Ahhhh, it has been a very productive week for me! I love those kinds of weeks! My kids have settled back into their school routines smoothly for the most part. Izzy has picked up some serious attitude and has decided that throwing fits is a good way to get what she wants. Poor thing doesn't realize that this mama has been there, done that before and it doesn't phase me one little bit. LOL! Her latest rant has been, "I never get to do what I want!" followed by a stomping to her bedroom, an almost slam of the door and then a muffled scream into her pillow. I just smile because secretly I'm a little proud of her for fighting for what she wants (she's so giving and is always trying to please someone and her general personality is just a happy one) and because I know that I'm raising another strong woman to be! Yes, she's only 8, but coming from a line of women who are strong minded, it's good to see it continuing. I also smile because I know it will pass. Granted, I may not feel this way in another 8 years when she's really teen-ing out. LOL!
I have spent my entire week in these...
My feet have been so cold. Since school started, I moved my computer stuff back into my room at my desk so that the kids can use the living room table for their homework. That means I spend the the day in slippers with a blanket over my lap because my desk is set in front of a huge window in our room and it's an old house so that means it's drafty and cold! So I nestle into my sweatshirts and blankets and slippers and fingerless gloves (yeah, that's kind of a scary mental image...LOL!) and work the day away. I haven't left my house even one time all week this week. I've been glued to this ...
Notice my handy enevelope for note taking and my Kindle and Zune sqeezed under my laptop. I listen to pandora all day while I work but if Andy's sleeping or I'm working late into the night (which I did do all week this week...I think the earliest I climbed into bed all week was around 5:30), then I put my earbuds in and crank up some music on my Zune. What have I been listening to lately? A few favorites have been the Eric Church station on Pandora...great mix of music, Bruno Mars, Pitbull, Now 43, Justin Moore, Jason Aldean, Phillip Phillips, Blake Shelton, Eden's Edge, Shaun Groves and of course, Eric Church. I think the only music I can't really get into is metal. Everything else is fair game.
I had this crazy creative spurt this week. I think mostly because I just haven't had time to really concentrate on being creative all summer with all of the things we were busy doing and having the kids home. But with the kids being in school and after spending last week organizing and cleaning, I think my mind was just really finally at ease enough to get creative. So, I took full advantage and whipped out 3 kits and a ton of layouts! These three kits will be released within the next week. One will be my regular release, one a blog train freebie and the other a facebook fan freebie. I didn't have plans to make 3 full kits but it just worked out that way and I went with it.
Now I'm working on finishing up another kit that will be a collab with a friend of mine that is making her first kit! I'm so excited to see what she's created.
I also went through the forums where I like to participate and put all of the speed scraps from them on my calendar so that I'm sure not to miss them. By far, one of my most favorite things about the digi world is speed scraps. I love being pushed out of my comfort zone and I love that almost every time I do a speed scrap I do something I would have never thought to do on my own.
In my quest to scrap more about myself and to capture the every day things, I made this layout for a fb speed scrap I hosted on my fan page at the beginning of the week...
This next layout I made for a speed scrap at STS this week. I totally forgot about this one even though I'd gotten a reminder via goocal and jumped in at the very end and whipped this out.
Then Facebook treated me to two speed scraps I didn't know were even happening. I just happened to see a "Step #X" on my wall and popped over and played along. I love it when that happens!
This first one was created for the SO Mega Make It Snappy. When I was in West Yellewstone last month, my mom shared a disc of photos her cousin had sent her and I fell in love with a few of them right off the bat! I'm sure you'll see me use those photos a lot. I just really love them!
This next one was for The LilyPad. I was scooting along all fine and dandy and then thought I better check their gallery requirements and you have to use at least 50% of their products for your layouts in order to post them there. UGH! So I trashed the layout I was working on and started over with just 15 minutes to finish and post. Bad news, I didn't have that many kits from TLP and what I did have didn't really fit the feel of what I wanted so I was really struggling with this one right up until I had to get it posted. That's the other good thing about speed scraps for me. I have to make a decision and just go with it. I can't toy with things and talk myself in and out of things like I usually do. I think I used 6 or 7 different kits for this layout to make it work the way I wanted.
And to finish off my scrapping week, I played along with Tammy's speed scrap at SNP last night and created this fun layout with one of my new kits.
I got an email from Izzy's teacher this week and I was like, oh crap! I don't know why...probably because of the previously mentioned tantrums. LOL! Seriously though, my kids are pretty good at school or so I'm told. ;) It was a great email...she sent me this pic for my scrapbooks! Thanks, Miss Grose! YOU ROCK!!! This totally made my day and just makes me smile! I told you all last week that she was a diva!
On Tuesday, Kaylee's orthopedic Dr.'s office called and asked if we could bring her in for a foot tracing because they weren't able to order her the inserts she needed by her shoe size. We had an appointment for the next day to pick up the inserts so I just asked if we could do it then. It's in another town so it's not like we're just driving across town. They said sure and that we wouldn't need to keep the appt because obviously the inserts weren't going to be in. Great. I'll just bring her up after school. Well about 2 hours later another person calls to remind me of the appointment we have the next day. LOL! So I once again explained that we didn't need the appointment since she was just supposed to come in and have the inserts fitted and that I had just talked to someone else and they were supposed to cancel the appointment. OH YES...a lot of laughter and duh-ing from the receptionist (gotta love small towns for this reason, right?). Well, Andy picked the kids up from school the next day and took Kaylee to the Dr. to have her foot traced. He was gone a crazy amount of time for that and I was beginning to wonder where they were when Kaylee came in with a cast on her leg. Apparently, the tear had gotten worse last week instead of better so he casted her leg to hopefully prevent her tendon from snapping and to allow it time to heal. Once the cast is off, she gets to do some physical therapy to try to stretch her tendons because apparently the tendon on her other leg is just as tight and he's worried she's going to tear or snap it as well. So not what we wanted to hear. This kid loves to play soccer and is so disappointed she isn't going to play this year since it's her last year to be able to play here. She looks forward to it all year and spends crazy amounts of time in the yard with a soccer ball. So that means that next spring we're going to have to make a tough decision or find a way to make everything happen for all of our girls (not so easy when their dad works a rotating shift). She wants to play spring soccer (a traveling league) and softball. But they happen at the same time so she'll have to choose. As much as I love to watch her play soccer and as much as she loves soccer, I hope she chooses softball to make it easier for me. We will be coaching two softball teams next year (Kaylee & Lexi will be in the same age group finally!) and all 3 of our girls play softball (plus Lexi will be playing on the high school team in addition to the community league) so it pretty much has to be the priority but I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to have to figure out how to do all of the softball season stuff and fit in some weekend traveling for soccer games. My head hurts just thinking about all of that running! But, there's only so many years that they're kids, right? So we will have to figure it out so she has the opportunities she wants.
She was especially glad that she'd just given herself a french tip pedicure the night before so that her bare toes look nice while she has to show them off. LOL!
Oh and I almost forgot to tell you my scary story of the week. Andy has worked night shift pretty much our entire marriage so having him gone at night rarely bothers me. We've only ever had one time that I was scared to be home alone and that was the night someone tried to break into our house right after he'd left for work. Thankfully they didn't get the door open when they rammed into it. That night I called the cops and they did a drive by and left. About 20 minutes later, someone tried to ram in the front door again. So I called the cops again and they did the same thing...slow drive by with a spotlight on the yard. Great. So I brought my big old dog in the house and parked him in front of the front door and slept in the living room chair with a gun on my lap (don't mess with this mama and her babies!) until Andy came home the next morning. That night someone broke into the high school (just across from our house at the time) and the bus barn (behind our house at the time). I'm so thankful they didn't get into our house.
This week I had my first ever scared to be home alone moment since then. It was around 3:00 am and I had been up working and my muscles were sore so I thought I'd grab a quick shower (no judgements on my scheduling...I just don't sleep a lot.) and work a bit longer. I had a weird feeling as I was getting into the shower but shook it off. I tipped my head back under the water and all of a sudden the lights start dimming in the bathroom. We don't have a dimmer switch...kinda weird. Then they went out completely and there was this loud smack against the bathroom window. You can laugh. I was standing in a pitch black house, naked in the shower and a little freaked out. I'll admit. I froze. I stood there listening and waiting. The lights came back on and went off again almost immediately. What in the world is going on. I pull the shower curtain back and reach across to the bathroom window and pull the curtain back. I don't know what I was thinking at that point but I figured only two things could happen...there could be someone scary outside my window and I would simply scare them off with my naked body or they would murder me. LOL! Thankfully there was nothing there and I still have no idea what hit the window that night. So then the lights come back on and I wash up trying to look through the shower curtain just in case anyone is in my house. The bathroom door looks out into the hallway and across the pantry to the kitchen where the back door is. So in order for anyone to get anywhere in my house, I can see them from the bathroom. Well, all of a sudden there's this weird light in the pantry. I freeze again, listening hard for any kind of sound. Nothing. I'm straining hard to see through the curtain, not wanting to rip the curtain back just in case someone really is there. Okay, I'm a chicken when I'm naked and helpless. LOL! As I'm concentrating hard and listening for any noise, the shower curtain suddenly flies in at me and hits me in the stomach. I swear I had a heart attack. I had the shower handle in my hand and I was swinging! Then I catch movement in the corner of my eye and my stupid precious cat, Sebastian is walking along the edge of the tub. He had just jumped up and scared the bejeezees out of me! Needless to say, I quickly finished my shower and ran walked calmly back to my bedroom. I immediately shut the door and got my pjs on. I grabbed a gun and went to investigate. It turns out the lights in the pantry were simply the pantry cabinet knobs reflecting the bathroom light. After a quick search through my house for the boogie man and a quick search outside for the source of the window smacking, I came back in and went back to work. I still have no idea why the lights dimmed and then went out or what the smack against the bathroom window was.
Ah, yes...that was my week in a nutshell. I hope you had a great week!
Wow, Wendy, what a week. When you are on you are ON! Thanks for the update, sounds like an overall decent week, except for the cast and the scary night. I'm doing well, but not nearly as busy or productive as you are! Keep on keeping on! Have a good week.
Posted by: Jeanne | September 10, 2012 at 06:30 AM