How to spend an evening with nothing to do...(ok ok, nothing you want to do)

The other night I found myself insanely bored & didn't really feel like doing anything. Then a thought popped into my head...my friend Steph had asked me to make some scrapbook pages for her daughter's scrapbook, & since my family is coming here this weekend I felt it would be better to send the pages back then to mail them (I don't trust them not getting bent). So this is what I worked on!

How to scrapbook with a man!

Ok, so last Saturday marked a first for me...my first experience scrapbooking with a man! I ran into my friend Clayton at the gas station on Friday morning, & he asked what I was doing over the weekend & decided that he was coming over. So Saturday morning I arose early to prepare for the day ahead of me. Clayton came over with Starbucks ( no coffee for me of course, but my favorite Carmel Apple Spice with no whipped cream), & we organized pictures & then headed to Archiver's, one of the scrapbook stores in town. After a quick trip to the Hobby Lobby we headed back to the house & started working on Clayton & Dave's 'Cruise' themed scrapbook. I gotta say, we got a lot accomplished (about 1/3 of the book), & it looks great! Clayton is definitely good at this...especially being a first timer. Here is a picture of Clayton scrapbooking, & a picture of how messy my living room can get!

How to....gain 10 lbs. in 20 days & not be upset!

My friend Marjie asked me how I was going to make this a 'how to' blog post, but I think by the title I might have just done it! Ok - so I'll try to keep this short & sweet! A few weeks ago Zena (a co-worker of mine) & I were headed out to lunch, & we were going to go to Schlotzky's, but I was in the mood for some Espinaca dip, so I suggested that we head over to Cactus Grill to have some. We were seated in the bar, & that is where I met the BEST waiter EVER!!!!!! He made sure that our glasses were always full, & he even offered up some sarcastic banter - which I'm a fan of. So a few days later Marjie & I went to have lunch & luckily we were seated in the SAME booth & had the same waiter! Marjie made the comment that the waiter paid more attention to me (which became quite obvious over the next few weeks), but I was quite happy with that. Especially when the restaurant was unable to make my burrito correctly. All I wanted was a tortilla shell with some rice in it & topped with Espinaca dip, but apparently that is a really hard request to fulfill. So, on this particular day, it took 3 times to get my burrito right. I had given up after time 2, but Orlondo was not going to allow that. So after this experience & the way that it was handled, I was sold. I don't typically eat out a lot, but if anyone asked me to lunch I happily obliged, but with the stipulation that we had to go to Cactus Grill. Seriously - it was like 17 times in 3 1/2 weeks! I will say that the last 3 days that I went in a row (Monday thru Wednesday) were due to the fact that Orlondo had informed us that his last day was Wednesday, so we had to utilize our time to have the best waiter serve us. Unfortunately he was only our waiter on Monday, but I will say that Monday was the best day! He brought my drink without me asking, & as I waited for Zena I requested to hold off on the Espinaca dip, & as soon as she sat down it was at the table without the blink of an eye! I could totally go on & on & on, but I won't ;) I'll just say that I have not had a burrito in 10 days, mainly due to the fact that I am burritoed out, but it was well worth it, & Cactus Grill will never be the same...I don't know that I can ever step foot in there again!

When Rachael was here, we made these notebooks with my newest scrapbooking purchase - the Big Bite by Cropodile!

How to....get a TV stand put together, & then rearrange the room!

Ok, so I said before that I got a TV stand. Only problem....I am not good at putting furniture together! Lucky for me Ben (Ann's boyfriend) came over last Sunday night & was nice enough to finish the job that Jordan had started. It took him awhile, & when he was finished he had a great idea! Ben's idea was to rearrange the living room so that the TV was on the opposite wall so when we are watching it it's about 10 feet away, rather than the maybe 5 it was currently. This started a lot of furniture moving & Ann getting her fingers stuck in the couch (I wish I had the video of Ben's face AFTER he told Ann not to put her fingers in the seam & she did), & a trip to K-Mart for a cable cord that was long enough (too bad that I didn't buy 2 because we realized when I got back that we had to get the cable from one side of the house to the other). I will say that I'm very happy that Ben made the suggestion because I enjoy watching TV so much more now that it's not so overwhelming.

How to get little kids on your side.....

Last weekend I got a pleasant surprise!!! I knew my friends Jordan & Rachael & their boys Jalen & Ian were coming to visit, but I was off by a weekend, so I was excited to find out they were coming a week early by my calendar! They arrived on Friday evening, & we just hung out & watched Why Did I Get Married? - a must see for anyone that reads this (but beware as it is kind of sad, but it's worth it in the end!)...then on Saturday we headed to Legends to the T-Rex Cafe where Jalen & Ian were introduced to Build-A-Dino (like Build-A-Bear but with dinosaurs). Then it was nap time for the boys & Rachael & I went shopping!!! I got a new camera, & a TV stand. After that it was back to the house to meet up with Ann & Ben & have some pizza & we watched the Memphis vs. Tennessee game in High Def. It was great fun! It was quite hilarious because Jalen told Ann that his mom was preggers, & she is going to have the baby when he's in the 3rd grade - which makes Rachael's justation about the same as an elephant! When it was time for the boys to go to bed, Jalen gave Ben a hug, then Ann a hug, & I was sitting next to Ann & Jalen looked at me, waved & said "Good night Libby!" Everyone got a HUGE kick out of that. I think my favorite part was on Sunday when we were praying & Jalen's prayer went like this...."Dear God, thank you for my family & my friends. Please watch over them. And Dear God, thank you for creating Libby." That is probably the sweetest thing I have ever heard in my life! However, at this time I do believe that Jalen is upset with me because he forgot his Transformers movie here, & I have procrastinated sending it back....at least I bought an envelope today!

How to utilize the time when you're bored...

A few weeks ago (ok, ok I know that I have truly slacked) I was bored, so I sat down & decided to make some frames to go in my cube at work that was seriously lacking - there were absolutely NO pictures in there, & people were starting to question because they are used to frames & pictures & magnets everywhere, but I wanted to update pictures & things, & it took me forever! Here are the frames that I made. One is a picture of Alec, Zach & myself around Christmas time, & then there is a picture of my family from Thanksgiving. Finally there is a Making Memories Flip Album that I liked that I put some random pictures in with my motto of Live, Laugh & Love.