Friday, February 29, 2008

A little about me

My friend Michelle sent this to me via email. I figured, instead of just send it back to her I should post it here. Now you all know a little more about me. Here we go:

1. What is your occupation? Full time wife & mom (aka: cook, maid, chauffer, personal shopper, stylist... the list goes on...)
2. What color are your socks right now? I'm not wearing socks, I just took a shower
3. What are you listening to right now? I can hear the clock ticking in the kitchen, really nothing though.4. What was the last thing that you ate? A blueberry waffle
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Not really. Matt tried to teach me, I'm no good.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? I'm going with blue, it's my fave!
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Matt, he's at work
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I love her!
9. How old are you today? 25
10. Favorite drink? That depends on where I am, generally sweet tea
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Hmm, sport huh. I don't watch sports
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Ever, yes, although the last time was 4 years ago!
13. Pets? Mika, our calico kitty
14. Favorite food? Um, food. I like all of it!
15. Last movie you watched? The Last Mimzy
16. Favorite Day of the Year? Dec. 28th (Ari's birthday)
17. What do you do to vent anger? Clean my house
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? My dad's old briefcase, I used to play office
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? both.. love the colors of fall and flowers of spring
20. Hugs or kisses? Hugs
21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry
22. Do you want your friends to email you back? Nah.
23. Who is most likely to respond? I'm guessing no one...
24. Who is least likely to respond? Everyone
25. Living arrangements? I live with my hubs and Ari in our house
26. When was the last time you cried? Last week, crazy insurance company (from my car accident)
27. What is on the floor of your closet? Carpet. It's pretty clean in there.
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? I'm not really sending it.
28. Who is the friend you have had the shortest that you are sending this to? As I said before...
29. Favorite smell? Clean laundry, especially my sheets. Ari after his bath...
30. What inspires you? I find inspiration in lots of places.
31. What are you afraid of? Clowns
32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
33. Favorite car? My car is great, I love it!
34. Number of keys on your key ring? 5
35. How many years at your current job? 1 year at being a mommy, 3 years at being a wife!
36. Favorite day of the week? Tuesday (One Tree Hill is on)
37. How many states have you lived in? 4
38. How many countries have you been to? 5 I think...

Well, there you go! I'm off to finish getting ready. Ari and I are having lunch with Melissa and Aubrey today, then it's straight home. I can't stand another day like yesterday. Let's just say someone was not a happy camper that he missed his afternoon nap. Happy Leap Day, make the best of it!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

poop.

Yep, that's right. Ari's newest word. Thanks, daddy!

It's Thursday??

When did that happen? I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of the week, and the last day of February for that matter. Where is the time going? Matt's headed back to work this morning, before I know it March will be half over too. It's been a busy two days, we've been running errands and spending time together which hasn't allowed for much blog time, sorry about that. Sometimes your family just has higher priority, know what I mean. Ari is doing much better, thanks for the concern. His molars are in, there are two more on the bottom that seem to be pushing their way up but I think we have a few days before they break through. I have been crafting like crazy, I've done 32 layouts this year, that's just over my goal of 15 a month. I've been feeling very inspired and luckily time has allowed me to run with it. Here are some of my latest creations, you'll have to come to Crop Addict this weekend to see some others...






I'm even going to Michelle's today for some more creative time. I have a little more work to do for the Crop Addict Birthday Crop this weekend. You really should stop by, it's going to be a blast! We've even been posting our favorite scrappy snack recipe's so there's no shortage of yummy snacks at your table!

Anyway, as I said before, Matt heads out today and will be home Sunday night. I'm going to Michelle's today. Tomorrow I'm having lunch with a friend from nursing school, she's just spilled the beans that she's having another baby (WooHoo!!!) so we're going to celebrate and do a little shopping. I am in desperate need of a few more spring clothes, nothing from last year fits. It seems I've lost more weight (how did that happen??). Go figure, I am smaller now than I was pre-Ari, and I seriously have NO idea how. Well, I'll leave you for now. Enjoy your day ;)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Happy Birthday to...

Crop Addict! My super favorite scrap site in the whole wide world is turning 3! In celebration of the great event we will be having an online crop March 1st & 2nd! Be sure to stop by, there are TONS of fun games and challenges planned and word on the street is that Debbie gives away amazing prizes (something like $2000 worth for the weekend!!) So, mark your calendars, I'll be there all weekend with some goodies up my sleeve too...

With that being said, I suppose I can share my March DT creations. The kits are in the store so if you like what you see you should head over and snatch one up. They tend to sell out fairly quickly, especially once the gallery has opened, and it has!











I made another card too, but blogger doesn't like too many pictures in one post. Anyway, you can see everything I made and I still have enough left over for probably two more layouts and a couple cards! There are goodies from We R Memory Keepers, Cloud 9, Bazzill, Heidi Swapp, Making Memories, May Arts and much, much more!

OK, enough of the sales pitch (I really am loving these kits though), I'm going to get off this computer and get to work! Thanks for sticking with me through my incredibly long posts...

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Whew, I am SO glad...

that Ari went to bed at 6:30 tonight! He's been rough today, I know it's not his fault, he is cutting 4 molars after all, but it sure is hard on me. It doesn't help that today is day three of Matt being at work which means day three of only me to take care of the bean... The bright side is that if it's day three, that means there's only one more day until he's home! I can make it...

Anyway, we did venture out today, I didn't know what else to do. It was way too cold to be outside so we went to McAlisters for lunch and stopped by the Michael's in Rock Hill. I was hoping they'd have a better selection of the things I was looking for. Not really. That just means I spend less money though, so still a good thing. I picked up the last little bit of the Chelsea's Place line by Making Memories, and the pics I took of Ari in the yard yesterday are Perfect with a capital "P"...







Yesterday was such a good day for us, he was pretty happy all day and went to bed without a peep! My neighbor came over and brought me some leftover pizza, we sat and chatted for a few hours. She's really the only person in the neighborhood that I feel I have anything in common with. This is a strange neighborhood, we see it as a "starter" house where a LOT of the other people are perfectly happy to live here forever. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, please don't think otherwise, it's just that we take pride in our home and are concious of resale value. Thus the new landscaping, new floors, new paint, etc. where some of the other people just let it go. I'm sure that's true of any neighborhood, it just bugs me to have to look at it constantly. That's why I bought pretty curtains, so I can close them and still have something nice to look at! Anyway, my neighbor and her husband feel the same way, this neighborhood is a stepping stone for them, so it's nice to see someone else with the same ambitions and goals that we have! Ok, that sort of seemed like a rant, not what I was intending... I do love my house!

Well, tonight is going to be totally lazy. I've spent most of my weekend on the computer and not actually scrapping so I made a batch of muddy buddies, printed some pictures and plan on scrapping until I can't keep my eyes open! Luckily we don't have any plans tomorrow so I am free to be a vegetable all day long. Later tater...

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Real quick...

I just had to post... I'm sitting at my laptop checking my email, the message boards, etc. and I look over to Ari. He's dancing in the middle of the family room with his giant plastic giraffe toy singing, "happy, happy... hi ahwi, happy". It's the cutest thing I have EVER seen! Of course, reaching for the camera he decided to stop... go figure. *Oh, and "ahwi" is how he says his name now...

Friday, February 22, 2008

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Nicole... This is what I have to do: You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

So, here I go... (this may be tough, my middle name has some wierd letters for descriptions...)

L - Loyal (I know you used that one too Nic, but it's the only one I can think of that works)

E - Energetic

I - Introspective

G - Giving

H - Honest, no one can say that I'm anything but truthful!

Well, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Now, for the people I am tagging. I'm not sure if the letters are supposed to match the names I picking but that seems like way too much effort so I'm picking random people.

Michelle
Debbie (you're getting tagged just because it's been nearly a month since you've updated... hehe ;)
Virginia
Chrissy
Jenn

So, I look forward to seeing all of your responses! I like getting to know random things about people, it makes me feel more normal... there are other people out there whose lives are just as off the wall as mine!

Today should be a good day. My house is incredibly clean, the cleanest it's been since the fire, and I am LOVING it! It has that fresh mopped floor smell, I like it (or, "I wike it" as Jackson would say... Jen, you know what I'm talking about). Anyway, I was supposed to have lunch with my new neighbor friend Amy today but her son is a bit under the weather and we don't want to spread anything so we've postponed until he's a bit better. Michelle and Ella are coming over for some scrappy play time. Ari hasn't seen Ella in over a week, I'm sure they miss each other. I know I'm in desperate need of girl time, I can't wait! I actually had lunch with them yesterday, I escaped for a few hours to hit up the Baby Sale at Gymboree. I stocked up on summer clothes for the Bean... he's getting SO big. Last night as Matt and I were dressing him for bed we noticed two molars have broken through his top gums. Thus the endless crying and constant trail of drool throughout my house...

Matt left for work this morning, it's a four day trip but we were able to have breakfast together this morning since he didn't have to leave until 10. I'm looking forward to some down time, we've been going and going... it's wearing me out.

I'm going to hop off here before Ari wakes up from his morning nap, I have a few more things to clean off my hobby table before Michelle arrives... gotta have fresh space! I'll leave you with some adorable pics of Ari and his new big boy haircut.


How Cute is this little bean? He sure knows how to turn on the charm ;)

It wouldn't be a true WiebkeWorld blog post without his crazy antics... I should make a sign for my front door that says "welcome to the circus"...


He was watching Matt load his bags in the truck and drive away... his face was mashed all the way into the window (I'm ignoring the fact that I cleaned them last night). It was the cutest thing, he kept saying "baba dada... baba, baba" which is his way of saying bye-bye. So stinkin' cute...

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

This...


Is the only thing that made my day anything but horrible! It's my Valentine's gift from Matt. He had gotten me a ring for our anniversary back in December and twice the prongs broke and stones fell out. I returned it (becuase of it's crappiness, it really was a gorgeous ring) and picked this one instead! It had to be sized for my unnaturally tiny fingers (my ring size is 4.5) and we picked it up today after my Dr. appt! Oh, I'm not sick... just a chat with the doc about how we can make sure Ari's an only child for a while!!

Other than that, the day was quite miserable. I'll spare you the details, take my word for it. Tomorrow is probably going to be equally crappy, I have a list of attorney's to call, contractors to meet, and mucho cleaning of my house. FUN! I do get to go shopping for Ari's summer clothes though, Gymboree is having their baby sale and I'm taking advantage! I know it may seem like all I ever do is shop, I'm really actually pretty good. I get most things on sale and only buy a few things here and there... We pay cash for everything too, so no credit card bills to pay! That one sort of bit us though when we bought our house. Apparently lack of credit history is worse than bad credit. Go figure. I just hate owing money, drags me down big time.

Well, Ari just woke up screaming. Yay seperation anxiety! He's been waking about every 4-6 hours since I've come home from California. Yet another argument for why I never leave the house... night all!

Monday, February 18, 2008

A quick update...

I just wanted to pop in and post a little about our week so far. I don't know about you but time is just flying by lately. You think I'd be used to it with Matt being a pilot and all, hehe... Anyway, enough bad humor (I know, I need to just go to bed).

We had our appointment with Libba this morning, she's our FABULOUS tax lady! We've been going to her since we moved here in '05 and have seriously put her through the ringer with all the out of state moves, Matt's company technically being in Ohio, marriage, the kid... you get the idea. Anyway, she's phenomenal and always seems to get us the most money back!! This year was no exception, we were in and out so fast and our refund will be here next week, YAY! Looks like the yard will be finished before we thought ;)

Being that we plan to spend a TON of time outside in the coming weeks we thought Ari needed some outdoor entertainment. I headed out to Toys'R'Us and found the cutest little play house. It's the Neat & Tidy Cottage by Step2... it has a door, shutters on the windows and a tiny table with two seats. Oh, and a working doorbell and cordless phone! He's in heaven, Matt had to pry him out of it tonight (with mucho screaming I might add) so he could come inside for dinner. The mid 70 degree weather we've had the past few days are making working outside super fun! Tiring, and boy does my whole body ache, but fun!

I'm working like mad to finish my layouts for the March Crop Addict kit, I have three done, one in the works and a project idea swimming in my head. If only I could find the time to scrap before I'm nearly comatose in the evening...

I promise to be back later this week with photos... I have a TON of stuff on my to-do list. The only way I'm going to get any of it done though is if I get my buns off this crazy machine... later dudes!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Reclaiming my house!

Whew, I was SO busy today. Well, I should say "we" because Matt and Ari were big helpers too! Since Matt has a break of 6 days off I thought I'd take advantage of the time and reclaim the house. The neighbors have moved in to their rental house down the street, they are slowly but surely settling in and unloading all of the donations from us. I will have my foyer and living room back by tomorrow night ;)

I headed out to Home Depot this morning for a wheelbarrow so we could start ripping out the hideously ugly bushes out front. They were blocking the window and they're poisonous... not such a great thing for a super curious 14 month old that puts any and everything in his mouth. The previous owners chose to use white rocks instead of mulch, thus the need for the wheelbarrow to get those suckas outta here! Thank goodness for the giant hill behind the house, it's now got a nice border of white rock behind our fence! It's keeping wild things from digging under the fence too, so double bonus. Anyway, here's a photo of everything cleared out. I seemed to have misplaced the before photo, but just picture a row of 5 super tall prickly holly trees and a bed of rocks and you get the idea...



We plan to do a curved bed of black mulch with low lying soft plantings. Probably some tall grasses on the corner to soften the front. The one thing I hated about the stuff that was there before was how cold and uninviting it made the enterance to our house. Nothing like a giant poisonous plant to scream "get off my porch". The rest of the bushes along the right side of the door are going to be removed Monday. Matt needs a break, he says he's not wired for manual labor... ha! He did really well though, I'm surprised we got as much done today as we did. That was even with Ari picking up every rock he saw and throwing it right where I'd raked it away from! He's SO curious and into everything, he looked like a giant ball of dead grass by the time we came inside. I'm now sweeping and mopping the family room after him!

Tomorrow will most likely bring more of the same, work outside... work inside. It feels really good to have my house back, all it needs is a good coat of Swiffer and I'm done!

Oh, I can't leave you without pics of the crazy kid! Here you go...



Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day! We're celebrating tomorrow as Matt is out of town and won't be home until 2! He asked what I wanted to do, I told him staying in was fine but I changed my mind. I've planned a fun family night tomorrow and it's all a surprise... he's going to love it!

I am finally recovered from CHA and California, it took a day or two but east coast time is my friend again. Ari slept until 9 this morning, I was in heaven. I finally got all of my pictures downloaded and sorted, I've decided though that if you want to see specific scrap pictures from CHA you'll have to head on over to the forums at Crop Addict! I figure since Debbie and the Design Team are the reason I was able to go in the first place the least I could do was thank her with some traffic over there! It's a really great place, I wouldn't be anywhere else.

Here are a few pics, though not from the show but Jen and my trip to Huntington Beach. Oh, we had dinner and In-n-Out burger too, SO good. I wish I had one here!!!





Well, I planned on typing more but I'm hungry. I'm going to have some dinner, watch tv and scrap the rest of my March kit!!! Goodnight everyone {{hugs}}

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Missing In Action

Is totally how I feel. I have been going non-stop since I woke up at 4 am Sunday for my CHA trip! I made it to California with no problems and headed straight to the show. It is so nice to be able to meet so many of my scrap "friends" in person, not just online. I feel like we've known each other for years, not just days (technically).

I promise a longer post with tons of pictures when I get home, I am in desperate need of sleep right now though. We had a very long day at CHA today then headed to the beach for some pictures of sunset and the feeling of west coast sand in my toes. The water was FREEZING by the way, my feet were incredibly numb. In-n-Out burger was on the way back to our hotel so we had to stop for their famous burgers and fries, yum!

I'll talk to you all Wednesday, hang in there, it will be worth it I promise!!!

Friday, February 8, 2008

I hate being a bully...

Sometimes it seems that nothing will get accomplished unless I'm mean and threaten people. I am STILL waiting on payment for my medical bills from my car accident. Yeah, the one back in October! Oh, and now we're getting calls that the bills have been turned over to collections! Yep, Uh Huh... I am so fuming mad. I've been trying to get the stupid insurance lady on the phone for two months now to no avail. I finally emailed her again yesterday and said, "If I don't have my bills paid today you'll be hearing from the lawyer I'm going to retain at your expense". Surprise, surprise, she's calling me today to decide on a settlement! I hate insurance companies and now we get to start the process all over again for our house. Sheesh, I need a Starbucks...

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

How Is It...

That I just realized I have a boy? I mean, I knew Ari was a boy when he was born... he was so sweet and innocent and mild mannered. Then he turned one. He has seriously been testing my limits today. He woke up at 6am, I let him cry for 20 minutes then changed his diaper and put him back in his crib. He was semi-quiet until 7, then I had no choice but to get up with him. SO not what I needed or wanted. He screamed... for 45 minutes, no matter what I did. I layed him down for a nap and he slept until about 10:30. He melted down again at 11:30, we gave him lunch (until he started throwing it at us) and put him back in his crib. The phone rang, I answered it and as I'm hanging up I hear a giant BANG, then Ari screaming. I go up to his room and he has blood pouring out of his mouth. The only thing I can figure is he was head-butting his crib (which he's been known to do) and mashed his lip. He cried until I let him play in the running water in the sink. When he's calm I take him back to his crib and lay him down. Ten minutes later the monitor starts beeping. I go up yet again to find he has unplugged the monitor unit, you know, the one plugged in the wall under his crib, and is sticking his wet fingers in the socket! Yeah... I am dumbfounded. He also somehow reached through his crib, took the lid off his hamper and dropped his socks (the ones he was wearing) into the hamper. Then his blankie, teddy, and LammiePie! I seriously have my hands full...

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

A Day at the Park

It was absolutely GORGEOUS today, near 80 and sunny! So perfect that we decided to meet Michelle and Ella at the park. We had an appointement in Charlotte so it was pretty perfect.





We tried SO hard to get a good photo of Ari and Ella together, to no avail. This is the second time this week we've attempted and failed miserably. Maybe at Gymboree tomorrow... I'm not holding my breath though. Michelle got some really cute photos too!

After the park we came home, Ari was in desperate need of a nap. Brandon and Cody (the neighbor boys) get off the bus at 2:30. They are the sweetest boys, so polite and well behaved. They mostly play outside with friends but when they're here there so pleasant to be around. I don't mind at all being here for them! It was still really nice out so I took the opportunity to clean out my car and some of our garage. We still have boxes from Ari's birthday, we keep forgetting to break them down and take them to the curb. The neighbor said we could just throw them in his garage for when they demolish the house. Problem solved!

Matt's back to work tomorrow, I have some serious catching up to do with laundry and housework. I'm having some Gymboree moms over Friday night to scrap sans children so I want the house presentable. It's really pretty clean now, I'm just completely neurotic. After babysitting Sunday night I feel like the whole place needs to be scrubbed floor to ceiling.

We just ordered a pizza, tonight is One Tree Hill and since I missed last week's episode nothing is keeping me from this one. I probably just seriously jinxed myself but I'll take my chances. What are the chances of another house fire?? ;)

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Happy Mail Day!!!

About a month ago I won a RAK from Alexis, she's on the DT at Label Tulip, Hambly & Dream Street to name a few. Anyway, with the holidays and CHA coming up she's been incredibly busy... she sent my RAK the other day and it arrived! Boy does patience pay off, because she waited to send it her new line from Dream Street arrived so she sent me some of the new papers. Can we say GORGEOUS! They are too pretty to use, I might just frame them as is and slap them on the wall.



There were lots of other fun goodies in there too, I may even make some time to dig in tonight! I was supposed to drive down to Columbia to meet Matt, with the fire and everything else going on I thought it best to stay home. He surprised me and rented a car to come home for the night. It worked out really well, his crew drove with him so they split the cost of the car three ways! He doesn't have to be at the airport until 2 tomorrow so we have most of the day together and he's home tomorrow night for two days!

After he leaves tomorrow I'm heading over to Michelle's for some much needed scrap therapy! I haven't seen her all week, we had plans and I had to cancel twice due to the craziness around here. It's going to be nice to get out for a few hours. After Michelle's I'm headed to my friend Brandy's house... I crazily agreed to babysit so she and her hubs could go to a super bowl party. I say crazily because she has 5 kids... ages 10, 4, 2 and six week old twins... oh yeah, and I'll have Ari with me too since Matt doesn't get home until 9! So, that's 6 kids, five of them under the age of 5! IF I survive I'm going shopping for new clothes for my trip to California next weekend. When I told Michelle I was babysitting her mom, Connie, said, "what's she trying to do, win the Mother Theresa award?" Hehe, not quite.

Anyway, things are starting to calm down. The neighbors house was boarded up today, now I can stop worrying about the neighborhood kids trying to snoop around. We buried the dog today, we couldn't leave her in the house and the family really didn't want to see her (not that I blame them, it was really hard). I'm going to the nursery next to our neighborhood on Monday to see if they will donate a tree to plant over Diamond's grave. It's the right thing to do!

Whew, I think I'm going to spend the rest of the night on the sofa. My back is hurting for the first time since I stopped my physical therapy, I've just been doing way too much lately. I'm so glad Matt came home tonight, he's making us dinner so I can rest a bit. Wish me luck, have a great night!

Friday, February 1, 2008

I Changed My Mind...

The more I've thought about it the more I realized... spreading the word about the fire is the only way we're going to get help for my neighbors. So, here's the photo of their house:

It was confirmed that nothing was salveageable, the house and it's contents are a total loss. It appears as though the garage wasn't damaged but from the back you can see that there's nothing really behind the door other than a pile of burnt wreckage. The fire climbed the front of the house, entered the attic and was uncontrollable from there. The roof collapsed in on the second floor, the second floor then mostly collapsed to the ground.

We are accepting donations at my house and are starting a donation fund at a local bank. Please spread the word, we appreciate any help we can get for this family of four.

If you have any questions please contact me at morganj99@yahoo.com and I will respond as soon as possible.