Last day of LOAD

Yesterday was the last day of LOAD and while I absolutely LOVED the challenge, I'm so happy it's done. I need to get a ton of laundry finished and everything else that needs to happen.

But here's the LO:I'm also trying to get a driving video of Warsaw and get that up. While it seems quite normal to me, I know most people would be really amazed at driving in Warsaw.

Here's a picture for my dad, who reads my blog daily (at least I set it up as his homepage, so he should be reading it!):See how that extra door is RIGHT next to the refrigerator. It won't open enough to put anything in it (except toys, which melt great and leave the house smelling like a field of burning tires!).

And then here's a picture of my kitchen border for Amy. I've been meaning to post a pic for awhile. I thought Amy would get a kick out of it.
Hope everyone has a great day!

What a great husband I have!

Yesterday evening we had to take Toby to the doctor for his checkup from his horrible infections that he had last week. (We also learned that he has a secondary ear infection and probably sleep apnea, so we have to go see a specialist, but we knew that already).

Anyway, when Dylan met me at the doctor's office, he had a package from Old Navy (YIPEE, jeans for Seth so that he doesn't look like he's wading!) and something else that I didn't recognize. It turned out to be this:
No, not the paper (although that would make him a very cool husband too), the thing holding the paper. It's an old magazine rack that he found and they were getting rid of. He brought it to me and said, "It's exactly 12 inches, I measured it. And if it works for you, I have another one!" But how awesome that he listened to me and knew that it needed to be 12 inches! He's the greatest husband ever! Now all I have to do is figure out how to sort my paper in 8 different ways.

Before this, all of my paper was kept in two of these:

Which was no longer working for me.

And yesterday's LOAD LO was kind of a copout. I make these 4x6 scrapbooks for my kids' godparents (of course I am WAY behind on all of them). So these were some catch up pages for Toby's.

Everyone have a fantastic day! I'll just be here organizing paper:).

What is it about scrapbookers?

This weekend, in a desperate effort to drum up others to indulge in my addiction with me, I spoke with a woman who said she scrapbooks. But when I was telling her all about the challenge (LOAD) I was involved in and asking her how much room she has to scrap, she just wasn’t nearly as excited (obsessed?) as I am. Are all scrapbookers like me, or are they more like her? All the people I’ve scrapbooked with in person (and online) have been just as crazy as I am…with all their varied and individual styles, but they’ve had that passion.

I was like her when I first started. It was an interesting hobby, one I didn’t want to pour too much money into, but a way to get together with others and enjoy each other’s company (at that time I didn’t know that people scrapbooked alone most of the time). The only reason I was even involved in it was because I just didn’t have any female friends and I was invited to a “crop” – not really a crop, but more like a weekly gathering at this woman’s house – and she and I had babies and older children the same ages (NONE of the other ladies even had children). They talked about techniques and where they got everything, and I just thought they were complete and total nuts. But liked hanging out with them and needed some “girl time”.

5 years later, I am one of them. But it’s hard to find other scrappers. I even offered at a women’s group to teach scrapbooking (with absolutely no training except experience), with no success to drum up others. We are, at least overseas, an elusive group.

And how about how non scrappers, we’ll call them commoners:), view us. I seem to get that look from people (including the woman that I spoke with Friday night) as though they think I am a religious nut. From family, it’s more like I’m an alcoholic and they’re my enablers.

What do you think? And if anyone has any suggestions as to where to find the elusive scrapper, please let me know:).

And for the first time since January 8th, when I was still stuck in Houston, I did not complete a layout yesterday. So I have nothing to show.

Ah, but I forgot...it's not my time, it's West Coast time:). So I was able to slap out a LO in under 20 minutes...how's that for SUPER fast;)?
And I only had to skip my run to complete it:P. Obsessed, noooo!

Is it more magic than a breadbox?

When we moved here, I bought this breadbox (well, actually Dylan bought me this breadbox). I don't really know why, but I always loved breadboxes...something weird about me. Anyway, we were gone for 3 weeks in December and no one cleaned the breadbox out before we left. However, this is what we came back to:

Yes, that expiration date is December 24, 2007 and yes, I took that picture this morning (you can't throw away magic bread!). Anyway, there's more stuff in the bread box (bread, crackers) that have been there the same amount of time and have no effects of time.

Can someone explain the magical science behind the breadbox to me? Seriously! The bread that sat on top of the breadbox went moldy, but inside, everything was in perfect condition. How does that happen???

Toby's better, but here's a pic of him when he was sick:

And that was when he was on the upside of the sickness.

Here's yesterday's LOAD LO.

Too much "white" space, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Ah, nothing is perfect. And of all the weird things, my rub ons stuck to their backing.

Have a good day, and if anyone seriously knows the science of breadboxes I would LOVE to hear it. For now I'm happy thinking it's magic:).

Some LOAD LOs

Sorry that I have been gone. I've been pretty down and I don't like to blog when I'm down 'cause I'm not very interesting. I don't like sounding like a whiny blogger.

But, because I have little time, I will just post my LOAD layouts from the past few days. I'll probably be back on Monday.

This one is one of my favorites. It's such a mundane subject, but that day I was just so frustrated about it, I scrapped it:

Then these are my kids' school book pages. I'm figuring out my lettering problems. For my daughter's 3rd and 4th grade pages, I took my Target $1 section letters (that I can't get to stick without glue dots) and heat embossed them with silver and red. I LOVED the way they turned out, so now my only problem is how do I get more letters???

My son's preschool page is a work in progress as he hasn't completed preschool yet:). So that's why it's so bare.
But with these pages, I have caught up in the challenge AND caught up in my kids' books. So win-win!

Have a great weekend!

It's 4:43 am

Yeah, I'm normally not up quite this early, but I'm up with a sick kid whose temp I'm trying to get down.

Here's the LOAD LO for Wednesday:

I'm having lettering issues. I'm going to have to read up on more lettering options. I have chipboard which I love, and I suppose I can just paint it to match my LOs but I usually don't have the time.

But with the Monkey LO, the journaling is hard to read (even in person). "It says this is our stateroom (well the kids' stateroom). Every night Wilson, our stateroom host, made towel animals. The last night, even though it didn't have a tail, it was a..."

For those who don't get the reference, for Toby's birthday he got Veggie Tales' The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's. The Silly Song with Larry is "Monkey" which is just too funny. And it gives a handy lesson on how to tell monkeys from apes.


My favorite silly song! It has lead to all kinds of interesting exchanges in my house. Anyone at any time can say Something "has a tail" such as "Crocodile has a tail" to which anyone (or everyone) will announce that "It's a monkey!" So when we saw the monkey hanging in the stateroom we all shouted in unison "It's a monkey!" I think we were the craziest people on the cruise.

Just the LOAD layouts for today...

I already posted once today and then I realized that I had only posted the weekend's LOs and not Mondays. I like to post them the day of otherwise I get into a weird groove and I'm kind of anal about things like that.

So here's day 21:

Castaway Cay

And day 5 make up (now I'm only down 3 LOs!):

Glass Bottom Boat

I get bored doing the cruise photos because, while I can journal about them, it's very plain and blah mostly. "This is what we did and where we were, yadda, yadda, yadda". I enjoy more of the story journaling, which I guess is good. Anyway, I should only have 1 or 2 more LOs of the cruise and then I'll be done! Castaway Cay was our last day there and I don't think I have many more pictures that are "scrap worthy".

Birthday Parties

I HATE birthday parties. I hate putting together birthday parties and coming up with stupid games and things that kids won't play and don't really enjoy.

So my eldest son's birthday party was at school today (they allow birthday parties at his school, so that's the only one we do - other than the family one on the actual birthday - because I hate them). The kids just didn't care much about the party, they never do...they like the cake and presents, but I don't know why I bother to even put any thought into them at all.

But, Pamela and I spent about an hour and a half of our lives last night making these:

They're filled with little candies (M&Ms and Skittles - they don't taste all that great together;). It wasn't bad, we had fun making them and the kids liked them (a little but I would never say that anything I have ever made was a "hit"). They'd probably make a nice little Valentine's favor...you could give them a "spicy" name and they'd be perfect. Maybe Amy wants to use them for her countdown to Valentine's day??

Anyway, this experience has inspired today's LO:

I just love the picture of my middle son in his apron and chef's hat. He loves to cook and is so excited when he gets the opportunity to help out. Oh and the LO design is by Tricia Morris from The Scrapbook Lounge.

5 Ways Scrapbooking Makes Me a Better Person

Dylan still picks on me about my scrapbook blog, so today I decided to explain why scrapbooking is important.

We’ll do this in David Letterman order and start with the least.

5. Creativity starts at home.

4. It’s never good to have too much money and all of our excess goes to scrapbooking supplies. Who needs college??

3. It’s a better way to unwind after a long day than a bottle of wine.

2. I’ve found out what to do with every weird thing that IKEA makes. Most of them are made to hold scrapbook supplies.

And the number one reason:

Every moment of my life I look at the opportunity to scrapbook it. I do not mind that my kids cry when the meet Santa or Mickey Mouse, think of the memories that will be documented about that day! I take very little for granted - knowing that when I am a grandma I will have experienced my children's lives.

And here's today's LOAD challenge layout (LO)...you know you want it;)

My pages are actually straighter than they appear:).

Tagged again:)

No, it's not new...because I mentioned it in my last post (which I think of as yesterday, but was actually today-yeah, I'm pretty tired now that you mention it). Amy tagged me with books.

*1. One book that changed my life: I'm going with an old standby here, The Bible. Everytime I read it it makes more sense to me than the last time...not to insinuate that I have read the whole Bible, because I haven't, but when I pick it up I get the whole idea of life.

*2. One book that you have read more than once: I haven't read a book more than once since I was in high school - except maybe The Action Heroine's Handbook. Now I know how to give birth to a baby if I am alone:).

*3. One book that you want on a desert island: Yeah, I have to agree with Amy: Raft building for dummies?

*4. One book that made me laugh: That would have to be the Action Heroine's Handbook again. It's too funny and the whole time you're thinking, "Well that's a darned good idea!"

*5. One book that made me cry: White Oleander by Janet Fitch. I was so absorbed in the story of this poor girl and her life in foster care. It made me want to go and adopt all the children of the world.

*6. One book I wish had been written: The Idiot's Guide to Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences - I've not really checked this out, it could be out there.

*7. One book I wish had not been written: I don't know of any. Every book I have picked up has been good in some way. I LOVE to read, but my time is limited so if it's dull it's gone in the first chapter.

*8. One book I am currently reading: Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Yes, it's boring, but until it's finished I have no time for other books.

*9. One book I've been meaning to read: A Thousand Splendid Suns. I actually started it, but I lost it in my travels over Christmas time.

So there we are today. And now I'm caught up! YAY!

Here's day 14 of the LOAD challenge:

I'm thinking I'll have to scrap some other photos 'cause I'm actually getting bored with the cruise ones...sad, I know.

LOAD day 10

So because we just went on the Disney Cruise for Christmas, I have LOTS of pictures to scrap from that trip and it's all fresh in my mind. My new theme for the L.O.A.D challenge is the Disney Cruise. Here's page 1, day 10:

And Amy tagged me to do 7 random things and my thoughts on discipline. I don't know which one is more difficult so I'll go in order. She first tagged me for thoughts on discipline. This should be fairly easy since I just took a class in Child Psychology where we had to analyze our parents parenting skills and then look at our own.

I won't go into my analysis of my own parents parenting here, as most of the people involved read this blog and I'm not really ready to go there;).

As for Dylan's and my parenting skills, we just really try to look at the things that our parents did that we didn't like and change that. No one can be a perfect parent so we hope our children will cut us some slack like we do our own parents. As far as discipline, we believe that a good example is very important and punishments should fit the crime. We often use natural consequences. You spilled the juice, you have to clean it up. Natural consequences work quite well with young children but not as well with older ones. We can't let Pamela fail 8th grade as a natural consequence of not doing her homework, so she loses privileges (such as no friends over, no phone calls) when her grades drop. For this semester, her friend invited her to a concert and we told her that she couldn't attend the concert unless her grades were good enough (A, B, and Cs - her math skills are not good, so I will accept a C in math). That's been a fantastic motivator and she has kept her grades up this semester and will go to the concert next week.

Miche does not spare the rod.

Jo-N wants to be her children's best friend.
Tot's Mom spares the rod and believes in patience.
Huckdoll spares the rod and believes there are more effective yet gentle ways to discipline than spanking.
Kelly at Ordinary Art has a three-step approach that does not always work but leaves tiny tushes mark free.
OhMommy has spanked and never will again.
Amy spanks when necessary.
The Sports Mama found it depended on the individual child and the situation.
Karen thinks that each situation needs dealt with differently.
Maria sets high expectations and likes "the talk".

AmyC uses choices and a sense of humor

Kylie in Warsaw uses natural consequences and good examples.

Instead of 5 people I'll tag Dawn, Amanda, and Lisa (all who do not have a blog) so just leave me a comment about your thoughts on discipline if you want:).

Tomorrow I'll post the random thoughts about me...that one's pretty difficult. Almost everyone I know knows everything about me;).

Back in Warsaw!

Hey! I arrived in Warsaw yesterday and have about a billion things to do. I did my first layout of the L.O.A.D. challenge last night when I was exhausted, but I'm in the running now! Here's the layout:

I have two chapters to read and an assignment to do, have to go grocery shopping (we made do on Eggo waffles and hot pockets last night), unpack and pick up Dylan and the boys from the airport.

We were supposed to come in on Sunday, but our flight to Chicago was delayed too long to let us make the connection with the one flight that goes to Warsaw. We were rescheduled for the next day, but that flight was canceled. They told us they couldn't get us out until Wednesday but were finally able to find us a Lufthansa flight on Tuesday. Dylan and the boys were supposed to leave on Tuesday but their flight to Chicago was delayed (after they had actually loaded everyone on the plane and closed the doors!) and they were rescheduled for Wednesday. Dylan got them to give him enough time to make the connection in case the flight was delayed, but then wound up being stuck in Chicago for 7 hours...no delays. It was just crazy.

So other than the being stuck for 4 days and getting behind on everything back here, our vacation was very nice. And because idle hands are the Devil's playground here's what I did while I was on vacation:

These are tote bags made from plastic grocery bags. The yellow striped one is for Dylan's grandmother as she gave me all the bags to make it and she really liked the yellow. The other one is the first one I made. They're super easy to make and this is how I finally learned to crochet. You can find instructions here. It was the first time I was able to actually see the stitches. Now I've started on a scarf for Seth (from actual yarn, not plastic bags:).

And Amy has tagged me (twice!) in the time that I was gone, so I still have that to blog:)...I'm getting there;).