motor bikes

I am still battling my husband and his desire to have a mid-life crisis item, I mean "toy." He desperately wants a $40,000 fish and ski boat, I said no. He also wants a vacation home, I said no. Who does he think we are, Donald Trump? So now he is convinced he needs a scooter or motorcycle. I don't think either is a good idea. #1 my husband is 6 feet 5 inches tall so most scooters are too little for him. #2 he is a bit of a sporadic driver so I worry about him being cautious on a motorcycle. AND I just don't want to spend the money. With that being said, he'll probably get the basic motorcycle he saw that is not as expensive as a Harley (thank goodness). Here is his argument for getting a motorized bike of some kind: it will save on gas money. Right, I get that. A scooter gets like 50 miles to a gallon. Awesome. BUT we still have to spend at least $3000 to get the scooter, does that make sense to you? Spend $3000 to save while gas is super expensive? I guess I am not seeing the logic. Either way, we're spending a lot of money. We'll see, I love my husband and I'll probably give in.

On a related note, Zoe said something that totally cracked me up. We saw two Harley dudes at a stop sign the other day. They had all the gear, you know leather everything, totally like the "Wild Hogs" movie. They also had the saddle bags with the silver nail head things (don't know what they are called) around the edges. Zoe says, "mommy, those tough guys bedazzled their motorcycles! Why did they do that? Don't they know that is for girls?" I laughed out loud, what would those "tough" guys say if someone accused them of bedazzling their accessories?! Love it! Now every time I see a tricked out bike, I totally think of Zoe's observation.

Wild Hogs trailer- Jeez, I love John Travolta! I seriously think he is still so darn cute!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZMgkDDZkvU

random stuff

My father-in-law, Forrest (love that name and Forrest Gump is one of my all time favorite movies!) recommended I read this book. He knows I love a good historical biography but this one is a true tome. It is like 900 pages or so. I am only about a third of the way through. I am actually enjoying it, always thought FDR was a cool dude, you know being paralyzed and president, pretty awesome. But I am dying to read...
I am such a geek! I love this guy Peter Walsh. I wish I could have started the Clean Sweep show, I would love to do that for people! I requested these from the library and they came sooner than I thought so I am kind of drooling over them right now. I really want to finish the FDR book, like I don't want to disappoint Forr, you know? But boy, these are looking so interesting. Hey did you know there is a NAPO?(National Association of Professional Organizers) How do you get to be one of those? I wanna be one!

And just a quick question...

Is it ok for your five year old to sing, "It's a marvelous night for a moondance, can I just have one more moon dance with you, my luuuuuuv?" (still listening and thinking about Michael Buble) Is it kind of like me singing, "I want your sex" when I was little? As a mom, I wonder if it's inappropriate. Hmmm...

nail toes

This is what a 2 1/2 year old boy says that can melt your heart:
"Mommy, you got cute nail toes."
(this comes after a fresh coat of nail polish)

Zoe's quilt

Look at my Zoe's first quilt. She wanted to sew something so bad. We have bought those felt kits a couple times that have the pre-punched holes and plastic needles. She loves them. She has the finished projects hanging in her room. I was surprised at how hard she worked to stitch each side of her "doll blanket." I used safety pins to hold the two pieces of fabric together and that seemed to work out nicely, she didn't complain of poking herself. I am so proud of her!

I am pooky guy

I am pooky guy. Catwoman
My kids used to be deathly afraid of this mask. My husband gets it out every once in a while and they both scream, cry, grab my leg with the jaws of life until he puts it away. Not just
away but away in a box with the lid on tight. Out of the blue, Parker asked for the "pooky guy" mask. We were shocked. OK, give it a try. Zoe is shakin' in her flip flops but she is being brave. Parker puts it on and starts saying in his best scary voice, "I am pooky guy." Meaning, I am a spooky guy. Not to be outdone, Zoe decides to make her own mask, completed, I thought it looked like Catwoman. So now they are both wearing their masks all the time for a few days now and trying to scare us to death.

gooters

I broke down and got Parker his own scooter. He has been riding Zoe's pink princess scooter all winter (in the basement and outside on nice days) and he is awesome at it. I felt a little bad that he wasn't riding a more masculine looking scooter. I really thought he'd get tired of it and move on to something else, thus prolonging the day I'd have to get him one of his own. The last few weeks have been so nice and the fights over who got to ride the scooter were starting to drive me crazy. I let him pick out what he wanted, he chose Diego and after about 30 minutes of me sweating and silently cursing the directions, I put it together. Yeah me! He has been riding it ever since, carrying it in and out of the house so he can keep riding it, putting it next to his bed at night. I guess you can say, he loves it. Oh and by the way, he calls it "my gooter." I love that. I can't believe how fast he is growing up.
Go Parker, go!

new stuff happening at our house

This is a new game to play at our house. I call it "Zoe bosses Parker around, fills up his backpack to the brim, and he cries because it is too heavy."
Zoe calls it, "school." She is the teacher. She actually does a pretty good job. I think kids inherit certain traits that will lead them to their chosen profession. It makes sense that she'd want to be an educator like so many in her family. I, of course, want her to be whatever she wants, which changes daily, mostly she wants to be a cheerleader, we'll see in about 20 years or so.
I wanted to post this Saturday but somehow I forgot. Not sure why. I have started a new Saturday morning tradition of making pancakes. It's the one food everyone will eat. My husband likes to have a "big" breakfast (eggs, sausage or bacon, and toast, the works- how spoiled is he?!) and the kids and I don't eat it. So I found myself standing there in the kitchen for what seemed like hours making all those different breakfasts. I watched on a recent (rerun) of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" (on TLC, Monday nights) my new favorite show, besides "The Office," that Kate makes pancakes for her crew of 10! I thought if she can do it so can I! I make the batter the night before and Saturday it's all ready to go. I usually have enough left over for the kids to have some Sunday while daddy has another "big" breakfast, eggs, etc. (I am realizing how spoiled he is!) So another little thing that makes my life easier/better, I love it! It's a good thing (blatant Martha quote!).

Oops, I almost forgot, Happy Earth Day! Me and the munchkins planted some seeds in honor.

"scrap"booking

They don't call is "scrap"booking for nothing. I have had this picture for two years, it is from one of the kids' professional photography sessions. I love it so much. I even drew a sketch for the layout, which is something I almost never do. I really wanted to scrapbook it but I just didn't. I found this paper and I thought the colors would be perfect. As I was finishing up, I thought I needed something to sort of accent the denim in Parker's overalls. I had recently cut off these obnoxious belt loops off a pair of my jeans, they never looked right and I rarely tuck in a shirt or wear a belt so I cut them off and saved them. I knew I'd use them sometime! I think the little jeans tab with a star eyelet makes the whole page perfect. It is my new favorite layout.

lovin' Molly

I just stayed up late watching "Sixteen Candles" when I should have been sleeping. It is one of my all-time favorites. I am amazed that I still laugh (out loud) at most of the same things even though I've seen it probably 500 times. I wanted to be Molly Ringwald in every way. She definitely had it goin' on, style, grace, attitude, cool in all ways. In fact, I think I related to all her brat pack movie rolls in some way. "Pretty in Pink" is another one on top of my faves list. She got to have the ultimate teenage dream ending kisses, whew, that one with Jake Ryan is awesome. I think until I had my first kiss way back when, I fantasized that mine would be just like that one, sitting on a table with a cutie like him. I hope you get a chance to enjoy this flick too, even if you've seen it as many times as I have. It was well worth the loss of sleep, my belly hurts from laughing, does that count as an ab workout?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcKqtzj8LAg

love her boots in this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWtK5EFtzqg

this one made me pierce my own ear so I could have a double earring in my left ear, I used a safety pin, boy was my mom mad! AND this is when I fell in love with vintage everything, isn't James Spader so cute?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcSMDqXT52s

blossoms

The Cleveland Pear tree in our yard has lots of blooms this year. Last year they got zapped by a late freeze. They look so pretty in all the neighborhoods around here. One spring day when I was teaching, I was outside with my class for recess and we had many of these blooming trees on the school grounds. A good stiff wind blew and one of my students said, "look, it's snowing!" All the blossoms were blowing off and it did look like snow. I still laugh about that today. It took a good deal of convincing to tell this little guy that it was flowers, not snowflakes.

spring gear

I am loving getting some new spring gear for the warmer weather. I am so sick of layering and freezing and coats, etc. I am excited to dust off the flip flops and capri pants. I found these cute Bermuda shorts and can't wait to wear them. Gone are the days of short shorts, thanks to my kids, my legs look like road maps of varicose veins.Here are my cute new shades, I love the little bling on the sides.That's about as stylish as a SAHM can be on a budget. Thankfully, Kohls has cute, affordable clothes. Now I'm going to have to give myself a pedicure.

warmer weather projects

Slowly but surely our little corner of the world is getting ready for warmer weather. My allergies are certainly telling me things are changing! I have been doing a few things to get ready myself. I saw on Aby Garvey's blog http://creativeorganizing.typepad.com (my fave organizing scrapbooker) that she had a summer bucket of goodies. I made one too, hers was cuter, but mine is truly functional. How do I know? My husband used it already (!) and commented what a good idea it is! I gathered some first aid items: band aids, neosporin, solarcaine spray, tissues for tears and sunblock and bug spray put them all in a basket and Ta Da! This is resting in our garage right next to our big sink in case we have to wash out any boo boos. I think this will be so handy as more skin becomes exposed thus leading to more boo boos. Another thing I did, as nerdy as it sounds, is to check all our flashlights for batteries. I am terrified of tornadoes, not a good phobia to have when you live in Tornado Alley, so I worry about having lights/electricity all summer. The littlest thundercrack just about sends me in to defib, I am serious. I am working on making an emergency kit to keep in the basement. Like I said, total phobia.
I just made you want to go check your flashlights didn't I? :)

the blanket

This picture does not convey the true funniness of this moment. It all happened so quickly that I ran to get the camera and I tried to capture the shot only to be a second to late. I've been doing some random spring cleaning, I am a total clean-a-holic. Washing our extra blankets on our beds and putting them away for the summer/fall is one of my every year chores. This blue one is from Zoe's bed. It is one of those fuzzy ones that hotels used to have. It is super warm and she loves it. She actually cried when I told her it was time to take it off. So for two days it was a tent, an ocean to swim on, a ghost costume, a cuddly thing for tv time, and etc. etc. etc. This was the last moment I would let them play with it as I found it getting covered with dog hair and it was time to wash it then put it in the Space Bag (by far one of my favorite organizing tools!). I heard massive giggling and found Zoe, Parker, and Max under the blanket, all I could see were feet. All I could hear was happiness. Oh these are the moments I want to remember when my kids are grumpy teenagers. They were having so much fun I let them keep the blanket for one more day. It is now vacuum sealed in the Space Bag and the kids are on to other things. I am going to remember this moment in my mind, kid feet and dog feet sticking out of a blanket just laughing their heads off, even though my camera didn't completely capture it.

another spring cleaning tip: Swiffer sweepers (been using those a lot lately!) can help clean your return air vents, just use them to wipe across the vents, dust comes right off, and you don't have to get on a ladder or chair, us short-people love that! I also use these for my blind for a quick dusting, just close blinds and rub the sweeper over them. It helps to get most of the dust off and it is a lot quicker than dusting each individual blind.

Kohls

I can officially say I have seen everything. I went to Kohl's a couple days ago to get some new sunglasses. My birthday and Christmas gift cards were burning holes in my pocket. I found these cute wide leg jeans. I think they are so cute, stylish, grown-up looking. I think my friend, Kristin, will like them too;) . So I'm leaving the store and I just happen to look at my temperature thingy in my van, it says 40 degrees. Brr, I thought it was chilly. Who cares, I got new shades and new jeans. I am driving through the parking lot and I see a car at the end of the rows of parking spaces. I notice it immediately because it is kind of by itself, everyone else had parked closer to the store. That's when I see it... the naked girl! I am not kidding. I saw a girl (probably 20ish) standing outside the car with no top on at all, she did have a g-string on but it was teeny and you could see everything else. I swear I was thinking, "is this Candid Camera?" but then she just pulled on a top and squeezed into some jeans, hopped in the car and took off with a car load full of other people. There, I've seen it all, not that I wanted to, but I have.

Here's a little spring cleaning tip:

putting a wet Swiffer cloth on your Swiffer sweeper thingy is a great way to clean/dust the top of your refrigerator. I discovered this when I was trying to reach all the way to the back and my arm got stuck between the fridge and the cabinet above it. Happy cleaning!

my schedule

I'm feeling really bad about my last post of pure negativity. I am really going to try to focus on the positive, not really sure what has caused this latest funk/bad moodiness but I'm going to persevere! Since I call myself "the organized mommy" I thought I might share an organizing tidbit. I haven't really been doing a whole lot of new organizing as of late, just maintaining what's already in place, which is a chore in itself.

I truly struggle with keeping my house clean. Two kids, a (shedding) dog, a parrot (who emits dust naturally) and a very busy working husband makes it hard to keep this place together. Most people would say my house is pretty clean but I am totally neurotic, I feel guilty if I don't clean something. Cleaning is therapeutic for me, I am such a weirdo! When my husband and I get into an argument the first thing I want to do is grab the vacuum or dust cloth. I never thought I was like this, I probably would have argued with anyone who called me a neat freak, but I am what I am. I've only come to this realization since having kids. I feel physically sick sometimes when I go into Zoe's room after a few days of her playing Barbies or dress-up. Oh my goodness, sometimes it looks like Toys R Us threw up in my house and I get so grumpy. What do I do when I have the house to myself (rare, but occasionally)? I clean. I'm really a weirdo. Lately, it seems like it's been hard to stay on top of everything. I'm not sure why but I feel that old anxious feeling creeping up forcing me to stay up late and clean into the wee hours. I realized that I was always cleaning the same things over and over and not hitting any other areas. For example, I was always cleaning the living room because we're in there all the time, but the kids bathroom was being neglected. I definitely had good intentions to get to it, but I never found the time. Right after Zoe was born and I became a SAHM, I made myself a schedule for cleaning/chores. All that new home time made me even more neurotic about cleanliness! I have now made myself a new schedule of cleaning duties and it's been in place for a couple weeks and it seems to be helping. I normally like to have everything clean at once (like it is before a big party) but this is my new reality and sleep is more important to me than sparkling glass.

my new schedule:
Sun: laundry (wash and fold and put away), clip & organize coupons for grocery
Mon: finish remaining laundry, dust upstairs or downstairs
Tues: finish dusting
Wed: vacuum upstairs or downstairs
Thurs: mop, collect all trash and recycling
Fri: clean upstairs bathrooms
Sat: clean powder room, wash sheets on beds

This is my new cleaning schedule. I gave myself a light day on Tuesday because I almost always have to do another big cleaning job at some point. I also am giving myself permission to not dust my whole house every week. Don't laugh, this is a big step for me! I am doing one floor per week, that's all. The same for vacuuming. I would like to say, that I have my vacuum out every single day, I do have kids and pets so something is getting vacuumed every day.

I have also included some other items in my schedule:
M, T, W: I am giving myself time to scrapbook and extra computer time for checking and writing blogs, this is when Zoe is at preschool and Parker usually takes a nap so it's pretty quiet here.
M, T, W: are also my phone call days, calling friends, scheduling things, etc. again, while it's quiet
Thurs: playgroup for Z & P, I am crafting or baking with Zoe while Parker is napping. She likes this and it gives us some bonding time. She has dance on this day too.
Friday: my dreaded grocery day, I have to do it and right now this is the time it gets done, the kids are now doing soccer too on Friday nights, when it's over we'll be back to gymnastics on Tuesdays

So there it is. I was pretty overwhelmed when I started to write down all I have to accomplish every week but I feel better knowing it's mapped out and it seems to be working for now...

screaming in the grocery

What do you think about unsolicited advice from strangers? Today was my grocery shopping day. Kids loaded in the video cart with snacks and drinks, my list in hand, I'm ready to zoom through the store as usual. I was so glad that I didn't have to get anything out of the norm, things I'd have to search for because that always takes me longer. I was looking forward to a quick-ish trip. The kids were entertained for about 7 minutes until we passed the giant summer displays (thanks Meijer!) of basketballs, Parker's fave, and Hannah Montana books, Zoe's fave. OK, I averted those meltdowns with a promise to go see the fish. Off to the fish we go.... we say hi to the fishies, and the crying, climbing, yelling (not me, them!), begins. Everyone we passed was giving me these looks: "oh you poor thing" or "get your kids out of here, they are obnoxious". I tried to keep my gaze low and focus on my list. Oh, gotta grab that bag of peanut M&M's, I think I'm going to need them later. After two aisles of ignoring them, I had to finally give them the ultimatum, "sit down in the cart or I'm getting a regular cart with seatbelts!" They sat for about six boxes of cereal, then Parker is hanging out the door and Zoe is saying, "Mo-om, can I get that Hannah Montana book back there?" I say, "no, sit down, we'll get a cookie in a minute." Keep looking at my list, keep pushing the bus, I mean cart, through the store, get out of here. I was strongly considering opening those M&M's right there, but I didn't. Then I hear it, a lady, looking about my age, talking to her what I assume is her mom, "my kids never act like that here, they are always so good in those video carts." I silently curse her and flip her the bird in my mind. I keep going, gotta get some Dr. Pepper or it's gonna get ugly! No time for the butcher today, get prepackaged meat, we'll forgo fresh for survival. The sample lady cooking some kind of stinky sausage shakes her head when she sees Parker hanging upside down from the front of the cart. I want to scream, "what Grandma, haven't you ever seen a crazed child before?!" I didn't do that because I am almost done, literally. I have to get my deli meat and fruit and then I can check out. So Parker is out of the cart running like a madman, how did he get out, I have no idea. An elderly man says, "you've got your hands full." I smile and say my rehearsed answer to this one (I get it a lot), "yep, full of goodness!" I want to kick him as I go by. Parker does a total nose dive onto the floor and is screaming his head off crying. I try to ignore him when another elderly man tells me, "Is he yours? He's a fireball." I nod, yep, I know mister, now move or I'll run you over with my bus. Get in line at the deli and the deli lady says, get ready for what just about sent me over the edge, "sounds like you have someone who needs a nap." Now, I was seething with anger, at my kids for their behavior, myself for bringing them with me again, my husband for working all the time and not keeping them for me, my mom for being to young to retire and watch my kids all the time, the cart people for making these dumb giant things I have to drive all over the store, but she really made me the maddest, is that a word? Where do people get off telling me what my kids need? I mean, don't you think lady, that I'd prefer him to not be screaming either? I want him to sit quietly as I compare prices and read nutrition labels, but that's not reality. I swear it took all my strength and faith and goodness I could muster to not jump over the display case like Spiderman and grab her by the neck and throw her on the ground. I just sort-of smiled and said, "yeah I guess so. Can I have some turkey please?" We go check out, no big incidents there, thankfully. My kids dart for the mechanical ponies as I am paying and I hear Parker screaming crying again, he is hurt, must have bonked his head. I go to help him and guess who comes by? The parenting expert from the deli, aren't I so lucky? She has the nerve to speak to me again. Does she not know I hate her right now? She says, "boy somebody is mad at you!" This time I don't say anything because I'm afraid of what I might say. Ponies rides complete, out to the car and guess what? It's pouring down rain, thanks! No BFD, what could be any worse? As I load Parker in his car seat a lady honks (!) at me to move my cart so she can have the spot next to mine which is one closer to the door. OK mean-lady (not what I was really thinking then but I think I'd better say that now) I move my cart, finish buckling him, load my groceries and then I see her get out with a giant umbrella. I am soaked, my hair looks like I just took a shower, white shirt soaked through, black mascara running down my cheeks and she's got a freakin' umbrella, are you kidding me!!!!!!!! I had to give my keys to Zoe because I was about a nanosecond away from keying her car. Ugh, I hate this day.

sigh

Sure they look cute now, but remember this is a photo of a split second in time, not exactly reality! These two are wearing me out! I don't know what it is but the crying, fit-throwing, screaming, fighting, generally driving me craziness is progressively getting worse. Is it a phase, is it the weather, is it me? Everyone seems to have their own opinion, I think I just might be going insane. Trying to remember to breathe.....

Nana layouts

So I've been on a scrapbooking binge the last few months, trying to zoom through some pages, using mostly cardstock, patterned paper and stickers and it's been fun. I was kind of itching to do a more detailed layout. Here's a new layout I used where I actually spent a little more time and effort. I even used some paint! It was fun to just put some paint on the paper (Basic Grey) and journal right over the paint. I've seen some of the gals in Creating Keepsakes do that and I have wanted to try it, it was surprisingly easy. And just a note, I actually put two 4x6 pictures together to make the bigger picture. The two pictures were taken at the same time, but neither one included both kids with Nana. The solid brown ribbon under "Nana" is a piece I saved from a Coach purse tag, and I literally have no idea how old it is considering most of my purses have come from Target! Point being, I saved it because I liked the color and knew I could use it someday on a scrapbook page (it says "Coach" on the back), I adhered it using my Xyron, my new old favorite tool. I just noticed that my bottom ribbon is crooked, urgh, oh well, c'est la vie. It's hard to see in this picture because of the glare but Zoe made a Nana page for her scrapbook too! I gave her the duplicate picture and she did it on her own, I am so proud! She's pretty good, using letter stickers to spell names and frame stickers for borders, I have a feeling she'll be very crafty as she gets older.
You gotta love the guitar tattoo on her arm. She's so hard core!

springy crafts

Here are some cards I made using scraps, mostly one big piece of Making Memories paper and a few odds and ends that kind of matched...The kids made easy spring butterflies last week. I cut out a big butterfly and used a bunch of streamer pieces to make it look like stained glass. We "sandwiched" the butterfly between two sheets of clear contact paper. Zoe loved this so much, she made one for a friend.
Oh, we put pipe cleaners on for antenna, just remembered that!
Voila!

my Parker

Some random stuff to share about my favorite little man...

He wore big boy underwear for the first time last Friday, he went potty on the potty once, peed on the floor once and blamed the dog (!), but the wet socks & legs gave him away. Not bad for the first time.
When he doesn't want to take a nap, I find this when I come to get him... stuffed animals, pillow, blankets, and sheet totally off the bed and onto the floor. For being such a monkey, he hasn't tried to climb out of his crib, keeping my fingers crossed.
He is currently in love with these safety goggles, see he even sleeps with them on! He wears them everywhere.
So cute! Looking like he should be on HGTV or DIY.
These are the cutest shoes I have ever seen! I am a former shoe-whore. I used to have like a hundred+ pairs of shoes, no joke. Then I became a stay-at-home mom and those days are gone, now it's flip flops and tennies, ho hum. Since Zoe won't let me dress her in what I want, I am totally dressing Parker in cute-boy garb whenever possible. Most of the time I like the preppy look of golf shirts or rugbys with khakis but these little skater shoes jumped out at me at Stride Rite and I cannot wait for him to wear them! Who says little girl clothes are cuter than little boys?

Just a totally random note...

Wal-mart has Grease Barbies!!!!! I am so excited. I called my BFF Vicki from the toy aisle and totally spazzed on her answering machine, we are huge Grease fans and I thought she'd appreciate it. It's the 30th anniversary, OMG, I am getting old, I saw that movie at the Drive-In! I sang all the songs on my record wearing my mom's Candies pretending to stomp out my candy cigarette! Anyway, they only had Rizzo and Frenchie, if they get Danny and Sandy I am totally getting them, I don't care that I swore off buying myself Barbies when I got married and got a wedding one! I deserve them. Besides having my only little John Travolta to stare at all day seems pretty awesome. Hmmmmm.....

happiness

I feel my spirits lifting as I type...

Spring is springing around here and I couldn't be happier about it.

Happy:

to get the kids outside

to be opening up the doors to let in fresh air

that I am taking a walk with my family

to be visiting local nurseries to get planting ideas

to see daffodils

catching ladybugs with the kids

that it's getting warmer/sunny-er

because my flip flops will be coming out of storage soon!

desperate need of chocolate

I was telling myself, no more chocolate, until yesterday...
Zoe, who last month was chosen as "Dancer of the Month" at her dance studio, decided to throw THE BIGGEST fit ever when it was time to get her leotard on and go to dance, the one place she can't wait to go every week. Even my much-calmer-than-me-husband, tried to intervene to no avail. It ended in an ultimatum- get your leo on or you are not going to dance, well the fit-throwing-maniac would not get her leo on, kicking and screaming the whole time, and so she did not go to dance. OOOOOhhhh, was I mad, I left the house because I had to go and pay her dance class dues (or get charged a late fee) and it was a good thing because I think I might have totally lost it! We had so much trouble with her that we didn't make it to kindergarten registration night either, ugh, now I have to try to go to the next one and hope my husband can go. I swear, whoever said if you give your kids an ultimatum be prepared to follow through never had a schedule as tight as ours, or else they would have thrown the fit-throwing kid in the car, made her go to dance and apologize for being late, and still go to the kindergarten registration. (I think I heard it from Dr. Phil, he said, if you tell your kids you are going to leave the store if they do___ again, then you better be ready to leave. I've had to do this too, not a good experience by the way.) So needless to say, I broke down and ate some chocolate, it's a vicious cycle. Thankfully, tomorrow is a new day and I can start again.

still fighting the mama battle

Ok, so Parker has sort of come back to normal. He is not a complete maniac, just a little still but Zoe on the other hand has turned up the 'tude. I am not liking it. Look at this picture of her at the Children's Museum, she has the underbite going and the fierce look of a little girl p-o-ed! Someone must have taken her fake pizza out of her cart or something and she is not happy! She's really been a meany-head lately and we are going at it constantly. Is this what I have to look forward to for the next 20 years or so? That is a grim picture, I hope not. Ugh, if it's not one thing it's something else.

vacation scrapbook

Here is my vacation album from last year. I used this 8x8 album that I got on the clearance rack at Target for super cheap. I used very few embellishments throughout the album. I found that using the black pages with the bright beach pictures really called for the "less is more" approach. I love the way it turned out. We always take a feet in the sand picture, the kids can always name everyone's feet, isn't that funny? The pictures took up most of the pages, leaving just a little room for embellishments.
I just like these pages of the kids, simple, cute, easy.
I'm off to do a little cleaning before PJ wakes up...

Crafty things

I have begun to make pebbles for my Christmas gifts. I made these decor pictures for Paul's office staff this past year and everyone in my family really liked them when they saw them. I have decided to make them for my aunts and other female relatives (hope they don't see this!). I am trying to get a head start so I won't be scrambling in December. Oh and I got this idea from Becky Higgins' blog, I think it was in an October post.
Funny story about the pebble pictures: Paul's school nurse told me she still had her Christmas picture in her office because she liked it so much and needed some color. I thought that was so sweet. I made her a mini-one for spring. Paul took it to her yesterday. He said she liked it a lot.
Still using my scraps from a class I took at Scrapbowl in February ("My Fab Life" with Margie from Making Memories). I just love them and I couldn't help myself. I just didn't want to put them away, they were too pretty to file and save for later. I made some cards with them yesterday too. (Picture later...)
Random info: this book rocks! It is a true "page turner". I stayed up almost all night finishing it, well til like 1 AM or so. It would be an awesome movie.
Have a great day!