I survived

I made it through the day. Felt a little off. Melancholy is probably the best word. Although completely depressed, nauseas, and at the verge of tears is accurate too.

But, I made it.

Kate did great. No surprise there. We'll see how tomorrow goes when she realizes I'm gone for what must seem to her like forever.

Thanks for the invite Beth. Sorry I couldn't make it - stupid job. I appreciate the thought! :)

bye bye baby

Have you ever waited so long for something to happen and when it finally does you burst into tears? That's me, right now.

I've been so incredibly fortunate to have Kate home with me all this time. She's 21 months old and hasn't seen a full day in Daycare since she was born. I usually keep my babies home for about 4 months, then ship them off to 'school' so I can work. I haven't had to do that with her. I've been lucky to be able to work from home, and ever luckier having this SUPER EASY child with me. She's pure joy.

and. now. she's. leaving. me. (okay that was a bit dramatic)

Funny how things work. Her school (where Sarah goes and Noah used to) has been super patient with me. They held a spot for months and months. I kept saying, "I'll bring her when she gets hard. I just can't see spending all the money when she's so good". Every month, the same thing.

"Kate coming to school soon?"
"yeah, when she gets to be too much to handle she'll be here"

Finally I admitted it wasn't going to be realy soon. Told the school not to expect her until she was one. 16 months TOPS. They couldn't wait and finally gave my spot to someone else. Just then Kate got hard. I freaked out. How was I going to do this? Then I got over the panic of not having my safety net and viola! Kate was easy again.

The school's owner would still occasionally ask me if Kate was going to attend, but quickly reminded me that the slot was gone, and wouldn't be available until the end of summer. In September it looked like it wouldn't be open until october. November in was December. After Christmas it was a lifetime away - MARCH! Kate was still good, but she was ready. Work was starting to get a little tough, finding a sitter for her when I had meetings and seminars. Everyone agreed she need to go but we pushed through while we waited for our spot.

Last week I got word the spot would be available in a couple weeks. I was excited but - given the history - wasn't holding my breathe. Then today. Black Monday. I asked Cindy (the Owner) when the spot would be open. She was all perky like, quickly replying "how about Monday?"

"I thought you weren't ready yet?" I asked.
"oh no, we got it figured out last week, I was just waiting on you because you sounded like Kate was still easy" (I can see where she thought that - given the history)
"Well I've got a super busy week THIS week, If you're set how about tomorrow?"

I A MOOOOOOOOOORON!!!!!

Naturally, she said yes. I walked out thinking was good. But, by the time I'd backed out of the parking space tears were streaming down my face and I couldn't breathe. Have I mentioned I'm a moron?

Peter tells me I did the same thing when Sarah went to school. I don't remember that at all, but I believe him. And it's going to be okay. It's just change. And y'all know by now I don't like change. Change is good, but scary. I don't dig scary.

Maybe I'll be able to get a cute shot of her walking into school for the first time, if I can see through the tears to focus. And maybe (okay most likely) it'll all be okay. :)

work is kicking my ass

I miss this place. I miss posting. Had a fun little run there and then BAM! life took over again. If only I didn't need conditioned air and running water - I'd quit this damn job :)

Don't have much to say, really. Coloring my hair right now in some attempt to get ready for my DAY O'FUN up in Prescott tomorrow with my MAS girls. CAN'T WAIT. and no, I've not planned anything out. I'll probably end up kitting a class. fun.

AT. LEAST. I. WON'T. BE. WORKING.

teehee.

CONGRAT TO MADDY AND DUSTIN on the birth of their 3rd baby, Sadie Michelle Nice name choice you two - I love it! :)

Big props to Beth you, once again, bailed me out a couple times this week with Kate. According to Erin, Kate isn't a "pain in the neck" anymore. :) Man I love that girl. (erin, not kate. NO wait, I love kate too, was just referring to erin. damn, I think this hair color is going to my head)

Off to the grocery store to get the goods to make some CRACK for tomorrow.
Then I need to actually pack some stuff for tomorrow.
THEN I GET TO LEAVE FOR THE EEEEEEEEEENTIRE DAY! ;)

much love y'all :)

truth be told

I love Beth the best.

there, cat's out of the bag.

:)

the opposite of sap

I love you my MAS friends. Can I just say that? I mean who else is so lucky to have friends good enough to call you out on your typos, and then not get all bitter when told to F off for calling you out on your typos.

LOVE. YOU. GIRLS!

Especially Maddy, because if I don't love her the most she'll take that back back middle seat in the van. That and she's been pregnant all her life :)

real quick

Just thought I'd past the pages for February's class. Got them done early :) Now I just need to actaully get them to the sb store to promote. teehee

I left off what 'inspired' the pages this time. Mainly because I didnt' like the way it looked last time. hahaha how's that for silly.

I'm drivin in my car

okay, not really driving. But I am sitting in my car, in the carpool lane waiting to pick up Noah. I'm on my new phone and, I must admit, this is pretty freekin kick ass. I can see my whole blog, pictures and all.

It's still not synced with my email, and if I turn on Outlook I'll keep getting my 'test' message every 5 minutes. it's great. Hopung the office IT guy can get over tomorrow to fix that.

aaaaaanyway, not much to say really. Just wanted to ckecj this out.

peace out all u suckas stuck un front of your PC (OKay that wa mean LOL)

m

Holy Crap I'M POPULAR!!!!

CATHY Z POSTED ON MY BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
check it!

She's being silly because I posted this on her blog in reply to her saying sorry for taking some time responding to emails. Cuz we all know that if ANYONE is going to be able to give someone shit about not replying to something - IT'S ME! :))))))) <--insert HUGE smilie

aaaaaaaanyway - back to the email.

She LIKES ME, she really really LIKES ME!!!
(yeah, okay, I'll admit it, I just might be having some sort of delusional episode going on right now but, shit, it's CATHY PEOPLE!
hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhaa
ahahhaaaaaaaaaaa

PHEW!!! :) I SO needed this. I've been on the phone with customer support for a decade now. My ear is a mushroom, and my phone/PDA/email/MP3 player/POS still doesn't work. I'll post more on that drama later. It's a doozy (suffice it to say I got 453 email from M.Y.S.E.L.F. lmao)

MAYBE, if the Sweet Lord Jesus takes pity on me, I'll be able to post FROM MY POS/PDA phone!!! How's that for the shnizzle?!?!

I'm the proud owner

of the REVOLUTION!!! Yeah, I pretty much work for scrapbook supplies.



and this font.


I'm working on February's class. Have 2 (of 3) pages does so far. Both use my new toy :) I'll post them soon.

Thanks ya'll for the compliments about my flip. Can't wait to get it back!! :)

Honesty is the best policy

My hair is getting a little long (okay it's still short - but long for me) so I experiemented today and didn't flip it. Noah noticed right away, petting my head saying my hair looks so different.

"Do you like it?" I asked.
"yeah"
"do you like it more than the way I ususally do it, or less?"
silence
"honey?"
"ummm"
"bear, what do you think, do you like it this way better, or the other way?"
"Is is okay if I say the other way?"

DAMN I LOVE HIM!

back to the flip. and to the salon.

(oh and I said, "oh COURSE it's okay to say that honey!!! I want you to be honest!")

my love of all things boxed

Imagine how thrilled I was when last night, after my class at SB etc., I found these.

They are from QuicKutz and hold on your dies. THEY ARE THE CUTEST THING E.V.E.R.

Had the brown been darker, more chocolate, I would have bought the whole thing on thw spot. It's just too damn cute. So I'm gonna scope out my sb room and see if there's the perfect home for this adorable little boxie, cubbie, thing.

"Inspired by..."

This is my class for January. Just thought I'd share it since I had the pictures already for the direction sheets.

The idea is that I take things all around you - this month it happens to be all cards - and turn them into scrapbook pages. It's kinda fun :)


this page was inspired by this card

It's Sarah's turn...

...for a new look.

yeah.............she's.............cute.

my new look

It's my part time look, really. For the computer. So I don't go blind. Kinda funny huh? Wearing glasses even though I can see so I will continue to be able to see. Or is that just a line the eye doctor gives people to justify their job??? *wink*



don't I look smart???? BWAHAAAAAAHhaaa

Merry Christmas Yo!

:)

4:35 am. I can't sleep. I'm still like a 5 year old when it comes to Christmas morning. I just can't wait.

I took a picture of the tree but I'm not going to post it. I ran out of energy on the decorating thing this year. Oh hell, who am I kidding, I didn't START with any energy. So my tree is pitiful. First off, I picked a ugly one. It's super tall, which I LOVE. And it's located in a new place this year, loving that too. But there are holes and unevenness in it. ah well. It's the tree that spoke to me at the time.

We got it up late, like a week ago, and my dad JUST YESTERDAY (Christmas Eve) put the lights on. Thanks daddy! I just couldn't do it. (okay fessing up here, I did have a MONSTER hangover from partying with the young boys from my office on Friday. That left me down and out the entire day WHOOPS LMAO) I had really planned on putting the ornaments up but no one was really excited to help and I REALLY didn't want to do it myself. It's a huge tree and, yah, doing it while 3 grown men sat on their asses in my family room watching football just didn't appeal to me.

So the tree is undecorated. And I'm cool with it. The excuse (beside the aforementioned whiny reason) The girls will be all over it and I'll have broken glass everywhere. Last year (with only 2 chillins) we lost probably 2 dozen ornaments. Heck, the one ornament that Noah brought home from school this year has been carried around all week seeing little time actually on the tree :)

Second reason? Christmas isn't about the perfectly, or even almost, decorated tree. It's about Christ. It's about remembering and celebrating the birth of our Savior. He'd be cool with my fugly tree...so I'm cool with it.

As I think about all this, Christmastime, I get really weepy and deep. Every year I have all these thoughts I want to write to my friends and family. All these deep GRADITUTES I want to sent to each of you. Each year I fail. Each year I get overwhelmed with the process of it all and don't do what I intended on doing.

This year has proven to be no different. I didn't tell you guys how grateful I am for knowing you. I didn't say, "thanks" for being my loyal and loving friends and family. I didn't tell you how lucky I know I am, having such great friends, knowing full well how hard I can be to be friends with. I should have. I'm sorry for not taking the time with each one of you, privately, and express my deep love for each of you. I am truly blessed. truly. And I know it. And I thank you for it.

Merry Christmas my friends!!!

Just for fun

Here are a couple pictures from Sarah's Christmas performance. Nothing great, I suck at taking pictures, I've decided. But that's one cute little girl.

This is the best I could do getting all three in the same picture at the same time.



That's my brother ("my Mike" as she calls him) holding Sarah.


That's all for now. :)

I'm tired

and it's not close to being over. ah...how I love how I do this to myself every year.

This week has been crazy fun, even though I'm now whining. My niece, Kate, came in From Chicago for 4 days. She SAVED MY LIFE (again) with all I have to do. Let me break it down.

She flew in Saturday morning. She wasn't even unpacked when we went with us to get our tree (don't even start!) Then we were going to decorate it but the lost lights (still haven't found them) and the realization that I didn't have my white elephant gifts for the Christmas party (which was that evening) required a change of plans and a detour to Target (Yes, I thought of you Kerry :-) )

So off to target early afternoon to pick up gifts for the exchange. One of which was a cake plate. Evidently, it's like against the law to just give a cake plate EMPTY. So Kate baked cookies for the top. I was happy to let her do that because I had a party to get ready for.

Peter and I left Katie with the kids while we went to my work party at Morton's. YUM-0 YEA, I said it. That place rocks.

Sunday we did lots of stuff. None of which I can remember right now. OH WAIT! We kitted my class. Kate took care of ALL the Cricut cutting. Praise the sweet Lord Jesus too cuz I would have lost my ever loving mind if I had to do it.

Monday I had to work. that sucked LOL Kate wrapped all the kids gifts. That's two years in a row I haven't had to do my own wrapping. Maddy did it for me last year. "someone" must be on my side giving me a little reprive for all the years I wrapped EVERYONE'S presents growing up.

Tuesday was my class. I had to miss Maddy's baby shower. Stupid class! teehee. I hear they had a blast. I'll be there for the next one girl!!! :) After the class we stayed up till almost 2 am working on my NEXT class. Which is the 3rd. STUPID WORK. hahaha

Today we did some power shopping for my gift exchange at SB etc. I have Heidi Lynn. She's all bling, which is cool, but I'm not very blingy so finding something that's bling but NOT TOO MUCH bling was a bit of a challenge. But Kate and I did it and it pretty much rocks. I should take a picture. But I'm lazy.

Then she was gone :( Bye Katie!!!

Tonight I finished my pages for January's class and took them to the store for display.

I designed my store 'take away's' and just sent them to Kinko's to get printed.

My dad comes in from Cali late tonight. I'll be picking him up soon :)

Tomorrow I have to take Noah's to school at 7am cuz my carpool people thought they'd leave me for a vacation to London. Slackers :)

Then I have my SB etc Christmas Lunch. Can't wait for that. should be fun.

Tomorrow night I'm going to "The forgotten Carols" with Karalee and Kaelene.

Friday at lunch my 'real' boss is taking the office for bowling and poooooosssibly some drinks LOL

Not sure when the tree will get decorated or the shopping will get done. I've pretty much resolved that all the snowmen won't be making it out this year. There just isn't anything left in me.

And at some point I need to wrap all my teacher gifts......and to think Kerry emailed everyone just today thinking that I'd gotten myself organized. BWAAAHAHAAA!! good one Kerry!

This is what happens when....

...you drop your camera head long on floor. :)





yeah, I've had better moments. At least *I* did it and not someone else.

snapshots

Don't feel like writing much so I thought I'd post some pictures. That's the fun part of blogs anyway, right?! LOL :)


Dems some cute chillins right there. Check the choke hold Sarah's got on Kate. They seriously crack me up.




This is as close as we get to Fall here in AZ. This picture is only one week old. Yes, they are in shorts :)





Anyone know where the baby is? And where's my toothbrush?




Now why would she go stickin her tongue out at Mommy????


....oh yeah....

something to post about

So I was getting ready to post something when I ran across Shanna's latest post with this cute little questionaire. Seeing as my 'something' I was going to blog about hadn't really formed in my head I thought I'd do this :) Thanks Shanna!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Given that choice. Hot Chocolate. Not GROG nog's another story.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? wraps them up. (just ask Maddy)

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? BOTH!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No

5. When do you put your decorations up? I'd love to sat the beginning of December, but I'd be lying to myself. It's usually just before they HAVE to be up.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Cadburry Cream Eggs - oops, wrong holiday

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? This is on the top 10. I was about 6, bro was 5. Grandma (who I realized even at 6 wasn't really 'fun loving') was in town. On Christmas Eve night someone (my mom?) took us out for ice cream. Grandma rushed to the door when we got home saying we'd JUST missed Santa. "come look! Come look" she said, "Santa was here, you can see his footprints on the hearth! OH I WISH you could have seen him" (Dad did it too, but I remember Grandma more because it seemed out of character for her, which made it all the more believable) They pulled out ALL the presents, filled the stockings and ate the cookies and milk we'd left out. They even put footprints of soot on the hearth of the fireplace. Looking back I don't know why we weren't sad about having missed Santa. I just know we weren't. It was super cool! super cool!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa ? Can't remember the age I figured out Santa wasn't a real person. I just remember my parents explaining that even though he's not REAL his presence is very real. And the "he is magic"

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Mostly with lights. Like a billion lights. Love the lights. Then lots of balls, either all silver or all gold. Currently we're doing silver.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? It's nice, in pictures.

12. Can you ice skate? pretty sure that's a no.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't really have one. My most remembered gift is probably the roll top desk my parents gave me when I was about 15? 16? ALWAYS wanted one. still have it actually. I'd say that was my favorite but I really do love each and every gift. (man that sound hokey)

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Sharing it with Peter, my kids, my dad and brother.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pecan Pie

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? We don't have many hard and fast traditions, yet. I do, however, love that my dad hand squeezes fresh orange juice from our tree Christmas morning.

17. What tops your tree? An angel with a big flowy dress.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? I love the time experience of Christmas. I won't lie, I like receiving. I also like giving, but I'm kinda bad at it. Dunno why, so sometimes it a lot of stress to find that perfect gift. And once I do hear comes my brother with like the KICK ASS gift. He's a great gift giver!!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Silent Night

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? they're okay.