The Daily Whine...

Ok, so after the week I've had, I think a little whine, a little kvetch, a little BLEAH is in order. If for no other reason than to 'clear the palette' for a well-deserved VACATION!!!
I already knew before it started that this week would be a real pressure-cooker, but somehow life has a way of exceeding expectations, no?
To start with, DH was going to be busy every night this week with grad school and a seminar he's taking for work. (This is his last semester, then his butt is MINE! Well, mine and his employer's...) I've been about at the end of my rope with taking care of Nora all day, plus trying to squeeze in two jobs I do from my home, plus the occasional chat/crop/scrap and even take a shower every now & then, but with DH otherwise occupied, I feel like a single parent at times....
So he's under pressure to get projects done and is getting pretty cranky (oh yay, can I have more of THAT please?)
Add to that the meltdown of my laptop hard drive... Thank God for the Dell user message boards and some very wise and helpful folks there! Ironically, I was already backing most of the contents of my external disk drive so I could copy my PC HDD to it and reformat it. LUCKILY I was able to pull off all the essential files, so nothing was totally lost, it just takes lots of TIME to restore it all to it's former state. So I was without email access (webmail only) for 2 days. And that's the backbone of my work, so that was an "ass-ache" to use DH's term.
Then, when I thought the great 'puter powers that be couldn't punish me any more, I get word that my web host is going out of business. That's right, bankrupcty. Just freaking great. I should have suspected that something was wrong when I couldn't get to their help desk system and I couldn't get anyone on the phone. They are totally pulling the plug the day AFTER we get back from our trip. So, I have like 2 days to find a new home -- not only for my web business, but also the handful of web clients I still have, one of which is my mother!
On a more personal note -- I also had to buy a new bathing suit (still wearing the maternity suit -- at least I'm getting some use out of it -- it's actually really cute!) The 'year-round' swimsuit place didn't have anything bigger than a size 16 -- and my buzooms were just NOT fitting into most of what they had. The one that sort of worked was $50 for EACH PIECE! Now, I am not spending that kind of money for an article of clothing unless I look GREAT in it! So, back to the maternity shop -- they had a simple little black 2-piece (top is long and not-tight!) for only $26.
The one lucky part of the shopping excursion -- I can still fit into a regular size 16 – and the dept stores just got all their special occasion dresses in for NYE, so I found this smoking hot little black cocktail dress to wear for one of the formal nights. And I don't even have to wear panty hose under it! Yes!!!
But wow, that was a total "come to Jesus" moment -- the shopping excursion, that is. I have GOT to get this baby weight off! I didn't really gain much while I was pregnant, but I was overweight to start with, so it somehow snuck in and attached itself to me without me knowing and all of a sudden I wake up and realize I'm chained to my 'puter and wearing sweat pants & t-shirts and the most athletic thing I'm doing is hoisting a baby on my hip and trying to clean up after her -- but that might qualify since I actually do work up a sweat -- YUCK!!!
So, I'm going to be sure to get my walks in on the cruise and put some sort of plan together for when we get back. We want to give DD a little brother or sister (yeah, she'll love THAT!), but I want to lose 50 pounds before I get pregnant again.
There. I put it in writing. Ok, so nobody but me will ever see it (ha), but it's out here in the universe. That should count for something.
OK, time to go to bed & hopefully catch DH before he falls asleep and get some snuggles...

SB design books

I want to tell you about my absolute favorite first book for scrapbooking -- it's Simple Scrapbooks "A Simple Guide to Designing Scrapbooks". Although it is paper-oriented, the design principles apply to both paper & digital scrapbook layout design. I really like that it helps me to develop my design skills so I can create my own layouts and learn what works about them rather than simply copying the work of others, whether through sketches, blueprints or outright scraplifting.

Another book I really like -- and it's also along the lines of developing design skills -- is Michele Gerbrandt's "Mastering Scrapbook Page Design". I haven't had a lot of time to use it much, but I've wanted it for quite some time. Maybe I'll get a chance over the holidays, as DH's parents are soooo good to me and they'll keep DD entertained (or is it the other way around?).