You Should be Dancing Yeah!

You should be dancing yeah!

I don't know if it was the Glee week of Saturday Night Fever ( I love me some John Travolta in a white suit).

Or if it was just me doing what I love to do.  But this week I started Zumba classes. And I LOVE IT!!  I love dancing.  When the music starts the first 8 count, my toes start tapping and my hips start shaking.  Which could explain why I don't like slow songs.  I can't shake my bootie to slow songs.  

So last night I walked into the Tiger's Den and shook my bootie for an hour.  I had no idea it would be such a work out.  I just envisioned getting out there and shaking my boo thang and having a good time.  But I found myself out of breath and wondering if I was going to last....and we had only done the warm up song.  Hello!  It was during these songs that I regretted not wearing my Polar watch. This data junkie wants to know how many calories I burned.

But the great thing is when I knew the song or I was familiar with the steps (meringue, salsa, cumbias)  I forgot I was working out and just got into the moves...shake shake shake senora...whooooo don't get me started.

Pin It

One Year Baby Album V2

My journey into the year of the babies began with a one year baby album.  Now, I have made them before but they were mini albums that were based on a template I received in a class years ago.  It was a class I took at Scrap-a-faire many moons ago.  You can see my post here . I love making that book.  Did it take time? Sure.  Did  like it? Yup.  So why mess with changing it?  Because I love a challenge.  Well to be honest, I love a challenge when it is over.  During the challenge, I whine, complain and think it is a mistake.  

So for this album I decided to make a full size 12X12 album, two page spread per month and title page.  Now this was for a math teacher so let's do the math, shall we?  Rozette wants to make an album for her daughter's geometry teacher.  She decides to make two pages per month and also a title page. How many layouts will Rozette make?

                                 12 months X 2 layouts = 24 layouts  24 layouts +1 title page = 25 layouts in total

Really Rozette?  You are going to do 25 layouts in one month. Are you crazy?  Are you insane?  Yes, yes I am.  I didn't think of it in those terms.  I think if I had, I would have never started and just bought a pack of cute boy themed onesies and called it a day.

So I decided to do 25 boy theme pages and use no bling or pink or ribbons (okay maybe just a little ribbon). Now this is hard for me.  As you will discover, I love bling.  I love sparkly things and all things pink.  So I pretty much took on mission impossible with this album.  

There were a few things I wanted to stay the same with this book that I used in the mini albums.  

1) Make most of the picture spots 4X6 or 5X7.  Non-scrappers can easily print pictures those two sizes at any drugstore.

2) Use three or four templates for the whole album

3) Leave journaling spots to mark down  milestones

I am not a hoarder but I must admit, I rarely throw anything away from my scrapbook stash and I don't care if I haven't used if for years...it stays.  So I had these template creators that I bought from Walmart back in 2007.  I was a new scrapbooker and needed guidance.  I never used them but I kept them.  

Thank goodness I kept them because they came in handy.

Once I had a few basic templates, I was able to repeat them three or four times. They were not all exactly alike but the templates served as a jumping off point for each page.

I used my Cricut for all the titles. I used Cricut Craft Room for the first time and I must say I was quite impressed.  My only gripe is that I had to insert each cartridge into my Expression in order to cut.  Years ago I bought a Gypsy because I didn't want to switch out cartridges and I didn't like want to be changed to a computer when I craft. I am on a computer all day and I just don't want to spend more time on it than I need to spend.  But I must admit, for a computer based program, I was pretty happy.

Yes I will admit I have caved and I am just as crazy about banners as other scrappers.  So I put a few in this one.  The one over the picture placement is not glued down so that mommy can slip her picture on there.  And remember I said I only put a little ribbon in the album?  I just could not resist.

You see what I mean?  It is too cute!  So cute that I went back to Hobby Lobby and bought it in blue, pink and yellow.  They also have little teddy bears that I used on the album.  I adhered them with my Xyron small sticker maker.  If you don't own one, I highly remcommend buying one with a 1/2 coupon from Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  (FYI  never pay more than 60% for anything at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.)  Be patient, what you want will eventually come on sale 40% off or it won't be on sale and you can use your 40% coupon.  

The last page I made was the first page, the title page.  It was my first attempt at a banner title page.  I got the idea from Kathryn from   Life on the {Scrap}Beach.  She made a baby mini album and she used banners for either the title page or for the card. I can't remember.  I saw it on her Ustream channel. If you go to her blog you will see a link to her Ustream. And then you can spend a few days there because she does AMAZING work.  

I used my cricut to cut the ltter, the scallops and the baby onesies..  Thanks for stopping by.

Pin It

Baby Album V2 Video

Pin It

The Year of the Babies

The past few weeks have been a blur.  As I wrap up my Project Life, for 2011, I realized that last year was the year of family.  I spent more time with my sisters, cousins and father in one year than I had in the whole decade before. My father took us on a tour of York Town, Texas, where he and my aunts and uncles were born.  But this year, this year is the year of the baby.  

I became a grandmother this year.

. 

My bestfriend is having her first child this year and my daughter's geometry teacher is having her first baby and my aunt had her fourth.  Within the first four months of this year I will meet four new babies, two boys and two girls.  So I have gone crazy making baby things and I am loving every bit of it.

So over the next few weeks I will share some of the projects I did for these precious little ones.

Pin It

In the beginning

I am overcome with fear and I have no idea why. A part of me has this insatiable need to share with the world and another part of me wants to hide in my closet. I have heard it said that fear and excited are different sides of the same coin. (correct me if I have this saying wrong...I have a tendency to get normal everyday American sayings mixed up...and I was born here....geez!) But my hope is that I got this one right. That fear and excitement feel the same way and only I can decide which I am feeling. So I choose excitement.

I am a SAHMTWFH. It looks confusing doesn't it? I just had a great idea. I am going to start using that at the end of my name. Some people have PHD, MD, PA, NHJP, LMNOP (just kidding on the last one). I will be Rozette Reyes Peckham SAHMTWFH. I know, I know you are thinking what the heck? Stay At Home Mom That Works From Home. Sure I am home all day. But I sit in front of a computer and answer calls all day.

Some people think, "Oh that must be so nice!" And when they say that, do you know what they are thinking? They are envisioning me at home reading magazines, sitting on Pinterest, going on long walks, cleaning my home all day long, when I am not scrapping....NOT.

You want to know what I am doing? I am sitting in a 10X10 room, in front of a computer screen and I am on the phone. I am on hold with insurance companies, talking to upset patients about their bill or reading medical records and coding them. I love my job! Seriously, I love my job. But it can get lonely.

So I am here. This is my water cooler and you guys are my coworkers. Nice to see you! Pin It

Relationship Status: It's Complicated

It is 6:51 am, post boot camp and shower and I would have to say I still love boot camp. But it is an odd thing, this boot camp. I have never had such a complicated relationship with a workout routine. Usually, I just always hate it or always love it. Wait, I have never loved it. I have loved aspects of it and had some really good days but I have never loved it.

But boot camp is like giving birth. There is alot of pain and struggle during labor but afterwards...there is just love and a story. I wake up in the morning and my first thought...hang on...let's go back a few hours. I go to bed each night and think, "man it is so late, I should just skip boot camp. I can miss one day." And I purposely don't check my IPhone alarm app to see if the alarm is set. I figure I can use it as an excuse for why I didn't get up.

But thankfully my husband has to be at work at 4:45 each morning and he is not quiet about getting ready. As a matter of fact, I think he is noisy on purpose. But by the time he leaves I am just enough awake to warrant a potty break. And I figure, since I am up, I will get dress for boot camp. Even that is still negotiable at this point. "Oh, no I can't find an exercise bra...guess I can't go. " And then, "I can't find matching socks so I can't go." I do this all the way out the door. And today I was able to add, "They blocked the main road and the detour is 10 minutes out of my way." But I still go.

As I race into the parking lot (because all my negotiating with myself has made me late). I start to get excited. And by excited I mean, it's too late now to turn around. But I get out, place my mat on the ground, put the weights down, get my sweat rag out, take a big swig of water and start to stretch.

Our warm up is always a run somewhere. We run around the church, around the track, to the gym or gasp, around the block. Now remember, running is a technique and not a pace. And my pace...slower than some people who are walking the warm up. And I do this without any music so I can actually hear myself gasping for my next breath. I am not use to that. But I learn to gasp in rhythm and whisper in cadence...you can do it, yes you can, you can do it, you can you can you can...and then all I can get out is one syllable...can, can, can, can.

As the work out continues I am bombarded by many thoughts:
You can do this.
You can't do that.
You want me to do what?
Oh my Gosh, I am doing it.
I have to stop....
I'll stop in 10 seconds.
I can stop now and no one will say anything.
If I close my eyes, I can think about my happy place.
If I close my eyes, I think I will pass out.
I don't bend that way.
I did it.
I wasn't last.
I wasn't first to fall.
This is gonna hurt tomorrow.
This was easier than I thought.
This hurts more than I thought it would .

All these thoughts go through my head while I am there. Outwardly, I think I am the only one groaning and talking to myself...but who cares.

But when all is said and done and I am driving home and I see that I burnt 600 calories in one hour and I feel the strength in my arms as I turn the steering wheel or the muscles in my legs as I walk up the driveway, I know boot camp loves me and I love it back. Pin It

He had me at chocolate

My mother always said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. To get to my heart, you have to pass my sweet tooth. So I was so excited when my boot camp leader said that a great inexpensive recovery drink was chocolate milk. Of course he suggested 1% milk, which is just FINE with me. It is high in protein and the sugar in the chocolate will raise your glucose which can become low after a work out.

I knew then that I was at the right place...TexasBootCamp. I was nervous at my first session. I imagined people yelling and cursing at me. I imagined that it was pouring and that I would be shivering in the cold rain. I imagined crawling through mud and holding a log over my head for hours on end. Then I realized...that was GI Jane.

Don't get me wrong, boot camp is tough but it is full of words of encouragement and praise. Michael plays Toby Mac and we end in prayer. I absolutely love it! It is tough. I won't lie. My legs hurt, my arms ache and my core muscles are sore but as my daughter says, "it's not pain, its progress." Pin It