Going On...

I keep planning all these blog posts and then never sit down to do them. So here's a few things going on in our lives lately...

:: Almost three weeks ago I started having some terrible pain in my upper right abdomen. It eventually got so bad that we decided to go into the hospital. I ended up spending a few terrible hours in the emergency room only to be sent home with pain meds and orders to come back in if the pain continued within the next 12 hours. The pain did continue, but I wasn't about to have a repeat-performance at the ER if I could help it. Think IV's, blood tests, passing out with convulsions, bad reactions to medications, diahrrea, and a few more tests until 2 in the morning. Not fun. So I waited almost 48 hours until Nate made me go into my doctor. He sent me back to the hospital for another 2 hour scan of my abdomen with another IV and a few funky fluids pumped in for good measure. I had continued terrible pain, but we had to wait a weekend to get results. Everyone was pretty sure it was my gallbladder having an attack and the tests would show I needed a surgery. After a nasty weekend of pain, a few blessings, a diet change and lots of pain meds, we found out that my test was normal. It wasn't the gallbladder. So, the next step was a CT. Again, I had to get another IV (I don't like IV's, have you noticed?) and some more funky fluids while they scanned me. This one only took about ten minutes, though. The CT scan came back normal, as well. Thankfully, my pain has been intermittent lately. Some days it is really bad, some days I don't feel it at all. We are beginning to suspect an ulcer. The way I worry, it wouldn't surprise me. The next step with the doctors is a trip to the gastroenterologist, where I will likely have to endure a tube down the throat or in other places I'd rather not think about. Lovely.

:: Because of above-mentioned two weeks of pain, doctors trips and doped-up days of sleep; Nate ended up having to drop his Calculus II course. The amount of time and energy and worry spent invested in this class just wasn't there in order for him to pass, and we didn't have the $1400+ to pay back Battelle if he didn't pass. He got out while he still had time. Since then, we have been in "no-school" bliss together. We have spent the past 8 years believing we are incompetent losers that can't seem to accomplish any of the to-do's on our lists and somehow are always fighting a wave of overwhelming frustration. I am here to tell you that this is not true. :-) Obviously, but really...we were starting to think it was. We have gotten more done to our house and yard in the past two weeks than we have in three years of living here. It's amazing what you can accomplish when work is over and you don't have homework hanging over your head each night and weekends. All of the sudden we have all this time together to get things done, it's amazing!

:: Because we weren't in school and Nate had a few days vacation saved up, we were able to drop everything and go to the beach with my parents over Memorial Day week. It was wonderful and incredible and so much fun! The kids adored it, we got two beautiful, sunny afternoons to play at the beach and seeing my parents was great. We were able to change our room so that we shared a balcony next door to my parents, so we often woke up with an eerily quiet condo in the mornings. We'd trek next door to find two very happy little girls in their jammies, eating breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa. Poor Grandma and Grandpa probably didn't get the rest they were hoping for on this vacation, but we sure enjoyed a few minutes of peace here and there. The girls couldn't get enough of it, either. We are asked everyday since when we're going back to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa.

:: We've acquired a new addition to our family this past week, much to the dog's dismay. I know, another pet?! What was I thinking?! Really, what am I thinking?! I'm a sucker, as Nate would put it so eloquently. I was at Petco picking up Jedda from her grooming appointment, when the lady behind the counter started chatting to me about some animals she had for adoption. I wasn't paying much attention, because I knew Nate would kill me if I brought home anything else that poops, breathes or eats. But then she pulled out this cute little hamster and showed it to my girls. I know, how mean is that?! They start oooo-ing and awww-ing over this cute little furry creature, so I politely ask how much it costs. She tells me it's free, since it's up for adoption. Some guy couldn't take care of them anymore and so he brought them in to be given away. Well, it may be free, but the cage and bedding and food and all that surely wouldn't be free, too, I thought. She assured me that everything came with it, free. I just had to take it home. So guess what I did? I said yes and carted home a little cage, a bag full of supplies, a hamster and two very happy little girls who have since named her Hammy. They get to hold her a couple times a day and watch her run around in her little hamster ball. We have to crate the dog when she's out, or else we'd have some Animal Planet, call-of-the-wild, big animal eats small animal attack, which wouldn't go over well with the girls. I get to clean up yet another animal's poop and pee and am left to wonder what is wrong with me. Nate just laughs and shakes his head at me and is sometimes heard to mutter "sucker" under his breath. I figure one of you would happily take over the job of sucker for me if I decide I can't handle it anymore and want to "rid" myself of an animal, though, right? She's free and everything is included. :-)

:: As posted about earlier, my newest obsession is digital scrapbooking. If Nate can't find me lately, he'll call out through the house..."are you in there on photoshop again!?" Where I will quietly slink down into my chair and pretend I didn't hear him while I click away at my computer. I am obsessed. It's like combining two of my favorite things, computers/web design and paper crafting/scrapbooking. I don't have to haul out supplies or print out pictures or thumb through magazines for inspiration...I just open up photoshop and start to play. Everything is right here on my computer. Shoot, if I can't find a supply I need, it's only a few clicks away. Amazing. So, you may get sick of it, but I'll be posting my layouts from time to time. It's just too fun not to share. Here's the two I finished this weekend:

This layout was for the weekly challenge on Jessica Sprague's forum. We were supposed to watch the tutorial on her blog site about adding a background paper to text (which I did for this title) and then create a page about our "Every Day". All supplies used were from Jessica Sprague's Kit of the Month Kit.

This was a layout I did after viewing a tutorial on blending a photo into your background paper (which I did on the bottom left corner photo). I'm still not completely 100% about it, though. Something about the title isn't quite right. I may have to change it after staring at it for awhile. That's the nice thing about digital, I can totally do that! Nothing is adhered to the page permanently. You can view the tutorial here. Supplies for this layout include papers and alphabet from Ronna Penner's Express Yourself Kit, Fresh Foliage brush set by Jason Gaylor.

Class Is Out...

What to blog, what to blog... I have so much to blog about lately and never the time. The past four weeks whenever I sit down to my computer to do something "fun", I immediately log on to JessicaSprague.com to work on another one of my lessons. Yesterday I finally finished my final layout and thought I would share some of the fun things I learned in this excellent class.


Week One:

(All papers and embellishments from Jessica Sprague's Up and Running Course materials.)

This layout was pretty basic. Mostly we learned about Photoshop's basics, such as opening papers and pictures, knowing where and using some of the basic tools, some of the shortcuts we use often, some basics on layers and how to save a document for the web or for printing, etc. The background was already set, we just added the embellishment, the photo, the frame around the photo, the title, date and the journaling. Here is my page with some details on what we learned:


We also were given midweek assignments each week to build on what we already learned and sometimes to teach another small skill. Here is the layout:

(All papers and embellishments from Beautiful You Mini Kit by Jessica Sprague)

This background was also done for us. We opened a photo, converted it to black and white, copied the photo to this document, and then rearranged the layers so that the photo peeks through the window. Then we added journaling to the journaling block and had to remember how to adjust the "leading" so it would sit on the lines correctly.



Week 2:

(Papers, Embellishments, Digital Brushes and Alphabet all from Jessica Sprague's Up and Running Course materials)

This layout was created on another already "put-together" background. Here is my page with some details of what we learned this week:


Our midweek assignment was to use some paper and digital brushes that she gave us to download and create a layout using multiple photos. This was a little tricky, as I was used to going off her already created designs. This is what I came up with on my own:

(White paper from Whitie Tighties Paper Pack by Amy Teets, Party Moments Stamp from Stamped Moments
Brush Set by Katie Pertiet at DesignerDigitals.com, Brown, Aqua and Striped papers and flower embellishment
all from Ronna Penner's free Express Yourself Kit)

Week 3:

(All papers, ribbon, alphabet and embellishments from Jessica Sprague's Up and Running Course materials)

This was our first layout from scratch. Here are all the details of this layout:



Our midweek assignment for week 3 was to learn and use templates. Wow, this was amazing!! Using a template is like using sketches in paper scrapbooking, except you get to just take the sketch and plunk down your elements right onto it. Seriously, AMAZING. This was beyond fun and I could totally see myself doing a majority of my digital scrapping this way. I didn't even know this existed when I started this class. You can find tons of templates out there and then you just customize them to your needs. Here is one of the templates she gave us to use:

(Digital Template designed by Jen Caputo at ScrapbookGraphics.com, donated for class use.)

This is how it looks when you open it in Photoshop. Then you just pinpoint each layer on the template and drag your papers right onto them. Using an easy keystroke, you "clip" your papers/photos/embellishments so they fit right into each section/layer. It takes literally minutes to create an entire layout. Even the journaling is just a double-click on the words and then write your own! Here is my layout from this template:

(All papers from free Shabby Fall Kit from ShabbyPrincess.com, Title uses Cry Kitty font downloaded free)

Here is the second template she gave us:

(Digital Template designed by Jen Caputo at ScrapbookGraphics.com, donated for class use.)

And here is my layout from this template:

(All papers from Ronna Penner's free Express Yourself Kit)

Week 4:

Week four was our last week in this class. I was so sad to see it come so quickly. Here is the weekly assignment layout for this week:

(All supplies used from Jessica Sprague's Up and Running Course materials)

And here are the details of what we did on this layout:



Our midweek assignment for this last week was to create a 3-photo block in a trapezoid shape, which she had a video tutorial on and then make a layout using those photos. She gave us a small paper kit to work with, but the rest was our own doing. I think I spent a few hours on this last night trying to make it look "just right". Here is the final product:

(Papers and Flower overlay from Jessica Sprague's Festa Mini Kit provided free to course participants, Font for "Smiles" word
is Adine-Kirnberg Script downloaded free, Title "Dirty" and date is from Katie Pertiet Acrylic Alphabet provided free for
class participants, journaling font is Pea Jamie B downloaded from Fonts For Peas *Thanks Brenda!*)

I was pretty darn proud of myself when it was all said and done. I even went out to good ol' Google to find out how to make my journaling fit inside a circle and figured it out on my own.

All in all, this class was so worth every penny spent. The next class is the second in her series of teaching digital scrapbooking in Photoshop. It starts in a couple weeks and I can't wait. You can go to her website and sign up to be notified when she'll be teaching another beginner course, also. They just revamped her entire website yesterday and are now offering a lot more classes. Go check it out at JessicaSprague.com. I also subscribe to her blog where she often adds little tips and tricks and Photoshop Phriday Tutorials. I know there's a lot of free tutorials and websites out there that can teach you the basics for free, but I loved the way this was so organized and set up to get you running from the ground up. I can't recommend it enough.