Zookeeper

I found a picture of Kat dressed up in her zookeeper outfit all ready for her Madagascar themed birthday party. 

I made a post of the goodie bags I made for the party but for some reason never posted a picture of her. 

I'm so glad I have this blog to refer back to when I'm doing these pages so many years later. I had forgotten that the party was Madagascar themed and not just zookeeper themed. Ooops.

I made Kat her cake for that day rather than picking one up at the store. We wanted it (well, maybe I wanted it) to be red velvet. Here's link to a picture of her blowing out her candles. 

Five more

 Being out of work for the summer has made me pretty bored. I'm still going at it although I've slowed down a bit. 

I find it difficult to scrap pictures when I don't have a date of the photo or if they're not good pics or if I feel like I'm just repeating myself.

For this page, I didn't edit the photo. I guess I forgot so you get to see the mess that lives behind me. 

I wanted to get messy and so I used modeling paste and a stencil for the background. I didn't want to add too much more (paper wise) so I just used some circle paper and something neutral for the photo to live on. I still don't know if I like it or not.

These are my grandchildren. I took the photos back in February but just now edited them. Paper is mostly Fancy Pants with a little BasicGrey scrap that I found.

This is Blake as a baby. In the picture above, he's the kid on the left (now 11 years old). I don't really like pre-made titles but I painted myself into a corner with this one so I just left it. Same paper line as above. And I got to use some yellow mist which is fun. 

I followed the design of one of my older pages for this one. I really loved (and still do) Lilly Bee so that's where the flags and polka dot comes from. 

This is one I'm just not happy with at all but I've accepted the fact that it just needed to be done. Look how cute he is next to his giant science project display. I felt there wasn't much I could do with this because the photo itself sucked (color, exposure, etc) so I got out the trusty BasicGrey and tried to highlight him as best I could instead of the GIANT WHITE BOARD that holds the spotlight. I also tore a page out of a chemistry book I use for occasions such as this and then distressed it by using some walnut dye ink.

Trent is kind of lost in the darkness. Crappy pic.

I just recently added the stamps when I remembered I had some Tim Holtz stamps that were science related. 

 

I don't have a date for this picture so it will sit in the pile of other pages I have with no dates. Too many to count. 

Three pages in 24 hours

I tell you, I can't stop. 

It may have to do with that I'm off work (mostly) for the summer and I'm bored out of my mind. The dishes are done and I'm caught up with laundry. I've played the hell out of Rimworld that I think I'm actually bored with it. If I had a better computer, I could add some more mods and play it differently and in a more "refreshing" way.

Here's what I've been doing this last day:

I always had to get the kids up and going on Wednesdays during the school year. If we didn't make it there to the school cafeteria, there would be no cinnamon rolls. Nothing like happy kids all sugared up.

 

I lost Cherry in March. She was a reactive dog with separation anxiety and having tried everything, nothing was working. 

My parents bought her a super heavy duty 60 pound crate - the one you can't escape from. I would still come home and she would have moved that crate (even with wheels locked) to the nearest piece of furniture, plant or book and destroy it. 

I noticed that after I let her out of the crate that Manny would go in there and lick the floor of her crate. It took me a few days to figure out what was going on. I saw the teeth marks on the bars and realized that Manny was licking up blood from the crate floor from Cherry's mouth from chewing on the bars. 

Trazadone worked but only for about 3 hours. I work 8 hours of the day so that wasn't going to work and Prozac just made her shake. Of course I had worked with Jay years previously for training.

She had also learned to unlock and open the sliding glass door and let herself out. Remember she was always a fence jumper, too. 

The day I made the decision to put her down was after a huge fight between her and Shannon. I just couldn't do it anymore but didn't realize it until I called my mom. My mom gently suggested I put her down because I have been trying to make it work for years. Cherry was 11 and I had her for about 8 years.  

Of course there is so much more to Cherry's story than just a few paragraphs but I just don't feel like writing about it.

The paper is BasicGrey Sultry and the stamps are Technique Tuesday.

 

Somewhere in this picture is baby Blake hiding behind the toys. The kids thought it would be funny to add all his toys to his carrier to keep him super occupied. 

This page is made from mostly scraps from stuff sitting around my desk. I'm not very happy with the title. I don't think I like the font. But, you win some you lose some and this is just going to stay the way it is.

Mule

 

It's been so many years but I've been bit by the scrapbooking bug again. I can't stop. I'm doing 4 or so layouts a week. This is just one I did yesterday. 

I've been doing so many that I got stuck and had to use a Page Map for the design process. 

Since I'm even able to log into this account, I'll be adding more pages soon.

All my papers and supplies are practically vintage at this point. I think this is all BasicGrey Sugar Rush. .

Old.

Vintage.

AND, I dug out my old Technique Tuesday stamps. Those babies are hanging on by a thin thread. Some of them are starting to rip but the ones that work are just making my day.

I miss the days I used to design for them. There is nothing like the smell of new stamps.

The picture is from 2010. I'm only 13 years behind. 

We were at Mount Vernon and Kat can never resist an animal. She tried and tried to pet this mule that wanted really nothing to do with her. 

Since I've started scrapbooking like a maniac again, I've run into a small problem. I'm out of scrapbooks. Money is so damn tight and I can't afford new books so I'll just be trying to stuff old ones until the seams burst. 

I counted the books I have and they're up to 45. Do you know what a pain in the ass those are to move? I can't really put them in a box because they're so large and awkward. They have to be moved by hand and I'm an old lady now. I'm not looking forward to moving anytime soon.

Enough bitching for now. 

Enjoy your day.

Heather

Dear Grandma

 Hi Grandma,

Not too much going on. I’m staying in pajamas all day. I figure it deserve it. I’ve worked 10 days with only 1 day off. 

The dogs were acting weird the last few days. When I came home Wednesday, I noticed that one of the sliding glass doors was open and the dogs were outside. I thought I just didn’t close it well and they “nosed” it open.

On Thursday morning before I left for work, I double and triple checked the door to make sure it was closed and locked. 

At my break a few hours later, I opened the camera and realized that they had opened the door again and were outside. I called Dad and he went over and put them inside and set a rod down so they couldn’t open it again. They had destroyed about 10 vertical blinds in the process as well. 

I picked up all the broken blinds and replaced them. 

Friday morning while on break, I checked the camera again and while they hadn’t opened the door, there were 6 blinds still hanging. Something was certainly bothering them. 

When I got home I did a quick check around the house to make sure no one was living undercover in my house. I seriously doubted this was a possibility but still checked. No one else was in the house. 

Very odd behavior. 

Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed your sweet. I had an apple for breakfast and it was really good.

Have a good day. I’ll pet the puppies but I’ll tel them you told them they have to start behaving or else!

Have a good day.

Love

Heather 

At home

Testing this to see if it still works.

Dear Grandma RE: Preschool Themes

I've decided that I'm going to start recording some of my responses to my grandmother. Ever since my other grandmother died 14 years ago, she writes me every day. She lets me know she's still there and still alive.

May 31, 2018

Hi Heather:

Checking in and all seems okay here. I didn't know you were planning to attend Pima. Tell me more when you have time.

Have a good one.

Love, GB

Yeah, I think I made that decision a couple weeks ago when I decided I didn't want to spend the next 1/5 of my life struggling to work full time and go to school for a bachelors degree to teach. All of my "advisors" (therapists, lawyer, etc) tell me I have a good 30 years left of my working life. Getting a bachelors degree while working full time will take AT LEAST 6 years. So, I said, "FUCK IT" and decided to do something else on my list of possible jobs that were good fits for me. I took 3 tests back in December or so to decide what career would be good for me. Teaching, medical and graphic design were on the list.

All of the medical degrees were competitive and I could end up on a waiting list and I didn't want the extra stress.

So, after thinking about it, I made the decision that I was staying in the school district to work so I can have the same time off as the kids. I'm worried about the kids being alone during extended school breaks. Christmas break was when one of Kat's friends killed himself. My kids are too emotional to be left alone for long periods of time. And besides, I really like working with the kids.

I need at least 30 hours in Amphi and that gets me medical and dental coverage. And they have a GREAT retirement program.

So, I can go to school part time and learn how to design web pages, business cards, etc. I can do that on the side when I feel like it. I can also incorporate my photography and I want to learn how to fix my own computer. I'll still be working with Jay as much as I can and the first thing I'm going to do is fix his stupid web page.

Once Kat graduates, I can either stay at what I'm doing, increase my hours at the school or just find a job doing graphic design and I'll already have experience.

My other idea was to make some new kid friendly books or videos. Having been in preschool this year, I've noticed some strange themes in Children's stories. There is always some old lady eating things she's not supposed to. You know, "I know an old lady that swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die. I know an old lady that swallowed a spider. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly...." etc. They're ALWAYS old ladies and there are several stories and her diet changes depending on the time of year.

There is also that damn story, "If you give a mouse a cookie". I'm sure you know that story. Well, that damn mouse has ADHD and can NEVER finish a damn project. They make short movies based on that story and they drive me nuts. I just want to scream, "FINISH YOUR DAMN PROJECT BEFORE YOU MOVE ON TO HELP MR. MOOSE. MR. MOOSE CAN WAIT". And then he never finishes Mr. Moose because some other idiot comes up and needs help and so he leaves Mr. Moose and goes to help someone else and it just keeps going and going until he makes a big ass mess. I can't stand it.

There is also the story about the kid that wants his grandmother to knit him some mittens. When she asks what color, he says, "white". Well of course the grandmother tells him he's going to lose the mittens in the snow but the little shit insists and she makes him white mittens. Well, guess what happens? He loses one of those damn mittens just like he was warned and THEN a bunch of animals find it and start living in it. The story is completely unrealistic because we have a mouse living in there with a bunch of other carnivores.

I say that the story is about the desperation of homelessness but everyone else always says that it's about working together and living in harmony. We had to just agree to disagree on that one.

There is also a few stories where working men fuck everything up and who has to come to their rescue? Their wives. Their wives are the ones that have to fix the big messes that their husbands make. I suppose that is one of the more realistic stories.

There is also an animated movie that the kids love where the characters are in a jungle playing with dangerous animals. It's called Animal Boogie Oogie Woogie or something like that. The characters all have oversized, very wrinkled clothing and they play with animals like cobras, vultures (in fact, the one that plays with a giant oversized vulture is a child in a wheel chair. The way that vulture eyes her is scary because he knows she can't run away) and some sort of tiger or something. Their depiction of the tiger is not even real. It looks more like a saber tooth tiger with it's giant fangs hanging 6 inches out of its mouth.

At the end of the movie, I always have to say, "Never play with wild animals" because I'm afraid the kids are going to come across a snake somewhere and try to ride it like they do in the movie.

So, that's my story. :)

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Heather


Thank you for the long letter telling me about all the decisions you've make lately. For what it's worth, I think you've made some good ones and, obviously, thought it all out well. Your photo ability should not go to waste. Working the same hours as the kids are in school makes sense. Just don't wear yourself out. Get lots of sleep!