me to a T - Tracey Odachowski

Oh, bless me, just when I thought he couldn’t get any cuter…

The new WeR Memory Keepers Precious Metals Feature is up at Scrapvillage! Here’s my contribution:

Journaling:

The child will eat, or drink, anything.
Including my coffee.
Yes, my 2-year-old likes to steal my coffee mug.
And she’ll drink it until it’s gone.
It’s a good thing that I drink decaf.

I’m sitting here watching one of our new guilty pleasure shows, Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. There are things that this man does that I just cannot believe he would subject himself to. Last week it was a snake farm. Tonight it is the San Francisco Zoo.

And what Dirty Job is he doing? Oh, cleaning up poop. I’m beginning to think that most of the Dirty Jobs that he does involve poop in some way, shape, or form.

He’s going around with the man who drives the Poop Truck. This same man says that he would rather drive the Poop Truck instead of working with people in Guest Services (his former job). Seriously? Must be some great poop. But, of course, Mike Rowe just had to take it a step further and ask the man what his favorite poop was. His answer? Giraffe poop. Why???

“Because it looks just like Cocoa Puffs.”

You know, I used to like that cereal. Can’t see my buying it again.

Of course, Mike had to check it out, and, go figure, it really does look like that. Why? Evidentally giraffes have a very efficient 4-chambered stomach that is very efficient and extracts almost all nutrients, leaving very little waste in the form of these itty bitty pellets.

Which Mike Rowe then called Milk Duds.

yup, not buying them again, either.

Now if only Mike Rowe could find crap that looks like carrot cake, chocolate, and well, anything else that manages to ruin my diet, I think I’d be in great shape!!!

(sorry for the nasty post…he is at a cheese factory now. Things are a little cleaner there. )

So, I’m supposed to be writing up project sheets right now, but what’s the fun in that? (Jen’s gonna kill me when she reads that). Instead, I think I’ll write a little update, sans pictures b/c, frankly, I’m comfy on the couch on the laptop right now, and all of the pics are on the other computer. Deal with it.

And, well, that gives me an excuse that I still haven’t posted the pictures of our completed bedroom…you know, the ones I still haven’t actually taken yet? hehe.

Speaking of the bedroom, omg, it is a dream. It’s so nice that even Chris, my significant other who could really give a care about anything decorative, cannot stop commenting on it. He calls it the Nap room, bucause it is so dreamy looking that it is perfect for napping. I do still need to paint all five doors, and I need to figure out what i want to use to pull the curtains back, but, other than that, it is finito. Dreamy. Love it. Really must take a picture of it to share.

Evidentally, it is home improvement week here. We talked to my friend Kasey’s dad a few months ago about doing some simple home improvements around the house (and in the future, some more advanced ones), and we’ve just been waiting for his schedule to open. It finally did. WOOHOO! He stopped by yesterday to go over some rough estimates, then I went to Home Depot this morning to pick out a new storm door for the front door. Finally, when the nice weather comes, I’ll be able to open my front door to circulate air in the house. This excites me. They started the framing of it this afternoon, and they’ll be back tomorrow to do some more. (It’s a slightly complicated install because of our sidelight). We’re also reconfiguring the downspouts on our garage roof. The downspouts from the main house dumped onto the roof and was causing some leaking in the garage. Um, not good, and, quite frankly, a stupid way to put downspouts. I can’t wait for this problem to fixed so that next spring we can finish the inside of the garage. Let’s see, he’s also going to put some flooring down in the attic (yay! more storage space), and power wash the roof. Like I said, lots of little things. We’re supposed to be putting in a sprinkler system and completely replanting the lawn (currently known as the weed garden), so the budget only allows for little things right now. My dream list includes quartz countertops, recessed lighting, and a screened porch in the back. haha - this is obviously a very long term dream list. I need a job first! LOL!

So, that’s about it. Like I said, home improvement central. Gotta love the sound of banging hammers in the afternoon.

First of all, I have to say this…as this page was loading, waiting for me to write my latest thoughts down on…computer screen…I managed to figure out a little computer problem I’ve been having over the last hour. Windows keeps buzzing at me - you know, that sound it makes when you’ve plugged or unplugged new hardware and such? Yeah, that sound. Randomly, as well, the printer has been turning on and off, despite the fact that I’m sitting about three feet from it. I was beginning to think that the culprit was apparition in nature. Nah. Just canine. Yes, the snoring dog strikes again. It seems her I-was-only-supposed-to-weigh-13-pounds-but-instead-I-weigh-27-pounds butt has been pushing and pulling the printer power cord in and out of the power strip all evening. Thanks for freaking me out, Zuzu.

So, anyway…I can’t remember if I mentioned it, and I’m too lazy to check right now, but I was pleased as punch to be asked to join the Scrap for a Cure kit club design team. The cool thing about this site is that a portion of their sales goes to a different charity each quarter. This quarter is St. Jude’s. That’s just so darn cool. All I have to do is scrap, and money goes to kids. Seriously an awesome thing. So, without further ado, here are the pages and projects I did for this month:

1. The Princess in all her glory:

2. The Princess and her Chariot (aka, Daddy’s shoulders). Just cardstock, picture, and an overlay, that took me, oh, about 4 hours to finally put together. I stared at it for the longest time!

3. A thank you layout for an album we did for Big Sis over at SIStv as a result of the crop I went to last weekend. (credit goes to Luz, for the pic of me and for that of the layout) Like the hat? Peg and I had matching ones so that we were ‘T’ and ‘P’ - as in TP, as in Toilet Paper, as in that’s what the white stuff coming out of the top of the crown is. hehe. This is what happens when you need me to craft a hat for myself at 1am the night before a big crop:

4. A composition book cover for Gabe:

I still can’t get over how varied the product in the kit is, and you have NOOOOOO idea just how much stuff I have leftover! A very generous kit! And I mentioned the charity thing, right? So cool!

Ok, it’s 3:13am…I’m headed to bed now!

So, we’ve established that Emily has not been the easiest child in the world to deal with the past few weeks. While I’ll admit that it is 1000 times better than last week, it’s still not a perfect situation with the child. How can such a beautiful little girl be so evil? And where does she LEARN this stuff???

Now, I’m a firm believer that God takes care of all things. In the Bible, it says something along the lines of, “An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.”

Evidentally, this week, it meant “A hair for a hair.”

As punishment to my child for making me pull my hair out for the past few weeks, God evidentally decided that enough was enough with this child, and so, He pulled her hair out:

Um, is it bad that I was laughing when she came in with her hair wrapped around the propellers of an electric airplane? And that I made Gabe take a picture of it while I was trying to pry it free? I tried not to laugh, really I did. I was unsuccessful. So, while trying to contain my giggle, I slowly unwound her curly hairs from the propellers. A few minutes later, she was free. Her punishment supposedly served. Some hairs were beyond untanglement and had to be trimmed (she did NOT like the thought that her hair had to be cut!) So I’m thinking, great. She learned her lesson. She received her punishment from the Almighty. She won’t do that again, right?

Wrong.

Not three minutes later, she walked back into my office looking like this:

Seriously? Having an airplane stuck in her hair didn’t teach this bull-headed kid a lesson the FIRST time? I’m thinking that God figured her behavior has been SO bad over the past few weeks that He needed to pull her hair out more than once to straighten her up. So, I pried her hair from the propellers AGAIN, and, yes, I took the plane away. Because while she did kinda deserve having her hair pulled out as much as mine has been recently, I didn’t want to go down in history as the most cruel mother in the world, ya know?

(should I mention that in the 3 days since this occurred, she has gotten in WAY less trouble than before? Oh, yeah. Karma is good.)

THANK YOU, GOD!!!! I OWE YOU ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

…..

p.s. I should also mention that finally, 9 months after I began, I am finishing painting our master bedroom. Since there is a picture of the paint can in one of my HOF layouts, I thought perhaps I should finish the task before the book came out. I’m also thinking that hiring painters from now on is a REALLY good idea.

Here’s what is packed up:
-1 Daisy D’s Family Scrapbook Kit
-4 sheets Hambly
-2 pks Hambly rubons
-2 sheets Rouge de Garance
-2 sheets Sweetwater
-2 sheets Technique Tuesday chipboard
-1 MAMBI letter stickers
-1 MAMBI glitter rubons (letters)
-2 MAMBI rubons
-3 Heidi Swapp bird stickers
-a snack bag of buttons
-’The Write Software’

Calling Gabe in here…asking him to pick a number between 1 and 38…

Gabe says, “How about……5, I mean 10, I mean 27…I don’t know! Ummmm….27! Cuz that’s my birthday!”

Then Emily agrees, “I want 27!”

So, #27 it is…the winner is…. Jill Jackson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jill, email me your address, and I’ll get your package out to you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for playing everyone!

Also, I leave you with Gabe’s new fashionable look (as of 7/31):

Isn’t he freakin’ cute? So why the picture of him by candlelight w/ a flashlight on his head missing a tooth? Because evidentally his big tooth was connected to the Newport News City power grid; almost immediately after he pulled it out, we lost power for two hours. (explain THAT one to me…it was a totally clear night!) Of course, now, every time Chris and I look at him, we giggle. He looks so DIFFERENT!!!!!!!!!

Have a happy Tuesday!!!

Hmmm, that last post kinda worked! The lurkers are emerging! So, let’s make you emerge even more with…

A SCRAPPY GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who knows what I’ll throw in the box…Imagination Project, Hambly, Daisy D’s…I know I’ve got tons (and more tons) that I can put in it! I promise it will be GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enough to make a flat rate Priority mail box worth it. So post a comment! Let’s see…we’ll let this run until…Monday at Midnight EST. Sound good???

And, while you’re commenting, feel free to give advice on how to deal with an almost 3-year-old who evidentally thinks she’s about to turn 16. She is all about SASS right now! I CANNOT STAND IT! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. The sad part? She’s me, in miniature. Yes, my mother’s cruel “I hope you have a child just like you” curse uttered many times over my lifespan in fact worked. Curse you mom! I’m gonna send her to your house so that you can curse her as well as you did me!!!!!

Ok…back to freebies. Get commenting!!!

**ADDED** Don’t forget to stop by Scrapvillage this weekend for another one of our awesome Virtual Crops! Just a mini one this weekend, and yours truly will be hosting it tomorrow afternoon!

***ADDED 8/4/07***
Oh my goodness! Look at all of those comments! I should give goodies away more often!!! I’ve enjoyed reading and responding to you guys, and thanks for all of the great advice!!!

I don’t want to start a new post b/c I want everyone to have the chance to get some goodies! So I’m just adding to this one. first of all, thanks for reading and commenting - you guys have given me warm fuzzies.

A few other things…
1. The new City Planner feature for August is up at my favorite scrappy site, Scrapvillage! This time around we scrapped about Pets and Animals. Here’s mine of my snoring scrap buddy…

2. My latest adventure…last week I was asked to join the Scrap for a Cure team. WONDERFUL kit club - what can be better than being a part of a club that donates part of their sales to a different charity every quarter??? And, since we’ve established that you guys like free stuff, if you sign up for their brand new forum saying that I sent you, introduce yourself, then sign in on the Challenges board, you will automatically be entered into some random drawings to be held over the week. Cool, huh? So go get some free stuff! And keep commenting…2 more days left til I give some stuff away!