Poor Doggie, etc.

Took the dog to the vet yesterday for long overdue shots, nail trim, etc. Found out she has a bum knee and is extremely overweight. Dare I say, obese? Anyway, she is now on a diet. Special food, no cleaning up after Sadie :o( I will miss this greatly. If she doesn't lose weight she may need to have surgery. After hearing the price tag on it, I am confident this dog will lose weight. :o)

Sadie made it through an entire episode of illness without experiencing a bout of her dreaded reactive airway disease. Yeah!! It gives me hope that this thing really is something she will outgrow. It was also so nice not to have to deal with that pain-in-the-butt nebulizer. This is a huge praise God event in our lives!!!

Sadie said "chihuahua" last night in her sleep three times. It was funny. She is obsessed with the Chihuahua song by DJ Bobo, and the dogs in general. This passion is of course, being fueled by the recent Disney release of Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I think I will take her to see it during the day when no one else is in the theater so she can scream and run up and down the aisles, etc.

What else is going on? Zoe is at camp this weekend. I went scrapbooking last night. Finished my trip to the zoo mini acrylic album - just need to add some ribbons to the ring. It turned out cute! I also finished one page in Sadie's book. It's a "happy baby" page featuring a 5x7 portrait taken at 3 months. This one turned out cute too. Very simple. Adding more blog feeds to my iGoogle page. I like being able to see the new posts without having to surf to each blog. "Yes, I love technology...but not as much as you, you see!!"

My Blaaagh!

Oh dear, start a blog, then never update it. That is SO like me! Well, I found out on Thursday that our dentist wants all our money. Zoe needs phase 2 orthodontia to the tune of 5k, Isabel needs braces (luckily they can wait), and Sadie has two cavities that need to be filled under anesthesia in the hospital. I can tell you that none of the above is going to happen. I'll be looking for a new dentist now, thank you very much.

Some noteable things that happened recently include:

• Sadie said "churkey" (instead of turkey)
  
• Sadie said "to the rescue!"
• Sadie went on the "big girl swing" for the first time and we had a hard time getting her off of it.

I got the book "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker" by Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey. Lain Ehmann reviewed it on her podcast and ever since I heard the review I kept thinking that I need that book. I got it at Archiver's with my 30% off coupon. It was well worth it. I am now in the process of analyzing my everyday life and what "inspires" me to scrapbook. I can see that my style and inspiration is never cut and dried so it will be interesting to see how I can organize my space to work with so many scenarios. I don't even have walls in my space so how I am going to actually accomplish anything I am not sure.

I have realized that my inspiration for scrapbooking (the reason I put a page together is based on many different sources). I remember a few years ago driving down the main road that you take to get to our house and I saw a dark brown wood garage with these beautiful coral/fuschia colored flowers planted along the edge and thinking what a gorgeous color combination that was. It made me want to create a page using those colors.

Other inspirational sources include: gorgeous photographs, patterns (circles are especially attractive to me), seasonal changes (spring and fall are my favorites) and photographs of family. With regard to family photographs, they inspire me to create layouts or mini-books to document those special times. I usually need time to come up with the "plan" for how I want to preserve them. I will usually see something in a magazine or products in a store that will give me the idea and I will run with it from there.

It's interesting that I have never taken the time before now to analyze the "why" of my scrapbooking. I know that I have a creative need to express. I also feel the motivation to document family events. So through the creative process so I feel like I am killing two birds with one stone. (Why do I use that expression? Yuk.)

I guess that's enough blathering for now.