Good Monday morning!

Alright...I've got lots on my agenda to accomplish today so let's hope I stay motivated and productive! My classes went well on Saturday!!! I was excited to share my love for Rusty Pickle and really hope that everyone learned some fun new techniques they can incorporate into their own scrapbooking and cardmaking. I tried to make the classes really technique heavy. I'll have a couple more classes in March.

Saturday night, my hubby and I went to the movies where we saw the movie, Juno. Holy cow! This movie was absolutely wonderful! It was about a teen pregnancy and had a beautiful pro-life message all about adoption. I was literally bawling in the movie theater. I could identify with Jennifer Garner's character to the "T." I was crying so hard that I almost got up and left at a couple points. I even cried in the car the whole way home! Phenomenal movie! In fact, I'm going to see it again tonight with a couple girlfriends. I already warned them that I'm going to be a crier! :)

Sunday, we had church and then I ran a few errands (the cupboards were bare so I got some groceries, etc.) I even got a nap in...haven't had one of those for a while and then we had young adult fellowship at church.

Right now, I'm gearing up to work on our adoption paperwork!!!! That movie really inspired me to get going. We've had a busy couple of months with the holidays, traveling, my job change, etc. so I'm going to make this a priority!!!

Have a great Monday! :)

Neck pain/migraines

Grrr! I'm really getting frustrated with all the headaches and pain I've been having lately. Soon after I blogged yesterday I got a severe headache. It went away for awhile and then came back again in the afternoon. My headaches are all caused by pain I have in my neck and left shoulder. Five or six years ago I was in a car accident and I've had somewhat chronic pain ever since. It flairs up at least once a month or so. I go to a chiropractor regularly to keep my pain in check and it definitely helps the pain to exercise and keep my muscles strong in my neck and shoulder. Yesterday, the pain was so bad that I decided to leave work early and head straight to the chiropractor. I spent the rest of the night in the recliner with a heating pad and occasionally used a massager on myself. I'm frustrated because the pain and headaches are debilitating. I'm not good to do anything. I woke up this morning feeling it some more but I hope it goes away because I have a busy day at work and then I'm kitting my stuff for classes tonight.

Stay warm! It's like -20 in Iowa! Brrrr!

thank you!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday! I had a fabulous day! My co-workers took me out to lunch and then I came home to several birthday cards in the mail. Glen and I went to Texas Roadhouse (and thank goodness he didn't tell them it was my birthday so I wouldn't have to get on that ridiculous saddle!) and then we did go see National Treasure (which was a wonderful movie). I loved the first one and the sequel was definitely just as good!

Today is also a special day for me and my hubby because it's the 6th anniversary of our first date! Funny story here - I met Glen at a local TV station where he worked and I was an intern over the month of January. He asked me out for dinner but I told him no. The reason? I was dating someone else at the time. Dinner seemed too much like a date and I get super nervous eating in front of people I don't know very well. So we decided to go to a coffee shop after work instead. That was innocent enough, right? Grabbing coffee is something you can do with a friend. Well, it was over our "innocent" coffee date that the sparks flew! We ended up talking until they closed the coffee shop. Seriously like 4 hours or so of just talking! Anyway, we always try to go out for coffee around our anniversary...it's a great reminder of why we fell in love in the first place. :)

Today I'm just itching to do some creative work but that will have to hold off since I'm at work today. Hopefully, I still have the creative bug tonight.

Have a great Wednesday! :)

In my birthday suit...

Okay, I'm not really in my birthday suit, but today is my birthday! I'm the big 2-7 today! :) I'm looking forward to a good day. My hubby is taking me to Texas Roadhouse tonight (yummy steak...here I come) and then we might be going to see National Treasure.

I've been having headache problems ever since Saturday. I ended up spending the entire day in the recliner with a heating pad trying to get rid of it. It's rare for me to have a headache that I just can't shake. Acupuncture did help some.

Here's a couple of projects I wanted to share with the January Paper Posies kit. I loved working with these new Collage Press papers. January also marks a year that I have been designing with Paper Posies - I LOVE, LOVE the kits that Anna puts together!

Enjoy your Tuesday! :)

BRRRRRR!!!

It's around -9 here, but the windchill makes it feel like -20 or so. That's just not right! I'm planning on staying in most of the day! I was supposed to go out with some girlfriends this morning for lunch but I woke up with a migraine. Luckily, Glen and I got in for acupuncture this afternoon so hopefully that will do the trick to get rid of it.

I've been working on some projects with the February Paper Posies kit and finally found my missing mojo! I actually really enjoyed being creative which hasn't happened in a while for me. I'll share soon.

I got a card picked up by Scrapbook Trends last night. Felt great to get an e-mail because I haven't submitted anything in a while (especially any new projects).

I have a busy weekend ahead. We're planning on going to Saturday night church because Sunday I have to work the Hy-Vee bridal show for work. I hope that will be lots of fun! Monday, I'm going to Memory Bound to kit my classes and then we have small group that night. Lots going on!

Enjoy your weekend and stay warm if you live somewhere cold! :)

My job news!

Hey there...just a quick post because I remembered that I forgot to share my job news! It's been a crazy busy last two weeks transitioning between my two jobs. I work at the Iowa Family Policy Center part-time. It's a fabulous Christian organization that supports pro-family issues. (Kind of like Focus on the Family if you've heard of them). Last March, I was hired to do the marketing and public relations for Marriage Matters (their healthy marriage side of IFPC). My very good friend Rachel was their communications director but left her role in December to have a baby. Part of Rachel's responsibilities included writing, producing and voicing radio programs that are played on around 20 radio stations across Iowa. They looked high and low to find someone to fill her position but could not find anyone qualified or that would take the job. Enter ME! Because my old job was federally funded, I was asked to take on the radio programs as my new job. The change gives me more job security and I'm actually qualified to do it. I used to work at a talk radio station in college and did it all when I was there. So that's my news! I have a slight learning curve because it's been awhile since I've done radio but I'm picking it up quickly. Anyway, I'm just taking a quick lunch break now and then I need to get everything wrapped up for the week at work. Have a great day! :)

Local Rusty Pickle Classes!

Good morning! If you're local, I just wanted to let you know about some upcoming Rusty Pickle classes I that will be teaching at Memory Bound in Ankeny on Saturday, January 26th.

Pictures of the 3 classes are posted on their website (www.memorybound.com) - it's going to be a Rusty Pickle Saturday!

Treasures of my Heart is my first class of the day from 9:00-10:30. We'll be creating a 2-page layout jam-packed full of techniques!

Designing with Details I is my next class from 11:00-1:00. This class will create 5 cards using a variety of details to give your cards an extra handmade touch - all of the techniques taught can be incorporated into scrapbook pages.

What I Love About You is a mini album class that uses Rusty Pickle's new Chocolate Kisses line and the chipboard scalloped album. Again plenty of technqiues and the album can be used for a spouse, significant other, friend, family member or maybe you just want to show how much you love chocolate!

It will be a fun day so be sure to get signed up! I'm super excited to share my love of Rusty Pickle with you. I'll have two more classes on March 1st - Designing with Details II (lots of sewing in this one) and a Spring banner that uses the Chocolate Bunnies line!

More to come soon...

Holy Molasses!

First of all, here's a couple projects I made with the December Paper Posies kit that I forgot to share and for some reason they didn't get added to the PP gallery. The layout picture is from Christmas 2005. We take a picture of the two of us each year and I make a layout and add it to my Christmas album.

Now the reason my post is titled "Holy Molasses!" is because I stepped on the scale this morning and as of early this fall, I have lost about 20 pounds! You should have heard the scream I let through the house! I am 1 pound away from the weight I was on my wedding day! I have literally been working my butt off at the gym 3 times a week and eating way less along with better food choices. I used to be able to sit down and eat lots of sweets but now after just one cookie, etc., I start to feel sick. Yay! When the weather starts to warm up, I'm going to start running/walking outside again and add in a couple more workouts a week. You have no idea how good I feel! I feel victorious because the weight I put on was because of our infertility treatments. It's really been part of the healing process for me to lose this weight. As I'm getting older, I'm really starting to feel health conscious. Obesity and all the trouble that comes with it - high blood pressure, heart problems, etc. runs in my family. I want to be the picture of health so I can avoid all those problems. Anyway, just had to get my excitement off my chest (and my stomach, thighs, butt, etc.)! HA! :)

Have a great Saturday!!! :)

Discipline

As I have in the past two years, I chose the word "discipline" to be my word to work on for 2008. The year before that was "joy" and the year before that was "hope."

Here's the dictionary's definition:
dis·ci·pline
1. training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline.
2. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: A daily stint at the typewriter is excellent discipline for a writer.
3. a set or system of rules and regulations.
4. to train by instruction and exercise; drill.
5. to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control.

Areas of my life I would like to discipline and how I want to do it:

1) Spirtually - daily prayer and devotional time; keep a prayer and/or gratitude journal
2) Physically - work out at the gym 3x a week; start running in the spring and run the 5k at the 4th of July; make better food choices (i.e. not as much fried food and junk food)
3) Mentally - don't spend as much time in front of the TV; go to the library and read more often
4) Relationally - make regular "dates" with my friends and family to connect better with them; return e-mails and phone calls in a timely manner; spend more quality time with my hubby
5) Creatively - allow creative time to scrapbook, papercraft and other crafts
6) My house (this is a biggy) - Purge and organize each room of the house including closets/drawers, etc.; buy organizational products as necessary; stay on top of bills, laundry, dishes, piles of clutter, etc.
7) Adoption process - remember the resulting reward is SOOO worth the tedious process

Well, that's a start anyway. Here's to a more disciplined 2008!

Christmas 2007

Here's a photo of Glen and I at Christmas this year at my Grandpa and Grandma Hansen's. Don't we look like festive Christmas elves in our green? I'm actually really excited to scrap some Christmas photos this year. They all turned out great! :)

After the past two weeks off work, I returned to get some exciting news. I'm not going to share just yet because it's not official until later this week, I think. At first I wasn't sure what to think but now I'm really pumped about it. Don't you just hate secrets???!!!

My sister is going home today (boo), but we watched Live Free or Die Hard last night. It was really good and one I would have liked to have seen in the theatre because of all the action. Bruce Willis may be nearly twice my age but whew, I have a married woman's crush on him! :)

Well, off to get ready for work! Have a fantastic Tuesday!

Ready for a fresh start!

There's just something about the new year that gets me all giddy. I have this insane desire right now to organize everything in my life. I've let so many things go to pot the past few months that I'm ready to get back to my old self and get on top of things. This is probably going to be a long post so stick with me!!!

First off, Christmas...I managed to get presents bought at the last second and still have a couple gifts to finish up for Glen's side of the family so that I can mail them off. But, while I was out Christmas shopping I managed to pick up a couple things for myself that I like to call the steals of the century!!!! One of the things I wanted for Christmas was a knee length black wool dress coat. I figured I would just use my Christmas money and it would probably cost me around $150. I was out shopping a couple days before Christmas and "just happened" to go past my favorite store to shop at for myself - New York & Co. The ENTIRE store was 50% off. I went in and found THE coat I was looking for. Now, I'm known around my family as the coupon queen so of course I had a coupon on me for $20 off a $60 purchase. My $130 coat was mine for -- get this....$45.00!!!! I called Glen, my mom and my sisters just to tell them about it. I LIVE FOR a good bargain. Now, I'm still on a shopping high so I decide to run into The Limited. I NEVER buy clothes at The Limited, but I saw they had several things on sale so I went in. I have been hoping to buy some new dress pants for work so I took a stroll around and looked through their clearance section. I found a pair of brownish/black wool dress pants that I wanted to try on. They fit awesome so I ended up getting a pair of $90 wool dress pants for $30!!!! And, I found a cute black skirt in there a month back but it was $70. No way in heck was I going to pay $70 for a skirt. When I went in this time, the skirt was on sale for $30 so I bought it! It was one of those shopping trips that will go down in history for me! :)

Anyway, we spent a couple nights at my parents for Christmas. We had a fantastic time with them. Glen and I got a lot of movies on our list - Ratatouille, Spider Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Footloose and Flashdance. My sister got me some really cool necklaces and earrings. Mom and dad gave us money and I got a movie gift certificate from my grandma. The one fun gift opening of Christmas morning was Glen - it's well known in my family how much Glen loves imported beer so my sister Jen went to World Market and got him a "Beers of the World" gift pack. He flipped out! He thought it was the coolest gift ever! It was so funny! He's been slowly savouring his gift one bottle at a time! :)

When we got home from mom and dad's, we got ready for our conference at Lake of the Ozarks. The resort we stayed at was beautiful! It was huge and had 5 restaurants on the premises - even a Burger King! :) The first night we treated ourselves to a yummy steak dinner - it had been ages since we had gone on a date so we deserved it! The conference itself was fantastic - all about being an impact player for God. The speakers touched on discipline and service - more on this in a minute. We went to a great seminar on procrastination - definitely something I needed to hear. We had a great time growing closer with our church family. We ate meals together in the evenings and one night stayed up until 1 a.m. playing Apples to Apples. When the conference ended, we drove an extra 4 hours to Glen's parents in Arkansas. We spent New Year's Eve with them playing cards and Apples to Apples. We also celebrated a late Christmas. The one very cool gift we received from Glen's mom and dad was a piano - Glen's childhood piano to be exact. His parents sold it to a local family in Iowa before they moved to Arkansas and asked that if they ever wanted to sell it that they call them first. We're going to pick it up on January 16th! :)

We traveled back to Iowa on Wednesday just in time for the Iowa caucuses. Our man, Mike Huckabee, placed 1st in Iowa! We were so thankful that he did so well here and it was really fun to be part of such an important political process!

I spent the weekend cleaning, doing laundry and trying to get things back to normal, or better than normal! :) My sister is here for a short visit so last night we went to see P.S., I love you -- fantastic movie! Please do yourself a favor and go see it. It was so good that I want to see it again! I cried throughout the whole thing.

So, now that I'm back and ready to roll...I thought I would share a list of what I'm looking forward to in 2008. I'm not going to share resolutions because they're so hard to keep, but these are more like goals for myself this year.

1) Adopting a baby! (I'm really hoping and praying this happens for us this year!)

2) Working out and eating better (I have a goal to run the 5k race at my hometown's 4th of July celebration - most people train for marathons - I train to run a 5k!)

3) Being a better servant to my friends, family, church and husband

4) Being more disciplined - reading the Bible and praying more; organization counts here too!

5) Enjoy the creative process - I haven't found much joy from creating lately and that's making me sad

There! I feel like that's a great list for this year! I'm ready to make it happen. Have a fantastic Monday - it's the first one of 2008! :)

Happy 2008!

I know I've been a bad blogger the past two weeks but life has just been CRAZY!!!! Here's a couple Rusty Pickle project using the Snowflakes & Mittens line and an acrylic circle and another project with the Petit Cherub line.

We had a fabulous Christmas with my family and then left two days after Christmas for the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri for a church conference called Faithwalkers. We then drove down to Arkansas and spent New Year's with my in-laws. We got back late Wednesday night. I've spent the past couple days unpacking and cleaning, etc. I just wanted to post something quickly and I'll give some more details about the past couple weeks soon. It's good to be back and I'm so glad the holiday season is over!!!! :)

Winner!

Tracy...you win! Expect something in the mail soon from Rusty Pickle! More to come from me soon! :)

Rusty Pickle RAK!

I'll give an update soon but for now leave me a comment and I'll draw a name at random for a Rusty Pickle RAK. Here's what you have to do - Since I'm feeling like Mr. Grinch this year, tell me what you still have left to do to get ready for Christmas! I'll draw a name tomorrow (Friday) at noon my time. Now....GO!

Top 25 Movies

I think I saw this on Donna Downey's blog today, but here's a list of my top 25 favorite movies of all time (in random order)...

1) Pride & Prejudice
2) Lord of the Rings (all of them)
3) Star Wars (all of them)
4) Harry Potter (all of them)
5) Chronicles of Narnia
6) Bourne Identity (all of them)
7) Ocean's 12
8) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
9) The Holiday
10) You've Got Mail
11) The Wizard of Oz
12) Elf
13) Spider Man (all of them)
14) Fried Green Tomatoes
15) The Notebook
16) Father of the Bride
17) Walk the Line
18) Legends of the Fall
19) Chicago
20) Pirates of the Caribbean (all of them)
21) Something's Gotta Give
22) Titanic
23) Finding Neverland
24) Gladiator
25) Forrest Gump

As you can see, I like a good mix of comedy, action, romance and epic movies! Something just for fun today... :)

Winter wonderland!

Iowa has been getting hit with its fair share of winter weather over the past week! It looks like we're in for another round tonight and tomorrow - this time with ice and snow! We drove out to my parents Saturday in freezing rain...it was not fun! We almost turned around and went home.

We went to a friend's wedding Saturday night. It was beautiful with lots of candles and gorgeous Christmas colors. I spent all day Sunday with my family (basically stranded in the house). I brought some scrapping with and worked on the December Paper Posies kit. I'll have some picts to share soon. I didn't get back into town until today because I had an eye dr. appointment and stopped to visit with my grandma.

On another note, I'm extremely thankful that my sister-in-law's family is safe and sound. Many of you might have heard about the shootings at New Life Community Church in Colorado Springs. It's my sister-in-law's church and her family left the parking lot just 5 minutes before the shootings began. We're feeling very fortunate that they are okay but are sad for the tragedies that have hit way too close to home in the past week.

Over the weekend, I made a decision. I'm not going to put my Christmas tree up this year! I can't believe I'm saying it but I'm not going to do it. We're traveling around Christmas so we would only get to enjoy it for 2 weeks. I don't see the point in going to all that work right now. I'd rather spend the time working on Christmas cards and holiday baking. I am going to get my nativity set out and our stockings. I also have three miniature rustic trees that I might set up but only because they are simple to do. I'm actually a little sad about not putting the tree up but I'd rather not be overly stressed out right now. Yay for simplification! :)

Have a great rest of your day! :)

The bracelet

How totally pathetic is it that I want this bracelet? For those of you who have read the Twilight series, you might be familiar with the bracelet Jacob gives Bella in Eclipse. Edward adds his own "little" charm later on in the book. I came across the bracelet on one of my many visits to the Twilight Lexicon site. I would probably never wear it, but I think the bracelet is sooo cool! Yep, I'm still obsessed. I want to re-read the books again for the millionith time, but I've now resolved to reading fan fiction to pass the time until book 4 comes out in about 9 months. I even have a list of favorite authors I would be willing to share if you want some reading enjoyment.

Last night, I tried out my Napoleon Dynamite moves when I came across the song he dances to at the end of the movie (HA...not really). It's called Canned Heat by Jamiroquai if you want to download it from iTunes. It's really a good dancing song, which lately I've been itching to do. Luckily, we're going to a wedding Saturday night so I'm all ready to shake my groove thing! :) And, I'm totally hoping to fit in a shopping trip before the weekend because I really want to get some new wedding appropriate attire - I'm thinking some sort of black cocktail dress.

Anyway, just some very random thoughts today. I'm hoping to get some scrapping/cleaning done tonight. I've got a very busy next few days! I have a love/hate relationship with the month of December! :)

Some cards

Here are a couple cards I made with the November Paper Posies kit. Love me some Daisy D's and 7gypsies! I'm finally getting back into the groove with my scrapping which is a good thing because I have some deadlines to meet.

I had a rather uneventful weekend. We had an ice storm come through on Saturday and Sunday so we mostly stayed put all weekend. I did end up going to Archiver's on Friday night. It was so nice to get out. Right now I'm just feeling the stress of the holiday season. Can you believe we still don't have our Christmas tree up? Usually, I'm super excited and it's up right after Thanksgiving but I'm just not feeling it this year. We have company on Monday night so it's going to go up this weekend.

Well, I better get moving! Have a great Tuesday! :)

I'm baaa-aack!

Here's a layout I did with the November Paper Posies kit! One of the last times I was home I went through old Halloween photos. I realized then that mom didn't take pictures of us every year so I think that all the photos on this layout are the only ones I have. Luckily, I have pictures of the first year I dressed up and the last year I dressed up (I was 16!).

This week has been good for me! I've let a lot of things slip through the cracks the past month or so (I really believe it was daylight savings time that did me in) and now I'm getting back on track. I've been keeping up with my house and even doing some scrapping! I was pleasantly surprised to get a publication request e-mail from Paper Trends especially because I didn't submit anything to them for this call. They want a card I submitted a while ago...yay! :)

Well, I better get moving! I just finished my morning cup of coffee so it's time to start my day! Have a great Thursday! :)

The windy city

I'll be sharing some more work over the next couple of days. This was a layout I created using the October Paper Posies kit that I never got around to sharing on my blog.

What a weekend! Wednesday it was snowing here in Des Moines. It was beautiful and the first snow we've had. Luckily, we were able to make it to my mom and dad's okay. We had Thanksgiving at grandma and grandpa's Thursday afternoon/night and then hung out and watched movies - Transformer's and Hairspray that night. I got my hair done on Friday and it's now a little closer to my original color - not quite as much blonde. I like it to be a little darker in the winter time. We came home Friday night and went to Target and did a little Christmas shopping and a little Glen and Jill shopping. We bought a whole bunch of movies for super cheap (around $4). I've been dying to get The Holiday and that's one of the movies I bought. Saturday I went to Marshalltown for my cousin's 10th birthday party and mom and I shopped a little bit at the mall. I've been wanting some dangly earrings so I bought a few pairs. Sunday we had church and then I did some cleaning, some relaxing and some scrapping!

I guess that it's for today! Enjoy your Monday! :) I'm off to drink some coffee and then hit the gym!