Little Bit of Everything

It's late and I'm very ready for bed, but feeling guilty about the idea of sneaking off and crawling under the covers while Scott is stuck at his computer working. He's toiling away on a code deployment for work and it's not going as smoothly as it did on the test run. That's Murphy's Law, isn't it? The company that he works for provides call center services for credit unions across the nation, so they have to wait until late at night to update the call center software to mitigate down time. The company runs two sizable call centers, but only one is staffed 24 hours and the other shuts down at 11 p.m.

Anyhoo...that's while I'm still up despite the fact that I'm starting to feel the effects of a week of staying up late and getting up early. The kids' Christmas vacation from school kind of threw my sleep schedule for a loop. Because I didn't have to be up before the sun, I didn't get up. Which means that slowly over the course of the 2 weeks, I went to bed later and got up later. I'm still trying to adjust myself back to my normal sleep schedule. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I can wreck my schedule and how long it takes me to get it back. :p

I scrapped a couple of layouts this week. Between working through my Everyday Inspiration book and the PGD challenges I've been inspired to scrap more since Christmas, which is good. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in designing scrap products that I forget to scrap. I love running a business, but I don't want to lose my hobby in the process.

This layout was inspired by a topic in my Everyday Inspiration book that focused on what I would miss from my daily life if it was no longer there. I know...scrapping the kids is cliche right? But it's true, I would miss what they bring to my life and the influence they have. The layout was also dually inspired by Gypsy Girl Lori's challenge to journal first, so I completely broke my normal scrapping workflow and wrote the journaling before I even picked my photos. This time around it went smoothly, but I don't think I could journal first for every layout.

 

And this second layout of Nicholas is for an upcoming PGD challenge. I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit and used some natural elements. Twigs and leaves usually aren't my thing, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. All in all I think it's pretty good considering I was tackling a different style. Notice how I overall kept the layout pretty simple. Some habits are tough to shake. ;)

 

It's been really cold here in Michigan and I'm not loving it. I've been dreaming of moving to a more temperate climate each and every morning as I wipe snow off of the car and feel the tip of my nose turn into an ice cube. My friend & fellow PGDer Christine has helped this daydreaming. I've been feeling rather jealous while reading her blog knowing she's in sunny CA.

But, as much as I'd love to pack up and move to southern CA where I could enjoy blue skies in the dead of winter sans 15 layers of bundling I doubt the dog would enjoy it. Oh yes, my crazy Ajax is in heaven right now. Sub-zero temps? No problem! He has had even greater spunk and energy than normal. He came inside and hung out with me for a while this afternoon, but before too long he was standing at the door panting and giving me a look that told me he was "wearing too many clothes" to be inside. His coat has gotten extremely thick and wooly. Sure does make it nice to cuddle with him though. ;)  But I know come late spring when the temp starts to creep up, I'll have to push him out the door to go to the bathroom. He's a backward doggy.

Well, now that Scott is on a conference call I have the distinct impression he's not much closer to being done. I just might have to throw in the towel after all...