So, I had a pretty rough few days this past week. Friday was definitely the worst of them. Chris is usually pretty good of talking me through things and being the "voice of reason" when I get all stressed out. Last night, he came home from work with two "pick-me-up" gifts...
...green mixing bowls and pretty flowers. Does he know me or what? <3
Caleb started t-ball practice today. We actually just got home and are enjoying some hamburgers and retro cartoons on Boomerang. He did really great at practice and, of course, he is once again the tallest kid out there. On the way, he said something super cute and I want to make sure I remember it....
C: "Mom, will you cheer for me at practice? Really loud?"
Me: "Sure, Caleb. I like to cheer for you."
C: "Yeah, when you cheer, it makes me really strong and fast."
(silence...mostly me reveling in my super-human powers)
C: "Actually, it doesn't. I just like it when people cheer for me."
I knew my cheer leading would pay off some day...
So, you may already know that. However, I got an email from Sarah today mentioning that she and Steve have started a blog. It's in it's early stages, but here's the link for it: www.stevensarahrains.wordpress.com Feel free to read and poke fun at Sarah's online abuse of smiley faces. :)
Some people might be ashamed to admit this, but I'm not. I feel proud - boastful even. Just minutes ago, I finally finished Caleb's first year scrapbook(s). The first 365 days of his life spanned 3 (bulging at the seams) books, 96 pages and 3.5 years of my life. I don't even want to think of the amount of adhesive, paper and embellishments that includes.
I know. Some of you are wondering what took me so long. Well, let me start by saying that I began behind. I didn't start scrapping until summer of 2005 - for those of you that are mathemeticians, that's 2.5 years after Caleb was born. In that time, I've also made my wedding album, a few mini-books for myself, tons of cards and "altered art", and countless albums for other people. (Give me a while, I can count that up...) My approach to my own "life-art" is very different. When I scrap for others, I have a methodical attack - planning and sketching each page, coordinating papers/embellishments, title, and picture placement out. I can whip out a full-size 20 page album in a week if I need to. (I guess payment is a good motivator.) When making my own stuff...I'm all over the place...just grabbing pictures that inspire me at the moment and digging through my stash of paper and goodies until I find what I like. I might be scrapping pictures from 2009 right after I've done something from 2004. You get the idea.
Anyway, Caleb's first year books are a mish-mash. Looking back over the pages, my style has definitely changed. I'm proud of that. Some, I even cringe when I look at the stickers or plain cardstock. I don't care. It's done and I'm leaving it. And you know what? I guess that is kind-of a chronicle of a lot of things...on the surface, a change in my scrapping style, but moreover, it's an analogy of how much my life changed that year...
Sorry I'm just now getting around to posting pictures from my fabulous trip to the west coast. I had an absolute blast - met some fantastic friends, ate some of the biggest pizza I've ever seen in my life and even got a little scrapbooking done, too! In all, I managed to assemble all of the shower invitations (55 baby and 50 wedding), completed 5 cards, made 7 scrapbook pages and started the felt swap I'm participating in. I can't show you the invitations since I haven't figured out how to effectively blur out the personal information on them, but - trust me - they turned out great. That was the biggest job I had and I'm glad to say that it's over now.
Back to the retreat...Andrea and her sis-in-law, Eva, picked me up in LA Friday morning and we started our journey up to Pismo Beach. We met up with Katrina to eat some famous In-and-Out burgers (I had a cheeseburger "animal style" - yum) and a quick trip in at Joann's and a grocery store for snacks and beverages. I rode the rest of the way with Kat..and, although I think we didn't really follow the directions perfectly, we still managed to get to the beach house faster than we thought we would. I even got to see some vineyards! The California coast is so different...hills (which really look like mountains to me) right next to the beach, clean sand and blue water. A stark comparison to the beach at Galveston for sure! I was so excited to meet all of the girls I've been friends with for the past few years thanks to scrapbooking message boards - Kelci (the hostess), Andrea, Kat, Jen, Shanna, Keeley, and Shana. I even made new friends in Heather and Eva. We stayed up way too late every night, ate way too much junk food, played in the chilly temperatures at the beach and still managed to get a lot of scrapping done. I'm so thankful that Kelci emailed me back in the Fall just to see if I *might* be able to come. It definitely was a trip of a lifetime.
On the way back to LAX on Sunday, Andrea and Eva were kind enough to give me a quick tour of Hollywood. I got to see the Chinese Theatre, ran by the Wax Museum, read a few stars on the Walk of Fame and even got my picture with a Transformer for my boys at home. It was quick, but the 15 minutes and $13 in cheesy souveniers made my trip to California feel complete!
Cole has been fever-free for most of the day. Finally, I got to do something I was really looking forward to this year - walk Caleb to and from school. Working doesn't let me do that... :0( Sure was nice weather, too!
Today, I got a lot of pieces together for the baby shower invitations I'm working on and I hope to get (most of) them done this weekend. Oh, that's right, I forgot to tell y'all...I'M GOING TO CALIFORNIA! I'm just a tad bit excited about it. My friend, Kelci (you know, the purse girl...Crafty Mama over there in my blog links), rented a beach house and invited a bunch of us online friends to come scrap the whole weekend away! I can't wait! I'm flying out Friday morning early and will return Sunday night late. Chris has my "other job" (you know, parent-in-charge) all weekend, so say a little prayer for him, okay? ;0)
