First Day

Just checking in with you all! I worked my first shift at my new position and WOW! I have A LOT to learn, but the gal who is training me is VERY GOOD at her job and is sharing all of her tips and tricks with me. Right now I am concentrating on learning the HOW it is done, and hopefully the WHY comes along in due time. She even started a notebook for me with cheat sheets, thank goodness for that because my brain is ready to bust after last night! On a positive note, she told me that I am doing things that the person before me did not do for a couple of months into his training and I was doing them my first night! I did make a few OOOPSIES... and had to chase a roll of flying dimes, but that was more funny than anything! The night flew by so very quickly and before I knew it, it was time to go!

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Best part is that I work tonight and then I am off for two. Love the schedule! I even got to be a little bit crafty today, and I am feeling my mojo making a return. I know that they Olympians have been feeding off of it, and if they need to use it for a while longer that is okay, but it really needed to be crafty today!

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Take care!

Good Bye Curse-at-me Desk...

******DISCLAIMER*****

This is a long one, I have been saving up for you! Get comfy, it is a long one!

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Today was it, my last shift at the desk, 1 pm to 10 pm. The desk has been very quiet this week, Johnstown is hosting the AAABA and I think the entire city must be at the Point Stadium. (Not that I am complaining about that!) All that quietness at the desk left me plenty of time to ponder what I liked about the desk and what I would miss and on the other side of that coin what I hate and am glad to not have to deal with any more. Here are my observations...

I will miss

• People watching, boy the sites that you can see on any given day! It is truly entertaining!
• My co-workers, each with their own unique quirks, but we managed most days to not kill each other!
• My friends from the other areas that were my lunch companions in the lounge.
• Being the self appointed "fashion police." There were days that the violations were too many to count.
• The occasional eye candy that we gals got to see.
• Checking out the "it's really a guy, but it looks like a girl"... we always try to figure out where they are putting IT.

I will not miss

• The general nut balls, thieves and liars of which there were PLENTY.
• The beginning of the month welfare, Social Security and Food Stamp rush. Not gonna miss it one teeny tiny little bit.
• Mr & Mrs Stinky & family. Soap is cheap and water is nearly free. Take a bath once a week or so, especially before you come to see me. We raise pigs here on the farm that smell better than you!
• Mr & Mrs I Lose My Kids Every Freaking Time... really.... and then you yell at the kids when they come to me to page you on the loudspeaker. Thanks too, for taking your sweet old time getting to the desk to retrieve them. You are so wonderful yelling at your kid who is in tears since they have been sitting here for 1o minutes waiting for you to get them. How about keeping a better eye on them in the first place! I vote for handcuffing kids to parents!
• The people who complain about EVERYTHING. I don't see someone standing next to you with a gun to your head forcing you to shop here, you have a choice, shop elsewhere if you hate this place so much.
• People who return food. It is one thing to return food that is spoiled before it should be. However, if you have had it past it's expiration and had time to use it, but did not, TDB!! If you overbought, oh well, do better next time. Any food that leaves the store must be destroyed, what a waste! Donate it to the food pantry.
• People who think that I want to know about their "female problems down stairs" and how their husband is upset because he's not getting any lovin'. Don't want to know, don't want think about it, too late, I got a mental picture and now I have to go wash my brain and eyes out with soap!!!! But thanks for letting me know you have conjunctivitis so I can throw my pen away and Lysol the counter top and debit reader!
• The customer who thinks that a motorized shopping cart is the same size as a wheelchair and should fit into the restroom. It is NOT a wheelchair and it is too big to fit into the restroom. Even though you got it in there and now are STUCK. That is your OWN fault and why do you think it is MY PROBLEM to get you out?
• Don't get me started on the VALID PHOTO ID people... I think I have beat that dead horse enough!
• Last of all, I am not going to miss the CELL PHONE CHATTER! HANG UP THE DARN PHONE!

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Take a deep cleansing breath with me... Let it out... Relax, it was all a bad dream...

Take care!

Perseid Meteor Shower

Monday night into Tuesday morning the 2008 Perseid Meteor shower peaked. I love to watch the show, so at about 2 AM I convinced my DH, Ken to come out to the back yard and watch with me. I got bundled up in my sweats and jacket, grabbed the sleeping bag and a flashlight and we set out for the back yard. It was truly amazing! I have watched the Leonid's before,but it is always pretty brisk in November, so watching on a slightly cool summer night was quite nice! We stayed out for about an hour and saw at least 30 meteors shoot across the sky. The sky clouded over and we weren't seeing anything at all, or I would have likely stayed out until sunrise! My DH was quite the good sport about being dragged out in the middle of the night and I think that once we started to see the meteors he did enjoy it. You can find out more info on upcoming Meteor events HERE.

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When I was a camp counselor (many many moons ago) sleeping out under the stars was probably my most favorite thing that we did each week. I always tried to schedule our "sleep out" night early in the week, so that if the weather was not cooperative I could still reschedule for later in the week. My favorite sleep out site was up at the top of the hill, beyond the trading post, in the field below the tall oaks. It is dark there and the sky is just sparkling with billions or trillions of stars. The best week of all was when the "city kids" came from the mission. They were in absolute awe of the brilliant star filled night sky.

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There is a state park here in Pennsylvania called Cherry Springs that has one of the best "dark skies" on the East coast. There are "Star Parties" and other special events through out the year. Pretty cool!

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I still have Olympic Fever and I haven't found my crafty mojo, apparently it went with Bab's Mojo to the Olympics... LOL! Tomorrow is my last shift at the Curse-at-me Desk. I am anxious to start my new position, a little apprehensive, since it is like going to a new school and having to make new friends. Say a prayer and keep a good thought for me! Take care

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GO USA!!!!!!

Olympic Fever!

Do you have it??? We have a pretty bad case of it here! GO TEAM USA!!!!!

How about our Men's Gymnastic Team~ they won the bronze when no one expected them to medal at all!

The Men's Swim Team! WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!! Winning the Gold medals, shattering world records, it doesn't get better than that, well, except for Phelps who now has the most gold medals of anyone on the planet I think.

Ladies Softball~ Kicking butt and taking names... they are doing so well that the mercy rule was used!

Ladies Beach Volleyball~ also just kicking butt!!

Ladies Saber~ they swept GOLD, SILVER, & BRONZE!

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I know I am full of excuses for not being crafty at the moment. I think my crafty mojo went on vacation without me! Hopefully it comes back soon, cause I have work to do!

Take care!

On Her Own

My dear step daughter Melanie is on her own. She is living in her own (very tiny) apartment. We drove out to see her today. We took with us a load of groceries and some house stuff for her. Nana is loaning her a microwave and she is borrowing a cell phone from her father's vast collection of cast offs until she can get hers repaired.

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She is paying more per month for her tiny bit of independence than my parents paid for their mortgage. She has no land line phone, no cable tv, and until we arrived her cupboard was pretty near bare, but she was happy as a clam. LOL! She is making friends with the other struggling young people in her building and some other folks in the neighborhood. She is not too far from her Mother if a crisis should occur.

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It is so hard to believe that she was just nine when I met her and now she is grown and on her own. I have a mix of feelings some scared, mostly proud that she is spreading her wings a bit. So Mel, if you are reading this, we are proud of you! (AND CALL US!) Love You!

Take care!

Some Random Stuff

I will start my new position on August 15th, and I am thinking it will not be soon enough. I had one of those eyerolling days today. I thought they were going to have to use that shackle and chain out that they keep under my register to keep me from going up over the counter and hurting someone. (Don't laugh too hard, I know I would most likely hurt myself more getting over the counter, but man there are days....)

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We had our inventory today at Wallywork. We don't do the actual count, an outside company does that, we just do a huge amount of preparation and then hang out all day and hold our breath. The last couple years have not been so good inventory wise, so when we got the GREAT NEWS today it was all the more wonderful!

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I will have to find some pictures of that dinosaur cake, I know that we took some photos of me, DH and Rian with it the day after the wedding when we were opening gifts. Becky also requested a pic of the chocolate pudding cake with PB icing... I think that you can find one in the archives in April 2007 or search "bundt pan" and you will get it. I haven't made one of those in a while, might have to get on that over the weekend!

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A Plum Crazy update... I am ready to start reading Twelve Sharp. I have also read two of the between the numbers, Plum Lovin' and Visions of Sugar Plums. I laugh out loud in the car, the lounge at work and anywhere else I happen to be reading them! Not much crafting going on at the moment, I am too hooked on the books!

Take Care!

Cake

I bet you have never seen a wedding cake with a mud truck on top!

How is this for marital compromise?
This is the cake that my Mom and I made over the weekend for our neighbors, Greg and Beth. They are building a mud truck to run and wanted a unique cake... I think we accomplished that! The guy from the beer distributor stopped in to hook up the taps while we were setting it up and he was quite impressed with it. The groom's mom, not so much...LOL! The bride and groom were thrilled with it and that was all I really cared about!

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For future reference, when my nephew Rian gets married his wedding cake is going to be a dinosaur. Ri was about 5 when Kenny and I got married. He asked what the cake was going to be like and we showed him a picture of it. Stupidly, I asked if he thought it was nice... of course he said no, it should be a dinosaur, so along with the wedding cake we had a dinosaur cake... makes me think of that crazy armadillo cake from Steel Magnolias... LOL

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Take care!

Family

Just two quick pictures from the family reunion. It was one of the nicest ones I have been to in quite a few years. The picture above is my Dad and his Aunt Anna Mae. Anna Mae is the oldest living descendant of the Shroyer who started the whole reunion thing. She came back here (her childhood home) for her High school reunion and the family reunion. It was so nice to see her and visit with her!
From the oldest to the newest... This little fella (the baby there in the blanket, not my DH) attended his first reunion at the tender age of 10 days. He is my cousin Jeff and Desiree's newborn. There is nothing sweeter than the site of my big tough hubby making baby talk to a sleeping infant.

BIG CHANGES

About two weeks ago I interviewed for a position in the Accounting Office at Wallywork. It is an overnight job. It was offered to me and I accepted it, so there will be some adjustments going on around here. I will still only be working four days a week, thankfully, and my ranting will likely simmer down some. (LOL!) I won't have as much customer contact, and as you all know that really breaks my heart... There is also an increase in pay too. Not a bad deal. I will have to work a few weekends, but I am actually okay with that. My DH works night shift as well so hopefully we will get to spend more time together. I hope to have some more crafty time too!

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Today is the first of the month and I am absolutely thrilled that I do not have to be at Wallywork. (Especially since the 3rd is Sunday, so we will be hit super bad today...UGHHHH!) I did have to stop in the store to pick up some things and I was mentally kicking myself for it!

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Tomorrow I have a wedding reception (and cake) and my Family reunion... always a REAL treat! This one will be special though, since my Great Aunt Anna Mae is here for this one, she is the last surviving of my Grandmother's siblings. She lives in Missouri and made the trip back here for her class reunion and the family reunion. I am quite excited about seeing her!

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I have one more Wallywork RANT saved up and I will get it out of my system in the near future! Until then, take care!

Product review... Fiskars Glue Dots... just as good as Zots... actually I think they may be a bit stickier. (Is that a word? I guess it is, since it passed the spell check!) I used the smallest size thin to adhere some metallic ribbon bows to the front of the cards for the Christmas Cards in July swap and it worked wonderfully. I also like that the roll they come on is not as wide as the Zots one, the Fiskars ones are all in a single file row.

Another adhesive that I have been using is also available at Wallywork. It is quite similar to the Tombow Monoadhesive (TM), as a matter of fact at first glance I did mistake it for Tombow. It is definitely gummier than TM. I have found that when using it in order to not get that stretchy tail of gummy adhesive you need to stop rolling it, stand it on end and give it a little flick of the wrist and then lift away. That cuts it off and eliminates the adhesive tail most of the time. I did have an issue with the used portion not rolling onto the take-up reel, however that is easily fixed by simply opening the dispenser and manually winding it. I did that once and did not have any more problems with it.

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Wallywork also now sells the same brand of adhesive in a dotto style as well. The dispenser retails at my store for less than $4 and refills are 2/package for $2.27. Pretty economical in my book! The dotto is repositionable to permanent. I have used it and am testing how long it takes to get to the permanent set stage. After a day or so it is a bit more difficult to get remove. The blue one is the regular runner, the purple is the dotto style.

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I am still on the Stephanie Plum book kick, I am up to the seventh one and they are just sooooo good!

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Card swappers, I am just waiting for one package to arrive and they I will get them out to you!

Take care!

GOBS OF FUN!!!

Spent Saturday afternoon with my friends Dee, Harry, Jean, Debbie and Jerry and Susie making about 500 gobs for the Fall Harvest Gospel Music Festival. It is at Camp Harmony on Labor Day weekend. (The gobs are frozen after they are made.) We made Pumpkin, Chocolate, and Chocolate with Peanut butter filling. YUM YUM YUMMMMYY!!!!
Dee is a match maker, pairing up the tops and bottoms.
Here is the production line, filling and bagging the finished gobs.

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Speaking of gobs, Travis went with my Mom this morning to the Farmers Market at the Georgian Place in Somerset. The 4-H club helps out by carrying packages and they also sell refreshments. He had a few dollars in his pocket so he made a couple of purchases.. a pan of cinnamon rolls from the bakery, a honey comb, and the last thing he bought was not out on the counter, he had put it in the freezer... he told me he bought a "gobler" You know one of those chocolate things with the filling in the middle. I look in the freezer and I see a GOB! ACKKK!!!!

Take care!

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P.S. My cards are done WOOOHOOOOO!!!!

I will post pics of every one's swap cards after I have mailed them out.

A Shed is Delivered!

(Hallelujah!!)

My DH has been wanting a shed for as long as he has lived here. We did have one of those aluminum ones from Sears, but the wind got it during a storm and it was just a BIG metal tumbleweed blowing across the field.
Travis thinks it is his new "cabin" I just think that it is a good thing to have and I am so glad that there is a place for all of his tools and paraphenalia. The hallelujah is because I will never have to wipe sawdust off of my kitchen table again. (Hopefully!)
I don't know, it is kinda cute, very roomy, I think I could get all my scrapping stuff in there alonge with a few friends... maybe I will take it for a scrapping shed like Stepanie over at Homegrown Hospitality... she calls hers a "Shead-Teau." I am thinking DH is not going to have that...LOL!

Take Care!

Super Stampers Seven!

Last evening was our first Stampers 7 Club meeting. I had such a good time! It was nice to spend some time crafting and visiting with Sharon and Aub, Barb, Tracy, and Kathy! I learned so many NEW things! The card above is a crayon resist technique. The areas on the green panel that are white were colored with a white crayon before we used a brayer to ink over the whole thing. TOOOO NIFTY!
This sweet little card is an explosion card, so it pops out all over the place when you pull the two sides. Snowflakes are one of my favorite images and I have a BUNCH of them, but these are REALLY nice ones!
Saved the best for last! This is a ceramic tile that can be used as a dry erase board! How cool is that! It is stamped with StazOn, heated, colored with Sharpies and heated again. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! (Did I mention that I love it??)

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We had great food too! Yummy taco dip, Butterscotch delight and Farmers Market dip from Tastefully Simple. Super YUMMMY!

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Take care!

Plum Crazy!

So, my cousin Amy tells me she loves these Stephanie Plum novels, written by Janet Evanovich. The book series is about her (mis)adventures as a novice bounty hunter. Dear Lord are they laugh out loud funny! The series is up to number fourteen at the moment. My friend Ruthann loaned me the entire series last Thursday and I am almost done with the third book already! So I have been busy reading away, not so much scrapping is getting done!

Bugs and Flowers

Sorry I missed a few days here. I was a busy girl with work and home and crafty stuff! Last evening was my CMC's crop at Berkey Church. WOW! What a crowd! I think there were about 30 people there.
These little beauties are the Make and Take page samples I made using the paper and stickers she gave as a "goodie" for attending.
I absolutely LOVE laser cut stickers. They are so intricate and delicate, and GORGEOUS!
I also was loving my large square shape maker, as you can probably tell. I tried to keep the pages simple and pretty and easy. The stickers alone are so beautiful that they did not need a bunch of fussy stuff.

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This note is for my Christmas Cards in July swappers~ I got Sharon's cards yesterday, so she is getting a little something special for be the first to get her stuff to me! Thanks Sharon! Her cards are beautiful! I can't wait to see what you are making!!!

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Take Care!

Do Your Part to Fight the Long Lines..

I have done my job for nearly 16 years now. I am pretty efficient and have streamlined the process quite well in my humble opinion, so trust me when I say I am doing all that I can to move things along. Here are a few things that you can do to help.

• If you have receipt, give it to me. Making me hunt through three bags of merchandise for it does not make things go faster.
• If you don't have a receipt, I am going to ask for your ID. NOW would be a good time to start looking for it. (See I am giving you time to look for it while I process your items so that when I need to input it to finish the return we do not have to wait.) By the way, you may have heard me mention this a few hundred times before, it must be a PHOTO ID and it must be VALID.
• Do not hand me EVERY receipt from the three years with your 20 or so items that you found while you were cleaning the trunk of your car, attic, garage and closet in the spare bedroom. A little organization on your part goes a LONG WAY to helping speed the process.
• There is a point in time when whatever it is that you bought belongs to YOU and is no longer eligible for return. That time would be 90 days from the day you bought it. So, NO you cannot return the dress you bought on clearance three years ago. It is yours, if you no longer want it I have a few suggestions... Ebay, Goodwill, The Salvation Army, or the garbage all come to mind.
• If you just stood in line for 10 minutes waiting to buy money orders, do you think you might have a clue as to what amounts you would like them to be? Recalling from memory is not working for you, might I suggest a list?
• Since you knew you were buying money orders it would be nice if you had a plan on how you are going to pay for them. It isn't hard, you have two choices, CASH or DEBIT with pin. Nope, sorry we don't take checks or credit cards for these.

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This rant was brought to you by the lady who called me stupid on Tuesday. I don't wait on people who call me names, so step aside ma'am, who is next in line?

Take care, I promise a more scrappy themed post tomorrow!

whatchamacallits and glue dots

Allow me to introduce you to an old friend! The Hershey's Whatchamacallit candy bar. I haven't seen one in years and now they are on the check outs at Wallywork. Peanutbutter crispy, caramel and chocolate, what more is there really?
I am not sure how many of you were witness to my glue dot melt down of last month. It seemed that Wallywork had decided to no longer sell the Zots glue dots and just with out warning clearanced them and removed them from the modular. This in turn must have caused a general panic and fear of a glue dot shortage, because Michaels was also out of stock on them. I was not happy at all.

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Glue dots are my choice of adhesive for ribbons and buttons and many other lumpy items. I always purchased them at Wallywork, since they were less $$ than Michaels, plus you got a bigger box. Well, lo and behold while I was checking out the Martha wall the other day, out of the corner of my eye I spied these Fiskars thin glue dots, in three sizes of thin and one size of thick. I fell to my knees and gave thanks and all was once again well with the world. (Can't you hear the music and see the angels??) I will give them a thorough review and get back to you on what I think of them very soon!

Take care!

New Scrapping Stuff at Wal-Mart!

(Martha's in the House!)

I was quite surprised to learn we would be carrying a line of Martha Stewart crafting items in our paper crafts area and also in the wedding crafts.
We have cutting systems, punches, border punches, markers, pens, ink pads, acrylic stamps, glitter, glues, paper pads, embellishments, ribbons, albums, album kits, and much more!
You have to stop in and check it all out! I have a wish list as long as my arm!

Take care!

Idlewild!

We went on Friday. Travis did okay, I think he was hurting pretty good until the day was done, but he would not admit to any of that.

Nana and Tyler and Travis waiting for the Howler ride.

Kenny and I spent most of the day with nephew Tyler. Travis took off with the big boys, which was probably better, since I would have been fussing about his foot and crutches and all that, all day.

Looks like he had a good day... youngest nephew.

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Nothing much more to say. I did not get to go to the Stamping show in Monroeville and I am a bit bummed. Oh well, I have plans for some of our stimulus money that involves a road trip!

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Take care!

Fractured.

That is the official word from the orthopedic specialist. Although, she was not certain that it was, she felt it best to treat it as one. Travis has an air cast on for two weeks, more resting it, elevating it, putting ice on it and doing some easy movements with it. She did tell him was allowed to take it off and go in the pool, but no jumping in and no weight on it getting out. After that he goes for a re-check. Dr. Sullivan said four to six weeks in the cast with crutches and then some PT if it is healing well.

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It is not looking so good for the Idlewild trip on Friday though. Summer camp is likely out too, at

least the one that he likes to go to. They hike on the Laurel Highland trail for a couple of days and then go rafting on the Yough. We are looking in to some other options... wish us some luck!

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Anybody going to the Stamp Scrap Art Tour Rubber Stamp Show in Monroeville this weekend? If you go, don't forget to also travel into the city to Stamp Fanci, she has a great sale going on in the back room.

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I am also working up a pretty good work related rant...so check back! LOL!

Take care!