Another busy week has gone by and this one is just starting out! I’ve been taking a little break from scrapbooking but I have started a couple new projects that I hope to finish soon. (will post pics when they’re done).

Never a dull moment around here anymore – with so many little critters running around. Oscar is catching on quick about stuff too – now when I say the word “treat”, within 2 seconds I have 4 little faces staring up at me. lol

It’s also been a week of mishaps one after the other. You know, when nothing seems to go right. We bought a new screen door for our kitchen and it came missing parts. ergh. The front piece keeps falling off one of our drawers in the kitchen no matter how many times we screw it back on. Just little things like this happening again and again. Two of the big ones that stand out is when I almost lost Angus the other night. A real stupid move on my part. I was rearranging the furniture and doing a major clean one night and I went downstairs to take the recycling out. Angus and Zoey were downstairs and wanted to go out, so I let them out WITHOUT their leashes and collars (they don’t wear their collars in the house). They’ve been really good lately and they usually stay beside the house. But this time Zoey saw a cat across the street. I saw her head perk up and knew what she saw so I grabbed her before she bolted. I was trying to usher Angus back into the house real quick before he saw the cat but too late. He took off after the cat like a lightening bolt. Off course the cat runs and he keeps chasing it. So there I am running after him with Zoey in my arms and it was starting to get dark. I finally found Angus behind the houses that are across from ours. I told him to WAIT like 10 times before he finally stopped and waited. Since I had no leashes with me I had no choice but to pick him up too, therefore having to march back to the house with a 22 pound dog under EACH arm. I was so not impressed but it was my own fault. Never again! The next stupid thing I did was just tonight -I was cutting veggies to make Brent a salad to take to work with him and I dropped the knife. It went straight into the base of my middle toe then bounced to the floor. I didn’t even realize it went into my toe until I bent down to get the knife and there was suddenly a pool of blood under my foot!! (I’m not exaggerating there was a ton of blood). I was like “oh no!!” (lol) and Brent saw me from the living room and asked what happened. All I could do was hold the knife up and then I started crying at the sight of all the blood. I still cannot believe how such a relatively small cut could bleed so much, it would have made more sense if I had severed my entire toe off. Anyway, its fine and it didn’t even hurt much so I felt like an idiot for crying. It did take awhile to stop the bleeding though and its sore now, hours later. The funny thing is that I always seem to hurt myself in the kitchen. the last major thing I did was I sliced my knuckle open to the bone on a tin can. Now that hurt!! For weeks after too. I made a joke to Brent and said “hey, this is a sign that I don’t belong in the kitchen”, and he agreed with me! lol

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling now. Here are some pictures from the last week

Here is Oscar – I took this last night, he just looks so darn cute! He’s 15 weeks now and growing lots – he weighs almost 3 pounds now. Gotta get these cute photos while he’s still tiny :)

A normal day at our house:

Angus sleeping on a pillow…

Zoey sleeping on a pillow…..

and now even Oscar is sleeping on a pillow! Gracie is the only one who doesn’t curl up on the pillows!

Last weekend we went and played at the new mini golf at playland

A few nights ago we took the dogs to a local park. Believe it or not Angus loves going in the baby swing! He’s been in many before and actually relaxes and does not try to get out. He enjoys being pushed a little too. Zoey got a bit jealous and wanted to sit in my lap while I was on the swing. Such funny dogs they are!

Ha!! Caught in the act! It’s official, Gracie and Oscar DO like each other! No more hissing and spitting between these two.

Yes, that’s right: We got another pet. *sigh*

It all started about 3 weeks ago when we went to our local little pet store to pick up some fish food. They *thankfully* do not support puppy mills therefore they refuse to sell animals at the store. (please please be aware that any pet store that SELLS puppies and kittens (that are not being fostered from an animal shelter) are most likely coming from puppy mills – which are HORRIFIC things. Anyone who buys any of these animals or stuff from one of those stores is just helping to support the awful puppy mills….)

Anyway… this pet store often fosters a cat from the local animal shelter. This particular day they had 2 black kittens they were fostering so of course Brent was drawn to them like a magnet. I could barely get him away from him – the kittens were cute of course and they looked just like our Gracie did when we adopted her. So then Brent is wanting another cat, but he’s actually serious about it! I was trying to drag him from the store saying no way, we cannot get another animal. We ended up discussing it to great lengths for the next couple weeks and thought that maybe it would be good for Gracie (our cat) cause she is so attached to the dogs and whenever they are out of the house or away visiting my parents she gets so sad and stressed. The owner of the pet store told us if we are really interested then go to the shelter cause they had around 40 kittens needing homes. So…. this week we went – just to see. They had so many but lots of the kittens had pending adoptions already. They had older cats too that I fell in love with but because we already have an adult cat it would be easier to bring a younger one into the house. It truly broke my heart. I wanted to bring them all home. There was a very scared tabby kitten hiding as far back in his cage as he could and he was still available for adoption. After holding him and talking it over, we went and filled out a 5 page application to adopt him. They had to do reference checks on us and everything but a few hours later we were able to come back and take him home.

He is settling in really good and has completely come out of his shell! Gracie hated him at first but I think she secretly really likes him now and they have even started playing together today! I have to admit he is adorable, a little 2 pound ball of fluffy cuteness! However, Oscar is a little Houdini! He manages to find the tiniest hiding places (I mean, he is about the size of our guinea pigs!). I lost him for a couple hours tonight and I was in a total panic. I searched the house high and low, every little nook and cranny, every cupboard, even the dishwasher! I thought maybe he managed to slip out the door or something so I even walked all around the house, the neighborhood and was checking bushes and stuff! I did find him, thankfully. He managed to wedge himself between the corner desk and the wall in a place where I could not see him. I had to pull out another table and the printer just to be able to see into this crevice and there he was, all squished in and sleeping soundly!!!

So I do have to apologize to everyone who was in the class chat tonight when I suddenly disappeared – that’s where I was – kitten hunting!

This little guy is going to be a handful, good thing he’s so irresistibly cute and lovable! :)

For all of those who are taking Techniques 1o1 and Techniques 101B – materials for both classes will be posted in the forums tonight at 5:00pm PST (8:00pm EST) and there will be class chats from 5:00-7:30pm PST (8:00-10:30pm EST) in the chat room. I have sent everyone an email with more information so if you did not receive the email, please contact me :)

The new website for WeScrap (www.wescrap.com) just launched today! We have been very busy behind the scenes getting it ready for the past 6 months – its so cool to see it finally live!

I’ve been going through some of the pictures I took while visiting my family in Victoria. I just love taking pictures of my adorable nieces and now that they’ve returned to Indiana, I miss them a ton! Not sure when I will get to see them again, but hopefully it won’t be too long…

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me emails and left comments here about my Grandma. It really touched my heart that you took the time to think about me and my family.

The beautiful Buchart Gardens

I love the reflection in this pond

Even 15 year old dachshund Rusty got to come in her stroller!

My Grandma passed away yesterday morning. Even though we knew this was coming for awhile now, and she hung on for much longer then everyone expected her too, it’s still very hard. She was a wonderful grandmother and was a huge part of my life. I’m going to miss her so much. Just over a year ago she was still living in her own house, and just 4 years ago she was still looking after Angus everyday while I was at work. When he was a puppy I would drop him off at her house on my way to work, come back at lunch to have lunch with them, and then come back after work to pick him up. (I worked only minutes away from her house). Angus adored her and she adored him too. I am thankful that I got to spend so much time with her during those times.

I love you forever Grandma xxoo

I’m having some great days with my family over in Victoria right now. It’s so much fun being all together, and we only get these moments once a year.

I also got to be a guest instructor at Scrapbook Parade again, I taught a class there yesterday morning – it was so much fun! Such a fun group of people! I’ll be teaching another class there on Tuesday night. www.scrapbookparade.ca

Here’s a few pictures from the weekend. I cannot believe how fast my nieces are growing up!

The girls having fun with their Uncle Brent on the trampoline!

My oldest niece is really into barbies right now so we went through some boxes of my old toys and hauled out all my old barbies! She had a blast!!

The coolest thing that I did today was I learned how to saber the top off a champagne bottle!!! My dad has been doing this as long as I can remember and I really wanted to learn how to do it. Tonight he brought out a bottle of champagne and asked me if I wanted to saber it! He gave me a quick lesson and then handed me the bottle and the sword. I was really afraid I would drop the bottle or shatter the top of it or something….but the top popped off perfectly! So awesome!!

This has been another busy week. I am happy to say the weather smartened up here finally and it was beginning to really seem like summer. We even had a bit of a heat wave! But today its back to rain for a few days :(

We did something really really awesome last Friday night – we went to see a Cirque De Soleil show! They are in town right now for a few weeks doing Corteo. When I first heard they were coming I got excited cause I’ve always wanted to see one of their shows and have never been. So the day I returned from Victoria after dropping them off before we headed for Yellowstone, Brent handed me an envelope and said that it was left in the mailbox for me. It had my name written on the front – I was like “this is your handwriting” hehe

So inside the envelope was a letter he had typed up saying how much he loved me, thanks for putting up with him, and that he was taking me out to see Corteo – and that I could choose what restaurant we would go to for a nice dinner before the show! wow!!!! The show tickets were also in the envelope. What a sweet guy :)  We had a great dinner and then off to see the show which was truly amazing. It was better then I could have imagined. I now want to see some of the other Cirque De Soleil shows :)

Anyway, today we are heading over to Victoria again – this time for our annual Acs family reunion. My sister, her husband and their 2 little girls are arriving today as well from Indiana and we’re all staying at my parents house. I’m really looking forward to spending time with everyone.

Online Class Update:

Techniques 101 – first class : Week 2 course materials will be posted tonight at 5:30pm PST and the online chat will be from 5:30-7:30 PST (8:30-10:30 EST). The chat room is located here

Techniques 101B (class starting July 17): I have emailed everyone who has contacted me so far. If you did not receive an email, please let me know ASAP. I will be sending further information (Supply list, etc) in a few days.

Feel free to email me anytime if you have questions :)