an announcement....

here's your hint...

Yes... we're moving back to Chicago! Jeff has a new job that doesn't require so much travel, so soon we'll be a real family again, living in the city we consider "home". Although, being in Texas for four years has probably thinned out my blood a bit so moving back in the thick of winter in Chicago is probably not the best situation, but we'll be just fine. Yay!

Other than that... things have been pretty crazy normal around here. Today was Clara's 5 year check-up... she's doing great. Alex went with me to have a couple of warts (that word just makes me cringe for some reason) frozen off and we were all getting flu shots. When the PA came in she told us that if we wanted to we could do the nose thing for the flu vaccine instead of the shot. I was all for that... I don't like shots and Alex is a beast to deal with when it comes to shots. So after Clara's exam, the PA froze Alex's warts, however, she didn't have the little plastic cone thing tight to his skin around the wart so the freezing stuff ran all down his finger.... his whole finger was turning white!!! It was numb so he didn't feel it at the time... but it started to sting about the time they came to do our flu vaccine. When the nurse came in I noticed a syringe... apparently the cost of the nasal vaccine is different than the shot and since I had already paid, I was getting the shot (the kids' vaccines were covered under the co-pay). I got to go first and have a nice little Daffy Duck band-aid to show for it. Clara was next... she stood right up and got the vaccine without so much as her eyes watering. Now.... we come to Alex who was already starting to freak out seeing me get a shot, plus his finger was stinging. He totally lost it... I mean totally lost it. He was a total wreck. As a mom, I was so torn right then... part of me wanted to tell it was okay and we didn't have to do it... but I knew we should (Alex and I got the flu last winter and it was HORRIBLE, plus Clara has a history of breathing problems... so we need to stay healthy in our house). He sat on the floor, grabbed onto a chair and refused to move. I had to pick him up while the nurse pryed the chair out of his hands. We finally got the vaccine in him and he just blinked and said "that didn't hurt". Well... duh! That's what we had been trying to tell him. Clara kept trying to comfort him by telling him how easy it was and even at one point turned her head away from us and closed her eyes. I had no idea what she was doing, but when she turned around she told me that she had just prayed to God to make her big brother brave. She can really surprise you sometimes.

Anyway... if you don't like nastiness... don't look at this pic... it's just a shot of my poor boy's finger from where the freezing stuff got out of control. Have you ever seen a blister like that?

Well... after my day of 6 year old boy wrestling... I'm tired and ready for bed.

'nite!

i need help

I seriously need an intervention here. I know it has only been a couple of days since Clara's birthday party but I am totally addicted to the little Webkinz she got. I had never heard of them before she got them from a friend on Saturday. They looked like regular stuffed animals but they had a tag with a webcode on it.... you go to their website, log-in, name your pet, get your adoption certificate and then the fun begins. Your little webkinz have a life of their own online... they have a room, which you get to furnish, they need to be fed, bathed and put to bed. You have dollars to spend to buy the things you need... which you then have to replentish (quite often if you have a child you *must* have the funky flower toliet for 350 in kinzcash). To replentish your money, you can play trivia games, go to the arcade or find a job for your Webkinz. Totally, totally, totally addictive. So far we have bought beds for Uni and Piggy (which are, you guessed it, a unicorn and a pig), toys for their playroom, a yard (1000 in kinzcash... yikes!), a pool and a trapoline (a healthy webkinz must get exercise), a toliet, a bathtub and an incredible amount of food. I find myself obsessing about why Uni's happiness meter isn't at 100% when she's been fed, excercised, had a bath and taken a nap... we've even told her that she's a "good pet" and taken her to the arcade! Like I said... I need help.

Today is officially Clara's birthday. We're not doing much today... yesterday was her big birthday outting with just Jeff and me. She really didn't *need* anything for her birthday so we decided to take her on a birthday "date" instead. After lunch, Alex stayed with Grandpa and Grandma while we took just Clara to the mall. We asked her what she wanted to do and she knew exactly what she wanted... to go to Build-A-Bear. She had been there before... once over two years ago for a birthday party and again last year to make a bear to send to their new baby cousin. So, she had never had free rein to make something just for herself. She picked a pink poodle to make... we had a good time, but man, that place was a zoo!!!! After that we did a little clothes shopping... she loves to try on clothes. And for some reason her favorite store in Talbot's Kids. She picked out two jumpers to try on... one was a gorgeous black velvet jumper, the other was an adorable pink jumper with embroidered dots that reversed to green with patchwork looking dogs. She ended up picking the reversible jumper. It is really cute.... plus it was on the clearance rack for $29 with an additional 25% off. I was secretly hoping she would pick the velvet one because it was gorgeous.... but I guess I should be glad that she didn't... she'll get more good out of the one she picked.

From there we went to the Cheesecake Factory to rest our feet, get something to drink and to have a piece of birthday cheesecake. Clara picked the Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake.... it was so good. They brought it with a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday to her.

Our last stop was Nordstrom for a new set of PJ's for Clara. Why is it so hard to find decent PJ's for kids? There really wasn't much a selection anywhere we looked. The set we got was adorable though. This is basically the set.... but her's is pink and brown plaid with a pale pink cami underneath. She was desperate for pj's... she's really grown since last winter.

Well... that's it for me, for now... I have more to write about (especially my adventures in flash photography this weekend) but I've got to get the kids fed so we can get to cub scouts.

Here's one pic of Clara and Poodlie (although all you see is poodlie)....

scenes from a sock hop

Just a quick little post with some pics from Clara's party.... it was so much fun!



More details coming... 'nite!

hi... i'm still here

but my house has been invaded. Yes... my in-laws are here for Clara's birthday. My online time will be limited between now and Monday. Thankfully my office and the guest room are no longer one shared space so I will have significantly more online time than I used to when they would come to visit.

Tomorrow morning I go to the dentist... yippee. I'm on probation with my dentist right now. I'm really bad about finding new dentists/doctors for myself when we move so it had been about four years since my last trip to the dentist. No cavities, but I got a stern talking to and was put on probation.... I have to come in every three months until I prove that I am a responsible teeth owner.

Today Alex and I went to Clara's preschool to help out with their Hoe-down (or is it ho-down.... I really don't know). It was so cute. I took lots of pictures but I haven't downloaded them to see if they're any good. It was very dark in there and I hate the on camera flash so we'll see.

Well... I need to get back to the baseball game and see what happens.... GO CARDS!!!

'nite!

ahhh... the fall colors

All around things are changing colors... including my hair apparently.... sigh. I went in today for new highlights and came out a brunette. I know we discussed low lights for a warmer... fallish look but now my hair is very dark... and I'm not really sure its a good dark. Hmmmm.... maybe I just need to get used to it. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get a pic tomorrow... but don't count on it. :-)

Nothing really to report here. I am really struggling with the party favors for Clara's birthday party Saturday. I went to three places today with no real luck with finding favors that fit her "sock hop" theme. I'm really running out of time.

Speaking of running out of time... I really need to learn how to use my external flash by Saturday too. I keep meaning to watch the dvd I bought, but I just haven't made the time. What to do, what to do?

I did scrap one page today... that was a minor miracle. I've been trying to scrap for a couple days now... I even played with paper today as well... but I only managed to eek out the one digi layout....
details here

Well... I'm going to go. I love Tuesdays... we don't go anywhere on Wednesdays so I leave the dishes until the morning and we get to sleep in... love it!

Off to read my book! 'nite!

we survived!!!

Yay! We did it! We survived a weekend of camping! It actually was quite fun. Although I will admit, Clara and I only camped one night though. We got there about 12:30 on Saturday.... we didn't leave until after her soccer game (which they won and Clara scored her second official goal). The weather was perfect.... warm enough for short sleeves but not too warm. It was sunny with a nice breeze off the lake. The kids had a great time playing along the water with their friends. The campfire was a lot of fun with skits and stories too. However, it was after this that things started to go downhill a bit. Clara and I went up to the restrooms for one last visit before bed only to find out that the water had been turned off and all of the toliets were backed up. Okay... I will confess that I have an adversion to public restrooms under the best of circumstances but this was more than I could take. It still triggers my gag reflex just thinking back on it. Then, right at "lights out" time, it starts to rain and didn't really stop until about mid-day today! Thankfully our tent didn't leak one bit but that didn't stop me from worrying about it all night... plus I was obsessing about what in the world I was going to do about the bathroom situation come morning. Of course Clara woke up first thing in the morning having the desperately "go" so Jeff got the priviledge of taking her out into the woods in the rain.

With all of the rain, we decided not to hang around and to just pack up and go. However, it was pouring so hard while Jeff was taking down the tent that it filled up with water as he was folding it up. So we had to pick it up by one end and dump as much water out as we could. The final thing was that the mini wouldn't start when we got ready to leave. The battery was dead. But my friend had jumper cables so we were on our way in no time. It poured all of the way home and I really did not enjoy driving in it alone.... in the car, which I'm not used to driving. Jeff was probably regretting that I had his number in speed dial on my cell phone because I kept calling him with paranoid questions about the car. To my defense... it was hard to drive with all of the rain AND a warning light did come on briefly. Regardless... we made it home safely... took showers and vegged the rest of the afternoon.

Anyway... here are a few pics of our camping trip. I really didn't end up taking that many. The first one is of Alex and his third tooth that he lost. It came out while eating a sandwich at lunch on Saturday. Then one of him walking right in front of where we camped... that used to be covered with the waters of Lake Texoma. Then just a couple of Clara.



I need to go clean up a bit... this weekend is the big birthday weekend at our house and I've got so much to do!

'nite!

left behind

Look what was left behind today....

This is the first night in 6 years that my son, Alex, has willfully spent without his yellow blanket. Sigh... my boy is growing up! Now, he's not one to carry it around or anything, but he *always* sleeps with it. Today as I was up in his room finding sweat pants for him to take camping, he came into his room, hugged "yellow" good-bye, asked me to take good care of his blanket and placed it on his bed. Neither of us asked him or encouraged him to do this and with everyone having their own tents, none of his cub scouts friends would have even known he had it. But, he had decided, himself, that it was time to leave "yellow" at home. It seriously brought tears to my eyes when he put the blanket on his bed and walked away to go camping.

Okay... brighter note... once the boys were out the door Clara and I headed out and got pedicures. It was soooo nice. I haven't had one in months and I desperately needed one. Clara picked a sparkly pink polish for the both of us. She got flowers painted on her big toes, I didn't.

Nothing else to report here. First thing tomorrow morning Clara has a soccer game and then we join the boys at the camp out. It should be interesting. Clara is one to hear stuff and get scared so we're probably in for a long night.

Wish us luck!

'nite!

let's try this again

I've been a bad blogger this week but part of it isn't entirely my fault. I tried to blog last night but Blogger wasn't cooperating and I lost my post.

Nothing terribly exciting here.... just getting ready for the big cub scout camp out this weekend. That should be entertaining! LOL! We are such newbies on the whole camping scene. We had to go and buy EVERYTHING... tents, sleeping bags, a lantern, oh gosh... just plain everything. AND... the weather shows rain all weekend. Thankfully, Clara and I aren't planning on going up until after her soccer game on Saturday morning so if its raining, we might just stay home. Today Alex and I visited the brand new Super Target right by our house (it just openned over the weekend) to buy the camping food. I have a feeling we have entirely too much food.

The new Super Target is beautiful... love it! Great food section... Alex and I picked up some sushi for lunch... yum.

Have I mentioned that I'm struggling with getting Alex to read for "fun" versus just reading what I assign to him? Well... I am. He does read everything in sight... box labels, signs, t-shirts (that's not always a good thing), etc. but he doesn't read books outside of "school". So, I started this chart system and for each page he completed, he would get a special treat of some sort. That worked for the first sheet, he was so motivated that he read the 15 books to fill the sheet in about 4 or 5 days. It's now been about 2 months since he completely that one and only sheet and he's only filled about half of the next one. So, I upped the ante... if he filled all of the sheets in the folder (about 5 with 15 spaces per page) I would get him the hermit crab he's been wanting for a couple of years now. Not thrilled about a new pet but I was desperate. Still hasn't motivated him. HOWEVER, here is where the plan has backfired... it has motivated Clara to learn to read. Yes, I know, that is a good thing, but she has decided that if Alex reads those books and gets the pet he's always wanted, well then... she's going to also and she wants a BIRD!!! So, my darling daughter has been taking the Dick and Jane Treasury with her to bed every night so she can practice her reading and she's actually about 50 pages into it. Sigh... it looks like we might be getting Clara a bird long before Alex ever gets his crab. Clara even checked out about 4 books about caring for birds this afternoon at the library. I'll keep you posted.

Hmmm... other than that... I've actually done some scrapping if you can believe that. Just working my way through some pics from our fall break trip to Missouri...

details here

details here


details here

Well... I'm going to post this before blogger eats it again!

'nite!

Hillbilly Golf Anyone?

I had never heard of this game before we went to my hometown's fall festival a few weeks ago. My parents picked up a set that weekend.... and we played it on our fall break visit to their house. Now Hillbilly golf (or whatever you want to call it) is fun and can be played by any age... but any game combining Clara and projectiles is an adventure to say the least. Her first turn resulted in Clara hitting herself in the head with the ball. Thankfully no one else was injured during the game. Here are some pics...



We had a great school day today and had fun doing our Mexican Bark Paintings that came with our Spanish curriculum. I took pics but they're still in my camera and my camera is downstairs and if I go downstairs, I'm staying down there and getting in bed... so maybe tomorrow.

That's it... I'm tired and still out of it here... sigh... tomorrow's another day! Maybe that's the day I'll get my act together! LOL!

'nite!

tea party

I was going to post more pics from our trip but decided to post these instead...



Clara and Lauren (her baby doll) got invited to a very special tea today to celebrate her friend's 5th birthday. Both Clara and Lauren *had* to wear their princess dresses... Clara's dress is her "Belle" dress from her recital this past spring. It was so cute to see all of the girls in their princess dresses! The mom had everything set up so well. The dolls even had their own cups and plates AND she even made miniature versions of the food she made for the girls for their dolls.

Anyway... the weekend is ending so hopefully I will get my act together tomorow!

Oh... and it looks like I just might win my fantasy football game too! Woo Hoo!

'nite!

Hmmm.... 5 wierd things about me

I've been tagged by Jennifer Pebbles so here goes....

1. I can pick things up with my toes. Honestly... I don't think this is strange at all, but my husband does. Actually, he's the odd man out in our house since the kids now do this too!

2. I'm usually not an neat/orderly person but I cannot sanely fly on a plane if the little plastic latch that holds the tray table up isn't straight up and down. Sadly, I noticed this summer that I have passed this illness on to my daughter. As a side note - I also have panic attacks on planes. My worst one was when we flew to Disneyland in February... I got my own row if that gives you any indication how much I panicked.

3. I eat any little colored candies in pairs by color.... skittles, receses pieces, m&m's, etc.

4. I love the band Little Feat.

5. I don't feel hot, cold or pain on the right side of my body. I was in a bad car accident when I was 14 and broke my neck. The injury caused a syndrome called Brown-Sequard Syndrome.... which left me weak on on my left side and without temp and pain sensation on my right. Although I got my strength basically back on my left, the sensation never returned to my right.

Hmmmm.... now who to tag...

Tina
Shelly
Shawna
Michelle
Kirsty

Ack!!! In the process of tagging Kirsty... I just noticed that she has tagged me! I'll get to that tomorrow... I promise!

Anyway.... I spent the day cleaning out a closet and it has made me grumpy. I am such a packrat and throwing things away makes me very nervous. LOL!

Here's are a few pics from our first full day in Missouri last weekend. The kids, Jeff and my dad took my dad's little boat out to the lake. Mom and I just hung back, chatted and took pictures.



Okay... I need to run... it's time for a family game of Junior Monopoly!

'nite!

frogs, deer and bats... oh my!

We're back and we had a wonderful week in Missouri with my mom and dad. I have so much to write about and so many pictures but I need to keep it short so we can get unpacked.

As you can tell... we came in touch with quite a bit of wildlife this trip. Alex and Clara befriended a frog in my parents' backyard. We got within a few feet of about SEVEN deer on walk at the nature center. AND... one rather unique experience with a bat on a trail at Ha Ha Tonka. We were just walking down the trail to the spring when I heard a loud noise and then Alex started screaming. As mom and I rushed closer to them we could hear Alex yelling... you're standing on it... get off! Clara, in her typical oblivious fashion, just kept saying "what?" over and over. She finally took a step to see what she had been standing on and she had been standing on a LIVE BAT!!!!!!!!!! Now how does that happen???? There was a parks maintainance guy coming down the path, so the kids ran to him and told him about the bat. He picked it up and assured us that although Clara standing on him didn't do him any good... he couldn't have been a well bat to begin with to be lying there on the path like that in the middle of the day. He told us that he would "take care of it" and we continued on our way. However, the kids "discussed" the matter for a while with Alex casually referring to Clara as a "bat killer" and Clara screaming back at him that "it was going to die anyway... it wasn't my fault!". Oh the joys of siblings!

Okay... need to do something productive! Pictures coming soon! And thank you all for the congrats and Jennifer... I will answer your questions later tonight.

my pint-sized picassos

Have I mentioned how much I love our art curriculum??? I really truly do, it was my best impulse purchase at the curriculum fair, I do believe. I love that it not only teaches them about how to "do art" but it also teaches them about art through art appreciation. Today we did Picasso's Mains Aux Fleurs. We learned about brush strokes and color mixing... so much fun! I got really brave and let them do this at the table in the playroom (over carpet!!) so they could follow along with the dvd. Here are some pics (not sure I like the new photobucket slideshow thing though)....



Oh... my big announcement is.... I'm now officially a digi CT member for A Cherry on Top! I'm so excited to work with such an amazing group of scrappers!!

Other than that... we're busy here trying to get ready to head out of town for Fall Break. We're going back to Missouri to stay with my parents. It's just nice to have a change of scenery. Our goal is to work on Alex's Cub Scout Fishing Belt Loop and Pin. My parents have a stocked pond on their property plus they just bought a fishing boat for the little local lake. We'll also probably hit the Nature Center and possibly Bass Pro. The fun thing about homeschooling is that we can turn his cub scout requirements into little unit studies for school!

Yikes! It's 20 to 4:00... I've got to get the kids to martial arts!

Oh... one more thing... send good health vibes our way if you can.... 6 kids out of Clara's preschool class were out yesterday with a stomach bug. I'm really not a fan of stomach bugs! Thanks!

good morning!

I don't usually post in the mornings but I haven't been very good at posting at night lately. Sigh... not doing very good at getting anything accomplished lately! :-)

Alex is taking his math test so I have a minute to post so I thought I would. Hmmm... let's see... there's potential move craziness in the air again. So we should know more in a week or so. I'm actually much more at peace with this potential relo than I was with the last one. I know it seems nuts that I keep posting about potential moves... but I think since Jeff has taken this job that has him out of town Mon-Fri we have really started to crave a situation that would give us a more normal family lifestyle. Unfortunately, the potential for that (with us) is limited where are now. I'll keep you posted.

When I took the CT position at Scrapartist.... part of what I was to help out in the rotation of photo challenges. Well... this week is my week to host the challenge and not ONE soul has participated. So... if you're reading this and like to take pictures, please, please, please (yes, I'm begging) participate in my challenge!! Its not a technical challenge.. its a fun one... a before and after photo challenge. Here are my photos...


I thought about the theme for this challenge after seeing these two consequetive frames when I downloaded them. I took one last shot as Alex ran into the Splash Harbor area at Silver Dollar City last Friday. I didn't follow him because I didn't want my camera wet, so the next frame was from when he emerged. I love the contrast between the two shots and I think they'll make a cool layout (when I get my mojo back of course).

I wish I had some sort of freebie to offer to bribe you all into participating... but I can't for the life of me figure out what I can do that anyone would want! LOL!

Well... Alex is to the part in school where I need to stop typing and actually "teach"! :-)

Who knows... I might post twice today!

overwhelmed

I am so overwhelmed with what I need to be doing right now that I'm not doing any of it! Am I the only one who does this? I did manage to finish one thing though... Clara's b-day invite...

Now I just need to remember to order it tomorrow.

Nothing exciting has been going on here.... we've been pretty boring actually. This week is just the crazy lull between our quick trip to Missouri last weekend and our trip back there for a week (we leave Saturday and stay the whole week - fall break down here). Actually, it's not much of a lull... I have tons to do... the only lull part is that I've got so much to do that I'm not doing any of it and accomplishing nothing. Perhaps tomorrow is the day that I will snap out of it.

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

'nite!

we're back....

and we had a great trip. I took lots of photos including a shoot for Clara's birthday invite. I should have more to choose from but here's one to give you a sneak peek!


'nite!

need sleep

Okay... still technically chatting at A Cherry On Top... so much fun! I think I did okay... sometimes I just can't keep up with so much text scrolling by!

I've got so many scrapping things to tie up before we head out tomorrow so I should probably get to that.

But... what was I doing instead today?? Paper scrapping again. Here's my layout from today... again... basically another scraplift of one of my digi layouts... but like I said before, you've got to start somewhere.
Tomorrow is the big drive to Missouri! Wish me luck! I'll be back Saturday night, hopefully with lots of pictures!

'nite!

major headache

I have a headache today that just won't go away... so just a short post and then I'm going to bed.

Look what my boy won today....



They had a contest over the summer and he ended up being the first place winner for his age group! Its actually really cool... in order to give it stability we had to fill the base with water. The instructions suggested a garden hose, but I wasn't sure how to swing that in our second floor gameroom. So the kids and I took pitchers and filled it enough to get them started punching and kicking it. I'll have to fill it the rest of the way later.

Well... I'm done. I'm giving up, going to bed and hoping that this headache will be gone in the morning.

'nite!

guess what I did today...

... I actually paper scrapped... gasp! I know! It's actually pretty amusing since its a lift of one of my digi layouts from yesterday. But I guess we all have to start somewhere. LOL! So... here it is...
It was actually kind of fun.... even with the kids "helping". Poor things, I had them do my dirty work... they cleaned my stamps for me and they thought that was big fun. Now I just need to print off more pics so I can play some more! I think digi will always be my main thing, but it will be fun to play with paper too.

Do you know what I just realized the other day? As part of my month as guest digi creative team member at A Cherry On Top they're having a contest where you have to scraplift one of my layouts! So far there's just like four entries, but it is so cool to see another person's take on my original layout. Fun stuff! Oh... and don't forget about the chat on Wednesday... now I just need someone to remind me!

Still feeling a little cruddy. Hopefully the cold is on the way out and there will be no ear infections this time. I seriously can't be sick this week. The kids and I (oh, and the dog) are driving to my parents' house in Missouri for a couple of days. My parents get season passes to Silver Dollar City in Branson every year and if you order them early you get "bring a friend free" passes to be used at certain times throughout the year. Well... our fall passes expire this weekend, thus the last minute trip. Plus, my little hometown is having their fall festival/reunion this weekend as well. So we'll be hitting that too. I'm excited to be possibly experiencing some "real" fall weather. Since I'm not at all in the "real" fall weather mindset, I'll be doing some clothes shopping for the kiddos tomorrow.

Well... its getting late and I still have the kitchen to clean up (we had breakfast for dinner tonight along with fried plantains from a recipe that was in our spanish curriculum... yum).

'nite!

lazy, rainy sunday

We finally got a good rain here today! We had major storms some time during the night... I didn't wake up enough to look at the clock to know what time for sure. But they were great! We desperately need rain here.

I don't know what it is about rainy days but they motivate me to scrap... so I actually got two pages done today...

details here

details here

We really did nothing today. We went to church and to lunch. Then home to watch football (I'm losing my fantasy football game to my FIL... grrrrrr). Then it was back to the church to take the kids to choir and off to the grocery store. Exciting, huh?

I have a new goal this week... I am bound and determined to learn to paper scrap! I have no idea why the concept scares me so, but it does. I'll let you know how it goes!

Okay... I'm off to bed.

'nite!

Clara, the kick off queen

I don't know what got into the girl but if they needed someone to kick off today during the game, Clara was right there on the spot! In fact... one of those kick offs got Clara her very first official game goal!!!! She power kicked the ball from the center of the field, right into the goal. She played so hard today and had such a great time. Anyway... here are some pics...


Alex had his popcorn selling rally thing for cub scouts this afternoon. Can you believe that the goal for selling for each boy is $500?!??!?! My goodness that's a lot of popcorn! I honestly don't know of that many people we could even approach about buying popcorn. Oh well... we'll do what we can. Of course, there's a chart showing what prizes you can get for selling different amounts of popcorn and Alex has set his sites on a tent for selling $1,000 worth of popcorn... more power to him, I guess.

No questions, huh? Heather at DST suggested that I blog about my pet peeves... it may come to that.

Okay... off to enjoy what's left of my Saturday night!

still sick

Yuck... I have entered the phase of having a cold where I really shouldn't go out in public. My eyes are all red and watery, I'm sneezing all of the time and my nose runs constantly... let me tell you, it is quite the attractive look.

So... since we really didn't do much and I didn't take any pics, I'll answer some questions and call it a night.

Frederique - honestly... I have no clue how my pictures are so clear. I have noticed a huge improvement once I got a better grip on manual and was getting better SOOC shots. I also ran the one of Clara through Neat Image... since I was shooting with available light and had my ISO up at 1600.

Adrienne - Thank you for the get well wishes! The angles are in camera. I've gotten really bad about that lately. I think it mainly stems from my using a single focus point when I shoot. At one time I used to use the middle point and focus and recompose, but now its usually set at one of the corners and I tilt to get the right amount of my subject in frame. Oh... I was also using my 85mm on that one and I was short on space. And, no, no backdrop for that one. This was right before she hopped into the shower so what you see behind her is the tub.

Leah - Its nice to know that I'm not the only one with a child who uses objects for things other than their intended purpose. I'm still not exactly clear how she was swinging on her door to make that kind of line down her face! Oh well... some things I'm probably better off not knowing.

Okay... that was kind of fun! If anyone else has any random questions, post away and I'll try to answer them!

'nite!

goose egg

Isn't it pretty? I have no clue what really happened... all she kept saying over and over was "I don't know how it happened, I wasn't swinging on my closet door or anything".... so what do you want to bet she was swinging on her closet door? (but honestly, I'm not sure how one does that)

I really didn't accomplish much today. We did get a lot of school done so that's really all that matters. I really really love having their desks and my desk all in one room.... it makes getting things done so much easier. Maybe if I actually finish straightening up in here I'll take some pictures.

I'm very boring today since I'm still feeling icky. I'm not a big fan of having a cold. So I'm off for another shot of nyquil and a good night's sleep!

'nite!

sniff, cough, sniff, sniff

Yes... it appears as if Alex has shared his cold with me... sigh. I am so ready to crawl into bed after a little nightcap of cherry nyquil... yum!

Absolutely nothing happened here today. I did manage to scrap a page for next month's issue of Digital Artist Magazine, but that's about it (well... besides school, taking Clara to preschool, taking Alex to piano lessons and two trips to the library to return our huge stack of books and movies before I had fines).

Oh... I have forgotten one bit of news... I'm so excited to be the Guest Digital Creative Team Member this month at A Cherry On Top! On Wednesday, September 20th at 10pm Eastern, come chat with me in their chat room. I'll try to be a good chatter! LOL! I swear I just don't have the mental capacity to keep up with chats... things scroll too fast, I forget what I'm typing and who I'm typing it too... it should be interesting! LOL!

I'm glad you were amused by my post this morning! I'm now amused by it... not so much when I first read the email. I just sometimes wish I had the ability to just voice my opinion on things like this v. just sitting and stewing about it. Maybe one day, when I grow up, I'll be able to do that. :-)

Adrienne - I'm pretty sure my family member I referenced does not even know I have a blog... at least not yet. :-) Ahhh... life on the edge! LOL!

Okay... I'm losing it... must sleep now!

'nite!

for your amusement

So yesterday was my first post at 2peas with my copyright thing on my photos. I get up this morning and the first email I see is from the offending family member I mentioned a couple of days ago... with the photos from 2peas IN their email... complaining about how they can no longer print their own copies anymore with the logo across the picture. For some reason, this amuses me.

Okay... that's it for me for now... I've got to run or we'll be late for preschool yet again!

i'm over it!

Okay.... I'm over my little sulk about the photo issue from yesterday. Thank you all so much for your words of support for both the stolen photo and the misguided family member story. I guess I am just EXTREMELY picky about my photos. They are my babies... my art (for lack of a better term) and I just can't handle other people messing with them! Okay... I did say I was over it, didn't I? :-)

So, since I'm over it, I did take some pics of the boy and slapped a copyright thing on there so I could upload them here. Sigh... it makes me sad... he looks so grown up here. Tonight was his first official den meeting for cub scouts. I took these after dinner, before we headed out the door.

The salute was all his idea.


He really seemed to enjoy his meeting tonight. Tigers are required to have a parent with them at their den meetings, but tonight was the new parent meeting so I had to go to that instead.

Looks like my fantasy football team is going to win this first week of the season! In fact, there is a very good chance my team will have the highest score in the league this week! I am not getting overconfident here... just merely stating facts. :-)

Okay... I'm going to go clean the kitchen and watch a bit of the game!

'nite!

looks like its time....

.... to come up with a logo... a copyright logo to put on my photos, that is. Ugh... just found out today that I had an image "stolen" off of betterphoto.com. An old photo from over 2 years ago, but nonetheless... it was mine. I really didn't want to do this... but I guess its time. I will probably just do a copyright symbol and my name, but if any one has any "fun" suggestions, they are definitely welcome. I really don't want to stop posting so this is what I'll have to do. I guess it will have an added bonus though besides the average joe internet photo stealer thing... I may also thwart family members from right click saving my photos. I know that doesn't sound like a bad thing, but can you believe that I had a family member who right click saved some photos of my kids off of 2peas, printed them at home, framed them and then gave them to my grandmother as a gift without my knowledge?!?!??! I had just gotten those same pictures printed through the lab that I use to give to my grandmother but while I was at her house to give her said pictures, she showed me the framed gift. I'm not sure, but the photos appeared to be printed on copy paper. Okay, that was snarky and beside the point... my real point is, was it out of line for that family member to do this? I mean, they were pics of my kids and I took those pics, shouldn't I have first chance at giving them away as gifts? I didn't say anything and probably never will... my grandmother was thrilled to have them regardless of who gave them to her and the quality of the photos and I guess in the end that's what matters the most.... sigh.

Okay... I guess there won't be any photo posts for a day or so while I sort out the copyright thing. I know it's not that difficult, I'm just cranky about the whole thing and dragging my feet.

Hopefully I'll snap out of it tomorrow!

'nite!

saturday

Clara had her first official pink pony game this morning! It was a lot of fun... Clara was a bit out of it due to her allergies... hopefully she'll feel better next week. I know they don't keep score at this age but I think the ponies ended up outscoring the other team something like 9 to 2. There are some really good girls on our team. I think what helps is that our team is made up entirely of little girls with older brothers (oh... except one).

I did manage to scrap some pages and here they are....

details here

details here

With that... I'm heading to bed! 'nite!

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! What a day! As many of you know, I entered the Memory Makers Masters contest this year. I really truly loved my entries but had no real expectations. Rumors swirled this week about calls being done and alas, my phone(s) never rang (and I even managed to keep track of my cell phone for 4 whole days!). My last hope was a finalist position but then it was posted that instead of 10 masters, 10 runner-ups and 30 finalists... there would just be the 10 masters and 10 runner-ups. Oh well... I loved my entries and was itching to submit them elsewhere. I spent most of my day hitting refresh at the pub at 2peas and the Memory Makers website. Nothing.... no posting. It was nearly 4 and time for the kids to go to martial arts... so I left the computer, took them to class and ran errands for nearly two hours. Then I came home to one email.... a blog comment with congrats on MMM runner-up and then I noticed a couple little blue "hello" messages along the side of my screen. OMG... it was true... I got a runner-up spot!!! I was totally floored and nearly hyperventilated! I'm just so honored and incredibly excited to be listed with such an amazing group of scrappers!

I wanted desperately to do a screen shot but I can't figure it out for the life of me... so here's the link to the list...

Memory Makers Masters 2007 List

I just want to thank you all for your comments and your congrats!

I know I promised Alex pics today... but I'm just too scattered to get it done right now! I know I'll have more pics by the end of the weekend... Clara's first Pink Pony soccer game is first thing tomorrow (if it doesn't rain).

thursday

Still nothing going on! Taking a bit of a break from the computer today... feeling a bit overwhelmed again.... sigh. I will get my act together tomorrow though and post my Alex pics from our trip since I've already posted the Clara ones.

Off to watch more football (I have two fantasy players going tonight)!

'nite!

wednesday

Nothing again today.... I did get the mini fixed and it is all well - the doors lock and unlock again! Other than that, it was school this afternoon and soccer practice for Clara tonight. I didn't even get my camera out of the car tonight... I just wanted to sit and chat with the moms. Saturday is her first official game as a pink pony and she is soooo excited!

Anyway... didn't take any pictures today and I didn't scrap anything so here's a slide show of some of my Clara pics from our trip - a mix of everything from when she wasn't feeling so well when we got to the hotel on Friday (don't you love the all pink outfit she picked out?), to Sea World, Fiesta Texas and finally the evening we spent at the hotel pool...



'nite!

tuesday...

... yep, its Tuesday. I have nothing in way of a witty title today. Actually I have nothing in way of news either. Absolutely nothing going on here.... really. I did scrap though! One layout last night and another one today...
details here

details here

That's it for me... I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow! :-)

'nite!

before....

This is Clara in the stands at the Shamu show at Sea World telling us very excitedly how her friend, Lauren, went to the Shamu show and got splashed by Shamu and got All Wet... won't that be fun?!?!?!?

AFTER...
This is Clara during the Shamu show after being splashed by Shamu... not so fun, huh? This was slightly before she threw a royal fit claiming that no one told her that there would be THAT much water, that it would be SALT water and that it would be THAT COLD. It was ugly there for a while, but calm was restored and we had a great rest of the day (did I mention that this happened about an hour into our day??).

We had a fabulous trip and I have lots of pictures to share but I'm overwhelmed by them at the moment so you'll probably see them trickling in on my blog this week.

Oh... big news I couldn't announce until now! I'm on the creative team for the brand new digital scrapbooking magazine called Digital Artist Magazine!!! It is such an honor to be on the team with such amazingly talented women. And a special congrats to Tina for being on the team too!

The September issue is out and it's gorgeous!! You should check it out... here's a sneak peek of the cover....Well... laundry beckons... I'm off! 'nite!

do bad things really come in threes?

Okay... so in the whole scheme of things this isn't bad stuff at all... but little things add up and get to you. Today I got my letter from the State Fair letting me know that my photos did not place and to come pick them up. Okay... that in and of itself doesn't bother me too much. I seriously don't understand the fair though.... my first year of entering, after having my camera about 5 months and knowing nothing about how to truly use it, I got a big ol' blue ribbon. Since then, after frames and frames of practice, lots of research and reading, etc.... I get nada. Don't get me wrong.. I'm not throwing a fit... I'm just confused... it seems like the more I know the less I know... does that make sense. Now I also do realize that the State Fair of Texas has a HUGE number of entries and although my photos this year were technically better than before, I see that they lacked that something special that set them apart. I've been working so hard on the technicalities that I've lost a bit of the art... aaah... someday I will find balance!

Anyway back to my bad things in threes... I'm just lumping them together because they are all competitions of sorts and they all announce the same week... the State Fair was supposed to mail out on the 5th of September (but they were early as usual), calls go out for the MM Idea Book tomorrow morning and MMM calls start on the 5th. Now, I seriously don't expect anything from either of the remaining two, but not making the cut always stings a bit no matter what you're expectations are. However, like I've said before, I have to play along! I'm definitely more upset with myself for not trying than I am for not making it.

No pictures today. I thought about getting my camera out but it just didn't happen. Things are a bit crazy here getting ready for our weekend away. I have to figure out which lenses I'm bringing plus I need to locate all of my compact flash cards. Those things are strung out all over this house.

I did do some scrapping but again, I can't post it. In looking through photos to scrap today I did come across this one that I had never really looked at from our 2peas photo playdate in June... I edited one similar to it but after closer inspection, I think I like this one best...
There was something else I was going to ramble on about, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Oh well.. it's late. Have a great weekend and I'll be back with lots of Sea World pics on Monday!!

much better day!

woo hoo! nothing terribly odd happened today!!! I was even able to have a good laugh with the service guy at the dealership while I tried to explain my door locking problems with the mini.

We also did not really leave the house... until soccer practice at 6:00. I know I promised that I would take pictures today... and I did. It was just that they were really bad ones. And I don't mean that in the "just being hard on myself" way. They were truly terrible. I was using my 70-200 2.8L lens and I just couldn't hold it steady. I was shooting in Al Servo like I usually do for sports/action shots but I just didn't have the mental (nor physical) stamina today to track Clara as she played. I shot about 10 frames before I got terribly frustrated and probably there's only one where she is in focus. Okay... I just recounted... I took 11 and managed to get three in focus... here they are...



I did manage to scrap two pages today... one just because and one for the Muse at Scrapartist. Here's the one I can post...

details here

Just the kids on our last day with Shirin before she left us to go back to college.

Tomorrow is a crazy schedule day... piano lessons for Alex, Clara's preschool, and martial arts for both kids (plus the given of homeschooling)... but then it's off to San Antonio on Friday for the long weekend!!! We're taking the kids back to Sea World and we're going to hit Fiesta Texas too while we're there. My cousin and her family is going to try to meet up with us which will be great since her son is just a year older than Alex. Fun stuff!

Okay... I"m off to clean up the kitchen! 'nite!

i just want to celebrate...

... another day of living! I know... corny, huh? I've had such a bad day today but somehow that song from the 70's by Rare Earth on my iPod has kept me sane. It is currently my mantra... I've got to do something or I'm going to lose it! LOL!!!

*** Major Rambling Alert ***

Okay.... my day wasn't all that bad... just little picky things that piled up to push me over the edge. AND the fact that these things make absolutely no sense doesn't help much. Okay... I drive a mini-van.... I know... not so cool, but it works and all of the cool little features makes it so worth it when carting kids around... that is until said features no longer work. Last night after the cub scout meeting Clara's door wouldn't open using the neat little button on the key fob. No biggie, Clara is notorious for getting things wedged in her door... she can just get in Alex's side and we'll deal with it in the morning. Now morning is here... it's 9:02 and we're leaving the house to get Clara to preschool which starts at 9:00 (at least this time she had something besides the all orange lunch). The door still won't open AND we discovered, it won't even unlock. Didn't have time to deal with it... went to school. I never take my purse into the school... there's really no reason, I just throw it in the floor, lock the door and go. Coming back out, I discovered that assuring little beep the mini makes when I push the lock button is a LIE!!! The left side, the only side that opens, now no longer locks!!! So I have one permanently locked side and one permanently unlocked side. I'm not happy but at least Jeff is out of town and the bmw becomes my mom-mobile. No biggie, it will even be fun to take it to San Antonio this weekend on our trip (provided Clara doesn't throw up in it).... BUT, as Jeff reminds me later, that means no DVD player for the kiddos. Our kids are good travelers, they've had to be since we've never lived closer than 7 hours away from either set of grandparents... but part of that has been being able to watch movies (its a novelty for them since we never let them watch tv in the mini otherwise). sigh... off to the dealership between now and friday....

Then, the part the started the very rapid downhill slide was losing my internet connection at about 11 am. I really won't get into that right now... I don't think I can without losing my PG rating here. Long story short... I didn't realize some nut in a work truck forgot to lower his boom and drove down the road taking out power, cable and internet lines.... I thought it was our router and/or modem. The rest of day consisted of frustrating phone calls to various computer repair places... oh... did I mention that since we have no actual paper phone books in our house, I had to call one of my friends to look things up on the internet for me so I could make calls. I seriously did not realize how much I used my internet for... I was helpless for crying out loud! LOL!!!

I'm beginning to calm down now though... thank goodness we had chocolate in the house! :-)

I did manage to do one layout today since I couldn't surf....

details here

Oh... I totally forgot... yes for those of you who asked... Clara is much better today. Her fever never came back and neither did her headache. It seemed to be about a 12-24 hour deal... thank goodness!

Okay... I'm up past by bedtime AGAIN... I will take pictures tomorrow! :-)

'nite!

cub scouts, fevers and layouts.. oh my!

Interesting day at our house today. Clara woke up with a fever so no dance class for her today. She spent the bulk of her day curled up in her chair watching tv. At bedtime her fever was gone, but she had taken some motrin earlier so we probably won't know what's going on until morning.

It was a good day to be lazy though... it rained off and on all day. We really need the rain.

Alex had his first cub scout pack meeting tonight. Wow... I really didn't know what to expect, but it seems like a really great group. They seem to have a really great time together. Our first official den meeting is in two weeks so it will be fun to see what our little group will be like.

It seems like I had something else to ramble on about but I'm too sleepy to remember what it was.

Anyway... here are my two layouts from today....


details here
details here

'nite! Hopefully I'll be more with it tomorrow!

sigh...

I maxed out my d: drive today. I knew this day was coming with all of my photos and digital scrapbooking kits. I have an external drive for back-up purposes.... but now I think I'm going to have to get one to work from. Does anyone work from an external drive? Does it slow things down?

I took no pictures today... I did do two layouts but only one I can post (the other one is for the sweet shoppe treat of the month and its not really finished anyway since it was during putting it together that I maxed out my drive). Here's my layout done with the Indian Summer kit at the Sweet Shoppe - its a free gift with $15 purchase until Tuesday the 29th....

Our fantasy football league's draft is this week! I can't wait to start this year!!! BUT... I'm lacking a team name... I desperately need help this year. Last year several us had poker related names (mainly from the celebrity poker tourney on bravo) so I was Shuffle Up and Deal. The two years before that I was Faking It. I'm just stumped this year... I need something witty. Jeff is going with Funk Soul Brother. I just don't know... any and all suggestions welcome!! I was thinking the One Hit Wonders since I won our league's Super Bowl my first year of playing and have never even placed after that... but I'm just not loving it.

Well... I know its early, but I'm going to put my tired, maxed out computer to bed and hope it feels better in the morning!

backlighting... ugh..

So, after seeing Anne's (painted moon on 2peas) examples of backlighting I had to give it another shot... especially under more controlled circumstances with only one child, indoors and no one watching me and making me nervous. So here is the best I got....


(yikes... that one pic is way pixely on here)

Not great, but there was improvement. I need to get more light bounced back onto her face though. I did use my reflector (hence the catchlights), but I didn't feel like I had it aimed right to give me the boost with the light that I needed. Something new to play with though.

We went and got Alex's Cub Scout uniform today! He is soooo excited about his first pack meeting on Monday night! I did take my camera but the scout area was swamped today and they had the nicest man working that area that had us outfitted and ready to check out before we knew what hit us!

Well... that's it for us today! 'nite!

that's my girl! :-)

We went to a birthday party this afternoon and look what she chose to play with....

Needless to say after the party and our recess earlier... the girl is waterlogged and ready for bed!

fyi...

this is what homeschool recess looks like (well, sort of, there are about 12 other kids in the pool but I don't have their parents' permission to post their pics)...



Who says homeschool kids don't have fun?? :-)

I just love days like today!

cat stevens??

What is wrong with me? I just purchased two more Cat Stevens songs for my iPod... what has brought this on? Should I be concerned? Perhaps I'm in desperate need of new music suggestions.

Today was a sad day in our house... it was Shirin's last day... she starts back at college on Monday... sigh. I tried to take some pics of her with the kids but the girl was a pain in the @$$. I don't know what her problem was but she wanted nothing to do with being the pictures with Shirin and Alex. For some reason Clara has issues with group pictures... she posed happily with the dog after I gave up on the group pic but I refuse to post those pics just because I'm annoyed at her! :-)

Alex is a full blown Lego fanatic now... which I think is so cool! I love legos and its great to see him really into something... he just spent $21 of his hard earned money on a Batman Lego set tonight... he's already assembled the thing.

Why does nothing every work at once? A week or so I was on a total scrapping roll... but in a photography funk. Now I'm coming out of my photography funk and I can't scrap anything to save my life! I guess sometimes they are in sync because for a while I could neither, but I blamed the scrapping funk on having no good photos to scrap... now I've got the photos, so I have no real excuse.

I was thinking about my evolution as a scrapper the other day. I used to scrap alot of portrait type shots of my kids... now I just can't make myself do it. I still take those photos but I can't ever scrap them anymore. I need for there to be a story to tell or I just can't do it. I have several portrait type shots I would love to have on a page, but I'm stumped when I try to start. Another crazy thing... I used to scrap only one photo layouts... now mine are almost all (at least over half) multiphoto layouts. Maybe one day I'll find "my style".

Well.. enough of my ramblings about scrapping... here are my pics from today... one of the kids with Shirin (the only one Clara sort of cooperated for and that was only because she was trying to roll across them) and two from martial arts (odd crops on those but I was working with my 85mm and we were too close together).



'nite!

today we went nowhere!!

woooo hooo! Well... except soccer practice... but that wasn't until 6 o'clock. I love stay at home days. Shirin came by this afternoon and made Clara an adorable hot pink poodle skirt for her 50's Sock Hop birthday party in October. It is sooo cute! I just saw online that payless has saddle shoes, so guess where I'm off to tomorrow! LOL!

This was Clara's first practice with her new team... the pink ponies. So, of course I had to take some pictures. Sorry... I'm addicted to these slide shows, so here's another...



'nite!

our day

Today was Clara's first day of preschool... I'm so out of practice with the preschool thing... I forgot to buy lunch stuff so Clara had an all orange lunch (mac and cheese, oranges, cheese stick and cheetos... LOL). I forgot her extra set of clothes, I forgot to have her decorate her journal until about 8:20 this morning. The kids set down to breakfast at 8:40 and were still in their pj's at 8:50... did I mention that school starts at 9:00??? So... we were 15 minutes late for the first day of school... sigh.

After that Alex and went downstairs to practice his piano lesson on the church's piano. We stayed for another hour or so doing school work and then we headed home for lunch and to change clothes for recess at the pool. After an hour of swimming, we came home again to change clothes so we could pick up Clara at 2:00 and head to the library to meet our friends. Whew!

Here are some snapshots of our day....

ugh...

why won't my freakin' slideshow load??? ...sigh

the haircut

the girl's haircut that is, not mine... at the rate I'm going I'm going to need another one before I can post a pic... I think I'm beginning to get a bit shaggy already.

Anyway... got Clara's hair cut today and I think I had them take just a tad too much off. It's a little short, but it will grow...



Nothing much new here... just lots of good scrapbooking stuff I can't really talk about yet. Even if I could talk about it, I'm not sure I would because I would be afraid it would just all go away if I did.

It was a tough homeschooling day... I'm not sure why Alex had the meltdown he did, but he did... it took all morning for him to do three pages of work. Then he just snapped out of it and had it done within minutes. Jeff and I wonder if it has something to do with his travel and possibly all of the attention Clara has been getting lately with starting preschool (tomorrow!!), dance and soccer. He has his own stuff.... he's starting cub scouts this year... but it doesn't start until next week (at least I hope it isn't until next week - I've forgotten to check the schedule again). Our recess group is meeting tomorrow at the pool so that should be fun for him and we're meeting our homeschool friends at the library tomorrow afternoon as well.

Well... it's late and I'm sleepy (aren't I always?)... 'nite!

shoes, shoes and more shoes

Can you believe that we bought Clara FOUR new pairs of shoes this weekend??? Tap shoes, ballet shoes, soccer shoes and closed toe shoes for preschool!!! Isn't that ridiculous? They all seem to hit at once because I wait until the last possible minute to buy them so she doesn't outgrow them before she uses them for the first time... and she'll be using all of them this week. Our chaotic schedule begins tomorrow.... ack!!

I have to write more about our Spanish and Art curriculums... we used the for the first time last week and I am totally in love... so perfect for us. I'll have to elaborate later, but right now I'm sleepy.

So, I will leave you with a pic of the girl from today...

or... maybe not... I'm not sure what's going on with blogger and adding pics... it looks like I may have had some security update thing that's causing the problems. I'll try the photobucket thing again tomorrow.

'nite!

pics from today..... maybe??

fair park

**** Blogger nor Photobucket is cooperating with me at the moment... photos to come ****

Today we had to take my fair entries down to fair park, so while we were there we decided to hit one of the museums there. Apparently since the last time we were there, the Science Place and the Natural History museum have become one... so that sure made our decision easier...we got to do both! Here are just a few pics.... (oh... fyi, Clara likes to pick out her own clothes lately and as long as what she picks out isn't totally inappropriate... we usually let her go with it)...

Alex looking at the dinosaur skeleton.

Clara and Jeff checking out the ant farm (with all dead ants... figure that one out)

The kids doing the dino dig in the 104 degree heat... needless to say, we had that exhibit to ourselves.

The kids entering the dental exhibit... it just amused me.

I used my new 85mm today just to get used to it... I think I'm going to like it... but I have to get used to finding space to back up!!

Other than that... we just went to the dance store to get Clara's new dance shoes. Gosh I feel guilty for cramming her feet into her size 9 dance shoes at the recital this spring... she got 11's today!!!

Well... let's see how this works... I wasn't able to upload photos using blogger so I'm hosting them on photobucket... wish me luck!

Don't mess with Clara!

(yes, Brenda, that is your red seamless... I probably owe you a roll by now... sorry :-)

'nite!

head hurts

Darn sinus headaches! Getting ready to take some nyquil and head to bed... but I thought I would post a few of my first shots with my new 85mm 1.8 lens that just came today. Just Clara and all of her craziness!!!

Well crap... blogger isn't letting me upload more than one photo tonight! Here's another from our little mini-shoot at 2peas.

'nite!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Totally in shock today! I submitted two layouts to the digital call at BH&G's Scrapbooks, Etc. and within two hours I had an email requesting one of my layouts for the January issue!!! Its the one of Alex with his wings, if you happened to catch it before I took it down. Wow! I still can't believe it.

Tomorrow is a big day here... Alex has his first ever piano lesson, Clara has her preschool "meet the teacher" day, my prints should arrive for the state fair AND my box of goodies from B&H photo are scheduled for delivery tomorrow! I cannot wait to start playing.

And this brings me to my second plea for help in two days.... yesterday I needed (and still need) help with a new wardrobe. But I need help with ideas of pictures to take! I know, that sounds nuts, but this Texas heat is getting to me. It's too hot to be outside and its all brown and dried out looking out there anyway. I'm tired of the pool.... both being in it and taking pictures of it. I don't mind playing with portraits indoors but I need to shake things up a bit with some new idea to make it fun again. How sad is this... I'm actually planning outings and trips so I can take pictures! This weekend we have to go to fair park to drop off my photos so we will probably hit a museum while we're down there. At some point Alex needs to go to Elliots Hardware to get his cub scout uniform (that could be a fun photo shoot). Oh... and just this evening on the phone I convinced Jeff that we need to go somewhere for Labor Day weekend (Sea World here we come!). There for the longest time I happily played with portraits and I still do at times, but I am really loving attempting to get good photojournalistic type candids of the kids. That's hard to do when you don't go anywhere. So.... besides the big stuff... anyone have any fun little photo op outing suggestions for us?

Okay... with that I'm going to go finish the dishes so I can go to bed!

'nite!

Why am I still up???

I feel kind of icky (allergy/cold-ish) and promised myself that I would go to bed early... but alas, here I am updating my blog.

Big news in regards to scrapbooking for me... I got an invitation to be on the Creative Team for Scrapartist! I was honored, humbled and completely overwhelmed to receive the invitation. I accepted and I am still in such a state of shock that it has paralyzed me! LOL! I went through the shop to find a kit to scrap with and my brain went on overload and just shorted out! I need to snap out of it soon though or they're going to think they made a big huge mistake asking me to be on their team.

I actually did three layouts today!!! One is for the thing I can't talk about yet (but Miss Tina knows what I'm talking about ;-) and the other two were for the 2peas 2sday chat on the digi board. The challenge tonight was a "grid" layout and/or a scraplift of Lauren aka Ms. Scrappy Pants. I ended up getting both done and here they are...

Grid paper by Misty Mareda @thedigishoppe.com. Other papers by Holly McCaig (Office Chic) @pdw.com. Stamped Alpha - Shmootzy Alpha by Nancie Rowe Janitz @scrapartist. Fonts - AL Modern Type and Bookman Old Style.

This is my scraplift of Lauren's Smile Layout. Papers - Mommy's Little Boy by Mindy Terasawa @sweetshoppedesigns.com (I think this is at least the third time I have used this kit since I got it just a couple of weeks ago!!). Stitching - Misty Mareda. Stamped Alpha - Nancie Rowe Janitz. Round brush by Rhonna Farrer @2peas.

Yay!!! While I was typing this I just got confirmation from the editor that I've been in contact with and my layout Defining Alex IS finally going to be in Creating Keepsakes Magazine!!! Look for in the November Tips and Tricks segment!

Okay... one last thing and I'm off to bed... I need new cool clothes! I really need to start watching What Not to Wear again (the british version of course). I want cool, yet comfortable clothes that don't scream "MOM" yet are totally appropriate for a mom. Does that exist? If it does, where? Especially an online source! I need help!

Okay... I'm off to bed... I have something else I need help on but that can wait until tomorrow.

'nite!

a little retail therapy & a LO

Woo hooo... I did a little impulse shopping at B&H photo yesterday! One was a planned purchase... the 85mm 1.8 lens... but the other two items were impulse buys. I got the Lastolite EZ Balance Collapsible Light Balancing Disk - Grey, White - 12" and the Blue Crane Digital DVD: Understanding the Canon Speedlite 580EX/430EX. I needed a grey card and was totally intrigued by the whole collapsable aspect of the Lastolite... we'll see if it works the way its supposed to. And as for the DVD, that's not the flash I have (I have the 550ex that was discontinued before a dvd was made for it) but I'm hoping it's close enough to glean at least $20 worth of info out of it.

I did one layout this weekend that I can actually post here. I did a couple more but one is for a project I can't talk about yet and the other is for this month's SWTSB prompt at the Sweet Shoppe and will be revealed on the 15th. Here's the layout I did...

I used the Surfer Dude kit by Paislee Press... beautiful kit (check out their embroidered eyelet too!).

Yikes! It's 9:35 am... I've got to jump in the shower so we can start school!!!

Just for kicks... our curriculum this year

I've been meaning to do this anyway, but I got a comment about it and it was the kick in the pants I needed to get it done. This is our second year of homeschooling, Alex is in 1st grade and Clara is technically pre-k but has insisted on doing school this year too. So here goes...

Both Alex and Clara:

Sonlight Core K with advanced readers (for Alex) - with them being so close in age we decided to split the difference and go with the core that fell between the two of them. I think we made the right choice... such great read alouds and the kids have been totally loving the science program so far.

La Clase Divertida Level 1 for our Spanish. We haven't started this yet... we'll add it in next week. I can't wait to get started... it looks like a lot of fun.

Atelier for art. This was an impulse buy at the homeschool curriculum fair but it looks like exactly what I wanted. It combines art instruction with art appreciation AND big bonus here... its video based so I can learn with the kids! We'll be starting this next week as well.

Lollipop Logic and First Time Analogies for thinking skills. The kids are loving these... Alex is definitely taking them at a much quicker pace than Clara but they both really enjoy them.

A Reason for Handwriting - Alex is doing A and Clara is doing K. I'm not sure what to expect out of a handwriting program... it seems fine... although handwriting seems to be a struggle in our house.

Math-U-See - Totally in love with Math-U-See!!! I have no other program to compare it with, but it just really clicks for us. Alex is in Alpha, Clara is doing Primer.

Stories of the Great Composers for Music Appreciation. Haven't started this yet. We will probably alternate weeks with the art program.

Just Alex:
Explode the Code - We like these books for fun and reinforcement. Alex is currently on book 2 (almost finished) and I have a feeling I should have purchased the Ready, Set, Go for the Code series for Clara this year (still might).

A Reason for Spelling - We're on book 1 and started it mid-year last year. I really have liked it so far... the only minor complaint that I have is that it was written for a classroom type situation v. homeschool.

Learning Language Arts through Literature - Blue Book. Totally agonized over this decision, but I bought it at the curriculum fair in the spring. We will start it next week.... so we'll see!

Just Clara:
Mountainwood Talking Letters - we're giving this a go for Clara. I needed something for Clara that would teach her some basics and entertain her while I worked with Alex. I tried starting her on the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Your Child to Read, like I did Alex, but she just has a totally different learning style... plus she's too young to be pushed too much. She's currently doing school just for fun and to be in on what Alex and I are doing.... so I thought this looked like a good start for her. We just got it out for the first time on Friday and she seemed to enjoy it.

Well... I'm sure I'm probably forgetting something... but this is at least most of it! We're off to good start so far... we'll see what happens though when we add more subjects in this next week!

it's about time...

... I update my blog again! LOL! I've been in a funk lately about a lot of things... but I think I'm coming out of it.

We started school this week! Absolutely loving our new curriculum! The kids really seem to love it too. We've had a great first week, so far.... except for today... but that was just because my day got out of control with pictures. Can someone please explain to me why... if I'm not officially doing portraits did I have three shoots this week? Anyway... back to the school talk... if you want to see some pics from our first day... click here.

OOoooohhh... big news... the boy (aka Alex) has a loose top front tooth!!! I'm both excited about the fun gap toothed smile pictures and extremely sad that my boy is growing up!

So... I think my scrapping slump is over... I've done three pages since yesterday and two of them I actually like! LOL!

**** OOPS.... OUT FOR PUBLICATION.... JAN. 07 SCRAPBOOKS, ETC. ****

details here

details here

Well... the kiddos are in bed and I'm worn out! 'nite!

i s*ck at backlighting: or what I learned on my summer vacation

Why, why, why did I even try it, especially with my one chance at the "cousins" picture? Sigh... but I did and here's what I got....



We ended up not going to the Ozark Empire Fair to see my pics... the results were posted online and it was just too darn hot (plus we were worn out from our night with no a/c). Anyway... out of ten photos that I entered, I got a 2nd and two 3rds. They don't list HM's online, but I'm really not counting on anything more. The big shocker of the group was my photo of my dad's tractor, taking third in the Missouri Tractors category.

Ack... I planned on typing more... but it's too hot up here (did I mentioned that our upstairs a/c unit died while we were gone???).

More pics to come! And possibly one of the new hair at some point! LOL!!!

Oh... btw... talk of the m-o-v-e have resurfaced again... sigh.

still sweating

we're home and lucky us... upstairs A/C unit? dead.... 94 degrees in the kids' rooms and my office! the fun never stops!

sweating

That's what we're doing right now. We've been without power now for about 6 hours and it is sooo hot and sticky. We finally got the kids to bed down here in the family room on a blow up mattress in front of the windows. In just a sec I'm going to try my luck at sleeping on the couch. Thank goodness we're flying tomorrow instead of driving since there's no way we would be awake enough to be on the road. Ugh... I miss my A/C!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta love laptops with cell phone connection thingies (how's that for a techincal term?), now I can vent about this to people outside of this house!!!

Hi from Michigan!

Just checking in real quick from Michigan! I survived the flight without causing any kind of a scene, which is an improvement over our last trip. We couldn't get four seats together so I ended up in charge of Clara on the last row of the plane (row 13, can you believe it?). The one thing is that being in charge of high maintenance Clara doesn't allow time for full out panic attacks. Having my ipod full of tunes helped too.

The kids are loving it here! They have spent no less than about 5 hours per day in the water. They are sooooo brown (and blonde) right now.

And yes, I have taken an abnoxiously large amount of pictures already. I had to burn some discs last night so I could clear off some cards. I really am proud of myself.... I'm probably in manual 90% of the time (maybe more) and although I've goofed a few, I've actually done quite well. I can't wait to get home and go through them all. I attempted portraits of the kids last night on the sea wall with the sunset in the background. The first year I tried it, I was in av mode and the kids were severely underexposed. Last year I decided to go the flash route and they were okay.... but I'm just not a flash person (perhaps I could be if I used how to use it properly). This year I shot in manual and used a reflector to brighten their faces. I'm going to play again tonight as well... it's our last night. I'm going to attempt the cousins pictures as well... it may not happen though, the other party involved has been less than cooperative with arranging a time.

Well... I need to shower... today is our little photo safari trip to the lighthouse.

'bye!