It's My Life

It's been a loooooong while, but I finally found some time to scrap!! It helps that I was able to use a great new template by Sahlin Studio, which eliminated my need to plan out the page. I just picked my papers and pictures and was able to finish a layout in less than an hour! Sweet! I really don't know why I don't use templates more often. ??


journaling: 'when i look at my life, at all the blessings and amazingness that surround me each day, at the relationships and bonds i've had the good fortune to form, i can't help but think i owe it to God to live this life the best i can.'


(Click here to view full credits)

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Wanna See?

Okay. After a LONG hiatus from blogging, I'm back again. It's just been a C.R.A.Z.Y. chunk of time in my life, and I've had ZERO time to sit at the computer to blog or scrap or even browse the internet really. I have 10 minutes this morning before I have to wake the kids up for school, so I'll take advantage of the quiet time. It might be all I get today, who knows!

Sunday morning Sebastian competed in the IN boys state meet for gymnastics, and he did GREAT!! He is now officially 'state champ' in 2 events, and co-champ in a third. Nice! He placed 1st on high bar and floor, tied for 1st on parallel bars, and placed 2nd all-around! We are SO proud of him. (I, however, am still having a bit of a tough time letting go of some judging inconsistencies, but I guess that's what you get with a subjectively scored sport, right? I'm gonna have to let it go.)

So here are the videos I have that turned out pretty well. One he fell (pommel horse), so I'm not posting that just to save him the embarrassment. And one (vault), a guy walked right in front of my video camera as Sebastian was going, so I mostly got the top of the guys head as I tried to shoot over him. grrrr

Rings: 15.1, 2nd place


Parallel Bars: 14.7, tied for 1st


High Bar: 15.1, 1st place


Floor: 15.4, 1st place


Vault: 14.9, 5th place

Pommel Horse: 13.7, 3rd place

All-Around: 87.9, 2nd place

We are SOOOO proud of him! He had a great first year in gymnastics! Now they've started working on level 5 skills, and he is being challenged and having a blast!

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well here it is, thursday, and i've posted nothing at all this week. life seems to just continue to be non-stop. there is no down time for me right now. so, very sorry for the lack of updates. but all the updates would sound the same: gymnastics, lacrosse, homework, house cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.

i'll try to think of something fun and interesting to share with you. soon. i hope. until then, i'm off to clean my house and get snack together for after school. meagan has gymnastics tonight. and i have to get dinner thrown in the crock pot so that we can have something to eat when we get home from said practice. i think dinner tonight will be taco salad over crunched up doritos... keepin' it easy. ;)

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State Meet #1

Friday 3/9:
The day before her meet, Meagan was a bit nervous. So we decided to surprise her with this...

It was waiting for her on the kitchen table when she got home from school. Just to make it a fun experience and memory instead of a nerve-wracking one.

And this was the reaction:


See, a few weeks ago (or maybe last week?? I can't keep track anymore!) she went to her friend's birthday party. For the gift, Meagan picked out these 2 little monkeys. But she carried them around with her all afternoon until it was time to wrap them up and take them to the party. So we decided it would be fun to surprise her with her own 2 little monkeys. Can you tell she LOVED them?! :)

Saturday 3/10:
This weekend was Meagan's Level 3 state meet. What an adventure!! Her check-in time was 7:45. We left our house at 6:45... 15 minutes later than we were planning.
We are maybe the last people in the US who do not have a GPS of some sort, so we use mapquest. Until now, this has worked for us. This time, however, it did not work. Not at all.

We made good time getting to where we thought we were going. We would have been there by 7:45ish. ISH. Close enough to check-in time. It would have worked fine. Except. Mapquest ended right in the middle of a residential road. The end. Nothing else to go on. For whatever reason, it decided to change the ending address... it must not have been able to find the one I typed in, so it made up it's own?? Random. Anyway, we ended up finding the address online at USAG Indiana's web site. Lo and behold, we were still a half hour away. Not so good. I called her coach and told her we were on the way... don't scratch Meagan from the meet!!! And then So we drove quickly. And got there at 8:45.

They were just finishing up with march-in and team introductions. The theme of the meet was 'princess ball' and all of her teammates were on the floor with tutu's and tiaras on. Until this point, nothing about our hectic morning had phased her. But when she saw that they all had princess outfits on, she started crying... "I don't have one and I'm going to look dumb!" *eye roll* Stay calm... you've gotten through a morning of pandemonium, you can' handle a wardrobe malfunction. Right? Luckily, though her coaches had been watching for her. They came right over and got her, gave her her very own tutu and tiara, and got her out on the floor. End of crisis. Thankfully she hadn't missed any of the warm-up time for the first event, and there was no more drama after that, so it all worked out!! Yay!!

So here's how it went...

Vault: 8.625, 14th place


Bars: 8.5, 11th place




Beam: 8.65




Floor: 8.375 (yay!!! she scored in the 8's on floor!!), 15th place


All-Around: 34.15, 13th place

She did a fabulous job! We were SO proud of her, especially how she handled herself after all that craziness trying to get there! She stayed calm and had fun, didn't sweat the mistakes, and did the best she could that day. I love that! Couldn't ask for anything more!




(Oh yeah, and she got flowers... 3 carnations for finishing level 3... and she was beside herself! She kept making her friends smell them, saying "smell them, they're real!" I'm glad that she felt special and loved. She deserves that. It WAS the 'princess ball' after all)

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Birthday Cake!

I've never had cake quite like this. I've seen lots of pretty photos of cake pops and other such creativeness, but I've never been brave enough to try making them. Yesterday's schedule, which required LOTS of driving (I drove over 60 miles yesterday, and went nowhere... what's that about?) and not lots of time at home, made portable birthday cake a necessity. So I braved the unknown, and tried it. (I used one of my pinterest finds for guidance.)

They turned out great!! Strawberry cake mix, vanilla frosting, and chocolate candies to be melted down... plus sprinkles of course.




So tasty! Super sweet, but in small bite-size portions it works.
In case I'm not the LAST person on earth that has tried these guys, here's the easy steps:

1) bake the cake as instructed on the box
2) let the cake cool
3) crumble the cake into a big bowl... note: exclude the crunchier parts of the cake, like the browned parts that have a more firm texture than the inner part of the cake (or else maybe that's just my cake because I'm such an awesome baker and I burn stuff?? *lol*)
4) with a fork, mix in about 1/2 can of store-bought frosting. squish it all up until it's mixed evenly
5) roll the cake into balls (my cake mix made 34 balls... funny cuz I'm 34 years old... hmmmm) and refrigerate
6) melt the chocolate... I used the kind of chocolate that you use to make the little Easter chocolate candy lolipops and such. In a microwave safe bowl, melt it on 50% for 1 minute. stir. then on 50% in 30 second intervals until it's all smooth
7) dip the sucker stick into the melted chocolate, then stick it into the cake ball
8) spoon the melted chocolate over the cake ball and set on wax paper to harden... if you want sprinkles, add them right after you spoon the chocolate on before it hardens

That's it. A bit time consuming, but not difficult. Kids LOVED them. I'll definitely be doing these again.

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2011: week 16

STILL plugging away (slowly) at 2011's Project Life. I'm almost as far on 2012 as I am on 2011 *lol*, but I finally managed to finish week 16. So, here are some photos from nearly a year ago... fun to see what we were doing then I guess... and to see what has changed or stayed the same.

the spread:


left:

(click for larger view)

right:

(click for larger view)

Week 16:
16 - Isaac taught Meagan how to play chess
17 - I finally got my Pier 1 curtains hung up!
18 - Meagan had a picnic in the yard with our neighbor Kaylee
Also today I got my first Vera purse ever *love*
19 - a super rainy day. What else to do but make a blanket fort?
20 - Isaac had gymnastics, & we got party supplies for Meg's birthday
21 - Isaac played dinosaur fighters with the laundry basket. The basket was his shell.

(click here to view credits)
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Last Day

Today is my last day of being 33...tomorrow is the big 3-4. So how did I spend the day? I got a McDonald's tea for breakfast. I talked to my grandma on the phone for a few minutes. And my mom. And my dad. I went to work and spent recess outside in the sunny blue sky weather, even though it was chilly. I picked up my contacts. I applied for a new CT. I got gas. Made snacks. Took the kids to gymnastics. Then afterward the kids and I went to eat at a Mexican restaurant across from the gym. Then we made a trip to Target. Tonight I baked a cake that I will soon shred up to make cake pops for snack tomorrow.

It was a pretty plain day. But a good day. All good.

This is me today:


And Meagan today... wearing my sunglasses that busted this afternoon... she thought it was hillarious and wore them all the way to the gym:


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Project Life 2012: Week 6

On to week 6. Only 3 weeks to do now... I'm getting there...



left...all of these pictures were taken on Feb. 5th. It was a big day for us... breakfast with friends in Michigan, then church at our old church in Michigan (so wonderful to be there), then our drive home, then playing outside in the field, then the Superbowl.


right... the rest of the week


close-ups...




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Project Life 2012: Week 5

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday printing pictures and trying to catch up a bit on my Project Life album. I managed to get 2 weeks caught up in the midst of everything else that was going on (lacrosse practice, shopping, birthday party, and dinner out). Here's week 5...

the whole spread...


left...


right...


and some close-ups...


these are Martha Stewart office supplies that I got for my birthday, and I LOVE these folders... LOVE. they're open on the top and side, and the papers just slip right in... easy to get in and out, but display SO pretty.






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Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Did you know that today marks Dr. Seuss' birthday? The whole elementary school celebrated in different ways - wearing red & white, making Seuss hats, drawing, painting, and so on... their principal even dressed up as one of the characters and visited the classrooms. Very fun! During recess (indoor because of bad weather today), I got this picture of Meagan and some of her friends in their Seuss hats they made. You can't really see the hats very well, since it's a bad quality cell phone photo, but I still thought I'd share.



*Notice her interesting outfit?? She has been making up her own get-ups lately. They've been quite... um... interesting. And colorful. Today was orange skirt, flowered sleeveless shirt over a pink camo thermal shirt, black leggings, rainbow socks, and tennis shoes. Some day she will care if her outfits match. Today she does not. And I love it. *

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Anyway, back to Dr. Seuss... I made this layout just for fun. Sometimes we say this quote for some random reason or another... "In my world, everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies." It IS difficult to imagine when using such a phrase would come in handy, but somehow we DO manage to throw it in every now and again.
(And if you have NO idea what I'm talking about, it's a line from the animated movie of Horton Hears a Who. You can check out a short clip of it here.)


journaling: 'okay, so it may be true... they may have taken a few liberties in the dialog that weren't in Dr. Seuss' original text, but the movie Horton Hears a Who still stays true to the good Dr.'s tale of loyalty, friendship, and respect for and value of the individual. what an important series of messages for not only children, but adults as well. His stories and statements are as timeless and valid today as they were in my own childhood.'

(Click here to view full credits)

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