Christmas is over!

I finally put away the Christmas decor yesterday. Normally I have it up into January, but since I will be starting a new semester on the 7th I figured if I didn't do it now I would probably still be looking at them on Valentine's Day.

We had a quiet Christmas in Utah. It just isn't the same without family, but we survived. Around 8:30 we started opening gifts. We usually take showers and eat breakfast before we open gifts so I made sure that I got up early so Cameron wouldn't have to wait too long. Little did I know he was going to sleep in a little bit. I finally went into his room at 8:00 and found him just getting up and making his bed. He took his shower and was then ready to start opening gifts. I had cinnamon rolls baking in the oven so we figured we could start opening.

Cameron loved coming downstairs to find a Seahawks pennant hanging on the tree. He showed Lucy her presents and we gave her one of them to keep her busy while we opened gifts. I thought for sure Cameron would want to open his big Santa present (the green one it the middle covering all the other gifts) first, but that waited until almost the end. This was his reaction when he finally got it open. He was puffing up his cheeks and making a funny noise...too excited. We bought him all the other lego sets to go with it. He had received the Mars Mission Base set from Santa. This was the only thing he asked for when he went for his Santa visit this year. I also bought him a chihuahua Webkins that he had been wanting ever since I showed him online what they were and what you do with them. They are a virtual pet that you play with on their website. I don't think he has actually tried yet since their web server was terribly slow Christmas morning. I'm guessing lots of children got new webkins for Christmas.My parents bought him two of the things he has been asking for since July. A Starcraft PC game and the Optimus Prime voice changer helmet. He was thrilled when he opened them and just said, "How did they know?"Michael and I weren't going to exchange gifts since we spent money in Vegas just a week prior, but we did anyway. His big gift that I bought for him was the Bose speaker set for his computer that he has wanted for the past two years. I think he was happy. He went and set them up when we were finished and I could hear them all the way in the front room.I had a computerized Christmas. Michael bought me the newest operating system for my Mac and the updated iWork and iLife packages. Now I just have to figure out all the new features on them. I also got new headphones for my ipod and a Bamboo Fun tablet for picture editing. I still have to play with this more to figure out all it can do too. My parents bought me the Bind-It-All machine for making scrapbooks and other fun things.For those of you that know me, and it should be any of you reading this, you know that I don't like a messy house. Well, this was bothering me for a few hours after we opened gifts.
I took Cameron to finally get his hair cut this weekend. It was getting too long and unruly. He had wanted to grow it out so when you blow up from your mouth it would move...try it with your hair. I have no idea why he wanted it long and wanted to be able to blow it, but after trying it long for awhile I just had to tell him it wa finally time to cut it off. This photo isn't very good, but he had the girl give him a faux-hawk. He wants me to do this for him now. I should have taken a picture from the side to show the whole effect.One last thing...I have been playing around with my digital scrapbook stuff again. I finally got it all organized this weekend and had time this morning to make this layout. The papers and happy button are from a kit by Jackie Eckles from Little Dreamer Designs and the ribbon and bookplate are from Kristie at the Shabby Princess.
What are you doing to celebrate the coming of 2008? Cameron plans on staying up until midnight. He better take a nap today if he really plans on doing it. We are just going to have some Ritz crackers and little smokies with cheese in them as a snack (this is what my parents have always done so we do it too). I forgot the Martinelli's cider..I might have to make a run to the store to buy it.

Well, Cameron wants my computer so he can play Starcraft so I should get going. His computer is broken so he has to play on my computer until Michael gets his working again. Until next time...Have a safe and Happy New Year!!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Today Lucy turned 1. Cameron was excited to celebrate her birthday. We put his birthday bow from his build-a-bear bear on her and gave her a gift. She LOVED her gift. Cameron had to help her open it as Michael was afraid that she would start opening other things that don't belong to her. Her gift was a Bully Stick...she chewed on that thing for 3 hours before coming to me to go outside.

Snowing and Jim Shore

I left work early yesterday to finish up some Christmas shopping. When I came out of the first place I was faced with a very dark sky, hail speeding down and lightening. This was strange considering I wasn't in the store very long and it was a nice pleasant day when I went in. The hail made for a very slippery drive to the next place which wasn't very close. When I finally left that store it had begun snowing very heavy wet snow. It took me 20 minutes to leave that shopping area due to all the cars and the heavy snow. It also took me about 60 minutes to cross the valley to get closer to my house...normally a 10-15 minute drive. Oh what a fun time this Christmas shopping turned out to be! I have a hair appointment today at 12:30 across the valley and it is still snowing. I have to go since it has been 3 months since I last got it cut and I want it done before Christmas.

Yesterday at work we exchanged Christmas gifts. I received a European facial from Erin, the assistant that I work with, she just finished esthetician school and has a spa set up at her house. I can't wait as I have never had one before. Now I just need to find the time to set up the appt. with her and get it done. Joyce, our office manager, got me a Jim Shore snowglobe. Last year I decided I wanted to start collecting Jim Shore pieces. Here is the snowglobe that she bought me...This was my first piece that I bought last year...
I bought him this year...I just bought this one this week. I stopped in Jolley's pharmacy and they had all their Christmas stuff 40% off. Jim Shore stuff NEVER goes on sale so I had to buy him. I think he is great. One side has the nice list and the other side has the naughty list. The naughty side has coal in the sack. Too cute!
All of these are much more prettier in person. The colors are so vibrant and the faces are great.

After my hair appointment today I need to venture out and finish shopping. Michael is so hard to buy for. I have no clue what to get him other than the few things I have already picked up. I have nothing for his stocking yet except for some candy. We weren't going to exchange gifts this year since we spent a lot of money in Vegas, but he went out and bought me something since I had to have something to open on Christmas day. I really didn't need it, but if he thinks I do than that is fine with me. I thought I was done shopping until he bought me something. Oh well!

This was my Christmas card this year. I was way to busy with school and work to have time to make any cards or buy any to mail out. It has almost been one week since school ended and I have enjoyed my time off so far.

Michael and I took a trip to Vegas on Friday after my finals and returned home on Monday. Cameron and Lucy spent time at Shannon's house while we were away. Lucy slept almost the entire time we got home Monday and returned to her normal self around 6pm on Tuesday. I think she was tired from spending time with Shannon's dog Cookie and a dog visitor named Fonzie.

Our trip to Vegas was fun. It was my first time there and I had a blast. We walked everywhere and Michael was hurting pretty good each evening. I always feel bad for him when he hurts. It has been two years since the dreaded accident and he still has pain. We went into many of the casinos and looked around. It is amazing how large they are both inside and outside. We didn't gamble much. I have this fear of losing "real" money as opposed to the "fake" money that I usually gamble with when Michael has his casino nights for his customers. I played craps with $60 and was up $115 at one point and I should have walked away, but the table turned sour so I lost all but my original $60. I thought another table would be better and ended up losing the $60. Oh well, I played for quite some time at the first table. I think I will stick to the "fake" money next time.On Saturday we took a trip out to the Hoover dam. It also was pretty amazing. That thing took years to build and was finally done in 1936. It sure has been around a long time. They are building an overpass so cars no longer will go over the top of the dam. That was pretty interesting to see too.While we were away I had sent a text message to Trish (a girl in my anatomy class I study with) to have her look up my final score and overall grade. I just couldn't wait until I got home to see how I did. Well, she finally texted back the next day to tell me that I had gotten a 90% on my final and an overall score of 95.18%. That is an A. I was thrilled. I proved to myself that I can take two science classes, work and have a home life and it all works out. This was a tough semester. Luckily I am only taking one class this next semester. Human Physiology...should be tough. I am taking it from the same instructor I had for anatomy so at least I know how she tests.

Well, off to dry my hair and head off to work. Have a great weekend!

I'm done!

As of yesterday at 3:00 I am officially done for this semester! The anatomy final was easier than I thought it would be. The girls I study with thought the same thing so hopefully that is truly the case. We study and fret way too much over little things, but they do seem HUGE at the time.

I just checked online and I got my A in chemistry! What a way to start my weekend. I hope I don't have to wait too long to get my anatomy grade. Before the final I was getting a 96.5 so I am looking to get an A in that class too. I never thought I would get through this semester taking both science classes, but I guess I proved it to myself that I can do it if I set my mind to it. I must say that I really didn't study as much as I should have. I was always thinking of better things I could be doing with my time and much of the time I actually did do the something better.

Done!

Well, I am happy to say that I am DONE with chemistry! The final last night was a tough one. I corrected it before I left and missed 7. That gave me an 83%. I had her tell me what my overall score was and it is a 92.5%, so an A-. I told her I want a A, not an A-. She said that she may be giving a few extra points depending on how everyone else does on the final. If she does then I will get my A. I can't wait to sell back my book today and get it out of my house!!

Today will be spent at the school studying with some friends for my anatomy class and then I have to finish up Christmas shopping so I can get them mailed off this week.

I found this on my friend Lillian's blog:

You Belong in New York City

You're the energetic, ambitious type. And only NYC is fast enough for you. Maybe you'll set yourself up with a killer career Or simply take in all the city has to offer.

What City Do You Belong In?

Last one for today

This digital scrapping is so much fun. What do people do with them? Do they print them? Here is another one I just created. This one used the free kit from littledreamerdesigns.com that you get when you sign up to get their newsletter.

Two posts in one day?

I decided to download some more digital stuff and this is what I came up with. I need to learn more techniques rather than just resizing, cutting and pasting paper and elements. When I have more time I will. I am supposed to be studying right now, but this is so much more fun. Here is my second digital layout and second page for the year. This is part of a kit from Grunge Boy by Michelle Coleman for Littledreamerdesigns.com

First digital scrapbook page

I created this scrapbook page below using a kit from Heidi Larsen of Littledreamerdesigns.com
I got the kit from here. I had to do some searching on how to use the photo editing program that I have, but once I found it it wasn't that difficult. I could see me doing more pages this way. It is amazing how fast this went together. Of course it a pretty simple page, but at least it is done. I can now say that I scrapped in 2007.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

It starting snowing here around 6:00 last night as we headed out to dinner. We ran to Barnes & Noble and then headed home around 8:30. The roads were pretty slow going from the eastside to home, but we made it. Michael shoveled our drive and the neighbors when we got home, but by the time he came back towards our house our drive needed to be shoveled again. However, he was smart and came inside.

I had to go shovel off our deck and a little area of grass so Lucy could have a place to go potty instead of our deck full of snow. Here are a few pictures I took this morning while the snow is still falling:

I love this one of Lucy...she was running full steam at me. If you can blow up the picture you will see snow flying all around her.

Lucy looking for me to throw a snowball her way.Normally we take down the trampoline before the snow starts to fall. I think this is something we need to work on today. I would hate for it to get ruined from all the heavy snow.Today is going to be a day of studying for me and then I will take a break to run to a holiday boutique where my friend Heidi is going to be selling her scrapbooking items.

Yay me, part deux!

So, I took my chemistry test on Wednesday night and got 100%! We have our final on Monday of this coming week so after we turned in our test we could look at the answer sheet so we know how we did to be able to study for the final. I was so happy as I kept turning each page of my test paper and wasn't marking anything wrong. This was my first 100% on a chem test.

On another note, I took my anatomy test yesterday and I don't know how I did. That was the hardest test yet. Hopefully when I go to my instructors office today to look over past tests she will tell me the answers to yesterdays test. I have that final on Thursday of next week. Then I am DONE...for the semester at least.

I saw this on Shannon's blog yesterday and thought I would play along:

MOUTHOLOGY

Q: What is your salad dressing of choice?
A:Thousand Island

Q: What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A: Del Taco

Q: What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A: Red Robin (at least I think so since we tend to eat there so often)

Q: On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A: 15-20%

Q: What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A: Honey-nut cheerios or pizza

Q: What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A: Pepperoni & black olive

Q: What do you like to put on your toast?
A: butter and sometimes strawberry jam

TECHNOLOGY

Q: What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A: the picture that is on the blog below of the Christmas tree

Q: How many televisions are in your house?
A: 3, only 2 are hooked up

BIOLOGY

Q: Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A: Right

Q: Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A: tonsils, wisdom teeth and other teeth for braces

Q: When was the last time you had a cavity?
A: 1997, although I don't know if I had a cavity or not, I was just having silver replaced with white on all my teeth before I got my braces.

Q: What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A: Washer & dryer when we sold them

Q: Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A: No

BULL[CRAP]OLOGY

Q: If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A: Yes, so I made sure I did everything I wanted to do and told everyone what I wanted to tell them

Q: If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A: I'm okay with my name. I used to hate the spelling and changed it alot in HS (Staci, Stacie)

Q: What color do you think looks best on you?
A: Red

Q: Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A: No

Q: Have you ever saved someones life?
A: I can't recall

Q: Has someone ever saved yours?
A: ???

DAREOLOGY

Q: Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A: A peck sure, but not a real kiss.

Q: Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A: No way, what would I lift when drinking tea?

Q: Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A: I could do this

Q: Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A. No

Q: Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A: Not in my lifetime! Michael would do it.

Q: Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A: NEVER.

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A: No pockets.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A: Pretty dumb movie, I never made it through when I tried to watch it.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A: Carpet and tile

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A: Stand

Q: Would you live with roommates?
A: When we lived in Kennewick we had a roommate for awhile since Michael was gone a lot and I HATED it! She was a slob and didn't last very long.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A: 3

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A: Thanksgiving 2006 on the way back from CO. It was my first ticket ever!

Q: Who is number 1 on your top 8?
A: God

LASTOLOGY

Q: Last Friend you talked to?
A: Trish & Lisa (they were together)

Q: Last person who called you?
A: IHC healthcare for a survey

Q: Last person you hugged?
A: Michael

Q: Last person to stick their foot in your face?
A: Not a person, but the dog

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: 7

Q: Season?
A: Fall

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A: Always since I live so far from family.

Q: Mood?
A: Overwhelmed because of tests, excited because I am going on a little trip next wee.

Q: Listening to?
A: The external hard-drive doing it's backup

Q: Watching?
A: the letters appear while I am typing

Q: Worrying about?
A: my tests of course

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: To my computer

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A: Move! (possibly more on this later)

Q: What's the last movie you saw in theater?
A: Meet the Robinsons

Q: Do you smile often?
A: All the time

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: Yes, and if you don't think I am I will beat you up! How's that for friendly!

Yay me!

I just had to mention that I got my anatomy lab final score today and received 100% on it! I hope I can do almost that well on my actual class final. I have a test in chemistry tomorrow that I am going to study more for tonight when Cameron goes to bed. Most of my house is clean so I will feel like studying.

I have been getting the urge to scrapbook again. I can't wait for this semester to end so I can create something. The two girls that I study with also scrapbook....we may get together between semesters and do some scrapping. That would be great!

I signed up to do Shimelle's "Journal Your Christmas" class. I wanted to do it last year, but found out about it too late. So this year I signed up on November 30th. I haven't had a chance to actually start, but I am going to work on some of the journaling each night to catch up. It is a great way to capture what Christmas is to you.

Another post from me

I put up our other little tree tonight...you see, I am trying to get out of studying. Here is a little snippet of it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Sometime last night it started to snow and it hasn't stopped since I got up at 7:00. It is now 12:00 and still going strong. I took some pics of Cameron and Lucy out playing...I was inside where it was warm looking through the window.
I don't quite know what they are searching for here...perhaps the grass.Here Lucy is waiting for a snowball to be thrown. She likes to run in the snow and try to catch what you throw her.I don't know if we are going anywhere today, but I wanted to head out to Modern Display to look at their trees. Perhaps we will venture out later. I should go dry my hair and start some studying. I have two tests this week...one in chemistry and one in anatomy.