The lottery...

Do you play the lottery?  Joe gets tickets every so often, but the usually end up crumpled up on the counter for me to throw in the garbage.  :)  This morning when I got home from the Y, Hope announced we won the lottery!  Wow, really?  Yeah, dad won $7!  Hehehe!  She was pretty excited.  At least we didn't go into the red this week.

Then she explained that if we won $3 million dollars, that after taxes we would end up with "like" only $4,000, so don't get too excited mom.  Ok, I won't get too excited about it.  :)

I am SO excited...I leave in the morning for a scrapbook retreat.  I can't wait to see my gimpy friend Kristi! She had a bike accident last weekend and broke BOTH of her arms.  Needless to say she will not be scrapbooking, but she still wanted to come and hang out with me and the other ladies that will be there.  We are planning on taking good care of her!

So in honor of her injury...

...for quick healing for you and Owen.  Oh yeah, her son also wrecked his bike and broke his arm (which is what caused her accident).  I am sure there are more details to what she affectionately calls her "hilarious accident".  I can't wait to hear it all!  :)  Love you Kristi!

Well, I am off to pack my scrapbooking stuff in the car so I am ready to hit the road in the morning!!!

Darla

Spring Break Week!

First off, thank for those that read my last post and said a prayer for my friends Ami and her sister Beth.  The transplant surgery went good and Ami herself was posting on FB later that same evening.  Good is good!  Now may they both have a successful recovery and long, happy healthy lives!

Now onto what we have been up to this week...

Last week Hope was on Spring Break, so Joe was off with her all week.  They had a VERY busy week.

Hope started her week off spending the weekend with Grandma D and the twins.  They had a lot of fun since they hadn't seen her in over a month.  They were all glad she was finally home.  :)

Since Joe and I had the weekend to ourselves, we got tickets to the Barnstormer's indoor area football game.  Too bad they lost, but we had a good time.

On Monday morning Hope had a dentist appointment where she found out she had her first (& second) cavity that need to be filled, so she had that done on Tuesday.

She was pretty brave through it all.

So that afternoon, Joe took her to the indoor golf dome and they hit some golf balls.

Pretty cute, huh?

She was also obsessed with wearing these sunglasses she found in the drawer.

Joe has become addicted to buying on Groupon, and got a deal for a local pottery place, so he took Grandma D, Annie, Ally and Hope to make some pottery.  I can't wait to see all their creations when we pick them up this week.

Joe celebrated his birthday on Thursday.  Here is the shirt we got him.  The name of our church is Hope (yes, the same name as our daughter).  He is going to start doing some volunteer work there, so we thought he might like to have a shirt to wear.

We wrapped it in brown paper and Hope drew a picture to decorate it.  It is a picture of the three of us.

Yesterday they were busy doing some outdoor work.  Hope cleaned the garage.

And they went for a bike ride (and took puppy and Bambi too).

They rode to the park and played for a while.

Today they went fishing...

It was a beautiful day to be outside.  I walked down to the lake and by then Hope was done fishing, so we decided to go for a walk down the bike trail.  We talked about all kinds of thing...some that made me giggle.  :)  She wanted to hold my hand the entire walk and that made my heart melt.

Tonight we ate out at Joe's Crab shack and then walked around the lake area at the mall.  She posed for a few photos on the rocks and we watched the fish, geese and ducks get fed some bread by some other kids.

One more day and then it is back to like as we know it!  I think she had a pretty fun Spring Break with daddy (while I worked) :(  

In honor of Joe's birthday...here is the card I gave him.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Darla

Prayer Request...

Tomorrow these two beautiful women would appreciate your prayers for a successful transplant surgery.

Beth (on the right) is giving her sister Ami (yep, you guessed it-on the left) a kidney.  This is a picture of them at a formal event from college.  :)  I love this picture of them because it shows their bubbly personalities perfectly.  You two and your families will be in my continued prayers until you are both home and living long and healthy lives.  

And another plug for Ami...she has recently published a book.  You can buy it here.

Prayers to Ami and Beth...

Darla

5 years...

It is still hard to believe it has been five years today since dad died.  Time has passed and memories remembered...I still miss you dad!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I don't usually celebrate much but this year we are going to a Barnstormers game (indoor arena football).  Should be a lot of fun, and hopefully not too crazy with the green celebrations going on.

I have NO green clothes, so I am sporting red to cheer on the Iowa State Cyclones tonight in the NCAA.  We are hoping the suite tv will have the channel we need to watch the BB game while we are at/watching the Barnstormer's game.  :)  I DID paint my toe and fingernails bright green.  It is the most hideous thing I have ever seen, but I had to wear some kind of green today.  :)  I was actually Hello Kitty nail polish Hope had in her stash, so you know it is high quality stuff.  NOT!  It is very streaky and I have already  put on three coats.  I am just going to put a glitter coat on to try and cover all the streaks.  Good enough.

Speaking of Hope, she is visiting Grandma D this weekend with the twins.  I am sure they are having a good time.  They were going to go to an indoor water park and then today go play at a park.  Fun stuff!

The weather has been great.  Last night I was outside with our dog in shorts and sleeveless t-shirt and it was still warm out.  Crazy!  It is only the middle of March and it felt like May or June weather.  I hope that doesn't mean we will be melting this summer.

Not much else going on, so will share a card that has green on it, even though it isn't very festive like St. Patrick's Day tends to be.

Have a fun and SAFE St. Patrick's Day!

Darla

The mad face...

Growing up, I had this funny face I would make when I was mad (or sometime upon request to see it).  We called it my "mad face".  See below (yep that is me and I am probably about the age of 7-same age as Hope).

So the other night, Hope was begging me not to go to gymnastics, which I have no clue why she didn't want to go except that it was beautiful out and she wanted to play with her friends.  I told her she had to go and this is the face I had glaring back at me...

Look familiar?  I just about cracked up!

Fast forward to today...got another call from the school nurse.  Hope said her stomach hurt.  I wasn't convinced (again) that she was sick, but finally went to get her.  Nope, not sick!  So she has had to sit/lay on the couch since we got home doing nothing.  After an hour I did let her get a book to read.  There will be no fun had around here tonight when you pretend to be sick!  I am SO mean!  :)

Alright, better go make sure she is still on the couch!  If you listen closely I am sure you will hear me yelling to "GET BACK ON THE COUCH!".  :)  Did you hear it?

Anyway, here is a few more cards for you to enjoy.

Have a great night!

Darla

Put some Windex on it!

Do you remember the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  He recommended to put Windex on everything ...scratches, pimples, etc.  So a while back I was cleaning the inside windows of my van.  When I came inside I was looking in the mirror at a really BIG zit on my chin.  So I thought...what the heck and put some Windex on it.  Well, I am here to say...DON'T try it.  I think I angered the zit and it has multiplied into three zits all in the same area and I can't get it to go away!  Ok, it will eventually go away, it is just very annoying.  :)

Yesterday I took my camera and got some shots of Hope while at gymnastics.  Here she is on the balance beam...

...on the trampoline...

...and on the rope swing.

Let's see...this morning when I asked Hope what she wanted for breakfast she answered with "arm pit".  Ok, I have no clue why she said that, but she thought it was hilarious.  Then she blurts out, hey mom I can touch my tongue to my arm pit.  WOW!  What an amazing, but gross talent.  Hehehehe!

Moving on...I finished up work early today so Hope and I decided to go try out the new Sky Zone that opened in town.  I didn't realize it until we got there, but it was the grand opening ceremony.  Luckily it wasn't too busy since we were early.

Well, I can proudly say that I survived jumping for 30 minutes.  We had originally thought about paying for an hour, but 30 minutes was plenty for the first time there.  They should make stickers for the parents that choose to jump (& have fun with their kids-like me) that say "I survived"!  When I got out of the van upon returning home I could hardly walk.  OUCH!  What was I thinking?  We had a blast together though and can't wait to try it again.  I didn't get any pictures because I wasn't really sure what to expect.  Next time I will take a camera or take one on my phone.

Well, that is about all for today, so will finish off with a card (or two)...

I am off to rest my tired body!

Darla

Low Key weekend...

Those are my favorite kind of weekends.  We didn't do much around here and I loved every minute of it.  I did a lot of page planning for an upcoming crop I will be going to, so I am well on my way to getting a lot done that weekend.  Some of them will be kits for The Scrappy Gourmet, so check back for the results in a few weeks.  I am also getting caught up on some older pictures from 2010 and 2011.  I just kind of jump around to whatever I am inspired to scrapbook.  I am so glad I switched from scrapbooking chronologically.

No funny updates from Hope since then Principal's office visit, so that was a good thing.  :)  But makes for boring blog material.  I am sure she will liven things up again soon, don't you worry!

So I will share some cards...

Just recently I started buying the 6x6 paper pads for paper lines I liked, but it didn't work with any pictures I had for layouts.  So, I buy the small paper pads and make cards.  This was my first time just sitting down and making cards from something other than scraps.  I love working with the 6x6 paper pads and I am sure I will do this again soon.

Well, that is all for tonight.  I am off to call a long lost friend (from college) and catch up on details of the last 15+ years (although we have briefly seen each other since then).  I am so glad we found each other on Facebook.  Have a good night!

Darla

The Principal's Office!

Hope made her first trip to the principal's office today.  :(  She got in trouble for biting another girl while they were getting ready for recess.  Of course, her teacher called to tell me what had happened.  Could be an interesting teacher conference this week.  :)  So she is grounded for the week with other consequences as well.

She got off the bus and came in and said, I know you got the call from my teacher.  She was pretty honest about the whole thing and said the principal had told her it was not ever ok to bite (hit, kick, etc).

I had wondered if one of the kids made fun of her outfit today.  She dressed herself...

I have said it before and I will say it again, she has her own sense of style.  :)  In case you can't tell, she has on a summer dress with a long sleeve shirt on (that doesn't match), black tights, gelly shoes and a black and gold pony tail holder.  :)  It was quite the combination.  The picture is REALLY bad, but we were about to miss the bus and I snapped it really fast.

Well, I will end today with a mini album I made of my nephew Colin.  He was a premie when he was born, but is doing great.  He turned one in November.  :)

I gave this to my sister-in-law for Christmas so she could add the details on the journaling cards.  The base of the album was the vertical journaling cards and embellished with stickers, etc.  It went together really fast and made a great gift.

Off to gymnastics class for Hope.

Darla

Updating the meals you grew up eating...

I had to laugh tonight as I was preparing dinner tonight.  Growing up, one common meal we had was hamburger patties and potatoes cooked in a foil pack in the oven.  Mom always added onions too for flavor.  Fast forward to 2012...tonight I made ground turkey patties with potatoes (and skipped the onions since Joe and Hope won't eat them).  This was the first time I had tried ground turkey cooked like this.  Since the turkey is more lean than hamburger, next time I will put in an ice cube for moisture so the meat won't be so dry.  Otherwise, it tasted great.  I cooked it for 45 minutes in case any of you want to try this easy meal out.  I put it in the oven before I left to get Hope from dance and it was nearly ready when we got home.  My kind of meal!

This weekend we made a quick trip down to KC to visit my sister.  I did some shopping in her basement (which happens to be The Scrappy Gourmet).  :)  I also brought home lots of product to make more kits.  So be sure to watch for coming attractions.

We also got to play with the new puppies.  This is Otis (the all cream one) and Ella (the multi-colored) puppy.  Aren't they CUTE?!?  They were so sweet.

And we were there when one of the puppies fell and got hurt.  She slipped off the couch and broker her leg.  It was pretty scary, but she is under the best of care and being very spoiled.  :)  Of course, with a broken leg comes a cast.

Poor thing!

And here is two more cards to share with you...

This one was made to be a gift card holder, with a pocket just above the buggy sticker.

Well, I have a little free time tonight, so I am going to do some scrapbooking!  Good night!

Darla

What's an encyclopedia?

Last night while watching American pickers the guys were buying a sign of a pegasus.  Before they said what it was hope already yelled look a Pegasus!  Joe was surprised that she knew what it was.  He asked her if she was a human encyclopedia and her response...what's an encyclopedia?  So we explained it was a book that we used to look things up when we were kids, kind of like she looks things up on the Internet now.  Wow!  I guess that makes us OLD!


I wonder if her kids will ask whats the Internet?



Anyway...not much else going on and time for me to head to bed.  I will send you off with a few cards.

Thanks for stopping by...see you next time!


Darla

Cuteness alert!

We got to see what the dance costumes will look like for Hope's recital in June.  Oh my!!!  They are so cute!

So now I am on the lookout to find the perfect papers for the scrapbook layout.  :)  Never too early to think ahead.  I have heard picture day is a stressful and unorganized event!  Oh well!  What we won't go through to get our memories captured.  :)

Not much else to chat about, so will share a few more baby cards.

Have a good night!

Darla