Facebook

I just love Facebook so much! My sister turned me on to it and I just recently reconnected with old friends from school. It's been such a hoot reminiscing about high school days. For example, here is a pic of me my senior year in my Cavalier outfit. Ha ha!




One of my high school girlfriends I talk to alot on Facebook is Linda, seen below. I'm so glad she snapped this photo of us at our reunion a few years ago. I just love this girl!!





I've been reminiscing alot lately as you can tell by last few posts. I guess it's that time of year to reflect and think about what's truly important in this life. Facebook has alot to do with it also. Thanks for letting me share.

T
XOX

Wow, how time flies.

Josh and Ryan, then (1996)




Josh and Ryan, now (2008)





My how time flies. Sad.

Hello

At the insistence of so many friends, I guess it's time to update my blog. Thank you so much for caring enough to keep in touch with me and for praying for us.

Eric and I are separated at the moment. Please pray for us to have the strength to get through this.

We got a cute little Calico kitty we haven't named yet. Does anyone have any suggestions? We also have a Jack Russell terrier, Odie. Odie sleeps under our bed. One night we couldn't find the kitten. We looked under the bed to find this:



I guess the kitty hasn't figured out yet that there is no milk coming out of there! LOL! Poor Odie. He seems to take it well, but he'll have enough of it and nip at her and tell her to stop it. Ha ha.

Most of y'all don't know this yet, but I officially work for Piggy Tales!! I worked CKC-Kansas City the first part of October. Here I am teaching one of my classes. I taught four classes in all. It was a great learning experience seeing that I had never taught at this level before. It was great that all four classes were packed. If everything works out ok, I'll be working for PT at CHA-Winter. Hopefully I won't be sick and will be able to get more pictures.

Here's me and Connor on our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch. It was a gloriously beautiful day. We always look forward to this little tradition.



Well, I haven't scrapped much so there's really nothing for me to show off.

I love you all and appreciate each and everyone's friendship and prayers!!

~Tree

Update

Hi Everyone!

At Detta, Joy and Cheryl's request, here is an update.


Eric and I have been going through hard times in our marriage. Please pray for us.

On to happier news...



Here are a few cards I made for Papercrafts Magazine Gallery Idol contest. I'm proud to say that I made the Gallery top 20!!













JULY:

Ryan came home for two weeks. For two weeks we had a plethora of smelly teenage boys in and out of the house. It was nice to have the house noisy again, even for just a little while.






Yes, I did go to CHA. Here is a pic of me and a good friend, the ultra talented Basic Grey girl, Kelly Goree. Isn't she just so dang cute!!









Here I am with two of my roomies, the ultra talented Margie and Becky Chabot.








Here I am working the Piggy Tales booth with owner, Debbie Juden. I love Piggy Tales so much. They really make me feel like I'm a family member and not just a designer!!

Ok, Detta, there's about 4 pictures of me smiling. Yes, I do have teeth. But I look horrible when I smile, so now you know why I don't. LOL!


AUGUST:



We were supposed to go to Cancun for a week, but dummy me thought you could still board an airplane overseas with just a driver's license and a birth certificate. Needless to say, we didn't have our passports so we had to reschedule our trip for a later date. So instead we went to Texas to visit with my mom for her yearly visit to the states. I was going anyway, but since we cancelled the Cancun trip, I was able to spend more time in Texas.


We took Connor to San Antonio so we could see Shamu the killer whale at Sea World.




We also visited the Alamo while in San Antonio.





It was also perfect timing for me to catch Ryan on his first day of school. I haven't missed taking his picture on the first day of school. I was worried I wouldn't get it this year since he lives in Texas now with his dad, but it worked out that I could be there. We also took Connor to Surfside beach. It's not the prettiest beach, but hey, it's a beach complete with waves, sand and sea shells!! So he was in heaven. I'll post some beach pics soon. For some reason, my camera card is giving me an error message when I try to download them to my computer.

Here is a picture of me with two of my bestest girlfriends, Gracie (middle) and Maria (right). We worked together at the environmental analytical lab for Dow Chemical company. We had such great times working together that we're now friends for life. Although we've all gone our separate ways, we're still close and keep in touch and get together when we can.






Here is a picture of me with my oldest, Joshua taken at El Toro- my favorite Mexican Restaurant in Clute, Texas.







Thanks for visiting, y'all!! I haven't forgotten about the RAK I promised way back when. In fact, I have several tubs of swaps that I've never used and probably never will use. I hope to get a list of them together to RAK. So check back. When I post the list, let me know which ones you want and I'll send them to ya.

Tree
XOX

Playing with filters

I thought it was time that I showed you a photo of my new do, so I took some snaps of myself and played around with some filters, downloaded free from Optiverve labs- thanks, Kara.

Attention Friends and Family!! This is not a dead blog!!

Hi everyone! I know y'all think that my blog is dead, but it really isn't! It is in dire need of resucitation, though.

Right now we're finally moved in to our new house, but since we're living out in the boonies in a new construction, we're having issues getting the internet hooked up at our place, so I happen to be at work today and thought I'd come over and say hi and give an update!

I don't have any new pics to upload, but even if I did, I wouldn't be able to share them here from work. I will really soon, hopefully. The phone company is working on getting service to our house. Another downer for me is that all my scrap stuff is packed in a million different boxes. I can't wait to get my space set up and organized so I can get to scrappin' again!!

I will be off work for the next two weeks because we shut the plant down for summer vacation every year at this time. So you won't be hearing from me until we either get the internet hooked up at home, finally, or I come back to work in 2 weeks- whichever comes first.

Have a safe and happy summer/july fourth weekend!!!

Love you all!

~tree

Another Piggy Tales project

Well, the house is just about ready. We're waiting on the plumber to tie the septic to the house. I guess the last thing to do is the toilets- a low priority for men since all they have to do is hang it off the porch! LOL!!!

So for father's day, I made Eric this little beauty:

I chose to take a Piggy Tale's slider and alter it to hang off DH's rear view mirror. I put a little saying on the front beside Connor's picture that says, "Daddy, please remember to drive safely". Then when you slide it open, it says, "My life depends on it"

I used a Crop-a-dile to punch holes and threaded the Pumpkin Eater ribbons through the holes.

It was really easy to do since the package of sliders comes with a transparent template- which makes for perfect placement of the sliders.

Hope you have something great planned for the man/men in your life!!

XOX

Piggy Tales- Oh yeah!

I have been down in the scrappy dumps lately. I'm so glad to have found my way back again. Does anyone else get this way?

When I saw these photos of my sweet friend, Morgan's beautiful baby boy, Ari- I just knew I had to scrap them using the new Piggy Tales Steadfast Tin Soldier line. Nothing like the sweetest face to get the ole mojo goin' again! Thanks, so much, Morgan for letting me "borrow" your precious boy!

It's Blog Hop Time again!

I can't believe a whole month has gone by already since the last Papertrey Ink blog hop! You can find out more details about the blog hop here.

Our challenge this month was to utilize score lines in a creative way as a decorative accent to any type of project. So, being the last minute scrapper that I am, I chose to use my Scor-Pal to make a matchbook gift card holder and also to frame the purple mat for the baby onesie. I didn't want to overembellish, so I just added little baby button brads to the onesie. I stamped the onesie using Bitty Baby Blessings Set. I will tuck a gift card inside the matchbook. Thanks for looking!!

WOOOHOOO!!!!!!! DAVID COOK!!!

You shoulda heard me and my mother-in-law screaming when they announced David Cook as the American Idol winner!!!

But the way that Simon judged last night, he gave all THREE rounds to David Archuelta, but I guess America doesn't always do what Simon says!! I said that I didn't care who won because I think they are both phenomenal with bright futures ahead of them. I'm especially proud of David Cook since he's a Missourian.

So, congrats to David Cook! Now I can get on with my life! LOL!!!

AMERICAN IDOL PREDICTION

I had to run in here and tell you who I predict to win tonight before the announcement is made.

I think that David
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ARCHUELTA

is

the

winner!!
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!


We'll see. It's 8:54 p.m.

The announcment is in 6 minutes!!!

Evolution of a home

First of all, as a Mom, I've learned to pick my battles. This one was not worth waging. Connor decided he wanted to dude it up for Mother's day and thought he needed to wear his cowboy boots AND pirate eye patch to church on Mother's day in order to look his best. Also being a mother of grown sons, I knew, this too, would pass. So, I said ok. Thankfully, Dad put a stop to it, but I thought it was so cute and had to snap a pic of it. Boys. LOL!


Remember, you can click on each photo for a better look!!

I thought it was so cute how everyone wants to pile on Grammy because they love her so much. Grammy just loves to be piled on by her boys. The dog really loves her too.

I love to take pictures of sleeping babies, so when I saw Odie and Connor all sprawled out, I couldn't resist. I love Odie's little freckled belly. His belly kinda matches the pillow cases. Ha ha! So cute! Right now, as you can see in the photo, Connor is fascinated with guns- all sizes and shapes of them. He even brings them to bed. He wants to be a soldier, and I said "NO", so to appease me, he says he wants to be a soldier "doctor" and help soldiers who are injured. He just says that to please me, but I know he really just wants to join the army so he can carry around guns. BOYS! Ha ha!

Now on to the house:

Here are the latest pics of the house. Alot of the interior doors are up now, as you can see in this photo. Here is a view walking in from the garage into the mudroom. Behind the bifold doors will be the washer and dryer.

The powder room still lacks the pocket door. Connor's Papa Roger hates pocket doors, so I guess he's saving it for last. He's been helping Eric with the inside work. You can see the desk now sitting under the window. This will be our mail/bill paying/ record keeping/homework station. Connor can do his homework here while I'm cooking dinner since this room is adjacent to the living/kitchen area. He can be away from the action so he can concentrate on what he's doing while still being close enough to me to ask for help. The desk top will be left over granite from the kitchen granite slabs.

The kitchen is in full swing now. All that awaits is the stove, micro/venthood and granite countertops. Here is a sample of the granite. It's called Venetian Gold. We picked it because tt has cranberry flecks in it which will pick up the cabinet color.

As I said before, we wanted to do a little of the craftsman look inside, so we chose a dark cabinet in cherry with an autumn blush finish. We're waiting for the stove and micro/venthood. The cabinets still need to have glass ordered for them. I wanted to have a couple open glass front cabinets to break things up a bit and make it more airy looking. I'll try to take a photo later of the details of the cabinets. Alot of thought went into our choices and I'd love to share our thought process with you!

Here is the view standing in front of the island. To add contrast, we chose to do the island in a different darker finish called Peppercorn. It's almost black. It's the same color we chose for the desk in the mudroom.

My walk in pantry now has a door! Yipee!! Yes, those are dishes in the cabinets. I was running out of room in the apartment, so I loaded up the cabinets with new dishes I bought at Pier 1.

This is the view from the dining area.

Here is the view as you walk in the front door.



Eric has been working on the master bath. Here is the marble shower panels glued and braced up. We're going with bronze fixtures throughout except the hall bath.

Today the exterior of the house will change. We hired a guy to set the rock in place. Here's the before. Tomorrow I'll post the after.

Oh yeah, the view looks nice from here. LOL! And the best part is- he's all mine! LOLOLOL!!




Finally, to leave you on a sweet note, here is Connor's pre-K school picture. I'm so in love with this face!

A I Lament and update

Again, I'm a bad blogger! I know, I know! I don't post and on top of that, I haven't been visiting your blogs lately. We're so busy, I can't even see straight. Two months in a row, I missed submitting for the GSS at Papertrey Ink stamps. I don't have my Piggy Tales project done. And I have yet to make one single RAK to send out on the PTI forum!! UUUURRRRGGGGHHH! Oh yeah, throw in the blog candy I promised and I get the Blog Slackard of the year award!

Ok. Those of you who know me well, know I love to sing. Since I'm too old to enter the American Idol contest, I live my dream vicariously through every year through the AI contestants. Well, I've missed so many shows already because we've had to do one thing or another with the house, but I still try to watch when I can. This week it was down to 3 contestants: David Archuelta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado. The show elimination show comes on at 8 p.m. So I get all hunkered down and settled in waiting patiently for the 8 'o clock hour to roll around. At 7 pm, I get a call from Eric saying he had to rip up the ceramic tile in the bathroom due to a poor tile job by a friend, asking me to run 50 miles round trip to the next town over to Lowe's to get more tile. AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Ok, I'll go if you tell me how to work the $*@#($ VCR to get it to tape at 8:00. Being the technologically challenged person that I am, of course, I couldn't figure out how to tape a show on the VCR and almost reduced to tears. DH volunteers to leave the job and come to the apt. to set it up. I told him not to worry about it, that he had too many more important things to worry about than to tape AI, and that I'd find out through the grapevine how got booted off. So...I said all that to give you a glimpse of what it's like to build your own house. We've had too many of these little snafu's happen along the way that I didn't want to bore you with. But, anyway, I can't wait until this is all behind us and I can have my life back again. It'll be worth it all in the end. I know that.

So who are you rooting for? To tell you the truth, I'm very, very pleased with the outcome and will be happy if either of the David's win. There's no way I could pick one over the other. They are so phenomenally talented and I know each will do well in the future.

I'm going to try to get a pic out of the blog candy I have to give out, as well as pics of the kitchen set into place. Yesterday, the granite company came to make a template of our countertops. Hopefully, the granite countertops will go in next week or the week after. Yipee!! We still have the septic system to install, which it's been so rainy lately, the contractor hasn't been able to get to it! Also, the driveways need concrete as well as the basement walk-out. Those rocks in the driveway are real ankle twisters!!

So to recap- congrats to the two Davids on AI, pictures of the kitchen coming soon, and blog candy coming soon too!!

Ta-Ta!

Updates

Debbie's gonna KILL me, but I had to start off this post on a funny note and show you a pic of Debbie sliding down the slide at the City Museum. They had Drew's 4th birthday party there and as you can see, it was fun for kids as well as the adults. Isn't the look on Debbie's face, priceless? LOL! Poor little Logan looks like, "What the heck is my grandma thinking??" ROFL! Poor thing looks petrified. HA ha ha ha!

Well, I owed everyone pics of the house and so I'm paying off big time now. Tee hee!


Here is the outside:

As you can see, the column bases are poured, but they still need to be covered in rock and the tops built.

Connor and Odie/Scruffy (ha ha) Poor dog has so many nicknames, I don't think he'll ever learn his name. Lately I've been calling him "munch", a hybrid of "mutt" and "crunch". All he wants to do is scrounge up food. He's constantly on the sniff for something to eat. Ha ha.

We still have to put up these outside fixtures, which will flank each side of the front door.

This is the view as you enter in from the garage into the mudroom. Under that window, there will be a bill paying/mail sorting station complete with desk and computer. Hopefully, this little area will keep the paper clutter at bay. The doorway is where the half bath is located. We wanted to have a bathroom easily accessible for washing hands or using the bathroom without having to come through the house.

This is the view from the living room hallway as you're going towards the garage. The wall is painted "Tradewinds"- a Sherwin Williams color. I've always wanted a blue laundry room, cuz blue is the color of water and water is what you use to wash clothes. Ha ha. I'm a dork.

This is the view of the washer/dryer closet and to the left of that is the basement stairwell.

Here is a closeup view of the basement stairs which leads to my nirvana (my scrappy space- soon to come!!)

You've just left the mudroom and to the left is the master bedroom. The walls are "Kilium Beige" and the coffered part is called "Rain". I thought a beige and blue bedroom would be soothing and relaxing. I color matched the bedding I bought from Macy's (see pic below).

Here's a close up of the coffered ceiling in the master bedroom. Eric thought it'd be neat to paint the coffered part blue instead of an accent wall in blue, which really brings out the drama of the ceiling height and makes the coffered part really pop.

Here is the bedding I chose for our bedroom (taken off of Macy's website). I wanted something light, clean, airy and relaxing. I'm done with big floral prints. Yuck.

Here is a close up of the ceiling fan in our master b/r. There's one just like it in the living room too.

Here's the master bath. We painted the bathtub cove in Rain as well as the water closet (toilet room). The rest is painted Kilium beige. What I love best about this is the separate tub from the shower, the his and hers closets (yay! I can close the door to my slobbiness and Eric never has to see it!) and also the private toilet (hooray for private pooping!! LOL!) You can't see it, but opposite of the bathtub wall will be a vanity area with two separate sinks.

We're doing bronze fixtures throughout the house except for the hall bath, which I'll explain later. Here are the bathroom faucets. I ordered the tub and kitchen faucets off Ebay yesterday, so they're not here yet.

Leaving the master, turn left and you're in the great room, which is one big open room housing the living room, kitchen and dining area. The great room is painted in a Sherwin Williams color called, "Nomadic Desert". To really emphasize the fireplace, we painted it a deep chocolate brown, which the name escapes me right now. For some reason the photos aren't representative of the actual colors in real life. I don't think I like this pocket camera that Eric bought me for Christmas. It's a Canon Powershot SD800 IS. I prefer my Nikon D70. There is no comparison in the quality between the two cameras. But the Nikon is a beast to pack around.

Yes, that's me with a bandana on my head and I'm also sporting the infamous camoflauge jacket. Eric cringes everytime he sees me in his jacket. He thinks it's so hoosierish. I think it's heavenly comfortable and soft.

We've been trying to lay the hardwood floors all weekend. We chose a natural birch flooring for it's beautiful variations in the grain and its light color. Aso you can see, Eric had alot of "help" from the two baby boys.

Here are some of the fixtures for this room. This will go over the dining table:

This one will go in the kitchen. We still have to find the right pendant lights to go over the kitchen island.

On the opposite side of the house from the master are two bedrooms and a hall bath. We wanted to have the master bedroom split from the other bedrooms. Here is Eric and Connor in Connor's bedroom. We chose to do his room in that Chestertown Buff color that we originally had painted the greatroom but was too dark. In Connor's room it'll be perfect. We're doing his in a wilderness theme with golds, reds, browns and forest green. The bedding is at Target if you want to see it.

Here is your bedroom if you come to stay with us. We decided that we'll put the bedding that we have for our bed now in this room.

This is one of the bedding sets that we had in our old house that will go in the spare bedroom.



Here is the hall bath painted in Lime Granita- also a SW color. Since this bathroom doesn't have a window, I wanted to do something bright and cheery. The towels came from Target but I just came from their website and couldn't find it. It'll have brushed nickel fixtures in here, which goes better with what I'm trying to do in here.

Here is the light fixture going in the hallway.



Last but not least, here is a peek at our kitchen cabinets. They're from Kraftmaid. We wanted to do a darker wood, so it's cherry with an autumn blush finish. We also wanted clean, simple lines, so we chose a craftsman type style and we'll do bronze knobs.





Now I know why I haven't posted this until now. It took me a solid 2, yes, TWO hours to put this post together with all the photos and journaling and all! I haven't had that kind of time in ages! Luckily, today is my day off, Eric took the day off from work to keep the house project going, the dog AND Connor are both asleep. It's very peaceful now, but I really should've cleaned my house instead of hack on here! LOL!

If' you're still here, thanks for sticking with me until the end. Thanks for letting me share. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about the house project so far. As you can see, alot of thought went into this- from the planning of the layout, the choices of materials and furnishings/colors, etc. to the budget considerations. We've been truly blessed.

Leave a comment and I'll pick some winners for some blog candy. I have stuff I've been meaning to RAK since Valentines so if you get some heart stuff in your rak, you'll know why!

Tee hee!