I always say: You never know what Monday will bring. And you don't. At least not around here. Monday is my favorite day of the week. The kids go back to school, Superman goes back to work at the Daily Planet and I get to catch my breath. I almost always go straight home from dropping the kids, sit with a cup of hot coffee and check my mail, read my blog reader, then set to work on whatever needs to get accomplished. Some days a lot of rest needs to be accomplished. Or the finishing of a very long novel that has taken up a lot of my time when I was supposed to be reading my book club selection. It's still September isn't it?

Yesterday, my precious Turkey turned 2. I am so proud of him, so sad for me...but such is motherhood. I was feeling blue off and on all day thinking how we only have one more year till he turns into monster child. Anyway, to cheer ourselves up, we decorated a little bit for Halloween. I LOVE Halloween! So fun! We set out fake pumpkins and strung lights on the stairs. I can't wait to see what MIL does with the fabulous Renaissance Princess gown pattern I sent her last week.

I will try to remember to post some pics.

Lastly, I just want to tell all my loyal readers that if you ever have to make BLACK frosting for, say...a Mickey Mouse cake. Take my word for it: USE CHOCOLATE FROSTING!

Some of you may know I am sort of mildly addicted to cake shows. I cannot get enough Food Network Challenge or Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes...or any of the others I can DVR. (Yes, I have a well-earned reputation as a non-TV watcher. And that is true too, but if I can DVR the episodes of the cake shows I will sit as long as they will let me and watch them one after the other. I LOVE them!) Anyhoo- Unfortunately, just because you watch hours of cake decorating does not mean you can do it! I mean this is SO hard! I am in total awe of people who do this well! So Turkey is totally into Mickey Mouse, so I decided to make a Mickey Mouse cake. I tried options such as buying little dolls to set on top of a frosted cake but there were none to be found. (I should have pushed for a Diego cake!) So I made Royal Icing and dyed it black with AN ENTIRE JAR of Wilton Black food dye gel. It was SOOOOOOOO GROOOOOSSSSS! OMG! It was disgusting! The dye is so bitter.

Unfortunately I was rushing (of course) and did not stop to google this until after the fact. Starting with chocolate icing minimizes the amount of dye needed to turn it black, therefore it is not gross, but rather yummy. And isn't that the point!

Here is the cake I wanted. I haven't uploaded the actual cake photos, but suffice it to say, it was a bit simpler than this one! LOL



Happy Monday!

A Kit for Kate

Ever have one of those days when you are so busy you are just buzzing? I know I am running on adrenalin at this point because there isn't much else left! LOL

It has been a busy, busy day here are that Crazy House because I am getting all my parent folders ready for the first girl scout meeting tomorrow, I SHOULD be doing lots of laundry, making copies, running errands AND I have an event tonight to get ready for, which of course requires time and some excitement since I rarely go "out". Maybe more about that later...

But for now I thought perhaps I need to take the ME ME ME out of my day (meaning MY FAMILY, MY FAMILY, MY WORLD). I have been wanting to post this for umm, almost a month, but it sometimes takes a while...

Below is a partial post from Crystal Wilkerson, as vary talented artist and designer. She is doing her part to help out a little girl with cancer. There are also links to Kate's CaringBrindge site. If you don't know about CaringBridge, you are probably very lucky. It is a site that helps people keep in touch with friends and family during a medical crisis. I hope your not knowing means you have not been touched by tragedy. But I am linking it up because it is a wonderful site if you ever know someone who is going through cancer, NICU, or other long term medical events.

So, here is the beautiful kit Crystal made in honor of Kate and her family. If you are a digital scrapper, you will know what this is. If you are not, this is a good time to give it a try for a good cause. OR read the story below. There are lots of other ways to help. Please keep reading...



This kit was made in honor of a little girl named Kate who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. You can read her story HERE. A friend of mine, Kristina Proffitt, brought this to my attention & as soon as I read Kate's story, I knew I wanted to do something. This kit is available to anyone who would like to donate to help the McRae family. All proceeds (minus PayPal expenses) will be donated to the McRae family. This is a HUGE kit with 22 papers & 25 elements! You can also participate in CARDS FOR KATE if you'd like to send cards to Kate & her family.
-taken from Creativity By Crystal

Thank you for reading! There are also white rubber bracelets available on etsy to help raise money for Kate's treatments.

Hold your little ones a little tighter today...

No Original Thoughts

Someone once told me there are no original thoughts, only clips and images; memories that we recycle and then claim as our own. It's an interesting concept. But one I completely rejected. Until now.

Rewind to summer. Steph sent me a blog address to look at. She said "this lady has the blog thing down. You might get some ideas from her". 1)This gal is a writer. I'm not (I just play one on TV). 2)I am a SUPER visual person and to be honest, I didn't like her layout. Well, I love the color and I can see the virtue in keeping it simple, but it just didn't appeal to MY artistic eye, so I sorta read over it an then moved on.

Now fast-forward to sometime in September 2009. I am blog-hopping. I run across an address that intrigues me. I click on it and begin to read. Oh Geez! It is the same blogger and wow, her blogging is pretty darned good and let's be honest: I don't see the graphics in my blog reader anyway, huh? So I am reading her blog, enjoying it and I come across a part where she is describing a scene with her and her kids. She has nicknamed her son TURKEY. Red flag! Oh no! I am a total plagiarizer, aren't I? I scroll down, sweating a little, breathing faster. Oh crap! She also nicknamed her daughter: DIVA. Well, OK that's different, but a nickname nonetheless!

I read on: it's TU-KEY not TURKEY. So am I still on the hook? I mean, is this a common thing or did I STEAL from this woman? I am so sorry, please forgive me! But now I am afraid to contact her and beg for forgiveness because I sort of just dissed her didn't I? Did I? I wasn't trying to, just being honest. arrrgh! Though shalt not lie! phoooey! Gets me every time!

But, I digress. I guess the point is that my friend may have been right: maybe there ARE no original ideas anymore. I mean in this age of technology we are all so up in each other's business, that we have pretty much seen it all. Maybe everything I write is just recycled fragments from past experience, stitched together with mere filaments of my own imagination. Who can ever know?

And even though I am open to this possibility, I know I will continue to nick name my kids because I really love how that nickname tells you about their personality. Afterall, their given name only tells you about ME. Right? At least the nickname has the potential to describe their personality or position (Turkey, Princess...)

As for the older two, I have my eye on a name for #2. I will reveal it later. I'm open to suggestions for #1, but for goodness sake, don't tell me what you call your own children on your blog, lest I inadvertently steal it! LOL

Happy Sunday!

Friday Freebie!

Sometimes I wish I had more time to explore the world on the internet. There are just so darn many awesome and creative people in this world! Who knew?

Today I found an awesome blog called "TidyMom" because I subscribe to a different blog and that person was raving about the cool giveaways on "TidyMom". Right away I was drawn to Jessie's designs. I know this is all so confusing! It's like gossip...but in a good way! So Sara told me that Cheryl is giving away something made by Jessie. I fell in love with Jessie's stuff AND with Cheryl's blog, so I decided to tell YOU ALL to go to Cheryl's blog and register to win a freebie from Jessie. While you are there, you may find some cool stuff at Cheryl's place: TidyMom.

Here are some ad shots from Designs by Jessie. Remember: Cheryl is giving these away. It is called the Perfect Pocket: a sweet little holder for cell phone, camera, whatever... . Couldn't you just eat them up?

The image should be linked to Cheryls blog so you too can register to WIN!! I love freebies. Especially when the stuff is this cute! I hope to find a camera strap in my stocking this Christmas!

In case I screwed it up though, here are the addresses:

Cheryl: http://tidymomof2.blogspot.com
Jessie: http://designsbyjessie.com/
Sara: http://scrapsillysara.blogspot.com/

Mr. Clean

It is not even 7 am.
Ian is walking around the bedroom with a spray bottle (water), spraying his "toy-EEs" and wiping them down with an old T-shirt I cut up. He is wearing the biggest smile you have ever seen..having a ball!
Who is this kid? Haven't I taught him anything?? Cleaning is not FUN!
It just goes to show you that kids are putty in our hands. A different mommy could teach him the arts of cleaning and organization. Maybe instead he can teach me a few tricks. lol

And even though I realize this (meaning I must take responsibility for the good AND the bad, darn it!) I'd be lying if I didn't confess that just a tiny part of me thinks he may have been switched at birth.

Just Kidding. :)

The Duggars

I have been thinking a lot about the Duggar family expecting baby #19 lately. I just can't imagine coming up with that many J names. So here I am listing the names of the already born children so we can see if we can come up with some names for the not-yet-born one.

Joshua
Jana
John-David
Jill
Jessa
Jinger
Joseph
Josiah
Joy-Anna
Jedidiah
Jeremiah
Jason
James
Justin
Jackson
Johannah
Jennifer
Jordyn-Grace

This is hard.

I am cheating by using some name lists. It is obvious to me that if this baby is a boy he needs to be named Jacob because they have not used that wonderful old name. Plus I love it. :)

If it is a girl they could use Jessica, Joselyn, Josie (josephine), Jaci, or JAMI!
My vote is Josie.

So Jacob or Josie, which will it be? Which J names do you suggest?
We have a while to wait...in the mean time, best wishes to Jim Bob and Michelle and the whole crew.

Chicken Tales

So I am sitting at the table eating a Kashi Chicken Florentine. Turkey's favorite thing is chicken (I know, weird) so as soon as he spies me, he runs to the table and crawls up in his booster to steal my chicken.Of course I let him because honestly, it is impossible to say no to this kid! Pretty soon we are out of chicken and I am just munching on the spinach and quinoa/vermicelli pilaf. He starts chanting "chicken, chicken!" Charming. His sister taught him that. I make a mental note to rearrange the shoes in her closet (she is a little OCD about her things...paybacks are hell, huh?)

So I lift a forkful of pilaf and say "yummy rice". Big smile.
Turkey grimaces and turns away.
"Chicken! More Chicken"
EVER SO PATIENTLY I say" No, honey, chicken all gone! Try the yummy rice!"

He looks at me skeptically, lips closed. Tucks in his chin and ever so slightly parts his lips. I dump the fork in his mouth. He is chewing. Victory!?

Of course, you know the rest: he sticks his tongue out and blows healthy 7 grain pilaf all over the front of me with one loud "razzberry" that says don't ever pull that again, lady!

It's funny. At that moment I was really rather jealous of him. Gosh I wish I could do that to people who annoy me!!! (and get away with it!) Kids are so awesome. They pull no punches. I couldn't even be mad at him because after all, this is the JOB of a 2 year old! To be so honest that it hurts, to test their boundaries, to learn the rules.

And anyway, Morgan always cleans up the spills. Good Dog. :)

Sleep, what? Huh?

I just woke up. It is 12:30 pm. When I heard the phone ringing I pulled my forehead up off of the carpet (makes a lovely dented pattern there, you know) and blearily dragged my embarrassed self up to find the source of the noise. I am not supposed to be sleeping! What happened..? What time is it? Where is the dog? To my relief I find Turkey asleep in the crib. I cover him up as he is wearing nothing but a diaper. Oh yes, I remember, he spilled his cheerios. Slowly it is coming back to me...I put him in the crib. He was watching Goodnight Moon. I don't even remember starting it. Did I turn it off? Why am I so tired? I feel drugged. (i'm not...maybe I should be) I still don't remember how the heck I ended up face down on his floor!

....
It is all starting to come back to me. Princess had a nightmare last night. Superman fell asleep on the couch... Turkey was up, and then up again...and again. Oh yeah and then he went and got in his own bed and got stuck there and screamed and I was up AGAIN! No wonder I am tired!

Then there was the dream that I was pregnant with twins... That was enough to keep me from wanting to fall asleep again, LET ME TELL YOU!

Are the gods conspiring against me? How does this all happen in one night? Oy!

School open house today. I hope I get a shower...

Goodness I am tired....

I need to veg for a minute and down a Coke. Here's a layout I did one other time when I was sort of "not in reality".

Even in a daze I can see how my skills are improving. This is hard to read. I will have to go back and make adjustments before it gets in the book. It says "Remember this day, for it's magic" (it was Easter).

testing...1,2,3

new layout s coming....I know you can't wait! You will LOVE the kit I used! IT is AWESOME!!!!

Back to School Montage

Here's a little layout I did of the first day of school. I need to do one just for Princess' first day of Kindergarten...another day.