breaking the habit

...my Making Memories kraft patterned paper habit, that is. Look! I actually did some layouts without my security blanket, I mean, go-to patterned paper!

we're so cute together

Aren't we so cute together? Thanks to my friend Michelle for capturing these fun photos of us, especially since I made her stand on a 12-foot ladder to take them! (and yes, there's that Making Memories kraft patterned paper again. I think I need an intervention.)

wait...I can explain

What's behind my sudden disappearance? Basically, April. The end of the school year in Housing is absolutely crazy. We warn new employees, but I don't think they really understand until they've experienced it.

Here's my last 34 days in numbers:
1 birthday party
1 meal brought to a coworker who is a new mom
1 tri-org picnic
1 HOST (desk clerk) training/retreat day
1 call to 911 for a desk clerk who injured her knee at the retreat
1 bridal shower
2 Mother's Day gifts made
2 weddings
2 trips out of town
2 Midlevel lunches
2 apartment walkthroughs
3 trips to WalMart for work purchases
3 trips planned for employees' travel to conferences
4 wogs (walking/jogging around the neighborhood)
4 scrapbook layouts completed
5 hall director staff meetings
6 trips to the gym to work out
6 awards ceremonies
7 days on call
7 trips to local vendors to order and pick up awards
11 loads of laundry, 6 of which took a week and a half to finish
13 7:45 am visits to other halls to take desk clerk photos
16+ hours spent in meetings with the Midlevel Management team
17 group photos taken of hall staffs and other work teams
19 hall director selection files compiled and reviewed

Thankfully, Keith is amazing, completely understanding, and never once complained about how few actual dinners we got to eat together. I'm finally getting back into my groove--the house is picked up again, we have food in the fridge and menus planned out for the week, I have more energy, and I have some serious scrapping time planned out for this long weekend. I'll post some stuff soon!

I'm famous!

Ok, not really, but the Denton Area Cinderella Project did get featured in the North Texas Daily. Even better, they almost got everything right! (the caption reads more than 100 when it should be more than 500)

resting

I've been having a very low-key Sunday to recover from running the Denton Area Cinderella Project on Friday and Saturday. We had over 500 dresses and about 60 girls came and got to pick out their prom dress. So much fun and such a good cause.

I think I'm addicted

I have a scrapbooking-related addiction. You see, Making Memories made a Kraft line of patterned papers that are all designs on a kraft-colored background. I loved them when I bought them, so much so that I bought multiple sheets of several of the patterns. I never buy more than one sheet of each design, since I only use small portions of patterned paper per layout and therefore can stretch a sheet across several layouts. This time, however, not only did I buy more than one sheet of these kraft patterns, a week later I went back and stocked up on even more. I guess I must have known how well they would go with just about everything. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that almost every single layout I've done lately uses at least a small piece of Making Memories kraft patterned paper. It might not be so odd if it weren't for the fact that I bought these papers about a year and a half ago. That's forever in the scrapbook world. I love the pages, though, so let me share my addiction with you.

scrapbook share

I don't often get to share my scrapbooks with friends and family, especially since my in-progress album is just a stack of layouts! I also don't like to shove a 30 pound album in someone's lap, watching expectantly as they turn the pages. Putting them here on my blog seems like a good compromise, since you can look at them as you please. I hope you like them, and if you don't at least you don't have to say nice things because I'm sitting right there next to you!

as seen in Simple Scrapbooks January/Feburary 08