nuff said...

My Weekend...

POST # 200

THIS IS MY 200th POST! I can't believe it... more because it took me this long to post 200 and I've had this blog for years!

School and work and studying and not sleeping enough and not eating healthy have made me a bit crazy thus far, but I'm moving along, slowly but surely. This week my 3 online classes started. Everyone told me that they were really easy and just a pain in the butt, but not conceptually hard (a new concept for me because my last year at UCSD was FULL of upper division math classes and I usually had no idea what was going on!). They were all right, but none of them told me how much reading would be involved. I have about 50 pages of reading a week for each of the 3 classes plus 50 more for an in-class education class I am taking plus homework and more homework from the other 2 math classes I am taking. Once I finish reading all that shit, I am then able to write the pages and pages of responses to "what I learned this week". I wrote my first paper last week and got a 100%, so that made me feel good... especially considering that the last paper I wrote was my personal statement to get into a university! My weekends consist of me locking myself in the guest room (the only quiet place in the house) hunched over my laptop working away. I have been studying FRIDAY thru SUNDAY non-stop and I'm getting a bit stir crazy (especially because my scrapbooking table is in the guest room and oh-so inviting!)

In other news, I am going to start my required 40 hours of observation in a high school classroom next week. I am nervous and excited and scared I'm going to fall asleep in class from all this work! More on this as it develops...

Here's another answer to a question posted on my blog entry a couple of weeks ago - I promise I'll get to all of them eventually!

Melissa said...

Did you or will you ever get cable??

For those of you that are confused by this, Wade and I do not have cable in the house. We do have a television, but it is only hooked up to our DVD player and our dying VHS player so we can watch movies to our hearts' content. Needless to say, we own A LOT of DVDs and a few television series on DVD - SATC, Seinfeld, MSCL and CSI Las Vegas seasons 1-6.

We initially made the decision to not have cable when we saw how expensive it was. Then after time, we became SO out of the loop, not knowing any of the latest shows that were on, who famous people were, and so on, that we just never got around to getting it. Both of us become zombies in front of the television, so part of our decision to not get cable comes from the fact that we know if we had it, we'd probably never leave the house!

I definitely miss tv. I would love to see new episodes of The Office and surprisingly enough, I miss seeing commercials. I know Wade would love to watch the History Channel and his True Crime shows. But I'm glad we don't have it... so to answer the question, no, we do not have cable!

Baby Fish Mouth

So I decided over the summer that it was time for me to start thinking about a career. Right now I work at the local community college and since I work in 3 different departments, it's like I have 3 part-time jobs (which means NO benefits!). So after much deliberation and discussion, I decided to go back to school to get a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Math to teach high school. Little did I know the hoops I would have to jump through just to get into the program!

I have to take 3 more classes to fulfill what they call Subject Matter Competency (basically, do you know how to do math?) and 7 education classes. Are you hearing this? This is all BEFORE I even get into the program!

So I started school at Cal State Fullerton 3 weeks ago. My schedule is HORRIFIC Mondays through Thursdays - I leave the house around 7:30am and don't get home most nights until 9:30. I see Wade literally 20 minutes a day - 5 in the morning, 15 at night. But on the bright side, I don't have work or go to school Friday through Sunday... but I'm usually doing homework, studying, or trying to find the kitchen sink under the mountain of dishes that accumulated throughout the week!

My classes have proven to be pretty good so far, but very time consuming. I am trying to be more pro-active and talk to my professors (something I NEVER did when I was in college) to make sure they know my name and how motivated I am (might need a letter of recommendation sometime down the line!)

So needless to say I have done ZERO scrapping/artsy anything at all lately. I don't even have time to take pictures to scrap later on - although, I don't know how many pages I could make of pictures of myself in the library or pictures of Wade sleeping which is pretty much the only thing going on right now!

Also, I've applied to be a substitute teacher. I'm hoping it will give me a little taste of what to expect from the high school environment.


Okay, on to the question/answer part of our blog day:

marie antoinette said...

how did you and wade meet?

ANSWER: Wade and I met in Spanish 1 at Saddleback Community College. On the first day of school I was 15 minutes late and when I walked into the class, the profesora said, " ¡Hola! ¡Bienvenidos! Nos estamos sentando en grupos y nos estamos presentando. ¡Siéntese!"
to which I replied, "Espanol uno?" since I didn't understand a damn word she said. So I got the hint and sat down next to some white guy with poofy hair. I asked him what we were supposed to do and he just shrugged and said, "I don't understand a damn word she says!" Four months later, that poofy haired guy and I were dating... and now we're engaged!

PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I am SO blah about blogging these days! Even when I complete a layout, it takes me FOREVER to upload it onto this blog if I even get around to it!

SO PLEASE HELP ME!!! In order to boost my blogginess, can you guys leave questions in the comments section for me? ANY questions, EVERY question, TONS of questions!!! I'm hoping this will prompt me to write more here and get into blogging again.

In other news, to answer Kat's question about my last post...

My engagement ring was custom made for me by a seller from ETSY. I would tell you who, but to be brutally honest, it took an INSANE amount of time to get this ring and a TON of stress and anxiety - but the ring is really great and well made so I'm kind of stuck. I really want to tell you NEVER go to this seller because it will take FOREVER and you're better off finding someone else. But on the other hand I really want to tell you that this seller does fantastic work and you will not be disappointed by the quality of the ring. So, to be fair, I'm just not going to tell you who the seller is.

Okay, that being said (holy tangent, Batman!) here's the story of my ring. For the longest time I have been eyeing this:

Platinum + Diamond = WAY TOO MUCH MONEY (especially in this economy!) SO, Wade and I agreed that I would get a less expensive ring for now, and when the economy gets better or when we win the lottery, he'll splurge on a Kretchmer.

Here is said ring:


It's pretty much the same concept as the Kretchmer Omega Ring - except it's titanium and a ruby. It's a tension setting and is really comfortable to wear since there aren't any prongs. Since the ruby is a bit small (I wanted a larger one but the seller didn't feel comfortable with the strength of the tension) I really like that there aren't any prongs or bezels that hide the gem.

So there it is!
Don't forget, leave me some q's in the comments section to save me from myself!

It's Finally Here!

Welcome Back

So Vegas was amazing. We planned on staying for 4 days and ended up staying almost a full week. We tried the poker tables for the first time and LOVED them. All in all, we only lost a couple hundred dollars, so as far as I'm concerned, we came back winners (we'd spend that much on the alcohol alone, so the poker entertainment is just a bonus!)

I have done absolute squat for the wedding.

Been scrapping like a mad-woman. Here are a TON of my recent layouts - hope you don't get bored looking at them! I scanned these layouts instead of taking pictures of them - the quality is much better, but I can't seem to figure out how to eliminate (or at least minimize) that seam line. I need a 12x12 scanner... Next time I find a couple of thousand bucks under my couch cushions or in my pockets, I'll be sure to buy one...





















(did you really make it ALL the way down here? wow... I'm impressed!)

Viva Las Vegas

We spent almost an entire week in Las Vegas - and although we have been going twice a year for almost FIVE years, this was BY FAR the best Vegas trip EVER! I'm so so so sleepy, though - being in Vegas is like being in a foreign country if only because your sleep schedule gets SO effed up. I tell people I am jet-lagged and they laugh because I only went about 300 miles away from home, but it's true! Now to sleep - later with more...

Back on the horse...

...

It's been quite an eventful week for me...

The biggest news is that my grandmother passed away last Friday. She had been ill for a while. She was the last of her generation that I know of and it kind of makes me worry because now the next family member to go will be in my parents' generation... pretty scary.

So I took the week off from work and spent time with my family. Both of my sisters came down for the funeral and we got to hang out a bit. It was kind of weird because we hadn't seen each other for a while and so we were excited to do something fun, but then again, they were here to remember our grandmother... We decided to try to break up the sadness by going out to dinner together and seeing a movie. We ended up seeing the Strangers - scary scary and lots of fun screaming and clutching onto my sister's arm in fear!


Here are a few layouts I've done recently. I have more up on my SIS account. I'm still doing pretty well with my 365 project, but to be honest I cheat a little. If I make two layouts in one day and none the next, I let it slide. I'll even write the wrong date on the layout just so I'll have one a day - I figure in a couple of years from now I'll have forgotten that I cheated and everything will be okay!




My Etsy shop is almost done - I've decided to let the listings expire if no one buys anything. A whole bunch of items expired last week, but I'm not re-posting them - I guess that means I have some new felties that I can use!!! Thanks so much to all of you that supported me through my first entrepreneurial excursion!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, ALL!!!

ARTS N' CRAPS 50% OFF SALE!!!

You only have until June 25th to get these felties (that's when the listings expire and they will forever be gone in the ETSY world!)

Get 'em while the gettins good!!!

Pics+Layouts

Some Recent Layouts

I'm still not too happy with this layout - seems a little rushed and thrown together. I am trying to just let my layouts be without over analyzing them - I know in a few years when I look back on them I'll just be stoked that the picture + journaling is there to bring back memories. I am really happy with the felt clock, though... I've been toying with this idea for a while and finally made it.



I'm pretty happy with the way this layout turned out. I want to start working on my penmanship because it's beginning to look sloppy, but not "cool" sloppy, just "sloppy" sloppy. The letter stickers I used for the title kept peeling off of their adhesive so I had to use modge podge on it - I really like the way that ended up looking because the title is all shiny and nice.


I threw this one together this morning. I have these paint dabbers that keep getting clogged, so I opened one up and just smeared the paint frame right from the bottle. Then I took a dried out baby wipe and wiped up the excess paint. What resulted was this cool looking smudginess that I really like... good thing my paint dabber was clogged! The title suddenly came to me and I had to put it down on paper. I really like the way the mixed font+colors turned out.


PS. I'm not sure if anyone really reads my blog anymore. I keep getting the same 2 or 3 people leaving comments, which I adore, but was wondering who else (if there is anyone else) is reading this. Leave me a comment, if only to say hello, so I know you are out there!

Fun Sunday

Today was such a good day! We didn't do anything terribly exciting - just ran some errands - but all in all it was a very pleasant time. Wade took me to Michael's so I could get some supplies and I waited for him while he got a contract signed. After that we fought our way through the moms and kids at Costco and spent WAY too much money.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the hotel that we're going to have the wedding in - if all goes as planned, mom and I are going to sign up with them and hopefully after that all the rest of the planning will be just a little bit easier. Once we sign up, I'll put some pics up here of the venue.

Wade and I are planning a Vegas trip -SO exciting. We haven't been in over a year (we used to go TWICE a year, so we're really glad we can finally go!) He actually asked me yesterday if I want to go their local scrapbook stores like we did last time. He said, "Actually, that was a lot of fun!" FUN? Going to a scrapbook store is FUN for Wade? Perhaps HE'LL be scrapping some day... ha ha ha

I've been doing pretty well with my 365 plan. Haven't missed a day yet, but my scrapping muse has been flying around my studio for the last couple of weeks - hopefully she doesn't have any plans to leave... (or he? Can't my muse be a he? Let's name him Burton... There, it's done.)

Here are a couple more recent layouts:

Some New Layouts

I added this one to my 08 Album:

Then a few more daily layouts for my 365 project:


And finally, a scrap lift of Renee's Fantastic Layout Seen HERE:

Have a great day!