A layout I did for the July sketch challenge at RAKScraps. I used papers and elements from the RAKS July MegaKit.

Today was Alex's 18th birthday. My baby is growing up. He has to register for the draft and he can now vote. Where does the time go?

Not much else happening around here. School is just around the corner. Even though the temps will still stay it's summer, once the kids start school the summer is over in my mind.

We're officially a Blue Raider family!

Alex and I got back last night and before I could get caught up with anything we had a big storm and the electricity went out and didn't come back until the wee hours of the morning.

The college orientation was educational, exciting, emotional and most of all exhausting. Alex said when he was filling out all the college apps and FAFSA stuff and all the other stuff he was feeling overwhelmed and wishing he was still going to high school but now he's excited and can't wait for summer to end so he can start school. Haven't heard sentiments like that since kindergarten! LOL! He got most of the classes he wanted except for astronomy. He said he'll try to pick it up on August 18th if he can. The people who haven't paid by August 17th get cut and all those classes are up for grabs at 6AM on August 18th so he said he'll be ready to see what he can pick up or switch.

Even if he doesn't switch, he's very happy with his schedule...his earliest class starts at 1:50 PM and some days he'll be in class till 9PM. I wouldn't like it, but he's pretty happy. I told him he better not call and say he missed class because he overslept!!! LOL!

I'm still coming to terms with this whole thing. I was pretty good up until the parents' session on the transition parents have to make. One dad got up and said he's been through it once already and talked about the transition. He said when his first child went off to college she was just "away at school". Then during that time he came to the realization that she had moved out. Most children don't move back home after college. When he said that the tears really welled up but I looked around at the other mothers sitting at the table and they were wiping away tears too. What that father said got to me more than anything.

I guess I just have to keep telling myself that I'll finally have a craft/sewing/computer room all to myself!! When he comes home for breaks, he'll be in my room not me in his room. LOL!

The magazines are now back where they belong!

I'll be away for the next couple of days. I'm taking my son to Middle TN State Univ. for new student/parent orientation. I did have one bit of good news. I was telling my husband Alex and I would have to leave at 5 or 5:30 AM because registration was at 7:30 AM when he reminded me that it was 7:30 AM central time! Whew. I get to sleep in a whole hour later. Yippee!!

I'll leave you with a couple of new layouts.

Whatever happened to common politeness?

Whenever I'm in a situation where I have to walk in front of someone like at the bookstore or video store when they're looking at stuff on the shelves I always say excuse me. I must have been well trained because I can't not do it. I can't remember the last time someone said it to me as they walked in front of me as I was scanning the shelves for books or movies.

What brought this on? Maybe you heard about the big library heist today in Chattanooga? A woman stole two Consumer Reports magazines. What does this have to do with politeness? Let me 'splain.

My husband has started shopping for a new car so I stopped at the library today to look at Consumer Reports. Our library won't let you check them out but they have a copy machine in the lobby (10 cents a copy) and you're welcome to photocopy any page you want which is what I usually do. Today when I went in some old geezer was using it. I went and got the magazines I wanted and he was still using it. So I went to the desk and got change for the machine and went to stand near the machine to show I was next. After standing there for 15 minutes I started making impatient movements. The man then asked if I wanted to make copies and I said yes please. (I WANTED to say Duh!!) He said, "Well, you'll have to wait because I have at least another 30 minutes worth of copies to make." I told him I only had a couple and perhaps I could make mine. He said no he had to get his done first. I went to the desk and complained. The woman said it was a shame he was taking so long and that was all. She wouldn't do anything about it. I slap the magazines down and left. I went and ran my errands and decided despite my annoyance, I'd go back to the library. It had been 40 minutes since I'd left. Surely, he'd be done by now. I walked into the library and he was still at the machine and he still had a stack of papers left and wasn't letting anyone else use the machine.

I walked over to the 2 magazines I wanted, stuck them under my arm and left. When I got home I told my family that if Bookman or any other library cops (Seinfeld fans will get this) came looking for me I fled to Canada. Michael said he heard they don't charge library fines in Canada so they wouldn't extradite me!

My husband said he'll use gloves to read the magazines just in case. LOL!

I fully intend to return the magazines but in the meantime I'll be on the lam...

I won the weekly contest at R U Square with this layout!

This picture was one lucky shot. The giraffe came really close to the truck during the safari ride at Animal Kingdom and I grabbed the shot. Usually the digital camera hesitates and the animal moves away and I get a picture of a retreating animal or just trees but this time everything worked out. Makes up for all the bad pictures I took. LOL!

I have also been working on several other layouts and will post those soon. Not too much else going on here except for the heat. Ugh. Our a/c has been chugging away almost non-stop. Thank goodness for TVA and some of the country's lowest electricity rates. I would hate to see how much non-stop central a/c would cost in Massachusetts. Yikes! I laugh when people around here complain about their electric bills. They have no idea.

Off to work on more layouts.

Ping's favorite movie is Eight Below! LOL! He sat and watched it for quite some time.

Michael's computer desk chair broke so I took him to Office Depot and Staples looking at new ones tonight. He's having a fit because he's saving his money for a new monitor. He wants a new chair but doesn't want to spend the money. I told him welcome to the club! I told him that's the way I feel when he needs new school clothes or shoes or the millions of other things he's always needing. He'll be 16 in December and we'll both be very happy when he gets a job! He was telling us all the computer stuff he wants when he gets a job and gets some money. Alex laughed and told him not to count on getting much of that stuff. Michael wanted to know why. Alex told him that money doesn't stretch as far as you think. He said there's always something that you need to spend the money on first. Alex has been working for about a year now and I have to say that his attitude toward money has certainly changed. He gets to spend money on video games and such but I also make him pay for haircuts and shoes and clothes. I hope that helps prepare him for when he has to pay for living expenses. His dad and I are paying for his college tuition but he's going to have to pay for some of the stuff he'll need for his dorm room. As soon as Michael gets a job I'll make him buy clothes and such too. He won't like it but thats life!!

I did another layout. This was for another challenge at RAKScraps. The July sketch challenge. I used the elements from the May mega kit.

We'll be taking Alex to MTSU soon for orientation. My husband found this article in the Boston Globe about how colleges are having to expand their orientations to include more and more stuff to warn students about. Sounds like they warn them about one thing and students find two more things to get them into trouble. I know thye have to make their own mistakes and learn from them but it's hard to let go.

Well, there's a thunderstorm brewing so I'll post this before it gets worse or the electricity goes out. The satellite is already going out.

A couple of layouts I did this weekend. The Cat Naps was a sketch challenge at Ginger Thibodeau's blog, R U Square. I used Ginger's Phat Cat kit. Available at Scap Outside the Box.

The next one is an ad challenge at RAKScraps.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. We saw the Space Shuttle linked to the Space Station go over again tonight. We also saw it Thursday night. It's just a bright dot traveling across the sky but it's still neat to realize what it is and to be able to see it as it travels in its orbit.

Wish I had something fun or exciting to report but not much is going on right now. Nor do I have any stimulating philisophical questions to pose. Maybe tomorrow! LOL!

We went to see Pirates 2 this afternoon. The best word to describe the movie would be--fun! I have read the reviews by the critics--both good and bad and I agree to some extent with both. But, I really enjoyed the movie and moreover, I had fun. What more can I ask from a movie? I didn't go to be educated or informed or anything highbrow. I went to be entertained and I was. So I give it a thumbs up.

There was one kinda weird thing about it. Tom Hollander was in this movie. Pride and Prejudice fans will remember him as Mr. Collins so it was weird seeing him doing scenes with Keira Knightly. I kept thinking of P&P.

And tonight was the season premire of Monk! What fun. I loved watching Stanley Tucci doing Monk. I hope they're planning at least one show with Ambrose this season. I have to admit I still miss Sharona. The show can still be successful without her but I really do miss her especially when I watch an older episode with her in it.

Can't say the same about NCIS. I really thought I'd miss Kate but I love Ziva. Now, I can't imagine the show without her!

I'm working on some layouts and hope to post some this weekend!

Hope everyone had a great 4th! We had a great cookout with several of the neighbors and then had a fun fireworks show with 3 different groups setting off fireworks on the street.

Tthe boys and I went to see Superman Returns. We all liked it very much. It had enough character development and attention to the love story to keep me happy and enough action to keep the kids satisfied. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to Pirates (and Johnny Depp!!) LOL!

They're bugging me to go to the midnight show for Pirates but I refused...I'm too old to stay up till 2 or 3 and make it to work the next day. We're going to the matinee as planned!

I'll be sure to post a review here.

Another Disney layout.

Here's another layout for my Annual Pass Disney Album. The layout was inspired by Ginger Thibodeau's weekly sketch challenge on her blog, RU Square. This one is a rectangular (8 1/2 x 11) album. I guess I'll also be doing a square 8x8 one. I bought a really nice 8x8 album at Hobby Lobby with Mickey Mouse on the cover. We have tons of Disney World pics so it will be easy to fill it up. I just have to find the time to do all the layouts! LOL!! Here's the album cover.

Oh, I should add that the picture in this particular layout was taken by my younger son, Michael. Hence, the copyright by "The One Vader". If you ever run into "the one vader" on the web, that's him! Although I maybe shouldn't be admitting that. LOL!! I still get "oh, so you're Michael's mom" when I meet people. They claim that it's good but I sometimes doubt them. When people talk to me about Alex they always say things like he's such a nice young man, thoughtful, helpful--things like that. Then, regarding Michael I usually get, he's....um, Michael.

We're having our annual July 4th neighborhood fireworks party. It's been evolving over the years. This year we're going to grill some hot dogs and hamburgs first followed by s'mores. And everyone wants me to make pineapple Dole whip again. Then after dark at least 3 or 4 families on the street have fireworks.

Alex has to work but will be home before the fireworks. He said not to feel bad--he's getting time and a half!! And he got his raise so that makes it even better. LOL!!

I'll be sure to take some pictures and post the pics or some layouts. I need to take pictures of my homemade Dole whip for the recipe album I keep saying I'm going to make. Does anyone else out there like Dole whip? It's pineapple soft serve. Yum! They sell it at the Dole place in Hawaii of course and also at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Michael got the recipe from one of his Disney connections. I don't know if it's "the" recipe but it's close enough for me! And my neighbors!