The office area the day after we moved in...
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
Friday, July 07, 2006
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
i'm sick...
and before you all get your hopes up, it's a cold! i was determined that it would be just allergies, but after spending all night coughing the last two days, i have to admit it's not allergies. my throat HURTS! and not just a little bit. i finally had to drink some tylenol cold & cough, the cool breeze flavor. yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! however, it does work. oh my gosh! and you have to take 2 tablespoons of the nasty gunk! it made me gag! and i can take just about any medicine. when thomas took it earlier this year and complained about it, i told him to suck it up and get over it. it's like drinking cough syrup and listerine at the same time. not a good combo. i've been through almost an entire box of tissues. of course, this would happen when we are supposed to be moving this weekend. thomas is fine so far, but since we are all living in the same 12x12 room, i am sure he will have it just in time for moving day! well, i am going to go make thomas's lunch for work... and then i am going to take a long hot shower... and i wish i could climb back in bed, but hannah won't allow that and my mom is sick, too, so she can't watch hannah. i think we got this from those festering little brats at church. i promise, i love kids.......
Monday, June 26, 2006
a great weekend...
we had a really nice weekend... on friday, thomas was off work and we went to Orlando to go to the temple with my cousin. we got there about 5 minutes before it was supposed to start. i slipped in as the doors were closing and told them that thomas was coming. they waited about a minute and then started anyway. thomas didn't make it in. he sat in the lobby during the service. but then we went to olive garden for lunch and headed back home. it was really great to be there with Michael. on saturday, we had michael's girlfriend and her family over to meet michael's grandparents. we had a big bbq and they went swimming. it was fun to get to know all of them. they are really nice people. then sunday was a pretty cool day, too. michael's grandparents left right after church, and then we had a family dinner and derek, a guy who just moved here from orem, utah, came over to visit. he is going back to utah this weekend and was rubbing it in that he was going to eat on gandolfo's on saturday... jerk! just kidding! the weekend was just nice and relaxing. much unlike next weekend, when we will be moving and i will be doing it pretty much by myself! my aunt volunteered to watch hannah so that i don't have to worry about her, too, while i am moving everything up and down stairs. should be a blast! this week is just going to be getting ready for this weekend. i need to get some boxes and bags and start packing up everything from our room... it's kind of hard, though because you never know what you will need.. i hate moving!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
just another wednesday...
nothing too exciting going on here. i had a chat today at rakscraps. i gave away a couple of cool prizes from dedicated2digital, a digital design store. i went and had allergy shots. then i paid my storage unit bill. my arm still has it's little allergy shot bumps. gotta love it that when you are already having allergy issues, they shoot you up with more stuff you are allergic to! hannah has a cough now. she has never had a cough like this. she doesn't have a fever. her nose is slightly runny. but it's clear. i think it is just allergies, but we'll see. we are supposed to go to orlando on friday, so it will probably get worse by then! oh well!
Friday, June 16, 2006
no more Lucy...
ash & dyl had to get rid of lucy... they were going to have to pay a huge pet deposit at their apartment. and they were going to have to get her spayed next month and a million other things... so my dad's secretary at work bought her from ash & dyl. edna will take good care of lucy. we've known her since i was 11 yrs old, and she is the sweetest lady in the world! she is like a grandma to me! as much as we are going to miss little lucy, at least she went to a good home...
Wake Up! Jump out of bed!
Hannah has been watching Lazy Town On Demand and her favorite episode is where Robbie Rotten is trying to keep Sportacus awake all night. She loves the "Wake Up!" song.
Speaking of waking up, Hannah woke me up at 6 this morning (she didn't go to bed until about 11:30 last night). She started crying in her sleep and saying that she was hungry. So I tried to wake her up and see if she wanted to eat something, but she didn't. She cried for about 15 minutes and she stayed in our bed after that. She was really fussy the rest of the "night". She finally woke up at about 8:45, after kicking me and whining for almost 3 hours. It was a great night! :)
I get so frustrated sometimes with people being insensitive about my food allergies. Last night my mom and sister and cousin ran to Wal-Mart and then they ran to Taco Bell. When they got home, we had to rearrange all the cars so that everyone could get out when they needed to today (there are 7 cars in the driveway at night). So I was pretty ticked off when we came in the house... I hate moving cars with my mom. She is a completely irrational person and it makes me nuts! Anyway, we all came in and my mom asked me if I wanted a taco. I asked her if they all had cheese on them. "Yeah, they're tacos." Well, you know I can't eat cheese, so don't ask me if you didn't bother to order a taco without cheese. "I am so sick of special ordering food for everyone in this house.... blah blah blah..." She special orders everything. Then she asked if Thomas would eat a taco. I asked her if they had lettuce on them. "They are tacos. Of course they have lettuce on them!" How long has she known Thomas??? She knows he won' t eat anything that has touched lettuce. Then she got mad at Thomas and I because she ordered 10 tacos and nobody ate them... well, don't order food we can't eat. "I thought you could pick it off." How many times have I told her that cheese melts and even the powdery stuff on cheese has milk in it. If it has touched my food, it will make me sick. anyway... i had an allergic reaction to m&m's last night. I am slightly allergic to chocolate so I try to avoid it. Last night I had a small handful of m&ms and my throat and ears started itching so bad! no more m&ms for me... i love m&ms.
i think that's enough whining for one morning. i have a ton of stuff to get done today. i need to get off my butt and do it now! hope everyone has a great day! :::hugs:::
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Nothing important...
I don't really have anything important to say... I am currently backing up my harddrive. I try to do that at least once a week. I only have about 200 mb of space left on my harddrive. I have some major cleaning to do. My DVD burner is soooo sloooooow. At least it works now! :) Much better than a couple of months ago!
I went shopping today... bad, Meredith! I found about 10 dresses for Hannah, but I only got 3 of them (less than $10 each) and I get up to the register and my mom bought them for Hannah! that's always nice...
I am trying to find a duvet cover for my room and I just can't find anything I love. I have 2 full size quilts in storage that are blue & ivory toile. I am thinking about sewing them together and just using those for a while. I don't know if it will work or not... I am thinking about going to another TJ Maxx across town and seeing if they have a blue & green paisley sheet set in king size. They had it in queen size at the store close to us today... I have wanted it for months and I didn't get it because I didn't need it. Now I do, so it's gone! :) Just my luck! actually, my mom has a duvet cover that she bought at pottery barn a couple of years ago, that she isn't using. my sister has it at her house, but she doesn't like it, so I am probably going to take it from her and find something for her... she doesn't think i'm serious about stealing the duvet cover off her bed... she doesn't know me as well as thinks she does... i hope you are reading this, ashley! i'm coming to get it!
I think I have watched Cinderella 4 times today... Hannah loves it! I have been trying to get caught up on my scrapbooking stuff so that I am not stressed at the end of the month with the big move... Two more weeks.................. I don't think I can wait! :) The hard part is that I know we could be living there already, but we wanted to save the extra $500... I may have to go check out the key and see it again next week. Maybe I'll take my mom to see it and she can help me envision where to put everything. I just want to move everything in on the first, but Thomas can't get off work. And Thomas doesn't want to ask people to help us on July 4th.. I think it's perfect because we could do it during the day. And my cousin would be here to help. He works out of town on Wednesday and Thursdays...
Yes, Steph, Michael is home now! You need to come see him! :) just kidding! I actually want to set up my cousin, Michael, with Shelby's sunday school teacher. She is a cute girl and I think they would get along well. He would kill me if I tried! He is so shy!
I better get going. My DVD is done and Hannah is driving me crazy and Thomas is on his way home from work!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
We did it!
We signed our lease yesterday! We can't move in until the 1st of July, and Thomas can't take time off work until the 5th, so we are going to actually move our furniture and boxes in on the 5th. I am so excited! So we now have a place to live until the 30th of June 2007... That means we have twelve months to be ready to buy a house! By then we should have a better idea of where Thomas is headed in his career. He is doing very well and still loves his job! :)
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Monday, June 12, 2006
Moving is Expensive!
I have started making a list of things we will need when we move and I am starting to feel overwhelmed! We really want to paint, because the walls are pretty scuffed up. We want to just paint a very light tan color or a darker beige. We want to stick with a yellowish tan or beige so that the light reflects off the walls rather than soaking up all the light, making the room smaller. We just want to paint the living room, dining area and solarium. We would like to paint Hannah's room a white paint with a pink tint in it. I don't think that's going to happen.
Plus, there are no overhead lights or fans. So, if we want ceiling fans, we have to put them in. I found some at Home Depot for $20 each... they are small and white and ugly, but they work. We'll have to put in 3 of them. It is cheaper to buy ceiling fans than the large oscillating fans. I don't know if they are going to let us do any of this stuff.
The cabinets are really narrow, so I am going to have to buy new glasses so that they fit in my cabinets. I am just going with some cheap ones from KMart or Target. Then I made a preliminary grocery list and about died! We used up all of our food storage before we moved out of our last apartment, so we are down to just a few cans of beans and that's about it! But our new pantry is tiny, so we don't have to worry about buying too much to fill it up! :) We are just going to have to make menus and only buy the stuff we need for those meals. But the big expenses are going to be garbage bags, paper towels, toilet paper, aluminum foil, sandwich bags, etc... I am not buying anything else that I don't absolutely have to have this month! :) I don't care how cheap those Laura Ashley dresses get... TJ Maxx is having a big clearance on their spring dresses and they have Laura Ashley's for $7 and dropping... nope! i don't need anymore! :) I'm moving out! I'm moving out! Yea!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Good news!!!!
Our application for the condo got accepted! It looks like we will be moving on July 5th, because that's the first day Thomas can get off work. I am so excited! I was walking down the hall at church today and one of the ladies who found the condo for us, told me that they got a response back Friday afternoon after the office closed! We have to go talk to them and put down our deposit and work out all the details. I have to go choose paint colors tomorrow so that we can get them approved and paint before we move our stuff in! Everything is just working out perfectly and I am so glad that we waited! Heavenly Father really does answer our prayers, even when he think he isn't listening! :)
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Meet my newest niece... LUCY! Isn't she precious??? Ashley, Shelby, Hannah & I went to the flea market this morning and Ashley found a little YorkiePoo. We are pretty sure her name is Lucy, but Ash & Dyl wanted to talk it over tonight first... I've already cleaned up her poo... that makes me her favorite, right?! :) She has the sweetest little personality! She loves to be held and cuddled but she can be playful, too! If I were ever going to get a dog, it would be her!
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
DigiPick of the Day for June 5th!!!
Yea!!!!! I love Melissa! I was chosen again for the DigiPick of the Day on June 5th! It is one my favorite layouts I have done recently! Thanks, Melissa!
Bubbles Everywhere
Thursday, June 08, 2006
I think I found a place....
I went and looked at a condo today and I LOVE IT! The price is right and so is everything about this place! It is a 2 bed, 2 bath condo. It's on the 2nd floor. It has a single-car garage. Yea, storage! :) The layout is really cute! the kitchen is tiny, but I have decided that I am never going to find a kitchen as big as my last one! At least this one has a pantry! It is only 9 inches deep and 24 inches wide, but it is a pantry! It may not hold a cereal box, but it will hold my soup cans! It has a washer and dryer and big windows and lots of open space without being a giant box. There is enough closet space in the bedrooms. The bathrooms are super small, but the rest of it just makes up for it! We are going to submit our applications tomorrow. I really hope we get this condo. It just feels right! :) Patience finally paid off! :)
Monday, June 05, 2006
She looks so funny with her hair like this! She won't usually leave her hair in any type of bow or anything for more than an hour... we're at 22 minutes so far today! :) I definitely need hair practice! She reminds me a lot of my niece, Jordyn, lately with the way she is built and some of her facial expressions! Hannah is wearing all 2Ts and some 3Ts... her jammies are even going into 4T. She is getting ready to hit another growth spurt because she is starting to chunk up again... she's such a cutie pie!
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
Friday, June 02, 2006
$5 down the drain...
literally! I went to get gas today ($33 for my little Accord) and decided to get the $5 touchless carwash. All was fine and dandy until I was about 2 miles down the road and drove through a dust storm so thick you needed your headlights on. Gotta love construction. So now my car is muddy, rather than just slightly dusty...
Thursday, June 01, 2006
almost forgot...
apartment update!
I called the apartment complex with the tiny 3/2 apartments. I prefer to call them "quaint" or "cozy" as it looks like we may be moving there!!! They have an apt opening up July 15th on the second floor. I know, I know.... second floor stinks! But, they are an old complex and don't have security systems, so I prefer 2nd floor. Plus they have vaulted ceilings and it will help to open up the apartment. Make it seem less like a coffin... they are sooo tiny! :) But it's worth saving $250 a month! we are going to go look at an empty apt next week when they have one open and if all goes well, put in an application... cross your fingers, pray for us, and if you're catholic light a candle at mass for us! :)
Done with my Father's Day Shopping!
I am so good! I finished my father's day shopping today! I can't tell you what I got, though! Not like Thomas ever reads this, but you just never know! He'll love it! :)
Okay, I maybe also bought a lot of other stuff, too. Our TJMaxx is having a HUGE clearance right now on their springy clothes for kids. They have Laura Ashley dresses for $7. Tommy Hilfiger for $10. Hannah has tons of 2T and 3T clothes right now, so I went and got a few 4T dresses so that she has something to grow into. I can't believe that she is in 2T and 3T already! She won't be 2 until August. I may have also bought a 3month dress that just happens to match one of the larger 4T dresses... hmmm... I am NOT PREGO! don't get any ideas about that just yet!
I took Hannah to the pediatrician today. Her breathing is completely clear, her ears are perfect, but her throat is NASTY! No strep, though, just a virus. Apparently there's a nasty virus going around here... no runny nose or anything, just sore throat. So the doc told us to give her whatever she wants to drink. If she wants something cold like an icee or smoothie, give it to her! so she's been drinking a LOT of my Coke today. I used that excuse to justify a second Coke. I'm so bad! But seriously, the kid is drinking so much that I am changing wet diapers constantly! Time to pottytrain!
another apartment in the running...
I just can get over the price of apartments. I was ready to put in my application at the pretty apartments and I just got sick thinking about spending that much money each month. so i took a look online again and decided to just play with the floorplan of another complex. It is 1100 sq ft, 3 bed 2 bth. It is really old and kind of run down, but the price is good. the kitchen is TINY! but there is a pantry and there are small walk-in closets, perfect for storage. and there is additional outdoor storage. i have to call them today and see if they have any available. we'll see.
Hannah woke up with a fever again today. She hasn't really had any symptoms at all. But it has been 5 days. So I called the pediatrician and they are supposed to call me back later to let me know if I need to bring her in. So my day is on hold again... Then Hannah had diarreah. She had really yucky diapers the last couple of days, but just 1 per day. So it doesn't seem like a stomach virus or something. She has been a little cranky but she hasn't complained about anything hurting. It's been nice that she has been taking one short nap and one long nap every day. I can get a few things done.
I did a few layouts yesterday, but I am going to wait to post them. I am starting a challenge over at RAKScraps June 15th and I need the layouts for those challenges. I'll post them then.
I cleaned my room last night! I have one bin, 2 pullups boxes and a diaper box that are all full of Hannah's clothes and accumulated stuff that I am taking over to storage at some point today. I don't know how I am going to fit it all in! :) I hope it doesn't all fall on me when I go to move. I'll open the storage unit door and everything will avalanche on top of me! Then at least I won't have to unpack! :) I'll just back the truck up to the door and open it and it will avalanche into the truck! :) Wishful thinking!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
good morning!
okay, i promise i'm not a morning person, but i actually just got 7 complete, uninterrupted hours of sleep. yes, hannah is still alive and she is at home with us, but she slept through the night! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!! After Monday night, I would have gone nuts if she didn't, though. I am feeling much better about everything after a good night's sleep! :) Isn' that usually the case?
Question for everyone.... Would you object to the following scenario?
Thomas came home from work last night and said that on Friday he was going to meet 2 girls from work for lunch. They are both in their late 20s, about the same as us. There is no business purpose to this lunch. Purely social.
I told Thomas it was completely inappropriate. He said that if I felt that way, he wouldn't go. In the light of day, am I being irrational? I don't think anything would "happen" but I just feel that it is getting too close to the edge of appropriateness. I told him that it would be different if there were a huge group of people, but if it were just him & 2 girls or him & one buddy and 2 girls, it wouldn't be appropriate. What do you think???
We are leaning more and more toward the first apartment complex that we looked at. Everyway we look at it, we are looking at around roughly the same price, or at least within $50 per month. My safety, sanity, and gas mileage really like the first apartment. I am going to call them and see if they have an empty apartment we can see because Thomas thinks the model looks too small. But they put HUGE furniture in those models. We'll see! I decided yesterday that I really need to make this a matter of faith. We have been praying that we will know where we are supposed to be. I don't think Heavenly Father really cares where we are as long as we keep doing the other important things in our lives. So I just need to have faith that everything will work out for the best. AND I have to make the most of whatever situation we end up in. Remind me of that later today, okay?!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
ever have one of those days????
where you just want to climb back in bed and pull the covers over your head and not deal with your life? well, it's 10:30am and already it's gonna be one of those days! :)
Hannah woke up screaming at 2am. could NOT get her to stop. i was up with her for about 2 hours. then she woke me up at 8 this morning. already the day is seeming like it may not go my way. then i call the apartment complex that we really want to move into because we found a 3 bedroom for $1100 and the lady tells me that they don't really have 3 bedrooms for $1100 unless the apartment market gets really slow. they probably won't have that problem this summer.... argh! then don't advertise it! so we are back to square 1. we are going to go look at their 2 bedrooms but I already know they are subpar. The floorplans are terrible! i just want my own place so badly that i am ready to move into the cockroach heaven and just sit on my couch with a can of raid. okay, so it's not that bad, but i really do want my own place again...
other than that, I am looking forward to today. if hannah cooperates I am going to be scrapbooking during her nap! I got 2 new kits from Jeanine and 1 from SaraAmarie and I am set! Plus I have my prizes to create for RAKS. I went to post an ad for the Ad Challenge and I can't get my parents scanner to work AGAIN! I have to figure something out for that, too! Should be fun!
Monday, May 29, 2006
i want some m&m candies...
would someone please remind me that I am allergic to the darn things?! :) i still can't find tickets to Utah for less than $350 per ticket. We have to do less than $300 / ticket or we aren't going to be able to make it. I guess we'll just wait and see if we are going to get an apartment or not. We may never find a place with any availabilities!
so we went to garden ridge today to check out the barstools that they had marked on clearance earlier this week. apparently they were mismarked because they are now marked $99 each, rather than $39 each. just a little difference! :)
that's about all we have done today! we ate hotdogs with my parents and ash & dyl and michael & helen & stef. i have no idea where everyone is right now. we are the only ones home. thomas is playing his game and hannah is watching dora. she had a fever of 103.1 last night. she didn't have any symptoms other than a fever. i am watching her fluid intake and output today because the last time she did this she had a uti. the fun never ends.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Blah!!!
I hate apartment shopping! We went today to look at another apartment, yes, we know it's Sunday! They didn't have a model to show us, so we have to go back on Tuesday or Wednesday and then they may have a model... But they don't think that they are going to have anything available anyway. So I got ticked off and came home and have been searching for the last hour or two for something online. The apartment complex across the street from our old complex actually has a 3 bedroom apartment available June 1st. The price range is somewhere between $1100 & $1399 and they couldn't be more specific since I was calling the off-site leasing company. They also have a 2 bedroom available July 1, somwhere between $900 & $1299. They should know in the next few days if they are going to have any more July or August openings. I don't like the 2 bedroom floorplan, but what can you do? The 3 bedroom is awesome! There is a HUGE pantry and a walk-in laundry room. The problem is that the bedroom I would put Hannah in backs up to someone else's apartment. The other bedroom has a door that goes outside and I do not want to put Hannah in there. My problem with both of these complexes today is that for "just" $100 more I can have a much nicer apartment. But then I think that if I were to put "just $100" per month in savings.... that's $1200 a year. Definitely worth it to me... The other problem with the 3 bedroom apt is that it is on the 2nd floor... No stairs, thanks! :) Hannah is not ready to walk up a flight of concrete stairs on her own and can you really see me carrying Hannah and 10 bags of groceries??? It would be Homecoming all over again... I think I am just going to have to suck it up and live in a not-as-nice but still really nice apartment. and I may have to get over the 2nd floor thing, too. the good news is that thomas agrees that we need to just throw away our kitchen table and chairs. we are going to make do with barstools (which I need to go buy tomorrow!) until we can find the table we want. our table is so ugly. thomas and i bought it at k-mart for $65 about 3 months before we were even married. remember back when that ivory scrolled metal was "in"? well, we bought the k-mart version and besides being ugly, it is incredibly uncomfortable! i want a square table. i found one i like at garden ridge. the table and 4 chairs are $250, but i don't like the chairs... so the search continues. I am excited to go look at more apartments on Tuesday morning. I wish there were places open tomorrow. I guess they need their holidays, too. :) I really am trying to be positive about all this, but it is really hard. I don't want to spend more than $800/month on an apartment. There are apartments around here for that price. But I just can't live there. It isn't the apartments themselves that I can't handle. It's the bugs (cheap apartments here always have bugs... BIG bugs!) and the shall we call them, clientele, who live there. Jacksonville has had more murders this year than Orlando, Tampa & Miami combined. And I hate to say it, but the cheaper the apartment, the riskier it becomes. I was really excited about one complex across the street from my parents' neighborhood. The price was really good and the apartment was cute. The kitchen was TINY and so were the bathrooms, but the living room was cute and there were really cute porches. Then I drove around the complex at night... no thanks! I would never leave my house at night. There was another cute complex that had really cute apartments. The kitchen was tiny (seriously 6 small cupboards & NO pantry) and the bathrooms were kind-of iffy. I was ready to move in, though until I took a closer look around. The ready-to-move-in apartment had dead bugs ground into the carpet and there were dead centipedes lining the walls. There was gunk stuck on the cupboard doors. Dont' get me started on the refrigerator. So I asked the manager if they would clean it before move-in and she said that it had already been cleaned and if the future resident didn't feel it was clean enough they could clean it. They don't do regular pest control. Residents have to request it. So I could request that my apartment be sprayed every week, but if my neighbors don't have their apartment treated at least once a month, it won't do any good. Well, given my absolute terror at seeing roaches in my apartment, that wouldn't be a good situation. This whole search has been an absolute nightmare and I wish that we could just decide on a place, any clean apartment at all, and just get it over and done with! I'm just going to have to decide on Tuesday! :)
Saturday, May 27, 2006
i love that hannah's name is the same forward and backward... a palindrome... so i decided to create a layout about it... did i post this one already??? Sweet Shoppe Designs - For Cassie Kit
Trish Jones's Little Stitches from SBB
Century Gothic; CK handprint
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
Friday, May 26, 2006
HUSBANDS!
My darling husband wants to live at The Enclave, because it is about 10 minutes closer to his work. But Thomas doesn't really want the 1 bathroom apartment. He wants 2 bathrooms. I told him that he needed to go with me to look at the apartments. So, we are going on Sunday. Shhh! I know we shouldn't, but that is literally the ONLY time we have to go in the next two weeks. Thomas's day off next week is Monday, which is nice for us, but all the apartment offices are closed. However, he is supposed to be off work early tonight. So if he gets home by 5:30, we will go see them tonight. He probably won't be home until 9 or 10! just because I want to go do something! :) that's the car business!
We really are trying to get out there to Utah. But, we need to figure out how much we are going to have to spend to get into our apartment. Their deposit rate depends on your credit history. It could be as little as $87.50 or $500 or as much as 2 months rent... And it also depends on when our apartment will be available. The Enclave is almost totally occupied all the time, so when they tell you that they have something available, you go then! :) We may not be moving until August, it just depends on when the apartment we want will be available. We'll see what happens. I am still looking for tickets every single day! I promise! If we can find them for $500 or less, we'll book them right then. I'm off to look...
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Rain, rain, go away...
No! Don't!!! We need rain so bad and it finally started raining just to stop like 2 minutes later... no kidding, 2 minutes of rain. it has been thundering and lightening for the last 4 hours. crazy!
so, plane tickets to utah are still way too expensive. i saw some for $209 this morning and then i checked the availability, but you had to stay for like 33 days because the return flights were all sold out. plus when you could return you had a four hour layover in newark, the murder capitol of the country! gee, no thanks! :) so then i found some for $219 and the dates kind-of worked. we'd have to stay 12 days, which would be good with us, but we don't want to over-stay our welcome anywhere, but we decided to go ahead and do it. So, I got ready to check out and with taxes and fees the tickets were over $300 each! once again, no thanks!
so, ashley and i spent all day looking at apartments... YIKES! they are so expensive! i found a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apt with 1100 square feet for $1030-$1080 depending on which one is available. i prefer the bottom floor, parking lot view apartments, so hopefully they will have one of those coming soon. those are the cheap ones! :) the complex is really nice and the apartments are REALLY nice. They make our old apartment look kind of dumpy! but, $1050 (average) is a lot of money to throw away on an apartment each month. so i looked at another complex that is about 5 steps down, but is still not dangerous... For a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment with 1200 sq ft, $1050. The bathrooms are tiny, the fixtures are outdated, they have metal louvered doors instead of wood, the kitchen is so tiny you can't face the sink when you are loading the dishwasher. You have to turn sideways at the sink... I think we are going to go with the 2 bed 1 bath... it'll be kind of inconvenient, especially with Hannah learning to potty-train, though. I just don't know what to do. Would someone please make this decision for me??? We were thinking about buying something, but we don't really qualify for what we want right now. We should be able to next year at this time. we could get a 2 bed 2 bath at the same complex for $1170. this place is so awesome! check it out if you get really bored! http://www.theenclave-apts.com
The other one is Danforth...
http://www.apartments.com/avgrandtour.aspx?page=avgrandtour&property=103035.21.3&subarea7=y&area3=y&state=fl&rgn1=15&rent_minimum=0&rent_maximum=99999&srt1=0.62&srt2=0.87&srt3=0.09&prvpg=43#photos
The photos of Danforth actually look nicer than they really are... anyway, that's what we have been up to!
I haven't scrapbooked in DAYS and I am really far behind on my RAKScraps assignments. I made a digital scrapbooking kit and I couldn't get it to save correctly, so now I have to start over... argh! oh well!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
I was Wednesday's DigiPick of the Day (5/17)
I am so excited! Melissa chose me as her DigiPick of the Day on 5/17! I think this is the 3rd time I have been honored with this! But, whose counting?! :) My layout "Love" was chosen. This is the layout with my granny's hand on Iris's pregnant belly... Iris is having a girl by the way! So exciting! I am working on her white afghan already for the baby's blessing. At the rate I crochet, I'll probably be working on it until the baby is 15 years old! :)
Here's the link... Melissa has a great blog! I love to see her picks when I can!
http://melissag.typepad.com/digi_pick_of_the_day/
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Too darn expensive!
2 round-trip tickets to Salt Lake $700 plus taxes & fees... sorry folks, it looks like we aren't coming this summer! we'll keep looking, but there is just no way we can afford that! and the soonest that fare is even available is August! By the end of the month we'll need 3 tickets because Hannah will be 2!
Looks like Gandolfo's & the BYU Creamery are on hold for a while! Maybe we'll make it for a BYU football game! :) really trying to be positive about this!
Gandolfo's. . .
I am seriously craving a South Hampton minus the cheese from Gandolfo's. . . and not just any Gandolfo's, THE Gandolfo's in the basement of the building on Center Street in Provo, Utah. Gandolfo's is a New York style deli hidden in the basement of a totally unsuspecting bank on a boring street in Happy Valley, USA. Some of my best college memories are in that restaurant. Pretty pathetic, eh, Mary! Mary knows, she was there with me through those years! :) And a South Hampton. . . yum! Boar's Head Oven Roasted turkey with provolone (back in my cheese-eating days!) and mayo and lettuce, tomato, onion & avocado! And their bread! Wow! It is so soft and always still warm from the ovens. There are Gandolfo's chains all over Utah Valley and Salt Lake now, but the original deli is the best. I am sure that there are chains all over the country, but to me, the original is in Provo. That is on my list of places to go when I get out there. We are going to have rent a car with unlimited mileage between my trips to Provo for Gandolfo's subs & BYU Creamery's chocolate milk for Thomas & their tiny loaves of honey wheat bread! And a trip to the cabin. I realized the other day that the only time Hannah has seen mountains is when she watches Dora the Explorer! That is so sad to me! I know she'll go running for the river, though! I am really homesick for Utah and I really don't even like Utah... with the exception of friends and family of course! who am i kidding? i don't have any friends in utah anymore, they are all family! okay, enough reminiscing! i am going to go see how much flights to Utah are!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Susan Long's Pocket Full of Posies Paper Pack from Liddy's Loft
Chalked Edges Action by Atomic Cupcake; did first chalked edge in lavendar, then covered it with a white chalked edge. decreased opacity on white layer to let a little lavendar show through the white. it gave the chalking a softer effect.
Text Foam Stamp Action by Atomic cupcake (cut out dragonfly from background, desaturated & then changed color to lavendar and applied the action)
Quote from 2Peas Pea Soup
photoshop 7.0
font: tweed
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
Mother's Day!!!!
I am soooooo excited! My hubby loves me! He sent me on a digiscrapping shopping spree! I just spent an insane amount of money on digiscrapping supplies! About $65 worth of supplies! That is what I spent the entire last year! Needless to say this counts as my birthday present, too! :) I have no problems with that!
Ummmm. . . I have had a few people ask me what my weight loss "secret" is. . . i have gained 10 pounds in the last couple of months, but before that I just ate what I wasn't allergic to! :) I am allergic to rice and chocolate and everything else in the world that tastes good! I have been eating a lot of chocolate lately so I am pretty swollen! And I don't always look as thin as I do in those photos! I am 135 lbs and pretty happy about it. I can drink a Coke everyday and eat out occasionally and I'm fine! :) as long as i stay away from all the allergy foods! what i really need to do is start exercising. a size 6 won't do me much good if my heart stops because i never exercise. my goal is just to be as healthy as i can be and not worry about size or weight too much! that's my philosophy anyway! :)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
This is a photo of Thomas in his new glasses! Isn't he a hottie?! I used Eve Recinella's "Rough & Tumble" kit available at 3Scrapateers; Font is Century Gothic; Photoshop 7.0; I used Atomic Cupcake's Inked Edges Photoshop Action. Journaling based on a layout by Ronalyn Barut in Simple Scrapbooks Digital Scrapbooking Magazine 4 (p. 27).
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
Reasons Why I DigiScrap!
I have had a lot of questions and comments posted on my blog and in emails lately about digiscrapping, so I am going to answer all of them in one post! Here we go. . . .
Do you print everything out and put it together on a piece of cardstock or do you do everything on your computer?
Well, I do everything on my computer and then I have the completely finished product printed out on a piece of Kodak Royal Gold photo paper by a professional printing studio out of New York City. However, there are a lot of people who combine digital scrapbooking with paper scrapbooking. Many traditional scrapbookers use their computers a lot in their scrapbooking anyway. They do their titles and journaling and photo editing. I do all of this and then put it all together in a photo editing program. Check out Simple Scrapbooks Digital Scrapbooking 5 Magazine. I just got my copy the other day and I LOVE it! There are also links to free digital scrapbooking kits on their website if you want to check them out and play. All you need is a photo editing program and the digital kits!
You must have a lot of money to spend on scrapbooking supplies. . .
I wish! I am on a very tight budget!!! That is the main reason I got into digital scrapbooking! For the first 6 months I did digital scrapbooking, I exclusively used "freebies" from different websites and papers and elements that I created myself in Photoshop. Including printing costs (for 230 prints), sheet protectors, albums and digital kits I have spent about $300 in scrapbooking supplies in the last year. That probably seems like a lot, but $250 of it was in printing costs in the last month after I got my tax return. I only buy digital kits that I LOVE and know that I will get a lot of use out of them. The great thing about digital scrapbooking supplies is that you can never use them up! You can buy a pack of cardstock for $5 and in 25 layouts or less your cardstock is gone. But, when you buy a digital kit for $5 you can use it on 500 layouts if you want. The beauty of my situation is that I am on 4 different Creative Teams for different digital scrapbooking designers/stores/websites! Each month I get free kits to work with in exchange for creating layouts with their kits and posting them in a bunch of different digital scrapbooking galleries. This generates interest in their kits and they get more business and I get free scrapbooking supplies! I am on the Creative Team for Scrapdish.com and they have several different designers all with different scrapbooking styles. I am also on Ginger Thibodeau's Creative Team. She sells at 3Scrapateers.com and ScrapOutsideTheBox.com and a couple of other places, too, I think. I am also on SaraAmarie's Creative Team. She sells at 3Scrapateers.com. And I am also on the Creative Team at RAKScraps. Each month they have two or three sponsors and we get kits to work with from each sponsor. For May I get to work with kits from Eve Recinella, she sells at 3Scrapateers, who is an amazing designer and Amy Knepper who sells at Scrapdish. I love Amy's work! The great thing about being on the RAKScraps team is that each month I get to try kits from different designers. I have a very eclectic scrapbooking style. I like to try a little bit of everything. So, working with different designers suits me just fine! The difference in designers is the same in paper as it is in digital. Two of my favorite designers are Kim Crothers and ShabbyPrincess. Their work could not be more different! It would be like comparing Basic Gray with Bo Bunny.
Is digital scrapbooking hard? I'd have to sit and watch you for hours to figure it out. . .
Digital scrapbooking is not hard at all! I like to tell people that the basic idea is all drag and drop! The secret is to get to know your photo editing program very well. You could watch me use photoshop all day long and if you have Paint Shop Pro or Digital Image Pro you wouldn't have a clue what to do. There are tons of free tutorials on different digital scrapbooking websites for each program. There are some people who even digiscrap using Microsoft Word. I wouldn't have a clue how to do that!
anyway. . . I think that about covers everything. . . If anyone still has questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them! :)
Thursday, May 11, 2006
This is one of my favorite layouts! These photos are taken last week when we went to the beach with our family members who were here for the funeral. We all just needed a break. Hannah had a good time at the beach. I used SaraAmarie's "One Fish, Two Fish, Orange Fish, Blue Fish" kit available at 3Scrapateers. It is such a FUN kit! I love love LOVE it!
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
This photo is from April! Hannah's hair is just not growing. . . at least not longer, it is getting poofier (is that a word???). I love her curls, though! They are so sweet! I used Eve Recinella's "Over The Rainbow" kit available at 3Scrapateers. I love Eve's kits! They are gorgeous!
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
This photo is from Easter Sunday. It is my Granny holding my dad's hand. This photo makes me sad because I can just remember how thin that hand was. I had to use the photo in black and white because it was too painful in color. I used Amy Knepper's "Forget Me Not" kit available at Scrapdish. I love this kit! It is perfect for springy photos!
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
This is Hannah & I at the beach last week! We went with Uncle Jacob & Aunt Amber, Aunt Angie, Cousins Scotty & Michael Rothe, & our friend Stephanie. It was nice to relax! I used Clara Wallace's "Felicity Kit" available at Scrapdish. I LOVE the bright colors in this kit! I highly reccomend it!
Image Copyrighted by Meredith Cardall, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
American Idol spoiler. . . .
I hate you, Chrissy! :) You got me to actually start watching American Idol, I got hooked on Chris and now he's gone!!!!! Now what am I going to do on Tuesday and Wednesday nights??? I don't even care who wins now! Katherine is a crybaby, Elliot looks like a leprechaun and Taylor is way too cheesy. If Simon has a brain in his head he'll sign Chris. anyway. . .
I have been on a quest to find denim capris that don't cost a fortune and actually fit over my wide hiney without ballooning out over my legs. . . not an easy task apparently! I went to Target, Walmart, Bealls Outlet, Old Navy, Marshalls, TJ Maxx & Ross. The only ones I could find were $26 at Old Navy and they weren't that great on me. So today I dragged my sister down to St. Augustine to the Outlet mall and we went to Gap. I FOUND SOME!!! $15 and they are sooo cute! Well, maybe not so cute on me, but a heck of a lot better than the $26 ones. I got some cute t-shirts, too, for $5 each. Great sales at Gap Outlet this week!
Well, that's about all that's going on these days. . . I have no free computer time these days because Hannah is so demanding with my time. She throws major tantrums when I get on the computer. So, anyway. . . I'll be around again as soon as I get free time. . .
Saturday, May 06, 2006
is $7 really worth the hassle???
i woke up this morning with a crick in my neck, so I decided to go buy a new pillow. no luck at Home Goods. no luck at Target (what's up with that?????). no luck at Super Wal-Mart (no surprise there!). so I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and paid $17 a pillow. YIKES!!! but I didn't know what else to do. So I went home and put Hannah down for her nap and took a look at the brand new soft pillow and decided that there was no way I could keep 2 pillows at $17 each. So, I went to TJ Maxx and got 2 Calvin Klein pillows at $10 each. So, I ended up saving $14, but not really! because there was a really cute Polly Flinders dress on clearance for $11. and Hannah had to have a Dora book at $3. so I didn't actually save any money by returning my pillows, but I still came out ahead because I now have 2 pillows, a dress for Hannah & a book to keep her quiet! the book is actually the best part! :)
i hate taking hannah shopping these days. she has to touch everything and she screams to get out of the cart or for me to put her down. it drives me nuts. i really want to be scrapbooking right now, but thomas is playing his game and i can't scrapbook on my parents' computer.
speaking of scrapbooking. . . i have been putting all of my digital scrapbooking kits on CDs to keep them organized. i went to use one of my CDs today and noticed that the top of the CD is flaking off. so i now have to try to figure out which kits were on that CD and re-make it. thankfully i have each kit also burned to a CD still in its zipped format.
:::sigh::: i should probably go spend some time with my daughter while she isn't screaming. . . i haven't spent nearly enough time with her lately. she is so funny these days. she grabbed my cell phone out of my hand earlier so that she could talk to Aunt Angie. she loves going to aunt ashley's house, too. okay, i'm really going to get off here now . . ..
Friday, May 05, 2006
life. ..
life is a funny thing. . . one minute you are here and everything is great and in the very next instant you can be gone. my granny died on monday, may 1, at 1:27am, about an hour and a half after my last post. it was very peaceful. on tuesday morning, my mom, my aunt helen, my aunt nelia, my cousin iris, my sister angie, my sister ashley, and my sister amber and i went to the funeral home and dressed my granny. usually you don't have 8 people doing that, but it was a good thing we did. it was a very special experience, one i will be grateful for forever. it was the last service i was able to do for her. the viewing was tuesday night. it was an emotional night, but was still not an unpleasant event. the funeral was wednesday morning. thomas gave the eulogy and did a marvelous job, as always. he is such a good speaker. the funeral was hard, much harder than i thought it would be. hannah was misbehaving, so the relief society president took her out for me. at 1:00 my parents went to the funeral home and witnessed the cremation. we have slowly been cleaning out my granny's room and dividing her "treasures" among family members. my granny never had any money or any material possesions that were worth anything. in fact, when she moved down to florida, she came only with what she could fit in her car, mostly clothes. i chose a crochet hook, because my grandmother was always crocheting. i have now become the family afghan maker because no one else really crochets. i am going to stay busy! :) i miss my granny and probably will every day of my life. i am making a mother's day album for my mom of her mother. i'll post it when i get it finished. i hope it turns out!
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