Friday, February 28, 2014

Good Morning from Babe!





How adorable is he in those Harry Potter glasses!?

Seriously! 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Not so Wise!

On Valentine's Day I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed! 
Yes, I know, I'm very romantic. 
And yes, I am 38 and still have all my wisdom teeth. 

Well, they were all in and there was no need to ever have them removed until I broke one. Yep, broke it bad and the dentist was really concerned an infection was going to set-up so I opted to have them taken out. 

OUCH!

Thank goodness for ice packs and pain meds, because having surgery on your mouth is so not cool. I was hurting. 

I basically laid in the recliner for 4 days with pain meds and soup to keep M.E. going. 
Thank goodness for having the Olympics to watch all day and night.  

Day 3/4 were bad.  It HURT a lot! 

Thank goodness for the Man, who was super awesome at taking care of M.E. and getting M.E. what I needed and keeping M.E. fed! 

By day 5 & 6 most of the swelling was down and the bruises were showing. 
Thanks Babe for the pic. 

Day 8 I returned to the surgeon to have the stitches removed and that hurt again and I was pretty sore until yesterday. 

Today, I'm feeling pretty good. No pain meds, no ibuprofen. Still eating mostly soft foods and resting still.  I lose energy fast, but that may be because I can. Mamaw is here. 

Yep, she flew in the day after surgery to help with the boys and M.E. and has been such a blessing. 
She has done so much for M.E. with laundry, dishes and the boys. I'm so grateful, she could come out. I would probably have an infection and/or be really sick without here having been here. 

Looking for forward to the rest of the fam coming here this weekend. 
Yay!  
I get to see my sister - it's been 4 months! 



Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Last week our oldest little Buddy turned 11. 

ELEVEN!

Everyone says it but its so true - time flies.  I can not believe I am the mom of an 11 year old.  
It can't possibly have been this long already. 

To honor our 11 year old. I gathered some photos from the past, 11 of them mostly ages 4-6! 
Oh my stars! 

December 2007 - KY

February 2008 - KY

March 2008 - Mammoth Cave 

May 2008 - KY  

 June 2008 - KY 

July 2008 - OK 

First Day of Kindergarten - August 2008 - OK 

December 2008 - New Hampshire

March 2009 - Arizona 

March 2009 - AZ 

And who could forget him sliding in the mud with the coed's at WKU's homecoming!
October 2009

11 flashbacks that make M.E. want to cry.  He's is such an awesome boy. 

Blowing out 11 candles on a Freckles frozen custard cake. Yum.  We love him so much and so proud of the little man he is becoming.  

On the phone with Nana thanking her for the 12th Man flag.  He loved it!

Happy Birthday Buddy! 
We Love You so much! 






Thursday, February 6, 2014

Project Life Confessions


We are currently already into week six of 2014, it is February already people.
And I have yet to finish a project life layout, not one.

hmmm.
I totally love PL.
I am kind of obsessed with all things PL.
So I'm asking myself why am I not actually doing it?
I completed a monthly PL album for 2012, last year I did every week. EVERY WEEK! And its soooo awesome.

But this year, 0.

I have a cool album, 70 design A pocket pages ready to go, a monthly subscription to the coolest PL kit out there from Studio Calico, and the awesomest at-home photo printer.  Seriously, its just slipping photos and cards in pockets. It's beyond simple.

I have a pinterest board full on inspiration. I have TOO many pictures of #projectlife from instagram on my phone. I read and reread many blogs about it. And enjoy all the eye candy, I can handle.

And yet, I'm completely unmotivated to move forward here at home, in our little corner of OK.

I have several theories. [Insert the Man rolling his eyes here as to say "of course, she has a theory or two"]

Theory 1 - My scrap space while not completely organized & clean but totally functional is now in the quilted-off playroom, now know as the "deep freeze".  Our playroom/sunroom/scraproom/dining room is a poorly insulated boxed in porch with 14 windows on the north side of the house.  Out of necessity we have hung quilts up to block off this room completely from the house.   Our energy bill will reflect this and we will be happy about it.

Therefore with the current temperature outside in the teens and the house at 68, the scrap area is a balmy 49 degrees. I kid you not. Buddy used his science class energy kit's thermometer to gather that data for M.E.

I know, I know, I'm kind of whining when so many people don't even have a scrap area.
And believe M.E. I'm extremely grateful for the Man who supports M.E. in trying to document our boys as they are growing up.   He gets it even if he's not into it and let's M.E. have this space.

With that said, my fingers and toes and nose, don't want anything to do with the area of the house, its just too cold.


Theory 2 - I'm kind of feeling like I'M not really getting it. I'm just sticking photos and cards in pockets, which is what's so wonderful about Project Life right, but at the same time, I'm not capturing IT, our life.

I'm not capturing the stories.
I'm not capturing the feelings.
I'm just getting photos off my phone so we know what we did. It's become a chronological timeline of this, then this, then we did this, and we went here and etc. etc. etc.

It doesn't feel authentic. gasp. I said it. I'm not being authentic.

So, I'm reevaluating.  I still think pocket scrapbooking it the WAY to go!  I still love all things PL, but I'm going to have to get more stories and more feelings it. Maybe more eye candy for pause and breathe and balance.  Just because I have 1500 pictures on my iPhone doesn't mean that I have to use them all.  Taking photos has become so convenient with smartphone technology, I take dozen daily for what ever reason.  I take these photos because its something I liked, a moment I wanted to capture, something to put here on the blog or on Instagram, inspiration, or something funny.

I don't think all these photos need to go in PL or do they?!

It's the little bits and pieces that the boys and I are going to want to remember, right?  I mean I've never been into scrapping events, holidays and such.  What I have always liked scrapping is the little things that I know I totally would have forgotten or already have.

For example, I snapped this photo as a reference for the Man so he could get new uniforms for the baseball team to match. It's a reference photo - insignificant, right?

Turns out they no longer have this particular style of baseball uniform and the whole team will likely have to get new ones so they all match. Therefore it'll likely never be worn again and now that I have a photo, I can slip it into PL and bam, its preserved forever.

But here's the next questions?  Will I or Buddy or anyone who ever opens my PL care what his baseball uniform looked like in the 4th grade?

I don't know, and its these little decisions that make M.E. crazy.

But what I do know is that writing all this here has already helped M.E. realize a thing or two.  I've been focused about getting these photos off the phone and I'm forgetting to include the why, the reason, the WORDS, the STORY!

It's not about embellishments (even though they are so cool) and its not just about getting the photos in or about color schemes and blah, blah, blah.  It's about who we are and although a photo may capture 1000 words somethings they need a narrator, an introduction, a conclusion, a frame-of-reference or explanation.

I want to look back on these albums and see, feel and experience 2014!

So here's to writing more, here's to journaling and here's to trying to capture a week at a time or maybe a moment at a time. And maybe just going with the FLOW!

Thanks for reading!



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

This Photo and Babe


This photo of our wedding days hangs in our living room - going on 5 years now.  (Sorry for the angle, I was trying avoid glare) 

Babe has looked at it and mentioned it a couple times.  
Just now he comes to me with tears in his eyes,   "Mommy, in the picture you were dressed up and you got married?  Why?"
ME "that's what you do when you love someone, grow up and get married have babies" 
Babe "but I don't want you to get dressed-up and get married.  You get married you don't come back"
ME "come back? I'm right here.  I married Daddy and had your brothers and you.  I didn't go anywhere"
Babe "mommy why?  If you get married you don't come back"

I repeated the same answer again.  

Babe "you came back?" 
ME "yes"
Babe "okay" and off he goes to play! 

I have zero clue what he meant by this conversation.  But he was so sincere and concerned.  Too sweet!  

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Snow

Snow coming down this morning!   
Here's a pic from 9:30 AM...
Big fat fluffy flakes, I don't think this was in the forecast! 
 
Here's a pic a couple hours later...
The Man said a good 2 inches.  
The boys of course were out and about in it.  Although at 23 degrees they didn't stay long and came in for hot chocolate right away! 
Happy Snowy Super Bowl Sunday!