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And the beat goes on

We have been busy.  I am finding this babysitting stint with the boys to be a double-sided coin.  I LOVE spending time with them.  But, I sure do miss the 10 or so hours it takes out of my week!  Will has been the sweetest little guy, very obedient with very little questioning or argument, and very helpful.  If I need him to keep an eye on Atticus while I go down the hall to the bathroom, he jumps to the task.  If I ask him to help get dinner on the table, he is right there to help.  If Atticus gets fussy in the car, Will amuses him.  He helps me find what I need when I don't know where to look.  I couldn't ask for more from Will.  I am so proud of the little boy he has become!  Atticus is a hoot.  He wears a sunny smile the vast majority of the time.  Even when I know he is tired, he's still smiling.  It is such fun to walk into his line of vision and see the sweet sweet smile I get from him.  The little stinker has learned about the camera.  He knows that there are pictures of him in there and he wants to see them.  I think he has a real desire to get his hands on the camera, but I try to be particularly careful that doesn't happen.  I'd just turn up my toes and die if something happened to my camera--it is one of my all time favorite "things" in life.  He's pulling himself up on EVERYTHING now and I predict he'll be walking very soon.  Anyway, we've got a bit of a routine going.  I'm on my own Mondays which makes them hard.  Joe comes along on Wednesdays.  He's not a lot of help with the kids but he is a help with Jason.  That alone takes a lot of stress off of me.  Of course, Jen pays me and the little bit of extra cash is a help.  It allows me to do a bit extra without going to the joint bank account which has been downright anemic lately.  But, I'm not getting rich.  I had to giggle when I figured this next bit out--I will babysit two nights this week and Jen will pay me $50.  I will give Joe $6 for gasoline or put $6 of gasoline in the car.  I need to pay tithes of $5.  I will need to do a drive thru meal tonight because there is just NO TIME to cook anything after Will's swim lesson.  For Will, Joe and I, that will cost about $18.  And, Will has been selling those entertainment books (go to the XYZ restaurant, buy one dinner for $10 and get half off a second dinner).  I've agreed to buy one for $20.  So, subtract all that out, and I will make $1 for babysitting two evenings.  Not that I am looking at this as a grand money-making venture!  Jen offered me more money and I just couldn't take it.  These ARE my grandchildren, for heaven's sake!  And most weeks, I don't have to buy an entertainment book so I make more like $20 for babysitting.  But, I DID think it was kinda funny how it worked out this week. 

Some friends of ours popped in yesterday for a visit.  They are also clients so the purpose of their visit was to drop off the records for the year to date so we can do the accounting necessary.  But, it was really interesting to talk with them.  They retired and moved to Mexico.  Joe and I are thinking we're going to have to do something like that ourselves since we certainly aren't able to save anything.  The amount coming in is literally less than the amount going out each month.......  Our friends have been in Mexico about 5 months and they're very happy with their decision to move there.  They've moved to an area outside of Guadalajara where there are a lot of "gringos".  In fact, according to them, everyone on their street, except one house, is a refugee from the US.  I think maybe one thing caught them by surprise.  They found they really have to wait 2 years for medical care there.  Mexico has a kind of socialized medicine--you pay $300 a year and that is the total cost for doctors and hospitals.  And, if you've read this blog, you know that medication in Mexico is dirt cheap compared with what it costs in the US.  But, there is a two year waiting period under their law.  So, one of the things they were doing back here in Vegas was seeing their doctors to check on meds, etc.  Because they bought a home in a substantially American area, they paid more for it, about $120,000 for 2000 square feet.  And, Dottie, being the perfectionist she is, has already put about $30,000 into the house.  Part of the upgrades was a water filtration system to make the water potable.  But everything else was to pretty-fy the place.  They were able to pay cash for the house with the money they got out of their home here and their car is paid for.  So, they just have monthly expenses.  Car insurance which is a) car insurance and b) takes the place of licensing and registration runs them $200 a year.  Water is free and unlimited.  They pay about $30 per month for gas and electric combined.  She says food is substantially cheaper there as long as you are willing to buy Mexican brands.  Of course, if you insist on US brand names, it's costly.  She feels she'll be able to bring their food cost down substantially with time--more time to learn about different resources, more time to learn more of the language, more time to become more familiar with Mexican products.  There is a Costco about half an hour away in Guadalajara, but she's only been there once.  Some canned good are hard to find so they are taking 3 suitcases full of canned goods home with them!  She has a cleaning lady she pays $4 an hour.  She says she could probably get someone for $2-$3 an hour but this lady came recommended as being hard working and honest so she's more than willing to pay the extra.  Their yard guy charges the same--$4 an hour.  Gee if we could get that kind of a deal here, our yard maintenance expense would decrease from $85 a month to something more like $8!  They have all their mail sent to a Mail Boxes Etc in Laredo, Texas and the MBE trucks the mail down to them every few weeks--this is a facility used by a lot of people in their area so it's worth it to the MBE to add this extra service.  But, they do all their banking and receive their bills via the internet so the extra delivery time is no problem.  Their phone service is through Vonage so no one has to pay exorbitant rates to call them because it's international.  Phone service costs them less than $30 a month.   But their Social Security (US) benefits are roughly equivalent to what ours would be and they are living well and saving!

My idea has been to live in a small town just across the border in Mexico.  Los Algodones seems as good to me as anywhere else.  At least we know they have water and power available.  Then if you want or need something only available in the US, you're literally only 15 minutes away.  Just cross the border and go to Yuma to go to Sam's Club, a US doctor or hospital, or to see a movie if you can find one fit to watch.  But, your home, your electricity/gas/water, the bulk of your groceries could be purchased south of the border at substantial savings.  And, since Joe claims he'll NEVER retire, he could always set up an office in Yuma and do loans and loan signings just like he does now.  A fifteen minute commute is no big deal!  We have agreed that on our next Mexico trip we'll take out Mexican insurance on the car, and do some driving around to scope out the area a bit better than we're able to do on foot. 

In scrapping news, I've been asked to join another Creative Team.  This one is for a store and I really like the way they operate.  When a designer puts up a new kit, it goes straight into a download area.  Every morning when I sign in, it's like Christmas.  All sorts of new goodies to play with with absolutely no effort on my part!  I don't have to crawl through the store picking and choosing what I might want to work with, ask someone for links, wait for the links, and then finally get to scrap.  When I have a photo I want to scrap or an idea for a page I want to do, I want to do it NOW.  I don't want to wait and wait to even start.  So, I'm thinking I will accept this new offer.  Time demands being what they are, I may decide to drop the store I scrap for now.  It will be less frustrating, I think.   I'm trying to cut back a bit on the CT demands anyway as I have a mountain of scrapping products I've never been able to use or have only used once and, as I get older, I like deadlines less and less, LOL.  I've got some other places I need to spend a bit more time too.........

Well that's all the blather for today.  I'm going to post some pages, just to push through a bit of the backlog and get on with other things I need to do.

I took these photos of the border crossing on our first trip to Mexico. I used Katie the Scrapbook Lady's International Flags Background Papers and International Flags Glass Buttons for this page. The stitching (recolored) is by Andrea Burns; the palm frond is by Dani Mogstad. The chipboard palm tree (recolored) is by Mirranda Reinhardt. The dotted ribbon is by Christine Smith. The cardboard edging is by Amanda Rockwell. You can find Katie's International Flag papers and buttons at The Digi Shoppe. Amanda's Cardboard Edges are available at amandarockwell.com.

Well, what can I tell you? This started out as a page using page 1 of Melanie Colosimo's Backyard Adventure 2-page template set (available at Elemental Scraps). I've rotated it and done a lot to make it my own--which is one of the great things about templates! Melanie, do you recognize it? The papers are by Amanda Heimann from her Summer Lovin Collection (greens slightly recolored). I've also added an All Stuck Up negative frame by Amanda Heimann (CUTE collection), decorated with a Rose Farver bow and some Poppin Swirls by Tracy Ann. You can find Amanda Heimann's designs at Plain Digital Wrapper.

I have so many photos from Will's baseball season. When I saw the Ad Challenge at DSD, it was the perfect inspiration to use some of my baseball photos. The red paper is by Amanda Heimann, her Cinco de Mayo kit, available at Plain Digital Wrapper. The alpha is called the Victorian Circus Alpha and it was created by Lynn Grieveson. Lynn's products are available at Designer Digitals.

I had forgotten how frustrating it can be to try to feed a baby. Everything that goes in seems to come right back out! Grabbed this shot a couple of weeks ago during a carrot-feeding adventure. At least he's not going "phbbbbt" with it yet! I used Lynn Grieveson's new kit, Lazy Days, available only at Designer Digitals, for this page. The applique carrots are by Mary Fran and the orange ribbon is by Natalie Braxton.

Recently, my cousin sent me a CD with over 500 old family photos on it. As I was reading blogs, I ran across the words to this old hymn on Janet Phillips' blog. I remembered how often we called on Aunt Ethel to sing this song, and a layout was born. LaWanna Desjardin has a kit that fit the colors I needed beautifully--Sons and Fathers at O Scraps. Lynn Grieveson has these cute little birds available at Designer Digitals, her element pack called "Tweet". I recolored the bird slightly and gave her a new wing using LaWanna's papers. (That makes that little bird kit amazingly versatile, y'all!). I used the Rounded Fillabet by Katie the Scrapbook Lady for the title.

Love this photo of DGS Atticus and his Mommy. I used Cindy Simon's Relic paper pack, available at NDISB. The frame on the photo is by Katie Pertiet. The big bow is by Natalie Braxton. The tiny flowers are from Amanda Rockwell's Flower Punch element kit available at amandarockwell.com. Cardboard fold by Linda GB. The closure holding the fold back is by LaWanna Desjardin, her Soft Hearted kit, available in the Friends and Family (to benefit the family of Carla Gibson) part of the store at O Scraps. I saw this quote on someone's layout recently but I can't find it again to give proper credit. The quote stuck in my head but I didn't put the layout into my faves. Sorry.......

I recently received a CD of old family photos from my cousin and these photos were on there. This is my cousin, Anda,.... I used a shape template by Dani Mogstad to create the rays. The scalloped frame is by Jennilyn Designs and the ribbon embroidery is by Becky Vosburg. The beautiful flowers were extracted from one of the beautiful papers in this kit. The kit is called the Floriade Collection and it is by Anita Stergiou whose creations are full of beauty and great attention to detail. You'll find Anita's work at NDISB and Pickleberry Pop.

One reason to celebrate

Well, I just checked the forecast for the next week.  We are supposed to have two days under the hundred degree mark!  Woohoo!  We are so grateful around this house when it begins to cool off.  Joe has been driving the Mitsubishi and complaining about how hot it is when he gets into it to come home for lunch or after work.  Fortunately, his commute is less than 10 minutes, but he heaves a sigh of relief when he walks through the door.  He was actually thinking of renting a covered parking place so the car would be much cooler when he got into it.  But, honestly, another $30 a month for less than 10 minutes a day?  I don't know.....  Well, we seem to have made it through another summer without that so I'm happy.

He planted some patch grass in the backyard.  While there is definitely more green back there, I can tell that much of what I see through the window that is green is weeds.  At this point, I don't care.  Whatever minimizes the amount of mud the dogs drag in is all good in my eyes.  He says the grass seed is coming up.  I hope so.  We need it!

With the advent of September, the water rationing rules around here require cutting back on watering of lawns to 3 days a week.  Whew!  Our water bill last month was over $160 and $99 the month before.  Joe was slow to increase to 7 days a week but very prompt at decreasing to 3!  We've also had a fair amount of rain (at least, what passes for a fair amount of rain in the desert.)  Between watering, holidays, and rain, the grass in the backyard has grown so tall it's about halfway up my leg and needs mowed.  But, Monday two weeks ago it was raining.  Monday last week was a holiday.  So, the yard guy hasn't been here in quite a while!  It's definitely time for him to pay us a visit!

Dinner is in the crockpot.  It's a cheap dinner with enough extra to freeze for one or two more meals.  I'm going to be trying to cook like that more often--making extra for the freezer.  It's one thing to cook every night, another entirely to just defrost something you've already made every once in a while.  It's an interesting combination of sausage, two kinds of beans, corn, barbecue sauce, salsa, and onions.  Not hard to throw together at all and cooks all day.  Whoopee.  It's 10AM and dinner is already cooking.  I LOVE crockpot cooking.  Of course, given the ingredients, Joe will probably be sleeping in the other room tonight.  His system and beans don't get along, but he LOVES beans....(gulp)

Well, last night was my night to watch the boys.  Will had a swim class at 6:30 and by the time I got  out of the Day Care parking lot, it was 5:45, a full half hour after I'd arrived.  I made a mad dash across town, arriving with only 9 minutes to spare to get Will changed into his swim trunks and get the three of us into the building.  I have to say that chivalry is REALLY DEAD.  Here I am carrying the baby and there isn't a single empty seat.  There are several men around, but not one gets his butt out of a chair and offers it to me.  And, believe me, I would have ever so gratefully dropped into any available seat as my back has been troublesome the past three days.  But, no.......  So, one handed, I had to try to separate a single chair from the stacked chairs sitting in the corner, carry it and the baby to where I wanted to sit.  I did it, but it did my back no good!  Thank God that little guy is indeed a LITTLE guy!  Though he eats like a trooper, he doesn't seem to gain much weight and last night that fact was cause for great joy!

By the time swim class was over, Jason had arrived.  Will did well, but I wondered if maybe his asthma was bothering him some.  He did not seem to be able to take very deep breaths.  He kept needing to gasp for air before he'd even made it halfway across the pool.  And he came out of the pool with the dark purple circles under his eyes that mean one of three things--he's exhausted, he's sick, or his asthma is acting up.  I never heard Jason tell Will he'd done well.  During the lesson he commented to me that Will didn't want to do anything that required effort or pain, but praised Atticus because he was so tough.  In fact the first thing he said to Will of note was that Will needed to change out of his wet swim trunks because he'd make the seats wet.  Hey, I told him he could change in the car, and even if I hadn't, they're my seats, and, besides, he's going to sit in his regulation car seat, not on the seats anyway.  And, after all, it's just water--it dries!  And, I'm supposed to have both of these guys fed and in the bathtub in less than 45 minutes!  I finally got out of there and drove through a place Jen had suggested, which she and I both love, for dinner.  Will, according to his Mom loves the food there too.  But, I think he had his little heart set on going to Burger King to get the latest and greatest toy in their kids meal so, decided, at least for last night, that he no longer likes the food from that place.   I pulled into the driveway at Jen's house at 7:24, just as Jason arrived.  Now I have 21 minutes to get the kids out of the car, up to the table, fed, and into the bathtub.  I wouldn't have been SO concerned about the timetable if Will didn't look exhausted and ready for bed THAT MINUTE.  Will very sweetly helped unload the car.  I asked him to gather up as much as he could carry of the "stuff" and I'd take the baby.  He indeed gathered up a huge armload of towel, swim trunks, etc., and carried it into the kitchen.  But, there was still more in the car.  I asked him to sit with Atticus while I finished with the car, and told him we'd put all the stuff away when I got  back.  Jason came into the kitchen and started yammering at Will about making such a mess on the kitchen floor--dumping everything there instead of putting it away.  Will came out of the house crying because Grandma had asked him to sit with the baby and Dad was telling him to do something different.  I got him settled down and he took care of putting everything away without any question or argument while I ferreted out Atticus's food, set a bottle on the counter to warm up a bit, and got our sandwiches on the table.  By the time I got us to the table it was 7:30.  Jason immediately told Will to leave the table and go blow his nose.......  Okay, we're all back at the table.  Will is picking at his food and Atticus is chowing down except for when Jason leaves the table.  As soon as Jason moves, Atticus is doing body contortions to try to figure out where Dad's going, and, if it's out of sight, he's gonna fuss instead of eat.  Once he figures out that fussing isn't bringing Dad back, he'll eat another bite or two til Dad reappears and then everything stops til Atticus decides Dad's going to stay so he doesn't need to start fussing and contorting again.  I didn't count, but it FELT like we repeated this cycle at least 5 times during dinner.   Will barely ate so when he said he didn't want any more, I sent him to start his bath.  He got the bathwater going and started to strip down when Jason left the table (bringing on another round of fussing and contorting by Atticus), went into the bathroom and turned off the water.  Poor Will reappears in the dining room saying "Dad just turned off the water in the bathtub".  I tell Will, "Okay, baby, let's just skip bath tonight.  I want to get you to bed."  And I send him off to get ready for bed.  About that time Jason reappears, the phone rings and it's Jen.  There ensues a big discussion about whether Will has to take a bath.  The final decision is that yes, he has to do so AND wash his hair because of the chlorine in the pool water.  Honestly, Vegas tap water is FULL of chlorine.  What's the difference?  So, now I've sent Will to take a bath only to have his father walk in and turn off the water; okay, so we'll skip bath; no, we can't skip bath, go get ready (again) to take a bath.  I get Atticus stripped down, throw him in the tub with Will, and get him bathed.  I pull him back out and take him to the bedroom to get him freshly diapered and dressed in his jammies.  Will comes into the bedroom and pulls his boxers on.  He asks me if he can just sleep in his boxers instead of wearing pajamas.  Yes, of course.  It's hot in his room.  Both Joe and I are uncomfortable with the temperature in that house......I'd probably want to sleep naked in that heat....  and Joe WOULD sleep naked!  No, says Jason, who shows up just in time to stir up more controversy.  According to Jason, Will is not old enough to sleep without pajamas????????????? and besides, Grandma will be in there!  Oh, gee....I think I can handle it.  I just spent 15 minutes in the bathroom with Will and the baby and they were (horrors!) naked in the bathtub!  I don't molest little boys nor do I think of soon-to-be 8 year-olds in any sexual way that would make me uncomfortable if they were dressed only in their boxers for bed--in the middle of the lobby of The Venetian, yes, I'd be uncomfortable with that, but not in their very own bed.  Finally, I get both boys into bed, late.  Will usually goes to sleep with a light on, but we turn it out when Grandma lies with us in the bed with Atticus.  Atticus settles down so much better when it's dark and there's less to look at.......  And, I lay there and feed Atticus his bottle and snuggle with him and rub Will's back til he falls asleep, and cry........and cry........and cry some more.  Tears just running down my face and I can't stop them, weeping for poor Will who is so in the middle of all this and trying so hard to please, if only he can figure out whom to please..........  And, hours later, in my own bed, I cry myself to sleep again, crying for Jason, for Jennifer, for Will, and even for Atticus.  Dear God, we need a healing!

I feel like such a failure.  Honestly, Joe and I never really felt like we got to know Jason before he was injured.  I guess he felt uncomfortable, but he came to every family gathering armed with a newspaper.  He'd read the newspaper and the rest of us would do our thing.  Since the injury, even if we'd gotten to know him then, I don't think we could say we know him now.  I go over there, thinking I am there to take care of the boys.  He gets in the middle of EVERYTHING I tell Will to do or anything I try to do with Atticus.  Some of his "reasoning" is beyond belief.  I want to be able to answer him, calmly and cooly, with some rational answer.  But, what happens is so off-the-wall that I am frequently just speechless.  I was pretty quick thinking when I was younger.  Really, it was a requirement of the job I held and I did that job very well.  But, I just don't seem to be able to succeed at protecting Will as I'd like.....it just breaks my heart. 

I have done a bit more of sorting old scrapbooking stuff and have another box with the contents itemized, ready to donate to the church.  Got an empty box waiting for the next load.  I'm going to try to get on that today.  I've managed to strip the bed and rotate the featherbed a 1/4 turn, which I do every time I change the bed.  I will have to face putting the clean sheets on there sooner or later, but I think maybe later, after a mega ibuprofen would be good......

It is now lunchtime.  I am going to quit this for now.  I'll try to pop back on here and post some pages later. 

Computer hell!

I have gone to computer hell.  In fact, I'm still IN computer hell.  Because I am so fearful of a computer crash (this baby is about 4 years old now), I have backups and backups to the stuff I consider important on this computer.  All that is complicated by the fact that, being on so many creative teams, I have access to or am given loads of free digital scrapping stuff every week.   I am expected to scrap with it, but after that it's mine.   I am only on CTs for designers whose stuff I love, so it's all precious.  And then there are the computer copies of my printed scrapbook pages....scans of old paper scrapping pages, etc.  And all my digital and scanned photos.  In short, a VERY large group of computer graphic, memory intensive files.  Well, I've been methodically organizing said files, deleting stuff I didn't need or thought I would NEVER use, and tagging it in a program called ACDSee.  I have tags for things like each color of solid paper, each color of solid ribbon, each of the various kinds of embellishments (flowers, date stamps, arrows, frames, etc.).  And I had the vast majority of my scrapbooking items tagged.  Oh, there were a few files laying around on my external hard drive that weren't tagged, but I've spent many many many hours tagging stuff, just so it would be usable (findable) when I needed it.  The tagging itself is a labor-intensive process.  First you have to create all the categories--blue paper, red paper, green paper, paper with stars, paper with circles, paper with hearts, paper with stripes, paper with plaids, red ribbon, yellow ribbon, purple ribbon, flowers, buttons, word art, and like that.....Then once you've done that, you open a digital file and drag each item in the file to a tag.  Ah, this is red paper....click on it, drag it over to the "red paper" category, and wait for the computer to place a tag on the file so that when you want to look at all the red paper you own, it will be amongst the previews that open up.  Ah, this is green paper.....click on it, drag it over to the "green paper" category, and wait for the computer to place a tag on that file........ah, this is a flower, click on it, drag it over to the "flower" category, and wait for the computer to place a tag on that file.......and the same thing, over and over, til you have dealt with every item in the file...................  Yeah.....takes a while.

So, the bulk of my scrapbooking stuff was on an external hard drive.  But, there was SOME on my computer's hard drive.  Then I had a somewhat larger hard drive (external) which I used for backup.  Well, I had filled the computer's internal hard drive to the point that it was slowing down the computer's functionality.  And, I had been fighting for space on the smaller EHD for months, deleting everything I could delete to make space for the new stuff.  And, I just got tired of it.  SO, I got a BIG (1 terrabyte) External Hard Drive last weekend.  This weekend, I finally installed it.  First, I backed up all my files to the middle-sized EHD.   Unfortunately, I backed some stuff up twice.  As I began deleting the duplicate files, I really screwed up the EHD.  It took me two days to defrag the hard drive.  (For my mother:  when you open a file on the computer and then close it again, it just plops the data any old place on your computer.  After a while, the computer slows down just trying to find the files that are all now mish-mashed on the hard drive.  So, one defragments the hard drive--the computer looks at every file and decides where it ought to be, moves it, and then moves all the data closer together on the drive.)  Usually a defrag of that drive will take an hour, max.  This time, I started the defragging on Sunday, it ran all night, and ran all day Monday!  Now, I am trying to delete the stuff that has been copied to the External Hard Drive from the internal hard drive and defrag the internal hard drive.  Ugh!  It is not going well.  And, to make my life completely miserable, moving data from one drive to another has in most cases caused the tags to be lost from the organizing program.  I feel as though this system will never be functional again.  So, if you wonder how I spent Labor Day weekend, there you have it in a nutshell.

Jennifer, on the other hand, had a not very enjoyable weekend at Disneyland.  Will's 8th birthday is coming up SOON.  So, this year, instead of a party this year, they took him to Disneyland.  Jason wanted to run in a race down there yesterday morning, and by running the race, got them free tickets to the park.  So, they only had to pay for their hotel room.  Jen spent lots of time researching on the 'net and found them a hotel room that was kind of reasonably priced and very close to the park.  However, somehow Jason ended up making reservations elsewhere.  So, they arrived to find the hotel where they had reservations at a hotel 4-5 miles from the park.  The problem with that was that Jason had to be at the site of the run at 5AM and Jennifer would have to wake the boys and drive him there, leaving about 4AM.  That wasn't going to work.  Well, they called around til almost 1AM, talking, as Jennifer puts it, to many people for whom English is a second language who don't know the word "adjacent".  Finally they found a place, but the room was just awful....bugs, etc.  And, parts of California had record highs over the weekend.  I've actually been to Disneyland when it was cool enough for a jacket there, while much warmer elsewhere.  But, even Disneyland was HOT this weekend.  And, of course, being a holiday weekend, the lines were LONG.  Their only breaks from the heat were being inside the rides.  She was also amazed that inside the park, the smallest of sodas were $3.25.  Yup, that's Disneyland.  Overall, Will enjoyed the trip which was the most important part, but Jennifer was pretty darned miserable.  I honestly think many parents feel just exactly the same way after a trip to Disneyland or Disney World, their only compensating factor being that the kids had fun.....

I can't post any pages right now.  I'm working on defragging the hard drive while I type this and opening and closing files in the middle of a defrag is just stupid.  But, now you know about our weekends which, I'm sure, is information you couldn't live without........