Hey, I know I've Gained Weight, No Need to Tell Me!

So here I am again making another post about, YES, I've gained weight! People get a grip, I have! This time it wasn't the look...oh, I love the look...have seen that look all my life, know the look very well. No, this time it was in my face letting me know that I've gained weight. Does ANYONE EVER need anyone to tell them they've gained weight?

We used to have sushi every Friday night or at least once a weekend. We went to the same place all the time. I got really burned out on sushi, so we haven't been in awhile. Funny, because it actually happened right after Mom died. And that's when my entire life actually changed really. So we had gotten to know the waitresses and sushi chefs pretty well. One waitress knew exactly what to order for Dennis as soon as she saw him.

That one little waitress. She's one of two people who when we told we were adopting, said that's not the same as having your own and you need to have your own. So that was one strike against her. Then tonight...I learned I've gained weight and that I'm eating all the wrong foods. Yes, do tell more. I need to eat Vietnamese food and Japanese food and I'll lose weight. I go for sushi, and I walk away so full of wisdom!

Wow, she's walked a mile in my shoes and knows exactly the right thing for me. Maybe she'll make CDs and sell them so I'll be full of her wisdom all the time!

There was only one reason for what she did. She thinks she was telling me something I didn't already know...that I've gained weight. I love saying that...YES, I've gained weight! Then she went on to tell me what to eat! She asked me first to promise not to get mad at her. But then didn't really care about the answer and said she doesn't care if I get mad or not. So the one reason for all of this...she only cares about herself. She thinks she's helping me, but she's attacking me, she's belittling me, she's being flat out rude. Most rude people don't care about you, it's all about them! The people that never consider anyone else's feelings or more importantly their intelligence, their opinions, their decisions, their life, their challenges. The key word, is RESPECT! Respect that other people actually do have intelligence and can make up their own minds and make rational decisions and can have opinions that will not be yours. And RESPECT that YOU do NOT know what THAT PERSON has gone through.

This time I'm not going into why...I have gained weight! Until people can look past appearances and look at another human being as they would want to be looked at, screw them!

The Best Part of Scrap, Etc.

Can't say enough about the wonderful people I met. My only regret is there were still tons of people I didn't get to meet and/or take pictures of and with. The event was really overwhelming to me because of the amount of people. I don't function too well in that kind of environment, so I think if it wasn't for seeing other people take their cameras out, I would have still sat there, all glassy eyed.

One thing about my camera that I now know and would do differently, is I would just bring the one. I have a small Pentax that takes 8mm and a Canon Rebel xti. The Pentax can take great photos, but it didn't do as well as when I did bring my Canon down from the room in the lighting of the conference rooms at the hotel. So now I know, I will be bringing my Canon with me and leaving the Pentax for taking other kinds of shots...or bringing it for video, especially when we go to China. It will be worth it.

I wanted this month's layout to reflect the event and what I want to remember. Love looking at my calendar.

One Little Word Challenge - Grow

I don't really like to do challenges that have judging, I just like the ones that are for fun and everyone does them together. But I do like the challenges because they do stretch you, and this was a picture of our church we used to go to that I took one day and had some feelings brewing of what I wanted to do with it. So the word is GROW from One Little Word Blog but I used GROWN and came up with this. The title reads: I have grown away from church and religion but my heart is spoken for.

I don't miss going one bit. I loved working the with the youth, but once my Mom died, I had nothing else to offer and big church, as we called it, the one for the grown ups, had nothing to offer me. I'm thankful for not being in church anymore. I realized how I put myself on a pedestal above the people that didn't go, I see things in a completely different perspective and can see why Christianity is a turn off to most people. I can see just a little of how much bigger God is than being trapped within the walls and rules of a church. I think for myself now, I feel God in more everyday things, and I don't have the guilt or the shame that church and religion wants you to feel and live. I don't think Jesus would like church much either ;)

Scrap, Etc. Event Projects

Heidi's new book that isn't out at the stores yet, has a mirror cover. She loves those mirrors. Learned a lot from her on how to decorate them from her A Year to Remember class. This was cool being it was a book though. She loves to add different size pages, transparencies, even an overlay as pages to her books. They're usually not one length or one size. Really cool with the layers of stuff. Don't have any of my pics or journaling in it yet, but it's cool just by itself. I did get her to sign the cover for me.

Monique's class project. Love those buttons...very cute. Jenni Bowlin's class was wonderful. Loved learning how to put her products together. Followed exactly like she did, but really love the way they were so easy to go together and now I won't be so scared ot use them on my own. I've always loved different styles but had been a little afraid to use the vintage style products.




Angelia Wigginton's project. We journaled and took pictures of relationships before the event. Had all that prepared, but still ended up just doing this about me and Dennis. He needs to feel the love, especially since he supported my going to the event ;) Did this just like she did, except finally got tired of the measuring and cutting and just started to do whatever. I'm a messy scrapper...not very precise or accurate at all ;)



This pic is us 17 years ago on our honeymoon...too cute!
Wilna's project. Kind of more than one thing. We printed up card templates before the class and journaled to someone else on them. I wrote to Dennis. Then for the class we made the envelopes and the little picture card things that can either go in the cup, be made into an album, or put on a layout. Really clever and cute idea! Dennis loved it! The journaling prompts she had given us were great. Really cool gift idea. That's just a simple Starbucks cup with some glue and ripped up paper slapped up on it. I could have mod podged it, but left it like it was.

Back Home from Scrap, Etc. Event in Nashville

It's so good to be back home. Quite a few times I almost backed out of this trip because of my foot, but I'm glad I made it, although the doc was giving my foot another two months and this may have set it back much more.

I DID have fun and I'm GLAD I went, but I don't think I'd do it again. There were 600 women registered...I thought it was about 300 for some reason. Traveling is stressful in and of itself, but I knew my foot was better and still healing, but boy, what I didn't realize was how much walking AND standing I'd be doing. The Gaylord Opryland hotel is humongous, but I thought with my room being close to the convention and the food court being there, that it would all be okay. I was WRONG, WAY wrong. The second day of the event, I did what I swore I would never do, and finally gave into getting a scooter. $90 and worth saving my foot from more injury and/or surgery. I almost came home and left the event early because my foot was pretty bad. But since I had the scooter, I stuck it out. And I really wanted to see the second half of Heidi Swapp's class.

It was such a chaotic experience. And that is what I wanted to see for myself...exactly what one of these events was like. ...B U T....I LOVED meeting the people from Scrap, Etc., Yahoo, and ESPECIALLY SIStv...that was a highlight. And swapping our rolodex cards. The classes were great, but it was just too many people and very chaotic. The food court was a big disappointment. The second day I got a sandwich at break to keep until lunch. Which was a good thing, because I went back to my room to try to chill a little and the one key out of the two that was the only one working, now no longer worked. The cleaning lady let me in, but I had to go all the way up to the front desk to get it fixed. THANK YOU, GOD, FOR THE SCOOTER!!!

So, here's some pics and some of the things that I'd like to take away from the event and remember.

I got there a day early and had signed up for a luxury shopping tour with 27 other ladies. Megan did an amazing job of organizing this. She set us up with so many free things and then the 27 of us exchanged gifts with each other...I was blown away.
The last stop on our trip was to the SIStv warehouse!!! I was in heaven. So great to meet Jeannette and the SIS team and Fashionistas. I just love that site. But it was wonderful to see JJ's family. And I couldn't help but be a little partial to her little girl, Phoenix, because she's Asian. I did find out later that she was adopted from China. She was precious.
Class pic. I was in the largest of the 4 groups. Ours was about 240 people. I really lucked out and got a great spot with these ladies. Kelly, Linh, and Kelly are from the Scrap, Etc. boards and live near the store, Jen is a SISter from Scrap in Style. Really loved our table.
The first half of Heidi's class.
Heidi's daughter, Quincy, was completely knocked out. She had been having fun entertaining herself before she finally gave in and crashed.
Here's the two Kelly's that I met and sat with.

Yes, I got a pic with Heidi. She really taught me how to do a layout. Learned so much from her in A Year to Remember.
Gretchen is so down to earth. It was wonderful meeting her. She's an Alabama girl so I told her about Dennis and she didn't ask where in Alabama is he from, instead she asked who is he for. I hesitated not knowing who she was for, and then said Alabama...oh yeah...it was good...Roll Tide!
And...THIS...IS...MY SECRET SIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is absolutely the most thoughtful person EVER!!! I would pick my jaw up from the floor when I'd get one of her amazing packages. She has the gift of giving!!! She had two people sneak me packages from her at the event until she finally brought the last one to me. I need to take a photo of this album she made for me. OMG...it should be published...just amazing!!! We did the SS for 7 months leading up to the event!!!
This is my SIS from SIStv!!! Jen is wonderful. So talented. Great sitting together and sharing supplies!! This was taken during the very last thing, called SNL Saturday Night Layout. Okay, it was overkill already for me...I had already zoned out and was exhausted several hours ago, but to try to be creative? Forget it. In the middle of everyone kind of not knowing what to do (they had different sponsors showing you how to put the LO together with the materials they gave you), she's over there just slapping a beautiful page together of one of her girls!! I was floored!! Always some bad photos...but Amber and her husband are great photographers! I'd love to go up there for a photo shoot. That would really be great once we get Emma.

Amber and me. Amber's a Fashionista for SIS. She is so talented. Very creative and inspiring. Really like her style of scrapbooking. Of course, all of her photos look great for her pages ;)
Me with Fashionistas, Becca and Martha! Figures I'd wait to the very end of the event to take photos when I have puffy, dark circles under my eyes. Even if they weren't Fashionistas (Design Team) for SIS, they are just so creative. So inspiring.
Fashionista, Kayla Aimee. She is the sweetest thing ever. Always smiling, hugging, and telling you Hi.
And here's Fashionista, Wilna! It was wonderful to meet her in person. Her project for our class was precious.
I have more pictures on http://flickr.com/photos/11633383@N02/sets/72157604693154194/.

I'll have more photos of the projects. Just need to finish some of them up. I had to go to Target yesterday...Dennis came with me...I, ahem, got another scooter...and bought some more things to help organize. I just had so much stuff I came home with that I couldn't squeeze into my little area, and I was so anxious to finish up some stuff. And I'm staying off my foot as much as possible. That's the "story of my life."

Some of the other classes we had were with:

Angelia Wigginton - I had been so stressed during the hurriedness of the classes. For Angelia's class, I felt so relaxed and calm. I really enjoyed her class.

Vanessa Hudson - We used a photo album and incorporated scrapbooking into it. This is a great idea for my MIL as a gift. I had already started her on a photo album of pics of us showing everyday stuff, so that's a Mother's Day idea for her.

Jenni Bowlin - Another class where I felt so relaxed and really enjoyed it. I'm so glad to see how she uses her products. They have that vintage look. Everything went together so great and so simple, but they look like it took a lot of work. I wasn't going to spend anymore $$ but after the class, I did zoom up to get some of her things that are usually sold out online.

Monique's class - I was not expecting to hear so much about her life during the event. Was disappointed that so much time was spent on her story and then we were rushed with the project at the end.

Lisa and I Venture into New Orleans

Lisa drives a Mustang but drives it like a my old Toyota Tercel...she knows it ;)

So we made it down to the coffee shop down on Jefferson Davis Pkwy. and had a great time listening to Mairtin de Cogain and Jimmy Crowley. So talented and great to listen to the stories. If you've never been exposed to the Irish stories and music, you'll get hooked. Although, I do have a hard time understanding from time to time ;) It's all good though! So much energy from these two! Just love that! I don't have any of Jimmy's CDs yet and had no cash on me. But I have both of the CD's from the group Mairtin is in...the Fuschia Band...all of them are so good! Will see them again in Jackson, MS for Celtic Festival and hopefully be able to add more CDs to my collection.

Coffee place was very intimate, didn't know what to expect. So met them both. But didn't want to take photos while they played since it was such an intimate setting. But did get one with the both of them. Can't help but laugh about the photo. The first one came too blurry because I don't like to use a flash unless I have too. The first one, Mairtin reminded us the old trick to stick your neck out so you have no double chin and it came out great, except blurry. This one, with the flash, that's a better quality...totally forgot about all of that and Lisa looks tipsy, and I look like the flash hit me right in the eyes, oh well, we had fun and that's all that counts!

We made it back home safe and sound.

Book to Remember Daisy

Learned this Japanese stab binding from Tena Sprenger's class at Big Picture. Love making books from scratch. Knowing that the time for Daisy to no longer be with us is coming, and with her being sick for so long, we are starting to forget the furball she once was. So I pulled out old pictures of her when she was nice a plumb before she got sick and some of the crazy things that only Daisy could do.

This was the hardest page to do. I'll put her birth month and year of 3/1994 and the last day she'll be with us when the time comes. This is the only picture of her while she's sick, but it's a "cherished" memory.
Papers and felt are from Scrap in Style