Back when I was preparing my layouts for CK's Hall of Fame, I had this awesome idea for the journaling layout using something I'd written back when I was 19... unfortunately, I couldn't find the stinkin' journaling anywhere.

I was really sad, because it was one of my favorite things that I'd ever written, although the subject matter was bittersweet. Actually, more just bitter, but we won't go there.

Anyways, today, Emerson got into a bag of stuff in her closet that I'd been meaning to go through, and what does she find but the essay! I was so excited... so I retyped it up in Word so that I'd always have it saved.

I thought I'd share it here.

My stomach was in knots; I was full of anticipation of anger, bitterness, frustration, and certain discomfort. My best friend of six years was coming over. Expectations were high, and our most recent episode of immaturity was still fresh in my heart. I sat on the front porch, listening to my c.d. player and disconnecting myself from my anxiety by studying the twilight sky and letting the breeze calm my nerves. Every red car that drove by caught the sides of my eyes, and a mixture of relief and disappointment washed over me.

He drove up, and I nonchalantly continued studying the sky. He took his sweet time, and I pretended I didn’t notice. Nervousness finally overcame me as I giggled and asked, “Where do you want to go?”

We determined Barnes & Nobles’ bookstore as a good place to rehash our disappointment in each other and our friendship. I wondered offhandedly to myself if I chose a bookstore because of its comfort and familiarity to me. Silence filled the car and the music was turned up. The five minute drive was all too long and all to fast at the same time. The parking lot too empty, and the store too loud.

I curled up in a hard wooden chair next to the window overlooking the busy interstate. I jealously studied the birds flying away as my friend’s body slumped down onto a stool near my chair. We regarded each other warily, the six years of friendship meaning nothing to our torn down trust.

I purposed not to being the conversation, mainly out of stubbornness. He finally began with hesitating words and stumbling accusations. We discussed and disagreed, traversing down the road of adversity. I tried to make him see my point of view and yearned for him to regard things through my perspective. I observed his phrases and his body language and sadly realized how separate our lives were becoming. He mad me see through his eyes how I had drifted away from him, our childhood, and our memories. I reminded him of our impending adulthood, and of our new priorities and responsibilities.

A few people orbited us, perusing the art books to my right and the writing books to my left. I disconnected myself from the reason why I was there several times and allowed curiosity to rule my mind while my eyes scanned the titles. There were a variety of books, obviously. Even one called “Writing for Idiots.” I wondered if I needed one called “Friendship for Idiots.” This drew me back to the dark eyes opposing me, and the silence again seemed painful.

Some twangy country music blared into my reverie, and I suggested we walk around outside, maybe go see my new place of employment. We decided to be friends again, as if it was a supermarket choice between brands of soup. I wearily reminded him that it was going to have to be something of perseverance and patience. His silence reminded me that he was not the only impatient one.

We strolled back out into the empty parking lot. I studied the sky again. The clouds had rolled in and some droplets of rain sprinkled my face in assurance that my feelings of separation were justified. Squinting, my face paralleled the gray clouds and I knew that the shadow of trust lost and friendship shakily regained was covering my face.

I am an obsessive list maker.

I love all things related to lists-

planners, notebooks, office supplies, pens, notecards, labels... anything that will help me organize said list.

Sometimes I think that I do all of the list-making just to avoid doing stuff ON the list.

And sometimes, I go back to my list and add the things that I've done that weren't on the list, just so I can check them off. To see all that I've accomplished.

Today was a day full of extra things that I should've gone back and added onto the list so I could check it off.

I won't bore you with the details, but I feel like a lot of little burdens are lifted off of my shoulders, at least for today.

Got my emails all replied to (at least, I *think* I do), got some laundry done, the house is pretty clean, picked up the ingredients to make my father in law an oreo cake for his birthday, updated our family website.... and a bunch of other stuff.

Ooops, sorry I forgot I said I wouldn't bore you with the details.

Ah. Now to go enjoy my bubble bath.

Yes, I know it's freaking 11:30 at night, but a girl's gotta grab any spare moment she can get. :)

A couple of fun things I did over the weekend:

A layout I've been wanting to do of my brother and his very cool new wife. They actually met through mutual friends, but the majority of their initial communicating was through MySpace. :) I'm SO glad my brother found such an amazing woman to be his wife- they are perfectly suited for each other.

Patterned Papers: Basic Grey, Lollipop Shoppe.

Stickers, Chipboard letters, paint, journaling spot, ribbon: Heidi Swapp for Advantus

Love sticker: Making Memories

I had a lot of fun making this! I used the new chipboard flowers from Making Memories, painted it with a combo of Heidi Swapp & Delta Ceramcoat paints, and stamped on it with some Heidi Swapp foam stamps... the flowers in the middle are Bazzill (green) and Fancy Pants for Prima (orange); I centered them with flower jewels from Heidi Swapp.

I am soooooo looking forward to the release of the final book (which appears to be happening next summer, hopefully).

But at the same time, I think it's going to be bittersweet.

Nothing more to look forward to; no more speculation; no more waiting until midnight at Barnes & Noble; no more perusing HP sites hoping for new theories and spoilers...

Anyways, here's a link from my sweet friend Molly to a *small* spoiler from JKR herself on Yahoo.

Book 7

Too freaking awesome.

Too bad I didn't know about it until tonight.

*Sigh*

There's always next year. :)

Please Take My Children to Work Day (Stay At Home Mom's Holiday)

• Napping on Saturday morning
• Snuggling with my kiddos & hubby
• Laughing at "The Big Lebowski" (how many times have I seen this movie now?!)
• Hanging with Ginge & checking out her colorful artwork
• Getting a deal on cardstock at AC Moore (6 cents a sheet! Woohoo)
• Having a good discussion with Shaun
• Finding a really cute shirt at Walmart
• Going to Walmart at 11pm on Saturday night to pick up diapers for Em since we ran completely out of them! (oops!)
• Read "Clean & Simple: The Sequel"
• Finishing "YaYas in Bloom"
• Feeling pretty in my church clothes
• Reflecting on some sobering thoughts & coming face to face with my selfishness during communion
• Eating yummy barbque & potato salad that Shaun made
• Hanging out on the porch with Em while painting
• Watching Shaun and Em run around in the rain in the front yard while Atticus naps sweetly in his swing
• Laughing at Em's silly antics
• Snuggling and kissing my little boy's chubby cheeks
• Eating way too much chocolate chip cookie dough... smelling them cooking in the oven
• Making flowers for Emerson's bedroom walls.... playing with my Heidi Swapp stamps
• Contemplating all the cleaning I will need to do tomorrow morning
• Feeling pretty darn blessed.

Ok, so I am not a "clean & simple" type scrapbooker, in the way that I thought that word was defined.

I wasn't sure if I'd like Stacy Julian's book, "The Big Picture," because I don't normally scrap in the same style.

Same thoughts with Cathy Zielske's book, "Clean & Simple, the Sequel."

But oh my word, y'all.

These books are amazing.

I need to do a full post on my thoughts on them, but as a brief brief brief plug for them, if you have ever felt:

• discouraged in scrapbooking
• felt like you were never going to "catch up"
• felt like your journaling was empty, or always said, "here we are doing ____ and it was so much fun"
• wondered wby your pages don't ever have quite that polished look to them
• thought that nobody else was going to care about your scrapbooks but you

then you need to read Cathy Z's book. I highly recommend it. And once I'm done with it, I will post my full review and fave highlights. This chic rocks and has once again, revived my feelings for journaling REAL stuff in my albums and made me feel just fine about never being "caught up."

Anyways, the point of this post is that she challenges you in one of the sections of the book to do "high-low" journaling for two weeks, in order to get you started on recording your day and getting used to your "voice." The basic idea is to sit down every night and write out the high point of the day, and the low point. It may sound dorky or boring at the moment, and maybe even while you're journaling, but it's easy, simple, attainable journaling, and once the two weeks are over, you're supposed to go back and read it and see how you captured some of the best/worst moments of the past two weeks.

So I'm doing this.

I'm on my second night, and already I'm diggin it. It's so pressure free. It's easy. And I feel like it's very therapeutic. Like I have closure on my day.

----

Just wanted to also say- I know I've sounded kinda gloomy & overwhelmed on here lately, with the whole motherhood thing and all.... but one of my "high" points of today was the reinstatement of my weekly night off. It was something Shaun and I started last summer after Em was born. He took her for the evening and I was free to do whatever I wanted every Thursday night, kid free. Weeeeeeeeee. Unfortunately, with the onset of pregnancy, I gave up my weekly night's out for the much more appealing night in. On the bed. Sleeping. Hee hee

But now that Atticus is almost two months, I'm raring to go and he's old enough to survive a few hours without mommy. ;)

So watch out B'ham. A newly revived and perky mommy is going to be on the loose. You'll probably spot her living it UP in such crazy places as the local bookstore, or the library, or (watch out- this is WILD!) the craft store. LOL

---

Oh, and on a random note,

does it get any cuter than this?

This post is nothing but me sharing a few photos of my day. Enjoy. :)

Another day, another dollar.

Or rather, not.

Do you ever feel, as a stay at home mom, that it's rather unrewarding work? I totally think that the government should set up some kind of monetary reward system for those who stay home with their kids. Or something. It'd be really nice to get a paycheck every once in a while, you know, just to say, "Hey- we value you too!"

I mean, seriously- I know the rewards from this are not physical, not something I can hold in my hands (unless you count squeezy little hugs- which in all honesty, are a million times better)... I will see the payoff down the road sometime. Hopefully.

But whew. I wouldn't turn down a paycheck either. ;)

Today we're going to lay low. It's too hot to really venture outside anywhere. I'd just rather not end up soaking in sweat two seconds after having taken my shower. The house is pretty much clean, just need to put away a load of laundry. I'm contemplating sweeping and mopping, but I think I might just save that 'til tomorrow.

Today is going to be a "Virginia, you've been working your butt off, how 'bout slipping yourself a few minutes at the scrapping desk day."

If the kids cooperate. :)

Yeah. Hmmm.

ok, so my kid might adapt to the enormous change from crib to toddler bed like it's a piece of cake, but play in the swimming pool on a hot alabama day?

not a chance.


(oh, and that red spot on her nose is from head diving down the stairs at church. another no-biggie for her. what a weird kid.)

So Em's first night in the toddler bed was a huge success! She went down surprisingly well; the normal amount of obligatory protesting, but no big dramas.

The only hiccup in the evening was when we heard her figure out how to open her closet doors and get her popper toy out and begin rolling it around. After the use of some duct tape (on the closet doors, not her), the evening progressed quite nicely. She was asleep by 8 (!!) and slept soundly until 7 the next morning. No middle of the night freak outs or anything. And she just banged on her door the next morning to get out.

I am amazed.

She even took her afternoon nap in there yesterday, and last night was fine again. The only thing is, this morning, she was asleep by her door. I got up around 5:30 to use the bathroom and went to go peek in at her.

I quietly turn the doorknob and begin to slide the door open when I feel a bunch of resistence. And then hear a little movement.

I get down on the floor and look under the door to see chubby little knees all folded up and Lambie.

I guess at some point in the night or early this morning she came over to the door- but she never made a peep. Don't know what the little girl was up to.

Atticus spent the second night in his crib, but I have the habit of getting up and nursing him around 1am... and then falling asleep with him cuddled up in my arms. I've GOT to change that because I'd rather not sleep with him in the bed with us all night long. I think I'm gonna have to get up and nurse him in the living room or somewhere a little less comfortable so I stay awake- and he ends up back in his own bed.

It's kinda weird that he's out of his little moses basket... Em slept in it a bit longer than this. But since he rolled over on Saturday, I don't want him sleeping in his basket because it's made for bitty infants- not big boys who roll over! :)

I'm sure this has been a fascinating post for all of you. LOL

I made these about 2 weeks ago, and my sweet friend Christine scanned them for me this weekend. I have SO got to get a scanner! LOL

Anyways, here they are!

She Is A Mama
Supplies:
Patterned Paper, jumbo letters, rolodex card, and border embellishment:
Girlfriends line from Daisy D's
Cardstock: Die Cuts with a View
Flower: Bazzill
Chipboard letters: Heidi Swapp
Giant paperclip: Doodlebug
Corner stamps: Sassafrass Doodled Borders

Photo taken by Mallory Wilkerson.

Journaling: Here I am, expecting baby #2 in less than a year... learning who I am as a mama. March 2006

XOXO- Mommy & Atticus
Supplies used:
Patterned paper, tags, and flower embellishments: Girlfriends line from Daisy D's
Cardstock: Diecuts with a View
Fuzzy Rubon & chipboard letters: Heidi Swapp
"Mommy & Atticus" cut from Christina Cole paper
Border stamp: Sassafrass Lass Doodled Borders
Brad: Queen & Co.

Picture taken by Adrienne Nixon.

Journaling reads: My bitty boy. brand new. us together in the hospital. getting to know each other. stealing kisses. May 2006

1st- thank you all who had encouraging words for me from my last post. it definitely helped me to not feel like i was alone. :) i'm doing a bit better now.

i had typed up this big long post about our father's day weekend, but then my computer froze up and i lost it all... :( POOP! the highlights:

• went to visit shaun's fam yesterday and enjoyed grilled steaks and homemade strawberry ice cream on fresh baked brownies. yummmmmm.
  
• em had a blast walking around in aunt crystal's high heels
• em also had a blast stalking aunt crystal's kitty
• shaun and his dad spent the majority of the day replacing the timing belt in my car; i am so thankful to have a husband that is handy with car repairs and household stuff. i know that he and his dad really enjoy spending time together when working on these projects (even if they don't really want to be working on the project itself.)

today we got our lazy bums out of bed and headed to church- and i am really glad we did. we'd missed the last few weeks and i'd really missed being there. it's the one time during the week when i feel that i can just be calm and still and hear God. joe, our pastor, always has a really interesting perspective on familiar topics... and today was no exception. he gave some really fresh views on fatherhood and it really was good for me to hear. i was especially encouraged by the words to one of the hymns we sung too... check out the lyrics at the bottom of this post.

as far as scrapping, i finally finished my inspiration jar from elsie's class from the scrap etc. event! i'm excited to begin using it. i used the sassafrass doodled borders stamps, the girlfriends line from daisy d's, and technique tuesday petal pushers stamps (and my own handwriting). i also did some re-decorating of a journal monique brought back from winter's cha. i pulled some stuff off and added my own personalization with my new technique tuesday santa cruz stamps- LOVE 'EM! ;) atticus today: (our man of leisure)

me trying to blog:

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o'er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o'er them from the throne!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
'Tis an ocean vast of blessing, 'tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, 'tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!

gotta run... tonight's emerson's first night in her big girl bed. pray for me. it's gonna be a looooooong night.

Woke up
Nursed Atticus
Snuggled with Em next to me in bed
Changed Em's diaper
Went to the bathroom
Brushed my teeth
Changed Atticus' diaper
Got Em dressed
Gave her breakfast
Took a shower
Got dressed
Ate breakfast
Checked email & blogs & scrapetc.net
Started some laundry
Made the bed
Put Em down for her morning nap
Made dad's father's day card
Called my sister to confirm dad's zip code (I always forget it!)
Took it out to the mailbox, along with Atticus' birth announcements (sure he's only 6 weeks old *smirk*)
Listened to Em not napping but whining in her bed
Nursed Atticus
Swept the floor
Mopped the floor
Made some tater tots
Packed diaper bag
Blew dry hair
Put on mascara
Got a drink of Dt. Dr. Pepper
Got Em up from her 15 minute total nap
Changed her diaper
Got her juice
Gave her tots
Fed Atticus a bottle
Talked to Shaun on the phone
Headed out the door
Loaded/unloaded kids from car
Went to Scrap Etc. (bought some Technique Tuesday Santa Cruz stamps at 50% off!)
Met Shaun there to get grocery money from him (we're doing the envelope system)
Went to get Shaun's Father's Day gift
Came home
Unloaded kids
Changed Em's diaper
Gave her juice
Changed Atticus' diaper
Nursed him
Put Em down for a nap
Washed dishes
finished laundry
Picked up toys
Nursed Atticus
Got Em up
Fed her dinner
Bathed Em
Got her dressed for bed
Bathed Atticus
Gave Atticus his evening bottle
Watched Em watching silly Chinese video on Google videos
Put Em to bed
Dealt with fussing Atticus for 45 minutes
Gave up and took a bath
Bawled my eyes out with the despair of never having a moment to myself
Ate pasta IN the tub because I had no time to eat
Straightened hair
Gathered stuff for trip to see g'parents tomorrow
Nursed Atticus
Ate a cookie & some popcorn
Finally got Atticus to settle down at 10:39

Having a moment to myself.

(I will probably use this in some journaling on a layout to remind myself in the future of what it was like to be a mommy of little ones. Sorry for the long post. I needed to get it out of my system... and to see on paper that I did accomplish a lot today. Now- off to wash up some more dishes, clean up the table from dinner... and maybe play with my new stamps. Sleep- eh, who cares about sleep?)

here's what i did last night:

(*click on the images to get a larger view)


"Silas" supplies used:
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye, Kalaidescope
Fuzzy Rubons (Diamond Drama), Chipboard Letters, Chipboard Shapes, Tabs (Boy): Heidi Swapp
Ink: Rubber Stampede, Coffee Bean

Photo taken by Kim Hill


"You Smell Like Strawberries & Cream" Supplies Used:
Patterned Paper: Scrapworks (Monterey Stripe & Monterey Bloom)
Rubons (Playbill & Bordeaux Mix), Florals, Chipboard Shape, Chipboard Letters, Ghost Letters: Heidi Swapp
Ribbon: Misc. from Michael's
Shipping Tags from Staples
Stamping Ink: Rubber Stampede "Coffee Bean"

Journaling reads:
One of your current fave foods is strawberry yogurt, so after dinner many nights, you smell so sweet and girly and yummy. this smell will always remind me of when you were a little tiny girl. love mommy, june 2006

Why does my creativity muse always hit at like, 10 o'clock at night? I've been scrapping away for the last couple of hours, uninterrupted, and I could SOOOO go on for several more- except... it's 12:30. I have little ones that are going to be very needy of me in just a few shorts hours.

*pout*

I'll be able to share some stuff tomorrow with ya, hopefully... having the hubby scan some layouts at work.

{note to self: do NOT forget to ask for a scanner for your birthday- do not be distracted by pretty clothes or yummy new scrapping stuff. you NEED a scanner at home!}

welcome to my home....



some more little snippets of things that make me happy....

em's organized closet:


heidi swapp frames:
my art space:

weekends at our house can either be crazy or relaxing... it doesn't ever seem to be an in-between.

but this weekend has been {good}.

our plans originally were to go visit the in-laws for a little grandparent fix for the kids, but unfortunately, contagious stuff was lying in wait for us there, so our trip was postponed until another day.

so we were left with a day stretching ahead of us with all sorts of possibilities...

after a rough start with em that included her dumping out every single one of her toys and books in the play room and refusing to help clean up, which led to discipline and tears and frustration and early naps... i accomplished a LOT:

• i cleaned house (including sweeping. i never realized that having an old home with all hardwood floors meant so much sweeping. BUT: the Swiffer is my friend.*grin*)
• did the prefunctory walmart run (including dragging the kids along and getting really frustrated at people who like to stop in the middle of the aisle, thus blocking it for everyone on both sides... and then contemplating for a good solid 5 minutes which brand of mustard they want to by. completely unaware of before-mentioned folks waiting on either side. PET PEEVE!!!!)
• bought some yummy smelling candles, and was happily surprised that the $2.97 vanilla three wick jar candle i bought really scents up the whole play/scraproom!
• organized my bookshelf to the way i want it
• shaun cleaned off the back porch of various items that had been dumped there from different on=going projects in the house

then ginger & donnie (my aunt & uncle who are really close in age to us and feel more like sister & brother-in-law) and another couple we knew came over for a spur of the moment cookout with our new grill... yum. we have this totally delicious seasoning that our friends jeremy & christa have gotten us hooked on: texjoy. unfortunately, you can't find it around here so we have to wait for them to make visits to louisiana so we can get our drug, er, i mean, seasoning fix. :) last time they went they brought back several jars of it so we are set up for a while.... hee hee

today we slept in (oops!) and missed church, but have been enjoying family time:

• snuggling the kids together in bed
• me completely organizing em's closet and weeding through a bunch of toys and clothes to give to hannah home (as prompted by yesterday's debacle with the mess- LOL)
• a little organizing in the bathroom to get it more functional
• shaun and i getting to watch "the office" for the first time and TOTALLY cracking up- soooo funny

well, i hear em waking up (i.e. whining and moaning coming from her room) so i must go and tend to the Princess. :)

laters... hopefully i'll have some creative stuff to share with y'all this week!

So yesterday I signed up for "extreme tracker," a blog visitor tracking system. It tells me how many unique visitors come to the site, where/if they were referred from a link from another site... etc.

And I discovered that in the past 2 days, I've had 54 unique visitors.

54, people!

I had NO idea!

So thanks for visiting my blog - it kinda puts the pressure on... I hope it's interesting. ;) And if you feel so inclined... leave me a comment every once in a while. I'm curious as to who all of these mysterious visitors are. Hee hee :)

Ok, I think I must have gone through major withdrawals during my "time off" from blogging, because I keep thinking of things I want to update with! LOL

Here's some pics from a recent visit to my Grams'. We went to the museum... Em had SOOOOO much fun. :)

thought i'd share a few pics of my new pretty bedroom. :)

we're slowly trying to get our house the way *we want it* but it's taking a while. our bedroom is nearly complete, except for:

• i want to hang something on the wall over our bed, but i'm not sure what
• we need nightstands, and are currently searching for some...
• we need to hang the picture over the mantel

here's a pic of how the room looked when we toured the home while someone else lived in it:


The walls were a pale pink.

Here's what it looks like now:

The fireplace:
Our computer area (the shelves are actually crates nailed to the wall... pretty neat shelving ! the desk we refinished ourselves- it was an old library desk from the college we went to... it was coated in several layers of paint.) :

a few detail shots:


My new bedspread...

my little bill paying/calendar area (i altered that planner that you see in the basket):

some fun little items on the mantel- i crackle painted the candle holder. :)
thanks for peeking into my bedroom with me! hopefully i'll be able to post pics of some of the improvements around the rest of the house soon! :)

Woohoo! The class information is up for the 2 classes I am teaching...

check it out

here

Also, I have a new, professional scrapping email address:

virginia@scrapetc.net

I still have my old gmail account which I will continue using for personal stuff, but if you have something scrap related or class related, please feel free to use my new addy! :)

Cool thread over at Scrap Etc.

Come check it out.

I can't wait to play with this idea some more. :)

listening to the little snores coming from the bed... everybody in the house except for me is asleep.

y'all.

it is 8:50.

and there's been quiet for almost an hour now.

do you know how freaking rare that is??!!!

shaun was sick today with a virus that i had this weekend... ugh. poor fella. he's feeling better now- but that accounts for his early bedtime. and the kiddos were both sleepy (well, atticus is always sleepy!) and were in their respective beds around 7ish.

*bliss*

so i'm just enjoying eating my no-bake chocolate/peanut butter/oatmeal gloppy cookies, browsing 2peas & scrapetc. message boards, checking the blogs i read, and contemplating what to do next. :)

maybe a bath? maybe some scrapping? who knows! the night is young and ALL MINE*! wahooooo!


*well, except until atticus' next meal. ;)


{btw gretchen & raunda, if you are reading this- if this isn't a boring post about nothing, i don't know what is!! LOL}

last night was an inspiration team meeting at scrap etc... planning out the next few months and defining our vision.

dude.

BIG STUFF in the works. keep your eyes on this place, because it's going to rock the scrapbooking world.

and also... keep your eye on this blog, because in the next few days there will be info about a class that yes, I, and my sweet friend Adrienne, are going to be teaching! woohoo!

am i nervous? you betcha! ;) but it's going to be soo much fun.

I don't know.

I think they both look hot. ;)

goodies

I forgot to mention two more neat things:

First, yesterday was the "due date" for the first round in the Inspiration Team's Circle Journal. Here's a peek at my journal... of course, you'll have to wait to see the whole thing! ;) (Once I get it back I'll scan the pages so you can see it better...)


Second, I was browsing through Kristina Contes' gallery on 2peas the other day and noticed she kept using quotes from this guy: Brian Andreas. You should totally check him out. I love his stories- they are short, like one paragraph long, but they give you a glimpse into a whole world or situation. I love 'em. You can subscribe to them and get a daily story sent to you. A little perk to my days now.:)

(Here's an example of his work:)

"Are we your real children? they said & I said we had our pick of all the children in the world & we took a few home to try out & though we tried to return them later, it was more trouble than it was worth, so we kept them & loved them & taught them all the stuff they'd need to know when it came time for them to choose, so they wouldn't make the same mistakes we did & later I heard one of them say they didn't know about being a parent if it was as risky as all that."

Yesterday was one of those days.

I'm actually too exhausted this morning to even go into it. Suffice it to say, I had not one, but TWO kids pee on my bed yesterday (had washed the sheets and changed them after kid #1 peed on the bed, then as soon as I had made the bed- presto. Kid #2's diaper leaked. Greeeat.)

I also had cereal for dinner. Again. Didn't get to take my shower or unwind until 9:40, after a trip to Walmart with Atticus for groceries, in which I realized I hadn't been to the bathroom in hours and had to drag his carseat out of the cart and into the stall with me so I could actually concentrate on what I needed to buy. (Sorry if that's too much info, folks!)

Anyways... today's a new day and it's gonna be much better. Right? ;)

One good thing from yesterday was that I got to go to Scrap Etc. and pick up some goodies... got the new Sassafrass Lass doodled borders stamps (I can't WAIT to play with these!), some Bazzill green flowers, and some of this cutie Daisy D's paper. Love these fun bright colors!

Another cool thing from yesterday is my good friend Adrienne received an email about her very first publication of a layout in Paper Art magazine! WOooot Wooot! I am so excited for her... I can't believe it's taken the mags this long to recognize her talent! ;)

Today, Shaun is picking up a bed frame for me that we found on Craig's List. Yay! I'm very excited.

Other things on my agenda:
-Print out labels for our birth announcements (considering he's about to be a month old, I figured I'd better get on this.)
-Pack up maternity clothes to store in the attic (hope I won't need these for a good long while!)
-Do a little scrapping
-Go to an interview for a child care worker job at a church... not sure what I'm thinking about this yet. I found out about this opportunity yesterday. It's on Wed, Fri, and Sun nights; thought it would be nice to make a little extra cash. The only thing I gotta find out is if I can bring the kiddos, or at least, Em. We'll see...

Gotta run. Atticus is squeaking in the other room... :)