I'm just about done with my reorganization project. I have all of the big pieces in place and almost everything loaded back into the room. I just have a few things that I don't use very often, but are still a necessity, left to bring in. I may have to do a slight tweak on where everything is placed, but I like it so far! I have another pic, but I could not find it so I'll post that later.

I am almost done with my circle journal too! I have the cover and my layouts complete. Now, I just need to do the title page and sign in pages and will put it in the mail next week! This should be fun!

We had some snow flurries yesterday afternoon, but nothing stuck to the ground. It only snowed for about 5-10 minutes. Just long enough for Teddy to catch some snow flakes on his tongue and then be upset when it stopped. After it had stopped, he came to me and told me he "had a probwem" because "it's not snowing anymore". So cute! He was so dissappointed that it did not snow any more. Maybe next time...

I had to start rearranging my scrap room tonight! I went to Lowe's and got them to cut a sheet of plywood for me to the size I needed. When I got home, I put T in the bath and got busy moving stuff out of the way. I've been busy trying to get everything back where it needs to go tonight. I've the "furniture" part in place, now I just need to get all of the stuff loaded back into the room. I'm so excited about it! I'll have to post pics tomorrow when I get it done.
Anyway, I got the album that I am using for my circle journal today. So needed to work on that BEFORE I started rearranging everything. Oh well. I did pull the papers and pics that I want to use with it so that should help. That will be my first project on my new scrappy desk! Yippee! Ok, it's late and I'm tired so I'm going to bed now!

Especially when they are from my deployed hubby ! The only problem is(was) that T wanted to talk the whole time! I only got to talk for a few precious minutes, while T just babbled on and on. That's ok though. I know he is missing his daddy a lot. I miss him too.

Instead of making another emergency info book for my MOPS prize, I just altered this little notebook. I found a pack of them at Book-A-Million a couple of weeks ago and they are just so cute! I got busy getting ready for our creative activity that I ran out of time to work on the emergency info book. We are making picture frames. I found some unfinished wooden frames at Michaels for $1 so I got those and I primed them this afternoon while T was in school. They should be ready to go for painting and decorating.

I am signed up for this circle journal on 2SCD and it's my first one. I'm excited about it and nervous too! I don't use all of the embellishments and jazz up my layouts as much as some of these ladies do so I hope they still like what I do for them. It will be an awesome journal when I get mine back, I'm sure!

but that's ok. I've been busy, or so it seems. At least I feel like I've been busy, but I don't know with what. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day...

It's been raining here all afternoon. It was sleeting earlier, but changed to rain. I just took the trash out and there was a thin sheet of ice covering the gate lock and top of the gate. Hope things don't get too nasty tonight. T was very disappointed that it was not snowing like he wanted it to. He even made up a song "ice go back, please snow come down, please ice melt away!" It was so cute.

I haven't been doing much in the way of scrappy stuff lately. I did finish a couple of card swaps I'm in on 2SCD, but that's all I've done lately. That and the emergency information mini album I made for my purse. It's pretty cute. That's what the pic is up top. I think I will make another one for a MOPS prize on Tuesday. I better get busy on it!

Woo hoo! I got some prizes in the mail today from the online crop at 2SCD and they were so awesome! For the posting prize, I received some KF big time brads and some combo pocket journals. Totally cool! For winning the special edition bingo game, I received an alterable calendar, MM rob-ons for the calendar, white mounts, small watch faces, AND the MME Everyday Moments die cuts. WOW! What great prizes! I can't wait to play with them all! I have the pressing issue of getting my scrap room organized and spruced up first though.

Anywho, here's a layout from T's costume parade at school. It was too funny. When the kids started to sing, I realized I have THAT KID-the one who doesn't sing and even looks mad that he has to stand there. yep, that's my kid. But I gotta love him 'cause he is just too darn cute!
We had our photos taken at the church today for the directory. He was so cute. I could tell he gets lots of practice smiling for the camera! He can cheese it up with the best of them.
I've been working on some swap stuff today-cards, embellies, etc. I figure if I can get it all done, then I'll have that much more time to organize, right? yeah, right. I keep coming up with one project after another to put it off! I did find the cutest little tin to alter. It looks just like a band aid tin, only bigger. It is the perfect size to hold hand made cards! I just have to decide how I'm going to alter it... I'll post a pic when I'm done.

since C left and T is driving me nuts! He misses his daddy so much and I hate to see him so sad. It just breaks my heart. But he has managed to push every "button"-at least twice-today that just sets me off. I'm not sure if he is just doing that because he can or if that's somehow how he is dealing with daddy not being here. I don't know, but I do know that I am exhausted today, mentally, physically, and emotionally. He's in bed and I am about to head there myself.
Anywho, progress on my scrap mess is slow. I'm having a guilty conscience (don't know if that's spelled right?) about painting the room. C did not want me to really. I think that is because he would rather see me throw it all out the door and keep a "neater" house. that's a whole other post right there though. I'm not sure about the color anyway. I would love to paint it orange-to inspire creativity-but we do have to sell the house in a couple of years so I have to take that into account too. I already have stripes in 2 other rooms so a bright color may not be such a good idea. My sis gave me 2 movie posters that I want to put up in here somewhere. she is an assisstant manager at the local movie theater where I grew up so she has all kinds of posters. I just think they are cool. I may have to think on it a bit more before making the plunge with color! I have decided that I need some other sort of work surface. I am currently using a folding card table, but I don't like it because it is too wide. I can't reach some of my shelves so I want something about the size of a kitchen counter. I gotta think on that one some more too to make sure it works for me! I would post a pic, but my computer doesn't seem to want to so maybe tomorrow.

So, it's been a while. I knew that would happen at some point! Oh well. It's all good. T and I went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch today. It was the first time I've taken him. He actually went with Nannie last summer and they had to leave because he got scared. He wanted to leave today, but I made him sit it out since we had ordered pizza. So, we sat there and FINALLY got our pizza and he actually ate 2 slices of it. That was a first! After we ate, he decided that he wanted to look around again. We found some games he could play and he rode in the cars. He actually won some tickets-45 to be exact. So he was able to redeem those for a prize. He chose 2 tootsie rolls and a little toy. He thought that was great! I did not have the camera with me because it was a last minute decision to go there. We had our sketch drawn and I will put that in the family album.

Anyway, I was able to finish my Christmas album during the 2SCD online crop this past weekend. the crop was so much fun! There are always some good projects and challenges during them. These are 2 of the layouts I completed during the crop. I was so happy that I managed to use a flower on a boy page!

Here is my scrap mess room. Stuff everywhere! Things have finally settled down so that I can start to re do my room. I haven't gotten very far. I did manage to get everything non scrap related out of the room, except for a couple of things I use for phone numbers, etc. There is an online crop at 2 Scrappy Chix Designs this weekend so I want to leave my scrap stuff up and functional for that. So the real fun will begin next week when I get everything taken out and stored in the other bedroom and begin to take the wallpaper border off the walls.

While sitting in church yesterday morning, Pastor Tom made to statement "Love requires action." This stuck out to me because so often, I get caught up in the day to day business of life and forget to show those that I love how much I do love them. Not only does it apply in the spiritual sense, as he was talking about, but it our other relationships as well. So, I chose LOVE as my word for the year (Ali E's challenge) to remind myself to DO the things that show my love. So, I made a layout for it. And, of course, I used some tips from Ali E's book on scrapbooking with patterened paper. (I just got that last week-needed it a long time ago!) I am pleased with how it turned out. I posted it on 2 ScrappyChix Designs for the Elsie's challenge that is going on there. I enjoyed creating this layout!
T's birthday party was great. He had a blast and the other kids did too. they played Musical Islands, Walk the Plank, and X marks the spot (pin the x on the map). Then we had a little snack and cake and ice cream. the cake was totally cool. They all loved the treasures inside the cake. After the cake and ice cream, we had a treasure hunt for their treasures (goodie bags) and that was a great time. It was a fun party. I'm glad T had such a good time. The weather was fabulous-over 70 degrees! I don't know when he will get such great weather for his birthday again!

Here's the birthday cake for T's party. I have made the cake for all of his parties and this is probably my favorite one. It was so simple, but looks so cute. He is so excited this morning. We have some friends coming in from out of town for his party and he can't wait to see them. the little boy was his best buddy before we moved and this will be the first time they've seen each other since March. I'm looking forward to catching up with them too.

I haven't been able to scrap in about 3 days now and it's driving me nuts. I have a layout started on my table, but just haven't had a chance to work on it. I am almost finished with T's 2006 album and am itching to get it done. I have some cute ideas for the 2007 album, which I think I will turn into the family album instead of just T. Ok, I still have some stuff to do this morning before the party.

I am so tired! We had to drop C off late last night so he could fly out and then T was up before 7. I have to finish cleaning the house for his b-day party tomorrow afternoon and do a couple of last minute things for it. Too much to do and so little time to do it in! After the party though, I will have all the time in the world, or so it will feel like with C gone. I hope to get some scrapping done this weekend so I can start tearing apart my scraproom next week. I'm pulling everything out so that I can paint and reorganize everything. It's not terribly messy, but it's not in the order that I want it in. I could do better in here.
I finally got Ali Edwards book yesterday, A Designers Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterened Paper. Have only gotten through the first chapter, but so far I am loving it! I can't wait to use the knowledge and some patterened paper! I also get her AEzine and this week she talked about choosing a word to focus on throughout the year. I'm having a hard time deciding just one word. I'll have to think about it more and post this weekend.

Whenever C deploys for a long time, we have a jar of kisses for T. Every day, he gets one kiss from Daddy. When the kisses are all gone, that's when Daddy is coming home to give us real kisses. I try to keep extra on hand because some days, he needs more kisses from Daddy and some days, he knows I need a kiss from Daddy too. We only needed a quart size jar (as opposed to last years half gallon jar), but it still seems like such a long time when the jar is so full.
Last night, I was thinking of how I was going to include this deployment in our scrapbooks, besides the pics of everyday life without Daddy around, and I decided to use the jar of kisses. It holds so much for us-kisses from Daddy, time, hope, excitment, love, and chocolate (!). So I thought this would be the perfect way to include his time away from us.

Oh my gosh, I started this and then I think I dreamed about it the rest of the night! How crazy is that!

Anywho, I got the new SS magazine last night and read it all, of course. There was one article/layout ideas that grabbed my attention in there. It was about writing from the heart. One way to become a better writer is to spend more time listening to those around you and those you love. After reading the journaling on the different layouts, I thought that I should do that with T, especially since C is leaving tomorrow and will be gone for so long (3 months). I understand and comprehend why he has to go, but I never know/knew what T understands and doesn't understand. All he knew last year when C was gone to Afghanistan was that he was gone and that he called us sometime. When he was in the Middle East in November, he did not totally understand where daddy was and why he could not come home or why we could not call him. I didn't really listen to how he may have felt about it though. I could see that he was sad and didn't quite understand, but that was all I processed. This time, I think I will listen more and make a page for him so that he will know and understand later about his daddy's deployments.

I have no idea why I think I need to blog, or even where this will take me, but I started one so we shall see....

T turned 4 today and I can hardly believe it has been 4 years since I cuddled him in my arms for the first time. We have been discussing his birthday party since September, when I found a magazine with party themes in it. He told me right off the bat that he wanted a FARM PARTY and has been insisting on that ever since then. At least until the day we went shopping for party supplies, which was also the day that I had mailed the party invitations to his friends. I made the cute little invitations "please come to my farm party", complete with a stamped cow on it. We get into the store and he sees the pirate party stuff so he HAD to have a pirate party. Now I have to let the kids parents know the change in adventure. But he is and always will be my sweet baby. This is a favorite layout of him.