cyber crop

we're having a cyber crop over at tally scrapper. because i'm on the design team (did you notice that SHAMELESS plug?!?!?), i had the HONOR of coming up with one of the games! this is the layout i completed for it:
i've SEEN the other games and challenges...DON'T MISS OUT!!! it lasts ALL WEEKEND!!!

you take the good, you take the bad...

...you take them both and there you have the facts of life! i feel like i'm stuck in a tv show right now! bad news first: hubbs comes home yesterday and says, well, there was a layoff at work today. my mind INSTANTLY processed that OTHER people being laid off doesn't affect our bank balance so that left him! what sucks is that he's worked for this company for TEN YEARS and they didn't care enough about him to give him TWO WEEKS NOTICE? how do you just call someone OVER THE PHONE and say, "by the way, don't come to work tomorrow!"?!?!? and they couldn't tell us this before we made the trip to texas this past weekend? i mean, i wanted to be there for my friend but MY house and MY family come first...that money would have stayed in the bank! i keep telling hubbs that they won't be blessed for how they handled him; i keep BEGGING him that if he's asked to return, to PLEASE not do so without a raise! we'll be ok, though. if i just stop buying supplies every TWO DAYS we'll be able to continue supplying our account! ;)
so, onto the good! i FINALLY cut the last relaxer out of my hair and i'm officially natural! it felt like FOR EVA to me, but i know women who say it took eight MONTHS for their hair to reach the length my new growth has reached in five. here's the new look:
this was while we were waiting for my best friend's wife to get ready. here are a few more pix from the wedding:
this is my best friend, emmanuel
my two handsome guys before the wedding

emmanuel and ethan waiting for mommy to come
yeah...no, he REALLY wasn't interested!!!
emmanuel and rochelle thomas
strange fact: this is my best friend's second marriage...his first wife's name was rachelle; my middle name is rachelle. i think he just LIKES having rachelles around him!
did you look closely at the sidebar? see anything different? i made the spring design team at tally scrapper!!!! i feel like i have to strike while the iron is hot! what am i trying to do, you ask?
trying to take over the WORLD, pinky!!!

p.s. i didn't get to finish the layouts for emmanuel and abena before we went to texas, so i'll just have to mail them when i do! the dinner for my parents was really nice. they were really surprised! hopefully we can do a big hoopla next year (if God spares our lives!) i DID get to visit ikea and i was kinda disappointed!!!! SO MANY things looked giNORmous in the catalog and doll sized in person; other items were just cheap! still spent over $100! i'll go back but it won't be so urgent next time! and this is a layout i did today:
this dude is SO funny!!! when i observed him pacing back and forth, i almost wanted to scream,"pimps up, hoes down!" but i know that wouldn't be very mommy-like!!! he DOES look like he's cussing somebody, doesn't he? i promise i'm finished for the night!

under pressure

my neck is SO tight right now! i'm praying for God to give me strength! my parents' 30 year anniversary is this week. i really wanted to give them a big to do, but we're unable. so, hubbs has agreed to cook dinner for them thursday. we'll just have them and my sibs over, maybe a FEW more people. the big blow out was cancelled because my best friend is getting married saturday in houston and i want to be there!!! he's been married before so it's not a big event...but, it's a big deal for me to be there. plus, i can't go to texas ANOTHER TIME without visiting ikea!!! we've already set money aside for me to shop. i HATE shopping (i love online shopping but i break out into hives when i THINK about going into a store!!!) but i LOVE a bargain. ikea is just like bargain CENTRAL to me! i've had emmanuel (my best friend) do some shopping there for us before but it's just not the same as ME being there (and maybe taking a picture or 75!). i also have a friend who was my best friend in high school who evacuated to texas after katrina. she lost everything, including all her memories. so, i've taken it upon myself to start an album for her since i DO have some pix of her from that time. i know i won't finish but if i can at LEAST give her the album, i'll be able to mail any additional pages. and what are we giving emmanuel as a wedding gift? you guessed it: an album. to make matters WORSE, my mojo is FLOWIN' right now. this is normally a good thing but it's killing me right now. i can't concentrate on my parents, abena or emmanuel because all of these "OOOOH, i can do THIS next!" ideas keep popping into my head! it's about 2:30 am right now and i need to be cleaning (i like to give the garbage men as MUCH trash as possible on wednesdays and saturdays!!!) but all i can think of is wedding layouts. oh, i left THAT part out: it has really started to bother me that i never finished our wedding album so i've been working on THAT, too. so, i'm gonna bother you all for some prayers right now: please pray for God to give me the strength to clean, entertain, scrap for us and others this week! i appreciate it!

team jim's tally challenge

the group i'm a part of at tally scrapper has a new challenge which was posted last night: the layout had to have the word "lucky" in the title. HA! how PERFECT is this? i kreated this in RECORD time:
after my dark thoughts of thinning out the willis herd today, it's NO WONDER i finished this in about 30 minutes!!!!

This boy...

...is NOT my friend right now. he didn't know that his dad and i were up until 4:30 this morning. we were...ummm...talking. don't get me off the subject! so, after he and his dad left at 7:30, i got up to give the pee pee monster (a.k.a. keanohn) a bath. as i greased him down (per doctor's orders-helps with the eczema) on dad's side of the bed, i happened to look over at john's nightstand and see a very official looking envelope addressed to "the parents of..." awww, CRAP! (he obviously sat it there between 5 and 6 with the intention of saying that it had been there for days!) let me clarify why my day was shot RIGHT THEN: a letter addressed "to parents of" which was not GIVEN to said parents during last night's dinner or during our ride to the store LAST NIGHT to get some snacks for our family night movie OR during said family night movie is NOT going to contain information which will make you smile and call the whole family to GLOAT! naw, i knew from ONE GLANCE that this was some FOOLISHNESS that was gonna make me wanna walk to the school (six blocks away), snatch this dude out of science class BY his hair and scream all the way home! (sorry! but i DO have SOME ghetto in me and it DOES escape sometimes!) the letter (which was dated friday, march 13th...ummm, what's TODAY'S date?!?!?) says that the boy has missed five unexcused days of school and because that number is cause for concern, we have a meeting scheduled with the school social worker for 8:30am...YESTERDAY!!! i have NOW turned into BONQUIESHA!!! i mean, it's not even a game...i understood at THAT MOMENT why parents beat their kids! so, i took a deep breath and called hubbs at work. it was one of those "do YOU want to call or should i?" conversations. for one thing, the unexcused days were supposed to be excused because the boy had a doctor's note. (see, i'm not ghetto ALL THE TIME...i DO handle mine!) get this: the social worker tells my husband not to worry; sometimes the teacher has the information and FORGETS to turn it in! HUH?!?!? what the...? but, you send this letter home threatening to turn this CASE over to the state if a sufficient explanation isn't given for why the BOY has unexcused absences, but one department hasn't communicated with another? that's some FOOLISHNESS right there!!!! THEN, why are you depending on a 12-going-on-13 year old to be bring that kind of information home ANYWAY? i understand that you are trying to teach them to be responsible but you NEED TO recognize that half the time they AREN'T and the other half they're too afraid of the consequences that may stem from this letter which they are unsure of the meaning of to even bring home! and ANOTHER thing: if the meeting was scheduled for 8:30 YESTERDAY, why is it WE had to call THEM?!?!?!? my mother was a principal for about 13 years before she got sick and i KNOW it wouldn't have gone down like that at HER school!!!! i am BURNED UP right now!! jamani (the 17 year old) attended this school from first grade through sixth; ahmad has been there since kindergarten. i've had them call me because the boys wore the wrong colored shoes to school ONE day and i've had them call me for a conference to discuss why jamani lost a folder (these examples are REAL, people...i couldn't make this foolishness up if i TRIED!) my husband and i ALWAYS respond and they KNOW that! so, they should have either called the police to tell them that ahmad's parents were OBVIOUSLY dead or missing since they didn't show up for a parent/teacher conference...or they at LEAST should have called us! mr. man was trying to visit his grandmother this weekend, but that's out! slick thought he would get another opportunity to try to hook up with that WENCH he calls his girlfriend (that's some more FOOLISHNESS i just don't even feel like getting into right now!) y'all really need to pray for ahmad 'cuz if he comes home and BREATHES more than 15 times in a minute, i'm all over him! if you don't see me post anything here or the scrapbook gallery for about two weeks, please contact my husband to see what you can send to me in jail!

Just some randomness...

(translation: it's been too freakin' long since i last posted so i have to get three weeks of stuff into one post!) lately, i can't believe my mind (to quote the great zaboomafoo!) i've lost sight of the fact that krafting is supposed to be my release, not a stressor. i've been completing design team assignments, challenge assignments, design team tryout assignments (do you see the trend?) my husband even told me that i need to slow down because in addition to all of that, i'm still cooking, organizing, and kickin' it with my guys. i feel like i can't slow down now because i'm on a roll. once the house is organized, i won't have THAT to concentrate on; i'll only have to worry about maintaining. once i'm on one or two (or fifteen) more design teams, i can concentrate on just those assignments. and in the midst of it all, i'll get some kreation time just for me.
so, i know it's a few weeks late, but i've been wanting to show you all a picture of a mardi gras indian.isn't he beautiful? they spend MONTHS decorating their costumes. My dream (when we move into the big house) is to display one of these on a mannequin somewhere in our home. how new orleans is THAT?!?!
these images of mardi gras...NOT so beautiful! and since i was sitting down holding kea the whole time we were out there, these are only the ones that i could catch before they walked away!!! this is how it goes down in new orleans this time of year. i've been here for 36 of my 37 years and some of the stuff STILL surprises me!!!

speaking of beautiful, look at my baby:

random images of jamani from ages 7 months to 2 years oldi've been in a very contemplative mood lately. i guess since i'm nearing 40 (kickin' it in the behind!) and my son is making EIGHTEEN and going away to college in the fall.
i'm so proud of him! he actually got enough credits in his junior year of high school where he only takes four classes this year. so, when he leaves school early he takes classes at a local university. when he graduates from high school in may, he will have enough credits be a SOPHOMORE when he goes to Southern University at Baton Rouge in the fall! ok, you may praise my child now! i'm sorry for the breasts which are inflated but i'm looking back and thinking it was all worth it. all the times i took off to take him to the hospital and the nights i stayed up late, nursing him. all the days i spared his life and didn't send him to see Jesus when he rolled his eyes at me or sucked his teeth...it was ALL WORTH IT!!!! he's maturing and becoming the successful human that i've been grooming and praying for him to be. now, i just have to get through this twice more without killing one of them and going to jail...Lord help me!!!

so, i had to kreate a layout for a challenge at tally scrapper. we had to kreate a page highlighting the relationship between ourselves and another person. because i'm thinking so much about this man child that i just held in my arms for the first time last WEEK (seems like!) i kreated my layout about him:
it feels weird, thinking about my son calling me from college telling me, mama, i just had sex with this girl and i think she wants more from me than i'm ready to give...wait, i think i'm gonna throw up...

ok, i'm back! i know i have to get my mind right but...it's just SO HARD!!!

my parents' 30th wedding anniversary is in about two weeks. when my mom was sick, she was in the hospital through mother's and father's day. my dad asked that we do a "parents' day" in place of late celebrations. i know that he thinks we've forgotten but hubbs and i are planning something...as if i don't have ENOUGH to do! i did a layout using their engagement picture.


i'm gonna have this enlarged and framed as their gift...hope they like it!

well, i gotta go spend some money at bathandbodyworks.com. tonight only, the sleep aromotherapy items are $8 with $3 shipping...can't beat it! hubbs and i love that pillow mist and we're out. i promise it won't be another three weeks before i vent again!

WINNER, WINNER...CHICKEN DINNER!!!

I'm having a pretty good week! I logged on this morning and found out that I won the Clearly Yours challenge at Dreamgirls!!!! I'm SO stoked!!! This is the layout that won:
Also, I DID get to finish quite a few of the challenges I wanted to do last week:
This one is for Gutter Girlz. The challenge was easy because I immediately thought of how I feel when people tell me how much weight I've gained...as if I didn't ALREADY KNOW, IDIOT!!!
I got two done for challenges over at Tally Scrapper (LOVE those peeps!!!). This first one is for the Survivor group I'm in (and hopefully I STAY in for the duration this time!) I scrapped about my "new" look...scarves and hats! This going natural process is just taking SO long! The second challenge at Tally was to scrap about something that gives you butterflies but it couldn't be a man or woman...so I chose LITTLE men and women!!! I love babies SO much...I don't know if I love 'em enough to give hubbs another as he's requesting but that's a post for another day!
I finished a layout for the joint challenge Category Stories and Tally are having. The challenge was to scrap something you love. BAY BAY!!!!! Next to God and my guys, I love me some FREE ME TIME!!!! I DID get some Sunday. John took the boys to the movies. I was running around like a chicken, though. I was trying to cram everything in before they got home. Anywho, here's my LOVE layout:
The last challenge I did a layout for was Pencillines (I'm NOT on crack...the mojo is just flowin' right now! ) This is the layout I did based on last week's sketch:(I only have about 3,000 more of these beach pix to scrap!)

I need some scrappy help! So, I've been investing in these:Michael's sells them for $35 but they were doing a promo last week where they gave you a 50% off coupon with your receipt. I always try to use the coupons on the most expensive thing I need and these were it! But, buying them made me realize I only own this much cardstock:I KNOW, I KNOW...shocking and sad! I have lots of patterned paper...just very little cardstock. So, when Hobby Lobby had the 50% paper sale last week, I got what I could. Now, I have THIS much cardstock:

IT'S STILL NOT ENOUGH...I'm a HOARDER...what am I gonna do with THAT?!?!? So, can somebody tell me where to get the cardstock deals? Our Michael's only sells Bazzill by the sheet and Hobby Lobby sells only TWO different packs of American Crafts cardstock and only the Bazzill shaped cardstock. Anyone who can help me out will get some scrappiness from me!!

I'll leave you with some peeks of the projects I've completed for Buzz and Bloom. Make sure you check out our projects all our projects here...there is greatness to be seen!!! Later!