Wow....12 hour crop....so much to share

And I don't even know where to start. I had a super day today. I dropped Robert off at the Auto School at 8:55 for his 5 hour course and got on the road to the crop and I was there in plenty of time...in fact I was 10 minutes early. Once I got set up I was a scrapping machine! I completed 22 pages today and I stopped for lunch and dinner breaks. These "No Frills" crops are really great because they are affordable, usually only $25-$28 for a 12 hour day and you get door prizes, raffles and drinks and snacks with that. We ordered in for both lunch and dinner. I got soup for lunch and stuffed shells for dinner. I bought a few things from the shopping area but didn't spent too much. When I won the door prize and went to the basket to pick out what I wanted I got flowers that I came right back to my seat with and placed on the layout I was working on at the time. I'm not going to post all of my layouts in one day so I'll just have to keep you coming back for more.

Busy Busy Busy

Wow, it's been a busy couple of days around here, I haven't had much time to blog or post any new pictures but I guess it's about time I get caught up now. Earlier in the week Alex went to a program at the library where the kids made their own herb garden and he was so proud of what he brought home. I was really impressed with the fact that they actually had plants and not just seeds for the kids to bring home. We put it in the sun and watered it and then we watered our tomato plants, we have about 25 tomatoes at last count now if some of them would just start to ripen up I would be a very happy gardener.

Yesterday Robert came home for a much anticipated visit before his next tour of duty overseas and we picked him up at the airport and within about 1/2 hour he was already out with friends, he is like a magnet...they all know he's home and the doorbell isn't quiet for too long once we walk in the door. I was happy to see him sleeping comfortably in his bed this morning when I woke up.

After getting myself out the door it was time for a trip to the DMV (groannnnnn!!) to register Jesse's very first car and boy is he excited to finally have his own set of wheels and of course as I type this it is late and he isn't home...knew that was going to happen. HAHAHA!

Tonight for dinner I made a feast fit for hungry boys, even Alex ate 3 chicken cutlets. I made a ton of food and it was pretty much all gone by the time these boys were finished and got up from the table. Robert's best friend, Tommy, is deploying soon too and I had invited him to join us for dinner tonight so that was nice.

Summer Days

There was only a foot of water in the pool when I took this picture but Alex was so excited that we were filling it up that he had to go in it even if it was only 65 degrees out that day. Brrrr!!!!

Another great page by Alex the scrapbooker

You can read the journaling pretty well but I thought it was so original that he made the title, "A Toy fit for a King" and he put a 'gold crown' made out of glitter glue on top of her head. Alex is so very creative.

Popsicle Kisses

Just a quick layout I did last night with a couple of pictures I took of Alex yesterday. Our neighbor had a party with tons of kids and Alex spent most of the day over there in the pool and playing with all the kids and had an all around good time. We went to the store and bought a big box of popsicles and Alex passed them out to all the kids after dinner.

Book Of Me

I finally started a "BOM" which has been a challenge on the message board that I'm on. Having read some books on journaling lately really has me inspired to scrap about myself more so that I can pass it on to future generations that might want to know about me. I wish I had stories, journals from past generations. Jim and I were talking about that the other night, how I remember all the stories his grandfather used to tell us and I wish we had photos to go with them.

The challenges this month were to scrap one of your favorite pictures of yourself and to scrap about what you like/don't like about yourself. My "Don't Like" is blurry out because it's a little too personal for the internet. :)

The bi-annual trek to Blue Ball, PA

Yesterday was a great day, I spent it with Sandi and we traveled to the Flower and Craft Warehouse in Blue Ball, Pennsylvania and did some serious scrapbook shopping. It's a long trip and not something that you want to do unless you have a full day to spend because the scrapbooking room alone is 9000 sq. ft!!! I got up at 5am and left home at 6:30 and pulled up to Sandi's house at about 8:15 so I made really good time in the morning. We got to the warehouse at about 11am and had our lunch in the car since we both had decided to pack our sandwiches for the trip (good idea, saves time and money and points on Weight Watchers. heehee.

We hit the ribbon section first and that took a good 1/2 hour, they have such great ribbon and I was excited to find lots of great selections that will work with my scrapbooking. :) Then it was on to the scrapbook room and we would spend the next 3 hours browsing up and down the aisles and it literally takes us that long to get through it all and believe me we don't backtrack! I found lots of goodies today and actually spent less than I did the last time and I guess that is probably due to the fact that the longer I scrapbook the more choosy I have become with my supplies and tools. I picked up a great Marines frame which I'm excited to work on, it has a place to put a picture in each of the cut out letters in the word Marines.

On the way home I got us lost so by the time we were back on track we had lost an hour and didn't get to the restaurant for dinner until 6:45...yikes...I had hoped to be on the road home by 7pm but it wasn't going to happen because I was really looking forward to dinner. After stuffing myself with 2 bowls of food (this is a mongolian type buffet where you put all your veggies, noodles and sauce in a large bowl and take it up to be cooked) we went back to Sandi's where I got on the road at 8:15pm to return home. The traffic was insane going home and it took me 3 1/2 hours but I got home safe and I would do it all over again...only next time I wouldn't get us lost.