Seeing Red. And Cream and Black Too!
New My Mind’s Eye again. I am loving this Lost and Found line! The brads are awesome!
Makin’ Cards
Made this “Miss You” Card using primarily Quickutz dies and the new My Mind’s Eye papers.
And Jenni Bowlin pins, just because they make me smile.
Then I used my scraps to make an eensy mini card.
Why We Aren’t In South Dakota
Hi!
The past few weeks have been quite the exercise in rolling with it and taking change in stride. We have been jerked around so many times that I no longer feel pain or have any emotional response whatsoever. It has been sucked out of me by this move, and that may be a good thing.
To sum up:
Chicken Little: The sky is falling!
Leah: WHAT? NOOO! Wahhhh!
Chicken Little: The sky is falling!
Leah: Well, Crap! *shakes fist*
Chicken Little: The sky is falling again!
Leah: Eh.
Chicken Little: The sky is still falling!
Leah: hmm. That’s nice.
Chicken Little: The sky, it falleth!
Leah: LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!
That’s where I’m at.
You see, when we left California, in a haze of things going wrong, we assumed that we would be in Utah for roughly four weeks. We had made arrangements with the housing office and with our movers. All was on schedule, every T was crossed, every I dotted. We did our part, and we were satisfied. The floor plans of our new house looked pretty good, and the movers had us booked. Smooooth sailing. (This is where you should laugh, because this is the military we’re talking about- all images of smooth sailing should probably be replaced with a panoramic view of Pearl Harbor after the Japanese visited).
So about five days before we were set to move, Chris calls up housing and asks when he can get the key to the house they told us that they gave us. Turns out, they gave our house away. Um. Okay. They said they had no idea why we thought we’d get that house, so we sent them the e-mails stating that this was our house.
Tough noogies. You weren’t here, so bye bye nice house, hello mediocre house.
Enter Weeping, Wailing, and Gnashing of Teeth.
Enter Getting Over It.
So we called the movers to give them our new address, and to find out what time on the 16th we should meet them.
Movers: What are you talking about?
Us: We confirmed for the 16th. Moving in?
Movers: Ohhh, we had that down as a tentative confirmation.
Us: What? We had it down as a confirmation confirmation. You know? Like the meaning of the word “confirm” and the solidarity that implies.
Movers: Well, haha, bad on you. The soonest we can move you in is the 30th.
Us: You’re joking.
Movers: Nope. 30th.
Us: How are we supposed to live with no stuff for two weeks?
Movers: Sucks to be you hahaha!
So there you go. We called housing back a few days later, explaining our situation. You see, with the threat of our house being taken away yet again, we were pretty hesitant to not fill out official paperwork on this house. It is not unheard of for military families to live in a hotel for months before housing becomes available, so we would like to avoid that. However, you can’t live in an empty house, and I can’t really afford to live in a hotel for two weeks whilst paying rent on my house. No. Can. Do.
Housing was surprisingly nice about this situation. They said it would be fine for us to move in later, so we shifted our date by about 10 days (running out of leave here, people). Because of the date shift, my parents, who were planning on coming out to visit and help us unpack, had to cancel their plans. This means I don’t get to see my family, and my help is gone. It has been disappointing for everyone involved.
The good news was that since we were moving in so much later the house we had been given wouldn’t be available, but they had other homes for us to choose from. They sent three floor plans last Friday. I’ll call them Good, Bad and Worse. Obviously, we opted for Good. We felt good about Good. Good had extra space! Good was one level! Good had storage! Good had decorating potential and much more natural light than the others! GOOD!
The weekend was happy.
Then Monday arrived and with it an e-mail saying, “Oops! That’s the handicap unit, and even though you are suffering emotional disabilities after being jerked around at this level for this long, that doesn’t count. You’ll need to lose a leg to get this house.”
I rolled my eyes at this change, and we said we’d take Bad. Bad was, after all, better than Worse, and some nice handicapped person would probably really need Good. Sigh.
So we’re looking this floor plan over during the next few days, trying to figure out just how many lamps it will take to light a cave, and how in the world you arrange furniture in a room spliced with carpet and vinyl dividing the room. This time was spent Being Positive. Also, there was much therapeutic perusing of the Pottery Barn catalog.
Then yesterday, housing e-mails us with the news that we could have the handicap unit if we wanted it. Military housing is required to have handicap housing, but can rarely fill it will people who actually need it, so occasionally it is open to just anybody.
Apparently, now we get the house we want. There has been much more joyful pouring over of the Pottery Barn catalog this time, but to be perfectly honest, I’m not holding my breath on this house until we’ve signed the lease.
Housing giveth, and housing taketh away.
We plan to get there a few days prior to the 30th, so we will get to live out of an empty house for a few days. It isn’t ideal, but it also isn’t two weeks. Chris is nearly out of leave after this fiasco, and he will have to get back to work as soon as possible when we arrive. This means that I will be unpacking and setting up the house pretty much on my own. I did it by myself last time we moved, very pregnant and with a deployed husband, so I figure I can do it again.
Queue My Military Wife Motto: BRING IT!
Curio Cards
A little more Basic Grey gorgeousness. I’ve been in a card making mood lately, so I tucked myself away at the table at the cabin and played with some paper! Funny, I thought I didn’t like this paper line when I looked at all five new Basic Grey collections- but when I had them all in hand, it ended up being the one I couldn’t put down.
New Layout
I snapped this of Maggie on her fifth birthday, and these new Basic grey “Curio” papers are perfect! The brads are My Mind’s Eye and the trim is Pink Paislee.
Thanks for looking!
Here, Fishy Fishy!
Let it be known that I like to fish.
So does my handsome husband.
But what you should really know is that I am the type of woman
who has no qualms gutting her own catch.
See? No guts.
And I have a rather macabre sense of humor.
But you probably already knew that.
Vacation rocks. Trout taste good.
Leah out.
Hotel Mishaps
On our way to Utah, we stopped for the night in Wendover at the Montego Bay casino. Now, we don’t gamble, but if you are in Nevada, the best and least expensive hotel rooms are always connected with casinos.
We got in very late after a full day of driving. At a quarter of midnight we got our hotel key, trudged upstairs and through the winding maze of the casino, until we reached our room. We slid our key card through the lock, ushered the kids inside, and then discovered that there were already people in our room!
Thankfully, they were fully clothed and only slightly drunk, and very good about the whole thing. So we trudged all the way back downstairs and got a new room (for free).
We walked inside our room, and realized that we had been upgraded to the VIP suite. It was huge, with rich, purple linens, at least three pillows per person, lounge chairs, California King sized beds, and a jacuzzi! There were massive, purple bolster pillows on the bed, five feet long and at least a foot and a half in diameter. The bathroom had soaps that transcended all normal expectations of hotel toiletries and the bathroom was loaded with fluffy towels.
All this, and we were completely exhausted because it was well past midnight. We knew this room was meant to be enjoyed, so we gathered our strength, grabbed a few pillows and proceeded to beat the snot out of each other in the biggest, best pillow fight we have ever been privileged to participate in! (The room was posh, the inhabitants, not so much).
In the morning, we were supposed to get on the road, but there was that lovely spa, and it would be a crime to have a room like that and not use the hot tub. None of us had our swim suits, so we hopped in European style and had a big family bath before we hit the road.
So the lesson to be learned here is clearly that you should always hope to find a stranger in your hotel room. It makes good things happen!
My SCrapbook Nook Bloghop! Loads Of Prizes!
Check out the monthly inspiration from My Scrapbook Nook Kits AND WIN ONE FOR YOURSELF! Our kits are packed with the latest and greatest scrapbooking products, all perfectly coordinated to save you time. These kits are a great value, always only $28 and always with a $15 to 35% discount! This month’s kit features brand new Sassafrass Lass Indie Girl, and matching goodies from Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey and other brands you know and trust!
Our message board and gallery are hopping and loaded with ideas on how to create with your kit, as well as step by step instructions on tons of great layouts and cards!
Now, Here’s how you WIN! Hop the Design Team blogs- leave a comment to win the prize featured on that designer’s blog- then collect the words from each blog to answer this question:
What’s the scrappy cure for the summertime blues?
My clue for you is: GORGEOUS!
When you’ve collected all the words, piece them all together to form a sentence and then go to our message board and send a personal message (pm) to Leah with your guess via the message board.
One person with the correct answer will be drawn at random and will win a 3-month subscription to the kit club here at My Scrapbook Nook.
Other prizes include gift certificates to the Nook store, Quickutz dies and past Nook kits. Winners will be chosen at random from comments left on each design team member’s blog so the more blogs you visit, the greater your chance to win a prize. The winners will be announced in the forum after the close of the blog hop.
The prize that I am giving away to one lucky blog hopper is 1 PAST KIT!
Good luck! And remember:
Don’t wait to create!
Join our scrapbooking kit club today-if you sign up for a 1 year subscription you’ll receive a free kit to start and after a year you will receive your 13th kit for free, too.
Follow the blogs for all of the great prizes and take a look at our Design Team call!
Leah Killian (you’re here)
GOOD LUCK!
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