I'm finally back

Wow! What a time we've had! So much has gone on in the last month, that I don't know if I'm coming or going. It all started with the school nurse calling me on Aug. 30 saying Shane was running a low grade fever, walking funny, and holding his side. Since he can't tell us what and where he is hurting, and afraid that it could be his appendix, I took him to the dr. He sent us straight to the er - thinking, like us I'm sure, that it was his appendix. After x ray's, blood tests, urine tests, every kind of test you can think of, an i.v., (I have no idea how Shane dealt with all of this so well and didn't fight us at all.) and 4 plus hours in the er, we found out it was strep throat. That was the only test that came back positive. So after a shot of penicillin we were on our way. It took like 3 days for Shane to get back to walking normal and not like he was hurting every step of the way. Never in the last 20 years of raising my kids have any of them had strep throat where it caused pain like this. The dr. and others I have talked to assures me it can happen.

So we get over that and the car quit us for like the 6th time in the last 2 months - with the same thing wrong that was supposed to have gotten fixed. We still don't know what is wrong with it. When it runs it runs like a dream, but you'll just be going down the road and it will die with no warning and won't start again. After dealing with that headache since June we finally went and got a new car. I hate having another payment, but there was just no other way. On top of all this going on, Scott got a call from Kraft for a job. Yay! More money and better benefits - you can't beat that. It took over 3 weeks from the time he had the interview until they finally called and told him when to be there. We were starting to wonder what was going on. But they did call, he has been to orientation since Monday and will start the new job next Monday. All we know is that he will be working days - just not sure yet what days. He's excited about the change and so am I. I'm just hoping now that things will start to settle down!

Week 23/ 52 week challenge

Okay, so I'm really skipping around in my 52 week challenge - definitely not doing it in any order at all. I have all of my pictures set aside for each week, so I just scrap what I feel like scrappin' at the time. It's just for me so it doesn't matter if I do it in order, right??!

I did this layout for one of the color challenges over at SAS. The challenge was to use red, blue, and yellow as the main colors on a layout. I bought this patterned paper at Michaels a while back and thought they would work perfect for this challenge. I used a sketch from The Scrappiest blog (I can't remember which one right now) and just some good old cardstock. I love these pictures of the boys getting along so well together. It's not too often that I walk in to them being so nice to each other. It's no secret that Shane likes to take his frustrations out on Matthew. It feels like I am constantly telling Shane to keep his hands to himself, or telling Matthew to quit pestering Shane. But every once in a while I see them like this. These are the moments I want to remember!

Week 11 of my 52 week challenge and...

one of the layouts I made for a challenge over at SAS's birthday crop last month. The challenge was we had to pick items we would bring to the party. The items represented a scrapbook item - but you didn't know what it was until after you picked it. I chose -for the theme to be a jungle theme -party decorations -making banners - games - scavenger hunt - supplies - napkins - cake - ice cream cake and a mandatory item . For the jungle theme - I had to use green as the main color of my layout, party decorations - I had to use computer journaling, game - I had to use 2 pictures, napkins - I had to use a square on my layout, and the ice cream cake - I had to use some bling. The mandatory item meant you had to use 1 item on the layout 5 times, which was my shamrocks. Since I used the pictures I had for my week 11 challenge, I was able to do double duty with this one!

No caffeine + the mention of school = a bad day!

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that Shane is addicted to soda. If Shane had his way he would drink soda from the time he gets up of a morning until he goes to bed at night.And he wants the real stuff! No diet or caffeine free for this guy. We have tried really hard this summer to cut back on his soda intake. His dentist has told us that he has a bit of acid reflux - (Yikes!) and he got to where he was belching and sounding like he was going to throw up in the process (I'm sure thanks to the acid reflux) so our mission this summer has been to cut down to only one a day and eventually none. Abby has done really well with flat out telling him no. And he has gotten to where he will ask for milk or water (that's definitely the last resort for him!) instead of soda. Well let me tell you, we found out late Sunday morning just how cranky this guy can be when he's not had his soda and you mention - heaven forbid - the word school. I have never seen such a sight! We gave him a little bit of soda, he headed to his room and came out a completely different, happy boy. It's always an adventure with Shane!

Scott's Birthday and the fair

We decided for Scott's birthday we would once again go to the Ozark Empire Fair. We went last year and had such a good time and we decided that may just become a tradition. Since Scott has been working so much overtime and finally had a Saturday off, we thought it would be a great time for a little getaway. Friday when he got home from work we packed up and headed to Springfield. We decided to stay in the night in Springfield since we wanted to do a little shopping and knew we wouldn't have time to get it all in in a night. We found a hotel, went out to eat, then headed over to the fairgrounds. It was the first night of the fair and it really wasn't as busy as what we expected. We headed right for the roller coaster - one of Shane's favorites - and the fun started. We all rode the roller coaster and the ferris wheel, but when it came to the spinning rides, Shawn and I had to opt out. This was the first year Shane rode on the Tilt-a-Whirl - he loved it -and he tried out the Himalayan - he liked this one at first, but as the ride got faster and kept going and going...well lets just say he won't be riding that one again! I think we were lucky he didn't throw up after (or during) that one! It was a very fun night and I hope we get to do it again next year.

After the fair we went back to the hotel and crashed. The room was a little hot and stuffy when we first got there, so we turned the air on full blast and went to bed. By morning we were all freezing! We all got tickled when Shawn said he thought he could shoot ice cubes out of his toes -that's how cold it felt in there! While I was getting ready, Scott and the kids headed out to the pool for a quick swim. After that it was off to breakfast and a day of shopping. Scott says it was the best birthday that he's had in awhile. I know we all had a lot of fun, made a lot of memories, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

5th Birthday crop at...

Scrap Attack Scrapbooking! It all starts Aug. 13 and goes through the 15th. I am sure it will be a weekend filled with great challenges and a lot of inspiration! Here's how you get there:http://www.scrapattackscrapbooking.com/messageboard.

ABC's of Summer Crop at MSW

Woohoo! Just what I need on these hot summer days! Starting August 1, My Sketch World is having their 2nd annual - ABC's of summer -month long crop. New challenges will be posted every day alternating between layout and cards, with a couple of catch up days thrown in. Here's where you can find out all the information.

http://www.mysketchworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=6098

Another Christmas layout

Here is another Christmas layout I made for the Christmas in July crop over at AWDML's design team blog. The challenge for this layout was to use the sketch provided by Lucy Chesna and it needed to be about a Christmas memory. Since Shawn proposing to Abby on Christmas morning this last Christmas morning was still somewhat fresh in the old memory bank, I decided to make a layout about it. I have had a lot of fun this last week going back and doing Christmas layouts. They have all been from this past Christmas and I'm glad to finally be getting them done!

I used MME - The Merry Days of Christmas papers and some brads from The Paper Studio.

It's Christmas in July

It's Christmas in July over at AWDML's design team blog. They had a crop going on July 12 - 16, with some really great challenges posted each day. They extended the deadline to get the challenges done to July 26, and I thought what better time to get some Christmas layouts done. This layout is for the first challenge - to make a layout about a holiday tradition. One of my favorite traditions is decorating the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Now that the kids are older, they do all the decorating themselves. I love being able to just sit back and watch them create a masterpiece. This past Christmas Shawn even came over and helped decorate. It makes me so happy to see the kids having fun.

For this layout I used MME Be Merry christmas papers, some Doodlebug alphabets, and the apron lace border punch and it is based on a sketch by Allison Davis.

Two of a kind

This was one of those happy surprises when I got my pictures back from going camping. I had taken this picture from quite a distance away of Scott and Shane as they were walking back to the playground from the bathroom. At the time I had no idea of what I had captured. Everybody keeps telling us that Shane looks more and more like his Daddy . This picture just proves that point. Here they are in the same color swim trunks, both in their sandals, both in step with each other, arms hanging down just alike, heads down as they walk along...Shane just looks like a mini version of his Daddy!

This layout was based on a sketch, thanks to Giselle, over at Papermice. I used American Crafts and Fancy Pants patterned paper, thickers and Doodlebug letters, buttons and brads from Making Memories.