Trying to stay awake....

Vicki and I decided to go brave the crowds on Black Friday. Not because we really want something, but because we want to be out in the craziness! We are so excited! JC Penny's opens at 4 AM, so we decided it would be easier if we didn't go to sleep. So to keep myself awake I am drinking caffeine and digi scrapping! Here are my latest layouts!

Lesson 4 in my class

These two pages are from Ahh Scraps Cool Dude Brag Pages.

Moment of Thanks

I just want to take a moment and say thanks so much to Amber from Stolen Moments. She is a fabulous designer with some of the best kits I have seen and they are free (for a little while)! I really love her stuff and anxiously look for pictures that will work with her kits. When I first started looking around for kits I ran across her Star Crossed Kit. (Unfortunately, this kit is no longer free) This kit is GORGEOUS! As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for scrapping my best friend's wedding and mine. I didn't know how to do anything in Photoshop at that time, so I put it on the back burner for a little while until I learned some more. I am definitely still learning, but I was able to create a nice page from her star crossed quickpage.
The reason she is so wonderful (other than her talent!) is that she helped me by altering her quickpage to make it a little easier for me. Her red doodle was blocking too much of my picture and since I couldn't zoom out the picture, she moved the doodle over. How nice is that? I don't normally like to ask for help because I don't like to be a burden so it is nice to know that people are so willing to help you. Thanks Amber!

Here is my page. I have so many pages I want to scrap about the two weddings. This will be fun!

Another LO

Here is my latest LO. I am not sure if I am completely satisfied with it so if you have any suggestions let me know. I decided to fool around with a template.


This is a template from Moriginals. I used some papers from her and various others from other kits.
Mocha Latte Swirls Page Kit Created & ©2005 by Valeri Brumfield
After Dusk by Fairy Dust Princess
I think that is it. I hope I didn't forget one!

Behavior Plan or Lack Thereof

Things around work have been REALLY tense. Basically, our administration sucks at everything except helping kids "feel good" about themselves. I don't really even know how to explain what I mean. I will do my best to make this coherent for you.

Administration is not following our contract in two ways. (That isn't to say that they are not violating it elsewhere, but right now our union reps are working on these two) 

1. The first one is that at the moment, we are not getting our full planning time. By the end of the year the time lost equals 12 hours. 

2. The second thing has to do with the sub rotation. If a teacher is gone and no sub takes the job, the staff have to give up their planning period to cover the absent teacher's classes. This sucks, but it is part of the job. Anyway, the contract states that all certificated staff are to be on the sub rotation. The Administration, all three of them, are certificated staff. They refuse to be put on this rotation under the excuse that (and I quote!!!!) "someone who has power needs to be in the office. You don't have the authority to take care of the issues that come up." Isn't that a nice statement coming from your principal? Now, I understand the need to be in the office, but for crying out loud, P can be on rotation 1 for 1st period, O can be on rotation 1 for 2nd period, and C can be on rotation 1 for 5th period. That way, only ONE is gone from the office at one time!!!! That isn't so difficult.

Anyway, our union reps have talked about these issues with them and they refuse to budge. This means that we are grieving them. They are going to the higher ups in the association and we will see what happens. Hopefully things get resolved quickly. 

Unfortunately for our GREAT union reps, they are now getting the cold shoulder from administration. Isn't that ridiculous? We (the teachers) are looking at this situation as a win-win situation. Either we get what we want, or the wording in the contract is clarified. P is looking at it like one is going to lose while the other wins. P takes everything as if it is an attack against her. It is so annoying. 

The next thing I want to discuss is in my title. Our behavior plan or more like it, the lack thereof is frustrating as all get out as a teacher. I just don't understand what is going on in the office!! I have heard of several instances where students were throwing manipulatives or shooting rubber bands around the room and not getting into trouble! One kid intentionally shot a rubber band at a girl and hit her on the side of her face just missing her eye! Guess what his punishment was....a talk with O, the assistant principal. That is it!!! The referral was given back to the teacher to wait until it is done 2 more times.*

*Note: In our current behavior plan, we can write up students, but they have to do it 3 times and have a phone call home before we can turn it in to administration. 

What the heck? And get this...one of my favorite students was caught stealing a book at the book fair and was suspended for three days! I bet you anything this girl is home crying because of this. She is such a good girl and student. A firm talking to and maybe after school detention would have been enough for her. But the kid who almost shot a rubber band into a girl's eye is still in school.

Something is seriously wrong when this is happening. If I knew that girl's mom well, I would definitely tell her to go into the office and demand that the boy be punished! 

You can probably tell then why work is so tense. Students are not being disciplined and all of you who know kids know what happens when they can get away with just about everything! I am so frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait for my break, but I know I will be dealing with behavior issues while I am gone and when I get back. Unless there are some drastic changes at this school, I will not be coming back. 

Vicki Don't Read This!!

I don't think my sister reads this blog right now, so I think I am safe in sharing this with you. Last night at dinner Brett and I were discussing funny gifts and the idea came out to give my sister "Schrute bucks" for Christmas this year. We are big fans of the TV show The Office and Vicki would really enjoy the joke. If you haven't seen this episode you really should. It is pretty funny. I am pretty sure it is one of the last episodes of season 3 when Michael thinks he is getting a job at corporate and appoints Dwight as the new manager. Here is a picture of a "Schrute buck."

Here is the exchange rate: 1000 SCHRUTE BUCKS ARE REDEEMABLE FOR FIVE EXTRA MINUTES OF LUNCH BREAK. CASH VALUE OF 1/100TH OF A CENT. NOT EQUAL TO THE RATIO OF UNICORNS TO LEPRECHAUNS.

Hehe. Funny. 

The purpose of me bringing this up is that this was Brett's idea and as soon as he said that, I thought of something funny I could do for him. I don't know how I remember this, but way back when we were dating he mentioned something he wanted. We were watching the "Stark Raving Dad" episode of The Simpsons where Homer is put into an insane asylum. He is eventually released with the following conversation.

Psychiatrist : Mr. Simpson, after talking to your wife, I’ve concluded that you’re not insane.
Homer : That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Could you give that in writing?
[The psychiatrist hands him a certificate saying that Homer Simpson IS NOT INSANE.]

Leon alias Michael Jackson : Which of us is really crazy?
Homer : NOT me. I’ve got this. [shows his NOT INSANE certificate].

Brett really loves that scene and mentioned that he would like one of those someday. So last night and today I found the episode, took a screenshot, and started playing around with it in photoshop. I am pretty pleased with myself! Here are the results. Brett really liked it by the way.

It went from this:


To this!

Answers

I have several questions in my comments from yesterday's post. I just thought I would answer them in a post rather than in one long comment. 

1. Are you just using photoshop? 

Technically, I am using Photoshop and Microsoft Word. I use word to type out my journaling and then copy and paste into photoshop. It is a little easier that way. So for all intents and purposes, I am just using photoshop.

2. Where are you getting your backgrounds? 

I am getting my backgrounds from many incredible designers. There are many women out there who are great and post their designs on their blogs. I have many listed under my digital scrapbooking lists. My favorites are http://digi-designs.blogspot.com/, http://charliesdigiscraps.blogspot.com/, http://sweetblossomdesigns.blogspot.com/, http://stolenmomentsdesign.blogspot.com/, and http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/. You can also buy tons of kits from stores (once you get into the blogs you will find the stores), but there is so much that you can download for free. I have about 14 gigs of free stuff on my computer now! 

Another thing, the kits that I have been using for the class were provided with the class. I was able to download all the course materials. 

3. How are you going to print your final products?

I haven't thought about this yet. I am just creating. I have heard that Costco is great and cheap. Jewelle might know more about this. She is actually planning on printing some layouts for a calendar she is making. 

4. What class are you taking?

I am taking a class from JessicaSprague.com.

The class is called Up and Running and is a self-paced class. It costs $45 (I think!) and is TOTALLY worth the money. I am learning so much about photoshop that is valuable to me. I am someone who can play around with things and apply concepts I have learned to other aspects. I just have to have the basics first. This class covers those basics and then some more complicated things. I am learning how to use templates, brushes, opacity, etc. Excellent. I think I might take another class from this site. 

Thanks Jewelle for the award. That is very sweet of you. Am I supposed to do anything with it? I have never had an award before. 

Jaime, I am glad that my LO gave you some ideas. I didn't come up with them!! =) I just followed directions from my teacher.

Hope that answers everyone's questions. Let me know if you have more!

Ape Caves Layout

Here is my latest layout from Lesson 3 of the class I am taking. I figured out how to put the brown outline around the title all by myself. I was very proud of me for figuring it out. =)

I also created this layout tonight...

I used a template from Charlie's DigiScraps

Let me know what you think!

New Phone

I have had a cell phone for several years now. I was on my parent's plan and through a series of events I never was really able to choose the phone I wanted. I either had to have a free phone, hand me downs, or basically forced to choose one without being able to look at them. The point is I never really took the time to look at phones and decide what I really wanted. Brett and I were eligible for upgrades recently and had taken quite a bit of time researching. Brett told me about the HTC Touch Diamond and I really liked it. I love the interface and all the things I can do on it.

Brett wanted the HTC Touch Pro which is basically the same phone except has a slide out keyboard. I thought I wasn't going to care until I played around with the Pro. Goodness. I fell in love. I just had to have the slide out keyboard! I text message quite a bit, so I had to have it. I felt guilty because it is a very expensive phone, but only $50 more expensive than the Diamond. In the end, I decided to buy the nice phone. What is the good of both of us working with no kids if I can't spend an extra 50 bucks on something I know I will use all the time? Here is a picture of my very nice phone.



We have the simply everything plan with Sprint. It is great. Unlimited text, unlimited data, and 1500 shared minutes between Brett, my mom, and I. (My mom bought a Touch Diamond. She also had never chosen her own phone before. My dad always bought the newest and greatest phones for him and passed his old one onto her) I can check my email, schedule appointments, read my scriptures, browse the internet, and various other things. Love it! =)

Twilight Character Quiz

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Saw this on Jaime's blog and decided to take it. I think Esme suits me. As long as I am not a Rosalee. I just don't like her.

I was still on the site after I closed out of my blog and saw the which male character are you. I decided to answer the way Brett would...and here are his results!

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

That is perfect huh?

Edit: Not as perfect as I thought....I told Brett how perfect it was and he came over and asked what the questions were. I decided just to have him take the quiz. His results were...

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!
Oh well. He agreed with most of my answers, just went a different way with one or two. Jasper is a good guy as well...

Protection

Since I started blogging, I have been trying to be pretty good about protection. I have tried not to give too much information about myself and family.

A friend of mine just posted this and so I decided to watch it.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4699330

It was interesting to me. I went back through my posts and took out some information. I also decided to change my picture so that you can't see my last name. I also tried to change all my blog list so that I don't have any last names on there. I think that is one way I can help keep you all protected.

It is just something to be aware of. I am not sure if I agree with the not posting pictures of your children. I think you can do that as long as you are careful elsewhere. What do you all think?

Pros

So at church today the theme of Sacrament meeting and then RS was trials and tribulations. It really made me think of my baby situation. I decided I needed to look at this a different way. Instead of wishing I had a baby, I would think about all the pros of NOT having kids or being pregnant right now. That way, I can be happy in my situation now and if I get depressed I can look over this list again.

Pros of not having a kid right now:
1. No diapers!
2. Don't have to keep a child quiet during any of the meetings
3. Don't have to leave meetings if my child can't stay quiet.
4. Don't have to breast feed (seems like it would hurt. Correct me if I am wrong!)
5. Brett and I are free to spend the evening however we want. He can play his video game and I can scrapbook without worrying about watching a child. Good thing too because we both get VERY involved in our activities.
6. We can leave the house whenever we want without worrying about getting a babysitter or feeling bad about leaving kids with my mother....again.
7. I can sleep all the way through the night!!

If you can think of any more reasons.....Leave me a comment. I already feel a little better! =)

My new hobby definitely!

So here is my latest layout that goes with Lesson 2 of the class I am taking. I am loving this! It is so much fun and so relaxing. Anyway, I had some cute pictures of my best friend's little baby Alex, so I chose those pictures for the layout. Let me know what you think!

New Layouts

So I decided to take a class online to help me learn how to do some things in Photoshop. I haven't worked with it in the past, so this is a new experience. I just went through my first class and came up with this layout.


I was having a hard time doing anything specific with my pictures. I couldn't crop them, change the shapes, etc. I was really frustrated with not understanding something so basic. I realized in this class that I need to manipulate my pics before I put them in the actual layout. Anyway, that led me to completing this layout...


I am having so much fun! Now that I know some basics, I think I will be doing more and more of this. I am definitely going to go back and scrapbook some of my important and some not so important moments in life. =)

Count Your Blessings...Right?

So I have been feeling really down about having problems starting a family. It makes it harder when it seems like everyone around you that you care about is either pregnant or just had their baby. This list includes 5 of my good friends, both my sisters in law, several cousins, etc. My two sisters in law are due 10 days apart. I am the one in the group who wanted to have a baby the most, the one planning for it, and the only one not pregnant. Life just doesn't seem fair sometimes. I am trying very hard to be positive and to be excited for all these people I really care about. It is difficult, but I think I am doing a pretty good job. I save my breaking down for when I am alone or when Brett is there to hold me.

Anyway, I woke up thinking about this stuff this morning. My best friend is in town for the last time before she has her baby boy in February, so the ladies in her parent's ward decided to throw her a surprise baby shower. It was really fun. The ladies that attended are almost surrogate moms to Lita and I. They have known us all our lives. I have such a close relationship with all of them. It was great to spend some time with them, even though I felt left out because I was one of two women there who does not have children. The other woman was Lita's younger sister, Alyssa, who isn't married so it doesn't really count. I forgot my camera, otherwise I would show you pictures. I was so angry at myself! Especially when I saw Lita and she has gotten so big!

As I was lying in bed this morning and when I was depressed at the shower, I forced myself to count my blessings. I am truly blessed. My husband is wonderful. He does a couple of things that I find absolutely adorable and endearing.

1. We try to go to bed together, but sometimes I stay up later than him. When I crawl into bed, even if he is asleep, he rolls over and holds me. Isn't that cute? It doesn't happen every time, but most times I can count on him cuddling with me. I love that.

2. Last night I dozed off while watching TV. He helped me get up and get into bed. I am always cold when I get into bed, and he knows that. He is my personal space heater. Anyway, after he helped me into bed, he crawled in immediately and held me to warm me up. I wasn't exactly coherent at that moment, but I did realize he was holding me. How wonderful is he?

3. Brett is a very visual person. He likes things to be visually attractive. I really wanted a salad, but didn't want to make it. I hate dealing with lettuce. I don't know why, but I hate it. So he said that if I would get everything out that I wanted on my salad, he would make it for me. Here is the final result.



Doesn't that salad look amazing? It cracks me up how he has to arrange things! I just don't care about appearances like that. Oh well. He makes me laugh and I LOVE that.

So these are not all my blessings, obviously. Just a few things I adore about my husband and that I think about when I wish I had a little baby that did cute things.

Synchronized Swimming Like You've Never Seen it Before!

Thought this was pretty funny...

Corn Maze

Brett and I decided to go to a corn maze this year. We have never been, so decided it was about time. We went to the one on 277th. It was pretty fun. I found out that I am a landmark person. If everything looks the same, I get so lost! Brett was excellent at leading us through using the map. I am so glad I went with him...I don't know what I would have done without him. Here are a few pictures!






Brett liked the idea of kissing me at various times when we were all "alone" in the maze. I tried hard to get a good picture of us. Here are my attempts.




I would like to say that I got better by the end, but I don't think I did. It is a little difficult to get the angle right...

Digital Scrapbooking

I think I am finally catching up with all the stuff going on and the reasons why I haven't posted in so long. 

Digital scrapbooking is a huge reason. I am so addicted to reading blogs, looking at layouts, and downloading freebies! =) There was this whole blog party that had 70 designers who designed stuff that expired yesterday. I was trying to get all the good stuff before I ran out of time. Anyway, I wish I could say that I have done more scrapbooking, but I haven't. Brett asked me why, and it really is that I don't have much to scrapbook. I think that if you have kids it is a little easier to find things to make pages with. Brett and I are kind of boring....oh well. I will get back on it soon. I have a few ideas, I just need to get motivated to do so!

All Expenses Paid...

Don't you just LOVE those words? I do. They are great, especially when they apply to YOU!

Brett works for Comcast and every year, they have a Communications Technician Jeopardy competition. Each of the offices all over the country put together a team of 5 technicians to compete for their office.  The VPs of each office really like this competition because they are so competitive. Anyway, they take the techs out of the regular rotation and pay them to study all day. There are three levels of competition. The market (Auburn, Puyallup, and Seattle), regionals (WA, UT, CO, and OR), and nationals. 

Brett is excellent at trivia and is on the team. He has been studying for the past month. I am loving it because his schedule is better. He usually works Wednesday through Saturday 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM. Since I work Monday through Friday, this schedule is not my favorite. The only day off we have together is Sunday and we keep the sabbath day holy. Well, with the studying, he has been on a Monday through Friday 7:30 AM to 4 PM schedule. I am absolutely in love with this! I love being able to wake up next to my husband and not have to get up immediately. 

The first competition was on October 27th and his team won handedly. Apparently, they blew the other two teams out of the water. I am so excited! This means that Brett will remain on the wonderful schedule for at least another month AND we get the all expenses paid trip to Denver, CO for the regional competition. I will have to take a week off from school which worries me a bit, BUT I refuse to give up this chance. It will be great. Denver in December, great hotel, wonderful food, and visiting with the in-laws. Brett's parents will get to see him compete. That will be nice. 

If the team wins at regionals, we will get to go to Philadelphia. Fun, fun. Brett was on the team two years ago and we went to Portland for the regionals that year. They came in second place there. It was so disappointing! Brett thinks that this year's team is better. So we will see...anyway, that is some exciting news around here for us!

Curtains

We bought curtains a couple of months ago for our front room, but just didn't feel like putting them up. We finally did, so here are a few pics of the process and the finished product. It was pretty funny because we did have a mishap. You'll see the picture. Brett misunderstood how I was measuring, so the rod is too far in and it made them look very funny. Anyway, let me know what you think! 

Can you see where we went wrong? Oh well, we do it again. 

The finished product!

Vampire Love Story

Last week one of my students was reading a book. I asked her what she was reading and she told me it was the 3rd book of the Twilight series. I had heard some good things about this series, but hadn't ever seen them. I asked her if I could borrow the first book from her so that I could see what all the fuss was about. She brought it for me on Tuesday. I had too much to do, so I didn't really start reading it until Thursday. 

I finished it on Saturday morning. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to wait until I saw Mikayla again to borrow the rest, so I decided that I had to buy the rest of them. What other choice did I have? =) I love getting sucked into books. Poor Brett, at that moment, our weekend was not going to be anything fun for him...

So we made a trip to Borders books where I was able to buy all of the books. They were on sale, buy two, get one free. That saved us a little money.



I started this book about 3ish on Saturday and didn't put it down until I was done about 2 in the morning. It was SOOOOO good. I really wanted to start the next one, but I had to sleep sometime.

After church, I picked up the third book.

and read all day until I finished that one as well. I went to bed pretty late, probably early! and was pretty tired the next day for work.

I couldn't stop myself from reading this book

during my planning period and during my lunch. I finished that evening. 

I really enjoyed the series. It was an easy read and enjoyable. You didn't really have to think, you could just get caught up in the story. 

I know that some people really liked Jacob, but I think Edward was the right one. Jacob seemed like too much of a brother to me and not really the romantic type. What do you guys think?

I thought that the idea of changing yourself so that you could be with the one you love forever was an interesting idea. I think that we as Latter-Day Saints do that when we choose to marry in the temple. We choose to live our lives a certain way so that we can be worthy to be with that person for eternity. Just an interesting parallel. 

I love getting so caught up in books that I can't put them down for anything. I almost miss it now. I might read them again just for the fun of it! =) 

Hey, any good books I should read next?

Funny note: A good friend of my husband and I was convinced by his mother to read the series. She sold him on the vampire mythical stuff, but didn't mention the harlequin romance thing. He was sucked in by the time he really realized what he was reading. HeHe. At least now I will have someone to see the movie with and maybe Brett will come because Ryan will be there. =) 

More David

The next day, Monday, we had committed to helping David move into his new apartment. The plan was that he would get all checked in and have his storage unit loaded in the truck while we were at work. When we got home we would help load the stuff from the house that he was taking and then head up to Everett. We figured that we would be on the road around 5:00. We would unload for a couple of hours and then hit The Keg for dinner. David really wanted a good steak and we wouldn't agree to go with him on Sunday. Once again, the best laid plans...

This time, it was the landlord's fault. The process took longer than it needed and she had to call references and stuff. For an apartment complex that is used to working with the military, she really doesn't know the best way to deal with them. David was still in Everett dealing with his apartment issues (and he hadn't loaded ANYTHING into the truck!) when we all three got home around 4:15. So we ate dinner and waited for him. He finally got home around 5:30, we hurried to load the stuff from the house. Then we drove the 20 minutes SOUTH (Everett is North) to the storage unit and started to load up that stuff. When we were finally done with all that it was around 7:45. We started discussing directions to his apartment since we had four different cars driving up there and David mentions he still wants to eat dinner at The Keg! I couldn't believe it. My mom caved, so we had to as well.

We finished at the restaurant around 9:45ish. Then we drove to the apartment and started unloading. It took us about an hour to unload and then we had to discuss what to do with the truck. David wanted us to return it for him, but it needed to be filled up with gas and Brett and I were out of patience at this point. All three of us had to work the next day and we still had an hour drive home. We made David take care of the truck and drove home. I dozed off, thankfully. When we got home at midnight, I crashed into bed.

Another really LONG day!

David's Homecoming

My little (younger, but taller!) brother has been on the Abraham Lincoln for the last 7 months. He finally came home on Sunday, October 12th. My mom, of course, was extremely excited about this homecoming. She made a pretty big deal of it. 

The news we received from the captain's wife on Saturday night is that the nuclear reactor guys who normally are the last ones off the boat would be getting off first this time. So we made our plans around that. We were going to get to Everett a couple hours after the ship docked, so that we didn't have to wait forever. The best laid plans...

Anyway, the boat was supposed to dock at 1 and the sailors would be leaving the ship at 2. We were worried about traffic and being able to get us all on the base, so we left our house around 11 and reached the base at 12. We hit no traffic and were all able to get on the base no problems. We found a parking space and then started the long walk to the pier. 

The pier was full of people and booths. We stood in a huge crowd and watched the Lincoln as it SLOWLY pulled towards the dock. It was a really neat sight. The sailors were all lined up on the edges of the ship. That is the coolest sight. Here is a picture of what it looked like. A little blurry I know. We really didn't have a clear line of sight of the ship and I am pretty short so that didn't help. 

This next picture I just pulled off the Internet so that you could get an idea of what it looked like. 

Isn't that so cool?



Pictures of us waiting. We were bored and had to do something! =)

We waited forever for the ship to dock before we could go out on the pier. Apparently, they had to fire some things off so that it would have a last burst of speed and they didn't want civilians close when they did that. Finally about 2:15 or so, we were let onto the pier. We found a good spot and started waiting. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more. A couple thousand sailors, many VERY happy and moving reunions, and TWO HOURS later....David FINALLY came off the ship. 

(Just a quick note, some of the reunions were pretty fun to watch. There were some very nicely dressed wives running to their husbands. One lady was in stiletto heels and ran about 20 yards without tripping. Vicki and I were duly impressed. I am pretty positive I would have tripped.=) 

Here are a couple of the pictures I could get before David grabbed me and hugged me. 

I am pretty sure my mom was hugging him so tight he could barely breathe and I think she was contemplating not letting him go...

Our schedule at this point is pretty tight. David needed to go through the application process at his apartment complex in Everett before we took him home, we were having family over for dessert around 6:30, and we had to make and eat dinner first. This is the point when the day just wasn't fun anymore! I was starving, tired, and ready to be home. We went to the apartment complex and the landlord wasn't there! David was annoyed, but I was secretly relieved...It worked out for the rest of us. We got home around 5:30, made dinner and were ready for our guests when they arrived at 6:30. Here are some random pictures of that gathering...









It was a long day, but good. We are glad to have David back.