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...