Holly scraps.... among other things.

Movin...

2007-05-29T09:34:00.000-06:00

At least for the next month or so I am heading to http://hollyscraps.spaces.live.com to see how that works out. There's an explanation there as to why. :)

Just To Give You Something To Read…

2007-05-09T08:33:00.001-06:00

Straight from Fred, my 25 most played. (From bottom to top)

Everclear – White Men In Black Suits

Everclear – Amphetamine

Chemical Brothers – Galvanize

Britney Spears – I Love Rock and Roll (hehe)

Jack Johnson and Black Eyed Peas – Gone Going

Toby Keith – You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This

Toby Keith – A Little Too Late

Toby Keith – I Got It Bad

Little River Band – Lady (smooches!)

Hellogoodbye – Here In Your Arms

Buckcherry – Opened My Eyes

Steel Dragon (giggle) – Stand Up

Jason Mraz – Geek In The Pink

Dave Mathews – Satellite

Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend

Blake Lewis – You Give Love A Bad Name

Buckcherry – Sorry

Fergie – Fergalicious

Justin Timberlake – SexyBack

Jason Mraz – Wordplay

Jason Mraz – The Remedy

Eagles – Hotel California

Usher – Caught Up

R Kelly – I'm A Flirt

Dave Mathews – Some Devil

There ya go, discuss. :)

New Stuff Overload

2007-05-01T14:25:00.001-06:00

I'm totally on sensory overload right now. I have so many new things to try out!

Let me start at the beginning.

First I switched host agencies for my travel agency. I love my new host Joystar, and am totally excited about the switch. They offer a lot more options, a lot more money, and a lot more stuff to help me run the business successfully. However, with all that comes the learning curve, and getting used to doing things completely different. I'm having a lot of fun with it really.

Then came my nifty new tablet PC. Not only is it a whole different thing because of the tablet part, but it came loaded with all kinds of nifty applications that I have never used before. Like Microsoft OneNote. And Windows Journal. And Ink Art. OneNote is like a binder on the computer. You can 'cut' or 'clip' things out of web pages, documents, emails, any file really, and 'glue' it right into a page on the binder. Then you can write on the pages, or type, and save them, or send them in an email, or whatever. For now I have set up a work binder, and I keep sections for all kinds of things. One for logins so I know what passwords to use on which supplier sites. One for newsletter ideas where I clip out good deals and pictures and info from emails I get from suppliers or websites I browse so I can compile the best stuff to put in my client newsletter. And of course, one section for trips I am working on. I have a page for each separate trip, and when I am online pricing things I can just circle the quote with my trusty pen and send it to that page. If I am on the phone pricing, I just grab the pen and take notes right on there. Then I can combine all of that into an email to my client telling them what I have found. Journal is more like a spiral notebook on the computer. There is, I am sure, some way to use the clipping tool (a cool little tablet pc utility) to do the same sorts of things that I can with OneNote, but I haven't tried it out yet. I am on new stuff overload, you see. J So I just leave it open all day and jot things down like I do with my spirals. The nice thing is I never run out of room, and its cleaner, since I can just erase something once I have done it or taken care of it or checked into it or whatever, and write the next thing in that empty space. Ink Art is pretty much a giant sketch pad/canvas. You've seen some of what I have been doing with that, but there is so much more. And that is the thing with all of it really. It's all very cool from the beginning, but you just know that there is more to it and you haven't even begun to see what fun you can have with it yet. So I do a lot of playing and googling and playing some more.

So since I had a new computer, what else was I to do but get the new version of Microsoft Office? If you have not seen any of Office 2007 yet, and you use any of the Office programs (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Groove, InfoPath, and Publisher in my version) on a regular basis, you really should try out one of the trials on the website. Everything is different, and I mean everything. So much that I can't even go into it. I bought a $40, 1000 page book on it. I am on page 80 or so. I am amazed every time I read another page at what I can do. In fact I am writing this blog post in Word right now, and when I am done I will click on 'publish' and it just will, automatically. So much easier to edit things in Word, I will likely do all my blog posts from here from now on. I switched back to Outlook for my mail and scheduling as soon as I saw the new way it does the whatever, reading pane, I don't know. Basically when I open my Outlook, on the left is a strip with all my mail folders on the top, and buttons that take me to mail (where I am) contacts (the address book) calendar (my appointments) tasks (my to do list) and a little thingy at the bottom where I can click on sticky notes (just like post its for the desktop) journal (Windows Journal) and shortcuts. I don't know what shortcuts is, but I'm sure I will take the time to figure it out. Anyway. Next to that is the list of all my email messages. Then a big window where the email I am on shows without me having to open another window or anything, and the coolest part is on the right of that – top has a calendar of this month, under that my appointments for the day (3 at a time) and under that my to do list. From there I can open my appointments to get the details past when and what, or cross things off the to do list, or whatever. Very convenient. In about 3 days or so I had gotten to where I use Outlook for all my scheduling, some of my to doodles (I use Journal for it mostly, as I like to have one huge list of things to do 'in my spare time'. I only put time sensitive to do stuff on the task list.) and of course for my email and contact management. I've already told you how I use OneNote. I'm looking forward to delving into Publisher, I haven't had it since before Charlie was born, and I want to use it for making my email newsletters. But I haven't gotten that far. I am on new stuff overload you know. J I leave all the Excel to Todd around here, but I do have some things I want to do with it. I'll have to check out Access again too, I don't think I have used it since my computer class in highschool. I've never used PowerPoint before, so I am definitely waiting on that one until I get to that chapter in the book. I don't even know what Groove and InfoPath are. Again this whole Office thing, I know there are amazing things I can do to make it work for me, I just need to figure out HOW!

Yesterday I got a thing in my email about Cozi Central. (www.cozi.com) It looks kinda cool, like Outlook for families or something. Not sure exactly how I would use it, or if I would, at the moment. But I can see the possibilities. I have it downloaded but I haven't really looked at it yet. Seems like it might be something nice for later on, like when the kids are older and off going places after school or having tons of practices or something. Since its built for family members to all share, the problem I can see already, as with other sharing stuff like that that seems like a good idea at the time, is that everyone has to actually use it for it to be worth anything. If you don't put your stuff on there, or look at it to see if things have changed, then what is the point.

This morning I discovered ScrapBlog (www.scrapblog.com) Holy crap. It's like heaven for me. I can't believe its been up for a month and I didn't see it yet. I am having so much fun today trying it out, and I would not be at all surprised if soon in the future you see a message here saying I have moved over there. I really, really, really encourage you all to go over there. Especially Monica, are you reading Monica? J And Jen B too, if you are reading. So, so, so much fun. I could spend days. I probably will spend days. I'm completely enchanted with it. Watch your mail for a message saying I have finally finished playing and posted something over there, or check every once in a while on www.scrapblog.com/hollyann and see if there is anything there yet. It's so… easy. And there is so much stuff.

I also have new shoes, which are flip floppy but real comfortable, they are kinda like the crocs that are flip flops? I'm too lazy at the moment to take a picture of them but if you've seen those flip floppy crocs, they are like that, but only cost $7. I'm enchanted by them too, because they feel like crocs but aren't as ugly. They are black, with pink top-of-the-bottoms (that is my word for the part of the shoe that the bottom of your foot actually touches, lol) and they had them in several other color combos, so I bet I will give myself some options as soon as I can justify to myself just why I need these in every color of the rainbow. J

So that is my rambling novel about my new stuff. I am now going to hit that publish button and see what happens. Thanks for sticking with it, if you got all the way to the end, leave me a comment.

As Promised

2007-04-20T21:27:00.000-06:00

some digital art quickies for you. I don't generally post my best most original art because I have no clue how to do the right-click protect deal, and people on the internet steal things, and I don't like that. But this gives you the general idea.

charcoal and watercolor of Kayla, Photoshop Elements 5.0

pencil sketch of DL castle, Art Ink 1.3

Yep, I am totally YABHTU.

2007-04-18T21:46:00.000-06:00

Well, my new yummy tablet pc has been here for a while now, and I love her. Her name is Tabitha. (tablet, Tabitha, see how I am so bad at the naming?) I am getting to the point where I am almost using the pen exclusively, which takes a bit of learning, but it sure is making my hands feel better than they did using the touchpad. Here she is all opened up in laptop mode.

But my favorite is when she is in tablet mode. So easy to set on my lap and use, just like a spiral notebook or something. I am sure I am annoying the crap out of some people (coughKerricough) with my emails in my handwriting and doodles sent out for no reason, but hey, she's new. I'll get tired of it at some point, I am sure.

I can rotate the screen around to put her in portrait orientation too, I just forgot to take a picture of it. Anyway, check back soon for some of my digital art, I've been playing both in Elements and with whatever it is that came preloaded for drawing, I am amazed at how much easier it is than even the wacom tablet. Everyone of you should have one of these things, it makes life both easy and fun. :)

I'm On My Way...

2007-04-10T14:14:00.000-06:00

To becoming YABHTU. :banana:

&lt;a href="http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdown.html?year=2007&amp;amp;amp;month=4&amp;amp;date=13&amp;amp;hrs=18&amp;amp;amp;min=30&amp;amp;sec=0&amp;amp;amp;tz=local&amp;amp;title=Countdown%20to%20when%20I%20have%20to%20name%20something%20new&amp;amp;amp;lang=en&amp;amp;show=dhms&amp;amp;amp;mode=r&amp;amp;cdir=down&amp;amp;bgcolor=%23CCFFFF&amp;amp;fgcolor=%23000000"&gt;Countdown to when I have to name something new&lt;/a&gt;

Clueless? Look here: Definition for non-geeks

It Sucks To Be You...

2007-03-29T05:04:00.000-06:00

Because you aren't me! I know you may be thinking 'but you are obviously awake and blogging at 5am, so how can that be true?' I'll tell you... because that marvelously hot specimen of best frienditude Kerri and her husband Scott 2, the sequel, are coming to my house this weekend, and not yours. And that's all I have to say about that. :)

Help

2007-03-27T07:32:00.000-06:00

Ok, if tech support can figure out how to leave the pirate player on the first page of the blog without either putting it into every post or putting it on the side where it squishes everything, I will blog again, I promise. But at the moment I have a kiddo here who knows just how to get to 'mommys dotcom' and play her pirate show, so I really must keep it there so I dont have to hop up every 10 minutes and get there for her.:)

Just checkin

2007-03-19T20:29:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to see if the PiratePlayer works, I am so pleased that I was watching ABC tonight... I wanted to see Heather's leg fly off, and instead I got the trailer! Woohoo!

Review time!

2007-03-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Since people are not happy unless I update on a semi-regular basis, I've decided today to give you some reviews on what I've been watching, reading, doing, you know, just random things really.

I am listening to... Chris Daughtry's CD, called Daughtry. Even if you didn't see or didn't like Chris on American Idol last year, you should listen anyway. If you want a sample, tune into Fox on 'kick 'em off' night - it's his song "Home" that plays as they send people packing off this season's American Idol. I'm really now about 4 songs in and 3 of them are Fred-worthy, so I feel pretty comfortable giving this 4 out of 5 oreos on the Holly rating scale. Plus, as Relle knows already, the guy pulls off eyeliner verrrrry nicely. :)

The surprise song-I-didn't-know-about-until-it-popped-up-on-Fred's-shuffle-setting for the week is Sheryl Crow's remake of "D'Yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin. I don't like Led Zeppelin, except for this song, which I didn't know was even called that, because that is the stupidest name ever for a song. But I sure like her version. It's on some Zeppelin tribute CD.

I am reading.... Caleb Carr's "The Italian Secretary" which is actually a Sherlock Holmes book. I heart Caleb Carr's other stuff (go read "The Alienist" - not about aliens, I promise) but this one not so much. It was a decent Sherlock Holmes mystery if you like that sort of thing, but for better ones read Laurie King's Mary Russell books, start with "The Beekeeper's Apprentice". One of the things I have always liked about both Laurie King's and the original Holmes stories is that they are hard to figure out, to the point that sometimes the complexity of the story is just funny. This one I had figured out about a third of the way in, which sucked. I kept waiting for me to be wrong and some odd thing to come up, and it never did. It was like going into a mystery novel thinking "the butler did it" and then the butler really did do it, and there weren't ever any other suspects.

My last re-read... was "The Eyes of the Dragon" by Stephen King. Don't like Stephen King? Read this and you will. It's a fairy tale. Not a horror story. A fairy tale. Don't believe he writes such things? Here is how this book starts. "Once, in a kingdom called Delain, there was a King with two sons." Here is how it ends. "But now the hour is late, and all of that is another tale, for another day." In between there is 300 pages or so of total enchantment. It's a fast read, without being dumbed down at all, and is one that will keep you up reading until you finish.

I am watching... gracious,what don't I watch? I heart the new Black Donnellys show. Amazing Race All-Stars is the most entertaining yet, although I guess it might be slightly more interesting if Rob and Amber didn't come in first every time. The Lakisha Jones show, I mean American Idol, looks to be a race for second place already, to me. I always hold out high hopes for the boys though, so keep an eye on Blake. Survivor has gotten to the point where it wasn't even fun to watch last night, one team lives in comparative luxury and wins ALL the time, so I am glad they are switching things up next week (at least according to the previews). LOST is finally back to form, actually keeping me waiting on next week again instead of me only watching to see Sawyer shirtless. Heroes is on break, but is definitely the best new show this year. Studio 60 would have gotten my vote for that, but I guess it's like done. :( At least the replacement (see Black Donnellys) is pretty good too.

My guilty tv pleasure... Road Rules - Viewer's Revenge. You get to vote on who gets to battle for a spot on the RV every week! There is drama and tears and people punching each other! Nuff said.

I'm playing... Lego Star Wars II The Original Trilogy on PSP. You are little Lego Star Wars characters, alternately blasting or lightsabering other more evil little Lego Star Wars characters, and flying around in Lego Star Wars spaceships. You get to use the Force to do cool stuff, and you can build bouncing piles of random Legos into groovy things. When you get hit, you don't die, you fall apart and get rebuilt. And apparently the galactic currency is Lego studs (the little round one peg lego pieces)in the future, which can only be good for me. It's the most fun game I have played since Sly Cooper. Not only is it not too hard for me, but it has some hilarious moments, and the replay value is good. You can play story mode, which is what I am doing now, (I just finished with Empire and now have to start Jedi) or free play mode, which means you can wander around looking for all those fun bonus things.

When Charlie is at school I sneak down to his room and play... Thrillville on his Xbox. It's like the Sims, kinda, you run a theme park, so yea, I'm gonna be playing it. Shhh don't tell Charlie, he gets mad when I touch his stuff. :)

Ok, that's all I have now. Maybe some other day I will discuss the Definitive 200 list and why it's only about half right. ;)

Damn, I missed it.

2007-02-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

I thought this morning when I woke up, "hey, I think I have had that blog for about a year now! I should make a post about it." Turns out its been exactly one year and one month. Oops. Happy 1 and 1/12 anniversary to me. And happy birthday to Mara too. :)

Kayla rocks.

2007-02-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

I was going through pictures trying to find some that would give an overview of the time since I last posted, and really all the good ones are of Kayla. At some times she can be really one of the most annoying children on the planet. However, the same qualities that make her that annoying are what make her a child that totally rocks. Here are some examples.

Anyone is fair game to get pulled into doing what Kayla says. For example, "read me this story." Annoying - some times people are trying to enjoy a holiday family gathering with other adults and don't want to read a story. Rocks - she manages to forge a special relationship with anyone she meets. And, there are cute pictures.

She loves to play in the snow. Annoying - I don't like to play in the snow. And there is bundling involved. And water dripping on my carpet later. And fixing of hot chocolate. Rocks - Snow angels!

She's messy. And I mean get it out, smear it all over, dump it on the floor/walls/dog for no reason messy. Annoying - I don't like cleaning. Rocks - As long as the mess stays off my (rented) walls and floors, I heart having a creative child!

She is always getting into my clothes. Annoying - she doesn't put anything back where she found it. Rocks - she's a really cute Bears fan.

She loves music. Annoying - she steals Fred all the time.

Rocks - I get to make things like this.

So Amber can amuse herself for a bit longer...

2007-01-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

1. You have 10 bucks and need to buy snacks at a gas station, what do you get?
A pepsi, some salsa verde Doritos, and one of those cookies they always have at the counter.

2. If you had to be reincarnated as some sort of sea dwelling creature, what would you be?
Is a pirate a sea dwelling creature? I'm gonna go with yes.

3. Who's your favorite redhead?
Mark McGwire

4. What do you order when you're at a pancake house?
A what? Like Village Inn? A Santa Fe Chicken Skillet. Green chile, scrambled eggs, white toast. And an iced tea, please.

5. Last book you read
Lisey's Story by Stephen King-but I'm not done yet.

6. Have you made out with anyone on your myspace friend's list?
uh, I don't think so... maybe Earl, I don't really remember.

7. Describe your favorite pair of underwear.
um, this question is n/a. lol.

8. Describe the last time you were injured.
Charlie accidentally whacked me in the head with his light saber. Thanks, Terry. ;)

9. Of all your friends, with whom would you want to be stuck in the middle of a jungle?
Kerri. We would fashion some sort of rescue device, or figure out how to brew tequila from rare jungle plants, or both. We'd be laughing the whole time, whatever the case.

10. Are there any odd things that make you feel uncomfortable?
Uncomfortable, that's interesting. I guess bras are not odd, nor are high heels. Other people eating my oreos, maybe.

11. Are there any weird things that turn you on?
Depends on what you find weird. I think I'll just go ahead and exercise my 5th ammendment rights on that one.

12. What is the wallpaper on your cell phone?
Tinkerbell

13. Pop?
?? either this means music or this questionaire was created by somebody in the midwest. ;)
I'll answer for both...SODA: Pepsi Music: yes ;)

14. Flavor?
um, peach? I don't understand

15. What type of shirt are you wearing?a thermal undershirt and a sweatshrt with Tink on it. It's all of 8 degrees.

16. Prescription medication?
Sure, if you're offering.

17. If you could use only one form of transportation for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I guess a monorail would nicely limit where I could go, but I'll take the car.

18. How many people are on your myspace friends list?
I dunno, like 6?

19. How many people on your myspace list do you know in real life?
all 6 of them, I am, after all, very popular.

20. What are you listening to right now?
Whatever Kayla is watching on the sunporch tv. cartoons of some sort, must be very entertaining, because she is to involved to answer when I ask her what it is.

21. Most recent movie you've watched:
New movie in theaters: Nightmare 3-D
Movie on dvd: Pirates 2

22. Name 3 things you have with you at all times:
cell phone, planner, cigarettes

23. Would you rather give or receive a foot massage
Recieve.

24. Name a teacher you had the hots for:
Mr McCall. Mr Jacobus was cute too, but not so funny.

25. What is a saying that you use a lot?
Groovy. I'm Sayin'. Excellent.

27. What is your favorite part of the chicken?
Any part that doesn't crunch or bite back is fine with me.

28. What's your favorite city?
Colorado Springs. ;)

29. Favorite kind of cake?
pineapple upside-down

30. What's the first word that comes to mind right now?
Relle. as in "Relle said banana".

31. When was the last time you saw your mom in person?
Christmas Eve

32. What makes you feel like puking?
Paris Hilton

33. What did you have for dinner LAST NIGHT?
I'm not sure I had a real meal last night. I had a bologna sandwich around 4.

34. How long have you been at your current job?
What?

35. What's the last thing you said out loud?
"Hey, sweets, whatcha watchin' in there?"

36. Look to your right, what do you see?
my kitchen table

37. Look to your left, what do you see?
my tv

38. Who is the last person who spent $100 on you?
Dad.

39. Who's your favorite villain?
Maleficent. Muahahahahahaha.

40. What's the last piece of clothing you borrowed from someone?
remember that thermal undershirt? it was Todd's.

41. What's the last piece of clothing you bought?
a coat for Kayla

42. What phrase makes you laugh no matter where, when or how?
"Spank me, I'm happy."

43. Go into your text message log on your phone...what is the last text you sent?
"Mar 29-Apr 1."

44. What is the last text message you received?
"Ok. I think I have that weekend off so thats a good start. I'll see what I can work out. :)"

A look inside my head....

2006-12-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Note - I did this yesterday (Wednesday) and there was a nasty blizzard going on. Just so you know. :)

I am pretty bored today, so I am going to experiment with using the blog as an actual journal. I'll just leave it open and type in whatever occurs to me if I think it's interesting. Which is pretty much what I do with Kerri on the IM every day, but she signs off at 1:30 my time, so even Kerri will get to see what she misses. Here we go....

8:14 am - so, on the phone yesterday ordering the camera, guy tries to sell me every accessory known to man, as usual. we get to memory and he tells me it uses compactflash. on the fujifilm webiste it says its xD compatible. so, WTF? it is a camera that just came out 3 weeks ago, do new cameras use compactflash really? isnt that pretty old school?

8:33 am - I guess i better go get the kids presents out of the garage before i cant get out there at all.

8:39 am - omg. i forgot how much stuff i had bought for the kids. there may be a slight wrappingpaper shortage here.

9:16 am - i need a dedicated local weather update channel when its snowing.

9:32 am - i love how they are listing all the school closings. isnt school out anyways?

9:37 am - omg, there is a dedicated local weather update channel. i dont get it cause i am on the satellite, but they just said to tune into channel 27 to get constant live weather updates!

9:46 am - my brother is not online. i wonder if it is snowing bad in denver too? my mom is sending me emails from work, so school is apparently on there.

10:48 am - the daycares and smaller highways are closing now.

11:09 am - i just counted on the kids presents, and we need 50 batteries total to power them all. i guess that should be worked into the budget on future christmas shopping

11:57 am - how do they even measure this snow? there are parts of my backyard that are bare, and parts that have a foot already. the wind sucks ass. hey, i need a sucks ass button.

12:09 pm - I get a laptop, woot!

12:10 pm - and a new camera, woot!

12:15 pm - good thing they canceled poker, I am so not shoveling this crap.

12:16 pm - I guess I should finish cleaning so that I can sit on my ass and play video games. Or wrap things. No, video games is better.

12:37 pm - I wonder what I am to do with the trash, since we put it outside usually? Just set it out there and let it get buried in snow? At least it won't be in here, I guess.

12:50 pm - Good thing I did that now, because it took all the strength I (and the dog) had to open the front door against the massive amount of snow that is on the porch. Yikes.

1:06 pm - I think I will watch Pirates 2 while eating and wrapping things.

3:02 pm - Man, I am still not sure I completely understand that movie, and that is the 7th time I have seen it. Nice action scenes though. Not enough Jack, and why is it he gets eaten by the kraken thing? Poor planning really. I guess it does make me anxious to see the next one though, so maybe its actually brilliant. I wonder where Todd is now?

3:37 pm - It only took Todd 3 and a half hours to get home. Blizzards do not rock.

4:25 pm - And it only took him almost an hour to finish telling me about it.

4:32 pm - I am out of wrapping paper, and cant exactly get out to get more. Guess its time to watch some tv.

5:44 pm - Damn, this chicken is good. Lemon pepper flavor, excellent. Must remember that.

6:10 pm - NAPTIME!

6:11 pm - I'm getting a laptop, woot! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

8:20 pm - There is nothing to do. Nothing. I will play video games! Ack, Todd beat me to it. Guess I will play the computer game instead. I really need a PSP, just for blizards.

8:56 pm - I wonder if my brother can help me out with this here code thingy?

9:32 pm - I think I am going blind from playing the computer game. Maybe I should just go to bed. After this level...

10:08 pm - Really, its not stopping snowing tonight? That sucks ass. Damn, I never did make a sucks ass button.

10:31 pm - I dont think I have ever seen this episode of Frasier, that's wierd.

10:37 pm - I wonder why we wrap our gifts. Did the wise men wrap the frnakinscense? Do the gifts have anything to do with the wise men anyways? I really need a Christmas trivia book or something. I am so bored. I hate wrapping gifts, I think if we give gifts because the wise men did, we should just hand them over, like they did. Then I wouldnt have to go out for more wrapping paper.

And then I went to sleep. Anyone still looking for a Christmas present for me, some book detailing the real stories behind Christmas stuff is an excellent idea. ;) If you reread, you can see that I really am at my mental best both in the morning and at night... its the afternoon time that I am stupid.

Tragic

2006-12-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

Early in the morning on November 30th, 2006, four year old Kayla Heck discovered the grisly remains of one SqueakyPuppyFromWalmart, beloved member of the community for almost 24 hours, on the dining room floor of the Heck house. She immediately alerted authorities by waking said authorities from a sound sleep by screaming, "Mommy! SqueakyPuppyFromWalmart is dead and gone!". When authorities reached the scene, this is what they discovered: (Warning: contains adult oriented material, may not be suitable for young or sensitive viewers)

It is believed that SqueakyPuppyFromWalmart was dismembered with robbery as the motive, and that the assailant was after the coveted squeaky doodad, which, among other things, gave SqueakyPuppyFromWalmart his name. The perpetrator is assumed to be one Dustin Joel McGwire, commonly known as FatDusty.

As FatDusty seems to usually be rather even tempered and this is only his 27th offense of this type, and considering the fact that SqueakyPuppyFromWalmart can easily be replaced for just .88, no charges were filed. Please be warned, however, that if you see FatDusty around your house, and have any animals with squeaky doodads inside of them, that the same thing could happen to you. :)

Monica's Christmas Thing

2006-11-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?? Pumpkin Spice Latte. Or Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. Or, Pumpkin Spice Eggnog. For the record, I don't actually like pumpkin pie. Weird, huh?
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Depends on if there happens to be a wrapping paper shortage at the North Pole that year.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored lights inside, white ones outside.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I have vaulted ceilings and short ladders, do the math.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend closest to my birthday.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Lasanga, and in my family that IS a holiday dish, so back off.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Getting stuck at the laundromat during the blizzard of '82ish. Closely followed by the infamous Christmas goose fiasco.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What, what is it? Heart disease? Diabetes? The guy needs to cut down on the milk and cookies.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Several, usually. We go to my grandmothers, and Santa comes there.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Um, what? First I put the lights on, then the ornaments?

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? If it's gonna be cold, it better snow. If it's gonna snow, it should be a blizzard. If I have to go out and drive in it, it should melt first.

12. Can you ice skate? Can I? You betcha. But my knees say not anymore.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My dad took me and the rest of the family to Walt Disney World.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Most important? That everything goes smoothly and everyone stays happy.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Cookies.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I dont know. Shopping the day after Thanksgiving? (see below)

17. What tops your tree? Some goofy star shaped Santa thing.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Shopping for me is more like a full out tatical engagement, complete with strategic planning meetings, budget approvals, and recon missions. Lucky for me I like that kind of thing. I like getting stuff too though.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Carol of the Bells for a traditional sort, Christmas in Hollis for not so traditional.

20. Candy Canes! yuck or yummy? Yuck. Unless its to stir my hot chocolate with.

21. Fave Christmas Movie?
Favorite funny: Christmas Vacation
Favorite not so funny: Nightmare before Christmas Favorite animated: Grinch Favorite action: Die Hard (it happens at Christmas, back off I said!)
Favorite overall: A Christmas Story
See what I did there, getting 2 funny ones and two animated ones in the list? I rock!

Boo! part two!

2006-11-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ahoy, matey!

Webslinger

All together now... Awwwwww!

There really is no good way to get that stuff out.

Pirate pumpkin

Spidey pumpkin

Yes, I should spend less time making Chicago Bears pumpkins and more time brushing my hair.

Boo!

2006-10-29T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to the "boo at the zoo"... the kids were ready, but Todd had to work late so we were off to a later start than we wanted. I took pictures while we waited for him to get home. Note that someone changed their mind on the pirate theme once he saw there were spiderman outfits at Walmart. :)
After waiting in traffic for almost an hour to get into the parking area, we made it to the parking lot around the time the whole thing was supposed to close. For those of you that know the area, traffic came to a screeching halt while we were still on the grounds of the Broadmoor, before we even started climbing the mountain. Luckily, since there were so many people they decided to stay open an extra hour. So the kids had a marvelous time trick or treating at the zoo, and even handed out a few treats to the giraffes. :)
I'll update this post with more later this week, Happy Halloween! :)

So I got up this morning and...

2006-10-26T08:14:00.000-06:00

More exciting photos of the Blizzard of 2006 (can the news people not come up with something more creative?) if it ever stops snowing long enough for me to feel comfortable taking the camera outside. :)

The last 2 months looked like this...

2006-10-20T20:54:00.000-06:00

Some new kids showed up at our house... some days for a few hours anyway...

The kids both had their first day of school. One of them was more pleased than the other...

Kayla got drunk and put a diaper on her head. (I'm kidding, we don't let the kids drink except for on special occasions, like um, Tuesdays.)...

Her drunkeness had nothing to do with the ugly fat lip, I just thought it was disgusting...

There was a birthday party at the baseball game, with misspelled names on the scoreboard...

And Sox the Fox...
And cake...

And announcing half an inning...

And cool cousins....
There were two visits to the Happy Apple Farm...
A pony ride...
More cake and more cool cousins...

My brother got married, to a lovely girl who is not nearly as blurry in real life...

And yet more cool cousins...

The leaves fell...

And the snow came...

And I got on a plane...

To go to karaoke night with my Kerri...

And her Scott...

And to meet Terry (thanks again Terry!)...
And got this awesome tattoo.

After that I got back on a plane and came home again, and since then nothing really exciting has happened. But if it does, I promise to blog about it and not keep you waiting. :)

Stolen from Monica...

2006-08-06T08:58:00.000-06:00

[my name is]: Holly Ann (Eckhardt) Heck
[in the morning i am]: still in a decent mood?
[love is]: good to have.
[i dream about]: um, Johnny Depp, doesnt everyone?

-W I T H .T H E. O P P O S I T E. S E X-
[what do you notice first?]: eyes
[last person u slow danced with]: Todd, I think, how should I remember that far back? Very well could have been my dad or my brother, if I have not slow danced since my wedding...do people do that anywhere else, really?

-W H O .W A S .T H E .L A S T. P E R S O N-
[you talked to on the phone]: Todd
[hugged:] Kayla
[you instant messaged]: Kerri, duh
[you laughed with]: Todd

-D O .Y O U / / A R E .Y O U-
[could you live without the computer?]: I don't THINK I would actually die, but let's not try it.
[what's your favorite food?]: steak
[whats ur favorite fruit?]: peaches
[what hurts the most?] when you hit your funny bone
[trust others way too easily?]: I wouldn't reccommend it.

-N U M B E R-
[of times i have had my heart broken?]: once
[of hearts i have broken?]: oh, you know, follow the trail of crying devastated suicidal men....
[of tight friends?]: 3
[of cd's that i own?]: too many, please encourage Todd to let me put them on eBay, we have Fred now, it's time to clear some space.
[of scars on my body?]: a couple
[of things in my past that i regret?]:under the assumption that without those things I wouldn't be where I am now, NONE. So there.

-O.T.H.E.R.T.H.I.N.G.S.-
[i know]: 2 plus 2 is 4.
[i want]: a tablet pc
[i have]: lots of stuff, that's pretty vague really.
[i wish]: Kerri would just move here, and Kimi would come home, and we could have a compound, that would be cool. We could start a gang, a mommy gang and become a whole new force in organized crime, muahahahaha! Or, more realistically, I had this idea about the washer and dryer that Relle is supposed to be working on.
[i hate]: bad beat stories when I am trying to read, sleep, or do anything else really.
[i miss]: Kimi
[i fear]: something happening to the kids
[i hear]: Higglytown Heros on the tv
[i search]: online for useless junk way too often
[i love]: My family
[i care]: about old friends that I might not keep in touch with too well
[i always]: have to drink pepsi, coke will eat your teeth and your stomach, switch now.
[i dance]: with Kayla
[i sleep]: not nearly enough
[i cry]: during sad movies and when I hear certain songs and during kodak commercials and when Charlie says something funny and and and... way too much, I guess.
[i do not always]: want to do the dishes?
[i write]: write? does instant message count?
[i confuse]: everyone.
[i can usually be found]: at home
[i need]: some breakfast
[wuss]: not hardly.
[daydreamer]: eh, I see it as planning, you see it as daydreaming. To each his own.
[brat]: yes
[sarcastic]: who, me? no.... :)
[angel]: not exactly
[devil]: not that bad though
[friends]: yea, I got some
[shy]: ROFLMAO
[talkative]: oh yeah....
[adventurous]: sometimes
[intelligent]: I think so most of the time

-Concerning.The.Friends.(You.Claim.To.Have)-
[impacted you the most spiritually]: really? What does this mean? Someone want to volunteer?
[wish you saw more often]: Kimi, Kerri, Traci, Jen and the L's
[most sarcastic]: Mel
[wish you knew better]: Monica, Natalie and the L's
[knows you best]: Kimi
[best outlook on life]: Traci and Monica

-Self-Analysis.

[a smell that makes you smile]: baby heads
[a city you'd like to visit]: Orlando
[a drink you order most often]: lately, mojito
[a book you highly recommend]:DaVinci Code
[the music you prefer while alone]: Fred's shuffle button always works for me
[your favorite film]: just one? Pirates... the first one
[a TV show you watch regularly]: Days of Our Lives, is daily regular enough?
[you live in a(n)]: house
[your transportation]: Mitsubishi Montero Sport aka: Beastie
[your cologne or perfume]: the one in the blue and purple bottle from Mary Kay, starts with a B... Beltana? Belansa? Belara, I think that's it.
[under your bed or in your closet you hide]: If I had something to hide, I wouldn't put it in the closet or under the bed, my kids are always in there.
[something important on your night table]: The only thing is usually whatever I am reading and a bottle of water.

Hey*

2006-07-15T08:56:00.000-06:00

we interrupt this blog for a message for tech support: I was trying to make the test of this normal size, and the text of the footnote (after the star there) smaller but I can't make it work. Please fix when you have a minute between festivities, loveyoubunchesthanks. You may now return to your scheduled blog reading.

Please insert blog update here, so you have something to read while I frantically search for my notebookIamusingcausethePalmwon'tsynchagain, which has my list of cool blog topics in it.

In the meantime, I would put some cool pictures here for you to look at but the pictures are really still on the camera card and not at all edited to look pretty or anything, because I haven't had time, what with spending all my time tryingtogetthePalmtosynchagain, so that I can manage my time better.

Yes, I do have to say any phrase containingboththewordsPalmandsynch really really fast, or else I go into this Microsoft/Palm induced rage that seems to not only make my voice sound really odd, but makes me look like a serial killer on her latest rampage.

When I find the notebookIamusingcausethePalmwon'tsynchagain, I'll not only post a real bloggy thing, but be able to tell what time I am scrapbooking tomorrow. In the meantime, as I contemplate what to do next, I am looking at going back to pen and paper with this: Memory Dock which has lovely little scrappy-specific things, so no need for separate organization for that stuff, all in one planner, how cool. Or, I could get a new Palm, but unless there is freeware I am not aware of to do my sketches and lists and things on the Palm, I would have to have a notebook for scrappy things anyway, like I do now, and, you know, once bitten twice shy and all that.

*That's my standard title for all emails that don't really need titles but they make you put one there anyways or else the little window will pop up that says "this has no title, send anyway?" and then you have to waste total finger energy clicking the yes button so it's easier to just call it Hey and skip all that. And that was a runon sentence. That last one there, I'm pretty sure one is not supposed to start sentences with "and". I am a bit grammar challenged today.

One example of why Microsoft sucks ass...

2006-07-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

... y'all knew it was coming, right?

My Dad very kindly sent me his old Palm, which I needed, since my rather smallish purse is filled with notebooks and address books and slips of paper with randowm info written on them. Time to get organized, and manage the time better, so yay for new (used) Palms.

Once he told me he was sending it, I followed his suggestion and downloaded the manual for said Palm from online and read through it to see what I could do with it. Turns out I can synchronize my MSN calendar and task list (which has really been a lifesaver for me in the way of organization) to Outlook (already on my computer, even!) and then from Outlook into the Palm. All my stuff, all the same, on both the computer and the Palm, how convenient! All I have to do is install a couple programs.. one to connect the MSN stuff to Outlook (called Connector) and one to connect the Outlook stuff to the Palm (called PocketMirror... on the CD Dad is sending with the Palm) so I go and download the Connector. At this time, it is 8am Thursday.

This, my friends, is where things went to shit.

Connector downloaded, and immediately told me I was screwed. Turns out hotmail, msn, and qwest (my choices for email) all use only HTTP settings for email rather than POP3 or something like that, which would seem to be what normal ISP places use. This is causing Connector to basically get a headache and not want to play nice anymore. Until I get past it, I can't get my email into Outlook, and until I get my email there (for some godawful reason) I can't get the calendar or the task list. Finally after some diligent googling and a lot of cursing, I message find a workaround for that, which involves changing all kinds of settings, lying to all kinds of programs, and pretty much making shit up so it is tricked into using the HTTP settings. Of couse, I understand none of this. Then suddenly, everytime I open Outlook, it just goes away. After an hour and a half of trying to figure that one out myself, I message a friend, who does some nifty thing where he takes control of my computer screen from his office, looks at some things, finds something or another, and tells me this: When you have Outlook 2000 and upgrade to Outlook 2003, the drivers get switched around and make it so neither version will work.

WTF? Something meant to be an upgrade actually screws you? How very very um, MICROSOFT. Time for swim lessons.

So far: 4 restarts, 6 downloads, and I have my mail into Outlook. No calendar, no task list. The time is now 4pm Thursday.

After a break to take the kids to swim lessons, it's back to the task of figuring out how to get Outlook to stay on the computer screen long enough to be getting the calendar and task list into Outlook. Cause, you know, this is really all I need the Palm for, and the only way to get around entering it myself on a device without a keyboard is to get it into Outlook first. More googling ensues. More cursing ensues. The drinking begins. I uninstall Connector, and Office, and reinstall them both. This is when for no reason whatsoever not only all of my Office programs, but my MSN stuff dissappears. The computer insists it is all there somewhere, but I can't find it. So now I have no email, no calendar, no task list, no Word, no Excel, no NOTHING. And no way to reinstall it, because when I try, the computer says it's already there. More googling ensues, which is proof the MSN is in there somewhere... I can get online. I just can't read my mail. Everywhere I google says to uninstall, then reinstall Outlook, then run a detect and repair. Okey dokey. The uninstall/reinstall gets me back my programs, but when I push detect and repair on the Outlook menu, it tells me I need to insert my original installation disc. Problem. I don't have one. Not that I lost it, or anything like that... my computer came installed with Office 2000 and a free trial of Office 2003, which I ended up purchasing. SO no disc. I call my father in law who is scheduled to be here Monday, and see if he has a disc. He does. So my brilliant idea? Uninstall, reinstall by getting the free trial on the Microsoft website, then I'll just put his number in there to register it so that I don't have to pay. Cool. More drinking takes place. Now, I have to reinstall the Connector. Again. So I do. And I have mail. Again. But still no calendar or task list.

So far: 17 restarts (yep. really.) 11 downloads, and I have my mail in Outlook... and it's not dissappearing when I open it. No calendar, no task list. The time is now 3am Friday, so I go to bed.

Ahh, a new day. Not much sleep, as it's now 7am Friday. Let's see about getting that calendar into Outlook, shall we? I'll save the details... around uh, noonish was it, Kerri? I finally met with success. Now to get that Palm from Dad. I already rea the manual and know JUST what to do to get my Outlook onto the Palm, yay! After swim lessons, the Palm is on the porch.

So far: 22 restarts, 12 downloads, and everything is syncing away between MSN and Outlook, and I am even liking Outlook a bit. Time is 7pm Friday.

Ok, get it out. Plug it in, put in the software CD, download the Palm program thingy. And the synching thingy. Strange, there doesn't seem to be any PocketMirror on this disc, but no biggie, we'll figure it out. Now, put the Palm in the doodad, hit the sync button and... Voila! NOTHING! Check the manual. Ahh, TELL it you're using Outlook. Ok. Hit the sync button again and... MAIL! Wait, I don't really need the mail. Must have checked the boxes I should have left alone and vice versa. No, that's not it. Check the manual. It says when it asks if I want to use Outlook, say yes... but it's not asking. Google. Nothing. Repeat. Nothing. Restart. Nothing. Go watch stupid movie and then go to bed.

So far: 24 restarts, 14 downloads and I have everything in Outlook and Mail on the Palm. Time is 11pm Friday.

7am Saturday... Let's see what is going on. Looks like there's not really a synch program on this disc that works with Outlook and Palm OS. There is one for Outlook and Windows Mobile, and one for Palm OS and Franklin Covey. No problem. Must be plenty of shareware or free trials or whatever, let's go and read some reviews. BeyondContacts looks good, 30 day free trial, not to much to buy if I like it, compatible with my PC, my Palm, my Palm OS, and my version of Outlook. Excellent. I download it. I install it. I get an error message on the computer screen, and a FATAL error message on the Palm, so I restart and try again. Same thing. Unplug the Palm thing from the computer, then restart and try again. Same thing. Uninstall and reinstall BeyondContacts... same damn thing. Google, visit the support website, try 7 other things... same thing. Find another program which is FREE called ActiveSynch, says it is compatible with my Palm and my Palm OS. Download, install, and... it can't find my device.. and offers no way for me to tell it where it is. How very very... MICROSOFT. (Did I mention Activesynch is a MS program? No? It is.) Google. Download the very latest version of the Palm OS. Restart, try again... still can't find it. Give up and go to PocketMirror for their free trial. It only lasts 7 days, but we are desperate now. Download, install, hit the synch button and... MAIL!. *sigh* Change settings, restart and... finally. Everything is in there. The time is now... 3pm Saturday. Total restarts: 31. Total downloads: 19. But at least I have my calendar and task list on the Palm, and it *should* update nice for me now.

Here is the kicker. What I would have had to do to make this all work on a Mac... even with a Palm, a device meant to be used with Windows.

1. Plug the Palm into the Mac.
2. Install the Mac versions of the Palm software.
3. Push the button.

Yes, I probably would have had to go to the websites to download the Mac versions of Palm OS and PocketMirror. (2 downloads, 20 minutes.) But from all I read, the whole synch thing goes smooth as silk with iLife and mac.com... and remember I did a LOT of googling answers to my problems. In fact, on at least 3 different sites, "buy a mac" was offered as the solution. Yes, there would have been some setup, in the form of nifty windows that pop up and ask me (with a sexy voice, if I so choose) things like "Why Holly, what do you want on your Palm? Please check as many items in the box below as you would like, and I will be happy to send them there." (could be an exaggeration... but not the voice, it really does talk to you. and it probably is really that easy.) All in all though, the whole thing would have taken an hour, not 32 hours. I can almost guarantee there would not have been one single restart, but if there had to be one, there would only be one, and it would have taken about a tenth of the time it takes to restart a Windows machine.

So there, if you read that far, you are either really bored or extremely interested in my rants, either way, give yourself a high five for staying awake. And remember... Microsoft is evil. And sucks ass. But that's just my opinon... I could be wrong. :)

Who Knew?

2006-06-21T22:41:00.000-06:00

I've found the secret to making the house cool in the summer when you have no air conditioning. And, apparently, how to rid same house of bugs. It is....

LET YOUR 4 YEAR OLD COOK HER OWN PIZZA IN THE MICROWAVE.

Because, even though she has done this a gazillion times with you carefully watching over her to make sure that the only button pushed is the "one minute" button, she will choose this time that you are not carefully watching over her to push as many buttons as possible. And since you are terribly busy playing Sudoku online, you won't notice this until the kitchen fills with smoke and you hear a small voice saying "um. mommy. there's a lot of smokeys in here, and my pizza is black." After that, you will throw all of the windows in the house wide open, turn on every single fan, and PRESTO! Cool house. Then when you spray the lovely lilac scented air freshener all over in an attempt to get rid of the burnt pizza smell, and succeed in creating an entirely new fragrance known as burnt lilacs, the bugs will leave in disgust... or simply drop over dead, as one fly did.

And now, I am off to go to bed in my wonderfully cool if oddly scented home. :)

Quick things

2006-06-17T08:01:00.000-06:00

1. THANK YOU LARILYN!!!! Larilyn is the coolest.

2. Click Here: Ana's Blog to enter a supercool contest to win admission to a Girl's Weekend Scrapbook Retreat in Phoenix in August.

3. I want to know why Norman moos, and if it has anything to do with my kid. If you know, tell me.

4. There are 8 people who have been on vacation recently that I know, and only 4 of them have shown me pictures. And of those 4, only 1 has shown me more than 10. Get on it people, some of us have to live vicariously. Here, I'll even show y0u some of mine.

Blurry baseball with a backstop

Kaylas new shirt - Aye, I've trained her well!

At about 1 out of every 4 major intersections in Colorado Springs, there is a statue of General Palmer. Sometime I am going to figure out what this cat did to merit all the statues, and a lake, park, town, and street being named after him. It must have been something good, like inventing Oreos or something.

This might actually be the oldest giraffe in captivity.

As you can see, I have been to Walmart, the baseball field, a major intersection somewhere in Colorado Springs, and the zoo. Pictures of Italy, Disneyland, portions of the country between Disneyland and Illinois,the Carribean, and yes, even Missouri are appreciated. ;)

iWANT.

2006-06-12T10:36:00.000-06:00

This:

It's the new MacBook, and the version with the technical specifications I need comes only in black, so how much cooler could it possibly get? It can't get any cooler is the answer. It could get cheaper though, lots cheaper. I can't afford this beautiful thing right now. This would mostly be because I don't work, but I do shop. Go figure. Kerri and I had a nice IM conversation the other day trying to think of ways for me to get one. I didn't save it or anything, but it went something like this:

Me: I could start the "makeanautistickidsmomslifebetter" foundation and ask for donations. Kerri: Put one of those paypal donate now boxes on the blog.
Me: I could "one red paperclip" it, I have this purple pen...
Kerri: You could just start ebaying your stuff again like you are supposed to.
Me: I guess, but then I would have to get up and go sort through stuff.
Kerri: You could get a job...
Me: Wow, that was wierd, yahoo messenger just like shut off there for a second.

Ok, that really is nothing like the conversation we had, but if you think creativity, imagination, and laziness should be rewarded, and you think I should be able to scrapbook in my sunroom, go ahead and click here to donate something to the makeanautistickidsmomslifebetter foundation... or if you have something worth more than a purple pen (it writes in purple ink, AND it's purple) email me at sassytink71@hotmail.com and we can work something out. :)

Pet Peeve of the Day:

2006-06-03T15:46:00.000-06:00

Kayla: "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. MOMMY. MOOOOMMMMMMY."
Me: "What?"
Kayla: "ummmm, I dunno."

Blame LaRelle.

2006-06-02T09:44:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know I promised that I would do pictures next and all, but then Relle had to go do this 80's song list, which was REALLY missing some things, so I am doing one of my own. In fact, I am going to end up doing several of my own, I think - this one would be the "rock" version. I actually had to like look things up too, to make sure some of these made it into the 80's - apparently both 1979 and 1990 were the years some of my favorite songs came out. *sigh* But, I found some good ones. So sit on back and enjoy rock songs from a better time, before everyone moved to Seattle, cut their hair, gave up the eyeliner, got really depressed, and stopped showering. :) Oh, and these are in alphabetical order, cause it's too hard to rank them really.

1. 32 Pennies - Warrant
2. Angel - Aerosmith
3. Beth - Kiss (I can count this as 80's by using the Eric Carr version, see)
4. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
5. Don't Treat Me Bad - Firehouse
6. Fade To Black - Metallica
7. Hand Over Fist - Rush
8. Heaven's On Fire - Kiss
9. Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue
10. If You Want My Love - Cheap Trick (note here, I think they are from there, but at any rate, their next album comes out in a few days and is called "Rockford". I found that amusing.)
11. Lay Your Hands On Me - Bon Jovi
12. Little Guitars - Van Halen
13. Looking For Love - Ratt
14. Love Me - Tesla
15. Rock of Ages - Def Leppard
16. Scared - Dangerous Toys
17. Still Of The Night - Whitesnake
18. Sweet Child O'Mine - Guns N Roses
19. Under Pressure - Queen
20. Want Some, Need Some - Poison
21. Yankee Rose - David Lee Roth
22. Youth Gone Wild - Skid Row

Yes, I know there are 22. If it makes you happy, when I do my pop and country top 20 80's lists, they will have 22 songs also. But what was I supposed to take out, really? I know there are 2 Kiss songs, but dang, they are both good. (And one Aerosmith song, but those 2 albums they did in the 80's - NOT my favorite.) In fact, I could add 3 more and do a top 25. Here you go... Paradise City - Guns N Roses, The Other Side - Aerosmith, and You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi. Taadaa! Comments encouraged!

More things I have learned...

2006-05-26T08:09:00.000-06:00

1. Apparently the only person that knows I lived in Pueblo West (P-Dub, get it?) is Kerri. :)

2. MSN as a service provider is not that bad, I like the calendar. But, I bet iCal2 is a better one, now can I have my hoodie back? (If you didn't get that, go here and watch the funny commercials.)

3. Number of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers needed to clean stuff off the walls in a small ranch style home that my kids were in for a year and a half: 7 (Seriously, I should be the PR for these things, I love them. Go get some, there's a coupon if you click.)

4. Number of hours for same: 14 (so far)

5. The best time to sign up kids for swim lessons at the newest coolest pool in Colorado Springs is NOT 2 weeks before the lessons start. When registration opens might be a better idea.

6. There's MOMS Club here. If you stay at home, and you don't know MOMS Club, you should.

7. Having your kids' bedrooms on a completely different level of the house than your own completely rocks.

8. Having different levels at all completely rocks. I missed stairs.

9. In a related but contradictory comment, I think someone should invent a laundry system. Toss your clothes in a chute in the bathroom, they fall directly into the washer, which then automatically starts when it's full. Then some super vacuum tube between the washer and dryer can suck them into the dryer, dry them, and suck them back up to the bathroom, where you can then fold them.

10. Sunporches rock too. Everyone should have one.

11. I never want to live in a city smaller than this one again. Ever. Restaurants deliver. There is no time that I ever have to say the phrase "drive into town". I could live quite comfortably here for years and years and never go farther than 5 miles from the house. More people = more diversity... for instance, there are actually other SAHM's here. Other autistic kids. More than one movie theater, dog groomer, scrapbook store, and tanning salon. You know, simple stuff. And MOMS Club. :)

12. Minor League baseball - totally fun. And I mean that... no screaming crazy fans, no riots over losing, no deragatory comments about players/umpires wives/mothers, just total fun. Our team: Sky Sox.

13. It's amazing how you don't know what you are missing sometimes. How did I live without Jason's Deli? Baskin Robbins? In the not quite 2 weeks that I have been here, I've had 2 meals at Jason's (well FROM Jason's, did I mention restaurants deliver here?) and a quart of Pralines 'N' Cream.

14. It's likely that living in a real city could make me fat. :)

15. Where my smile lives. You know at the end of City Slickers, when Billy Crystal finds his smile? Somehow mine has been here in the Springs while I have been in Pueblo West, and now we are reunited.

Pictures coming next, after I clean things, and finish unpacking things, and all. :)

Well, I'm packing up my game, gonna head up north...

2006-05-13T06:20:00.000-06:00

Not my work, but I apreciate the sentiment. Hopefully my internet works when I get to sunporch!

Things I've learned in the past month...

2006-05-11T06:10:00.000-06:00

1. If you are taking apart a big file cabinet, don't take the bottom drawer out first. Especially if the top drawer still has stuff in it.

2. It's easy to throw away toys if you don't have kids there telling you it's their favorite thing ever that they haven't touched in two years.

3. The Italian cream sodas are superyummy in Canon City at Coyote's Coffee Den.

4. It's really nice to be able to go buy all new kitchen and bathroom stuff.

5. Even nicer if you get fun stuff like cell phones too.

6. It is possible to do 17 loads of laundry in one day.

7. You can get used boxes at the truck rental places.

8. I can tote heavy boxes up the stairs and to the garage, or heavy bags of trash up the stairs and out to the dumpster from the basement for about 20 minutes before I start feeling like I am going to pass out.

9. I am really out of shape.

10. Icy Hot back patches are the greatest invention since the wheel.

11. I am too old to go out drinking till 2am. In fact, I am just old enough to go out drinking till 930 or so.

12. My dad is going to Italy.

13. My stepmom has unlimited energy for playing with my kids.

14. My mother in law is a saint.

15. My mom has a twisted view on some things, but only because she is one of the kindest people I know, and takes everyone's plights on as her own.

16. It's possible for everone in America to assume one person is going to win American Idol, and then for that person to be voted out, because we all assumed he didn't need our votes to stay in.

17. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, Tivo just doesn't record things, and you have to figure out who was eliminated from Amazing Race by watching commercials for next week.

18. If you call and tell Directv that your Tivo didn't work for some reason, they won't let you have the west coast feed of CBS just cause you're pissed - even for an hour.

19. Only the most organized of people would be blogging instead of packing 2 days before they move.

20. I am not the most organized of people so I must go pack. :)

How does this happen?

2006-04-15T11:38:00.000-06:00

How does it get to be like a whole week before I post anything here? It seems like I did it just the other day. In the interest of not getting those comments that say "When are we getting an update?", here is an update.

Moving - yes, we are. Officially, I suppose, starting tomorrow, when I take the first load of stuff to sunporch and stash it in the garage on the way up to Denver to have Easter brunch. Things concerning moving that I am doing now... packing some things here and there, a lot of thinking about where said things are going to end up, designging area rugs that aren't really area rugs but giant pieces of painted canvas, designing a new kitchen table, reviewing vaccuum cleaners, cleaning the walls and baseboards here, checking into the terribly complicated new school district, and getting a dumpster. And that's on top of making lists of more things to think about and do, and really, all of that is just what I am doing today. Moving sucks. Well, the process sucks, but thank you to whichever higher power is getting me the hell out of Pueblo West.

Kayla's arm - seems to be fine. We went to the doctor on Wednesday, waited an hour and a half for a 2 minute x ray and a 3 minute "she's doing fine, bring her back in two weeks" statement from the surgeon, and we will be going back in... 2 weeks. :) Still no school for her until she has a real cast.

Scrapbooking - on hold for the moment as I am using the PSE3 to design all that stuff up top. My Stampin Up sets are on ebay as we speak (well, about a quarter of the ones I am getting rid of are) so I have started the great Paper Purge, as I have decided to call it. I have gone through the list for my circle journal and picked out supplies for what all I still have coming there, so that I won't have to deal with asking people if it's ok if I do digital layouts for their books. Have a photo swap that is due today that I have yet to scan, but at least it's done. Must say, doing a few digital layouts, doing the paper ones is a complete pain now. Have todrag out all this stuff, and put it all away, and there is no Undo. I really, really like Undo. I like changing colors with a slider almost as much, but not quite.

Charlie - almost done with school. I think two or three more weeks. The goal is to have him done by moving day so we can just not worry about it. If I am lucky, someone will give me a list of all the stuff I have to send back to k12 by then too, so I don't have to move it just to mail it. He's working like a dog, I must say, to get it done. I told him he w0uld have the whole summer to not do anything if he finished and he is one motivated kid. :)

Ok, I think that's it. I have a whole list of blogworthy topics for when my life calms down some. Which should be around 2020, when Kayla goes off to college. :)

Our really big weekend

2006-04-10T23:18:00.000-06:00

Friday: Finally someone calls and says we are approved for the house some of you know as "the weather vane one", some of you know as "the one with the REALLY good schools", and at least one of you knows simply as "SUNPORCH!". Then, the school carnival, where I spend a whopping $2 to buy two tickets for the "silent raffle" as I am calling it... not really an auction, you buy a ticket for a dollar and drop it in the can of the thing you want to win. Being logical as I am, I went in there 10 minutes before the thing ended, dropped my two tickets in the two cans that had the least amount of tickets in them, and won them both. It's a gift certificate to a pretty good pizza place, and another for a 30 minute massage, yay me. Charlie also won Kayla a goldfish, which is dead already. She apparently thinks every living being should eat just as much as she does.

Saturday: First, we went to SUNPORCH! and signed the lease and took pictures. Here is one, and that's all you get, cause it's 11:30, my kids are awake, and Todd is on his way home to a bunch of dishes in the sink that I promised I would have cleaned up before he got here.

This is the living room. The front door is behind where I am standing, to my immediate right is a huge-mongous coat closet, and Todd is sitting on the hearth of my FIREPLACE!. Loving the big wall'o'windows, although it leaves some doubt as to where exactly we can put our TV. More pictures later, maybe. Most of what I took was in the vein of "where does that wall end" and "which corner has the outlet in it" than anything else. Moving on...

Later we went up to Denver for Todd's parents 40th anniversary party. We had some food and drink at the house, watched an awesome DVD my sister-in-law put together full of pictures ranging from their wedding day up to about 2 weeks ago, and then... I left to take my kids to my
mom's house while everyone else climbed in this and went downtown to the Broker for dinner. I met them there later, of course. :) We had a really good time eating and drinking and eating and drinking and then eating some more.

Sunday: We pretty much spent the morning sitting around. Come to think of it, that's how we spent the afternoon and evening as well, but I digress. We had decided that our plan for the day (after 4 hours of lazy ass discussion) was that Kayla was going to play out back, Charlie was going to play inside, Todd was going to do yardwork, and I was going to clean the kitchen. Soon after, as I was doing dishes, I heard Kayla crying, looked out the window, decided she fell off the slide, saw Todd going to her and went back to my dishes. 10 seconds later, Todd came rushing through the door with her in his arms, looking for keys and saying "we are going to emergency". See, her arm seemed to have developed a second elbow, and it wasn't bending the right way, even for a second elbow. I convinced Todd that we should call 911 instead so they could splint it up right for the ride, sent Charlie next door, and made a frantic drive to the hospital. I, of course, took pictures of everything from there on out. :) Here's just after we got there.

Don't they look thrilled? Here is the xray, ugly, I tell you. But cool in that kind of "ewwww.... let me see again" way.

If it looks like she broke both bones clean through, that's only because she did. :)

My favorite - really, you can't tell its the arm with the splint on it (and that pesky second elbow) that needs setting and not the one that says "NOT THIS ARM" all over it in big red letters?

Always good to have a personal Jedi waiting for you to come out of the operating room.

This is, believe it or not, the most emotion we saw out of her after it first happened. She is crying not because her arm is broken, or even over hospital food, but because they pulled off the tape that was holding in her IV.

Home again, happy again, I always say. :)

So yeah, 8 hours in the hospital. Totally cool Sunday. :) She is doing just fine. I spent the whole day today pretty much letting her order me around, and now I am back a point where I can yell at her without feeling guilty. And I am going to bed, cause my bet is that pain medication wears off around 5am tomorrow just like it did today. :)

On my mind...

2006-04-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

Here's some things I have been checking out and thinking about lately:

Cafe Press
I love Cafe Press. I love browsing through looking at all the funny, tacky, bizarre, and awesome things people can think of to put on a t-shirt or mug. Browse through it one day when you are bored beyond belief, and if YOU have a Cafe Press store, let me know. I'm thinking of making one myself, which is why you will see some funny quotes under the rest of the stuff on my mind. Tell me if you'd buy one. :)
Smoking Ban
As of July 1st, no one can smoke inside in Colorado unless they are in a casino or the smoking lounge at Denver International Airport. As a smoker, this of course infuriates ME, but you all should be upset too. After all, the government already tells me how to do everything else, thank you very much. And they do you, too. Now I can't go enjoy a beer and a smoke at the same time, thanks to the open container law that says I can't take my beer outside, and the smoking ban that says I can't take my cigarrette inside. The whole thing is apparently saving thousands of cocktail waitresses and bartenders, who I'm sure will be thrilled to know they now can live nice long lives with no money, since we all know smokers are better tippers.
my cafe press shirt ideas... "respect my right to contract lung cancer while my liver dies" ... "they're coming for your nail polish next" ... "auto mechanics are dying all over the state, ban cars now" ... "smokers WERE better tippers"... "follow me to the hottest bar in town, the DIA smoking lounge" (thanks bill) ... "if you don't tell me where to smoke, i won't call you an asshole".

Should we have killed Bill Gates, or just cured him, or neither?
There is a growing number of people on the web who think that autism shouldn't be cured. That autism is not a disease, just a difference. Their theory is that while people on the spectrum are, to say the least, different as well as sometimes difficult, they also tend to be quite genius in some areas, and that it really all comes out even. They say that autistics should be helped to be able to function normally within society, but that to cure them would set the world back some. If there had been a cure from the beginning, they say, we would be without the art of Warhol, Kandinsky, and Mondrian. Without Microsoft. (note: Bill Gates has never publicly admitted to being on the spectrum, but neither has he denied it, and shows many traits common to those who are.) Without the scientific discoveries of Einstein and Newton and without, quite possibly, the Declaration of Independence, depending on who you think wrote it. (Jefferson is thought to have been autistic) Now, as Todd says, "someone else would have figured all that out." Well, yeah, except for those artists there, I suppose so. In fact, Steve Jobs figured out the whole Microsoft thing way before that theif Gates did... but I digress. These people also think there is far too much money spent on researching a cure for tomorrow, and not nearly enough spent helping autistics live normal lives today, and that I wholeheartedly agree with. What I wouldn't give for one hour of respite a week, or one hour of just one of his therapies a week, for free, I can't tell you. But by the time a family in Colorado makes it to the top of the "family care" list, their kids are raising families of their own. I just got my 2006 update for our placement on that very list last week, and the estimate is 11 years. In 11 years, my son will be a senior in highschool. Somehow I don't think he'll be needing a babysitter, you know? And if he does, well, Kayla shoudl be old enough to watch him. The other thing these people are against is finding a way to genetically test unborn children for autism. I agree with this too, but it's not a black and white issue for me. If there was some way for me to tell before my baby was born that he/she was going to have AIDS, or leukemia, or any one of I'm sure hundreds of other things which would cause that child pain and misery and a life of less than 10 years, then I (my OWN personal thing here, flame me and die) might think of aborting. But never would it occur to me to do so when told my baby may have autism, or down's, or be deaf, or any one of hundreds of other things, that, while difficult, aren't going to kill them before middle school. I would however, appreciate being informed ahead of time so that I could research and prepare myself and the rest of my family for whatever may be coming. BUT. It seems that not many people think that way, that the testing is a chance to be informed... instead, the testing is a way to get out of it entirely. So, I tend for now to be against testing, because people can be stupid. But what I really think needs to happen is awareness. (Watch the segue here!) April happens to be autism awareness month. Here's what I would like you to do. Spread the word that one in every 166 kids are disgnosed on the spectrum. It's an epidemic. Spread the word that it is close to impossible to get the help these families need, because of budget cuts, increased diagnoses, and uninformed doctors, teachers, and parents. Spread the word that autism isn't scary, that it doesn't mean rain man, and that when I say "Charlie is autistic, he doesn't HAVE autism", that means that autistic does not define Charlie as a whole, that there are so many other wonderful parts to Charlie that any open minded person can discover, and everything he does is not simply because of autism, that he is different, not diseased and not broken. And if he isn't broken, does that mean he doesn't need fixed? I think if I could teach Charlie how to eat right, have the proper amount of fear for personal safety, and avoid meltdowns, that's all I would change. All the other little quirks and oddnesses that are Charlie... ARE Charlie, and I wouldn't want it any other way. So throughout April, spread the word. Raise some money and donate it to whichever autism charity floats your boat. Offer to babysit an autistic 6 year old and his adorable sister, hint hint nudge nudge, wink wink. My cafe press shirt ideas... for charlie - "if only you knew how odd I think you are." and "I don't need a cure (at least not any more than you do) and "schomolorado synchronized stim team member" for me... I just want something that says "yes, he's autistic. no, not like rain man, like einstein. no, it's not hard, it's our normal." Then maybe people would stop asking. My favorite already available on cafe press has a picture of a cartoon cat and says "this is a cat, not a defective dog. it's perfectly happy being a cat. autism is a difference, not a disease."

Poker
I started playing my online poker at a new place, Bodog, which I really like. I enjoy their setup and seem to be doing reasonably well, so that's something. This is all just really some way to introduce poker into the post so I can share my cool cafe press shirt ideas, none of which will make sense if you don't play poker anyway. But here they are... "tell me just one of your bad beat stories, and i'll tell you ALL of mine"... "i don't fold laundry either"... "i'm sorry, did i put you on tilt?"... "close your mouth and help me stack my chips"... "the river is not flowing my way"... "looking to double up".

Brett Favre
Kerri tells me he was supposed to announce his retirement, or not-so-retirement, one way or the other, today, but then he turned into a jerk about it. My cafe press shirt ideas... "packers suck"... "vikings suck"... "lions suck"... "go bears".

Ok, I am done with the cafe press ideas for now. Here's some questions for you. Would you rent a newer, slightly smalle r, more expensive house in a great neighborhood with excellent schools (and a sunroom, might I add) or an older, slightly larger, less expensive house in a decent neighborhood with average schools? Click on the descriptions and help us decide. The backyard on the newer one is better (but not by a lot) but it has a REALLY small 4th bedroom. The color scheme inside the older one is... interesting, let's just say that it speaks to my need for artistic flair, but the rent is cheaper by a motorcycle payment or so. :) AE: Guess what, I checked these links to add them, and then after I published this post, I clicked to make sure they worked, and the older house is no longer available. Guess that takes care of that, cross your fingers, toes, and tentacles that we get the sunroom house. Happy Holly if we do.
Did you think of a favorite song from the last 6 years? Tell me if you did, but I changed the rules.. the American Idol categories are too broad. So, tell me your favorite song that is on the Billboard hot 50 singles today... find the list here. Interestingly enough, the number one song, Bad Day, is what they play each week when the AI contestant that got voted out leaves. Also, it's my favorite. I would pick the James Blunt, but I'm a bit sick of hearing it on the radio now.
Tattoo on your ankle... (ok, my ankle) this (just the skull and swords)

or this?

Yeah, I'm thinking both too, I mean, I have 2 ankles, right? ;)
K, I wrote a lot, so I expect to get a lot of comments. Kerri, you aren't invited to THAT dinner because 1) I kind of pictured drinks and appetizers with Walt and Ellen, then booting them in favor of a sandwich, and 2) there is no sharing, remember? ;) But you are welcome for dinner any night that sandwiches aren't on the menu, just be aware that at my house you are likely to get frozen dinners, ramen noodles, or Taco Bell. Speaking of which, was it LaRelle and Traci that like the Ranchero Chicken Taco? Tried one tonight, those are damn tasty. Learn something every day.

Stolen straight from LaRelle

2006-03-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yep, while I figure out which of my 17 totally blog-worthy topics to blog about, you get to read my answers to LaRelle's boredom post. Or you could just read hers, the answers are strangely similar... {insert twilight zome music here..}

	*Playing favorites*
	Favorite color?	Purple
	...Band?	ever? Eagles
	...Taco Bell menu item?	Enchirito
	...Candy bar?	Almond Joy
	...Concert?	Yikes. Uh, Jeez. Eagles, but the first tour I went to and the second night I went. I guess.
	...Movie quote?	"But why is the rum gone?"
	...Monopoly game piece?	I don't know....the thimble
	...Nickname?	Well, people call me things, but they aren't nice. My brother calls me sister. And I call him brother. Not a creative bunch, I guess.
	...Pizza toppings?	Sausage and mushroom
	...cell phone service provider?	What a dumb question, really, does anyone walk around telling people their favorite cell service? I'll go with T-Mobile, see my answer to the "a little gay" question below.
	restaurant?	Eh, if there is steak, I'm in.
	....breakfast cereal?	Lucky Charms
	...website? (other than Myspace you nerd=)	huh, lately I spend a lot of time at ScrappyPrincess and DigiChick.
	....roadtrip?	Everyone say it with me now... DISNEYLAND!
	....beer?	Sam Adams White Ale, I am so sad it's seasonal.
	*This or That*
	Britney or Christina?	Britney
	Own a pet monkey or take part in a "heist"?	I want to take part in a heist where I steal LaRelle's monkey. then I get both.
	Team Jolie or Team Aniston?	Team Wallace, it could happen. :)
	Paris or Nicole?	Paris rocks... who else could get so rich off being so stupid? then again, Nicole got rich off Paris being stupid, and she didn't have to be stupid. a conundrum.
	Firefighters or police officers?	Firefighters
	Silver or gold?	Silver
	Internet Explorer or Netscape?	Firefox
	Fly or drive?	drive
	Night or day?	Night
	Beer or liquor?	either, both, whatever.
	Law & Order or CSI?	LOST ;)
	Glasses or contacts?	I got glasses, I don't wear them.
	Martha Stewart: Domestic goddess or Satan's spawn?	Domestic goddess
	Godfather or Goodfellas?	Godfather
	Backstage or front row?	Backstage
	*Keep Dreamin'*
	If you could marry any celebrity, who would it be?	hello? Johnny Depp!
	If you won the lottery today, what's the first thing you would buy?	A house
	You're on death row - what's your last meal?	mom's chicken and noodles.
	If you bought a puppy today, what would you name it?	Fred
	What is your dream job?	something that involves me getting paid tons of cash to do nothing all day.
	If you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be?	Italy
	If you magically had a kid tomorrow, what would you name it?	Jack if it's a boy.....Tricia if it's a girl
	If you could live anywhere on the planet, where would it be?	Italy, on the coast, of course.
	Who would you "be a little gay" for?	ROFL. Catherine Zeta-Jones
	What is your dream motor vehicle?	Hummer
	If you could go back in time, what historical period/event would you time travel to?	I think I could burn Panama City with the rest of the scurvy dogs.
	If you could star in any movie, what would it be?	Pirates of the Carribean :)
	You're stranded on a desert island - what five members of the opposite sex (or same sex, if you so choose) would you want with you?	Only 5? ;) Johnny Depp, Vin Diesel, Josh Holloway, Jon Bon Jovi, and Toby Keith.
	If you were having a dinner party, what four people (living or dead) would you invite?	Ellen Degeneres, Walt Disney, and since I like a sandwich every now and then (this IS dinner, yes?) Johnny Depp and Josh Holloway. You may now pause for visual, I sure am.
	If you could get rid of one celebrity that annoys you, who would it be?	KELLIE PICKLER.
	*Randomness*
	What animal represents you best?	You know that Antonio Banderas cat on Shrek 2, the one that looked all cute and then suddenly turned on everyone, and then turned out to be cool. Yeah, that.
	Ever seen a pedestrian get hit by a car?	Just the one I hit myself.
	Where was the last place you went to on an airplane?	Orlando
	What is your most cherished old school Nintendo game?	I'm too old for Nintendo. On Atari we had Frogger. :)
	How many times have you been out of the United States?	2ish?
	What food do you refuse to try?	anything they make people eat on Fear Factor
	What's your middle name?	Ann
	What is the coolest city you have ever been to?	San Diego
	Who do you IM with the most?	during the day, Kerri, and at night Nanny Jen.
	McDonald's Chicken McNuggets: yay or nay?	McDonald's: yay or nay: NAY! ugh, didn't anyone but me see Supersize Me?
	Ever posted a glittery/animated comment on someone's Myspace page?	wha?
	Do you know who Glenn Coco is?	wha?
	What television channel do you watch the most?	Honestly? I don't know, I tivo everything. is the now playing list a channel?
	What perfume/cologne are you wearing right now?	you people are funny. It's almost 9 pm and I haven't had time to shower today, what the hell is perfume?
	What is your Starbucks beverage of choice?	Caramel Frappuchino... unless it's fall and there's pumpkin spice ones.

The post I didn't want to make

2006-03-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

I seem to have hideous problems every time I try to post pictures here, so I have been putting off posting these entries to the big scrap contest. But, I said I would do it, and I have nothing better to do really, so here they are.

This first one was for the assignment: Use your best candid photo in a layout. She still steals sunglasses right off people's heads, by the way.

This was one of the freebies - basically it said send us 4 of your favorite layouts. So, favorite number one. The journaling is a true story, too. She's funny. In that scary kind of way.

Favorite number 2 - can you tell I like this picture some? I seem to have made like 14 different pages with it so far. I can't help it, he never holds still for the camera, let alone smiles. I have to take what I can get and run with it.

This was for the assignment: Use something non-scrap related for inspiration to make a page. Here is the photo I used for inspiration:

This one said something like use patterned paper, rub-ons, and ribbon on a page. So I did.

Favorite number 3. This thing took forever, and would have taken me like an hour instead of 20 had I done it digitally. Live and learn.

This was for the journaling assignment, which was meant for us to all make a page about something we didn't want to make a page about, I think. This one was digital.

Favorite number 4. This one was really fast.

This one I didn't actually send in, although I made it for the assignment of using 10 or more pictures, journaling, and a title on one layout. I didn't send it in because I didn't take any of these pictures (maybe the one of Traci, not sure) and they were pretty specific about using pictures you had taken yourself. Unless they were of yourself. Anyway. I just put it here so y'all could see it. It's digital too.

This is the one I sent in instead, except I outlined all the pictures in red, and changed the big silver ribbon to a smaller red one. For some reason I can't find the scan of the improved page, but you get the idea.

The last one was to make something that wasn't a page using scrap supplies, which I did, and did really well, if I do say so myself. I am not posting those pictures because it was meant to be a present for my stepmom, and I haven't mailed it yet, so I don't want her to see it here before she sees it live. So I'll post those sometime after I actually mail it to her. :)

Other stuff...
I seem to be having issues with getting songs stuck in my head lately. This generally only happens to me during American Idol season, and is usually some horrible rendition of a song I like that some horrible contestant mangled on the show. So, in the interest of fun games to play, I've decided to make you all post comments about your favorite music stuff, and use the American Idol themes of the week for it. If you read and don't post, buck up and register, it only takes a second and you don't really have to make your own blog. Then post, cause I said so. ;) SO this week we have 2 topics since I am starting 2 weeks into the show. The first week was Stevie Wonder songs - what's your favorite? I love Stevie Wonder, so I have a hard time deciding, but I think mine is Overjoyed. Which is a really hard song to sing, and if you don't think so, just try it next time you hit karaoke. Last week was songs from the 50's - I don't feel like looking things up to see when some songs first came out, so I will use one that was on the show that is one of my favorites - In the Still of the Night. Next week is songs from the 21st century, so get thinkin' about your favorites from the last 5 years and 3 months.

If you like American Idol (and who doesn't?) and country music check out Nashville Star on the USA network. Hosted by Wynnona, it's like Country Idol, but as an added twist, these people are expected to write their own music too. Which means a bit higher class of performers.

Anyone who wants 10 years and 5 cabinets worth of scrapping supplies, make me an offer. Most of my stuff is getting scanned and sold in the next few months, hopefully before I move so I don't have to move it. I have tons, and no list to speak of so if there is something in particular you need, email me and I probably have it. (Monica, you are still getting the stuff promised you for the cost of shipping only, I am waiting on some boxes to put it in.) The only things I am keeping are my basic tools and probably some of the stamps, although I don't use those much anymore anyway. I am officially going digital. First come first served, if you want to wait until I get it up on ebay with pictures, let me know and I'll email you when it happens.

Seems like there was something else, but I don't know what, so I will post it next time assuming I remember.

Guess what?

2006-03-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

My kid's autistic. ;) Yep, we have an official medical diagnosis now. It says like this: He meets the criteria for autism and has made good academic and language progress in the last couple of years. He continues to have poor social skills and eye contact. He is hyperlexic and likes numbers. Also has continued motor delays and incoordination, including articulation. Sensory modulation issues remain and he is quite active, and has a sleeping disorder. Gee, who woulda guessed? :) That there took 6 pages to say, and there are some reccomendations including going back to normal school, getting an extra 200 calories into him a day, trying melatonin for sleeping, and some lab tests for fragile x and various amino acids or something. So there ya go. I'll keep you updated on all that as it happens. Right now both kids are at grandma's for spring break, so I can't implement any of the above. Yay me! ;)

Other news: I did not win the big scrap contest. Nor did I get honorable mention. However, this is just fine with me. I was, however, chosen as "layout of the day" at www.createmykeepsake.com for the stunning crazy cute digital layout of Kayla, which I am pretty sure y'all have already seen. I'll post up my entry from the big contest soon, now that I can, in the meantime here is my latest digital creation. In other other news, I have the "Della and the Dealer" song playing on Fred right now and I have just realized that it has played about 17 times in a row, because I have been typing and not paying attention. Which means my "most played" thingy is gonna be kinda messed up, but oh well. It's a groovy song, at least.

I really don't have a bunch to say, which is odd since it has been a while since I posted. I'm gonna go play some online poker now, in preparation for playing a live game later. See how effectively and productively I am using my time without children? ;)

Cool Computer Stuff

2006-03-11T01:18:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a class online, a free class from iVillage, on digital scrapbooking. This is where you make your pages completely online, and then just print them out. There is an amazing amount of stuff you can do with the right program. (My choice is Photoshop Elements - try free for 30 days here) Plus, I have my super duper (almost) new tablet that just rocks when it comes to stuff like this. (a tablet for the computer is just like one in real life, it comes with a pen, and you can "draw" on it. Or color. Or write. Try it, you'll like it. You can also use it with a mouse, or use the pen like a mouse, which is nice for those of you developing carpal tunnel.) Anyway, to get back on topic, this class is so very cool. There are things that you can do with shadows and everything that make your digital pages look just like your paper pages, and it's a lot cheaper. And you can match colors to your picture. Or make a patterned paper that is perfect for your picture. Or you could make paper or embellishments and print them out to use on paper pages, even, if you weren't up for converting entirely. I am currently working on lesson 3 on this class, which is backgrounds. Lesson 2 was simple layouts just so we all could figure out how our software works for this sort of thing. Lesson 1 pretty much said "hey, make sure you HAVE some software before you try this class, and a computer would be helpful, and maybe some digital photos." I'm having a blast with it. I got so into making backgrounds to match my pics tonight that after 2 hours of playing I realized I should probably put them in an actual page. Then I didn't do it. :) So, here are my layouts from lesson 2. Enjoy.

This was my first one. The instructor commented that my journaling might be a bit big once I printed it out. I printed it, liked it, didn't change it. Rebel that I am.

The second one. Instructor said maybe change the sorta distracting background of the picture to black and white, so....

Boom, not so distracting. But then I thought, hey if we are messing with that background, why not make it look like you are looking through Charlies goggles?

And there we go, orangeriffic. Now, I put all 3 versions of that one up so that I could make this point. Changing from version 1 to version 2 to version 3 took me less time than it would have taken me to find the box of photo paper to reprint the picture once if I was doing it on paper. And didn't use any ink in the process. That's probably enough of me and my cool digiscrapping class, a lot of you were probably sick of me talking about it so much before you started reading this.

In other news, we have moved the computer from the dark, messy, unfinished basement into the light, clean, and complete-with-drywall-and-ceilings kitchen, which is making me happy and is much more convenient for me. We'll see how it works for Todd, but we're moving soon anyways, so if he doesn't like it, he won't have to deal with it for long.

In other other news, I have discovered heads up poker tournaments, which are dangerously addicting. Luckily I seem to be quite good at heads up play, so I am not broke yet. Anyone wanting a piece of my winnings, send money so I can play for bigger stakes, please. ;)

Why are people so rude?

2006-03-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

Two things happened yesterday that make me ask this question.

First, I went shopping at Hobby Lobby. Let me tell you that I was looking for a certain scrapbook magazine I have not ever seen, and since my LSS is really just a larger version of the sunday school craft closet, the lady that works there sent me to Hobby Lobby to find it. And then I got distracted and ended up buying other stuff, like I usually do. But, as I went to the checkout, lo and behold, there is a big bin with bunches of issues of this magazine in it. They are all over a year old, and really beat up, but I figure since I haven't seen this mag before and may not like it, why not buy the beat up old ones, I mean, they MUST be discounted pretty good, right? I asked the checkout lady what the dscount was on the magazines. Her response: "There is no discount, we aren't here to help you out, we have to make money, you know". Um, WHAT?!? I calmly pointed out to her that these magazines were over a year old, and beat to shit. Her response: "There IS NO DISCOUNT. Do you want one, or not?" Well, no, I want to see a manager, thanks. The manager came out, fired the chick in front of me (I got the impression it wasn't the first incident of this nature) and gave me 3 of the old magazines and the newest issue FOR FREE. That turned out just fine for me, but really, why are people so rude?

The second thing is something that actually has been going on for some time now. I am going to try to approach this in some manner that doesn't hurt any feelings or make anyone mad, because enough of that has happened already. However, tact is not my strong point, so what I am going to ask is that anyone who gets hurt or mad take it out on me, as I (and only I) am the one saying these things. I have a group of friends online that I am very close with. We are going to call them T1, T2, T3, C, L1, L2, K1, K2, and A. (subtle, eh?) T1 and C were friends for a very long time, but something happened between THEM and they aren't any more. T3, L2, K1, and A have done a marvelous job of keeping out of this situation, you all may go on with your day knowing Holly is not unhappy with you. :) For the rest of you... especially T2 and C - knock it off. If you have something bad to say about anyone, or snide comments to make, or inside jokes that aren't really so inside because you are so very rude about it, keep it in the email or the instant messaging. I enjoy the online "hangouts" we all frequent, both of them, and I really appreciate and love ALL of you... but if I have to put up with reading something rude and immature in every other thread, it's not enjoyable for me anymore. So you ALL know... if the people in this situation were reversed, or for that matter, if anyone anywhere was treating any of you in this manner, I would immediately call them out on it just as I am doing now. I have nothing against anyone personally - you ALL are my friends. I understand if that's not true for everyone in the group. All I am asking is that you keep your rude, immature, highschool behavior in private, as I think that is common courtesy, and I know that all of you are capable of being courteous, because you are all good people. To prove how easy this is, I am going to make a comment about each of you right here. Are you scared? You shouldn't be, I am a good person too. :)

T1 - YOU are MY hero. You are one of the most together people I have ever known, and I admire the way you have recently purged negativity from your life and your thoughts. Love you.

T2 - You are one of the most talented people I have ever known. You are a wonderful mother and grandmother and very giving.

T3 - You are just downright cool. I know this isn't the best time of your life and that you have some issues right now, but you handle them with humor and, well, coolness. Nothing can be done about your NFL affiliation, but really, that's the only bad thing I can think of about you. ;)

C - You are the hardest working person I have ever met, outside of my grandfather. You had the patience to wait for love and found it, and are going into not just a new chapter of your life but a whole new book - with no fear and an admirable sense of adventure and loyalty.

L1 - You go in the downright cool category too. I am just recently discovering that you and I have so much in common that if we lived anywhere near each other, we would probably be constantly together - you know, stalking Johnny, watching LOST, checking out new music.. something. ;)

L2 - What's the definition of sweet? L2 is. Both in the "aw, she's so sweet" sense and the "Sweet!" sense, if ya know what I mean.

K1 - T1 is my hero, but you are my role model. L1 and I would be constantly hanging out if we lived in the same town, but you and I would be best friends forever. We share Schmolland, which is not a nice thing to have to share, but I for one am really, really, REALLY glad you are there with me, sister.

K2 - I don't really know you that well, now that I think of it, but from what I do know, you are a very intelligent woman with strong ties to your kids, and there ain't nothing wrong with that fo' sho'.

A - You're in that cool category too, dang I have a lot of cool friends. Rock on like always.

Okey dokey - if you have comments on the situation above, or want to yell at me, have at it. Like I said, I don't mean to be hurtful or make anyone angry... but I do think this has been going on long enough that it's time for someone to say something. So I did. Hopefully I will still be welcome at both our online hangouts... cause I don't want to lose either one. Well, one I can't lose unless I piss someone off that isn't even mentioned here, but I'm sure you all know what I am talking about. :)

Some reviews

2006-03-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

I got some new stuff, and I tried some stuff I had but hadn't used/watched/played yet, so I shall review them for you. :)

March issue of Creating Keepsakes - never in my life have a seen an issue of any scrap magazine that had so many layouts that made me think the editors had lost their minds. There were some downright fugly pages in there. Like YIKES kind of fugly even. No offense to anyone who had a layout in that issue, just my opinion. Very cool and interesting article about Fibonnacci in scrapping though, if anyone wants that it's short enough that I will type it in an email for you so as to save you from spending the $6 to see the fugly layouts. :)

Scrapbook Answers - this is a relatively (I think) new scrap magazine that I signed up to get a free issue of. Free issue came. Yummy. I LOVE this one and subscribed right away. Lots of things that have that "percieved value" going on, where it looks ever so cool on the page, but is easy and usually cheap to do. Good step by step directions, and every issue comes with a CD-ROM with coolio stuffs on it. Well, I assume. I haven't actually played with the CD yet, but it says it has 44 fonts on it, and that's coolio enough for me. :)

The Bo Bice CD - man, that guy can sing. I really love his voice, and all of the songs on there are pleasant, but I do have to say they all sound a bit alike to me. Granted, I have only listened to it once, but that's my first impression. Not that I think that is really a bad thing though. :)

10 Minute Solutions workout DVDs. I bought the Pilates and the Kickboxing ones. The kickboxing is really fun and the ten minutes go pretty fast. The Pilates one has me convinced that "Pilates" is not some guys name, but code for "self-torture for masochists". Both of them seem to make me sore, so I'm gonna take that as evidence that they are doing SOMETHING. I'll let you know more in a month or so. I'm really just in the market for toning, so if you're looking to see how fast I lose weight or anything, you came to the wrong place. It's nice to have something that only takes 10 minutes and is an actual workout, though. At least it is for me, but I am in nothing like good shape.

A book by Steve Berry called The Third Secret - I'm about 80 pages into it and not quite sure exactly where it is going, but it's damned interesting so I'll keep going till I find out. Note to Kerri - you will want to just pass this one up. As a hint, I bought it because it was on an endcap with a big sign that said "If you are bored waiting for the Da Vinci Code movie, read this!" :) So far the whole thing has taken place at the Vatican, and a priest has already been excommunicated from the church for not only having an affair with some chick but then absolving them both of sin in front of his congregation. And the pope (is that to be capitalized?) is freaking out about something and no one knows quite what. I also bought the new(?) Stephen King, but since I have yet to read it I can't say much except the cover has his name on it. Which, me being me, means I can say it's really very good and everyone should have it, because Stephen King is genius like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and Carlos Santana and Salvador Dali.

Sly Cooper 2 - Band of Thieves - (it's a PS2 game) addicting. I have had this for probably a year and a half and finally started playing it. While the first Sly Cooper was in the format of "go through here, collect the key, when you have 7 of them beat the bad guy boss and then you can go to the next level where you do it all again" kind of thing, on this one you have a list on each level of "jobs" you have to complete before making the big heist for that level and going to the next one. Also you can play as different characters this time, which is kind of fun. If you have a PS2 and like the "kiddie" kind of games like Spyro or Crash, I highly reccommend the Sly games as well, they are my favorite. Charlie got the Sly 3 for Christmas and is halfway through it, maybe in another year and a half I will play that one too.

Last weeks episode of LOST - good grief, how very confusing. Far too much for me to get through in one week, I mean I haven't even consulted the freaky people websites as of yet. So I hope there are some repeats now. BTW, still confused on the Eko/Gale thing, I don't buy LaRelle's explanation and that whole cutting pieces off the beard thing was just plain odd. I think it all means something, I'm just not sure what. Maybe Eko is really an Other - since I DO agree with LaRelle that there are 2 different groups of Others.

Amazing Race - I am soooo happy this is on again. How fun are BJ and Tyler? And the racist redneck dentist (did I get that right? lol) cracks me up really, who says dadgummit? Just that guy and Bucky on American Idol. They shouldn't let Bucky talk, just make him sing, but since he does, he really should end every sentence with "Itellyawhut" like that guy on King of the Hill, cause that is what he sounds like. Also, getting back on topic, I adore those 2 kids that came in first this week, gotta love someone who will admit that "we want to be millionaires, but we don't want to work". And my condolences to everyone, who had to run at full sprint up the seats at Red Rocks. As someone who went to plenty of concerts there when it was GA seating in the front and back and reserved in the middle, I have run up the outside of the mountain and back down the seats to get up front many many times, often drunk and heatstroked, so I feel for those poor people. Especially since most of them weren't used to the altitude to begin with. And in case anyone was wondering, where they got in their cars is where the tour bus parks during the concert, so now you know what to look for if you are celebrity stalking in Colorado. Just don't ask how I know that. ;)

K, that's really all I have for now... Kayla's birthday was fun, once I get back on track here I'll post some pictures or something.

So I'm thinkin'...

2006-02-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

... I'm not really the best mom around. I know, you are all going "what are you talking about? you're great with kids, you love kids!" Yes, I know. This is precisely what makes me not the best mom. Let me give you some examples.

Kayla is told to clean her room. She says she would rather dance for a while first. Now, the correct good mom response would obviously be "No, hon, clean your room and THEN we dance." But, like Ellen, I think dancing is necessary every day, and for crying out loud, I would rather dance than stand in Kayla's room making sure she cleans it properly, so dancing it is. Does the room ever get clean? Yep, while she is in the bath I clean it for her. What does she learn from this? 1. If I ask to dance, I can get out of anything, cause mommy likes to dance. 2. If I can keep from cleaning my room until bathtime, mommy will do it for me. She also learns some groovy 80's dance moves, and some slammin' songs, and how to work Fred through the stereo, but I' not sure any of that counts as good parenting.

Charlie is told that it's time for dinner, and therefore he must turn off the Xbox. His reply is that he just wants to finish this level he is on. This makes perfect sense to me, I know you can't save your game on some of these until the end of a level, so OK. Next thing you know, he can't get the level finished and wants me to help him. Fine, whatever gets it done so we can eat, right? Except... I like to play the video games too, and this almost always ends with him and me playing some two player thing for half an hour while Kayla is wondering what happened to dinner. What does Charlie learn from this? 1. If I want mommy to come play video games, I should pretend to need her help. 2. Even mommy would rather play xbox than eat whatever crap she's fixed for us tonight, so it must be bad. Also, he gets some hand-eye coordination and knows how to defeat the evil Dr. Cortex, or gain kudos points by slamming his car into the other guy's - but again, not sure it counts as good parenting.

Oh, another thing - if my kids ever tell me that they "need to tell me something" or that they "just want to lay with me", guaranteed they are not having to go lay in their own beds. I can talk 4 year old to Kayla for hours, because I just love the things she says. And if Charlie says he wants to lay with me... well, let's just say he's not your snuggliest kid and I'll take it wherever I can get it. Of course they know this. So half the time Todd comes home from dealing poker and finds me on the couch, Charlie at one end, Kayla in my lap talking about something, and gets upset because it's like 1130 and they aren't in bed. I know, I know. But dang, they are so cute. And so fun. What's a mom to do?

I'm sure in my kid's eyes I am like THE best mom ever. I play with them when I shouldn't, I let them stay up when I shouldn't, they don't have a whole lot of chores, and we really do have a marvelous time most days. Not to mention when someone says "Where should we go on vacation?" I am the first one to say "Disneyland." But I guess I should really make them follow some rules or something. It's not gonna be easy, because among other things, I think "questions authority" is a GOOD thing to see on your report card, and my kids can be both devious and painfully logical when debating things, but it needs to be done, and it's not fair of me to make Todd be the bad guy all the time.

But anyways, we started this rule thing last night, when Todd was here and not at work. Wednesday's new rule: Eating is only for the kitchen. I took it a step further and actually turned off the TV's too - I'm not sure Todd was thrilled with that, but it did keep the kids in their seats and not bouncing up to see what they were missing on American Idol. Charlie was not a happy guy. He kept telling us we were disabling the rules of the house, and that he was NOT taking it well. Also that we were limiting him. Kayla kept saying she would be careful with her food in the living room, until the TV went off, then she didn't care anyway. Today's new rule will be that without question ALL of school has to be done before there are any video games. We will still take breaks, but honestly, once he starts with the xbox it is a pain in the ass to get him to stop and do school again, so he can watch TV or play computer or read or something during break time. Kayla's new rule for the day will be that (sad as it is) there is no dancing unless the room is clean.

In other news... well, there isn't much really. I am sick, I have Todd's cold. With a fever, so I get that cool chills morphing into a cold sweat kind of thing, so not only am I pale as death but I smell funny too. Everytime I get up I feel like pure crap, so I'm just not getting up much, so my house is kind of a disaster. I'm going to attempt to keep it in some sort of order today, at least good enough that we wouldn't get thrown out if the health department stopped by. Kerri has just crowned me Queen of the Dorks, and I would like to thank all the little dorks out there for your votes, I wouldn't be here without all of you. ;) Looking forward to Kayla's birthday this weekend, we are going to Build-A-Bear and she's going to the beauty shop with Grandma. Should be fun. And that's it.

Disclaimer - this entire thing was typed while I was in a nyquil induced fog. If there are typos or it simply makes no sense, it's cause I am drugged.

She Lives!

2006-02-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been quite the while since my last entry here. I'm sure all 6 of my readers are desperately waiting for this entry. :) But, I got busy and life got in the way, as it tends to do.

Right after the last update, I got busy on those HOF entries. I got them done with a whopping 28 hour lead on the deadline, and then proceeded to shock my poor Todd when I tried to explain just WHY it was neccessary to spend $44 overnighting a bunch of copies of scrapbook pages to Utah. They are all there now, hopefully still in a stack labeled "look at me" rather than one labeled "what was she thinking?". I enter this every year, and normally during the period between shipping my entry off and the announcement of the winners, I am just wondering why I bothered. This year I am pretty darn happy with my pages though. I still think the best I can realistically hope for is an honorable mention (hey, that prize money may cover the shipping costs!) but even that would be just too cool. I sure do wish I could post up my pages though. One more month. On a side note, the rules for the Hall of Fame crack me up. They tell you the last 4 of the 10 pages you send in should be your "favorite layouts". However, nothing you send in can ever have, well, seen the light of day. No posting online in your galleries, no submitting it for anything else, and certainly no published work. I don't know about you other scrappers out there, but if I have a "favorite" layout, I for sure am at least putting it in a gallery, ya know? Anyway, enough of that. Other things I've been doing:

I have a new favorite store, and it is the Dollar Tree. I can't remember the last time I was in a dollar store of any kind, but I remember there being a lot of crap in there that I normally wouldn't pay a quarter for, let alone a dollar. Well, my friends, the Dollar Tree is a whole different penguin. There's real, actual, useful stuff in there. Food. Soda. Plastic organizing thingys. Dishes that I just really think are so so cute. Cleaning stuff, oh the cleaning stuff. A whole wall of cleaning stuff... that I have actually heard of, and use even. And scrapbook things. I'm sure I am the last person on the earth to hop on the Dollar Tree bandwagon, but just in case that's actually you - go forth and find one, it's marvelous.

I have new favorite shoes, and they are Crocs. Ok, I'll admit, they are whatever knock-off version of Crocs they sell at Walmart. But they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. I will be buying some actual Crocs soonest. I just had to try the Walmart version first so that if I hated them I was only out $8 rather than $30. Because really, if they don't feel good on your feet there is just NO reason to be wearing them, as they are without a doubt the ugliest footwear ever. This was definitely a conformist move on my part - I have been hearing good things about these damn shoes for a year or so, and when I saw how many people were wearing them at the school (cause we all know 8 year olds know what is "in") I had to get some. Got some for Kayla too. (cause the 4 year olds MUST keep up with the 8 year olds). I'm sure she won't be allowed to wear them to school, but we will give it a shot. On a warm day, if we ever see those again. (4 below right now, and this is supposed to be the high desert.) So, here's a list of cool things about Crocs, so you will go buy some too, cause I can't be the only one wearing them, they're too ugly. Come, conform with me. We can wear our Crocs to the mall and buy some of that mineral makeup everyone is using now. :)
~ Totally comfortable. Kind of like those "space bed" mattresses on TV must be, they kind of mold to your feet.
~ They weigh hardly anything.
~ They have holes. This could be a downside if you are walking in a lot of sand or something, but mostly it keeps your feet cool and dry, and if you step in a puddle, the water will drain right out.
~ Since they are strange plastic things, you can just rinse them off to wash them. You can even bleach them, I hear, without any color damage, but you shouldn't need too, cause I also hear they are bacteria resistant. Which should translate to odor free, in the world of shoes.
~ Come in a variety of colors. Kayla and I have matching pink ones, and I also got myself some black ones. You know, for more formal occasions. :)

I have a new organizational plan, and it is FLYlady. Well, sort of. I looked at FLYlady's website, and decided that was a bit over the top for me - not the getting things done part, but the part where I have to do my hair and my makeup everyday, and wear shoes all day long. Although, now that I have the Crocs, maybe... :) If you don't know about FLYlady, go check it out, it's all about establishing routines for household stuff, and getting rid of clutter. Very cheesy, I might add, but if you cut through it you can get the good stuff out and make your own routine schedule. I now have a morning, afternoon, and evening routine for keeping the house straight, and after the first 3 days of getting things clean that hadn't been clean in months, I now can do my morning routine in 30 min and the afternoon and evening routines in 10 min each. And most of the day, my house looks good enough to actually invite people in and all. Plus I am spending about an hour a day doing deep cleaning and decluttering in preparation for our move in May. I just think of that all as "packing" which motivates me to do it, cause I sure am ready to get out of here.

What else is new? Not a lot. There's a new heating element in my dryer. Charlie has a new DVD player. Oh, we got a wireless controller for the Xbox - no more tripping over the cord and either unplugging it or jerking the console onto the floor. We are gonna have to get another one of those, and a couple for the PS2 as well, cause that is HANDY. I finally got the cord to hook the iPod to the stereo, so now during dancing time at night, I can pick songs instead of trying to find a station on the radio, or listening to the same 5 songs on the one CD that is upstairs - we are way too lazy to go downstairs and get anymore, plus the CDs are all in stacks on a table as I go through to make sure I have everything I want off of them on the iPod. What's that you say, why do you have CD's if you are too lazy to go downstairs and get them, and all your songs are on Fred anyways? I don't know, ask Todd. Apparently I am not allowed to get rid of them for some reason, maybe a vital need to take up space in our crowded house, I don't know. ;)

Speaking of Fred, he has a new look. His name should probably be changed - at least till I take those clothes off him. I made the skin myself, btw, and about 10 others just playing around. If you want one of your own, tell me what you want and I'll try to accomodate. Kerri - I keep trying your suggestion, but unless you want him headless, or you don't care if his head is covering up Jack's screen, I can't get him in a position I like. ;)

I've got nothing else. I have not scanned any pages in except those HOF entries I can't post here, because I am lazy scrapper. I am thinking of going to a smaller size of scrapping though - tell me what you think. I do 12 x 12 now, but I'm thinking maybe 9 x 9 or 8 x 8. 9 x 9 would actually be perfect, except that scanning them in would still be a 2 step process, where with the 8 x 8 it would all fit in one pass. I do a lot of one picture layouts nowadays anyway, so I think smaller would be easier, and cheaper on the prints too - the way I figure it, a 4 x 6 picture on a 9 x 9 page would be about equal to a 5 x 7 picture on a 12 x 12 page, right? Tell me what you think.

This song....

2006-01-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

makes me think of Charlie. It's been one of my favorites for a long long time, way before he was born, but now it makes me think of Charlie. Props to Larry who started my love of Rush and introduced me to this song in particular. :)

In The End - by Rush

I can see what you mean
It just takes me longer
I can feel what you feel
It just makes you stronger

Well you can take me for a little while
You can take me, you can make me smile
In the end

I know, I know, I know
The feeling grows
I see, I see, I see
It's got to be

I can do what you do
You just do it better
I can cry like you cry
It just makes me sadder

I know, I know, I know
The feeling grows
I see, I see, I see
It's got to be

You can take me for a little while
You can take me, you can make me smile
In the end

I can shine like you shine
It don't make me brighter
If I think like you think
It don't make my load much lighter

I can see what you mean
It just takes me longer
I can feel what you feel
It just makes me stronger

And, just in the interest of being fair, here's a song I sing to Kayla quite a bit just cause I have been forever, it used to make her quiet during that hideous colic period. Props for this one go to a movie called Bye Bye Love - which is a good movie because in it Randy Quaid has a dog named Ditka. And destroys his back porch with a baseball bat, or maybe a golf club, I don't remember. :) Anyways, this song is in it.

I Will - by the Beatles

Who knows how long I've loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime
If you want me to I will

For if I ever saw you
I didn't catch your name
But it never really mattered
I will always feel the same

Love you forever, and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we're together
Love you when we're apart

And when at last I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
Oh, you know I will

That one was one of my favorites before the kids were born too, isn't it funny how being a mom changes everything, even how you think of songs? Cool. :)

I was going to post some pages, but just realized I haven't scanned them yet, oops. Charlie has an appointment this afternoon to see why the heck he isn't sleeping. I'm really pretty much awake when he is and am hoping for tranquilizers for us both at this point, I can't even function for lack of sleep. In fact, what I will do is save this as a draft, and post pages and tell you what the doctor said later. Yep, good thinking on my part. Later gators.

Ok, weeeeeeee're baaaaaaaack...
How stupid am I... the doctor asks me if Charlie is on any medications. I tell him not right now, he takes Singulair in the summer for allergies, but we don't do it year round cause they're outdoor allergies and the Singulair... you guessed it.... MAKES HIM SLEEPY. So, um, yeah, refilling that Singulair prescription. The doc was also quite willing to help out by calling Children's and the insurance dorks and figuring out what needs to be done to get this kid his medical diagnosis. We sat there and talked Charlie for about an hour - halfway through, doc looks at me, says , "I know about his autism and all, but have you ever heard ADHD with him?" No, says I, in fact we were told that was probably all autistic stuff and NOT ADHD. The doctor, oh my goodness, how I wish I had a camera for the face, but he looks at me all funny and says "Really. I mean, really? Really. How interesting." In the time he took to say those 7 words, Charlie had grabbed a tongue depressor, washed his hands, taken the stethoscope, and gone out in the hall to read the "caution, x-ray in use" sign for the 8th time. End of that story is we'll be getting some Straterra too, bout time, I say. I'll keep you updated, I have high hopes. Also was told (this, I'm sure is some violation of doctor patient privelege) that I am not the only mother of an autistic child that is supposed to be going to Pueblo West Elementary and is being home schooled instead because of "issues with that school". Yay, I'm not freaky mom. Or at least not the only freaky mom. That's about it for the doctor visit. Now, having discovered the joys of the "save as draft" button, I'm going to go put my kids to bed and come back later to scan pages. :)

OK, I'm back again, and I found the pages I was going to show you. Sort of. Most of you have seen most of these before, cause I found them in random folder on the hard drive. :) They are what I submitted for the design team call over on Create My Keepsake - I didn't make the team, but if you have a minute, go check out the gallery over there, especially those of the girls that did make it, super talent!
I really think this one is cute, but then I'm partial to desperados like Bubba there. :) The red part on the right is actually up from the background to make a little shadowbox, iffen y'all cain't tell from the picture. I'm disturbed by the square around the cactus being crooked, but not enough to do it over. yet.

Here's the card I put in - simple, but very nice. For some reason I keep coming back to this one every time a submisson is wanting for a card. If it wasn't for the fact that doing those little stitched x's on the bottom would kill my poor arthritic hands after about ten cards, I would send some variation of this for my Christmas cards every flippin' year.

I know most of you have seen my inspiration journal there, but just in case ya haven't - that's where I write things I want to do, craftwise. I have a whole different book for things I want to try... it's a little 4 x 6 notebook I got at Old Navy - has a GIANT bright blue spiral and is covered in white fake fur. :) Isn't this one pretty though? Has my favorite word on it, too, little gifties to the first person that guesses which of them it is.

Most of you have seen this one too, in fact did I post this already? Hmmmm... Well, it's one of my favorite pages, and that ain't even my kid. I think mostly I adore that picture, such a perfect grin, just lighting up his eyes... shall I tell you? I think I will. Here's the story behind that shot. I do pictures of the kids in Santa hats and either red or white shirts every year. So when I had Nick for daycare, I did him and his sisters too, and gave his parents enlargements for Christmas presents. Anyway, here is the actual conversation we were having while I was shooting Nick. (Ignore the sap on the journaling, it's all lies, magazine people love the sap.)
Nick: Are we done yet?
Holly: Just a couple more. Look over here, if you don't mind.
Nick: You said that 10 pictures ago, can I go now?
Holly: No. Smile.
Nick: Can I at least lose the hat?
Holly: Nicky, the hat is the point.
Nick: Don't call me Nicky, can I lose this shirt? I don't know why I have to wear this.
Holly: It'll look better in the picture than the Slayer tshirt you have on. SMILE.
Nick: About what? This is boring.
Holly: Think about hitting me over the head with the chair, sticking the hat on my butt, and wrapping the camera in the shirt as you fling it out the window.

THAT'S when he finally gave me that grin.

Not a damn thing.

2006-01-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

I have nothing to say, except that there is a 3 day weekend in February made for skiing, and tickets from Milwaukee to Colorado Springs seem to be priced quite reasonably if travelers are willing to make a stop in Cincinnati. Which is why this guy should come here and ski Monarch. With his wife, who doesn't want to ski. And I bet Kerri agrees with me. :)

Oh, and I finally watched the first half of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night. I was calling the movie stunning and Tim Burton a genius 10 minutes before I even saw Johnny Depp on the screen. I'm going to watch the rest of it tonight, I fell asleep in the middle somewhere - not because it wasn't wonderful, but because even the best of us give up once it gets to be 3 in the morning, which is why I think I'll go watch it now, instead of waiting to start till 2am again. The only other thing I have to say about it is that Johnny is quite possibly the greatest actor of his generation, I mean, really, who else can do what he can? And look as good doing it, even in creepy Willy Wonka makeup? Johnny Depp IS my daddy, an internet quiz told me so, so it must be true. :) Who is yours? Find out here: Who's Your Daddy?

Blog Tag

2006-01-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

No one tagged me, but I'm not one to wait for an invitation, so here goes. :)

Four jobs you've had in your life:
Waitress: That's my favorite, hand down.
Home Daycare: Not bad, since you get to stay home and all.
Teacher's Aide at the elementary school: This comes close to the waitressing on fun factor, and you can't beat the hours, but the pay bites.
Daycare not at home, at the center: um, I met some cool people? :)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
Princess Bride
Pirates of the Carribean
Remember the Titans
Grease

Four places you have lived:
Aurora Colorado
Ft. Collins Colorado
Centennial Colorado
Pueblo West Colorado (otherwise known as Hell)
gee, I really get around, don't I? lol

Four TV shows you love to watch:
just four? crap. LOST
Survivor
Amazing Race
Any CSI

Four places you have been on vacation:
Disneyland
Disneyworld
Maine and all points in between here and there
um, did I mention Disney?

Four websites you visit daily:
Create my Keepsake
Disneysites
Miceage
A gazillion different blogs

Four of your favorite foods:
Enchiritos
Spaghetti
Steak
Hostess cupcakes

Four places you would rather be right now:
in bed
Disneyland
Disneyworld
Vegas, baby!

Four bloggers you are tagging:
Kerri
Traci
Amber
Brother

Ok, I really just did that because it's been a week and I have nothing new to report. Schmolland is basically at civil war every night at bedtime, I'm still working on my HOF entries and haven't scanned any old pages so I can't post any new, and I'm really just in a pretty good routine, so there ya go. :)

Some days Schmolland sucks

2006-01-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

First things first, if you don't know where Schmolland is, click here for the map.

Today, Charlie had plans to visit the boy next door, Michael. Michael, you see, has a basketball hoop in his front yard that Charlie is obsessed with. Michael is also almost 13 years old, and Charlie is six... and Charlie-like. Michael has now resorted to drastic avoidance maneuvers whenever Charlie rings his doorbell, cause, well, he's a teenage boy and Charlie is the strange little kid next door that yells a lot. Can't blame poor Michael, I wish I could do the same thing some days. Today was one of those days. Let me share with you the basic gist of the morning.

Charlie got up and immediately got dressed. This causes a red flag to go off in my brain, cause, well, my kid is not known for voluntarily putting on clothes. Then I remember that I had finally given up after a week of pestering and told him that he could go see if Michael could play today. I even warned Michael's mom about it a couple days ago and she said it would be OK. So off we go to Michael's house, and there is no one home. I tell Charlie we will come back later, and he decides it might be the best idea to just sit on the front porch and wait all stalker like. I tell him no and make him come back inside. Insert meltdown here. (second things second... if you don't know the exact meaning of meltdown in this situation, do a happy dance - YOU do not live in Schmolland.) 2 hours later, we try again. This time, Michael answers the door, says he'll be out in a minute, and then dissappears. After 20 minutes of patience from Charlie and a quick phone call to Michael's mom, it is apparent that Michael is not coming out, although he would like to, because he is grounded for some reason involving unsavory friends, empty fields, a book of matches, and the fire department. Oooops. Insert meltdown here. Looooooong, loooooud meltdown. Meltdown that even now, 5 hours later, is still presenting aftermeltdowns.

Now this is just one meltdown day, and to be honest, since we started home school, and especially since our trip to Disneyland last month, meltdowns have been few and far between. Whether this has more to do with Charlie being happier, or me being happier, I don't know. But, even without meltdown days, we still live in Schmolland every single day. And although I love Charlie and wouldn't change (much) him if I could, I am taking this time to just say that living in Schmolland is exhausting. Schmutch children do not sleep. I don't just mean they stay up late, although they do, or that they get up early, although they do, or that they get up in the middle of the night, although they do. They do all 3, every day. For a mom, this is exhausting, cause even on those nights that we give up and say - "Ah, screw it, the smoke alarm will wake me up if he sets the house on fire", there is some mysterious physiological thing that will not allow us to sleep if one of our children is awake. Exhausting. Schmutch children often do not seem to hear a word you say and have little to no knowledge of the meaning of "following directions". Not being able to say "Now sit down and eat your dinner" or "Can you please bring me some toilet paper here" and have the kid do what you ask... exhausting. Schmutch children often have problems understanding the concept of empathy. To have a kid that responds with "ok, but can I have a twinkie now" to a statement like "When you whap your sister over the head with the tire iron it really hurts her and makes her cry" is exhausting. Schmutch children, some of them at least, are what we call runners. This means that when opening the door to the house, the car, the Walmart, you must be ready to either grab hold of them or give chase, because they will simply take off in search of... whatever. It also means that if you take a runner to the movies, you can't really pay much attention to the movie once the child stops talking, or the next time you look at the seat, the kid will be GONE. Exhausting. Schmutch children have no idea of common manners, even when explained over and over. Saying things like please and thank you is not what I am talking about - I mean things like "We really don't just stand on the porch and yell at people in the other backyards at 10 at night, sweetie" and "We really don't talk through the entire movie, even when we have important things to say like reciting the safety warnings for the xbox, so knock it off already". Exhausting. And last but certainly not least (at least at this point) Schmutch children do not understand the equation actions = consequences. This applies not only to if you play in the street you will get hit by a car and die, but to things like if you don't stay in bed you will do extra handwriting worksheets and if you keep snatching your sister's toys you will no longer be able to play xbox. This is the most exhausting thing of all, because with children from America or France or anywhere else, you can punish them for any of the other Schmutch pastimes and eventually they will get the point. Not so here in Scmolland - all you can do is try, and hope. Oh, and by the way... once you find out you are in Schmolland (you don't move there, someone just tells you you live there, you see.) YOU CAN'T LEAVE. EVER.

Yes, there are tulips and lakes and mountains and other wonderful things in Schmolland, and I'm sure you will hear about those too. But some days real life gets in the way of beautiful and wonderful things. It's 10pm right now, and my cute little Schmutch boy is standing here telling me how I can now swipe my credit card right at the drive-thru at Sonic. For the 12th time in the last half hour. So I will now tell him to get back in bed... for the 13th time in the last half hour. I've heard that there are now groups working to get families out of Schmolland. If you want to learn more, and maybe help, click here or here. To help spread the word about Schmolland, click here.

Disclaimer: no sisters were actually swapped upside the head with tire irons in this post, it was all CGI. Please do not call social services. :)

What I suddenly do most nights

2006-01-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

On my preferred scrapbooking message boards, it's apparent that if you scrap, you blog. Hence why what you are reading even exists, cause I don't ever want to be left out of anything. One night, bored as usual and not in the mood for online poker and beer (imagine! oh, and the beer would NOT be so online as the poker...) I decided to just start clicking on some of those bloggy blog links in people's message board signatures. Lo and behold, each of these bloggy blogs had even more links to even more scrapper blogs, (like I do, over to your right, see?) which I have dubbed "scra-blogs". Of course, I started clicking on those too, cause if they're interesting enough for other people to read, why not me, right? Now I have created what I have dubbed "the scra-blog chain". I click on one, then click on one of the links there, and then one of the links there, and on and on and on.... then I discovered that with my new super improved computer I can both scan layouts AND follow the scra-blog chain AT THE SAME TIME. This, my friends, is what I suddenly do every night. Well, most nights, those nights that Todd is working. When I am not in the mood for online poker and beer. I've found new blogs that I now go to daily. I'm going to run out of time for anything else, so I'd better stop now. One blog that I won't stop visiting is Karen Burniston's - check it out. I think I may have cropped with Karen a time or two, many years ago, I seem to remember standing in someone's kitchen chatting with her, but that is completely beside the point and it could have been someone else entirely. Karen is funny. She's a pretty well known name in the scrapper world. She likes the Princess Bride and Emperor's New Groove. (the name of her blog is "I am not left-handed" - which makes me think she knows something that I do not know) And although she didn't say it herself, she is completely and utterly responsible for my new favorite phrase, "the internet won't surf itself". Karen will be at my new favorite scrapbook store ever, Simple Pleasures, sometime next month, and I may just have to make the hour long drive to go say hi and thank her for the many entertaining minutes I have spent reading her posts.
I know I said I could now scan layouts at the speed of light and all, but that's really only if I sit down and do it. It being football weekend and all around here, I didn't do much, but I'll show you what I do have. Without further ado, let me introduce you to....
The Pages of the Day!

This is the one I have done as a graduation present for Kaitlyn. It would be the first page I have actually finished in, I don't know, 2 years. Hopefully Kait isn't reading this right now... if so, uh, happy graduation, sweets! :)

I personally love this picture of Kayla with her little hospital blanket and hospital hat and hospital binky. And even with tubes and things all over her, I think she's pretty cute. But then I'm her mom.

It's obvious she does NOT get her cuteness from me. I will say the orange hair was after stage one of a two stage wildhairupmyass idea to go blonde - she was 7 weeks early, I was on partial bedrest, how was I to know I would not only have to leave the house but for something that required I be in pictures? A few days later I dyed it all superblack and they almost didn't let me in the NICU cause no one recognized me.

This would be one of those pages that I look at and cringe. SO could redo it right now. But I have decided never ever to redo any pages cause that's all I would ever do and I am 5 years behind as it is. Outfit is really, really, really cute though.

Ok, that's it for now, kids. I plan to do my best to update this thing every other day or so, I'll also do my best to say it's updated in my RMH and DS sigs. :) Thanks for stoppin' by, please leave comments, that's what that button is for.

Starting Over

2006-01-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

So I cleared the posts from this blog, and decided to start over. See, I decided I needed a sort of everyday-my life-everything blog, you know, a bloggy blog. I sure don't need yet another blog, so I converted this one. I figure scrapbooking is a pretty good sized chunk of my everyday life, so it fit well. Plus, by some odd twist of fate, I figured out how to scan my layouts, finally, which makes for much better images than the pictures of pages that were here. Unfortunately, this whole scanning and stitching thing takes an interminably long time. I mean, really, like bring-a-book-to-read-or-sudoku-to-work-on-dentist's-waiting-room long time.

So y'all will only get a couple scrapbook pages per post. Let me just explain this to you. I have to scan one side of the layout, then scan the other. This has never been fast for me. Then, I have to flip one of the scans, since one is always upside down. Then I hit the magical "put 'em together" button, and wait. (yes, I really just have to hit one button, and it took a book with the words "For Dummies" in the title for me to figure this out... *sigh*) AND wait. The little bar at the bottom of my screen says interesting things at this point, like "transform" and "Photomerge", but it gets boring to watch after approximately 1.2 seconds. Next, I have to approve the newly put together image in the Photomerge window. Then, I go back to the editing window... the bar says some new things at this point, like "advanced blending" and the really scary one - "erasing hole". Then I have to clean up the edges, and save the whole thing. The upside is, I've decided to scan in ALL my completed pages, so you get to see even the ridiculous pages from my humble beginnings as a scrapper. Plus, you get the joy of reading non-scrapping related posts from time to time.

So, I've decided to start this whole scanning process with Kayla's book (it's not got many pages, see) so here are the pages for the day.

So, I was going to treat you to more of my life today, but my husband has just returned home with a Pirates of the Carribean DVD to replace the one I rolled over with my chair, and since I have now been without this movie for almost a week, I feel the need to go watch it. So, tomorrow perhaps. :)

note: every single paragraph in this post starts with the word "so". Guess I need to work on that.