3 May scrapbook pages

I have gotten woefully negligent on my goal of taking a daily picture and scrapbooking weekly layouts--Project 365.  Instead of feeling guilty or overwhelmed with my shortcomings, I'm just going to go with the flow and do my best, ok?  I did a 2-page layout for the month of May that faily well captures our activities.  Each page has 14 pictures, so 28 all together--not bad for a month, right?  Only thing is, there are some pictures that were taken on the same day, so I didn't really come close to taking a daily picture.  Part of my excuse is that I grow weary of taking pictures in my house, so I really only want to take them when we're doing something outside.  The last picture is one of my favorites.  Hannah loves Sunny, my mom's horse. (It's technically my sister's horse, but it's also the one everybody loves to ride, including me and Hannah).  On this day, Papa & Nana hitched up Sunny & Atta Boy to the buggy, and all 6 of us--Nana, Papa, Tim, the girls, and I--went for a little drive.  Hannah stood by the hitching post when we were done, and just snuggled and hugged Sunny.  I got several snapshots of the 2 of them.  He's so wonderfully calm and patient to just let her stand there and hug all over his head.  She dreams of horses constantly, even going so far to say that she rides bareback really well, and just squeezes with her legs when they jump over cricks and trees.  Sometimes her favorite horse is Flicka, sometimes Spirit, and sometimes Sunny.  She has a wonderful imagination!

Project 365 March 8-14 and a surprise!

I've been hiding a secret these past 12 weeks!  We broke the news last Friday to our family and friends.  I created a cute set of t shirts with iron on transfers and my digital scrapbooking supplies to announce the news.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the girls wearing them!  I'll do that soon.  We didn't tell them about the baby until we were telling Tim's dad the news.  Hannah, previous to this, had informed us quite clearly that her wishes were for our family to only have 2 children.  Her and Makenna was enough.  But, she took the news rather well, and has been telling most people before I get a chance to say anything.  Makenna looked a little disinterested for a while, but she must've been listening, because she'll randomly say to me in her cute voice, "Mama, baby in yer beddy?" (Belly)  The latest debate is Hannah rooting for a girl, and all others hoping for a boy.  She gets quite adament about it, especially with her dad and her papa.  Here's a few names she's chosen:  Rebekah, Lexie, Selah, and Star.  We have a horse named Star, and a cousin named Selah, so those 2 are definately out.  Don't tell Hannah, but the other names haven't made it on our list either :) 

I've gotten way behind on my picture taking.  I felt kinda cruddy the past 2 months--tired!! Tired of snow. Tired of wet. Tired of gray and brown.  Tired of winter.  Tired of my house.  Wanting to take a daily nap.  Tired of feeling slightly upset to my stomach at any time of the day.  Tired of pottytraining Makenna.  Tired of Hannah's dirty panties and socks all over the house.  You get the idea.  The last thing I felt like doing was taking a picture of all this dreariness.  So I'm posting this layout, which includes my positive pregnancy test, which is part of the reason I haven't posted it yet. 

I went to my first OB/GYN appointment yesterday, at 12 weeks.  I don't know why it took 4 weeks to get in, but it's not like anything would've gone differently.  I saw the nurse practitioner, whom I've never met before.  Did the usual disliked pelvic exam and such and get ready to listen to the all-important heart beat on the doppler thing.  She slathered that gooey gel all over, and searched and searched.  And searched and searched!  She wouldn't give up.  I was going back and forth between panicing and being calm.  I know that the baby has been growing and certain that I had a live fetus in there, and knowing that 12 weeks is still slightly early to detect a heartbeat.  Yet, after going through a miscarriage 5 years ago, that fear never goes away.  The NP was totally calm about the whole deal, assuming the baby was moving around too much to catch the heart beat.  She sent me down the hall to the ultrasound tech, who happened to have an empty room, and popped the ultrasound wand on my belly.  Sure enough, that little bugger was moving every which way!  Feet kicking, hands flailing, and all of a sudden, FLIP!  rolled right over!  It was truly one of the most beautiful things to behold!  I don't know how a woman could see something amazing like this and go through with an abortion.  At t12 weeks, I can feel nothing, my body has changed slightly, and yet, this precious creation is a human being created in the image of the great GOD of the Universe, who loves me and gave himself for me!

Another Project 365: February 22-28

Here's another Project 365...I have a tough time taking a picture everyday.  Some weeks are better than others!  I'm starting to look for everyday photo opportunities, and even thinking of weekly themes to try...food/cooking; makenna; hannah; playing outside; beach days...etc.

Project 365 Feb. 1-7 Plus I won an iTouch!

WOW!  I've gotten far behind, huh?  Seems like life got really busy lately.  I'm the new Prism leader for our Friday morning weight-loss group, I'm in bible study group every other Thursday morning, I'm on the MOPS steering team, meeting 3 Tuesdays a month, and I started working a few hours from home through the internet.  Plus church, AWANA, YAC, and life!  Here's a key for all those abreviations:  MOPS = Mothers Of Preschoolers, a world-wide organization; AWANA is a children's Wednesday night program, again world-wide; YAC = Young Adult Couples group from church, meets once a month

Here's my latest brainstorm (which will probably lead to more work)  a babysitting co-op within our YAC group families.  I presented it, and I have at least 7 interested families that want to participate.  So I need to follow up with a meeting to nail down guidelines and get it going.  I'm going to have it all in a Google Doc accessible to our group members so they can readily see their babysitting accounts.

GUESS WHAT I WON!!!  On Valentine's morning, I discovered I was the winner from Geekmommy.com's iTouch iPod giveaway!!  Yes, that's right, I have won 2, yes TWO iTouch iPod's in the last 6 weeks!  How crazy is that?  So, I ran upstairs (yes, we have an upstairs now!) and woke Tim up to tell him my good news!  He was excited, because I'm giving it to him.  Then I told Hannah, my now 4 year old daughter, and she puckered up in a pout, and said, "But MOM, I want an iPod!"  I said, "Honey, the next one I win will be for you!".  She loves to listen to one song on my iPod over and over.  It's by 33Mile, called GONE.  She also loves to scroll through my pictures.  She knows how to do it, but then all of a sudden, she'll show it to me, and it's about to delete one of my programs!  YIKES!  I have downloaded a few programs, like "Lose It" that I use to keep track of my food and exercise daily.  I also have a free Bible program that I have the NKJV Bible in, and where's there's WIFI available, I have access to many, MANY good translations.  Tim brought this to church to use instead of his regular bible.  Talk about a lot lighter to carry!  I'm thinking about it, but I love using my own Bible, with study notes and handwritten notes.  But I get tired of lugging around a 10 lb Bible, diaper tote, toddlers, and such.

week 4: Project 365

Here's week 4, nearly caught up with the present!  Yippee!  I'm not sure I like this layout as well as others...not much room for accents and the journaling takes up a lot of room.  I actually started out with black lines for the journaling, and it just did NOT look right!

Week 3, Project 365

I spent the last week, the coldest one of the winter (so far) working outdoors alot, as a fascilitator for Grace Adventures Camp, near my home.  The camp hosted a group of Cornerstone University students taking a class called Leadership Journey.  I worked along side of a Cornerstone fascilitator, and we took a group of 10 students through the training.  There were 4 groups total, and there were other instructors involved throughout the week.  I was mostly involved with leading the group through various experiences that modeled leadership, and brought them through leadership practices, as well as getting them to work together as a group.  They worked on communication, participation, trust, and such.  We did fun things like broom ball on the frozen lake, High Ropes Course, and sledding.  Me and some other girls got to ride horses on the absolute coldest day!  I've never ridden in snow before.

The last picture was taken when Tim and I took the truck for a ride down to the Silver Lake Lighthouse.  This past weekend we got about 18" of snow, and it was difficult to get a clear view of the water.  I've always wanted to get a picture of the lighthouse in every season, and this is the first time I've actually had my camera with me!  So cool.  I think I'm going to use this picture for a card I want to make, and include the verse:  "GIVE LIGHT to them that sit in darkness...guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke 1:79

Week 2 of Project 365

This layout is condensed into a 1-page layout.  I received this layout template for free, along with several others, when I signed up to do the project 365 with Scrapbook Graphics site.  I think I would rather do a 2-page layout, but I wanted to get this done.  The biggest part of doing a 2-pager is that my photos could be bigger.  

YIPPEE!!! notice picture for Wednesday.  It's of 10 hot Christian CDs that I won, along with an itouch ipod!!!  I finally won something cool!  I got it for coming the closest in guessing the top 3 songs of the year for my local Christian radio station, Northern Christian Radio, 91.1  This is what they were:  Cinderella, by Steven Curtis Chapman, Halleluia by Michael W. Smith, and a Chris Tomlin song.  I was totally guessing when I got this...just going by what I figured I heard the most all year long.  I have won some really cool prizes from this station over the past 5 years, but this one tops it all!!!!  I tried to take a pic of the ipod, but the stinkin' thing is soooo shiny!  all i got was a glare of my flash.  Oh, well.