August already?

I can't believe that August is tomorrow! It's been a crazy month here! Let me update you all. I started working mornings at WIMPS Fitness. I figured it would be the best way for me to get my butt in gear and start working out regularly. It worked! I lost 16 lbs and 30 inches in a month. Woo hoo!!

I had to give a talk in Sacrament and I was a little worried, but I was able to do it. I actually stood and spoke for 25 minutes. It was awesome!! Today, my youngest is giving a talk about YW camp and she's nervous.

We got Zakk's room assignment and he's all set to check in on August 19. I can't believe that's in three short weeks. But, I am excited to see him off on his own adventures.

I got to meet via telephone my mom's cousin Darrel. He is the son of my great aunt Lorene. We were able to talk at length and I found him a very nice man. We are working on establishing our native american ancestry. He also gave me some photos that I really love. He connected me to a researcher in Texas and now I'm going to be helping write the family history of our two families for her to include on the county webpage. That should be an awesome experience.

I've done a lot of scrapping lately. I am now on a new CT and I love it. I've always loved this gal's layouts and now I get to play with her gorgeous templates too!! So, here's some layouts I've done using her templates and of course the gorgeous designs of The Ettes, both designers are located at Pickleberry Pop. Here's the links to their stores:
The Ettes: http://www.pickleberrypop.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=85
Jumpstart Designs: http://www.pickleberrypop.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=102

Now for the layouts:
These two use The Ettes Going Coastal kit and Jumpstart Designs set 1 templates.




These two use The Ettes Hey Girlfriend kit and Jumpstart Designs set 1 templates:




These two use The Ettes PS I Love You kit and Jumpstart Designs sets 3 and 4 templates.




These two use The Ettes If My Heart Could Speak kit and Jumpstart Designs sets 3 and 4 templates.




These two use The Ettes Time 4 Dreams and Jumpstart Designs set 2 templates:




These two use The Ettes Time 4 Family and Jumpstart Designs set 2 templates:




I just love working with these designs!! I have some more, but I need to put finishing touches on them such as shadows and journaling, so be on the lookout for some more!

Until then, have a good and safe August!

The 23rd already?

I can't believe it's already December 23. Man, this month has just flown by. Here's what's been happening with us.

I now have a job at W.I.M.P.S. Fitness. Janet and Ron asked me to cover for them when they have school things they need to be at for the boys. I was very excited to accept. I love the fitness center and think it will be fun working there with Janet and Ron. I actually started walking on the treadmill and doing the bowflex. I never thought that would happen, but it did. And, Ron had me working slow enough that I didn't hurt too badly the day after.

I celebrated my 39th birthday for the fifth time on the 14th. I went to lunch with some dear friends and had a good time. I hadn't eaten chinese food for awhile, so it was fun to be able to do that. Karen gave me a necklace that I really love and Christine gave me a beautiful plate which I will put up in my office after we paint it in the spring. Shirley bought my lunch and Janet came which was awesome!! I just love my friends and am so very blessed in the friendships that I have.

All month, I've been guest CTing for Jacque Larsen and Meg Mullens and have had a blast doing that. It will be sad to leave Jacque at the end of the month, but it was fun. As for Meg, well, I don't have to leave because she asked me to stay on full time!! I am super excited to stay on with her. Cori Gammon retired from designing which is super sad, but I hope that all works out for her. Traci Reed also had a call which I applied for, and I am anxiously awaiting the results of that.

We had a little contest in primary last week. We had the bishop come in and judge our singing contest and the kids won. I know it says we aren't supposed to have contests, but I think that directive meant between kids and not kids vs. teachers. It was a good way to get them excited about singing and singing well, which they did. We're set to sing on Sunday. I love being music leader in primary.

The ward party was a huge success. We had a man come who is thinking about buying the funeral home in town. That would be wonderful if he did. He was a nice man and I hope he gets to move here with his family. The food for the ward party was delicious and well worth the entire day I spent there getting things ready. We had a lot of compliments on the food, which made me feel good. It was my last big soiree as ward activities chairman, and I am so glad it was a success. The Bishop actually came up and told me later that it was exactly what he had envisioned.

I have the missionaries coming for dinner on the 30th and will make a second batch of tamales. The first ones were SO good!! I enjoy feeding the missionaries and hope they have fun when they come over. I do miss our missionaries from last year - Elder Swank and Elder Naegle. They are both home now, but I am Facebook friends with them.

I do hope that you all have a very merry Christmas and a joyous new year. This year is going to be a little sad since it will mark the one year anniversary since my grandmother's passing. It's going to be a hard one, but I know she's in a better place now and I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011!

30 Days of Thankful - the finale!

I can't believe it's the last day of November. I'll post my 30 Days of Thankful below, but first the news. LOL The First Presidency announced on the 13th that there will no longer be an activities committee, so that meant that I was getting released as the activities chairman. I had that calling for 16 months and I really enjoyed it. I will miss not planning activities for the ward anymore, but I didn't stay callingless for long. LOL I am now the music director for the primary. I love this calling. I've subbed in there many times and have had a load of fun and now it's my full time church calling!!

This Sunday, we had Auxiliary training. I am SO glad that I went even though I hummed and guffawed at having to go. It was so uplifting. We have such an amazing Stake President. He is such a dear man and I love any chance to get to hear him speak. We also have such a sweet Stake Primary President and I enjoyed her talk to us as well. I am going to love being in Primary.

Now, for the rest of my 30 Days of Thankful. I am adding the first 13 days on here as well, sorta like a recap.
Day 1: I am thankful for the 6 lbs I lost at my weigh in making my total loss 62 lbs!!!
Day 2: I am thankful I can make my voice heard through voting!!
Day #3: I am thankful for having good people in my life whom I call friends.
Day #4: I am thankful for my three kiddos who make me smile, laugh, love, and a few negative emotions as well!
Day #5: I am thankful for my cousin Kathy, who celebrates her birthday today! Happy birthday cousin! I love you!
Day #6: I am thankful that it's international Digital Scrapbooking day!!
Day #7: I am thankful for NyQuil geltabs!
Day #8: I am thankful for the wonderful Young Women leaders that teach my daughters.
Day #9: I am thankful it isn't snowing anymore.
Day #10: I am thankful my migraine is gone.
Day #11: I am thankful for my uncle Bob and cousin Jason who served in the armed forces of this great country. I am also thankful to other relatives and ancestors who served including my grandfather Charles Clair Ausmus who would have been 94 today!
Day #12: I am thankful for my calling as Activities Chairman and getting to plan fun activities for the ward. I'll see all you Ely 1st Ward peeps at the chili cookoff tonight!!
Day #13: I am thankful for a beautiful sunny day today!
Day #14: I am thankful I purged my side of the office.
Day #15: I am thankful for the Angleton High School class of 1985 and for all the photos of the reunion my classmates posted!! Even though I couldn't be there in person, seeing the photos brought back a lot of fond memories!!
Day #16: I am thankful it's going to be quiet at my house today, at least until school gets out.
Day #17: I am thankful to be getting things done.
Day #18: I am thankful for good friends who give me good suggestions and save me a lot of work.
Day #19: I am thankful to be able to go and see Harry Potter tonight.
Day #20: I am thankful I have lots of Criminal Minds episodes DVRd so I can watch them while nursing myself back to health.
Day #21: I am thankful for chicken soup.
Day #22: I am thankful for getting lots of sleep yesterday, I'm feeling a tiny bit better.
Day #23: I am thankful my daughter Hannah woke up in a good mood today.
Day #24: I am thankful that I don't have to go out and can bake my holiday pies with my girls.
Day #25: I am thankful for the freedoms that I enjoy as an American, and for my beloved family and friends.
Day #26: I am thankful turkey day is over!
Day #27: I am thankful for my nephew Drew, who turns 14 today.
Day #28: I am thankful for my sister, who gives me such good ideas.
Day #29: I am thankful for holiday music.
Day #30: I am thankful my holiday shopping is finished.

I've been working hard on CT stuff. I quit two CTs. It was a hard decision, but their styles just didn't match mine. There are really only two stores that sell stuff that I like. So, I just didn't feel that I was doing the other two CTs justice. So, now I'm only on three CTs. But, I'm guesting for Jacque Larsen at The Lily Pad this month and next. In December, I am guesting for Meg Mullens at Sweet Shoppe Designs and in January, I am guesting for Jenn Barrette at Sweet Shoppe Designs. So, I'm gonna have a great few months!

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season. I love the build up to Christmas, but after that, it's kinda sad for me. This is my last year with Zakk as my "little" boy. He'll turn 18 in April and then be off to college. I will miss him SO much.

We got snow and more

I woke up Wednesday morning to snow. Can you believe it? I was really enjoying the fall weather and winter snuck her little behind in. There is still a little in my yard and it's still cold, but it's nice and sunny today. Yea!!

Lots has happened in the 11 days since I posted. The first thing is that international digital scrapbooking day was last Saturday and Cindy Schneider was having a contest to join her CT. Well, I just had to enter because I LOVE Cindy's templates. And guess what? I won!! I am now a full time CT member for Cindy Schneider. I couldn't be more thrilled about this. That puts my CTs up to four - Amy Wolff and Cori Gammon at The Lily Pad, Cindy Schneider at Sweet Shoppe Designs, and Pickleberry Pop. I am also guesting for Jacque Larsen this month. It's been a fun month!!

Last night was the ward chili cookoff. It was the third annual one and it was fun. We had 16 chili entries. It was nice to see so many people there. Now, we have the Feliz Navidad to plan and then I'm taking a break for a few months. =)

I've been faithfully doing my 30 Days of Thankful. Here's my list so far:

Day 1: I am thankful for the 6 lbs I lost at my weigh in making my total loss 62 lbs!!!
Day 2: I am thankful I can make my voice heard through voting!!
Day #3: I am thankful for having good people in my life whom I call friends.
Day #4: I am thankful for my three kiddos who make me smile, laugh, love, and a few negative emotions as well!
Day #5: I am thankful for my cousin Kathy, who celebrates her birthday today! Happy birthday cousin! I love you!
Day #6: I am thankful that it's international Digital Scrapbooking day!!
Day #7: I am thankful for NyQuil geltabs!
Day #8: I am thankful for the wonderful Young Women leaders that teach my daughters.
Day #9: I am thankful it isn't snowing anymore.
Day #10: I am thankful my migraine is gone.
Day #11: I am thankful for my uncle Bob and cousin Jason who served in the armed forces of this great country. I am also thankful to other relatives and ancestors who served including my grandfather Charles Clair Ausmus who would have been 94 today!
Day #12: I am thankful for my calling as Activities Chairman and getting to plan fun activities for the ward. I'll see all you Ely 1st Ward peeps at the chili cookoff tonight!!
Day #13: I am thankful for a beautiful sunny day today!

I've also been working hard on the genealogy front. I am so happy with all the success I have had with researching Dylan's ancestry. I am so excited to be able to hand him his binder once I get it finished. I took a little break from his, and worked on some of mine for a while. It's good to mix things up a bit so that you don't get burned out on one family. I have had a little success with some of mine as well. Today, I may just work on it some.

I tackled my office on Thursday. I got so sick and tired of all the clutter on my side of the room, that I worked my rear off purging and dusting and vacuuming. I first thought I wanted to change the layout of the room, so I put it the way I wanted, and then I quickly realized I did NOT like it that way. So, I changed it back to the way I originally had it. But, now it's clutter and dust free and I just love it. Now, if I only had a more comfortable chair to sit in, then life would be grand. This project so inspired me, that I am going to start my room next.

I think that's about all that's been going on here. It's been pretty busy, but I love it that way.

Homecoming and more

This past Friday was Homecoming in our little town. We started it off with a pep rally, which by my standards, wasn't too peppy. I grew up in Texas and we screamed and hollered at our pep rallies! This was not like that. But, it was still neat!! Then we had the JV football game and we won 28-8. Then the big football game!! It was so neat to watch my son play and what's better - we WON 48-6. Woo hoo!! That was an awesome game!!

I got some seriously sad news this weekend. It seems my favorite uncle has been diagnosed with cancer. He is supposed to go in on Monday to see if there is any spreading and what stage he is in. If it's a low enough stage and no spreading, they can do surgery. If it's a high stage, then they won't be able to. I am going to be on pins and needles and not the good kind waiting for the text from my cousin.

Church was wonderful yesterday. It was fast Sunday because our semiannual general conference is next weekend. I love hearing testimonies and yesterday, all the testimonies were very good and uplifting. The women's broadcast on Saturday was fabulous!! I just love hearing the leaders of my church speak and all the talks were so good, especially President Monson's. His talk was centered around not judging people and following the Lord's commandment to love one another. He told a story about a lady that always looked out her window and she would see her neighbor's laundry on the line and it was always dirty. She would say, "Why doesn't someone go and teach her how to wash clothes?" and "Doesn't she know how to get clothes clean?" Then one morning, she got up and looked our her window and was pleased to see that her neighbors laundry was nice and clean. When she asked her husband if he had seen someone over there doing the lady's laundry, he replied: "No I haven't, but I got up early this morning and washed our windows."

I just love that story!! We need to make sure our own windows are clean before we make judgements on anyone else. What a wonderful and simple story to illustrate the importance of not judging others. It makes me very excited to hear what they say this weekend at the general conference. I love this time of year.

Well, it's time to go and purge my office. I hope I don't get buried alive in there.

Lots of updates!

It's been almost a month since my last update. I need to get better about this. LOL

My first update is that I have now lost 50.6 lbs and 41 inches! I am so happy and feeling great! I know I have so much more to lose, but I have the momentum going now and I just love Weight Watchers!! I am also walking every morning and it feels great. Since school has started, I haven't been walking up at the school and I really miss my walking buddies - Christine, Janet, Ron, and the boys. But, I do my one mile walk away the pounds dvd every morning while Beka is at seminary.

School started here on the 30th! My son is a senior and I can't believe that he'll be graduating! I don't want him to, but we can't keep them babies forever now can we? He is playing varsity football and is loving it. My baby girl also started high school. It's so hard to believe that my baby is in high school! These years have just flown by. My oldest daughter is a junior and it's hard to believe that she'll be a senior next year.

I have started to organize my digital scrapping files and have realized that I have a LOT of junk. So, I have been purging what I know I won't use. I am so totally hooked on Cindy Schneider's templates over at Sweet Shoppe Designs. She takes all the fuss out and it makes scrapping so easy! I was SO against templates when I started, but now, I think I own her entire store. I haven't posted anything online yet. I plan on it, I just haven't wanted too yet. LOL If I do, I'll probably post them on my Facebook page.

We have missed a lot of church lately. We missed two weeks because we were out of town and this week we missed because we were all sick. It was the quietest day this house has seen in a long time as we all just stayed in bed and rested. Our busiest time of year for activities is coming up. We have our Trunk or Treat on the 30th and we invited the other two wards that we share a building with to come. Then we have our annual chili cook off in November and our Feliz Navidad party in December. Plus, I have my annual cookie and bread exchanges. So, this fall is shaping up to be a busy one.

Now that school is in session, I have decided to start purging my house. I have been watching that show Hoarders, and man, can I just say wow!! I can't believe that people live like that. My house is very cluttered, but I am proud to say that it is clean. My grammy was a hoarder, but she was a clean hoarder. Some of these people had trash all over their homes. I mean trash as in used food containers, food wrappers, one lady even had used adult diapers. Yuck! There was a lady on there from Louisiana, and when they started to shovel the trash out of her house - they found TWO dead cats. Yuck! So, I've decided to purge stuff. My new rule is - if I haven't used it in six months, I am donating it.

Well, I guess this is a long enough post for now! I have to get going! I'm working on a new Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzle and I am almost finished. I just love his art and his puzzles are challenging, but very fun! I also have 26 episodes of The Office that I need to watch! LOL

Lots of updates

It's been quite a while since I posted, so it's time that I update you all. First off, my total weight loss is now 33 lbs. I have also lost 15 inches and I am so happy about that. Today, I went to the track and walked 1/4 mile. Now, I know this doesn't seem like a lot, but for someone who went from a sedentary life to walking, it's HUGE!!! I've been on this weight loss journey now for eight weeks and I've never felt better!!

I am no longer working at the museum. I really miss the patrons. I enjoyed it, but circumstances caused me to rethink things and I decided that it was time to go. I just don't have the time or energy in my life to deal with other people's drama. It weighs too much on me, and this year is going to be busy enough with my first child graduating from high school next June. It's amazing how the Lord reveals his desire for you, if you just have faith in him and know that he will answer you.

I'm back to scrapbooking full time. I've sure missed it. I'm working on getting caught up and I have also purged my scrapbook supplies so that now I'll only be using the things that I like. I felt obligated before because I got some free things, plus I was on a LOT of CTs, but now I'm scrapping for me and it feels great!!

I'm still the activities chairman in my ward. I really love the calling and hope they don't decide it's time for me to move on. I enjoy thinking up activities and I need to pray about committee members. Several of mine have moved, so it's time to restock on members. We have a temple day scheduled in August and that it going to be amazing. Then we don't have anything else until October when we have our third annual chili cook off. That's gonna be fun!!

Beka has been in Texas for nearly three weeks and I sure miss her! She'll be home on Tuesday. We'll be heading off to Vegas to get her and then my house will feel normal again. Then in August, hell week for football begins! Ugh! That's gonna be rough on both Zakk and me - unless he gets his license before then. Because hell week means they have to be there in the morning AND in the afternoon! Twice a day to and from! Ugh!

Well, that's about it here. It's been a fairly quiet summer. But, things are going to start kicking in here soon and then the busy life will start again! I miss it.