Thursday Thoughts

1.  For the record, I do know how to spell baby, B-A-B-Y.  I just prefer to call the fetus in my womb babe, B-A-B-E.  The Man actually thought my spelling was that bad.

2.  I think the Babe has been trying some I-think-I-can gymnastics maneuver.   For the majority of this pregnancy it has been pretty much laying sideways, head on my left side, feet kicking and poking M.E. in the right. However night before last, yesterday and even today, I'm feeling it kicking & poking all over. Its too early to getting head down, but I think it's trying something.

3.  Who is this kid?

I love his goofiness and encourage it often. 

4.  One of our neighbors and I'm not sure which one has gotten a new big dog or is dog sitting, a big dog.  I know this because at random points throughout the day and night, there is continous, annoying barking.  A hazard of town life, your neighbors are too close. 

5. Yesterday was pajama day for LG. 

He was a little excited and a little anixous.   When we arrived at school and he took one look at his teacher, who was wearing a 'christmas story' inspired pink bunny sleeper complete with a cotton tail, he quickly decided he didn't want to be at school with such crazy people, nor did he want them looking at him in his pajamas.  It took M.E. nearly 45 minutes to get him engaged in an activity so I could leave.  At pick up, they said he was fine and thought he enjoyed the day after the strangness wore off. Go figure!

6.  I do not understand why the city or state decide to work on two major, parallel and adjacent streets at the same time.  Leaving my neighbor to go south I've got construction on both the streets east and west.  It took M.E. way too long to get to Walmart and back yesterday.

7.  The library books I inter-library-loaned are waiting for M.E. at the library. woo-hoo. I love it when I get those emails.

8.  Buddy won two Olympics metals.

The gold is for Men's Snowboarding and the silver for Men's hockey.  I asked how the weather was in Vancouver and he informed M.E. it was just pretend.  He was very proud anyhow and proceed to make up events last night for the Man, M.E. and LG to win.  For some reason the Man always won the gold.  Also, I must google the meanings behind the ring colors.  The Man thought they represent the continents, but um.. there are 6 participating continents not 5 and I think they represent morals like unity, peace, love, etc.  I'll let you know what I find out.

9.  Trophy Night for Basketball.

I manage one and only one picture of this event.   But hey it turned out pretty good.  

10.  This morning I got an email that my camera had been shipped, then lo and behold, when the Man opened the front door to go to work, there it sat on the porch.  It was likely there all night.  It wasn't scheduled to be here until Monday. so woo-hoo.

Now I just have to figure out how to use the thing. 

11.  According to wikipedia - the five Olympic rings represent the five (inhabited) continents of the world: Africa, America (north and south being one), Asia, Europe and Oceania (including Australia).  Dang, the Man was right.  Let the record show I did admit he was right and that this is a very rare, very rare moment in the history of my blog.

12. Now LG and I are off to meet said, Right Man for lunch - where I'm sure there will be much gloating.

a Week in the Life Project

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm so inspired by everything, I want to do a thousand project but can't.  I had really hoped to do another daily month book (like Christmas), but settled on doing a Week in the Life project which would capture the week leading up to Buddy's birthday and I'm happy to report that all but the last page is finished. I'm super excited.

I'm not a big event scrapbooker, more of a moment, daily life type gal, so this fit M.E. perfect + it captured an event at large - a birthday.  I plan on doing one each week for all of our birthdays this year and calling it the birthday album of sorts. well, I think this might be the plan. 

So here goes....

a Week in the Life - Feb 2010 - Buddy's Birthday

Opening Page

I punched circles from the scraps pieces of photos from the week.  I used the computer for my main page design each day, just changed the journaling, added the photo, title and stamps.

Day 1 - Thursday

Each day has a enlarged 5x7 photo from the day and the journaling is almost one big long run-on sentence about what we did today.  I wrote the journal to Buddy from M.E.  So it reads like a letter.

Day 1 - facing page

Here I used a baseball card holder and filled the pockets with pictures from the day, note cards (which are currently blank), and other snippets of our lives.

Day 1 - continued (this is the back of previous page)

Here I added some of Buddy's favorite valentines that he received from his friends.  It'll be cool to look back just in a few years to see what was popular with the 1st grade crowd and also that we weren't the only ones who made homemade ones.

Facing page -filler

To make the album flow better with two page spreads, I needed some filler and what better filler than from Buddy's backpack.  It captures his creativity and here his coloring skills.

Day 2 - Friday

Sorry this pic is blurry, some did great, some did not.  Its not the camera either, it was M.E.  So here we have the second day of the week with some journaling about our day of from school.  Alot of the journaling for this project came straight from the blog.  Love it.

Day 2 - facing page

Here I've got all kinds of pictures from the day, the reciept from where LG bought Star Wars Lego the game and because it was the first day of the Olympics and that's a big deal, I downloaded the icon from the internet and printed it out. Its not top quality, but at least its a visual representation that I'm sure Buddy will always remember.

Day 3 - Saturday

Because I'm using the back of the previous page, this spread flows from right to left, but it works.  Here I include more reciepts from Buddy's party and a piece of a lego box that one of his presents was in - just because he loved it.

Day 3 - facing page

The birthday boys and journaling. I had to tweak this layout a bit for the portrait orientation of the photo. If I'd planned alittle better I would have had it printed landscape, but oh well.

Day 4 - Sunday

filler page displaying Buddy's math skills.  I think these homework/school papers fit in this project perfectly.

Day 4 - facing page

Valentines artwork he did for M.E. - that was a must for the project.

Day 4 - Sunday

Having the basic design for each layout in a word document made this all so easy to go in each day and erase the previous journal, type the new, save as, & print. 

Day 4 - facing page

More snippets of life.

Day 5 - Monday

Again the spread goes from right to left, I got to include some receipt, the tag from his new (cheap) GAP school pants, along with pictures.  I have two blank spots on this page, that I'm going to have to be very creative and come up with something to filled them. Likely, digging in his backpack again.

Day 5 - facing page

 Journaling from the blog.

Day 5 - continued

A worksheet about President's Day, as it was president's day.  Buddy talked alot about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, so I only thought it fitting to include it.  He was so stoked to find out Ab Lincon was born in KY.  He thought it was so rad.

Day 5 - continued

Filler page, list of spelling words for the week.

Day 6 - Tuesday - His Birthday

I had to go with this pic just because, well, it had M.E. in it.

Day 6 - facing page

Lots of stuff to include today - like a portion of the package Mamaw sent (its has her handwriting love it), some of my pics were too much for the small card size, so I made two cards out of them instead.  Hey it worked.  I also included reciepts from the pizza place and the game cards the boys used.  

Day 6 - continued

More pics from the pizza place to show off what all we did. 

The next bunch of filler is all the cards he got from school and in the mail (well, actually some of his cards are still on the frig, but I will just punch holes in them and add them later).

Day 7 - Wednesday

The last day of the project is the same as the others.  I've not got all the pics developed for the last card holder page, so its not quite complete, but so, so close. 

This project was super easy. I mean E*A*S*Y!  If anyone is interested in my templates or more info just email M.E. and I can email them to you.  They are all just word documents.  And this project could be done anytime of year or any reason or no reason at all. I'd love to do one the week of the babe arriving, but seeing hows I don't know when that will be, it won't happen. 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Uncle!

We love and miss you!

Wounded LG!

This morning LG, being the climbing monkey that he is, fell off the end of the couch.   He hurts his elbow.

Thus requiring he remove his left sock and hold it on his boo-boo as a bandage.

He thinks its broken.

Its been about an hour.  He has stamina.

The boo-boo!

Sorry the pic is blurry, but I wanted to get close to the slightly red spot on his elbow.  Don't think we'll be going to the doctor over this one. LOL!

What I did today!

Monday is my clean house day, and believe M.E. it was flithy after us being lazy and home all weekend.  And then for some reason I got the crazy notion of cleaning out the boys pie safe.   First of all I love pie safes.  They only take one hand to open and once open you can see everything, making selections easier.  I have one for the boys room and one for M.E.
Recall this picture from last September.  LG sitting in a big mess of books.  Use your imagination of what the pie safe looked like after he managed to stuff all those back in there.  Not neat, not pretty, a mess. The top shelf was reserved for all their t-shirts, shorts and pajamas.  Another mess as it was crammed in there and the Man never knew which was Buddy's or LG's.

With the babe coming, I knew it was time to get more organized with this mess and Buddy is really starting to take the responsiblity of changing his clothes after school and on the weekends, but as it is now, I have to lay them out for him, as they were on the top shelf and in the top of his closet, out of his reach. No more!

The top shelf is currently blank, I'll likely put church clothes/cubscout things up there. The second shelf is Buddy - t-shirts, shorts, pants.  The third shelf is LG - t-shirts, long sleeves, shorts and pants. The bottom shelf pajamas.  Buddy only has one pair and they are dirty so his side is empty.  I'm so pleased with it.  So Mamaw & Nana take notes...... You'll be doing laundry when you get here after the babe comes.  This is what the boys pie safe should look like! LOL!

So what did I do with all the books?  I sorted them.  Favorites, not-so-favorite, & broke/damaged.

I tossed the broke/damaged - it was hard to do, but I did it.  The not-so-favorite I bagged up to give away, the favorites, I sorted again to loved and not really read that much and only kept the loved.  It was difficult to part with these books, believe M.E.  I wound up with two grocery sacks full of give aways and immediately took them to the van.  No second guessing myself on my selection or letting the boys see them when they got home from school. 

I placed the little ones in a clear shoe box tub facing out and put the bigger ones on the bottom shelf of the little bookshelf in their room.  I had already gathered the Dr. Suess ones out for Buddy. 

I can't beleive I did it.  With them being next to the bed and more visible, I think they will stay neater and just the reduced number will be fabulous.  LG was so excited.  He actually looked at a couple and put them right back. woo-hoo.  We definitley need to read more as a family. Perhaps this will help.

This however does not include the 30+ coloring/activity books that I unearthed.  I honestly don't know where they all came from.  They are now in two messy piles at the end of the hall awaiting my decision to either donate, toss or keep.  I can't decided.  I'll let them lay there another day until I'm sick of looking at them.

It has been ordered!

It was a hard decision and alot of money, but I'm sure it'll be worth it, when I can take beautiful pics for M.E. & you.

LG went to a party!

It rained all day today and it just made us all want to snuggle and be cozy - which we did for the majority of the day. 
Buddy and I finally ventured out to go to Micheals for some sticker for his birthday thank you notes and we went by the game store to look at spending his birthday money.  He decided to wait on buying a game.  *Note - I didn't buy anything at Micheals. I was very proud of myself.

Later on, it was time for LG to go to the big birthday party of one of his classmates.  He was so excited about this - LG LOVES PARTIES!  It was at a bouncey place with lots of inflatiables, jumpy things.  I never managed to get a good pic of him coming down the slide, he was too fast, but he had a blast.

He would later get himself tangled up in a rope jungle gym thingy and have to be rescued by the birtday boys dad.  He was really tangled up and was starting to panic when we realized the situation. He was not hurt or anything, just scared, but even that didn't last long.

Here he is awaiting his piece of cake, with his root beer.

I can't get over how big he is. 

LG and the birthday boy!

LGs classmates at the party.

Too fun!

LG fell asleep on the way home and wound up sleeping the entire night through. 14+ hours. wow!

The Man and Buddy spent their evening at the $1 movies and watched Planet 51.  Buddy was so excited about his date with the Man, he's talked about it alot in the last couple of days.

Makes M.E. happy!

Points of Interest from Last Week!

After talking with Mamaw tonight, I realized I neglected to post the about my last doctors visit (which was Thursday).

THURSDAY

Baby Dr. Appt - All's well with the babe!  Blood work came back normal, blood pressure is good, and I'm gaining weight with the best of them.  My doctor and midwife (I alternate between the two) are both very pleased and considering my pregnancies with the boys are most likely going to let M.E. go into labor on my own anytime after 37 weeks, which I'll be on April 9, so anytime after that - although I'm not offically due until the 30th.  woo-hoo!  I'm very excited about this possiblity. I just want to know the babe is ready and let its birth date be out of our control.
Btw, I've gained 37 pounds, I didn't weight this much in Buddy pregnancy until about 34 weeks, so I'm looking to break his record of gaining 60+ lbs.  With LG, I was too busy to write anything down, so I've no idea where I was or what was going on with that pregnancy. Its mostly a blur.

After the doctors appt. LG and I went to Barnes&Noble. LG loves this place and calls it the 'library', sad I know. We had to get a present for one of his little friends birthday and I quickly went to the scrapbook/craft section and grabbed a handful of books to browse while he played at the train table.  And it was inevitable that I found a book that I loved and just had to have. 

The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara R. Call

LOVE THIS BOOK!  Its not about scrapbooking and the author is not young & hip, (sorry but she's not), but the messages and the exercises are thought provoking, which is the whole point of the book - to be a start point to jump start inspiration and get you creating ART.  I'm only 80 pages in and I'm really enjoying it.  The Man recognized that I was reading a new book, but didn't complain about M.E. spending his money.  I have not spent any money on scrapbooking supplies in awhile and I'll have this book forever.  FOREVER!

Thursday night, the Buddy and I went to a special high school version of our church youth group that I volunteer at regularly.  It was the first time for him to get to hang out in the 'lounge' with the big kids.  (normally he plays in the gym or goes to childcare) He was beside himself watching the big kids play the wii and pool and listen to their intellectual conversations about book, movies and music.  It was fun for M.E. too as I got to spent some quality one-on-one time with him.  We even played an exciting game of air hockey complete with lots of laughs. Buddy won!

FRIDAY

I don't know if I've mentioned this but we have a Moms group at church for Moms of Preschoolers and we meet once a month and naturally I'm the coordinator this year, so I got the wise idea of having a date night for the moms and their hubbies, and tonight was the night. I was sooooo excited.

The Man even spruced up for the occasion and the boys helped.  Love these pictures so much.

The Man is brave!

Buddy's turn!

The Man is cool and they know it.

For the first time, they actually look alot alike in this picture.  Normally I don't think they look much alike, but here they do. 

Later on - you know you've got a good babysitter, when the boys stand, sit, & jump on the curb waiting for her to get here to play the new Star Wars lego game on the wii.  Yeah, she is pretty cool.

I'd love to know what they are talking about out there.

Unfortunately once we got to the restaurant, I totally forgot about pictures and socialized up a storm.  We had a fabulous time and after dinner, the Man and I headed to a local pottery shop to paint some pottery.  Awesome!

SATURDAY

This was our first Saturday in months that we didn't have any engagments.

WOO-HOO! PAJAMA DAY! 

The entire family stayed in their pajamas and we didn't leave the house.  I think Buddy went outside to play ball a couple of times, but other than that we laid around, watched the Olympics and played games.  Buddy beat the Man in cribbage again!

I did manage to take this pic of my banana pudding cups I made for dessert.

They were yummy!