The Tim Holtz Story...

First let me start off by saying HELLO KAT. (I promised) lol

So let's see... it all began in July of 2005. I was SO sick... I had the cox's. My throat was on fire with red blisters, I had a fever of OVER 103º, pink eye in BOTH eyes, sinus infection, ear infection... YOU name it, I had it. I was MISERABLE.

Seriously, I was NEVER so sick before. I had MAJOR surgery - survived cancer - and I wasn't as sick as this.

I was on the couch. I had the tv on. I was even too sick to go on SL. (Now you KNOW how sick I was) I had HGTV on, which is my norm. I was dozing on and off... in and out of coherency. (HEY I was feverish - NO making fun of me)

I heard Carol Duvall announce "Welcome back Tim Holtz from Ranger Industries!".

My eyes shot open. I raised my feverish head and stared at my tv. This was the FIRST time I'd seen him. I'd been using his products, but never saw his face before.

As my eyes focused, I saw how adorable he was... (and still is of course!!) and how freaking NICE he was.

Maybe it was the fever... maybe it was the fact that I was half asleep, but dammit I just thought WHAT A GREAT GUY, and that's how I became a Tim Holtz Fanatic.

Of course, now that I know him better, I know it wasn't the fever or the sleepiness. He really IS a great guy.

So I dragged myself off the couch and went into the computer room. I logged into SL and told everyone that I was IN love. As much as I could talk about him over the next few months, I did. Every time I got the opportunity I worked his name into a post. Sometimes for no reason what-so-ever. I posted on his Junkitz blog that I was his #1 fan.

And all of a sudden, one cold day in January, I got a call from Jeanne.

"Tigger - You HAVE to get online right now."

"WHY??"

"Tim Holtz is ON ScrapLove!!"

OMG. Well, I was getting dinner on the table and I KNEW Bobby wouldn't look kindly on me running into the computer room and getting online. Can everyone say DIVORCE????

So I ate and calmly went in afterwards to the computer. Signed on. Son of a gun if he wasn't still there.

And there was a pm waiting for me. FROM him. FROM Tim Holtz. THE Tim Holtz. Yeah right. I'm frantically pm'ing Donna. She's pm'ing back. We're debating if this is really him or not. We decide it's not. We decide it's someone f'ing with me.

So I pm "Tim" back. I tell "him" off. I tell "him" that I don't believe for a MINUTE that it's really him, and "good joke" on me. I actually got a bit testes. I believe I may have used curse words.

He pm's me back. "what can I do to make you believe it's me?"

I had no idea how.

So what does he do? He puts a shout out to ScrapLove and to me on his website.

OMG you should have seen my face. I just told off Tim Holtz.

So with my tail between my legs (hahaha Tigger reference, get it?) I pm and email him. Apologizing.

He graciously accepts my apology and tells me that I really made him laugh. THAT made me happy.

Of course, now it sinks in that I am PM'ING and emailing with Tim Freaking HOLTZ. Does life get much better than this????

So every once in a while I shoot off a Hello Tim Holtz email. Just saying hi and telling him I'm thinking about him. And he ALWAYS writes back...

He even let me interview him for a Blue Light Special. I thought that I had DIED and gone to HEAVEN. He's too cool.

AND a nice guy. I luff him dearly. He even let Lynnie get him set up with a sign that says I luff Tigger. Of course, that's been my avatar FOREVER now. And I don't think I'll EVER get rid of that...

Thank you Tim Holtz.

The Story of The Dawg

Donna said I had to update my blog. She was right. I've neglected it.

SO I tried to think of something I wanted to talk about. I decided I'd talk about the Dawg. OK?

But I need to talk about background first... I was scrapbooking around a year when we finally got a computer at home. I was an internet novice. Bobby said "why don't you try searching for stuff about this scrapbooking stuff you do?". So I did. Of course, when you google "scrapbooking" you get a LOT of choices.

What made me choose to click on Scrapbook.com? NO idea. It was a shot in the dark. But I've never regretted it - can you imagine if I clicked on 2peas?? I think they would have eaten me up and spit me out within 2 hours. LOL

After lurking for a week or so, I finally got up the nerve to make a post, and then BIG nerve to make my own THREAD... EEK. I am NOT lying when I tell you I refreshed my screen for 15 minutes straight, sitting here in a complete panic that nobody would post on my thread.

But of course they did. Silly Tigger.

And then I got my first pm. From DaSchnauz. And off we went. There were some days that all we'd do is pm. We barely posted!! And I met Barb, and then Donna... and we all clicked, yet not as one group. We all "knew" each other, but there was no "cell" at that point. That came much later.

Things got a bit tense at the site, and Cheryl dragged me kicking and screaming over to ScrapLove. IN turn I dragged DaSchnauz kicking and screaming.

It was a good run. We had fun... I met some incredible friends that I cherish deeply. We started cropping together - driving and flying to see each other... The Lovelies were unbeatable.

But then things started going sour. I was unhappy, and of course I ran to DaSchnauz... who was also unhappy... and I also talked to Donna, who was also unhappy, and also Barb and yada yada yada...

We started emailing to discuss our unhappiness. There were trust issues happening on the site, and we felt email was the safest route... :-)

That dates back to February of '06. After a couple of months like that, we started pressuring DaSchnauz into creating a site for us. We were a happy little cell, and content. We had our friends at the Love and each other. We saw each other through some extremely trying times - and we each know that we have each other's backs. For any reason, any time, anywhere. (although I still insist they only keep me around for comic relief.)

Finally DaSchnauz made DaSite. And it was nice. It was just the 4 of us. And slowly, as the kinks of the software became smaller, we invited some of our Lovelies to join us. And we told them, start putting the word out... and more came. And more. And then we had a happy little family again.

It's a tight bunch.

The final breakup with ScrapLove wasn't pretty. The rest of the cell tried to warn me, but again I was SO naive. Dammit. Spent a lot of days crying. But then I was able to get really really really (REALLY) mad and that REALLY helped.

ScrapDawgs is my home base. It's ours. It's the place I go when I want to laugh. We may not be a strong scrapbooking site - although we DO post in forums other than the Pound. Honest. We don't get many new people. I think it's too tight to look like a welcoming board. I don't mean that in a bad way. There's just so much history between all of us, so much luff, so many inside jokes...

Want to laugh? GO to the Dawg. If I need scrapbooking talk, challenges, contests and stuff like that, I can hit Scrapbook.com, or Sherri's site...

Ahhh. Have I talked enough? Donna? Meet your approval for an update? :evil6:

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

We celebrated by planting all our flowers this weekend. Here's some shots of SOME of the ones I did...

Atlanta!!!

Back from my Atlanta trip - had a WONDERFUL time. Lots of great memories and LOTS of laughs.

The opening night gala celebration was held at the Atlanta Aquarium - WOW. They closed the place for us - and we took over the entire thing. WELL over 1,000 people there. Lots of good food and LOTS of free drinks. Blue ones.

Turned our lips and tongues blue. We were VERY attractive. Thank GOODNESS we met up with Dr. Bill Dorfman from Extreme Makeover BEFORE we turned our mouths blue. That's him in the middle of the picture. In black.

The next evening we went to Aunt Pittypats Porch for dinner - real southern cookin'. GOOD eats. Then, as we walked back to our hotel some music pulled 1/2 of us INTO a Cigar and Martini bar. An hour or so later we conga'd OUT of that bar... and rolled into our hotel.

The next day we were VERY quiet. LOL A little hungover to say the least. I have discovered that martinis are GOOD. I love olives.

That is all.

Happy Mother's Day Ma...

I decided to spend THIS Mother's Day a little differently than last year. Last year I wallowed in my own self pity. I told Bob that I HATED Mother's Day because I didn't HAVE a mother and I WASN'T a mother.

This year Sonia's mother set me straight on that one too. She told me I will ALWAYS have a mother. She lives in my heart.

She's right.

So this year I spent the day scrapping my ma. I am so lucky that I have lots of notes and letters from her - so I scanned in one of my favorites. She wrote this after my cancer diagnosis. When she heard that news she mailed a card to me EVERY day. This letter was in the first...

It's hard to read on the LO, but this is what it says:

Dearest Sandi-Witch,

I don't know how long it's been since I've written you a letter. I do know that I needed to write you this one. I want you to know how proud I am of you and how much I love you. You were dealt a hard blow. I don't know why. You and BT deserve the best life has to offer. I remember how much your Dad loved you and how he held you on his lap and the dreams he had for you. You were my gift to him. I love you Sandi.

Ma

My response in my title is... Love you too Ma

They say it's your birthday....

Life at 50. A new era. A new decade. Another obstacle under my belt. DONE. No more thinking about "OMG I'm gonna be FIFTY". It's here.

I don't FEEL different. Not that I expected I would. 30 didn't feel different. Or 40. Why should 50?

Yesterday when I was talking to Sonia's (divamom) mother, who is a stunning 62 year old, I told her the only problem I had with 50 was justifying my age with my maturity level. In my head I am not 50.

She said "why do you have to?"

SO true.

Happy birthday to me.

A brief snippet of memory - every birthday that I can remember from my childhood includes me coming out for breakfast and finding my placemat covered in a ring of wildflowers from our yard. My mom and grandmother NEVER failed to do that. I ate my cereal among flowers.

Nice memory.

My NYC weekend!!

It was SO incredibly awesome. It was one of those really ascary things that turned out not to be ascary at all.

It was smooth sailing from start to finish. The hotel was great, our rooms were ready early, the show was FANTASTIC - Avenue Q - drinks at a hole-in-the-wall Irish Pub, dinner at Rosie O'Gradys (with cake and candles and singing!!), MaryKay LOVED her canvas and I got a gorgeous handmade dragonfly from her... she bought it in Sedona last month. Then a late evening comedy club and back to the hotel for BED!

For Sunday, we couldn't figure out what we wanted to do. Kay and Stan go into the city more frequently than *I* do... but when I was a kid I saw all the touristy stuff like the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty and the museums... so I said "I've NEVER been in Central Park."

So that's what we did. We walked Central Park. It was so beautiful!! I had NO idea!

The one DOWNSIDE to the weekend? The $21.00 bill for 4 small glasses of orange juice. HOLY moly.