Day Thirty One - Get a Load of This class challenge

WOOHOO!! I completed the LOAD (Layout Out A Day) Challenge at Big Picture Scrapbooking http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/ and this is my last layout. I decided to post a little bit bigger photo so you can see the details. You might remember the photos as I posted one earlier, the same day Pioneer Woman posted hers.

Working on this challenge I completed 42 pages, which is a rip-roaring start for me. Normally I don't get any layouts done unless I go to a crop. I have a great head-start this year and am going to an overnight retreat Feb. 8-10 and another one the 7-9 of March, so I should get tons done! There is hope that I will get current and can go back and finish up pictures from our dating years, trips to New England (for business - pre-kids), etc.

I hope to keep posting some layouts, but it may not be every day. Besides if I do 100 layouts at the retreat, there is no way I will be posting all those. This was doable, 1 or 2 at a time. Also February is a superbusy time for us so I may not always have internet access to get them published. Need to migrate my photos and camera software over to the laptop so I can be more portable. Will have to put that on the To Do list for February.......

Day Thirty - Get a Load of This class challenge

Another page from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. Gotta run.

Edited to add: Sorry, I had a web seminar at 9:00 p.m. and needed to get logged in. If you are ever passing through Sioux City or visiting there, it would be worth your time to stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center along the Riverfront. They have a number of interactive displays, they have life-sized animated, talking Lewis, Clark and Seaman figures and lots of information about medical methods, the jobs of the participants, etc.

They also cover the courtmarshal of a deserter who was brought back, and of course they cover the sickness and death of Sergeant Floyd who was buried near Sioux City. The monument is nearby, high on a bluff and just minutes away. It will definitely add to your studies of Lewis and Clark

This is What We do at a Mamapalooza AKA Day Twenty Nine of the class challenge

For all of you wondering just what is done at a Mamapalooza....Here it is......

It involves Chocolate!! Nice paper I found, huh? We visited, toured the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Trinity Heights, Sergeant Floyd Monument, lots of games and puzzles at Suzanne's and great food around her huge dining room table with a little guy along for giggles and entertainment. Hope you enjoy!!

Day Twenty Eight - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

At the end of the last school year, for our Mom's Night Out, we pampered the homeschool moms that attended. We decorated, lit candles and gave favors out. It was fun and I look forward to doing it again.

Day Twenty Seven - Get a Load of This class challenge

A picture from Easter dinner with my folks, and sister and her family. My other two sisters and their families had been up the week before, so didn't come back to my folks on Easter. It was a beautiful day and the kids were able to spend time outside.

Just 4 more days left in the challenge to do 31 layouts in 31 days. I have already done about 43 layouts and will be posting one each day. Since I am now in the habit of uploading pages I will probably continue to do it with my current pages, not the one that I am going back to get caught up. At least these are within the last 12 months.

I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoy making them. I am preparing to go to a weekend scrapbooking retreat, so trying to get organized and prepared so I can be efficient in getting them done and finally finish up some albums.

Day Twenty Six - Get a Load of This class challenge

And finally, the boys......my son and my nephew. Isn't the picture of my nephew on the bottom right sweet? He generally doesn't like animals but his sister had so much fun with this lamb that he decided he would play with it too!

Day Twenty Five - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

My niece was getting up close and personal with the bottle lamb....She loved it!

Re: My Mary Pride Post

I recently had some additional comments on my posting about the Mary Pride article. I have made additional comments in the comments section. Please feel free to read them if you are so inclined.

Day Twenty-Four - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

Page number 3 of Easter weekend. My neice meeting the bottle lamb for the first time. You will love the other page I made with her and the lamb. You'll have to wait for a day or two till I post that.

Day Twenty-Three - Get a Load of This class challenge

Pictures of my BIL, neice, nephew, son and myself along with the teeny, tiny bottle lamb that was born just days before Easter. We were bottling it, so we took it along with us, as there was no one to bottle it while we gone for the day. I journalled this page after the photos were taken.

Organic Art

http://www.energybulletin.net/39410.html

This post is for my friend whose blog is celticchic.blogspot.com (who met the author and posted about it a few months ago) and for others interested in the concept. The author is Gene Lodgson who has an experimental farm in Ohio and has written a number of books. It looks like something I think I would like to read if I ever get through the crate of books sitting on my lamptable.

The book is called The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse

Day Twenty Two - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

This is the first of many (like 6) pages that I did covering Easter Sunday last year. I did not take any at church, although I should have taken a picture of the church perhaps. These photos are of my sister and neice playing with the goodies from Grandma. I did embellish this layout with a few stickers after I took the photo.

Day Twenty One - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

Every year for Easter we have a tradition of baking Resurrection Rolls. The directions follow the events of Matthew 27:57-61 and the ingredients represent Jesus, the oils of embalming, the spices used to anoint Jesus' body, the cloth that Jesus' body was wrapped in after his death and the tomb. I decided to document this as one of our family traditions. Speaking of that, I need to document some others. Better make a list...... HMM!?!?

Day Twenty - Get a Load of This class challenge

Easter of 2007, we attended Sunrise services, came home and did chores and then went to my folks in Nebraska for Easter dinner.

Day Nineteen - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

Second in a 2 page layout when we moved our friends to Kansas. Time to get busy and do more layouts.

Day Eighteen - Get a Load of This Class Challenge

These are pages when we helped our friends move from northeast Nebraska to southeast Kansas. Tomorrow will be the opposite page of the two page layout.

Day Seventeen - Get a Load of This class challenge

Pictures of my 3 kids in my friend Suzanne's Model T. They actually have a couple of them. They take them to shows all over the country. How fun! I know my son absolutely loved it. Thanks Suzanne and Kit!

Day Sixteen - Get a Load of This class challenge

St. Patrick's Day 2007. We had cornbread (gold), green mac and cheese, and corn (gold). The kids had fun. The mac and cheese didn't look too appetizing, but it tasted fine! I've completed 32 pages so far this year, so I am light years ahead of where I was last year.

Two Things

Two Things
Two names you go by: Kristi and Mommy

Two things you are wearing right now: Jeans and my wedding ring

Two of your favorite things to do: Scrapbook and eat chocolate

Two things you want very badly: New carpet (actually wood flooring) and a cleaning lady!

Two favorite pets you have had/have: A Malamute Alaskan Husky named Thika and an Australian Shepard named Sheila

Two people you think will fill this out: Dawn and Polly

Two things you ate today: A panini from Whole Foods and green M&Ms

Two people you last talked to today: Tom and Daniel

Two things you're doing tomorrow: Teaching Midweek classes at church and laundry

Two longest car rides: Holstein, IA to Cave Creek, AZ and Holstein, IA to Jackson, MS

Two favorite holidays: Christmas and 4th of July

Two favorite beverages: Alcoholic: Chocolate Martini Non-alcoholic: Pepsi

Questions about me!

1. What time did you get up this morning? Later than I should have, after hitting the snooze, way too many times
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds of course!
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
4. What is your favorite TV show(s)? Storm Stories
5. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Nothing (as usual)
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Italian with Mexican a close second
8. What foods do you dislike? Most veggies
9. Favorite chips? Lays barbecue
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Anything Todd Agnew (especially Reflections of Something
11. What kind of car do you drive? Chevy Suburban for a few more day hopefully, then a GMC Yukon XL
12. What is your favorite sandwich? Mushroom and Swiss Cheeseburger
13. What characteristics do you despise? Dishonesty and Arrogance
14. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans and a sweatshirt in winter/Tshirt and shorts in the summer
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on Vacation where would it be? Australia
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Lawman Jeans
17. Where would you want to retire? In the mountains of Colorado or Montana
18. Favorite time of day? Late at night
19. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football
20. Pepsi or Coke? Pepsi of course!
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Definitely a night owl
22. Pedicure or manicure? Manicure I guess - never had a pedicure
23. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Nothing new
24. What did you want to be when you were little? A secretary
25. What is your best childhood memory? Sledding with my dad and sisters
26. Piercing? 2 sets in my earlobes (though one grew shut)
27. Ever been to Africa? No
28. Ever been toilet papering? No
29. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
30. Favorite restaurant? Applebees
31. Favorite Flower? Roses
32. Favorite ice cream? Anything with chunks of chocolate and brownies in it
33. Favorite fast food restaurant? Culvers
34. How many times did you fail your drivers test? None
35. From whom did you get your last email? Dawn Johnson
36. In which stores would you choose to max out your Credit card? Archivers or Hobby Lobby
37. Bedtime? Midnight
38. Last person you went to dinner with? my hubby
39. What are you listening to right now? Hannity and Colmes
40. What is your favorite color? Black and then red

Day Fifteen - Get a Load of This class challenge

ANOTHER puppy post - they were exploring the great mountains of snow left from our blizzard last February/March. So cute!! Stay tuned for potentially more puppy pages!!!

Day Fourteen - Get a Load of This class challenge

More pictures of our adorable puppies from last March. They were just too cute! I have way too many pictures of them.

Day Thirteen - Get a Load of This class challenge

A simple layout of my nephew and daughter playing with our puppies when they had just joined our household. My sister came down for a day or so to scrapbook together. I am happy to say that I am getting a "little" bit caught up with my albums doing this class challenge. Hope to get more done in the next few evenings.

Mary Pride Speaks Out

http://www.home-school.com/news/huckabee.html

The link above, is to an article put out by Mary Pride of Practical Homeschooling which details a number of things about various presidential candidates and their views/supposed views on homeschooling. It references a number of things that I have read elsewhere in various publications, newsletters, blogs etc. Please read. It discusses the homeschooling movement being linked to Huckabees success and do we want to be yoked with that if he makes decisions we don't want to be tied to. Thought provoking in the least.

Would love to hear your comments.

Day Twelve - Get a Load of This class challenge

A second layout of the blizzard pictures. These two photos were the view from the front steps looking east down our sidewalk and southeast toward our lane and the county road that runs in front of our house. Huge drifts!

Day Eleven - Get a Load of This class challenge

A page depicting the blizzard we got at the end of last February and into the 1st of March, 2007. We had 4+ foot tall drifts in our front yard, but the snow sure did make for some beautiful photos like the one on the left of the layout.

Day Ten - Get a Load of This class challenge

The wild turkey that took up residence here for a few months until he met his demise (coyotes). These pictures are taken in our front yard.

Test message

Trying to figure out how to get some photos onto my laptop with out having to install my photo software (as I don't have time right now). Skip on past,okay?

Day Nine - Get a Load of This class challenge

Third in a series. When the wind and snow calmed down the puppies got to spend some time outside instead of being cooped up in our kitchen 24/7. Here they are loving up my MIL. I tried tearing my photo mats this time. That is something I haven't done before.

Day Eight - Get a Load of This class challenge

Second in a series of layouts to commemorate the two border collie puppies that we got in 2007. By the way, they turn 1 year old today. The kids plan to spend lots of time with them today after their school is finished (and the house is picked up....we have lots of people coming over for a grazing meeting tonight).

Day Seven - Get a Load of This class challenge

A layout of the two border collie pups we got last March. I used a page map, which I posted the link to a couple of days ago. It sure makes the pages come together faster. I hear that she is coming out with a book. I have been printing them out from her site and put them in a 3 ring binder to refer to when I can't come up with an idea.

Now I need to go figure out how to save some photos of my layouts on my laptop so I can post them for the challenge class I am doing, while we are gone to an annual meeting on Friday and Saturday.

Day Six - Get a Load of This class challenge

Here's what I accomplished after the kids went to bed last night (and I managed to get to church early!!! ??). Finished these up at 12:05 A.M.

Pictures of the kids swimming in our hotel pool last February in LaCrosse, WI

A pocket page to hold a program, etc from a conference seminar where we spoke.

The kids playing with new toys and a playdough person (lifesize).

What my sweetie gave me for Valentine's day!!!

Celebrating the twins' golden birthday!

Day Five - Get a Load of This class challenge

I finished up my vacation album for 2007, so I took some time this evening to power layout January to August of 2007 for our family album. This page is the first one - a snowball fight with Dad......

I will edit later to add more photos from tonight.

Day Four - Get a Load of This class challenge

Sorry for a not so great photo. This is a two page layout of our kids and our friends kids riding the mini-bike (a 70 cc motorbike) this past September. I did this using page maps (ie. sketches) and it went pretty quick. I wasn't super excited about the color combination I came up with, but I think it turned out okay considering that the colors were already in the photos.

You can find the FREE page maps at www.pagemaps.com Becky Fleck has them going back for 4 years for 12 x 12 pages, 8 x 11 pages, half pages, cards etc. I need to get them in a binder which will make it easier when I start doing power layouts for my next album. I can put a sticky note with the page map with my photos paper, etc which will make cropping photos easier.

I have done 12 pages so far this year and I have done all of them at home. Usually the only time I get pages done is when I go to a crop. I am enjoying this challenge, if for no other reason, than I am getting a lot done. Need to make it a habit and clean up my office so it has a permanent home instead of on my breakfast nook.

Iowa Caucuses

Just attended my first ever caucuses. The turnout was incredible! Normally they expect 30 people ( we are in one of the two smallest counties in the state) and we had 300 people show up!!! Wow! Obama defeated Hilary (it looks like she got 3rd!!) Huckabee beat Romney (even when outspent 15 or 20 to 1). There is hope that the people really matter!!!

My hubby reported that there were 332,000 caucus participants tonight. That is 11 percent of the total population of our state. I heard on some tv report tonight that Democratic turnout was up an astounding 82 percent!!!! I haven't heard percentages on the Republican side yet.

At least the phone calls will stop for a little while. I had at least 10 of them yesterday! From 6 candidates no less!

Day Three - Get a Load of This class challenge

Two more pages in my album

Day Two - Get a Load of This class challenge

Here is what I have accomplished so far today. Hope to finish the album tonight after supper (no we still haven't eaten!).

Day One - Get a Load of This class challenge

Here are my layouts from the scrapbook class I am taking this month. It is at Big Picture Scrapbooking and it's FREE!! Best kind. Not so much a class, as a motivation to do some work on my albums every day for a month.

You might recognize a few people in these photos from my visit to the CO/WY border in September.