Big News!

Hi friends!
I'm so excited to finally be able to tell all of you that I'M PREGNANT! Woo hoo! I am approximately thirteen weeks along, and so far all is well. This pregnancy is just as uneventful as my first was, and I'd be happy if we could keep it that way as long as possible! Now, to answer some of the pressing questions I know you all have on your mind (yeah, right!).

The due date... is April 6, 2008, but because of the complications we had with Henry I will most likely have a scheduled c-section at week 39 so the baby will probably arrive around March 31. If we schedule it for April 1, he will share a birthday with Darrin's Dad... but I don't know if I'd do that to him given all the stories I've heard about Al (Darrin's Dad) getting birthday cakes made of wood and all sorts of other weird things just because it was April Fools Day! (It's kinda funny though because Henry's due date was Darrin's Mom's birthday)!

The gender.... will only be a secret as long as it has to be! We fully intend to find out the baby's gender (assuming he/she cooperates) at the ultrasound I will get around week 20 (which should fall some time in the beginning of December). I'll be sure to post the info as soon as we know! I can tell you that there is definitely only ONE baby though! We had a "mini-ultrasound" yesterday, so that rumor is laid to rest (and no, I don't want to hear your stories about how one could be hiding, thank you very much!).

The name... will be a secret until he/she makes his/her appearance in the world! I have one friend that I'll bounce idea's off of, but she's in Indiana and she's not talkin'! Everyone else has to wait... hey! there has to be one surprise, right?! I will tell you that we have a first name finalized for a boy, and are pretty sure about a girl's first and middle name as well (both of those are family names). That's all you get!

Updates... will be posted here regularly! I'm sorry I haven't been posting much, but I've been sick all week and trying to keep it together enough to take care of Henry and myself while Darrin is at work. I've also gotten sucked into an AWESOME book called "My Sister's Keeper" by my favorite author, Jodi Picoult, so that is taking up a lot of my "free" time as well.

Other than that, there's not much else to report! Oh - how do you like that baby ticker I've added? It allows you to watch the baby as it grows. I thought it was kind of cute (zip it, CRF! ;) ). Big thanks to Sarah at The Scrapbooking Table (see my Websites Worth Visiting area for the link) who gave me the heads up to the baby widget!

So Many Sayings

I have to share the good - no, GREAT - idea I found for this set on SCS! So Many Sayings is a Level 2 hostess set from Stampin' Up and is meant to be three long stamps, each containing several sayings in a long row. Personally, I don't really see the point of it and no intention of buying it... until... :o) Someone suggested cutting the sayings apart and mounting them individually on the blocks from that old game Jenga. I thought on this for awhile. We have a Jenga game that we haven't played in ages, so it was certainly doable. But once they are mounted, how do you store them? They surely wouldn't have fit back in the little plastic storage case they came in!

And then it hit me! Cut the wood blocks into pieces too! Sounds great doesn't it? Except I have no means with which to do this so I was stuck once again.... until... I remembered my Aunt and Uncle out in Washington. She was a big crafter and if my memory served me correctly he did all of the cutting on the wood for the things she made and painted, etc. One quick phone call, and before I knew it my wood blocks were on their way to Washington! Now they are back, and everything is mounted, and I am in love! :o) My set of three is now a set of 17 double mounted blocks with 34 seperate sayings/designs. Totally versatile!!!

The following picures show the "before" image of the set, the after, and them all nestled snuggly in their original storage case! Woo hoo!

BIG thanks and lots of love to my Uncle for all of the cutting! :o)

I WON!!!

Can you believe it?! The Happy Haunting card that I posted below won "first place" in Lorie's halloween prize swap! The prize for winning was the SU "Eventful" Hostess set - I can't wait to get it and play with it! Now that she has posted more of the cards that were entered, I have to say I'm truly honored with the accolade! There was some seriously steep competition. Go to Lorie's blog to see the winning announcement and the other swap cards she has posted so far!

Oh, and as a side note, I am posting this from my NEW Dell Inspiron laptop!! WOOO HOOO! I'm hoping that means the post won't show up under September 2nd again....

Happy Haunting!

Note: This will probably post under Sept 2, but today is really Sept. 12th. And so continue my PC problems.... *sigh*

I made a set of these cards for Lorie's Halloween swap. I really am happy with the way they turned out! :) Hurrah! I used the masking technique to get the cat in front of the "moon" and added a little dazzling diamonds on the moon to simulate wispy little clouds. Sorry the picture is dark, but I already had them sealed in clear envelopes before I remembered to take the picture so I couldn't use flash.

Welcome baby Codi!

I just love this Bundle of Joy set, and wish I had more opportunities to use it. The card was made for a friend's new baby girl, and I am pleased with the outcome. I found those pre-made ribbons in pink and blue in the clearance section at Factory Card Outlet. They were clearanced at $1 for a bag of 12 of each color! Add a mini glue dot, and voila! :)

Thanks for Lunch

Wow - I can't believe this crazy computer actually let me upload a photo. It's a Christmas Miracle! :) "Technical Difficulties" (see post below) continue, but here is an exception!

I made this cute little housemouse card for a friend who treated Henry and I to lunch last week at El Azteca. It's one of the few food related stamps I have, but I thought it was fitting because I looked similar to that little mouse when I left. LOL!

The card is made using the spotlight technique. WW and Bashful Blue cs, going grey (background) and basic black (colored image, sentiment) ink, prismacolors and gamsol for coloring, and b/w gingham ribbon. The sentiment is from the SU! set called "Much Appreciated" (which by the way is one of the handiest little sets in the world if you make a lot of thank you cards!).

Sorry for all of the dead space around the picture. I can't seem to find a photo editing program on this computer either. No surprise there *sigh* .

Henry Update!

Again, today is Sept 12th... not Sept. 2!

Just wanted to get a few new pics of Henry posted for y'all! He is growing like CRAZY! All of his summer clothes are 12 mos, and now that cooler weather is here, I'm finding that we have to go right to 24 mos for most things to get the length and fit to be right. Being that most of his summer clothes are sleeveless and shorts you don't really realize just how much he's growing!

The pics of him in the Pooh bibs (aren't those adorable?! And only $1 at a rummage!) were taken today (9/12). The one with Papa was taken a week or so ago.

Enjoy!

I'm still here!

And the saga continues.... We're still waiting for my new laptop, and I'm still struggling with dh's pc, which also needs rebuilding or torching (whichever comes first!). This pc (dh's) has now begun what I fondly refer to as the "Groundhog Day Effect". Every time I log into blogger or SCS, it logs in about five days earlier and I have to continually refresh to get current information. The two cards (baby card and mouse card) that are below this post were not both posted on Sunday, Sept. 2. They were posted two days apart! *sigh* This is what fun my pc life has become.

Dude, where's my Dell?!

Life here is going well. We had a big rummage this weekend with my Mom and Grandma, and the family across the street had one as well. We collaborated our efforts on advertising and as a result had a very good turn out. We hauled just about everything that was left to Goodwill afterwards, so the house is free of clutter finally!

Darrin and I both started classes this week for our MBA's. This is my last class, and I refuse to drop it for a THIRD time so I will *finally* be done with this dang degree in December. I swore I'd never go back for another class, but the thought keeps nagging at me. I'd really like to take some math and economics classes (it's a sickness, I know), but I think I'll wait awhile on that one. I also need to take some cooking classes and expand my horizons a bit in that area as well (Greg, are you reading this? lol - start a class!).

Other than that, life continues as normal. Stay tuned for more pics and posts once all of our pc issues are ironed out!

Technical Difficulties

Due to a combination of computer and time issues, there probably won't be many (if any) new posts for at least a week. Please continue to check back often - I'm currently using my husband's computer and it is a very fickle machine. Sometimes it allows me access to blogger, sometimes it does not. Either way it does not allow me to post photo's for whatever reason! As soon as we either rebuild my machine or receive the one we ordered eons ago that was "promised" to be delivered exactly one week ago (thanks, Dell!) I'll be back on board!

Thanks for your patience! :)