New Digs

So it's official, I'm moving back to PA. (Well as long as the judge doesn't do something stupid and say I can't)

I found an apartment in the school district I want K to go to, and my wonderful parents were able to go and take a bunch of pictures for me. Here's the floor plan and a few highlight pictures...

The floor plan isn't to scale, it's a rough drawing from the sketch my Dad made. But you can get the idea.



Here's the bathroom.





And the kitchen and porch.







And the BEST part of this place.... the finished Attic loft. As of right now, I plan on it being a combo playroom and living room. I was going to put my stamp room up there, but after looking at the pictures and floor plan, I think this might be a better idea.

New Card and a story behind it.

Ok I'll start at the end and work forward. LOL Here's the card I made for my neighbor, he helped me out last week.



And here's the reason why! This is a combination of postings I made on a yahoo group I'm on. It's easier to just copy and paste all this rather than re-type it.

6/7/2008

You are never, I mean never going to believe what was in my
bedroom????! !!!!

A SNAKE!!!!

In my 2nd floor bedroom! OMG I am so freaked out right now. It's not a
poisonous one, but still that's the last thing you expect to find. I
was trying to get stuff together and out of the way to attempt to put
he air conditioner in the window and I moved the fan out of the way
and looked down as I set it on the floor. And there was the snake! It
was looking right at me and it was freaked out too, it started to try
to sound all threatening and made rattling sounds (no, it's not a
rattlesnake) but many snakes will try to intimidate by imitating the
rattle. Anyway, I screamed, not because I'm afraid of snakes, but
because I was so shocked and startled to have a SNAKE in my bedroom.
OMG I want out of this house SO badly!!!

So I started calling anyone I know, of course that's not too many
people around here. I got no answer from Rob, no answer from the
neighbor, no answer from my parents, but then I called my brother and
he answered. I was able to calm down quite a bit and talk to him. Then
my parents called back and I talked to them for a while. I feel a bit
better, but I'm still freaked.

I went back upstairs while I was talking to my brother and there was
no sign of the snake anywhere. I'm pretty sure it's back in the walls
or where ever it came from.

This happened a couple years before K was born too. I went to close
the closet door and there was a darkish "thing" on it. I didn't see it
exactly, but it fell to the floor with a thud and then disappeared. I
was pretty sure it was a snake, but Rob never believed me that that's
what it was. He couldn't imagine a snake in the second floor bedroom.
Since I didn't see it for sure, I second guessed myself. But not this
time, I KNOW what I saw, I looked the damn thing in the eyes. It was
definitely a snake.

***********************************************************************
6/9/2008

Another Snake sighting... (same snake, different location - I HOPE!)

So I was in the kitchen finishing up making dinner when I hear this
sound coming from above me. We have a drop ceiling in there and I'm
quite used to the mice using it as a racetrack, but that's not the
sound I heard. It was distinctly the sound of scales scraping across
the ceiling tiles. OMG I called the neighbor immediately. So he came
over and started prodding and lifting the tiles to look. Well he saw
it! I am not crazy, there is a snake in my house. He had it pinned at
one point but it got away. Then we lost it :( I wish we could have
gotten the darn thing outta here. So the snake is somewhere still in
my house, now it's closer to the 1st floor than the 2nd, but as far as
I know it's still here.

***********************************************************************

We named him Fred.

***********************************************************************
6/10/2008

Fred has been evicted!

by yours truly! You heard that right, *I* caught him! You don't want
to know where he was last night though...

IN MY BED!!!!!

I have to work today, so I set my alarm and it went off. He must not
have liked the sudden loud noise cuz he slithered out from under the
covers.

Now last night before I went to bed I stripped the bed down to check
it, but just on my side. No snake there, so I went to bed.

Anyway, once he was on the top of the covers and I was standing there
staring at him and him at me. I looked over to the top of the dresser
and saw a pillowcase and thought, well I won't ever have a better
chance to get him than now. So I took the pillowcase and turned it
inside out over my hand. I watched him and he tried to get back under
the covers, "I don't think so!" So I flipped the cover off him, he
coiled up a bit, and I grabbed a couple of coils as close to his head
as I could and flipped him into the pillowcase.

I ended up taking the pillowcase and putting it in a box and putting a lid on the box. I took the box to the neighbor's, since I had to work, I didn't have time to take Fred out and let him go in the fields. Luckily my neighbor is a really great guy and he did it for me. It was all surreal, I still can't believe that I slept with a snake in my bed all night long.

It's too bad I didn't get a picture of him, but I was more concerned about getting rid of him.

It was a Bull Snake, not poisonous, and pretty timid as far as snakes go. Just BIG, he was over 3 feet long. I have a King size bed and he took up most of the length of it and he wasn't stretched out fully!

The new me!

I needed a change, and I needed it badly! I decided it was time to get my haircut. I have had LONG hair for at least 15 years (if not longer) and it was pretty much the same thing, long and in a ponytail. I liked that it was easy and I didn't have to fiddle with it too much. Well I got tired of it finally. Part of why I kept it long was a comfort thing, I had it that way for so long, it's what I knew. And part of it was that's how my DH liked it. Well since that doesn't matter anymore, I decided to try something different! Let me know what you think...

Here's before (in January)...



And here's the new look :) K took the picture for me!

Meeting Mickey

The highlight of every trip to Walt Disney World is meeting the Mouse himself! We were so very lucky, when we went to see Mickey, there was NO LINE, I mean none! Ok so there was 1 family in front of us, but that was it! It was wonderful.

Kendalyn was a trip, every time she had her picture taken with a character she would pose just like the character was posing! She is such a goofball!



One thing I've noticed is that just about every single page I've done so far has some sort of Circle on it. I guess when you are working with the most famous 3 circles it's a given! LOL

Supplies:
Paper - Bazzill, Creative Imaginations, WW
Accessories - brads, ribbon, Threading Waters punch, Marvy scallop punches, transparency, various hole punches, Mickey icon sticker

Flying High

This one was so much fun to do! I paper pieced the Dumbo. I haven't done that in AGES! I used to make them and sell them on eBay, but my carpal tunnel stopped me :( It was the perfect touch to finish off the page. He was a bit tricky, cuz he's SO small. Those eyes were tough! LOL But I love it!

I used a LO from 2 Peas (again LOL) But I changed all the papers and colors and such.

Ok I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Threading Waters punch! When I went into work yesterday, I saw it hanging there and I grabbed one! Luckily the owner was there and I was able to purchase it right away! I first did the bottom edge and then very carefully lined it up to make the corner and went up the sides. It's not hard to do, but you do have to be careful.



The journaling reads: "Nanny likes to plan vacations, she likes to plan them down the exact order in which we do things, and well this trip was no different. The Dumbo Ride was to be first, and it was. You were so excited to ride and even more so when you realized YOU controlled when Dumbo went up and down. Uncle Randy and I rode with you, but YOU were in charge."

Supplies:
Paper - BoBunny, Scenic Route, Chatterbox, Going Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, WW, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories - brads, brads and more brads LOL, rickrack, ribbon, Prima flowers, threading waters punch (LOVE IT!!!!!!, Olivia Cuttlebug letters
Stamps - flourish by Autumn Leaves
Ink - Olive Pastel Chalk ink

Again, there's a hidden Mickey! Maybe even 2, but the 2nd one is tough to see in the picture.

Randy & Kendalyn

One of the best parts of the trip was being able to spend time with my family. Since I moved to IL, we've only seen each other a handful of times. I've seen my brother even less than my parents, it was so great that he was able to come and join the fun with us! K just LOVES her Uncle Randy.

We were waiting in line for the Dumbo ride, it was the first ride of the day, and Kendalyn was so excited it was hard to get her attention.

This is another LO heavily inspired by a LO I saw on 2 Peas.



Supplies:
Paper - Basic Gray, Very Vanilla (the tag)
Accessories - buttons, ribbons, twine, hand stitching, machine stitching, circle punch
Stamps - SU flourish from Season of Joy, Happy Harmony
Ink - Distress ink - Vintage Photo, Stazon Timber Brown

PS. Can you find Mickey? (there are 3 but you can only see 2 ;) )

Ride

My Mom always has a "plan" every time we go on vacation. And of course every time things work out as expected the whole family must say "I just love it when a plan comes together!" (*Bonus points* if you know where that's from :) )So part of Mom's "plan" for Disney was when to ride which rides and in which order to do things. Well, when traveling with an almost 5 year old, you must learn to be flexible :) I have learned this lesson quite well over the past year.

When K saw the Carousel she wanted to ride it "NOW!" LOL, well Mom's plan was to ride Dumbo first. So we told K that we'd ride the Carousel, but we wanted to ride the Dumbo ride first to avoid long lines. She was reluctant, but agreed.

Anyway, she had a great time riding the Carousel, of course she HAD to pick a horse with colors totally different from her outfit, making color choice for the page a bit tricky, but I think I made it work. LOL



Supplies:
Paper - Cosmo Cricket and Basic Gray Patterned paper
Accessories - brads, Prima flowers
Stamps - Scrappy Cat journaling lines, SU flourish & small flower from Season of Joy, SU Little Pieces
Ink - Color Box Olive Pastel chalk ink, SU Night of Navy Craft

PS. Can you find Mickey?