Feeling Scrappy

I so want to scrapbook tonight. Especially after I spent THREE days working on getting the 1700+ photos camera uploaded to the computer. I had no room left again, took time to realize that and figure out how to use my external drive and so on and so on.

I found some cute swimming photos that are making me feel creative at least I hope so.


I feel a little refreshed too after a visit to our friend Alison (kids' former preschool teacher) today. Our kids played and it's just nice to visit with an adult. I think I forget I need grown up conversation and really don't get it much. I hope we can get together again and maybe go to the pool together.


I'm looking to the weekend and Aaron being home and maybe just maybe he'll let me scrapbook too!

Sweating it out!

I'm still here but I have ZERO time for much of anything! Ugghhh! Here's what's going on:

1. Reese has had some dr appointments this week. She went to a speech therapist last week. She was born with a palsy on her mouth. Basically it is some nerve damage on her left lower lip. It doesn't seem to bother her or affect eating or speech but our doc thought it would be good for it to be looked at. So they recommended some therapy a couple times a week because I didn't realize it but she's not eating on that side of her mouth but she can move that part of her lip some so the thought is if we work with her she may get more movement. 2 times a week is not going to work because I can't take the other kids so we went once, they showed me some stuff to do with her and we will continue in August or September when the older kids go back to preschool.



2. Reese also went to a GI specialist yesterday because she is not gaining weight. So now for the next 3 days I have to keep track of everything she eats so a nutritionist can check out her calorie intake. Today she is refusing all milk. Oh joy!

3. Swimming is big here lately! At Grammy's, at the Y, in the backyard . . . they love it and it's so hot who can blame them.


4. I had to go buy new shorts the other day. I bought some new ones last summer when I still breastfeeding and now 10 pounds later only 2 pair fit me. So I found some skirts at Goodwill and some shorts at JcPenney's along with a couple shirts. I came home and with 7 items and cleaned out my closet and got rid of 9 things and reorganized all my clothes in the closet. I kept all the shorts from last summer just in case I can lose those 10 pounds.



5. I scrapbooked quite a bit (for me) this last weekend. I made some cards and father's day gifts. I wish I could do it more regularly. I was thinking of signing up for an online class. Do I have time . . . would it make me do it? I don't know. It starts tomorrow, I guess I need to make up my mind.



6. In the last week I've had 2 triplet moms call me. One has 4 month old triplets. I finally called her back today. She had some questions that I don't think I answered very well. But I got her email address and maybe we can keep in touch that way. She was really nice. The other mom is newly pregnant and I need to call her back. I don't have a good memory so I don't know how much help I can be but I do remember being in both their positions and feeling so alone. I'm glad to help them out anyway I can.



7. Potty training with Ethan is still plugging along. He does well at home but never tells us he has to go. He has never pooped in the potty since we started this time. I don't know what to do. I thought we'd be further than this in a month. Naked from the waist down is an idea to try but I think he'll just go where ever, whenever and never even tell me.



8. Today I am thinking so much about tummy tucks. My sister gave me a People magazine yesterday that had Kate Gosselin in a bikini along with some details of her tummy tuck. Man, she looks good! Her stomach was super flat. I am so jealous of that. I'm not mentioning that her marriage is in shambles and her future is uncertain, but I love her stomach! If I find an extra $10,000 laying around that's what I'm spending it on:





9. Aaron and I "celebrated" eight years of marriage yesterday with chicken salad sandwiches, potato chips, and me falling asleep at 10 pm in bed with Addison (she couldn't sleep because she had a nightmare about a kitten?????) We had planned to go out to eat but we had no babysitter and the night before we took the kids out for pizza after swimming lessons and they were so obnoxious that Aaron made the announcement that we were never taking them out to eat again! The kids and I were gone all day on that doctor's appointment and it was too hot to cook and Aaron worked late! What a romantic celebration!

Breaking up with Wally

I'm breaking up with my boyfriend! Yeah, I have a boyfriend, my internet boyfriend! I'm sick of him not living up to his end of the bargains and he's cheap. Sometimes cheap is good but in this case it's not. I've even going to out him on my blog because I don't want any one else falling for him like I did. His name is Walgreens. Aaron always teases me that I spend so much time on the computer that I must have an interenet boyfriend, I spend much of my computer time uploading and ordering photos so I told him that his name is Wally Greens. I am so annoyed by their photo processing lately. First their color is so off the wall, I've had photos printed by them then ordered from another place and the color is completely different. Then it seems whenever I order photos and go into pick them up, their processing machines are down and someone is on the way to fix them and they don't know when my order will be ready. Many times I make a trip to town just for photos, so annoying. This has happened the last two times I needed photos. Last time I ended up ordering them from another Walgreens and Aaron picked them up on his way home. Now the first store keeps calling me to pick up the photo order, I'm not doing it. Last night I ordered photos for some Father's Day projects. Heck, I even thought this is way ahead of the game (for me) since I still have 3 days to get some things made. I placed the order at 10pm last night and they should have been ready at 8am this morning. We did have a big thunderstorm last night and I didn't get an email saying my order was ready so I called just in case. No the machines aren't working which I could totally understand if it was because of the storm but the clerk on the phone said it had nothing to do with last night's storm. Okay, so who knows when I can pick up my photos, they said they would call me but I'm not holding my breath. I'm so done with Wally! I think I'll hook up with Shutterfly instead!

Anklejan

Last night after dinner Aaron needed to mow. I hate it when he mows because the kids have to be out of the yard and it's usually at a time when they are tired, grouchy, out-of-control, and I'm exhausted. I gave them baths then Ethan feel asleep. Caden, Addison, and I came up with an impromptu art project. We looked for face parts in magazines, glued them on, and drew the face and hair.

Caden started writing "Mask" on the back of his picture . . . he loves Jim Carey so much. Then I said who is your picture of and he said "Anklejan". He can be tough to understand especially if you have no context to go with it. He kept repeating it, starting to get mad at me for not getting it. Finally he said Anklejan . . . you know, Cael's dad. So this is a stunning likeness of Uncle John. Sorry, Uncle John.

Maybe he was thinking of this photo.

Uncle John consider yourself flattered!

Lately

1. The yard sale was a success. We each made about $400. We sold almost every toy and the majority of the household stuff. We had a ton of stuff for a quarter so that's a lot of stuff! We only had a few boxes left for Goodwill. Our baby clothes that were in their 4th sale did not. No one wanted to dig through our GIGANTIC piles. We had ten garbage bags for Goodwill. I did keep some of the good stuff to resell at Once Upon a Child.

2. Our schedule this summer is busy . . . too busy in my opinion. Today however we have nothing planned and I think we will stay home all day . . . unless they start driving me nuts then we may go to a farmer's market. I always have a back up plan.

3. Swimming lessons are going great! They love it. I wish it was more than once a week . . . kinda of. Ethan slipped off the edge of the pool on Monday night and was bobbing up and down, it took the life guard a couple seconds to notice him. I worried that he would be "done" but it didn't affect him at all. Then they put the floaty things on their chests and he went swimming and was laughing and smiling. The teacher had to keep pulling him back he kept going farther and farther out into the pool. He cried and was really mad when lessons were over! A future swimmer possibly.

4. I'm still going on my GIST. I am not walking on Mondays. I hate getting up at 6 but once I get out there it's fine. I can already run for longer distances.

5. I still am not getting much done throughout the day when we are home. The day flies by. I am so tired by 8:30 . . . I really want to scrapbook again . . . but it doesn't look promising.

6. This not watching TV thing is a good thing. They don't complain, play outside lots, and it's somewhat quieter around here.

7. We're trying to plan a vacation for this summer. Not an easy task when we've never gone on one before. Aaron will only be able to miss a couple days' work plus add in the weekend it will be a 3 or 4 day get-a-way but I have some ideas. I'm not a vacation kind of person. I hate hotels and I hate staying in hotels with kids even more. We are excited about taking them somewhere and doing some fun things. Hopefully it all pans out.

8. The kids' room is getting closer to being finished. This now 6 month project only needs the bed painted (I think that's happening this weekend), 3 quilts made, a couple things hung on the wall and I have changed my mind on my vinyl ideas but still want something for their room and the dress up closet. I just found some cute curtains that were inexpensive and I didn't have to take the time to sew them. They look good.

9. My posts here may be few and far between since I can barely get on the computer at all, and the minute I do I have people asking "Mommy, can I play a game?"

One Million Things to do . . .

So I decide to blog . . . that's one way to avoid things. I also went outside and took photos of Aaron cleaning out his work van but it's dark so they aren't very good.

I'm going to Keely's tomorrow night with a van FULL of stuff for her big garage sale. Aaron helped me load it, he's good at doing that. I still have a couple of tubs of baby clothes to price (which I should be doing now). The kids really needed baths tonight but we'll do that in the morning. Caden informed us as he got into bed that he wet the bed last night and it was still wet . . . oh well, throw a towel down and make it to morning . . . we don't own extra sheets here for the kids beds . . . I don't know why . . . guess I should invest in one more set just in case. I really have no idea how I am getting a change of clothes in the van to go to Keely's house and I have her 8 packages of Thickers . . . Thickers or a change of underwear . . . hmmm that's a tough one. I can't believe how much junk we have. Some of the stuff is baby clothes but lots of it is toys and more toys! It feels good to get rid of stuff, of course there's always more but I have decluttered a lot in the last few years and I definitely don't buy as much as I used to. We'll I'm off maybe I should waste more time by taking photos of the kids yard toys in the dark . . .

oh, I already did!

GIST sore!

I'm not doing too bad on Get in Shape Today. I didn't walk/run on Monday: it was raining, bad excuse. Tuesday I went to Pilate's class. Pilate's is hard, hard, hard. There are a couple younger people in the class and several grandmas . . . young grandmas and older grandmas (ones that could possibly be my grandma? . . . maybe not). I couldn't do this one move where you hold a ball at shoulder level while laying on your back and then move the ball in a diagonal position while you sit up. No way I could do that, I could barely sit up any. I thought I didn't have any stomach muscles but evidently I do because my stomach is so sore . . . along with every other muscle in my body. Many of the grandmas didn't have any trouble doing that . . . impressive.

I walked/ran on Wednesday and today. It's hard to get up and I'm not getting outside at 6 more like 6:15 but manage to get back home in about 20 minutes and shower. I'm not making it to Pilate's today because we have an appointment in the afternoon and I am not driving to the same town 2 times in one day. Tomorrow and Saturday I'm taking off because I'm getting ready to head to Keely's for a yard sale and spending the night. Sunday I should be home and plan on getting back on track.

We're home for the morning . . . I'm thinking pumpkin pancakes, an art project, pricing yard sale stuff, folding three baskets of laundry, and figure out what we are eating for lunch and dinner. Although I would really love to scrapbook . . . it's been 4 days since LOAD and still haven't found any time to squeeze that in!

Hope you have a great day!

2 Days of Summer = Bone Tired Mommy

Good Golly, summer may be the death of me! Monday we did the following:

• doctor appoint for Addison and Reese
• ran a couple errands to return something and drop off clothes to Good Will
• went to the Dollar Store for batteries where I chased after Ethan no fewer than 3 times and seriously lost him once almost to panic mode
• play at a park
• got lunch, ate outside in the backyard
• baby took a nap, older kids had quiet time while I cleaned for the cleaning lady and did laundry
• played an opposite card game
• got ready for swimming lessons
• swimming lessons which one kid was super excited for (Addison), one kid didn't want to go (Caden), and one kid had no clue about it (Ethan)
  
• dropped off Reese at Y's daycare and watched swimming lessons
• dressed 3 wet kids after swimming lessons by myself because my husband conveniently disappeared when it was done, which was proceeded by a classic Jon & Kate moment in the hallway at the Y
• picked up dinner in drive-through
• more cleaning for the cleaning lady!

Today:

• I got up at 6am, showered, dressed, prepared "breakfast to go" in the car, cleaned more for the cleaning lady
• Got kids up and dressed left house at 8am to go to Y
• Pilate's at 8:30, Pilate's is hard, I can't even do some of the exercises
• Walked 2 miles on the treadmill
• Went to the library, checked out books and signed up for the summer reading program
• Ate lunch at home
• Colored upstairs together
  
  while Ethan read an entire Wiggles book to himself (out loud)
  
  
• Reese napped, quiet time for older kids while watching a movie, I blog surfed and tried to price yard sale stuff
• Passed out one million snacks -- I am going to have to stock up on food for these kids, they are so hungry!
  
• played outside on trikes, scooters, and "bounced" as Ethan calls it
  
• made towers with blocks
  
• walked/rode tricks to post office
• fixed dinner and made brownies for desert

Aaron did baths and now I think I may collapse in bed, too tired to do anything else. Wow! They need to be busy! I am not letting them watch much TV, some in early morning before 9 am but most days we have left the house way before that. They get one movie during quiet time, we're taking turns on who picks, then about 3:30/4:00 I let the TV come back on. Otherwise they would watch TV all day long. This week we aren't in our regular schedule -- that will be next week. Tomorrow they are going to Grammy's for most of the day so I have the morning to myself -- need to do a million and one things that I haven't done this week yet including get things priced for Keely's yard sale this Saturday. In the afternoon I have conferences with the kids' preschool teachers.

I am exhausted, so now I'm off to bed! Please tell me I'll get used to this!

LIfe after LOAD

So it's June and that means May LOAD (layout a day) is over. Sad somewhat, relieved -- now that the kids are out of school I'm glad I'm not having to do this (upcoming post on this), inspired would be a great word to describe what I'm taking away from this experience. I really did love doing it. There were only a couple days that I wished I could have said "forget about scrapbooking today", most days I was excited and looking forward to working on something. I have quite a stack to show:

31 layouts, this pile is a little over 2 inches tall -- I'm definitely not a flat scrapper. It's a cool stack to look through. I made 3 for gifts and I only really dislike 2 of my layouts but I will not go back and redo/change them. I got a little start on my 365 album finally:

I used a ton of my stash and even feel like I could go through some of my stuff and get rid of more stuff that I'm never going to use. I love scrapping upstairs in our bedroom and have been keeping it pretty neat. I do need to pick up at this point but my storage system seems to be working for me . . . finally something that works. I am joining a couple other flickr groups to keep me scrappin' and I did make the commitment through Lisa Day's Life after Load Group to do 30 more layouts before I purchase anymore stuff. I did reward myself first with a cool scrapbooking kit from Studio Calico and a couple other things but no more until I get 30 more layouts completed. This may take a while as I haven't done anything since Sunday so far. Here's my most favorite layout of all 31 days:

Hope you're feeling inspirted too!