This is a terrible photo, but it's late, so it is what it is! I'm just thrilled to have accomplished this much scrapbooking this weekend, considering it's the first real effort in months.

Tomorrow I'm starting a weeklong project, to both make my life in my office happier, but to get a lot of scrapbooking done in the process. I'll be posting a "Before" photo tomorrow, and on Friday I'll hopefully be ready to post the "After"...fingers crossed!

I love this picture of John and his cousins, Lisa and Allison, so much I had to repost it here, and it's definitely now in my pile of pictures I want to scrap.

I think what I love most about this picture is the expression on John's face, and how much Sofia looks like him; this is the same expression she gives me when I catch her doing something naughty!!

We've had a wild, wonderful summer, and now we're back to work! School has started, and it's time to get back to our "normal" schedule. I can't believe Matthew is already a 3rd grader!!

There's less than a month until Sofie is 4 years old!! With the help of my mom, grandma, and "Auntie" Cathie, I've planned what can only be described as a birthday extravaganza! Here's a hint of some of what's been planned :

And today is the first day I've been able to get some scrapping done since June, I'm hoping to finally get back on track.

Since taking two months away from blogging, scrapping, and spending time with my friends, it's time to get back into the swing of normal life. Last January my sweet son was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, and since then it's been a roller coaster learning to deal not only the condition itself, but the cycle of medications and their side effects. Two months ago we hit a wall with his first medication, and since then we've been working to get back to some sense of normalcy.

I just want to extend a huge thanks to my friends, especially Cathie, Diana and Patti, for being so patient with my anti-social behavior, I'm incredibly grateful!!

Happy Tuesday :)

This week was my week to teach art in Matthew's class, and I had an unexpected helper when Sofie's teacher called in sick. I didn't want to disappoint Matthew and his class by canceling, and I figured how much trouble could she get in to? Hah!!  20 minutes into class she pooped her pants. Shockingly none of the kids noticed the smell, but Mrs. B and I just about passed out! I couldn't stop to change her, because we had a limited amount of time to get the project done. 

After taking a second to regain my composure, I start explaining a complicated cutting pattern to the class, when Mrs. B suddenly whispers loudly "Sofie's cutting her own hair!!!" Sure enough, I look to the back of the room to see Sofie sawing away at her hair with kid scissors!!  Oh well, at least hair grows back.

Here's a layout I completed with the Scrap for a Cure April kit. I've wanted to scrap these pictures for awhile, but it was hard to find paper that went well with the Spaghetti-O sauce all over her face. This GCD flocked paper matched perfectly, and I love the contradiction of the beautiful flocked paper with the messiness on her face. And the Tim Holtz grunge ribbon looked so cute in her hair. 

Happy Thursday :)

Here are some photos of the boys flying a kite on Sunday. They were hilarious about the whole process, there is truly untold drama in kite flying!! 

Finally airborne....

And even though his friend hadn't had a turn flying his own kite (his dad got it flying for them), he let Matthew go first. We're lucky that Matthew has such a wonderful and kind hearted friend.

I wanted to get some layouts done by today, but had to take care of some medical stuff done for the kids yesterday, but I'm looking forward to having some time this afternoon to create some layouts with these pictures.

Happy Tuesday!

We spent an exciting afternoon with my mom at the Exploratorium yesterday afternoon, Sofia loved being in a place where she was allowed to touch everything!!!  And it's one of Matthew's favorite places to go, the kid definitely likes science.

And here's a picture of Matthew in front of our house....I wish!!  Of all the houses near the Palace of Fine Art, we decided this was our favorite.

As you can see, even the adults like playing at the science museum! One of the things that makes my mom such a wonderful grandmother, is how much she likes to play, too.

I couldn't resist, this just fit her perfectly!

Just when I think Matthew's getting to be too serious, he does stuff like this!  This is his impression of a Who, proving you're never too old for Dr. Suess. I have a picture of my mom wearing this homemade Who hat, but I fear what the consequences would be if I posted it!  It may show up soon on a layout, though, so keep your eyes peeled.

Happy Sunday :)

Any day there are cupcakes for lunch is a good day! Especially super pretty cupcakes like this one, it was so cute I almost couldn't bring myself to eat it...almost :) 

Matthew's chocolate on chocolate looked almost to die for, until he licked all the frosting off, and decided he was too full for the cake part. It didn't look quite as pretty licked clean! But he had a great time doing it, and that's what counts when there are cupcakes for lunch.

And to work off some cupcake, we climbed to the top of the lookout tower at the mall, and had a very scientific discussion as to why it's so much windier when you're taller than the buildings around you. I love scientific discussions I know the answers to.

We're off to the aquarium, I hope everyone's having a great weekend!

I got some journaling done last night, here's a layout from last weekend. My wonderful husband gave me an 8.5"x11" American Craft album for Christmas, and slowly but surely I've been doing some layouts for it. 

Things yesterday seemed pretty calm; I got up early, had several cups of coffee before the kids were out of bed. I cleaned most of the house, and even made beef stew and homemade bread for dinner. It was a calm, relaxed day.

That's when Matthew walks into the kitchen and said "Sofie colored on my sandwich." That's a statement that will bring your brain to a screeching halt. Colored a sandwich? That can't possibly be right!

Sure enough, she'd found a marker, and when Matthew's back was turned, she colored on his sandwich! Just when I think she's colored on anything that can be colored on (the TV, couch, dining room chairs, art work at school, etc, etc), she finds something else!

After her food related antics, I feared dinner might be her next target. I'm glad I saved these baby monitors, they come in very handy! Plus they have an intercom feature, so every time she set foot in the kitchen I could yell at her to get out!  She doesn't believe it's me though, she's convinced the kitchen has a ghost...whatever it takes to keep her out

Yep, she's frequently a pain the rear! But she's also my biggest cheerleader. She followed me around for 20 minutes yesterday while I vacuumed yelling "you did it Mommy, you did it!!" No one else does that for me! She's goofy, but she makes life fun!

Happy Friday!

I didn't think I'd actually gotten much done at the crop retreat last weekend, but 7 layouts isn't too bad, for me at least! Only one actually got any journaling on it, but I have an admittedly hard time concentrating in room filled with 100 women and 2 MP3 players. I may not have been too productive, but I had a great time!

As Spring Break winds down, we're finally spending some time at Grandma's house. On a trip one of my many trips back from the car, I found one of the dogs lounging in the middle of the driveway, and had to take his picture.

This is the original Bolt, my kids were thrilled when the movie came out, they thought it was a movie about Grandma's dog! He looks all relaxed and mild-mannered, but he's named Bolt for a reason; leave a gate open and he's half way across town in 10 minutes! Many exciting hours have been spent searching for Bolt, but he always meanders home.

This is another shot I could not help myself from taking! Grandma's new TV must be hypnotic, because Sofie looks like she's been stunned!

And thirty seconds when everyone was actually sitting still...a very rare occurrence! 

This last weekend was spent at a fabulous scrapbooking retreat with friends, and I finally feel as though I've recovered! It's funny how time spent away from screaming kids, housework, etc, etc, should be relaxing, and I should return home refreshed, but it's usually totally the opposite! 

I didn't get much done scrappy-wise, maybe only 6 layouts, but I had a great time hanging out with friends, and meeting new people, all of whom live in my area. I did manage to get a scrappy room cleanout out of the weekend, too, since the organizers have a "share"bin; you can bring in product you don't want anymore, and take something away for yourself. It was a fabulous opportunity to get rid of stuff that I either know I won't use, or things I forgot I had.

Sofie is still so excited to have me home, two days after I've returned! This morning she brought me a present....her breakfast sippy in an empty Kleenex box! She was so thrilled with her "gift," she even did a big dance routine when presenting it to me. Now I just have to figure out how to get it downstairs without her noticing...it was a wonderful gesture, but this sippy will not smell nice for long!

While sitting in my office yesterday morning, drinking coffee, reading blogs, I hear this little voice, "whooooo whoooo, I a scawy ghost!"  Then this apparition came stumbling into my office : 

I'm not exactly sure why, but ghosts have become Sofia's latest obsession, she even claims to see one wandering the house sometimes! Then I discovered Matthew's been watching Scooby-Doo movies in his room, which I feel confident, solves the mystery of Sofia and her ghostly friend.

I've managed to get some scrapping in this week, making a few cards with Jenni Bowlin's January kit, 

and some layouts with March's kit. 

And I'll be spending the entire weekend with friends (Patti & Diana) at Scraptacular Getaway, working with some kits I've been wanting to finish up. With two full days (and nights), it should be pretty easy to get a lot done!

Happy Friday :)

Yesterday I finally finished cleaning my office, it's the hardest room in the house to clean, since it seems to be where everything we don't know what to do with ends up. But I love my pink office, and when it's clean and tidy I feel a little more like everything is right with the world.

Now that I've posted these, I realize I didn't photograph half the room. Our computer desk has never been so tidy and organized, so I'm definitely getting pictures of it as soon as the sun comes up! Those pictures will be lovely to look at once the desk is covered in homework, mail, movies, etc, etc. 

And don't forget to leave a comment, for some Pay It Forward scrappy goodness!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Erin Benaim, one of the Scrap for a Cure design team members, was generous enough to offer to "Pay It Forward," and is sending some wonderful scrap goodies to some lucky scrappers some time in the next 365 days.  It's a wonderful idea, and I feel fortunate to get to keep it going, so the first 5 people to leave a comment will get a treat some time during the next year!

With the spirit of gift giving in mind, I had to snap this picture of Sofia, loving a box of children's silverware (yes, silverware) my parents brought her from Europe. She carried this box around the better part of the day, and when I found her curled up in her bed with it, I had to get a picture! 

Our first official day of Spring Break went as planned, and we pretty much did nothing, in fact the kids stayed in their pyjamas all day, I finally changed to sweats around 1:00 PM. I did work on getting my office straightened up, and a stack of filing finished, but now I feel even more relaxed that more chaos has been conquered!

And I did get the grocery shopping done, my favorite way, by having the lovely delivery man from Safeway bring it to us! Since I'm sure they frown on a grown woman grocery shopping in sock monkey pyjamas, it was the only way to get the task done :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After two weeks traveling around Northern Europe, my parents are home! They go several times a year, but I can't remember them being gone for this long, so it was wonderful to get to talk to them again. 

My mom very generously shared some chocolate she picked up in Belgium, they really looked too beautiful to even consider eating, but I somehow managed to force myself :)

I love Early Grey tea, so choosing this chocolate was a no brainer for me...and it tasted like the best cup of Earl Grey in the world! 

While waiting for my parents to arrive on Saturday, I took over their dining room table to get some work done on this month's Jenni Bowlin kit. I managed to get several done,

this is my favorite of the bunch. I didn't have my Slice with me, so put them up once titles and things are done. 

Happy Monday!

The first thing Matthew said to me this morning, "one more day until Spring Break," and Friday is always his favorite day anyway! After all it's Frosty Friday, assuming of course, he'll be good at school again today.   If he's good at school all week, we go to Wendy's after school and get Frosties...even I love Frosty Friday. When I tell him in the morning to be good, it's with a niggling sense of urgency, because come Friday, we get Frosties!!

Even Sofie gets to participate in Frosty Friday, though she's already provided herself with a treat this morning. After dealing with a load of laundry, I went downstairs to find she'd raided the fridge (which I didn't know she could get open), and eaten a carton of sour cream. Personally I hate sour cream, so I'm keeping a clear distance until her breath loses that soury creamy odor! 

At some point today I want to work with the February Jenni Bowlin kit, this picture of Matthew at Disneyland just fit The Farmer's Wife line so well!

And yesterday afternoon the March Jenni Bowlin kit arrived!! I'm not too embarrassed to admit (though I probably should be) that I was so excited I slipped off the porch, and twisted not just my ankle but my entire calf. Fortunately my neighbors saw it happen, so I didn't have to laugh at myself all alone :)

Happy Friday!