hiding

Today you will find me hiding out in my office. Our house is temporarily overflowing with 11 year old boys. It all started Wednesday night, when after scouts we had Nic and Nathan here while they were waiting for their parents to get back from mutual. They boys decided to play "hide & scare" (their version of hide & seek) where you turn off all the lights in the house and then try to "get" each other with dart guns. Needless to say, I was hiding out here that night too! Well, they all had sooo much fun that Tadhg concocted the idea of a mass sleep-over as soon as possible. Last night was the History night/wax museum project for all the boys at school and then today is the first day of spring break. So... I gave in.
When I venture out to feed ravenous animals or go potty, I must step over at least 100 darts, several sleeping bags and....is that sand in my rug!? Guess it goes with the flaming hot cheeto crumbs on the sofa. Now I remember why I don't do this very often. At least they keep each other entertained. Did I mention that a houseful of boys smells? Well, it does.
Now let's see if I can find another activity that will keep me sequestered to "my room".

what fun

I learned how to use templates today. Yipee! They are so fast and easy. It was almost a let down, in that it wasn't a challenging challenge, but boy was it fast and easy!

our home

As extra-credit, for a cookie, Jessica asked us to do the exact same page but with different paper and pictures. So......I did. Don't like this second one as much, maybe I'll try another "home" page. But here it is none the less. These were the pics I took earlier this week. Love that plum tree!

almost like Christmas

I pulled out my "big" camera the other day the other day to take some pictures of our home. I rummaged around in my camera bag and came up with a digital photo card, (as the camera was empty) took some pictures and then put it down for a couple of days. Sunday I finally got back to it and decided to download the dozen or so pics I'd taken. But when I stuck the card in the reader I got a nice surprise. About 75 pictures I'd forgotten I'd taken last summer. Some really cute ones too! Yeah for me! Well those sure came in handy for my Monday assignment.

The boys really did have fun up on Grampa Flynn's farm. When I showed the boys the pictures they said they wanted to go back. Gotta love the ATV.
Took St. Patrick's day cookies into class yesterday, felt it was only right, being Irish and all. I also found fun green socks for the boys to wear (wasn't sure we had anything else that was green to wear!), but they all surprised me. They all found a shirt that had a little green on it. I wasn't so lucky, ah well. No corned beef and cabbage here, I made chili. Not very Irish, but everyone ate it so...it works.

saturday night

Here I am and it is Saturday night. Sorry, I'm just sitting here at home, boring... I know. Actually, I have spent the last 2 days trying to organize my digital stuff. I didn't realize I had amassed so much. Thank goodness that 95% of it was FREE! Still *WHEW*. Now I can have some real fun.
No new pages, to busy organizing.
Tried a wheat free recipe today. I have had the "fixins" for about a week now, but couldn't muster the energy to make it. I think secretly I was afraid that after all the work my gluten free biscuits would be disgusting! Well they weren't great, but nothing like the biscuits I'm used to. But they were the first bread that I have had in 2 weeks. Maybe that made them taste better. Who knows. I'm not much for cooking normally, but I think this new way of eating will change that. Have to. Maybe I'll break out and dust off my bread machine. You think it will still work after 12 yrs? Sad.

oops!

You'd think that after staring at his beautiful face all day I wouldn't forget about him, but sure enough. I did. I was so wrapped up in this layout that I forgot to pick him up at scouts. I happen to look at the clock and HOLY COW! it's 4:43. Scout's has been over for half an hour! Good thing he's 1. close 2. at my good friend Allison's house 3. she's understanding! (I might have to think about a 12 step program if I get any more addicted to this!) But the layout is cute, right?? At least he liked it. He also told me that Scout's is way more fun when I forget him!:-)

craziness

The last few days have been crazy busy, there are so many things I want to do and an even greater number of things I NEED to do, I feel like I am running in circles to get even a fraction of them done. I find I am being sucked into this digital scrapping and it is so time consuming. I am staying up way too late and neglecting so many things, but it is a compulsion to do the challenges and watch the classes and finish the pages.
So nearly 5 days later, I am done with my photoshop friday circle page! My super Brock. What a funny boy! He cracks me up with his super powers , which change to meet each situation. You never know when a "power" will kick in and you have to be very observant to know when you may call him Brock and when you MUST call him...Salamander! Tricky. I've tried to get him to use his super powers to get him moving faster in the mornings and he tells me that he's running out, that he only has 3 left and he needs to save them. Oh well, I tried.
I've been trying to get these boys to get ready for school faster, in anticipation of the "Grammie" week. It really is ridiculous that it takes them 45 minutes to get up, dressed and brush their teeth. I've resorted to being mean! I time them and then ..remove..privileges when they don't meet their mark. So far, not working so great, only had one day (out of 5) that they were done early. We'll keep working. I think daylight savings is to blame!!(can I blame it for everything?)
Well, I must sleep or I won't be able to get up!!!

me again

Okay, just a quick funny. I had written then I went back and set up my profile. As I was filling in my "about me" thingy I was typing away and wrote monkier instead of moniker, I guess both would have been right, as I have several monkeys in my home!

in the beginning....

Okay, it may soon be obvious that I have no idea what I am doing here, but I'll figure it out someday. I am starting this blog spot so I can post the digital pages I am learning with Jessica Sprague in her Up & Running with Photoshop class. My experience with blogs are/is minimal (like I said.. OBVIOUSLY!) so any tips or pointers are welcome. Who reads this anyway?

I guess I can use it like a journal, not that I'm very good at that. I think the last time I wrote in one was hmmm....15 years ago before my life became so ...well....not my own. I'd say I have very little time for journal writing, but I guess it's all just a matter of priorities. I think I'd rather sleep, or read or a bunch of other things, but... then I'd have a really boring blog page so maybe this will be the way for me to be better about documenting my life. Didn't someone say that if you didn't write it down then it didn't really happen? Who knows.

My blog life then starts today.

We were very nearly late for church. I did remember to set my clock ahead, but that didn't mean that the other 4 people in my house were ready to get up at what would have been 6 in the morning to get ready. I think the bishop took pity on us and gave us a 10 minute grace period. Believe it or not we even got to sit on the benches and not the folding chairs in the cultural hall (something I detest.) Hmm. guess we weren't the only ones who were late.

Caden my sweetheart demonstrated his skills with the "ladies" today. As I was leaving I stopped to talk to Cheyenne (a little girl who was in Caden's school class last year) and noticed that she was holding a daffodil. When I got to the car someone (doesn't really matter who, not that I would have paid attention anyway) tattled that Caden had given her a flower and told her she was hot. (nice!) Oh and by the way, mom here's a flower for you too, says Caden. He does know how to charm, doesn't he?? He then informed me that my daffodil was better. It had an orange center and not just plain yellow like Cheyenne's. (glad to see he knows who rates higher, at least for now!)

I was able to take another walk around the neighborhood today. The weather has been so perfect. This really is my favorite time of year. Everything is so GREEN! I wish it could be like this all year round. It was so warm ( and has been for the last week or so) that I even had to water my plants (so soon, surely not yet...we need more rain!) Let's see if I can keep them through the summer.

I'll see if I can post my first 2 digital assignments. More later...