A View of Lisa's World

the real reason why scrapbooking is cool....

Todd chose one of his baby scrapbooks for his bedtime book last night...I could hear them reading my journaling and it made my heart go pitter patter.

It reminded me that right now most of my layouts are not in albums the way I would like them to be...and many aren't in albums at all. It is a major goal of mine to re-do my albums all into 3 ring and organized by Thanksgiving...I'll keep you posted as to my progress...it will be a while before I even start.

But anyway, back to last night. Watching Todd and Matt look through my older albums and seeing how much they were loving it just brought it all home for me...that as much as I do it for me (and make no mistake, I do do it for me) they are what it is all about.

Sigh...don't let anyone ever tell you that scrapbooking isn't cool...

Ok...back to trying to get things done...just 2 more sleeps until vacation! Woo Hoo!

Speaking of hairdos.....

Have you guys seen this? Pretty darn funny...and yes it did take up time that could have been spent doing things I needed to do to get ready for our trip. But I had paint that was drying on a layout...and I always wondered how I would look in the 50's. Interesting that in 1952 I would have looked like a man.

I think the 60's may have been my decade...I think I could have rocked the horn rimmed glasses.

I also apparently could have rocked an afro...who knew??

Unfortunately, some of these 80's looks actually made it onto my head in real life...it kind of freaks me out to go back here!
and finally...the 90's....sad that I am too old to have had an actual yearbook photo of myself taken in that decade...but if I had....
yeah...lets just say it is better that I didn't!

Ok...back to work, honest!! Mickey is waiting for me and I've got lots to do before I can go!

My day...

Oh man...what a day. What a really wonderful day!

First, I spent some time doing this....

I took this with my iphone...and believe me, I felt like a dork doing it in the chi chi salon where I was, but I persevered for the sake of goofy blog photos.

My regular girl recently left the salon where I go, so on a whim I scheduled my appointment with the salon owner. The good news, is he was FABULOUS...the bad news is he was FABULOUS (and expensive) and now I'm in love and want to keep seeing him. Sigh.

I did manage to take a photo to prove that I didn't in fact go off of the midlife crisis deep end. It is a lot different though and I love it!

I do feel like a total failure that I've been scrapbooking for all of these years and still haven't mastered the mirror photo thing without cutting off half of my head...sad photography indeed...but at least it wasn't the half of my head with the highlights and choppy cut!!

As a side note, I am not the only one that had a fun day...I know this because when Todd got home from hanging out with my Dad and Brother at their workshop, his hands looked like this....and he is snoring after crashing pretty darn quickly tonight. A whole week of kindergarten and work too takes a lot out of a guy you know?

But the very best part of my day (and my week, month, year) and the thing that meant more to me than I could possibly express is that I came home to find a big box on my doorstep...and now this is on my countertop.

You may remember that this blender and I have a history.

I was completely surprised and overwhelmed to open the big box on my porch and find a pretty gift wrapped box and thoughtful card with my name on it inside. When I saw the blender I just lost it. It was completely unexpected and unbelievable and made me cry happy happy tears.

Every time I look at it I will remember that I am beyond blessed to have amazing and wonderfully thoughtful people in my life who shall remain nameless (they know who they are and I hope they know that they are appreciated and loved very much!)

I am amazed sometimes at how this world works...how chance meetings turn into connections...turn into friendships...and end up making impacts on our lives that we could never have imagined.

Stay tuned for smoothie reports soon.

overheard and reported....

this first week of Kindergarten...

• Yesterday on the walk home Todd said, "Mom, G told me that she is dating someone from her new class, and I'm not too happy about it!"
  
• Today on the way into class I was lagging behind the kids and saw a boy run up to Todd and tap him on the shoulder and say "Hey Dude!" Todd turned around and said "Hey! Whatup?"
  
• On pick up today the teacher let us know that today they had a discussion about pushing because there was an "incident" at school. Big shocker, my kid was involved. Apparently a girl in his class pushed him down to the pavement...and then after she pushed him a second time, he pushed her back. I explained that it is never ok to push or hit a girl. His response? "Oh yeah, because girls are pretty and they don't like to get their hair messed up and stuff right? and besides, girls complain a lot don't they Mom?"

Who knows what the rest of the year will bring!

Exciting things....

Lots of exciting things rolling around in my head so I'm going for a list today. Ready?

• I did start creating at 8:30am this morning...it was glorious!
  
  
• The sun was out all day today, and when the sun is out here, it is seriously the most beautiful place on earth. I mean, it is beautiful all of the time, but sunny days...wow...I love me some sunny days.
  
  
• I got this in the mail yesterday. It was written by my good friend Linda and she totally hit it out of the park. I have really enjoyed this book and seeing all of the cool ways that layouts take shape depending on where they start. I'm not just saying this because we are friends, or because I was honored to contribute, it really is so so good!!
  
  
  
• Today was day 3 and Todd is still loving Kindergarten!
  
  
• Only 6 more sleeps until vacation, and I am so ready. Can't wait to get away and hang out with my favorite 7 people on earth, in the happiest place on earth. We also get to see this girl and shop here...did I mention that I just can't wait?
  
  
• I'm going back to school tomorrow night. I'm taking my second semester of ASL and I'm really looking forward to it. Last semester was fun, but it was extremely casual. This time there is a new instructor, and it is going to be serious business. I'm already doing homework. (I missed last week's class)
  
  
  
• I decided to make up for the blender episode with a cut and color on Friday...I'm trying to walk the line between splurging and a mid-life crisis. I'll let you know how I do.
  
  
• There have been lots of commercials for my favorite fall shows...I love my fall tv.
  
  
• Tomorrow Product Playground 2 begins!! Woo Hoo! I'm so excited. There is still time to sign up, but hurry...because we are going to start having lots of fun tomorrow and you don't want to miss out. (It is also your last chance to get the discount on the albums class that starts right after)

I think that is enough excitement for a Wednesday night right? What is exciting in your world?

I'm liking this...

So far this whole early morning thing is agreeing with me. I was worried that getting up and getting Todd ready and to school by 8am was going to be rough, but so far so good.  Don't get me wrong....getting up the hour and a half earlier than usual isn't exactly fun (and I do realize this is only day 2) but seriously.

This morning I pulled into my driveway this at 9:03 am with a car full of groceries AND a steaming hot cup of coffee...this was after a nice sunny stroll to school & back. I could seriously get used to this.

Tomorrow I plan to be scrapping by 8:15 am...and I can't wait.

First Day

My boy went to Kindergarten today...

big shocker...

He loved it.

I had to take my traditional, going out of the front door photo...

And then at my Mom's we took the traditional photo in front of the palm trees. Somewhere is my first day of school photo in front of these same (albeit smaller) palm trees. I'll have to scan and post it. I was pretty cute....but not as cute as this.

Overall it was a great day!!

He knew no one in his class...but it took him about 30 seconds to settle in...and the quote of the day was "see ya Mom!"

A bedtime story...

Tomorrow this boy starts Kindergarten....Kindergarten...how the heck did that happen?

It will be our first morning of the early hour, and I'm pretty sure that once we get the hang of that part we will be home free. This week is kind of a dry run anyway...since next week we are on vacation.

So after the drop off tomorrow I get to go to "tea and tissues" which is apparently a little get together of Kinder moms. I am pretty sure that I won't need any tissues. This boy is beyond ready.

I know this video is a little long...but some of the editorial touches just might be worth it.

Thank you for understanding...

I knew you all would understand my blender issues. I so appreciate your comments and positive thoughts.

This comment from Sharon totally made me laugh:

"You were not meant to have the blender, but to serve an important role in helping that poor young man, Sumeet. Hopefully he got his lesson and has moved on back to college or to the American Eagle store 3 doors down."

I feel so much better knowing that I have had such a profound influence in a young man's life!

Other than that, I don't have anything new to report today...it is fresh sheet night at my house and I have a date with a couple of new magazines and my bed...so I'm off. Maybe tomorrow I will find something more interesting to post about!

Retail Therapy...or not

As weeks go, this one has been rather horrible. I'm making my way through it and ready for the fresh start and sunny skies that I know are coming.  As part of this moving on, I did a little shopping with my mom today.

I'm not a big mall shopper....I'm just not that into browsing, I just like to get what I need and move on. Today though we thought we'd hit the mall, I was looking for a bag for Disneyland and a toaster. Both Matt and I hate our current toaster....and nothing in the usual haunts of Target floats my toaster boat.

So anyway...the bag shopping was not fruitful...and I was disappointed. Toasters weren't any more exciting and I was on my way out ready to leave the mall with nothing to show for my stop. 

But as I was exiting the department in Macy's I saw this little baby...and stopped dead in my tracks. I think my heart skipped a beat.

It was so pretty... and perfectly matched my kitchen and even though I don't drink a lot of smoothies...(ok, I don't drink any smoothies) the moment I saw this all I could think about were all of the smoothies I wanted to make and drink.

So I thought about it for all of 45 seconds, trying to be mature because this was not what I was shopping for, and I'm not even really sure how to make smoothies. And then I flashed back on this week, and how completely crappy it was, and decided that I indeed needed this little bit of Martha to make me feel better.

So off to the counter I went, and immediately was told by the old lady that took her job way to seriously that I was just "going to have to wait" because she helps people in order.

Now let me set the stage so that you understand that in the entire store there were probably 10 customers. There was one other lady in the appliance department, but the old lady working there was "quite busy". She called for another person and finally after she almost had an aneurysm, a young boy named Sumeet showed up.

He was nice enough and started to help us, but we had a $15 off coupon and that caused some confusion. The old lady had to come back to help him (huffing and puffing because helping the only other customer in the whole store is exhausting) and then points out that we could get 10% off if we used a Macy's card. I don't have a Macy's card, so we tell them to look up my Mom's card...this causes more confusion while I'm telling Todd to stop climbing on the pyramid of toaster ovens.

Finally Sumeet gets it all done, but there is no additional 10% off. Mean lady Ethel has to come back again and snaps at poor Sumeet that "of course they don't get 10% off AND the coupon...it is only one or the other!!". So we go back to plan A, fine to not get the 10% and Sumeet rings me up again (not on my mother's card). I am thinking that we might actually get out of there before my child breaks the Dr. Andrew Weil display of appliances (what is up with that anyway?)

Finally the beautiful blender is going into a bag and I'm being handed my receipt. At this point my mom and Todd are making their way to the escalator, because I'm just about done right? Then I say to Sumeet "where is the paperwork for the $20 mail in rebate?" and he says "oh it is right here, I'll take care of it"....and starts thumbing through a binder.

Guess what? He can't find it.

Guess who has to come back and help him? You see where this is going.

After she rummages through the binder a few times she tells Sumeet that he is going to have to call the manager and have them print out a new rebate sheet upstairs..."but it is going to take a while and that is just the way it is".

Even poor Sumeet is like WTF? I swear I saw his eyes roll back in his head. It is 2008, why can't we just print something out right here? She said "no, only the manager can print out a rebate sheet". I'm sure she couldn't imagine that anyone else could operate one of those new fangled printing machines.

I actually said to them...."Ummm...I know that you have to be here until 5pm, but I really don't have 2 hours to buy a $120 blender that I didn't come for, for smoothies that I don't know how to make and never drink all because I had a shitty week."

Sumeet just stood there helpless...and the bitchy lady just kept on bitching, and mumbling about the sanctity of rebate printing and I handed my receipt back across the counter and told them to forget it....

...and now I don't have a shiny teal blender to make my imaginary smoothies and my week didn't get any better.

sigh.