When they say April Showers.....

I'm pretty sure they didn't mean snow!
After a week of sheer panic, I'm finally catching up with the news, and saw there were snowflurries in the North and North East of the US, and today they're warning for severe weather in Iowa, with fire danger in the high range........... what the .....?!
It's not a whole lot better on this side of the world though....... No snow, but Mike had to scrape the whole of last week, however, after about 2 you can happily walk around in a t-shirt and sweat! Oh well.... with my internal heater being broke, I usually walk around wearing a t-shirt, and having a sweater handy, and alternate the 2 every 5 to 10 minutes, so I probably shouldn't say anything about odd? LOL!

Now that I have that off my chest....... I got my all clear (hence the week of panic) and the next appointment in 6 months. Mike has a steady schedule, including working extra long at Easter, my dad only seems to call if he needs something ordered from the states, or he has a problem with his computer, I ticked my big sister off by wishing her a happy birthday, and ... I'm still loving the webdesign course!

I kinda-sorta got fired from one of my ct-jobs. I'm debating about quitting my last one, but have a hard time giving up the fun, and slowly but surely, I'm working towards getting my office back from being a dumping ground for everything that's in the way in every other room of the house, but.... I have such a hard time deciding what needs to go, and what I want to and/or can keep, if I want walking room...... LOL.... Maybe I should turn that part over to Mike, and see what I end up with, once he's done? Nah, better not. We did that when we left Iowa, and I'm still missing things I would have kept, and come across stuff I would have pitched, so I'm just going to have to lock the room, and not come out until I have free floorspace. So, if you don't hear from me for a while, don't put me on a milk carton just yet, I just may be clearing house! LOL.

Since I started this post a week or so ago, I have discovered a couple of things.
- This girl is not made to throw things out! LOL Every time I put something in the "dump" pile it turns back up in the "put away" pile after a couple of hours...... Not a good way to make room. I may start with babysteps, and instead of making a "give away/throw away" pile, I will make a "think about it" pile. Than, after I have the main things figured out, and put away, or at least figured out what kind of storage I need, I will start on that pile....... I may just get this done right around August!
- I didn't tick my sister off (I think LOL), she just didn't know how to tell me I'm not invited to her wedding! (This also accounts for my dad not answering his phone (and I know for a fact he has computer problems, so this must be pretty hard on him) and my niece not wanting to talk to me, and my sister not answering her phone.......... Oh well. It would have saved everybody a whole lot of grief if she'd just said something. SO, my big sister is getting married to her buddy of 20 some years.  I hope they are very happy together. She deserves some peace and quiet in their life. I know, as an end to the previous sentence this sounds like it is not meant well, but I am truly happy for her, and DO wish her well. I guess, all things considered, I should not be upset, I have been away for so long, people tend to forget I'm back, but when I found out, I wasn't sure if I should be pissed, or sad, and I decided I was mainly sad, that we, as a family cannot be honest enough with each other, that we'd rather not talk, than talk something out. I think the wedding is in their back yard, and with his 2 girls and her 4, with spouses and kids.... I'd have to sit on the roof to fit, so I understand. Plus it's a personal choice. It's just..... It would have been nice to be told, instead of excluded from even being happy for them?

There were a couple of pages I still had to show you, and some I just got done with. I was all happy, thinking I was ahead of the game, just to find out that they are so far overdue, that the thread isn't even in the forum anymore........ Oops! I sense another, regroup/rethink session coming up...........

So, without further delay.....

The way over due ones are made with Spring Passion by Booland.

This one is a little early (about 18 hours or so) It will come out tomorrow over at The Studio. It is also by Boo. Probably, from now on, unless it's NOT by her, I should just give you the kit name, since she's the only designer left that I CT for.

These are the last couple from the March Mini Madness challenge: All kits are by Boo, and they are in my gallery over the The Studio as well.

AND, you may, or may not, be happy to know that I made up my mind on the mini's. I missed a couple of coupons because of wrong posting, and let one slip away (by 5 minutes) by looking around too long in the store, but all in all......... I was a happy camper! Now all I need is time........ time to sit and scrap, research family tree and enter, keep up with the house chores, keep in touch with everybody I hold dear, sort out all the crap I have, hold on to, and probably should rehome in one way or another, make the Christmascards before I'm too late to even send them out.

OH! I ALMOST FORGOT!!!!! We have baby lions at the zoo! Guess who's going to see them on Sunday!? YUP! tomorrow we will finish up the brakes, Saturday........ who knows, no plans yet, and sunday, while Mike is working, I'll be spending some time at the zoo. I hope it won't be too busy, but at the very least, I'll get my walking in for the day.  Go check out the little ones online (newscast, so I'm not sure how long it's available) or on youtube

Well, that's it for me, I think. I'l keep you updated on the little ones, and everything else, as I think about it. Don't forget to hug that loved one1?

Day 5 thru 9 working on 10.....

Kim, so glad you found your way here again. You had me worried little sister! :-)

The brakes didn't happen.... Mike came home sick Thursday, so we took it easy on Friday. Come Saturday, he was bored enough to go down to the car and see if everything actually came in, and check to see if we had all the tools to do the job right. The "shop" had a lift available on Monday (Neither one of us had figured on the "space available" concept for some odd reason. We figured we'd show up and go to work. LOL Silly people!
We did find out that obviously NOBODY here works on their own car. We missed 2 parts, and it took us all Saturday and part of Monday to NOT find either of them, and McGyver it.  We needed  a C-clamp and a small syphon-kit (so we could take a little brakefluid out of the system so it wouldn't go all over when we compressed them to replace the brakes.....) We're ending up using a regular short square clamp and the syringe I use to give perky his medicine.   I hope we don't need the caliper seals, because they are not available in the whole of Holland!

Mike had to go to work on Sunday, and from what I understand, he's staying on the current schedule, so I'll have all the Sundays to myself..... yeay (I'm SO underwelmed!) and I went to the zoo. Had a great time, found out that "my" wolves are gone, and will be replaced with European wolves. That was a bummer, but the Wolverine has a new mate, of sorts. I walked by a couple of times during the day, and one was in one corner, and the other in another, as far away from eachother as they could be. Not at all like he was with his old mate. They would play together, and snuggle close if it was cold. They both seemed a little lonely to me. The fuzzy donkey at the entry way got replaced with oreo cows. I know there's an official name for them, but I don't know it, and this way, you atleast know what they look like, right? LOL.  I made a couple of really nice pictures of the Bobcats (there seemed less than last time and I'll have to check on that), noticed there are only 4 out of 12 Przewalski horses left, they increased the local birds, and moved a lot of the animals around. I knew they had shipped some of the horses to be released in Poland, but I hadn't taken in account that they needed greater numbers to survive in the wild than in the zoo. I was kinda sad to see so little of them left, but the wild ones will have a better chance in a bigger band, so that's ok.  The new wolf-tunnel will be done in July, and that's when the new pack is expected. And I have no idea where they have put the birdcage, but supposedly, it's almost done too.  The otters have a little bit more room. (got some neat pictures of them) and I sat outside and people watched for a bit........ It was interesting, to put it mildly, but that impression may very well have been mutual, so that's all I'm going to say about that :-)
Oh! and someday, I'll actually make it to the raptor show! LOL

I did do my posting every day in the Mini Madness Challenge, and even finished and posted my Point In Time challenge, got some very good news from a dear friend about her pup, some not so good news from another friend, which involved lots of talking and tissues, but she's feeling a little better now, got an unexpected email from Mike's step niece about family tree things (SO COOL! Every time I hear from somebody, it gets me back in to the tree in a whole different mindset. Love it!) got snubbed by my sister when I wished her happy birthday (won't be repeated next year!) and I'm ready for the week. I took today to spend with Perky and the computer.... (He's sleeping in his basket next to me on the table) and will get going on the schedule starting tomorrow. Right now, it's time to get the groceries in, have a cup of tea when I get back, and start dinner. BUT, not before I show you the pages for the challenge, and some for Boo's part in the Collab Cafe in Paris.

 Day 5

ONE PAGE WONDER 34

 Day 6

ONE PAGE WONDER 5

 Day 7

ONE STEP BEYOND 5

Day 8

SPRING WHISPERS ADD-ON

Day 9

ONE PAGE WONDER 66

All pages are made with Boo's kits because I'm still adding more than subtracting from my wish list.... I better decide soon, because the sale only runs thru the 5th!!!

OH, Boo asked the blossoms to put a question out there......

For the Point In Time challenge, I used Boo's part of the Cafe in Paris Collab over at The Studio.  Will you come and play with us? The April Challenge thread wasn't up yet, but than, it's still early in The States, and Toiny is hopping with the Mini Madness thing, so ..... The challenge information is on this invitation in the gallery if you want to get started, the rest would just be housekeeping things like "credit, photo, journaling.... that kind of stuff". Just check back in a day or so to post in the forum, as soon as Toiny catches her breath, I'm sure it will be up in no time at all.

I absolutely adore the silky look of the paper, and someday, I hope I can figure out how she did that! LOL.

My official page with her kit, is:

Well, I think that's all I needed to catch you up on. Hopefully by tonight, I'm caught up with everything I left over the last couple of days, and I won't have so much to tell you in one sitting. 

BUT, for now, don't forget to hug that loved one, and don't pull pranks today you don't want coming back to you..... LOL

Hugs,

Pauli