Project Life 2015: Week 37

Week 37 was a big week for the boy... first day of school, backstage at the Zac Brown Band concert and the Annual Radtke Men MSU Football Game outing.  I like it when there are Alex heavy weeks because he doesn't show up in my project life pages as much as he should.  He's an independent teen boy who doesn't like to be in or take photos.  I try to sneak in photos when I can, but since I can't always do that, I tend to over do the pages when I do get a chance to take/get photos.

 Week 37....

Made with Storyteller Asher by Just Jaimee.

Project Life 2015: Week 36

I totally forgot to mention it, but week thirty-five was the last week of my book 2!  This week starts my last book of the year.

Here's our week 36...

Made with Storyteller Asher by Just Jaimee.

Project Life 2015: Week 35

Back to reality for one kid during week 35.  Clara started back to school, although Alex still had a couple more weeks off.  This summer went way too fast... lots of travel and pneumonia can do that to a summer.

Here's our week 35...

Made with various products by Just Jaimee... but The Lilypad site is down right now and I can't link anything up (or view the posts where I listed all of my credits).  Once the site is back up, I'll add the details here.

Project Life 2015: Week 34

Ahhh... week 34.  The week that took out both me and Alex.

Sunday started with an amazing day on the lake.  However, Alex wasn't feeling so great and by the end of the day, neither was I.  The week kind of went downhill from there, even though we tried to power through.  When we got back to Chicago on Saturday, Jeff dropped Alex and I off at urgent care before even going home.  Pneumonia, more pneumonia.  Alex and I had caught Clara's bug that ends in pneumonia.  At least we were home now and had meds.

Here are my pages for week 34...

Made with All the Feels cards, papers and elements by Amber LaBau.

Project Life 2015: Week 32

A crazy week... returned home from the road trip, found out Clara had pneumonia and then packed up again to go to Bearski.

Page one looks a bit different as it has my CT footer for Amber's team on it.  I'm not sure what I did with the regular saved for the web file.

First this one I used products by Amber LaBau Designs - This Year Calendar Stamps and My Heart Sings papers, cards and elements.

Project Life 2015: Road Trip Day 7

The last day... well, sort of.

We had one more day after this, but it was just spent driving, and since it was a Sunday, I just incorporated it into my week 32.  On this day, we could have just headed towards home, but, in true road trip fashion, we decided to see what we could fit in along our route.  Gettysburg wasn't too far off of our path, so that's where we decided to go.  It worked out really well.  Clara was beginning to go downhill again, so we bought the audio tour CD from the gift shop and did the driving tour.  She was able to stretch out in the back seat and relax, but still be a part of it all.

My book 2 for the year arrived yesterday, so I actually got to hold these printed pages!  Sooooo exciting!

For supplies, I used Amber LaBau's Counting the Days cards, elements from Storyteller Dakota and some from Storyteller Kenner.

Project Life 2015: Road Trip Days 4-6

 On day 4, we left Canada and made our way to Batavia, NY to see family.  Along the way, we stopped at Letchworth State Park. It is an amazingly beautiful park and the photos I took don't do it justice...

This was the night that Clara went downhill.  She had complained of a headache all day, but we didn't think much about it.  Then, when we got back to the hotel, I decided to feel her forehead.  She was burning up.  So my mom and I made a run to Target for meds and a thermometer.  She had a fever of 102.7!!

I only have the one photo from day 5, because that day was spent trying to find an urgent care.  I normally don't immediate rush my kids to the doctor when they run a fever, but since we were traveling, I wanted her looked at sooner rather than later.  We got to the first urgent care right when it opened at 9, but were told that we'd have to come back since the doctor didn't get in until noon (is it just me, or are they missing the point of being an urgent care facility?).  The next one that was recommended, opened at 11, so we went there next.  We were told it was just a virus and that it would run it's course in a day or two, so we got in the car and headed to PA.

We gave Clara the option of heading towards home or continuing on the trip.  She was adamant about powering on.  She was sure she would feel better quickly.  So, right or wrong, we kept going.  It was really deceiving, as when she was taking the medicine, she felt really good and seemed normal.  On day 6 we hit Hershey's Chocolate World, Kitchen Kettle Village and took a buggy ride through the Amish Country.

For supplies, I used Amber LaBau's Counting the Days cards, elements from Storyteller Dakota and some from Storyteller Kenner.

Project Life 2015: Road Trip Days 2 & 3

 I'm going to start lumping some days together as not to drag this out too long.

On day 2, we had our first day on the road as our new group.  Jeff had left to go back to Chicago, so now it was me, the kids and my parents traveling together on our way to Niagara Falls...

We made a couple of stops along the way.  First we stopped at the Anchor Bar to try the original Buffalo Wings.  The next stop was the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum.  This was big on my list.  In high school I got the chance to buy a carrousel horse.  It's a 1917 Herschell Spillman hand carved traveling carrousel horse and it is currently living, unrestored, in my parents' basement.  It was so cool to stand in the workshop where that horse was probably carved!

After the stops, it was on to Niagara Falls!






































Day three was spent on a sightseeing tour.  We saw a LOT that day!  And we got to try TimBits for the first time... we're big fans now!

As for supplies, I used Amber LaBau's Counting the Days cards, elements from Storyteller Dakota and some from Storyteller Kenner.

Project Life 2015: Road Trip Day 1

I took a bit of a blogging break again.  This time because I thought I was going to do something to add to this series of posts.

See, last year I did a travel journal while on the road and I posted those pages in conjunction with my PL pages on my blog.  This year, I didn't end up working on my travel journal on the road.  Who knows why... maybe it was burn out from already having been "on the road" for four days before we started the road trip portion, maybe it was because Clara ended up getting really sick during our trip, maybe it was because we were out later at night and just wanted to go to bed vs. work on our journals... regardless, it didn't get finished (or even started for that matter).  I did collect stuff along the way for a travel journal though and I thought I had everything in one place.  So, when it came time to post these pages, I thought I would throw together my journal real quick so I could post it at the same time (plus I'm working on my trip album and could use the info for reference).  Well, I found most of the stuff, but not all.  I'm sure I bought postcards at most places to add to my journal, but I'm not sure where they are (or, to be honest, if I even actually bought them).  So, in order to keep the posting momentum going, I'm going to put that project aside for the moment.

So here is day one at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

I used Amber LaBau's Counting the Days cards, elements from Storyteller Dakota and some from Storyteller Kenner.

Project Life 2015: Road Trip Title Page

With my one page spread from the last post, I needed another one page spread for the facing page.  Even though we had been "on the road", so to speak, since Thursday, Sunday was the official start to the road trip with my mom and dad.  I decided to separate out this portion with a title page.  Plus, after I laid out the photos I wanted to use for these summary pages, I ended up with an even number.  So I definitely needed this extra page.

Here is my title page with a little tease of what's to come...

(Storyteller Kenner again)

Project Life 2015: A Christmas Story House

On Saturday we started the morning at Cedar Point.  We thought we would spend most of the day there before heading on to Cleveland.  But the kids were about amusement parked out by that time.  We were there Thursday afternoon until closing, Friday from early entry (we stayed on property) to closing (plus we got fast lane passes that day so they rode a ton of rides) and then early entry again on Saturday.  They decided to get in a couple favorites early and then finish up with all of the water rides they had skipped the previous two days.  So, all of that rambling just to say, that we got to Cleveland much earlier than we had anticipated.  With time to kill, we looked up some options for a local attraction to visit and unanimously decided on A Christmas Story House!

We had a lot of fun and were glad we decided to check it out.  And now we have some new things to look for when we watch the movie at Christmas time!

Here is my one page spread (Storyteller Kenner again with some Shelf Elf thrown in)...

Project Life 2015: Cedar Point

This was a fun couple of days!  The kids LOVE roller coasters and Cedar Point has some great ones.  If you look on the last spread I posted, you'll see Alex sitting at a desk.  The first thing he did when we got to the hotel was map out every single roller coaster and the plan to ride them all.  And, by the end of the trip, the kids had accomplished that goal (save one... it was one of the true kiddie coasters though, they rode one of them to recreate an old photo from our first trip there when they were 3 and 5, but decided they were okay with skipping the last one).

I took a ton more photos that will go in our trip album, this is just an overview of our fun for the PL album.

Here are my Cedar Point pages (another spread with Storyteller Kenner)...

Project Life 2015: Week 30, part 1

And finally a spread where both kids are in the same place again!

Alex was home from the mission trip and Clara was just home.  It was a short week at home though, as by Thursday we were on the road again.  This time to Sandusky, Ohio for a few days at Cedar Point (those pages tomorrow).

Here is part one of week 30 (made with Storyteller Kenner)...

Project Life 2015: Justice Journey

Another set of pages completed in "get it done mode".

I had been dragging my feet on these for a while.  Putting together pages for events I wasn't part of and that draw photos from multiple sources is something I tend to put off.  I had photos from Alex, some from the youth group's fb page and some from the youth leader's blog.  Supposedly, there was a drop box account set up for all of the kids to share their photos in, but my son never accepted his invitation to join :-/  I finally gave up and decided that I had enough photos to finish up the pages.

It's really strange to look through Alex's photos and see what he found interesting.  One of the museums they went to had a needlepoint exhibit (photos are on page 2) and he must have taken 20+ photos of the pieces... but very little of anything else the rest of the trip.

Anyway... here are the pages for the Justice Journey...

 

 

 Storyteller Asher collection by Just Jaimee.

Project Life 2015: Week 28, part 2

Well, I guess if you wait long enough between blog posts, you fill in the blanks!

I got motivated this week to finish up all of my skipped pages for book 2.  Mainly due to how my workflow goes.  Once a book is off to print, I back-up all of my PSD files to our cloud and delete them off of my laptop (I like leaving them there until printing in case I notice any typos, but once it's been printed, I've learned to let them go).  I need to start working on some holiday gift photo items and I NEED to reclaim that space on my hard drive in order to get them done.  So now I can!

Pretty simple, I was in "get it done mode".  I love playing with pages when I have the time (and inspiration) but when it comes right down to it, getting it done trumps pretty every time.  :-)

Here is the last of our week 28.  Clara was in Michigan with her grandpa and grandma (and cousin), while Alex was home in Chicago before leaving on the mission trip...

 Made with Storyteller Kenner by Just Jaimee.

Project Life 2015: Week 29...

Moving right along.  Oh wait.  You should probably have some background for this to make sense.  If I would have actually finished the rest of week 28, you would have known that Clara was home from Michigan and Alex had just gotten on a bus to go on the Justice Journey with church.  This is where another one of my skipped weeks comes in... I have Clara's week 29 done, but I haven't even touched Alex's week on the trip.  Sigh... I'd actually forgotten that I still had that week to do as well.  I haven't even rounded up the photos yet.

So, let's focus on what I have gotten done instead :-)  Here's Clara's week 29...

Supplies (links on pinterest)...

Project Life 2015: Week 28...

Okay... so here's the deal.  To keep momentum going with posting, I've been scheduling posts in advance when I get a few extra minutes.  I set up yesterday's post several days ago and, although I had extra time, I didn't set up week 28 because I only had it half done.  I figured that this would motivate me to finish up the other two pages that go with this week so I could keep up my posting momentum.  Um.. well... nope.  I still haven't touched the other two pages.  But I decided to keep up with the posting, so here is half of week 28...

The break makes sense though.  The rest of this week is really just two one page spreads.... one of Alex's week at home and Clara's week at her grandpa and grandma's house.  I WILL get to them... eventually.

Supplies (links on pinterest)...

Project Life 2015: 3rd & 4th of July

Clara and I ended up leaving California a day early so we could make it to Michigan in time for the 3rd of July celebration at Crystal Mountain.  I'm so glad we did!  Alex showed up on the 4th with grandpa and grandma, so we were back together as a family for a couple of days before Clara left with grandpa and grandma for her week with them.  I tell you, there was a lot of coming and going this summer!!

Supplies (links on pinterest)...