procrastinating

Yep... that's what I'm doing. Tomorrow we leave on our trek to Michigan and I haven't packed a thing. I've made lists of things to pack but that's as close as I've gotten to actually packing. Thankfully we're just driving to Missouri tomorrow so we can leave at anytime. Jeff's plane still isn't here... storms in NYC... so it will be good to not have to rush. I still need to finish up my MMM entry too... I don't know why I stall out on things like this, but I do.... I get almost finished and then freeze. I don't get it.

I got new hair today! I'm totally in love with the girl who did my cut and highlights today!!! Wow! I just can't believe the difference! I had really been a rut with the guy who had been cutting my hair. He looked like a cool, hip guy but maybe he's been in the 'burbs too long because no matter what I asked for I always came out of there with a shellacked helmet of hair and that is sooooooo not me... but he was close and I didn't know where else to go. Our photo playdate didn't pan out so I decided just to walk in at this place that I've been wanting to try... let me just say that I'm totally in love! The color is perfect and the cut is sooooo perfect... and totally "me". Very, very pleased that this all worked out before we left for our trip because I was feeling very uncool frumpy housewife -ish... if you know what I mean.

I went a little crazy on iTunes again today and downloaded another 10 songs or so... just prep for our trip. Oh... speaking of music, I finally figured out where Clara got Hollaback Girl from.... get this.... there's a cd called Barbie Hit Mix 2 that they advertise on Toon Disney and that song is on that cd!!!!!!!!!!!!! Given the lyrics that seems like a lot of effort to go to make it kid friendly. Oh well.... mystery solved though.

Let's see if I can get my two layouts from yesterday to load...

I'm too lazy to do links tonight but the kit is Mommy's Little Boy by Mindy Terasawa and the idea prompt is from Puzzle Day in the July Issue of Katie the Scrapbook Lady's Amazing Month of Memories.

Oh well... I got one uploaded... don't know what's going on with blogger.

I'll try to check in while we're in Michigan! See you in a week!!

I LOVE MY NEW OFFICE!!!

Yes... I'm yelling... I just love it that much! We had a glorious day here in our house. I spent almost the entire day in my office getting things done and the kids spent the day in here with me! They beg to "do school" so they can hang out in here! So... we did lots of (informal) school today. Alex and I even played two rounds of sight word Bingo... wooo hooo! (Oh.. fyi... I lost both rounds). This truly is going to be the ideal arrangement for us for this school year. I love having them in here and I really think they enjoy being here too.

Here's a layout I did of them doing puzzles from our incredibly cool world atlas puzzle book...

Ugh... blogger isn't letting me upload photos at the moment... but that's okay... I'm not going to let that spoil my great day. But I'll probably stop the ramblings and head on to bed. Big day tomorrow... another 2peas Photography Playdate! This time we're heading to the mall to try our luck with the lighting there just for fun! I can't wait... it's always a good time when we get together each month.

Oh... another reason why it was a good day... my pint-sized neighborhood arch nemesis didn't ring our doorbell today!!! First time in the last 7 days!!!!!!!!!

Okay... off to bed! 'nite!

the wednesday morning wake-up outfit

Here's Clara's outfit of the morning... I think she enjoys creating a new look each morning and having me take pictures...

the countdown

Well... Tuesday is gone so I just have Wednesday and Thursday to get through before we leave for Michigan. I have done next to nothing on my "to do" list, but I'm oddly quite okay with that. I'll freak out about later.

So, while we're in Michigan I plan on taking the yearly "cousin" picture of Alex, Clara and the cousin Lauren who was 1 in April. We took a trip to Old Navy on Sunday to find matching outfits for the three. It's harder than it looks! I'm so sad, Clara has crossed the line into the "girls" section of Old Navy! I think what bothers me about this is that the "cute" stuff doesn't really exist in this section... it's all pre-teen/teen style clothes... something I'm not ready for at 4 years old. We did finally make a decision... Alex got a button down shirt in a cream, brown and blue small plaid. Clara got the shirt and skirt below....

And for Lauren, we got this adorable little dress...

I think they should look cute together, don't you? Now to figure out where to do the pics. That's going to be the tough part.

Strange day here... the kids actually begged to "do school" today so we did. Clara has made it her mission today to learn to read and has been carting the Bob books around... she'd read the first three by bedtime. I'm trying to figure out our schedule for next school year as school here starts the week after we get back from Michigan. I think I have it figured out... at least the basics. One would think that using mostly a boxed curriculum would make things easier, but at the moment its creating anxiety! I'm sure I'll get over it once I get started.

Speaking of school starting, I still need to get them signed up for their activities. I need to decide on a day for dance for Clara and piano lessons for Alex (he is so excited about them). Clara is changing soccer teams this year and will be on an all girl team with some friends from church... the team is, get this, the pink ponies!!! Too funny!

Well.. it's late and I need sleep. I'll leave you with a pic I took of the girl this morning. This is how she greeted me this morning in my office. You've got to love the shirt... it was in the dress-up box but she has rescued it and insists on wearing it as a "sleeping dress"... I'm not sure the reason for the ears... but she wore them alot of the morning.

'nite!

monday, monday

So I skipped out on the posting this weekend... I just couldn't do it... our weekend was just too short. Jeff didn't get home until lunchtime on Saturday so we only had a day and a half together as a family. What time I was on the computer, I used to finish up my MMM entries. They're not winning material, but I'm darn proud of them! I so love entering things like this. I always try to be realistic about it and think about what my chances are and if it's really worth the time and effort... but the truth is, I get more mad at myself for not trying than for trying and not winning. I just get caught up in the hype and I want to be a part of it win or lose. I'm going through that with the State Fair right now. The first year I entered I got a blue ribbon so I was thrilled... last year... nothing. And it really is a pain to enter... only picking two photos, having them mounted on foam core and hand delivering them to fair park. AND if you don't place, you have to pick up your photos before the fair starts. But even though I complain about it, it will probably just eat me up to not even try. So... I should probably get going and pay my fees since they're due August 5th.

Have I mentioned before that Clara is nuts? She really truly frightens me at times. Last night she came into my office with no top on, and dancing while singing Hollaback Girl. Okay... not sure where she's heard this song but apparently she has. So, right then and there I decided to go on a quest to figure out what exactly a Hollaback Girl is. Still not sure, but I found this article and it cracked me up. She then went back into her bathroom, came back out and announced that everytime she goes near her tub she hears voices that aren't her. Hmmmm.....

Clara insisted on me taking pics while she was in the tub... so here you go....

Again.... more proof that this girl marches to her own beat.

Tomorrow Shirin is here so it's errand day again. We're getting ready for our yearly trek to Michigan, so I have some stuff to take care of before we go.

Well... the kiddos are in bed and I have zero creativity to scrap... so I'm off to bed! 'nite!

must sleep now

Okay... I should have been in bed hours ago but Anne (painted moon at 2peas) got me all wrapped in looking for clues in the little mystery we were trying to solve.

So... this is it, a really short post and two pics from today (ack... technically yesterday now) and I'm off to bed!

it was a good day

I was actually fairly productive today! Yay me! I ran errands this morning and was so organized that I was able to hit 5 places and knock out my shopping list by noon! Oh... and I didn't leave the house until 10:30.

I actually showed restraint today in Hobby Lobby AND Staples. I put the blinders on and bought only what I went in there for... can you believe it? With homeschooling, we don't have the same supply lists as one might have for public school. We have pencils and such here so today I was shopping for the supplies to go with our new art curriculum! This thing looks so cool I can't wait to start it. Anyway... I have a whole big list of art supplies to get so I looked up the HL ad and the Staples ad online to see if anything we needed was on sale. HL had all of the artist paper 1/3 off and their art brushes 1/2 off so I went in just to get those things. My goodness... I haven't been that confused in a long time as I was in the art brush aisle! A 3/4" easel brush??? What is that??? Nothing in the entire aisle was labeled "easel brush". Then a #10 General Purpose Camel Hair Brush???? I found the #10 alright... but in both round and flat and neither was labeled General Purpose! I did the best I could and I'm sure the kids will never know the difference. Oh.... and then it was off to Staples next door for the $.68 packages of Crayola Markers! Gotta love 'em!

The kids spent the day here with Shirin making all kinds of stuff out their Kid Concoctions book. This book is so much fun! I think they made about 4 things out of it today... including lip gloss and silly putty. They played with their concoctions while I FINALLY got out a photo order for a friend.

Oh!! I did scrap... I got one more MMM layout done... so just 2 to go and I did the layout below from pics I took yesterday....

The kit is Figaro by Tracy Ann Robinson.

Well... Jeff's just emailed me to see if I was still up... I'm going to run since the phone will be ringing soon!

'nite!

halfway there

Well... we're halfway through the week and that makes me happy.

Okay.... still on the phone with Jeff and I have a hard time multitasking so I'm just going to upload my layout from today and call it done...

Isn't that background paper cool??? It's new at www.plaindigitalwrapper.com by Misty Mareda... My Writing Desk. Love it!

Hopefully I'll have more tomorow! 'nite!

less crabby

Yes... it is true... I am less crabby today... however, I've replaced it with just plain being out of it. I am just in my own little world today... I swear the shots I got at the dentist's office numbed my brain as well as my mouth. I'm in a fog.

I got over my issue with my fair entries. This morning I decided to get up early and redo the collage. I would take it to MotoPhoto to be printed and pick it up after my dentist's office. Let me just say that I LOVE MotoPhoto (at least the one I go to). I always print through the lab I use as my first choice... but if I need something fast, MotoPhoto is the only convenient local place that I trust. They took the time and and adjusted my collage, not only so it all printed but left a margin on the sides so that nothing would be covered by the mat... it was absolutely perfect!!! The colors were great... the service was great... I just can't say enough. Oh... get this... when I left they said that they would have it done by 2:30 but my cell phone rang as I was just sitting down at the dentist's office (about 10 minute drive from MP) and they already had my print ready for me to pick up!!! Michael's is in the same lot as MotoPhoto so that was my next stop to get mats. Alex and I matted everything when I got home and then it was off to my friendly neighborhood UPS Store to send off my package. I'm still not loving my entries but its over, done, forgotten about... until the fair starts on the 28th, of course. :-)

Grrrrr.... Jeff usually comes home on Thursday nights and works from home on Fridays.... but he emailed me earlier and he has a 4:30 meeting on FRIDAY!!!! So, he won't be home until Saturday at some point and then back to NYC on Monday again. Friday night is family movie night in our house... I started this a couple of years ago when Jeff had to be out of town on a Friday night... it was something fun to do to start the weekend. Now... the kids like to push movie night out to Saturday if Jeff's not home on Fridays... so there goes our special "kick off the weekend" thing. I was talking to my mom about this today and she suggested taking them to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner Friday night. Not at all my first choice but it would take care of dinner and it would be something special. Any suggestions? A couple of weeks ago, I did look into renting a video game player (we don't own one) just for fun.... but couldn't find anywhere that rented them. The next best option if I went that route would be to buy a cheap older used model and keep it put away just for special occassions.

I took some pics today... but nothing worth posting. My child is so scarred by my photography and scrapping. Tonight she called to me from the bathroom... and told me that I should bring my camera because she thought these would be good scrapping pictures. Ummm... I'm not sure a totally unclothed almost 5 year old straddling the edge of the tub is good scrapping material... do you???? LOL! Then she asked me to take some pics of her bending over to play with the water... again.... no, not good scrapping material... at least not in my book! I tried taking tasteful close-ups of her face... but the angles just came out weird.

Oh well... there's always tomorrow! I need new pics because I'm in a scrapping funk!!!

'nite!

crabby

That's what I am today... not quite sure why. Nothing major has gone wrong... just little piddly things.

I got my prints back for the fair and I'm just not happy with them. The one that bugs me the most is the collage for the digital collage category. It looked lined up on my monitor but it didn't print that way... maybe I do need glasses (sigh). AND... I had everything cropped just so and WHCC enlarged every file before printing so I've lost the edges on ALL of my prints. I'm not happy about it but again, its the collage that really gets me. I still have to mat them tomorrow and there's really no room to around the edges. Ugh... and what really kills me is that the collage was my absolute favorite of my entries. I'm in the kind of mood where I don't even want to invest the time anymore because I'm just not happy with my entries. Oh well... I sleep on it and see how I feel tomorrow.

Went a little download happy on iTunes today but I still need more suggestions. I'm so out of the loop anymore when it comes to music. Okay.... maybe not totally out of the music loop but I'm looking for something other than what's on Radio Disney or Noggin. LOL!

Oh... another reason for the crabbiness is that I go back to the dentist tomorrow for the rest of my cleaning. I will try to refrain from freaking out this time. Although only getting half of the allotted shots was a good perk from having a total panic attack in the chair.

Well... Jeff's gone again which means its almost 10:00 pm and I still have dinner dishes to clean up. I will leave you with a couple of pics from today.... oh... there are no layouts even though I did two because I got this wild hair to enter the Memory Makers Masters contest. I've got less than two weeks before the deadline and I just started today... I must love stress! LOL!!

insert witty title here

I'm finally in my new office space and I love it! It's so nice and neat (but that's mainly because all of my mess is still sitting in the floor of my old office - which is now Jeff's new office). I'm totally in love with this room! Let's just hope I don't destroy it and can keep my stuff in check.

So... my project for the day was to find some songs to download to my ipod. Its just plain sad that I've have my cute little hot pink mini for over a year and only have three (yes, three) songs on it. I have a list of 11 I would like to download... but would love some suggestions if you have any. I've got a gift card just waiting to be spent!

With the move to the new office I have gotten one step closer to actually installing the copy of PSCS2 that I bought a couple of (or 3 or 4) months ago. It is now unwrapped and sitting open next to my keyboard. I'm making progress! LOL! I don't know why I'm scared of it... but I am. It's time to update.... I'm using PSE 2.0 for crying out loud!!!

I did three layouts this weekend... one for the Sweet Shoppe Inspiration gallery, one just because I loved the pic I took today of the kids and one because I got roped into it at a chat I went to last night... LOL! The chat was at A Cherry On Top and they needed just one more layout for the Andrea Burns contest so they could give out 4 gift certificates (for every 10 entries they get to pick a gc winner and before the chat they were at 39 entries). Anyway... here are my layouts...

Kits - Citrus Sundress and Citrus Sundress Add On by Robin Carlton.

Kit - Robins Nest by Andrea Burns. Note paper from Creme de Menthe by Robin Carlton and Paula Duncan.

Kit - the photoshoot from the expecting sweet stuff collection by Robin Carlton and Christy Lyle.

Oh... thank you all for the kind words about my blog's new look! I still have some stuff to figure out (like how to get rid of the box around my header)... but I'm so pleased with the new look!

Okay... I'm off... to do something... not sure what yet!

i've been busy

look what i've figured out today! still have more to do... i need to track down the addresses of all of the blogs i read... but i'm making progress!

happy friday!

Yes... Jeff made it back home today in time for the weekend. It was family movie night but Alex bailed on us... he really, really, really wanted to go to the lock-in at his martial arts place. So, we gave in and he went... but he's not going to spend the night so Jeff's picking him up right now.

Let's see... bought lots of cool stuff at Ikea... we're going to put it together this weekend so maybe I'll have pics to share soon.

Ummm... spent the afternoon at the pool yet AGAIN. The kids are getting so brown! My friend Janine ran out and got us all lunch from McDonalds and the Happy Meals had pirate costume stuff you would punch out of the sides. Here's Alex sporting his pirate stuff...

And while I was taking this pic.... Clara had to take some too....

She's too funny.... she has to set her CWB and meter manually before she starts shooting with her plastic McDonald's Chicken Nugget box camera. She takes the imaginary card out and hands it to me when she's done and keeps her camera with mine.

Oh... I scrapped a page too...

Idea from the Merry-Go-Round Day prompt in the July Issue of Amazing Month of Memories. Paperpack and Elements - Misty Mareda's Lushus. Background paper from Robin Carlton's TootsiePOP! kit.

'nite!

so sleepy

Okay... nearly three hours in the pool dealing with a floatie-less Clara can really wear a person out. I usually bring her floaties but today I forgot.... man, that girl has a limited supply of common sense.

Anyway... I'm not going to ramble tonight... I'm just going to post the three (yes, three) layouts I did today and head to bed...

The top one was done with MandaBean's Gummi Berry Juice kit. The second one was with Tracy Ann's Frivolity. And the last one was done with Tracy Ann's Cotton Sheets. (can you tell that I have a Tracy Ann obsession? love her stuff) The first two were also inspired by prompts in the July issue of Amazing Month of Memories (Aunt and Uncle's Day & Hammock Day).

Now... I'm off to bed so I can be good and rested for the trip to Ikea tomorrow! I can't wait!!

not so much a dork and a word of warning

Well... come to find out I did actually wash the conditioner out of my hair.... BUT (here's where the warning part comes) for future reference.... do not let your six year old son spray your back with continuous spray sunscreen... only to find out that he was coating the back of your head... 1. you'll get sunburned after an afternoon at the pool and 2. you will have a weird shellac-like coating on your hair that will remain after several washings. I currently still have it after two showers and much scrubbing. I could hear him spraying but wasn't feeling anything on my back... at first I thought the can had finally run out... but no, he was spraying my hair (to give him some credit, I always spray his hair but that's because he's got a short summer boy cut that you see his scalp through... I don't). Let's hope third times a charm and it'll be out tomorrow, just in time for another afternoon at the pool.

This is going to be a short post... no pictures and even no layouts today. I went to the dentist for a deep under the gum cleaning. I freaked out.... yes, the Queen of Panic Attacks did it again. I've already mentioned my recent flying panic attack that landed me with my very own row of seats on a sold out flight (again, not entirely my fault).... well... my other major phobia is needles. My heart was beating so fast (not sure how fast, the dentist insisted that the hygenist keep the monitor out of my sight as not to panic me further... little do they know that I have no idea what a normal pulse rate is).... that they had to discontinue the series of numbing shots. I only got 3 of the slated SIX!!!! The dentist agreed to have the hygenist start the cleaning without them but if it got to be too much, I could add the remaining shots. Well... I'll tell you this... I would have crushed the armrests from gripping too hard before I was going to have the rest of those shots... oddly, I do much better with pain than I do with needles. It was a piece of cake... no problems.... it didn't hurt at all. And even now what hurts is where I got the shots that I did get.... not my gums. Regardless.... having a full out panic attack always drains me so I'm going to bed.

'nite!

i am a dork

Yes... I know... hard to believe, isn't it? LOL! I was sitting here at my desk playing away when I decided to reach back and see if my hair was finally dry..... well, it was... but it just, I don't know... felt weird. Well... it appears that I just may have forgotten to wash all of the conditioner out of my hair in th shower. Nice, huh? I don't know about you, but if I don't do things in the certain order that I do them everyday.... I can totally forget to do them. I assume that I *must* have done step 2 because I *know* I did step 3. Today I didn't shower until 5pm so that was way out of my norm so I'm guessing that was the cause of this oversight. Oh... and before you give me grief for not showering until dinnertime.... I have a good explanation. We spent the afternoon at the pool so I didn't want to shower until I got home.... because I absolutely MUST shower after being in the pool... chlorine makes me batty.... I can just feel it sucking all of the moisture out of my skin and the smell drives me crazy.

Today was a good day. With our potential move on the backburner... I've moved on and totally threw myself into planning our next school year. I am so excited!!! We're doing some really cool stuff this year. I spent quite a bit of time on Netflix finding movies that go along with what we're studying so I can get them in my queue in the right order. I love that they have the IMAX films... we got a few last year for school and they are amazing. I know its not the same as seeing them on the big huge IMAX screen, but they're still cool to watch. Next I really need to sit down and rough out a general plan of our school days. Last year I didn't have a real good plan because it was our first year and I didn't know what to expect. But that was okay... honestly, it was part of the plan I guess... my intention last year was to be as involved and meet as many people as possible during Alex's kindergarten year because that was a low stress year as far as school work was concerned. Now we're part of a wonderful recess group and made some wonderful friends. I think I'm ready to at least rough out an outline of what our days should look like.

Well... I took no pictures today... but I did scrap two pages...

darn Blogger isn't letting me add pictures tonight... oh well... if you want to see them, I did one of Alex and his bike and another one of Clara riding in my dad's old truck.

Well... I should head to bed... tomorrow is going to be a rough one. I'm paying for not finding a dentist for the four years that we've lived here. No cavities but I have to go in to have a deep under the gum cleaning of 1/2 of my mouth. I wanted to just get it all over with at once but the dentist talked me out of it since they numb your face from under you nose on down... so this way at least half of my face is still functional... nice, huh?

moving day

No... we're not moving (at least not yet) but we did spend part of the day moving furniture. We had an epiphany yesterday afternoon during our pantry cleaning that Jeff really doesn't need his home office anymore... since he doesn't work from home any longer. His office was upstairs in the biggest bedroom in the house (after the master bedroom, of course). The kids' bedrooms are smaller but they each have their own bathroom attached... so its a good trade off. Anyway... I've been wanting my office to be somewhere else for quite a while now. My computer is in what was actually designed to be the office in our house but also doubles as our guest room. So, when we have guests (my parents or Jeff's)... I'm booted out of my office for days which is sometimes more than I can take!

The logical thing to do was to move me upstairs into Jeff's old office... lots of space and a big ol' desk... perfect. But there was still alot of room leftover. I briefly fantasized about having my very own craft room... but seeing that I'm more about starting crafts and not a whole lot about actually finishing them... this was just a recipe for disaster. Well.... I'm so excited.... we're moving the homeschool stuff into that room as well!!! We'll have our own designated school room separate from the playroom! The best part is... my computer will be right there so I can check my email, chat on hello, digiscrap, read message boards... whatever... while my kiddos do their school work!!! We've already moved a couple of things in there... a big huge bookcase we got at Ikea a couple of months ago and a smaller bookcase that we've had forever. I got online and found the perfect desk at Ikea for the kids to share. Hopefully, I'll make it to Ikea on Thursday to pick it up. Next weekend we're going to start the official move... so we can be settled before school officially starts next month. Yay! I just hope it works as well as I envision it.

Alex decided that he wanted his training wheels off of his bike today. We've tried it before but this is the first time that he truly seemed ready.

He never truly rode by himself without help today... but we made some definite progress.

Considering he took a lot of spills and never once shed a tear and kept on getting right back on. Watching my children grow and learn, I'm discovering that for the most part, they'll "get it" when they "get it" and trying to force things before then is just an exercise in frustration.

I did scrap a page today but I can't post it.... it's for this month's SWTSB prompt at the Sweet Shoppe so the gallery won't be public until the 15th, I think.

Well... I think I'll go hang out with Jeff while he packs for another week in NYC!

'nite!

Superman Saturday

Nope.... we didn't go to the theater... we rented the original 1978 version. Wow... what a flashback that was! Alex was totally enthralled with the whole thing, while Clara, on the other hand was asleep about 15 minutes into it.

We spent the whole day working! When the move originally came up we decided that we had a lot of closet emptying, purging and organizing that needed to get done in order to put our house on the market. So we decided to pick a closet/cabinet each weekend to work on. Well... today we tackled the pantry. Man... that place was a total disaster! We didn't mean for it to be an all day project but it turned into one. We did the food stuff before lunch and after lunch we organized the kids' craft supplies. Our pantry is under our stairs so it slopes down at the back, so we use the low part under the slope for the art stuff. I love that the kids can get in there and grab stuff so they can create whenever they feel like it. I just may have to take a picture of the pantry.... it just looks too good!

I scrapped one page today (I'm on a roll)....


I used Her Nursery again from the Expecting Sweet Stuff Collection.... love this kit. The idea prompt was Cousins Day from the July Issue of Amazing Month of Memories.

yay me!

I just figured out how to add links on the side (more to come)! I know... not a big deal for most of you but to me it is... maybe I'll get on a roll and revamp the whole darn thing!

too much fun!

So Anne (painted moon on 2peas) caught me on Hello this morning and asked if the kids and I would be interested in coming over to her house for some sprinkler and popsicle fun... well, of course!!! The kids had a blast as usual!

Please ignore the car behind Clara.... apparently I did when I was shooting.

Tons more to go through and bunches of scrap material.... in fact, I've already scrapped one page with pictures from today....

I used the Her Nursery kit from the Expecting Sweet Stuff Collection.

So, about the move... I'm so over it. They want to hire Jeff but they have to create the position.... and that looks like it will be 3-6 months out from now... so, I'm over it and moving on. I can't live in limbo any longer.... I'm signing the kids up for their fall classes, getting our homeschool schedule ready, planning our trip to Michigan, etc. I'm sad we're not making our yearly road trip to Michigan this year... last year we were on the road 23 days and it was great! We hit my mom and dad's house in Missouri, Branson, my in-laws' house in Michigan, Cedar Point in Ohio and Chicago. Now that's a road trip! :-) This year we'll be flying, which just isn't the same... and not just because I need sedatives in order to get on a plane (we're not even going to mention that I had a total panic attack on the plane when we went to Disneyland in February and even ended up with my very own row of seats - but it really wasn't my fault).

Ooooh... just got an email from Jeff... his plane just landed.... gotta run and clear a path through the house! LOL!

pretty toes!

Yes... today I went and got a pedicure! I love getting pedicures.... one of my favorite things about living here is the long sandal season. My toes are kind of a dark pinky red with white and glittery flowers on my big toes.... they make me happy to look at them.

I'm getting near the end of Wicked... Dorothy has arrived. I am really loving this book! So much more than I had expected! It was funny... the other night the kids and their friend from across the street decided to put on a play for me of the Wizard of Oz (Clara was Dorothy since she was the only girl, but their friend insisted that she be called Kimberly instead)... so they wanted to watch the movie to help them prepare. I totally look at that movie in a whole new light now!! LOL!! Its crazy!!

I scrapped one page today...

The kit is His Nursery from the Expecting Sweet Stuff Collection. There's a Sweet Spot Stapm by Shawna Clingerman tucked in there. The idea prompt is from the July Issue of Amazing Month of Memories - Recreation and Parks Month.

Oh Shirin brought over some of her favorite dresses from when she was a kid to see if Clara wanted to take pictures in them.... and of course, Clara is all about trying on clothes so she eagerly agreed. Here's one from this afternoon....

With that.... I'm off to bed!

up too late again

And yes, Jeff is out of town so it all goes together. I'm still avoiding cleaning the kitchen from dinner and it's 11:00 pm!!!

No news on the move.

We did NOTHING today, absolutely nothing... it was wonderful. We usually go to the pool on Wednesdays but we had a huge thunderstorm roll through. It was intense. Now, I personally, love a good storm but there are two members of our household who totally freak out.... Clara and Friday (our dog). Clara was wrapped in her pink blanket chanting her mantra.... "it's just God's power, it's just God's power" over and over again... while the dog was trying to dig a hole in our bathroom floor next to the toilet so she could hide (yes, we have tiled floors in there). I just don't get it. For Friday its not a loud noise thing... she was right in the midst of everyone setting off fireworks this past weekend and loving it. In fact, she loved it a little too much... the retriever in her was taking over and she was wanting desperately to grab those bottle rockets out of the air as they were taking off. More than once I was sure she had gotten singed.

I did scrap two layouts today... one of my dad's old truck and one of Clara's birthday party last October....

I used the Photoshoot set from the Expecting Sweet Stuff kit by Robin Carlton and Christy Lyle. And the "C" is from the Linez Alpha stapm set by Shawna Clingerman.

I finally scrapped these pictures thanks to the Barnum's Birthday prompt in the July issue of Amazing Month of Memories. The kits are Citrus Sundress by Robin Carlton from the Sweet Shoppe Quarterly Assortment and the Citrus Sundress Add On pack by Robin.

I guess I can't avoid the kitchen forever... must go clean dishes... ugh!

Happy 4th of July!

We're back and I took entirely too many pictures! Actually, I took what I thought was entirely too many and now that I look at them, I wish I would have taken more... LOL! I can't wait to process them and then scrap them. I think I got some pictures for the fair. I went for unconventional on the tractor picture. My mom never called anyone to arrange for me to photograph their tractors (even though it was her idea that I enter this category and she told me she would make the arrangements :-)... so I decided to photograph dad's tractor which honestly, isn't a very photogenic tractor. So... I took this photo while standing on the seat, shooting down at the steering wheel. I seriously almost ended up with a trip to the ER! I went to sit down on the back of the seat to think about what shot I wanted to try next... I didn't realize that the seat wasn't bolted down very well and it rocked backwards when I sat down!!! I almost went backwards off the tractor. Anyway... here's the shot I'm considering... tell me the truth... is it odd?

My theory here is that most people will probably enter portrait type shots of tractors and since I didn't get a strong "portrait shot" I'm going for funky. Ugh... I hate making decisions on things like this.

Well... tomorrow is move meeting #2... 4:00 pm eastern if you're keeping track. But you never know... last week's meeting was supposed to be on Wednesday afternoon and got pushed out to Thursday morning instead. We'll see.

This kids had such a great time this weekend! Saturday was our family's celebration at my mom and dad's house. Great fun... hamburgers, hot dogs, homemade ice cream and fireworks!! I'll have to write more of that later when I get the pictures ready. Sunday, mom and I went shopping and I got a new purse. Monday we went to the little lake near my mom and dad's so the kids could feed the fish, ducks and geese from the dock AND so they could play on the old outdated playground so I could get more possible pictures for the fair. Can you believe that they still have metal slides AND a metal merry-go-round. Jeff spun the kids so much that Clara totally got sick and threw up on the way home! You just never know when Clara's motion sickness will kick in.

Well... its time for bed and I'm dying to read more of Wicked. So, I'll leave you with a pic I took of our dog, Friday... isn't she pretty??