Best of Me and I Spy

It's 2 Challenge Tuesday! I finally am caught up (at least until she posts the prompt for this week!) with my Best of Me Challenge.

This was Week 4 - Parcel of My Personal Best - You had to mail yourself some cool stuff and use it for your layout. This is what I did.

Week 5 - Let Go! I have a hard time expressing what I'm upset with, so I decided to let go and let it out!
Week 6 - That One Song - I don't have just one song, but one that means a lot to me is Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls.
And now for a brand new challenge! We Spy:You Spy - Something #1 - Beautiful. I immediately thought of the day I felt most beautiful, my wedding day. It's not a great picture, but it's what I have for right now. I hope more people will join the Spy Challenge - Beth and Nicole are running it, and they're really fun and inspirational!

What Your Favorite Movies Say About You

There's a cool site called Cinescopes.com that uses your favorite movies to tell your personality. I plugged in my favs:

Clerks
Princess Bride
Center Stage
Dazed and Confused
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Usual Suspects
Old School
Clueless
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Breakfast at Tiffany's

And they came up with this:
You are the Invincible Optimist
Happy-go-lucky and full of great stories, Invincible Optimists can make anyone keel over with laughter. With the power of positive thinking and their upbeat attitude, they're unsinkable even in tough times. If something bad happens to a friend, they're the best at providing words of encouragement. Broken leg? It's an excuse not to work hard. Invincible Optimists love movies about heroes who march over their adversaries with their comic brilliance and affirmative energy.

I'm not really an optimist for myself, but I am for others. I do think it sounds a little like me. What do your movies say about you?

Wednesday

Not much going on this week. I'm really missing my regular TV shows. February is sweeps month, so we'd be having some great TV right now. I did hear a rumor that if the writer's strike ends soon, we could have new Grey's Anatomy by April!! How cool is that?

One thing that did happen, Orion tried to eat my Webkinz. I did get it from him before it was toast. Of course I had to take a picture first! It's times like this when a small dog would be nice - there's no way they could reach to the middle of a desk!
New Top Model starts on the 20th! I'm so pumped!

Weekend Update

This was the view out my patio door on Sunday morning. I love when the trees are covered in frost. I had a great weekend, I was able to scrap some! This is a layout about my niece always wanting to do everything herself: A layout about Baron being so scared all the time:
Layout about my niece with her wand and diva sunglasses in her stroller:
The cover of my One Little Word album - I finally figured out to scan it to make it work!
And finally, my OLW for Create - it's really not crooked, I'm just getting used to my scanner!
Overall a great and productive weekend!

Must-Not-See TV and Blooming Lily

Man, this writer's strike sucks. I miss all of my favorite shows. The only good thing is that Top Model is starting up soon. Have you added any new shows to your viewing during this time of darkness? I've started watching Millionaire Matchmaker and Make Me a Supermodel on Bravo, but that's about it. Is there anything good out there to watch? Let me know what I'm missing!

In other news, my peace lily is blooming again. The last time it bloomed was last April. I must be doing something right with it! The added benefit to this whole blog thing is that I can actually look back and see when it last happened.

Hope you all have a great weekend - I know I will!

Overlooked - Subject 2

I really like the Overlooked Challenge and wanted to participate, but I wasn't into the Coffee Mug challenge. I don't drink coffee, and I didn't want to document my Mt. Dew consumption. So, subject 2 is Collections. I collect a couple of different things, Willow Tree Angels, The letter "C", Weimaraner stuff, scrapbook materials, but I decided to go with my magnet collection. Dh and I started this on our Honeymoon. The fish magnet is from the New England Aquarium in Boston, which we visited on our Honeymoon in 2000. The Cancun one is from our trip in 2004, the Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam ones are from our trip to Vegas in 2001, Cedar Point is from our trip there in 2006, New York City is from my trip there in 2004. It's a tradition that we pick up a magnet when we go on a trip. It's a nice souvenir that doesn't take up a lot of room and is always on display. So here they are, on my fridge. By the way, it's raining right now. The temp is going to drop from 40+ degrees today to -4 tomorrow. Should be fun getting to work tomorrow!

Finally - Weekend Update!

Wow. Where do I start with this past weekend? Hands down, I think it was the best Scrapbook Retreat I've been on. Not that the others weren't great - this one just had a magical combination of people, things, everything that made it great. I didn't take many photos (I'd love to get any from those who took them!), but here's the couple I did take.
Jenn and Alli with the Rainbow Brite/Crazed Clown pants and scarf. It was Karin's birthday on Sunday! Linda got her a Cold Stone Cake - Yum! I think she turned 21 or something close to that!
A little hard to see, but this is Alli's phone not allowing Karin.
Porny Fabulous joined us for some creative paper art. She made the penis at the last event. I really think she outdid herself with this. Gotta love the glitter!
Rumor is that a unnamed super hero who is part unibomber, speed skater, and Olympic diver showed up. I must have missed that part.

Again, super weekend gals. Can't wait to do it again!!

One Little Word - Still

OLW for this week - Still. A picture of me and DH from our wedding and one from this past Christmas. Perfect prompt for us!

There IS Such Thing As Too Much Fun...

I think I'm suffering from a Fun Hangover after this weekend. I'll blog more about it later. But, the best part, hands down -
ALLI CAME TO VISIT!!!!!!

And, we gotcha, Linda!

Cathy Z's Tom Cruise Parody ala Scrapbooking

Hilarious!

4 Day Weekend Scraptacular!

I'm leaving in a little over 12 hours to go to Birch Park for a very scrappy weekend! I'm super exicted to see everyone and finally get some scrapping done! So have a great weekend, I know I will!

Weekend Update

Dh and I went up to the cabin for the weekend. My parents, brother, sil, nephew and niece were there too. My nephew had never been ice fishing before, so he was so excited. He thought it was SO funny that you drilled holes into the ice to fish.
We went for a walk out on the lake first. Baron didn't seem to like it much and walked like this most of the way. His paws were stretched all of the way out and he was crouched down while walking. This is Dh, niece, and sil in the ice house. I love how small my niece looks here. It's funny. I kept calling her a pink marshmallow.
Here's my nephew giving Orion snow to eat.
All and all, a great weekend. Hope you had a good one too!

Scrappy Night

Me and Lindar the Magnificent went scrapping tonight. Here's what I got done:

First, for OLW - Steps. Orion and Baron's footsteps in the snow. My niece and brother at Christmas Eve. LOVE this picture!
My niece and my Mom. All about calling her Wakka instead of Grandma.
Thanks for the memories, Lindar. Until next week.

Best of Me - Week 1 and 2

I finally got my Best of Me cards done for week one and two! I also decided what I'm doing with them. They're going in a book so I can journal as well.

Here's the cover of my book.

This is week one - List

Week 2 - Break Free

I'm so excited to keep going at this - it's so much fun!

Weekend Update

This weekend was DH's 33rd birthday. We celebrated it doing one of his most favorite things, ice fishing. DH, his sister, her bf and I went out on Saturday. We only caught one fish, but it was fun. Here's DH drilling a hole in the ice. This is what it looks like when the water gushes out when you're pulling out the auger. I thought it was pretty cool.
This is the only fish we caught. Actually, DH caught it. It was too small, so he threw it back.
Sunday we had our families over to celebrate his birthday. It's a lot of fun, but it's getting harder now with 12 of us.
And, yeah, I didn't have the right candles, so he's not 303, he's 30+3. I thought it was funny. Now I have to start on my Best of Me cards this week. I've just started and I'm already behind! These damn headaches are keeping me from getting anything done. Well, except for watching all of Season One of How I Met Your Mother. I did accomplish that!

New Year

Happy 2008! Hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year! DH and I just stayed home and watched Shrek the Third. It was cute, but not as good as the others.

I was just reading through my blog last year to see if I wrote anything about the new year last year. Nope. No wisdom there! But it was interesting to read through what I posted about last year. An added benefit to blogging for sure! I thought I'd post a list of things I'd like to accomplish this year:

1. Continue to go through the house and purge what I don't use or like. I did that this past weekend with my scrapbooking stuff and finally got that organized! Here's what it looks like:

I know, not much, but it's in our unfinished basement and at least I can find everything now. I plan on giving the stuff I don't want to my co-worker's daughter who just started scrapping.

2. Scrap more. I scrapped a TON in 2006, and didn't do much last year, so I'd like to get back at this year.

3. Participate in the One Little Word and 52 week Art Card Challenges. Part of #2. I've always wanted to do these challenges, especially after seeing Beth and Nicole's work, and it's a great time to start them up.

4. Cook more. I'm bad about just grabbing something the freezer and putting it in the oven. I'd like to cook more from scratch this year. Not every day, but at least a couple times a month. It's something I'm not good and really struggle with, so that's why I'm not striving to do more than that.

5. Move more. Not necessarily exercise, because I think I would fail if I made that a goal, but just moving. Taking the stairs. Taking the long way. Things like that.

6. Maintain a clean house. I'm good at cleaning my house and then assuming it's clean for too long. I don't want to let the house get too far gone before I clean again.

7. Be a better wife. I let my depression control how I act towards DH some times, and it's not good. I need to be more conscious of that and not fall back into those bad habits.

8. And lastly, smile more. :)

So here's hoping for a great 2008!

With a Corncob Pipe and a Button Nose...

I saw this the day after Christmas at my local Target. Someone had taken the time to make a snowman and a shopping cart. How cute!

Christmas Wrap-up

Christmas was very good this year. I didn't take too many pictures because I was enjoying it, but here's some highlights of what I did take.

This photo is from my Dad's side of the family. We had all of the great-grandchildren sit by the tree, and then Santa came. You can see how excited they are in this picture. Santa is out of frame.
This is my nephew, who actually let me take some pictures of him this year.

My niece was a little more squirrely this year, but I did get a good picture of her with her Wakka. That's what she calls Grandma (my Mom).
This is at the end of the night, my brother holding my niece.
The best part of Christmas? My Uncle had his breathing tube taken out and is breathing on his own. He's still very weak, but is eating solid foods and is doing physical therapy. He still has a long way to go to recover, but at least the worst seems to be over. Fingers crossed!

Hope your Christmas was as good as mine!

Family Traditions

Yesterday, my Aunt (who used to be a caterer) gave me, my mom, SIL, and 2 cousins lessons on how to make Norwegian specialties. She really wants us to learn this so we can pass this tradition down. First we made Romegrod. It's like a warm pudding. It's really good.

Next, we made 8 dozen Lefsa. This isn't hard to make, but it takes a lot of time to roll out the dough very thin and then cook it on the griddle.
Here's the Lefsa on the griddle cooking. That stick with the red handle is how you take the Lefsa off of the rolling board and on to the griddle.
Here's my mom making Flat Bread. We didn't make this, my grandma did, but we did roll it out and cook it.
Here's my Mom and my Aunt (here sister) rolling Flat Bread.
This is my Aunt putting Kransekage dough into the round tins to bake.
We had a really good time. I'm so glad we're learning all of this. I can't wait to see what we learn next year!

Umm, Yeah.

I'm back from the movie Sweeney Todd. Wow. Was that gory. I knew going that it had a lot of death in it, but they really showed a lot of blood. The scenery was great. The singing was amazing. I think I had my eyes closed the last half hour because of all of the blood. I'm not unhappy that I saw it. I'm just glad it was free.

I have off of work until next Thursday! I'm a happy girl!

Getting Ready for Christmas

My Uncle is doing okay and is going to have surgery tomorrow to put in some stints. Here's hoping it goes well. Now for a happier post:

I got most of my Christmas shopping done (DH just needs to get some for some of the guys) and most everything is wrapped. I had to do some "baking" today. I put it in quotes because this is the easiest recipe ever! One of my co-workers brought it to our Christmas party last week and I knew I had to make them. They are Rolo Pretzel Turtles. They taste a lot like the real thing. Here's the recipe:

Pretzels
Rolos
Pecans

Place Rolo on Pretzel and put in oven at 250 for 2-2 1/2 minutes. Place Pecan on top. Let cool.

Tomorrow night? Oh yeah, that's Sweeney Todd! I'm excited to see it.

Uncle Update

Thanks for all of the kind words and extra prayers. I really appreciate it. My cousin sent an update today:

"Just talked to (his daughter) and Uncle Mur is not a surgical candidate. They are going to put a trachea in. Then they will put a camera in to see if they can put a stint in the right part of his heart. She did not give me a time as to when all this is going to take place."

Hopefully this will work. I guess as long as they have options, it's better than nothing. DH and I are going to Duluth on Sunday to see him. I haven't been there in over 6 years. I wish I had a happier reason to go back.

Prayers Needed

My Uncle Murray (my Dad's oldest brother) has been in the hospital for two weeks tomorrow. He's not doing good. He's got pneumonia and a blockage in his heart. They can't operate because his lungs can't handle it and they can't not operate because of the blockage in his heart. This is the update I got from my cousin (his daughter) today:

"(Her Sister) and I have given permission for them to inject Daddy with dye (Angioplasty) to see what is going on. This will happen some time today. Daddy is getting weaker and weaker (heartwise) each day and they are not sure why. They did not want to inject the dye earlier than this because Dad's kidneys are not working very well and doing the die could cause more damage to his kidney's. We also have permission for them to do an emergency (Angiogram) in necessary if they find a blockage they feel needs to be dealt with. Granted, Daddy has blockage, but this was a step that they have been holding off because of the weakness of Dad's heart. I hung everyone's picture up in this room, he has a 8 x 11 photo of all of us. He knows you are all pulling for him. I asked him if he could see all his pictures and he shook his head yes and squeezed my hand. This is just in front of his bed and it is not all of it. "

My Grandma (his Mom) turns 96 on Friday. She has lasted all of these years without losing any of her children or grandchildren (or great-grandchildren for that matter). My parent's take care of her and have told her what's going on, but she is on oxygen almost full time now and probably wouldn't be able to make the 3 hour drive to Duluth to see him in the hospital. I can't believe we just went through this with my Dad's younger brother this fall. It makes me worried about him, since he just had stints put in his heart last year.

I'd appreciate any prayers at this time. It's not looking good, but of course we're being optimistic. I'm really hoping nothing happens before Christmas, that might be too much to handle for everyone.

2007 Christmas Card

Here is the photo from our 2007 Christmas Card. The way the photo place ended up cropping it, it was hard to tell they had halos on their heads. The greeting was "Weimaraners we have heard on high....sweeting barking o'er the plains!" - which is a take from Angels we have heard on high. I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of questions from my family at Christmas about that one. Oh well.

Oh, and thanks to Linda for all of her help! I really appreciated it!

Premiere!

I won tickets to the Sweeney Todd premiere next week! I saw the musical in High School (just a video of a performance). It was good, but very dark. The theme music is very catchy, so I'm sure I'll be singing it for a while after I see it.



I'll give you a review when I get back next Thursday night.

Funny Pet Photos

Dogster just announced the winners of the 3rd Annual World's Coolest Dog and Cat Show photos. The photos are pretty funny. You can check out the dog and cat winners here. I love this one:



And this one:



Check it out!

Phew!

Talk about scary! I have this notebook that I've kept since we got married (2000) of anyone who has sent me a Christmas card and who I sent one to. Well, I thought I lost it. Last year, I decided to cover the book to look more Christmas-y. Did I put it back when I was done? No. I had to look through totes of Christmas decorations and wrapping paper, and then through my scrapbooking stuff. Thank God I finally found it in a pile amongst my scrapbooking stuff. I don't know what I would have done if I couldn't find it!! Now I just have to start my cards this weekend and get them out. Once they're all out, I'll put a sample on here.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I don't know why I keep posting about what I'm doing at work, but here's another one! I've been working on maps of the salesmen's territories all week. This is our southern Iowa salesman's map. I have to put down what schools they have, how many calls they've made there, how many buses in their fleet, and how many and what type of buses they've purchased in the last year. Thank God I only have 2 left to do! At least it gets me away from my desk and computer for a little while. It's always nice to do something different. The only problem is that I'm working in a drafty hallway, so it's cold there.
It's snowing right now. It's been snowing since noon. We're predicted to have up to 12 inches of snow by tonight. Here's our deck - I love how the snow falls through and makes the cool patterns.
Today I have to do laundry and work on what I'm doing for our Christmas card. Hopefully it'll be another good one. Have a good snowy day!