Addictions

I might be, could be, probably shouldn't be addicted to: Netflix, Make it or Break It (on ABC family), DVR, fast-forwarding commercials, Twilight series, Hummus, FoxNews, Facebook, scrapbooking, blogs, Ohio State Football, Harry Potter, and my Camera.

Busy Weekend

This weekend, Nathan's sister and her family came to visit.  They have two kids, Madeline age 5 and Nathaniel age 2.  We had a busy weekend including a trip the the NC zoo on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures to show you!

Elizabeth and Madeline baking cookies

At the Zoo.  Nathan and Thomas in front of the man made Marsh.

We visited the polar bear.  Thomas enjoyed watching the bear and seeing how big he was!

Enjoying one of my favorite treats, an ICEE!

Family Photo

A Murphy Family Photo

Cousins!

Nathaniel (almost 2), Madeline (almost 5), Thomas (7 months)

The End of a great weekend.

A Scrapbook Creation

I have been wanting to create one of these for awhile.  It is a gift card holder.  I've had the pattern since March, and have just gotten around to making it.  It's a really simple pattern.  You have to use thick card stock for the base and strong tape.  Then decorate as desired!  I love it though because I don't have enough room in my purse for giftcards, so this is great!  Mine is a light blue base with purple pockets and brown/blue decorative paper.

My scrap space is about half finished, but I have enough of a work space to start creating and this was my first creation.  I'm currently working on a mini album!

I'm a Photo-aholic

I admit it.  I am addicted to photos.  I just cannot seem to say good bye to a photo.  I don't know why, but I feel like I will be losing something if I don't save a photo.  I have a problem, I know!   This problem influenced me today when I took Thomas to get his pictures done at Sears.  I have this great saver card that gets me all kinds of deals, and I had a ton of great coupons too, and yet I still bought the package.  I admit it.  I did.  And you know why?  The photo cd.  I just couldn't bear that one shot of Thomas not be shared with the world!  Absolutely pathetic I know.  It doesn't help that the professional people's pictures are SO much better than mine (with the help of some amazing cameras and gear).  I'm such a pushover though.  I knew how much it would cost to get a cd, and I told myself no before I went in.  Although it didn't take much convincing, so perhaps I wasn't as firm as I thought.  The problem with this addiction is that I can't decide how to deal with.  Most of me, just wants to ignore it, I mean after all it's not a bad thing to love photographs of your family.  The bad part is, Thomas is only 7 months old and I have a couple thousand pictures of him.  Seriously, I do.  I don't know if my computer can handle even a few years of this!  I have to learn to not be afraid of that delete button!  And I have to start saving more to afford the professional photos I just can't give up!  Here are a few of my favorites from today!

HPHBP Loves and Hates (Beware of Spoilers)

Well, I took a break from Harry Potter to add a few other fun things to the blog, but I did want to make one final post about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  In essence, this will be what I really liked about the film, and what kind of drove me crazy.  The opening with Harry at the Underground, is a give and take for me. In some ways, I really enjoyed this creative twist, but I also really missed Dumbledore at the Dursley's.  I really wanted to see those clanking glasses of mead on the Dursleys' heads!  I'm also glad they kept the introduction of Slughorn relatively the same.  I love when they do fun magical things like put the house back together!

I also really liked how they handled Ron and his girl problems.  It was hilarious to watch his interaction with Lavender Brown, and fun to watch Hermione's reactions.  I thought it was a great portrayal and I'm glad they included it; though not vital to the plot of book 7, it's still important.  As for Harry and Ginny---well, I enjoyed the first part where Harry is flustered around Ginny; the scene at Slughorn's dinner party was entertaining, but the Christmas scene at the burrow and then the scene in the Room of Requirement, not my favorite!  It was so strange and not well explained.  It was after the room of requirement that they even mentioned that Ginny had broken up with Dean.  So strange.  Plus, she's such a strong willed character and I feel as if the movie has portrayed her as weak.  :(  So, not happy with that at all!  

The scene in the cave was pretty intense, and I did like this.  I thought it remained true to the book (other than Harry falling in the water), and was pretty good.  However, when they returned to Hogwarts, I was pretty upset that Dumbledore did not freeze Harry.  The fact that he could move during the entire scene on the tower frustrated me.  If Harry could have moved, it wouldn't have gone down like that; the fact that he was immobilized is vital to that scene.  This I suppose was the end of it for me. Really from that point on I was just frustrated at the movie.  The lack of a fight, the death scene, and the weird scene with Harry, Hermione, and Ron at the end just didn't do it for me.  Sometimes I wish I could better understand why writers and producers choose to do certain things when creating a movie from a book, and the end of Half-Blood Prince was definitely one of those times I didn't understand.  

Having only seen the movie once, I look forward to the next time to "love and hate" it more!

I love this photo!

I love this picture of Thomas taken yesterday!  It shows off his beautiful smile!

New Book

I just bought a new scrapbooking book that I am very excited about.  It's called Outstanding Mini Albums by Jessica Acs.  I picked it up at AC Moore (you can use their coupons on books which is great!)  It's hard for me to spend money on stuff like this because I wonder if I will get any use out of it.  I usually want some type of review or personal recommendation before buying this stuff.  I was about to put this book back on the shelf when I saw three specific mini albums that confirmed I would buy this book.  The first was the Coffee Cup Album. Here's a picture from the book.  (Sorry about the backwards words, but the pictures were taken using the camera on my computer.)

The next album was a Coffee Cup Sleeve Album:

And finally the Coffee Cup Filter Album:  

I figure anyone who loves coffee that much, must have written a pretty good book!  And the book gives great instructions on how to cut and put together these albums.  Also many of the albums use materials from around the house.  I'm looking forward to making my own albums.  I think I will have to make one about my love of coffee.  I'll be sure to share my creation once it is finished!

Twilight Thoughts

Well, as could be predicted, it didn't take long to finish reading Stephanie Meyer's Twilight.  About two days actually!  So, I do have to admit that her stories are somewhat addicting!  I enjoyed the reading, and I enjoyed wanting to read.  Not every book can hold my attention.  After some thought there are two conclusions I have come to about Twilight.  The first is why it is hard to put the book down.  Meyer does an amazing job with her chapters.  She structures them so that every one ends in this mini climax.  I just had to turn the page to see what happened!  And of course, once I did that, I couldn't stop in the middle of a chapter!  Perhaps that is just me.  Secondly, I thought a lot of what was so addicting about the story.  In my mind I compared it to the Harry Potter craze, because they have had some similar reactions (midnight releases, movies, websites, etc).  I don't believe the books are as cleverly written as HP; and Meyer does not help me visualize the picture the way Rowling does, but yet Twilight was still a book I couldn't put down.  I decided one thing Meyer really has down is that she  can tell a love story.  She created two characters who love and are loved with such amazing depth and truth; this is the way most of desire to love and be loved.  In a world where many of us feel we search a long time for love, we admire, even long, for love like this.  For me it helps me appreciate my amazing husband all the more, and as a former teenage girl, I can totally understand their addictions to Edward and Bella.

New Look

So, I had no idea how easy it was to get a new look!  I'm still working on where exactly I want everything, but I hope you like it.  I picked it up as a free template from LeeLou Blogs.