OMG ... can you believe it?

I'm officially a published scrapper ... well, not really, I guess! lol. I just got the latest copy of Creating Keepsakes today (August - Vol 11 Issue 8) there is a project of mine in there!!!! It's scary how utterly excited I am right now ... I've been jumping out of my skin. It's a mini key-ring album I did, and it's in an ad for Acacia Paper Craft, which is a wholesalers I am on the DT for, but I didn't know it was going to be in the ad - my goodness, if I'm this excited about a small pic of the cover of my keyring album, how do you superstars cope when you get a whole lo published??
Oh, I know you'll all want to rush out and get yourself a copy - page 73 is where you'll find me! lol For those of you who can't wait -

Ok, that's it from me for today - I'm off to cook enough mince to make nacho's for 12 people. My turn to host the English Department lunch tomorrow ... and I'm not really a cook, Dennis does most of the cooking round here, so this will be interesting!

Sick of Being Sick!

Yep, the dreaded cold is back ... with a vengeance. Went to work today (Yr 10 DID appreciate all the civil rights stuff, so I'm glad I bothered now!) but my head got progressively worse, and by the time I finished with my horrid yr 8's, my headache was in full swing, but I didn't get home any earlier than usual because I had so much paperwork to do ... sick of paperwork, too! Came home, took the girls to physi (got Kelsey a new leotard, and she looks gorgeous in it, so that was worth the trip) and then came home and fell asleep on the lounge. Feeling a little better now, but I really hope this doesn't hang around as long as the last bout - I was sick for a month, and I just don't have time for that at the moment!

Had a teary moment tonight - a dear friend (you know who you are!) has had a bit of a rough time, and she posted a lovely comment on a forum we are on ... I'm happy to help you eat a whole chocolate cake any time you need me to, lovey! It made me realise how important little things can be, and how important friends are, even those ones who call you names and insult you at every opportunity, and who you chat to online more than IRL (in fact, ESPECIALLY those ones!) So a big thanks to all my cyber-friends, and thanks for all the little things that you do or say to make my life a little more cheery.
That's it for me - off to make another cup of tea with honey. Take care of yourselves!

Holy crap, I'm exhausted!!

It's only one week back into the term, and I feel so in need of another holiday. I guess the fact that the holidays were so busy didn't help either! Run off my feet at work, and trying frantically to keep up with all my usual work plus the extra stuff that I "volunteered" for. That, plus fighting off the beginnings of a cold ... bring on the weekend, is all I can say.

Kelsey loves being back at school, and was even excited about going to piano lessons today, so that's a good thing ... she was skipping lots of lessons last term, and I was getting worried that she didn't like it, but I think it was more just a scatterbrain thing than anything else. Her teacher (what a sweetheart - thank God that Kels got in her class this year!!) reminded her to go, so maybe that's what she needs - she's taking after her brother more and more each day. lol

I want to be scrapping - so much more interesting than researching the history of the civil rights movement in the USA for a class who I just KNOW are not going to give a crap, or put any effort into their assignments at all ... ah well, that's teaching, I guess. Ok, off to print off some info about Rosa Parks - what a legend! I hope year 10 appreciate her even half as much as I do. Night night, bloggers!

Fixed the slideshow ...

doesn't it look great? Thanks Nat, you are a legend ... everything is where it's supposed to be!
Ok, really off to do housework now ... lol.

I've been tagged ...

repeatedly, actually, so I thought I'd better do it before I got in trouble again. (I know, I said I was going to do housework, but this is FAR more important, isn't it? lol)
So here goes ...
Four Jobs I’ve Had :
1) Checkout chick
2) Deli assistant (managed to slice the top of my finger off ... hence the shortness of this particular job!)
3) Childcare worker
4) High school teacher

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over :
1) Anne of Green Gables
2) Toy Story
3) With A Song in My Heart (The Jane Froman Story)
4) An Affair To Remember
Can I just add, if it has a song I can sing along to, I'm there ... so musicals from Grease to Rocky Horror to Showboat should all be on here, but there are way too many of them!

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch :
1) West Wing ... over and over again!
2) House
3) Simpsons
4) American Dad

Four Important things to me :
1) Family
2) Books and reading ... both doing it myself, and encouraging others to
3) Scrapbooking
4) Friends

Four Tunes That Play In My Head :
1) Video by India Arie
2) Because of You by Kelly Clarkson
3) Hello by Neil Diamond (don't laugh!)
4) Mamma Mia by ABBA (ok, I guess you are entitled to be laughing by now ... should I tell you that Barry Manilow almost made it onto the list, but I couldn't pick just one song?)

Four Favorite Food Dishes :
1) Fish - I'm not fussy, I can eat it any way ...LOVE seafood!
2) Chicken burritos
3) Fruit ... love it by itself, love it in salads and pies, love it love it love it!
4) Anything Dennis cooks

Four Websites I Visit Daily :
1) Little Scrapbook Shop
2) Acacia PaperCraft
3) ScrapbookingTop50
4) My emails

Four Scrap companies I like :
1) MME - Wild Asparagus
2) Reminisce
3) Heidi Swapp (except for the rubons)
4) Everlasting Keepsakes

Four Favorite Colors :
1) White
2) Pink
3) Blue
4) Brown

Mourning the loss of my little boy ... (not really!)

So I'm in mourning today ... my little boy has been stolen and replaced with a 12 year old. How did that happen? Talk about vague, too ... don't know where he gets that from! His present has been sitting outside his bedroom for a week, uncovered, still in it's original box, in no way disguised at all, and did he notice it? Even after we told him that it had been there for a week, and he could go out and get it? No, he did not. We had to point it out to him, and then he was going to open the box to find out what it is. Did he notice the picture of the TV on the outside of the box? No, he did not. Yep, that's my boy. Gotta love it when he wants KFC for his birthday dinner though - THAT'S a meal I can prepare! lol
Tayla (DD3) had a sleepover last night - her little boyfriend Joshie and her are inseperable, it's quite cute. Not too sure about all the kissing though ... he's an older man, after all (he's 4, Tay is only 3!)
In other news, I've been scrapping a storm lately ... here are some things I completed for the challenges at the LittleScrapbookShop CC!
This is my grumpy girl Tay - there's some hidden journalling underneath the LHS pic.
This treasure box goes with the frame I made for Tay last week - it's in the previous post. $3 box from the Reject Shop - gotta love that!

Off to do some housework ... I finally figured out why my sidebar wasn't at the side, so that's why my slideshow is missing, if you'd noticed (boo hoo). If I can figure out how to get it back without stuffing up the formatting, it'll make another appearance. Have a great sunday everyone!

Testing out my image adding skills ...

So here we go, my first attempt at adding pics. Yes I know, this is simple, and you are all probably laughing at my extreme inability to do even the most basic of blogging tasks - in my defence, I will say that it's school holidays, and my brain is not due back at work for another 4 days.
So just to test out whether I'm any good at this blogging thing, or I should be banished from the whole community, here is a pic of a frame I altered last night for a challenge on LittleScrapbookShop ... Cath went away and left us, but still made us work!

The great furniture debacle

The computer has up until this point been balancing precariously on a smallish student desk (I brought the desk in my first week of uni, and have a bizarre sentimental attachment to it, even though it is really too small to be of any practical use!!) So while I was shopping for a bookcase to store all our excess books in, I found the PERFECT computer station - an amoire style one, with the doors which close in front of the monitor (yeah, like they are going to be closed for long!!) I paid for it, and organised to pick it up the next morning, and came home to tell DH. Turns out that it was the box he was moving when he injured his back - a different colour though, so I don't think he'll be psychologically scarred every time he looks at the new desk, but you never know!
Picked up the new computer station, plus a new bookcase for the kids books (how did I manage to accumulate this many books?!?!?!)About 7 hours later, they were put together - little Miss Tayla's help with the bookcase made it go so much quicker, my tendency to put things on back the front with the computer table did not. Pics to follow ... still trying to figure that out, but I did manage to edit the links to the side, so you can check out the places I hang and the blogs I visit now! (all scrapping related, sadly enough ... lol)
We are off to Disney on Ice tomorrow, and you know what that means - yep, spending way too much money on souvenirs, and taking way too many pics of my little princesses who are just dying to get all dressed up for the occasion - we have the privilege of accompanying Cinderella and Belle to the ball! That's it from me atm ... check in later when the princess' blog gets illustrated (maybe .....)!!

My first venture into Blog-land ...

... are you bored yet?? lol. Well, I've been inspired by some friends, and I'm now officially a blogger ... and now I'm here, I don't know what I should be typing! I'm never really stuck for words, so it's an interesting experience.

An intro, I guess, for all those who have stumbled across my psyche unintentionally - I'm Tamara, princess-tamara, or PT, depending on where you know me from. I'm a mother to 3 mostly wonderful, occasionally infuriating children, and have 2 step children and 3 step-grandchildren with my DH Dennis. I'm also a scrapbooker, a high-school English teacher, and an amateur writer (meaning I've never been brave enough to submit anything to a publisher, I write for myself mainly!), and I'm tired just reading that list!

Ok, I'm off to fiddle with some more settings on this thing - where's the instruction manual? I'll post some lo's and pics later ... if I can figure out how to do it!

Take care,
Princess-Tamara