This town is crazy!

Here's what's going on in my crazy town. Even the New York Times is covering it. And here's more from the local paper. Jeez.

It's soooooooooo hot

My house feels like a sauna right now. I can't even sit in her much longer because I'm just roasting. But I'm so bummed because I was saving this chocolate as a reward and look what happened to it ....


It wasn't that bad earlier today when I took the girls to the park. I had them this morning before work so it's been a pretty exhausting day.
But it was nice to have them both here and that they weren't sick. So we went to the park and then to McDonald's for lunch. Then Rocky came over, too.

Oh and I almost forgot, I'm so excited that my 65 reasons page (see below) was a Digi Pick of the Day!!!! Thanks Melissa!!!

So I am now officially on vacation for an entire week!!!! I'm going to try to get a lot of stuff done around the house - maybe finally clear off this desk! - and get into the city, see an exhibit, hang out with some friends, celebrate my birthday! So if I'm MIA, that's what I'll be up too!

I'm going to be early tonight (for me anyway) and I'm hoping the fan has been able to cool things down in my room. Gotta get the AC in tomorrow!

Happy birthday Jessica!!!!

I want to wish a very happy birthday to Jessica Bolton!!! :) Hope it's a great one girl!
Check out Jess's awesome sale at Studi0 Jessica! She has some new stuff up and a really cool Party Mix that's stuffed with awesome goodies. Seriously, this has got way more stuff than an average grabbag!

And here's a page I've been really dying to show off using Jess's Summertime Potentialities some goodies from my Jess stash...

And here's my list. I got some of these from different lists on the internet, but most of them are me! (I know some of these are redundant but it's hard to come up with a list this long!!!)
1 Most of my clothes are too big
2 I don't get as tired or winded when I walk around a lot
3 I can buy new clothes
4 And I don't need to buy them in the plus section
5 I look better
6 I'm not as depressed as I was a year ago
7 It feels good to accomplish something
8 I won't look as bad in a bathing suit
9 My butt doesn't take up so much space at the movie theater
10 Baby carrots and fruit are yummy snacks
11 I don't hate seeing photos of myself as much
12 I have more energy
13 I love when people notice I've lost weight
14 I can almost fit into some of my old clothes
15 My blood pressure is normal
16 It's more fun to play with my nieces
17 I can move the seat up in the car
18 No one might ask me "when's the baby due?"
19 I don't dread summer
20 My feet don't get as sore
21 Shoes fit better
22 Don't have to use my inhaler as often
23 Don't worry about fitting amusement park rides
24 I can get rid of those big panties
25 I can cross my legs
26 I don't have to squeeze into my jeans
27 I don't have to hear the doctor tell me "You really need to loose weight"
28 Don't have to worry as much that people are looking at me funny or talking about me
29 So I don't get comments at the grocery store
30 I look better in fitted shirts
31 I'm less at risk for more serious health problems
32 Don't spend as much money on eating out or junk food
33 My back doesn't hurt as much
34 I can feel my bones again
35 I can enjoy shopping
36 Don't feel so self conscious
37 Don't feel embarrassed all the time
38 Don't feel like I have to hide
39 Have a better handle on how to eat right
40 I can still have chocolate on my plan
41 And peanut butter
42 Socks don't leave marks on my legs
43 I don't mind the camera as much
44 Don't have to get an extension for necklaces
45 Rings fit again
46 So do bracelets
47 Not embarrassed to dance in public
48 So I can show more of myself in my scrapping and not just the close cropped photo
49 I don't feel so sorry for myself
50 Won't be described as having a "great personality"
51 Don’t have to give the seat belt an extra tug to get it on
52 Not freaked by the size of my shadow
53 Buttons don't pop open as much
54 Jackets close properly
55 Can shorten the strap on my purse
56 Enjoy myself more when I go out
57 I look good in skirts again
58 I can find a category of panty hose that fits
59 Stairs aren’t as challengeing
60 I can get rid of my really big clothes
61 Don’t take up extra space on the bus
62 Easier to get up from the floor
63 Most restaurants serve salad
64 Not afraid of the mirror anymore
65 Only 40 more pounds to go...

I'm a word of the day

I get these emails because I am a nerd....

***

This week's theme: words borrowed from Spanish.

cabana (kuh-BAHN-uh) noun

1. A shelter on a beach or swimming pool.

2. A cabin or cottage.

[From Spanish cabaña, from Late Latin capanna (hut).]

Would it surprise you to know that cabin and cabinet are related? Or that
basin and basinet/bassinet are? The diminutive suffix -et doesn't only
convey the sense of smallness, it can change the whole meaning. Consider
table and tablet, for another example.

"Calvin Klein is redecorating the cabana area of the lounge with
furnishings like wall decorations featuring a new Klein logo and
photographs of models wearing Klein clothes."
Allison Fass; GQ Steps Out of Its Pages And Opens a Lounge;
The New York Times; Feb 15, 2002.

***

OK, well I have one little problemo with this! The pronunciation says
kuh-BAHN-uh and it makes me NUTS when people say my name
like this! It's kuh-BAN-uh!!!! Like banana! I had a teacher in high school
who said my name this way and I couldn't stand it! LOL!

Don't feed the animals!

Oh man I am sooooo hungry! I'm trying to get back on the bandwagon up until my birthday, and I'm doing this juice drink diet think today that the plan let you do about once a month. Well, I am starving!!!! The food allowances are way less than my regular plan. My dinner is going to be pretty skimpy too. Not much too look forward too, so I hope it pays off!!!!

I scrapped!

I haven't posted a page in ages! Here's my new page for my new sketch challenge at RAKs.

You can see alll the credits here.

I am getting excited about my week off, which starts on Saturday! I'm trying to think of some fun things too do! The Natural History Museum has an exhibit on mythical creatures that I want to check out. I'm going to get together with some friends. And I'm going to try to clean up this mess. I'm also going to try to avoid the computer a bit. (Let's see if that works!)

The party on Saturday was fun. :) Mom got a guy from the dealership to drive us in a big old Escalade. But we didn't have good directions so we were lost in farm country. We actually passed some buffalos! I didn't even know we had any in NJ! So there were lots of cowboy hats and country music. And lots of those crazy party dances that make me run to the bar! But it was fun! Here are some pics. (The lighting was pretty crummy and I haven't touched any of these up) ...
Me and a baybreeze!
My aunt Lorraine, Diane the birthday girl and Randi.
These horse balloons were pretty cool!
Randi and my cousin Erin in their cowgirl hats.

Diane had put together a slide show of all her family and friends, and it was pretty cool to see some of my photos from the breast cancer walk last fall in there.

On Sunday, we went to a really great Italian place and saw Shrek the Third. It was pretty funny, but I didn't like it as much as the first two movies. I also caught up on my netflix videos and watched Notes on a Scandal and Blood Diamonds - both really good but so disturbing for different reasons.

Gotta get ready for work now. Only 4 more days until vacation!!!!

Some Saturday shopping!

Check out my friend Audra Little's Grab Bag at My Digital Muse! It is super cute!!!! Is it just me or are grab bags sooooooo tempting! I really LOVE the goodie bags that you can get by voting in the Queen of the Crop contest. There is no way that this stuff should cost $2! My good friend Tania is doing some incredible pages and could use your votes!

And while I'm giving shout outs to some of my favorite people, I want to send a big congrats to Mish!!! She won the best overall layout in the DST Scrapper's Choice Awards!!! You can see her gorgeous page here!

I am still in my pjs and need to get dressed! Rocky just got here - I'm guessing with Randi, too! We're going to a 50th birthday party for a good friend of the family! But I'm not dressed yet because I've actually been scrapping! I haven't really done any pages since NSD. This is one that is taking a lot of work and there's a lot of writing and I'm very excited to be able to share it - but I need to get moving now! D'oh!

Hope you're having a great Saturday!!!!

Jersey style

Here's a photo for my girls from last weekend.

Happy hour

I had such a cool time on my day off yesterday. I went shopping with Randi and her friend Liza to this mall we haven't been to in awhile. They have been yuppifying the area down in Jersey City, so the mall was actually way better than it used to be. I bought some new swim suit tops (Love that you can get the top part without the bottom since I only like to wear shorts at the beach or pool!) I got some shirts, including something to wear to a part I'm going to this weekend. And I got these cute Skechers!

Didn't get what I wanted - which was a pair of Nikes I've been trying to hunt down and some new jeans - but we did get some good deals in Macy's (20% off coupons!) and it's just nice to be able to shop again and have things fit without having to go to the plus sized stores.

After we were shopped out we went to happy hour at a cool bar in Hoboken. There was a rooftop bar and the weather was just amazing. With all the construction going on down there, you could only see bits and pieces of the skyline, but it was still pretty cool! So this is what people who don't work nights can do!

Then I helped Randi bake some cupcakes for a school bake sale. It's not too fun to bake when you're on a diet, but at least she took them all with her!

I also finally got around to some scanning that I've been meaning to do forever. Here's Kylie back around her 1st birthday.
And this is from last month from her day care portrait. Shes' grow so much!
And here's the latest of Taylor...


Now I'm going to go watch my shows. I'm so sad that CBS canceled Jericho! But I am at least happy because I already read the spoilers for American Idol and I found out who got voted off! :)

RAKScraps May Mega Kit and RAK File

RAKScraps May Mega Kit is here! This month's kit celebrates all of the wonderful women in our lives! You can download the pieces (each download is available for a limited time only) by visiting our Announcement Forum! If you miss any of the downloads, you can purchase the entire Mega Kit on CD at Scrapdish!
The RAKScraps admins have created this Mega Kit Add On Kit available at Scrapdish. All sales help support RAKScraps!

And since it's the middle of the month, that means we have just released a new RAK File!
This one has lots of great layouts, some cool LO ideas from Correen, a great tut on folding corners by Melinda and some super cool freebies from Karah Fredericks and Bannerwoman! :)

I'm off today!

I have the day off today! Just a random day to do nothing! My favorite kind. With all that's been going on with work and my car, I just need a day to relax, especially since weekends are so busy. I slept so late today and now I'm just checking a few things and hopefully, I'll get away from the computer!!!!

So uninspired!!!!

I have been sitting here for more than an hour working on a page that I have been working on for a week and I just don't like it. Think I need to start over. I am not feeling very creative at all lately!

We had a good Mother's Day. Mom loved the card I made and all the pages I printed out. We went over to my brother's for an indoor bbq, since his yard is a work in progress. Taylor is so funny. She was yelling out the window to Mike, Randi and Mom in the yard and of course they couldn't hear her because the window was closed. And she said "My grandma is driving me crazy. She's not listening to me!" Later we were building a castle with the blocks, and Kylie started putting the blocks back in the case and Taylor starts whining "She's cleaning up on me!" We also made several new versions of our "Baking Song," which we invented when we were playing with the easy bake oven. It goes like this "Bake the cake, bake the cake, bake the cake, bake the cake...." You can sing it to anything really LOL! "Eat the corn, eat the corn, eat the corn..." Kylie was her giggly and happy self. We would build a castle, then she'd knock it over.

Then we went to see Georgia Rule, and I thought it was just awful. I cringed through so much of it and was bored through the rest. It was Mom's choice - I would rather have seen Spider-Man! Has anyone seen Spidey??? I've heard mixed things and would love to hear your reviews.

Well, I'm going to give up on scrapping this page and maybe try again later. Time for some lunch!


Oh, one more thing, I am out of room on my EHD! I was moving stuff over last night after I had it organized in ACDSee. I guess it's time to stop shopping, get rid of stuff or get another drive!

80s movie playlist

Randi and I keep talking about making a CD with all our favorite sappy and cheesy songs from 80s movies. We're trying to come up with a list. Let me know what your favorites are so I can add them to our playlist!!!!

Here are a few ...
OMD's If You Leave from Pretty in Pink
Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes from Say Anything
Simple Minds' Don't Your Forget About Me from Breakfast Club
Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing
Peter Cetera's Glory of Love from Karate Kid II
Huey Lewis and the News' Power of Love from Back to the Future
Ben E. King's Stand by Me from Stand by Me
Prince's Let's Go Crazy from Purple Rain
Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll from Risky Business
John Parr's Man in Motion from St. Elmo's Fire
James Brown's Living in America from Rocky IV
Cher and Peter Cetera's After All from Chances Are
Berlin's Take My Breath Away from Top Gun
Beach Boy's Kokomo from Cocktail
The Rolling Stone's You Can't Always Get What You Want from The Big Chill
Irene Cara's What A Feeling from Flashdance
Denise William's Let's Hear it for the Boy from Footloose
Kenny Loggins' Footloose from Footloose
Irene Cara's Fame from Fame
Madonna's Who's that girl from Who's That Girl

And even though it's not from a movie
Billy Vera and the Beaters' At this Moment from Family Ties

**Adding
Ray Parker Jr. Theme from Ghostbusters - Thanks Kim!
Cyndi Lauper's Goonies R Good Enough from Goonies
Bonnie Tyler's I Need A Hero from Footloose - Thanks AmyK! (I had to dance to this in my recital one year!)
Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now - Thanks Mish! (I can't believe I forgot this one! My friends and I had a whole "video" planned to this!)
Madonna's Into the Groove from Desperately Seeking Susan
Tina Turner's We Don't Need Another Hero from 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Surviror's Eye of the Tiger from Rocky 2
Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song from Beetlejuice
Public Enemy's Fight The Power from Do The Right Thing
Michael Sembello's Maniac from Flashdance

Satudays

I really love having Saturdays off now. Even though I do miss having Mondays to run errands and do housework when no one else is around, it's just so nice to have the day back and not have to run off to work in the middle of everything.

I was up pretty early today because Rocky was here and he puked on my bedroom floor! That is just too gross to keep to myself. Yuck!!! That's why I don't want to have my own pet! But I did a little shopping to make myself feel better!

I was going to take a nap after playing with ACDSee for awhile, but Mike came over to mow the yard and brought Taylor along. We played pretend bakery with the Easy Bake Oven that mom won at the Moose Lodge. It was just as fun and we baked way more than we could have if we actually turned it on! And no dishes either! I have to put the light bulb in there but couldn't get it open.

Then Randi came over and we went to Whole Foods to pick up some stuff for a bbq tomorrow and had some lunch down there. The store is right on the waterfront, so we had our lunch outside with a lovely view of NYC.

And I got my Digital Scrapbook Magazine - 2nd issue - today. I just read that pretty much cover to cover. I read it like a yearbook. And my family must think I'm nuts because I sit there and say things like "Oh, there's Michelle!!!" or "Look there's Merlin" (Holly's dog) or I point out which kits I also have and have used on their pages. So while I do scan the articles a bit - I already have a photo organizer program and love Shutterfly so I don't need to know more about that stuff - I love to see the pages and ideas and the credits. I do think the key to getting published is use lots of stuff from Designer Digitals, Scrap Artist or Shabby Princess. LOL!

I still have lots of organizing to do from last weekend and I think it's going to take me all year. Anyone want to start a Digi Shoppers Anonymous group with me???
Better get back to ACDSee now!

Buy Deb F

I know everyone probably put their paypal accounts to the test over the NSD weekend, but if you can afford to do a little more shopping, can I recommend helping out a good friend to the digi community. You may know that Deb F (known at RAKs as Scrapmum) lost her husband. I think I have known Deb since I started digi scrapping and was so sad to hear this. All of the sales from her store at Pickleberry Pop are going right to her family. The store is not taking any commission or fees. She has some really great kits, alphas and templates!!! You can help out by spreading the word, too.

Autism:The Musical

Now, if you think that's a strange title for a post, it's an even stranger name for a movie. I saw the documentary Autism: The Musical" last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. Joanie got some tickets for my birthday, and It was really worth getting up early (after scrapping so late on NSD the night before) to see it.

So while it may sound like an odd idea, it was really pretty cool. A woman who had a son with autism organized a group of kids and they put on their own little musical. The film followed the kids and their parents and the behind-the-scenes of the show. The kids were all really amazing, and they were all so different. It was fascinating to see the different degrees of autism - from a kid who knew everything about dinosaurs (he was such a cutie too!) to a girl who repeated anything said to her and could sing beautifully. There were moments where everyone was laughing hysterically and times when you wanted to cry.

The director, Tricia Regan, hung around and answered from questions from the audience. Some of the people there said they worked with people with autism and that the film did a great job in representing what they are really like. They are hoping to get a wider release soon, so Autism: The Musical could be coming to a theater near you soon.

NSD pages!

I am still upzipping and organizing all the goodies I got on NSD! You can see what I splurged on (or saved on - they were on sale, right?) here. I think I got most of it on my Kaboodle list. So somewhere in the madness of shopping and chatting and giving out prizes at RAKs, I got three layouts done!

This one was for ShelleyRae's template crop at SBB. I used Rachel's Dickon's super cool new Natural Beauty collection at Scrapdish! Rest of credits.

Got another Christmas page done for Shannon's NSD challenge at RAKs and Amy C's crop challenge at SBB. We're like paparazzi when it comes to Rocky! Credits.

And this one was for Shelly's NSD challenge at RAKs. She wanted us to scrap a photo of ourselves with our scrap tools. This was another Christmas photo too. This awesome template is by one of my favorite chicas, Tracy Blankenship from SDK. And I got to play with a lot of fun stuff by Jess! Here are the full creds.

And I found out yesterday I won a prize from SBB for posting in the gallery! I have a coupon from Terry Maruca to spend. If anyone has any ideas what I should spend it on, let me know!

Vote for Yoda!

Or R2 or Vader or Boba Fett. I was at the post office today and saw this big Star Wars display. You can go to their site and pick your favorite Star Wars stamp. Just don't pick the newer movies, Ok! LOL!

7 Things

I got tagged by Audra to share 7 things about myself.

1. I set my alarm clock 1-2 hours before I want to get up so that I can keep hitting the snooze bar.

2. I never understand or remember song lyrics. I have to look them up and read them if I really want to learn them. I am often surprised when I find out that I've had the words wrong to songs I've been singing along to for years.

3. I've only finished one book this year. Way behind on my usual reading! I usually read anywhere from 10 to 25 books a year. And I know this because I keep lists.
The book I just finished, by the way, was My Friend Leonard.

4. I don't like to read or watch the news on my days off. I get my fill while I'm at work.

5. I like to buy my nieces toys that I want to play with! That's why we have an Aqua Doodle! And best of all, my mom just won an Easy Bake Oven at one of her Moose lodge events. Can't wait to bake with the girls!

6. In high school, I used to tell people I was from Mars. (What can I say, I am weird!)

7. I am a terrible driver. I always get lost and I get super nervous when other people are in the car. I do much better when it's just me.

Not sure who's left to tag - but if you join in this one, leave me a link! :)

Happy NSD!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!!!! I am just getting up after chatting and shopping last night with Melinda! Just too Rocky for a walk and grabbed some lunch so I am ready for some serious computer time.

It is very strange then, that with all the car trouble I've been having this week, that we're also having trouble at RAKs today. But our awesome web admin Jen Reed is on the case and hopefully things will be working fine soon!

So I'm off to go check out some sales. Sweet Shoppe, Funky Playground, My Digital Muse, Jen Wilson all calling my name! Have fun!!!!!!

Happy Friday!

Yesterday my car wouldn't start again! I've been having all kinds of trouble with it, and yesterday, I got stuck in the lane outside the place where I get my oil changed. I felt like such a loser. I ended up staying home from work since I was at the dealer all day and was so tired! I came home, snoozed a bit and then got my Grey's and Office on.

I really liked the Grey's spinoff last night - Taye Diggs YUM! But I didn't like how they chopped up the shows together. It took away from all the great drama going on in Seattle. And there was some good stuff. Grey's finally feels like Grey's again! And it makes me worry about having the hiccups!

The Office was so good last night too! I love how Michael can say all this crazy, horrible stuff, but you still end up feeling bad for him. There was also a great Dwight prank and some Jim-Pam-Karen tension!

And I have been waiting all week to talk about something we're doing at RAKs!!!! We're lifing our no links rule for the weekend in a special forum for our Countdown to NSD celebration!
I'm so excited to see all the posts already! I've already done some NSD shopping last night and today! :)

I'm also so happy that Rocky is here with me today!!! Look what the lazy dog is doing...

He makes a little nest on mom's bed and just chills there. He is grounded, though, so I'm going to need to walk him soon. :) I'm


I feel so nutso because I've been crying over what happened this weekend all week. I just keep thinking of all the things that could have happened, and then I cry because I'm so happy we did find him. I saw one of my friend's yesterday who's a cop in town and thanked him so much for his help. And I want to thank all of you again who sent their prayers. I really can't say enough about how much it meant! :)

Another reason why Krista rocks!

I'm listening to Gomez right now, and I just wanted to share how much I love Krista. (She along with AmyK introduced me to Gomez!). She has her own playlist in my itunes! She hooked me up with all this cool music so I just put it all on my computer and made a Krista list! Everything she recommends just rocks, so if you're looking for some cool songs to listen too, check out her blog!

Countdown to National Scrapbook Day

RAKScraps is Counting Down to NSD all week long! We thought we'd do some celebrating before NSD, so that everyone will have more time to crop and shop. We're going to have lots of fun, freebies and prizes! :) I'm hosting a chat at 8 pm EST on Saturday, May 5. So I hope you'll mark your calendar and join me!

And we have some big announcements too! First, we're welcoming our new members of our Creative Team!

And, we've opened up the vault and we've re-released seven past mega kits on CD at Scrapdish!!!!
Plus there's a huge sale on Donuts and Mega Kit add-ons through May 6! I have one more trick up my sleeve that I'm not ready to announce yet - but it's something RAKs has never done before! It's going to be so much fun!

May madness!

So it seems like everything is going crazy!!!!!!!! Last night, I stopped at Pathmark to pick up some fruit and stuff, and my car wouldn't start! UGH! I am so lucky that mom works at a dealership. They got the car to start this morning and they're working on it now. But I was so freaked out last night.

I slept in all day and I've decided to start my NSD spree a little early. There are so many awesome deals and new things. I already stopped at Oscraps and Funky Playground. And I also picked up the new charity kit at Songbird Avenue, which is a collab by Meredith Fenwick, Jan Crowley and Shabby Princess. It's a must have even if it wasn't raising money for March of Dimes!

After all the craziness on Sunday, I didn't even get to upload my photos from Saturday. We had gone down to Rutgers for the NJ Folk Festival/Ag Field Day with Taylor. We met my aunt and uncle down there and they had their granddaughter Danielle with them. So the girls got to play on the rides and do arts and crafts together. We didn't do as much shopping as we usually do - the girls weren't up for it and maybe we've just seen the same booths too many times. But it was a gorgeous day to be down there.

Here's some photos! This is my favorite spot on the Douglass campus. It's called Passion Puddle.

Mom and Randi sporting their "I ate a bug" stickers. Gross! They make cookies of bugs and give them out. Blech.The girls painting pet rocks ....
And the cool thing about having your college finally do well in sports is that you can find lots of t-shirts - even in PINK! LOL! :)