I finally finished this layout for a challenge at KBandFriends. It's for LauraLou B's Chatique Challenge #3 Week #2. Read about the challenge here and see credits for this layout here. I have really been struggling with layouts this week. It's like my creativity and inspiratioj ahve all dried up. And I've gotten some wonderful new kits and still struggling. I know from experience that this will pass but I hate like heck when it happens.

I've been tagged!!! My first time. Janna tagged me so here goes:

List 5 favorite things and then tag 5 people

(Family is a given)

1. Well my cats are part of the family so I'll go with my computer, monitor, broadband and of course my digital camera.
2. Traveling! I love to travel even if it's just armchair traveling. I've been watching the new series 1,o0o Places To Ssee Before You Die. And I'll probably buy the book too.
3. My Tivo...how did I ever live without it???
4. Sitting around the dinner table and getting into wonderful, lively discussions with my family.
5. My home! I hope to be able to afford upgrades someday like granite counter tops and more hardwood and less carpet but if that day never comes I'll still be content here and love my home as is.

My 5 to tag are Betty Jo, Laura Lou, Carol, Linda, Stephani

There's a "Favorite Movie" challenge going on right now at KBandFriends. This is my layout. I love the movie and I had a blast doing the layout. Go over to KBandFriends and take part in that and all the other challenges going on over there. It's a happening place!

You can find the credits for my layout here.

Here is today's blog prompt for Wednesday May 30, 2007

If you could make one thing in the world absolutely free for everyone, what would it be?

I'm going to have to copy my answer from Linda. I totally agree with her and can't think of a better answer.

Clean water. If you want to read why I agreed with her, check out her awesome blog.

How do you like my new look? I finally did something about the horrible, boring template I started with!! It's about time!! LOL!!

Here is today's blog prompt for Tuesday May 29, 2007

Which color do you think of when you hear the word “soothing”?

I never really thought about it but the first color that comes to mind is baby blue. I don't know why but that's what came first into my head.


Ack! My text had gotten messed up and I didn't notice it. It should read better now. I'm wondering if the woodpeckers that have been coming to eat the suet I put up had babies. I have noticed a male and a female that have been coming right along...now I'm getting a couple of females at once. The cardinals had babies so I guess it's possible. Here's one I got a picture of this evening.

Here is today's blog prompt for Wednesday May 23, 2007

Name a car you’d love to have.

That's easy...a Mini Cooper!!



Wow, I'm managing to post 2 days in a row!!

Today is the last day of school for Michael. Yippee!! That means I get to sleep an hour later in the morning and I don't have to worry about clean school clothes or what to buy for school lunches (he brown bags it). So it also feels like a vacation to me even though I still have to work every day. Of course about a month from now I'll be wishing school would hurry up and start.


No, that's not Johnny Depp. LOL!! It's the Pirates show at Magic Kingdom. Tomorrow we get to see the real thing. We already have our tickets and can't wait.

I've fallen behind again with my poor blog! We had a great time on vacation but it takes a while to catch up. We were really lucky with our Disney trip. We had left Friday night and drove to Tifton, GA (about halfway) to stay for the night. The smoke from the wildfires was pretty bad. My sinuses were killing me after just a short time. The next morning the dh had us up and on the road by 6AM. Yuck!! But it was a good thing because when we arrived in Florida we turned the tv on at the hotel and found out I75 had been closed due to the smoke. CNN said it was a mess with lots of accidents and people pulled off to the side because the visibility was so bad. The conditions must have really deteriorated after we went through. It had been smoky but not bad enough to have to stop. Luckily the smoke wasn't bad at all in Orlando. One day we could see a bit of smoke and smell the burning but only faintly.

And we were lucky again on the way home...the smoke had pretty much cleared out and I75 was open.

I've been scrapping some of my pictures. Here's a few layouts. Credits can be found here.

Here is today's blog prompt for Thursday May 10, 2007

What is your favorite font?

This is difficult. I don't think I've ever met a font I didn't like. For scrapping I like handwriting fonts. A favorite would be kgd kimmy.

Now is this the life or what?

Something really cool happened. I used to have a pen pal in Australia. This was way before the internet explosion and emails. Yup, I had a snail mail pen pal. We wrote lots of letters, sent packages at Christmas and she called once on Mother's Day (well, it was Saturday night in the U.S. but Mother's Day in Aus). Then, she moved, I moved and we lost track of one another. I thought about her over the years and especially when email and instant messaging became popular. Then, I went to Walmart to get an oil change and was browsing in the books while waiting for my car. I spotted a book by Maxine Sullivan--my old pen pal's name. Now, you're probably thinking this is a long shot but my pen pal was an aspiring writer. So I picked up the book and found a bio. The author lived in Australia, had 2 sons and lots of previously abandoned animals. That also described my old pen pal. I found her web page and emailed her. It was my pen pal!!! She was surprised and very pleased to hear from me. This is so cool!! We're pen pals again!! Only we don't have to wait weeks for our letters to arrive. I am so excited! Above is a picture of her first book. I'm so glad I'm able to congratulate her after all the years of encouraging her and then losing touch. Her first book was published in Feb of this year so she really stuck with it and I was "almost" there when it finally became reality! So cool!

Here is today's blog prompt for Wednesday May 9, 2007

Name one movie which is coming out soon that you would like to see.

The one movie I am definitely going to see on opening day is Pirates of the Carribbean.

I had to do a layout about myself as part of Kathryn Balint's CT. I feel funny doing pages about myself but I am pleased with this one. I started with a template by Sabine Etienne (sabdesbois) and used Mountain Meadow by Betty Jo Martin. An absolutely fabulous kit!

Lots of things going on lately. Long story short:

Alex didn't understand that parenthesis around your checking account balance is bad. Very, very bad. He kept on spending so I had to quickly transfer enough into his account to cover everything.
DH went and picked him up on Friday and brought him and a car load of stuff. Alex and I went back on Saturday and brought the rest of his stuff. We had just loaded the car and left campus when I got pulled over. The cop said I was doing 40 in a 30 zone. Gave me a ticket for $116. I have been driving for 36 years and have never even gotten a written warning! I was only pulled over 1 other time and that was because the cop said I pulled into the turning lane too soon. I was looking for my registration and he said all he wanted was proof of insurance. After I showed it to him he said okay...never even went back to his car so I know he didn't write me up or anything.

And my wonderful spring decluttering project was really going great. Clean closets, drawers and everything. Then Alex came home with tons of junk and it's like I took 2 steps back. The nice clean rooms were so calming and now everything feels chaotic again.

Some good things. Alex got all A's. A 4.0 GPA for spring semester and a 3.70 overall for his freshman year.

Another new bird in my yard. Does anyone know what this is? Looks like some sort of woodpecker but I'm not sure what kind.

What a week!!! My de-cluttering project is going well...by default if nothing else. We have had major internet problems all week. Then the network crashed and we kept getting a "contact your network administrator" message. Our "network administrator" is the oldest DS and he's still away at college. LOL!! But we went and bought a new router and so far so good.

So the decluttering project benefited from my not being able to access the internet. Hopefully those problems are solved (for now) and the spring cleanup is far enough along that I will be going ahead. Maybe a bit more sporadically but I am determined to be clutter free!

And towards that end I parted with my mom's pink dishes. I hated to do it for sentimental reasons but I can't tell the rest of the family "use it or lose it" and not follow through myself. Then I hit upon a wonderful idea. I was inspired by that wonderful designer and friend Betty Jo Martin. She takes wonderful still life photos of her collections. So that's what I did and I created a layout. Now, I can enjoy my mom's dishes without the clutter!! A special thanks to Betty Jo for the inspiration and the wonderful kit, Berries and Cream, I used to create the layout!!

A few more layouts. I was really excited when the pileated woodpecker came back and I was able to get some pictures of him.

Carol needs...

I saw this over on Janna's blog and decided to try it.

Mission: Google your name along with the word "needs" and post ten results.

1. Carol needs to be developed for future advancement carolpeters.blogspot

I’m all for future advancement!

2. Carol needs a nickname Carol needs to lighten up parentingdecisions.com

Well maybe if I had a nickname I’d lighten up.

3. What exactly Carol needs from the Sun's registry implementation?

Beats me.

4. to carol pam javi and anyone who needs to hear it. disc.server.com

I’m listening

5. Carol needs to be alert during and after delivery www.potterssyndrome.org

Could we discuss this a little more…

6. Enjoy Carol’s live presentations on DVD1. These presentations are highly ... The six stages of development and what you need to say to validate your child in Carol Peters blogspot again

Hmmm

7. That episode is hilarious and it actually made me want to watch old Carol Burnett reruns. She needs to get a life. www.eonline.com/news/article

I thought I had one!

8. "Our region needs Carol's voice, www.oregonvotes.org

Yes, but what about the nickname thing? Should I get one first?

9. Carol has dedicated her life to people's needs and concerns www.dfalink.com

Yep, that’s me!

10. Carol needs these materials 5 days in advance of the. event

But will I get them??

Michael is back from his FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) trip with 2nd place in the statewide web design competition. He'll be able to go to Chicago this summer for the national competition.

I was going to post some layouts but I think wha thappened at VT is just so sad that I don't feel like posting layouts yet.

I'm hosting a quote challenge at KB and Friends!! It will run from today, April 15th until May 15th. I'm very excited about it since it's my first regular monthly challenge at the site.

This layout is one I did to kick off the challenge. As you can see, this month's quote is "The man who has no imagination has no wings." from Muhammad Ali. Credits and details are here.

The big Spring Clean-Up is coming along. I cleaned out the closet and lots of files from the home office. And I began cleaning out my books. It's not easy but I know there's a lot of books. although I loved them, I probably won't read again so they're gone. But that still leaves a LOT of books but they are a bit neater. I also tossed a bunch of manuals and warranties on stuff we no longer own. Not much but it's a start.

Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted. Starting on Good Friday I was coming down with a bad cold and by East Sunday I was downright sick. Missed Monday and Tuesday at work but felt much better by Wednesday. Now, I'm playing catch up with everything. I did manage a couple new layouts as you can see. You can find credits here.

Despite the recent cold weather it's spring and I've decided not to procrastinate any longer! I'm decluttering in a major way. It will probably take quite a while but I'm determined to go room by room and not leave any clutter anywhere. I'm being ruthless too. Some of the more sentimental stuff (card the boys made, etc) is getting scanned so I don't feel so bad getting rid of it.

The youth at the church where I work are having a flea market later this month so I'm gathering lots of stuff to donate.

Check back here to track my progress! LOL!! Maybe that will inspire me to keep going.

Lions, Tigers and ...a bird!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I didn't realize exactly how long it had been. I was busy with the March 31st Birthday Bash at KBandFriends which was a smashing success. And this week I've been busy at work. I work in a church office and this week, Holy Week, is a very busy time. Lots of bulletins to create, etc.

You can find credits for my layouts here.

Some layouts from pictures taken last week at Walt Disney World. In the zebra layout, I actually used two pictures and blended them together. The same zebra is probably in both pictures! In the layout of the stunt show at Disney Studios, I used Jen U's out of bounds technique to pop the car out of the frame. Credits for the layouts can be found in my gallery at Kathryn Balint and Friends as well as Jen's tut in the forums. If you visit check out all the wonderful kits in the shop.

The weather in Chattanooga has been wonderful--high of 84 today. Unfortunately, we can't enjoy it!!! They've issued a code red for air quality today. We are seriously low on rain and that's exacerbated the pollen problem. Pollen count today is 1650. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's wildfires burnhing on Signal Mountain and the air is filled with smoke. The smoke isn't that bad where we live although you can smell the wood burning. But today when I got to work I couldn't believe how bad it was. The smoke was like fog. It was hard to see. And it burned your eyes if you were outside for very long.

I was going to do some yard work but decided digiscrapping was a healthier alternative. I feel so bad. LOL!!!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get caught up after vacation. We had a great time and hope to start posting pictures soon or layouts from the pictures. The above layout with the rabbit topiary is a vacation picture. The topiary is in the Epcot World Showcase in the Great Britain section. I want to thank jensurge for posting her out of bounds technique which I used to make the rabbit "pop out" of the frame. Thanks, jen!! If you haven't seen Jen's awesome new kits (she's justr started designing) hop on over to Kathryn Balint and Friends to check her out and the other fab designers over there. In the top layout I used Betty Jo Martin's new Cottage Rose kit and for the rabbit layout I used Kathryn's Rabbit Tales. Full credits for both layouts can be found in the gallery over there.

Alex came home this weekend which is another reason I'm still catching up. But he forgot his laundry so I was off the hook for that. Poor Alex, now he has to do it himself. Teehee.

Major milestone this week. Michael went on his first "solo" drive since getting his license. He and the car came back in one piece. My best friend has kids older than mine so she is a font of knowledge. I remember when the boys were getting their learner's permits I told her of my fears and she confided that the scariest thing was not being in the car with them while they drove but it was standing in the door watching them back out of the driveway for the first time all by themselves. That is the truth!!!!

One good thing is that Michael has always been careful and even more so since his best friend got into an accident about a week ago. He got his license a few days after Michael. He is fine but he totalled his dad's car. So he owes his dad the $500 insurance deductible plus the cost of his citation and any associated court costs. The poor kid will be working all summer just to pay this off. Michael doesn't want that to happen to he's being extra cautious.

Now, that I'm back I hope to be more faithful posting here.

Just an FYI -- we're leaving in a few minutes for Disney World!! So I won't be posting until around next week at this time! Visit me then as I hope to have lots of awesome pictures with my new camera. This is my first vacation since getting it. Hope to capture some good animal pics on the safari ride at Animal Kingdom with the 12x zoom!! See ya!!

Your Vocabulary Score: B+

You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!

How's Your Vocabulary?

I can't help it!! I am fretting because I didn't get a higher score. My ego has been totally deflated. LOL!! I have always been a lover of language and whenever I come across a word I'm unfamiliar with, I run to my dictionary. I love authors who introduce me to a new word or two when I read their books. I remember reading Isabelle Holland's books and loving every time she threw in an unfamiliar word. I'm also a fan of William Safire.

Michael must have inherited my love because he said he enjoys learning new words then being able to use them. Even as a toddler, he would learn a new word and use it all day. I remember joking and asking him what his "word for the day" was. I should have written some of them down because I've forgotten most of them. I remember him going around all day saying "impossible". LOL! Everything that day was "impossible".