I really have no idea of how many scrapbookers read my blog, but for those of you who do, please take a moment to check out this link: Scrapbook Kit Relief Fund

All the profits from the sales of that kit will go to the Red Cross & a relief fund for the victim of Katrina.

So... I've been posting stuff on ebay in the hopes of making a little extra $$ to take with me to the Atlanta Scrapbook Expo.

I was posting stuff all day Saturday, and was starting to get a little delirious from doing all this ebaying.

My cohort in crime, Ginger, kept trying to convince me that I needed to put these ugly pajamas on there that I had received for Emerson at a baby shower.

Much silliness ensued, and we ended up writing this auction:

Ugly Auction

So good ol' Sarah tagged me with this lil' game... and it's high time I responded. :)

Here it is folks- the 5 things you've always wanted to know about me but never asked.


1. I must keep my toenails clipped fairly short. If they start to feel like they've grown the tiniest bit, it bugs me all day long and I have to trim them down so I don't break out in hives. ;)

2. I love the whole 'salty/sweet' combo- two of my favorite snacks is ice cream with popcorn in it and tortilla chips dipped into chocolate frosting. Yes, I'm serious and no, it's not gross at all.

3. It stresses me out to have the magnetic poetry on my fridge all disorganized and randomly put on there. I've been known to straighten them into neat columns and arrange them by part of speech. (I'm also obsessive about having my bookmarks/favorite places on my pc categorized and organized.)

4. I'm scared of roller coasters, but I will ride any water ride out there.

5. I hate the way matte paint feels to my fingers & hands. It feels like a chalkboard to me. Give me semi-gloss any day. ;)

Wow. So I sound really obsessive-compulsive.

I promise, I'm not.

Much.

Jada's Gigi ~ tag! You're it!

You Belong in Rome You're a big city girl with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better? What City Do You Belong in? Take This Quiz :-) Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

Btw- here's the unofficial 2peas blog list. Check it out, add your name... :)

2peas Bloggers

So since Sarah tagged me (as in "tag- you're it!") on her blog to play a little game, I've been thinking- who can I tag after me?

I know I have visitors, because I track the number of hits my site gets through Site Meter

---but who are they???


(a side note: check out that site if you have a blog! You can see who's visiting by referrals too... I was surprised to see how many people clicked on my signature link on 2peas.)

SO: if you're a reader that has a blog (or just a reader), COMMENT for goodness sakes! ;)

Did a little creating last night and produced this quick layout... Grams treated me to some more Prima flowers, so I used them on here. :) This isn't the greatest quality pic- but it gives ya the gist of the idea.

Well, we are back from our adventure to the in-laws, and ready to get back to normal.

DANG it is so much harder to travel with a little one. Emerson did fabulous in the car on the way there and back, but the little thing just does not want to sleep in her moses basket anymore, and I can't blame her- she's used to her crib; why would she want to be crammed into a little basket anymore?

It's time to retire it... which is a teensy bit sad for me, because I know it's time for the next growing up stage (which is exciting too).

I took her for her 4 month check up (although she is nearly 5 months) and think we got the whole eating problem thing settled- it is reflux (like I thought it was). Eating should be getting a lot easier for her now that we know what to do. :)

She had her shots today too- which I abhor doing. She sounds so heartbroken when they poke her. Funny little thing though: she is the darndest smiliest baby I've ever seen (and loads of people comment on that too- it's not just biased mommy complex!). She was sobbing her little heart out, and I'm trying to check out, and a nice lady is talking to Em. My little girl stops crying for a minute to give the lady one of her dazzling smiles... then goes back to crying.

What a little silly.

The week ahead:

I've got the week ahead of me with not a whole lot planned... which is really nice. Probably going to help my friend/aunt Ginger paint her living room today (I just love to paint- I don't know why- it's just a satisfying feeling to me!), then Grams and Mom are coming up tomorrow to do some scrapbook shopping at the most awesome scrapbooking store Scrap Etc.

Plan to hang out with a playdate later in the week... other than that, just stay home and get the place whipped into shape (how does a house get so messy when you're out of town for a few days??!!)

Ciao darlings!

ok, so i know i just said i'm outta here for the weekend, but i forgot that there was one more thing i wanted to post about.

i absolutely love to read. my passion for reading spread to my husband a few years ago, bringing us (amongst other things) to get rid of our tv so we could devote more time to reading and hanging with each other.

my favorite books to read are those that have a mystery, something to solve, to wrap my mind around and analyze. as you may have guessed by now, my current (and for the past 5 years) books to read are the harry potter books. i love how jk rowling has crafted a story so entangled with different elements of love and friendship and loyalty and fantasy and mystery and of greater things... well you get the idea.

i have spent countless hours devoted to analyzing bits of the story, predicting what may happen next; trying to determine what a character's motivation for something was; unraveling this web of tales.

i go to message boards and websites run by devoted fans like myself... read editorials on the subject, laugh at "inside jokes" about HP, etc. etc.

(this all has a point, i promise.)

i recently (as i mentioned a few posts before) saw the rest of season 1 from "Lost." (an aside- we do have a dvd player on our computer that i can watch shows and movies on.) again, it's a story with mysteries and deep character development and teasers from the writers to get the audience searching, digging, analyzing.

where am i going with all of this?

through all of this, it has become evident to me that tons of people love a mystery. tons of people love to dig into the story. tons of people respect a writer(s) who have crafted a story that grabs at the very deep parts of us. tons of people love to get to the bones of a story, and figure out the design.

so why is it so hard to share the greatest Story of them all with the masses?

why do so many reject the Bible?

i mean, clearly, there are a lot of issues wrapped up with this... but i don't think it has to be that way. it's really quite simple. complexly (is that a word?) simple. a paradox.

truly, the Word is a masterpiece of literature. it's got drama, passion, love, hate, mystery, history, poetry... and one heck of a Protagonist.

honestly, i think that in a lot of ways, we Christians have done God a disservice in all of this, and have made His Story boring. a lot of us have done a CRAP job of sharing this cool Story.

and seeing all these people that love to dig into a good story, i don't think that it's because a lack of an audience.


sorry for the ramble... it's just something that's been on my mind lately and i needed to sort through it some. any thoughts or comments would be welcome. :)

a group of very inspiring chics have started an "inspiration dare" each week in their blogs.... they call them the "effer dares." there's a bit of a background story to go with the title, but it doesn't mean anything vulgar. ;)

anyways, i keep watching these dares, wanting to participate, but not taking the time. i really need to. i have totally decided to go for it after this week's dare, found here.

make sure to click on "ashley's" and zoom in and read the poem. can i have a tissue please?!
---

heading off to the in-laws' for the weekend... should be back and in full swing next week. then- i plan to get onto that effer dare. :)

'til then, my darlings...

not a whole lot "intersting" (as we like to say) going on here...

finished watching the entire 1st season of "Lost" in preparation for season 2 starting up in about a month. man, i love this show. it is so addicting. i've also been perusing the web, discovering theories and bits of info about the show. found these great sites:

a notebook of facts

message board started by the writers (the fuselage)

~~~

been playing around with typogenerator

have created these fun things with it


it's pretty cool












~~~

Emerson stayed in the church nursery for the first time this last Sunday. I was nervous, but I lived. So did she. ;)

~~~

I guess that's all for now. Sorry for the boring post!

So Shaun just came in and said,

"I've been thinking lately..."

(to which I had to smart aleckly reply, "Good for you!")

he ignores my dorky comment and continues, "You need to come up with another name for your hobby. You don't really do 'scrapbooking' anymore."

"Huh?" I reply. "Of course I do scrapbooking. What's this crackalakish?!"

"Well...," he hesitates. "I think of this: (see below) when you say 'scrapbooking.'


"You're waaaaay much better than that now," he hurriedly explains after seeing my evil eye aim in his direction. "What you do now is more like 'multi-media arts' or 'paper arts' or something like that. I just think people get the wrong impression when you tell them your hobby is scrapbooking."

"So you're embarressed about my old scrapbooks, are you?!!" I growl. (Ok not really, but I've got to make this as dramatic as possible, right?) ;)


***

Just thought you "scrapbookers" might find this humorous.

Apparently, this really has been on his mind lately, because he keeps asking me if I'm going to re-scrap my old albums. As if I'm not a perfectionist enough about my stuff, I've now got a husband who knows just as much about the scrapbooking subculture as I do.

Coincidentally, I found him trying to check my 2peas account the other day to see how many posts I had. He told me I didn't have very many. That I needed to get more so I could have a cool "rank name."

Next thing I know, he'll be checking Heidi Swapp's website for new products.

(p.s. that usage of the word crackalakish was brought to you today by Leca/PJscrapper/Sassafrass/llggood... and if you don't know who that is, consider yourself lucky to have missed the latest drama on 2peas.)

did a little creating today whilst emerson fussed. gotta relieve my stress somehow.

(the little one is teething, and it's driving me bananas.)

i decided to switch to 11 x 8.5 format, and here's my first try at it! i totally dig this new size. (btw, i noticed it looks like on here that i have little "cartoon talking bubbles" above each head in the pic- they are actually tags with our names on it, and it looks much better in real life!)

this was shamelessly inspired by this pea; her work is amazing.

i've done a lot on my list so far, and it's only 11:00 am! woohoo!









i feel especially accomplished, because i'm wearing some pre-pregnancy pants--- that weren't considered my "fat" pants either! i even dared to try on my Lucky jeans, and they are close to being able to fit... i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. they even *gasp* fit over my ghetto bootie and thunder thighs! ;)

***

yesterday i went to walmart & target to pick up a cheapo pair of tennis shoes to do regular mom stuff in. didn't need anything expensive, but didn't want to be "stylin' " in black reebok velcros or anything either. so i'm looking through the rather meager selection, trying to decide between two pair (and trying to decide if i'll look especially dorky in them), when i spot a box on the top shelf that has a style pictured on it that's pretty cute.

i pull down the box, open it up, and am greeted by skanky shoe scent and the soles of two doggone WORN out dirt encrusted tennis shoes.

apparently someone else thought the shoes in the box were pretty cute and decided to trade their old ones out for the new ones.

lol i can't even IMAGINE having the nerve to do that (besides the fact that that's just wrong)!

***

someone once told me that a woman should always have fresh flowers in her house... i've not really always accomplished this in my life, but i did treat myself to some of target's beeyotiful flowers yesterday. little things like that totally make my day.

I think I'm getting the hang of this whole staying at home thing.

I occassionally get the panicky feeling of, "dang it! I've got a gazillion things to do and I'd better bust my buns to get them done or else I'll be stressed... oh wait a minute. I can do some of it tomorrow. Whew."

It's totally nice having a little less pressure on me- I can focus my efforts on Shaun and Emerson and my home and my art and my friends. Nice.

***

Speaking of family, my very cool little bro came to visit me for the day today. It's great to be within driving distance of each other again. We spent the day hanging out, talking about music, and reminiscing our dorky games we played as kids.

He introduced me to this cool indie band: Gregory and the Hawk The lead singer has a very sweet voice... and the lyrics are beautiful.

***

What's on schedule for tomorrow:

-stay at home and avoid errands at all costs
-wash up dishes left over from our superb deep dish pizza dinner from Sunday night (just a couple of wine glasses and a pot- I promise there aren't any flies buzzing around our deep dish pan or anything!)
-work on a little art (I've finally decided to make the swith to 11 x 8.5 pages- they are so much faster for me to create with, PLUS I need a little something to shake up my scrapping)
-surf the 'net
-exercise (including my new yoga/pilates dvd routine- super relaxing)
-organize the hall closet
-put some more stuff on ebay

Sounds like a busy day, huh? ;)

I know you guys may be getting sick of seeing her, but I just gotta share some more pics of her sweetness. :)

My sleeping beauty...


****

For a while there,

it was incredibly mind-blowingly

HARD

learning to be a Mum.

But it's definitely getting easier.

It also helps that my hormones are

finally leveling out. Thank God.

***

I was reading my friend Rachel's online baby journal (*waves at Rachel!*), and saw her most recent entry about hearing her little one's heartbeat for the first time in the womb. Wow. What an amazing thing, that we have technology where we can hear these tiny little miracles. What an amazing thing, that God entrusts these little ones to US to raise. Overwhelming, and exhilirating. Rach, hang on for the ride of your life. :)

So I added this video thingie over on the right... but I can't figure out how to make the main part of my page wider so that Ben isn't hanging off of the side. Hmmm. LOL

Hope you enjoy. Love Ben Harper's music (although we diverge when it comes to spiritual fundamentals, I like his proactive stance). :) Plus, this video is fun.