Some scrappy shares

Not much going on around here. Miguel went back to work this week after being off for a week. We were able to do some stuff while he was home...just hanging out together as a family which we just don't do much of when he's working. He just spends TOO much time at work and when he's home, he's usually asleep! It was good though...lots of fun and I'm already looking forward to his next one which I advised him he should take in September for our one year anniversary...wink, wink ;) lol

I got a few pages done last week I think....or no, maybe the week before Miguel was on vacation, but hadn't gotten around to posting here. One is an 8.5x11 and one is 12x12. I've also done two more pages in my art journal/smashbook, but need to get pics of those.

What else is going on? Not much really. The kids are home, driving me nutty as usual. I really wish Lij and Mikey would get along better. Mikey just ADORES Lij and just wants to be around him and wants Lij to play with him or do stuff with him. And I totally get it, Lij is 12...almost 13, but I think he forgets what it was like to be 6 and look up to an older brother. I remember when Lij was little and he was always wanting to do what his older brother, Josh was doing, but Josh was so different with Lij. If he was sitting at the table drawing, he'd have Lij sit there across the table from him and they would both draw together. He was never really "mean" to him and loved hanging out with Lij and doing stuff w/him. I really wish Lij would just understand how much Mikey looks up to him. I think he'll be going back to his dad's this weekend and will probably be there for a week. His dad gets him for a month in the Summer, but sometimes, we split it up into 4 seperate weeks. Anyway, he (Lij) can pretty much go spend time with his dad any time he wants as long as we have nothing planned. We don't really follow the whole standard visitation thing.

I'm itching to create....have so much stuff that I had gotten a couple months back when we had our tax refund and I just don't sit down to scrap as much as I should or would like to. Sometimes I just feel so darn lazy to get stuff out! lol And speaking of lazy.....sad face...I fell off the gym wagon...AGAIN! Was doing so good too.....for a whole month, but every week, I went less and less days...5 to start with, then 4, then 3, ect, ect. I haven't gone in about two weeks :( It's just harder now with the kids home since I was going after they'd left for school. Miguel hasn't gone either, but he's so busy...I'm surprised he was finding time to go at all! I really just need to find my motivation again which is SUPER hard! We'll see.....

Well, it's late and I can't remember everything it was that I wanted to write soo....until next time. I'd really like to be better at keeping my blog up because there are alot of little daily life things that I would just like to write down and document for later, but I'm just so bad at making time to do it. Another thing I need to work on.....good night :)

Happy Father's Day

What can I say about you, sweetie? In the 7+ years we have known each other, you never cease to amaze me....and annoy me...ha,ha...JUST KIDDING :) As far as being a father goes, I have the upmost respect and admiration for you because not only are you a great daddy to Mikey, but you are an exceptional dad to Elijah. From the beginning, you never hesitated, second guessed or backed away from entering a relationship with someone who already had a son. You loved me, and from the start....you loved him. You stepped in and stepped up when his own father wasn't around. You have never treated him like he wasn't your own and you do as much for him...if not more...as you do for Mikey. In my opinion, you EARNED the right to be called his father long before you and I were ever married. We have had our ups and downs in our relationship, but in the past few years, I have seen you grown... as a man of God, as a father and as a husband. I see that our boys look to you as an example of what it is to be a good man and I am proud that you are making more responsible choices because of this. You are a hardworker and a good provider for our family and we appreciate all that you do for us. Even though I get frustrated and miss you because of all the time you spend at work away from us, I know that if given the choice, you would be here with us all the time. I know that you do it for us. You make a huge effort to make the most of the time we do have together by taking us to do things as a family or even when we just spend time at home doing what you love best: bbqing and hanging out with the kids at home. Those are the times that I know you love best and so do we :) Thank you, baby, for all that you do. I hope that today and every day, you know just how much we admire, respect and appreciate you. I love you so very much and I don't know what we would do without you. Happy Father's Day, Shmoopy Loopy....I hope you have an awesome day :)

Update with pictures

My, my, am I bad at keeping up with this thing! Why? I have no idea! I used to be so good at blogging regularly! Anyway....stuff going on here. The most recent thing is that Max got stung by what we suspect was a wasp! OMG...I get a HUGE lump in my throat just thinking of what his little face looked like that morning! It was HUGE! His little eyes, mouth, snout, his entire head was swollen! Miguel immediately called the vet and he took him in and left him there on his way to work. I got a call from them shortly after and they said he had a high fever and they had given him a couple of injections for the swelling and they were going to monitor him. I was SUPER scared and worried for him. I was a MESS the whole day. Thank God, the swelling went down and his fever went away and Miguel picked him up that evening. His face was just a tiny bit swollen still so we were instructed to give him Benadryl until it went down. That was so scary and hopefully nothing like that will happen again anytime soon! I absolutley LOVE that little, furry guy and I don't know what I would do if something happened to him!

I've been creating....some pages, my sis and I started a kind of art journal book that was inspired by the new K&Co SMASH book. Sure, we could just buy one...lol, but I thought it would be more fun to make one. Apparently people have been making them for a while...lol I think I'm just a little late on the trend! lol I bought some half sized binders on Ebay and used those to put my pages in. I used patterned papers, envelopes, tickets, all sorts of things. I altered the cover and still plan on altering the inside pockets and possibly the back cover. My sis and I worked on our first pages in the book last night. She showed me something she thought was cool and had bookmarked in her 2 Peas bookmarks, so we Skyped and did our pages together. I think they came out pretty cool if I do say so myself! :) I worked on another page alone today. Sometimes I think I start too many projects and then have too many things going on...lol...oh well, if it makes me happy, then who cares, right?! Miguel had bought me a book a couple of weeks back called "We Dare You". I believe it has/had something to do with Effer Dares. Anyway, it has alot of cool challenges and I thought I'd maybe do those and put those in my art journal. I was also thinking of maybe posting the challenge here for those of you who might want to play along. We'll see :)

Mikey had an award ceremony yesterday and he received FOUR medals! YAY! We are so proud! I loved that half way of walking across the stage, he stopped, turned to the audience and waved! LMBO! It looked SO funny! He's such a ham! And he was so proud of all his medals! I'll have to take a pic of them and make a page about that.

Oh, Miguel had started a garden a few months back. He actually does it every year...lol and all the years past, the little seedlings never made it. But this year, they have survived even without getting much rain here. But Miguel waters them faithfully every morning and night. We have some tall sunflowers and some of the veggie plants have started growing stuff....he forgot to mark them, so we have a few long, green things we think might be squash or watermelon! lol We also have a tomato! It is so cool! I know he is just so proud! I'm proud of him too!!

What else? Can't think of anything else....it's a little past 3 p.m. and the kids will be getting here soon, so I'd better get lunch started. Until later :)

I'm Such A Dope, WHAT the heck, and other ramblings...

Ugh, I feel like such a dope! Yesterday after Miguel had gotten home from work, we took Mikey to go eat at Chick Fil A because he loves playing in that little playset. Which BTW, it was a MAD HOUSE in there! TONS of bigger kids, rough housing BIG TIME. And a few little necio kids (don't know how to translate that for my non Spanish speaking friends...irritating maybe?) who kept doing things they shouldn't be doing like blocking the bottom of the slide w/their body. One little kid whose mother was actually sitting right there by the window in full view of him, kept climbing the door handles and hanging there while people went in and out. One man...thank you, sir for being that person who isn't afraid to speak up, actually told him to get down! lol I was telling Miguel because there were alot of Mexicans there (or Hispanics I should say...like us) and he had asked "what side of town are we in?" (1604 and Culebra) and I said it was because this place is nicer and cleaner because of the location that we all come over here! lol But sadly, it's Hispanics like that woman who doesn't watch her kids, who lets them play rough without telling them to watch for other kids that give us all a bad name. Sad, but true because we all know that there ARE those people who will look at those little brown kids and wonder why their mothers don't watch them and then think "oh, those Mexicans." LOL It's true though! You know it is! lol Anyway, I'm getting WAY of subject....We went to the Michael's in the little shopping center there just to look and I picked up a FEW things out of the dollar bins and some awesome stamps my sis had bought a while back that were on clearnance for $2.50! (will post a pic later) and a few crafty things for Mikey. It was only $10. Anyway, the girl rings me up and I start to look in my wallet for my credit card....sinking feeling....I look where I normally have it...I look in all the other pockets and compartments...I can feel my face getting hot and probably a bit red...lol. I apologize to the girl and tell her I'm looking for my credit card, but it's NOT there! Thankfully, Miguel was standing right by the check out reading some book so I ask him if he has it and he says no. So then I ask him if I can use his...lol because I can't find mine. I felt like such a DOPE! Why? Because this is not the first time it's happened to me! The last time, my sis and I were at a craft store and I was LOADED up with scrapbook stuff: papers, stamps, ect and when I went to pay...I didn't have it. And I have NO idea where it was! I had to leave my stuff there and ask the woman to hold it for me so I could come back later, but by the time Miguel got off work, went home to look for it (btw, it was in the pocket of a jacket I had last worn) and went to get us at my sis's house, the store had closed. And I don't really go there unless I'm with my sis. I really need to be more careful with my card. I try to make a concious effort to put it back in the SAME spot after each use, but then I get lazy and just stick it in the first place I come across. It's not like I have TONS of money in there because I don't, but still...I need to be more careful.


After that we had to do our grocery shopping so Miguel had to write a check since I left my card (oh and after we left M's, I immediately remembered where I had left it!). We spent over $120 and we did NOT have enough bags in my opinion. Gosh, the price of EVERYTHING keeps getting higher and higher! The thing that shocked me the most, was the price of the toilet paper we use..lol We hadn't bought any in a LONG time because my mom was pretty stocked up, but we finally ran out, but I remember paying about $5 and change for a 12 pack of Scott and now.....$8.57! OMG...almost NINE dollars for toilet paper! I considered going with a cheaper store brand, but sorry...I'm very picky about my toilet paper! lol We also get these bags of Tyson chicken tenderloins from the frozen food section. I think they were about $6 and change on sale, but then I saw the regular price was over $9!! We are going to have to start eating cheaper I think! lol


Oh, forgot to touch on NSD...Chon had come over to scrap the day away and check out all the online challenges and contests online that day. I hadn't had the chance to plan any pages ahead of time so I didn't really get much done except for two 8.5x11 pages. One of which I did for one of the challenges over on scrapbook.com. It was a random drawing for the winner, but I didn't win :( $135 worth of free scrapbook stuff would have been really nice :) lol But I guess I can't be greedy because I won last year. Maybe next year. I'll post the pic of the page I did for the contest. Oh and of some flash cards I printed out in word and altered a bit.





No church today. Miguel had to go help his parents at their little shop so Mikey and I are home for the day. I miss South San Filidelfia. We went to his church two Sundays in a row (we take turns each week) and today it was my turn. Can't wait until next Sunday. When he gets home, we are going to move some furniture around. With the bad rain we had on Thursday, a corner of our bedroom got a leak and I really don't want to have our bed right by it. So we are switching our bedroom with the kids "play room" (which was my mom's room). I was going to start the other day, but didn't want to hurt my gergin! lol I might try to move what I can before he gets here just to speed it along...just the smaller stuff. Anyway, that's about all that's going on around here. Just wanted to do a small update of my oh so interesting life! lol Smell ya latah ;)

Mother's Day

Almost everyone who knew me back in high school thought I was going to be a writer. When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian. As I grew older and fell in love with reading and writing, I really wanted to be a high school English teacher. God had different plans for me. At times I forget that I am not defined by my lack of a "profession", that just because I don't "work" outside of the house or have a job that pays me in money, that I am worth less than a woman who financially contributes to her family. It's very easy to fall into that trap at times. I have to remind myself at times that being a mother is the highest calling from God and that not every woman is blessed with that honor. I have to remind myself that I do more than wash laundry and make lunches....that I am shaping the lives of two human beings. That the values, ideas, morals I am instilling in my boys will determine the kinds of men they will grow up to be. I know that I am blessed to have this very important job. And although it is nerve wracking at times, scary, confusing, trying, never ending...I wouldn't trade this for the world. Because of my boys, I have become a better person....I strive to be a better person...every day...every minute. Because of them, I have had the opportunity to experience a love like no other. A love so big that at times it literally makes my heart hurt. It's a scary kind of love because two pieces of my heart are walking around outside my body every day and I can't always be with them to protect them and I have to leave that in God's hands and trust that He loves them even more than I do. I'm not going to lie and say that being a mother is always sunshine and rainbows because with a preteen and a stubborn, strong willed six year old...it's NOT! There are days when I want nothing more than to hide in a hole somewhere, in the dark, quiet where no one is calling me "mommy" or asking for something from me because at times I feel like I give and give until there's nothing more of me to give anyone...not even myself. But when I look at these sweet little faces, when I hear their voices saying "I love you", when I feel their arms around me and I know that even though they don't always listen and they may roll their eyes at me and mumble things under their breath, they love me....they really, truly love me. And they depend on me....for everything....I am taken back, and I am honored...and it is all worth it :)

Simple Stories Downloads

Here's a link to some cool and FREE downloads that coordinate with the Simple Stories stuff :)


http://simplestories.typepad.com/simple_stories/free-digital-elements.html

A layout and a lil' haul :)

I haven't posted pics of one of my shopping sprees in a good while, so I thought I'd post some today :)

The Simple Stories kits, my sis and I got at a place called Alamo Craft Co. My sis just kind of stumbled upon them as we were making our way out. They weren't marked, but we took them up front to see how much they were. We both had agreed that we would pay $14.99, but no more than that. Well, as it turns out...they were $6! And then one of the women up front told us that if we bought three kits that were priced at $6 or $8, we would get one FREE! She didn't need to tell us twice..lol! So we each grabbed one each of the Life Documented and Destinations. We paid $18 for FOUR kits which averaged about $4.50 each kit! That is a STEAL! Because when we got home, I Googled them and found they retail for $20.50 each! We totally scored!! Happy Dance!! :) I also picked up a couple of sheets of Fancy Pants Daily Grind (love that paper from that line) and some awesome LYB stamps that made me think of a Studio Calico one I had wanted, but didn't get :( And yesterday, hubs took me to our Super Joanns because I wanted to buy some yarn for my mom for Mother's Day because she is teaching herself to crochet. And of course, I picked up a few things for myself :) I had been eyeing these Fiskars stamp sets on their website and since they were 30% off, I grabbed 3 different ones. I also picked up this cute reusable tote. It is SO adorable...I just couldn't pass it up! I also picked up some paints in pretty, bright colors that I just LOVE to use on my pages. I want to try using paint on some of my pages. I also picked up two ink blender spongey thingies..lol Yes, that is what they are called...lol, but I forgot to include them in the pic. Oh, and the wood stamps are from the little shopping trip my sis and I took on Saturday. Mikey and I spent the night at her house on Friday and we did a tiny bit of scrapping...got one page done. Not the one I'm showing here..another that I need to put the finishing touches on. This one I did sometime last week and didn't post yet. Anyway, that's all for right now. OH, today was my first day back to the gym since....GOSH, I can't even remember when I went last. I know it was way before our wedding in September. Anyway, I did 30 minutes on the treadmill and 5 mins on the Elliptical. Not too bad, but I have to ease back into it. It wasn't as hard as I'd anticipated, but I need to work my way back up to at least an hour a day: around 45 mins on the treadmill and 15 or 20 mins on the Elliptical. That's what I was doing before, so that is my goal. I have been feeling really yucky about my body and really just needed to get off my lazy butt and get back to the gym...which is RIGHT across the street now...lol So, here's to getting back in shape :)

Strike while the iron is hot!

Gotta keep it going....blogging that is! I just finished working on a page and uploaded it to sb.com and thought I'd post it up here too while I was at it. That way I won't get behind in my blogging/posting LOs. I'm VERY excited about this LO because 1.) It was ALL ME :) no lifting of any kind...just picked some stuff and flew by the seat of my pants so to speak ;) 2.) I used a BUNCH of stamps which I never do. So using a whole bunch on this page definitely justifies buying all the stamps that I do! And 3.) I got creative! I've been DYING....I mean DYING for some Japanese masking tape/washi tape and I saw some that have a grid pattern on them that I just LOVE, but haven't gotten around to ordering them yet because it's kind of pricey. So I had the idea to just use regular masking tape and stamp on it with my grid stamp and voila....LOVE the way it turned out! So anyway, I'm just very excited about this page....gonna see if I can crank out another before the kids get home before I lose the mojo!

Kick in the pants....

I think that's what I need! lol I am just so lazy about blogging these days! And I do spend time on the computer...just not keeping up with my blog! Anyway, can't even remember what's been going on that I haven't talked about. We put Mikey in tball and he just loves it. It's a little unorganized and they haven't even had many practices, but Mikey just has a blast when he plays and goes to the games and really, that's all that matters to us! We have such a good time watching all the little kids run around without a clue! lol

A couple of weeks back, Mikey and I spent the night at Chon's and we had some scrappy time. I hadn't taken much with me as far as different paper choices and what not, so I didn't have alot to work with. I had bought a few things when we were out and about hitting up our usual shopping spots so I had some papers that I could work with for my "base" and I had taken my new Bo Bunny Ad Lib collection stuff, so I actually used that stuff for all three pages that I worked on. I've never done that before. Like only used one line to work on all my pages. I have to say that I liked it alot! I guess it's kind of like when people subscribe to kit clubs and then crank out a whole bunch of pages only using that kit. I wish I could say I used it all up (my Ad Lib stuff), but I didn't! But I used it so that's a good thing!

Not much else going on around here. Mikey is sick again...throat infection and he sounded horrible last night. He was doing that whole gasping for air thing he'd done before when his tonsils were really enlarged because of his allergies. We went back and forth from the bed to the recliner in the livingroom and back to the bed. Needless to say, I don't think I got much sleep last night. I don't know if he did because he didn't wake up any of the times I moved him, but I can't see how he did with all that snoring, gasping, ect... Day two of his anitbiotics today, so hopefully my baby will be back to feeling better soon.

Here are my pages....I did a couple more here at home after that night at Chon's, but I won't upload those here...you can check them out in my scrapbook.com gallery :)

I LOVE this dog....

Today was the first time giving Max a bath outside. I'd been bathing him in our walk in shower, but it's SO hard to get him inside. I literally have to carry him into the bathroom because he will NOT walk in on his own. He does good for baths once I have him in there. That wasn't always the case though. He used to try to get out by pushing on the shower door so it was kind of hard to bathe him with one hand while holding the shower door with the other. Over time, he got better about it....just sat while I washed him, even looked like he enjoyed getting all clean. It's just getting him in there now. He's a smart dog. He knows I'm about to give him a bath and NOTHING, not even a snack, a piece of ham...NOTHING will get him to come to the door. He'll make me chase him. I literally have to catch him first! lol And then after I bathe him in the shower, I have to go through the whole process of wiping down the bathroom of dog hair, washing/cleaning out the shower, then bathing myself because afterwards, I am ALWAYS full of dog hair! This was just much easier. We leashed him to the window guard on the house and Miguel and I tackled half of him each! lol Piece of cake! I was even able to cut some of the long hairs around his eyes because they are pretty long, get in his eyes, dirt hangs on to it, gets in his eyes, ect. but we could NOT trim the long hairs under his chin. He just WOULD. NOT. LET. US. And boy, did we try! I figured I'd just leave it than risk trying to cut it with him jumping around and possible poke or cut him with the scissors. I am always amazed at how clean and fluffy and gorgeous he looks after a bath. I was able to snap some pics of him right before I let him off his leash. Out of 30 pics, I was able to get this one really good one which is just my FAVE!! Just wanted to share :)