So, obviously, I have too much time on my hands.

I have had fun taking tons of blog quizzes this evening. Click on one. Have some fun yourself. And when you submit one, the options change to even more and more quizzes. Cool.

Say hello to my layouts!

Unfortunately, also say goodbye to them. They are for the CKU-A She group circle journals, and they will go off in the mail shortly. I might make color copies for me, but otherwise, they are gone to new owners, each with a theme the owner selected. In return, I'll get 14 layout and tag sets for my circle journal, the theme of which is "Why I scrapbook." Kinda neat, huh?

Hello

Just thought it was time to update, but not much new to say. First, thank you for all the supportive comments about the girls and life in general for us right now. It means a lot! Secondly, we're rocking along without really any updates. Time is passing so quickly. Looking into the transition to teaching is a bit of work, and I did find out that in Illinois, the alternative route program isn't the same as most other states. I was told they don't have a teacher shortage. Sheesh! So we got a copy of the husband's transcript so we'll have one, and now to talk to Iowa. Pt work is going pretty well though. I was told that I'm probably the best instructor this particular Archivers has had. That's pretty cool! It's based on the class evaluations and comments made by attendees.

Turns out we're staying in town this weekend. With the holiday travel clog, gas prices really shooting up, and everything else, we're not going to make it to the cousin's wedding. Hate it. Hate to miss significant family events, but it cannot be helped. Hopefully, the time will be useful here for us to get some housework and cleaning and strategizing done.

I've done a lot of scrapbooking, but none for me! I'm really trying to finish circle journals for CKU groups. The Heidi Swapp group cj is one where we have all the themes and do all the layouts at once, then send them in to be swapped out. Not as much creativity involved as when you can see the cj and get inspired by it, but a good way to insure no one loses a cj or holds it up. So that's 14 2-page 8x8 lo's and matching tags due this weekend. I have 2 more sets to do.

That's about it...worked all this past weekend. Thursday night, Saturday night, Sunday all day, and last night (Tuesday). Glad to be off tonight. We took the girls over to the park a bit before dinner, and that was fun.

More later!

So it's been a while

Sometimes, I just don't have the energy to blog. No, not that I cannot muster up the energy to literally type, but there are times I just don't want to think. Or, more likely, that the things I would blog about are themselves tiring or emotional, and the act of writing about them is tiring and emotional, which is where the energy comes in. But, stiff upper lip and all that, right?

It's been a busy time around here, but also a weird, good, bad, who knows kinda time. Busy because we've been researching some career options and other things like working on the house (finally painted the kitchen wall where the fridge used to be - and the previous homeowners didn't paint behind the fridge..sheesh, cheapos!). Busy finding info we need on the internet and sending off a few forms. Busy cause payday always brings bill-paying and such. Busy with some scrapbooking, trying to get through a circle journal group with all 14 layouts done at one time (UGH). Busy with two 3 1/2 year olds who don't mind and don't listen and are little hellions every day.

Here's the thing. My children are bad. I mean, yeah, they are wonderful, cute, fun, surprising gifts from God, but they are also awful. They are the same age, at the same age of development. They do not have an older sibbling to influence them on better behavior. They gang up on us. We do not have a house that offers a lot of options either. We started using a corner in the hallway for time-out. Sit here, alone, with nothing to play with sort of thing. But putting them both in time-out is really really impossible. Basically, that's because I can't literally hold them both down at the same time as they fight being in time-out, of course. So we moved time-out to their room. One day I took them both up there, made them put all the toys in their toybox, then I shoved the toybox into the guest room. I went back in, told them they were in time-out and were staying in their room, then I put a toddler handle on the inside of their door and left. I so needed that break. I was literally in tears with them, praying to God for guidance.

Unfortunately, when in their room against their will, they will sit against the door and rock back and forth against it - HARD - and have done something to the door or doorknob or both. The husband discovered that this morning. So, for now, I don't have their room for time-out.

It's hard to describe it this way and make it sound as bad as it is when they are "being bad." That particular day, they were spitting. Spitting on the floor, on the dog, on the furniture. Then they were hitting me, throwing blocks and things at me, and so on. They don't listen when I say stop. They don't listen to warnings. I just don't know what to do with them when they get wound up like this. Like now. Since I started typing this entry, I've chased them upstairs twice, given 4 spankings, taken their tv show away, and had to put the dog out where he doesn't want to be so they will leave him alone.

I try for quiet time, since they don't nap. I try for time-out. I try ignoring some things so as not to give them a reaction. I try chasing them and spanking (not hurting, just "spanking"). I try all kinds of tactics. Nothing works. Today, it literally occurred to me to take the shirt off Maddie's back and throw it in the garbage because she loves her kitty shirt so much (I can't even get her to take it off for the laundry). I need to get their attention, and I don't know how.

What I do know is that I am worn very very thin. Either I never should have tried to be a mom, I just don't know how to do it, I"m not mean enough, I"m too mean, I'm too easy, I"m too strict, I don't know. What I do know is that this is so hard. Every single day I fight them. I love them more than life itself, but they are wearing thin on my nerves these days. Someone tell me that it gets better! I hear often from friends, well, he/she gets it from his/her older brother/sister, and such. Well, I don't have that to work with. These two fight so much, egg each other on, it's ridiculous. They really FIGHT, too. They pinch, bite, hit, kick, spit. It's awful, and I don't know how to stop it.

So why haven't I blogged in 2 weeks? Well, it takes forever sometimes when referreeing the above-mentioned stuff. Also, it's hard. It's hard to talk about this stuff and not dredge the tears back up.

Fun things - had a great dinner with friends the other night. The downside (well, other than that the dinner made me really really sick) is that the dinner was a going-away dinner for Tina. I hate that Tina is moving. HATE IT!!!! You don't make a really good connection often, and I feel like I have that with Tina. We became pretty good friends pretty fast, and I think that is because we have a lot in common. Sometimes you think you are friends with people, then they turn out to be totally not who they purport to be or even who THEY think they are.....don't you wish sometimes those people could see how full of shit they are? Anyway, back to Tina. Love Tina. My girls love Tina. My dh even loves Tina. And now Tina is leaving. Contact will remain, but it won't be the same. No last-minute calls to get together. No play dates. No MNO. I guess we'll just have to see what's what as time goes. Bye, Tina.

Serious things - been doing lots of talking with the husband about our future. Since the job has turned out to be something that sucks for lots of reasons, definitely not what we planned for when moving here all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in August 2004, we're considering other options. The husband has near-complete academic credentials for teaching, and the notion of falling back on that is looking really good to us. Considering possible relocation to Illinois where the family lives. I'd love for the girls to have more time with their Opa and Oma, as well as their cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody. Wouldn't hurt us either. Sis in law's visit really meant so much to the girls and to us. Would love to be able to do that more. The Champaign area is pretty nice, a good size, and probably good-living and home prices for us, too. We requested transcripts and have other calls being made and forms printed out. I've talked to the State Department of Education in Illinois, but have also printed out the Iowa info. Good thing I worked for the Dept of Ed for 10 years back home! I know my way around this stuff. The husband is only lacking student teaching, and early word is that it might be possible for him to get that WHILE teaching with a regular certificate. We'll see! As we've talked about this and all, I see that he definitely has a spark for teaching; he loves kids of all ages; he's just enough of a goof to be a good teacher, too. You need to not take yourself too seriously in order to relate well to the kids, I've found. Of course, figuring out how to live with that kinda pay cut? YIPES, not sure. Parttime work in our future, for a while anyway!

What else? Well, hell. That's enough for now. OH, Tori! I haven't done much emailing either, but love ya, girlie, and miss you!!!!!!

Busy week

It's been a busy week for us round the ol' R-ranch here. Last weekend, we were thrilled to have Tori come to stay with us Friday through Sunday evening. I had to work some, but because the store wasn't busy, I got off a bit early both times to spend with the family. We had fun at Fudruckers on Saturday afternoon, then the husband worked for a couple of hours Saturday evening, but Sunday we just hung around and visited, dug through my scrapbook stuff, and had fun. The girls didn't want Aunt Tori to leave, and Maddie at first refused to say goodbye. Precious girls love their Aunt Tori! I took not a single photo. Bad scrapbooker, bad!

I taught a class at A's on Tuesday, worked last night, and been cleaning up some here. Slowly but surely. Hopefully more tomorrow when I'm not working or husband isn't. Gotta come up with a "reward" chart for the girls this weekend. They have developed a bad habit of not taking the time to go potty, and I am tired of wet panties! Being harsh about it hasn't worked. So, in addition to telling them to go more often (instead of asking if they need to), I bought some clearance ladybug stickers at the store, and am going to try getting them to "earn" them with dry panties for a day, etc. We'll see!

Found out that our friends are moving away. Sad for me, and it's gonna be tough getting the girls to understand, but Aunt Tori's visit helped them realize there are other people in their lives than those here, so that's a good thing.

Husband grilled last night while I was at work, and I can't wait to have it for dinner tonight. When we're busy working and running around, it's hard to have a good dinner often. Hoping to scrapbook some this weekend, too, but we'll see how much else gets done first. Guess I better get to it!

What the hell....

It's time for a new post! Not too much to add except that I've been scrappin'!! Really, it's that the girls want to go to the playroom in the basement every day after lunch, and I can scrapbook while they play. They also like to work with me, so their Little Tikes table and chairs is also in my scrap room so they can color or stamp. I have to watch them like a hawk though, or they slip away with crayons and color walls. Yeah. We've got some WD-40 in our future to clean up those walls we had recently painted!

But scrapbooking ~ ahhh, that's the life. Sweep floors? vacuum? change beds? Nah. That's no fun. Finally completing 6 more pages in a mini About Me book I started last fall? Priceless! Just 5 more topics to cover. It's from an article in a Simple Scrapbooks magazine from last summer. The layout in the entry below is for it as well. I've also done a couple of pages in my Heidi Swapp 'She' album, thanks to an impromptu visit to Tina and Scott's on Monday for helping them out and Memorial day fun. The husbands painted and we scrapbooked and cooked and such. Pretty fun for all. Kids got to play on a big, borrowed water slide. The girls did great, though at first the big plunging slide was a shock to them!
Also did this layout for a post-CKU-A She group circle journal. The topic was "Heisms," words and phrases about your dh or sig other. I had fun with the handwriting, but it took forever!

That's about it really. Oh, got a fun new round, drop-leaf table to scrap on. The handy-dandy husband saw some people down the street putting it on the curb with a "free" sign, and he stopped to talk to them. Cute round traditional table to dress up the scrap space a little. How cool is that?

Ok, I've got to get lunch for the hellions. They have been so BAD today! They have gotten this notion the past week that their stuffed lab puppy needs, of all things, a BATH!!! So they take their little teacups and fill them with water in the bathroom and bring them to their puppy to bathe. UGH. Then, they seem to be fond of saying "no" to us, so that's not good. But, after lunch, they will want to go to the playroom (having already lost tv privileges up here in the family room - HELLOOOOO HGTV!!), and I have a better chance of good behavior. We'll see though. They are cut off from treats today, too, and that will get old with them, then the whining starts. Ahhhh, parenthood. I read in someone's message board siggy that "raising children is like being pecked to death by a duck." So true that one.

Lime Fizz

Quick post here to show off this little layout. It's in the BOM I started back, oh.....last fall? I found an article in Simple Scrapbooks magazine about doing an "about me" layout or book, and I thought it would be fun. Basically, there are questions to answer such as name, age right now, age I feel I am inside, last cd I bought, what I'm wearing right now, etc. This little layout is the "what I'm wearing right now" page I did last night. What I'm showing off (here ya go, Kathy!) is the LIME FIZZ Ranger Ink I used with my cool new Heidi Swapp acrylic stamp. I'm LOVIN this scented ink! We got an ink pad in our CKU goodie bags, and I'm sooo thankful mine is lime, though I want to buy the entire stinkin' line of em! The photo looks a little fuzzy here, but it's clear IRL. OF course, the ink is stamped on pink, so I"m sure that makes it a tad darker than it really is. Flower cut from GIN X super-cute paper.

Another day

I really meant to update the ol' blog yesterday, but didn't get around to it. It was kind of a pretty day, warm, threatening rain last night, but all in all bright and pretty. We grilled dinner out on the back deck while the girls played outside. Haven't done that in a while. I made a pasta salad, which isn't earth-shattering, but not something we have made much if at all. So dinner was pretty good. Talked to my friend Dawn, and that was nice. I really miss her and she misses me, too. There's nothing like having history with a friend, and friends are so hard to make in the first place. Going on two years here in Iowa, and I'm still not sure about it. The husband is even less sure than I am, but it's harder for men to make friends, I think. His office certainly isn't a place for that.

I think when we moved here, we looked for this neighborhood because we like neighborhoods like this and knew what we'd get here. I wonder now if we shouldn't have looked for something with more children, with homeowners more our ages. Our next door neighbor to one side and two houses down on the other both have children, but they are a little older than ours. I think sporatically there are children, but there's not anyone for the girls to really play with. The little girl next door is 6, and she'd play with Emi and Maddie, but that's not really equal for any of them. Oh well. Someday, I hope. The girls start preschool in the fall, two afternoons a week. Hopefully, that will produce the kind of interaction I want for them.

I so want to work around the house today, and I soooo don't feel like it. Everything needs to be cleaned, top to bottom. Cleaned, beds changed, things put away, dust bunnies captured, it all needs to be done. I'm so jealous of people who can keep things neat and clean. Maybe if every single thing with the girls wasn't so hard, doing housework would be easier. I dunno. From what I hear and read, it's not easy for anyone. I guess it just has to be more important to me than I seem to make it. Every day, we do our morning things, work towards lunch, have lunch, then the girls want to go to the playroom downstairs. I can do laundry down there, but then I work in my scrapbook room while they play. This week, the girls have been stamping and coloring at their little table in my scrapbook room. Yesterday, they got unruly with their stamps and I took them away. But, I came up with another activity. We made paper bag puppets! They seemed to like the making, but didn't so much get into the puppets. I mean, they liked them, and loved showing them off to daddy, but that was that. lol They do like puppets and have these great farm animal puppets they love to play with. They do love crafts though. I've still got some things up my sleeve for them. Maybe if we go down there today, they can make cardstock purses I cut from a Wishblade file. I got some of those foam shape stickers that are Dora theme. They will make a cute purse, huh?

Alright, alright. I've been tagged by Miss Tina. Well, not only have I been tagged by Miss Tina, I've been emailed by Miss Tina that I have been tagged and to get to it! So here ya go:

5 Things in my fridge:
~Milk, always milk for the girls, always
~Cheese - lots of shredded and string cheese for the girls
~Baby carrots - girls prefer these to chips, for gosh sakes!
~Salsa - yeah, we got that right now
~Coffeemate Caramel Vanilla - yum!

In my closet:
~Lots of shoes
~Toys we haven't given the girls yet (not ready for, bought after-season on clearance for next year, etc)
~Lots of purses I don't use anymore
~Little girl clothes bought after season last year that are for this year, but haven't worn yet
~Husband clothes

In my purse:
~Wallet
~Boxes of raisins (girls' snack)
~Sweetwater flash card mini scrapbook cards pack with girls 2005 Easter pics
~spare blush & powder
~spare sunglasses

In my car:
~Several music cds I rarely listen to
~Little girl toys and books
~A partial case of bottled water bottles
~Two car seats
~Fun canvas bag with clean little girl clothes, just in case.

On my Tivo:
Ok, I don't have a Tivo.....in my DVD player, which holds 7 discs:
~Monsters, Inc.
~Grey's Anatomy Season 1, disk 2
~Pirate Adventure Dora
~Ice Age
~Dancing Dora Adventure

Ok, so since Miss Tina tagged some of my faves, I now tag Tori, Julie, and you!

Just a few photos

I'm kinda tired today - stayed up last night watching six episodes of Grey's Anatomy from the first season DVD (a Mom's day gift!). I L - O - V - E that show! Of course, watching on DVD is compulsive - no commercials...one show right into the next. How cool is that when watching your fave show?

So, considering the afore-mentioned state, I'll just add some photos. We had a busy weekend, some working, some visiting friends, some hanging out. As usual, I need to clean house. Making progress in basement, but it's a work in progress for sure. I wanna paint the kitchen and get new cabinet handles. That's not news, well, maybe news here, but not in general. I think it's time.


Ok, to the photos. One of my lil' scrapbookers, especially Emily in the foreground looking all teenagery. Tina and Scott gave the girls each a fun Purse scrapbook kit at Chuck E Cheese's last week when we met them for Scottie's birthday. So the girls and I scrapbooked together. I had several photos saved up that didn't work for me when I needed those images, then I printed a couple of extras, and the girls each had a photo for each page of their scrapbooks. Add some purse stickers, some Dora stickers, and some purple patterned paper punches, and voila, scrapbooks.

I love this photo of Maddie. Both girls have gotten into the habit of wanting their photo taken when they see me with the camera. "Take a picture of ME, Mommy!" So, yesterday, I snapped this photo of Miss Madeline.

A layout I did yesterday about my Ali class at Reminisce. I think I like it. At first, I thought it was too busy when it was all said and done, but going back to it today, I think I pretty much like it.

Six Weird Things

For some reason, my friend Shannon decided this is her blog tag today. Six weird things about you. What the?? Let's see if I can come up with just six weird things about me......

1. I always make sure the car radio volume control is on an even number (22 or 24, never 23, etc.)
2. I hate having food on my hands.
3. I don't really like french fries all that much.
4. I really like vacuuming....once I start, I can go awhile!
5. I have terrible luck at games of chance...not sure if that's weird or not.
6. I don't like lettuce. I eat it (salads), but I don't like it.

Now, you.....Tori? Cricket? Tina and Shannon and Jinx? How weird are you?? :)

Been so busy...worked all weekend. Had a few hours for National Scrapbooking Day online cropping on Friday. That was fun. Did at least one great project and some other fun ones. Worked on Mom's day cards that I mailed too early, and finishing a gift today. Plus did some crafts with the girls that they can send as well for Mom's day to their Oma. Managed yesterday to eek out one layout I'm not sure I love. We did some pretty good clean up in some parts of the house, so that's good. Tonight we're off to Chuck E Cheese with Miss Tina (my girls just love Nina!).

Guess I should get the day started, huh? Photos are the layout I did yesterday, badly cropped and with a bad shadow - sorry, and frame I made during online crop Friday. I like it!

Tagged!

Tagged again! This time by mom's buddy Shannon. Cool idea, girlie. I'm just not too quick on the uptake, since this tag was last week. But, here I go.....

All That History

20 years ago (1986): I was in the middle of my graduate school years, and I thought I was all that. I was teaching freshman English composition, I was the best student I had ever been (4.0 first semester!), I had great friends, and things were cool.

10 years ago (1996): Life was 'eh.' I was working for the Department of Education in the Office of Special Education. I knew my job well and enjoyed doing it, needed more pay and less spending, per usual, lol. I think this was the year (in February) that my friend and I bought a big ol' charming house together. Loved the house, love the friend, but boy what a lot of work.

5 years ago (2001): Newly married and loving it. This was something that for a lot of years of my life, I never thought would happen. Working, living in an apartment (definitely 'eh' but good as far as apts go!), being happy.

1 year ago (2005): We had just moved to Iowa the previous August, so we were doey eyed about being here in our new house and such. Dh's job still going ok at the time, but signs were there that his boss was not making things easy for us. I had just been to CKU in Minneapolis and loved that, made and still have a couple of close friends though that experience.

1 month ago (2006): These days are full of stress dealing with dh's job and boss. I go in and out of "like" of my parttime job at Archivers. The girls are growing and saying new things everyday that surprise and amuse us. Easter was low-key but fun.

Today: Lots to do. Working on the job defense paperwork, cleaning, hoping to scrapbook a little bit, hoping to clean through some of the toys, too! There's just too much little stuff that gets everywhere!! Enjoying having finally hung a new curtain rod in the family room to replace the one the girls bent (by pulling on the curtains). Oh, need to do laundry, especially towels!

Tomorrow: More on the husband's job front, need to list some things piled for ebay, trying to declutter the house and hoping the ebaying and cleaning will help that. Idol on tv!

Tagging: Shannon already got Tina; I'll tag Tori, Kara, Dalis, Sarah :)

Elsie, Elsie, Elsie

Gee, I've used that title before.......here are the stamps designed by Elsie Flannigan. Cute, huh? Very Elsie-fied. Why aren't they acrylic?? Why are they red rubber unmounted?? Why oh why??

A great day

We had a great day yesterday, Easter day. Actually, the entire weekend went pretty well. The husband was home early on Friday, so we took the girls to McPlayland for fries, and we had McFish. They had a lot of fun, then we moved on to Target for basics for the weekend - milk and coffee! Saturday was a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was quick, but fun. The girls were cute and loved their basket booty. Sunday brought Easter, making cookies, and a nice dinner. The girls helped frost cookies - first time for that, and we all had fun. I didn't get to scrapbook at all, which I had planned, but the day was full of family fun and togetherness, so how cool is that?

Today, cool mail day! I received the Homegrown Scrapbooks Hybrid kit, which has the new SEI Paisleys and Petals line, some Maya Road chipboard set and book, ribbons and more. Also got the new CK and new Scrapbooks Etc magazines. Then, I received the Fontwerks Elsie stamps I ordered. Big disappointment there. They are red rubber stamps on a sheet to be cut out, not acrylic see-through stamps. UGH. Not sure what to do. Might sell on ebay if I can't return. Might use now that they are here. Still thinking on it. They are cute though. A bit smaller per letter than expected, too.

Cards

Just a quick post of some Easter cards I made. Kinda liked the dry embossing; haven't done it in ages! Like the puffy tails? ;)

More Ali

Here's the cover and an inside look at the "Favorite Photos" book I made with Ali Edwards on Saturday. Had tons of fun, and loved coming home with a completed book. I finished up the journaling at home, but it's done now. So fun!

Betcha Didn't Know

This is the topic of my on-again/off-again Monday blog challenge. Yeah, it's Tuesday, but, as Ali would say, it's o-----kkkk.

10 Random Facts I Betcha Didn't Know About Me!

1. I love, love coffee; developed the habit in grad school.
2. I had eye surgery when I was four, weak muscle or something.
3. I hate cleaning the tub.
4. I love Frosted Mini Wheats anytime.
5. I used to hate my middle name, but now I think it's ok.
6. I wish my house were less cluttered.
7. I cry way too easily.
8. I work parttime, but I hate it.
9. I love our house.
10. I have the brownest thumb known to man.

Good times, Good times....

I will post more later about the fun class with Ali E and Tina this past Saturday. For now, here's us! Sarah, Me, Tina and Ali. :) The class I took was "Favorite Photos," a fun 10"x5" chipboard book with 5x7" photos. Tina took this one and another as well. Lucky girl!

TGIF!

The husband is on the way home. Earlier than expected, so very cool! Also cool, cause the bathtub is stopped up. Curse of an older house. Love the charm, hate the infrastructure. Tomorrow brings a road trip for me again, quick one this time. I'm going with Miss Tina to take an Ali class at Reminisce. Well, I'm meeting Miss Tina over there. She's taking the morning class and we're both taking the evening class. Should be cool. Would be more cool if I had pictures ready! I need 5-6 5x7" photos, which means I can't just print them downstairs. I may have to print my 4x6" though and just see if I can get the enlargements at A's when I go back to work. Hate to pay full price elsewhere, but might have to for Ali. Sheesh.

House-cleaning today. Trying to do things that don't normally get done. That bag of stuff from the kitchen junk drawer in the Mississippi house that's been sitting on the bookshelf in the living room for-EVER? GONE!!!! All contents put away, thrown away, filed away. I'm giddy over just that if nothing else. Sad, I know.

I'm on a roll

With posts, that is. Here's a quick lo I did yesterday. Scrapworks papers and stickers I got on clearance, HS chipboard flowers, white Uniball pen - yeah, just starting to doodle on lo's...not sure if I"m doing it well though.
Not sure about the handwriting here either. Might cover it with patterned paper and rewrite. What do you think?

Couple more....

Me and sis-in-law who I was so glad got to share some of the Saturday eve CKU excitement. Also, me, my cow poster, and prize bag. I won for best use of location theme. Ol' Daisy there had here own CKU badge and scrapbook full of Chicago history. :) Next pic of me, Debbie S, who is Tina's cousin, and Tina. Finally, 1/2 of the Heidi kit. Cool beans.