we started the p90x program last night

...and today, even my eyelids are sore.

That is all.

confession: i am totally and completely full of scrap

I'm starting to really have to stretch for creative ways to use that word.  Just humor me ok?

Here are some of my latest scraptastic masterpieces.

I don't know what the deal is with me and orange lately.  I hate the putrid color, yet 3 out of my last 6 layouts have begged for orange.  *shrug* 

Last night during the miserable Super Bowl I did these next two.  Was it just me or were the commercials uber lame this year?  I think I laughed at maybe two of them?  There seemed to be a trend of nearly nekkid men or men in their underwear. . .that left me puzzling a bit.

Anyway, the first half of the game (when the Colts were winning) I produced this:

It's not really my 'type' of scrapbooking as it's rather messy and unaligned (I am such a linear girl-singing to Madonna's "Material Girl" in my head right now. . . "a linear, a linear, a linear girl. . ." and I really go for the less-is-more theory and adore white space.  Anyhoo, this page was about a creative mess so I wanted to showcase my own creative mess.  I like it.

Then, the second half of the game (when the Colts seriously lost all star quality and eventually, the game) I produced this horrid little number.

Not that it's so bad, it's just, it was supposed to be a simple lift (from Stacey Michaud, you rock) but from square one (literally) I had troubles.  That color of maroon was hard to match and I printed out the small pics of E. on my printer which was just finishing up its color cartridge, so the color's all wacko there. . . then I redid the title like 4 different ways, had a devil of a time with the bracket, and my cricut started freezing on me for some reason.  In the end, a page this simple should have been a no-brainer and instead, I feel like ripping it apart.

As well as my life-size poster of Peyton Manning.

I'm just kidding.

I don't own a life-size poster of Peyton Manning.

It's of Dan Majerle.

#9 you stole my heart 20 years ago (yoiks that's ugly in writing) and it will not be given freely to another.

Which layout is your favorite?  The birthday one looks really good in person because it has lots of fun bling on it.  And I look rather skinny.  :) 

things you can buy for $100

Just a few more days left to enter the V8 V-Fusion $100 gift card contest over on my review blog!

What can $100 buy you?

• about 200 candy bars
• 2 pairs of jeans at The Gap
• a doctor's office co-pay through my insurance company (grrr)
• a really great hair coloring at a nice salon
• dinner for 2 at The Melting Pot (I so want to go there some day...maybe for dessert?)
• a one-way airline ticket from Los Angeles to Phoenix (I have proof of this one)
  
• 2 balcony seats at the theatre
• 100 songs on itunes
• 2 1/2 fillups at the gas station
• about 8 minutes with a lawyer
• an hour-long massage
• a passport (I have the receipts)
• 2 seasons of extracurricular activities through your city's rec. department
  
• 20 pounds of gumballs
• 5 new release DVDs
• about 50 boxes of cereal, if it's on sale
• a really great run at the scrapbook store
• a new cell phone
• an accountant to do your taxes this spring
  
• a digital camera (hmm...this is what I would buy...)
• 2,900,000 grains of rice

Ok I'm done, you get the point. $100 could get you a lot of great things! Go enter!

uploaded lately on my ipod

"Somewhere Only We Know" -- Lifehouse

"Say Hey (I Love You)" -- Michael Franti and Spearhead

"Hey, Soul Sister" -- Train

"Wishing Well" -- Airborne Toxic Event (who's name means a lot more to me now that I'm taking this Microbiology class...now excuse me while I go bathe myself in bleach)

"Poker Face" -- Daughtry

"Swing Swing" -- All American Rejects

"Waking up in Vegas" -- Katie Perry

and about 28 (no exaggeration) songs from Glee. I *heart* the music in that show...could care less for the characters and the story line, but the singing is so fun! Here are several of my favorites:

"Don't Stop Believing"

"Defying Gravity"

"Somebody to Love"

"Sweet Caroline" (just love Puck's voice!)

"The Thong Song" (I can't help it, the picture of Mr. Shuester singing and dancing around to this song just makes me happy)

"Alone" (with Kristin Chenoweth)

"I'll Stand By You" (Finn's voice has totally grown on me)

Do you see why I have 28 of them downloaded? They're so good!

What are you listening to?

rest in peace, ol' blue

For my camera, Ol' Blue, that bit the dust *ahem, was broken by my child* last week.

Our relationship started over 2 years ago when I received him as a Christmas present from my dear hubby. It was love at first sight, well, as much love as $130 at Wal-Mart can buy ya. We went everywhere together, my Fuji and I...we shared holidays, special moments, he came along on date nights, and made record of my fondest moments throughout the past two years.

Things were not all peaches and cream. We had our rough times together. We had to go through a bit of counseling to get over the great Drop of '08. He was wounded. His scar never fully healed. I never completely forgave him for giving me a less than ideal portrait during the swimsuit season. And we decided it was best to never bring up the double chin incident from Christmas Eve 2009. Some things are better left unremembered.

However, nothing could get between us. He was the source of many self-portraits. Many twelve-of-twelves. Many campouts and scrapbook pictures and posed/staged/cheesy grins from my younguns.

It was a sad sad day when coming in out of the rain, my dear sweet Fuji gasped his last, jammed, and turned off, never to beep at me again.

Ol' Blue, I will miss you.

dear diary

Things have been crazy busy as always, but in a good way.

 

I started the semester last week and am really enjoying my Microbiology class. It is so much easier than my Anatomy & Physiology classes. . .I can't get over it. Plus, I love my professor and really enjoy her lectures. She is from India and is so cute and personable with an infectious laugh that makes me giggle right along with her. Loving it.

 

I've done a lot of scrapbooking in January--17 layouts--which has been so fun! I've been learning how to use my Cricut and Sure-Cuts-A-Lot and so enjoying the results.

 

I've also been doing lots of reading, I think another 8 books this month (well, I completed 7 and gave up on the 8th) and just started a new one last night. Such a nice respite from the world!

 

(that's not me)

I got a new calling at church. I am now one of the four ward organists.  (I know, I know, this much coolness should not be allowed to occur all in one person, alas, someone's gotta do it). 

"But Amie," you say, "I didn't know you knew how to play the organ?"

I don't.

I've never played one in my life!  Ha!  But hopefully I'll be able to get used to it and not muck up my first week of music (in February) when it comes. I'm still playing piano in Primary too, so I'm definitely getting my quota of music in each Sunday.

 

Sean just got a fun part in the school production of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. He'll be playing the part of Mike Teevee, so that's exciting for him. He gets crazy anxious nervous about new things, so I'm hoping this will break him in enough that he'll get over that fear and hopefully continue to try out for new things in the future.

 

My girls and I went to the temple a couple of nights ago which was really refreshing and enjoyable.  I think it was the third time I've been to the temple in the past month. . .so cool that I'm able to go so much more often now!

 

We're considering going up to Flagstaff on Saturday to play in the snow, but we've never done that with the kids before and have no idea how to plan! What to wear? what to take with us? How cold or wet will we be? Anyone have any suggestions or clothes we can borrow?

 

And this is my newest favorite song, "Somewhere Only We Know"--I just love these covers done by other bands! The original (which I also love) is done by Keane and can be seen here. This version is done by Lifehouse. And is it just me, or does the lead singer look like a cross between Jim from "The Office" and Charlie from "Lost" (Dominic Monaghan)? Right?

 

So, in a not-so-small nutshell, these are things that have been keeping me busy this past week.  What are you up to this last week of January?

it's a scrap attack!

I've totally had the scrappy itch lately. 

And I love to scratch.

Or something.

 

12 of 12, a little green, a little late

I didn't make too many goals this year; be less sedentary (ie, get off my butt!), play my piano more, try to get a bit more caught up on scrapping, and try to participate monthly in the Twelve-of-Twelve challenges.

If you read my blog, you know that 12-of-12 means you take tons of pictures on the 12th of the month, then pick the best 12 to represent that day, and post them and/or scrapbook them. They don't have to be pictures of major events, just simple things that detail your day to day. It actually is really interesting to look over later and see what your house, kids, yard, fridge looked like during different months of the year. We don't always think to document the little things like what your closet floor looked like, and this program pushes me to think outside the box a little.

To keep it interesting, this time around I took pictures of all things green. :)

No, these are not old Christmas presents, these are actually Mother's and Father's Day presents that Cameron made, wrapped up (in Christmas wrapping paper), and told us to wait until May or June to open them. That kid is too funny.


This is Sean's backpack.

This is a bit of leftover Christmas gumball candy.

My favorite cup. Best when full of cranberry flavored crystal light.

Ethan loves dinosaurs, and these prominently displayed ones are some of his favorites.

The color of the hand towel in my kiddos' dirty bathroom.

Some green stuff in our year supply. I love that Garnier face scrub stuff!

I just bought anjou pears at the store for 50 cents a pound.

Love this yummy smelling candle, but it gives me headaches. Go figure.

Green tomatoes growing on the vine.

You may or may not have noticed that AZ has had a bit of crazy rain and weather lately! The green grass popping up is a sign of all the moisture we've had lately.

And the obligitory self portrait. I have green eyes.

If you want more information about 12-of-12 or if you want to get on Susan's reminder email list, go here.

*glug glug* the return of el nino to arizona

Since Monday it has been raining off and on, causing a slurry of accidents and small time floods, many a change of clothing and socks, and all together change in habit and temperament around these parts. The rare inch upon inch of rain has hit the state, threatening the closure of school due to impassable streets and soaked schoolyards.

Generally, I love the rain, but I absolutely detest driving in it; I mean I border on having an actual phobia of driving under wet conditions. I end up staying around 8-10 car lengths behind the vehicle in front of me. I clench that steering wheel and hardly dare to even look away from the road long enough to check my rear-view mirror. I don't breathe easy again until I am back safe and sound in my own garage.

Good things about this lovely change of climate for us desert dwellers include the nice cool temperature, the wonderful smell, the fresh and clean feel of everything from our landscapes to our roads to just the general atmosphere, and of course, a good healthy dose of drink for all flora and fauna indigenous to this Valley of the Sweat.

Stereotypically, I love to curl up with my fleecy blanket (secretly I yearn for a Snugglie--but was too embarassed to ask for one when by chance I overheard a conversation behind me in line at the Wal-Marts one weekend about how the Snugglie is just a backwards bathrobe! I wanted to disagree so badly! It's larger, comfier, cozier, and in all other ways better than just a plain old bathrobe...right?) and a book. As you all know I've been doing a lot of reading lately and this change of weather lends itself perfectly to a good read-a-thon.

As a result of constantly having cold and wet tootsies (my children can NOT stay indoors during weather like this...they must investigate!) I have been making lots of warm meals (fajitas in the crock-pot tonight) and cup after cup of warm cocoa. I tend to stick to the 25 calorie stuff but then I add more water, raw cocoa, and a serving of splenda to make it a bit yummier.

The storm clouds and precipitation will make their way through our parched state and we will once again be left with dry, hopefully not-so-thirsty terrain. We'll remember that we like the sun and that we live here for a reason. We'll happily return to the park and ride our bikes and in all other ways enjoy our relatively warm winters in Phoenix. (Some of us were still wearing shorts and short-sleeves just last week!) We'll thank Heavenly Father for feeding our plants and refreshing our land and be grateful that we have very few, if any, risks of natural disaster in this lovely state of ours. Our thoughts and prayers go to those suffering in Haiti right now, to those others who have suffered from tsunamis and hurricanes, blizzards and tornadoes, mudslides and fires in other parts of this earth.

I had a disappointing day today (nothing so interesting as to deserve a post on my blog) but as I was driving home, knuckles white, listening to the radio about Haiti, I had some perspective and realized I needed to be grateful for our beautiful weather, our health and safety, and the beauty that is God's Nature.



(And happy birthday to my dear friend Christine!)

the apple dumpling doesn't fall far from this tree

I mentioned in Monday's post that during our football party Saturday, the girls and I had scrapbooked the night away. Cameron had asked me repeatedly if he could join us (with his craft box in hand), so I told him that he and I could scrapbook the next day when we had more time and room.

So Sunday, we scrapbooked.

And we scrapbooked.

And we scrapbooked.

By the end of the night, the tally was, Amie: 3, Cameron 14

Here are his works of art. :)

This is my favorite of the bunch, just because he has a pretty good theme going. He used stencils and glitter glue and even drew an eye patch on himself.

I didn't help him at all-I just gave him a stack of paper he could use and then he went to town using his own craft supplies.

His spelling and handwriting are atrocious!! I don't know how to help him with that. The kid reads like crazy, but still, yikes. I think he just needs to slow down and take his time. His homework is often like this too.

Cameron has always been the recipient of pictures I printed but did not need; those I'd made doubles of for whatever reason, or those that didn't make it into the scrapbook or photo album.

I like his themed, hand-drawn art on this one.

In his words, this says "A to Z", and there are basketballs and a basket cut out of felt and foam. . . see it now?

The ironic thing is, I was scrapping some of these pictures at the same time. Cameron taught me there is no such thing as too many googly eyes.

This layout resulted after I handed him a bunch of alpha stickers and thickers that I was done using. (by the way, I LOVE the picture he used here. It's one of my favorites of my kids)

This one's Danny's favorite.

I love how he added the giant S and H on Sean's picture. And then spelled both Sean's first name and our last name wrong.

Another one of my favorites, even though it is riddled with spelling errors. From the top we have a castle, ghost, count dracula (see the cape?? I love it!), a skeleton, rats, vampire bats, a werewolf, zombie, and bat. *giggle*

My boy loves him some glitter glue.

He even used coordinating rain and umbrella themed stickers for this rainy day layout!

A piece of art depicting him making a piece of art. With cut out felt snowflakes to boot.

I have to say I love this one for the trees. :)

Do you let your kids use your art supplies? I found this was a great way of weeding out my stuff and he really enjoyed the process. He is my artsy crafty boy anyway, and whatever he tackles in this area, he really puts his whole heart into it.

I'm sure he'd love some feedback!

mommy & daddy & the boys' day of FUN!

It's that time of year again when the kids have a day off school and we plan a day full of fun activities.  See our past installments here and here.  :)

This time we were lucky enough that Dad had it off too.  The rain slowed us down a bit, keeping us indoors for the most part, so we had to be a bit more creative this time around.  :)  So we started out with some yummy fried goodness by way of  Basha's bakery for donuts. 

Also while there we picked up free BlockBuster movies which we settled in to watch while eating the fatty fried yummies.

 

After that was over, we tried to go see a movie, but it appears every other family had that exact same idea, as Alvin & The Chipmunks was pretty much sold out.  We bailed on that idea and instead, spent our $ at TGIF where kids eat free on Mondays.  :)

From there to Target where my shaggy-haired son Sean picked out a DS game with his birthday money he'd been saving up since July.  :)  He specifically wanted a game that he could link to the other boys' DS's and play via in-home network access blah blah blah.  My point there is that it was nice of him to choose something they could all play together.  He got Super Mario Brothers, which I explained to him was so old school-since my brothers and I got that game when I was like 13-but I guess this is the 'new' Super Mario so, that shut me up. 

From there, it got a bit crazy.  The boys started rough-housing (I mean all the boys) and wrestling and playing Buckin' Bronco with Daddy.  There were many kicks to the face, accidental scratching, bonked heads and a plethora of tears, but in the end, I think they had fun burning off all those calories from lunch.

We then bundled up and ate nachos outside while Dad started a nice little fire in his new fire pit a la Santa.  :) 

We then ate the goodies we had originally bought for the movie.

.while sitting around the fire pit and having a nice little Family Home Evening about Martin Luther King and equality and treating everyone the same no matter how they look on the outside.

My hair smelled all woodsy and smokey afterwards.I loved that.  :)

So that was our MLK '10 Day of Fun!  What did you do on your day off?

it's all over...and some layouts

Saturday night we hosted a football party to watch our beloved Arizona Cardinals play their last game of the season. Other than the first 19 seconds (when we scored on our first play), the game was a disaster. But the house was full of people, food, and as always, good spirits...err...just not the alcoholic kind. :)

Whilst the men watched our boys in red get slaughtered, the girls were in the kitchen scrapbooking! Did we plan that well or what? I had planned on taking pictures all night long, but completely forgot to even take my camera out of my bedroom. Oh well. There's always next year, kids.

Here are the layouts I worked on.

have a good weekend everybody!

last chance to enter tom's of maine $100 giveaway

Hey all, one last chance to enter for the $100 giveaway on my Tom's of Maine toothpaste review on the review blog. You don't need to have a google or blogger account to apply, just sign in anonymously, but be sure to leave me a name and email so I can contact you if you win!

A $100 Visa card can go a long way...just think...paying off christmas bills, saving up for a nice Valentine's date in a few weeks...taking your favorite blogger (*cough cough* me! cough cough!) out to dinner...the possibilities are endless.

Just go on over, watch our little video if you so desire, and leave a comment telling me how to encourage little ones to brush their teeth. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

And good luck!