...dirty feet and a wide open mind.

2008 in photos.

January:

At my father in law's birthday party - Neil, just starting to grow out his hair.

Neil's gorgeous Aunt and Cousin, another one at my father in law's bday party. I love this photo.

February:

Neil and I at a scrapbooking retreat, probably in our pajamas!

One of my favorite snaps of Neil yet.

March:

just me.

easter flowers from my mama in law.

Kaylyn getting into my button jar!

the beautiful miss kelly k.

April:

Taking Kaylyn to the zoo.

another shot from the zoo because I love this one so much.

me with the hair I miss so much. I know, shut up already.

My sis in law.

May:

Kaylyn's 2nd bday party.

kaylyn and my dad at her party.

Toni graduating college.

I freakin' love this pic of Nathan and dad at Toni's graduation.

June:

The only time I've ever loved having bangs. These were fun. shutting up now.

My brother and sis in law's baby shower.

Kaylyn playing in our kitchen.

July:

my 23rd birthday.


after a rough therapy session.


lovely mess of old blankets and quilts here. This is pretty much my every night. Lucy loves him.


not saying anything.


kaylyn painting... herself.


Stephen's Family Reunion.


4th of July.


August:


doing what we do best.


my sweet neil.


skye.


September:


nice.


trying to get into the groove of taking daily photos... not very successful.


my dad at the Kansas City Ren. Fest.


lucy goose.


Neil right after work. Or who I like to call Redneck Neil. Or Plumber Neil.


whoo!


October:


My newest cousin Abby Mae.


myself.


good times.


November:


My sweet new niece Carlee Danielle Stock. And I know I never actually posted her up on the blog (lazy dani) so I plan on doing just a Carlee post in a couple days.


Dustin, Andi and Carlee.


Thanksgiving.


December:


A sign outside a gym here in town. No idea why, but they do have really odd signs!


right after my sister in law's bday dinner. because I'm self portrait junkie.


Crazy Kaylyn.


My cat drinks out of the toilet.

That seems like a good note to end the year on!

*muah*

sister in law...

I need to go to SLEEP!

and I will. after this post. probably. ha.

This is what I'm up to....

treated myself to some new barrettes (though not a very good picture of the actual barrette! oops.) from MaryMarsh on etsy. She has the sweetest little hair clips! Love them... it's nice to have something different to do with my hair. It's nice to finally have the urge again to fix my hair!

playing around on myspace:

I'm getting ready to make it public again and I'd been sorely ignoring it's design since I made it private... so now I'm redoing my little handmade banners and things... it's been fun. designing my own little places on the web has always been something I enjoy. This is for the "interests" section.

Playing with photos of this girl:

she's probably one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. love getting to hang out with her!

ok. good recap. now I'm seriously going to bed. well... I'm more than likely going to bed in the next five to ten minutes!

title??

So, if I could, I would buy like 5 of the March Dozen's kits...... because they just look so dang fun! I mean, that apple fabric?? yum.

I kept telling myself... I'm not going to go bitch on my blog.... I'm not going to go bitch on my blog....
but it's my blog! And I need to bitch!
well, whine is really more like it.

Money sucks.
Long story short, I budgeted in money for new easter clothes this week.
And then Neil doesn't go to work yesterday because his job was rained out and his boss had no where else to put him. He may not work today either.
(and I do know that it's really an amazing thing that Neil made it all winter without losing any work, trust me, I've spend many winters (ok, fine like 3) dirt poor and Neil out of work.)
BUT just as we get in this budget groove, start saving and I'm like, WOW for the first time in a long time I can buy new clothes, it all comes crashing down.
I don't have any clothes people. And when I say that, I don't mean that I've got a whole closet of clothes I don't wear anymore, or that I just don't have a current trendy wardrobe. I mean, I have one pair of jeans, that are wearing REALLY thin because I wear them everyday, about five over abused hoodies and maybe 2 or 3 casual shirts. Nothing else really, unless you're wanting me to start counting my unmentionables.
Pretty much every time I buy something new, I have either ended up taking it back because we needed the money (didn't budget well) or I sold it later on ebay or consignment to make extra cash for things like dinner or gas (again, we just didn't budget well).
It wasn't too bad - I was going to school online and was home studying all day anyways. But now I'm back on campus. That sucks..... is it really terrible that I just want to look decent?? Not even for anyone but I just want to feel like MYSELF.
And now, we are doing money RIGHT. We are dealing and paying and wow, it's been good. And I have a clothes budget! Not a large one, but it's a start!
And I get so embarrassed when holidays and family events come up and I've got to come dressed frumpy - I hate it. Everyone has seen me in the same old hoodie more than a million times. I don't look like me, I don't feel like me and I don't feel even good about the fact that Neil has to present this bum as his wife. SO SICK OF IT. I don't want a million dollar closet people, I just want to dress like myself, I want to look like ME, and I want to feel good about myself.
So this wasn't really a long story short.
And yesterday after having to redo the budget to deal with the fact that Neil didn't work yesterday, maybe not today either, meant cutting out Easter clothes.
And it just bummed me out.

(I do understand that things could be much worse.... we could have no food, or not be able to pay bills at all.... I do get that. I am grateful that we're going much better than we have been, I'm able to go to school full time and my husband is an amazing provider. I am more than thankful. I'm just bummed out right now and venting k?)

I've always heard it's impolite to talk money and your situation in public. Eh.

Something POSITIVE:
Sunday I got to see my lovely friend Kelly K.

love her.
Going to get positive now - Going to make it through Easter wearing my frumpy jeans and hoodie (hey, it's going to be cold anyways right?) and keep doing what I've got to do!

awake.

I feel so distant from creativity the past few days - :(.

This week is not only Thanksgiving (and only one word can come to mind -  YUM.) but I'm getting ready to set up something super fun over at etsy that I'm really excited about.

So this week I'm going to post every single day - ever since I moved over to typepad I've just been super busy and haven't really posted as much as I like. Well, we're all busy this time of year right?? But I know I love when I visit blogs to find new posts, so that is my goal for this week (along with every other thing on my to  do list ha!)

Here's another one of Kelly's senior shots:

really love this - but I can't wait till I get some photoshop on this computer --- need me some new editing options!

Autumn Twilight

Sooo... cranked out three layouts with the Oct. Paper Pixie Autumn Twilight kit. Annnnddd.. I will show them off of course! but first things first people!

Tomorrow night I am going to see Garth Brooks in concert at the new Sprint Center!!! Dustin, Sean, Dad, Toni, Neil and myself are going. I am so so so so excited - I was raised listening to Garth Brooks. You know, how there are just certain songs that you always put to your childhood memories. Well, most of Garth Brook's songs are like that for me....

yes, I'm slightly a hickaboo. I'm cool with it!

So, my brother Dustin is home right now from Korea, before he moves on to Fort Hood in Texas. Since he won't be in Missouri for Christmas, our Aunt Dixie wanted to take him shopping for his Christmas gifts. Of course, he wanted a new cowboy hat and some countryfried western shirts.

At the first store we went to, we didn't find any really good guy's hats, but we did find.... a hat for me!! A cowboy hat for me to wear at the concert tomorrow night. This is HUGE people, I've grown up pretty country, but I've never really found a cowboy hat that looked cute on me. Well, in general, most hats don't look good on me.

Took a photo with my lovely chocolate phone:

and here's Dustin too....

That lovely lady next to us is our awesome Aunt Dixie, rocking the pink and blue cowboy hats!

Yesterday morning, I got to hang out with my sister in law Kelly and take some fun senior pics. It was kinda last minute so we had to hike around out at James A. Reed to find some decent spots, but it worked. I'm hoping I can drag her out to the plaza after the Christmas lights are up for some fun holiday photos.

 

Ok! So on to the Autumn Twilight Kit from paper pixie kits... this kit was very fun. Such rich fall colors!

Alright, now I'm going back to going over the bills, christmas lists - and watching the movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It's very good - love Adam Beach. And omigosh - I'm so dying to see August Rush, it looks so lovely....

newness.

I moved! (well, duh dani...)

I had forgotten how much I love typepad! ... but nothing against blogger either, just wanted to get more comfy with my blog.

anyways!

This was cool to see today. I loved that layout so much - it's always fun to see my layouts pop up in the favs, just scrolling by... it's my current fav. of what I've done recently. I really love challenge blogs, and scrapjacked is way too much fun.

My cousin Hannah asked me to take photos at her son's 1st birthday party, here are two of my very favorites:

 

that little boy is too stinking cute.

I just wanted to say also, that you may have noticed me changing it up, not being so active at certain websites, being more active on others, etc. I think it's easy (well, for me, I hope others can relate!) when you get to sharing all the fun things you make you can get spread a little too thin on the internet. It's amazing how much fun all the inspiration and commenting/receiving comments can be... it's addictive! There are so many websites out there! I was starting to feel though, that I had to spend sooo much time online to update all these different places and it got overwhelming. So I want to be sure to be concentrating on the places I really love to be and love to post to and just let go a little more of the ones that I don't. And I'm ok with that! Gotta save some time for being creative too ya know?