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I know most people hate Mondays, but since tomorrow is my day off I'm very anxious for it's arrival. I knew that working Black Friday would be hectic, but I wasn't really ready for Saturday night. Since the mall was open until 10 (which it really didn't need to be, but that's another story), and since there were about 10 extra figures I had to tally and call in to the district manager, we didn't clock out until 10:59. I didn't get home to my Skelly until 11:40. That may sound lame to some people (or a lot of people), but that's past my normal bedtime. I was wiped out.
Needless to say, I'm not super excited about going in today at 1. But I am super excited about keeping my job and making money, so I'll go do my best to make "genuine" connections with our customers. Overall, I really do like my job and know that there are a lot worse ways that I could be earning a buck. I shouldn't complain.
I've still got Thanksgiving and thankfulness on the brain, and I just have to say that there's not really much to complain about in my life at all. I am extremely blessed and I know it. The things that do bug me are the little things. The big things in my life are great: Adam, Skeletor, our families and close friends, our home, our jobs, our plans.
OK, that's about enough sappiness for one post. I'd better post some scrapbook pages quick to change the subject.
Sidenote: These photos are only slightly better than the last batch I posted. My photography skills seem to be regressing somewhat recently. It might have something to do with the constant battle over batteries I've been having with my camera.
OK, the colors came out a little weird in this photo, but I really like this page overall. It's a funny picture of Adam and the other seniors in his ROTC detachment on their last day of LLAB. I used my new FaLaLa design card to make the title. I like that it's definitely good for more than holiday pages.
I wish this picture was better because I LOVE this page (or 2 pages, I guess). I found just any random picture from every year that we've been together and the page just kind of fell into place with some scraps I had.
OK, time for lunch and then I'm out of here. Only one more day til Monday!
I have a lot to be thankful for today:
- I got to talk to my husband, so I know he is safe, (relatively) happy, and well-fed.
- I'm currently curled up on the couch watching football with the cutest puggle ever.
- Earlier this morning I made some delicious cranberry oatmeal white chocolate cookies.
- I talked to my parents, who are on their way to enjoy Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife.
- I am leaving in 5 minutes to spend the rest of my Thanksgiving with some friends here. Skelly will not be coming to dinner, but is invited to hang out with one of his best puppy friends, Jack, while we're gone.
- I've got pages and pages of scrapbooks to look through and help me remember all the other little things I'm thankful for everyday.
I promised Adam I would take a lot of pictures for him today. I also have a couple new pages to share, but work will be pretty nuts for the next 3 days, so I'm just hoping to make it through taking care of myself and the Skeletor. THAT, I know I can do. And I'm thankful.
I did not realize how horrible these pictures were until I started edited them. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be any better if I retook them today since I spent all my hours of natural light walking the dog, getting ready for work and working. Sigh. Obviously, that means there's not much of interest to report. I guess I'll just upload some new pages and cuddle in with Skeletor. We got Bolt from Netflix; I think he'll like it. :)
This is the other page I made with sketch 36 at The Scrappiest. I made this one a lot more linear and blocky. I don't really like how it turned out as much as the McGuire's page I posted yesterday, but I think it has more to do with the papers. I was trying to use up some older paper, and you can kind of tell that it's made with "leftovers."
I REALLY like this page. It's what I want my style to be more like - simple and straightforward. It's also a story that I've been wanting to tell for awhile, about how good we are at taking long arm photos. Mostly Adam, since he has a longer arm.
Now whatever impression you have of these pages, imagine them 10 times better, because that's really how much better looking they are in real life.
OK, so maybe I was outside with the dogs in short-sleeves today, but I'm still getting affected by the changing season. It's not the weather, it's the light. It's SO DARK already (5pm)! It makes me feel like curling up and doing nothing since it feels so much later. For some reason it seems a lot more sudden and jarring this year. I just can't seem to get used to it. I'm fighting it, but not very effectively. Maybe I'll try to vacuum around here a little later. Or maybe I'll just watch the football game...
I did accomplish the one big errand I had set out for today: I returned the wheelchair we rented for my dad to the medical supply store. And BONUS, I found a big Jo-Ann's craft store in P-cola that I had never been to before. DOUBLE BONUS, it's only about a block away from the Hobby Lobby in P-cola. How convenient. :) I showed remarkable self-restraint and didn't buy ANYTHING. Money is a little tight for the rest of the month until we get paid. It's OK though, our Disney vacation was totally worth it.
As soon as I got home Skelly and I took a drive over to visit Lauren and Jack. The boys had a great time running around and rough-housing and Lauren and I had some nice girl time. I fact, we made another play date for Wednesday before I have to go to work. I'll probably have to make my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to bring for Thanksgiving while they're here, but that should be fine.
Now...I still have some older pages I haven't posted here yet (I just hate posting more than 1 or 2 at a time because I feel like they can make a post super long), but Adam has requested that I try to post my newest ones. That way he can see what I'm working on while he's gone. So here's my first batch of the pages I made this week while he was gone. Love you, baby! (Oh, and I REALLY apologize for the horrible quality of these pictures. I took them no tripod in my extremely poorly lit living room. Yet another annoying side effect of early nightfall.)
I was trying to catch up on my blog reading yesterday and I finally saw this post (from Oct. 28) on the Mosh Posh blog. I loved the look of the page in progress, so I decided to try a rare 2-pager. I like putting more full-size pictures on a page, but I always feel like there's SO MUCH space to fill up. Having an idea to borrow made it a lot easier.
This is my attempt at mixing and matching papers for a monochromatic layout. I love these pictures at McGuire's (and I wanted to document this location tradition), and I printed them that size so I could mix in the "Official Irishman" card from the restaurant, too. I used this sketch from The Scrappiest because I liked the look of a grid on top of a grid. I made another page that I'll share a little with the same sketch that came out very different. It's cool when that happens.
Yay! This is my 100th post on my blog! I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping this up for so long (even if sometimes I only post once a week), and I really love looking back at old posts. They're really funny sometimes.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to report on today. I've been working steadily and training at work to be a keyholder. I finally have a full day of nothing in front of me today and I'm pretty excited about it. My fantasy football team has slipped a little bit in the past two weeks, but I' pretty OK with my team for today. I'll be half-watching the early games today while I clean up and make some scrapbook pages, but tonight when the Bears are on I'll be super-psyched up and ready to go. :)
I've still got some pre-Disney pages to share, so I'll just post those and keep this short. I've got a full day of relaxing I need to get to. :)
I've had these pictures of Adam's homestay room in Brussels printed for awhile, but I haven't known exactly what to do with them. They're just not super-compelling, you know? Anyway, this is what I finally came up with. I also used up some travel stickers I've had for a long, long time, so overall, I'm pleased with it.
This is pretty much one of the girliest pages I've ever made. Which I guess is ironic if you think about it. If most of the pages I make are not girly, why would the page about the place where I make those pages be girly? I think the answer is because scrapbooking is a pretty girly hobby. And that sometimes I like to try different things.
OK. That'll do it for me today. Let the football begin!
But that's a good thing.
I've been running around pretty steadily since Adam left, and it's made the time in this first week fly by pretty quickly. Now I have about an hour until I have to leave for work (with a quick stop at base on the way), so I thought i should at least start writing an update here.
Keeping in touch with Adam has been better than expected. We can write emails back and forth really easily and we've even webcammed to see each other face-to-face twice already. Skelly has been doing a good job as the deputy man-of-the-house, especially yesterday when I had to leave him for 13 hours while I was in Panama City for Will's graduation and didn't make any messes or have any trouble.
Speaking of Will's graduation, it was a really nice time. I got to meet his parents and his cousin and we all had a good time just hanging out and going to dinner. Adam was there in spirit and on a stick. Unfortunately, in my rush to get out the door on time I forgot my camera at home so I'll have to rely on the kindness of Will's mom to forward me some of the shots that she took. They'll be in town for another few days, so I might get a chance to see them again later this week. That would be nice, and I'm so glad I have friends like Will close by to keep me from being a social hermit.
I have managed to start a couple of new scrapbook pages with my Disney pages but I don't have pictures taken or edited yet. Did I mention that I've been busy lately? Well anyway, I've got some pages that I finished up before my parents' visit to share first anyway.
This is one of my recent favorites and is hanging in a place of honor on my curtain rods right now. It took about 10 minutes to put together with just a couple pieces of paper and stickers. I love when they're easy but I still love the finished product.
This is a great picture of Adam's Mom and Grandma. We had a full day of walking around Fort Walton Beach and Destin and it was HOT that day. Our relaxing dinner at McGuire's was especially welcome that night. :)
Well, how about that? I actually managed to finish this post before work. I'm quite proud of myself. Now I just have to feed the dog and head out the door. :)
Well, mostly.
It's been a pretty crazy few weeks, with visits, vacations and last minute preparations for deployment, but now that's all over. Things were a lot quieter today. Both my parents and Adam's mom called to "check up" on me, but I have to say that I'm really feeling fine. Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm not feeling especially sad or lonely. I cried a little at the airport, but the rest of the day has been pretty OK.
It also may have helped that I had to deal with my garbage disposal breaking this morning. At first, I just had to laugh. Literally the very first moment I was on my own, I had a major breakdown on my hands. I tried what I could from troubleshooting tips I found online, but eventually I had to call for service. Unfortunately, they can't come until tomorrow morning. And you know what kind of sucks? Not having a working kitchen sink. Sigh. It might even be worse than not having a husband to cuddle at night. Nah, I take that back.
For the next few days I'll be busy at Will's graduation and working, so I don't know if I'll update details/photos of our vacation, but I will definitely be working on pages about it. In fact, I just finished gluing a new one I out together during football tonight. At least there's a little silver lining in so much time alone. I expect to get A LOT of these vacation pictures scrapped. :)
I've been all over the place in the last few days with Adam coming home, ironing out all the last-minute details for my parents' visit and, oh yeah, did I mention that our fridge died and we are now waiting for a new one to be delivered on Wednesday? Sigh.Despite all that, I'm excited and up early today (daylight savings time certainly helped). There's just a few more things to do around the house (change out linens and vacuum mostly), and I'd really like to go out and get a few things at the store. Objectively, we are running low on a lot of stuff (food-wise) and with guests coming I feel like being understocked is even worse. I wish things were more perfect in a lot of ways for this visit, but more than anything I'm excited that they're finally coming.I don't know how much I'll remember to update in these next two weeks, but I'm sure I'll have lots of memories and pictures at the end. Happy stuff to keep with me when Mom and Dad go home and Adam leaves for his deployment. That makes me feel better. :)
