2012 Calendar

Isn’t it so pretty???

I’ve spent the last 2 weeks setting up my brand new computer.  She is soooo nice and fast and pretty and quiet. I hope we have a long reliable relationship.  We shall see.

Last week

Well…I have been one busy bee.  Eric was in the hospital for 3 days this week so this week was crazy!!!  Add that to a long week at work, and just life in general, so I’m in dire need of a break.  BIG TIME!

I have a new idea on how to try and keep the blog updated.  Because I always have great intentions.  Great stories that I want to type up for each ‘event’.  Then life gets in the way.  So this collage is from my last week.  And it was actually pretty easy to do.

What do you think?  I made the collage in Picasa – in about 10 min.  It took me longer to upload the pictures off my phone (all these pictures are from my iphone – so the quality isn’t that great).

Bad Afternoon

Remember how I said I had a rough week?  Well this is one of the main reasons why!!!  I clipped someone in the parking lot at work on Wednesday.  So I’m sure our insurance rates are about to go up and bye bye to my Christmas present when we pay our insurance deductible.  Thank heavens it is only $500 and that we have rental insurance on our policy so we don’t have to pay for the rental while the van is in the shop.  But I think Eric was going to be getting me that very much wanted iPad 2 for Christmas……….sniff sniff…

Lesson…Don’t be in such a rush that you don’t slow down and pay closer attention to the cars parked around you.  The truck that I clipped was older and had no damage but a little scratch on the front bumper.  If I would have waited a while for the people blocking me to move, I wouldn’t have tried to squeeze out of my spot which cost me much more than a few minutes waiting in the end.  Sigh.  Lessons…..

Christmas Cards Ordered

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Thanks for your help deciding which card to order.  I especially LOVE the back of this card, it has 9 pictures of the boys throughout the year.  December is only 2 days in, and those 2 days have packed.  Hope to catch up on the blog tomorrow.  Going to bed early tonight because I’m stick, yet again.  Peace out.  :)

Monthly Roundup

Maybe I should start a monthly round up.  Found the idea on Ali Edwards’ Blog here.

 

So…ROUNDUP TIME

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month? I read Warring Spirits by my friend April Gardner.  Wonderful book!  Wonderful followup book to her first book, Wounded Spirits.
2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month? I really don’t watch that much TV. I haven’t watched a movie in FOREVER. But I have been watching the Biggest Loser weekly. It is so very inspiring!!!! I look forward to each weekly episode.  Peyton hasn’t been into any one show lately, but Ryan loves Backyardigans and Fresh Beat Band.  Eric’s favorite shows are still the same pretty much, that one show (top secret) that he has watched for years, and a newer show is popular right now called Gold Rush.
3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?  Thanksgiving! (of course).  Eric and I also went to a marriage conference at the beginning of the month.  I thought that it was kinda fun, I’m not so sure if he agreed.  :)
4. What gifts did I give and/or receive? Eric got me a bracelet for my birthday, with one bead on it. And I’m using that bracelet as my weight loss bracelet. Each time I lose 5 lbs, I’m adding a bead to it. So far I have 3 beads. I’m down 19 lbs.
5. What special or unusual purchases did I make? I bought Peyton an Angry Birds game from China. He had to earn this game, it wasn’t too expensive, but he had to earn 10 stars before I would buy it. Of course, during the 2 weeks it took him to earn those stars, Amazon sold out of the game and I then had to purchase it from China on eBay.
6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have? Ryan and I both had a pretty bad upper respiratory infection. I missed 2 days of work.  Ryan was sick for over 2 weeks, the nights were very rough!
7. What were my accomplishments this month? I’m back on track losing weight. I lost approximately 5 lbs this month. Didn’t gain it all back during the Thanksgiving week. Didn’t lose focus while I was sick, just kept going.
8. What were my disappointments this month? Family. My sister stooped to new lows. Found out my brother may have some issues as well, he is going to go home with my dad for a while to get away from some of the things here. Wish I didn’t get migraines, so I could lose weight faster, but that is something I’m learning to deal with.
9. How did I do on my goals for the month? Did ok. Didn’t set too many goals. I tried to blog daily, I did ok.
10. Anything else noteworthy to include? 
1. Mr. Taylor passed away on Nov 11th.  (11/11/11). 
2. My sister ended up in the hospital very sick.  I almost didn’t go to see her, but decided I should do the right thing, and what I should do instead of trying to treat her the way she would treat me.  She was in ICU for almost a week.
3. Heather kicked her out about a week ago (mid-Nov).  That is probably a good thing, but that started a bad trail of events that will eventually catch up with her. 
4. Eric went to another dentist, again this month.  I can’t believe how much it might cost us to fix the problems the dentist he went to when we first got married 10 years ago caused.  Sigh. 
5. My dad earned his 5 year sobriety pin this month!
6. The back of our house still has damage that we are fighting with the gutter company over for them to come fix.  It is getting old.
7. We started the star system for Peyton so he can earn things he wants.  He wants a LOT.  This way he can earn a few things! 
8. I discovered pinterest.com a while ago, but in the last month or so I’ve really started using it more.  I wish I had more time to work on all the cool things that I see on there.
9. We haven’t been going to church as much and I’m missing that!  
10. Eric got his new iphone 4S and I am still jealous. 

The monthly roundup involves more than just answering questions.  It also involves backing up your monthly pictures, ordering prints, backing up the blog, etc.  Maybe my goal for the next month will be to figure out what I would like my monthly goals and roundup items to be.  I’m pretty set on doing Project Life.  I’m just trying to figure out exactly how I will do that.  As I type this monthly post, I’m thinking that this monthly round up might fit perfectly into what I want to do with Project Life and the two might just go hand in hand together. 

Goals for December.

- Lose 5 lbs

- Take more pictures (with the real camera, not my phone)

- Put up a tree

- Do some sort of memory capturing of our December activities

Thanksgiving

I think I have mentioned this about 10 times in the past month, but it should be mentioned again.  I feel like I’m failing miserably at capturing our moments right now.  Eric and I are both in this phase where we really don’t like our pictures being taken.  But with Ryan being the age he is, I’m not taking a ton of pictures, if any, and the ones that I am taking aren’t that great.  I need to do better.  I HAVE got to do better or I’m going to regret it one day.  I think Project Life might be my answer.  Maybe???

I also discovered this website today.

https://www.liveon.com/

Don’t know if I’ll take the time to check it out yet, but it seems very interesting.  Very neat.  I would love to capture more stories!  More of my grandma’s (both of them) stories before they pass on, more of my story now, etc.  And the idea that liveon has seems like a neat way to capture the memories. Go check out their website, and watch the video!

It would also be nice if I somehow had my pictures better cataloged as well.

But instead of constantly beating myself up on my blog, I would like to say that I have done a few things successfully.  We had a nice 4 day weekend.  We picked up lots of pecans in the back yard (best crop since we have lived here), I didn’t overeat at any of the 3 meals we had, I have made a nice long list of activities for Peyton to do during the Christmas season, and Ryan has been very sick – but I’m HOPING he is getting better (please!!!). 

Family drama all around as well.  With my Dad, Sister and Brother – all in different areas, but still. 

Also, Peyton has been playing Angry Birds on my computer.  And it has messed my monitor up.  I hope the damage isn’t permanent.  The burn in is horrible, and only after a few days of playing.  Wow.  My computer is getting old and I do need a newer one, but I was going to be giving this one to him.  Didn’t expect that game to do this to the screen!  I can’t edit photos with my colors all out of wack!!!!  Bummer!

Thanksgiving Projects

I was thinking of making something like this for our Thanksgiving Banner (we do a banner for every season).  I will probably just do a hands banner, and I was thinking of doing it at the Grandparents’ houses with all the grandkids so the hands would be different sizes and then we could put it away and take it back out yearly for a special banner each year.  Love the idea!!! 

*found on Pinterest it was originally posted by Jess on her blog here: - http://lovelylovelythings.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/thanksgiving-craft-ideas/

I was also thinking of doing a special Thanksgiving Scrapbook for my Dad’s side of the Family.  Not to put pictures in, but for us to write things in yearly.  Thanksgiving is the one time of year we are all able to come together each year.  And each year we have the ONE family picture.  We have been doing this for about 10+ years.  So I think it would be neat to put those all in one place, and then have a few pages to add each year where we put what we are thankful for, sign out names, maybe put ages, favorite “something” right then, and a few facts about about that year.  Maybe even do handprints or something for the great-grands.  Over time, this will be something speical to look at.  I wish we would have started it ten years ago when I first got married.  I am the oldest grandkid on that side (both sides actually) and all my other cousins are just starting to hit 20, start college, one had a baby this year, etc.  So we are starting to branch out some and I think it will be nice to capture some of those things.

If I accomplish this task, I will definitely blog about it!!!

Today, during Ryan’s nap time (which is right now) my goal is to map out Peyton’s crafts for Christmas!  Wish me luck.  You can get sucked into the great abyss of Pinterest very quickly!!

What happened???

So what happened to my November Blog-a-thon?  I was doing so great???

Well I’ll tell you exactly what happened.  Upper Respiratory Infection and Migraine for days!!!  I literally didn’t get out of bed all day Monday and Tuesday, and Sunday and Wednesday weren’t all that great either. 

It just isn’t fair that I have to have migraines on top of everything else.  They always make all of my sickness, whatever they are, the migraines always make them so much worse!

Well I’m off to bed early, to build my self back up and hopefully make it through another day at work.

Project Life – 2012 here I come

What is project life???

If you have never heard of Project Life, check out the summary of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHJ5pox_s2M&feature=player_embedded#!

One of my favorite bloggers (who I mentioned in my post yesterday) talked about her project life scrapbooks today on her blog this past Tuesday.  Which is better known as Project Life Tuesday on her blog.  http://www.themomcreative.com/2011/11/its-back-project-life-tuesday.html, which has a great video here!

So I have decided that I’m going to be doing the Project Life this year coming up – in 2012. I was having trouble deciding between the traditional or digital versions, but the one thing that kept coming up was the fact that I wanted to tuck memorabilia and the like into the book. Watching the video of Jessica’s books helped me make my decision.  I’m going traditional!

I might not do every single week.  I think that would be WAY too much for me to keep up with. So I might chose a week a month, or every other week, a monthly layout, etc. Not sure yet. But if I do a week a month – or even 2 weeks a month I’ll get to stretch out the use of the kit/supplies across a few years.  Also, buy going the traditional scrapbooking route, I can use many of my current supplies to supplement the kit, I can add pages as needed, etc. 

I’m getting pretty excited about this.  If I can keep up with this on my own terms (once a month, twice a month, for special occasions, etc) it MIGHT just take place of my old scrapbooks.  At least during this very crazy stage of my life!

Another thing that I think is really going to help me keep up with this project – my phone.  I’m so glad my phone takes decent pictures.  Because unfortunately I’ve been using it way more than my SLR for photos lately.  Unless I’m doing a photoshoot of the boys or it is a family function or holiday, I don’t typically take out my real camera, which is pretty sad.  So maybe doing this project will break me out of my funk in that department.

Oh, and another thing about me (I should have added this to my 32 things at 32 post) – is that I tend to be a pack rat when it comes to birthday cards, invitations, my boys art, etc.  If this gives me one place to put most of those things that are special almost immediatly – well maybe they will keep from piling up on my counter and scrapbook/computer desk and actually be paired with the memory from the event!  We shall see.

This is where you can buy all the stuff:

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/products/

And here are a few websites I have found while googling for inspiration:

http://theobanions.blogspot.com/2011/11/30-days-of-thanks-day-6-project-life.html

http://gluestickgirl.typepad.com/moments/project-life/

We have a winner!

We have one winner of the shutterfly cards.  Katie!  I will get you your code shortly.  I’m going to keep the contest open until Sunday and open it up to my mom’s group on Facebook!  I have a feeling I won’t have trouble giving away the other two sets of cards!  We shall see!

Thanks so much Katie!