Merry Christmas

Click the photo to see it larger. ;)

Christmas...already?!

Woah, where in the world did this year go? I can't believe it is only 5 days until Christmas. Christmas, people! I have gotten nearly all of my shopping done. I still have some things I am working on putting together, and have done zero wrapping. I am usually a little bit better than this about getting things done sooner. I don't know what is wrong with me this year. I think the lack of cold weather is doing it. It's kind of hard to get in the Christmas mood when outside it is in the 70's.

My newest kit is finished as of this morning. Let me tell you, it is pretty hard to get motivated to put together a winter kit when the above mentioned weather is surrounding you. However, I did it!

Not much else to report I suppose. Just keeping busy, as usual. :)

Appointment updates

Jacob's appointment went well. She thinks he has somehow managed to hit his eye with something and hit the vein. I'm supposed to wait a month, and if there is no improvement by that time, we'll see a specialist. Whew! He does have the start of some allergy problems, so she gave us some allergy meds for that.

My appointment was ok, I guess. He listed to the blood flow over my thyroid gland and has determined, based on the bruit he heard and my bloodwork, that apparently my thyroid is putting out not only the antibodies for Hashimoto's, but for Grave's disease as well. Nice, huh? He can't do anything for me right now. We have to wait for my stupid gland to decide which way it is going to go. He believes that it will go to hyperthyroidism for a short time, and then finally settle into hypothyroidism, at which point he will be able to treat me. Right now, my thyroid gland is pretty inflamed and tender to the touch. He said the only thing he can do for that is steroids, and the risks outweigh the benefits quite a bit...so a no go for me. So, basically all my crap symptoms are just going to have to continue for who knows how long. I left my appointment more frustrated than I was before.

The good news I suppose is that even though my BP is up at their office and at every other doctor's office I go to, at home it is averaging 115/70, so he is happy with that part. I know my doctors never believe me when I told them it isn't always up. LOL My blood sugar 2 hours after eating was 92, so another good thing....and that was after having pasta for dinner the night before and my 15 grams of carbs in the morning. And despite his look of disappointment, I did lose 3 pounds. I know it isn't much at all, but given the fact that I had only been on the diabetic diet for 3 weeks and Thanksgiving was thrown in there too, I really don't think that was awful.

Sooo, that's my update. I get bloodwork this month, go back in May for more bloodwork, and then two week after that I will have another thyroid ultrasound and appointment.

Not much else to report. I'm working on my next kit and a collab kit for S2B. Can't wait!

Changes

Ahhh. A week of changes.

First, I have made th switch to Blogger Beta. So far, so good.

Secondly, I resigned from Scrapbooker's Playground. However, the same day I signed on at Scrap2Basics. It is actually the new site that I was chosen to be on the CT for. LOL The other designers are wonderful, and I think I will learn quite a bit by being there. Pamela Gibson, whose CT I am a member of, is also a designer there. Pretty neat, huh? I am so excited about designing with these ladies and can't wait to get the details of my first collab kit. :)

So, I also have a brand new kit, "Sweet Elena". Wanna peek?



We have a busy week ahead. I have bells on Monday, an endo appointment for me on Tuesday, a TRU sale function to go to on Thursday night, and Friday will be two field trips and Silas' work Christmas party. Thank goodness for weekends, huh? I'm going to need it after this Friday!


Jacob's right eye has got something going on with it now. He looked to the side a few nights ago and I thought he had something in it. I pulled his eyelid down a little bit and he looked to the left. He has this really dark and large looking vein in it. It almost looked at first as though he had a large piece of string in there, but it isn't. I asked if it was hurting or itching...nope. Did he hit it or poke it? Nope. Did someone else hit or poke it? Not that he remembers. Does the light bother him...doesn't appear to. So, my first thought is that something maybe flew into it. Silas had an eye appointment a few months ago and didn't know he had a piece of metal in his eye. There were no signs of it at all that he noticed, but the eye doc mentioned there were veins growing towards it. So, I am wondering if this is what is going on. I brought him to my parents' house yesterday to make sure I wasn't overreacting and that it does look abnormal, and they weren't sure what was wrong with it either. So, if it is still there on Monday, I am making an appointment with the ped to see about getting a referral.

I told him this as the plan and he quickly went to the living room and just sat quietly. I asked him if he was ok and he started crying, telling me he is scared. I don't know what to do about his fear of the doctor. He is petrified. I held him and explained that doctors make a promise out loud to other people and to God, "First do no harm". I explained this means they are supposed to do their best to help people that are sick and do their best to not hurt them. We talked for a little while about it and though he is still very scared, I think he understands that they are not trying to really hurt him. This is one reason we are waiting until Monday to make an appointment. I want him to be seen by our regular ped on Tuesday. He has built a trust with her, and after the last time I brought him in and the new ped sprayed his ear, well, I think we need to do our best to stick to who he feels most comfy with. My heart breaks that he is so fearful that they will hurt everytime he goes in. :(

Anyway, I am off to get some more work done before bed. :)

New kit and a sale

My second kit is now completed. Want a peek?













I also learned how to do sales tonight, thanks to Wendy! I've been working hard on getting all of my scrapping and kits done.

My secret that I was having to keep under wraps can now be told! I am now on the CT for a new site: Scrap2Basics. I was so excited when I found out! It looks like it is going to be a great store and board! You should definitely check it out. :)

Ok, Im off to get some work done before heading to bed. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Store is ready!

Woohoo! I finally have my very first product up at SBP. I am SO excited! Here is a preview for you:

It is named after my sweet little Cassidy. I love the colors in this one. It actually is the second kit I made with the intent of hopefully eventually selling, but once I finished this one, it quickly got moved to number one status. My plan is to have at least one kit named after each of my little cubs. ;) I already have the color swatches chosen and am working on them as I get the chance.

I am super excited and motivated now!

News, a trip, and more news!

Goodness. I wasn't kidding when I said I might have news in a few days. Of course, the news I thought I was going to have became something COMPLETELY different than I thought it was going to be. I'll try to catch up and yet keep it brief...

Ok, I will begin with my fun trip. My mother, MIL, brother's girlfriend Mel (also named Melissa, but spelled differently), and I all headed to Disney World on Monday for a girl's day out. We had a blast! Nothing like going to "The Happiest Place on Earth" without any kids or men. Ahhh! It was a long but relaxing and much needed trip. We even got to see Captain Jack Sparrow in action. LOL The guy had all of the mannerisms down to a science. He was great! We ended the day with the fireworks, which were beautiful!

Now to explain my first paragraph...

When I said I was going to have some news, I was speaking of a collaborative kit I participated in at Scrappin' Secrets in which all proceeds would go to Toys for Tots. Well, I think it was about a day later when I learned that SS will be merging with a larger site - Scrapbooker's Playground. This unfortunately put our kit on hold.

In the meantime, one of the designers, Wendy of Neverland Scraps, had seen my contribution to the charity kit, and behind the scenes was talking me up without my knowledge. I was urged to put in an application as a designer and the wheels have been turning ever since. What a whirlwind! I just finished my first it, but I'm not quite ready to give the sneak peek yet. You'll just have to keep checking back for it. LOL I will tell you it has a boyish feel to it though. :)

On top of that, I learned today of yet another secret involving me in the scrapping world. I can't tell anyone yet though! Heehee! I am so bad with secrets. It's a good one, and I can't wait to share it!

So, would you like to see a few LO's?

I have no idea what Cassie was thinking, but she was definitely in a goofy mood the day that we took this photo. She was wearing her hair in pigtails and decided to put a headband on as if it were a sweatband. And to top it off she would stick a plastic ice cream sundae in her mouth and just grin. Little nut. LOL I used Bella Gypsy's "Zen Calm" kit.






This was Cassie in 2004 at her first Easter egg hunt. She was too cute with the eggs. I used Bella Gypsy's "Glitz" kit on this one. I thought it went perfectly with the photo.









Man, this photo seems like it was taken ages ago, and yet it doesn't really seem like it has been that long. This is Jacob in 2001. My grandparents would put out these reindeer each year that were pulling Santa in his sleigh. Jacob loved them! The expression on his face in this photo was too cute. :) I used Pamela Gibson's "Country Christmas" kit.






I love this photo of Elena. I took it in front of our front door..she was wearing a beautiful fancy dress and she was fascinated with it. The lighting wasn't great, the door has all sorts of scratches and the typical grooves. I decided to play around with the photo a good bit and it turned out so pretty, I think. I got rid of all of the grooves and scratches, got rid of the color and played with the lighting, and what you see is the end result. The kit I used in this LO is Kathryn Mhire's "Field of Flowers".




Ok, enough show and tell from me tonight. I need to get some sleep!

November already?

This year seems to have flown by. I have no idea where the time has gone! Silas had this great New Year's resolution to get the garage cleaned out. We cleaned it out partially, but it is far from being completely done. It has been so nice out lately, and I am loving the chill in the mornings and evenings.

School is going great. Josh truly seems to have a grasp on his letter sounds now. I figured he would by Christmas. He is doing awesome! Jacob has given little trouble this week, so it has been nice getting through the work this week.

Halloween was fun. We went to my grandfather's place and et them "trick or treat" for him to see them dressed up. He loved it. We stayed for a while just visiting. We eventually headed out to the fall festival at the kids' art class. They were pretty much the only young ones to show up, so Ms. Julia was disappointed. However, they played the games and she helped them make a Halloween lantern that turned out super cute. Joshua was very unhappy about the craft and would not participate, so she made his while demonstrating for me to help Cassie and Jacob. After that we headed to my parents' house so they could TOT there and at Ms. H's house. Once Silas met us there, we took off to one of the local churches to do "Trunk or Treat". That was really cute, and the kids had a blast going from car to car and seeing some of the adults in costume. And my in-laws came over there as well. So, it was a packed day, to say the least!

Scrap news time! Yeah!

Melissa G announced this week that had to step down from designing. I am so sad for her, because she is really good and I really enjoyed being on her team while I had the chance. When I found out, I went searching for another team and came across a call for Pamela Gibson (at Digital Freebies). I was pleasantly surprised to find out I made the team! Woohoo! Her designs are really nice, and I already made my first LO for her using her "Upon an Autumn Eve" kit.













I also found out I was chosen as yesterday's Layout of the Day at Gotta Pixel again (November 1)! I was really excited! They even gave me a cute little blinkie to use. LOL Isn't that neat?! I used Phoenix's "Indian Dreams" kit. Love the colors in that one!






There is so much more I could show you if I had the time. Right now I need to go and feed my kids some lunch. I will have a pretty cool scrapping tidbit for you in the next day or so. :)

My poor tooth

If you read this blog back in March or so, you might remember I had some issues with my teeth. I worked up the nerve to get into a dentist (I am SERIOUSLY afraid of dentists due to a bad childhood dentist) and had a couple of fillings done. One was temporary and I was told I would either need a root canal or an extraction and told the prices. There were no pros or cons given, just prices, and I have put off making a decision with all of the other medical junk going on.

Monday, while Silas was out of town, I bit down while eating and the tooth with the temp filling actually broke. In one corner, there was no more tooth. I cold actually see nothing but the filling there. I wasn't having any pain, but I freaked out nevertheless, because I knew this would mean another visit to the dentist. I was trying to wait until after the first of the year when I would not only hopefully have the money to get it fixed, but also know exactly what is wrong with me medically. I call my dentist office and the woman that I spoke to was so incredibly rude about the situation. Basically, once again, I was given my options of root canal or extraction, and once again was given my prices for each. They wanted $800 for JUST the extraction, and then according to her I would need to have the tooth replaced with something. This option would run me anywhere from $1600-$2400 depending on whether I got a partial or an implant. The root canal and the build-up and crown would total about $1600-$1800. Oh, and no payment plans for any of these options...the most they would do is split the cost into two parts. And you know we have that kind of cash growing on the tree in my backyard like they do, right? Ugh. I was in tears because I was forced to make a decision before any pain would start and I had no clue what to do since neither option was truly financially feasible for us at this time.

So, when I talked to my best friend, April, that same day, she reminded me that she got her wisdom teeth taken out by the School of Dentistry at the University of Florida. I was willing to drive if necessary, so I spent the next day researching my options. Turns out they have a local dental school here in town that I never even knew about. I called to find out how I could get in and was told I would for an emergency visit, which this would be considered, I would need to be in line by 7:30 in the morning and hope and pray I was one of the first ten people or so to ensure I would be seen.

I made it to the dentist yesterday morning by 6:30 and was the third person there. The first guy, Dr. W., took my pressure and it was 160/103. Ha! I wasn't scared or anything. Yeah right!

They sent in a guy with an extremely thick indian accent to talk about the x-ray and go through the two options I already knew about. I told him that I knew my options and nobody has wanted to give me pros or cons to each, so I didn't really know which would be better. So, he uses dental talk to explain to me and I still couldn't understand half of what he was saying. Something about knobs and removing something, but that was about it. He finally leaves telling me that the guy will explain it again when he comes in to work on me. Silas was actually in the room with me and couldn't understand anything being said either.

So, Dr. W. comes in and goes through the options explaining thoroughly and answering all of my questions. I asked about the whole replacement bit since my other dentist said I would need it done. He said the second molars are basically bonus teeth and if it were a first molar he'd probably say yeah, but it isn't necessary with the 2nd molars and did not have to be taken care of right now. So, I guess that means that my lovely dentist truly was just after money, which is pretty stinky.

Once I made my decision to have it extracted and Silas left, I asked Dr. W. how bad it was goign to be. HE told me if I could tolerate the sights and sounds then it wouldn't be bad at all. Now, after getting me lying back and he and the other guy are basically trapping me I hear him tell me not to worry if I hear a lot of cracking noises because it is perfectly normal. OH MY GOODNESS! NOW they tell me! ACK! They had a lot of trouble getting it out because my wisdom tooth was actually pushing on the molar, which is something he warned might happen. They were having to call for tools they didn't have at their station. LOL I had warned them that the other dentist had trouble numbing me for the fillings, so he said just let them know that I need more anesthetic, which they did have to do in the middle. The tooth pretty much sectioned itself in the middle of them loosening it because of how weak it was. The wisdom tooth is actually visible now, and he said there is a slight chance that it might just grow in and occupy the space. The only major concern this causes is that I may eventually have to lose the top 2nd molar on that side because it might shift a little bit, but no biggie according to him.

So, other than the fact that he dated my pain prescription for today instead of yesterday (which thankfully the pharmacy called and got changed), I would recommend the dental schools to anyone. They were incredibly nice and straightforward in answering my questions. They were as gentle as they could possibly be in this situation.

My mouth was absolutely killing me last night. I am allergic to NSAIDS (Ibuprofen and the such) so they gave me a prescription for Vicodin. I took one pill and it zonked me out for three hours. When I woke up it was past time for another pill, so I went ahead and took it at dinnertime. We had spaghetti and my child-sized plate full took me a good hour to eat. LOL I guess it must have been too slow to eat with the med since I was extremely nauseous the rest of the night. I had to stay in bed in order to get it to be bearable, and my head was hurting worse than my usual migraines. I woke up at 3am and surprisingly my mouth felt fine. I still had a killer headache and decided against taking another Vicodin and instead took my Excedrim Migraine. Awesome stuff! I feel almost back to normal this morning.

So, that's it for now. I have to update on Jacob's ENT appointment sometime soon. For now though, I am off to go to garage sales with my mother, aunt and a couple of cousins. Should be fun!

I'm a horrible blogger

Goodness. I have not had the time to get this blog updated lately. And I have been horrble about commenting on anyone else's as well. I have been so busy lately!

School is going well. Jacob has been doing well. We have our days where it is like pulling teeth to get him to get anything done, and other days where everything just flows. We took today off since he has some major nerves about his ENT appointment. We are hoping that the tube will be able to easily be removed in the office. Keep your fingers crossed!

Joshua has made such progress the past couple of weeks. He was pretty resistant to doing school for the longest time. I was really starting to have doubts that I was doing right by homeschooling him, but not quite willing to just throw him into a neighborhood school that would likely just "deal" with him and the different challenges teaching him poses. However, I think things are really starting to click with him now. He has been showing me throughout the day that he knows his letter sounds and not just the letters. We have been using Starfall website for phonics work, and it seems to be just what he needed. He is actually makiing the connection now that the letter sounds can make a word. Yesterday he read cat, rat and van on his own.

We went to the mall last Friday so my mother and I could get in some walking. They have a play area and by the time we made it completely from one end of the mall and back to it, there were no kids. It didn't last long though, and it became quite busy. One child, probably about 4 or 5, was pretty hyper and rough. His father fussed a bit, but that was about all. The boy actually came over to Joshua and hit him a few times because Josh was sitting on something that he wanted to be on. Joshua didn't really react the first couple of times, but about the third time he came to me crying that the boy was being mean. I had watched the entire thing and since the father obviously was not interested in taking real action, told Josh that if he did it again he needed to look at the boy and tell him to please stop being mean to him. Sure enough, not even 10 seconds later, the hitting began again and Joshua promptly looked at him and said plain as day, "Please don't be mean to me". All was well until later when they were running around chasing each other and the boy decided to shove Josh from behind. I told him next time to stop running and turn around and tell the boy again to stop being mean. We didn't have another incident, and after about ten more minutes it was time to go. I was proud that he didn't hit back and came to me and then once he was told how to react in the situation, he did it.

To top off the good news with Josh - he spent all day Monday coloring. And HE was the one that initiated it! This probably sounds silly to anyone who does not know Josh. To those that do know him, you know how amazing this is. Josh does NOT like to color or write or do anything that might be messy. My MIL bought him a Disney CARS ColorWonder set for his birthday. He showed no real interest in it once he found out it involved markers and coloring. However, something must have happened when he woke up on Monday....he came to me and asked me to open the package so that he could color. I must have looked so confused when he came to me. LOL He spent all morning coloring pages. At naptime he asked to color some more, so I let him. And then later in the day he shut off the computer in favor of coloring. *shock*

In scrapping news I have been busy creating LOs. Since the last scrap post I have been accepted to a couple of new teams. I now am on Melissa Hiroti's (aka Phoenix) and Melissa Goerke's teams. These ladies have such pretty designs and I am so excited to be designing for them. Once I update my personal gallery I will be sure to post the link. :)

Bella Gypsy are retiring all of their kits at the end of this month. You might want to check them out. Everything ranges from $.50 to $1. So grab them while you can! Here are the links to their stores:

A Cherry On Top and Elemental Scraps

I suppose that is all for now. Hope everyone is doing well in blogger land. :D

Who said Friday the 13th was bad?

Yes, my little Joshua is actually a Friday the 13th baby. ;) And a planned c-section on Friday the 13th, at that! LOL


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Josh! I love you and am so proud of you!



Credits: Bella Gypsy's "A Boy's Life" kit.

Finally! My endocrinology appointment

Ok, he went by the blood test and ultrasound results from back in April. That was BEFORE my dietary changes and the huge changes in my cholesterol and such. He has no idea what those results were showing, so everything we are doing right now could completely change after my bloodwork later this month.

I am a pre-diabetic, which I knew. My thyroid is 1 1/2 times the normal size (the goiter) but he wants to repeat the bloodwork for all of that before deciding what to do. The nodules that showed up on the ultrasound are small in size, common, and sometimes not really nodules when you are dealing with Hashimoto's disease (an autoimmune disorder that runs in familes and my mother happens to have). He is in agreement with my primary doctor that this is likely something I have, and it explains why before when I was placed on Synthroid that I would flip flop between hypo and hyper thyroidism. From what he said, if I were a normal person (yes, that is what he said ROFL) then when they would give me the Synthroid my body should have used what it needed of the hormone and then stopped producing any extra, but my body did not. So, mine would simply keep doing it and this caused the hyper-thyroid results. The reason everything balanced out with my pregnancies is that the baby is half dad's genes, so therefore it helps to control my levels and symptoms. Since I am no longer having pregnanices, my body is giving me issues again. Further testing will prove it one way or the other, but the reasoning made perfect sense when he explained it to me.

He did a thorough exam, including some quick neurological testing. I passed with no problem. He checked my goiter well, and then we talked a while.

He believes I have Metabolic Syndrome in addition to the thyroid autoimmune issue. He is basing this on the extremely high cholesterol tests (again, before my changes were made), the high glucose test readings, the way my weight is distributed (mainly my belly seemed to be an issue though I am huge all over). He has put me on Metformin, which is a drug they use for diabetics, but have found it helps people like me. He described two other drugs that we may eventually use as well. This one is supposed to have weightloss as a side effect, but my mother said it never helped her any. LOL Guess we will see. He said that this would help explain why I didn't lose any weight just from the diet changes. He also cleared me to exercise again, so hopefully that will help, and as he mentioned could be a factor in that as well.

I go in next month for a dietician consult and then the beg of Dec I will have another appointment with him and I guess he will decide what to do about the thyroid at that time.

Just before he left he asked about that weird liver test that the lab did and that my doctor never ordered. He said it came back abnormal and that it is a test for cirrhosis of the liver, but at the same time my liver function tests were normal, so he was really quite confused about that as well. He mentioned repeating that test, but they didn't mark it down on my lab slip. I may call to ask about that or wait and see what he says in December.

I think that was about it. Not really anything I didn't know already, and like I said, everything could still change after I get the bloodwork done in a couple of weeks. Of course, the meds being added was new too.

Have you heard the news?

Tabatha and Lena of Bella Gypsy are having a contest! Here are the details:

Get their new Autum's Artistry kit (only $5 at ACOT) and create a 4x6 recipe card LO of your your favorite harvest season recipe at 300dpi. Email your entry by October 1st to contest@bellagypsydesigns.com with Bella Gypsy Delights in the subject line. Everyone winds up a winner because all of the entries will be compiled, zipped and uploaded, a link sent to each contributor. How cool is that....and oh so very simple!

What are the prizes for this contest, you ask? Well, let me tell you, they sound awesome!

First prize: $100 Gift Certificate to Bella Gypsy store!

Second Prize: One month of free downloads (for Bella Gypsy, that's an average of 6-8 kits!)

Third Prize: 3 kits of your choosing!

Judging will be done by a panel of 10 and will be based 75% on overall design and 25% on your recipe!

For all of the entry details, please visit the Bella Gypsy Blog.

So, since I am short on time, I won't bore you with all of my latest layouts. If you are interested though, you can see them at my RAKScraps gallery. :) Feel free to leave some comments there if you would like. ;) Here is the link: http://www.rakscraps.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=4756

I figured it was time for a school post again. I am horrible about posting about our school days, which was one of the original reasons I started this blog. Inhaven't had any real cool ideas come to me this year. I sort of became the boring teacher that I didn't want to become. The "Get your math book and do this page...great, now let's do phonics" kind of boring teacher. I don't know what happened after summer break. I lost something. When we went to our school eval last year and the teacher mentioned specific text books, something happened. Something in my brain sort of shut off and the creative side of me went in that direction. We haven't done a single lapbook yet, and our timeline notebook has yet to be started. I really need to think this all over again and get back to what was working so well last year. At this point we are just doing school because we have to, and I hate that. It is so totally opposite of the way it was before.

Jacob is doing great regardless of how boring it likely is for him. We are working in a 3rd grade Math book right now, and he is having very little trouble getting through it. His problem is simply taking forever to actually do the work. LOL He gets bored and then distracted. I'm probably going to start taking random problems off of the pages and actually go through more than one lesson a day on the topics he seems to get with no trouble. Phonics is a breeze as well, but he hates the writing. I can't really take that away though, because he needs to work on the handwriting quite a bit. When he had his 1st grade eval, the teacher said his handwriting was typical for the age, so I am not concerned about it. I think it looks like typical boy handwriting for sure. ;)

Bible lessons are going well. We have been reading about Adam and Eve this week from Jacob's "Kid's Devotional Bible". Then he does worksheets and coloring sheets. He still hates doing word searches, but the true and false, fill in the blanks, maze, and crossword puzzles are huge hits.

Jacob has also been attending a weekly art class with our homeschooling group. So far he has made a pinch pot that he will paint in the next week or two. Last week was a watercolor painting that was based on a story the art teacher read about the seashore. The teacher and I were talking a little and she said if she could get more of the older kids around his age to come than she would love to teach more technical aspects of the drawing. I know he would love that!

Joshua is doing really well also. He does surprisingly well with his math. He's better with subtraction than addition, which I did not expect. I have been taking large addition flash cards this week and laying them on the floor. Then we take a huge basket of cars and he sets up the problems in a visual manner next to the card. He gets the answer almost immediately. He doesn't seem to get that he can do the same thing with his fingers, but I think we will get there in a few more weeks.

We also have been using the magnetic letters for phonics. He is starting to make more reading connections. I take some cards for him to copy a word from. We then make new words with the same sound by changing one letter. After a few times, he reads a word or two on his own. Hopefully it will start clicking sooner with him.

We did a science experiment today on sinking and floating objects. We started off by reading a short one-page story from "Discover and Explore" ( a Timothy Goes to School book). We went in all of the rooms of the house and grabbed some objects to stick in his basket. Then filled the sink and made a chart. He had to choose an object from the basket and tell me if he thought it would float or sink. We'd mark down his prediciton and then mark what actually happened when he placed the object in water. He had a blast since he loves playing in water. He also has been telling me the weather this week, so we are going to make a weather chart later today.

Cassidy has been going to art classes with Jacob and really enjoying them too. She had a blast with the pinch pot, but when we did the painting I didn't think we would ever get to leave. She is VERY independant all of a sudden. We had to wet the paper before painting and she was soaking one little spot and avoiding the rest, so I tried helping her with the brush. You'd have thought I was ruining the thing. I was plainly told she wanted to do it by herself. Eventually I did get the paper wet for her and then she had a blast mixing the colors on the paper. We have both her and Jacob's paintings hanging on the living room wall.

Potty training is going so well with her now that I can't believe it. Cassie even pottied in the store bathroom on Sunday. I am so proud of how well she is doing. I set up a potty chart and it seems to be the final push she needed. The stickers weren't doing any good apparently until she saw them being gathered on a piece of paper.

Elena is keeping up just fine with the others. She makes sure she is included in every activity they are involved in. Her favorite phrase is "Fun-ny" right now. She giggles all of the time. That's one huge difference between girls and boys.....girls giggle a LOT. She pretends to read, plays dress-up, does "school", and still dances up a storm. She freezes when the new Barbie movie commercial comes on - the 12 dancing princesses or something like that. It cracks me up to see her. We got the Barbie Swan Lake DVD from the library a few weeks ago and her dancing reached a whole new level with that one. We have lots of arm movements and leg lifts to go with the spins and sways now. It is so cute watching her, because she is so serious. And there are times where there is no music so she will sing her own little tune to dance to. Absolutely adorable. :) So, there is no telling what she will be doing when she sees the new Barbie movie. LOL

Not much else to tell, I guess. Scrapping has been very slow. I hit a slump and have had little time the past couple of weeks. I've done very little scrapping most nights. I do have a few new pages, and I will post them when I get a chance to do so. I got a Wacom tablet for my birthday, and I am still playing with it and trying to figure out all of the nifty things it does. I have been using the pen as my mouse to try to get used to how it moves and feels. It definitely will take a lot of practice. It seems to be causing some of my tools in PS7 to not work now, so I have also been trying to figure out my way around those issues. I'm sure it is a simple fix that I just need to find time to figure out, but goodness, there are not enough hours in a day to do everything I need to do AND the things I want to do. LOL Maybe this weekend will slow down a little and I can play with it. :)

Jacob update

The ped called me on Monday to let me know that Jacob's urinalysis came back fine. They were going to go ahead and do a culture to be sure, but she didn't expect anything to show up. I asked why in the world blood showed up in their office, and she said he may have had some irritation down there or it could have even been some ink from their little dipsticks came off and caused it. Needless to say, she could have handled things a little differently, and I think if she had kids of her own she would have done so.

Today I took Jacob in for his hearing test. I need to give you a little background before I tell you what happened today, so you can get the full effect of what we are dealing with here. It will be long, but the info is kind of critical, as you will see.

When Jacob was 18 months old he became severely ill with his first ear infection...it was so bad that the "eardrum" burst. Not the actual eardrum, but something else. For a month the doctors could not get antibiotics to work, and along with the ear never getting better he had extremely high fevers. I continuously told the doctor that I was concerned about meningitis because he just seemed to have so many of the symptoms, but she would move his neck and say she really did not feel that was it. Eventually he was hospitalized because he had a febrile seizure, which led to an ER visit, which led to tons of bloodwork, which led to a blood culture, which led to the eventual hospitalization, spinal taps, other tests, and eventual cure. Thank God, because sepsis can be deadly if it isn't caught soon enough and the symptoms resemble so many other things. So we are released and given an appointment with an ENT the next week and tubes a few weeks after that. We were on a priority list and were bumped in front of kids who had the tube surgery scheduled for three and four months, that is how concerned they were in getting this done quickly.

So, that was done at 20 months of age. Normally, the tubes fall out on their own and cause no trouble. As we all know, things are far from normal in my home. LOL Jacob's tubes fell out and got themselves stuck in wax deep in the canal. So, 3 years ago, we go to the ENT and after a 40 minute or so struggle the guy gets one tube (the left ear - remember this because it is important) out and then refuses to try removing the other explaining the ped can do it in her office.

So, I explain this at EVERY SINGLE VISIT, and my ped tells me it is still too hard to get the thing out, but it appears to be moving further towards the opening and eventually we will get it. She doesn't want to probe too much because she want's to be sure she doesn't damage the ear.

OK...

So, that brings you to last week's 7 year old check-up where I voice my concerns over Jacob's hearing. He just seems to be having more and more trouble. Today we head over to get the whole hearing test bit done and lo and behold he seems to have perfect hearing in the lefft ear and the right tests in normal range but he seems to show some issues with lower tones. My little lightbulb goes off and I mention how interesting that is considering the tube is still stuck in wax in that right ear. Sure enough, wow, mom is right. So the new ped to the office tells me I need to go to the ENT and get them to do it. I told her if they want to send me that's fine, but he refused to mess with the second ear since Jacob put up such a fight and he told me to get the ped to do it, and for three years NOBODY will touch him, so what am I supposed to do? I asked that we be given a referral to a different ENT, she tells me usually the doctor that puts them in wants to be the one to take them out, and I say "Well, that's just great unless they decide to refuse to do it because the child won't stop screaming. For a pediatric ENT he sure as heck was NOT child-friendly, and I don't really care that he put them in, he sure doesn't make me want to go back to see him with my kid. And I know for a fact I am not the only parent of a patient that was far from impressed with his personality and bedside manner." She was a little surprised and decided she would go ahead and try doing it herself.

So, she barely gets the little ear cleaner things up to his ear and the tears start rolling and the screaming like he is being killed begins. She couldn't get to it, takes out another tool and tries again with no success. Then she decides to flush his ears. OMG, if he wasn't already just about to have a heart attack, he was now. He was scared to death and shaking. After 5 minutes and getting NOTHING out, she says that's it, we need to see the ENT. He can't say she didn't try. And then she tells me the worst part-

She said she has taken tubes out in the office before and it is really no big deal. She is afraid that it is so hardened in there and has been in there so long, that it might have skin growing around it now and could cause all sorts of problems if they were to pull it out. OMG, I am SO ANGRY! Can you believe this?

So, we are being referred back to the same jerk that we went to before and we have an appointment or October 26th. Needless to say, he'd better do his damn job this time or else. I don't care if he has to freaking sedate the boy, the tube needs to come out this time.

We also are being referred to a behavioral psychologist to rule out his being on the autism spectrum. I'm ticked about that too because Josh's psych that is so awesome is not covered under the new insurance we will have as of November, and they don't appear to be as willing to work with the single case agreement. So, that is our update - bad day all the way around.

You must be a saint if you read all of that. LOL Thanks if you did.

Rosemary A. Smith

September 11, 2001. We all remember where we were and what we were doing when we found out what happened on that horrific day. I was home with my two children and had somehow managed to sleep in. I rarely turned on the TV in the mornings, but for some reason I decided to do so that day. I remember flipping through the channels and wondering what in the world had happened. I called my mother who was also in shock. I got the kids ready, picked up my mother and we headed to a church to pray.

I did not personally know anyone who worked in the World Trade Center or Pentagon, but it certainly did not stop my concern, thoughts, and prayers for all of the people who were and still are personally effected.

Now, however, I will never hear about 9/11 without thinking of 61 year old Rosemary A. Smith. Ms. Smith lived with her daughter, also named Rosemary, and son-in-law Kevin. She had two granddaughters, Kyley and Kamy. She was also loved by her brother Charles, sister Georgeanne, and sister-in-law Marianne. Along with those were cousins, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and a host of other acquaintances.

Rosemary worked in Tower One for Sidley Austin Brown and Wood, LLP as a switchboard operator for 12 years. She had been in the tower during the 1993 bombing and had gotten out despite leg and breathing problems. When many refused to go back, Rosemary still returned to work. She was on the 57th floor of Tower One on September 11th, and was the only fatality her firm had.

Rosemary Smith was known for two things: a wonderful smile and her homemade chocolate treats. She even dreamed of one day having her own candy making business. Her chocolates were often requested for holidays and special occasions, and from everything I read, she would have been a huge success. When not making her popular candies, she enjoyed bowling, crafts, and reading, and she adored spending time with her grandchildren. She always looked for the good in others and everyone said she had a heart of gold.

Though I may not have known Rosemary A. Smith personally, I feel very privileged to have been chosen to write about her. I will never forget Rosemary, and her name and the way she touched everyone who knew her will stay with me. Each anniversary of September 11th, Rosemary A Smith will be who my mind turns to immediately. She will never be forgotten.
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Quilt square is from the "United in Memory" quilt.
Sources of info:
Legacy.com
SILive.com
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I am honored to one of over 3,000 bloggers paying tribute to one of 9/11 victims. To see the list of links to other tributes, please click HERE.

More medical issues arise

I took Jacob to his late 7 year check up expecting for some reason to have it go smoothly like Elena's 2yr did on Tuesday. The only concern I felt needed to be looked into was his hearing.

So, we go in and we talk and I mention the hearing as a concern. She listens to his chest and says that he has a slight heart murmur, but because of the way it sounds she feels it likely is nothing to worry about.

Then next she tells me Jacob had some blood in his urine and so they are going to send it off for more tests because the hearing and kidney problems could be connected. I was sitting there in shock. I don't know what the heck has happened to my routine and quick planned visit at this point.

So, we talk some more throughout the visit about his development and if there are any other concerns I have and I said other than the hearing not really. She asks him questions throughout, and when she gets to the actual ear part of the exam he starts shaking uncontrollably and tears start streaming down his face. He was petrified and I have no idea why other than the fact that he has always had a fear of doctors. So I hold his hand throughout the rest of the exam.

Next thing I hear out of her mouth is "How does he do with other kids? Does he play with toys normally?" I explained that I knew what she was getting at because I have an autistic child, and though Asperger's has been at the back of my mind with Jacob, I also realize that autism is a social disorder and he does not have problems with social skills with other kids...Is he petrified of doctors? Heck yeah, but other kids he is fine with. I even explained how he did at art class yesterday and how he gets along with everyone except his brother. I told her I do see where there appear to be signs and have felt something is going on with him, but because of his social skills I figured the hearing was what could be causing it.

She said she can tell I am intuitive and that I know the warning signs to look for and though the social areas are ok he may still be somewhere on the spectrum since he does have some of the signs and there is a sibling on the spectrum and it tends to be a hereditary link in most cases. However, she wants to rule out all other organic reasons for the hearing problems before jumping into a psychological eval. She said the good thing is at least I know what services are facing us if necessary in the future since I have already been this route.

So, needless to say I am a bit concerned about my sweet guy. We are having his hearing tested at the ped office on Thursday and will get the results of the urinalysis then as well. I'm trying so hard not to worry, but this was a bit shocking to say the least. I've done a good bit of crying today.

To top it off, on the 21st is Cassidy's appointment and I am dreading it something awful, because I do have some concerns. She has always been ahead of the game and is also showing some signs of being on the spectrum. I don't know what in the world we will do financially if I have three kids on the spectrum, because therapy is expensive and we just found out yesterday we are having a change in the insurance as of November. So, any prayers you guys can spare will be gratefully appreciated more than you can know.

Sorry that this probably was jumbled and made little sense. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around everything myself.

The weekly update

Jacob did a great job on his first math test for the year. He totally aced it, which was surprising given the fact that the day before he was acting as if he had no clue what place value was, let alone how to figure it out. We will be starting art classes once a week this week, and he is really excited. A couple of friends and I have decided we will have our own little homeschool group since our kids are all around the same age range. I think it will be loads of fun. We'll do the art class, the letterboxing, possibly some concerts at one of the local universities....there were lots of fun extracurricular stuff that we came up with.

I have been posting layouts at ACOT for the Bella Gypsy team. I really like it over there now that I am starting to learn my way around a bit. I posted an intro and in one of the responses I was given instructions on how to find their homeschooling board. Someone posted a neat little site for testing reading comprehension: Book Adventure. I had Jacob take a couple of the quizes on books we read last year and one we just completed, and he did pretty good. I saved the pages with the scores so we can print them and stick them in his portfolio later.

I have been scrapping as usual when the kids are in bed at night or during their rest time during the day. I got my CT assignments out at Scrappin' Secrets and completed my first set of layouts yesterday. I used ErinShannon Designs' "Grandparent's Day" kit. It was fun to play with. The first layout is my in-laws. Aren't they cute? :) We took the pic in Disney World when the entire family went. My other layout is Silas' grandmother. The photo was taken at Elena's birthday party earlier this month, so it is recent.






I also did one tonight using Wendy Nelson's "Retro Diva" kit. This kit is HUGE and is so fun to play with! I can't wait to do another LO using it. I decided to use it to scrap a photo of Cassidy's painted toes. She is such a girly girl. My mother asks me all of the time how I got her to be as girly as she is. I have no idea. I think she just has an inner diva. LOL


Finally, I have to show you the LOs I made using some of Bella Gypsy's kits. I LOVE their stuff....have I mentioned that before? LOL If you are wanting some great freebies and to get a little taste of what Lena and Tabitha's stuff is like, make sure you visit the Bella Gypsy blog. Those two are full of surprises and have lots of exciting things in the works.

Credits: Bella Gypsy's "Dressed for School Dude" kit.











Credits: Bella Gypsy's "Dirt Magnet" kit. Template by WDS- Tonje...it was actually for the Technique challenge at Scrappin' Secrets.









This is one of my favorites. I've had this picture of Elena and have been waiting to find just the right kit to use. :) Credits: Bella Gypsy's "Dressed for School Diva" kit.

Lots to talk about today. :)

Wow! So much to talk about...

First of all, I was supposed to have Cassidy's 3 year check-up. Unfortunately, 10 minutes after our appointment time we were still standing outside and there was nobody there. So, I call to find out if they are hiding in the back or what, only to be told they decided not to open that office today and I should have been called. WHAT?! Oh man, I was ticked. I asked if they didn't have my cell or any of the other 5 numbers on the paper I fill out every single time I go to their office, and she claims no. Ugh. So, now the appointment is set for three weeks from now and mama is not too happy with the ped office.

Silas came home with all sorts of good news from work. I can't talk about a lot of it, but there is a good chance that things may start looking up financially for us. :) The main thing is he is getting all the praise and recognition he has deserved for years. I'm really excited for him. :D

I was tagged by Jane (Jane's World) a few days ago, and I haven't forgotten! I've just been a bit busy. ;) So, without further ado....

rules:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets. Then tag 5 friends and list them. Then those 5 friends need to state their 5 weird things on their blog, listing the rules and then tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the person know in their blog that you tagged them or we will never find out their weird attributes.

1 - I can't sleep at night unless my pillowcase is a flannel one. I have no idea why, but for some reason my ear just prefers the soft feel I suppose. Weird?.....yeah. LOL

2 - Another weird sleep thing...I have to have my ear on the cold part of the pillow. I will turn my pillow tons before I can ever actually sleep. We have had a post on Scrappin' Secrets a few weeks now about our quirks, and it turns out this is something a lot of people do. So, maybe I'm not completely weird. LOL

3 - Our dog, Abby, is quite the scardey-cat. We had a very young kitten get into our backyard, and she was terrified of it. Nevermind she was at least 10 times the size of the kitten. It was hillarious to watch her whimper and run to the other end of the yard with her tail between her legs everytime the kitten would meow or start to walk around the yard.

4 - I can't stand the feel of cardboard. It gives me goosebumps even thinking about touching it.

5 - Hmmm, one more....I actually LIKE to vaccum. It's the one chore I enjoy. No idea why. :)

Ok, that took a while to come up with that last one. LOL I'm going to tag Lynds, Wendy, Cassandra, Nellie, and Tiana. :) As Jane said on her blog, "blame Kim J", because it sounds like she instigated this. ROFL

Want to see my new layouts? ;)


This photo of Elena was just too darn cute...it just yelleed "SCRAP ME!", so I did. She loves to choose her own outfits now, and this one is a favorite. She also decided to choose all sorts of accessories while she was at it. LOL It was a very...ummm....different look. HA! If you click, you can see it much better and read the journaling. The papers are fromValerie Fowler's "Princess of the Party" and Michelle Coleman's "Simply Spring Mini " (slightly recolored by me). Ribbon and flower charm are also from Michelle Coleman's "Simply Spring Mini" (slightly recolored by me). Doodles and word art from Lauren Grier's "Girl Notes " (flower and heart colored by me).



I metioned in my last post about joining Bella Gypsy's CT. Wow! They are all so great there! I love it! I got to work immediately and came up with two LO's that I really like. The first one is using the Bella Gypsy kit "Elementary". Wow, do I ever LOVE this kit! I had the perfect photo for it too. :)






And the second layout is "Baby Talk". I used Bella Gypsy's "All Girl" paper and embellishment packs. The colors are so soft...I just LOVE it! I also used some stitches from their Berry Sweet kit. LOL The photo is Elena with my best friend's baby. They appeared to have a nice little conversation going on. :)


So, I guess I didn't have too, too much to say. It seemed like a lot more in my mind I guess. Anyone that knows me knows that I can get to talking at times and keep on, and on, and on, and....I'll spare you. ;)

Have a great evening!

Woohoo!

School has been going pretty well for the most part. I decided to try something new with Jacob. I gave him the entire week's worth of work so he could see what was coming, and I told him that we were going to do all that was on the list by Thursday so we could have a fun day on Friday doing art, digital scrapping, etc. He dragged his feet so badly. He took an hour and a half to do one phonics sheet on Monday and Tuesday, and we never even got to half of the things we should have. So, Thursday we actually had a lot to catch up on, but we did get to everything. I think I will just stick with the daily schedule for now. ;)

Josh did pretty good this week. I am trying to give him work that is mostly play right now. He has a negative view of what school is like because he hates writing. We worked on it a lot last year for therapy. So, this year I am trying not to worry about the writing right now and focus on everything else. We will get to the writing later. We played a game called Train Salesman. We set up a nice curvy track and he sat on one side while I sat on the other. I was the buyer, setting up my own train station, and he had a train yard that I wanted to buy from. We took out all of his Thomas trains and set them up, and I would tell him what I was looking for...for example, a large engine with a green tender. He would then find them in the huge line of trains (which is hard for him to focus on large groups of items), put them together on a track and drive them over to me. I would then tell him my shipping business was doing so well that I needed to either trade in for a new one or buy another. He loved the game.

His other favorite activity was the number puzzles I made. I used index cards....on the left side I wrote the number. On the right side I used glittery puffy paint and made coordinating number of dots. This provided something for him to touch while counting the dots. I then cut them cards down the center in different shapes. He did great. I used the same puzzle idea with the letters to teach him the lowercase letters after he had learned the uppercase.

We also have done a little computer, but not much. He mainly wants to play his car racing game, Test Drive 5, and he does that as his reward after his school is done. He has actually figured out how to manuver the cars a bit now and discovered a track that will actually make him airborne. He also found a spot that is wide enough to make the car do doughnuts. Too many Nascar races, I think. LOL

So, in scrapping news....

I am super excited to say I received an email tonight asking if I would like to join the Bella Gypsy CT. Woohoo! I LOVE their kits, so of course I said YES! I was recommended by Lynds, and after checking out my gallery, they asked me to join. :) In addition to that, I also am now the Scrappin' Secrets CT Apprentice. Eventually somewhere down the road I will be the CT Leader. Woohoo! I'm super excited about it!

I did some layouts this week that I really loved:

I did the sketch challenge at RAKScraps. I was wanting to use a new kit I got by Jeanine Baechtold, and I still had not gotten Joshua's first day of Kindergarten pics scrapped yet, so I decided to put the two together. :) Even though we homeschool, we still do the first day of school photos each year. Stitching is from freedigitalscrapbooking and the kit I used is Jeanine Baechtold's Sophisticated Paisley kit. Isn't Josh cute. He had one of Jacob's Lego cars in hand, of course. :)

Next is a continuation of our ABC album. I used a photo of a huge giraffe we saw at Downtown Disney last October. Everything from RAKScraps May Mega Kit....Papers by: Jeannie Papai and Jane A and the ribbon by Corinne Fragata.

And I saved my favorites for last. I love how these turned out. Be sure to click on these and see them better and read the journaling. :)


Credits: Ginger Thibodeau's Catch Some Coral kit. The journaling is actually lyrics from the Barry Manilow song "I Am Your Child"


Credits: I used Rachel Dickson's Little Man kit. I also used Virtual Photographer on the photo. This one is currently my favorite LO. :)


Credits: Ginger Thibodeau's Catch Some Coral ki


Credits: Papers - Valerie Fowler - Princess of the Party and Michelle Coleman, Simply Spring Mini (slightly recolored by me) Ribbon and flower charm - Michelle Coleman, Simply Spring Mini (slightly recolored by me) Doodles and word art - Lauren Grier ~ Girl Notes (flower and heart colored by me)

ARGH!!!!!

Ok, this construction in my backyard is seriously going to drive me to the nut house! Let me give you a visual to explain a little of why I am complaining.

This is my backyard the afternoon after a hurricane came through our area in August of 2004. It's a mess, but you get to see what the trees that once existed look like. Notice this is from my garage door, and also notice the blue pipe which was sitting in a large ditch. Note also the amount of shade we received from all of these trees.



Now, here is what my backyard looks like as of week before last. Note the lack of a ditch, because a bunch of nice workers in trucks came and filled it in for us. Notice the bright orange truck that was kind enough to pull up a tree from next to our fence and then almost managed to drop onto my house. Also note the wonderful pile of pulled trees (you only see a portion of the long trail here) that they decided to burn this weekend. The smell of smoke in my house was wonderful (being sarcastic here) and the haze was such a wonderful sight - I really think this is probably half the reason Cassie and Jacob are both quite hoarse since that day. And while you are looking at this, imagine the feeling of the trees being pulled and thrown around like little lincoln logs, but on a MUCH grander scale. My house literally shakes all day long when they are out there working. My dog goes balistic because these workers are literally right at my fence. It's a whole lotta noise and a whole lotta shaking in the neighborhood!



Now, flash to today. I wake up to very low water pressure, which is not an uncommon thing when you have all the construction going on. At 9am it was low enough that I was not able to shower or do laundry, both of which were in need of being done. At noon, I fixed the kids their lunch and discovered we had absolutely NO WATER! Nothing, nada, zip. Nary a drop could be found. I was fuming now. So I call the water company to find out what's up. Nobody had reported a probalem, so the woman was sending out a ticket. I explained I had four small children and no water with them here was a very bad combination. She apologized and said they would send someone out as soon as possible. Here in my city, that is usually translated into a minimum of 2-3 hours before it is even looked into.

Joshua was panicked about not being able to wash his hands, Jacob's imagination was completely running away with him as to what would happen if we turned on the faucet with no water at the house....I have no idea what he thought was going to happen, but he was scared to try turning it on. The girls could have cared less...it meant no bath today, so they were happy. LOL So, I headed over to my mother's house for the remainder of the day. Luckily, we had finished school by the time this happened. The water was fixed by the time Silas got home.

So, now that I have explained a little more what our big complaint is right now, I guess you can imagine what it is like trying to get my highly distractable, autistic child to concentrate on doing school of any sort. I mean, it is hard enough for any of us to think some days with all the noise and shaking, but then for poor Joshua whose senses are extremely heightened...man, I feel for him.

So, hopefully they will finish all of this majorly annoying construction projects soon.

A new scrapper and a new activity

As a new activity for homeschooling this year, I decided to take a cue from Jacob and let him learn digital scrapping. We had his first lesson yesterday and he LOVED it! I let him choose the photo, papers, elements, and what to write. The main goal of the lesson was for him to learn to move the items he wanted onto the background. He chose 2 papers from Wendy Nelson's Back to School Basic kit and the elements he chose were from Melany Violette's Vroom-Vroom kit. The font was ITC Garamond (we'll cover changing the font later). I think he did a pretty good job for his first time! I even posted his LO at RAKScraps and Scrappin' Secrets for him, where he received quite a few wonderful compliments. (Thanks again everyone!) So now he is asking to do another page. LOL I think this will be a lot of fun for him when we go on field trips and when we study things he is actually able to take photos of on his own.



I've been doing some scrapping myself. I now have my letter F page done. Silas took the photo while out of town on business last month. Everything I used was from the Gotta Pixel Design Team's April kit. Papers by Brenda Miller, Ribbon by Stacy Carlson, Charm by Christina Wall, Glass Buttons by Michelle Pieters.




I love this photo Silas took of Elena. She brought a frame out of my room last week and I had it sitting on a shelf. She decided to be cute one evening and frame herself. LOL Silly girl. The kit I used is Misty Cato's Wonderfully Made.









This next one is a photo of Elena opening gifts on her actual birthday. It's so funny seeing how she knew what to do this year and actually ripped paper to get to what was inside. She was excited about her Crayola dominoes. Star clip and Birthday Girl Word art are by Jen Reed from the BirthdayZ elements kit at Scrapdish, Candles by Krista Mettler from the BirthdayZ elements kit, Celebrate Word art by Melissa G from the BirthdayZ elements kit, Star Background by Lisa West (Zephanee) from her Summer Celebration kit, and Patterned background paper by Robin Cabana from her You Rock kit available at Scrapbook-Bytes.


Finally, I participated in the Ad Inspiration challenge at Scrappin' Secrets and came up with this layout. I have so many photos of Josh with a car or train in his hands. I had to use them at some point. LOL he paper and truck are from Melany Violette's Vroom-Vroom Kit. The fonts I used are Mad's Scrawl BRK, Long Island, and Little Trouble Girl BV.






I received the latest issue of Family Fun Magazine this week and finally got a chance to sit and look through it. I came across a really cool article on Letterboxing. I have been looking for something like this and finally, here it is! It is similar to geocaching, but instead of using a GPS and leaving trinkets, you use a compass and clues to find the letterbox. You then take a rubberstamp (most people make their own) and stamp the logbook inside the box and then take the stamp inside the box to stamp their page. Then you hide the box back where it was found. Jacob is always wanting to find treasure, and this will fulfill the desire, improve thinking skills, get us some exercise, and give us some cheap family fun. There are several in our area and nearby areas, and in our state there are at least 3 mystery boxes. I can't wait to get started. My plan (we know how that goes!) is for Jacob and possibly the others to make their own rubber stamps. There are so many easy options for them that it is very doable.

And the year begins

We started school Monday. Jacob is in second grade, Joshua is in kindergarten, and the girls are "preschool". I had these great plans of how things would go and my schedule was worked out. Everyone would have something to do throughout the day. The boys would take turns entertaining the girls and the girls would love every minute of it since they adore their brothers. During naptime for the girls I would work on things together with the boys. Life would be nice and school would be fun. My schedule looked so good on paper that it was frameworthy.

Well, as we all know, life has a funny way of taking your plans and laughing at you. Half an hour into trying to get the kids to listen to what we were going to do first, I realized the joke truly was on me. I overhear Jacob mumble that he thought second grade was going to be fun. Uh oh! That's it. Time to rethink this whole thing.

So, with a huge sigh, I proceded to tear up my beautiful, happy schedule and go into my room to rethink the entire thing and how I need to work it out to everyone's benefit, all the while being serenaded by Joshua's drumming on my door. I gave that idea up quickly, and told Joshua he could play in his room while I worked with Jacob. Sweet Joshua actually peeked out his room about 10 minutes later and asked me if I wanted to play Legos with him. WOAH! This is one of our goals that we have been working on - initiating play by asking someone to play a specific thing with him. I was excited, but there was no way in the world I could just drop Jacob's school. So, I came up with a solution and explained that I had to do school with Jacob, but could play later. Until then, would he like to play with Cassidy? Oh yes! Great idea! Score one for Mom! And even better, Cassie was chomping at the bit to get in the boys room and help make a mess.

I decided to try easing into school a bit this year. So, Jacob worked on his Bible lesson and some Math. We are using an old 3rd grade Holt Mathematics book and supplementing as necessary and for the Bible lesson I am using Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry Curriculum. It's nice. It has mazes, crosswords, true and false, fill in the blanks, and word searches. I also have been getting "Keys for Kids" which is a free daily devotional for kids that we receive in the mail each month.

Joshua worked on several things so far. We have been sorting some magnetic letters by color. My letters come in 6 different colors, which is a lot for Josh to concentrate on at once. I had him sort about 100 letters into their proper place and it took him a few tries before he fully seemed to understand what I was wanting. While they were up today he asked me if some of them spelled car. So, I showed him the c, a, and r and explained that they make the word car. He giggled. So funny to see him get excited over something so simple. LOL I then decided to take it a bit further and took away the c and added f. I went over the sounds again with him, and explained the ar sound and how to put the f sound with it and make the word far. Ok, not impressed. So then I did a couple more and came to the letter t. I asked him what sound the t makes, he told me, and lo and behold he actually told me tar spells TAR! He didn't know what tar was until I explained it to him, but he smiled a little when I told him how proud I was that he just read a word by himself.

I also discovered this week that Joshua has a great sense of rhythm. He was playing a Reader Rabbit music game and actually enjoying it. All of the rhythm exercises that he tried, he did awesome on! So, that was exciting. :) Maybe there is a musical future for my little guy. He has always been able to hum and sing a tune amazingly well compared to other kids his age. I remember when he was only one and we were in the car and he was humming. I thought it was Jacob because of how accurate it was. Just amazing.

And he can use a computer mouse. Another thing that amazes me given that until this week he always prefered to watch others do the computer. Now he has one of his own and he seems to have completely taken to it. I'm really glad, because I think that he will benefit a lot from using it.

We did some drawings in shaving cream yesterday. Joshua hated it, but with guidance and my convincing him to draw some cars, we made it through. Even the girls enjoyed that one, though I learned next time we will probably try using whipped cream. Elena was way too tempted by the look of it and kept trying to taste it. Yuck!

So, that brings you up to date for now. RAKScraps has just started releasing their August Mega Kit and the theme is school days! Woohoo! Run over and join the message board to get the links to this awesome kit, and while you are there, why not say hello? Everyone there is great! I plan on trying to scrap a bit this weekend as time permits. I want to get the first day layouts completed ASAP and try to stay up on them for the end of the year, especially since Joshua's portfolio is going to be made up of a lot of photos. :)

Rumble Grumble

I have been busy, busy, busy preparing for this school year. I'm pretty much ready. Only 4 more days! Yay! I can't wait. :)

Here is my biggest concern right now - the noise. We have some major construction going on, practically in my backyard. What used to be a ton of trees and a ditch on the other side of my back fence, now appears to be completely empty space with the ditch completely filled in with dirt. Now, because the ditch was HUGE and is now full of dirt, obviously we have had work trucks bringing dirt, scooping dirt, dropping dirt....all of this after they already spent a day knocking down trees. They are very close to my fence - so close that their trucks keep bumping the branches of trees in my yard. My house literally shakes ALL DAY LONG. I had a horrible migraine two days ago, and it is near impossible to get rid of it with the house rumbling.

So, now that my grumbling is done, would you like to see my latest layouts? :) I've been busy
making new pages, but have neglected posting them on my blog. In my defense, blogger hasn't been very cooperative for me.

My first three layouts were made using the Pampered Princess kit by Sheri Smith, SheLynn Designs at Scrappin' Secrets. The layouts just flowed once I got started. The first two are of sweet Elena. I used the ShangriLaNFSmallCaps font in the first one, and Scythe font in the second.

My third layout was of Cassidy. Don't you just love that silly smile she had? LOL It was taken on her first real Halloween. She was Sleeping Beauty and was thrilled, as you can tell. :) I used Pea Catherine as the font on this one.

Next is a layout I did for the Ad Inspiration Challenge on SS. I am far from thrilled with it, but I liked the concept. I decided to do a layout on Cassidy's favorite things. What you see is the result. LOL Barbie, the color PINK, Disney Princesses, My Little Ponies, friends, and of course, her Purple Baby, which she never leaves home without. The font I used is Kayleigh, and the kit is Miss Mint's "To My Mother" kit from Peppermint Creative.

What's next? Hmmmm. My Abc Album is coming along nicely. I just finished my letter E page. I just realized I never showed the C and D pages either. Yikes! I am WAY behind!

C always stands for the older princess around here. LOL I'm still trying to get my tears to look halfway decent. I'm not thrilled with how they turned out here, but they will do for now. All of the papers and elements are from Ginger Thibodeau's Softly Shining kit. I love this kit. I have used it on at least 3 layouts and could keep using it over and over. It is a beautiful kit! The font I used is ITC Garamound. I decided right from the start that I was going to use the same font for this entire album to sort of tie the entire thing together.

My D page features a photo of some ducks that I took on Jacob's first fishing trip. The little babies were so cute. They would follow their mother into the high grass at the edge of the lake and simply disappear in it. Do you see the little white duck among all of the brown ones? He is too cute. LOL I used V. Kim Smith's Woodland Meadows 2 kit.

Just as C stands for Cassidy, E is for Elena. Scrappin Secrets has a new Mega kit out right now for free (so go get it - good through the month of August!) and I loved the lightly colored papers in there. I really loved Colleen Shibley's background that I chose to use, as well as the little tag. It just seemed too perfect. :)

Let me see. Wow, I did not realize how long it had been since I posted my layouts. LOL Next is one I did for the SS Quote Challenge. Journaling reads:
"Joshua, you have always had a special bond with Elena. I remember when this photo was taken in the hospital only a few short hours after Elena was brought into my room. You were so proud of your new sister. At that time you were still not very verbal, but the joy you showed us was amazing. Elena is so lucky to have such a wonderful big brother." I used Robin Carlton and Mandabean's Deco Fabulous kit. The fonts are Libby Script, Pea Jennifer, and Kayleigh.

I took part in the lyrics challenge at SS as well. I didn't think I had a single photo to go along with it, which is why I didn't do the same exact challenge at RAKS. While looking through my photos for one to use on the quote challenge, I came across the photo I decided to use. It needed something done, so I played with it a bit. You see the final result. The lyrics are from Natasha Bedingfield's song "Unwritten". The font I used is Apple Chancery, and the kit I chose is Funky Bunches of Flowers by Tania Cordova aka luna designs.

Finally, I made two layouts using Julie Major's Spring Time Kit. The first is A Little Cake. I got the stitching from Atomic Cupcake, and the font is Pea Becky. Gotta love those Pea fonts!

The other is titled Smile. I took this photo on Elena's birthday. She was so cute. She sat on the seat and kept smiling and saying "Cheeeeeeese". What a ham she can be at times. LOL I used Pea Becky on this one as well. Now that I am looking at it, I wish I would have kept her eyes colored when I desaturated the pic. She has the most gorgeous blue eyes. I may redo it one of these days.

I think that pretty much brings you up to date on the happenings and the layouts from this month. I'll try to be better about updating regularly so I don't overwhelm you with the layouts like that. ;)