There is something so comfortable and low maintenance about making breakfast for dinner. It sounded good tonight… and since I hadn’t committed to a grocery store run since well before thanksgiving… I grabbed eggs and OJ and did the whole breakfast spread tonight for dinner: pancakes, bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, hash browns and OJ. It was perfect. it’s a smell I love walking in on (bacon). So if you have to destroy the clean-house smell that I am blessed enough with on Mondays…it may as well be bacon.
Another day, and the pink forest is still not complete… getting closer. But had a very productive and happy day. I finally upgraded my adobe suite…got a bunch of prototypes for winter’s release…(squeal with delight-we have a great winter release!!)…finalized content for my march ads…cleared out my email and over 4,000 photos off my hard drive and as above mentioned-the cleaning happened. I love that. I crossed all but 5 things on my to-do list, and …it’s 11:24 and I feel some creative energy. All good.
I have to say… how much I love the technological age in which we live. For the first time, me, Emily and janet video conferenced all together after all the kids were in bed. How cool is that? I love playing with possibilities…once you understand what is possible, you can be creative with the parameters. Dang… cool.
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back to work
Back to work. LOVED my 4 days of off-ness. LOVED it. I was the ultimate lazy. I didn’t do anything that I really had planned to do. and you know what, I am ok with that. I went to bed early and I was calm and I rested and I think that was exactly what I needed. We had thanksgiving dinner at eric’s mom’s house with the Arizona residents. I felt so bad cause my MIL was totally sick0 and still hosted a wonderful dinner. We do the traditional stuff-tried and true and always delicious. We didn’t eat until 5pm, and I took a 2 hour nap before getting after my assignment. I have a standing assignment. I am the yams girl. love it. it’s the only time in the year that I ever make it. it’s really more of a dessert item if you count the calories… so yummy. So I didn’t eat anything all day and of course ate myself sick at dinner. The next morning we decided to get off our duffs and go hiking. We loaded and hit target on the way to pick up a infant backpack. We hiked Usery Pass- the day couldn’t have been more perfect. it was absolute hiking weather. We packed a lunch and ate it at the top of the trail. The kids did great… loved being out of the house. Capri did pretty good in her backpack. It’s still hard for her to hold her head and body up for very long… but she loved the constant bounce and even got a little nap on the way down. It was a great way to combat the overstuffed feeling from the day before.
Sadly, I must report that the pink Christmas forest is not complete. So I can’t post photos yet. But I figure I have until Dec 1. (did I mention that I was VERY lazy for the last 4 days…laundry was my greatest achievement).
I was notified earlier today that my Big Picture ‘a year to remember’ class has filled and registration is closed! I love the motivation, and challenge and good stuff that I feel about this class. There is a yahoo group that is already getting to know one another…if you are in there and want to know more, I think you can email big picture folks and they can point you in the right direction- or look on yahoo. SO to ALL OF YOU…. Around the world… that will be joining me on this amazing, rewarding and exciting journey… yeeeeeehaw!!! We are going to have a blast.
It’s only 11:35pm and I am tired. Why???
I think I am going to go curl up in my bed and write a to-do list. I have a Monday tomorrow… I think I need a good Monday!
I broke down and made choc. Chip cookies tonight. they turned out fantastic.
friday night
This week flew by! And next week is thanksgiving. Hello- that is a SCARY thought! Not only because it’s inching closer and closer to Christmas, and Christmas stresses me out. but because I have a lot of really serious deadlines. By that I mean, I am really supposed to be taking them seriously- here in the next couple of weeks. every year work deadlines come down to the wire and make it really hard to focus real attention on holidays. I think that everyone’s body subconsciously deals with stress in different ways. For me… I get huge canker sores when I am stressed. And right now- I can’t even believe how big this canker sore is right on the inside of my bottom lip. I need to measure the diameter, cause it might go in the book of world records. And it hurts so bad. and cause it hurts so bad, I then clinch my jaw. Which actually jaw clinching is another sign of my being stressed. My jaw and teeth are so sore…along with my lip. So i am having a hard time eating and drinking and brushing my teeth. And I love to brush my teeth. So it’s really bugging me.
Lol
K, sorry for that venting!
This morning I totally indulged myself. after the kids went to school, I fed Capri, and we both went back to bed. I slept in until 11am. (gasp) I can’t even remember when I got that kind of a sleep in! it was so awesome! The bummer was that ½ my day was gone, but I think that sometimes you have to do that! So I did.
Yesterday em and I spent the day at Bazzill, we are getting right back into the thick of Creative Escape meetings and preparations. It’s so nice having one year under our belt, and using that information to our advantage in our planning. This year we are going to be so much smarter as we put this all together. it’s going to be an amazing event again, and we have such cool exciting stuff in the works. If you haven’t already, be sure that you go to the creative escape website and sign up to get notified as we update the website with additional information. In the next little while, we will be announcing the teachers, sponsors and definite ‘teasers’. You can get on there and see when registration starts for next year as well as info about the event and venue and stuff like that! 
Ok, so if you don’t have a baby in your life, maybe you haven’t seen this remarkable little chair. I had never seen or heard of it, until my sister-in-law bought one for my 6 month old niece. It’s called a Bumbo chair. I broke down and bought one tonight. of course I got a pink one for miss Capri. And it’s a really pretty pink color! So I was happy about that. Capri LOVEs it! she is just starting to need WAY more interaction and attention. She I starting to enjoy little toys and does not like to be in any way a part of me multi-tasking. She wants all my attention and focus. I don’t understand why she is so happy sitting on my lap- you know, perfectly content… but if I set her down on the couch…she falls apart! She just has to be right in all the action. So maybe with this bumba chair, I will sit her right here on my desk next to me and she can catch my typos!
She looks so cute, and so alert! Man, they grow up too fast. It’s just not fair.
just stuff.
I can’t believe it’s already wed. I mean, seriously, I blinked.
Last night we did our last store visit of the year. We were at this cutest store called “Lucky 15”. It really is a find. Meghan, the owner has a real flare…and she has some really cool stuff in there. I love how she merchandises… everything in her store is organized by color. So, you walk in and there are these beautiful color sections. It totally makes sense to me, because that is how I scrapbook… I go to my stash and pull a bunch of stuff that is all in the colors I want to work with. granted.. I love to see big “heidi swap” sections of product… (selfish, I know)… but her store looks so awesome. If you live here, or you are visiting- it’s a must see. She made Capri this beautiful little knit bear…it’s so amazing, so cute. I am impressed.
Last week, I started back working with a trainer. I have been running, and that has been going really well, but I decided that it would help to do some weight training for a few months to try to get some tone back.(since I totally did nothing my entire pregnancy). All I can focus on right now is the PAIN that is resonating through my entire body. I have a 2 story house, and the stairs are an issue. The pain is a serious slow down. my trainer.. her name is beth.. she keeps telling me that the best thing for muscle soreness is cardio. there is no way cardio is happening today. hopefully tomorrow. have you ever heard of mapmyrun.com? if you go there, you can totally figure out routes to run, exactly how far it is.. you have to check it out.
We made a pretty amazing discovery this weekend. Sat, eric and I decided that something had to be done about our closet. it needed that major weeding out of old clothes and shoes and everything else that somehow ends up stashed in there. In the process, eric found our very first camcorder, and there was still a tape in it. We were amazed to find the first year of Colton’s life on that tape. Everything from him learning to sit up, crawl, clap… to his first few steps. I couldn’t believe the rush of memory, and emotions associated. It was SO cute to watch him watch himself as a baby. It reminded me how important video is. I don’t think we have taken ANY video of Capri yet… bad mom!
Ok…
So maybe you have seen the little presentation that I created to put on the big picture website…it turned out cute. You can see it here if you haven’t. (go into my class description on the big picture site). the big picture class is almost full.. and I am really looking forward to it. I am loving how it is coming together…but it was so fun to figure out how to make that little presentation! So… I decided to do it again.. and announce the photo contest winners with the same kind of presentation… so look for that link in your email today. It’s going out to the newsletter data base today. If you know you are signed up, and it doesn’t come, maybe check your junk mail. It’s fun! I totally love the possibilities of the internet.
time for bed.
It’s almost 10pm on Friday night and I am forcing myself to stay up just a little longer. My eyelids are SO heavy and my eyes are very tired. It’s been quite the intense few days. Creative-intense… the best kind. We were seriously productive finishing all designs for the idea book, QVC appearance on Dec.19/20, and designing a total of 3 classes for next year. I am very excited about the classes. They have lots of versatility and interest. I will be posting the shows that my team will be teaching at very soon, so that you can keep an eye on getting signed up!
I am teaching a class here on Nov. 18 at Scrapbooks Etc. I don’t teach very often…I am only teaching about 2 classes a quarter… and I like to do that so that I can see people’s responses to new stuff that I show/experimenting with… as well as just testing the waters for classes in general. I enjoy the opportunity and the store has an awesome classroom! My sincere thanks to Marti Jones for allowing me to teach there a little bit. The class I am teaching is called “heidi how-to”. It’s mostly a technique class- this time I will be playing with masks and clear stuff… as well as showing off my *new* favorite color of spray paint… {silver}. Should be a good time. Krylon is sending in toys for it! I think they said there were a couple of seats left if you are a LOCAL come and play! I am teaching the same class twice that day. check out the website for more info and phone number etc.:
http://www.scrapbooks-etc.com and if you do venture to the store, be sure that you go to the website anyway and get a free coupon. 
This is an album that I made last night to house the Halloween pages
that I have been doing, and Halloween pages for the future. I will be
demo-ing how I created this album cover in my class on the 18th. among other fun stuff!
Looking forward!
Wow, I am ultra tired.
it's a disaster in here...
Ok, going through all the Halloween photos was SOOOO funny! I mean, when we did the summer (water) photo contest… the photos were cute and it was fun to look at, but these were so FUNNY! It was a blast to see them. there are thousands that were submitted, so I can’t really post them all, but as I mentioned there will be 10 winners. I think I have them all narrowed down… so in the next day or 2, you need to check back and vote for your favorite! And by popular vote, you will all pick the overall winner! I have some awesome ones to show you! I decided to make up some categories… like ‘scariest’ and ‘cutest’ and ‘best theme’ etc… so stay tuned!
It’s a little crazy around here. As I mentioned, my mom and dad were here, and we had so much fun. I officially took 2 days off work to spend quality time with them… that was really nice. I shopped with my mom, and scrapbooked with my dad (and we are talking copper and liver of sulfer- he doesn’t mess around. My dad is also my accountant… so there was some tax conversations (ugh)…and get this, my mom did my laundry. What a gift. Thanks mom! Seriously…
They left Tuesday afternoon, and we had a really fun store visit that night in anthem- it was at “scrapbooks to remember”… they had a great turnout! So that was cool. Speaking of store tours- we will be at “Lucky 15” next week, Tuesday I believe. It’s a cute store…come check it out. 7pm.
Wed morning Janet Hopkins came in town to work on a whole list of stuff that we have to be creative about. She is our education coordinator and lives in Frisco, TX. So we have been brainstorming, and scrapbooking mostly. A serious mess has taken place… but so fun and we have been pretty productive. We are designing the classes for 2007, working on samples for the new products for the winter CHA. It’s so much fun to have *NEW* stuff to work with! We are putting together a little idea book (something that everyone in my big picture scrapbook class will get with their first inspiration shipment!) we are compiling about 100 scrapbook pages. It’s been fun to work on! this is the final push.
So wish us creative LUCK! 
(check out this bin of stuff... i found it in emily's garage...(thought you'd get a chuckle out of that one franni)
Quincy loves to write on my big calendar board... and i like to post layouts there as we complete them. i think we are up to 21 layouts! (yahoo for us!)
Blessing day
Today is one of those days that you hope you always remember… cause it’s one of the significant events- that you celebrate with family. We blessed Capri today. fOr those of you wondering what that means, in my faith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aka Mormons…), baptism happens when one turns eight years old… so as infants, we give them a special blessing at church. It’s a very special occasion for families, and usually a time that we all get together and celebrate the birth of the child. Capri will be three months this week, and I can hardly believe it. My parents flew down for the weekend, and it’s been so fun to have them here. I only wish Cam and LaRane, and Katie and Clark could be here… my 2 siblings and their families. I hate not living close to them. as I have been remembering back to the blessing days of my older children, I think that those feelings, and memories are the same as what I have been feeling today… definitely feeling the weight of my responsibility as a mother. I feel reminded of the divine calling to teach, love, and nurture these children that I have been entrusted with. And without a doubt, that overwhelming desire to protect, to be a perfect mother…and good example. Capri looked so beautiful in her little white dress. She is such a daddy’s girl. And eric loves it. (you can’t tell by this picture, can you?)
I have been debating about how I wanted to decorate Capri’s room. And I had pretty much settled on a very simple cream and khaki approach… that is until my mom gave me this darling quilt she made. my mom is an amazing quilter, and I have pretty much commissioned quilts for each child up until this point, but since we didn’t know if Capri would be a girl or a boy, and I was in no hurry to decorate etc…I hadn’t really spoken to her about it. so she made the “leap” and settled on creating a pink and black quilt. It’s SO cute. And I guess, that helped me to decide that I wanted to go the pink and black route. We got black furniture so that was perfect. eric was back at his painting perfectionist-ness. I wanted big bold stripes on one wall and the rest pink. As we had all the stripes measured and taped, I decided this was my chance to do something I have been wanting to do for 2 years… use one of my masks on the wall! Well, I am probably going to get in trouble for this…but I have new mask designs coming out at winter CHA, and I am so in love with them, and I could have used any of them… but I settled on the bird. I used it 4 times in the stripes. Dang, I love it! I put little pink jewels on the eyes. SO fun! So bold! I love it. the room isn’t finished, so I will show better photos when it gets all done. I did put up a pink tulle canopy over the crib: so princess! Anyway… I had to share.
catching up
Yikes,
It’s Friday and no blogging from me!
It’s been a crazy-good week, and moving rapidly into the weekend! We are blessing Capri Sunday, so my mom and dad are coming for that! I have tried to get tons done so that I could spend some time with them and not feel like I needed to be working. Unfortunately, even when I get so much done, I find myself faced with still more that is needing my attention. Usually, at the end of the day, and I more disappointed about what I didn’t get to, than I am happy about the things I crossed off the list! How backwards is that? This week I have made a conscious effort to be pleased with what I have been able to accomplish. I put in 15 miles this week. This morning was my best run by far and I think that was due to a really good long warm-up. Once I started running, my legs felt strong, and I was able to run my entire route without stopping. That includes the last ½ mile that is uphill, and usually where I poop out. I am noticing improvement. Without a doubt, my hour of exercise is my favorite hour of the day. this morning I was flooded with ideas on the 3 challenges I was focusing on. ran without the ipod this morning cause it was dead, and it totally paid off.
Wednesday Capri, Emily and I spent the day in Seattle with Stacy and Addie Julian (Stacy just adopted this beautiful Korean baby girl that is pictured below), and Paula Wessles of Big Picture Scrapbooking.
It
was such a treat to meet Addie… she is so beautiful, petite and so
sweet. Oh, and a lot more content than my little angel. They are a mere
one month apart..it was so fun to see Stacy with her baby. They are
both so blessed to be put in each others’ lives. so picture us all
crammed in a mini-van cruising Seattle! We were a sight! We did a
little tour of the market area, and it was as charming and delightful
as I always imagined. We ate lunch at this restaurant right there in
the market over looking the water- it was up high and the view was
spectacular!
all the fresh veggies, fruit and fish was amazing..
i loved it! but you wouldn't catch me kissing the fresh fish!
We had some great girl-time as well as so much accomplished on designing my classroom for Big Picture and the ever-continuing details of my class “A year to Remember”. including nailing down a very fun secret that I am dying to talk about… and such a thrill for me.. but I CAN’T TELL… and it’s killing me. I will suffice it to say… it’s something that even I never would have dreamed up… it just happened. Dang-it’s cool. And when I can tell, you will understand why it’s so cool, and why it’s killing me not to tell! (you will notice if you go and look at what is included in my class, it says surprises galore).
Capri doesn't have to dress warm much, but loves her little pink hat! (mom might love it more). Both girls were very good in our travels!
(here is a little sneak peek at the calendar and the new IRON ON that i just got from the factory to test that is for the class! it looks awesome!)
I can’t wait to show you what I have been working on in the household. We are in the midst of decorating capri’s room, and finishing the photo collage downstairs… eric is up to his painting magic.. and it’s going to be so cute.
I just found out that I will be making my QVC debut next month! I will let you know when as it gets a little closer. Janet Hopkins is coming next week to work on samples with em and I for the air date, as well as catalog samples and finalizing 2007 education! But I mention Janet because I have to brag about her cause she probably won’t brag about herself… Janet is this totally awesome scrapbooker and has recently officially joined my team as our education coordinator. After many years in the full-time work force, she had her 3rd baby and decided to leave her much loved position. I am thrilled to have her on my team- but the bragging is this… if you go into Michael’s in the ribbon section they have all these beautiful new image-banners at the tops of the shelves giving ideas for using ribbons.. and janet created many of the projects! They are all stunning… I just saw them for the first time today when I was in Michaels. You have to go check it out, cause there are some CUTE gift-y ideas that might come in handy as Christmas approaches!
Ok… back to work.
