Picture Day Drama

Is it really Thursday? Because it feels like a Monday to me.

Today is school picture day for Isaac and Meagan. Can you say cluster? Seriously. First off, Meagan couldn't even FIND her order form, so I had one form to work with for two kids. Hmmm... Then, I was scrambling around this morning trying to get my order figured out (which was totally my fault - meant to do it last night and completely forgot). THEN I paid online and paid the WRONG amount. So I had to call the company to correct my payment amount. In the meantime, the bus came, and Isaac walked off without his order form. *sigh* I hurried up and showered and ran over to the school to get a form filled out for Meagan and drop off Isaac's. And of course, no one was in Isaac's classroom when I got there because they had already left for their first special of the day. So I walked back to the other end of the school and dropped the form off with the photographer... which should work out fine, except for the fact that Isaac doesn't know about it and will very likely be in freak out mode by the time he gets down there for his pictures. I did email his teacher, in the off chance that she checks her email, so she can tell him that it's taken care of. So maybe he won't worry. But only if she checks her email. 

*sigh* 

Can I go back to bed and start over? 

*Puppy Eyes*

This Saturday, we are taking a family road trip to the Cincinnati area to pick up this little guy:

We've been talking for a while now about getting a dog, and we had narrowed it down to either English Bulldog or Weimaraner. The fact that English Bulldogs are over $1,000 on a cheap day made it even easier to narrow it down to Weimaraner as the breed to look for. So, I started looking. Every now and then I would do a quick internet search to see what I could see. Well, two days ago I found a breeder close by that  was expecting a litter in November. The price was pretty high for them, though, but we were still seriously considering it because the location was so close to us. The only problem was, we would have to wait until New Year's Eve to actually get the dog. And after Sunday night, with Meagan unable to sleep until close to 10:30 because she was drawing pictures of her with the puppy and writing lists of names for the puppy, it quickly became clear that waiting 3 months would prove challenging at best.

So yesterday I did an Ohio search. I figured, we have family in Ohio, we could make a trip, right? Well.... I found a litter that is near Cincinnati and ready to go THIS WEEKEND! Perfect!! Plus the price was WAY more appealing than our other option.  Still full-blood, kennel certified with papers and such. I called the kennel, and within a few hours had this cute little guy reserved for us!

The kids (and Lucas and I) are SO excited! We can't seem to come up with a name quite yet, but maybe we'll think of something when we meet him.

Between now and then, we have to buy puppy supplies, and the kids need to get LOTS of little toys up off of the floor. But by Saturday, we should be prepared (or at least believe ourselves to be prepared) to bring this little guy home with us!

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Layout Upload

Once again, I've fallen behind in getting things posted in a timely manner. I really need to work on being not-so-busy and not-so-tired-when-I'm-not-so-busy.

It's been a busy week for the designers I create for, and I've spent what little bit of free time I have had trying to keep up on layouts. Three to share with you this week.

Pumpkin Loot
These photos were taken last October (2011) on the train headed home from the pumpkin patch.

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So Happy Together

These pictures are just some quick snapshots of the kids and a friend playing outside in our back yard. 

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Close Encounter

One of the unique things about our town is that it has an old railroad track that runs right through the center of one of the downtown streets. Apparently, as the train line became more and more obsolete *insert sad face* the town built up around it with little regard to the location of the train track. Now the line is only used by the Transportation Museum when they run train excursions (like our pumpkin patch train ride in the photos above) or when they use it to transport people into downtown Indy for the State Fair and such. So, typically, this track is inactive, and we all ignore it. Well, the other day, we were all in the van on the way home. As we were sitting at the stop light, we saw this big ol' engine headed straight for us. Literally, the thing passed within mere inches of our van, and the whole train just hauled itself parallel to the cars that were sitting at the light. It was kind of a cool experience, as it's not one I've ever had before. 

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Some layouts to share... I'm too lazy to tell you about them... There are links. Click on them. Read about them. See the credits. Done.

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Another random Tuesday post

Besides the flip flop story, I have a few random things I thought I'd share with you.

Remember my spider web I showed you last week? Well. The web came back the next day in the same place. And the next, but got washed away by the wind and rain. So apparently this guy decided he needed to move closer to shelter... like build his dang web RIGHT across our back door. Literally, if I would have walked outside, I would have been tangled in his crazy web! It was HUGE! He had it stretched from the light on the house to the top of the door frame to the bench off to the other side of the door. And then he just perched there in the middle of the whole huge configuration, no doubt laughing at me for having me trapped in my own house. Seriously not cool. But Lucas refuses to kill the thing because he says the spider has earned the right to guard our door. Whatever. That's what dumb boys say. Smart girls say, get rid of the dumb thing because it's big enough to eat me, and it's blocking my door!!!  Aaaah!

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Well, my mom came to watch Isaac's football game on Saturday, but it ended up being canceled due to all the rain. Instead, we stayed and watched Meagan's dance practice. I guess she's getting a little better than the last time I watched, but seriously, grace and artistic expression really aren't this girl's forte. She is more of a full-force, head-on battering ram. True story.

Still, she seemed to be having fun. And trying. That's the important part, right? Ha! Still, I caught her in all her glory. See what the wall of mirrors is good for?..... making beautiful faces, of course! This is definitely more her style!

and

At the end, they got scarves and got to run around and "dance" however they wanted. I'm pretty sure free-style is her favorite part of the class. Notice how everyone else in the picture is all together and she's off doing her own thing? Yep, that's my girl.

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Okay, so I mentioned Home Depot in the flip flop story. Here's why... we traded in credit card points that have been accumulating for a while and got some HD cards. Then used them to buy tile for our kitchen. The tiles have been sitting in the floor for about a month now, and for who-knows-what reason, Lucas got a fire under his butt and decided that Sunday afternoon would be the perfect time to hang the tile. Um, okay. So we did. We got through one wall. Wanna see??

We still have to do the wall on the other side of the counter (see there, on the right, how the counter wraps around... that's a whole other wall that needs tile still). But this is what it looks like so far. I like it muy much! Much better than builder-white walls, no?  We're thinking maybe this evening we'll try to knock out wall #2 and then maybe grout on Thursday or something? We'll see.

Okay, off to the rest of my day now. Have a lovely one yourself! I'll try to get back again soon!

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The Flip Flop Story

Apparently Tuesday is my new blog day, since my last post was last Tuesday. Wouldn't it be nice if I could find time to get back in the habit of a daily-ish post? I know I would like that!

So, can I tell you a story really quick about what happened Friday as we were leaving the gym? Meagan's practice was done at 8:00, but Sebastian's went until 8:30. Somewhere between the two, a torrential downpour began outside. So by the time we were ready to exit the building, the parking lot had flooded quite nicely. And it was still dumping water like mad. And it was dark. So, the kids and I made a run for the van. I had the door opened for them, so all they had to do was climb in. But I didn't factor in that they would first have to wade through shin-deep puddles with currents. HA! So as Meagan was climbing into the van, the current of the water that was rushing across the parking lot to the drainage ditch on the other side just happened to grab Meagan's flip flop (that she got from one of her friends for her birthday) and wash it off of her foot. It washed right under the van and went out of sight. So I figured I'd get her in the van, we'd back up, and retrieve said flip flop. But when we backed up, it was no longer under the van. In fact, it was nowhere to be found. We drove around and around in circles in the dark flooded parking lot trying to find a shoe. I'm sure we looked like lunatics! Having no luck, I was forced to call off the search, which sent Meagan into hysterics about how that was her favorite shoe!! She literally cried the whole way home. Not cool, fellas!

Anyway, when we went back to the gym Saturday morning to drop Sebastian off for practice, there sat her shoe on the total opposite side of the lot from where we had parked. It had made its way about 3/4 of the way to the drainage ditch before - thank God - getting hung up on a piece of high ground. Let me tell you, I did get a look or two as I pulled up, parked, and got out to retrieve an abandoned shoe from the parking lot. This, in most cases, is not something normal people do - gathering used shoes from behind parked cars. But Meagan was beyond excited to get her shoe back!

Now, want to hear the ironic part? We went to Home Depot on Sunday - one day after retrieving the run-away shoe - and as we were walking down the isle, the shoe broke beyond repair. After all of that search and rescue effort, the shoe is still a goner. *sigh* The things we do for our kids, right?!

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Today is Tuesday

The wet weather has brought the spiders out for sure! This morning, there was a huge, and rather beautiful, spider web stretched across the entry of our deck.

Check out the detail in this thing!! It's like the perfect Halloween decoration. The spider that was hanging out in this sucker was large and in charge... a bit creepy really.

 I did tell him (her?) job well done on the handy work... too bad the thing has to come down! I was pretty relieved when I got home from work to find that it had blown away, so I didn't have to knock it down.  I'm curious to see if it comes back tomorrow!

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I went to the grocery today between putting the kids on the bus and heading to school for recess... speed grocery shopping should be an Olympic event! Who's with me?!

I've been looking for rainbow twizzlers for a while and haven't been able to find them... but today... success!!!  This was a surprise for after-school snack (along with a healthy snack of mixed nuts and apple slices).

Aren't they pretty?? The rainbow colors make me happy!

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Meagan's art work... this is Lilly... I think her cat drawing skills have come a long way!

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Tonight Lucas is stuck at work working on a project, and I have a meeting... which means... I get to take the kids to the meeting with me! Joy of joys! I'm sure we're all pretty excited about it! Such is life. We move on.

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