it's (nearly) all done!!!

WOW. Busy 2 weeks. That was a lot of work. But the really fun kind of work. I had a blast purging and organizing and painting and accessorizing :) All on a modest budget too! :)

What you've all been waiting for ( LOL :) ) before and afters.

here is the before from the door. I'm ashamed to admit it really did look like this. I didn't stage it for a more dramatic after picture. And it wasn't like like for like a week. More like a YEAR. embarrassing...but true.


and here is the after from the door


from the door but turned a bit to see the "work horse" bookcase. Everything I need to actually get a page done is here. (well except my Crop N Style that lives under that table.



This the before looking from the window/closet


And this is the after from the window/closet


A close up of the newly painted shelf unit thing. It used to be a distress yello with drawers. I pulled out the drawers, painted in brown, and added the clear containers and all the M's. I simply love it.



Before looking into the closet


And the after looking into the closet. The doors have always been off but I added a curtain to cover. My TV is in there, all my scrapbooks, and other long term storage stuff. The curtain is actually 2 tableclothes I found at Target.


This is a peek into the closet. Lots more in here but nothing super exciting or pretty LOL



Here is the bookcase behind me. from top to bottom. What I love about this is everything I use is within reach. All the embellishements are contained in baskets with handles. I did this so when I go to big crops (not at the store) I can just pull the baskets off the shelf and go. No need to 'pack'.




This is what's to my right from where I sit. Have to put pictures in ALL the photos in the room. That's one of the things left to do. All my tools are in the clear drawers under the counter. I love that I don't have to get up to get anything.




and LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST. my nearly-very-favorite-thing-of-all-time addition to my room. The new bookcase. This is my 'pretty, mostly useless" bookcase. From top to bottom.



Well that's pretty much it. I love it.

i suck

The tooth fairy didn't come last night.

need
I
say
more?

people are funny

and by funny I mean "dumbasses who don't listen"

okay, I'll be fair. Not all people are "funny" just those who work at DirecTV. Oh HELL, not even all those people are "funny". But for sure the last 5 people I've dealt with are.

Part of the scrapbook room remodel included getting cable (er, satellite) in that room. This required a call to DirecTV. I'm not normally one to complain about service people like this. Hell, they are just trying to make a buck like the rest of us. Nor does the whole outsourcing to India really effect me too much. Or so I thought.

This call lasted 45 minutes and required 5 transfers. Still not sure why I was transferred so many times but it seemed I was always in the wrong department. Finally in the right department I was given the choice of:
a.) a standard receiver for 50 bucks.
b.) a HD receiver with DVR for 99 bucks. or
c.) a DVR HD receiver for 399 bucks.

yeah...see a problem there???? I tried to figure out what 300 extra bucks got me which only led to the explanation of what a DVR is, "with a DVR you can pause and rewind live TV". This, I knew.

It's not so much that I couldn't understand what she was saying. It was English. There wasn't even much of an accent. So it was clear English to boot. The problem was I didn't think she knew what she was saying. And clearly she didn't understand what I meant when I asked (like 742 times) "what's the difference between the $100 DVR and the $400 DVR?" She just heard "DVR" and flipped her script to the DVR tab and read whatever it said, whether it made a lick of sense or not.

I opted for the standard $50 version and got scheduled for 5 weeks from next Wednesday between 3am and 12 midnight. Nice! Asking if I could get in earlier she said no. BUT, if I called this special number tomorrow I could reschedule. cool. FINALLY I'm off the phone.

Call the next day and get scheduled four days out, which included the weekend. HOORAY! That's some special damn number. :)

This brings us to today. My scheduled installation day. The guy is nice enough and I explain the room is on the complete opposite side of where the satellite is. This is a pain in the ass and we discuss the best route for the cable. In the eaves at the back of the house, then down the side wall to the room. Then he says, "you got the DVR upgrade right?"

ummm....no. But you can shoot me now.

He calls dispatch, they wrote the work order up wrong. This would be fine except he only has one receiver on his truck - the DVR one. So he's got to go back to the warehouse and get another one. I have nothing to do right? So I wait some more.

He returns. While driving he must have thought a bit more about my install. He says, "I'm going to run the cable in the attic." This would be perfect, IF WE HAD AN ATTIC. I tell him we've got no attic space through the middle of our house. "Can I take a look anyway?" he says.

Sure, knock yourself out.

10 minutes later he declares, "I can do it, I just did it" He's SOPPING wet but he made it. He crawled his scrawny ass all the way through the roof joists to the other side of the house. Hey! Whatever's easier for ya pal.

Funny, I tell ya.

Good thing he didn't die up there or anything cuz my fat ass isn't even getting up the poorly installed pulldown ladder much less pulling some 5-foot-nothing-passed-out-mexican-dude out of my roof joists!

In the end, it's all good. I have TV in my scrapbook room. For this I'm super excited. Here's to the funny people who don't understand English but speak in fluently. And to mexican dudes willing to crawl around in my 'attic' in 115 degree heat so I can feel connected to the outside world. And to watching even 'funnier' people on my reality TV while scrappin'!

okay I'm ready to go back to work

WOW! did we have a busy weekend. Let me break it down.

Friday night:
Went to dinner with Kaelene. After Chili's (yum!) we went to Michael's and Home Depot to pick up paint and a couple little things for the room. Then home to scrap. Which I didn't do. I continued to organize and purge. I got 2 massive bags full of stuff that I was to 'put away' actually put away. That felt good! Now all I have to do is my bag of ribbon (ahem - kerry? You busy????)

Saturday:
I started on the room bright and early (eh...is 9:45am early???) Got the 2 walls painted the new blue color. Now I have 2 green walls and 2 blue walls. LOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT. Got the room put back together just in time to jump in the shower and head off to My brother's house for UFC (that's Ultimate Fighting Championship for those who are less barbaric than us LOL)

Sunday:
Got up WAY too early for my. Peter was a slave driver and pulled us out to Costco. This was a challenge for me because honestly, my goal for sunday is to not shower at all! hahaha So the trip was SO worth is as I found this KICK ASS bookcase for the scrapbook room. it's super cheap and GORGEOUS! I'm hoping to pick it up tomorrow. We also found a new dresser for the girls' room. Then came home and started cleaning like crazy. We (yes we, Peter actually helped) cleaned the FRIDGE! amazing stuff that is! So house is all sparkly then I finally sat down and edited the photos I took of my friend and her fiance for their invitation. I just finished that and they are on their way over right now to pick up the CD.

PHEW! I'm tired and sore. My room is so awesome. I can't wait to finish it up 100% so I can post some pictures. The house is clean so y'all can actually come over and pick through these goodies. Good thing y'all didn't last week cuz more got put in there.

that's all for now :)

is this bad?

okay. here we go...do y'all remember how a couple months ago I discovered I screwed up when Peter noticed I scheduled myself to teach THREE classes on his birthday? Remember how mad he was at me and how I found subs for all three of them? Remember how he was disgusted with me that I didn't hear "a little bell ring in my head" when I scheduled on that date?

well....yesterday, as I was finishing up kitting my class for THAT NIGHT, we both got an email from his sister congratulating us on 4 years of marriage. YUP!!! That's right. WE BOTH totally forgot it was our wedding anniversary!!! hahahahhaa and to top it off I was teaching that night!!! Not a single bell went off in my head (well they did but I've come to ignoring them because, well, they're just loud LOL)

We got a good laugh out of it. What's even more pathetic is that it wasn't the first time we'd forgotten. We missed our second one as well.

Peter thinks it's great because he knows he'll NEVER get in trouble for forgetting this one. And I think it's hysterical that I, as the sensitive woman of the house, forget the date as well.

So there you have it, 4 years of wedding bliss. Quiet, uncelebrated bliss. :)

as promised!

Here's a little peek into some of what's leaving my scrapbook room. Where it goes I don't care. It's just gotta go!
I never leave my house (it seems) so if y'all want to come over this week just call and we'll make arrangements. I'll hold on to it for 1-2 weeks then it's going to Goodwill (or to school to the trash)

I haven't forgotten

I really am going to post pictures of the goodies I have. Took them and everything. I just can't get blogger to upload them :( I've tried twice today. I'll keep trying, don't worry!

It's some good stuff so keep checking.

m

I FOUND IT!

My scrapbook room that is. Holy crap - 3 days of purging and there's a floor. It's white (or well used to be LOL) carpet WHO KNEW?!?!?!

I have thrown tooooooooooooooons of stuff away. Given even more to Goodwill and have quite the large pile of giveaway stuff for my MAS girls (or anyone else for that matter - but MAS girls get first dibs!)

It's been liberating. My motivation for giving it all away??? (besides new paint and window treatments?) I realized I've scrapbooked about 90 pages in the last year and not one single time have I gone into that room to pull a piece of paper or use a supply. NOT ONE SINGLE TIME.

That's crazy!

So I knew darn well that my issues were piling up on me (figuratively AND literally) and needs to deal with it. So deal I did. Right into the trash can.

It's not done yet. Knew I wouldn't be but got SO MUCH farther than I could have dreamed (and yes I am dreaming about this now) that's it's getting really close. Need to get some paint on the walls and some of the furniture, deal with the windows, get on the new word wall (wait till you see this - I think it's going to be amazing) and hang some art/pictures and I'M DONE. I've moved back in even so not only do I have a floor in my scrapbook room but we even have a dining room table!

Here's a little hint of what I've be doing.


Here's the new color scheme. I've added (or kept rather) the green. yummy!


Don't those flowers look adorable? Finally found a cute (and realistic) use for those jars I bought forever ago (remember Kerry!?)


My favorite thing...and what inspired a change of the word wall. :)

first the car

and now the scrapbook room.

Cleaned out the good'ole van yesterday. It was DIS-GUST-ING let me tell ya. OKay, actaully, I'm not going to tell you. It's just too damn embarrassing. Put it this way, it required 'soaking time'. NASTY.

so that was yesterday. Then this afternoon (after I got my huge job plotted, signed by my boss, and sent to my client WOOO HOOOOO!) I started in on my scrapbook room. It's finally going to be mine again (Kate went back and forth then finally destroyed the pack and play so she's officially in with Sarah) and after deciding how I'm going to re-do it I'm actually EXCITED it's going to be mine.

I'm repaiting. ugh. huge task there. I don't mind painting but there's A TON of crap in this room. So I'm decluttering like crazy! Reorganizing. rearranging. Getting some new storage solutions and painting away. I'm going with blue and brown!! :) very excited about finaly making that decision.

It's actually going to be a blue/tealish/greygreen type of color. It's called "contemplation" which just seemed like the perfect name for this room. For once I remembered to take a before picture. If it turns out awesome I'll post the before and after. If it's ulgy as snot - well then you're out of luck. I'll have to save the disaster for myself.

That's about all I have for tonight. Off to bed. Have a good night peeps!

PHEW

OKAY, no time to write. Too tired and MUST leave this computer for a while. But wanted to let you know that, YES, I realize I've been a bad blogger. And YES, I'll come back. promise.

I'll finally have some time to do so too! :) I JUST NOW finished(yes it's 11 pm) the HUGE job I've been working on so hard the past few weeks (had an entire WEEK over overtime - cha ching!). I'm plotting it tomorrow and will be able to breathe. I'm still really busy so can't like skip town or anything LOL but I won't be working late into the night.

Hopefully y'all haven't completely left me. I DO have stuff to share and looking forward to the time to share it.

g'nite.

i.am.here

well not here but I am alive.

Work is kicking my ass. I won't lie. Usually I work around 35 hours a week for my real job. My career job. The one that actually pays and keeps the house cool and my car running. It's all worked out with my boss on the short work week. Everything is based on 7 hours a day, rather than 8.

The past two it's not my doable 35 hours. I already have 108 hours and still 2 more days to work. To make matters worse, I'm not even done with these huge projects yet. So next week will be just as bad.

At least my billables will be good. Even if I'm too insane and beat down to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

--------

In other news. School starts wednesday. Excited about that. But not too excited. This summer with Noah was cool. He was pretty darn good - the time he was here. He's like a world traveler now. He went to my dad's in cali for 2 weeks, then went to Michigan with peter for a week, then camping with his uncle and grandma for a week.

All that is over now. I need to find some time to buy eeeeeeverything he needs for school. Including uniforms. I just love that I put things off till the last minute. All those extra hours will help paying for everything it takes to get a second grader outfitted for school.

Sarah turned 3. We went to Peter Piper Pizza, as standard birthday party. She's three - she just learned how to put 3 fingers up. As long as there's cake and a couple presents to open she's all good. We got her this glamour makeup kit (that's for 6 year olds eek) She LOVES it. She love lip glass and fingernail polish. Don't know where this girl came from. I've never been able to paint my nails, stupid biting habit. And I only discovered lip gloss like 2 years ago. :)

Kate is still with me. 16 months now. Not sure exactly when she'll make it into daycare. there's some hold up at the school with being an capacity and State coming for annual inspections. Should be soon. Not that I want to send her. She's still pretty easy. But it needs to happen. I need to be able to go to a meeting for work without hastling my friends for babysitting. (thank you friends for babysitting!)

Well better run. Need to get back to work. I'll have a semi-short day today as I'm teaching the Late Nighter at Scrapbooks, Etc. today. Then it's back at it...man I hate working weekends.

OOHH!!! one last thing. SCORED big time again on Craigs list. Two killer leather slipper chairs. I've been looking for chairs like these since I got the huge kick ass mirror. I'm picking them up tomorrow. I'll post pictures - PROMISE.

chao!

I'm here!

And alive! :)

Thank you to all of you for supporting me during my meds-not-working-so-good periods. I knew y'all would pump me up.

I'm feeling better. Still wouldn't mind sleeping all day but at least my heart's not pounding out of my chest at the thought of NOT doing that. It's a start.

My family is back from Michigan. So much for a quiet house. It was nice while it lasted but I'm glad to have them back. I kinda missed picking up the house every 2 hours! hahaha

Have TOOOOOOOOONS of pictures to sort through. 440 to be exact. I 'let' Peter take the XT with him on the condition that it be watched more closely than the children (hahah okay. I'm kidding there - well sorta kidding anyway) I guess he took me seriously because I hear he was more than semi-nazi-ish about where it was the entire trip. Good Peter.

He did good taking pictures too. I'm impressed. It doesn't come naturally to him so I was kinda surprised he got SO MANY GREAT shots. It kinda makes up for not being there.

speaking of not being there, yeah, that's the L.A.S.T. T.I.M.E I make that mistake. I hated not being with everyone and hanging with my family. I was able to spend the day with my sister-in-law, Nancy. That was a BLAST! She's super cool. So that made up for not going a little bit. :) Then she and her hubby took me and Peter's Aunt (got all that?) out of dinner. We went to Morton's (is that right?) wow! Fancy schmancy!!! Somehow an 8 dollar baker tastes better. go figure! :) Thanks you guys, that meal was AWESOME. and it was a blast hangin with ya!

So, I'll have pictures soon. I have massive work to do so bear with me. There are some good ones. It should be worth the wait :)

And thanks again for cheering me up and putting up with my drama. You are good friends!

m

feeling...

anxious, lonely. and weak.

icky is a good word.

Not that y'all want to hear me complain, but I will. Feel free to move on to a funnier, happier blog today. For now I need to be sad.

My medication must be off a bit cuz I'm feeling...ugh. Okay, well, that's not completely true. It's true I'm 'off' again but it's really because I pretty much forgot to take my meds every day. That'll mess you up. Did you know?

So I'm on them again but they don't take immediate effect so I still can't breathe, or think or start anything (much less finish anything). It's such horrible way to live...feeling like your heart is going to jump out of your body and that you can't really take a good.deep.breath.

I don't know how people do it, live with anxiety. At least I know that in a couple days, or weeks tops, I'll be back on my game.

Sent Peter, Noah and Sarah off to Michigan today for a family reunion. Not sure why I thought it was a good idea Kate and I stay home. $650 airfare (yes each) had something to do with it. Work deadlines and 2 classes did too. But right now it's sounding like the stupidest damn idea I ever had. I'm alone till Sunday. Well Kate's here. And she's funny. and cute. and I love her.

To top off my evening (of kitting two of the 8 projects I have to kit before friday night) I watched this video that was linked on ali's blog Yeah, if you're even remotely sad, don't go there. I bawled like a little baby. It definetely didn't make me feel stronger. Made me feel like "thank GOD for that dad. THANK GOD there are strong people in this world because there's no way I could handle that"

I'll have to go back when I'm not feeling so weak and check it out. I'm sure that isn't the effect they were going for. In the mean time, think about me please. I'm bummin.

What does that say?

So I have to make the teaser boards to show off my class for Scrapbooks Etc. We're supposed to change them every 4 months. So mine's due and I come up with this idea.
 
I like it. It's clean and bright. Only one problem though. Can you see? 

about a month ago...

...I took this picture. My dad was here and I decided I'd to get a couple shots off all 3 kids in one place and the same time. This is no small feat. I took advantage of daddy being here (thanks daddy!) and we went to "the big grass."
 
It's not the best picture and it's really not exactly what I was looking for. None the less, I like it. Not sure how to scrap it. I could do the typical looking forward type of thing, but I'm just not feeling that.

I'll take suggestions *hint hint* LOL 

remember that page challenge?

Well I've taken that same set of papers and did two more pages with it. It was just too cute a set to stuff it away in my "used" stack. So here they are. Can I tell you how much I love scrapbooking?!?!? AGGHH!! it just makes me happy :)

Journaling reads:
"what is it about you?
i really don't know
i don't know what it is
or where you got it.
but i do know for sure,
there's something
super cool about
u"


this one says:
"remember this
You are beautiful
You are beautiful
You are beautiful"

it only takes a second

okay well maybe 2. But this is what happens in my house when there is ANY silence.
I pretty much have two choices.
1.) I can run around, endlessly, after my kids making sure they are 'in' to anything.
2.) Or I can take a break to sit down (or use the freegin bathroom) and have blue faces to clean up.

Sometimes I choose the latter.
  

  

(if anyone is wondering why I broke this up into two posts....sometimes it's just easier to use Picasa to blog pictures but I can only do one at a time)

how did we survive?

before easy mac.

Seriously, how?. Take away my fax machine. Make me wash dishes by hand. But never, NEVER E.V.E.R. take away my easy mac.


And by the look of Kate here I's makes me some geooood mac'ncheeze :) 

cuz I can

Not much to say really. Was just going through some pictures and found this one. She's just too damn cute not to brag about :)

  

The image thing is working now. go figure. Here are some pictures from my weekend.

Here are the sunflowers Peter got me. The are super cool in real life, in this picture? not so much. I need to work on my still lifes.


This is the 'new' rug in the family room.


And this is the big one for the living room - simply love these!!!


And finally the kids all at the counter. We moved Kate from the high chair to this cute little booster seat to keep her away from the new rugs LOL An unexpected bonus on how damn cute they look all lined up like that. :)



Oh hell, this one is too cute not to post. Ignore the flower growing out of Noah's head. I completely messed that one up.

Holy crap, I'm ready to go back to work

Ya know how when you go on vacation and you need to take a vacation from your vacation? Like a vacation from yourself? Well...that's not what's going on here.

I'm exhausted but not because we went on vacation. But because I'm doing this taking-care-of-things thing in my house and mind and it's exhausting. Honestly, I thought I'd feel better. LIke lighter or something. Like a load as been taken off my shoulders. Alls I really feel is tired and ready to go back to work.

Here's a run down on my weekend.

Friday.
1. Did 2 scrapbook pages. One is posted below.
2. Designed the 4 cards for Everything Embossed ont he 22nd.
3. Handled the current bills and set up all my bills/payments in my palm.

Saturday.
1. Cleaned out my closet. 3 bags of trash, 3 bags to Goodwill.
2.
3. Cleaned up Noah's room form the mess that Sarah made in there while Noah was with Grandpa.
4. Picked up Noah from the airport.
3.

Sunday.
1. Cleaned otu the garage. 1 truckload to Dump. 2 truckloads to Goodwill.
2. Changed out the rugs in my family room and living room to the huge, GORGEOUS asian rugs I found at Craiglist, rearranged as necessary.
4. Reorganized the kid's toys in the living room. Another Bag to Goodwill.
5. Cleaned out Sarah's room. Another bag to Goodwill.
6. Took a swim with the family where Sarah got stung by a bee. She's not allergic. Good to know :)
7. Made a pan of brownies and ate half while I stayed up till midnight cleaning up the destroyed house from all the moving stuff about.

Monday.
1. Met with the Loan guy.
2. Started on the old mail and bills. (2 bags to recycle bin)
3. Sorted all the outstanding medical bills (this was huge)
4. Did sarah's room again because my children sometimes act as if they are satan spawn and completely destroyed it in less than 12 hours.
5. Updated Palm with new obligations found while doing step #2.
6. Watched Nanny McPhee on PPV. cute!

Tuesday.
1. Reoragized personal files (bag to recycle bin) in office.
2. Cleaned Sarah's room AGAIN. I may go crazy with this one.
3. Tried to take a nap.

That's it. That was my weekend. I'd show you pictures but that little landscape button doesn't seem to be working for me dang-nabbit!

Anyway. Hope y'all had a nice restfull holiday weekend :)

here's my take

I took challenge Kerry's ad challange and came up with this:

from this:

Not as cute as Lisa's which is truly amazing and what inspired me to do this challenge.

Nor is it as cute as Beth's which is just too dang fun!

But it's mine. Pulled from the tag line and patterns. Picture is a little funky and off, I should have spent more time making sure it was right, but I'm lazy :)

Thanks Kerry!! Now where's YOUR page??????

"the manifestation of our mind"

I'm addicted to reality TV. Love the crap. Just love it. Peter is totally confused by this. He'll sit behind me on the computer while one of my mindless shows (like "The Real World") is one and just shake his head at me. About every month of so he'll say to me, "You know Michelle, I just don't understand. You are a very intelligent person who's amazing beauty and keen sense of humor far exceeds everyone around you. (well maybe I hear that part) LOL I just don't get how you can watch this crap?"

He's right, it's dribble. But I like it. What I don't get is why HE can watch Mothra vs Godzilla (yes it's literally a huge moth - yeah you got it - THE BUG) and think that's "okay" but I watch real people making asses of themselves and I'm somehow 'touched' hahaa

So anyway, I wasn't going to talk about all that. I was going to talk about one of my favorite shows right now, Run's House It's the dude from RunDMC 'back in the day'. He's like a record guy and a preacher or something, I dunno, they really don't talk about what he does. aaaaaaaaaanyway, during one of the shows he's all hell bent on cleaning out the pool house. I can see why too because it's all packed to the rafters with crap. Mattresses. Boxes of Oprah Magazines. Pogo Sticks. The pool toys. You get it.

He's getting on his wife about it and as he swings his arm around pointing to the open door of the pool house he says, "this is the manifestation of our mind"

BOOM

It's like lightning hit me. That's what my mind looks like. Piled high with crap I don't need. Stuff I don't think I can get rid of. All that is burying the stuff I do need. I have to wade through all those boxes and mattresses to get to the good stuff. Imagine that for a minute. Needing to get past all that crap to get to the stuff that you need.

Well no more. I'm done with it. BUH-BY old crap I don't need. BUH-BY piles I have to walk over, or around, or through. I'm over you. Both literally and figuratively. I'm done with you. I need to
FREE MY MIIIND AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW! (okay yes, I did just go into EnVogue lol mybad.

Here's the deal I made with myself. No more "I'll do it later"s. No more putting crap off so long that I can't remember who and what I've put off. I'm taking the next few months (and yes I do think this will take MONTHS) to rid my mind of the clutter. To set up systems and boundaries for myself so I cannot fail with the everyday things I need to do. To either give away or throw away the crap that I haven't used. Even if I think I might use it someday.

To handle things.
To get things handled.
To make things work.

I can no longer handle putting things off. Forgetting things. Playing catch up with things. I just can't do it anymore.

and it will be good. :)

hit and miss

Well I've been hit and miss lately. So much going on, and nothing going on. I'll never understand how I can be so dang busy yet have done nothing. go figure. Life with 3 kids, a job, a husband and an obsession with scrapbooking I guess.

I'm supposed to take pictures of the house for Noah, cuz he forgot what his house looks like. He's been asking me to do it for days. But as with everything in my world I have 3 million things to do before I get that done. Consisting mainly of cleaning the house. LOL You know I couldn't possible post pictures of my messy house on the internet. Although Noah might not recognize it if I cleaned it. Thank goodness he's pretty understanding when I tell him I haven't been able to do it yet. He's a good kid.

anyway, I'll try to start doing better again. I was posting every weeknight. Got lots rambling around in my head I'm trying to straighted out and get put in place so bloggin has been put on the back burner for a bit. But don't leave me, I'll get back to it! :)

all soaked in california

Noah and Grandpa sent me some pictures today. He's having a good time. Still getting sad at night but by these pictures you'd never know it.

Here's Noah doing a handstand.

If this isn't an all boy move I don't know what is.

I'm still kinda of kicking myself for fighting going digital for so long. This is so dang awesome. Dad and Noah can go swimming on Sunday, take a couple pictures, email them to me, and in minutes I can have them uploaded here for all to see.

Remember when the fax was cool? LOL

GREAT JOB NOAH! thanks for the pictures! I miss you. I love you. I'll see you in 5 days!

day one

It's a ground breaking day in our house tonight. It's day one of having sarah and kate sleeping in the same room. Sarah has been in the guest bed for about a week now. Seeing as she could easily climb out of her crib it made no sense to try to keep her in it. And she's ready for a real bed. It's me who's not ready.

I can't say I'm happy about her being out of the crib. Not because I'm sad she's growing up. Not at all that. It's because there's no more sleeping in for me. Turns out this girl wakes up as early as Noah does (grrreat). I didn't really know that because she would hang out and just play in her crib. She'd play, fall back asleep, play some more, sing and so on. She'd RARELY cry to be pulled out of bed. aah....those were the days.

Seeing as I'm going to lose my mornings in bed I might as well regain my scrapbook room. So Kate's getting moved into Sarah's crib (yes...you were right Beth. I don't need your crib) That's going to free up the scrapbook room. Not that I'm going to scrap in there but at least I'll be able to go in there and work/clean/organize/stash stuff without waking her up.

So far it's not going so well. It's 9:05. Both are still awake. I put them each in their own room to fall asleep at 7:30. The plan was to move Kate when both were asleep. Yeah, didn't work. Kate woke right up and screamed her head off, which naturally, woke up Sarah. Now they are both wide awake and excited to see eachother.

I finally got Sarah to stop turning on the light and locking the door. Now they are just in there babbling at eachother and playing with blocks. All in all I suppose it could be worse. I mean it's really not going to hurt them or me if they are awake in there. My concern is really when my day will begin. It should be interesting.

Wish me luck :)


***** update ****
9:55 - After finding Sarah IN the crib with Kate, nakid, they are both quiet. Awake, but quiet. And at least on their own beds and dressed. Sarah took her pull off because she was wet (ugh - but that's another whole saga). Who knew she could get in the crib??? Girlz got skillz.

***** update ****
11:00 - Found Sarah in the crib again. The two had been awake but at least in bed. we'd had enough after sarah being in the crib again so we put Kate back in her room. We'll try again tomorrow. aw well...

Say HI to Noah

Here's my boy! Say HI to him would ya??? He'd love it.
 
I'm going to email my dad and have Noah check out the blog. I know he's get a kick out of some comments directly to him :)

LOVE YOU NOAH!!!! 

he's gone :(

Ya know, I know I joke about my kids. About how loud they are. About how messy they are. About how much utterly exhausting they are. But dang I love them.

It's day 2 that noah's been gone. He's with his grandpa for 2 weeks. (Thanks daddy!) It's so weird not having him here tonight. He's gone every other week at his Dad's so yesterday and today weren't too wierd. But by the time 6:30pm hit (his normal return time) things started feeling funky. And now it's 10:00 pm and this house feels so damn empty.

We emailed eachother this morning, which is fun. He's typing them out himself and only asking for some spelling help. This is his first email. got it first thing this morning. What a nice way to wake up.

"I love you I want to write about my new camera it can’t take very good picture outside but it can take good pictures inside. I love you so much.

Mommy
Love
Noah."

I was feeling good. Then I got this one:

"I love too. I hope you have a grate morning too and I love you so much. That I can’t stop crying because I miss You so much that I can’t stop crying on the computer because I miss you so much I cry every day I hope You miss me too.

Noah
Love
Mommy."

okay, who's crying?!?!? dude seriously, that's....tough.

Then I got an email from my dad. It made me feel better.
"....I think he’s exaggerating a bit about the crying. When we got done reading at bedtime last night I could tell he was feeling homesick; the lip thing. We talked about it and I told him it was okay to feel sad that Mom wasn’t here. He may be feeling like crying but isn’t showing it....."

I still had to call :) He's fine. Mommy? Well, I will be, in 2 weeks! Then I'll yelling at him to stop throwing the ball in the house and to stop jumping on the furniture....just as it should be :)

it's been two weeks already

just after Kate turned 14 months she started walking. She finally figured it out.
I shouldn't say finally like we've been working on it. It's funny how multilple kids work. With your first you start working with your baby on day one. They can't sit up, crawl, walk, run fast enough. With your second you start early, but not too early because you realize they really do figure it out all on their own. With the third it's more like, "no kiddo, don't worry about walking. It's overrated. you don't need to do it." I fear what I would do if I had another. I'd probably strap em down! Good think we're stopped at 3 eh?

 

Seriously though, she's the cutest thing ever. Unfortunately, like every baby, she pretty much sucks at not walking into things. Err...no wait. Rephrase. She's pretty damn good at walking into things. And falling on her head, she's good at that too.

Let's look at her right now, shall we? She's got 2 rather large bumps on her head. They are pretty colors too. One is an bright shade of redish/purple. Smack dab right in the middle of her forhead. That one's from yesterday. The second is off to the side and more of a light, translucent shade of green from mid last week sometime. Can't remember exactly when. Poor baby. This wouldn't happen if she just stuck with crawling! LOL

Such is life. I'd better get to learning photoshop :) Wouldn't want to have those bruises in any enlargements!!! 

where's waldo

Remember that game? Was it actually a game? Or just a crazy fad? I dunno. I've never played but I always thought those pictures were fun to look at. I love that kinda of stuff.

Love it so much, in fact, that I've got a little where's waldo game of my own. Something's changed on my blog. This anyone could possibly find it???

I wasn't going to do a prize or anything. I was going to just let the winner have braggin rights to being the first who found my stilly change. But once I typed that out it sounded lame. So there will be a prize, or sorts. I'll give a page kit to the first to post with the winning guess. I don't do mail so that could be a problem LOL Maybe braggin rights are better :) you decide...

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

never doubt a mother

when it comes to the birthweight of her children.

Has any woman ever forgotten how much their babies weighed?? I mean come on now. When you push a watermelon out of a place that's, well, not the size of a watermelon, one tends to remember the specifics.

My husband doesn't seem to get this concept. He told me (yes told me)how much Kate weighed. I was floored that he questioned me. Now see, for those who don't know, I have big babies. Toddlers even. My smallest was 10 pounds, 14 ounces. That's the "runt". From there they just got bigger. According to my dear hubby they are even bigger than I remember.

Don't get me wrong. I do kinda like the bragging rights earned by pumping out such huge babies. I get a kick out of telling people the numbers, the double digit numbers, and watching their face curl and their legs cross. I love the GASP at the very idea of pushing (and I'm always asked if I had a C-section) out such a large human being. But, I'm not going to make the numbers bigger. They are impressive enough all on their own.

So I'm going back and fourth with him about how much Kate weighed. Still floored that he's actually arguing me about it. Then he BETS me. bets. 50 bucks. Like he's got money to burn. I almost think he's kidding. He cannot be betting me on this one. Oh but he is. Silly man.

 

Well I finally remembered this bet while sitting at my computer so I pulled up the picture. There it is, 11-12, just as I remembered. Just as I knew. Silly, silly man.

He'll never pay me. He'll make some stupid double or nothing bet with me that I'll win, and not get paid on either. Someday I'll be a millionaire with all the IOU's. Maybe I'll have to break his kneecaps :) 

just cuz

they are both sinkin' cute!
Laurel and Katie :)
  
I do need to post about my weekend of scrappin at the Creative Escape preview. It was amazing. It deserves it's own post, which I don't have the energy to do right now. Check back though, I'll fill y'all in soon. (or fill you in as much as I can. They had us sign a confidentialality thingamaginie.)

whoops

um...yeah. Imma dork.

I'll admit it, I've been kinda bummed that no one's made a comment lately. Was feeling sorry for myself, then felt stupid about feeling rejected. I know this isn't the most exciting blog ever. And it's not like a million people come here, but dayum....one post was about KATE'S FIRST BIRTHDAY :( I was like, shoot (okay I said shit) someone could at least say Happy-Freekin Birthday to my cute little peanut!!!

then Beth (thanks girl!) emailed me......yeah......I must have changed something that required authorization to make a comment. DIDN'T KNOW I DID THAT!

I think I've fixed it. I say think because I don't know what I changed to make it like that. Hopefully it works. If not, please, someone please tell me. My ego can't take a commentless blog. ;)

and I'm off

Just a quick post before I head off the Creative Escape preview/test-run thing with heidi swapp and the team from Bazzill.

There are a group of volunteers (that's me!) who are going to do all the projects and learn tons of stuff. We are doing that so when we are there on the day of the escape we'll know what the heck we are doing.

Should be fun :)

p.s. impressed with my linking know-how??? LOL Yeah pretty damn easy, feeling pretty stupid now ;)

2 months ago yesterday

Kate turned one.

I remember Noah's first birthday party. He had two actually. One was by necessity as my dad was very seriously ill in Mayo Clinic Hospital. So we packed up everyone, bought a little cake, had a separate set of gifts and had a little shin dig in his room. It was fun. then we went down to the 'real' one that Noah's dad (or well I should say Noah's dad's mother) planned. :) It was great fun. Did the BBQ thing at the park. Tons of gifts. Tons of food. Tons of cake. It was a good time.

Then he turned two. Had a bigger party. Actually made my own cakes. There were two. They were Bob and Larry from the veggietales. The big one was both, bob and larry. the little one, the one Noah was to eat was just Bob the tomato. It was DARRRRLING. More fun.

Then I had Sarah. More parties.

Now I have Kate. Poor thing is getting ripped off. We, at the last minute, went to Chili's for dinner. It was me, Peter, my brother and his girlfriend, My long time friend Lori, and Peter's Aunt. That's it. We didn't even get her a cake. She had a plate of whipped cream.
 
How pathetic is that. I mean she's cute and all. Still got some cute pictures. And lord knows she really doesn't need cake. I think she's gonna like sweets just fine, knowing her parents. But really. Whipped cream? I've really lost it. 

this is a test

of the emergency linking system
This is only a test
if there were a real link you would have just clicked somewhere that actually took you somwhere.

In the case that I actually figure this out, this test may be followed by random names that will that you to fun and exciting places.

But this is only a test.

teacher gifts, thanks, and other stuff

I'm a little late on this one but this is what I did for the teachers.
 
The teacher and her aide each got a scrapbook - 34 pages each. The letter you see is the first page (and their last initial - duh!) Each child has their own page that consists of a Q&A card that was super cute. Questions like "if you had a million dollars what would you buy Mrs. P and why" And answers like "I would buy her a massage because her back might hurt" HAHAHaaa such cuteness. Each child also did a cute little drawing and there's a photo. Scrapbooking wise it's SUPER simple.

Sorry the picture is so crappy and cut off. I am too lazy to edit them into perfect little frames or to post more than one actual image (which means I have to move pictures to my computer and post like 'normal' and not thru Picasa) Anyway, they are 11 X 8 1/2 (landscape) albums. This was the first one I've done in that format. Have to say I loved it!

I also made each of them, and the room mom, a silver bracelet. You can kinda see it in that bag. And the main teacher got an amazing multi-colored charm/dangle bracelet that I picked up at the scrapbook store. I just couldn't resist it.

In other news, yesterday's events are still freaking us all out but things are moving forward. Mom and daughter are doing well - all things considered - and there's already been blessings that have come out of such a grizzly discovery. They are all still in a safe house while CPS and the police are gather evidence and mount their case. There is no resistance or doubt that this has been happening on the part of the authorties so that's good (good in the sense it helps gather info - not good in the sense that it really did happen) Please do keep them in your prayers, they are being heard and felt.

I might be hit and miss this week. I'm going to try to post daily as I like the break but I have a couple HUMUNGO deadlines at work that will have me working around the clock. No worries if I'm not here. If things get bad - or I catch that death of a cold Beth had I'll let y'all know.

And to end on a happy note, Kate is officially walking. Pictures soon.

OH! and if I haven't told you this lately, I love you each one of you so much. Please know that. 

bad, bad news

After a fun filled weekend of swimming and scrapbooking I just got tragic news. I can't get into too much detail but a family who I love deeply is devestated tonight. A child has been hurt in the most unimaginable way by the most trusted man in her life. My weekend recap posts will have to wait. In the meantime I ask that you pray. Pray hard. Please.

Please pray she will be okay.
Please pray her mother can be strong.
Please pray that this 'man' will go to prison.
Please pray that there are no others.
Please pray for them all.

please....

maybe it's just me

But dammit if I don't think this is the cutest thing ever.

 

Noah and Kaila were playing ball outside Sunday morning (yes we skipped church - sinners!) when Sarah decided she wanted to watch from outside. She didn't want to play. She just wanted to watch. She was still in her jammies and barefoot so I really didn't want her 'officially' outside but she, in her native 2 1/2 year old speak, told me that she wanted to just sit at the door. It sounded like this, "no (okay that's always pretty clear) jus wan sit"

So she opened the door just wide enough to slip out. Then she, very deliberately, put each foot down juuuust past the threshold, slowly lowering her bottom down so that her back against the door. The topper was when she placed her folded hands in her lap. AAHHH!!! the CUTENESS. Look it up in Websters...that is what you'll find. Come on do it! Look it up, I dare ya! LOL

I didn't last not but then ot much does when you are two. It was just long enough to snag the camera and get a shot - and well have digital proof that my windows really need cleaned. :) 

the week of the bubbles

so what was it, last week, that Kerry (ERR someone teach me how to link please!) found bubbles in her toilet? Well this week it's my turn.

 

I feel rather silly actually. Like someone from a cheesy sitcom. I mean doens't this crap only happen on bad tv? Guess not, cuz I did it. Can't even blame it on Peter!

We were out of dishwashing detergent so I used the liquid dish soap. DOH! I didn't use much of it and I SWEAR I'd done this before without incident. This time it backfired though and I ended up with bubbles all over the floor.

But my dishes were nice and squeeky clean! :) 

this is us

 
yes, tooooooootal copy from Shanna's half-face picture with her sister. I actually searched her blog this weekend so I could refresh my memory. I couldn't find it there so I searched 2peas and THERE IT WAS! Horray!

I can't wait to scrap it. I do believe I will call the page "accidentally on purpose"

Love,
m

p.s. It boggles my mind how Peter thinks I have blue eyes.