Slight update
I realized on my endless drive to flute tonight that if there was a 1 next to my name combination, then that means there's one other Julie G. in the US. I googled again and I was right. There's a photographer in upstate New York with the same name. I figure one day I should hire her to take family photos if only so she and I can take a picture together but it would be a tough commute.
In the meantime, I'll stick with the wonderful photos that Araxi took last weekend of Carly. I've only seen a few and, if she'll let me, I'll post a few when she finishes organizing them. The teaser she's given me, well, they're amazing. Then again, I think Araxi is an amazing photographer. Check her
blog and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, we had Araxi over so she could update some pictures of Carly plus we needed an update on the family photo. It's been a year. Can't wait to see them all. I love this girl's photographic style. You rock Araxi!!
But I digress. I may not be the only Julie G. in the US, but I'm the one you know which is why you're stalking my blog! hee hee!
How many are you?
My friend W posted this on the Foxy MB. This is pretty cool.
http://ww2.howmanyofme.com/ There is only 1 Julie G, me! There are 521,945 Julies in the US making it the 101st most popular name (tied with 2 others but they don't mention what they are). There are 570 people with the same last name. According to DH, we're probably all related going back generations to the "old" country where there were a bunch of brothers who came to the US.
Now if you search for my maiden name, there are over 1.2 million with the same last name and 2,213 with the same maiden name.
Personally, I like being the only one. I'll stick with my married name.
Blood Curdling Scream
Did you hear it? That was Carly screaming in ANTICIPATION of getting her flu shot. OMG. I've never heard anything so loud in my whole life. She's had shots before and no big deal. And with all my past IVF needles, Carly has helped me by counting when I've had to take my shots. (and she's even counted 1-2-3 a couple of times as I've anticipated the stick) You'd think she'd get the concept. Oy! Not this time. She was screaming so loud that when the actual shot happened, she didn't even flinch. She was already so worked up. I have to say (very sadly) that Gregg and I were laughing because it was so absurd. I know, we're such supportive parents but it's not like she's an infant. I was so embarrassed at the doctor's office but I do know that every parent and nurse in there knew it was nothing serious. Thank goodness I brought her the treat of M&M's. The cure-all of life. Nothing is better than chocolate. Another life lesson that Carly must learn.
Negative
Once again. Sad. (sigh)
I wish I wasn't a procrastinator. I have some thank you cards that I've been putting off for weeks. My goal is to do them today... if it kills me. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it,.
Is this the cutest thing ever?
Or should that read, is Ever the cutest thing ever? Next to my kid, I have to say yes. Today, Carly, Gregg and I met Alli and Ever at Underwood Farms to go to the pumpkin patch. I haven't had 2 seconds to look at all the photos I took. That'll happen over the weekend and I'll post pics of MY cute kid and the pumpkins. But my sister emailed me this one of me and Ever. She's now 11 weeks old. I'm going to a moonlighter tomorrow night so we know I'll be scrapping that one! Cutie girl!
You can click on the link to Alli's blog on the right for more pictures. There are some really cute ones especially the one with Carly and Ever in the wagon of pumpkins.
Setting the record straight
After reading some comments about my Phoenix fun weekend, I want to reiterate something that Lisa posted in my comment area. Someone from our Phoenix shopping trip commented that they didn't receive a proper thank you. Unless they weren't delivered to the proper people, me, Lisa, Paula, Bucket and Melissa spent Friday night looking over our purchases AND made personal thank you notes to Norma, Maria and Odette. We thanked each of them for all that they did for us in terms of organizing the route in which we saw all the stores, they organized make and takes at 4 of them and made each of us little goodie boxes and an accordian memory album. We thanked EACH of them in an individual handmade thank you note. So I apologize if anyone is bent out of shape. We did truly appreciate all that you did for us thus we wanted to take the moment to thank you personally. We had a great day and honestly, I thought you received your thank you note which should have covered the personal thank you for all the effort that was put in to make our day terrific. So, for the record, THANK YOU AGAIN for a terrific day.
What a great weekend
But not such a great blog day. My freaking browser froze and I've lost most of the long post that I started. I'm annoyed but I'll try to recreate what I can.
What a great weekend. We had a fabulous time and it was really nice to get away for a weekend. We started off on Thursday with our, what a surprise, delayed flight on Southwest. Paula handled the flying pretty well all things considered. We got to teh hotel, had a beer and went to sleep to get ready for our big day on Friday.
We got up on Friday morning and head to the Bazzill Warehouse. It was FABULOUS! Mr. Bazzill himself explained how the company came to be, and then let us loose in the warehouse. They have, as you can imagine, rows and rows of their amazing product and one large section where they have their discontinued and odd color cardstock. We were given 12x12 (or 8.5x11) pizza boxes and we could fill them up with whatever we wanted. I filled up one pizza box although many other girls did multiple. I have storage problems so one worked for me. They also had other products for us to grab - brads and eyelets, envelopes, fibers, Bazzinks, etc. I got 2 packs of brads and a few of the different envelope packets. Mr. Bazzill even called me out saying "Juls, I thought you weren't supposed to buy any brads." Not sure who sold me out or he just overheard everyone giving me shit for my considerable collection of crap but I was so embarrassed. Everyone there was so nice and they gave each of us a brand new, not yet released, scalloped heart shaped piece of cardstock, our color choice. Very nice. That place was so darn cool. Here are a few photos.
After we left Bazzill, we started on the LSS tour of the greater Phoenix area. The person who was leading our little caravan didn't really have good "people are following you" skills as she drove in and out of traffic not really caring that there were 2-3 cars trying to keep up with her. Still, we somehow managed to catch up and get to each and every store. We went to Scrapbook Barn, Annalise Scrapbooking (that's the wrong name I know), Lucky 15, Melrose Ave. (something like that), Ink it!, Scrapbook Creations and Scrapbooks Etc. I did spend some money but I did keep it quite under control, especially for me. Thanks to Lisa and Kari and the great purge of my scrapbook room, at least I know what I have so I didn't have to buy randomly and stuff I already had or didn't need. I was proud of myself. After a full 12 hours of shopping, we went to Chevys where 12 of us met up with Candice and her sister and had dinner. It was nice to get to know her a little bit socially before our big class the next day.
Saturday, we got up bright and early for Candice Cook class. I have to give Stacy Panassidi lots of credit. She's put together an amazing group of women for her design team who are not only beyond creative but beyond nice as well. I've spent a lot of time with the ladies from Junkitz this year and they're all some of the nicest women I've ever met. We made three great projects. One "Elements of Me" layout that was designed by Janna Wilson. A Halloween envelope mini-album and an address book designed by Candice. All the projects were terrific and it's always good to have a day of creativity. Here's a shot of me and Candice. Can't wait to do my "My Year with Junkitz" LO.
After our day, me, Lisa, Paula and Melissa drove to Recollections in Scottsdale with Lisa A. and Sonia. Another fun store. We went out to dinner and had some yummy margaritas. We all went back to the condo where Lisa A. and Sonia were staying. Melissa and Paula wanted to do some scrapping. The rest of us just chatted and drank wine. We sat around listening to 80's music and listened to Sonia pipe in "I was in xth grade" when that song came out. It was like "Name That Tune". It was hilarious. I'm so glad that our Iowa girls came out to play with us on this trip. This is the 3rd time I've hung out with Lisa and she's wonderful. And she brought Sonia to come play with us on this trip and she was hilarious. I felt like I've known her for years which was a lot of fun. I'm glad they both made the trip and I hope we can work out another scrapping getaway again next year so we can all get together again.
Sunday, we packed up. That was chore and boy were our suitcases ALOT heavier than when we staarted. We his one more LSS - Mystic Paper which was a really cute store. Lots of altered stuff, amazing ideas and good products. Spent a little bit more but still, overall, I kept the spending under control. Paid all cash so I wouldn't have to live it again in a month when the credit cards bill came in. And all the stuff I bought fit into one 12x12 carrying case. Okay, and the Bazzill pizza box. Anyway, after that last swan song of shopping, we went to lunch and then to the airport for our quick flight home.
Had a great time. GREAT friends!!! Great projects. Alcohol. Had a blast and can't wait to do it again. I think Ginger is already working on a date for next year.
Moving on. Went and checked out the new Topanga Mall with Lisa and Kari today. We didn't ever cover teh whole thing. The new Target is great. Two stories, nice clean and seems pretty upscale, for a Target. And the mall has 3 of my favorite kids stores. Naartjie, Pumpkin Patch and Hanna Andersson. I'm so happy. I spent a bundle at Naartjie as usual and it was all 25% off. Bought a playdress Carly wanted at Hanna Andersson which she was happy about. Bought a couple of things at Pumpkin Patch which Carly wasn't as impressed as I was so I'll be returning probably tomorrow. I'll convert her over to PP soon enough. And the mall has a new Apple store. As Kari points out, we *never* have to drive past DeSoto again. Every store we could possibly need is now in that mall. Caz and Chapin will be happy on their next trip out here.
If I don't post again, good thoughts for Friday.
See ya!
I'm off to Phoenix tomorrow night for a few days of scrapping and playing with my girlfriends. About 17 of us are going for a full day with Candice Cook form Junkitz. Yes, I'm a total Junkitz Junkie. My 3rd class in 4 months (CKU, Janna Wilson and now Candice) Love the product, love the projects, love the girls. That's Saturday. Friday, we're GOING SHOPPING. Yes, 2nd only to Provo, UT, Phoenix and the outlying areas are the scrapbook mecca of the world. And we're starting with a tour of the Bazzill warehouse led by Mr. Bazzill himself. I'm so freaking excited.
I've spent a lot of the past week cleaning up my scrap area. With undying thanks to Lisa and Kari, I never would've done half as much or be half as organized without their help. I'm fairly organized at this point (still a little bit to do) but my storage is still an issue. I've got my considerable amount of scrap crap contained in all sorts of plastic bins, containers and boxes but where to put them is the question. I have to think about that. I need to keep them in some form of control so that when I go to a crop, I can easily just pull the bins and actually *use* the stuff that I have. That's been my problem. Not only do I have WAY too much stuff, I don't know what I have, much less have it accessible for use. Hopefully, Lisa and Kari have kicked my butt into gear so I can use the stash. That being said, I'm actually hoping NOT to go hogwild on the shopping in Phoenix. Where will I put it??
On another note, hockey season started tonight. I know, party of one who really cares but it's important to me. Hey, I know Araxi will care. I did my fantasy hockey draft on Saturday and for the first time, I think the Hockey Sluts might actually be competative this year. For the first time, I feel like I have a balanced team. There's always something that I'm lacking and then I'm screwed early on. This year, I've got a ton of assist guys, Jaromir Jagr leading my goalscorers, Pronger, Rafalski and Vishnovsky on Defense and two definitely #1 goalies in Brodeur and Roloson. Again, I know I'm the only one who knows what this means, but it does mean something to me. Besides, if I document my optimism at the start of the season, let's see where we end up in April at the end of the season. I've been doing Fantasy Hockey for 13 years and I think the best I've ever finished is 4th. Maybe it'll be a lucky 13 year for me. Since it won't be a great year for the Kings, we have to be able to root for the Sluts.
Carly has been a big, whingy PITA. Is this normal for 3 1/2 years old? Please tell me it is because it's killing me and Gregg. I can deal with the "no" and being difficult (well not really but at least I get it) but when you add a large bottle of whine to it, it's brutal. I hope this is a phase that we outgrow *very* quickly.
Wow, the dogs have managed to not run away for a whole 24 hours. Tazzie the wonder dog, who seriously hurt her paw on the first walkabout, has actually been behaving. It's Keely, the dopey one, that found this tiny hole to crawl under to get into the other neighbor's yard. Keely is about 70 pounds of loving lap dog so how she got through that small hole is baffling. That's probably how they got out initially since those neighbors don't have dogs, their fence to Hidden Hills is certainly not escapr proof. Luckily, they're behaving when we leave them in the house and not protesting too much. It's gonna take some time before we trust the wackos to hang out outside unattended.
Okay, off to actually pack. Woo-Hoo! Have a great weekend everyone. Go Kings go! (gotta get that in, with feeling, just once)
I've been tagged
Colleen has officially tagged me. Name 7 of my favorite songs. That's a tough one for me since I listen to ALL different kinds of music so it's hard to just narrow down to just 7 but I'll certainly try.
1 - "What I Like About You" by The Romantics. Classic 80's tune that always makes me happy.
2 - "The Way You Love Me" by Faith Hill. "Our" song.
3 - "Popular" from "Wicked". I can still listen to that Original Cast Recording after 1+ years and it's Carly's favorite song.
4 - "The River" by Garth Brooks. I don't consider myself a spiritual person but that's a song that can change your life.
5 - "Goodbye Earl" by the Dixie Chicks. Just love that song. Makes me laugh.
6 - "Stays in Mexico" by Toby Keith. Another song I just love. It's currently my phone ringer.
7 - "I Go To Extremes" by Billy Joel. Okay, this was the hardest one. Anyone who knows me knows that I consider Billy Joel God so to pick *one* song of his is nearly impossible since he's got so many. But I've always really liked this one. Of course, tied for close seconds on the "Billy Joel is God" list is "Piano Man", "Angry Young Man" (hmm, opening and closing songs of all his concerts) "Shameless" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant". Oh I could go on and on with this sub-category.
So there's the 7 that came to mind first. I guess I now tag Maria, Jean, Alli and Irene. I can't think of too many others that stalk my blog regularly that haven't already been tagged by Colleen.
