what is that......?

addictive quality to cheetos or cheese twists? i seriously have no will-power when it comes to those things.

potato chips - no problem. can limit myself to a couple.

french fries - can stop eating them in seconds flat, especially when they get cold.

but cheese twists? must forget the cheese twists. i have to hide those suckers and try to forget they exist in the pantry. =)

happy birthday to.....

my friend, lauren!
she's the ONLY one who still checks out this old blog every once and awhile and gave me kudos the other day for finally updating it after six months {*insert blush*}.
lauren - i hope you have a wonderful year full of success at your job and fun outside of worklife. may you balance it all! =)

happy + new

Happy 2009 to all!

The holidays always fly by so quickly. Is it horrible of me to say that I already miss the Christmas music and the happy glow of lights twinkling on the tree? I find this time a year a bit of a struggle. Case-in-point: My daughter cried when we explained to her that the Christmas tree had to come down today. At bedtime she begged, "Please bring my Christmas tree back!" {Although, 4 weeks out from purchasing a real evergreen, it had alread stopped taking in water and was starting to brown, lose needles and sag. How do you explain that to a toddler?}. We tried to explain as best as possible that the tree only stayed inside the house during the holidays; it had to go back outside to live, where it would get water and sunshine so we could bring it back inside next Christmas. Not really sure how convincing our argument was; but, it seemed to appease her - at least for the evening.

The holidays were good. Crazy busy, as most people experience, but good. I know I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon. The last half of the year was jammed with all sorts of good, new things and memorable events as well as some difficult, family passings that made the holidays a little sad this year.

On a more upbeat note, I am hoping, in this new year, to take some time to periodically update the blog - maybe give some new life to its current style. I still haven't figured out to magically tack on five hours to each day, so my blogging goals may be slow-going. I am still debating on making my blog a private one and may ultimately end up doing so.

Well, there will be more debating on that one.

Thanks for dropping by - hope you have a great, new year!

been a little preoccupied.....

and not really devoting much attention to my blog. it's what happens....blogging ends up being low-man on the totem poll.

rest assured though, the time has been well spent in other areas - except for the past week. i'm getting over a cold that has me literally croaking out words like a frog. it's been a tough cold to get rid of too.

i've also spent a lot of time exercising during some of the "free" time i get...do not get me wrong - it has been great. i am using this video series i got last month for my birthday and i am loving the results i am seeing so far...my baby love handles are actually disappearing!

sometimes i wish i could spend part of that learning to use photoshop better....scrapbooking, etc. but, this is a good goal for me to have right now.

that's not to say i haven't been able to scrapbook. here are a couple of things i've done recently...i uploaded more in my 2peas gallery:






other things really keeping me busy are just the normal day-to-day things: cleaning, keeping the kids busy and happy, dealing with the terrible-twos, looking for new activities for the kids, working on the house and landscaping...just a rush of things, but definitely loving the burst of warm spring/early summer weather.

bought my husband the transformers movie for father's day. {yes, actually, i AM looking forward to seeing it}. sadly, it must wait for this weekend before we can watch it...but, getting to the movies doesn't really happen here...over the past month a few movies i've wanted to see have finally come out on DVD and i've been enjoying them. thought 27 dresses was cute and national treasure 2 was also enjoyable, like the first. i'm hoping to get out and see a few summer flicks, but we'll play that by ear.

seen any good movies lately? have you been able to work on any goals or hobbies you have? fill me in!

long day.

just a quick post.

today was just one of those days that seemed longer than normal.

have had a lot going on here, including a nice round of head colds. my dad had a heart attack 2 weeks ago, which put us all in a state of frenzy. he's doing much better but we are still taking it one day at a time. time has flown ever since.

before i leave, here's a layout i recently put together. i uploaded more to my 2 peas page.

i want spring weather to be here in the worst way. can you tell i'm reminiscing previous springs in my layout? haha.

have a great evening. =)

headed for the weekend.

well, i'm pretty fried. busy week and a busy weekend coming up. next week is Easter. it's so hard to believe! i have no pictures. i am still organizing and want to update you all on the excitement that is straightening the files, making sense of scrapbooking supplies, straightening drawers and pantries, etc. is it spring yet?

i am relishing the daylight savings. it sucks to lose the hour of sleep, but i feel like i make it up because my daughter actually sleeps a little longer in the morning. i swear she wakes up as soon as a speck of light filters through her window - she knows it's time to get up and have fun - and before i know it, i hear the singing and chatting coming through the monitor. also love the fact that a 6 p.m., it's still light out. can't beat that as the weeks progress into spring and summer!
other stuff...brought baby boy for his 2 month appt. today {can't believe it has been 2 months already!!!}. he's doing VERY well. freaked a little when the doctor said he has a slight heart murmur. the doctor didn't seem concerned, but i'm still a bit freaked. we'll be paying close watch.

had a member of my father's family pass away this week. it was a pretty tough pill to swallow for us. my dad had a bought with terminal lung cancer almost three years ago. had his left lung removed, etc. with the expectation that it would extend his life another two years. the good thing is that he has passed the two year mark as of last october. he goes to his specialists every 3-4 months and they are estatic that he's surpassed his expectations {and making a little history for the illness he had and the type of operation performed}. on the flip side, he has seen another close family member diagnosed with a serious illness, a good friend passed away in a freak work accident, and, now two familiy members pass on - all within about a six month timeframe. hard stuff. i can't help but be thankful of how far he's come, health-wise. i realize that i am pretty lucky to have known what it's like to have a dad for almost 30 years...and hopefully, i'll get more time.

on a lighter note...busy scrapbooking. just finished a layout. i haven't had time to take a picture of it, crop it and do other photoshop stuff with it. just having a blast with seeing everything come to life as i put together the supplies and start assembling.

trying to make plans to see the other boleyn girl {lauren, if you read this i am trying to work out the details of our plans}. read the book a few years ago and thought it was really good. can't wait to see what it's like in a hollywood-scripted form. almost wish i still had the book and had the time to read it before seeing the movie, just so i could monitor the differences, book versus hollywood's take.

have some baking to do too - rice pudding and scones. and a coffee cake for playgroup early next week. looks like i'll be doing that inbetween everything else...

happy weekend! =)

making sense of the mess.

maybe because it's still the beginning of the year.

or maybe because spring is around the corner.

i was reminded yesterday of some organizational problem-areas in the house. OK, more like whenever i go down to the basement to run or retrieve scrapping supplies, i am constantly reminded that i have boxes to dig through, files to set up and papers to toss. when i turn to the house, as a whole, i can visualize projects i want to engage. it can be overwhelming because my natural tendency is to address these things all at once.

not in this lifetime.

so, i am getting serious now. i'm going to do some de-cluttering. i know when my husband reads this, he's going to be super-psyched too. ;-)
i've already started with my scraproom and the paperwork. i'm making it a point to take a small part of every-other day and work on each. no major time commitments because things are hectic here; but, a half hour here and there goes by fast and it's amazing what can be done in that time when you're focused!
anyway, here's what i have to work with...{please note the lovely paneling on the walls, circa 1970's/80's....and, yes, that is a cake stand on the top of the cabinet shown...i literally have no place to put it where i store all my baking pans...yes...there's a shelving unit that holds ALL of them...hehe}.

i have two problem areas to organize. 1. i need to figure out how i want to organize my patterned paper. by manufacturer? by color? i would love to hear what has worked best for you! 2. i need to figure out how to store my leftover scraps of patterned paper. my solution right now is to toss it all into a container and make a mental note to look through it whenever i'm getting ready to start a new layout. if you have a solution that has worked for you, please pass it along! i will keep you guys posted on my progress with updated pics, etc. that way, i stay motivated too.

so...in all this clutter i still scrap. actually, i scrap in my bedroom. my dresser is literally covered in what i use for my newest layout. it's been the best place for me to scrap right now...not because of the mess issue in the basement, but because i'm feeling the basement is such a remote place. i'm sure i will get past it and i'm hoping the reorg will help. our goal is to get the basement to be a playroom/craft area...so, until it gets there, it feels a bit empty and not really welcoming.

btw - my most recent layout....feels like it took me forever to post...

the topic is "tough day", which i thought was appropriate given the pictures. i had taken my daughter to see her cousins. it was a fairly long car ride, but when we got there, the kids played...we took a nice walk to the park and enjoyed the day. not really a hard day, but it humored me to see her yawning and sucking her thumb, which she did at the time when she got tired. the journaling is to that effect.

okay - on a completely different topic...have you seen this? i read this book a few years ago and thought it was pretty different. also thought it would make for an interesting movie {i always love to see how writers take a book and create a movie script...}. so, i am completely psyched that this movie is coming out. i have already started soliciting my friends to go see it! if you haven't read the book, give it a try. like i said, weird concept and not the most light-hearted of novels; but, if you're OK with that, this may be a good new read for you to try.

on the baking front...i tried this recipe last weekend. it's really a good, fall/winter crisp and i highly recommend it. hubby asked for rice pudding this weekend, so i will be whipping up that...wish me luck - i've never made rice pudding before! i also have to make my mother-in-law's birthday cake as we are celebrating the occasion this weekend. it seems to have become a tradition that i make her birthday cake...i guess because of the baking-thing. it's really very fun to pick out a recipe, plan it all out and see it come to life. so, i'm thinking about trying this recipe.

looks like it's already shaping up to be a busy weekend. ;-)