Balboa Island

Ali, Angela and I went down to Balboa Island last week and had a great time. We got caricatures done, we shopped, we saw the ferris wheel, and Angela even ate a frozen banana. A good time was had by all. :)

Me or My Man?

Found this fun questionnaire on a friends' blog and thought I'd take a crack at it. Some of these were hard! :)


You or your man?


1. Who eats more? I'd have to say that Nathan does. I could not even compete if I wanted to! :)
2. Who said "I love you" first? I did. And I did it pretty fast. It took him a while, but he came around. I think he thought I was going at lightning speed in our relationship and he just wanted to chill. But he couldn't resist!

3. Who weighs more? Umm, let me think, he does. Yeah, I think that's right.
4. Who sings better? I'd have to say me, although he does try very hard.
5. Who's Older? He is by about 2 1/2 years.
6. Who's smarter? Nathan is definitely smarter, because he has a mind like a steel trap and he remembers absolutely everything! I'm surprised I remember what I did last week. Yeah, not much of a memory person. But us both a question about Photoshop and I've got the upper hand. Yeah, baby! :)

7. Who's temper is worse? I think I would have to say that I do. Neither of us are big yellers at all, but I tend to sulk and quietly rage. It does take a lot to get Nathan really mad.

8. Who does the laundry? Me, me and me.
9. Who does the dishes? He's good at helping with the dishes, but lately it's been all me.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If by 'right' side you mean the side that is the coolest, then of course it's going to be me. But if you mean 'right' side when you're looking at the bed, then it's him.
11. Who's feet are bigger? His definitely are.
12. Who's hair is longer? Mine.
13. Who's better with the computer? Depends on what you're doing with the computer. He's the pro with everything hardware and functioning and all that, but I'm the pro with certain programs. I'd say overall that it's him, though. I mean, that is his job!
14. Who mows the lawn? If we had a lawn, it would definitely be Nathan's domain. He used to mow it (almost) every week at the studio.
15. Who pays the bills? I do. He hasn't paid a bill since we've been married. :)

16. Who cooks dinner? That's tough, because we both do. I should cook way more and I'm trying to start, but it's tough when there's only 2 of you eating and there are a million ziploc bags full of leftovers! But overall, I'd say I cook more, even though he does cook some.
17. Who drives when you are together? He does, usually. If he's too tired I'll drive.
18. Who pays when you go out to dinner? He does, of course. Although it doesn't really matter because the funds come from the same place anyway. :)
19. Who's the most stubborn? Stubborn, hmmm. I would have to go with Nathan. He really does like to have things a certain way, although we're both pretty set in what we expect. I don't know, that's a hard question.
20. Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong? Me. I'm wrong a lot, apparently! :)

21. Who's parents do you see more? Definitely his parents. They're close by so we see them a lot. I miss seeing my parents because they're now living in Cleveland and that's way too far away. I really am sad that Eli doesn't get equal time with the respective grandparents, but that's just the way it goes, I suppose.

22. Who named your dog? We don't have one. Who knows if we'll ever have one. Once we have a house, maybe, but we'll have to see about another kid first, then decide if I can deal with animals! :)

23. Who kissed who first? Yeah, that would have to be me, I think. He knew I was waiting for the kiss and he just kept dragging it out, trying to torture me. (And I think he was a little nervous because he'd never kissed a girl before!) Our first kiss was at Stewart Falls and it was great. :)

24. Who asked who out? He asked me out, for sure. Although, we did just hang out a lot and play games and stuff, but then one night it was just different. Very cool indeed.

25. What did you do? We went to dinner and a movie. Nothing too exciting, but it was because it was our first date and I was so nervous and giggly and we had a great time. :)

26. Who's more sensitive? Me, me, me. And me! I know he's sensitive to my feelings and such, but he'd much rather make a joke than talk about sensitive stuff. It's just his personality, he likes to be happy and jovial and not dwell on the feelings stuff. :) Too bad he married me! Hahaha.
27. Who's taller? Nathan, by a good margin.
28. Who has more friends? I would say that we both have only a few friends. We're really stuck together a lot and we do stuff together all the time. And I'm REALLY not good at keeping up with old friends and such (sorry, Summer!!). But this is on my to-do list to get better at, being friends with people. I'm such a dork, I have a to-do list about being friends with people. Lame-O!! :)

29. Who has more siblings? I do, I have 5 and Nathan has 2.

30. Who wears the pants in the relationship? That depends, what kind of pants are they? Because Nathan sure knows how to rock the sequined stretch pants!! :) No, I think we both have a lot of pull in our relationship. He is always thinking about me and putting my needs first, though, but he also makes a lot of the main decisions. So I don't know, maybe Nathan, with a heavy dose of me. :)

Thanks for reading! :)

Personality Test

Okay, so I stole this idea from Jessica's blog and took this personality test myself. It's pretty accurate, I would say. Especially towards the love relationships, work stuff, and how people see me. Crazy.

This is me:

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. In love, you tend to have high (and often unrealistic) standards. You are very sensitive. You tend to have intense feelings. At work, you need to do something that expresses your personal values. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist. How you see yourself: Unselfish, empathetic, and spiritual When other people don't get you, they see you as: Unrealistic, naive, and weak

What's Your Personality Type?

Any thoughts? Agree, disagree? :)

Laguna Beach

Ali and Angela are visiting for a while as Nathan is in Australia. We went out to Laguna Beach yesterday (Angela: "So where do we go to see all the famous people?") and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, no famous people spotting, but it was still fun to hang out together and soak up some sun. Here are some fun pictures from the day.

CK Reader's Choice! I need your help!

Hey gang! (Or anyone who is reading this, lol!) I just wanted to pass along an opportunity to showcase digital scrapbooking and ask for your help with it. Here is an excerpt from a post Mandy did on the message board today: "Scrap Girls is participating as a company in CK's 2008 Readers' Choice Awards. We would love to have you fill out a ballot and vote for Scrap Girls. Here is the link to vote for your favorites. I believe the contest runs through the middle of October. If you've ever wanted to spread the word about how much you love Scrap Girls, here is a great way to do it. You vote. Have your friends vote. Get your kids to vote and your dog and your cat. Post it on your blog for people to go vote for Scrap Girls." So please, if you have a spare moment, go vote for ScrapGirls! I love this company and it has taught me everything I know about digital scrapbooking. I could not be more grateful to Ro, Mandy, Angie, Heidi, and everyone else who I work with, for being so great and believing in me. I owe all of them more than just a vote, but if I can start there, then that will be good. So I encourage you to help me show my appreciation! Please go vote! Thanks so much! :)


Okay, and PS: on a totally different note....Nathan and I actually got out of the house tonight to go see The Bourne Ultimatum. Oh man, it was so good. Rarely do movie series like these get better as they go along, but this last one was just so GOOD! I loved the action and the back story and the character development and music. Oh, the great, heart-pounding music! Just loved it. Plus, it was great to get out with Nathan and be able to spend some time together before he leaves. Okay, I'll leave you all with some pictures, since I know that's what you want to see anyway. ::smile::

Oh, man, he sure did need a haircut! Good thing I got him one the very next day.

He just loves to go down the slide!

I just bought a copy of Photoshop Creative magazine last night and I've only had a few minutes to look through it, but I'm pretty excited. It looks like a lot of fun, and it even came with a CD full of tips and tricks and fun things to try. I really love finding out new things about my software and the capabilities that it has. I love getting better at my Photoshop skills (because there is ALWAYS room for improvement with me!).

Also, I just want to say a quick sorry to my dear hubby. I was a pain in the rear yesterday, and not because he deserved it, even! :) I think I'm unnecessarily stressing myself out about his upcoming trip to Australia. I just think that I'm really going to miss him and I'm trying to deal with my insecurities of having to be on my own for 3 weeks. I know, I should just suck it up and be brave. Why is that so hard to do sometimes?

One good thing is that Ali and Angela will be coming down to visit for a while. They'll be here on Thursday and I'm super excited to have a distraction. To show how excited I am, here is a layout I did for a magazine submission about the girls. We had such a fun time doing a photo shoot last Christmas, and I used pictures from then. We'll have to do a new one when they're here!


Supplies used: GraphX Brush set by Thao Cosgrove, green stitching brush by Valerie Randall, Paper style by Shalae Tippetts, mini stars by Syndee Nuckles, yellow swirl brush by Brandie Valenzuela (ScrapGirls); blue BG paper by Aja Abney (www.scrapartist.com); glitter paint, old photo proofs and red stitching by Christina Renee (www.funkyplaygrounddesigns.com); ribbon (recolored) by Micheline Martin (www.thedigishoppe.com); green swirl, sun by Carrie Stephens (www.fishscraps.com).

OC County Fair

We had the chance last week to go to the OC County Fair with Mandy Steward and her fun family. We had a great time watching the rides, eating carnival food, chatting, looking at art and photography, and just being out with our family together.

I've never been anywhere besides the rodeo, so this was all a little new for me. I can't wait until Eli is old enough to ride the rides. Mandy's girls had such a fun time, it was so adorable to watch.

Dad and Eli hanging out, drinking some lemonade at the fair. Nathan's dressed up because he had to come straight from work, NOT because he wanted to impress the carnies.



This is a picture of Zoe, who was so proud of the stamp on her hand, because it meant that she was a "big girl" and could ride some of the rides!


This is Nehemiah, Mandy's littlest one. He's just a bit younger than Eli and he makes the greatest faces ever! :)


Here's Eli trying to feed Dad his binkie. It's a fun game until Eli tries to stick it down his throat! Heehee, what a good dadda.


Mmmmmm....funnel cake.......



Eli was so pooped after the fair, that he fell asleep as we were still walking around. He was a good sport, though, for not being able to do any of the fun stuff, like go behind the rides where all the machinery and gears were, eat leftover carnival food from the ground, and run out into the middle of a crowded walkway. Yeah, poor kid, we never let him do any of the fun stuff! :)

I'll miss my hubby

It's official -- Nathan is going to Australia for three weeks.

For work.

Without me.

I'm jealous.

I mean, he's already been there before, and I never have been! That's reason enough to let me go with him, right? Heehee.

Actually, we found out so suddenly and it's only a couple of weeks away, so there was no way to swing so that I could go this time. And besides, after the stress of taking Eli on a 5 hour flight to Hawaii, I don't think he'd appreciate being on a plane for 15 hours straight.

But luckily, if Nathan is on the same job this time next year, I'll most definitely be able to go. We'll see what we do with Eli at that point, whether it's take him with us or have my parents watch him for us.

Three weeks is a long time, though, and I don't know if I could be without Eli that long. Nathan, I'll have to just deal with, but without Eli would be tough, lol. :)

I'm actually pretty excited because I get to have my sisters Ali and Angela come out to stay with me for a good amount of the time. That will be really nice, so I won't be by myself for the whole time.

Here are some random pictures that I like, just because I don't like only writing on blog posts, I always wish there were pictures. :)

Eli at the park, wearing his cute new ScrapGirls T-shirt. On the front it says, "I'm Cute! Digiscrap Me!" and on the back it says "www.scrapgirls.com". I just love it and think it's the cutest thing. I also have a shirt for me that says "Bwahahaha...Welcome to the dark side -- Digital Scrapbooking". It's hilarious, especially if you've been on the boards over at SG. You can find the products here: http://www.cafepress.com/scrapgirls



Eli and daddy being crazy. We're sure going to miss him while he's gone!




This is the Na Pali coast in Kauai. I wouldn't mind spending some more time out there!

I'm a Digital Gal

Okay, so I have to share this experience because it made me laugh on the inside. I recently went to a card-making party for a lady in my ward whose mom is a StampIt consultant. We got to make 3 cards and have a lot of fun. I've never really made cards before or done the whole stamp thing really, so this was a new thing for me, that I thought I'd try and get a chance to talk with adults for a while. :)

So anyways, I go to the party, and get set up to start my first card. I quickly find out that the ink is permanent when I get bumped and accidentally drop the big stamp onto the inside of my cute card.

Dang.

There's no Undo button. There's no erase. I can't just scrap it and start over because I'm paying for this specific bit of cardstock.

Dang.

So I decide to just call it an artistic decision and move forward.

On to the second card. I'm using a layered stamp that has multiple parts to it that have to line up to make sense. So I spend literally minutes of time trying to line these stamps up perfectly, only to find out I have no hand-eye coordination and I messed up.

Dang.

I can't nudge this layer a little bit to line up correctly. It's there and it's stuck and there's no moving it.

Dang.

By this time, I'm really missing my beloved Photoshop. On to the third card.

This one, surprisingly, turns out just fine. I follow the directions and come out with a nice card. But the colors of the elements are not my favorite and I can't just go in and change the Hue/Saturation.

Dang.

All in all, I had a fun time socializing and creating with my hands, but I don't think that I'll start up a card-making hobby anytime soon.

Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for everyone who does this sort of thing and can get their hands to be steady and create perfectly aligned, tangible cards and scrapbook layouts.

It's just not for me.

Here's a scan of my card along with one that I re-created digitally in about 10 minutes. Yeah, you could say that I'm hooked! :)

The Little Nephew

Okay, I had to share this cute layout that I made of Nate. Emily took this picture of him while we were all in San Antonio in June, and I just had to do something with it. It's so cute! So here's Nate, and he is one tough dude!