Grey's Tonight

Finally!!!! Grey's is starting back up tonight after the long writer's strike induced break. I am happy happy happy. Not only because of that but also because my best scrapping friend is coming over to push paper with me. No, we don't sit around and push paper. Well, I guess technically we do, but that is our term for scrapping. I have a ton of stuff flowing through my mind that I want to work on. I can't wait. So I'm gonna put on a pot of joe, bust out my Grey's "Seriously" mug, grab my scrapping stuff and have a pefect night.

(You'll have to mute the music on the slide show below to hear the Grey's widget. Just click on the volume icon on the lower left part of the picture.)

Lauren :O)))

Fun weekend

Just a little picture of the yummy stuff we had this weekend!

Mmmmmm

In looking at the photos I took over the last few days, I can't help but think how glad I am to be me. I love the people in my life. I had the best time ever at the Avacodo festival with my Pops, Megan and Evan. We were blessed with a beautiful day, great company, and even some good food. I tried avacado ice cream. It was nice. Strange that I would try anything new when it comes to food but I was trying to be in the spirit of the festival and be one with the avacado. In all we had at least a bite of avacado ice cream, fire roasted corn, holy guaca moly, carne asada taco with guac, & snow cone. It was fun loooking at all of the different artisans booths. I fell in love with these handmade winchimes. Pops and Megan each bought a new hat. Evan had fun watching all of the people. Let me tell you there were a lot of people. I took lots of photos. I was trying to be polite and asking before I photographed peoples art. The best picture of the day would have been of a avacado carved from wood, with dangling legs and arms, but the lady said no. Why it is that I asked???? I guess being polite doesn't always work to my advantage. Here are some photos from the day though.

So I'm a high maintenance photographer. There was a white towel on the wheel of this wagon. I asked the guy cooking to move it for me so I could take the picture. Hmmm, maybe that's a little over the top? Megan and Pops loved their corn. I nibbled off of Megan's. So perfect and salty!

Meg is looking for great "pics". She kept on saying "hey mom,that would be a good "pic". I gave her a throw away camera to capture the days event's It was fun to watch what she wanted to take pictures of. Future scrapper in training. Actually, she's got quite an eye. The dress in the middle was a great idea. It's a dress form jewelry holder. Many styles. A bit pricey for me to take home but ooh were they pretty. The avacado windchime was Megan's idea to photograph. Told you she has an eye!

Evan watched these puppets. This was such a beautiful tree. My favorite kind in the whole world! I wanted to plant them in my yard but we decided they were too messy when they loose the flowers.

Alyssa ending up staying the WHOLE night at the wild animal park & I am soooooo proud of her. She called just a few minutes after I had posted here the other night. I could tell she was nervous in her voice but I talked up the day and she was trying hard to be positive about the camping part of the day. I can't tell you how shocked I was to wake up Sunday morning realizing that she hadn't called to come home. She had a great time and now wants to venture out and actually stay the whole night at a friend's house. Luckily she was able to see Grampie before he had to drive back up to Victorville. Here's a shot of the kids with Grampie. love them all so so much!

Well, I could add pictures all night. I took the Brownie troop for a nature hike today. I'll post some "pics" tomorrow. Have a great night.

Me

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Happy Saturday

Today was such a great day. No, I didn't find myself at a table, surrounded by scrappy stuff. I didn't even touch any of my projects on my to do list. I am just so happy because My Pops came down today to spend some time with me and the family. My brain must have been on vacation when I scheduled for him to come down today because not only was did I have to work today, but Alyssa left for Roar and Snore, the girl scout slumber party at the Wild Animal Park. So, I guess I could have cancelled his visit but selfishly I really wanted to see him. For those of you that don't know my Mom and Pops relocated to the east coast and I'm always sad that they are so far away. Maybe because I'm the youngest of all six of us kids, maybe because I just want them to be near for my kids. Either way, I couldn't pass up on the chance to have some time with my Pops. Here is how he looked when he arrived at the house this morning. The kids rushed him at the door and I had to wait until they were all done hugging him to get my chance.
This photo below is blurry but isn't that always the case when you're trying to get a photo in a hurry. By the time you figure out what went wrong with the camera the moment has passed! I went to work and Matt, Pops and Megan and Evan hung out. I had a great day at work. I love the customers. I love being surrounded by paper, embellishments, and adhesive. I love that the stuff in the store is not just stuff. It is the key to people's memories or stories. The "stuff" in the store is waiting there for someone to come along and use it to help capture a thought, a look, a moment, even re-live a triumph or a silly happening. The possibilities are there, waiting....for someone to "get creative" and make magic. Really, I love spending the day there. The environment there makes me happy. I feel so inspired to go home and scrapbook. We all know that doesn't usually happen after being gone all day but I love the feeling.

I did worry about Alyssa all day. My baby is all the way down in Escondido without me. Not just for the day but for the night. She's really trying to be brave but I know she is scared about the spend the night part. We haven't really had much success in sleepovers so this is a big one! Luckily, my trustworthy friend Gloria is there with her, along with her super great troop leaders. I talked to her about 7:30 and she was still having fun. I know the big hurdle will be when all is quiet and it's time to sleep. That's usually when she gets worried and wants to come home. I wonder if it really gets quiet there. I think the animals might be kind of loud actually. Hmmm, that sure would be fun to try and guess what animals you hear. As long as there are no thoughts of an animal trying to visit you in the night! I am sitting here with the phone, waiting to hear from her for at least a good night wish. Crossing my fingers she does well. I know she will be so so proud of herself if she does this.

Mom introduced me to a thing called Skype today. Live video conferencing with real time sound and video through the computer. The kids had fun chatting with Mime today. I was even able to open my birthday gift with her watching over Skype. I love my gift. I will take pictures tomorrow and post. My birthday isn't until the 26th but hey, who doesn't love getting gifts! I happen to love it!

Waving and saying hello over the computer! It was fun to see and hear each other live.

This is as close as they can get right now. Rockland Maine is too far away!!!!!!!!

Evan showing Mime' the picture of our Family that Alyssa drew. Notice how good all the guys are looking. They all had hair cuts today. Matt went and got his done, I cut Pop's hair and Matt cut Evan's. Evan didn't even freak out.

I was hoping to play a little of this after dinner but things just didn't work out. Looks like we have a breakfast date! I wish mom, the scrabble queen, could be here too.

Ok, well time to head off for now. I could write a book here tonight if I'm not careful. Holly says I write like I talk. I think I'll decide that's a compilment. It's me, and I am what I am.

Have a great Sunday tomorrow. I'll be sitting here worrying about Alyssa and waiting for her call. I think we will head over to the Fallbrook Avacado Festival tomorrow. They are having an avacado costume contest. Don't think I don't want to make one with an outfit out of my scrapbook stuff. Good thing I'm fresh out of avacados! That could be kind of fun though. Hmmm, maybe I'll hit the store in the morning and get a few to try. :O))))

OK, really going now.

Love ya'll!

Lauren

Sometimes in life you just have to give up on worry.

So tonight has been like so many nights of mine. The house is finally quiet and I start my day of chores and tid bits of this and that. The goal being at the end of the "have to's" I can get going on the "want to's". Well, after a load of dishes (totally my pet peeve to wake up in the morning with last night's dinner dishes staring at me), random cd organizing, laundry duty (my nemisis), two cups of reheated coffee, and various stacks of stuff either put away or reorganized to into a more senisible stack, I decide that it's 1 am and I'm gonna get to bed early since I was up until almost 5am this morning.



In doing my laundry, I find myself still checking pockets of everything in hopes to find my lost SD card. I know, it's been so long since I've posted that unless you've seen me, the news of my losing the card might be new. Well, as I listened to my own thoughts of losing my card while checking pockets, I realize that I had tried really hard to use my tried and true theory for me that once I stop worrying about losing something, I find it. I have to admit it mad me sad to think that even that method of "finding things" didn't work. It took me back many years to when I was a teenager. A strange story really. I was about 16 and an avid tennis player. I had been given a gold tennis raquet charm that I wore all of the time. I remember looking down one day noticing it was gone, even though the chain was hanging loose from my neck. I must have searched for that charm for weeks and didn't find it no matter how hard I tried or how sad I was to have lost it. I worried myself sick about it. Finally, as time went by, I counted the charm as lost and kinda pushed it to the back of my mind. Well, as strange as it sounds, MONTHS later, as I was doing my household chores, I noticed a glimmer coming up from the bottom of the toilet bowl. I took a second look and saw something shiny at the bottom of the bowl. Whatever it was, it was covered with comet. I put my head down to see what it was and the only thing I saw was the small teensy little loop that holds the charm onto the chain. I grabbed for something to cover my hand so I could reach down into the bowl to retreive whatever it was. You can imagine how shocked I was to pull out of the depths of the toilet, my beloved raquet charm. Now realize, this was a weekly chore and with a household of 6. You can imagine how many times that toilet had been used, and scrubbed since I lost the charm. The math on that one seems crazy. Really when you think of all that had to have passed through that bowl. The fact that one random day I happen to be looking down to clean it and find the charm is amazing.

I told myself with my current misplaced item that worrying wasn't going to do me any good and I had just give it up. Same type of thing just happened to me . I FOUND MY CARD!!!!! I have been really bummed about the card but I was just trying to talk myself out of being upset. I was thinking how the "don't worry" thing didn't work not 2 minutes before I just happened to look in a spot I'd checked a zillion times this weekend to find the card right there! I can't even tell you how happy I am. When I thought that it was gone I kinda knew what pictures I hadn't downloaded. Come to find out the only pictures I would have lost were the girl scout pictures I had just printed before I "lost" the card. There were only 24 pictures that hadn't been downloaded into my computer. Whew, lucky me. Man, have I learned a lesson. Funny thing is I kept on telling myself not to worry about the card and it would show up. I think I really was still worried about it until literally just a few minutes before I found it. I guess it's hard to fake yourself out!

OK, so I'm so tired that I think when I reread this post later today, it might not even make sense. Either way, I have my card, I have posted, and I HAVE to go to bed. I will post some pics tomorrow and put a little recap of what has been going on in the time since my last post.

So Happy and Pooped!!!!'
Lauren

Camping with the Girl Scouts

So I never got to be a girl scout as a child. Maybe that's because I was the youngest of four kids (or six depending on the weekend) in my family. My family was very busy with sports whether it was soccer or baseball season. You can imagine a family of our size owning only one car, with all of the kids with different practice times, of course each practice field miles apart. My mom always joked about having "mom's taxi" on her license plate. Well, I can guess that's why I was the one who missed out on the girl scout thing. Have you ever heard of living through your kids??? Well, this weekend I went on my first Girl Scout camping trip. I must say it was so much fun. We were at Camp Wi-Wo-Ca in Cherry Valley. We stayed for two nights. I was lucky to be one of the parent volunteers.

All of us were surprised to have hail and snow. It happened as we were having our flag ceremony at the end of Sat. We were mid flag folding when hail started coming down. In a matter of minutes everything was covered in white. The girls, well really all of us, were so so shocked. We had the best time playing in the snow. We had snowball fights and even made a snowman. What a blast. The whole trip was great and I can't wait to take Megan's troop there. No, I never was a girl scout, until now. Now, I get to enjoy the scouts from the mommy/leader side of it. Well, cookies are a bit stressful but over all, I'm having a great time.

I've trained her well...I think. Alyssa used up her entire "throw away" camera on the way up to camp. I kept on telling her to pace herself so she wouldn't use all of her pictures on the first day. Funny how about an hour after we arrived at camp Alyssa comes up to me sad because she has used all of her film. I can't wait to see what she took picturs of. Some how I think I'll see a few repeats as she seemed to take multiple photos of the same thing. I guess the apple doesn't really fall far from the tree. I took a fresh 2gig card to camp so I wouldn't have to decide what photos I should take off of my other card. Funny how my camera decided not to work while we were there and I ended up using Kim's (one of the leaders) camera to take the photos that I had to take. In the short time my camera was working I managed to take 53 pictures. I took a ton on the loaned camera. Luckily Kim was cool about me grabbing her camera when ever I had an urge! Because I know how the photo bug feels, I held my breath and let Alyssa use my camera (it was still working at the time) to take a few shots.



Well, I haven't had time to figure the video thing yet but when I do I have some great video of camping.



On my mind right now...my little guy is getting ready to turn two. WOWWEEEEE Kinda freaking me out how my children are getting so big. Alyssa will be nine and Meg will be seven. Where in the world has time gone?? And may I add, why in the world do I still have "baby fat"? Maybe after nine years I just call it fat, leaving the baby out. Technically it's only been two years since I had Evan so maybe I'm still good. Well, not good with the fat thing but oh well, working on that one.



I hope scrap all day on Thursday. I have new Basic Grey staring at me and I can barely think straight. I just want to push paper!!!!!!!!

CHA was a blast

Some photos from CHA. Here is our first look as we entered the showroom. We had a full day a great people and cool product ahead of us. Thanks for the ride down Ally.






Meeting Heidi Swapp was a great way to start the day. She had a make n take available to do along with Epson. You were able to take the photo of you with Heidi from your camera and print out a Hybrid layout with Heidi stuff and then have her sign it. For me the line was too long to do the make and take. Too much product to see to actually sit down and make anything!



Me in Elsie's booth. Elsie was at lunch our first time through so we were alble to take in the booth without feeling any star buzz. Loved the kitchen and all of the photos. Her recipe book looks amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on it. Very cool.



A look at me with Elsie, Mel, Ally, Mel, Lisa and Amy. Elsie was quite a bit more shy than I expected. Very soft spoken and mellow. Hard to imagine that looking at her work and her photos

OK so if I could have been at CHA for every day of the convention I might have had a chance to see all that there was to see. I felt very happy that I even got to go because as other fire wives know, the hubby is usually at work on the day something cool is going on. Yes, I know they only work ten days a month, but they are usually the days you need to be somewhere. So, the highlight of my day at CHA was my chance meeting with Ali Edwards. I hoped she would be there but saw nothing on her blog leading up to it or any post saying she was going. I think in my mind I just kind of gave up the idea of seeing her. Funny how a quick stop to the ladies room would be my best choice of the day. There she was. I felt silly as I stood there waiting for her to finish her phone call but I guess my embarrassment didn't out weigh how totally cool it was to see her. Let me just say, love her! She was so down to earth. Very personable. I have followed her blog for some time and it felt awesome to meet her in person. So I am a happy girl. Really, this week was great. I'll post more photos soon. I think I'm tired. This post is my first lesson in photos in the posts. I know it needs work but I'll work on it when I have more energy.

G'nite!

Lauren >> LaLa

First I met Donna Downey at It's About Time, where she taught a class. I didn't actually take the class but I worked in the store all day so I was able to hang out with her. It was fun to meet her and her ultra mellow hubby Bill. They were both very cool and put up with all of us with our FLIP cameras and our bazillion photos we took. Here are a few from that day.