Derrick is at his grandparent's house for a few days this week. He has been gone since this morning at 10am and I miss him very much. He will be back late tomorrow night. He keeps things very interesting around here.

It has been a long day of working.....and more tomorrow. I am so tired now that I can't post very much.
So glad that Monday is over.....YAY!!! Hope the rest of the week is a good one :)

Scrapbooking is great for keeping all your memories :) I bought the Making Memories Slice today and it is great !!! I love, love, love it !!! It is the best cutting machine on the market. I can not wait to get started using it. I will not have to buy punches any more because the Slice does it all and can even emboss.

We had a great night !! We went to eat at Outback Steakhouse and the a little light shopping as a family. Rick and Derrick went into Hobby Lobby with me while I shopped for scrapbooking supplies....of course this takes about a hour :) I really don't think they liked it but it was funny to watch them look around. Rick has never been in Hobby Lobby but Derrick always goes with me....which he hates. We then went by Brewster's Ice Cream and got a sundae. Then back home to rest for work tomorrow.

I have been a blog follower of Katie Scott of Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking. I sent her an email and she is going to publish it as.....Ask Katie. I was so excited about this !! I am hoping that I am on my way to having a scrapbooking business. See the Ask Katie.....below.

March 27, 2009
Ask Katie: How to Photograph Your Scrapbooking Layouts
QUESTION: Hey Katie~ I am one of your blog follwers and seen all your youtube videos. I have started a blog and wanted to take some pics of my scrapbook pages. I just can't seem to get them to take well. I have tried hanging them on the wall and taking a close up and tried laying them down and taking a pic but some have a glare and some take but I really can't see them good. I was wondering how you got yours in focus so good? I can see all of your fine details. Do you hang them or lay them down? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. - A.P.
ANSWER: Thank you for reading my blog and for the note! The best way to photograph your layouts is with a scanner and a program that allows you to stitch the layout together; but I've tried this method again and again and for my purposes, its just not worth the time and effort. I use my camera to take a photo of my layout and then I crop it in Picasa. The best way to get a photo with no glare or flash is outdoors during the day. But, if you are like me and make your pages at night and must post them, I put my layout on the floor in a well lit room and then stand a foot or two away from the layout and take the picture that way - so the flash goes off but doesn't bounce off the photos; this method does distort the layout so that you can't crop it into a perfect square - but I'm ok with that for my purposes. If you are posting to get published or for a design team, they're probably going to want you to use a scanner; but if you are like me and scrapbook mainly for fun, the taking a photo of your layout works just fine. Also, I have the added peace of mind that if something happened to my scrapbook layouts or the whole State of Florida (hurricane season), I've got them saved on my blog and on Shutterfly. Hope this helps!

My son Derrick just turned 10 on March 9th. He is so full of questions !!! Most of his questions are about general life but he really can come up with some shocking ones. He asked me tonight how a baby got into the Mom's stomach ???? I was shocked and did not know exactly what to say. I still think that he is to young for this. I know that he hears all kinds of things at school but I am not ready for this. I know that he will have lots of questions as he gets older but I am not ready to explain some things to him. He is still my "baby".

My friend Taya made this for me for Easter....so cute :) I just love it !! She makes beautiful graphics and she is so talented. Not long before Easter will be here. The kids are out of school next week for Spring Break. I am so glad.....I need a break from the homework...LOL. It is a cold and rainy night so thoughts of Spring really helps :)

My brother Travis and my new little neice.....Helena Isabella Smith. She was born March 01.2009. Derrick seen her for the first time this past Saturday and he has talked about her all week long. He has even put her picture in his billfold. She is a little cutie :)

I am so glad that today is almost over.....it has been a very long and hard day. I got so behind on everything because I took a "me" day on Sunday. Sometimes it is not good to be in business with your hubby. Of course, he thinks he is always right and I am wrong. I am never wrong....LOL :) Seems we can never agree on very much when it comes to the business. He only wants the best for us and so do I because the business is how we make our living. He will give in and agree with me :) because he always does......just may take a few days for me to work on him !!!

A friend shared a fun graphic site with me today....www.befunky.com. It is a fun site to change your pictures to cartoons and other fun graphics. This picture is Derrick as a cartoon. I could not do this in Paint Shop Pro and it was lots of fun for me.

Derrick's 10th birthday pictures. I cropped these and turned them black and white. I love his little sweet handsome face. My little guy is 10 years old now and growing up so fast. I treasure and enjoy each day with him. He wants his hair to grow out and we are letting him try. He takes good care of it each day. I am not sure about this !!! I figured it is his hair and we are going to let him do with it as he wants.

YAY !!!! I finally finished my Walt Disney Scrapbook. This book was fun to create :) I loved seeing Mickey and friends again. We had a great time at Disney and tons of memories. We can't wait to go again. Disney is a magical place !!!

Happy 10th Birthday Derrick !!! I love you very much !!! I love you more than you will ever know. You are growing up so fast......very fast!!!!

Derrick at his Birthday party at Roebuck Skating Ring. He had 17 kids to come and got lots of gifts and $85.00 in money. I am so tired from today and ready for bed. His last friend just left at 9:30pm so he has had a long day.

We had a bad experience tonight when we went to Zaxby's to get dinner. We had already ordered and came out of the drive-thru and was at the entrance to get back on the road. There was traffic on the road so I was sitting and waiting. A car turned in like that were coming to the parking lot. I had my window down half way and this lady stopped her car right at the entrance beside me. I looked over and she was waving her hand at me, while her window was down. She said will you buy me something to eat? I looked at her and she opened her car door, like she coming up to me. This scared me when she opened the door and started getting out (we were still at the entrance to the parking lot) and her car was still running. I looked at her and pulled out. I was nervous because she was coming at me and natural instinct, I drove off. I pulled into the store down the road to calm down. I decided to go back and find her and give her the food that I had just bought. I was not sure if she was scamming me or was really hungry. I went back to Zaxby's and she was in the line to place her order. So I don't know if this was true or what she had planned. I know that people are having tough times now and I could not stand knowing that she may have been hungry and I drove off. I was glad to see she was in the line.

A long day of shopping for Derrick's birthday party. I let him pick out one of his gifts and he chose a "grown up" billfold.