"I" tag

my baby sister, Brandy tagged me. So here it goes:

I am: way behind on laundry
I know: that a bad day at my job is really, in fact, a good day. I enjoy my job that much
I want: a bit more job security for our family
I have: a strong love for food
I dislike: religious fanatics. Religous=good. Fanatic=bad. Expecially those who judge and are "holier-than-thou"
I miss: my family and friends
I smell: a dirty diaper (it's changed and gone but it's still lingering bleck)
I cry: when i get angry or frustrated
I search: for Riannes lost shoes way too often
I wonder: why people can't accept each other for what they are... individuals
I regret: not doing more
I love: the rare times when all 3 kids are playing nicely together.
I care: way too much of what people think of me
I worry: about Daylon's grades
I remember: that things happen for a reason
I believe: that times are tough but we'll be ok
I dance: like Elaine on Seinfield
I don't: like mashed potatoes
I argue: with the kids to clean up after themselves
I write: important stuff in my scrapbooks, but not nearly enough
I win: because i'm the mom
I lose: when i argue with a 2 year old
I wish: I could work more often
I listen: to just about any kind of music
I am scared: of the kids getting the nasty stomach bug going around and ruining this weekend
I need: to lighten up a bit
I forget: to give my kids their vitamins every day
I am happy: watching my kids grow

MAN! was that hard. So... on to the tag part of it. If you are reading this... YOU are tagged! Link back so i know! I wanna read!

December Daily - Day 2 & 3

I know i'm a day late on my December Daily post, but yesterday i worked and it didn't leave much time for me to finish up what i had started on day 2. So bright and early i finished up Day 2 and threw together day 3.


Here they are:

Day 2:
front of day 2:
i used the back of day 1 to extend my day 2 page. I took a few pictures that summed up the day and made them small. The swirlies are foil rubons... LOVE them. the transparency covers the main picture for day 2.

back of day 2:
I kept it super simple and let the picture do the talking. It's a typical scene with DarRell with Sam (and with either Rianne looking on or joining in)




Day 3:
front of day 3:
I love when the kids calm down enough to watch a movie together. It doesn't happen often when all three are there together but when they are, they usually sit like this. It just melts my heart every time. I left it as was and put a little bit of journaling around the picture. More journaling on the transparency for the next page.

back of day 3:
left it simple. Everything was said on the journaling box on the front of the transparency. I just needed to cover up the adhesive on the back side so i covered it with patterned paper and some embellishments i have sitting around.

Day 4 to come tomarrow.

a littel bonus in a not so bad day

...catching up with a old buddy that i grew up with. In fact, i don't have many of them left so it was great talking with him. He recently moved again so going to visit him and his family is a little more difficult when i go north to visit my family. Even a better bonus. He talked me into using my webcam that hasn't been used in, i dont' know... forever! Of course i had to load it and then troubleshoot to get the stupid thing to work. And when i was about to give up, it started working right.

So now that i've got it working, here's to more face to face with my friends. I defintaly feel a new New Years resolution coming on. I've been a terrible friend and there really is no excuse not to make time for friends.

December Daily - Day 1

As promiced, here is my day 1 for my December Daily album. I'm quite disappointed in the pictures, but there is just no light in my house due to the overcast skies.

front of page 1:
Mostly just some journaling about our usual December 1st traditions about getting out all the Christmas decorations. Usually the Christmas tree is the main focus, just as it was this year.

back of page 1:

I REALLY wanted the focus to be on this one picture of Daylon and Sam so i made the whole page a 8x8 photo. The picture is really grainy but i loved that they were both just so enthrawled in decorating the tree. I had a few other pictures that i loved too (which are also very grainy. Obviously the lighting in our house is much to be desired) so i added them to the back of the journaling spots from the front. I added a few stickers and called it good.

Christmas tree hunting

It seems as though our weekends are filling up and the sooner we found our tree the better. And even though work is hard to find lately, it seems as though DarRell is so incredibly busy and is having a hard time keeping up. So him working as much as he possibly really cuts down on time we have to go out and do things as a family, especially during daylight hours. So we took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday and spending time with his family to go out and find a tree.

We took off early Saturday morning and headed up to the old deer camp territory. This year, after last years success, we opted for a balsam tree rather than the reliable old pinion pine (gahhh... i think! All these tree names are confusing my poor tired turkey and stuffing bloated head). Anyways... we headed up flat canyon where we knew there were a bunch of little ones to choose from. It didn't take long to find the one we wanted. The pickings started looking better and better after the weather started getting colder and the storm started moving in. Fortunately we found the PERFECT tree before resorting to something just OK.

It didn't take us long to hurry and cut the thing down and get out of there. Good thing we got out when the getting was good because the storm started moving in along with lots of people coming up with the same ideas in mind. As we went down the mountain, we passed at least a half dozen, if not more, vehicles coming up. The ground had started defrosting and getting muddy and people were sliding and tearing up the roads to get up high. We were fortunate enough not to have to deal with the crazies up there. We pretty much kept ahead of the storm as it moved in and got home just after noon.

DarRell has got the tree set up in the tree stand now. Although it's still sitting out on the front porch. I think I'll spend the day today making a place in the living room for it so that we can bring it in tonight when he gets home from work, and then start decorating it tomorrow night as a family.

Tomorrow is the first day of December which means i get to start on THIS! I'm super excited to start filling mine up! I'm hoping to update every day here if i can. Look for it.

Thanksgiving... we are blessed

Thanksgiving was a small affair this year. We hoped to keep it a little bit more low key this year than in the past. And low key was certainly what it ended up being.
We didn't necessarily expect to have Thanksgiving by ourselves but it ended up quite nice.

I was quite proud of myself. I make the whole meal by my lonesome... all from scratch and with mostly new recipes. I cooked the turkey (the whole 16lb turkey... what was i thinking when i picked that monster up???!), it didn't look the best but, WOW!, did it taste good. No mashed potatoes but i did compromise and i made some hot crash potatoes. Corn, asparagus, glazed carrots. Homemade stuffing/dressing. I had meant to make some rolls but forgot to defrost them (yes... they were store bought. I'm not brave enough to make them myself yet) so almost ended up forfeiting on the rolls until Dick saved us and came to the rescue with dinner rolls in hand.

We were lucky enough to have him share Thanksgiving dinner with us. It was a nice small intimate dinner with the 6 of us. As it turned out, there ended up being quite a bit of family down. We ended up donating a extra turkey to the other house and they spent their nice little Thanksgiving over at the inlaws. It was all quite a confused little mess but thankfully (i hope) no feelings were hurt.



However, our little Thanksgiving made me think of all those little things I'm so very thankful for.

*I'm super thankful for our health. There have been many years past when we were sick enough that i didn't even want to do anything, and the addition of company/family made it almost unbearable. This year it was the opposite.

*I'm thankful for family. This year it was REALLY nice to have so much family around. I regret that we have to pick and choose between my family and DarRell's family for holidays. It would be nicer if we could be more centralized to where we could visit more often then we do.

* I feel lucky knowing that my children are adored (or maybe just tolerated at times?). The kids talk endlessly about how much they loved hanging out with them.

*It's great peace of mind knowing how lucky we are to having so much family. That we still have that time with our loved ones.

*I'm SO glad that my father-in-law is doing much better. I absolutely adore the man and seeing him come back to his healthy self is great peace of mind. Seeing my mother-in-law healthy again is another great blessing. Another holiday gathering with them both is a blessing we know we can't take advantage of.

Practical tips for Productive living

I'm not even sure where i come across this place. Or even when. All i know, is that i sit and wait for the next post from them. Sometimes i wait so long that I almost give up hope and there they are there, posting the next pick-me-upper to pull me out of it again.

I don't know what it is about this place, it just speaks to me. Almost like they are sitting there giving me my own personal advice that i need so badly at times. After reading their last post, i decided i just can't sit and keep this goodness from myself. I've got to share it. In some instances, i'd love to literally make some people sit down and read it word for word, over and over again until they get it. But knowing that won't go over well at all, i'll share it here (and then maybe print some out ;-).

For your reading enjoyment and thoughful pick-me-ups... go HERE.