I'm on TOP of the hill...not OVER it!!!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Oh my goodness, as of 10:00 THIS morning...I turned 40..yes, FORTY years old!!! Ya know, this is truly an age that I never thought I'd be. Not because I thought I'd be dead or anything....I guess I just didn't think ANYBODY would be around by the time I turned 40. I remember thinking that anyone who was over the age of 30 had one foot in a grave and the other on a slippery banana peel! LOL.

Welp, it ain't so!!!

People say that when you turn 40 you are OVER THE HILL....well, not ME! I am ON TOP OF THE HILL...with my feet danglin off the side!!!! I say that with such confidence because at this point, today, on November 17, 2006...I am having the time of my LIFE. I honestly don't think my life could be any better. I mean sure, if I had an unlimited money supply, I may feel a little differently :-). But other than that, I'm COOL!!! I have all the things a girl could want! And it's nothing short of a blessing.

I'd like to give a special thank you to all my dear friends and family who wished me a happy birthday today. Without you all...and you know who you are, my life wouldn't be as grand.

I love ya'll!!!

Look at these cool gifts I got from my friends & family.

My friend Diane gave me these beautiful flowers. Thank you Mrs. May :-).

My dear husband took me out to an AWESOME dinner at Ruth Chris Steak House. Ya'll have GOT to save up some money and go there...it's SOOOOO worth it.
My daughter gave me a cute little six pack of Dr. Pepper and the Trivial Pursuit Totally 80's game. Thanks Bri!
And my friend Stacey gave me a Dr. Pepper t-shirt.

Be AWARE...and Take CARE (of YOU!)

Tomorrow is my 40th birthday...so today, I gave myself a birthday present. I took myself to my doctor and got my very first mammogram. It's amazing how certain events in and around your life can change your perspective on LIFE. Last year, the dreaded disease of breast cancer took the life of my sister in law. And I am proud to say that my aunt, is a breast cancer survior. So needless to say, this disease has touched my life personally.

In January, when I had my annual doctors visit, he reminded me that my 40th birthday was coming up later in the year and that I soon needed to make an appt for my first mammogram. Well, of course I stalled because I've heard HORROR stories of how uncomfortable this procedure is. On a funny note, I've heard it described as being the equivilant of laying on your garge floor and closing the door down on your breast...LOL. Ok, it wasn't THAT bad, actually. Don't get me wrong, it was uncomfortable. But if you do what they tell you to do, it's a breeze. Let's put it this way...my appt. was at 10:40 this morning. I checked in at 10:15am, they called me back at 10:20am and I was getting in my car and LEAVING at 10:30am!!! Piece of cake!!!

I will end this post with a plea to all my female readers....Do your monthly self exams!! And when the time comes, GO HAVE A MAMMOGRAM!!! It only takes a few minutes of your time. You're cheating yourself AND your family & friends if you don't go to make sure you're healthy. Remember, you're the only YOU we have!!!

Talk to you tomorrow...when I'm a little older :-).

Disney Princesses on Ice

Somewhere in an earlier post, I mentioned that Jayla will be having a Princess Birthday Ball for her 5th birthday in a few weeks. Well, as luck would have it, the theme for this years Disney on Ice was the Disney Princesses. I was SO excited when I got the flyer in the mail about it. I successfully hid that flyer for almost 2 months. And when I got back from my trip to Illinois, I bought the tickets. I thought this would be the perfect early birthday gift for Jayla.

I can't tell you how hard it was to keep this a secret from her. Everyone in our house knew about it, even a few other friends and family (I had to tell SOMEBODY!!!) So up until we got parked at the show, Jayla had no idea. That little thing tried to think of everywhere under the sun that she and mommy were going. All I told her was that it was a special "date". She even thought we were going to New York to see her Pop-Pop :-).

I know it goes without saying, but I took a few pictures (about 60 to be exact...LOL). So here are a few of the better ones. Enjoy!

Mommy & Jayla waiting for the show to begin.

Aladdin

Beauty & The Beast

Snow White & The 7 Dwarfs

Cinderella

Ok people, I've about HAD IT with BLOGGER not cooperating with me and my NEED to download pictures. Therefore, look for another short part 2 post to me and Jayla's "date". :-)

Making Progress!!!

It has been a minute since I gave an update on my progress at CURVES. Probably because, my weigh in last month, although it wasn't BAD news, it wasn't the news I was hoping for either. I kinda "hung out" at the same weight for 2 months.

Well my last weigh in (on 11/1) was much better. And I must say I was plesantly surprised. Don't worry, I won't give my new weight, albeit LESS than when this venture began. But I will say that as of 11/1, I have lost a total of 12.75 inches and 7.5 pounds since starting with CURVES back in June. And I must say, I'm pretty darn proud of that accomplishment! Only 52 more pounds to go...and I'll be back at my birth weight...LOL. Nah, about 50 more and I'll be at my target weight. I know that sounds like a lot. But I REALLY think I can do it! Tune in next month!!!

More hayride pix

Hello everyone. I hope this post finds you all well.

Ok, before BLOGGER has any hiccups, here are a few more of the pix from this year's neighborhood hayride.

Here's a FEW of the kids that were on the hayride.

Here's my little princess and her handsome Ninja bodyguard :-).

This is my handsome Ninja boy!

And again, my pretty little princes (this was actually in the morning before going to school)

And lastly, this is Jayla's Pre-K class...well, some of them.

Thanks again for looking!

The neighborhood hayride

Am I the only one who CANNOT believe that it's NOVEMBER 1st?!?!? Christmas is right around the corner...but personally speaking, I'm not walking around that corner right now...I'm in denial :-). And I've got one better than THAT...in 16 days, I'll be 40 (FORTY) years old!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, let's get back to the REAL reason for this post. Not that the comments above aren't "real"...I'd just rather not talk about them anymore :-) hee hee.

This year, our family did a little something different. We decided to allow the kids, to not only particiate in our annual neighborhood hayride. But we also let them dress up in costumes. If you read my "halloween" post last year, you'll remember that I was kinda on the fence about the whole thing. I'm still straddling...but starting to fall on the side of the kids. At some point, you have to trust that your kids know right from wrong and understand what you've been teaching them all their lives. We told the kids, as long as they didn't dress up in anything scary or "gothic" that we didn't have a problem with dressing up this year. I know these kids pretty well, so I knew that wouldn't be an issue. Markell wanted to dress up in a Ninja custume. That's cool! Two of his friends from the neighborhood also dressed as ninjas. Jayla wanted to be a princess (what a shocker! NOT!) As long as this child has been able to talk, she has considered herself a little princess. So this was a no brainer. As a matter of fact, she's gonna have a princess ball for her 5th birthday in a few weeks (look for a post on that one in the weeks to come).

ANYWAY, at Jayla's school they had a little party and a costume parade. It was the cutest thing. We chose not to keep her from the festivities and let her dress up for that as well. She had a ball.

Ok, so here's the pix of my cute little kids and their costumes. ENJOY!!!

Here's the trailer at it's fullest. The kids had a ball riding down the street, jumping off the trailer and running to houses to collect the "goods".

I just had to share this picture. This is one of the dads from our neighborhood. Nothing like seeing your dad in a purple crushed velvet "pimp" suit! LOL

I know you're all gonna be shocked...but BLOGGER is having issues with loading pictures. Look for more in a seperate post...ARGH!!!!

New Layout - 1st Day at Pre-K

I guess while I'm at it and Blogger seems to be cooperating, I'll go ahead and show what I worked on during the all day crop. Can you believe in an 11 hour time period, I only completed 5 pages? What's up with that? I did the last page for the wedding album and 2 additional two page LO's. And since the wedding album is already available for viewing, I'll just share the other 2.

These LO's are of Jayla's first day at Pre-K. Thanks for looking.

Supplies used: TONS of pictures of Jayla :-) and patterned paper & embellishments from the Provo Craft SuperSlab Rob & Bob Studio collection

Thanks again for looking. Be Inspired - I am!

All Day Crop - Part 2 (again)

Ok, I've had about enough of this!!! Let's see if Blogger will cooperate THIS time. Sheesh, I've only got about 2 or 3 more pictures I want to share. And shoot, by the time I get them on here, the thrill will be gone!

So, here they are:

Here's Mandy (with the glasses) and Lisa F. trying to look mean :-). She really did have a good time, ya'll.

Once again, Lauren is trying to hide from the camera. Something about her mom wanting to take pix of her ALL THE TIME!!! Duh!!! Aren't teenagers SUPPOSED to be embarassed by their parents (and their parents friends?) :-)

Jamie's son, Branton made a special apprearance at the all day crop. Lauren and Jayla were happy to keep him company (until his dad got back from Home Depot).

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All Day Crop - Part 2

Hello all. I hope this entry finds you well.
I mentioned back on 10/20 that I was hosting an all day crop here at my house this past Saturday. Well, we did it and we had a ball. I think my first scrapper showed up around 9:30am and the rest soon followed. In TOTAL, there were about 9 of us, 7 of which scrapbooked. We had wonderful breakfast food to eat and we didn't even have to order anything for lunch. One lady brought some DELICIOUS chicken salad and croissants...YUMMY!!! As a matter of fact, she brought so much, we had enough left over for dinner. We were all pretty glad about not having to spend any extra money.
The "original" plan was to crop until midnight. However, around 8pm or so, everyone started losing steam :-). So we called it a night around 8:45pm! Still, we all had a great time and I think we even got quite a bit done.
Here's some pictures from our day. (sorry, some are a little blurry)

This is the cool set up we had in my basement. Jamie, Lisa M., Stacey were just getting started.

This was towards the end of our day. My 4 year old took this picture of me and Jamie

Lisa M. & Stacey engrossed in a little "girl talk" :-)

This is Lauren trying not to look at me taking a picture of her. :-)

Another shot of Lauren, her mom Renee, Lisa M. & Stacey.

ARGH!!!!!!!!!! As always, Blogger is ONCE AGAIN having issues. There are a few more pictures I want to share. But I guess I'll have to put them on another post. I guess I should just always plan to do more than one post whenever I want to add pictures. I'm a slow learner (insert rolling eyes here)

Woo HOO---She LOVED it!!!

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but a couple of months ago, I was given, not only the challenge, but the honor of scrapbooking my good friends wedding. Diane & Steve got married back in June of this year. Diane had originally asked if I would HELP her put together her wedding album. And I thought that was a great idea as I've always wanted to do one. I guess, somewhere down the line, I let that desire slip out in her presence, so she thought it would be "fun" to ask me to do the entire thing :-). Ya know, I was cool with that. She's a great friend of mine, so I was very flattered by her trusting ME with such a wonderful day in her life and with her memories.

I worked on the album for a little over 2 months and it's finally finished. I was SOO nervous about letting Diane see the album. But I was excited at the same time. It was so hard not to let her see some of the pages as I completed them. I received positive comments from several people who saw the book...that really helped.

Diane and I met today for lunch and I presented the beautiful, ivory satin album to her. (Now I don't have to make sure people wash their hands before they look at it...LOL.) And my burden was lifted...SHE LOVED IT!!!

The album is now available for all to see. For those of you who do take a look at it, your comments are not only welcomed but encouraged.

Diane & Steve, thank you again, so much for letting me share in your memories...TWICE!!! Love ya!