Year in Review Part I

I've been thinking alot in the last couple of days about 2009 and what 2010 might bring and the fact that twenty-ten is upon is crazy.  It has always sounded so strange to say.

I've also thought alot about the blog and wondering what to do with it, what to change or to do it all?  Well, I think that last questions has already been answered by all the relatives that come here for a glimpse of the boys growing up, and a few laughs from my views on life.  Although I've been alittle curious about keeping the name M.E. {Mommy Extraordinaire} because there is not much extraordinary about me and there are so many other moms that surpass me on many, many levels.  It was just a fun play on words last January.  And I had had grand hopes of doing all these cool, fun and creativity things with my boys as a stay-at-home, that really didn't happen like I thought.  But does anything turn out like we thougth. Rarely.
So I'm going into 2010 with an open mind, few expectations and will be focusing on the boys and new baby.  It's going to be crazy and fun that's for sure.

So here on the last day of 2009, I'd like to recap the year, a virtual stroll down M.E. Memory Lane.

January

I became obsessed with the Twilight Saga and read all four book in two weeks.
Buddy had a very successful basketball season averaging 12 points and 6 rebounds per game
1st snow of the winter for our corner of OK

I actually knitted a scarf

Big ice storm hit Missouri and Kentucky.

February

We had to get a new furnance.  {it has saved us soooo much money}

The Man took M.E. to see Stars-On-Ice

Buddy turned 6!

LG had his first round of allergies and was sick to three days.

Proving my M.E. powers.... Confession: I've accidentally scrapbooked this photo twice.  I pulled an Audrey, but that's ok, I love the pic and that's just the way I wanted it, right Wanda!

March

LG had several night so major growing pains keeping us all awake.
Signs of Spring.

Buddy missed his very first day of school from illness.

Hilltoppers make it to the NCAA tournament.
Spring Break to Arizona.

 Trip Highlight.... Meeting the Reids.

Biggest Snow of the Season - a near 6"

April

We spent Easter in Kentucky

The Man and I celebrated our 7th anniversary.
LG successfully completed his potty training. Finally!
The Man and I took on the challenge of Buddy's Tball team.

The Man plants his first garden.

Buddy broke out the garage window.
We got to buy a new mattress and box spring.

May

The Man and I had a bowling night with the school gang.

LG has another round of allergies.
I attended my first official PTO meeting as secretary.
Storms.

Who can forget LG playing in the mud at tball practice.

Buddy makes his first lasanga.

We headed east for a camping trip in KY for Memorial Day.

A Missouri State Trooper pulls M.E. over.

Successful tball season.

June

The boys and I spend two weeks in Kentucky.

Fun, Fun, Fun at the all night scrap.
Hiding from Tornadoes in Missouri

Buddy catches his first bass. Look out Cousin Ole.

I taught at Vacation Bible School.
Our refrigerator died.
The Man's garden is blooming.
A great Father's Day and water fun for the boys.

Uncle Jayboy had open heart surgery.

Hobby Lobby + a Friend Over = Lots of Scrapbooking

With no real agenda today, I set down to check out what Hobby Lobby's sale was this week and wow!  Some of my most favorite things were on sale and I needed some things.  You see, I have signed up for my very first online scrapbooking class at BigPictureScrapbooking.com.  It pretty much is all the same people from the magazine Simple Scrapbooks that when online.  I've read about it over and over, but finally decided as a Christmas present to myself, I'd sign up for a class.  The free and cheap of course. 

Thus, I will be starting the Challenge of Me class with Lisa Day starting Dec. 31 through Jan. 27. I am EXCITED!  So I needed to run to Hobby Lobby for our pre-class assignment. Woo-hoo, this is my kind of homework.  But how can I in good conscience start this awesome project with my December Daily still not finished? hmmm.  I must finish it. Pronto!

So when the Buddy ask for a friend to come over today, I thought yes!  With a friend over, it will keep him and LG out from under my feet and not in front of the tv all day and I can get some stuff done on the album and finish it. Good plan.

While was at Hobby Lobby, I also found the book Scrapbooker's Almanc by Elizabeth Dillow that I've had my eye on and with gift card from my Mom in my purse (from my birthday), the book was mine. Yeah.  Elizabeth is also teaching a class in January at BPS.com, but it was alittle more expensive.

Long story short. Here's what I got done.

December Daily Album - Day 9 before

December Daily Album - Day 9 After

Day 9 was a clear page protector, which made for a really pretty layout.  It was LG's preschool program pic,  too cute and I added some clear backed snowflake stickers to the page.  On the left I typed out the words to his songs, that he sung for the program.  I also did some Christmas shopping that day, so I put all the receipts in an envelope, added journaling and slipped it into the page protector.  Fabulous.

December Daily Album - Day 10 before

December Daily Album - Day 10 after

First I decided to leave the left side empty, to enjoy the snowflake stickers from this side and to better see the envelope with receipts in it.  Also, I didn't have any pics from this day.  Who knows why, but instead of coming up with something, I decided to write a message to each boy about this Christmas and how much I love them.  And I didn't want to cover up that pretty silver paper, so I traded it out for some  basic red. A simple tag with 10 on it completed the page.

December Daily Album - Day 11 before

December Daily Album - Day 11 after

The Man and I went to his work office party this night and I was really pleased with this pic of us, so I ordered it as an8x10 and used the photo backed with cardstock as the entire page. I skipped a lot of journaling for embellishments. Simple and Perfect. That large flourish is actually an ornament, I got at Michaels for 40 cents. 

I actually got all the way to day 19 finished. woo-hoo, but I'll wait to post them tomorrow. Only 6 days to go. I'm so proud of myself.

Snow's Still Here!

Ok, so it snowed like three days and granted it was near 8 inches, but come on already and clean the streets.

The roads are still pretty much a mess today but it didn't stop Grandpa and Nana from heading south for the rest of the winter and M.E. and the boys  heading to Walmart for some  much needed groceries.  The boys already really miss Grandpa and Nana but I know once school starts they will get back into a routine and all will  be well. 
As for M.E. have you ever tried pushing a shopping cart overflowing with groceries and two big boys through a parking lot that still has 3 inches or more of slush on it?  Impossible, even for Super Woman.  I was put-out. I mean really P-U-T-O-U-T.  Clean your parking lots people!!!!!!! You'd think it never snowed in OK the way people are acting. I mean, even in backwoods KY, we clean up after Mother Nature.

December Daily Album - 6, 7, & 8.

Here's a glance inside my December Daily Album, I'm still working on getting it done before December is over.

December Daily Album - Day 6 before

December Daily Album - Day 6 After

So as you can see that's not a baseball card page for the 6th.  When I realized that the only picture I had for the 6th was the lights, I decided to pull out the note card with 6 on it and use the pocket page elsewhere and use another page with no number for this day.  I also added some cool and ribbon to the back of page 5 and used it for my journaling.

One of the best things I like about this ablum is the binder clips, so you can move pages and with them being pre-set you have an idea of what will work and what won't.

December Daily Album - Day 7 before

December Daily Album - Day 7 after

Knowing myself all to well, I had already not put a number on day 7 because I figured I'd be moving stuff and yes, I did it again.  I had this fabulous photo of LG that Buddy took and I didn't want to crop it to the curved edge, so I switched out the baseball card pocket page from day 6 for the curve of day 7.  It works.   I also like how the blue parathesis from day 5 is still peeking out here on day 7.  Pretty cool.  And those star shapes are the scraps left over from my Christmas cards.  I'm really bad about throwing anything out.

December Daily Album - Day 8 before

December Daily Album - Day 8 after

Alot happened on the 8th, or rather alot of running around, that I didn't take pics of, so I just added the pics of one of the most special parts of the day - the boy making ornaments for their little tree.  Then I used a paint pen to make a list of all the activities I did thisday.  It turned out ok.  Not my favorite layout, but you know what, its done and I can move on.  Notice the tag on the left page.  That's the day 6 tag that I added buttons to, so the 6 doesn't show.  Awesome! 

More to come, stay tuned.