We interupt this silence...

To let you know that I am un-inspired as of late.

The place where you find fabulous for less has been busy,

What with all the people who prefer to throw things on the floor first and then buy said things.

Lots of overtime this time of year.

Lots of coming home for dinner,

giving the kids their baths, stories, puzzles.

Tucking them into to bed and heading back into work.

I have some favorite pictures sitting on my desk but I can't seem to muster any energy to get them scrapped.

I am itching to get out to my LSS and look at new goodies.

I hardly have any pictures taken for August project 12.

I am craving some time with my guy.

I really want to go for a nice long walk through the bike paths with my kids.

I would love a nice long, quiet bubbly soak in my tub.

Calmer days are ahead, I can feel it.

Just need to get through these next 9 day.

Night Night.

Lookey what I did in 7 hours....

I spent Sunday with my Sister and her CTMH friends scrapping.  I had so much fun.  Seriously!  I never, ever on my days off go out by myself for more than an hour or so, so this was a big treat.  We ate good food, talked, laughed, ate some more.  Best.  Day.  Ever. 

Okay so maybe not THE best day ever but good for my soul and a good reward for completing Project Big Boy Phase Three.

It's official, he is potty trained.  So proud of him, and he is so proud of himself.  We are on day three accident free!  Yay for cutting my diaper bill in half!

Off to bed.  Someone is teething again.  Worst. Teether.  Ever.

I may need a scrap day again soon.  ;)

Nighty Night.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Okay so there is only one bag,

But it is filled to the brim.

I'm spending the day tomorrow with some fun ladies doing a little of this:

(you can see my inspiration here.)

7 hours of uninterupted creativity...

WOW, I have never done it before.

It, being scrap for 7 hours.  ;)

Night Night.

Some childrens parents...

Let me start off by saying I am not trying to stir the pot, only trying to put my feelings out there into cyber-land.

If you read yesterdays post you may know that M and I got off to a bad start, which resulted in some discipline on our street.

I was not proud of the swat on the bum, especially when you are trying to teach a young person to be kind to others.

Yesterday though I felt like I had explored all my options in the 10 minutes that we were engaged in a battle of the wills.

Here is the thing;

I'm not afraid to discipline my child, in public or otherwise.

I was disciplined as a child, and I won't go into the details of my Fathers military like discipline measures, but suffice to say that they were somewhat cruel and unusual.

I will never, ever while I am on the face of this earth do anything that extreme to my child.

But a swat on a bum?

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.
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The reason that I bring this up is this;

Today while playing at the local water park, in all of five minutes I was annoyed  by the behavior of some of the kids that should know better, and more so of the adults who blatantly stood by and watched their children push and shove their way through the water.

The kid that tried to push my 14 month old and looked up at me to see if I was watching?

I wanted to do more than spank his bum.

His mother that stood there and watched him do it?

Well I wanted to do a little more than that.

After 4 issues with pushing, shoving, hitting in 20 minutes I hightailed it out of there.

Am I being to harsh?  Overprotective of my kids?

Maybe.

But here is a thought.

Why is it that there are so many insolent little kids/teenagers and young adults out there today?

Why are they so mean?  Rude?  Ignorant?

Is it because their parent didn't show them the way and discipline them when necessary?

Did they give them the toy they wanted in order to squash the temper tantrum?

Did they feel that their parents were so strict and harsh in their punishments that they vowed never to be like them and as a result are raising bullies?

BLAH!!!!

Heavy topic for tonight.

One that I am not necessarily looking for answers on.

Because I know we are not all perfect and that is what makes this great big world of ours spin.

I just wanted to vent.

Nighty Night.

Project 12, Project Big Boy, and Project Bad Mommy

Lets start with Project Bad Mommy.

A certain three year old who was overtired from yesterday, indecisive, and stubborn wanted to go for a walk this morning.

It ended very badly, with my face being clawed, a spank on the bottom in the middle of our street, ALOT of screaming (some from me, some from him), some kicking, almost making a connection with my face and neighbours putting their heads down and walking quickly into their homes.  (okay there was only one neighbour and I think he was in the house before all the action started)

I will say that my voice didn't raise until I was in the privacy of my own home, but it still was not one of my finer moments.

I do not enjoy losing my temper. 

I do not enjoy not feeling in control.

But reality is that it isn't always sunshine and lollipops right?

He promptly took a three hour long nap and woke up a different child, dancing singing, kissing, hugging.

Those are the moments I am going to remember I hope, not the tantrums.

On to Project Big Boy Phase Three.

He is doing great.

We had five warbrobe changes yesterday and only two today.

He even woke dry from his three hour nap.

YIPPEE for him!!!

And now Project 12.

I really enjoyed this months sketch:

I loved the photo collage, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to reproduce it exactly because I get my photos printed at Blacks or Costco and they don't have alot of size options.

So I did the next best thing.  I created a collage in Picassa and played with the number of pictures that I wanted to include and sized it to an 8x10 picture.  I was really happy with how it actually turned out when I went to pick it up.  The picture of  it on the layout doesn't do it justice.

I also palyed with the colors of the prints, some sepia, some black and white and left the majority in color.   I think it looks pretty cool.

And here it is...

Simple but I love it.

Love the big picture of my Mom with the boys.

Love that it includes B.

Love that I am making sure I am including myself and ignoring the fact that I wore the same tshirt in two of the pictures, that my hair is always in a pony on my days off and that there isn't a stich of make-up on my face.  No one that I make these pages for really cares about that so I shouldn't either right?

Love that we got to do alot of fun things this month and that this project helps me remember it all, because honestly I am not sure I would have documented all these little moments if not for it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramble.

x/o

J

Blue

A little under a year ago I did this layout:

It was meant to document J's blue eyes and how we *thought* he might keep them.

It was kind of made as a joke.

You see with  every grandchild that is born, my Mother will exclaim that she thinks their eyes are going to be blue.

Apparently even when they are already brown. :)

I had a feeling that J's eyes were going to stay blue but for good measure I added a little "to be continued" clause down in the bottom left hand corner.

I had all but forgotten about it untill last week.

It put a smile on my face and I set to work completing the sequel if you will.

I scraplifted this layout from one of my favorite scrapbookers.

You can see her original here.

Cute right?

Off to put M to bed and to get a head start myself.

Tomorrow is a big day.

*I* am determined to potty train someone.

Wish me luck.