Winter Storm

Doesn't he remind you of Randy in the Christmas Story movie.

Buddy has bugged M.E. all day to go outside, so I finally bundled them up for some fresh air.

We woke up this morning with about a half inch of ice and that was it. No 2 to 4 inches of snow like they thought.  But about 11 AM it started to snow and it hasn't let up one second since.

The Man guess-a-mates we are at about 3 inches at 3 PM, so not quite an inch an hour, but close.

Buddy loves getting the Man with snowballs.  We will go out again later this evening for an official measurement on snow depth.  Happy Winter!

Winter Storm

No pictures, but it is currently sleeting.    I'm getting a little nervous about the rain we got earlier and it freezing on the powerlines.  Currently our powerlines in our neighborhood look great, but who knows about elsewhere that could affect us.

We are expecting sleet for another hour or so, then it should switch to all snow and by tomorrow we should have multiple inches.  Schools already been closed and the Man will not be going to work, so some real family fun ahead.

I'll try to take pictures with a borrowed camera and get them on here, but I'm not making any promises.

In other news,
Buddy's tooth is still just wiggling, not too loose at this point.
LG had some real allergies this week and visited the allergist yesterday just to make sure that his lungs were clear.  They were, so we are just treating symptoms and hoping he feels himself soon.
I'm doing well and eating, eating, eating.  I'm really starting to put on the weight now.
The Man has been busy thinking and planning for baseball season. Sign-ups are Tuesday.

Thanks for the patiences during the camera issue. The Man and I went to get a new one yesterday, but I didn't like any that were available. I'm going to have to order one online. 

Take care, stay warm and pray we keep our electricity.

Buddy here...........

Dear Blog Readers,
I have a loose tooth. And it hurts.
I had a french fry in my hands and then I bit it and I had a loose tooth.
I am excited, very excited.
And then I told the waiter. And then my Dad felt it. And it wiggled.  And then my Mom felt it and then I felt it.
This is my first loose tooth.
Love, Buddy

More Basketball

Last night we had a cubscout event to go see a local college team play basketball.  I actually think LG was more excited than Buddy.  We had Zman and his family over for dinner prior to the game, so Buddy was more interested in playing than anything. 
 *** Side note:  While Buddy had company over, he got a little wild and wound up throwing a wooden building block at LG, hitting LG in the mouth.  This in turn cause LG to bite and he put his right bottom canine tooth completly through his bottom lip.  Blood was gushing and when I finally got him calm enought to clean it and look at it, I could nearly see light through the hole.  Having experience similar situations with Buddy (he put his bottom front teeth through his lip three times already), I just gave him a cold wash cloth which he carried around for an hour then he was fine.

We had a really good time at the game.   Buddy quickly gathered with his gang.

They were all so cute in their uniforms.

And of course, Buddy was really into it.  We hadn't been to a college game in nearly two years, so it was a big treat.  I really wish I had more pics, especially of LG standing on the bleachers dancing everytime they played music.  It was too funny.  He really had the crowd going. 

But unfortunately the camera officially died.  I zoomed way out to get a pic of some cheerleaders and then it wouldn't retract or anything and wound up shutting itself down.  Now it won't even come on.  Its completely done. I'm so bummed. Its so strange not having my camera.  I feel almost lost without it.

The Man's bonus won't be here for another 3 weeks, so I'll have to wait before purchasing a new one.  So the fate of the blog is unknown at this time.  I think I'll be borrowing a camera from Zman's family. They are really into technology and have extras, so I can contine to capture our everday life and games and such.  Just bare with M.E. through this transition.

Today, I spent the entire afternoon scrapping.  I'm on such a roll.  The Man felt like a scrapbook widow today, as he only saw M.E. when I came out to eat lunch and supper.  I can't wait to show you what I've got done, but its a suprise for now, so you'll have to wait, plus I ran out of adhesive.  I'm heading to Hobby Lobby tomorrow anyway, so I can't get some.

Now off to watch the Golden Globes.

Basketball

Buddy's game was at 8AM this morning, so we had to rise and shine pretty early.  I managed to get everyone motivated and out the door by 7:20, so we could stop for donuts.  I just wasn't up for cooking this morning.
I didn't manage any pictures at the game, because I was busy with LG and my camera is just a pain in the neck these days, so I decided I'd rather just watch the game.  We did really good today on defense.  The team we were playing was rumored to be really awesome and that we would get totally creamed, but we managed to stay with for the first two quarters and went into half time trailing 6 - 8.  Our boys are really catching on and they did pretty good staying on their man and getting in their faces quite a bit.  Buddy got to play 3 quarters and thought he was a super star.  One of the opposing players was really, really good and continually time after time stole the ball from our players as they were dribbling down the court.  Well, this didn't set well with Buddy, so he started "trying" the do the same thing and make these big plays, but instead he would wind up whooshing passed his man, leaving him wide open to take a shot.  And beleive M.E. they rarely missed.  We wound up losing 18 - 8.  Not too bad compared to some of the other games.  And the Man was in a better mood today as well.
Back at home the Buddy headed outside.

He is in love with the new hoop.

I love the concentration and his seriousiness.

I can already tell he will be spending lots of time doing just this.

We should have done this a long time ago.

Hopefully by the end of the season (3 games left) we will be able to win another one.

I scrapped most of the afternoon. I started a new project even thought I'm not done with my project of M.E. class. I'm waiting on getting some more photos developed, so I went ahead with a new project.   I'm just so motivated and happy with my room, that I can't stay out of there.  And with the tv in there, the boys are happy or rather prefer to spend time in there with M.E. either watching Spongebob or playing legos.  Its quite nice actually. 

Typical Friday

I spent all morning at Midas getting the oil changed, tires rotated and headlight bulb replaced.  I really don't mind this though, because it gives M.E. a chance to sit and relax and read.  Today, I walk down to the library as the temps were in the 50s and really foggy.  So it was a nice scroll.  I took some of my scrapping magazines with M.E. so while I flipped through them, I could write down what I liked to scraplift.  I got alot done before it was time to go get the van. 
Back at home I got caught up on my daily chores and ready to pick up the boys.  While sitting in the pick up line, I was listening to the afternoon announcements and realized that Tuesday at school is pajama day.  For most families this would not pose a problem, but for Buddy, who doesn't wear pajama it does.  I called the Man to see if he was home yet, and wanted to go to Target for some pajamas.  He was did, so after school, we picked up the Man and headed to Target and got some cool football pajamas.  Awesome. 
After that the Man and Buddy worked on the basketball goal some more.  They finally got it up and ready for hoops about 8:30.  Buddy got to shoot baskets for about 15 minutes before we made him come in and go to bed - big game in the morning.

December Daily Album - Completion

I could talk about my December Daily Album for hours and in great detail.  But as some of you probably could care less about it, you are like - please don't.  So I'll not, but I do have a few thoughts to share about the experience and completed album, but first Days 20 - 25.

December Daily Album Day 20 - before

December Daily Album Day 20 - after

I needed to add another piece of card stock to the left hand page for day 19, so on the back I added a sticker border and label stickers for journaling.  I talked about how awesome it was for the Man and I to be able to purchase the most presents we've ever bought this year and how blessed we are for that opportunity.  I actually made this layout and slipped it into the page protector instead of working on top of it. A more traditional layout.

December Daily Album Day 21 - before

Another baseball card holder page.  I used the small pockets on the left side to staple some see-thru embellishments.  I really like how this is looking.

December Daily Album Day 21 - after

On this day, I didn't have much going on so I used up some of the smaller version of previous pics to simple count my blessings. For the left hand page, I got wild with some stickers and such and focused on family.  I've have finally gotten to the point in my scrapbooking that I need to actually use what I'm collecting. No more hoarding, what's the point?  So what if I use all my glitter letter stickers, they are going to look so awesome on the layouts I use them on, so use them.  I have to keep reminding myself this, as I often love the look of something in the package and think its so pretty, that I don't want to open them and using them on a layout.  No more!  What's the PURPOSE keeping them in their packages and not blessing my pages with their beauty?  Quick - Simple, No More Overthinking things - Give things Purpose.

December Daily Album - Day 22 (there's no before picture, as I wanted to leave myself some playing room, as I didn't know back in November what this project would be like or even if I'd finish it)

December Daily Album - Day 23 - there's no before or after, for some reason, I must not have taken a pic of this page, bummer. I'm not going back now, I'm moving on. But the day has a picture of all our Christmas cards and a copy of one of the cards I made.  Sharing the holiday spirit.

December Daily Album - Day 24 - after

 

Because it was snowing like mad the Night before Christmas, I ordered an 8x10 of a snow pic, then I added little plastic snowflakes.  I love it. It was so fun having the snow here and it was almost magicial for our first At-Home Christmas.

December Daily Album - Day 25 (multiple page layout)

Page 1

I added another large snowflake to back of day 24 because of all the snow and that cool red Happy Holidays tag is from a present I received last year and I saved it.  I totally love it.  The right hand page is a pic of LG Christmas morning along with his note from Santa that was attached to his present. The ornaments on this page are cut out from another sheet of patterned paper.

page 2

The left hand page, I inked all the edges with green chalk and added a piece of Merry Christmas paper to mat the big photo. All the boys opening the Wii.  Buddy was so excited. I really wish I sould have captured that look, but I was there and wrote about it, so hopefully I'll always be able to bring it back to my memory.   For the right hand page, its just like LG's with a picture of Buddy with his beloved Lego men and his note from Santa.  You can tell he's truely happy here.

page 3

On the left, I really didn't know what to do, so I came up with this great idea of recording the gifts of the day, including what each boy got and gave.  I really like that I documented this, especially what they gave to each of us.  The right hand page, is a cool, curved edge page I made for like day 7 or something and kept moving it further and further back into the album until it ended up last but it was perfect here for pics of the boys playing in our 8 inches of snow.  Love this page alot.

So here's the album. Finally complete and wonderful.

I had originally had two pieces of red chipboard as the front and back covers of the album, held together with 2" binder rings, but this didn't work.  It didn't work for Ali Edwards either and she had 3" rings, so it felt good, that even the professionals are just like the rest of us.  So I began looking for something else, and this album was strongly suggested for my Challenge of Me class, but I couldn't find them anywhere and online they were $18 plus shipping. yikes. Like I said my scrapbooking fund is seriously depleted and most likely negative at this point (remember I stopped at Tuesday Morning).  But I did manage to find this finally, on like my third trip to Micheals last week.  I'd looked before, but they finally had this particular album.  American Crafts D-ring 8x8 cloth album for only $14. woo-hoo.

So now my December Daily has a nice bright red home.

(this pic was taken on Buddy's bed so I could use the natural light)

More Thoughts.......

1) I am so, so happy with this project. I'd read about them for years and finally decided this was the year.  Its such a wonderful sense of accomplishment seeing it on the shelf all pretty and knowing all the wonderful memories that are recorded inside it.

2) This was the first time I've ever worked with 8x8 pages and I kind of like it.  That's why I'm doing my Challenge of Me in 8x8.

3) I always thought mini-albums were pointless. I confess. I thought what would be the point in doing a mini-album, just something to take up more shelf space, when you could include the same memories on regular pages in regular albums.  I WAS WRONG!  Mini-albums have their own little vibe going on. And because there's a beginning, a middle, and an end to one - they get completed, even if you get behind, there's an end. There's a goal - its sooooo rewarding.

4) Which lead M.E. to the purchase of Ali's book "Sharing Your Story" all about mini-albums (remember I bought a book at Barnes 'n Nobles). About three pages into this book and having the glow of completing my December Daily still in my heart, I knew I had to have this book as inspiration for my next adventure.

4) Premaking most of the pages in November was awesome, it forced M.E. to work with what I'd already did prior to experiencing that day.  So it made assembling and planning the layouts much quicker and simpler. 

5) Because it was just a running daily record, the content of what to include and not include was easy. Super easy and it didn't need to be fancy or warm n' fuzzy everyday, just a record of our daily lives - the exact thing I wanted to capture.

6) I will not be doing one next year.  I've decided that the novelity and magic of the December Daily could easily be lost if I'm doing this year after year.  Instead the Man (yes, I said the Man) and I have decided to choose a different month or two this year and do a daily album.  He's even going to help! I'm sure he'll want to pick a month with a hunting season in it. LOL!

7) I learned through this project, not to hoard my supplies, use them and use all of them. The manufactors are always making bigger and better ones.  I learned that my style is changing, I'm not such a clean and simple layout kind of gal anymore. I'm mixing things up, painting on pages, using my sewing machine and layering like crazy.  Its almost messy. And I'm liking it. I learned to have a goal, set an appointment with myself to scrap. It makes M.E. happy.

For the scrappers out there, that actually read all this to the bottom.  Thanks for reading and listening to M.E.  And I'm really wanting to do this more and I'm really wanting to teach a class on this or something.  I just want to share this accomplishment, because with my regular albums I always feel behind because there's no end. The sun keeps coming up and there's another day, I didn't get recorded or another event I didn't take pictures of.  Even if its just finding an album you love and giving it a title and determining what its going to be about, gives that album a PURPOSE, and with that knowledge, the album can fly together (like in a couple of days, weeks, or months).

Again thanks for reading and if anyone is interested in learning more about mini-albums or the Daily Album project, leave M.E. and comment and maybe we can do one together via the blog and email. I think it'd be fun. 

More up-to-date

After we got home Sunday night from our friends, the Man was seriously feeling ill with an upset stomach.  He didn't sleep well and by Monday morning was not moving.  He slept until like 10 AM.  He didn't have a fever, but his stomach was very upset and not in a good way.  Having him home kind of through M.E. behind of the day - as in my new Flylady Routine, Monday is the day I spend most of the day cleaning and getting organized for the rest of the week.  But I managed to get the place looking decent because keeping up with my routines everyday of the week, really doesn't leave too much to do on Mondays. Its wonderful.  If you are interested in learning more about Flylady, check her site out at http://www.flylady.com/.

The Man pretty much under the weather all day and Tuesday he managed to go to work and I had my Mom's group which is always fun and we have several new moms join, so that's always good. LG loved playing in the nursery with the little tots and babies.  He feels like such a big kid - after all he is four.  Later we headed over to Barnes n' Noble so I could pick up the gift card for the photo contest winner.  LG just loves this place because of the train table. So I quickly went an got some scrapbooking books and settled in the kids section to let LG have some fun with the trains.

He was so good and quite. It was great.

By the way, this is his new favorite "bob bob outfit" - as he is quick to tell everyone who comments on it.

I was able to browse through three books in peace and quite. I actually had to purchase one.  I couldn't resist. My scrapbook fund is seriously depleted now, but I'll talk more about my purchase later.

I talked with the Man several times throughout the day and convienced him to go to Urgent Care. If this is a stomach virus its the longest one in history, as its been over 48 hours.  The doctors didn't find anything, but said to hang in there and hopefully it will pass soon, which left M.E. to take Buddy to cubscouts. 

I usually throw this one at the Man, but I stepped up and headed out and I'm so glad I did. Because it turned out to be on of my happiest, proudest Mommy moments ever.  Tonight the 1st graders were in charge of the flag ceremony at the beginning of the meeting and Buddy's friends nominated him to do the reading/announcing for this. 

Here he is practicing. 

It was a big deal, so I didn't get any pics during the actual ceremony, but I was so proud, as he read aloud into a microphone, "Colorguard present Flags", "Colorguard prepare to post colors", "Colorguard post flags".  He also said the pledges adn other stuff.  It was so awesome and I was so proud.

We later learned all about the Pinewood Derby, in which each scout will be making their own wooden car and race them.  More about this later.....

Today, I had my baby appointment and everything is going well. I've gained about 18 pounds - although it feels like more.  After that I headed downtown to pick up the Man for our every-other-Wednesday Lunch Date.  It is so nice to see him in the middle of the day and just chat. I love it. Then I headed to Tuesday Morning.  If you have a Tuesday Morning - a variety store- you should definitely check it out. There is so much nice stuff in there that's cheap.  I got some thickers (really thick stickers for scrapbooking) that are normally 2.99 or 3.99 at Hobby Lobby and Micheals for only .69 cents. Wow. 

I got to spend about an hour in my scraproom working on my Challenge of Me class. I'll be posting pics and my thoughts about this class later this week. I'm a week behind, but I'm not discouraged.  I rather get my pics developed all at once verses getting them daily. And the December Daily Album is done. YES, done and on the shelf. Woo-hoo. What a sense of accomplishment to have this awesome album for the boys and myself to look back on years from now.  I'll caught you up on that later today or tomorrow. 

Like I said, lots of projects going on with M.E. now a days.  So watch out!

Getting Up-To-Date

As I've stated before I will be continue to get you informed of the goings-ons around here from day to day, but so far I've not done a very good job, so here's a major recap of the last week or so. 

But let M.E. say this. I'm exhausted. LG has been getting up in the night several times for what ever reason, I'm not sure, and on top of that I've been waking up at 2:45 and can not return to sleep.  I've been laying awake trying to be patience with myself and remind myself that in little over three short months I will be up with a newborn at this same hour, so I should get used to it.  As for LG, the Man will have to step up and get him back to sleep. 

Also, my mind and body have also gone into full "nesting" mode. A little early I think, but all I can think about our projects both large and small, both creative and non, both necessary and not.  It's somewhat exciting because I am getting so much done and having fun along the way and watching my own success if refreshing.  I'm also trying to focus on PURPOSE.  It's slow, but coming.  More on this in the weeks to come.

So for a recap.....last Thursday, I took down the Christmas tree and all the decorations leaving our wonderful Christmas cards. But my Friday I decided that I needed to take them down, but I wanted a plan first.  I didn't want to bundle them up and stick them in a box/drawer somewhere and I never through cards away - I just can't do it.

It just so happened that Ali Edwards was dealing with the same issue and discussed it on her blog which lead M.E. to go ahead and take the cards down, cut them up and scrap them.   It doesn't perserve the entire card and emotion attached to each one, but at least I have a piece of the love they were sent with.  And all the cute faces on the photo cards that are so popular now days. 

I tried to get these side by side but bloggers not letting that happen.  So what do you think?  I can't believe that I actually took them down and created this and put away in my album all in about an hour.  I just did it!  I didn't over think it, plan it, I just let it happened and perhaps I'd do it differently if to do over, but I'm not going to think about that a second. Its done and in an album. Hooray for M.E.!  See I said this nesting thing is helping M.E. get things done. 

Quick and Simple.  I cut a 2x2 inch square from each card or photo. If I needed to get more of the faces, I cut it 2x4, so it would all still come together evenly.  The more I look at it the more I love it. 

Saturday, we got up and out early for Buddy's basketball game and team pictures.  I didn't manage to get a team photo as I was trying to keep LG from escaping the building.  And I took about 8 pics during the game, but my camera just wouldn't cooperate with M.E.  All the pics were so blurry and out-of-focus, they might as well have been playing ice hockey.  Here's the only descent on I got.

Buddy again only got to play one quarter and wasn't happy about it, but it really wasn't that big of deal as we got totally creamed.  28 to 8. It was ugly. The Man could bare take the defeat standing.  He was so disappointed and it wasn't that we are super awful. Granted we have a very low scoring percentage, hince only scoring 8 points, but the other team have some star shooters. One kid hit every single shot he made. Buddy none.

It was a long afternoon.  The Man and Buddy brewing over what went on, which lead to the major purchase of an month early birthday present for Buddy.

I didn't even ask how much he spent. I just agreed it was a necessity.

And I think I've felled to mention it was like 2 degrees here Saturday. Literally 2 degrees. We have not been about freezing in a couple of weeks.  My washing machine - which is in the garage - actually froze up. ugh, but that's another post.

Here the Man and Buddy brave the cold for a few minutes to work on the goal assembly.

They could only work in 10 minute intervals because it was so cold.

I really like this one of their heads together.  They actaully worked pretty well together. Buddy was really into it and was a good listener and the Man was very patience.  Although I was playing in my scrapbook room the whole time. I heard no argueing during their warm up breaks.

Sunday we went to church then out to eat. There's this place called Jimmy's Egg and they have the most yummy food.  Then home to so the Men could work on the goal some more.  Its a little warmer today. About 20 degrees, so they actually got to work for a couple of hours, up until we headed over to our friends house to eat supper and watch the playoffs.  What a game between Green Bay and Arizona.  We rush home so I could tally the votes for the Photo of the Year and announce the winner.  That was too fun.

December Daily Album

First of all the contest was awesome. The Man and I have had so much fun looking over the pictures and comments again and again.  We will definitely be hosting some sort of new contest soon. Perhaps it'll be about the baby. Boy/Girl. Sounds like fun?

Now I'd like to update you on my December Daily Album where I left off last week.

December Daily Day 16 - before

December Daily Day 16  - after

This was a baseball card holder day and I really didn't have memorbilia to store in the pockets, so I just sliced my photos to the appropriate size to fit in the pockets. A super simple solution and easy layout.

December Daily Day 17 - before

December Daily Day 17 - after

Today was Buddy's Christmas program at school.  The highlight of the day, as I've already blogged was his tie.  Too funny.  Again this was a simple layout. I just put a journaling card and photo on the left and the group shot of him with his class on the right.

December Daily Day 18 - before

December Daily Day 18 - after

I thought the vintage paper and look of the before day 18 didn't really go with the photos I had for this day, so I swapped it out for some really cool snowflake cut paper. It's really fabulous paper, this pic doesn't do it justice.  This was the day that I baked for Buddy's Christmas party and the day we had the meningitis scare.  So I simply cut and pasted that blog entry into word and printed it out.  Its hard to see in the pic, but under the pretzel picture it says 'life here' and the story is underneath it. Also hard to see is the title "I [heart] Baking", which I do by the way.

December Daily Day 19 - before

December Daily Day 19 - after

As I've already blogged, this was Grandpa's birthday, so we headed to OKC to the National Memorial. I really wanted to have more than one of the photos from this day in the album, so I adhered them so they would flip up, instead of having multiple pages.  Here's a closer view of the what I'm talking about.

Close Up Day 19 after

Simple circle tags, give the info for that photo and lets you know to flip for more.

More December Daily to come....

THE AWARD GOES TO.............................

Presenting the

M.E. Blog Photo of the Year 2009

First Day of School

I must say I love this photo too and want to thank everyone for their votes.  It was very, very close.

Now for our lucky random voter....

"I vote for #3! Chris!"

January 7, 2010 12:46 PM

Chris please email M.E. and I will get your gift certificate to Barnes & Noble in the mail.

Thanks again for playing along and I'll be updating the goings-on around here tomorrow morning.

Extra, Extra, Extra - Photo Contest!

I'm making an executive decision about the TOP TEN photos with the Man's influence of course.

Help us chose the PHOTO OF THE YEAR by voting for your favorite by leaving a comment!!!!!!

NUMBER ONE

Buddy catches his first big fish.

NUMBER TWO

Little Guy helps Uncle work on the lawnmower back in KY.

NUMBER THREE

Buddy at the pumpkin patch.

NUMBER FOUR

First day of School.

NUMBER FIVE

Going to the pool with Nana in AZ.

NUMBER SIX

Big ice storm hits KY.

NUMBER SEVEN

LG falls asleep on the beach at Gramma's in WA.

NUMBER EIGHT

Farm Days at Preschool.

NUMBER NINE

M.E. and the boys in the Petrified Forest.

NUMBER TEN

M.E. cheering up LG.

Please leave a comment below voting for your favorite photo of 2009.  Email you friends and family and have them vote, too!  I will randomly selecting a voter to recieve a small prize for checking out the blog and voting. 

The polls will close Sunday night 8 PM Central Time, with the winner posted shortly thereafter.

Good Luck!