Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

Blogging on Pain Killers

Oxycodone to be specific.

Why you ask?  Well, let me tell you a very exciting story.  A story that will keep you riveted to the screen.  A story that is so amazing you will be talking about it for days....

I woke up and threw out my neck.

That's it!  No sky diving, no saving old ladies from muggers, no fancy acrobatics...I heard Zoë singing in her room this morning and couldn't get out of bed to get her.  My neck is so messed up that I can't turn in any direction, can't look down, can't pick anything up, can't drive.  I basically can't do anything.  Kelly had to take the morning off to take me to the chiropractor.  Now my neck is all taped up and I am taking pain medication from our stock pile.  (We save the good stuff for just such an occasion).

I have chiropractor appointments for the next two days.  Hopefully I will be better by Friday.  On Friday Kelly is taking me to Las Vegas!  He surprised me on our anniversary last weekend with tickets to go see Celine Dion.  Do I have a good husband or what?!?  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  Normally Kelly can't keep a secret to save his life.  He gets so excited that he just can't help but tell me what he is up to.  Sneaky little devil.

* * * * *

Now, I have some fun scrapping things to share.  Last month I was one of the Featured Scrappers at DST.  That was such an honor.  What I didn't realize was that they were also going to interview me for their August newsletter as well!  How cool is that?  So, if you would like to take a peek, the newsletter is available until the end of the month.

More fun news.  (Yes, there is more!) I have a layout in the September/October issue of Simple Scrapbooks and TWO in the October/November issue of Digital Scrapbooking.  I was thrilled when I opened my mailbox yesterday to find the DS magazine.  I got a digital copy a few weeks ago (how flipping cool is that?!) but there is nothing like seeing your work in a magazine. This is the first time that Kelly and I have made it into a magazine.  Zoë is an old pro, but us?  Not so much.  Do you think people will start asking for my autograph when they see me?  LOL!  (That's probably not going to seem so funny to me once the pain meds wear off).

Alrighty, I think my painkillers are working now.  I feel kind of funny and my neck isn't hurting nearly as much as it was.  I am going to attempt a shower.  Wish me luck!

Things Have a Way of Working Out

First, how fabulous is my new blog design?!?!  I don't know if I am supposed to say that about my own blog, but I don't really care.  I am just thrilled with the header and tabs that my sweet friend Shawn created for me.  I can't stop looking at it! I would recommend Eclectic Whimsy Designs to anybody.  Not only did she create the banner and tabs, she customized the blog for me.  (That is the part I hate doing).  I love that girl.  Thanks Shawn!

On to  other news...preschool.  The director of Zoë's preschool emailed me today to let me know that they were going to have to cancel the preschool program.  There simply weren't enough children to keep the preschool open.  I feel so bad for them.  I know that they did everything they could to keep the doors open.

Instead of freaking out (again) I decided to call Creative Garden, the preschool Zoë attended last year, to see if they had any openings in the three year old class.  As it turns out they don't.  They don't because they lost their lease and haven't been able to find a new space.

Then I had a moment of pure genius. (If I do say so myself).  Let's follow the bouncing ball again, shall we?

Robinswood Preschool has no students.
Creative Garden Preschool has lots of students.
Robinswood Preschool has an empty building.
Creative Garden needs a building.

It is my hope that Creative Garden Preschool can lease the Robinswood Preschool space.  If that is not possible then at least Lissa (the Creative Garden director) could send her children to Robinswood. Either way, I think this might save the Robinswood preschool. If it does, then that may just make me Class Mom of the year.  Don't you think?

Now, one more blog/scrap related item.  Did you notice that my albums are now listed the sidebar?  Cool, huh?  Keep in mind that they are ALL of my digital layouts. As in, from the very first to current.  So, be kind.  ;)  There are some layouts in there that I look at and cringe, but I refuse to redo my layouts.  They are a sign of the times.  Remember your first layout?  If you have been scrapping as long as me (eight years!) then it was probably filled with stickers.  LOL!  Granted, I have only been digiscrapping for two or so but still.  Some of those first ones aren't shining examples of excellence.  Although at the time I was pretty pleased with myself...

It's Five o' Clock Somewhere

Very few things will drive me to drink.  I'm not really a drinker.  I'm more of a two glasses of wine (tops) kind of girl.  Maybe Diet Coke and vanilla vodka.  However, there is the occasional circumstance that will drive me to drink. 

At noon. 

Finding out that Zoë's preschool class is probably getting canceled is one of them. The director of her preschool called me today during lunch time to break the news that Zoë was the only three year old enrolled in the class and even worse there were only five other children total enrolled in the preschool program.  Lovely. Instead of canceling the class she wants to merge the three year old class (Zoë) with the fours.  I am actually not opposed to that.  The problem?  The four year old class is from 12:15-3:00, otherwise knows as "smack in the middle of Zoë's nap time."

That was right about the time I started having my nervous breakdown.  If you have a child in school you know why.  Let's follow the bouncing ball, shall we?

Preschool enrollment takes place in the spring. 
All preschools are now FULL.
We actually TURNED DOWN letters of acceptance from other preschools.
All preschools are now FULL.
We have pretty much a snowballs chance in hell of getting Zoë into preschool.
All the preschools are now FULL.
(Insert Maegan drinking her Flaming Doctor Pepper).

We had decided on the preschool program at our local park for two reasons.  One, it was close.  Two, Zoë would meet little friends in our neighborhood.  I had such lovely visions of Zoë and I walking hand-in-hand to preschool. (OK, so we were singing and skipping, but whatever).  Now, I am freaking out.

I called another preschool that Kelly and I really liked.  We had decided against it for two reasons. One, it is about 25 minutes each was in traffic (not worth the drive considering Zoë is only at preschool for about two hours).  Two, it is an everyday program.  I really contemplated applying but decided against it.  We fully intended on sending Zoë there once she turned four but I didn't want them to disregard our application if we turned down an acceptance when she was three. Make sense? 

Anyway, I called the admissions person this afternoon to see if by some miracle there was still a spot in the three year old class.  There isn't but he was really nice and helpful.  He actually remembered Kelly and I (score) and said that there were five children on the wait list right now.  Before I started to loose all hope he said: "but you never know...there is usually some shuffling around the first week of school....it is not uncommon for one or two 3's to be moved to older classes."  Then added, "send in your application....we could probably even set up an interview to meet Zoë just in case a spot opens up."  SWEET.

Fast forward to me spending all of Zoë's nap time making the most awesome admissions application they have ever seen (hopefully).

My hope is that they are dazzled by the application and schedule an interview with Zoë.  Then they will be so dazzled by her that they bump her to the top of the wait list.  Cross your fingers!  And toes.

In the meantime I am trying to come up with contingency plans.  I really don't know what to do.  Should I let Zoë attend the afternoon 4's class until I hear from the other school?  Should I contact her old preschool and see if there is room?  The pressure!  I wish there was one right answer.  Not knowing is just going to drive me nuts for the next two-three weeks.

I Want to Clean?

I haven't scrapped for weeks.  Not since before I went to the lake, and even then it was frantically trying to put quick pages together so that I had some new lake layouts to show my family. What gives?  I don't even want to.  Normally I can't wait to get to my laptop during Zoë's nap time and after she goes to bed.  Now... not so much.

Now I want to clean.

What is up with that?  I want to clean?  Clearly I have problems.  Actually, let me clarify that.  The house is clean. (Our house cleaners came last Thursday and are coming again in two weeks. SWEET!)  What I have been doing is organizing, decluttering, cleaning the disaster that is my office, planning and cooking meals for my family (from scratch!), keeping up with laundry... It is frightening.

I may know why this is happening.  Remember a while back I mentioned that we wanted to move back into the city?  Well, we are now in the process of getting our house market ready.  Not that we are rushing to buy a new house, but we want ours to be ready just in case.  Our house isn't in terrible condition but there are a few things that need to be taken care of.

Exhibit A: The kitchen

It's not terrible, but I don't like it.  The counter top needs to be replaced because I burned a hole in it last year when I left a candle burning over night. (Oopsie).  The floor now needs to be replaced since it was ruined while we were in Spokane last month.  I didn't tell you about that either, did I?  Our house sitter didn't realize that the water taps on our water cooler were child-proofed and broke the nozzle.  He also didn't realize that when he broke the nozzle it caused the entire five gallons of water in the cooler to drain on to the floor.  Lovely.  I wasn't even mad about it because I hate that floor anyway.

Enter our new contractor, Randy.  Randy had some great suggestions for us.  We are replacing the cheap counter top with granite, replacing the hideous back splash with something more appealing, covering up the chalkboard with bead board and buying a new stainless steel stove and microwave to match the fridge and dish washer.  Then (yes, there is more) we are replacing the floor and extending it past the kitchen/dining area to cover the entire room. 

Randy is also replacing the vanities in our bathrooms.  The counter tops specifically.  He is not only a contractor, he owns a granite company.  I was planning on using Squak Mountain Stone for all of our counter tops, but he changed my mind.  How?  We can have any granite remnants Randy has for free.  We simply pay for fabrication and installation.  Otherwise the granite would just be thrown away.  We are getting a great deal AND recycling (and you know what a nut I am about recycling).  I am pretty excited.  I'll tell you about my trip to the granite yard with Zoë another day....That is a post in itself.

So, long story short (well, I think it may be too late for that) I am on a house cleaning-furniture buying mission.  Kelly and I were planning to put hardwood floors through out our townhouse but decided instead to invest in some good quality furniture that will show off our home that we can also take with us when we leave.  I cannot even tell you how many hours I have spent looking at furniture. We have chosen a new dining room table and chairs. Now I am on the hunt for bedroom furniture.  I have had the same furniture since I was eight.  It is time to upgrade. I'm almost thirty for goodness sakes!

Before I go, here are some of the lake layouts I was telling you about.  There are five or so more quick pages, but it takes no talent at all to insert pictures into them so I'm not posting those.

I. Love. Josh. Groban.

Kel and I went to the Josh Groban concert last night and it was FANTASTIC.  I adored him before, but now I may just follow him around the country and do nothing but attend his concerts.  He actually sounds better live than on CD.  It was the best concert I have ever been to.  No others have even come close.  The music was phenomenal and I was surprised to see that he also plays the piano and drums.  Who knew?  Obviously, I hadn't been paying close enough attention.

I was looking for a fun picture of Mr. Groban for the post and found these pictures on Flickr that someone posted from the concert.  Cooool.  Josh was so at ease talking to the crowd.  He had us laughing during the entire concert.  His opening act was a woman from South Africa.  About half way through the concert they did a song together and then she decided to try and teach Josh to dance.  He tried, bless his heart.  Then said, "For fifty five minutes they all thought I was cool, and then you had to go and ruin it!" LOL.  Don't worry Josh, I will always think you are cool. ;)

Now I am obsessed with Josh Groban.  That is pretty much all I have been listening to since the concert.  I am *almost* glad that we have these huge monstrosities in our living room now.

With those speakers it sounds like Josh is standing in our living room singing to me (like he was last night...sing just to me that is...it really was embarrassing the way he was ignoring the other concert goers).

I forgot to tell you about our new additions, didn't I?  Kelly decided that he wanted surround sound for our living room.  I was picturing little Bose speaker cubes that are barely noticeable... and some how we came home with those.  Now, I am not putting this all on Kelly.  I did agree to the purchase, with one stipulation:  If he gets the speakers he has to take us to Disneyland....and he agreed! 

We goin' to Disneyland.  We goin' to Disneyland.
(Picture me dancing while singing that).

Zoë is so excited. She asks pretty much every hour when we are going to see the princesses.  If I had been smarter I wouldn't have told her until a couple days before we were leaving, but I am just too excited.  We have our flights booked and our hotel reserved. Now I get to look around the Disney web site and see what there is to see.  (I haven't ever been there). 

Hey, Remember Me?

Looks like I took an unintentional blog vacation.  Oopsie!  I didn't realize it had been so long until a friend emailed me to make sure I was doing OK. Awwww. I feel so loved. :)

Guess where I was?  The lake.  Yep, I was spontaneous and Zoë and I went to Priest Lake.  I wasn't planning to go this year, considering we were just in Spokane.  But, since almost all of my extended family was going to be there I figured, what the heck.  It's summer right?  We should be at the lake.  It was one of those trips that was meant to be.  Everything came together perfectly at the last second.  The only bummer was that Kel had to stay home and work.  On the plus side, he's not really a lake person anyway.  Zoë and I flew to Spokane last Friday and then hitched a ride home with my brother Ryan and nephew Harry on Tuesday.  Good times.  Lots of fun brother-sister and cousin bonding going on.  I took over three hundred pictures. Yikes.  I was able to cut that down to about 265.  Geez.

I'm not like some crazy paparazzi or anything.  Most of the pictures were taken in sequence when my cousins were rock jumping, wake skating and wake boarding. I love getting crashes on film.  That is good stuff right there.  Here are some of my favorites from the trip.

I bought iLife 08 yesterday and uploaded all of the photos to my .Mac gallery for you to see.  The interface is awesome. You can select from four different views, download the photos, upload to the gallery.... I am very impressed.  Slowly but surely I am starting to familiarize myself with all of the Apple software. Next up is the new iMovie 08.  They say you can make a movie in five minutes.  We shall see about that.  If that is the case, our 2007 In Review video is going to be a breeze.

That's all for now.  I'll post again soon, promise.  I've got lots more to share. :)

The Green Review, Part Two

I have been slowly transitioning to a greener life style ever since Earth Day.  I have found some really wonderful products and some real stinkers.  I thought I would post a review of the products so that you know what to go looking for and what to steer clear of.

Method Laundry Soap
Love it.  This is fantastic stuff.  We have been loyal Wisk users forever but I thought I would give this a whirl.  The real test was Kelly.  I didn't tell him that we were switching.  He hasn't said a thing. Not a single thing!  Sweet.  I like that the detergent is concentrated so the bottles are a reasonable size and weight.  It gets stains out just as well as Wisk.  I have already gone through a bottle of Morning Bloom and have moved on to the Free + Clear since our family has allergies galore (although the scented didn't bother us).  I give it five green stars!

Seventh Generation Dishwasher Gel
I was looking for Method Dishwasher Liquid because I love their packaging. I'm a sucker for cute packaging.  Unfortunately I had no luck, and actually I didn't see any when I checked their website.  I decided to give the Seventh Generation brand a whirl.  I am pretty picky when it comes to automatic dish washing gel.  Our dishwasher rocks.  Seriously.  With the right soap you don't even need to rinse the dishes. It is that good.  Since I loathe doing dishes I was not going to compromise on this just to go green.  I was very happy when I ran the first load of dishes and found sparkling clean everything.  Sweet!  This product also gets five green stars!

Jäsön Natural Apricot Shampoo
This shampoo has me thinking "Bring on the chemicals baby, cuz organic is not cutting it."  It is very thick and rich and smells wonderful.  Those are the only good things I can say about it.  The shampoo does not lather with the first washing.  If you decide to give it another go, it will kind-of lather but barely.  Lack of lather=lack of clean.  After using this shampoo you don't even feel like you washed your hair. One pea green star.

Alba Hair Wash
Yucko.  I'll give it this, it smells really good and lathers well.  You know how I feel about lather.  The problem is the rinsing.  Even after a very thorough rinsing it leaves your hair oily and greasy.  Bleck.  Kelly even complained and he has NEVER said anything about the shampoo we use.  Ever.  This gets one green star. Don't waste your money on this.  You get the same look after three days of not showering.

We have also been transitioning to energy efficient light bulbs.  I am meeting huge resistance on this one.  Kelly HATES fluorescent lighting.  He always has.  I am not really a fan of the cool lighting either but am willing to deal with it (and the ever annoying delay in the light coming on) to conserve energy.  He is not.  Granted, he hasn't taken the light bulbs out yet, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if I came back from the lake on Tuesday to find them gone.

There you have it, green review number two.  I will post more as I try new products.  As always, if you have any product suggestions send them my way!

Apron Goodness

In an attempt to fend off complete boredom and encourage Zoë to make good food choices I signed her up for summer cooking classes.   The hot dog consumption in our household had started to reach unacceptable levels.  Before Zoë was born I remember saying, "My child will never eat hot dogs!"  Um yeah.  All did not go as planned.  Hot dogs are one of the only "meats" she will eat.  Those and chicken.  Lovely.  I figured a healthy toddler cooking class would be a perfect remedy to that situation.  Of course since we were going to be cooking we needed aprons.  Coordinating Mother-Daughter aprons.  We couldn't cook in plain boring aprons. The horror!  So, immediately after registering for our class, I contacted the super talented Kim and commissioned her to make some aprons for Zoë and me.

Aren't they darling?!?  I need another apron like I need a hole in the head, but I just couldn't resist.  I happen to be somewhat of an Olive Juice & Co. groupie.  I now own three of Kim's beautiful creations and have purchased countess others as gifts. (That was hard because I wanted them all!) I have decided that one can never have too many aprons.  They almost make me want to cook. LOL!

As it turns out, the toddler "healthy" cooking class was kind of a bust.  Don't get me wrong, Zoë is having a great time.  I may even sign us up for the next session.  But healthy?  No.  If by healthy they mean the food wasn't deep fried then yes.  Last week the kids made smores.  A couple weeks ago they made banana cream pies.  That is not exactly my definition of healthy.

I do have some new yummy recipes to share with you though!  I got these from my SIL Tera while we were babysitting the boys.  I wanted to cook foods that Brodie was familiar with (and liked) and encourage Zoë to try new things.  It worked pretty well.  I am not saying that Zoë now gobbles down broccoli but she will choke it down if I bribe her with some chocolate pudding.

Easy Bistro Chicken

2 tsp. oil
3 cups sliced fresh mushroom
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (15oz.) diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup of Italian dressing
3 tbsp. tomato paste
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 cup low fat mozzarella cheese

Heat oil, mushrooms and onion.  Cook for five minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, Italian dressing and tomato paste.  Add chicken and cover.  Simmer for 12 minutes.  Serve over pasta (egg noodles work great) and sprinkle with cheese.

*I love this recipe.  I normally can't stand mushrooms but this is delicious!

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter
3 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. celery salt
2 lbs. fish fillet

Pre-heat your broiler.  Grease or line your cookie sheet.  In a small bowl mix: cheese, butter, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and season with herbs.  Mix well and set aside. Arrange fish on a prepared pan.  Broil a few inches from the heat for 2-3 minutes.  Flip and repeat.  Remove and cover with cheese mixture.  Broil for two more minutes.

I will leave you with one last cooking related tidbit.  I bought the Glad Microwave Steaming Bags at the store the other day and they are AWESOME.  So far I have steamed green beans and broccoli in them and they turned out amazing.   I give the steaming bags two thumbs up!

Sale at Scrapaholics

I am closing out my stock of MiMi Digiscrap Laptop Totes. Click on over quickly for the greatest color selection. You will want to snap one up while you can. (Black is already sold out). They are hands down, the best laptop tote for digiscrappers I have ever found.

These totes will hold:
-Your laptop (up to 15.4")
-Your tablet, mouse and stylus
-Power cables, camera chargers and media card reader
-Magazines and other assorted paperwork
-Point and shoot camera, iPod, cell phone, pens and wallet
-And more! (Literally...you can still fit more!)