We have flooring! Sorta... :)



Here's a closer look at the floor:

We stopped by the house today. We have FOUNDATION! :)

Some images from our Labor Day weekend vacation (Friday - Monday).


Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach


A seal yawning at the intertidal pool at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area.

We drove by the house again tonight (hey, it's been five days!) and they are just about ready to pour the concrete, as you can see from the concrete forms here:



I am so excited. We'll head back on Thursday evening or Friday morning to see if concrete has been poured and if the forms are off. We plan on going twice a week to keep up on progress.

Look what I did last night from the photos I took this weekend:



Rachael G. has posted the next sketch challenge at the Digi Chick:

8/29 Sketch Challenge

Join us and post in the sketch gallery here.

This is what our lot looks like now:



This will be the vantage point I will be taking blog pictures from, right in front of this "light pole" you can see in the bottom right. Cool, eh?

Looks like they are ready to put in the frame to pour the concrete for the foundation.

I'm off of work tomorrow, I'll be volunteering as a race official for the 25th annual Portland to Coast walk relay. On Saturday and Sunday, I'll be working on a couple of proposals for next year's STC conference.

Good news!

I made the creative team for Yvette Sanders, who sells kits at The Digi Chick and Scrap Outside the Box. She actually let us know on Friday, but didn't release the information publicly until today, so we had time to do at least one layout with her kits at TDC. Here's the first layout I did with her latest kit, Fresh Florals.




In other news, my friend Becky is back among the bloggers! I'm going to put a link here, but she'll also be a permanent link in the blog section to your right! :)

This is the last time our lot will look like this:



Tomorrow is the ground breaking, and by the 25th (Friday) we should have a foundation.
Yes, I will take pictures and keep everyone up to date.

This is what I've been listening to in the last week:

Chicago 30

I've seen Chicago in concert three times, once with Peter Cetera and twice without.

I honestly can't remember if anyone opened up for them the first time, right after Chicago 17 was released. It was 1985 and it was my first concert without my parents (my first concert was with my parents, Elton John's "Too Low for Zero" concert tour). The date of the concert is indelibly printed in my mind, as it is also the date I got my braces on - April 16, 1985.

The second time I saw Chicago, it was at the Oregon State Fair. They were on a double bill with Hall and Oates, and my husband and I had 4th row side section tickets. Unfortunately, they were also 5 feet in front of speakers... :) My husband will tell you I have HORRIBLE speaker karma...doesn't matter how good the seats are, the speakers will be right there (either above us or in front of us, or line of sight). The concert was still fabulous though, even though there was no Peter Cetera. I didn't know what to expect before seeing them, so it was all good.

The third time I saw Chicago, it was at the Clark County Amphitheatre in Vancouver, Washington. Fabulous show, lousy location. Horrible parking, sucky entrance policies (no umbrellas allowed but they only *ask* you whether you have a weapon), extremely expensive food and drink, plus some heavily intoxicated folks sitting right in front of us.

I'm helping out a friend in need.

A good scrapbooking buddy has been diagnosed with Stage 4 GI cancer. The local scrapbooking community is hosting a fundraising event called "Croppin' Out Cancer" and will have a flyer in the next week.

In the meantime, you can see the information here about why we are doing the event.

Rachel

Okay, okay, sorry, I've been a bad blogger! :)

My boss has been gone since last Friday, so I've been busy. We were supposed to go out of town last weekend, but we ended up just staying home. One of our cats has kitty acne, and that requires twice a day antibiotics (you try pulling the cat out from under the bed to give it medicine) and warm compress on the chin with medicated water.

On Sunday, we saw a few friends, went out to breakfast, met a couple of friends at the mall, helped one of them shop for clothes, and that was the extent of our socializing.

I'm getting together with a couple of friends this Friday to go scrapbooking, so I picked up some pictures I uploaded to Costco. Thinking about a theme album or a tag album...something like that. I picked up Memory Makers special issue on theme albums to help me out.

Congratulations to StaceyD and HaleyW, who answered the most trivia questions correctly last night in our Sixteen Candles Chick Flick Chat! :)

Next event:



Go to Digi Chick for more information on Friendship Day events: trading cards (ATCs), a scraplift challenge, and MORE!

Ah, it's Monday. :)

That means tomorrow is the Digi Chick "Chick Flick" night with the movie Sixteen Candles. Come on, you know it's a guilty pleasure and you probably watched this movie at least once when it originally came out... :)

I lost 1.5 lbs this week! Woohoo!

In other good news, my MMM entry is out the door! I always forget how much time doing that supply list can take. :)

Well, I finished my final MMM entry layout last night! Promptly uploaded the layouts to Costco, and will pick them up this afternoon after work.

Then my evening is full of idea forms (one for each layout), model releases (one for each child used in my layouts - only 2), supply lists (one for each layout), and packing it up for shipping.

It will go postal tomorrow.

In other news, the heat has leveled off and it's almost, but not quite, normal Oregon July weather.

Don't forget, watch Sixteen Candles this weekend and participate in our Chick Flick Chat at the Digi Chick on Tuesday!

Bad blogger!

Life has been pretty full. I've been attempting to finish up an entry for a layout contest, which needs to be postmarked by July 31st...I'm cutting it close, I hope to get it mailed out this Friday.

Life has also been hot, weather wise! Last Friday (the 21st), the city I'm living hit 108 degrees. Do I need to mention that our apartment has *NO* A/C? We spent Saturday and Sunday trucking around to various places, which all had A/C (our vehicles do too). We celebrated my sister's birthday (I won't mention the number, she's pretty sensitive about it) at my parents' house, which was also air conditioned. :) I will post a picture of me and my 6 month old niece later today or tomorrow.

We plan on going to the storage place on Saturday and moving all the stuff from the small 10x10 room into the big 10x20 room, so we only have "rent" for one room. It should just about fit.

I promise, I'll be a better blogger from now on...

I'm also doing the "Chick Walk Challenge" at the Digi Chick - proud member of the Blue Suede Walking Shoes here! :)

Darla Vasquez and I will be hosting the Digi Chick "Chick Flick Chat" next Tuesday, August 1. Watch Sixteen Candles (yeah, the 80s movie) and join us for a lively, entertaining chat!

This video is so inspirational.

Do not watch it without Kleenex close by. You can't say I didn't warn you.

Can

Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven't posted all week long.

My new computer arrived, I went scrapping with friends, I worked....

I even applied for Robin Carlton's CT. Over 80 people applied, and we'll find out Monday morning what the results are.

I've been a busy scrapper this weekend. I was inspired by two things:

- Ali Edwards' new book, "A Designer's Eye: For Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper"
- The new charity mega kit from Guardian Peas, "Kaleidoscope of Hope"

Here are my layouts, all of my friend Lisa, her kids, and her significant other from the 4th of July holiday this year.


Credits can be seen here: Sweet Summer



Credits can be seen here: Haylee


Credits can be seen here: Summer Fun


Credits can be seen here: Kayaking

Straight from Diana's blog:

1. Do you like music videos on blogs? Why or why not?? I don't like them, because usually I'm already listening to music via iTunes when I go to blogs, and the music videos override my music.

2. What is your favorite all time song and why? "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion

3. What is your favorite current song and why? "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield - it just speaks to me right now.

4. Do you and your significant other have a "song"? "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" by Elton John (from Lion King). Lion King is our favorite movie to watch together, and this was also our "first dance" song at our wedding in 1999.

5. What song old or new best describes who you are? Currently, "Unwritten" describes me best.