In other news.....

I decided to go out on a limb and test the design waters so to speak. I accepted a very gracious offer to be a guest designer for Innovative Stamp Creations. I have never done anything like this before and I am slightly worried I won't live up to any ones expectations. I have never submitted anything, or tried out for anything in my life. It would never have come up had the owner Betsy Griffin not seen my blog after Jody linked me from her blog. Its very flattering to be asked and it really made me feel good. Now I will live in terror as I wait for the rubber to hit my mailbox and my mind spins thinking of card layouts and color schemes. I love to stamp but I feel like I am just an okay stamper, not a famous stamper that gets published and recognized. I sound like I need to work on my self-esteem or something LOL. Anyway, just thought I would write a little something about what is going on with me.

In other news...........I am going to Vegas baby! Yesterday hubby told me that he has to use up 100 hours of vacation before August 1 or he loses it. He pretty much springs this news on me every year. It really drives me up a wall. I love to plan vacations. Its a *thing* for me. I love planning every detail and I get very excited and dream about what we will do. I love the anticipation of a trip. We started out thinking about where we would like to go. First we were thinking Caribbean.........taking the kids and going to Aruba or to St. Lucia, or to Cozumel. Then we realized that 1. Dear Daughter would be taking college courses at the junior college this summer and she works part time at Old Navy so more likely than not, she wouldn't be able to go. 2. Neither of the kids have pass ports and after looking online at the processing time , we would need three weeks or more to get them. 3. we waited too late to plan anything for June.

So then hubby's mind drifts away and I was losing him......too many problems and its too much trouble for him and he says "I could take Blake to the deer lease for a week and just fish and work on my deer blind and feeder". *gasp* That leaves me completely without vacation! I can't do that! Then I say how about the river, let's go rent a cabin at the river. I get online and start calling. Um, ya, booked up since last year! Gotta have more planning time for the river because the cabins are all booked up already. Then I started to think about how going to the river isn't really a vacation for me anyway. I have to pack up my whole kitchen, bring towels and linens, cook while I am there ect... How is that any different from what I do everyday? Then he suddenly says, " why don't we just go to Louisiana and gamble at Le Berge". I go look at the price for a room and, wow, not good! He then takes the gambling leap and bless his little heart, he says we should just go to Vegas! Bingo! We have a winner! WE love Las Vegas! Its our favorite place anyway! We get free rooms and free food there thanks to our many vacations past! I can have frozen drinks with umbrellas in them out by the pool and pretend I am in Aruba. I can gamble all night and we don't have to bring the children! Yay! So we are in a rut, I will be the first to admit it. But I like the rut! I like getting off the plane and knowing exactly where I am going , how to get there and what to expect. We are treated really well there by the slot hostess. They love us to come visit. Sometimes we even get a free upgrade and wind up in a luxury suite. Its great! I had the whole thing booked within an hour. My mom was on board for child care and all was right in my world. Now I can dream about winning the megabucks again every night for the next 5 weeks.

We still have a long weekend in July at the lake with family planned, and at the end of July we plan to go to the beach. I told the kids I would take them to Schlitterbahn(waterpark) one day and maybe to Sea World. The kids will get their vacation too. Now most of our summer is planned. I have nothing in August planned so I need to work on that month. By August my son will be driving me crazy with boredom. I will get it figured out soon.

So that is what is going on with me. I just ordered a bunch of A Muse stamps too, there was a sale LOL. So I will be stamping on my down time. Hopefully I won't lose any blog readers in my time off but I understand if I do. I think everyone is busy in the summer.