HOLY CRAP!!!!!

John here. If you're looking for our Christmas letter, please scroll down.

For some news of monumental proportions, hang on to your knickers and read on.

So Shandy and I went to the doctor on Saturday to get our first ultrasound of our new arrival. We wanted to see what the sex of the baby would be. We had decided that this would be our last child and so I was really anxious to see if we were finally going to add a little girl to the family.

Now these ultrasounds are never 100% positive however all indications point to the fact that they are girls.

That's right, girls. Plural. As in more than one. As in twins.

The nurse starts ultrasounding (is that a verb?) and after less than a minute he says, "Well, the first thing that I see is that there are two." I keep waiting for him to say that he's joking. Shandy and I look at each other. My left eyebrow raises like The Rock. I look at the Nurse in disbelief.

"Dude, serious?"

"Yup"

I believe that my first words after that were, "Holy Crap..." followed shortly by, "I guess we'll need to trade your van in on a bigger one."

So the dude starts going through all of the areas of the exam on the ultrasound. There's quite the laundry list of things he's got to look at. We determine that each baby is in it's own amniotic sack which is indicative of fraternal twins. It's 40 minutes before we find out the gender on Baby A. I'm thinking, So what's it going to be in our family? Six boys? Five boys, one girl? Four boys, two girls?

We end up discovering that both babies are girls. Both are about identical in size and are completely healthy and at the right stage of development.

Needless to say, Shandy and I are completely ecstatic. What a wonderful blessing. We look forward to the girls joining us with both great anticipation and a small measure of fear. Twins on top of four boys will be a tough job but we are up to it. I think we are still in a little bit of shock as we try to digest everything that will have to happen in the next few months. One thing is for sure: I need to get neutered here pretty soon.

2007 Christmas Newsletter

Yes - you found the right place if you were just dying to find out more about what our family has been up to this year. First of all - I *really* wanted to send out card with a pic of our whole family together but that just didn't happen... so... we took 4 shots after church today and here's what we came up with....

John/Gus: This year has had some wonderful highs and some terrible lows. 2007 has been the year of death for me. We have lost a lot of good people this year. All in all, I have been to eight funerals and had some connection to another three deaths on top of that. To say I am numb is an understatement. Our Battalion lost six Soldiers in Iraq from January to May with three in one day. I had known Ross Clevenger since he was 17. I was his platoon leader when he first came to Alpha Company. He was a good man, brother, son, fiance. Please keep the families of our fallen heros in your prayers. CPL Stephen Shannon age 21, SGT Ross Clevenger age 21, SGT Jim Holtom age 21, PFC Ray Werner age 21, SSG Coby Schwab age 26, and CPL Kelly Groethe age 21. In January, we lost my Grandma Vogt's husband, Orville Burt. Orville was a great husband to Grandma these last 10 years. He was 95 and a Naval WWII vet. In April, we lost my Grandpa, Mark Merrell. Grandpa was also 95 and just the coolest guy around. I can't help but smile every time I think of him. He was also a WWII vet who served in the Philippines with the Army. In September we lost a great guy from our church, Mark Simmons after a courageous battle with ALS. Dad lost a lifelong friend and Shandy had a friend who lost her infant son. Through all of this death I have gained a greater appreciation for the sacrifice our Savior made so that we might have life eternal. I am grateful for his atonement and resurection and the knowledge that death will not have victory and that we can live again with our loved ones.

This year also brought some great times... Dad and I started the year out right by attending the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona on New Years day to cheer on our Boise State Broncos. The Broncos beat the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime in what has been hailed as one of the greatest football games of all time. My buddies and I are big idiots who paint up for every game. My paint job looked like a mix between Tammy Faye Baker and some orange drag queen. The old man even got in on the action and joined us in our lunacy. Topping last season is a tough thing to do but we've had a great 2007 season finishing 10-2 with a berth in the Hawaii Bowl on December 23. Sadly, we won't be attending that one. I just can't see Shandy saying, "Hey, honey, drop $3000 and go to Hawaii without me, with your buddies. Really, it's fine. I'll take care of getting Christmas all ready for the kids. You just be back in time." Anyone else have any luck with that?

I spent January through November on active duty for my Army Reserve Battalion as the Rear Detachment Officer in Charge of about 300 Soldiers. Shortly after I got back from Iraq, the rest of my Battalion was deployed so I had the opportunity to go back on orders starting in July of 2006. They got back in September 2007 and I had acumulated close to 60 days of leave. It was great to take all of October and November off before returning to the Battalion to start my new job as a civilian for the unit. I got a taste of what retirement will be like. Let me tell, ya, it wasn't too bad. I spent a lot of time travelling with work this year with trips to Spokane, Chicago, Fort Knox, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Atlanta (it just dawned on me that our good friends the Kings live in GA and I didn't look them up-I'm an idiot) and multiple trips to Seattle. I'm still trying to get over the hemmorhoids that all that travelling caused. In September I also took command of my previous unit, Alpha Company, 321st Engineer Battalion (Corps)(Combat)(Mechanized). Company Command has been a longtime coming and I'm grateful I've been able to get such an awesome company.

In November we took a vacation to the #1 family fun destination, beautiful Las Vegas. I know what you're thinking, Vegas and Family don't really go together (Don't look at that billboard, son!). There was actually a ton of great family activities and we all had a blast. Nathan stayed home with Mom and Dad and so Shandy, the older boys, and I were able to get out, do a lot of activities, and see a lot of sights. the boys loved swimming in the pool even though it was November, hitting the amusement park at Circus Circus, and of course, all of the buffets. Shandy and I loved seeing all of the sites, especially the fountains at the Bellagio. I'm considering developing a lounge act and wearing a velvet jump-suit just so we can take advantage of the great climate year round. The boys will probably join me by warmig up the crowd with armpit noises and belches.

Despite the heartbreaking times, life has been good to us and we are grateful for all of our blessings.

Shandy: Let's see.... Well, last year I got introduced to the whole digital realm of scrapbooking and have since started designing my own digital products. In April, I opened up my own store - Shandy Vogt Designs and then in June, was invited to join a well established digital store as one of their designers. I have a team of about 10 talented women who work for me and do the advertising using my products.
In June, I was one of the leaders for our church's Girl's Camp (for the teen girls in our church to go camping for a week). John survived at home with the boys with the help from both sets of Grandparents. It was during this week that the offer came in about the Governmet Civilian job. We decided fairly quickly that it was something we definitely wanted to act on - so the rest of June was spent house hunting. We found a home in Boise and closed on it July 25 (yes, the whole "finding a house" and moving happened quite FAST! - if you're interested in seeing some of the interior pics of our home, you can click here). John was out of town with the army practically the entire month of July (and I had to close on the house and sign by proxy for him) so that left me with literally packing up the entire house. He was gone again most of August and all of September (so yes.. that meant me unpacking everything that I had just packed up!) But we're getting more settled and making our new house a "home."

The fist week of September also brought some exciting news - we found out we were going to be adding another little one to the family! We are due on May 10 and will be having another Home Birth with our awesome doctor! Everyone keeps asking if we are trying for girl - if truth be told - I'm actually fine if this one appears as another little boy - little boys are so fun and cute! John and the boys, on the other hand, are all hoping it'll be a girl. We're debating on finding out early what it is or just waiting and be surprised (we'll keep this blog updated if you are curious to find out what we end up having). So far the pregnancy has been uneventful and I have felt great :)

August will turn 11 in about 3 weeks (Dec. 31) and is in the 5th grade. He was sad to leave all of his friends back in Nampa but has quickly made new ones at school and around the neighborhood. August has been begging us for a puppy for over 2 years - he has read countless hours on puppy books that he has checked out from the library and would even have Seth and Ben pretend to be dogs so that he could "train" them (he met with varied results, Seth was generally obedient but we couldn't get Ben paper trained). With that being said, Grandpa Vogt thought he would give August his dream and in early July bought a 6 week old Springer Spaniel puppy for him. Needless to say he was in heaven! It was solely "August's dog" and so he did everything for her (he named her Ashley) - he even had to sleep down in the living room so he could let her out at night. For the first few weeks he was so responsible and did everything for her... then the novelty wore off. We decided to make her a "family dog" and all the boys now share the responsibility for taking care of her and it is working out much better. He's still very much "into" video games and anything Pokemon. August has also inherited John's artistic talent and spends a lot of time drawing and creating on the computer. August tried out snowboarding and didn't care for it but has found that he really likes skiing instead.

Seth is 9.5 and in the 4th grade... like August, he too is very much into video games and Pokemon. Earlier this year, both he and August sold their Gameboy Advaces and XBox to each get a new Nintendo DS so they could play some "new and better" Pokemon games. I was proud of them raising the $$ themselves and figuring out how to do it. Seth played another season of Football this fall with this being his first year of tackle. He really loved going to practices and the games and generally being a monster on the O-Line. He was blessed with a good coach and that has made all the difference. He is the Center for their team and talks about how he wants to play for BSU when he "grows up". John is excited about the prospects of getting his season tickets for free in this event. He is our tender hearted boy and is definitely the one who brings some calmness and peace to our family of 4 rowdy boys! Seth, the opposite of August, tried out skiing and found that he really didn't care for it so has stuck with snowboarding. He, August, and John have made several trips to our local ski resort, Bogus Basin and he is looking forward to opening day this year to get out and hit the slopes.

Ben is 5 and in Kindergarten.... we've had a rough start to the school year (he was only incarcerated shortly before Shandy posted the bail) but I'm happy to report that at this writing he is doing wonderful and learning all the wonders that kindergartners learn! He had to miss a few weeks in October for surgery. As many of you know - he was born with the top part of his left ear missing. He had plastic surgery and they constructed a new tip and he is healing wonderfully! John and I were absolutley thrilled with the results! I was really dreading the surgery thinking he would just be in so much pain and just lie on the couch crying for days - boy was I wrong! The evening of his surgery, he was already having lightsaber fights with this brothers! He never once complained of the pain and was such a trooper throughout the whole ordeal.

Nathan turned 1 in September and shortly after started

walking. John was actually home during this time and was able to be a part of this milestone in his life. It's so fun to see him interact with the older boys - he'll jump right in the middle of a lightsaber or sword fight with whatever he can get his hands on and start whailing on whomever is in his proximity! He loves being held and would gladly spend the day in Mommy or Daddy's arms. We found out at Halloween that he absolutely LOVES those little Dum Dum suckers and somehow finds unused ones from Halloween in crevises throughout the house - he must have radar for themand there must be a secret stash somewhere! We regularly say, "Where the heck did he get that?!?!" He's just been the sweetest and most fun little guy. He adjusted to the move with no problems and is quite easy going. He and the next little one will be about 19 months apart and I'm sure he'll be the best big brother :)

Well, I suppose that's it for now. We're glad you stopped by to read more about us and be sure to drop us a line sometime - it's much more fun to hear from friends and family throughout the year and not just at Christmas time. We'll leave you with a few snapshots of 2007....ps: if you'd like to drop us a line - feel free to leave us a comment here or you can email John at:

gusvogt@hotmail.com and Shandy at shandyvogt@hotmail.com (we know.. real original) :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Blog Challenge #36 and updates :)

fill in the blanks....
I wish I had more ______________ because_______________.

short and sweet... I wish I had more Time Managment Discipline becuase then I could do the laundry, the cleaning, the cooking, playing with the boys, scrap, design, do service, do more church work, etc, etc...

yeah... I'm feeling like my priorities haven't been in place and have re-dedicated to the things that are truly the most important. With the boys home for the summer.. I want to have fun with them! I really do! I was thinking how I limit their video game time to an hour a day and thought I'd put myself on the same schedule. So, during the day (meaning from the time they get up to the time they go to sleep) I only want to be on the computer for 1 hour. After bedtime... I can come back on and play for longer. Also... I want to have more evenings spent with John so I have decided that M-W-F would be my designing nights and the other nights would be spent having some quality time with John. Although where he is out of town so much... this will only be in place when he's home. I love designing so much that I could do it 24/7 and not get tired of it - LOL....

ok.. so the BIG reason I haven't blogged in many moons is because I opened up a second shop at Elemental Scraps This is the ad that I put out to announce it and the site owner also did up a big announcement introducing me (and 3 other designers) that she brought on for the gran re-opening on June 1st. I can have the same inventory at both this store and my personal store so that is good -- BUT I have to have my previews done a certain way for the store so I had to re-do all of my previews for the grand opening! that really was time consuming but I think they turned out great! I also came up with 7 new products for the grand opening! yep.. you read that correct -SEVEN! 2 mini kits, 2 template packs, and 3 new brush sets (which are so gorgeous! - although I might be a bit biased - LOL)... if any of you are interested in any visuals of these.. you can check out my Scrap blog for all the details :) I have totally been blessed with great sales this weekend... I even got a message from the store owner congratulating me on my high sales orders! Even though I pay 15% commission I felt opening up a second shop would be a beneficial and open me up to a new clientel -- which it totally has! I truly am amazed at how many orders I've had! It's exciting! I've totally been able to put the $$ into our cruise fund! :)

other quick updates...

Ben graduated preschool and will be a big kindergartner this fall!

Nathan is 8.5 months... still not crawling and still no teeth but the cutest lil' bug you ever did see!!!

Seth made the High Honor Roll... his class also had an end of the year talent show and to my horror, when I showed up to support him, guess what his *talent* was ---- it was something he called PIGGY MODE! Basically it was stuffing 2 cupcakes in his mouth in a very piggish way - LOL... All of the kids were cheering him on and it was quite the spectacle to say the least - LOL

August got all A's and then a C in home reading (he never would remember to turn in his reading log - argggghh.. oh well....)

John has been gone the last week to Ft. Lewis up in Seattle... he is home just for today and then will fly back out tomorrow for the rest of the week....

oh, John and I took advantage of the Memorial Sales last week and bought some new furniture! It gets delivered tomorrow! I'm so excited!

ok... guess that's it for now.. thanks for reading :)

Blog Challenge #32

Today's challenge is to post about our first date with the man we ended up marrying :) alright... so here goes. I was a senior in highschool and I remember it was a Wednesday night around 9pm and the phone rang. I was writing in my journal about the days events (and then totally had some juice to write about after the phone call!). Anyway this is a rundown of the conversation...

Boy: Is Shandy There?
Me: This is she...
Boy (all of a sudden changing his voice to talk with a Mexican accent): Hey.. me and my posse are comming to town and wanted to know you'd like to go for a ride in my low-rider...
Me: Who is this?!

Anyway, the voice tells me that it's John Vogt and he asks if I 'd like to go out that Friday night. I say "yes" and then immediately after I say "yes" he says "Ok... bye" and hangs up!

Fast Forward to Friday night... the doorbell rings and he has a rose for me and I think he looks TOTALLY HOT!!! He said that he wanted us to "dress up" a bit... so he was in some jeans, a teal colored silk shirt with a peach and teal tie (Ok ladies -- this WAS the early 90's! LOL). Me? I was wearing some teal colored pants (yes.. TEAL was in!!) and a cream sweater with my hair pulled up on the sides!... ok... so we get into his car and he starts fiddling with his ear and I'm like "what are you doing?" and he says "Putting my earring back in... didn't think that'd go over too well with your parents....". It was a little gold hoop and it just made him THAT more attractive to me! YOWZERS!!! hehehehh

So we head down to the Kyoto Japanese Steak House -- but the wait was like L.O.N.G. so we settled for the next best thing -- the buffet at the Sizzler! LOL After that we headed to downtown Boise and watched "Summersby" at the 8th St. Marketplace theatre. We had a little bit of time before the movie started so we strolled downtown for bit waiting for it to start. I remember her grabbed my hand during this walk :)

After the movie we were heading home and we came to an intersection and John asked "Which way is faster to get you home?" I told him. He then turned the oppossite way and said "I want as much time with you as possible."... isn't he sweet!!?

So we get to my house and he's walking me up to the front door. Now, I had promised my friend that I would NOT kiss him on the first date -- so this is running through my mind... we get to the door... he leans in for a kiss and... I dash in the house and slam the door in his face! I had to keep my promise, right? LOL...

Well.. that was the beginning of John and Shandy -- Feb. 10, 1993. Here's a picture of us on the day we got engaged (the first time -- on Sept 5, 1993). I scanned in a picture of us at a high school dance.. but it got "lost" on my hard drive... so this will have to do... also - sorry for all the dust specks -- I DEFINITELY need to clean the scanner! LOL... enjoy!

Blog Challenge #29

alright.. this is challenge is posed by Lisa over at SG... we are to tell 7 weird things about ourselves...

1) when at stop lights I purposefully dance all crazy to the music and sing real loud so that the drivers around me will think (a) look at how much fun that lady is having or (b) wow.. I'm embarrassed FOR that lady....

2) I am deathly afraid of the dark! If for some reason I have to go downstairs in the middle of the night to get something... I arrive back in bed TOTALLY out of breath becuase I have just raced as fast as i could up the stairs (hurdeling over every sort of object that has been left in my path)....

3) keeping with the afraid of the dark thing... as I am "closing down" the house I will have to turn ON the light in the next room I'll be going into before I turn out the light behind me (and yeah.. this is the gal whose husband is ALWAYS gone.. how do I survive?? LOL)

4) Ok.. and just one more of the darkness.... If I'm coming out of the store at night I'll have to shuffle my feet back and forth as I try to get the van unlocked (ya know.. just in case there's a serial killer squeezed underneath my van tyring to slash my ankles!)

5) when my friend, Stephanie, calls.. I HAVE to answer it with the traditional Korean salutation - Yobosayo (I have been doing this for over 3 years!) hey, steph -- isn't that bizarre that it's been that long!!!!? and if for some reason I didn't answer that way... she thinks she's dialed the wrong number. seriously.

6) I love ketchup! i eat it on everything! In fact, one time a set of friends were to bring a salad and dressing to a potluck we were having. For the dressing... they brought ketchup!

7) I love to - on the spur of the moment - bust out with the theme song from Annie -- THE SUN'LL COME UP... TOMORROW.. BETCHA BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT TOMORROW... THEY'LL BE SUN..... and i have to do all of these elaborate dance moves (so it looks like I'm on Broadway!)

so yeah.. that's some stuff I betcha didn't know - hee hee

Blog Challenges #'s 25-27

yep.. so I'm slacking...
challenge 25 was to tell what we did for NSD (National Scrapbook Day - which was last Saturday - May 5)... we were to share our favorite creation we made that day... My most favorite was the Bronco Layout of little Nathan (that's already posted in the next post down... ) so I thought I'd go ahead and share the other thing I made that day... the visual for my Creative Team - the Swass Posse... Here they are! and here's the Guest Spots this month as well...

Challenge #27 is to tell a joke or something funny... so here's a story that makes me giggle -- ok.. laugh big time!! About 4 years ago I was just getting into hanging out at Scrapping sites... one of my firsts was at ScrappersIsland.com (in fact, that was my first Design Team gig - hee hee)... well, after I'd been on the site for about 5 months a new person registered named "Scrapppy21"... and this person proceeds to start making occassional posts - and all them COMPLETELY OUT THERE!! LIKE BIG TIME!!! for instance in her second posts, she tells how her only friend (her cat - Mr. Tibbles) got run over by an elderly man on a Hooveround type scooter... and tells how she carries Mr. Tibbles ashes everywhere she goes. Oh, she also posted a digital Lo that she created in paint of her new BF (that got deleted by the owner -- but it was HILARIOUS -- her boyfriend was the guy from THE MUMMY - his name is Arnold (can't reember his last name)... YOU HAVE to click here to read her post entiteld I'm totally devastated and here's the link for Greetings From Hollywood and here for more reading about Guess who's back?!? -- they are ALL quite entertaining.. she has many more if you'd like to do a member search for her there (I'm surprised that she didn't get deleted...).. Anyway, so this goes on for a good month or so and I am always telling John how the TROLL was posting blatent lies on Scrappers Island! He kept trying to say "but what if she's for real.. wouldn't you feel bad?" i was like "there is nooooo way, she's real!!!".... anway... so fast forward a bit and JOhn and i were hauling out our old couch to take to the dump when he says... "I have something to tell you..." and I was like "ok..what.." He pauses and then says... "I'm Scrapppy21"!!!!!! I literally dropped my end of the couch and fell onto one of the cushions and died laughing!! I thought that was brilliant!!!! I couldn't beleive that he did that! and even going so far as to do up a digital LO -- it was hilarious!!!! Anyway... after that - Sharonda (aka Scrapppy21) never made another appearance.

EDITED: alright.. just for those of you who have nothing better to do at this moment and need some entertainment.. HERE is the link to take you to Scrapppy21's full posting archive (where you can follow her on her journey with America's Next Top Model and all sorts of craziness!!)...

Challenge 27...

We are to tell (or show) some of our favorite fonts. It's a given I LOVE Century Gothic so thought I'd share 3 others ... here they are! They are each free fonts.. sorry don't have the links handy but you can do a google search and find them :)

what a ride! (and major "catch up"!)

Sheesh! it has been well over 2 weeks since I last posted here! Lot's has gone on! In a nutshell... the day that I launched my new digital store (via a new blog) I got an email from a fellow designer over at Elemental Scraps (Grace Bennett) asking if I'd like her help in setting me up a "real" store with an automated shopping cart... she is trying to build up a portfolio of websites she's done - so in exchange for her services in getting it all set up... she just asked that i let her include my website in her portfolio. This was a deal that I couldn't pass up! the next 5 days were spent getting everything designed (I designed up my whole site - and then would send her the files to insert in the proper places). You can find my site at http://www.shandyvogtdesigns.com . I am very pleased with how it turned out! I think it's quite gorgeous! LOL... ok let's see... so we went LIVE with my new store exactly a week after i had launched the blog store -- which i felt went over very well and my $.99 sale was definitely a hit! when I opened up the second store I had yet another "grand opening" sale where everything was 50% off for the week... again.. that was also a hit! I got so many wonderful emails and comments on how awesome my new site looked and how great my products were, etc.. really made me feel great! So then I decided that I'd take the plunge and get myself a CT (creative team) to work my designs and help me advertise around the digi community.... I put the call out and was hoping people would actually apply - LOL... I actually had my first application within 5 min. of posting my call! The first 3 days were pretty solid with lots of apps coming in (oh, my call started last monday and ended this past Saturday - so a 5-6 day call). I originally had thought of just taking 4-6 people as my team but i just couldn't narrow it down.. so (get this - LOL).. I ended up with 12 full time CT members and 5 Guest members for the month - C.R.A.Z.Y.!! I just figure the more I have.. the more my name will get around. I also added a private forum just for my CT members and I to chat on. I am announcing them tomorrow and have done up a pretty cool visual.. I'll be sure to add it here once it's done. oh, and I decided to call them the "Swass Posse" of Shandy Vogt Designs -- isn't that kinda cool?! I've got to work up on a blinkie for them to sport around "town".... Oh.. I also got contacted by Picaboo (a photo book place... like Shutterfly) to join their background designers team... Basically I sell them my designs to use for their background choices for the books. I was quite honored and felt this would also be a way to get my name out there (I have my own pic & bio over there with links back to my store, etc)... but the extra $$ is nice too :)... AND i got contacted to be a sponsor for a digital site.. they wanted it to be for this month (May) but I said that I'd feel more "prepared" if we didn't it another month -- so I'm set up to sponsor their DT (I give them 1-2 kits for their team to work with and in return.. they design up 100-125 LO's that they post as my advertisement and their team also wears a blinkie)... and this month I'm sponsoring the digital prize over at scrapgarden.net.... yep.. I'm having a FUN RIDE!

in other news: my little nathan finally started sitting up on his own - probably about 2 weeks ago... he's sooooo cute!! I've done 3 photos shoots of him since I last posted... and here's a little peek at some...actually i'll just put up the layouts I've already scrapped of 2 of the poses... (blogger isn't letting me add any photos right now... so I'll have to come back and insert them later on...) He's also just being soooo much fun! I've really enjoyed being a mom to this little guy! couldn't ask for a better guy :)

Ben got all registered for Kindergarten. We've also got an appointment with a plastic surgeon.. We figured you can never start too young - LOL.. just kidding! actually he was born with his left ear a bit deformed (Ok.. hate to use that word.. but I guess that's what you'd call it...) all of the cartiledge didn't quite get to the tip of his ear and it looks like it's folded in on itself... we wanted to get it fixed before he started school... plus where the army pays 100% of it... can't loose. He's still a ham and says so many cute things -- I need to do a layout of him and all of his quirky sayings....

Seth got enrolled for football... he's excited. He and John have been getting up at 5:30 and going to the track together before school/work (he needs to work back up to being able to run a mile before football starts). I'm proud of the two of them! He just brought home his progress report and he had 6 A+ and 1 A.... wow! he's been working hard! I think he was quite bummed that he didn't make the high honor roll like August did last quarter and is determined to outdo him this quarter - LOL. He also saved up his money and got a Pokemon Diamond game for his new DS.

August has really been helping out tons around the house... I had a talk with him on how he really sets the tone and mood of our house (he's usually the instigator for picking on his brothers...) He has tried to be nicer and I really appreciate it! Both he and Seth participated in the Pinewood Derby - August took 2nd (Seth took 5th out of 12 boys). So he was quite thrilled. let's see... oh, he also wants me to start giving him piano lessons... so we'll see how that goes.

John has been super busy at work (what else is new).. Unfortuanately he got the word this last Thursday that 2 more of his men were killed in Iraq (and 5 additional were injured). it's so sad... his unit had just finished up a big memorial service for the guys who died in February (the memorial service was just like last Saturday... and now more are dead :( he applied for a Government Civilian job - so then we'd just stay here in idaho and he'd work out of Gowen Field for the rest of his career... we both think this would be a great opportunity.. but on the other hand.. we both feel drawn to going back Active Duty... so we should have a definite plan of where life will be taking us later this summer...

Me... well, I've been enjoying myself tremendously with the whole digital desiging! I find so much joy and satisfaction in it! I'm so thrilled to start working with my CT and just enjoying the journey! I've got lots of planning going on with Girls Camp at church.. I'm one of the full time leaders that are planning on going up for the entire week... oh, John's grandpa died last week (he was like 96 and lived a very full life).. we will be leaving this weekend to go up to Clarkston, WA for the funeral. We'll probably take the boys out of school on Friday and head out... I've also done up a few baby announcements... my brother and his wife just had their first little girl on the 17th of April and she sent me this pic of her... I extracted her out.. put her onto a textured black background and added the swirlies... isn't that the most adorable photo!!! She is soooooo cute and I can't wait to be able to meet her! the Boys only have like 3 weeks left of school and then summer vacation will be here - that is so crazy! this year has flown by! well, the boys are asking when dinner is.. so better get off.. hopefully it won't be as long between posts ... if you ever get a huge "shandy withdrawal" you can always check out what's going on at my Scrap Blog to see what I've been up to...

Blog Challenge #17 - FEARfull Friday

alright... grab a drink and sit down for an ooooh so spooky tale! OK, just kidding - heheheh

today's challenge is to tell about a time in our life that we have been scared...

I've been wanting to document this event... so this is great for me :)

It's not a "jump out and frighten you" kind of scary.. just a "oh no! what am I going to do fearful" event... alright, let's begin:

Background history: (setting the stage - LOL)

Year: Feb. 10, 1999

Previous Events: John had just recently been commissioned as an officer in the US Army (May of '98). His first assignment after completing the Officers Basic Course - Seoul, South Korea. It was to be a Hardship tour (where the family couldn't go with him). We applied for a command sponsorship (where the boys - August and Seth - and I could go too). It was denied. He leaves for Korea on January 4. The boys and I go to my parents to stay. The plan was that when John got there, he would find a place for us to live (off post - in a Korean neighborhood) and the boys and I just go over (on our own dime) and live. So he gets there and finds us a little villa (shown here in the photo.. we lived upstairs). The boys and I just are waiting for our Passports and Visa's... they finally arrive and we get a flight over to Korea for the 3 of us. We depart on February 10. Now the story begins...

First of all... the whole ordeal of getting to Korea took exactly 24 hours. I was traveling alone for 19 of those hours (my parents drove me to the airport - which was like 5 hours away -- it was a MUCH cheaper flight to leave from Denver than anywhere else)... August had just barely turned 2 and Seth was 8 months old. August came down with a huge fever and diarrhea for the whole flight! NOt fun.. but it DID make him sleep and not be a wild, uncontrollable 2 year old on a 17 hour flight - so that was actually a blessing! Also, we were flying on a Korean airline and so all the stewartess's were Korean and thought little Seth (who was bright blonde) was so adoralbe so they really helped out and would prance him up and down the isle...

Ok.. let's get onto this FEARFUL event that happened...

Fast forward to the plane landing... Imagine me trying to get off the plane with 2 little boys. August carseat. Seth in his carseat. a stroller. a diaper bag. and a carry on! I must have been a sight! I just keep telling myself - I just have to make it off the plane and I will be met by John and all will be well! I somehow manage to get off the plane and... no John. I start to panic. I'm not sure what to do... I just start following the crowd - for they seem to know where they're going. I make it through customs. no familiar faces. no american faces. I keep following the crowd. We are now at the baggage claim. no John. I am soooo worried! I think to myself how I am lost in this city with 22 million people and am stranded. It was a horrible feeling! Both boys were screaming by this point. I had lost it. I drop everything and start crying (funny now when I think about how this must have looked - a foreigner and her little boys sitting at the baggage claim sobbing!). I felt so overwhelmed (I hadn't slept.. the time change... traveling for that long with 2 small children) ... so out of my comfort zone -- I felt so ALONE! I didn't even know what to do! So, I started to pray. Literally. I plead to my Heavenly Father "HELP ME! I can't find John. I don't know what to do! HELP!" as soon as I closed my prayer, a Korean airport personnel was walking past me. The thought came to me - STOP HIM! so, I said "excuse me.. do you speak any english?"... he said "ahhh. yes. english" (this was good enough for me!) I explained how I was supposed to have met my husband but couldn't find him anywhere. He then told me that no one is allowed INSIDE of the airport and that he was probably outside waiting for me. He then gathered up all of my luggage... helped me through the 2nd set of custom gates and outside to where I see John waiting for us! My fear was gone! I was filled with comfort (and exceeding gratitude for that wonderful Korean citizen who helped me!). On the way to our "new" home for the next year..John explained that he had no idea that he wasn't going to be allowed inside of the airport and was so worried for me. In the end, it all turned out well.. but I will never forget that scared feeling I had that overcame me and how the Lord shows his tender mercies when we plead to Him!

Blog Challenge #17

It's the here and now! Write a list of things you have to/want to/ need to (pick one - or all) get done today!
1. Fold Laundry (and put it away)
2. Vacuuming would be nice
3. Court at 1pm (yes.. you know what kind of person I am, right??? actually it's for a traffic viloation - that I TOTALLY disagree with.. so we shall see how it turns out!)
4. Chiropractor appts. for Seth and I
5. Young Womens tonight at the church (youth group I'm over)
6. LOST!!!!! hooray!! last weeks episode was AWESOME! can't wait for some more answers!!!
7. Keep tabs on my store :)... IT has exceeded my expectations of how the grand opening would be! In fact, I was the #2 scrap blog yesterday with 1600+ hits! Mama Likey!
8. Spend time with Johnny! He got stuck in Chicago last night - but should be home here in a few hours! I'm hoping he makes it in time to go to court with me.. I'm a bit nervous.. never been!
9. of course all the cooking and homework and playing with boys needs to fit in too :)

yep.. this is my day. today. Wednesday, April 18.

It's official

So I'm in a dilema... I have so much I WANT to do and don't know what to do first. Boys are all tucked safely into bed. John has called from Kentucky and he made it safe and I've got about 2 hours till I *have* to put myself to bed...
I want to SCRAP
I want to BLOG
I want to DESIGN
I want to VEG AND WATCH TV
I need to CLEAN THE HOUSE (notice.. not want to on that one - LOL)
I need to MAKE THE BOYS' LUNCH FOR TOMORROW

hmmm.. guess that's about it. Since I'm already here, I'll go ahead and finish up a quick post and then I'll feel like I'm doing something fun with my "me time".

So.. it's official. I joined the ranks of STORE OWNER today. Launched my digital scrapping store this morning. If any of you are interested, here's the link SVdesigns. There are literally THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of digital designers out there - the market truly is oversaturated... but I have such a passion for it and my hard drive was getting full with all the kits and stuff I've made so figured I might as well try and sell them. I've been asked a couple of times to come sell but think I'm going to just go with my own store for now - I have a lot of traffic to my blog - in the 2 months I've been posting, my scrapblog has had over 56,000 hits - so I know people will actually see my work. (who knows.. maybe my next post will reveal that I've signed on with a store - LOL). Anyway, also with so many thousands of designers trying to break into the industry - EVERYONE gives away free stuff as samples of their work, etc... so I know a lot of my followers at my scrapblog are there for the free stuff I create - which is totally fine. I'm just super excited people are even using it! I know people like my stuff. most of my items have been downloaded 1000+ times! Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I didn't want to set myself up for a dissapointment so I said that I would be THRILLED and feel successful if I got 10 orders today. I'm happy to report that I have almost DOUBLED that number and it's only been about 12 hours! Anyway, so I'm pretty excited. The best part of the day was when I received payment from Christi (a fellow scrapper over at Scrapgal) and she literally bought up over half of my store! That was just the best compliment! So... we shall see how the rest of the week goes. I'm having a $.99 grand opening sale this week. All the $$ I make is getting put into our cruise fund -- HOORAY for vacations! Well, guess I've gone on long enough -- better move on to my next WANT of the evening!

Blog challenge #16

you are all going to have a growth in brain size after today's challenge of listing random facts!

* Apples, not caffiene, are more effective of waking people up in the morning
* There are 119 grooves on the edge of a quarter
* On the average, there are eight peas in a pod.
* There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo
* More than a third of all adults hit their alarm clock's "snooze" button each morning — an average of three times before they get up. Those most guilty of snatching some extra sleep are those in the 25-34 age bracket, at 57 percent
* Most American-made car horns beep in the tone of "F."
* In 1976, the first eight Jelly Belly® flavors were launched: Orange, Green Apple, Root Beer, Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Grape, and Licorice.

Blog challenge #15

Todays challenge is a Truth or Dare... We can answer the question "have you ever regifted" OR we can take the DAre and tell about our most memorable gift.
Since we all know regifting is just something people do - hee hee... I'll tell about my most memorable gift.
Let me give the setting... I'm 17. Christmas is comming. I have my own bathroom at home and I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted this bathroom set. It was peach. You know, the bath mat, toilet cover, shower curtain, soap dish... you get the picture. I wanted it all! That was all I wanted that year for Christmas. Did I get it? No.

Ok.. actually I did but just wanted to trick you -- surprise! LOL
Yep.. got the whole she-bang and I couldn't have been happier! Then as an added surprise I got a phone line in my room! I couldn't believe it! This was before portable phones were really big and I *needed* to talk to my boyfriend (my sweet Johnny) into the wee hours of the night without my parents knowing - hehhehe. So I got 2 memorable gifts that year for Christmas and I'll always look back on them with fondness! My parents did good that year! Thanks mom and dad!

Easter and upadates!

YIKES! there's so much to post about.. but am VERY short on time! so I'm just going to post some pictures and give a quick recap...

the top pic is an awesome "real grass" basket that the bunny left on our back porch on Friday -- guess he was getting a *jump* on things - LOL.... the boys and I colored eggs on Saturday evening and here are our creative results! Betcha can't guess what the 3rd pic is - heheh.. oh, I guess you could! That's right... it's the boys' easter baskets. The bunny knew we are saving $$ for our family cruise fund, so each boy got mostly $$ inside their eggs to put towards the cause!

Ben decided to be Superman for a couple of days last week... here he is all ready to go to the gym with me and show the other kids all of his *super powers*!

and this picture is just too cute NOT to share! We had just gotten back from the Easter Egg hunt and Pancake feed at the church on Saturday morning and Seth just kept snuggling up with Nathan and giving him hugs and kisses! This is so sweet! Melts my *mommy heart*.

and finallly just a fun one of Benjamin getting artistic with the chalk that the easter bunny left. Now, because I have all boys this next part shouldn't be a surprise to anyone -- after they were done drawing nice pictures for me on the back patio... they decided to turn on the hose and got turned all the chalk pics into PAINT! and then proceeded to paint themselves with it! They dyed their hair... their bodies and their clothes! Luckily it all came out with just a bit of water...

alright.. that's all I've got time for now... I'll be back later for more updates :)

blog challenge #14

yes.. you read that right.. there is no #13... (yet)... but getting a jump on things. Lisa is helping me out with the blog challenges and we'll be switching every other week... so today she has us doing something quite unique! We are to google what we need. For instance, I typed in "shandy needs" into google and here are the results (we are to post links to at least 10 of the results)...

#1 Shandy needs a plumber in the UK... apparently I haven't gotten a cheque from some guy for plans I did and I'm waiting on the check to be able to pay the plumber... hmmm... interesting...

#2 Shandy needs a ride to bible study ... so in this little read, back in July of 2005 I needed a ride to a teen bible study - hehehhe... ok.. this is fun... onto the next one (yep.. I'm typing this as I find them.. so we'll be surprised together!)

#3 Shandy needs help swimming ok.. this one is about if I need help swimming to call this guy (who specializes in breeding dogs that help humans).. or at least I *think* that's what it was about... oh well... on to the next...

#4 Shandy's friend needs help in picking out a fishing rod so I super nice in this one and am posting a thread about the best fishing rod to get my friend... I'm seeing a trend here... in everyone so far, Shandy is a boy! LOL... I guess I'm not surprised.. Shandy means "rambunctious little boy"... hmmmm...

#5 I'm a refreshing drink someone needs and this guy will show you step by step how to make a Shandy - a refreshing, non-alchoholic drink!

Ok.. I'm not finding anymore *fun* links of what I need... there are about 2 pages of the author Tristam Shandy and a couple of blogs by people named Shandy... so I'll end with this one...

I NEED A SPONSOR!! how can anyone resist me???

blog Challenge #12

I told all the gals who participate in these challenges that it will be hard to beat #11 (we all had a total blast with that one!). Today challenge is all about our names. The story behind it, what it means, do we like it, etc, etc...

My full name is Shandalyce Fae.
Most people have a hard time pronouncing my name (especially telemarketers - LOL). Just so you know - it's prounounced Shan-da-leece. I get called Shand-alis alot. But I have always gone by Shandy.
My parents couldn't decide on what to call me. My dad wanted "Shandy" and my mom wanted "Alyce"... so, they did what any normal young american did in the 70's and combined the two :) Unique and original. I have never met another Shandalyce. In fact I've never met another Shandy (I've seen them on TV and whatnot.. but never met one in person...) I think it's pretty cool and I never get confused with other people - so that's a plus, right?
My middle name, Fae, was given to me after my grandma (my dad's mom).

BIG LOSER

some days all the hard work of losing weight just totally PAYS off... literally! As in $$. I entered a 30 day weight loss challenge at my gym and there was a pot of $100 to be won. We decided to split it between the top 3 losers (in respects to total % body weight loss). First place would get 60%, 2nd place gets 30% and 3rd place would take the remaining 10%. I was really aiming to get first place but sadly that didn't happen. I did end up taking 3rd though and so am quite pleased! I also had them do my measurements and figure out my body % and I'm SO THRILLED with the results. Ok.. so from when I was initially measure in January 2005 to my measurements today I have lost a total of 38.5 inches!! That's over 3 feet of me that is gone! Almost 2 feet of that is gone from my whole mid section (which is my *trouble* spot) with between 7-9" gone off my abs, waist and hips each. I was just so EXCITED. I've also lost a total of 15% body fat! I am actually in the "normal" range for a woman my age! How cool is that? and a total of 54 pounds. I feel soooooo awesome! I feel so empowered! I feel so like ME! This is who I am. So when John got home I had him take a "visual" picture of me holding a tape measurer around my waist at where it used to be (don't think the picture turned out all that great and you can't really see how far I'm holding out the tape.. but oh well.. you get the idea!).

Also... I've accepted a postion at Elemental Scraps.com to be on their Element Team (for designing) and they needed a headshot and bio for their home page... so, John and I set up a little "studio" in the backyard and went at it! We had so much fun. A blast really! Here are 2 of my favorites. I'm going to be doing a scrapbook page with all the outtakes - which should prove to be fun! So stayed tuned for that. I went with the one on the left to be featured at the site...

woohoo for fun, new photos of me (that actually turned out cute! - hee hee)

and can I just say...

I LOVE MY HAIR!

eeeeeeww!

yep... here's my little filthy boy! This was Nathan's first attempt at a biter biscuit! As you can see, he totally enjoyed it! there were a few times it got so slimy it fell out of his little fingers - LOL... needless to say, bath time wasn't too far off!

I must add: even though he is sooooooo filthy, isn't he the cutest thing ever!?!!

Truth Revealed...

So here's the results for Blog Challenge #11

1) True. John was stationed in Korea (1999-2000) and while there we all went swimming in the Yellow Sea. It was absolutely DISGUSTING! you couldn't even see your hand like 2 inches below the water... only went in to say that I had! LOL (ya know.. so then I'd have things to write about on my blog 7 years later - hee hehe)

2) False. I am sooooooooooo scared of heights that I don't think anyone could even PAY me to skydive!

3) True. Yep, When I was about 7 or so, I was sitting in the front seat... my dad turned a corner and out I went! no permanent damage done. LOL

So the
Dina, Rachael, Michelle, Lynn, Celeste and Patrice all got it right! Wow... that's pretty good :)
Thanks for playing :)

Today it happened... I LOVE my new hair cut! It only took a week - hee hee... I was banking on it taking 2... so this is a little unexpected treat for me! I think it's sassy and cute and spunky and totally fits me! Plus all the great compliments I've been getting from friends makes me feel like I'm on top of the world! I must say... it's pretty swass!

So, here's a picture of Nathan, Benjamin and I getting ready to have a little lunch date with daddy today (sorry for the dark shadows and such.. guess we should have thought to open the curtains to let in some natural light!). In the past 2 months John has only had 4 days off (poor guy!). He and his staff took today off - so when Ben got home from preschool we thought it'd be fun to go out for lunch. Ben was campaigning for Golden Corral. Tomorrow's my weigh in day for Weight Watchers so I was a bit hesitant... but that's where we ended up going. I'm happy to report that I ate very healthy (despite it being a buffet full of yummy food that was calling to me! LOL). I'll be happy come tomorrow at the weigh in, right? I'd better be!

I got an email from another digital scrapbook site inviting me to be a part of their Elements Team where I'd be designing free products for their members for participating in challenges and whatnot... I'd be reimbursed by gift certificates to their store for up to $50/month. I'm really thinking about doing this. As most of you know.. the store I was going to be selling my designs at fell through (the owner decided it wasn't going to be that productive in the financial part of things)... so I had decided to just go back to selling and giving out freebies from my ScrapBlog... I actually like the idea of being on an elements team, tho... seems to really fit where I'm at right now with my designs... I wrote back asking for more info.. so we'll see. I was pretty excited that it was actually a pretty well known and established site with some well known designers :)

As usual.. it's pretty late so better get to bed so I can be a well rested and happy mom in the morning!

Blog Challenge #11

I thought for this challenge we'd try something a little more "interactive"... so today we are going to tell 3 statements about ourselves. 2 will be TRUE and 1 will be FALSE. In the comment section, everyone votes on which one they think isn't a true statement about me. I'll reveal the real falsehood on the next Blog challenge day :) So.. ready to play? Here we go:

1) I've been swimming in the Yellow Sea
2) I've been skydiving three times
3) I've fallen out of a car driving down the road

New TOYS for the BOYS

It all started last Sunday... August and Seth informed John and I that they were going to sell ALL of their *stuff* to buy Nintendo DS Lite's... now, what I mean by "stuff" is: their Gameboys, games, the XBOX, all the games and some of the Nintendo 64 games... Now DS Lite's are about $130 so they needed quite a bit of cash! Their first plan of action was -- to go trade in everything at Game Crazy and purchase used DS's (not the LITE's -- just the original versions...) Anyway... so we go to Game Crazy and they run into a few stumbling blocks... (I won't go into all the details -- just becasue I'm too lazy to type it all - LOL) but bottom line was they were only going to get $130 for EVERYTHING! Not enough $$ for what they were wanting to do.... SO....I spent the rest of the afternoon putting up several auctions on eBay. Who knew Mario games for a Nintendo 64 were soooooo popular?!! We had one lot that had Super Mario, Mario Kart & Mario Party 2 and it sold for (get this....) $61!!! All the auctions closed yesterday afternoon and within 2 hours we had been paid for all but 1 auction. Oh, I forgot to mention how much they ended up getting... they made $293.61! They were soooooo thrilled! It was enough for them both to get the newest DS versions (the LITES) and both get a game. So, when John got home they couldn't hardly wait to go get their new toys :) So even though they had to wait a few extra days to get the DS, it all ended better. Now... comes the FUN part - I've got to haul all 4 boys to the Post Office to mail all the goods! Wish me luck - LOL

Blog challenge #10

Today's blog challenge is to tell about something that we collect... so here goes:

About 5 years ago, I started collecting LIGHTHOUSES. Pictures, wall hangings, plates, candle holders, and pretty much anything lighthouse related! I haven't added to my collection in a quite a while - although I still really like them :) I have them all in my kitchen - mostly up on the plant shelves. To me they just add a nice little "charm" to the home and are more than just a nice decoration... whenever I see them, I think of how they are a representation (at least to me) of the Light of Christ -- and just how seamen would follow the lighthouse on shore to protect them during turbulent times... it's the same in our lives... If we follow Christ, he will help us during turbulent times in our lives. Anyway, here's a pic of a few of my MANY lighthouses - LOL

so much WIND!

I'm no weather expert... but there must be some disturbances and hot and cold fronts hitting each other because we have had SOOOOOOOOO much wind this past week!! We're talking MEGA wind! Good thing my hair is so short now... I don't have to worry about the wind messing it up - LOL

Anyway... the boys became inventive and decided to use the wind to their advantage... I look out the window and see the boys using the power of their wind to take them on rides on their skateboard and scooter! Doesn't that look like fun!? I'm happy to report that only 1 garbage bag was snatched by the wind and littered a neighbors yard (behind a fence that we couldn't get too -eeeks!)

while I was outside taking pictures, I noticed how gorgeous our plum tree is looking! I SOOOO wish that it looked like this all the time! It's so beautiful! Sadly, it only looks like this for about a week in the spring... then turns to it's "normal" dark plum colored leaves... it started producing actual PLUMS last year! I didn't realize that it was a *real* fruit tree - hehehehhe

also.. this picture totally inspired the creative side of me -- I could TOTALLY transpose this into some digital scrap paper! wouldn't that be gorgeous!?!

UPDATE ON APRIL 3: here's the paper I came up with using this picture... I'm thinking it's pretty swass!

Bringin' Back SWASS

So I'm driving down the freeway in Spokane last week in a rental, while on business, listening to the iPod with my staff. I was playing DJ and floating out some phat tunes. On a whim, I busted out some old school Mix-A-Lot and when the song, SWASS, came on, I knew my new mission in life:





I will single-handedly bring back the term SWASS.

examples:

"Yo, those suede pumas be Swass!"

"Man, if I looked any more Swass, it'd be illegal..."

"This #4 Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger combo meal is Swass!"

"Shandy, that new LO is Swass"

So in 1988, Sir-Mix-a-Lot released his album Swass. I'm pretty sure he formulated the term himself and it became synonymous with anything dope, hip, fresh, or funky. I don't think it ever really caught on but for a skinny adolescent white boy, sporting a mullet, it was da bomb-diggity.

My challenge, for you, SAHM's and other ladies, is to bust out the term Swass at the dinner table tonight. Let the old man now that you are down.

- John

Blog Challenges 8 & 9

Well, I still haven't done challenge #8 - which was to create a scrapbook layout using a post from your blog... I plan on doing that, just haven't gotten around to it...

On to challenge #9:
SNAZ UP YOUR BLOG. This can be done by sprucing up your blog header, adding some fun artwork to it, inserting a slide show of somesort, having music playing -- let your creative inner child loose! As you can tell, I decided to add some music for my viewers enjoyment :) Depending on my mood, I either really like it when I visit blogs that have music, other times, I find it annoying - YIKES! So, for any of you who are in this latter group, you can either turn the volume off on your computer or scroll down to the VERY bottom of the page and hit "stop". For all the rest, perk up your ears and maybe you'll find a new song or two that you like :)

Holy SHORT HAIR Batman!

alright, I'm still in a little shock... Usually I don't give too much fuss about my hair and my philosophy is "it's just hair.. it'll grow back"... well, today I've had a little scare! LOL.

So here's the facts...

* YES, I DID want a new, bold look

* YES, I DID want to go short and spunky

* YES, I DID tell my stylist exactly what I was thinking of doing

So... I went in without any hesitation and let her go at it... about half way through... my stomach dropped! So many thoughts were running through my mind.. "did I make a mistake?" "what was I thinking?" "I look awful!" LOL... but it was too late. I did want my bangs and sides just a tad longer.. but I guess when you're going this short... what another centimeter in length, right?

Now, I DO love the color!! IT ROCKS! gorgeous in the sunlight! Ok.. back to the cut... I'm still a little in shock... called John on my way home just to "warn" him to be prepared for a shock! Called my sister and told her I was crazy! Came home and stared at myself in the mirror. Then... I called my neighbor over to check it out... she walked in the door and put her hands over her mouth (I knew I was in trouble!)... but then she got closer and blurted out (in all sincerity) "I REALLY LIKE IT! You totally pull off this look!" This made me feel much better. So I went back to the mirror and looked at my reflection some more... and then something changed. My thoughts changed. I think I look KINDA COOL! It's definitely something WAY different but spunky and fresh! When John got home, he was so sweet and gave me lots of compliments... so yep... this is me. At least for now.

Money Grows in Photoshop

Seth has this "Money Project" that he is to be working on at home. Basically they had to come up with and design their own money - including comming up with a shape for the currency, the country name and motto and symbols, serial number, denomination.. the whole 9 yards! So, he and I spent some time on photoshop and came up with this... (he designed the whole thing but I had to help him implementing some of the techniques...) Here's the front and the back. Then we cut them out and adhered them together... voila! $500 has been created! So do you think he likes video games?... the name of his country is: Video Games Rule, his motto is: Must Play Video Games, and notice how the symbols are a gameboy, a nintendo DS and an XBOX... yeah.. I'd say he's got video games on the brain! I'm just glad that we got it done -- and it's not even due until April 13th -- hooray for not procrastinating!

Grandma came to pick the boys up to spend the night at around 1:30pm... Seth was playing with a friend and decided that he didn't want to go with Grandma after all and that "he didn't want me to get lonely" so he'd stay home with me. I figured he can help me with Nathan so didn't mind too much. Plus, he always seems to get "lost" in the family dynamics (you know, the whole "middle child" syndrome)... so tonight after we got to spend some good, quality time together. Just the 2 of us. First he wanted me to ride his scooter while he rode his bike... so we did. It was actually quite fun to be free and ride! Then we jumped on the tramp and had some races in the backyard. Then we had some snuggle time on the couch and read his Star Wars book and then (here's the really fun part - LOL) we danced to the ENTIRE Weird Al Yankovic CD! needless to say, I probably didn't need to workout this morning -- LOL. I then tucked him in on the couch to watch a movie while I scrapped... happy evening!

Blog Challenge #7

so here's the question posed for challenge #7:
An article of clothing that I owned and thought I looked so great in but in hindsight really didn’t was: (this question is brought to you by John)... oh, SEVERAL outfits come to mind! I have to admit tha I really didn't get my fashion sense until just a few years ago (although in my defense.. I felt I had to shop for *cheap* clothes to be frugal when John and I were first married). One outfit in particular that comes to mind is a pair of floral leggins (in pastel yellows and pinks -- now mind you this was in the mid 90's and leggins were NOT fashionable.. so I have no idea why I bought them and why I thought they'd be cool to wear) with a matching T-shirt that had a floral motif that was outlined in GOLD! We were living up in Moscow, Idaho (attending UofI) and somehow whenever I'd wear this outfit, I would get mud splattered on the backs of my calves... so not only was I wearing a hideous outfit, but it was also decorated with mud - LOL... I never knew about the mud splatters until John would get home from work and inform me (and here I thought I was looking all cute for him - LOL).

Productive Scrapping Night

I did these 3 Layouts after all the boys were tucked safely into bed. The journaling for the one of August on the High Honor Roll reads:

"You sure have come a long way in just 1 year. Daddy and I were just discussing how last year, we had to work really hard with you just to keep you from failingthe 3rd grade and now here you are sporting your certificate indicating that you made the HIGH HONOR ROLL! Wow! we are just so proud of you! You have reallyworked hard and you’ve got a terrific teacher (Mrs. Ingram) that motivates you to do your best. I just had to laugh when I downloaded these pictures... seemslike even a smarty pants like you can have a mix up (check out the certificatein the above photo -- isn’t that just too fun?!). Keep up the good work, August!. " This one of August I scrapped using papers that I designed (from my Coral Reef collection) and the more "serious" one of Nathan is using paper that I designed as well. Too much fun!

Blog challenge #6

Challenge #6 is all about documenting life (that's what a blog's for, right?? - LOL)... so we are to upload a photo that was taken today and then tell about our day. So here goes:

Wednesday's are my day to drive for carpool - and I don't have time to make it to the gym beforehand :( This morning got up, boys off to school, did a load of laundry, got Ben and nathan ready for the day and was out the door by 8:55am to pick up the other kids. Dropped them off at school and headed to Walmart to get some groceries (since I am much fast and don't have to deal with boys trying to *sneak* stuff into the cart when I go solo)... Picked the kids back up at 11:30am and was home just before noon. John flew out to Spokane today so he was home getting packed when I arrived... so we got to see him for just a few moments before he had to leave.

Put Nathan down for a nap, Ben was playing with the neighbor girls, housework was 100% done and so I did a little scrapping -- fun times :) Boys got home at 2:45pm from school and then we had to go to the chiropractor... On the way home, I didn't feel like cooking and then having to clean up the mess (especially since the house was totally clean) so we stopped by Subway and grabbed some dinner. Came home and got Nathan and Ben in the bath (hence the picture for today), fed Nathan and got him down for the night. Read books to Ben and got him to bed. Tucked the older boys into bed and then settled in for the newest episode of LOST to start! Ok.. wasn't expecting that whole thing with John's dad pushing him out the window! EEEKS! I thought it was a good episode :) John watched it at the hotel and called me after it was over for us to *discuss* - LOL

I then worked on some more digital creations. On the way to the Chiropractor today we passed a subdivsion called "Island Woods" and it totally inspired me! So, I have been working on the Island Woods Collection tonight. I came up with 15 different patterned papers -- but only *like* about 8 of them (so will probably give the others out for a freebie on my scrapblog). Now I've just got to come up with some fun elements. I also checked email, read some blogs, updated mine and now am off to bed... yep, this is a pretty typical day for me :) Thanks for following along for the day --