i worked on this layout last night. funny thing is that most of this stuff was lying around on my scrap table and i just started putting it all together. i have to admit i don't scrap tons of pics of me. usually i am the one behind the camera. then i thought it's a little vain to scrap yourself. then i thought that one day i won't be here on this earth and wouldn't my kids love to look through the albums and remember what their mom looked like. or even my future (better be sooner than later!) grandkids who want to know what grandma looked like before it all went south. so instead of feeling vain or stupid i really just had fun with this layout. i used some more stuff from gloria's scrap gift, chatterbox, 7gypsies, k&co chipboard, stamps, random letters, etc. i almost didn't put the little "confidence is beautiful" label on there but you know what--at 44 years of age if you can't feel confident or beautiful you never will. glad to enjoy the stage of life i am in right now. i like it. that saying about older and wiser? it's so right on...L

finished this layout today. this picture of haley at school almost didn't get scrapped. her teachers sent it home to me TAPED to a card. non scrappers i am sure. so i couldn't get the tape off and just decided to put it in my photo album. yesterday afternoon as i looked through the album i just couldn't let it sit there. so i pulled it out and voila--got the tape off. last week i also got this wonderful package in the mail from gloria filled with all kinds of goodies. vintage labels, fabric, receipts, antique ephemera. loved it. i love the whole vintage, junqued up scrap pages i see. not that I (that i is for you kerry!) can do it but i still love that style. so i did my own vintage version--yeah, it's not remarkable but i kinda like it.

on another note i have had a sick little girl--the one you see above. cried herself to sleep last night in my arms. poor baby. she cannot shake this cold. i haven't felt that great myself--worn out, tired, un-freakin'-motivated for sure. but there have been a few highlights.

haley pointing out a "hankaroo" in the animal book

sitting as a family and watching old reruns of "flipper" and having haley asking every second if flipper was going to save everyone

david rescuing me from the house today and treating me to lunch

david making dinner--rice and potstickers. yum.

carson and taylor cleaning up, putting away laundry and watching haley so i could get out

finishing my layout (oh--inspired by shanna's friday challenge!)

wishing everyone out there an early Happy Sabbath!! hope it is delightful...L

this was some birthday fun! first--macadamia nut pancakes from the lovely husband on a special birthday plate and cup. then a nice hot soak in the tub. snow. some funny post-it notes all over my powder room with the most hilarious sayings courtesy of my scrap friends. my layout i did for the swap with above mentioned friends--an early Valentine for david. david took me to lunch and then bought me a brian andreas print and a cute thermal t with "kiss me" on it, then that night we all went to dinner and had chocolate bread pudding for dessert. yum! then on saturday all my scrap friends came up and spent the day and it was so much fun! they stuck up post it notes all over the bathroom that said things like "real men don't wear lipgloss" in reference to Lukas, "it's not a war on fuel", "republicans in '08" "bloody hell", "shalom", "official tat biotch" and a few happy birthdays! i seriously was cracking up over all of them--you guys are da bomb diggity! so a nice birthday weekend. and to top it off it snowed again saturday night and above are some pics. david took them sledding down the driveway and the street in front of our house. they had a blast...L

happy (early) birthday to me. i got two presents--the one above is one that i treated myself to while dave and the girls were in Utah. it is a japanese kanji symbol that means "love." i wanted something that would symbolize everything special to me--my husband, my children, family,the things i love in life--the fact that i love life itself. i have wanted a tattoo for as long as i can remember. the only thing that stopped me was let's see--needles and pain. two things i don't really like. but when i finally decided to go through with it it was actually a very calming thing. the tattoo literally took like 10 minutes. totally painless. i was so excited when i got it that i literally had to stop myself from going back to get another one. anyway--i have it and i totally love it as do my husband and children.

speaking of which they gave me my present tonight as well--our family is not big on waiting!! ha ha everyone, including me, was excited to open it. a totally cute bag from one of my favorite stores up here--lavender's blue. inside was a beautiful pandora bracelet and it had 5 charms on it--everyone had picked a charm to put on the bracelet. taylor picked one that had a sun, moon and stars, carson got me one that had a gold heart and the words i love you, anna picked oval purple stones, haley picked a flower with a diamond in it and david got me a "queen bee" complete with a gold crown. real funny. you can see what they look like here.

and another treat--my scrapping friends are coming up saturday to scrap with me. i can hardly wait...L

ps--above photo courtesy of shanna!

look how cute they are!!! that is brianne and her boyfriend jeff. wouldn' they make cute babies together? and from these pictures it looks like my baby is trying fo sure!!! see--brianne always says she's not like me and wishes she could be more like me--but look at that last picture--see--she is my baby, just like her momma. plus she emailed me a funny story that i am sharing. in her own words--"you're my favorite! so in church yesterday i start singing the closing hymn opera style to my roomate and after the hymn she tells me i'm going to hades. so i start laughing but am trying to hold it in and of course let out the loudest snort of my life in the silence just before the prayer. yeah me and five girls were laughing the entire prayer with our heads in our arms to avoid from making more sound. i'm a nerd!!!"

ha ha--i thought that story was funny! yeah, shanna--brianne is a snorter too. so is anna! it's hilarious. i guess her boyfriend has a goal to make her snort like once a day and she let me read a funny email that he wrote her that said "you know the best part of waking up is not folgers in your cup but knowing that chuck norris didn't kill you in your sleep!" now that is funny!!! so i didn't have permission to use any of these stories or pictures but if you are gullible enough to send these to me then i am going to use them!! HA HA oh yeah--when i showed david this picture of brianne and jeff with her licking him brianne actually bit me!!! geez, where's the love tongue girl?

and by the way--today is a year that i have been blogging!! YAY for me...L

the above picture was taken saturday night at the PBR--that's the lingo for the Professional Bull Riders! our friends had a suite at the PV arena and gave us tickets. i grew up watching this kind of stuff and going to the rodeo all the time but haven't gone to one in a long time except for last year in Vegas. it was fun--not something i want to do every weekend but i love seeing and doing things that are different for me. the best part was the "dance-off" in the middle of the rodeo. quite funny!

the next picture is of my latest layout and sweet find at an antique store. i have always loved Kerry's holder that she puts her latest layouts on in her scraproom and one of my latest obsessions is going to all the lovely and abundant antique shops around prescott. i picked this one up last week and absolutely love it! it sits on a table in my great room and has this layout on it at the moment.

the girls came home from school last week and asked a lot of questions about martin luther king. so we had a good discussion about why he was important and why we celebrate him. afterwards anna asked me if i knew she didn't have to go to school monday because it was "king arthur's" holiday. nice.

but to make up for anna's lack of political correctness i must tell you the most incredible thing that took place at my house last night. carson had a few friends come over and spend the night since there was no school today and late last night they had all their pillows and blankets sprawled out on the floor and were talking. i was on the computer and could hear them but wasn't paying that much attention until i heard the words, global warming, Bush, ozone hole, iraq and the discussion of bush sending more troops over when really this war just needs to end and what the real war is about--fuel, and how long it would take us to repair the hole in the ozone, yada, yada, yada. OK--these girls are 10 years old. they were discussing politics! later even taylor made the comment of how funny it was that they were talking about politics. i was amazed and elated at the same time. i hope this continues. i hope my girls keep reading and discussing and vote when they are old enough. i have a dream...L

Anna: mom, i want a haircut.

Me: how do you want it cut?

Anna: i want it curly.

so here is anna with her "curly" hair cut with a little help from momma and some soft rollers. and she was so happy--she must have asked me at least 5 times on the way to school this morning if it was still curly. here's wishing all of you in blogland a good hair day...L

so these are the layouts i worked on this week while i had some time. i'm pretty happy with them. most of them are scraplifts--the first one of brianne is a karen russell scraplift--love her work. the second one is actually my own work--ha ha, the third one is a candace cook lift from SE website, the fourth one is a lift from the SE website--don't remember who did it and the last one is my version of the friday challenge over at shanna's blog. happy sabbath...L

my family is coming home tomorrow. besides the complete emotional breakdown i had about 5 hours after they had left i have been fine. more than fine actually. i have thoroughly enjoyed my time alone. i still miss them and can't wait for them to get here but i have been productive and lazy at the same time and had fun.

being alone is a funny thing. i like it--i am definitely not one of those chicks that has to be with someone constantly--you know--can't go to the bathroom alone, can't go shopping, out to eat or to a movie by themselves. i can do all those things completely happy by my lonesome. not to say that i don't enjoy doing them with other people, but if other people are tied up or busy i can do it by myself.

funny thing is when you're alone for very long it forces you to take a good look at yourself and evaluate yourself and assess how you are. so i have been paying attention and took notice of a few things of myself. i realized i love my husband. i love my kids. my mom constantly has every tv she owns on in her home. i realized the quietness of a house when you are alone and would sometimes turn the tv on for background noise. i actually watched some tv and 3 movies. if you ever get a chance to rent Amelie you should. i like the quietness of the streets late at night and the street lights softly diffusing everything. i like listening to neil young while driving on those streets. i realized i am pretty happy right now. i'm definitely not a schedule person and that is going to end on monday with school starting up so i have enjoyed not having one single thing on a list TO DO. going to bed when i'm tired and getting up when i am ready to. i realized the beauty in small things. italian cookies and cold milk. a full moon. snowflakes. a hot bath. makeup. peppermint soap. pictures. friends. dr.pepper. indian food. naps. walks. scrapbooking.

so i thank my husband for taking my kids along with him for a fun time so i could have some fun time of my own. i'll be posting my layouts i finished tomorrow...L

there is absolutely nothing like a good hair day! my hair was bangin' in this photo and all because my oldest and most kind daughter brianne took mercy on my lack of hair skills and did my hair for me the entire time she was down here on thanksgiving and christmas. and now she's gone. back to your regularly scheduled station...L

well, this picture is most of my kids and my sister's. my son and her daughter are missing from the picture and my brother's son is in this pic. and all of them and 4 adults spent the night in my house last night! i have one brother and one sister and we each have six kids. unbelievable--or crazy--depending on how you look at it. my sister came down from georgia and has been here since new years eve. so fun to see her and my nieces and nephews. my brother and his wife and kids were also here for new years eve and it was a blast. we got to watch the ball go up (inside joke!), play, light fireworks and let the cousin's go wild together. they had so much fun. it is amazing to me that you can get family together after a long absence and they all totally connect and relate and just enjoy being together.

my sister went back today and david packed up all the girls and him and dennis headed for utah to take brianne back to school. i had a minute of being completely emotional and missing them and realizing that brianne is gone again and i debated driving the truck to catch up with them, but i stayed and i will try and enjoy the quiet and get some scrapping in. funny how as a mom you yearn for some alone time, some peace and quiet and then when you get it all you want is for them to come home...L