No news on the offer. Maybe Monday or Tuesday. We have a feeling they are first time buyers, so they may not be able to afford our house.

In the meantime, we drove down to Eugene and spent some time with our friends touring wineries. Memorial Day weekend is a big winery tour weekend, some wineries are only open on this weekend and Thanksgiving weekend.

Here's a shot of the vineyards at Iris Hill winery:

Patience is a virtue. I hate waiting! :)

The folks who looked at our house yesterday morning came back to look yesterday evening with a set of parents. This is a GOOD sign. :) Let's hope it results in an offer! And, there is a showing going on right now, different agent and buyers, so at least the showings are picking up.

Still, it's hard to wait to see if people are going to make an offer. Work work work - that'll keep my mind off the prospect! And I know my mom (my agent) would call me as soon as she got an offer, so I can rest easy...it's just SO hard waiting.

Here's a layout I did last night to showcase Heather Roselli's "Vegas Baby" kit, available today at the TDC Boutique. I have lots more Vegas pictures to scrap, so you'll be seeing more layouts like this!

Woohoo! I just got some good news!

First, I just heard from an organization I'm heavily involved with (STC, at stc.org) that they want to put all of my photos up on their website, alongside the professional photographer's photos. So cool! :)

And even better, we have another showing today at 10 a.m., and they seem really interested in our house. Fingers and toes crossed again please! :)

I've told my husband that I want to start taking recreational dance classes. I need some exercise that doesn't feel like exercise. :)

Today is my husband's 40th birthday! Happy birthday honey!

And happy birthday to my friend Alan, who generously shares his birthday with my husband. :)

We had a showing of the house yesterday. First showing since we dropped the price and rearranged the "not quite a dining room" into a conversation area. Now we are just waiting to see if we get any feedback from the showing agent. While I'm frustrated that no offer resulted from the showing, at least someone was interested in seeing the house! Our flyers keep disappearing out of the flyer box in front of the house, and it can't all be neighbors looking to price their hosues or neighborhood kids out for a lark.

Heading down to Eugene on Saturday for a trip around the local wineries. We'll stay Saturday night, then head to the coast and drive up leisurely on Sunday. Then we'll visit my husband's parents on Monday, so they can see him somewhere near his birthday (it's impossible to meet up on the day all the time).

My latest layout, of my husband and his mom on this year's Mother's Day.



Created using Heather Roselli's "April Showers" kit, available at the DigiChick.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it has been a few days! :)

Saturday was pretty much a relaxing day. Sunday was quite busy, with two meals/families. 9 a.m. on one side of town with my in-laws, and 11:45 a.m. on the other side of town with my family. I got some pictures, I'll post them soon! :)

We got some feedback on our house from a showing last Thursday. As a result, we slightly dropped the price, rearranged the dining room to look like a conversation area, and put some knobs/pulls on the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. We'll see if it works! While my dad was over last night, installing the new light fixture, someone drove up and got a flyer out of the flyer box. Amazing to actually see someone take one, we've been thinking that it's the neighborhood kids taking out one flyer at a time. Wish us good luck!

Finished my 2nd round layout!

You can see it here:

This is Me

It's Friday! I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow.

We had 2 showings yesterday, one that didn't leave a card, and one at about 8 p.m. --- gotta love those driveby "We're in your driveway, can we take a look at your house right now" calls.

We'll see if anything comes of it - I'm not holding my breath.

I'm back! :)

The plane landed at about 10:45 p.m. and I finally got home at about 12:15 a.m. Baggage claim didn't take too long, and it was a fairly quick drive home, although I started falling asleep about 10 miles away.

I had a good time, walked a LOT, and took lots of pictures. Most of them are not exciting scenic, cool Las Vegas pics, but pictures of people within the organization receiving awards and doing fun things, so you probably won't see many pictures posted here.

I was presented with quite a few opportunities this weekend. These opportunities will lead to greater visibility within the organization, and I intend on running for the upcoming 2006 - 2007 election, so I will be doing some soul searching and prioritizing this coming weekend.

In other news, no one is looking at the house. We haven't had a showing in 2 weeks. The flyers keep disappearing from the flyer box, but we really aren't sure if it is potential buyers or kids in the neighborhood removing the flyers.

Did I mention I'm tired? I was at work this morning at 8:30 a.m., after going to bed at 1 a.m. *Yawn* Early to bed for me tonight, after I finish my layout for the 2nd round of the Ultimate Digital Scrapper contest. :)

14,000 steps. That's how many steps I walked today. I got a pedometer a couple weeks ago, and remembered to throw it in my bag while packing, so I decided to wear it today during the conference. 14,000 steps! No wonder my legs hurt! And of course, the squatting down in "photographer's wait mode" didn't help the muscles any.

Here's today's photo. This is in the convention center between Bally's and Paris Hotels.

I'm in Vegas, baby! :)

Here's the view from my hotel room. Sorry for the small size/quality, I'm trying to keep file size/bandwidth low. The sun is setting at the right corner of the hotel, which is why it's blown out there.

I've posted my first challenge layout!

I can't post it anywhere but the contest gallery, so you'll have to go here to see it.

3 days to Las Vegas!

Tonight, I go to the eye doctor to get my annual eye exam. I'm pretty sure my prescription has changed. I'm looking forward to choosing new glasses, I'm going to get some cool ones that also have the magnetic clip-on sunglasses like my husband.

Tomorrow is my last day of work until after the conference.

Friday, I'm going to a day spa to cash in my birthday gift from my husband: wrap, massage, facial, manicure, pedicure. Then I head to the salon and get my hair cut and colored. Then some of my friends are having a (late) birthday gathering for me at a friend's house, so I'll be all nice and relaxed...

It has begun - the Ultimate Digital Scrapper contest at digiscrappin.biz!



The first challenge is:

Put Your Best Photo Forward!

This week’s challenge is all about the photos! Photos are one of the most powerful forms of preserving your memories. We’re looking for your best photo in a layout that highlights it! Please select one photo that reflects something meaningful to you. Photo manipulation, filters, editing etc are all ok – this is the time to make your photo shine!

If you feel like you have already scrapped your best photo – feel free to scrap it again – but remember, this must be a brand new original layout!!!!!!!

**Photo should be your own original photograph – please no stock photography or photos taken from photography studios or other copyrighted materials.**

Judges will be looking for:

A captivating quality photo
An overall layout that highlights photo
Creativity and Uniqueness

You can check out the challenge gallery here to look at the layouts.

I was busy this weekend!

My husband's brother came over on Saturday and helped dismantle the universal gym in one of our rooms. Now we have an almost empty room, freshly vacuumed. The house was given the once over, vacuumed both days, and cleaned to "show home" clean. Still, no one came to look at it. :(

I did three digital scraplifted layouts yesterday. You can see them here:


You can see the original layout here at 2peas.


The original is here at 2peas.


The original layout is here.

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sadI simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

I was inspired by an ad challenge last night (from the Pub on 2peas).



I used Heather Roselli's "April Showers" kit for the papers, and Marsha Zepeda's "Quote Pack - Beauty and Wonder" for the word art quote. Font is Garamond Premier Pro.

No showings on the house. It's starting to get really disappointing and frustrating that no one is looking at our house. We were told that the dining room looks too small with the table in it, so we're trying to figure out what to do with that (do we put the table in another room, covered up or do we dismantle/disassemble it and put it in storage?). In the meantime, we bought two bar stools for the kitchen's island counter, and we switched out the painting in the dining room (has a huge frame that sticks out a lot) and put up a print that one of my sisters gave me for my birthday. Looks really nice there. :)

In 9 days, I'll be heading for Las Vegas. Woohoo! Too bad it's for a conference, and I won't have a lot of time for play. :)

Scrapbooker Karen Russell is hosting a fundraiser for Women for Women International. I'm posting the main information here, but for WAY MORE detailed information, check out Karen's blog.

So here’s how it’s going to work:

It’s simple - it’s a drawing. The winners (and there will be a whole lot of you – more than 135 winners) will either win a 1 page layout completed by a “well-known” scrapbooker (using your photos of course) or a $50.00 prize package. Cool, eh?

For the next two weeks (through May 8th), we’ll be taking $1.00 donations on behalf of Women for Women International. Each $1.00 donation will enter your name into the drawing one time (so if for example, you donate 25 bucks, you will be entered into the drawing 25 times). 100% of your donations will go directly to this organization and to helping women around the world.

Every day, I’ll post where we’re at with donations so you’ll all know how it’s going.

On Sunday, May 14th (Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful women), I’ll post the names of the winners here on my blog along with a photo of a big, fat cashiers check made payable to Women for Women International.

Don't forget, information on how to donate is available on Karen's blog.

This is where I went for my birthday today!

This photo was taken at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center.



And I saw this on the way back down towards Silver Lake:

Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday, dear me
Happy Birthday to me!

Today, I share my birthday with the following folks (in addition to Shakespeare):

Actress Janet Blair is 85.
Actor David Birney is 67.
Actor Lee Majors ("Six Million Dollar Man") is 67.
Actress Blair Brown is 58.
Actress Joyce DeWitt ("Three's Company") is 57.
Actor James Russo is 53.
Director Michael Moore is 52.
Actress Judy Davis is 51.
Actress Jan Hooks is 49.
Actress Valerie Bertinelli is 46.
Comedian George Lopez is 45.
Drummer Gen (Jesus Jones) is 42.
Actress Melina Kanakaredes ("Providence") is 39.
Drummer Stan Frazier of Sugar Ray is 38.
Country guitarist Tim Womack of Sons of the Desert is 38.
Actor Scott Bairstow ("Party of Five") is 36.

In addition, my mom's birthday was yesterday (4/22) and my brother-in-law's birthday is tomorrow (4/24).

Just think, this time last year, I was in Las Vegas for my birthday celebration. :)

I caved! I asked for this as my birthday present this year:



And that's what I got today, from CompUSA. It's charging right now!

At the home stretch, I almost didn't get the pink - the sales associate had the pretty cobalt blue version too. But, my eye kept wandering back to the magenta one, so there you go! Due to rebates and such, it will end up being free, so now we're thinking of another present I could get. :)

We had a great time with our friends at breakfast this morning. Apparently, today does NOT count as a birthday get together, so that will be next Saturday at someone's house (other than ours, which is still on the market).

Tomorrow is the open house, from 1 - 4 p.m. Fingers and toes crossed that someone falls in love with it right away and makes an immediate offer. :)

You could tell me tonight
That maybe the world would end
That the sun wouldn’t rise
And it was gonna rain again
...
It’s gonna be a perfect day

Clay Aiken, Perfect Day