Working on it...

My goal today was to finish...anything.  While I didn't finish the things I had originally set out to do, I did manage to finish:

1.  Editing the real estate photos from yesterday so Jeremiah could post them and make $$$.

2.  Going through the magazine rack, tearing out the recipes I want for a binder and recycling everything else.  I'm going to try and use at least one menu or recipe from every cookbook or collection I've got by the end of 2010.

3.  Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse.  The books are definitely better than the movie.

4.  30 minutes working out on the Wii.  I like the yoga exercises and step aerobics.

5.  Editing what I have for my grandmother's biography.  I am now gathering additional information through email interviews.  She had quite an interesting life, going through WWII in Nazi-occupied Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

6.  Sending a birthday card to my cousin who was born when I was 21, making me feel old.

7.  Addressing Jeremiah's birthday invitations.  It's gonna be fun!!!

8.  Holding out hope that I would make Jessica Sprague's design team.  :(  Really disappointed about that one.  I would have gotten access to all the store content plus her awesome classes, for free!  Guess I need to keep honing my scrapping skills.

9.  A blog post two days in a row.

Arg

Two days...two miserable days was all I was able to do of a 30-day challenge.  So, apparently I need to do baby steps.  I'm going to try and post every day for the rest of this week.  And I'm going to count this new resolution as my first blog.  Exciting, huh?

So, maybe I'll do a daily review if I don't know what else to say.  Today I took pictures of four properties for Jeremiah's company and acquired several gorgeous new scrapbooking kits from a designer I really like who is quitting designing for a bit and had an amazing sale on her entire store.  I should be pretty well set for anything anyone would like me to scrap for them...just need to find people to scrap for now.

That's about it for today.  I forgot to get the sheets out of the dryer (I've been very excited about my new digi materials and some things just slipped my mind, like eating lunch and checking the mail) so I should go help Jeremiah put them on so I can go read "Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse" in bed while he plays on his computer.  Exciting life.

Photo Walk

Ok, so here's my post for today.  It's actually about my walk yesterday since I only made it to the gym today (it was a killer workout with my trainer).

I love our neighborhood.  It's a good mix of small town and country.  Just two blocks away, our farmer neighbors have an area where they keep a lot of equipment and it made for some neat pictures.  Check out my photo blog for all of them.  This one is my favorite, though.  There's just something about an old silo that makes me think about homemade wheat bread, knitting by the fire and fiddle music.  :)  Yes, I'm aware of the fact that I may be a little odd.  Anyway, there's my post for today!  Hopefully they'll get better.  Now to wipe down my dirty cat who decided to stay out for 24 hours and made me think he was lying in one of my picturesque fields, well, never mind...

My Blog Challenge

Ok, so I'm really not so good at blogging, mostly because I don't think anyone's reading.  :)  However, regardless of whether or not anyone reads this, I'm going to start a 30-day blog challenge (thanks for the idea, Jocelyn).  I'm going to have a standard "What I Saw on my Walk Today" post (because I'm trying to walk and do an ab routine every day for the next month just to see what happens) and another post a variety of topics.  We'll see what happens.  :)

Digital Scrapbooking

I've decided it's time to come out and admit that I have a problem.  I'm a bit addicted to digital scrapbooking.  I love it!!!!  I scrap everything about our lives (it's a bit more fun than writing in my journal) and I've been putting together albums for family too.  I'm seriously looking into the possibility of making this a profession; it would be wonderful to have a job that I totally love and meets my creative needs.

When it comes to scrapbooking, I'm super picky about my kits.  I only have about three places I buy from, one being Shabby Princess Designs (http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/homepage.asp).  I love their light vingtage-y but still modern designs.  Check them out if you're interested in getting started, they have tons of adorable free kits to start your collection.  Or if you're too overwhelmed with the thought of scanning in all your pictures and scrapping them, let me know.  :)

Home again

I feel like we've barely been home since school got out.  On June 10th we drove up to Washington for a quick trip (so quick, I didn't even tell my friends I'd be there because I knew our time would be too short for a real visit with anyone outside family.  Sorry.) for my brother's graduation from Eastern Washington University with his master's in computer something stuff.  It was a nice ceremony, much better than his undergrad graduation with 2400 other students in the scorching out sun.  This one was cooler and much shorter.  We then spent two days celebrating my birthday and gushing over my nephew before driving 10 hours back home so I could take more pictures of Jeremiah's rental units and try to get into some kind of routine (which so far consists of going to bed really really late and that's about it).

I'm excited to be home for a few weeks straight and have people come see us for a change.  Here are some pictures from our quick trip.

Jeremiah and I after a water fight.  I won.

Phoenix likes the way Jeremiah tastes.  Or he's getting teeth.  Take your pick.

The original 5.

Phoenix exploring Uncle J's face.

Summer's Here

I have been so excited to be done with work.  The day after it ended, Jeremiah and I booked it down to San Diego and spent a very lovely four days relaxing by the pool and reading at his parents house.  I did take a few hours to drag him up to Julian, a little old mining town that is famous for their pie, to take pictures (and eat pie, of course).  I also got to "pan" for gemstones in the old garage--they give you a bag of dirt with rocks in it, pour it into a wire screened box and turn water on in a little trough.  I actually found some pretty cool stuff, like an Apache tear and a cut, polished amethyst (1 in 5 bags has a cut gemstone worth at least $10.  The owner didn't like the contents of my first bag and gave me another for free.  :).  I read 2 books while we were there and Jeremiah got pretty pink, what with all the swimming and shirtless putting he did in the yard.  :)  It was also really nice to spend time with his entire family (it's been a year since we were all together), including his aunt Susan, whom we have seen since our reception in Virginia almost 3 years ago.

I think Jeremiah wants one.

We came back on Tuesday, bypassing all that nasty Memorial Day traffic (I know I complain about his job, but I do love that he can make his own schedule) and I've spent the last few days trying to go through all of my work stuff and declutter some of the rooms.  It's slow, boring work but I have all day ('cuz I'm not working anymore) so I have plenty of scrapping and reading breaks.

We spent all of yesterday at the Parade of Homes with our friends the Cooley's.  I was really bummed that I forgot my super wide angle lens at home (darn my desire to be organized and put things away!  I should have left it in the traveling case.) Jeremiah's favorite was the castle, naturally.  I admit, I liked the library, indoor swimming pool and cinema with snack bar but $2.4 million is a bit outside our current budget.  I did get some ideas for redoing our bedroom and bathrooms.  :)

The "house" Jeremiah wants.  All 15, 000 square feet.

That's about it.  I've been staying up way too late every night, gonna have to nip that in the bud if I want to get all of my projects done but I think I'm still savoring the fact that I'M DONE!!!  Hee hee.