Crazy Little Thing Called Life

movie night.

Saturday night we were watching AMC...& just happened to see that the last part of:
 
Such a good movie.  John Wayne is fantastic.  And funny.  And he saves the day.
It's very uplifting.  Even though one good guy does die, and there's a rattlesnake scene.
I can deal with that.
The next movie to come on was:
 
Hmmmm.  Robert Redford.  1972.  Mountain Man.  Iz said he'd seen it before, and it was good.
We'd watched about half of it when I started to get a bad feeling.
So I leaned over and asked him, "Hey...they all live, right?  Jeremiah, his wife, and the little boy?  Nothing happens to them, right?" 
And here's the important part.
Iz says to me, "Yeah...they're all fine in the end."

2 minutes later the wife and boy were scalped.
Not kidding.
My jaw is hanging to the floor...the kids are all upset...and my husband says,
"Oh.  My bad." 

My bad.  Really?  I like happy endings.  He said there was a happy ending.
Liar Liar.
Actually, I think I said he sucked.  Double sucked.
They should just spell it out in the title.  Not 'Jeremiah Johnson'.
It should be 'Jeremiah Johnson...bitter, beleaguered widower...don't get attached to anybody.' 

My crummy movie mood didn't improve when I found out there was no
 
on last night.  This makes two weeks in a row. 
I realize I've probably been lucky it's stayed on this long.  But I have this weird fascination with how BAD it is.  The last episode was about a murder in the roller derby, for crying out loud. 

Good thing there's still Food Network.
Although after today, who knows.  I got my Comcast bill last Saturday...and it had gone up by $45!  Oooooooh, notsofastmyfriends.
That's one phone call I need to make today.

The next one is to the vet...Romeo and Lola are due for their check ups.
Not sure how I'm going to get Romeo there, as he has recently decided to be a car sick cat, and barf every time he goes for a ride.  Joy.

On that lovely note...enjoy your Monday! :) 

CHA goodies!

So Miss Teresa announced her partnership with Provo Craft at CHA yesterday...
she's made some very cool cartridges for the Cricut Expression and the Imagine!  woohoo!
Can't wait to see what they look like. :)

Some other peeks at new stuff that look like fun:
 
Fancy Pants Beach Babe...and Beach Bum:
 
love that fishy/shark thing.
Echo Park...For the Record:
 
Soooo pretty.  Love that typewriter!

**Edited to add some new October Afternoon:
 
5 & Dime...isn't it cute?
 
and a new boy line...Rocket Age:
 

And my favorite...Boarding Pass:
 
 

Enjoy your Saturday!  I survived the Girl Scout sleepover...it was actually a lot of fun. :)

super cute...

Alissa told me about this girl, who has the neatest Etsy shop.
I ordered some of her custom flash cards:
 
They are so cute and teeny.  Can't wait to use them in a mini book!
She has pre-done sets...or you can order 21, I think, for around $12.  So fun. :)

Bunco was a hoot...
tonight is a mother/daughter sleepover with the Girl Scouts.  So I'm off to find my air mattress & sleeping bag.  And ear plugs.  And Valium. 
Just kidding.  I don't even own ear plugs.

have a great Friday!

Bunco. And why I hate PE.

1.  tonight!
It's at my house and the theme is "Drink Me" bunco.  If you can drink it...I tried to find it for a prize.  Knowing the gals, most of the prizes are coffee related.  But not all.  Wink.  :)
It's always a good time.  There's 12 of us all together, and Alissa is coming as a substitute.  yay! 

2.  New Pink Paislee...
Saw this on their blog:
 
Love it.  Love that they're with Collage Press too...always liked their stuff. :)
Crate Paper has some very cool new lines too.  Lots of great projects on their blog.

3.  Found items.
Shelby was cleaning out the game cupboard (of all things) yesterday...and she found a pile of old stuff. 
Old like my 8th grade science project...my bug collection in its glass case. 
Disturbingly, the female praying mantis was missing.
1.  I don't know HOW my 8th grade bug collection got into the game cupboard.  And
2.  I don't know what happened to the female praying mantis.
I do remember that I got an A on it though.

4.  Today...
I will hit the grocery store and clean the house.
I need to put gas in my car.
I will bring the kids to school (hooray...new semester!)  Shelby has PE.
I will now take this time to tell you that I hated PE in High School.
Pretty much hated it in Middle School too.
Despised it.  Loathed it.
 
1.  I am not a sporty girl.

2.  I was picked last for teams, stuck out in right field, and yes...I prayed for the ball not to come to me.  I prayed for the bell to ring before I had to bat.  Or if I HAD to bat, I prayed that at least I could strike out gracefully, without falling down.
I prayed a lot in PE.

3.  1985.  Annandale, MN.  Middle of the frigid, arctic winter.  PE teacher thinks it's great weather for broomball.   Well of course it is.  Broomball was played with brooms and a soccer ball on a hockey rink. 
Julie leaves PE with a semi-permanent imprint of a soccer ball on her cherry red face.

4.  1982.  St. Anne, IL.  Middle School.
PE Uniform Requirement:  Navy blue UNITARD...top is narrow horizontal stripes (blue & white), bottom is shorts in solid blue.  Did I mention the UNITARD factor??  U. NI. TARD.
Complete with zipper halfway up the front.  You were supposed to have your last name put on the back in letters, but I remember that Vander Ploeg didn't fit.  Either that, or my mom was too cheap to pay for all the letters.
She also thought it would be frugal to buy me navy blue Keds (except they weren't Keds, they were the cheap brand) for PE shoes.  I remember everyone else had Nikes or some other version of sneakers. 
I remember sitting on the stage the first day of PE and Jill Schaafsma, popular girl (Skoff-sma for you non-Dutchies) looked at me like I had grown another head, stared down at my feet, and said..."Why.  Are.  You.  Wearing.  THOSE?"
I have NEVER owned another pair of navy Keds.  Or a unitard, for that matter.

5.  1984.  St. Anne, IL.  High School.
Side Note:  This school, where I spent my freshman year, and just a teeny bit of my sophomore year before we moved to Minnesota...was about 80% African American.

Weight lifting class.  I'm standing in line between a very sweet upperclassman girl named Tracy (approx. 6 feet, 220 pounds) and a girl whose name I can't remember...but she was freakishly strong and scared the crap out of me.
Tracy could almost bench her weight, as could the scary girl. 
And they both thought it was hilarious that the skinny white girl could do about 65 pounds on a good day.
They could also spike a volleyball like demons...which made it soooo much fun to be in the back row on the other side of the net.  Please Jesus, let the bell ring or at least let me keep all my teeth.

6.  I could go on and on.
Seriously.  Don't get me started on the shower factor.  And how Mrs. Wojnowski (Winn-ow-ski) would stand at the entrance to the showers with her clipboard, marking you off as you went in.
Or the PE locker.  Another combination to remember.
I am not kidding you when I say that at 40 years old, I STILL have nightmares about forgetting my PE locker combination. 

Shelby...my daughter, whom I love...I will pray for you today.
Little bugger.  She likes PE.

Have a great Thursday! 
Now I'm all worked up just thinking about PE.
I think I need to go to Starbucks.

I can stop any time I want.

1.  Evidently it wasn't yesterday though.
 
I mean...it's a Bible atlas.  Jesus practically TOLD me to buy it.  I heard Him.
 
I'll stop another day.

2.  Amazon.
I had been saving a couple of gift cards...but yesterday my resolve broke.
You know the Pride & Prejudice CD that I've been listening to...they have piano music for it.
 
 
I am such a dork.  But I danced a slight jig when I found this.  Can't wait to play these songs on the piano. :)
I also got this:
 
It's not for me.  Really.  I mean, I might watch it once or 12 times.
But really it's for Ian.
This is for me:
 
I figured (in one of my smarter moments) that this would probably be faster than cutting stars by hand.  No really.  I'm pretty sure.
And this:
 
for my iPod.  Yay!  Love the pink flowers.
All this goodness...including free shipping, my gift certificates & tax, came to $3.80.
Score. 

3.  No school today.
It's a teacher day.  The high school's last day of the semester was yesterday.  So when the kids go back tomorrow, they'll have different classes. 
Belle is going to Bellingham with me this morning.  I have a little last minute Bunco shopping to do.  It's at my house tomorrow night...yay! 
Other than that...hoping for a laid back day.

And just because it made me laugh:
 
Have a great Wednesday! :) 

Timeless!

1.  Oogling over...
Teresa debuted her 5th collection...Timeless on her blog:
 
I love the pinks, grays, and blacks.  And those trims...sigh.
Such a beautiful line.  And CHA is starting soon!  Can't wait to see all the videos and new products. :)

2.  Listening to.....
Found this at the library:
 
Oh, Mr. Dah-cy.  If you close your eyes...it's almost like you're at Pemberley.
It is such a beautiful soundtrack.  If you like piano music, you'll love this one.

3.  First time for......
 
Oh, Mambo Italiano...how I love this place.  I can't believe I hadn't been there before last night!  Belle's friend Jake requested to go there for his birthday.  So he and his parents met Belle, Iz & me there for dinner.  Dee-vine. 
I had the yummiest ranch chicken pizza.  So glad you had a birthday Jake!

4.  Soon I will be.....
Slurping a 140 degree venti peppermint hot chocolate, and kletzing with Alissa.
Isn't that the Dutch word for talking?  Grace...help me out here.  I know I didn't spell it right.  And then we'll hit the Thrift Store.
Woohoo!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

 

love is in the air....

1.  must have.
Saw this, and I knew it was for me:
 
On the far right...How cool is that?!  I know it doesn't have "and eat some bacon" as an option...but I think I can figure something out.  woohoo!

2.  a month of looooove.
(Say that in your best Barry White voice.)
Miss Alissa is doing a fun February project...28 days to celebrate the things you love, with a different prompt each day.
I made my book this past weekend:

It's a 6x6 American Crafts album that I covered, dooded & scuffied up a little.
For some reason, the ribbon is a weird color in the picture...it looks way better in real life.

Check out her blog...you can join in next week too!

3.  a little photo shoot.
Belle (once again) was my volunteer for some Valentine-inspired photos.

Thanks sweet girl!

Enjoy your Monday!  



 

NOTATIONS!

Another new collection from Teresa...
 
And I think it just might be my favorite. :)
It's actually a kit...everything you need to make a super cool book.
Love it!

Today:
1.  finish laundry.
2.  2 basketball games.
3.  basketball pictures.
4.  haircut for Ian.
5.  pray that the rain holds off so I can...
6.  take some more pictures.
7.  date night with my sweetie.

Happy Saturday to you...

atlas anonymous.

1.  AA
Alissa informed me that I need to go.  So if anyone knows where I can find a meeting, that'd be great.  I bought another atlas at the thrift store yesterday.
In my defense, it was a very cool old one...with lots of detail.  And now I won't have to cut/punch up the leather one I found at the antique store in Snohomish.  yay!
One can't have too many atlases.
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

2.  Boca, baby!!
So Iz found out yesterday that he qualified for the rewards trip this year, through his work.
Way to go!  We are headed to Boca Raton, FL in March.
I pouted for about 17 seconds that it wasn't a splashier destination, like they'd done in the past (Hawaii, Puerto Rico...) and then I got over myself.  geez.
Pictures of the hotel kind of helped that along:
 
 
I think I can manage to be happy here. :)
Harlan the Marlin is over the moon excited about going to Florida.  I need to update his little travel itinerary in the side bar.  He's got some other trips coming up too.

3.  speaking of updating...
I know I still have Christmas in my banner.  I'm working on a new one. lol
January has flown by...wow.

Going to town with my mom today.  Enjoy your Friday/weekend!

map punching 101.

1.  thrift store goodies.

 Another dictionary.  I justified this one because it has white pages.  
My other 36 dictionaries have cream pages.  
(I don't really have 36 dictionaries.  That would be weeeeeird.)
And I love that old Pit game.  Do you remember Pit?  I remember yelling and shoving cards around.  Life was good back then.
Scored some vintage Valentine napkins...Alissa found the doiles and we split them with each other.  Friends are handy for splitting stuff.
And the big old map underneath.  I bought the whole world for a dime.
I had intended to punch the heck out of it with hearts and butterflies.  
(My unicorn & rainbow punches are in the shop.)
What I didn't realize was that it was sort of laminated...and not really well.
So there were all these weird folds in it.  
Bottom line...when you want to punch out a map, don't get a laminated one.
Out of that whole, entire thing...I think I got four punches.  (Because the oceans are boring, and the rest were weird and foldy.)

2.  feeling calm today.

 Alissa told me about that cool website.  You can plug in any word or name.

 And you can swap out letters if you don't like them.  
Just to warn you...there's only 3 J's to choose from.  bummer.

3.  HSN.
I am now the proud owner of one of these babies:

Woohoo!  Can't wait to start making stamps!
That HSN is a dangerous thing. :)
Miss Teresa is on again this morning at 9...

I have a lunch date today with my mom.  Luke has a basketball game tonight.
Other than that...it's life as usual today.
Enjoy your Thursday!