Creating Time

This weekend, I spent Friday night with my twin sister, Sheila, creating. We had so much fun creating for our Sweet and Sinister SWAP, that I didn't get home until 1:30 am! I will be showing you some of my creations after I mail them to my SWAP partner (as I want it to be a surprise).

All of the items turned out so cute that we made us one as well! Thanks Sheila for a wonderful evening making our "ghoulish" treats and for encouraging me to go "outside of the box" and create! Let's have another night of creating real soon!

The Woes of a Working Mother

I work very part time; however yesterday Grant came into the cafe. He had been crying and complaining of a tummy ache. I settled him down and sent him back to class. The next lunch period, Shannon came in crying. I went to talk to her and she was complaining that she was not feeling good. I felt her forhead and she was warm, so up to the nurse we went. The nurse confirmed she had a fever of 101 degrees. Great! I called Grandpa to see if he could pick her up. He said yes and I sighed a sigh of relief. By the time Grandpa picked up Shannon, I made the decision to send home Grant (just in case he was really sick).

What is the luck that my kids would get sick the day I was working at school? The woes of a working mom...even us part timers!

~note to mom - Shannon was sick; Grant was pretending!~

Working Mom

Well the kids are in school now and I have time on my hands. As most of you know, I am a "busy worker bee". I keep busy with kids activities, volunteering at school and church, Brownie leader and keeping up the yard and house work. This year I have decided to "ease" into that working mom roll.

The kids school had a full-time position working in the cafe and relieving teachers. I was not wanting a full-time job, yet. Since Grant is in Kindergarten, I wanted to have the flexibility of volunteering at parent centers every other week and going on field trips with all my kids. Another mother was also wanting this set up, so we are sharing this position at school. What a great opportunity for us full-time moms to help the school out and still have the opportunity to be involved with our kids. This position also allows me to subsitute in the classroom when needed.

I believe the dear Lord had a "hand" in this position. Good watches over his "flock" which included me! Thank you for answering my prayer!

Back to School

The school supplies have been purchased; the names have been put on the uniforms; the back packs have been packed; and we have met the teachers. I guess it is time to go to school!

When I left the work force to become a full-time mother, I could not image this day. It seemed like an eternity; however it was realized this past week. Yes, our baby boy is going to Kindergarten this year. Shannon will be in 3rd grade and Shelby in 7th grade.

It is a tradition at our house that I fix a back-to-school breakfast and a fun snack for after school. This year since Grant entered Kindergarten and started a day after the girls, I had to come up with two breakfasts and two afternoon snacks. The first day the girls received "ABC" pancakes, fresh sliced bananas and strawberries with blueberries and the snack after school was warm chocolate chip cookies. The day that Grant started school, I made "123" pancakes (since he loves adding numbers) and sliced fresh banana and strawberries with grapes. The afternoon snack with homemake chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches. We also celebrated with a picnic at the park after school on Tuesday...Daddy even joined us.

What a great start to a new school year!

Last Official Day of Summer Break

On Friday, August 14, we spent our last full day of summer break with cousins and friends. We woke up early to go horseback riding with Janna, Connor, Dustin and Lexi. Both of my girls trotted on Bud and Casey. They played move the bucket from one barrel to the next (like I did when I was a kid). I am so proud of my kids and their accomplishments on become more confident on the horses.

Later we met the Albertson's (Melissa, Ellie and Lucas) at the park to watch a magic show. Due to a newspaper miss print, we ended up at the park 2 hours early; however we had a wonderful time watching the kids play on the playground. It rained just a little so we could get great pictures of Shannon & Ellie "singing in the rain". Grant and Lucas played on the monkey bars. By the end of the night Grant & Lucas had them mastered. Shelby enjoyed reading her book until the magic show. Melissa also introdued my kids to Pop Rocks. I didn't even know they still made them; however it brought wonderful memories of my childhood. The kids enjoyed the magic show and after 2 hours of magic, the magician handled out glow sticks. What a great way to end our fabulous summer!

The wait has ended...

My DH and I finally decided that for Shelby's 12th birthday, we would give her a gift certificate to get her ears pierced. (Shelby has been requesting since the age of 8). We attempted to get them done a couple days after her birthday; however her fears gave in and she decided she didn't want them done.

Well after about 5 months, this Sunday she decided she had the courage to go through with it. While we were out running errands, she asked if we could stop by Claire's do have it done. I told her yes; however she was going to do it this time. Well, she won over her fears of the pain and got her ears pierced.

Now Shannon is wanting to get her ears done. We have 4 years of listening to her pleas to have her ears done. Why can't parenting be simple?

Prayers Answered

This weekend, we finally held our newest memeber of our family Andrew David. My girls were so in love with him, just holding and looking at him. Grant was more interested in playing the Wii with Dustin than in his new cousin. Just wait until Andrew is playing ball with you, Grant.

When I held Andrew, my thoughts were on how God makes all things wonderful. Andrew had 10 toes for running, 10 tiny fingers, 2 ears for hearing, 2 beatiful eyes to gaze into, 1 cute button nose and 1 MIRACLE. God is Good, VERY GOOD! Thank you for your prayers..as they were answered!

Completed Challenge!

In July, I challenged myself to scrapbook a layout every other day. Over the weekend, I count my layouts and I realized I completed my challenge! Yeah, me!

Here are a few of the layouts I created!

For the month of August, my challenge is to bring new life into items I already have. I will keep you posted.