We just wanted to get away!

And now we're back! :D Usually Matthew has a soccer game on Saturday morning, but this Saturday, he didn't....they had a game on Wednesday night instead. I don't know why the change in schedule, BUT it freed up our weekend, so we decided we needed to GO SOMEWHERE....because if we sat here, we'd be guilt-tripped into doing something around the house like fixing something or cleaning something, and that's just not our idea of fun. :P So I contacted my dear old friend Kerri out near Kansas City and informed her we were coming out and she needed to prepare herself for the onslaught of 5 hermans. (or something to that effect)

So Friday, we left here as soon as Karl got home from school. we stopped just west of St. Louis for dinner at Longhorn steakhouse (yum....you'll learn by the end of this post that this was a total "blew my diet BIG TIME" kind of weekend...and that's okay, 'cuz all diets start over again on Monday, right? RIGHT!).......then when we piled back into the van, I got Alaina and Matthew all situated with their DVD players and HEADPHONES (must not forget the headphones or else the parents are subjected to listening to hours and hours of kids' movies from the backseat!). I sat by Zach and flipped open my laptop and I scrapped the whole way out there. YAY!

So this is what I got done in the car.....a 2-pager layout of our visit to the princess Diana memorial fountain in London....

we got out to the Kansas City area around 9:30ish I think? had to make a couple potty stops of course......our hotel was downtown (we were getting a free night at the Hyatt, so we splurged and paid for the 2nd night vs. just getting an el cheapo hotel). by the time we got checked in and everything carted up to the 35th floor (seriously, 35th floor? impressive! we kept singing the theme to "the Jeffersons"...the snooty people probably didn't think it was as funny as I did!), it was WAY past bedtime. we got the kids in their jammies and into bed ASAP.

We were conducting an experiment in hotel behaviour....putting all 3 of them in a bed together......we put zach in the middle, thinking he might roll off, and the beds were HIGH (taller than him), so we thought that was the best......they ALL flop around so much, we just knew one of them was going to end up bruised in the morning! Zach was infatuated with watching the cars on the street below out the window....and putting just about anything he could fit into the little mini fridge we had in our room (shoes, my purse, water bottles....more shoes!).....for some reason, Zach wanted to sleep with his sippy cup....I don't know WHY, as this is something he never does at home....but since he started screaming like a banshee when I took it away, I compromised and let him have it (for fear we'd get a call from the front desk from someone else complaining about a screaming kid!), figuring I'd just take it away once he fell asleep. So that's what I did. so off we all went to bed...

Then i heard a big 'thump' at about 1AM and waited for "the cry" thinking he'd fallen out of bed (no, i did not have the energy to just bolt out of bed to tend to whichever child had hit the floor...anybody that's got 3 kids knows what i'm talking about, right? no cry no foul!) but it was Zach....he'd gotten out of bed by himself and gone to the little fridge and had gotten his sippy cup out of it and was just standing there in the middle of the hotel room chugging away at it. Then he insisted on taking it back to bed with him...and I was too tired to care....little stinker knew I'd taken it away and was forcing my hand on this 2nd round. whatever. Zach wins round 2...I didn't stay awake to take it away the 2nd time.

And this is how they ended up in the morning.....Zach somehow flipped around in the night and was facing the wrong direction, but other than that, not too bad!

Saturday morning, I tried to sleep as late as possible, but didn't last past 8 or so. bummer. we all got up and around and went downstairs to eat breakfast at the buffet in the hotel.....knowing full well that eating there was our most expensive option....we were that lazy! then we walked over to the mall that was connected to our hotel to kill some time while we were waiting for Kerri to get off work. We went to this little model train store and that would've entertained Matthew and Zach for HOURS.....then we went to the Crayola store and let them color.......and then just kinda window shopped around and then headed back to our room. Watched a movie on the hotel TV (Ghost...haven't seen that in YEARS!) and I put the finishing touches on the layouts I did in the car.....then we left for lunch at Gates' BBQ....which is a tradition for us whenever we go to Kansas City. YUMMY BBQ!! totally pigged out there....then it was finally time to head over to Kerri's.

Zach fell asleep on the way over to her house, as we had to make a side stop at WalMart for batteries for the little train set we'd bought for Matthew...and a couple other things......so when we got to Kerri's, Zach was still passed out. we laid him down on one of their beds ,and then karl proceeded to crash on their couch while the older kids went out back to play and Kerri and I chatted. Once Zach woke up, we decided to take the kids to Paradise Place.....Karl was still unconscious, so we left him behind. :)

The kids had an absolute blast there.....it's a lot like the Magic House here in St. Louis....probably the favorite thing was the ball pit......seriously, if I wasn't pretty sure we'd have all been kicked out, I would've taken a big dive in here.......I really wanted to push Kerri in, but I think she knew that subconsciously 'cuz she never got between me and the doorway! darn!

and I already got this part of the afternoon scrapped: (this is what I did on the way home! see how productive I can be when I want to?)

After the ball pit, Alaina and Tessa went to a cooking class....Matthew and Zach hit the water tables, and of course Zach wouldn't have anything to do with the jackets that keep you dry...OH NO...what fun would THAT be? So he got completely and totally drenched. He finally quit even TRYING to stay dry and just started dumping the water on himself....nice! then he tried to dump it on ME....but thankfully, I'm still faster than him!

All the kids except Zach painted their faces.....and I don't get what Tessa was doing either, so it's not just you, Kerri.....but they were cute anyways......Matthew told me he was an "ant".....see the brown antennae? yeah, I didn't really 'get it' either until they told me. I must have no imagination anymore, huh? But here they are:

They also played in the little pretend grocery store, and Zach really liked the pizza place....he's not really showing off his 2-year-old physique.....his shirt was just that wet!

So we had a lot of fun at Paradise Park.....and I still have lots to scrap of it! We headed back to Kerri's house and Karl was awake, swearing he "didn't really sleep" after we left....SUUUUUUUURRRRRRRE! :P Sue and her baby boy Kalani showed up, so I finally got to meet that little cutie! I sent karl out to get some medicine for Kalani (which worked pretty quick, huh?) and an ice cream cake for dessert....he comes back with a DQ ice cream cake with a Superman on it and "Happy Birthday Karl" written on it. Uhm, his birthday's in APRIL! dork! The kids insisted on singing "happy birthday" to him anyways......we should've made him blow out candles too, darnit. so happy birthday karl, ya big dork! good cake though!

Poor Kerri......uhm.........the lasagna? :P Is it done YET? thankfully the kids filled up on chips and other junk so by the time the lasagna was done enough around the edges that we could eat some of it (I'm thinking the rest of it STILL isn't done!) it was pretty late.......and the kids ended up not even eating much of it.....and so I know what Kerri had for lunch today! (and possibly tomorrow and the day after that!). But it's the thought that counts and nobody starved! Enjoy the rest of Karl's birthday cake, okay guys? :P

we spent the rest of the evening just hanging out.....Kerri's mom, Karen showed up for dinner too, and it's been a long time since I'd seen her too, so it was nice to see her again and chat about stuff. Kerri filled me in on everything I was ingorant of about our church camp friends....all these little kids we used to have in our cabins when we were counselors are married and having kids! Gosh am I THAT old? seriously? And I also showed Kerri how to do a digital scrapbook page to try and lure her away from that "paper schmaper" stuff she's still doing!

I was determined to get a picture of Kalani smiling....and I'm totally in favor of him being Elvis for Halloween.....with the "do" this kid has, it would be perfect! Kerri, Sue and I had so much fun just hanging out together!

And the kids had a good time too, playing outside,

and bonding over an episode of iCarly......

but my boys refused to sit for a picture with a bunch of GIRLS....

And since Sarah didn't make it out to Kerri's house to see us, we showed up on her doorstep this morning.....'cuz our hotel was pretty close to their house and there was no way I was leaving town without seeing little gigi! :P We didn't get to stay much longer than 10 minutes since they were on their way to church and Karl was already sneezing from his allergies (I conveniently forgot to mention that they had a cat to him until it was too late for him to back out of the visit!).

so here's me and little Greta

And me and Sarah, who will forever make me feel short! :(

And the Hartley three...Sarah, Scott and little miss Greta (LOVE those socks!)

Then we were on the road to home around 10AMish.......we stopped in Independence at Denny's for brunch and then hit the road for home.....I scrapped the layouts from Paradise Park and finished this one I'd started at Kerri's house on the way home......our hotel in Wales....basically the only hotel on the trip that I really liked and was worthy of taking pictures of!

We finally made it back to our house around 5 I think. we stopped for a late lunch out in St. Charles at a Cracker Barrel (more YUMMY diet-blowing food), then we had to pick up Keely at the sitter's house, then we stopped at the mall really quick....so it was a long drawn-out trip home! Once we got home, we started in on the usual 'stuff', and are still doing that now.....for me, updating the blog ranks up there in the priorities.....whereas Karl and Matthew are playing Lego Batman on the Wii. I did clean out the van though, which was gross. and I mean GROSS....because I even cleaned out the goo in the wells where the seats attach to the floor. EWWW........ that's about as productive as I wanted to be today.

So that's it for our weekend.....on the go, which is the way we like it! Thanks to Kerri for having us over, and I really do hope you guys can come out here for spring break! I'll put a lasagna in the oven NOW, and it might be done by then, huh? :P

have a great week everybody!!!

we're not hiking people, BUT....

We've had the typical busy week so far. I'm posting this kinda early since we'll be out of town all weekend visiting friends out in the Kansas City area. I haven't seen them in over a year, and it seems like they all had babies, so I'm psyched to see my friends and meet all these new little ones too!

Sunday, Karl completely shocked the bejeezes out of me by suggesting we take the kids hiking. Uhm. Everybody knows how athletic we are....knows that we don't hike. The most hiking we've done is the steps leading up to the nearest restaurant, kwim? I agreed, thinking he'd back out later on. Since around THIS house....Sunday afternoons consist of one thing and one thing only: naps! BUT, to my ultimate shock, after the naps, Karl and the kids were ready to go on their hike, so off we went to the state park that's right down the road.

It's really a shame we're (okay, it's mostly ME) not outdoorsy people, because Pere Marquette really is a beautiful place. I took along the camera (duh, when DON'T I have this thing around my neck?) and got LOTS of nature shots.....I told Karl we'd have to go back once the leaves start to change colors....that'll make some pretty pics too. We took the easy trail, hiking up onto the cliffs. And when we finally did make it to the top, we had a beautiful view of the 3 rivers. This is the area of the state where the Illinois, the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers all come together. It's pretty cool really.....I never get tired of taking pictures of it. Then we started the long walk back down....got to our car and went to the park's lodge restaurant for dinner. Where we promptly consumed probably twice the calories we expended on the hike. Figures! But it was a fun time and we vowed to do it again....

And of course it's already scrapped because I'm wierd that way:

I finally got around to scrapping our pictures from the Fall Fun Fest over a week ago that we went to in Fairfield....I already posted the pictures, but here's the actual layout:

The latest round of 'telephone' is over at SM, and this was my entry from our UK trip:

Monday, on our way home from picking the kids up, Matthew decides that he's going to ride his bike without training wheels. Okay by us! PLUS, he didn't want ANY help from anybody.....so after he fell over a couple times he eventually got the hang of getting himself started, and he was off on his own! This was so much less dramatic than the ordeal with Alaina, I'm still in shock! He did this so easily! Go Matthew! What a big kid he is now! YAY!

and of course that's already scrapped......this was my entry for the speed scrap on Tuesday night. I stay up late for these things, that's how addicted I am.

And of course my blessing for the week. This is a layout I did for Vicki's CT with her new kit, "Wild Child" that's on her blog right now for download. I consider Telecommuting a blessing, because in all honesty, it really helps me get through the week knowing that on Thursday and Friday I can sleep in just a little bit later....I don't have to make the commute (I never do the driving, but just not having to go at all is nice!), and sit in a semi-smelly, boring ol' cube.....the kids love not having to ride the bus....and of course the dress code at home is way more fun! So that's my blessing for this week: telecommuting. At Scrap Matters, they have a gallery for "a day in the life" for everyone to scrap a day of your life......so my telecommuting page is kind of a twist on that idea.......and it's a blessing too.

And for my travel page this week....Paris! I'll probably end up redoing this at some point to take into account all the OTHER stuff I saw and did in Paris vs. just this one thing.......but I did this page as an entry for this week's template challenge at Scrap Matters, so I was trying to kill two birds with one stone, kwim? :D Since I"m going to be gone all weekend, I wanted to make sure I got it done, and using a template made it pretty quick and easy. Paris was a great trip....I hope I can get back there some day...there was so much we didn't get to see, although we crammed about as much as possible into the few short days we were there!

so that's it for now.....have a great weekend!

this week in Herman-ville

This has been an interesting week. We had the usual things going on: gymnastics class, school, and work. Thursday was also the first Brownie meeting of the year. Got our cookie order forms...*sigh*....who wants to order some cookies? I hate selling stuff, but I'll admit, girl scout cookies are probably the easiest thing to sell ever. So we'll start hitting up all the neighbors, relatives, and friends to buy some from Alaina very soon.

Dad was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and is now back home. He's very weak and still isn't feeling all that well. His stress tests showed that his heart is functioning at about 15%, which obviously isn't good. But I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about that at this point. He wears out very easily...even folding a load of laundry tires him out so much he has to go lie down. I don't know when the next round of doctor's appointments are, but I'm sure there'll be tons. So continue to remember my dad....he's not out of the woods yet!

Also this week, we got to deal with not one, but TWO major road detours for our commute. They started working on the river road, which is a big part of our commute, and that's going to be closed for at least another week.....so that puts a real crimp (and 15 extra minutes) onto our morning drive. And then earlier this week, Grafton got flooded enough that the road to the babysitter's house was underwater. THANKS A LOT, IKE! darned hurricane. It rained enough north of here that the waters really came downstream with some force! The river crested either Wednesday or yesterday, so we're hoping that by Monday morning we can eliminate that detour and be able to drop the kids off without the hassle of a 2nd detour!

Yesterday was Alaina's first week of cheerleading class. So far, she seems to love it. Who wouldn't like the opportunity to be a cheerleader! I dont know when, but her team will be cheering at some games at the high school coming up. That should be a blast!

Zach's been fighting a fever all week, so he's not been his usual cheery self. And Matthew's kindergarten class had a field trip to the apple orchard on Tuesday......I switched my telecommuting schedule around so I could be there for it.....it was a LOT of fun. And what a bummer it was when Matthew decided he didn't like his caramel apple and mommy HAD TO eat it. Wouldn't want to waste THAT, right? YUM!

And I think that pretty much catches things up around here. Tomorrow we've got a soccer game in the morning of course....and swimming lessons for Alaina...and then tomorrow night, we're going out for Indian food with a coworker of Karl's and her DH/kids, and I'm really looking forward to that. So I'm ready for the weekend!

As for other layouts this week......I've got my blessing one, "marriage".....that was an easy one to do. I entered this in a weekly challenge at Scrap Matters.....we were supposed to scrap something from our wedding day. Gosh we look YOUNG, don't we? I hate old pictures of me though...I look nothing like that anymore!

And here's the next page for my "places I've been" book. Again, hating the old pictures of me, but GOSH I LOVE VEGAS!!! I'm still mad that Karl erased our pictures from our last trip there in '05, so I have no pictures of it. *sniff*...that's like my worst fear EVER....losing pictures! SO I swiped a lot of those pictures off flickr. Hooray for flickr....Flickr is awesome!

That's it for now....have a great weekend everybody!

Our 1st Soccer Game!

I am officially a "soccer mom" now! Matthew's very first soccer game was Saturday morning. I'd only been to a couple of the practices, choosing to keep Zach at home instead of chasing him around a field while trying to watch Matthew practice. So we were all very excited for Saturday morning. There was a slight worry it would get rained out, but we were soon told that unless there's lightning, they play in the rain.....uhm, what about us parents? I guess we get wet too!! Fingers are crossed for clear skies on game days!!!

So here they are...the "Choppers".....a local dental clinic offered to sponsor the team and pay for their shirts in exchange for putting their name on the back.....for free shirts, SURE! I was just thankful that there wasn't a big pair of dentures or something on the front...that wouldn't have been so cool! Matthew picked his number, 5.....because he IS five. DUH! :P

They play on "micro" fields, and I'm quite grateful for it, as they practiced a couple times on a regular field and that's just too far for those little legs to run.....the itty bitty size of these fields just cracks me up!

Unfortunately, the Choppers lost their first game....badly....6-0, but most of the kids didn't even seem to notice. I think Matthew assumes this is just like t-ball where they don't really keep score, and that's fine by us!

After Matthew's game was over, we left to head toward Fairfield to visit my dad in the hospital and help out my mom and brothers at our food stand at the Fall Fun Fest. We were selling apple dumplings and homemade chicken and noodles. I know to most people that's real comfort food, but when you're surrounded by it and make hundreds of them......uh......I can be fine with not seeing a noodle or a dumpling for awhile, kwim?

We took a break from entrepreneuring (I think I just made that word up) to take the kids on the rides they had set up. It was Zach's first time being old enough to actually ride on anything, and I wasn't sure how he'd react, but he loved it!

And Alaina decided she wanted to ride a "big kid ride", and chose the octopus. I think this must've been the original octopus, as old as this thing looked......the engineer in me was trying to check the structural integrity of the thing before they got on! Karl said she was "all talk" about how it was no big deal, but once they were up in the air and twirling, she clutched his hand with a death grip and clenched her teeth.......see exhibit A below:

Once she got OFF the ride, she was fine and of course wanted to do it again. According to her, if you can ride "the yeti" (Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom), you can ride ANYTHING.

I already posted the update on my dad, and as far as I know, nothing's changed since then. Once he was moved out of ICU and into a regular room, we took the kids to visit. I never realize how LOUD my kids are until we're in a quiet place like a hospital! But seeing his grandkids perked him up considerably, and Matthew and Alaina drew pictures on the dry erase board on the wall. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the kids have seen my dad in a hospital, so they weren't freaked out by it. Alaina's scared of needles, so she wasn't too thrilled with seeing the IV, but she still gave her PawPaw hugs, as did the boys. My mom hadn't talked to the doctors yet today when I spoke to her last, so I haven't heard anything new. So we look for him to be in the hospital at least through Wednesday, if not longer, given his current condition. So keep him in your prayers please. Thank you all so much!

PawPaw update

Just a quick post to update on my dad. Thanks for the prayers....SO MUCH! He was moved out of ICU this afternoon (a good sign) into a regular room, with no roommate, yay! (he's not real good about sharing TV remotes, LOL!) He had a test this morning where he had to drink some stuff and then they did a catscan or an ultrasound or something of his stomach to see what's causing his pain down there, but the results from that aren't back yet. He'll be in the hospital at LEAST until Tuesday when he has to get a stress test done on his heart. His doctor wants to put in an internal defibrillator because I guess his heartbeat is irregular and it's skipping beats. Dad's fighting us all over this. He's being VERY stubborn about it, as any of you that know ME and how stubborn I can be......uhm......where do ya'll think I get it? :P I think he'll finally cave and let them do it. His heart is enlarged, and that is causing some problems of its own, but I'm not sure if there's anything they can really DO for that, is there? And his blood pressure, while still abnormally low, was up higher than it has been the last couple of days....today it was 119/55 when we visited him, so it's better than it was at least. The cellulitis seems to slowly be going away....they outlined it on his leg with a sharpie (very high tech solution I thought!) and the area is smaller, so that's progress. But he's not going anywhere for several more days.....which is driving him batty. He looked really good though.....he's lost some of the weight he'd started to put back on.....Matthew wanted to know why his legs were so skinny! But we've seen him look MUCH worse, if that means anything?? So on behalf of the Caudles, thanks for the prayers and please keep them coming! I'll post more when I know more.....

Oh, the DRAMA!

And yet another week goes quickly by for the Hermans! I think we've gotten into the swing of things pretty well. Karl teaches night classes on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, so it's just me and the kids on those nights. And I know that if I can make it through Tuesday with the gymnastics classes for both Alaina and Matthew, I'll be okay. And I made it through just fine, yay!

Wednesday, our church started a monthly night service....and Zach decided during that service to really show his 'terrible two'-ness.....so I ended up taking him and leaving early (yes, it was THAT BAD). I got home and there was a message on our machine from my mom that she'd called an ambulance for my dad. *sigh*

So my dad is currently in the ICU at Fairfield Memorial Hospital....I've been getting updates from mom a couple times a day, but it doesn't seem like they really KNOW what's wrong with him, and that's always VERY frustrating! He was running a fever at the time, but now that he's been on antibiotics, that's under control....his leg is swollen with cellulitis (which I still need to google more to try and understand what that is.....I thought that was an infection too, so shouldn't that be going AWAY with the antibiotics?), and his blood pressure is LOW.....I think mom said it was 105/33.....which I'm thinking is darned near flatlining, isn't it? And he's got congestive heart failure, which he's had umpteen times it seems like.....and his heartbeat is irregular. *sigh* But the good news is he doesn't have any blood clots, there's no fluid on his heart, he hasn't had a heart attack or stroke, his fever's broken, and he's more coherent than he was when he first went to the ER. So I guess that's progress? *sigh*.......we're heading out tomorrow morning to visit him. So that's the one part of the family medical drama for the week.

the other family medical drama: our kids have high cholesterol! sheesh! and it's not like we feed them McDonald's 5 times a week......they get it a couple times a MONTH maybe. We had their blood taken last weekend more out of curiosity than anything, since Karl's got high cholesterol and high triglycerides and a lot of that is genetic......we were wondering where the kids stood with their numbers. And I was SHOCKED. Zach's numbers were the worst. How does a 2 year old end up with a total cholesterol of 198? seriously? He hardly eats....his babysitter's constantly nagging me to put some weight on the skinny boy. We asked our pediatrician what we can DO for the kids.......she recommended omega 3 supplements, so we're doing that....switching to 1% milk (karl's NOT happy about that one), and just watching saturated fats. Any other suggestions?? ANYTHING?? I haven't come up with much in the research I"ve done. I know my kids....they're not going to suddenly start eating celery sticks. *sigh*.......so that's the other family drama going on. lovely!

Thursday night was our monthly church study group, which we always host.....it's always fun to get together in such an informal setting, even if we had just seen each other the night before! Being part of a small congregation has it's advantages.....like having the majority of the congregation in your living room! :)

and here's my mini-rant that most of you won't understand, so just skim right through this part! To whom it may concern: If you don't like the rules of a digital scrapbooking challenge, then DON'T participate! Don't go and whine to others and subsequently ruin the entire experience for people that were perfectly content to play by the rules as stated. grrrrr......they know who they are, and I know who they are, and they might not know that I know who they are (got that?), but I'm really bad about holding grudges!!!! shame on you spoiled sports! phooey! there. end of rant.

And while I'm mouthing off about digiscrapping......SIL Nicole and I agreed to add yet another weekly layout to our list of to-do's.....I guess 'cuz we just don't do ENOUGH scrapping? :P as if! But we got the idea from a fellow digi-scrapper...she's doing an album of all the places she's been.....and since Nicole and I both LOVE to travel, we thought that was a brilliant idea. She's been lots more places than me, so I'm going to run out of ideas way before her (hmm, is that an excuse to plan a vacation perhaps?).....but we've both got plenty of places to keep us occupied for awhile. And to start it off, I did an obvious one.....a too-easy one really....but I wanted to do a general page like this anyways....so here it is: London baby, YEAH!

And we're still doing the weekly blessing layout.....this week I picked my mom's sister and her hubby: Aunt Doris and Uncle Frank. We spent labor day weekend at their house near Kentucky Lake and they're just the nicest people ever....wish we got to see them more often!

Matthew's first soccer game is in the morning, and as long as there's no lightning, the coach said they'd play in the rain. that'll be fun for us parents! not. :P So i'll be back to post the waterlogged pictures of that and hopefully a more cheerfull update about my dad once we see him. but for now, goodnight!

AT LAST!!!

I'll admit it.....I'm an impatient person.....a VERY impatient person. Other people aren't like this, and it's these people that drive me insane! Case in point: PreK graduation back in May. As we were leaving the house, I SPECIFICALLY recall asking Karl, "Do you have the cameras?" (cameras PLURAL, meaning the still SLR and the video camcorder)....he responded in the affirmative. Only when we'd taken our seats at Matthew's PreK graduation did I figure out that Karl didn't have the still camera....just the video one. GRRRRRRRRRR.

After a few seconds of panic, I knew I had to take drastic measures: ie ask to borrow someone else's. And the person I happened to choose......our babysitter, Chandra. Her son Blake was in the PreK class, but not graduating, so she wouldn't be needing the camera for the actual diploma-handing-out part. I was so relieved.....after the 3-year-olds got done with their part, she walked back to where I was sitting (in that hunched-over-so-nobody-gets-mad-'cuz-you're-in-the-middle-of-a-cermony way) and whispered, "just save me a couple shots so I can take some of him and the teachers, ok?"

HUH? SAVE SHOTS? what is this you're speaking of? Oh yeah, you got it.....FILM. ARRRGGGHHHHH. And this is where the beast of impatience rears its very ugly head in me. One, I couldn't see the pictures I was taking......2.....I knew it'd be FOREVER before I ever saw these things. :( Film, schmilm

That was May 28th......after about a week, I casually asked if she'd developed the pictures from the PreK graduation......she replied that she "tossed the roll into a drawer with a couple dozen others" to be developed. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I thought I was gonna explode right there! But what could I do? I'd have paid to develop the thing myself, but in a drawer full of others, which one was the one I wanted??? ARRRRGGGHHHH!!! You're talking about someone that scraps stuff the day after it happens (if not sooner when possible!)....I was going NUTS at the prospect of not having these pictures for weeks!

Another week or two passed, and growing impatient to scrap the event, I went ahead and did a layout with just boxes where the pictures would go.....deciding that if I never saw the pictures, it didn't look too bad! :P hahahahahahaahaha....

Fast forward to today.....the 8th of SEPTEMBER.......she had the pictures ready for me. FINALLY. Didn't think I'd ever see these things......I'd almost given up hope completely! Being adverse to actual pictures anymore, I immediately scanned them when we got home so I could fill in the empty places in my already-done layout from over 3 months ago......*sigh*.......you have NO idea how much this BUGGED ME!!!!

FILM....honestly!!! I don't have the patience for film!!!

Now that I've had my mini-rant, here's the layout...

And here's the one I did with Vicki's new kit, Summer Cocktail......of our trip last weekend to Aunt Doris and Uncle Frank's house

Future Cheerleader!

Yesterday was Zach's 2 year checkup at the doctor's. He's a whopping 23 pounds, skinny little thing...and 34" tall. Since I didn't go, I don't know what percentile that places him in, but he's always been right in the middle. None of my kids have ever been anything but 'average'!!

Last night was the annual Cheer clinic in town. Alaina LOVES doing this, so of course we were there! On Tuesday night, I dropped Alaina off at the high school, so the squad could teach her (and about 200 other girls) a couple cheers. For $25 and 2 hours of time, she learned 2 cheers (which she already knew from doing this the last 4 years, but let's not split hairs, m'kay?), a popsicle, and a t-shirt. It's the squad's fundraiser for the year, and they obviously make a killing off the parents of little girls that want nothing more than to be cheerleaders when they grow up. oh, they also gave the parents free passes to get into the football game on friday, so at least we didn't have to shell out MORE money to watch our daugthers cheer.

And last night was the night the girls got to cheer. Unfortunately, Matthew had soccer practice in Alton (20ish minutes away) at 6....kickoff was at 7. So we split the family up. Matthew and Karl went to soccer practice, and Alaina, Zach and I went to town to the football game.....and we just hoped that they'd have time to join us before it was Alaina's turn to cheer. They started off with the PreK class cheering....then K, then 1st, then finally Alaina's class. I staked out a spot right along the fence (been there, done this several times....I know the best spot for my pictures!), then I had the dilemma (and I actually got a few laughs) as I struggled to hold the video camera AND the camera (and ya'll know I don't use one of those one-hand-type cameras!), but I managed it fairly well. Zach was occupied with a gigantic box of Skittles (always the nutrition-minded mom I am, I grabbed what I knew would keep him occupied for the 5 minutes Alaina would be cheering).

She did great....she loves this stuff....and then as soon as she was done, we all left. We met back up with Karl and Matthew at home. Apparently, soccer practice didn't go so well....something about a slight meltdown? surely not my child! :P

Since I didn't get a chance to take a nap this afternoon, and I wasn't ABOUT to clean the house while everybody else was passed out.....I already scrapped last night's cheering......a fairly blatant scraplift of Nicole's layout of cheerleading. :P thanks for the idea, Nicole!!

And this is another layout I did yesterday.....of poor Zach passed out once we made it to London.

And I think I did this one a week ago, but never put it on here.....it's for my parents' ongoing album...

that's it for now!!!

Holiday weekend!

Summer is officially winding down....*sniff* I'm sad since I don't really care for winter at ALL, so I'm not looking forward to the cold setting in!

We spent Labor Day weekend with my aunt Doris and her husband, Frank at their house near Kentucky Lake. We didn't actually get down there 'till Saturday night though, 'cuz of other stuff we had going on....

First up, soccer practice for Matthew! We missed the first night of practice, so this was our first experience with the whole thing. He had a great time, but was totally worn out from all the running they did! I think he'll be good at this, and he's having fun, so that's the best part. Soccer practice is on Friday nights, so this is how we spent our Friday night last week.....and how we'll be spending the next several Friday nights coming up!

David Beckham who, I say? :P Isn't that the cutest little footballer ever? :)>

Then Saturday was the start of swimming lessons for Alaina. After she was done with her class, we headed to my aunt's house. We went out to dinner and since that day was Zach's official birthday, the restaurant sang to him. He was still freaked out about the candle though, go figure! :)

Then Sunday, we took Doris and Frank's boat out on the lake. It wasn't actually as crowded with boats as I was thinking it would be for the holiday weekend. We had a nice relaxing day.....pulled up to a diner for lunch and then made the return trip home. The kids (and my dad) all fell asleep at some point.....it was a very relaxing way to spend the day.

Then after we got home, most everybody else took a nap, while I finished up my book (got slightly addicted to the Twilight series last week.....read all 4 books in the span of 5 days...and they're LONG too!)......then after breakfast on Monday morning, we headed for home. So it seemed a short weekend, but it was still a lot of fun. We're hoping to make it a yearly thing, as aunt Doris and uncle Frank always enjoy having us and we don't get to see them very often. So we'll look forward to next year....maybe I'll finally get the perfect picture of a hummingbird that I was trying SO hard to get and never really did.....you ever tried to take a picture of a hummingbird? yeah, not easy!! This is the best one I got (out of about 100 or so).....darned things are FAST! :P

I scrapped a layout of our boat ride, but I can't post it yet because in my brilliance I used Vicki's new kit that she hasn't released yet. oops. So as soon as she posts her kit on Monday, I'll post my layout here. :P

So we had a good time with Aunt Doris and Uncle Frank....until next year!! :)

But I did just finish my blessing layout for this week. This is a pretty boring layout, scrapbooking wise.....because I wanted it to be about the pictures. These are some of my favorite pictures I've ever taken (minus the ones of my kids, obviously)

So that's it for now....