X Box woes

He is playing Star Wars Legos on the Xbox as I write this. It's 9:22 p.m. He has kindergarten registration tomorrow. This is a recipe for disaster.
Better get him to bed!

Brotherly Love

I just realized that I forgot to add the date to this page. This happed today, but the picture is from back in November. And yes, I got all teary when I saw them hugging today. Parker saw me and rolled his eyes. He's growing up way, way too fast for my taste.

My parent/teacher conference with Mrs. Lamb is tomorrow. I am anxious to see what she has to say--actually I can pretty much guess. Parker is a lot more outgoing than he was last year but he is still reluctant to answer questions. For some reason he automatically says, "I don't know." when asked questions like, "What number is this?" or "When is your birthday?" I know he knows the answers but just doesn't want to think about it. Does that mean he's lazy, or unmotivated, or just being difficult? I don't know. I know he'll always do fine in school, but I want him to excel. Wow--I sound like I'm going to start pressuring him already. Speaking of smart kids, Jack is finally showing some signs of intelligence. I know that sounds mean, but we wondered about him sometimes. I think the tide might finally be turning. However, I know better than to get my hopes up that we'll have smooth sailing with him from now on. I love them to pieces no matter how smart they are!!!

The fine art of "nuggling"

I am really enjoying looking back through my journals and finding things that I had forgotten. I haven't forgotten "nuggling" because it's still one of Parker's favorite things--and mine too. So glad I put this memory in scrapbook form. Lots and lots to do today so I had better get going.

Trying to Change.....

This is a very bad scan so use your imagination a little bit. The last several layouts I've done have been pretty much straight out of Creating Keepsakes magazines. I change them for my own taste, but it's pretty much copying and you know what--that's just fine with me. Not every idea has to be original. If you see a page you like--copy it!!!! I just did this layout last night, but the journaling is my actual thoughts on that day. I keep a journal for both of my kids and write in it as much as possible--especially on significant occasions like birthdays. I love looking back at what they were up to at the time. Now, this blog is kind of serving the same purpose.
I am going to attempt to change my scrapbooking approach which I will write more about later. So far, so good. See how this is a birthday page--but not about a party or cake? That's the direction I would like to go. I want to scrapbook the feelings and emotions, not just the event. If you are a scrapbooker, I bought Stacy Julian's book The Big Picture and have read it cover-to-cover. She is a genious!!!!!

The Collapse of Jack

This is a picture of Jack sleeping today. I seem to post a lot of pictures of my kids sleeping, huh? Anyway, I think this one is funny because he was watching Parker play Star Wars on the Xbox and just sort of collapsed. We played outside for about an hour today--that fresh winter air does it to him every time! And just in case you are concerned--I laid him down on the couch right after I took the above picture

As for this picture below--this is NOT a toddler. He looks soooo grown-up to me. I thought he couldn't look more like Travis than he already did, but this pictures says I was wrong.

Perspective

I went to Walmart tonight and when I was leaving, I saw something interesting. There was a woman who looked to be in her late 20's who was in a wheelchair. I saw her leave the store pushing a full shopping cart. Not a motorized wheelchair--the kind you use your hands to roll the wheels with. She pushed the cart to her car and started unloading the bags into her trunk. As I walked by, I asked if I could give her a hand. She said "No thanks. I think I can manage." And she did--with ease. Then, as I pushed my cart back to the cart return, here she came rolling hers back to the cart return too. Now, it was not particularly convenient for either of us, but we did it. The point of this story is that this woman really made me stop and think. I am pretty good about returning my shopping cart--but not always because I think it's too much of a hassle somtimes. Obviously it isn't ever going to be as much of a hassle for me as it was for this woman. Keep in mind that there is still snow on the ground too which makes the whole cart thing slightly more difficult than usual even for the able-bodied. Beyond that, she managed to do her grocery shopping while in a wheelchair and I can't seem to manage shopping with 2 kids. Surely shopping while being paralyzed is harder than shopping with little kids!? Just a little bit of perspective for me.

JACOB HAS ARRIVED!!!

He's here! Meet Ryan Jacob Montgomery (to be called Jacob). He arrived today a little after 5:00 p.m. weighing in at 6 lbs. 15 oz. That is 2 pounds bigger than Stella was! His mommy wasn't feeling too great so I didn't talk to her much. I will post more details later.

Big Brother

These pictures are among the 1400 I just had printed. See, I'm already diving in! These were taken 3 years ago--almost to the day. Back when Jack was still really good. For the first two weeks of his life, he was an angel. He slept a lot and didn't fuss too much. Then all hell broke loose. For the next 3 weeks after that all he did was cry--no, SCREAM in agony. His eyes would roll around and he would scratch and claw and twist and arch his back. Talk about the longest 3 weeks of my life! Then we got him medicated for reflux and he was more managable. He was by no means easy--but at least he didn't cry CONSTANTLY! I don't mean to sound crappy about Jack as an infant but it was definitely the hardest thing I've ever gone through.

On that happy note, Tracy and Ryan will most likely have their baby boy tomorrow. Let the craziness begin!!! This is Stella in her Valentine's Day outfit. How stinking cute is she!? For anyone who doesn't know, her baby brother is arriving tomorrow and she will be 14 months old on Monday. I'm sure that Tracy and Ryan will be able to handle everything just fine. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they bought a new house on Monday and will be closing at the end of March. If anyone can do it--Tracy can! Please keep them in your prayers though!

For Stay-At-Home Moms

I saw this on another blog and I thought it was neat. If you are NOT a stay-at-home mom, you might not want to look at this. If you are---LISTEN. It's just what you want to hear on one of those days when you are feeling overwhelmed as a mom. Actually, this is what you want hear on any day. Grab a tissue first though!! Seriously!

***EDITED IN RESPONSE TO MAUREEN'S COMMENT***:
I stand corrected. The sort of ironic thing about this song is that it was posted on the blog of Lisa Bearnson who is the founder of Creating Keepsakes magazine. She has a nanny (she has done layouts about her nanny) so I wouldn't exactly call her a stay-at-home mom. I have been to Maureen's school--she has the cream of the crop. (that was sarcasm) However, being a stay-at-home mom because you refuse to work because you get more $ on public aid than working is NOT my definition of a stay-at-home mom. I am the first to admit that I do not know how working moms do it all. I'm home all day and can't get anything done so how they do it in a few morning and evening hours is beyond me!

Yeah 3!

How is that for a cheesy smile!? Poor guy--he gets a bike the day before the biggest snow we've had in years! The past few years it has been pretty mild around Jack's birthday but not this year. He will have to wait a bit to take the bike for a spin. It's small enough that he can ride a little bit in the house so he's happy. He said, "this is the best present ever." Can't get much better than that, right?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!!

I can't believe my baby is 3. I am always a little melancholy about birthdays. Of course it's wonderful that you have made it through another year and, especially with children, such amazing growth appears over the course of year. However, I am not fond of change and a birthday always represents change. I can remember being so sad about turning 10 because I wouldn't be a single digit anymore. Weird.

THE CASTLE PARTY

The castle party was a success. The most important thing was that Jack had a great time and loved all his "castle" stuff. The first picture is his invitation. You pull the flag out and open the drawbridge and the 2nd picture is what was inside. Trust me when I say that scrapbooking tools made this pretty simple AND I only made 12 of them. The assembly line process works every time! The castle is obviously just an oven box painted with leftover paint from my house. I used an old auto sponge to make the "bricks". I searched high and low for a dragon shirt and couldn't find one so I bought $3.50 t-shirt from Walmart and drew a dragon on it and colored it with fabric markers. The shield is from Dollar Tree and I wired it onto a leftover piece of cardboard which I painted red. I wired it to our front door. The most fabulous cake-maker ever, Cindy Beck, made the castle cake. I brought the castle to her ($3.99 from Gordman's) and told her to do whatever she wanted. Awesome! They all loved the graham cracker drawbridge! Her cakes actually taste even better than they look. Really.

You know what, it does take a fair amount of time and effort to pull off a party like this but look at Jack's face. It's totally worth it!

The Pictures Have Arrived

Yippee! I got my 1399 pictures today. They look great. I am very pleased with the quality. They are bright and sharp and on good quality paper. Now I have to get albums to put all these pictures in. I may have to go with the box filing system because I would end up with 50 albums by the time Jack reaches kindergarten. However, that will not really help the organizational situation much.

Tomorrow is registration day for Pee-Wee baseball. Parker already says he isn't playing. Well guess what buddy? YOU ARE! He's going to be on a team anyway. I'm sure it will be a fight every step of the way, but it will be good for him. For the record, he loves baseball--he is just pulling a "Parker" and refusing to try something.

How about Anna Nicole Smith? I know she probably wasn't the greatest person. She certainly led a questionable lifestyle, but no one should die when they are 39 years old. I felt sorry for her ever since her son died. Can you imagine being so happy that you have a new baby only to lose your first baby a few days later? So sad, really. I have never understood why anyone would seek fame. It appears to me to be such a burden.

On a lighter note, here is Jack a year ago at his 2nd birthday.

Worth It

We have a bit of cabin fever here, so even though it is COLD, the boys and I went outside to play in the snow this afternoon. Well, they played and I shoveled. I actually enjoy shoveling snow because I think it is invigorating. I'm sure I wouldn't feel that way if we got more snow than what we do. So, you know what a hassle it is to get kids into their snow gear. I have it fairly streamlined at this point, but it is still a pain. Then I have to get into my snow gear too all the while I'm thinking about how it's even worse to get the wet, cold snow gear off when we're done. Anyway, we went outside and all was well for a little while. Parker used the mound I had shoveled to make a tunnel and was quietly and methodically playing when along comes Jack the Destroyer and jumps on the mound/tunnel completely obliterating all of Parker's efforts. That is soooo Jack. So this sets Parker off into a dramatic wailing fit. He cried and cried and cried. He put his head down, face first in the snow and sobbed for about 10 minutes. Really. Jack said, "Parker, you can build a new one. I help." Well, at least he tried. Parker wasn't having any of it though. I finished shoveling and we went inside and Parker continued his fit in his room. Then, they both lay down on their respective couches, turned Baby Einstein Mozart on (this is not a typical choice for them) which led to this:

This makes all the effort and drama worth it. I love the effect of a cold, snowy day!! I think I'm going to go lay down for a bit myself and enjoy the peace and quiet!! Happy Afternoon!

Silly Boys and a Blast From the Past

See, I'm back to making my own embellishments. I cut the circles with my Fiskars circle cutter (one of my favorite tools thanks to Shelly!) And cut the little trees from a piece of patterned paper. I used my new Cropadile to put the brads and snaps on the top circle and voila--custom embellishments for a fraction of the price! Since I scanned this, I switched the two small red circles so now the pink tree is at the top and the dot tree is at the bottom. More eye-pleasing that way. Normally, I don't think there is a "right" way to do a layout and that no layout is "bad" but sometimes there is a little something you can change to make it better. However, I do not go back to old layouts and change anything. This one was still out on my desk, so it was fair game!

I was thinking that the Xbox does have one good quality--it kept Parker occupied while I sorted through 1400 pictures! Which, by the way, took many, many hours over the course of a week. It will all be worth it. My sister is in absolute shock that I actually spent that much money to order pictures. I AM CHEAP!!! That tells you just how determined I am to do this. In the process of going through old pictures, I also found some VERY old photos including this one of my Mt. Zion friends. I believe this was Christmas of 1992. My only clue to the date is that Courtney, who is now 14, is a baby in the picture. My friends are probably going to kill me if they see this. Oh well, we have aged pretty well I would say.

EDITED TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INFO:

I am in sitting on the couch 2nd from the right. I am wearing a red plaid jacket and I know I had on black stretch pants--possibly with black ankle boots!
On the couch are from left: Michelle Floyd Williams , Heather York Dennis, Sherri Carl Shelton w/Courtney, Me, Laura Richardson Kosinski

In front: Carmin Haskett Bartow, Jennifer McCain
You know what is really nuts about this is picture is that we aren't that young. I had graduated from college, Michelle, Sherri and Laura were married at the time and Heather might have been engaged. Oh and Jenny had an almost 5 year old. Don't get me wrong--22 is young it's just not 18.

Holy Cow

Well, I did it. I actually ordered my prints. I managed to whittle it down a little bit and ordered 1399 pictures. OUCH! It's going to make me soooo happy when they arrive and then I spend the rest of 2007 trying to get them into albums. In case you don't want to do the math, the cost for the prints was $124.11 (you got 20 free) and shipping was $46.25. That shipping sounds like a HUGE amount, but when you break it down it means that each print, including shipping was a little over 12 cents. That's cheaper than anywhere else I could find. If you know of someplace else, please DO NOT tell me. I don't want to know at this point!!!!! I will let everyone know how the quality of the prints turns out. Wouldn't that be a bummer if I end up with 1400 crappy pictures!?

I really dislike football, so we are not watching the Super Bowl. I just don't care.

I really dislike our Xbox. I can almost see Parker losing brain cells. So much for my amazingly creative child. If it were up to me, I would get rid of the thing. For the record, I was against the purchase but it showed up on Christmas morning in spite of my disapproval.

The curse of being messy

I have mentioned a few posts ago that I am in the process of weeding through 3 years worth of digital pictures so I can have them all printed. It has been such a frustrating process! Basically what I have been doing is uploading all my memory discs onto a photo printing site and then deleting all the ones that I already have a print. The problem is that I would get a few discs done and then find another handful of pictures that I had stashed somewhere. Being disorganized is a curse on so many levels! The good thing is that the more prints I have managed to find, the fewer I have to have printed. So, I think I am pretty much done with the weeding and now I just have to place the order. The grand total???? Drumroll please.....1448 pictures to be printed! YIPES!!!! It's o.k. because I thought it was going to be worse. I've heard good things about the Clark Color Lab so that is who I am using. They have .09 cent prints which is the main reason I'm using them. My plan is to put all of these pictures into albums in chronological order and then pick which pictures I will scrapbook. As I remove a picture from the album, I will order another copy to replace it in the album. Doesn't that sound organized and efficient!? I'll let you know if I actually am able to keep up with it. The moral of all of this is to PRINT your digital photos in a timely manner. What is the point of taking great photos if they just sit on your computer where no one can see them? The other moral is if I was more organized in the first place, this would not have been such a big deal!
Well, Jack's birthday party is coming up on Saturday which means that this week MUST be dedicated to cleaning house. I always clean better when I have a deadline. The trick will be to keep it clean for more than a few days. I've been doing a lot of reading about cleaning and organizing and the truth is that a messy house makes you feel messy inside. For me, this is very true. That's why it's time to take control and do something about it. I always say that I hate it when people bitch about something but do nothing to change it. That's pretty much what I have been doing about my house and my weight. So it's time for ACTION!!! Seriously!!! I mean it!!!
Don't laugh. This is important! ;-)
I have a lot of things to chat about today so check back later. I plan on posting again today--after I do some cleaning!

Brrrrrr................

This is an old, old layout, but isn't it funny? I love Jack's little round head!

Oh my good golly... IT IS COLD!!!! Ugh. I can't stand it. I am trying hard to keep our power bill down, so I keep the house at 69 which is seeming very, very cold right now. Our house is always cold. We need new windows and insulation....along with about a million other things.

Got my hair highlighted today so I am no longer a skunk. It's a little more "golden" than I would like, but I like it--it's definitely better than the black and yellow I was sporting!

I want to scrapbook, but my "office" is FREEZING and I can't stop shivering. I could put one of our little space heaters in there, but there is something not quite right about the wiring in that room and if we have more than one thing plugged in, it blows a fuse. One time, I turned the light switch on and flames came shooting out. Scary, huh?

I hate video games, they are turning Parker's mind into mush. He lives, breathes, eats, sleeps Star Wars Legos for Xbox. On one hand, it's fun to see him so excited about something, but on the other hand, it is all he wants to do.

I better go wake Jack up from his nap. Looks like another night of him being up until 11:00. We are having sleep issues around here.

The Simple Life

After I just blogged about how I make most of my own embellishment, I do a layout where I really didn't make too much at all. I swear it is harder for me to do it this way than make my own stuff. Either way, it's still fun.

Parker had a friend over today. It is always funny to hear him interact with other kids. He sounds very bossy and dictatorial to me, but kids seem to like him. It is always hard for me to keep from interfering when I hear a dispute. However, I am practicing restraint and letting them figure it out on their own, which they inevitably do.

I made butterscotch cookie bars last night and can't quit eating them so I gave a plate of them away and will throw away the rest. Again, where is that discipline!?

My friend, Dawn, gave me a book about simplifying your life in 30 days. Each day, you are to do one thing working toward the goal of a simple life. It has a lot of good suggestions and some that are questionable. I love all the ideas about getting rid of anything you don't need or use which is a big problem for me, but I'm not liking the ideas about getting rid of framed pictures and decorative things. Of course, they do say that you needn't do everything they suggest, you should do what works for you. I cleaned out my jewelry chest last night and threw out a lot of single earrings, broken bracelets and watches, and tarnished necklaces. It felt GOOD! Now I need to continue doing this with the rest of my house. Dawn, if you read this, thank you for loaning the book to me!

I am getting my hair highlighted tomorrow. I have 2 inches of black growth down the middle of my head. I look like a skunk in reverse.

I signed Jack up for preschool for next year. I can't believe how time has just flown by. He was just a few days old when I first signed Parker up for preschool. CRAZY! There were 7 kids on the list already. Mrs. Lamb is going to have her hands very, very full next year.

Travis just got home and I made a roast for dinner and I've been smelling it cooking all day. YUM!