Finally Scrapping! :)

I haven't made the time to scrap over the last few months. Since completing my Countdown to Christmas album, I haven't gotten my mojo back. Until this week. I decided if I didn't get started scrapping, it wouldn't get any easier. Just doing it, in this case, was exactly what I needed! :)

Using Got Nothin But Love by Tracie Stroud and Jady Day

My Mountain by Flutter Expressions

Using Capture Life: March by Tracie Stroud

More Cuties! :)

Got around to editing a few more pictures today! I love these ones! :)

Coming Or Going

I barely know whether I am coming or going lately! It's the same old stuff, it's just that blogging seems to fall by the wayside. I'm not sure how to make time for it. I realized today I hadn't edited or posted any photos of my kids THIS YEAR! I do really think, that other than Instagram, I hadn't posted any photos since Christmas. The GOOD news is that I've been taking them, just not getting them off the camera. Ever since I started shooting in RAW, and that slowing down my post processing, I've been more and more reluctant to DO my post processing. My flow has become much slower and I'm not good at batch editing. The sheer overwhelming task of it all makes me avoid it entirely. Here are a few of my faves from this month...I'll share some from January too, but let's not get crazy or anything :) 

                    

Lookie lookie--here comes.....Cupcakes :)

I have been so BLAH the last few weeks! Does anyone else have a sincere dislike for the month of January? It's so long and cold and dreary. 

But that's just the thing...it was kind of nice here in Lexington, KY. How about where you are? We spent some time outside, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.

But I also joined Weight Watchers in January and don't think I've mentioned that, here. I'm enjoying it very much! I'm about to have my 6th weigh in on Monday. So far, I've lost 17 lbs and dropped a pant size! 

I'm not the best chef or anything, but I've been in the kitchen a LOT more thanks to WW, and have discovered some great recipes! I got the recipe for these cupcakes online elsewhere, but the icing is my own concoction...I'd love to share it with you now!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

1 box of strawberry cake mix

8 oz of diet 7-up

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tins

Mix diet 7-up with strawberry cake mix, and pour into 18 cupcake liners.

Bake for 18 minutes

Topping:

4 oz Neufchatel cheese

1 cup Cool Whip--lite, regular or sugar free

3 packets of Splenda (optional)

sliced strawberries to garnish

Mix together 4 oz cheese, Splenda and 1 cup of Cool Whip using a hand mixer. *Note: You can use cream cheese instead but the Neufchatel is lower in points and point values are based on Nuefchatel. I tried using fat free Cool Whip and it did not whip up properly, but any of the other kinds are suitable and all have similar point values. Once these ingredients are mixed and cupcakes are cooled, spread topping on cupcakes and garnish with fresh strawberry slices. 

Yields 18, Points Plus per serving is 3PP for the cupcake and 1PP for the topping for a total of 4PP =)

Not only did I adore these, but so did my entire family! 

And with that, I'll leave you...and I'll try to not be such a stranger! ;)

Happy Stabbyday!

Photo courtesy of The Bloggess, of course. 

I felt stabby today.

ALL DAY. 

Like in a "Who wants some next?" sort of way.

Turns out, it was a full moon.

This makes a lot of sense. It's not a bunch of hoopla. My kids turn into raging lunatics at full moon time. They are THE sweetest, most loving and precocious children but they literally become posessed with spawn of fullmoonmonster or something.

And the doctor's office. 

Ugh.

Unfortunately this is a real screenshot of my phone from this afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary...a few calls to my sister and my husband, a call to the gym to find out what time Spinning class was.

Not that it mattered. Because I had to miss it. Because That call I made this morning to University of Kentucky Polk Dalton Clinic? When they told me, "We can't get you seen today, call the Twilight clinic at 3." This is their policy. "Twilight" means after hours to them and there's a dedicated clinic for it.

So, I had to call at 3. Look how many times I had to try. LOOK! SEVENTY! I got a busy signal sixty nine times before it finally rang. Now tell me I didn't want to throw my m-f phone out the window. I started calling at 3 and you see I finally got through at 3:44. Every time the busy signal came through my blood pressure raised a point.

Why am I stabby?

That's just a few reasons I was stabby. There are more. I'll stop now because I think those alone are enough to make a person stabby.

I took Parker into the clinic. He got diagnosed-ish. Scarlett fever with no longer accompanying strep throat (cured itself the Dr. said). Erupting eczema. (I TOLD THEM he had strep a month ago, I saw the scarlett fever rash then and they refused to see him, telling me to give him benadryl. They are IDIOTS!) He got sent home with a few creams. Hopefully they'll make my little man feel better. The kids were so ridiculously ill-behaved in the clinic that I just wanted to leave them there :P I think they touched EVERY surface, and licked most of them, too. So now they'll be even sicker. Yay.

I'm going to go to sleep now, and hope that I have stabby dreams that help me wake up refreshed and ready to have a not-too-stabby day tomorrow.

Motivation

I saw a quote today on the Internet. I was so enamored with the quote I decided to make a pretty version of the quote so I could enjoy it even more :) 

I am eating better and exercising this year...I'm a week in so far, and my motivation is great at this point. But history tells me it will wane soon. I'm preemptively working on things to help keep me motivated. And since I also bathe daily, well this just made sense. 

This paper I used is from Bella Gypsy Designs' A Little Hope Fade To White Papers and the font is CK Jot.

Project 365 + 1

So it's a leap year...which means Project 365 becomes Project 366. I am working on it this year with renewed fervor. I feel good about finishing this project. After all, I *did* complete December Daily in 2011. And if I can do that, I can take a measley photo a day, right? Right.

Here are this year's photos, so far :)

1.1.12 | 1 of 365 | A Spoonful of Sugar | I would like to start my album cheerfully, but this project should be truthful, and this was how I began my year. A bag of medication from Walgreen's after a pre-dawn ER visit. I did, however, pick up a bag of Christmas-clearance Cadbury egg candies. Y'know, a spoonful of sugar and all.

2 of 365 | 1.2.12 | 37 Never Looked So Good | We have a birthday boy in the house today! I got him to take a break from the book he was reading this afternoon just long enough to smile for a photo.

 

 3 of 365 | 1.3.12 | RIP Kennedy | Yes, my Kindle's name is Kennedy. She died and I spent a good portion of my day on the phone with Amazon customer service, weighing my options and researching, and ultimately picking out a new Kindle Touch at no cost to me, which will arrive Thursday.

4 of 365 | 1.4.12 | Good Choices | It's time for me to be less of a fatty so I joined Weight Watchers. I've had some success in the past doing their online version, but this is my first time going to meetings. I went to a meeting today. It was fun :)

5 of 365 | 1.5.12 | Meet Kendall | The UPS man brought my new baby today. I always name my belongings mnemonically. Since I named my last Kindle Kennedy, I needed a new name for this one. Meet Kendall. (By default, the screen said "Jolena's 2nd Kindle". I was SO not letting that fly.)

6 of 365 | 1.6.12 | Hard At Play | Naomi was saving our living room, one villain at a time, this afternoon. As Spidergirl. With her Nerf gun.