Just A Bunch of Bullscrap

I'M MOVING...bye bye Bullscrap

2008-12-16T21:40:00.003-06:00

I've decided that keeping up with 2 blogs is just WAY too hard. After alot of thought I've decided to combine this blog with my other blog "Life Happens". Don't worry........I'm still going to blog about scrapbooking......just not here. So PLEASE PLEASE come visit me at my other blog. I blog there daily, sometimes more than that. Here is the link:

http://lifehappens-jennifer.blogspot.com

I look forward to seeing you all on the flip side!

She did it!!!

2008-09-26T15:16:00.003-05:00

Courtney got a 100 on her spelling test this week. This is a BIG BIG deal for her!!!

Redneck Camper

2008-09-20T05:28:00.002-05:00

Need I say more????

Thought this was cool

2008-09-06T22:39:00.001-05:00

What Jennifer Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.
You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.
You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.
You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings.
You are able to be a foundation for other people... but you still know how to have fun.
Sometimes your emotions weigh you down, but you generally feel free from them.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Cards I've created in the past few months

2008-09-06T22:02:00.004-05:00

More Cards

2008-09-06T21:36:00.003-05:00

Meet Tucker.....

2008-09-05T22:31:00.002-05:00

The newest member of the family

1st Day of School

2008-08-27T04:24:00.003-05:00

Mom's favorite day of the year!!!!

More Pictures of my Scrap Closet

2008-08-21T06:44:00.003-05:00

A special picture & a calender my daughter made me.
A little scrapbook humor. It's soooooo true.
I finally got my letter stickers in a binder.
Just ONE shelf full of idea books.

Organized Scrap Space

2008-08-19T16:41:00.005-05:00

I FINALLY got my scrap closet put back together. I can't believe the amount of supplies I've accumulated over the past 9 years. I had to get a little creative with my storage options, but it was fun to do. Here are a few pictures:

I saw this idea in a magazine to store paints out where they are within reach on this shower organizer. I thought this was a cool idea until I installed it and put my paints on it. The shelves are not that sturdy and they slant forward causing the paints to slide forward and fall off. I'm thinking I might find a different way to store these.

I found these undershelf baskets in the housewares department at WalMart. They were super cheap, only $1.99, so I thought they would be perfect to store my foam stamps, rubber stamps & ink pads. I really like these since they are up off my desk & out of my way.

Organizing....sort of

2008-08-13T06:19:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I couldn't fall asleep when I got off work so I decided to CLEAN UP my scrapbook desk. Well....that turned into a 4 hour CLEANING OUT & ORGANIZING session. As you can see from the pictures above....I have an even bigger mess now. I only have a small area in the kitchen that used to be my laundry closet and it is SMALL. So every now & then I have to reorganize things to keep it from getting out of hand. I've been reading through my back issues of Creating Keepsakes to get ideas on how to store things in small places. So far so good. I will have more pictures when I get more things done!

I MUST Brag!!!!

2008-08-11T12:37:00.003-05:00

My friend & scrapping sidekick Tara has been published in a magazine!!! I am sooooo very proud of her. She does AWESOME work & I am amazed at what she can create!!

You can find her in the Aug/Sep 2008 issue of Somerset Memories on page 71. Congrats sister......you kick A**!!!!!

New Projects....

2008-08-03T21:01:00.004-05:00

Here are some projects I recently completed:

The little things in life.....

2008-08-01T00:50:00.003-05:00

As I was driving home from work this morning I just kept thinking about how much of a crappy week I've had. As glad as I was to be off work for a few days, I was sort of wishing I didn't have to go home. I knew I was going to walk into a disaster area. The week has just not gone well and the usual household things just didn't get done because I was so tired & grouchy. I knew that there would be lots of laundry, lots of dishes to wash & lots of picking up to do. Well, when I got home I walked over to my computer desk to put my purse down (& whatever else I happen to have in my hands) and I saw the cutest little handmade gifts with notes attached from my daughter. One was a flower "bouquet" made of popsicle sticks & foam flowers. The other was a hand sewn pouch with a package of kleenex tucked in it (she must of known Mommy was in a bad mood & needed those!) She left me handwritten notes telling me that she made them at bible school & that I'm the best mom in the world and she loves me. AAAAAAWWWWWW......melt my heart. I lost it right then & there. It was exactly what I needed to make me feel better and realize that the mess & piles of laundry will eventually get done & cleaned up, but that my kids will only be young once and I need to cherish it while I can. So what did I do? After I took I picture I mean! I decided against staying up all day & cleaning and I went and snuggled in between the kids (in my bed as usual) and slept for about 3 hours. When she woke up the first thing she asked me was if I found my presents. She was so excited and I was so very very proud!

I'M BAAAAAAACK!!!

2008-07-24T21:55:00.003-05:00

Wow......I can't believe I haven't made a blog entry in over 3 months. Life has been pretty hectic lately with work, baseball, softball, and the kids being out for summer. With the kids being home during the day my sleep schedule has been pretty messed up. So, I'm sleeping in shifts! Not too good on the mental health. I did however find a little time to do a few layouts.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and I am hoping to start blogging on a regular basis again!! Until next time......tootles!!

Jen

Holy Blogging Batman!!

2008-04-06T00:54:00.006-05:00

Wow...so much to catch up on. First things first...got my laptop "working", not exactly fixed. Just working. I was able to recover about half of my pictures and 95% of my music. So I'm somewhat happy. Only somewhat. Let's see, to start....I read a book in March. I was a little worried about getting it finished, but I pushed myself to do it. If you like "girlie" books...this one is good. It has a happy ending for once!

The 2nd book I read I actually read front to back in 2 days. I borrowed it from a friend because I was dying to read it and could not find it anywhere. (I have since found it & purchased it) This is a must have for scrapbookers. I was completely engaged in this book for 2 days straight. I could not put it down. I have such a different outlook on scrapbooking now. I have always been intrigued by Ali's work, but I had no idea how great it is until I got my hot little hands on this! If you haven't gotten it yet, what are you waiting for?????

I spent last weekend with Tara....a.k.a. Toofclnr.... working on getting some layouts done. We had both been complaining that we are so far behind in our albums so we decided to have a "SCRAPATHON". We busted out the Becky Higgins' sketch books that I have & went to town. Of course we had our usual scrappin music playing and our feast of junk food and caffeine. The only thing we left out this time was the beer and/or wine that we sometimes have. But for a good cause.....Tara is expecting twins!!! She finally posted the news on her blog so I can tell everyone how excited I am for her and Joe! We scrapped for 14 hours straight....wow. I got 10-12x12 layouts done, 1-6x12 layout done plus I decorated and started a daily journal. Definately a productive weekend!

And last, but not least......CKC St. Louis!!! What a blast! Tara and I went last year and absolutely could not wait to go back this year! We spent the entire day shopping. It was wall to wall bargains! The best thing of all was the $1.00 booth!!! They had major big name supplies for only $1.00 & $1.50. I got tons of Heidi Swap chipboard & flowers. We ended up going through it 3 times before the end of the day. We shopped til our little hearts content. We did learn a couple important lessons though. When you see something you REALLY REALLY REALLY want....don't wait and say you will "come back to this booth & get that later". Most likely it's not going to be there! I saw the cutest little purse with matching wallet that I wanted and when we went back to get it they were all gone. Tara wanted a really cool t-shirt that said "Hard Core Scrapper" and guess what??? They were sold out when we went back to get it. Oh well, next year we will know to buy it when we see it!

Happy Scrappin Everyone!

February Book

2008-03-11T04:38:00.003-05:00

Hello fellow bloggers! I finished a book in February but I am unable to post a picture of it. My computer had some problems so I took it in to get it looked at. While it was there getting fixed the computer geeks "forgot" to do my backup. So yes.....you guessed it......I lost all of my information. Over 3,000 pictures and approximately 2,500 songs in Itunes. Most of the pictures I have on disk, but I would say that 500 or so were not on disk yet. So the picture of the book I just finished was lost. I still can't use my computer because the wireless port went bad in it and it has to be sent off for repair. So I have to use the computer at work. 30 days without my sidekick. I tell ya.....this whole technology business is causing me alot of stress!!!!!! So anyways...the book I read in February was Becky Higgins' new sketch book. I read is front to back. The book is a compilation of all her sketches featured in CK each month. Even though I've seen all of her sketches I still poured over every page and every sketch. It is my new scrapbooking companion. No more flipping through back issues of CK looking for that perfect idea. It's all in on convenient place. Thanks Becky!!!

February Book....or not

2008-02-15T07:18:00.003-06:00

Ok....I heard about this book from OPRAH. 95% of the time she is right on the money when she says a book is a MUST READ. Sorry Oprah.....I have to disagree with you on this one. I really thought I would be so into this book that I would have a hard time putting it down. WRONG. I only got through the first 66 pages and let me tell you that I had to force myself to get that far. I just could not get into it. I really can't pinpoint why I wasn't interested....I just know that I didn't like it. So....I've moved on. I started a different book yesterday and so far so good. As soon as I'm done with it I will let you know what I thought. Happy weekend everyone!!

R.I.P.

2008-01-25T16:37:00.000-06:00

Although this happened last week.......it still deserves a blog entry. Last week one of our cats, Bucky, went missing. After 3 days of wondering where he was, my son Adam found him frozen in the pond. Poor little guy must have fell through the ice and couldn't get out. I felt horrible that Adam was the one to find him like that. He cried for 4 days and I was beginning to wonder if he was completely traumatized! But, he finally stopped crying and has seemed to be fine ever since. We buried him on the side of the hill and the kids are talking about making him a headstone. He was such a good cat. Never caused any trouble. We will miss him that's for sure!

Happy New Year

2008-01-19T14:23:00.000-06:00

Well, I have decided NOT to make a silly list of resolutions this year. Why you ask? Well, every year I make this silly little (or not so little) list of things that I want to do or accomplish or change and they always go to the wayside. AND every year the list is always the same. Eat better, exercise, lose weight, get organized, save money, spend less, spend more time with my family....blah blah blah. Not that I don't want to accomplish these things, but I don't think that the beginning of the year is anything special compared to the rest of the year.

So....this year I've decided to set some GOALS for myself. These goals are nothing special, just some things that I would like to do. The 1st goal is to pay off our debt. Thanks to a special someone in my life I found a program that guides you through paying off your debt, staying debt free and building wealth for your future. I ordered the kit, read the book and got us started. How is this different from my old resolution of "save money, spend less" you ask?? Well, I feel like this gives me the tools, the support, the education and the confidence to stick with it. In 2 years we will have all of our debt paid off except for the house. This includes all credit cards, vehicles and student loans. Curious? Go to DaveRamsey.com to find out how to get started.

The 2nd goal is to read. Read books. I enjoy reading....I just don't do it very often. I cleaned off my bookshelf a while back and realized that I have several books sitting there that I have purchased but never touched. So my goal is to read at least 1 book a month. I may read more than that, but AT LEAST 1 book a month. I'm off to a good start so far. I just finished a book a few days ago and I'm going to start another one tonight. Not an unrealistic goal huh? I don't think so. This is the book I just finished. I laughed, cried a little and shook my head in total agreement with alot of the stories! You fellow scrappers who have read it understand what I mean!!

And last but not least.......my 3rd goal. Of course it has to do with scrapbooking. I have been scrapping for over 8 years now. I have SEVERAL finished albums, SEVERAL unfinished projects, ENDLESS supplies at my fingertips and millions of ideas floating around in my head. Most would think that I would be cranking out the layouts ALL THE TIME. As much as I wish I could.....I just can't. In the early days I used to scrapbook without any worry as to what others thought of my work. But of course in the past few years I've put SOOOO much pressure on myself to compare to the work I see in magazines and the work of my friends. So much pressure in fact that I am behind. WAY BEHIND. From now on I am going to scrap for me and me only. If my pages aren't magazine material.....who cares. My pics will be safe in albums covered by page protectors and enjoyed by those who choose to look at them. My friends, family and especially my kids always enjoy my work no matter what. That is what I am going to continue to focus on. Not the bling bling and the WOW that I thought my layouts needed. With that said I am hoping to have lots more to post in my gallery.

HAPPY 2008 EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Jen

This & That

2007-12-23T09:46:00.000-06:00

A few things to share.....

Our Tree....Yes, that is my 2 girl kitties under there sleeping away. At least this year they didn't try to climb the tree!!
Mini Album made from a deck of cards of our trip to the American Girl Store in Chicago.
This is a 6x12 layout scraplifted from Mitchell Kraft. I saw his layout in the Hall of Fame book and I just loved it. My 2 boy kitties snuggled up together.
This 12x12 layout is something I've wanted to do for a while. I've never really scrapped a page about myself but I really like how this one turned out.
And last but not least.......my little rock star. Courtney dresses as Hannah Montana for halloween!!

photos to share

2007-11-04T11:19:00.000-06:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY MARY!
Deer & guardrail VS. my car....deer survived, guardrail won, I'm ok
CAR DIED!!!!

OVERWHELMED

2007-10-31T05:32:00.000-05:00

that's what I am right now. OVERWHELMED. Work, Home, Kids, Friends, Family......it's crazy. There seems to not be enough hours in the day to get things done. Am I the only one who feels like life is spinning out of control and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it? I'm sure I'm not, but it sure feels like it right now. When the spinning slows down, I hope to get back to my happy scrappy place and crank out some layouts. So, stay tuned.....................................

Greetings from The Windy City

2007-10-06T17:09:00.000-05:00

Day 1 of our mini vacation to Chicago. Mission.......AMERICAN GIRL PLACE. I'm sure all of you mom's out there who have little girls have heard of American Girl. Courtney received her 1st doll last Christmas from Santa and has been begging ever since to go to the store in Chicago. So, I promised her that we would go for her birthday. She saved up all of her money ($200) and spent every last penny. Her friend Madeline also came along and spent every last penny she had. They had a blast and haven't stopped playing with their new stuff yet. I wish I would have dreamed up American Girl!! We spent the rest of the day walking and shopping and fighting the crowds. I'm ready to get in the car tomorrow and get back to my little house on the prairie. Big city life is not for me!!!!! I will post pictures when I get home tomorrow!! Goodnight!!

Recent Happenings

2007-09-29T07:43:00.000-05:00

Well, where to start. Life has been a little crazy lately. We celebrated the kids' birthdays last week. Adam got his very first cell phone and he things he is ALL THAT! It's nothing fancy....just something to make & receive calls and take pictures. No text messaging! I set down some ground rules as far as when he can use it and who he can call. So far he has done ok, but it has only been a week. I think he has had more fun taking pictures with it than talking on it. Times have really changed since I was young. First cell phone at 11 yrs. old!!!

Courtney had a good birthday too. She got alot of clothes for school and some Brat dolls. I don't know what it is about them, but little girls love Brats. She got alot of money from people to spend at the American Girl Place next weekend in Chicago. That is her gift from me....a trip to American Girl. She is so excited. Every day she asks how many days until American Girl. It is really hard to believe how fast they grow up. It seems like just yesterday she was born and now she is 8....going on 18!

Hooked

2007-09-24T02:46:00.000-05:00

That's me....hooked.....on ITUNES! that is. I did a little scrapping yesterday when I went to my happy scrappy place, but I'm having camera problems so I am working on getting some of my work posted. So......I decided to attempt itunes since I've had my ipod for nearly 3 months now and I have only put music from my cd's on it. I had received an itunes gift card for my birthday (in june) and it was just sitting there yelling at me to use it. So, I did and now I'm hooked. I downloaded 25 songs. I had so much fun looking for music I haven't heard for years. Remember The Jets? Love them.....it's so 80's but I couldn't help myself. I now have 25 new songs added to my "O.R. Music" playlist for when I'm at work and I also listen to this playlist when I'm walking. I now know what to ask from Santa this year......more ITUNES gift cards!!

My Happy Place

2007-09-22T16:08:00.000-05:00

The past few days have been DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA.........SOOOO today I've decided that I'm screening my phone calls and I'm going to my happy place. Or, my "SCRAPPY PLACE" as I like to call it. Hopefully tomorrow's blog entry will have layouts to share.

PEACE & HAPPINESS

2007-09-06T16:08:00.000-05:00

Those are two words to describe how I feel today. A few things have recently come to light in my life and they have left me with a feeling of peace & happiness. It is a good feeling. A calm feeling. A happy feeling. Also a scary feeling. An unknown feeling. A somewhat familiar feeling. All the while it is a very, very comfortable feeling. A feeling I don't want to let go of.

Time to catch up...

2007-09-05T13:47:00.001-05:00

Life has been busy. It seems like I rarely have the time to actually sit and blog. The kids finally started school......YIPEEEEE! They were ready to go back. So was Mom. I have actually gotten some layouts accomplished in the past few weeks, but it is a little frustrating because uploading them to my gallery has been a nightmare. Some times it is really fast and easy and other times it is painfully slow. Hopefully I will get them on there soon to share with all of you. I want to enter some challenges but if I cant upload them then what's the point ya know? I enjoy having them posted since all of my SB.com friends appreciate my work and understand my obsession! Makes me feel like I have a place in the world. Ok, this is sounding like a shrink session so I will stop before it starts! I am a little emotional today because my son's 11th birthday is today. Seems like only yesterday he was born so tiny and fragile. It's hard to believe he was 5lbs 6ozs and now he is close to 90 pounds. It's mind boggeling. I will get a chance to blog this weekend and HOPEFULLY get some pics posted too.
HAPPY HUMP DAY EVERYONE!
Love, Jen

CHRIS DAUGHTRY aka....HOTTIE!!

2007-08-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

Yes.....the Daughtry concert was AWESOME!! He looked hot & sounded awesome. He puts on a great show. He was playing at our State Fair on Aug. 12th. It was hotter than snot outside but we didn't care.....made the beer taste that much better!! Here are a pic for you all to see............................................................................

I went to see him with a group of girlfriends and we had a blast. It's not very often anymore that I get to spend time with ALL of my closest friends. And since all of us are Daughtry fans that makes it even better!

Iknow I havent blogged for almost a month but I will catch you all up on life over the weekend.

Right now I have to get my scrap stuff packed up for a day of scrapping with my scrap happy friend Tara.

Talk to you all soon.....

Jen

Weekend lowdown

2007-07-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

Busy busy weekend. My sister came down from Chicago & my cousin got married on Saturday. It was a beautiful wedding & an awesome reception afterwards. Here are a few pics from the festivities. My daughter was so cute. She got to pass out the bird seed packets after the ceremony & she loves to dance. So needless to say she was a dancing fool all night long!! It amazes me how she is so young and knows all the current popular songs!!!! Speaking of dancing....the bride slipped on the dance floor & hurt her knee. So, she ended up in the ER on her wedding night. No joke. But I'm happy to report that she is ok and they are off on their honeymoon.

Then on Sunday my sister & I took my dad out for breakfast. We dont see other all that often so it is nice to be together when we have the chance. Then it was back to work Sunday night. The weekends go so fast these days. I still cant believe the kids will be back in school in 3 weeks. I guess time flies when your having fun!

I am hoping to have more time in the next few weekends to get some more scrapping done. My LSS had bazzil monochromatic paper packs 30% off so I bought like 5 of them in different colors! Cant wait to use them. Then I bought 2 stamps from 7 Gypsies that I am DYING to try. They are so cool. I really need to stop buying supplies for a while but you all know how that goes!!! It's my addiction!

It's Hump Day

2007-07-25T10:12:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday. Hump Day. I've always found that name hilarious. Anyways....nothing real exciting going on. Took one of my cats to get fixed last Friday. No big deal right? Well, the vet called after the surgery to inform me (with a little giggle under her breath) that the bill will be about $35 higher because she WAS PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!! I about dropped the phone! I know you are all thinking no big deal...cats get knocked up all the time....well, the big deal is that she just had a litter in April. We kept 2 of her kittens from the first litter & she was still letting them nurse. All while she was pregnant again. She was only a couple weeks, but still!! Our other cat just had her kittens last month....5 of them......and I still have to find them good homes. I cant imagine having any more!! We have definately gotten our baby kitten fix around here!

On Saturday we went to pick up Daisy (the cat) & at the same time we took the dog for her yearly visit. She gets very excited when it is time to go for a RIDE in the truck. Once we got to the vet that excitement didn't wear off. The place was packed full of barking dogs & hissing cats. I had a major headache to say the least. It's a good thing we know one of the vet techs there because he was kind enough to get her weighed (82lbs), get her rectal swab (gross) & blood drawn so all we had to do was see the vet so she could get her shots. AND a recommendation that we cut back her food intake! I think she called her "plump"! Let's just say I was glad to get the heck out of there!

Other than that the weekend was pretty uneventful. I got a few layouts done, but not as many as i would have liked. Certain little people in my house wanted my attention! But thats ok, there is always time to scrap later!!

Hope everyone is having a great week!
Love,
Jen

Wow...almost a month

2007-07-20T09:16:00.000-05:00

I cant believe its been almost a month since Ive blogged. My computer crashed shortly after I posted my last blog so I was without it and unable to post for almost 2 weeks. I was actually forced to do something other than sit on this computer!!! Like housework & laundry! I actually got a few layouts done & got several layouts posted to my gallery from my 2006 album once I got the computer back. So I guess being without this wonderful maching for a while is not an entirely bad thing!

Not a whole lot happening around here other than the usual everyday stuff. We had a great 4th of July. Our town had their 175th Birthday celebration. We enjoyed the parade, carnival rides, good food & fireworks. We also went to a 4th of July party hosted by one of my best friends & her husband. They had great food & drink and kick a** fireworks! They were better than any Ive seen so far. It was really nice to see everyone since most of us havent seen each other since my friends got married in March. I ate WAY to much food & drank a "few" cups of jungle juice.....but fun was had by all. The only down side is that I did not lose any weight AGAIN this week. But Im not complaining too much....at least I didn't gain. I have slacked off a little for the past few weeks, but I am back on track. I have my list made for the grocery store today & I am stocking up on my "diet" stuff. I really dislike the word diet...but that is what it is! It is hard to lose weight! Especially now that Im not in my twenties anymore!

I have reserved this whole weekend for scrapping! I am excited to get some unfinished projects done. I have gotten a few new magazines in the mail and have SEVERAL pages marked with great ideas. I will be posting them hopefully the beginning of next week. The weather is beautiful so the kids will be outside more & not complaining that there is nothing to do outside because it is so hot. They have been swimming alot during these hot days. They even informed me that they want a pool of their own. Sure no problem....just go out to the money tree we have growing out in the yard & pick a few thousand dollars off and we could afford one! They didn't find that humerous!

Well, Im off to get my groceries so I can get back here & start my scrapathon!!! Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy scrapping everyone!

Love,

Jen

It's the little things in life......

2007-06-29T17:16:00.000-05:00

that make you smile! My birthday was Monday....just another year older. Nothing exciting. When I got home from work that morning I found this note taped on the front door from the kids. How sweet is that!!! It definately made me feel good!! It's funny how birthdays dont seem as exciting now that I'm getting older. I get more excited about my kids' birthday's than I do my own!

This week has been kind of crazy. It seems like there haven't been enough hours in the day lately. Between work, home, baseball games, etc I am running mad. Plus trying to sneak in 6 or so hours of sleep during the day. That has been the tough part. I'm not used to trying to sleep while the kids are home. But, I figure the summer will go fast enough as it is.....I better not wish it away!

I bought a new cookbook this week. I've been trying to come up with some solution to the "dinner" issues we have around here. Since our schedules are so hectic and the kids have baseball games 3 or 4 times a week, we never have time to actually cook & enjoy a meal. And when we do, there is no time to clean it up!!!!! So, I bought this cookbook that I discovered at Walmart. I've been looking at cookbooks for a while and the main reason I bought this one is because it is for the BUSY MOM!!! I flipped through it in the store & noticed how easy the recipes are. It gives you a list of ingredients, instructions on how to prepare it(which is very little prep time), and it also breaks down the nutrition information. That is great for us since my daughter is diabetic and we have to count carbs and since I'm on Weight Watchers I can calculate the points! It is awesome! I will share recipes with you all when I start using them. I am planning on using the first one tomorrow night!!

Speaking of Weight Watchers..................I weighed in this morning. I'm down 2.1 pounds from last week.........WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That is a total of 8.6 pounds lost in 3 weeks. So my current weight is 165.3 It's almost like a challenge with myself now. I found a few things that work for me and I have been very strict with myself as far as keeping a food journal. I write everything down that I eat. I found that sugar free/fat free jello is zero points. I bought some wierd brand I'd never heard of at Walmart and it was cheap. Like 15 little jello cups for $2.50!! So I stock up. Then today I was in the ice cream section....one of my downfalls......and I found some fudge bars that are zero points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost did cartwheels in the aisle. They are blue bunny brand, so check them out all you fellow weight losers! And they taste good.........no joke! I am anxious to see how much I lose by the middle of August. I will keep you all posted.

Even though the week was crazy it has ended on a nice note. Yesterday I got the house clean, laundry done & made hubby shampoo the living room & hallway carpets. Then my mom surprised me with a chocolate, yes chocolate, birthday cake. Of course chocolate is my favorite so I had to have a piece.........a small piece............and I savored every bite!!!!!! MMMMMGood! And yes, I blew out all 32 candles with one blow!

Slowly, but surely...

2007-06-24T07:52:00.000-05:00

ok, I weighed in Friday morning.......lost 1 pound. Was hoping to lose more, but I suppose it is better than gaining!! Current weight is 167.4 so that is 6.5 pounds lost in 2 weeks. Woo Hoo!!! Here is to another week of counting points & resisting temptation!!!
Have a good week everyone!
Love, Jen

Such entertainment...

2007-06-15T23:09:00.000-05:00

Oh, what a day...Today my daughter had her check up with the endocrinologist in St. Louis. It is about a 2 hour car ride for us from where we live. I took the camera as I always do & lilttle did I know that she took some interesting pictures while passing the time in the back seat. I didnt realize this until I got home & went to print out a picture of someone else. I had to laugh outloud. I have posted one of them for you all to see!! This is only one of many so I will soon have a layout for you all to enjoy!
In other news........this was a pretty decent week. As some of you know, I love NASCAR, well actually, I love DALE EARNHARDT JR. About a month ago he announced his decision to leave his current race team in which his father founded & his stepmother now runs. We have all been in suspence of which team he will join. He made that announcement Wednesday & the winner is....Hendrick Motorsports. For him, that is good. Some of us are a little disappointed since he will be teamed with Jimmie Johnson & Jeff Gordon (not my favorites). I am excited to see how he does next season & I am hopeful he starts winning races again. ok, ok, enough about nascar....
I started weight watchers this past Friday. Its something I've done before but never stuck with. A visit with my doctor changed everything this time. My cholestorol is high. I wasn't surprised....just in denial!! On top of that I have had high blood pressure for 4 1/2 yrs now & I was a diabetic when I was pregnat. Plus my knees & feet are starting to ache alot at work since I'm on them all night. I joined WW online & faithfully followed the plan for a week now. My starting weight was 173.9 & this week it is 168.1.....so....lets hope I continue on this path. I will let you all know its going each week when I weigh in. And if anyone else wants to talk about their weight struggles feel free.....I'm always willing!!
I haven't done a whole lot of scrapping this week. Actually I only did 1 layout. Its for a challenge so I cant post it yet. This is my 1st time having a blog so I apologize for rambling! I'm excited to now have a place to share my thoughts.
Happy Scrapping,
Jen

2007-06-13T18:17:00.000-05:00

Ok everyone, this is my very 1st blog EVER!! I have never done this before so bear with me until I get the hang of it!