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my view during first break. phone photo does not do it justice! today the buses are free. and it's chili day in the breakroom. i love colorado.

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christmas presents for my neighbors!

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ginger bread house day @ Target!

for christmas...

you know you want something from this website:

http://www.zazzle.com/i_love_cora_heart_t_shirt_card-137963751576100942

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it's not that cold out but I took no chances. this is me walking 2 miles to work today...at 5am... in the snow... uphill both ways!

Almost Christmas? Seriously?

So some things about me...
I was training for a half marathon (the Boulder Bolder) but the recent freeze stopped that for a while. We should be picking back up here this week or so. I'm walking/jogging with my awesome neighbor, Betsy!

My bro and I have been looking up recipes and shopping for them and *gasp* cooking them! It has been nice having something a little more "involved" than just rice or ramen. My favorite site for recipes is www.kraft.com.

Our second car over-heated a few times (during the freeze!) so I've stopped driving it for the time being. So far I've gotten rides to work. Tomorrow I try the long walk to work at 5am! (I have to clock in at 6am) The buses don't start running til 7am, I've heard. It's only about 2 miles, so nothing too horrible.

Joam's been working at UPS unloading trucks from 2am til 9 or 10am, then he goes back out at 11am on a truck to help deliver packages. He's done that for a few weeks but will probably be done helping deliver after christmas.

I hope you are doing well. I opened up the comments to anyone so you don't need a google account to comment! I've been getting some weird comments on some of the posts. One of them asks where to get a unicorn!?

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it's been really cold here in Colorado. in the negatives (wind chill). But it's warming up this weekend.

snow!

my view on my lunch break at 9am. i work 4am to 12:30pm today.

Thanksgiving is today!

It kinda sucks this year, but that's ok. I miss my family. My mom and dad are getting older and I wish I could spend more time with them.

But we'll have fun today, no doubt. Going to a big church gathering of friends for a meal. Lots of love.

Just missing my parents right now.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and safe travels if you are traveling.

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look what i just got! love it. i think it's a cool reward.

Help+Book+ACL+Festival+2010

Help+Us+Book+ACL+Festival+2010

Take one and a half minutes right now to vote for five bands that should be booked for the Austin City Limits next year.

I'll even help you, the first two bands should be Quiet Company and the Rocketboys.
The third one should be Lucas for Sheriff.
Then you can pick any other two bands you'd like.
I picked Midlake and Eisley because I wanted all Texas local bands.

I seriously will love you more if you vote.

Thanks!

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this is what i saw in the hallway of my apartment tonight after picking up my brother from work. "too much andy" i think it's called.

first snowman of the season

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My hubby helped build this gigantic snowman today. With our neighbors. Shown here are the two wonderful little girls that we live below.

This was the second snowfall of the season, the first "major" one. They even closed down the college! Wusses! Target stayed open. Lame.

I will be working 2:30pm-11pm on Halloween night at Target. Wish me luck. I will probably be dead as everyone and their brother will be out having fun. Well, my brother won't be... he'll be working at Tar-jay with me!

Still Lovin' It!

It being Colorado.

My promotion at Target has proven to be exhausting. Hauling fixtures here and there. Unloading box after box. And usually falling asleep folding, folding, folding. But it's not too bad.

Things on my mind:
What to do for Thanksgiving (no money to travel)
friend's wedding coming up in early December
What to do for Christmas
Am I too old to have a baby?
Do I want to have a baby?
Do I want to go back to school?
Do I want to go to school for mathematics?
What am I doing in Colorado? Getting healthy, but am I?
Why haven't I scrapbooked at all since moving here? Will I be able to pick it up again?

Anyways. I hope all is well with you.

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i was just blessed with all this food from a dear friend. just in the nick of time, too. thanks so much friend!

copied from ali edwards (my hero)

Outside my window...beautiful boulder, colorado.

I am thinking...that i'm happy to not be working tomorrow.

I am thankful for...new (and old) friends that love me and my family.

From the kitchen...rice and ramen. ):

I am wearing...target uniform: red shirt, khaki pants.

I am creating...not much these days, but hopefully that will change soon.

I am going...to play starcraft with joam and ian tonight. (:

I am reading..."night shift" a collection of short stories by stephen king.

I am hoping...not really anything on the horizon that i see. maybe i'm just hoping to survive these next couple of weeks?

I am hearing...my hubby playing starcraft.

Around the house...it's messy

One of my favorite things...getting to spend time with joam.

A few plans for the rest of the week...spend time with an old band mate/friend saturday, and doing lots of laundry saturday and/or sunday. thanks to new friends blessing me with free laundry machines!

A picture to share...

i'll add one later.

Please vote!

I would appreciate it if you checked out this site and voted for my friend, Kendall:

http://www.exploremodeling.com/Contest/Faceof_ELF_2010/14009/Kendall_Burley.aspx

She is amazing and this opportunity would be awesome.

You don't have to sign up for anything or give any information.

Thanks so much,
~Cora

oh my goodness!

I have the coolest upstairs neighbors who are also great friends. They have three little ones, all girls, 4 yrs, 2 yrs, and a few months. I LOVE them!

Please go here and watch the video of the middle girl chewing gum! The cutest thing ever!

Love you all Zenz family!

They like me!

So looks like people do read. (Hi there!) (:

Here are some cell phone pictures. Facebook is being a butt. (:

boomerang, fast as lightning!

Boomerang, Joam, and our car covered in snow.


Joam in the tree house at our friend's place.

It's snowing here! I don't think I've ever been so excited for snow.

I've lived in California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Texas 2.0, California 2.0, and now Colorado. I'm no stranger to snow. I don't know what's so different this time around.

busy time

So since none of you wrote on your blogs, that I could tell. I guess no one is reading this anymore. Though I did get a comment from my lovely friend, Brittany. And I'm assuming that you, Jodi, read it also, you just don't have a blog to write to. (;

Other than that, I didn't see any new updates to blogs! Lame.

Things have been busy in the Cardoni home. Joam turned 25! Quick trip to Sac-town, Quick visit with lovely Shreeves! Wonderful visit from my dear friend, Joni.

I got a promotion at Target! I'll start it in two weeks. It's 25¢ more an hour. I'll be the brand captain. I'll get to be in charge of all the tables that have folded clothing in our store! I'll get to see what is new and move the tables around and assign tasks to my co-workers. I'm pretty excited except that I will miss working in the fitting room so much. I'm totally a Target nerd. It's guaranteed 40 hours and it's just during the day. I'll probably look for a night job until we can get a better hold on our debt-ness.

The sad part of this is that Joam works 3am-8am and sleeps from 6pm-2:30am. We probably will see less of each other unless he switches his sleep schedule. We'll see.

Sorry I don't have pictures. They are on my phone mostly. I'll have to bust out the camera one of these days. I'm pretty overwhelmed by all the scrapbooking I have yet to do so I'm afraid to take more photos. ):

Anyways.

Yeah.

clohn art

I just pledged $10, how about you?

anybody out there?

I'm loving living in Boulder, Colorado. Have I mentioned that yet? The only thing missing is you.

Seriously.

Tonight we drove to the Denver airport to spend time with friends that planned a four hour layover so we could all hang out. Now that is love. Next they just need to move here. And so do you. It's so beautiful here. Winter is on it's way, which is kind of sad but I've heard the winters here aren't too harsh. I'll let you know.

Joam and I just got back to Colorado after a short trip to Sacramento to pick up the rest of our things, including our dog. We flew to Sacramento on Joam's birthday, a Thursday, and drove back Friday night through Saturday. It was nice to see the few of you that we could. There were so many more I wanted to see but there just wasn't any time. Next time the visit will be for longer.

Maybe. There's a scrapbooking convention in a few weeks that I would LOVE to attend but money's pretty tight right now. Tight as in, not sure about this month's rent. We'll have it, it just might be a little late.

I'm trying to figure out what to do. I love, love, love working at Target but I want extra cash for fun things like trips to scrapbooking conventions. I can't do that when there's so many bills screaming for attention. ): I either want to get a better paying job or get a second job. I really love working for Target, have I said that yet? There is a possibility to get promoted and that would be cool. I don't know though.

N.E.ways, that's what's up with me. Your turn. If you have a blog, fire it up.

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happy birthday to Joam and to guinness!

Labor Day!

My labor day was pretty good. Unfortunately Joam had to sleep most of the day but aside from missing him very much, it was fun. Everything I saw I kept thinking "Joam would love that." or "Joam would hate that." (:

Nick had an interview at Target to be a cashier! He got a job offer (making the same as me, $8.50). We then went to the grocery store and he bought the house groceries (thanks Nick!). Then we walked down to Pearl Street and waved to my mom and dad who were watching a web cam that we found online.

Next we walked to a fair a few blocks down. It was pretty cool. Then we went home and watched Big Brother from Sunday night. Now we are eating dinner that Nick made, Beef stir fry with rice. So good.

The End

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this what is left of my first car bomb! from the other night.

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i'm having pizza for dinner, thanks to Target!

update

So here's what's up with the Cardoni-Dean household:

I work for Target, back to college has started and it's been crazy busy. Lately I've been working in the fitting room as operator. Kind of fun because I'm not running around. I haven't heard if they want to keep me after back to college so I'm also still looking for a "real" job.

Joam works for UPS and Target! He's a machine. Monday-Friday he works 3am-8am at UPS and then Friday nights and Saturday nights he works 10pm-6am at Target. He's trying to get adjusted to sleeping during the day.

We don't see each other all that much, which is sad. But if I can get a "real" job that's during the day while he sleeps, then we could hang out every day from 5pm until I go to bed around 11pm.

Nick, my little brother, has moved in with us. He is set up in the livingroom and has been a trooper getting all settled in. We've been dumpster diving as all the college students are moving out before the new ones move in. I should take pictures of all the fun stuff we've gotten. (:

Nick's looking for a job, preferably something like a bank teller or something with computers.

We love our church family here and look forward to these upcoming years.

The next exciting thing on the calendar is Joam's 25th birthday in September! Can't wait.

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fun times on the Hop bus in Boulder.

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look what we found next to the dumpster next door!

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of course it helped that i'm a target team member/employee. and in the box was a $2 off coupon so i could get another for $3.99 minus 10%!

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i just bought both of these for $1.66!

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at the zoo with my siblings!

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my birthday breakfast made by my sister, Jamie!

hello again

Life is so crazy.

So Joam has a few job possibilities floating around. He starts at Target tonight at 10pm! And UPS is begging him to work for them, too. Hopefully things will turn around financially for us.

And now for some scrapbooking updates! (hooray!)
I've been working on a book for my sister of photos from our trip to Grandma Holders last Christmas. It's not looking good. ): It's so overwhelming to have such a big project. I like when you only have a couple of photos and just have to come up with a two page spread. Let me see if I can pull out the camera and camera cord and hook it all up for a few shots.

Basically it's a post-bound album with the pages that hold 4x6 photos in a grid. I'm just going to make a few mini-pages (as I like to call them) that will fit in some of the 4x6 spots. Ok, ok... I'm off to find the camera. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes... then I gave up. (:

woa

that is a pretty rough picture. haha. i WAS really really tired and they said I could start at 8am instead of 9 and the sign on the door said they were open at 8am but guess who's doors weren't open? (:

by my puggy face you can't tell that I've lost about fifteen pounds since being here. you really can't tell at all by looking at me and that's discouraging but I'll take what I can get.

My birthday is Sunday!

tired

I am so tired right now. Waiting for someone to unlock the door so I can get to work.

Craziness

I like blogs better than facebook, but facebook is so much easier than a blog in some ways.

I am so excited for this weekend. My little brother is moving to Colorado and staying with us. My little sister is driving him and all his stuff out here from Pennsylvania. They will hopefully arrive Saturday night. Then Sunday is my 30th birthday, which we will celebrate at the Denver Zoo. My original wish was to fly in a hot air balloon for my 30th, but did you know it's almost $200 per person to that? Yeah, not doable.

I've lost almost 15 pounds since moving to Colorado. Pretty stoked about that. Mostly because of the hiking we did when we first got here and the lack of eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. We haven't hiked much lately. We finally got our own apartment and have been busy unpacking and getting jobs.

I should find an old photo to share... photos are always nice. This is Joam with our little friend, Amaya. She was so little back then! I think she just turned four years old a few weeks ago?

Yo, yo, yo!

We have our own apartment in Boulder finally! We've been here about a week and we still have crap to unpack and put somewhere... but hey, we have a roof over our head that's OURS (sorta)!

I'm working at Target nights and weekends and next week I start a temp assignment that is doing data entry for three-four weeks. Pretty excited. Joam just got hired by Target also, but he'll be stocking shelves overnight. Both of our jobs at Target are considered "seasonal" so they could possibly end after "back to college" is over. Hopefully they'll like us so much that they'll keep us on. I've heard a few people say they are planning to move on or quit after they go back to school so hopefully that will help our chances.

We love our church here (www.originscommunity.com). We actually live right below our small group leaders and we love, love, love them. Lots of cool people to hang out with. Boulder is a great place and hopefully now that we're a little bit more settled, I'll be able to post more pictures. (:

My birthday is coming up on August 2nd. My sister is driving my brother out to Colorado to live with us and they are hopefully arriving the day before my birthday. We'll all go to the Denver Zoo and then show them the town. I can't wait to have Nick living with us. I just wish Jamie would stay, too.

How are you?

Happy 4th of July

I don't know why that last post looks weird and I think it was cut off anyways. I can post pictures from my phone but it doesn't like to just post text blogs from my phone. Oh well.

So, I'm still working at Target... mostly closing. I like it enough, but I do need to find something else that pays better. I like the brainlessness of it, though. haha.

Joam had a few interviews this week so our fingers are still crossed.

Keep my mom in your prayers, she's had this cough for a year and a half and she's getting all this tests to figure out what's going on in her lungs. She's getting scoped next week to get a better look so hopefully they'll find out why she can't shake the cough. Also, hopefully it'll be something minor and fixable.

We are hoping to find our own place to live in the next two weeks and then my little brother joins us out here in like three weeks! Can't wait to see my little brother and my little sister! Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures thanks to a friend letting me borrow her camera with a computer cable! (:

On the 8th, I'm going to head out to Denver to check out an old friend, Patrick Reid, do some stand up comedy! I'm so excited, but it's the same night as our small group gathering so I don't know if I'll get anyone to go with me. But I will go if I have to hitchhike the whole way. (:

Every day feels the same. Do I work today? Any good places to live? Any better job I should apply for? Is there church tonig

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I love my husband

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This move to Colorado has been crazy. The best part has been that I get to experience it all with Joam. We've been on a bunch of hikes and have seen such beauty together.

I love you, Joam!

when working retail, there is no weekend

Yesterday was good. My feet ached so bad. It's weird getting used to standing all day again. I've done it before so I'll be fine eventually. I was working in women's most of the day. basically you check the fitting room for clothes that go in your section and you but them back. all day. and on the hour you have to walk around and ask "can i help you find something?" to everyone. you're supposed to ask it all the time, but on the hour we go through the section to make sure no one was left out.
today is another 8 hour day, but this time it's closing instead of opening.

and if you're a mom and like photography, check this out: http://www.clickinmoms.com/

Another Day, Another $34

So I had my first day of Target actually helping people. The first day, on Tuesday, was just orientation. Today I was trained as a cashier and it was a lot of fun. Their system is so automated! And they really have your back no matter what you do. For instance, today I rang up a customer, finishing the sale. He came back and said, are these razors really $25? I thought they were more like $10. I asked the girl next to me and she said to go ahead and ring it up for what he said. I knew they were probably $25 but didn't want to call a price check so I just did it. The Lead cashier lady came over a bit later and asked me about my price override and I explained to her what had happened. She said we could do price overrides when it's reasonable but over half off was a lot and next time I should check with her. BUT she said I did the right thing! That's awesome.
Tomorrow is my first 8 hour shift and I'll be training on the Sales Floor! I hope I'm in the scrapbooking section! (:
Today we also went to look at a house for rent. It wasn't really what we're looking for, but maybe. We're looking for a place for us, plus my little brother, plus our friend here, and maybe more.

Terrific Tuesday

Lots to do today.
I'm going to open a Colorado bank account today.
I'm going to State Farm to get a quote on car insurance.
I'm going to start my job with Target today.

There was more.... Oh, I'm going to check out housing helpers maybe.

It seems like a lot.

And just an FYI:
I miss you ladies!

I climbed a mountain today

So the mountain wasn't THAT big but it sure was hard to climb. Boulder is around 5,300 feet high and the mountain was about 6,800 feet high so it wasn't that much different but hey, I made it! (see more photos on facebook)

It was very steep and very rocky. It took us about four hours from start to finish. At one point I wanted to die. Ok, at a few points. I was reminded of the time I climbed a little mountain called Pike's Peak back in 1999. This hike was actually harder even though Pike's was higher (over 14,000 feet). But my hiking buddies, Joam and Ian, were good sports. I told them I'd do the harder trail if they'd wait for me and they did.

This photo was taken maybe 2/3 of the way up. We saw a deer and a fox and a baby deer ran out right in front of us on the decline. Then it's mom came out in front of us. We just stood still as they both kept going. It was beautiful. So hard but so worth it.

I love being in Boulder. I start work at Target on Tuesday. I hope it's awesome.

A 'real' update!

Hello everyone, anyone!

So yes, we have moved to Boulder, Colorado. It was kind of all of a sudden, at least that's how it felt to me. I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone I wanted to. That was hard.

The drive over was pretty rough. The first day we stopped in Fernley, NV to see my cousin, Joy, and her family. We found out her littlest, Paul, was graduating from Kindergarten that evening so we, of course, HAD to stay. (: It was a lot of fun. Then we went out for dinner with the family to celebrate.

We took my cat, Meow-Meows (aka Kitty) and that itself was some drama. She has this big dome litterbox thing that we emptied out and put her in. We taped a t-shirt to the front so she couldn't get out. When we were doing the graduation/dinner thing, she got out! So we put the harness/leash thing on her and tied it to the passenger headrest so she was free to move about but she wouldn't be able to get under my feet. It worked out awesomely! She basically slept right next to me for the whole rest of the trip.

We drove through a big storm in Wyoming that we both thought we were going to not make it through. And then right as we were getting close to Boulder we drove through pea soup fog at 10pm at night. So very dangerous. But we pulled up to the place we are keeping our stuff around 12:30am and went straight to bed.

The next morning we unloaded both cars. The old '86 Honda we put in the garage and we went about looking for jobs. An old friend from Teen Mania asked me on Facebook a while back, where we were staying in Colorado. When I told her Boulder, she offered up her sister's place for us to keep our things in the garage. They have moved out of the house as it is going up for foreclosure. We stayed in the basement for about a week without water, showering at our friend's house. So, our stuff and where we were sleeping was in North Denver and our friend lives in Boulder which is a twenty minute or so drive. We really want to live and work in Boulder.

Eventually our friend was telling us that we should just stay with him in his large house with his three roommates. So we are, for now. Our stuff is out in North Denver and we are staying in Boulder. We've applied for jobs all over. I've registered at two temp agencies. I did hear back from Target and had an interview. I start with them on Tuesday but I'm still looking for a "real" job or something more stable and that pays more. I think the minimum wage is at $7.50 here? I start at $8.50 so that's not too bad.

So our goal is to get our own place asap so we are not mooching off of our friend for too long. And then my little brother will move out here to join us! And then my mom-in-law will bring out our dog! There are dogs everywhere here. There's so much to do here. We've gone out walking or hiking just about every day now. I have pictures but no way to easily post them. Some day soon.

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Mashed potatoes from scratch and organic mac and cheese. Because our friend can only eat mushy food.

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My phone camera cannot capture the beauty of the view of driving into Boulder.

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No one's hiring up here. :) we took some time off of our job hunt to enjoy the view.

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Kitty had a better time on our second day of travel when i let her sit next to me.

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Thanks Dorothy! A much needed break on the job hunt.

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I can't believe we'll be driving to Colorado tomorrow! I will miss you all! Keep in touch.

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for me on my last day. I'll miss those guys.

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Brought my lunch today. Trying not to spend money. Saving money for the big move on Monday!

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To celebrate my last wednesday at work! All this for two bucks! I'll be sure to work out tonight.

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My last tuesday meal at work! Totally free, thanks to Nick.

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The finished product! It was for a friend's birthday, I was only a few days (weeks) late. (:

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I'm soldering paperclips!

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I went to santa cruz with some friends for my first visit ever. It was so much fun. Some friends from Romania went with us.

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Please pray for my grandpa.

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I was given beautiful new items today! Thanks Robin!

update

so this past weekend i had a blast! friday night was bowling... AGAIN! with different friends for another birthday party. we bowled from 8:30pm until almost 2am!

saturday joam and i went to a friend's house near roseville to make wedding favors (almost 200!) for a wedding that will be next weekend. we stayed the night at their place and stayed up working until 2 or 3am.

sunday we went to their church (Mosaic, aka the Rock of Rocklin) where Joam's friend Travis and his wife sat in the row in front of us! It was nice to see them. Then we went to the Green Tangerine to look at scrapbooking things. Then we went to Michael's so Crystal could pick up more things for the wedding. Then we went back to Crystal and Josh's to finish up the favors and have a BBQ.

Good times were had by all.

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After bowling we went surfing!

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Bowling for Jodi's birthday! Happy birthday to the amazing Jodi.

what's this?

Did anybody else see that the Scrapbook Addict won 4th place in the KCRA A-list this year??????

http://kcra.cityvoter.com/winners/kcra-3-a-list-contest/861/shopping/scrapbooking?place=4

How the heck? Way to go!

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I got a little bit done this weekend.

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Last night.

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Hooray! The scrapbooking retreat begins!