Hurricane Gustav

Well, we're getting ready for the hurricane today. What a great way to celebrate Labor Day :( We were unable to get a motel room for tonight...none to be had in the state. But we do have one for M-W nights. Gustav picked up speed though and is hitting sooner than we first expected. If it continues on the predicted track, we may not evacuate at all, but these things have a tendency to take an easterly turn at the last minute - which would not be good for us.

We have the cooler partially packed. DH went to buy ice and store was already closed, so we are trying to make new batches throughout the day. I made a big macaroni salad and we are taking stuff for sandwiches with us so we don't have the expense of eating out all the time.

I took all of my finished albums and photo storage box to a girlfriend's last night as we are in a flood zone and she isn't. The plan is to get as much of my SB stuff up off the floor as possible before we leave.

We have a suitcase partially packed and all medicines set out to pack. Neither DH or I are in good health so we can only do a little at a time. We are both taking a break right now...he is napping and I'm on the 'puter.

Anyway, I think we're fairly well organized. I'm a list maker so have my lists to go by. Hope everyone else stays safe this weekend.

30 Things About Me

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: It has been so long...the last one I remember is The Chipmunk Movie, but I think I've been once since then....oh yeah, I saw National Treasure 2, but not sure if it was before after the chipmunks
2. BOOK YOU ARE READING? As Time Goes By by Lori Wick
3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Monopoly
4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Don't really have one
5. FAVORITE SMELLS? Cinnamon, popcorn,
6. FAVORITE FOODS? cheese, sour cream, cream cheese
7. FAVORITE SOUND? laughter, most music
8. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? lonliness
9. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP? What's happening on my scrapbook message boards (I know, I'm addicted)
10. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? Bops
11. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? no more for me
12. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY..."? I'd retire to Montana and build a house, help out family members who need it, give to charity
13. DO YOU DRIVE FAST? nope, I try to drive defensively
14. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? well, my DH is kinda furry :)
15. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY? cool...and a little scary
16. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? a 61 Pheonix (anyone remember those)
17. FAVORITE DRINK? Dr. Pepper, Barq's rootbeer, hazelnut & caramel iced cappacino
18. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME..." I pretty much have the time to do what I want, my problem is having the physical capability to do the things that I want (living in a wheelchair and with lots of pain)
19. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? yes
20. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? I'm a natural blonde but think it would be fun to add some red highlights
21. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN:
Minneapolis, MN; Seattle, WA; Renton, WA; Kalispell, MT; San Jose, CA; Helena, MT; Dallas, TX; Biloxi, MS; D'Iberville, MS
22. NAME ALL THE STATES/COUNTRIES YOU HAVE VISITED: BC, Canada; Minnesota; North Dakota; South Dakkota; Wisconsin; Wyoming; Montana; Idaho; Washington; Oregon; California; Texas; Louisiana; Mississippi; Alabama; Florida; New Mexico; Arizona; Utah; Colorado; Nebraska; Iowa; Tennessee; Kansas; Illinois; Arkansas; Minnesota
23. GLASS - HALF EMPTY OR FULL? Half Full
24. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Women's Gymnastics, Ice skating
25. TOILET PAPER - OVER OR UNDER? Over
26. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? vinyl flooring & probably a few dust bunnies
27. SEAT UP OR DOWN? Down
28. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? Both
29. OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP? Over easy (preferably Eggs Benedict)
30. FAVORITE PIE? cheesecake, pumpkin, rhubarb & strawberry

The good, the bad and the so-so

Well, I went to the crop at my LSS last night and got 6 pages done...not much, but I feel good about it as I'm learning some new techniques and picked up a couple of good finds. That's the good.

The so-so is that, once again, I tried to help my friend with organizing her SB stuff. Had been at her house for about a half hour when another friend called and asked her to babysit her 3 kids. My friend didn't feel like she could say no, so that shut our plans in the pants.

The bad is that it looks like TS Fay may be headed in our direction. It'll just rain a lot for the next few days, but that in itself can cause a lot of problems. Oh, well...it's sure no Katrina so we can be thankful for that.

Until next time...ya'll take care :)

Plans for Today

Well, I've got a busy day ahead of me...my homemaker is coming this morning and we'll be cooking. Then I'm going to a friend's house to continue working on organizing all of her scrapbook stuff. This evening I'm going to a crop at my LSS. I just hope my body cooperates and lets me get these things done.

What are your plans for the day?

101 things about me

Well, I've been challenged...let's see what I can come up with.

1. I am a Christian
2. I'm the oldest of 6 kids
3. I have 2 adult children
4. I have one beautiful grandbaby boy
5. I have the sweetest husband in the world
6. I am diabetic
7. I love country music
8. I'm a major Patsy Cline fan
9. I live in Mississippi, but consider Montana my home
10. I miss the mountains
11. I'm a small town girl at heart
12. I am a published poet
13. I am in a wheelchair
14. I am very patriotic
15. I pray and read my Bible every morning
16. I hate clutter
17. I am claustrophobic
18. I dislike cooking
19. I enjoy doing laundry
20. I've scrapbooked over 600 pages so far in 2008
21. My parents are still married after over 54 years
22. One of my favorite color combinations is pink and brown
23. another one is blue and brown
24 and another one is pink and green
25. I enjoy drawing blue prints for houses and building projects
26. At one time I was a line dancing champion
27. I have a Shiz Tzu named Gracie
28. I enjoy riding horses
29. I crochet afghans
30. I've 7 operations in my life
31. I try to challenge myself by using new techniques in each scrapbook
32. We were victims of Hurricane Katrina and had to rebuild our 6 month old house.
33. I NEVER want to live through another hurricane
34. I survived a week of being couped up with the kids after Mount St. Helens blew.
35. I have played in the Pacific Ocean
36. I've always wanted to go to New England in the fall.
37. I drove cross country by myself when I moved from Montana to Dallas
38. I have lived in 5 different states
39. My son was born with cancer
40. I have a collection of Boyd's resin bears
41. I have a collection of miniature tea sets
42. I have been disabled sine 1987
43. I have 4 sisters and 1 brother
44. I use to make my own sewing patterns by using different parts of clothes that I liked
45. I lost over 20 completed scrapbooks during Hurricane Katrina
46. I lost my baby book during the same hurricane.
47. I have all of my family pictures saved on CDs
48. I have a housekeeper who comes in 3 times a week to help with housework and cooking
49. I wish I didn't have to have somebody else come in to help with housework and cooking
50. I have the words LOVE, CREATE and IMAGINE on the walls of my scraproom
51. I've never been to any of my high school reunions
52. I hate watching sports news
53. The only part of the Olympics that I enjoy is women's gymnastics
54. I have a beauty of a van with a lift and hand controls that I drive
55. My favorite drinks are diet Dr. Pepper and Barq's rootbeer
56. My favorite food is cheese
57. I use to have to give myself 4 insulin shots a day and now I don't have to do any
58. I've been married for just over 2 years, but have known DH for 14
59. I'm an organizer
60. I'm addicted to scrapbooking message boards
61. I take terrible pictures
62. I have 3 wigs, but don't wear any of them
63. I'm a list maker
64. I'm allergic to the sun
65. I have the same pigment disorder that Michael Jackson claims to have, so I have white spots on my arms
66. I have naturally blonde hair and blue eyes
67. I need to lose a lot of weight, but I'm working on it.
68. I'm intelligent and creative
69. I enjoy watching TV
70. I'm a Days Of Our Lives fan
71. I like to read
72. One of my favorite authors is Lori Wick
73. I've been scrapbooking for 11 years
74. I'm just now learning how to "scraplift"
75. I use to be a Creative Memories Consultant
76. I have sold Tupperware and Avon
77. I miss my children and grandbaby (they all live in Montana)
78. I've been to Disney World twice
79. My favorite vacation was going to Nashville
80. I have stood on the stage at the Rhyman Auditorium
81. I like playing cards and table games
82. I like chocolate ice cream with peanuts
83. I enjoy Mexican food
84. I also like Chinese food
85. I taught 4th grade Spanish when my son was in elementary school
86. I have struggled with mental illness in the past
87. My mother is one of my best friends
88. My husband is another best friend
89. I have to listen to music in order to go to sleep
90. I have created my own scrapbook product that I sell at my LSS
91. I print all my own photos on my computer
92. I hate sports but married a man who was a high school coach for 18 years
93. I enjoy computer games
94. I wear 2 wedding rings - one from our civil ceremony, one from our church ceremony
95. My son is a minister and presided over our wedding
96. I wear acrylic nails
97. I find creating this list extremely difficult
98. I have no problem acknowledging my strengths and weaknesses
99. I can be a good friend
100. I hate talking on the phone
101. I wish there were more family sitcoms on TV

Whew! I had to struggle with that one. Now it's your turn. Blog your 101 things about yourself.

Re-organizing

First let me tell you that my past weekend didn't go as planned. I was suppose to go to a crop Friday night at my CMC's, but my feet were hurting too bad to want to go anywhere. I have neuropathy (a disease that causes nerve damage) in my feet which is why I am in a wheelchair. Not everyone's home is wheelchair accessible and when I go to their homes I have to walk in and out, not to mention getting myself around the house. Anyway, Friday night was not a good night for going out.

Saturday I did go to the crop at my LSS, but ended up leaving early. And Sunday I didn't go to my friend's house because of my feet again. I did get a few pages done at the crop on Saturday so that was good. I even uploaded one of the pages at 2Peas - titled "Home run".

Now for the re-organizing part. I am doing a major purge of my scrapping stuff and am planning my own scrap yard sale for Sept. 6th. I have quite a bit of counterspace but have found that a lot of it is being taken up by layout notebooks that I don't use. These are things that I have cut out of magazines or downloaded from the internet. The thing is if I'm not going to use them, they are just taking up valuable space. So I decided to try to sell them at the yard sale...not much money, but it will be nice to get rid of them.

So then I can change things around on my counter and put things that I don't use much in that corner and put other things closer to where I actually scrap. I decided that I really like using ribbon/ric-rac, etc. on some of my pages, but everything was just being stored in a jumbled mess in a photo box. I really wanted to get some ribbon storage that had a handle so it would be easy to take to crops, but my budget just wouldn't allow. So I bought several snapware containers - one for each color of ribbon - and some tiny rubberbands to hold the ribbon in place. I will stack these containers and have them close to where I sit to scrap.

Also, there is another space that I can organize better and clean up so that my new Cricut can sit close to the computer. I want to get the SCAL program for Christmas so will need the two machines to be close to one another.

It'll be the first time I've really done any major organizing of my scrap room since we rebuilt the house after Hurricane Katrina, so it will be like getting a new room again....always fun and inspiring.

That's it for now. Hope ya'll are getting lots of creative work done.

Hi All,
I have a big weekend ahead of me...or should I say a busy weekend. Tonight I am going to a crop at my CMC's, and tomorrow to an all day crop at my LSS. Then on Sunday I'll probably go to my girlfriend's to work some more. I am helping her organize her scrapbook stuff and it is a major pain...er, chore :) But I love her and am glad we're getting it done.

Today is my birthday...time to get to know me better :)

I grew up the oldest of six children. After over 50 years, my parents are still married to each other.....an amazing feat in this day and age. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow that path. Married at the age of 18, I had two children and was divorced while still very young. I raised my children in Montana where my children and grandson still live. As for myself..... the Lord blessed me abundantly and in 1994, after 17 years as a single-again adult, I married my wonderful husband Richard. We make our home on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi where he was born and raised.

*******

I received Christ as my Saviour when I was 9 years old. Since then I have experienced some very difficult, and even horrific, things in my life. I know the fear and anguish of having a child with cancer; the pain of divorce; the day-to-day struggle of raising children alone; the humility of poverty; the terror of having to give my children up to the foster-care system; the hell of mental illness; the abject lonliness of homelessness; the ravages of physical pain and illness, the grief of losing everything to Hurricane Katrina, and the determination to rebuild my life. I have experienced every emotion known to mankind -- joy, pain, love, hate, sorrow, anger, depression, rejection, relief, bitterness, repentance and more. I have committed a vast array of sins. And through all of that I still knew that Christ was only a prayer away. He never left me; He did not forsake me; He held me in the palm of His hand. The promise that I firmly held onto: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13
And today I can finally say that I have learned to rest in Him. God is sooooo good!!

*******

When I was single and living in Montana one of my favorite things to do was to go dancing. I belonged to a line dancing club, where we often performed at county fairs and for special events. Sometimes I would go dancing 5 nights a week and never tired of it.Unfortunately in recent years my health has deteriorated and I am unable to dance anymore. I suffer from a variety of health problems, including diabetes and diabetic neuropathy, Fibromyalgia, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, and more. Most of my time is spent in a wheelchair, but my need to stay busy has not diminished, so I have learned to channel that into less physical activities.

*******

Another of my favorite things to do is scrapbooking. I love this so much that I have my own little business - Megan's MemoryBooks. I teach classes in my home, hold monthly crops (scrapbooking parties), and am starting a Book of Me club. I also enjoy collecting Boyd's resin bears and miniature tea sets. I like to read quite a bit, especially historical romance that is set in the old west.

feeling the purse strings like a noose!

I've spent so much money lately that I maxed out my credit card. (bad girl...bad, bad girl) I'm really upset with myself about this and have no recourse but not to spend any money. Now this is tough because I have an order placed with my CMC, I'm out of sticker letters that I need, etc. I bought a Cricut machine from my LSS garage sale - it was only $50, but still...it has no cartridge with it and I can't afford to buy any so it's just sitting here. After all the talk recently about SCAL and needing to update cricut software, etc. I'm now doubting the wisdom in buying the thing...sigh. Anyway, I'm feeling very challenged right now as I'm not able to just go buy what I need to scrapbook the way I'm use to.

Two Peas, cameras and stuff

Well, I've been busy for the last week learning the ropes over at the Two Peas message board. I'm really enjoying this and it's true what they say - it is addictive.

I went to a crop last night at my LSS. She has been having a scrapbook yard sale there for the past 2 weeks and I made over $125 in store credit (Yea!), so I got a Cricut that was for sale for only $50! My next goal for this is to get the SCAL...maybe for Christmas. My birthday is this week, but with DH recovering from surgery I doubt we'll do anything.

I'm also getting ready to have my own scrapbook yard sale. I've been going through and cleaning out a LOT of stuff that I just don't use. Most of it is new or like new. That's set for Sept. 6th.

Now that I'm learning my way around 2Peas, the next thing on the agenda is to learn how to manuever around this blog. Once I've done that, I have to learn how to upload pics from my new camera onto my computer...geez! I need to have my special guru live with me, or better yet someone who could do all of this for me :)

test run

This is my first blog entry. I don't really have anything to say at the moment. I just wanted to give it a test run.