Dream, Pray, Love Anyway

My personal Library of Memories...still continued

So...2 years ago when I left my place of employment, I spent the summer cleaning out my house and re-organizing everything.  And when I say everything, I mean everything.  We even rented a dumpster as long as our driveway to clean the clutter out.  Part of this re-organization was my scrapbooking area.

If you do not recall...here is a picture:

 

Cute, I know.  But if you saw the other side of the room...not so cute.  A crap load of Jason's hunting equipment, and totes full of more hunting stuff, and Haley's old Princess Castle.  This is just my little corner of my world.  

That fall I decided to take the organizing a bit further, I was inspired by Stacy Julian's Library of Memories book.  I had owned the book a few years but I re-read it, took notes, and took action.  I even joined the yahoo group for the class to get even more ideas and more inspiration.   In January of last year all of my photos took over my kitchen table.  You can read all about that here.  And then a few days after this post I posted a belated happy new year here and showed a picture of all of my pages from my purged scrapbooks all sorted out into 4 categories on my kitchen table.

That stack of pages has been sitting on my desk ever since.  Which brings me to this past week.  A week ago a very lovely box from scrapbook.com containing 4 scrapbooks and 6 sets of refills all for my own personal Library of Memories.  I took all the pages out of their old page protectors and organized each category into a type of chronological order that made sense to me  - which probably means it makes absolutely no sense to anyone else, and I'm okay with that.

Then I created these title pages for the first page of each book.  (I ordered the blue cardstock from stampin up to match my albums and completely guessed and it is amazing how well they match - yea me!)  

 

I used my own stash of cardstock for the brown squares and the pink flowers and pink border strip.  I even pulled out a very old set of alphabet stamps and my Tim Holtz brown ink to stamp on my titles.  Big change for me - usually when I get an idea I buy all new so I have exactly what is in my mind.  Apparently I have accumulated so much, I had exactly what was already in my head, scary.

In keeping with my album theme, I needed tags on the outside of the albums.  I used brown ribbon and since the ribbon box was sitting next to me and it also holds bottles full of baby flowers in all sorts of colors and after deciding the tags needed a little something more...I added pink little flowers with little pink brads.  Genius.  And here's the result:

 

Any my new albums all pretty in a row:

 

And they are full, particularly the 'People We Love' album.  I have to purchase a second volume and another set of refills - I still have a stack of pages about an inch thick just for this category back on my desk.  

Why Pink and Brown as accents?  My other albums in my library: Pink for Haley's album, my album; Brown for Jason's album (these are for individual pages about each of us separately):

 

The red is for Disney and for her school albums, the black is my A Week in the Life album from a scrapbook class at a getaway weekend a few years ago.

These albums look so pretty on my shelves in the livingroom.  I love them all displayed for anyone to look through instead of hidden in some other area of the house that a guest wouldn't necessarily hang out in.  My only problem now:  we bought a 42" TV and we need to get a new entertainment center, my mom has already given away the one we have now - to my niece Sara and she's just going to have to wait - so where am I going to display these albums now....hmmmm.....   
  

 

What a funny funny girl....

As Sheri and Tim were cleaning out their basement, Harley was nice enough to send a box of shoes over for Haley, Dane, and the boys to go through. Haley, having the advantage of seeing the box first, took a pair of rubber boots, a pair of work boots (both for playing outside in the mud with her dad) and a pair of winter boots that happened to be Buzz Lightyear.  (Just like Dane she said)

For two days, she would change her clothes into a swimsuit and have these big ole winter boots on dancing around the house and singing to me everything rather like talking to me - even when she just wanted some milk.

And then she walked out of her room like this:

 

See the boots.  Yeah.  That's my girl!

**On a side note - Just to clear up some responses I've rec'd to my Library of Memories - in total it took me about 7 hours spread out over 4 days and the most I worked on it at one sitting was 3 - 4 hours on Friday evening.

 

My own Library of Memories

If you recall from my last long post...way at the end of the post...I have had a revolutionary moment in my own little scrapbooking world.  I don't have to pay the $95 to take a class on Stacy Julians Library of Memories process...I can do it on my own...cheaper.  Wow.  The old Amy would have had to take the class and follow her precise directions.  Oh wait, I am following her precise directions.  I own the book - Photo Freedom - which Stacy wrote a few years ago detailing her photo/album process she lovingly calls Library of Memories. 

I got it out of my sub zero temperature scrap room and re-read both this book and her Big Picture book which shows the albums and talks a little bit about the process but the gist of the book is looking at the big picture of why we scrapbook, the stuff is fun but there is a reason and we shouldn't forget it.

Okay - so just last Thursday/Friday - somewhere in there - my table looked like this:

 

And I'm still married. 

Last night it looked like this:

 

There are two essentials - well three - but I just have two of them in the photo above.

Storage Binders that hold your most recent photos (two years worth) for easy flip through access when you sit down to scrap.

Cold Storage - where photos go that you probably aren't going to scrap anytime soon but you don't necessarily want to throw them away either.  Yes I said throw away - and I did, only a handful but I did toss some very non scrap worthy photos.

So in the picture above I just used what I had on hand.  Since I had started this process a few years ago but didn't follow through I had some binders I had found at the St Louis Convention a few years back and then purchases more at Michaels as I need them.  This was all more than a year ago.  I already had a few photo boxes and a Power Sort Box and Power Sort Mini Box from Creative Memories.  I pulled all of these things out of the sub-zero temperature room and got to work deciding what would be used for what.   I also took Stacy's advice and created a time line so I could easily tell what pictures belonged in what year by years vacations were taken, babies were born, weddings, birthdays, parties, etc.

From Left to Right here's my system.

The purple and yellow photo boxes are cold storage for years 1997 (and prior) to 2002. 

The big black box is the Power Sort Box from Creative Memories I'll use for cold storage.  I had two years spread out in there before and now it holds 4 years worth of photos: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.  And at the convention this year I'll check out the prices for another one or maybe two.  That's up to 8 years of storage!

Next to the Power Sort Box is the Power Sort Mini - it holds 2007.  As I rotate photos out of my photos out of the storage binders, 2008 will go in this box then 2007 will go into my next cold storage box.  I thought using the mini would be easy access for photos that aren't that old but I may still want to flip through from time to time.

On top of the mini is my cute Pink box I picked up from Target when I was redoing my scrap room - it sits on my desk to originally hold my most recent printed photos as I would scrap them.  Right now it's holding all our Disney photos as my Disney album is my one big project right now.  And keeping the photos on my desk in an easy assess box is essential from my scrapping, if I boxed these up I'd forget out them.  Maybe not forget about them but less likely to dig them out.  My Disney photos are in plastic photo holders from Cropper Hopper organized by park and then one box for all other Disney photos. 

Stacked up next to the mini - I have my green and blue storage binders.  These are essentially 2-up albums you slide pictures into the protectors - I've double and tripled and quadrupled some parings to hold more.  Green is all 2008 and blue will be 2009.  There are 5 blue but I figure by the time I need to rotate out photos again and use the green as 2010 I'll be condensing the binders back to 4 and using the 5th as carryover in 2010. Or something like that.  I did find when I was using these for this purpose a few years ago it was much easier to flip through photos when I was deciding what to scrap.

Next up I need to organize the photos on my computer and decide which still need to be printed for either the storage binders or cold storage.  Then flipping through all my photos one more time to select any I want to move to category files.  I already have a 4 drawer cube from Target I'll use for this.  The idea is to put photos in categories by family, or location, or whatever in order to maybe see the photos in a different light.  Like photos that capture Haley's personality rather than just Haley on a sunny day.  Or great pictures to store for later use like embarrassing a graduate with pictures of them as little kids doing strange things like dancing around my living room in my daughters fairy wings...things like that.  Not that Devon is easily embarrassed but that could change when he's 18 or maybe not but it sure will be fun.  :)

***EDITED...But wait Amy, you may be thinking, you stay home all day.  Of Course you have time to do all this stuff.  In reality, I only worked on it for maybe half an hour the day I dragged everything out, an hour that night, a bulk of it was done Friday night while Jason was at a friends house sanding down a car, then for a few hours Saturday night and a for an hour last night.  The times that I worked on this were times I would have worked on it had I been working.  Because my daily schedule has no room for this kind of thing - after I get home from taking Haley to school, I hop on the internet while listening to the news and then to Regis & Kelly.  While listening to Regis & Kelly and then The View, I'm picking up the house, doing the dishes from the night before, making beds, and laundry - always doing laundry.  At 11, I watch whatever I've TIVO'd from the night before and while I eat lunch.  At noon is the Bonnie Hunt show and at 1 is Ellen and I just don't get off the edge of the couch except to dance with Ellen during these times.  At 2:30 I go pick up Haley and then when we get home I put away the dishes I washed and by then Jason has gotten home and has taken over the remote.  And somewhere in there during the week I tend to vacuum and dust things as well.  So, you see, I just don't have time in my busy TV schedule to mess with sorting photos. This does not have to be a major project - you just need a designated area to leave your stuff out for a few days, a time tabel of events, and an hour a day or even thirty minutes. Simple. :)

 

Happy belated New Year!

Is it too late in January to no longer say Happy New Year.  Anyway  I've been up to some stuff and have neglected my blog for far too long now.  On with the happenings:

Our Annual Clay Bird Shoot - the one day a year we get back at our neighbors for driving their four wheelers around at 10, 11, 12, 1am several nights a week; leaving and coming back home at all hours of the night and decide at the very end of our road to rev up the engine where you can hear it in our bedroom like the car is coming through the window!  So, needless to say, I have no guilt about the guns going off all day.

And when I say guns - I mean guns.  LOTS of guns.  This year we had more people show up than any year prior.  It was a nice day too, sunny, almost in the 60's, no wind.  Nice day to stand in the field and shoot some guns off. 

Here's a shot of all the trucks lining our road:

 

These are the shooters lined up in our field - and lookers on as well. Keith and Patti run this show...I mean Patti runs this show.  Makes sure all the guys are following the rules of whatever game they are playing.  I have no idea.  I spent a majority of the time running from the house to the garage and Jason cooks along with Tim.  What was Sheri doing???  Playing a card came with Jessica.  Hmmm..

 

So this went on till the late hours.  We were pleasantly surprised when Jason's Uncle Rob showed up with Kathy and Kathy knew someone there!  An old employee of hers!  Very funny moment.  Jason had left a message on Rob's phone but we had not heard if they were going to be able to stop by.  That was a really fun visit - re-visiting my better moments with the family....the falling out of the canoe during an October float trip (who floats in October for crying out loud!) more being plunged into the river as my ponytail got caught on a tree with thorns and apparently it's still the funniest story and they all still talk about it every float trip.  Kathy told me we needed to float this summer and I said sure, this summer, when it's warm and I don't mind falling in the river.

Here's Haley's first set of wet clothes as she went into change - with a warning about the next set of clothes to stay out of the mud and water.  Done - we didn't have to change anymore that night....for muddy reasons anyway.

   

Lovely I know.  

For the first time in the five years we've done this....the fire department was called on us for our small fire out behind the garage that may or may not have been started with a special fireworks looking bullet out of a special gun.  Here's Haley and a little boy standing about 10 feet from the fire and soon after this shot I made them go back across the road to play in front of the house.

  

Sheri, Jessica, and I are inside later that evening and the fire isn't as big and the parts that were sort of burning the field down but were under control, those had all burned out.  Chris, my nephew, comes and in lets us know in a non chalont kind of not sure if he's telling the truth or not sort of way that the firetruck is outside.  So we head outside and apparently they had been there for a few minutes already and had talked to Jason with Richie's help if that could be considered help.  Richie is a long time family friend and since my Dads diagnosis he's really adopted our family and takes Dad places to get him out of the house on play dates if you will, when Dad was really down, he helped by BIL Tim cut the grass and do things around the house for Mom.  And he truly is our big brother we never had - even his relationship with Sheri is that of an annoying big brother. He always has hugs for everyone and Sheri turns him away and they say smartly things to each other at every passing.  It's really very endearing, not necessarily to Sheri, but it is.

Anyway, the firemen checked out the fire, saw it was clearly under control and expressed their confusion as to the person who called lived on the other side of a hill and could not possibly had seen the fire.  My theory is she heard the guns all day and the fire was a nice excuse to call someone on us.  Even though sitting in my house just a few yards away from the guns I couldn't hear that loudly.

The department sent 6 trucks - jeeps actually that are sent out for brush fires.  Each one had to pull into the driveway, turn around, and head back down in between all the trucks.  As each truck pulled into the driveway Richie would pat the door and ask for the 'flashies' to turned on and each truck turned on their 'flashies' for Richie and then turned them back off before heading out down the road.  If anything, this woman that called on us really creating the greatest thrill for these guys.  That's all you heard the rest of the night how in five years we've never had the 'flashies' called on us and they all loved it.  (insert eye roll here) Boys.

I finally sacked out at midnight or shortly after, Haley was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.  I made sure to put sheets on my couch and recliner, I saw Patti leaving and soon after saw Keith still in the garage and figured he was staying - God knows I don't need my couch or my chair smelling like his heiny.  And when I saw this the next morning my only thought was 'Please God, Please tell me he's wearing underwear.'

 

Speaking of the morning after.  I always get a shot of all the gun shells - not as bad as past years, a lot of the guys were putting them back into a box rather than let them get stomped into the mud or lay around in the grass.  Still, plenty for the kids to pick up to earn a few bucks.  Haley wasn't out there very long but she still got her $2 worth.  And we didn't let them do it all themselves, Patti, Keith, Jason and I were all out there - me with my long johns on and double socks - it was soooo cold the next morning!  Soooo cold!

 

One more picture from the party....This is Jason's new shirt, he has two, a gift and it fits like no other shirt he owns:

 

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What have I been up to this new year?  Reflecting and Re-Organizing.  I was really inspired by Oprah's Best Life week although I took notes I haven't exactly jumped up and ran to the gym or anything.  I did make sure I had a Health Advocate picked out and confirmed - Sheri is now responsible for going to bat for me with any doctors should I need it.  And I'm going to make an appointment for a check up the last week of January - very important that no matter what size my jeans are I need to be healthy.  And yes, you can be a big girl and be healthy.  I'm just sayin.

And then I got this email reminding me of an upcoming class with Stacy Julian at Big Picture Scrapbooking for her class Library of Memories.  It's a system of how you store/sort/ use your photos and your albums that really opens you up enjoy the creative process more and not get caught up in the thought that you have to scrapbook chronologically and always feel 'behind'.  True scrapbookers know that 'being behind' is just part of the hobby, you can never truly be caught up.  I've let that feeling of needing to be caught up go a long time ago.  About the time I purchases Stacy's book that this class is based upon....two years ago...that shows her process.

Since I can't see spending the $95 for the 16 week class right now it dawned on me that I own the book.  So last Thursday I pulled the book out and read it, took notes, and created a plan for myself to really do the whole process without taking the class and with using what I already have rather than feeling the need the purchase the exact storage binders she uses, or the exact filing boxes, or the exact photo boxes...that's a big step for me all by myself. 

Monday I was sitting on the couch after making the beds and doing the dishes and starting some laundry, just sitting there staring at my computer Armour.  It held 4 very old albums from when I first started scrapbooking - from 1999 to 2001.  I pulled them down and started sorting the pages into 4 piles = All about us; People we love; Places we go; Things we do.  Which will be the 4 albums that start my own library. 

This is what Jason came home to that evening - and he didn't even blink an eye, he's lived with me that long.

 

I even purged through my albums I had in the scraproom - the very COLD scraproom, Haley's preschool album, her baby album, and our Texas travel album are the three that I kept.  I removed pages from older albums that are still good and put those albums aside for my nieces to have.  The older albums are post albums that are flimsy if too full.  The preschool album and the baby album I had to removed the posts and use these straps Pioneer makes that I've had for a long time to keep the album more sturdy.  I don't know the name of them I'm just glad I purchased them so long ago and still knew where they were in my scraproom. 

These pages are stacked on my desk till I get the albums I want.  I use American Craft 3 D ring albums and at the local scrapbook store or online they run anywhere from $14 to $17 dollars, but I read online that someone found them at Big Lots for just $5 - I'll be checking out my local Big Lots soon that's for sure. 

On to the photos.  With this system your newest photos that you are going to work with to scrapbook go into storage binders - like the 4x6 two up or three up albums you find at Wal-Mart.  I already have some I purchased from Michaels a few years ago - enough for two years worth.  You keep your photos in these organized by year and season.  Older photos you want to keep but are not going to scrapbook soon go into cold storage - 4x6 photo boxes labeled by year.  Within the box again you sort by season.  Then there are these really great category files that you have 4 main categories with several sub categories for photos that you love, but don't really go with anything, a way to look at the photos in a new light.  Like I see a picture of Haley making a Haley face but I have nothing that really goes with it now I throw that in my category file under All About Us, then Haley.  I may have the urge one day to just flip through the categories and create a page from these pictures rather than a chronological set from my storage binders.  It's explained so much better than this in the book and I'm sure way better in the class.

Yesterday I pulled out every box of photos I own, sorted the boxes by year, then started with the oldest photos and started sorting individual pictures on my table top by year.  I had to create a timeline of events like birthday and weddings and vacations so I could place some photos in their proper year a bit easier.  I sat and stared at a set of pictures from Dalton's 1st birthday but I couldn't remember the year he was born to know what year this picture was from - a cloth calendar behind his head said 1998 but we all end up leaving those up long after the year so I couldn't go by that.  After trying to get ahold of Patti a few times I looked down at the chair next to me and I had his picture from the paper stating his birthday - 1998 - right next to me the whole time - so the pics were from 1999.  Sometimes I swear. 

Last night I finished 1997, 1998 and 1999.  And have quite a way to go but in the end it should be worth it.  Thank God I married a man who goes along with my processes and doesn't mind the mess on the table for a few days.  Here's what my table looked like this morning.  By Monday I hope to have this all sorted out.

 

And, no, I didn't have to clean off the table to make this mess.  My table has been relatively cleared off since the party.  Thank you very much.

So far this has been such a fun experience!  Looking at old photos I forgot I had, seeing old pictures of our first dog - Augie - such a sweet boy.  Our first pictures of Haley.  Finding pictures of my self with my Grandma who passed away when Haley was less than a year old.  So fun - Keith passed out in his truck, Dalton and Devon as just little boys, Keith's dad Glenn and his stuck truck that doesn't get stuck.  Such good memories. 

I'm totally doing this one my own, there is a yahoo group for those taking the class or working with the book and I look at that often for advise from class alumni; and Stacy regularly answers questions on her blog. 

There you have it, now I need to eat a warm lunch (it's zero today) and dig back into those pictures. 

A Week in the Life - Ali Edwards

A few years ago I attended CKU (Creating Keepsakes University) in Nashville TN.  I'm sure you remember me talking all about it and how Mom and Sheri went along and toured the city while I went to my classes.  There are still pictures posted on the side bar. 

All next week Ali Edwards is once again doing 'A Week in my Life' class of sorts on her blog.  I'm thinking of following along.  My life has changed so much since this time last year and when I had created my own album in her class.  (which ROCKED by the way)  Last time I was a working mom working 50 plus hours a week spending 90% of my time at work while poor little Haley stayed at the daycare. 

This year I'm a stay at home mom.  I think it will be cool to document my life now compared to then.  Check out Ali's blog and join in.  It truly is a fun album and really makes you focus on all the little things that make up your day and how great the everyday little moments truly are.  It's easy too, just haul your camera everywhere you go. 

How great is Ali for doing this on her blog!  For free y'all! 

Here are some pictures of my album - Day 1 and then just the first page for Day 2. I think you'll notice I'm yet to complete that album but with all my spare time I should put it on my to do list by the end of 2008.

Opening Page

Day 1



Day 2

Why I Scrapbook....

I am asked this question so often.  OR I get comments like 'It's so expensive' or 'I just don't have time'.  Little MissMatched has posted an interview with founder of Simple Scrapbook Magazine - Stacy Julian.  You can read it here.  She answered the question why Scrapbooking your memories is important and it's the main reason I've always scrapbooked.  That and I have a slight addiction to pictures, paper, and pretty embellishments. 

Scrapbooking is only as expensive as you make it.  To get started all you need is a good trimmer - you can find very nice ones at Wal-Mart for less than $15.  A pair of scissors.  Glue. A journaling pen.  And some Cardstock.  Maybe a few stickers.  That's all it takes.  A simple page with just pictures and your own handwriting telling the store with none of the bling will mean just as much to your children or your future grand children than any of the pages with all the bling.  I've found myself going more Simple and I love it.

I'm pulling a lot of my own inspiration from Ali Edwards and Simple Scrapbook Magazine.  I've actually gotten some great ideas from Ali for my Disney album which is coming along great now that I've found this groove.  I'll share more later. 

I've been Scrapbooking....

With Haley back and school and having time to walk into the store alone and stand at the photo center and print only the prints I want instead everything 100 times.  (maybe more like 3 times) I've gotten my scrapbooking mojo back so to speak.  Oh and I have that great space to work in - helps a lot.

Over the summer Haley got into a very bad habit of getting a '$5' toy every time we went to the store.  When she had thrown a horrific fit at Barnes and Noble for these Llama's that I stood my ground and would not let her have them.  We made a pact that week using an award system of stars for each good deed or behavior.  Each day she was good she got a star on the calendar, she earned extra stars by doing extra good things like cleaning her room on her own, or going to bed when it was bed time instead of playing till Lord only knows when.  Things like that.  The goal was small - just one week.  And sure enough she responded to that system very well and earned not one but two Llamas the following Saturday.

While Haley was at school last Thursday I created this reward calendar using cardstock I already had and a rub-on sheet I had in one of my monthly kits.


Each day Haley earned a star for being good at school and one star for being good at night.  Meaning she has to do her homework, eat or attempt to eat whatever is made for dinner while sitting at the table with us, take her bath on time with no issue - like water all over the floor, and go bed on time.  Last one more important than the others and I'm not being over strict about it either.  If she doesn't have the greatest bath time but she goes to bed on time, I'm not taking away her star.  On the weekends she just earns one star per day for her behavior all day as a whole.  She's done very well till Sunday when her listening ears just were not on - she wouldn't eat either lunch or dinner - she continued to run around like a mad women after being told repeatedly to slow it down - and then when told to get in the truck and buckle up she threw the dogs toy AT me.  That was the deal breaker right there. 

At the end of the month - she earns a dollar per day and at that time she gets to pick a toy or a movie or whatever at the store.  And is she doesn't have enough - she can definitely save for the next month.  I'm sort of killing two birds with one stone.  Not only is she learning rewards for good behavior but some earning and saving her money as well.  It works for us.  She responds to the system very well.  Might not work in all households but it sure is working in ours.

This page for the first day of school I used different elements from three different page ideas on Becky Higgins  website using products from her school expansion kit.


The little stripped  pocket holds a file tab pull out paper with a picture of Haley walking down the hall.

This I sat and looked at and walked away and came back to and walked away and then Sunday morning I changed the paper I was using and then it just flowed.  I used a pattern from Becky Higgins Best of Sketches book, paper from Stampin Up and embellishments in one of my Scrapbook Sussies kits.


Look-y there - 13 photos on one page!

Everything from Nascar to Saturday night poker...

First I have to start with the Saturday Night Poker game at our house.  Priceless.

Friday night we went to the 'Movie at the Park' in Union.  Apparently Union had been doing this all summer but since I decide to regularly read the paper till mid-July (you know, my child is in the school district now I should probably take an interest in the community) we had already missed June's movie and July's was a bit old for Haley.  But I highlighted August on the calendar and Jason agreed to go.  Complained at first till I calmly explained to him that even though we have seen the movie (Disney's Enchanted - love me some McDreamy under the stars!) about 30 times, it's the experience of seeing the movie up on a big screen under the stars and we are creating a moment for Haley - a lasting memory she'll remember for quite some time and even years from now that both her parents were there and she was under the stars.  Sure enough, about 4 times she rolled over and said 'Look Mom, I see stars'. 

We saw some friends of ours that we hadn't seen since December.  They arrived after the movie had started - Jason saw them in the parking lot and that was the end of our family night.  After a few minutes of chatting, Michele took her kids home, I took Haley home, and Jason jumped in the truck with Matt and they ended up in our drive way talking till about 3am.  Always the way it goes with these two - much worse when the other 3 guys are around as well.  They just chit chat and reminisce about all the crap they caused and got into back in the day - and of course they are accompanied by their favorite beverage. 

This is Haley sitting, eating her popcorn, and keeping an eye on the kitten the couple in front of us brought along with them.  I had to hear about that cat the entire movie, how she wanted one, how we could just put the dogs away and get a cat.  Jason was all about putting the dogs away but no cat.  Thankfully Haley decided she already had two pretend cats and didn't need a real one once we got home. 
Whew.  I've never been more happy to have a conversation be done with.

 Now to what's really on my mind this morning and has been since Saturday night.  NASCAR!  Holy crap!  I enjoyed the after race show way more than I did the actual race.  It was no secret how upset I was with Kyle Busch earlier in the season when he spun out Junior at two laps to go and took the win.  (I guess I should say allegedly - he claimed it was an accident but followed that up with a very cocky arrogant jealous comment 'he needs to know it's not all about him'.  Nice. 

Anyway.  I forgot the race was on.  I know, bad Amy.  But found it with 50 laps to go.  Best 50 laps I've ever jumped in a race on.  At about 30 laps to go Carl Edwards did a hit and run on Kyle Busch.  Typical normal racing.  Carl bumped Kyle from behind causing Kyle to loose momentum and Carl quickly passed him.  Kyle came up behind him with a little tap but Carl had already gained his own momentum and quickly had 1.5 seconds on the field.  (maybe 2 - let's just say it was a big lead) 

Carl wins.  Which is always fun because he then pulls up to the start/finish line and does his back flip off the window of his car.  LOVE THAT!!!  Anyway. Carl is driving around the track and the camera is showing Carl from inside the car and then the whole car shakes - like he's been hit.  And he was.  Little Kyle Busch AFTER the race was over Kyle rammed into Carl from the side.  Carl turns his car down track and hits Kyle in the side causing Kyle to spin out.  EXCITING!!!  I LOVED it.  It was so satisfying to see him get what he usually dishes out.

Kyle is interviewed after the race - he came in second.  He made a remark to the point that he didn't like how Carl passed him, and if Carl wants to race that way - they will race that way.  HELLO Kyle Busch - do you not recall the way YOU have been racing.  I didn't think so.  Even when Kyle has a good day he complains about something. 

I can not wait for Inside Nascar tonight - can't wait to hear was Mikey has to say about this on!  I'm apparently very bad with details so here's what was on Nascar.com today.

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- For the second consecutive Sprint Cup race, Carl Edwards beat Kyle Busch when it counted.

Executing an adroit bump and run on Lap 470, Edwards passed for the lead and pulled away over the final 30 laps Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning the Sharpie 500 by 1.969 seconds over Busch.

"It's one of those deals where I couldn't get by him, I couldn't get by him, and I just had to ask myself, 'Would he do that to me?' Edwards said after doing his trademark backflip off the car in Victory Lane. "And he has before, so that's the way it goes.''

With the victory, his sixth of the season and the 13th of his career, Edwards secured a position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and trimmed Busch's bonus points margin to 30. Unhappy with the way Edwards passed him for the lead, Busch bumped Edwards' No. 99 Ford after the checkered flag.

"He hit me getting into Turn 1,'' Busch said. "Whatever. Carl's going to say he's sorry, that he didn't want to race that way, but he always does. We'll take it, we'll go on and we'll race him that way in the Chase if that's the way he wants to race.''

Edwards bumped back, and Busch's No. 18 Toyota went spinning. To make matters worse, NASCAR summoned Busch to the sanctioning body's transporter after the race.

"Let's make it real clear -- I'm not apologizing for it," Edwards said, citing several instances where he felt like Busch took him out of races to gain positions. "We're even.

"They keep talking about rivalries,'' Edwards added. "We might have one now.''

My Freedom Class with Shimelle

If you remember the class I took Journal Your Christmas - or something along those lines.  Well, I'm taking another online class - one that lasts about 5 weeks - called My Freedom.  Through daily prompts a two page layout is created each week with the end result being a completed album and a better sense of my personal style.

Monday prompts are usually picture assignments.  Tuesday and Wednesday focus on journaling.  Thursday and Friday are layout design and then actually putting together the layout.  Sometimes there are weekend bonuses. 

Shimelle has a new shop where you can purchase past classes - like the Christmas Journal class - or join even this class even though it's in week 3.  It's okay.  There is a forum where once you've paid for the class and am given access - you can download past assignments.  I always go into these classes with good intentions - following the assignments the day I receive them - then I fall behind. 

Day one assignment was to take pictures that show time.  The Blog prompt was to post a picture that you took that day and tell all about the class.  We are in week 3 of the class - or is it 4, hmm, I should really check my email - and I'm just posting prompt number one.  I should really take a day to get caught up, huh?

Life is Good....and I actually Scrapbooked today - YAHOO!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Life is Good brand.  LOVE IT!  So my mantra.  I have now accumulated two short sleeve shirts, a sleeveless shirt, a small wrist-let for my small stuff in my new purse...(!)

 

Yep, that's right, it says Life is Good.  And the edges of the flowers and the edges of the purse and pocket are frayed.  It's so darn cute and just so me.  I've never in my life carried a canvas purse and I'm loving it this summer. 

And Yes, I actually sat at my desk and completed 4 pages today for Haley's continuous school album.  It's the Becky Higgins School kit I begged every Mom I know  to purchase because once they saw my completed album they would be kicking themselves.  Okay Moms - start kicking.  This is the Preschool section.

  

In the final picture above the page on the right is actually a pocket with two smaller pockets on the front with a 'P' tab on the side for the book.

And, No, I didn't buy the double clip-board just to take pictures of my layouts.  Good Idea though, huh.  It came with a kit a year or so ago. 

Kicking yourselves, I know.  Don't leave a bruise.