Remember Today 5.31.08

{remember} a fun family party to celebrate Christina and Joe's 22nd anniversary.

Remember Today 5.30.08

{remember} a much needed day for recovery after a terrible night with Camden and a stomach bug--lots of rest and napping.

Remember Today 5.29.08

{remember} the craziness of a day in this life:

7:00 wake, edit letter for teacher scrapbook projects while boys eat breakfast
8:35 put Logan on bus after making sure he is dressed, brushed, packed
9:15 leave for hospital to bring the gifts Camden donated from his birthday
10:30 Walmart for envies for teacher scrapbook project
11:00 home, lunch for C & M, cut 68 squares of cardstock, print and cut letters, stuff and label 15 envelopes
11:45 drive C to school and distribute his class' envelopes
12:15 arrive at L's school to volunteer during reading time
1:00 go to lunch with L and his class; stuff and label remaining 19 envelopes for scrapbooks 1:45 run home to grab camera I forgot
2:00 back at L's school for Talking Books fair--so adorable!
3:30 home with Logan, homework, and outside with boys
5:00 grab dinner from McDonald's and Wendy's (they have WAY better salads)
5:25 dinner on the table (thank goodness I didn't have to cook it)
5:30 out the door to Kate's graduation ceremony
5:45 wolf down most of my salad at my sister's house
6:00 arrive at high school for lots of waiting, finish rest of salad and have rush of guilt for having to put the plastic bowl in the trash (no recycling bin)
7:30-10:00 watch Kate's speech and a dozen others before seeing 384 students walk across the stage (yippee! but boy did my butt hurt!!)
10:30 back home and collapse into bed for a good night's sleep
1:20 not so fast, wake to find Camden in my bed with a bellyache
1:30 in the bathroom with C vomitting into the toilet
1:45 more vomitting and back rubbing
2:00 and again
2:15 some more
2:30 where does all this come from, poor kid
3:00-6:00 a restless night filled with lots more vomitting, soothing words, and back rubs and little to no sleep.

Motherhood is not for the weak!

Remember Today 5.28.08

{remember} Camden writing the entire alphabet. . .all over his leg. Thankfully he used washable marker!

Remember Today 5.27.08

{remember} Logan losing his other front tooth at school.

Twothless!

Remember Today 5.26.08

{remember} just hanging outside wth the boys--no where to be, no schedule--just a taste of our lazy summer days.

Remember Today 5.25.08

{remember} a cookout with great friends, good food, and kids who played outside until bedtime.

Remember Today 5.24.08

{remember} having alone time with Maddox while the older boys had a playdate--fun for everyone.

Do Something Creative Everyday

A field trip to The Paper Source today: a little slice of papercrafting heaven--delicious papers, bushels of cards & envelopes in tons of yummy colors, scrumptious journals, bunches of bookmaking supplies, and a pinch of scrapbooking accents and tools. The look and feel of this shop alone gave me the urge to create something.

Remember Today 5.23.08

{remember} Maddox's sheer happiness at finally getting his turn at breakfast with Daddy.

Remember Today 5.22.08

{remember} going out to lunch with Perry and Maddox while the boys were at school--and it wasn't fast food, it was my favorite Japanese place I frequented pre-kids.

Remember Today 5.21.08

{remember} a conversation with Perry Logan:

me: [holding up a shirt I ordered for free at Vista] See my new shirt; I'm starting my own company. L: [quick, audible inhale of breath] Where ya gonna work, huh, huh, huh? me: Right here. L: This place is becoming a zoo; I'm putting a stop to this.

Addendum to this conversation: me: what if I had said I was going to go work in an office? him: I would say, go ahead. me: then who would get you off the bus? him: I would go to after school care with my friend.

Don't they just have everything figured out?!

Remember Today 5.20.08

{remember} being inspired to cook with the new recipes I got at a weekend recipe swap--yummy, and I love knowing the answer to the question "what's for dinner?"

Remember Today 5.19.08

{remember} how good it is to have Perry home on vacation--how he took L out to breakfast this morning before school, and took C & M on an errand giving me time to get the house a bit picked up.

from "the stUdio"

A co-worker of Perry's has entrusted me with creating her wedding stationery.

The dresses are clover from J Crew. And she wanted to throw in a bit of color. Here's what I came up with:

Fun, fun, fun to make! She found the non-traditional pocket styling--love it! Wish they had all these funky invitations when we got married (10 years ago this weekend). More goods to come. . .

Remember Today 5.18.08

{remember} Happy Birthday, Kalmin Lawrence! My dear friend delivered a beautiful baby boy tonight (2 months early).




This little guy has been a long time in the making. His parents have gone to great lengths to bring him into this world. Please say a prayer for Marci, her husband, and baby Kalmin.

Remember Today 5.17.08

{remember} a slow motion day after a very late night & not much sleep--thankfully, nothing but soccer and baseball on the agenda today.

Family Photo

A couple of the moms at Camden's school, who just happen to be professional photographers, donated their time to shoot photos for families as a fundraiser for the school (so very generous!). Of course I jumped at the chance: money for the school and a family portrait, are you crazy?! I am so in love with our picture.

Can't wait to print some out for everyone (seeing how I didn't do pics of the boys for Christmas). And now I won't be scrambling for that token family photo for all the school projects in the fall!

Remember Today 5.16.08

{remember} a fun night out with friends reminds me that we need to do stuff like this more often (not too often, but more often than we do).

Remember Today 5.15.08

{remember] Logan losing his top tooth, and how his smile is now forever changed--a huge milestone marking how my little boy is growing up.

Remember Today 5.14.08

{remember} Maddox quoting things--lyrics from songs, phrases from movies (like Alvin & the Chipmunks and Night at the Museum), and how he yells, "I said knock it off" when he doesn't like what someone is doing to him--too funny these days, and way more attitude than any 2 and a half year old should be allowed to have.

Remember Today 5.12.08

{remember} the boys being home sick again today with yucky tummys--aren't we done with the whole winter sickness thing, yet?!

Remember Today 5.11.08

{remember} a wonderful Mother's Day: breakfast in bed prepared and served by my four boys, opening love notes from L& C, playing outside for hours with the neighbors (while the men did yard work), 15 minutes of scrapbooking, take out Chinese food, M using the potty, and updating my blog while watching "The Office" marathon (this show cracks me up--outloud even all by myself).

page #5

still need to journal upper right corner. . .

Remember Today 5.10.08

{remember} tonight after dinner Perry asked the boys if they wanted to make me a card for Mother's Day. Camden replied, that he would make mine tomorrow, and asked, "What time does Mother's Day start?"

Remember Today 5.9.08

{remember} how much fun it is to get into L's classroom, have a glimpse into his day with his friends. He's growing up so fast, and I love that he loves having me around (begs me to eat lunch with him at school)--don't want this to ever end.

Remember Today 5.8.08

{remember} Mother's Day Tea at Camden's school: how he chose "shopping" as the thing I do the best (hey, at least he said the grocery store was our favorite place to shop together!).

Everything Old is New Again

I love when I can use old supplies that I just "had to have" and never got around to using, or when I can dust off a tool (in this case my Sizzix machine that Perry gave me for my very first Mother's Day 7 years ago) and use it to make something fresh and updated.



I combined the Sizzix sunflower diecut with a stamp and a paper piercer to make these super simple teacher appreciation cards. I found these cutie polkadot bowls at, where else, Target's dollar spot and just had to fill them with something yummy for the teachers. A very, very tiny token of appreciation for all the great things they do for our kids!

Remember Today 5.6.08

{remember} watching Camden swim laps at swim class--his excitement at learning "freestyle" and his willingness to work hard.

Page a day #3

Remember Today 5.5.08

{remember} hearing the fits of Maddox's belly laugh coming up from downstairs (something that Logan was doing to him--don't know what but he was loving it).

A page a day for May

May is National Scrapbooking Month and since I haven't made time to scrapbook in, um, months I thought it would be fitting (not to mention productive) to do a scrapbook page a day for May. Of course I didn't think of this until this evening, so I am already behind (something that my old regimented self would never have stood for). My new embracing imperfection self says, "what the hay, it's only the 4th; I can catch up." I whipped up two pages tonight with the whole idea that scrapbooking needn't be this laborious act of creating a beautiful masterpiece worthy of a museum. It's just some precious photos, a few words of remembrance, and a couple of dodads to bring it all together.

Page 1:

Page 2:

Remember Today 5.4.08

{remember} how heavenly a long afternoon nap can feel--totally rejuiced my batteries and kept me awake to scrapbook two pages tonight.

Remember Today 5.3.08

{remember} watching Camden take a digger directly in the only patch of mud on the soccer field during a rainy game--his muddied yellow team shirt, clumpy wet hair, and crazy grin that was loving every minute of it (me too, but not Maddox who couldn't understand what the heck we were doing outside in the rain).

Remember Today 5.2.08

{remember} how I love the sound of a dishwasher running on a rainy morning--I know, I'm crazy but this noise just makes me feel warm and relaxed.

Remember Today 5.1.08

{remember} not wanting to cancel a sacred Thursday night ritual, but knowing it was absolutely the best thing to do. After a long winter of being the only one in my family with my health, I guess my turn is overdue.