Resolution Update-(1 month)

Here is a report of my progress (or lack there of) on the four resolutions I have for 2008:

I resolve to take more pictures! Although my camera has been staying in my purse, I only took three pictures in January, the pictures of my Disney Vacation Fund pail to post on this blog. A truly sad start.

I resolve to read the Bible in a year. Since I have read through the Bible before, I knew how easy it could be to get behind on the daily schedule. I started off 2008 with a week of readings already read. That ended up being a very good thing because that first week of January I was so sick that I missed several days’ readings. I am now only one day ahead, so my goal for February is to read two reading at least four times, so I can get ahead again.

I resolve to read 12 Newbery Medal winners this year. In January I read the 2007 Newbery winner, The Higher Power of Lucky. I am on track to reading twelve for the year. My next selection will be the winner for 2006, Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. I plan to begin reading that as soon as I finish my freelance reading assignment.

I resolve to lose 20 pounds. As of today, I have actually gained 2 pounds since the start of 2008. There are many factors (excuses) I can blame: being sick two times this month, having a sick car, caring for a sick son, Gary bringing home tons of girl scout cookies…

I did attempt to exercise a couple of times. The day after I did an “On Demand” abdominal workout I could hardly get myself to an upright postion out of bed the next morning. How sad is that? Another bad start, but one I plan to work on.

Layout of the Day

Gary and Nikolas built this fort back in November. Even the dog enjoyed hanging out in side. All the supplies, except the rub-on letters were from the October "Poe" kit from Coordinates Collections.

Layout of the Day

My last Halloween layout...boy did we get our money's worth on that Scooby Doo costume! Pictures of Nikolas ready to head out treak-or-treating, showing of his monster mouth sucker and the rest of his loot.

Layout of the Day

These photos are from the Trunk or Treat party at church. The pattern paper is Die Cuts with a View. I bought the foam stamps awhile ago at Walmart. I didn't keep the package from the stickers so I'm not sure what brand they are. I think I picked them up awhile ago in the Hot Spot bin at Archivers.

4 before 40

Here is a mini album I made with a list of 4 things I hope to accomplish before I celebrate my 40th Birthday in September 2009. They are listed in the order of the likelihood I think I will accomplish them. Sorry the cover is a bit blurry. I should have dismantled the book to scan it.

Reading through the Bible in a year is one of my 2008 New Year’s resolutions.

The tattoo was also on my “things to do before I turned 30” list, but I keep chickening out.

This is the one I have the least faith in myself to accomplish. Perhaps Nikolas and I could take lessons together.

I want to find a place to hang this that I will see it daily and be reminded to stay on track to accomplish these goals.

Supplies: All the pattern paper and number stickers are from the Scenic Route Cape Town Collection. The Tag book (front and back cover) is from Creative Imagination, stamps are Lil Davis Designs and Making Memories, letter stickers are Doodle Bug Design, card stock and stamp ink are Stampin’ Up, fonts (Plastique and Monotype Corsiva and digbats (Butterflips) were downloaded from the internet and the Monotype Corsiva was cut out with the Silhouette.

Layout of the Day

Again, some of these photos were posted back in October, but I wanted to share the layout. My sister and BIL asked if they could take Nikolas to their town's Haunted Forest Walk. Their two sons were volunteering there as part of the community service requirement for HS. We were unsure how much Nik would enjoy it. You can kind of tell by the difference of his smiling face on the hay ride over to the trail and the "Daddy, hold me" face just below. Youngsters got the option of taking a "power ring" along for protection and the Boy Scout troops who do most of the stations were really good about toning down the scary when we went through.

Cardstock is Stampin Up, pattern paper is The Paper Company Studio (the black stripe has a green glitter overlay), sign is Stamping Station. "Haunted" is a rub-on by Reminisce and the other two title words were made from fonts downloaded from the internet and cut out with my Silhouette.

Protecting Our Children

It has been happening for quite some time. Well meaning parents try to shield their children from some of the very things they grew up with. I’m told that my father and his brothers used to shoot bottle rockets at each other in their youth—probably not the safest activity. They were legal at the time, but of course they aren’t now—at least not in Illinois.

But it seems that further generations have taken protecting “our children” to a new level that has me scratching my head. My son and I were in the car today returning from Sam’s Club. We were listening to “Playhouse Disney on Radio Disney” a lunchtime show geared to Toddlers.

The song “Little Bunny Foo Foo” came on. The lyrics as I know them from singing this song in 2nd grade are on this site.

The version on Radio Disney today had Little Bunny Foo Foo kissing the field mice on the head instead of boppin’ on the head. Doesn’t that kind of make the rest of the song make absolutely no sense? Why would the Good Fairy need to come down threatening to turn LBFF into a goon if all he was doing was given some rodents a little peck on their noggin?

I immediately let my son know the correct version of the lyrics and lamented to myself about “those parents” again.

Of course after seeing this LBFF plush posted on Etsy…maybe the ‘rents haven’t gone to far….

Layout of the Day

Looking at the layouts I posted recently I suddenly realize that we certainly got our money's worth of our Zoo membership this Fall.

I know I posted some of these photos before, but wanted to post the layout because I'm very please with how it turned out. The title was made with my Silhouette and my dear sister gave me the stickers.

Layout of the Day

Another trip to the zoo, this time Gary had the day off and joined us. It was right after the wood carving contest weekend was held. Luckily, a volunteer told us to go and check these out because they were taking them down that day. I guess they will be put in storage and return in 2009 when the new Great Bear Wilderness exhibit opens.

Cardstock is probably Stampin' Up and the pattern paper is Imaginisce.

Layout of the Day

No birthday celebration for my animal lover son would be complete without a trip to the zoo. He got to pick out whatever he wanted from the giftshop (he got a book). Since we've been zoo members, I have enjoyed how there always seems to be something new to experience. Highlights of this trip include:

*Hearing the lion roar--did you know that male lions normally sleep about 20 hours a day?

*Seeing the two baby tiger cubs. They were very playful with each other and there mom. It was so sad to discover weeks later that one of the cubs died and the other was injured after getting a bit to playful with daddy tiger off exhibit.

*Watching the brown bear do "laps" in his pool. He would back float one way and then "craw" back to the side.

*Having Nik's grandma experience it all with us.

I used an assortment of letter stamp styles for my title: Lions, Tigers, Bears and Grandma, Oh My!

Vacation Fund project

Here is “My Disney Vacation Fun Fund” container. Gary brought the paint can home from work. It was a corporate Christmas gift with popcorn inside. I used a lot of my ribbon and Disney stash including Sandy Lion chipboard and Reminisce pattern paper.

Layout of the Day

Here is the layout I did for Nik's birthday. He insisted that I take a picture of him holding up each chapter book--I didn't even include all of them on this layout. He got a ton of Scooby Doo stuff from us (and one SpongeBob art kit), so I used SD and SB fonts I found online. The pattern paper is Scenic Route, ribbon is American Crafts and I used my Silhouette to cut out the stars using Star Things dingbats, found online.

My sister and I went to Archivers last night to scrapbook, so I have a bunch of pages to post in the upcoming days. I finished 16 pages (12 layouts)! This first one is for a "All About Me" challenge posted at Coordinated Collections (see My Daily Haunts). The subject was your treasure or passion. I chose passion and created a layout about my Disney obsession.

I did a really bad scan stitch of this, so here is what the journaling says:

It all started innocently enough…I was researching and planning our 2006 vacation to Walt Disney World. What I discovered was a cyber community obsessed with all things Disney. The websites were friendly and helpful, providing up-to-date information on the resort.

Gary assumed my fixation would wane after the vacation or at least once I was done scrapbooking it. But over a year later I’m just as gaga for Disney

Symptoms:
1. Visit a minimum of four WDW fan sites daily
2. Enjoy reading trip reports of total strangers (online equivalent of watching someone’s vacation slides).
3. Have already planned daily itinerary and dining choices for next trip---20 months away.
4. Prefers to listen to music/audio from Disney rides and attractions than Top 40.

My first Newbery read of 2008

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to read twelve Newbery Medal winning books.
My first was The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. As a Christian, it was interesting to read about how the main character Lucky's only knowledge of God was obtained from the very generic "higher power" PC-speak of the various Twelve-Step meetings she eavesdrops on. The story was sad and sweet, but not really spectacular.

I’m back among the living!

January 1st, I woke up with a slight hangover (tee-hee!) and a KILLER HEAD COLD. I had to call off to work that night and have basically spent the most of the first week of 2008 sleeping. I had big plans of taking down all the Christmas decorations those first two days, but instead they were still hanging around along with all the decoration boxes I had Gary pull out. The house got messier while I’ve just done enough to get by for that day. I have SLOWLY been getting better and today I am so happy that the tree and all the decorations are finally packed away. Now I just have to catch up on everything else like cleaning and planning out some scrapbooking layouts to work on when my sister and I go to Archivers to crop this Saturday.