HOORAY FOR FALL!!!

Dear My Chemical Romance,

Have I told you lately how much I adore you?
And how absolutely over the top estatic I am that you are finally coming out with a new CD?
My son heard enough of your music while he was in the womb that he also seems to perk up when I mention to him that the new CD is coming out. He is only two but let me tell you he has the chorus of your new song down.....na, na, na, na.
(He also likes the Wiggles so do not fear that he has somehow been corrupted by rock n' roll.)
I want to download the new songs as they pop up on ITunes but that feels like reading the end of a book before you read the beginning.So, I think I am going to have to wait until the release date on November 22 and get the CD so that I can hold it in my hands and listen to it in one fell swoop!
You make me happy! Your music makes me happy! Bright red hair makes me happy!
And being happy is good stuff.
(Do not let the man in the spandex scare you, he is harmless and fully clothed!)

(People c'mon, tell me that you aren't intrigued by what is going to happen in the story? Are the Killjoys dead? Why are the bad guys taking the boy? Will the boy live......
Well, here is a trailer I just saw for the next song "Sing" and can I be honest with you.....I got all fluttery with happiness like you do on a really great rollercoaster, or when you open a Christmas present and realize as you are opening it that it is what you really really wanted.....
FLUTTERY!!!)

So just to sum up this letter My Chemical Romance you:
A. Make me happy
B. Make me fluttery
C. Are the Christmas present that I really really want. You don't even have to be wrapped up in a box. Just bows on your heads sitting under the tree and I'm good!

(And no I was not drinking when I wrote this post)
Love,
Me

Halloween Halloween Trick or Treat

The other night my husband and I were trying to remember all of our Halloween costumes from when we were children.
And sadly I could not remember them all!
These are the one's I do remember in no particular order:
Raggedy Ann
Princess Leia
Flapper Girl
Navy Sailor (used my dad's old Navy uniform)
Roller Disco Girl (It was my best fried Merri's idea. We went as twin roller disco girls and got to wear our roller skates! She was a genius)
When October rolls around I have to say that while I "like" the idea of Halloween the actual stuff that makes up Halloween creeps me out.
I don't like being scared.
No if and's or but's about it.
I HATE super scary costumes. Especially one's that conceal the identidy of the people behind them.
My mom used to ask me why I was bothering going to the Haunted Houses with my friends when I was literally sick to my stomach before going!
This year Miss Thang is going to be a Vampire.
Not your Cullen style vampire but this style....

While I preferred her years as Pop Princesses and Sassy Cats and whatnot I have to say this actually turned out pretty cool!
She wore it for her piano recital where all of the students dressed up (even the teacher dressed up) and played Halloween songs.
Her song was "The Wily Witch".
In other bits of random news that sort of have to do with Halloween and sort of not....
check this out.

Wouldn't you say that Keith Richards could qualify as ghoulish? Which puts him smack dab in the Halloween category!
I bet you didn't know I collect random biography/auto biographies, books on rock musicians, their wives/lovers/friends/roadies etc. from the 60's?
I started reading this book (Life By Keith Richards) on my Nook (you get the first 25-72 sample pages for free). Then today I trucked on down to Costco (cheaper there then anywhere else...sorry local booksellers) to pick it up and finish it. I had to have the hard copy for my collection.
Brian does not like to let me forget that when we met I said that Keith Richards was sexy.
He thought I meant this Keith Richards

But I meant this Keith Richards.....

The younger, pre-decomposed Keith Richards!
I am not sure how much new information I will get out of this book but it seems like it will be a good read!
And now it is time to go do some reading, watch the finale of Project Runway and get some sleep.....from the looks of that picture of me and the bags under my eyes I must need some!

Truly Great

My husbands grandmother passed away a little over a week ago. It was a very special thing for my children to have a great grandmother. I could barely fathom the idea of them having a great grandmother when I lost two of my grandparents by the time I was five years old, my mother's father passed away before she was even married and my dad's mother passed away when I was twelve.
I always told my husband he was so lucky to have a grandmother still alive because I would have loved to have that kind of time with my grandparents now.
He was right by her side the last few days of her life.
The children miss her. Especially my Little One. She has taken it the hardest. She has a very tender heart.
They loved to go and visit their Grandma Mae.
They loved her stories.
And my boy loved the tennis balls affixed to the bottom of her walker to keep it from sliding.
He thought those tennis balls were the best thing since sliced bread!
The last visit the kids had with her was such a great visit.
Despite her having bits of dementia coming on, the last day the kids went to see her she was on the ball!
She told them stories about the dog the she bought for her children when they were little. She was remembering all of the wonderful details of her life that were beginning to fade.
The Boy crawled up on the bed beside her and she held his hand.
She always got such a kick out of him.
Grandma Mae loved the girls but there was something special about The Boy!

I miss her.
I wish that we had spent more time with her.
Her four children gathered together from different parts of the country.
They had not been together the four of them altogether in nine years!
They have vowed that they will not let another nine years pass before all four spend time together.

Death is a funny thing.
It brings people together.
People who are living and people on the other side.

When I think of Mae now it is with a smile, because I know she is the arms of her beloved Clive who she has waited to long to see again. (Over 30 years). And she is at peace.

She would be good at long distance running....cross country running.....

Yesterday was our big school fundraiser jog-a-thon. Little one was gearing up and training hard for the event, trying to surpass her awesome record she set last year for herself. She ran around the track fourteen times. FOURTEEN TIMES! And when I saw ran I mean RAN. The lady standing next to me in the pouring rain where we cheered them on said "I have been watching her, not only is she running the whole thing but she is doing it with a smile on her face!"
A toothless smile I might add.
Thank goodness we took the jack-o-latern shots because that night she was doing homework and suddenly got a weird look on her face and spit out her other tooth!
Anway back to the jog-a-thon.
The rain was pouring down on and off through the whole event but those kids just pushed on through. It was very inspiring to watch!







Miss Thang here preferred to call it a walk-a-thon-talk-to-your-friend-a-thon but hey at least she did it! She ran parts of it and when I cheered her on and yelled "run run!!" She would give me the funniest look like I was the biggest dork ever and shake her head like "no, that's okay I am doing just fine at this pace!"
The d.j. was hilarious. I am pretty sure I was the only person laughing at him. The kids looked at him like he was on crack when he would make jokes or sing along with Lady Gaga while he cheered them on. And the other parents didn't really even seem to notice that he was there....but me...I was his best audience!
What a great day and a great idea for a school fundraiser. Beats the heck out of wrapping paper and pecan brittle sold door to door!

Design House Digital

So I had to scrap a little ode to the jack-o-lantern!



I used the wonderful Kate Teague's Life:October the complete kit.
This is a GREAT kit! It could be used for so many hybrid projects. My cute friend Stacy used it to make a great invitation to her twin's birthday party.....I wish I still had the invite, I would post it and show you all and then everybody would be invited to the party! (just kidding!!)
And if you are in the market for some Halloween-ess how about Carina Gardner's new line HAUNTED.
Here are some Hybrid projects done with this line.
I want to post a page I did with this line but can't get my photobucket to work right now....stinkin' photobucket.

The Little Jack-o-lantern

My little one has been working on pulling out one of her front teeth for the last two weeks. One afternoon last week I offered to help and apparently I pulled it the wrong way because she burst into tears and told me she no longer needed my help, she would do it herself!
Then the other day she came running to the car after school, put her cute little face up to the window and gave me a HUGE grin.
HER TOOTH!!!!
And it wasn't even the tooth she was working on it was the other tooth!
Now the original loose tooth is all wonky and sideways making her look like this little jack-o-lantern.
Perfect for Halloween!






Speaking of Halloween have you started your costume hunt?
We have and aside from finding some vampire teeth we are good to go :)

If you want a good happy laugh....

And I mean a good laugh but also a laugh where you sigh really big at the end and say awwwwwwwwwwwwwww...then you have to go to Mila's Daydreams.
I don't know the whole story behind the blog but I do know that this woman needs to make a coffee table book of these pictures when she is done because I could look at them all day long!
My daughter thought these were the cutest pictures she had ever seen. And it made me wonder what I did with all of the time I had while my babies were napping?

Touche'

The other day my youngest daughter arrived home from school ever so excited that a dentist had visited them in class! She pulled out her little bag filled with wonderful tooth-ish loot including a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, etc. and some little purple tablets to chew which would show them if their teeth were clean, ala Glee! (tell me you saw Glee last week...I am still tossing around quotes from that episode!!)
My Little One babbled on excitedly about everything the dentist had talked about and when she was done bubbling over with excitement my "glass is half empty" nine year old cocked a hip out to the side and announced,
"In my opinion that dentist was just trying to advertise himself to get some new patients."
I turned around, eyes wide, mouth opened and said "Why do you have to be so negative about it! I am sure he was just there to teach the kids about keeping their teeth healthy and you're ruining it for her with that kind of attitude!"


A few hours later as I was cleaning up the Little One's backpack I emptied the bag from the dentist and inside found a flier announcing that he would be accepting new patients to his practice and how important it was for your child to have clean teeth and that he was the man when it came to finding your child a dentist.
Damn.
So with my tail tucked between my legs I went into the nine year old's room and issued an apology for shooting her theory down so quickly.
She gave me a lovely "I told you so" smile and accepted my apology.
And for the last twenty four hours I have been treated to different renditions of...
"Hey mom, remember when I told you that the dentist was trying to get new patients and you said...."

She hates dogs and old things

This last weekend I went for a girls getaway to This Resort. It was lovely and oddly warm for this time of year.
There was much Swiss goodness to partake of including a delicious bakery on site where the people moved slowly and the goodies behind the glass sparkled with evil delight making it impossible not to induldge in their goodness!
I was only forty mintues from home but I must have spoken to my children and husband a zillion times.
We dig each other like that!
Long ago my friend and I christened these getaways as "Sleep-o-rama's". The idea of the sleep-o-rama is to sleep,digital scrapbook, sleep, eat, sleep....well, you get the idea. Only the sad thing is that the older we get the less sleeping we seem to do on these "sleep-o-ramas". We are too busy multitasking in our regular lives so we must feel the need to multitask on sleep-o-rama too?
We also took some maternity shots since she is heading into the home stretch with Baby B.












She calls her other children her little bear cubs so I was quite pleased to find a little bear on the carousel to show that she has another little cub on the way!
And of course we had to do the heart on the belly because c'mon, who doesn't love the heart!


On every sleep-o-rama we get laughing about something fantasticly funny (only to us). Our husbands say that we think we are soooooooooo funny....I say we KNOW we are soooooooooo funny!
I think one of my favorite quotes from this trip came from my pregnant Pookey when upon my discovery of a wonderful yard full of decrepit old iron furniture and discarded gems she replied....
"I hate dogs.....and old things."
There was something about the delivery of the line that I felt like it needed to be stitched on a sampler and hanging on the wall of her home.

Look Alive Sunshine

The other day I received an email with the link "WATCH THIS".
Now I wasn't scared of what it might be because in the header I knew it was from the My Chemical Romance website.
Who is My Chemical Romance you might ask?
They are only my favorite favorite favorite band.
The kiddies have their Beibers, the tweens have their JoBros, the oldies but goodies have their Elvis and the Deadheads have their Dead, but I have MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE.
So I click the link and up pops this video (above).
Well, my heart started palpitating and my palms got all sweaty because I knew what this video meant.
It means.....THE NEW CD IS COMING OUT SOON!!!!
They have been on hiatus forevertus and it has been brutal.
I have missed their music, their faces, their amazing look and conceptual videos.
The last album The Black Parade was all blacks and whites and greys. Visually stark but musically powerful.
I don't think I listened to anything but that album for probably four months straight!
Looking at the video above I am so inspired.
Love the colors and the futuristic yet 70's style Mad Max-ness of the whole thing.
From the first beat I was hooked and have been humming the song all week.
It is like the most evil teaser to give such a quick glance and listen to what looks to be an amazing song and video.
Love Gerard's red hair!
Love Frankie with any color hair.
For someone who loves photography I wanted to be on that video set snapping stills from every angle!
Inspiring!!!
Oh My Chemical Romance I can't wait to invite you back into the fold and blare your new CD from my sound system....please release this CD soon!!!

Blogging

I really suck as a blogger.
It's not that I don't have anything to blog about, I do, I do have things to blog about. But then the things will come and go and I won't blog about them and then more things come and go and come and go and pretty soon I'm so far behind on blogging anything interesting that I just don't do it.
Plus the stuff that I find interesting may just be interesting to me!


The night before the school year started I said a little prayer to please, please make time slow down.
And then my daughter turned nine.
I know she probably gets tired of us talking about the day she was born, or when she was little, or telling her about clever things she did when she was three.
Last night I held her close and kissed the top of her head that now sits right below my chin when she is standing and I told her how much I love her.
"You are a really wonderful girl."
I said.
"You were a terrible baby but a wonderful girl."
And then we both laughed. Because she was a terrible baby!
I was reading through her twenty seven birthday cards that she got from her classmates yesterday and the common theme in most of them was that they loved how nice and funny she is, they like her smile and they like it when she helps them.
Those are really awesome qualities.
She truly is one of the funniest people I know.
She reminds me of an old time comedienne.
Think Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy.... or even Lucille Ball.
She is the master of the pratfall and her timing is genius!
And she is nice. She wants to make sure everybody is included and hates injustices of any sort being done to people.
Helpful......I am glad she helps her friends because when I ask her to do something here I am usually greeted by a MONUMENTAL sigh of irritation.
Unless I ask her to give me a hug!

On her birthday she kept talking about how exciting it will be when she turns sixteen.
Her dad and I almost had a heart attack.
Little does she know we will never let her turn sixteen! That is forbidden!

I am Happy

Today I was walking around doing the normal everyday things I do around the house and I realized how totally happy I am.
Right now, this time is a wonderful time.
I love every moment and can't wait to see what new things everyday will hold.
But I also love the mundane things, those groundhog day sort of things that you know will happen at least once in each of your twenty four hours....maybe even twice if you count the number of times my oldest daughter will complain about doing something around the house.....hmmmm twice was being very generous. Let's go with twenty times and then if she comes in around fifteen I'll be happy!
I am just so completely, totally happy.
And knowing that makes me even happier!
Perhaps that makes some people want to puke?
It reminds me of this one episode of the Golden Girls where the ever happy sunshine Rose was perplexed because this man at work didn't like her. How could he possibly not like her? Once she realized this she tried even harder to be bouncy and filled with joy. She baked him cakes, she greeted him with cheer.
But he told her that it didn't matter what she did he just didn't like her.
She was happy.
It made him want to puke.
I don't know what any of this has to do with anything?


This person is someone who always make me smile. She blows my mind with her talent, I am lucky to call her my friend.
I was also lucky enough to get to photograph her family and I can't believe I haven't shared it.
It is a rare treat that I get called upon to shoot pictures.
My family takes top priority, so when it works out that I can roam free and follow around beautiful people and capture their memories for them I do it!


















This is just a wee small sample of what we shot.
It was a very good day!
She has some amazing things in the work (fabric,paper scrapbooking goods, digiscrapping goods)...you must check her out!

Summer Musings....

Summer has been good.
Soooooooooo good!
One of those summers where I truly don't want it to end.
Lots and lots and lots of swimming which has been amazing! Especially when you had a daughter who told you a little over a year ago that she hated water and would never ever swim.
Thanks to B. both kids are swimmers! They couldn't wait to get back to him this summer and show him what they could do.
We also had our Cousin Max come and visit! We miss them. The girls can't get enough of Uncle J. and Cousin Max. We missed the whole family before they were even gone.
There have been camps and playdates and sleepovers.
Golf lessons, tennis lessons, piano lessons and more.
These kids better never say they didn't do anything fun when they were kids!


(all products By the amazing Carina Gardner)



(Template by Tiffany Tillman, Paper and embellishments by Sara Schmutz)



(all products By the amazing Carina Gardner)



(all products By the amazing Carina Gardner)


Now onto summer musings.....
*When you go to get a massage for horrible tension headaches it probably should be mandatory that they explain to you that your therapist at some point will be walking on your back.
*Red Mango Yogurt.....great idea, no high fructose corn syrup, not chalk full of sugar, but what is with the smell in that place? If I am paying $5.00 for a so/so cup of yogurt the least you can do is make sure that your place does not smell like an unflushed toilet.
It was baaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
*No shirt guy....you are okay looking, but do you really need to take your two year old on walks in her wagon with no shirt on? That seems so 80's. Plus if you are going to be shirtless maybe you want to go to the gym. It't not that you are fat...just jiggly.
*Mel Gibson....WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!! You obviously need some help, some serious help. I want to believe that they were empty threats but dang! And why so much heavy breathing? Did you run to the phone from the backyard or something to answer the phone?
Th-th-th-thats all folks!

SIX

Finally!!!
She has been waiting, and waiting and waiting to turn six.
When she was small I was her whole world. Her favorite phrase was "My Mama!" as her older sister would patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) explain to her that I was both of their mama's not just hers.
And she would look at her big sister and say "MY MAMA!"
She truly is an amazing kid. She is strong, and sweet and beautiful and smart.
We always tell her she is the size of a toothpick but she is probably the strongest one of all of us!
This morning she asked for breakfast in bed.
She wanted eggs and bacon.
She sat there eating her breakfast just giggling and giggling.
"So when am I six?"
"You're six now!"
"But am I not six until my party?"
"No you are six now!"
*giggle giggle*.
Happy Birthday six year old!

Total Eclipse

I have sequesterd myself from all things Eclipse. No commercials, no watching interviews or reading press with the cast.
Tonight I went to see the movie with my mother-in-law who is a new fan after reading my stack of four books in less than two weeks.
I am going to give it two enthusiastic thumbs up!!
Am I obsessed with the books. No. Did I enjoy them. Yes. Did I adore the character of Jacob long before he was the cute muscle man Taylor Lautner. Yes. Did I take flack for being teacm Jacob back then. Yes. Is it politically correct to be a Jacob fan now that he is hot. I would say judging by the super squeals and clapping from the moment he walked on the screen....yes!
I thought the squealing and whatnot as actually cute. Some sour pusses in the ladies room after the movie found the teeny boppers to be annoying. When they are thirty eight they will think it is cute that some girls are having fun.
And no, the teeny bopper squeals were not from myself and my mother-in-law!
Edward looked mighty fine in this movie. M-i-g-h-t-y F-i-n-e. And that cute Taylor has some great acting chops. He commands the screen when he is on it that is for sure!


Now onto other pressing matters.
Tonight my cute hubby called from the grocery store when in the middle of our conversation I randomly said ..."Okay, tell me what movie is this from........."do you hear that? it's the winds of change".
He got it!
It was not easy and while I had confidence in him I would not have blamed him if he was wrong.
But him getting it right just further confirmed that he is the one for me!! :)

TWO

Last night after we had put the kids to bed and cleaned up the remains of the family birthday party my husband looked at me and said "Can you believe our baby is two?"
No I couldnt.
As I tried to fall asleep my mind wandered back to two years ago.
After nine months of intense vomitting and depression I had finally given birth to my baby boy.
The puking was supposed to stop. The pain was supposed to stop. The depression was supposed to stop.
Try telling that to a big mess of placenta that is left in your uterus by a bunch of inept doctors from a joke of a medical clinic.
I tossed and turned replaying every awful moment of the month that followed.
The horrible ambulance rides.
The blood clots the size of the human liver.
The IV's and medications and people looking at me with blank confusion when I asked
what was wrong with me.
The ten days in the hospital with visits from my children and newborn baby whom I feared would not know me.
The hours of waiting for someone to figure out what was wrong with me.
The frustration of a husband who wanted his wife home.
The amazing help from friends who pitched in to help.
The nights of fear in the hospital as machines beeped and hummed all around me, wondering if I fell asleep would I start to bleed again and never wake up.
The blood transfusions, the weakness, the thoughts that my world had stopped but outside that window the rest of the world went on without me.
A diagnosis, sugery, a promise that things would be better now.
When I returned home I held my boy, let him sleep beside me, talked to him, sang to him. Tried to make up for the time we were apart despite my lack of energy.
More bleeding, returning to the hospital days later and being told nothing was better.
My girls thought I was going to die.
My husband thought I was going to die.
I thought I was going to die.
I have never cried more in my whole life.


Then I had to stop thinking about all of it. Erase it all from my mind before I started to drive myself crazy.
Because I am fine.
My boy is fine.
My boy is two!
He is funny and happy and wild and sweet. He loves Toy Story, and running and wrestling with his sisters and the new puppy. He is delicious and dramatic and tender all at the same time!
Happy birthday J-Boo.
We love you!

Guest Announcer......

The Bees had a guest announcer today and I have to say she was the best announcer I have ever seen!

Happy Mothers Day

There are no words to express the joy I feel at being their mother....they are everything to me.

WOO HOO!!!!

12 Years

For 12 years this little guy was by my side.
We found each other at a very low time in my life.
We vowed to take care of each other and we did.
He was tormentor to many, loving of few.
I look around in all of his usual places and he isn't there.
We have all heard his bark the last few days, so in a way I guess he is still here.
It has been raining hard and the girls say that the rain is a sign that he is up in heaven barking.
He is also most likely gnawing on God's ankle.
That is just the way he was.
I wish that I could have just one more day to hold him but the vet said he was a very sick little boy and it was his time.
I hope he forgives us and knows that it was out of love that we set him free.
12 years.
Thanks for all the great memories Cody.

Your days cannot go wrong when they are filled with....

Hugs.
People told me that little boys were so lovely and affectionate.
This little boy gives the most amazing hugs to all of us everyday.
And not just one hug.
One hug is for losers.
He believes in dozens upon dozens of hugs throughout the day.
How can your day go wrong when you are being hugged like this.
Sometimes I can be stressed out and I will feel his little arms wrap around my legs.
It makes the stress melt away.
Sometimes I can be in a hurry and he will wrap his little arms around my neck and press his face close to mine making me stop whatever I am doing and relish the moment.
Suddenly I am not in such a hurry anymore.
Sometimes we can all be whirling around him going in different directions to do homework, cook dinner, practice the piano....
And he will stop us.
And he will hug us.
He makes everyday beautiful.



*The vintage cabinet cards are from the talented Danielle Thompson. Today they are on sale at Jessica Sprague for $1 for One Buck Wednesday.
Your collection of digiscrappin' goodness cannot be complete without an item from Danielle!