New Phone!!!

Isn't it pretty - and doesn't every girl need more Chocolate in her life?

It was way past time for our "new every 2" (more like 4 or 5!!) and my old phone was starting to crack at the hinge. A's Disney Mobile phone was being cut off at the end of the year - so we ALL (yep the entire Griswold clan) ordered new phones earlier this week.

The three eldest Griswold's all got their phones yesterday - and spent some serious playtime on them last night - when we should have been doing homework, and regular work, and sleeping. You know, that kind of stuff.

The poor youngest Griswold - well, the folks at Verizon apparantly choked on the Disney transfer request (well, their system did anyway) and after much backing and forthing of email and telephone calls, her order has been reprocessed (we hope) and should be here soon. Meanwhile, she has new phone envy.

Me? I've been a ringtone making fool! First I found this site, that let's me upload my own music to make clips - which I then put on my Micro SD card (yep, J bought us all those to go in our new phones - sometimes it's great to be married to a geek!) - but here's the nutty part - I had to send the sound clip to E, and then she had to send it BACK to me, so that I could save it as a ringtone. Argh. BUT - instead of $2.99 to download a ringtone from Verizon (which are all songs by artists I don't know... I'm OLD!!!) It only cost me $.30 in text charges (E has the unlimited because she's seriously addicted to texting - so her receiving/sending was free - but mine were $.15 each)

The upside is - I have highly individualized clips for each member of my family. E wanted to know how I would remember who was who - but I told her that I picked stuff so RELATED to the person -that I would always know. For instance - J's is Habie Sie Gehurt das Deutsche Band from The Producers - and seeing as how we had a running joke where I implanted that song worm in his head at every opportunity for several months (yes, I'm evil) I'll NEVER forget that when I hear that ring that it's J calling me.

Or E - I did a clip from Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" - her National Showcase Title winning song - like I could ever forget THAT!!! And, well, A - I named her after a famous Broadway Musical, and I just used the song that has her name in it - a lot!!

So... then, my friend Cara told me about this OTHER site - that has ringtones that others have created as well - and I'm SO going to download the Darth Vadar "I am your father" clip to be Barb's ringtone!!

So, off to have more fun with my new toy - um - I mean phone!

OU Magazine Feature!

Go check out the Mega Meet Blog - my alma mater - Oakland University - interviewed me this summer for a feature in the magazine. I'm so excited that it finally came out - it arrived just before Thanksgiving - and I finally got it scanned and posted over on the GLMM Blog.

Visiting my Hometown

After Thanksgiving, we piled into the car on Friday morning (all of us - including the dog!) To go back to my hometown in Ohio, to visit my friend Shari, who I've known ever since she was born, and I was 2 years old! We grew up as next door neighbors, and shirt tail relatives (she's my cousin's cousin). We stayed close after I moved up to Michigan, and throughout our college years, and now as adults and parents. We love email - it has made keeping up with each other a lot less expensive! (We paid our own long distance bills in high school and college - and even wrote snail mail letters all the time!)

So, Friday we just took it easy - ordered Pizza in, and just hung out - looked at each other's scrapbooks, (oh, yeah - I totally sucked her into my hobby!!) and at photos that aren't yet scrapped on our computers! The guys watched the Arkansas, LSU game, hoping for an Arkansas win, to boost OSU's standings.

Saturday, Shari and I headed to the grocery store (hee hee - we do this to each other every time - don't go shopping until we're already here!! - it's great - we get some alone gabbing time - we don't really care that it's in the grocery!!)

Then we decided to take the kids to this new outdoor mall "The Greene" and visit Santa (what a hoot - my kids haven't been to visit Santa in years. I sorta had to convince A that her coolness factor wouldn't be adversly affected!) They had all the Christmas decorations up, and a brass quartet - all very festive!!

We then piled all of us into the Movie theater to see "Enchanted" - how fun was that movie? I recommend it to all romantics! Although, the price to take a family to the movies - even to a matinee - YIKES!!

The poochies got along great - Mo and Wilbur (their new puppy) had a great time playing together all weekend. We took a pic of the two cute black doggies playing tug of war!

A "Hair Raising" Tale

I've been waiting until after today - when most of our family would be able to see the big reveal in person - but both my girls had major hair "raising" experiences this week! Both cut off 8 inches of hair and are donating it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths campaign.

Here are the before and after pics of A - and just the after's of E. The trip for A to make the big cut was planned for a few weeks, discussed with the director of her show to be sure it wasn't going to be a problem in the show - etc. We knew she was finally taking the leap and cutting and donating her hair.

E, on the other hand, went to the salon over the weekend, and went from wanting just an inch cut off - to the whole 8 inches - totally a surprise to me! So - I didn't get before pictures - because I didn't know she was going to decide to make that big leap! It turned out really cute! And, even though it's shorter than she really likes, she just keeps reminding herself that it was for a good cause, and that it will grow back!

EDIT: The Christmas Tree is at the salon - I am NOT that organized!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I spent my Thanksgiving morning baking Apple Pies. Just thought I'd share!

The Pie recipe is my maternal Grandmother's, and the crust is my mom's recipe (which she pulled from a cookbook in order to bake her first ever pie for my dad!)

Rich Pastry
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tspn salt
1 Tbspn sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg yolk
1 Tbspn lemon juice
1/4 cup milk

Sift flour with salt and sugar. Cut in shortning until like crumbs (pictured at left). Beat together egg yolk, lemon juice and milk. Add liquid to dry ingredients and work with hands. Generously flour your surface and your rolling pin when rolling out.
Makes 2 crusts (either a top and bottom, or two bottoms if you are making pumpkin pie!)

Apple Pie
4 cups sliced, peeled apples (I use Granny Smith)
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tblspns flour
1 tspn cinnamon
1 Tblspn water
sm. amount of butter (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flour, sugar and cinnamon. Put 1/3 of this mixture into the bottom crust, then layer apples and mixture, ending with mixture. Apples should be HEAPING (the photo at left is not yet full!) Add water, and optional butter. (I forget it every year, and it still tastes OK - but it's in my Grandma's recipe!). Add top crust, and slit to vent. Press down firmly to keep juice in. Pinch a rope around the edge. (optional - place leaves or other crust decorations on top! Glue them on with the egg white you didn't use in the crust!) Place in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, then reduce temp to 325 for an additional 50 minutes.

It really is yummy!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Holiday Fun

Courtesy of Kim at ScrapBizness...

{ELF} Yourself 2007 is UP: LINK.

If Elfing isn't your style, you can {Scrooge} Yourself (or your boss - LOL!): LINK.

Here is our Elfed Family: LINK

Here is Mo Elfed: LINK

And here is my hubby, Mr. Scrooge: LINK His comment; "Wow, I'm a good dancer!"

Thanks Kim - this was too much fun!!

A Personal Space...

I posted a few "personal" type posts over on the Mega Meet Blog - and it always felt strange. It's supposed to be a business blog - do those people actually care about my kids and family? Probably not much....

So, I've been thinking, and pondering, and contemplating starting a second blog to post all about Life with the Griswold's (yeah - while sometimes it seems like we're living in a National Lampoon Comedy -we're just a normal family!)

So, to introduce you to my cast of characters:

I'm Kate - I own Scrapbooks Mega Meet, LLC, and produce the Great Lakes Mega Meet Scrapbook Convention, and several retreats, and other fun events! I've been doing this since 2000 - without a 2nd job since 2003. I also have a web design business, Kaleidoscope Concepts! I love to scrapbook, but have no desire to be published (other than on the Mega Meet Gallery, where I like to show off my stuff) I also love to read, and try to squeeze in books whenever I can. A little known fact about me is that I figure skate - not well - only been skating for 3 years - but I find it fun and relaxing.

I'm married to J - he's my soul mate. Loves me despite my faults! He's a great Dad, and one of the smartest people I know. He's a computer guru, and works in our basement because his company is several states away from our home.

We have 2 kids - E the teen and A the pre-teen. Neither one drives yet - so I'm Mom the Taxi Driver!! E is my Skater, JV dancer, Band Geek, perfectionist child. A is my Singer, Actress, Dancer, sometime Skater, reluctant Band Geek, and free spirit child.

Well, I plan to start out by inviting family and friends to keep up with me via this self-indulgence, and we'll see where things go. As my English teachers always used to tell me "You should keep a Journal!" I've never really had the discipline. Let's see if this new medium helps me be more disciplined!