4am madness

it has happened before. twice. a live mouse. a small, fast rodent brought in by one of my cats. while chasing the first one around and not getting any where i got a great idea. the shop vac!! massive power and i don't have to get close to it. it totally worked. just corner it and suck that little rodent up!

the cat that brings me these "gifts" has no front claws and has a condition where her eyes go back and forth. we say she has "wonky eyes". how the heck she catches a mouse is beyond me.

my little gift giver: Izzy

and my tool of choice for small rodents:

if you should find a mouse in your house....grab for the shop vac!!

change

i can't decide if i like it or not. it's usually a negotiation for me. "ok, i will give you this, if you give me that". i have a hard time with the "that".

the this: one of my best friends Danea, just had the most beautiful baby boy. he is perfect. i am so incredibly happy for them. that little man couldn't ask for better parents. i am so excited to see him and cuddle him.

the that: our relationship is forever changed. a quick trip here to visit me is a lot harder now. pretty much i will have to go there for quite some time. traveling with kids isn't so much fun. i don't mind going there but having her here is great, too. our personalities haven't changed so we will relate to one another the same. i am so thankful for that.

just little changes.

the this: Bailey is driving now. she is so excited to have a car and have some independence. on some level she can come and go as she wants and she loves that. she can meet up with her friends or they can all go together without trying to get a parent to take them.

the that:the above 'come and go as she wants'. we will have final say on things but since she is a good kid that is not going to be a problem. which means she will be gone a lot more. that will be strange. lonely on some level.

just little changes.

peace out.

it's all in a picture

Karen's class has had my brain runnin' all weekend. i keep thinking of the pictures that i have that are way from perfect and most of the time there is only one taken at that time. the 'snapshot' she was talking about.

so i started looking through this rubbermaid box...oh the horror!...of those 'snapshots' and came across so many pictures that i love so much. these are 4 of my all time favorites that i thought i would share with you.

this first picture is of me and my parents when i think i was about 3. i don't know exactly because my Mom's mom wasn't one who put dates on the back of photos. are you loving the plaid vest that i am sportin'? what about my Mom's hair? but what i do remember is that even at that age i hated that outfit and every other outfit she made me wear. especially the dresses! i remember the huge, prickly rollers that my Mom would put in her hair with a ton of bobby pins. on the day that she put them in she would put on a pretty floral, sheer scarf over her rollers and we would head out for the grocery store. i wasn't embarrased. i thought she looked great. and i got to play with the rollers when she took them out.

in this picture i love how my Daddy is looking at me. i was a Daddy's girl from day one from what i was told. to some extent i still am. i love that. it's pretty amazing what one picture means to me. i love that i can look at just that 'snapshot' and remember so much about life then.

here is another 'snapshot' of my Daddy keeping his eye on me. making sure i didn't get into trouble i am sure. i look at this picture and see that awful blue couch and can picture my Oma's house. how much time i spent there. when i look at that picture i remember loving it ever since i realized that it was me and my daddy in it. i pointed at it hanging on the wall constantly when i was over there. this picture is on my shelf today. i smile when i see it.

these 2 pictures are like gold to me. i loved my grandma's kitchen. it was huge and my grandma spent a lot of time in there. i made up my mind that when i got a house of my own i would have a kitchen just like that. she had a dishwasher that she rolled out and hooked up the hoses to. she had enough counter space for 3 kitchens. the one i am sitting on was low so she could bake. there was a stove that had a side warmer compartment that i thought was the coolest thing in the whole world. the stove was the joke of the family because other than baking my Grandma burned everything she made. it was so sad. on this day Grandma let me help her make her famous Gum Drop Coconut Cookies. they were fabulous and became a Christmas staple. we have a huge family and the long dinning room table was always half full of cookies and candy on Xmas eve but her cookies always got eaten first.

i was lucky enough to somehow get my hands on the original recipe that she wrote down. the paper is pretty fragil so i photo copied it for scrapbook use but i adore it. her handwriting has always been shaky and i love that. i remember at Christmas she would put gifts under the tree on Christmas morning that were supposed to be from Santa. all of us kids would look at the tag to see who it was from and just by looking at the word "Santa" on the tag and seeing that shaky writing we knew it was from her. this picture and this recipe flood my mind with all the Christmas rituals we had every Christmas Eve.

as a scrapbooker i guess i need to write them down.

peace out.

thanks karen

karen russell's class on Friday night was awesome. her classes have great projects but always teach me something as well. not just a scrapbooking technique but something important emotionally that i will use in my scrapbooking from here on out.

the class i took was called Snapshots of a Good Life. we made a 5x7 chipboard album that is full of random, snapshot pictures. the imperfect ones. the ones we all have and don't know how to scrap. random. crappy. only one of. poor quality. the album has an easel on the back so it can be displayed on a shelf.

i have been using Making Memories paints since early 2004 and loved them. until last night at the class. there was a fair amout of painting and i chose to use 3 of the Fresh Anthology paints. apparently they felt they need to change the formula for painting on chipboard. makes no sense to me since i have been using them on chipboard for just as long as i have been using the paints and they worked just fine. this new formula sucks! it is way to thick and gummy. i put a fairly good amount of the paint onto the paint tray and held it up on it's side. didn't move. didn't run. nothing. nada. zip. what's up with that? it wasn't just one color that it happened with so i know i didn't just get a bad batch. not to mention it streaked really bad. done with the paints unless it's a 'must'.

i am sure most of everyone else knew they were out there but i just discovered the Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabbers last night. i think these will work so much better. wish me luck.

oh! i won a door prize, too. i have seen this book, Totally Transparent, forever but never got one. Danea told me i needed one so i have been looking for it ever since. it's what i won. i was so excited!

peace out.