HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her.

                                                                                                    Proverbs 31:28

                                                                                                                               
This seems like a good day to share a couple of my older scrapbook pages that are dear to my heart... 

In the layout below, Mom was expecting with me.  :)

I am the luckiest daughter in the world. 

Well, at least one of the three luckiest daughters; right, sisters?

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Love you!

Cj

And let me just add that
I lucked up in the mother-in-law department too!  :)

Four months already ???

Well, four months and a few days for this post, but the pictures were taken on the 1st.

Lucky for you I'm all proficient in my Shutterfly Studio collage creating, or this would be an extremely photo-heavy post.  You may still consider it such, but please indulge me...

These are the shots where he's studying my camera. 

As soon as I would peek out from behind it, he was all smiles.  

Would ya look at that.  Somebody's got a belly!

And you know I had to take those socks off and get some baby toes in the pictures!

                          

And finally, a layout.

The lace I used was given to me by Nolan's great-great-grandmother, Grace, years ago.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cj

Happy Halloween!



  

My little monsters spent a little time with me Saturday.  Kaitlyn only had about an hour after basketball practice, which was just enough time to get a craft done. 

We used a treat bag she'd gotten last year as our inspiration. 

I cut out the hair, but the rest of the handiwork is hers.  

When I told her we could sew the mouth, she said, "I call the pedal!"   

And you're not going to believe this, but I couldn't find my camera.  Ryan already had Nolan in the car seat, ready to get home and get K ready for a 1:00 birthday party.  But I kept looking, because I'm stubborn that way.  I sometimes hide my camera when I leave the house.  (Robbers:  Steal my computer, tv, whatever, but please don't find my camera!)  And it would be a little counter-productive to leave myself a Post-it saying where I'd hidden it, so I often find myself looking for it.  Ironically, it was where I usually put it, I just didn't see it the first time I looked. 

 I got Kaitlyn to stop for a quick picture while her daddy was waiting for her to leave.  I reeeeally wanted a picture of K and Nolan together, too, but I didn't think Ryan would go for that...

Look at that sweet smile.  Right.  She could care less about the camera at this point.  She's wanting to fish a pumpkin out of that jar of mixed candy you see there. 
And she knows her daddy is waiting . . .
and Mommo is wasting her pumpkin digging time. 
I've got her number.

Here's the back of her "card."  Even though we're always telling each other "It doesn't have to be perfect!" ... and that usually works ... she wasn't pleased with her commas.  She thought they looked too much like 1's.  So we made a small, last-minute "repair" and we were good to go!

 I don't have any pictures of Nolan from yesterday, but here's a couple from last week.  He's growing like crazy!  And smiling like crazy.  And I promise you he was singing "Your are my Sunshine" with me!  Such a shame there were no witnesses.   ;)

There will be pictures of these two in their costumes next week.  Plus, I'm doing a little fall crafting today which I'll share with you.  Stay tuned!

Happy Halloween!

Cj

5.1 in 2nd

"5.1 in 2nd."  That's going to be the title of the scrapbook page that will one day be made to go along with this post. 

Here is Miss Kaitlyn on her first day of second grade.

She's very proud of her backpack. We do these pictures each year.

Okay.  So back to the title of the post, "5.1 in 2nd."  

Students are tested near the beginning of the school year to determine their reading level.  Books in the library are "ranked" by appropriate grade-level reading abilities.  The kids will read a book and then take a computer test on the book which will indicate their level of reading comprehension. 

Miss Kaitlyn's AR (accelerated reading) score was 5.1, meaning that upon entering second grade, she was reading at the level of a student in the first month of fifth grade.  Now, how cool is that!?! 

She currently has the highest AR score in second grade.  I think that means that she has read and tested over more books, not that she's necessarily reading at the highest level.  But I could be wrong... 

So we know she's got the smarts . . . if only she had more personality!  Ha! 

Thanks for indulging Mommo's brag session. 

I'll leave you with a layout I did about Miss Kaitlyn this summer.

Journaling reads:  "Kaitlyn traded in her dance slippers for ball cleats.  She loved performing, but I think she's more comfortable in her cleats.  And while the recitals were fun, it's just hard to beat a Little League game.  The whole family comes, lawn chairs in tow.  Ryan keeps the books and helps out where needed.  Fun times for all of us, with great memories being made.  The ballpark burgers aren't bad either.   :)  

Spring - Fall 2009"

Her last dance recital was May 2009.  She's played three seasons of ball since then.  There's a spring league and a fall league.  She loves it.  We all love it!

Happy Saturday!

Cj

Ta-da!

Ta-da!  It's done! 

Of course, one thing led to another.  I needed to don a dust mask and clean the room before putting things away. Then a little rearranging and "foofifying" (my word) seemed in order.  That was the fun part.  Once I got into it, I had to resist the urge to do an all-out purge of supplies.  I did start a small pile for Molly, who has expressed an interest in doing an album for Nolan. 

So now I am inspired.  I'm inspired to spend some time in there creating -- like maybe a belated Happy Birthday card for Mom! -- and to spend some time in there and really get it organized.  The closet in the corner could be used so much more efficiently.  

So here's the big reveal!

Look!  You can see the carpet!  And you can sit in the chairs!

Someday I plan to do a post featuring particular items I'm using.  As I was putzing around in here this weekend, I realized how many family pieces fill the room.  I know Mom and Margaret will get a kick out of seeing how what I've done with things that were theirs or were their mothers'.  

Now, this closet I've got big plans for . . .

Yessiree, Bob.  (Or maybe it should be "yessiree, Gene."  ha!)  This is the home of my future sewing closet.  When I work up the courage -- and when I'm up for the challenge -- I'll show you what mass of junk loveliness lies behind Curtain Number One.  You can safely assume it's another weekend project.  Or maybe a month-long project.  I've got all kinds of ideas for this space.  As a matter of fact, I've already got old sewing pattern pieces up on the wall as wallpaper. 

I think this is something Dad will want to come help with.  I'm going to need an electrical plug or two...   It'll be so much fun!  =)   (Love you, Dad!)

That's it for now.  Transcripts are calling my name!

Cj

Keeping it real . . . and a challenge

A challenge to myself.  I'm thinking if I disclose to you-all the state of my scrapbooking room -- and further reveal that it's been this way for, uh, three weeks now -- that it just might, maybe, possibly give me the kick in the behind I need to transform this room back to its splendor.  Who knows.  If this form of humiliation motivation works, I might even get up enough nerve to post a photograph of another room or two or three or four in the house that could use a little attention.  ha! 

In my defense, I've been working on a big transcript.  Sure, one could argue that I've been working on the transcript to avoid the scraproom.  One could be right.  So what?

Okay.  So here I am, stripped of all dignity and pride.  Here is my scraproom as of Saturday afternoon @ 2:20 p.m.

So what do ya think?

Can it be done in one afternoon? 

Check back to find out!

Cj

Safety first . . .

It's time to share another scrapbook page.  This is a quick simple one.  (None of my pages are quick.  Let's just say I enjoy the process.)  My pages have gotten simpler as I like to concentrate more on the pictures and journaling these days.  Which is another way of saying I've quit spending money on embellishments and am making do with that I've got.  Which is still plenty, believe me.

Let's begin with this quick disclaimer:

And then let's just go ahead and address the whole irresponsible parenting issue and clear the air.   I promise you I was a prudent parent.  99% of the time.  Really.

Okay.  You can click on the pictures to make them larger.  But just for effect, I've zoomed in on this one for ya ...

... to enable you to fully appreciate his form ... and height ...

And then here's the second page of the layout, which is really about the journaling.

Save your eyes.  I've typed the journaling out for you below.

The journaling reads:

"Photos: 1987 - 4 yrs. old

Journaling - 2010

What were we thinking?

A) Diving jumping into, what, maybe 10 inches of water -- if that much -- ...

B) from a FOLDING CHAIR ...

C) wearing goggles!

Seriously?  Probably the only thing worse than belly-flopping onto the bottom of a plastic pool is to do it with goggles strapped to your face.

I cracked up when I ran across these pictures recently.  Look at how high he is jumping!  Once I quit laughing, I realized these action shots probably call my parenting skills into question.  I wonder if the possibility of potential injury ever entered my mind.

Oh, well.  I'm happy to report that he is now 27 years old - and relatively normal.  =)

Love you, Ryan!   Mom"

So there you have it, a little bit of scrappy goodness. 

One of my pages from "back in the day." 

And might I just say, I will never let my grandchildren jump from folding chairs into a shallow pool, whether they're wearing goggles or not. 

Thankyouverymuch.

Mommo.  =)

About 23 years ago . . .

I'm back!  Two posts in one day.  Does that make up for my prior procrastination?

Thought I'd share a little scrappy goodness.  Each time I go scrapping, I try to do a  couple pages from "back in the day."  Here's one of my most recent.  I think it's appropriate, given that we're approaching Halloween.

The journaling reads:    "Honestly, have you ever seen a cuter sheriff?  Look at that precious face - with the mascara mustache...  Ryan was never picky about his Halloween costumes - he was never really picky about anything - very easy-going.  I don't think it's a mother's bias, I just think it's a fact that he was a really sweet boy.  I was proud of him then - and I'm proud of him today."     =)

I sewed all the "border" onto the page and sewed on my journaling, as well as the zig-zag stitching at the top.  I'm not turning out pretty clothes with my sewing machine like Mom did, but, hey, at least my machine is put to good use.

** Great.  I just ran spell check and realize I misspelled "sheriff" on my journaling.  I even found someone with a dictionary and looked it up.  great.  I should have just said "law enforcement dude."