I couldn't resist!

I don't know these people, but this is just plain hilarious!

Yes, yes, I know, it's been a while. I've been busy! :)

I'll post later this evening with a whole bunch of layouts and information. In the meantime, check out the Amazon link on the right side navigation bar. My boss has a new book out!

I got my lower retainer yesterday. Ouch.

So, here's the skinny on the retainer.

- I have to take it out to eat
- I have to take it out to drink anything other than cold water
- I have to take it out to brush my teeth

Did I mention it hurts for a good 5 minutes after I put it back on?

If you're thinking, "Bet she's not going to take that retainer out all that often," you'd be right. No more snacking or impulse food! In fact, it better be a dang good reason to take the retainer out - I want to go through that pain as few times as possible!

They told me it could take two months to get used to this retainer. Guess I'll be losing a lot of weight in the next two months - this retainer will certainly keep me on the straight and narrow!

Monday, I got braces for the THIRD time. My teeth are bound and determined to move and crowd, while I am just as determined to keep them straight and uncrowded.

I realized that this is also a metaphor for my weight loss. This will be the time that my lifestyle changes will take effect. I always get stalled right around this weight, but this has to stop. I will get over this hump, and move on to the next size and goal.

I've set up a back massage appointment for next Friday. I am going to make every attempt to hit 190 before then - as it is my reward for hitting the "0" mark (my goals are based on 190, 180, 170, 150...).

Even if I'm close, I will deserve it, and use it as incentive to keep going. I will do what it takes to get the weight off, get in shape, get healthy, and lower cholesterol.

I will have these braces on for as long as it takes - no shortcuts! The same has to apply here for weight loss.

So cool!

I found out yesterday afternoon that I came in 3rd place in fundraising for my team for the Race for the Cure! I get a restaurant gift card and some other prizes...the DJ wasn't sure what was in the packet, but it's coming in the mail this week.

I raised $355 for my team with 11 donations from friends and family. Thanks so much to those who donated - you know who you are! :)

Today is the deadline for the Stand Up and Scrap Week 1 Challenge. I'm so relieved I got mine in on Friday, I'm not panicking to get a layout in before the deadline! We'll see if I make the top 10 this week....

I know I'm boring, but no one ever comments... :)

Today was a busy day! We started off going to the car wash - one of our vehicles needed a serious bath and cleaning/vacuuming. After that, we headed to the Oregon Convention Center for the Race for the Cure Health Expo to pick up our shirts and pins.

Once we got back home, I loaded up the scrap tote and headed over to a friend's for some paper scrapping. I'm entering the Quickutz contest at CKC Bellevue (er, for those non-scrapping folks, I'm entering a layout contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, WA), and I need time to whip up a paper layout. I figured out the page design/layout, chose the papers, and did some photo mats with inking. Now I need to take the pictures, print them out, and do some cool embellishing touches. Then scan it and print it out to take with me to the convention (no original layouts allowed - they'll ask for them if you win).

Fortunately, the CK and SS layout contests allow digital entries, so that will be much easier to do.

I'm in the Stand Up and Scrap contest as an advanced scrapper and just posted my Week 1 entry yesterday. To my shock, it has over 15 comments - and here I was thinking I belonged in the Intermediate section! :) I wish I could post it here, but we are posting anonymously and can only post in one gallery. Not even a link in this blog is allowed....just wait six weeks and you'll see them all!



This is a picture I took last weekend at the Oktoberfest in Mt Angel. I punched up the photo using Andie Smith's "Savannah" Lightroom preset. It just makes the clouds look so threatening and ominous...

I don't know if I mentioned that I've been going through physical therapy for my back. I just finished my 4th visit out of 6 visits. I'm steadily improving, and they are also giving me exercises (mat and resistance ball) to improve my core muscles. That seems to be the reason why I get out of alignment (or what I call "locking my sacroiliac joint") on a fairly regular basis.

Funny - the core area (abs, back, etcetera) is also where I carry most of my extra weight. Think there's a correlation? :) I do know that I've started losing weight since doing physical therapy, because I'm also doing Weight Watchers Online as well. I lost 1.5 lbs this week!

Twice in one day! :)

But I found a video of the opening act for Keith Urban, "The Wreckers":

We saw Keith Urban in concert last night. I didn't bring my camera (it's a Nikon D100) because I couldn't confirm the camera policy, and usually they give me grief on my "professional" level camera, so I was stuck using my cel phone camera.

I didn't get much that was good, but I touched them up in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to make them look "artistic"...I used Andie Smith's "Munich" preset on the photos.

:)

Woohoo!

The insulation, drywall, and texture is done. The drywall guys showed up at 8:50 (10 minutes early) and started to prep for installing (figuring out which drywall pieces to use, cutting them to size) while waiting for the insulation guys to show...they showed at 9:15 and did probably the quickest job of their day. It took them all of 5 minutes to install the minimal amount of insulation and then they were off to the next job.

The drywall guys were done at 10:15 and I was at work by 10:35 - don't worry, I didn't break any land speed records on the way to work, that's actually longer than it normally takes me to get to work (I have a 15 minute commute).

The next step? The painter guys! :)

They are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday, and we have not decided which one of us gets the pleasure of telling their boss they'll be in late that day. Good thing it's slow at work right now.

Once it's done, I'll post pics of the original issue and a picture of the soon to look like nothing happened wall. :)

Okay, okay...forgive me, I've been meaning to post, really I have... :)

We've had quite the interesting last three weeks.

On Thursday, August 23rd, I came home from work and started putting the recycling and trash out for Friday pickup. I noticed a puddle of water on the rear patio. Hmmm....that shouldn't be there. So, once my husband gets home (5 minutes behind me), we go check out potential sources. It's not the washer (which is directly up the wall from where the water was coming out), so we go to check out the garage.

WOW!

It turns out that when the concrete was poured for the rear patio (after the siding was removed), someone (ie, a contractor) broke off the A/C condensate pipe that was coming out the garage wall. And it didn't just break, it broke off INSIDE the garage wall.

YEP!

You guessed it! We've had A/C on since May, and the A/C condensate pipe was draining INTO the exterior garage wall all that time.

Kudos to Centex Warranty, who promptly sent out an HVAC vendor (Dow Columbia) to fix the issue. They removed drywall, scraped off mold/mildew, sprayed the area with anti-microbial stuff (Microban), and set up a serious industrial strength fan to blow on the area for 4 days.

The warranty guy set up appointments for drywall repair, texturing, and paint. Yes, one of the reasons we did not notice mold or wet spots on the garage wall is because we had the garage drywall "textured and painted" - which apparently is not standard, but I hate the "unfinished" look of plain old taped drywall.

Today's update:

The drywall company was supposed to show up at 9 a.m. this morning, so my husband took the morning off (I've done all the previous appointments, it was *his* turn). 9:15 a.m. arrives and he calls me because they aren't there. I call the warranty guy, and he in turn calls the drywall company.

Guess what?

The drywall company "substitute scheduler" insists (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that our appointment was for tomorrow morning. Turns out the regular scheduler is out of the office today, and things always get screwed up when she's gone. The warranty guy got so upset talking with the "sub" that he hung up on her, after telling her to call me and straighten things out. She called me and STILL insisted the appointment was for tomorrow...but I told her they dang well better be ON TIME, early is even better, and they better have everything they need (the work order also says they need to bring insulation since some of that was ripped out when the drywall was removed).

If you like, I'll post a couple of photos of what it looked like.... :)

Andie Smith is having a $2 sale on most of her paper packs, alphas, and embellishment packs! Go check it out here: Andie Smith at My Digital Muse

Don't forget to check out Andie's awesome Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw presets! You can see some of my photos using her presets here: Lightroom Photos

Andie is also selling some gorgeous masks and storyboards here: Pink Ink Studios. You can see a sample below, with a picture of my cousin Catherine and her boyfriend Michael.



This was done using Dirty Mask Set 1 - #2. I also used one of Andie's presets on a color photo before using the mask.

I met a couple of online friends while attending the family reunion. First was my friend Becky, who generously picked me up at the airport, AND hosted me in her home for the night. Her daughter Kayla even gave up her bedroom for the night! They took me out to dinner at Johnny Carino's (good Italian food, fabulous desserts). On Friday morning, I went to an Archiver's for the first time - I even had some stuff shipped back to me (much cheaper than paying for overage on baggage).



On Sunday, before I left town, I met up with my designer friend Rachel S, a fellow TDC chickie. Rachel picked me up at the hotel and took me to Starbucks, where we chatted like old friends for an hour or so.

I safely landed at the Atlanta airport yesterday, after getting up at the crack of dawn (2:45 a.m.) for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

I met up with my friend Becky, who generously took me into her home for the night. She is an online scrapping buddy that i've been chatting with for 3 years through several paper scrapping sites.

Becky dropped me off at Starbucks and went into work for a half day - she seemed awfully shocked that I wanted to get up this early and just sit in Starbucks with my laptop....but hey, I'm a digital scrapper, I can do layouts anywhere, right? :)

This afternoon, we are going to lunch and Archiver's (a serious paper scrapping mecca store, apparently - we don't have one in Oregon), then she'll drop me off at my hotel in the Buckhead area of Atlanta for my family reunion.

Well, I'm off to Atlanta for the family reunion! Bright and early (4:30) I'll be at the airport for my 6:30 a.m. flight, which puts me into Atlanta around 3:30 p.m. or so. I'll be going from relatively cool Pacific Northwest weather (between 75-90 degrees, low humidity) to the steamy Southern weather (97 degrees, 101 degrees heat index with humidity added in). And it's supposed to be 97 the entire time I'm there. Ugh! Yes, I have lots of shorts with me!

Here's the album from Saturday night's party at the Crystal Ballroom:

Saturday Night Reunion Photos

Okay, okay, here's the album for Friday night photos:

Friday Night Reunion Photos

Rachel

Whoa! I went to my reunion last night (I'll be going tonight too - see you there fellow classmates!) and had a good time. I took over 100 pictures, so there isn't anyway I'm posting them all here. I'm uploading to the Kodak Gallery website as we speak. I'll post a link to an album SOON!

Here's a teaser - me and Brenda Trout!

Wow! My photo was chosen as Photo of the Week at My Digital Muse! You can see the thread here:

Photo of the Week Thread

I feel so honored. I know it was a good photo, but Andie Smith's presets made it look that much better. :)

I want this book:

That's Life



Just released yesterday, by one of the scrapbookers on 2peas, Nic Howard.