Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Oy, I'm Tired!

And it's only Wednesday....

My two co-workers are gone, and I'm the lone person holding down this joint. One is on vacation, and the other is out with a kidney infection. No telling when he'll be back...

Nothing like doing the work of three people to make you appreciate all the more that Friday is more than halfway here!

I get to coach my daughter's recreation league indoor soccer team again tonight. I kind of fell into it by default on another night because I happen to be the only parent who knows all the other player's names (besides the coach). So the coach has to be out of town on business for the entire tournament (Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday), and it looks like I'll be taking over.

Soccer Mom to the rescue!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Here Goes Nothing

I'm putting my first two sets of scrapbook pages up on eBay today. Wish me luck in selling them for big buck$. :) If you're interested in seeing my scrapbooking style, this is what I do:


And here is the "cutsie" one I did with chicks and bunnies:

I'll keep y'all posted on how the eBay-ing goes!

Monday, March 20, 2006

Weekend of the Ex-Boyfriends

On Friday night, I saw my old boyfriend, E.C. You'd think that 5 months of not seeing him (and having another boyfriend in the meantime!) would make being around him again easier. Fat chance. I guess he'll probably be one of those guys I'll always be in love with. *sigh* My single friend Jamie says about guys like E.C., "They're the ones who you love with all your heart, but you could never live with on a day to day basis." She's right. Living with E.C. would drive me absolutely batty after a few months. It's amazing how much I still yearn to be with him though. But I resisted successfully this weekend, even though he invited me to watch a movie with him at his house Friday night.

Saturday night, it was Ron's turn. I told him that I was ready to end the romantic part of our relationship. He took it pretty hard, as I figured he would. Even though he knew it was eventually coming, he really didn't want our relationship, as it stood, to end. Now we're diving into the murky waters of "Let's be friends". We'll see how that goes. I know that from my end, I'll be able to do it (I wasn't totally, completely head-over-heels in love with him), but since he was completely smitten with me, I don't think it's going to be easy for him. I really feel for him, I do! I know exactly what he's going through, 'cause I was on the receiving end of this exact same thing at the end of last summer. It sucks rocks.

I know it was the right thing to do for me (I'm feeling like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders today), yet I'm in the 'second guessing myself' mode right now. I mean, Ron is a *really* decent guy. You don't find those too often in my dating age group, y'know? So I have to have faith that there's someone better for me out there...

I know when I talk to my best friend Carol across the street about the breakup, I'll probably end up asking the question I've asked her multiple times over the past year and a half: "Tell me why it was I wanted to start dating again?!?" :)

Friday, March 17, 2006

Awesome Website

This has got to be one of the coolest websites ever. I found it Monday morning, and have spent (wasted? LOL!) a lot of time playing around with it this week.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Type in a name. Any name. And then see the popularity trends over the past 100+ years of its usage. There's an interesting blog associated with the site, too, if you're like me and appreciate trivial pieces of information that are fascinating. :)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Life

Okay, so I've been really lax about writing lately. I've been up to my eyeballs in scrapbooking stuff (I have finished one complete 2-page layout, it's really cute, and ready to post to eBay this weekend), shuttling kids to soccer games and practices, work has been ultra-busy, watching American Idol (Taylor made the top 12!), painting Kayla's bedroom, etc. All convenient excuses not to write, I know... :)

Last night, I had to put a new doorknob on my bedroom door-- one with a keyed lock. My mascara went mysteriously 'missing' again, and the only one who uses my makeup without asking is Shandy. This time, though, it didn't reappear. I'm tired of her taking my stuff (makeup, clothes, little things that are mine that she decides she wants...). So my door was locked as I left this morning. Now I have to figure out how I'm going to keep someone from coming into my room from the bay window door, which is accessible with the housekey (as it's the outside door lock). I'm sure that if she really wants in my room, she'll go in through that way. It's pretty sad that I'm having to lock my room up. It's even sadder that Kayla's new room that's almost finished in the basement will also need a keyed lock for the same reason.

I still don't know what to do with that child. She's a completely different teen than I was... I mean, I was interested in earning my parents' trust so I could have the car keys, y'know? I wanted a job so I could earn money, and in turn go do and buy the things I wanted. And to do that, my parents had to trust me. I can't do that with Shandy right now.

So here's an upcoming dilemma-- my brother is planning on giving Shandy his old car on her 16th birthday. How do you go about enforcing driving 'privileges' when the kid owns the car? Insist on a copy of the key and get "The Club"? Mileage checks?

Maybe the aliens will bring back her totally sweet nature in the next few months.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Earning Extra Ca$h

I've decided I'm gonna earn some extra cash (which we sorely need) by doing some...

...scrapbooking.

Yes, me. Don't laugh. I know I'm not your typical scrapbooker. I do have an art/design background, though, and honestly-- that's all it takes. Some of you reading this know that I've done pretty good for myself so far in this arena. Here's my scrapbooking life so far:

My best friend Carol across the street works for Simple Scrapbooks Magazine. Since Kayla likes to scrapbook, Carol would bring by extra copies of the magazine for Kayla to have. I'd flip through them while talking to her, and critique the layouts in the mag, rolling my eyes at the lousy designs I'd see, horrible color combinations people would pick out, etc. etc. etc. Every once in awhile, I'd see a layout I'd like. Finally, in exasperation with my 'pickiness', Carol exclaimed, "Fine! If you think it's so easy, let's see *you* do a layout and sell it to the magazine!"

I took her up on the challenge. I sold my first 3 layouts to Simple. Then, they were having this album contest... I'd never done an album before, so I decided I'd enter one. I took second place in the category I entered it in. Ha! And then Simple contracted with me to write an article for them. So me, Ms. Non-Crafty, wrote an article for a cutsey-crafty magazine. Go figure!

Anyway, back to the $$$ part... I was looking on eBay at premade scrapbook pages. Women are selling these things for big bucks! I mean, who in their right mind pays $230 for a two-page Easter layout, for crying out loud?!? Baby, let me in on the cash!

I spent all day Saturday perusing craft and scrapbooking stores for cutsey crap. I plan on making about 6 double-page layouts to sell before Easter. Wish me luck. I'll keep y'all updated on how they sell!