Oh yeah...

...and it's UPLOAD DAY at Peek. Duh... It was Scrapper's Choice. I chose Heidi Grace Designs-Pocket Scraps Loving You and Christina Cole.

5 Years

Yesterday when Trent woke up, I told him it was his birthday today. Over the last several days, we had been talking about this day coming up.

"How old are you going to be?" One of us would ask.

"Five pounds!" he'd reply.

"Five years. Trent, you'll be a whole FIVE YEARS OLD!"

"WOW!"

Even though we had been talking about this day, he was still very excited about it now that it was here.

Later in the morning, he asked me, "Am I five now?"


"Yes you are!"

"How about now? I am five now?"

"Honey, you'll be five all day and from now on until next year."

"REALLY? Right now?"

"Yes!"

"I get to open presents?"

"Your party is tomorrow and you can open your presents then."

He seemed a little disappointed. Who could blame him? A little later when we were outside his 5 year old picture, Baby Kat came out with book she wanted me to read. I told her I wasn't going to be reading her a book as we were taking pictures. So, she sat with Trent and posed for a few.

Later when we went inside, wrapping paper was discovered all over the floor. Ooops, Baby Kat opened one of Trent's birthday presents. All this talk about presents got her eager to start tearing into them. Oh, well.

Look at Baby Kat's face. She ALWAYS has something on it. I can wipe it off, but dirt just comes right back on it. I guess that's just part of being 2.

It never gets any easier...

Today I filled the mini van with unplayed toys and outgrown clothes. I had been storing quite a few of these items in the garage, thinking I would have a garage sale. I changed my mind. I realized I didn't like the idea of people digging through my kid's baby clothes and toys all to make a couple of bucks.

I even took the play kitchen. I hate that thing. It's so cheap and the doors don't even close. I have been complaining about it since we put it together. My parents bought the kids a new kitchen this year for Christmas. A much better kitchen. A kitchen where there are drawers and the doors close.

I also took some Little People stuff. The newer versions, not the vintage ones. I did take one vintage barn because somehow we ended up with two of them. I kept the one that still had the door that "moo's" when you open it.

As I was packing up the car, I noticed that one of the bags contained Katrina's 1st Christmas outfit. She had received three "1st Christmas outfits" when she was born and I decided to only keep one. I almost pulled it out of the bag, but I kept it there.

"I have to move this stuff out of here."

" It won't be enjoyed by another family if I stuff it in a box."

"Someone else can use this. I know it."

I kept convincing myself of these things.

I took a picture of the full van because I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It was packed. I was slightly embarrassed by the amount of "stuff" in there and the fact that toys still littered nearly every room of the house.

When Katrina and I made it to the Goodwill, I was doing pretty well until I saw Trent's "Bob the Builder" t-shirt that he wore nearly everyday a couple of summers ago. I could remember when we found it at Walmart and he was so excited! It was now neatly folded in one of the brown paper bags among jean overalls and shorts. I fought off the tears.

It took me several trips to unload the car. The people working at the drop off site were a little surprised to see this much stuff. After the 4th trip, the lady said, "Thank You!". She didn't realize I wasn't done. I kept coming around from the van with more and more bags and boxes. Several other people donating items came and left while I was still unloading the van. Every time I came around with more stuff, the workers would kind of giggle. One of them even asked me what I did for a living.

When I was done, I got back in the van and I was bawling before I left the parking lot. I hate taking stuff to the Goodwill. I have such an attachment to "items". Every time I go to the drop off site, I leave crying. Every time.

I look in the rearview mirror and I see my children's old favorites sitting in the dust and the dirt. The first Christmas outfit, the favorite t-shirt, the stuffed animal Great Grandma gave them are all left behind in boxes and bags.

The items remind me of when they were younger and makes me question myself:

Did I appreciate them enough?

Did I still remember the feel of their tiny hand in my full adult size hand?

Can I remember the smell of their baby breath?

Why didn't I scrapbook the fact that Trent LOVED that Bob the Builder shirt?

I can clearly remember being 18 years old and having a two week old baby. It was the middle of the night or very early morning. I had gotten up to feed Ashley and it was just the two of us. I had just finished feeding her and I held her close and rocked her. I remember saying to myself, "Remember this moment. It will never happen again." And I do. I remember how tiny she was, her smell, her tiny hand in mine, the quiet off the house and her steady breathing.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not dropping off memories, just items that trigger a memory. My memories are mine to keep for as long as I can. I remind myself of these facts every time I leave the Goodwill drop off site. It still doesn't make it any easier.

I have a feeling that Trent's baby swing will be in my garage until I can use it with his children, or even longer.

Breakfast with Santa

This morning, Trent's preschool had "Breakfast with Santa". For the last couple days, we practiced what they were going to ask Santa. We got up early this morning, showered and I dressed the kids in their Christmas gear. Everyone was excited and knew exactly what they were going to ask Santa for.

By the time we got there, walked into the room and saw Santa, things had changed.

"Trent! Go sit on Santa's lap and tell him what you want!"

"Ho ho ho", said Santa

"NO! Baby Kat goes first." I could tell there was some panic in his voice.

Ok, so I picked up Baby Kat. She started crying right away. She knew she was going on that guy's lap. She completely forgot to tell him what she wanted, which by the way was a new baby.

I love the look on Santa's face. He was probably talked into be Santa at the very last minute. He looks a little frustrated. Baby Kat was only his third "customer" and there was a HUGE line behind her.

I really tried to convince Trent to sit on Santa's lap. He wanted nothing to do with that. So, I reminded him of last year when he just held Santa's hand and told him what he wanted. Layout of last year's Santa visit

"Oh, ok", he said. I could tell he suddenly remembered and that it was ok.

I walked him up to Santa and he grabbed Santa's hand.

"Well, what would you like for Christmas this year?" Santa asked.

"I want a SPIDERMAN!" Trent spoke like they were old buddies.

They talked a few seconds more and then it was over.

It must have really worn Trent out because he drank about three full glasses of apple juice without even breathing.

Well, so the Spiderman is a new thing. I thought it was Darth Vadar. I'll have to go out tomorrow and see what is left on the shelves.

Upload Day

Today is upload day for both Down Memory Lane Co and A Peek Into Yesterday.

I picked out one of my favorites from each location to display here. The Christmas one is a picture of me, my sister and my Grandma from 1974.

We are playing Secret Santa at Peek. Today is Day 2. Yesterday I received beautiful clips from the new Studio K line. Today I received 4 sheets of the new matching paper. I think the only person that knew I didn't have ANY of the new Studio K, but ADORED it was Linda. I know Linda's not my SS, but I think she's been helping out my SS. Heeheeeheee, this Secret Santa stuff is just so much fun.

Today I received my super cool Making Memories Tag Maker from Down Memory Lane Co. I ripped that baby out of the box. I can't wait to play with it.

There are nice people, there are mean people

I asked for help today at a popular scrapbooking website about a problem I was having. There is a person visiting my blog that has bad intentions. I made a mistake posting what I did and I'm paying the price for it dearly! I've tried deleting the pictures and the post, but due to a "cached file", my pictures and text still show.

All but one of the comments from the Peas I received were helpful and empathic but one:

I'm as disgusted by this person's behavior as everyone else, but I'm also a little shocked that nobody has said anything about the kind of story (with photos!) you were sharing with the entire world.

This is from one mother to me, another mother. Is this a helpful statement? Was this purposely said to make me feel worse than I already felt? It worked. Thanks for your help, Jessica. You have made me feel like the most absolute worse mother in the world. I openly admitted how upset and sick I was about the mistake I had made. I guess your comment was just to rub salt in my wounds.

Godnjesus

We had to take the van today for what we thought was just going to be an oil change and alignment. We dropped it off about 10:00 this morning and picked it up at 5:00. It had a few other problems. ha

So, it was dark by the time we got back to our neighborhood. The kids were in the backseat oooing and ahhhing over the Christmas lights and decorations. By the time we pulled into our driveway, Trent exclaimed, "I have an idea!!"

"What's that, Trent?"

Pointing up towards the sky, he says, "Let's put Godnjesus up on the roof!"

At first I didn't think I heard him correctly so I asked him again what he said.

"Godnjesus on the roof". Yes, I had heard this correctly. He said "God and Jesus" like it was just one word.

The vision of an extra-large, molded plastic Jesus figure that lights up, maybe even blinks, fills my mind. Where would they sell those? Walmart?

"I don't think they make those, Trent."

"Oh." I could tell he was disappointed.

It wasn't until later on that I realized Trent had made the correct connection. While everyone else had giant Santas, teddy bears, candy canes, and colored blinking lights, Trent's first idea had to do with the real reason for Christmas. I was pretty impressed with the little dude.

Well, here I am...

...nursing, blogging, watching Disney's Princess Christmas movie and finishing up my 3rd glass of wine. I have accepted the fact that I may drink a glass or two or geez, even three glasses of wine several times a week this month. December is a hard, hard month for me. I must find a moment to relax this time of year and if that means drinking some wine to do it, that's what I'm going to do.

Trent is obsessed with the Princess Christmas DVD. He'd watch it 5 times a day if I'd let him. It was a gift for Katrina on her birthday, but it's Trent that watches it all the time. Don't even think about trying to talk to him during it, either. You can't. He doesn't hear you. I don't think he even blinks during the length of the movie. The first scene is a Disney version of The 12 Days of Christmas. Both he and his sister sing along to it.

Tonight when we started it, he exclaimed,

"HEY! Snow White's not a GIRL!"

"She's not?" I asked. "What is she then?"

"She's a lady", he said very matter of factly.

Ok. I didn't want to ask anymore about this. He seemed pretty sure of himself so I just took his word for it. I actually find Snow White the most irritating of all the Princesses. She has a really high and squeaky voice that just grates on my nerves.

The rest of the DVD is pretty decent. I love old animation and there is some of that on there. There is some questionable material on it, like what's the deal with the Beauty and the Beast scene???? Everyone who's seen the movie knows that the Beast turns into this hot dude (which btw reminds me of another story that I'll have to add on at the end of this) at the end of the movie. This scene has Beauty hangin' with the Beast in his beastly form. Was this a scene cut from the original? Probably not. Watching this scene however, I'm constantly tormenting myself with this question. Why? Why did Disney go back to the BEAST? Where's the hot dude? Why do I think the guy in the cartoon is hot?


NOTE: So, Snow White just came on the DVD and Trent says, "SEE!!! She's a LADY!!!"


Oh, so about the "hot dude":

Trent is watching tv when all of a sudden, I hear, "Hey! He's a HOT DUDE!!"

I look up to see what he's talking about. "He's HOT?" I asked.

"Yeah!"

I notice it's a commercial for the Fantastic Four DVD that's being released. Oh, well then, yes, I guess that guy on fire is a "hot dude".


Oh, and according to Trent as we've moved onto the next scene in the DVD, "COOKIES CAN'T TALK!!"

Have a nice weekend.

Playing Christmas Tree

From Monday:

I’m in the living room and Trent just asked Kat if she wanted to play “Christmas Tree”.

“Yeah”, she said.

I said to Trent, as he was pulling off ornaments, “Please don’t pull the ornaments off the tree. They’re not toys, they’re decorations.”

“Mom”, he says, “we just do that. We’re silly kids.”

Ok, how could I resist?

He takes ornaments off that are too high for BK, lets her look at them and then puts them back.
He asks her if she remembers them from when she was a little baby. She says, "Yeah."

She always says, “Yeah”.

Trent likes to chat and other stories

Last Friday, I was sitting at the stoplight (in the car, duh) opening mail. I like to multi-task. ;) Anyway, I was flipping through the coupons in the Valu-pak envelope when Trent asks,

"Can I have that one?"

For whatever reason, he wanted the coupon from the top of the stack. It was from Flicko's Video. I knew it was something I wouldn't be using, so I handed it to him from the front seat and thought nothing more of it.

He was still walking around with the coupon when we came home. He stood in front of me and read off the telephone number. I was surprised when he did this and had to take the coupon from his hand and double check it. Yup. He had it right. I congratulated him on his good number recognizing skills and went on about my afternoon.

Soon, I hear him say, "I wanna talk to him."

"Who do you want to talk to?"

"This." he said, waving the coupon back and forth.

I said, "Trent, you just can't call people on the phone because you like the coupon. People are working and they're busy. Do you want to talk to Grandma?" I didn't mean to imply that Grandma isn't busy, but I didn't bother correcting that statement.

"No."

And that was the end of it for a while.

What seems like an hour later, I hear, "Where's the phone? Oh, there it is."

As I walk out to the kitchen where he is, I notice he has found himself a little stool to stand on to reach the phone which is sitting on the counter.

I didn't really think he'd do anything with the phone. He's never done anything with it before.

I walk into the other room and I hear, "7....4....2...." etc.

I sit down on the couch to watch Oprah and much to my dismay I hear,

"Hi! Who's this?"

"No, who's this?"

"Hang on, here's my mom."

He hands the phone to me. I try to compose myself.

"Hello?" I asked. I was just hoping that perhaps one of the Grandmas had called, I didn't hear the ring and Trent answered it.

"Hello?" a unfamiliar male voice replies.

"Did my son call you?"

"Yes, this is Flicko's Video."

I just about died! I was so embarrassed. I apologized and apologized. I told him Trent was obsessed with his coupon from the Valu-Pak envelope and that he had been walking around with it for hours.

I didn't believe him when he said he would call. Next time I'll be more careful.

****************************************************

In other news, we got the tree up today. It seems so early to me. I'd prefer to have it up around the 15th. It takes up so much room. I guess I'm just a "bah-humbug" when it comes to Christmas. If I didn't have kids, I wouldn't put the darn thing up at all.

I didn't take any pictures because a piece of my tripod is missing. The kids like to play with it and pretend to take pictures. Someone unscrewed a piece and now my camera cannot be locked into the base. I don't even know what the piece looks like that I'm looking for.

It may be easier to just buy a new one. The piece has been missing for months.

*****************************************************

Zoe seems to be feeling a little better. She gets her anti-biotics every 8 hours. She still stinks though. I still owe her a bath. I guess I'll have to wash her bedding, too.

Darth Vader

While Christmas shopping today, Trent said to me:

"When I grow up, I want to be Darth Vader."

Yucky Smell

The last few days I've noticed that the dogs have been stinking like something really, really bad. It reminded me of the smell Tori had when she had the tumor in her mouth. It's just a bad, rotten & decaying odor. I told my mother today that I would rather change a million poopy diapers than have to smell that odor again.

Anyway, a couple of days ago when I started smelling it, I decided it was Gigi that was the stinky one. I put on my yellow rubber gloves and dumped her in the tub. I scrubbed and scrubbed and rinsed her for twenty minutes until the water ran clear. Katrina sat with me at the side of the tub and helped me rinse her off. A couple times she wanted to jump in with the dog, but I wouldn't let her. The whole family used towels to dry her down. I think she really loved the extra attention. I wanted to dry her completely so she wouldn't smell like wet dog so I drug out the hairdryer. She hated that, but it worked. No smelly, stinky, wet dog smell.

The next day, I could still smell that nasty smell. I checked Gigi's ears and they seemed fine. Maybe the smell had just permeated the carpet or something. I sprayed a bunch of Pet Febreeze all over the dog beds and the carpet around it.

On the third day, today, I could still smell it. Zoe and Erik were in my scrappy room and I heard Erik make a comment about how stinky Zoe was. I walked in there and YUCK! the smell was there. It was Zoe that was stinky. It was decided she would be getting her bath today, and SOON.

As I was putting the dogs outside, Zoe started shaking her head. It was then I thought maybe she had an ear infection and that was causing the smell. If you've ever had a dog with that kind of infection, you know how stinky that can be. Anyway, I was looking at her ears and as she was wiggling away I noticed her neck was wet. Goopy wet.

I said, "Oh my God", when I saw the mess on her neck.

Trent was right there to correct me. "No Mommy. It's 'Oh My GOSH'".

I checked her collars, they weren't tight at all. I could easily slip my fingers in between the collar and her neck. The ZAPPER collar! That had to be what it was. I took that off and set it down. I then took off her other collar. It was soaked with goopy stuff.

I immediately called the vet and made an appointment. My poor, poor baby dog. I felt so bad.

We use the zapper collar for her jumping. She's been and graduated two Petsmart dog training classes, but we couldn't figure out how to keep her from jumping on the sliding glass door window.

During dinner, Baby Kat would constantly be sneaking her table food and Zoe would be putting her feet up on the highchair tray. It was just a constant battle with those two, so we decided Zoe needed to go outside while we ate. She didn't like that! She wanted in and in the worst way, too. She started out by just simply jumping on the glass door. When that didn't work, she would back up and taking running jumps. She was always scolded through the window for that. When we were done eating dinner, we would always make her sit before we opened the door. We wanted to let her know that only calm, still and sitting behavior would allow her inside.

Well, she still wanted in and would then back up to the end of the yard, start running and jump on the sliding glass door and then sit. **sigh** The door and the walls around the door would shake.

I started researching zappers that I could control with a remote control. We picked one out and purchased it. We found out later that we should have let her wear it without batteries for two weeks or so before zapping her for bad behavior. Because we put the collar on her and then started zapping her right away, she figured out that the new collar makes the warning noise and then the actual zap. So, everytime we took the collar off, the bad behavior would start up again.

After we got Gigi, her behavior toned down a bit and we didn't use the collar for a long time. Zoe just needed someone her size to hang with while we ate, I guess.

It was a few weeks ago when I noticed our back fence was breaking. The dang dog was jumping up on that fence "just for fun". I put the collar back on her and the behavior soon stopped. I never took the collar off and now the poor little thing has a horrible infection from it.

The vet took a look at her and said she has a staph infection from the collar. Zoe is on antibiotics that I have to give her every 8 hours.

I threw away that stupid collar.

Naps

Trent was so darn cute today.

Both the kids were starting to act up right around their normal nap times. I told them to go upstairs and get ready for naps. It took a little encouraging, but they both finally did.

I was downstairs finishing up some laundry before I tucked them in. I could hear them up stairs making noise. I figured they were probably playing in the playroom.

As I walked upstairs, I heard, "Night Nie."

Trent was walking out of Baby Kat's room, looking back at her and replied, "Goodnight Baby Kat."

When I looked in her room, she was in her bed with the covers up over her head.

I asked Trent, "Did you do 'Our Fodders' with your sister?"

"No", he stated. "I read her a book."

I smiled to myself and said, "Really? What book did you read to her?"

"Bob da Builder," he said with absolutely no enthusiasm at all. It was like it was everyday stuff for him or something.

When Baby Kat went upstairs, she still had her boots on. I wondered if she still had them on when she crawled into her bed.

"Did you take her shoes off?" I asked hoping the answer would be a "Yes".

"Yes, and her socks too."

He fights with her and tries to pretend he doesn't like her, but I can tell her really LOVES her.

Of course, after Trent and I did his "Our Fodders", I had to put Baby Kat in her crib. She had already climbed out of bed and was trying to sneak down the stairs. When I put her in the crib, I looked down at the chair in her room and there was the Bob The Builder book. It instantly reminded me of the days when Trent was two, like Baby Kat is now, and I would read him a book before naps. When I was done, I would always put the book down in the chair next to his bed for next day's nap. He had done the same thing today. It made my heart melt.

**Pics are from this past weekend.

More thoughts on nursing (meemee)

While looking through the Sunday newspaper this weekend, I suddenly hear, "Meemee! Meemee!" I lean over to see what's causing all the excitement and I see she's pointing at this:









My two year old nursing daughter thinks this closeup of Homer Simpson is something else. **sigh**

I know, it's been awhile

I know it's been so long since I've updated this. I've just been so busy. Lots of stuff going on right now. I'll update later.

My Baby is TWO!

My baby is two today. I can't believe she is already that old.

Tomorrow we are having a birthday party at the park to celebrate.

"Dora" is the theme of the party. It surprised me that she chose Dora as she is such a huge Disney Princess fan. We have Dora plates, cups, table cover, everything Dora.

Halloween

My ankle is feeling much better and the kids are finally returning back to normal. Thank you everyone for your kind words and well wishes. :D

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the costumes, the candy and the crispness in the air.

The kids have attended two Halloween parties this year. One was at Trent's school, the other was at our Community Center. Katrina won a prize for her costume at the Center. I think it was the May Arts ribbon in her hair that was the clincher. ;)


Trent was determined to be something spooky this year. After what seemed like forever, he was finally chose the spooky alien costume. It was the spookiest costume in his size. The costume he really, really wanted was the headless guy that holds his own head costume. Thank goodness that came only in adult sizes.

Still MIA

Well, this is great. I've now sprained my ankle. I don't even have a good story to go along with it. I was just walking. I didn't slip on anything. I didn't trip over anything. I wasn't rescuing anybody. I was just walking and didn't put my foot down right and I heard a crack. The next thing I know I was writhing in pain on the floor. Several hours later I was out of Urgent Care with my ankle wrapped, a Rx for crutches and pain killers. Great. This will be fun.

I have to say though, that the bruise running along the side of my foot is pretty darn cool. I took pictures. :D

To top it all off, both kids are sick. Well, at least maybe that means they have less energy to run around making me chase them.

Let me just list the cute things Trent has said over the last couple of weeks. I don't want to forget these:

I knew that Baby Kat and Trent were upstairs playing. Suddenly, it got real quiet. I went upstairs to check and they were playing nicely in Baby Kat's new room.

Trent looked up at me when I entered the room and said, "Baby Kat's my friend, huh?"

"Yes, she is." I replied.

"She's a princess girl."

"Yeah, that's right. She sure is."

He then proceeded to open the doors on her armoire and said, "Look at these clothes. We need to go out and buy here more princess clothes."

I laughed.

During "cuddle time", our evening ritual where everyone squishes together in our bed and we watch tv or read books, Baby Kat noticed Erik's nipples.

"Meemee", she said.

I said, "Can you meemee Daddy? No, that's silly."

She looked kind of confused as she poked and examined Daddy's meemee.

Trent seeing all the confusion, explained to Baby Kat, "Mommy has milk. Daddy has water."

heeheehee

MIA

Sorry to everyone who is not getting returned emails or wondering where I have been. I've been sick and now Erik is out of town. Hopefully, I'll be back in the swing of things in a few days.

New Stuff

Finally, Cindy is back in business and sending kits out. I love her new kit for October.
3 Scrappy Boys

Here's my first LO:

These papers are so pretty and fun to work with.


I haven't scrapped in like three days! That's unheard of for me. I've been consumed by
Caesar III. We've had this game for at least 5 years, maybe longer. I just woke up a few days ago with a craving for it. I have been MIA from all message boards during my little obsession. I see that some time this fall,
Caesar IV will be out. I will probably have to take a break from scrapping for awhile!

Peanuts

Something I thought I'd never hear myself say:

"Are those peanuts in your mouth? You need to sit up and swallow those before you do anymore meemee(nursing)."

The Buttons

The buttons will be my demise. I can feel it. I can sense it.

It's been two days since I gave Trent the project of organizing the buttons. I thought it would be a fantastic little chore for him to do. I asked him to organize them by color and I gave him some plastic containers to put them in.

Baby Kat thought she was to grab buttons by the handfull and throw them.

I gave Baby Kat a couple of plastic bowls to help organize, too, all while smiling to myself.

My vision was that they would each play "Buttons" happily together.

This wasn't even close.

The bowls were filled and the buttons were thrown, bowl and all.

Trent and I got on our hands and knees and picked up the buttons. While we were picking these up one by one, Baby Kat took the containers that Trent had nearly full and dumped those upside down all over the floor. On the tile floor they scattered everywhere. They slid under the bench, they slid under the bookcase and some jumped into the carpet.

1 step forward, 3 steps back.

We put Baby Kat "away" and picked them up again.

This morning, they seemed to be everywhere again.

I asked Trent if he would keep picking up the buttons. He did without an argument. He obviously had more in store for me.

"What's this one?" he asked me a few minutes later. A button was pinched between his thumb and finger.

"It's a button?" I answered.

"It IS?"

A couple minutes later...

"What's this one?"

"It's another button, just a fancy one."

"Why?"

What kind of question is that? Why? Why what? Why is it fancy? Why is it a button?

A couple minutes later...

"Wow, Mommy! Look at this! It's an umbrella button!"

"Wow, Trent! That's really cool. Please put it in the jar."

A couple minutes later...this time I'm on the toilet.

"MOM! What's this?"

"It's a string of buttons."

"Can you take it apart for me?"

"No. Just put it in the jar."

"Why?"

I literally try to wipe the exasperation away from my face with my hand.

"Please go put it in the jar Trent."

He walks away looking at it in his hand.

I hear, "WOOOOSH". The sound of buttons hitting the tile floor again.

Then I hear, "BABY KAT!!!! NO!!!!"

I can't believe it. I pick up Baby Kat and put her in her crib. I'm sure I'll regret using her crib as "time out", but for now, we have a Button Emergency. I can feel the anxiety creeping up. These buttons MUST be picked up.

As Katrina screams in the background, Trent and I pick up the buttons again. Most of them are picked up so I go to retrieve Katrina from her crib.

You think she would have learned that now is the time to help pick up the buttons. I show her (again) how it's done. You pick up the button, you put it in the box. She surprises me and wipes her hand through the nice pile of buttons Trent has set up and ready to be boxed.

Buttons everywhere again. I was standing RIGHT THERE when it happened. I was right there.

It's been two days. I am a grown woman who has lost control of her button box.

The buttons are still there. I don't know how much longer they will be there for. I can see that someone is going to have to hold Ms. Poop while two others pick up those damned buttons.

So, if you were wondering what plans I had for the weekend....

Upload Day!

Today is upload day for Peek. Jenny put together a great kit for this time's Same Product Different Scrappers assignment.

Here are the links to my two new layouts: Growing Up &
Zoe

Check out all the other ones, too: Same Products, Different Scrappers

All about nothing

Our Anniversary dinner was great. We went to Wildflower Grill and ate on the patio. I love that place. We've been going there ever since we first met.

Today in the mail I received my first check ever for publication. I have a LO in Women's Day that I think will be out in October sometime. Look for it!! The LO is called "5 Favorites".

As far as publications, I seem to be in a dry spell. I've been submitting and submitting but no luck. :(

Baby Kat and I cleaned out the Tupperware cabinet today. It's something I've been meaning to do for the last two years or so.

Wow, isn't this exciting? Aren't you glad you took the time to read about my Tupperware adventure? I feel bad for all the people typing in TUPPERWARE right now in a search engine somewhere and are finding my blog. Sorry.

5th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary.

We're going out to dinner, maybe a little wine, then cake for dessert.

Each year we always get a mini cake from the bakery that made our wedding cake. We usually get the small topper size, but we decided this year that since there is only a few dollars difference between that and a 1/4 sheet, we would just get the 1/4 sheet. heeheehee...hope my mom and grandmother aren't reading this. I'm going to get in big trouble. I'm supposed to be on a low fat diet due to my absolutely obnoxious cholesterol level. Oh, we'll freeze most of that cake. Yup, that's what we're gonna do.

Oh, and let me say that my cake HAS to have buttercream frosting. If there is that whipped cream crap on my cake, I won't eat it. Why bother? That was one of my biggest worries while planning my wedding. I was terrified that the bakery would use whipped cream instead of buttercream. My wedding would have been ruined if they used that whipped cream crap. I think I called the bakery weekly to make sure they had the order correct.

Anyway, my husband totally surprised me with this year's gift. He bought me a remote for my camera! I was shocked. It wasn't lacy underwear, or a thong that I would have to return the next day, or even hardware from Ace. It was something I could actually use that I wouldn't have gone out to buy myself.

Yeah, I complain about him way too much at times. He is a pretty decent guy.

Our Fodders

The Lord's Prayer, Trenton's version:

Our Fodders
ott in heaven
be thy name
kingom come
be well done
on earf and heaven
get us this day
our dayee bread
get our treptreps
we treptrep
not evil
not temptation
kingom
power
goree
ever and ever

A mint

Sneaking Tookies

The kids and I made oatmeal raisin cookies this afternoon. Although I let them split one after they cooled, I told them they couldn't have anymore until after dinner. All I've heard since then is "Cookies, tookies, cookies, tookies".

Trent can say "Cookie" but Katrina calls them "tookies".

Trent is an extremely picky eater. His diet consists mostly of quesadillas (with "orange cheese not white")Cheerios and pb&j. When he discovered we were having chicken for dinner, he nearly cried. He knew he wasn't going to get a cookie unless he ate dinner.

As soon as Erik came home, both kids raced to show them the "tookies/cookies". They were still cooling on the counter.

We sat at the table and ate our chicken pasta meal. Trent whined and fussed and said that his decaf tea was his dinner and then he would have a cookie. He didn't like it when we said "No. Try your chicken. You always like your chicken after you try it. You don't get a cookie until after you at least try your chicken."

Trent had a plan.

He got up from the table and said, "I'll be back. Don't follow me."

"No. Come back to the table."

He sighed. He knew that wasn't going to work.

That didn't stop him though. He had another plan. Plan B:

He got up again. "Ok", he said, "I'm going to check on the cookies. I'm gonna take a while."

At this statement, Erik and I tried not to giggle. Trent disappeared around the corner and I got up to watch him. He was shoving a bite of cookie in his mouth. Stinker.

Let's see, other things Trent said today:

He leaned over to me and said, "Mommy, you stink. You need to take a shower." Now that I think about it, I think this was after I made cookies. It was probably an early plan to sneak a bite or two.

At play group today, the director asked, "Who is 4 in here?" Everyone that was 4 raised their hands except forTrent.

I said, "Trent, you're 4. Raise your hand."

"No Mommy. I'm 4 YEARS."

Yes, I guess he was right.

Right now!

• It's 8:29 am
• Trent is upstairs changing his clothes. He's still wearing the same socks as yesterday. When he asked me to help him put on his Converse high tops (cute shoes, pain in the butt to put on)I noticed his dirty socks.
• I already have Katrina dressed, although I'm not quite sure where she is right at this second. Hopefully, she's not in the shower pumping conditioner on herself (her favorite thing).
• The cat is on the counter cleaning her butt. **sigh**
• Gigi is behind me on the floor, waiting to be petted.
• Oh, and there is Zoe, standing at the door, wanting to be let out. I know as soon as I let her out, she'll want right back in. If she can't grab my attention, she wacks her head or tail on the metal vertical blinds. It makes an awful noise.
• The dishwasher is running, but my counter doesn't look any cleaner.
• I'm making a grocery shopping list and menu planner for the next week.
• I just noticed we're out of toilet paper!
• My shirt is dirty, even though I've only worn it for about an hour.
• I have yet to put my shoes on.
• In 30 minutes, we're leaving to pleasurable at the Community Center. I better go change my shirt and stop goofing around.

Thinking of You

Who am I thinking of, hmmmmm??????

Paper, wire & ribbon flowers.

Because I said so

I am sad to report that I have resorted to using this line already this morning. It's only 10:30 in the morning and I've already run dry of patience.

This type of answer doesn't usually come out of my mouth until around 3:30-4:00 on somedays.

Today I guess is different.

Before 7:30 even came about, he was crying because he wanted "Heart Cheerios". He can have regular Cheerios. "Heart Cheerios" are reserved for mom and dad. Sometimes a little is sprinkled on top of the kid's Cheerios, but today there wasn't enough.

He didn't want to put his shoes on. "WHY?"

He didn't want to go for a bike ride. "WHY?"

He didn't want that cup. "WHY?"

He doesn't want to eat around the brown spot on the banana. "WHY?"

He doesn't want to share toys with his sister. "WHY?"

He wants to use the other Swiffer, the one BK is using. "WHY?"

He doesn't want to help put away the puzzle that is all over the floor. "WHY?"

He doesn't understand why he doesn't get anything to eat because he wouldn't eat either his Cheerios or his banana. "WHY?"

He hasn't stopped whining all morning. "WHY?"

"Can I bow out cano?"

"What?"

"Cano?"

"Volcano?" He was just playing with the volcano.

"NO!!" When he whines it's even harder to understand him.

"CANO! CANO!"

"Oh, the candle. You want to blow out the candle. No. You may not blow out the candle."

"WHY?"

"Because it smells pretty and we're smelling it now."

"WHY?"

"Because it smells like cloves."

"I wanna bow the cano."

"I just told you NO."

"WHY?"

"Because.I.said.so."

At least it seems to work. It's such a lame answer but it always works.

Upload Day

I love upload days!

Here are parts of two of my favorite layouts, one from A Peek Into Yesterday, one from Down Memory Lane

Check out the rest of the gallery, too! I'm so lucky to work with such talented people.


















and here are my links:


Pin up Girl

Not Big enough

Everybody Wants to be a Kat

Have crayons will color

Up for air

Golf

My Angels

Read to me


Wow, this way it makes it so easy for the Grandma's to find them.

A new song

Katrina wrote me a new song with dance today. As you sing it, you march around and around in a circle. It goes:

Mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee **sigh** Mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee mahmee **sigh**

Meemee

"Meemee" is Katrina's word for nursing.

It's not pronounced quick and short like "me me", the "e's" are long "meeeemeeee".

Trent is not good at pronouncing his "n"'s, so anything that starts with an "n" sounds like an "m". "Mursing" is what Trent calls it. Katrina turned "mursing" into "meemee".

At 22 months, Katrina is still quite heavy into "meemee".

Over the weekend, Katrina found the drawer of cds open. I over hear her repeating, "meemee". Soon, I hear a little louder, "MA! Meemee". I look up and she's walking towards me with this cd in her hand, tapping at the cover, "Meemee, Mommy." Once I acknowledged the "meemee", it was Daddy's turn. "DA!", she turns around to go to another room of the house, "Meemee! DA!"

As I type this, she is on my lap pointing at the screen, "Meemee meemee meemee!"

Even Gigi has "meemee".

We've been told that Gigi has had at least two litters before she came to us. In February, when she was found on the side of the road, she had a litter of puppies with her. Gigi still has nursing nipples and should she lie down on her side, exposing her belly, Katrina is right there. She pokes and pinches at each of Gigi's nipples and says very seriously, "Meemee", while looking at me. I think at this point, Gigi is used to this behavior as she just deeply sighs when Katrina starts to point out her "meemee".

Some of Katrina's dolls and stuffed animals are "meemee'd". Sometimes she lifts her shirt to "meemee", sometimes Gigi "meemees" (while looking totally humiliated) and sometimes I have to "meemee". Why last night, both Gigi and I had to "meemee" a baby giraffe.

Nursing has become so much a part of our family, that even Trent has picked up on this in his own little way. Just about every picture he ever draws has "obows" (nipples).

I have to admit I had a little panic attack yesterday when I realized that Trent may be at school drawing pictures of naked people.

Yeah, I do a LOT of nursing...I mean "meemee".

Trent's First Day

Trent was so excited for school this morning. He couldn't even eat. He had his backpack on, his folded blanket under his arm and he was at the front door an hour before we had to leave.

I told him he could bring a small toy with him if he wanted if it made him more comfortable while away from home. He picked out five.

a little red party bear, a Kid's Meal toy from McDonalds,
the lid to his toy sugar/creamer set,
a plastic toy screw,
a Fisher Price Little People,
and a red heart that fits in a shape sorter toy we got rid of months ago.

I told him he could only bring one and we chose the red party bear. I wrote his name on the tag, and he turned around so I could put it in the pocket of the backpack he was wearing.

He also got Baby Kat a blanket and her kitty purse. Both kids, ready (on their own), at the front door before I was even dressed. This never happens.

When we finally did go, he let me take his picture. He wanted to pose with his arm extended like he was in some comic book action mode. There should have been a little bubble over his head that read "POW!!" or "BAM!!".

Inside the school, I signed him in and off we headed, down the hall to his class. When we arrived, the teacher said, "Hi Trent!" This time, instead of dropping to his knees, he said, "HI!!" back and walked towards her and the other kids.

Whew! A small sense of relief for me.

We found his cubby, hung up his backpack and his teacher showed us where his cot was and where he could put his blanket.

Trent was introduced to another kid named "Andrew" and they soon became buddies. Andrew took Trent to the sink and pointed out all the controls, soap and paper towel dispenser. After each of them washing their hands, they sat to eat breakfast together. I guess Trent had decided he was hungry after all.

It seemed at this point I was no longer needed. He was perfectly fine sitting there with Andrew eating his breakfast. I said, "Well, I'm going to go now." Nothing. I repeated it. He gave me a quick glance and turned back around to continue eating with Andrew.

No tears.
No "MOMMY!"
No "I don't want to stay!"

None of that. For years I have worried about what his first day of school would be like. I can see now that I was just wasting my time by worrying.

I spent the morning at my mother's. I wasn't ready to come home to an "empty" house. Of course, I know I have Katrina, but my Little Man is gone...at school...growing up.

I'm home now and Katrina is sleeping. The house is so quiet. I almost don't know what to do with myself. I guess I'll go empty the dishwasher. Then I'll pick up Trent.

New Announcement

Jill at Down Memory Lane Co. is now donating 100% of the proceeds from the sales of the Katrina Relief kits and grab bags to the American Red Cross. You can go right here: http://www.downmemorylaneco.com/shop.aspx?CatID=444 and spend spend spend and you'll know it's going to a great cause.

Beautiful morning & School for Trent

It was so nice yesterday morning. I took the kids for a bike ride. We have been missing our walks over the last couple days, due to various reasons, and I really needed to get moving again. I didn't feel like a boring walk again and when Katrina pointed to the bikes, I said "Why Not?" It took me 20 minutes to pump up the tires, but soon after that we were on our way. I brought my camera with me just in case. We rode up the street to the horse boarding place, but no horses were out.

I think the ride may have been a little too long for the kids and I had to threaten Trent a couple of times, "Do you wanna walk?". LOL. After that, I would hear some whining from Katrina and then Trent saying, "wanna walk?"


After I downloaded these pictures, I realized I hardly had any without Trent's finger near his nose. **sigh**

One of these days, I'll figure out how to add pictures and have the text wrap so nicely around them.


Little Dude Starts School

My little man is going to start pre-school on Monday. He's going twice a week for 4-6 hours. He missed kindergarten this year by just a couple of months. I know he is ready for school. He's so bored that he's been getting in so much "trouble" lately. It seems like he's always in time-out for aggravating his sister to the point of tears.

His little mind needs to be filled with information that I can't seem to provide him. He's not interested in tracing letters with me or solving simple math equations. I also want him to learn some social skills. This need was proved to me yesterday during his introduction to the class:

When we took a tour of his classroom, all the kids were sitting at the table waiting for lunch. Trent, Kat and I just kind of walked around, looking at the various toys and "stuff". When we stopped for a moment, the assistant teacher introduced Trent to the class.

"Class", she said, "This is Trent. He will be starting with us next week".

As the kids turned and said, "Hi Trent!", Trent dropped to the floor on all fours and scurried past me to hide underneath a table.

I couldn't believe it. I didn't realize he was so shy.

He must of realized that what he did was pretty goofy, because he immediately popped up, turned to the kids at the table, raised his hand in a wave and said, "Hi".

Of course, while this is happening, Baby Kat is saying, "hiiiiiiii" over and over and waving.

My poor little man. I felt so bad for him.

As we were leaving the center, he said that he didn't like that place and didn't want to go back.

We talked about it later and he said that he was still feeling embarrassed by his actions. I told him that no one would remember what happened and he's going to have so much fun and make so many new friends.

I think he feels a little better now.

Another picture...

Actually, just testing my "Hello" program. That's all. Another bubble suit pic.

Thanks for looking. :D

Two Important Announcements!

Let's please not forget our animal friends that are suffering due to hurricane Katrina:

http://www.hsus.org/

Also, http://www.downmemorylaneco.com is having a fun sale benefitting Katrina victims. Jill has put together grab bags of scrappy supplies ranging from $5.00 and up. She has also put together packages of scrappy supplies by color. 60% of all sales will go to help the victims. Please go check it out. It's in the shopping section.

Vintage

In that bag of clothes my neighbor gave me to go through was this adorable vintage yellow bubble suit.

I put it on Katrina today and discovered it was almost too small. She probably won't get to wear it for too long.

Here's a picture of her. I caught her mid-word saying "dog".

I had the kids up on the window seat taking pictures when Katrina accidentally knocked over one of my glass vases. I picked it up and decided while I was throwing it away in the garage, I'd take some pics out there.

I set Baby Kat down and started snapping away, but she wouldn't look at me. She kept saying, "bebe" over and over and pointing towards the back of the garage. I looked in the direction she was pointing and noticed my very old Chatty Cathy doll. I had found the doll at a yard sale when I was about 12-13. Even then, she was "old" and "collectible". I was collecting dolls at the time. I knew she wasn't worth much because she is "mute" and her condition wasn't that great. I can remember how excited I was when I found her. I had always felt I needed this doll to complete my collection.

Years later, I got rid of most of my dolls, but I could never part with the Chatty Cathy.

We brought her in, cleaned her off and the kids have dressed her. Now there is a skirmish every so often over who gets to hold her. Trent likes to put a tiara on her and Katrina likes to push her down the toybox/slide.

I feel kinda nice that Chatty Cathy is getting some new appreciation. You know you always secretly wonder if the toys talk, move and have feelings when you're not around. Admit it.

I can feel Cathy smiling inside her mute, plastic, little body.

Off Ground

I'm feeling a little lost today.

Out of routine.

Unmotivated.

I think I remember feeling this way during 9-11. Maybe it's just a feeling of total helplessness. Can you believe 9-11 was FOUR years ago?

I've had laundry sitting in the dryer for two days.

I don't care.

and I'm so tired of the heat. I'm always sweating.

and the toys. There are toys everywhere. I trip over them.

and I'm tired of nursing. Katrina is 22 months old and when she wants to nurse she just comes over and lifts my shirt. Most days, I don't even bother to wear a bra. This way I don't have to stop what I'm doing to help her. Too much info? Sorry. Not what you were expecting in a blog? Sorry.

and whining. I'm tired of hearing everyone whine. Too many whiners in the world.

heehee...that was supposed to be funny. Get it? ...all my whining and then I say I don't like whiners...nevermind. If I have to explain, it's not funny.


In other news...

Trent made beer today. He mixed his decaf iced tea with water, stirred it with a spoon and claimed it was beer. We're not big drinkers here, so I'm not exactly sure where he came up with that one. "Mmmmm, this is good beer!" he says.

I'm making another loaf of homemade bread.

I'm going through this 70's Rock phase. I had an itch to listen to some old Queen and Pink Floyd today. Not sure why. I pulled out some Pink Floyd I didn't even know we owned. They were mixed up in the cd drawer with Pet Shop Boys, Project Pitchfork and Portishead. To my surprise, we actually have three PF cd's: Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall.

And, I got a package of stuff together for Jlyne and her family.

I don't like starting sentences with "and". Isn't that bad grammar? I did that a lot in this entry.

and I'm done for today. I promise I won't come back until I'm either in a bra or a better mood.

Old picture

After my last entry, I decided to force myself to start picking up crap that's been sitting around. I found my very old engagement pics with ex-husband. **snicker** Like my long, straight, black hair? This is from 1993. It's amazing how much can change in just over a decade.

Boring

I'm sitting here waiting for a giant box of scrappy supplies. Oh hurry and get here. It should have been here yesterday. **sigh**

I haven't been able to function very well today. I've had a headache since yesterday. I did a finish up a layout last night but I haven't even felt like starting another one for today. The mess from yesterday's is still spread all over my table.

Trent has been watching tv nearly all day and I feel totally guilty about it.

Told you it was boring.

Pretty in Pink and Hurricane Katrina

I'm sure by my title, that you are thinking this post is entirely about Baby Kat. No. You are wrong.

My neighbors gave me a bag of clothing to go through for the kids. I was to take what I wanted and give back what I didn't. I had the bag of what I didn't need sitting at the front door when Trent discovered it. I guess he was immediately drawn to the bright colors of the jacket inside. He put it on and showed me. "Hmmm, nice". I said. He totally caught me off guard.

Later on, while still wearing the jacket, I caught him posing in front of our mirrored closet doors. He was even humming a little tune as he posed.

He calls it his "Jumping Jacket". I'm not sure what his fascination with it is, but he never wants to take it off. I guess I should have just taken the bag back right away as the next day he discovered the matching pants. There are zippers on the ankles. They help him jump higher and "bigger". This is a point that has been proven to me many times today.

We just had to go to Grandma's house today to show her the "Jumping Jacket" and matching zipper pants. He was even more delighted when his Great Grandma stopped by so he could show her, too.


It doesn't matter to him that it's 94 degrees in the shade of the patio with pretty high humidity. The hood (or "helmet" as he refers to it) doesn't come off his head, either. Usually, it's pulled around his face as tight as he can get it so only his eyes are peeking through. These pictures don't show that, I know.


Oh, and I have been asked 100 times today if I'll be doing a LO with Hurricane Katrina. Yes. Yes, I will. LOL! I'll pull some clippings off the computer and I'll have a "hurricane comparison."

Oh, and here is a pic of Baby Kat from today, too. She is "Pretty in Pink".

Pics of Katrina

Trent is actually taking a real nap today so I was able to have some one on one time with Baby Kat. I tested out my new camera to make sure it was working ok. I took several shots, but I really like how these came out. I love the look she has on her face while trying to throw the Frisbee, like it's serious business.

Getting picture of her in a good mood is actually quite a relief for me. This is the first time in quite a while that she hasn't spent the afternoon crying. I will have to refer back to these when I have another one of "those" days.

Oh, Trent is now awake. Time to go...

Best Buy ROCKS!

I bought my camera at Best Buy just two months ago. A couple weeks ago, I noticed that the flash hot shoe was just very slightly bent. It was really difficult to get the flash on and even harder to get it off. I had no idea what happened to my camera. It is always in the camera case and it's never been dropped. I thought for sure if I took it back to have it repaired, the warranty wouldn't cover it because it would be considered "accidental damage". I debated taking it back and facing embarrassment because I honestly didn't know what happened.

In my mind, I could picture employees huddled around my camera talking amongst themselves, "Yeah. She had to have dropped it. She must be a liar. How else could this have happened. Oh, she has two small kids, I bet one of them got a hold of it." Other employees would naturally walk over to the huddle to check out what was going on. Looking over another employee's shoulder, they would nod in agreement and turn around and look at me, the liar, out of the corner of their eye as they walked back to their normal duties.

Maybe I should just take it to a camera repair store and have it fixed there.

It took me two weeks to build up the nerve to take it back to Best Buy. I was ready to accept the fact that I would have to pay for the repair and it would probably take weeks before it was back to me. I was prepared to buy rolls and rolls of film and go back to my film SLR for the time being.

When I arrived, I went right up to the repair counter. I gave the employee my camera and showed him what was wrong. He looked at it for awhile, turning it around and around in his hands.

"Well", he said, "this may be covered. I can tell that you didn't drop this or mishandle it in anyway."

I was starting to feel better.

"Let me check with my manager."

He came back after a few minutes and proceeded to enter in all the info from my receipt. He explained to me that it would take about two weeks for repair.

I was feeling pretty good at this point.

Uh oh. There was a problem. The info wasn't be accepted into the computer. He left to get the manager again.

Now my confidence in this situation was beginning to thin. I was starting to panic, and it didn't help that the kids were acting up. Both of them were in the cart and fighting over who got to stomp on my purse.

When he came back with the manager, he explained to me that because the camera was only two months old, they would just replace it with a new camera. I couldn't believe it! I was absolutely shocked!

I walked out of there with a brand new camera. I love Best Buy.

Monkey shirt

Thank you to Laura who sent Baby Kat this adorable monkey shirt. She really does like it. She's only crying because she's mad that Mommeeeeee won't hold her 24/7. I took this yesterday near a partially open window with no flash. **sigh** I still can't get my exposure correct. Oh, and I swear that little red focus light was on her eyes, not her shirt. I'm slightly annoyed that her face is out of focus. One of these days, I will learn how to properly use my camera. I can see that this is a delicate balance of maneuvers to get it just right. Although my light meter was showing things were fine, my pictures still showed up blurry because of her movement. I sometimes play around in manual mode with my camera and then review the "info" field in the playback mode. Although the graph shows that the exposure looks good, it doesn't show if my picture is blurry due to movement. I don't know how to fix it and it's really frustrating me. I've increased my ISO up to 800 and I still get blurry pics. So, just in case my pictures don't turn out as well on the computer screen as they look on the LCD screen, I always take some programmed mode shots. **sigh** It's kinda depressing. But, she does like her monkey shirt. :D I love it when I get little surprises like this in the mail. They totally make my day. Thank you again, Laura.

Christina Cole

I {heart} Christina Cole. Where did she come from? She seemed to have come out of nowhere. I am deer in her headlights. I love her papers, her epoxy stickers and her darn cute little shaker boxes. I did this layout for Peek. You have to click on the link to see the rest of it. heehee

I love Mexican Folk Art, especially the Sacred Hearts. When I saw the shaker box, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

After completing this layout, I seem to be wearing quite a bit of paint. It's everywhere. It's even on the inside of my shirt. I have no clue how it got there.

Anyway, Erik is putting the kids to bed and we're going to watch Ring 2. I hope it's scary. I love scary movies.

Listening ears

This child does not listen to me. Unbelievable!

"Put your listening ears on, Trent", I say nearly all day.

Today he ripped the map out of the Lord of the Rings book. As he was doing it, I asked him to stop. He just kept going until he was finished.

However, there are times where he is just incredibly cute. Like today, when he asked me to come up stairs to take a picture of him with his people. He had about 20 of them all lined up on a bench in the play room. He squated behind them and made goofy faces while I snapped pictures. Not very often does he let me take his picture. Today was fun!

I like that picture. He looks so solemn. Like's he's totally content and pleased with his "People creation".

I like this picture of Baby Kat, too. It's from over the weekend. We were visiting with her cousins and in their backyard was a playhouse. She wouldn't come out of it and I actually had to go in and drag her out of it. Too bad for the dumb shadow over half of her face, though.

Here's their cousin, Kate. Love the fancy shoes, on the big wheel, in the dirt.

Another Monday Morning

"Do you Blog?" I asked my oldest daughter, Ashlely. "No. That's stupid", she replies. So, I must be doing something right then.

Ashley's prom was on Saturday night. It's still kinda bothering me that her $200.00 prom dress is rolled up in a ball on my dining room table. It's been there since Sunday morning. The first thing she said to me, after dumping her dress is, "Oh, that was so not worth the $600.00 I spent." Luckily, she spent the money, not me. I didn't give her a dime, which is why I keep trying to convince myself that the rolled up dress is NOT my problem. I think they actually spent closer to $1000.00. She wasn't counting Kevin's clothes, dinner and accessories. She did spend nearly a $100.00 on having her hair and makeup done. Oh, I just don't get it. I would never spend so much money on one night. I never wanted a wedding. A simple Justice of the Peace would have been just fine and dandy with me.

My mother cried on the phone when she found out she had missed Ashley's prom. I sent pictures out and when my mom realized they weren't for a "dress rehersal", she was upset. Very upset.

I said to her, "Mom, you always said the Prom was not that big of a deal".
"That's because you didn't go", she explained.

I called her a couple hours later, she was still crying.

Katrina is now wearing her bib as a cape and feeding cereal to her Elmo phone. It may be time to go and start my day. Trent is already glued to the tv. Time to turn off the tv, make the bed and start picking up toys. My never ending job..."picking up toys". Sigh.

I also better think about submitting some new LO's.

Do you think if I submit one LO to CK EVERYDAY they will start to notice me? It's a thought I've been tossing around in my head for a while. "Oh, here's another Heather LO. We better publish here soon. I'm sick of getting these daily submissions".