Back on now

WOW my computer died and I had to transfer all my mail computer doings to my laptop and now I am able to get on my blog. Haven't been able to post anything since end of May. I started a new blog on word press www.awidelife.wordpress.com and I still have Spare Change on blogger that I was using for all my journaling and musings. So now I have three blogs when on Monday i had no blogs that I could access. LOL Here is a page I made of Kurt for a challenge at www.jessicasprague.com the paper is from my In a Deep Wood kit available at www.buttercupsndaisies.com I am going to set up a 4shared account so I can give all ya'll this background paper. Just have to figure out how to do that.

I leave you with these words of wisdom that I had to tell myself last night when my desk top computer died: When everything turns to poop have shot of Bushmills and go to bed. Worked for me.

Time with the grandsons

We went with all three grandsons to the local air show yesterday. It was much fun. Daughter Kris went too. Here is a page I made of the two youngest. The oldest (age 12) has become camera shy.

I have three more weeks of school. the school I work at is most likely going to be closed. Our district is having to close two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school due to budget restraints. My elementary school is 75 years old and is just a wonderful school. The problem is that we are "landlocked" with no room to expand. The remaining elementary schools will have to expand to absorb the students from the two closed schools. Everyone is heartsick. The building is on the national historic register so can not be torn down but it is now surrounded by Northern Arizona University and most likely the University would want to rent the facility.Our weather is finally starting to warm up a little. Although it did snow last Wednesday. (not enough to count through). Today it is supposed to reach the low 60s and the wind is not too high. It seems to take the mountains a long time to find summer.

I will leave you today with these words of wisdom.

The name "Wendy" was made up for the movie Peter Pan.

Have a good one!

Pen Tablet Class

I recently took a pen tablet class at www.Jessicasprague.com It was really a challenge for me with a steep learning curve. But, I persevered and I have some things to show you. I am doing a yearly 12 layouts, one for each month using a template and a lesson from the class. Here is January, February and March. On the layouts I made stamps, did some free hand doodles and some tracing of objects and then I wrote around the picture block in my own hand writing. I hope to see improvement as the year goes on.


I have also been doing some things with brushes. I will post some of these when I have more.

Since summer is approaching, here is some very important advice for you: Never wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts!

Have a good one.

Easter was so fun for my family

We sure had a great time Easter weekend. We met at Kristen's on Saturday for the egg dying and a great dinner which featured Honey baked ham. We had the egg hunt Easter Sunday and a wonderful breakfast brunch featuring baked french toast. This is a family favorite.

1 loaf sourdough French bread, torn into pieces 8 eggs 8 ounces cream 1-1/2 cups milk or half-and-half
1/4 cup maple syrup
6 Tablespoons melted butterLayer bread and cubed cream cheese in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix eggs , milk, maple syrup and melted butter. Pour over bread/ cheese mixture and push down to soak up egg mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 t0 50 minutes.
I have made a few layouts. Here they are for your enjoyment:

These are all posted in my gallery at Jessicasprague.com go check them out for all the well deserved credits and to see other incredible layout.

I will leave you today with this tidbit of info:

Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

Have a good one!

It's trying to be spring

Today is pretty nice. It was nice earlier in the week but woke up to snow on Thursday morning, enough to cause a 2 hour snowday delay in the school. Will be pretty windy over Easter they say. I have a theory about wind in Flagstaff staff It blows pretty hard whenever the seasons change. I like to say, " It blows in the spring ( or whatever season is approaching. Here is one of my scrapbook pages that I am going to use to enter the Jessica Sprague CT tryouts.


This page is from 2007 and it is one of my favorites from one of my favorite vacations.

Have a great Easter (don't eat too much) and remember:
A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than a person.

Have a good one.

What a wonderful project

On Saturday last I went to a 12 hour crop held in a local resort hotel. We got great goodie bags, 3 meals, limo rides to the local scrapbook store, cocktails, hors d'ourvers and great raffle prizes. But, that was not the great thing about this day. The great thing was the fantastic project that this benefit crop supported. Jack's Little Brother project sponsored by Northland Hospice was founded to support parents who have lost babies. At the moment they are raising money to build a memorial children's park. I am so impressed with this project. There were about 30 attendees at this first annual event. I am making it my mission to get many more people there next year. It will be held each year on the Saturday following President's Day here in Flagstaff, Arizona, perhaps at the Little America Hotel again.

Have a good one. No funny remark to close with today. I am still too wrapped up in the JLB Project.

Almost a teenager

My grandson Jake was twelve yesterday. It really doesn't seem possible. But, I am a proud grandma cuz he knows everything!! LOL. He is indeed 12 going on 20 and my daughter is going bonkers! HA HA HA Here is a scrapbook page I made. His party was a swimming party at the Flagstaff Aqua Plex. We all had a really good time.



I have been doing a lot of pages with my snow pictures and am going to make a book with them and maybe some note cards as some folks have suggested.

I am not feeling so good today and will mosey on off but I will leave you with this insight:

Snowman fall to earth unassembled.

Have a good one!

54 inches

We have had 54 inches of snow and are still digging out. It snowed for 5 days. During the snow storm it warmed up just enough to rain 1 inch. What a mess. The schools were closed all last week and now are on delayed schedules because the buses can't run well in the outlying areas and the sidewalks are still covered so there is nowhere for the kids to walk except in the street.

But, when the sun came out it sure was gorgeous. My hubby had to begrudgingly admit it too. He spent all his time shoveling, including 6 hours on the roof (4 1/2 feet of snow can be very heavy), while I stayed inside and scrapbooked. Here are two pages I made yesterday for my BIG SNOW album.We are finally almost all dug out and going about our daily routines. We just have to allow more time to get around.

I will leave you with this thought:

Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms each day. Umm guess I'm thinking SPRING.

Have a good one!

Milestones

I would like to be able to tell you that in the past year I...

Successfully lost 20 pounds.

Ran a marathon.

Grew three inches.

Caught up on all my back scrapbooking pages.

Kept my house neat as a pin.

Traveled to a foreign land.

Developed an addiction for salad.


Instead, I have to tell you that in the past year I...

Am still working on the weight issue.

Have kept up with my water aerobics.

Downloaded more than my fair share of digital scrapbook supplies.

Failed to simplify my life.

Traveled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Am still addicted to “Survivor”.

Have become lazy about using the telephone.


However, in the past year I also...

Met amazing women on line at my scrapbook forums and classes.

Have gone on a few great trips.

Have been doing things I enjoy.

Have fallen hopelessly in love with my Kindle.

Have re-discovered the examples of historical heroes.

Discovered that my own voice is best when I am speaking for myself.

Have a group of friends that I can do fun things with.

Managed to keep my hair at my favorite length.

Became faithful in my journaling.

Have Learned to send text messages.

Have learned to trust that my children really are grown-ups.

Have learned that my favorite time of day is right before bed when
the day is finally winding down.


In the next year, I am hoping to...

Continue my journey to rediscover the basics in life.

Be even more alert to the needs of others.

Spend more time simplifying my life.

Make progress in being worthy of the trust others put in me.

Continue to develop my relationship with friends and family.

Wear the jeans that I've had tucked away in my closet for years.

Write once a day.

Accept myself, forgive myself, and get back up whenever I fall down.


Have a good one

Christmas Leavings

Christmas has come and gone. We had a very nice one. It was quiet and fun. We went with the kids and grandkids to ride the Polar Express. That was very cool. Christmas Eve the kids and grandkids came over and we had "eats", played cards and games and exchanged presents with each other. I was sick over Christmas with a bad cold so it was good to be low key. My son was in the hospital for two days and had some surgery. That was no fun. He got out on Dec 16th so had some time to recuperate before Christmas. Here are two pages that I've made for my Daily Decembers. When I am all finished I will have 75 pages as I am doing three separate ones. You might ask if I am crazy and the answer to that would be yes. I am just starting day 22 out of 25 so only 12 more pages to do. These will cover Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The ones here are a Christmas Cameo, Day 21 for my Tiffany Tillman daily and one from Jessica Sprague's Holidays in Hand about the polar express.