The Miracle Worker

Miracle No. 1: He's home, safe and sound. It felt so good to see him and kiss him.

Miracle No. 2: Our tv went kaput on Sunday and Ben has been so sad because he can't play Ty the Tasmanian Tiger or watch Popular Mechanics for Kids on the xbox. Mark comes home, moves a couple of wires around and voila!, xbox is now hooked up and working on our tiny extra tv.

Miracle No 3: Teddy, our awesome, friendly hamster has been AWOL since a week ago Sunday. The man steps into the kitchen to make oatmeal this morning, scoops Teddy up off the floor and deposits him back in his cage.

Ben and I looked at each other this morning and said "Papa's home!"

Flashback Friday

Valentine's Day Dance, 1984.

The New Heroine

I'm sick and single-parenting. My darling husband is repelling canyons in southern Utah and I'm here with the critters nursing an amazingly bad cold. He'll be gone for a total of 11 days and the photo of the woman screaming and running through the wheat fields that will be posted upon his return?, that'll be me! No, it's not so bad. My kids are troopers and have been very kind to me when they can understand what I'm saying through my mucus-laced speech. We've been leaving home at 8:00 am and returning around 7:00 pm and having Ramen and strawberries for dinner with Boston Baked Beans for dessert. It'll probably be one of their favorite memories of growing up!

I was perusing O Magazine the other day and came upon this:

Seriously? Is this life so hectic that we can't find moments of solitude? And whose fault is that anyway? If I need alone-time, I tell the family that if one more person disturbs me I'll be sending the offenders to the orphanage and there won't be grape jello for dessert. That pretty much does the trick. I mean really, heroin? I might crave it more if it were, say, chocolate or laundry that folds itself. Plus I'm totally afraid of needles.

Missing my guy, so I did a little layout of him fishing last summer. The journaling is from one of our favorite songs by Greg Brown. It pretty much sums him up; he just wants to catch some fish. The rest is just details.

By the way, on our journey home from Claire's school musical on Tuesday night, I picked up a nail on our gravel road and my tire was spitting air at us when we arrived home. Needless to say, it went flat very quickly and had to be changed. This is where a husband really comes in handy. I've never changed a tire in my life; it's dirty and oily and so very hard to get those lug nuts loosened. But there I was at 6:00 am the next morning, jacking up my car in Mark's coveralls and high on cold medicine because hey, I really had no choice. My friend John at Les Schwab commended me on my excellent work and told me that a lot of guys just call for them to come out because they don't want to put their spare on. With that under my belt, I'm thinking of getting that log-splitter this weekend. But I would definitely want to replace the Keystone Light with a bottle of Merlot!

30-Minute Thursday

The challenge: use yellow and orange cardstock, the letters "A" and "Z", and for extra credit, a picture with a table. Didn't have the table picture, but nailed the other ones. Sorry the pic is a little dark.

Ruining His Life

A recent conversation with Ben:

Ben: Can I have a snack?

Me: Yes, an apple or a carrot or a string cheese.

Ben: How about a rice cake?

Me: No, you may have an apple or a carrot or a string cheese.

Ben: Darn it! You're ruining my whole life! (stomps away)

IF ONLY THAT WERE THE ONE THING THAT MIGHT RUIN HIS LIFE!

A layout done for One Little Word: FIND

New and Improved, Part II

I've been busy. I had a vision in my mind of a new header, but alas, I am no Photoshop wizard, so it took me many days to get to this. I love this idea. The letters in the header are photos of letters taken by photographers everywhere and then shared. I found them at www.metaatem.net/words. In the meantime, life kept going on and the little people around here wanted to be fed and bathed and hugged. Imagine.

I've been thinking about how grateful I am to have a warm house during this unseasonably cold spring. That is owed to my hubby, who goes to the woods in the dead heat of summer to acquire firewood for our stove. When he gets home he has to unload it and split it all before he can store it in the barn. I would help him, but it's hard and dirty work! So I did this layout to let him know that I appreciate it. Plus he likes this picture of his truck brimming with logs.

30-Minute Thursday

The challenge: use a new page size, a journaling block and your own handwriting. This layout is 6x12; it's the first 6x12 I've ever done and I loved it. Definitely thinking of ways to incorporate this size into my scrapbooks.

Flashback Friday

I've had so much fun going through old photos lately. Here's me in junior high, circa 1979. This was my very favorite outfit. The vest was velvet and I wore it all the time. What you can't see are my painter jeans, the ones with the pockets down the side of the leg, where I kept my comb! During this time period, my friend Michelle would come for sleepovers and we would work on choreographing dances to Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park", you know the "someone left the cake out in the rain" song. I also played volleyball for my junior high team and I think my boyfriend around this time was Carl (last name escapes me). We were afraid to kiss at the skating rink because of all the stories of couple's braces getting stuck together.

I Told Him About Heartbreak

Today Ben's heart was broken by a girl for the very first time. After a morning of gymnastics and library, we stopped for some lunch where I ran into an old friend who happened to be watching an old "girl" friend of Ben's. He was beyond delighted to see her, but she was there with another friend and really wasn't interested in playing with him. He stood by her table and kept saying her name in a very pleading voice, but she would just look at her friend and giggle. He came to me dejected with tears in his eyes and I tried to comfort him with excuses for her, like "She's shy" or "Maybe she doesn't remember having fun with you." He finally went off into the play structure alone and then I heard him sobbing and found him sitting in the play car with tears streaming down his face. I held him and kissed him and told him about heartbreak. Later in the car on our way to school he said "My heart just broke right in two pieces." Mine too, buddy. We sat in the parking lot at school until he was ready to go in. Just as he opened the car door a schoolmate's little sister walked by and he plowed her right in the forehead. By the time I made it around to his side of the car he was curled in a ball on the floor with more tears in his eyes. Rough day.

Just Layouts

My little goblins.

Overlooked challenge: the Fridge.

Happy Birthday to you. The funny thing is, as I was going through old pictures last weekend I found one of Mark very similar to this one, sombrero and all, but taken about twenty years ago. That's what turns me on about this hobby; the connections through time.

Thanksgiving 2007. Just right at this moment I realize that my date says '08. That's the hard part of this hobby; remembering what year you're working in!

Weekend of Firsts

First soccer game ever for Claire. It was amazing and fun and oh so cold! One of about six pictures I got because guess who forgot to charge the batteries in the camera? I know, there'll be other games.

First day visiting the river. It felt so good to have the warm sun on our faces and throw rocks and laugh and play.

First time roller blading anywhere except on the carpet at home. Took them about three minutes to get the hang of it and then they were off.

Spring break is over and our days of languishing are gone. Back to the daily business of life. I'll leave you with a photo and a thought.

Would you rather be the cat or the bird?

Spring Break for Them...

...but for me it's more like can we all stay home and disrupt your schedule and can I play Zoo Tycoon right now while you're trying to post your blog and I'm taking out all of my art supplies and spreading them out on the dinner table and now you have to clean it up just so you can serve me my macaroni and cheese for the third day in a row and I just had the best time playing in the mud and I'm now walking on the kitchen floor you mopped not five minutes ago. Today we're all heading out to the grocery together and I can already hear the pleas for Oreos and you never let me buy stuff how come you only get what YOU put on the list!

But I love them. And here's a layout of my darling Claire dressed as a cat for Halloween. Her heart is pure gold, but watch out for those claws.

30-minute Thursday

The challenge from last week: use at least 1 photo of yourself, two buttons, 3" of ribbon, and a little bling. This layout is so far off my "regular" path; I cut myself out!! But my birthday was so awesome this year that it deserved something a little different and special.