Tuesday

Today Megan, Trevor and I are venturing into the Nati for dental appointments. Between the cleanings and going back for cavity stuff I feel that is about all we do lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be able to get them there and have their teeth taken care of, but with three kids sometimes it feels like every other week is some sort of dental thing. This should be the last for at least another six months. Whew.

So I treated Matthew to McDonalds on his way to school this morning. He loves sausage McGriddles. He'd eat them all the time if he could. So knowing he'd be a little bummed at walking into school by himself and that he has to stay at a friend's house after school until we get back.... it was a treat. It was also fun to just have him in the car while we had a little car picnic.

There is a longer, scenic road that we can take that eventually comes out near the school. When we stop at McDonalds any other time and want to take our time coming back we'll take this road. It is full of hills, lined with beautiful white fencing for miles, beautiful horse farms and big giant trees. It's so rural and pretty. We took this road this morning which made for a lot of time for Matthew and I to talk. He's pretty chatty. He even at one point asked me if he talked too much.

But he made me laugh this morning. It's funny when you can tell what they are learning about in school. We passed an old cemetarty which reminded him of something he saw about President Lincoln. He went on and on about the memorial in D.C., how he was the 16th president, how he's on the penny AND the 5 dollar bill.... and anything else you'd want to know about Lincoln. I was pretty impressed actually. So he starts to tell me how only special presidents are allowed on money.

disclaimer: this has nothing to do with political views, and no hidden agenda. I just thought it was funny coming from a very serious 6 year old.

He says that he hopes that our new president... President Obama... will be put on the Chuck E. Cheese tokens. Now trust me, to him that's quite an honor.

sunday

These are both a product of some severe insomnia earlier this week. I started the week in review kind of thing one night around 2:00 in the morning. It was a night I never ended up going to bed and just cruised through until bedtime the next night. UGH. It was nice though, because the layout kept me busy for the rest of the week by having to go back and journal a bit about the day. I may do a few of these over the next couple of months. They are fun, and my favorite way of scrapping some photos that I didn't have any other plans for.

The little bit of journaling on the one with Megan is something I've had written down on a loose piece of paper that I meant to use for her baby book. (Which I will end up finishing someday... hopefully before any of my kids have babies of their own!) but it seemed to fit pretty well with this page, even though wow, she's looking so big in that photo. And the bonus is it helps me with finally getting my journaling stuff I've been saving forever more organized by being able to throw away ONE more loose paper! Yay!

Thankfully the insomnia has taken care of itself later in the week. Now according to Megan I am having no trouble sleeping because she says I snore. Imagine! LOL.

weekend

A sneaky peek at a layout I'm working on that I'll post tomorrow... not that I'm Ali Edwards or anything an you all are waiting for something from me to inspire you... lol, but I had to take a picture for something for today. I went with Megan's pillow from IKEA. I guess it's proof she's growing up because she's wanting her room to be more black and white, with her light blue bedspread now. With little bits of bright color... as she says.... 'anything but pink.' She has black and white furniture, and curtains that match this pillow. It really does look nice and serene in her room.

But I have to wait and see what I write in my little square for Sunday before I'm done with my layout.

It's cold today. Right now I'm watching it snow right outside my window. Which is fine because we're all tucked inside due to Megan being sick. She was up all last night with a fever. Trevor and Matthew actually were at a friends' house before the snow moved in, so we've all been busy today with something. It's a nice change from last weekend when our house seemed to have a revolving door with kids coming over to play. I don't mind, but it's nice to have an excuse for a quiet and cozy weekend.

We were all in bed at 9:30 last night, which is shocking for us on a Friday night. It had been a long week for the kids at school so they were all worn out, Megan was getting sick and I have been suffering from insomnia all week. It finally hit me last night, so I took advantage of being sleepy. I can't remember the last time I went to bed that early!

Thursday

No you aren't crazy, you've seen another version of this before. But does a layout re-do from me really surprise you? Haha!

I was doing some post move organizing this week and found the actual bunny! So I took a picture of him.

Today has been weird. Yesterday we went to sleep with everything normal outside. After we woke up this morning the ground was covered with snow. Then what was supposed to be early flurries turned into full fledged snow with huge flakes! It's so pretty, and still the kids and I get all giddy about it. But.... after getting the kids ready and waiting inside for the bus to drive by, we noticed it kept getting later and later. Other kids were still standing out at another bus stop, so I knew we hadn't missed it.

I decided to get in the car and take them since Trevor was worried he'd miss his field trip today. As I'm leaving I see a neighbor wave me down and find out that she had just gotten a call from the school and was out telling her kids to come back inside. We ended up with a 2 hour delay since the road was icy. Unfortunately Trevor's field trip was cancelled too. He wasn't very happy about that. They were going to the Cincinnati Science Museum, which is in the most beautiful art deco train station. I couldn't wait to hear about it. But it will be rescheduled....

The strange thing is, after a two hour delay and catching snowflakes this morning, as soon as the bus came the sun came out and melted everything. You'd never know we had about an inch of snow.

**OK new favorite thing in the world. Skype. It is so nice to talk to mike on the computer with our little camera thingies. For free. Can't beat that. But it's a great way for us to keep in touch. We can ring each other whenever we want. Technology is awesome!! Hard to believe he can be a world away and we can still talk. Thank you Skype!

It's GO TIME.

I got this picture of Matthew today. His little face is under there somewhere. - Mike and I went to Indiana today to meet a friend for lunch. On the way there we stopped at the Gap outlet, where I found this awesome little hat for .50. It's perfect. It's blue (matthew's favorite color) and

it has funky things sticking out of the top similar to Trevor's hat that he loves. Now he has his own. :)

He's in this stage right now where he's too tough to smile for me, so I'm getting a lot of photos like this lately. But I love that he's still not too tough to where he can't be holding on to one of his favorite monkeys. There is ALWAYS something in that hand.

We just got back from the airport.... a new chapter is beginning as of today.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Edited to add: Um, yeah it must have been the stress from sitting down last minute to do the kid's valentines for school tomorrow. I just realized that tomorrow isn't actually valentine's day. But hey, it doesn't change that I still love ya! I just love ya a little earlier.

Happy Valentine's day. This isn't usually a day I get too excited about.... but last month when I replaced a box on my kitchen countertop that is my catch all for to go menus, phone numbers, etc. I found this rock again. I always know the rock is there because with every move we've ever made I just know it's in the kitchen. It really should have a more prominent spot in my house now that I think about it.

When Mike and I were dating (holy cow, nearly 20 years ago!) He went on a vacation with his parents to Oregon. He spent some time walking up and down the coast, and found this rock on the beach and brought it home to me. It has the most perfect little heart carved out of the middle of it by years of water and erosion. Nature is just so cool sometimes.

I'd also like to say that even though I'm not a fan of the day itself.... I am a fan of reminding the people in my life that I love.... that I do love them. And appreciate them, and feel lucky to have them in my life. Family and friends. I love you all so much!

P.S. Also happy Arizona Statehood Day to all you AZ folk. Go eat some mexican food for me in celebration will you? Then just don't tell me about it. ;) Or at least let me smell your breath.

I love IKEA

We went to IKEA the other day to pick up a few things for Megan's room. Mainly some window coverings to block out some of the light from the streetlamp out in the front of our house. So we bought some pretty curtains and some iron rods to dress it up a bit. This little paper falls out, and I just died laughing. Megan asked me what was so funny. Fortunately I have to admit that putting the rods up on -already existing from the previous owners supports above the windows- made it easy for me to put up the curtain rods up in a snap.

But anybody who has ever bought a piece of furniture from IKEA knows that the smiling man in the picture would be better drawn as what ALWAYS happens after thinking you got such a good deal on something, yet realized it would have been easier and cheaper as far as frustration goes to have bought something from Ethan Allen instead, had it delivered and set up in the room the piece was intended for.

If I drew these instructions, there would be steam coming from the ears. The man would not be smiling. In fact he'd probably have already stabbed that IKEA allen wrench you get with purchase in between his eyes. And there would be a speech balloon above his little stick man fists that said something like, "%*$&(#!!!!!!!!" But still.... despite the number of times we've lived through a lesson of IKEA furniture, I still love the place. I love anyplace that you can buy a dresser, a mirror and a bag of meatballs.

Happy Monday!

Ever just have one of those days?

My alarm went off to a new U2 song this morning. That's always a good start! Then I went to Target to get some household goodies....shampoo and conditioner and Valentines for Trevor. (I still have all of my super 90% off valentines from last year for megan and matthew. Trevor is in that in between, not sure what is cool for a 3rd grade boy to give out stage, so I waited to find his until this year.) and fun stuff like that. But oh man it felt good to be in Target this morning. :)

On the way there (it's not as convenient as it was in Phoenix, it's about a 20 minute drive for me now. I know! GASP!) I had my sunroof open (snow is gone and it's beautiful out today!) but all the way there the radio station that I listen to must have gotten into my ipod. Another U2 song, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Linkin Park, a favorite Beck song of mine.... and LUMP from the Presidents. Which I haven't heard in awhile, but that song and Peaches always makes me smile from ear to ear for some reason. On the way home: Green Day, Garbage and THE FOO. Today just rocks. Plain and simple. And me alone in my little car to have it up loud.

Enjoy today!

We're being invaded!

Guess what? Matthew isn't the only child in the world without a Star Wars Lego set anymore. At least that's what he believed up until yesterday. All I've heard about is Star Wars lately. The regular Lego guys (all the city workers and pilots he has) in his mind were storm troopers and stuff. But since he did so well yesterday at his dentist appointment (he was hurting pretty bad...it was a little more than a cavity filling.) I treated him to a quick trip to get him a little surprise on the way home.

He slept with these stormtroopers in his hand last night. He's even home with me today since he looks like he got sucker punched by a cheese grater on his lip, and his head is still a little sore. He has not put these things down.

Apparently though, I don't play Star Wars right. I play like a girl. When I'm the storm troopers, instead of shooting at anything with the 'pew pew' noise, I have them all planning a party at Vader's on Saturday night where Bob the stormtrooper has to check with the wife, and asks if he can bring a pie. Joe is bringing hot dogs and the other guy is bringing the buns.

"Moooomy.... that's not right." But he's trying not to laugh. Maybe Vader can ask the good guys to join them. They all need to get along.

Thrusday - for you old timer peas.

A couple that I did last night - I'm staying up way too late, but for some reason as tired as I feel during the day I am an insomniac at night! I swear it's because I hate any amount of light, and the snow outside along with the streetlamp make it look like it's daytime in the middle of the night. I need a new sleep mask!

I was copying down the journaling for Matthew's page from a journal I used to write in. I realized that even 6 years later this boy is the same exact way about water. Only now he knows better about doing it in the house, but he's still like that when we go to a pool. He's never been afraid of water. It's funny how some of the personality traits kids have they were born with and keep forever.

Speaking of Matthew, he is home from school today. We're about to head into Cincinnati to have a couple of cavities filled at the dentist. I think we have found the most perfect pediatric dental group, because they make everything so stress free for the kids. He's actually looking forward to going. I bet he'll be a little loopy on the ride home, which is why I figured he'd be better off out of school today. We'll have a little lunch and then head out. Like old times.

More snow + one more layout!

Just when you think it's done, somebody has come along and shaken the snowglobe again. Not just a little shake, but stuck it in one of those paint mixers at Home Depot.

We're getting hit with another storm and I can barely see my neighbor's house. Want to take bets on whether or not tomorrow is a snow day? At least it is pretty to look at and we're warm. :)

BTW, these photos of matthew are from several years ago. I'm trying to catch up on 2006 right now.

Monday

Two for the night. I've been working on some pages with a lot of writing... I'm hoping to get this stuff down before I manage to forget it all. I forget my name half the time. I know these both look totally the same, but they are going in different albums.

I've always been pretty good about either blogging or writing things down in a journal, so I've been lucky enough to have the stories down somewhere. My goal this year is to pare down on my stack of random papers that I've written these things down on.

I was going through these papers earlier and matching photos on the computer with them, so I could write down the dates and hopefully come up with a better way to organize these things. It's so weird to see how much the kids have grown even since 2005 and 2006! Then I'll go through my older photos and find things that weren't great photos to begin with, and I was probably just playing around with my camera out of boredom, but then seeing the photos would bring back a flood of memories. It just proves to me that taking pictures of everyday things are the ones that I like to look back on the most. That's how the whole 'waiting' page came about. There are parts of my everyday life from before that I miss, or phases that I never thought I'd live to see the end of. (Diapers, terrible twos....) mainly that stuff that you feel you'll never see the end of when you are in the trenches with it at the time.

And man, life goes by so fast!

I don't think I'm in love with this one. Maybe because I didn't start out with kraft paper. ;) That's a hard habit to break for me. I also want to add some sort of real scrapping element to the left of "YOU" to add some more depth after this page is printed out.

My kids ALL went back to school today! Can you feel my enthusiasm?!?!

Proof that my kids are whack. You would think this was a springtime photo. Nope... that's from today. How is it they can go from one extreme to the other is beyond me.

saturday

Just in case you were sick of snow pictures..... here's a doughnut. A happy sprinkle doughnut. Who doesn't like doughnuts?!?!

It's finally the weekend, even though it really has no bearing in this house since.... the kids have been off of school, Mike is still here and doesn't go to work on Monday (yet!) and my day is usually the same. Why is it just the thought of it being the weekend is so nice still?

Hoping to catch up on some housework today. Maybe take some photos....

anyway.... happy weekend to everybody!

3 more for the day.

I told Lisa I would post some of the stuff I've been working on this week. I know you've all seen a ton of snow photos and are probably sick to death of them. ;) But.... this is what makes me a fan of digital. I was able to do three pages about our first official winter storm, a story that begins our new year here and heck, I already feel like I've got three solid pages for 2009 to start a new album.

I was feeling kind of lost for a couple of weeks that I hadn't been taking many photos. It seemed like every time I opened my photos the 2009 folder had ONE photo of something I sold on ebay. It looked kind of sad. I'm used to taking many more photos than I have been. We've been home so much lately and even Megan is starting to turn on me when it comes to me wanting to take photos. What happened?!?! She was always my go to girl when it came to taking pictures!

Matthew and Trevor I usually have to be a little more sneaky about. Luckily I haven't had to resort to bribery quite yet!

P.S. In the last layout I took out street names for the big bad web. ;)

no title ideas whatsoever.

The sun is out and blue sky in the front of my house, but white sky behind our house, with flurries. I feel like the Adam's Family house right now. Like one cloud is hanging over our house. Or maybe I live in a snow globe. It's interesting and so incredibly gorgeous to look at! I must be somewhat acclimated because it doesn't even feel painfully cold when I go outside for anything right now. I feel like my froggies when I clean their tank and they have to float in a Tupperware thingie so their water is the same temperature before they get to jump back in.

I have been busy with some journaling heavy pages the past week. Mainly they are pictures that have stressed me out for a long time, or haven't gotten around to, or just didn't have time to sit down and write a ton of details and stories. I'll have more to post in a bit, but blogger won't let me post them all in one bunch and I have a dryer dinging at me right now waiting for another load of laundry. It feels kind of good to have some of these behind me now. Hey, I even pulled out some paper to do some more work in my blog album and some pages for photos I've had printed. Snow days are good for the scrapper's soul (and mojo!) that's for sure!

The sun is out!

A few more photos for the fam. It has been a really nice day. A lot of relaxing, playing and spending time together. The snow finally stopped and the sun came out. That is so strange, but incredibly beautiful. The snowplow trucks are going up and down the streets starting to dig people out. As soon as the snow stopped there has been a ton of outdoor activity! Including us.

This photo is from yesterday. I tossed some cans of coke out onto the deck before lunch. When we were sitting down to eat I told them to look outside and see what the coke fairy brought us! When it snows, and you've been very good and the fairy knows that you can't get to McDonalds for a soda, she brings you perfectly and naturally chilled cans of soda. Isn't Kentucky great?! I love coke fairy.

Snowed in. We're not going anywhere anytime soon.

I'm cautiously happy this morning about what we woke up to. Last night there was a lot of sleet coming down, making everything slippery. Ice on top of snow is naaaastay. The entire street and yard looked like a zamboni had been driving around. This morning we are having crazy snow on top of that ice. It looks like we're not going ANYWHERE for a few days. We are officially snowed in. Photos do absolutely no justice to what it really is like out there. But here is my attempt.

I'm feeling very lucky since this is worse than it was expected to be, and we have power. This was from Cincinnati.com this morning:

Power outages this morning are fluctuating between 14,000 and 22,000 as customers wake up and realize their power is off, said spokeswoman Johnna Reeder. Most of the outages are south of the Ohio River in Northern Kentucky and in Hamilton and Clermont counties.

Duke Energy has supplemented about 500 full-time utility workers with 800 additional workers from the Carolinas and Akron, Reeder said.The utility canceled plans to bring in another 900 people because not as much ice accumulated overnight as originally predicted, particularly in Northern Kentucky, she said.“I am not saying what we did see isn’t major but it’s not the kind of ice that we expected,” she said.

Police and firefighters across Northern Kentucky are busy this morning dealing with downed power lines blocking roads. Covington Police closed the 200 block of Garrard Street because of numerous trees had fallen in the street. There are about 4,000 Duke Energy customers without power in Northern Kentucky this morning, said Reeder. "As limbs continue to break, that number could go up," she said. The outages included about 2,000 in Kenton County, about 700 in Boone County and about 100 in Campbell County.

We're in Boone County. So that line in the article made me realize that sitting here snowed in my house with power is an amazing thing. We can ride this out. *Knock on wood* we're all cozy, have plenty of food and lots of games to play. :)

Snow day #2!!

Yesterday we had a snow day, but the roads were so perfect and we needed to go to Costco, so we all went to Cincinnati for the day. The snow days when you aren't stuck at home are kind of nice. It's like being given a free day for the kids. I think they were expecting this big winter storm to have hit earlier than it did.

But last night it came!! I stayed up until after 1:00 to watch it snow. They were the biggest flakes I've ever seen and it was beautiful. I need to have a cozy chair to put in front of a window for future snowstorms. I don't think I'll ever get sick of watching it snow.

We got 5 - 6 inches last night, and there is more on the way tonight. So we are banking on another snow day tomorrow! Here is Megan, on her way to a friend's house standing in the middle of the street. It's weird because in some areas you can't tell where your yard ends, the sidewalk is or where the street is. So our tree in our front yard that usually has a mound of dirt on it and also our gauge for how much snow there really is.... looks like it's sitting out in the middle of the street when you are looking at it from inside the house. Trevor and I think that is pretty cool.


My street. Is it silly that I would love to roll down that hill into a big snowball like you see in cartoons?

Time for a new game. Torture the dog. Toss a ball out into the snow and watch it disappear. Then watch the dog go nuts. She found it once and brought it back to me. Only to lose it again. I suppose we'll find it sometime next week. Later I'll take her out again with her popped soccer ball so she at least has a sporting chance of finding it.

It's hard to get her in after letting her out to play. She loves the snow.

We're such geeks. I even tossed a few cans of soda out on the deck to chill so we can find them again at lunchtime. We're just keeping things interesting around here. ;)