News from the land of chaos

I say chaos, because that is how I feel my life is right now. I guess I will just go down the list and update you.

I have been asked to teach Kindergarten at a school I had never been to before. I accepted the position, and we aren't sure if the current teacher will be returning mid-year or if she will be out the full year. This leaves me with so many doubts. How much time, effort, energy, money etc., should I pour into this classroom knowing that I may only be there for a short time. Well, after mulling it over a few days, I decided that I am putting my all into it. At the worst, they will tell me at the end of September that she is coming back. Then I will pack up my belongings, and motor on. But until then, I am proceeding as though this is my classroom. I have already moved the furniture around, decorated and started to meet with the kids and parents. So for right now, it's my room. If she returns, I will have at least given these kids my all for the time I was there, and that is what they need (especially after having met some of them).

So, I am very excited... school officially starts for Kindergarten on Thursday! I have meetings with parents until then.

Madelyn will be starting pre-school this year. We really pondered whether or not she was ready, but we are going for it. She needs to be with kids her own age more, and that was the driving force behind the final decision. It is only three half days a week, but I know she will love it and is already very excited about it!

Lauren decided to get sick my first week of working at the school. She has been running a fever for two days now, and although I am glad it happened on the weekend, it has really worn me out. She is very clingy and just wants to lay on you all day and all night. Poor baby. You can see it in her face, she just doesn't feel good :( There is no feeling like the helplessness you feel when your baby is sick. I remember it all too well from Madelyn. Luckily, my kids don't get sick too often.

I am blessed that way, and hoping it stays that way.

We were supposed to go to a concert last night and didn't make it because I just couldn't bear to leave her. I told Mike to take the tickets and go, but he didn't want to go without me... so here we both sat with our sick baby and poor MJ watching Peter Pan! It sucks because now that Mike's schedule has adjusted and he is off Fridays and Saturdays, he is finally able to do stuff! Concerts, weddings, parties, cookouts.... fairs, carnivals, get togethers with our friends! They all happen on the weekends, and we weren't able to go for so long! This was the first time in a LONG time Mike and I were going to a concert together, and it just wasn't meant to be. We got Wendy's and Dairy Queen instead :)

I am designing two new kits right now, and I am very excited about them. Still have news about my designs up my sleeve that will be let out soon, but I need to keep it under wraps for a little while longer. Hoping to do some scrapping of my own tonite, to kind of wind down from the sickness.

Madelyn's playground is finally finished! We have a deck to build still, but that is the last of it. Here is a picture of how it turned out. Lots of blood and sweat went into the preparation of this baby... but soooo worth it. She loves it !!! Today we erected her PIRATE GIRL flag! You can see it in the second picture!

So, that's the news from the land of chaos.... trying to hold it all together until everything winds down. It will... it always does!

The Wiggles Live

Well, I haven't posted here in a while and I have to apologize. I know I need to make time to put my ridiculous ramblings back on here even if only a few people read them. I still think I am funny, and I love looking back at all the old posts.

So, for my first post back I will tell you about our trip last week to the Wiggles Live. I get pre-sale tickets for all the kids shows in Pittsburgh, so we had 10th row seats for this puppy! It was great, but I should tell you...... I love the stinkin Wiggles. I sing their songs, I do the dances.... if you know me in real life you know that its not a stretch to say that I am a ham. I don't embarrass easily (that comes from falling constantly --- you just get over the embarrassment when people laugh at you and learn to embrace it as a good thing).

So, back to the Wiggles Live.... we didn't take Lauren because we were fearful that one of us would end up standing outside. These shows can be a little intimidating for kids --- the people in costumes are huge and its dark and loud ! So, we decided to leave her with her Auntie Dawn for the show!

MJ loved it, she did all the dances and sang all the songs she knew!
But the best part of the show --- and any Mom who has kids who watch this show will tell you --- is ANTHONY -- purrrrrrrrrrrrr. This man is a goof, but HELLO~ he is a hottie ! Now, I don't know if he is really hot or I have been forced to watch this show so much that I have just found the least hideous of the crew to drool over. But over time, I have built Anthony up to be quite the hottie in my mind --- so whichever it is, works for me !

Overall, a very entertaining show.... they throw in alot of humor for the adults which I love! Like things you know weren't supposed to happen but they did just to mess with each other.

I don't know if MJ will be too old for the Wiggles next time they come or not, but I know I will get to see that Anthony Wiggle at least one more time with Lauren --- WHOO HOOO for me :)

So much.......

I have so much to blog about... but no time at all.

This summer has been just an incredible whirl-wind so far---- a good one, but busy to say the least. I am not complaining, because I have had so much fun, got to hang with my closest buds on the beaches of Hilton Head, finally got to meet Heather at the lake, hung out with my mom, sis and Aunt Candy (or the Candy Girl as MJ calls her), and now on my way to Myrtle Beach!!!

WOW!

I have pictures upon pictures to post-- but for now I have to go pack and clean the house so I don't come home to craziness!

How Nerdy are you???

Ok, I got sucked into this one because in my courses I often joke that I am somewhat 'geeky' in that I do love computers in a big time way :)

So I took the test --- How Nerdy Are You?



Overall, I scored as follows:

44% scored higher (more nerdy),
2% scored the same,
and 54% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean?

Your nerdiness is:

Somewhat nerdy. I mean face it, you are nerdier than about half the test takers.

Does it say something that I am slightly proud of it????

Wondering where I've been?

I have been like a chicken with it's head cut off! I now have an amazing Creative Team in the works, and my boutique at Divine Digital is up and running.

I have another store in the works - more information to follow on that :)

Other than that, the girls' had their appointments this morning. Still have the vaginal adhesions which make me want to jump off a cliff. We are going to be more proactive though about opening them now. We begin a topical antibiotic with an estrogen creat twice a day. Hopefully this will work because if there is no change, I have to take them both back in six weeks, and possibly to go a specialist :( Luckily, we have an AMAZING doctor whom I trust !

Both girls are in the 90th percentile for height and the 50th for weight- growing great !!

I have been subbing, and I just finished up the job corps orientation, which was amazing as usual. So, I have alot going on right now.

We are starting to gear up for Mike to NOT WORK MIDNIGHTS !!! I am so tired of midnights. But luckily, he is looking at a really great schedule as soon as the new guy is trained. He will FINALLY BE OFF FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS! That means we can finally have a real life :) He can go to weddings, birthdays and we won't have to worry about his schedule interferring with our weekend plans anymore. I am SOOOOOO looking forward to this.

We also have a few vacations this summer that we are looking forward to. A friend is getting married in Hilton Head in a few short weeks, and we are SO STOKED!

That's about all for now... will check it later :)

Thank you Beckie

For those who don't know - I LOVE BECKIE WALLACE!

She gave Steel City Scraps a big ol' shout out on her blog ! I am so thankful to her for so many things - I can't even begin to list them. Above all else, she is such a great mom and mentor - incredible designer - just a sweet friend! I love being on her team, and look forward to whatever she has in the works! Thanks Beckie!

You can check out her design blog here, but be sure to stop at the Creative Team blog to see what we got rolling too! Her designs can be found in her shoppes at SAS and Digital Candy !

YOU ROCK !!!!!

Steel City Scraps Blog

Ok, I did it.

The new blog for the scrap stuff can be found here!

Now, I can keep my shit seperate. Swear (a/k/a be uncensored) on this blog, and not on that one :)

This way I don't have to worry about offending the visitors, and I can just go back to being me.

Ahhh, I feel much better now, and more organized!

Hope this doesn't jack some of you up!

Thinking....

I am thinking of creating two different blogs.

One for me personally: with my rantings, and my personal pictures, layouts.
One for the STEEL CITY SCRAPS stuff - layouts done with the kits and my freebies.

That way, things will be more divided and easier to keep track of.

Any thoughts????

Tag your it!!!

I have been tagged from a fellow scrapbookin pal Barbara a/k/a digimom! This is my first time being tagged, so I hope I am doing this right! Thanks for tagging me - and I am sure my tagee's appreciate it too :) By the way, I had no idea what a meme was, so I wiki'd it.

A meme (pronounced /miːm or mɛm/) consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

Ok - makes sense to me !

ALL are invited to join in the Links fun!

PLEASE just follow the rules!

Just copy paste THIS and everything below up until my Five links:

I thought it would be cool to have a meme where we post links. We can post up to five. Then we tell five more people to share their links. If we all share who tagged us, our links are sure to be seen!

They can be business links, favorite sites, affiliate links, whatever you want…

There are Five Rules:
1. MUST be clean. No R rated sites.

2. Only FIVE links.

3. MUST tell 5 people.

4. A link back to the person who tagged you

5. Lara’s Place is the meme originator. (an active link is appreciated)

------------------end copy and paste-------------------------------


My links:

I thought I would link to things I can't do without !

1. Beckie Wallace Designs: this woman is a true inspiration with the amount of stuff she is able to get done! She has two little ones and one on the way and still manages to put out the most amazing designs. It is an absolute honor to work for her!!! Also check out the Beckie Wallace Creative Team Blog - jam packed with awesome layouts using Beckie's kits :)

2. Tribes! Ok, for those not in education this is a learning system you implement in your room to create a comfortable, safe environment and helps to create cooperative learning groups.

3. Bare Escentuals make up - well, its just awesome - you hardly feel like you are wearing make up at all ! Love it!

4. NetVibes - I just got this from a friend and you can organize your own homepage. It has a great feature that you can enter your favorite blog addresses, and everytime you log in the page will check your blogs and let you know who posted something new! Saves me a ton of time :)

5. Stone Accents Studio - My new home away from home for the digi-scrapper in me. I love the group there and they have really great challenges. You should check it out :)

6. Snippy - Here is an extra - this little program allows you to literally cut out photos on your screen. A small crayon pops up and you are able to circle whatever image or text you want to capture and then paste it into whatever document you are creating. AWESOME find!










Here is an example of what I just did with Snippy. I used it to show you a small screenshot of my NETVIBES!

7. Unzip Them All - For those digiscrappers who download billions (exhaggerating - - or, am I???) of freebies and new kits daily. This program will unzip them all for you in literally seconds! What used to take me days to extract now takes minutes! It also extracts those blasted .rar files !!! Check it out, honestly. I couldn't live without it!

OK Thats it - I promise.

I am tagging the following ladies - sorry guys ! Had to be done ;)

Kelly

Angiee

Heather

Beckie

Christie

Considering the candidates this year - this is poetic justice

http://www.hbo.com/films/ironjawedangels/


This story was forwarded to me and felt I needed to pass it on. It is about an HBO movie (titled above) that hopefully everyone will get a chance to see.

This is the story of our Grandmothers, and Great-grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote
A reminder on the importance of using our voice!

The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie "Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all over again."

HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

Snow Day !

So, we all get a snow day today!!!

WHOOOO HOOOOOOO!

Ok, I love snow days. No matter how old I get, I still get excited to wake up, turn on the news and watch for cancellations and delays. Now, today is different because I actually have somewhere fun and exciting to go !

THE LION KING IS TONITE!

Of course, the snow would come today! The only day I have plans; the plans I have been waiting for three months now. The snow comes today. I should have guessed this would happen. You all know my luck, right?

So anyway - thats my scoop for today.

We took MJ out to play in the snow, because who knows when we will see anymore. Don't tell me there is no such thing as global warming - we had a 65º day in the past ten days ! IT'S FREAKIN FEBRUARY! Then today we get snow - of course.

And when I was young there was a good chance we would get a blizzard on Halloween - this is our first REAL snow fall this year. We have had mild winters here for too long for it to be coincidence! Sorry, but I am with Al Gore on this one !!! Of course, when I was younger they would have never cancelled school for a day like today - we would have been out at the dang bus-stop shivering our tookus'es off waiting as slush was sprayed onto us by passing cars, I am just sayin!

I will post some pics of MJ playing in the snow in a bit!

Rachel jacks up sayings - Part One

I really am an intelligent person, not to toot my own horn, but it's true. Although sometimes words cross my lips that I am dumbfounded by. I have a tendency to, how shall I put this, jack up commonly used sayings pretty regularly.

Today, while riding to the mall with my mom we were in a conversation in which I tried to use a pretty commonly used verse......... but instead what came out of my mouth was, "Well Mom, you know, the squeaky nail gets the glue!".... I really mean the 'squeaky wheel gets the oil', but I jacked it all up.

I knew immediately that I had totally jacked the saying up, but just tried to cover with a, 'well, you know what I mean'.... but of course, my mom erupted into laughter at which point I did too.

If nothing else, I am QUITE able to laugh at myself, do so pretty regular and actually think I am kind of funny most of the time. This was just stupid though.

But always remember kids, when you want something and no one is listening to you... the squeaky nail gets the glue !

What I should have thought of BEFORE creating this blog.

I keep track, kinda, of the traffic on my blog. I am curious who comes and goes and how they come and go. It seems I may have made a small faux paus when creating this blog. I never considered really what 'uncensored' might incinuate to the random internet searcher.

I guess if you "google" - party uncensored... it links you up with my 'PURSE PARTY' post, which is hysterical because I am envisioning some perv on the other end of the terminal thinking he is getting some crazy action and there I am with my Christmas tree and scrapbooking stuff.

Perhaps I should put some kind of big disclaimer on the blog header - clean blog... go elsewhere for your smut. At least pay for your smut you cheap ass! Sadly, there is some freakin blogger out there willing to bare it all for free putting the hard working hussies just trying to feed their babies ut of business, but I digress!

New blog header

Whoo hoo! I am so happy to say that I was able to make a blog header. My very own creation made with the papers and elements available on Karla Marano's Pastel Pleasures kit. It is the freebie I posted a few days back. You can get it at Karla's Kaleidoscope Designs!

I am so happy that it worked, I could just scream from the rooftops!

I have had a pretty productive two weeks, as far as digital scrapping is concerned. I can't share with you yet... and I can't explain why. But I will blab it all at the end of the week!

Been busy...

Well, I didn't get an opportunity to post all of yesterday or today. We have been Christmas shopping and decorating the house!! I do love Christmas! I am burning my Christmas Berries candle from Yankie Candle (that I love... just that smell puts me in a good mood). It is almost gone because it is just left over from last Christmas. I am going to have to go get a new one!

I still have no tree up, but that explaination will come later in my post. But Maddie is talking about Santa Claus non-stop, so I think that this year she actually 'gets it', which makes me even more excited for Christmas morning. Mike has off, so he doesn't have to jet to work right after opening presents. We can have a wonderful breakfast/brunch together as a family, and I can't wait! I feel like a little kid!


Verizon came today. I decided to give them a second chance. Well, I guess I have to backtrack and explain what I mean by that. Last year in August, Verizon was having this mega-deal where if you switched to their DSL service, phone and signed on with DirectTV then you get them all for like $33 a piece. This would save us a lot of money, and I love to save money :) Actually, I love to spend it, but thats another entire post!



So, last August I agreed to switch from Comcast (because I think they are money hungry pigs who monopolize us into thinking cable is it!) to Verizon during this deal. The person I ordered with on the phone ASSURED me that the DSL would be as fast as cable, which I knew wasn't true, but was willing to take a little hit in the speed department for more loot in my pocket!



So, first the DirectTV guy comes and hooks us up with the dish. I love it... no complaints there! Next, the Verizon tech comes and replaces my fast cable with a turtle of a DSL connection. I would have stuck it out, except it was intermittenly just loggin off, booting me offline, and just giving me a headache. For those who know me well, you know I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT my COMPUTER! First off, it is part of my livlihood, and secondly, I need to be able to communicate with people via email and chat rooms for school work, sub lists and all that jazz... and thirdly, I LOVE to be online chatting with my buds via Yahoo. I can't deal if I can't get my email, that is like next to the jugular in my life!

So, after alot of bickering, sitting on hold, six visits from tech support from them, I finally gave up and went back to comcast for my internet provider. It was such a slap to have to call them back and get hooked up again. The last guy who came to help was like, just hang on until fiber optics come, then you will be hooked up! I just couldn't wait.

So, this week I got a little flyer in the mail about Verizon Fios, and after some investigation I learn I will save a shitload of money by swiching. I call and verify the prices and seriously, I had to try it out. My mother in law already has fios and she LOVES it. So seriously, it can't be that bad! She lives next door, so it can't get messed up between two houses, can it?

The dude came on Saturday morning. I was without intenet for a whole "GASP" five hours! But it was so worth it because my download and upload speeds are incredible! Seriously, I love it. Couldn't be more pleased.

But, there was a little issue with the Nortons Antivirus program that they provide. It kept saying it couldnt install because of some program I have called Authentium... and sent me to the CONTROL PANEL to remove it from my programs list. But the problem was, that it wasn't there! I couldn't find this program at all.

After about an hour on the phone with a techie, he couldn't fix it either. But let me say, they have the coolest shit! I called and had to sit on hold for like forty minutes (yes, you read right). I just put it on speaker and laid it on the desk while I tried to fix the shit myself. When the techie gets on he is SO NICE, funny and very helpful. He proxies in to my computer through the fios -AWESOME! So I just sat here and watched him go through all these steps and trying to fix it and find the Authentium in my computer, of course he couldn't find it either.

Then, my cordless phone starts beeping... I am going to lose the connection because the battery is dying. I am like, OH HELLLLL NO, I didn't sit on hold forever to finally get someone to lose him! So, I tell him, my phone is going to die. He took my cell number. About five minutes after the irritating beeping 'your battery is dying' started, it went dead. A box popped up on my screen, and he types in like a little chat box. "I lost you, calling you on your cell" and my cell phone started ringing. Hell, yea... he was a kick ass techie!

Ultimately though, he was unable to solve my problem and referred me to Microsoft tech support. Yea, as if I am calling them so they can charge me $20 an hour to fix it over the phone!
After the kids went to bed, I searched online to try and find a fix on my own and I did.

Here is the fix: Go to MY COMPUTER > LOCAL DISK > PROGRAM FILES > COMMON FILES > Click on COMMAND SOFTWARE FOLDER > THEN CLICK FOLDER CALLED AVSDK. This is the installer program, however it gives you the option to uninstall prior to installing the program so don't be afraid to click on it It really did work for me, and I felt like a member of the Geek Squad I was so freakin proud of myself.

So that was tonite... now I am going to bed!

Maddie-ism

Let me set the stage.......... We are at my moms, and she hasn't gone to the potty in awhile. I call her to see if she has to go, and of course, she says no. I tell her we are going to try anyway, and she says no. So she is on the potty, and I am trying to explain to her that I am the one in charge (funny in itself).

So, I ask a question in the form of a sentence in true teacher style, "I am the mommy and you are the............." - pausing to wait for the correct answer.

and she says "super sleuth."

All I can muster up is, "Yes, you are a super sleuth, peanut!"

A blog that has my undivided attention...

I hadn't realized that a good friend (originally from good ol' Pee Aye), had a blog until today. I do think I knew at one point, but you know how links get 'lost' in your 'favorites' amongst some ridiculous websites you swore would become a daily visit ! Yea, I am pretty sure that is what happened.

But today she shared with me her blog, and I read, and read, and read..... and so on, and so forth.

All I could think was WOW! Not that I didn't think she was smart before, because of course she is smart... she is MY friend after all, but she really has a gift of thinking things through and writing in a way that has captured my attention. Probably because I think like she does, and vice versa.

Today's blog entitled, "Spendthrift" really has my mind going. I am not going to give you a run down, read it. But my thoughts are turning inward. I am so guilty of this mindless spending! I have always prided myself on NOT being a 'keeping up with the Joneses' kind of person, but in personal reflection, I am just that.

I often find myself in daydreams of a bigger house and more 'things'; things that are probably similar to things I already own, I just want new ones or different ones. Things are really important.

Similarly but no doubt less evil, I desperately desire MORE ROOM in my current home. It is for mere sanity, this I promise. But I so long to entertain people in my house, and we just don't have a lot of space. I love my house, I just want it to be bigger so that I can't enjoy it more with friends and family inside!

And on a side note, her blog makes my blog look ridiculous, selfish and very unintellectual! I hope that I gave her a chuckle while reading my blog !

How funny!

I am just a freakin blogging retard (please don't lecture me on the use of this word.... you all know what I mean).

I have no clue how to change my theme to make it my own. I want a girlie, unique theme and all that jazz. Ah-hem.... I guess I better get someone to show me how. I don't mind asking for help, but you know some people have time issues as it is, and I would hate for them to spend all this time helping me, and then me let this whole blogging thing go or decide its a waste of my time.

Anyhow, I am going to work on that.

Today, when I logged in, BLOGGER a/k/a big brother knew me and A were friends somehow and let me become a contributer to her blog....which is fine, but she doesn't even blog there! Now I am gonna blog there. I have enough bullshit to dish for more than one blog, LOL!

So, the Cleveland Browns are in town for this weekends game.... Should be a great game! I am hoping to attend. A friend of mine has four season tickets and every year for a game she puts all of our names in a hat and picks three out. It is sooo fun! I can't believe its for the Brown's game too, that is so fitting!

So, I am still working on the ABC book for Maddie Jo! Which didn't start out just for Maddie, but I figured it won't exactly be fair since I only have three months worth of pics of Lauren... I better make her another one when she gets bigger. So, I have to change B is for Belly, because that is me when I am pregnant with Lauren not Maddie.... so I think I will do B is for Bubbles or B is for Beach for MJ!

Here are the A, B and C!

Credits to follow, I promise!

But, like I said, B will change soon!

Onto other subjects. I think I am going to start to stalk freebie blogs and post links here as sort of a freebie-stalker website for digital scrapbookers! Hmmm... we shall see. My time is getting more and more valuable as Lauren gets bigger and more active. Maddie Jo, well, she never slows down, but she is pretty accomodating!

Anyway, talk another day!