Monthly Archives: March 2008

Erin I found them!

I have been looking for these photos. I knew I had some of Erin and I batiking in high school.

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and
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I know, I know. I guess I thought the huge sweatshirt was cool. And Erin was right in asking, "how did we walk away with any non-stained clothes?"

Those pictures were not in this pile:

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I thought that was all the pictures in my big order I had placed to shutterfly, but I was wrong, the rest came today.
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Whoa. I really like the quality, the only real beef I have is that for some reason the pictures end up all out of order in the little envelops. I’m thinking they have multiple printers working or something and then just stuff what ever comes out first, but it does take a little sorting to get it all worked out. I have filed away 2003-2005 (it took 8 albums, due in large part to the three for our 2004 USA road trip), and piles for 2nd quarter 2006, 2007, and the wedding. I ran out of photo albums to file it all away. Meanwhile I’ve started pulling photos for the category drawers (see Stacy’s book Photo Freedom). It’s really doing that, and finding all the differnt photos of say, me and my brother, or pictures of my feet over the years.

If you can’t find me I’ll be under piles of pictures!:)

Bust a Bucket

Tonight Bj and I headed to a concert in Portland with Brian and Melissa. It was awesome, Jose Gonzalez, you rock! Jose is a Swedish singer-songwriter. You might know one of his songs from that awesome Sony Bravia commercial. He sang all my favorites, including Down the Line. His voice is so yummy.

On the way up there we were talking about lots of random things, as if often the case. Somehow we got onto the subject of the Blazers (our professional basket ball team). And I brought up Bust a Bucket. I keep bringing this up because I want someone else to go, "oh ya, I remember that." But I haven’t gotten a lot of response. See back in 1992 the Blazers were white hot, they ended up winning the Western part of the playoffs (I know nothing of the structure of basketball playoffs, nor the game really). It was the coolest thing in school to talk about the blazers, wear something related to the blazers, or try and sing the chorus of Bust a Bucket, a song hey made with a local radio station. Well Brian said he did know it, and then Bj said, "Oh Luke can sing that." So we called him, and he did, and he told me it was on YouTube. And now I’ve just had one of the best flash backs ever. Check it out

Any other fans out there?

What I remember: getting up early with my dad to stand in line at Fred Meyer’s for Blazer’s Western Conference winner T-Shirts so I could wear one to school. My little AM/FM radio that had a tape player and this single was in there a lot that spring. Staying up late to watch a game on TV. Watching my dad do his winner’s hand rub thing (he rubs his hands together when he’s really excited about something). Never being able to say: "Bust a Bucket who’d a dunk it Blazer duty Super sunk it Slamn’ Geez it Killer Three’s it go up get got it good" My favorite part was, "It was rip city show time, fully fantastic, positively Portland, slam bombastic!"

Okay that was fun.:)

Gains and Losses

Today was my exact two week mark on my diet. I’m happy to report that I’ve lost a total of 8 pounds, or about a pound a week. I’m not happy to report that this would have been more but when ever Aunt Flo comes to visit she makes me eat like a friggin banshee. What is that about? This is what goes on in my head days before my monthly; "eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, ohhh have some more." I don’t get it. The other day I wolfed down two chocolate bunnies. People I don’t even like chocolate bunnies. Grrr.   And I’m beginning to think I might have to start supplementing the calorie counting with (gasp) working out. I know, I know. I don’t want to do it, but something is happening with me. I don’t believe those calorie calculators. The ones that tell you how much you can have to stay the same weight. When I fill in all my info (and of course mark my lifestyle as sedentary) it tells me I can have 1,600 a day to stay the same. They are such liars. I have a 1,500 day a couple times a week (1,200ish is what I shoot for) and I’ve gained back a pound. Well anyway enough about that, I did start taking fish oil tablets and the first few weeks I felt like they were a miracle pill, but I think my body’s adjusted. Oh and also it’s hard to eat right when your husband makes you a tuna melt… WITH A WHOLE CAN OF TUNA (who does that? I have never seen that done). I said, "damn hon, with the bread and everything this is going to have a ton of calories." He said, "oh and that’s not counting all the butter I used." Oh but it was so good though. Mmmmm. So that’s me checking in, 2 months down, 2 to go. Watch out for me in June, I’ll be the one in the bikini (laying in my backyard where no one can see my incredible whiteness).

So now, let’s talk about the gains. Oh, you know where I’m going with this, thrifty goodness baby! First of all I forgot to tell you that I went to an estate sale on Saturday before we started dying. It was across the street. There is no way I can not go to an estate sale across the street from anything (baby shower, lunch date, visiting a long lost relative, whatever). It was totally cleaned out because it was the second day. But the prices were good and everything under $35 was half off. So look what I got for five bucks:

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Some of you might remember that I have one of these that looks very similar. But listen that was a crazy model. It had a slot for a 3.5" floppy disc, and way too many functions for me. I like simple. My friends I think I’ve finally found the perfect electronic typewriter: GX-6750. OH MY GOD looking up that link for you I see that they are not even an old model. They still make them, retail: $119.99 . Oh man getting deal like this makes me feel so awesome. Especially when they come with this:
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Come on, two refill cartridges and a corrective tape? They were practically giving this away. Well this and the two callanetics videos (circia 1986 and 1992 – it’s a gentle workout!) I got, too bad VHS players have gone the way of the dinosaur. I wonder if Bj would like me to hook one up to his high tech system. Oh man I’m cracking myself up over here. I have got to scan in the covers of these videos, classic high cut leotards. LOLOLOL.

So that was my first sale of the season. But I’m not going to call it official, since it was an accident, and I had to borrow three bucks because I was unprepared. Anyway I’m going to look at the paper Thursday and see if there is any reason to get up early Friday.

Did you know it’s spring break here in Oregon, or at least the valley. It’s true we like to have vacations during our worst possible weather. Floods of 1996 anyone? My brother took a little boat down and was floating on the golf course. It was like one giant lake. Good times. Well Michele has her nephew and I told them about the Tulip Festival (

We can all handle the weather of course, but apparently the tulips can’t and the only blooming were safe under tents. I bought some blooms, ate a sausage and headed to the goodwill nearby. Where I totally scored. I got lots of cool ledger paper. I think someone brought in stuff from a going out of business office supply store or something. Then I was picking around and saw this bag:

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I never have good luck with getting used stamps (except off eBay) because they are usually just teddy bears. Nothing against teddy bears, but… I started pocking around the bag a little more. It was 9.99 (which is like a hundred bucks in Goodwill land) so I had to really look at it. And check out what I found, they are teacher’s stamps!
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27 differnt actions, including my favorite:
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That’s right, knitting. Also has random things like drumming, pushing, waving, pointing. I am in love with them. There were 10 modes of transport in there as well (including a hover-craft, LOL), and three random stamps: a teapot, kettle, and tap. Making me think that Goodwill split up a bigger set.

So this made me just about giddy, coupled with some other things which I’ll explain below. Plus I’m still coming off the high of being on the juice (two diet cokes in one day yesterday, bad Amber, but I really get stuff done:). So I felt like today needed to be immortalized. I made a two page layout, "happy today" in like an hour, but I don’t feel like the two pages have to be shown next to each other (read I can’t seem to get a good picture of them like that). So page one:

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The 11 things making me happy. KI Memories accents, new paper, fabric, random paper and flowers. I used my fountain pen so I’ll type it out for you:

1.Someone left 1:13 worth of change in the meter at the library.
2. Pulling onto a busy street someone let me in.
3. Driving to the tulip fields, seeing Brett, Michele, and Violet. Eating sausage.
4.Awesome stamps: 27 actions, 10 modes of transport, 3 extras
5. this cool paper for 99 cents a pack
6.the $5 typewriter w/ extra ribbons & corrective tape!
7. 8 pounds lost in 2 months today.
8. Oregon weather – the rain, hail, and bursts of light.
9. new ribbon – getting lots done in Ribbon Jar land.
10. Finally found the song, "tears and Laughter" from Bones.
11. Being Alive.

Page two:

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The today thing was an accident, I punched the letters out to close together with my quickutz, so I decided to use the negative image. The top right picture is a paper sample from Sciarrino, a perpetual calendar. All the pictures I took today, love my mini printer (old picturemate, 2005). Super quick flower with new silk. Expect to see a lot of these. I love making ribbon flowers like this! So there you have it. A good happy day. And I hope yours was even better.

p.s. yes, the layout is straight in real life.:)