Back to Monday

It is so good to hear that I am not the only one out there that had their Christmas tree still up after the beginning of the New Year. I have never had the chance to have a real tree since my mom was allergic to them and now my hubby is. I had always hoped that when I was married and had kids of my own we would be able to go pick-out and cut down our tree each year, but that just wasn’t ment to be :)

It was a gorgeous day yesterday in southwest Missouri with the temperature in the high-60’s. Hard for me to believe that just about a year ago we were having a record breaking ice storm that left almost 90% of our city without power! Since I have a sick kiddo (nothing major just a yucky old cold), my hubby and I took turns going to church – John in the morning so he could run the video equipment and me in the evening to work with the evening youth program. I’m not really too sure where my day when – lol! John put our new TV stand together, and I did some paperwork that I needed for church last night.

Have you all heard about “Project 365”? Well, I have decided to give it a go this year (I'm using Photoblog to keep it all organized, but know others that are using Flickr). What a perfect way to have plenty of pictures to scrapbook to remember our year! I can’t wait to create a layout at the end of the year feature my pictures. I’m hoping it will help me to make sure to capture those every day moments. I have a habit, now that the boys are getting older, of just photographing the bigger events in our life. It’s not too late for you to join in! Better to just miss a few days than the whole year. If you do start to join this, I would love if you share the link to your daily photos!

Other than the “Project 365”, the other things I would like to achieve this year (I just don’t get into calling them resolutions…I always seem to fail horribly at those) is to organize my house, take the time to complete a couple scrapbook pages a month, and loose the last 20-25 pounds I need to before my 15 year class reunion at the end of June. I started Weight Watchers last June and did really well at it until about October (even lost 26 pounds)…then the holiday season hit. *cringe* I am just thankfully I only put about 3 of those pounds back on enjoying all the Christmas goodies. My biggest thing that I need to work on is exercise. I know I get some with keeping up with the boys, but I also know I need to make myself set aside time to put our elliptical machine or treadmill to good use. Did you guys make any lists of things to do this year?

Things are starting back up around The Scrapping Garden. Now that the holiday season has passed on, don’t forget to check out the “Petals of Wisdom Challenge” which starts tomorrow and the Paper Patch Crop which is scheduled for 9pm EST on Thursday, Jan 10th.

Also, do you all know about “Plant Your Comments and Bloom” at TSG? As you “plant” your comments in the TSG forum or gallery you start working towards different goodies. Make sure you check out the link and start “planting” those comments!! And don’t forget, when you reach one of the levels to post back in the thread in the TSG forum to receive your goodies!

And with that, I bid you farewell for today. Off to my day of shuttling Drew to and from school and a trip to SAMS to restock the pantry shelves after the holidays. Hope you all have a Marvelous Monday! :)

Get it While You Can!

I’m very sad to see that TSG Designer, Kat, will be “hanging up her designing tools” this month. :( Kat announced last night in the TSG forums that January will be her last month to have products in the TSG store. So if you haven’t grabbed any of her great kits, grab them now HERE!!! We understand your reasons, for leaving the designing world, Kat, but I hope you know you will be greatly missed. *HUGS* I still expect to see ya around TSG though! I also hope you enjoy your time doing those “touchy-feely kind” of crafts ;) And make good use of your new Cricut machine!

I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Gill and her family this past week. Doesn’t she have some of the cutest kids! And the goodies that were handed out all week…WOW, thanks SO much Karen!!

Now you are all stuck with me again. I know, what a let down :) I need to go see if I can dig something up for you all this week! I also need to actually remember to blog on here this week!! I have really been neglecting my own blog since before Christmas, so I hope to do better on here.

We are finally getting back to our “normal” routine around here. Well, that is minus the fact that we have decided to gut our closets and redesign the shelf systems in all of them! Here we haven’t even completely finished the remodeling we started last February (painting a good portion of our main floor, installing hardwood and tile flooring, and installing new counters and sink in the kitchen). I still need to get around to the touch-up painting where the walls got banged up with the floor instillation. My hubby also decided last week that we needed a new TV in our living room. We will soon (it is ordered and due to arrive this Friday) the proud owners of a 50” plasma TV as well as a surround sound system. *rolls eyes* Boys and their toys! Of course the new TV doesn’t fit in our current entertainment center (thankfully since I never really did like the one we have), so we spent the weekend deciding on a TV stand. Not an easy task since my hubby and I often have very different opinions ;)

I FINALLY got my Christmas tree taken down yesterday! I must admit that I am one of those people that LOVES to put up a tree, but HATES taking it down! :) It has gotten better since I received a new, pre-lit tree for my birthday in 2006. The thing I disliked the most was fighting with the strands of lights. Am I the only one that didn’t take their tree down the day after Christmas?? We had friends over for New Year’s Eve and they thought it was funny that our tree was still up.

Well, I will stop rambling for now and let you get back to enjoying your Sunday.

Time to bid you farewell....

Well for now anyway! Thank you everyone for your kind words about today. It was not as bad as i imagined it would be!
So my week with you has come to an end. The new year is well and truly under way and life for most of us is returning to some normality. I would like to thank you for taking this small journey with me and looking into my busy life.
I have no doubt i will be back again in the future but for now i will leave you with a small anecdote from my little man over Christmas...

We are in the car and a little voice pipes up,
" Mum!"
I curtly replied " Yes baby ", I am driving and concentrating on the road so my mind is not fully on my son's important statement.....
"Mum, i do not think Santa should give gifts to tourists!" I think to myself oh bless he thinks Santa will have trouble keeping track of all the tourists in the world.
I ask, " Why not Son?" Expecting the pre thought answer to come out he replies " Well Mum, tourists blow people up, it's not right if they get presents too!"
Okay so my darling offspring meant to say terrorists!!! Man i nearly put the car in a ditch i laughed so hard. Poor little guy had to wait ages for me to explain my reaction!!

I thank you again for your time spent with me, and leave you all with a parting gift...You can get it here (Sorry, this link has expired). Thanks again to Karen for all her help with the weeks giveaways.

Late Post. :S

Sorry all for the delay in todays post. Since we are officially into the swing of things i took the kids to their swimming lesson! We have just got back, so all the swim kits are in the wash with the school uniforms and i am now ready to sit and take some time for me!
I can't believe how quickly this week with you all has passed by and that tomorrow is my last day.
We are off to Kent tomorrow to visit my husbands mother. Not something i am overly looking forward to as relations are somewhat strained with her, but at least it gets it out of the way. I am practising my false smile as i type!! We are lucky in that some very good friends of ours live about 5 mins away from her so we can go there before leaving, for a coffee and to calm down before the drive home!! Yes things are that bad LOL. Even the kids are sulking! haha if i have to suffer so do they!

I am sure i am not the only person in the world with this sort of problem so i will stop rambling about it now!

We are about to have some Pizza now so i will leave you with a parting gift and when i post tomorrow i will let you know how delightful my day has been hahaha!!!

You gift for today is here (link has expired).

Brrr ...So cold!!

It is bitterly cold here in England at the moment :( I am sure most of you that live in real cold countries will think me a wimp LOL but it is freezing!! I sent the kids to school as wrapped up as they would let me hehe!! We are meant to be expecting snow but i don't think it will happen!!
It was good to go back to work today, seeing all the kids and hearing about all the nice things that Father Christmas bought them, but i still wish i had been off till next Monday!!

So tonight i have to do some college work, a bit of logging and some write ups and a case study!! Still let's start as i meant to go on :).
Of course it will be easier if it snows and i can't get out of the village tomorrow haha!!
I swear at some point i will have time to scrap christmas and play on the xbox!!

So today is a short post i am afraid everyone or the kids and Rich will go hungry and i will be rambling for ages :), I will spare you till Saturday ;).

Here is the link for todays gift (link has expired). I hope you enjoy :) It is from Karens new kit: Manly.

Holidays are nearly over.

Well here inthe UK most people went back to work today and the kids are all back to school tomorrow.
Today has been spent chilling out and Rachel went to get her hair cut. She has had a "little girls" style forever so she had layers put in and the front feathered. She looks quite adult now!

Before the hair cut:

After the haircut ..

So i spent today running round making sure school bags are ready, p.e kits are packed, luch boxes and water bottles are found and shoes are clean! The joys of parenthood!!

So with everything ready to go we are now just hanging out and making the most of the quiet!

It has been real nice just being able to mooch around the Scrapping Garden today. Some of the christmas layouts have been amazing and it sure looks like everyone had a good time.

There is a wonderful kit as the Daily Downlaod this month. Please check it out HERE.

I am now off to make dinner for the kids and Rich' so i will leave you with todays little gift. You can get it here (link has expired).

Happy New Year

Well welcome to 2008 everybody :). I hope you all had a wonderful time however you saw in the new year.

We saw the night in by sitting around with some wine and chatting!

Today has been spent with my poor hubby having to work from 8 -6 but i had friends over to celebrate and swap some more presents with the children!

My Dad sent a Christmas pudding for us all to eat (this thing is HUGE!!) so i took the opportunity to prove we ate it:

So it has been a really quite new year for us but a very pleasant one non the less :).

So here is another small gift to welcome you into 2008. You can get it here (link has expired).

Oh i forgot so i am adding this on:
Snickerdoodles Recipe :)
Ingredients:

175g butter softened,
225g sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Coating:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven 200 degrees c / 400 Degrees F/Gas mark 6
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla. Sift flour, cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda together and blend in butter to form a soft dough.
3. Break off pieces of dough the sixe of a small walnut and roll into balls. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and roll each ball into the cinnamon sugar. Arrange on a baking sheet, allowing room for the cookies to spread.
4. Bake until pale golden, about 8 - 10 mins. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Eat and enjoy :)