Creative Friday--Fall Break Edition

Landon and I were excited to have a Creative Friday with Michelle and Lucas on the Friday of our Fall Break! We took this self-portrait while waiting for our big beverages at Sonic (I'm tired of not getting anything so I tried a Cherry Limeade).

We took our self-portrait right away (before we ate or got haggered) but I still look red-faced and not very "made up" looking.

Landon cracked us up by adding his partially eaten apple to the table scape.

I picked up a couple Pork Tostadas for our lunch and was amused yet again by the mistake made with my last initial. Granted, it's always loud at Cafe Rio and "S" does sound like "F" but "S" doesn't sound at all like "A" right?

Oh deliciousness, I never tire of you!

Eva was having a rough day and was feeling quite overwhelmed by the task of cleaning her room. We finally motivated her by timing her with the stopwatch on my phone and she completed her tasks in under 6 minutes! (She had spent far longer than that crying about it.)

Max tried to silently play the piano for a bit before heading out to find a ghost town with some friends.

In a Creative Friday first I brought my laptop (courtesy of Stefanie) to try to get on top of my Escalante Weekend Photos so I can finally post about our trip...it's overwhelming.

Michelle's kitchen is under construction while she's doing the incredibly laborious job of painting all her kitchen cabinets! It's a good thing she had no idea how challenging this project would be!

These are the few she has done and it changes things drastically!

The expression on Eva's face while lamenting something (possibly not having the right noodles for lunch) was classic, I'm so glad I caught it!

It took forever just to load one blog post's worth of Escalante photos onto my blog. Meanwhile Michelle was super productive and wrote many thank you notes.

 

It was a little weird to spend so much time on the computer while at Michelle's but we were still able to talk and catch up on life.

Eva's dreams were crushed when friend cancelled their playdate because she wasn't feeling well. Michelle was neck-deep in smotherhood for sure, but handled it like a champ as always.

Even after so many years of blogging I still get a little thrill when I see my blog on screen.

We didn't see much of the boys, but at one point they stopped in to use the computer and sat on the same chair.

One of my other big tasks for the day was cleaning out my wallet! I had so many coupons, receipts and miscellaneous notes in there that it had gotten quite thick. It felt great to clean so much out!

**When was the last time you cleaned out your wallet?

Have you dealt with any Smotherhood lately?

Do you enjoy Cherry Limeades?

What do you think of Landon's contribution to the tablescape?**

Comment Window Tidbit: The extra hour I get on Early Out Mondays is phenomenal! Today I picked Whitney and Madison up from school, completed my 3rd visiting teaching appointment for the month, did 2 loads of laundry, sorted through all our newspapers and junk mail, emptied the recycling and blogged! However, I did NOT make dinner.

Busy

It's driving me crazy that I haven't blogged this week! I've been busy, but not THAT busy, sheesh. I'm dying for a new computer so this laptop misery can end. 

 

We took this picture last Friday before heading out to dinner and a movie (Something Borrowed). 

**Have you seen that movie?

Are you busy, but not THAT busy?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I am really loving being off work for the summer!

Remember When?

Remember when I used to post every single day no matter what? Apparently those days are gone, and I'm pretty sad about it. Our computer is still in a coma (it's been 2 1/2 months) which means we are still making due with this old laptop (which is definitely better than nothing, but is not ideal). It is slower, smaller and all-around less fun for me to use (excuses, excuses). Our server times out (I think it's a router problem) after visiting 3 sites so that makes for some annoyingly stilted internet time. Basically I'm fed up with this situation and how it is affecting my blogging (both posting and reading/commenting). Aargh!

**What's your computer situation?
How often do you blog?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Today is the first day of the year that it has actually felt hot outside--it's 79 degrees.

Five for Friday--Clothespin Acupuncture Edition

1. So Wednesday evening I had a raging headache (my 2nd one this week!) and I was making a headache-related comment on Jen M.'s blog and happened to mention that I had a clothespin attached to my eyebrow in an effort to squash my headache (which is why I actually thought to take a picture of my in that bizarre state). The clothespin just happened to be near the computer, and I had been pressing on my head and eyebrows as if to shove the headache out of my head, so putting the clothespin on my eyebrow was the next logical step. The crazy thing is that it worked! I don't know if creating a new pain took the old pain away or what, but within an hour I realized my headache was gone. Sweet Fancy Moses, it was a miracle! If this really works, this may become a new look for me.


2. I finally bought some heavy-duty binder dividers for my coupon binder and printed (this gave me joy) the tabs for the sections in my binder (i.e., frozen, dairy, snacks, drinks, etc.). This gave me the push I needed to finish filing ALL the remaining coupons; it took 4 hours!


I had the kids each take shifts helping me by folding the larger coupons so they'd be ready to be filed in the binder sleeves (they're the size of baseball cards) and it turns out that Whitney folded all of hers so that the back of the coupon was showing $%#@!. She wasn't very happy when I had her come back to fix her mistake, but seriously the whole point of her taking a shift was to HELP me, not give me more to do!


3. Randy continues to mock my 4 years worth of "decorated" lunch bags for Whitney (dimension and shading, really?).


4. Landon had his first ever Junior High Choir Concert this week, and did a great job. He didn't even sign up to take choir, but somehow it ended up on his schedule and it has been a fun class and good experience for him. He's also in band, so the combination of the two classes has been good for him.


5. Notice anything unusual in this picture? Yep, it's mine.


6. I came home from school yesterday to find this new garland; apparently Whitney made it the previous evening when she was supposed to be in bed.


7. The other night while in the middle of my big couponing mess, Whitney opened the fridge and I turned around to see a shower of condiments coming out. The plastic part of the shelf that holds it in place (on one side) broke...what the? All she did was open the fridge! Plus, this fridge is only like 18 months old. Good Hell! Now we're going to have to talk to our Landlord about it and he's going to make a kind-hearted yet accusatory comment about us stuffing too much onto the shelf or about the kids rough-housing with the fridge (as if!). I detest calling him (even though he's a very nice man) so much that we may end up living without a shelf in the fridge and with hot sauce and such taking up space in the middle where the food should be.

**How was your week?
Have you ever tried clothespin acupuncture?
Were you ever in choir?
Would being able to print binder tabs make you happy?
Am I too old to have a PreAlgebra book?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Oh dear, you guys are freaking me out about the teachers' lounge situation. I ate in there on Monday and Tuesday but then ate in my car Wednesday and Thursday. I think either way is okay.

Just Plain Nice

Sometimes I have so many things to blog about that I'm not sure how I'll be able to fit them all in (I still haven't posted about Halloween), and then other times I am at a loss for a topic and wonder how I've been able to post daily for almost 5 years! Now that I'm working, that means I'm not filling up my days with potential blog fodder (unless of course I decide to make my blog junior high all the time), so it's a challenge to have something to say every day.


Fortunately Michelle and Eva brought Cafe Rio for lunch today, so I got to have a fun lunch in Michelle's van instead of in the teacher's lounge (where I am a passive listener and noncontributor at this point...apparently it's too early for me to have any credibility or personality).


Eva suggested that we sing songs and tell jokes and riddles, but Michelle and I opted to talk instead. The time went far too quickly (if only class time flew by that fast), but lunch visitors are good for my soul.



Also, check out Miranda's blog today where I am a guest blogger for her Handmade Holiday series.

**Do you have any blog topic suggestions for me?
Have you ever tried to eat Cafe Rio in the car?
When was the last time you told a riddle?
Are you making gifts for Christmas this year?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I work one-on-one with a muppet sized student and I'm quite smitten with him. His innocence and sincerity are so endearing that I just want to put him in my pocket and bring him home with me.

Blog Banner Retrospective--2009

I saw a post on someone's blog (a link of a link type thing) showing all her blog banners for the year, and thought it was a great idea for a post, so here are mine. Apparently a few of these overstayed their month because I only have 9 for the whole year dang it.

This is the one Michelle made for me, sadly her tutorial didn't stick; my skills remain remedial.

This was my first and last successful use of Adobe brushes. It's a good thing I downloaded a ton of them, and then only ended up ever using these swirls.


This is one of my favorites because creating that photo with my stash of used postage was serious thinking outside the box for me.


I took this picture while Kristi was in the house sewing my bag for me during our Women's Conference weekend. I had a photo shoot with my tulips (which Michelle planted for me the previous fall) and loved the results.

Simple yet lovely.

This one made me a little bit giddy. This photo was from my birthday dinner at Los Hermanos with Lori, she bought me a fancy a drink.

This one feels like a confession.

I took this photo in the fall of 2008 through Betsy's windshield while driving to her house from the airport; I was totally enamored with Michigan's fall foliage.


This one was thinking outside the box for me as well because I had to print the "Dear Santa," out on my computer in a typewriterish font and then put it in the vintage typewriter.

**Which ones do you like best??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I did 2 Blog Banner Retrospective posts today, will you comment on both?

Blog Banner Retrospective--2008

This was my blog banner for about 2 years and was created by Randy (with my input) using a photo Michelle took of me in what I termed "my uniform". I loved the way this banner turned out and kept it for a long time because I wanted it to be in the book I intend to make of my blog, but then I realized I could include different banners so it was time to move on.


This was my first banner attempt since deciding I was going to change them regularly. I was giddy when I thought to take this photo.

You can tell I was baby-stepping my way in blog banner creation.

I really like this one.

I have such a love of nature photography and spring that this one was happiness to me.


I love this photo but don't think I kept this one up all month.

This one was up for the rest of the month.

I took this photo during our city carnival and love how it turned out.

This is a shot from Seven Peaks.

This is one from my vintage typewriter and is the one I got the most positive feedback about.

I love this one because I love glimpsing the "mess" of my studio space.

This one was so simple, but is the scene we see so much of during soccer and flag-football seasons while at the sports park.


I love the colors of these leaves and that I had taken this photo in Michigan the month before.

This just says Christmas right?

**Which one do you like best?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I did 2 Blog Banner Retrospective posts today, will you comment on both?