The adventures of Flat Lauren

I think I have touched on it in the past but I am proudly hosting Flat Lauren here in Michigan.

For those that don't know about this, this is a spin off of the Flat Stanley project. Click here: Flat Stanley it's based on a children's book about this boy that flattened himself to mail himself around the world on different adventures. One of the ladies on Scrapshare has a daughter that was doing this project and she was looking for host families. I volunteered and it turned into a Flat Lauren project also, Lauren is her daughter. Thought it would be neat to take a picture of her daughter and then send her around to host families on Scrapshare in hopes of going to all 50 states and countless countries in the world.

Flat Lauren and I went out this weekend with Dawnn. We started at lunch at Red Robin:







After lunch we were heading to Grand Haven State Park to take Flat Lauren to Lake Michigan and to the lighthouse at Grand Haven. Well all 3 of us were chatting so much we got on the intersection going the wrong direction! *sheepish grin*

We got halfway to Chicago when we realized we were going the wrong direction and took the next exit, stopped to get gas and continued on.
I think Flat Lauren missed her Mom and had wanted to stop at home and check in.



Got back on the interstate and headed back the right direction. On our way we went to Holland! (Michigan that is) and made a stop at the Dutch Village to get Flat Lauren a pair of flat shoes and stopped to document our trip to Holland.



We finally get to Grand Haven and get out to walk on the beach a bit and walk along the pier to get some pictures.

Setting up the timer... since I'm a blonde and couldn't get my tripod to work right.
FYI, the Creative Memories camera bag also works great as a tripod *wink*



Success! A group shot



We then headed back for home, tired and cold from a fun day exploring.

To everyone that reads this (or just the 2 that read it lol) I'm sending you some love. Hope ya'll had a good weekend too!

Red High Heels

You know, that new song by Kellie Pickler, the girl that was on American Idol.

I have it stuck in my head, it's been stuck in my head for about a week now and I can't get rid of it. I even thought that if I got it off iTunes and put it on my iPod that would help, nope.

It's stuck stuck stuck! And the worst part, it's just the chorus!

It's a cute, girly song but after almost 2 weeks I'm done with it :)


Baby I’ve got plans tonight
You don’t know nothin’ about
I’ve been sitting around way too long
Trying to figure you out
But you say that you’ll call and you don’t
And I’m spinning my wheels
So I’m going out tonight
In my red high heels

I’m gonna call up that old boyfriend
Who says he has it bad for me
I’m gonna take him into town
Flaunt him around for everyone to see
Well you said so yourself
You know the deal
Nobody holds a candle to me
In my red high heels

Well you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels
In my red high heels

All those games you tried to play
Well they aint gonna work on me now
I put up a barbed wire fence
around my heart
Baby just to keep you out
Well you thought I’d wait around forever
But baby get real
I just kicked you to the curb
In my red high heels

Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels
In my red high heels

Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels

Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to
I’ll bet you want me back now don’t you, don’t you
I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels
In my red high heels

In my red high heels
In my red high heels

Top 10 in 2006

I can't believe 2006 is over, there were highs and lows, tears of joy and tears of sadness.

Stacy had the challenge for this week be your Top 10 in 2006. Here are mine in no particular order:

10. New Glasses. Sounds a bit anti-climatic huh? It had been at least 5 years, possibly longer since I had new glasses. I always wear contacts and would wear an old, old pair of glasses at home, one day they finally broke so I was without. I got Vision insurance from work and with it was able to get new contacts and glasses, and my glasses were paid for!
Not a great picture, but only one I found where I was wearing glasses


9. Road Trip to Sonic


For my birthday Dawnn, Skye and I went down to Ft Wayne, Indiana to Sonic. I was lucky that a month or so later I got to go down there and met a fellow Scrapshare Sister, ReneinOH


8. Eric Clapton
I've been a big Clapton fan for a long time and have always wanted to see him in concert and when I found out he was going to in Grand Rapids In September I jumped on it, I got lucky and went with Jim and 2 close friends and we had 11th row seats! Talk about concert of a lifetime!




7. Zoo Mania
I love animals and zoo's and was so lucky to get to visit 4 zoo's this past summer in Michigan, Ohio, and Washington.


6. Scrapbooking retreats
I was very lucky to go to several scrapbooking retreats this year, the first one was in April on Lake Michigan. I only stayed for 1 night since I had a previous engagement, but while I was there we had tons of fun and I even got some work done in my album!


5. Going Home
In August I was lucky enough to go home for my Dad's birthday and to spend time with my family and go to my first Scrapshare retreat!


4. Scrapshare Washington 2.5 Retreat
My first Scrapshare retreat! When I told Heidi I was coming home in August she helped organize the WA 2.5 retreat so I could attend! I had so much fun getting to know these ladies.



3. Willow
2006 saw Abbie getting a little brother! I am not home alot so I felt badly leaving Abbie alone alot and decided she needed a companion, and I thought I could use another one too :)


2. Cleveland Rocks
In July Jim and I went to Cleveland for a long weekend, and to celebrate his birthday. While we were there we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Hard Rock Cafe, Cleveland Zoo to see the koala's, and I surprised him with tickets to a Cleveland Indians baseball game for his birthday!


1. Jim
I just got really lucky with him ... I wasn't looking for anything and I found it :)


Wishing everyone a great 2007!

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and Library

Tonight before the hockey game Jim and I went to the Gerald R. Ford museum to sign the condolence book. The museum is closed right now but they have opened the lobby for the public to come in and sign the book. I thought it would be a good thing to bring Flat Lauren to also.

These are just a few of the pictures from tonight. The rest are on my film camera and it will be a few weeks until they are back.

The sign at the museum:



Out in front of the museum people have been gathering to pay their respects and have left alot of items and candles. Another thing I noticed was all of the news crews, the local ones plus CNN, NBC in NY (we think it may be The Today Show) and Fox. Then it kind of hit me that this is going to be huge and Grand Rapids will be seen from around the world!

The sign out in front of the museum:




Flat Lauren and I in front of the sign and museum. (Please ignore the extra chins)



I have at least a dozen more pictures on my film camera, I will post them when I get them also.

It's a zoo out there!

This summer I went a little zoo crazy, I went to 4 zoo's across the country in about an 8 week time span.

John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids
Toledo Zoo
Cleveland Zoo
Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, WA

I'm still developing pictures from this summer, I had 15 rolls! but I did get some back. As I promised many blog entries ago I would share pictures. Here are some of my favorites that I have developed so far.







Hippoquarium at the Toledo Zoo:











And the whole reason I wanted to go to the Cleveland Zoo:

A few Christmas pictures

As most of ya'll know I'm not digital yet so there's always a few days or weeks delay in me showing pictures.

I don't have all of my Christmas pictures back yet but here are some of my Christmas tree and decorations in my apartment. This is the first time in two years I actually decorated for Christmas and it felt great!

My Christmas tree (notice it's a little sparse on the left there, that seems to be the main point of entry for Abbie and Willow to climb in!)



The stockings were hung by the chimney with care



My ABC Distributing Snowmen, I thought they were cute and they've held up all these years!



The presents under my tree, before some of them got mailed out that is! Notice the stuffed puppy over to the left there? Jim got me that at a Griffins game the week before Christmas, he got up to get something to drink and came back with the stuffed puppy!

Warning: Cute Alert!

Warning: Very cute kitty pictures to follow. Don't look if you are easily enabled into going out to get your own very cute kitty!

Willow is 12 weeks old now!

Merry Christmas!

Let's try this again ... Willow decided to jump on the keyboard here and hit just the right button and deleted everything I had typed. The joys of kittenhood :)

I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas no matter how you celebrated. I had a wonderful Christmas and am thankful for such great family and friends.

I'll post more later about my Christmas.

Kittens + "big sister" cat + Christmas stuff = A HUGE MESS

I was so proud of myself. All of my shopping is done, my Christmas tree is up, my stockings are up, they have items in them, all of my presents are wrapped and under the tree. All that is left is to go to the store today to get a couple of items for Christmas Eve that would have perished in the fridge had I got them last weekend and kept them in the fridge.

My tree is still up, but it's been climbed at least half a dozen times, Willow with the help of Abbie, or maybe it's Abbie with the help of Willow have taken apart the bottom 1/4 of the tree for me, apparently so I can get a jump on taking it down after Christmas.

I have a card sitting in the tree from my Mom with a Do Not Open Until Christmas note on it. The game is apparently to try and knock that card down and then chew on it because instead of a cat and kitten I apparently have large mutant fuzzy hamsters that like to shred paper.

One of the gifts I got for Jim came in a really pretty box already decorated, but they made a mistake. The packing wrap inside is paper shreds folded up like zesty strip things. I have said gift sealed but somehow the mutant hamsters have figured out a way to pull these paper shreds out and have scattered them all.over.the.living.room.

2 of the bows for presents for his family are MIA, they took down Jim's stocking from the wall above the fireplace. I think this was in an attempt to get their own stocking down because there is toys and catnip in it. I wasn't sure how they managed to do this since the stockings are pretty high for these mutant hamsters to get to. I finally saw mutant hamster Willow do it this morning. He gets on my rocking chair I have had since I was a girl that has a cute Santa Paws in it and perches on the top of it then rocks it back against the wall next to the fireplace and bats at the wall and stockings as best he can until he gets one.

Once they take the stocking down it's like beating a pinata, they have emptied the contents of his stocking all over the living room with the paper shreds.

I also found 2 presents that need some rewrapping because they've taken the edges off.

A friend of mine said that this is just their way of decorating for the holidays. *Sigh*

Merry Christmas! I hope that your mutant hamsters are behaving :)

Baby steps

I just finished reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book last night for the second time and I am ready to make this work for me.

It won't happen overnight, I am resigned to that, but I made the first step several years ago by having a plastectomy as Dave calls it (cutting up my credit cards) and never did much after that. I made the first step toward baby step 1, setting up a baby emergency fund, I don't have the full amount in it yet but I just started it tonight!

It's a small step but it's a step in the right direction and it makes me feel wonderful!

If anyone reads this and is tired of the way they are living with their finances I recommend this book, get it from the library or buy it used on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com if you are ready to make a change this book will help you do it!

Blessings

Blessings come in many ways, shapes, and forms. I am a believer in "you do good things and good things happen" and once again I am blown away by love, warmth, friendship, caring, and generosity of people.

I want to thank each of you but I don't know how to express the words and I cannot wait for the day when I can pay forward the love and generosity that has been bestowed on me. Thank you.

Christmas survey

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Usually wrapping paper, some things fit better in gift bags though, or I'll wrap something and then put it in a gift bag.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Fake. What's a real tree?

3. When do you put up the tree?
By the second week of December, the 8th this year

4. When do you take the tree down?
By New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes but not all the time. Starbucks Eggnog Latte's are good though!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My Easy Bake Oven

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
No but I saw a cute one at Cracker Barrel today

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Grandma

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Mom and Jim

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Didn't do Christmas cards this year, but I am making a few photo cards for a few people that convinced me it wouldn't be stupid :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Mmmmm I don't think I've had a worst, but getting just new cookware and nothing else was disappointing...

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Usually start in November, this year I started earlier.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Soft Sugar Cookies, not crunchy

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Colored

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Frosty the snowman

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
I'd like to travel home for Christmas but instead I stay home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?
Maybe

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star or a bow

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas morning

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Just the ones I have gotten from friends or family, no real theme to my tree

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Something simple, this year having Pizza on Christmas Eve. Fondue last year was fun until Jean burned me :)

25. Do you have Jesus in your heart this Christmas?
Yes

26. What do you want for Christmas this year?
For everyone to like what I chose for them, oh and I want a Sizzix :) Digital Rebel too but that's not realistic.

27. Who is most likely to respond to this?
Not sure. I'm posting it on my blogspot blog so it may get case'd.

The Who

Tuesday night Jim took me and his youngest son to the The Who concert. It was funny how it all went down. We knew they were coming for several months, thought it'd be a cool concert but for $99 a ticket not *that* cool. Last Thursday there was some sort of radio sale for tickets on the floor, $23 a piece. He got a pair of tickets and invited me to go :) Then after some thought he thought his kids may like going too and got another set of tickets, not together, but one row behind and on the other aisle. His oldest decided not to go but his youngest wanted to, no biggie the 3 of us can go.

The Pretenders opened for them and they did great, and The Who was awesome too! They did alot of songs from the new album and tons of the old favorites including Pinball Wizard from Tommy, Who Are You (affectionately known amongst several of my friends as the CSI song!), My Generation, You Better You Bet, and one of my favorites Baba O'Riley ... but you may know it as Teenage Wasteland.

The concert was great and afterward I got to thinking and realize this was the 6th concert I've been to this year! 6 in 2006 :) This year I saw:

Keith Urban (Pat Green opened for him)
Kenny Chesney (Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley opened)
Foghat (gotta love free concerts!)
Eric Clapton (Robert Cray band opened)
Bob Seger (Steve Azar opened)
The Who (The Pretenders opened)

In the car on the way back Jim and I were chatting and thought it was funny that we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in July and since then have seen 4 artists or bands that are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! And ... The Who played at Woodstock back in '69! Incredible.

Have I mentioned lately I love concerts? :)

Come meet Willow

Last Friday I was able to go and pick up my new kitten from Paul's house. I went and got the kitten and brought him home to meet his new big sister, Abbie.







Abbie was not too impressed and quickly ran away after hissing a few times. I left the little guy in the carrier for awhile so he can get acclimated and then let him out to explore his new home.

The pictures tell most of the story so I won't talk much more here. He is just precious and so stinkin' cute! I'd been debating about names all week and finally Thursday night I was holding him and was trying out different names and when I got to Willow (which if you read my blog every now and then you'll know that was one of the first names I came up with before we knew if he was a boy or girl) he started to purr. So Willow it is.

Enjoy the pictures:

Replacement iPod Shuffle

I'm a bit behind on posting, been a roller coaster week this week.

I got a call on Saturday afternoon that my replacement iPod came in at the Apple store. I made an appointment for Sunday afternoon to go and in pick it up. Went and picked it up, no problem.

Got it plugged in and charged, and lo and behold, it worked! This appears to have fixed my problems I've had these last few months ... although I'm still hesitant :)

Overall my experience with the Apple store was very positive, if I had known you could go in there in person instead of dealing with online help I would have done that 6 months ago!