Another getting to know you quiz (from VAL)...

Today was a popular day for these -- I got two in my email inbox today so I am posting them here.

Remember the rules -- copy it and post it on your own blog -- link me a comment so that I can go learn more about you too!!


1. FIRST NAME? Jennifer
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I was told that Stephanie Powers character Jennifer Hart from the hit 70s TV show Hart to Hart is who everyone named Jennifer in the 70s was named after.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? The other day riding in the car and talking with Dhubby about the possibility that he could be going to Iraq for a year.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes!
6. KIDS? 2 boys
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Well people seem to like me and all so I must have some redeeming qualities that I would probably like.
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Just this blog
9 . DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Yes
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Lucky Charms or Raisin Bran Crunch
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? If I wear shoes that tie no I do not, which come to think of it makes no sense because then I have to still untie them to put them on again.
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Vanilla -- It is such a great blank canvas for so many mix ins.
17. RED OR PINK? pink and red!!
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My fat
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? my family and my friends that I have left behind in moves.
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Of course
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? kakhi shorts and no shoes (like I ever have shoes on in the house)
22. LAST THING YOU ATE? chicken strips from Perkins
23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Evan, he is mad cause I took his shoes off to change his diaper and didn't put them back on.
24. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? pink or kelly green
25. FAVORITE SMELL? clean baby or new car scent
26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mark from Turbo CAD wanting to know if hubby wants to upgrade his software -- uhh NO!
27. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? smile
28. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yes
29. FAVORITE DRINK? Very cold Ice water
30. FAVORITE SPORT? Is scrapbooking considered a sport yet or how about toddler chasing?
31. EYE COLOR? green
32. HAT SIZE? 7 3/4 yes i have a big melon.
33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No just could never get used to them.
34. FAVORITE FOOD? be easier to list the things I don't really like.
35. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy and sappy
36. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED AT THE MOVIE THEATER? Cars
37. KIND OF SHIRT YOU'RE WEARING? blue tank top with sparkly things on it.
38. SUMMER OR WINTER? Can I say Winter but living in North Carolina? :)
39. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
40. FAVORITE DESSERT? There is a least favorite?
41. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Lacey
42. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? People who don't like to read these things.
43. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Lately the boys have been into 1 Fish 2 Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. :)
44. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Don't have one.
45. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? CSI and then Iron Chef America
46. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Summer thunderstorms.
47. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Rolling Stones
48. FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Germany
49. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Getting really good deals on big ticket items (I am the super barginner!!)
50. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 6-24-73 in Dubuque Iowa
51. TOENAILS PAINTED? Not today!

The story of me (from Paula)...

Part 1: Birth

Were you a planned baby? I believe so.
Were you the first?: Yes
Who was present at your birth?: Just mom and the hospital staff.
Were your parents married when you were born?: Yes
What is your birthdate?: June 24th, 1973

Part 2: The Family

How would you describe your family?: Boringly normal, which don't get me wrong that is a good thing. :)
Are your parents married? Yes
Siblings or an only child?: One younger sister (although I guess you could figure it out that she is younger if your read from the top that I am the first :) )
If you have siblings are you oldest, middle, or youngest?: Oldest (again)
What are your siblings names: Sally
Which parent do you get along with best?: I get along with them both.
What do you fight about?: We don't fight but then we don't really talk about "feelings" too much either (at least my dad and I don't)
Do you have step parents? No

Part 3: The Friends

Do you have more than one best friend?: I hope so.
What do you like to do when you are together?: Talk, eat, let our kids play, did I say talk? :)
Do you share the same interests?: Yes and no.
Which friend can you tell anything to?: Shari -- she is my female soul mate I think, she is the ying to my yang. :)

Part 4: Your Personality

How high/low is your self esteem?: lower than it should be
Do you get depressed about things easily?: I get down sure but I wouldn't say I fall into a depression or anything.
Are you an extrovert or an introvert?: Introvert
Are you happy?: Yes
Do you live life to the fullest?: No, I know that I could be more if I wanted too but right now I am just too tired.

Part 5: Appearance

Are you comfortable with the way you look?: Ehh. Comfortable, yes. Happy, no.
What would you change about your appearance if you could? Tone up some areas and get rid of the wings under my arms.
Do you have any piercing besides your ears?: No
Describe your hair?: Cute if I do it, but it can easily be left to air dry.
How do you dress?: Casually as possible.

Part 6: The Past

Were you a strange child? Define strange? I think all kids are strange on some level.
What did you use to love that you no longer do? Playing tennis
Do you have the same friends?: No
Was there anything in your past that was traumatizing? No, like I said boringly normal.

Part 7: The Future

What is your ambition?: Just to live life to the fullest and see my kids happy and healthy and grown.
Are you scared of growing old?: Definately
Do you want to get married?: Already am -- it has been 11 wonderful years.

Part 8: The Outdoors

Do you prefer indoors or outdoors?: Depends on the weather -- I hate really cold and I hate humidity.
What is your favourite season? Fall
Do you like walking in the rain? More so now that I have little kids. :)

Part 9: Food

Are you a vegetarian?: Good god no, give me meat!!
What is your favourite food?: Depends on my mood, I love to eat.
What food makes you want to gag? I don't really care for melon but I wouldn't say makes me gag.
What is your favourite dessert?: Again depends on my mood, but I love wedding cake with butter cream frosting.
What is your favourite restaurant? Again depends on the mood (seeing a pattern here)
Are you a fussy eater? No

Part 10: Relationships and Love

Are you single or taken?: Taken
Do you think love is the best feeling in the world?: Yes
Do you believe in love at first sight?: No
Do you think you're in love currently? Yes more somedays than others but hey that's marriage. :)

NOW I DID IT SO TAG YOUR IT -- if you have read this I want to see yours!!

My very first Artist Trading Card

I have always loved the collagie look of these things that other people make but I have been very nervous about making one myself. Well I jumped outside my box (and ran about 3 miles away from it) and joined a ATC swap over at ScrapAddict.com. I really love how my card turned out and I had a lot of fun doing it. I totally could become addicted to doing these.

I used tons of ink on it (thought they were never going to dry) and layer papers and images (something I have lots of problems doing on layouts). The images are from Microsoft's online clip-art gallery under military and uncle sam. I just altered them a little in a photo editing program to make the military man b&w and I desaturated uncle sam because he was quite bright. The back of the card I made on my computer and printed out but the inspiration came from a stamp from Oriental Trading Company catalog.

Finances

Like I said they make these about my life.


Baby Blues June 10, 2006

Is it supposed to feel different cause I feel the same.

I turned 33 on Saturday and except for now I am wearing a watch, I really don't feel any different. I still have all this excess baby fat on me (yes that is what I am blaming it on today). I still need glasses, although supposedly my new prescription is weaker meaning my eyes are getting better. And I still have this sinus infection. With all the break-throughs in medication you would think that I would feel better after 4 days of medication but I don't I still feel awful. Hubby says maybe mine was just farther along and it will take longer for me to get better. Whatever!

Well I didn't get to go to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday. I just wanted to go so bad but I knew that I wouldn't enjoy it since I can't taste anything right now so I got a raincheck from the boys and a promise to go as soon as I feel better. They made me dinner and a cake. It was so cute, they came in from frosting the cake and I don't know which had more frosting on it the boys or the cake. Too cute.

They bought me some presents and lets just say don't tell my four year old any goverment secrets cause he can't keep them. They were hiding in the bedroom wrapping presents and after they would finish one I. would bring them out and set them on the table and announce "This one is a shirt!". Darren was so mad cause he tries so hard to stump me -- and now he has an even harder time than normal. Yes, I am one of those people who can guess what a present is by shaking it!! :) I ended up getting a new Timex sports watch (very cute -- pink and white one), an Iowa State t-shirt (again pink and white), Dhubby upgraded my Digital Image Suite for me to the full version instead of the starter version that came on the computer, and a cyclometer for my bike so now I can tell how fast and far I have ridden. Good birthday -- he is also going to take me shoe shopping cause I need new sandles. Yes actually NEED new shoes, weird?

So that was my birthday -- didn't do too much no big fancy party but I was completely and utterly happey!!

Scrapbooking

I haven't not been scrapbooking lately I just have been forgeting to post them here. I set up a blog on ScrapSubmit and I have been posting them there but that is more for me to just keep track of how many I am doing this year. No I haven't tried to get anything published or anything like that just like having all my layouts in one place.

This is most recent layout that I have done.



It was done using the Scrap Spot's June sponsor materials Scrimages. I fell in love with the little guy eating a popsicle so I purposefully went out and got some popsicles for my guys to stage a little photo shoot. Sad that we scrapbooking moms put our kids through to do a page. :)

Well please visit my other site to see my gallery! The link is also posted on the right and it is called As Seen Through My Eyes. Corny I know but hey that is me!

Comics

I have to saw one of my guilty pleasures in life is reading the comics. It is the only reason I even get the newspaper (ok well the comics and the Sunday ads -- what else is there in a paper?). My two favorite cartoons are Dilbert and Baby Blues. I read them online everyday (my local paper here doesn't have comics in it). I have been reading Dilbert for the longest time, he is my hero. I just think he is too funny. And now another reason to love him -- they added in scrapbooking!!! :)

And Baby Blues, well lets just say I didn't start enjoying this one until I had kids but now I seriously think someone is filming my life and writing a cartoon about it. I see myself and my family in each and every one of them.

LONG LIVE COMICS!!

Why didn't I know about this before?!!

My favorite cartoon of all time is Dilbert and today I found out that Scott Adams has a blog. Guess where I will be hanging out now!

My cute kids!

Just wanted to share the pictures we had taken last week of the boys. They are so cute.

An ad, another birthday, and a lot to catch up on.

Wow what a crazy week the last one was. I felt like I was going a mile a minute but not getting anywhere. I guess it isn't going to get any better as the kids get older is it! :)

To start with I will post my Blog Challenge #4 from ScrapAddict.com. This weeks challenge was to write an ad up about yourself. Here is mine and let me just warn you I thought this up after watching the Dream Cars 2006 on HGTV. Man there were a lot of really cool cars that are going to be coming onto the market later this year.

Rare 1973 brunette female. High mileage, low maintanence. All original parts, needs some minor body work. Comes with 2 built in child protective seats and a on board computer that holds lots of useful information. Large trunk (hee, hee) in back. A real must see. Will take best offer.

Lets see secondly, it was I.’s 4th birthday on Friday so our weekend started on Thursday when we went to the Picture People and got the boys pictures taken. They turned out really cute. Then we did a little shopping and ended up getting I. a new bike for his birthday.

Friday we were driving to the grocery store and ended up stopping at ISU because all the firefighters from various counties were there training and they all had their equipment out. So we went and looked at all the fire trucks and rescue equipment. I. was in 7th heaven. DHubby of course found some guys who were in the guard and they swapped war stories and while they were talking one of the fire fighters put his helmet and back pack thingy on I. I was lucky cause I actually had my camera in the car so I got a couple of cute pictures.

Then after that it was time for I.’s first day of preschool. They have a preschool program that is run through our park and rec dept and during the summer it is just one day a week for an hour. The one we signed up for was preschool Picassos. They took a nature walk and picked up lots of “nature” to do their art project with. I. loved it and I also got him signed up for the one this fall.

Cute story – Friday morning I. woke up all excited about preschool and told me we had to stop by best buy before his school because he needed to get a laptop for his school to put in his backpack just like daddy. I assured him that he probably wouldn’t need a laptop this week for school.

Friday night we took the boys to their first movie in a theater. It was Cars and they loved it!! It was a really cute movie!

Saturday we had both of our parents over for a little party for I. and everyone was very good about not over doing the presents this year. He got some great toys and played with them all weekend. And he shared with his little brother too. :)

Well I think that just about gets me caught back up. If not I will report back in later. Have to anyways cause I have some cute pictures to show off.

Splurge!! ( Blog Challenge -- Week #3)

What do I splurge on? Nothing really, well ok there is ONE thing that I will pay big money for.

SHOES!!

I don't have a pretty picture of all my shoes but I love to buy shoes and I always get good ones. Why? Because even when you are overweight you can still wear pretty shoes!! :) They don't make just teeny tiny thin girl shoes -- they don't make fat girl shoes -- they just make shoes!

My favorites right now becasue it is summer are my Doc Martin strappy sandels with the big chunky sole!