School Tearz

Credits

Can you imagine? My dh told me to take it easy today, relax, and scrap. HAHAHAHAHAH! OK! I will! So I made this lo! Went back to bed this morning. Drank a diet coke. Ate some popcorn. Watched Oprah. Yeah, that's a great day! LOL!

Not much else to chat about!

Final Brag Book FREEBIE Pages

I was writing a bit of bitchin' about some things that have kind of chapped my hide lately. Then I decided, who really wants to read about that? NOT ME! hahahahahaha

So instead of doing that, I am posting the link to Rasberry Road for you to pop over and get the last 5 pages of my 4x6 Fish Tales (Tailwater) Brag Book Freebie. I hope that you like it, and if you finish yours, it would just tickle me to see what you put together!!! I'm sure Susan, the designer of the Tailwaters kit, would love to see your handiwork, too.

This is my final installment. You should end up with a total of 10 pages all together...the first four, the bonus, another four plus one bonus!



CLICK HERE to download!

What did I love about the Olympic games? Aside from Michael Phelps who just was an unstoppable athlete? Jimmy Page!

me: "Matt! C'mere! Jimmy Page! Led Zeppelin!"
ds: "So."
Did you hear me deflating? Completely lost on my son.

I'm sorry Leona Lewis, but you should just not have sung. It's just trite next to Jimmy. 'Kay! I know they made ya do it, but who really cared about you? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Freebie 4 Today

I had a run-in with vertigo yesterday. I wanted to finish my brag book, but honestly, you can't do anything when you have vertigo, except take something for it and go to bed.
So all I've got today is a lil' bonus page freebie, and I will get the rest Monday as promised!!! So please come back if you are looking for more!

I will post the 4 final pages and an additional bonus page.

CLICK HERE to go and get your download link!

FREEBIE from Rasberry Road and HILARIOUS band story

Can you tell that I'm going to see Mama Mia? I wonder where my title came from! LOL!
Credits HERE





These are the first four pages I have put together of a 4x6 brag book using the Tailwaters kit by Susan Darter available at Rasberry Road. There will be four more tomorrow.

Click here to download and if you download, please leave a comment! Thanks!

Then I was cruising DST yesterday and came upon this hilarious real life e-mail a woman over there got from the band director at school. I asked her if I could share it because the whole thing just tickled me silly:

Today I was checking my email. I'm a week behind but whatever, it's mostly junk anyway. So I'm checking when I see one from my son's school. Ok, I'm thinking what has he done now, i mean he's only been in school a few days. And he was out sick yesterday and today.

So I open it up to find this.

On Tue, 8/19/08,wrote:

From:
Subject: 7th Grade Band
To:
Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 7:27 PM
I have ______ listed on my Band Roster. I would like to talk with him so that I know what he plays. Please stop in the band room on Wednesday if possible. Thanks Al
Immediately I got the giggles

Below is my response.


Re: 7th Grade Band

Thursday, August 21, 2008 3:41 PM


From:




To:



Mr. ____

I'm sorry _____ did not be stop by the band room yesterday as he was out ill. Here is a list of instruments _____ does play.

Piano- Never formally trained, but he can play chopsticks exceptionally well.

Drums and Guitar- He totally Rocks at Guitar Hero and Rock Band on both instruments. Oh, and he can play a mean Air Guitar as well.

He is also extremely talented as a singer. As his mother I will admit that I'm a tad biased so you can take all of this praise for what it's worth.

Sincerely,

_______


P.S. just for Kicks and Giggles I did ask him if he wanted to join band and he stated that he was not interested. With so much talent to offer I'm sure his presence will be sorely missed.

How come when I get a note home from school it is never funny?

Printing at My Pic Tales: A Review

Okay, my prints came! I'm not going to discuss the uploading at this time as I believe they fixed or are fixing the bugs they had with that.
I ordered 1 8x8 print and 11 12x12.

In order to print, they ask for bleed. Now there are tons of threads at DST about this and even actions for sale if you save your files as a layered PSD. I don't. Frankly, that isn't necessary. I increased the canvas size on each lo to 8.25x8.25 and 12.25x12.25 respectively. I use PSE 5.0 if that matters. Anyway, this made a border around my lo's.

The purpose of this is that in mass printing, they do mass cutting, which means they put it in a stack and chop. I am not sure what type of tool they use for cutting because I used to work in a factory that had what we called a cutter. Now, it would go through stacks of paper the thickness of file folders effortlessly. Anyway, the bleed is so that as the blade goes through the stack and papers shift, you are not getting anything cut off that you consider important on your lo's.

The one 8x8 came back with no bleed are left on it at all. Smart, clean edges as it was a single page cut.

The 12x12 came back with a few having a small area along the bottom. It happens to be a light gray, but you don't even notice it. I am very picky and it didn't bother me at all, but if you were bothered by it, you only have the one edge to trim so it's not like it is all 4.

I am very pleased with the paper quality. It is a nice thickness.

The colors on all my lo's are true. You know how when you used to get film processed, if the person didn't know what they were doing, you might get a greenish cast or a pinkish cast, and they'd have to re-do all you photos? Well, this is not the case.

The printing is sharp. Very high quality as far as I can tell. My 12x12's look fantastic. I can't even begin to tell you how nice they look. And my 8x8 is gorgeous, too. On a bigger canvas, you would definitely notice shoddy work.

So, in closing, I have to say that this place is IT! Their prices are perfect for my SAHM earn-printing-money-through-paypal-sales budget. I highly reccomend them as I am very pleased with my end result. I am pleased enough that I will be placing another order today!

If you have any other specific questions that I might be able to answer, let me know...Oh yeah, shipping was very reasonable and the pages came in protective plastic in a heavy duty cardboard box. There were several options for shipping and I'd say it took my entire order about a week from order placement to my door.

FREEBIE
Click here for a beautiful QP by Cheryl at Rasberry Road.

And right now there are only two entries for the Bucket List Challenge to win a $10GC to Tangie Baxter's Store. Challenge ends today at night so you still have time! Click here for details

I'm Aggravated and Lo's and Rasberry Road Grand Opening

Let's chat first about Rasberry Road. Susan Darter has slated her Grand Opening of her new fully functional site for October 1st. There will be tons of games and prizes so it should be a good time. The new site will include a gallery and forum and blog and all that good stuff, along with her fabulous shop which she has been using Blogger to host.


This lo was made using Wee Lil Wise Guys available at Tangie Baxter Designs. Click on my active blinkie on the side to check out her store. I do still have ds's back to school page to do. At least I'm putting along on my lo's.

I ordered some lo's from My Pic Tales. Still waiting for those to come. I don't know what their turnaround time is. When I get them, I will give a full review.

And lastly, we have decided to sell one of our beach houses. BOOOHOOOO! It's mainly an economic thing in this slowed down economy. Which this economy is eating us alive. It's kind of depressing, and I handle all our bills so I'm feeling all of the pressure. Looming on the horizon is sending two to college a year apart, although all of their tuition is already paid. A fourth car since one will be gone. You know, all the usual home maintenance stuff with a 20 year old house ...plumbing, new dishwasher. I'm coming unglued...back to school. ACK! I know we are all going through it. I'm just venting! Oh yes, and ds is always starving because we are starving him because "we have no food in this house."

Michael Phelps, Thanksgiving Layout

I saw this pic on photobucket. I figured I'd share it. Ummm...Michael...that speedo is really teeny! and yes, I watched every single race he was in because I knew it was history in the making. I really loved when they interviewed him with Mark Spitz. He was very gracious, and it was fun to see Mark Spitz so many years later.

I remember in 4th grade, my girlfriend had a life sized poster of Mark Spitz in her bedroom with his 7 medals around his neck. We thought it was so racy! And HOT! I guess by today's standards, it was pretty tame! LOL!

Credits: Christina Renee Designs, Sherriejd at Tangie Baxter Designs, Rasberry Road.

I made this lo today. It might be a little busy, but I just really love all the kitchen stuff that Sherriejd whipped out at Tangie BAxter Designs. It is not out yet, but soon to be released. Isn't my dh a ham? He can't help himself!

Random comments:
My ds's friend noticed that none of the female atheletes have boobs. He doesn't like it. Now...do they really not have boobs or do their ensembles just mash everything so it looks like they don't have any?
Can you wear a one piece and play beach volleyball or do you have to wear a bikini?
How are the Olympic beach volleyball girls keeping their bikini bottoms from riding up with all that moving?
Are Chinese cats waiting for the volleyball to be over to poop in the big cat box?
Knowing they took dog off the menu before the Olympics in China, would you still be comfortable that no dog was on your plate?

Contest at TBD

I'm hosting the current week challenge at the Tangie Baxter CT Loft. I've posted all the details HERE with a link to the loft, too. Check it out because you can win a $10.00 GC to Tangie's store where you could buy her latest kit: Hip Junkie and still have $$ left over to get more cool stuff!


Some random comments from me:
How come toilet paper used to come in 12 packs and now you only get 8? Have you noticed that? I did today at the store.
Why can't kids use the same towel more than once? When I was growing up, my mom made us use the same towel for a week.

Cottage Arts, Digitals and Chat

Credits here


Each of these lo's has a 2nd page that I need to do to go with them. I have some silly shots of my family cooking to go with the Thanksgiving one. They are hams! And I have some more dancing pics from camp and the journaling to go with that activity and page!

Credits here Look at this yummy tree that is brand spankin' new and available at CottageArts along with another beautiful kit they released today. Trees really are all the rage these days. I love the beauty of this one.

Well, aside from cheer camp I haven't done too much with cheerleading since we got back. Mainly because they are just learning the cheers and band dances, which all the returners already know. It's just the newbies that have to learn them really. But tonight we are off to an event at our local civic center put on by the school foundation here. The girls are performing a lil sumpin. So I will have pics of that. And I'm in my official capacity as Asst. Coach. I'm sure it will be fun!

I'm about to go and feed my son, who assures me he is starving to death. Do teen boys ever get full? And then it's a nice run around the neighborhood. So I hope that dd has not run the battery dead on my ipod so I have some good tunes to keep me occupied. And I'm getting my hair colored today. HOORAY! No gray! LOL!

Cheerleading Camp and Recipe Page

This lo was created using the Mystical Skies kit available at Rasberry Road. Just click on my blinkie over on the side to get a peak at more of Susan Darter's clever kits. She has such great variety.

This page was created using Homemade Goodness and Farmer's Market kits by Rasberry Road. The recipe card and the QP without the recipe are part of a participation prize for this month's challenge. I hope you will check it out. Personally, I can't wait to get all the QP's just to whip out a quick recipe book for a Christmas gift!

I worked on a lo last night for Becky Fleck's Page Maps coming out in September. I finally got it done. I just couldn't get it right. You know how that goes sometimes, but the great thing about digi is you can just delete what you don't like. Anyway, I can't post it because it is going to be pubbed. So as soon as it is, I will post and link so you can see it.

I ran my 1.25 miles on the street today. Big accomplishment as last time I ran only 1 mile because when I rounded the corner and looked up and saw that hill, I completely unpsyched myself. Today I was focused, determined and completely in the zone. So I am very happy! YAY! It was also alot cooler today than it has been for a while.

I will say this: I need some new running shoes. I wore an old pair and my shins and knees told me about it. That's usually how I can tell when my shoes are gone. Plus my hips will hurt later. No biggee. Just a reminder of how important it is to run in the right shoes because the stress it puts on your joints can lead to other things down the road. You gotta take care of yourself and have the right equipment! But my running shoes are $100. And yes, that is alot of money. However, I have tried cheaper pairs and the same thing happens...sore shins, sore knees, sore hips. Once you find a pair that does the trick for you, you really have to stay with them.

I ran so many errands yesterday. I had to take a nap! But I think that might be my new bp medicine as well. I've been jacked up for a while...zippy and so not feeling that way, makes me sleepy. Gotta get used to it.

I hope you will check out the Authentic Artistry blog. They have some freebie templates posted today. HERE.

I guess I'm feeling chatty today! LOL! My kids are cramming in all the fun they can before school starts. They are cracking me up. And dh is so addicted to the Olympics. Now he has all of us, and the kid's friends, glued to the t.v. routing on the athletes.

Rasberry Road, Scrapbook News & Review, Christina Renee Designs

Credits: HERE

And too boot, this lo is featured at CRD's store with the Dirty Notes Papers: HERE. And I have another one in her shop feature, too: Game On.

In addition, my e-mail came today with the latest issue of Scrapbook News and Review which has one of my lo's in it! I'm so jazzed. So all in all, today was a good scrapping day!

Susan Darter of Rasberry Road is about to open a shop instead of her blog shop, which will feature a forum, gallery, blog and all the usual stuff. I'll be posting about the grand opening when we get all the stuff organized. Lots o' prizes and games and giveaways 'n stuff! Wahooooooo! So check back...it should be fairly soon.

Neck pain...teenagers...killing me...slow painful death...oh GAWD! Said with much love, but ds and his friend woke me up 2x last night...at 1am and 4am...at which point I became possessed and forced them to go to bed. (#_)#($*)(@#)( XBox 360 Live is like a drug to them. Cutting that way back. And dd has been argueing with her bff all week...mainly over bff's ex who is a complete and total loser, drop out, verbally abusive, controlling, stalker...who has snuck back and trying to get with bff and dd won't support her. Duh! GEEEEZ! Why do girls like abusive boys? I have no idea.

Hmmm. think I shall scrapbook!

Rasberry Road Recipe Page and Challenge

Credits: HERE
Here is a page I made for the challenge participation prize over at Rasberry Road. It's an 8 picture challenge and the prize is a kit from Susan Darter. Who doesn't want to win a free kit? Anyway, the participation prize is recipes and QP's for your own recipes. Now that sounds like a Christmas gift in the making if you ask me!

Home Pom UCA Cheer Camp & Photos

The first night there was a competition where the girls had to create a routine that had no tumbling or stunts to pump up the crowd. The only real competition was a competition squad from Kentucky who were 3 time National Champions with one cheer competition (Open Cheer I think)organization and with UCA they were 3rd at Nationals at Disney for 2008. That squad was 2x the size of our's too. I'm saying all this because we got 2nd place, and to them that is losing. You should have seen their faces. But considering what they were up against, I feel like it was a first place! Especially since we are not a competitions squad!

The first day at camp, the JV and Varsity combined won the TOP Banana award, which is something you want because you exhibit the most spirit all day!

Our squad, which includes an awesome guy this year, took home the 2nd place for Home Pom, which they completely choreographed on their own and selected their own music and made their own CD. They took home a Superior award for overall camp performance and the coup de grace was the LEADERSHIP award, for which only one award is given. That is voted on by the other squads at camp. They were so excited about that!!!!!!!
Here is a few photos of my dd and her squad from camp as well! That's what I've been doing from 7a to 11 or 12 at night for the past 4 days. I came home and went to bed at 5:30 last night! LOL!