I love a man in uniform.

Seriously. Is there anything sexier than a man with flocked eyelashes?

Except maybe when the sexy man pauses to spit a glop of painty mucous into the toilet.

Painting is done. Hello, carpet!

But....he needed them...

Socks.

Apparently not a popular gift to give a ten year old boy.

Maybe I should have thrown in a comb.

She's ALIVE!

Wow. It has been a while, eh?

I have had a crazy run of life lately...all good, thankfully. Just busy, like we all are this time of year.

What have I been up to?

*Painted the entire downstairs. Remember how we took the roof off over the summer? Yeah, well that left us with a *new* ceiling downstairs. We added crown moulding, I have always wanted it...and finally had the excuse, because we had a gap over one wall where it didn't connect with the new ceiling. So, I taped everything off, and thought, oh heck--while it is taped, we might as well add color. I think picking paint color is horrible. I can't decide to save my life, and almost always the color ends up being so different from the 1" by 1" chip they give you. I chose a khaki color, that in some lights looks just like foamy greenish baby poo. You know what I am talking about (!!!). I am still getting used to it, and I think I like it.

*Organized two school class parties. PSA: If you sign up to help for a party, please mean it. Argh. I had last minute cancellations, and some serious anxiety. Leaving me to prepare a craft, treat and game for one class. I will feel better after 1:00 today, when they are both over. Why, oh why did I agree to be a room mom to two classes? Never again! Do you hear that, self? Plus, I have pack meeting tonight. Taking 30 boys ages 8-11 to a care center to sing carols. Must. Have. Caffeine.

*Finally found the last remaining tooth brushes on the planet. I have been looking everywhere for these. Oral B has spin brushes with a two minute timer on them. You push the button, and it beeps when two minutes is up. Genious! My kids think getting their teeth wet constitutes as brushing. The only bad thing about these brushes is they are Breast Cancer Awareness colors. Multi-hued pinks. My boys are going to have to just deal with it. Don't you love that last-minute crap of Christmas?

*Put the tree up. Last night, in fact. As soon as the paint wasn't tacky any longer. I mean, geez, it's the 20th. And poor Mikayla has been asking me when it is Christmas. To the kids, it's all about the decorating. Back in the day, they used to do the whole tree on Christmas eve. Were they on crack? You should see the half-butted job we did. Cause I don't care. Cause it is only going to be up for a week. I do love the Fisher-Price Little People Nativity. New this year for us, it has been up since Thanksgiving. I love that the kids can play with it. And they do, so far--Joseph has battled dinosaurs, and Mary and baby Jesus went for a cruise on the Little People Ark, finished by a tea party with Polly Pocket.

*Played in the first snowfall of the season. We got a ton of it! As much as I hate the cold, I do love a good snowfall. Everything is so pretty and white. As I get older, I really appreciate the changing seasons. Keeps you from being bored...what with the constant warm weather, and palm trees they have other places......;) I don't know how they *stand* it....

*Started planning for another trip. (The snow will have worn out it's welcome by then.) I think we are taking the kids to Disney World in January. Hey, when the flights are free....

* Bought a Mac. Yes, finally. I am going to have to re-learn everything yet again, but hopefully for the last time. I haven't gotten it yet, but it's coming!

*Skipped the gym this week. Heart-breaking.

* Got a speeding ticket. Merry Christmas to me.

*Baked, wrapped, partied, delivered gifts. Still going...

So, anyway. It's been one of those weeks where you look at the clock, and it is after midnight, and you still have a million things to do before you can go to bed. I haven't even started on the normal things like laundry. I am sure it will all wait for me.

Enjoy your holiday season! Merry Christmas to you and your family. Take lots of pictures and eat lots of goodies just cause I said so. I am going to take a little break until after Christmas, see you then!

Enabler Alert.

With the New Year right around the corner, and heck, with Christmas (Santa sometimes leaves *me* presents....;)) I love getting organizational things. It is a resolution for me, every year it seems like.

In the quest to become more organized, I have tried a lot of things. Some worked, some didn't. One thing I did right was these Paper Keepers. I have one for each of my paper manufacturers, and one for each color of cardstock. They line up on my shelves (and look so pretty!) , and whenever I need a certain paper brand, or color of cardstock, I just take the Paper Keeper down, thumb through it, and put it back on the shelf. My paper always stays protected, and it is very easy to thumb through, without lifting a whole horizontal stack. They hold a TON of 12x12 paper! My paper always looks nice too.

When I converted to this system, I paid some ca$h. They are running them on a great sale for the next couple of weeks. I am going to grab a few more, I am constantly outgrowing my stash!

They also have the 12x12 storage boxes, for horizontal storage. I use them for layouts that are in the works, but not finished...and published and sent back to me layouts, that are not yet filed in the albums. They are pretty darn handy as well. They have photo boxes too, and other organizational stuff. There is a Nifty $1.50 section, I haven't looked there lately, they may still have some chipboard mini-albums left.

Here is the link:

http://www.scrapbookpaper.com/tek9.asp?pg=products&grp=237

Happy Shopping! Remember, any order over $50.00 gets free shipping. You can't order for an hour..I need to get my order in first....

Some facts.

Did you know that an average of 60 people die of (fairly) natural causes on airplanes every year?

There was a lady, whose husband had a massive heart attack aboard an airplane. They were on a trans-atlantic flight, an 11 hour flight when he died.

The flight crew covered him in a blanket, and moved his wife, and his body up to first class...strapped him in a seat, and her next to him, holding his hand, and sobbing for the remainder of the flight.

Sam and I discussed this to some length.

I like to think I am compassionate. But honestly, and to my own horror, I guess I am the heartless one. I would need some serious therapy after being forced to sit next to a stiff for that long. For any amount of time, really. I mean, good gravy, did that poor lady check to see "if he was cold yet..." ((shudder)) As much as I love Sam.....I couldn't do that. Don't people lose control of bodily functions when they pass away? Can you imagine being in first class that trip?

"Could you do that?" I asked Sam.
"Do what?"
"Sit next to my dead body for an entire flight."
"Yeah, it wouldn't matter to me. I would just be doing the crossword puzzle."

Classic Sam.

It's a good day.

I am holding my breath.

The finish guys came today! They looked, they made marks, they brought in tools...lots of tools, and said they would be back tomorrow morning. YIPEE!!!!

At least, if that is another lie, I have tools to hock to pay for my "take it easy" meds.

The secret is out.

You wanna know my secret from the other day?

I have never been published in the scrapbooking world for anything other than a layout, well, and one mini-album. I decided to give the Card-making thing a whirl. Which, by the way, was very hard. For some reason cards were hard for me. They are a mini-layout, right? You would think? This should be easy for me. I struggled with them, but got a few cranked out, and submitted them.

Well, I got a phone call from Alisha, the editor of Cards magazine. At first I thought she might be calling for me to "please, don't submit anymore, you are taking up inbox space." But no...and I almost fell off my chair when she explained why she was calling. Not only am I getting a few cards published, but they wanted to use *three* of my cards on the COVER of the magazine!

WooHOOOO! Beginners luck, I am sure....but dang good luck to try something new, and score the cover!

I think the clincher was when I photographed the cards for submission. I used props! Yes, I did. For Easter, I used a plastic bunny....and for one of the "Friends" cards I posed it standing beside a cold Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is a Friend. Woo 'em with Dew, I always say. It's no wonder that card got picked. It was subliminal.

Tralalala...I am a card-maker now.

Oh look...a new post!

I guess the only thing going on with the house right now is that I am using its "unfinishedness" as a cool backdrop. Sigh....

We are still waiting on the finish man to hang the moldings and doors and well, all the "finish" stuff. Then we can paint everything. I have the carpet scheduled to be laid on the 11th. I hope we are all done by then.

What color of carpet did I get?

Well, thank you for asking.

I went into the store, and asked them what color they would recommend if one wanted to spill cherry Go-gurt/vomit/potting soil/magic bubbles/and that little girl florescent pink lard lipstick; grind it into said carpet with a shoe, and *not* show a stain. They laughed. I didn't.

I don't think that is too much to ask, really. I mean, we put a man on the moon. People have been living in homes with children for years...and we can't invent a carpet that is child-proof?

They proceeded to show me some nice off-white Berber selections with colored flecks that "will hide almost anything." Riiiight.

We went with a dark, poo brown. With some colored flecks. It wasn't called poo brown, of course...although I *do* think that should be a color, because I am sure there are other parents out there that are not willing to be a slave to their carpeting either. Ironically, it was called "Gingerbread." Which considering the holiday season, will probably be the first thing ground into it.

We picked out tile. Sam thinks he can install it himself. I feel a few more blog posts coming up about that....

And into my new studio will go some laminate fake wood flooring. This is so I can use my rolly chair to scoot around wherever I want. I don't know that I will ever have a need to leave my chair. Should work wonders for the big-butt problem I have been working on.

We are so stinking close. SO close! And yet...we wait.

I am not really excited about the idea of setting up Christmas a week before the big day. I hope we get things wrapped up soon. Or maybe we won't even do that Christmas thing...heh, heh.