Linkage

I took a quick peek at my April calendar this morning and have pretty much decided that I don't want to flip it over on Wednesday. There was no beautiful, blank page staring back at me. It is FULL.

Remember me saying that I could literally feel my stress roll away while in Seattle? Well, I felt almost every bit of it creep right back in when I stood staring at the month of April. Ugh. 

Speaking of April...

It appears to be starting off cold and snowy. More snow is in our forecast and I even heard them use the "b" word (blizzard) on the news tonight when looking ahead to the weekend. If we're going to get snowed in, I think it's only fair that we be allowed a day off from school and work, don't you?

Moving on.

I'm sharing some links with you tonight because it's quick and easy and I'm always finding things I want to share.

1. Moriah@PleasePasstheSalt is one of my dear friends and she recently changed her blog url. If you've been missing her blog, you can now find it here. She's also giving away a $20 gift certificate. If you've never visited her blog, go over NOW, say hello, add her to your reader, and register for her giveaway. Moriah's blog is one of my favorites! 

2. Julie is another real life friend and I loved her post about Laying Down the Shoulds. I often say that I'm not a rules girl and Julie's post does a great job of explaining some of my reasons why. Striving does not become me.

3. Surprise, surprise. I discovered ANOTHER coffee creamer I love. I may or may not have a problem with artificial flavoring. The funny thing is that I only use a tiny bit in my coffee because I don't like it super sweet. So every kind I buy seems to last forever (I just threw out the pumpkin pie spice from October). And in my defense, I've never had as many in my fridge as my friend Michele!

4. Feeling crafty? I was inspired after reading this post from Leah. 

5. I also loved this plate that Tami made. I want to find a way to incorporate that quote into something for my house as well. I may steal her cute plate idea.

6. I think these wool dryer balls are one of the best ideas I've seen in a long time. I'm almost out of dryer sheets so I want to try to make some of them soon. Anyone ever made these before??? Rachel also came up with a creative and inexpensive way to display children's art. Very clever!

7. My friend, Christi, shared a link with me today about turning your blog into a book. I think I want to start doing that at the end of every calendar year. Isn't that a fun idea? There are several companies that print blog books but this one and this one seem to be used most often by bloggers.

8. I had the pleasure of talking to my friend Janna for a few minutes this afternoon. I'm pretty sure she is THE most creative mom I know. Check out what she made for her daughter to wear to the musical Annie! 

She gave me some ideas for celebrating Passover with my kids. I think we're going to attempt a (modified) Seder meal this year and incorporate some other Passover ideas/traditions. That will require some planning on my part...but I really would like to do it this year.

I could keep linking away, but I think Eight is Enough, don't you? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Our Skidaddle to Seattle

John and I had a GREAT time in Seattle last week. It's a beautiful city! Here are some fun pics of our trip.

Pike Place Public Market was a fascinating place. I couldn't get over all the beautiful flowers and produce and seafood. I kept wishing there were some way to bring a little of everything home with me!

One day, we ate lunch at The Athenian. The food wasn't great (the view was!), but we were starving and this restaurant was in the market. Two scenes from Sleepless in Seattle were filmed there. One scene is Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks sitting at the bar talking, and the other is right outside the restaurant under the sign. I know this because curiosity got the better of me and I pulled out my dvd this afternoon and watched it with Sarah.
Gorgeous cherry trees were blooming everywhere. Everything is still brown in Colorado so I was very happy to see some color!
John and I walked down to the Space Needle and decided to go up. I'm very afraid of heights, but this didn't feel scary to me. There were some cool interactive things at the top that explained different areas of the city and the history of the needle. It was fun, but I think this would have been more fun to do with a local friend who could explain things to us. 

It was very cloudy when we were up there and we couldn't see Mount Rainier. I was a little sad about that.

We stayed at The Arctic Club Hotel downtown and it was amazing and historic as well. I loved the walrus theme throughout.



I'm pretty sure you all know how much I adore Trader Joe's. I spent a whopping $9 there, but I was happy to browse, and my dog is happy again because he has some peanut butter treats. I would have bought more stuff if I'd had room to bring it all home with me!

I got to meet Gretchen!!!

She was every bit as funny and real and sweet as I imagined she would be, and we laughed a LOT. Gretchen, it was lurvely and you are the best driver I know (smile).

That's Lake Washington behind us. Pretty isn't it?

We made a quick stop at Mars Hill  because so many of our counselor friends did their grad work there. We made a new friend and we had a fun little adventure while touring the building, but I'm goint to let John tell that story.
If you're wondering, I did NOT have a Starbucks while there, but I did enjoy coffee at Seattle's Best, Cherry Street Coffee House, and Tully's. My favorite (by far) was at the Cherry Street Coffee House.
I did however find the orginial Starbucks store after a LOT of searching. I think we missed it three different times, and I felt better about that after some of the locals told me it's hard to find! It's very non-descript and the original logo is brown instead of green.


Trip highlights:

• Laughing...a LOT...with the person I love most.
  
• Literally feeling my stress roll away.
  
• I saw a BALD EAGLE! We were driving across the 520 bridge and I just happened to see one perched on top of a beam. It all happened too quickly to snap a pic, but I was so excited. I'd told God that morning that I'd love to see one and I just know He was grinning when I spotted it. I made sure to tell Him thank you!
• It only rained one day!
  
• Seeing my cousins, especially my newest baby cousin, Niall.
  
• Sleeping in.
  
• Coffee.
  
• Seafood.
  
• Color...flowers, trees, grass. Things were green and blooming.
  
• GRETCHEN.
  
• We missed the Colorado blizzard that dumped 14 inches of snow at our house.
  
• The humidity was actually nice for my dry skin!
  
• And I breathe really well at sea level. I wasn't huffing and puffing walking all those hilly neighborhoods.
  

Trip lowlights:

• It was cold!
  
• And cloudy.
  
• Did I mention it was cold?
  
• No Dr. Pepper. I tried to order one at 4 different places. Can you believe that? Needless to say I didn't have a soda the entire trip. (Consolation? Coffee!!!)
  
• The tip of the car adapter for our GPS got stuck in the outlet of our rental car and we were GPSless (and confused a few times) while driving around. It was the craziest thing. We told the guy when we turned in our car but he took a look and didn't think it was still in there. (He's wrong. Very wrong. The burning smell is a dead giveaway.)

A HUGE thank you to John's parents who came and stayed with our children. They endured the blizzard and even got to enjoy an extra day with us on Saturday since all the roads south and east of us were still closed due to the weather! We love you guys. THANK YOU!

Coordination

This picture makes me smile...

Who knew toes could be so handy.

Treasure

I came across a fun treasure on Saturday night when I was getting organized for John and Abbey's birthday celebration.

I made this "Birthday Box" when Will was a baby.

I keep all of my Wilton supplies in it, along with cake decorating ideas and instructions, birthday candles, food coloring, et cetera. I usually just reach in and grab what I need, but this time I dug through it and discovered some long forgotten treasures!

They're pewter candle holders that I had when I was little. I remember my mom using them on my birthday cakes growing up and I thought it would be fun to polish them and use them for Abbey. Aren't they fun? My favorites are the fish and the turtle!

There are only six so I had to add a lone candle, but she was still thrilled. They're super heavy so they sunk down into the icing and weren't really noticeable in our pictures. Too bad.

My mom was good about saving so much stuff from my childhood years. I'm afraid that I've not been as good about keeping treasures like these for my own kids. It's so hard to know what to keep and what to discard, isn't it? Do any of you have any great ideas or guidelines for keeping sentimental treasures???

All I've got today is RANDOM!

There is no rhyme or reason to this...and no fun segues either. Sorry.

John and I leave for Seattle bright and early tomorrow. I have SO much to do and I'm feeling very scattered this week (as evidenced by this post).

I'm NOT at all excited about our weather this week. It's not feeling very spring-y, and I just heard a forecast for snow. A LOT of snow. (It won't affect me this week but it might present a problem getting home from my trip!)

Gretchen asked me how I was able to use circles and rectangles to edit my photos in this post. The answer is Picnik. Kelly blogged about it last year and I've been a fan ever since. It's an online photo editing site. Very easy to use, very fun, and very FREE! Check it out.
(I just uploaded this photo, added the text, changed it to sepia, and fixed the red eye/pet eye in less than five minutes...online!)

I just found this new coffee creamer that I love more than all the others I've tried (thanks, Dana). SO good. Makes me want to make a pot of coffee every afternoon. I usually need it to get me through the afternoon...for some reason I get so tired around 2:30pm every day.

We disconnected our home phone last week and we're completely cellular now. If you call me regularly, you might want to try my cell from now on. I still haven't sent a mass email letting people know. My house was so quiet last week that I'm debating whether to give my cell number to anyone other than close friends. Hmmmmm...

I'm still not completely used to not having a home phone though. I keep checking messages when I walk in the door, and I was out running errands on Saturday and called John to ask him a question. Out of habit, I dialed my home phone. DUH! Some habits are hard to break.

I've been letting my hair go curly lately. Sunday was the first time in a week that I used my flat iron. I still prefer it straight, but it's been nice to have options. And fun to get compliments on my curls/waves. One of the girls in our Brownie troop didn't even recognize me (or so she says) because my hair was different. That made me laugh.

I've been drooling over my friend Shannan's gorgeous handwriting lately. Ya'll...she is seriously talented. I treasure all the recipe cards she's written out for me over the years, and her Christmas card is one I look forward to receiving the most! I always keep the envelope visible so I can study her writing, but there is only one Shannan. She's amazing. 

So jealous that two of my blogging friends get to meet in real life this week. I went to college with CarpoolQueen and Kellie and I "met" through our blogs. I was feeling all bummed about missing out on their fun until I remembered that I'm going to meet Gretchen this week. I am so jazzed! I'm also going to be the first one in my family to meet my new baby cousin!

My kids have been sleeping together for the last five nights. It's so sweet. They lay their sleeping bags in a row in the girls' bedroom floor and talk and giggle before falling asleep. It is music to this mama's ears. I love it so much when they enjoy each other.

I have a few posts scheduled while I'm gone. Nothing heavy...just some fun, happy stuff. Hope you have a fun week too!

The Birthday People

Yesterday we celebrated TWO birthdays at our house.

John turned 42 and Abbey turned 7!

Abbey thinks it is very cool that she shares a birthday with her dad. I sometimes feel sorry for John because he seems to get a little lost in the birthday fuss, but if you ask him he'll tell you that's just the way he likes it. He also thinks it's very special to share the day with Abbey!

We had a very low-key family celebration.

Started off with gifts and the birthday girl's breakfast of choice.

She loved the Thumbelina doll from my mom. Does that yellow Dr. Seuss book look familiar? That was a fun gift from ME!

Cinnamon rolls (thank you Pillsbury!) with birthday candles on our "Princess for a Day" plate. (I've always been a Mary Engelbreit fan!)

We went to church, came home, had lunch, and played with the birthday girl's other toys. She LOVED the Pixos and her new bicycle! 

We're still helping her learn to ride without training wheels. Our neighbor saw us working with her and offered us the use of this. John was grateful, and so was his aching back! (See that beautiful blue sky? It was gorgeous here yesterday.)

Betty Crocker and I baked a cake for the birthday people. (Abbey made John a card last week and drew a picture of both of them...she named them the "birthday people" and I think it's so cute that I can't quit calling them that.) They requested chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. We also had triple chocolate ice cream to go with it. There was some cake left over, but I'm sure it won't last long.

Seven pink and green candles for Abbey, four blue and two yellow (42) 

for John! Like my fancy cake?

After cake and ice cream we rode our bikes to the park and let the kids play until they were ready to ride back home.

Then MORE Pixos. Seriously, this is a fun toy.

 Abbey was sweet to share with Will

and Sarah and they made all sorts of fun designs.

John chose Imperial Chicken for dinner with four-cheese macaroni, steamed green beans, and Sister Schuberts rolls. (Easy to please, huh?)

John's parents arrive later this evening, so I'm sure we'll be doing some more celebrating. We're going to have a "real" birthday party for Abbey too...but it will be after Spring Break because so many of her little friends are gone this week. My family is really good at stretching birthdays out!

Happy Birthday, birthday people! I love you both so much!

Evidently, I'm not unplugged today...

You may remember that I've been trying to unplug on Fridays. 

I slept late this morning (YAY!) and forgot to send the laptop with John as he was leaving, and didn't really think about unplugging until after the fact. I'm being gracious with myself (I'm SO not a legalist) and planning to unplug tomorrow instead. Which is fine because I have loads of stuff to get done tomorrow in anticipation of two birthdays at our house and getting ready to leave next week.

While cleaning up this morning, I stumbled across my scrapbook stuff which has (sadly) been sitting in the hallway since I got home from my retreat last Sunday afternoon. 

I did remember that I promised you some pics of some of my pages.

Here's the deal. I don't like posting pics of other people on my blog without their permission, and SO many of my pages have other people in them (or info that I don't really want shared on the world wide web) so I'm posting pics of a few pages and don't laugh at all the stuff I edited. (please). 

I did almost 30 pages last weekend! I finished up my 2006 family album and started my 2007 one. Almost two years behind but I'm good with that!

A word or two ten about scrapbooking:

I'm NOT a fancy-schmancy scrapper. I adopted this motto as my own about 10 years ago: Done is better than perfect. Done is better than creative.  You will NOT find me spending more than 20 minutes on a page. I'm more interested in the photos and the journaling than I am the layout.

I try to get TONS of pics on my pages. 

I journal a LOT. (Not super evident on these layouts though.)

I hardly ever mat my photos.

I used to be a Creative Memories consultant and I have loads of product that I need to use. I refuse to buy new paper/letter stickers/embellishments until I use at least half of what I have in my stash. (I'm afraid it's gonna take for-freakin'-ever to get to that point).

I love black pages! Especially for snow pics!

I scrap chronologically. I keep a family album for every calendar year. In 2006 I used some calendar paper I got in a kit and documented each month (see above pics). I've done this a time or two before and I really LOVE it. 

Each of my kids has a baby album of their first year. They also each have a preschool album and a school album. The school album is an ongoing project. I like to work on those in the summer, but I'm behind on all of them. Very behind.

Here's my BEST tip for kids' artwork: Take a picture and chunk the Cheerio necklace or the construction paper hat. Keep only THE BEST pieces (5-8 per year) and put a photo cd in their album with the rest of their art on it. Better yet, develop the pics and make a "gallery page". (This page is from Abbey's preschool album!)

I've spent way longer on this post than I intended. Adios amigos!!!

It's 3:15pm (tick tock tick tock)

Spring Break officially begins in 45 minutes when my girls get home from school. I just picked up Will and took took him to McDonalds for a celebratory shake. We are both ecstatic! I've gotta think of something fun to do for the girls. Probably another trip to MickeyD's.

Anyway, it's 3:15pm. I've been running ALL DAY LONG and still haven't showered. That wasn't my plan, but I had to be somewhere much earlier than normal and I've felt a step or two behind ever since. 

On days like this, I'm thankful for my ballcap(s)...one of the most practical accessories I own.

It covers a multitude of hair woes. I seriously could not live without a ballcap. I don't think that anyone in Abbey's preschool class ever knew what I looked like without one! Life is Good caps are my favorite because they seem to fit my head and they're made specifically for women. Men's caps DO NOT FIT my little head.

I've had this red one for years. It's my go-to cap on mornings I'm feeling rushed and don't have time to get fully ready before I have to go somewhere (most mornings I take the kids to school and then come home and shower). 

I also love this green one.

I love this pink one too, but don't wear it very often because I don't look great in pink...and therefore I don't have much that matches it. If I end up wearing a cap because I can't get myself together, I at least feel like it's important to match.

I like Life is Good stuff so much that my kids each have a cap too. I love Sarah's...the blue one in the middle. If you can't read what it says, click on the pic to enlarge your view. Cute, huh?

Well, I started out talking about spring break and ended up talking about caps. I think that is a good indication that it's time to end this post. It's also time to go get in the pick up line! I am so giddy!!!!!!! And I am SO sleeping in tomorrow!

Shanda guessed Seattle and she was correct! I'm getting very excited. Sorta wishing I hadn't given up Starbucks for Lent since Seattle is where it all began and I'm sure there will be reminders of it everywhere. I'm hoping Gretchen will distract me while John works. (squeal!)

My Funny, Funny Children...

Saw this on Michele and Tiffani's blogs today and I thought it was cute so I coerced my kids into answering these questions about me. Hilarious. These are completely unedited...though I sorta wish I could edit a few of them.

1. What is something your mom always says to you?

W: I love you

S: You've got the "pretties" 

A: NO!

2. What makes your mom happy?

W: When we eat what she makes for dinner (so true)

S: Listening to her ipod

A: Getting her ipod

3. What makes your mom sad?

W: When she broke her Arkansas mug

S: When one of us is sick

A: Sad movies

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

W: Tickling me

S: She says weird things

A: She makes silly faces

5. What was your mom like as a child?

W: Weird. Just kidding, mom. I don't know.

S: Obedient

A: Pretty

6. How old is your mom?

W: 38

S: 38

A: 38 (They're either all right or all wrong. I'm not telling.)

7. How tall is your mom?

W: 5'2"

S: 5'2"

A: 72 inches.  (They're all wrong. I'm 5'3")

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

W: Scrapbook. No, wait. Blog. No, wait. Facebook.

S: Hike

A: Computer

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

W: Blog, Facebook, clean the house

S: Cleans the house

A: Listens to her ipod

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

W: Being a chef

S: Writing a book called the Diaper Diaries about her experiences with three kids (She's a funny kid, huh?)

A: Winning a question contest on the radio

11. What is your mom really good at?

W: Scrapbooking

S: Making those peanut butter raisin things. (I think she means these.)
A: Cooking

12. What is your mom not very good at?

W: Spanking (this made me laugh)

S: Guitar Hero (VERY true!)

A: Nintendo DS games

13. What does your mom do for a job?

W: Nothing

S: The yearbook at our school

A: Cleans  (Yeah, have you seen my paycheck?)

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

W: That thing from Carrabbas

S: That thing we had last night (It was Chipotle Chicken)

A: Lentil soup 

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

W: She loves me

S: She hiked Pikes Peak 

A: She's nice

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

W: Velma from Scooby Doo. (What?????)

S: Minnie Mouse

A: Tweety Bird

17. What do you and your mom do together?
W: Go shopping

S: Play around

A: Webkinz

18. How are you and your mom the same?

W: Same hair color

S: We're both Christians

A: We're both polite

19. How are you and your mom different?

W: Height, gender (He's a literalist!)

S: Our personality (Very true!)

A: Age

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

W: Because she tells me every five minutes (said while rolling his eyes).

S: She does stuff for me

A: She always gives me things

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?

W: He loves us kids

S: His sexy butt (where does she get this stuff???)(And yeah, sometimes we say butt at our house)

A: She just loves him

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

W: Estes Park

S: Estes Park

A: Arkansas (Two of the three got it right!)

Was really hoping one of my kids would praise me for downloading some Lady Gaga and having a big dance party in the den to Poker Face. Guess I'm not as cool in their eyes as I am in my own. (grin)

Life Stuff (*UPDATED at bottom of post*)

I know it's surprising (insert extreme sarcasm), but I really can't think of anything very substantive to blog about.

Probably because I've been home with a pinkalicious girl. She saw the doc yesterday and she does in fact have pink-eye. It has now progressed to both eyes and she's on an antibiotic. I'm not a fan of antibiotics and this particular child has already reached what should be her lifetime max of them, but I do think it was necessary this time. She likes being home with me. I like having her here too, but I really don't think I can watch the Chrissa (American Girl) movie with her again today. It's great, but I've seen it four times since Sunday. 

While she's watching the movie, I think I'm going to do some menu-planning. I enjoy the planning much more than the shopping! I don't know if ya'll know this--or if you even care--but I plan my menus two weeks at a time and since the first of the year I've been posting them on my recipe blog.

Yesterday when I was at the grocery store picking up Abbey's prescriptions, I grabbed some veggies for salad. I ended up with these cherub tomatoes. I don't usually buy this kind because they're pricey but yesterday they were on sale and OH MY GOSH. They are so good and sweet. I almost ate the entire container. Have you had them? They are SO worth the price. So worth it. I'm thinking of going back and getting some more this afternoon.

Speaking of food (because I seem to be on a food roll here), I really REALLY want to try Whimzie's White Chocolate Popcorn Crack. The sooner the better. Sounds like the perfect treat for this sweet/salty girl! Maybe I could add some green food coloring and make it a St. Patrick's Day treat. (Some dear friends plan a St. Patrick's Day meal where everything on their plate is green--except the corned beef. We joined them for their dinner a couple of years ago and our kids thought it was the grandest thing. They especially loved the green rice krispie treats I made for dessert!)

I'm still counting down--3 more days of school until Spring Break. I think I'm going to make it, but this week is feeling very full. VERY full. I've got everything I need to do and everywhere the kids and I need to be written down, but I'm still feeling like I'm going to forget something. 

I don't think I've mentioned my trip next week. John has to do some work-related travel and he asked if I'd like to go with him. (Well okay honey, twist my arm.) So the two of us are going to a fabulous city that I've always wanted to visit. Wanna guess where? (If I've told you, you're not allowed to guess...and ahem, YOU know who you are!) 

That's more than enough rambling for now. Maybe I'll have something exciting to talk about soon. Maybe. Maybe not. 

*UPDATE: I made the white chocolate popcorn a little while ago. It is YUM-O! And I LOVED Janna's St. Patrick's Day craft/dinner ideas!

home. happy. tired.

i'm home from my retreat.

i had a wonderful time and got lots accomplished.

the cropping was great but the company was even better.

the mountains were beautiful. and snowy. 

the sky was the brilliant Colorado blue that i love.

the camp was awesome and i'd love to go back with my family.

speaking of family...

abbey has a hideous case of pink-eye. i just know her poor eye is going to be sealed shut when she wakes up in the morning.

so i'm adding a doctor visit to my list of *stuff* to do tomorrow.

i am SO very tired and am heading to bed. i'll blog when life returns to normal. whatever that is.

(4 days of school this week and then it's SPRING BREAK!)

All Over the Place...

I'm so stinkin' excited about my scrapbook retreat this weekend! In the morning, I'm heading to the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains for a weekend of fun with a group of women from my church. I've got my hiking boots packed as well as my parka because it looks like it's going to be snowy. The last time I went to a scrapbook retreat I got snowed in for an extra night. I can't say that I'd mind that happening again, though John might feel differently.

I spent today running errands and hanging out with Will. His school had an early release, so I picked him up and we went to eat lunch. He chose Sonic--probably because he had a gift card he's been dying to spend since Christmas. That boy talked and talked and talked on the way there AND while we sat in the car and ate. I loved every minute of it. After lunch, we went to get his hair cut. We were close to this place, so we gave it a try and we lucked out that the place was completely empty. In and out in 20 minutes--woohoo! Will thought it was fabulous that he got to play SuperMario while the stylist cut his hair. I was just happy he got his hair cut willingly.

While waiting on Will, I reached into my (very messy) purse to grab my cell phone. Imagine my surprise when I found my HOME PHONE in there as well. Sometimes I think I am losing my mind! As I was leaving the house earlier I couldn't find my cell, so I used my home phone to call my cell (tell me you do that too). I found my cell in my purse and I guess I threw the other phone in there as well. I don't remember doing that, but I don't remember putting the Dawn in the refrigerator either.

Ahem. Moving on. I have some links I want to share with ya'll.

My dear friend, Jennifer, sent me this YouTube video tonight. If you like Chik-Fil-A, you're not alone. (Jennifer, I sat watching Tim Hawkins videos on YouTube for way too long tonight. That is some funny stuff!)

Do you guys ever match your mug to your outfit? This blogger does and her post about it made me smile.

Lisa's 10 on the 10th post also made me smile. (Lisa, are you going to add "teenage birthday parties" to your list?)

I discovered another great blog a couple of weeks ago, and The Meanest Mom is hilarious. I bet this never happens at your house.

I made some of these to take and share with my scrapping buddies this weekend. I like to make chocolate things because I know I won't be tempted by them. Never mind that I'm also bringing a bag of these which I have no intention of sharing.

No link list would be complete without a post or two from my brilliant husband. I loved this one he wrote about his day with Sarah, and this one about a recent conversation he had.

I've got to end this post...still have a few things to do before my coffee energy wears off. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Why?

Lots of questions today...

Why does Apple introduce new products without any advertising hype? And why did Apple introduce the ultra cool iPod shuffle a mere thirty-six (36!) hours AFTER I bought the old one? (Hate that.)

Why do I keep getting baby formula and coupons in the mail? (It's not even funny to ask if I'm pregnant. I'm not.)

Why does laundry multiply?

Why does our dog feel the need to knock the bathroom trash bins over daily and strew the contents throughout the entire house?

Why do my kids forget to put the cap back on my markers? My really nice scrapbook markers?

Why do the jeans and shoes I bought two months ago no longer fit my children?

Why do all the television shows I love have to be watched sequentially in order to know what the heck is going on? Why are there no shows anymore with stand-alone episodes?

Why do schools put so much pressure on kids for Colorado standardized testing? And why do they schedule before-school activities that require them to be there an hour early on testing days? (This one makes me MAD!)

Why does my 6-year-old cry every single morning when I brush her hair?

Why is it so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose it?

Why does it snow where I live in March? And April? And May?

Why does coffee taste SO good in the mornings? And why does it taste even better the week following daylight savings time?

Why does the tire pressure indicator light keep coming on in my van when my tire pressure is FINE? 

Why is it so rare to have a night when no one complains about what we're having for dinner?

Why do I have a need to arrange spare hangers in the girls' closet in ROYGBIV order?

And why do I take pictures of such things?

Huh? Huh? Huh? Anyone?

10 minutes...

I'm giving myself ten minutes to ramble.

You might think that I'm going with a 10s theme after yesterday. Not so. Ten minutes is all the time I have before I have to take Abbey to school. Sarah had to be there early for choir and it was my day to drive carpool so now I have this weird block of time before I do it all over again.

I did something today I've NEVER done before. I drove the kids to school in my pjs. Interesting.

Back to that ten theme. THANK YOU, thank you, thank you to those who played along with my idea yesterday! I loved reading all of your posts. Ya'll are clever with the lists! Very fun stuff. I'm already looking forward to next month.

I've been in major scrapbook mode this week. I haven't completed a single page, but I've sorted photos, organized all my supplies, and gathered page ideas for my retreat this weekend. I'm hoping to be super-productive since I haven't done any scrapbooking since last summer! Ginger asked me to post pics of some of my pages...and I WILL next week. I'm the queen of simple pages though so don't expect anything amazing.

So many of you guys commented on my pics from my 10 on the 10th post. Monday was a BEAUTIFUL day here, but yesterday was snowy and cold. I checked the weather when I got up this morning. 10 degrees! (I cannot get away from the 10s can I?) And a chance of snow every day thru Sunday. YUCK! I'm ready for spring. I love where I live, but it gets depressing this time of year because things are still so brown and March/April are our snowiest months.

I'm counting down until Spring Break. It starts for us next Thursday afternoon at 4pm. I cannot wait. Especially because John and I are going to do something FUN and ALONE. More about that later...

One reason I'm so excited for spring break is because I just feel so busy lately. I'm not normally busy. But last week and this week have been very fast-paced, and I'm not a fast-paced kind of girl. I like slow and lazy. I'm very ready for a week of that!

I have a million more things rambling around in my head, but my ten minutes are up and I wouldn't want the girl to be late for school. (The ONLY times my kids have ever been tardy were when I was pulled over by a policeman on the way to school. It's happened TWICE and they never let me forget it either.)

Hope your Wednesday is a happy one!

10 on the 10th!

It's the promised 10 on the 10th post! Fun, huh??? HisGirl offered to make a cute button for the occasion, and I love what she came up with. If you want to play along, feel free to grab it and use it on your blog!


So...for my 10 things, I'm posting 10 photos from my day.

1. The stunning Pikes Peak. I had to run some errands in Colorado Springs and I thought Pikes Peak looked beautiful with her fresh coat of snow from the weekend. I took this pic while driving. (Scary.)

2. A quick stop at Starbucks to pick up a gift certificate for Tiffani, who won my fun little contest. It was H-A-R-D to walk out of there without getting a drink!
3. Afterwards, I met John here for lunch. (Elizabeth, I thought of you!) He called me after his morning meetings and thought it would be fun to talk over lunch. (It WAS!)
4. As we were finishing lunch, John suggested we walk down to the Apple store. He said he really wanted to buy me an iPod. He recently wrote an article for a magazine and got his check in the mail over the weekend. He wanted to spend it on me! I really tried to get him to buy something for himself, but he kept refusing, so I graciously accepted. I got a Shuffle. It's the one I wanted. I'm a simple girl and like simple toys! I spent some time this afternoon loading my music onto it, and my kids are thrilled that now I can quit borrowing theirs.
5. I also spent some time today sorting photos. I ordered about 400 prints that I picked up ealier today. I'm SUPER excited to be going on a scrapbook retreat this weekend with my church and I am trying to get myself organized for productivity!
6. I also had a good hair day. (Sorry for the weird self-portrait). (I think I look tired. Daylight Savings Time caught up with me today.)

7. Ugh. When I was making dinner I accidentally turned on the wrong burner and BURNED the bottom of this pot. There was nothing in it, but the burner was on high for several minutes before I realized it. Ugh. Thank goodness dinner wasn't ruined!
8. No unread posts in my Google reader. A small miracle.

9. We were excited to watch the season premiere of Dancing With the Stars. I think I like the cowboy, Ty Murray, and Shawn Johnson the best. Isn't she adorable? (That is SO not her in the picture below!)
10. Since I didn't get a chai at Starbucks today, I made some at home. This (below) is my favorite brand. I prefer it with turbinado sugar and a little half-n-half in my Arkansas mug, of course!
Alright. If you want to join in, please do. Just post 10 things. There are no rules. You could post a list, photos, ANYTHING. I'm going to try the Mr. Linky thing (wish me luck--the instructions are very confusing). If you want to post a link here you can.

*Yay! I think Mr. Linky is going to work. And yes, technically I know I'm posting this on the 9th, but I really want it up before tomorrow because I have a busy day!

I'm not going to give you a bunch of rules and instructions (I'm not that kind of girl) BUT if you link here, be sure to link to your post, and not just your blog. If you're unsure how to do that, email me...

1. Kendra Bowen 2. Jackie@Moments&Memories 3. lauren Kelly 4. Melissa @ Breath of Life 5. His Girl Amber 6. Kellie@LaVidaDulce 7. Gretchen @ Jewelsinmy... 8. stephanie@{Olive Tree} 9. Amber @ Raising Rascals

10. Jennifer 11. Tiffani 12. Carpoolqueen 13. Time Well Spent 14. Time Well Spent 15. Mary @ Simple Things 16. Ginger @ From The Cocoon 17. Elizabeth @ Finding Him Bigger 18. Amy Lawson

19. Christen 20. IdahoAngie 21. Angie & Charlie Lechner 22. Lisa@SliceOfLife 23. Holly @ Crownlaiddown 24. Angela 25. afamiliarpath 26. Kellie @ On Wings Like Eagles

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