Digi-Scrapping!

Gosh darn it...I said I wouldn't do it. Ever. But dangit if Libby didn't get me started just because she has this fancy new job at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

First of all, after a hiatus of about a year from scrapping, trying to get over all the professional stuff I was involved in that almost ruined scrapping for me...I finally started up again this summer. I think I've been able to get back to the joy of just scrapping as a hobby, and for me, for the right reasons. My goal for the summer was to get 4 Athlete albums done for the boys with all their sports photos in them. Turns out that was a lofty goal. I did finish Wyatt's though and it's over 40 pages (OK, a few pages were already done)! I went with the KISS strategy, but I'm very pleased with my pages. What a RELIEF to use whatever supplies I wanted and not have to worry about whether it was "fresh and new" enough for ANYthing.

So in the middle of this...along comes Libby who tempts me with digi. I give it a try and so far I'm loving it. I've only done 6 pages, but it makes so much sense to me to do Kent and Kurt's pages this way so I can just swap out the photos and print them twice!

For their Athlete albums, I will just combine paper and digi scrapping and be OK with it. Their professional sports pictures will be done on paper and the snapshots will be done digi. Somehow I'll make it work!

Here are a few of the pages and I think I'll start a photo album with just digi pages.

Sorry, no trendy white-space pages for me! I like my pages FILLED with photos! :)

sneaking in...

Shame on me...I haven't even looked at this blog for months, yet alone actually posted on it, so imagine my surprise when it was blank! I thought it always just showed the last post, but who knows.

So just a quick hi to the air around here as I'm sure no one is reading this anymore. Life is busier than ever. I'm working 3/4 time for TJFormal with my sister Roanna as my boss, and still running Lemon Oak Studio - Etsy Shop with sister Tricia as my partner. SO much fun being able to stay in such close contact with my sisters who are 1300 miles away.

A rundown of happenings:

• Grant is driving! And so far I haven't had a nervous breakdown
• I retired from doing the yearbook and took the job of Co-President of the PTO (much easier!)
• Kent and Kurt had perfect attendance at school this past year (yes, both of them!)
• Wyatt just got done playing tackle football for the first time - he loved it
• The boys are out for the summer and we are just taking it easy and enjoying the pool
  

My sis Roanna and her beau Bill, plus her daughter Regan and her beau Andy all came to visit the end of May. We drove up to Sedona and it was cold, but oh so beautiful!!

I'll leave with a fun photo of Kent and Kurt - each year our school has the 3rd grade do a Wax Museum and the students have to pick a historical figure to research and then dress up as them and give a speech. Kurt selected General Douglas MacArthur and Kent selected General George Patton. They were a big hit at the museum! Here's my 2 generals:

What? It's November?

• The first quarter of school is done.
• Football season is over for Grant.
• One week of soccer left for Kent and Kurt.
• Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away.
• The boys already have their Christmas lists done.
• WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE??????

I'm having a hard time keeping up with life, let alone this blog. I'd let it go, but I'm hoping I still have some family reading it from time to time. That is, if I would update it. Plus I've worked so hard putting all the bells and whistles on it! :)

Let's see, what's new? Well, I'm officially retired from scrapbooking. At least professionally. And I'm taking a break personally and doing other fun artsy type stuff. Hopefully one day I'll get back to it and continue documenting my family's history - I do still think that it is so important and that scrapbooking is a worthwhile hobby.

As I've said in prior posts, I'm heavy into running an Etsy shop with my sister, Tricia. Our joint venture is all about recycling found objects that would have ended up in a landfill, into art pieces you can put in your home. Doesn't that sound like another worthwhile adventure? At least it is something fun and new and keeps me in touch with my beloved sister, since we live so far apart.

In other news...Grant just got his driver's learning permit. So, yes, football is done, but now we have another activity to pursue - taking him DRIVING!! :) I'm actually enjoying it as it's a rare chance for some one-on-one time with him. It will only last a short 5 months and then he will get his regular license and he'll be independent. Wah.

Wyatt is currently playing flag football. It's one of my favorite sports to watch - just a really fun time for the players and fans.

Kent and Kurt are winding down their fall soccer season. We aren't doing winter soccer this year so we'll be waiting for baseball to start in the spring.

My mom is coming to visit in December. I love having family here while my Christmas decorations are all up!

That's about it for an update. I hope someone is still reading this thing...

The Pool is Finished!

...ok, well, it was finished 2 weeks ago, but I haven't had a chance to update this thing. We've been having a blast swimming though! It's really a great family activity - many nights all 6 of us are out there swimming and chatting. Weekends usually find us with a few extra kids around, but it's so nice having them here instead of my boys at someone else's house swimming - after all, that was the point of building it! So here's what you see when you walk out our door: the basketball hoop has already gotten a ton of use! This is definitely a pool for big kids though - our shallow end is neither very shallow or very big. It starts sloping into the deep end fairly quickly. We do have a large Baja step though that you can sit or lie on. Here's a few more pics - it's not as small as it looks though. ;)

And a couple of the boys in it: As you can see, we still have work to do in the yard. We pretty much tore out the whole backyard when we started this project. The next step is installing a sport court and getting the grass and rocks installed because right now, it's gets kind of muddy out there! More pics of the process will be put in the photo album soon...

Back in School!

Yes, school has already started here! August 6 was the first day for all 4 boys. Summer went by so fast! I was very happy with the teacher Kent and Kurt (3rd grade) got, plus the "pod" Wyatt (7th grade) got into was the one I requested - very happy about that! Grant (sophomore/10th) has a huge workload this year - all honors classes with Advanced PE. I still haven't figured out just what makes the PE class advanced, but it's taught by the head football coach and that's all that matters - the class is full of football players!

Now, if I can just figure out how to slow things down so that this year doesn't whooosh by like last year.

They just couldn't wait!!

FINALLY!! The interior Pebble Tec was done on Monday. On Tuesday we got to start filling our pool. When the boys got home from school, the deep end only had about 3 feet of water in it. Next thing I knew, they had put their suits on and jumped in. I told them it was the only time they'd be able to stand in the deep end with their heads above water. Yesterday (Wed.) it was full about noon so we all got to swim. Today they are installing the diving board, getting the waterfall going, and doing a formal start-up of the pool. More photos of the finished product will be posted soon!

The Deck is Formed

The deck was finally formed out last week. This is where they make all the outlines for where the concrete will be poured. We can finally see how much room we will have for patio furniture and lounge chairs. Of course, it's never enough! Be sure to look in the pool photo album for more photos..

The deck was actually poured on Monday, but I haven't yet taken photos. Stay tuned!

Shotcrete and Waterfall...

Last week we had the shotcrete done - kind of a fascinating process. At 5am the workers arrived and began pounding and pounding. As I lie in bed, I couldn't figure out what in the heck they were pounding! I'm sure the neighbors were LOVING us that morning. Turns out the workers were pounding stakes into the ground all around the perimeter of the pool so they could surround it with a tarp. I was intrigued, yet disappointed that I couldn't see what they were doing! Fortunately at one point they took down part of it so I could peek in. They were done by about 10am! Now it was our turn - for the last 5 days we've had to water the pool down about every 2 hours (not at night). That was to ensure the concrete didn't cure too quickly and result in a lot of cracks. However, since the temps have been extremely high (115+), I'm sure it cured quicker than normal. We still did our job though and I don't see many cracks. After it was partly dry, we all got to finally walk down into the pool.

Monday, the rock waterfall was installed. Right now it looks like a big pile of rocks! But it will be beautiful once it's running (and yes, that big pipe will be cut off!) with plants around it.

The next step is the decking. I'll be so glad to get some of the mess around there cleaned up!

We have steel!

We got the rebar/steel put in last week. We've spent this week waiting for an inspection to get ironed out. Had to play a bit of the squeaky (throwing in a little whiny with it) wheel to get it done. Tomorrow we get shotcrete (concrete that is sprayed into the pool)! I'll be taking lots of photos of the process...probably from the window. I certainly don't want my camera to get sprayed with concrete! Well, me either, for that matter. ;)

We have a hole!

So pool construction finally began this past week. It took 2 days to dig it and what fun we had watching! The boys (even Grant) got a kick out of the excavator and the bobcats - what boy wouldn't? The entire outside of the house is covered with a layer of dirt. Yuck.

I've been taking photos (of course) from before we even started doing anything to the yard, so I've posted a few of them in the Building a Pool photo album over to the right.

Plumbing was done today. Steel work will be next week. Yippee!