i learned from you & birthday plans!

A quick (ok, not so quick) layout i made of my mom and dad when they were first married.

I used the song "I Learned from You" by Miley Cyrus (but you'll most likely find it by Hannah Montana and is also the theme song for The Bridge to Tarabethia).

I made it as an example for TSoS for my music class that goes up tomarrow. I kinda like how it turned out. The paper is DEFINATELY not my style but it just really reminded me of that era (whether it really is or not i guess doesn't matter). I ended up liking it more and more as i went along.

I'm actually trying to use up as much of my monthly kits as i get them, including the stamps. I try and try to use my stamps as much as possible but i just don't like the way they look most times. I'm definatly going to have to take some lessons or something. But the cute little bird is part of the stamps that i got with this kit... super cute stamps but i just suck at stamping i guess.

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Other news:
Sam turns the big 2! on Sunday. I can't beleive it! It's been the longest two years of my life and yet it's flown by too. We are going to celebrate it Saterday at the firehouse. Bethany's birthday is on the 3rd so we thought that we'd make it a combined birthday party. Truth be told... i almost forgot that his birthday was Sunday. I knew it was coming up but i didn't realize it was this weekend. A HUGE thank you to Maria for calling and asking what we were going to do. We had planned on having a birthday party but those plans would have totally failed if it wasn't brought to my attention that it was SO soon! We actually hadn't planned something because of that reason and because we didn't want to take away from Bethany since her birthday is the day before Sam's. When we were informed that they weren't doing anything too special for her, we though we'd combine the two birthdays and make it memorable... at least for me. So for those who don't already know that we are having Sam's and Bethany's birthday party Saterday... I'm sorry.

We are planning on getting Sam a cute little farm set. He loves the little guys and thought i'd be perfect for him. If i could find something with fish, he'd be in heaven but i can't think of anything with fish except for the real deal... and i'm just not going there right now.

guilty pleasures

It's pretty sad when a person works their schedule around primetime entertainment. Don't those people just drive you crazy? They would rather watch TV than anything else. Don't tell anyone but... I'm SO guilty. I'm calling the kettle black. I'm one of THOSE people.

Here is my schedule:

Mondays: This day is usually a hit or miss day. I could miss it but it'd still break my heart to miss Big Bang Theory. And now that House is back on... I really hate to miss that too. Two and a Half Men can take a back seat since they are both on at the same time.

Tuesday: Nothing on that floats my boat

Wednesdays: Boston Legal. Which was on Tuesdays but is now on Wednesdays. Definately one of those shows i hate to miss.





Thursday: This is the days of all days. I literally can't wait for thursdays. It starts out with Survivor AND Ugly Betty. Since they are both on at the same time, i save Ugly Betty for Friday afternoons and watch it online while Sam is sleeping and the kids are at school.

Then it's Grey's Anatomy.



Then Lost.




I REALLY hate missing thursdays.

Friday: I catch up with what i can on Fridays. Like Ugly Betty. If i have enough time i catch My Name is Earl and the Office and whatever ones i missed throughout the week.

Saterday: Nothing on this day

Sunday: I send the kids to bed and watch Desperate Housewives. Then Dexter... my new guilty pleasure.




I try to work around it as much as possible. If i happen to miss a show, i'll catch it online sometime before the next episode. Unfortunately, some shows just aren't online... then i just cry. Then there are those times that TWO of my favorite shows come on at the same time. That just kills me... expecially thursdays. Now that Big Brother is just about over, i have a bit more time to kill doing other things.

dance dance.....

Yesterday was the kids dance picture day. So i spent all afternoon running back and forth to the studio for the kids pictures. I was really wishing that Rianne's pictures were later than they were. Hers ended up being at 4:00. She gets home from school at 3:00 and she needed her hair all dolled up and curly. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not much of a hair mom. I can't get her hair looking all pageant pretty, but i did my best, and all in the nick of time. Daylon had his pictures at 5:30. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for his pictures because they were so far behind by the time his turn came.

Costumes this year have been pretty neat. There were a few groups that i wondered about but for the most part, i liked them all. Rianne has two outfits this year. The pink one is for Jazz and she has a cute little blue number for her ballet. Daylon has these cool REALLY baggy pants with the hot green shirt for hip hop. He actually looked quite at home with the rest of the boys.

Just a few more weeks of practice before their big rehearsal and recital. I'm really looking forward to it this year. Last year everything was so chaotic. This year I'm just going to go with the flow and enjoy it...... all 3 1/2 hours of it!

The kids are telling me now that they don't want to dance next year. I'm kinda heartbroke over it. Daylon, not so much. I was just hoping that he could find something he enjoyed doing. This just happens to be one of those things that he's tried and just doesn't really enjoy too much. But Rianne wanting to quit is so very upsetting to me. I'm not sure if it's because it's the same thing this year as it was last year (jazz and ballet combined but different dances this year) or what. But next year she can split off and do other stuff. I'm hoping she'll want to do it again after a break from it over the summer.

So...... take a good look...... this may be the last dance pictures....... EVER!!!!!!!!

Ohhhhhh!!!!!! and before i forget.... quick update on Sam.

Second round of blood test came back saying that his "levels" were almost back to normal. No news about whether we should go back for another round of tests but we feel much better knowing that he's getting better. The lump is slowly going away. It gets smaller day by day. Although, oddly enough, he woke up with a fever this morning. We are just hoping that it's just his 2 year old molars trying to come through and not another virus trying to take over.

again...

It seems that i only write to announce that my son, once again, is sick. Or it just may be that he's always sick. Either way... he is SICK again!

He had this HUGE lump on his neck. The night before we visited the doc AGAIN, it was the size of a silver dollar. The next morning.... it was the size of a baseball! The poor kid looked terrible. He acted fine but just the sheer size of it was frightening. After ANOTHER doc visit (i swear they should name a room after the poor kid... SAM'S room - LOL), a consultation with another doctor because the lump was SO huge, and a visit to the hospital lab where they held him down and drew blood out of his arm, it turns out he has a RAGING inflammatory infection somewhere in his body. They put him on ANOTHER regimen of antibiotics and told us to wait it out over the weekend. If it got worse, to rush him to the ER and to take him back today for ANOTHER blood test.

So here we are today. The lump has gone down by quite a bit. It's still there but Sam doesn't look like a freak of nature anymore. The trip to the lab for the blood test turned out to be worse than the first time. We sat down and he started screaming for his dear life. They hadn't even touched him before big crocodile tears started streaming down his face. They got blood the first try (WHEW!) and we were out of there quite fast. Now we play the waiting game. I'm thinking he's on the mend, but only the test will tell for sure. They tell us the lump will be there for a couple of weeks though.

Other news.... hmmmm......

Saturday was Daylon's pinewood derby. He took third place. He missed 2nd place by the skin of his teeth. And we were SOOOO glad he didn't take 1st (the regional pinewood derby's are so chaotic). We are quite proud of him though. He did most of the car by himself this year. And i do have to say that it turned out quite cool!

The school year is starting to come to a close. The kids can feel it. Rianne is beyond excited to have summer come because next year she goes to 1st grade. Crazy thought but i KNOW it'll be hard to say goodbye to school for the summer, and especially goodbye to her teacher... who by the way, is completely AWESOME!

Scrapping has slowed down a bit. The weather has warmed up and its getting harder and harder to find time to sneak downstairs to play with my papers and pictures. I have gotten a little bit done though. Here are a few of my favorites so far from this month:

4th of July Fireworks:

one of the few batches of pictures i have left of last year to scrap (i think). I had a really hard time picking through all the pictures of Sam watching the fireworks. He loved them but the pictures say otherwise. And the picture of Daylon playing with the sparklers is one of my ABSOLUTE favorites of all time. I wish i could have gotten some good ones of Rianne but that is the best one i got.

Happy New Years or NOT!:

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of Rianne, Tory and Daylon that Maria took. The expressions on their face is just priceless. And i'm so glad that someone took pictures on New Years Eve cause i didn't (and never do). Slowly catching up on all those pictures from last year. Hopefully when those are done, i can continue to catch up on all those years i haven't gotten done yet..... all those other 8+ years (because i want to eventually want to be caught up to Daylon).

Ack! I just realized that i never posted the pictures i scrapped in March!
So, here they are just a bit late:

for my sisters

August 29th, 1970

and, YUP! I still think my baby sister looks like my mom

I fell off the blog wagon...

and apparently my family thought i may have died. I've been pre-occupied i guess. Busy with nothing and everything.


so..... let's play catch-up!


*The kids all got over their colds and stomach bug. The stomach bug only hit one of us, which of course, would have been Sam. The boy doesn't keep his fingers out of his mouth. And if i didn't know better, I'd say he probably picked it up from some nasty shopping cart... or even worse, ate something he shouldn't have. Which, if that did happen, it'd be quite ironic since we can't get the kid to eat anything! But we turn our back and he's eating rocks and dirt and whatever else he can find on the ground.


*I've been cooking. Fresh, home-cooked food... from scratch! So far it's been great. But i think i packed on about 10 more pounds since starting. DarRell loves me... or rather, really LOVES my cooking, but I'm not so sure I'm so in love with all these rolls i keep finding around my waist.


*I've been doing a bit of spring cleaning and also a bit of remodeling around the house. Not HUGE remodelings but more like additions to existing things. Like my pantry door is no longer just a door... it's a chalkboard! and a VERY cool one at that!


*I've been scanning in Mom and Dad's wedding pictures. Crazy how much i think my baby sister looks SO much like my mom! I actually tried to put a picture here but stupid Blogger has ideas of it's own and is NOT cooperating!


*The weather has finally warmed up. Even enough for me to chance taking Sam outside to play without fear of him getting sick again. I have HIGH hopes of getting the back yard ready for sod later this spring. So far we have cleaned out the garden and are in the process of moving the sand box to the apricot tree and building a tree house there for the kids. From there, we are going to put in the sprinkler system for the whole back yard and then hope and pray we've saved up enough $$ for sod. Like i said, high hopes but so far we are on track!


*Sadly enough, i haven't gotten much scrapping done. I've gotten a few done here and a few done there. Definitely not much progress though. I've really got to get in gear and finish up my Grandma's funeral pages. Although the smaller pages have got me a bit frustrated since I'm used to scrapping 12x12.