more pictures from yesterday.

GREAT day.

seriously, great day. Worked my butt off this morning, laundry and wallpaper peeling, the usual for me.

Rob had a big meeting with Pastor this morning, discussing some new brilliant ideas he's hatching.

I made my kids lunch (granted it was just mac and cheese and dogs, but it counts!). We then headed to St. Louis for the Galleria (and my 'A' at anthropology) and the Science Center. Great time. The kids were pretty good - Eli's in a rough patch, but it was fairly ok most of the time. He loved it and is already begging to go back. We just spent time together, laughing and playing. Caught some Burger King on the way home and made tollhouse cookies to warm up the house when we got home.

The kids went to bed by about 7:30, crashed from lots of sightseeing. Rob and I played on our seperate computers. I ordered from amillionmemories.com because they have 20% off between now and May 2 with coupon code 1444. Happy early birthday to me. :) So in the mood to play, but it's getting pretty late. Maybe tomorrow during naps, after I plan my missionettes lesson. We are wrapping up on Esther, one cool chick, let me tell you! Got a lot on my plate for tomorrow; dishes need done, vacuuming, laundry to fold and put away. And wallpaper to strip. I spent one hour on it today and got about 3 square feet stripped. But, it's my last wall of torture in my last room of eternal painting pain! I say that, but it's two rooms ( a small 1/2 bath and I still have the master bath to deal with - where I am totally uninspired).

Made plans with three different cousins to connect in the near future. Can't wait to see them all. Family is a tough but good thing. And these are the good ones! :) Bracing myself for all the next month has to take/offer. Twenty-seven is looming, but I can do this, right?

the he*art of Paris

This is another lift from the Jaime Waters 12 layouts tonight article. I found it very inspiring. I toned down the color palette alot, wanting to focus on pictures instead.

I had a fun time coming up with this title. It's kind of a pun because it seemed to me that the heart of Paris is the art of Paris, so I tried to play on that. :) Very simple here, K&Co paper, KI paper (letters) and cardstock, Heidi Grace heart and my cheap-o HL rubber stamps. Love em, messy and all.

I'm heading out for some time to myself. Hitting Hobby Lobby and Archiver's with a list. Might drop by Anthropology too, there's an A I'm after. Hopefully it will be a relaxing and wonderful, soulful evening. I could certainly use it!

Rick Steves - I think I love you!

Last post of the night. I'm pooping out. Love this page, my favorite from the past few days. Rick Steves was our invisible tour guide on this trip. We seriously would have been in a world of hurt without him. The guys a genius. I totally recommend his books and show. Brilliant.

Versilly

This one is for my mom and sister. We were jumping in front of the palace. Why? Mostly, because our husbands weren't there to stop us, really. We called Verailles, Versilly most of the trip. It was so extravagent and gaudy it just really seemed appropriate!

Versailles

I actually wrote 'touring' across the top of the title here, after I took this picture. This page is a lift of Jaime Waters from the latest CK. Very cool. Interesting place too.

mmm. Duckloaf.

This page totally cracks me up. It's about my experience with French food. An appetizer I ordered the one time we ate in a cafe while in Paris. Very interesting, to say the least. It tasted like pastrami made with duck and a lot of pepper, served cold. Like duck pate', but maybe mixed with cavier (that kind of salty burst in your mouth) definitely an experience I won't soon forget!

World Perspective

While I'm up I may as well post my five layouts that have been sitting around here. This one is a complete and total Ali lift, just for the record. She had done one abou the great feeling of flying home. I really liked the simplicity of it, so this is my take. Cool journaling, hope you can read it.

deep thoughts for one am

A very long day today, I think I eluded to that earlier.

Mom said something to me on our Paris trip that caught me off guard (one of many things said to me on that trip that I've been chewing on for weeks now). She said that I was still figuring out who I was.

Ouch. I think. I'm not sure. I thought I had that all figured out. Enough at least to know that you reconsider the 'who-am-I' every time you have a major life change (ie: death, birth, major job change). But I've been stirring it around in my mind for some time now and I hate that she may be right.

I turn twenty-seven in three weeks. (that's a seperate post in itself, maybe even a whole new blog!) How can I not know who I am?? It scares me to even type that, the black and white on the screen is screaming back at me, YOU BIG FAKER! I've made a lot of really big and irreversible decisions if that's truly the case I could be in trouble. Maybe it's just one in the morning and not time to be pondering these kind of life-shaping/shifting statements.

I lived life full-throttle for those first few years out of the nest. Maybe I should have slowed down a bit and spent a little more time thinking about what it really is I want out of life. Although, I feel like I've been thinking about that since Eli was born and I still don't have an answer. Maybe it's a good thing I started with a husband and kids and got those things going while I had the time and energy (and lack of motivation for anything else) while the getting was good. I really did know I wanted that, and I haven't changed my mind so far, even though there are days. :)

Definitely too late for these kinds of discussions.

Maybe I should take some moments and think about my passions. I understand that this is all the rage right now (passion thinking - all over tv and books and radio). As a stay-at-home mom and full-time pastor's wife I don't have a lot of time to think about what I'm passionate about, mostly what I do is decided for me, and in the brief moments of alone quiet time I usually try to catch my breath and do a little something for me, so the tiny bit of original Anna that is left doesn't wither up and blow away in the wind.

What am I passionate about?

* The first answer is easy. My God. Living right and learning and giving and listening and trying not to screw up too terribly, although I feel I do daily.

* The second answer is true. My family. I am insanely passionate about my family. Lately I am very much struggling with the stay at home thing and can't help but wonder if God is leading me in another direction or if I am just being discontent (an aggrivating state of being for me!). But I adore my husband, even if we've been married eight years and the honeymoon is definitely over and sometimes I look at him and think "ergh! You drive me crazy". But he is usually driving me crazy in a good way and for that I am thankful. He knows me better than any other soul on earth, and amazingly enough still loves me with abandon, even if he's not the best at showing it all the time. I love my kids too, little pieces of me and Rob, complete with our nuances and short-comings. I love Sarah's curly hair and her mischief-loving, attack-life-with-a-vengeance attitude that she totally gets from me. I love Eli and his sensitive, loving countenence, and those amazing blue eyes that see right to your soul, even when you are trying to hide it. "Mommy, why is your smile down?" The kid has a gift.

[I say all that and I feel like I've been failing miserably with my kids lately. My patience has just been nill and I'm not sure how or where to fix it. And why am I writing all this here? Probalby because it's one am and there is no one to say it to.]

* I'm passionate about ministry. I have been for years, all the way back to church camp when I was fourteen. I want to make a difference in this world and that seems like some tiny way that I can help. It's crazy to me that it's now really Rob's job and not something we just volunteer all our free time, money and energy to.

* I'm really, really passionate about scrapbooking. And it's a source of frustration for me. I've tried to find my niche in the industry (working in a store, teaching, writing, publishing) over and over and I'm just burnt on it. I feel like God hasn't allowed me in, like it just must not be the right time (or what? not sure) and I'm starting to wonder if my dreams are futile. Maybe it will just always be a hobby.

* I feel like something is missing. And no, Lori, it is not another baby. That would be a receipe for one of those horrible postpartem episodes where all the children wind up in sack and the Mom jumps off the bridge into the icy water.

So, definitely not a child. Just a passion for something, outside of this house and my family and everything so neatly tied up with a bow. Something that's mine, where I'm making a difference and escaping for bit of quality Anna time too.

Maybe I'm asking too much? Just looking over my list of passions, is there really room in my life for one more thing? And I didn't even put my friends, they should totally be on there too. Also, looking over my list, I see a lot of frustration, in almost every area. Most of my frustration comes from a lack of appreciation or compensation. Maybe my motivator is broke and I'm looking at this from all the wrong angles.

I guess I'm just looking for balance. A little more me and a little less everyone else. Seems selfish. But after five+ years home catering to everyone's needs, my needs are creeping in and getting louder all the time.

Well, I've totally rambled and stuttered and stammered, but at least a good bit is off my chest. Maybe now I could go for some late night scrapbook shopping, or at least browsing. A little retail therapy goes a long way. Either that or I could find my bed like a normal person since it's almost 2am now!!!

weird day here.

First of all, my daughter is taking the nap of the century. I'm seriously starting to wonder if she's dead, she's been sleeping since 1pm. Poor thing, church just wipes her out. Sundays are a tough day for all of us. Whew. I hear her just now waking up. Time for supper.

We have more church tonight, and a dessert auction. I baked Grammy Ginny's world-famous cheesecake, so hopefully it sells well. Shoot, and I haven't planned a game yet for youth. Gotta fly.

such a great evening

Just a quick recap and I'm headed to bed. I'm wiped out. We went to one of our teenager's musicals tonight. It was fun, she did a good job. Then we wandered up to the mall for a coffee but found a carnival instead. We wound up riding the sky wheel (Rob was sooooo funny, whining about the height the whole time - not at all romantic, but hilarious!) and wrapped it all up with a funnel cake - which is now rumbling in my tummy. It was just nice to be out, just the two of us, doing something really date like. Great night. Love my hubby. Sorry, no pictures. Too bad too, you would have peed your pants laughing at him. Wish I had a video, so stinking funny! Maybe tomorrow I will finally post my five pages I have ready to put up. toodles!

little extras

These are the fun bonuses in my room. I do need to apologize for the bad pictures, this is really a camera lighting nightmare, with all the open light, but it's great for creating, and that's more important!

I love this A that I found at Walmart for 97 cents. It's a high density foam, so stinking cute. Also these paper mache flowers from Red Lead, I altered them one afternoon last week. And this spice cabinet was my great grandmother's. Lots of little personal touches, only going to continue that trend. I picked up a cheap-o clock from walmart yesterday and it will soon be graced with another A and hung on the wall so I can try to keep track of time while I'm playing. (good luck with that!)

Ali Edwards Inspiration

Was puttering around in my studio the other day and it hit me to do this to the door leading up to the kids suite. Isn't it fun? I used four different sets of foam alpha stamps, the MM florals and a whole lot of stickles and puffy paint! :) I'm emailing it to Ali just for fun.

drum roll please....

As I am revealing the new studio, a variable original artwork in itself!! Also, a work in progress. I am still adding things, changing things, making it mine! But you'll at least be able to get a feel for where it's going this way.

The two walls that were ugly wood paneling are now a bright cheery white. It's so much nicer to work in there now, much better lighting situation. Funny how paint changes everything. The other two walls are a grey/green/blue-ish color, to match my cool storage boxes. Then I'm using a lot of bright colored accents around the room, like my fun flowers on that high shelf. I'm sprinkling the entire room with A's of every size and color (not to be Ali, just because my name starts with A!)
Since I took these pictures I purchased a small sterilite drawer set for my foam stamps, it's sitting on my desk. I also found a thread rack that I need to paint and hang over the sewing machine.

I love how the room is bright and open. I'm opting for no window coverings. I love how everything is organized and within reach. Loving the little tins from the Target $ spot. I love that it's all mine!! I've spent one evening playing in the new studio and it was absolutely inspiring! I can't believe it's mine.

If this doesn't make you want to run out and buy velcro, I don't know what would!!!

Hee hee. I was putting my studio back together this morning (after an amazing one-day paint job - pictures coming later) and I had this idea for Heidi Swapp storage tape. They are velcroed to my pantry cabinet, totally accessible to my desk, all in a neat line and easy to see. I can take them down to use them, and put them back up when I'm done. I'm in love!!

getting ready...

It's that time again. I emptied and taped off the studio last night, I've already been to Lowe's and back this morning. My paint guy helped me find a stud finder so Rob can finally put up our porch swing. (yipee!) We love our porch swing, that will make this house really feel like home!

Anyhoo, I'm just waiting for Sarah to konk out after lunch so I can get painting in the studio. I'm excited for it, way in the mood to bring about change. I keep imagining it finished, bright and airy and clean. Goodbye ugly wood paneling!! Hello beautiful white slatted walls!! Hmmm. It will feel good. I'll be happy when my studio is back together, I feel like my heart is spread all over the dining room. ugh. I have to have it back together by Friday because we are hosting Cribz here at our house.

Feeling productive today. Hopefully Sarah cooperates and takes an awesome nap and Eli is just worn out from school. He finally went back today - he's way out of the habit after 9 days of Spring Break. Getting him up this morning was tough. But he woke up after a quick bath and I think he'll do fine. He's only got a few weeks left. Next year will be hard, all day. Poor kid.

Sorry about the absence of Easter dress pictures - they are on my camera hard drive, but I can't find my cord - I've been searching the house for it. Very annoying. I have some new scrapbook pages to show you too, also locked in my camera. stink.

Well, hopefully I'll have some great before and after pictures to post in the next few days. Hopefully it will be awesome!! Have a great day!

Happy Easter!!

What a beautiful day. A good day to be alive. I'm sure Jesus agrees! :) We spent the morning in church, my two beautiful children were scrubbed and shiny in their new easter clothes and I don't think I've ever been so proud! Sunday school was awesome, I feel like I am gleaning so much from that hour each week. I finally got my hands on a lesson plan and so now I'm reading the follow-up scriptures each day, that's really driving the lessons home. I can feel myself growing, suddenly God is becoming intellectually engaging to me, not just spiritually and emotionally.
I like that, it feels like there is more to my relationship with Him. The Bible is starting to open up to me, be more real... something I have been praying about for a long time now.

Anyhoo, I digress. Church was awesome. Rob and I were received as new members, along with our pal, Ron. All fifty-five people in churh this morning came and shook our hands. You dont think 55 people is all that many until you hug each one, my smile was ready to fall off!! It felt like our wedding reception all over again. But truely, I am so thankful to be here, we are sooo loved. Happy to see my hubby happy too.

We then were invited to Berryl and Tanya's house for dinner. It was wonderful, so much good cooking. I think I'll gain weight here, I try to keep my portions small. :) The kids had an easter egg hunt, their fourth this year, I think. We came home to our easter baskets too, candy-free. We could feed a small third world country for a week with all the candy these jabronies have raked in in the last ten days! Who knew that a guy on a cross could generate such an uproar for the candy industry?? again, digressing.


Just really thankful for that guy 2000 years ago. Easter never loses it's pull for me. More real this year than ever. Do yourself a favor, watch the Passion if you've never seen it. Let God open up your mind and do an intellectual work on you. Know Him beyond the simple feelings of yourself, let Him work in your heart and mind. happy easter.

Seeing Paris, from under my umbrella

THis is the coolest page I did today. So much going on here, lots of pictures. We spent a lot of time under our umbrellas on this trip, but it was so romantic and picturesque, you forgot about being cold and wet!!

Orange paper is new scenic route. I've used a lot of this line in this book, it's bright and fun and airy. Loving it. Fun tape from HKS attaches the transparency that overlays the entire layout. I stamped on it to add a bit of pizazz and then went crazy with Primas (since I have 5 bottles on the shelf!) The chipboard letters in the title are HKS, of course. This is really her book, right?

So that's my stuff for today, but I'm hoping to scrap while these kids snooze, Rob's got some work to finish up before tomorrow. Check ya later, dude!

Departure
This page excited me. The numbers across the top are the date we left, a number engraved in my brain forever, I spent six months counting down to it!! I had fun writing on my pictures. I feel free to take risks like that because this book is all mine, all about my trip, I can do anything I want with it. I like that. I need to feel that way more often about my pages. Love the giant numbers here, Nothing But Numbers by Making Memories, and my famous Lowe's mail box stickers. And I've almost used up this awesome twill tape from foofala. It's been so fun in this book, I wish I'd bought more. Might have to visit Linne Cards again soon! And yes, that's a piece of my actual itinerary.

Enjoy Paris

This page is a total lift from the book FreeStyle. Sweet book, really enjoying it. I love the journaling here, it's all random stuff from the trip, as if you were about to go to Paris. "See the city. Don't forget your camera. Explore. Unwind. Ride the Metro. Find Napolean's Tomb. Climb the stairs to the top of the Eiffel. Stop and enjoy some hot cocoa on the way down. Take in the incredible view. Take a picture, it will last longer." and it goes on like that. I took a picture of the whole thing before I put the photos down. Finally broke down and used my HKS fuzzy rub-on stars, so cool. I actually painted them because the white seemed too harsh. More fun map tape too. Such a cool trip. By the way, these are the hotels we crashed at in paris.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

This layout is in honor of Lisa Loeb and her awesome song that's been stuck in my head for weeks now. Eli started singing it the other day too, now we are doing duets. I can hear him humming it in the tub now!

Love, love, LOVE the patterned paper here. Found it at some random hole-in-the-wall scrapbook store months ago with Kim. This paper and four orange ribbon photo corners (also seen here) are all I bought there, but this paper was so worth it!! The title was stamped on scratch paper with HKS stamps and then adhered and cut from patterned paper. I especially enjoy the orange splash of paint behind it. The stamps (featured in the center) was an indulgence from Red Lead last weekend, I've used it twice all ready and can easily see it becoming a new favorite. Also broke out my HKS trip tape, so yummy.

Plum Tuckered Out

This is my best page from last night. Heavily inspired, heck, totally lifted from JB's March kit. But I don't care, I love it anyway!! Love the colors, love the journaling, even the pictures crack me up. We took these as we were riding the (blasted) RER into the city after two solid days of travel. I was a little tired and cranky I think.

Used Anna Griffin polka dot paper from last weekend's shopping excursion, the scallop cardstock, various bits of paper I've had through out this book. I'm trying to keep a consistent color scheme, but not matchy matchy at all. Also used my beloved Lil Davis plastic letter stickers - I'll cry when they are gone, those cheap-o rub-ons from HL and some equally cheap-o rubber/foam stamps from HL. I've definitely gotten my $4 worth out of them!!

Trying to decide if it's worth braving Target today to get Sarah a couple more pairs of shorts. Eli needs some t-shirts too, and pajamas. I wrote a list when I was done going through their things, so their wouldn't be any question as to what to look for. Rob will be home for lunch soon. I love Saturdays!

calling home

Char took these photos for me. I made a daily call back to the states the whole time we were over there. It's the longest Rob and I had ever been apart, but we did it!! The phone cards were super stinking expensive, something like 15 euros (or 18 american dollars) for about 30 minutes of talk time. crazy. But it was worth it.

I used letter stickers as masks and painted over the top of them, then removed them. I also used the basic grey symbols rub-ons. They are so stinking cute!! This paper I had originally gotten for my trip layouts, but realized after I bough it that it had states all over it, but it turned out to be perfect for this particular page. I also used HKS tape, love that stuff, it's so versatile.

thank you char

Today has been a super productive day thus far. I have our taxes all ready for the mail - yippee! I've done three loads of laundry, gone through the kids and my clothes, removing all the winter things, I've cleaned up the kitchen. I just need to vaccuum and straighten up the kids 'suite' and then I'll feel like I can play till my heart's content. So good, cause I'm majorly in the mood!

I'm going to post some of last night's endeavors. Starting with this one of my sister, Char. She is responsible for me going to Paris. I could have never done something like that on my own, being unemployed and all. So this page is just a thank you to her. And yes, I'm going to email it to her shortly.

I also just wanted to make a disclaimer here, I've been lifting a lot of basic ideas lately, so they may look familiar. I'm way inspired by Jenni Bowlin lately, and I'm just going with it. Not like I'm getting published anyway, may as well flex some creative muscle!! having fun with the process!

"I'm feeling better now, I'm not quite dead!!"
[said in a thick english accent]

Whew. Amazing to me what a little scrapbooking with some tunes in a quiet studio can do for me. Three pages and a card later I feel like a new person. And I literally was only in there an hour and 45 minutes. Sometimes I forget how much I need "me" time - and then I get all overwhelmed and flustered and wonder why? dork.

But man, it was bad earlier. So glad to be me again. I just need to remember that less than two hours to myself restores a lot.

Things I've been thinking about:

*Used some cheapo rub-ons from Paper Studio. It occured to me how crazy it is that that these super-generic, low end, half-off rub-ons from Hobby Lobby work like a million times better than Heidi's rub-ons (ie - trash - rub-on fall off, crack and peel letters) Sorry, Heidi, I love ya, but you've got to fix these things!!! I love the fonts, but it's just murder trying to work with them. Next HL sale I'm stocking up on the cheapo's. Maybe I'll send Heidi some so she can compare and work out the kinks!!

*I'm really having fun scrapping my Paris album. I'm glad I have 185 pictures printed, I probably will scrap every last one. why? because I can. But seriously, scrapbooking has made me so comfortable in my own skin lately. I feel like I really have hit my groove, I know who I am in the studio and it makes it easier to be me every where else. (and yes, I really get a kick out of calling it 'the studio', like I'm doing some important world-changing art in there, a Picasso or a Rhodan or something. Hey, it's changing my world!

*I really need to mail off my state taxes tomorrow. whoops. :)

*It's really good to be home. I am so thankful for my life. Even with Sarah, right now. I just wish I could keep this perspective all day long, nap or no nap.

*My hair is getting crazy long, it's piled on my head right now and I think it's cute! And my husband is sitting over there, he's cute too. Even if he thinks he's old, I still love him.

*Why the heck is it April 14th and it's 80 degrees outside still!! What is up with that??? It's going to be a long hot summer with no air in our car. details.

Well, I guess that's enough random babbling for tonight. Just wanted to post that I didn't fall into a pit of despair and I'm not sniffing mono in the back room. I just needed a little space.

Looking forward to the weekend. The kids have beautiful new Easter clothes, can't wait to take some pictures.

WARNING: Not for the faint of heart. I've had a rough week and it will likely come out here!!!

Sarah is driving me up a wall. I seriously want to go back to work and put her in daycare because I feel like I'm ready to have a nervous breakdown with her.

Ever since I've gotten back from France she's been a complete pill. She screams all day long about little things, like not getting a fruit snack or having to have her diaper changed. Lately she's been boycotting sleep. Ever since Monday she's protested her big girl bed. Not only does she refuse to nap, but she's up every couple of hours or worse. Last night we took turns sleeping on her floor. I've been struggling with a super-sore throat since last friday and I can't get over it because I can't get any decent sleep.

Today I put her crib back together. I was just sick of the not sleeping. She took an hour and a half nap this afternoon, but has been super-mega-insanely cranky since she got up. (during her nap I took a much needed shower and looked at my scrapbook stuff for a while) We went over to Matt and Tiff's to help them move and she screamed most of the time there and all the way home. We had started to walk home and she pitched a fit, throwing her head back on the concrete sidewalk. (dumb!) It's just that stupid stuff that makes me crazy. She's throwing food on the floor and tearing things up, pinching and hitting and kicking. I'm just generally wore out from her. I really wish it was bed time so I could put her in her crib and be done with her for the day.

Poor Eli, he really gets the short end of the stick because she's driving me nuts so I don't have much time or energy to give him. The house is fallling apart, I'm not getting anything done around here. I'm just soooo tired and frustrated. I don't really want to put her in daycare, I just feel like I'm doing such a bad job surely someone else could do it better.

I'm sure I'll continue staying home, but sometimes entertaining the idea of doing things differently gives you a glimmer of hope to make it through. Man, I'm tired.

An interesting survey I received from my mom this morning.

Place an X by all the things you've done, or remove the x from the ones
you have not, and send it to all of your friends (including me). This is
for your entire life:

( x ) Smoked a cigarette
( ) Drank so much you threw up
( x ) Crashed a friend's car or motorcycle
( x ) Stolen a car
( X ) Been in love
( x ) Been dumped
( x ) Been laid off/fired (invited to resign)
( X ) Quit your job
( x ) Been in a fist fight
( X ) Snuck out of your parent's house
( X ) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
( ) Been arrested
( x ) Skipped school
( x ) Seen someone die
( X ) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico
( ) Been on a helicopter
( X ) Been lost
( ) Been on [both] opposite side of the country
( x ) Gone to Washington, DC
( ) Swam in the ocean
( x ) Felt like dying (only when I'm super sick)
( x ) Cried yourself to sleep
( x ) Played cops and robbers
( x ) Recently colored with crayons
( x ) Sang karaoke
( X ) Paid for a meal with only coins (all the time in france!)
( X ) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
( x ) Made prank phone calls (childhood hobby)
( X ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
( X ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue.
( X ) Danced in the rain and/or the snow
( x ) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( X ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
( X ) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about
( X ) Blown bubbles
( x ) Made a bonfire on the beach
( ) Crashed a party
( x ) Gone roller-skating or Ice-skating....

1. Any nicknames? none. I'm not that cool.

2. Mother's name? Mom. :)

3. What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper or a MudPuddle from the Mudhouse.

4. Tattoos? not on your life.

5. Body piercing? ears, but never again.

6. How much do you love your job (1-10) a good solid six, but don't tell my kids I said that! I miss working for a paycheck.

7. Birthplace: North Dakota. (blah)

8. Favorite vacation spot? Paris, France

9. Ever been to Africa? not as of yet, but I have every intention of going someday soon.

10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? no, usually breakfast is my weakness.

11. Ever been on TV? nope.

12. Ever steal any traffic signs? no

13. Ever been in a car accident? More than my share.

14. A, B, C, D, DD cup size? Cup of what??? :)

15. 2 Door or 4 Door? Four, I've got two kids, we need all our doors and then some.

16. Salad dressing? sure, who wants naked salad??

17. Favorite pie? strawberry rhubarb

18. Favorite number? not particularily attached to any one number.

19. Favorite movie? it changes, but now I like Fun with Dick and Jane

20. Favorite holiday? my birthday. :)

21. Favorite dessert? lemon bars.

22. Favorite food? Panera Bread

23. Favorite day of the week? whatever day Rob decides to take off that week.

24. Favorite brand of body soap? Victoria's Secret Vanilla

25. Favorite TV show? ER and Grey's Anatomy

26. Toothpaste? Aquafresh

27. Favorite smell? clean kids.

28. What do you do to relax? scrapbook. rock to my iriver. chill w/ Rob.

29. Message to your friends reading this? Hey, why don't you post a comment on my sad little life???

30. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Married to an old man. Rob turns 29 this year!!!

31. What do you do when you are bored? I'm never bored. I sometimes lack the creative energy I require to do the things I want to do. I'm busy and overwhelmed, but NEVER bored.

32. Furthest place you will send this message? to the ends of the earth, via my friend the world wide web.

33. Who will respond the fastest? Karen, cause she's cool and I think she's stalking me. :)

34. Least likely to respond? Rob, because he rarely reads my blog.

Remember that time we went to Paris?

So loving this page. These are all the index photos from my trip. My sister always says "Do you remember that time when we.... (insert what we are currently doing)" so this page was sooooo just for her. Had tons of fun playing with new stuff. The big stars are the edges of HKS ghost sillhouettes - cut out and painted. The rub-ons are from Making Memories and I just used a sharpie on the transparency. I'm all over that globe stamp - it's perfect for this album. Hope it makes you half as happy looking at it as it did me while I was scrapping it!!

Oh my UNITED!!

What a concert! We drove like crazy people, four hours to St. Louis, stopping only for MCD and potties. We got there about 5:45pm and the line was already several hundred people long. Within ten minutes of our arrival the line had tripled. I had spoken to my friend LeAnn earlier in the day and she had warned us to arrive early, as they would be packed and folks probably turned away eventually. They opened the doors at 6:30 and the people went pouring in. We scrambled for a seat and wound up in the back of the balcony with alot of older people and families, but it was fine with me because we could see the big picture. You all know how much I love the 'big picture'!
I think it was really cool for our youth, from our tiny church, to see the power of thousands of people worshipping. Not just worship, modern worship that engages all the senses, more like a rock concert for Jesus than anything else!
I think my kids were a little surprised at how much I got into it. Heck, I surprised myself, I just felt so free, picturing myself in the throne room. It was amazing. I love modern worship, and that is one of the things that is tough about our church. We barely do contemporary worship, let alone anything as edgy as our slowest song last night. I realized how much I missed it. I also remembered the importance of individual worship, something I've been letting slack lately. I need to start putting on worship during the day, it really helps the atmosphere in this house. I knew every song, which was awesome. Eli and I worshipped together, which was even more awesome.


The kids lasted about an hour, and then we found the family room. We lasted in there maybe twenty minutes before Sarah started pinching other kids and I felt it was time to go. We wandered around James River. I tried taking the kids back into the service, but it was futile. We went out to the van where they had a snack and Sarah cried herself to sleep. It was rough. I'm going to find a babysitter next time we have an event like this, it was just too hard. The concert lasted until 10:30 and by the time we gassed up we didn't get the teenagers home until about 3am, and our kids to bed shortly after. Rob and I stumbled into bed at a quarter to four. We heard a noise and after a few moments realized it was the sound of the morning birds starting to chirp!! It was a long, long day. Sarah was up at 9am. I think we are just going to take it easy today. Rob wants to go to some of our teenagers houses and video tape them talking about what the concert meant to them. I think it will be really cool.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm wiped.

World Traveler

This was my first and best page of the weekend. I stinking love it!! It will be my first page in my Paris book, I think. Lot's going on here, HKS plastic letters, the new Basic Grey symbol rub-ons, my fun globe stamp I found in Rockford. It was kind of the cumulation of months of planning and anticipation. Very fun.

RubberNecking @ the Eiffel Tower

More fun pictures. We took tons, like I said. Used some of the new BookWorks stuff by Rebecca Sower. Once again, totally impressed with her style!!! Also used some ancient rub-ons from Creative Imaginations and new plastic HKS letters that Lori brought me from Arkansas. Loving my orange MM rub-on letters too. Man, this makes me want to scrap!

Eiffel Tower

I took TONS of pictures of this structure. It was just so graceful and beautiful and strong. Very defining of Paris, in my opinion. This page is a lift of one of Elsie's I had seen, but I really like my color choices. It is the companion page to "Rubbernecking". I used Primas and new HKS tape (the green in the right hand corner) and some stickers that my friend Traci sent me. Thanks Traci, they are sooo cool!!!

This City has my Heart

Just a page about my love of Paris. Had a lot of fun with buttons and rub-ons. The heart is cut from an empty milk gallon. I'm using bits of that vintage map through out my album.

YES

This page is just a random thought I had about Paris. I really did go just for the pictures. That's sad, but it's always been a dream of mine to photograph Paris. It was amazing. Having a lot of fun with this album already!

Looking Back
What an amazing weekend. I'm walking away from it saying "WOW. I have some super friends. God has really blessed us with solid friendships with great people, people who I can admire and love and grow with." I just feel blessed to rub shoulders with people like that. It was kind of funny on Sunday, I felt like we were on display for the whole church to see. It's that sitting in the front row, we filled a whole pew thing.
We had a great time. We scrapbooked some, but spent a lot of time giggling and laughing and letting our hair down, just being silly - being ourselves. We talked about some deep things too - did an excercise with Every Picture Tells A Story that was very telling. I felt like we spent time hearing one another's hearts. The older I get the more I realize it really is all about relationships.
We took the kids to the church's Easter Egg Hunt after service and they had a blast. Then everyone headed for home and I died, literally died in my bed for three hours. It's a good thing I did though, we had youth last night and shared the pictures with them, another really amazing discussion. I am so impressed with our youth, they have so much potential. I see them seeking God in a way that's different from all the other youth we've worked with. They aren't all caught up in worship or appearances, but much deeper than that - wanting to see that God is real, to feel Him in their own hearts. They've beeen listening to a lot of our leader's stories, and you can see them hear it, if you know what I mean. God has a calling on our kids lives, He's just starting to tap them on the shoulder and call them His. I am so psyched about where we are going as a group.
But first, our plans for tonight. My buddy Karen called on Friday to let Rob know that UNITED is going to be in concert at James River in Springfield, MO tonight. Rob is giddy, I kid you not. They are his absolute favorite band - definitely mine too, next to Barlow Girl maybe. We have all their cds, in fact we just got their new one last week. So, we were planning on going ourselves, then Kim pointed out that our youth group is on Spring Break, so we are all going! It's going to be amazing, I just know it. Plus, it's a free concert, so it will be cheap too! (always good!) I just wish some of our other youth leaders could come too. But we are leaving in two hours. Hopefully I will get some good pictures! So we will be home late, and we are crazy because we are taking both our kids, but that's ok.
I'm so in the mood to scrapbook, it's terrible. I need to clean my house and do dishes and balance the checkbook. And laundry. Oh well. I just feel like our life is stuck on the fast forward button and I can't jimmy the lock to get it off! It's ok though, I love our life. I'm so content right now, I think about where we've been and I'm just in awe. Well, I need to get in gear now. Just wanted to update you. I have some new pages to post. Try to get to that soon.

PS - they are mowing outside and the trees are blooming. I love spring!!!

Chillin' with my home-girls

Having so much fun just hanging out together. We visited FOUR scrapbook stores yesterday, and Hobby Lobby. I found some Heidi Swapp stuff (yipee!) and the new FREESTYLE book. We ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. (mmmm) We wandered through Anthropologie. (oooh!!!) We enjoyed a girls day and came home to happy families. Going to bed was rough - the kids took about two hours to get everyone asleep simultaneously. But then we scrapped the night away. :) Not really, we all konked by midnight, but I am seriously stoked about the three pages I worked on. I'll try and get some pictures together later. Finally started my Paris album (yippee!) and it's so thrilling - six months of planning starting to come together. I'm so hyped about this next endeavor.

Here's to hoping we have cooperative kids so we get some serious playing done today!

Pooh says to Piglet...

"and we'll go because it's Thursday and we'll wish everyone a happy Thursday!"

Today is a happy day. Two of my dearest friends are driving towards me as we speak! I feel so loved! We are going to shop and laugh and scrap ourselves silly! I can't wait!

big girl

This is my daughter, who pee-d in the potty not once today, but twice. She went up the the bathroom door and said "Go. Potty." I asked her if she wanted to go potty and she said 'yeah'. So she sat on the seat, and did her business right away. We called daddy to tell him. She told me "Good JOb!!!" Then we had supper and she said "go potty" again and went right up and did it. I gave her a starburst the second time. She's quite proud of herself. I am not expecting much though, Eli took years to potty train, so I'll just let her do this on her own!

broken dollhouses

So excited this morning, in fact, I already called Lori about it! (at 7:30am, sorry Lori!) I had gotten up early to deal with the trash. It's been extremely windy here lately and yesterday the church's (ie ours) trash can blew away in the storm and we have been unable to locate it since! So I was up dealing with the yucky task of dragging broken bags of trash and making sure it was all 'pick-up-able'. I had just finished up and was walking back to the house when I noticed a dollhouse in the neighbor's trash. I looked a little closer and it seemed to be in good shape, dated with a little bit of damage, but totally repairable. I went in and asked Rob if he thought it would be ok to take it from the trash and he thought yes, but I still didn't have the guts to do it myself. So he (love this man!) got dressed at 7am and went digging through the neighbor's trash to bring home a dollhouse for my daughter. I am going to - after I finish our house - paint it and remodle the indside and start collecting furniture (I've really seen it at Big Lots and the $ store for next to nothing) to give it to Sarah for Christmas this year. She'll be almost two and a half. I'm so excited!! I had a dollhouse when I was little, Mom and I spent hours and hours and hours working on it. Can't wait to see Sarah's face when she sees a big bow on it under the tree! I may 'decorate' the inside like our house, wouldn't that be fun??? So excited!

PS- I just went downstairs to take a picture of it and my battery that I bought in Versialles for 19 euros just died. I think I got my money's worth!!!

Amazing Christmas Moments

Finished this bad boy a couple days ago, I've had a lot of pages in progress lately, but not a lot of finishing. Looking forward to doing some page planning tonight at scrabooking group so hopefully I can accomplish a lot when Kim and Lori are here this weekend. Really looking forward to some time with my girlfriends. So thankful for both of them.

Back to the page at hand. Used some crazy paper, and off the wall colors. Red, green and orange? Who does that? But I thought it was fun, and since CK doesn't like my stuff anyway, I may as well do things that I like! Learned a new stitch here - the blanket stitch. I found directions on the internet. Mom's probably holding her sides at the thought that I'm finally learning to sew, only it's on paper, completely useless probably.

(at the beginning) With You

This page was inspired by a Lisa Loeb song from about ten years ago. (man, that makes me feel old) It was popular when Rob and I were dating. I thought it was totally appropriate for this picture, which got scratched in the process, but it actually doesn't bug me as much as I anticipated. It has a worn look to it, just like us now. :) Love the thought that we used to be strangers and now we are so known, it's like breathing. I can't imagine life without him.

This page incorporates some new techniques for me - the giant circular picture is totally out of my box. I love the jewels - from Making Memories. Used some older rub-ons, mixed with some new. Really love the paper, a random mix of old Scrapworks (Ethan & Kate line) and new Scenic Route thrown in with a bit of MOD, just for kicks. Yummy.

Things are really good here right now. I'm just walking through a state of gratefulness, even though my daughter's being a big jerk. But Rob is amazing me, he's on fire at work and it's just fun to sit back and watch. Youth was awesome last night, I feel like we are starting to get somewhere with our kids. Rob and I were talking about it today, over lunch - how we have something unique to offer them - a real relationship with their youth pastor (and wife). It's a luxury that only a small youth group can afford, and we have it. I'm so excited about our future here.

Crying Jag

Thankfully the day is almost over. It seemed longer than usual, which is humorous when you think about the fact we lost an hour.

Sarah is crying up in her room. After I laid her down for the night I realized she probably spent about two hours crying today - and all of the sudden it jolted me back to Eli at this stage, I can recall saying the same thing about him. That is a reassuring thought, because right now I really don't like the person she is. Please keep in mind that I love her, I adore her, but she's been a royal pain in the seat the last month or so, hitting the terrific twos early. Remembering that single thought w/ Eli gives me so much hope for the future because he's a great kid now. We'll get through this. In the meantime I'm not getting much done, blogging or otherewise!