Creating

I've been visiting the Scraphappy blog and am loving what she's doing there, so I decided to participate in Lain's 30-minute Thursday challenges. This week's challenge was to use products from one manufacturer's line, so of course I had to choose Scenic Route. This is the Salem line, used for a layout other than Halloween. Really like it when you can cross over with holiday paper.

Here is Ben's version of playing badmitton.

And while I had the Scenic Route out on my desk, I was inspired to do one more layout. Here is Claire on her first day of 3rd grade. Loving this Roxbury line.

Also made quite a few Christmas cards yesterday after Ben and I shoveled out of our latest snowstorm. We were all hoping for a snow day, but it rarely happens here. These inland northwesterners are a tough bunch.

Love it when...

I'm a good mama and do what I promised to do. Not only did I get ALL the Christmas decorations out yesterday while Claire was at school, I made her a pan of chocolate chip cookies and her favorite potato soup for dinner. I feel like she's been getting the short end of the stick lately; sometimes it's just plain hard to raise her. She can be so dramatic one moment and completely delightful the next. Maybe that's all girls. Any guys want to pipe up on this topic? Anyway, it was my small contribution to show her I really love her and was thinking about her.

Ben was delighted to find the electric blow-up snow globe which was given to us with loving thoughtfulness by Mark's boss last year. Not only does it spit out styrofoam balls to mimic actual snow, it has a motion activated repertoire of songs that begins to play whenever you walk in front of it. The kids think it's a hoot.

Claire and Ben carefully arranging the little people and sprinkling snow on the Christmas village.

Love my little village. Just makes me happy.

Let It Snow

Got bunches of snow and wind here last night; so lovely when we woke up. It's supposed to continue all week, so we might have quite the accumulations. Having snow on the ground really puts me in the mood for the holidays. I promised Claire I would get out our Christmas decorations while she was at school today. And I think some warm chocolate chip cookies would be nice too. Take a look at my friend Erin's blog; her husband is so sweet!

A layout I completed before Thanksgiving with my CPS November kit.

And the samples for my Life Occasions card class. Felt so good to be making cards again. They're such a nice little artistic palette.

Family Festivities

Had a wonderful, family filled Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law's house. It was also a celebration for Mark's Grandma, who turned 85 last week. She didn't know that all of the family was going to be there, so we gave her a nice little surprise. Isn't she gorgeous?

Here's my guy with his famous smoked turkey. It was absolutely delicious yet again. I don't know how he does it; maybe has something to do with the Mike's Hard Limeade in his pocket!

All 26 of us gathered for a family photo. This was taken in the basement/rec room of my sister-in-law's house and I will try to recap a statement made by Mark that pretty much summed up our weekend. Imagine this: guitar hero played very loudly on the big-screen tv on one side of the room, boom box with music being played very loudly on the other side of the room, second tv with nintendo games going in the middle of the room, the constant hum of the air hockey table, people playing pool, people playing foosball, people playing ping-pong, people playing darts, little children running around, and always a child launching missles from the nerf missle launcher. No one can say we didn't have fun, but I admit I spent most of my time upstairs and out of harm's way.

Taking the brownies on a field trip to the Safeway Bakery today. And how 'bout those Cougs?

Ill-Prepared

Woke up this morning to an eerily quiet house; no power. From the lukewarm water that came out of the hot water dispenser, it appeared that the power had been out for quite some time. I wasn't the least bit concerned until I realized that I had not ground any coffee and my grinder was not going to work without electricity. For those of you who know me personally, making coffee is the first thing I do in the morning after peeing. Yikes! I cursed for a while and then found some old Taster's Choice from my mom's last visit, and I must say it tasted really delightful with the lukewarm water and a little hazelnut creamer. Claire kindly reminded me that the pioneers did not have electricity. I guess I'm ill-prepared for the life of a pioneer.

This is a picture of the missing tip of Mark's index finger, which he lost last night to a hungry jointer. In true Mark fashion, he kept his cool and finished talking to his aunt on the phone about the nitrogen-fixing properties of soil, running cold water on the wound until he could hang up and treat it. We might have been able to have the tip sewn back on if it had not been shredded!

A layout of Ben from last summer using the supplies in my CPS October kit. I was a little behind and didn't get it done in time for the meeting last Saturday.

A layout of Claire's dance recital last spring, completed with this month's CPS kit. And thank you Erin for the lovely glitter. My studio is all a-sparkle!

Winter Wonderland

Awoke to find it had snowed during the night. When you're a kid, there's nothing quitel like the first snow of the year. The kids were up at 7:30 asking for boots and hats and it's now almost 9:00 and they're still out there sledding. Love it.

Here's one of my class samples; an advent calendar made from a cookie sheet. Fun!

And a couple of pages of another class sample; a 2008 calendar. It is made from scratch and I used the Bind It All system (my first time) to put in the spiral binding. Love how it turned out.

Just going to hang around for the next couple of days catching up with housework and working on some Christmas projects. The kids are out of school for the week and I'm looking forward to just spending quiet time with them. We're heading to the Tri-Cities on Wednesday for some family fun and feasting. Mark makes a mean smoked turkey and his mom is an awesome cook, so I'm anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving dinner.

RAK

Came home today to find this in my mailbox.

It was from my father-in-law. We don't get the newspaper and I covet these coupons. Not only did he send the coupon to me, but he sent some money to use with it. Out of the blue. So kind. So generous. So appreciated and welcomed. Especially today. It's the Great American Smoke Out and I am failing miserably. I've been taking the "wonder drug" for the past week and trying to psyche myself out, but I cannot get my head around it. And my shoulder pain is back, almost worse than before. May be heading back to physical therapy. So thanks Ray. Your random act of kindness really made my day!

Days Go By

I can and cannot believe it has been almost a week since I posted to this blog! Days go by so fast and I have been diligently working on my teaching samples. Not a lot of time to scrapbook these days but I did create this layout (with the supplies for my November KOTM from CPS; two birds with one stone) for the Tag, You're It Inspiration Relay, hosted by Lain at the ScrapHappy blog. I am on the Potato Latke team and am the third person on the relay list; we turned around 3 layouts in about 6 hours yesterday. Unfortunately, we are not first across the finish line. The Peanut Butter Kisses turned around all 5 layouts in 24 hours! Amazing!

Our bathroom is still gutted for the remodel, but Mark has the drywall and mortarboard up as well as the plumbing connected. We spent yesterday afternoon trying to pick out tile, but couldn't reach a consensus. There are far too many choices out there!

Hosting a crop at Crop Paper Scissors tomorrow night. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and say hi!

Happy Birthday to You

It's my honey's 42nd birthday today. This is the 25th birthday I've celebrated with him and I have to say that he's only improved with age. He's still as smart and funny and kind and sexy as when I first met him. He took some friends and Ben and I to lunch at the mexican restaurant yesterday and we made him wear the big hat. He didn't want to wear it, but he was a good sport and so for his birthday I will mortify him and post the picture!

Hooray For Fall

We have two wonderful maple trees in our yard that produce an (over)abundance of leaves each fall. Mark and I thought it would be fun to create some sort of art that would follow the kids through the years as they played in the leaves, so we came up with this idea. Each year we'll take a picture of them laying in the leaves inside this old window frame holding the picture we shot from the year before. Next year the picture will be laying in the leaves holding the picture of holding the picture, and so on for as long as we can go. Fun project for us to do together.

Spent about three hours in my studio last night trying to put together a class project that just wasn't working out the way I envisioned. Went to bed totally frustrated, but this morning I am full of fresh ideas and excited for the project again. I love how a little "sleeping on it" can completely change your perspective. It was a good lesson for me to learn to trust the creative process and go with the flow.

Pics From Our Trip

A big THANK YOU to my parents for all their time and energy while we were visiting. I really make my family run when we're there because it's such a big city and there's so many fun things to see and do. I'm sure they sleep for a week after the Wildung clan vacates!

My sister Callie and Claire on the train at the Houston Zoo.

Ben's green tongue after a lime snowball at the Zoo.

Ben and Grandma on the Ferris Wheel at Kemah Boardwalk. It was our first ride of the day and Ben was giddy with anticipation.

The kid's favorite ride; the Bouncer. It takes you up a ways and then drops you back down. I rode once and that was enough for me, but they kept riding it over and over.

Highlight of the afternoon; running through the sprinklers.

And the infamous Heidi Swapp room at By Design Scrapbook Boutique. It was really lovely and creepy at the same time.

Getting everyone psyched for flu shots. Not going to be pretty, but oh so necessary. Ben is a freaker kid when it comes to shots, and this past summer it took me plus two nurses to hold him down for his boosters. Breaks my heart, but what's a mom to do? Maybe make the dad go?

Feeling the Bite

of a Monday morning after vacation. Left so much undone because, hey, I was going on vacation. Now my week is looming large and my mind is scattered around money and brownies and art and chores. Hate that out of control feeling; I know if I just get through today my outlook will be much sunnier!

Here are my little goblins on Halloween. A little late, but oh well. They had a blast trick or treating in the warmth and seeing all the hundreds of other children in my parent's neighborhood. They didn't last for too long, but we got plenty of candy and they gave me all their Reese's and Butterfingers.

Spent some time with my friend Erin down in Lewiston yesterday prepping for upcoming classes. Feeling the love for that, but also getting a little nervous to meet my first students and share my ideas. Hopefully I'll be able to post my samples later this week; going to do some serious dabbling in the glitter.