Park Pictures

Well, finally, I've taken the time to take some pictures of the kids for their 2-yr and 6-yr pictures (and 4 1/2-yr). We went to a park nearby this morning and found a spot with trees and a nice backdrop. Pictures of the boys went fairly smoothly. I started with Sebastian, and then Isaac, so by the time I got to Meagan, she knew just what to do...sort of. She sat right down on the spot by the tree, just where her brothers had been sitting. But she apparently missed the part where they were looking at the camera and sitting still and smiling. Hmmm...so I took several pictures of her, and got almost nothing worth keeping. She was either looking down, or away, or she was in a blur of motion. I got one picture that was sort of okay. I'm going with it. Makes me glad we didn't suffer through a portrait sitting, though. I can just imagine how pleasant (and never-ending) that would have felt.

After pictures I let the kids play on the playgrounds for a while. But it was already creeping up on being uncomfortably hot and humid. Around noon, we left and headed to get something for lunch. Thus ended the highlight of my day. The rest has been spent in what feels like a non-stop battle with the boys. The only reason I even have a few minutes reprieve for blogging is because their sitting on their beds in silent punishment right now. Let's just say they've earned an early bedtime. Hoping for a much better day tomorrow.

Layouts

I have a few layouts I've done in the past week. With the kids being gone and all, I've had a little extra scrapping time.

Here's the first one. Back in March, the fire department visited their Motor Development class. They got to sit in the fire truck, spray the hose, and all that good stuff.

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Layout #2 - from Meagan's birthday party. I used Karen Lewis's new kit - Cupcake Cafe. Journaling: Meagan, what kind of cake do you want this year? "Choo choo" you reply. Are you sure you don't want something else? 'Choo choo' you answer with certainty. Choo choo it is then - Lady to be exact - the pretty magical purple engine. Grandma made a big cake for everyone else, but you got your own special cake.

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Layout #3 is also from Meagan's birthday party. Isaac and Sebastian played t-ball with Daddy and Shane (and Tina I think). I love these pictures of Isaac. He's such a fun little guy - he sure loves his helmet! Journaling: you took full advantage of having both daddy and shane around for meagan's party. you got out the tee and your glove and started up a game of t-ball. but let's face it. it's just not t-ball if you're not wearing your helmet.

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Harry Potter

So Deidra, in case you're wondering, here's my take on Harry Potter...

I thought it was a great movie - very entertaining. However, compared to the book, it seemed like they played Harry Potter Legos...they took all the story pieces apart, and put them back together in whatever order they wanted, leaving some of the pieces laying on the floor. It seemed like the general story line was the same...at least they accomplished the same general end and all...but they had things in a strange order. Did you think? And while I didn't mind most of their changes, there were a few that bugged me - like blaming Cho (who knows why that bothers me?). But, like you said, if you take the movie alone, separate from the book, it was quite entertaining. I will definitely go see it again before it's out of theaters.

We saw it in IMAX 3D. The IMAX part was sweet! But I really didn't care for the 3D. It hurt my eyes....but I can't even look in my kids' view finders very well, so I don't know why I didn't expect it to bug me. Oh well. It was worth it to see it that big, and with such a clear picture and awesome sound!

Only 1 more week until the book!

Vacation

Wow, has it really been almost 2 weeks? Sorry!!! We've been on vacation! Woo hoo! Last Thursday we loaded up the kids (each with their own suitcase, plus another suitcase for Lucas & me...that was fun to stuff in the back of the van), the movie players, the wagon (which took the place of the spare seat in the back of the van), and lots of sunscreen and headed to Mom & Mike's boat. We got there around 7:15 (pm) and checked into our hotel - I was not about to try sleeping on a boat with Meagan, world's most accident-prone child. Then we headed out to get dinner. We tried TGI Friday's, but it was PACKED, so we went to the East of Chicago pizza buffet instead. It was actually pretty tasty, and WAY more relaxed than TGIF's would have been. With all five of us in one hotel room, we had a late night. By the time Lucas & I got cleaned up and got things in order for the morning, it was 11:00, and all three kids were still watching TV. Finally, by 11:30, everyone was asleep...that's way later than their typical 8:30 bedtime, and I knew that the morning would come all too soon.

By 7:30 we were up and getting dressed and packed. After breakfast at McD's, we headed to the Point! Since we were staying at a Cedar Point hotel, we got into the park an hour early, so Grandma & Grandpa took the kids, and Lucas and I headed to the Maverick....awesome ride!

It was a hot day, but thankfully their air-conditioned boat was nearby. We headed to the AC for lunch, and for breaks every now and then. The kids had a great time, though. Sebastian and Isaac rode their first roller coaster - The Woodstock Express. Sebastian LOVED it, and headed straight for the Jr. Gemini. Isaac was a little less enthusiastic, and sat out the second ride. When Sebastian got off the Jr. Gemini, he asked if he could ride one that went upside down. !!!! Sorry, kiddo, you're about 6 inches too short for that still. Maybe in a few years.

It was a long day. We left around 9:00 at night and headed to other Grandma and Grandpas. This year Grandma was brave enough to take on all three kids for their week-long vacation. So, Lucas and I left Sunday morning (and headed back to Cedar Point for a day of big people rides), and the kids began their summer vacation with Grandma and Grandpa. They've done lots of swimming and playing. They went to the zoo yesterday, and to a museum a few days ago. We are heading down either tonight or tomorrow morning to pick them up. I miss them!!! Can't wait to see them!

In the mean time, Lucas and I did some work around the house, cleaning and painting the walls while no little fingers were around to smear the paint. We also got Meagan's wallpaper replaced from where she tore her boarder off the wall during nap time one day. And even with all that, we've had some time for 2 movie dates - Transformers and Harry Potter (I bet you can guess who picked which movie LOL). But, our quiet time has come to an end. Vacation is over, and soon life will be back to normal. Can't wait!

The little spit!

Isn't there a term that goes something about spitting in your eye? I don't know...maybe I'm way off. Anyway, tonight after dinner, we were all caught up in one of Lucas's wrestle/tackle/romp/tickle/whatever else attacks that he tends to get into after dinner. This, by the way is a favorite game for the kids. Mommy - that would be me - is not such a fan. But I'm still forced to endure, because, for unknown reasons, I willfully chose to marry the man. And he's bigger than me, so I generally can do nothing about it and am forced to participate. Well, the boys had gone running crazy out of the kitchen to avoid an attack from Daddy. With no other targets available, he tackles me to the ground and pins my arms. Just at this time, along comes Meagan, who jumps on us and starts play hitting Lucas to make him let go of me. I got my arms free and grabbed her. I held her up above my head (mind you I'm still on my back in the middle of the floor). She laughs and giggles and yells (with glee, I thought), 'Mommy Mommy!' Then, without warning, she SPITS in my eye. Well, my reaction was to put her down and wipe my eye. She runs off full speed, laughing at the top of her lungs...she has now found a new and improved way to get free from the tickling game. Great. We have a spitter!

Legos

I almost forgot to tell you... Sebastian has already gotten impatient, and has spent his Harry Potter savings. LOL! We were heading up to Target and Lowes last weekend to run a few errands. We had a duplicate gift to exchange, so we took it to Target. Well, they didn't want to give us store credit for whatever reason, so we had to get something else right then and do an exchange. Sebastian decided he wanted to put the money from the gift towards his Legos, but he was still about $40 short of the Harry Potter Lego set. Well, sitting right beside it on the shelf was a skull castle set that had a 'way cool' dragon and lots of people. It was $50...just what he had to spend. He was sold! No need to wait for Harry. He just got the skull castle instead. (I still fail entirely to understand how those kinds of things are attractive to boys, but they seem to be??). It took him 2 or 3 days to get the whole thing put together, and now the castle is sitting on the very top of our toy shelves (so Miss Meagan can't get her sticky fingers on it), ready to be played with whenever the mood strikes him. I think after taking so long to build it, he's now kind of tired of looking at it. So it may be a week or so before he's in the mood to actually play with it LOL!

Sleep tight

What a gorgeous day we had today! After church we went on a bike ride, so Lucas could test out his new bike. The parking lots behind our house were empty, so the kids had free reign over them - a dream come true for the boys! They were ramping curbs and speeding from one end of the lot to the other. Later in the afternoon, we played basketball, followed by a little t-ball / baseball. Meagan insisted on wearing a bike helmet while batting - maybe because yesterday she got cracked in the head by her brother with a bat (plastic bat, so nothing too bad). So, needless to say, she looked a little quirky! But whatever works for her...she surely isn't our first quirky child!



Tonight was a scrapping night for me. I'm still trying to get caught up on layouts for my designers...June was a bad scrapping month for me. Oh well, I can only do what I can. But I was able to get one done at least tonight. I actually had to do it twice because I had it almost finished and my computer ran out of RAM (?????) and crashed on me. So quite a bit of my progress was lost. Oh well, I like the second version better, so I guess it worked out okay anyhow.

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Journaling: We never seem to know where we'll find you anymore. Wherever it is, it's usually somewhere other than your bed... our bed, the upstairs hallway, the living room floor, the top of the stairs... this particular night, you were in the middle of the kitchen floor. You must have snuck down to watch Daddy play on the computer. Sleep where you fall, huh Baby Girl? Well, wherever you land, sleep tight.

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Glimpse of the future

I've had a glimpse of the future - all of the schedules, the sports, and activities - YIKES! Today is the first day for me all week that I haven't had somewhere to take someone for daytime or evening activities. This has been a busy week for us! Monday was what ended up being Sebastian's last t-ball game (Wed. was called due to lightening). Tuesday we had story hour in the morning. Then Tuesday night kicked off a 3-day sports camp at church. Sebastian did soccer, and quite enjoyed himself. Each night was 2 1/2 hours long, though, so it pretty much commanded the evenings. But, lots of fun, and well worth the time! I'm looking forward to a bummy day around the house, just catching up on stuff that needs to be done (like laundry for starters! Sebastian told me yesterday that their clothes hamper "reeks" *LOL*). Gonna try to pay bills today. Maybe I'll get some more scrapping done tonight...or sleeping...that sounds good too!

As an update - still no new news on any moving, etc., for those of you who might be wondering. I'll keep you posted.

For now, I'm off to switch the laundry around and figure out what to do next. I'm feeling like there's way more to do than I can get done today, and I sort of struggle to prioritize when I'm feeling like this. So I guess I'm just going to have to pick SOMETHING and DO IT! Wish me luck!

Play day

Another busy day in the books! This morning we went to the park for library story hour. Today was sidewalk chalk day, and they got to decorate all the sidewalks all around the park. Then we stayed afterwards and ate lunch with some friends of ours. The kids had a great time playing, and I had a nice little bit of grown-up time (with the occasional interruption) with some of the other moms that I've gotten to know. We left around 1:00 or so. It was so stinking hot today, we just stayed inside for most of the afternoon. But this evening was the first night of Mega Sports Camp at church. It's a free sports camp for kids between 6 and 12. They can choose between soccer, basketball and cheer leading. Sebastian chose soccer. So they were out on the fields for 2 hours (but they had plenty of snacks and drinks for the kids to help them handle the heat). I had Meagan and Isaac with me because Lucas wasn't home from work yet (and actually, it's now 10:30 and he's still not home...my poor guy). Anyway, trying to keep the two of them occupied for 2 1/2 hours was interesting. Towards the end we were in the gymnasium area where they were doing the cheer leading (it was air conditioned in there - soccer and basketball were both outside...so we went for watching cheer leading). Meagan had the BEST time! She was imitating all of the big girls, and she was jumping and spinning, and clapping, and whatever else she could think of. It was hysterical, and she drew quite the audience. I must have heard 'oh, she's soooo cute!' at least 50 times. What a little ham! But then when all the kids came back in to have their wrap up time, I was struggling to keep her quiet (well, failing is actually closer to the truth). She wanted to keep running and playing, and wanted nothing to do with sitting quietly and listening and watching. So, the last 20 minutes or so was a juggling act (which I'm quite used to by now, but that still doesn't make it easy). Other than that, though, we all quite enjoyed ourselves.

I took some pictures at the park, but I'm entirely too tired and lazy to do picture stuff tonight...maybe tomorrow if I get a chance. For now, I'm off to shower and go to bed. Later taters!

Mother of the Year

Well, one game down, one to go. T-ball tonight was just the kids and me. (Lucas wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home and took it easy.) I hurt my chances of winning the Mother of the Year award by forgetting the water on a 90-degree day. Oops...maybe I'll win next year (LOL)! Again, they pitched to the kids 3 pitches before getting out the tee. Tonight Sebastian didn't have to use the tee at all! His first hit, he hit straight to the first-baseman. But, since there are no outs in their league, it didn't matter. His second hit came on the third pitch, and he hit it almost from the ground. It landed just between pitcher and second base. Not bad. His third hit, he hit on the first pitch and cracked it! He was so proud of himself. And I videoed tonight, but of course was chasing Meagan during his third hit, and so didn't get it on tape. Oh well. Again, hurting my chances for Mother of the Year. Sheesh.

When we got home, we had water and ice cream. Mmmm. Then, the kids and I went outside to play. It was a late night - we were out until 9:45. Then we came in and did bath time, so they were up until after 10:00. That's late for them considering their usually in bed before nine. But it was worth it. The boys played with Sebastian's new Lego kit while Meagan rode every bike/truck/car/anything with wheels she could find. After we cleaned up toys, the kids 'helped' me water the flowers by running through the hose water (at 9:30 at night!). By then, lightening bugs were out, which was a new experience for Meagan. So, of course, we spent the next fifteen minutes chasing, and sometimes catching, lightening bugs. We also saw 2 bunnies travel through our yard, which the kids absolutely loved. It was all I could do to keep Meagan from running after them. It was a good night...I'm hoping the late night pays off with sleeping in tomorrow! (Keeping my fingers crossed!)

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you - Suzie especially. We made a trip to Target today to pick out birthday stuff with Sebastian's birthday money. All together he had $35. He had originally planned on spending it at Barnes and Noble, but since we were in Target already he decided to just look at the toy aisles. He had a list a mile long of stuff he wanted, but he couldn't decide for sure on anything. He did end up getting one Lego Star Wars kit with the money from Suzie, but he decided to hang on to the rest of it. He found a HUGE Harry Potter Lego kit that he wants to buy, so he's saving his money. It's $90! Only $65 left to go...so by his 8th birthday he'll be able to afford it! LOL!

Out in the Yard

I finished another layout for Grandma's book today. I'm slowly getting caught up on scrapbook projects. These pictures were taken somewhere around 2000, as far as I can guess from comparing to other pictures that were dated. I know yard work pictures aren't the most exciting. But I love that the 2 of them shared these kind of moments together and just enjoyed what they were doing. I guess truly sharing a life with someone is sharing the mundane as well as the monumental. (gush!)

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Yin and Yang

Today I learned that one 20-minute bike ride can do amazing things to highlight the contrasts in personalities between Sebastian and Isaac. We started off at the foot of our driveway. Our mission was to ride down our street, head to the road that runs behind our house, and make our way through the parking lots and back. Simple enough. We all started out together (Meagan in tow behind me). Immediately, the differences began to shine through. Sebastian went full speed down the driveway and flew into the road with hardly a glance for cars. Isaac walked his bike to the very foot of the driveway, climbed on, looked two or three times for cars, and then cautiously pulled out onto the road. Sebastian sped as fast as he could down the street, making sure we all knew he was in front - he was the fastest - he was the leader. Isaac pedaled along at his own leisurely pace, content to stay behind or beside me, talking to me and to Meagan through the whole trip. Several times I had to call to Sebastian to come back and be patient - 'You're getting too far ahead,' I would say. Several times I had to look over my shoulder to make sure Isaac was still with me. Once, he had actually stopped to check something out on the side of the road (while Sebastian, of course, was still going full-force ahead of us). As we passed other people, Sebastian sped by them without so much as a glance. Isaac watched everyone we passed, and for those on foot, he would slow down and wave at them until they waved back, making sure to say hello. Isaac noticed several things along the way - certain flowers, birds, bunnies. Sebastian was a blur.

As I was in the bike ride process, I was just trying to stay balanced between Speedy and Poky. But as our ride came to an end, and we were just going around in circles at the end of our road a few times, I realized how very different the two of them are. They are put together in completely different ways for completely different purposes in life. Sometimes difficult for me to balance, or figure out for that matter, but very cool nonetheless.

Falling behind

Well, I feel like I'm falling behind in just about everything at the moment - housework, bookwork, yard work, scrapping, and blogging. We've had lots of stuff going on, and very little time for much more than the basics. I managed to steel enough time last night to finish a layout for one of the creative teams I'm on. I did this layout using Karen Lewis' new 'Out of This World' kit. At the rate I'm going, it feels like it will be forever before I get caught up. Oh well, one thing at a time...starting with this layout, I guess.

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Journaling:
the robot shirt. a gift from tina, summer ‘05. size 3T. a wardrobe staple for the past two years. to be worn only with orange mesh shorts, if possible. to be worn as frequently as possible. you absolutely adore this shirt. but now it’s ‘07, and you have outgrown this priceless article of clothing. more than once you tried to convince me it still fit,but, really, it hardly goes over your head anymore. sorry, buddy, the robot shirt has to go. we’ll keep it. i wouldn’t dare part with it for good. but, let’s pack it in a special box with other special things we want to keep. then we can get it out and look at it any time you would like. plus, we’ve got lots of good pictures of you in your coolest shirt ever. i’ll even make a page about it for our scrapbook. how does that sound? good? good. And if we ever find another cool robot shirt in a store, maybe we can get you one.

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This n That

Since Lucas moved the computer back down to the basement (at my request - and I love him for it!), I haven't been at the computer much. Maybe because of computer location, or maybe because our lives have been crazy & busy and I just haven't taken the time. Whatever the reason, it's been 4 days since I've posted anything. (oops, sorry).

Well, Monday we had t-ball again. Sebastian actually CAUGHT a ball that was coming straight at his head. He didn't flinch. He didn't just stand there. He actually looked like he knew what he was doing, and he moved his glove to the ball and caught it! Woo hoo! Evidence that some progress is being made! While the game was going on, Isaac and Meagan kind of wandered around, straying a little, but not too far. At one point, I looked over at Isaac, and he was holding hands with a little girl walking through a field of unmowed 'flowers.' This, however, was the same little girl that ran up and kissed Sebastian at the beginning of the t-ball season...I smell trouble! LOL! Seriously, though, it was just harmless friendship hand-holding, but it was funny anyway. What cuties!

Lucas is off seeing the world again without us. He's in our old stomping grounds for training this week. I thought of going with him, but Sebastian would have missed both of his games, and he's already going to miss one next week. So we opted to stay home. So it's been a pretty quiet week with Daddy gone. Last night the kids & I went to dinner at Applebees, where we played a stimulating game of I spy. I swear Isaac could play that game for hours. It makes me think of my grandpa. When we would go visit them when I was little, he and I would sit on the side of their house and play I Spy for what felt like forever. How is it that that game never gets old to a child? How is it that my grandpa had the patience to play it for as long as he did? These are things I may never know the answers to.

Anyway...another game tonight, and maybe a DQ trip afterwards? Maybe. For now, we're going to head next door to go swimming and just take it easy.

YOU dum dum!

I wouldn't be doing my job as a scrapbooker if I didn't get this documented. This little phrase - 'you dum dum' - has infiltrated every-day life at our house. Meagan (with help from her brothers) latched onto it after watching Night at the Museum. There's this talking statue head that calls everyone dum dum and he (it??) is always wanting gum gum. Well, Meagan's most favorite game in the entire world at present is to point at each of us in turn saying in the cutest little voice 'YOU dum dum.' She entirely expects a rebuttal, and will repeat herself over and over until the accused responds with 'No YOU dum dum.' This game can (and often does) go on for quite some time. It almost ALWAYS shows up for every family meal, and makes frequent appearances at random times throughout every day (along with Little Bunny Foo Foo). Once we were in line at Meijer and she pointed to the man in line behind us and said plain as day, 'YOU dum dum!' I knew what she said. He did not. He looked at me for translation, but I totally played dumb (me dum dum! LOL).

So anyway, the other day we were outside snapping pictures, and I tried to get a few of Meagan. I said, 'Meagan, look at Mommy,' and she looked straight at the camera - perfect little smile...until I pressed the button to take the shot. At that very moment, she snuck it in there - finger pointed straight at me - YOU DUM DUM! This picture is the result. Gotta love her!

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Journaling: thank you pop culture. namely 'Night at the Museum.' without you, my sweet 2-year-old would never have learned this fantastic phrase. we would go through every meal in peace, without any finger pointing and name-calling of any type. life would be dull without you...dum dum.'

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ix-nay the ig-pay atin-lay

Aw, snap! No more pig latin for secret 'over their heads' talk for Lucas and me. I got busted today! We were discussing giving them back their play station. Lucas had told the boys they had earned it back and he would set it up for them today, but he didn't know where I had put it. So, not wanting to reveal my hiding spot (for future use and all), I told him in pig latin. 'in-ay u-thay oset-clay under-ay y-may ants-pay.' I had hardly finished my last 'ay' when Sebastian chimes in, 'You said it's in the closet under your pants.' Aw snap! Luc looks at me and says 'ix-nay the ig-pay atin-lay.' At least it wasn't a discussion of birthday presents or something like that. And we already can't spell things over his head. What's left?

So, the boys have successfully managed to earn back their play station, and they are happily playing away down in the basement. At least that should give me a good quiet 'nap' time to myself. (wink).

(I moved the kindergarten picture slide shows to the bottom of the blog, in case you're looking for them. I'll leave them up for a while, then I'll probably just post links to them so you can get back to them if you want. They just take up way to much room on here. But I guess grandmas & grandpas and such like to see the pictures, so I'll do it for them!)

Last day of Kindergarten!!

Yesterday was Sebastian's last day of kindergarten! (as I wipe a tear) We started the morning off with pictures outside. We got pictures on his first day, so we may as well get pictures on his last day - to see how much he's changed and grown. I told myself I wouldn't cry - and in the morning, I did fine...until the bus came. I got a little choked up, maybe a little teary eyed. But I wouldn't say I cried.

Nicole was nice enough to watch Meagan and Isaac for me in the afternoon so that I could go spend the day at school with Sebastian. It was their field day, and I just didn't want to miss it. When I walked into the class room, he was super excited to see me. They were all getting ready to head out to the field. We headed out as a class. They were split into groups of about 6 or 7 students each. I followed behind and watched, and I noticed that his teacher always had someone at hand. It didn't matter who it was, but it seemed like everyone wanted a turn at her side, and she was more than willing to oblige. I could tell that, although I'm sure every moment of her job is trying, she does it because she loves those kids. She's a sweet lady.

The first even was the 100 meter dash. At each event station they had a 'hot dog' spray painted on the ground where the kids were to stand and wait when it wasn't their turn. Hot dogs....soooo, Sebastian and two of his friends decided if they were standing on a hot dog, they must be ketchup, mustard, and pickle. Leave it to Sebastian. Anyway...they had several events...

1 - 100m dash, 2 - softball throw, 3- sponge shuttle (a race to transfer sponges from one bucket to another), 4 - mystery game (good ol' golf ball on a spoon relay), **insert potty break here** 5 - obstacle course, 6 - water fill game (boys against girls - boys won), 7 - rest station (Popsicles and tug of war - is that resting?), 8 - soccer challenge (which Sebastian kicked butt at, by the way), 9 - high jump (which Sebastian totally cheated at by first jumping on the mat and then jumping over LOL), 10 - sack race, 11 - tire bowling (no picture of that, but pictures of Sebastian & friends at that station), 12 - big ball race (hysterical), 13 - T-ball blast, 14 - 100 meter hurdles (2x4's on cones LOL), 15 - deep sea dive (get 1 marble at a time out of a little pool and run and put it in a bucket - but I guess that name was too long for their tags).

He had a great day. So did I. He laughed and played and just truly enjoyed the day with his friends, his teacher, and me. It was so worth being there. I am so grateful I was able to go. All day I was doing great - no tears, no sadness, no choking up...good. Then, as his teacher handed out final folders, year books and report cards, she dismissed those whose parents were there. Sebastian put his folder of stuff in his book bag one last time. Then this...

Sebastian: 'Goodbye Mrs. Long. Thank you for being my teacher.'
Mrs. Long: 'Goodbye Sebastian. I'll miss you.'
Sebastian: 'I'll miss you too.'
Mrs. Long: 'Will you remember me tomorrow when you don't have school?'
Sebastian: 'Yes.'
Mrs. Long: 'Will you remember me the next day too?'
Sebastian. 'Yes.'
Mrs. Long: 'Will you remember me this summer while you're playing?'
Sebastian. 'Yes. I will remember you always.'

I turned and faced the wall as tears swelled and ran down my cheek. What a sweet heart that little boy has. How much love he has for those in his life. He will not be little for long. When everything else changes, as it inevitably does, I hope his heart stays the same.

The slide shows above are of his last day. The first slide show is before school. The other 3 are done in order - all of the events that I listed above, pictures of friends, etc. I had too many pictures to fit into one slide show.

Rain or Shine

Well, I got my wish...t-ball was rained out yesterday. I just wasn't feelin' it, know what I mean? I wasn't in the mood to haul everyone to the fields to sit in the gloomy, overcast, chilly weather. I was wishing I knew a rain dance or something (LOL) but I didn't end up needing it. It POURED. So, no t-ball. Yippee.

Yesterday afternoon we went on an errand-running trip to the post office (to mail Sebastian's birthday invitations) & the library (to return books - and get new ones). It was NOT raining at that time, and the 2 are pretty close together. So we just walked from one to the other. It was quite an enjoyable outing. It was nice to be out in the fresh air just spending time together. And I had 2 people give compliments - one at the post office and one at the library - about how well behaved the kids were being. (Who, Meagan and Isaac????) That's always nice. It's nice to hear that I haven't screwed them up yet (LOL)!!

Other than that, not much to report. We had a pretty quiet day. I sat down last night and tried to scrap, but ended up on message boards and browsing the internet instead. Oh well. I did put some finishing touches on a page I mostly did about a month ago. I still don't know how I feel about it - I did it off of someone else's layout sketch, and I don't typically work so well with sketches. So, maybe it will grow on me overall. But I love the pictures of the boys. Sebastian was just 3 and Isaac was 1 1/2. Oh, the 'little' days. Where have they gone?

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Journaling: Why is it that hard to get one decent picture of the 2 of you? Is it too much to ask for you to both look at the camera at the same time? Just for amoment, could you both sit down? Leave your hats alone? PLEASE!!

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Cousins

Here's another layout to share. I had a very pink and purple kit to work with. I love the colors & the paper, but didn't have tons in the way of pictures to go with it. So, I started looking through pictures to see if I could find something I've yet to do anything with. I have all of these pictures that have gone unscrapped, but I've looked at them so many times that I now sort of overlook them. Well, I found this picture of Meagan and Carmen at Meagan's first birthday party. I've never scrapped it because Meagan is making a less-than-pleasant face in it. But, I guess it is what it is...so I used it anyway.

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Journaling: true, this is not the 'happiest' picture of the 2 of you. but what can you expect after a long afternoon of partying without napping? some day, sooner than we know, the 2 of you will truly be able to enjoy party days!

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House of Flying Daggers

Guess what happens when Daddy falls asleep watching a movie while Mommy is in the basement scrapbooking? The boys watch the still-playing movie and begin to imitate it. Unfortunately the movie was House of Flying Daggers! LOL! So now my boys are flying around the house with swords babbling "hung chu ku do wa" and other nonsense. Occasionally, English will prevail in phrases that sound something like this: "Ow! Mom, he hit me!" or "Isaac, no throwing swords!" The only other sounds heard are giggles and thumps (from jumping and hitting the floor). Next time, hopefully he'll fall asleep to a documentary on sloths or something.

This is Home

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I finished this this afternoon. I had taken a bunch of pics of details around our house that are unique to the house because of us for one reason or another - you know, what makes it a home instead of a house. Always living under the threat of a move, I just wanted to make sure I captured the details and special things about each of the homes we live in.



Journaling:
Top left corner: 'We may move a few more times before all is said and done. But homes are not made with houses, but with family and the memories shared. and for now...this is home.'

around the edge: '[our address]; the deck we built Memorial Day '06; Mothers Day flower '07; our Charlie Brown tree; the garden we planted spring '07; landscaping we did when I was 8 mos pregnant '05; JFK rose; clematis; vacation boots with hens and chicks - a gift from the boys '06; birdhouse the boys built with Big Grandpa.'

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Surprise!

Yesterday morning, I came downstairs, and the first thing I saw was a note from my husband that said he loves me and he had something for me. Ooooooo, I love surprises! And I LOVE notes from my husband! The day passed as usual. He got home as I was making dinner. He sat down at the computer and started browsing the internet. In the middle of cooking and chasing after the kids, I had forgotten that I had a surprise waiting for me. As I was getting dinner on the table, the doorbell rang. "Stay here," he says. Well, I was curious, but I don't like to ruin surprises, so I stayed. And I stayed. And I stayed. I didn't hear him in the living room anymore. I was starting to wonder if he had left. ??? Finally, although I didn't want to spoil the fun, I peeked in the living room...not there. Hmmm... Then he calls down from the basement, "Come here." How did he sneak past me and get down there so quietly? (Maybe he really is a ninja! LOL) So, I headed down the steps. When I got down there, he took me around the corner and pointed me in the direction of my scrap desk... A NEW WIDE SCREEN MONITOR! My broken 'thermometer' has officially been replaced! Yay! What a great surprise! And I'm proud of him for pulling it off!

1959

I finished another layout last night for Grandma's album. This page took me about 4 tries to get anything I really liked. I only had 2 pictures from 1959, and they had nothing to do with each other. That made it a little difficult to put the layout together. But I guess it turned out okay. No journaling, other than I've 'hand-written (LOL)' the information from the back of the original pictures onto the filing tabs behind the photos in the layout. One is from Thanksgiving '59 and the other is a visit with family.

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Sebastian's dinner time prayer tonight:

Dear God, Thank you for this food. Bless this food to our bodies. And please send food around the world to all of the people who don't have food and are dying so they can eat. In Jesus name, Amen.

This Week STINKS!!

Literally! There have been more 'memorable poo' incidents this week than I would have preferred, to put it nicely. One happened just a little bit ago actually. Meagan is on the potty training path, and has been doing fairly well (considering she just started). Well, she caught herself in the middle of going this afternoon after lunch. She went running to the bathroom, so I sat her on the toilet to let her finish. When she got down, instead of letting me clean her like she usually does, something compelled her to just SIT DOWN on MY LAP! Ugggg! That was gross. I had a poopy little butt print on my leg (thankfully I was wearing long pants).

That's my first story. But, even worse than that....I think it was Wednesday or Thursday night. Meagan had learned to open doors on her own earlier that afternoon, so I had to camp in the hallway at bedtime to keep putting her back in her room. So, I had been sitting out there reading for about 20 minutes, when Sebastian goes running past me into the bathroom. About 30 seconds later, Isaac comes out of the room too, saying he had to go to the bathroom really bad. I told him to go in our bathroom in our bedroom because Sebastian was using theirs. So, Isaac ran off down the hall, and was gone for about 15 minutes or so. He came back by me, went straight into his room, and I didn't hear from him again after that. I thought nothing of it.

Well, about 2 1/2 hours later, Luc and I came up to go to bed ourselves. As we came upstairs, I went to check on the kids, and he went on in our room. As I was covering Meagan up, I hear, "OH MY GOD." Never really what you want to hear. I was thinking Meagan had gotten up and torn up all of the DVDs in our room or something, but as I walked around the corner, and surveyed the room, everything seemed in order...Until I got to the bathroom. Apparently, Isaac really meant it when he said he had to go BAD. Obviously, our bathroom was too far for him to run, and he didn't quite make it. On the floor in front of the toilet were 'piles' covered with toilet paper (that was, by the way, still attached to the roll). It was like connect-the-dots with TP and poo. It was smeared down the toilet, it was on the rugs, it was on the floor. Poor guy had done his best to try to clean up (or cover up), but must have been afraid of getting in trouble, so he never said a word. Let's just say, I short-cut the clean up by throwing away the bathroom rugs. I would rather replace them than waste the time and effort and cleaning supplies to try to clean up that mess. So anyway, the funniest part of the whole thing, in my opinion, was Lucas, who decided to go check out the boys to see if either of them had it on them. So what does he use? Meagan's Thomas the Train flashlight that makes chugging and whistling noises. I could hear him in the other room turning the light on - "Chug chug chug Whoo Whoo." Very discrete, Luc, very discrete. Chalk this up to a classic moment in parenting. At least it was good for a laugh - hope it never happens again.

Girly

Other than the fact that I debated on the spelling of 'girly' this page came together fairly quickly. My spell-check had nothing either way, so I looked on-line. I found it both ways there. ?? So I picked the 'y' ending (mostly because I liked the Y font better than the 'ie' font I had to work with. LOL)

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Journaling: Well, with all these cute and flowery doodles and frames, I set out to find the perfect picture of you in all your girly glory. But try as I might, I kept coming up with the total opposite - pictures of black eyes and bruises, of you wearing army hats, football helmets, or your brothers' shoes or undies. In virtually every picture, your face is a mess, your hair is in your eyes, and you are in the middle of mischief. You, my dear, redefine girliness. You have your own set of 'girly' qualities that make you YOU.

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Hey Beaner!

How long did it take you to come up with your rant on your MB? That was quite entertaining, and I wanted to give you recognition for your creative writing skills! Thanks for the good laugh, Bud!

Shhh! Quiet, she'll hear you!

Well, my kids were in rare form this morning! The boys woke up before me, and, like they often do when they're up first, they headed to the basement to play play station...but not before asking permission. Well, I may not have been fully functioning yet, but I distinctly remember telling Isaac NO this morning. He, apparently, ignored me.

When I got finished showering and getting dressed and ready for the day, I headed down to see what the boys were doing - they were being so quiet! Oh. They were doing what I told them they couldn't. I thought about it, and decided not to blow a gasket - I would just go down and talk to them about it. Weeeeelllll..... I was greeted with the Jango Fet dance on the Bounty Hunter game. They (somehow...who knows how) found 'outtakes' on the game menu, which led them to this crazy dance performed by Jango and some fellow Star Wars characters. The boys were CRACKING UP! I mean, I thought Isaac was going to just burst he was laughing so hard. "Okay, boys, that's enough. Turn it off and let's go have breakfast." I walk upstairs. A few minutes later, they follow. I assumed (you know what they say about assuming) they had turned it off like I asked.

Before I go on, let me just add a side note here. When I came up from the basement, I found Meagan, with a chair pushed up to the counter, climbing on the counter and going through the cabinet where she knows the cookies are kept. Isn't she way too young to be climbing on counters??? Anyway...

After breakfast, the boys headed back down to the basement to 'play.' As they're bounding down the stairs I say, "No more Play Station." "Okay, Mom!" they chime. All is quiet...they must be doing legos or something. Then I hear Isaac laugh, followed by 'Ssshhh, quiet, she'll hear you!" That was all Mommy needed. Within thirty seconds, that PlayStation was unplugged and stashed away, not to be seen again for quite a while. Amid other punishments, they got themselves a LONG gaming reprieve.

(2)

Here's a page I finished last night of Meagan. This is one of my favorite pictures of her from the birthday party - she looks so grown up, though!

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Journaling: This picture of you takes my breath away. Is that really my baby girl?

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Another Sebastianism

I love the funny things Sebastian says. He very rarely says something 'wrong' but when he does, it's so darn funny! For instance, he still says 'askident' instead of 'accident' and 'afost to' instead of 'supposed to.'

The other night, we were sitting in the basement playing on the computer - zoo tycoon is a big hit around here lately. Well, Meagan was grumping, so I had to get up see what she needed. While I was away, 'Something happened,' as Sebastian put it, and the computer screen just went black. He thought the computer had completely turned off, but actually, our monitor had croaked. So I told him not to worry, it was just the monitor, and the zoo would not be lost. I had been expecting that the monitor wasn't going to hold out much longer. Lucas just plugged in a spare (a much smaller spare!), and everything was fine.

The next day, Sebastian seemed a little mopey. I asked him a few times what was wrong, and he just kept shrugging me off. Finally, he came up to me and said, 'Mom, I'm really sorry I broke your thermometer.' How can you not love that kid!

She's 2

Okay, so Meagan's birthday party...We had a great day! It started out looking like it was going to rain, but the sky cleared up, and we had sun and a warm breeze all day. We made an easy lunch - Lucas did all the work cooking on the grill! And Meagan had a blast playing outside and visiting with grandparents & Shane & Tina (and her brothers, of course). And she got all kinds of goodies - some CUTE clothes, some books, big girl undies (!!) a tricycle, a pink t-ball bat & ball and a glove to match (from her brothers), and a camo hat that she ADORES. From us she got a Thomas flashlight that makes noises when it lights up, and a Furr-real kitty, which she (maybe with Isaac's help) named 'Meow.'

The boys picked out her present all by themselves (well, they told me specifically what they wanted me to get for her from them, at least). Isaac came up with his idea first. "I want to get Meagan a pink t-ball and a pink glove." This started Sebastian's wheels turning, and it wasn't long before he said, "And I want to get her a pink bat, so she has her own and will stop beating mine up." Ulterior motives, but she liked it, so no harm no foul!



All in all, she had a great birthday celebration. It's hard for me to believe that she is 2! But I think I will go through that every year - I just can't believe how quickly time passes. One day I'll blink, and she will be grown. I guess I'll have to be sure to enjoy every moment between now and then.

Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz

Well, I am feeling a little better today than I was yesterday - still not great. Today was a pretty uneventful day - Sebastian went to school, we stayed here. I did a lot of resting, a little laundry. Nothing too exciting to report. I did get a chance to check out the birthday party pictures, so I'll share those with you as soon as I get a chance to edit them and all that jazz. And hopefully I'll be in better condition tomorrow to share some stories from the weekend. Off to bed now. See you tomorrow!

Creations by Karen

I have some fun news to share! I've been keeping quiet for a few days, but have been given the okay to spill the news. I've been invited to be on Karen Lewis's creative team. You can find her products at One of a Kind Scraps, Digital Freebies, and Designs in Digital. I'm super excited about getting to work with her designs! Of course, I'll post all of my layouts here, as always!

Eeewww

Just checking in to let you all know I'll try to post birthday party pics tomorrow if I can. Today I'm feeling eeeewww, and I'm gonna go crash on the couch. I haven't even looked at the pics yet. Hoping tomorrow is a better day. Later.

Bike Ride

I did this page in pieces over the last several days. I finally finished it last night, so I thought I'd post it. I've found with some of my other pages, if you click on credits, you can actually click on the picture on that page to see the layout bigger. If this is too small to see, give that a try.

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Journaling: Today we took a bike ride - down to the end of the circle and back. This is the start of Sebastian's second summer riding a bike, but Isaac is just getting started. After a bit of practice, Daddy decided to let Isaac go on his own. He headed down the sidewalk, all of us tagging along a little distance behind. As he neared the end of the sidewalk, though, it became obvious to all of us that he was not going to be able to stop, and he would crash off the end and into a sign. As soon as Sebastian (who was pedaling on his bike) saw this, he jumped off his bike and hit the ground running. He ran so fast he got in front of his brother's bike in time to stop him with his foot and avoid the crash. When I asked him about it later, he just shrugged and said, 'Well, Mom, that's what big brothers are for.'

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Ninja Invader

I had a ninja invader in my house last night - or so I thought! I was in the basement on the computer. Lucas was in the kitchen on his. Around 11:00 I got tired and decided to call it quits for the night. So I headed up the stairs to the kitchen. Lucas wasn't at the desk, and all was quiet, so I thought he had gone up to bed. But as I step around the corner coming off the stairs, he comes LEAPING out at me. Truly, I'd say he was at least four feet off the ground - arms and legs flared, and he whoops (I have no other description for the sound he made) like a ninja -'Whaaa!' I jumped a good few feet off the ground myself. He scared the POO out of me! I told him I thought he was some kung-fu guy, and he about peed his pants he was laughing so hard at me. I'm glad he was entertained! It really was pretty funny, I have to admit (now that my heart is out of my throat, and has returned to its regular rate of beating). Hey, at least it makes for some good blogging material! LOL! I'm married to a crazy man!

Frolic

WHY does my daughter HAVE to climb all over me as soon as I sit down at the computer? It's a Meagan magnet!


Anyway - on to what I came here for! I got one layout, and almost another done last night. So I'll share the one I finished. I have always LOVED these pictures of Meagan playing in the leaves, but I've never gotten around to doing anything with them until now. The journaling is just simply the dictionary definitions for 'frolic.' The 2-pager is kind of hard to see, so I'll post each individual page as well.

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It's been a day

Wow, this was one of those days. After already being out at the bus stop for a few minutes, Sebastian somehow still managed to miss his bus. (He said his head got cold, so he came back in, and started watching tv - I was in the bathroom and didn't know until it was too late). And Isaac and Meagan spent all day YELLING! At each other, at me, at the cat, at the toys, at thin air - whatever - just YELLING! I was SO ready for nap time by the time 12:30 rolled around.

The boys and I spent a little time building a zoo today on Zoo Tycoon. That was fun - and addicting, like most sim games. Currently, our alligators and polar bears are angry because there's too much poo in their cages. True story. And of course, being the boys that they are, Sebastian and Isaac think that is just hilarious! But it's a fun game, and they are learning quite a bit from it actually.

T-ball was FREEZING tonight. I kept hoping they would call it for weather, but the darn sun had to come out just in time for the game to go on. Sebastian did really well, though. Even paid attention through almost the whole thing.

Now the kids are all in bed, and I'm ready for an evening to myself, full of quiet & scrapbooking. Tomorrow is another day full of cleaning & getting ready for Meagan's party this weekend. But, no more work and craziness for tonight - just chillin'.

Hasta manana.

Week in Review

Wow, it's been a while since I've had a 'real' post - something besides a scrapbook page. Let's see if I can remember everything...it's been a long week.

I guess I can start with Sebastian's music program on Friday. WAY cute! It was farm-themed, so all of their songs were animal related. All of the kindergarten classes - morning and afternoon - were all together. They all sang each song, but during each song, a handful of kids got to come to the front to do something special. Sebastian went to the front on the Chicken Dance. No singing, but LOTS of wiggling. It was soooooo cute - he has a funny little wiggle! And after it was over, he did ask me if I cried at the last song. It was a song they did in sign language, and it was about planting seeds of love and peace in their hearts and letting them grow and bloom. It was a very pretty song, but there was no crying. I think he was a little disappointed that I didn't cry. LOL!

Lucas got to go to his first t-ball practice on Monday. He quickly determined that watching practices was going to be a gigantic test of his patience. Sebastian, again, wasn't paying much attention. I'm not sure what he was doing - making up kung-foo moves maybe? It was nuts. But he was having fun at least.

Not the same story for t-ball on Wednesday. We had a MAJOR melt-down. I guess he was overly tired? Hot? I'm not sure. But at some point during their throwing & catching part of practice, which is the FIRST thing they do, he came over and sat down behind me. When I realized he was there, I told him to get up and go out & play. It was all downhill from there. He worked himself into hysterics! He was sobbing and gasping and choking and coughing. In general, making a huge scene. I let the coach try to calm him down, and I stayed out of it for a while. They took a break for drinks, so I took that as an opportunity to talk to him and try to help him settle himself. Didn't work. He got all worked up again because he had missed throwing the ball (because he CHOSE to sit down??), and in turn, nearly missed batting as well. About 10 minutes later, he came back over to me for the second time - still crying. He was just getting himself wound up, and he was starting to act hateful to his coach, his friends, and me. All of a sudden, he starts coughing really hard (still sobbing profusely). I was in mid sentence, "Don't you dare throw..." Too late. He threw up (not lots, but enough that it was gross) on my arm and on the grass in front of me. Okay, that's enough. Mommy has reached her threshold. "Look, it's okay to be upset, or mad, or frustrated, or whatever you are right now. But it is NOT okay to treat people the way you are treating them right now. Get over yourself. Get back out there, and finish your practice." So he sulked over to the dugout to get ready to start a quick scrimmage. When it was his turn to bat, he walked up to the tee, looked at me, and half-heartedly swung at the ball. But he HIT it (which I think took him by surprise, because I don't think he actually meant to). So he dropped his bat and ran. He just happened to be the last batter on his team, so they had him run the bases. In his eyes, he just hit a HOME RUN! All his troubles were forgotten, and the evening took a turn for the better. They played on the playground for a few minutes after practice, and they all crashed hard when it was time for bed.

I realize that a lot of Sebastian's problem with t-ball comes down to this: His whole life he has always been good at whatever he tries - in most cases, since he's the oldest in the family, he has been 'the best' at whatever game he's playing. Now that he's on a team where he's the youngest and the smallest kid, and he's just middle of the pack as far as skills go, he's feeling a little lost. I talked to him about it the other day when we were playing in the yard, and he said, yes, this was a lot of what was bothering him. I just simply told him that not everything in life is going to come easily, but that some things are worth working at. And I reminded him how awesome it's going to feel when he finally catches or hits or whatever else really well. I think he got it...may need some reminding from time to time, but I think he understood.

Well, on to Friday. Friday morning, we took our last field trip for motor development. We went to a kids' hands-on museum in a town not far from us. It was pretty cute. They had all kinds of stuff - a post office, a grocery store (which was a huge hit with Meagan and Sebastian), a stage and costumes, a music room, a rock climbing wall, and on and on. They had a good time, especially because Keylee went with us.

Oh, at some point this week, we also planted a garden along the side of our house. The boys have been bringing home potted plants of all sorts, and we were running out of room in our window sill. So when Isaac brought home a 2-foot-tall sunflower stalk from his library class, I knew it was time to plant our window sill full of plants. So, after Sebastian got on the bus, Isaac, Meagan, and I headed to Meijer, got some top soil and a few other plants to add to our garden, and headed home to get started. We planted 2 sunflowers (one from each of the boys), a bean (Sebastian's from church), 2 cherry tomato plants, and a regular tomato plant, plus 4 green pepper plants.

Finally, Sunday we celebrated Mothers' Day. We really just took it easy, played outside for a while. We did go to Red Robbin for lunch, though. Yum! Lucas was on-call, but we managed to get through the day without him having to go in to work. So that was a plus. It was a good weekend, a great Mothers' Day. I got 2 more plants - a flower from each of the boys, so I planted those outside this morning.

Magic

I am still plugging away at Grandma's album. Of all of the pictures of their life spent together, I am partial to this one of Grandma & Grandpa by the ocean. I first saw it shortly after Grandpa had passed away, and it brought tears to my eyes. Their expressions and body language speak volumes. I knew right away this picture had to have a page to itself. But I've almost been hesitant to scrap it because I was afraid I wouldn't do it justice. Finally last night I built up the courage to attempt it. I figured, at least I'm doing digital, so if I mess up, I can just start over. But I'm happy with how it turned out. I think the page does not overpower the picture, which is just as it should be. It's been such a blessing to me to be able to go through these pictures one by one and become familiar with parts of their lives that I would never have otherwise known. This, though, has been my favorite. Hope you like it.

Journaling: There should always be a certain awe as we stand at the edge of the ocean. Bud & Theona Dec. 1977.

Credits: Sweet Genevieve - Butterfly Boheme, Puddles Alpha; font - violation

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY

I just wanted to get a big shout out to all of my moms for Mothers' Day. I love you (all of you!), and hope you have a GREAT day!

Dear Meagan

It's hard to believe my baby is almost 2. The 'little' years are quickly slipping away from me. Soon I will be Mommy to a baby no longer (if you could even call her a baby now). Today I started thinking about her life so far, and I realized that I had no idea who she was going to be when she was first born. So I wrote her a little letter this evening, and (of course) did a layout for it.

Journaling: Almost 2 years have passed since this day. Look how tiny and new you were. We had just met only hours before this picture was taken. The world was full of possibilities, and we could only wonder what direction our lives would take together. Little one, I must admit to you now that I completely underestimated you in this moment. You, so tiny and dependent. I had no idea what a strong little girl you would soon prove to be. I had no idea what an incredible spirit God had placed in you. Each day I am amazed to you. Some days I am exhausted by you. But every moment I love you and I am thankful to have been blessed to be your mommy. Sweet girl, God has great things in store for you, and I know beyond a doubt, you were designed for a life beyond extraordinary.

Credits: Sweet Genevieve's Raspberry Mocha kit and grunge brushes. Font is High Strung.

I did it again

One more thing before I go to bed...

I DID IT AGAIN! I forgot there was a race this weekend, and I didn't pick my drivers! But, at least I 'won' last week - I'm definitely living for the weekly action now, and not the season scores. Oh well, all in fun! I'm just rooting for anyone who will beat my husband!

It's a cookout!

You are cordially invited to a barbecue - hosted by MY HUSBAND'S FACTORY!

Yikes! I got a phone call this morning during motor development. We were all outside playing, and one of the ladies in the church office came out to find me. Odd, because no one (except Lucas or my neighbor) knew I was there. I figured it was Nicole telling me something about Monique (one of her daycare kids I had with me). Well, it was Nicole, but she was NOT calling about Monique. She was calling to let me know that the plant caught on fire this morning. She said she knew I would want to know, and she didn't want me to get in the car and find out from the radio or something like that. Wow, that was not exactly the phone conversation I was expecting walking in from outside. So many thoughts went running through my mind all at one time. The first one being, I'm so glad Lucas wasn't in there. The second one being, I hope everyone is okay. And the third being...well, I won't go into that.

So as the day went on, between news from Nicole's friend at the plant, and news from what Lucas was piecing together from people at work and at other plants, we started to get an idea of the degree of damage caused. At one point they had closed the highway it's on and had evacuated the businesses in the surrounding area. But I guess they got it contained fairly quickly because only a short time after I got the phone call, I could not see any smoke or anything coming from the building (from a distance at least), and the road was reopened.

Lucas went in to the plant around 4:30. I took him dinner at 8:00ish. At that time, he said they had 2 lines running, and they were getting ready to try to put glass to the one that had been in the midst of the fire (at least I think that's what he said. If I'm wrong, I'm sure he'll correct me when he gets a chance to read this, and then I'll pass that along, for anyone who's interested). It's now almost 11:30. I haven't seen or heard from him since 8:00. So I guess they've still got a bit of work ahead of them. But truthfully, while this was QUITE an inconvenience (and a damper on his hopes for a work-free weekend), it could have been MUCH worse than it really was.

As for me, I just miss my husband, and I was really looking forward to hanging out this evening. He worked 2 weekends ago. Then last week and weekend I didn't see him because of a machine repair (except to deliver late-night dinners). And then this week he was gone in Toledo for training. At this point, I'm hoping to salvage some time to celebrate his birthday Sunday. How long until retirement??? LOL!

(On a lighter note, I haven't forgotten to tell you about Sebastian's music program. I just am too tired, and it's too late to try to do picture editing. I'll try to get those pics posted tomorrow.)

T-ball

Yesterday was Sebastian's first actual t-ball practice - no rain. It was nice and sunny, but it was kind of cool. And, much to my daughter's delight, the field still had quite a few muddy spots from Monday's rain. She just got progressively muddier as the evening went on. I figured once her jacket and pants had a little mud, there was no point in stopping her. Dirty is dirty. So she had a ball!


Let me back up a minute. Yesterday in itself was pretty interesting. As a favor to Nicole, I offered to watch Austin yesterday. He's one of her daycare kids who is just a few months younger than Meagan. He was nice & easy - took a good nap, played well - couldn't have asked for better. After nap & snack, we all headed outside because my house just couldn't take cooped-up kids any longer. Soon, Sebastian came home from school, and Keylee came over until her dad got home. Then Keylee's friend & her cousin showed up for a few minutes. So it was me and 7 kids (8 if you count Kyle, who I was 'semi-responsible' for, but who was not actually present). But it all went fine, and they all had a lot of fun together actually....maybe too much! Meagan & Austin seemed to really hit it off, and by the end of the afternoon, THIS was the scene (yes, they're holding hands... sshh, don't tell her Daddy!):

So, with all the craziness, I opted out of cooking, ordered a pizza, scarfed it down, and headed out to practice. (Might I note at this point in the story, that I DID have Sebastian & Isaac go to the bathroom before we left). As we were driving off, I realized I had forgotten the field assignment schedule, but I figured we would figure it out when we got there. I, however, was operating under the idea that Sebastian was on the Tasty Twist team, when, in fact, he is NOT. So, we did manage to find the Tasty Twist field right away, but it did us no good. And since I had no other idea what our team name might possibly be, I was at a loss for where to look next. I just knew that none of the kids or coaches on that particular field looked at all familiar.

We did finally find the right field - about 10 minutes late (oops!). So he jumped right in to pitch & catch with one of his coaches. Watching a row of 5 & 6-year-olds trying to catch is quite entertaining. A few times one or 2 of them accidentally stood in the right place and the ball fell into their gloves. Other than that, it was more like pitch and chase. But, Sebastian did really well at throwing. So I guess we'll just focus on the positives and trust that the rest will come in time! They're 5 & 6.

Interruption #1 - Sebastian is doing the potty dance. And we are in the field farthest back - nowhere near a restroom. I quickly weigh my options: 1) haul all 3 kids a quarter mile back to the school & hope to find an unlocked door, and hope that Sebastian makes it all the way there, and miss another 15 minutes of an hour & 15 minute practice; OR 2) head for the bushes. Option #2 it is! One benefit of having a SON on the team! So, we head off to the side, along a row of bushes & brush & trees. Apparently, at this point, Isaac determines that he's missing out on something. He runs over to join in. And he does. So I'm now standing with TWO kids peeing in bushes. We've only been here for 15 minutes!

Back to practice. Next task - running bases. At this point, I realized there are a lot of things about baseball that I take for granted as givens. Like knowing which direction to run. Apparently, not a given. I guess it's a good thing they practiced that (LOL)!

After a few laps around the field, they moved on to fielding. YIKES! The coach had a pretty decent approach, though. I must say I admired his ability to get 10 kids to focus & head in any semblance of the same direction. He kept the focus on getting in front of the ball, rather than on actually catching it, so they all felt like they were accomplishing something big! Very cute! Sebastian gave it his all! He got right down, and actually as practice went on, he got not-so-very-bad at it.

Interruption #2 - How is it even humanly POSSIBLE that the child has to pee again?! Now we've moved out further to another open field. The bushes are pretty far away. The school is even farther. But, there's a pine tree! Perfect! (I realize at this point that my child might become 'the little boy who always has to pee.')

Back to fielding. Sebastian gets moved to first base (which was marked by a tennis ball). Well, while the coach is working with the other kids, Sebastian decides to play with first base. So he picks up the tennis ball and starts throwing it around. 'Sebastian put the base down!' Sheesh, kid! LOL!

Well, practice is almost over, and there's only one thing left to do! Bat! This was what he had been waiting for! He had even brought his very own aluminum t-ball bat that Santa brought him for Christmas last year! Very pumped! And he smacked the crap out of it! It flew right through the net, and went past the pee pine tree several yards away. He hit a few more times, and the coach decided he was done for the night. They got cookies & Gatorade & we all headed home. Sebastian was SOOOO excited to talk to Daddy on the phone to tell him how good he had done. Meagan was covered in mud from head to toe, and Isaac was ready to go home and start up our own t-ball practice in our front yard. All in all, it was a good (and memorable) first practice. All I can say is that the games (starting 1 week from Monday) should be pretty interesting!

Retro Birthday

This is officially my 101st post! I wasn't sure when I started if I'd actually keep up with it or not. So far so good, I guess!

Last night was my first night all week of scrapping - which is amazing since Lucas has been gone all week. Sweet Genevieve is releasing 2 more paper/element packs tomorrow, so I wanted to get something done with at least one of them. After MUCH debate, and cost consideration, I've decided to continue with Grandma's book digitally (so PLEASE let me know if this is NOT okay with you before I get too far into it. It's easy enough to redo a page or 2, but I don't want it to get too far gone...anyway, I'll leave it at that. If I don't hear from you otherwise, I'll keep on with digital). When I saw this paper pack - retro daisy - I thought immediately of all of those 70's pictures of Grandma & Grandpa that I have to scrap still! I found this picture of the gang at Grandma's birthday in 1973. (The white smears at the top are the names of everyone in the picture, blurred out for internet sharing. )

I've got more to share later - some pictures from yesterday of the kids. Hopefully the t-ball pictures turned out good. I haven't looked at them yet. For now, my daughter is stinkin' it up, and if I don't go change her, we're all gonna suffocate LOL!

I KNEW it was too quiet!!

Three years ago, Sebastian pulled one over on me during nap time. I thought he was being quiet because he was being good and doing what he was supposed to be doing - staying in bed & going to sleep. NOPE! He was being quiet so as not to draw attention to himself! When I went to check on him, I found him in the hallway 'painted' (as he said) with Mommy's makeup!

Fast forward three years to last night. Meagan was in the room with me - in my bedroom. I was standing with my back toward the door (and toward the bathroom) folding clothes on our bed. She got bored and went to find something to do. I thought (wrongly) that she had gone out into the hallway - probably into the boys' room to play. When I went to check on her a few minutes later, I was more than surprised to find her only about 15 feet away from me, covered head to toe in petroleum jelly!! Uggg! I should have known she was being too quiet!! I was torn between scolding her & grabbing the camera. I did both - first take pictures, then scold. LOL! All I could think when I was sitting there trying (TRYING) to clean her off was how much she reminded me of Sebastian when he was her age. And I couldn't help but wonder which was worse - colored makeup that stained his skin and spilled all over the brand new carpet or colorless Vaseline that isn't water soluble, doesn't come out of hair, and clings forever to the inside of washing machines (which I subsequently found out after trying to wash her clothes)! I think I preferred the makeup!

(Ignore this)