Laura's Corner

My tiny baby...

... turns six today.  SIX!!!!  How does that happen?  I've been mopping around all day because my babies aren't babies anymore.  I mean come on, shouldn't there be some kind of rule that the youngest isn't allowed to grow at all.  Just stay a sweet little baby forever?

Happy Birthday Regan!  I love you so much baby.

She had her birthday party on Sunday so that Ningy and Uncle David could be there.  She chose to have a Hannah Montana themed party... oh how quickly they grow.  Last year she wanted Tweety Bird.

Today I took cupcakes to her class and she got to wear a birthday crown all day.  She opened the card that Jaime left for her and we're going to do what she wants for dinner.  She opened all her presents at her party so that was a little hard for her to swallow this morning when I said there weren't any to open today.  LOL  Guess I should hace saved one.

Anyway, I love you Regan.

Busy, busy!!

UGH, it's been a crazy busy couple of weeks!  Between Jaime's work trips, traveling with the family, tax time and countless other obligations.. I think I've forgotten how to sleep.

Virginia & David got here on Wednesday the 13th after a long trip from New Orleans.  We had a day to visit before I got on a plane with my friend Paula to Rome on Thursday night.  We spent 2 days there and got back late Saturday night.  We had SO much fun!  She's like me when it comes to traveling... we like to see the basics but if we need to crash at the hotel in the middle of the day... no biggie.  We had all day Friday and nearly all day Saturday to wander around Rome and see the sites.  I must say, I'm uber proud of us... we navigated the city with no problem at all.  The Metro (subway) is really easy to figure out and our hotel was in a really good location.  We ate tons of Pasta and Tirimasu and walked A LOT!  The weather was just a tad chilly but the sun was shining so it was nice.  We had a really great time... ready to travel with her again.  LOL

Hopefully we'll get a chance to do another trip or two before she leaves Germany... she's tons of fun.

I spent the day at home on Sunday recouporating while Jaime took V & D to the Frankenstein Castle for a few hours.  Then Monday we went to Heidelberg to show them around the adorable town and take them to the castle there.  The weather was beautiful and they had a great time.  The castles are totally impressing them... with reason...

Isn't that a great picture of Jaime and me?  I don't get many of those, so I'm excited to scrap it!

Tuesday we spent most of the day getting Jaime ready for a work trip.  He left Wednesday for an unknown destination and was gone until Saturday night.  So, I took V & D and the girls to Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps.  We had a nice, relaxing time... if you don't count all the walking uphill, downhill and upstairs we did on Thursday when I took them to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.

Made it home from Garmisch late Friday night then V & D left at 11:00 pm Fri for a day trip to Paris, Jaime came home late Saturday night and we picked V & D up at the pick up point when they got back at 1:00 am Sunday mornong.  We spent all day yesterday packing Jaime up for a 4-week NCO training trip.  UGH!  He's going to be gone until nearly the end of March... then the girls and I leave for 2 weeks in the states on April 1st.  I'm tired just thinking about it.

I spent most of today sleeping... I was so tired after I got the girls off to school.  I'll prolly spend tomorrow cleaning up around the house and doing laundry.  We're tossing around the idea of heading to Amsterdam on Thursday.  If we don't do that, V & D may take another day trip.. this time to Prague.

THEN, Regan's birthday party is on Sunday and V & D leave on Tuesday.  Calgon take me away!

I've even been forgetting to do my Weight Loss Updates too.  Most of it is lack of time... but subconsiously I'm sure I've been avoiding it because I've been a bad, bad girl.  Last week (after Rome) I gained 3.5 lbs and today's weigh in showed no change... so, for the last 2 weeks I have a net gain of 3.5 lbs.  That stinks cuz I'm SUPPOSED to have a net loss of 4 lbs.  Oh well, the pasta was YUMMY!  LOL

I'm sure I have tons more to update about, but I'm thinking I've yammered on enough for today.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

A little of this, a little of that...

Nothing terribly exciting going on around here.  Just a bunch of every-day life.  The weather has been BEAUTIFUL the last 2 days... like spring.  It's been clear, sunny and 55 degrees during the day.  Jaime even took the top off the Jeep and we bundled the girls up to go for a ride today.  Pretty fun!  Sunshine always makes me happy.  Tomorrow I think I'm going to re-pot some house plants out on the patio for some more fresh air.  Ahhh!

I'm SOOOOO excited!!!  Jaime and I have been talking about getting a new dinning room set for a while now but we hadn't really done any serious looking yet.  Yesterday I decided to take a look in the furniture store on base in Wiesbaden to see what they had in our price range.  To my HUGE surprise they had a set that I really liked and, HOLY MOLY, it was about $800 LESS than we had planned to spend for a table, 4 side chairs and 2 arm chairs!  I couldn't believe it... there HAD to be a catch right?  Floor model maybe?  But nope, one more in stock and it was on clearance... I'm telling you, I spent less for the whole thing than I thought I'd pay JUST for chairs.  WOOHOO!!!  Anyway, it's so pretty and the upholstery on the seats already matches my furniture so I don't even have to mess with that.  It has a really wide leaf so it opens up pretty long.  We only have the 4 side chairs around it right now to save space, but the arm chairs are really nice.  Here's a pic...

There is so much to do before Virginia & David (Jaime's sister) get here on Wed.  The most important thing... evict the laundry monster from the spare bedroom.  YIKES there are a lot of clothes on the bed!

Their visit is going to be fun, but so many things have come up in the middle of it.  I'll be gone the 1st Friday & Saturday that they're here... going to Rome & leaving Thursday night.  Then, the 2nd week they're here Jaime has a meeting somewhere (don't ask, I don't know) and he leaves Wed, gets back Sat.  THEN two days later he leaves for 5 weeks... grr!  I'll have a good time with them, but Jaime is our official driver.  LOL

In digi world... I've been wanting to spend all my time scrapping lately.  Totally enjoying challenges and some fun new stuff I've purchased.  I used the "Cookie Decorating 101" challenge #27 at SSD to do this fun page.  I had THE BEST time with this one (and Regan was SO mad at me for scrapping these pics)...

Credits are --> HERE <--

You all HAVE to head over to Oscraps!  Why you ask?  Because the Oscraps designers (myself not included) have totally outdone themselves with this month's collab kit.  I'm not kidding... it's absolutely gorgeous and it's HUGE.  Seriously... look at this thing...

Didn't I tell you, it's amazing!  Here's a page I did using some of the many pieces (this LO was inspired by another cookie challenge at SSD)...

Credits are --> HERE <--

I thinks that's about it for now.  Like I said... not a whole lot going on around here.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Weight Loss Update #4 & Brody Update

Thanks for all the prayers for Brody everyone.  It looks like he's is out of the woods.  He is still in ICU and his brain is still swelling, but they took him out of the medically induced coma so they could take out his breathing tubes and he is breathing on his own.  He's still in and out of consiousness because they have him somewhat medicated for the pain but his mommy (Jaime's niece Brandy) got to hold him and feed him some Pedialite last night.  He drank 4 oz, so that's a good sign.  They're still not sure if there will be any long term damage from the brain injury... I guess only time will tell with that.  He has a broken arm and some other minor injuries, but it looks like he's going to be ok in time.  Thank you Lord!

So, on to the weight loss update... down 2 lbs this week... WOOT!  2 lbs a week is my goal, so I'm always happy to see at least that much.

Here's my TBLDS challenge LO for this week.  We were instructed to create a page as if we were at our goal and to journal about it...

Credits are --> HERE <-- 

I never updated about my Dr appointment last week so I'll toss that in too.  My thyroid tests came back "normal" as usual, but with all my symptoms and with my thyroid being enlarged like it has been for years, the doctor thought it would be wise to treat me like I have Hypothyroidism to see how my body reacts.  So, I'm on a low dose of medication for that and am hoping that it helps.  If so, I should start feeling better where my energy level is concerned and my weight loss should pick back up again.  Plus, there are tons of other things inactive thyroid effects, so hopefully I'll see lots of positive results from this.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Just Sharing

No updates on Brody yet.  We called Jaime's sister and left a message but haven't heard back.  I guess that's good.  I'll definitely update when I know more.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a couple pages I've done this weekend.  I'm in the scrapping mood... prolly cuz I don't want to do anything else... so I'm having fun with these (and all the new goodies I've recently acquired).

This one is for the "Paper 2 Digi" challenge at The Sweet Shoppe...

Credits are --> HERE <--

And this one I did for the current Digi Dare... scrap a love note to someTHING you really love (no people).  FUN!

Credits are --> HERE <--

I'm really diggin' the challenges lately.  Helps me get out of my scrapping rut.  I'm hoping to get at least one more page done before the weekend is over.  YAY!