STL Pics

Here are my pics from St. Louis. We had over 300 pics between everyone!

Lots to choose from but here are the highlights! (close ups if you click on the pics)

Day 2 - shopping in 8 degree weather. Yes we were the only tourists on the street!

Suzanne, Me, Meghan, Lynn, Janis and Kelly

In a Celtic shop.... what did he have on under there??

Can't take me & Jan anywhere!

200 scrappers and all their junk ummmmm...I mean important belongings!

Outdoor photo shoot during an all day Jammie crop (brrrrrr, it was about 14 degrees!)

The arch... if you ever get a chance to see how this was built, check it out, it's amazing!

Holding up the arch! Can you believe people had scratched graffiti on the steel?? Unreal!

In the museum under the arch... trying to get a kiss from Thomas Jefferson!

We are all pointing to where we live.

What did I say about can't take us anywhere?? In the museum...

A wall mural about the men who built the arch

Here we are 630 feet up! It was a great time, just wish the weather had been better!
Jan, Lynn, Kelly, Me , Suzanne and Jenny

Downtown from the top!

Leaving the arch grounds, ready to thaw out!

Me, Kelly, Jan, Lynn and Jenny

about my trip...

Well, first off it was COLD! Got into St. Louis on Thursday the 15th. When we left here it was chilly, but not cold. I did take plenty of warm clothes since Kelly had let us know the forecast. It was nice and sunny when we landed around 2pm but about 20 degrees. Kelly was waiting for us when we (Suzanne & I) got off the plane. Thank goodness she lucked out and got a front row parking spot! We then went to the hotel to check in and get rid of some bags since we had to pick up Jan a bit later. We stayed at the Sheraton Westport Chalet. It was on a lake and it was mostly frozen. There were little bridges across a frozen stream all around. We had a great view, but kept the curtains closed most of the time to help keep the cold out. We picked Jan up at the airport then went to Kelly's house in Illinois, (just across the river) for dinner. We got to meet the "boys," all four of them, her DH, her son and 2 furry boys, Scooby and Butter. She made lasagna, salad and bread for us and it was yum! We then made a trek to WallyWorld for scrappin snacks and scarves, gloves and hats! It was really cold! Then back to the hotel. Speaking of cold...We sat a case of water out on the balcony since we didn't have a mini fridge and got up to 12 blocks of ice in water bottles! Frozen solid!

Friday morning we couldn't really unload in the crop room until later so we had a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I had a croissant with poached eggs, cheese, canadian bacon and asparagus, oh man was it yummy! We then went to St. Charles where Lewis and Clark first left the shores of the Missouri River to look for the route to the Pacific. It was a great little town with brick streets and historic buildings, but did I mention it was COLD?? It was hovering around 12 degrees and spitting icy bits everywhere. We had the clothes piled on and each time we'd go into a store we were sweating! I think we were the only "tourists" on the street that day, no one else was dumb enough! Most of the shops were closed! The schools had been cancelled too! Can I tell you, when your face is so frozen, you can't feel your nose run or your eyes water? Just say, it's not pretty! ;)

Later when we got thawed out, we unloaded all our scrap stuff and got busy. I got so much done! Nick had mentioned I never make him anything, so that was first on my agenda! I made him a book:

I'll post all the pages on my Scrapbook.com home page if you want to see.

Then I started a Basic Grey calendar. Man what a PITA! It was tough, lots of rub-ons and lots of chipboard that was supposed to be self adhesive, but wouldn't stick! It turned out great, but I wanted to quit many times!! It'll be posted on my scrapbook site too. Here's one page:

We took a class, me, Jan, Lynn and Suzanne, to make a mini book and it was so cool! Learned lots of new techniques. It is a small Valentine themed book:

There were almost 200 croppers that attended and we all had a blast! Saturday was an all day Crop in PJ's. That was awesome!

Sunday we took off and went to the arch. It had gotten warm, 30 degrees that morning! WOOHOO! I was a bad scrapbooker and never took my camera anywhere. If you know about "us" we usually have the same 500 pictures, so we designated Suzanne the official photographer! So.... I have no pics of any of the touristy stuff! Let me tell you, the arch was amazing! We watched the movie about how it was built and those guys, man, it was unreal! None of them wore safety harnesses! They were walking along at 500 and 600 feet up and just watching it made my knees weak! There were no deaths during the building of the arch either! Simply amazing! OK, so you go thru security, and get in line... the tram cars are tiny! TINY!!!! 5 people cram into this thing for a 4 minute trip up. Thank goodness it was cold, because I can't imagine being crammed in there and as rickety as it felt....in hot weather... barf! It wasn't a very pretty day, but you could see a ways. It was very cool! I'll post some pics when I get them!

Then it was time to go.... always a sad time since it'll be months til I see my girls again!

My guys sure were glad to see me though! They had done well while I was gone! Trey had a Lock In at church and had a ball. My Mom had a birthday on Sunday, I did remember to call her that morning! I had freaked them all out since my plane was in the air when the one went down in NY. Just hearing a plane is down before you hear the info is heart stopping! Believe me when I got on the flight home, I prayed all the way!!

All in all it was a great trip and I'm looking forward to the next one!

I think I can feel my toes now!! ;)

til next post!

Literally... chillin

This is my mood for today since i'm in St. Louis... it's 2 degrees at the moment... going to crop downstairs... check y'all later!

Bad, Bad Blogger!

I have been a bad girl! I used to be so with it when it came to blogging, but I haven't been keeping up! Things have gotten back to normal with school starting after the holidays, I think I'm the only one who is glad about this! Trey is doing good in school, notice I didn't say great. He is still holding an "A" average, but barely. His handwriting is atrocious and he hates math and I can't get him to even try harder. Hopefully it is a short term thing or he won't make it to 10! LOL, kidding of course, but geesh...

I am getting ready for a scrapping trip this Thursday, can't wait, I'm already mostly packed but that's so I don't wear the clothes I wanna take! I do enough laundry as it is! I am heading to St. Louis to meet up with Jan, Suzanne, Kelly, Lynn, Jenny, Meghan and Janis. I wasn't planning this, but my BFF talked me into it, tho I didn't need much convincing! It's practically free, thanks Jan! She is such a great gf! Will share many pics when I get home! We are doing the arch on Sunday. As cold as it is here I can't even imagine how cold it'll be there! BRRRRRRRR!

I have been hearing from so many friends I haven't heard from in forever or lost touch with. I think the world has gotten much smaller thanks to the internet and Facebook!
Hi Becky and Alane!

Also, I'm just gonna put it out there so I can be held accountable.... I'm trying to, No, I will, read through the Bible this year. I got off to a rough start, not until the 9th of January, but i'm almost caught up. Genesis is tough since most of it is family trees and how long these people lived and how many kids they had, but I'm pushing thru! Our pastor challenged us to do this, so I can do it, I don't back down from a challenge!

OK, well, gotta go get the kid from school and make some stops beforehand, so I'm outta here! I promise to be a better blogger! Say "hi" when you stop in!

Peace out...(can you tell it's Idol time!) YAY!

kris

My Own Space

Thanks to my Mom who prayed endlessly and relentlessly for me to have my own scraproom...here is my answer to her prayers! I have been trying to get it all together and I think it's almost there. I have a few things to do yet and a few more shelves to hang. I decided I really need better lighting too. It never ends, does it? I had to rearrange a bit since Santa brought me a flat screen for the wall! (click on the pics for a bigger shot)

lovely scraptable FIL built for me! Expedit and other bookshelf

my memo board DH & I made!

bird cages I found at a consignment shop, Kristie D. had some painted (stenciled) on her wall in her scraproom and I loved them! When I found these I knew they were MINE!

cubes from Big Lots I covered and backed w/patterned paper.

Thanks for looking and come over and scrap anytime! ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008, a year we won't soon forget! It was one crazy year and I'm glad it's in the past. Although we had plenty of great times, we had some hard times too. Losing a family member is the hardest by far, but then we had Ike too! We have been a blessed family in 2008 and hope for that and more in 2009. We pray for you and your families to have a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!