Katie the Scrapbook Lady

The one with all the fours

I turned 44 yesterday. I’m actually pretty happy with that number because up until a few weeks ago, I thought I would be turning 45. My husband says I might as well be 45 if I’m that confused. lol! We decided that 4 candles on a cake would be much better than 44 – easier to blow out also!

Since my birthday was on a Sunday, we went out for dinner on Saturday night instead. We went to Blue Lemon and I had the black bean stuffed ravioli. Yum!

 

Then we went to Whole Foods and bought a lot of treats that we justified by saying they were healthy since we bought them at Whole Foods. We even tried a vegan cake (lemon coconut) which was actually quite tasty. I haven’t gone vegan, but my husband is close to it. I just thought it would be interesting to try something different.

 

I told my hubby and kids that I didn’t want any presents this year because I really didn’t want anything else to pack. They thought I was a bit crazy, but they are not the ones who have been packing box after box of stuff. Jeff said that I needed something special on my birthday so he bought me a very pretty flower arrangement.

 

I celebrated my actual birthday by taking 2 (yes, TWO) naps. Awesome! I got to hang out with my favorite people in the world and we watched tv, ate treats, and just relaxed. It was fun to be able to talk to my parents and brothers on the phone – which is a normal Sunday night routine, but still felt special on my birthday. Another thing that was nice  was getting lots of sweet facebook greetings all day. I like that new modern addition to the birthday rituals.

I’m one lucky lady!

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Recovering from the weekend

 

We had a great weekend! Hubby and I went out for sushi with some friends. I only eat vegetarian sushi (yum) and I thought it was fun that they put it on the big platter with all the other sushi rolls. So pretty! Then we stopped by our house and picked up our kids to go to a play. How nice is it that we have friends who would invite us AND our kids to a play?

Last night, we had my brother Zach and his fiancée Jenn over for dinner. We put together build-your-own Mexican pizzas with fried corn tortillas and a variety of beans, cheese, salsas, green chiles, olives, and tomatoes. They were tasty and we had fun visiting with them. Their wedding is in about 2 months so we spent a lot of time talking about their plans.

I’ve been battling a very mild cold for about a week now, but as soon as our company left last night, my sinuses started to burn. I can fight most colds off, but once it turns into a sinus infection for me, I’m done. I’m forcing myself to take a “sick day” today and keep it pretty low key. I’m hoping that will help me avoid getting any worse.

Sometimes Mondays end up being a lot about recovering from the weekend. That’s always hard when you have a lot of work to do, but I sure am grateful we had some time for fun over the weekend!

 

Here’s a picture of some flowers

Have you ever noticed that when a blogger doesn’t have much to say they usually post a picture of some flowers to make it all better? lol! I’m going the flower route today and calling it good. No new templates this week. My house is still in chaos from all the painting. My shoulder still hurts. And I plan to have some fun time with my kids today. It’s the weekend and we are all ready for that!

In the meantime…

• Since I’m not releasing any new templates this week, I’ll extend the sale on my Sweeties template set until the end of the month!
• Check out our 75th episode of The Digi Show podcast. We just answered questions about ourselves and behind the scenes kind of stuff. It was all pretty personal, very real, and a lot of fun!
• Check out the Funtastic Friday post at The Daily Digi. I always enjoy putting these together and it’s fun to see what’s new in digiland!
• I’ll be sending out a newsletter later today. It will have more than just a picture of a flower! lol
• If you like to document food memories, you might enjoy my post from Capturing Magic about Disney food memories at home.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

 

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Today I am…

Today I am trying to avoid the paint fumes in my house that are coming from my son’s room and our hallways. I hired a painter (well worth the money to get this professionally done!) to give everything a fresh coat. We decided about 9 years ago that all painting needed to be done by a professional in order for us to have a happy marriage. It has been a good policy!

The painting is a big job because my son’s bedroom walls have been covered in posters and postcards for 8+ years and I just took them all down. The walls needed a lot of TLC (tender loving care) after that. They are looking great now! I also took down all of the photos from our “hall of fame” because after almost 9 years, the stairway needed a full repainting. I should have counted, but I’m guessing that I had close to 100 framed photos up in our large staircase gallery (including the landing at the bottom that you can’t see in this photo). Wow! I’ll be sure to post “after” pictures when everything is done.

What else am I doing today?

• having a short phone call with Steph (The Daily Digi) to go over a few plans.
• feeling like I’ve been punched in the shoulder. I’ve been going to a soft tissue chiropractor for about 6 weeks now and it has really helped my shoulder pain. He explained that the injury has layers and we’ve now reached a deeper layer. All I can say is that I’m hurting right now. Another reason I’m grateful to have hired a painter.
• putting together a large salad to take to a teacher dinner at my daughter’s school. I love that I can help out with stuff like that and I’m glad to be able to do something nice for the people who are doing so much for my daughter!
• writing some posts for The Daily Digi
• excited about my new flickr group for layouts created with my templates. Anyone can join so I hope you will come and be a part of it!
• Planning out my newsletter for this weekend. Are you signed up? It’s free!

 

What are you up to today? It’s worth jotting down. Even the everyday stuff is interesting and can help you come up with great ideas for scrapbooking or blog entries!

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Life moves pretty fast

Source: bitsofwisdom.org via Katie on Pinterest

 

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As Ferris says, life does move pretty fast! All of a sudden, we’ve had a big change of plans with my daughter’s schooling. For the first time since 2008, my daughter will be attending public school today. We are all excited (and a little nervous) about this unexpected change in plans. It’s a good thing overall. She’s ready for a little more. She wants to have some of the social experiences that come with attending school. After having her home with me for more than 5 years, it’s going to be a big adjustment for me (and also for Alex). We are all very happy for her though.

With a sudden turn of events and a few other big projects that unexpectedly came my way, I’m going to sign off on blogging until next Monday. No new templates this week, but the good news is that there will be some next week for sure.

Hello big changes!