Such a bittersweet day....

Ten years ago today my oldest son Mitchell was born!! what an awesome day it was for us.....especially for me after being in labor for 30 hours and pushing for over 4 hours!!! So why bittersweet you might be thinking?!?! well today he decided to spend the day with us and the night with his friend at his first sleepover!!! I've been a little freaked out all week. I mean it's not even the kids birthday....it's MITCHELLS birthday! No really I'm happy for him and really tried not to make him feel too guilty for not choosing me :) a little guilty maybe! We did have a good day, being the birthday boy he got to plan the day. We started with lunch at El Toro (his favorite restaurant) then a movie, National Treasure (both were awesome) then we hit Toys-R-Us so he could do a little shopping then Circuit city so he could pick up a new x-box 360 controller. Now I'm packing for a crop tomorrow and the little guy and Brian are playing the new Star Wars battleship the boys got for Christmas.....I think right now Matty is winning =o)

Here are a couple pictures from Christmas....

the boys setting up Santa's cookies & milk....later both wrote notes for Santa, Mitchell letting him know he's welcome to use our restroom if he needs to (with a space for him to sign if he does use it!) and Matty just letting him know that he loves him and loves Christmas. Currently Mitch's note is mia.....looking very hard to find it!!

Matty asked Santa for a Bantha set.....DUH!!! the Tuskan Raiders use Bantha's for transportation in Episodes 2 and 4. (it's that rat looking thing on his lap =o)

Santa brought Mitchell the AT-AT he's been drooling over for months!! yes another Star Wars Christmas for us!!

Lobot.........lobot........has anyone seen lobot??

I hope that everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did and your hearts are filled with Joy.

God Bless you

Mom update

I forgot to post an update, she is doing very well!! She had 3 blockages, 2 stints were put in, the other wasn't a large enough blockage to warrant a stint. Thanks to everyone!!! She was even back at work yesterday!!! WOW the wonders of modern medicine!!

"dad will only kill you...."

So that's not something you want to hear your son tell you right?!?! lets back up to yesterday afternoon. I had told the boys we'd go see Santa before he left town for his big night. We go to the little mall.....no Santa....so we're off to the big crowded mall. It was so cute, the boys seemed a little star struck when they saw him and had to be encouraged to go up and talk with him. They had a great visit and Santa was impressed with only 1 request per boy. So then we're looking around the mall a little and we see a pet store. It's been there for a while but we don't get to the mall often. Right there in the big window are 3 of the most adorable little puppies ever!!! Tiny little white mops with a few black spots.....some kind of cross breed I can't remember right now. So I'm standing there in the window whiney like a 10 year old....please can we get a puppy!?!?!? while Mitchell is telling me that we shouldn't even be looking and that I know we can't get a puppy. I say "I know daddy will kill me" then Matty chimes in with well if daddy will only kill you can we get one?? I'm almost afraid to wonder if he was serious!! Needless to say I'm still alive and we didn't come home with a puppy!

Please pray for my mom

I'll try to keep this short :) On Sat 12/8 my mom called me crying, seems for the last week or so she's been having some chest pains. She was having one right then but it was worse and lasting longer then the previous times so she called me. I insited she go to the ED, I went and picked her up to take her in. She had some EKG changes and was admited so they could moniter her. She was released on Sun and had a follow up stress test scheduled for 12/17. Well yesterday morning she had another episode of chest pain so she called her dr as soon as she got to work (she also works at the hospital) but this time the chest pain included some radiating arm pain so they got her in for a nuclear stress test (something new, I'm not sure I have the right name for it) anyway the test confirmed some kind of blockage in her heart. I'm picking her up this morning for a cardiac catheterization. This can either fix the blockage or let them know what needs to be done next. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers today, she's not exactly in the best health to start with. She's my best friend

Yes I'm still here!!! barely but still here. We've had a crazy past few weeks. I kept waiting to blog until I had some pictures to share.....and well you know how that goes.

So I'll start with a picture :) This is Mitchells pumpkin, I'm sure with the cleaver you could've figured it out!!

The boys always have a great time carving the pumpkins!

OK so I'm not sure how to place these pictues where I want them......above on the right is Brian helping Matty with his makeup. Matty designed his costume all by himself. He also drew Brian a picture of how he wanted his makeup and checked it often to make sure Brian was following his directions!

and here they are......my nerd and my monster!!! aren't they adorable!!!

now fast forward to my 40th birthday!!! we took the boys and headed to Chicago to spend a couple days at the Museum of Science and Indstry....I know about this time you're thinking, not a far stretch for Mitchell to be a nerd for Halloween!! well the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ;-) here are my guys with one of their heros...

My yummy cake!! it was as good as it looks too!!

Matty was the super star last week in class. Mitchell came down and joined me to watch him talk about himself to his class. Mitchell is standing on the right.

well not much else has been doing on here. We're trying to figure out where and how we might put up a Christmas tree...if we don't figure it out soon it won't be an issue!! Most of our shopping is done, this is a pretty light year gift wise. Kids have way too much they sure don't need more. They're getting a few big items and that'll do them just fine.

The boys and I have been busy getting the house nice and clean. Last week we went room by room each day after school. It was great they were such good helpers.....probably because they had to work off not going to swimming!! We all agreed Mitchell's room was by far the worst!! Today they were supposed to work on the playroom while I worked in my scraproom (which really IS the worst room in the house) but the boys caught me surfing the net and said it wasn't fair for them to be working while I wasn't.......so because I'm so UNmotivated to get my scraproom cleaned and organized I did some laundry inbetween surfing, shopping and catching up on my blog reading while they played all day. it was a win win situation.......well except for the playroom and my scraproom are still a mess!!!

Brian spent 11 hours at the library today!! his classes end on Wed.....until next semester! I'm so proud of him, I think there were several times he really wanted to quit. But he didn't and he'll be glad when he's done.

I hope everyone is feeling the spirit!!

Random stuff

I'm slepless tonight......in about 8 hours I'm leaving for my last retreat as hostess. I'm planning on having a wonderful time! It's always good to see friends.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

I went with Matty's class to The Great Pumpkin Patch, and let me tell you.....it was!!! The bus ride was about an hour, but well worth the wait! After having a picnic lunch we were set free to explore the acres and acres of pumpkins! (along with some squash I've never seen before!) Here are a couple pictures from the day.

Matty insisted on having his picture taken with the Yoda "dummy"

Here is his "came out of the hay maze alive" pose!! (notice the mint in his mouth!!)

Today

Today didn't start off too bad for me. After working out (5 weeks straight!!!!) I found a nice cold diet dr pepper in the van....gotta love my dh!!

I have a PTA board meeting at school today - still need to shower. I'm hoping for a quickie trip to WM for a few things.....namely a card reader, I can't seem to find mine and I still have pictures from July on my card

I have dinner to plan a class to attend then when I get home from there it's SURVIVOR time. The boys are really bummed that I'm not watching it with them, so I might have to start watching twice, once when I get home from class (since there's no way I can wait) then again over the weekend with them. This is one of my all time favorite shows ever and we've (ok mostly I) always made a big deal about survivor night.

OK so most of you know that this fall is the last retreat I'm hosting....I'm kinda bummed, sad, happy and excited all at the same time!!!

I'm also in the middle of an inventory reduction!! so here's a special to all my blog fans...use this code at www.AllAmericanScrapbookCo.

Blog1

this doesn't apply to events.

Don't you just love it when......

you have a day where everything seems to go just right?!?! Well today was one of those days for me!!

• I got up and went to curves without even thinking about skipping!
• Got home, did an email check then got the PTA newsletter and calendar completed
• Met with a friend to discuss some business.......all I will say for now is WOO HOO!!!
• Got the boys from school came home and got their afternoon routine done
• Met Brian at the mini golf for Thomas Paine (boys school) day! ( got a bunch of pictures!!)
• Had a very quick dinner with the family at Mitchells choice - Spaghetti shop
• Went to my class and felt AWESOME after!
• Stopped at Sonic for a super size Diet Dr. Pepper!!!
• Came home and watched SURVIVOR!!! GO Fei Long!!!

Tomorrow is also going to be awesome! I do have to go up to school to pass out the above mentioned calendar & newsletter but that shouldn't take too long. Then I'll come home, tidy up a bit and start packing to go to an ALL day crop on Saturday!!!

I had a princess day

I watched my niece Trini today, she is such a cutie!! so all day I was Princess Aunt Laurie and she was of course Princess Trini!! we had fun playing, shopping and going out to lunch. We didn't have time to go to the park but I gave her a pass to call me sometime for a trip down a local slide. I had my camera in the van but didn't get a single picture. I really need to set a goal to take more pictures.

I've been going in so many directions lately that I'm not sure which way is forward. Hopeing things settle down and clear up.

Cub scout fun day was yesterday, I did get some pictures there, but haven't uploaded them, I'll try and post some tomorrow. The boys had a great time but boy was it hot!! The news tonight said we had no 90 degree days in July but have had 9 in September!! One of the newscasters noted at this rate it's going to snow in May! Someone needs to let mother nature know it's fall!

Brian hasn't felt good all weekend, he doesn't get sick often but when it does it seems to really wear him down. I hope he starts feeling better and back to normal.

Did I mention I started going to Curves??

My good buddy started and has been bugging me to go with her. She said she wouldn't stop until I gave her a good reason why I can't go too......and since I couldn't come up with one I decided to re-join (I was going 2 years or so ago got really sick and never went back) so I made my appointment and started last week. Today was the end of my second week (I refuse to sweat on the weekends!!) My friend always weighs herself as we leave, I don't......thinking if I don't see results I'll stop going.....but today I thought oh why not......ready for this.....I've lost 10 lbs!!!!!! Holy crap I can hardly believe it. I am also walking to and from school most days and that's 2.5 miles. I'm so proud of myself!!!Maybe I'll start posting a pic of myself on my official weigh in day??

It's Friday!!!

Things have been pretty crazy since school started.....I'm back in full swing as President of the PTA, Mitchell has gone on 2 all day field trips and Matty is reading up a storm!!! I've done a full inventory of my store and am getting ready to vend hand made items at a HUGE local craft show......whew!! So I'm not going to vend at a scrap show or go to a 2 day crop all going on this weekend.....instead I'm staying home to clean and organize. I had been keeping up with my wife & mom duties so good since we moved here until school started. So I need this weekend to get back on track. My goal is to start crafting during the days 1. because I WANT to and 2. because I need items to fill my booth at the show!!! I have 2 great friends going in on the booth with me so all the pressure isn't on me.. I also ordered 2500 business cards for the show. I have no idea how many people come thru there but it's HUGE so I want to be prepared.

My legs still hurt!!

I sure can feel a difference in how I feel already!! Today is was so hot and humid I almost drove to pick the boys up but I didn't!!! (yea me!!) I spent the day with my mom.....and we had a good day!! We went to lunch then ran a few errands....including going to Curtis Orchard so she could pick up a pie for her game night and anyone local knows you can't go there without getting some apple cinnamon donuts!! We each ate one as soon as we left! I got a dozen, the boys had one after school, well Mitchell had 2 he said he couldn't help it he needed another one =oD they are good!! I want to take the boys back in the fall, they usually go on a field trip there with school too. It's a great place to get some good pictures, they also have a fun play area and goats to feed.

OK I love my new computer....but I really HATE windows vista, the tech support people keep telling me that once I figure it out I'll really like it....I'm having a terrible time getting my software loaded. Right now I'm trying to install my Craft Robo software....very frustrating.

I was on a message board today and someone posted a question "who is your hero?" mine, hands down is my husband Brian. I had never really thought about it before...but wanted to share that.

My legs are hurting!!

The boys started school on Wed......so among other things it also means that we start up our walking to and from school again. Last year I was really hit or miss about it and I told the boys we needed to walk twice a week..... big surprise -that never happened!!! So on Wed I started walking 2.5 miles a day, that's broken up into 2 1.25 walks. I keep telling myself it'll get better!! The boys keep asking if we can drive, but I'm holding firm (not like me at all!!) I do enjoy the quiet time and not having the distractions of life, this morning on my way home it was so quiet, the birds were chirping, it was very peaceful.

IT'S HERE IT'S HERE

my new computer that is!!! I got it yesterday and in less then 15 seconds I had it out of the box and plugged in to charge!! it's the most gorgeous shade of green!

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The boys were SO excited, they've been asking me everyday if its coming....I couldn't figure out why, so I asked.....When the Simpsons movie was ready to start there was a commercial about getting Simsonized but old faithful wouldn't do it (not in a timely manor anyway) So they've been waiting all this time

Here is a picture of me and Mitchell before heading off to school

Mitchell (the ham!!)

Matty (even hammier!!!)Me and Matty

Bittersweet day

Today is the day I dread all year long.....sending my boys back to school!! I hate having them gone all day, but I love the excitement of back to school. I really hated going back to school as a child and don't really ever remember being excited about school. Both boys got up super early today and we were all ready to go 30 min early!! I had already taken our traditional first day of school pictures so we took some silly pictures. I'd post some of the pictures but my computer is doing downhill fast!! and I can't get them to upload =-( hopefully the new one would arrive soon and I can share some pictures. I went to both of their classrooms and took some pictures. It's so hard to believe my babies are in 2nd and 4th grade!! I know every mom says this but I sure don't know where the time has gone!

I had the BEST weekend!!

Thank you Daiva, Tammy, Trina and Lori!!! I had such a good time!! and I got 8 pages and a mini book done!!! well 4 of the pages still need a title but that shouldn't be too hard to finish up. I'm going to follow up an awesome weekend with friends with an awesome weekend with my family! Over labor day weekend Brian is going to take the boys on a couple of day hikes and I think I'll join them for one..........lol don't want to over do myself!!

Starting new

OK I talked to my good buddy Lori today....for a long time, sorry Lori!! and Thanks to Tammy and Brandi. All three of the people that read my blog!! And I feel SO much better, I'm thinking after this weekend I'll be back to my normal self confident self!! This situation isn't my fault and I didn't do anything wrong........other then letting them get away with taking advantage of me for so long!!! There I said it........wrote it down for all to read!!! All 3 of you!!! I love you guys!! thanks, you have no idea what your friendship means to me!! ((HUGS))

sigh......life goes on

Well this week we're pretty much gotten back in to the swing of life. We are at one week until school starts, Matty is the only one excited about going back. Brian starts back today, it'll be a challenge for him to not get completely stressed out. I'll have to work even harder to keep things running at home without bugging him too much about things.

Then there's this other major unresolved stress in my life. Is it better that it isn't getting resolved?? I had told myself that the longer it took the less likely it would be to end well. The longer time goes on the more I know things won't be good. It'll never be like it was, I know that. I know that it also affects the decisions I'm needing to make now, it's probably the main reason I can't seem to decide on things.

I'm going to crop with some great friends this weekend, I thought about not going. I sure don't need to sit there crying while they're trying to crop and have a great time. But I haven't cried since......well yesterday morning LOL and I'm thinking that being around some wonderful people is just what I need.

Surprise!!

Brian came home early, he surprised me yesterday. Walked right in the door, I didn't even hear him come in......LOL thankfully I was working in my craft room. Then I heard the boys talking to someone, freaked me out since they've been know to open the door and invite people right in. I guess I didn't sound very good on the phone Friday night so he cancelled a meeting and came home. We had a nice evening, dinner out then I fell asleep. I haven't been sleeping well (go figure) and I just crashed once we came home. It sure helps having someone I know loves me, so close.

It's so hard to sort through some of this stuff, I don't want or need it but it's hard to just throw it away.........so it's taking a little longer then I had hoped.

I'm trying to decide if I should do a scrapbook show, I've done it before, I wouldn't call it a huge success but I have gotten a few good retreat attendees from it. UGH For just one month I wish someone could come in and make all my decisions for me.

Pity Party......Table for 1

Well last night was the cherry pit on top of a pretty crappy week. I think this cherry had 2 pits in it!! I don't think I believe in karma anymore, in fact there seems to be a lot of things I don't believe in anymore, but I sure don't know what the heck I did to deserve this. I'm sure in a little while (I won't say a few days since right now I feel like I've got it coming at me from every direction) I'll look back on this time in my life and think it wasn't so bad, that I was just over sensitive. We'll see....

ARRG!!

I just needed to say that (or scream it!!) I can't wait for Brian to come home!!

I'm having a bad week

I haven't had a week (it's only been 2 days!! it just feels like longer) like this in a long time! I don't understand why people are dishonest. Especially people who you are really close to. For me being a friend is something I don't take for granted, if you are my friend I'd do anything I can for you. This person in particular I've gone out of my way for more times then I can count or remember. And without even thinking I'd inconvenience myself and even my family sometimes.........but that's what you do for friends right?? I've been hurt to the core of my soul, I'm not sure if this can be righted...

Alone again...

Brian left a couple hours ago and won't be home until next Sunday. I'm so glad this is the last of his trips.......for a while anyway. The boys and I are going to kick it into high gear and finish up this scrapbook room/family room re-organization. He's going to be SO surprised when he gets home!! That's the plan anyway.

He did hang my printer shelf yesterday so I got that area done, it looks so much better.

So today was another hot one. We were going to go to the pool but decided it was too hot.......can you imagine how hot it must be to not want to go to the pool!?!?! The boys had a couple friends come over and ended up staying for the night.

School registration is tis week with the last day being tomorrow......I guess I need to go LOL I'm not sure why I don't want to go, it could be that I cant' believe school is almost here or the registrations fee's LOL since buying the house I've gotten more frugal (although my better half wouldn't agree) There is a make up day next week if I find I'm still not ready tomorrow!

News from the scrap room - I am finished sorting the scrap stuff that was packed. So today I took all the ribbon and metal embellishments and got them organized........felt good but didn't seem to make a dent on the counter top!! Tomorrow I'll work on my desk. Oh I also got 10 cd's woth of pictures off my computer!! I've got to get all the important stuff off here before the new one gets here. I'm hoping to use this one for the retreats and the boys inbetween, but it needs sme work.

I hope everyone is staying cool!!

it's so HOT

Oh my the arm pit of summer has arrived!! It's been hot hot hot and it's not going to let up for a while it seems. So I'll do my best to stay inside! Depending on what we have going on I told the boys on Friday we might go to the cool pool across town. They have a couple twisty slides and a lazy river.

My scrap room is coming along. It's actually kinda freaky at how much I'm getting done. (I'm not always known for my productivity!) I've sorted over half the boxes I had left. I can't wait to get them all done so I can figure out what I need storage for and find a place for everything.

School registration is this week. I'm going to wait until the last possible minute to register....maybe even next week for the make-up day!!! I can't believe summer break is almost over. It'll be awesome to see all the renovations at the school tho!!

This is a picture of my guys on the beach of Lake Michigan across from the Museum of Science and Industry.

Well Brian left a few hours ago :( his traveling is bittersweet.....I miss him and all that he does to help me but it's nice to have a more flexible schedule. He helped me hang up some shelves yesterday I love how they turned out.

Across the bottom shelf I have small round glass jars with my alphabets in them A-Z then 2 on the middle shelf hold the &'s and #'s the rest of the jars/bottles hold flowers......mostly prima's. I don't get to use them in my scrapbooking much, having two boys, but I sure do enjoy looking at them!!

What a great week!

First I was gone for my summer retreat with AASC once I got home Brian left for Quantico Va. He was gone for 8 days. He's home for this week then off again for 2 weeks. So we had decided to spend a few days in Chicago for some much needed family time. The museum of Science and Industry has a CSI exhibit that we thought the boys would love. I was a little hesitant since I remember the museum being a little {boring} but figureing I live with 3 science geeks I thought I'd go along for the good time and maybe a little shipping. WOW either I've matured a little or the museum has gone thru a major renuvation.....I think maybe alittle of both!!. Anyway we had a FANTASTIC time!! On the way up we stopped at Fudduckers for dinner, the boys had such a good time they asked if we could eat lunch there instead of McD's on the way home!! So we did :)
We stopped at Archivers where I finally found the BG file set I've been looking for. Wed am we were off to the MoS&I Brian wanted to leave a little early incase we hit traffic, there really wasn't any so we got there early. We walked under Lake Shore Drive and got some morning pictures on the beach. The sun was shinining just a little too bright and it was very hot but I took the pictures anyway. Once the museum opened time seemed to fly by, the CSI exhibit was awesome both boys figured out their assigned case and had a blast!! (we can't wait to go back for the Star Wars exhibit!!) We didn't get to see most of the museum, but that's OK since we can't wait to go back!! We stopped at a cool bison & beef grill for dinner then headed to IKEA. We'd never been and I've been wanting to go for years!! I've ordered off the website and was uber excited when I say the store...........it's HUGE!!! I practically ran inside.......I'm not sure if my expecations were just too high or if it's because I wasn't really looking for anything specific but I was a little disappointed. I thought the employees were a little rude too. But I did **manage** to buy a few things ;-) It was a great few days!!

Today I went to the anuual Cain family reunion. My Grandma Schweighart is a Cain and this is her siblings. I always look forward to going and seeing the family I never get to see any other time. It was also my Uncle Ronnies 70th birthday.........8-) I didn't believe it, he looks awesome for his age (I hope I inherit that!!) I volunteered/got volunteered to help organize and send out reminders for the future reunions. We voted to move it back to Sunday next year. Sat didnt' give us much of a turnout with a lot of cousins working. THen my mom realized that it would be on Uncle Ronnies birthday again next year!! Once she told him he said in that case he'd like some presents too!!! It was also kinda sad, my Aunt Maxine seems to be having more trouble with her memory. She's such a beautiful and kind woman, it's hard seeing her like that.

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.....WOW what a ride!!! I can't believe it's over. I do still have the last two movies to look forward to. I'm trying to get the boys to read the books....what a great adventure!!!

So for the last 8 weeks or so I'be been doing some major decluttering.......it's so cathardic! I've gone from room to room not moving on until I was satisfiyed with how I'd done. We had a huge garage sale and blessed the community with our clutter!! Now this week I'm woking on the last room........my scrapbook room. I'm not sure if I left this room for last because it was a low priority or because I knew it would overwhelm me the most! I have wall to wall furniture in here and it's not working for me. So my mom is going to take one of my project cabinets and bring a book case in return. That should give me just enough space to swap out the tables and have the room set up like I {think} I want it. I'm thinking I might ask Brian to move some shelves over just a little. I'm sure it's a big job but it'll make things fit so much better. Wish me luck!! I need to have the majority of this done before he gets home on Sunday!

how do you balance work life vs home life? now how do you balance it when your work life is at home with your home life? Over the years I've tried different things to make it work but it seems the busier my work load gets the harder it is for me to adjust. If I focus on work, home suffers and if I focus on home, work suffers.....what's a wahm to do? So I'm making up chore charts for all of us and crossing my fingers this helps. The boys aren't very excited about it, but I tried to explain it's a lot of stuff they're already doing, but now it'll be written down. Change is good.......right??

a new look

just testing the new template