oh, go here and see Tyler....also click on his picture! He sure is on their website alot!
http://www.mnstate.edu/recruitment/ Cool stuff, huh?


Here are some pictures of little missy m in her dance gear:

I want to get some nice pictures of her with her hair down in her little tutu. How cute! She had a blast again dancing tonight and a few times left her dance area to come out and say hi to us. She was very excited that her Dad came to watch tonight. She told the teachers that "her Dad was there"...very sweet.

I am in the middle of watching Paris's BFF. Stupid show BUT I LOVE IT! I am suck a dork with these stupid shows but this one is pretty good I think. Anyone else watch it? I doubt it. I know...it's a stupid reality show but I still love it:)

yea, Madison enjoyed ice skating today. She did GREAT! She barely fell and when she did she didn't cry. I think it helped that there were a few other kids skating with her who were constantly falling. I am happy she enjoyed it because she said she didn't want to go back to skating anymore. I am not sure if she really doesn't like it or just saying that. Still not sure which way to take it. With dancing, it's a given she likes it. She gets really excited and lets me do her hair and is excited to put on her little leotard. We have dancing tonight. Steve is going to come. I still haven't got any cute photos of her in her leotard. Maybe tonight will be the night. Who knows! I hope so because I am starting to crave to do some layouts.

Here are a few I had to do for a team that I am on. I love their papers!

Gotta go now because Madison wants to play doctor.

hi little blog that i don't get to anymore! I haven't even really been on facebook...just haven't felt much like blogging or playing around on the computer. Funny cuz I am on it just the same amount so I don't know really what I am doing on it if I am not blogging. I am not even making layouts really. I don't have any pictures to take. Madison won't let me take any of her lately and there is not much going on so hence, no pictures!

I just got back from getting my hair done. My roots were horrible! My hair must be in a growing spree. I'm sure you really care about that! Anyways, it was nice to get my hair taken care of. Steve can never tell when I get it done. He always says are you going blonder and I tell him no...just getting my roots touched up. He doesn't understand it's maintance. Maybe that's what I have to say the next time.

He took the day off of work today to get stuff done with the house. He just fertalized the lawn. I guess I should of mowed first. But I couldn't cuz I was getting my hair done.

Here's the last little layout I did. That's all I got for ya all!

We went to go see Ty in his play "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown". It was very good. He actually played Schneider, not Linus. They all protrayed the charters very well...it was a fun play and Madison did really good. She actually sat through the whole thing!

Nana, Papa and Great Grandma came too! It was nice to see them for the short time again.

It was a very long drive up there and then back all in one day. We left at 9:40 in the morning and then got home at 8:05. Long, long day!

And then of course took pictures of the little rugrat. Do you like her cute little shirt that I bought at old navy the other day? I tried to copy their look with the demin skirt and tights....but they had magenta colored tights instead of white. I hope that shirt doesn't stain or fade too fast. I HATE buying clothes from Target because they stain and fade and shrink, etc. I swore that I was only going to buy clothes from children's place or gymboree...but then when I get there I can't handle the prices! I can't have my cake and eat it too, now can I? Is that the saying? hee hee. Right now they don't have alot at Children's Place anyways. Their clothes always stays so nice. I have a hard time playing 20 bucks or so for a shirt though for Madison....I just can't do it!

Well, Steve is making us breakfast sandwhiches for breakfast. You know...egg, bread and cheese sandwhiches. mmm, wish we had bacon to go with that. Guess I shouldn't yell out my request if I am sitting here on the computer playing around, now should I? He'd just tell me to get out there and make it. Should I yell it out and see what he says? hang on...He didn't answer my shout out! Then I quickly yelled out "I'm kidding". geez, no one can take a joke anymore.

Here are my 2 "I am old and don't do anything on a friday night" layouts for this evening. Oh, that's right, I said earlier that I should layout the one of madison being crabby. Everyone is sleeping right now, but me, of course. I think I'll go to facebook and play there abit before I actually go to bed. Mom, if you haven't gone to facebook...try it. Marilyn did. So now you have to. Granted, Marilyn can't get back on there...lol, but you should still try. Night...going to facebook now!

Yea, we finally sold our armiore on craigslist.com. I sold it for only 75 bucks because the last few times I have listed it didn't sell or people who said they'd buy it didn't show. Now Steve can finally get the garage cleaned out.

Here's a layout that I did of me and Madison playing in the woods today...

We also went down to the park and had a picinic on this nice fall friday! It was acutally pretty fun. Madison played with another little girl while I snapped photos.

This is my most favorite photo that I took. I should scrap this one, don't cha think?

Well, tomorrow we are going to go to see Ty in his play "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown". Here's a little tidbit about me that you probley didn't know...I was actually in that play myself in 6th grade". I remember because I had larngytis and couldn't say my lines very well. Anyways, enough about me...let's talk about Ty:) Steve was just going to go up himself but I said that today Madison was saying, "I miss Tyler. I wish he could babysit me" and it made me feel sooo dang guilty because it's not like SHE can do anything about it. Only Steve and I can do something about it. So we are all treking up there and back tomorrow. Mother's guilt.

Speaking of selling stuff on craigslist.com....I am selling my paper scrapping cubbies for 50 bucks. Someone is coming on Sunday to buy them. Craigslist rocks.

I got rid of all my scrapbooking stuff. There was lots of it. But I am done scrapping paper and am only doing it digi now, so that makes it time for me to get rid of my paper scrapbooking stuff. The girl who's buying them is so excited! She just bought a house down in Shakopee and is making her scrapbook room up, so she was happy about these.

Not much more is going on. Steve wants to get on the computer but I keep finding stuff to do on here! lol

oh oh...my blog may be in trouble...the longer I go to facebook, the less I come here to blogger! I am having a blast at facebook. Mom...and mommy marilyn, you guys NEED to get on facebook. Pretty please, just try it? I didn't get it and now I do and it's a ton of fun! Go to facebook.com and sign up. Then let me know. I just sent Ty a message of "hi" on facebook and he wrote back and said, "what's the world coming to? that I was now on facebook?". He says it like I am an old foggie..lol! ha! However, just think of it if Grandma Gracie and Nana were on facebook...then I'd be saying, "what's the world coming to?"
Not much happened today. I cleaned and painted my table. I did 2 coats of paint on the table and it looks nice but it needs one more. I'll take a photo of it later. Steve still is asking why I am painting it...now the chairs don't go with it any longer. Not for the reason of it not matching cuz white and wood look great together but now the table looks like a cool hip hampton beach table and the chairs are victorian. Doesnt' match. I tried to slip it into conversation how we are going to have to buy new furniture and Steve didn't go for that. I said, "well my dad never let my mom get new furniture and the week after he died we went out and picked out her new furniture"....he said then after he dies that I can do that too. That idea went kaput!

Just a small entry tonight. Today was pretty busy. Madison had ice skating this morning and then dance tonight. I feel like one of those moms with a ton of kids carting them around to all their activities. Fun stuff though. She did really good ice skating today. She cried the few times she fell but got up and started skating again. She skated more today than she did the whole last season. I am debating wether or not she likes it really. I use to think so but I think she gets so tired physically and emotionally (from crying). On the other hand, she loves dancing. I don't have a worry in the world when we go to dance class because she really likes it. She even did a few dance steps to show daddy tonight when we got home. Needless to say, she went to bed early. Tired little girl. I didn't use the flash tonight so the pictures look a little yellowish.

I am painting our kitchen table white. I NEEDED to do something in our house and that's all I could come up with. I can't paint anymore rooms so I am starting on the furniture, ha! We have to start eating supper at the kitchen table again, and now I'm sure we'll be lured to the nice white table.

Oh, I am on facebook now if anyone wants to add me as their friend. I don't really get facebook all that much but it's kinda fun. I don't think it'll take over my blog or anything. But then, who knows!

Oh my God, I love my new camera. Just seriously takes some awesome pictures! I have my 55-200 lens on and can take these pictures far away...she barely knows I am taking them, which of course makes for cuter pictures. These were taken down at the park...madison was playing with a little neighbor girl trying to catch bugs. She also was taking turns saying knock knock jokes with another 3 yr old. Very cute...

Not much happened today. Steve worked on finishing the window. Huge project.

Sick of these photos yet? I promise no more after these layouts....

I'm not sure what we are going to do today. Steve wants to finish the window....as in primer the outside and paint it so it totally looks done. He was trying to decide wether or not he even wants to tackle the other window...he's going to but it's a pain in the butt. Poor guy. It took a long time because...oh just because it wasn't as simple as taking one window out and putting one window in. Sounds simple. Wasn't in this case. It's kinda exciting having a new window though. Not much more to post about people...what do you think?....I lead some type of exciting life?

Oh...here's some cute pics of Steve's mom and Madison from yesterday. She was reading her a book! Duh...obivously.

This is a great picture of Nana. Oh...how I wish they still lived here by us. It was so cool just to see Nana come over to our house on the spare of the moment! It would be so awesome if that was all the time! We'd be walking over to their house all the time! I wasn't able to spend anytime with those guys though because Kim and I went over to Sara's house!

Kim and I are such geeks. We took my camera today, went into the woods and took pictures of ourselves trying to get some model shots in. Guess how many photos we took? 400. Yes, people, 400. Guess how many good ones came out? About 8 each. That tells you what kind of models we are. It was fun though. I actually like these shots. You know what I hate? I have a wrinkly forehead. Kim's is smooth. She says botox. She lies.

Hang on...madison wants to type something...see ya in an hour....

gcvvm

no (hey, I told her to spell no and she typed it! My little genius!)

bqerttyufsafc

dcxcxxxxxxxxddf

mom dad tyler madison

mm

Okay, she's done. We are making pizza tonight. Yummy, but not good for the diet cuz I'll eat too much!

Oops, madison's back and needs to type more:

xnmnnbvcxzmlkjhgfdsapoiuytrewqmnjjhuufyuuuueu77ed77768eeeeee7

fhfjfrhurturhjeeir4uitr4yi5tyu43u45378uir34f5iotijt5uti5gu9o568007y8978u90u9067056p56906p79979u89p8

Okay, she's done now. Speaking of diets, I lost 2 lbs. Yea. That makes me happy. I am still doing ww. This time it's moving abit faster. Going to Vegas put a stop to losing anything really for that week and then took me a week to get back into it and now I am on a roll people.

Today me and Kim went over to our friend Sara's house. She's one of the girls that hurt her leg when us old folk tried to play kickball. She's still in a cast thingie. Poor girl. There was a bunch of us girls that just hung out for a few hours. She lives where Kim use to live. We drove by her old house. All looks the same still.

Steve finished putting in the window. I told him let's move. He said let's put in the windows and then move. Who knows if we'll really do it. So much to get ready to move but I'd like to. If we do this, it needs to be done before Madison starts kindergarten. Don't get excited about this really happening...who knows if we are both just talking or what. So much to get ready to move.

Gotta go and eat now!

Remember a super duper long time ago I had a whole bunch of layouts that were suppose to end up in a book? Well, FINALLY the book arrived as well as a 40 dollar payment! I was really happy getting some cash out of the deal. God, it took forever. The book is fine. Same as the other kind that I was published in. Really nothing major....just about anyone could put out a book like this one. Remember I tried but the publisher didn't wasn't impressed....too many books like that out there! Anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is it's not a big deal. But definetly fun, that's for sure. My next adventure is trying to get published with this tattoo artist/scrapbook artist. I just submitted 6 layouts so it would be cool if some more of my stuff got in print. Same type of compensation...no money but a copy of the book it's published in. The lady who works with this one deals (or dealt) with a big tattoo magazine. It's all fun and games anyways.

I had another huge headache today. Actually tonight I did and it was very rare but it pretty much went away. That's a lot of headaches I have been having lately.

Madison and I went to the children's museum today. She had a blast playing on everything and I had a blast trying to take pictures with my new awesome camera. Here some are...

I am still trying to get use to my camera and am changing lenses and stuff. These photos were all taken far, far away...it's perfect because she doesn't know that I am even taking pictures of her. But man, does she move fast! It's really hard to get a photo of her unless she's doing something that requires her to stand still for one minute and then her head is always down. I can't ask her to pose for me because Lord forbid that is too much to ask of a 3 year old! She'll say no except for that rare "model" moment that she goes through every once in awhile.

Steve put in our new window in our bedroom today. Did I mention that they ordered the wrong size? I am not sure what else the deal was...but anyways, he got it in! But he still needs to put the trim up and stuff. We also had some people come out for our front living room window. We decided to go ahead and have that one done. Because it's custom sized it'll take 8-10 weeks before it's in. Bummer that it will probley be snowing by that time. Kinda exciting. It'll be nice to have new windows. Steve is going to put the rest of the windows in himself (with my help). We'll get them as we can afford them. At least we can go our own pace. It would be nice if we could afford to have all of them done professionally. We had/have to get them done because the 2 bedroom ones are/were rotting. We couldn't sell our house even if we wanted to right now. That seems wierd because Steve is so good at keeping up with the house. We got back our house rebate thing so that will help out.

Look at these awesome photos from Steve's trip while they took a river raft ride...

Pretty cool, huh? Believe it or not it costed 65 bucks for 12 pictures! But they divided it between all of them so it only costed like 10 bucks. They are really cool pictures! I was just trying to give Madison a bath but she wants her dad to give her the bath. I guess I am not complaining! He's funner giving tubbies than me. I just want to get it done and over with but Steve plays alot. I'd rather he give me one than me too! It's nice with him being home again! Almost bedtime but I am not tired at all. I wish I was so I'd get to bed early.

Well, I picked up Steve from the airport about 1 in the morning! Yea...my hubby is home! I hate it when he's gone, but I have to admit that it went rather fast this time. He had more drama with trying to get home from the airport in Idaho. They wouldn't let him take his original flight home and he put up a fight and had to go through 4 supervisors to let him take home his orignial flight. They said it would cost him 150 bucks to waive his fee and his arguement was...he paid for his space on the plane wether he was there or not PLUS who ever he talked to on the phone said that everything would be taken care of because he called BEFORE he missed his flight. Of course you know how that goes..."who'd ya talk to, We don't use that policy, that's not how it works, etc"....what a pain in the ass! geez. I would of freaked out of frustration, that's for sure. He usually handles these situations pretty good I have to admit. But that explains why when he called last night waiting for his flight (they were in arizona on a 3 hour layover) that he (and the guy he went with) was in the bar having a beer....I told him arizona has a ton of different types of treatments if he wants to stay. hee hee.
Here's something that's been sent around in emails between our friends...

1. What is your occupation right now? SAHM (stay at home mom)
2. What color are your socks right now? white and dirty.
3. What are you listening to right now? my own breathing
4. What was the last thing that you ate?does coffee count?
5. Can you drive a stick shift?
I can...I think I remember but I'd hate to be in an emergency and have to find out!
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my husband, last night to pick him up at the airport at 1 in the morning.
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Of course I do!
8. How old are you today?39
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? football
10. What is your favorite drink? coffee
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? can't you tell?
12. Favorite food? "junk" pizza w/ lots of stuff on it
13. What is the last movie you watched? sex and the city at a normal movie theather
14. Favorite day of the year? My birthday
15. How do you vent anger? I tend to kick walls...just ask my daughter..she'll bring it up everytime to anyone....
16.What was your favorite toy as a child? Legos or lincoln logs
17. What is your favorite season? fall!
18. Cherries or Blueberries? love blueberries and HATE cherries. Got sick off of cherry winecoolers back in highschool and have never been able to eat anything cherry now.
19. Do you want your friends & FAMILY to e-mail you back? of course
20. Who is the most likely to respond? kim s.
21. Who is least likely to respond?
i think everyone responds..
22. Living arrangements? house w/husband and daughter and occasional 20 yr old college student.
23. When was the last time you cried? got teary-eyed watching America's Got Talent last night...what can I say? I was pmsing.
24. What is on the floor of your closet?
shoes and clothes that fell off the hanger that I haven't cleaned up yet.
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to?
My sister, otherwise it's a tie 'cause I think the rest of us all met around the same time
26. What did you do last night? Picked up steve at the airport
27. What are you most afraid of ? drowning or burning to death
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
29. Favorite dog breed? big dogs....i don't know, ummmm black labs!
30. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday or sunday when we are all home doing our own thing.
31. How many provinces have you been in?
I'd have to brush up on all the provinces..hee hee
32. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
33. What is your favorite flower? ummm, daiseys.

There....a few more things that you may not know about me and maybe tmi in some cases!
Anways...not doing too much today. I slept the entire day yesterday and the house is a mess. Don't think that I sleep and let Madison run around...that's not the case because she's there making a ton of noise and I might fall asleep and then wake up within the minute and she's right in the living room with me and won't even go into her own room for a second (lord forbid she gives me an ounce of space even when I am trying to sleep). I had another monster headache yesterday. Madison said she didn't feel good too and her head was hot but only part of the day so I don't know if we are getting sick or what. I feel pretty good today though so I am not sure what's going on. Well, gotta go and call back Alexis's mom and dad. They called me to see if I could help them find a ancuptunurist for them....that's kinda cute that they called me out of anyone they know. I am happy to help them out. I found a few places on the internet and hope that is going to be okay for them.....not much more I can do I guess. Gotta go. Maybe I'll try to do a layout today in between cleaning!

My headache is gone! Yea! That never happens when I get those kind of headaches. Usually I have them for 3 days. Like in Vegas I had it the whole time out there....yeah, I am so glad it's gone! In celebration, I made a layout! Cute, huh? Mom is coming over in a little bit. She went and stayed over night in the casino. Last report was, she wasn't doing too well. I feel like going to the casino one of these nights again. That was so fun in Vegas being able to gamble morning, noon or night! If it wasn't for money, it would be really, really fun. But because losing money is involved, it's just fun with the fear factor or losing money. I feel like playing roulette. Too bad there aren't real roulette tables at Mystic Casino. That's what I like out in Vegas. At Mystic there is one electronic roulette game...but I have never played it and not sure if I would. I don't like it electronic. Gotta go...the baby is calling for me. She's out brushing her dolly's hair. She has about 10 little dollies lined up and is brushing all of their hair. Hey, just like a hairstylist!

Good night. My head just might fall off...

Guess what I bought today? My NEW FRICKEN CAMERA! Yea for me! I am so excited! I got the Nikon D40 as WELL as the 55-200 lens! I am just so excited that I can hardly stand it! I can't wait until I figure out the camera. I managed to take a few photos of madison and they turned out great! I'll show you in a minute. Now, I don't know if you can tell the difference, but these were taken in our dark living room at night and they turned out great! My other camera would NOT of turned out at all. I am so excited! Can you tell a difference?

I sure can tell the difference...but that's me. All I know is that these pictures would NOT of turned out on my other camera. Oh, this is so exciting for me! I can only think that there are so many possibilties with this camera!

Anyways, I have a headache right now. It's actually pretty bad and I am going to go to bed here shortly. Madison has been really good since Steve's been gone. Well, she did have a little meltdown and told me again how I hurt her feelings....poor little thang. She is definately going thorugh a stage. I wasn't even crabby or anything with her so I am not really sure what her deal was. Poor baby. It was kinda cute though. Only cute when it doesn't get to me. When it gets to me, that's another story. I think my headache was just too bad for me to let it penetrate. Had to focus on not throwing up more than I could focus on her, so I am sure that helped...hence, made it cute. Okay....I may try to do a layout tonight still. I tried to watch The Hills tonight but I just couldn't sit still really because once again the headache made it difficult. It'll be hard to fall asleep tonight because if I lay there, then I can feel my head more....if I move, then I try not to notice it. At least I try to pretend that it's not there. If you don't get bad headaches, you won't understand what I am saying. If i make a layout I'll post it.

So, I have a minute to blog here while Madison and Kayla are eating their bombpops....just got back from the park and it's hot out!...Anyways, guess who missed his flight this morning to Idaho because he lost his wallet? Yep. Guess how much it's costing for him to get to Idaho overall? About 1000.00 bucks. Quite the dramatic morning here in the Michaels househould! Then because he was still searching for the license and calling his boss, that made Alexis late going to the airport. Oh yes, on a empty car of gas! We dropped off Alexis and then ran to Menards (this is where he ended up leaving it) and then ran back to the airport to see if he could book a new one way ticket to Idaho (he still has the returning ticket from the original airline ticket)....thank god Kayla was sleeping over so we didn't have to do this with madison in the car. Anyways...he just called too and said he is now in Denver for a layover and I told him "don't miss this flight!"!!!!! Anyways....we are leaving to do a sleep over at Grandma Gracie's house! Fun!

Made these cute layouts last night while I couldn't sleep....

We went to the Apple Orchard today! It was fun. Lots of stuff to do there...feed the animals, go through a maze, take a hayride, pick apples. It fun a nice fall thing to do. Then Kayla is sleeping over. She did an amazing job playing and watching Madison today. I gave her 3 bucks when she watched her while Alexis and I ran to the store.

Well, tomorrow morning I am driving both Steve and Alexis to the airport. Steve needs to be at the airport about 6:15 in the morning and Alexis needs to be at the airport about 9:00 in the morning. At first she was going to go when Steve did but I talked her out of it because she doesn't need to sit in a airport for 3 hours or so. How boring! Where are they going you ask? Steve is going to Idaho for work. Can you get any more boring of a place than Idaho? And poor Alexis is leaving for Iraq. How sad that she's going. She's handling pretty damn good though. I know I've said this before but I am not cut out for the armed forces and I certainly wouldn't be handling it good leaving for Iraq. She's a bit more balanced than I. Well, she is!

So, I went online and bought some more fun papers and elements to play with while Steve is gone. A girls gotta have some fun, right? This time it's my present to myself for being a single parent for 4 days. I love buying myself presents:) This is a layout I made with the stuff I bought. Oh..also on top of this post too.

Speaking of layouts....I went to check my email this evening and I had a nice suprise and a great compliment...read on...

kelmichaels,

Every layout you do it seems in one way or another it stands out from all the others ... how do you do it? lol Carla said that you have been on some big CT's and that she was so happy to have you with her. I was wondering if you were interested in designing and selling or if your interests just lay in doing your own personal layouts and being on an occasional CT team?A friend and I have started a digi-scrapping store and would be thrilled to have you with us in one form or another. We're still quite small but growing weekly and would be thrilled if you would consider joining us either as a designer or on the CT team.Please let me know your thoughts on this.

Thanks,Julie Culp

(jewels / Designing-Moments CT)

Nice compliment, huh? I told her that I'd be on the ct but I am not interested in designing right now. It would be fun but really is time consuming and I don't feel like putting my energy into doing that right now. I'd rather just be on some ct's and get free stuff. Anyways, the email made me feel good that I was singled out. Too bad it didn't do something like pay me a million bucks. Then that's be something! Anyways...nice compliment.

Well, I had best be going. I am sure Madison will be waking up soon (she usually does around midnight). I heard Kayla finally fall asleep in her room. I want to play with my new papers a bit more. Here are some more photos from today!

Isn't this funny? How cute!

the fam fam. Poor ty....I need a ty fix. It would be a nice picture if he was in there with us.

And mom and Alexis. Don't they look like they are in Switzerland or something? hee hee...I guess I am not sure where I think they are but it looks like they are somewhere else.