Catching up on Mt. Washmore

One thing you can count on when you have children at home is a never ending pile of clothes to wash. I call my laundry Mt. Washmore. I thought this was a clever name (not my invention) for a seemingly never ending household task.

One of my favorite tools

I have a friend who is a personal organizer. She introduced me to the modern day label maker. I just love it. I label just about everything in my studio. I remember back in the day when we had those rotary wheel dymo label makers that embossed colored tape. Those were the best.

My indexed stamp cases

This is a view of one of my stamp cases that show what images are stored in this particular CD case. All of my cases are indexed and labeled by topic. I just love organized things! This is a simple source of happiness for me.

I'm organizing today

This post will interest the scrapbookers and stampers out there. I'm organizing my art stamps today. I'm at home with Little Miss who's under weather. In between care and feeding, I'm trying to catch up on housework and special projects.

Most of my stamps are unmounted. I store them in the clear CD cases organized by topic and then labeled. Then, I index the stamp cases and stamp copies in a log book to keep track of my inventory. I'm storing all of the cases in a CD stand shown above.

I get excited about organizing things. Sometimes I feel I can just sit and organize and re-organize and be happy. I guess that's one of my quirks.

It's going to be a hot one today.

I think I heard it’s supposed to get into the 90s today. Yuck. And, it’s nearly 100% humidity. Double yuck. This is one thing I can do without living here. Heat and humidity is not my thing. These are the times I miss my dear San Diego. I love the 80 degree weather with ZERO humidity. It doesn’t that one of my favorite beaches, Mission Beach, was about 30 minutes away from where I lived. Oh, let me stop talking about San Diego before I get teary eyed.

I bought this thermos from Starbucks during our trip to Canada. I’ve wanted a thermos type thing to use during lunch in the office. But, I wasn’t planning on spending this much on one. However, after stopping at one of those big, multipurpose rest areas for a drink and restroom break, I just *had* to stop by Starbucks for an iced chai tea with soy. Yum. While standing in line I began admiring their pricey collection of travel mugs and thermoses. This one spoke to me and said, “I know you want to take me home and admire my beautiful lines and finish,” as only a piece of art would say. Plus, I get a lifetime discount on refills using my thermos, which amounts to getting a venti size for the price of a grande. I didn’t jump on it though. It took a couple of rest area stops before I broke down and bought it. I rationalized that the lifetime discount I would get on my iced chai teas with soy would actually pay this little gem off (in about 10 years).

I have this goal of trying to drink a pitcher of water each day during work. I bought this Brita pitcher to use for this purpose. I don’t like straight out-of-the-tap water. It has a terrible taste. As an added bonus, our office bought this super duper water filter system that’s attached to our tap. So, I get double filtered water to drink. They say that drinking sufficient amounts of clean water can prevent and cure so many ills. Can you imagine that some people actually drink too much water? They’re called aquaholics. Now, that’s interesting. I doubt I’d ever turn into one of them though.

I think I’ll go out for lunch today. I usually bring lunch but I didn’t take time to pack something last night. Off for a lunch time field trip in the hot, humid weather. Great.

School's started and I'm going crazy

How can working-outside-of-the home women do it? School's back this week and I'm going crazy! Since school has started I've been scattered brain and overwhelmed and it's only day four. I so love the slower pace of summer. I've got to establish a routine -- which I never been good at -- to decrease some of the stress. I'm prone to be overwhelmed. Do you have any good suggestions?

I took Little Miss to Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday for treatment. She's being seen for something which her pediatrician down here failed to diagnosed. I found that since I've been treated at Hopkins for my cancer, we more readily go there or recommend to everyone to go there for any pesky, persistent medical issue. They have experts at Hopkins that seem to have seen everything. They're good at what they do and they have an excellent bedside manner which is so important to me. Also, Hopkins has been rated the number one hospital for numerous years in a row in the U.S. News and World Report magazine. Anyway, Hopkins is in Baltimore which is about 50 miles away, a 45 minute drive going fast. I planned on allowing myself 1 1/2 hours in rush hour traffic -- most of which would be going the opposite direction -- to get to the appointment on time. I ended up being 45 minutes late! Urg! What a way to start the day. The doctor tried to squeeze us in a few hours later after a couple of patients. So what does a woman do for a couple of hours with Little Miss far away from home? Well, have plenty of videos to watch in the van along with snacks, drinks, and a Nintendo DS to play as time creeps along. It seemed to be an all day affair.

I'm going to a 12-hour crop this weekend that is being held by my friend Caryn! But, I'm only staying for about 8 hours. GASP! Yes, you read that right. I'm cutting my time short to go home so that hubby can go to a motorcycle function that evening. I've come to realize that 8 hours is my breaking point for crops now. Beyond that I start pushing my energy and creativity reserves which starts to be no fun.

We're planning on having a Labor Day cookout at our home on Sunday. It'll be a big affair with all of the relatives and friends being invited. One thing's for sure, I married into a partying family. They love to have parties with LOTS of food and drinks. It should be fun. Maybe I'll post some pictures later on.

We went to Niagara Falls for a short summer vacation. It was absolutely gorgeous! I highly recommend you visit the falls and stay on the Canadian side. If you're in Canada you can get a great view of the falls which are on the opposite side. There are many hotels that have a view of the falls but we ended up at the Courtyard by Marriott Niagara Falls a few blocks away. The price was right for those who make last minute decisions. We took a tour that went to some of the most interesting sites in the area. If you plan on going I would recommend going on the Maid of the Mist boat tour and the Journey Behind the Falls.

I'm so excited that Smartie Pants is graduating at then end of this school year. YEAH! He plans on going to an in-state college too. DOUBLE YEAH! And, he wants to live on or near campus. Wow, can I get a triple yeah? We're planning a HUGE graduation party for him with an DJ and tent outside. My friend jokingly wondered if we were going to block off the street. That's a big NO because one of our neighbors would have a FIT if we even suggested this.