Let it Snow!

During the winter, you learn to be flexible. Pretty much every plan I had this weekend was cancelled. I left the house on Friday morning to go to the grocery store, and again on Sunday morning to go to church. Other than that, I stayed home. Here are the results of Saturday night:





On Saturday night, Minda and I gave each other 3 scrap challenges and then shared them through Yahoo Messenger. It was fun. Last night, when I was talking to Erin, I got an idea that is milling around in my head. Erin called it a "book of possibilities". Here's the page (or mini book!) idea: Scrap a list of things that you WANT TO DO before your next milestone. I'm sure I've seen the idea in a book before (probably Autumn Leaves). But it's an idea worth revisiting. I'm looking forward to seeing what Erin will do. :)

Look, Ma! No Meat!

Today marks my first Lenten Friday as a pre-Catholic. My lenten obligations are going pretty well (I've had two whole days, 38 to go) except for the minor problem of missing mass on Ash Wednesday. I feel bad about that. My fish looked better than it tasted... It was freezer-burned and full of bones. I wish I could have chicken.

This morning I had nice chats with two friends. It really brightened my day. Now I'm waiting to see if the snowstorms forecasted are really going to happen.

8x10 Challenge

Wes threw out a challenge to use LARGER THAN LIFE (8x10) photos. Minda took it one step further and added the stipulation to NOT use vacation or portrait photos.

My first page is from a picture I took of my feet after the Twin Cities 3-Day.


The next page used a picture I have loved for a few years. This dog was actually a very friendly stray. Ok, it's technically a picture taken on vacation, but it's not a vacation picture. :)


When I started thinking about pictures of THINGS, and things I love, I immediately thought of the pictures I have of sushi. (I picked up the habit of photographing my sushi meals from Chie)

This was a fun challenge!

Dinner at the Aunties

Another branch of my "adopted" family is my aunties, Liz & Carol. Last night they invited me over for a marvelous home-cooked meal. They tell wonderful stories and are both very unique characters. They both care deeply about Dave and his situation. I just adore them!

I Just Wanna Fly

Ok, I'm trying something new. When I was leaving Minda's on Saturday night, we got to talking about something called FlyLady.
Yesterday I checked out the site, and I thought, why not try it? It couldn't hurt to have some gentle reminders about keeping my house less cluttered and more organized. The messages are kind but persistant. I had to laugh when I read one of the questions on their "quiz":

1. I can do anything

a. If they pay me enough
b. For chocolate
c. And I will, too, eventually
d. For 15 minutes
e. Better than anybody. That's why I have to do it all.

My answer would naturally be b and c. I think I learned from my mom e and c. Last night I called her and tried to sell her on FlyLady too. Maybe we can be accountability partners.

Well, obviously...

This week has been a little rough. Dave isn't here and that sucks. Listening to people complain and take their spouses for granted sucks. Hearing the Valentines plans of others makes me feel bitter and jealous, and that sucks.

But you know what?
I spent 4 of the last 5 nights with friends. I got a new computer for work. My roommate heard me on a difficult phone call and spontaneously brought me chocolate. I had friends that supported me and offered to trounce nasty people. I haven't had much for headaches this week and my stomach has been pretty good.

You gots to take the good with the bad.

Wanted: New Skin

Where does one get thicker skin? Just when I think that I have perfected a nice, thick skin, and I have all of my armor in place, somebody says thoughtless, stupid things and I'm left emotionally raw and naked.
I'm tired of it. I can't keep people from saying stupid things, or from putting me down to lift themselves up. I can't avoid people either. So it's me. I have to change.

Monday, happy and sad

Yesterday morning, I woke up EARLY and started work. A few hours into it, Erin's DH came online and I took a break to chat with him a bit. He suggested that I take Erin to 1SG Mettille's funeral, so that she had a ride, and didn't have to be there alone. So we went. Personally, I didn't know him, and Dave didn't work directly with him, but it was good to be there. The funeral was at the Cathedral, and it was very formal and beautiful. Some things were hard to look at. It was hard to see the people in uniform.

Later, Erin & I went out to Olive Garden to celebrate her birthday. We talked and laughed and had a good night. The more I get to know her, the more I am impressed by her.

This morning, my boss in Ohio called me to say how excited she was by the package that Dave sent her family. She has a son who is very into military things, and Dave sent him some things that just sent him over the moon. Have I mentioned recently that I love my husband? He is fabulous in so many ways.

The Conspiracy

I've had this blog for a while now, and it occurred to me that I've never explained where the name "The Scrapbook Conspiracy" comes from.

In 2004, my team at work comprised of Peg, Andi, Pam, and I, and our supervisor, Sue (a different Sue). Peg, Andi, Pam and I were scrapbookers, Sue was not. There were times that three or four of us would attend the same scrapbooking retreats. So occasionally all of us would ask for the same random Friday off. In one team meeting, Sue was reviewing our upcoming schedules and if I remember correctly we all had the same Friday off. She looked at us and said,

"Is this one of your Scrapbook Conspiracies?"

Our team of four has gone in four separate directions now, but we all still scrapbook.

The word conspiracy is interesting because in the dictionary, all of its definitions imply nefarious purposes and evil deeds. But to conspire can be positive or negative, taking its origins from a latin word meaning to act in harmony. Scrapbooking has a lot of harmony to it; there is harmony in color and texture, and when I scrapbook I combine the past and the present, and my goal is to preserve the memories for the future.

Another piece of the conspiracy is knowing that, although the scrapbook pages in and of themselves are valuable to their audience, the other secret behind scrapbooking is that I love the social outlet of it. Some people play bunco; other people join clubs; I scrapbook.

Long live the conspiracy.

By Coincidence (Plan A)

I was driving home from work tonight, and thinking I should try to get a picture of this page to put on my blog. Lucky for me, I was able to "borrow" a picture from Minda. The journaling is below:



On my flight home from California, I read the bridal magazine I had thrown into my bag from cover to cover. And no, I'm still not jazzed about the big wedding. It helps knowing that we've postponed it from fall '07 to spring '08, but I still know it's looming in the future, and I SHOULD feel excited about it. Or at least not repelled by it.

If I had a wedding planner who would take on all of the stress and all of the planning, and then offer to pay for it all, then, indeed, I would be all for this undertaking. But I don't really see any fairy wedding planners popping out of the woodwork with any such offer. So, here is my next great idea:

I want to be the groom.

The bride spends a good year looking at magazines, talking to venues, meeting with photographers, trying on dresses, arguing with bridesmaids, adding and subtracting to the guest list, agonizing over stephanotis versus stargazer lilies.

The groom picks four friends and shows up.

I trust Dave, I think he would make a good bride. He would actually be quite efficient, and not one to be reduced to tears. I want to be able to say things like, "your decision sounds good to me" and "whatever makes you happy, dear". I would appreciate all of the work he put into it.

Sounds like a plan.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Whine, anyone?

I spent my first 24 hours back from California with Minda, Erin, et all, blissfully not thinking about getting back to real life on Monday.
But Mondays show up, ready or not!

Right before I left for California, I took my van in, and found that I had blown the head gasket. Crapola. That, my friends, is not cheap to fix. So I told them I'd be gone until this week and left it at the mechanic's.

This morning, my laptop was acting W-E-I-R-D. Ran checkdisk, found the harddrive is on it's way out. Again, crapola. No computer = no bank accounts, no email, no chatting with my husband. NEED the laptop. No two ways about it. So, over lunch break I hauled up my old desktop pc and got it running. I can limp along on this until I get a new harddrive. The good news is, the laptop is just cooperative enough to let me back up my essential files.

Also this morning, Dave called. He was feeling bummed because he was still holding out on the slim hope that he would be leaving to go to school in Pennsylvania in a few days. No dice. Now, it looks like the school they might send him to is in Georgia, for five months. That would get him home.... Hm, late August. Huh.

So, I did what any self-respecting 31 year-old would do. I called my mommy.

CHA Wrap-up

Well, CHA Winter 2007 has come and gone. It was very fun. I'd consider going again. It was work though. I'm glad I decided to stay in California a few extra days. This afternoon I went with Greta & Jody to Burbank, where we went to NBC studios and got standby tickets for Jay Leno. They were looking for star sightings, but I feel that tv stars are only slightly higher on the scale than scrapbook idols of people I really don't have time to care about. While we were waiting in the standby line, a studio page came up and gave us 3 guaranteed tickets. They have this whole complicated process for getting people into the show, and pretty much you wait around and hope to get lucky enough to get in. We got in, and it was very fun to see the show in person. I especially liked that they had animals from Busch Gardens. They're more amusing than actresses and singers, I guess.