Scraptacular Freebie 4

Wait. What happened to number three?? Yeah. I forgot to hit publish last time. I only realized just now. My apologies. With the stress from my father in law's hospital stay and preggo brain while taking care of three kids on my own, I hadn't realized I never published the post. Don't worry though, I just published it!

You get two quick pages, two papers, and three embellishments; a total of five page elements since you can create shapes with the papers. When I saw this, I immediately thought it would go great with the Fall season, with the orange and brown accents, and great to use if you've got a girl in your family.

Download

And if you haven't bought My Memories Suite, be sure to use my code!

I made this with MyMemories Suite, too

Scraptacular Freebie 3

As I mentioned yesterday the other day , I was changing the days that I posted my Scraptacular freebies. Usually, I don't like doing this (hate it actually), but I want to give you more time to download the free kits. I have a horrible concept of time, what can I say?

As usual, this kit contains two quick pages, as well as five elements and two papers. I love the shape of the photo boxes in the second one (the one with the polka dot ribbon).

My first example is just one of the quick pages shown. I didn't add anything to this page, although there is plenty of space if you wish to.

The second page I made from scratch using the elements provided in the kit, as well as a knot embellishment that is provided in the stock embellishments in My Memories Suite. In the tag, I tried to make it look like the word was cut out of it by using the green background to color the word and then beveling it.

Download

The Dia Fairy

I'm participating again in the My Mempories weekly challenge. This week's theme is "No Faces Allowed". Again, I had many choices to choose from, but ultimately went with this one:

It's one of my favorite memories of her; buzzing around the yard and singing a silly little song, as loud as she could.

I had originally uploaded it to Google Video, but they've since done away with it. So, since I downloaded it from there, the quality has been considerably diminished. I still don't really know what she was singing about, other than "you are dead" (I think she was big into video games at the time) and "wind the guitar".

I wish I knew what to say...

Yesterday, my father in law (FIL) was taken by ambulance. He was diagnosed with HOCM a couple years back. He was recently sick and was complaining of feeling short of breath, heart palpitations, and chills. When he got to the hospital, they said he was close to having a heart attack and his heartrate was around 160 bpm and was also diagnosed with pneumonia. Today, they said he's got a blood clot somewhere and was at risk for having a stroke. So, they're putting him on blood thinners (he was already taking aspirin, but that apparently wasn't helping).

My MIL (mother in law) is a wreck, naturally. She's afraid that he's going to die any day. I honestly don't think he is, but I am worried.

She doesn't want us here. She never really did to begin with, but she thinks this is our doing. She thinks our living here has stressed him out so much and is causing all these problems, and wants us out as soon as possible. I wanted to tell her that it takes years of stress, their diet, his being sick, and his heart condition is what really caused it...but couldn't find it in my heart to do so. She needed to blame it on something, so I let her blame it on us. Even though, since we've been here, I've done the majority of the cooking, cleaning, and dishes... I've also been trying to keep the kids upstairs and out of the way as much as possible...and I honestly believe that his grandchildren and his wife's dependency on him is what's keeping him alive (she has vascular necrosis, vision problems to the point where she really shouldn't drive, missing an eye, horribly controlled Type II diabetes, the wrong sized artificial knee that prevents her from walking well, is in chronic pain even with a morphine pump, and the list goes on).

I don't even know what to say to her to help comfort her...I don't know her well enough to know what would help. Our religious preferences are completely different, so I doubt I could help there...I don't even know if she wants me being around right now...

P.Y.H.O. Facebook Idiots

If my memory serves me correctly, I seem to remember seeing something about how most people are annoyed by their friends on Facebook.

I am often the annoyed, but usually I can just shrug it off. I actually left Facebook for a bit because I was so pregnantly hormonal and couldn't tolerate it. I felt like the idiots were taking over.

I've since returned and have gotten past my bitchiness. Well. Mostly. There's still one thing I cannot stand.

Parents who won't shut up about all the weed they smoked, alcohol they drank, and ass they scored. I find it...disturbing. They will literally go from one post touting their love for their kid(s) to five minutes later (or less) talking about one of the aforementioned subjects in gross detail. And usually, these sort of updates are daily...

Now, don't go thinking it's jealousy talking... I have had my fair share of fun, and still do. Frankly, I don't care what people do. But, I also don't care to hear constant updates about it. Nor do I think most people want to. You're really not that interesting. Not saying I'm that interesting either. I just feel like certain things should be kept separate from our kids. Whether they're going to read it or not. Kids and crassly discussing drugs/sex do not belong in close proximity to each other.

Just stating my opinion...

My X-Mess photo fiasco

I decided to jump in on MyMemories weekly challenge for the first time. This week's challenge is titled "The *NOT* Picture Perfect Challenge".

Really, I could have chosen from hundreds, if not thousands, of photos, since my kids are damn near impossible to capture on a camera. Especially when I'm trying to take a photo of all three of them...and for some reason, it's easier to take a photo of them when they're babies. Why?? You wouldn't think so, but it is. Am I the only one with this "problem"?

Anyway, I immediately thought back to last Christmas. We were trying to get a few family photos to give to family as a present. A bit of a cheap cop-out, but it's the only time we get a photo of all of us together. Usually, I'm someone's behind the camera or someone's half nekkid.

Fifty-some photos - and a big ol' bag of stress on our end - later we finally got a picture of the three gremlins together.

Winner!

A big congratulations to Amanda on winning the My Memories Suite giveaway!

I want to thank all of you who've entered! I had a lot of fun hosting my first giveaway and hope you did as well.

Be sure to keep checking back for the My Memories freebies, which I'll be changing the posting date to give you a little extra time to grab the second freebie.

Also, keep checking My Memories' Facebook page if you're still looking to win a copy of their software. They post giveaways frequently, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on their page!

Scraptacular Sunday, week 2

Welcome to Scraptacular Sundays, where I'll offer you an exclusive and limited time freebie from My Memories! This will only be available for about a week so download it while you can! It comes with two quick pages as well as the papers and embellishments.

This week's freebie goes along quite nicely with last week's. I love the crumpled look of the paper!

The first one I did, I simply used nothing but a quick page. The second one I did from scratch and used only one photo. I think the second one is missing something, but I'm not quite sure what exactly. But I think I'm getting better at this scrapbooking thing...

If you wish to buy My Memories Suite, don't forget to use my code STMMMS7185 to get $10 off the software and $10 in free kits. That $10 can really go a long way in the design shop, especially in the dollar store and weekly deals sections of the shop.

If you want to download this kit, click the link below.

Download

Also, this weekend only, all kits and templates are 30% off! I think even the Design Club is, but I could be wrong. I joined the Design Club this morning and got my five kits for the month. I also got 5% off the 30% sale. Sweet deals all around!

Scraptacular Sunday

I'm going to start my own weekly thing-thing here. Yes, my very own thing-thing...

Every Saturday I'm going to give you a freebie from My Memories that you can use with My Memories Suite. These will only be offered for a limited time though, so grab them up while you can!

This cute kit has two quick pages and nine page elements. In case you don't know what a quick page is, they're pre-made pages that can cut your scrapping time in half (or more if you're picky like me) or simply help provide you with some inspiration. You can choose to add more embellishments to the page if you wish, or leave it as is.

This is the one I made of my son in just a few minutes.

If you want to snag this free kit, simply follow this link and click "download". Remember, it will only be available for a week or two, so get it while you can!

Fawk You Friday 10.14.11

Linking up with Boobies and My Mad Mind for another Fawk You Friday.

Fawk my food getting left behind in the move. I know, why should I care about some food getting left behind after my clothing fiasco? Because. That was approximately $50 left behind. Fifty dollars of three day old food, most of it never opened. A big ass bag of chicken breasts, two pounds of ground beef, brand new tub of cream cheese...Packed the four bags of bagels and the damn near empty tub of cream cheese, but left the full tub. Wtf am I going to do with all these bagels and no cream cheese?? I'm not mad at anyone, really. I do understand. Just annoyed that it happened like that.

My massive mirror got left behind too. Not the cheapo kind you can find anywhere. I'm talking about the kind that Grammas have in their houses, drilled into the wall. The big, solid, heavy ones. They don't make mirrors like that anymore. Again, I understand (moreso than the food)...Not so much a fawk you, but it does make me a little sad.

Fawk colds. Seriously. I just got over this shit.

Fawk teething. The youngest has been teething the last few days. She morphs into Bratosaurus when she's like this...She poops a million times a day and usually acid. Thankfully, she didn't develop a rash this time. But last night, I just looked at her for a second and you would have thought I told her she was ugly or something equally horrendous.  I've been toying with the idea of getting an amber bracelet for her, to help ease the symptoms, but my guess is, she'd still be a super-brat.

On the bright side, things have been pretty decent since we moved here with his parents. I'm tired since I'm constantly cleaning, but the kids have been pretty well-behaved. Even going to bed relatively easy. I say relatively, because it's still a big pain in the ass, but it's not hell. The other night, though, the eldest did scratch her brother's face. You can still see the scratches a bit, but it's fading.

And, my husband brought home a wireless router. Yayyy! I can get full use of the internets again! While my father-in-law does have a computer hooked up to the internet, it didn't work quite right. Some images or page elements wouldn't load properly and some links wouldn't open. Plus, he only has IE. Ew. And now, at night when we go upstairs at 8:00 (as requested by my MIL), I have something to do.

I know. I rely on the internet too much. Whatever.

Saturday Confession

Today is moving day. There is still some loose ends that need to be taken care of. On top of the normal anxiety of moving, my husband told me last night that he's throwing out all the bags of clothes that are in the basement as well as the garage. There's about eight large bags in the garage and eight large bags in the basement. I know, the number is grotesque. What's more embarrassing is there's also probably five more bags' worth floating around throughout the house upstairs. 

I am a hoarder. 

I specifically hoard clothes and personal care items. This is mostly a result of being homeless or so poor I've had to go without food so that my child and husband could eat. It doesn't help any that, since having kids, I haven't had more than five shirts at a time (usually three), up to two pairs of pants (usually one), and maybe a pair of shorts.

I've been able to mostly overcome my hoarding of personal care items. I've recently thrown out a bunch of stuff I've accumulated over the last few years. Shampoo, body wash, stuff like that. 

But I'm having a really hard time getting past throwing away all these clothes. I have come to terms with throwing away the clothes in the garage because my husband said they're destroyed. Even though there's a part of me saying, "Yeah, but he said that about the clothes at his parents' and he was wrong about that...found a bunch of shit you'd been looking for." I won't keep destroyed clothes and have gladly thrown stuff like that away. Well. Not gladly. There was usually a part of me that was a little sad about it. 

But my anxiety about the "house clothes" is so high, it's not fucking funny. I keep having panic attacks. These are clothes I've used recently. Within the last year. I know there's certain items I've been looking for in them. Keepsakes from my kids that my husband carelessly threw into bags. Clothes that I had put away that I know will still fit at least one of the kids this year. I'm so fucking mad at him for making me do this.

Maybe if he'd have helped me pack, I could have had time to go through them. 

Instead of hiding in the basement doing whatthefuckever he was doing the past couple weekends, he could have helped me. 

If only I could find this one particular sweater that, so far, each of my kids have worn maybe I could part with the rest...

Why doesn't he care what he's doing to me?

Why can't my hips work properly right now to allow me to look through them? (Last night, after all the work I've done in the house, I collapsed to my knees because of sharp pains in both hips. Usually, just one and usually, I can catch myself.)

I didn't realize it was this bad until now (this should be a Pour Your Heart Out post)... I couldn't sleep last night. It's also possibly why all these nightmares have been manifesting themselves. 

I need to try to reason with him...Work out some sort of deal. I've already been pushed to my limits. I really don't know if I can be pushed much further...Not without having a complete meltdown, which probably isn't good for the baby. None of it is, really...

Fawk You Friday - School transportation

I survived another week, and I'm celebrating with Boobies and My Mad Mind by venting my ass off...otherwise, someone I might not make it through 'till next week.

Rated PG-13 for language

P.Y.H.O. - "New" mom fears and random babble

We're moving in four or five days. There's still so much work to be done, but I can't get much done with three kids. Or anything. In fact, I'm lucky to keep the house clean by the end of the day.

The youngest, I lovingly call Bratosaurus, wants attention constantly. And if she doesn't get it, she will let you know she's not happy. She's 15 months, going on three. She hasn't been sleeping well lately. I think, because of her teeth. She hasn't been falling asleep until between 10:00 and 12:00, and must fall asleep next to me. We have a couch pushed up next to our bed that she sleeps on, but insists on laying on top of me in order to fall asleep.

I'm really worried about how I'll fare on my own once the new baby comes. When she's in a good mood, she's the sweetest, cutest thing ever. But if not, she pulls hair, swats at you, throws things, and screams loud and high enough to break glass.Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm sure she's close to actually doing so. Nighttime is not the right time here. Trying to cook dinner, clean up, and get everyone in bed (and keep them there) has been very stressful here lately. She's usually very cranky by 8:00. And lately, she cries non-stop unless you're rocking her or laying down and constantly rubbing her belly, back, or forehead. But you have to find what she wants otherwise she'll keep crying.

She's a very determined baby. She takes after me too much. She even  says "oooh" when she's mad. I can't put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs since the window goes into the stairwell about two and an half steps in. So I have two chairs laying on their side in an L-shape, a box, her wooden highchair, and a hamper full of clothes all Tetris-ized to barricade the way. Did it stop her? No. She squeezed her way in, pushed the hamper and high chair with her butt until she could sit down and use her legs to push herself and everything back. Pulled out each chair, and then climbed up the stairs to play with her brother and sister. It didn't take her long at all. Less than a minute. Should I have stopped her? Yes, but I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

She also likes to flop around, like a whale in water. Except, she's on land and on top of whoever. Or she'll crawl around all over me. I'm really worried about this once the new baby comes. I know there's going to be lots of breastfeeding (I'm hoping not, but my boobs don't work like they should), and she can't be doing that. I'm trying to stop all this, but like I said, she's a very determined child.

I know a sling a will come in handy once the baby's born, but I can't use it all the time. And I'm seeing her become extra clingy with all this packing, it's going to happen again once the baby arrives. I'm not too worried about her hurting the baby. Well, sort of. But I know she's super sweet in general...unless she wants something.

I am genuinely worried about my sanity. Still... Even this past weekend, while my husband was home, it was still pretty much all me taking care of the kids. Every Tuesday night I have broken down in tears. How on Earth am I going to manage four kids?? I will get some help while living with my in-laws, but I'm not sticking it all (or even a fourth) of it on them.

Don't be fooled by the cuteness!

I will be a "single" mom for as long as he works there. Because even with his time here, it's more like hired help. The only time I'll really get to see him is his one week vacation that he'll get in 2013. And if he decides to work Saturdays, he may as well not even exist. The pay will be really good, but I'm questioning is it all worth it? Now, I have to get my license, which is a whole other post itself...

My apologies for this post having little continuity...but it's a good example of how my mind's been lately. lol.











Brought to you courtesy of Shell.

My Memories Suite review and giveaway

If you know me, you wouldn't think I'd be one for scrapbooking. Truth is, I'm not. Not because it's not something that's never interested me, because it really has. In fact, a couple months ago, my mom gave me a basket full of scrapbooking supplies. But I haven't even touched it yet. I've wanted to get into scrapbooking for years, but have never been able to. It can be an expensive hobby to start, can take quite a while to start if you don't have the money, and it can eat a lot of space in your home. And if I know my kids, they are fascinated by it and can't keep their hands out of it... I've seen it happen with my knitting supplies. Knitting needles turned into swords are MIA and several balls of yarn horribly knotted. I didn't want my scrapbooking supplies to suffer the same fate. I even tried to sell them in our garage sale the other weekend, hoping they'd go to a good home.

Which is why I was super excited when I was contacted by My Memories to review their digital scrapbooking software. I could finally do something with all my old photos stashed away on our external hard drive. I can finally have a hobby that I don't have to worry about my kids destroying! And I could finally do something with that basket I attempted to sell.

It is soo easy to use My Memories Suite. Even someone who's never touched digital scrapbooking software (like me) can use this. I found it very easy to access my embellishments, papers, and media since there are a few ways to get to them. You can even add music and video to your albums. And with the pre-installed album kits, I was able to create a nice looking album of my eldest within just a few hours. There's tutorials on their blog, making it even easier to understand and use all the features of their software. It even has some photo editing tools, so you can add effects, crop, and mat your images.

My very fist scrapbook!

It would have taken me less time, but I selected each photo of my eldest individually and customize it, so I added some extra embellishments from different kits. It didn't help any that my pictures are stored in several different areas of my computer... It's also a very fast program. The menus were very fast to load, as were each individual page, even with a ton of elements added to it. I was a bit worried about it freezing up my computer, but it never did; even when I used the Fast Fill feature to automatically add several photos of my son into one of the albums I made.

It doesn't stop once you've created your digital scrapbook album, either. You can create calendars, photobooks, cards, and gifts like DVDs, interactive discs, and/or put it on your iPod. Alternatively, you can  send it somewhere like Shutterfly and make mugs, tote bags, notebooks, and more. Or you can simply print your digital scrapbook pages and add any embellishments you already have at home. I can't wait to send something to my family who live out of state. We are lucky if we get to see them once every few years, sometimes longer. I think this will be a nice way to keep them in each others' lives.


My Memories Suite is affordable. At only $39.97 for the program, you can go from having a scattering of unorganized photos, to something worth treasuring. They even offer free kits on their website, as well as the option to join their Design Club. At $5.99 a month, you get five new, exclusive kits along with several other perks. The digital scrapbook kits in their webstore are fairly priced with frequent sales.

I know there's other kinds of digital scrapbooking software out there, but My Memories is the most comprehensive, in my opinion. With some of the best features, most importing and sharing choices, and great support, it really helps MyMemories stand out above the rest. And their website and Facebook page only boosts the user experience since it's highly interactive with weekly challenges on each page (as well as the tutorials I mentioned above), adding to the fun. I haven't participated yet, but it seems like a really great way to improve your scrapbooking skills!

Overall, I highly recommend My Memories Suite. Even if you've only ever had an interest in scrapbooking, you would love it. There really is a lot you can do with this program. And it's really fun looking through your old photos and creatively putting them together.

Buy it!

If you use this code: STMMMS7185  for $10 off My Memories Suite v2.0 and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store

Win it!

The people of My Memories have been kind enough to offer one of my readers their own copy of My Memories Suite.

To enter, simply click "Read More" below. This giveaway is open worldwide. Please be aware that My Memories only ships to the U.S. and Canada and is only in English.