing that gave me great joy. Scrapbooking those OSC events and getting back into counted cross stitching brought me even more joy. I actually found myself being happy being on the OSC board and attending every military function that I could. I’ve only missed attending one OSC function and that was because I was in Boston attending CKU-Masters! God handed me a bag of lemons and a bowl of sugar, what I do with the 2 are totally up to me. So as I figure it, I’m going to make the most of the two and have some ice cold lemonade while sitting on my front porch this summer with my best friend. What better way to make the best of a bad situation, I tell you I am not bitter about staying out here. I had accepted the fact that we were not going to be able to escape this place (just like the 7 years we spent at Dyess AFB). I’ve accepted the fact that once you get to a bomber base they are not letting you go! Now I’m so glad that I did not set myself up for being disappointed about us not getting to move out of state. Over the past couple of months I've let my husband know time and time again that I will not take the news of us staying here another 4 years as bad news. That I refuse to get myself worked up over something that I have no control over. With that right there I think I had him seeing the light…and that’s when he promised me that no matter what our news, that we will be moving out of this house. That was such a blessing for me to hear that coming out of my husbands’ mouth. I knew that I could make plans; I had something to look forward to and sometimes that’s all we Air Force wives need…something to look forward to. So here I am, getting ready to make an offer on a house. Tomorrow we’re meeting the realtor at the house with our kids... to look over the house once more. Then we will get with our realtor and make an offer on the house. I want to get this show on the road! I just want to get started on the house process as soon as possible. We’re going to hire professional movers to move all of our furniture and other belongings; well with exception of my scrapbook nook (Only I touch that stuff).

Okay I’m outta here…got to write in my blog ya know ;-)

Purging the stash...

I realize that being a scrapbooker sets you up for developing a serious addiction printed paper and cardstock, LOL! You've suddenly got to have the latest colors from Bazzill or the newest printed papers from Basic Grey, KI Memories, Around the Block, American Crafts, Bo Bunny and My Minds Eye just to name a few. So with that in mind I have culled another 2½ inches of paper from my collection and am giving it away to a friend. I figure that I can enable someone else with their scrapbooking habit. It's not that these papers are bad in any way, it's that I did not use these papers for the projects that I had intended to use them on and I really do want to see these papers being used! The bad part is that I spent money on these things and never used them. I figure that I can give these papers to good homes and to fellow scrapbookers that will use them :-) I can hardly wait to see the layouts that my friends will be creating with this stuff!

Welcome to February!

Baby it's cold outside! How cold? Lets just say that we've been told not to go out without being covered up all over (no bare skin). I don't know about you, but I really don't like this kind of weather, it acres me to think that I (or anyone) could get frost bite in an instant just by stepping out of doors. So with that very thought in mind I've decided to do 3 things today, work in my scrapbook nook, bake a cheesecake for Saturday's baby shower (I'm part of a committee that is hosting a baby shower for a neighbor) and I'm going to make a big pot of vegetarian chili. So no matter what I am going to be staying warm today!

I started going through my collection of patterned paper yesterday. I wanted to take a good look at it all and really see what I have one hand. I found that I had a drawer stuffed full of 12x12 paper and cardstock that needed to be put away. Oh my gosh I have several sheets of a few particular papers...they will need to find a new home since I have used them already in creating a few layouts. There's nothing wrong with them, it's just that I've used them quite a bit already and am wanting to use something else besides those handful of papers. I had to get brutally honest with myself and purse all of my Making Memories water color papers. I thought that maybe I'd use them in creating some recipe pages, but if I haven't used them since we moved from Virginia in 2003, I'm not about to use them now. I did use them quite a bit a few years ago, but I've moved past those products and am now on to other things. The girlfriend that owns them now is quite happy with them and I am glad that they are now with someone who will use them :-)

I'm going through the rest of of my printed/patterned paper collection and will be really tough with myself and make a serious effort in weeding out even more papers and even make some layouts with stuff that has been hanging around for way too long. I've got some various pieces of Victorian style floral paper that would make a terrific vintage looking layouts. I want to give them a try today. I'm serious about making a dent in my stash of scrapbooking supplies this year! I'm allowing myself to buy 8½x11 cardstock for making cards and my journaling blocks for my picture a day a year in my life scrapbooking projects and some scrapbooking tools here and there. But seriously, I am cutting back on the amount of printed papers I own and I'm trying hard not to buy any more without using them immediately! I started counting how many pieces I had yesterday and frankly speaking I was astounded at finding out that I own 1357+ pieces of patterned paper and that was without counting in the 3 inch stack of Making Memories water color collection paper. That's when I decided that I HAVE to make a more serious attempt at lowering the numbers this collection of mine and find new homes for some of these papers. No wonder why I find myself frequently with the feeling of being crowded in my own little scrapbook nook...the paper is taking over, LOL! So off I go with a fresh mug of Swiss Chocolate Almond coffee (with cream) to get rid of at least another 2 or 3 inches of paper today!

last day of the month

I'm so happy that it really is the last day of January. This has been such a wild month and I hope that February ushers in a calmer less intense month for myself and my family. Only 1 layout to go for my month long picture a day project.

The good thing that I did today was to clear out a huge stack of scrapbooking papers that have been sitting in my "maybe" pile. Maybe I'll use them or maybe I'll donate them. Well a girlfriend called me up with a scrapbooking question and she needed a couple of pieces of cardstock...and since I practically have a store in my house... Any way, I decided to pack up this huge pile of paper and bring along the 2 pieces of cardstock that she needed. I told my girlfriend that she could have it all , that I was culling the herd and taking out stuff I know that I won't use for one reason or another. She was thrilled and wouldn't just let me give it to her. Hey I made some pocket money, had a wonderful mug of real made from scratch hot chocolate (it was seriously delicious!!!). I had a great afternoon and spent it in good company!

Now I'm off to clean up after dinner and to hang out with my husband and children. Did I mention that I started making our change of address cards? Oh yeah! Now to work on getting a new address, LOL!

Where do we go from here?

That question has long been on our minds. So we found out what's going on with our move...basically nothing. So it's now official, we're staying here and our son can finish all 4 years at the same high school. Just about every move we have ever done has been with the best interest of our children in mind. When you think about it, our decision to live on base was about the kids going to the best schools in the area. So now with the news that we'll be finishing out my husband's Air Force career here, why not buy a house and still live in the area with the best schools. Now it's official...we're looking to buy a house!

A day without Hot Water

There's nothing quite like an icy shower to get you up and screaming first thing in the morning. For some time now our water heater has been acting a little finicky and today it just didn't want to provide us with any hot water. We had someone come out form housing maintenance to work on it...lets see if it produces hot water now. It could be that the thermostat has stopped working and might need to be replaced. So in a couple of hours I might be able to get a shower...I don't know yet.

This morning it's cold outside, a whopping -8º with the windchill index...w/o the windchill it's a whole 0º and that's just too cold for me! I'm going to make some Chai Tea and maybe whip up some scones...that sure sounds yummy! Then it's off to the computer to get some photo printing and journaling done for my picture a day project.

Thought of the week...

"Humor is everywhere, in that there's irony in just about anything a human does."  

 

~Bill Nye  

 

 

It's Monday like no other...

As I look at this blustery Monday I have my friends here at Ellsworth AFB on my mind. This is the first full day that their husbands and wives are gone on their 6 month deployment for the war effort. I know that for many of the spouses that this is their first deployment. Six months is a long time, but with the many support groups here available to them they will make it through this tough time...none of them are alone in this. I will be doing my part as a friend, key spouse and mentor to help these families to maintain a level of harmony and happiness in their homes. I've been there, I know how lonely it can be, especially the first deployment...it's rough. Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.

It's blustery, there's no doubt about that! The wind is howling around 40 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. In other words...if you don't need to be outside, do go outside! I went and chased down my neighbors trash cans and brought them back to the front of her house. Why her sons don't help her out is beyond me. But I'm not about to let those garbage cans go flying down the road and damage someones automobile and then have my neighbors get in trouble for it...there's no need for it. So, I suited up against the freezing temperatures and got those cans!

We have Girl Scouts this afternoon and our topic today is eating disorders. I can't drive this topic home enough. Eating disorders start in girls as young as 10years old. It's scary to think that they could see themselves being anything other than normal, but it happens and more frequently then we care to think about.

I went to a crop on Saturday afternoon with the ESG (enlisted spouses group). I had a terrific time! I plan to attend their monthly crops. They meet at the chapel annex the last Saturday of every month. I'm trying to talk them into a pot luck where we all bring something to share and the organizer of this event (my friend Heather) seemed to think that it was a good idea. And you know that I'd make a "special" chesecake for them :-)

Okay now for some HOT tea because it is cold city USA out here today!

Award Banquet...

Here we are, My husband Lucien is on the left and our friend Joe is on the right. It was a wonderful awards ceremony and it left me feeling good about the Air Force and everything about the military. I love seeing civilians and military members being recognized for their hard work and especially the volunteers and their work in our military community. My friend Heather won an award for civilian volunteer of the year...way to go Heather! I'll be seeing Heather tomorrow at a scrapbooking crop hosted by the enlisted spouses group here on base, that reminds me...I need to get some stuff together for the crop :-)
Alright...it's time to get changed out of the fancy clothes and get the ole pj's on, grab a hot mug of tea and unwind from a fabulous evening. I still have an ear to ear smile on my face about seeing Joe again...he's still the same...just as humble and as nice as he ever was :-)

Another formal event...

I love getting dressed up for these formal military events. Everyone in their best looks, and the military mess dress is so sharp looking! I'm bringing my camera tonight as I am hoping to get pictures of folks that are dressed up and one of my husband and I would be nice to have and maybe General Mudd will let me take a picture of Lucien and him together too.
Tonight our speaker is Brigadier General Joe Mudd, the exciting part is that we actually know this guy! We know him from Lucien's assignment at Loring AFB, Maine (that base is now closed) back in the days when my husband was a B-52 Navigator. AAhhh the memories! Well off I go to get dressed and to be ready when my spouse gets home.

No School Today

I never remember having days off from school like my kids do. Today is an in service day for the teachers. That must really be hard for those that have children at home, especially when both parents work or a single parent home. I suppose that's when you either take your kids to work with you or you have a friend take them under her wing for the day.

Here we are...it's windy (when isn't it though). Yesterday was a beautiful day reaching 58º now today is not going to be as warm and delightful as yesterday was but I will encourage my kids to ride their bikes to the park none the less.

I shall work on the pile of scrapbook projects that I didn't get time to work on because of my gabbiness at yesterdays crop. I did manage to get some things done but not to the extent that I had planned for myself. I will finish up my picture a day layouts. I saved them especially to do at this crop and all I managed to do was to crop the pictures and cut the journaling blocks into size...nothing else.

My coffee pot is calling me...Oh do I need some more of that wonderful brown liquid!

My Cookbook Nook: Sandie's Turtle Cheesecake

My Cookbook Nook: Sandie's Turtle Cheesecake

My Cookbook Nook: Baked Potato Soup

My Cookbook Nook: Baked Potato Soup

Fun Fun Fun!

WOW! We had an awesome time scrapbooking today! I laughed and laughed! Lunch was great, the Baked Potato Soup was superb and the Turtle Cheesecake was out of this world! Friends Kristine and Georgia brought extra pages to work on, Kim was just in time for lunch and then we made the recipe pages. I was so happy to see that my friends liked what I had put together for them. I’ll take pictures of the pages we did and post the recipes to my cookbook nook blog. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy having these ladies over and putting this kind of thing together for them. It’s fun to let your hair down and to just have fun with your friends while doing things that you all enjoy. I feel so motivated that I’m going back upstairs and am going to finish what I started in my scrapbooking frenzy today. I saved up all of my picture a day pages to put together today. I cut the journaling and the pictures cut to size, now to stick it all together.

I give thanks to the Lord for good friends, good food and good conversation. It’s moments like these (spending quality time with good friends) that I truly cherish.

QuicKutz

I don't know about you but I'm a gadget and tool person. From the kitchen to the scrapbook nook I love gadgets and tools! My QuicKutz tool and dies are no exception. I'm not saying that it's better than my Sizzix, no not even close. What I am saying is that they compliment one another, I can't think of one without thinking of the other. I love the compact shape and the portability aspect of the QuicKutz but seriously folks...I'm not about to take it to a crop. It's just one less thing to worry about losing or getting broken.

So today we're making recipe pages for our recipe scrapbook. The die cutter of choice today is QuicKutz. Why QuicKutz instead of Sizzix, it's the dies themselves. The garden tools dies (a spade and a hand rake) are perfect for the Baked potato soup recipe page with has garden themed paper on it, which happens to have a hand rake and a spade (too cute). The other is the Honu, the Hawaiian word Turtle. The design is of a Hawaiian origin of a Sea Turtle. When we were in Hawaii in 2005 we saw this design everywhere we went. So I thought that it was very appropriate for this recipe layout.

The variety of shapes and designs from QuicKutz is amazing! Granted they are small but you know what, they're perfect for making cards or when you need a small accent on a scrapbook layout. I called the lss (local scrapbooking store) that carries QuicKutz dies and asked if they had the die I was looking for (the spade and hand rake) they did and they put it aside for me. I grabbed the car keys and I was out the door! There's nothing like a 25% off sale when you need a little tool! I didn't buy any scrapbooking anything but that die! So I'm staying with my plan of not buying supplies. A little die now and again won't hurt my budget or my plans to reduce the paper and cardstock supply. Actually it helped me to reduce the pile a bit :-) So with that in mind, I want to tell you all that I made 14 page kits with paper and cardstock that I have on hand. I feel pretty darn good about getting this paper out of my scrapbook nook and into a great project! I used up some of my terrific scraps of Bazzill cardstock for the die-cuts. I feel pretty good with it all today! Yup I'm reducing and sharing with others...what a great feeling! Hey here's an enabler alert...need some QuicKutz dies? Head on over to Scrappin Ladies 2 in Rapid City (Pierre too for that matter) as they have all QuicKutz items on sale for 25% off!!!!

Bazzill Basics Paper Company

Ever since I was first introduced to Bazzill Cardstock in 2000 I was hooked on it! I instantly fell head over heals in love with the rainbow of colors and the texture (talk about out of this world) not to mention that it was a "meatier" cardstock. Unlike the no name brand that I had been using that came from places such as Michael's Arts & Crafts and Hobby Lobby, this stuff was something else! It seems that they would come out with something new every few months. I remember when they came out with the monochromatic packs of cardstock...I bought every single one in 12x12 and the 8½x11 packs! Granted I was working at the time at a scrapbooking store and received a terrific price on the stuff.
It's now 2007 and let me tell you, Bazzill Basics Paper Company still rocks! The myriad of colors and textures that they produce is phenomenal! I can't seem to get enough of it! I'm happy with the fact that all 3 scrapbooking stores here in town carry Bazzill Basics Paper. Check them out at a scrapbook store near you, I think that you will find that you will LOVE it! Now only if they would sell some of the fancy edged cardstock from Bazzill...LOL!

Toss, Sell or Donate...just do it!

Yesterday afternoon I started pulling out all kinds of scrapbooking items and sorted them by what I wanted to do with them... I have the following piles of stuff; give away to friends, donate to a charity, sell it on e-bay or our local thrift shop and of course the ever so popular just toss it in the trash!. I have idea books (hard cover), albums, paper, embellishments and more. These are things I'm keeping around Why? If there aren't at least 10 ideas in any one given idea book that I want to try out then why bother keeping them, they are just taking up space. And as you all know, space is at a premium here in My Scrapbook Nook. I figure that some of these can fetch a decent penny and others...we'll I'll check to see if any friends want them, if not then off to the trash they go!

Lets face it, as women we hold on to all stuff (be it scrapbooking stuff or old clothes) because of the following reasons;
1-we remember how much we paid for it
2-Oh the memories
3-it looks cool on the shelf or on the hanger
4-Wow how impressive to show everyone how much cardstock I have (even though more than half of it is of inferior quality that you would never use in a million years)
5-someone gave it top you and you don't want to insult them by getting rid of it
6- it might come back in style


I say lets work past these reasons and just get rid of it!!!!

You won't believe what I just found...

I'm so embarrassed but I'm confessing the truth and am admitting it right now...I just found 4 more albums, 1- 6x6, 1- 8x8, 1- 8½x11 and 1- 12x12 album. Oh yeah, it's a sickness, Scrapbooking supplies Hoarders disease, LOL! I have no clue as to what I even was doing having them where they were. SO here we go, I'm going to give these gems to a good home. Maybe I'll sell off some of the extra stuff I have and make a few $$. By them time I get round to using some of this stuff I'll be in my 90's, LOL!!!

Alright I'm going back into the trenches...I'll keep you updated on other long lost treasures that I find.

Taking Inventory of My Scrapbook Nook...

I bet if we all started to take inventory of what we actually have on hand we would be floored! I started going through my stock of empty scrapbook albums. Oh my gosh! I have 16 (that's sixteen) 12x12 empty albums, I've got 11 (eleven) empty 6x6 albums and 2 more that are in the process of being filled. Then there's my 8x8 albums...Oh my gosh I've got almost as many of them! And of course the odd ball 8½x11 album, got it at an OSC function. I've got to get off of my duff and get cracking on these albums! I have all sorts of little projects running through my head for these small albums. I am a bit taken back with how many albums I currently own, that's a lot of albums!

Now for me to start going through things like printed paper, cardstock and of course embellishments. If I know what I have, I am less likely to go out and purchase more. I think that everyone would be less apt to spend money knowing that they have the same thing or at least something very similar at home. I've got a stamp inventory, so I know what I have there. Creating that inventory was an eye opening experience, until then I never really realized how many stamps I truly owned. I've not bought a stamp since September 2006, not even one that was on clearance.

Now as you're all wondering... how does one amass a collection like this? Well it certainly wasn't done all at once I can tell you that much. It's nothing more than shopping at good sales and buying items that went on clearance. I know that the majority of my 6x6 K&Company album collection came from the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby. They were seriously marked down deals that I obviously couldn't pass up, LOL! It's a lot of money that I've spent over time so it doesn't feel like I spent that much. Start adding up what you have and you'll soon realize you've got a small fortune tied up on those unused supplies that are hanging out gathering dust and taking up space. So lets get on it and make the commitment to use what you have!!!

Making a dent in my scrapbooking stash

Okay I took the weekend off now what...I'm back in my scrapbook nook working on getting my overlays into 12x12 page protectors and into a 3 ring album for storage. I read an article on organizing and this was one of the suggestions...I like the idea but don't know if I really have room for it in my scrapbook nook. I have limited space and frankly a 12x12 binder of sorts just will not fit in here, LOL! But I have room in one of 2 places, my armoire or the linen closet. Well the more I think about it, I think that the linen closet is nearing maximum capacity. I don't know how much longer I can stand being in such confined quarters. So with that very thought in mind I'm making every effort to use the supplies that I have on hand to make a dent in my stash and hopefully free up some space in my scrapbook nook.
I admit it, I'm a scrapbook supply hoarder, it's a harsh word but there it is. I've really got to stick to my no buy commitment use up these supplies and not buy more paper or embellishments other than adhesive to complete a project that is in the works. Lets face it, the scrapbook industry thrives off of those of us that buy the merchandise but never use them or only use a select few items that are in our stash. Why are we saving it in the first place? LOL! I subscribe to Big Picture Scrapbooking newsletter, and frankly there's a class that has captured my interest in a major way..."Product Playground". It's something right up my alley, it's for those of us that have resolved to using up more of our scrapbooking stash in 2007. It's $35 for a 6 week course. I'm going to bring this up at the crop on Thursday. It's something that I think my friends and I need...trust me I know which ones of us hoard supplies...Kim, Susan, Theresa and most of all myself! I admit it, I'm terrible when it comes to hoarding supplies. I have more "stuff" than I could use in a year! If it weren't for me being do darn anal about having to have cardstock matching my printed papers ever so perfectly I would have made a bigger dent in the old stash 2006. But by being OSC Historian I've actually started to make a small (and only noticeable to myself) dent in my own personal stash. My picture a day scrapbooking project is helping me to use up embellishments and cardstock scraps that have been hanging around here for ages. Even with those projects I need to push myself into getting more done and making my way through the tons of photo's that I have that need to find their away into layouts and albums.
So who's with me? Lets all make a commitment to using up our scrapbooking supply stash in 2007 and limiting our scrapbooking purchases.

50 questions...or there about

I'm hosting another OSC scrapbook group meeting here at The Cottage on Thursday. I'm wanting to encourage members to come so I make lunch for us all, always trying out a new recipe for something super yummy. This week will be no different. I need to make my scrapbook page up for this recipe and let others who are interested make recipe pages too.
One thing that I've wanted to do and have now gotten done is to have a scrapbooking related question basket. I've got some 50 plus questions typed and printed out, cut into strips and soon to be folded and tossed into a basket. These will be our topic starters. I started thinking about this and started jotting questions down on note paper on Saturday, then on Sunday evening (during football)I made myself sit at the computer. I started writing and the questions/topic starters just flowed out of me. I just know that this is going to be a lot of fun! There are questions for newbies as well as advanced scrapbookers. I even have a short quiz...how many places in town are there where you can buy scrapbooking supplies? This certainly will stump all with exception of the hardcore scrapbookers of the group...or should I say hardcore scrapbook supply collectors. I'm trying to get some of these ladies motivated to use their supplies and to get back into the groove of scrapbooking. Heck using up my stash is one of my big goals for 2007!

Off I go getting those kids of mine reading for school! It's picture day for those with children in AFJRROTC...that's Air Force junior ROTC. I have every intention of putting these in Andrew's scrapbook!

Taking the weekend off

I took the weekend off to be with my family. Saturday I hung out on the couch or in the recliner. Reading books, magazines articles or watching TV. It was a lazy day and I relished every moment of it. Sunday we attended church chatted with friends afterwards then off to shop at the commissary. While grocery shopping I ran into at least a half dozen (if not more) people that I knew. My friend Theresa was there with a list of ingredients for a recipe from a new cook book. I had to crack up with her list of items, items that she's never bought before. Pancetta and shallots top the list. Even though I giggled, I let her know that the commissary didn't carry pancetta but she could get it at Safeway downtown and I took her by the hand to show her the shallots. I love seeing friends branching out and trying new recipes and new things. Which reminds me...I need to send out reminders for scrapbooking group today!

My first scrapbook layout...ever

Do you remember the first scrapbook layout that you ever made? How about your 2nd layout?Well I recently came across mine and let me tell you...it gave me a good laugh! When you see this you are going to laugh out loud (and I do mean out loud). And to think that I created these layouts with a Creative Memories Consultant's one on one help...no wonder why I have bad memories of certain CMC's, oh my gosh this certainly is something to behold. We all have to start somewhere right? And here's my start...

It's Friday!

I'm so happy that it's Friday! Today is print out the pictures and journaling day for my picture a day scrapbook project. As a new years resolution sort of thing I decided to do this for an entire year.

I'm going to make an album just for these layouts over on my webshots page...heck I should make a blog just for my layouts here on blogspot, LOL!

I'm off to get dressed and to work in my creative space I lovingly call My Scrapbook Nook.

my messy little scrapbook nook

So here it is, my messy little nook, actually it looks the same as it did the other day. So now for me to get in there are put that album back together. I was giving some other brands of page protectors a test drive and well none of them worked. So with that in mind, now to stick the layouts all back in the original page protectors.

What a wonderful evening

Our OSC Chef's Bingo was a terrific event! Many great prizes and the boutique table was chuck full of some truly great items. I've yet to upload my photo's to my computer (I hope that they turned out well). The gift bags on the tables were a terrific hit! Every person whose name was drawn loved their "loot bag". The contents of the bag consisted of the following;
*a spring form pan (one of either of these sizes) 8, 9 or 10 inches
*a gourmet cheesecake recipe that is pan size specific
*a nice wooden spoon that has a wide spoon face
*an 8x11 wooden cutting board one side flat the other side has the groove to catch juices
*a sheet of reusable parchment. This is very much like a silpat with one exception that you can cut this down to fit in your pans without hesitation. The price was only $6.50 for the reusable parchment versus the $40 price tag on a silpat of the same size.
* last but not least is the beautiful gift bag that can be reused

Bingo prizes were-
*a gift certificate for 6 meals from My Girl Friends Kitchen
*professional 6 quart Kitchen-aid mixer
*Kitchen-aid Blender
*Cuisinart grind and brew coffee pot
* a panini grill press (I didn't catch the brand but should be able to tell from the pictures)
The food was fabulous! It was a brunch with Amaretto french toast, blueberry blintz and many other yummy breakfast items. The club really did a fantastic job hosting this event for us. Now for me to look at the pictures and to get them scrapped and into the albums!

Quickutz

Quickutz is retiring some of its dies. Here’s a link to see which ones are leaving the line up on February 28^th, 2007

 

http://www.quickutz.com/index.asp?CartId=&Show=shapes&selProduct=Retiring&FSCat=220

 

  

 

The ABC's of Life

This is what I’m going to be reading tonight at our OSC function as our “thought of the day”. These words truly are…the ABC’s of Life.

Accept differences

Be kind

Count your blessings

Dream

Express thanks

Forgive

Give freely

Harm no one

Imagine more

Jettison anger

Keep confidences

Love truly

Master something

Nurture hope

Open your mind

Pack lightly

Quell rumors

Reciprocate

Seek wisdom

Touch hearts

Understand

Value truth

Win graciously

Xeriscape

Yearn for peace

Zealously support a worthy cause

Sandie's 2007 scrapbooking goals

It’s come to my attention that I never posted my Scrapbooking goals for the year. I’m not into having number goals as those are just put an undue amount of stress to crank out pages. I want to devote my time to making quality pages, the numbers will come together on their own.

My scrapping goals for 2007 are as follows...

*to schedule time each week to do nothing but work on layouts or scrapbook related projects.

*to buy less ...no more stock piling of printed paper, cardstock or stamps. And when I do make a purchase it is so that I will use it immediately when I get home.

*to use more of what I have on hand. Heaven knows that I own enough merchandise to start my own store.

*to either sell off or donate the items (tools paper, stickers, etc) that I am no longer using or interested in keeping around.

*to host more crops in my home and making it an enjoyable experience for my girlfriends

*to finish our vacation albums.

*to put more pages in my husband’s career album

another day in my life...

Okay so much for the news, so we received the wrong date for our B-1 bomber story and we saw a small piece on the RIVET plane. So now for me to hunt down the correct date for the B-1 Bomber story., and get back here and post it so we can all watch it together.
Today will prove to be a rather busy day for this Air Force wife. I'm getting food and other pantry items for the Diamond Mart. What's the Diamond Mart you ask? It's a food pantry run by the 1st Sergeants organization here at our Air Force Base. Lets face it, sometimes paychecks can get pretty stretched especially when you have a loved one on deployment. When we have families in need of assistance we step up to the plate. We have food, diapers, soap, detergent and so forth available to these families, at no cost. We don't question their situation, we just help to make ends meet. This is our (AF) way of pitching in and looking after our own. My dear friend Kim has tied this in with our function this month...bring items for the Diamond Mart and get an extra Bingo card...I know that every OSC member is all over this one! I am so lucky to call this woman a friend of mine... Kim is awesome at getting us involved in worthy causes. Next month we're having "Baby Love" and we're all to bring in items for babies...diapers, baby food, formula, blankets and so forth. These items go to the families of newborns here on base. Another very worthy cause! So there's my friend Kim worrying about how she was going to be able to entice our membership to donate to such a worthy cause after they donated this month. I decided that this was a moment for me to step up to the plate, to get involved. So what was it that I was going to do in helping my friend get our membership to donate these much needed items? I'm making a cheesecake, but not just any ole cheese cake, oh no that just won't do! I'm making "Sandie's Death by Chocolate Cheesecake" and you won't find that recipe anywhere on the Internet, trust me I looked! So there is it, bring 5 items (or more) and you are entered in the raffle to win the cheesecake. I hope and pray that this turns out to be a huge success for Kim's community service project for us.

There's an OSC (Officer's Spouses Group) function tonight "Chef's Bingo". So as you know, this is where we're all bringing our food and pantry items. Our programs director Angela has yet another fabulous event planned out for us. We're going to have some speakers from "My Girlfriend's Kitchen" come talk to us about what they do and of course there's our Bingo...where the prizes are out of this world! When Angela was giving me the run down on them I was floored! Mission Support Group is the host this month and let me tell you, I've never been more proud to represent a group of spouses. I've always been a bomber wife, been active with the various bomb squadrons because my husband is a flier. I've only really seen one aspect of military life and that's the aviators view of it. So I do welcome this change of view and am throwing myself into it. I love it! I love seeing the support side of the mission, to see the behind the scene work that goes on in taking care of our military families. This sense of fulfillment washes over me every time I do something with this wonderful group of people. It's knowing that I do make a difference in the lives of others around me.

So anyway...Mission Support Group Spouses are hosting this month's event. We're also in charge of the Boutique table (that's where we sell things that we all donated for this) and we have table decorations as well. I'm so exited about tonight! I got all of the goodies together for the table decorations, everything tucks nicely into a good sized gift bag. We have the following items in the gift bags; a spring form pan (one of either an 8,9 or 10 inch size), a recipe for a fancy cheesecake, an 8x11 wooden cutting board, a wonderful sized wooden spoon perfect for stirring cake batter, and a sheet of reusable parchment paper. This are things that I thought we items that everyone could use! I hope that everyone who receives one of these tonight as a door prize enjoys it tremendously! I've also got some fun items for the boutique table...a Wilton Checkerboard cake pan set with mixes. I love making these types of cakes and I hope that others will enjoy it too! Of course there's that basket of Coffee and last but not least a New York Cheesecake! I can hardly wait to see what others are bringing for the boutique table.

B-1 bomber on the news

If you want to see something of interest catch Fox News (Special Report w/Brit Hume) at 1600L today to see a feature on two of our deployed B-1 aircrew. The show will run again at 0100L. L is for local time since I'm on Mountain time that makes it 4 pm and 1 am. This is the air plane that has been a big part of my husband's military career, before that it was the B-52 bomber. It's pretty exciting stuff when you know the people being interviewed and so forth. Our little ole bomber doesn't get a whole lot of press time. I'm going to program my DVR so we don't miss it!

my camera...

Do I love my camera? Yes I suppose that I do. As I see it, It helps me to put the world on paper. My digital camera is a Kodak easy share DX7440. Now it's probably been replaced with something else better and slimmer because that's what the industry does these days; but hey I don't care. A friend asked me if I liked my camera and they way it took pictures, of course I said yes. But what I didn't tell her is how durable the darn thing is. I have dropped it and I mean hard! At least 4 times now (each time on concrete too). I know that I had Angels watching over me each time I dropped it, trust me dropping a camera the way that I did would normally do some serious damage.

When shopping for a camera look at the consumer reports guide and see what's been written up on the camera that you are interested in buying. I'm not into all of the bells and whistles, I don't need to dial in aperture settings and such. I just want to point click and snap! Okay so on occasion I zoom in and take micro shots of flowers with bees buzzing around the,, but I'm able to do that as well. Play with the ones on the display stands, how do they feel in your hand? Think about the kinds of things that you want to take pictures of and go from there.

Being a Positive Light in a moment of darkness

 

"It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are."  

 

~Roy Disney 

 

I can’t begin to tell you how strongly I feel about this quote. It’s so very true of my every day life.  As a mother and wife of a career military husband, doing what’s right isn’t always easy and probably never will be. One thing remains through it all; it’s easy to remain true to ones self if you know what your values are. I remain faithful in my dedication to making a difference in the quality of life in those around me. First and foremost I am a mother and a wife. I value my family above anything else. Secondly, it’s to be a good friend.  To be a true friend means to be there through the thick and the thin of things, not just for the good times and laughs, but to be there when your friends need you the most. For me, I try to be a positive light in a moment of darkness. I give of my heart freely without expecting anything in return. I share with others because I truly enjoy doing so. I hope to inspire others to be the best person that they can be, to be a positive influence when there seems to be so much negativity surrounding us at every turn. To show compassion by sharing a meal with a neighbor or though making  lunch for my girlfriends to let them know how much I appreciate them for who they are…Angels on earth.

 

 

How I got started scrapbooking...

Most of us that have been scrapbooking for 8 or more years were introduced to scrapbooking through a friend having a Creative Memories Party in their home. I know that was how I got started in scrapbooking. I was happy with creative memories products, but you need to remember that was back when they sold Sakura pens and Mrs. Grossman's stickers and I forget the name of the company that manufactured their paper and die cuts...but anyway that was before Creative memories had their name stamped on everything. If I needed extra packages of Mrs. Grossman's stickers, I waited for a sale at my local Hobby Lobby. Funny thing was that I would also see my Creative Memories consultant stocking up on her sticker supply too.

It was after seeing my first scrapbooking magazine using products and ideas other than what was in those CM idea books. I was hooked! I still wanted to use the CM albums because I felt that at that time they were the best made. But my CMC had a royal fit about me using products other than creative memories brand because those weren't archival safe. I did my research on this subject and I learned a lot more than my friends that sold CM products could have ever have told us at any crop. Soon I was using the latest scrapbooking tools, one of my favorite was the Coluzzle. Lettering templates from EK Success and punch art was all the rage. Yup I'm talking 1999 and early 2000 here folks. I was in scrappers heaven! Still the only stores I had to shop from were Hobby Lobby and Michael's Arts and Crafts. Not a lot to choose from, but at least it was someplace that had sales.

Now about my friends that Sold CM products, I soon found myself banned from attending crops because 1- my books were a distraction. I was using products other than CM brand and that was seriously frowned upon. 2- I brought products with me other than CM products 3- I told the ladies at the crops where they could buy the products that I was using. Yup that did it, I was no longer welcome to cropping with those ladies. There were other things that went on with the ladies that sold CM...always on us about the evils of using other brands. I was tired of the sarcastic remarks from people who I thought were friends that sold Creative Memories products... "why would you want to do that in your books?" or "You know that Creative Memories isn't going to guarantee that page" and one of my all time favorite remarks "What a total waste of time". And I soon realized the fact that they were into that "slap it on get it done" mentality of scrapbooking. To me that wasn't scrapbooking, that was quickly getting something down on a page and getting on with the next one. And the contests of getting the most pages done in a month...come on! Like getting 100 pages scrapbooked in a month was a good thing? NO way! I was about quality work, I saw my artistic potential come alive when it came to getting our vacation photo's, Christmas and birthday pictures into a scrapbook. I had been scrapbooking for about 4 months when I just said to myself...this is it, I'm going to use what ever I want and no one can stop me. I felt free and was happy with my work. I've never looked back. And in a sad way those that I thought were my friends really turned out not to be, the only friendship that was there was based on how much money they could make from me.

Our move to Virginia brought so many new opportunities...for me it was that there were a plethora of Scrapbooking Stores. Every town had at least one scrapbook store, I was in paradise! I could not believe the selections of merchandise, printed paper, card stock this was when I was introduced to Bazzill cardstock. Oh yeah life was good! I've gone on to develop my own style, I know which kinds of papers and products that I like to use most. I even worked at a scrapbook store teaching classes and working with sales reps...It was like a little slice of heaven!

I do have to hand it to those Creative Memories consultants and the crops that I attended back in 1999 and early 2000 before I was banned from attending them...the lack of interest in creativity and personal style of those that sold the product was what pushed me into wanting and doing more with my pages. I love the idea of getting together with others to work on our scrapbook pages like old time sewing bee's. But for me it's a time to socialize, to be creative, to help others to be creative and most of all to have fun! When I host crops in my home it's about bonding with others that have similar interests in scrapbooking. I certainly don't expect everyone to scrapbook like me or even want to scrapbook like I do...it's about being together with friends.

my messy little scrapbook nook

Oh my gosh I've been in my scrapbook nook for hours putting things away in there. When I get to working on a project I make a mess! I'm also taking this opportunity to go through things, toss what I know I will not use, put stuff in a "donate" bin and sort my paper scraps and put them away.

I read a couple of scrapbook room article and looked at some magazines. I tell ya, the one room I saw done all in beige...eeeek! Where's the color? Where the life? The creativity???? I saw that and thought, wow what a snooze-a-rama looking room! I love my room being a bright sunny yellow, it inspires me to create. I have an online friend that painted her walls to look like SEI papers when they first came out...it was cool looking then and it's still cool looking now! I've seen scrapbook rooms with fire places and others with tons of built in cabinets. The ones that I love the most are the ones that get creative with their space, that use color and decorate with their supplies. Jars of ribbon, buttons or Primaflowers along a shelf or a spice rack filled with bottles of MM paints (just too cute). Yeah, I've got some scrapbook room envy, but you know what...I won't be in the utility closet for forever!

Fonts better yet FREE Fonts!

How many fonts do you have on your computer? Are you a certifiable font junkie or just mildly addicted to collecting fonts? Do you actuually utilize them all or just collect them? My plan for 2007 is to use more of my fonts. To date, I've only used a handful of my fonts. I've not even really skimmed the surface of my "collection". So with that in mind I've made it my mission to use a different font every time I use my computer for journaling.
Here are some sites to get some FREE fonts
www.dafont.com
www.1001freefonts.com
www.free-fonts.com
www.fontfreak.com
www.1001fonts.com
www.dingbatdepot.com
www.fontfile.com
www.acidfonts.com
www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts.html
http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Fonts/
http://www.abstractfonts.com/
http://betterfonts.com/

Okay lets start with these. You can use Google and look up "Free Fonts" and it will hook you up with oh so many wonderful sites. Enjoy!