Easter crafts

Michelle has some cute templates on her blog for some hybrid crafts. She includes some great tutorials too. I think the little gift bags will be great to use at the end of the school year to throw a few small things in for the boys teachers. Nothing that they can't carry into school either ;)

I'm still not sure of the fate of my lovely blog here, but for now it will stay. I've got a lot of catching up to do after having my SIL and nephew in town visiting for the last week. I wasn't able to get online much, as needless to say I didn't get much housework done. We are tired from all the running around we did so we are taking it easy resting for now. We have a full weekend of Xbox, laundry, misc housecleaning and resting.

{simplifying}

I have a lot going on in my online world. Too much.

I think that there are some things it's just time to let go of. I've said one thing and done another too many times now. I love having a separate "identity" from my family blog, but it's really unnecessary.

I am in the process of figuring out where I want to go next. I hope you will all visit Everyday-Chaos from now on in case I don't update this anymore.

buy-her giveaway

Miss-Britt has started a review site called Buy-her. One of her first posts is a giveaway, a toy of the adult kind. I must say without revealing too much information, I'm quite intrigued with this 'toy' and it's lack of resembling all the other battery operated cousins.

*blushing* Hope that wasn't TMI for anyone! lol

i jumped

So, over the weekend I did it,I bought my domain name. :) I downloaded a Wordpress theme and started tweaking it a bit. The only thing I can't get to work out right yet is the logo part. I don't know why it looks so horrible every time I save it, but it does. I'm going to keep working on it, it won't be 'live' for a while yet because it's just not professional looking at all. I'm hoping to find out that it's my turn on the wait list of Graffitti Chicks.

Now, I need to make a splash page so that when someone might accidentally happen upon my site it's not blank. lol Then onto starting to weed through my photos & decide which ones are the best, so that I can use those in a gallery/portfolio. Of course I still need to call the city/county to find out all the legalities of running a business out of my home. I'm going to be pissed if I find out that I can't run it out of my house. lol I suppose I'll deal with that if it comes down to it. I need to make a check-list (or find one online....anyone???) and just start at the top. Make it a pooint to do 1 thing a day, or 2 if it's easy enough. This weekend I'm hoping to go to Lowe's to get the materials to make a "fake wall" like I saw on Prop Insanity this week. Such a great, simple idea. They also featured this post the other day, these large planters are so cute & everytime I see them used with babies overflowing them I just smile!

It's finally Thursday and I'm so glad that the end of the week is almost here. Today was payday so I was able to pay bills and set aside some money to get some maintenance issues taken care of on the truck & car. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow. On Sunday we celebrate Anthony's 6th birthday. This marks another significant event, 6 years ago Tom went off to war. It's been 6 long years since this all started. Ok now. Onto another subject.

I know you all l.o.v.e. seeing my layouts ;) So, here are a few of my latest ones. I felt pretty creative over the weekend, it helped that on Sunday I could sit and scrap.

Tommy & I in April 2002.

Tommy February 2009

Our first winter in SoCal.

business start-up

So, I'm going to start researching the costs and paperwork involved with registering a new business. I thought something easy to do right now would be to go ahead and purchase my domain name. Easy enough. Until I went to godaddy.com and find that kellybphotography.com has already been taken. lol Frustrating!

Now what? Use full last name? Use it only for the purpose of obtaining a domain name? I still kind of want something catchy, but with moving around and whatnot I thought that the memorability of my business will come in part with using my name. Plus, who knows where we move next there might already be a photographer (or any business) with the same name. I figured it was less likely to find someone else doing business with my name.

Back to step 1 - decide on business name. lol

latest layout recap

I'm behind on everything it seems lately. Not too much new has been going on, just normal everyday things. I've gotten quite a few layouts done lately. Mainly due to some templates and scraplifts. I haven't had an original layout idea in my head since before Christmas. I feel like a goober for constantly using templates or lifting people, but I'm getting the layouts done.

I'm happy to say that I applied to Tangie Baxter's creative team and she accepted me! She has some great templates to work with and some great looking kits. To keep this post fairly short, the layout titles will be linked up to my DST gallery if you would like to see credit information.

Welcome Home Rocky

June 14, 2008

March 2007

New House

Marker Face

Sweet Treat

5 years

iHeartFacesKids entry - black and white

This is my entry to the iHeartFacesKids for week 7. The theme for week 7 is black and white. Thanks to doing the 365 project, I have a handful of b/w photos that I could enter. The ones of my boys fresh out of the tub though are my fav b/w's. This one of Anthony is probably my absolute favorite and the one that inspired me to get as similar shot of the other two.

why you should always check your hair before leaving the house

...because you never know who will knock on your car window while waiting for the teacher to open the gates for the PM kindergarten class.

lmao

I had been playing with the boys and just threw my hair up in a pony tail after. I usually don't spend much time in front of the mirror, ever. A few minutes each morning to brush my teeth is the norm. Sometimes 10-15 if I blow dry my hair &/or put on make-up. Of course last night I fell asleep without washing my face and hadn't yet washed my face before taking Anthony to school. The whole morning it felt like we were running behind, almost late. So, when I noticed it was time to take Anthony to school we just jumped into the truck. Normally we just sit and wait for a teacher to open the gates and Anthony jumps out and goes into school.

Not today, another mom came up to the truck because she noticed our Michigan plates. I was surprised so I stuttered, nice one Kelly, when she asked if dh was Navy. "No, M-M-Marines," I said to her. Ugh, I'm so smooth. No wonder I don't know anyone around here. lmao Anyway...she wanted to see where we were from in MI because she's from MI too. She seemed nice enough. Her son is in Anthony's class.

Then I must've totally looked like a freaking stalker, because I followed her nearly all the way home. If I hadn't turned on the street I normally do to get to my house it really would have looked like I was following her. lmao I think she lives on the street behind us, at least I think that is where that street goes. lol I just hope I didn't scare her. She looked so neat and put together. Dior sunglasses and pink track suit, and here I was my Simply Vera Wang sunglasses from Kohl's, Gap sweatshirt & black yoga pants from Target.

Almost time to go get the boys from school, so I'm off here to go check myself in the mirror before that happens again. lmao

Happy Birthday Little Man!

It's little man's birthday today. He's 3! I just can't believe it. The time has gone by so fast. He's grown up so much too, in this last year. I miss him liking to sit with me, now the only thing I'm good for is heating up some chicken nuggets and filling the good ol' cup-cup. Those days are behind us now, he's only going to grow more independent and aware of the world around him.

I spent a lot of time on the computer this weekend. I re-did my weekly 365 layouts. I used the templates I got from Jen Wilson. I hope that she puts out the week titles by themselves, I can't buy more templates. lol I may have to email & suggest it, I wonder if that's ok to do?

I also worked with Amanda Heimann's new kit Truly Yours, you can find it in The Digi Files #2, available now at The Daily Digi. Which, by the way, they have a great tutorial today on making eyes 'pop' in pictures. I even did a layout of Tom for a challenge at The Digi Chick.

I really should remove myself from the computer for a bit. Tend to the birthday boy & clean up the house a bit. We will probably celebrate his birthday tomorrow since we are expecting 2 packages of presents tomorrow. We are foregoing a cake this year and making a trip to Coldstone instead. We would just waste a cake, as much as we all love sweets & chocolate in this house, we just don't usually cut into the cake again after the birthday. We figured by going to Coldstone everyone could get what they wanted & it would all be eaten so no waste. Ok, birthday boy is in meltdown mode...

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope that you are all feeling loved today :) We had no big plans. The boys opened their goody bags from Grandma and enjoyed a piece of candy. Our cable company is offering 1c pay-per-view movies this weekend so Tom and I thought we would see which ones were available to see. The boys of course decided to play games instead. Right now Tom is out picking up our Chinese food order. It's the first time we've gotten Chinese food here, I really wanted some chicken chop suey, but it doesn't seem to be on the menu anywhere around here.

I'm feeling better, much better than last week, but still tender on my right side. I had to pick up Alex a few times this week and it wasn't easy. We also picked up the last of some birthday gifts for the little man, who will be 3 on Tuesday. I really can't believe that it's been 3 years.

I also managed to work on a couple of layouts over this past week. Two were for Christy Haig, a template designer at Digital Candy. She needed some people to make a few layouts with some of her templates so of course I offered. I love templates, I wouldn't get nearly as much scrapping done if I didn't use them. I really need to go through my scrap supplies though, I have a lot of things that just aren't my style anymore. When I was first starting out I think I downloaded nearly every freebie available. lol





It's almost 6pm and I realize that I should have taken my photo for the day before now. I hate that all of the lights in our house are orange and make my photos look horrible. I'm ok at removing the orange hue sometimes, but alot of times I get really frustrated with it. Like yesterday I just used a b/w action on the photo to make it look halfway decent.

With that, I'm off for tonight...going to play a Scene-It game with the boys or something.

what a {deal}!

Jen Wilson has her Project 52 items on sale until Tuesday....for 52c each!! Wow! I picked up some things, I'd better start downloading. :) I'm not happy with the templates I have for Project 365, so to try out a few for 52c is a bargain.

DH and I didn't eat dinner earlier since we were full from having sandwiches around 3:30, after our trip to Target. Now, it's 11:45 and we are both kind of hungry. Little man is still up to, go figure - he had about a 20 minute nap in the car on the way home from Target & the deli. I hope he goes to sleep soon. Tomorrow is the first "normal" day on my own. Today the boys didn't have school, so it was ok for just the 4 of us.

It's Sunday

It's been a pretty boring day around here. I've managed to get 3 loads of laundry done so far; well washed, dried and thrown into the basket. lol I made a really yummy and new to us recipe for breakfast this morning. DH and I saw an episode of Paula Deen the other day where she made this Blueberry Coffee Cake and it looked good. So while we were out yesterday we picked up what we needed to make it. I am so glad that we did, it was sooooo goood!

I managed to install my new OS and not screw anything up. The only thing I think I might've not backed up or made note of is some free 8x8 photobook codes. Oh well though, I might be able to track them down. I love the new OS, it looks so neat and is pretty easy to use so far. It's been really nice to have a clean slate to start with also.

I decided to give our family website one more try. I kept getting the invoice to pay for our host service and finally I just couldn't take it and paid it. lol So, we have one more year to try to make a go of gaining more of an audience for the blog. I know it doesn't help when I don't post, which is why I am going to show Tom how to post so he can write also. I'm going to try to post 2-3 times a week. Since I'm doing the Project 365 that should help, on days there's nothing to say I can just post a photo. Hopefully we'll get some family to pop their heads in and say Hi once in a while. I think my MIL reads it, but we've had no comments (other than some lovely spam) in about a year.

If you haven't noticed I changed the blog look, yet again. I know, I know, I'm sorry. I just can't help myself, I see cute templates and I feel the need to change the look. I wish I had the patience and time to sit down and figure out exactly how I wanted it to look and then figure out how to make it that way. At least with this last template I installed all my sidebar information stayed. I always hate when I change templates and all my sidebar information that I plugged into the widgets is just gone when you hit Save.

Well, I should publish this, it's been sitting here waiting nearly all day. My photo for the day is posted, the kids are sleeping, DH is packed for the field just in case, and he's given himself a fresh haircut. It's almost midnight and my back is killing me.

misc.

So, when I sat down I wanted to write about a big realization DH and I had since my surgery, but I didn't want to be a downer. So, I'll wait til another day, I've been depressed enough for a few days.

Instead I'm going to do a lot of linking up today. :) Thought that maybe someone else may be interested in some of the things I've found in the past couple days.

So, at The Daily Digi today they have a fabulous paper bag hybrid tutorial.

Darcy Baldwin is having a font contest, I'm thinking about submitting something, I've been wanting my handwriting as a font for a while, no time like the present, right?

I've found a new vampire book series I'm going to be ordering as soon as I have some extra money to do so, it's the Sookie Stackhouse Series.

I love the look of all the layouts I see using Natali Designs, and now I really want her All You Need Is Love kit, it's 20% off too!

The Cooker's Blog has some great recipes and a cute recipe template free for download.

Yesterday I ordered my Mac Box Set, it shipped today! I'm super excited to try out the new OS and be able to get our camcorder movies useable. So I've been organizing, deleting and moving things to my EHD to have everything backed up before the new install.

Since I got the new OS and iLife for my computer I'm considering getting DH this Xbox hard drive. It makes sense for us, we can rent movies through Netflix on our Xbox, the boys have an Xbox that only has a 256 memory unit, so they can use the old HD. The bonus is that it comes with a data transfer kit so that we can pull off our info from the old drive to the new one. I know all too well how proud DH is of his gamerscore. lmao

I've kept up with the Project 365 for the most part. Only 2 days missing, but with the last week and a half we've had I think it's understandable. Tom and the boys took pictures for me for when I was in the hospital and once I got home. Which reminds me, I need to snap a shot for today. Speaking of Project 365, I really want this 365 kit from Gina. It's just too expensive, I can't justify the price right now...though it's packed full of goodies. lol She has a bunch of additional add-ons as well, it'll just break my bank. I have got to figure out a way to get on that creative team. ;) lmao

Well, it's about dinner time, I should wake up the hubby and see if I can attempt to make dinner tonight. I'll leave you with my 365 shot from yesterday...my boys sitting together, reading after homework time. I used the Better Black and White tutorial from The Daily Digi to get the black and white conversion.

being sick {sucks}

So, I've been out of commission since last Sunday. Saturday was spent with Anthony being sick, I woke up Sunday morning thinking I was getting the stomach flu he had the day before. I stayed upstairs in my room all day. Around 3 I told Tom it was too much, so he called our insurance and asked about the approved urgent cares, etc. So, off we went. Around 4 I was at urgent care, by 6:30 I was in the hospital. Around 10:30 I went into the waiting room to tell my husband and boys that they could go home, without me. They decided to keep me, after an ultrasound it looked like my gall bladder was inflamed & I had gall stones. So, sometime after midnight I got a room, and at 4pm on Monday I was being prepped for surgery. I came home Tuesday. Wednesday Alex was up every 1/2 hour - 40 minutes getting sick. Friday it was Tommy. Yesterday Tom and I didn't feel all that great. Today Tommy doesn't feel all that great again.

I'm hoping they feel well in the morning, I have a dr appointment, and I don't feel comfortable driving on the expressway right now. I can't wait to have these staples removed, they are starting to itch a bit, well one is, I think it's because it's sticking out a bit.

Thankfully Tom was able to take leave to stay home with me while I was recovering. I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for 1 week. So, Alex is far out of the question. lol I'm hoping that they let him come back to work, but not send him to the field. They are doing some training right now with some foreign military and they are supposed to go out on ship sometime this week. I think I can manage daytime stuff as long as I don't need to pick up Alex for a few more days, but I think I'll be tired at night and will need a break. We'll see, if it's bad enough I guess he could take more leave.

Let me tell you though, I felt horrible not being able to hold my baby when he was sick. He's the only one that likes to sit with me when he's sick and he just cried and whined and was miserable. According to Tom they were all upset when they left me at the ER, I saw Alex was upset. It all broke my heart. I sat in the hospital room by myself for most of the day Monday, Tom and the kids came up for a bit and left a bit before my surgery. It sucks not having any family in the area to help in times like this...it reminds me of when I had Anthony and Tom was deployed to Iraq the first time.

Anyways...I shall stop rambling now....got to love the stomach flu!

backing up

It's been a while since I've done a thorough back up of all my photos and digital supplies. So, that was my intention for this long weekend. I need to get a better system going, I think I say that alot.

Anyway, today I really felt the need to back-up my laptop after I read about the new iLife for Mac. I was totally stoked to see that iMovie now is compatible with our camcorder. I was getting very irritated with trying to find software that I would be able to use to make dvd's with, or just watch our home movies. Because of the frustration we haven't used our camcorder very often. The new iLife is $79. However, I noticed that you need the Leopard OS to run it, which I don't own. So, the Apple website says that they have this package called the Mac Box, for $169 you get Leopard, iLife '09 and iWork '09. I don't really need iWork, but Leopard is $129 and iLife is $79, it's a good deal to me! So, when we get our tax return I'm hoping to order it. So, at this moment, I'm physically moving individual photos from iPhoto to my EHD. I've been having issues with iPhoto sporadically quitting on me anyway, so I was intending on re-installing the software soon.

19 days into Project 365 and I'm keeping up! There have been a couple of days that around 10pm I'm wondering what to take a picture of, but I take one of something. lol I've done a layout for the first 2 weeks. My intention is to do a layout for every week and one layout with tiny pictures for the whole month for a bound book at the end of the year. We'll see how that works out, but for now, that's my plan. I'm quite sure it'll change numerous times as the year goes along and as I see how everyone else is approaching it.

I'm also working on a Summer 2008 album for us and printing a copy for my nephew Jason. He spent a good deal of time with us this summer, so I thought we could just omit a few pages of the book and get him a copy too. I have a code for a free photobook through Shutterfly so I'm trying to figure out pictures and kits to use. I want it to all go together, so it's been hard to try to find a kit that will work with everything, I'm thinking of using 2 or 3 max now since I don't have anything that works for it all, and I don't exactly have the money to spend right now on a new kit.

Anyway...til another time. I'm out for tonight ;)

addictions

I have a confession to make...well, two really.

I am a smoker and am addicted to Coke. The two best things for my teeth and health. lol

On Tuesday morning I started my day with the idea that I am done smoking. About halfway through my day I also finished my last bit of Coke in the house. Surprisingly, Tuesday wasn't so bad. Wednesday wouldn't have been so bad either, if I didn't have to go up to the school 4 times and listen to Alex whine and cry for no good reason. I was also exhausted. I stuck to it though, I bought a 20oz at the grocery store. I know that I can get through the day without pop, I just choose not to. But, I know that to help me lose weight and be healthier I have to quit drinking so much of it.

My poor hubby received the brunt of it last night, though I have to admit some of the things he said/asked were stupid or I had already explained/answered. lol I do have to keep my emotions in check though, I've snapped at the boys a couple of times and I regret what I said to them. I don't do well under stress, which is why I smoked.

Onto other things...I am current on my 365 project. I've been taking a photo every day, there have been a couple days I haven't been able to get it posted on said day though. It's getting done, 15 days in already. lol Seems like it's been alot longer. I'm going to try to scrap a 2pg layout for each week, or maybe 1pg for each week. I haven't exactly decided yet and am not about to try to tackle it right now. Maybe at the end of the month...

I did do another layout though. I had a great 2pg layout started of our house out here in CA and then my laptop battery died (someone unplugged my computer) and it re-booted...so I lost it all. So, when I feel up to it, I get to attempt it again, re-sizing and placing some 14 photos. Fun!! lol

lists

I love lists. My problem is I don't usually remember where I put said lists. I have pieces of paper littered all over my house and things end up everywhere. It's been particularly frustrating since we've moved.

Anyway, something I need to add to my to-do list is make a decision on whether or not to renew the family domain name. I love having a self-hosted blog and photo gallery, but I don't enjoy paying for hosting & renewing the domain name when hardly anyone visits our site. I realize I'm not a spectacular writer and my updates are sometimes few and far between, but we have hardly any hits on the site. Maybe I'll renew the domain name another year but not our hosting. Although I just went through and did a fresh install of wordpress and re-organized our categories and made it look neater.

Another thing on my to-do list was to decide on my ability to finish my medical transcription course. Admitting defeat, I called to see what they might be able to do for me. I followed their instructions and wrote a letter to ask for a refund, I just hope that they call me first, because if they are going to offer me a ridiculous amount I will accept their extension offer and bust my ass to finish.

To-do list item #3 is to work out a budget. I have a tenative one written out on paper, but I need to tweak a few things and figure out a way to make it work. I had high hopes of trying the envelope system, but ATM fees would hurt us. So, Tom and I agreed to do an envelope system for the things that we seem to spend more than we need to on: fast food and movies. I have a small amount of money going towards savings each month. I know everyone says to pay yourself first, well, if my bills don't get paid then we'll be in more trouble than paying us first is worth. So, I figured a small amount is better than nothing.

I'm disappointed it's Sunday. Tom got called yesterday to go in today and stand duty for someone who got sick. I was really looking forward to hanging out with Tom and the kids and catching up on some tv shows and playing some Rock Band. lol

first 7 days

7 whole days into the new year and I'm burnt out already. Today Anthony went to AM kindergarten class and was to be picked up at 12:24, Tommy had a minimum day and needed to be picked up at 1:13. Today I just got Tommy from school at 12:24 with Anthony.

It also marks 7 days that I have taken pictures and posted one a day on my 365 blog. Last year I wasn't able to complete the whole year, I was fighting pretty hard to find the inspiration by March. I'm hoping that this year I can improve my photography skills, work on my post-processing and document our lives with the pictures.

I also finished up 2 more layouts since the last time I posted about scrapbooking. I need to streamline my process and organize my supplies a bit better so that I am more efficient with my time. I have too many hopes for this year, but I'm still bound to not make any resolutions, just make more of an effort to slowly change the things I want to.

So, with that I'm off til tomorrow...I need to get my kitchen cleaned up so I don't wake up to the mess.

in this new year

I want my kids to play with their friends. They enjoy going to school to have someone else to talk to and interact with besides their brothers and me. When I ask if they have any friends they would like to invite over and they say no. Maybe they don't want to invite anyone over, I get that. What I don't want is for them to be like me and be afraid to talk to people. The fear of initiating a conversation with someone I don't know scares me. I've tried to "put myself out there" before and I've been slapped in the face by people who I thought were going to be friends.

I don't need the drama in my life. Though I don't like the thought of my boys not enjoying their childhood and the time we will be living here because of the way they see I act. I have yet to strike up a conversation with any of the other parents that I've seen. Though they are all standing around in groups and it is horrible intimidating to imagine myself going up to them all and introducing myself. To one person I could maybe force myself to say hi and do introductions, but more than that? It makes my poor heart race, my palms sweat and I want to run back to my bubble that is my home.

I am going to take a small step and make up some cards for Anthony and Tommy to give out to 2 or 3 friends with our address and phone number on them. I hope that will help them start talking to some friends outside of school. Tommy wants to do soccer again, so I am calling tomorrow to see when the last day for registration is because unfortunately we just don't have the money for it right now. I will do something to help my kids make some friends and not have the same anxiety issues that I deal with on a daily basis (sometimes even getting them to/from school is an ordeal for me). I will be a better parent in this aspect, even if it means a trip to the dr to get some pills.

Happy 2009!

I hope all of you had a wonderful celebration for the new year. Everywhere I go I hear people talking about resolutions, goals, words for the year, etc. I didn't make any new year's resolutions, I've been pretty bad with follow-through this past year, so I didn't want to put any additional pressure on myself. DH and I are trying to quite smoking, together. It's not working out great so far, mainly since neither one of us can say "don't do it" to the other one. I think it might come down to me quitting while he's at work and trying to keep myself from wanting to step outside with him once he's home at night.

The past few days have been pretty uneventful for us. On the 30th we went to the San Diego Zoo. The drive there wasn't bad, until we got about 1/2 mile from the zoo parking lot and we waited for nearly 30 minutes to get off the main road and then into the parking lot. Then, we proceeded to drive around for about 1 hour and 15 minutes while we attempted to find a parking spot. It was ridiculous! When we hit an hour I told DH that we could call it a day and just go home I was so frustrated with it all. We eventually found a spot and made our way into the zoo. We didn't spent much time there because we were kind of cranky and we ran into a lot of really rude people.

Well, gotta run to Wal-Mart for some things. Check out my Project 365 blog for my attempt at doing a photo a day for 2009. I'll post some pictures from the zoo tomorrow hopefully.