Midnight ramblings

   I actually went to bed early tonight. But you-know-what happens, you know? I've been fighting Maylee's runny nose all day, and seriously, all of the sudden, like one second it didn't and the next it did, my throat started hurting. Then got progressively worse very quickly, so I went to bed early. Except my poor baby's waking up every hour crying. So I got up and gave her some Motrin, hoping it'll help. She's still not the age where she can tell me what hurts. I know she doesn't feel well generally, and she doesn't have a fever as of now, but what if her throat hurts or she has a headache and can't tell me? I figure Motrin just in case doesn't hurt anything, even if absolutely nothing's wrong (even though Mommy knows SOMETHING is).
   We had a pretty icky day today. Daddy was out fishing with a friend all day (lucky dog), so it was just me and Maylee today. I didn't want to just stay inside all day, so we went to the park to play. It was much colder than I first thought and very windy, so we didn't stay long, which made Maylee very angry! We played on the playground a little and then ran around in a field, kicking a ball. I figure it was her first soccer game, you know? There were a whole bunch of kids in the next field over practicing baseball, and she kept saying "baseball" and trying to run over there. Girl after my own heart, but I told her she had to let the big kids practice and she didn't like that at all!
  I think I made the decision tonight to join a gym or class of some kind. I am very overweight and really want to be healthy for my girl. I actually enjoy exercise, but some of it is very difficult for me because of the size of...well, my chest! And certain exercises hurt my back, which I have constant problems with, but I do actually enjoy exercising, though one would NEVER guess that by looking at me. But I have to do something while I'm still relatively young. Maybe if I put it on my blog, I'll become sort of...responsible for my actions to my "readers." You know, all 3 of you. So many of my Facebook friends post about how they love Zumba or Hip Hop Aerobics and stuff like that, so I haven't decided if I'll do something like that or actually invest in a couple personal training sessions at a gym. The former sounds more fun, but the latter sounds more structured and more like what I need.
   I did find time to do a little scrapping this morning. Maylee's turning 2 in about 5 weeks and I've tried to scrap her 1st birthday many times and have never been very happy with what I've come up with. I got this really cute birthday kit from Modern June Designs. For free! I'm finally really pleased with how it turned out!

I like the little cake-topper Maylee. Cute! I also did this next one a few days ago. I learned how to use a new design element in digiscrap called photo masks. They're great and make things really easy!

I made this last one a few days ago as well. I have so few pictures of Maylee and me together that I actually like, so when I get one (or a couple) I like to make a really cute page out of it! This one is from a kit called "Fresh" from the Delicious Scraps Shoppe. I love the little birdies!

I'm gonna try to go to bed now. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Little monster

  Only a mommy who is completely and utterly confident in her child's beauty would make a scrap page out of a picture like this! I think it's incredibly cute, myself! I love when I click the button and the picture is hilarious! 

M.I.A.

  Anyone have one of those abysses in their house where things disappear into? I'm not just talking about the dryer where all the socks go missing (like my black socks!), but another place where toys, and little shoes and my little pony combs and cell phones go? Yeah, you read that right, cell phones. As soon as I couldn't find mine, I knew it had gone into the abyss. Luckily enough, we know where the abyss is in my house, but it's not a fun place to get to. We have a large sectional couch ('nuff said, huh?). The cushions are attached and don't come off, but there are a few places where "things" can fall, and "things" ALWAYS magically find their way to these places. I crossed my fingers and hoped my phone wasn't lost in the couch, but when I called it, sure enough, I heard my phone ringing from under the couch. Ugh! We had to practically rearrange the whole living room to get under the couch, but we finally phone the flippin' phone. And lots of other treasures, too, I might add! I spotted something that did not look pleasant at all, and picked it up with a tissue. It ended up being a chocolate-covered nut cluster. What a relief that was! It's not hard to imagine what I thought it was!
   We spent a lot of time at the park the last part of the week. I'd pick Maylee up from the sitters and we'd go to a park on Daddy's way home from work so he could stop and play, too. Too bad the weekend ended up being so blah. But it's been a good snuggly up with eachother weekend, and that's always good. I'm going to make a beef pot roast for dinner, and I'll be scrapping that recipe, so look for that soon. Here's the page I did for St. Patty's Day this year. I think I'll do another one too, because I have a lot of cute St. Patrick's Day stuff.

   Have a great week, all!

Bizzy

  I feel like I've been going non-stop. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. At home, and work, doesn't matter, I've been go-go-going. Brandon and I did get a chance to snuggle up and watch a movie last night. We watched The Blind Side. It was really good. Very heartfelt, good story. I can see why Sandra Bullock earned an Academy Award for it. We really liked it.
   Brandon and Maylee have done a lot of playing outside these last couple of days. She just loves playing outside. It could be pouring and freezing and she'd still want to go out, and she gets so mad at us when we don't let her! She looked so cute in her St. Patty's Day green today. Oh, who am I kidding, she looks cute everyday in everything!
   I added a LibraryThing widget to my blog homepage. These covers are all of books I've read. You can link to them and see what I've rated them and I've even reviewed some of them. I'm trying to add more reviews when I have time. This is a great site if you need to organize your reading list, which I certainly do!
  No new scrapping to show you, but I'm really trying to find time to scrap. I'll leave you with Maylee in her St. Patty's Day finery, which I'm going to try to scrap soon.

Airing my complaints

   I'm going to start the day off with a few complaints. I know, not a good way to start the day, but that's what I'm feeling this morning. First and foremost: Daylight Savings Time. Oi. This practice is outdated, unnecessary in the year 2010, and it MAKES ME TIRED! Usually I don't have any problems adjusting the the change, but this year seems to be whooping my butt. Granted, it's only Monday, but I'm feeling it this morning! As of right now, I'm already looking forward to bedtime!
  Next complaint: short weekends. How is it that it can feel like the longest day in the world when I'm at work, but weekends just fly by. I know I'm not alone in this feeling. And there's never enough time to do all you want to do in a weekend. I mean if I have to clean the house AND do fun stuff with my family, I'm fitting in the fun stuff and leaving the cleaning for when I have time (which wasn't this weekend! My house is still a wreck!).
    Third: black socks. Yep, you read that right. I'm complaining about black socks...or the lack thereof in my house. I wear black slacks fairly often. I wear them with black shoes. Therefore, I have to wear black socks. Where. Do. They. All. Go? I seem be able to keep a thumb on most of my other socks, even Maylee's little bitty socks, but I can never find a pair of black socks when I need them. I've even had to change my outfit at the last moment because I was simply unable to find a pair of socks I needed. This may speak to my organization skills, but I'd rather just say it's the universe's fault and be done with it.
   Next: cat hair. This is problem in a house with three cats. But right now, at this time of year, they're "molting." They're trying to thin their hair out for a nice sleek summer coat. Well, that makes messes for me! One of my cats just sits there a rips clumps of hair out of her coat. Yep, she takes a mouthful of her sleek and shiny hair and just yanks it out. So I have little islands of black hair all over my beige carpet. It seems like I'm vacuuming about every 3 hours around here!
   Lastly: weather. I think we're all ready for spring. And not rainy spring, but springy spring! I want to get out and play and not worry about mud. I want to lie in the grass or have a picnic at Forest Park. I want to go the park with Maylee. We were teased with a nice little warm streak last week and it has me really wishing spring were here! I love being outside when it's nice. And sometimes summer gets here too fast, with it's too-hot temperatures, so I would like to request a nice spring. Please.

Eureka!

  I finally had a fun scrapping idea last night! It was in the middle of the night, of course...I have all my best thoughts at about one in the morning. Anyway, I'm going to scrap recipes! I'll put all my favorite recipes down with pictures of us cooking them, or Maylee helping, or even better, us eating them! I'm not going to do any fancy stuff, just easy stuff I make all the time. I'm actually not good at recipes, cause I'm the kind of cook that adds a pinch of this and a bit of that until I'm satisfied.
   I'm going to make them all 8x10 (as opposed to the usual 12x12 scrapbooking page) so they'll be easily framed, and hang them in my kitchen! This'll also give me a good color palette to work off of to paint my kitchen, which I've wanted to do since we moved in. Here's the first one I whipped up today...

It's kinda cute, huh?

   We had such a wonderful day, despite the dreary weather. Maylee was in such a good mood and we just played and lazed around all day. I did have to run a couple of errands, but Maylee stayed with Daddy and they had a good time. I swear, no one can make her laugh like her Daddy! This is a picture of them looking out the window today. They were looking at a robin that was in the front yard, then Maylee said she saw a bear (LOL!!), so they looked at looked for that bear!

I love my two silly willies!

Sicknesses and other randomness

   All of us have been sick in some capacity in the last couple of days. Brandon was actually home from work yesterday, which tells me how sick he was, because he's only stayed home sick like 5 times in the 10 years he's worked there. He started feeling a little better last night and was able to eat. Maylee's had some tummy troubles but has been in high spirits. I've had a weird stomach/headache thing going on and am not quite sure how I'm feeling today yet. I'll give it a little while before I decide if I'm feeling better or not.
   I feel like I'm having a total scrapping creative block. I've started and pitched about 3 pages in as many days and am not happy with what I'm coming up with. I think I need to get out and take some new pictures to get inspired. I'm most excited to scrap when I have really good pictures I want to get done.
  I'm really, really glad it's the weekend. I need to Clean. This. House. Since we've been under the weather, nothing has gotten done around here! I also want to do something fun with Maylee this weekend. It was so nice last weekend and we played outside, but this weekend it's rainy and blah. Maybe we'll take her to the movies for the first time. The Princess and the Frog is still playing at a theater around here and I thought she might like it, though I'm not sure if she's ready to sit and watch a movie for and hour and a half.  I guess we'll never know until we try!
   Some of you might not know that my mother and younger brother have been living with us for about 1 1/2 years now. They moved here from Washington state, where my other two sisters and their families still live. My brother had a major osteo surgery about a month ago and Mom decided he'd do better recovering at my Grandmother's house because it's one story and would be easier to navigate in a wheelchair and such. We've really missed them here, especially Maylee. She asks about her Grandma and Uncle everyday. Mom told me that they'll finally be coming home in about two weeks, which is great! Spencer's been doing great with his recovery and physical therapy, but it's only going to get harder from here on out. When he finally gets up to do some walking and weight-bearing physical therapy, he's going to be so weak! I hope he handles it alright. I'll leave you with a picture of Maylee playing with her Uncle Spencer (even though it's a pretty old pic and there's a mess behind them!)

Giggles

   I'm sitting here listening to Maylee laugh while Daddy's giving her a bath. There is absolutely no better sound than hearing your child laughing. But I also know that in a few minutes I'll be hearing her crying as she gets her hair washed! She hates it!
   I haven't been feeling quite right the last day or so. I've had "sick headaches," you know when you have a headache so bad it makes you nauseous. Yuck. I'm gonna lie on the couch tonight and try to catch up on some TV I have recorded. It seems like I'm never going to catch up. We haven't even started to watch the new season of Lost yet, and it's already like 6 episodes in. I don't know how we're ever going to find time to catch up, but I hope we do. That show is creepy good! We're also a couple weeks behind on House and I haven't watched any of this week's American Idol. If only we didn't have to waste so much of our time sleeping!
   I loved hearing the thunderstorm last night, but Maylee was upset cause she couldn't play outside due to the mud. She certainly doesn't care if she gets muddy, but sometimes I just don't feel like messing with a messy girl.
   We have a wonderful new bedtime routine. We sit down and read about 4-6 books, then we have singing time! We try to sing pretty mellow songs, but we pretty much sing whatever Maylee wants to sing. We always do the ABCs and Twinkle, Twinkle, and I try to throw in There's a hole in the bottom of the sea. That's a song we used to sing while I was growing up that builds and builds on itself and gets faster. It's fun and I can't wait until Maylee starts trying to sing it herself. We usually end with Rock-a-bye baby, and she sings it to her stuffed bunny. Here's a pic of Maylee in her jammies (before bedtime routine starts, obviously!)

   Hope all is well with everyone. Feel free to leave me a comment, I feel all alone and desolate in this blogosphere!

Old lady

   It's what...7:00 in the evening? I am SO TIRED! I just feel exhausted! It may have something to do with running around in this beautiful weather with my little girl. We had so much fun playing outside, then I had fun listening to her and Daddy play outside while I made dinner with the windows open. I'm gonna miss this past week of warm weather now that winter's coming back. Yes folks, it's actually still winter, at least until the 20th of March. But before the cold snap comes back, we're supposed to be enjoying a thunderstorm tonight. I have loved listening to thunderstorms for years now. This is the first year Maylee's going to be old enough to notice them, so I'm anxious to see if she's going to be scared of them or not.
   Another reason I may be tired is cause I stayed up past my bedtime last night to finish the book I was reading. It was a heart-wrenching story of a little girl who suffered horrid abuse and the foster mother who tried to help her. It was disturbing and so, so extremely sad. I've always said I don't read non-fiction very often cause I just can't handle the real stuff. To know the horrible details of what truly happened in someone's life can be so heartbreaking. I won't be reading another one of these kinds of books for a while, as I'm sure this one will be sticking with me for a long, long time.
   I finally broke down last night and bought some scrap kits. There's this wonderful site, Delicious Scraps, that offers everything in their store for .99 or less. Can't beat that, huh? I thought if I had a couple of specific kits to work from, I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed with all the wonderful individual elements I have and be able to put something together. Maybe if I don't fall asleep tonight I can put something together. I'm going to try to scrap around this pic:

This is from us playing outside this past weekend. I can't decide if I want to edit out the little scratch on her head or leave it there. I gotta say, my little girl's a bit of a bruiser. She's definitely going to be a tomgirl and not a girly-girl, which is just fine with me. She loves getting dirty and is constantly getting scratched up. I'll be sure to share what I've come up with.
  

Another day another dollar

   Hey all. Today's been a pretty decent day, despite the rain. I hate this kind of rain, where it's misty; not enough to need an umbrella but enough to make my glasses all schmutsy. Yep, that's a technical term. I already miss the warmer weather. It was only here for 4 days or so, but I want it back!
   We had a visit from our Parents as Teachers parent educator today. I am so glad I got involved in this program. As a new parent, it's wonderful to be able to gauge where my child is developmentally. And you never want to try to compare your kid with someone else's kid...not only is it very treacherous territory to tread, but kids develop so differently from one another, there's really no point in doing it. Maylee is doing wonderfully and I can't help but be proud. The PE said her vocabulary is off the charts and is doing really great in "problem solving skills."  It's so funny to see Maylee solve these "problems." One of the activities (atibities, according to Maylee) was to put 7 balls in a 6-cup muffin tin. She put the six balls in, then picked up the 7th ball. She put her finger to her chin and said, "Hhmmmm" (it was so hilarious). Then she handed it to me and said, "Here Mommy." It so amazing to see her learn right in front of me!
   Brandon's also had some drama at work. They've moved him from the department he's been in for 10 years and put him doing something else. He really enjoyed the new job, but his old boss said he'd get a raise if he came back to his old department because no one could do his job as well and fast as Brandon can. After some thought, Brandon decided to go back. He's really good at what he was doing, but the new department was new and different and I think he's a little bummed. But a raise makes the outlook a little shinier.
   I'm having a bit of a creative block in scrapping. I think I'm overwhelmed by all the stuff I have to scrap with. I have so many beautiful papers and elements to use, I can't decide where to start on a new project. Sometimes I start with a picture and scrap around it. Sometimes I make a whole layout and then stick the pics in when I'm done. I just don't know what to do right now. This is the last page I made:

I used papers and elements from the Shine On blog train. So many talented scrap artists contributed to this. So pretty!
   I finished the Jodi Picoult book I mentioned in a previous post. It was so good, as I expect from Jodi Picoult. There is a point in all her books where the emotional suspense is so great that I usually put the book down and say, "Oh my God, I can't read any more!" But I always pick it back up and finish it. Good thing to, because you're usually rewarded in the end with an surprise or twist. I'm reading a nonfiction book called Damaged : The Heartbreaking True Story of a Forgotten Child. It is so heartbreaking and poignant. I don't read nonfiction a lot, but this one caught my eye and I had to see how the wonderful foster mother in this book helped a little girl. I wish we were all as brave as this woman, and as brave as the child, too.
   I'm gonna shut up now. I don't know why my posts always end up being so long. I need to learn to edit my thoughts! I've been able to post everyday I've had this blog. I hope I don't run out of things to blab about...that seems unlikey.

Random randomness

Inspired by my friend Lori, I'm going to give you some random facts about me. Some of them may be a little "duh..." but you may learn a thing or two about me you never knew (like the elbow thing...I'm sure nobody knew that!).

1. I love to read.
2. I have 3 cats: 17-year-old Tuxedo, 15-year old Topey (short for Topaz), and 3-year-old Jellybean.
3. Unlike my friend Lori, I am NOT a very good housekeeper.
4. I may be in the minority, but I really enjoyed high school.
5. I miss my sisters.
6. I watch more Dora the Explorer than the average adult really should.
7. My daughter is not even 2 years old yet and I have almost 9,000 pictures of her. Aah, the age of digital photography!
8. My left elbow is very dry year-round. No matter how much I moisturize, it's always dry!
9. I had my first cavity at the age of 26.
10. I don't like the scent vanilla.
11. I enjoy cooking, but hate baking.
12. I still love my husband all these years later.
13. I'm addicted to Facebook.
14. I love to rearrange the furniture in my house, though my husband isn't a big fan.
15. I keep a list of books I've already read so I don't inadvertently read the same one again.
16. I know all the words to all the songs in the musical "Wicked."
17. I'd rather eat croutons than potato chips.
18. Motherhood is so much better and harder than I'd ever imagined.
19. I hate grocery shopping, but I love eating!
20. I listen to NPR constantly.

Anyone have any randomness to share with me?

The deep stuff

   So to all the people that have been following me (all none of you), you know that yesterday I actually had a day to myself. My little family went down to my in-laws, so I had a little "me" time. Though I didn't do anything really great, it was a good day. Strangely for me, I was thinking about coming home and blogging what I had done. Now, I've done something before and thought to myself, "this would be a great Facebook status update,"  but it's blogging now; I'm cool like that. So I did both. I wrote a quick status update on FB and posted a blog. Was that overkill?
   Anyway, I feel like I was looking forward to writing on my blog so much because I just wanted to share what I was doing with someone. I wish I had a friend with me, but I don't have that many friends I actually DO things with. I have wonderful Facebook friends, and would truly call them all friends because I'm not one of those people that "friends" everyone, I actually know all of them. But I wanted someone there to laugh with and to ask if my butt looked gigantic in the new slacks I got (of course it did, I'm fat!).
   Don't get me wrong, I have a handful of friends I occasionally do things with (and an absolutely wonderful husband I'm almost always with). I even called one of them yesterday. But any parents out there know that sometimes it's just hard to coordinate getting together, especially if you would kinda rather do it without the kids that day. I was out shopping, she was with her daughter at gymnastics. We tried to get together later in the day, but it just didn't work out.
   I just think of the Sex and the City ladies, or the guys from that show "Men of a Certain Age" that have a core group of friends they see all the time. I could use friends like that. Not occasional, let's do something Friday and it never pans out friends, but friends I talk to/text/see fairly often. I used to have a very, very best friends I talked to everyday, but we had a falling out and things never ever went back to the way they were. It's hard to go through something like that. I think it's worst than being dumped. I guess I could audition for the role of Kate's best friend. That's not pathetic in the least!
   So, I'm not whining to the absolutely no one that's reading this...well, maybe I am. I'm getting it off my chest. I'm blogging it. 'Cause I'm a blogger now, it's what we do. We blog about extremely emotional, personal topics. Or wait...should I have not done that? I'm not up on my blog etiquette.

Today's pages

  So, I did a little shopping this morning. Got a new bag, which will make Hubby ask, "Why do you need another purse?" Cause I do, m'kay? Got my work slacks I needed, too. Got some good deals...used coupons at both department stores I went to. I love bargain shopping!

   When I got home, I finished some scrapping I started this morning before Maylee woke up.  There are some wonderful scrappers that scrap EVERY day. Now as addicted as I am, I don't think I could carve enough time out of every single day to get some scrapping in. Wish I could!! Anyway, some do scrap sets that show something from each day of the month. I decided I'd do a monthly wrap-up and am pretty happy with how they've turned out.

 

  

These were done using kits from CuddleBeez Scraps .  Again, a great freebie site from a wonderful woman sharing her talents with everyone!

  

Looking forward to spring being sprung

   Today's supposed to be a beautiful day in the STL. I am so ready for a nice warm day. Daddy and M are going to Nana & Papa's today, so I get some time for myself. I'm going to go to the mall real quick (I hate shopping...but I need some new work slacks), coming home to read and scrap!
   Right now I'm reading Jodi Picoult's new book House Rules. She is one of my all-time favorite authors. She really gets you to think of a horrible situation from a viewpoint you would never take. She's one of the few authors that comes out with a book almost every year and hasn't started to lose the good stuff. You know what I'm talking about? Like I love Mary Higgins Clark's old stuff, but her new stuff just isn't any good 'cause I think she's just written too many books and doesn't have any ideas anymore! Anyway, I'm gonna scrap some stuff today from Digital Daisy's Handpicked Freebies, too. So far, I've been able to digital scrapbook at absolutely no cost to me. If you search online for freebies, people offer up their talent and share their stuff. It's so amazing! If you're new to the digital scrapbook scene, try some QuickPages (QPs) first. They've already been designed and layed out for you, you just insert your pic. But I warn anyone...you start scrapping, you'll never stop!

First post

    Well, after years of being a blog fan, I'm jumping on the blogging bandwagon myself. I figure I enjoy my life pretty well, so maybe someone out in the world (or just my family and closest friends) will enjoy hearing about it. Or maybe I'm just typing to a huge abyss of nothingness. Let's hope not. I hope I update this frequently. Maybe I'll become the next Perez of boring Mommy/Wife/Hobbies. Anyone see that happening? Yeah, me neither.
    So the things I'll probably be talking about most on my blog are: my daughter and husband, the books I'm reading/have read, my addiction to digital scrapbooking, the TV shows and movies I watch, maybe some recipes, and maybe some politics (I'll try not to make anyone angry...I love my friends and don't want politics to come between any of us, but I'm kinda passionate about politics). I'm sure there'll be other things I blab about; I didn't call it "Random ruminations" for nothing!