To no great surprise to many of you (ok, so maybe the best word to use in this situation is probably "all" of you), I am a bit of an obsessor. OCD Queen is more like it. Well, my harmless little blog gets caught in the middle of my obsessive tendencies. See, I have to have an hour of time dedicated to sitting down and writing it and loading up pictures or else I push it off until 'later' which goes from days to weeks and sometimes to months. But, the reality of it is I am just making it a bigger project than it actually needs to be - need being the operative word. Kind of like how when I clean the house I do the normal stuff but then I feel the needto empty all of the drawers and sort, purge and organize everything that came out of them. It is not unusual for a 3-hour cleaning job to turn into an all day into the evening kind of event.
So, with that in mind, I am going to blog a little here and there throughout the next day (or two). Maybe it will make sense, maybe you will just walk away thinking "what was she talking about?" but then again you should be used to that by now ;)
Here are my latest tangential ramblings...

north carolina was very fun... wilmington is gorgeous (love the downtown), we had a personal ride on the boahn yacht out to a private island - beautiful - and we had an early birthday celebration for my sister-in-law missie (happy birthday by the way!)...we had a wonderful time and send a huge thank you to tony, missie and the kids for a great weekend! after the beach we were off to fayetteville to stay at the beckman resort - mike's parents live out in the country (the kids think it is so cool that you pull onto their grass to drive up to their house)...lots of land to run on and a great pool to relax in...plus, you get the sweet southern charm of two porches (front and back) complete with a porch swing...ahhhh....lazy summer days...thank you mamaw and papaw!

we came home and it was a three week mad rush to do about a thousand things and then off to illinois to visit my family...we had a family birthday party for my mom's 60th birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA! - and we had a great time spending the week with everyone...mom and dad's addition is almost done which is good because for the last three years - maybe 5 or 6 years - mom has been threatening to board up the entry way and sell the house...oh yeah, and get a divorce in the process...for those of you who don't know, my parents added an entire floor above their ranch style home and they did the majority of the work themselves...BUT my dad said it would be done in a relatively short time and it actually took more thn 7 years (hence the constant threat of divorce)...i do have to say that it is gorgeous - they did an amazing job!

is it just me or do you notice the strangest things dumped on the side of road here in tennessee? i always laugh at the shell of a church that is overrun by vines and up on blocks with a huge sign in front that says "Church Building for Rent"...what??!! are you kidding me?? not only are they trying to pass off a shell of a building (no windows, door, etc) as a church but they want to charge you for it as well? as soon as it stops raining i am going to take a picture of it - too funny...well, a few days ago someone dumped an old wooden half-rotted out boat filled with what i am assuming is garbage on the side of tulip grove road. funny thing is that it is a pretty populated area...not that i would, but if i had a boat to dump i might wander a few miles out to the country where there is less of a chance of getting caught - weird...i do have an unusual fascination with it though...i want to go and check it out...kind of like the feeling i get when i see old abandoned houses or barns...

soapbox issue for the day: line cutters...don't you just hate when you are standing in a long line for what seems like forever and a cashier opens another lane and says "I can take someone over here" and the last person in line does a back flip-flop double twist russian somersault to get there...hello???? you just got in line and i have been standing here for ten minutes waiting for julie the second cashier to answer her stinkin' page! ok, i am better now...i think...

on another note, ann, i couldn't figure out what you were referencing in your last comment but now i get it! i jokingly challenged our ever so confident (read cocky) renee to a blog writing contest of sorts, but the reality of it is i would never even consider it...that girl has a way that very few if any can come close to conquering and i for one am not going to take on that highly talented (stuck on herself) writing genius (snob). love ya nay nay ;)

i am a self diagnosed add/adhd adult...on that note, i have tried to focus but i really have a hard time doing that...but then i had a brainstorm...bummer, it will have to wait until after dinner...evidently the cookies and crackers i fed the kids for dinner just didn't cut it (just kidding mom, they had a 5 course meal with 4 out of 5 courses being vegetable based)....til later, have a good one! d

I must remember to blog...
I must remember to blog...
OK, so 1 1/2 years later and I still am not good at this. I have so many pictures to post - but, it will have to wait until we get back from Chicago!
Two things...
First, please keep our little Dalton in your thoughts this week. He has ginormous tonsils and adenoids and they will be taken out on Tuesday. We are hoping that this helps with his inability to sleep soundly at night and the consequent bouts of hyperactivity that come as a result.
Secondly, I found this cool little link on www.scrapinstyletv.com so I thought I would give it a try! The picture was taken the moment we laid the twins down in the leaf filled grass. They weren't very sure what was going on at first - it took about a minute and then they started eating them!
This layout was so much fun to create - I used a ton of alcohol inks to alter plastic, foil tape, fall leaves from the dollar spot at Target (LOVE the dollar spot!), chipboard and a transparency. I will be teaching a class on October 20th where we will make this layout plus 2 or 3 other fall layouts.
Have a great week - pictures from North Carolina and Illinois to follow!