Cool For School!

My little man is doing great at school.

He is responding  well to the routines of the class room and loves his teachers.

He will randomly inform me Mrs. Bergeron is at home with her children.

I think one of most amusing things he does is ask his friends what they are doing throughout the day, after he has left school.

For example he just asked Conner what he was doing, and yesterday he informed Jacob that it was not play time it was home time.

I'm interested to meet these little guys on a field trip to the pumpkin patch next week!

And I'm excited to see him interact in a school setting.

I often watch from afar and I have a million things that go through my mind.

"Someone please grab his hand and guide him into the yard..."


"why is he not talking to the other children??"

" Is he happy?"

I'm sure most worry about their babes but I have to admit I am taking my time at letting go.

And of course taking the time to document the memories.

I did both of these this past weekend at my 12 hour crop  for Tina.

I love, love, love that shinny Imaginsce paper and the cork Alpha's from CTMH.

I have to admit I have other BTS layouts brewing in my head.....all in due time.

Happy Thursday my friends, I'm off to get kiddos a snack!

HB 2U

I mentioned earlier that I went to a 12 hour crop in support of children's cancers right?

Well, top of my priority list was to get this little guys 2nd birthday LO done.

(click to enlarge)

Pretty much everything is CTMH.  I have a serious love on for the tags and cork alphas.

And the journalling was lifted for this post.

Super simple, super fast.

Have a great day!

August project 12

Since I was so negligent in getting my July project 12 done on time, I figured I had better get this one posted in a jiffy since I had no reason to not get it done as I attended a 12 hour crop for children's cancer yesterday.  (that was a very large run on sentence...)

That's right, twelve hours, no kids, eight completed layouts and a self imposed no talking rule.

Okay, I might be  joking about the no talking...

I digress.....

August was allot of fun.

We went out on two big excursions, one to my aunts where the boys swam all day, and one to Sandbanks where you guessed it, the boys swam all day.

That much family time is good for the soul and now makes it harder  to convince M that going to the mall is an adventure.

All right then, on to Project 12.

The sketch:

I was all over this sketch since it used 4x6 photos, but after going through my pictures, I had too many that I wanted to use.

Luckily for me,  my local photo developer was having a sale on  6x8s (50 for 5 bucks!)   I made some collages and had them printed out and trimmed them down.    That's like 100 4x6s, or in my case more like 75 4 x6s and 50 2x3s for 5 buckaroos.  SCORE!

My take:

(Click to enlarge)

Originally when I laid out my pictures I had 6  smaller 2x3 but I removed them as it looked a little crowded so my sister and I did not make the final cut.  I do love these pictures of my Mom, My Boys, as well as my niece and nephews from our trip to the Sandbanks.

 I also made use of my Hometown Summer paper pack one more time.    That wavey paper....perfect!  And as per usual, my facebook updates made up a good portion of my journalling.  How else would I remember that I sliced off a good portion of my thumb in August.  FYI it's still not healed and it really should have been stitched.


So that my friends was my August.  I hope yours was as wonderful as ours.


Thanks for stopping by..I'll be back tomorrow with some more layouts to share from my 12 hour scrap marathon.

Staggered tears take two

And just like that Tuesday came and M was spending his first full morning at school.

On our first meeting last week we had some homework to do...Decorate a hat


















M decorated his with Stars and Thomas stickers that he picked out himself.

He was/is to wear this hat on his first two mornings of school.

We pumped it up so much that I didn't really worry about dropping him off.

I knew he wanted to be there.

He did great.

He stood on the yellow line and waited for "friends" to get off the bus.

He held hands with the girl in the leggings in the picture and his teacher while he waited.

That girl made my morning watching her with him.

He walked in turn towards the play area all the while holding her hand.

He watched in awe at all the children, school buses and parents.

At times I thought he looked like a deer caught in headlights.

But there was not a single tear from him.  Not that I expected any from him.

I, on the other hand was a flowing river from the time he lined up until I got in the car to go home.

They were tears of joy and pride.  Not tears of fear.

Okay maybe a little fear but seeing him take to the teacher  assured me that his morning would be filled with fun.

I spent the morning with his brother, enjoying one on one time.

And when the time came, I went to get him at school.

I watch from a distance him play in the yard, interacting with the children, running and jumping.

I could tell he had a good morning.

When he saw me he smiled and said he had a great time.

We talked with the teacher for a few minutes as I had to fill out some forms and she said he had fun and  played well with the other children.

She showed me his artwork, which I'm pretty excited to have him bring home.

He makes me proud that boy of mine. 

And when it was time to leave he wanted to get on the bus, but we will be tackling that adventure next Tuesday.

Baby steps for this Momma.

If at first you don't succeed...

I have a friend , whom I adore.

I don't see her often, in fact hardly at all.

We send messages through FB, follow each others pinboards, and send emails to stay connected.

But if we happen to be in the same city we try to see each other.

She has been my scrapbook  cheerleader and inspiration for well over 5 years now.

She said some things to me when I was just starting out that have stuck with me all this time.

1.  If you don't put yourself out there, you won't know what you can achieve.  Rejection sucks but it happens.
2.  Scrap what you love.

So I put myself out there recently and applied to the Bella Blvd Design team.

I decided to apply because it is one of the paper companies that I love.  In fact I had been hoarding some of their paper for well over a year.

When the call when up I went to my stash and thought, "well I certainly don't have to buy anything to try out for this call."

And in staying true to me I put together 4 layouts that have been on my mind for some time. I look at them and they make me smile.  I love the paper, I love the photo's but most importantly I love the stories.  Here they are:

Life lessons...Things I've learned along the way...the hard way.

Tactor-tractor, J having fun on his uncles tractor during our Vacation.  I love  how he pronounces tractor.

Little brother, Thoughts on J being a little brother.






















 Pumpkin pulling determination, Mr Independent pulling at least 40 pounds of pumpkin.

There you have it folks, me putting myself out there.  I didn't make the team but I'm okay with it.   Maybe it had something to do with my blurry photo's  HA!!!!

Thanks Lisa for your friendship and inspiration!!

Staggered tears

My Biggest is off to Junior Kindergarten this year.

 3 hours away from home each morning,  to meet new friends and learn new skills.

Here in Ontario, JK has a staggered entry.  On Tuesday we went to meet his teacher and his resource teacher, both lovely ladies.

And if i were not concentrating so hard at keeping my composure I'm sure I would have enjoyed the process for my little man more.

We have been playing up school all summer long.  I have talked about it since I registered him for Kindergarten last February, where I cried amidst all the little ones saying their morning prayer and signing our National Anthem.

We have taken him to the playground at the school during the month of August to acclimate him to the environment, where I may or may not have had tears of joy and pride in my eyes when we peaked into the classroom and guessed at which class might be his.

I called the school last Monday to confess my Mommy fail for not attending the School bus safety training with him.  I may have choked back some tears when I was expressing some of my concerns to the resource teacher, who kindly suggested that I bring him in 5 days earlier than scheduled just so he can check things out.

And upon meeting the teacher and resource teacher, there were some moments when I knew I had to stop talking just because the words were going to come out in a blubbery mess.  Said teacher patted my arm and said I would be fine.

I will be fine and I know he will be fine.

It's just that he is my first to go off to school and as his mom,  I reserve the right to worry and shed tears of joy and sadness.

I have my reasons, we all do.

So next Tuesday is a big day for him.

His first day in the class for the entire three hours, with a few little friends.  I'm excited for him for that day.

And the following Tuesday will be his first week at school with the entire class.

The day after, he takes the bus for the first time.

Dear Lord, Please help me really enjoy those moments and help me get past the anxiety of the bus because I have worked so hard at getting him excited for this.  And please forgive my selfish tears.

I know he will be great.

And if there are some bumps along the way?  Par for the course..

He's going to make history that kid of mine.  I just know it.

Nighty night.

Better late than never

So July ripped through my life like a hurricane, as did the deadline in August to get my layout done for project 12.

If you can believe it for the first time in 18 months I didn't get it in on time.  

I still really love this project, mostly because it is about life.

Those special random moments that happen as you are living.

I also love that it is a double page layout that I can almost always fit in pictures that otherwise may have not been scrapped.

I got my act together this weekend and whipped out my layout.

Here is a reminder of the sketch:

 And my take on it:

I have to admit that July didn’t seem to be my best month on record for a few reasons.  I was missing some family members and I was working ALLOT!  I tried to do fun things with the boys but truthfully we just spent time in the backyard.  Mom was at Sam’s for a good chunk of the month and I found myself exhausted trying to do everything myself.  I hit a stop with my weight loss journey and I tried daily to find the good in everything but I found this month more difficult to do so.  I snapped out of it near the end and July seemed to brighten and lighten up.  Here is what Facebook had to say:

July 1 at 12:41pm In light of the holiday, I am taking a break from counting calories and making a yummy dinner and dessert. Not sure what yet but I certainly have enough to choose from! Have a happy and safe holiday! ♥ 

July 2 at 8:41pm watching Michael dance as Daddy jams. The boy has MOVES ♥

July 2 at 9:55pm Bruce is watching his favorite movie. Groundhog Day. He is denying that it is his favorite, but not convincingly. ♥

July 6 at 10:50pm At the risk of sounding dorky, I really miss the John Tesh radio show on my drive home. ♥

July 7 at 2:34pm The great thing about having boys is that they can "go" anywhere. :) ♥

July 11 at 3:11am 3:30am and sleep is eluding me. No huge surprises there. ♥

July 11 at 7:21pm My eyes are burning. This Momma is off to bed with the kiddos tonight! ♥

July 13 at 7:36 Nothing like a major corporate visit to help in ones weight loss journey! Small scale victory this morning! ♥

July 14 at 9:43pm All hell broke lose at bedtime tonight....odd. ♥

July 16 at 7:51am I gave my child a Popsicle for breakfast. In my defense it was homemade and only had berries yogurt and orange juice in it. ♥

July 17 at 7:46pm Two things that made me smile today...donating too big clothes and The Bigs playing in the pool in our living room sans water. LIG.  ♥ 

July 18 at 2:45am Too many things keep me awake at night. ♥

July 18 at 6:44pm my back is just not what it used to be...I'm creaking like an old lady over here! ♥

July 18 at 8:36pm Two things that made me smile today; Jack calling "Mickhoool" to come downstairs and play and the boys hugging each other at bedtime. ♥

July 19 at 6:18pm Thinking about you lots Kulapate. RIP. ♥

July 23 at 9:14pm Carey Hart...Hot. Corey, not so much. ♥

July 24 at 5:20am Happy Birthday to the best mom ever!! You are loved. ♥

July 26 at 7:57pmNew favorite thing that J says: "G'night Mummy." So sweet. ♥

July 26 at 8:00pm what if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? ♥

July 29 at 6:58am The great thing about being a parent is that you get to be puked on in the middle of the night...repeatedly. ♥

July 29 at 7:16pm Just cleaned my desk. And by cleaned I really mean hid things in storage containers in no particular order. I will be kicking myself when I go to find things. ♥

July 30 at 7:55pm Raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways.  ♥

July 31 at 1:37pm Can we talk about my child that keeps throwing up in the night? ♥

 And that my friends was July.

 In other breaking news, my baby starts JK tomorrow.  

 I verklempt when I was checking his bus schedule and nearly stopped breathing. 

 Okay that may be a slight exaggeration but still....

 Happy Labor Day Friends.