Snow Day Crop

Another snow day and the kids were driving me crazy cakes - so what is a momma to do? Scrap of course!  I actually got 5 total done but for some reason i forgot to take a photo of the other one.  SMH.

#8 Wild Kids and Hot Mamas- Spencer, Elliott and Jennifer visiting over 4th of July weekend.

 #9 family, together.  A family pic of me and the boys from October 2012

 #10 - First Nature Hike: the boys and I at the Outdoor Expo in October.

#11- Ready Aim Fire. The boys throwing water sponge bombs on 4th of July weekend.

Been There Made That

I've been bored.  Yeah I know what you are thinking - four kids, dog, job, house to decorate how on earth can you be BORED?  It's not the "lack of things to do around the house" kind of bored, its the "want to be creative within the time frame/space I have" kind of bored.  So I have been wasting time playing around with some of the stuff that I have been pinning over the last couple of years and actually **gasp** doing some of the projects I have found.  Here are a couple that actually turned out respectably.

You can see my pin boards here: http://pinterest.com/aremid411/

I learned to knit (needed something creative I could do in the car between appointments while I am listening to an audiobook in the parking lot of a Walmart) and I'm learning crochet much more slowly than I picked up the knitting.

Project #1 Tea/Coffee Cozy
Original Pin
http://pinterest.com/pin/249316529343424537/

I saw these cute little tea/coffee cozies and thought that would make a perfect beginner type project to test out my knitting ability.  I haven't gotten as fancy with the edges (yet) and it didn't take long to complete one I have some design ideas to improve the next ones but I think it turned out pretty OK.

$0 used leftover yarn and a button from my stash!

Project #2 Tea Dyed coffee filters/wreath

Original Pin(s)

http://pinterest.com/pin/249316529343355727/

http://pinterest.com/pin/249316529343623519/

 

I fell in Loooove with the look of the tea dyed coffee filters they just looked so sweet and romantic.  And I loved too the idea of using the leftover yarn I had from Christmas stockings so I got to play one night, I brewed a cup of tea and poured some reinker dye into a small dish and started messing around with the coffee filters, my favorites were dipped and then sprayed with Shimmer Mist.  Then I hot glued the yarn balls and attached to a dollar store stick wreath and here is how it turned out.

Project #3 - Canvas/Subway Art

Original Post: 

http://pinterest.com/pin/249316529343413749/

So we have this bathroom...it's orange...I mean - it's seriously tangerine orange. It was orange when we bought the house and my husband has decided that he likes the orange bathroom.  The one that every visitor to our house uses - is orange.  When my mother in law came into town from Colorado, she encouraged hubby's delusion that an orange bathroom is acceptable if we blew up some pictures from our honeymoon and did a tropical theme.  At this point I still don't agree but no amount of pouting, begging and cajoling would melt the orange from the walls :(  So I surrender, put a basket of shells in a basket, blow up some sunset in Key West photos and made this to go on the big blank, tangerine/coral/peach wall.

I have two more drying to put up in the basement and the letters on that one turned out better, but this one is on the wall already :)

More "Pinny" projects to come :)

What I wanted to eat...

...as I walked into the travel plaza and was simultaneously struck by the smell of fresh baked bread from the Subway and the salty crispy fry scent at McDonalds was either a Meatball Sub (480 calories, 18 grams of fat) or a McRib (500 calories, 26 grams of fat)

What I actually ate...whole wheat BLT wrap, no mayo (320 calories, 7 grams of fat).

Sometimes making good choices REALLY sucks.

Been getting scrappy again

It's been awhile since I've gotten to spend some time on my scrapbook table but since the first of the year I have been going through older photos and kits and getting some stuff DONE towards my goal of 100 layouts this year and using up some kits. Observe. (I swear that everything is very straight in real life - sometimes taking pictures of layouts is not the easiest)  All of these were using up kits from www.scrap-room.com and were based on pagemaps sketches. www.pagemaps.com

#1 - Reunion
My girlfriends from high school came over to my house right after I moved in.  I'm so glad to have this photo!

#2 - Ring Bearers. My little Jackson from back in 2009 when he was a ring bearer in my brother's wedding

#3 - Your Heart will Lead you Home - Jackson and his "fiancee" Alivia - he is walking her home so cute!

#4 - Our Family: A group photo from Easter 2012.  Love this one!

#5 - 'tween: My Joshua gets way too big everytime he comes to visit.  Now he is a true 'tween.

#6 - Proud of You: Jackson with mom and dad, nana and papa at his Kindergarten graduation

#7 - anytime anywhere: random shots of Joey falling asleep at random times and places

Seven down! only 93 to go!

New Year 2013

What a year 2012 turned out to be - I mean seriously, could we have possibly jam packed anything more into this 12 month section of our lives.

Let's see shall we -

The moving to Newton thing
We started off looking at houses, finding the perfect one, getting financed and moving in.  As time marched forward our window to do things like remove wallpaper and paint and take up carpet got smaller and smaller but somehow we made it work.  Since then, almost every wall in the house has gotten a coat of paint, the basement has been completely torn apart and is about 1/2 way put back together again and we are finally "settling in"

The Graduation Thing
It was no small miracle that James made the decision to come and live with us for his Senior Year but it all paid off to watch him get that high school diploma, be diligent about submitting applications for scholarships and achieving a FULL RIDE to Iowa State.  Also his mom brought him a new car for graduation when she drove up here for the ceremony - yup - ex wife - in the house - out to dinner with the family - the whole everything - and it wasn't awful.

The Business Thing
What an up and down that was.  Banks, financing, back and forth, lawyers, accountants, offers, counters, evaluators and, of course, that is all in the middle of one of the worst year's that the company has ever experienced.  We made it through it all though and next year's marketing plan is strong and the changes we are making are good.  Whew

The New Nephew Thing
My brother is a father!  So weird but so awesome.  I couldn't love my nephew more if he had come out of me!

So 2013 is here and (although I know everyone feels its cliche to make a "resolution") I feel like the start of a New Year is an excellent benchmark point to look at and say - yeah - last year at this time I was **fill in the blank**

All of my goals this year center on STRENGTH.

1. This is the year that we are poised to be in a place of strength financially - paying off credit cards and cars, etc and putting money in savings for our future. And staying on BUDGET THIS YEAR!
2. I am going to run a half marathon in April with CJ and Heather.  As crazy as that sounds its true.  Money has been paid, registration packets have been ordered and I'm going to have to train like a mad woman to be ready in time.
3. I want to build strong habits with my family as well.  We just purged out all of the crappy food that was weighing us down (literally as well as metaphorically) and we are committed to eating out less and not bringing the junk food into the house.  On top of that we want to do less TV time and more free reading and play time and teach respect for their things and the items of others.
4. I want to read or listen to 100 books this year
5. I also want to scrap 100 layouts

Sounds good right?  Here's to a strong and healthy 2013!!!