Summertime Fun

Today was a day of picnics...We had the GCC staff picnic in the afternoon and my PIT DT picnic in the evening. The kids spent the entire day in their suits and very wet! Jacob and Abby BOTH went down the Stevens' water slide AND off the diving board for the first time today! They were great and had a blast playing with all of their friends. They also made lots of new friends at the 2nd picnic and spent most of the time chasing each other from one kiddie pool to another - very funny. I greatly enjoyed the chance to hang out and talk with friends all day, being the social person that I am - a full day of picnics is right up my alley! Unfortunately I forgot the camera (duh!) so I took NO pictures of any of the fun, but many other people did, so maybe I'll be able to borrow some of theirs to share with you.

Adam is on his way to Ohio at the moment to visit his sister Ellen, who's recovering from her recent surgery (not the one planned, but still requiring reovery). He'll be there overnight and most of the day tomorrow before heading back this way to pick us up and head Up North. We've got the rest of the week off, so we're taking the opportunity to squeeze in a little vacation. Of course, that's if you consider tent-camping a vacation! Fortunately, our family does! We're looking forward to a week of complete disconnect from all things representing work around here - both home and jobs. While somewhat annoying that we have absolutely NO cell phone service once we head north of Wausau, it'll also be a little refreshing, if you know what I mean. We'll be sleeping outside, cooking outside, playing outside, etc., including a decent amount of time spent on the lake. The kids are so excited, it's all I've been hearing about for the last couple of days. We head out tomorrow evening - counting on a 9-10 hour drive, we should get there sometime before sunrise. I can't wait!

I worked 15 hours straight yesterday. Do I need to say anything more??

Scrapbook Wednesday

Yes, I know it's Thursday. I had my hands full yesterday with a few very energetic preschoolers - I had Tammy and Daryl's 3 kids from Monday night until last night while Tammy is in Mexico and Daryl was working. Today I actually had the day off, and therefore, I have a project to share with you. I will also mention that it took me several hours to clean up my work space before I could even get started, so I'm just pleased that I got anything done at all.

This is a sneak peek at my DT assignment for this month - I'm on Technique of the Month and my team is doing "metal." Just to remind you, that means that we had to find unique and interesting ways to use metal in a scrapbook layout. Being that metals are one of my favorite scrapbooking embellishments, I was up for the challenge. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out for two reasons: 1. I had a vision for how I wanted to use the product and make the layout look with that product, and I actually succeeded in doing it, and 2. I feel like this is a particularly unusual scrapbook layout, which I enjoy doing every now and then. It really excites me when I hear someone comment about one of my layouts they see at PIT. Sometimes I'll hear, "Wow, that's cool," but I especially like it when I hear, "I would never do that!" (said with a scoul on their face) Sometimes I just like to push people out of their comfort zone and show them that they can think outside the box a little - use patterned paper, use bright and wild colors, throw away those decorative-edged scissors and shape templates! You can do it!!

And finally, here you go...thanks for looking!

American Crafts Elements (metal plates) and various cardstocks. Journaling, printed on the computer, reads: Once upon a time there was a [girl] who left [home] and went away to college where she met a [boy] who had a very sweet [smile]. They quickly became [friends] and together they had a lot of [fun]. After some [time] they fell in [love] and decided to spend the rest of their lives [together]. Soon they were blessed with a [baby] and shortly after that came a [baby] and they were blissfully happy, because now they were a [family].

Nextel ROCKS!!

Tammy just direct-connected me FROM MEXICO!! Isn't that unbelieveable?! It sounds just like when we use it here in town, only she's, I don't know, like 1500 miles away! Isn't technology the bomb?!?

I swear I never win anything!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, while I was at the trade show in Chicago, buying up all of the scrapbooking supplies we could find, I won a "trunk" full of stuff from Chatterbox! Here's the story:

Chatterbox held drawings everyday at 3:00pm. I happened to have been at their booth earlier in the day to pick up a copy of our previously-place order, so I threw my name in the fishbowl. They had this really cute little hot pink, leather trunk with some of their product in it - looked cool. It was complete chance that Greta and I happened to have been walking past the Chatterbox booth again at 3:00 that afternoon as they began doing the drawings. We joined the crowd and watched as they called several names, giving away canvas bags with some free products inside. Cool. Then Christy (Tomlinson - a Chatterbox "chick") asks one of the guys to get the trunk out from under the glass (the one I mentioned earlier) and they call a name...darn, not me.

So, because Greta and I are in a hurry, we immediately bolt from the crowd and head off to our next stop. We get two isles over when I vaguely make out my name: "Becky Callender from Pages in Time." As the words are still filtering to my brain, Greta smacks me in the arm and yells, "That's you!" I immediately begin screaming: "That's me! That's me!" as I go running toward the sound of my name...through whatever booths and/or crowds of people that happen to be in my way. I run (and I mean run) up into the Chatterbox crowd and they hand me (drumroll please) THE BIG TRUNK!! With an expression of utter shock and amazement, I take the trunk from Christy, turn around and RUN back to where I came from! I can only imagine what they were thinking as they give away their "grand prize" for the day, only to have me snatch it from their hands and bolt just as fast as I'd arrived!

I get back to Greta, holding the hot pink trunk in my hot little hands, with a silly grin on my face. We both just stand there for a minute, looking at the trunk, at each other, back at the trunk... Then it occurs to us: "Wonder if there's something in it?" So we proceed to open the thing (and trust me, that's no small task, right Greta?) to find this:

IT'S FULL!! And for those of you non-scrapbookers out there, between the trunk and the stuff inside, this is easily HUNDREDS of dollars worth of stuff! It's basically one of every type of embellishment they make, page kits, an idea book, an album, etc., etc. At this point, my ridiculously cheesy grin only gets worse. People from the surrounding booths are starting to circle around like hungry sharks. I've even got other vendors checking out my stuff! Suddenly Greta realizes that this is a photo moment, so she breaks out the DRebel and grabs this shot:

Do I need to say any more? It was a good day...

MIA

This last week has flown by! I can't believe it's Tuesday already...again. Amazing how those roll around with such regularity. Here's how the last several days have gone down for me:

• Friday - Last day of swimming lessons (my children are doomed to repeat level two for the forseeable future). Met the McMullen's for lunch at Chick-Fil-A (before Tammy left for Mexico for her mission trip on Saturday morning). Worked from 4pm-1am. Fun.
• Saturday - Attempted to catch up with house stuff...didn't even make a dent. Ran to mom's, PIT, Border's (needed a mocha!) and Advanced Auto to buy some brake pads. No, I haven't taken up mechanics as a hobby - my brother is doing me a big favor. :) Church at 5:30 (great service - new series) and then to the McMullens for hanging-out time.
• Sunday - Spent most of the day at mom's - haven't done that in a long time. The kids splashed around with Adia in the baby pool on the back porch in the scorching 100+ degree heat. Had a little cookout for dinner - burgers on the grill. Just a little sidenote on the situation at mom's (this will be covered more thoroughly sometime in a separate post): My mom runs a boarding house for wayward children. Her own children. Currently she has my brother, his wife, their two kids and their cat, bob, living in the upstairs of the house. She also has my sister and her dog, cali, and cat, kitty. When we were at the house on Sunday there were 8 vehicles parked in front of the house. Keep in mind that there were only 6 adults in the house at the time. The place looks like a used car lot. I can only imagine what her neighbors say as they drive by. Anyway, to add to the atmosphere she's got going on there, Katie, Jessica and I all set up our tents in mom's yard. Why not give the neighbors a legitimate reason to hate us??
• Monday - Worked half a day at PIT for Katie. More fun.

The McMullen's arrived today at about 8:15 - way too early for both Tammy and me. Got the kids ready for swimming lessons and packed everybody up in the van to head to Penn. People think I'm an absolute freak show when I walk into that place with 5 kids. It's funny, too, because you can see them comparing the kids, trying to figure out how old they are. If they really stare for a good long time I'll finally just let them off the hook and say "they're not all mine" or something - Abby and Allison would have to be twins for it to even be a possibility, and if you haven't seen them together, here you go:

So, as you can see, being siblings, let alone twins, isn't even a remote possibility. It's pretty amusing to watch people try to figure it out.

After swimming we ran some errands - yes, I took 5 kids out in public. And if you are one of the many people who witnessed this spectacle, I apologize. It was a wonderful reminder of why I tend to stay home every Thursday. While possible, going out with that many children of that size, maturity level and degree of obedience is just not advisable. It's one thing if you can keep them all contained, like in one shopping cart, but they're just getting too darned big for that. Then you have kids sitting on other kids and kids complaining about other kids body parts touching them - it's much more pleasant to just let them run wild and bother all of the other shoppers than have to listen to all that myself.

So, after running to PIT, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Target, I drove immediately home and locked myself in a closet for half an hour. Ok, not really, but I was tempted. Instead, I fed them. Then I locked them in a closet for half an hour. Just kidding.

We had special guests at church tonight - Rajendran and Emanuel told their stories of how they came to know Jesus and what ministry they are doing now with the Bible League. Raj is the husband of my very good friend Prema (I stayed with Prema and her sister Aroma when I was in India last Spring - this photo shows Aroma, me, Prema and Raj) and the leader of the Bible League in Southern India. He's an outstanding man with the most amazing testimony you may ever hear. He was literally possessed by demons at one point in his life when he was practicing Hinduism. As a follower of Christ he's helped lead tens of thousands of people to faith in Christ - he's unbelieveable - and one of the kindest, nicest, funniest people you'd ever meet. Both Raj and Emmanuel spoke very well, despite the fact that they were very nervous to speak to such a large crowd of people in such a large room...Hearing them speak made me want so badly to go back again.

Today is the day Ellen (Adam's sister) was to have her surgery. Adam received a call this afternoon that the surgery didn't go as planned - they didn't believe they could accomplish what they wanted to by going ahead with the procedure. I'm not really sure what that means at this point - still waiting for more information. Please keep her and the family in your prayers.

I survived...

barely. Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was absolutely exhausting. I slept 11 hours straight last night (that has to be some kind of record for me) and I'm still tired and crabby (insert hand gesture here). Here's a run down of how the weekend went:

• Thursday night - Julie picked Anne, Greta, Jeri and me up at my house at 6:30 (well, actually more like 6:45!) and we hit the road. The toll road was closed (thanks for the tip, Tam) so we took US 12 to I94. We hit some pretty good traffic on 94 before it turned North so the trip took a little longer than we would have liked. We also did a little unplanned "sightseeing" (nevermind that it was dark) once we got to Rosemont. Don't ask. We checked into the Quality Inn (complete oxymoron in this case) and set out in search of food - we grabbed Wendy's around 11pm, if I remember right, and went back to the rooms to plan out our first day at the show. To bed around 1am.
• Friday - Up at 6:30, pack our bags (we switched hotels because staying overnight on Thursday was a last minute decision - we'd planned to drive to Chicago Friday morning), breakfast from McDonalds eaten in the car on the way. Got our badges and waited for the doors to open. Each of us had a different area to cover and our job was to collect catalogs, order forms and show special information. Julie and Greta placed orders at our "gimme" vendors - the big guys from whom we order everything new, no debate required. No lunch - we survive on the chocolate the vendors leave laying around their booths. The show ends for the day at 6pm. We head to the new hotel, get our rooms and dump our stuff. We then drove back to the convention center to drop Greta off at a meet & greet type event for CK Hall of Fame winners (remember, she's the famous one) and then we head over to the local pizza place to order a pizza to be delivered to our hotel room. We immediately begin pouring over the multitudes of catalogs we've collected until dinner arrives. In the middle of dinner we notice that our room is being overrun by huge black ants. Dozens of them. We call the desk, pack up and switch rooms, during which Greta arrives. Back to work until the wee hours of the morning - 3am if I recall correctly.
• Saturday - Wake up call at 6:30 - Greta has to wake me up again after she gets done in the bathroom - I'm a little reluctant to get out of bed. We grab breakfast in the lobby, jump in the van and head to the show. Today we each go back to the vendors we visited yesterday and place the orders we decided on as a group the night before. This takes a little longer and is more involved than yesterday so you have to stay on the move. More chocolate. Lots of cell phone calls. Have you made it to this booth? Don't forget the reorder for this company. See if you can get them to cut you a deal. I won a Chatterbox trunk and a few hundred $ worth of product at 3pm! (more on that later.) Again, lights out at 6pm. We made a good deal of progress today. Tonight we eat real food. I know there's a Cheesecake Factory within a 10 mile radius, so I twist Julie's arm and we drive to Woodfield Mall (again, taking the scenic route...). This is no time for relaxing, however, as we go over the list of vendors, checking off those we've completed and making a to-do list for the next, and last, day. We take our Cheesecake back to our hotel (after an all-too-brief stop at Ikea) and dive in on the remaining catalogs to finalize the last of the decisions and details. To bed by 1:30am, I think.
• Sunday - Wake-up call at 6:00 - we've got an early appt. with one of our reps. Pack up the van. Coffee. We split up again and kill our to-do lists, tie up loose ends, and we're done...early! I think we were actually out of the building by 4! To celebrate, we went to Chili's for lunch. Traffic in Chicago wasn't bad (considering the construction on the Dan Ryan) and we were home at 8pm. Went to Burger King with Adam and the kids the minute I got home, and I was in bed by 9:30. Slept 11 straight hours. Still tired. Off to bed.

The Flip Side

Ok, since I crabbed about my job yesterday, I'd like to take this opportunity today to tell you about one of the coolest things I get to do for my job. This evening I leave with a team of friends from the store to attend the CHA Summer Trade Show. This probably doesn't excite you at all, and I can understand that. However, I'm absolutely over the top with excitement right about now. Nevermind the fact that I'm still doing laundry so I can *begin* to pack my suitcase, that I'll probably get less than 12 hours sleep over the entire weekend, that I'll be on my feet for a minimum of 13 hours a day, that I'll walk an incalcuable (yes, it's a word) number of miles over the next 3 days...THIS IS FUN!!

Those of you who know me probably have some idea of how much I like to shop. I consider it a hobby. I've also made it quite clear that I love scrapbooking. Combine my two absolute favorite hobbies and what do you get?? That's right - the trade show. Did I mention that I'm spending someone else's money?!? It gives me chills just thinking about it!

Scrapbook Wednesday

Today was a banner day at Pages In Time (written with a moderate amount of sarcasm). I've spent 2 straight days stocking our cardstock and preparing a reorder. This may not sound like a monumental task, but you're going to have to trust me on this - it is. It's my own personal hell. It's a task that I've somehow inherited at the store and one that nobody else has any interest in taking over, and so if we want to sell cardstock, I need to put it on the shelves. I'm not kidding - I could disappear for weeks, maybe even months. There could be a nationwide manhunt for my abductors. My family members would appear on national television begging for my safe return. My good friends at PIT would wait for me to get back to restock the cardstock. I mean, it's not like they'd want to "mess it up" or anything, right? (yes, you guys, I'm talking to you!! ;) )

On days like that, I need to remind myself that my job at PIT has very little to do with scrapbooking and that this hobby I love is only very loosely associated with the torture I experience while preparing a cardstock order. This is why I have now deemed Wednesdays as "Scrapbook Wednesday" - a day when I will share with y'all (I have family in the South, so I can say that) a project that I've worked on recently, and thereby remind myself why I love what I do. So today I share with you a personal project that I made recently for my daughter, Abby. I'll soon be making a duplicate for her friend that is also featured within. They do everything together, everything they have matches - did I really think I could make just one??

The front of the tin I made for my daughter Abby and her very bestest friend, Allison. I used a Provocraft "Bits and Pieces" storage tin box, covered it with KI patterned paper and embellished with KI alphabets and wise words, and a Making Memories blossom. I got the idea from Patty on the PIT DT - thanks Patty!

The inside of the tin - KI sheen paper, patterned paper, icicles, etc. It measures about 8.5" tall and 6.25" wide (12.5" when open). Thanks for looking!

Return to Swimming Lessons

After a couple weeks off, the kids are back in swimming lessons - MAN, do they love it!

Of course, you'll notice that Abby has her mouth open...again! (insert comments here regarding how she takes after her mother) I swear, if we don't kick that habit, she could drown!

Jacob is back in a group with Mr. Paul and he's pretty much "hands off" now - swimming underwater, jumping in from the deck, doing the front crawl with his face in the water...he's made HUGE progress.

We're SO proud of both of our little swimmers!

Adam and Ellen - HAPPY BIRTHDAY EL!

Jacob and Abby with cousin Marissa

Family Day

Today (after swimming lessons) we packed everybody up in the van and headed up to Holland for a long overdue visit with the Irelands - Adam's sister Ellen, her husband Rick (who we missed because we were there while he was at work - hey Rick!) and their daughters Megan and Marissa. The kids had an absolute blast playing with Marissa (and Ruby and Parker - the new Golden Retreiver puppies!) while we caught up with Ellen, who's had a particularly rough year as she has been fighting cancer. During this same year, Marissa was diagnosed and is undergoing treatment for Leukemia. Check out their website (click on one of their names) for more about them - they are two of the toughest people I know - truly amazing. I'm really glad we had the chance to get up there and hang out with them, even if the visit was a short one. Thanks for letting us come and bother you guys for a while - and HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomorrow Ellen!

Slept in a little this morning before getting the kids breakfast - Jacob actually slept late for him - about 8:30! I got the paper and we ate breakfast before I got them ready for church and me ready for work. Normally we go to church on Saturday nights, but I picked up a shift today, and Adam is working (as he does pretty much every Sunday), so the kids were going to have to go to church for the 11:45 service today anyway so I could get to work in time...So I dropped the kids off, all packed and ready to spend the day with Daddy. Adam set up at Camp Adventure today for 170 or so of our middle-schoolers who will spend the week there learning about Jesus, and the kids got to hang out with him and the rest of the crew that's getting ready for a long, hard, sweaty, stinky, dirty, potentially rainy (hurricane), silly, crazy, eternally rewarding week at camp with (did I mention?) 170 or so middle school kids, all of whom will be given the opportunity to receive Christ this week. WOW.

I spent the day pushing scrapbooking supplies for a number of hours before sitting down with some DT friends for a little brainstorming session on classes at PIT. I may or may not have mentioned that I (along with several others) also teach classes at the store. I have to say one more time that those girls are a riot! I'm so lucky to be a part of that group, and especially to have them as friends. Good times. I'd love for you all (all 3 of you who occassionally read this) to have the chance to meet them. For now a picture will have to do.

Front Row, L-R: Michelle M. & Karla; 2nd Row: Jenny, Jeri (the rebel) & Keisha; 3rd Row: Jamie (creative genius), Michelle B., Patty & Jen; Back Row: Greta (the famous one), Me (the loud one) Anne & Freida.

The Pages In Time DT

Scrapbooking

As you can read in my profile, I'm pretty big into scrapbooking. In fact, at this point in my life, it's also a big part of what I do for a living - not that I get paid to scrapbook by any means (but I can dream) but I do get paid to help others scrapbook, and that's not too bad.

I am, however, on the Design Team at Pages In Time, which makes all of the display pages that hang throughout the store. This is a huge privilege for me for many reasons, including:

• I'm not worthy. There are girls on the team with me (hey friends!) who get published on a regular basis. In fact, one of those girls just won an honorable mention from Creating Keepsakes (the scrapbooking magazine) in their Hall of Fame contest - now she's famous and has been invited onto other design teams for product manufacturers and everything! (Congrats Greta - I love you, even if I will never be in your league!) Everyone on the team in incredibly talented. Most of them don't submit to be published, but if they did - I KNOW they would be. I don't deserve to be on the team. They're just being nice to me.
• The pages that I make are seen by hundreds, even thousands, of people as they shop our store. It's incredibly exciting and motivating to hear someone comment on a page you've made when they don't know it's you who made it - it puts a huge smile on my face.
• Most of the pages I make have pictures of my kids on them, so not only do I get to look at pictures of my kids all day long while I'm at work, but other people see them and tell me how cute they are. That's cool.
• Did I mention that the other girls bury me in the area of talent??

In light of the fact that scrapbooking is such a large part of my life, I figure it's high time I share some of that with you here. The DT works pretty simply - it is divided into 4 teams of 3 and every month each team has a different assignment. Those assigments will be displayed in one of four possible places in the store:

• Product Challenge - Jamie (DT leader, creative genius, all-around cool cat) chooses 5 different scrapbooking products that every person on that team MUST use in their layout. There aren't really any other rules - it can typically be any theme, you just have to use the products she gives you (whether you like them or not!) and more, if you'd like.
• Product Spotlight - Jamie chooses a scrapbooking company whose products we'd like to feature and to show customers how they can be used. For example, she picks Making Memories and the 3 girls have to use as many different MM products as they can in as many different ways as they can think of.
• Technique of the Month - Jamie chooses a scrapbooking technique that all 3 girls have to incorporate into their layout or other projects. Some examples of techniques include: painting, stamping, distressing, using tags, embossing, metals, etc.
• Display Table - Jamie chooses (have you picked up a theme here? Jamie has a lot of control over us!) a theme for the display table and that team creates layouts and products that fall into that theme, ie. Father's Day, Graduation, Christmas, Easter, Wedding, etc.

So, for this week I submit to you the items I made for last month's Product Spotlight, which featured Scrapbook Wizard products. I made a one-page layout that featured my best friend Tammy's daughter, Allison. Very simple layout, but I like it. My small project was an altered clipboard - a little crafty, I know, but it was very easy. So, here they are...enjoy!

Altered Clipboard - small clipboard from Office Depot, painted with Making Memories paint, Scrapbook Wizard printed papers, Scrapbook Wizard ribbons, All My Memories ribbon slide, Prima flowers (small and large), Pressed Petals metal word, Ranger buttons.

8x12 photo (printable at Walmart or Sam's), Scrapbook Wizard printed paper, Scrapbook Wizard ribbon, Prima flower, Gin-X rub-on alphas. Photo by Katie Holt.

The Survivors

Family Time

We had a great twist on our family time this Monday as it was the 4th of July - we packed up and headed down to Syracuse for a sun- and fun-filled day at the "Marques' Summer Place." There's nothing like a day at the lakehouse. Relaxing, eating, talking, water fun, more eating, cards, eating, and so on. Yesterday was a particularly relaxing day, at least for me, as our kids are now officially self-maintained in the water. Yes, grandma, they had life jackets on (love you!), but we can now sit on the porch of the house - a safe and comfortable distance from the activity in the water - and the kids are just fine on their own. This is a good day.

After a good amount of sitting around doing a lot of nothing (man, I love that), and a quick clean up when the sky began to look ominous (only to blow over with only a few sprinkles), we put the 4 oldest kids (Jacob, Allison, Abby and Rachel - yes, 3-year-old- Rachel) in two tubes behind the boat and took off (at all of 5mph!). They had an absolute blast! I've never heard such giggling and begging to "GO FASTER!!" Even Rachel was feeling the need for speed. Once we pulled her into the boat, we gave the kids what they were looking for and really opened that boat up...to about 10mph - wahoo! Got a lot of great pictures and video - good times.

Tammy threw down the gauntlet once the kids were safely in the boat - she challenged me to tube with her. Keep in mind that the last time either of us had done this was B.K. (before kids)! I admit, I wasn't all that excited about the idea. But you can't turn down such a challenge and hope to have any dignity left, so I suited up and jumped in. Now, I'm not going to give any gory details or mention any names, but I will say that one of us was dumped twice and the other managed to hold on for dear life while her best friend's dad did absolutely everything a human can do to torture another human with a boat. Nice try Fred. Maybe next time.


Do I have to tell you that I couldn't lift my arms above my head all day at work today?

At Silver Beach for the fireworks. We found a crowd of friends from GCC, some of whom had brought sparklers for the kids (Thanks Jen!). I told the kids on their way over to do the sparklers that they had to follow the rules. Abby, being the good little girl she is, asked what the rules were. "Don't burn anybody" was the reply she received. Good rule.

Jacob

My lot in life...

It's not a lot, but it's my life.

So, the kids and I were driving to church last night (I was actually doing the driving) and Jacob was talking (as he tends to do) about random things. He was talking about Abby's thumb and her blankie, and how she likes them both so much. He says," You're Blankie-Girl!" She, of course, fusses about this because she assumes that he is teasing her for these baby-ish tendendies that she holds strong to. I jumped in: "No, honey, he just means that you like your blankie a lot, that's all." And Jacob adds, "Yeah, you're Blankie-Girl and I'm Star-Wars-Boy! Daddy is Hard-Worker-Man and Mommy is...Laundry-Girl!"

My mom used to have to hold me down to get a dress on me...God has a beautiful sense of humor!

I've promised my grandma in Phoenix (Hi Grandma!) that I'd keep the pictures coming, so here you go grandma...Abby's got a serious thing for glitter and make-up lately. Who would have ever guessed that I'd get such a girly-girl?!

Where's Becky??

Ok, after a fair amount of harassment for undue neglect of my blog...I'm back! Here's what my week looked like, in case you were wondering what in the world happened to me:

• Tuesday - Work day at Pages In Time. I report in promptly by 9:15 - right after stopping at Border's for my medium mocha. I'd get to work on time if Border's would only open a few minutes early, but alas, they won't open the doors until 9:00, even for me! I spend most of my day merchandising, organizing, selling, assisting, rearranging, moving, lifting, helping, answering, cashiering, counting, followed by a little shopping (chances are, after 8-9 hours spent at a scrapbooking store, I'm going to find something I "need!" This Tuesday after work Adam picked me up and we went to the McMullens to get the kids, to KFC with the McMullens, and then to the Verduins to introduce the kids to Alexis - they spent the vast majority of the time playing in the back yard, dangerously close to the highway...
• Wednesday - Another work day at PIT. More of the above. I also do some stocking, reordering, harassing of Mark (easily the highlight of my job), and more stocking. I really enjoy the work I do at the store - it's a very good fit for me. Just the right mixture of interaction with people and the lack thereof. While the vast majority of our customers are pleasant, happy people, there are too many (and they tend to coordinate their shopping days to ensure that they all come in on the same day) that aren't. There has been more than one occassion when I've felt the strong urge to remind someone that I am, in fact, a human being who was not necessarily born to take crap from crabby people. I digress...I spent Wednesday night at home with the kids while Adam was at work. Did some scrapbooking after the kids went to bed...
• Thursday - As I've mentioned before, this is my "day off." In all honesty, as Tammy and I have both discovered, it is often easier to have more kids than just your own. The theory behind this is that they all entertain each other, leaving us with a little more time of our own (which is often spent cleaning, or making lunch, or doing laundry...but at least we're doing those things without 1 or more children clinging to our legs, begging for us to entertain them!). The oldest 4 are usually off playing the majority of the time, and now that Tyler is crawling, he's exploring, feeling, pulling up, climbing up, tasting (yikes), and otherwise handling absolutely anything he can find. It's an amazing age, and he is truly a little boy, in every sense of the word! :) Thursday night I load the 5 kids into the van and we head to the mall for our gormet food court dinner (tradition!), which is quite an adventure with 4 very mobile children, before heading to New Community.
• Thursday night at New Community deserves it's own paragraph. Dr. Bob was ON! There are time when I sit there thinking that I'd seriously consider going back to school (did I seriously just say that?!) if it meant that I could just sit and absorb the unfathomable knowledge and understanding that this man has to share. And, man, does he share it! If I'd had even one professor, or even one teacher in my entire educational career with even half as much passion as he does, it really could have changed the way I viewed the entire process. The coolest part about him is that it is so evident that this knowledge and understanding doesn't just come from endless hours of studying and memorizing scripture and reading every book he can get his hands on (which I know he does). He is intimitely acquainted with my Savior, and you can see it and feel it when he teaches. It's personal.
• Friday - Slept til 11:00am. Adam works late on Thursdays, so he usually stays home for a little while on Friday mornings. This particular Friday he was home long enough to get the kids fed and into a movie, allowing me to sleep in - now that's a good man! Did some more laundry, scrapbooked a little, messed around the house and then got ready for work. I work at 4:00 on Friday afternoons, usually until the wee hours of the morning. PIT does a "crop" (when a bunch of women bring their own scrapbooking supplies to the store, hang out with friends, eat pizza, shop, and occassionally work on their stuff) every Friday from 5-11pm. However, we didn't have a crop yesterday due to the holiday, and also so we could set up for our "sidewalk" sale (which is actually inside the store...don't ask). So, the store closed at 9:00pm, Jeri and I closed, counted and cleaned for about 45 minutes, and then we dug in. When I got home at 5:30 this morning, the sun was already coming up and the birds were singing (which I would normally really enjoy, but when I know I haven't even gone to bed yet, that sound just ticks me off!).

So, that was my week...now you can relax. I am still out here!