some favorite hangs

I used Google image search to find this photo, but it needed lots of work. I adjusted the highlights, shadows and midtones to make the buildings pop and then played with the levels a bit. Photoshop Elements and I make such a nice team. Anyway, these are some of my favorite Austin hangs. Love this town. Hope we can stay here for the long haul.

I'm so drained. I don't think I've ever caught up on sleep from Friday night. I did manage to bake some delicious homemade blueberry muffins, however. I can't believe it's already the start of another week. This family needs a vacation from the norm.

Never ever...

think to yourself, "My... it's been a whole year with no ER visits!" because when you do, you've put that out into the universe that perhaps it's time to have one. Or two. Like yesterday.

Set the scene: Nordstrom's parking lot. Date with Jack. I open the van door. Jack climbs in. I hear him shut it. I hear him cry. I open the other van door to see Jack's hand wedged in-between the car and the door. He's stuck. Immediately dial 911. 4 minutes later, Austin' Fire Department arrive. Then EMS. About 7 firemen (that I bothered to count) climb into my van with crow bars and wedges. They were able to free young Jack without dismantling the car. (Thank God!) Jack's fingers are bruised, but otherwise, he's fine. Profusely thank all the EMS and Fire Dept people and try to stop shaking.

Arrive home. Decide to take the 3 kids to a local drop-in daycare place we've used for years and go have a quiet dinner with my hubby alone. On the way to go pick them up, the phone rings. Thinking perhaps Lucy or Luke were at their melting point we answered stating that we were in route. Nope. L & L were just fine. It was our oldest. He lost balance on a low-lying floor-based trampoline and whacked the side of his head on a window seal. (Why a trampoline was near sharp objects is a conversation I will have today with the day-care's owner.)  Head to Seton SW. Wait. Get seen by triage. Get a room. Wait some more. Get lidocaine on laceration. Wait some more. ER doc has Jack lye down. Get 2 surgical staples in skull along with swanky new hair cut and bald spot. Head home. Collapse by 12:30am.

We all know the moral to this story, eh?

I've been tagged

My friend Corinne, an Austin transplant currently living in beautiful Honolulu, ABC tagged me. I love these things. I must comply.

A - Attached or Single? Very attached

B - Best Friend? Mark

C - Cake or Pie? Pie - apple, please

D - Day of Choice? Saturday (or Friday night)

E - Essential item? my imac

F - Favorite color? yellow at the moment

G - Gummy bears or worms? neither - yuck

H - Hometown? Austin

I - Favorite Indulgence? Tiff's Treats cookies

J - January or July? January

K - Kids? 3

L - Life isn't complete without? running and boot camp

M - Marriage date? August 24, 1996

N - Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 1 sister

O - Oranges or apples? apples

P - Phobias and fears? losing control

Q - Quote? see the side of my blog. I'm listing good ones!

S - Season of choice? as long as it's not 100 degrees for 40+ days in a row, I'll take it. So I guess that leaves... uh... January

T - Tag 3 people? Betty, Diana Kristen (the only friends I have who keep blogs...)

U - Unknown fact about me? I played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz in 8th grade. I was famous. *sigh* the good ole days... 

V - Vegetable? Red bell peppers

W - Worst habit? popping zits... 

X - X-ray or ultrasound? ultrasound

Y - Your favorite food? At the moment - Dreyers 1/3 reduced fat cookies and cream ice cream bars. They're heavenly.

Z - Zodiac sign? Aquarius

Feel free to post a comment with your own answers.... would love to see them!

A day with my daughter

This layout is simple, sweet and to the point... A million things ran through my head when I created it, and my list of promises could be a mile long. I decided to emphasize the items that were most important to me - support, respect, admiration, and love. Those who know me understand that my mother and I shared a rocky relationship - especially in the few years preceding her death. I'm not naive. I know that Lucy and I will have our ups and downs. I simply hope that I'm able to remain calm (something my mother could rarely, if ever, accomplish), take a deep breath and know that I am doing all that I can to foster a supportive and loving relationship.

Special day today for my daughter and I... we shared our first "Mommy/Lucy date" and spent the day together while the boys went off to do their own thing. We shopped a little at Michaels where Lucy carefully selected her own ColorWonder book charming the socks off of all who saw her while she pondered her options. From there, we wandered over to pet the doggies in front of PetCo. She fell in love with a giant black lab mix who would lay his head in her hand calmly and remain very still while she stroked the top of his head with her other hand. We headed home to eat lunch and watch the Food Network together. She had lots to say about the yummies she saw and would often offer her own commentary with several "mmmmmm...'s". She's currently screaming in her crib right now. Naptime. She wasn't thrilled, but her constant eye-rubbing and pausing to lay her head down while we played told me she was ready.

I hear the boys pulling in from the pool - sunbaked and tired. Maybe we can all take long nap... 

just a little bit sketchy

I completed this one for a fun challenge using sketches at Scrapbook Heaven. I've never worked with sketches choosing instead to eyeball something in a magazine and kinda-sorta take what I wanted from it while creating my own layout. Sketches, though, have given me a jumping off point that I didn't expect. They've essentially eliminated the hard part and given me the liberty to take the design and run. This layout turned out seriously sweet as a result; though I truly can't stand the way I look in this photo - 60 pounds heavier than I am now! It makes me dry heave. 

I'm whipped. Boot Camp has ramped up to a level that can only be considered hard core since there are so many repeat campers. There are no easy days. I still love it though. I love it so much that I am almost 100% positive that I am going to study to become a certified personal trainer. I'd love to help others in a group setting and instruct boot camp or teach exercise classes of my own or in a gym. Now that L & L are in a mother's day out program, and Jack will be entering Kinder in the fall, I will be able to focus on me a little bit more. Makes me uber excited.

Time to check a few blogs and go rest this weary soul... night night...

Whose foot is this?

*** Photo Removed for Publication ***

I love this photo and am so very thankful to Mark for capturing this moment. And I'm almost 100% certain it's Lucy. Almost. For the past few days I've been holding up both Lucy's foot and Luke's to this picture performing toe comparisons, and since the document in this picture belongs to St. David's, I don't have the original. So we'll just say that's Lucy and be done with it. Turned into a super sweet layout, though.

My week was long and weary. Luke came down with a fever on Tuesday. On Friday morning his fever spiked, so little dude went to see his pedi. I thought we'd be told that "it was a virus" and be sent on our way, but since there was no other symptoms - no runny nose, no bowel problems, no ear infection, she decided to do a blood draw and a chest x-ray. Luke's veins, like his momma's, are buried deep way underneath his skin. Finally, after the fourth prick, the phlebotomist hit a vein. Luke stayed so strong and never even whimpered until the very end. Such an amazing patient! From there, we traveled to Austin Radiological Association for his x-ray. He fell asleep in the car on the way over. Of course. So, I had to rouse his weary soul for more prodding. I was expecting a total revolt, but he was fascinated by the x-ray machine and began repeating his favorite phrase du jour - "it works!" From there, I took the sweet soul home where he slumbered for the next 4 hours.

And he woke up fever free. No kidding. After all of that, his fever broke and he's been bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun ever since.

Have you seen the new iphone G3? I'm in lust. I'm hoping that Santa will come early for me and bring me this little hand-held computer that doubles as the phone. Can you hear me Santa? Please?!

Removing the unremovable

It's creating cards like these that make smile on days when the DOW falls 200 points taking my savings down with it and my middle child (that would be Luke - who - technically - is the middle child born 2 minutes before his twin sister) spits Yo-Kidz tube yogurt all over my shirt while attempting to make zerbert noises.

I created the card for one of my friends in book club who is due in about 3 weeks with her 1st baby. Heaven help her. She knows not what she's in for. She could get a child like my little Lukie.

Jack, my sweet boy, never wrote on walls. He never ripped up books or took apart the vacuum cleaner to see how "it works" (Luke's newest phrase). Jack was predictable in his habits and has always appeared more mature than his peers. Lucy seems to be following in his footsteps save a few dramatic moments... ie... no one should dare try and remove the child's shoes from her feet. Luke, however, has me puzzling until my puzzler is sore. I thought I had put away all the pens, markers, crayons, etc, yet today he somehow finds a stray black, ball-point pen, and I spend the next 30 minutes removing said ball point from my door and walls with my new best friend - Magic Eraser. (By the way, Magic Eraser will take off the cheap-o Monarch paint that builder's use in all newly constructed homes.) Saturday he found some "washable" paint. He painted the carpet at the top of the stairs brown. Mark discovered this when Luke came running up to him with a beaming, proud smile plastered across his face and showed him his very brown hands. At first, Mark thought Luke had performed some unexpected craftiness with the contents of his diaper. Luckily, it was just (supposedly) washable paint. Luke operates on 2 modes - create and destroy. Both of which having me cleaning up after him - or saving his life since he has a fascination with light sockets and has managed to remove the "unremovable" protectors from the wall - during all of his waking hours.

*sigh* Do they make straight jackets for toddlers? Just kidding. Seriously.

Bang! Fizz! Cool!

Just completed this little diddy for Mad Cropper's Fireworks Layout Challenge. Every year the kids in our neighborhood gather in the street outside our house and blast-off loads of 'made-very-cheaply-in-China-so-I'm-pretty-sure-they'll-take-your-fingers-off-if-you-aren't-careful' fireworks. These are some of the beauties we fired off in 2007.

Journaling reads: "2007 Hopeland Drive Fireworks Show. Jack was old enough to light a few of his own!"

I wanted the colors and shapes for the layout to reflect the playfulness of the event. The kids were like little wild beasties running around with butane sticks firing off tanks and smoke bombs. What do you think? Mission accomplished?

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Sweet little Lucy confiscated her older brother's stinky Crocs a few days ago and toddled into my office to put them on. I asked if she needed help with them to which she violently shook her head "No!" For the next few moments, she entered deep concentration. Each shoe had to be on the correct foot. Once finished, she refused to take them off. 

Twinstant blogger mommy mentioned in this post that her daughter fell in love with a silver sparkly pair of shoes from Nordstroms. Guess what? So did Lucy, and I cratered and bought them for her. Lucy leaves a trail of silver sparkle glitter behind her wherever she goes. I'm surprised she took them off long enough to put on these nasty Crocs. For now I'll indulge this shoe fetish. To quelch it would truly be the 'pot calling the kettle black'. 

Here's Lucy's hip-Mama (that would be me) doing the same thing circa January 1977. I think I had better taste in shoe-swiping, however. I still remember hobbling around in those super cool Converse sneakers with no laces. 

And now - for a bit that has nothing to do with shoes, I give you my latest creation. I painted the dots on the birdie's wings with white acrylic paint and just traced the flowers on the blue paper. The little birds are supposed to represent my 3 little birdies - Jack, Luke and Lucy. Did you figure that one out for yourself?  Phew... Good!

The week has been hot and crazy busy with house chores and shuffling kids to and from camps and mother's day out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a more peaceful week to come. I have way too many projects on my desk right now!

sorry for the haitus

Crazy weekend... crazy week so far... 

Lots of fun pictures and some crafty displays coming tomorrow when I send all of my beasties away for the day. I need quiet. It's hard to come by when one twin is crawling under my desk pulling on my USB cables and the other is covering the wall in crayon.

Check back manana!