This is My life

Going to TRY To post...

Okay, I am going to make a sincere effort here.  But my computer has been a PAIN lately so I may get interrupted. We'll see how it goes.  It overheats and has been just shutting off on me.  Ugh.  Needs some serious TLC.

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So, it is Labor Day weekend!  So excited!  Our boys go home tonight and then we are off until Monday night!  It will be soooo nice to have three days to catch up on life and just be our little family.  We were going to go camping but the beach where we wanted to stay was full so we decided to just hang out at home.  Jason and the two older kids may camp on the property somewhere, though, just so they can get used to sleeping in a tent. Should be fun!

I have a lot that I would like to get done this weekend.  I have let emails and other projects pile up and I need to get to those things!  Here is my master to-do list.  I wanted to be productive but realistic.

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So, the interview.  Like I said yesterday, it went well.  I was a little nervous but the ladies I talked with were very warm and friendly.  I interviewed with Britney Mellen (Creative Editor), Brittany Beattie (Managing Editor), and Ali Edwards (Lifestyle Editor).  I had been given some of the questions ahead of time so nothing really took me by surprise.  We just really talked about my view of the magazine, of the industry, about what I would like to see happen, about my own scrapbooking journey.  It was so fun (as it always is!) to talk with people about scrapping.  It is so much more than a hobby for me and so I love to talk with people who understand the passion I have for it.  I totally understand those that DON'T get why it is such a big deal (I can't for the life of me figure out why people find sports so fascinating!) but when I find kindred spirits in the scrapping world I can't help but smile.

In the end, I feel like there were some more things I would have loved to talk about but I think they heard my heart and my passion and they got me.  I just wanted to be myself, and I was. Of course I would take a chat in a coffee shop over a phone call any day, but they made it feel comfortable nonetheless.

Now that all the "work" for SOY is done, I can start getting excited about going to Vegas.  The other finalists and I have a private message board and it has been so fun getting to know them all.  They are all so talented and have so many wonderful dreams and ideas. Any of the ten of us would be a great addition to the CK team.  We're all getting excited for our trip and getting to meet in person!

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This week's DIGI DARE is up! Here is the challenge!

Look-a-Likes
This week, I want to see photos of people that look-a-like. Maybe you’ve always been told you look like a celebrity, or that you and your significant other oddly look similar. Maybe it’s a best friend that you can see yourself in. Or maybe your children all look the same. Whatever it is…I want to see look-a-likes!! You must focus on the photos this week! Show us why these people look similar!!

Dare Flair:
2 photos or more
I want to see lots of paint
Let’s see at least 4 different alphas!

And here is my page!  Can't wait to see yours!

Journaling: So, which one do you think it is? Look closely. It might surprise you. Is it sweet little alaina, crabby little cabe, or content little levi? Which one? Well, if you guessed it was alaina, you are right. BUt, you are also right if you guessed caleb or levi. I never realized how much my kids looked alike until i saw these three pictures side by side. Each one in the pool for the first time, each About 10 weeks old. Look at those chubby little faces and bright blue eyes. Love the fun sun hat. Love their love for the water. And the next time you think you know who you are looking at, you might need to do a TRIPLE TAKE.

Credits: Paper, rub-ons, and paint strokes by Michelle Coleman, painted alpha by Rhonna Farrer, shmootzy alpha by Nancie Rowe Janitz, other alpha by Gina Cabrera. Font is Misproject.

AND....There will be new releases at the SHABBY SHOPPE today!  I can't tell you how GORGEOUS these two new kits are.  You'll have to wait to see the previews but I will show you the LO's I did with them.  Yummy stuff!

Modish Boy kit by Shabby Princess. Notepaper by Christy Lyle. Paper tear by Steph Krush. Hand stamped alpha by Michelle Coleman.

Modish Girl kit by Shaby Princes. Inked border by Ida at Catscrap.  Stitches by Birgit at Catscrap. Paint strokes by Michelle Coleman.

AND last but not least, don't forget that TODAY is the last day for the DiscTalkRadio Inside the Scrappers Playhouse Challenge! The deadline is midnight tonight. Upload your LO to the gallery for your chance to win!

HAVE A FANTASTIC HOLIDAY WEEKEND!

No Post Today...

Heading out with a friend for a bit this morning then enjoying some time with the family.

The interview went well yesterday, in case some of you were wondering!

No sick days when you are a mom...

So it seems that my day and a half of taking care of my sick, sick little daughter left her nice and happy and me sick as can be.  I knew something was a little "off" yesterday morning when I got up.  And then it just got worse from there.  I didn't keep anything down all day.  At around 5:30 I finally tried some Gatorade and amazingly, I kept it down.  I then had some toast and stayed in bed for the rest of the night.  Feverish, very tired, and just pretty blah.  It is hard to be sick when you are a mom -- there are no sick days to be called in and have someone else do your work.  So there are still diapers to be changed, sippy cups to be filled, bandaids to be applied, hair to be brushed, messes to be cleaned up.  Needless to say it was a hard day.  I was really scared to go in for round 2 today, but so far I am feeling much better. Still pretty drained but I am up and about and am not wishing that my death was imminent.

So needless to say I have no new LO's or pictures to show you.  I barely even came near my computer yesterday. 

Today is my interview with CK.  I'm not too nervous, except for the fact that it is while we are working so Jason can't be with the kids.  I need to have the kids go be with a friend so I am not trying to talk over their cries for more milk or help with the potty.  It is only supposed to last for 20 minutes so it shouldn't be too bad.

Hope your Wednesday is a good one!

Anxiety Dreams...

Does anyone else have these?  You know, dreams like you walk into high school n.a.k.e.d or that you get to the alter on your wedding day and you've got brownie all over your face?  LOL!

Well I have one, and I get it about every three months or so.  It is always the same basic thing.  It always involves me not completing a high school or college class.  I will find that I missed a whole semester or I forgot to do the term paper or that I am all set to graduate and they tell me on the day that I still need one more English class.  One version is that I have "one more class" to take and I cannot fit it into my schedule in order to graduate on time. I HATE the dream.  I fret in my sleep and then when I wake up I am relieved, but still have the horrible pit in my stomach.  Now just so you know, I DID graduate from both high school AND college, so the dream doesn't make much sense to me. But I still get it all the time and it leaves me a little jittery.  I should keep copies of my diplomas by my bed so when I wake up in the morning (or in the middle of the night) freaking out I can try to reassure myself!  LOL!

So that was MY night last night!  At least it was just a bad dream instead of the previous evenings of dealing with  my sick little child!  She threw up just once yesterday morning and since then has seemed to be better.  Thankful for that!

Just one LO to share with you today. I did this one a few weeks back.  Over the summer I started talking with Kelly (a 2006 CK Hall of Famer) who runs a new monthly kit club in the paper scrapping world.  We started talking about ways to help paper scrappers incorporate some digital techniques to help their scrapping go faster.  What we came up with was for me to make some photo collage templates.  See, if you are a paper scrapper it would be a LOT of work to make one of these work.  You would have to print, and cut, and then assemble.  Most people wouldn't bother.  So, I made a few templates for exclusive use for the IT KIT's.  They shipped yesterday and people will have a chance to download them and hopefully get over their fear of digital.  Now my LO is all digital but I used one of the photo collage templates.

Shabby Princess OCCASIONS kit

Hope that everyone has a great Tuesday.  Not much on our schedule today.  Some cleaning is definitely needed and a trip to the pool is high on Alaina's list of priorities!

Caleb the cat, a broken finger, and lots of other misc useless info....

So sorry I didn't post on Friday.  I had every intention of doing it from the hotel but they wanted me to pay for internet access and I have a fundamental problem paying for a connection when I have already paid enough for the room.  I cannot believe that hotels boast having high speed internet and then they have the audacity to ask you to PAY $10 to use it.  Anyway...

Here are a few pictures of our night at the hotel.  We had such a good time!  Other than the internet thing, the hotel was FABULOUS!  We had a two room suite, which is wonderful for our little family.  And the hotel had just enough "extras" to make it such an enjoyable experience.  They have a managers reception at night with free drinks and snacks.  And then in the morning there is a huge buffet breakfast with cooked to order eggs and omelettes.  And this is all without a huge price tag.

Of course our kids favorite thing at hotels is the fact that we let them jump on beds!  LOL!  Not at home, but at hotels it is okay!

Before we got to the hotel, we stopped at TGIFriday's for a very late lunch!  They loved the big round booth they put us in!

As we were getting into the car to head out that day, this is what we saw sitting in our bushes!

And here is a sweet one of me and my little girl :)

And one of her alone :)  I actually scrapped this picture this weekend but it is with an upcoming GORGEOUS kit, so you'll have to wait :)

I feel like there is just sooo much to catch everyone up on.  So, I'll just do a quick recap for each person in this little family of ours...

Starting with the youngest:

LEVI

This kid cracks me up.  I just LOVE this age (he is 16 months).  He is learning new words all the time and is figuring out what things are used for.  Whenever we even mention the word "go" he is busy collecting everyone's shoes and insisting that they put them on.  He loves to run around and be crazy.  He is also incredibly sweet and cuddly. I have never had a cuddly baby before.  But he just loves to come for a snuggle as he buries his little face in my shoulder.  He also gives the sweetest kisses! 

CALEB

He is definitely his own little kid.  He is talking more and more (which is really good) but we still hope to get him into speech therapy this fall.  But he is trying so much and I love to hear all his fun little phrases and sentences.  His newest phrase is "why not?"  If we say no to anything, he always lifts up his little hands and asks so sweetly, "why not?"

His other new thing (which I am not as fond of) is that he thinks he is a cat.  And this kid can certainly stay in character!  I'll talk to him and he only responds with, "Meow."  He crawls around the house on all fours meowing at everything.  And apparently he realizes that cats don't have arms so he will even pick up DVD's with his mouth and try to stick them in the player. LOL! 

ALAINA

Sweet little girl!  She's been sick the last two days.  I spent most of yesterday sitting with her, holding her hair back and she threw up, and cleaning up where she didn't quite make it to the toilet. She seems to be a bit better today and she hasn't thrown up since yesterday afternoon, so hopefully we are on the mend.

ME

I've been pretty busy as usual.  But I am really trying to take one thing at a time and not do too much.  I really miss making templates so I am hoping to find time this week to get back into it.  The summer was long and slow and I didn't release ANYTHING other than my grab bags.  I am hoping in the next few weeks to have some new stuff up.

I have finished up most everything for round 2 of SOY.  All that is left is the interview which will be this week sometime.  It has been fun getting to know the other finalists and just enjoying the whole process.

JASON

Jason has been pretty busy looking after our dorm boys. Since I have our little ones and just because he is the man of the house, a lot of it falls to him.  I am around all the time but most of the discipline and routine fall to him. It is stressful at times but he is enjoying it.  After our one boy was released last week we have seen a huge improvement in the other guys.  They just fed off of the bad attitude and energy and now that that is gone, they are all doing so much better! 

Jason broke his finger on Saturday!  Well, at least we think it is broken. He talked to a lady on staff here who is a nurse and she said she thinks he tore a ligament.  Ugh. He has it all braced up -- hopefully it gets better soon!

Here is a LO for this weeks DIGI DARE. This one was sooo hard for me.  Here was the dare:

Now on to this weeks Dare!!

I thought we’d do something not as “deep” this week so we could have it easy as summer winds down Smile

I’d like you to scrap by the numbers! We’ll play it really easy! Off today’s date! Today is 8/24/07 so here is your dare! I’d like you to include the following (no more, no less)

8 of the same element (flowers, stars, brads, etc)
2 photos
4 word title
0 journaling
7 glittery elements (sequins, gems, glitter - feel free to mix and match)

That’s it! Other than these elements, you can add whatever you want!

*** Can you see why this would be hard for me?? No journaling, LOTS of elements, and sparkly stuff!  Ah!  But, it was fun to be stretched a little!

Credits: Pink paper and sparkly block letters by Emily Merritt, kraft paper by Gina Cabrera, bow by Natalie Braxton, straight stitching by Lisa Whitney, circle stitching by Lisa Carter, glitter paint strokes by Meredith Fenwick, alpha by Holly McCaig, font is mom’s typewriter.

Have a great Monday!

Breathing Deep...

Just so much going on.  I don't mean in the busy sense of the word (though that is true, too).  Just so much going on in the heart and mind.  Good things, bad things, exciting things, scary things, uncertain things.  Sometimes I just let my mind get so caught up that I think I forget to breath.  Forget to stop and look at things in perspective.  Stop and realize that this moment, this day, this week, are such a small part of the whole.  Yes...things may be fun and exciting and scary and uncertain.  But I don't need to let myself become overwhelmed with the emotion.  Perspective.  I need some of that.

Today is our day off (though we always refer to it as our family day).  We decided it would be best to get away...really get away.  So, we are getting a bunch of stuff done at home this morning and then this afternoon we are checking ourselves into a nice suite hotel here in Orlando.  When we get away we focus on each other more, enjoy one another more. The kids love hotels (and so do we!) It will be good to have some space.  We come back on duty tomorrow at 4pm so it will be a nice long break.  Which should be good because...

It is going to be an emotional return.  One of our boys is being released today.  It is hard because I know the home situation of this boy is horrendous.  On the other hand, I know it was the best decision (though it wasn't ours) because of the effect this boy has on the rest of the boys.  With him gone, I think the other boys will start to do better.  It's sad though.  It feels like we are giving up on this kid who has nothing going for him.  He would be so much better off being here, but we can't sacrifice the other six we have for the one.  The other boys are going to be really upset (and surprised) so I am sure it will be a long and emotional weekend. I love that God's mercies are new every morning.  I need a nice new heaping dose today :)

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On the scrapping front --  I have done a bunch lately but unfortunately it isn't anything I can show you.  I have stuff for some soon-to-be-released kits, for the digi dares, and a bunch of stuff for CK.  I have one more big project to finish up for them and then I think I will be free and clear for a while to just scrap for fun and be able to share with you.

I am starting to get excited about my trip to Vegas for SOY.  I don't think Jason is going to be able to go with me (because of work) so I am really bummed about that.  But the trip should be great anyway.  They have me booked in a room HERE and the hotel alone makes me excited to go!  LOL!  The other finalists and I have been chatting via a message board so it is fun to get to know each of them a little better. They are such a talented bunch -- and not just in scrapping. Fun to talk with others who share your passion.

And speaking of message boards, I know...I haven't been around anywhere lately. Not at DST, not at MSA, no where.  It's just one thing that I had to let go of when we started working again. There are only so many hours in the day and reading message boards just cannot be on the top of my list of priorities.  I am sad that I haven't "seen" some of you around lately.  Feel free to drop me a note!  I email!

Well, I should get started on my day.  Lots to do before we leave.  Have a great Thursday!

The Ups and Downs of Childcare...

Well, actually, childcare probably isn't the correct term. In reality, we are professional parents.  Feels weird saying that, but I suppose if we get paid to parent other people's kids, that's what we are.

Anyway, it is a tough line of work.  It has LOTS of ups and downs.  I often will tell people that it is one of those jobs where one night I can cry myself to sleep wondering why in the world anyone would EVER want to do this job and the next night I can go to bed all pumped, wondering why anyone would NOT want this job.  Just like parenting your own kids, you have to take the ups AND the downs.  Although it is hard sometimes, I still think I would rather take the high highs and the low lows than have a job that is the same day in and day out.  I also know that I would struggle having a "normal" job.  I love knowing that what I do makes a difference.  I may not see the impact I have, it may be years down the road, but I know that each day I am influencing the lives of kids.  I am giving them life skills so that they can make it in the real world.

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Anyway, just a good few days of reflection on what I do and why I do it .

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Here are some pictures from last week.  Jason took the kids out and they bought a little sprinkle play toy.  Jason encouraged Alaina to buy the nicer one but this is the one she really wanted.  It broke the first time they used it!  LOL!  It split a seam and the water was gushing out. We returned it of course, and got the other one, but I think they actually enjoyed the broken one. They loved jumping over the huge stream of water!

Have a great Tuesday, everyone.  We're hoping for a nice, calm day.  Alaina and I are hopefully going to get pedicures and then hopefully we'll all make it to the pool!

Short and Sweet...

I need to keep things short this morning.  We had such a nice and relaxing weekend, but that means that I let a lot of things that needed to get done wait until today.  Fun stuff, but still stuff that *has* to be done. 

The weekend was great -- early to bed, getting up a little later, relaxing at the pool.  I have wanted to get a really nice pool chair so I could lounge in the water.  Well, we finally got one last week but I got all of five minutes in it before Caleb declared it his.  I think I would have been okay with it except for the fact that he didn't want to sit in it!  He wanted it for his noodle!  LOL!  So, there was my nice new pool chair, pushed to the steps of the pool holding nothing except a blue noodle! Caleb would freak out every time someone tried to use the chair. So for the next day we kept saying over and over again, "that's mom's chair."  Thankfully, by the next time we went he pushed the chair to me and said, "your chair, mom."  Poor noodle, you'll have to find your own chair.

I did a bunch of scrapping this weekend, but unfortunately it isn't anything that I can show you.  I have a bunch of stuff for SOY.  It was good to sit and focus and scrap with a purpose.  I have so many other ideas swimming around in my head right now.  So excited to play with them!

Since I can't show you anything I did this weekend, I will show you another old one that I don't think I have ever posted.   If I have already posted it, sorry.  I did this one back in February or March.  That's Caleb :)

Have a great Monday!

Whoops!

Sorry about no post yesterday.  It totally slipped my mind before the boys went to school yesterday and after they left we headed straight out and went to Dunkin' Dougnuts as a family.  Then I took a nap and by the time I remembered about it, it was the afternoon. Sorry about that.

We had a few hours off last night, which was nice.  We went out to dinner and had yummy prime rib.  We eat at the cafeteria most meals and they don't serve a lot of meat.  As a family of O blood types, we are seriously feeling the lack of meat in our diet.  We need to be better about eating meat at lunch when we are home. I was feeling so out of whack yesterday that I had a protein drink in the afternoon.  Seemed to help a bit.

Anyway...

This weekend is a home weekend for the boys which means we are off.  I'm looking forward to a laid back weekend, a lazy morning, home cooked food. Should be great! 

And just because this made me laugh --

Last night we were at Wal-Mart.  The lines were ridiculously long (as usual).  Jason took the kids to go play somewhere while I waited in line.  There were two young guys right in front of me.  They looked 18 or 19, jeans hanging down way too low, skater-type apparel.  There cart was FULL. It totally looked like two guys out on their own for the first time.  I was kind of impressed -- instead of a cart full of beer they had the good 'ol bachelor standbyes -- frozen pizzas, jar spaghetti sauce, breakfast sandwiches. I could tell they had had good moms though -- they also had milk, orange juice, and even yogurt.  Then low and behold, one of the guys reached into his back pocket (which was right around his knees, his pants were riding so low) and he pulled out a LIST!  He checked it out and declared they had done good.  Then, as they were checking out, the other guy noticed some frozen hashbrowns in the cart.  He looked at them, kind of perplexed.  The he pulled them out with a look of worry on his face.  He examined the package and then said with a huge smile, loud enough for the next few aisles to hear, "Oh yea dude..microwave.  A guy's best friend." 

LOL!  Hope those two guys enjoy life in the real world.  At least they'll be eating well :)

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Here is this weeks Digi Dare.  I have missed the past few weeks since life has been busy trying to get settled in our new jobs.  Felt good to be back with it this week.  Here was the dare:

Digi-Dare #49 ~ Making You

What makes a “you”? What are your redeeming qualities? What are your faults? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What is your best feature? What part of your looks makes you cringe?This week I DARE you to create a recipe for YOU! Are you 1 part sugar and 10 parts spice? Do you have a dash of geek or a heaping spoonful of style and grace? Let’s put together a perfect description of how WE see OURselves as if we were gonna tell someone how to clone us in a lab! Best of luck!

Dare Flair:

* Use multiple photos on this layout of yourself to depict the different parts of what make up your whole

* Use the word recipe in your layout somewhere

* Include at LEAST 5 different “steps” in your recipe so that we really get a feel for who you are. Feel free to make your recipe much longer though if you can

And here is my LO:

Have a great weekend!

Betcha' Didn't Know (part 2)

1. One of my very favorite foods is peanut butter and bacon on toast.

2.  I go through at least three 2-Liters of diet Pepsi Jazz (black cherry and vanilla) every week.

3.  Tuna is the last food I would ever put in my mouth.  I would probably let myself starve before putting tuna anywhere near my mouth.

4. I eat my steak rare.

5. I like ketchup with my french fries.  Unless they are from McDonald's -- McDonald's fries are perfect plain.

6.  When we were in Malaysia, we could get food for our whole family for under US$5 -- including happy meals and a McFlurry.

7. I have never read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies.  Just not my kind of thing.

8.  I hate all fantasy, science fiction, and otherwise "totally not possible" books and movies.  I didn't even like the Chronicles of Narnia.

9.  I majored in psychology and am one class shy of a certificate in youth ministry.

10.  I transferred colleges after my freshman year...so glad I did.

11. During my freshman year at college, I never once learned the name of my R.A.

12. I love cemeteries.

13. When I was in high school, I used to talk about my funeral all the time.

14.  My favorite book is A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot.

15. A close second is No Compromise by Melody Green.

16.  For a novel, Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy gets my vote. It is the only book that I have ever finished and then immediately read again.

17.  I like washing dishes by hand but for some reason always put it off.

18.  I would rather do cleaning than straightening up.  Clutter overwhelms me so I avoid it.

19.  I don't really like music. I don't mind it, but I rarely choose to listen and almost never purchase it.  I like quiet too much.

20. I always wished I knew how to play the piano.

21. I have only had bangs (or "fringe" for you non-Americans) for four years of my life -- from 2nd - 6th grade.  I can't imagine ever having them again.  I hate having hair in my face.

22. I am allergic to most soaps. I use shampoo to wash my body and I try to always have anti-bacterial gel with me so I can avoid using soap in public restrooms.

23. I got Amoebic Dysentery when I was in India.  It was the sickest I have been in my whole life.

24.  The hospital I went to was by far the worst place I have ever been.  I won't even begin to describe how unhygienic it was.  Not all hospitals in India are like that...I gave birth to Alaina two years later in a wonderful Indian hospital.

25.  We didn't know the sex of any of our babies before we had them.

26.  I was 95% sure I was having a girl with Alaina.

27.  I was 75% sure I was having a boy with Caleb.

28.  I was 85% sure I was having a GIRL with Levi.  Whoops.  Good thing I didn't shop ahead of time.

29.  I wear a size 8.5 shoe.

30.  When I was little, my mom told me that when my feet stopped growing I could own more than a few pairs of shoes.  I think I went a little overboard.  The highest count I remember from high school was 53 pairs.

31.  Now I own seven or eight pairs, at least 5 of which are flip flops.

32. When I was in college, my dad bought me a car as an early graduation gift.  To his dismay, I chose a flair-sided Ford Ranger pick-up.  It was black and I LOVED it. We sold it when we went to India.

33.  I love roses but I think baby's breath is tacky.

34.  In India I could by roses for 10 cents a piece.  Gerbera daisies were only a few cents more.  I always had fresh flowers in my house.

35.  I have to sleep with one foot out of the covers. 

36. One of my most embarrassing moments was in the first grade and I wet my pants during snack time (someone forgot to switch the STOP sign on the bathroom door to GO and so I was waiting and waiting).  The kids starting laughing and I told them my apple was leaking.  Not apple juice, my apple.  LOL!

37. We always eat spaghetti on Christmas Eve.  I've done it since I was a little girl.

38.  I don't remember every believing in Santa.

39. I CANNOT eat without having a napkin in my hand.  I think it comes from years of table training and not being able to start eating without a napkin in my lap.

40.  I have never gotten a speeding ticket. I have been pulled over three times, none of which were really deserved.  I haven't been pulled over in 10 years.

41. I have been in two car accidents, but I wasn't driving either time.

42. I love driving a stick shift (manual transmission).

43. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is put my hair into a messy ponytail. 

44. I used to collect frogs (figurines, not real ones).

45.  I did catch real ones one time -- I caught like 50 of them and had them all in one tank.  It was gross -- there were eggs everywhere.  Then they started disappearing.  I finally found at later my brother (boy that he is) was playing a game -- 101 ways to kill a frog.

46. I shoplifted in elementary school.

47.  I also got caught smoking a cigarette in third grade.

48.  I don't swim in water that is less than 80 degrees F.

49.  After seven years I still don't know my parents phone number by heart.

50.  I get to eat at Fazoli's today :)

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Sorry I didn't return blog comments yesterday.  I was trying to stay off the computer.  Thanks for making me feel better about my sill indulgences.  And LOL to all those trying to put baby #4 in my arms :)

Happy Wednesday!