Okay so I saw this on another blog and took the quiz. This is so ME! It even had Rob laughing. You should give it a try.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
The South
Philadelphia
North Central
The West
Boston
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have">What American accent do you have? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Sorry I'm so slacking!

I'm trying to stay off the computer more and as a result I'm getting more housework done! Shh.. don't tell Rob. Time flies when your on the computer and I tend to bounce around checking out stuff and next thing I know it's 1 1/2 later. So I've only been on to pay bills and do some journaling for a few scrap pages. Yes I said scrap pages. I did 2 on Sunday and I have one that needs journaling from the scrap social.

On Saturday we did our first attempt at Wyatt's 3yr pictures. Yeah, that was NO picnic. This boy will not sit still. We sang to him and still wanted nothing to do with us. I might have two good shots. Check them out. Wyatt will not look at the camera and so I really don't like any of the shots. Maybe I'll try again but outside with better lighting.

I think this will be my next want. If I'm gonna do portraits I need better lighting!!

That and next time I'll grab Daddy's drum stool. Wyatt like to sit on that. hehehe

Off to shower and get the day going.

Carrie

They say it's your birthday.....

It's my baby boy's 3rd birthday!

That boy will not look at the camera for ANYTHING!!!

He had a very happy day. Thomas the Tank engine was present everywhere. His gifts include; birthday money from Grandpa Percy, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Joann and G-Grandma Billig. Wyatt got lots of new underwear, Thomas the train flashlight, train set, coloring books, carrying case, new trains, "Cars" outfits, and extra train tracks, dinosaur that walks. Lots of stuff to keep him busy.

Your birthday party guests include: mom, dad, kelly, nina percy, grandmom ross, grandpa foth, uncle mikey, amanda, clayton and donovan hershey (hopefully one day the hersheys will become percys') ;)

So for Wyatt's 3rd Birthday (which is actually today) a list of Wyatt's 3 favorite things

Toys; Thomas, Toy Story, Cars

Movies; (this varies a little) Toy Story 1&2, Cars, Thomas :), Monsters inc, Robin Hood

Disney channel shows; jojo's circus, little einsteins, mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny

(A little Wyatt fact:) Wyatt carries Thomas the train everywhere he goes, he even sleeps with him.

So Happy Birthday Wyatt!! We love you!!

So I'm one of those people who want to take self portraits but I'm usually unhappy with the results. I decided on Wednesday to give it a try. Using Kelly as my assistant we took about 15 shots. Out of those I kinda like four of them. It didn't help when small fry just kept clicking and laughing as she worked. Of course after each shot she was saying,"come here,check it out". Oh well back to the drawing board.

Today the kids and I are heading to a place called Pump it Up. An inflatable playground. I will try to take a few shots of this place and will show you later.

Tonight is the scrap social at J's and I'm pretty sure I have 4 people signed so far. So should be a good one.

I do want to say thank you to all of you who have shown support for my decision this last week. I have felt so good and happy since I talked on Sunday and I kinda want to work tomorrow (my last day) and kinda don't. I will of course and I won't shirk my duties.

Otherwise, not much on the homefront. I'm thinking of trying to have a garage sale so that I can try to raise $200 to buy this http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60071358. I even did a drawing on graph paper so that I coud see if it could really be usable and oh is it. Talk about getting organized. This would work. But I need $220 to go to Tempe to buy it.

Oh and speaking of scrapping supplies check out what one of my favorite companies is coming out with http://www.autumnleaves.com/web/chaSummer07/cha2007Big.html . So check out their cool catalog. the first stuff you will see is new and coming out, then it was stuff that has been already released. Autumn leaves is one of my downfall. love their stuff.

For mom here is the link to the Rusty Pickle new debuts http://www.rustypickle.com/ This is what we will look for if we go to CKC in phx.

Okay enough eye candy I gotta hit the showers to get us going to Pump it up at 10am

hugs C

Called to Testify for the Lord

Over the last few months i have been really struggling with lots of different issues. Issues like should we have baby #3, why hadn't I gotten pregnant yet?(hence ? #1) Should I quit work? Why was I so angry at people who didn't even know I was angry at them? Why can't I make friends easier? Missing Kim and our friendship. Feeling jealous of Rob with his close friendship with Mike and Alonzo. It keeps going.
On Thursday I had a scrap class. When I was dropping off my roster another teacher and cordinator praised my work and said that she felt that I had talent and that she felt I was ready for the next level. Would I be interested in the card making class and rubber stamping? Both things that I want to learn but 1) never made it a priority and 2) my schedule was so restricted that I felt I couldn't open up any more. Plus Rob was complaining that he would like it if I was home at night and that we could do more on weekends as a family.
Okay, in order to do that I have to stop working. I can't stop working. I want to but I can't.
My mind has been spinning with all this for months. With what this teacher is asking of me, is this what I'm suppose to do? Can I really stop working and pursue my hobby and passion?
After I put the kids down to bed Friday night. I took my bible and sat down on the couch to meditate before I went into prayer. I couldn't get my brain to shut down. I finally told myself to "shut up" and began my prayer.
*Father, please let me hear you. Tell me what you want me to do. I want to follow your will and I can't hear you or I'm doubting myself. Is what I'm feeling you are me?* (I really prayed more than this but I'm trying to keep it short)
I flipped my bible to 2 Chronicles 1:7- God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, "What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!"
I closed my bible and I sobbed for ten minutes. Is this really the Lord speaking to me? Can I have my dream? Amazed and just plain humbled I asked God again in prayer to please show me. He knows how thick-headed I can be. I opened up my bible again and this time it was to Jeremiah 25:4- again and again, the Lord has sent you his prophets, but you have not listened or even tried to hear.
I closed my bible and continued to pray and cry.
I hear you Father. You have been talking to me and I wouldn't shut up long enough or really give up control enough to do what you were telling me to. Thank you. Thank you for being there for me.
I kinda felt I was pushing my luck but I asked God to verify this is really what he wanted me to do. I reopened my bible exactly back to Jeremiah 25.
I hear your message Lord and I will submit to your will.
I felt comfortable and free in what I was hearing. I talked to Rob and he agrees that I must make this leap of faith and let go of the control and let the Lord provide, like he always has. I will freely admit I am scared to pieces and that on paper it doesn't look good but this is something that has to be done.
As I was finishing my prayer time God put before me two more verses.
First was Matthew 2:6- For a ruler will come for you who will be the shepherd for my people. (the Lord is my shepherd)
and Romans 4:5- But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.
How awesome is this? That the Lord would smack me upside the head and tell me what he wanted. That He loves me enough to guide me and forgive me and to lead me down the enlightened path. I have felt so truly blessed that today I stood before who was their of my congregation and told them most of my experience. I wasn't as eloquent as I am writing this and even before my church family I broke down several times in tears. But for some reason todays message (despair and psalm 113) and the song "over and over again" compelled me to tell of this experience.
I just hope and pray that what God has given for me and that I was able to stand up and say will help someone else in our church or surrounding family.
Oh, and yesterday I gave my notice. My last day will be Sat.21st.
I will pursue my passion in Scrapbooking and maybe take on a couple more classes at J's, which will fill one Saturday a month. Leaving me free. Free for my family and wherever the Lord will lead me. My anger is gone, my despair is gone. My prayers will continue, to stay strong, and listen, to have faith and give up the control.
PS my bible has no tabs, I just let my fingers do the walking.

Photo shoot

So I was talking to my Mom and she would like me to take Wyatt's 3 yr pictures instead of us going to Sears. So I thought I would practice on Kelly first to get things set. Knowing Wyatt he isn't going to give me much and I will have to work very fast.

This shot of Kelly would be perfect as an 8x10 and put some type of quote on the black space to her right.

This bottom picture is so typical of these two right now. For the life of me I couldn't get them to work together.

Kelly is huffing cause she has to share the light with Wyatt and Wyatt could care less, he really just wants to get down off the kitchen table.
Now after I had taken a bunch of shots I uploaded so that we could check them out. That's when I noticed how "cool" they looked. So I flipped over my reflector and tried the warm side. These last two shots of Kelly relect that.

So lesson learned. I need a helper to hold the reflector. I need a helper to work with Wyatt so that I can take a clear picture of him. I changed my settings so that they were faster but that boy is greased lightning.

Look at all the red in their hair?

I have mom on a hunt to find a picture of Mikey at Wyatt's age. Right now with all that hair he reminds me so much of Mikey it's not funny. Not that that is a bad thing, it just amazes me. So I have one more backdrop to try out and I must take notes so that I know what techniques worked for me with each color.

So for Dad here is Today's pictures of the kids. And one of me trying to wrestle Wyatt into place so that I could take one picture of him.

This just reaffirms that I'm not going to waste money at Sears to get wholly frustrated so that I might get a shot of Wyatt for his 3rd year photos. I'll do it myself and I can do it over a few days.

I have a remote switch that can trigger the shutter on the camera. I am struggling with Kelly cause she wants to push the button. No problem, except she wants to look up into the camera and all I get is a shot of her nostrils. Not cute. And the switch is only two feet long. I need to look for a 6fter. Oh, Rooobbb......... ;)

But this includes Kelly in the process and makes her more of a willing subject. Now if I could just get Wyatt to sit still...........

Scrap crap related

if you like bo bunny scrappin supplies you gotta check out their new lines coming http://www.bobunny.com/topsecret/Summer%20Release_files/SummerCatalog.pdfthis fall. Yes click on this link and scroll through the 40 pgs of products.
Now one of my other favorite new companies is called Piggy Tales and you should be able to check out their new stuff here http://piggytales.com/CHASummer2007SneakPeek.php.
Also Mom likes Rusty Pickle papers and they have a new line out called "Captain Jack". I'm thinking I may need to get some of these in September when we go to Phx. sorry I don't have a link yet but I'll keep you posted.
Hugs Carrie

Goood Friday Morning!!

We are just hanging out this morning getting the house cleaned up from Rob installing 5 windows yesterday. Yes in all that heat. But it was fairly easy for him to change them. Now we are just killing off all the flies that came in. Lovin the new windows. We will see this winter how much of a change we have made. Now if we could just finish the bathroom........

When it came to changing the window in the scrap room/drum room I had to move most of my stuff so Rob could even reach the window. Which led me to a point about organization. Rob and I have talked before and I have seen it in person and we agree that this piece of furniture would be beneficial to my scrap crap organization.

Also this morning I took a picture of the last layout that needed to get done. And then.... I took some photos of Kelly and Wyatt. I need to wash my white sheet or at least iron it out but I was just playing around. So without further ado.....

Have a happy 7/7/07/!

I suck.
Set up tripod. check
put long lens on camera. check
put camera on tripod. check
turn camera on. check
what? NO memory card. WTF!!!
(what the f*ck)
I forgot that when I uploaded the scrapbook pages to take the card out of the computer.
Now, I have 3 cards total, the rest are still stitting on the computer desk because I was waiting to get my paris pictures back before I deleted the pictures off.
dork. dork. dork.
Oh well there is always next year. Right?

So we pretty much just hung around the house for the 4th. Took a quick run to best buy and joanns but otherwise we had some cake and ice cream with mom and I gave her the east indian tapestry that I bought in Paris. Had sesame chicken for dinner and went and saw the fireworks.
Hope you had a better 4th!
hugs Carrie

Happy 4th of July!! and Happy Birthday MOM!!!

I love fireworks! I'm hoping tonight we will go see the fireworks up on A mountain. I think if we go I will try to take some shots and see what I can get. This year at least the kids can enjoy them also.
Birthday girl (Mom) should be stopping by later this afternoon and I have bought a cake and I have her present. Okay the present isn't wrapped but it's in a bag. Does that count.

Well I've been pretty busy the last couple of days but I'm almost finished with all the layouts needed for JoAnns and Babies R Us. Shown below are the newborn boy and girl layouts. Both kids are at 1 month old. You should be able to click on the to see them bigger.

The baby shower layout is primarily done but I'm gonna go to J's with mom today and I will pick up some 3-d embellishments that will make the layout pop some more. The birthday layout has been a favorite and is actually the only birthday layout I have ever done. Yep Kelly is turning 5 soon and this is the first b-day layout for either kid.

I still need to do the wedding layout but I need to get a photo sized so I'm going to have to go to Walgreens for a quickie size job. The picture in my head is very elegant looking and I have at least completed the journaling.
Do you like my "background"? when I was at wally world they had cheap flat sheets in black ,white and tan that I can use for backdrops. Granted they need to be ironed but in a pinch I think it worked very well.

Gotta go beat some children :)

Happy 4th!!

It's too dang hot to be outside so the kids and I are going to be laying low around the house. It also doesn't help that I have a little cold and runny nose. Summer colds suck.

Finally went back to work Friday and some of Saturday. business has been really bad so I was sent home early on Saturday. No problem from me cause Pop called (Kim's dad) and he took us out to dinner.

Pop had stopped by late last week and asked me a few questions and then he took the kids and I to breakfast. Pop asked me if I wanted Kims cake decorating stuff. Then he wanted my full name, birthdate and social. When I asked why, he said he has made me #2 behind his brother Matt to inherit. Kinda freaked me out and honored me in the same breath. I didn't want to think about any one else dying for a while.

Pop hasn't gone through Kim's house yet and is in no hurry but he will contact me when he is ready. That's fine cause I'm not ready yet either.

**So I got some further insight from the sewing teacher about this scrapbook layout for Babie's R us. I guess one of their district coordinators took my class and was so impressed by my confidence and product knowledge that she came into the store specifically asked if I could make 3 layouts for their store to go with whatever else that Joann's is doing. That was such a cool compliment :). I have had a couple of classes that just clicked and some I have struggled to connect with the students. I believe I remember this lady and it was in one of my good classes.

So today I have to run to Wally world and pick up the photos for the layouts that I need to get done and then it's time to get to work.

** A scrappin heads up. The CHA or Craft and Hobby Assoc is gearing up and previews of what is coming out for the Fall and Winter scrappin products are starting to make their rounds so If I see something cool I'll try to post a picture or link here.

I'm also going to be taking some NEW shots of the kids and of Rob. So keep a lookout.

hugs C