Remember Today 2.28.09

{remember} L & C at their friends' house leaving Maddox and me to make meatballs and sauce, and play all his favorite songs on Rock Band.

Remember Today 2.27.09

{remember} Camden going to a friend's house after school and telling his friend's mom all about how he wants a dog and his Dad won't let him get one: "My Dad says dogs are dirty. Their paws get all muddy and then they get the mud all over the rugs."

Remember Today 2.26.09

{remember} waking up this morning to find Logan in bed reading the last pages of the 127 page chapter book he had started last night. I LOVE that he is a READER!!

Remember Today 2.25.09

{remember} Camden using our icy front walkway as a skating rink.








Then when I finally got hi hockey helmet unsnapped, he says, "Whew, I thought that was gonna have to stay on until Daddy got home." {Me, too! I just can't get those darn snaps undone!}

Remember Today 2.24.09

{remember} treating myself to a little scrapbooking time now that I'm down to completing the final 25 wedding invitations--yippee!

Remember Today 2.23.09

{remember} some rituals lately: playing Rock Band with Maddox in the morning after the boys get on the bus; spending nights in the stUdio with Perry while we both get some work done; playing soccer with Camden in the playroom.

Remember Today 2.22.09

{remember} watching Logan ice skate for the very first time, and how dear Camden was waiting for him (but then he realized it was more fun to lap him and check-in each time he passed).

Rememebr Today 2.21.09

{remember} making chocolates with the boys this afternoon and flashing back to the time a bunch of us got together at my Grandma's to make chocolates for Easter when I was a kid. So much fun to paint the colored chocolate into the molds with them, and their faces when we popped the chilled pieces onto a plate--so much fun, and a great way to spend a wintery Saturday afternoon.

Remember Today 2.20.09

{remember} hanging out with the boys on the last day of their vacation.

They have this way of playing with PlayDoh that entails dumping out every canister,

mixing the colors together and forming a road on which to drive their cars:

I have this thing that their messy play is ok only if the time it takes to clean up the mess is less than half the time they spent actually playing. This activity is borderline!

Remember Today 2.19.09

{remember} saving our February vacation with a trip to the roller skating rink with L & C: a bit of chicken dance, red light-green light, hokey pokey, all skate, and soft pretzels and Icees--lots of fun!

Childhood Dreams

Creativity Prompt had this journaling prompt this week:

Childhood dreams tend to be grand and out of this world. We feel that everything is possible if we just want it strongly enough. Childhood dreams can involve figments of our imagination as well as feasible goals and aspirations.

For this week’s journaling prompt set aside a few moments and try to remember what were your childhood dreams. Write a list of every dream you manage to call to mind and make a note about the ones that actually came true.

Here's what I came up with:

• to be a teacher
• to get married and have babies
• to spend summers as the educational director at the San Diego zoo
• to learn sign language, and teach it to chimpanzees (courtesy of the movie Project X)
• to have a dream that I found money all over the playground at school and wake up to still be clutching it in my hands
• to find a pot of gold and a leprechaun at the end of the rainbow
• to have lots of pets
• to visit the Wonka Chocolate Factory
• to live next door to my best friend when we grew up

Make a list of your childhood dreams and create a layout featuring then and now pictures of yourself.

Remember Today 2.18.09

{remember} feeling grateful that we've made it over the hump of this week. I don't like feeling this way, but between the rocky start to the week, having to cancel plans, the boys getting under each other's skin, the amount of "screen time" going on in this house, staying indoors (more because I don't like the cold), this week is turning out to be a disappointment for all of us. We managed to squeeze in an hour at the bowling alley, but even that wasn't enjoyable. We have two more days to get it together--maybe baking cupcakes is in order for tomorrow before we go roller skating, well, because cupcakes just make everything better, don't they?

I wanna doggie

Lately the boys have been asking for a dog. Maybe it's the movies about dogs they've been picking from the library: Because of Winn Dixie, Shiloh, Shiloh Season, or the neighbors on both sides of us with canine companions. Or the books they choose at bedtime: for instance Maddox picking Clifford the Big Red Dog for the 83rd night in a row and then telling me this:

M: I wanna doggie.
Me: Talk to Daddy about that.
M: If he says no, then it's no.
Me: {took the words right out of my mouth} Do you think he'll say no?
M: No. . . actually, yes.
Me: You think he'll say no?
M: Yeah, but I really wanna doggie.

These days

this little guy can't get enough of the computer:

We call this nook "behind the wall." It's always been a catch-all for the large toys that don't fit into the playroom cabinets. A while back the boys helped me move the computer from Camden's bedroom where it was just another piece of furniture I had to dust to "behind the wall" where it gets way more use. This computer is a dinosaur and the monitor is even older. There's no internet access, no printer hook up, but for now it's serving its purpose, especially for Maddox, who feels so grown-up maneuvering the mouse around the screen. Logan is hoping Santa will bring a computer that he can use his Funkeys on (this one is painfully slow), and Camden's figuring if you're going to bother asking for a big ticket item like a computer, might as well go for the full Monty: a laptop "so I can carry it around with me."

Remember Today 2.17.09

{remember} walking down the hall to find this little bit of evidence of just who had been here before me.

Capture these types of "evidence" and scrapbook them. Before you know it, these bits will be long gone.

Remember Today 2.16.09

{remember} starting February vacation with a stomach bugged child--poor thing laying on the couch all day eating a carrot for breakfast and three bites of Ramen noodles for dinner, no Wii, no DS, just lots of mindless tv, back rubs, a short nap, and a fever.

Remember Today 2.15.09

{remember} watching Camden at his very first ice skating lesson--the entire family went to see him take to the ice. We were so proud of how well he did (and fearful that hockey may just be his sport afterall).

The first lesson consisted of learning how to stand up: start on your bottom with your legs out in front (a natural falling down position!), swing legs around to kneel like a doggie, put one knee up, give a big push, and stand up tall. Camden decided that one step was missing before the final stand tall: the "touch-your-toes-balance-check." Hey, whatever works, right. And of course, it wouldn't be Camden doing a sport if his "fierce" competetiveness didn't come through. It didn't matter that the two children he was "racing" against were twice his height (and probably twice his age), he scooted across the ice as fast as his little legs would shuffle with one eye in front of him and the other peering over his shoulder to see what kind of a lead he had!

Forget love. . .I'd rather fall into chocolate!

My parents gave the boys jumbo chocolate kisses for Valentine's Day, and of course immediately after lunch they tore right into these. The tearing off of the foil was the easy part; biting into the chocolate fit for a giant was a different story. They managed, so well that while I went upstairs briefly they had devoured about half of their kiss. Lucky I had snapped these photos first:

Remember Today 2.13.09

{remember} how much I love Fridays (I think I've said this before): Pilates class, followed by the NAZ where I read a mag, karate where I worked on invitations, pizza take-out on the family room floor, and a movie curled up on the couch with the boys--does it get any better?!

What a dollar buys you

Picked up these stiff felt "coasters" today for a dollar. I'm thinking an embellishment on a page, or how about the cover to a mini-album. I also grabbed two shaped chipboard albums, a pack of round and square coasters, and some recipe cards (that I've already used for a cookie swap we're going to on Saturday) All for a dollar each! I'm proud to be able to tell my grandkids, "Back in my day you could buy the makings for a really great project for only $1"

How to leave a comment

Many of you have told me that you have tried to leave a comment and couldn't get it to work. I love getting comments (and knowing that people actually read my blogs), so I will attempt to tell you how to do it.

1. Click on the word "comments" at the end of the post.
2. A pop-up screen will appear.
3. Type your comment in the box.
4. Click on the "Name/URL" box and type your name in the box that appears (you can leave URL blank).
5. Click publish your comment.

See, easy!

Wreck This Journal

I picked up this book at Border's today with my birthday coupon. I came upon it on Amazon the other night, and was thrilled to find it at the bookstore (I like instant gratification). Perry saw it on my desk and thumbed through it to find: Tear out. Crumple., Make a funnel. Drink some water., Chew on this. Warning: Do not swallow. Ok, he was less than thrilled. "How much did you spend on this?" But trust me, this book could be life-altering. In the very least it will spark some creativity when I'm in a dry spell. The premise of the book is to let down barriers of perfectionism, snub what your "better" judgement is telling you, and deface a brand new book. I think the whole experience will be very liberating. I'm starting tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Remember Today 2.12.09

{remember} the boys occupying themselves long enough to get a little crafty in the stUdio. I'm thinking I could get a whole lot more scrapbooking done if I got better organized with my projects. What do you know? The latest CK issue arrived in my mailbox today and it's all about getting organized.

Remember Today 2.11.09

{remember} getting a little further in my digital photo organization project--this is going to take a while! Here's my system, in case you're curious:

My Pictures>year (2007)>photo shoot and date (5-21 boys on swings). Putting the date first with the month's number makes them automatically sort chronologically--nice!

Since I organized my paper photos by date (because they pretty much come that way when you get the film developed), I'm hoping it's only logical to do my digital ones this way as well. Of course you don't really know if something is going to work until you actually try it. After the hours I'm putting into this, it had better work!

After I sort the two years worth of photos (I'm glad now that it took me so long to convert to digital), I will use ACDSee to tag each of my photos so that I'll be able to do searches to pull up all photos of Logan and Karate. Ahhh, it all sounds so good!

What's your system and do you love it?

Remember Today 2.10.09

{remember} Maddox's response when we heard and saw his name get called for the preschool lottery: "I'm going to schoooool, yaaaay!"

Well, hello there. . .

This is what I looked up to see while doing dishes at my sink today. Do you think he's hungry? How on Earth did he get up there?!

The poor thing looked really desperate sticking his paws through my squirrel-proof feeder to try to scrape the meager remains of what the birds have been eating from the bottom tray. I just had to throw some shelled peanuts onto the deck for him (unsalted, of course), and Maddox thought he might enjoy a handful of Kix, too.

. . . it's my birthday too, yeah. . .

Things that made my birthday special:

* Perry's happy birthday hug and kiss this morning
*The boys making me birthday "cards" without Perry even mentioning it
*Maddox getting into preschool via the lottery drawn on tv this morning
*Camden & Maddox periodically telling each other "You can't cry on Mom's birthday!"
*Opening my email to find oodles of Happy Birthday wishes
*Coming home from L & C's swim lessons to lots of Happy Birthday messages on my machine
*Not having to cook because I did a crock pot meal
*My Mom & Dad taking the boys and I out for ice cream (I regret opting for the Jim Dandy Jr. I could've taken on the Jim Dandy--the mac-daddy of all sundaes--really I could have. My 35 year old hips (and butt, and thighs, and gut) are thanking me for not making the attempt.
*Feeling grateful for everyone who made my day so special

Remember Today 2.9.09

{remember} Logan coming in from school and sitting right down to do his homework and write Valentine's without any hassle.

Remember Today 2.8.09

{remember} stuffing my face with yummy brunch foods at my cousin's baby shower, and reminding myself that she has an excuse to eat a lot; what's mine?

Remember Today 2.7.09

{remember} roller skating the morning away with L & C at a birthday party--so glad I donned the skates and got out on the rink with them--fun times!

Remember Today 2.5.09

{remember} listening to Maddox crack himself up while playing with the Little People.

Remember Today 2.4.09

{remember} driving by our old house and telling Maddox he wasn't even born yet when we lived there. His reply: "Pretty soon I'll be born and I can go there."

Remember Today 2.3.09

{remember} Maddox strutting around the house with this iron-on guitar patch he picked out at the store, and Camden needing to dress in his interpretation of a rock star, too.

Remember Today 2.2.09

{remember} a tiny taste of spring when the temp hit 50: bike ride, chalk drawings, laying with the sun in our faces. It won't be long now!

the view from my back on the driveway:

Quote of the Day

I found this on a new blog I've been frequenting belonging to Paula from Big Picture Scrapbooking

Hope she doesn't mind me stealing it! Surround yourself with people who create good in your life--it's too short to not be happy!

25 Random Things

I've been getting a bunch of tags for this lately, so here goes:

25 Random Things about me:

1) I married my high school sweetheart.
2) I always thought I'd be mom to girls, and ended up with 3 fabulously fun boys.
3) I would love to go back to school for Art/Graphic Design.
4) I'm addicted to Baked Lay's.
5) I can't sleep without socks on my feet.
6) I organize everything I can according to rainbow order.
7) I stuck a green blueberry up my nose when I was 3.
8) I rammed a pen through the roof of my mouth when I was 3.
9) I had a spinal tap when I was 4 to diagnose JRA and can't imagine all that my parents went through now that I'm a parent.
10) I lived at college, but came home nearly every weekend.
11) I was proposed to at the end of the jette I climbed on when I was a little girl.
12) I've never done drugs, but I have smoked a handful of cigarettes.
13) I've never broken a bone or had surgery.
14) My first wisdom tooth is coming in now, at age 34.
15) I have a huge sweet tooth.
16) I met my husband working at the grocery store.
17) I was petrified of all bugs until I taught an insect class to first and second graders.
18) I worked the middle of the night shift at my college dorm's front desk.
19) I learned to ride two-wheels on a purple bike with a white sparkly banana seat.
20) I've been wearing contacts since the 7th grade.
21) I became an aunt in 8th grade.
22) I've been on a plane 4 times: Vegas with my aunt to visit my aunt and uncle in 8th grade, San Fran to see my best friend in 11th grade, Boulder for my cousin's confirmation, and Antigua for our honeymoon.
23) I've never been to Disney.
24) I was never a night owl until I had children.
25) I only get my haircut about once a year.

This list makes a great scrapbook page topic. So quick, go grab a pen and paper and make yours. Don't forget to send it to me!

Making history

The boys were part of television history tonight: watching the first 3D commercial. They did a fabulous job sharing the one pair of 3D glasses we could find in the house. Time to clean out their junk drawers again--we must have at least 4 more pairs.

And I will be securing this precious pair to cozy down with Chuck tomorrow night!

Remember Today 2.1.09

{remember} watching the half-time show with the boys before scooting them off to bed--they love watching "music" and it's fun to share music from our days with them.