This is going to be a quick post since I'm beyond exhausted. Last week was full of sickies and my stupid gall bladder acting up. I'm waiting on a call-back from my doctor about scheduling surgery to just get the darned thing removed. Plenty of people live without them, I don't know why I'm being so stubborn about hanging onto mine.....oh yeah, I'm not big on SURGERY. That's why! :D

So anyhoo......I was sick on Tuesday and stayed home with Zach, who was also sickly. Wedesday and Thursday I think my coworkers would've rather me stayed home again, but I gotta ration out my sick days if I'm going to be having surgery soon, kwim?

The weekend went by way too fast of course......the kids went swimming on Saturday and since I was feeling better we went out to dinner at Applebees, where we haven't been in ages. Sunday was church and Alaina's pre-baptismal class, and then that evening, Karl and I met up with some friends for dinner at the winery in Grafton, but evidently we're too slow, as the kitchen closed on us before we could order dinner! :D So we headed down the street and had dinner there instead and it was super yummy.......but near the end, we had a slight catastrophe happen.

Our friend, Melissa, is SEVERELY asthmatic. I've never seen anyone have an asthma attack before. She went into the ladies' room and the air freshner in there (one of those bottles of liquid with the sticks.....I'm sure they have a name, but I'm not hip enough to know it!) triggered the attack. The only thing I knew she was allergic to was eucalyptus, so I made sure to check for that.....but I didn't even really smell that particular air freshner! So we had to call 911, and when you live out in the sticks.....the response time for an ambulance is like half an hour. Yes, we are in the backwoods. Times like that are the ONLY time I wish we lived in town. They gave her oxygen and took her to the ER......and we raced back to their house to pick up their kids for an impromptu sleepover at our house since they had no idea how long they'd be gone. So we got ZERO sleep in this house last night between 2 giggling girls in Alaina's room, and 2 onery boys downstairs in the basement......and somehow I ended up sleeping with Zach. Anybody know how hard a 2-year old can kick while he's asleep? HARD!! ouch! So I'm wiped out and ready to crash! Thankfully, Melissa's doing just fine now....they had the drugs she needed waiting for her when the ambulance got there, and all is well. I will just definitely make sure from now on to ASK her what might trigger an attack. I HATE feeling helpless like that, 'cuz there was absolutely nothing any of us could do. *sigh*

So now.........what all did I scrap this week? Being kinda sick and just kinda laying around while the kids destroy the house around me has the one perk of getting some scrappin' done! :D

Sya's new template pack is called "Gimme Some Space 2".....and I'll admit, these kinds of layouts are HARD for me.....I don't handle white space very well......so you'll be able to see that I added a lot of stuff to the original templates, just 'cuz I can't stand the white space! I'm wierd like that. This was such a cute moment though........Zach made this little sandwich all by himself....and it was too funny to not take a picture of, ya know?


And this is one from our cruise, of the kids dressed up in their western outfits.....I just love Matthew's face in this.....he was really into character! (also with sya's new templates)


And the last one I did with the new template pack.......of this little stream (we call 'em creeks here!) in the middle of nowhere in Ireland:


This was one of the more humorous stops on the tour.....the Bog Villiage....Karl still says it looks like big piles of.....uhm.....well......what do YOU think it looks like? And they burn the stuff for heat so just imagine how those huts smelled.....YUM! :D



And since I"m a "shutterbug", I took lots of random pictures of flowers and stuff that I came across in the UK, so I did a layout of those:


With as much time as we spent on the bus, there was no escaping a layout of that!


Ross Castle was cool because it was built right on a lake.....we took a boat tour on the lake (which I haven't scrapped yet....it's on the list!), then walked around the castle grounds......so pretty!


We stopped at this sheepherding demo at some point, and I just had to laugh.....these silly sheep, running into each other all the time! It was cool to see how well-trained the dogs were though!


Here's St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.......I'd been saving these pictures just 'cuz I wasn't sure how to scrap them....and I'm still not sure I'm thrilled with it.....I thought I'd do something a little different with all the black/white......but I'm just not sure I'm loving it yet.......feel free to cast your votes! :D



And this was our uber-romantic Valentines' day this year......taking the kids to dinner at our favorite local diner!


And I really am feeling guilty, but I haven't gotten around to doing a layout with Vicki's new kit, (called "Mon Amie") yet.....shame on me! I'll get it done soon though, I promise.....but this is it:

Finally......my blessing for the week. Our World Church. I'm blessed to not only have a local congregation to call my own, but a World Church that I belong to......journaling reads:
"It is so important to me that our church is a world church. I'm so proud of the fact that there are people all across the world that have the same beliefs and uphold the same theology as I do. When we go to World Conference, it always amazes me to see all the other delegations that are present. I like to think that our church is making a difference in the world by having congregations present all over the place. I love being a member of the Community of Christ. My life has been greatly blessed by my involvement in the church."



And now, I'm off to bed....have a great week! :P

Ooooops! :D

I forgot to plug Vicki's new freebie collab kit, "Sweet Flora" My bad! Here's the layout I did with it:

The countdown has begun!!

Here we are, Sunday again! Time for another blog post! :D This week was typical for the most part, with a few a-typical moments thrown in there, because life's like that, isn't it? :D

Everything was perfectly routine....work/school, etc. Then Wednesday morning, Matthew was VERY whiny getting ready to leave the house. He's not much of a morning person most of the time (NO idea where he gets that!) so we chalked it up to him just being tired. Then he complained of his tummy hurting, and we didn't believe him 'cuz we figured he was just wanting a free pass to stay home from school and go back to bed! So we took him to daycare as usual. and wouldn't ya know it.......a little after 9AM I got "the call" from the school nurse to come pick him up because he'd gotten sick at school.

So then I felt kinda guilty, kwim? BUT, in my defense, if we stayed home with our kids every single time they said they "didn't feel good", we'd burn through all our sick days in a month! :D So since the call came to me on my cell phone (I feel kinda bad for schools having to keep track of mom/dad work/home/cell numbers! What a logistical nightmare!) I called Karl on his cell, and since it was the middle of the morning, he of course didn't answer (since he was teaching class and all), so I had to hang up and call the switchboard and get them to connect me to the phone in his room. Then we had the problem of having to getting his class covered so he could leave (since he has the car and all) to come get me so I could go home to Matthew. And then there was the Zach issue....who goes to a different sitter than Alaina/Matthew.......see what a mess this all is when schedules get interrupted? :D Karl couldn't find a sub for the rest of the day, so he was going to have to go back to school.....so he came and got me, and then I dropped him back off at his school.....then I went and picked up Zach.....had to stop and get gas ('cuz of course we didn't have any gas in the car!) and by the time I got to school, it was almost 11......almost 2 hours after I got the call. drat! but seriously, I got there as soon as I could....and I felt SO bad about that. But that's the drawback of our particular situation.....living 45 minutes from where we work.....carpooling together so we only have 1 vehicle in the city......that was just the worst-case scenario of daycare/school/work issues! Thankfully, that doesn't happen very often!

So I ended up taking a half-day off work and hanging out here at home with a sick Matthew and Zach and Alaina. Matthew basically spent the rest of the day on the couch, but by dinnertime, he declared he was feeling better and wanted some toast to eat. And that was pretty much the extent of whatever he had. Funny how kids get over stuff so fast! :D And that was the excitement of the week really. I didn't know how serious what he had was or how long it would last or if the other 2 (or me/Karl) would get it, so we cancelled Alaina's flute lesson that night and our church study group for the next night. And of course by the morning he was completely fine!

And that pretty much sums up the week....unless you want to talk about the stacks of dirty dishes that await me upstairs or the MOUNTAIN of laundry sitting on the bed....

so here's the fun stuff......what have I scrapped this week? :D

Vicki's new store kit is called "Boho Chic" and it's got a great color scheme....and I used it to scrap another layout from our UK trip....of our hotel in Galway, Ireland...and I also used one of Sya's templates, Mix & Match set 2:


Another layout from the UK trip, of Grafton Street in Dublin. I didn't realize at that time that this is supposedly THE PLACE to go shopping in Dublin. We just wandered down it because it has the same name as the town we're from, and we loved seeing all the stores, etc. with the name Grafton this/that. We thought it was hilarious!


This layout from the UK trip is for the template challenge going on right now at Scrap Matters....this was such a pretty waterfall, I'm glad I got such a good picture of it:


Sya's new collab kit is called "Love, Life, Nature", and this is what I scrapped with it, again from the UK trip:


Another UK layout......I seemed to scrap a lot from that trip this week, huh? :D I just had to scrap these pictures (given to me by another participant) since I'm actuall IN them, which is hardly ever the case! Using Sya's newest template pack, "Linz-spiration"


Here's the rest of the pictures from the Auto Show a couple weeks ago:



And just for good measure, a layout from our cruise, also using the 'Linz-spiration' templates:


So that leaves me with my blessing for this week......if any of you read my 25 random things on Facebook, you'd know that I'm blind in my right eye.....but I still consider my sight a blessing.... I think only having one eye makes you appreciate it a little bit more! :D


And the countdown is on......Friday was the 1-month point for our Spring Break vacation to Disney.....so in less than a month we'll be at the Happiest Place on Earth celebrating Alaina's birthday!

That's basically it for me for this week......I'm looking forward to a little warmer weather coming soon......it was so nice last weekend, then it got all cold again....darnit! So bring on the warmer temps....I'm ready for spring! ttyl!

Spring Weather in February! :D

And another week has come and gone. I guess we’re getting USED TO me being in the office all 5 days of the week…..but I’m still not liking it! L This was probably a very ‘typical’ week for us…..

We did skip tumbling lessons this week though…mostly ‘cuz I just didn’t feel like dragging all 3 kids into town. Karl asked me not to take Zach out as he’s JUST getting over that ‘whatever-it-was’ from last weekend…..and he didn’t have to convince me very hard to stay in. Wednesday Alaina went to another flute lesson, and I’m loving that she’s still so enthusiastic about it.

Thursday started our 'warm up' for the week.....it was 60-something degrees here and it was GREAT! Friday at work, I went for a short walk around my building for some fresh air, which was SO nice! I'm tired of winter and very anxious for spring!!!

This weekend we had no plans, which was really nice! We did swimming lessons on Saturday morning, and then the kids and I brought McDonald's lunch to Karl in his class....and watched his students do their physics labs! :D Saturday afternoon Matthew and Alaina had been invited to a pool party (indoor pool...it was nice out, but not THAT nice!) so they had a blast at that! And then Sunday, after church and naps and such, we went over to the Loftus's house for dinner. We played Darts on the Wii....of all things! It's really fun though!! Elsie, Max, and our 3 kids had a ton of fun running around and playing....while us grownups had a glass of wine and chatted. It was a nice evening! And that pretty much catches you up on my life this last week!

So here's the scrappin part!

First up, Vicki's got a new freebie kit out called "Bright Eyes", and it came at the perfect time for me, as I couldn't find anything to go with these pictures! And I also used the template from the template challenge over at Scrap Matters....yep, double-dipping again! :D


Here's one from our cruise......my SIL Nicole gave me grief because I "strategically embellished" this picture to cover up the fact that the dum-dum photog didn't cut off my feet....I was wearing Crocs! In a western pic? Uhm......yeah! :D It's using one of Sya's new templates from "Mix and Match, set 2"


And one from our UK trip.....of the inside of some of the buildings at Oxford.....I WILL get this album done before the end of the year, darnit! :D


I still have another 2-pager to do, but this is one page I wanted to do separately....of my dad at the Auto Show....he's such a car buff, I had to memorialize it!


And here's one using another of Sya's new template packs, called "Linz-spiration"


And another side project this week was some valentines for Alaina.....she didn't find any in the store she liked, so she asked me to make her some.....so I whipped up a couple different versions for her pretty quick:





And that brings us to the last one.....my blessing. Digi-scrappin'! Oh yeah! It's a hobby, it's relaxing.....it preserves the family memories.....and it's my creative outlet. So I consider all that a blessing!

Snow Days, flute lessons, the Auto Show, and "almost" Pneumonia!

ah, another eventful week here in the lives of the Herman family. We had a nice little snow/ice storm earlier in the week, so Karl was off school on Tuesday and Wednesday. I actually got permission to work from home on Tuesday, so I was THRILLED I didn't have to drive in that stuff to the office. On Wednesday, our kids didn't have school either, but I had to use a sick day to stay home then (which I don't think was fair, but whatever, kwim?). So I was only in the office 3 days this week....just like old times! I thoroughly enjoyed it! And of course the kids enjoyed their snow day:

I think we got about 6 inches of snow and probably a 1/2 inch of sleet underneath it. It made getting out of our driveway darned near impossible (our driveway's pretty steep), but i've learned the lesson to just floor it coming out of hte garage and pray really hard nobody happens to be coming down the street at that moment. :P Otherwise, you can't get up the driveway. Seriously. :P So that's the excitement. I still say all that could be avoided if the hubby would go SHOVEL it......but he won't. and I won't either.....so it stays there 'till it melts (which is almost always the next day or so around here). And that's as exciting as winter gets in these parts!

Wednesday night, we finally ventured out to take Alaina to her first flute lesson. She's been SO excited to start this, we didn't want to postpone it another week. A very accomplished musician from our congregation is giving her lessons, and Alaina is loving it. I hope she still loves it in 6 months, but for now, she's having fun and that's all that matters!

Thursday night, Zach was NOT feeling good......He's had a fever off and on for about a week and a half.....and as parents with their 3rd kid, we're like, "eh, it's a virus, it'll go away".....vs. when it was Alaina at that age (our first child), we'd have had her to the doc's office PRONTO. So we didn't think too much about the whole cold thing with Zach. But Thursday night something was just not 'right'.....he was up ALL NIGHT LONG......and I was up with him....he finally passed out around 1 or 2 in the morning. He was coughing his head off and was burning up with fever......I had to get up around 5 and go to work (blah) so karl called in sick and stayed home with him and took him to the doctor. And the diagnosis? The early stages of Pneumonia. lovely. Poor thing. Glad we didn't wait any longer to take him in. When I found out about that, I felt SO guilty for not taking him in sooner to see the doctor. :( I left work early to come home to be with him. Poor little Zach. They gave him a breathing treatment at the hospital and some pretty strong antibiotics and some medicine for the cough and he's doing SO much better now. Whew! I hate it when little ones are sick. You feel utterly and completely helpless. But he's on the mend and will probably be fully recovered by tomorrow. YAY!

Friday at work, before I bailed out early to come home to a sick toddler......a former co-worker, Mary came by and we went out to lunch together at our beloved Thai Kitchen. it was so nice to just sit and chat with her for awhile. I really miss working in a group that actually has FUN at the office. She's in a new group now too, so she feels my pain in missing our old group. It's a bummer. But the yummy thai food was excellent as always, and it was a nice break in the day.

Friday night my parents came out to visit again, so we were up late chatting with them. I crashed since I'd been up most of hte night before......then on Saturday morning we had swimming lessons for the kids. We opted to NOT put Zach in the water since he'd been so sick.....so we just watched Alaina/Matthew's classes. Then after a quick lunch at home, we all headed downtown to the St. Louis Auto Show.

My dad LOVES cars. LOVES cars. My family is a car family. More specifically, my family is a Ford family. I don't know why exactly, but my dad just loves Ford cars. So that's what we all drive for the most part (my brother the rebel has a Dodge van though...shame on him!). It's not like he'd disown us for driving something else (obviously as my brother's still alive and all!), I think we just do it in homage to him, kwim? So when we got to the auto show downtown, there was no question where we were going to spend the bulk of the afternoon! :P

As bad as my Dad's health is (and it stinks, trust me), being around all those cars put a lot of spring into his step yesterday! He ditched his wheelchair AND his cane to stick his head under hoods and climb into driver seats for hours. It was too funny to watch. The kids had a blast too, climbing into and out of cars. I think they loved it mostly because they didn't have to sit in carseats! Silly kids! We even scored some Ford t-shirts (I'm not much of an athlete, but compared to the old guys around me, I can outjump them, so I nabbed the 2 shirts our family got).

When we figured Dad had had enough, we left and headed out to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants: the Olive Garden. So after waiting an hour for a table (BAH!), we had a pretty yummy dinner. Then on the drive home, we stopped at a Baskin Robbins to get Dad his favorite ice cream. Along with scoops for all of us too, duh! So it was a fun afternoon/night.

Today, we all got up and headed to church....then had lunch at Steak n Shake with my parents and Barry and Jeanne....then Jeanne and Alaina had their pre-baptismal class, Mom, Matthew, Zach and I went grocery shopping, and Barry, Karl and my dad took communion to a guy in the congregation that just got home from the hospital and is unable to come to church. So that was the afternoon. I guess I can't say I was shocked at the crowd at Walmart....I was actually kinda laughing at the mass of humanity in the soda/chip aisle. Lots of superbowl snacks in the making!

Which reminds me, I need to set my TiVo to record it so we can check out the commercials. I know this is almost anti-American of us.......but since neither Karl nor myself give a hoot about football, we never watch the actual game. We'll watch a movie or something and then when that's over, go check out the commercials and fast-forward through the game parts of the superbowl. Nobody invited us to a party this year, so it'll just be us here hanging out. We DO indulge in the fatty snack foods though.....hot wings and potato skins anyone? :P I'm all over THAT part! :P I kinda wish they'd make that a tradition for the World Series, as we're more of a baseball family around here!

But anyways, here's the layouts I did (since I never got around to posting the pictures like I said I would) of us last weekend at the St. Louis Science Center......if you're ever in town, check it out....it's free to get in and kids just absolutely love it!

Here's Alaina playing in the teepee and with all the native american stuff in the kids' Discovery room:

And probably the highlight was seeing Sue the t-Rex. You had to pay to see her, but it wasn't much (I think it was like $3/person...woo), and it was very cool:
And the rest of the afternoon:

Just FYI, that's my big foot standing in the footprint of Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever.....he was from Alton, IL, which is just south of where we live, so we know all about him. I just had to show off the fact that there are/were people with feet bigger than mine (and my feet are pretty big!)

Alaina/Matthew LOVED running around that hampster wheel....it was so funny to watch them! That was a very fun day....I'm sure we'll be back very soon!

Here's a couple from our cruise.....I was so angry at this......we somehow missed the embarkation photo op as we were getting on the ship! I don't know HOW we missed it, but neither of us saw any backdrops anywhere or saw a line or anything that would make us think they were taking pictures. Obviously they DID....we just never saw it. I was quite bummed, as I LOVE my staged photo ops! My only guess is that we bypassed it by taking elevators and such because we were pushing the stroller, etc......but anyhoo, on our first night, I insisted on this family picture to make up for it:

And this other one from our cruise, of the kids with Santa.....it was just too funny because Zach kept ringing that bell the entire time. He loved that thing!

My blessing for this week is our dear friends from church, Barry and Jeanne Murphey:

Journaling reads: We’ve known Barry and Jeanne Murphey ever since we moved out to the St. Louisarea. Initially, we only spoke to them at church, but as the years have gone by,we’ve developed a closer relationship with them and now come to think of them as family. Our kids consider them surrogate grandparents and Karl and I value their opinions and seek out their counsel on many things in our personal and our spiritual lives. They’ve been through a lot of the same things we’re currently going through, so they are a wealth of experience for us to tap into. They have been confidants and shoulders to cry on during difficult times and a source of fun and fellowship during the good times.We enjoy their company and value their friendship dearly. They are a huge blessing in the lives of our family.

So that's it for now......and even though I won't be watching.....Go Cardinals! (since Kurt Warner used to be a St. Louis Ram and all, I'll root for them as I'm watching something else!)

Have a great week everybody!