Party Pictures

We had a fun time at the party today. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. I'm paying for that now. I think I over did it and I had to take meds for the pain. I haven't needed them since Wed night and I think it's a sign my body is telling me to slow down. Tommorow I'm going to do nothing but take it easy. :)

I had a bit of a scare when we came home and uploaded the pictures. Our memory card corrupted and so we thought we lost about 50 pictures!!! That is just not cool- especially since I spent HOURS on the cake and I was the only one to get pictures of it!! I nearly cried.

So, I downloaded a file recovery software and I'll share them with you as I get them back.

Until then- these are part of the deocorations the kids and I have been working on all week.




Yup, these are paper plates! The kids each did one for me, and then we made a big one. It's was a lot of fun and messy! Just the way we like it.



More to come later. :)

Birthdays, Books & Trunks on your head...

today is Jim's birthday!!!

The old man turned 31 as of 10 this morning. This is NOT his birthday cake (Another Flickr find)This year I have been replaced as cake baker and although his cake will be a 'surprise" it will be very *EZ* to make (hint, hint)

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The past week the couch and I have formed a bond. Indeed the couch has seen more of me this past week then ever before. Our time together was not for loss though. In my attempts to not dwelling on the pain, I started re-reading the Harry Potter books in anticipation of the newest book that will be released in 23 days.

Last night, I finished book six and now I'm anxiously awaiting the next book to finnish the story and see how it ends. *sigh* It's times like these when being a fast reader really is more of a bother, because now I'm sitting here waiting even more anxious than I have been.

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And finally, I have made a decision this morning. My next cell phone will come with a camera. There are times when it is a shame that I do not have one on me, because although the stories are funny, they are even funnier when you can *see* what I'm talking about.

This morning was one of those moments.

Caleb was in rare form this morning. His behavior was akin to a huge sugar rush. This is a perplexing thought b/c we have little to no sugary foods in the house and it makes me wonder if this his body is now getting a rush from toast and milk...a very scary thought indeed. But I digress.

Anyway, today is pool day and so Mr. Ants-in-his-pants decides that he should wear his swim trunks on his head. I'd like to say it was his way of celebrating his dad's birthday, however, I'm pretty sure it was just because the boy is weird.

I have long since learned to ignore this behavior- so I just sighed and we went in his class room. So he heads into his classroom and gives everyone hugs with his swim trunks on his head, and inbetween people he does what he calls his "Super swimming dance" His teacher took one look at him, then back at me and what could I do but shrug my shoulders and high tail it out of there before they realize the extent of his sugar like rush and then force me to take him back.

Before I go, I try and get a quick good-bye. Do I get the normal hug and kiss? Nope... Apparently the only people who are going to the pool are allowed to have his hugs. His teacher has got this look on her face and I can see it in her eyes that she knows now what she's in for the day.

And this is when I take my leave and go back into the wonderfully quiet car and my nice and quiet office... Most days, this is what keeps me sane. :)

I'm alive... really!

Just recouperating from Thursday's surgery.

Today is by far the best day so far. My voice is pretty much back to normal now. The breathing tube was a bit of a shock... I wasn't expecting that and the last thing I heard before going under was "we're ready to intibate" Talk about a minor panic attack!!

Anyway, I seem to have woken up from the anastesia fog I was under and I have energy again. :)

Thanks for all the well wishes...I'll be back to blogging soon I'm sure. The kids are coming home today after a long break with their Nanny and Pappy. I'm sure I'll have something to talk about soon. :)

xoxox

Jen

Reality TV

Ok, I saw this on another blog and I have to comment.

Most of you know that I can't stand most of the "talent" shows that you will find on tv. You know what I'm talking about, you call in and vote for your favorite, be it singing, dancing, skating, it's all the same. There are several reasons.

1. It becomes a big popularity contest- I've never been one to follow the popular one, so I'm usually disappointed, b/c I like to vote for the underdogs.

2. the "talent" they weed through like on AI. People (like me)who don't have what it takes to be there to begin with. They get up there, do their thing and then are belittled by judges, and people find this amusing? Half the time I want to cry in embarassment for them.

3. I can't stand the outfits... I stopped watching Dancing with the stars, b/c the women's outfits would get skimpier and skimpier- no doubt a ploy to get more viewer votes. This annoyed me to no end. I want to watch dancing, not bodies, and so I stopped watching it.

However I saw this video. I was told that it would make me cry. And cry I did.

Let me tell you, if tv talent competition would focus more on talent like this, a less on what will get better ratings, I would probably tune in and watch.



He is amazing. I wish I could tune in and see how far he goes. What an amazing God-given talent this man has.

-J

People on email, you will have to visit the site to see the video, it doesn't come through. :)

Sweet Baby Lovins...

This is our new niece Hannah. She is such a peanut. Her foot just drowns in Jim's hand. Our kids were never this tiny... Not even after a week in the NICU. :) Such a small little peanut.





**In case you are wondering about the carrots. At Easter, Jim's aunt saw pigging out on the carrots... So she said, next time he came over, she was going to give him his own container so the rest of us could have some.

You should have seen his face when she gave this to him. That boy loves his carrots...**

For Jeremy and Alison

It fits perfectly. Even has a bit of twirling action- a requirement for flower girl dresses I'm told. :)

Welcome to I-HOW, Can I take your order?

5-4-3-2-1 BLASTOFF!

Ladies and gentleman, please remain seated until the seat belt light is turned off, and welcome to Air-princess. Please be paitient with our remodeling, turning a princess tent into a space ship is a process that we are still working on.

Our destination I-HOW (intergalitical house of waffles). The chef is know throughout the galaxy for her out of this world waffle strips and will be serving you a personal brunch upon your arrival.

I am not making this up... This was my morning. Gotta love imaginations on overdrive.



:) -J

We still miss Chi-Chi's!!!

Jim brought home ice cream yesterday. Turkey hill has a new flavor called

******fried ice cream******.

Abby and I have always loved Chi-Chi's. We'd always get the same thing. Chicken Tortilla soup, Salad, and finish off the meal with The honey fried Ice cream. Ummm... It was delish, and it was my favorite treat. When I heard Chi-chi's closed for good, we checked out other mexican places, but none could compare to that awesome dinner & Dessert.

I have since found a yummy reciepe for the Tortilla soup, and this ice cream, although is definatley not chi-chi's, it's pretty good. As Abby was took a bite, she rolled her eyes and the first words out of her mouth were:

"I hope they have this in heaven"

Yup, it's that good.


-J

Graduation Kids...

I must say, that for a 2.5 hour ceramony, the kids did wonderful. I was so very proud of them.

Don't know where Caleb was.. He musn't have been around the camera much. Jim tells me he had his nose in his dinosaur book most of the night. :)

Pomp and Circumstance...

You know, I could come on here, and spew out all the cheese that comes out at graduation time. The whole "you've got you whole life ahead of you to make something of your self" bit. But I'm not going to do that. These words may be fine for some other graduates, but they just don't work for me. First off, Graduation isn't the begining of something new for me. My degree just helped me learn to do what I have already been doing the *right* way. So, for me, Graduation isn't the begining of my life as an adult, it was just the necessary process of moving on.

So you may wonder, If graduation isn't my begining, what does it mean to me?? Graduation means my life will be slowing down. I'll be able to stay home at night with the kids. I'll be able to work on my scrapping. I'll be able to make plans that don't revolve around when I have mid-terms, projects due or finals. Suddenly, I've got back 15 hours in my week that I haven't had for 3 years.





I know you are probably wondering where are the cap and gown shots? After all, this entry is entirely devoted to my graduation. You can't have a gradution without the cap and gown... Let me explain. You see, I *dislike* the whole cap and gown thing. Really... who thought of putting a square board on top of your head? Was it a remnant of etiquite school where you would have to walk down the isle balanceing a table setting on your head in order to graduate??? Really, it is the silliest hat I have ever wore.

So, Since I was not allowed to opt out of the ceramony, I had to wear it. Blah. So to apease all involved, I wore it and I got my required pictures taken with it on. However, this is it, the one and only one that I'm sharing. If you want more you will have to email my mother. ;)



It's late, and I'm heading to bed.

xoxo

The Graduate

Waiting...

We are sitting here totally waiting for the chaos of the night to begin... Even the pooch is chilling.

The big question on my mind is after sitting through a rehersal that was outlined the ceramony tonight, I'm wondering how the kids are going to behave. We have a crew going to help Jim out, so we'll see. Part of me is glad I'll be down on the ice and not having not having to deal with the gruesome twosome. (bad*mommy, I know)

On that note, Caleb has been practicing his scream. He says I'm supposed to give him a thumbs up if I can hear him ok... He's worried he won't be loud enough.
*Somehow* I don't think that will be a problem. :)

Scrappin in my semi-clean room

I got bored of the clean sweep and decided that I should scrap instead


This is for Elsie's Challenge #6- create a ribbon cluster

Then I took a nice long guilt free naps with the kid-o's... What a wonderful afternoon.

I decided to make my blog a little more summery. Nothing says summer to me like orange and blue, so Orange and blue it is! :)

I also added some more music. I've been hearing a lot of Jack Johnson on Sirius and so I made a play list for when I'm working upstairs.



He's awesome. You should totally check him out. He's from Hawaii so his music has what I call an Acustic Island feel to them.

I'm off to make dinner now.

Aloha!

-J

*pug*love

How could you do anything but smile when you see these cutie pies looking at you...



I made this one special for my desktop background and it was so cute I just had to share it. I'll be good and not bore you with any others I make... That is unless they are this cute...

Seriously, How can you have a bad day when you look at these pups... They are adorable.

Speaking of bad days, I'm temporaryily laid off... One of the joys for working for a small business is that when your boss breaks his foot and is up in traction, the shop closes, and you are kinda out of luck until he gets back on his feet.

I'm not letting it rain on my parade though. I took my last final today and I was exempt from my law final, so that being said.... "I'm DONE!!!!" :) My cap and gown are hanging up in the closet and we're all ready to get that diploma and kiss night classes good-bye!!!!

In a way the time off is good. I'll have time to finish re-organizing the upstairs and I have off most of next week for my surgery anyway.

-J

Attack of the color purple...

1. purple chucks, 2. Purple Star, 3. Purple-ish, 4. Pink & Purple Marbelized Hearts, 5. cirque du soleil, 6. Sugary facade, 7. Sunset shadows., 8. the circus is closed, 9. Russian Sunset Through the Trees, 10. The Purple Queen, 11. purple curves, 12. Purple blossoms

Love, love, love these photo mosaics... you can make your own here

Been busy clean sweeping this bedroom/scrapping/office area. Taking forever, but it will be worth it when it's done. I haven't done much with this area since we moved in, so it was overdue for an overhaul.

xoxo

Jen

Busy, busy, busy...

It's been crazy around here.

First off, yesterday was Caleb and Abby's last day of school. Abby is now headed to middle school and Caleb passed on to first grade! We are very proud of them, both their report cards were excellent.



We watched Night at the museum with the kids tonight. The kids loved it and Jim and I enjoyed watching it with them. I LOVED the cowboy and the roman, they were hysterical.

ciao!

-J

The newest addition

Congrats Josh, Becky, Zach and Elijah!

Hannah Leigh (pictured in the belly shot above on Sunday!) made her entrance this morning, and from what I hear she looks just like her Daddy. :)

Can't wait till we can go see her and get in some baby lovins... :)

Picnic Pictures

Ain't she sweet???

Abby caught the bug...

Abby *hearts* Elsie's book that I brought home a few months ago. I told her when things settled down we would do the challenges this summer together. Well, she reminded me this weekend that we had nothing to do and it was raining to boot. So we pulled out her stash and went to town.

This layout is for Challenge Number one: Journal in strips. She choose to make a list of 9 things she loves at age 9.


She's still a little timid when it comes to all the choices. But we worked through it and after about an hour and a half this is what she created:

She actually cried when she saw the layout done. She loves to look on scrapbook sites with me, and she didn't think she could do something like what she sees there.

I knew she had it in her. It won't be long and she'll be surpasing my abilities. But for the summer, we are going to keep working on the challenges and I'll keep showing her different techniques.


xoxo,
the proud mama scrapper