Back to "Normalcy"

Well, we survived our first full week back at work/school/life after the holidays. Yay us! Karl and the kids actually had a snow day on Tuesday thanks to the famous St. Louis ice! We don’t get a lot of snow here in St. Louis, but JEEZ! We get the ice, which is SO much worse to drive on if you ask me. So since I still had the telecommuting privilege available to me, I stayed home as well. I’m really going to miss working from home in the comfort of my sweats and fleece-lined Crocs!

Tuesday night, after the ice melted, we took the kids into town for their gymnastics classes and went out to dinner. The rest of the week wasn’t too exciting really. We finally got all our Christmas decorations down and back out into the garage, so that was the highlight of the week. I’m slowly packing up my stuff at work getting ready to move to my new job that I start on this coming Friday. I’m still not excited about it and am anticipating it kind of like a walk to the guillotine. Okay, MAYBE that’s a little melodramatic!!!! But I’m really not looking forward to it. :D

And this weekend, we’ve been visiting the parental in Fairfield since Friday night. I’ve spent most of the weekend catching up on some “reading” (meaning my magazines: People, Us Weekly, and Cosmo!) and doing a little scrapping, but not much. It was nice to just visit with my parents. The kids always like to see their grandma and grandpa. Karl fixed a leaky faucet at my brother’s house….I got to have a Sancho from Taco Tierra for lunch, so it was a pretty good weekend! I’d wanted to take some pictures around town of my old hangouts, but it was so overcast and dreary, I decided to do it on another visit instead. I think the rest of the time I was on my Facebook page. I chatted with a girl I haven’t seen since high school…..it was so neat to catch up with her! And now we’re back home…..laundry awaits, and that’ll be the end of another weekend. Gosh they go by fast!

let’s get to the layouts now, shall we?

First up, with Sya’s new template pack, “Kristin-spriation”, (on sale for a DOLLAR! can you believe that?)......I scrapped these 2:

Hyde Park in London:

and our The Hanging of the Green service at church from back in November, which finishes up my 2008 layouts, woohoo!And here’s my first layout for ’09, of the boys playing with the train set that Zach got for Christmas:

Our road trip to Miami:

Here’s the Tower of London from our UK trip, which didn't turn out the way I wanted it since I wanted to do this gigantic picture across 2 pages but I couldn't get the 3 pictures I'd taken to match up well enough....so this is what I did instead. I still like it though! :P

And here's our lunch at a pub when we were in London, eating "Smash".....it was actually pretty good! :P

St. Paul’s Cathedral in London:

Our bus tour of London:

And with Vicki’s new kit, “Winter Warmer”….I scrapped this one, of our formal night on the cruise, using Sya’s new templates:

So now for my blessing this week.....I THINK we've been doing this for 22 or 23 weeks now (I haven't been counting, but I think my SIL knows! I would probably be smart of me to do that, but I've never been accused of being that clever!).......I was kinda stumped for an idea, but then I saw this picture and the rest just came together after that. This is Alaina and her cousin, Becca, and this picture of them just made me laugh out loud, I love it!

Journaling reads: Alaina has always had a close bond with her cousin Becca. They’re only a year apart in age, but to see the two of them together, you’d think they were twins. They have always been very like-minded, sometimes to the chagrin of their mothers! They both love to be total girly-girls with their clothes and shoes, and are both very strong-willed…which sometimes ends up in some tears when they argue. But even through the squabbles and diva-like behavior, I’m glad that Alaina has a cousin like Becca that can not only be a relative as she grows up, but can also be her friend. I hope that as they get older, they still want to spend time together and look forward to the times they get to see each other like they do now. Since Alaina doesn’t have a sister, I hope that Becca will be the next best thing! The love these two little girls have for each other is a rare gift that I hope lingers a very long time.

So I guess that’s it for now. This post is early today since I typed it up on the way home in the car (I'm a multi-tasker!), and I've got laundry to do and dinner to think about making....and I'm currently the only one in the house awake! The "Sunday nap" has taken over the rest of the family, but since I'm not much of a "napper" (I prefer to sleep 'till noon! If only I COULD!)....so it's just me and the laptop at present.....and now I'm off! Have a great week everybody!