Scrapbook Sunday X

02.07.10

I made a different type of layout this week.  I made a "month in review" layout for January (and it was my first 2-page layout!).  It tells about the main events from the month.  I had seen this idea in several scrapbooking magazines I've read recently and I wanted to try it.  And I loved it!  It is such a good way to capture everything from each month - from a snippet of big events to everyday life.  I thought it was perfect since I've been taking a picture a day now.  It gave me a place to put some of my favorites.  I think I will continue this at least for the rest of the year.

You might notice that I made a list in the lower right corner.  These numbers are the date the picture was taken and they correspond to the ones on the pictures.  This gave me a simple way to tell what each picture is about.

02.06.10

Today we spent some money we'd been saving for a while.  We took advantage of some sales and traded this old model (beastly heavy and big)...

...for a newer model (weighing less than the old model).

We also had to christin the new tv tonight by watching a blu-ray DVD.  We chose Quantum of Solace since we needed an action movie.  It was a-ma-zing!  The detail was incredible.  We're looking forward to watching more in the future!

02.05.10

This week I decided to do my long run on Friday instead of Saturday like I normally do.  I did this because I didn't want to run 8 miles in several inches of snow tomorrow.  I thought I could pick a time this morning when there wouldn't be much traffic and there would be minimal snow.

I was kind of right about the minimal snow part, but the roads were still kind of slick because it had started snowing and spitting iceballs.  And I was completely wrong about the traffic.  There was much more than I expected.  There were a few times I had to stop running and wait momentarily off in the grass.  Let's just say I was thankful for the times I was running on sidewalks (most of the time) and thankful when I finally reached home after 70 minutes.

02.04.10

Tonight I quickly mixed up some brownies for small group.  I decided to put some pecans on half this time.  I just remember my mom always doing this when I was growing up.  It just adds a little something extra to a box of brownie mix.

02.03.10

The remaining training time I have for the Indianapolis Mini is nearing 3 months.  Today I made sure to map out the rest of my long runs and what mileages they need to be.  Last year the most I ran before the race was a 2-hour run, which was somewhere around 13 miles.  This year I'm shooting for a long run up to 15 miles before the race.  I'm hoping this will give me more "umpf" at the end of the race.  Last year the finish line could not come soon enough - the last couple of miles were pretty hard.

May 8th will be here before I know it!  I can't believe I only have 3 months left to train!

02.02.10

Happy Groundhog Day!  Even though Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today, I can see that spring is right around the corner.  Our red maple is showing the slightest bit of red color on its buds.

02.01.10

This is what we have to the west of our neighborhood.

It's nice to be near corn fields.  It gives the feeling of the country and it's so quiet.

01.31.10

I was a slacker this week and didn't get a scrapbooking layout done.  And no picture today.  Today was pretty busy between church stuff and getting ready to send Chris off again tomorrow for another week away for work.

Maybe I'll get one layout (or more) done this week.

01.30.10

Chris and I got to spend some time together this weekend after he had been gone all week for work.  We went to see a 5:00 movie and then made dinner at home afterwards.  We were trying out a new recipe from a Pampered Chef cookbook my sister gave us for Christmas.  I was surprised when Chris walked out with his chef jacket on.

It made me smile.  The last time he wore it was almost 4 years ago to cook the food for our dear friends' wedding.

01.29.10

I'm so happy that I'll get to see my better half tonight.

01.28.10

I was loving the blue color of the sky and clouds today against the snow on the ground.

"Mommy, I like Whitey"

01.27.10

"Whitey" (as I like to call him) is Maggie's new friend as of today.

This afternoon we went on our walk.  As we headed towards the ponds, Whitey was there to greet us.  Whitey is a white dog but I'm not sure what breed.  He's a little bigger than Maggie with similar length of hair.  There are a few amazing things about him.  He has such pretty white fur.  He's pretty much all white except for a very light tan strip down his back.  So gorgeous!  And he has the most amazing eyes.  They are blue!  So pretty to look at.

So we've met Whitey before but he's always just run off after he comes up and sniffs Maggie.  He escapes from his home occasionally.  I've seen him on a chain in the backyard of his house during the warmer months of the year.  Maybe he just likes to run around for a while.  (I'm sure his owner doesn't like it.)  But he seems like a good dog (other than escaping).

Instead of running off today, he decided to kind of follow us on our walk around the big pond.  Since he was kind of sticking around, I wanted to get a picture of him.  While I was getting the camera out Maggie was whining at Whitey because she wanted him to come back and play with her.  (Maybe that's why he stuck around longer.)  I was mad when I discovered my batteries were completely dead!  So we contiued on with the walk.  Whitey eventually came back to us when we were halfway around the pond to play with Maggie a little more.

The two of them had fun.  They would sprint with each other, except Maggie couldn't go too far since she was still attached to the leash!  She got in her playful stance to get him to come back to her.  I could tell she just wanted to run to her heart's content with him.  It was so cute.  Then when Whitey ran on ahead of us, Maggie was upset.  We walked fast the rest of the way though.

Then that was pretty much it.  It was great to watch Maggie have such a good time, even if it was short-lived.  She seems more tired tonight.  I think I know why!

Since I didn't get a picture of Whitey today (uhhh!), I'll show you another one I took today.  One of Maggie pouting.  She's been sad this week because her daddy is out of town all week long.  So she's been stuck with me.  It's not the worst thing in the world, but she just adores Chris and looks forward to the time she gets with him every night.

I miss you dad!

01.26.10

It snowed again this week.  Winter has not left yet.  The recent warmer temperatures spoiled me.  Nevertheless, the snow is always beautiful.  Here's a picture of something that happens quite often when it snows and is windy - our front door gets framed with snow.

Colts Win!!!

01.25.10

Yep, that's right!  Last night the Colts pulled out their victory to head to the Super Bowl!  The Colts were making a certain someone nervous in the first half, but they were able to turn things around.  We're excited to see them in the Super Bowl again.  Go Colts!

Chris' lucky Colts perephenalia and hole-y jeans proved themselves once again!  Notice the Colts blanket also wrapped around his feet :)

Scrapbook Sunday IX

01.24.10

This week I decided to do something different - I made my first layout that is not part of a pre-determined album.  In the past I've always made a layout for a vacation or part of our wedding album, etc.  But there was a story I wanted to tell that just couldn't wait for an album to put it in.  What story would be worthy of this?

The story of Maggie eating the chocolate-covered coffee beans!

I must also note that this was the first layout I used pictures that I printed at home!

01.23.10

Today included sorting through and reorganizing some of our files.  Fun stuff...but it has to be done every once in a while.

01.22.10

Last night I made angel food cake for the first time and served it at small group.  We topped it with raspberries and cool whip.  Since I had never made angel food cake (or seen it made) before, I didn't realize you had to do this while it was cooling...

Sleepy mornings

01.21.10

Maggie tends to sleep a lot during the weekday mornings.  Today was no exception.  Today she looked extra passed-out.

01.20.10

Tonight we caught up on watching 24 on our VCR.  Yes our VCR.  Yes, in the days of advanced technology like DVR and TiVo, we are still taping tv shows on a videotape.  The ironic thing about our VCR/DVD combo player (purchased around 2002) is that the DVD player doesn't work.

So excited that the new 24 season has started!

Treat for house anniversary

01.19.10

We have a sweet realtor (who has also been Chris' family friend for a long time) that has given us a free loaf of bread from Great Harvest Bread Co. to celebrate our house anniversary.  She gave us yet another free loaf this year.  We got to enjoy the bread this morning for breakfast.  We got the same kind that we did last year - Cinnamon Swirl.  You have to try it if you haven't already.  I like just heating it up in the microwave with nothing on it.  Yumm!

This means we have been in our house for just over 2 years now. I honestly don't know where the time went. It seems like yesterday that we were moving in the dead of winter!  Lafayette is now the place we've lived the longest since we've been married.  We'll see if we surpass the 2.5 year mark that I lived at my apartment in Rolla (both before and after we got married).

01.18.10

Chris and I played some Mario Kart on the Wii tonight.  It seems like it's been way too long since we've done that.

Scrapbook Sunday VIII

01.17.10

Another page from the Florida trip with my family.  I did a very simple page.  I especially like the pic of my dad just chilling on the bench with the castle in the background.

01.16.10

The first dog party

Tonight our small group decided to have a party at John and Stacie's to watch the Purdue and Colts' games.  We also decided we would include the dogs too (since our plans to do that for New Year's got spoiled)!  So we had much craziness with four dogs in one room!  Those in attendance (dogs) were our Maggie, the 1 year old bassett hound Harvey, the 8 month old great dane Gus, and the eight year old greyhound Patti. 

Maggie had the chance to play for an hour with Harvey before the others came and Harvey wore her out.  Harvey kept jumping up at her and following her around when she tried to walk away.  When Maggie and Harvey would jump up at each other, Harvey would just collapse because of his smaller size.  But he just kept trying! 

Then Gus (affectionately called "the horse" now) and Patti came.  Patti did her own thing like she usually does and laid down in the corner. (I didn't blame her.)  The other three played for a while.  Eventually Maggie decided it was time to lay down by herself and try to get away from the craziness.  Harvey kept trying to instigate things with Gus.  That was hilarious since little Harvey was trying to beat up on big Gus.  He did have some luck in running around the couch, especially when he changed direction.  (His size was an advantage then.)  It looked really funny because Harvey was running fast and Gus just looked like he was walking!

We tried to separate all of them for a while and then Harvey, Gus, and Maggie started playing again.  (I think Maggie got a second wind.)  One way John and Stacie kept Gus still was using a remote control car (because Harvey is scared of it) or just man-handling him :)

Throughout the whole night you could tell Harvey was tired and needed to rest, but he kept fighting it.  He would lay down for a sec and then get right back up to run around and play.  That dog has some stamina and fight in him.  He knew he was fighting a losing battle with 2 bigger dogs, but that didn't matter.  He was getting some major playtime and he wasn't going to waste a minute!

Oh, I almost forgot!  Maggie had another cat chase tonight.  (She just had another with my sister's cat at Christmas when she was hyped up on a whole carton of chocolate-covered coffee beans!)  One of the doors got opened to where one of the cats was and leave it to Maggie to find the cat!  Harvey, Maggie, and Max the cat scampered around until Max jumped up on top of the kitchen cabinets to escape what could've been disaster.  He stayed there the whole night hiding from the dogs.  Poor guy!

Before we knew it the Colts had won and it was time to leave.  It was definitely a memorable night and I think all the dogs had a great time.  They wore us adults out just watching them continually running around and playing!

Here's three of the dogs in one shot (without Patti).  I'll have to post some more pics soon!

01.15.10

I made chili for dinner yesterday and we also got to have it again for leftovers tonight.  Chris usually makes chili when we have it, but since I made it this time I made it soupy-er than normal.  Chris always likes really thick chili but I like it a little soupy.

01.14.10

While we were walking this afternoon, Maggie's collar came apart.  She was good and didn't run off too far - only down to the next house.  She was getting some other dogs excited in the meantime.  Maggie started darting around a little bit and even went on someone's front porch :) But she was good and eventually let me clip the leash onto her bandana.  I'm glad she had that on because it made getting her home easier.  Once we got home I realized it was really easy to put the collar back together.  I guess it's harder to figure things out when you're worried about keeping track of your dog!

01.13.10

There is hope for spring.  Today was thankfully the first day above freezing this year!

01.12.10

This is what my "office" looks like now-a-days.  Our home office and my work office.

01.11.10

Happy Birthday Chris!

Scrapbook Sunday VII

01.10.10

This week I made another page in my book of my family's trip to Florida that I've mentioned previously. I just love the pictures in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom!

This was also the first page I got to use something I cut from my new Cricut that I got for Christmas! I cut the stars from it on this page.

01.09.10


We made a trip to Columbus this weekend to spend with Chris' family. We also had the chance to watch Kaitlyn at her home gymnastics meet. It was a lot of fun to watch her compete, as we don't get to very often. She performed on the beam, floor exercise, vault, and uneven bars. She did well on the beam, placing 5th in her level/age division. This is her waiting to start on the beam.

01.08.10

Our back patio is currently covered in several inches of snow. We had a little over 4 inches yesterday and another half inch this morning.

Maggie likes the snow pretty well. She likes to eat the snow while we're walking. But I had her outside with me while I was shoveling the driveway. She walked to the front door and just stood there, meaning she wanted to go inside and not stand in the cold. I honestly don't blame her.

01.07.10

Can you tell which ankle I hurt yesterday?

I'm taking today off from running to rest my ankle and because there are several inches of fresh snow on the ground today. A less than stellar ankle and a fair amount of snow do not mix well.

Tracks

01.06.10

One part I love about the snow is noticing the animal tracks that can be seen all over our neighborhood. Bunny tracks (such a good ice cream!) are very numerous. The snow also gives me a clue into what Maggie is always sniffing in the grass when there's no snow!

Along a different line...I needed to be more careful where I placed my "tracks" today while running (even though I thought I was being careful with all of the snow and ice still out there). I stepped on a pile of leaves covered by snow and tweaked my ankle a bit. I was mad when I did that because I was having such a good run and it was warmer today too - it got into the 20's. (It felt so good not to have my face freezing off!) I was over a mile from home at the time. I walked for a bit, then decided it felt ok enough to run the rest of the way home. It's not bad at all, but it still popped when I stepped wrong and swelled up a bit later. Not the first time I've hurt my ankle running. (The other time I twisted it while there wasn't any snow and messed it up more than this time!) I'm hoping it will feel ok tomorrow or Friday.

Now it's time to get ready for the 3 to 6 inches of snow we're supposed to get tomorrow. It could be our first big snow for the year!

01.05.10


My scrapbook area is organized a little better now after my work in there over the weekend. At least I have room to work. It's not ideal, but will have to be fine for the meantime.

01.04.10


I decided to start scanning in some old photos today. We now have a scanner and I have plenty of pictures that I only have hard copies of. Remember the good old non-digital days? Some of these pictures are my parents' that I have at my house from a past project. So I decided to use this as my picture for the day - me and my big sis on the backyard swing at our house in St. Louis (before the days of my little brother). Brings back a lot of good memories. Yep, that's me on the right with the blond hair :)

Scrapbook Sunday VI

01.03.10

So I haven't done any scrapbooking this week since we just got back into town on Thursday (and I was sick too). The last few days I've actually been organizing the room where I have my scrapbooking stuff. It got pretty messy before Christmas and I had some new things to put away, so it needed to be done to be able to work and keep my sanity.

On my last scrapbooking post, I mentioned that I was making 2 mini albums as Christmas presents. I gave these to my 2 sister-in-laws. I hope they enjoy adding pictures and writing in them to make the albums their own. My favorite page would have to be the cover of Kaitlyn's book (pic below) because it's colorful and I just love the paper I bought for her album - it suits her personality (and the fact that she's almost 13) very well.

01.02.10

We are living in a frozen tundra right now. This is what our subdivision streets have looked like - a sheet of ice. It makes for some fun driving and running. The snow has also been crunchy when you step on it. That's when you know it's cold. The high's for the past few days have been in the teens. I'm trying to brace myself for the days it gets even colder.

Picture Update - Christmas 2009

Happy New Year's!

I'm glad to be feeling a little better today. I've proved to be much more useful since I'm not just sleeping all day! (I still slept in until almost 10am and have been in my pj's most of the day.) Today was the time to put all of the Christmas decorations away. Until next Christmas...

I also got to update all of my pics from over the holidays. It takes a while to catch up on almost 2 weeks! I'll also post more pics from our 4 Christmases because I took much more pics this year than normal. That will be for another day :)

12.31.09

The last day of 2009. An interesting but good year for us. This morning I woke up not feeling well - headache, chills, sore throat - the makings of a cold. I'm glad we came home today. Too bad I'll miss the New Year's Eve party and we'll have to cancel the ski trip for tomorrow. We'll definitely have to reschedule that ski trip.

Tonight I had some hot chocolate, but not just any hot chocolate - mint hot chocolate. It smells just like Andes! (I can't verify that it tastes like Andes too since my sense of taste is not working well right now :) Wonderful! Thanks to my husband for getting me some different hot chocolate varieties at the after-Christmas sales.

12.30.09

Beth and I made a trip to the outlet mall in Edinburg today since they live so close. I love going to this mall. I'd say it's one of the better outlet malls I've been to. Today was also my first time inside a Coach store (an outlet store, but nonetheless, Coach). Beth and Craig gave me a purse for Christmas and we went to exchange it since my wallet wouldn't fit in the one they gave me. I didn't get one that "screams Coach", but it does scream hot pink (since it's a hot pink purse). I'm excited to use it soon!

12.29.09

We played Euchre with Chris' parents tonight. We usually play cards when we see them. Something fun for us to do together and we always have fun. Chris was my partner this time...and we lost.

12.28.09

Today we made the trek all the way from Joplin, MO to Columbus, IN - 9 hours of driving. Maggie decided it was time to sit in the comfy seat instead of the folded-down seat. So cute.

12.27.09

I love this view out the back of my parents' new house. And the snow makes it all the better.

12.26.09

We traveled to Joplin today to spend a few days at my parents' house. This pic is of Maggie opening her beaver from Aunt Katie. The beaver is like a squeaky, stuffed animal but without the stuffing - perfect for Maggie. Thanks Katie!

12.25.09

A Christmas morning drive on Highway 63 from Mexico to Rolla, MO in the snow. We're going to Rolla for the Stevens' family Christmas at the Wellington Place clubhouse.

12.24.09

Today we were at the Barnes' Christmas party in Mexico (held at Robert Lee and Donna's house). Good to see everyone and the new addition to the family, Logan (Chris' cousin's son).

12.23.09

All the presents wrapped and placed under the tree. Leaving this afternoon and heading for Missouri to see family for Christmas.

12.22.09

I never get tired of this adorable face.

Maggie and I played for a bit in the snow this morning. I shoveled the driveway. I also threw some snow at Maggie and she seemed a little annoyed because she was cold and wanted to go inside. When I threw a snowball up in the air, she tried catching it in her mouth. It was so cute.