My latest page...

I paid attention to which kit I was using! It's Family Ties by Jeni Hopewell from Scrapmatters.

Another week in review...

Well, no burst pipes. That's something, right? Oh, but no, our brand F-ING new dishwasher has just decided to completely not function. As in not a single light comes on. Nothing. Called Maytag and had a repairman out the next day. The thermostat is blown and it fried the control board. The parts will be in later this week.

I have had this dishwasher for SIX WEEKS. The fact that a single thing has broken on it has me really annoyed. If these parts don't fix it, I'm going to be more than annoyed.

I had to chase down three Girl Scout parents to get them to turn in their cookie order. Two of them never did - they both said they'd wait until the second wave of cookies comes out. I can't WAIT for the deadline for money.

I'm designing templates in my own style for digital scrapbooking, just for my own personal use. I like clipping papers to the shape below them. I love to use templates, but most of them are too fussy for my tastes. I don't like embellishments in general, so that's how I'm making my templates. I'd post more of my layouts online, but I'm horrible about keeping track of what I've used and where it came from. I was worse when I paper-scrapped, because at least with digital, I can go to the files and figure it out if I really want to.

2010 so far...

So far my 2010 has been a little crazy. Some bad, some good.

• Burst pipe in upstairs bathroom
• Selling Girl Scout cookies - I'm the cookie mom for #2's Daisy troop.
  
• Using motivated moms to get my house in order (well, better, at any rate)
• Tried to get back to Couch to 5K, but hurt again. Will seek professional advice.
• Trying out a pedometer as alternative to keep me active
• Keeping up with my goals so far (minus the shin splints)
• Staging a coup of the Cub Scout pack (well, nothing that dramatic hopefully, but getting a little control in the form of knowledge about what's going on)

I can't believe we're only two weeks into this year.

Dear 2010...

I will forgive you for your inauspicious start, especially if at any time you want to change course and brighten up. I realize this is a long shot, but I'm open to it if you are. Thanks.

Yeah. Great start to my new year. I had my motivated moms list all printed out, put on my cleaning clothes yesterday (yoga pants indicate that I'm staying home and cleaning, jeans mean I might leave the house) and was ready to go. I had a tough time getting back into the school routine yesterday after two weeks off, but I was planning to get to it.

I picked up #3 from preschool and came home to a dripping ceiling. Nothing like a burst pipe in the middle of winter. So yesterday was spent in chaos with no water, no power (because we didn't know how wet the wires might have been) and absolutely nothing got done.

So now I'm on my second attempt at the Motivated Moms list. I'm making a much better showing today. I've checked several things off and I can see where this might keep me motivated throughout the year, not just this first week. My kitchen looks...well, better, since I only cleaned one counter, not the side counter yet. My bathroom is neat and tidy. Looking forward to tomorrow.

And a quick product review from Christmas. Santa brought my kids one of their most requested items - a Touch and Brush, so that our bathroom wouldn't get toothpaste all over it, just like in the commercial. Yeah, not so much. It might even be messier than before since the Touch and Brush has to go on the mirror and increases the area toothpaste can be spread across.

Resolved...

I've fallen off a lot of my 2009 habits that I was so proud of. I hurt my leg running so I chose to give that up so that it might heal without my constantly reinjuring it. I was eating so well, until I began my holiday baking and the kids got out of school (they had 16 days off - many habits fell to this). My laundry/cleaning routine is a nightmare.

So for 2010 I am resolved to get back on track. I never make resolutions - at least no more for the new year than I would at any point in my life. I don't see why the new year should mean anything different than the previous day. Every day is a fresh start, not just January 1.

At any rate, I will post my resolutions here and check to see how I'm doing (did I do this last year too and then never check it? Possibly. Okay, fine, probably).

1. Run a 5K. I was all set to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, until I pushed myself and ended up barely able to walk for a couple of days. Right now my tentative 5K is the St. Patricks' Day 5K on March 13.
2. Clean and maintain order in my home. Big thing here. I am not a naturally organized person, so this is very difficult for me. I bought the motivated moms planner and I'm hoping that the nature of the check lists and having a plan laid out for me will work and most of all, last beyond my initial interest.
3. Spend more quality time with my kids. It struck me during this break yet again how very quickly their childhoods are passing by. Maybe it was all the newborns in my family, but something made me feel very nostagic. Included in this resolution are to read more often to all the kids and keep better control of my temper (mainly while PMSing).

Setting a record...

So far this week, I've knitted one baby hat for my cousin's newborn daughter:
And finished SEVEN (yes, 7) digital layouts. That's some sort of record for me. That's my normal total for an entire month, not a week. I'm very happy with Photoshop Elements. It's so much easier to use for this than Paint Shop Pro. Although as far as photo editing, I think PSP might have an edge (over Elements, not Photoshop itself). That could just be that I've become so familiar with it over the past four years.

Other things on my happy list:
Pandora Internet Radio
Being so much closer to finished my Christmas shopping than I ever have been on December 6.
My halls are decked (even though we haven't gotten a tree yet):My kids have the day off school tomorrow (I don't actually get to sleep in, but I can have a pajama morning)

Back in the saddle....

My husband and I decided that for the first time in our marriage (or either of our lives) we would join the crazies (no offense - it's just that choosing to wake up before the sun on a day I don't have to goes down as crazy in my book) on Black Friday. The kids spent the night at my mother-in-laws and we set our alarm for THREE FRICKING THIRTY. I was not amused when it went off. But we were after one of Wal-Mart's big limited deals, so we got up and drove ourselves over there. I do NOT go places before the sun is up, so this is major (and probably the only time it will ever happen).

Once we'd made the decision about two weeks earlier, I'd been scouring the internet leaks of all the ads to make my list. I knew I wanted the laptop from Wal-Mart (pretty much all three of our computers are/were on their last legs and I'm of the belief that once your computer starts giving you the "I'm in trouble" signals, you need to get a new one and get anything important off the old one). I added to my wish list the TomTom GPS and Kodak digital camera at Wal-Mart, a certain tall, busty fashion doll for my girlies (that ended up not being on sale, but still had to be purchased) and Adobe Photoshop Elements, which was on sale for $49.99 at Staples.

We got everything on the wish list and then some. I've been campaigning for a GPS for months. I get lost very easily, even in towns I've driven in for years. I'll think I know the way somewhere, but somehow have it totally wrong in my head. Happens every time I overthink. If I just drive and don't worry about it, I do fine.

The best end result of our Black Friday craziness is my new laptop. We bought the computer for Tom, but he's being a baby about it not being a Dell (and it's not like it's Brand X - it's an HP). So I said, what if I keep this one and we buy you a Dell later. He was actually cool with that. So I immediately began taking this laptop over. First of all, the fact that it's a laptop (I've always been a desktop kind of girl) was weird. I'm still getting used to it, but I've set up a sort of docking station at my magic desk (which is apparently not magic, since it's a total mess) and that works for me. I have the desktop like atmosphere I wanted and I can pick it up and eat lunch in the kitchen with the girls and surf the internet while we eat.

Do you know which Black Friday purchase I currently like the best , though? It's Adobe Photoshop Elements. We got it on sale at Staples (I was only mildly annoyed to learn that it was only that cheap due to a rebate). Once the computer was for sure mine, I installed it. I played a little the first day, but it had a minor learning curve and I wasn't into it. But now? Now I'm in love. I've been using Corel's Paint Shop Pro, which is somewhere in between regular Photoshop and Elements - it allows you to have a lot of control, but there are some key things I had to create workarounds for. So far, my favorite thing about Elements/PS is ACTIONS! I'm so excited about them. I've sort of been off my camera lately. I didn't even take new Christmas card pictures. I just used nice ones from the fall. But I think actions might inspire me. I need new photos to run these actions on. I should have broken down and ordered PSE years ago.