Cosmo Cricket “Oh Joy” papers and American Crafts thickers.

I love this kit I put together for the Scrapbook Nook Kits. I used my favorite holiday line this year, created by the always fun Cosmo Cricket. I wanted to do some detail shots of the traditional Christmas decor at my house, and this little nativity scene is my number one favorite thing. In fact, I never pack it away and keep it in a box near the door in case the house ever catches fire. It is the one material possession I would try to save.

It was my mother’s manger scene, and my brother and sister and I used to joke about what we wanted when our parents passed away. They sensibly chose things of value like the house or the cars, but I always said I didn’t care about anything, as long as I got the nativity.

My parents gave it to me as wedding present because they knew how much I cherish it. I love putting it out each year, and spending time telling my children the sacred story of the Savior’s birth, and reminding us all of the deep importance between the glitter and bustle of the season.

Now, I have drawn for a winner for this Nook Kit give-a-way- I’m sorry there can only be one! Here she is:

One of the best things I love about your blog is the link to other great blogs or sites. I love the “Classes, Contests & Challenges!” on the Scrapbook Nook blog. I have such a busy schedule that it’s great to go peek at my leisure to see what’s happening and what’s new. I also love your kit!

Comment by Susana O — November 20, 2008 @ 3:08 pm

Susanna- shoot me an e-mail or leave a message here to claim your prize! Congrats!

Now, there are a few of these gorgeous kits up for grabs, so I hope you are able to get one!

When I brought the cat over on Saturday I had set everything she needed up in my bedroom with the intent to keep her quarantined until the hub-bub of moving had died down and she could explore the new home on her own, in her special, neurotically graceful way. Lissy, you may recall, became a part of our family during the last deployment when she showed up during a nasty rainstorm. I learned via her micro chip that her previous owners had moved to Germany and abandoned her, leaving her to fend for herself.

Look at that face? Does she look like she can fend for herself? Not very well. She likes her jaunts outside, but ultimately needs a pillow to snuggle on and someone to brush her long, easily tangled hair. Food is also helpful, as she is skinny as a rail and even a little starvation leaves her completely emaciated.

So Lissy had lived on our block for a few years, even longer than we had. She had two homes, and several neighborhood hidey-holes and sight-seeing spots. This was her stomping ground, and I was really very worried about moving her. I’ve heard that old saying that dogs get attached to people and cats get attached to places. She was a nervous wreck watching our house being packed up, and I was nervous wondering if she was going to go outside and hide for an extended period of time. I was even more worried that once we got to the new house she would streak out the first open door and become completely lost.

Sunday, the first full day in the new house, rolled around and I allowed Lissy to leave my room. The house was still and silent. Lissy skulked about, low to the ground, jumping at every piece of lint in her path. I left her alone to do her thing, and for the next few hours I repeatedly stumbled across her squished into random hiding spaces. Lissy was behind the kitchen aide mixer. She was hiding behind a box in my laundry room. She was dislocating her hips to squish behind the entertainment center. Paranoid little thing.

Shortly before I left for church at one, I noticed that I couldn’t find her. I wasn’t terribly worried, I just assumed she had found a new spot, and she’d turn up when I came home. Three hours later I walked in the door and she didn’t come running. Lissy is an exceptionally needy cat, so this was odd. I called for her a bit and when she never came, I began to worry.

That morning I had opened the doors twice to put out the back and front welcome mats. I remembered being pretty careful to close the doors, so I couldn’t imagine when exactly she had sneaked out, but it wasn’t impossible.

I went to dinner with friends, and when I got home, still no cat. At this point, I was beginning to get a little mad at myself wondering at what point I had so foolishly left the door unguarded. I had searched every room, closet and crevice between boxes and she was clearly not in the house. I had called out the front and back doors, to no avail, but to the great excitement of the neighborhood dogs. Mmm, fresh kitty, I heard them bark. . .sounds yummy!

My children were due to arrive in the next few minutes, so it wasn’t long before they piled into the house like circus performers, running up and down the stairs, in and out of every room and closet all the while exclaiming over the newness and awesomeness of their new home. “Where’s Lissy?” One asked me, and I had to quietly demure that I wasn’t sure, but she’d show up soon. All I could think was, “oh crap, what if she doesn’t? The kids are going to have fits.”

About ten minutes later, while the kids were still all over the place on a frenzied sugar high (their grandparents had loaded them up with cupcakes and sugar and who knows what else, and then brought them home to go through detox on my watch) I heard a meow. It was faint, but there was definite meowing.

I ran to the backdoor. No cat. Jonas ran to the front door. No cat. We ran to the kitchen, checked behind the entertainment center, opened all the closets but. . . no cat. I told the kids to be quiet so I could better hear the sound. At this point, the meowing had grown into pitiful yowling, and in the quiet I realized that it was coming from my couch.

I looked under the couch, but couldn’t see her, so I assumed she had crawled into the base of the sofa. I flipped the couch over into an L shape (the only direction I could flip it, since I had gravity on my very pregnant side). There was a small hole in the underlining of the couch, and I assumed she had crawled in through that, but she wasn’t on the bottom of the couch. She was inside the back of the couch, which was now laying on her, which explained the escalated yowling. I managed to flip the couch up again, but needed to flip it the other way to let the cat escape.

I’m six months pregnant. I can’t flip the couch the other way; it is physically not possible.

I start calling friends, but no one is home. The couch is wailing in trapped frustration at this point and the kids are in hysterics. Finally, I call my friend Patience, who I know screens her calls, so if I want her to pick up, I’m going to need to talk into the phone until she gets there. I began telling her of the current chaos unfolding at my house, and when she answers, her husband is laughing his head off in the background.

Patience came over and flipped the couch. Lissy immediately scrambled out, and I just stood their shaking my head. Stupid, stupid, freaked out kitty.

The next day, while we were unpacking, the same disappearing cat trick occurred and thankfully I thought to bang on the side of the couch before my friend Cori left that night. Yup. Back in the couch. This time I used packing tape to close the hole. The next morning I watched Lissy flatten herself under the couch and return, very miffed a few minutes later after finding her spot sealed off.

Lissy is still skulking about the house, only slightly less jittery than she began. She tried to go outside once, which I was not encouraging, but got spooked and stayed inside. I hope she keeps up that attitude for at least another week or two and contents herself with all of the lovely windows to look out of. Clearly, she is too neurotic to handle a backyard surrounded on every side by dogs, so I think inside is her best option until she settles down.

Hope your day was great.

Final out on the old house was today. It went fine- interesting, but fine.

Turns out. . .the “new” carpet was actually the old carpet. So, no, contrary to popular belief- that wasn’t all us. Do you know how many people told me it was new?

I saw spots reappear within in weeks of moving in and we had a few plumbing issues that ruined certain rooms and I’ve been living with serious carpet mildew for over a year now- the only thing that was getting me through was knowing I didn’t have to pay for it- when we first talked they were all “It was new. . .and we have no record of these disasters (really? nothing about having to replace all the tile when the pipe burst in the kitchen? Nothing at all?). . .so we’ll take three years off but. . .$$$$$.

Idiots. The house record may have missed the repairs that would have totally cleared us from responsibility, but it did note that it was the house’s original carpet. ORIGINAL. As in been through at least 3 families with kids and dogs and people walking around in dirty combat boots.

Finally, I’m free of that evil carpet.

Breath with me for a moment.

Despite all of the help, our friends who cleaned the kitchen forgot the drawers and inside the cupboards. So I did those. Not a big deal! With how many people were in there, I’ll bet they couldn’t even open the cupboards!

They also never opened the cupboard where all of the cleaning supplies I had purchased for the people cleaning were kept. So. . .ummm. . .we have our year’s supply of cleaning stuff. And then some. Anybody need a magic eraser?

The lady came back and was a little ridiculous about the cupboards. I was distracted and forgot the bottom ones. She wanted to charge us $50 to have someone do about 15 minutes worth of cleaning. I put my foot down and she was all, “This will take a looooong time.” I said, “I could have this done in 20 minutes.” So she’s telling me that she has to go and the entire office is closing early because of the holiday and they can charge me for an extra day which is more than the $50 for cleaning.

So I’m all- well, if you get 3 hours off today, how about I get three hours extra too? Seems fair. Five days is five days. So she called her boss, and they gave me 15 minutes to get it done before they would re-assess. She treated me like I was insane to even try and that there was NO possible way to get them done that fast.

Never underestimate a money grubbing woman with two kids who have been taught to clean. I had them done in 15 minutes, and done well. Ha. The kids got major Mom-props for their help.

We did get charged for the fridge handle and a housekey (I think Chris may have taken that with him to the desert-ha!)- so only $35. Not bad.

And I’m FREEEEEEEEE to go enjoy my new house. . .the house with no downstairs carpeting and lovely, lovely wood floors that I can drop a whole gallon of grape juice on with no lasting consequence!

I’ve hit a wall tonight.

I did the grocery shopping, bathed the kids, rescued the cat from her own stupidity twice, went to Lowe’s for the second time in less than 24 hours, assembled a bookshelf, bought stuff at the BX, dropped by the old house and puttered before tomorrow’s final out, colored with the kids, ate an entire bag of lebcuchen hearts, had repair guys over to fix a few things, met the neighbors and. . .I really should continue on this productive streak but I’m pooped.

So I’m going to stall all productivity by watching trashy television drama.

I was recently asked to review an online shopping venue that you may not have heard of yet. It is called SHOP.com and it is a pretty neat site.

I played around for awhile and I was very impressed. When you do a search for the item that you are interested in it brings it up from many, many sellers and allows you to very quickly compare prices and choose the best deal. It includes over 2,000 stores on just the one site. It is really easy to load up your cart with everything you need and then use the one cart checkout feature that allows you to pay for your merchandise quickly and securely.

I found several neat baby stores and items, and also located a shop with some Kleen Kanteen water bottle lids that I was having a hard time finding. I also love their green section that offers a ton of eco-friendly ideas and products.

This is a good spot to start some holiday shopping and catch a good deal.

All Cards made using Cosmo Cricket’s “Oh Joy” paper line and embellishments!