January 28, 2010 {shots}

Today was a long day for all of us. We went to a playgroup, ate lunch and had to go to the Health Department for shots and records. Luckily, Ava didn't need any. Unluckily, Little Man did. He got SIX shots, three in each leg. Poor little guy. This is him recuperating at home. By the end of the day, however, he was back to his old self!

January 27, 2010 {handwriting}

Some of you may recognize this picture from simplemom.net. My May moms were posting about it so I headed to check out. I am starting this tomorrow, which is why it isn't fully filled out. I am not sure exactly how to do or really what to do. I Know stuff needs to get done. I am definitely a visual person. If I write it down, I'll see it, I can do it, I love to mark things off! One thing I loved that she mentioned on her blog, though, was the lax of schedules. She doesn't give a time for everything, only those things that HAVE to have times, like appointments, pick ups, meetings, etc. She even has a place to jot down blog posts, water intake and daily inspiration whether it be a quote or Bible passage. She has smaller ones too and other really good downloadable sheets. I'll get back to you on how this works. :)

January 26, 2010 {open AND closed}

So, it was getting pretty late and I had yet to take a picture today. I walked around the house to see what I could find. Thinking over and over the themes for today, I ambled into the back room at my parents' house. Right now it is being used to house the babies' toys. For Christmas, they each received their own huge toyboxes. I stared at them in disbelief! Could this really be? Can I hit TWO themes in one day?? Sure enough, one is opened (even if only slightly) and the other, closed.

January 25, 2010 {old}

Today Matt had to go into work for a little bit so we all took a ride to Ft. Walton. The babies and I played at the park for a bit, went to lunch with Matt and then walked around downtown some more. It is a fairly old place and they are trying very hard to keep the historic part of it going. There is an old Indian temple Mound museum across the street so we went to see it. It was really neat. We had to walk up quite a few steps to get to the actual temple because the mound is really high but this is the temple. They don't let anyone walk on the actual mound and it is still used for Native American ceremonies in the area.

This is the second room in the old schoolhouse. It was added later to house the highschoolers. Ava and Brayden were watching this woodpecker toy (it is in front of Ava on the desk) and as simple as it was, they loved it!

This is the teacher's desk on the main side of the school building.

This is the schoolhouse. Ava was able to sit at a desk and write on the slate boards and it was really cool. She liked it. The guide was telling us that they interviewed the original teachers and students to make sure they set it up exactly how they remembered it. The school dates back to 1912 and they restored it in the late 1980s. There was even a dunce cap! She said this housed 1st-8th grade with only one teacher...and here we are complaining about overcrowding!! :)

January 24, 2010 {new}

I have been wearing canvas ballet type shoes for a while. I hate shoes and needed some to wear to work that were closed toe. I found some super cheap and they were actually fun and comfortable, I don't wear my tennis shoes anymore! My mom is a bargain shopper and she's funny about how things stick in her head so when she went to Walmart she found these and was so excited to bring them home to me! They were super cheap, but I think they are fun, and if nothing else, I will wear them to work!

January 23, 2010 {rats!}

This was the scene this afternoon at my parents' house (where we are currently staying) after everything in the garage was pulled out. Why, you ask??? Rats. Yep. That's right. Rats. They or It, we aren't sure, ate through all sorts of stuff. Rat poop was all over the floor. Yuck. So we had to pull everything out, go through and toss whatever was not salvageable (including some baby clothes and a one of a kind jacket my mom had from Alaska (DID NOT TOSS)), and begin the tedious journey of getting it all back in before the rain came. All while deterring the garage salers who were SURE we had stuff for sale and we were tempted to tell them, "if you find something, name a price, it's yours!"

January 22, 2010 {dirty}

One of the hardest things for me in letting my children play outside, paint, use clay, eat yogurt, and all around be kids is the clean up part. I always cringe at the thought of how that's gonna go...Most of the time, however, I am able to let that go and just let them enjoy themselves. Today, Ava was playing in the dirt *cringe* and at the same time saying, "my hands are sooo dirty. My hands are sooo dirty!" I think she was really saying, "haha, mommy!!" But it was fun for her, in her little "flower garden" so I let it go. Brayden found a huge bucket filled with water and had fun throwing sticks into it. I did have to watch him because I think he wanted to take a dive.

January 21, 2010 {getting warmer!}

I had to take a picture of our thermometer that read 77 degrees!! Heck, yeah, baby!!! The cold is gone gone gone gone gone!! Of course, it did take a huge thunderstorm overnight to bring this but I'm ok with that because by the afternoon most everything had dried up. Now, if this will stay I will be one happy camper! This I couldn't resist. The monkey is one of those toddler backpacks with the leash. My parents got it for Ava when they go out and it was left in the house. Brayden INSISTS that he get to wear it. He is so darn proud of the monkey on his back!

January 20, 2010 {blue}

After searching around the house for things that are blue, I realized we have a lot of blue here!! I went to wash my hands in the kitchen sink and looked out the window. Right in front of me practically glowing among the background of the drab trees and stormy sky was this! I don't know how long it has been there, I don't know why it's there. I think it's cool that my dad put it there and I'm excited to be able to watch the birds with Ava as they come to it!

January 19, 2010 {Happy Birthday, Mom!}

I wanted to take other pictures today, but I let Ava have my camera again. After we dropped my husband off, we went to this little playground close by. It's right near the water and I did have to chase Ava down. So we took a timeout and just sat on the dock watching the boats. She wanted to take a picture and this is the one she snapped! I couldn't believe the boat where it was!! I might be back with some more of my mom on her birthday!!

January 18, 2010 {[un]lucky}

This is a picture of the front of my husband's work. From out of the windshield as I dropped him off. I said "un" lucky because I kinda feel that's the way we are right now! I have to drop him off for the past week or so (except when we were all sick) because our car broke down. It is truly a pain in the butt becasue it is kind of out of the way! This coupled with some of the other stuff and AAAAHHHHH!!!!! But we are trucking through. And the picture was actually taken today, but it could have been yesterday, so I'm counting it as yesterday :)

Dirty Scraps

I found this new challenge site Dirty Scraps that is just starting and I think it is amazing! The idea is to scrap EVERYTHING. Not just the good moments, not just the fun stuff, not just the perfect pictures. The raw, the dirty, the not so fun because in truth, that makes us who we are just as much as those perfect moments. It is about getting our frustration out, charting new territory. I love the idea and it is harder than I Thought. I don't scrap like other people do, I think I'm very amatuerish compared to others. But I hope doing this will help me break out of that and get a little messier in my scrapping.

The first challenge: To scrap a peeve and include the positive you have gained from it. The journaling reads: "I get angry at myself. Because I lost my job. Because I'm a poor planner. Because we moved in with my parents. Because I lose patience with my children. I feel stuck, lost, like a loser mom. I can't find a job, my kids act crazy, I feel weak and worthless. I get mad at myself for being MAD. I don't want to fail, but I'm ready to give up" "BUT my kids are my everything. Every tear is dried with their smiles, every frustration forgotten in their laughter. Every worry lost in a snuggle. Do I struggle? Do I beat myself up? Yes. Does it matter to them? No. And that is what keeps me going through this hard time."

Around the outside of the journaling boxes are words and phrases associated with the feeling within the journaling. The white box is a picture I haven't gotten done yet, but I took it for my 365 project. That day was one of "these days." I know the layout probably loses something with this picture, but I wanted to get it scrapped and done and I will add the picture as soon as I get it printed out.

January 17, 2010

This is the cake from my mom and dad. Ava picked it out! I had started cutting it before my mom asked if I had taken a picture yet...oops!!

January 16, 2010 {two}

Today (the 16th) we celebrated our first anniversary. I'm sharing the pictures we took because we really did have a lot of fun. It was rainy and the place we went is mostly outside and you walk from restaurant to bar to restaurant, but it was nice just the two of us.

These pictures were just too funny to pass up. At this ice cream/diner place they had these huge ice creams. Love them! This was the best place of all, honestly! I Had a banana split, french fries and while beer at all the other places were $4.00, they were $1.50 here. And the girls here were so nice and fun! Isn't this the neatest? This was outside the bathrooms at a dance club we went to. You were either a "Marilyn" or a "James." I thought the painting was cool and knew my 365ers would love it! :) (Excuse the girl walking out...had she waited a second longer...)

This is my favorite picture of the day. This is Matt singing Rascal Flatts, "I Melt." The night we first met, he sang this karaoke (before I had even met him) and I was in love! When we got married, I walked down the aisle to this song because it was the song we "met" to. And then he sang it on our first anniversary!

Thanks for indulging me!

January 15, 2010 {in HER neighborhood}

Ava and Brayden were given a set of tents for Christmas that they LOVE. My parents set them up in the back room where all of their toys are and they have so much fun they have almost slept in them! When I went to take this picture I didn't realized how she had actually MOVED IN!

January 14, 2009

Our house. Right now. I don't know how good it's working because my husband is now sick, but still. The only thing missing is the Lysol spray and the Oximagic stuff. Maybe we have run out already...

And now I am caught up. For now, at least. Today's post is coming TODAY!!

January 13, 2009-no picture

I was going to try for one from the bed, but it just wasn't happening! You would have seen a mess. Clothes on the floor, blankets and pillows heaped up. Babies passed out. They slept as much as I did. TV playing a marathon of Phineas and Ferb. It was a mess. I was a mess. And I wasn't in any shape to take a picture!

January 12, 2009 {peaceful}

I think I'm going out of order for the themes, but it's what I found works for this week! I chose peaceful for this picture because it was the calm between the storms. I had just gotten home from work and both babies were at the doctor. They both have allergies and my Little Man has a double ear infection. Later this night I would be throwing up.

January 11 catch up! {trash or treasure}

For those of you who follow me and the 365 project, I'm so sorry. Things got a little hectic and I was really sick two days ago. Recovering yesterday and now my husband is sick, I'm going to try to catch up as quickly as possible! I'm so sorry for not keeping up!

This lovely thing is my dog's favorite toy, Nemo. He's had it for as long as he's been alive. When we moved and put most everything in storage, this was the one thing we had to bring. It's as big as he is and he hikes it through his legs as well as chews on in constantly. It is pretty battered...But one man's trash is another...dog's (?) treasure??? (and if you look closely, you can see his leg! He wasn't happy about me touching it, for sure!).

January 9 and 10 together!

The theme for yesterday was Who am I? or What am I? even. Yesterday, I was broken. Today I'm not totally mended. I had a little meltdown which caused my babies to cry with me. Which made me cry even more. I told Ava, "I just want to be a good mommy to you. I'm so sorry." She replied, "I just want to be a good Ava." and kissed my head. I know this seems pretty raw to share, but I also know my May mommas are ok with that :) So here is our picture for January 9, post tears: For January 10, the theme was "Winter." So I thought and thought about this one because although we are having one of the coldest winters in a long darn time here in Florida, we really don't have much of a winter. But we definitely miss summer! (well, sometimes) Here is what it looks like during winter in our area. You can see the beaches! Starting Spring Break you can hardly walk because of all the people. And the parking lot??? Practically empty! Usually we have to drive up and down and up and down and become parking lot stalkers and then try to be creative while still being legal with our parking. Not so easy.

The theme was inside out/upside down...

But I got nothing...I searched and even didn't search for something to use. So I figured I would take a picture and share with you something I haven't yet! My puppy dog! He's not a puppy anymore, but he was my "first baby." He's a mutt, given to me by one of my old students my second year of teaching. His name is Cosmo and he's a nutty dog. He tolerates my babies, but I think he might be upset with them for coming...For a long time it was just us. And our cat! He has a Nemo fish (I'll get a pic of that soon!) that he LOVES. It's just about the same size as him and he hikes it like a football. Hilarious!!

Reflections

This is the photo wall (well, my side) at my mom and dad's house. Nice huh? But as the whole purpose of this challenge is to capture and reflect our year, I'm sure that's what this does too. Of course, there are the pictures that I wish weren't there (who let me CRIMP my hair??) but they each tell their own story. There's my prom pictures. When I went with a date and went by myself. The year my dad said my mom WAS NOT allowed to do our hair or put makeup on. The picture of my dad and me...my color guard pictures. My senior pictures. The picture of me graduating from FSU. I can tell you a book from that one picture. The one picture that made me decide it was time to lose weight. Pictures of times I was too young to remember. But I Love to hear others tell the stories. Pictures...reflections...

My favorite color: PURPLE!

So today's focus was purple. I went through a million ideas for this and thought most of them were too staged. My favorite color is purple so most of my stuff IS purple! I decided to be simple and show my iphone case. Of course, as all of you know, this isn't easy with nosy boys!! And he knows he's not allowed to touch the phone! This one I couldn't resist. Proof that ANYTHING is a child's toy! This is my scrapbook tote and they love to pull them around.

Kids These Days...

Oh kids. How fun. When I got to this theme, I was thinking, much like I saw some others were, what "kids?" But as I was trying to think, my kids did it for me. Kids. Who can find fun and play wherever they are. Whenever it is. Even at the table eating breakfast. What? You can't see them? Yes. Those are my babies playing hide and seek under the table.

One would assume a 15 month old can feed himself, right? Sure...everything BUT blueberry poptarts.

Santa's Workshop

Wooo Hooo!! I'm back in action. It has been quite a long time since I have scrapped and here is my first attempt back at it. This is a layout of when I took my babies to a Santa's Workshop they had set up. It was fun and they really enjoyed themselves.

This is for Just Buggin: In the Shadows and Practical Scrappers: Buttons. Of course, last week I could have used this for almost every challenge blog out there, but noooo, I couldn't get my booty in gear to get anything done!!

The paper used is from DCWV Holiday Stack, the ribbon is from Big Lots, the Santa is cut from Christmas Cheer and stickled, and the title is from Lyrical Letters. The buttons are from a huge bag I found at Walmart.

And just for the record, this took me a lot longer than I anticipated. So I only got this done last night. Here's to more tonight!!!

My favorite things...

I'm still debating on whether or not to take pics of the babies, because they ARE my favorite things, and I do have some ideas going...so we'll see...But here are Day 4 of pictures...My favorite things!! I think this might go beyond favorite in that I can't really function without it. With two kids 16 months apart I need some artificial energy in the form of coffee!!

This is also a saving grace for me. If we had our own place it would actually have it's own place too. And it did up until a few days ago. The room I used was just too cold so I packed it all up so I could take it to the dining room to do some scrapbooking.

I wasn't really doing this for CC or for anything other than just having fun with it because I just have a regular point and shoot. But then I began to look at backgrounds and placement even if I can't get the technical stuff :)

A day at the park

My pictures today are from the park. I took the kids on a long walk in the wagon to this little park in our neighborhood. Both of them were crawling through the tunnel and I got Ava as she was climbing out and Brayden peeking through one of the holes. I decided on two today because I wanted to have one of Ava but I loved the one of Brayden. I should have taken a picture of the dadgum hill I had to climb when we left.

Playing catch up!

So a few friends have decided to do a 365 pictures challenge. The challenge is to take a picture every day and show it off! Many of them are doing it to enhance their photography skills, I'm just doing it so I have more to scrap :). It's a pretty popular theme in scrapbooking too, so I'm excited to get both things going. I'm just going to keep the two together since they go so well anyways! BUT, as you can see, I'm behind! I have to catch up!! So here are pictures from the past few days.

January 1, 2010 (wow that was wierd): This picture was taken by Ava, who really really wanted to use my camera. It's blurry because I was behind her trying to make sure she somewhat had her brother in the frame, didn't drop my camera and hit the right button.

I will have to come back for today's picture. (How can I be falling behind already??)