Officially 6 1/2 years old!

Today is Hope's half birthday.  She asked me the other day when she would be 6 1/2 and I realized it was just around the corner.  So when I picked her up from the summer program, we decided to go eat pancakes (her favorite meal).  We also went to Target and she got a new pair of flip flops for her trip to KC and a movie that was on sale.  It was only $5 and I had actually borrowed $5 from her piggy bank the other day so I would have money to go to the pool.  :)  Now we are even.

Anyway, she is watching her new movie and then off to bed.

Here is some more Christmas goodness.  It is a gift bag I recycled.  I covered the front and tied on a baker's twine pom-pom and a bell.

Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Darla

False Alarm!

Well, last night ended up with no storm in our area.   It was heading right towards us and I kept waiting for it to get here.  Finally I checked radar again and it was pretty much gone, just some small rain areas.  So no basement time for us last night.

Anyway, not much else going on here lately, so I will just share more Christmas in July cards.  These two cards a similar and are not from your typical Christmas colors.  There were just small hints of green and red to bring out the Christmas spirit.

Really these could be any kind of card.  Just replace the sentiment and exchange the bell for a button and there you have it.

Well, going to do some more reading.  I am currently ready the newest Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evonavich.  Love these books.  They are really easy to read and make me laugh out loud, with a little bit of romance and mystery thrown in too.

Good night!

Darla

Take Cover!!!

Ok, making a quick post before a bad storm hits us.  

Here is another Christmas card to share.  Enjoy!

Well, off to eat supper quickly and will probably have to head to the basement.  Later!

Darla

Happy Independence Day!

I hope all of you have had a great 4th of July.  Last night we had Dawn and the twins over for a BBQ, and Grandma Deloris came up in the evening and joined for the Dueling Pianos out at the mall.  After the pianos, we stayed for the Fireworks.  We weren't expecting the fireworks to start on the lake we were sitting around.  We all SCREAMED when the first one shot off right by us, and the ducks swimming around on the lake will likely never be the same.  :)  Of course, every time the sparks went off the girls screamed.  It was a lot of fun.

Today we relaxed this morning and met in Waukee for the afternoon parade.  

We got a spot in the shade and thee girls had fun tackling each other for candy.  Hope had the shining moment when she didn't get any candy early on and had to pout!  It was pretty funny.  

Eventually she got over it and came home with LOTS of candy, due to her no fail technique of jumping up and down with her hands in the air yelling, CANDY! CANDY! CANDY!

And to close things out, I want to thank all of our trooops who are currently or have served in the past for our freedoms.  Thank you for everything you do.  Also, thanks to their family members too.

Tomorrow I will be back with my Christmas in July theme of showing Christmas cards.

Have a great night!

Darla

Project 12-June layout (School Days)

I had a chance to do some scrapbooking last night and completed the Project 12 Layout for the June sketch.  I am excited that I won last months prize.  Good stuff.  Come on, play along!

Here is the sketch...

I chose to do a layout about Hope's first couple of days in Kindergarten.  I am also going to complete a couple other layouts with more journaling about specific events throughout the year.  I have had these school themed papers/stickers for quite some time now and knew I wanted to use it on a school layout.

I had Hope write her name on the handwriting sticker.

I will be back tomorrow with more Christmas in July projects.

Have a good day!

Darla

Christmas in July

I have actually started making Christmas cards for this year.  Some of them were for submission and others were just to use up some scraps after I completed a few Christmas layouts.  So throughout the month of July, I am going to be sharing all my Christmas card creations.  Enjoy and happy holidays!

This was a card I created using the sketch for the Paper Crafts December magazine call.

Ok, I have the night free to scrapbook, so I am keeping it short so I can get back to my layout for the Project 12 June sketch.

Have a good night!

Darla 

Reilly Speaks

Hope was FULL of it today.  Lot's to share!

She threw a fit this morning and didn't want to put on her swimsuit for pool day at summer program.  And she didn't want to take one with her, because it was cold last week.  Mind you, today, it was the PERFECT day to go to the pool.  Too bad for Hope, because she had to go to the pool in her clothes and sit there and watch everyone else swim.  That was a tough lesson to learn.  We will see how next Tuesday goes.  :)

Then this morning, Joe got a call from the head teacher and Hope had punched a boy in her class.  Good grief!  Yesterday, she got in trouble for pushing a boy and had to write a note to us letting us know what happened.

Well, at least today ended with a funny story.  :)

We just had a quick meal tonight, so she got ABC's & 123's with meatballs.  While she was eating, she suddenly got up and got a new spoon.  I asked her why.  She smiled and said, well, I gave Reilly a taste of a "C" to see if it would go to his brain and make him talk.  Ok, for those of you that don't know, Reilly is our dog.  She got the idea from the show Martha Speaks.  The show is about a dog that can talk because when she ate a bowl of alphabet soup it went to her brain and then she could talk.  So we spent the evening encouraging Reilly to make a "C" sound.  She said, maybe I should have given him a "D" for dog.  :)  Love it!

Alright, here is another Halloween card.

The date was actually left over wall rub on.  I put it on a transparency and put it on my card.  To cover up the transparency line, I added a line of glitter glue.  It also added a nice detail.

Have a good night!

Darla

Big Country Bash 2011

We had a blast yesterday at the concert.  All the acts were great.  Here is a glimpse of our fun yesterday...

The first several acts included a local Jason Brown, The JaneDeer Girls, JB and the Moonshine Band, and Steele Magnolia...

Below is Josh Thompson.

Here are me and my friends/sister at the bash.  

As you can see, the clouds were starting to form earlier in the day.  Below we were trying to stay dry during one of the downpours.

This was Colt Ford during his set.

We made friends while standing in line to get corn dogs.  They had a deal of five corndogs for $20 or you could buy them separately for $6 each.  

Here is am with Eddie Hatfield from the morning show on 92.5 radio station.  We both work out at Farrell's.

Here we are again, trying to stay dry when the next shower came through.  This one was more of a downpour, so we covered up completely with the tarp.  :)

When Dierks Bentley came on stage, we worked our way to the front stage.  It was awesome.  I even got a guitar pick from him.

Trace Adkins finished off the concert.  When he started his act, I got a text from Joe.  He was on his way to get us because there was a BIG storm coming.  He only got 4 songs done and they made him stop and said we had 10 minutes before the storm hit.  

We packed up everything and headed to where Joe said he was waiting for us.  So along with thousands of other concert fans we trudged through the mud.  When we got to the van, it was stuck in the mud.  So some strong guys helped push us out and then we gave them a ride to their car.  We picked up a few others along the way.  Just after we let them off at the cars, it cut loose.  The hail started falling and the wind picked up and the rain was coming down in sheets.  By the time we got home, the storm had mostly passed.  I am so glad that we had Joe drop us off and come get us, because we would have been stuck in the mud/parking lot for hours.  We LOVE you Joe!

Alright, I got out my Halloween scraps a while back and made some cards.  Here is one of them...

I have a few more Halloween cards I will share over the next few days.  Then I am going to share a bunch of cards to celebrate Christmas in July.

Check back again soon!

Darla

First Rollercoaster Ride!!!

The summer program Hope is in this summer went to Adventureland (a local amusement park) yesterday.  She was all excited to go.  When I picked her up yesterday her teacher told me she had an upset stomach on the bus ride home.  Then I asked Hope if she had fun at the park.  She said "no".  WHAT????

Then she starts telling me about the day.  The first ride her group went to was The Tornado rollercoaster.  This is the SAME rollercoaster I rode for the first time many years ago.  The teacher asked her if she wanted to try and ride it.  She said yes (which I can't believe that she even considered it).  She was just barely tall enough.   She got buckled in, the bar came down and off they went.  She was telling me it was fun until they went down the first big hill... (updated to add these pictures from the park website of the Tornado).

I couldn't help but giggle just a little at her description of the ride.  She said she didn't ride any other rides the rest of the day.  But then later in the evening she did start to tell us about other rides she was on.  She rode the log ride.  They put her in the front, so she said she got really wet!  :)  She also rode the frog hopper, which is like a kid version of the space shot that is on a big pole and shoots you up really fast and then bobs a few times and comes down.  It tickles your tummy and is pretty fun.

Anyway, I think over all she had fun, but I don't think I will be getting her on any rollercoaster rides anytime soon.  Bummer.  I love rollercoasters.

We had a busy night last night too.  My office went to an Iowa Cubs baseball game.  They WON!  It was a lot of fun and we even stayed late for the fireworks.  So Hope and I slept in a bit this morning since we got home late.

Luckily at school they are having a pretty low key day.  They are going to see the movie Cars 2.  She likes the first one, so she was excited about that.

Ok, enough rambling from me.  I have some cards I made a while back that I will share.

I love the bright colors of both of these cards.  The papers were from Fancy Pants and it was actually a winter/snowman line.

Well, I have the day off today from work, so I am going to get to work on a project I am making for The Scrappy Gourmet.  I will share more when I have it completed.

Darla

5:55 pm

I was driving to work this morning and the radio jockeys were talking about a study that had recently been done.  What it discovered was that for mother's, the most stressful time of the day is 5:55 pm.  I kind of laughed and agreed that is one of many times of the day that can be stressful to me.  :)

Anyway, fast forward through the day.  Hope and I get home and I am thinking about what to fix for supper and for treat day tomorrow.  Suddenly, Hope starts saying "mom" over and over and over again.  "look at the microwave, mom"!  "LOOK!"  And guess what time it was...5:55 pm.  Of course I was juggling several "mom" balls at the time...cooking...cleaning the kitchen...unpacking the lunch bags, etc.  I just had to laugh at the irony of the time she was so excited to see.  Even more ironic was that she wasn't even in the van with me when I heard about the study.

Anyway, it is late so I am heading off to bed.

Here is the retirement card I made for my mother-in-law.  She received the card this weekend.

Good night!

Darla

Crazy week!

Not sure how much I will get back here this week, but thought I would stop by for a quick post.

Went swimming at the Y tonight and thinking about joining this fall when my membership runs out at my current place I work out.  That way the entire family can take advantage and not just me for the same price.  We will see.  I will be hard to leave FXB and I will have to motivate myself to workout instead of in a class situation.

Anyway, will share a card quickly before the next round of storms hits here shortly.  Could be a LONG night of thunderstorms, but hopefully it won't get too severe.

This card is similar to the other card I already shared, but with a different sentiment  and slightly different papers.

Well, that is it for tonight!  Have a good one and hopefully you are staying dry where you are!

Darla

Sugar & Spice...

That is what Hope is made of.  She is sometimes full of sugar and other times full of spice and ornery and naughty...everything all wrapped into one!  I love her to pieces, but sometimes she just sends me over the edge.

Well, I am getting ready to head to bed, so making this quick.

Here is another baby card for one of my co-workers.

Calling it a night!

Darla

She's got it Rough!

We had a great weekend down on the farm and we celebrated the baptism of my great-nephew, Kenton.  He is such a cutie and I will share photos once I have them off the camera.

Anyway, my post title is talking about Hope.  I was feeling sorry for her this morning because it was chilly out and she started swim lessons.  I was having flashbacks of when I was a kid.  I hated going to swim lessons when it was cold, and it seemed like EVERY year it was cold.  I would get out of the pool just shivering.  I thought they were at the city aquatic center, but they are actually in the indoor pool at the YMCA.  Wow, she has it rough!

The summer program she is in is actually taking care of getting her to and from swimming lessons.  She is having a lot of fun.  They go on small field trips almost every day.  Today they went to a playground place and tomorrow she gets to go bowling.  Fun stuff.  Almost makes me wish I could go have fun too!  :)

Anyway, here are the gift bags I created for the baby memory books I made for gifts.

Well, that is all for tonight!

Have a good one!

Darla

Baby (Girl) Memories Gift album

Well Hope started Kids West yesterday and had a pretty good day and today went even better.  So she earned a Happy Meal from McD's.  Yeah, I didn't have to cook.  :)

Yesterday, she told me she got "scolded" for getting mud on her leg.  That was actually how she said it "scolded", which sounds so grown up.  So I asked her if they got mad at her or what did they say?  She said they just said not to do it again.  Like that is going to work!  The kid loves to get dirty!  It was just funny that she described it as being "scolded".  She is 6 going on 16 sometimes.

Anyway, I delivered/mailed lots of packages today.  One for publication and another baby gift on it's way to El Salvador.  I delivered the other Baby Boy gift album today to Jen at work.  It was a big hit.  I have the girl one there too when Nicole comes in with her new baby.  So here is that album...

I love all the colors in this album and I used butterflies and flowers throughout.

Well, that is it for tonight.  Have a good one.

Darla