Busy Saturday

It's been a busy Saturday. I had to leave the house at 8 am this morning to go to a meeting at the church for the children's ministry. It's 6:30 - and I haven't been home yet. My good friends Tim and Cyndy are having their annual halloween party tonight and I have to make an appearance. The idea of having to put on a costume....not very appealing. I've never been a costumey kind of girl. But I've begged and borrowed and will at least be in costume - even if it's not an original costume.

I've been at Chris and Misti's this afternoon visiting baby Jonathan. He's quite adorable and very peaceful. I was just looking at pictures and there was one with his faced all squished and he had funny little grin on his face. I made the HUGE mistake of laughingly calling him a dork. (For those of you who are close friends - this is a term of affection I use often). It did not go over well with the grandparents - let me tell you. If anything, that "dorky" looking picture makes me love him even more, it was not derogetory by any means. My sincere apologies to the grandparents.

Tomorrow will be busy with packing and finishing painting a bookshelf. And hopefully a little bit of down time. We'll see.

I'm in a bit of a creative funk - I want to scrapbook, but everything is not in it's place, my scrap bag is a absolute mess and I just don't have any ideas. Hopefully after the move, I can get back into the swing of things. I do need to come up with some little project for next weekend. Our scrappin' friend Kimberly has invited us to her house for the day next saturday. I'm looking forward to spending time at her place.

Hmmmm - I just realized that I probably need to come up with something to do for Christmas cards. AAAAACCCCKKKK. Running away from the computer quickly in a panic...................

It's been a while...

Isn't it amazing how your best intentions go out the window immediately upon the arrival of some kind of new challenge? Amazing, but absolutely frustrating. I can't quite figure out if it's other things taking precedence or if it's just plain ol' procrastination. I come from a long line of procrastinators. There's this huge part of me that absolutely hates procrastination....and so I counterattack with super activity. And then I'm exhausted. But, if I allow myself to procrastinate - I feel guilty and hate myself and then am exhausted from the energy it takes to feel guilty and hate myself. What a vicious cycle.

Anyway - I'll get off my soapbox or whatever you call it. I'm learning how to live a life free from guilt. Especially self-imposed guilt.

I'm off to watch a tivo'd episode of The Unit. I love that show!

Oh - the two layouts at the beginning of this post are from a couple of weeks ago.

Cold Monday

It’s been cold (or rather – cool) all weekend and it’s absolutely marvelous. Hopefully we won’t have any more warm days, but even in October you can’t depend on Atlanta weather. We could have 45° one day and 85° the next.

Jonathan David Mann arrived into this world October 12th at 10:59 pm. He was a big boy, weighing in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces and 21.5 inches long. Misti handled labor like a champ, but ended up having a c-section. He’s a cutey and looks like a little wizened old man.

Aunt Paula signed the contract on her new sunroom Friday afternoon so we’ll be busy with that over the next couple of weeks.

Laurel and I were going to visit Misti and the new little one on Friday, but I was just so dang sleepy from being up at the hospital the night before that I was beginning to think I wouldn’t make it. Luckily, Laurel, being the great friend that she is, figured it out and drove us both over to Gwinnett. I am so thankful

I was pretty much useless this weekend, with the exception of packing up a few small things at the house and taking photos of the layouts I completed last weekend at our crop. Oh – and volunteering at the church on Sunday – but that didn’t take long at all.

This week will be better, I swear!!

For some reason, Blogger isn't letting me post photos. I'll try to post my layouts again later.

Nieceling or Nephewling?

Working away today – but at the same time my thoughts are about 20 miles away with my good friend Misti. She is at the hospital laboring away to have a baby. I can’t wait to leave the office in a little bit and head up to the hospital. Hopefully I can be there when the new little neiceling or nephewling is born. We don’t know yet if it is a boy or a girl and I can’t wait to find out.

I’ll definitely keep everyone posted once the little bambino makes an appearance.

Laurel, Lisa and I had a great time scrappin’ Saturday. We missed our two other cohorts, Kimberly and Misti – it just isn’t quite the same without you. We lucked out by meeting up with some girls who reserved the entire classroom for the day, so we didn’t have to move all of our stuff for the evening crop. You’d never believe it, but some croppin’ girls get into quite a snit when having to rearrange their things. It’s not pretty – and the more we can avoid it the better. :)

I only managed three layouts – but they are all cute. I’ll post them as soon as I get photos taken – hopefully this weekend.

Pho Ga

Pho Ga. That’s the newest culinary delight in my world. My good friend Aveline (Aveline is the woman to talk to if you want to try something new in Atlanta) and I went to a Vietnamese place on Buford highway and had Pho Ga. It’s this great big, steaming bowl of chicken, broth, onions and rice noodles and who knows what else. It’s served along with a plate of bean sprouts, basil, jalepeno, lime and another green, leafy spice of some kind. You add what you want and chow down. Delicious and healthy and I think I could probably eat there every day.

Of course, that was followed by a visit to a Korean bakery up the street which totally negates the healthy soup – but I think I’ll have to drag Mom down there when she is here at Christmas. They have chestnut bread! I think she’ll love it.

I got an email today from PaperCrafts magazine. I have been selected to be on their reader’s panel for the next 6 months or so. So, I’ll answer questions about products etc. in exchange for a few free goodies. I’m sure it’s not that big of a deal and the selection process is pretty easy (who knows, everyone who signs up may have been ‘selected’) but I’m still excited to see what kind of questions they ask and what kind of input they are looking for.

We are still waiting on the arrival of the newest “Mann”. I can’t wait to meet him. Yes – I think it’s a boy!

The beginning of a new week...

It's been a busy and productive weekend. I'm glad to be starting a new week. My living room is in boxes as Jessie is coming to paint on Tuesday and my books have all been packed. This week I'll start stripping and repainting my bookcase. It needs it so badly. Hopefully it will go well. It's a pretty big project - and I haven't always had the best of luck with projects like this. But there is a first time for everything :) !!!!

Scrapped yesterday for the whole day! I almost finished the project I was working on and will have it all completed by the end of the week. Laurel had a productive day as well - but I can't tell you about that project either. One of these days, when it's ready to be posted, I'll link over to it. I love special projects like this.

My good friend Misti is about ready to pop! She's due on the 5th - and the doctors are estimating that the baby is over eight pounds. Whew! I'm glad it's not me. I think she'll definitely be having a baby this week - and we are all believing it will go smoothly and painlessly. I just got off the phone with her and she says she's doing well. I'll keep you all posted!

Just 35 more minutes until the newest episode of Amazing Race. I can't wait. I think I'll go scrounge something up for dinner and take a break from the packing.

Have a wonderful evening!