exhausted!

Wow! Julie and Natalie wore me out!!! We were on the go all day long and we had a GREAT time. I love photo playdates! They arrived at my house just as Clara and I got home from dropping Alex off at camp. We hung out here for a while and then made the trek to Loyola to pick up Alex from camp. After lunch we headed down to the park by the beach for a little photo shoot while the kids played.

Then, we went back south to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo to take some pics of the animals and the kiddos. We didn't leave the zoo until 5pm. I took a ton of pictures but I'm worn out so I only edited a couple. Plus... my connection is actually up for the moment (but it's still been going in and out) so I'm going to try to get this posted before I lose it again.




Don't forget about the contest I posted about yesterday! I would love to see your takes on the freebie template!

Thank you so much for the kind words Jill!!! I hope you enjoy the templates... oh and thanks for the info on the street fair... I wish we would have been in town for it (I think that was the weekend we were in Missouri). Let me know if you're back in the city again!!

Okay... I have my fingers crossed... let's hope this posts!

'nite!

a contest! :-)

Okay... bear with me here... I've never done one of these before so here goes...

Would you like to win a set of these???

(found here)

Then just do a layout using the freebie template found here, post it to a gallery or your blog and leave a comment here with the link and I'll check it out. I'll pick two winners and send you a coupon code for a free set of templates! It's that easy! Just give me the link by midnight August 17th and I'll pick winners by the 20th!

We went to the art institute again tonight and I did take my camera but I took really crappy pictures. I haven't downloaded them yet though... so maybe they're better than they looked at first glance. I can't wait for tomorrow... a whole day of taking photos!!! I should have tons to post tomorrow night (or saturday if Julie and Nat wear me out tomorrow).

I'm off to bed... I finished up the 6th Harry Potter book today. But I stopped reading last night at a really intense part of the book... so all night I had really squirrelly dreams about finding out friends were witches and wizards and that I was one too but I kept losing my wand... just craziness.

Okay... I'm gone.

'nite!!

shhhhh......

Don't make too much noise... Comcast hasn't realized that my connection has been up for a good 4/4 and a half hours without interruption.... I'm sure once they're aware of this they'll be sure and start the up and down connection roller coaster... the one that usually ends up with me turning off my computer and just walking away for the day. I tell you... it makes me CRAZY!!!! I haven't scrapped anything, I haven't taken any pictures... I'm way behind on email... it just makes me a little nutso to try to get anything done on the computer with the issues I've been having.

I'm so excited... Julie and Natalie are coming in to Chicago to attend a workshop so Friday they're coming by here and we're going on a day long photo extravaganza! Wooo hooo!!! Hopefully I'll have lots of fun stuff to post that night.

Besides the connection issues... this week has been kind of busy anyway. Alex is at camp... Lego Camp.... and I missed the deadline for the one that was closer to our house so we have to trek to our old neighborhood every morning. He's totally loving it and the commute isn't that bad, honestly. But I'll be glad when it's over... however, the following week is VBS at our church so we'll be commuting the other direction for a change of scenery.

I wish I had something fun to post... but alas, I've done nothing creative lately. With my computer being off most of the time, I've been reading. I decided long ago that before I read the last Harry Potter book, I wanted to re-read the first 6. Apparently I started a bit too late because I'm just now finishing up number 6... so I'm almost there. I need to go and buy #7... I hadn't let myself do it yet because I have very little willpower at times... LOL!

Well... that's it for me! Provided my connection is still up tomorrow I'll be posting a little layout contest if anyone is interested!

Okay... 'nite!

grrrrrrr.......... comcast

Oh... how do I hate comcast... let me count the ways....

We thought it would be a great thing to have our cable, internet and phone all from one company. It has been nothing but a disaster!!! Our cable is perfect... it's never out. However, the internet and phone have been an absolute nightmare!!!! And the worst part is that Comcast claims that there's nothing wrong. I can't stay connected to the internet for more than 10-20 minutes at a stretch and with the phone, I have resorted to using my cell since whoever I'm talking to can only hear me about 50% of the time... and that's provided that the phone is working at all. Currently it is not... there is no dial tone... my message light is blinking for the voicemail but I can't dial in to voicemail. They're slowly driving me insane!!!!!!!

Okay... moving on...

we had a good week(end)... I didn't take many pics though. Thursday a friend of mine from Texas and her kids came into the city to see us. They moved to the 'burbs here at the same time we moved! We spent the morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo and then once we got too hot we grabbed some lunch and hung out here while the kids played. Friday we spent the afternoon at the pool in Skokie with friends.... the kids had a blast. After the pool we had pizza at their house and while the parents sipped adult beverages the kids apprently wrote a play... it was really cute!

Saturday we finally returned to our garden plot. We hadn't been in a while... due to travel and another, larger reason. As I have mentioned before... our garden plot is in a former basketball/tennis court in Cabrini-Green. While it was rough around there... it never felt dangerous. Well... while we were in Michigan we got an email about increased security measures at the garden after increased gang violence in the neighborhood. Specifically gunfire exchanges between the two buildings that border the garden. Apparently... one of the cars of one of the gardeners was hit by a bullet on a Saturday during the middle of the day. We were asked to park away from the garden and come in a gate opposite the buildings... the children's programs were suspended due to safety threats. At first I was angry... angry that we weren't going to be able to go back to our garden.... I mean the kids and I used to take the L there and walk right past these buildings! But then after sitting there... I got angry about the kids from the neighborhood who used to come to the garden to play and attend the programs.... this was their safe place and now even it wasn't safe anymore. Again, these kids were rough around the edges... but they were good kids who our kids loved playing with when we visited. I felt bad for being mad about my not being able to go to the garden while sitting safely in my house while those kids were in the midst of this, listening to gunfire out their windows.

Saturday... we put things in perspective and returned with our kids to the garden. According to the other gardeners... things have died down and its back to "business as usual". There were no kids there other than ours so I'm assuming the programs have not resumed yet. Our tomato plants were totally out of control so we tried to contain them with stakes and twine. We pulled about 8 or 9 carrots and trimmed tons of basil which I brought home. It felt good to be back.

Here are some pics of our goodies from the garden....

Oh wow... it's getting late! I need to get to bed! Alex's first day of camp is tomorrow and we can't be late!

Crap... internet is out again... maybe it'll be back in a sec.

'nite!

way behind...

I love vacations... but being gone most of July has just put me even more behind than I usually am. I promise, if I owe you an email... I'm getting to it! Between trying to catch up and working on a project to be revealed in September.... I've been very busy trying to find new things to do while procrastinating :-) So... I scrapped a page today....


details here

But honestly... I just couldn't stand not to play with the new August Collab Kit - Journalique at Scrapartist this month.

Okay... I'm going to get back at it!

'nite!

here's what we did....

We went to Silver Dollar City in Branson with some of their cousins. However, it was a hot and sticky day... so although we had a blast, I took very few pictures. Their theme for KidsFest this year is Circus of the Century... so here are my kids (and Clara's new webkinz) as elephants...Then on Saturday... we had our fake Fourth of July. My mom hosts a big family shin dig each year for the fourth... but this year I had cousins coming in from out of state that don't usually get to make it so mom postponed the gathering until they were in town.

My kids LOVE fireworks (perhaps a bit too much)... although Clara isn't a fan of the noise part of the time....
Alex was so excited about this tank... fortunately, it did not disappoint...
Ummm... is this safe? Just my kids digging through a box of fireworks with a lit punk in Alex's hand....
A great big jumbo sparkler... how cool is that?
Alex watching some of the ground fireworks...
And then the next day, grandpa (my dad) let them loose with real tools...
Be afraid....
Very afraid....
What better plaything for a child than an air compressor and some accessories?
Okay... I need to stop procrastinating and do something productive!

back from mo!

We just got back from Missouri this evening. I *think* that's the last of our trips for at least a couple of weeks... LOL!

I have a ton of pictures to go through... but it's just not going to happen tonight... so here's one... I couldn't decide between the color and the black and white so I just posted them both...


More tomorrow!

'nite!

quick CHA report

Yikes... we leave for Missouri in about an hour and a half (maybe two hours) and I've done absolutely no packing and haven't showered yet. I promised a CHA report a couple of days ago and I've done nothing to actually get it done. So, here's the quick report... it was fabulous... it was so great to meet so many digi-girls! I only took one picture (which is still on Alex's p&s camera), so I'll be relying on the photos of others to prove that I was actually there... LOL!

From CD's blog on the Creating Keepsake's site, you can find a photo of my shoe(s) along with the shoes of some very impressive people (not sure how mine got included in the mix).

One of my first stops on Friday was the Digital Scrapbooking Magazine booth... it was during Renee Pearson's book signing (I'm in the third picture down).

Here's a group photo of our digi-girl lunch on Heather Ann Melzer's blog.

Here are a couple of photos from Jen Caputo's blog.

And one last one from Holly McCaig's blog.

Oh, do I have stories to tell (be afraid Deann)! But I'm out of time and my husband is glaring at me to start getting ready to go.

Okay.... I'm off to MO... back in a few!

want to see something cool???

Kissed Studio just released a line of templates based on my layouts!!!



They do fabulous templates and each is available in three formats (PSD, FotoFusion & PNG+) AND they're available in three different sizes (12x12, 10x8 and 11x8.5).

Here's the link directly to the pack above... Signature Series Templates. And here is the link to the freebie template based on one of my layouts!

Enjoy!!

two posts in one day... woo hoo!

Clara so graciously allowed me to take pictures of her today, so here's what I got...







Can you tell she was done???

Okay... I promise CHA stuff coming tomorrow (I hope!).

catching up - michigan

Whew... we have a couple days of breathing room between CHA and leaving for Missouri on Wednesday. I have a whole post's worth of stuff on CHA but I'll save that for tomorrow (or later today if I get bored... lol!). Right now I just wanted to catch up on some of our pics from our trip to Michigan last week. We stayed at the totally fabulous Crystal Mountain Resort in western Michigan. It was a perfect place to go with the kiddos!! Here are just a few of the things we did....

The kids climbed the ski hill (that's their 2 yo cousin in the middle)...
we played at the pool...

climbed a 110 foot high sand dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes...
And ran back down....
had some ice cream...
did some beading....
went geocaching...
climbed the rock wall...
made "build-a-buddies"...went to the top of the ski hill (mountain?)...
and rode the chairlift, over, and over, and over again (this is Jeff and his mom with them this time, trust me, I think I went up and down about six times over the course of an hour and a half, I earned the right to stay at the top and take pictures... LOL!)...

The kids went with my in-laws on to their house for a few more days and we just picked them up (at a half-way point) yesterday. We're just totally vegging out today which is nice.

Okay... it's quickly approaching 11 am and I haven't showered yet, so I'm off!

update on Clara and a PSA

Okay, first of all, Clara is doing fine (thank you for your concern). She was violently ill all Thursday night and most of Friday. We were finally able to get on the road to Michigan at about 3:00 pm. She still wasn't feeling very well, but she was semi-mobile. She was able to keep down some dinner and by the next morning she was doing remarkably better. And this was her on Sunday after climbing the dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park...Now, here's where the PSA comes in.... please be aware of what your children are eating and what is in it. We have no "proof" that this was the culprit but it's our best guess.... the one odd thing that Clara ate on Thursday was a handful of Fat Free Pringles in the car on the way home from Wisconsin... I didn't have any and neither did Alex. When I remembered this I did a google search on them while we were at dinner Friday night. These Pringles are made with Olestra/Olean which according to the websites I found, have terrible side effects in some people. Clara's symptoms fit the possible side effects to a "T". Clara has a tendency to throw up... but she usually tells us that her "tummy doesn't feel good" but Thursday night she cried all night in pain and kept telling us that her "tummy hurt". Clara never cries when she throws up (she has a tendency to get motion sickness), but that night she wouldn't stop crying. She was doubled over in pain. At one point I was thinking that she was having an appendicitis attack but she never ran a fever. Severe stomach cramps is listed as one of the side effects... this was what she had. She had some of the other issues as well... but the stomach cramps were by far the worst of it. Maybe she's just overly sensitive to Olean/Olestra but I'm not going to take that chance... it was just too intense to ever put her through it again just to see.

Okay... PSA over.

I have tons of pics to edit and I hope to get to them soon. However, CHA is this weekend and this time I get to go!! Woo hoo! I can't wait to meet a bunch of the digi girls in person! I will be taking a camera, but just the little point and shoot.... I'm not messing with my big camera this time.

Okay... I'm going to run... I have a big day tomorrow... a pedicure, lunch with friends, a cut and color AND then I get to hang out downtown with Deann from DiSc Talk Radio (and maybe some other digi gals). Fun stuff!

'nite!

ETA - THANK YOU KRISTEN!!!! I'll have to check it out closer once my chaotic weekend is over. :-)

delayed

Should be well on our way to Michigan by now, but we're not. Clara was up all last night throwing up. She's passed out on the couch right now... not sure when we'll make it to Michigan.

a few from door county

Just a few pics from our trip to Wisconsin. We got home tonight around 8:00 and we leave again tomorrow morning for our trip to Michigan. I just thought before I got completely behind and overloaded with photos I would quickly post a few from our trip...

What we did on our trip...

watched the sun set...
went cherry picking....

visited a dairy (and had ice cream)....
watched the weather from our balcony....

played in the indoor pool....
and visited The Farm....

I'm exhausted - Clara crashed early last night in my bed so Alex and I shared the pull out bed... needless to say I did not get much sleep.

Soooo.... see you next Wednesday when we get back!

'nite!