Jamie Danford

Kickball...a dangerous sport...

I know what you're thinkin'...kickball? dangerous?  No way! Oh, but I am here to assure you that it can indeed be a perilous sport. 

Take this for example...

Before I get into my tale of intrigue and peril, I need to go ahead and tell you a little bit about one of the important rules of the league we're in.  It's coed, so every team must have at least four females on the field the whole game.  If you don't have enough girls, then you can still play, but your team has to give up a free 'out' every tenth kicker. Got it?

Well this team we were playing Sunday (called the Oatland Raiders) only had three girls, which we didn't realize until the second inning (the umpire's a brainless wiener so of course he didn't notice it) so our fearless leader, Julie went up and ratted them out.  Of course the other team sent a representative up to the huddle to see what the complaint was, and sure enough, they realized they'd been caught trying to pull a fast one. 

So, instead of being like, okay whatever, we'll take the extra out, this dude on the other team says, "that's okay, we'll beat 'em anyway, they're just complaining 'cause they're losing."  Can you believe how ugly that was??? He said it right in front of me (I was playing catcher, so I was closest to the huddle.) Plus, we were only losing by one point...big woo.

Well, that really pissed me off, so I looked at the girl who was waiting to kick, and said, "geez, does that guy always talk so much shit?"

Now, this is where it gets interesting, because this chick was BIG...

I mean check her out compared to Teddy...see...told you.

So, she turns around and says, "that's my boyfriend..."

Bwaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!  I wish someone could have taken a picture of the look on my face, because I'm pretty sure all the blood drained right out of it.  I thought she was gonna put the smackdown on me, WWF style!!

Seriously, my heart was racing so fast, I panicked and took off..

(Just kidding...this is me running to first base later in the game...just thought I'd add a little more drama...and yes, apparently I scream while I run.)

Back to the tale...

As I stood there awkwardly awaiting my pummeling, Big Chick glaring at me, I decided to do some damage control and said, "Well, he doesn't have to be so darned mean to people."  (totally trying not to sound whiney) and she said, " He doesn't mean to, he just gets carried away"  and I was like, hey wait a minute, this may not end badly. 

And sure enough, Big Chick ended up being very nice even though her boyfriend is a dickhead. (sorry for the R rated words, but I'm still pretty miffed that somebody would get that darned mean at a stupid kickball game...it's not like we're playing in the World Series here ya know?)

Although, I must say that Big Dave sure looks like he's playing for keeps...

And Kristine looks pretty macho too...

And me? Well, I could take it or leave it...afterall, I signed up to be margarita girl, but here I am on second base lookin' like I actually have a clue as to what I'm doing...

and here's me approximately 8 seconds before getting thrown out at third...

And here are two more examples of the dangers of kickball...

I present Big Dave's leg...

and Teddy's leg (you should've seen him slide into third!)

Donald and Brian have matching wounds as well, but I didn't get pics of those, sorry...I'm sure you really wanted to see more blood and guts.

Oh and by the way...we came back a WON THE GAME!!! So mister meanie pants can shove it up his ol' behind!

Phew, after all of this DRAMA, Kristine and I are quite thankful that we get a weekend off of kickball to rest and relax...hallelujah!

I PASSED!!!!!

Talk about going from one extreme to another...yesterday I was having a poopie day b/c of my not so great weigh in, and then I got my G.A.C.E scores and everything got MUCH better.  :) I'd been waiting so long for the test results and as 5pm drew closer I was getting REALLY nervous...and then this appeared in my New Email... (minus the editing of course)

I am SOOOOO happy!!! In case you didn't see the post, about a month ago I took the exams that I needed to get my teacher certification.  I had to take FIVE different exams which basically added up to about seven hours of testing in one day.  I was worried about one of the tests b/c I had to do a lot of 'educated guessing' but the rest of them seemed pretty easy peasy. And sure enough, I PASSED ALL OF THEM!! On the first try!! (some of the people I met at the test had taken their test two and three times before...yikes!)

Now that I've passed the tests, I have five years of certification before I have to finish my Masters, and I can go ahead and apply for jobs.  Wow, I can't tell you how HUGE of a relief this is. I sat here and cried for a good ten minutes...tears of relief and happiness! 

Thank you God for allowing me to do this!!!! 

(Do you think He reads the blog? Oh you better believe it!) :)

Ugh...

Grrrrr....I'm so let down today.  It's WW weigh in day, and I only lost .8 lb this week. Not even a whole freakin' pound.  What a stinky rotten bummer deal! And I've been doing SOOO good with my excercise routine...in fact today, I actually jogged one whole lap around the lake!!!  Sure it's only a half mile, but I'm so proud of myself I can barely stand it! I've been working so hard for FIVE weeks, and I definitely feel stronger and toner (is that a word?) but the scale is not being nice to me.  I'm trying not to take it personally, after all, it is the week before my 'friend' comes to visit so I'm probably bloating or something hideous like that, but ugh...it sure does suck. 

Big Dave, on the other hand has dropped nearly ten pounds in the last few weeks...whoop de friggin' do dah.  I hate men!  (Okay, not really, but I am very jealous of how easy it is for him to lost that extra weight.) All he does it cut out the beer drinkin' during the week, and eat a banana for snack in the mornings rather than a cinnamon bun.  No extra excercise, no two zillion laps around the lake, no nuthin'.  Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!   

Do I seem a bit grumpy?  I feel like I might be a bit grumpy.  ;)

This healthy lifestyle...

...is about to kill me!  As I enter into week five of my 'do something active everyday' road to fitness (which by the way is finally starting to show some results) I must say that this old body of mine is hurtin' pretty good.  This morning as I started moving around in the bed trying to wake up, I realized that my arms were made of lead...yes, lead arms.  Why? Because of this...

No this isn't me (ha, I wish!) it's that Steffi Graff chick, but it's who I imagined myself to be yesterday when I said to Big Dave, "Hey why don't we go play some tennis?" Well, after my precious hubby picked his bottom jaw off the ground, he quickly dug through the attic to find our tennis gear. (It's been buried up there for a good nine or ten years I'd say.) 

We headed over to Armstrong to find their beautiful tennis complex completely empty (thank God for the favor) and had a lovely, but exhausting time playing an hour of tennis.  We really needed the excercise since we ate the most deliciously HUGE hamburgers ever at Fuddruckers, and were both feeling pretty miserable for it.  So we ran around and laughed like idiots, and then I went and hit myself in the head with the tennis ball (it seriously, shot right off of my racket and into the side of my face!) and Big Dave laughed so hard that he fell on the ground and wallered around like a cave man for at least five minutes.  And with that, exhausted, sweaty, sides hurting from laughing our asses off at my lack of any sort of natural talent or grace, we left, came home, and had some nice cold beers in the garage as we watched the sun go down.  Ah, what a perfect evening (with the exception of the ball incident of course.) 

And now, I'm off to meet Kristine at the park to drag my arse around for an hour...with my arms of lead...and a bit of a hamburger/beer hangover.  Yep, this healthy lifestyle's whoopin' my butt!  ;)

Great resource!

My pal Lori M. has gone big time and opened up her very own internet shop where you can order titles and preassembled die cuts, and the best part about it is she's got stuff that you just don't see in stores...like "Low country boil", "deep fried turkey," "a womb with a view," "team Mom," "My son/dad/boyfriend wears combat boots," and lots of military.  I'm HOPING that she's gonna get some more hunting stuff on there, b/c I will DEFINITELY be purchasing those (hint hint Lori!)  ;) 

So here's the link  www.belovedkeepsakes.com/scrapbooking/

Go check 'er out!

Show and Tell...

The next challenge on the Journaling Junkie blog is to use something you received in your email for journaling.  Well, I had the perfect thing for this layout, because I saved all the emails from friends and well-wishers that were sent when I announced that I was closing the store.  I saved 'em in a file and knew that one day I'd put some of them on a layout...well that someday's today baby!

I printed off a few to put on the page, but the rest will be tucked behind the layout.  The layout's called "Reap what you sow" because I honestly feel like I tried my very best to sow seeds of friendship in my store, and the harvest was great.  There are SOO many people here in Savannah, and even many states away that I get to call my friends because we met in my store. 

Here it is...a bit blurry b/c of the chunky embellies, but here all the same...

I screwed up the journaling a little, but I'm leaving it b/c I'm a lazy dog...here's what it's supposed to say (which it does, just not as well edited):

There is no greater reward for my years owning the store than the friends I made and the feeling of making people happy.  When I announced that I was closing, I received so many emails from friends & customers, and they made me feel so good.  I'll treasure these forever!

Then I've got some layouts that I've had for a while, but still love, so I thought I'd share them too. Okay? You know, oldies but goodies... these are all 11"x8.5" pages. ( I like to do these sometimes when I get bored with 12x12...working on a different size helps get my brain jump started.)

Postponed...

And it's all Sid's fault!  ;)  I let time get away from me this afternoon while playing with Sid, so I'm gonna have to wait (probably until after the weekend) to start my sale...I'm sooooo sorry!

Had a great day with Miss Priss today, I let her skip school b/c they were going on the walking tour of downtown for like the three hundreth time, and who really wants to endure THAT again, ya know?  So we went shopping (it's like the only hobby we have in common, ha!) and got her some cute as heck bathing suits from Old Navy ($15 each...score!) and I must say that I was a bit taken aback by the fact that the size tens have built in boobies...what???  Yep, my flatsy patsy kiddo looks like a ten year old Pam Anderson with her new suit on (not really, but there is MORE there than usual) thank goodness the other suit she got was a size 8 (she's a skinny mini) so the boobies were regular in that one.  You'd think they'd have a couple of different options for size tens, but I guess not when you're dealing with $15 suits.  Oh well, she's digging her new 'figure' so why not go with it eh? 

After Old Navy, Claires, Carlton Cards (for Webkins) and the Food Court, we headed to Walgreens to spend thirty freakin' dollars on new sunscreen.  I don't know about you, but I buy new sunscreen every year...I don't trust it after it's sat around since last Summer ya know? SO, new sunscreen it is!

And then we went to see Nim's Island, which if you haven't seen it, go now this instant and see it.  I'm seriously loving that little girl actress chick, soooo cute and smart! I totally respect a movie that doesn't throw in filthy side jokes just to make the grown-ups laugh, and this one was 100% pure and wonderful.  Go see it! Heck, I'd go see it even if I didn't have a ten year old with me! It may have something to do with the similarities between Jodi Foster's character and myself...a writer...scared of everything...awesomely beautiful (hmmph!) but to me, she definitely stole the show. Yep, it had everything...cute kiddo, sexy good guy, funny pretty lady, and a sea lion...ah, my kind of movie! :)

Okay, off to scrap for a while...I've got an assignment due on www.journalingjunkie.blogspot.com that was due this week...good thing Stella's running a bit behind too! I'll have it to ya tomorrow Stella!  :)  :)  :)

SALE!!!

I wanted to give everyone a head's up...I've been working on assembling a bunch of product sets to sell here on the blog, and I should start posting them tonight if all goes well today.  We're talking about sets that retail for $100 for only $25 each! Stay tuned...

Greys has returned!

Oh thank you God for letting the writers strike end and giving me back Grey's Anatomy! Did y'all watch it last night?  After a gozillion Thursdays of no Greys, it was so nice to see all the familiar faces again...Meredith, Mc. Dreamy/Steamy, Christine, etc etc etc...

Loved the show, that contest thing was hilarious..oooh, and how 'bout those intestines?  Talk about a 'bear' of an injury, ha!  :)

Prima Sketch Giveaway!

In the mood to win some yummy products from the uber cool Prima Marketing? (one of my favorite companies for sure!)

Go HERE to the Prima blog and check out this month's sketch (and inspiration layouts), then submit your layout based on the sketch and you might win! And heck, even if you don't win, you'll still  have yourself a lovely layout completed, and isn't that what we really want? ;)