from me and my chicken

Happy Hallween!

sharing.

I didn't really say anything about the other night I scrapbooked. I had an excellent time and don't know why it doesn't happen more often. When I get back in the creating groove I feel so much better about life. I don't know what it is, but it's definitely a comfort. I have said this before, but I am committing to myself to really try to make a better effort to creating more.

I was only able to get about 5 layouts partially done, I seriously talked way to much without moving my hands. Mostly all I have to do is add the journaling and a few embellishments that are too bulky to go through my printer. I am hoping to finish them sometime this week or weekend depending on what's going on. Honestly I haven't thought past Halloween.


This layout is the only one I actually completed 100%. It's because it doesn't have journaling. Hold the show, I know this seems so unlike me since journaling is so key...it's why I started scrapbooking in the first place, but on layouts I do this way I always add my thoughts on the back. It's a personal note that I hope one day they will discover. I think I may frame this and put it in Tess' room. I just love this photo of her so much.

How many of you scrapbook and how often do you do it?

Her courage

Megan and I decided at the beginning of last week that today was the day she would throw away her binkies. I have wanted to do it for weeks, but knew she wasn't quite ready. So this morning she woke me up racking a back scratcher across my face. Not the best of wake ups but I love to she her cute little face saying, "Mommy wake up!" I gave her a big smile and said, "Are you ready to throw your binkies today?" She said "yes" with a joyful voice and ran out to find them. We all helped her search, but was only able to come up with 3. I know this sounds bad, but I know there are at least 3 more roaming around...hopefully they will stay hidden. As we were searching she popped one in her mouth and you could see her will was crumbling. It broke my heart to think she won't have it anymore, but we're doing it on her terms not mine so I don't feel like a mean mom. When I realized this was all we were going to find we headed out to garbage can outside because it gets pick up tomorrow. She sat in Adam's arms over the trash and just looked over at me and said, "Mommy, I can't do it." It broke my heart to see her struggle and I wanted to say ok lets go in and put them all away, but I held strong. I decided to give her a choice she could put it in the garbage we could put it in a box and take them away. She choose the box. She was actually pretty excited about that alternative. Then we went inside and continued with our morning. She told everyone at church that would listen that she "put her binkies in a box and threw them away". They all praised her and said what a big girl she was. She seemed to be so excited about the attention. She went down for her nap fine although she didn't sleep as long as she usually does. I have no idea if that has something do with the time change or not. Sunday's are sort of weird for naps anyway. We went to my parents for dinner tonight and she was so excited to tell her grandparents and Chris and Amy. She is really proud of herself. So this evening as I was walking out of her room after getting everything situated with all her stuff she sleeps with she called me back in her room and said, "my binky." I reminder where her binkies were and she said "Ok."

I get teary just thinking about it. She's my baby and I'm not sure I'm ready to see her all grown up. She made a huge step today. My stubborn little girl gave away one of the things she loves most. I'm very proud of her for having the courage to do it.

I have no business blogging...

I have a lot I want to accomplish today, but wanted to drop one of my quick random posts if nothing more than for me to remember.

Round two of carving pumpkins took place last night. It wasn't as big a deal this time. I mean the girls were excited, but not as participant. Tess pretty much was Adam's helper as usual, Bella made Halloween books, and Megan was clinging to me since she didn't feel well.

• Today I'm trying to get ready for a scrapbook crop tonight with some of my friends. I'm really excited about this and for a couple of weeks thought I was unable to go so now I am even more excited. It has been so long since I've done this and I so enjoying getting together creating, talking, eating, and being with other woman. Enter side story...While in the airport I saw two woman carrying luggage that screamed "scrapbookers". I was in line behind them so I asked them if they were going to a convention or something. They told me they were meeting a few friends for a week of scrapbooking. I must say I was a little jealous. A full week of this...I would love that. Back to present...I do find it very hard to pack up what I want since these days I am not planning pages like I use to. Plus I find it hard to be away from the computer since I do most of my journaling this way. Perhaps tonight I will do more journaling by hand. Yikes...I'm not a fan of my handwriting. Anyone else have issues with that?
• This morning Bella had her school Halloween parade. I always find this to be a very fun activity for me and the kids, but hate that our school does it on a Friday (their short day) no matter what. I have heard the teachers have complained that Halloween ends up a wasted day so they want to do it on the short day of the week. I say, make Halloween the short day then. For some reason it just bothers me. As if the kids are going to come to school on Halloween and focus. What are they thinking? Anyway, Bella was so cute and her costume fits perfect. Luckily because we didn't even try it on until last night. If you can't tell she is a Snow Angel and a cute one at that. Tess wore her costume and she keeps telling people she is "Bella" because it's Bella's old costume from 2 yrs ago. I find it funny to see the perplexed look on the adults face. It's too funny to correct so I don't. Megan would not wear her costume so hopefully she will for Halloween night.
• Bella is invited to a party today of a little boy who Tess is also friends with. Tess was there when we bought the gift and she kept asking me why she couldn't go. She was so disappointed and I felt so bad for her. She continues to tell Bella to make sure and tell the birthday boy the gift is from her as well. Poor Tess.
• Does anyone else feel like all they do is laundry?
• Speaking of laundry...I spoke to Lori while I was in OR and she said she was having a hard time getting Megan dressed because she could find anything warm. I was confused because I've bought her 3 pairs of pants for the winter. I just figured they were in the load of laundry I left drying, but apparently they aren't. I wasn't too concerned though felt bad Lori was struggling with cloths. So now that I'm back I can't find them anywhere. I cannot for the life of think of where they could be. Certainly they can't just vanish. Things like this always seem to happen to me. The only places she has worn them overnight are to her Nana's and Jill's, but I know if they had them they would already know. I am just confused as to where they could be. It's drving me nuts.
• Let the festivities continue...tomorrow we're going on our annual pumpkin patch outing . We probably would have done it earlier in the month had it not been for our trip. This is usually when we get the second dose of pumpkins. We won't be carving these ones, but will have out as decor for the big night. Can you tell we love pumpkins. Doing this is probably more fun for me than trick or treating.

I'm off. Enjoy your day and weekend.

Apparently I'm living in the wrong city.

I saw this on Lori's blog so I had to give it a try. I love things like this.

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city girl with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

Give it a try I would love to know what city you belong to.

The tooth fairy will be visiting our house for the first time tonight

Bella woke up in the middle of the night to tell me she had pulled out her tooth. Lucky for me I was on my computer so she didn't wake me up...I guess something good does come from staying up late. Her tooth was more than ready to come out and I'm glad she waited until we got home so I could participate in the tooth fairy tradition. She is very excited about this and has apparently talked to all her friends at school. I have been told by Bella "If you loose your tooth at school you get $10 and if you loose your tooth at home you get $2". Ok so it's safe to say I'm glad it was at home.

Anyway, this is my first time. I was wondering what are some of your traditions? I wanted to do something a little different for the first tooth, but haven't completely decided what. She wants to take her tooth to school and show her class, apparently it's fine with her teacher, so that leaves me another day to think of something. If anyone has anything please share .

Oh and btw is it snowing for any of you? It is here....I'm not ready for winter.

Day One of the Lighthouse Tour

I don't know what business I have staying up late. It was 11:30ish when I came downstairs to download my photos onto my computer. It seemed to take about 1/2 hour. I guess that's what happens when you take over 800 pictures. Anyway I should be going to bed, I know I'm going to regret this tomorrow, but I wanted to at least look through the first day and post a few photos.

First just let me say it was such an amazing trip. Oregon is absolutely the most beautiful coast I've seen. The steep cliffs, rocky terrain, and wooded landscape are to die for. Seriously loved ever minute of the traveling.

The first day we got off the plane and headed out to our first little town, Bandon. I don't think I realized how small the towns are that dot the Oregon coast. "Tiny ones" as Megan would say. Though small, they were quaint and very inviting. We definitely took our time traveling and even stopped at a very cool cemetery along the way. I know what your thinking, pretty crazy for someone like me, but I loved how old the graves were and that it was nestled along a woody forest...what's not in Oregon?

When we got to Bandon we headed straight for the Coquille River Lighthouse. We were hoping to make it in time to go in, but sadly it closed an hour earlier than expected. Not to worry, we walked along the lighthouse and surrounding rocky area which included the jette where we were splashed more than once by the crashing waves. It was amazing. We took a short walk along the beach when we found this incredibly long seaweed Adam started throwing around like a whip as if he were Indian Jones...I will spare you the photos. Anyway, he got creative and spelled out his nickname for me. I just love that man.

We quickly headed to our bed & breakfast that overlooked the Lighthouse. The lady who ran the place, Shirley, wanted everyone to check in by 6pm because she goes down to her room to get ready for bed at that time since she gets up at 4am. Crazy. She was the funniest lady. I really enjoyed her company in the morning over breakfast. Might I just add her breakfast was the best breakfast I had the entire trip. It came with interesting stories that had me teary eyed. For that you'll have to wait for my next installment. I need to get to bed.

Blogger hates me and is not letting me download more than one photo. Go here to see more from the first day. I will be updating this as I go through photos. I really only chose a few to tell my story.

Catching up

I'm back and just trying to catch up with everything....mail, school, laundry, house etc. I actually enjoy doing these things after vacation. I'm always ready to jump back into life. It was really great seeing my girls again. I certainly missed them. It's always so strange how much bigger they look. Thank you to Lori, my mom, nana, Jill and all those who helped with my girls or Lori with them. It was also fun to come home to good mail. So thank you Jenn the Halloween package.

I am hoping to look through some of my photos of the trip and share some today. Don't know if that will happen since it's at the bottom of the list, but will do it asap.

So I'm off.

I can't believe we are really doing this. It seems like such a long time coming and really I only had to wait a little over a week. Nice. Don't get me wrong I'm so excited about this, but I will be more excited once I get the whole plane ride over (not really a huge fan these days).

I think I will have access to wireless so I'll probably check in a few days. But honestly I can already tell you the highlights, driving up the coast with Adam, taking pictures, the amazing lighthouses, good food, and just savoring the quality time.

So for now I will leave you with these photos that reminds me why I love home so much. I will certainly miss my girls. It's always hard for me to leave, but it's so great coming home to them. I hope they have the best time they could possibly have without us. And of course my daily view of the mountains. I am always so impressed when I fly into the valley and see just how massive they really are.

Have a great week.

It's been a PINK day...so far

This morning I knew that I wouldn't be going out of the house since my niece is over playing so I started working on my "Pink Christmas" gift. I am not done as I still need to get a few more things, but I am more than half way there. I am getting excited about this. I can't wait to give my gift and hope she likes it.

















So why is today such a "pink" day? Well, there are five girls in my house, four of which are wearing pink. I am wearing the coziest pink socks ever (one of my better purchases at Costco). I have been knee deep in "Pink Christmas". And in the mail today I got pink wind chimes from Kristy. Thank you so much. I love them and can't wait to add them to my collection. No wonder Tess is afraid of the wind...when it blows you should hear the sound. I just love it.

What is pink in your life today?

a deeper understand of why i love autumn.

The fall always has this way of bringing me back to those "Where am I at?" and "Where do I want to be?" type of questions. I don't know why it is, but I have a very hard time looking at the colored saturated mountains and not thinking of how I could be a better person, mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend etc. Perhaps it's because life is going through it's natural changes that my life want to go with it.

Despite popular opinion, I delight in change...especially one as familiar as the leaves changing colors. It's very comforting. Consistant. It provides a cushion to rest my feelings, hopes, and dreams upon. It's a renewal once again to remind myself why it is I do what I do, and how I could do it so much better.

So I'm curious...What does the fall make you think about?

my surprise

Adam has been teasing me for a few weeks now that he has a big surprise. I had my suspicions, but he wasn't giving any clues so all I could do was wait.

I am here to tell you it was well worth the wait. He has planned us a Lighthouse Tour on the Oregon coast. We have been talking about this for three years since I love lighthouse, you probably didn't know that, and he loves driving...oh yeah and Oregon. It's a perfect match. So off to Medford we go to begin our journey.

I am so excited about this. First of all we are going in the fall. I just love the fall and on the beautiful Oregon coast of which I have never visited...I don't have the words. I can't wait. Not to mention the cool lighthouses we will visit. I love lighthouses. I have for about the last 12 years. The symbol of the building calls to me. I can't really explain it, but J. Winterson seems to say it best, "I have been dreaming about a lighthouse. It is such a potent image; practical, because lives depend on it, and at the same time, utterly romantic, this lonely building on the cusp of land and sea, sending out light into the darkness...." Sadly I have never visited one in my life so needless to say I am looking forward it. Last, but definitely not least, this trip will be great quality time together. It certainly has been a while since we've taken a vacation together, try sept 2001, and we are certainly ready for it.

If the trip alone wasn't good enough Adam made me this very cool book to document our trip. It's contents include a map of all the lighthouse we will visit and a little bit about each on different pages. I think we are going to visit about 12 or 13. He's so stinking creative. When he gave it to me he said "I hope you like it because I know you like it clean."(referring to my creative style) Well that is true, but no one does it like him and I certainly wouldn't wait it any other way. It's a treasure. I just can't wait to get on the road and fill it up.

There is still a lot to do before we leave. We were up late last night trying to figure out a few details about where we would end up on each night. Of course there is the search for the best restaurants, one of the things I love about vacations. I'm also trying to get everything together with the girls. Thankfully Lori said she would come stay with them at our house for the week so they are still able to go to school. One of the sad parts about this trip...we are missing the Primary Program. I was so looking forward to it this year since I am finally not in the primary. Plus, Bella is playing her violin with a couple other children. I am so disappointed.

Anyway, if anyone has been to the Oregon coast or Portland or any of the surrounding areas and has any suggestions please share.

Apparently I'm going to a Halloween party

and I need some costume ideas. Anyone have any ideas for me? I haven't bought a costume in, well since i was in grade school.

I am actually looking forward to this, but am amazed Adam has agreed...he is not one to dress up. In fact it is his friends party so he has no other choice unless he doesn't want to go and apparently he does.

So I ask again...any ideas for a costume or where to go and look?

our new friends

I'm not sure why it took us so long but last night we finally carved pumpkins. Adam did the carving. I did most of the gutting with some help from the girls. Really they just loved watching I think. Then when all was done and cleaned up we sat down together and watched "The Great Pumpkin". Nothing says halloween like the great pumpkin. One of my favorites.

in the rain

I don't think I would have gone if I wasn't meeting my photographer friend. It had just stopped raining when I walked out the door. I was thinking the storm was moving south and the rain was behind us. I suppose I was wrong. As I pulled up to the park I could see the drops starting to come down. I sat waiting for my friend to come thinking we would have to reschedule yet again. It seems like we've tried for weeks to get together and shoot.

Of course Megan wanted to get out. I could see under the canopy of trees the rain barely falling so we left tess, she would have no part of it, and walked a few feet from the car so Megan could play. She was having a good time until she ventured to far out and realized it was raining. It was cold. My friend eventually arrived and we did take a few pictures together. It was cute watching the kids feed the ducks. Unfortunately it was really muddy and we made quite the mess. We weren't there very long when we decided we were done.

The saddest part...as we were pulling out the rain had stopped and the weather was good from than on out the rest of the day. Bummer.

Is it bad to be looking forward to something so much...

even if it's TV?

Lost is starting tonight. I am so excited for this. I don't know why I mean I know it is going to be torture getting only one episode a week. I have been so spoiled watching the DVDs. It makes me wonder if it's worth just waiting an entire year, especially because I read it is going to take a hiatus in November and not come back until February. Very bummed about that, but maybe they will do the 24 thing and not miss a week until the series ends. I love that about 24 even if I have to wait until January to get it. Anyway, I read the review in USA today and it's suppose to "blow our minds". They seem to be a little overly dramatic so I'm not trying to get my hopes up. Can't wait.

Then there's a series premiere that I have been looking forward to since I heard about it in September. It is suppose to be one of the best shoes of the year. It's called "The Nine". It's right after Lost tonight on ABC and I'm looking forward to watching them both back to back with no commercials. I just love Tivo. I don't think I would watch TV without it.

I am loving this.

Honestly I don't own it and I've only listened to four songs, but i really enjoy it. He reminds me a lot of Cold Play. Can't get enough of the song "nothing left to lose". It's on the radio so you might recognize it. Go here and check it out.

The rooms.

Let me preface this with saying there is still work to be done in their rooms. I just made a few changes, but it has made a huge difference. The bare walls are screaming for something so I'm going to either hang pictures or frame their art work. Can't wait to get to that. All in time.

For Tess' room I pretty much bought new bedding. It drove me crazy how she was using an old duvet cover that was plain and ugly and really it didn't flatter her pretty blue walls. She is the one who picked this set out and had a great time doing it. She was giddy with excitement and couldn't wait to go home and put it together. Problem...everything had to be washed first. So that's pretty much it for her room. Well, I did finally add a cute ribbon to her lamp shade. Also I decided to add a picture of her art she hung up in her room.
For Bella's room I also changed her bedding. The set she was using before was hashed and didn't really fit in her room anyway. I moved her furniture around to add to the new look. It's unbelievable what a difference just moving the furniture makes. I also hung two picture shelves. I think they look great and work perfect for the space. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the photos. I just put what she had on her desk up on the shelves so I may be changing them.

Anyway this is what I've been up to last week. I've been begging my girls to at least, if nothing else, to have their rooms clean when they go to bed so when they wake up it will be a nice and neat. So far so good, but it's only been a few days.

Lots to catch up on from last week,

but right now I'm working on the girls room...hanging ledges, replacing beding, etc. so I don't have the time to catch up now. Can't wait to show what I've been up to.

For now I just want to wish my sister-in-law

Amy a happy birthday!

I hope you have had a fabulous day!