scrapbooking

As many of you know I’ve been working on my first attempt at scrapbooking, preserving some pictures and memories of my mom’s family….

I have loved every minute of it… The fact that Steve’s mom has enough scrapbooking tools and materials to fill and entire room helps… She’s taught me some of the tricks and shown me where to find deals on paper, stickers etc…

Sorry this pics are shiny, I didn’t take them out of their sleeves, next time I will…

Have you ever scrapbooked before?

What kind of scrapbooks have you done?

What are some of your favorite tricks when making a scrapbook?

If you haven’t ever scrapbooked would you want to one day?

 

 

 

Family History

I’ve always loved family history… The photos, the stories, the lives of my ancestors that I’ve never known… well my mom has really gotten involved in gathering information and pictures that have been scattered throughout the family in the last few years… I even joined ancestry.com for a while because I was so enthralled with the census reports etc…

This weekend my mom dropped off a CD of pictures from my grandfather’s family dating back to the 1920s… with help from Steve’s mom I’ll be making my first scrapbook to hold the memories… but here is a little taste of what was dug up…

great-grandfather who immigrated from Ukraine

Pap loading up on the bus

coulda been a movie star!

Working in one of the Pittsburgh steel mills while home on furlough

Possibly why I love these pictures is because my Pap died before I was born and this is the only way I will ever know him… and I couldn’t be prouder of him, fighting in WWII, working in the steel mill until it shut down and loving my grandmother and making her happier than I can even imagine…

some of the goings on

So just a quick medical update…

The specialist I saw thinks that I am grinding or biting down on my teeth hard at night, agrevating my TMJ… if you’ve never heard of TMJ it is basically a joint disorder in the jaw and when it acts up can cause severe facial pain… in me it simulated an extended migraine…. crazy right…

to learn more on TMJ you can go to webmd here

In the mean time I finally up loaded the massive amount of pictures from my blackberry and thought I would post some of my “in the moment” shots…

before all of the randomness though… I am slowly turning Steve into an Italian…. he had his first taste of bruschetta… was it homemade… no… i cheated and used this…

yum… love me some trader joe’s

and cut up a french loaf… topped it off with mozzerella cheese and bam…. easy peasy….

on the infamous cookie sheets...

steve had… are you ready for this…. 10 pieces…. yeah no lie… he was on a roll…

and then the last shopping trip forced me to rearrange the cabinet to make room for all of this…. per steve’s request for dinner at least 3-4 nights a week….

its like a grocery store shelf...

we finally have caved and go to sam’s club for sauce for when i don’t have time to make my own… that was just the brand on sale that week fyi…. we actually prefer the flax and whole wheat pasta from the aforementioned trader joe’s but we were OUT of pasta and desperate…. that will only last us 3 weeks…. sad i know… told you i was turning him into an italian….

so some memories via the blackberry…

samson thinks the vet can't see him if he's in the sink...

he looks like he has a lazy eye in this picture too… one time the vet really didn’t see him and he got the water turned on while he was in there… pretty classic…

minnie watching the cars go by

the blizzard of 2010!!!! i was snowed in for 3 days

samson has issues.... seriously... who gets in the cabinet like that

emmy - i take way too many pics of my pets

you can't seeeeeeeeeeee me

sitting on the dock of the bay............ more like the lake.... 🙂

can you see the mating dragonflies???

bad dog

minnie has an obsession with my finance text book… as you can see she chewed off the cover… i now have one of those sticky book covers holding it together… that is one text book i won’t be selling back at the end of the sememster… minnie… you owe me 100$

OMG he's domestic

he knows how to put the lines in the carpet… i don’t… so he’s the vacuumer…. he’s going to be soooooo mad if he finds out i outted him…. hehehehehe… pic is blurry because he was yelling at me for taking it in the first place…. mwuuuuhahaha

hope this gave you a little insight into me… it certainly cheered me up a bit…

tonight steve and i are cutting an access panel into the crawl space under the roof…. its been sealed up for 30 years (who seals that up by the way??? seriously……?)… and we’re a little worried what we’ll find… living in PA there might be a nest of stink bugs…. eeeeek… might be some wildlife that worked its way into the house… maybe i’ll be lucky and find treasure… whoooo knows… lol… wish me luck!

in photos – part 1

the camera cord came in while I was in DC – by the way the meeting went soooo smoothly I’m thrilled I did well and only stuttered once…

In the mean time, enjoy some pictures… this first batch is from last summer’s trip to VEGAS BABY!!!!

i think the beauty of vegas is the blur of the lights at night

i also don't believe in vegas in the daylight

gonnnnndalas

ok i did venture out in the daylight a little bit

outside the riviera (spelled right?)

 next batch of photos coming up in minutes!