Words of Wisdom Wednesday!

There are some really good ideas here. I personally do #7, 11, 17, on the right side: 7, 9, don't know about 14, 16 and part of 20. 

Not very many--I need to work on this!!

Travel Tuesday

As you read this, I will be on my way home from a short, but very productive couple of days in St. Louis. 

The purpose of the trip was to finish the work of putting Janet's scrapbooks together. You might recall that my trip a couple months ago was for Jeanne and me to start cleaning out her scrapbook room. That's when we discovered 273 double-page layouts that needed to be put in scrapbooks. We started that instead. It took 8 hours to sort the pages in to categories and get 6 books put together. By my estimation, we were going to have approximately 21 books.

Here's how it landed:

All tolled, we had 15.5 hours in to the project---times 2 (since there were two of us working) for a total of 31 hours. My approximation on the albums was off by 3--we had 24 scrapbooks when we were finished. Plus, we took a little time to organize a few things like putting all adhesives together, all extra scrapbooks and pages, the trimmers and a few other things. There is so much to be done.

Jackie took some of the albums home the last time we were here. But here's how they stack up today!

This was the second time I've ever dealt with top-loading albums. But, I had never dealt with adding the extenders. Jeanne told me it was hard. She came prepared. She has this rubber finger "thingie." I was like, "What's up with this?How do you even have this?" At that point, Jackie overheard us as she was working in Janet's office. She came out and tossed these on to the table:

What? Is this a "thing?" They look like rubber thimbles! I didn't know that this was something people used nor have I seen them for sale in a store. Jeanne said she used them in her work. Not really sure why. Anyway, they certainly helped hold the screw in place as we were tightening it from the other side! Jackie mentioned that her mom had many more of these. Apparently they must come in handy to have them around the house. I can still learn new things every day!!

So, the albums were the main reason I went to St. Louis. But of course, I make the most of my trips to by visiting as much family as possible. I got to see Evie and Josie while we were at Janet's working on the albums. The girls were there--going through some things they might want to keep that belonged to their Gram. We discussed "Camp Aunt Barb" for this year--they'll be down to Nashville in a little over 2 weeks. I'm excited about that!

At one point, Josie came and laid down next to where I was working.

I said, "OMGosh Josie, how can you be laying on that stinkin' dog bed!" She replied that, "Smoky didn't use it and Izzy didn't use it so it's MY dog bed!" I thought that was pretty hilarious! 

We visited my sister, Janice both days for a couple hours each day. She's in a nursing home and is right where she needs to be. She's content and calm. She still knows us and can make sense now and then.

We visited Jeanne's grands: Travis and Nathan and discussed Camp Aunt Barb with them. I bought a coupon thing Travis was selling for his football team. Then I coughed up a few bucks for Jeanne to take all 4 kids to go to 5 Below (a higher end dollar store!) and lunch afterward. 

Then we went to Johnny and Adrea's to see their kiddos--Logan, Rosie and Theo. Darn, I didn't think to take any pictures.

We had great St. Louis food! We met Matt and Sharon at Donatelli's for happy hour. And, of course I had to go to Freddy's for their burgers and a turtle frozen custard sundae. 

Even though it was a whirlwind trip, we got a lot accomplished and I got my "family" fix. Butch and I have another trip planned for the end of July. I'm looking forward to that already!

Okeedokee. That's it for now. 

Me on Monday

This post isn't exactly about me, but indirectly. 

My granddaughter, Elizabeth is a hair stylist in Atlanta. She knows all of my woes regarding my own quest to find a good stylist. I have super fine, limp hair. I use every thickening product known to man. They do help--but not much. 

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, she sent me this text: 

She got this 5 star review from someone who shares my plight!!! Wow! Congrats to her. Not many people take the time to give good reviews--mostly when they are unhappy! Elizabeth must have really impressed her! Now I just need to find out what she did!! 

I love this girl and her enthusiasm! I wished she lived a little closer. Hmm, maybe I should just plan on going down there to see her every six weeks. But here's the dilemma. If it doesn't quite work out for me, how do you "fire" your granddaughter??

See, this post is about me after all!

Something for Sunday

Well, I'm heading back to St. Louis to visit with family and to do some more work putting Janet's scrapbooks together with my sister, Jeanne. I'm looking forward to some good Italian food too!

In the meantime, here's some good advice:

Scrapbook Saturday

These pages are a little difficult to see since I photographed them with the page protectors on. Not th best quality. These are from 2015 when our AYM theme was about "lists"!

Friday Funnies AND Friday Frustrations!

You're only getting one "funny" today because this one is personal!!

For years, I have complained that Butch leaves doors open. He leaves the door open when he feeds the fish in our little pond. He leaves the door open to the garage. He has left the front door open when he gets the mail. He doesn't leave these doors open all the time, but often enough to drive me crazy! And the pantry! OMGosh, now that's a door he leaves open way more than he closes it. 

When I call him out about leaving doors open, he'll swear he doesn't! From now on, I'm going to take pictures. This is really the only proof I have:

While on our Route 66 trip, he left the door open while he went back in the fast food place to get some napkins. This one is really serious. He leaves the car door open occasionally--when he pumps gas, but often when he's geo-caching! 

The reasons I don't like it:

1. Either the heat or air gets out making it either hot or cold inside.

2. Bugs get in!

3. Smells get in. 

Yeah, it's a frustration for sure! Sort of funny--but not very.

Ten Things Thursday

How about some house renovations?

1. I don't particularly like dark houses. But I do like how this turned out. I like the blue door and the landscaping.

2. I love this one and the porch. I am partial to white. There could definitely be more landscaping and pots overflowing with colorful flowers on the porch.

3. This one seems kind of odd. Why was the front door offset to begin with. The after is definitely nice. Love the flower boxes.

4. The added gables really make a difference in this one. 

5. Again, love the white!

6. Nice porch.

7. The before photo looks almost exactly like my grandmother's house. The after looks amazing. The additions definitely make it look more inviting.

8. Omgosh--love the railing. It's a pretty shade of green, but a bit too dark for my taste.

9. This mansion almost looks like the White House.

10. This looks like the easiest renovation of all. Nice porch.

I think I choose #7 is my favorite. It looks like a cute little cozy bungalow.