Thank goodness for Sisters...

It all started with this picture...

I sent it along with this text to my sisters...

we get emotional....

and then we go from emotional to stupid... just like us... which makes me laugh... through the tears....

of course Ash has to bring it back to HER...why I left HER out of the shopping trip...ignoring my emotional meltdown in the fitting room...and who is Padma??  I'm out of the loop...Seal I know, but Padma??  you lost me...

I'm so grateful for my sisters who keep me laughing even while I'm crying over a stupid cancer battle scar...  

I hope you have sisters or friends who make you laugh when the skies are grey....  because laughing makes every day better...

Denim Update...

Thanks to my friend Alexis I survived the marathon shopping trip, and it didn't stop with denim... I can officially say I am finished shopping until next Fall...as a shopping novice, I STRONGLY suggest mentioning to a friend who finds shopping enjoyable, even therapeutic that you are at the mall...if you are lucky, said friend will jump in the car and meet you - Sweet Jesus does answer prayers!!!

I had read the "denim rules" mentioned in my previous post, but I really didn't know where to start.  The post had mentioned Express, so we started there.  Oh Lawd...The wall of jeans was terrifying!  and to Alexis this was as normal as choosing corn at the grocery...  I tried on every style and surprisingly I did like the Barely Boot.  I have to admit I was a little shocked by the price of $118, I mean, it's Express, I haven't been in Express since about Sophomore year in High School... But in my frugalness, I had printed a $20 coupon from the internet prior to leaving the house.  Here are the Rerock jeans from Express...

They only had the Regular length, and that is fine for flatter shoes, but I would have preferred the Long length.  But thinking I might not find anymore, I bought them.  Trust me, I'm not saying I have some supermodel long legs...No such luck...I just have a REALLY short torso and a REALLY high waist = NOT attractive, and necessitating long length pants and jeans....

I knew Jean Therapy has the mecca of denim options, but Alexis seemed to think Dillard's should be our next stop...Lord...denim was in three different places in Dillard's!  I swear I would have given up had I been alone.  The first salesperson directed us to the area with "Not My Mother's Jeans".  Alexis laughed out loud...Had I been alone, I wouldn't have known the difference... Once again, thank goodness for Alexis....so we head to JUNIORS, can you believe??, but we found the Miss Me and Silver jeans.  I had my heart set on Miss Me jeans, but after trying on tons of styles, I decided against them.  Probably because EVERYONE has them, and I found other labels that maybe weren't "everywhere"...  I LOVE the stitching on these Silver jeans...

Even better, they come in different lengths, so I was able to get a 34" length - score!  and then the surprise of the day, they are only $88.  I might get blasted for saying "only $88", hello....I know that's expensive, but in the world of designer jeans, I thought they might be closer to $160, so I was pleasantly surprised...

At this point Alexis left me to my own devices (frightening)... and I found the area with the Rock Revival jeans (2nd floor of Dillard's).  They didn't have different lengths in the style I bought, but they are 34", so if you are short, these would be way too long, but there were tons of styles, so there are probably some shorter ones.  Believe it or not, these were on sale....I really did want some blingy jeans (hence the original quest for Miss Me), but I decided on less bling.  Rock Revival jeans are in the "designer jean" price range that I had imagined, but with the sale, they were in line with Express.

Pretty ridiculous that I bought three pair of jeans, but I was on a roll...I have two longs and one short, and my favorites are the two longs, but I know I can get the Silver in a shorter length, so I may exchange them and return the Express ones.  I'm going to sleep on it.  At least I'm not in the fetal position right now because I didn't find anything...even though denim was in three places in Dillard's I had a pleasantly exhausting shopping experience today...

It could have been better had I visited Jean Therapy where every style is right there at your fingertips, but I'm still pretty intimidated by it.  No reason...I've never stepped foot in it...So if you love Jean Therapy and would like to show me what I'm missing, let's go!  I'm always more adventurous with a friend...

The icing on the cake was a dress from Versona, two tops from Loft and a top from Forever 21, and yes Ashley, they did let me in Forever 21...

Now that I am finished shopping for the year, I am hauling my bedazzled arse to bed!  Hope your day was filled with as much laughing as mine - all in the name of fashion!!

Denim Overhaul...

Nobody hates shopping more than me... add shopping for jeans and you just dropped me into hell!  But it's time ladies...I'm pretending to feel the crispness in the swamp air and I need some new jeans...This not only baffles me, it downright terrifies me!  But thanks to the world of Pinterest, I found this fantastic blog post, and have read and taken notes on EVERY word....



Rachel (my new BFF) compares Old Navy and GAP to designer brands and shows just how much better your junk looks in designer jeans.  Well my junk needs all the help it can get, so I read the post, the comments and I am heading out armed with notes and a plan...  I should probably hit the Xanax and take a go cup filled with vodka to relax the nerves...

Wish me luck...I will not post pictures if my shopping trip is successful, because, seriously, who wants to see pictures of my arse in bedazzled jeans???  You can thank me in advance....

Scrappin'...Hurricane Style...

So when a hurricane threatens to blow through town, what do you do??  scrapbook of course.... Even if we lose power, I have a BIG window next to my scrap table...nice planning on my part... (note: I'm finishing this post hurricane, and we didn't lose power...)

Last weekend while the girls had sleepovers, I managed a layout between feedings, judging dance contests,  and costume malfunctions...

I'm dying to take a trip to Lafayette and buy all of the treasures at Treasured Memories and Create 365 (my closest lss).  They have been getting in all of the CHA goodies and taunting me with sneak peaks...  I love both stores and both owners.  The stores and merchandise are totally different but equally fabulous!  If you are ever in the area, check out both...

I'm super excited about a teaching opportunity coming up.  Memory Mania's Camp Crop A Lot is January 4 and 5 and I am teaching a layout class.  It was so fun choosing the paper and creating a layout just for the crop.  I haven't taught in years...we'll glaze over the obvious reasons...but Tammy is nice enough to let me give it another try...I've never taught at Tammy's store or for Tammy's clientele, so I'm nervous that they won't like my scrap style or nutty personality, but I'm jumping in with both feet!  If you are interested in CCL, check out this link.  I'll be there cropping both days, enjoying this first class event!!  Here's a peak at the layout...

Every year I make a file folder to hold M & A's school papers.  Here's my tip... I keep their school papers in a big zip lock bag all year.  At the end of the year, I choose a good mix of papers from the bag that represents their schoolwork and accomplishments (ie. NOT EVERYTHING!).  Then I keep those papers in this cute little folder.  Organized, de-cluttered and memorialized for years to come...  So I managed to finish last year's folders just in time for a new school year...

So we survived Hurricane Issac with no damage to our house and without power failure - Hallelujah!!  We were very fortunate, but many people weren't so lucky...  Now, let me share with you a true Hurricane layout... a Hurricane layout, you ask?  When I am bored with no end in sight to to the boredom, I tend to resurrect techniques such as Heat Embossing and Glimmer Misting and pull out the chip board and hot glue gun...these products have not partied in my scraproom since 1999...

We even managed to celebrate a birthday during the storm.  Morgan's birthday falls in the dreadful hurricane season.  Hurricane Katrina hit on her 2nd birthday while we evacuated to Florida.  We bought a delicious cake at the Kroger bakery that year.  Knowing that we might not get to a bakery for this birthday, I promised to make a red velvet cake for her 9th birthday.  Everyone braved the weather and spent the day at our house for Morgan's birthday...

Hope you are laughing just as much as we are around here.  We are gearing up for another four days of togetherness with the Labor Day Weekend...   The partying never stops... 

Back to Back Vacations

My first one was a family vacation...a cruise...and the gentle rocking of the ship was enough to make me want to jump overboard...but the girls LOVED Kids Camp and Shane can relax in the sun for hours so overall it was a success.  And honestly, I knew I would be on dry land scrapbooking with girlfriends the upcoming weekend, so there was hope...

The saving grace of the cruise was the adults only deck on the back of the ship where the breeze was perfect  and the cushioned chairs could be pushed into the shade...I'm more of a shade kind of girl...I don't like to push my limits when it comes to cancer, and that includes skin cancer...and these faces proved that the trip was a success...

If you have ever been on a Carnival Cruise, you may agree that the food is plentiful, but it doesn't compare to Louisiana cooking.  I spent the weekend in Lafayette with girlfriends scrapbooking and the FOOD was amazing.  I am still dreaming about the Eggplant Adelaid at Prejean's along with the Seafood Gumbo and the White Chocolate Bread Pudding (the bread pudding was gratis after gumbo was spilled down Ashlyn's back -ouch!). We also found a delicious Sushi restaurant called Fuji Sushi House using Urban Spoon.  According to Jen Urban Spoon NEVER steers her wrong.  The owner was adorable and the menu was enormous and to our delight included the lightest Crab Rangoons... I just may have stuck the radish garnish in my mouth and Jen just may have taken my picture...and then a fellow diner just may have caught me...

We found delicious Rockin Ritas at Agave - a few of us had three to four of them...I stopped at one since I was driving...but made sure to follow them up with a bottle of Skinnygirl Sangria when I wasn't in danger of causing bodily harm...oh, and how is Lafayette so lucky to have a Rouse's grocery store?  I googled it and it looks like Rouse's is looking at expanding into Baton Rouge, well I have two words - HURRY UP!!  We made a stop at the Bakery at Rouse's and the Turtle Cookies are a little bit of heaven...RUN to a Rouse's if you have one and get them!

In between eating, drinking laughing and sleeping it is amazing that I got any scrapbooking done at all...to prove it, here are a few of my layouts.  I have more, but I was too lazy to take pictures of all of them...imagine that...

Halloween 2011

 Ashley's family at Christmas

 my girls at the beach last summer

my girls Christmas 2011

 Morgan playing soccer Spring 2012

And after my back to back vacations I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was 100/60 and I had only gained 4 pounds.  I'd say vacations are good for my blood pressure and worth every BITE!!!

Destructible Dell....

When Morgan was a few months old, Shane had a work conference in San Destin, Florida so we packed up every baby gadget in the entire house and brought it to Florida.  While Shane was in meetings, Morgan and I played in the pool, took naps, strolled around and one afternoon I let her fall off of the sofa onto the tile floor... Naturally I was hysterical and certain that my neglect had allowed a severe brain injury.  She cried, I cried, I called Shane and admitted my neglect, and an hour later, she was fine.  A little ice cream, a few kisses, and she was good as new.  It was at this point that I realized I made a pretty indestructible product.  I grew her...  And she would probably survive the numerous scrapes and bruises, falls and bumps she would encounter during her lifetime...

This is not the case for my laptop... But I think if I can make a durable "product" (and don't blast me for calling my child a "product"), why can't Dell? Let me explain.... Last week my laptop was in the protective computer bag sitting on a bench in my house.  Naturally there was "kid crap" on the bench, so the bag wasn't exactly level and the bag fell off... Big deal, right?  Morgan survived her fall, I was sure my computer would...WRONG!  NOTHING was recoverable from the hard drive...Luckily I only lost a few months of pictures and I'm purposely not figuring out which ones they were, oh my Christmas Card address list is gone too, so I'll be playing the game, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" this year... I'm just moving on, but I'm really upset about this whole broken hard drive thing in the first place...  Doesn't Dell make enough money and employ enough engineers to figure out how to put more padding inside the laptop?  Like the amount of padding that Morgan has... It think that should be enough...

But like I said, after a little public ranting, I'm officially moving on...My Walmart started carrying SMASH products, oh it makes grocery shopping just a little more enjoyable...and it was so neat and organized and since my scrapbook style leans toward "piling crap on top of crap", these things were perfect...

some vintage and some girly, just perfect...

I saw Magic Mike last night and it just confirmed that I never need to see a Chippendale's show in my life because there is NOTHING attractive about greasy naked gyrating men...and I mean NOTHING!  Six packs abs are nice, but not when they are accompanied by greasy hair, thongs and very bad acting.  But I am glad that I saw it, otherwise I would have been the only woman in America who hadn't...and there was ONE man in the audience...disturbing...

Now for a few layouts...Avery's 7th birthday last November with the sweetest friends a girl could have...

For Avery's birthday, the girls got Coco "The Dog that Cancer Bought"...Shane and I promised ourselves that once the girls made it through cancer, there would be a dog...just another thing I have to thank cancer for...When people ask me if I love Coco, I say "I love that my girls love Coco...."

Last Mother's Day I took the wig off...and never put it back on...it was a fantastic celebration!!

I never in a million years growing up in NOLA imagined that my girls would be going to 4H festivals...helloooo Dutchtown!!

Mia looked beautiful at her Baptism, but the picture that cracks me up is the one of Hannah, Morgan and Avery studying the prayer books - as if THAT is going to help!!

I could have an album each year dedicated just to the Christmas season.  I collect Christmas paper and embellishments all year long.  Here are my cute girls...

That's it for today...Shane and I went to a friend's wedding recently and on each table was a plaque that said "It's never too late to live happily ever after" and I thought it was just perfect.  Hope you are laughing this weekend!

Summer Livin'

So here we are at 120 degrees at 7am...I love when I break a sweat inside my house as I'm getting dressed...gotta love the South...

We have already faced the dreaded green pool hair...It only took a few times at the neighborhood pool and the Y pool for Avery's white hair to go green.  I tried to play it off and tell her it was really cool and looked highlighted, but the sound of her hysterical crying drowned me out.  Naturally we were heading out to a family Triathlon picnic and my anxiety was at an all time high with the thought of being surrounded by insanely fit women and men for the afternoon, and then we added the 7 year old green hair meltdown...I was secretly relieved that Avery and I might be able to skip the Fit Fest due the Green Hair Epidemic, but when she realized she would miss the crawfish she told me to braid the green hair and get in the car...damnit, I was SO close...

I survived Fit Fest by telling myself that even though the skinny tan girls are A-mazing in their shorts and tank tops...I was FORCED to be tough, and they just choose to be tough triathletes, so I'm really tougher....and I have better skin...less leathery and sun damaged...none of this is actually true, but these are the lies I tell myself when I am surrounded by hoards of triathletes in social settings...

Back to the green hair...Baking soda in Dawn does remove the green....the power of Google, Ironman, a hysterical daughter and an iPhone...and it's really fun to make your child wear a hair net (I only had a shower cap, but a hair net would have been so much better)...

I went to the ENT this week because for the last 6 weeks I thought I had fluid in my ear and I am was ready to face the steroids to dry it up...Nope, not fluid...Hearing loss...Are you kidding me?? and the doctor's only comment was "Nothing can be easy with you, can it?"  I'm pretty sure when I rolled my eyes he got the point that doctors stopped surprising me about 18 months ago...So I'm just enjoying the muffled sound of the girl's fighting...Apparently it might repair itself, steroids might help repair it, it might be a benign tumor, it might be removed, it might...............so I'll just wait and see for a little while and enjoy the muffledness....

I did a little scrapbooking, nothing magazine worthy, but I am slowly using up this crazy hoard of mine... This is an adventure last summer in NOLA, on the streetcar, the steps of One Shell Square, the Audubon Zoo, the Cool Zoo and the corner of Carrollton and St. Charles...we might not live in NOLA anymore, but I sure wish we would hurry up and win the Powerball and buy a condo there....

here's my sister and her family last Christmas....don't know about all that "white space" on the left page, but once it's done, I'm not going back....

here's the New Orleans Bowl in December...

so Ironman is in NOLA tonight for a race tomorrow morning and each precious angel has a friend sleeping over.  The sleepover is a completely selfish move on my part because then they mostly leave me alone in my scraproom so I can blog and shuffle scrapbook paper...delightful...and I get the king size bed to myself...SWEET!!!  Hope you are finding some time to relax and LAUGH this weekend....