happy new year's eve!

we're ready!
ready for the new year.
ready for new changes in our house.
ready for new things.
ready for new changes in me, personally.

damn that reminds me i need to get to scrappin' more.

ready to be a better wife..... nicer, more caring, more appreciative.
ready to have a mini vacation with my cozy family.
ready to plan big vacations.....i traveled ALOT this year, NEA in Washington, Vegas with hubby & friends, Scrap Retreat in SC.
ready to get to know my online friends more.
ready to see Jess's baby.
possibly ready to plan a baby of our own.
ready for J to start basketball at the Y.
& of course ready for all the other sports he wants to keep up with...soccer, baseball
ready to try sushi.
ready for another tatt.
ready to take a romantice getaway without any worries.
ready for a garage sale, damn you should see my garage. you can't even walk in it.

needless to say i'm ready, we're ready. bring it on 2009. make it a great year!

here are some recap pics from our holidays & some random ones too....

i've been gone a while so i thought i'd catch ya'll up........

thanksgiving came & went too damn fast for me, as u knw i'm a school teacher so i just thought i'd get all kinds of things done while on vacay! yeah right!!!!!! my kitchen floor is still torn up, we deposited the check from the insurance but since it's such a large amount, the bank takes 5 days to process, a plus though......my dh's uncle's gonna fix all the things on his own & install a new laminate floor! yes, laminate, that's what i decided on.

i did get my living room painted! i'll upload pics soon, before & after, sold my coffee table and end tables on craig's list, bought some new furniture. now i'm just counting down the days till winter break. i'm dying to create something, mostly b/c i bought some things @ joann's after the "black friday" sale & i managed to find a cuttlebug w/ a die on craig's list for $25, yea a steal i would say!!!!!!

my friend barbara & another friend showed me the wonderful world of nestablities from spellbinders and i just knew i wanted some of them! i have NEVER ever wanted a die cutting system! i mean never in all the years crafting.

good news.......my dh has officially started the bball season w/ him being the head coach, i really want success for him. i pray for it. he does so well with the kids, they just need to work hard & trust him so that they can have a winning season. we've (ds & i) have been going to his bball games, he's had 3 big games,vs. good teams. his team does really well, they just can't finish a game well. which put their record at 0 wins-3 losses. yesterday was different.............. they won a very difficult game vs. a great private school team, i mean this game was difficult. they are an all boys school with a great supporting crowd who gets loud and all in the players head. i mean there's about 40 of them in the stands the yell creative chants. dh's team was doing well then lost their lead in the 3rd quarter and ended the game in OT, they ended up winning by 1 b/c one of his player made a 3 point shot w/ about 3 seconds left. it was nuts!!!! i'm really proud of him & his team. they other team's coach is really good too, he's won about 2 state championships in his coaching career. i knw i had shared w/ u guys haw hard it is on me to have him gone so much but it's funny to say that now i KNOW i made the right choice in having him decide whether to go for that head job. he was going to totally give up coaching b/c of our past troubles in our relationship. i mean it's still hard for me, but i can see when he got his "1st head bball coach WIN" it is truly what he loves to do.

oh & we took some xmas pics @ sears





i hope to get back in the swing of things soon so i can create more. i miss every1 but u know on tues. & fri. nights i'll be @ bball games

here's a pic, that's the dh in the brown suit & yellow shirt, check out the crowd in the background, plus all the cheerleaders

love this face...

that's my j, posing away!

lookie, lookie

i had a blast this weekend! who cares that my kitchen floor is all tore up! literally from the floor up! (ok, well maybe i do care!) but it didn't stop the weekend from happening! i needed those few days away from school and i got to spend time with lots of family & friends.

on friday c & i went on a date! parent's night out at school made this one possible! it was nice, i was tired and sleepy from a long day at school, but we still took advantage of the evening!

then sat. morning was the usual teeball/soccer games. although that was one cold morning so i guess the other teeball team didn't want to play, our team had like 5 lil' players show up at 8 a.m.! then we went to c's bball scrimmage, it's interesting watching the hubby be in charge of the team now, go Head Coach go! then i was able to spend time with the stampin ladies! yep, hung out with Penny, Carri, and Barb! that was really fun! i found out i have a blog stalker! cool! so now just for you Carri, i need to remind myself to post more often! i really didn't want to leave, but i had j's teacher coming over to babysit so that we could go over to my star sis' 30th shindig @ her house. i really wanted to stay home b/c it was chilly out, you know one of those nights you just wanna stay in. but that's my star sis and i just had to go. we hung out there and had lots of jello shots! yummy ones too! my friend's mother was having a little too much fun with those shots! everyone had to keep an eye on her, she was hiding them in her pockets of her jacket!

on sun. we laid in bed for a while and then got going, made ham & cheese omelets for the family and then off to c's grandmother's house to celebrate his grandfather's 80th! came back home to do some cleaning/laundry and here ya go! back into the swing of the wk again! i did find this cool site that i wanted to share with you all, the stalker in particular, just in case she hadn't seen it....tracy's corner

btw, the water damage story....

on sunday we had water under our washing machine. we moved it, cleaned up the water, re-adjusted the hoses and figured that was it! WRONG! the hose was the cheap rubber ones and it had a slow leak where it connects so on monday night after work/dinner i walk into my pantry and hear squishing water under my steps and water seeping out of the laminate floor boards and it has bubbled up like so....

 

before pic

 

so now we had to file a claim with our homeowners insurance and have a restoration company come out to tear up the floor, soak it up, and have fans running for 3 days to help speed up the evaporation process. after my floor has been torn up:

bummer, right before the holidays too! and it all depends on our insurance person and what they decide as to what happens, we may get the floor matched so it'll be laminate again. which i would really not like to have for the obvious reason, that damn particle board just absorbed that water right up! if they can't match it, they may say to total it out and get a while new floor. another possibility would come into play if the cabinets got damaged too! so now we play the waiting game. it could take up to a week or a month to fix depending on the damage!

Wow, chk it out!

the big 3-0

tomorrow's the big day. i'm not really ready, but then again who ever is???
i had a blast last night, lots of my friends went out with us to this cool spot downtown. we drank, and then drank some more. it's always nice when you have all your friends around you that love you. but then today i wake up and off we go! on the go again, pick up j at grandparents' house, off to the mil's for her bday gathering, then back home to do laundry. this next week is gonna be hectic. we have teeball practice on mon., soccer practice on tues. then off to Lack's to purchase some new living room furniture. yea!!! then that leads us into the next weekend, which is j's bday. gotta get all that stuff ready too. not to mention the sofa's will need to be delivered over the weekend. we need to declutter the house and rearrange soem things too. all my scrap stuff needs to be moved into the extra bedroom, you know i really wanted it in the kitchen so that i could scrap in an open area to keep an eye on j. but i find i don't have a kitchen table, so my scrap armoire needs to be in a room, outta plain sight, cause you know i don't clean up after i scrap! lol alwyas lots to do, gotta run now! maybe i can blog tom.!!!

In SC!!!

i'm loving being here in sc! it's so beautiful. i've meet lots of tallygals at this tallyrally and spending time with Rhonda and Jess aka tallylibrarian has been a blast. i hope i can do this again soon. i almost took the cake with spending the most $$$. jess of course beat me by $8. i really took advantage of spending $$$ on scrappin' stuff. i've been wanting the amy butler tote, i've seen it at hobby lobby before too. i coulda used a coupon on it, but i always have an excuse. well not this time, i picked it up right away. partially b/c scrapbook creations had a coupon that could be used on for 40% off your next purchase on your next visit. well, i had no shame and made mention of "when's the next time i'll be near sc and drop in to use my coupon????. the coupon said the next time you visit and technically the first time i was there was fri. night and my next day was sat. so i used the coupon!!!!

one other thing that made my trip was a cute little waiter at ruby tuesdays. i know, i know. no biggie, he just called me sweetie and sweetheart a few times and i ate it up. is that bad???? NO! but i enjoyed the extra attention. i think it has alot to do with me hitting 30 soon. i'll take the younger generation flirts while i can still get them. the mango margaritas were awesome too! we ate at a cool hibatchi place too. that was off the chain, i've never been so it was a great first, i ended up eating some great shrimp with some fried rice.

it was supa cool to meet people that i've been getting to know online. i've never done anything like that before either. it's always cool to meet other scrappers, i like to say i'm a people person who is better at getting to know people in person. sometimes it's hard to just throw yourself out there but as a few posts ago, i'm trying to get better with that right???? yep!

i gotta add that cute sidebar thing that has everyone's blog. i need to make sure i can keep up with everyone that i meet at the tallyrally!!! oh, before i 4get, the pics will come soon, i'll upload them when i get home, i fly back tom.

oh i forgot to mention that i walked outta there with 13 or so mini albums, wow!!!!!! how am i ever gonna do all those????? jess claims i'm the mini book queen. how many have you seen me do? i'm sure i agree with that comment that was made before i rec'd all the mini's. well i guess i have to be now huh?

let the juice flow

scrapped a little yesterday. i did the gutter girlz challenge:



and then a quick one:

Already Oct.?

yep, tom. will be here soon and Oct. will hit me hard! I'll be turing the big shhhhhh...... 3-0! oh, oh! My ds will turn 4 a week and a day after that and I'll be headed to SC for a visit with one of my best friends and to meet up with some new ones! yep, the Tally Rally in SC will be here next week! I leave on Thursday night and won't get back home until Mon. this is going to be an exciting trip for me. i feel kinda of funny meeting up with the some of the tally girls, being that i've only known them through tally. (which i tend to not get on as much since school has started) i've been really busying teaching pre-k. i've been making all kinds of things for my classroom. slowly, yes very slowly it's getting to where i'd like it.

sometimes i feel that i don't share enough with my buddies online. it's hard to let it all out. i always feel that i have a professional job with teaching and have to keep some kind of private life. you know not let all my business out there. you hear those stories about some teacher did this or that. sometime the situations get blown outta porportion. but i'm gonna be better at sharing. i have to promise this to stick to it!!!! lol

other news: the marathon training went out the window when i got my foot done. it needed a while to heal and then before you knew it school started and i was floored by all the things i needed to do to get my class adjusted, my teaching routines, etc. i've been a busy bee. i have not scrapped since Aug. 22nd. C-R-a-Z-y!!! i'm in a dead scrappin' spell. i've gotten a few mags in the mail with not much inspiring. I love to get into online galleries to help the mojo flow, but the computer time has been used to check myspace, clean out my email inbox, design document for classroom centers, get ideas from sites for school, and printing them. i've managaged to pop into some blogs and get inspired to share more. how often do you blog? maybe i can find a happy medium that fits my lifestyle.

j started t-ball and soccer on sat. he had his first practices of the fall season. then his second practice yesterday and today. big game day coming on sat. he has an 8:00 t-ball game and then 9:20 soccer. kid will be 4 soon and he's ready to go with both sports. i'd never push him in to both. he asked if he could, we explained that the games would be on the same day and probably one right after the other. didn't matter much his mind was made up. hummmmm...., wonder where he got that quality from????

tata for now, i think that has to be one of the longest posts in a while. i have to make up for not posting anything in a month and a half!!!

by the way, i'm hoping to take up a new form of exercising, my lovely friend Marty-Mar will assist this with me. Read her blog and you will get the hint!

bye for a while....

well, u know by now i peek in & then disappear soooo...... since i offically reported back today, i know i will be gone alot more. i am teaching pre-kiner this year, and i just know that i will be busy making things for my classroom and little ones instead of surfing the net, hangin out at tally or creating scrap goodies! so ta-ta for now. i promise, take that back, i pledge to try my hardest to peek in often. but, big BUT.... BB10 is still on so my free time will be watching my DVR'd shows! love ya! smooches!

My first Tatt!

well i can say i never went through the crazy, just-turned-18, let-me-prove-my-independence tattoo business. on the other hand i did get my belly button and tongue pierced, my way of saying all of the above stage! so i thought i'd never really go through with getting one because i had passed that stage right?! WRONG! terribly wrong. all it took was a little convincing of some friends and a supportive hubby and well whataya know i have this.... this is the before pic of me & a during



story behind the tatt, there's 5 of us getting the same one, all high school buddies. the only difference between them is that the colors rotate, we picked the color we liked and that's the main big star, and the others are the colors that our friends choose. does that make sense? i can't wait till it heals a little more so that i can put on regular shoes, wearing flipflops for a week & a half is getting sooo old, not to mention not being in the sun or the pool in this 100 degree days we've been having.

i'd like to go to the gym and get back to training for, ahhhh, shall i say it?!??! the rock n'roll marathon going on here in Nov. I would like to try the half marathon & i was doing good like for week1 and then i got the tatt, which put me off track. i'm glad to hear an old friend of mine started a blog on a 5K training.

i scrapped a little yesterday i was challenged at tally to scrap & post a layout in 1 hour as here's my creation...

and last....i've been obessed with watching BigBrother 10, the drama that went on yesterday was great! if you're not watching this, you should! i've even been stalking a BB10 blog!

so i've been away!

i took a long break from bloggin'! ha! yea, right! i'm just a bad blogger that's all!i went to NEA in Washington and Las Vegas. both in July. it has taken me forever to start creating again. I made a b-day card the other day and realized how much i've missed making things. so with that said.... i made an altered tool holder for my (shhh!!!, it's a secret)


joined a challenge, again over @ tally for the ugliest pp! i had to use it all up and make some cards




i also made a mini for someone else...(another secret)



and last but not least, a layout of my precious family

trying out again!

thought i'd give it a shot at tally again! sooooo, here's my latest lo's for the DT challenge!

quick post!

new layouts i've made. seems like it's been forever since i've scrapped!
i'll be heading to a-town with some friends for a girl's only night. staying there overnight and heading back on sun. getting ready to get my first tat! ahhhh, a little scary, i'll keep you posted when it happens!

my weekend

my weekend went by too fast! had a nice union rep. dinner to attend on friday, j's tee-ball game sat. morning. poker game that was hosted at my house on sat. and dh's b-ball game to go to today. my chihuahua got up-to-date on his shots this afternoon, poor doggie. he got 3 shots, a bordatella vac., and blood drawn to check for heartworm. we spent some fun family time in the front yard, watering, watchin' ds play in a little pool. like i said, too fast!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Enjoy the creative day! I have a girl's night out at my house today so there will be no creating for me! have fun everyone!

CrAzY MoNtH...

the title says it all. Things have been super crazy at school. State testing was this week and I got pulled from my class to admin. to a 4th grade group. You know Texas and the craziness with TAKS. need I say more?


We've been busy b/c J's in T-ball now and C's the coach. It's fun to see this 3 y.o. so pumped about baseball. you know daddy's super excited too, we actually went to a specialized baseball store to look for a decal of his team to put on his helmet. We looked at bats, gloves, little bitty baseball pants, balls. One of the store clerks looked at my husband weird when he said "ya, i'm looking to get him some more things now that I know he's really into it." yes, people, it's been 2 YMCA seasons and we're all wrapped in it. wild. nuff said.



FIESTA in San Antonio, came and went. I hit up NIOSA with a few friends and saw a few familiar faces. If you've never been to FIESTA in San Antonio, I absolutley advice it once. Key word ONCE! It's crazy to see the city party all week long. Major streets Downtown shut down. again, craziness.

I went to another TSTA (Texas State Teacher's Associate)Convention. it's very political. Then again, that's Texas! It's hard to believe that there are many teacher's out there that are unfamiliar with their rights and do not advocate more for themsleves and their students. Now, granted I'm still learning alot. But, I'm on my journey with it. Luckily, our local quote-unquote union is very active and affiliated with many others, TFT, TSTA, AFT, NEA, list goes on.
By the way, I'm making plans to go to Washington in July for the NEA (National Education Association) Convention. My very first. This should be very interesting. Especially since one of my dear friends is taking an issue she has to this national level. Her issue? When we, teachers, administer TAKS, the state test. We have to sign an oath that can jeopardize our teaching certificate if there are any violations. What could be a violation? oh my the range, let's see: flipping through a student's test booklet, letting 2 students go to the rr at one time from the same class, discussing the test contents with others, having a cell phone on, computer on, leaving the test booklets unmonitored. i could go on. anyhow, her issue is very valid in some of these violations are beyond the teacher's control, i.e. the student choosing to cheat. the teacher could lose their certificate for this reason. this is one topic i could go on about, but let me get off my soap box and go to bed.

in other news.........Big Brother is over and my eyes are not glued to the TV for an hour every Tues., Wed., and Sun. night. Lol ;), but there's gonna be a summer season! whooohoooo!


i forgot to add... i chopped off my hair, i decided to cut it, then the stylist kept cutting and doing her own thing. i never mind when people do that. i figure, hey they know what their doing! big risk i know.... here's a pic with me and my cutie.

i'm also outta my mind, as the busy school year winds down with 22 school days left in the year i volunteered to make 65 retirement invites for the 2 retirees we have at our school. yes crazy i know!