It has been forever (Halloween) since I posted anything. A lot has happened. I just got home from spending Christmas with my grandsons in MS. PJ is in California visiting his Dad. I saw him on the 20th for our Christmas.
I am seriously considering Lap Band surgery. I have an appointment to see the doctor 1/4/10. I have been overweight since I went through menopause at 42. I really want to do this. I want to be healthy. I want to get in the floor and play with my grandsons. It will not be easy. This is no miracle. I will still have to eat right. I will definately have to exercise, because this 56 yr old body just won't go back like it use to. It is a long, tough road ahead, but I need to do it and I need help. I guess I just want you to know that I am starting a new beginning. Sorry to be so serious. I promise to post Christmas photos soon. Wish me luck!

Halloween

We spent Halloween in Rockport, TX where our travel trailer is parked. It was beautiful weather. We never turned the AC on in the TT, a rare occasion in TX. Adeline came over in her costume to trick or treat. She looked soooooo cute, but only wore it about 3 minutes. Here is my scrapbook page for her album. I entered it in the Candy Corn challenge on Tallyscrappers.

Thugs....not

Brady and Kaden posing for the camera. I read about this technique in a magazine a month or so ago. You use chipboard letters with white based cardstock over it and sand the cardstock. I thought it was really cool and worked perfect for some thugs. Round and round challenge on Tallyscrapper.

Survivor at Tally

Survivor challenges are back at Tallyscrapper. These are so much fun! The challenge is posted on Thursday and you have until the following Wednesday to get your layout done. There is always a little catch in the challenge. This week it was to use something you would need to survive if you were in the middle of nowhere. I used twine and wire. Jim has had to survive in the middle of nowhere and he said to use wire. So, in the tradition of "Save the Fork" at Ciao2, I tried making a fork from wire. NO LAUGHING.

My bff, Kim was here from AR with her boss and a co-worker. We went to Ciao2 for dinner. They were very excited and pleased with Chef Patrick's food. These are the desserts he made for us.

Another one of Adeline.

This is for the challenge at Scrapfit. I am starting to love this blog because it gives me mojo. It was to use a solid color cardstock, 3 pattern papers, at least 2 photos, 2 different ribbons and a star. The tree is a scrap cut from pp in the layout of William. The most important part of the challenge was hidden journaling, which I never do, but it was fun! It is behind the box cardboard and reads, "Jim reading and Adeline in our new travel trailer. Not sure the little stinker liked it." lol Couldn't really tell by the photo if she was doing thumbs up or thumbs down.

Great Grandson

Adeline is so cute, but William is alot of competition for her. Here he is at the Zoo in San Antonio. He is so cute! I have only done one other monochromatic layout. It was for a challene on Tallyscrapper and I really didn't know what I was doing. This time it was fun!

Jim is Home.

Jim failed his stress test on Tuesday so he had a heart cath on Friday. To our surprise, he didn't get anymore stents. (He already has 11.) The artery that has a blockage is so small, the doctor was afraid that putting a stent in it would cause it to collapse. He thinks it will be okay. The doctor also thinks that I can make Jim quit smoking. HA Today at the hospital was the first time I have ever heard him admit that he does smoke. Even though I know he does. Anyway, he is home and seems to be doing well.

This is what I did while waiting at the hospital. That is the one thing I like about digi scrapping, you can do it anywhere.

Taking our Great Grandaughter to the Beach.

We took Adeline to the Beach. She had so much fun. My entry for Scrapfit is Adeline with her Big Da. When his first grandson was born, he was 38, so Jonathon called him "Big Daddy", now the rest of the family has taught Adeline to call him Big Daddy. She calls him "DA". I used RED and I used a metal sun brad and metal fish brads.

ABC Baby Book

A dear friend of mine from Ohio is having her first grandaughter in October. Her daughter, who is also my friend from Tallyscrappers, is having a shower in a couple of weeks. Her Mom put it out there for anyone who wanted to participate, an ABC book. I chose "G" for girl and giggle. These are my 2 pages and I hope she loves them because I had so much fun doing "girly", with apologies to ALL my grandsons.

Scrappy Stuff

I am working on the many photos that I have to scrap from early June when Kaden and Brady visited Texas. We went camping, to the pool and to Schlitterbaun. then we went back to the pool at Gamma and Popaw's house. These boys love the water. Since Tallyscrapper isn't selling kits at the moment, I bought one from Treasured Scrapbboking and I love it!
Kaden at the Beach in Port Aransas, TX.

Kaden,in the pool with his cousins, at Gamma and Popaw Jim's house.

Cooking Demo

Today my son, the Chef, did a cooking demonstration at the Pearl Brewery Farmer's Market. He was a little nervous at first but then he started cracking jokes and really got into it. He did a great job and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I kept giving away my card with the recipes, thinking I could get another and they ran out. So I will have to wait for him to email it to me. It was a cone with tomato salad and cucumber sorbet. It was delicious. I almost didn't taste it because I don't like cucumbers but I am glad I did.

Scrapper's gone Wild!

I had so much fun at the Tally Rally! Got to meet a lot of people in real life that I had only know from the internet. Scrapped a lot of pages. Drank way too much and stayed up way too late and got up early. I haven't recuperated yet. I scrapped with some of my good friends that I did already know like Joan and Dorothy. I met the Staci Compher irl. She has been published in many magazines. I picked up a new daughter, Nicole and finally met Wanda from my home state. I have to also mention that I met Pinky, because she is such an awesome scrapper. There were so many talented ladies there. It was such an inspiration.

Now, for the WILD part. There were jello shots, henna tatoos and a stripper pole. (No I didn't get on the pole, lol.) They also played games with male body parts on their heads. Jim cooked the best barbeque, ever. It was a lot of fun and for the most part a very good time. I heard after the fact that there was drama, but I was oblivious to it all and really enjoyed myself.

One of the games was called a Round Robin. You picked out a photo and a background paper and passed it around your table. Each Lady had 20 seconds to do something to it. I loved the way both of mine turned out. Here they are:

Today is the BIG day! Picking up two of my Tally friends at the airport, eating at my son's restaurant and tomorrow heading to the TEXAS TALLY RALLY! I am so excited. I get to meet and scrap with 34 other ladies. Some I have never met IRL. Several of them have been published in magazines. I will post pics when I return sometime next week. There is going to be scrapping, drinking, eating barbeque and cornhole playing. FUN! FUN!

4th of July!

Britainey (gdd) and Adeline (ggdd) making fish faces.

New travel trailer. 2010 Jayco.

Where has that MS girl been all summer, you ask? We bought a new travel trailer. We are leaving it in Rockport for the summer (and maybe Winter, I hope.) We have been down there almost every weekend. Fishing, going to the beach and swimming in the pool. It is so much fun! For the 4th we just went down there and relaxed. No agenda. Boat show, ate out and spent time with Jody (dd) and Adeline (great grandaughter). Didn't even fight the crowd to see the fireworks, watched movies in our new travel trailer. What a great weekend. Hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July.

How long has it been?

Tobie, Brady and Kaden visited for 10 days. We went camping at the coast where we went to the beach twice, fished once and went to the pool several times. Last Friday, we went to Schlitterbahn. Brady and Kaden had so much fun! I have scrapped Brady but not Kaden YET. These are photos of the hottest, coolest time in TX.

Birmingham AL

Getting up at 3am, leaving for the airport at 4:45am. It takes about 50 minutes to get there. Plane leaves at 6:45am. Arrive Bham at 11:30, class starts at noon. It is a training class for our new computer software. Hope I can stay awake. There are 3 of us going. We get home Friday night at 9:48pm. The "guy" in the group rented a Yaris. Does he have any idea how big my suitcase is? Okay it isn't huge, but it won't fit in a Yaris with 2 other bags and 3 people.

There was a second part to the last challenge of Survivor on Tallyscrapper this week. It was to be posted at random with no announcement. I looked for it all weekend and have gotten online today a million times to see if it was there. I am so sad. I can't do it now. I will be in Bham with no scrappy supplies the rest of the week. I am really bummed out. I like to finish what I start.:(

Blackberry Cobbler

I didn't eat all the blackberries. Made the crust with flour, I can't believe its not Butter Light, Skim milk and Splenda. Put Splenda in the blackberries and yummy. I don't measure anything so can't tell you how much of each. Use your own judgement. Of course, DH had to eat his with ice cream but he doesn't have a weight problem.

Farmer's Market

Chef PJ at the Farmer's Market buying fresh vegetables for the restaurant.

Jim and I met PJ and his other Chef friends at the grand opening of the Pearl Farmer's Market. It is located behind the old Pearl Brewery. (Side note: I came to San Antonio for a National Jaycee convention in 1981, before PJ was even thought of and we had an event at the Pearl Brewery.) Anyway, it was packed. People eveywhere. We bought Cinnamon pecans, Peach and Pepper Habanero sauce, Pecan peach butter with rum, bread and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. We even got sweet strawberries from Poteet TX. Tomorrow we will be eating fresh green beans, corn and cabbage. Maybe blackberry cobbler for dessert, if I have any left. I can't stop eating them.

After that, Jim and I went to Sam's and bought my Mother's Day present. A 22' hdtv with a built in dvd player for my Scraproom! I am excited.

Headed to the Coast

Now, that my Mother is gone home I can relax at the Coast for MY Mother's Day. We are going to leave our travel trailer there, in hopes of going more often. We think if we don't have to set it up and break it down eveytime, we can just get in the car and go when we want to. I am really hoping it works out that way.

My Mom is home safely. I am glad but feel a little guilty about that. I got a message tonight and came home and scrapped. the ultimate relaxation! I don't think my Mom realized that if I could have scrapped for 30 minutes everyday after work, I would have been much easier to live with. I did the Art Journal prompt for "I" which is Imagine, tonight and all I could think of is imagine life without scrapping. I must be addicted.

OMG Great grand daughter!

My sweet Adeline! GGD is almost 18 mos old.

Is she not the cutest Chick ever?!!!!!

Adeline

Headed to the Coast after work today. Taking my Mother to Corpus Christi. Hopefully, we will get to see Adeline, our first great grandchild. It has been a long time since I got pictures of her and she is so cute. Can't wait to get some that I can scrap.

Tally Time

Some of the food.

My Tally friends.

Christine, the Top Tally.

I haven't posted in a while because my Mother has been at my house and does not like for me to scrap or get on the computer. She wants my undivided attention. And she is driving me crazy! Everyday, I hear, "I want to go home." She knew when I bought the plane ticket, she would be here 3 weeks.
We are taking her to Corpus Christi this weekend. She is pretty excited about that. She loves Corpus Christi and it has probably been 10 years since she has been there.
Went to dinner at Ciao2 on Saturday. Got to meet Christine, who is the Top Tally, owner of Tallyscrapper. Saw my friends Dorothy and Marty again. Also, met another Tallyscrapper, Jen. We will all be going to the TX Tally Rally in July, so it was nice to meet them ahead of time. We had wonderful food, cooked by Chef Patrick. Everyone was impressed. We took a photo in front of the FORK, which is a piece of art in front of the restaurant.
Getting a message tonight, and can't wait.

You will never believe what I did.

I EXERCISED TONIGHT! Oh man, could my body tell that I haven't gotten up off my butt for sometime now. I am tired of waking up at 4am with leg cramps and having to walk around to work them out. So, I told myself and the girls at work that I could NOT sit in my scrap chair until I exercised. I did my Walk Away the Pounds DVD and I walked a whole mile. Now, I just need to tell myself this everyday. Wish me luck!

Cyber Crop

Jason, being a monkey at Aunt Jennifer's house. This one is digi. Brady. I don't know who he is yelling at but glad it is not me.

Kaden when he was a sick little guy and wanted to play.

Okay, I am still new at this blogging thing. That was Kaden at his G Daddy's house in CA being measured for the first time on the Wall of Tall. I called it Sizing up the Little Guy.

Cyber Crop

Tallyscrapper had a cyber crop this weekend. I called in to the radio show and talked to several people that I haven't met in person yet, but I will at the TX TallyRally in July. Here are a few of the challenges I finished.

My Mother is Coming.

My Mom is coming to visit. I will be going to visit the grandchildren for Easter. My Mom is coming home with me and staying for 3 weeks. She has Dementia. She was excited that she is getting to come, but she says she can't stay because Texas is too hot for her. She takes blood thinners so I really don't think she gets HOT anymore, but we will see. I am really looking forward to spending time with her. I hope she is able to enjoy her stay. She is 82 and not walking very well. But I plan to have her on the go while she is here.

Photos from the Event

Sour Cherry Glazed Pork Belly

Chef Patrick Edwards took 3rd place in the Taste of Elegance competition in San Antonio. This competition was sponsored by the National Pork Association. 13 Chefs from the finest dining in San Antonio entered. It was Chef Patrick's first event. It was a night of some of the finest pork you will ever taste. The event was held in the Heritage Room at St. Phillips College. St. Phillips has an excellent culinary program and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this fine art. Patrick attended St. Phillips College. Only a few of the Chefs who entered were St. Phillips graduates. He faired very well among those Chefs who have attended other Culinary Schools.

I am getting it a little bit at a time. Thanks to my Tally friends who are more than willing to help an old lady out.

Thank you Tobie! I love this!

Work in Progress

I'm setting this blog up to help mom get started in the blogging world. Please excuse us as this is a work in progress!
Thanks,
Tobie