ooohhh yes ! The totems are beautiful ! But as the above post said -- remember - when you have a piece that will collect water ... be careful . I learned to turn all my pieces upside down so the water won't pool or collect in them. It'll run off. ****** As for your babies ( yes - they are "the boys" and they are especially the "babies" !!! ) I have an email friend in England that has 3 pugs ..... when we write , we call them "the boys" ...LOL You can't help but love a pug . Sounds like you have a wonderful life .....DH .....a son .. a craft addiction ....and PUGS !! Again - welcome !

Dust BUNNIES! from Washington! Hi guys! Well, the couple we had over for dinner last night arrived 1/2 hour late and were quarreling and complaining about each other most of the night...short version is he's having a midlife and decided to stop working and forgot to tell her---! Now they'll have to sell their house (a villa, really) and downsize. She is SO mad at him---uh, I can see why. But it saddens us to see this happen. He says she works too much and he is lonely now that he's not working. We just listened and didn't offer advice. It seemed better that way. Anyway...we've having another couple over tonight and the wife just called and said they are haing problems too! He thinks she is too immersed with the children and her work and is not paying enough attention to him. We'll see how tonight's dinner goes....! DeeMarie~ I know what you mean about the cost of dinners. But it seems like everyone is so busy that if I don't have dinners, I'll never see my friends! :) I don't do the lavish thing any more, just low-key, but yummy foods and I am practicing with making appealing and attractive food presentations! Chives, rosemary, tomaotes, and red peppers are my friends there! It's pretty fun! BTW, how's your hair? AMY!!! I talked to a guy at the feed store and they have some cool, animal-friendly live-catch mousey traps. I'm picking a couple of on Monday and will get them in the mail to you on Monday afternoon. The guy there said peanut butter works well to lure them in to the "hotel." Then you can take the traps outside, away from your place, and set them free---unharmed! Raeanne~ Glad you got a firepit. I want one too! But I'll wait until we move to the island in 2008. Chimineas are very good to use around here because of all the rain---they crack when you use them when they're wet. Bah. Well, I guess that's all for me...for now...

Yes, it is fun seeing all the progress! Tx for the tips on taking pictures. I am taking lots so that I have that for future reference like you mentioned and so I can make a scrapbook. I agree with you on the swimming privacy. Unfortunately in this neighborhood you can only have 5' fences and they can only be either black chain link fences or vinyl fences. I would definetly like a vinyl fence for privacy but they are so expenses since the size has to be cut down, etc. Since we are spending so much on the pool, we will landscape some about the screen and maybe put up a fence later. Now I am working on my research of plants, etc. so I can get some nice stuff put up after everything is completed. Gunite was done today. The majority of it was covered due to rain so I can't get good pictures of it but once that comes off, I will take some and post then. Right now I peaked under the cover a little and I am pleased that I added that additional step to get in/out of the deepend swimout and the height of my additional bench in the shallowend for sunning purposes.

I started back in 97 when my dd was born- today she turns 9! I did her baby book and it was ok. Then I discovered Creative Memories and all the stuff out there. I redid her pages- thanks to double prints- and it is much nicer. I used to use a 3-ring binder and page protectors from office supply store. I used solid paper as my page. I used some stickers and a little journalling. I have since taken all those pages and put them into CM albums. Now I use the regular white pages and use the colored paper for frames or accent strips. To organize and make things go faster I use an easy method. I have a binder with sleeves in it. When I develop film I separate in dated or event order. Then I divide by what pics would fit on a page. I drop those pics into sleeves. Then I take paper that matches the pics and drop it in the sleeve. I may put some stickers in there too. Then when I go to scrap, I just grab a sleeve and work that page. I have already picked out the stuff for the page, just need to assemble. Unfortunatly, I have a digital camera now. It was so easy to develop film and then sort out the pics. Now I have to download onto a CD, take to a place or use an online service. I have not done this yet, which explains why I have over 600 pics to print, and at least half I need doubles of- one for my dd and one for my ds albums. One nice thing about digital is that I can print only what I need, so I may print all my dd birthday pics for her album, but only print a few for my son to have in his. Hey soggy6- aren't you the one with the pool that had plaster then switched to ptec after a crack or something? Are you going to, or do you know about, the event at Newburg Hall down by Sac State on 4/29? My CM gal and her friends are having an all-day event. After spending last year doing the build, it will be nice to spend a day scrapping. I am taking all our vacation pics- the ones before we had kids- and getting them all into albums. Won't be super fancy like my kids books. The goal is to have them in an album instead of not.