Is it Saturday, er, Sunday yet?

I am so tired! I know, I know ... so why am I writing this post and not in bed? I think my body might go into shock if I was in bed before 11 pm. LOL. Seriously, I will be trying to get to bed soon after I write this, but I'll have to let Lexi out one last time for the night, and then I need to straighten up ... so yeah, gonna be a bit. :)

Tuesdays tend to be an exhausting day for me. I suppose my body is protesting after getting to sleep in on Sunday. But, I managed to wake up on time today regardless. (Yes, it did involve a 30 minute snooze-fest with my alarm clock, but 6:45 is still on time. ;) )

I woke up to a stink in my house ... unfortunately, Lexi got a few nibbles on some grapes that the kids dropped on the floor. I didn't know it, but grapes can be toxic to dogs, and since Lexi isn't big, I'm glad she spit out the one that I'm aware she nibbled on. At any rate, it gave her some loose stools, and she wasn't able to hold them in and went in her crate during the night. So, I spent the first 15 minutes of my morning (when I should have been waking up the munchkins so that they had their "wake-up" time) cleaning out the crate after shoving the stinky dog outside (who was given a bath later this afternoon, thank you DH!!!).

Then, I got the kids up at 7 am and they proceeded to be too tired to get dressed for another 15 minutes or so ... and why do I have to brush my teeth? I don't WANT to wear that shirt, mommy! and I don't want to wear those shoes! ... sigh. I quick dropped the kids off at the corner by the school (instead of in the parking lot as usual), and dashed to work where I was 2 minutes late. I just had to get stuck behind a school bus and then one of those (good, but frustrating) people who actually goes the speed limit as it is posted. There has to be an easier way to do this waking up stuff ... what is it? Please share.

In case my day wasn't enough stress as it was, I decided to go shopping (with the kids, of course) after work because we needed a "healthy snack" for Julia's class for tomorrow (I decided on individual cups of cinnamon apple sauce ... yeah, high fructose corn syrup, I know), and I wanted to look for soccer cleats for the kids. We had gotten a pair that were size 2.5 from my MIL who I think picked them up at a thrift sale or from someone she knew, but Blake said they didn't fit, and we had none for Julia. All of the other kids on the team had cleats, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy some. They must serve some real purpose ... I hope. The kids were being exceptionally hyper, and Blake and Julia pulled out those shoe measuring tools and Blake stuck his on there to "play" and I glanced at it and he should need a size 1 to 1.5 for shoes. So, why on earth wouldn't those (too big) cleats fit him? Oh, he says, they do fit! *D'OH!* So, I saved some money and only bought cleats for Julia. Now, she better keep playing, lol.

To de-stress, I sat down to play with Kristmess' Autumn Rain Page Kit. I went in search of a photo that would fit with the elegant droplets that I wanted to play with, and found a picture of my daughter all dressed up in her (then-new) Halloween costume last October. At first I was determined to do an extraction layout and it was going to be fabulous. Then I pulled my extracted Julia onto the purple background and cringed ... the skirt pieces and headband pieces are see-through, and I couldn't get rid of all of the white background bits without spending hours ... so I decided to do an OOB instead (out of bounds). As I played, the layout unfolded itself easily into what you see here:


WOODLAND FAIRY CREDITS

It is amazing to me how much stress I can release in creating one simple page. NOw I am still tired, but I am not as frazzled as I was ... except for that nagging voice telling me to go to bed ...

I guess I better just listen this time, eh?

Good night, and thanks for reading! :)

The Cabin

Tyler was successful in talking me into going with him to the cabin. He has only been trying all summer long, and probably last year too. All I knew was that it was a good drive away, and that from his description there was going to be nothing to entertain the kids, and I just didn't want to be stuck somewhere with 3 very bored children. I'm sure you understand.

We made the not-as-lengthy-as-I-expected drive to the cabin ... which was out in the middle of nowhere for sure, lol. The driveway was almost non-visible. He says that is on purpose. A tree is fallen over the driveway part-way through. I worry that we'll scratch the roof of the truck, but we drive through and as far as I know there is no scratch up there.

The view is nice. The cabin doesn't look like much, and it needs a lot of work. But, there is a nice clearing, and a pretty view of the river. The bank is pretty steep, though. There were some fall colors popping out randomly on the drive up. I was able to see some from the cleared space by the cabin too. It is very quiet there, and I can see the appeal to Tyler, immediately. I just wished for a few things ... a chaise lounge, more for the kids to do, and a easier/faster way to cook the pork chops that he ambitiously brought along. Oh, and no flies/gnats/mosquitos ... but I wish for that no matter where I am.

The kids had a pretty good time, and they even spent a little bit of time down in the river -- well, Blake and Julia did. Chase wasn't allowed to try to climb down the bank, and I started to go down once but Tyler cautioned me there might be bees nests hiding and I went right back up. I am first to admit I am NOT a nature girl. I like the water, so I was willing to go down ... but NOT if there might be bees, lol.

I made a page with this picture I took not all that long before we left. I know that it was later because Julia had been wearing a bright yellow soccer team shirt most of the time. :)



If you like what I made, you can play around with this kit too. It's called "Autumn Rain Page Kit" by Kristmess Designs and is available at Gotta Pixel.



I will be back soon with soccer pictures, and maybe video if I can figure out how to upload it (has been a while!).

Thanks for stopping in!

First day of school - 2009

Blake on the first day of 1st grade:




No lookin' back, Ma ... I'm all grown up.


My little miss confident on her first day of Kindergarten:


Too excited for words. :)


Blake had his first full day today, and Julia had a half-day with me present. Blake jumped back into the school routine nearly without a hitch. Julia, being the little drama girl she is, did decide to be a little clingy with me at school for that half-day, which I found entirely amusing as she never did this when she went to two year's worth of Head Start. :) Julia is taken with her student teacher, and has decided she likes Ms. Lange.

Blake reports that he has Dillan in his class, which is hopefully not going to be a bad thing ... they get along really well, and Dillan is a nice boy, but I worry about them getting too chatty. Same thing with Julia and Devondre in her class, though ... she really likes him! Hee hee.

Well, that's enough about the first day of school ... 178 days to go. :)

Scrap Star Contest

I am currently running in the Scrap Star Contest at Gotta Pixel. This contest is how the site will pick its new Site Creative Team. I am on the Site "CT" right now, but because of a change in the terms I need to try out so that I can hopefully STAY on the team. :) By being on the team, I get to work with designs by many of the fabulous designers for free in exchange for trying to show off their kits in the best possible way. I do my best!

Here are my two pages from the contest so far:


Challenge 1 was to use "Comical" by simply.scraps in a way that didn't fit the comic-book/superhero theme of the kit. I pulled the space elements out of the kit and ran with them. :)



Challenge 2 was to use "Spring" by HeatherT in a "white space" layout with an imperfect photo.

I will be back with more details tomorrow, and links!

A conversation about cleaning

Blake: Mom, we've got our pajamas on now and we're going to bed. (5-10 minutes after they were sent upstairs ... a record?) Good night, mom!

Me: Good night!

Blake: Mom, I wanna tell you something.

Me: Ok, what.

Blake:It's so much nicer up here when the upstairs is all picked up and there isn't stuff all over.

Me: Um, hum! (You think?!)

The kids were sent upstairs right after we got home to finish cleaning up their mess. Blake and Julia don't work so well together though, so I sent Julia to pick up in Chase's room instead, and left Blake upstairs to work on the bigger mess. (They were upstairs a good chunk of the day while I was at work, but they were up there together and so all they did was make each other scream and play a little bit.) I set the timer, and each time the timer went off I went and assessed the work. If it was obvious they had been working hard, they were fine and got more time to keep going (10-15 minute time slots). If they weren't, they lost a toy -- as in its gone for good.

Blake lost an ambulance toy (that is basically broken anyway), and Julia lost a Barbie dress and her Disney Princess tea set (pieces missing and broken). Then, I gave Blake a break upstairs and "let" him collect and crush cans instead, and had Julia work upstairs on what was left. She was all set to freak out over how much work she had to do when she realized Blake had done most of it and calmed right down. Man, she gets overwhelmed easily. But, I can relate to that.

I used the time while they were cleaning up to work on the kitchen ... so it was time well spent for me too.

Well, it's 10:20 and I'm exhausted so off to bed I go. Just thought I'd share that little conversation between Blake and me from the top of the stairs. :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Julia!

All we did today was celebrate by singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles on 5 cupcakes. No birthday party, and I didn't have a gift for her yet. She did get a gift from Tyler's parents. She loves it ... it's princess figurines and comes with little plastic dress-up clothes. Lexi will love them.

My in-laws head to Tyler's sister's graduation from Boot Camp today ... in South Carolina, and my parents are in Alaska this week. So, definitely no parties this week. We haven't had a party for Julia ... ever. We've always been moving or just about to move around her birthday, pretty much. Would like to have a party, but as usual ... not sure we can afford to! *sigh*

Anyway, happy 5th Birthday, Julia! She told everyone she saw today that it was her birthday so no one was off the hook! LOL!

Love you sweet girl,
Mom

Meet Lexi ... and other news

On July 2nd, we brought home Lexi ... a (believed to be) Pomeranian-Cocker Spaniel mix puppy that is 9 months old. The family she was living with was not able to take care of her the way they felt she needed, so they found her a new home with us!

She was called "Puppy" for 9 months, so we chose a 2 syllable name for her that we all liked. (Tyler changed his mind after a day or two, but by then we were all used to the name and couldn't think of anything else.) I think she is starting to respond to her name and know it is her we are talking about ... so that is exciting!

She loves Tyler and follows him everywhere ... and she likes the kids too. The kids all like her pretty much. They all (though Chase the least until tonight) tend to freak out a little bit when she gets jumpy (she sure likes to jump!), but they are getting used to her being around. When he's out of the way, Chase thinks it is hilarious to watch her run around and he giggles. It's pretty cute!

It's definitely an adjustment having a puppy in the house. She has peed on the floor at least 4 times. She likes to pick up socks or other clothes on the floor. She likes to chew on the kids' Little People and other small toys. She bit the head off of a small plastic dinosaur from a kit Chase got for Christmas ... but that was no big loss as I rather dislike those small plastic figurines anyway. She had us up very early after her first night here, and I don't get to sleep in after my alarm anymore because as soon as she hears it she starts to whine because she wants out of her crate. We have a runner cable that Tyler installed outside, so Lexi has a safe way of being let outside without direct supervision (plus the yard is fenced and gated if the kids haven't forgotten to close one or both gate(s).)

She's not exceptionally fond of being put in her crate yet ... hoping that will ease as time passes. But, other than that, she seems pretty happy here!

Well, I AM going to be in bed before 11 pm tonight, so off I go. I just wanted you to meet Lexi!

Oh yeah... and we're buying a house! (If you know me, you know which one, lol.) Closing will be sometime later this month. Hopefully NOT the last day of the month ... they are going to start thinking I plan this stuff to happen this way if this keeps up! The last day of each month is a busy day in my department. So, that is our other news. I am excited to make it official and will be so relieved when my parents can move on without the added stress/worry of owning this home!

Thanks for reading!
Melinda