WITL Day 1

I'm doing Week In the Life again this year. Last year was my first time and I really enjoyed it but it's so labor intensive that I originally wanted this to be an every other year project. Well, I changed my mind and I'm in!

Last year's album was very picture heavy and not word heavy enough. (Story of my life!) So, I decided to start a blog post every morning and add to it throughout the day. This seems more doable to me than to get it all done in the evening. I got the Blogger app on my phone so even on the days when I'm not home, I can still blog...hopefully!

AM

3:45 alarm to head to the gym. Andrew leaves at 6:10 so I have to get up, ready, and leave for the gym at this ungodly hour so I can get back before he leaves. This morning I was a few minutes late. Yikes! Mickey was still sacked out on the couch (he likes to sleep in the living room during the summer) but Aud was up. She came out with me to let the chickens out into their run. The girls were awake but still on their roosts and didn't hop down right away. I think they were as tired as I am!

Aud wants to take a bath but she is so sleepy that I tell her it's not a good idea. That girl loves her baths...just like Momma! I hop in the shower, clamber back into my jammies and then into bed. Snuggling with my girl first, of course. She also loves her snuggles. 

I'm so excited about WITL that it takes me awhile to fall asleep. And, the noise of a chainsaw/drone/motorcycle(?) at 7:00am doesn't help either. 

I hear the heathens before I'm truly awake. They are pretty good about letting me sleep. Once they realize I'm awake, they yell Momma and climb all over me. Our dog Lilly is also in this excited state and "technically" isn't on the bed because her hind legs are still on the ground. As she's half Great Dane, that leaves a lot of dog to be on the bed with us.

11:00 Up and dressed and making "breakfast". Aud finally gets to have her bath, complete with a jillion My Little Ponies. I can hear her singing from here. She always sings in the tub...and her room...and the car. I love it.  Little Man is playing Legos. He was a bit disappointed that Aud would rather bathe than play Legos with him but got over it and made a football field on our bedroom floor. The Lego minifigs are his players. It's a combo of a couple of his current favorites, sports and Legos.

We've gotten three eggs from our girls so far and I can hear them from my open kitchen window. Most of them are quietly clucking to themselves. There are a couple, however, who announce to the world that THEY HAVE LAID AN EGG TODAY!!! It is hilarious!

I'm done with breakfast so I'd better go finish getting ready, we've got some serious errands to run today!

AFTERNOON

My lack of sleep is catching up to me. Got my face on, my hair did, and then decided I needed food. LOL! Finally, we left. Dropped a friend's daughter's coat off, got me some caffeine at McD's, and went to my Mom's. Where I proceeded to sit and chat for too long. :) Finally got off my tuckus and we stopped at Fred Meyer and then the Goodwill dropoff.

3:15 We are home and Mickey is getting ready for golf. It's his last lesson, next week they get to golf with a family member and he is so excited to golf with his Dad. :) We are going to drop Mickey off (after getting a few pictures, of course) and then Audrey and I are heading to Tar-jay to return stuff and maybe get her some school clothes. That girl is such a fashionista! Just this morning she told me that she was going to grow her bangs out after all and has asked me all day how she does that and how to wear her hair. Love her!

PM

We zipped out and dropped Mickey off at golf. He's really enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to him playing with Andrew. I think it will be a really great experience for both of them! Then Aud and I did our Target thing really quickly but were still a few minutes late to get Mickey. They let out at least 10 minutes early. Fortunately, he just hung out on the putting green with a girl from his class.

We got home so the kids could have some time with Daddy and while they did that, I got dinner ready. It was a gourmet meal of mini corn dogs and fresh veggies. ;) Then Andrew left for an evening throwing 'shoes with the boys. A friend of ours recently lost his wife and that's whose house they were going to. They are such good friends.

After dinner, I spent a little time with the chickens and the goat while the kiddos watched some Scooby Doo, Mystery Inc. in my bedroom with the lights off and the drapes drawn. Pretending they are at a movie theater is one of their favorite things to do.

I drew a bath (for me this time) and Mickey took a quick shower. I'm pretty much beat after only six hours of sleep so I'm off to get my gym stuff ready for tomorrow and take my happy pills. The heathens are going to watch movies in the living room until Andrew gets home and then the three of them will probably fall asleep together, snuggling on the couch.

 Day 1 is done. Bring on tomorrow!

Meet my chicks!

Lately, one of the "something elses" in my life has been getting chickens! I've wanted them for years and finally got them! It only took Audrey winning two at the school carnival to make that happen. Andrew couldn't say no to her! ;)

This is Alexis, one of our Barred Rocks.

The fluffy butt belongs to Al Bundy who was originally Aleia until a couple family members said they thought he was a boy. Turns out Al is our first hen! She's been laying quite regularly the last week and no one else has. LOL!!!  The Barred Rock in the back is Midnight. Al is our other Cuckoo Maran.

Princess Marshmallow, aka Marsha, our alpha chicken is our lone Light Brahma. The other three are our other Easter Eggers. Dida, the one is front just started squatting for me today so I'm hoping she'll start laying soon. Wilma and Biddie are hiding in the back.

The three "babies". Two Easter Eggers, Pearl and Twinkles, and a Cuckoo Maran, Sweetie. Audrey and I went into the farm store just to "look" and we saw Pearl, a white Easter Egger. I was over the moon! Aud said that I should get her and I said that dad wouldn't like that. Her response? "I'll call Daddy and tell him it was my idea." 

He wound up saying yes and suggested we get two! So, we got three. I mean, Mickey needed one, too right? Poor Andrew.

And, Lilly. She's half Great Dane and half Standard Poodle and only interested in the chickens for their poop! 

So, that's our flock! Pearl, Dida, Biddie and Wilma are mine. Midnight and Sweetie belong to my son. Twinkles and Al Bundy are my daughters. She also had a Rhode Island Red named Vidia but she died after eating weeds sprayed by Round Up. Marsha belongs to my neighbor and Alexis belongs to her daughter. They live across the street backing up to an air strip and can't have livestock so they live with us.

I'm still scrapping but just haven't been posting. I want to but just haven't made photographing layouts a priority. I mean, when I have such cute chickens to photograph, who can blame me?

She's Back!!! Shimelle is back!!!

After what I'm sure was one glorious year of maternity leave, Shimelle is back! 

(layout from her blog)

Who is Shimelle you say? Well, she was born and raised in the US, went to college in the UK, married a Brit and they just had a boy about a year ago. She has a very popular YouTube channel, was a Garden Girl for Two Peas in a Bucket, and has two line with American Crafts. 

I love her videos. They keep me company while I'm scrapping and bring me inspiration when I'm lacking. They are long enough that I'm not always having to click on a new one and yet short enough to not bore me. 

I love her voice. It's the consummate teacher's voice. Calm, yet inspiring. Instructive, yet lilting. Once you hear it, you'll never forget it. And yes, I do read her blog posts in her voice. 

Yes, I know it's sounding like I have a bit of a girl crush. But, it's cause I do. She makes me feel like what I scrap is good enough. That she's helping me just to get going, to get me inspired, to get me joining in this awesome hobby of paper crafting.

Anyway, she's started off with a new blog post/video series called Cut, Stick, Stamp. Basically it's about using your stamps in more than one way to get the most use out of them. As someone who's an expert shopper, I need this in my life. Especially, since I tend to buy stamps as something that's so versatile. Except, I rarely use them once, let alone many times. 

So, excuse my fan-girling, but I'm a tad bit excited about this! If you're a paper crafter who hasn't heard of her, do yourself a favor and pop on over. You'll love her!

Love Us

I'd been working on this layout of Little Man for a while. I started it before I cleaned out my scrap room last month so it's been started for probably three months???

There were a few things going on with this layout.  I had this photo printed up with a white border for some reason, I really wanted to use 6x6 papers, and I wanted to use that title technique.

The title was made using a Spritzer. It's an old tool that Tim Holtz recently reintroduced. I stuck my gold Sharpie pen in there and misted around an acrylic piece to create the negative image. I also outlined it with a gold gel pen. The bigger gold splotches are gold spray paint. I sprayed in the lid and then dripped it on the page.

The background papers are all six by six papers. I really wanted to make a page doing this because I have soooooo many 6x6 paper pads that I was feeling the need to justify some of them. You know that feeling, right? 

Anyways, this is just a little I love you page for Little Man about the fun we had on his first grade Zoo field trip. 

What are some of your non-memory keeping reasons for making a page?

Six Months

Today it's been six months since my grandma passed. She was my last remaining grandparent and a very big part of our lives.

The hardest part is when I think, "I should call Gran and tell her..." and then I realize that I can't. She loved to hear what was going on with us. That Aud got fearlessly on the school bus for the first time. That Mickey can now make three pointers on the basketball court. That I've kept the house clean for the last two months. She would have loved that last one.

I drive by where she used to live every time I go into town. When we bought our house she was so excited that we were going to be close again that she drove from her house to ours to see how far apart we were. I still remember her calling to tell me that we were exactly three miles from driveway to driveway.

She hated having her picture taken and was well known for putting her hand up or a magazine to stop me. But, if I put a kid in the shot with her or took a selfie with her, it was a different story. This was one of my last selfies with her. It was Mother's Day. I love this photo.

I miss you Gran. Thank you for all you taught me. Thanks for loving me even when I was a pain in the tuckus. Thank you for thinking that my kids are amazing.

I love you!

Fourteen Things I Love About My Valentine!

1. His values. He has an old-fashioned work ethic that makes the older generation respect him and the younger generation emulate him.

2. His love of children. He is a great dad and loves kids and babies and young people as much as I do. And, they love him too!

3. His masculinity. He is tall and strong and capable. He has lots of guy friends and loves sports and beer and mowing our lawn. He's a man's man.

4. His femininity. (Oh, he's gonna hate this one.) He watches Lifetime movies and will talk to me for hours in the middle of the night if something is bothering him. He also cried at our wedding and the births of our two children.

5. His outgoing personality. He will go out of his way to engage with a fast food employee and make them laugh. I love that!

6. His looks. Yep, I'm superficial. But my man is tall and handsome and has gorgeous blue eyes. And his walk is powerful and confident and masculine!

7. His confidence. There is nothing that he won't try to do. He has none of that pesky self-doubt when it comes to trying something new.

8. His intelligence. That man of mine is smart! He is one of the most knowledgeable people in his field and hearing him troubleshoot a pump over the phone for one of his customers is just amazing!

9. His laugh. Specifically, that laugh that I can surprise out of him. The one that sounds like he's trying not to laugh at some crazy comment I made but can't help himself. I love that laugh!

10. His loyalty. And not just his loyalty to me. I know that he will never stray. But his loyalty to mom and pop stores, certain brands and even his sports teams. He is not a fair weather fan. He is with you through thick and thin.

11. His friendship. When he's heading to a friend's house it's often because he's going to go help so-and-so do something. He's also my best friend. I love that on those rare occasions that we get to go out, we can talk for hours and not have to bring up our kids.

12. His lack of chauvinism. He changed diapers when our kids were in diapers, he cooked meals when my PTSD left me unable, he respects my crazy(and often useless) knowledge of science, and he doesn't "babysit" our kids when I am gone.

13. His love for our children. Mickey and Audrey are the most important things in his life. He helps them with homework, sports and everything else. He gives them the verbal, physical, and emotional affection that lets them know that their father loves them.

14. He loves me! I am not the easiest person to live with or to love, and he does! He knows all my deep, dark secrets. My bad habits. My anger and despair. And, while he may not always understand me, he loves me.

Nap Love

Over the summer, the heathens and I spent a week at my folk's house in Sunriver. The weather ran the gamut from rainy to hot so we had a couple days of indoor fun. I brought not only my scrappy stuff but some for them, too! It was quite fun and I even got some layouts made.

Here's one using a Glitz paper line and some fun gold accents. It's one of my favorite pics of Andrew and the kiddos all crashed out in our living room. 

Supplies Used:  Patterned Paper-Glitz, Cardstock-Bazzill, Doilies-Studio Calico, Stickers-Glitz & American Crafts, Webster's Pages, Washi-Webster's Pages, Enamel Dots-Teresa Collins & My Mind's Eye, Flair-American Crafts, Vellum-Crate Paper, Transparency-Maya Road, Pens-Sharpie & Le Pen, Die-Technique Tuesday

I wanted an accent on the bottom that matched the gold on the doilies that I used so I die cut one into a heart and it turned out quite well. 

I'd been watching a lot of Shimelle's videos where she ground her embellishment clusters with washi tape so I tried it here. It works really well and heaven knows I have plenty of washi tape! 

I have an entire pack of the white polaroid transparencies from Maya Road that I hadn't even used yet so I was pretty excited to finally use one! 

I'll be back in a few days with another layout from this trip.

Thanks for stopping by!