Wish me luck...

In just over 12 hours I will be attempting to play "Phantom of the Opera" and "Think of Me" on the handbells. By myself. Without screwing it up. This could be bad. But hey, it's for a good cause. Oh yeah, and did I mention they're having me go first. I'm thinking learning how to say "No" is a good 4.5 months after New Year's resolution to be making...

ATCs, baby!!

You, my loyal reader, are getting a sneak peek at my April ATCs. Don't all woo hoo at once on me. The theme for this month was music, and being the true 80s chick that I am, here's what I came up with:

I cut the heart out of grungeboard with my Cuttlebug (love it!), and the wings were a Photoshop brush that I colored blue. I used Stickles on the wings and the heart and doodled the rest. Check out those rockin' music notes, eh?

I also want to share with you a couple of butterfly pictures that I took this weekend at Dow Gardens butterfly exhibit:

The butterflies were so pretty - I loved them! Aunt Rose enjoyed it, but thought it was too long a walk there and back (the butterflies were in the conservatory - probably about 1/2 mile round trip, but up and down some hills). That's it for now - have I bored you enough? Have a great day!

The cost of driving...

I was blog hopping earlier, and I saw LoriAnn's post about gas prices, which got me thinking. Do the rising gas prices make you feel trapped? They really are forcing me to think more about where I drive and how I use my car. I've been more conscious of where I'm going and what else I could do while I'm in that area. I won't just hop into the car to drive across town for a couple of groceries anymore. Yet, at the same time, I resent the fact that I have to think about these things. Yes, it's a good idea to do it no matter how much gas costs, but it feels like my gas tank is taking away some of my freedom. For example, while I'm working in Jackson, I'm about 30 minutes closer to a place that I could meet my friends Kate and Kevin for dinner or something, and when gas was cheaper, I've gone over there a couple of times and had a lot of fun. Now that gas is 3.69 (just hit that peak today), I can't really justify that anymore, which makes me sad. The price of gas is also going to make us really consider where we go for vacation this year. The last couple of years, we've gone out to Pennsylvania and Atlantic City and to Washington DC, but this year we might have to stay in the state just to be able to afford it. To make matters worse, our public transportation system is not a very robust one, so it would be impractical to try and use it to get anywhere. I'm going to start riding my bike to work in the next few weeks, but that only works when I'm not down in Jackson - biking 120 miles isn't really an option! So, my question for the day is: What kinds of changes are you making because of the pain at the pumps?

Drum roll, please...

Here it is - the first layout of my grand plan! These are my 10 impossible wishes in layout form.

10 by 10

So, as I was driving home today, I had an idea. It started out thinking that I wish I had camera eyes so I could take pictures of whatever cool things I saw without having my camera with me. Wouldn't that be cool? That moved into a list of impossible wishes that I came up with, which of course, moved into "Oh, what a cool idea for a scrapbook page about me." So far, so good. My subconscious, though, can't be satisfied with just one little idea, and thus 10 by 10 was born. My new idea is to make a scrapbook with 10 lists of 10 different things, like my 10 impossible wishes. So I sat down tonight and made my lists, and once I've finished with my ATCs, I'll start trying to scrap my 10 by 10. Just as an example, here's my 10 impossible wishes in no particular order:

10 Impossible Wishes I Have
1. I wish I had camera eyes so I could take pictures of exactly what I was seeing whenever I wanted to
2. I wish I could see a UFO, but not be abducted by aliens
3. I wish I could be a princess (but just for a day)
4. I wish there was no more abuse and violence
5. I wish chocolate ice cream made you lose weight and zucchini made you gain
6. I wish I lived in a subdivision where the streets were named after Clue characters and the cross streets were named after characters from Scooby Doo
7. I wish money really did grow on trees
8. I wish that life didn’t have to be painful in order to feel the joy
9. I wish that people had the Christmas spirit every day, not just one or two days of the year.
10. I wish that I was famous (but only for a day again – I don’t want to get bored).

What are your impossible wishes?

What a weekend!

Wow. This weekend was extremely busy. I mean really busy. It started out with a game night with our friends Chris and Amanda. Chris just got a Nintendo Wii, so we decided to play that. Let me just say that now I want one - they are way too fun!! Chris and I played Super Mario Brothers (the classic version) for a while, then I went to get Brian from work and when we got back we had dinner (tacos - yum!), then played the bowling that comes with the Wii. I bowled a 179 - a feat I'll never manage in the real world. After that, Chris and I played baseball, which I played approximately as well as I play softball. I really think I want a Wii now, but the price will have to drop significantly before that happens.

Saturday, we had tickets to see Eric Church and Blake Shelton at the casino. We left a bit early and went to the buffet for dinner, then went to the concert. I wasn't all that impressed with Eric Church - all the songs sounded the same, and I'm pretty sure every single one of them mentioned beer, which is OK for one or two songs, but gets old after ten or twelve. Blake Shelton, on the other hand, was phenomenal! I think Brian said it best - he said "the first guy could sing, but this guy (Blake Shelton) actually has a voice." We didn't get home until about 12:30, but it was so worth it.

Sunday, I had to play bells for early church, which meant being there by 7:15 - way too early, in my opinion. After church, I met my friend Shelly at the movie theater so we could go to The Bucket List, which I highly recommend (even though it made me cry, which annoys me). Then back to our house so Shelly could work on her paper for school, and over to Mom & Dad's for lasagne - yum! After dinner, Mom and I had our last Broadway in Saginaw performance for the year. It was Billy Joel's Movin' Out, and was very good. I'm not that big a fan of the interpretive dance type thing, but they did a really great job, and the one guy who was playing one of the main characters was just amazing - I don't know how he can do it! All in all, even though it was a busy weekend, it was great. Next weekend is probably going to be about as busy - my cousin is getting married up North, so we will be traveling to Charlevoix for that and spending the night. It will be nice to get away for a bit, and hopefully the weather is either really nice, or really nasty - my cousin wants the wedding outside, which could be quite cold up there this time of year.

I've heard it all...

Well, maybe not, but I do think I've found the most interesting song order I could possibly have on the shuffle setting on my iPod. This morning, on my way to Jackson, I went from "You Must Love Me" by Madonna (from Evita) to "Up All Night" by Slaughter. It was the most jarring transition I've heard yet. Crazy!

We had a live chat at Cropper's Cottage tonight with Emily Falconbridge. Let me just say, she is super sweet, and so creative it's not even fair! I'm glad I was able to make the chat. That's all for now. Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Scrappiness...

So normally I would just upload my digital layouts to Cropper's Cottage and be done with it, but I evidently broke the gallery over there, so I will inflict my pages on my loyal? reader. Let me say that my first love is paper cropping, but I am loving me some Photoshop right now. There are a lot of cool things you can do with the digi layouts, and I'm only starting to scratch the surface. Since my second love is learning new things, you can see why I'm so excited by the digi thing. The first layout is of pictures taken when Jenn and Bill were back for the weekend in the beginning of March. Unfortunately, they were back because Bill's uncle was very sick (he passed away shortly after they left), but we did get to see them while they were here, which was great. Cole was having a blast playing with the piano, and I got these shots of him. He cracks me up the way he does the head tilt pose thing - so cute!! The second layout includes my favorite picture that I've ever taken - the North Window at Arches National Park. I didn't realize until I got home that the adult and child were framed and silhouetted in the arch - I just think that's so cool. So, those are my layouts. Have a super scrappy week!

Songs that bother me...

Anyone who knows me even moderately well knows that I'm not only a grammar freak, I have this extremely technical streak. I can't help pointing out the technicalities when someone mentions something that's not quite right. I really can't. It's a sickness. So I'm sure you can imagine that there are things out there that really, really bother me. Some of these things are songs. There are four songs that bother me for different reasons. First of all, and probably the most bothersome is "It's Five o'clock Somewhere" by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett. Don't get me wrong - I like the song, it's a catchy tune, but think about this... When they sing "Pour me something tall and strong, make it a hurricane before I go insane, it's only half past twelve, but I don't care. It's 5 o'clock somewhere" I cringe. I can't help it. Stick with me for a minute, here. Half past twelve is 12:30, right? Of course it is. So if it's 12:30 where they are, it can't possibly be 5:00 anywhere. It can be 4:30, it can be 5:30. There's no way it can be 5:00. Ever since the first time I heard this song, I can't stop thinking of it, which kind of takes something out of hearing it for me.

Song number two is "Blue Clear Sky", by George Strait. The word order just bugs the heck out of me. I really, really, want it to be the normal "clear blue sky", because I'm pretty sure that if something is clear, it can't also be blue (since "blue" in that order modifies "clear"). I could be wrong, but it doesn't make sense to me.

The last two songs that bother me do so because of the subject matter. First, "Escape (the Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes. Again, I like the song, it's catchy, and a great 80s song. But am I the only one who is really disturbed that not only is the main guy in the song planning to cheat on his partner, but she's also already looking around for a replacement on him? That's just wrong to me. Along the same line is the last song that bugs me. "Lips of an Angel" by Hinder (I think). Again, it really bothers me that the narrator (if you will) is not only cheating on his whatever she is - she's in the NEXT ROOM! I realize that cheating and its associated issues make very good song fodder - heck, that's what country music was founded on - but these two songs really disturb me for some reason. Anyway, that's enough ranting for today. Go forth and ponder. See if you ever hear "It's Five o'clock Somewhere" the same way again.

Tag... I'm it!

My buddy Rita hit me with a tag the other day, so here goes:

A: Attached or single: Attached
B: Best friend(s): Kate and Shelly
C: Cake or pie: Cake - as long as it's chocolate (and preferably with chocolate frosting)
D: Day of choice: It depends on my mood - probably Saturday most of the time
E: Essential item: My camera or a book
F: Favorite type of music: Just about anything - pop, rock, country, Broadway show tunes - you name it!
G: Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy bears
H: Hometown: Saginaw, MI
I: Indulgences: Double chocolate chip creme frappucinos from Barnes & Noble café (or Starbucks)
J: January or July: Both - I like the new year and the fireworks
K: Kids: None yet
L: Last movie: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
M: Marriage date: November 25, 2005
N: Number of Siblings: One brother
O: Oranges or apples: apples
P: Phobias or fears: bugs, especially spiders (OK, I know technically they're arachnids) and bees
Q: Quote(s): "You're worried there might not be anything at all inside/That you're worried should tell you that's not right." - Ben Folds Five - "Jane"
R: Reason to smile: My wonderful husband, sunsets, my nieces and nephews, and the best reason - just because!
S: Season: Spring
T: Tag four : Jayne, Nancy, and anyone else who wants to take on the challenge
U: Unknown Fact about me: I wanted to be an actress when I was in high school
(I have no idea what the question is for "V" -- it wasn't attached!)
W: Worst Habit: Brian would say it's snoring...
X: X-rays or Ultrasounds: Either
Y: Your favorite food: Chinese, pizza, or chicken parmigiana
Z: Zodiac: Pisces

Happy tagging!!