Published! :)

This is long overdue, but I need to celebrate some pages that have been published!

I submit pages on almost a monthly basis to The Artisan Notebook for consideration for their non-print magazines. The magazines are in PDF format, downloadable, and reasonably priced. I didn't get how cool they were until I actually read one, so if you've never read one, I recommend purchasing just one to see what it's all about. :)

Their recent call was for journaling layouts ... and if you know me, you know that I LOVE to journal. I think it is important to tell the story so that the pictures have meaning. Otherwise, I'd just have a photo album! KWIM (know what i mean)? So, I scrap, and I journal. :)

Here are 3 pages that I submitted that were selected to be in the issue with links underneath for full credits:


One Fell Swoop at Gotta Pixel


Swing, Blake! at Gotta Pixel


Christmas Turds at Gotta Pixel

So woot-woot! I'm very excited and honored to have 3 layouts in this issue!

He is so adorable!

Ok, so I know every mother thinks this about their little kids, but sometimes it is just so true, you know?

Chase has been busily watching Noggin tonight which has some of his favorite shows. He loves "Wow Wow Wubbzy" and "The Upside-Down Show" amng many others. When talking about Blues Clues, he makes the Blues Clues gesture ... opening and closing both hands in a 5 symbol on beat with each word. That is cute in itself. Then, tonight, on the Upside-Down show they have to ring a doorbell to open the door. He mimicked the doorbell sound, and said, "Come in!" just like the door always says. He was giggling at the silliest stuff. It's just so fun to watch him enjoy these shows. He's getting so smart, too. (We'll just make this a little brag post about Chase, ok?)

A cute story about pick-up at daycare today. I walked into the house and the kids were ready in their coats as usual (they must be in a rush to get them out of there?) ... and the sitter's little girl who is younger than Chase by a bit came over and said, "Mama!" pointing at me. She does this a lot. I think she means, "Your mama!" but she just says, "Mama!" Today, however, Chase noticed what she said and said, "MY mama!" Not YOUR mama, MY mama! It was just so cute, you had to be there, lol.

He knows several of his colors already. He knows red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, and pink! He goofs them up sometimes, but he knows them most of the time. He also recognizes squares, triangles, circles ... I'm impressed. He does a pretty good job with the Leapster 2 in the coloring screens, and he holds pencils and markers nearly correctly ... with either hand (though we both think he'll be a lefty ... crossing our fingers!!!) :)

He's into naming everything (rocket ship [ocket sip]! monster truck [moster shuck]! choo-choo train [choo-choo tain]!), and has been working on getting himself potty trained too. He does a good job of using the potty ... he just forgets sometimes or is too busy doing something to stop to go potty. I feel confident, though, that he'll be potty trained before 3 years old. He even wakes up dry sometimes! So cool! He's also very independent ... which has its ups and downs ... check out this photo. I took it on a night where he decided to help himself to cereal. He wanted to do it hisself (but mommy helped)!





He's my "Bless you" baby when I sneeze (before anyone else), and he loves to give hugs and kisses. He is just the sweetest little boy (except when he's tired or stubborn and then he's not so sweet, lol). I just love my little sunshine, and he was due for a brag post! Hee hee!

~Melinda

Time to update I think, lol

Well, I'm directing people to my blog to see this new blog set in action ... and realized my last post is dated in December and January is well on its way to being done, so its time for an update! I'll try to fill in some pictures from Christmas soon.

Things have been crazy around here. We've ALL been sick with the stomach/intestinal virus that has been going around. It was awful. I spent a week with a sore back before I finally got sick-sick. Blake and Julia both took turns getting sick at daycare -- sorry Tonja and Melissa -- and Chase had some awful diapers that kept him home, too. I *think* we are all over it now, though!

I made some changes to help me keep up with things at home. I had to leave two of my creative teams to do it, though. I am no longer creating pages for Kathryn Estry or Michelle Pieters, but they are still both wonderful designers and friends, and if you haven't seen their stores yet, please check out Divine Digital, Digitals or Gotta Pixel for Kathryn, and NDISB or Digitals for Michelle. I will have to settle with being a big fan for now. :) With Tyler working so much, I really need less duties at the computer so that I can get other things done at home ... like dishes and laundry. :)

I am still in the ADSR Season 4 -- Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race -- at NDISB. My partner is none other than the fabulous owner of Gotta Pixel (my scrapping home), Stacy Carlson! Her layouts are amazing and its an honor to be racing with her. We have 5 of the 6 challenges completed, and I know challenge 6 is on its way too. So, we're doing great! You can see my pages in the gallery at Gotta Pixel, and at NDISB if you are curious.

Other than being sick, things aren't much different around here. The Christmas tree came down on the 1st of January, and we're finally able to go outside without starting the car 20-30 minutes beforehand again. 20 never felt so warm, lol.

Well, I have things I need to do, so off I go ... just wanted to have a newer post to show off this fancy new blog wear! :)

Thanks for reading,
Melinda

Trimming the Tree

Yes, I know it's a little late. In fact, I am actually adding these pictures on January 4th, 2009. Oops. But, better late than never. :)

With Tyler working so much, relying on him to bring the Christmas Tree up from the basement was proving to be a LONG wait. I had a feeling it would be Christmas Eve before the tree came up. So, one night I made up my mind and I brought it up myself. OUCH! Man, that thing is heavy for one person to bring up the stairs. It fought me all the way, and Blake helped me up the last bit of stairs where it gets a bit narrow to maneuver. The kids were very excited to see the tree, but it had to wait several more days for me to get the lights out of the basement. I HATE putting up the lights. I always think of that parody of "The 12 Days of Christmas" with the line "hanging up the lights!" about the 12 not-so-great things about Christmas. LOL.

Anyway, I brought up all of the lights on the 18th of December, only to discover that my light strands were all half-working. *SIGH* So, with the kids wound up out of their minds and Tyler left behind with them (hee hee hee), I went to Shopko to get lights. And they were out. So, I bought a few other things (of course) and then went to Wal-Mart where I bought three sets of 200 light strands. Hey, what can I say? I think my mom said she usually put 700 lights on this tree, so I figured 600 should suffice. To make a long story shorter, we only ended up putting 400 lights on the tree ... Tyler helped me and made it much more bearable ... we played jump rope over the top of the tree as we wound the lights around the tree ... and the kids were in bed before it was finished. LOL

So, we put ornaments on a different night, which is what you see here. *PHEW!* If you read all of my blabbering, I applaud you ... and apologize because I know it is probably similar to your own light-stringing story. :)

Blake wanted to put the ornaments on the top of the tree ... he used the step ladder.


Julia wanted to put all of her favorite ornaments next to each other ... I bet so they could have a conversation! ROFLMBO!


And every child of mine has fallen for the lollypop ornament ... this was Chase's turn:


Thanks for looking! :)

Lightroom...

We were on our way to go meet Tyler for lunch. We had just had our second "sticking" snowfall of the winter. The kids played instead of getting in the car, naturally ... and Chase got hit with snow a couple times, but he didn't mind! Check out the amazing coloring on this picture ... it was a great shot to begin with, and then I ran it through my trial version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom version 2.1. Isn't it awesome?




I scrapped this photo ... with some cool effects on it in addition to Lightroom ... and it was published in The Artisan Notebook for January 2009! :)





Just had to share as I haven't posted in a while. :)

~Melinda

Happy 6th Birthday, Blake!

Today was Blake's 6th birthday! After I picked the kids up at daycare, we went to McDonald's (Blake's choice). Then we went and picked out a cake and cupcakes to send to school the next day (they had a field trip today to the Outdoor Classroom, so treats wouldn't work today). When we got home, we sang Happy Birthday and took pictures of Blake with his cake:




Before we dug into the cake, I let Blake open his gift from us (which I picked up on my lunch hour):


Blake ... do you have cake stuck on your front teeth? No?


Smile bigger, please! OMG! You've lost your two front teeth!


And no, he did not know it! LOL! Our best guess is that they fell out at McDonald's, and that either he ate them (blech) or the janitors got to clean them up while sweeping the floors. Hee hee!

This should make an awesome scrapbooking page! :)

Happy Halloween!

I'm so fast, LOL ... check this out!