Crazy about Scrapbooking?

Well once you start having to make 5 identical albums for a year, trust me you won't be so energetic about getting the pages done. Where once upon a time I loved being the OSC Historian, I'm now at the tail end of it and am grumbling more and more about it. A lot of my grumbling has to do with the budget...it's way too squeaky tight for doing four 12x12 albums. Between having to buy 4 albums, picture processing and lets not forget about adhesive...well that doesn't leave much room for the paper, cardstock and the additional page protectors you'll need and I haven't even mentioned buying embellishments. I'm out of adhesive and it's killing me that in order to finish these pages that I have to fork the moola over because I've spent all of my budgeted monies.

Scrapbooking

I'm going to be scrapbooking all day long today! I'm going to have some breakfast and then proceed to my scrapbook nook and work work work! I've got the scrappin vibes in a major way and I'm going to ride that wave! I find that I have my best creative times when I feel like this too Ü

Lets do Brunch

So here I am, almost ready for everyone to come over for the spouses with deployed military members brunch. I've got to shower (like you really needed to know that) and iron a couple of table clothes (changed my mind on the color I was going to use yesterday) and I'm done! To be perfectly honest I could not have even tried to pull this off without the help from my girlfriends. I give much credit to them as being wonderful motivators not to mention all of the wonderful things that they are doing to make this brunch/luncheon a success. I want to thank Kim, Cindy, Kristi, and Sherri for all of their hard work and support. This past week has been crazy for all of us and this week will prove to be just as nuts, LOL!

Now I'm off to get ready...

Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a terrific weekend! Yesterday's garage sale went okay, not well just okay. But the weather, IT was fantastic! Garage sales are hard work! Oh my gosh talk about putting my marketing background to work, LOL! How attractive can you make cardboard boxes filled with your unwanted stuff? I mean really? LOL!

Alright here's today's series of weird events...My blow dryer is dead. None of that blown dry hair for Sandie on Mother's Day (or Hannah for that matter). But I did pull out the circulating fan that we used in the base house and sat in front of it until my hair was to a dry enough point though, LOL! I had my husband take my blow dryer apart to see what was the matter with it and everything (he's quite the Mr. Fit It) and he couldn't find the problem. I did manager to buy a new blow dryer after church today Ü

My charming family was cooking lunch and was going to make garlic bread and the new stove started acting up again (yes we've been having some issues with it this past week). I've got 2 gourmet cheesecakes to bake for the Mission Support Group luncheon tomorrow, eeek! I need that own of mine to work!

I was able to surprise a girlfriend of mine today with a small token of my love and appreciation for her. Nothing gets a girl (I use that work "girl" as a general term) weepy like a thoughtful gift on Mother's Day, especially while her husband is away on a deployment. My friend Kristi is having a little bit of a rough time of it right now. I think what's getting to her (besides her husband being far away) is that over half of her friends and neighbors are moving away in the next 4 to 6 weeks and that she sees it as her support team are all leaving her. I'd be upset by this too, but I also have been through the deployment thing a few times more that my girlfriend has. So today was about letting Kristi know that she is loved and that she still has friends nearby that she can call on at any time even though we no longer live on base. I find that you need to reassure your girlfriends that it's okay to cry and it's okay to say "hey I need help", that we're there for them through the thick and the thin.

This will make you laugh...I find that if you hint long enough that you do indeed get the Mother's day gift that you've been wanting. Silly huh? Well after last years shopping on line for Tahitian Pearls fiasco, I decided that I would buy them locally if I could find them. Word to the wise, never and I mean never buy pearls of any kind on line, especially from Overstock.com, they got so sick of me sending them back in for replacement that they refused to work with me any longer (no joke) and instead of getting yet another pair of earrings and a pendant in the mail I got a refund check and a letter telling me that they don't want to work with me any longer. So it's a year later...and I found a jewelery store in Rapid City that had exactly what I wanted...all I have to say is that I LOVE my new necklace and earrings! I kick myself for not getting the Tahitian pearl earrings and pendant when we were in Hawaii 2 years ago, I could have gotten them at the military base at such a reasonable price (okay so what might be reasonable to one person might be another's idea of highway robbery, LOL). Yes if I had anything to regret from our Hawaiian vacation was not getting myself those pearls, LOL!

I need to get out the linen table clothes and ironing them smooth. After that then I'll get to making those cheesecakes Ü I'm hungry for them right now!

The Ellen Show- A Mother's Day Story

I have no idea if this has been around the internet a million times but this is the first time I've read it and it was a royal crack up! For all the Mother's out there about to celebrate Mother's Day...this one's for you! (thanks René for the great laugh, this story reminds me of Andrew when he was 3 years old, sounds like something he would have done).

The Ellen Show was on and she read this submission to a contest from a viewer: So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died. Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom. Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES IT. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done. Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood. We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth. And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.

Gearing up for our garage sale...

UGH! Garage sales are not for lazy people that's for sure! It's a lot of work getting stuff organized, priced and ready to be sold. Sheesh do we have a lot of stuff that needs to be priced! SO that's what I'm doing today, working at getting the garage sale stuff ready for market tomorrow!

AFROTC

Last nights award ceremony for AFJROTC was great! Seeing the Colonel getting choked up when talking about how proud he is of this group of kids really was something Ü and seeing all of the awards they've earned and hearing about their community service projects and how they made such an impact made one feel very proud about their child and the group as a whole. This AFROTC program at this particular high school has made my son take pride in himself, the corps and most of all his studies. He's an A student, I knew that he always has had that potential, it's him wanting to be the best he can be- and the corps has helped to bring that out in him (I really believe it). He was beaming from ear to ear when his name was read off for the award of"Outstanding Flight", that right there is a major item. Everyone stood up and applauded the group of kids from that flight group. I didn't realize how hard they really had to work at earning that award until the Colonel read off what they did- WOW is all I have to say to that! Our son is also a member of the Kitty Hawk Air Society which is an aerospace honor society- talk about cool! This was a major accomplishment from the boy "who" hated middle school. Not only did he have to maintain a certain grade point average he also had to get his teachers to write letters of recommendation as to why he should be accepted as a member of the honors group, plus he had to write a paper on an assigned subject and go through and interview process all subject to being voted upon- WOW! What a tough process to go through in being accepted. OH and this all had to be accomplished in a set time frame too, sheesh talk about pressure!

When you get to high school things change, all off a sudden the kids are looking for acceptance from their peers. It's finding a group that you feel comfortable with and them accepting you for who you are as a person. High school is tough when you look at it from that angle. I truly do believe that our son has found his place and his people. Seeing all of the young people applauding one another and the pride they took in themselves put tears in the eyes of ALL of the parents. Hearing about their accomplishments made you think about what good people are running this program and how they are having a huge positive impact on our children. Is ROTC for all children? Certainly not, just like Drama, Band, Football and Cheer Leading isn't for everyone. But once your child finds his or her niche, support them and help them to be the best person that they can be!

I'm still smiling about last night and better yet so is our son. It's so refreshing to see teenagers proud of the good that they have done and the positive impact that they have on one another and their community.

My day...so far

So far today, I've gotten the following things done;

*re-potted 14 plants (and I cleaned up my potting area)

*got 2 bottles of sun tea brewing (oh how we love sun tea around here)

*slow roasted 4 heads of garlic, shed them from their skins and put them in a sealed plastic container for later use.

*cleaned the guest bathroom top to bottom

*cleaned the kitchen, sanitized it and everything!

*vacuumed the entire down stairs carpeted areas

*washed, folded and put away 4 loads of laundry

*made 3 beds (and made them the right way- no sheets hanging out, LOL)

*planned out and starting prepping for dinner for the next 5 days Ü

*called my Mom and talked with her for a while

Now for me to have a glass of iced tea and to relax for a bit before I get started on making my Mothers Day cards. I've got special ladies here locally to give them to Ü

Senator John Thune comes through!

Is it obvious that I have "school issues" today? LOL! Yesterday we won a hollow victory. You see, the school busing contract ran out back in March. We got the contract extended and busing was to go on until the end of the school year (May 25th). Well that left us without school busing for the 2007/2008 school year.

Okay a small group of us got together and put on our thinking caps. Together we drew out a plan, we knew what we needed to get done- the hard part was not having our brain storming session not turn into a complaining session (with only inviting a handful of folks it was accomplished). Senator John Thune came through for us, but lets face it, we only have the funding for the buses on base for 2007/2008, are we going to have to go through this every year? I'd like to see a more permanent solution to this obvious long term problem.











FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kyle Downey (202) 228-5939

May 8, 2007
Jessica Ferguson (202) 224-4238


Andi Fouberg (202) 228-5381






Thune Announces Funding for Ellsworth Busing

-- Air Force Makes $400,000 Available Following Thune’s Request --





WASHINGTON, D.C.—Senator John Thune today announced that the Department of Defense has agreed to provide Ellsworth Air Force Base with $400,000 to cover their costs associated with busing students from the base to schools within the Douglas School District.



“This is great news for the students and their concerned parents at Ellsworth Air Force Base,” said Thune. “When first hearing about this funding shortfall, my office reached out to the Pentagon to inform them of the problem and to pledge my support to work together to find a solution. Parents have enough to be anxious about without worrying about how their children will safely travel to and from school.”



###





Kyle Downey

Communications Director

Senator John Thune

202-228-5939 - direct

202-222-5017 - cell

kyle_downey@thune.senate.gov

http://Thune.Senate.gov

Mean Girls

Every morning I watch the girls that come from down the street and wait at the corner in front of my house being destructive. From throwing large rocks (and they are very large) at the sidewalk and newly paved street- to me it looks like the game is about trying to see who can take the biggest chip out of the sidewalk or make the biggest dent in the newly paved street. Then there are the big orange cones put at the entry of the new cul-de-sac to keep truck from driving on it- well they've pretty much mashed those things down by stomping on them. Today they were taking the cones and seeing how far they could throw them...enough was enough, I went out there and yelled at them to stop what they were doing and to put those cones back. That is they continued with their destructive behavior I have no qualms about marching them down to their homes right then and there and making them tell their parents what they were doing every morning while waiting for the school bus. I also let them know that I will let the contractor know and that they most likely will have to pay for replacement cones and anything else that was damaged. I let them know that I was serious and I have no problem in telling their parents what they've been up to every morning. Oh yeah those young ladies pout the cones back, I did have to tell them to do it 3 times...and yes I have every intention of letting their parents know what they've been doing.

Yeah, I fully expect kids to mess around while waiting at the bus stop (they are kids after all) but this is ridiculous! There are two things that I can not and will not tolerate the first is bullying and the second is vandalism. This is going to look really bad especially when I know that the parents to these girls are going to be modified when I tell them what's been going on.

Did you know that when it comes to being Bullies that girls are worse than boys? It's true. I have a girlfriend whose high school aged son has been repeatedly bullied by a young lady that is is a few of his classes. Boys are taught from an early age not to pick on girls, not to hit girls and so forth...but this young lady has been making life for my friends son hell on earth. He feels that if he complains about her that he would look weak or look like a wimp. Lets face it, bullying is harassment no matter how you slice it. High school is hard enough just with the advanced studies, in my eyes bullies need to be made accountable for their actions, no matter what their sex.

The View

The view of our front door has vastly improved since last week. That's because my husband and son installed the new side windows in the entry way.

Here's a picture of the entry way before my improvements...notice the clear windows, vinyl flooring and the not so fancy window in the front door

Now here we go with the new improved look...

Notice what a difference the hardwood floor and the new windows make, this kind of upgrade does this house justice. And the leaded glass gives and added sense of privacy, okay well it does for the most part. There was yesterday when a child came to our front door looking to play with my daughter and she had her face plastered to one of the side windows trying to look inside of our house (which reminds me that I need to clean the glass). But at least you can't see directly into our house from the street or sidewalk.

Now don't forget...you can click on the photo's and the picture will enlarge for better detailed viewing.

WORK

Is a four letter word! I can't begin to tell you how much work has gone into getting this house "together", how much work I've put into getting the OSC Scrapbooks together and how much work I've put into getting stuff pulled for this garage sale- ugh! And of course I have all 3 things going on at once plus I'm making some sort of pasta dinner tomorrow for our son's ROTC dinner. I don't think that there's enough caffeine in my house to keep me going with all of the "work" that I still need to get done.

Decorating the plant shelves has fun but it's also been a lot of hard work...I'm not entirely happy with the 2nd one but it's going to have to be that way for now. I'm also working on getting the tea cups unpacked and out on display.

So here are a couple of pictures to show you what I've been up to...

Here you see the Americana Plant Ledge


This is one area above the kitchen cabinets that I'm working on.

Blogging and Blogger

It's funny to think that I've been blogging for over a year and I'm coming up on a full year of being with blog spot. For me this has been such an easy way of letting friends and family know what I've been up to, what I have going on and so forth. I try and encourage others to keep (and update) a blog. I hate to say it but it's so much easier for me to keep a blog than to write everyone personally to keep them updated on our goings on. So there it is...I encourage you all to keep a blog. Ü

National Scrapbooking Day

How will I spend this day? Hopefully I'll be in my scrapbook nook being creative. I can not believe the amount of counter space I have in that room, it's so much more than what I had before. I'll post pictures later on of what I've been working on...it's bound to be a great day regardless of the weather (and currently it's rather wet). Will I be using up old supplies today? You got it! NO buying new stuff for me for this event, I've got enough to keep me happy for quite some time.

I challenge all scrapbookers to use the supplies that they have on hand and create something...be it scrapbook layouts, greeting cards or some sort of altered project! Get out your paper stash and be creative! Lora, Susan, Debby, Kim, Cindy, Kristine and yes even you René...lets get to making something today!

Things that make me laugh...

I've found much to laugh at this morning...

First off I opened a box of stuff that I know that I have not seen since moving to South Dakota over 3½ years ago...Paperkin paper dolls (anyone remember those?) I found 14 of them! Oh my gosh, I just burst out laughing when I saw them! I'm rolling my eyes at myself over this wee bit of humor. There are many other items in that box that are going straight to the garage sale area of our garage...there are things that I never used and things I had used in the past. These items are perfectly good but they no longer hold any interest for me. Hey, just because I no longer want or need them doesn't mean that they won't be exactly what someone else is looking for. The table with scrapbooking merchandise is going to be FULL to overflowing.

Catching up on the week

It's a miracle that I don't have to be anywhere else but at home today. What a perfect day to hang out in one's PJ's, well for a little while at least Ü.

The concert at our daughter's school was lovely. Our Hannah looked like she truly was having fun up there on stage. Our friends' daughter Mackenzie sang so beautifully, other children sang well but this girl was something else Ü. After the concert we surprised out daughter with a dinner out with her parents...no brother in tow just Hannah and her parents. It was nice being able to have that one on one time with our daughter.

We came home and weren't in the house 10 minutes when we heard this weird sound...like a water fall on the house. Oh my gosh it was a down pour! Well hey, I don't have to water my container garden today Ü.

Our son is at an JR ROTC Field Day somewhere in Rapid City. He and the other ROTC cadets will be having a drill off and other ROTC competition stuff. I know that he's going to be having fun today! He and the other ROTC cadets have been excused from all of their classes to spend the day down town with ROTC cadets from other schools in the area...what is not to like?

Garage Sale- it's on the 12th, the day before Mother's Day. My darling husband put up more shelves in the garage so we can get the stuff we're going to keep up and out of the way. We're hit the saturation point and need more storage areas to keep the items we want to keep. I find it amazing how we thought that we were doing so well with purging our stuff on such a regular basis. Now that we're in this larger house we are pulling stuff from all over the place that we no longer want and or need. How do we do that? I mean really, how? We have all kinds of things for this garage sale...a brand new over the range microwave oven, a brand new dishwasher, loads of shelving with brackets, a good amount of scrapbooking supplies, tools and even some Sizzix dies. Now there won't be any scrapbooking paper as I have given it all away to friends (just call me an enabler). There will be table lamps (a good way to make sure I get new ones Ü is to sell off the old ones) and lets not even talk about the clothing, women's men's and kids. I think that I'll have my friend Sherri bring over her washer and dryer and put them in our garage sale. Picture frames, we're going to have oodles of picture frames for sale too! I'm changing things here in the house and picture frames are one of those things that are being changed out. So I better get on that project this morning before I get sucked into doing something else...like scrapbooking Ü and best of all...it's a project I can do while hanging out in my jammies.

Finding Inspiration

I have to tell you, I have made some pretty some awesome friends here at Ellsworth AFB. When I had told my friend Kim about wanting to host a Mother's Day brunch for the MSG wives that have husbands away on deployed or remote assignments she was right there willing to lend a helping hand as are my other girlfriends Cindy, Molly, Sherri, and Kristi to name a few. It might have started out as my luncheon idea but now "Our Luncheon" is going to be so much more. I have so much respect for these women and their families. I've witnessed first hand the kinds of sacrifices and hardships that they have endured while their husbands have been away- having been through it myself I know how hard it can be at times just to make it through a day in their shoes. So with their sacrifices in mind, from my heart I started making plans to host a luncheon to honor them. It's become a wonderful thing. Besides a fabulous lunch brunch sort of thing we've got going on, we're going to have goodie bags for them and give them time to hang out and relax. When I need inspiration, I just think of any of my girlfriends that are doing the single parent thing right now...when I have days where I think that "I" have it rough, I just need to think about how rough it really could be. These ladies inspire me to be more and to do more with our military community. Am I proud to be an Air Force Wife? You know I am! But I'm even more proud of the men and women who keep the home fires burning and the families together through all sorts of weather. Please keep our military families in your thoughts and prayers as they go through deployment and remote assignments to places far and away from those they love.

allergy season is upon me

For two days I've had nonstop watery eyes and a runny nose...and that's WITH the allergy medication. I can only imagine how bad it would be without allergy meds. Red itchy eyes, oh I must look lovely, LOL! I can't seem to pass up a tissue box without having to grab and immediately use a tissue. I do have to say that my allergies seem to be not as severe here in this house as they were while we lived on base (go figure). I feel a headache coming on, better head it off before it grows into a migraine.

Grown Up Bedding

So here it is...our new no kids allowed Grown Up Bedding Ü I've waited years to have a beautiful bed like this and I'm not about to have my kids jumping on our bed or eating while on our bed watching TV. I've got a no food allowed policy for the bedrooms here and that goes double for the master bedroom! Granted we've still got other pieces of furniture to put in here but I wanted to show you all how pretty it looks.

It's Wednesday

It's Wednesday and I have 1001 things to get done. There's an OSC board meeting that I have to attend, Girl Scouts that I have to watch over and of course during that time I have to pick up my son from school because of his after school activities. I wonder what it's like for those women that work outside of them home. I guess that they just have to put everything on the back burner... no after school activities for the kids, and nothing but work and home for them. I know what it was like when I was working last year, it was total chaos and I hated it! I felt that all I did when I was home was to pick up after everyone, cook and do laundry and wash dishes. I never felt rested, I felt as if I was working 18 hours a day 7 days a week. I was very stressed out. So when I start to feel overwhelmed I just have to remind myself how stressed out I really was while working, having my husband TDY somewhere in the world and the kids needing to be picked up from school and not being able to have anyone else that could do that for me. I can juggle what I have going on today, it's just that I think that I'd rather be doing something else, LOL!