6 Things I Hate About Breastfeeding

What, you thought I would just tell you 5 Things I Love About Breastfeeding and go on with life without a mention of the not-so-delightful things about nursing? I tell it like it is, friends. I love breastfeeding. Like...I LOVE it. But I'd definitely be lying if I said I had never been annoyed with one thing or another about the breastfeeding journey. So here are the not-so-glorious things!

6 Things I Hate (or at least strongly dislike) About Breastfeeding

1. Nursing Hickeys. These tend to happen in the middle of the night when it feels like your eyelids are literally peeling off your face and you just don't care that the baby is hungry again. You get her latched (you think), and collapse back into your dreams of a place where bedtime is 4 o'clock in the afternoon, then wake up in the morning to find a bruise far more alarming than any actual hickey you ever got from kissing. Bright side: at least you don't have to hide this one with a turtleneck!

2. Nursing Covers. I started out loving these things. I had about four. I collected them because they were so cute. Fabric is ridiculously adorable these days, so you can find (or make) a nursing cover to match your nursery or your car seat or your clothing or anything that strikes your fancy. And that's great. But what's not great is trying to get your kid to actually eat under one of these things. This photo is me in the hospital, attempting to latch Lincoln (who didn't know how to latch) in a pile of Boppy and hospital gown and super cute green floral nursing cover. He was less than 24 hours old. Do you know what I wish I had instead? A photo of his sweet little face while he was attempting to nurse in his first day of life.

I'm a really really modest person. Honest. I nurse in public constantly, but I do not flaunt anything and I would be surprised if anyone has ever actually caught a full glimpse of skin as my kid latches. I'm not comfortable with people seeing my breasts, so I've learned that there are better ways to nurse without using a tent over your baby's head. When you're nursing a small infant, you really need two hands to do it right. That means you need three hands if you also have to hold the nursing cover out of the way to see what you are doing. Show me a mom with three hands and I'll gift her all these covers I have cluttering up my house.

If you want to nurse without a cover, just do it, mama. Let's start a revolution and actually let the newest generation of children think breastfeeding is normal because they see it happen. I don't want my kids to be shamed if they try to peek under a nursing cover to find out what the baby is doing. If they can see the baby, they'll just accept it and go on with life.

(I'm going to write another post on this subject as it seems I've been holding onto some pent-up anxiety about this....!)

3. Gymnurstics. I actually laugh at the antics of a nursing toddler most of the time. But sometimes, you really just want to be able to sit down on the couch and have a soothing moment with your child without her toe up your nose. Be considerate, little person. You certainly throw a big commotion if I try to pry anything out of your snot-crusted face. Mommy knows how to blow her own nose (point Mommy!).

Photo from my post about
Addie's Early Childhood Caries (tooth decay).

4. Tiny Teeth. When you decide to nurse past six months, you're going to encounter some of these bad boys. I've been pretty lucky - Addie has never been a biter, and Lincoln only thought it was funny for a few weeks. Some babies apparently belly laugh because their mama sounds funny when she screams after their tiny teeth have tried to take a not-so-tiny bite out of her.

A baby with sharp little teeth clamping down on your breast is seriously more painful than stepping on 1,000 LEGOs the wrong way.

Lincoln is almost weaned. At the end of nursing him, his latch became very lazy and each session was an experiment in how much can I take and tiny indentations in my skin. Not fun.

5. "Are You Stilllllllll Nursing Him/Her?" What, this kid attached to my chest right now? Yup. Still nursing that one. I thankfully don't get this one as often as I expect it. But it annoys me because - really - it doesn't matter if my child is six months or one year or two years or five years old, the decision to nurse him was mine and it was hard and I feel guilty enough about everything else I'm doing as a mom already. I don't need you to give me snarky words about how I'll ruin him for life, because it's proven I won't (at least not by breastfeeding him). This is something I am doing right and when I get nagged about it, it may just provoke me to nurse this kid until college. Take that.

6. Pumping. There is something inherently wrong with strapping a contraption to your body, then being happy as it suctions the life milk out of you. When I quit my part-time out of the home job, I was so done with pumping. And I only worked like 10-15 hours/week. Full-time working mamas and exclusive pumpers, you all have serious dedication and you win all the awesome points of the day.

Is it a bad thing that I wrote far more about the things I don't like than I did about the things that I do like? Whoops! What about you? If your kids were breastfed, what was your least favorite thing about it? No judgement!

The Swimming Pool Garden Fail

This spring, I decided we needed to grow a garden. It's on my Thirty by 30 list. I thought this was as good a year as any to start working toward the goal of having fresh, organic produce growing right in my own backyard.

The only issue was...I definitely did not have the time to put together a garden bed of any sort. We barely keep the lawn mowed around here, so yard work is kind of a stretch for us. There are some trees growing in our fence that need to be decimated. The rose bush in our front yard is threatening to create a fortress that barricades the front door. So, I tried to be realistic in my gardening expectations. And I planted my vegetables in a kiddie pool.

Yes. I'm serious. I saw this idea somewhere (in a book, I think) and considered it brilliant. It was a manageable size. It could sit right outside my back door on the deck where I could monitor the awesome veggie growth. With a few holes drilled in the bottom of the pool, it was sure to drain any excess water. It seemed perfect.

And for awhile, it was. My carrots and peas and broccoli sprouted up beautifully. There were glorious bits of green reaching up to the sky. I was so pleased! Friends who came to my house said "whoa! I can't believe this stuff is growing in a pool!" And I said, I know, isn't it awesome.

Somehow, it was so awesome that I managed to fail to take ANY PHOTOS of the beautiful veggie sprouts, so you'll just have to believe me that they were there.

Then...it rained. And a couple days later, it poured. And then we had downpours for days on end. The three little holes in the bottom of my pool could not keep up. I was constantly out dumping cups full of muddy, grungy water out of the pool. My carrots were drowning. Somehow they had been caught in the valley of the pool and they were literally washed away.

I thought maybe the broccoli and peas would survive. They still looked okay. We drilled more holes in the pool and hoped for the best.

But unfortunately, this is the best we got. There are a few pathetic sprigs of life left, and a maple tree from a fly-by seed and some weeds. I did neglect my pool garden in the weeks following the epic rainfall, so it's probably at least partially my fault. I still believe this idea can work and I'll probably try it again next year. But...I'm also hoping to build a real garden bed.

Because the only thing that's still alive in my garden this year are the melons I planted in the actual ground.

Fine. Lesson learned.

Note to Self: Expect Less

I expect too much. I believe that motherhood means setting new expectations, but in spite of declaring it to the world, I have yet to wrap my brain around the idea.

I expect too much of myself. I feel that I can somehow, always take on more sewing or drama or organizing projects and finish them on time. It almost never happens and then I am stressed out, irritable, and weary.

I expect too much of my husband. I want him to always accept that the house is a disaster, dinner isn't made, and we are out of clean clothes (again). I don't want to ever have to remind him to do anything, so when I do - it bothers me. And it shouldn't, because he's just as exhausted as I am.

I expect too much of my kids. Other people have children who appreciate sleep, so I feel that mine should too. The thing is, I don't sleep either (too many other things to do) - so I don't know why I would think they will. I think they should be able to occupy themselves for an hour while I cook or clean or write, but that never happens.

And lately, I especially expect too much of Lincoln. This beautiful, amazing kid is three years old and I sometimes seem to think that means he should be able to wake up quietly in the morning so as to not disturb his sister, who is typically sleeping on top of me. I feel like he should be able to finally decide he's okay with being potty trained. He should know that he can't climb on the table or play in the fridge or eat graham crackers all day as he sees fit. He should be able to get in his car seat without climbing in the driver's seat and pushing 14 buttons first. 

I get so frustrated with him, but he doesn't deserve it. I need to be teaching, not scolding. Helping him make better choices, not making him just as discouraged as I am. If I am reacting poorly to decisions he makes, how is that setting him up for life?

This parenting thing, friends? It's really, really hard. And I definitely don't have it even close to figured out.

The Day I Almost Lost Lincoln + 3 Tips to Avoid Distracted Driving

"Two hands, Mommy!"

I look in the rear view mirror at my three-year-old's face as he insists over and over again that I need two hands. "Two hands for what, buddy?" I ask.

"DRIVE with two hands! Two hands, Mommy! Drive the car with two hands!"

I don't know why this is so important to him, but I comply. My other hand was just resting on my lap. I wasn't adjusting the radio, applying makeup, or checking my phone. But...in my heart I know that I could have been.

These guys are my most important treasures.

I think everyone has probably done something to distract themselves while driving, at some point. We're all human. We all have deadlines and we're all (usually) in a rush to get somewhere on time. I have put on mascara at a stoplight. I've sent text messages before leaving a parking lot. Am I proud of this? No, but I admit that I have been distracted in the past.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), of the nearly 33,000 roadway fatalities in 2012, there were 3,328 fatalities and approximately 421,000 injuries in distracted driving-related crashes. Hold up a minute. 3,328 fatalities?

That's way, way too many. In fact, one is too many.

Here's another Lincoln story - but this one isn't quite as adorable as the "drive with two hands" tale. Last week, I took the kids to the grocery store. My mom went with me, so we had a 1-to-1 adult-to-kid ratio. I figured we were pretty safe with one person in charge of each kid, so after buying food, we went to check out a nearby outdoor fountain display. The kids were fascinated by the water and were really happy to run around and stretch their legs before we drove home.

It happened so fast. One minute, Lincoln was running in circles by the water with Addie. And then the next minute, I caught his eye as he inched away from the fountain...and bolted.

This kid has always been a runner, but we've made strides. He's getting better about listening to me when I tell him he has to stop his feet because it's dangerous to run away from mommy. He may not completely understand, but he doesn't complain (much) about being required to hold hands in parking lots and not being allowed to play in our front yard. So I didn't expect this from him.

I dropped my phone and keys and ran after him as he hightailed it toward the very busy parking lot, but I could tell immediately I wouldn't get to him in time. I called him - at first stern, then pleading, and then hysterical - to tell him to STOP. His entire short three years flashed before my eyes. My heart felt like it would seize and my flip-flops felt like they were made of lead.

He finally stopped...barely a foot from the street, and cars continued to whiz past us. He was laughing. He didn't understand what he had just narrowly avoided.

I'm never going to forget that day. Because what if he hadn't stopped? What if he had run out into that busy parking lot? And what if someone had been sending a text - looking down at their smartphone screen - at that very moment, because in a parking lot the danger isn't as "real" while behind the wheel? 

My baby was very nearly a statistic of distracted driving. I'm not cool with that. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Auto Alliance are striving to increase awareness about the risks of distracted driving. Will you join me and "decide to drive" every single time you get behind a wheel?

Here are my top 3 ideas to stop distracted driving!

1. Make a car-wide no gadget policy - whether you're the driver or passenger. My kids don't watch movies in the car unless we are on a long road trip. If they're not used to seeing screens in a car all the time, maybe when they learn to drive, the idea will be crazy to them.

2. Keep your phone in your purse, diaper bag, or backseat - just somewhere that is out of reach. That email or Facebook notification sound is tempting, but so not worth the risk.

3.  Put a family photo on your dashboard to remind you that those you love are counting on youto keep them safe. Nothing is more important than the safety of those you love - especially not something as trivial as wearing eyeshadow, tweeting a response to a celebrity, or snagging a snack from that bag on the floor.

Your car may have all kinds of fancy gadgets designed for safety, but the truth is that the most advanced safety feature you have is yourself. Keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel (two hands - as Lincoln says) - always.

Do you have the best slogan or catch phrase to make the Decide to Drive campaign pop? Enter the Decide to Drive Catch Phrase Contest between May 28 - June 13. Your words could be chosen as the official Decide to Drive campaign catch phrase, and you could win one of two $500 runner-up prizes or the $1,000 grand prize! Can’t wait to see what you come up with! Enter here: http://clvr.li/1nwa6CV

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Well, That Was Unexpected

I thought I was all prepared. Last week was my spring semester drama students' performance. Performance week is nuts around here. Looking back, I find a lot of posts like this one where I'm hysterically busy and crazed and filled with anxiety in the days leading up to my performances.

So, this time? I decided to keep my Type-A personality happy. I worked really hard the week before last. I scheduled all of my posts for crazy drama week. And it worked! A full week's worth of posts were prepared; I kept pageviews up and felt like I didn't have to worry about keeping up with the blog. 

So, you're probably wondering - why am I complaining?

I woke up on Monday with great intentions to start off a beautiful, new, productive week. And then I stood up and felt like I had been hit with a sack of bricks.

I'm still fighting off some weird virus or bug. I don't know what it is. My stomach feels weird and my throat is scratchy.

Today was the first day I felt like I could actually sort of function again - so I spent the whole day working on summer drama class info and having potty training wars and feeling kind of like this again.

I've rambled on quite awhile now, with the single purpose of saying: I have some great posts in the works, but for now I'm celebrating the fact that both of my kids are momentarily in bed by eating this Trader Joe's whoopie pie. It's really, really good. Even with a slightly nauseated stomach.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has days (weeks) like this one. Here's hoping everyone sleeps all night - and I wake up feeling not weird anymore.

I have my doubts, but I'd love it if it turned out that way.

I Need A Clone. Or Five.

An accurate representation of my kitchen table right now.

Is it already Wednesday? Yikes.

It's come to my attention that I try to do too many things. I've always been this way. My Timehop this morning had 4 years of Facebook statuses declaring that I need more time. Apparently I am stressed out on this, the day before Halloween, every year.

You'd think I would learn. I even thought I was preparing early this year. However, I'm freaking out because there simply are not enough hours to accomplish everything. And I can't even stay up all night (my normal solution) because my baby won't sleep without me.

I don't WANT to be a stressed-out, spastic, exhausted, grumpy mother who pleads with her kid to watch one more episode of Curious George so that I can sew. I don't want to lie in bed, snuggling my almost toddler and just be worried because I didn't get emails sent regarding dress rehearsals for my students next week.

I need to find a better balance. Or maybe stop doing some of these projects. But what do I give up? Crafts? Blog? Drama? I love it all. So that's a pretty big dilemma.

I'll be back when the crazy calms down a little bit!

'Fessing Up: I'm Not Proud of Today

When people tell you that moms don't sleep much, they're really not kidding.  I didn't really sleep at all last night.  There were a few snatches throughout the night, but it was overall a very very long night, and as a result - today was just...hard. 

Please don't read this and think that I'm searching for a "solution" to fix my kids.  I can't emotionally handle letting them cry it out.  I have wonderful friends who have had fabulous success with CIO, but it's just not my thing.  I prefer to comfort and help them back to sleep as much as I can.  So, maybe it's partly my own fault that I find myself in this place.  But - it is what it is.  I chose to have these little ones, and I like to think I embrace the responsibilities that come with having kids who are 21 months apart, with neither actually sleeping through the night.  Maybe I've created little monsters because I let them nurse whenever they desire - yes, both of them. 

Lincoln, Mommy, Addie. Curled up in our corner couch spot.

I choose to believe that someday all of these exhausting moments are going to pay off.  I know that I have been given an incredible gift from God in these two precious little lives.  And I strive so very hard to appreciate every moment.

But I did not appreciate very much about today.

Why?  Here's my timeline from last night:

6:15- Pysch up because we're doing bedtime a little early tonight since naps were poor and everyone is really tired.
6:30- 20-minute family walk in the neighborhood to calm everyone down and (hopefully) make them sleepy.
7:00- Both kids in the bath. Lincoln dumps water all over the bathroom floor, Addie decides that having water in her neck rolls is the worst thing ever.
7:10- PJs, lotion, "me" (binky), stories with Daddy.
7:20- Lincoln nurses while Addie screams bloody murder.
7:30- Daddy stays with Lincoln in his room. I takes Addie, wrap her in a swaddle, and start nursing in my room.
8:00- Lincoln is asleep. Addie is asleep on my lap, but I'm afraid to move her.
8:30- Try to put her down. Fail. She's wide awake and fussing.
8:35- More nursing.
9:00- Addie is wide awake after another try at putting her in bed. She rolls around on the living room floor and plays with Lincoln's trucks.
9:20- Start nursing again.
10:15- Finally, after many many attempts, Addie is successfully asleep and in bed.
10:20- I sit in a zombie-like state in the living room, afraid to  move or do dishes or laundry in fear of waking her.
10:35- Andrew is done showering after his workout and we decide to go veg in front of an episode of TV while I catch up on email.
10:36- Addie wakes up, screaming.
10:40- Nursing recommences.
11:15- Addie back to sleep and in her bed.
11:20- Brush my teeth, wash my face.
11:22- Addie awake, screaming. Won't calm for Andrew.
11:30- Nursing in my bed again.

This is where it gets really hazy.  But here's what I know - we repeated this process until well after 2:30am.  I had an emotional breakdown at about 1:30.  Lincoln woke up around 1:45 or 2 and crawled in bed with us.  I don't think I was able to sleep at all until 3am.  And, that's where my memories stop.  But I'm pretty sure we were all 4 in our not-that-huge queen size bed from about 3:45-6:30am.

So, you see...it was rough.

It's not something I like to admit, but I am seriously ugly when I am in a state of exhaustion.  This current state had been building - we had the night described above after about a week of being up every few hours, every night.  And I can make all the excuses I want, but that's really no reason for me to go psychotic on my poor (also sleep-deprived) husband at 2am.  Nor to get frustrated at my sweet babies, who are just tired and need their mama.  But, I did.

I woke up this morning in a grumpy state, and stayed pretty grumpy most of the day.  I didn't bother putting in my contacts because my eyes hurt too much.  I actually almost passed out when I got out of bed this morning (a symptom I know very well from sleep-deprived-and-morning-sick pregnancy - not pregnant, though).  Lincoln watched more TV than I care to admit, and broke the toy bin, and threw bananas all over the floor.  Addie fussed because she wanted to nurse all day, and then spit up half of what she ate all over me.  So we both reeked of baby puke.

We all managed to be asleep at the same for about an hour this afternoon.  I didn't wake up refreshed, but it was a little better.  I still wasn't the happiest mama.

Excuse the arm.

What I should have done is, get up, put in the contacts, and get to work cleaning up the vast disaster area that is known as my kitchen.  After that, I could have worked on Mt. Laundry and baked the cookie dough that is in my fridge from yesterday. 

But I didn't.  We watched more TV.  We ate half a box of animal crackers.  My dad stopped by to help entertain Lincoln for awhile.  Andrew came home and made dinner for us, we bathed the kids and started the whole bedtime routine over again. And, this is what my living room looks like right now:

Remember how Lincoln broke the toy bin? Sigh.

So far tonight (at 11pm), Addie has only awakened once since 9:20.  This is progress, I think.  So, here's hoping I can learn to make some progress on my attitude. 

Sleep deprived or not, my favorite people in the whole wide world deserve a little bit more than a grumpy, irritable wife and mama.  Sorry guys.  Here's to a better tomorrow.

How Do You Like Them Potatoes?

Note to my children: if you think life as a toddler is tough, just wait until you're all grown up and expected to be able to manage a household while making sure no one gets seriously injured by a door frame or a staircase.  It blows your meltdown about not getting to play with your toothbrush for an extra minute right out of the water.  

So, this week we decided to have some sweet potatoes with our dinner.  We're trying to be healthy, keeping our eyes open for new dairy-free recipes, and thought this seemed like a good idea.  While the baby played in the exersaucer and Lincoln ran circles around her one afternoon, I hastily peeled several sweet potatoes and threw them in the oven so that they would be ready approximately by the time Daddy got home.  I piled dishes in the dishwasher, found at least part of the kitchen counter, and washed the peelings down the sink in an attempt to make the house look like it was not dwelt in by banshees.

And then I turned on the disposal.  It worked great...for like 5 seconds.  Then, suddenly - there was water spurting up all over the place, it was making weird gurgling sounds, and the kids both started to look like they were going to freak out.  I did what any clear-thinking woman would: turned it off and waited to tell Andrew about it when he came home.

As it turns out, you're not supposed to put potato peelings in the disposal....ever.  Apparently the magical combination of peelings + disposal + water turns it into some sort of lovely slushy mashed potato concoction, which sticks to your pipes and clogs up the sink.  Yay!!!

After much googling, a box and a half of baking soda, a half gallon of vinegar, and enough hot water to make me cringe thinking about next month's water bill - the aforementioned mashed potatoes nicely melted away and let my poor sink go about its business.

New method to catch potato peelings:
PAPER TOWEL.

Maybe this is a common knowledge type of thing that I should have been aware of, before something like this occurred.  But as far as I knew - a disposal exists so you can dispose of food scraps.  Am I right?!

I'm pretty sure when you buy a house, it should come with post-it notes stuck to every surface, letting you know the proper way to care for everything to avoid anything falling apart.  But regardless - lesson learned.  I'm just happy we didn't have to take the sink apart.

So, give me your knowledge. What else am I not supposed to put down my disposal?

Oh Boy... Mom Confessions

Hm.  I'm not sure how I feel about writing this post.  Do I really want to share my mom confessions with the whole big blogosphere?  I have to assume that someday when my kids are grown and gone, I will enjoy looking back at even things like this - so I will persevere and be maybe a little more honest than I want to be. ;)

I've spent most of my life dreaming about being a mommy.  In my perfect imaginary world, I was going to have thirteen beautiful children (yeah, not kidding), homeschool them all, bake cookies daily, sew adorable clothes for everyone for every occasion, and of course, do Pinterest-worthy crafts literally all the time.  That was the plan.

But here's the thing.  Being a mom is hard. 

I'm not having thirteen children.  While I do still want to have a large family, I realize that I could never give proper attention to that many babies.  More of a selfish reason though - I cannot be pregnant that many times.  We don't have a definite plan for how large our family will end up, but it's probably going to be directly related to my future pregnancies and their difficulties.  If they're anything like the first two...I'm not sure how many times I will want to go through everything again.

Pinterest, I have a memo for you.  Crafting takes work.  You have to pick a craft.  Gather the supplies.  If you happen to not have everything on hand (which, let's face it - you don't) - you have to drag everyone out to the craft store, where it's a miracle if your toddler doesn't break 17402 pieces of expensive glassware.  Plus, while your kids are under the age of two, pretty much all craft supplies are just treated like colorful snacks anyway.  Anybody else feel it's usually not worth the effort?

I have fabric to make the following projects: a superhero cape for Lincoln, a Christmas dress for Addie, a dolly for Addie, bright-colored blocks to match the nursery, yellow and blue fabric for curtains in the nursery, all of our Christmas stockings...I could go on, but you can probably see my point.  Instead of making the projects that I have meticulously planned, I run to the store on a whim to buy purple tulle to make a tutu for my impromptu homemade newborn photo shoot (will share how that went soon).

And I can't even tell you the last time I baked cookies.

Here are the things I'm not especially proud of at the moment:

- Meals are not very structured when I am home by myself with the kids.  Lincoln eats lunch as he runs around the living room, since I am usually nursing the baby.

- My house is a wreck most of the time and I don't care.  Or worse - sometimes I do care, but I still don't do anything about it.

- I think the last time I dusted was for Lincoln's first birthday party.  In February.

- I have no intention of going to the grocery store with the kids anytime in the near future.  Even though we are out of food.

- We watch a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Finley the Fire Engine on youtube.  A lot, a lot, a lot.

I suppose every mom deals with the same sorts of things, right?  If you're one of those perfect Pinterest moms...please don't tell me.  I don't think I want to know that you exist. 


I'm linking up with Growing Up Geeky for Toddle Along Tuesday!  Care to share your own confessions this week?

wow.

It's been too long. Definitely.

Expect some new stuff soon. I promise! It's going on the to-do list.

layouts lately...

Happy Easter! We had a really busy day yesterday...several different family gatherings to attend. It was kind of a long day for me as I have developed tendonitis in my right foot. Just what I need, right? The doctor at Urgent Care on Saturday said, "oh, well just don't walk for 3 days. You'll be fine." Ha. You can imagine how well that's going. I'm home from work today to try to avoid standing on it most of the day. Still have drama kids coming. But at least that's only a little 3-hour window in my day.

I guess I've reached a point in my scrapping life that I have been waiting for....for years. About a month or two ago, it would take me about a week to finish a layout. It would sit in the basement in front of the TV, and every night I would add a couple of small things to it. I don't know what happened - but now I somehow seem to be putting out a complete layout every time I sit down for 2-3 hours.

This is the best thing that's ever happened to my scrapbook life!! I'm accepting that it's okay if I don't make the perfect page every time. And I'm actually loving my pages more even if I don't think they're perfect - just because they are done. So exciting. I'm hoping this attitude stays around for a long, long time.

Anyway - here are some of the recent quick layouts. All of these have been created since a week before last Saturday, March 27. And they are all based off sketches I have found online, and in Creating Keepsakes magazines. I am loving sketches lately. And I have about 4 more layouts done that weren't "post-worthy."

Love my occasional Archiver's shopping sprees. :)

All the hype in the Creating Keepsakes world (and all over the blogosphere) is to make pages about yourself. Here's one of my first attempts. This one makes me sad today because my foot hurts so much...I have no idea when I'll get to run (or walk) again. :\

Coldstone yumminess at the Lake of the Ozarks after our first Murder Mystery gig last year. Really like these photos. The light is interesting.

Since I made a page about me, I wanted to make a page about Andrew, too. This was one of our set build days for Little Princess / Secret Garden last February. This was about the time I learned about tilting the camera for artistic value.

And apparently I can't take a straight photo. I got this to my computer to crop it and said "seriously? that's the best you can do?" Anyway, this is from the Michael Hogge radio interview for Little Princess / Secret Garden. I invited some of the homeschooled cast members to attend along with us. We all had a great time! Andrew took the "ON AIR" photo for me (he actually said "so you'll have a title for your page!" - awww).

I'm thinking since I'm home today, I may be able to get in a few more pages. And maybe I'll get around to printing off another round of photos. I haven't printed anything later than June 2009. Definitely time for some new material to work with.

Here's hoping the foot has a miraculous recovery today!

PARKOUR!

This is why I love to edit video.



Now, to get to all those wedding videos. I have some really patient friends. They have no idea how grateful I am that they don't call me every two days and say "where is my wedding video?!" It is on my to-do list. I am working on it. It will get done. And it will be before 2011. Absolutely.

and time just flies...

I don't know where November has gone. Seriously. It's the 24th. Thanksgiving is in two days. I am wrapped up in a whirlwind of crazy! I think life is going to continue at this pace until after Christmas. If I can survive that long.

So I'm designing costumes for The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. I spent most of last week making 8 fairy dresses. That's a whole lot of fairies. Next up I'm sewing five multi-colored little dresses that look like flowers. And half of them have to be cut bigger than the pattern. And naturally I haven't a clue how to do that. My official costume deadline is next Monday. Costumes were supposed to be finished by November 18. ha! I spent my 5-hour break between work shifts scavenging at thrift stores, hoping to find some costume treasures. Thankfully - I found a corduroy skirt, which I needed!!! It only took 4 stores to find it...

While at the thrift stores, I also found some really cute sun dresses which I can take on our cruise/Disney trip in January. I was afraid I'd have to go out and spent hundreds of dollars on new clothes, and I got these three dresses for $15.00!!! I was pretty excited. They are super cute, and super stylish, and wonderful. It's been awhile since I bought clothes for myself at thrift stores...maybe I'll have to give this plan another chance.

I had my Crop Club meeting at work last night. I only have about 3 people who show up regularly. I'm wishing there were more, but I don't know how to advertise it!!! Anyway, I got all my Christmas cards (purchased from Shutterfly) stuffed into envelopes, and then made my very first all-about-me-random-everyday-life page. I'm pretty proud of it. Even if I ran out of letter stickers and had to use an inverted "3" as an "e", and a "w" as an "m." But I suppose that gives it character. ;)

Did I ever update about the honeymoon scrapbook?? I can't remember. There is good news - it is DONE!!! Well, almost. I finished the last page at last month's crop club meeting - but I still need to do the small album cover title. I've been so consumed by all these other projects (costuming)!!! I didn't have time to grab the NYC stuff before last night's meeting, so I didn't work on it then. Maybe I will get to it after the show is done.

New Moon is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to the midnight show with Andrew and Sara (who was kind enough to hold seats for us at the 9pm Twilight), dressed in my Bella ensemble. I got a few weird looks, but also a lot of 14-year-olds who said "OMG you look soooooo amazing!!!" One of them even insisted on taking my photo. I can deal with being a mini celebrity. ;) Andrew bought me a commemorative plastic New Moon cup, which I will proudly display in my scrapbook room. If I can ever get my sewing disaster cleared out of the basement...

Oh speaking of sewing, I finally bought the sewing machine that I was given money for at my birthday. It's pretty nice so far. And it's already been through a lot - getting hauled back and forth to the theatre every day, and sewing many many costumes for me. If it just makes it through this show, I think it will have already earned its keep.

So last night I started doing laundry (finally) and washed all the blue clothes. This morning I got up at 6:30 to put them in the dryer, assuming that my jeans would be dry by 7:50, when I leave for work. Not so. I ran the dryer twice and they were still dripping wet. AARRRGHHH! I was late for work because I had to find alternate clothes. Now I'm wearing my brown paid Gap chino pants, and purple AE sweater, and I feel like I look ridiculous. I'm hoping my jeans are dry when I go home for lunch...

I'm not thrilled that I'm apparently now a responsible adult and am expected to pay $200 in personal property taxes for our two hunks of junk. Being an adult is horrible and I'm not sure why no one ever tells you this while you are young. Or maybe they do, and you just tune it out. That's a possibility.

In other news, I haven't even begun to deal with Christmas yet. I haven't picked out any gifts...nor do I have any idea how I will pay for any gifts that I do select. ugh. Why is Christmas at the most expensive time of the year? Really? Poor planning there...

To do and NOT to do...

I had quite a to-do list last night. A few things included on that list were -

• make photo DVDs from LPSG
• get the DVDs ready to mail
• make a New Baby card for a friend
• get package to said friend ready to mail
• clean the kitchen
• clean the master bathroom
• hang some shelves
• work out (!)
• cook dinner
• organize checks from AGDT, LPSG DVDs, etc
  

Here are some things NOT included on my to-do list -

• trip on a ripped slipper
• fall halfway down a staircase with a plate full of spaghetti, chicken, broccoli, and bread
• have said food land upon leg and scald you
• completely stain clothing
• run emergency load of laundry
• have emotional breakdown
• eat half of husband's dinner since own food is now gone
• fall into bed at 8:30 and accomplish nothing
  

I'll let you decide which of the two lists I decided to go with.