The Cult

I spent last weekend with my cult. Did that grab your attention??? Yep, I said CULT - the Baptist preacher's wife is a cult member - what's that? You think all Baptists are in a cult??? Get real, lol - I'm talking about my scrapbooking cult...you see, twice a year we pack it all up, load up the cars and head a little ways out of Houston and scrapbook like maniacs for 3 days. We get very little sleep...I slept 6 hours Friday night, and less than 5 on Saturday night...

and I finished 18 pages (9 2 page 12x12 layouts) plus two mini scrapbooks for wedding gifts with 26 decorated mini pages for each

Overall our group scrapped over 150 12x12 pages...and I have several more layouts planned - I'm PUMPED - my MOJO is back...

but so, of course, is the real world and my job, lol! Not to mention the reality of being MOB in less than 4 weeks, with 300 wedding favors to make - everything else seems to be done though...

now, if only I knew for sure what song I am singing at the wedding!

Busy little beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Dear blog - I'm not sure if I'm coming or going...but right now I'm just sitting! Actually I am fixing to go to bed...but feel as though I've neglected you, dear blog, so I thought I'd feed you a little. Thank goodness I remember to feed Clark (the Betta my dds gave me for Mother's day last year) more often than you, my blog!

Well, blog, my friend, I just finished watching Cleveland take the Yankees down. Whoo Hoo - GO INDIANS....yeah, yeah - perhaps that isn't the best attitude, but it is better than dissing the Yankees totally, isn't it? I just am not as impressed with the pinstripes as some are, I guess :)

Anyway, bloggie, I had my stampers over for World Card-Making Day last Saturday - we combined it with my regular Hostess Club meeting as I will be unavailable this coming Saturday (the 'usual' 2nd Saturday on which we usually meet). It seems the cult to which I belong is holding a weekend long retreat (lest you worry about the cult thing - remember, I am a believer in Christ, and a pastor's wife, etc... that's just what our hubbies call our little scrapbooking group...they said we had gone off and formed a cult - particulary humorous coming from MY husband from the pulpit on one fine Sunday morning...I was concerned that I might have to begin CPR on some of the sweet little blue-haired ladies!). So, hopefully, next week sometime, I'll have an update on my scrapbooking pages completed so far this year. My goal for the year was 52...a very REASONABLE goal for me. I have completed (drum roll, please) 79 pages...35 traditional and 44 digital. I am well-pleased about that. I have exactly zero layouts planned for this weekend, bloggie, BUT I do know that I plan to create miniature envelope scrapbooks (see the one in the margin I did for my sweet mom-in-law) for two recent brides...hopefully they will like!

I guess since it is coming on to 11 pm and I must needs get up in the morning and get to a workshop, that I probably should get me to bed, my friend blog, but, again, I was afraid you might be feeling neglected and wanted to reassure you that you are cared for...

Have a good week, blog - talk to you later!

September Hostess Club Card #1

Wow! Who would have thought that having a first-year teacher in the house would make me as tired as, well, a first-year teacher, lol! Actually, that, plus the doubling of my case load at school (but honestly, I know my boss appreciates me - she's awesome!), plus the Wedding, the mall-hopping and The Cold That Won't Quit.

ANYWAY... some of our cards this month use acetate from the office store, stazon inks, and more fun...here's the first...spreading them out over several days - just because I can (actually - can I be honest with you? Just because I'm really too tired to stay up any longer and one is all i have in me to share - they're all scanned - but I'm too pooped to upload them all here, lol!) G'night!!!!

Oh...and may I just say -

GO ASTROS - swept the Reds - WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!

I didn't go to ONE mall today....


I went to *T*H*R*E*E* of them!


However, in case either of my daughters ever discovers that I blog and reads this - I have to be honest and say, it wasn't so bad....really! Quit laughing - it really wasn't !!! (Notice the lack of ominous music???)

Went to Dillard's at The Galleria - second dress Kate tried on - that was it! There *was* a moment when I was afraid it was going south fast in the shoe department, but we managed past that, and went on to the second place...to pick up Kari's wedding dress.(Of course we managed to stop and eat at Macaroni Grill before picking up the dress). Kari looks bee-yoo-teeeee-ful in it (the dress, I mean, not necessarily Macaroni Grill...)! And if you'd seen her you'd say so, too!

Actually, we went into the mall, Willowbrook Mall this time, between eating and getting the dress. Parked at the wrong end of the mall and walked all the way down to Victoria's Secret to get Kari a good bra, only to be unable to get anyone to wait on us [sigh - I really do not like Victoria's Secret]...so we took our disposable income elsewhere...

After lunch, second mall, wedding dress....we went over to Starbucks...then, hopped back on the Beltway so Kari and I could go the the third mall and Katie could head back to College Station by way of Bo's school. We also tried unsuccessfully to go to a school supply store for Bo to get him some calendar goodies, but alas, the one by the third mall had closed...so we went into Northwest Mall (the mall I went to as a teenager, back in the dark ages...and yes, we had electricity, gasoline powered automobiles and malls back then), and found the pink champagne glasses Kari has been wanting for she and Garrett - they have a set of 4 pink glasses and a tribute to breast cancer survivors on a lovely card inside - $25 bucks - awesome price, and a great cause (sez I - the daughter and grand-daughter of breast cancer survivors).

Finally, Kari and I ran by Garrett's work and got the receipt for the wedding bands they bought earlier this week....went to pick them up, and they talked me into getting my rings dipped (If Kari were reading this, she'd say HA - who talked who into what???)...anyway - my rings are now white gold, thank you - very sparkly and pretty!

Anyway - we all made it back home on the same day we left... the Astros won last night, and are ahead of St. Louis at the moment...I'm tired, but almost over my cold, Bo, Katie and Kari are all sick.... I guess you can't win them ALL! (Keep them in your prayers, would ya?)

Well, my WHOO HOO *did* wake Bo up, but that's OK....his whoo hoo when he was offered not one job...but two jobs was so faint I couldn't have heard it if I had been standing right by him and *not* been deaf, lol...he was in a state of shock for, well...I'm not sure he isn't still a little shocky! He is such a brilliant, competent, caring person - it amazes me that he is so surprised when other people recognize that! Of COURSE both principals wanted him - they'd be foolish not to! I think he will be an awesome special education teacher!

Glad we got that whoo hoo - not much Astros activity to whoo hoo about - although as I type they are tied with Milwaukee...won't help us any - we're firmly cellar dwellers...but it might open a door for, say, Chicago, to have a firmer grasp on first place in the NL Central Division...

In other news...well, tomorrow is the day - back to the dreaded....dare I even say it? Nah - you know where I am headed with my girls...keep me in your thoughts will ya? And just say a little prayer for me - NOT FOR PATIENCE - oh, no, PLEASE not that....but that my daughters would LIKE one another tomorrow, and that I would like both of them and they me, at the end of the day! And that maybe......just maybe - we will find the perfect dress for Kate, and get the rest of the errands done we need to!

Shopping at the Mall is like being pecked to death by ducks!

ASTROS WIN in 11

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Astros win in 11 innings! WTG Luke Scott and Brad Lidge, along with the rest of the team.

WHAT a game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm so excited and Bo is already asleep (that is, if my WHOOOOO HOOOOO didn't wake him up, lol)

GO 'STROS!

Jobs

I am SO excited!!!! Bo went for a job interview last week in a local school district, for an elementary lifeskills classroom - seems the teacher was resigning, but still considering whether or not she *really* wanted to or not. She took off Monday through Wednesday of this week...

So Friday night, during the Astros game, he gets a phone call on his cell - from another principal...who asked him to come in for an interview on Monday after he finished subbing. Since the 1st position was 'iffy', after discussing it with the principal he agreed...he talked to the first principal on Monday and told her and was pleased that she told him OF COURSE he had to go for that interview!

It was a good interview.

He was offered the job...on the spot!

But the way it works, is he isn't really offered the job until HR calls...which they did today...while he was subbing...obviously since he was in charge of children at the time he didn't take the call, but called back later...and accepted!

So now, I have a first year teacher in the house! Me, who've been teaching for 28 years! (well, working in education that long - been out of the classroom for 16 years!)

Suddenly I feel the urge to make a bulletin board! I'm SO proud!!!!!