Tis the season for changes....RIGHT?

Hello all!!!! Seems like changes are all around me right now! We have known for months (since July) that our office would need to move out of our current location by the end of December. So our corporate office did what any paper pusher in another state would do....they waited until the middle of December to have us move. I guess a little snow, sleet, ice, and rain is good for a move....RIGHT???? Anyway, I have my office all unpacked and everything put away. I feel very blessed that I still have my own office. It is much smaller, but still I don't have to have a roommate which most of the other gals do.

About 3-4 months ago I got it in my head that it was time to trade our van in for a car. With my new job, I travel quite a bit and we don't really need the van and all of the space (just seemed to get dirty constantly!!!). So I asked my FIL (who loves to car shop) to be on the look out for a car that I could do an even exchange for our van. We waited patiently until we found what we thought would be a good trade. So I go to sign the papers.....then we pull out to get some gas and then the new to us car does not start. So they think it is the battery....no biggie. So my dear FIL takes the car to get a new battery and two front tires. It just went down hill from there. I won't go into all of the details, but we have put ALOT of money into the car and I have yet to drive it ONCE! So my loving husband realizes that I am getting stressed and says to me, "just take my car for the day so you don't have to worry." So I take his car and I am almost to work when I smell a horrible rubber smell.....so I barely make it to my new office and YUP...the tire is VERY flat! So I call for road side assistance (love this feature of our insurance!!) and the guy comes to change it to the spare and.....yes, you guessed it the spare is flat! So I barely make it over to the repair shop and to make this looooooong story shorter, it was not a normal flat tire, no the springs, shocks, and struts are all bad and that is what caused the flat tire! FUN!!!!! So right now we have one car back and fixed and hopefully will have the second car back on Monday. Remind me of this little story the next time I want to trade cars will ya??

So another new thing is that I have decided to go back to school! Yup, I am grabbing my pencils, pens, and paper and hitting the books. Although I have a feeling that students don't use pens and pencils anymore....rather it is laptops and printers! I have decided to go and get my Masters in Social Work. I am starting out by taking some pre-requisite classes for a while and then I will jump into the Master's program. I am excited, but nervous! Been a long time since I have gone to school!!!!

I think that is enough for one post! Sorry no layouts to share...no time to scrap with all of this craziness going on!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful week before the Holidays!!!!

We had a GREAT LONG WEEKEND HERE...

What a wonderful long weekend! We only had to work a 1/2 day on Wednesday and then had Thursday-Sunday off from work!!!! Not too long ago I worked retail, and I would have been working my little tail off this past weekend!!! So, I think that makes me relish the long weekend even more! Not that we did anything super exciting, we just spent time together and that was perfect!

We did catch a movie over the weekend...we saw the new Bee Movie. It was very cute and a great movie for the whole family. It managed to keep Collin's and our interest! Of course movie popcorn and milk duds always help!!

We had a wonderful time with my parents on Thanksgiving and let me tell you the food was spectacular!!! Definitely good food and wonderful conversation! Collin was lucky enough to get to go home with Nana and Papa. They had big plans that included: setting up the new train for Christmas, attending to the horses/barn cats and dogs, and visiting the animal shelter that my mom volunteers at. Needless to say there was not a dull moment in their visit and Collin loves going out there!!!

My dad gave me an extra hard drive that he did not need anymore and on the drive were hundreds of photos!!! I was so excited to get home and start pouring over them! I think I have already used up a cartridge of ink printing pictures out! Love the older pictures of myself and family and I can't wait to scrap them! It will be nice to use feminine colors, flowers, and some bling in my layouts!!!!! In fact I did a layout over the weekend....see below! Yes, this is me at age 3!!!! Love that look!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week....have you started your Holiday shopping yet???

The week before Thanksgiving...

I can't believe that next Thursday is Thanksgiving! Time has been flying by at warp speed! Don't worry, I do realize that I say something similar to this on every post! I know that I need to just accept that time flies!

This week brought some very sad news of the passing of someone that I admired as a strong, caring, family oriented, and very friendly woman. With her passing, I am reminded of my friends and how very important they are to me! I am truly blessed in my life to have friends that I can call on in times of need and in times of joy! So here is a huge "thank you" to all of my friends from the bottom of my heart! I love you all and am so proud that I can call you my friend!!!!

We are not busy at our house getting ready for Thanksgiving as we celebrate this holiday with my family. We all get dressed up and go out to a fancy dinner where we are wined and dined for hours and have great conversation. I absolutely love it!!!! After we are done, we usually stop over the in-laws house to say a quick "hello", and then off to watch some football and relax together as a family of three. It has taken our family a while to figure out what 'fits' for this holiday between the two families, but since we have been doing this for the last couple of years, I simply LOVE it!

I was very fortunate this week/weekend to get some scrappin' done! I completed two layouts for the Design Team that I am on over at Paper Popsicle . You should go over there and check it out! If you scroll down on the home page, you will see two of my layouts!!!! Very exciting! I also did a few layouts for the album I am doing for my mom and all of her animals. I am happy to report that I am almost done with the album!!! Only a few more pages to complete...which I hope to do today while watching the Colts play! When I finish it, I will post it!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week and I also hope that you know how truly THANKFUL I am for each of you in my life!

Here are the two layouts that I finished....sorry the scan makes the colors look so weird! Maybe Santa will bring me a 12 x 12 scanner for Christmas??!!??

Seems like we are busy....

but not really much going on! Does that even make sense? I can't believe that in less than two weeks we will be having Thanksgiving!!! I must admit that this is my favorite holiday! I love to get together with family and then well, the food is always a plus as well! I feel so fortunate that my family is close by and that we can be together!

This past Friday we had a surprise party for my brother-in-law as he just got back from Iraq. I am so glad that he came back safe and sound and I thank everyone who is over there serving our country AND their families! They are making a huge sacrifice for our freedom and our country!

So the first nine weeks of school has ended and Collin did very well! He made the High Honor Roll and received an award for his Christian Outlook. We are very proud of him!!!! I feel lucky that he really enjoys school! He has also decided to play basketball for the school team. The first week he had conditioning in which they basically run for two hours! I thought he would die and want to quit, but he said it was hard, but necessary....what a kid! I was tired just watching them!!!!

Collin had fun on Halloween. This was the first year that we let him be something scary and he got to go Trick or' Treating with two of his buddies! I have tried to steer him away from the scary/gory costumes, but this year we let him make his own decisions....man was it hard! Without even talking about it, he and his friends basically looked the same! Made me laugh! Guess for these pictures I will have to find some gory paper to use to scrapbook them!

Well, that is about all for now! I hope everyone has a great week...and have fun getting ready for Thanksgiving!!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Collin on Halloween.....warning they may scare you..LOL!

A Pumpkin Carver, I am NOT!!!

I have never carved a pumpkin before and I never thought that it would be as hard as it was!!! I went out and bought the book of patterns because I was going to have a cute little cat and Collin wanted to do a ghost. Yes, in the books there were different levels, but let's face it, these were level 1's so I was positive that I could do it!!! I even scoffed when Collin picked up the electronic saw blade for carving thinking "No way I am paying $8 for that thing...I can do it with a steak knife!!!"....WRONG!!!! That is why they sell those silly little tools...cause you need them!!!

So after about an hour and I only had the tail cut for my cat, I abandoned that thought! Poor Collin, I didn't even let him attempt his ghost....he went straight for the traditional triangular eyes/nose and the tooth crazy mouth. I soon followed right after him!

Luckily for us though we were with great friends! Brandie, Bob, Morgan, Collin and I had a great time laughing and gagging over pumpkin guts!!! Brandie made us a wonderful fall meal of pork chops, mash potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing....can you say YUMMY!

We did manage to roast the seeds which turned out pretty good as well! Here are some pictures of our adventures! Can't wait to scrapbook them!!!

Can you actually get a sunburn in late October???

Okay so I am feeling like a bad mom/wife right now!!! Who would have thought that our family would have sunburns at this time of year. Yes, right now....almost the end of October and I am sitting here with a red face that is burning! Today we were at a flag football tournament for a friend's child...I packed coats, blankets, chairs, water...but NOT SUN SCREEN!!!! The sun was shinning so brightly and not a cloud in the sky that the Levy family is now sporting sun burns!

Once again the week/weekend has gone so fast. Collin had his last football game...I know that I will miss not getting to see him play every week. The good news is that basketball practice starts in exactly one week!!!!

I leave you with a layout that I did this weekend with products from Paper Popsicle that you can view here. These are pictures I took of Collin in TN. He is trying to blow the golf ball into the hole....it actually worked!

Thanks and I hope you have a great week!

I can't believe that it is October!!!

Where does the time go??? Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating that school was out for the summer! NOW....the first 9 weeks of school is almost over, football season for Collin has come and almost gone, Halloween is around the corner, people are talking about plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations have been in the stores for weeks, and now you see/hear all around you a constant countdown with the number of days until Christmas!!! Where has the time gone?

Update with Collin and the contacts...he is still doing a wonderful job putting them in/taking them out. He gets frustrated sometimes in the morning, but after a gentle reminder to slow down, he does ok. He is lucky as he has the daily disposable kind so no cleaning!!!!

I enjoyed a weekend cyber crop at Paper Popsicle this weekend! They had tons of challenges, classes, and prizes! It was great to see everyone over there! Did I mention all of the great deals Melissa had in the store? We are talking Queen & Company brads for $1.50 a package, paper for $.39/sheet, rub-ons for $1.75....Awesome deals...I spent some of my paycheck there!!! I actually taught my first cyber class which was AWESOME!!! I was a little nervous as it has been a while since I have taught, and I have never taught a cyber class! It went great though!!!! Below is a picture of the class I taught on altering notebooks....try it, it is fun and makes great gifts!!!

I actually did a sketch challenge over there also. That is the second layout posted below. It was fun to try a sketch....I have been dying to use that clock and this sketch was perfect for it!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend...now who knows the secret to slow the hands of time down????