Yes, I know it's been quite a while since I've posted anything. I could use the excuses of travel, or spending my time getting caught up on my scrapping, or a zillion other things. But - I've just been lazy. And when I realized I had been lazy, I started procrastinating. I found it hard to face coming back here to post after such a long time.

You know what? That's pretty crazy! So, here I am!

I have some ideas planned for this summer for this blog. Stay tuned....

And I promise it won't be forever when I post again!

arlsmom aka LyndaMay 23, 2014 at 11:37 AMI don't have this kit and love the colors...thank you for the chance to win!!!

I am applying to be a member of the design team for Let's Get Sketchy. If you're new to scrapbooking, or just like the ease of using a sketch, this is a great blog to follow - lots of great inspiration and many challenges to fuel your creativity! Make sure you check them out!

Happy Friday, everyone!



I am giving away the following Project Life cards from the Aqua Kit that recently became available at Hobby Lobby. They include one of each of the 3x4 cards and 1 of each of the 4x6 bifold journaling cards.

To be selected - leave a comment below. Winner will be picked on Sunday evening.

Have you tried Zumba^®?

You haven't???

Well, you should!

I've been doing Zumba^® for almost 4 years now. When I knew for sure that my teaching contract in Custer wasn't going to be renewed, I went on a journey of self-care. There was so much I couldn't control in my life at that moment, but I could control how I took care of myself. I joined Weight Watchers that spring, and then set foot into a Zumba^® class during the summer.

I had never felt anything so exhilarating and liberating in my life!

For those who aren't familiar with it, Zumba^® is a fitness program based on latin & international dance rhythms. In any Zumba^® class, you will do a merengue, salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton along with hip-hop, samba, tango, flamenco, belly dance, etc. Zumba^® instructors take basic steps from each of these rhythms and incorporate fitness moves to make a class fun yet "butt-kicking." "Exercise in disguise" is the philosophy.

And I love it!


The moves are slightly provocative (it is Latin dance, after all!), but not in a "slutty" way. I could never imagine shimmying my chest or shaking my butt in any other aspect of my life, yet in Zumba^®, it feels totally natural. Zumba^® makes me feel strong and powerful, yet sensual and sexy as well. Can you get that from kickboxing???? :)

Two years ago, I became licensed to teach Zumba^®  Since then, I've taken trainings to teach Zumba Kids^®, Zumba Toning^®, Zumba Sentao^® (using a chair to tone & sculpt), and will soon be trained to teach the new Zumba Step^® program. I teach Zumba^® every Saturday morning, and team-teach Zumba Kids^® with my buddy Abbi every Wednesday evening. I now probably have more Zumba clothes in my wardrobe than work-appropriate clothes!



Zumba^® has changed my life, both physically and mentally. I am more confident in my body. I now have a core group of friends who all share my passion for Zumba^®  I have learned so much about Latin cultures through Zumba^®, which I am putting to use when I'm in the classroom.

Want to check out a Zumba^® class? Click here and enter your zip code. It's that simple! And while you're at it, get yourself a pair of cargo pants with long tassels hanging off the butt. It looks awesome when doing a salsa!

Yesterday, I had an amazing experience - I was a guest panelist on the Paperclipping Roundtable! For those of you outside the scrappy universe, the Roundtable is a podcast recorded by Noell & Izzy Hyman, who usually interview the giants in the scrapbooking industry on the show. But, for this week's episode, they decided to have everyday scrappers on to discuss scrapping our significant others. In particular, they wanted participants who had taken Noell's Romantic Scrapbooking course & who had completed several of the challenges outlined in the course. Well, I met these requirements, so I threw my hat into the ring as a possible participant.

Last Thursday, I got the e-mail I had been waiting for (more accurately, I had been refreshing my e-mail on my phone every 15 minutes), and I had been selected. OH HAPPY JOYOUS DAY!!!! See, I really love this podcast! I stalk iTunes every Tuesday waiting for new episodes and when there are none, I go back and listen to the library of past episodes. The guests they have on are scrapbookers whose influence can be seen on just about every layout I complete. And I was going to join their ranks!!!

Yesterday was the big recording day. I was FREAKING out - so so so nervous! Who am I to offer advice on scrapbooking??? What expertise do I have??? What if I say something stupid, or can't think of anything to say? What if I belch, or cuss, or do something else obnoxious?

Noell & Izzy were so fantastic - they immediately put me at ease! And the other guests they had on - Davida & Jen - were awesome! I got along with everyone so well! By the end of the recording, it felt like we had known each other for years!!! The time went by so fast & I was so sad when the recording ended!

I've listened to the broadcast several times now. And amazingly, I somewhat sound like I know what I'm talking about!!! I made Rob listen to it in the car last night while we were running errands, and he kept giving me that "oh, aren't you cute" look he often gives me when he's amused.

So, if you haven't listened to the podcast, go check it out! I'm the one with the weird, obnoxious laugh! :)

As some of you know, I've been taking part in Noell Hyman's Romantic Scrapbooking course. I haven't really kept up on a lot of the challenges - I think, in part, because the story of my marriage and my relationship with my husband is very long. We've been married for 24 years and together for over 25, and there's a lot of story to tell there! When I scrap, I tend to keep my journaling brief, and that doesn't lend itself feasible to a long story like ours.

I met Rob when I first was hired as a crew person at McDonald's in 1987. He had already been working there for a couple of years and was set to leave for college at the end of that summer. We didn't really get to know each other that first summer - in part due to some incorrect first impressions as documented in this layout:


The second summer, however, Rob and I started to get to know each other and realized that those first impressions were totally wrong. Before he left to go back to school, I gave him my address and told him to write to me, really not expecting to get anything in the mail.

I did get letters. On purple stationery (which my mom swears was "a sign.") Before Rob came home for Thanksgiving, he told me exactly when his plane was coming in - and then he just happened to call me 30 minutes after he landed.

We went out on our first date the night after Thanksgiving - he took me to see the movie "Scrooged." His family of 5 people only had one car at the time, so he had to coordinate rides with his brother and sister. One of the most endearing things about that night was waiting in line to use the pay phone at the movie theater - Rob was totally embarrassed! He muttered: "I'm 20 years old and I still have to call Mommy and Daddy for a ride home from the movies!"

Rob came back home for Christmas and that's when things really began to pick up. I was still kind of holding back, though, because I knew he was going to be gone all Spring & didn't want to deal with the heartbreak of a long-distance relationship (I was still in high school at the time). But then, Rob got his report card from the Fall semester and learned that he lost his scholarships due to low grades. He would not be returning to school in the Spring. Although I felt horrible for him, I knew this was a sign to begin taking this relationship seriously.

We became inseparable after that. After I graduated from high school, we began to plan our future - buying a car together, saving to get our own apartment, planning to get married in a few years.

And then I became pregnant.

That changed our plans significantly!

We were married 6 weeks later - in January of 1990.

I was 18 - Rob was 22.

Our son, Zachary, was born in July 1990. I began college full time that fall. Rob was promoted to management at McDonald's and worked the closing shifts so we didn't have to worry about child care.

I became pregnant again in the spring of 1991 and gave birth to our daughter, Alyssa, that November. I remained a full time college student throughout my pregnancy.

Very few people gave our marriage a chance. We were both so young, only together for one year, neither of us sure of what we wanted to do in life. But we knew we wanted to be together more than anything else. I also think that we became determined to make our marriage work because there were so many people who didn't think it would. Rob and I are both very stubborn people!
Our 24 year marriage has endured raising two children, two college degrees, graduate coursework, two changes in careers, one parent with a traumatic brain injury, another with a heart attack, the death of two grandfathers (one 5 days before our wedding!) and two stints of unemployment. We've gone through all of this as partners - and I think that's the way our marriage has worked!

So, thank you for reading this long, rambling story. And maybe I will break this into chunks & work on some more layouts!