Who doesn't love a good contest?

I found a great new scrapping community the other day called Scrapbook Deals 4 u. I'm loving getting to know everyone there, and not only is there a great store with some amazing monthly kits, but they are also having a fun contest and the winner gets to be on the DT with 4 finalists as GDT.

Here are the deets.

Care to join me?

Brought to you by the letter B

We drove down to visit with my parents over Easter weekend. For weeks, B kept asking me when we would be going to Grandma's house. I put a sticker on the date on the calendar so he could easily see how many days until we would be there, but apparently it wasn't soon enough. Some days he would insist that we go right now, complete with dressing to coat and boots. In the meantime I suggested that he call Grandma and Pappy on the phone. He spent the last few days before our trip chatting up my mom on the phone.



We left on Saturday for our visit. On the way, we stopped at the local Walmart to get a few snacks for the trip. At the checkout, the familiar blue and white handicap sign was posted at the side of the conveyor belt. B asked me what this meant. I told him that it meant that anyone in a wheelchair could use this lane because it was wider and they would be able to fit easier. B, in typical 3 year old fashion, looked at me and said, "No, it means sitting on the potty."

This kid cracks me up.

The State

Love these guys . . .

Kitten in Charcoal

I had been working on this drawing of our kitten Macy for about a week and just finished it up tonight. It is done in charcoal pencil on sketch paper. I'm pretty happy with the result and it will soon find it's way, matted and framed, hung on my wall.

Wednesday Whine

I registered to vote about 8 or 9 years ago once when I renewed my driver's license. I specifically remembered registering as No Affiliation, knowing that in the Primaries only Republicans can vote for Republicans and Democrats for Democrats. My thinking was that if I was not affiliated with either party then I could vote for both parties in the Primary, because although I veer a little towards one party I consider myself somewhat in the middle so I'd like to be able to vote for whatever candidate I felt was best on both sides. I do know that in the general election that you can vote for whomever you choose no matter what party with whom you are affiliated. Looking back I guess that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
I actually have not voted at all since I registered. I have never felt that I was informed enough to make a responsible decision. Granted, it's my own fault that I hadn't educated myself enough on the candidates but I did feel that it was better to not vote at all than to vote for just whomever I felt like for no particular reason. Please do not email me telling me how pathetic I am for never voting because I already know. I know that if I had been born 100 years ago that I would not even be allowed to vote. Believe me, I feel plenty guilty thinking of all those women who fought long and hard to give America's future women, like me, the right to vote, and I have never acted on that right.
I don't know that it would have mattered all that much anyway. The guy that I would have voted for in the 2000 Presidential race won Pennsylvania's delegates anyway so my vote wouldn't have done anything for him, and, in 2004, I couldn't decide who was the lesser of two evils and besides B was only 4 days old and we had just come home from the hospital. I wasn't going anywhere! Yes, I know, they're just excuses. Well, that changes now, because I will vote in this election and in the Primary.
Which brings me to Wednesday's Whine -- As I said, I thought that I would be able to vote in the Primary for whomever I chose being Not Affiliated. I'm not sure where I got this idea. I now know that it was something I made up in my own head. R had been telling me for months that he thought I wouldn't be able to vote in the Primary and it turns out he was right. I went online to see when Pennsylvania's Primary would be and found out that according to Pennsylvania Electoral Law, people registered as Not Affiliated cannot vote in the Primary. Ok, irritating but no big deal. It was my own fault for making things up and I found that I could easily change my party affiliation on the PA government website. Let me tell you that that site is not easy to navigate and not only that, according to the site I AM NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE ANYWAY. What??? Yes, I made up that rule about Not Affliateds being able to vote in the Primary, but I did not make this up. I KNOW I was registered. I even got one of those cards in the mail. Who knows what happened there. Good thing I found out now and saved myself the embarassment of actually trying to vote when there is apparently no record of my registration. So after an hour of fooling around on this website, I ended up registering to vote. All I have to do is get it to the Voter Registration Office by March 24 so I can vote in the Primary.
What a pain. I hope your Wednesday is whine-free!

Decked Out in Denim

I altered this cute notebook for my niece's 12th birthday. I loved this idea of recycling jeans into a fun gift, perfect for a pre-teen girl, complete with a funky belt to hold it closed. I got the idea here.

Unfortunately we were unable to make it to her birthday party on Saturday due to blizzard-like conditions. Looks like the weather's cleared up now, so we'll be stopping by to give this to her today.

Another family birthday -- Today is my dad's birthday, so if you're reading this, Dad . . . Happy Birthday! :)