Nikki's Birthday

Today is my neice Nicolette's 9th Birthday!! Seems like she was a baby not that long ago & now she's in 4th grade!! Where does the time go?? Marissa was about 4 months old when Nikki was born & they've been BFF's ever since. She's as good as another daughter to me!

She truly has bloomed in the last few years....

Wishing my beautiful God Daughter a wonderful day!!

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY NICOLETTE!!

Love you!!

On This Day....

Thirteen years ago today was a significant day in my life.



I was at Disney.

With Joe.

In the Magic Kingdom.

Where MAGIC happens.

We had lunch at Tony's Townsquare Restaurant and......

He asked me to marry him!!



Yes we celebrate it. It was a memorable day in my life....and I'd still say YES!!

Weekend Update

This weekend was busy one around here. Saturday night was our street's 6th annual block party. It was fun getting together. Everyone brings an entree & the kids love hanging out late.

Then on Sunday was a birthday party for both my neice & nephew who turned 7 & 9. Since their birthdays are a few weeks apart in Sept., my sister does a joint party. Lots of chaos & laughter--just what a birthday party should be.

It was a good, busy weekend!!

Listen To This!! GLEE!!

I've seen a few people sharing their favorite songs & was inspired to share mine. I didn't intend for this to be about Glee but once I started I couldn't stop! Besides the season premiere was this week....

Contemplating.....

A while back I started making 6x6 LO's of Joe & I. I got American Crafts modern albums & made them pretty & have 4 full (make that 3 1/2 full) albums.

See? There they sit. Now I've been thinking I could really use that shelf for scrappy supplies .Here's a quick look of the albums.See how full it is?Sneak peek of the inside....why I posted these without cropping the pics first is beyond me. But in my defense I haven't been feeling good so I'm going with that.This was our wedding "album"Now these are just candid shots from family & friends that I scapped. Not from the photographer. I also included some pics from our rehearsal dinner & honeymoon.Then I went back to everyday pics of Joe & I.Another full albumAnother peek...This is the current album. I only have about 4 or 5 LO's in it & never did anything to the cover. I'm behind on this a little, but not sure if I should bother making them 6x6 anymore.
You can see them in their entirety here, & our wedding one here.


I've seen these 12x12 page protectors that will hold 4 6x6 LO's & am thinking about converting them to put into my 12x12 albums. My problem is I feel guilty about the small albums. I realized too late that I should have made all those LO's 12x12 but I don't want to re-do all those pages. Plus I find that the small size is faster to do & I tend to use more things (like stamps) on them.

What's your opinion?

Tangerine Dream

I've had these pics laying on my desk for a little while now. When I first printed them out I was really inspired to scrap them but I had another project to finish first. I have a small pile of inspiring pics to scrap laying on my desk. I love pulling out older pics that I haven't seen in awhile!

I used the Slice for the title & embossed the brown cardstock underneath with Swiss Dots. That is my ultimate favorite embossing folder.

This is Marissa's LO....

I kept these practically identical....basically because it was easier to scrap. I also used old paper (Provo Craft) from my stash. I got the title from the pics. Not because there's any fruit involved but that's what popped into my mind when I 1st saw these pics & it stuck. Then I remembered I had this QK orange die cut & used it to tie that in with the title. Flowers are Heidi Swapp & the small ones are old Prima's that I never seem to make a dent in the bottle.

Gianna's LO....

Gianna's LO seemed to get more flowers thanks to her request. I can't complain since she wants to get involved. ;)

Tyler's Birthday

Today my nephew Tyler turns 7!! He's such a cool little dude. Usually up for anything & full of energy. And those eyes....he's gonna break hearts some day.There are days when he's just angelic...if you ask his mom she'll say everyday!He's a true little boy.....doesn't every boy want to be a cowboy at some point? Maybe he's a knight riding his white stallion.....all I know is he's growing up too fast for my liking. I mean he's SEVEN!! In no time he'll be dating & then driving & then going off to college!! I think my sister needs to wrap him in bubble wrap & keep him just this size, cause he's the closest thing I'll ever have to a son & I'm not ready for him to grow up!!
Happy 7th Birthday Tyler Man!!

Love you!!!

Broken

These both broke awhile ago but I'm tired of tripping over them. I've tried the tinfoil trick but it hasn't helped.

Any tips??

There's A Fairy In My Kitchen!

I love these pics of Gianna! She was 3 years old & into dressing up. Another quirk of hers is to sit in that spot on the floor of my kitchen & watch TV. Nevermind that they have a TV in the Den they can watch, this one gets used A LOT!!

Back before our trip I started scrapping these old pics of Gianna. I was trying to get it done before we left to leave you with something pretty to look at but it just didn't happen.

I think the thing that hung me up on this LO was the embellies. Usually it's the journaling but this time I had ideas for embellies but then I didn't have the room. I kept walking away from it hoping something would come to me but finally gave up.

I figure it's done & in her album. Years from now she won't know the scrapping trends that I tried or not. She'll just know that I loved these memories enough to put them on paper. I think I'll be doing that more. I don't submit my work so there's no one to please but myself.....and hopefully my kids. Hopefully by letting go of that "pressure" I'll be scrapping more again!

Boys Are MEAN!!

Today I was having a pretty good day.

I got some laundry done AND put away. (it's great when I do that all in the same day!)

I went for a 2 mile walk with my girlfriend. (applause welcome) ;)

It was a beautiful day. That's about where it comes to a screeching halt.

After coming back from my walk I got a phone from the school. Seeing that come up on the caller id puts me in a PANIC. Sure enough it's the principal.

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Principal: Mrs. Rossi? This is (his name). Everything's ok, but I have Gianna in my office (My mind: WHAT?? ALREADY??) and while in art class a boy from her class cut off a tiny piece of her hair. It's not noticeable but Gianna can tell & she's upset. I've had a long talk with the boy & will be calling his parents. There will also be repurcussions to let him know that is not tolerated. Gianna wants to talk to you if you could make her feel a little better. (lots of smoozing, making sure I'm not going to flip out--doing his job)

Gianna: Mommy! (hiccups & sniffling...she's in tears) He cut my hair!!

Me: Sweetheart it will grow back. You know I can fix it if I need to & it will look like nothing happened. (meanwhile she's breaking my heart hearing her cry like that...I'm tearing up!)

Gianna: But it's gonna take a LONG TIME!!

Me: No it won't, when you get home how about you take an extra vitamin? You know how those make your hair grow so long. It's ok & Mommy loves you.

Gianna: Ok, I love you too.

Principal gets back on the phone....more smoozing....

Me: I know this boy from Kindergarten & remember how he always wanted a playdate with Gianna. I think he might have a crush on her & it might be part of why he did what he did.

Principal: That's interesting, good to know. I thank you for your understanding & will be contacting his parents. Call ends.....
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Seriously?? The kids haven't been in school a full week & already this is happening?? This little boy was always after Gianna for a playdate. I was standing off to the side one day when I heard him say to Gianna;

"Ask your Mom if you can have a sleepover at my house.".

Ummmm, WHAT?!?! The answer would be NO. For several reasons.....the main one being YOU'RE A BOY!!

But nothing more than that...and no I never responded to that sleeopover request. Towards the end of Kindergarten, Gianna was saying what a pain the boy was & that's it.

So of course I call Joe & explain things to him. Now the boy's really on his "list". He's worried that Gianna might be afraid to go back to school, etc, which worries me more.

I made sure to get to the school early at pick up time. The boy's Mom came up to me & apologized.

When Gianna came out, she was all smiles & happy. I asked her what happened & she told me the boy had his hand on her paper & she moved it. That's when he cut her hair. Then I find out Marissa & her BFF Ariel heard about it at recess & went to see her to make sure she's ok. AWWWWWW!!! I love those two!! It made me so proud & got me all teary eyed again.

I know these things happen & no serious harm was done. He didn't hurt her, or that would have been something else. You really can't tell where he cut her hair....unless Gianna shows you!

But there's no way he's ever dating her!!!

Disney in Bloom

The flowers around Disney are just so pretty, I have a hard time passing one up without taking a few pics.
This wasn't a flower exactly but it was interesting to me....and um...PURPLE!! Love it!

This wasn't the best pic but I LOVE this tree! And no I have no idea what it's called...wish I did.

Gotta stop & smell the roses....

Another favorite of mine....very tropical....reminds me of Hawaii....I think it's Plumeria but don't quote me.

This was in the hotel lobby by the elevators. The lobby smells wonderful from all the flowers around.

I found these around the parks a lot but due to the crazy heat a lot seemed scorched. Still pretty.

Hope to turn this into a LO maybe.....just need to remember to do it! ;)

Disney in Pictures

Not going to bore you with all our Disney pics (believe me there are LOTS!!), but I do want to share a few.

Not all my pics are "Disney", some are just pretty to look at. This was the view from our hotel room. You can see the castle in the distance. It was great to see the fireworks from our room without the crazy crowds in the Kingdom.Yes this one is "Disney" but there's something about it that I like.See the purple blur? That's Gianna headed for her 1st time on Space Mountain. She has been wanting to go FOREVER but wasn't tall enough until now. She just LOVED it! And went on it a few times during our stay.I'm too chicken to go on Space Mountain (just for the record I HAVE been on a few times but since I had the girls I've been too chicken to go back) so I wait in the gift shop where they come out. When they met up with me we were near the game room, that's where we saw Stitch. He picked Joe to play Guitar Hero with him. So cool!! I even videoed them playing...I'll never be able to listen to Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me" again without seeing this in my mind! ;)We had early breakfast reservations at the castle & got to go in before the crowds. So nice!! Love how empty the park is! Later in our trip, my boyfriend Capt. Jack Sparrow came to see me. ;) He did a pretty good imitation of him but I've seen an even better version on other trips.The girls begged (conned) us into getting make-overs at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique again. Marissa 1st got it done when she turned 5 (we celebrated at Disney) & Gianna had it done for her 3rd birthday at Disney. Both had the full make-over with the costume for her birthday. This time it was just the make-over. Marissa didn't even want the costume but Gianna did....she got over it though.Towards the last few days of our trip the Magic Kingdom was decorated for Fall & Halloween. I love all the decorating they do for the holidays!!

So there's a (not-so-quick) post about Disney. Yes I have tons of pics of the girls with the characters (another Disney Autograph album to make!!), but I don't want to seem repetitious in posting them after each trip. And yes, I realize that all these pics are from the Magic Kingdom. We DID go to each park & a water park but the Magic Kingdom is our all-time favorite park so we spend the most time there. If you want to see something let me know & I'll share....good deal??

It's good to be home!!