Thoughts of a Grasshopper

Christmas, traditions, and a long list of "want to do" kept me pretty busy.  I'm embarrassed to say that I still need to get 'thank you' cards written and mailed off.  Stamped might even be good but I do have my trusty box of ready-made cards that never seem quite right for the person I need a card for. In December I tried to participate in 2 photo challenges for the month.  I ended up very behind and was still playing catch-up well into January.  There were some duplicates on both lists and I found I got pictures of the details but didn't seem to get as many of the people and I'm usually better at that.  Somehow, I need to find that happy medium of both.  I like the details but the people/family are more important to me. The month I started with a quilting group that meets once a month.  We are making the "Ramblin Rose Meets Jamestown" quilt this year.  I'm making the squares as they are but I'm modifying the log cabin part of the...

So crazy to think they've been dating for 10 mos.  

We were on vacation for two weeks.  When we were at my cousins house for a cookout, I was taking pictures of the family and my daughter didn't want to look at the camera.  I continually took pictures until she would look and smile.  At least I didn't start singing some made up song because then she would have been embarrassed.  I don't know why they don't like my songs. Some day I'll get to all of the other pictures and make pages for them.  We went to DC to visit friends and to go to Arlington National Cemetery and the Mall with all of the monuments/memorials.  We were stationed there from 01-05 but the twins don't remember too much of the sights.  The older two remembered the places we visited. We also went to Massachusetts for a couple of days and did the usual things we do when visiting there (family, shopping at Bob's, duck pin bowling, Faneuil Hall, etc.) and we went to the JFK Library.  Then we went to Pennsylvania for the shoppi...

One of the Scout leaders from our unit organized an event and opened it up to other troops in our area.  The Scouts had the opportunity to visit a military installation and work hands-on on the badge with Airmen that are trained in this area.  Pretty awesome experience for them.  This is a merit badge that you really can't earn on your own, you need to have an opportunity like this.  The event was flawless and they are looking to make it an annual event.  Yay!

I've had a hard time with what SU offers for their digital kits and have promised myself that I would wait for them to develop their products before I got anything.  They have improved but they are still limiting and flat for my personal tastes.  With the recent free trial, I gave it a go and I think I will still have to stick with my old ways and sources for digital scrapbooking.  Perhaps it is my comfort level and not wanting to change from what I know. I was looking at some old pictures of the twins tonight that I've always thought were fun.  They laughed so much this afternoon as they played with each other.  Their laughter makes your heart happy. I used the Twitterpated Digital kit and Bella Rose papers for this page.

I used two templates for these 4 pages. I didn't do anything different with the twins as far as flipping the template. It has been fun looking through the pictures and seeing how they've changed and the memories of things they did and liked. I need to swap out one picture for a color one but I'm happy with the pages. There is a second page to these pages that have favorite pictures, big events or achievements that I wanted to show too. So you know, I don't dress the twins alike. When we go shopping, they sometimes pick the same things just different colors. As it turns out, when we went to have pictures done they both wanted to wear the similar dresses.

I made 2 different pages for my daughter's 6th grade ceremony. I like this one because of the colors. It just seems happier and more youthful than the first page I did. So, our first official day of summer and one of my girls is out delivering fliers that we made last night for a dog walking business she hopes to have this summer. She is charging $5 for 30 min., which is a walk and some play time or $20 if you sign up for 5 days. Such a deal! My son is out with her right now because I'm still working on my swaps that I planned to have mailed off today. I guess tomorrow is it or I'm going to be paying lots of money to get them there on time.

We used the last of our 4-day pass on Saturday and went to Magic Kingdom. Of the 4 theme parks, Epcot came in tops for most in our family. My husband chuckles that I like Epcot the best because after we went, I wasn't too enthused about the place. However, both Epcot and Hollywood Studios have quite a few street shows that I would like stop and watch and my family just keeps on to where they going and miss out on some entertainment. After going to Animal Kingdom, I had read in my journal from when we went 6 years ago and laughed that I still had the same impression - "a glorified zoo". My favorite ride was the Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom. The park with the most rides was Magic Kingdom. It was pretty warm on Saturday and I have to admit that I'm glad to be done before it is too hot & humid here. I have 5 swaps going right now and I'm working on a couple of challenges too. I've been seeing some cool looking picnic baskets and I want to try to ...

One of girls decided to participate in track this spring, following in her daddy's footsteps. She did pretty good, coming in 3rd for her heat. The last track event I went to was for my brother-in-law when he went to North Carolina. It was kind of nice to be among parents that were excited for what their kids were doing and cheering them on as well as others. A positive experience early on a Saturday morning. I was happy to have some usable pictures. Everyone was standing and I was hold the camera above my head snapping away and hoping for the best.

I did this page for a challenge. I was happy to use a kit that I purchased recently and think that the colors really go well with a scouting picture. My husband has begun his pursuit with Woodbadge and has completed the camping/training part. Now he has to work on his ticket, which I think is 5 items. It will be nice when he completes this because he has wanted to do this for a long time.

I haven't taken much time lately for stamping because it has been so busy at school. We had a scheduled power outage yesterday. I spent about 45 minutes at my desk and put together a card base and an embellishment. They don't go with each other but I didn't have plans and while I know they need more, I haven't come up with what the 'more' is. Of course, the color of one has me wondering what I was thinking. I have put together a few pages of some activities this month.

I had a lot of fun with my daughter today. I took her for a pedicure, painting, to lunch and then to a mineral store where she bought a selenite crystal. Looking at the picture I took of her at lunch, I realized how she is leaving the little girl features behind and changing into a lovely, young lady. I used Misti Cato's kit Garden District for this page. I have to say, I'm proud of myself for getting a page done the same day the pictures were taken.

I took advantage of the great sales available for scrapbooking day. I saw a kit by Graziela Mendes called Shades of Brown and I wanted to buy it just because of the ongoing joke we have about the many shades of brown in New Mexico. I used to carry a picture with me of our kids on a green lawn because our front yard is rocks here (as you can see on the page). Green seems so lush to me now and stirs something up within when we visit other states on our trips. Oddly enough, you can even tell when you cross over to Colorado because there is more color than there is here. It is strange how quickly it happens at the state line. Here is the funny thing though. We are moving back to Florida and the grass there is called St. Augustine. Where I'm from we call that crab grass and we try to kill it off - in Florida you want to grow it because it is your lawn.

I told y'all the story behind the pie, just made a page for it using Berry Patch by Kristin Cronin-Barrow.

There is a template challenge over at sbelements. I liked the template and decided to give it a go. Stuck with the Sunday Afternoon kit because I have it on my laptop still. Based on the colors of the kit, I chose to use pictures from Easter last year. The girls had their talent show tonight at church. They chose well for what they like to do. I was kind of impressed when one of them came up with math. All of our kids are strong in math but I never would have thought of that and she does do it well.

So after 4 years, I finally made it to a banquet. I believe a chose not to go the first year, the second year I was sick, the third year he didn't bother to buy me a ticket and this year, although I didn't have much of a voice due to allergies, I made it. I ended up missing most of the main speaker's talk due to a hack fest. I felt so bad for one of the guys. When they were presented their award, they shook hands with the General, had a photo taken and then had to switch hands with the trophy so they could salute the General. His trophy went flying and one of the wings broke off of the eagle. He handled it well but I can imagine the ribbing he will get now. Last week I tried a new recipe. Although I've made it twice now I have yet to take a picture. Envision corn with a white dressing and bacon crumbled on top. I learned a couple of things about this recipe. It is best to partially thaw it if it is going to be a while before you have it. I left it frozen the s...

I bought a kit called Close to My Heart which was put together to benefit those affected by the bushfires in Australia. It is a great kit with bold, happy colors and who doesn't love this shade of blue with red - kind of a retro feel color wise. Although I think this picture would be better suited to a page where she could be some sort of super hero, I don't have such a kit so we went for bold. This picture was taken Saturday during a water fight with her Grandpa. It has been tradition ever since they were little that when they see Grandpa there is a water fight. In the winter the water fights still happen, just in the house and with the rule that they don't hit certain pieces of furniture. It is easier here to have them outside no matter what time of year, but it was another story in Virginia.

I originally started with another page in mind but I didn't bring it together well enough so I changed the papers and elements and went for a black and white photo. I don't have many heritage type pictures so I dug through my husbands pictures. We had company last night for dinner. It was a fairly simple meal because I hadn't planned on company and didn't have an opportunity to shop for anything I would need for the menu. I marinated some chicken and cooked it on the grill. We had homemade mac n cheese, salad and green beans. For dessert we had caramel brownies. I haven't made this particular recipe in 10+ years. I forgot how good they are and the kids loved them. I was going to share the recipe here, went to snap a picture and they were all gone. Another time.

When we were taking lights off of the tree and winding them up the kids brought in pipe cleaners and cut some up so we could secure them and not have a tangled mess next year. It is an easy way of doing it and we've done like this for years. However, I seem to lose some of them every year and need to cut more when we are putting the lights away. The kids were making things from the pipe cleaners and once a pair of glasses was made they all did it thinking they looked like Steve Urkel. They wanted the title to include something with the word "Nerds" in it and I couldn't come up with anything. Still couldn't think of thing and dubbed it after the person they were trying to emulate. One of them even hiked up their pants, although you can't see it in the picture. I used several kits from Lindsay Jane Designs on the page: Iced Denim, Grungilicious and Blueberry Fudge. She is probably my favorite designer for kits. It has been a while since I posted a page t...

It is hard to believe we are finishing our 4th week of school already. It has been so busy with school, band, piano, scouts, church "stuff", funerals, and I don't know what else. I was a bit grumbly about a month ago with all of the school supplies that had to be purchased to start school. I'm not talking about the clothes, shoes, backpacks, or lunchboxes, just the basic supplies requested by the schools. The night before school started, I put out everything they had to start back to school and it looked like Christmas. I took a picture to share with my husband, who was away for a month, so he could see what a few hundred dollars will get. Which brings me to a page I did showing a section of supplies once it is packed up. His backpack was very heavy. I found it funny that he couldn't even fit his supplies in it, let alone the 6 books they gave us when we picked up his schedule. Just for fun, I filled out the places I've lived and visited. The northern p...