the newest member of our family!

I really hope i'm not stepping on anyone's feet right now but i just wanted to share, expecially for our family who doesn't know yet.

Naudia is a big sister!!! Melissa and Jeff had their baby yesterday (January 30th). A adorable baby boy. 7 weeks early. 5 pounds even and 19 inches long. He's doing fair. He's on a oxygen tube but doing very well for being 7 weeks early. And Melissa is doing well.

They named him eithier Fynn Alexander or Michael Fynn (Jody couldn't remember or they haven't narrowed it down or something like that) but they will be calling him Fynn. I have a picture of him on my phone from Jody so if anyone wants it let me know and i'll send it to you.

Day 29 & 30 and my poor sick little man

well, it's day 30. I've done a layout for every day of the month. I know what you are saying. But Jo, there is still one more day left of January. Yes, i know. But, i've counted up my tally for the month, and i'm over. My layout count is 32 as of yesterday. I didn't do a layout today though, I did a bunch of cards instead. Tomarrow, i'm not going to guarantee anything getting done. I'm not going to push it, i'm proud of what i've done.

I think i'll be spending the day cuddling with Sam. He still is quite sick. His pukies have stopped but the poor little guy is hacking up a lung. His fever is all over the place. The other two kids seems to be doing well. Rianne still has a bit of a hacky cough but it seems very much under control and only flares up when she's running around. Daylon doesn't have even a sniffle. I hope it stays that way. DarRell, well, he's coming down with something. We don't know if he's getting the flu as of yet but i'm really hoping not. I'm doing well though. Not even the slighted bit of a sniffle so far.

Signing off now. I'm going to go releive DarRell of Sam so he can get cleaned up and get some rest (he's been taking Sam when he gets home from work at night and keeping him during the nights. I've been taking the other two kids. Keeping them busy, and doing all the things we ususally tag team together, while DarRell tries to get as much sleep as he can while sam is resting . Then i releive him when he goes to work in the morning and the whole thing starts all over again when he gets back home again), and i'm going to spend my time cuddling and snuggling my sick little baby. Lets just hope and pray that this turns for the better over the weekend. Otherwise, we will be paying a visit to the ER during the weekend (if worse comes to worse) or a bright and early visit to the docs office Monday morning waiting for a opening.

update on the little one and one more LOAD

I almost didn't think I'd get this one done for today. But it came together quite fast which is so very unusual for me.

I'm proud to say that i have hit my 31 layouts for the month. So, if by chance, I'm the next one to kill over sick, I can honestly say that i did 31 layouts for the month of January. It may have not been a layout a day in January, but it was a layout for every day of January. Which in my book, is just as good.


A quick update on Sam. He's got some nasty virus going around. I assume that it's some nasty stomach bug on top of the flu. Poor little man can't even keep water down and he's just so plain miserable. He's still running a low grade fever that goes up and down (oddly enough, the fever goes down right after he throws up... strange but true). He's so lethargic and just not himself. The doc gave him some suppositories to help with the nausea and vomiting but they don't seem to work for long. He can have them every 12 hours but they only seem to work for about 5 hours. We've exhausted all our knowledge on what to do (and everyone elses), so now all we can do is just love him and hold him like there is no tomarrow.

I'm really hoping that this whole sickie thing blows over fast. I'm sick of everyone being sick. Let's just pray that Day doesn't get it now (and that Rye doesn't get the pukies, cause i believe she had the flu with the borderline phenomena and double ear infection she had last week). I'm not so scared of DarRell or I getting it but i'd rather we not.

one down... another one sick

We've finially got Rianne well enough to go back to school today. Her fever finially broke Saterday. Boy was that a doozy of a week! But of course we all know that if you have one sick, there is bound to be more. Sam has had a slight cough for a few days and then started fevering up yesterday. It's pretty low grade though, 99 - 100 degrees. Highest is/was about 101.4. Nothing like Rianne's. Although, he has the pukies on top of the fever and cough. This morning he started vomiting up a little blood. Can you say, SCARED MOMMY??? DarRell has him off to the doc's office right now. I'm thinking it's just the trama of puking that is bringing up the blood and nothing else... at least i'm hoping and praying that is it.

----------------------------

LOAD:

Yup, still going strong on it! I even caught up for that one day that Rianne was sick and i didn't get it done!!! YAYAY ME!

Day 25: Exhausting

Day 26: too busy cleaning up my scraproom. I planned a few layouts but never actually finished one.

Day 27: I got three of them done!!! I'm completely caught up now!!!

School Pictures:

The Good Stuff:

Say Cheese:

changed my mind...

I've decided NOT to enter these layouts for publication/DT submitions. I just don't think i can handle the rejection and i certainly don't have enough time for another DT gig. So here they are, the ones i wasn't going to share:

you've captured my heart:

Cavity Free:

Samuel Ridge:

Happy New Year?

While the hubby and i were off celebrating part of NYE at the fire dept. party, the kids spent time at Aunt Jody's house having ice cream sundaes with cousin Tory.

This is at 10:00pm (or there about).

Obviously my kids aren't night people!

Definately a scrap-able moment!

todays LOAD

Just a quick one.

Although those quickies take all day long... grrrrrr.

Hate Hate Hate that!

And they don't even turn out like they should after spending ALL DAY LONG on them!

birthdays and the sickies have hit... HARD!

DarRell turned the big 38. WOW huh? hard to believe we are that old... that's he's that old. Saturday we just got together with the 5 of us. Small and sweet. DarRell opened his presents in the morning. Got a few little goodies. A pair of work pants. A shirt that my brother designed. A dutch oven and cookbook. And a set of pocket/hunting knives from my parents. Made out pretty good i think.

Then we hit Wingers for lunch. It was nice. Rianne let them know that it was his birthday so he got serenaded and a free asphalt pie! It's become our "tradition" to go to Wingers on our birthdays and have asphalt/concrete pie. It's where the kids always want to go so it's just kinda stuck.

We opted out of a "family" birthday because everyone has been so sick lately, we didn't want to bring it in and get us all sick. So for whoever showed up to wish him a Happy Birthday, we served them rootbeer/crush floats. I think only his mom showed up. He got a few phone calls from his brothers/sisters and a few cards too.

And us trying to be so cautious about bringing sickies into the house did us no good. Rianne came down with some massive sickie thing. We took her in to see the doc on Tuesday after a long night of fevers (103.7 was the high... and so far we haven't gotten it below 101) and coughing, stuffy/runny nose and just plain feeling yucky. Turns out she's borderline phenomena (her lower right lobe to her lung isn't working but there is no fluid there... yet) with a double ear infection and a red sore throat. They put her on a heavy antiboidic to ward off the phenomonia and the rest of the yucky crap going on in her body. She's still feeling quite cruddy and looks like she won't even get back for even one day at school this week. She was supposed to be cheering at the basketball game tomarrow for mini cheerleading but that looks totally out of the question too. Can't you just say VERY unhappy little girl? Lets just hope it doesn't hit the rest of us.

lots and lots of scrappy stuff to share!

where to start?

Well, i have kept up on my LOAD. That is until Rianne got sick Tuesday (and as i write this she is still a lump on the couch). So, i'm one day behind but really i'm not behind at all because i've done quite a few double page layouts. I've actually done 26 layouts (minus todays)! So technically i'm a few days ahead of myself. Here are most of them. Some of them i'm holding on to ;-)

Day 14: You've captured my Heart

I can't show you this one... Sorry

Day 15: Cavity Free

Sorry... can't show you this one either (it's not spectactular but it's my backup)

Day 16: dane the night away

Day 17: Grandpa's little hunting buddy

Day 18: make a wish

Day 19 & 20: It was this BIG!

Day 21: Rockstar haircut

Day 22: Rianne was sick so i didn't get it finished :-(

Day 23: Samuel Ridge

Can't show you this one either

other news? Well... i got this little fun thing!
it was a really nice anniversary gift, and just about any other holiday gift i could think of for some time. I've been playing with it and figuring it out. It's lots of fun!!!! I REALLY can't wait till i get my other blade to it! Then i'll be able to cut thicker stuff like foam and chipboard! YAYAYAY!

i made this the other day with it:

Another little thing i've been working on is this:

My own little home-made clip it up. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I've had so much stuff hidden away for so long that i've fogotten what i have. This gets it up out of the drawers and baskets and puts it where i see it. I've already been using stuff that i didn't even know i had!

I still need to get more clips for it, cause, suprisingly enough, i have more than what's on there!

More LOADS

I've been keeping up. Although i have changed my rules just a tad. I've figured that if i get two layouts done in a weekend then I'm still keeping up on my end of the LOAD. That means that if i start a two page layout on Saturday and then finish it on Sunday, I'm still good. Weekends are just so hard. The kids are home. DarRell more times than not, is working. And without those few hours during the day when Sam is sleeping and the kids are at school, i just can't always get a layout done in a day. I usually only get a few minutes here and a few minutes there to throw together a layout and to me, that just doesn't cut it. I can't feel good about what i do if i don't like what i do. This last weekend was the worst. I did finish my layouts but it took me two days (Saturday and Sunday) to do a simple two page layout. But i am proud to say that i haven't missed a day (unless you count the change to my rules for this last weekend).

Here they are:

Day 10: Just Brothers

Day 11: Egg Dying

(i haven't put the date on this one yet because I'm not sure when it was. I'm thinking it was 2003? but i really gotta make sure)

Day 12&13: December 25

i absolutely LOVE that I'm almost done with this years Christmas pictures!!!!!! YAY ME!

it's officially over, going crazy, and its just one of those days

Christmas. It's officially over. I know, it's actually been over for a few weeks now. But, all the Christmas decorations are finally down and all the boxes and bins are finally out of the house and put back into storage. It's amazing at how empty the house feels now that all the Christmas is down and out. It's almost kinda lonely now.

The kids are finally back in school, but just when we were finally getting back into a schedule again, the kids have a 4 day school week. DarRell is working weekends and late evenings and I'm going crazy without some "me" time. I've really got to find some friends that i can just go and hang out with (sorry Kim and Lori... you guys are just too far away!). How can someone honestly spend 24/7 at home and NOT go crazy. Apparently I'm just being selfish because every time i mention it, i get the "i wish i could stay home all day long and play with the kids". Don't get me wrong, i LOVE my children. But sometimes i need to talk to someone who doesn't pick their nose, or throw a tantrum because their sock isn't on right, or complain that their food is too hot, too cold, too squishy, looks weird AND is on the wrong plate. I would LOVE to go to work and feel like what I've done during the day was productive. Here, i don't feel so productive. The house is a complete mess and that's only because once I've cleaned it up, i have someone right behind me tearing everything out.

*SIGH* yes, today is one of those days. I can't seem to get up enough energy to care. Today is one of those days where that if the kids were able to take care of themselves, i'd lock myself in my room and disappear for the day. Bedtime just can't get here soon enough.

... and still going strong

It's day nine and i'm still going strong. I actually didn't think i'd make it today. I didn't get to even make it to my scraproom until late tonight, just after 8:00. I've been going over layout ideas in my head over and over again all day long. When i finially got some time, it came together soooo much better than i thought it would. I love it when that happens. I wish that happened more often. I'm really hoping this LOAD will help me loosen up and just let things flow.

Besides that, i love doing these quick ones because i love going through all my old pictures. It seems that all my new pictures i've already got ideas for and i just need some time to get them done. But for my old pictures, it's all a blank canvas. I just look through them and pull out a few pictures here and there and fit them where i can. Thank goodness for home printers, otherwise i'd never get anything done having to wait for my pictures to be developed and then changing my mind on sizes all the time.

On other news. We hooked up a new webcam. I've never really wanted one. Really had nobody to talk to "face to face" to really want one anyways. DarRell's sister sent one to his parents quite some time ago, but it got put away. After talking to her and seeing them on their webcam, we decided to go find it and hook it up. The kids don't understand that we can't just talk to anyone on it though. They thought it'd be great to talk to Ali on it tonight but trying to get them to understand that they probably don't have a webcam just wasn't happening. So instead we played with a cool feature that came with the software to it. The Photobooth!!! It kept the kids happy. Even for Sam, who happened to be even more unusually upset tonight (sure hope he's not coming down with some yucky something). As i sit here typing, he's in his crib having a rough night. Seems like Wednesdays are always rough. Lots of rushing around and what little routine we have is just blown out of the water. The kids take it rough not having DarRell around when they go to bed and there just doesn't seem to be that winding down peroid that we all need. I get home from work, and DarRell leaves for work. He comes home later than usual, with just enough time to say hi and then he's off to firemeeting. The kids and i have a late dinner (a rushed one at that). Things are so stressful by then that by 8:00 i'm sending kids off to get ready for bed. If its a good night, then i get a few hours of scrapping to myself. If it's a bad night, then i curse under my breath and wish that DarRell were home with the kids instead of playing poker with the guys after firemeeting. Tonight, it's a combination of both. Sam is sleeping restlessly, crying in his sleep, tossing and turning and just plain making me nervous (i'm paranoid about nighttime sickies and i just have this feeling like it's going to hit soon). Rianne keeps "hearing things" and needs company (and Daylon doesn't cut it). And Daylon, he just wants to sleep but Rianne keeps talking. But, i did get in a few scrappy hours, and busted out a layout in a about 2 hours, which for me, is excellenct. Watched the end of a movie i started earlier and got a chance to blog and all just in time for DarRell to get home. And thank goodness. Having him home makes me feel better when Sam is restless like this. I may not sleep better but at least i know that with DarRell here, i can handle things a bit better.

LOAD: day 3-7

I've been good... very good. That is about doing a Lay Out A Day (LOAD). So far good, i am on track and haven't missed a day! So here they are:

Day 3: Turning 6

I ended up adding a ribbon and a ribbon slide to the bottom of the picture. But, i'm just to lazy to rescan it (cause i hate scanning one page 4 times and then stiching it all together). Maybe one day when i'm bored i'll update it.

Day 4: Decorate

Day 5: You 3

Day 6, which ended up being a 2-pager!!! : Family is Everything side 1

and side 2

Day 7: Wrapped up...

I can't say i love them all but i do love that they are all done! And i can say that i have got almost all of 2007 pictures done. I do need to do a few here and a few there but this is the closest i've gotten to completing a whole year of pictures!!! And that is just the best feeling ever!

I'm lovin' it...

LOAD - day 2

I got a jump on things this morning and finished my day 2 LOAD early since i go to work this afternoon. I can never tell how long my day is going to be and how I'll feel when i get home. Here is day 2. It's a super easy and quick one. Probably the quickest one I've done in a LONG time. Just a pocket to put all of our Christmas cards in from this year. I did this last year too and loved it. I think i may continue to do it every year.

I wish i could make it so that you could see all the pictures though. We got a ton of photo Christmas cards this year (my favorite!!!). I may have to find a better way of showcasing them. For now, this will have to do. They are removable though so if I/we ever want to go through them again we can.

Resolutions

It was a good scrappy month last month. I could have done much better but it wasn't all bad. I got a total of 30 layouts/cards done. 15 cards, 7 layouts, and 4 pages (front and back) to my design mini album book. Not too shabby. I really hope to do a little better this month... more of that to come in a bit.

As for this month, i've decide to do this ---> Big Picture Scrapbooking's LOAD. I'm super excited to give it a try. It's free, which is good. I think this will be good motivation to keep me going, although i don't think i'll keep it posted in their gallery, although the chance to win goodies almost makes me want to. I've already done my first page!
One day down, 30 more to go!

Another thing i'm going to keep up on is One Word for 2008. I'm following along with Ali Edward's blog and thought this was a very inspiring thing to do every year. I've already picked out my word. After pondering over it for quite some time i came up with "Manage". I have a lot of managing to do in my life... a LOT. What perfect timing huh? So, i guess in a way this is my new resolution for 2008... to manage aspects in my life. Parts that impact me, my family and those around me. It's a bit of a lofty goal but even the smallest bit of success at this is a step forward.

My scrappy goal this year is to do a "12 for 12" album. 12 pictures a month for 12 months. By the end i should have a great recap of 2008 in a managable album. I just gotta go find a album to work with. It should be fun!