{I hate thinking up clever titles}

Man, the days just seem to kind of run together during the summer. We had no kid activities so we spent the entire day at home. It was really nice so the kids played outside a lot--good thing because they were fighting like cats and dogs today.

Alex has moved from his bouncy seat to the Excersaucer. I can't believe he's big enough, but here he is. He still does the bobblehead thing after awhile, but he really likes being in it. I hope that continues.

Let's see...Oh, there was a weird rain storm last evening. It was totally sunny and suddenly it started pouring. I knew there'd be a rainbow so I took the kids out front to watch it form. It was pretty cool seeing it appear and then a few minutes later the second one. Emma's favorite color these days is "rainbow" so she kept demanding that I take more photos. Yeah, you try focusing on a rainbow. LOL Here's the best I got.

I did a layout tonight too. Something totally not my usual style, but I think I like how it turned out. I had fun playing with some new stuff and trying a different, less graphical approach. OK, now that I look at it again, it's still totally lined up, but it's still grungier than I usually do so there. LOL

You can see the credits here.

I'm so far behind on my Big Picture class. I'm taking Library of Memories with Stacy Julian and it's a great class, but I feel so overwhelmed by it. Not really sure why, but I just can't make myself sit down and work on it. I read all of the handouts and I do the worksheets, but I seem to be a bit paralyzed by actually moving photos around, etc. Gotta get over it!! Silly thing is, I'm only doing the digital stuff now. I've decided to wait to do the old photographs till I get some kind of system going with the digital. That should make it easier, but for some reason it's not.

The boys have well-child check-ups tomorrow--4 years for Andy and 4 months for Alex. Should make for an interesting afternoon. Alex gets four shots and Andy is terrified of the doctor these days. Not really sure why, but he starts wailing as soon as we walk into the reception area. He does not want to be weighed or sit on the table. We've been talking about it all week trying to prepare him. I've finally resorted to bribery. He really wants a big boy bike and we had planned to get him one for his birthday. So, now if he doesn't freak out, we're going straight to Toys R Us and buying him his new bike. AND the Pirates of the Caribbean helmet he saw at Target.

Wish me luck.

Rant

So, Andy and I went shopping last night for stuff for his birthday party. It was a nice evening so on the way home we decided to get hot fudge sundaes for everyone. I didn't feel like driving to a real ice cream place, plus Andy only ever eats about 1/4 of it, so we drove through McDonalds. Four hot fudges with nuts, please. I pay at the first window and then wait while the idiot in front of me figures out how to put her car into Drive after getting her food at the second window. We pull up and the kid immediately says, "Can you pull up to the white line?" I'm like WTF, but said sure rather incredulously.

So we pull forward and sit. And sit. And sit. I watch 5 cars come and go with bags of food. We're talking Happy Meals, huge bags and lots of drinks. All the while, we're just sitting there. We ordered at 8.19 and at 8.26 I grabbed Andy and went inside. A kid was just making the sundaes.
Now mind you, I walked in and the other three workers didn't say a word to me. I walked past all of them to the kid and said, "Don't bother. I want my money back."

He gave me some story about the machine being out of shakes. Fine, but I ordered sundaes. I explained that I wouldn't have been annoyed if someone had told me what the problem was instead of just sending my ass to the white line.

During this entire conversation, the manager sat at the first table and watched. Freaking watched. They called him over and he couldn't believe that I was annoyed. He actually said, "What do you want?" I told him I wasn't paying for them. He could make a nice gesture and give them to me, but I wasn't paying for them. He gave me back my $4.27 without saying a word and that was it. No sorry and certainly no free sundaes. Grrr. I hate that place.

We went for real ice cream.

New Layout

Alex is 4 months old! Can't believe it. Here's his LO for the month. Poor Andy, I never did this for him. Maybe I'll work on that this week.

Credits: Paper from Dianne Rigdon's Little Man kit. Stamps by Michelle Coleman. Sketch by Jen Caputo.

June 24th??

Where did the last week go? Man, this summer is flying by. A quick recap of the last week...

We had a change of plans last weekend. Neil, Alex and I took off at 9 pm for Iowa. We decided we'd drive at night, stay in a hotel and then meet my parents and the kids at the reunion. That way we'd be able to drive home on Sunday and I wouldn't have to do the drive alone on Monday. Sounds like a good plan, right? Wrong! Huge soccer tournament in Cedar Falls so there wasn't a single room to be had.

It's situations like this where you learn something about yourself. We were driving around the city looking for hotels. It was 1.30 in the morning and we'd been turned away from at least 3 hotels already. We see a sign for a motel for $39 a night a few blocks ahead. As we approach, we both say that we're pretty sure we don't want to stay in a room that only costs $39. Once we get to the motel, we both KNOW we don't want to stay in a $39 room. Desparate is sleeping in your car, not a $39 motel. LOL

The kids have adjusted pretty well to the chore charts. Some resistance, surprisingly mostly from Emma, but all in all, it seems to be working. Andy likes the competition part of it. Basically, they have a list of chores, each worth one point. There are also discretionary points that we can give for good listening, extra helping, etc. And like Hogwarts (Harry Potter's school, which is why I think Andy likes this so much), if they do something naughty, they lose points. At the end of the day, they need to have earned 10 points or they can't watch TV the next day. It's pretty simple, but I'm hoping in a couple of weeks, it will be second nature to all of us.

We had a playdate yesterday with our new neighbors. Three girls ranging from almost 5 to 4 months. They all had fun on the playset and slip and slide, and I really enjoyed chatting with the mom. It's nice to hang out with someone who also has 3 kids and understands the good and bad of that. LOL

Last night I went to a photography class at Studio D. It's a four week Intro to Digital SLRs. It was pretty much all a review for me, but I did get to meet Jen Caputo in person so that was cool. I commented on her blog a couple of weeks ago and through email realized we'd both be in this class. She's as nice as she is talented. It looks like the next three classes will be more informative so I'm looking forward to them.

This morning was the Digital Crop with Heather Ann. What a sweetheart she is! It was fun to see so many screen personas in person. LOL We learned a little, scrapped a bit and talked a lot! Not a bad Saturday morning!

While I was scrapping, Neil took the kids to the first day of swimming lessons. Emma's class is 9.45-10.30 and Andy's is 10.15-10.45. Alex went along for the ride and was his usual good sport. Emma did well, but she's so much more comfortable in the water so I wasn't worried about her. Andy, on the other hand, really had me concerned. Anytime he's been at a pool, he's been pretty scared. But, he actually loved it today! They started out in shallow water and he waded all the way up to his chin. Of course it was only shoulder depth on all the other kids. I can't figure out how he can be so short.

I'm off to do some more tutorials in Photoshop. All this creative time this morning really has me itching to create!

Have a good weekend.

Say it isn't so

Entries two days in a row? No way.

It seems that having 2 kids out of the house greatly increases my productivity. I've been a cleaning, organizing fool all morning and still managed to read a bunch of blogs and spend some quality time with the baby. I'm sure this energy and zest for cleaning will come to a screeching halt next week upon their return, but at least now I have proven that I can do it, it's just that the kids prevent me. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Anyway, my cleaning ladies are due here any minute so I had to get the house in order. Drives my husband nuts that I clean for the cleaners, but I can't help myself. I don't expect them to pick up our clutter; I want them to scrub the toilets. I figure they'll do a better job at the real cleaning if they don't have to spend time putting away toys or laundry.

I'm doing a great little challenge over at scrappindeals. It's ab0ut making time for yourself and doing things that make you happy. I love the challenge and I'm meeting some great women, but I have to say, it's not as difficult for me as it's been in the past. I've learned that by spending a little time each day---even 15 minutes---is enough to keep me going. When I first had Emma, and then Andy, I didn't do this. I tried so hard to be Super Mom and Super Wife and my world came crashing down around me. I had post-partum depression pretty badly and by ignoring my own needs, it made it worse. I was never suicidal, just really, really apathetic about everything. Once I got it under control, I realized how important my health and sanity is for the entire family.

I often get asked (sometimes rather accusitorily) "How do you find time to scrap/photograph/paint/whatever with three kids?" My favorite response is, "I make time. I need this time for myself. Spending a little quality time on me makes me a much better Mom so it works well for all of us."

Some people get it, some don't. I'm not saying I neglect my kids. In fact, more often than not, I include them in my art projects. Emma and Andy both love to be creative so we'll all sit down together and each work on our projects. It's really instilling a love of art in them (which I think is totally cool) and it lets us do something we all enjoy.

So back to my cleaners (see this all really did tie together), having someone do all of the deep cleaning for me every other Tuesday gives me more time to think about me. It gives me more time to spend with the kids. And it gives all of us more time to spend together on the weekends. There are many, many things I would give up before I gave up the cleaners. It may sound selfish, but really, it's about taking care of my family in the best way possible.

And now I'm off to organize the toy room. Because strangely, organizing makes me happy too. LOL

Try to make some time for yourself today too.

When the cat's away...

...Mom will clean out the toys. LOL

The kids having been having a blast on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma since Friday night and I'm on an organizing mission. We had a very frustrating trip to Ikea on Saturday. The shelves we wanted were oversold---they didn't tell us that till we'd waited in line to pay for 20 minutes and then another 15 while they were allegedly pulling our order. Then it was another line to get a refund, which they tried to make difficult as well. But Neil wasn't having it! His accent gets things done people!! :)

Anyway, I found some acceptable shelves at Tar-zjay so I'm now purging the toy room. It's been a freaking nightmare for the last month. The kids really try to clean it up, but they're pilers and it looks like crap. So I'm removing all opportunities for piling (I hope).

I actually have a huge list of stuff to do this week. I'm going to post it here so I can be a bit more accountable and not just enjoy the peace while digi-shopping. 'Cuz Lord knows I'm not scrapping. LOL

1. Order Emma's school supplies from Office Depot. DONE
2. Schedule check-ups for both boys. DONE
3. Print photos for Mom (late MD present)
4. Buy Dad's FD present
5. Sort and mail photos to England
6. Tidy for cleaners tomorrow
7. Work on toy room
8. Finish planting flowers in the front
9. Work on next photo challenge for scrappindeals.com
10. Sign up for classes at StudioD DONE
11. Work on chore charts for kids
12. Make meatballs for dinner and freezer
13. Buy stain at Rainbow for the playset DONE
14. Do another Target run DONE
15. Returns at Babies-R-UsDONE, TargetDONE, Gymboree

Ugh, there's more, but I'm too overwhelmed to list anymore.

I'm going to take some shots of the toy room as I work so I'll be back this afternoon with some 'in progress' shots.

TTFN.

Photos, photos and more photots

Wow, isn't that a creative title?! LOL I took the kids to Picture People today to get photos of them in their wedding clothes since the wedding photog flaked. Here's what we got.

{These are ® Picture People and were taken off of their website preview page.}

World Cup Fever has struck our household. We bought the kids English World Cup clothes while were in the UK so we had these done for Father's Day presents. Not exactly what I was hoping for (I wanted the England on each shirt to show a little more), but they'll work till I do my own shoot.

My portrait club membership expires tomorrow and I had a bunch of freebies coming so I also took Alex yesterday to have some professional 3 month photos done. He was fantastic!!!

That's it for now. I ordered a ton, so watch your mail for a little surprise soon! :)

Weekend photos

We spent the weekend landscaping. I'm going finish planting today and then I'll take some photos of our accomplishments. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from the weekend.

Here's one of the rose bushes we planted. They are so pretty, I can't wait to see them when they're full grown.
Andy really loved helping in the garden. I was actually surprised how long he lasted. He really worked, as proven by the dirty fingernails and face. LOL He's recently discovered a new love as well...photography. Wonder where he gets that from? ;) When I got the camera out to take pictures of the roses, he wanted to takes pictures too. He uses my purse camera and actually gets some good shots sometimes.

Taking the shot...Checking the results...

What a morning. Rolled over and looked at the clock. It said 7.37. Had to think what day it was for a moment. Realized that Oh Crap! it's Friday and Neil's still in bed too. He flew out of bed and I jumped up to get Emma. She has not been wanting to get up for school at all this week. I'm so glad Monday is her last day!

Andy started out really crabby, but he's been playing nicely (and quietly) for almost an hour now so maybe his crabbiness is gone.

Alex actually slept a LONG time last night. I met an old friend out (for pie at Baker's Square) and took him along. He ate at 8.30. He was probably aseep by 9.15. I held him for awhile and then put hiim back in his car seat. He was so sound asleep when I got home at 12.30 that I just took up to bed in his car seat thinking he'd be up soon. He didn't get up till 4.45!!! That's the longest he's ever gone without eating so I'm hopeful he's getting closer to sleeping through the night!

I didn't get this posted earlier and the day has gotten worse. Andy is in such a mood. I really don't know what's wrong, but I'm at my wit's end. We've been taking away privileges as punishment for quite some time and it seems to be losing its effectiveness. We've don't give in after taking something away so I don't think it's a case of inconsistency. It's going to be a L-O-N-G summer if he keeps acting this way. Any suggestions?

There are some good challenges going on over at scrappindeals.com . I'm doing a photography challenge so I think I'll do some prep work for a photo shoot later. Also, I'm doing a 21 day "what about me" challenge so I need to get some work done for that. Go check 'em out.