Laura Vegas

so you all seem to like the randomness posts! i’m the same way … love reading blogs that just have random, totally unrelated to each other, where the heck did that come from, type posts. lol!

• did the dentist today. both the girls did great … no cavities. actually, alyssa had a little one … but that tooth is going to be falling out soon so they’re not going to do anything to it. i was a little bummed that they did the girls one by one … instead of doing them at the same time. that meant an hour and a half in there … with a 5 month old on my lap and a 7 yr old bored to death. amanda even tried to get me to schedule her an appointment. lol! she was confused when i told her that i couldn’t … because i wasn’t her mom. she said "but, you’re my daycare mom". and her dad thought that was funny … first time she’s ever actually "wanted" to go to the dentist.
• joe went to the dentist this afternoon. actually the oral surgeon. said it all looked good and was healing ok. still in pain … but switching to some basic motrin since the other stuff was so strong and made him totally out of it. and he made it though work … bet they’re glad he’s back. this time of year in grocery is crazy … especially when you’re the one that actually writes the order for the store and does all the displays! i told him he could NOT take a pain pill last night before he went to work … otherwise they’d end up with some 76,000 piece load coming in. he’s be walking around with the order gun … beeping away like crazy!
• so my girls are driving me crazy. all over my sense of humor. sometimes they think i’m totally hilarious … and other times they think i’m just being mean and get all sensitive. now, since i tend to be super, super funny about everything … i never know when things will go bad. one minute they’re laughing with me … and the next minute they’re pouting or crying in the corner. so i told them that i would stop being a funny mom … and be super serious. but apparently i can’t help but be funny … i do it without even trying. they keep telling me "you said you weren’t going to be funny anymore". lol! sorry girls … you have a funny mom! deal with it!
• but on the other hand … i’m becoming one of "those moms". the ones that can embarrass you without even realizing it. i went to drop alyssa off at the school today for band practice … just dropped her off by the office … didn’t even get out of the car. which was good. because when i got back to the house i realized i had my pink, fluffy slippers on. and i had pulled my hair up very quickly in a very messy way … because i had been cooking lunch and my hair was in my face. and i hadn’t bothered to check any of this when i went to drop her off. thank god only one of her friends actually saw me!
• i watched another episode of "brothers & sisters" last night. and once again … i cried. justin going through detox … and kitty being there for him while she was going through her own pain. yes … that’s bound to cause tears. 2 more episodes to go.
• my make-up order came today … almost 2 weeks after i ordered it. i’ve been using the everyday minerals for quite a while now. but the gal i’ve been ordering from wasn’t doing any orders until after the holidays. so i ordered from the site … talk about a wait! i’ve been using some other awful brand for the past 2 weeks … that wasn’t looking great. not saying i’ll look awesome tomorrow with my regular make-up back … but should be an improvement!
• i got an email today with some good news. some of you may remember kendrick … he was one of my first daycare kids. i watched him for a little over 3 years. he was our "boy"! so kendrick had a birthday last week … and guess what he got? a baby sister. yep … his mom (rebecca) had her baby on his birthday. and it gets better … she was born at the same exact time down to the minute as kendrick was 6 years ago! i think that is cool! so huge congrats rebecca and family!!!
• we did our gingerbread houses today. alyssa’s grandma had some houses from last year … possibly even the year before. they’re still good, right? as long as you don’t eat the candy. well, i put the houses together and let them sit out all day to harden up before the girls started pushing candy on there. we finally sat down tonight to do them … and sarah’s caved about 10 minutes into it. there was no saving it … walls came down and there was just a mess everywhere. i joked about "huffing and puffing and blowing the house down" … and threw in some "goldilocks" and some "little red riding hood" just for confusion (i do this all the time with kids shows and songs just for fun … see how many i can tie together in one story). this humor was not appreciated at that moment. and when i mentioned that maybe she could just invade alyssa’s gingerbread house and help decorate over there … the look of horror on alyssa’s face said it all. lol! i may have to get another house and have a "re-do" for sarah later this week.

guess that’s it for now. i used our "blockbuster pass" to get myself a few movies this time. actually, joe is very good about getting me the chick flicks when they come out … i just never make time to watch them. but now that i’m pretty caught up on my shows … i’m in the mood for a movie. i have "waitress" and "nanny diaries" … i want to get one watched tonight since the new movies come out tomorrow and joe will trade mine whether i’ve watched them or not. lol!

i don’t even know where to start. i feel so behind on my blogging! so i’ll go the total random route.

• i think i’m done christmas shopping! went out a few times this weekend … and i think i got it all. not that we really do all that much. at family get-togethers it’s more the kids (which we’re the only one with kids, how convienent!) … and a few extra gifts thrown in here and there. got all the daycare kids … and a few other family friends. i even have stocking stuffers … something i always forget about!
• i have everything wrapped as of tonight. the girls wrapped all the kids gifts. and since the girls are playing at amanda’s right now … i took care of theirs while they were out of the house.
• house is all decorated … the best i could. like i mentioned before … most of the decorations i have are from my "country knick-knack" days. i know they still hold memories … but they just don’t feel right in the house anymore. so i used a few super cheap glass vases (that i will later fill with buttons and ribbon upstairs) … and filled them with the ball ornaments. and i dug out all the garland and lights i used to use on the porch … and put them up all over the house. love turning them all on at night … and having that christmas glow.
• so you know i’m totally addicted to rachael ray, right? she is like my cooking idol. lol! i record her talk show every single day … love to get new ideas for dinners. i get her magazine. i watch her "30-minutes meals" all the time on food network. thing is i save all these shows on my DVR … until i can try them out. and then once i try them out … i save the show until i get a chance to write down the recipe. just tonight … i was checking out her website … not sure why i havn’t been on there yet. i was so excited to find the recipe archives … you can find tons of the recipes from her talk show here. i printed out a ton of them … and then deleted those off my DVR. so nice!
• just to show you a few i’ve done recentlyand can give you my word that they will be good (and easy … seriously people, 30 minutes!) … check out this one, this one, and this one, definately this one, and how about this one. i’ve got many more i can vouch for … but i’d have to find them all for you.
• speaking of "pastrami" (one of the recipes above in case you didn’t click on them) … that made me hungry. and i do have some leftover pastrami. so i went downstairs and made a grilled sandwich. mayo in the middle with pastrami, provolone cheese, and some pepper … and butter on the outside to grill it. i can’t believe how good this tastes! of course the girls saw me and wanted some. it’s 9:00pm … so i convinced them to have popcorn instead! lol!
• joe is finally back to work. i know he had 4 teeth taken out (thought it was 5, but ended up being only 4). but it was killing me. he was down for the count for almost 5 days! in so much pain, super swollen, couldn’t eat, slept all the time. i feel for him … really, i do. but that left me to do everything. and right before christmas … when there is extra shopping, cleaning, decorating, etc. but he just left for work a while ago … so hopefully he’ll be ok there tonight.
• i spray painted my "paint shelf" today. i’ve been wanting to do that ever since i moved my studio upstairs since it didn’t quite match in all it’s whiteness … so almost a year and a half. finally got motivated to do it … and it took me all of an hour or so. lol! i’m doing a little write-up about it and something else … so i’ll let you know what that’s about when the time comes!
• you know i had about 7 episodes of "brothers & sisters" just a while ago? i’ve watched 4 of them … and i have 3 left. such a great quality show … i love it! and the episode where sarah had to let go of her kids … omg, i was crying so hard! the tears where streaming down my face. then i get myself all composed … and the next episode with kitty and the baby … in tears again! i can only imagine what the next 3 episodes will do to me!
• alyssa and sarah are keeping busy while they’re off school. still get bored at times … hard when we’re stuck at the house with all sorts of kids and can’t just up and do things. we are heading to the dentist tomorrow … with only 2 kids in tow. amanda is spending the night tonight … they’ve been having lots of sleepovers and extra time with her. alyssa has a band concert at school on thursday … she started learning the clarinet. loud! lol! we’re also making gingerbread houses this week … we have 2 of them here … and some sugar cookies.
• i’m cooking for about 20 people on saturday. you’d think i would have a plan by now … and yet i don’t! but i have some recipes in mind. and i can quarantee you they will all be rachael ray stuff. lol! i’m actually thinking of cooking just turkey breasts … not the entire turkeys. looking into that though … joe’s talking to the meat guy at work. want to bet i can do the entire dinner in an hour? lol!
• i need to scrap … i want to scrap … and yet i can’t. i have projects i need to do … things i want to do. just not getting any creative juices going. i did manage to clean out about 10 inches of pattern paper and old cardstock. seriously. it’s all in a box downstairs … giving it to a friend of mine who is finally wanting to learn to scrap!

ok … that’s it. for now. i don’t want to use all my random thoughts up in one day! like that would ever happen? lol!

since my minds works better in totally random thoughts … why not do my "journal my christmas" pages in random days, right?!?! lol! i’m not going to think of how behind i am … just glad i have 3 more done. definately going to do some more this weekend though … because i truely love the idea of this journal the more i think about it. love getting all that christmas goodness down in writing … so that my girls can look back and remember just how we celebrated!

first up, day 5 … journaling about how we count down the days until christmas. i thought about taking a picture of the advent project i made this year … but i like the way this album has no pictures so far. lol! makes it easier somehow. making memories pattern paper, metal snowflakes, and glitter brads … american crafts chipboard numbers … and a rusty pickle sticker.

day 7 … journaling about our quest to finish the christmas shopping. i have to say … my journaling on these 2 tags went in so many different directions. a few times i wasn’t even sure what i was supposed to be journaling about. lol! so basically, one tag is about my procrastination on my shopping no matter what my intentions are. and the other tag is about what the girls are getting this year … not showing that whole tag just on the off chance they stumble upon this post. lol! making memories pattern paper, stickers, brad, ribbon … scenic route chipboard letters … 7 gypsies stickers … and the polka-dot tag was from some daisy d’s paper.

and day 10 … to make a page using some of the wrappings you intend on using this christmas. the idea was to use a piece of your wrapping paper and add a to/from tag. i figured this paper went good with the colors i’m using in this album … and the chipboard tag is actually from the christmas card kit i used this year (it came with all these tags that i’ll use instead of the normal tiny sticker labels i use). just added a few heidi swapp chipboard letters … some making memories rubons … and my journaling.

so now i’ve done 6 days … only 8 behind now. lol! more random updates to come later … have to get back to the kiddos now!

i know i promised to share my "journal my christmas" layouts that i was working on. but i just finished up 3 of them tonight … never got around to doing the journaling this afternoon. so i’ll have to wait until tomorrow to take some pics of them … and then i’ll share them.

in the meantime … i thought maybe i could distract you from the lack of scrapping stuff … with some recent photos i took. my awesome neighbor ruth that i took some family photos of a few weeks ago? well, she has the nicest sister, mia … and she asked if i could take some family photos of them too. we did these last friday … ordered everything on monday … and i already got her poster sized prints today. talk about fast! such a gorgeous family! here’s a few of my favorites.

 

you can see the entire album HERE. back tomorrow with scrap stuff and random life updates!

i had to laugh last night when i was talking to my friend deneen. i had mentioned the journal your christmas class. and she told me that "you HAVE to share some more of your pages"! lol! here’s the thing … i’m now 9 day behind. so i’ve done 3 of the 12 days. lol! not bad odds for me really. those first few days fell on the weekend and then a non-busy monday … so i had no problem fitting them in. then life happened. kids running around all day … lots of kids. and by the time they left at night … i was too tired to do anything that required thought. so i put it off.

but since my desk is clean … therefore clearing up my mind … i was ready to work on it some more. so yesterday while the babies were sleeping … i started 4 pages. i have 9 to catch up … so that fact that 4 of those are almost done is good. i just need to journal them and then i will share what i have tomorrow!

right now … as i type this … joe is off getting 5 teeth pulled out! he had a tooth that needed to come out … and i guess they figured why not do the wisdom teeth while we’re in there. they weren’t bothering him at all. but we figured it really wasn’t going to cost us much more to do them all at once. and since we have a certain amount of $$$$$ that the insurance will put out for dental … we figured we might as well use it. my mom took him over there since i have all the kids. i had mine pulled out about 15 years ago … so i can’t remember what to expect. i do have some jello and pudding in the fridge … and other random soft foods. lol! he should be pretty out of it once he gets back. he worked last night … in fact he worked 11 hours (plus the hour commute). meaning he left for work about 7pm last night … worked all night and got home at 8am this morning … and then left for this appointment at 9:30. so they may not have even had to put him to sleep … he probably just dozed off on the table! lol! i think the worst part was that he had to work all night … but couldn’t eat or drink at all. how do you do physical work  (he works nights in grocery) … and not have at least some water or something?!?!

updated: joe’s back and totally out of it. lol! he was so hungry that he was trying to eat tons of stuff … but not much success seeing as he couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t chew, and was still bleeding pretty good. finally got his pain pill in him though and he’s out cold upstairs!

and i’ll leave you with a few cute pictures of nikolas … hate to post without a picture! love the look in the first picture … the big eyed "what the heck" look. and the second one isn’t great … but shows his bright, toothless smile!

i’ve been waiting patiently for this to come out … the MM desktop carousel! it’s just starting to ship and you can find more info on the MM blog.

this is such a great idea! i’ve had so many of my tools stored in all different places. but this thing holds a ton of stuff! it’s 6 sided … with tons of compartments … and 6 smaller drawers. and the center is super deep … i even put my tag maker and tag curler in there … and they’re pretty big tools. the little drawers are perfect for smaller things … so far i have needles and some thread in one (i use them all the time with buttons), all the extra pieces for my notch tool and eyelet setter in one, distressers in one, etc. and the label holders … will have to do something cute with those.

i don’t have it all filled up just right yet … but this gives you an idea, right? this is seriously a must have item. and did i mention it spins? lol! sarah loves the fact that it spins … i keep telling her to keep her mitts off of my stuff. may have to get the girls one for their supplies! lol!

and the most amazing thing … this is one of 4 things on my scrap island right now. lol! just the carousel, my huge self-healing mat, my trimmer, and a wooden box tray with some newer items in it (so i try and remember to use them). i did some cleaning up last night. i had way too many things going at the same time … and i wasn’t being very productive. so i made new areas for things i’m working on … things i need to work on … and things that i would like to work on at some point down the road!

my empty desk is making me happy right now for 2 reasons. the first being that i feel like i can think … not so much stuff competing for my creative attention. the second reason is the endless amount of creative possibilities … it’s all up to me what i want to create next!

so this being the holiday season and all, i would think a lot of us are eating lots of pie, right? i for one do not like pie. but a "scrap pie" … i could totally dig into one of those!!! lol! this is something new being "cooked up" (or should i say "baked up"?) over at the scrapbook bakery. and heather just started a blog … so make sure to check out the scrapbook bakery blog for more details … and a chance to win one of these fun "pies"! i got an order earlier this week from heather … and i love this personal touch to the packaging:

seriously … how cute is that? and the girls thought i had ordered some kind of cake. lol!

do you remember me telling you that i was done with being "tagged"? well, i got tagged again today … and those that know me pretty well know that i can never say "no" to anything. lol! and for those of you that didn’t know that … don’t take that as "please take advantage of me and my kindness". lol! totally kidding of course! ok … so laura tagged me to do this christmas "getting to know you". luckily i just did this in an email earlier this week … the beauty of copy and paste, right?

1. wrapping paper or gift bags?   i’m all about the gifts bags normally … but i do wrap most things at christmas … although i never do bows or ribbon
2. real tree or artificial? i’ve been doing a fake tree for about 8 years now and love it … no mess or watering … although i detest fanning out all the branches!
3. when do you put up the tree?   usually the weekend after thanksgiving if i’m lucky … ours made it up within a week this year … so i consider that pretty good
4. when do you take the tree down?  i’m lucky if it makes it to new years … by the time christmas is over i’m tired of having a tree in my house. lol!
5. do you like eggnog?   no … although i’ve never tried it to be honest
6. favorite gift received as a child?   not sure … terrible that i don’t remember much from my childhood. lol!
7. do you have a nativity scene?  i’ve never had one
8. hardest person to buy for?   these days, my girls … they want everything that costs mucho $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
9. easiest person to buy for?  my mom … she collects precious moments figurines … so it’s easy to pick one out (now i feel bad if she’s reading this. lol!)
10. worst Christmas gift you ever received?  we do the gift exchange game with my extended family every year … supposed to be a $20 gift … one year i came home with some $5 picture frame. i secretly know it was my grandma’s gift she brought … so i feel bad for not being appreciative. lol!
11. mail or email Christmas cards?  mail them
12. favorite Christmas movie?  "a christmas story" … they play it for like 24 hours straight on christmas day … and i can watch it over and over … "you’re going to shoot your eye out!!!". lol!
13. when do you start shopping for Christmas?   sometime after thanksgiving … but i tend to go out looking about 20 times, can’t make up my mind, and still end up buying stuff last minute
14. have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  yes … is that bad?
15. favorite thing to eat at Christmas?   turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy … the last 2 years my family has ended up with some strange potatoe casserole dish … so i tend to volunteer for mashed potatoes now so that i know i’ll get them
16. clear lights or colored on the tree?  clear lights … which really disappoints my girls … so i gave them a small tree to do themselves with the colored lights
17. favorite Christmas song?  i know this may sound wierd … but ever since last christmas i have loved the song "it’s the greatest time of year" by aly & aj … i hear it all the time on disney channel and love it … so upbeat and something you just want to dance too
18. travel at Christmas or stay home?  stay home … my parents and my brother all live within a few blocks from me and we like to make all the extended family come out to us.
19. can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?  i don’t think i can
20. angel on the tree top or a star?   i did get a star this year … although in previous years i had a handmade fabric angel that was holding a star up … so i’d always put that at the top of the tree
21. open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?  usually both … all depends where and when we end up celebrating … mixing all the families in gets hard so we usually have 3 seperate days
22. most annoying thing about this time of year?   the crowds of people that seem to be wherever i need to be!
23. what i love most about Christmas?   sounds corny … but spending time with family and friends. also love sitting downstairs at night with just the lights of the christmas tree on … so peaceful

i know, i know … i’m 3 days behind on the "journal your christmas" class. but i’ll get to them. just had to get some other stuff done these past few days. i’m finishing up a few things tonight that have to be mailed out tomorrow … and then i have about 10 different projects that i want to start! lol! so for now i thought i would share a few pics. apparently i have taken all of 4 pictures this entire week. actually i think 1 of them was from last week. lol!

this is actually a cute one of haley. i didn’t think i got anything good when we tried this. i really want some pictures of her with the cute knit hat … and i ended up finding the exact same onesie that miranda wore for her pictures. i was so excited about that … it’s a long story! so this one is cute … but i will get some more of her in this!

i told matthew yesterday that i needed one picture of him to add to the shutterfly book i’m working on. so after he had a snack, he kept asking me if i needed to clean his face. i was busy with something so i told him he was fine. he kept asking me though over and over … but i figured it was just typical "matthew questions". lol! then he asked me if i wanted him to take his picture. so cute of him to remember. it wasn’t until i pulled up this picture on the computer that i realized why he was asking me to clean his face … he had food all over. lol! i tried to photoshop some of it super quick … not the first time i’ve had to clean someone’s face.

amanda … my third "daughter" as she keeps calling herself. lol! and for once i took a semi-decent photo INSIDE the house. i don’t know why i have such problems with that. and i didn’t even use a flash on this. i must have had some decent light coming in the window for once.

and is it wrong that i’m going to use this picture on the last page of the shutterfly book … with the caption "the end"?!?! lol! sarah told me i was being mean to haley … but i just can’t resist!

so i got an email last week from scrap-a-faire that i had won one of the grand prizes from their event a few weeks ago. a big prize package from shutterfly. a 8×8 20-page photo book, a 12×12 20-page photo book, 2 8×8 digital scrapbook pages, and 2 12×12 digital scrapbook pages. how cool is that my friends?!?!

now of course it required me to spend a few days uploading a gob of pictures to their site. i used them about 2 years ago for printing … but all my pics now are on winkflash. but i have to admit … the uploading was so super easy … much easier then it used to be. and i have been frustrated with winkflash lately … always kicking me out and losing whatever it was doing. i only had problems once … and it still saved what pictures had been uploaded and just had me retry the ones that didn’t make it. so nice!

when i sat down to do the books, i thought at first it was almost as if it was too much thought … figuring out what pics you wanted on what pages and all. i will always love my actual pictures and paper the best … but i did have fun with it tonight. the 8×8 book i am going to do of alyssa and sarah. but the 12×12 book i decided to do with all our favorite pictures of the daycare kids from the past year. each of the kids has a 2-page spread that has 8 pictures total … and then there are some pages at the end with just a bunch of random, everyday photos. i did have to combine nikolas and matthew … because i just didn’t have enough photos of each of them. i literally need 1 more picture of each of them … which i will take tomorrow since they’re both here.

i think it’ll be neat. i have tons of scrapbook layouts of the daycare kids from just this past year. i actually have about 7 albums (5-12×12 and 2-8×8) stuffed full from the past 6 years. but i like the idea of having them collected in a nice book to look at all at once.

in fact … i could do it as a yearbook?!?!? do you think the parents would order them? lol! actually, i think that would be kind of cool for the kids to look back on and remember all the other kids they used to play with. i give copies of all my photos to the parents. the kids always want to hold them and look at them … i keep saying i should order extras so that they can tote the picture around and mom and dad still have the good wrinkle-free copy. lol! anways … going to have to show this to my parent tomorrow!

today’s "journal your christmas" topic was christmas cards. since i wanted to include one of our cards from this year … i made this a 2-page spread.

first off … the card. i ended up getting the BH card kit from creating keepsakes. and the main reason i decided to get it was seeing the way that cd muckosky altered these cards. i totally used her ideas with the puffy paint and extras … so i cannot claim them as my own. lol! this card was my favorite out of the 4 … and now i’m glad i kept an extra for me.

i used the circles off the front of the envelope for the first page … and then added some puffy paint just like on the card. the heidi swapp chipboard letters i painted with making memories "cranberry" paint and then added "cranberry glitter paint" on top. the second page i just adhered the actual card … and added a fun "postage" chipboard frame on the side. i think of 2 things when i look at this layout. first … i feel like i need to add some more "stuff" … still a lot of blank space on there. second … i think it’s perfect … and done (which counts for something).

and it was fitting to journal about cards today … seeing as i took all mine to the post office this afternoon. i wanted to take them in and make sure the postage was ok on them. since a few had bulkier items like buttons and brads … i wanted to make sure they weren’t considered irregular shaped or anything. can you imagine mailing them off … only to have them come back to you?  but then the dude told me that it would cost me an extra 17 cents each … and then i was just irritated. lol! this is a little postal annex that i have gone to occasionally (thinking it won’t be busy) … and for some reason i’m not always convinced the dude is telling me the truth. lol! things have always gotten mailed after i drop them off … but i still give him the "are you serious" look when he answers my questions!