I am training someone's future husband....

And I am doing this job right! My boy will be able to cook and clean with the best of them. No need for the wife to do all that crap herself.

Happy Birthday, Dear Brother of Mine

Happy 31st birthday little brother! Hard to believe we are this old! I hope this year is good to you!

My New Toy

I scored at Mike's (Michaels for you non crafters) tonight! Yay...got me this cool file tab punch and some neat little mike's dollar acrylic stamps... I had been looking for those for months! Now I just have to find some time to use them. The file tab punch is huge. That sucker is heavy too. Where in my teeny tiny scrap area am I going to store this monster?

Santa Cruz

Just got back from a 3 day trip to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with my kids, mom, aunt, uncle, niece, and mom's husband. Much fun was had by my children. Can I just say that amusement parks rock when you are the kid, but not nearly so much when you are the mom. Even if we put aside my neurotic constant worrying (that something will happen to my babies) there is so much stuff that just bites when you are the parent. Lets start with cost. Holy Hell this crap costs alot... I didnt even have to pay for tickets (the benefit of traveling with mom) but the drinks, the lunches, the dinners, the games, the souvieners, the ice cream... I swear all this stuff is going at a 99% percent profit margin! Then there is the whining, the I am so tireds on the way the home, the dirt (my kids were so FILTHY), the cranky sugar crash after the wild sugar high. But honestly, all my bitching aside, the kids had a wonderful time. They came home very, very happy.

My sweet girl and her toothless grin

My dd, niece, and ds riding the carousel

My niece, ds, and dd riding "baby doubleshot". My niece and dd rode the "real" doubleshot later and my heart was in my throat the entire time!

My Hobby

When I have free time (read next to never) and I am not wasting it on the computer (read which is nearly always) I scrapbook. I love anything to do with art. Once upon a time, before my spawn came along, I took art classes. I drew, I painted, I designed. I at one point was planning on being a graphic artist. In highschool I had hoped to become an animator. HAHAHA, so NOT how I turned out. I am neither a graphic designer nor an animator, the closest I get to art work is when I cut out construction paper letters for my bulletin board. (I am an elementary school science teacher at the moment.) So I get my art fix from scrapbooking, which I adore. I love paper. I could buy paper for days. I probably have enough paper to scrap a thousand books. But I always find a reason to buy more, mostly because it goes on sale, and who can resist an opportunity to SAVE money!

So that was the long introduction to why you will suddenly be seeing pictures of my scrapbook pages...especially now that the scanner is in good working order. So without further adieu, here is my latest project, a friend wordbloom book (you can purchase blank books here: Scrapbook Corner ) This book is all about my very special internet buddies that I made when I was pregnant with baby girl.

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime? Yeah, he has taken over my house. Currently he has been bossing me around...saying things like, "Mommy I will no longer eat my vegetables.... Mommy... you must listen to Optimus Prime" That kid cracks me up.

Who Doesnt Love a Party??

Me and the boy

My daughter and friends

The boy celebrated his fourth birthday with his friends today. I love that picture of me and him even if it is blurry. I am going to scrapbook it for sure. The kids had a grand time destroying my house, pigging out, and scattering toys from here to eternity. It was total chaos for awhile! But the boy said it was his best birthday EVER... hows that for praise?

Wild Card Wednesday!

I give you my boy and his Water loving friend, the River Otter

Excuse me while I get teary....

My baby is turning four tommorrow. I never thought I would have a son. For some reason I imagined myself with two or three girls. No boys, not ever. While I was pregnant with my boy I swore he was a girl. I have ultrasound after ultrasound saying the opposite but I swore he was a girl.

Now my girl (my first born) I love her dearly but she was not an easy baby. She cried nearly all the time. She nursed, she cried, she nursed and then cried some more. There were times when I thought I would go insane. So when we decided to have number two I prepared myself for the nonstop crying. Imagine my surprise when this little guy was born and he did not cry. Not only that but he slept in his crib, he liked the swing, he would sit in a bouncy chair. He did not need to be hooked to my body 24/7! His babyhood was a joy!

He makes me smile daily. He has the sweetest smile and the funniest sense of humor. He loves to dress up, he loves weapons, he loves to pet the cat until the cat runs and hides. He is the sweetest thing.

Thanks for indulging me as I prattle on about my kid. I leave you with some pictures of the boy.




My guy is the one in the orange

I'm Leavin on a Jet Plane....

Whoohooo! I am going to Chicago. (in a few weeks) I have never been there before. I havent been much of anywhere in the last 12 years. So I am going to Chicago to meet up with some of my internet friends. I have known these friends for quite a long while, about 7 years to be exact. We met on a pregnancy board for moms due in August of 2000. Now I know everyone giggles a bit about internet friends but these ladies... they are friends in every sense of the word. We have an email loop that is active daily where we share just about everything. I heart them so much, I wished they all lived just down the street. The closest one lives about 2 hours from me, so I got lucky there. The ones I am meeting in Chicago are from New York and Iowa. I have met two of them "IRL" before and the third, well finally we will both be in the right place at the right time. I absolutely cannot wait for this trip!

My Summer Vacation (or how my children managed to completely cover every surface of every belonging in dirt and provide me endless laundry)

This is my darling boy in his ill fitting lifejacket. Oh why is he wearing a too small life jacket you ask? Oh that would be because my husband decided to not listen when he asked, "Which life jackets should we take? " I told him which jackets we should take but he decided to choose the exact opposite of what I said. sigh. Anyhow the boy was a joy to have on the beach, what with all the whining, crying and carrying on about how the jacket was poking him. I finally let him take it off as long as he didnt go past his knees. Bad mother I am... I know, but my ears could take no more.



These are my children squashing my mother in law as she gives them "a ride" around the lake. Better her than me, I say. I sat my fat butt on the beach and read my trashy novels. Nothing better than lots of sun and trashy novels....well unless it was lots of sun, trashy novels, no kids and a beach in mexico.

I have a ton more pictures but for some reason my mac is hating my camera. I did manage to download my pics to my old pc and then transfer them to a jump drive. Next I will try to move them to the mac....but gawdddd what a PITA! I think this means I need to go buy a new digital camera. Any recommendations? I need something small, I do not want to back some big BAMF (like my favorite photographer, Kami) I need something small that can go in my purse but still take awesome pics... yes I want it all

I am Outta Here!

Off for a week at the lake with the family. Hopefully we all come back in one piece and without burns! My sun is like a little vampire, instantly fried by sunlight. I have packed a ton of good books, magazines, and thinkin on bringing some scrapbookin stuff. I am really hoping for some R&R!

4th of July

We went to my mom's. Thats my brother showing the kids how to set off those little popper things you can get at Target. Lots of fun had by all!

Wild Card Wednesday!

This weeks wild card Wednesday, brought to you by the owner of a haunted Mayan desk, stars the letter H! Whooohoooo! H just happens to be the first letter of the crappy last name I inherited when I got married.

I give you Halloween! This picture is about 3 years old. My son was a few months old. The girl was 3. She was a dog... and he was her bone. This was totally her idea. Its an idea that continues, each year she decides what she will be and then she makes him an accessory.


Halloween...the following year...she is Cinderella, he is Prince Charming



And so it went....Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, The White Witch and Peter (from Narnia).... who knows what this year will bring!

My Kids are the Cutest

The boy and the girl at swimming lessons this past week. I know I am their mom but I just think they are adorable! The goggles on my son... they kill me! He loves them.

I am a Scaredy Cat

So I mentioned the wasp/yellow jacket nest? Its in the eaves of our shed. There are a ton of yellow jackets going in and out. I ran out to the store and bought yellow jacket killer and traps. I beg the hubs to spray the nest. He says ok. Does he do it? nooooooo. So tonight I get all indignant and tell him I am going to it myself while he is at work. I go out after dark like it says. I stare at the hole in the eaves.... hmmmmmm its kind of high. I need a ladder. Cant find one so I get a rickety crate. I haul my fat butt onto the crate. I aim the spray. One Yellow jacket flies out, I nearly tumble off the crate and land on my ass. I think, "hmmm perhaps if one yellow jacket can nearly knock me on my rear.... twenty or so pissed off yellow jackets are going to cause me to break an ankle." So I climbed down off the crate, backed away from the hole, and like the wuss that I am slunk off into the house to wait for the hubs to douse the nest tomorrow when he gets back from work. GAWD! I am such a baby, I irritate myself!

Worry

I worry alot. Do any of you all do this? I can worry about anything, serious or trivial. And then once I start that worry just becomes a compulsion. Its almost like I cant stop! It kills me. Currently I am worrying about my garage door, which broke last night for no reason whatsoever. I am also worrying the yellow jacket nest in our shed, global warming, soldiers in Iraq (now that I personally know one over there, I have stepped up the Iraq worry, my weight, my kids, my future trip to Chicago, flying, security at airports, money..... you see the list goes on and on. Its amazing I am not one giant ulcer. Oh and also that list is not in any kind of order. Like I dont worry about yellow jackets the most. Mostly that stuff just cycles through my brain all day long. I am sure I probably need a shrink.... hmmm maybe I should worry about that.

Wild Card Wednesday!

Wild Card Wedneday! WCW is brought to you by She Who Would Rather Reside in Texas


This is my darling daughter in first staring role in the play called Waves. Ummm no actually it was called Tide Pools. But I did paint that wave scenery in background so I feel bonus points are in order.

Where I Have Been (For my one or two sometimes readers...)

This is Me! In all my "I just got up and have not bothered to fix myself glory" taken with my new MacBook. Cool little built in camera.

So Where Have I Been??
My computer died. And it went out in a big way! I still dont know what happened to it. The geeks I hired to work on it have no idea whats wrong...oh they talk a good game, but the computer is still not fixed so I presume they are as clueless as me! Poor computer, it was a Gateway, it lasted a good 4 years. Which I hear is ages for a computer. Anyway what did I do? I went out and bought a Mac. I, a dedicated PC user, slave to windows, went out and bought a Mac. A MacBook. I love it! I do! But I am still trying to figure out exactly how to work all its parts. I am particularly disturbed by the no right click. However I just spent a bundle on it and so I am going to have to figure it all out. Wish me luck. All my Mac using friends say I will never go back. Yah, I know this to be true because it will be YEARS before I can afford a new one! Hoping to get to WCW this Wednesday!

Wild Card Wednesday

This weeks WCW brought to you by the absentminded TKW and the letter K. I give you kids getting ready to go to KINDERGARTEN! Well not my kid, he has one more year of preschool to go, but lots of those other kids are going to Kindergarten....so hopefully I will still get my quadruple bonus points.

These kids look totally possessed! My son is in the whiteish button down.

I only wish this hot chick were me. She is my son's teacher.