Scrapbook Thursday

Well, I'm now down one kid every Thursday, and starting next week I'll only have 2 (neither one of them mine!) on Thursday mornings! Assuming I can keep the house in some state of order (yeah, right) that could mean some quality scrapbooking time! Today I had no choice - kids or no kids, it was scrapbooking time. I've got a deadline looming, so it was time to get cranking! So, this is what I came up with today:

It's for the Product Challenge - Arctic Frog is the name of the manufacturer. Page title is "What is my MOTIVATION?" And the journaling reads: After a solid week of watching the "big kids" tube, ski and knee-board all week, Jacob suddenly became hesitant to get back on a tube. Apparently he'd seen one (or more) too many wipe outs. However, to get him "back on the horse" Adam offered to take him for ice-cream if Jacob would give it a try. He made it about 20 yds. before he was done and asking, "Do I still get to go to Dari-Maid?"

Thanks for looking!

i just realized that i didn't take any pictures of jacob on the morning of his first day of school!! i suck!!

Well, that's it. It's happened. He's on the bus and on his way to school. First Grade. Last year at this time I was teary-eyed. This year, I'm grinning ear to ear. Don't get me wrong - when the alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I hit the snooze with my usual amount of passion. However, once I got up and realized that Jacob was already dressed, had re-checked his backpack, and was starting to get his own breakfast, a huge grin came across my face. Fun kid. We got his cereal, which he was suddenly too full to eat (too many butterflies in there maybe?), and had some TV time (helped him relax a little) while I packed his lunch. Put "the note" in there and everything (had to keep it simple so he could actually read it - "I love you Jacob - Have fun at school!"). I made sure we had all of his forms signed and in the backpack, along with drink money, t-shirt money, etc. (The $150 worth of book fees will have to wait.)

I can't wait to pick him up from the bus stop and hear all about his first day!

Back to School

Adam, Jacob and I (Abby's with the McMullens for a couple of days) went to Jacob's "Back to School Picnic" tonight. We met his teacher and saw where he'll be sitting and who will be in his class - he's very excited. And, I'm sure, a little nervous. I've been trying to walk him through everything he'll be doing - he's one of those kids who needs to know in advance or it could just freak him out. Routine is good for Jacob. He asks a lot of questions and gets everything straight in his head and then he's ok. He's got all of his school supplies packed and ready to go - everything Spiderman this year. He's on a huge Spiderman kick lately. Spiderman folders, pencils, eracer, pencil sharpener, notebook, pencil holder, backpack...you name it. He's ready.

Tuesday

alarm. tired. coffee. work. tired. lunch. tired. mt.dew. tired.

Monday

So on my way home from my all-nighter at PIT, I stopped at Krispy Kreme (where else would one go at that time of the morning??) and picked up a dozen to bring home. Thought it would make a nice surprise for the kids when they woke up in the morning. What I didn't expect was Jacob meeting me at the door at 7am - and it took him no time at all to dig in. He's a big fan of the chocolate iced. I personally prefer the original. Abby's all about the sprinkles, while Adam sticks with his standard - creme filled, chocolate iced. At least I know nobody is going to steal mine since they're the "plain and boring" ones. Anyway, Jacob and I sat up at 7am eating Krispy Kremes together and watching the Today show. Can't think of the last time I'd done that. I had almost forgot that show was on, being that I avoid seeing the light of day at that hour at all cost. Nevermind the fact that in 48 hours, I'll be up at this time again, getting ready to put Jacob on the school bus.

By the time 8:00 hit, I was fading fast, so I crawled in bed and was out like a light. Sometime around 11 I awoke to the sound of a nearby lawn tractor. Like, right under my bedroom window, nearby. Adam's wakeup call? So I stumble out of bed and sit, zombie-like, in the recliner watching Freaky Friday (not a bad flick, I'm embarassed to say) with the kids until around 1pm. Lunch time. More hanging around the house. Grocery shopping (I went to Walmart looking like death warmed over, so I fit right in). Then date night.

Adam and I saw Cinderella Man at the dollar theatre. WOW. You know the movie had to be goo for a couple of reasons: (1. It's about a boxer, and I still like it, and (2. I have now been awake 33 of the last 36 hours and I'm not even dozing. It was absolutely incredible. Russell Crowe and what's her name (I know it, I just can't think of it at the moment) did some phenomenal acting in that movie. Wow. See it. If you've already seen it, see it again. I will.

Work

I've decided that I'm a glutton for punishment. I traded shifts with Patty at work - she worked for me Friday night so we could go to the fair, and now I worked her shift today, Sunday. No big deal - in fact, I get the better end of the deal. Sunday shifts are only about 6.5 hours, as opposed to my 9 hours on a typical Friday night. Sunday shifts are over when it's still light outside. That's cool.

Today we weren't even that busy, so Alexis and I got a lot of stuff done. That's atypical for a Sunday because we usually do the same amount of business as a typical day in less than half the time, but not today. Sorry Turners. So Alexis and I were done by 5:30. Jamie (the creative genius at the store) had a Stampin' Up party at her place at 6:30, so I headed down there with Jeri and Jen around 6 or so. Had a great time (a little Smirnoff doesn't hurt) and spent a lot less money than I could have. Now here's where the day takes a turn for the worse. Julie asked me to come back to work after the party and work on getting more inventory out while the store was closed (I can be much more productive when I don't have people following me around asking where to find hot air balloon stickers or prison embellishments). So, after the party, I head back to the store to meet Julie and Anne. We determine that the best use of our time would be spent doing the stickers for a couple of reasons:

• It's incredibly difficult to do them during the day because customers, without fail, need to shop the exact area you happen to be working on at any particular moment.
• It's fairly physical work, which causes a host of issues: grunting, sweating, getting dirty, swearing, stinking, screaming on occassion...
• We had no less than 2 months worth of new sticker rolls than hadn't been put out on the walls yet because it's the most hated job in the place.
• The walls needed cleaning up - tons of empty sticker rolls and old stickers that hadn't sold since the store opened - and I'm the slash and burn type. No sentimentality whatsoever. If it's not selling, trash it.

So, we started this task around 9pm by sorting the new stickers by theme, printing out labels for the ones that didn't have them yet (let's the customers know how much they cost) and distributing shopping carts full of stickers to their various sections of the store. We reworked every section of stickers, taking of the old, saving the empties for reorder, putting up the new, and just generally rearranging everything. I worked on one side of the store, Julie and Anne did the other. We left the store at 6:45am. That's right - after sunrise the next day. And for those of you keeping score, that's two weeks in a row for me. I'm beginning to question my sanity. But, darn it, those sticker walls are a site to behold...

Saturday

Spent the day cleaning up (with Adam's help in the morning - huge help!) after a week's worth of activity around here. Amazing how you can't tell from week to week that I've done anything to the house at all. Back to that whole "I need a wife" idea...seriously. Ok, I'd settle for a live-in maid. Ok maybe not live-in, but here a lot. I mean, it would take a good deal of time to clean up after us. We're not a neat people. And she needs to be at least somewhat homely - and a little rude. I'm thinking Russian - I don't know why...that's just the image that comes to mind.

I'm not looking for a nanny - I want the extra time I wouldn't be cleaning to be spent doing fun things with my kids (and scrapbooking, of course). Someone to make it possible for me to be the full-time mom I want to be. Problem with this idea is that, once I pay someone to tackle this tremendous task, I won't be able to afford to do all those fun things I want to do with my kids (have you seen how much it costs to go to the zoo?!? let alone the fair, or an amuzement park!) So that throws a wrench into the works. So now I need to get a maid AND get rich. I guess those two kind of go hand in hand. Shouldn't be any problem, right?

Friday

Today we met the McMullens (minus Daryl) at Chick-fil-a for lunch (another tradition in the making) and let the kids run wild for a while. Nice. After that, Adam dropped me off at work so that Freida could cut out early. Unfortunately for her, my weak, sick and pathetic sister was looking and behaving like death up at the front counter, so Freida very kindly and mercifully let Katie go home early while Freida and I hung out and picked up the slack (love you kate!). We cranked some stuff out while putting up with "Bob the Builder" Mark and his wonderful assistant, the Sr. Turner, moving things around, nailing, sanding, banging and just generally making a lot of noise. Customers love that. It feels like things are happening. And, seriously, the store is looking GREAT! There's still a lot that we'd like to get done, but they're making HUGE progress. Anyway, I had gotten Patty to switch shifts with me so that she'd work tonight and I take her Sunday shift, so Adam came and picked me up and we headed for the "Midwest's Largest Youth Fair" up in Berrien. Great way to blow a bunch of money. $12 to get it (and Abby was free!), $22 in ride tickets, at least $15 in food - and only that little because a wonderfully kind and generous friend of ours from GCC happens to run a GYRO booth there and he GAVE Adam and me our dinner and drinks for FREE!! We easily would have hit $30 if that hadn't happened! All in all it was a great time for everybody. The kids loved all of the rides they went on, and if we were made of money, we could have done that for days. In the future we're going to have to get smart and actually do wristband day or something. They loved the food, they loved the flashing lights and the animal barns. The highlight was the "Miracle of Birth" Barn (sounds much more graphic than it actually was). There were brand new baby chicks and ones still in eggs in the incubator hatching away, baby goats, a baby llama, baby cow, baby pony, baby horse, baby cow, etc. Almost all of them were within reach and willing to be petted and the kids took advantage. It was awesome to see them marvelling at these brand new little (or not so little in some cases!) animals. It was a lot of fun. We're going to start saving up now for next year.

Another recent scrapbooking project...

This is another one that I did for PIT for the Product Challege (5 products, 3 scrapbookers). We were required to use the paper, the paint, the acrylic stamps, the metal photo corners and the twill/ribbon and, for a change, put the page on a canvas! That means, instead of going inside one of my albums (someday...) it will hang on a wall in my home. It was to have a "family" theme, and this was what I came up with:

There's a funny story behind the family picture: This project was due at the end of June to be displayed in the store for the month of July. So, I'd struggled with the idea of what to do for this project for most of the month of June. I finally decided on the above idea, but I needed an up-to-date family picture. Time was running out before my deadline, and I got sick! I never get sick! But I was desperate to get this picture so I could finish my project on time, so I had my sister come over one night after work to take the picture. I crawled of the couch and flopped myself in the shower. I literally didn't have enough energy to stand up, so I sat on the edge of the tub. It was sad. I sat in the bathroom and did my hair, etc., and then weakly stumbled outside for picture time. For those of you who know me well (and maybe even those of you who don't) you can probably tell that I just don't look quite like myself...ugg! I was SOOO sick! Anyway, got the picture, got the project done in time, and now I have a funny story to tell every time someone comes over to our house and comments on our family picture. Ahhh, the things I do in order to scrapbook. Anyway - enjoy, and thanks for looking!

Finally recovered...maybe

I'm not as young as I used to be. That's the conclusion I've reached through my weekend experience. Sad. There was a time when I could pull an all-nighter and be (almost) completely unfazed. Not anymore.

I took 2 naps on Sunday. I picked up the kids from the McMullen's around 8:30, took them home, gave them food (they'd already had breakfast, but I didn't want them getting hungry again anytime soon!), set them in front of the TV (call CPS now) and told them to take turns picking movies until I woke up. Sad.

Monday we packed the family up and headed up to Holland for a visit with Ellen, Marissa, Megan (again, we missed Rick - darn job!) and Grace. We had a great time - took a nice walk in the warm (or hot) sunshine. Ellen's doing remarkably well, considering all the challenges she faces on a moment to moment basis. For a multitude of reasons (one of which being the tumor itself) her left leg is swollen to about twice it's normal size and she has great difficulty moving it. This, however, doesn't keep her from getting around with her walker (her balance isn't great because of that leg). She's also not sleeping well and is in constant pain. Despite all of this (and more) she's incredibly positive and determined to meet this challenge head-on. Please keep her in your prayers - we're asking for a miracle! Marissa is also doing great - she's just like any other 9 year old - running after their puppies and playing with the kids. What a cutie! And a huge helper for her mom.

Monday night I had a meeting with the Drama Writing Team to brainstorm for an upcoming series at church, while Adam stayed home with the kids - including the McMullens (their week for a date night). Good man. After I got home we hung out with the McMullens for a while when they came to get the kids, then Adam and I stayed up and watched Anchorman (hysterical! but definitely not for kids. or even teens. though they would disagree with me...) until 2AM! Stupid.

Tuesday I worked again and had the wonderful privilege of clearancing all of our old cardstock, moving the old cardstock racks, setting up the racks for the new cardstock, and stocking the new cardstock. I also taught my beginners class - Scrapbooking 101. I was at PIT from 9am-midnight. So much for catching up on sleep.

Today is Wednesday. I worked again. Put out more cardstock, moved TONS of stuff around, stocked a lot, put out new product, and generally just exhausted myself. The store may look entirely different by next week. Yay, fun. Tomorrow...kids.

File this under "Are you insane?!?"

It's 4:31am and I'm at work. That's right...at work. (Hi Mark! I'm on the clock - haha!) PIT is having an all night crop tonight for our 3rd Birthday - and guess who's working the graveyard shift...There are only a few reasons I was selected for this tremendous "honor" and they are:

• I'm loud and I can incite a crowd of people into a shopping frenzy at 3:00 in the morning by standing on a table and screaming, "EVERYTHING IN THE STORE IS 30% OFF FOR THE NEXT 30 MINUTES ONLY!!!!"
• I have a serious addiction to caffeine and they can trust that I'll be semi-conscious until the wee hours of the morning.
• I don't take crap from crabby women who get pushy when they're up in the middle of the night.
• I can do basic math.

So, I came in at 10pm tonight and I'll leave sometime after 7am. I'll pick the kids up from the McMullens (they're having a "sleepover" because Adam has to be to work shortly before 7 and I wasn't going to be home in time) and head home...hopefully to bed. What are the chances my kids are going to let me sleep a little while tomorrow morning?? I'm not holding my breath...

Thursday

• Woke up - my kids, 2 of them
• 8:30 - McMullen kids, 3 of them
• 9:00 - Holt kids, 2 of them - that's a total of 7
• 9:30 - Tyler and Tori down for naps
• 10:00 - Tori finally falls asleep - down to 5
• Noon - woke Tyler up and fed him lunch
• 12:25 - started lunch for "big" kids
• 12:30 - woke Tori up and fed her lunch
• 12:35 - Julie (the boss) calls to talk business, forget about macaroni noodles on stove
• 12:45 - macaroni noodles officially overcooked, start lunch over
• 1:00 - fed big kids Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs - big hit!
• 1:15 - changed 3 diapers
• 1:30 - naptime for Tyler, Tori, Adia and Rachel
• 2:00 - Tori finally falls asleep
• 2:30 - I realize that I left my clean clothes in my room with 2 sleeping children and I, therefore, cannot shower during naptime as planned
• 3:00 - Tori decides (passionately) that she's done with her nap
• 3:30 - Jessica arrives to pick up Holt kids
• 4:00 - Adia, Tyler and Rachel awake, change one of the nastiest diapers I've seen in a long time, Jessica stays to watch kids so I can shower without anyone killing or injuring themselves or others (Thanks Jess!)
• 4:30 - Jess, Adia and Tori leave
• 5:00 - Tammy calls - she's on her way - all kids sent to the bathroom and to put shoes on
• 5:30 - We all pile in Tammy's van (mine was in the shop today) and head to the mall for dinner before church (remember, it's tradition!)
• 5:45 - arrive at the food court
• 6:30 - leave the disaster area we've created and head for church
• 7:00 - collapse, exhausted, into my seat
• 8:30 - retrieve my children, make way to van (with a few detours along the way)
• 9:00 - retrieve Bruce from the Mann's house
• 9:30 - kids in bed with teeth brushed, jammies on
• 10:00 - collapse in chair, eat chocolate - and lots of it!
• 10:30 - BLOG!

Can it get any better??

So just when I though I couldn't top yesterday's excitement at work, another freight truck pulls up today...carrying 18 shopping carts...that I get to help lift off the trailer and down to the ground...in 90+degree heat. I love my job!

The first day back to work after a vacation is never good, but this one took the cake. 2 freight trucks, UPS, and FedEx paid us a visit today...About 70 boxes and 3 new displays later, I got to rearrange some things to make the displays fit just so we could get all the boxes of inventory into the back of the store! Fortunately, Mark was there to do most of the heavy lifting and unloading of freight trucks, but I got to help him with taking doors apart, shifting old displays, moving new displays, reassembling doors, etc., in an effort to make things presentable. By the time that was all said and done I didn't even have time to fill any of the new displays, so they're sitting empty in the store! Oh well, something to look forward to for tomorrow! Yipee!

In the car

On the road again...

Mom and Katie

The cousins - Jacob, Abby, Adia and Tori - some having more fun than others

Holt Family

Holt Family at Buckatabon

Jacob enjoying a piece of cake at the potluck dinner

Jacob and Adam getting ready to tube

Mom tubing!

The backside of a bald eagle...I couldn't get him to hold still for the picture

My cousin Mark and his best friend, Billy

Their natural state

The campfire

My niece, Adia (I'm pretty sure she's calling a safety...)

My baby niece, Tori, chewing on a frog

Katie's dog, Cali

Grandma Mae

Mom

Trying to stay dry while holding a wet kid

In case you don't recognize him, this is Adam on vacation...

Murphy enjoying a day at the beach

Kaitlyn and Abby playing in the sand

Abby doing what she does best...getting sand in places where I have trouble getting it out

We almost had to take these guys home, until they "mysteriously" escaped one night...

Abby took this one herself - that's my girl!

Abby's favorite - lilly pads...I'm not sure why she likes them so much, but she wanted me to take this picture, so I did

The Lagoon - the place where people end up when someone else at camp has a grudge against them...you can find yourself knee deep in who-knows-what in there...

Another beautiful sunset on the lake

Playing football in the park with cousin Mark

Abby and Adia swinging with Uncle Steve

Lower Buckatabon Lake

Abby is great at reeling!!

Jacob practicing casting. What an arm he's got!

Cousins Susie and Kaitlyn, Uncle Scott, Abby and Jacob in the boat. (KBC Kim in the H2O)

Kids at the beach

Vacation in a Nutshell

Here's the summary of our last week:

• Monday - left the house at dinnertime, dropped Bruce (the fish) off at the Mann's and hit the road. Traffic was as good as it gets and we were Up North and in our tent (pre-pitched by my brother - thanks BD!) by 3am.
• Tuesday - out to breakfast in Conover, to Bonsons in Eagle River for the weeks worth of groceries (which is no small task) and then back to camp. IT'S HOT!! Spent time on the lake watching kids swim and boat. As we sat there on the beach, one of the 4 bald eagles that reside on the lake swooped down RIGHT in front of us and snatched up a fish - it was just like you see on the Discovery Channel! (that's an educational station on cable, for those of you who are unfamiliar - they teach you things about nature and stuff - it's pretty cool, you should check it out!) Camp fire (viewed from a distance due to the heat!) and to bed - it rained a little, but no relief from the heat!
• Wednesday - Hot before we even get out of the tent! More time in the water, potluck dinner with our KBC friends (the Horton side of the family goes to this same place every summer - my grandparents, mom, and aunts and uncles all have permanent camping trailers parked there, so it's a huge family thing. For the last few years, large groups of people from my Kenosha family's church - Kenosha Bible Church - come up for the first week of August, so we had about 6 other families and THIRTY THREE TEENAGERS hanging around for the week). Again, campfire from a distance.
• Thursday - It rained around 5am and things cooled down considerably - finally! Back to "Up North" weather - jackets in the morning and before bed, shorts the rest of the day. I need a laundramat for reasons you can all probably figure out on your own (a wet sleeping bag - and not due to the rain). Our 8-year-old air mattress also decided to give out on us for this trip, so Katie and I headed to Rhinelander (about 40 minutes away) for the nearest WalMart. The day was a series of problems, including me leaving my purse at camp and getting to Rhinelander with no $ and running into a Taco Bell employee who didn't seem to understand the concept of "debit," but we got back with most missions accomplished. The lake was so rough from the wind that water sports were out of the question, and it was too breezy for swimming, so the kids spent most of the day in the dirt at the playground. Fun. We actually got to enjoy a real campfire, complete with mosquitos, before heading to bed and using our space heater (got into the 40's every night the rest of the week - it was awesome!)
• Friday - The ladies ditched the guys with all the kids and headed to town for a fru-fru lunch at the Brew Moon Cafe. Did a few of the tourist trap shops in town, found a craft store (they had some scrapbooking stuff - it was cute!), stopped at Bonsons for a few forgotten items, swung into "the soap store" and then back to camp. The guys barely survived. Ok, as you all know, Adam was fine, my uncle Scott was ok...Steve and his two babies had seen better days. Poor guy. Yeah, right! More lake time, another camp fire, insane clear sky with more stars than you can even imagine. Ahhh, good.
• Saturday - Lazy morning, took kids tubing in the afternoon (Jacob went just long enough to earn his way to Dari-Maid. Abby and Adam went around the lake 3 times!). Potluck dinner at the lodge, family pictures (yeah), bingo (Jacob won a jump rope) and camp fire. Packed the kids, cousin Kaitlyn and Murphy in the truck for a trip up to Dari-Maid for ice cream. We took HWY S back from Land O' Lakes to look for bear...no luck. Camp fire, star gazing, and to bed.
• Sunday - packed at a leisurely pace and hit the road around 11:30am. I hate leaving. I've been to that lake almost every summer of my life (with only a few exceptions due to the Horton Family Banishment from the campground back in the 80's...long story - new ownership didn't like us - can you believe that?!?). Buckatabon is my Nirvana spot. It's one of those rare places you can go and immediately feel like you've come home, no matter how long you've been gone. 10 hours and 5 stops later, we were home.