New Job

So, I left the school district I was at for the past 2 years because there were a lot of problems there. Particularly with the administration. I was so excited to be at this new job. New beginnings. New experiences. Better conditions.

WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG

It's been a horrible experience. First of all, they blatantly misrepresented what my job would be. I am now dealing with work that the previous therapists failed to do. Angry teachers because they haven't gotten services. Angry teachers because I'm scheduling at the wrong time. A caseload that has grown completely out of control. This better get better AND FAST
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunset

We went to a local park the other night to spend some family time together and ended up being there right at sunset. I was disappointed because we got to this point after the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and I "missed" the sunset. Silly me. I did manage to catch this little moment with Paul and the kids. Probably my favorite photo I've ever taken.

New Creative Team

I am so excited that I was chosen to be on a new Creative Team. I had been going through the cycle of getting rejection after rejection. It was especially disheartning because I knew that I had done some really great layouts over the past few months. It was hard to not start looking at those layouts as lesser quality or wastes of space. But in a rare moment of self-confidence I was able to tell myself, "I'm just not what they are looking for." That was until...






Dawn Wilson.






Can I just say how under-rated she is as a designer? She is FABULOUS (yes, I meant to scream that)! I have been having so much fun over the past week playing with all her designs.


Here are a bunch of my layouts.

New ADSR Challenge

So Scrapbook Elements put out the 6th challenge. My first thought was, "NO WAY." But it turned into a lot of fun. I am really, really happy with how it came out. I really didn't think that I was capable of creating layouts like this. We were only allowed to use 3 papers (1 plain and 2 patterned), had to use at least 15 elements (no more than 2 elements per any given designer), needed some title work, journaling and date/name information.

The credits are quite extensive:
Miss Thang-Amy Tanabe-Navy Fall Paisley paper-Melany Violette-handmade white paper-Melany Violette-Pink Felt Alpha h-Victoria Feemster-OAKS collab kit for the boys paper-Victoria Feemster-Junk Drawer Ribbon red folded ribbon (darkened)-Nancie Rowe Janitz-inked edge overlay (recolored)-KSC-SS-LYO (Scrap Girls) String and Discs Fastener-Anita Stergiou (PickleBerry Pop)-Winter Warmers flower-Anita Stergiou (Pickle Berry Pop)-Winter Warmers alpha g-Sue Jones-Which Stitch Arrowhead-Ange Barton-Twist Tie Alpha n-Digi Brandi-Beach Chipboard Alpha a-Kylie Clark-Irregular Sticker Alpha t-Dana Zarling-grungy frame (recolored)-Jennifer Barrette-Doodle Stickies flourish 1-Jennifer Barrette-Folded Paper Frames star frame-Durin Eberhart-blue round tag-Angela Young-Cardboard corner (recolored)-Angela Young-Cardboard flower-Kiki Scraps Designs-Brocade Dreams flower 2-Kiki Scraps Designs-Kashmir Bliss ribbon-Traci Reed-Boy Theory shoelace star-Traci Simms-Cherry Vanilla gemstone-Masja-Rust and Grunge paper scrap journaling tab-Andrea Burns-Spring Blossoms rose blue-Erica Hite-100% Original bar code-Amanda McGee-Comfort Special Ribbons blue and gree knotted ribbon-Lottchen-Mess Ribbon measuring tape-Sara Ellis-Snazzy Snoodle Butterfly 4-Liz Walters-star-fonts-The King And Queen, Typewriter Oldstyle, Will&Grace

Wet Leaves

Every once in a while I like to try to go "deep." Thank you Mara for pushing me in! The following is the journaling I will be including on a layout for the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race.

I’m sure my father has passed down some brilliant words of wisdom to me over the years. After all, he’s a very smart guy and I am Daddy’s Girl. Unfortunately, all those insightful tidbits and life’s lessons have slipped in and out of my mind. Most likely they have hit their mark and become so much a part of who I am that I cannot recall them as “advice given” anymore. That is, all but one…

When I began driving and became one of those “responsible motorists” that we all become at the age of 16, my dad gave me some advice that I, at first, brushed off as “Dad just being silly.” He told me, “Watch out for the wet leaves.”

Why did this small piece of advice stick with me? I mean, after all, it doesn’t answer all of life’s burning questions. It doesn’t bring us any closer to world peace. It doesn’t help me pay the bills. It doesn’t get me through life’s disappointments. Or does it?

Was Dad just warning me that wet leaves in the road can be slippery and cause me to crash my precious 1985 Toyota Tercel hatchback? Or was he trying to teach me an important and valuable deeper lesson in life? After all, I imagine those “wet leaves” situations pop up in our lives on a regular basis. Could he have really been telling me to be alert, be aware and to watch my step as I go through the day to day of my life? I think so.

What are those things in my life that side-track me? That cause me to be less than I want to be? That prevent me from living the life that I want for me, that my parents want for me, that my husband and children want for me and, most importantly, that GOD wants for me? Those are the real “wet leaves” I need to look out for. I guess that the “silly” warning from my father holds a whole lot more meaning than I originally saw. Don’t get me wrong, every time I get into my car on those damp autumn days his words come back to me as clear as the first day he said it but I think it would serve me well to remember those words at other times as well. To sit back and ask myself, “is this a ‘wet leaves’ situation?”

Now that I’ve had a chance to really ponder the meaning of Dad’s words I think this is an important lesson to make sure I pass along to my children. Right now, while they’re young it’s up to me to navigate the “wet leaves” in their lives. But soon, much sooner than I would like, they will leave my safe little nest and drive those damp autumn roads alone. I think I should take a page from my father’s book and make sure they know…

“Watch out for the wet leaves.”

Here's the layout I created with this journaling.

Less Than a Week

It's less than a week until my Breast Cancer 3-Day. I have to say I am disappointed in how my family has supported me in this. I have a huge family and it would be nothing for me to reach my goal if each of them gave a measley $10. Yet of my entire family, only my mother, grandmother and 1 aunt have chosen to support me in this endeavor. Whatever. I guess I just have to remember that it's for a good cause. It's just that it's been such a big deal to me that it's hard to accept that everyone else could care less.

Ok, enough of my pity party.

If anyone out there in cyberworld would like to support me I would love it. You can do so at:

http://www.the3day.org/boston07/sarahvozzo

Sorry to be so blah.

It's my anniversary!

NINE years! I can't believe it's been that long already. The time has flown by. No big plans this year. Who am I kidding! We haven't made big plans since our fifth anniversary! Although we do try to plan our family vacation right around our anniversary. People always think we're crazy taking the kids with us on our anniversary, but for us, they are our family so why shouldn't we include them? After all, if it weren't for the marriage there'd be no anniversarys and there'd be no kids! They go hand-in-hand if you ask me!

I think we are going to go out to dinner and then Paul's going to take me shopping for exciting socks and clothes for my walk. Then it's home to a night in front of the TV and cleaning!

It's been a while!

Again I fall into my slacker routine! What's happened in the last month...

1. My father came to visit. First time he saw our house. It gave him lots of flashbacks to the house he grew up in.

2. I got accepted to the Digitals CT! Very excited about that as Digitals was one of the first sites I ever posted on and it's the home of my favorite Sue Jones (and I'm not just saying that because she's kept me around for over a year)!

3. Our church moved. We are now renting the church that the whole Salem Witch Trials started from. The building has been rebuilt a few times due to fires, but this was THAT church.

4. I started work at the summer program at the Consortium again. Within hours I realized I don't want to be working, but need the money too much not to. Also realized why I left and why I much prefer my "real" job.

That pretty much sums it up!

In Honor of Father's Day...

Here's a layout from Mother's Day! I used Kiwi Gelato by Kiki Scraps Designs.

It made my day!

Yesterday was my last day of work in Melrose! You would think that would be the highlight of my day, right? Wrong! The thing that made me smile the most, that I am still impressed with is what happened in the morning before going to work.

I need to leave for work way too early. So even though I was running late, I was still leaving at 6:50am. As I walked out the door I saw my neighbor from the end of the road (we live on a dead end and he lives in the last house) pushing his motorcycle down the street. He pushed it all the way to the corner and then hopped on, coasted down to the end of the next street (also a dead end) before he started his motor. I thought that was the most considerate thing for him to do. It's got to be a pain to do that each morning and he doesn't have to. He's entitled to drive his vehicle from his home just like the rest of us. Yet, he thought of all of us and decided to be the ultimate example of a gentleman! Thank you!

My Prima Ballerina

Saturday was Caroline's recital. Here she is during her tap routine giving her best roar. I think she's ready for Broadway! She did a great job and the recital was very professional as always. I give a lot of credit to her dance school because it's pretty hard to make a production including mostly 4-8 year olds look very professional.

My one big problem with the whole recital was with the other parents there. We got there 45 minutes early and there was already a line (no biggie, I figured there would be). It wasn't too long so I wasn't too worried. As we waited, people just kept joining the line in front of us as they had 1 family member come early just to hold the spot. Still no biggie since there were only about 20-30 people. Well, they open the doors and we go in only to find that those 20-30 people managed to take up the first 6 or 7 rows! There was literally 1 person for every 5 seat that was "taken" by a jacket, umbrella, program, etc. I was so annoyed. I don't understand why my daughter should miss out on the opportunity of seeing her family in the audience just because there is only myself and my husband in the area when her friend has 2 whole rows of people there because her father got there just before us and reserved a seat for him, his wife, both sets of grandparents and various aunts, uncles and cousins. I have no problem with not being close to the stage if all the people sitting in front of me actually were waiting in line before me. I have no problem with a spouse saving a seat for his/her mate. But is some sort of fair ratio too much to ask? I say, if you weren't there...too bad! Get in line like the rest of us!

For Sale

Adorable 2-year-old boy. Answers to the name David (most of the time). 30ish pounds, big blue eyes. Will give a good price!

I can't wait for the 2s to be OVER! David's newest pastime is public tantrums and he's VERY good at it! Today, it was at church. I should have known it was going to happen. We had a meeting right after the service so we didn't make it out the door at the same time as usual. He did ok until it was our usual time to leave and then he started to lose it. I took him out of the service to try to avoid disrupting the meeting and that's when the gates of Hell opened up! He screamed and thrashed around in the lobby up until the second he saw people starting to leave. Then he was fine. Until we walked back in and he realized that Paul had packed up all of his stuff. Then it started again. The whole thing ended with me dragging him out of the church kicking and screaming and fighting with him for almost 10 minutes just to get him strapped into his car seat. He screamed about half way home and then fell asleep. I am so done with this stage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once again, Begging for support!

My Breast Cancer 3 day is quickly approaching! I will be walking in less than 2 months and I still have quite a bit of money to raise. Anything you can do to help me end this horrible disease would be greatly appreciated!

Donations can be made on line (it is a secure site) at my support page located here:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=202304&supid=162313756

Please, please, please help me!

Layout of the Day

After a year of digi scrapping one of my layouts was picked as Layout of the Day at Digitals! The best part is that it was made with a kit I used from one of my CT assignments! Doesn't that make me look like a valuable team memeber?! (Job security!)

Here's the link (so you know I'm not making this stuff up).

http://www.digitalscrapbookpages.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3731

And here's the layout using "Sherbet Flowers" by Sue Jones.

I got a new job!!!!

I am the newest employee of Beverly Public Schools!!! I am so excited to be leaving Melrose. The commute is much shorter. The pay is better. I will be leaving the mess that is developing FAR behind me! Of course, there are some employees that I will miss a great deal but all in all...

Ok, so I post once a month!

Here are some new layouts that I'm really loving...

Kit is Misty Maier's Sun Kissed Summer.

And this one...

Kit is "On The Playground" by Heather Roselli.

Oops! Confessions of a Blog Slacker!

I didn't even make it a month! My excuse...moving! I have always been horrible at keeping a diary. I do well for maybe a month and then I stop. I don't really know why I thought blogging would be any different. Anyway...

We are all moved into our new home. All the essentials are unpacked. Now it's just hanging pictures and unpacking all those annoying things that never seem to have a home.

Here's a layout I did of us at our new house. I used some fabulous papers by Sue Jones (Digitals) and a bunch of other stuff from all over internet land!

2 New Layouts

Here are 2 new layouts I did for Bev O'Loughlin's kits "Sweet Love" and "Serene." The kits are at OAKS.

Breast Cancer 3-Day

My walk is getting closer. I really need to kick my training into high gear! I also need to get my fund-raising up quickly too! I am really looking forward to it. In a very odd sort of way. A lot of it is pretty much INTENSE fear of the pain my body will endure! I guess the pain is just a tangible reminder of why I am doing this in the first place. It's about the pain. The pain of facing insurmountable hardships when you are diagnosed with a terrible disease. The pain of treatment after treatment. The pain of families who have to watch their loved ones go through diagnosis and treatments, and in too many cases, the pain of losing their loved one to breast cancer.

Please help me in my fight to end breast cancer. To do my part in trying to get rid of this hideous disease. You can visit my support page and make a donation there using a credit card or contact me and you can send a check. Here is the link to my support page:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=202304&supid=162313756

Still Waiting....

I can't stand stand waiting. The letter is still missing somewhere in the depths of the Post Office. At least I hope it's missing and not in some criminal's hand. Everything is all set to go if we could just get this letter to the morgtage company.

Gifts...

They come in all shapes and sizes, but are always wonderful. David thought so too opening all of his birthday presents. Every good and perfect gift is from above.

I hate the Post Office!

The title says it all!!!

Last Thursday I mailed out the last piece of my loan application for my morgtage. Well, now it's Tuesday and it's still not there. Of course it's the one piece that I DON'T have a copy of. If they lost it I will be FURIOUS! This is all we need and we will be able to put all of this paperwork behind us.

The package I sent out on the same day also hasn't made it to my Secret Scrapper.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

David's 2 year photos!

I took David for his 2 year photos last weekend. They came out really well. I think he is absolutely adorable (not-biased at all)! They actually asked me to sign a waver to use his pictures throughout the store-never had that happen before!

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.



Being a good New England girl I had to leave the darling Tom Brady in!

Baby No More!

Well, today was David's birthday party. Tomorrow, my baby will be 2! I'm not entirely sure I like that. In fact, I am certain that I do not like that at all! These 2 years have flown by.

I took him to the Picture People to get his picture taken. He did pretty well there. A few Goldfish and I was able to convince him to pose for a few pictures. They ended up coming out really well. I had a very hard time choosing the one I wanted. They actually asked me if it would be ok to use his photos in the store for their advertising!

We had his birthday party today. That was a lot of fun. The Reids, Dodges and Greg came over. David loved it. He even blew out his candles! Tomorrow morning we will give him our presents.

PS-On the house front, our house is officially in "Pending" status!

I'll run out of steam soon!

In more ways than one...

I'm not going to be able to keep up this post-a-day thing for very long. It's just like when I would start a diary back in Jr. High.

I'm going to get plowed over by the break-neck speed of all this house-hunting stuff! I spent so much time talking numbers and percentage points today. My head is spinning!!

I've been on a cleaning spree today (not so much actually at home). I think it's "pre-nesting" getting ready for owning my own house. I scrubbed down the desks at work and organized everything there. Then I came home and started a ton of laundry.

I have a 5-year-old and an almost 2-year-old. 'Nuff said!

First day of the rest of my life!

Ok, so you can't get much more cliche than that, but today, it seems very true. For about a year and a half Paul and I searched high and low for a house. With 2 kids, our 2 bedroom apartment just wasn't cutting it anymore! Unfortunately, the housing market just wouldn't cooperate with our budget. That was until today!!!!

Today, we got our house! Here it is!

It doesn't look like much, but it's much bigger inside than you would think. Finally, we can get the kids into their own rooms and we can get some of the toys OUT of our living space!

Now, of course, instead of worrying about finding a house, I can start worrying about PAYING for a house! Yikes!