(diva)logues

Tweenage life...

All I can say is... she is the absolute LOVE of my life.  My ENTIRE life.   Which is a long time at this point.

I mean I have other loves... people, places, things... but not like this.  I think I was meant to be her mom.  I know it's why I was born.  Who knew?  But I'm SO thankful.

We are VERY alike.  WAY too much alike.  How could she NOT be like me when I was a stay-at-home mom & we were with each other 24/7 for her entire life until she went to school?  Poor baby. 

We seem to argue more lately, which I know is normal, but I still sometimes long for the time that involved 100 hugs & kisses a day.  Now I just steal them when I can.  And thankfully, even in front of friends, she's not embarrassed by it.

As long as she keeps telling me most everything... like about the not-so-cute boy she's had a crush on for WAY too long, 6th grade girl drama, and everything else going on.... I'll be happy. 

I give her lots of advice.  Because all those things won't end in 6th grade.  But quite frankly, I know she's here to teach me just as much as I'm supposed to be teaching her.   

I can be hard on her, but I don't want anyone to ever be able to say she's a spoiled "only child."  And besides... I'm not doing her any favors in life by telling her YES to everything. 

Just another phase in our family life. 

And just like everything else, we'll look back on this & smile...

Just sayin'...

My dear daughter...

If you can't spell it, you're probably not old enough for it.

No more piercings and no makeup for 11-year olds.

The end. 

"I'm gonna knock you out... mama said knock you out..."

Well... ummm... hmmm? 

And yes... that's a complete sentence.  I've been really tired lately... physically and mentally... like to the point of being able to fall asleep in a New York minute as soon as my head hits the pillow.  And lately that's been happening around 9:00 most nights, which is WAY earlier than my normal bedtime.  

On another subject... have you ever noticed that when someone begins with "No offense, but..." that it's because they're getting ready to offend you with what they're going to say?  

I suppose not everyone can be on Santa's "nice list."   

Anyhoo... here's a new page I made with some more photos from my girl's weekend in New York.  It may look like it only took me a New York minute to make it, but the journaling in the word bubbles made it take just a bit longer...

To add a little more interest to the city scene that was already on this Little Yellow Bicycle paper, I added a dimensional sun and some bling to all the cars...

It's Monday!  And I do believe that means it's time to teach ZUMBA!  I've been teaching a LOT of it in the past 2 weeks... 8 times to be exact. 

I'm ready to go again though.  Oh yes I am!  Woot woooot!   

And then I'm off to score some Cyber Monday deals.  You KNOW I'm all about shopping online. 

Have a GREAT week, everyone!

It's a shopping kind of weekend...

There's a HUGE sale going on this weekend at Zumba.com.  If you're into ZUMBA... and well...why wouldn't you be???!!... you should definitely check it out!  PLUS... take an EXTRA 10% off through this link!

 

I just bought a few things myself!

Happy shopping!!!

"Turkey for me... turkey for you... let's eat the turkey in my big brown shoe..."

Two more days until Thanksgiving.  I think I managed to buy everything I need yesterday, but Lord knows I'll end up there with a store packed full of people tomorrow buying something random I forgot.  We'll see.  Crossing fingers & toes that's NOT the case. 

Here's a quick card I made that was inspired by this card I made 3 years ago... only this time I hand-cut my "feathers" from random scraps.  I cut my feather shape, folded each feather in half to give it some dimension & then snipped the edges...

Ummm... google eyes, of course... and a SRM Thanksgiving sentiment sticker...

My sister flies in tonight!  YAY!!!  Looking forward to seeing her and the rest of my family soon! 

"They can't... they won't... they never will... stop the party..."

Well... as of Saturday I'm officially certified to teach Zumba Toning.  YAY!  It was a long but FUN day with a really fun instructor leading the way and lots of other fun instructors in the class.  And then Bob took me out for a fabulous "date night" afterward.  Fun day from beginning to end!  Back to teaching Zumba again today though!  I'm also teaching tomorrow morning at 5:30am, helping with the Thanksgiving morning class on Thursday & then teaching again on Friday. 

Whew!  Think I'm gonna have 2 pieces of pumpkin pie after all that!! 

Here's a pretty quick page I made using the photo editing site picmonkey to create my photo collage.  My buildings came from the old Basic Grey Wander collection that's been sitting with my Austria photos for ummmm like 2 years now.  Sheesh.     

The black chevron paper is from the halloween themed Doodlebug Designs Haunted Manor collection.  And I even used a SRM border sticker on there... that cute blue loopy line.  Love the versatility of those clear stickers!

And you're welcome for the close-up of the model's butts.

Happy Monday, everyone, and have a FABULOUS week!

Zumba cures all...

It's Monday again & I heart Mondays... even if I wake up on day #2 of a migraine like I did today... it's still a fantastic day because of teaching Zumba!  Love it!  And beginning this week, I am taking over the Friday morning Zumba class too.  So I'll be teaching on Mondays & Fridays and also still helping teach the Tuesday 5:30am class, once every 3 weeks with 2 other instructors.  I am always BUSY, but I love it! 

I finally have something crafty today.  Haven't had much time to create lately, but did have some new photos from Bob's recent weekend in Florida for the Mizzou football game, so I got inspired.  He was there with my parents & their friends who have a beach house in Tampa.  The game was played in Gainesville and although Mizzou lost, they still had a lot of fun...

Sometimes I use my Handwritten Fonts card with my Slice to make titles, but this time I made my own.  I posted a tutorial on how to do this 2 years ago.  You can see it here if you want to try this technique out for yourself...

Aside from that, it's just a random mix of Bella Blvd's Making The Team, some old Mizzou themed patterned paper I had & anything else I could find that was BLACK & GOLD-ish. 

Have a GREAT week, everyone! 

Zumbaliciousness...

Lots of FUN things coming up in the land of ZUMBA around here!  Our O'Fallon YMCA ZUMBATHON is on December 8th with 7 instructors, myself included, leading the way!  Can.NOT wait!  It's gonna be a ton of FUN!  There will be a DJ there spinning the tunes, lots of giveaways & wellll... 3 hours of ZUMBA for a GREAT cause... the BEST part, of course!  

Even better than that... ANYONE can join in on the fun... members AND non-members are ALL welcome!!! 

 

Speaking of Zumbathons...

I just attended a fund-raiser Zumbathon last Saturday headed up by another instructor/friend from our Y for the American Heart Association... thus all the RED.  Had already done a 75-minute class that morning before I got there to do another intense round of Zumba!  So FUN!  You can never really do too much Zumba as far as I'm concerned! 

And next Saturday I'm getting certified to teach Zumba Toning, which will be a ton of FUN!  Our YMCA is hosting the certification location (that rhymes), so this time I won't have to travel very far to get there.  It will be a long day, but Bryn's spending the day & night with my parents and Bob is taking me out on the town afterward.  I'm sure I'll be exhausted by that night, but we'll have fun anyway! 

 

More NEW choreography for my classes... coming up!  Woot woooot! 

Much ZUMBA L♥VE & happy Friday, everyone! 

Huge inventory sale...

Hurry for your chance to purchase $200 worth of product for only $30 plus shipping!  Check out all the details on Nikki Sivils' blog!   It's a GREAT deal! 

Everyone who purchases a box will have their name entered for a chance to win a giveaway! 

Happy shopping! 

I just exercised...

... my right to VOTE!

How about you? 

Just a quickie...

Bob's been in Florida all weekend for the Mizzou vs. Florida football game, which sadly they lost yesterday, and Bryn and I have been hanging out together while he's been away.  It's been a busy weekend while he's been gone!  I had a party here with the girls on Friday night, got up on Saturday morning & did my friend's rockin' 75-minute Zumba class, had lunch with her & her daughter afterward, showered & changed so I could attend a Zumbathon for the American Heart Association that afternoon and then showered AGAIN & went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  YUMMO.  It was a long but FUN day yesterday! 

Today was spent running, practicing Zumba for my class tomorrow, applying for another design team (cross fingers!)... and Bryn had fun playing with her neighbor friend outside in the fabulous Fall weather we have right now.   LOVE it!

In the meantime... here's another Halloween card I recently made using lots of the Doodlebug Designs' Spooky Town collection + some SRM Halloween sentiment stickers and some googly eyes, of course, because I LOVE them... 

Love using pop dots to add dimension when creating a "scene" on my projects...

Our clocks have been set back today for Daylight Savings and I'm ready to teach ZUMBA tomorrow morning! 

Bring on the new week! 

"Annie get your gun... what's that she's takin'... "

It's been tradition almost every year since Bryn was old enough to trick or treat, that my dad has come over for dinner & walked the neighborhood with her and Bob while I give out candy at home.  There was 1 exception to that... the year Bob drove to Illinois to see his dad who had just gone into the hospital.  My dad was out of town too.  My sister came over to give out candy, while I walked around with Bryn... in the rain... while carrying her AND an umbrella because her shoes had rubbed a blister on her foot & it had started bleeding.  I think she was about 5 years old, so let's just say she wasn't exactly a light-weight.  LOL

This year, Bryn decided to be a panda.  So cute.  And while she was gone trick or treating, a group of kids came to the door in their costumes. 

As they were leaving, one of the boys said, "Tell Bryn Boston I said hello." 

I said, "Oh... and you are??" 

He said, "I'm Kenny Hennessy." 

Okie dokie.  Ummmmm.... no. 

Not prepared for boys coming to the house in future.  Will be getting a gun soon.  LOL

In addition to the fun they had last night, Bryn also made some cupcakes on Sunday.  She's been watching these cooking videos on youtube... actually I should say she's become obsessed with them.  One such video showed how to decorate cupcakes for Halloween.  She asked me if she could bake cupcakes.  I told her she could and was in the craft room finishing a project for most of the time she was baking & decorating.  I seriously could NOT believe my eyes when I walked in the kitchen to see these...

Girlfriend is officially taking over all dessert baking/decorating from now on...