When do you complain?

When is a dog SO ANNOYING that it becomes ok to complain about it? There is this dog in my neighborhood and it HOWLS and whines all night long. It sounds like a very sick old man...neh, it's a dog. I am not a dog hater...if you've been following along, I have 2. But SERIOUSLY, oh my gosh, this big old man howler, is getting on my nerves right now! There he goes again. *going insane right now!* At first I felt sorry for the poor fella...He sounds so miserable and sad and probably cold. His owners must be meanies, not letting him in, or at least letting him in the garage. Heck, maybe he is in the garage, I don't know. I've never actually seen the thing, only heard him. I'm not kidding you guys, he sounds like those howling ghosts on Scooby Doo or something. So when do you call the home owners association or the city or whatever? I'm usually not like that...I'm sensitive to pet owners...because I am one too. But if it's bothering me this much...what about the people who live right next to him? Why don't the owners do something? Why don't I hear them calling out "Charlie" -or whatever his name is-"knock of the racket!"
Maybe I'm just a little overly sensitive right now...I'm super tired and all I can hear is this dog. I'm sleeping downstairs tonight because now Pete has the sickies. Will it ever go away? Will I be able to scathe through unharmed? I sure hope so!
I just got this huge paper cut---no cardboard cut on my finger! Dang it's bleeding and everything! You know what it's from...oh yeah cardboard..already told you that. All I was trying to do was get one of those little Jell-O snacks out of the fridge. The durn thing wouldn't come out of the package. I'm like "jeeze, it's only 10 calories, just let me have it!" as I'm ripping it out. "let go, I say!" Am I so desperate that I must endure injury for 10 measly calories? LOL!!! I guess so.
Well, now that I've had my little snackie, and for the moment the dog isn't howling, I'm going to take up my spot on the couch for the night.
Ok, there goes the dog again.
This is going to be a long night.

Ali, good friends and sick kids...

Yesterday was my class with Ali. First of all let me say, she is seriously awesome. So down to earth, a real person and just plain fun. I walked in and the place was already packed. There were 80 people in the class and when I got there most spots were already taken. My friend Kathleen was already there and saved me a seat. Anyways, I was walking down the isle, and Ali was walking up...she says "hi! nice to see you!" Just like she knew me. She was just so real. My friend Kathleen just got into scrapbooking maybe about a year and a half ago. She doesn't even know who Ali Edwards is. She just came with me for the fun of it. She's the kind of person that is just so incredibly book smart.... I don't mean that rudely, that's just how she is. She always has to have every thing all planned out, she's a perfectionist, she always wants to do things her way. If you know anything about Ali, you know she's all about the creative process, "playing", and just having fun. Well, it was so funny, because she had Kathleen pegged from the first second. She kept teasing her the whole time because she was like, "Well, the squares don't match up perfectly" and "this ink is really messy". It was hilarious. But Kathleen is the kind of person that doesn't really recognize when she's being teased...she doesn't really recognize that it's all in fun. I was just giggling the whole time.The project for the class was "Today You". Our assignment before coming to class was to pick on person, take a picture of them during 9 random days and do some journalling about that day. We completed a minibook in class. We played with Tim Holtz inks, Fontwerks stamps and lots of patterned paper. Really super fun. Here's some of my book. I don't really like the cover,(the ink was really messy) but the rest turned out pretty good:

It was a really fun project and I definitely think I'm going to do it again. Like Ali says it's something you can do over and over because every time you'll get different results. If anyone wants the supply list, let me know, I'll be glad to email it to you.

Now here's where the drama starts....About 3 quarters of the way through the class, Pete calls my cell phone. Jake was really sick and had thrown up about 15 times. I guess it started right after I left to go to class. So I freaked and packed up all my stuff and kind of abandoned Kathleen. She totally understood though. I was disappointed because I really wanted to buy Ali's book and have her sign it. I also wanted to get a picture with her. Pete said not to worry and go ahead and finish the class, but when your kid is that sick, you just go. So I get home and it's bad. You can smell the bad. Poor Jake is sitting with his head in a bucket having the dry heaves because there's nothing left. Megan's crying because she still doesn't feel 100% either. I felt so bad for Pete, but he seriously is the best dad. He was right there helping Jake, cleaning up etc...Shortly after I got home he left and went to get himself something to eat. I think he really needed a (well deserved) break. About 6:30 my phone rings and it's Kathleen. She recapped the end of the class and wanted to check on Jake. She also said, "check your front door, I left you something on your front steps". So I go open the door and sitting right there is Ali's book. "A Designers Eye for scrapbooking with Patterned paper". She bought it for me and even had Ali sign it. Isn't that so sweet? Seriously good friend. Despite the barf, I smiled. Maybe got a little teary too. Do any of you have this book? AWESOME. Really. If nothing else, just perfect scrapbook eye candy.

Alright, well I think this is enough for now. I have some laundry to do. And both kids are napping, better take advantage of it while I can!

Awww...I've been tagged!

I feel so special now! Hee hee!! Chrissy tagged me. So here goes...

1. Find the nearest book. We have tons, I read a lot. Mom sends me paperbacks all the time.

2. Name the book and author: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. This is not my typical kind of story...it's science fiction. I prefer murder mysteries.

3. Turn to page 123....

4. Got to the 5th sentence on the page & copy out the next three sentences onto your blog: "Do you need help?" My eyes flicked back to her face. "Max-with your wings-can you actually fly?"

5. Tag 3 more people: Ok I tag Jude and Kari and Jami.

Ok back to regular stuff...I've been home the last two days. Megan has got her first virus. I went to drop her off Thursday morining and as soon as I was turning to go, she threw up everywhere. No not baby spit up...throw up. So home we went. Jake stayed at Grandma's and Meg slept most of the rest of the day. I kept her home yesterday too just to make sure she's ok. No more throw up, now it's the other way. I don't want to go into the details, but I'm sure you get it. Poor little thing. I hate when babies are sick!

But despite the sickies...I totally got my scrap on yesterday. I did 2 layouts and I think they're both pretty awesome. These aren't the best pictures...for some reason my photoshop won't open right now, so I couldn't edit them any. We've got funky morning light coming in and I couldn't get away from the shadows or glare. Anyways here they are: I don't know what it is about having a girl, but it totally brings out the girly girl in me. I am in love with all things pink and flowery lately! Before Megan, Pink was my least favorite color. I just can't get enough of it now! Funny how girls will do that to you. More scrappy news...Today is my class at my LSS with Ali! Can not tell you how flippin excited I am about it! I will be sure to post pictures. Hopefully it won't be too pathetic if I ask to take a picture with her?

Anyways, more later, I'm off to shower!

Say hello to Nacho!

Isn't he the funniest little thing you've ever seen? I never, EVER thought I'd own a little dog. I'm not a little dog person at all. My grandma has a little wiener dog and yeah, she's cute, but I would never want to own one. Anyways, so this is Nacho. He came with that name. I think it's kind of dumb, but it seems to suit him, so I think he'll keep it. Not that he is dumb, but I just can't go changing a dogs name. That's just not nice. I mean what if all of a sudden someone started calling you some other name? (well actually, sometimes that might not be so bad! LOL) But you get the point. I think it's mean to change an animals name when they already know it. Know what I mean? So Nacho isn't really supposed to be a family pet...though I don't see how he can avoid that. Do you notice Megan's little hand on his back? And Jake sitting right there next to him. Yeah, the kids already love him...The dog's staying...I don't think we could get rid of him now! But anyways Pete got him for a specific purpose. He's a Jack Russel Terrier (though, to me he looks like a Chuaua...whatever..small dog) Well anyways Pete got him for the ranch. Apparently, these kinds of dogs are great little hunters. Pete got him to help him find the injured/dead hogs up at the ranch. I guess that's all I can really say about that...but anyways we've welcomed little Nacho into our family. Even though I don't really like little dogs, he's pretty cute.

I wanted to say "Thanks" to you guys who left such loving comments yesterday to my little whine fest of a post. It really means a lot to me and it's nice to know people get it. I don't like being a whiner, and I feel like I've done a lot of it lately. So thanks for "listening" all my little friends!

Funny thing since I've gone back to work...I've started doing all of my shopping late night! I was at Target last night at about 9:30! This is the 2nd or 3rd time I've been in there that late lately. I don't have any time otherwise! We get home, get dinner made, eat, clean up, tag-team the baths, and then it's off to bed without a moment to spare. It's funny to be walking through the store and they come over the loud speaker "Attention Target shoppers, we will be closing the front doors in 10 minutes". Yeah shopping late is great! Last night though, (Friday night) you would have thought there is nothing better to do in Tracy. At 9:30 just about half the town was in Target. Kind of funny. Anyways, after my little Target spree, I jetted...or is it jet?... Anyways I sped over to Safeway to get the stuff for the pasta salad for tomorrow's wedding. Funny thing about being in the supermarket at 10 o'clock on a Friday night was that I was the one who looked out of place actually buying groceries! I was the only one who wasn't standing in the express lane without a bottle of vodka, or a 6 pack of Bud. Too funny. There was also a pack of 16 year old girls...they all travel in packs don't they? Anyways, they were all dressed in their PJ's thinkin they were so cute. Yeah, never liked teenage girls...even when I was one! LOL. That's not true really. I'm just being kind of a snob because I'm jealous they can go to the store in their jammies and I'm too self conscious to ever do that! LOL! Oh and by the way, the kids were both tucked in tight in their beds at home with Pete while I was doing all this jetting around town in the middle of the night. Just so you all don't call CPS on me or anything, I didn't leave them alone! Just thought I'd clarify.

Today was a beautiful day! It's been a real cold winter here, not much rain but really cold. Anyways today it was like 80 degrees! So nice! We played outside today with the neighbors for about 2 hours before going to my nieces' birthday party. It was awesome. Our neighbors are Portuguese, from Brazil and they are the nicest people! They're all about food and beer! LOL They are always saying here have some food! do you want a beer?! We don't drink anymore, and I don't really like beer anyways, but you know somebody likes you if they want to share their beer with you! LOL. The way our neighborhood is set up, all of our garages are in the back of the house and we have an ally way to access them. So the kids play back there all the time, it's kind of like living in a couldesac. The great thing is is that most of the kids on our street are just about the same age and 99% boys! Our Brazilian neighbors have twin boys, Lucas and Ciao (sounds like Kyle) and they are just a few months younger than Jake. Then there are 2 more 3 year old boys on either end of the street. Anyways, we all can't wait for summer so we can let the kids go wild in the ally! Here's some pics from today:

Both Jake and Megan were wiped out after todays activities and they were both in bed by 7 o'clock tonght! LOVE IT! I'm sure miss Meg will be up before the crack of dawn though. Oh well.

Hello everybody...

How are ya? It's a 3 day weekend you know! That's good thing. I've had a real crappy week at work. The glitter has worn off....not that there ever really was any glitter, but you get the point. It's been just over a month since I've been back to work. It was hard at first, yes, to come back. But after a week or two things just sort of seemed to fall into place in a regular routine. Things around the office were a little weird at times, but I was able to just sluff it off and move on. I really think in the back of my mind I thought this was all temporary and I was going to wake up from this dream and everything would be back to normal. i.e.: me back at home being a mommy etc... Well, I guess reality has settled in. For now this is it. I have to work. I have to be here. I have to deal with all these F-ing crazy people every single day. (please excuse the Fing...I'm usually not like that, but I'm kind of in a mood) I have to deal with the micro-management, the technology that doesn't work. I swear these people just sit in there big corner offices just thinking of new ways to screw with us.
I miss my kids. I miss going on walks with them. I miss going to the park. I miss hanging out with the other mommies. I miss messing around on the Internet all day! LOL! I miss Jake's little smart mouth, I miss cleaning up the same things over and over and over again. I miss Megan's cute little smile, and when she giggles at me. I miss nap time! I miss them so much that it brings me to tears just typing this. I have a ton of pictures of them all around my tiny little 3x4 cubicle. I miss them so much that I almost want to take the pictures down so they don't make me sad. That's terrible isn't it?
I hate the way this job makes me be. It really does make me act like a different person. I hate that. It makes me want to say the F word like every five minutes. It makes me cheat. Yes cheat. I have certain responsibilities in my job that I have to do correctly, but there is so much pressure just to get the job done that you cheat just to get it done. You find any way you can to get around the crap and get it done. I'd much rather do my job the right way even if it meant going slower. But it's all about the numbers here. They say it's not, but it SOOO is. If you're too slow, you suck basically. None of this sounds very Christian to me....does it to you? That's what makes me so mad. I have kind of a hot temper sometimes (it's the red hair!) but I don't like being like that. This job makes me get so frustrated and hot tempered all the time.
*sigh* But this is just my reality right now. I just have to face it. There's not a whole lot I can do about it. I just hope at some point I'll be able to be home with them. Hopefully if Pete's ranch really works out we should be comfortable enough for me to stay home. I can not wait for that day.
I'm hoping this 3 day weekend will be good. It will be busy, I know that. We've got a birthday party tomorrow and a wedding on Sunday. I have to make pasta salad for 200 people tomorrow (for the wedding)...what the heck was I thinking? LOL!! On Monday our friends want to get together for lunch or dinner or something like that. So I guess there will be no down time, but at least I'll be with family. And that's alright with me. :)
Ok well my 30 minute lunch period is up, so before I get in trouble again, I better go. Yep, got in trouble yesterday for taking 10 minutes over my scheduled lunch. I LOVE IT HERE. Stupid effers. See what I mean? the F word again. Bad. LOL!!
Have a good weekend...

Just a quick post... I feel like I don't have a ton to say today. We didn't do much this weekend because yesterday it rained all day. Went to church this morning and the rest of the day has just been chores..laundry,floors, dishes...etc. I did take some pictures yesterday, though. Here is a sampling of some cute stuff:Yes, I couldn't resist the bow! She finally has just enough hair for it! She's so frickin cute!

- Question though...I don't have the fancy SLR camera that I guess everyone else has but here's the deal.... So I've read over and over and over: no flash, no flash, NO FLASH. Right?? Well every time (ok not every time) but most times when I'm indoors and I don't use my flash, the picture turns out slightly blurry. Is it just me? See the one of both Jake and Megan? It's out of focus. And the head shot...looks ok here but printed out it's all blurry. What am I doing wrong? If you have any tips please let me know. I feel like dumping this camera but I have seen great results from it too. I just can't seem to be consistent with it. Seriously, tips please =)

And as I promised a while back...a scrapbook layout:

Not the best picture of it but oh well. The title says Your BROTHER Loves You. These pictures were taken in the hospital and the day we brought Megan home. I like how simple it is! :)

I do have more to share, but I'm thinking of trying out for a local design team call. (just on a whim) What ever I submit for that can't have been online anywhere. So I think I'm saving my favorite one for that. If I don't get picked (which I'm pretty sure I won't) I'll put some more up.

Have a good week!

Been a little MIA lately

I have a feeling this is going to be kind of a weird post. I'm trying to do this and work at the same time...may not work out very well! Anyways, I haven't posted in a few days. I've been kind of on a roller coaster of emotions for what seems like forever. This last week some things kind of went down at our church, and I guess I shouldn't really say too much, because I don't want to say anything I shouldn't. I know this is kind of a vague statement, but let me just put it all this way...I now totally understand why so many people have been turned away from church in general and organized religion. There has been some crazy stuff going on that directly affects my family...lots of stuff I totally don't get. But Pete and I have decided that God is allowing it to happen and we're putting it all in His hands. Very stressful non the less!
So anyways, I think that's why I've kind of taken a break from blogging because I was afraid I'd just let it all out and maybe scare all of you away! LOL
I think I've decided not to do the tag thing. I'm so late anyways and now it seems as if maybe it would be a little redundant. It's like if you were the last one to get the LA Gear Flame tennies in the 7th grade, they just weren't cool anymore...you get what I'm saying? Do you remember those shoes? I wanted those sooo bad. Mine were lavender and sea foam green. They were so awesome.
Jake has been saying some of the funniest things lately. He seriously cracks me up every day. I was reminded by reading Chrissy's blog that I really need to get this stuff down somewhere so I can remember it all. So last night we're driving home from Grama's house and Jake says "Momma, you have to get me a horse, ok?" "A horse?" I say. "where are we going to keep a horse?" (we have a teeny tiny yard...I can look directly into my neighbors windows, and they into mine...our houses are all pretty much stacked on one another!) Anyways so Jake says, "on the grass." (like duh, mom) "well, and you have to buy a barn too...next week, ok?" (everything lately is next week, or next month) I say, "we don't have room for a horse and a barn, silly!" He sighs and says, "oooh Momma, But I so toe-ta-ee love horses!" Did he just say he So totally loves horses???!!! What?? Ok either he is listening to me WAYYY too much and I am WAYYY more of a valley girl than I ever knew, or he's listening to his 3 girl cousins way too much. I don't know, but to me that was just hilarious, but I hope he doesn't continue to talk like a girl! hmm.
Another story...This morning I go in his room to wake him up. He sits strait up out of bed and says, "oh, Momma! I had a dream! There was a big fishy-a flying fish-and it jumped out of the tank and I sneaked up on it-and then you called the man!" I was just kind of laughing to myself, not sure exactly what to say. (what man???) Then I noticed he was shaking a little and I said, "what are you shaking for, are you cold?" He says, "no Momma, but I don't want to have that dream again!" Apparently this big flying fish scared the crap out of him! It's such a silly thing, where does this stuff come from?
Megan is cutting her first little tooth. She so cute, you can tell it kind of bothers her. She keeps sticking her tongue out. She's got a tongue like a little lizard! No, really! I swear when she sticks it out it touches the bottom of her chin! It's the funniest thing! She also does this like, biting thing or something. I guess I can't really describe it, but it sure is funny to watch her do it. It looks like maybe she's saying "cha, cha, cha" but no sound is coming out. I don't know, but it's funny.
Well, anyways I guess this is about all I got for now. I could go on and on about all kinds of things. But I keep getting interrupted by my emails and stuff. See I said at the beginning this might be difficult...I started typing this at uhhh...like 8:30 this morning and it's now noon.
I've got some other story's to tell so maybe later, if I have time, I'll post again.
Oooh side note before I forget...I did do some scrapping this weekend. Will post pics later...I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Why, why, why

is paper so addicting?! Oh MY Gosh. For reals scrapbook girls, check this out. It's extremely overwhelming, but there's all kinds of new goodies on there from CHA. So far my favorite stuff is from American Crafts and Basic Grey. I think I could sit here all night and look at all this stuff. I know, I seriously have a problem. I'm addicted to patterned paper.
Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

How to take a shower

Someone forwarded this email to me today at work. I just had to share. It's so dang funny. I swear someone must have a camera in my bathroom!

Part 1: HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A WOMAN:
>>>
>>> Take off clothing and place it in sectioned laundry hamper according
>>> to lights and darks.
>>>
>>> Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown. If you see husband
>>> along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
>>>
>>> Look at your womanly physique in the mirror, make mental note to do
>>> : more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.
>>>
>>> Get in the shower.
>>>
>>> Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and
>>> pumice stone.
>
>>> Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.
>
>>> Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.
>>>
>>> Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner.
>>>
>>> Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes
>>> until red. Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.
>>>
>>> Rinse conditioner off hair.
>>>
>>> Turn off shower.
>>>
>>> Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower. Spray mold spots with Tilex.
>>>
>>> Get out of shower.
>>>
>>> Dry with towel the size of a small country. Wrap hair in super
>>> absorbent towel.
>>>
>>> Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head.
>>>
>>> If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
>>>
>>> Part 2: HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A MAN:
>>>
>>> Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them
>>> in a pile.
>>>
>>> Walk naked to the bathroom.
>>>
>>> If you see wife along the way, shake wiener at her while making the
>>> woo-woo sound.
>>>
>>> Look at your manly physique in the mirror. Admire the size of your
>>> wiener and scratch your butt.
>>>
>>> Get in the shower.
>>>
>>> Wash your face.
>>>
>>> Wash your armpits.
>>>
>>> Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse the snot off.
>>>
>>> Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.
>>>
>>> Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.
>>>
>>> Wash your butt, leaving those coarse butt hairs stuck on the soap.
>>>
>>> Wash your hair. Make a shampoo Mohawk.
>>>
>>> Pee.
>>>
>>> Rinse off and get out of shower.
>>>
>>> Partially dry off - Fail to notice water on floor because curtain
>>> was hanging out of tub the whole time.
>>>
>>> Admire wiener size in mirror again.
>>>
>>> Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.
>>>
>>> Return to bedroom with towel around waist.
>>>
>>> If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake wiener at her and make the
>>> woo-woo sound again.
>>>
>>> Throw wet towel on her pillow.
>>>
I thought this was hilarious!
Have a good Friday everybody!