Yep, that is exactly what I am going through right now: a complete nightmare.

The week started off well – last weekend my good friend Jen and her husband came from San Francisco for the weekend and we all went to Disneyland for the day. That was awesome! But then things went downhill.

It started off with the air conditioner leaking and dripping through the doorframe in my bathroom. So of course our landlord couldn’t get anyone to come look at it for a couple days so we had to have the air conditioning off – which was a nightmare all on its own. And it had to be when this area is going through an unexpected unusual heat wave. nice.

After 2 very long very HOT nights of not sleeping well, I had to go to the college yesterday morning to register for my classes and when I got home there was water (a lot of it) dripping through the ceiling in the family room. There was about a 6 foot by 2 foot section of the ceiling that was soaking wet and water droplets continuously falling from it onto the carpet. I called the property management company right away and said it was an emergency – that they need to send someone NOW. 3 people rushed over and within half an hour, a quarter of the ceiling was completely missing. They finally got a plumber to come by an hour later and an air conditioning guy like 4 hours later and when they finally figured out the problem it was about 9:00pm. We had spent ALL day just hanging around waiting to find out what was going on. The huge leak was from a small leak in a pipe that was upstairs in my bathroom. The other leak was from the air conditioner – both were completely separate from each other and just a major coincidence that they happened simultaneously.

Since there was so much water damage, they called in a company to come dry it so we have these huge LOUD dryers all over the place and they have to stay on for 4 days straight. And we still don’t have air conditioning and might not for several days. HOWEVER, the best is yet to come. Today we got eviction letters (me and my 3 roommates who haven’t even arrived yet). We were told that the house has been deemed unlivable and we have to get out ASAP. Well actually the other 3 girls were told that they aren’t even allowed to set foot in the house (and they are supposed to move in on Sunday- have their moving companies booked already). It states that since I am here, I am allowed to stay for a few days until I can remove all my belongings. OMG

Where are we supposed to go? It’s not even like I can easily find a place to stay in the meantime until we find a new house – as I come with 2 dogs and a guinea pig. This is a complete disaster, but 2 of my roommates are coming tomorrow and we’re going to try to find another place to move into ASAP. Crossing my fingers….

here’s a couple pictures of the disastrous mess..

the family room

the ceiling in the living room

and my bathroom. When I went into it to take this picture it was like 200 degrees in there

Anyway, thought I would put an update on here while I still have internet. Time to get out of this hot house – heading to the dog park with the pups!

Finally I have internet at my new house! yay! No more trying to do everything via my iphone, haha

The winner for the October Afternoon products is:

Please send me your address Amanda so I can send your prize out to you! I totally loved reading everyone’s stories about the scary things you’ve done!

I will have another giveaway posted next week: I still have to unpack all my scrapbook stuff! I will also be starting the Mini Albums monthly challenges in August.

The move went well for the most part. It was a very long drive (22+ hours in the car total). The dogs were fabulous, they barely made a peep the entire time. They absolutely love our new place – so much room to run around both in the house and in the backyard! The weather has been great too – some days have been extremely hot but it totally cools down at night. I’ve been having to bring a sweater with me wherever we go cause its so hot outside but so cold in all the buildings cause the air conditioning is cranked up – lol! Just something I have to get used to.

This week has been nonstop crazy busy since we arrived. Getting my cell phone hooked up with AT&T was a major ordeal – took over 3 hours in the AT&T store! Getting a bank account down here and the cable and internet set up wasn’t as difficult though luckily.

We did have a little mishap on our way back from Ikea… we bought a bed and a chaise there and had to strap the mattress to the roof of the SUV. As we were driving down the I-5 freeway, the mattress fell off!!!! It was still partially attached to the car so it got dragged a bit before we could pull over. Thankfully we were in the right hand lane and there was a bit of a shoulder to pull over on. Needless to say I did not get any pictures of the glorious event as we were both extremely stressed and frustrated (and trying not to get hit by the cars whizzing right past us) and it took awhile to get it secured back onto the car – plus it was almost 100 degrees out and we were dying in the heat.  We can kind of laugh about it a bit now, since we made it home safely eventually, and that it didn’t cause a major accident!

Car shopping was the next big thing we did – 2 solid days of it, so not fun at all. We heard about car auctions that towing lots hold – to get rid of impounded cars and thought that it might be fun to go to one of those. Um, not so fun. That was sure an experience, one that I will never EVER repeat again. Lets just say that we found ourselves in a very sketchy part of Los Angeles, like a place I thought only existed in movies…how naive of me.

We finally found a car yesterday through a dealership – so here is my new car: a 2004 Ford Focus! Seems to be a great little student commuter car : )

And one last picture for now: Zoey enjoying her new chaise. She has already claimed it as hers and has slept on it each night since we got it. (which isn’t all bad cause it means she isn’t sleeping on MY pillow and kicking me in the head repeatedly during the night which is our usual routine). I have since covered the chaise with a blanket as white chaise + black dog = cleaning nightmare

Friday night we had my going away party at our house – it was a lot of fun but also sad cause I won’t be seeing my friends for a long time. We were up really really late and got up really early so needless to say not much sleep at all. Yesterday we spent the entire day packing up the SUV with all my stuff and thankfully my parents came for the whole day – they were a huge help with everything, in fact there is no way we would have got it all done and left on time if they hadn’t been there. Jodi and Dasha came by for awhile in the afternoon as well and helped. I had to say goodbye to my parents, Jodi, Dasha and the cats (Gracie and Oscar) so there were many tears. Oh and to my house too as I will never see it again.

We left at 7 and headed straight to the border which amazingly we breezed right through it – literally. The border guard simply looked at our passports and my student visa papers and told us to have a great night. He didn’t even ask about the dogs or ask to look in any of the boxes or even look in the car. NOTHING. wow. We totally expected to be held up there for awhile. So off we went with the SUV absolutely full of stuff, including the 2 dogs and 1 very disgruntled guinea pig (Fro). He was not impressed at being in a dog crate and continuously banged his hanging toy against the side of the crate.

We drove all night, stopping only once at a rest stop to sleep for an hour, then we switched off so each other could sleep for a bit. We went through many energy drinks (they really work though!) and stopped for gas several times along the way. Finally arriving in San Francisco this morning around 11am. We were able to check into our hotel early, then met up with our friends Jen & Peter. (Jen was my best friend all through junior high and high school). It was great to see them again and we had a great time! Thai for lunch, long walks all around the city, Fisherman’s Wharf, Italian for dinner, and Ghirardelli’s ice cream. Oh and we took the dogs for a long walk through a beautiful park and to a dog park right on the beach. They loved it and even played in the waves – already true California dogs!

Tomorrow we continue south for another 6 or 7 hours crammed into the car, and then will arrive at my new home….

Happy Monday!!!

This weeks giveaway is whole bunch of products from October Afternoon – I love this line so so very much! You will get the Hometown collection including paper, alpha stickers and journaling cards. As well as a few Jenni Bowlin products: a couple journal jots, 2 mini bingo cards, and 3 journaling tickets. Plus 4 prima flowers and a bunch of buttons.

But this time, I’m giving you an entire week to get a comment up – so you have until Tuesday July 14 at midnight. This is because I leave on the 11th to drive down to California and I should arrive at my new house sometime on the 13th. I won’t have internet though for a couple days most likely so I will get the winner posted as soon as I have internet access.

So as I am getting ready to embark on this crazy adventure of mine, my question for you this week is: What is the scariest/ most craziest thing you’ve ever done?

Actually I have a few questions today… does anyone have any great remedies for sunburns? Yesterday I went on a 24 km bike ride with a few friends and I got really really burnt on my shoulders, arms and back. I was wearing one of those criss cross strap tank tops so I have a very funny looking pattern on my back right now! Needless to say, its very painful and having clothes or anything touching it hurts like mad! All I can really wear at the moment is a halter style backless sun dress! If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate it so much!

Next question: how many of you are interested in some monthly mini album challenges – with prizes of course. I’ve been thinking about this, and since I’m going to be in school, in order to keep up with scrapbooking and doing what I love best (mini albums): how about a year of monthly mini book challenges? So I’m going to challenge myself each month with a list of things to document/ take photos of at the beginning of the month and a certain type of mini album each month. Then all albums can get posted at the end of the month and I’ll send a prize out to one that’s chosen randomly. Who’s with me? : )

and the winner is:

Please send me your address Lynn so I can get your kit sent out to you : )

I’ll be back in a little while with this week’s giveaway! In the meantime, check out some more of these cool projects you guys posted:

Rhea’s very cool “An Everyday Adventure” mini book. Look at all the yummy ribbons she’s used! She always has the best ribbons and trims – she owns the Ribbon Club: Savvy N Sassy : )

Caryl’s totally awesome photo ball ornament: this is such a great idea – I think I’m going to have to try this out soon.

Mary’s gorgeous layout of her friend who started the non profit: blankets for babies. (they deliver blankets all over to babies in need!)

Peggy’s touching tribute to her parents: so lovely

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends! I hope you are all having some awesome BBQ’s and parties right now!

I just got back home to Vancouver, leaving behind my hometown, my parents and my friends. There were some sad goodbyes this week that’s for sure. I tried to cram in as much as possible while I was there, trying to see as many people as possible, but there were some I didn’t get to see. Thank goodness for facebook so we can still keep in touch! 3 of my really good friends are pregnant right now so I’m pretty sad that I’m going to miss the birth of their babies (and my best friend is having twins!!).

Anyway, after a very long and hot wait at the ferry and then on the ferry, the dogs and I were relieved to pull into our driveway tonight….however, I then realized I had no house key!! Brent was working quite aways away so I started on the long drive there but luckily part way there I was able to get ahold of a friend of mine who also has a key to our house. I met up with her, got the key and we’re happily home.  (*note to self: make sure the car I get in California has AIR CONDITIONING!! cause ours here doesn’t…).  Our house is so empty now and not surprisingly so is our fridge and cupboards. There really wasn’t anything to make for dinner and I didn’t feel like going out again so I had a protein shake and a can of chick peas. Good times

Exactly one week from right now we will be on our way driving down to California! Crazy!!

So, I’ve been having a great time looking at everyone’s favorite projects! here are a few of my favorites (and I’ll post some more tomorrow)

mustangkayla’s cute mini book: I absolutely LOVE the papers she used, those colors look awesome! Take a look at her blog header – she has the cutest picture of one of her little ones up there!

Sammie’s layout documenting a year in her son’s life: this is such a great idea! It’s really cool to see how much he grew and changed in the year!

Christine’s adorable mini album: I love everything about this – and check out her cool idea about using the ribbon for a page marker!

ChrisA’s fab layout: very cool and I especially love her handmade embellies!!

Well it’s just about over now, but still….Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians out there! : )

I am still in Victoria for another few days and wanted to post a couple pics of my cutie neices. They left yesterday and are safely back home in Indiana. I just can’t believe how fast they are growing up!

Today I went downtown Victoria to walk around with one of my very best friends (we’ve been friends since we were 5). I didn’t even think about the fact that it was Canada Day and would therefore be complete chaos downtown! Yep it sure was, but it was fun to walk around down there again, it’s been so very long since I’ve been there! If you know Victoria at all, you would probably agree with me that’s it’s one of the most beautiful places ever! Right down by the parliaments buildings and the Empress Hotel – is the inner harbor with the causeway and there were so many people out today celebrating. The weather was perfect too. I managed to get a few phots but they didn’t come out very good. I didn’t realize that my water bottle leaked in my purse – all over my camera!! It wouldn’t even work for a little while but slowly came back to life when it dried out  (thank goodness!).