My Weblog

She has arived!!!!!!!

 
It's been a long week.  But, one major event makes it all worthwhile.  On Tuesday night at 11:23, Miss Elizabeth Jane joined the rest of us humans walking around loose in the world. 

It was quite an ordeal, but we lived through it.  However, what I am about to write contains my personal opinions to which I have a right.  And, this is MY blog, so I have a right to express them here as long as America is a free country.  It's perfectly okay if you don't agree with me, but this is still what I believe.

It started about 10:00PM Saturday night with contractions about every 20 minutes.  They were no big deal during the day on Sunday.  Sunday night they started up again and Monday morning, Jennifer called and told me she thought Monday was the day and to clear my calendar.  About 6 hours later she called and told me to forget it, the contractions had backed way off and nothing was going to happen on Monday.  Sure enough Monday evening they started up again and by Tuesday morning we were down to about 10 minutes apart.  The midwife came by the house and checked her and pronounced her to be at 3 cm and 80% effaced.  My phone rang about 8:15, and 45 minutes later, I was at Jennifer's. 

Now I realize that much that is part of labor and delivery in hospitals is arranged for the convenience of the doctor.  However, somewhere along the way, with all their experience and education, they just might have learned something.  Along the way from pregnant to mommy, there is a stage called transition.  During that stage, medical science typically advises that the mother NOT push.  They state flat out that pushing prematurely will cause the cervix to swell and prolong the labor.  Since much of labor and delivery is conserving the doctor's time, I sincerely doubt they'd say don't push if it would make things go any faster when you did push in transition. 

Jennifer did not have a doctor in attendance, just a midwife and a doula.  Had they sat on the floor cross-legged and started chanting to help the baby come, I don't think I'd have been surprised.  They were just that kind of people.  So, their answer was, "It's all natural.  If your body says push, then push, because that's your body trying to help you get this baby out".  So, she pushed and she pushed and she pushed andthe cervix still covered a part of the baby's head.

She labored a very long time.  She coped with the pain and she did as she was told, and the bag of waters didn't break until around 3PM.  So, for 6 hours that I observed, she labored and breathed, and coped and pushed and the bag of waters was still in the way.  And, truthfully, she was more or less exhausted when I arrived at 9AM.  So, then the bag of waters finally broke, and the pains became more intense, and the pains became more frequent, she was already totally exhausted and wrung out.  She needed rest, and to get any rest, she had to have relief from the pain.  After all, she hadn't had decent sleep for Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights, just short naps, 10-20 minutes at a time.  And, from my own experience, when you are in intense pain, coping with it, not screaming when you want to, takes SO MUCH energy.....  Finally around 4:30, she went to the hospital and got an epidural.  Of course, the midwife and doula just kept telling her over and over "you can do this".  Yeah, that's their job.  But, how about you stop chanting and examine the circumstances, ladies?  You want her to do it all when she's gone 72 hours without REM sleep?  You're nuts!

It would have made sense to me to break the bag of waters no later than around noon.  I really truly believe that had that been done, Jennifer would have found enough strength to have the baby at home.  But by the time it actually happened "natually", it was just too late.  She just couldn't stand any more and her reserves of strength were totally spent.  Yes, I realize that the bag of waters will break on its own.  And, my daughter wanted a more "natural" childbirth experience.  However, one look at her showed that she was all used up.  There were no hidden resources of strength.  They'd all been expended on getting as far as she did.  And, they wouldn't listen.  It was as though they were ignoring what she said.  Yes, I'm sure many women give up when they could have made it through. 

But, they did not know with whom they were dealing.  Jennifer does not give up, EVER.  As a kid she was one of the most stubborn, hardheaded people I've ever encountered.  When she made up her mind, she did what she wanted and if she ran over you to do it, well so be it. 

Many people don't know that she suffered from bi-lateral, mirror-image Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis for several years.  At first, all she wanted to do was sit--moving hurt, hurt her ankles, hurt her knees, hurt her hips.  But, eventually she decided that if she was ever going to have a life, she'd have to move.  And, in spite of the pain, she did!

Later, in her senior year of High School, through no fault of her own, she became pregnant.  She had a full scholarship to a school that was 450 miles away.  She could have stayed here and between us, we'd have kept a roof over all our heads and kept the baby fed.  But, she had a full scholarship to a school that was 450 miles away.  With a 4 month old baby, she packed up and moved to Reno.  I had serious doubts.  How in the world would she do it?  Well, she did it and graduated with honors.  She gutted it out when all the odds were against her.

Then she moved back home and started Law School.  She had student loans, but they weren't sufficient.  She worked the system and made it through.  I honestly thought it might kill her that first year.  She got sick, was so thin her arms were like sticks.  But, she made it and subsequently passed the Bar Exam without even taking a Bar Review course.

She got married and less than a year later, her husband was mugged and sustained a traumatic brain injury.  The statistics are that less than 50% of marriages survive the first 6 months after one of the partners sustains a traumatic brain injury.  After 12 months, less than 25% of marriages are still in tact.  We are now 3.5 years down the road.  Jason is still working through his issues.  But, there is definite improvement.  He was of almost no help when Atticus was born about 7 months after he was injured.  He tried, but it just didn't work.  In fact, I scrapped a page showing him sound asleep on the couch with William during her labor.  When the doctor finally decided Atticus was going to have to be taken by C-section, we had to wake Jason up and help him get into his scrub clothes to get him into the delivery room.  He did so much better this time.  Though still not what one might have wished for if all wishes and dreams came true, the contrast was remarkable. 

So, as I said, this girl does NOT give up.  The women in question simply did not know their patient.  Finally, around 4:30 or 5PM the pilgrimmage was made to the hospital and she got her epidural.  I did not get to go along.  It was a sacrifice I did not want to make, but I knew after all the hubbub and commotion that had been going on in the house all day, the boys would be best off with a quiet evening with Grandma.  So, I stayed with the boys and I missed seeing my granddaughter born.  It broke my heart, but it was the right thing to do. 

Jason called around midnight and told me the baby had been born.  She weighed in at 7 pounds 11 ounces, a pretty good sized baby for a fairly petite mom to birth.  I waited for him to come home.  I tried lying down with the boys, but two "active sleepers" and a cat don't make for sleep in a queen-sized bed.  So, I got up and read forums and blogs and waited for a call.  Finally, when 4AM rolled around, Joe got off from work and went to the hospital.  After a few wrong turns (I was with him on the cell phone) he found Jennifer's room and she and Jason were sound asleep.  (We found out later that Elizabeth was in bed with Jennifer, but Joe didn't see her.)  So, a little after 4, I crawled into Jen and Jason's bed and slept til 7:19 when the phone rang.  The boys brought it in and it was Jason announcing that it was a school day for William and I needed to take him to school.  Thankfully, Jennifer took the phone and said she didn't really care whether William went to school on Wednesday or not.  I'm not sure I'd have wanted to drive anywhere on 3 hours of sleep with such precious "baggage" in the car, KWIM?  But, at this point, the boys were bouncing on the bed, and I had to get up.  About 4 hours later, Jason came home and I got to go to my home where I grabbed a short nap. 

Then, Jason called and said Jennifer had arranged to leave the hospital around 5:30 and could I come watch the boys......  Well, of course, everything that was arranged crumbled with the shift change of nurses.  It took forever to actually leave the hospital.  Meanwhile, Atticus was in total meltdown.  There was no hope of him getting a nap in the middle of all that was going on Tuesday.  And, Jason hadn't put him down for a nap on Wednesday either.  I wanted him to be able to stay up and see his mother and meet his baby sister, but he finally climbed into my lap and I rocked him just to soothe him and he fell asleep.  Meanwhile, William was wound up tighter than a top.  When are they coming?  Why aren't they here?  How long could this possibly take?  What's wrong?  Do you think they had an accident in the car on the way home?  And on and on.  Finally, around 9, they got there.  Atticus missed the homecoming entirely, but William was thilled and so was I. 

So, what is all this commotion about.  Well, I wasn't around at the birth, so it was difficult finding a photo that was postable, but with some editing, I found one.  Here she is, Miss Elizabeth (and her very happy Mommy)!

Yesterday morning, my computer took a nosedive.  I worked on it all day (minus a few hours I spent at Jennifer's) and it finally started to function properly about 10PM last night.  I think I wore the mouse out, making dots on a paper in Photoshop Elements!  Anyway, this is the first chance I've had to post.  Now, I'm going to try to upload some kits to my stores.........
 

Mind Spill

I'm not sure how much sense this will make today, but it's time to update, so I'll update.  We've been on "baby watch" since yesterday.  Saturday night Jennifer started having contractions.  Of course, they were mild and erratic at first.  But, by 10:00 yesterday morning, they were harder and regular, every 10 minutes.  We really thought we were on the way.  Jennifer suggested I "clear my calendar" for the afternoon and evening because she was convinced yesterday was the day.  However, by 2PM, she told us to forget about it. This morning, around 6AM she called and asked if we would take the boys for a couple of hours so she could sleep.  Seems she's had contractions all night long.  So, Joe's headed off to pick up the boys.

I was very excited yesterday, but I'm less so today because I'm medicated.  My back is bothering me so I've had a mega-Ibuprofen and half a Soma.  No muscle spasm today, Praise God.  It's out and it's sore, but I'm in better shape than I usually am when it is acting up!

Joe fixed the heating pad!  When we first took in Parker, he wasn't here more than a day or two when he chewed the cord on the heating pad.  I don't want to go spend $20 or $30 on a new heating pad so I've been waiting, without a heating pad, for Joe to fix it.  I was in so much pain when I got up this morning that he jumped to and fixed it.  That's a good thing!

John Maxwell says that in order to be a candidate for a miracle, you've got to have a problem.  Well, I'm happy to say we're expecting a miracle in this house.  Joe has calculated out his next paycheck and it will be, net, around $7xx.  We currently owe $1300 in regular bills (utilites and such), a second mortgage payment, October's first mortgage payment, and two car payments.  So, we're candidates for a financial miracle.  That puts us in the exciting position of expecting to see a miracle in our lives.  We'll just see how this plays out..... 

There's a lower level management position open at the company where Joe works.  We're trying to figure out if he should apply for it.  Our guess is it would actually net us less money than he's making now.  But, it would be an 8 hour shift as opposed to 12 hours.  While working shorter hours would be a real blessing, see the paragraph above........  He's going to polish up his resume and speak with some of the managers today to see what scoop he can get.......

Before we got Punkin, we had a group of three shrubs by our wall.  They were about 4 feet high and at least that deep.  For some reason, Punkin thought they made great chewys and she chewed them down to stubs.  Miraculously, 2 of the 3 plants survived.  They had made it up to where they were about a foot and a half high and about that deep.  Then Parker came to live here.........  Once again, they are chewy's.  The plants aren't bald yet, but he's been working on them.  It's pretty funny that they both picked the same group of plants to gnaw on!  And, of course, once you correct them for bringing the stuff in the house to chew, they become secretive about what they're doing so it becomes difficult to stop them.  Our big advantage is that we figure Parker was at least 6 months old when he adopted us, so perhaps the chewing will end soon?????

I know I mentioned that I'm having some work done on the blog.  I just finished up a new blog header and some other stuff, zipped it up, and sent it off to Kathy Moore, the techno genius who is doing the work for me.  I think it's beautiful, y'all.  I hope you like it as much as I do!  I made it all with my Harvest Song kit so it features all those beautiful fall colors I love so much.  I can't wait to see it here!

In Psalms 115:14, it says that the Lord will make us increase.  Now, that might refer to my waistline, except that the next part of the verse refers to "both us and our children" and my waistline is actually decreasing a little.  I'm seeing increase in my designing income.  It's still nowhere near what I would like it to be, but I'm grateful to the Lord and my customers for every penny of it.  The software at each of my stores is totally different.  I think ACOT's site is the easiest in most respects (the software there is custom-designed, not "adapted"), followed by Digiscrap Boutique, and then NDISB.  But it's funny the way it varies from one area to another.  I have found it absolutely impossible to view actual orders of my products at ACOT, but there is a nice summary that I can look at and that gives me an idea of sales.  There may be a way to do it, but I haven't been able to figure it out--yet.  DSB is by far the easiest in this regard.  I can actually view who ordered and I've found I've developed a fan there.  She's come back every few days and bought something else.  I investigated last night and found out how to create a coupon so I'm going to send her one as a "thank you" for her purchases, if that's okay with the site administrator.  At NDISB, I can see how much has sold fairly easily.  What's difficult is to see to whom it's sold on a day to day basis.  However, eventually they do e-mail me copies of the orders.  In that each piece of software is designed to accomplish the same goal, to facilitate sales of digi-scrapping materials, it is interesting, to me, to see how different it is from place to place.

I had an anniversary of sorts a few days ago--one year doing scrap design.  As I look back, I can see how much my designs have improved and I'm thrilled with what I'm doing these days.  However, I hope next year this time, I can still see lots of improvement over the last year.  It's no good to be stagnant in anything, right?  I am very happy with the three stores I'm selling in now.  So, all in all, it's a good experience for me.

I have two kits to put into the stores this week.  One is a kit that's already for sale at NDISB, but will go up at ACOT and DSB for the first time.  The other is brand new.  I like them both so I can't wait to see how they go in the stores....  I'm planning on a big sale to celebrate the birth of Miss Elizabeth Jane.  I may hold off on that, though, til December.  I can't quite work it out in my head yet.  I am in charge of the monthly collaborative kit at NDISB in December, and that entitles me to a bigger % of my sales.  It might make sense to hold off til then.....  I haven't really taken time to figure it all out.  But, of course, if I do a sale at one store, I'll do a sale at all three. 

So, where do I go from here, design-wise.  Well, the next kit up is PINK!  I've not worked with pink yet.  And, with a granddaughter about to make her entrance into the world, it seems I SHOULD have something with which to scrap her photos, right?  And, it's not as though there is a shortage of such kits, but I still want to do one just for her.......  By the time I finish that and get it into the store, I'll need to be hot and heavy into goodies for Christmas.  That should be fun as Christmas time is magical as far as I'm concerned!

I do have a couple of pages to show off today, and by the time I get that taken care of, it will be time to sign off.  Both pages use products from Bella Gypsy Designs.  You can find products by Bella Gypsy Designs at ACOT, at Gotta Pixel, and at Elemental Scraps. 

This page celebrates Dakota's graduation from Obedience School.  Doesn't she look cute in her little "cap"?  I wonder, where's the gown?  William was primarily responsible for working with her and did a good job.  The kit is called Silence I Can't Ignore.

That's a photo of Atticus, standing on the play structure, looking down at all the bigger people who are looking up at him.  He looks pretty proud, doesn't he?  This kit is called Better Left Unsaid.  I also used a template by Bella Gypsy Designs from the Put 'Em Up template pack.  I get such a kick out of the titles they come up with for their products.  VERY creative.

Well, Joe is due home any second with the boys, so I'm going to sign off.  This was kind of a rambling post, but at least I got it done in the time I had available.  Have a blessed day!
 
 

What a day!

The morning went reasonably well.  I'm supposed to be putting together a min-kit for a collaboration with a music theme.  Well, I started weeks ago, only to discover that I had gone in one direction and everyone else had gone in another.  My kit features a piano keyboard, roses, sheet music, a grand piano, a violin, that kind of thing.  Everyone else's stuff looks like they're designing for a rock concert.  Once I saw what everyone else was doing, I just kind of quit.  There is really no way what I've done fits with what the kit has turned into.  However, this morning I pulled it out and started to flesh it out with elements.  I already had so much work into it, it seemed silly to just let it molder on my hard drive.  I may need to add a few things to it, but it's coming along really well.  I'm just going to do a set of cardstock for the collaborative kit and after I'm free to use it on my own, I'll sell the whole thing in all three stores.

I started early to brew my coffee and get myself all set up for my make-it-myself Frappucino.  I added all the ingredients to the blender except the ice and just let it sit.  There was a fair amount of chocolate left on the spoon, and being a bit tight with a nickel, I just left the measuring spoon in the blender for the chocolate to "soak" off into the mixture.  Can anyone see where this is going?  Well it came time for me to get on my way to work.  I gathered my stuff and headed into the kitchen.  I went straight to the freezer, gathered a container full of ice, threw it into the blender and let her rip.  Yes, you guessed it.  My Frappucino featured tiny bits of plastic from my 1 Tablespoon measure from my lovely set of nesting Tupperware measuring spoons.  Ugh!  This whole save-money-and-do-it-yourself thing is not working out too well......

Off to work I went.  I was there about an hour when my daughter called, sounding as though she was on the verge of tears.  She had just picked Atticus up from daycare and was headed to Will's school to pick him up from the after school program when she discovered she didn't have her keys.  She was going to have to walk all the way back to her office to get them, dragging Atticus along.  Thank God at 39 weeks pregnant, she didn't feel the need to carry him!  And William had to be picked up by 6PM.  She called Jason, explained what had happened and asked him to go get William.  No, of course not, he was too busy.  Now, in a state of panic, she called me.  She knew there was no way she was going to be able to walk back to her office with Atty, get her keys, walk back to her car, and get to William by 6PM.  She dumped all of Atty's stuff--his diaper bag, his lunch bag, his Thomas the Train set he'd brought to school to play with, etc.--in the hallway outside the school's office so she wouldn't have to carry it.  At 5:37PM, my cell phone rang.  And, there was my daughter's voice, sounding so stressed and on the verge of tears.  Where was I and could I possibly go get William?  I immediately closed up the office, jumped in my van and headed towards Will's school.  The problem was something I blogged about earlier--the extra 50,000 people in town for the two big conventions and the 60,000 people estimated to be attending the U2 concert.  And, to get to the U2 concert, the street I was on was one of the two most likely to be travelled.  Traffic was bumper to bumper, even though I was doing the drive more than 2 hours before the minor bands were scheduled to kick off the concert.  I finally made it to William's school about 7 minutes after 6.  Thank God they were still there.........and they were understanding.  In fact, I think they were convinced that Jennifer was in some Labor and Delivery room somewhere having the baby.  I kept trying to find out what was going on by phone and Jennifer's phone was cutting out.  So, I decided I'd drive a block out of my way and see if her car was still parked where she usually parks it.  Yes, it was.  Well, when she got back to her office, her secretary had gone home.  After all, it was past 5:45PM and a Friday night......  So, she called campus security and one of their officers came over to let her back into her office.  Unfortunately, when all was said and done, she didn't find her keys.  She called Jason and asked him to drive to the University and give her his key.  Somehow, he refused to do it.  So, she coaxed Atticus back to my van.  Meanwhile, I ran in and gathered up the things she'd left behind when she started back to her office and got some guy to let me into Atticus's classroom where he and I searched all the surfaces, looking for her keys, to no avail.   In the middle of all this craziness and running around and stress, my mother calls.  I call her several times a week when I'm on my way to work.  That's a whole 'nother story, but she'd figured out she'd missed a call and was calling back.  Sorry, can't talk now.........  I drove the tribe home where Jennifer got Jason's car key.  A friend of Will's was waiting at their house (for over half an hour) with his father to take William to their house to spend the night.  I helped Will "pack" which consisted of stuffing the basic minimums into a bookbag and heading out.  Then, I loaded Jennifer and Atticus back into the van with the spare key and back we went to the University to get her car.  By then, Atticus was hungry and getting cranky, so we drove through Mickey D's on the way to the University.  Atticus got a kid's meal with chocolate milk and within 5 seconds, the chocolate milk ended up on the floor of my van.  I'll be outside, washing floor mats tomorrow.  Then, after making sure the spare key worked and Jenifer and Atticus were safely on their way, I headed home.  There are things I really should do, but........I don't seem to care much about them.  All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't see Jason at their house.  His *ss would have been the grass and I'd have been the lawnmower.  For heaven's sake, she's due to deliver in a week and left to wander around, two year old in tow, because he's too busy to come and get her?  I want to slap him around; I really do. 

Well, I've had enough for one day.  I'm about to head off to bed.  I think I just might take a mega Ibuprofen before I lie down.......  Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, Tomorrow.  You're only a day away......

Ta-Daaaaaaa!

Designing

My fall kit has hit the stores.  You can find it at NDISB, ACOT, and Digiscrap Boutique.  I'm getting better at this uploading/posting stuff.  It went into each store with great ease.  Time-consuming to upload, but while it was uploading, I had time to do some housework.  Anyway, when I've finished this blog post, next up will be the alphas.  I want to get them into the stores today.  The kit was over 200 mb, and the alphas are much smaller, so it will go faster.  Even though the alphas aren't in the store yet, I'm going to go ahead and post a preview for you anyway.

Here's the kit.  It's on sale at all three stores for 20% off through October 31.

There are detailed previews of elements, print papers and solids at Digiscrap Boutique and at NDISB.  I'm still not sure if there is even a way to get detail previews at ACOT!  I'm not going to put them all up here.....typepad gets cranky with too many images.  But, I did want to show off the texture on the solids.  This same texture is used on some of the print papers too, giving them a fabric look.

Isn't that gorgeous???????  Just a hint for anyone who is interested--there is a fall collaborative kit at Digiscrap Boutique to which I've contributed which uses this exact same color scheme.  Let me dig up a picture of that for you.......

Gotta love typepad--I THINK that worked, but I'm not sure.  Just in case you can find Falling for Fall here.  It's not a HUGE collaborative--Digiscrap Boutique is a small store.  But, there are some great elements in the kit.  And think of the expanded scrapping possibilities if you owned both Harvest Song (my kit) and Falling for Fall, since they use the same colors........  You could scrap fall photos for days and days........

Now, about those alphas.  First, I made the burnt orange one.  Then I thought that might not look so good with all the various colors of the kit (particularly the print papers).  So, there was this one golden yellow paper I really loved, so I made a golden yellow alpha.  Mmmmmm, pretty!  But, I still felt there should be something more neutral.  So, I did the dark alpha.  Between the 3 of them, I think I've got all the bases covered.  Here's a peek:

I love how that third, darker alpha incorporates all the colors of the kit.  It really WILL go with everything!  This set of alphas will be on sale for $3.20 from now til midnight eastern time October 31.

Scrapping

For the moment, my scrapping mojo is missing.  I don't know what happened to it.  I'm thrilled to be able to tell you, though, that Cori Gammon is back and selling at The Lily Pad.  She's got two gorgeous kits up there.  And, wait til you see what Bella Gypsy Designs has in store for you Monday.  Please, Lord, let my mojo return soon.........

Real Life

There are two huge conventions in town.  Projected attendance between the two of them is around 50,000 people.  In addition, there's a U2 concert here tonight.  Joe has been busier than usual the last couple of nights for which we are grateful.  Even better, he's had two nights of good tips.  He has one "regular" that calls him frequently.  The man, regrettably, is an alcoholic.  He's one of those "functional alcoholics" who shows up for work everyday and is drunk night after night.  He's had 5 DUI's and his license is suspended.  He has a very high-paying job, and lives with a woman who is downright wealthy, and he throws money around like it was nothing.  He thinks nothing of having Joe take him somewhere and then having Joe stop at 2 or 3 convenience or liquor stores with the meter running along the way so he can buy more booze.  I think he tipped Joe a total of something like $87 Wednesday night.  The $7 he actually threw on the floor like it was nothing.  It wasn't "nothing" to Joe who picked it up and thanked God for it.  I don't know if this guy will tip as well when he sobers up, but we're praying for just that.  Then last night Joe picked up a guy at the Palms.  He appeared with two beautiful babes on his arms.  He tipped the Bellman $100 and then turned around and handed Joe a $100 bill as he and his "babes" climbed into the cab.  The ride to wherever he was going was $7.50.  Joe asked him if he wanted change and he said no.  That was Joe's highest tip ever, $92.50.  Praise God!

I worked my butt off yesterday, between the house and work.  I unloaded the dishwasher, re-loaded the dishwasher, wiped down all the kitchen countertops, scrubbed the stove top (remember what I said about Joe being messy?  He'd been cooking.....), scrubbed the kitchen floor, finished one load of laundry and did another, worked on the piles of paper on my desk, and pruned the rose bushes.  All that in addition to uploading the kit to three stores!  My main room for today will be the office.  I am doing my best to pitch things as I go.  If I can get rid of a lot of the clutter, dusting will go much faster, LOL.  I really do no like housework.....

At work, I finished up the payroll tax returns for the quarter, wrote the checks for them, prepared the envelopes, deposit slip for the Fed return, did payroll, updated the cash account, updated the checkbook, and updated my bank reconciliation.  I download the information daily from the bank's website and reconcile daily.  I HATE end of month surprises!  Then, I went home.  I had intended to stay later at work last night, but I forgot to take a blood pressure pill before I left home and I had a headache throbbing and I just decided it was time to go home. 

Hey, I was actually able to cash the two paychecks I was carrying around with me.  I paid my credit card bill with a day to spare.  Now I can repay the $100 I borrowed from Joe when I thought the paychecks wouldn't cash in time and I didn't have enough squirreled away to make the payment.  And, I can pay my tithes.  And then I will be about broke til I cash my check from payday today.  Oh well........  It's a paycheck to paycheck existence for me.  But, with an occasional short term loan from Jennifer or Joe, I get by and keep my personal bills paid.  They're not personal bills, they're really just bills with my name on them.  You can't call credit card bills "personal" bills when the charges on them are for things like broken garage doors (family emergency), printing tax returns (business expense), and things of that nature.  Heaven knows, I haven't bought so much as a pair of underwear for myself this year.......  But, I don't see a lot of alternative to using the credit cards when the only way to earn $200 for a tax return is to use a credit card online to pay the fee for using the software.  Or, when your garage door almost literally "collapses", wide open! 

One of the things I have been working very hard on is watching what comes out of my mouth.  I'm not always successful, but I had a perfect example this week of why that's a good idea.  Six months ago, I was scheduled to scrap a wedding album for Matthew and Patty.  It was to be my wedding gift to them.  All of a sudden, Patty decided "it was too expensive" (??????  I was paying for it and it was a gift to them....) and decided to do it herself.  In fact, she decided to do one for them, one for her mother, one for his mother, one for her grandmother, etc.  I returned the album she'd given me to use and kept my mouth shut.  But, I consider myself a professional in the realm of scrapbooking and I turn out some pretty good product and pages.  If I had the time to advertise that service yet too, they'd be worth $10 a page.  So, my feelings were really hurt.  My gift, a quality gift, was refused.  Even worse, her plans for making albums did not include Matthew's Dad, my husband, Joe.  How awful to be ignored in that way and I was hurt for him too.  

Two days ago, I got an e-mail from Patty.  Apparently she'd tried to do a scrapbook and was not pleased with her results.  I have now been asked, once again, if I'll do the scrapbook for her.  Of course I will.  I was thrilled to see the hand of God in this change of mind.  I'm so glad I didn't give vent to my feelings because God worked it out that I am victorious without saying a word. 

There are many things happening in the world today that concern me deeply.  I see so much that is against traditional Judeo/Christian values being espoused in this country.  Forgive me, but for a moment, I am going to climb on my soapbox.  From a very reputable source, I received an e-mail today that I need to talk about.  It concerns the Climate Control conference scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in December.  The article quotes Lord Christopher Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain.  According to Lord Monckton, "[T]his treaty of Copenhagen, which is going to be negotiated by the states' parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December, is going to...establish for the first time in human history a global government," he warns.

  
Monckton contends that the word "government" appears twice in paragraph 38 of the draft, and that paragraphs 36 through 38 explain that the purpose of the treaty is to establish a world government. "Whose job," he explains, "will be to transfer wealth from the wealthy countries, such as the United States most of all, to Third World countries -- and the excuse for this transfer of wealth is so-called 'reparation.'"
 
Reparation for so-called "climate debt," he adds. Monckton notes that the U.N. believes the U.S. owes the world this debt because of its use of fossil fuels, which he says are mistakenly blamed for causing "manmade global warming." He adds that this world government will have the ability to make the U.S. pay. Monckton is hopeful that the U.S. will lack the willingness to ratify such a dangerous treaty.

Lord Monckton goes on to say, "It must be passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which is 67 out of your 100 senators," says Monckton. "Now I don't think that Obama will find it at all easy to get a two-thirds majority...but during his election campaign one of his advisors said that he [Obama] regarded the U.S. Constitution as merely a piece of paper...and he saw it as a barrier to the things that the Left around the world want to do -- and therefore they were going to find ways of circumventing it."

Here are my concerns:  1) The scientific community is not in agreement that there even IS such as thing as global warming.  Just recently I saw a document, endorsed by a number of well known scientists, which indicates that this is not "global warming" caused by the use of fossil fuels, but rather gradual warming due to the end of an ice age which the world has experienced over many centuries.  If even the scientific community can not agree on global warming, what is the point of a treaty that would make the US pay reparations based on a theory which may be a batch of hooey?  2)  There is some precedent for the idea of a one-world government.  It is found in the Bible.  And it heralds the rise of the Anti-Christ and the beginning of the Tribulation.  Whether you are pre-Trib, mid-Trib, or post-Trib, with regard to the return of Jesus Christ for his church, or if you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, you'd better get ready.  Every prophecy in the Bible required for the return of Christ for his church has been fulfilled in the past 60 years.  There are no t's left to cross, no i's left to dot.  And, when we begin to hear about one-world government, the ears of Christians around world should begin to prick and their eyes should begin to examine the clouds.  If you're in the "haven't got a clue" group, I strongly recommend you contact the pastor of a good evangelical church (Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Lutheran (Missouri Synod), etc) and ask him.  3) In order to be ready fo the return of Jesus Christ for his church, it is not sufficient to be a good person; it is not sufficient to be a church member; it is not sufficient to "think" you'll go to heaven.  The Bible says "there is only one name under heaven whereby men shall be saved" and that name is Jesus.  If you haven't given your heart to Jesus and turned your life over to him, it's time.  We may have a decade left.  He may come tomorrow.  He may come today.  If you have any question as to how to do this, leave me a comment and I'll be glad to help.  4)  The quote from Lord Monckton with regard to Obama's reputed opinion of the US Constitution sickens me.  That document, drafted more than 200 years ago, and venerated throughout our history, has served us well.  It is way more than just another piece of paper to me.  What about you?  5)  IF, indeed, there is something to this fossil fuel thing, when will the United Nations take action against other countries who are unabashedly poluting the air.  I know a woman who lives in China.  When the Olympics were there, all factories within several hundred miles of the site were closed down.  The air quality is so bad, from the burning of coal, that she literally blows black mucus from her nose and hacks up black stuff from her lungs.  She considers the pollution to be such a danger to her own health and the health of her children, that she feels she must leave China after this year.  She has just recently recovered from a prolonged bout with pneumonia which was exacerbated by the pollution.  Will China pay reparations?  The US has repeatedly enacted legislation to cut air pollution.  Have we cleaned the air up completely?  No, but we HAVE reacted to the situation in a beneficial manner which is more than can be said for some countries.  6) When it comes down to it, isn't this just another way to "spread the wealth around"?  Where's Joe the Plumber when we need him.....

Oh, by the way, I'm having some more work done on the blog by Kathy Moore who is a technical genius.  We aren't changing a lot, but it should be a new and improved blog soon......

Well, that's all I have to say for today.  I'll bet you're glad to hear that!  Have a good 'un!

 

 
  

Headache from H.e.double.hockey.sticks

I have another one of those lousy headaches.  Not bad enough to totally paralyze me, but bad enough to make accomplishing anything very uncomfortable.  So, what else do you do when you feel that way, other than blog?  I dunno

Designing

I worked on the fall kit this morning, before the headache hit.  All that's left to do is zip the files.  And I now have 3 coordinating alphas to go with the kit.  It really has some gorgeous texturing and prints in it. 

I got paid today from NDISB for the first two weeks of October.  My sales report for the two weeks looked really good until you backed out the "sales" that I don't get paid for--those to the creative team.  I don't mind that though.  They really gave me great support.  It's not all that often someone dumps 7 kits on them at once.  Considering they have a whole raft of designers to create for, I felt pretty honored at the time they spent on me.  I turned right around and bought stuff for Christmas kits.  I've bought three packages of stuff for Christmas so far and, honestly, I'm not over-the-top thrilled with any of them.  The two I purchased today sure beat the one I got last week; there are a number of items I will use and the price was certainly right.  I was so disappointed in that one last week I was ready to write the store and demand my money back. 

Well, I will put the new kit in the stores, starting either tonight or tomorrow morning.  I've got a smaller kit I'd like to flesh out with a few more elements.  I'm reasonably happy with the papers, but I DO need to find/make some goodies to go with them.  Then I will start on my baby girl kit.

Scrapping

Haven't done a thing except unzip a couple of kits and register in a new forum. 

Real Life

Today has not been my day.  I decided that in view of our budget, I would buy the ingredients and make my own Frappucinos from now on.  I searched the internet and found a recipe.  Then I was prowling around til past 8 last night, buying ingredients.  I made the expresso coffee last night before I went to bed.  Finally, this morning, I assembled everything but the ice.  Walked away, way too early to add the ice.  I wanted to do that as I was on my way out the door.  Came back to find some syrupy gooey stuff leaking out of the blender and all over the counter.  I was totally mystified, but cleaned up the mess.  I didn't put any syrupy, gooey stuff in the blender--just espresso coffee, milk, chocolate syrup and sugar.  Cleaned up the mess wondering where did that yucky stuff come from?  Later I came back to find more syrupy gooey stuff on the counter and it finally struck me.  Joe NEVER really cleans out the entire blender.  He unscrews the pitcher and leaves everything else in place.  And, of course, he spills everything.  So, that syrupy gooey stuff was leftover from something he'd made somewhere in the past and spilled down into the area below the blade.  It was being "washed" out because when he put the pitcher back in place, he didn't bother to screw it on tight so it was leaking.  I was up to my eyeballs in mess, and trying to clean it up with paper towels when he appeared. (It was so sticky it was "gluing" the paper towels to the countertop.)  He promptly knocked over my frappucino in the process of "helping" me.  Honestly, who needs help like that?  Parker was more help than Joe.  At least he licked up what spilled on the floor.  Joe left me with the whole mess to clean up.  I have the horrible feeling a hammer and chisel may be needed to get the pieces apart to really clean it right. 

He makes so many messes.  Sometimes I despair of keeping up with him; other times I just give up.  It's worse than a having a toddler because he's bigger and can get into more stuff.  No wonder I'm relieved when he leaves for work--for 12 hours the mess-making stops.  He's a good man, but he DOES make me crazy.

We had a conversation with our second mortgage holder this morning.  They are offering us a loan modification.  We are both a bit shocked at that.  We have an adjustable interest rate on that, tied to Prime.  So, we're only paying 3% which is a darned good rate.  Problem is, with our current income, we can't make the payments.  They're talking about .5% (half a percent) for the life of the loan which has about 27 years to run.  If that's real and not all talk, you sure can't beat that.  They actually took the information over the phone and will get back to us.  What a blessing that would be!

We are at 11 days and counting until Miss Elizabeth Jane is scheduled to debut in the world outside her mother's womb.  I can't wait.  I am quite sure she is an answer to my prayers as I've wanted a grand daughter for SO long.  I can't wait to hold her........

Gotta go (slowly so as not to exacerbate the headache) and clean up that mess in the kitchen.  Pray for me--I need lower blood pressure and more patience!

Oh, well

Designing

Today has been a pistol design wise.  One of the designers at NDISB retired.  When she did, she deleted her stuff from the server--perfectly acceptable.  However, she also deleted her stuff from the store--a humongous No-No.  All of those who are left have had our "attributes" come unhooked.  The "attributes" are actually downloads.  Attributes tell the store that if you buy the ABC kit, you should get ABC download 1, ABC download 2, ABC download 3, and so forth.  So, everyone has been scurrying around the back end of the store, re-hooking attributes so that when a customer buys something, they will actually be able to download what they bought.  Ugh.  This has been no fun at all, and I'm still going to have to work on it so more.  I just read an e-mail that said that ALL the attributes for a problem file have to be re-hooked.  Wouldn't you just know that one of the files to come unhooked has 21 downloads--the new collection?  Makes you vacillate between giving up and hiring a hit man.

I did start work on finishing up that fall kit.  Made an alpha, and turned two extra papers into papers with the "worn and torn" look.  That is very labor intensive and hard on the eyes with the extraction that is needed and, when you're all done, you have a huge file.  I refer to creating one of those as "sniffing the screen" because I seem to crawl up about that close to the screen.  Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of doing two more alphas to offer with this kit.  The one I did is kind of bright, and I'm thinking that some folks won't want a burnt orange alpha on a green paper.....  So, I need a more neutral alpha, perhaps dark brown or black,  and I may decide to do one in gold as well.  Once I get the alphas complete, it is just a matter of getting the previews in all the proper sizes and into all the proper "wrappers" and I'm good to go.

I'm very happy that I've started selling ACOT.  Don't get me wrong--I'm certainly not getting rich.  In fact, most designers would consider it pea-change, but I've made more there in the last couple of weeks than I've made at the other two stores combined.  I'm just praying for "increase".  As long as I hang in and work hard and give the Lord His due, I expect to "increase". 

Scrapping

Well, I tried to do some scrapping over the weekend, I really did.  I got one page almost finished and the computer locked up on me.  And, I needed a specific photo to do another page and didn't get it until Sunday night.  I think I'll see if I can do those pages anyway.  I figure I can get even by next weekend if I can do a page a day.  That's actually possible since I'm so close to being able to upload the fall kit. 

I've been going through my files as time allows and cropping elements.  It doesn't save a lot of space, but it does save some and I'm tired of buying new EHD's.  I'm going to start getting ruthless about deleting stuff I don't think I'll ever use as well.  I'm a bit mystified at the need to crop other people's elements.  I thought it was a generally accepted rule of designing that one is expected to crop elements.  Now, I've been known to forget every now and then, but I'm finding that some folks don't seem to ever remember.  It's time consuming and I don't like it; but I also don't like giving up unnecessary file space so I guess I'll try to keep at it.  The side benefit is that I get to see, in depth, the way other designers put their kits together.  That's always good to know.

Mozy has been working HARD at backing up my files.  It generally comes on and does a backup every now and then.  But, I tend not to reboot my computer as often as I should and sometimes that causes problems.  I apparently had killed Mozy during the time I was working on the collection and got way ahead of the backups.  So, it's been working like crazy to catch up for about two weeks now.  I'll be glad when it's done!  It does tend to slow down the computer somewhat.  But, having a slow computer now is completely compensated for with the thought that if I have a crash, I'll not lose anything. 

Real Life

Joe's at work.  He's really tired.  It's hard for a man his age to work 70 some hours a week, week after week for months on end.  And, I think his body is just confused with the concept of going to bed at 6AM and waking up at 1:30PM.  All in all, he's having a tough time of it.  And then there are the honey-dos, which can only be done on Sunday afternoon/evening and Monday morning.  Every other day of the week, his time is cramjammed.  I have been trying to get rid of a lot of outdated clothes I've been saving for when I lose weight.  Well, I'm slowly losing some weight or gaining some muscle or something, but the clothes are out of date now.  However, quite some time ago, someone gave us a lot of carpet and padding and some of it ended up in our spare room where all those clothes are stored.  I've kind of had to balance on one foot on top of the Empire State Building while trying to sort clothes.  So, today, he finally carried all the excess padding, etc., to the garage which is already home to more padding and carpet, waiting to be installed in our living room.  Now I can get on with that particular clean up project.

We had a conversation about the painting.  He started painting our living room and dining room area in November last year.  He strictly forbade me from helping with the idea that I could get dizzy and fall from the ladder.  Well, dizziness is not a particular problem of mine and he just does NOT have the time to work on it.  So, today, it was finally decided that I would take over the painting project.  Guess it's put up or shut up time for me.  I haven't nagged him about it; I really haven't.  I know his schedule and how little time he has as well as he does.  And, I know the state of our budget--we sure can't hire anyone.  But, I really need to see some progress in there.  So, we'll see what I an work out.  First step will be to buy more sealer as we've completely used up the 5 gallon can we originally bought.

I babysat with Atticus for a couple of hours yesterday.  Actually, Jason called me and wanted me to babysit from 3:30 to 4:30PM.  He was going to take William to a movie and Jennifer was out somewhere.  But, he said, she would be home by 4:30 so I would only have to be there an hour.  Well, with getting ready and driving there and coming back, that would have been two hours gone, but I thought I could spare it.  Little did I know that Jennifer really hadn't planned to be home til 5:30PM and had no idea why Jason said she'd be home at 4:30.  Beyond that, Joe pulled himself out of bed at 1:30 and had to be across town for a 2PM meeting for his Gideon stuff.  So, he didn't get a chance to eat.  He stopped at Jen's on the way home, thinking I'd be ready to go any minute.  He was tired, hungry, and cranky.  Finally I sent him on ahead and when I got home we went to the place that sells a prime rib dinner for $7.99.  We fooled 'em this time though--I got their beef stroganoff special for $5.99 and Joe got their steak for $5.99.  Both were quite good and I have enough leftovers to take care of dinner tonight.

I am sad to report that Atticus has learned to say "grandma".  So, I will no longer be "hot wawa" as I've been for months now.  Oh well, it had to happen sometime, right?  I expected he might be a problem because Jason told me he'd tried to get him down for a nap but he wouldn't go to sleep.  But, he was as good as gold for the two hours I was there.  He's really into Thomas the Train these days and had a grand time showing all the engines and cars to Grandpa.  He knows the names of all of them, of course.

Well, I am sitting here looking at my paycheck from the 9th which I have been unable to cash.  We didn't even DO payroll on the 16th.  And the company bank account is down to $300.  And, of course, I have a credit card bill due Friday.  I've been hanging onto cash like crazy, and I can come close to covering the bill, but I can't cover it all the way.  There's a $21,000 Account Receivable due in, but this company has never been known to pay on time so, Lord knows when we'll get paid.  I'm liable to have to borrow money from Joe just to cover the bill.  I had one due today, and I covered it.......but the next one is bigger.  So, instead of having a few hundred to hand to Joe to help with the bills, I'm going to have to borrow from him, because my paychecks are rubber or haven't even been issued.  It makes me feel so bad..........

That's about it for now.  I'm going to get to work on scrapping a page and those previews for the fall kit.  Wish me luck.........

It's the weekend!

I am always so happy when the weekend rolls around.  I feel as though my weekdays are so fragmented.  Joe is working tonight (we LOVE when he works Saturday nights) and I've been busy here at this computer.  I've been busy all day with the ancillary parts of being a designer--commenting on layouts in 3 galleries, answering forum posts at one of my 3 stores, keeping up with happenings in the designer's forum at 3 stores, posting layouts for the collection hither, thither and yon.  Additionally I have a large stash of files that need to be unzipped and organized and I was able to spend a large part of the evening working on that.  Tomorrow I will concentrate on getting some pages done for my CT's, posting more layouts for the collection hither, thither and yon, and running as much scrap stuff as possible through ACDSee so I have some hope of finding it when I need it.

I have a fall kit that is almost complete.  That will be my project for the next few days, getting that shined up and ready to put into the stores.  If I don't get it up soon, I'll have to wait for fall down under and that's about 6 months away.  It boggles my mind to think those in the Southern Hemisphere are just starting into spring.....  I wanted just one last thing for it, some chunky flourishes, and found just waht I needed yesterday.

We celebrated a bit early over the "arrival" of fall.  Today, I made a short drive on an errand, around 3:30PM and found the thermometer on our van at 90 degrees.  Ninety degrees with a breeze isn't bad in the desert, but it was dead calm.  And in the sun, it was just downright HOT. 

I had quite a treat last night.  The 15th was my daughter's birthday (Happy Birthday again, Baby).  Her husband took her, their two sons and me out to dinner last night at a very nice restaurant called The Melting Pot.  They specialize in fondue and it was just yummy.  We shared one of the cheese appetizer fondues, followed by both a vegetarian and a meat fondue and topped it all off with a chocolate/peanut butter fondue for dessert.  It's funny........years ago I had a fondue pot and never really used it.  It's gone now and it's been gone so long I have no idea whether I gave it away, sold it, or trashed it.  Anyway, it was a bit like deja vu listening to my daughter talk about wanting a fondue set.  They say everything old is new again and I'm pretty well convinced that's true.  The family's picky eater is William, my 10-year-old DGS.  Even he ate better than I've seen him eat in a while.  He had several pieces of beef and even got brave and ate several bits of chicken.  He wasn't much for the veggies, though. 

We were just beginning to settle down to dessert when my cell phone rang.  I tried to get to it in time but it was in my purse, under the table.  It was Joe.  I went outside to place a call back in comparative quiet.  He was surprised we were still at the restaurant, but within just a couple of minutes, came driving up.  He was able to take a minute or two and come in and say hello to everyone and wish Jennifer a Happy Birthday.  Then he was back to work.

Today is the 17th.  In 14 days, Jennifer is scheduled to have baby Elizabeth.  I'm ready.  She's been so tired lately and I think she's ready too.  At this point, with just two weeks to go, I don't think she'd object at all if it happened RIGHT NOW.  I was teasing her at dinner last night, reminding her that she went into labor with William just after going out for a special dinner.  But, we made it through the night without any phone calls, so I guess the "out to dinner" thing didn't work. 

I'm in the process of getting the blog updated again.  I want to add a few things to it.  Unfortunately, I don't speak HTML and I really don't have time to learn so I have to hire someone to do it for me.  I've asked her to set it up so that I can pop things into it and out of it without help.  Unfortunately, she's having some difficulty finding an easy way to do some of the things I want done, particularly in that this is a typepad blog, not wordpress.  However, her estimate of the cost of switching over to Wordpress made me gasp for air, so maybe I won't get all the things I'd like to have here.  I hope I will, but I may have to settle.  I'd love to be able to change out the headers myself.  Right now I'd like to use my upcoming fall kit for a header, but that will be obsolete in 6 weeks and then I'll want a Christmas header.  A month later that will be obsolete and I'll need a winter one, and so on.  So, I'm hoping we can get that part of it worked out. 

Well, there are probably 10 or 12 other things I could blog about, but I'm too tired.  I want to get to bed NOW so that I can get a few hours sleep before Joe joins the three dogs and me in the bed.  It gets overcrowded when he arrives and I have a tough time sleeping on the 3 square inches of bed I'm allotted.  Last night, I absolutely COULD NOT go to sleep.  I prayed for just about every one I know, but I know I was awake until almost 4AM.  So, I'm about to make up for that.  Night now.

Burnt out........

Designing

I haven't designed a thing in days unless you count designing advertisements of various shapes and sizes.  I've posted previews of the new collection on my blog.  I've sent out my newsletter with previews of the new collection.  I've posted previews of the new collection in the designer's gallery at NDISB.  I've created layouts with a number of the kits and posted them here and there and will post them in additional places tomorrow and the next day and the next day........  I've posted comments on layouts in the galleries at DST, NDISB, DSB, and ACOT.  I'm just tired!

Scrapping

Well, as mentioned above about everything I've scrapped has to do with the collection.  There's one exception--a layout featuring my beautiful daughter and a kit from Bella Gypsy Designs called Falling for Her.  You can find that kit at Elemental Scraps, Gotta Pixel, and ACOT. 

Next, a few pages I've put together to show what can be done with the collection. 

Both of these feature photos from one of our trips to southern Utah in fall of 2007.  I have more, but I'll save them to spark up the looks of this blog another day.

Real Life

Whew!  It has been a crazy day today.  Starting at 7AM, I have been busy every moment, it seems.  I finally just QUIT.  I'm not doing anything more tonight.  I'm going to blog and then I'm going to bed.  At 7, I started posting layouts and doing laundry.  I finished up two tax returns and delivered them over lunch.  Unfortunately, the client is even more broke than we are.  I got paid in Iraqi Dinar, an investment she made some years ago before her finances went in the toilet.  Yes, let's all keep our fingers crossed that they go up in value and I'm amazingly rich sometime soon.  I'm going to guess you can tell that I'm not a currency speculator at heart, right?

The boy dogs are arguing and arguing.  I'm just darn sick of it.  If one gets petted or even spoken to, the other comes running.  If one eats, the other has to eat.  We can't risk having one boy or the other having a single morsel of food more than his brother, now can we?  They are on my last nerve with their barking and it doesn't help that it's hot in this house!

We've raised the thermostat in the house in hopes that with the advent of cooler weather, we wouldn't need the A/C anymore.  Wrong.  I don't know exactly how warm it is in my office right now, but I do know that I'm uncomfortable.  If I'm going to get any sleep tonight, I regret to inform you that I am turning that thermostat down before I go to bed! 

The client and I had lunch at Applebee's, near the house.  Then I ran through Target grabbing a few things we really needed.  I had bought one of those brushes you use to clean off scuzzy plates before you put them in the dishwasher some time ago.  They're meant to be filled with dishwashing detergent.  However, we had almost no diswashing detergent; so, today, I broke down and bought some.  Relying on Joe for stuff like that is just not working.  I've been wanting some of those pumpable bottles of liquid hand soap.  The place where I work is like your worst gas-station-restroom nightmare.  It is so bad that I've been carrying my own personal roll of toilet paper to work with me daily.  They've had nothing in the bathroom except shop towels.  Any idea how those feel????  Not too good, take it from me.  I, of course, have been forbidden to clean and no one else does.  You know what pigs construction workers are, right?  Anyway, I come home from there convinced that I've encountered every variety of germ known to the western world.  I had a tube of that germ killing hand lotion, but I've used that all up.  So, I grabbed some super duper liquid hand soap at Target.  I hope I can stop at washing my hands.  It'll be hard though since other parts of my body touch furniture and facilities there too.....  And my final purchase was some mascara.  My daughter-in-law had recommended a brand of mascara that's sold in Mexico.  Unfortunately, after a couple of hours, I find there's more mascara under my eyes than on my lashes.  So, I can't use that stuff unless I want to look like a raccoon.  However, Cover Girl has come out with a formula I like that comes with a great brush.  I found a deal, 2 tubes for $10.99.  I wouldn't have bought it but I can't find my makeup bag.  I had sorted the make up I am currently using (as opposed to my stash) into a little make up bag and now I can't find the make up bag.  I even scouted the back yard for it, just in case Parker had carried it off.  Oh well........at least now I have mascara I can use.

Then it was off to work.  Anyone who reads this blog faithfully knows I approach the office with trepidation every time I go there.  I have found that my stepson has a unique talent for putting the worst possible interpretation on EVERYTHING I do.  So, you think you are doing something beneficial and then you find you're in trouble for it.  Or, you ask a question to obtain information you really need to do your job and you get off-the-cuff answers that don't make sense or you might even get no answers at all.  Or, you might find yourself being accused of being sarcastic for even asking the questions.  This, my friends, is the primary reason I go into the office after Matt and Greg are most likely gone for the day.  I was blessed today--neither of them was there so I can't be in trouble until at least tomorrow.  I think most folks are happy to pull their cars into their driveways after work, but, maybe, I'm just a little bit happier than most........

I thought I would tell you about a show I've been watching via Netflix.  I found this British comedy called "As Time Goes By".  I love British humor and this is really well done.  The female lead in the series is Judi Dench who, I believe, is Dame Judi Dench in recognition by the Queen of her great acting ability.  She is a well-known Shakespearean actress and is excellent  in this comedic role.  The male lead is just perfectly cast.  Anyway, some of the episodes have literally had me laughing til I cried.  I got Joe to watch a few episodes and now he loves it about as much as I do.  A little levity, particularly when it's CLEAN, is a wonderful addition to my life. 

Day-to-day life around here is still the ultimate faith walk.  I can't think of anything that would be more challenging to my faith than having myself or a member of my family diagnosed with some dread disease like bubonic plague.  Today we paid the house payment for September.  It was 6 weeks late.  And, we literally scraped to come up with the money.  Thank heavens for a couple of tax clients who helped our budget along this month.  Our house has deteriorated around us and there is so much that needs done, but most of it requires money.  So, we live the way we live and there's not much we can do about it.  In a lot of ways, I'd love to pack the van and head for Mexico, but we can't do that.  We have not been released from our responsibilities here.  The Bible says in Jeremiah that God knows the plans He has for us, plans to give us a hope and a future, and we cling to that.  We have been faithful tithers and givers, both of us, for years, and we are looking for the windows of heaven to pour out a blessing on us that we're unable to contain as is promised in Malachi.  When the house payment is 6 weeks late and you're reduced to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as daily fare, the test of your faith, I believe, is in the attitude you portray to others and in whether or not your own heart is gripped with fear.  So far, I'm hanging tough.  I believe the answer is on its way.  It's not coming in my preferred timing, but it's coming.  Right now I am riding Joe about applying for a loan modification on our first mortgage.  Some friends of mine were able to get their payment literally cut in half that way.  He is the mortgage-professional, even though, at the moment, he is cleverly disguised as a cab driver.  But, knowing he has NO TIME, I've offered to go through and complete as much of the paper work as possible.  Anything to get that thing moving.  With the extra money saved with a loan modification, we just might be able to stop the mad scramble/impromptu prayer meetings that result in us paying our utilities just before they're turned off.  So, we will make the application!  We can always pay more than is required, right?  

Okey dokey.  I'm tired.  I'm going to try to call Joe and say goodnight and then I'm going to head to bed.  Hope all is well with you.  We, here, are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

 
 

 

Saturday and the clock is ticking.......

Blog Train post is two down.

Designing

I have spent a large part of yesterday and 4 hours today uploading the collection you've all heard so much about and linking it up in the store.  The upload went smoothly.  The linking, not so much.  The problem with computers is that they are very perfectionistic and expect you to speak THEIR language.  So, I had to go back and re-do some of the previews on the linking.  But, now, after 4 hours of work, I'm almost done.  Every kit has a preview of the kit, a preview of the elements, and a preview of the papers, if applicable.  Of course, with the alpha, there's just a preview of the alpha, LOL. 

The only real glitch has been with the "bundle"--trying to set up the collection to purchase in one fell swoop.  Each of the 6 primary kits, the bonus kit, and the alpha are available separately for purchase and they are all on sale.  But, if you buy them all separately, even on sale, the total cost is $29.60.  I wanted to make all the kits available as a "bundle" or group, with a sale price of $24.  It's kind of set up in the store at NDISB that way, but for right now, I'm hoping no one buys it.  Isn't that counterproductive????  There are actually 21 downloads.  I'd have to guess, but I'd say each download is about 50 megabytes.  That means 1 gig of scrapping goodness for $24.  I think that's a deal.  I was concerned about the 21 downloads and e-mailed the store owner ahead of time and was told everything was good to go.  However, I've linked up 14 downloads and can't for the life of me to get any more to work.  So, if anyone buys the thing before we get this problem solved, I'll have to rig up some sort of a patch on the system to get them their 7 other downloads.  Of course, I have an "emergency" e-mail off to the store owner, just waiting for a response........

So, anyway, I can finally give you a look at this baby.  It's not your typical collection.  In a typical collection, a designer will take a really large color scheme, say maybe 10 colors, and a theme (let's say we want a boy kit about monsters) and work those 10 colors singly and in various combinations to produce 6 kits about monsters.  You might get a blue paper and a yellow paper with the same pattern, but that's it.  My idea here was a bit different.  First, I encountered some products done by a designer where she did 6 different dotted papers, all the same design, on kraft paper, but with 6 different color schemes.  I think she also did stripes and plaids, but there she stopped.  I thought to myself at the time that there was SO MUCH more that could have been done with that idea.  Then I was prowling through the store of one of my favorite designers and noted that she'd done several kits with just two colors--a pastel and white.  They were really beautiful.  But, think how many colors you could mix with white to come up with scazillion kits!  Anyway, both of these ideas stuck with me.  So, what I've done is I've taken a group of patterns--hearts, flowers, stripes, stars, dots, checks, gingham, etc., and worked them into 6 two color kits plus a bonus kit and an alpha.  And everything is a fall color combined with kraft paper.  They are really quite impressive (I think!) when you see them all lined up in the store.  Check here:  http://www.ndisb.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=95   They're only in NDISB for now.  I'll be trying to upload and post them at Digiscrap Boutique next, then ACOT. 

Let's see how many of the main previews typepad will let me upload before it gives me the raspberries and refuses to let me post any more.....

Wow, I never thought I'd get 'em all in one post!  Typepad must be having a very good day!  Anyway, everything is shown in the previews except the purple papers in the bonus kit.  I just couldn't squeeze them in.

One of the store's CT at NDISB saw the bonus kit go up and did a page with it.  It's gorgeous.  Let me see if I can link it up here.

She used a wave template along the left side and extracted her monther's photo from an old photo.  The two small photos are her grandparents, her mother's parents.  Isn't this  gorgeous?  By the way, her screenname is naughtsncrosses.  I am just awed by this!

In the meantime, I've discovered things didn't go as smoothly at ACOT as I'd hoped.  I posted a layout there (done by the same lady, actually) and their system allows you to input the product numbers on the upload screen.  Then when the layout shows up to be viewed by everyone, there are the products linked in so you can just click on them, be taken directly to them, check them out a bit more closely, and, hopefully, buy.  However, when I input my product item numbers, nothing showed up.  Of course, I have an emergency e-mail in about that too!

So, most of my design time this week has gone in on "perfecting" all the little stupid technical things that go into putting a kit into the store times 7.  I have reworked the previews on the Build It! kit so that it, the add-on, and the alpha can go into my stores at DSB and at ACOT.  I've also been working on a "music" kit.  I've found almost nothing out there with which to work.  I'm really shocked.  Perhaps this is a commercial use design hole I should seek to fill.  I can see me trooping into a music store now, with my camera in hand.  Let's see, sitting or lying on the floor, photographing a piano......rearranging their saxophone display so I can get a good photo of that big one.......  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that would go over like a lead balloon.  I wanted to photograph the keyboard on my own piano, only to be told by Joe that it's under so much stuff which was moved from the living room/dining room into the guest bedroom that I wouldn't be able to get to the keyboard.........  So much for that idea!

I was checking earlier to see how many folks had downloaded my part of the last blog train.  It's over 900 now.  I'm a little bit surprised to realize that there are only 45 comments.  I don't do it for the comments, but when someone tells you your work is beautiful, it sure feels good.  And, when only 5 out of a hundred even say thank you, it doesn't feel all that good at all.  But, maybe you have to be a designer to understand.  I know I am much more cognizant of leaving a "thanks" for designer freebies since I started designing myself.

Creating

I've got one postable page.  Just one.  Jennifer and Jason and the kids had some photos done this summer by a professional photographer, same one they used last year.  She does a super job.  I know I'm not supposed to covet, but I covet her camera, sight unseen........

This page was done with a kit called Threadbare Sweater by Bella Gypsy Designs.  Of course, you can find their products at Elemental Scraps, Gotta Pixel, and ACOT on a regular basis.  This month they are also guesting at a new store, Daydreamer Design Works.

I'm sure you'll be seeing more photos from this session as we go along.  Isn't my daughter gorgeous?  My DGS is pretty darn cute too!

Members of her CT got an e-mail from Cori Gammon.  She's back!  I am thrilled.  First, on a personal level, I know she's had some really tough life stuff to deal with and I'm glad she's finally moving past that.  Second, her designs are just scrumptious and I am thrilled that I will once again be able to work with them.  I'd never be able to buy what I'd want to buy, so being on her CT is an amazing benefit.  Praise God!  She'll be selling at a new store, starting mid-month.  Yes, I know where, but I'm not allowed to tell you.  But, it's a good 'un.

Real Life

Due to budgetary constraints, we've had to cancel our cleaning lady.  That broke my heart for several reasons, not the least of which is that she's been with me for more than a decade.  So, now, in addition to my part time job, the occasional signing, babysitting, and designing, I'm trying to make sure a path is cleared to the doors in case there's a fire and we need to get out in a hurry.  Actually, I'm doing a bit more than that, but I don't like it!  And, Joe is SO darned messy.  He's excellent about putting things into piles to deal with "later", but later doesn't come very often, particularly given his current work schedule.  But, he makes messes everywhere he goes.  He brings me coffee.  I love having him bring me coffee.  But then I realize that he has most certainly spilled it all over the countertop and dribbled it on the kitchen floor and I will have to clean that all up because he certainly isn't going to do it.  That kind of makes me not want the coffee, KWIM?  It doesn't help that so much in our house is OLD.  For example, we really need to redo our kitchen.  Most of the appliances are in good shape.  We replaced the fridge, the stove, the oven, and the microwave just a couple of years ago.  The dishwasher is older but it is still working fine.  BUT, the countertops are worn, so when he spills coffee on them, it's a real chore to get the coffee stains off the worn surface.  And the flooring surely needs replaced.  One cupboard door was broken and badly repaired by Mr. Joe.  It just needs a redo....... 

In this regard, it would also be helpful if I could convince Max to stop leaving hair everywhere.  Or, if I could convince Parker to stop bringing sticks into the house to chew them up.  My poor vacuum cleaner!  I cannot do two full vacuumings of the house on a bag.  It's amazing the amount of hair, particularly since I brush Max almost everyday.  Oh well.........  I guess if the Lord can dress the lilies and feed the birds, he can buy me vacuum cleaner bags too.......

For the past week or two, things have been going reasonably well at the office.  Matthew and I even had a halfway decent mini-conversation the other day.  I don't know any way to explain it other than prayer.  I'm not working any harder or any better than I've ever done........  But, I am so grateful for it.  May it continue for a long, long, long, long time.

I babysat with the kids last night.  Well, maybe I did, maybe I didn't.  William was in a bad mood when he got home.  His asthma was acting up.  Apparently, quite some time ago (not at all sure how long ago that is when you're a 10-year old boy), someone at the school took his inhaler away from him.  Yes, it is against the law to have drugs at school.  If a child needs "drugs" they should be sent to the nurse's office and she will dispense what is needed.  However, in our state, a child died from an asthma attack because he/she was not allowed to have an inhaler.  That brought about a change in the law which makes taking an inhaler away from an asthmatic child illegal.  In Will's case, someone is ignorant of the law or is ignoring it.  I doubt they're ignorant because Jennifer says she fought this battle last year with them.  Anyway, the worst of it is that Will neglected to tell his Mom in a timely manner that his inhaler had been taken from him.  So, he was unnecessarily ill last night.  No doubt Jennifer will be dealing with this come Monday morning.  Fortunately, a puff or two from the inhaler brought instant relief.  I checked on him several times and he said he felt fine so we didn't need to use his nebulizer. 

So, Jason started dinner and I finished it.  Neither boy ate dinner.  It was ravioli and sauce.  William did dip his bread repeatedly into the sauce, but the bread was all he ate.  He also ate Atticus's bread.  Atty ate nothing.  William read a book during dinner.  I carried on a conversation (both sides) with myself.  I cleaned up the kitchen, made sure the dogs were fed, and then went back to watching a movie on Netflix online that I'd been trying to finish for two days.  Every time I looked up, someone had very quietly closed the door to the office.  So I felt pretty much excluded from the boys' lives.  William even took it upon himself to get Atticus ready for bed, undressing him, changing his diaper, and putting him into his PJ's.  Jennifer's explanation was that William is pissed off because his computer has been taken away from him because he flagrantly disobeyed his mother.  Anyway, I think that was the first time I've babysat those boys that I was actually lonely.  But, I'm tough enough to muddle through, even if no one will talk to me.

Joe just left for work so it's me and the dogs.  They don't talk to me much either.  Though Parker did pull a cute stunt the other day.  We have rawhide chews in the kitchen.  I bought them hoping that chewing on them would satisfy his need to chew.  I was in the kitchen working and I looked out.  There, a good 8 feet away, sat Parker.  He knows the treats are in the kitchen.  And, since we're working on "sit", he knows he has to "sit" to get a treat.  So, there he was, half a room away, sitting, just staring at me.  I finally got the message, threw him a rawhide chew and he was happy as a clam.  I guess he's learning to "talk" in his own way. 

Punky has her own language too.  Last time the boys were here, I put Atticus down for a nap in our bed.  Parker is just too curious, being a puppy.  So, I pulled the bedroom door closed.  I knew if I didn't, Parker would be up on the bed sniffing and licking Atty and there would be a much shortened version of the nap.  I had my timer set for 5 minutes and everytime it went off, I'd go tearing down the hall to check on Ats.  All of a sudden, Punky started barking.  She just stood in the living room, near the front door, looking at me.  Usually that means "Mom, aren't ya gonna answer the door?"  Then she crowds up to the door to see who is there, even though no matter who it is, she's scared of them, LOL.  But this time, as I made it to the living room, she started down the hall, turned around and looked at me with "that" look.  I followed her into the hallway and she led me straight to the bedroom door where Atticus was trying to manipulate the door knob.  I guess that's "talking", right?

Well, that's all I know for now.  I have from now til 2 or 3PM tomorrow to entertain myself and talk to the dogs.  Wow......  well, I do have more time to myself since Joe's working this crazy shift.  I get a lot more done.  ANd, I have such fun conversations with myself and with the dogs.  Bye now.

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fall has arrived!

If you're looking for the blog train post, it's one post down!

I'm thrilled to report that fall has arrived in Vegas.  It is cool enough now for the roses to bloom again and they're doing a good job of it, right outside my window.  It's also cool enough for me to work a bit in the rose garden which badly needs some of my attention--weeding, deadheading, pruning, etc.  I don't have much time for it, but I've already filled a large trash can with clippings so I feel as though I must be accomplishing something.

About the beginning of last week our daily high temperatures dipped down into the 80's.  Yup, that's fall in Vegas.  Actually, it's going down into the 50's at night and is generally kind of chilly.  I've broken out my stash of long sleeve shirts and long pants.  If the 80's sounds hot to you, remember there's little to no moisture in the air here.  It makes a difference!

Jason has returned home and my babysitting time has been reduced to zilch. I babysat last Tuesday and Jason returned on Wednesday.  Though I hate not seeing the kids as often, I'm glad he's back.  Jennifer is REALLY "heavy with child".  I don't think she was this big with Atticus on the day before she delivered.  Either Elizabeth is going to be a bruiser or Jen's just carrying her differently.  Jen has a lock on that pregnant "waddle"--so much weight out front to balance.  And, she's dealing with some mild fluid retention and swelling.  I think she only had 3 more night classes to teach, thank goodness!  I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Miss Elizabeth on so many levels!

While I miss the boys, not babysitting has its advantages.  On September 30th I was notified that someone expected a contribution to a collaborative kit on October 1st!  You've got to be kidding!  I can't work that way!  As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I create a full kit plus an add-on when I work on a collaborative kit.  Sometimes I'm allowed to sell the add-on later, but it becomes my contribution to the collaborative kit.  The kit I create is just for sale in my stores.  I finally finished and uploaded the thing on October 5th which I thought was record time.  I have gone back and added a few things to the kit since then, but it's largely done.  I MUST do my product description VERY SOON.  Normally I use products that don't require crediting the designer.  However, I used one stinkin' fall leaf and discovered when I was all done, it requires credit.  So, I've got to get that product description written before I forget!  I could never have accomplished so much with the babysitting ongoing.

I am now selling in three stores.  It has been quite the techno-adventure getting that up and going.  It's not necessarily that hard.  It's just that each store's software has its own quirks and I don't know what the quirks are!  For example, at DigiScrapBoutique, I was copying and pasting my product description from a Microsoft Word file which is what I've always done at NDISB.  But, somehow, Microsoft Word files have encoding that conflicts with the store's software at DSB so...........it took me over four days to get my darn products in the store and that was with help from the site Admin!  If you remember, I had a wretched time of it, getting started at NDISB.  My computer just would not let me log into the store there.  I had the store owner putting kits in my store and I was also paying another designer to do it for me.  After about 3 months, it worked itself out--we have no idea what changed--and I could use the store's software with no problem.  Well, anyway, I got my Hot August Nights kit up in the store at DSB, finally, and then it was time to upload to ACOT.  To be honest, the very idea scared me!  But, I got brave last night and gave it a try and it went perfectly.  I was so happy! 

Joe got a call last Monday (the 28th?) for a signing.  Of course, he was scheduled to work.  So, I got the job.  It was EASY as the real estate agent handled it all.  He just said "sign here", pointed, and they did!  I notarized what needed to be notarized and helped keep the documents in order.  Of course, there was one little glitch.  The wife manages a bar and was working at the time.  She only had to leave the table once, so that wasn't bad.  And, we were waiting for her husband to show up to sign.  Well, we finished with the wife and still no husband.  Turns out, he manages a different bar and couldn't get away either.  So, I had to hop into the van and drive there and do it all over again!  But they paid me $150 for the job.  Actually, they gave me $25 in cash (which went immediately into my gas tank) and I'm expecting a check for the $125.  We can use it!  The real estate agent says he is busy and he is going to use me again, so that's good news.

I don't have a lot more news and I'm out of time.  Sorry.  I actually do have a scrapbook page to post, but just can't do it now.  Maybe later........