Project 365: Days 6 & 7

Today's photo is as close as I could get to the wildfires near Boulder (not as close as the Deac, who is there helping to fighting the largest one even as I type this):
I chose that one as my photo of the day, but it was a toss-up between that one and one I took earlier (before sunset) on my drive home:
Yesterday found me having a hard time getting inspired to find something to photograph. Finally, I settled for this one:
This photo is only slightly better than the first one I had thought to use (a photo of the logo/box in which arrived our calzones for dinner), but it will do. The Deac got a new book and kept insisting on reading passages to me. I'm pretty sure Ann Coulter is on his "List" (remember that "Friends" episode?)

Project 365: Day 5

In today's photo, Maura watches from the sidelines as her sister demonstrates a roundhouse kick to Sensei and the rest of her karate class. Next week Maura is starting karate herself, so this might be the last time she's on the sidelines for a while.

In other news, please keep my friend Michele in your prayers. She found a breast lump just 12 days ago, on Christmas day and has since been diagnosed with cancer in 2 spots. Surgery (radical mastectomy) tomorrow. Do your self-exams!

Project 365: Day 4

It was difficult to find a photo for today. Not because we didn't do anything photo-worthy. I think everything is photo-worthy at some level. But, because I didn't really like any of the photos I took. At the end of the day I had it narrowed down to 3 photos - one of Emmelia writing a thank-you note for Christmas, one of the stuffed bell peppers we had for dinner, and this one (which is obviously the one I decided to go with):
Because today, as we do most weekend days, we cleaned up and organized the house a bit and enlisted the help of our iRobot Roomba in the kitchen.

Today we took the girls to Pizza Hut for lunch and redeemed two of Emmelia's free pizza coupons for the "Book It!" program she participates in through school. If you read 20 books in a month, you get a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. The girls both chose sausage for their topping and the Deac and I tried the new "natural' pizza with a multigrain crust - not bad, for Pizza Hut pizza.

2009 Project 365

Wow, it's been nearly a year. I have decided to participate in Project 365 this year - the idea is to take one photo per day for a whole year (related to this project, one could do Project 52 and take one photo per week). It's supposed to help you get more in tune with your camera and develop better photography and life-documenting skills. I'm excited about it and needed someplace to share my photos. This is as good a spot as any, I think!

Here's my photo for today:
I had today off and took the kids to daycare so I could enjoy some kid-free time. I decided to go see a non-animated movie to myself! One of the thoughts I had for this project was to take my camera with me to the movie theatre to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - and take a photo of the movie poster or the popcorn or something else movie-related. But, I forgot my camera and I also think businesses frown upon people taking photos like that. Then it came to me - the fun collection of buttons my mother put together and gave the kids for Christmas - perfect for both remembering the movie and documenting a fun Christmas memory.

And here is my first photo for the year, documenting the new webcam I purchased and set-up and used to make my first video IM to a friend:
It's not the greatest photo, but I am looking at this more as an exercise in life documentation. If my photography skills get better in the process, then that is a nice side effect.

I hope you enjoy the photos this year!

Where to find me

In the meantime, feel free to follow my scrapping layouts from my Photobucket account.

and, of course, I'll put new photos up in my Flickr account periodically.

Blog Break!

As you've probably already figured out, this blog is on a bit of a break. This time of year I usually slow down a bit and have to deal with spiritual and emotional fatigue. Anyway, so blogging hasn't been high on my list of priorities.

We're as busy as ever, with ice skating lessons, violin (recital this coming weekend!), and soccer starting this week. I should probably add physical fatigue to the list above.

When I first started this blog, it was to explore and discuss spiritual issues I was struggling with at the time. But, I never really felt that comfortable putting my thoughts in these intimate (to me at least) issues out on the internet for all to see. So then it became a sort of "here's what the family is up to" sort of newsy blog which seems a little pretentious (and boring!). I could use it as a scrapping blog, but when I'm tired, I don't even do that much scrapping. One of these days, I'd like to start a separate blog just for scrapping layouts and include other people who use the GIMP to scrap, as well (GimpScraps or something like that). I'll probably be scrapping more now that spring is here - especially since I got a guest CT spot with Vicki Stegall at Oscraps!

One of the excellent books I got for Christmas had the idea of keeping a daily photo journal - just one or two photos per day that you journal a little about. That could be a cool way to use the blog, but I need more energy first.

So, all this to say that I'm still chugging along, but won't be posting on the blog again until I figure out where I want it to go and find the time and energy to do it. If you have ideas for what you'd like to see here, please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know!

In the meantime, as we begin Great Lent I'd like to ask everyone's forgiveness for any offense I may have given. May God forgive us all.

I'm here, I'm here!

I haven't forgotten the blog. I've just been SWAMPED with life lately. I'll get back to it one of these days.

Meanwhile, after my birthday yesterday, I find myself quoting Monty Python: "I'm 37, I'm not OLD!"

Take care and I'll try to come up with something blog-worthy soon. In the meantime, you can keep up with my adventures by clicking on the Flickr badge in the margin.

December already?

It's been a busy fall and early winter here... We have seen Santa once this year so far - he was dressed in his CU Buffs fan outfit at the special Alumni visit to the Zoo Lights at Denver Zoo. He gave each of the girls a little stuffed Ralphie buffalo to keep. We'll see him again in his red suit when he arrives at the local fire station on December 15th. The girls have written notes to remind themselves what to ask for when they see him again. Of course, my diligence in using TiVo to record kid shows and minimize commercial viewing has come back to bite me in the form of the girls wanting really arcane things from Santa... Maura wants "glass slippers like Cinderella" and Emmelia wants a "Princess ice cream maker." Santa's probably getting carpal tunnel syndrome from using Google so much.

Yesterday, St. Nicholas paid a visit to our home and left a few treats in our shoes. That means it's time for us to decorate for Christmas! Tomorrow the tree will be going up. Yeay!

Last night Maura wrote her name for the first time! I'd show you a photo, but I'm still having issues with the photo uploader for some reason.

Next week, we'll be taking delivery of my new vehicle - a 2008 Toyota Highlander in Cypress Green - I can't wait! I'm very excited about the 3rd row seat and having the passenger capacity and fuel economy of a minivan without having to succumb to becoming a "soccer mom."

I have been absolutely swamped lately and haven't had the time to scrap that I'd like. But here are a couple of layouts I've made since my last post here.

Cauldron credits:
Paradise credits:
All I Want credits:
ZooLights credits:
The Deac wants me to design our Christmas card this year like the Zoo Lights layout above. I'm not sure how I feel about a black Christmas card. We'll see what I come up with if I can ever find some time.

Hope everyone continues to have a wonderful Nativity fast/Advent as we look forward to celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Need to get scrappin'

I need to get back to scrapping. All I managed this week was this LO of the girls playing in the leaves with a friend of theirs. I have so many photos from this year yet to scrap before the new year arrives! Not to mention that I should probably get started on a brag book for Christmas if I'm going to do that this year.

Well, here are the credits for Fall Leaves:

Long time since my last post

We made it back from vacation safely a week ago. It was a fun trip, but exhausting in many ways. The time at Disney was truly magical and I'm glad we did that at the beginning of the trip so we could relax a bit on Sanibel Island before we came home. Disney is fun and magical and all that, but TIRING - especially with 2 young kids. The days when we went to a park for the morning, went back to the hotel for a nap and returned to the park in the evening worked best. It's hard to force yourself to do that, though.

I took over 500 photos on our vacation, most of which turned out well and are in my Flickr account if you'd like to see them. We all agreed Halloween is a fun time to visit Disney. The Halloween parade was awesome. The girls went on many, many rides and both went on all the roller coasters they were tall enough to ride (except Splash Mountain - Emmelia decided not to go on that one because she didn't want to get wet). Emmelia's 6th birthday was fun - she got a special button to wear that clued the Cast Members to wish her a happy birthday and give her special things - one Cast Member even called "Goofy" on his "cell phone" to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. At 11 pm on her birthday, she went on Space Mountain for the first time and LOVED it! Too bad the park was closing for our last day there, or she definitely would've gone again. Next time...

For her birthday, I gave her a copy of "Now We Are Six" by A.A. Milne. I remember when I was five, I could hardly wait to turn 6 so I could read it (hee). Emmelia is quickly learning to read, but not quite up to reading the poems on her own. She is enjoying them when we read them to her. The Deac got her a pretty pink princess crown necklace with a mickey head on it. She also picked out a Minnie Mouse alarm clock that we bought for her. Princess Aurora left a personalized card for her in our room that was a fun surprise. All in all, a good birthday.

After we got back, I got sick. I spent 2 days in bed with headache, nausea, fever and muscle aches. I figured it was a virus or just exhaustion from our trip. The next day, however, I got a horrible sore throat and figured it was strep. Apparently this is going around. The good news is, antibiotics really helped and I'm feeling much, much better today.

The Deac has switched back to the day shift for now. He is going to have to go to California again for more training at some point, but that's not so bad - he had a good time last time he went. It's nice having him around in the evenings. We get to do things like visit our newest Orthodox mission in Colorado on their Patronal Feast Day (that was Tuesday night) and play Munchkin with friends (last night).

Tonight's plans include making corn bread for the Thanksgiving feast in Emmelia's kindergarten classroom tomorrow, doing her homework, and playing on WebKinz (Emmelia got one from her Aunt when we were in Florida). Have a good evening!

Quick one!

We are mostly packed and ready to leave for the Magic Kingdom and its environs. The girls are SO excited (as are we!).

But, I had to post just to brag about how wonderfully Emmelia did at her recital this weekend. She played her first solo - a variation (Variation A, for Suzuki-ites out there) on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star). She did it perfectly! And she didn't seem nervous at all. I'm so proud of the progress she is making! There's a photo of her playing in my Flickr account (I can't get blogger to load images today, for some reason).

See you in November!

What I've been doing since last I blogged

Life just gets busy sometimes, you know? Here's what I've been up to since my October 5th post:

- The Deac and I became Godparents to little Abraham Joseph. The ceremony was lovely and he was very sweet and cuddly through most of it. The next day he was churched and I took him to Holy Communion for the first time. There are photos in my Flickr account if you'd like to go see. At the last minute, I decided to make little favors for the guests at the baptism out of tulle circles and Jordan almonds. They were closed with thin blue ribbon and a cross charm. I think they came out cute and were super easy to make!

- The girls played soccer. I coached Maura's team. The season is nearly done! Our last game is Saturday. It's actually been a lot of fun, but I don't think I'm going to sign up to coach in the spring. I might consider doing it again in the fall. The girls' soccer photos came out really cute.

- We played several games of Munchkin with our Munchkin-loving friends. We've also spent some fun non-Munchkin time with our non-Munchkin-loving friends.

- I attended a workshop for parents of Suzuki musicians. It was very helpful and encouraging and included loads of ideas for motivating kids to practice and develop a love for music.

- I played on Facebook some. It's fun to get in touch with friends and family I haven't seen or heard from in a while.

- I set up a plan for our evenings and mornings that is helping things get done in a less chaotic manner and we have a new routine that includes all the things we used to forget to do in the rush to get the kids either to bed or out the door in the morning. Now, they get a bath, brush teeth and hair, practice violin, clean up, pick out clothes for next day, get read to, say prayers, every night! And lunches get put together the night before so I'm not consistently late for work every morning.

- The Deac switched to his evening schedule. He now works from 2 pm to midnight 4 days a week. We are all still adjusting, but so far it doesn't seem too bad. He now drops the kids off at daycare in the mornings and gets to spend some time with them then.

- Maura's Godparents got back from their trip to Greece and brought her a cute wooden Pinocchio doll (complete with exchangeable noses!)

- We had our Parent-Teacher conference with Emmelia's kindergarten teacher. She is doing REALLY WELL in Kindergarten. The teacher evaluated each child for verbal ability and expected each one to score a 30 or less.... Emmelia scored a 76.

- Emmelia continued doing karate and got her yellow-striped belt. She's now learning the 20 forms, that has some long Japanese name I can't pronounce (but Emmelia can, at least she comes close).

- Both girls have continued in their Suzuki violin lessons. Maura is, unsurprisingly since she's been exposed at home for 2 years, picking things up really quickly. Emmelia is making strides now that we are practicing more regularly. She is playing her first solo - a variation on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - this weekend at a recital. Her arms are growing and I need to order her a 1/8-size violin.

- Emmelia went on a field trip to a pumpkin farm with her kindergarten class and and friend and I also took the girls to another pumpkin farm last weekend (photos in Flickr).

- My Mom had her annual Art Show at her studio. There are links in my sidebar, so please check them out!

- I had my annual physical for work and am generally healthy. Yeay!

- I volunteered in Emmelia's classroom and listened to kids read and helped with art projects.

- I helped organize and attended a meeting of the local chapter of the Health Physics Society. Tomorrow I'm going to a talk on a radiation incident that happened in Brazil 20 years ago up at CSU.

- I took the girls to the Fall Carnival at Emmelia's elementary school. They had a great time (photos in my Flickr account).

- It snowed, briefly, last weekend. But still, first snow! Maura wanted to make snow angels and was disappointed that she couldn't.

- I helped the girls decorate pumpkins with their "Potato Head" decorations (you guessed it, photos in Flickr account)

- I haven't scrapped much, but did make 3 layouts:
Simply FamilyGrape PickingDecorating Pumpkins (06)- My friend Amy (Doodleboogs at SOTB) decided to stop designing, so I guess I'm back down to 2 CTs. It has been a ton of fun working with Amy and now I'm looking forward to seeing some scrapping from her since she'll have more time on her hands!

- We are preparing for our Disney trip next week and getting really excited for it! I doubt I'll be blogging again until after we're back - so see you next month! Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Another busy week!

Wow, this week flew by! Emmelia had her belt test on Monday evening and she amazed us with how much she's learned and how focused she was. She earned her yellow-and-white striped belt and we are so proud of her for putting forth the effort!

Of course we had our usual hectic schedule including karate class, violin lesson and soccer practice. We also visited with friends a couple evenings this week. Suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to a quiet evening at home to rest, do some laundry, get the kids to bed at a decent hour, and watch Roomba clean my floors.

Last Saturday, while helping Emmelia warm up for her soccer game, I had to jog a little to catch the ball. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I did this there was no ankle pain like I've had since my tendon release surgery! I was (and still am!) so excited about that discovery! And this week I started exercising again. I'm taking it slow, because my physical activity has been very limited since the surgery last December. But, I'm proud to say that I exercised every day this week - a big accomplishment for me! Every morning, I did a 10-minute segment of my Pilates DVD. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I walk/jogged along with a podcast of the Couch-to-5K running plan. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I lifted weights. And... it's amazing how much better I feel. I've already noticed an increase in energy level and a decrease in appetite. Combining that with being very good about sticking to a low-carb diet, I've lost a few pounds already as well. So I'm very excited to keep this going and glad my ankle doesn't hurt anymore.

I didn't have a lot of time to scrap this week, but I did put together this LO of Maura that I took in August. I just love how the background paper goes with the photo. Here are the credits:
This week we managed to get all the stuff picked and ordered for the baptism next Saturday. After MUCH looking, we found the perfect baptismal outfit and baptismal cross for little Abe. The Deac and I also got him an icon of his patron saint, St. Joseph of Damascus. I'm really looking forward to becoming Abe's godmother!

Well, it's nearly time to go get the girls. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to get cold here... I guess it's finally fall. I am hoping to get the supplies for a knitting project this weekend - seems like perfect knitting weather. Maybe I'll have some time to curl up and read a few more chapters of this month's book club book. I was hesitant about reading this book, but it turns out it's written by the author who wrote Everything Is Illuminated. I enjoyed that movie, and so far I'm enjoying the book, too (but I'm only a couple chapters into it).

Roomba, Hair, Violin... the times of our life

Wowzer, we had a busy weekend! On Friday, a new member of our family arrived.... actually, it's a new toy but it's so much fun and hard not to anthropomorphize. It's a Roomba vacuum - and I love it! Here's a photo of it's maiden voyage around our kitchen:
It is just so cute and fun! And it makes little happy noises... you'll understand when you have one. On the plastic covering the main unit, there was a little blurb about feeling free to modify the software of the Roomba - that it doesn't void the warranty. I thought this was odd, so looked around a bit online. Apparently there are people who don't think Roombas should be limited to vacuuming and they "hack" their units. Interesting.

We didn't get to play with it until Saturday because not only did it have to charge, but we had a lovely dinner with friends. They asked us if we would serve as Godparents for their month-old son. What an honor! I've never been asked to be a Godparent before. I am so excited and hope I make a good Godmother. The baptism will be in a couple of weeks. There's a lot to do before then! I need to get candles, a cross, a white towel... and a few other things including a christening outfit of some sort that the parents like. I would love to sew one for him, but I doubt I'll have the time in only 2 weeks. Oh, and we need to make sure we can recite the Nicene Creed by heart by then...

On Saturday, we had soccer, then went to get our hair cut at our regular Salon. We've been going to the same place for our entire marriage, and the Deac has had his hair cut by the same person for the past 21+ years! The two women who own the salon are splitting up their business and so this was our last time going there. Then we had dinner with friends and played a couple rounds of Munchkin. Love that game.

Sunday after church, Emmelia played in a recital put on by all the Suzuki String studios in our town. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor concert and was just lovely to sit around and listen to violins, violas and cellos being played by all different age groups for a couple of hours. The concert/recital was held in the yard of an old house in the middle of town that is now owned by the city and rented out for events such as this. We toured the house a bit and it was lovely. Both girls said they'd like to live there. Hee! I took a few photos of the kids around the grounds that are in my Flickr account if you want to take a look. I was doubly proud of Emmelia at the recital because as she got up to play, she realized her shoulder rest had fallen off her violin! It was *somewhere* on the grounds, but we didn't know where (we later found it under a chair). She soldiered on and played anyway and did a great job (but that's why her posture is a tad unnatural-looking)! Here's some photos of her and the pre-twinkler group:
And here's one of both girls on a bench after the recital. Unfortunately the light was turning into hard afternoon light by that time, otherwise it could've been a great photo. This is the last recital Maura won't be in, I think - even next time she'll at least get up with the group and move her bow to the rhythm.
And, last but not least, here are some scrap layouts I made last week. I am trying to finish scrapping our 2005 Disney trip before we leave for our next one at the end of this month! I've been using a lot of items by Christine Beasley from her series of freebies called "Dream Trip." You can still download them from her blog (check the archives). Click on the layout title to see credits.

Disney 2005:
Cinderella-bration:
Disney Snacks:
Life looks like it might slow to a reasonable rate this week (yeay!). Not much is going on besides Emmelia testing for her yellow-striped belt in karate tonight. Hope everyone has a great week!

TMBG!

Wow, it's been two weeks since I posted! Life's been busy.

Mainly, the Deac went to California for work-related training for nearly two weeks. So life as a solo parent has bogged me down. I also had a lot to do at work, so didn't get online much. The Deac, although he would've preferred not being gone so long, learned a lot at his training and had some fun, too. Several of our friends over the years have ended up in the Bay area, and he was able to get together with all of them during his trip. He also visited a couple of fire stations, which of course he got a kick out of. I sent the point-n-shoot digital camera with him... and he used it. Last Sunday, he called me and said he'd taken a short video at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and decided he didn't want it and went to delete it from the memory card.... you can see where this is going. When it asked if he wanted to delete current frame only or delete all frames, he thought that since it was a video, it was made up of more than one frame.... only that's what the camera calls all its digital images. So, long story short, there are a FEW photos from Monterey Bay and our friends Tom and Shannon in my flickr account. ;-)

By the way - Happy 25th birthday to the Smiley (emoticon) this week! On the same day as that anniversary, we had a little fun around here with National Talk Like a Pirate Day. I am anxiously awaiting the release of the next game in the Munchkin series: Munchkin Booty. Speaking of Munchkin, even with the Deac gone, our group of friends got together a few times to play. Our last game combined three separate game sets - Star Munchkin, Munchkin Fu and Munchkin Bites. It was a lot of fun and, surprisingly, went faster than a regular game of Munchkin!

Last night, the Deac and I went with friends to see one of our favorite groups - They Might Be Giants! They were playing at the Boulder Theatre and the show was AWESOME! Although I might be getting a little old for staying up until 1 am, standing and dancing for hours (I admit it - I'm really tired today and my legs hurt!). At least we decided to be in the non-drinking section, which I think made the show even more enjoyable. We had an excellent view of the stage and were as close as we could be without being in "the pit" - so only about 20 feet or so from the stage and up a little higher so I could see over all those heads! We were so happy to be able to go and in the process, we even found a new and reliable babysitter that the kids love. So, a win-win all around. Unfortunately, the Deac talked me out of taking my camera since most concerts don't allow them (they were actually all around - oh well). I did try to snap a couple of shots with my camera phone, but the resolution is horrible. Here's the best one:
I'm still going to try to scrap it. We also came home with an autographed vinyl record of their new album and a concert t-shirt.

Speaking of scrapping, here are a couple of layouts I made in the last week. Click on the titles here to see credits for Tea Party and Diva. The blue "Diva" one is really just a Quick Page that I added a few elements to and dressed up a bit. I love doing that.
It's nice to have a stash again - I'm slowly re-building it with freebies and goodies around the web these days.

Last, but not least, soccer season is in full-swing. My team of little munchkins had their first game last Saturday. Everyone did a great job - I had at least 3-4 kids out of 5 willing to play the whole time - that's really very good for 3-year-olds! I'm hoping tomorrow's game will go as well. I handed my camera to one of the other Mom's and asked her to take pictures last week. Here's one she captured (that's our team in the red. We were supposed to be blue, but the other team was confused):
Tomorrow will be odd schedule-wise, because Emmelia's game is at 9, and Maura's (the one I will be coaching) isn't until noon. Plus, it's picture day, so we have to be there at 8:30 for Emmelia and stay late after Maura's game. I'm glad the Deac is back so we can split up a little bit! Have a great weekend!

Edited to add - three more layouts I never got around to posting! Wow. Here you go! Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Emmelia, using Christine Beasley's new Opulence kit:
Treasured Friends:
Karate, using Doodleboogs' wonderful new Rotten Tomatoes kit (speaking of which - Emmelia has earned SIX stripes now and will be testing for her 2nd belt in another week!):

Back safe

We did make it back safely from our road trip to Sioux City. We took Friday and Tuesday off work and school and made the 10-hour each way trip out to visit our friends who are also Emmelia's Godparents. We had a wonderful time visiting with them for 3 days. We went to the Sioux City Art Splash, liturgy, and the mall. We got a babysitter one night (best idea the Deac's ever had) so we adults could go out for dinner and eat, drink, and be merry without constant interruption or meltdowns. It was bliss. We watched a really good movie called Everything Is Illuminated. We cooked out for Labor Day and ate well the entire time, thanks to the culinary genius of Emmelia's Godmother. The Deac got a cool Romanian hat to wear with his cassock and jibbee. Here is Maura modeling it (she looks good in black - I think the nun's habit will agree with her):

On the way back, we stopped at not one, but TWO Cabela's stores. Oh, a funny story on the way there... as we were driving between Omaha and Sioux City, a crane suddenly flew up from under a bridge and nearly collided with our windshield. We were seriously frightened for our lives for a second, before lapsing into exclamations of "Wow - was that a CRANE? How cool!". As we turned the bend in the road, there was a giant billboard in a field that read "Prepare to Meet Thy God." Ha, ha, ha! Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.

So this week we've been trying to catch up on sleep, get back into our routine and launch ourselves into fall. Emmelia got another stripe at karate and is only 2 stripes away from being able to test for her yellow striped (white stripe on yellow) belt. She is doing really, really well with violin and soccer, too. She's really matured in the past year.

Yesterday was our first practice for Maura's soccer team. I was very apprehensive all day, but it turned out well. The kids are a lot of fun and listen surprisingly well for 3-year-olds. I though their attention spans for games and drills would be about 4-5 minutes, but I was wrong - it was more like 3 minutes. But that's okay. We played lots of games with the ball, including Simon Says, Red Light Green Light, and Feed the Dragons. We have one more practice and then we'll have our first game! Emmelia's first game is tomorrow morning. Suddenly, I find myself a soccer mom minus the minivan....

Anyway, I think I would've gotten more done this week if I hadn't discovered Facebook. If you are on there and want to friend me, send me an e-mail.

I did manage to scrap today. I need to scrap for Amy and Seebee's CTs, but am not sure I'll have time to do another LO today. I just really HAD to scrap this photo with this kit, if you know what I mean. Here's credits for Dinosaur Rest Stop:
Today I read that one of my favorite authors of all time has died: Madeleine L'Engle. I have always loved her books and her way of looking at the world, both physical and spiritual. May her memory be eternal! She died on the 20th anniversary of my baptism. That somehow seems significant, as does the fact that the book I am now reading the kids at bedtime is "A Wrinkle in Time". She really was an awesome author.

Welcome to the world!

Welcome to the world, little Abraham (you'll have to trust me that he's a cutie - the photo doesn't want to load, so I removed it)! And congratulations to our friends Fr. Matthew and Rachel. I was so honored to be included in the support party Rachel put together for her birth. She called me at about 2:30 in the morning on Tuesday and I was at the hospital by 3. Rachel did an AWESOME job handling the contractions and laboring and little Abe was born at 5:30 am. Birth is an amazing and miraculous event. In many religious traditions, giving birth is even recognized as a time in our life when we come closest to God - the mother (and father) participate with God in the creation of a new life. I am so happy I could be there to see it and support Rachel in having the natural birth she wanted. It was fun to get to play with my camera to photograph him, too. We wish Fr. Matthew, Rachel and their two wonderful boys MANY YEARS!

It took me a couple of days to rest up from that event, but I've still had a pretty busy week. Yesterday I volunteered in Emmelia's kindergarten classroom and had a blast helping the teacher and making art projects with the kids. It was nice to learn names and get to know some of the kids she's going to be in school with for at least the next 6 years.

We're heading out soon to visit Emmelia's Godparents. We are all really excited to see each other again - it's been too long since we've been able to just have a visit without a major life event going on at the same time. It's going to be the longest drive we've ever taken with the kids, but hopefully they'll sleep through much of it.

Here's a LO I did today, even though I'm still recovering from the loss of my "stash" of scrapping goodies. Credits for Wildflowers are here.
Last night while we were doing laundry in our AWESOME new washing machine, we watched the movie Ostrov again. It is a really wonderful movie about a Russian holy man ("staretz"). It's a Russian film, but has English sub-titles. I highly recommend it!

Well, best be off to pick Emmelia up from her first soccer practice and start packing! Have a wonderful weekend!

Easy come, easy go

I changed my settings to no longer allow anonymous comments. While I love getting comments on my posts, I've found that anonymous ones stress me out unduly. So now you have to sign into your Blogger account to leave me a comment, but I hope you will take the time to do that, because I like hearing from you.

Last night our washing machine kicked the bucket. It was one of the original Maytag Neptune front-loaders. Yes, the one with all the complaints and the class action lawsuit. We seem to have gotten a couple more years out of ours than most people, so I guess we can't complain too much. I just didn't want to have to spend so much time today researching washing machines and finding a suitable replacement. We ended up going with another front loader (I'm never going back to a top-loading machine) that is pretty much the same model (slightly fewer temperature settings and spin RPM) as one of the Consumer Reports top-rated machines. And not only did Lowe's have EXCELLENT customer service, but they can get the machine to us tomorrow morning for a cheaper price than anyone around. I'm very impressed with Lowe's today. Not so much with Maytag. Here is a photo of our new washer:
The Deac also called and asked (I didn't even think to ask this when I called and ordered it) if it will be going on sale for Labor Day and it is! That means we get an extra 10% because of Lowe's 30-day price-match guarantee. And because it's an energy efficient unit, we get a $50 rebate from the City. So, all-in-all, a good deal for an unexpected expenditure of funds.

Emmelia is doing wonderfully in kindergarten - she really loves it and seems to be more mature already. I am volunteering in her classroom on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to meeting her classmates and seeing how they all interrelate. Karate went well today. Since last week, she's talked a lot on her own about doing a better job with focusing and paying attention. Even though she was tired today, she did a great job at both of those. Sensei told her she would earn a stripe if she'd participate more in class - volunteer to show him what she knows, instead of waiting until the group does it. I am kind of in awe of how he gets kids to be focused and motivated. He's a good read of how children operate.

Maura had her first full day of Preschool today. Last week they transitioned from the Toddler II room into Preschool by spending an increasing number of hours there each day. Today was the first day she was completely in Preschool and not in Toddler II. We've been talking for a while now about giving up her pacifier when she goes to Preschool. She didn't seem to really want to do it, though, so I haven't pushed it. This morning when I was dropping her off, she took her pacifier out of her mouth and insisted on taking it and giving it to her Toddler II teacher before gong back to the Preschool room. We were both sort of amazed that she'd come up with this on her own... This evening, she never asked for it, even when going to sleep. We'll see what happens in coming days - I'll be interested to see if she really has decided she's outgrown the plug or not.

We had a good weekend until the washer died. There will be a few photos of the weekend in my Flickr account soon, I hope. We didn't get the things done around the house that we needed to, but we visited with friends and relaxed a bit. Friday I took the girls to a local end-of-summer festival. It was less fun than we hoped. On Saturday we went to a co-workers house in the mountains to help her celebrate her newly-earned Master's degree. It was a lovely day for spending time relaxing in the mountains. That evening we had a cook-out with a few other friends and played a different variant of our favorite game, Munchkin Fu. It was a blast! Yesterday we invited some folks over for dinner as they are about to have a baby and their time for socializing will be gone for a while. It was good to see them. I'm invited to the birth when it happens and I'm excited to go. It will be my 4th or 5th birth, not counting my own two. She is so ready to have this baby! He should make his debut in the next couple of weeks, for sure.

Bumming

Yesterday when I tried to connect my external hard drive, it made some strange knocking noises and wasn't recognized by the computer.... yep, it's toast. I know this sort of thing is nearly inevitable, happens all the time, etc. But I was still pretty cavalier about procrastinating any kind of back-up. {{sigh}}

Luckily, all my digital photos are backed up on our home computer and I will be burning the more recent ones that haven't been burnt to DVD yet VERY soon. Good thing I have Flickr to archive photos, too. BUT - ALL my digiscrap stuff is gone, as are my 3 most recent layouts. One you didn't even get to see yet - my layout about Emmelia's first day of kindergarten. I did upload it to the galleries, so I guess you can see it here. But those 3 will never be printed out for the girls' albums.

I guess I'll just begin again to re-build my "stash" from what is out there now. I actually don't feel overwhelmingly upset about it. There's a certain resignation one has at events like this. Not much I can do about it - should've backed up, but didn't. At least the drive is under warranty.

Anyway...

On Wednesday it finally happened - something I've been expecting for a while and wondering how it would be taken. Emmelia's friend Rebecca, who started karate with her, got a stripe on her belt and Emmelia didn't. I know it's because Emmelia was horsing around in class, not paying attention to Sensei or listening, talking loudly. She was really a pill - she always gets that way when she's tired and this first week of school has been tough on her. So, after class, she immediately came over to discuss the unfairness of R. having 3 stripes while she only has 2. She said what I expected her to say: "I don't want to do karate anymore." Sigh. WHY is my child so competitive? I really try not to instill an overly competitive nature in the girls, but they seem to be genetically predestined to it. It will cause them endless hassle as they grow up. Anyway, we talked a bit about how she can still earn a stripe by listening better and paying attention, etc. Then, on the way home, Emmelia changed her tactic on it - she decided she wanted me to sign her up for karate class EVERY DAY - so she could have ALL the stripes. Sigh... at least she does enjoy it.

I got some great photos of the class on Wednesday. You can look at them over in my Flickr account, but here's one of Emmelia and Rebecca practicing step-punches with Sensei.

Emmelia is really loving kindergarten so far. Like I said, it's exhausting for her, but a lot of that is no longer getting naps. Today she took an apple in for her teacher. ;-)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Ours is blissfully not-too-busy. Just a couple of things on the schedule, so that is nice. I might actually have time to do some laundry!

My baby started kindergarten!

Yesterday was her first day and she did great! She was a little nervous beforehand, but both the Deac and I came along to drop her off. The teacher let us stay for a few minutes and by the time we left she was playing happily. There were a lot of other parents there and even though we were *technically* the last ones out the door, we weren't clingy or anything. She went with half her class yesterday and the other half went today (so she go the day off) and everyday classes with everyone begin tomorrow. This week Maura is also transitioning to the Preschool room at daycare. She is MORE than ready for this move and has been anticipating it for quite a while. Here's my two beans yesterday morning before I dropped them off:
Our family gathering this weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to see everyone and the girls had a blast playing with their cousins (first cousins, once removed) Kayla and Luke. I got a couple of fun shots with my camera:





















There are some other photos over in my flickr badge, too!

I went to a meeting for new soccer coaches last night and am excited to be coaching Maura's team. There really isn't much involved for the under-4 age group. The point is simply to help them have fun. Plus, I found out Maura's very bestest friend in the whole universe is going to be on her team! They are both excited about that.

Today is the first day this month for which nothing is written on our home calendar - no wonder we have been feeling exhausted with almost constant scheduling! We do have a few things to do tonight, but nothing too strenuous and it will be nice to spend time as a family.

Our Disney trip is all planned for this fall! Here's a basic breakdown of our itinerary:

Day 1 - we arrive in Orlando around 4:30 pm and will head to our Disney resort via shuttle. Dinner at Downtown Disney.

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom day just because of the way character dining worked out (but we have ParkHoppers, so we can always change our minds and go to more than one park in a day). That night, Halloween party at Magic Kingdom.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom day. Breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends. Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table with the Fairy Godmother.

Day 4 - Epcot day. Lunch with the princesses at Akershus.

Day 5 - MGM Studios day. Breakfast at Playhouse Disney's Play-n-Dine with the Little Einsteins.

Day 6 - check out, get rental car and drive to Sanibel Island for the next 4 days before we fly home! It will be so fun and a much-needed vacation! We are all excited.

One last thing - I found a great resource today that I'm really excited about! I've been listening when I can to Ancient Faith Radio, but it turns out they have podcasts! One of them is a podcast of Orthodox children's books being read aloud. I know the kids will love this and subscribed immediately! I also subscribed to a couple others. Now to find the time to listen.... But I thought some of you might be interested in this as well. Happy listening!

Last week of summer!

Whew! What a BUSY whirlwind the past two weeks have been! I thought about blogging often so I could catch up on events, but then I got sick with a sinus infection and laryngitis and just didn't have the energy. But I'll try to give a brief synopsis.

Last week our Bishop was in town. He is situated in Wichita, and his diocese covers many states here in the middle of the country. Since there are 7 Antiochian Orthodox parishes here in the northern Colorado area, he just comes for a week and visits each parish during that time. That makes it easier on him travel-wise, and cheaper for the parishes - they don't each have to pay for a flight and hotel, etc. The other nice benefit is that we get to go visit the other parishes when he is visiting. It was lovely - just to see people and clergy families from other parishes that we don't get to see that often. The fellowship and friendship was like a mini-retreat in a lot of ways. We all had a good time, even though it was busy!

Last week we found out that Emmelia HAS been accepted into the school we hoped for! We are SO excited about that. It is an awesome school and we'd managed to get our hearts set on it even before we heard, so we were very glad she gets to go. Kindergarten starts this coming Monday! So this week has been busy with getting final vaccinations, filling out enrollment forms, buying new clothes for school, etc.

The Deac started his new job this week, too and he LOVES it! He's like a pig in slop - he is really happy to work in a team environment with intelligent people and not have a long commute. We need to do a few things like figure out insurance and retirement plan stuff, but that shouldn't be too hard. So far, he is working a "normal" (daytime) work schedule. No word yet on when/if he will move to an evening schedule.

Emmelia got her second stripe in karate! She is really doing well in karate and is starting to do better in violin, too. It was a hard summer for violin - I think we were so busy that it was hard for her to stay focussed. Maura will start lessons with her in 2 weeks, and I think that will help. They will be able to practice with each other and hopefully be less distracting to each other. Yesterday I decided to volunteer to coach Maura's soccer team this fall. I know nothing about soccer, but the Youth Soccer Association is willing to train me, and this way Maura will have a team. They were really begging for coaches because they had a lot of interest. I think it will be fun to get out and kick the ball around with a bunch of 3-year-olds. Emmelia got assigned to the team we were hoping for, as well! Four out of the seven kids on her team all know each other from our La Leche League chapter and the coach is one of the local LLL leaders. I really think, if we can choose a mascot, that we should incorporate breastfeeding somehow - name the team after a mammal or something. Anyway, I was worried about the time commitment for coaching, but for the 3-year-olds, they only do a 30-minute practice (which is actually optional, but I think would be fun and doable) once a week, and play one 30-minute game on Saturdays. I figured I'd have to go to the practice and games anyway, you know?

We have our fall Disney trip all planned and paid for! We have a few reservations for character meals to plan, but in general we're set for a much-needed vacation. I can't wait! We haven't bought a new car yet because interest rates are so high! If we can find a lower rate, we might move quickly.

We saw my Mom last weekend for lunch when she was up this way to go to a sculpture show and this weekend we'll be going to a BBQ with family in the Colorado Springs area. I'm looking forward to seeing relatives we haven't seen since my Dad's funeral, and the girls are looking forward to playing with their 1st-cousins-once-removed. We are also getting ready for a road trip out to Iowa in a couple of weeks to visit Emmelia's godparents and their family. It will be really nice to see them, but the longest drive we've done since having kids.

I got a *little* bit of scrapping done in the midst of all this, but wish I could've managed more. There is so much to do at work that I haven't even had the routine breaks I'm used to that allow me to work on a layout. But here's the 2 I've done most recently:

Rebecca's 5th Birthday, using Christine Beasley's new "Date of Birth" kit:

And I love this new kit Amy came up with, called "Five Alarm" - I think I'll have several LOs to do with it once I find some time. I mean, these photos for the Firetruck LO have been waiting to be scrapped since 2005!

It's here!

And I love it! I can take real photos again! I haven't gotten to play with it a ton, but I took a few photos and you can look at them over in my Flickr badge if you want. How fun!

Please say a prayer for Fr. Nicholas, a friend of ours and local archpriest who suffered a massive heart attack on Wednesday. We visited last night and he seems to be doing better than the initial prognosis, but his condition is still critical.

We don't have much planned this weekend. The Bishop is visiting, so there will be many activities for that over the next week or so. I also would love to have a yard sale to help pay for our upcoming Disney trip and need to go through and organize stuff for that. It seems overwhelming, but would feel so good to get organized!

Hopefully I'll be able to play with the camera some with the girls this weekend, too. Have a good one!

Checking in

I just wanted to check in quickly and share a couple of layouts I made this week. My new camera should arrive today (fingers crossed) - I can't wait to play with it!

Meanwhile, we are looking into finally getting a new car and replacing my 20 year old Volvo wagon that has 300,000 miles on it. It's been a great car, but it needs about $1,000 in work (which is about it's total value), and we've been putting off the car loan/payments. So, we may bite the bullet on that one soon.

We're also in the process of setting up the vacation to Florida we've been planning for this fall. I personally find the *planning* part to be overwhelming and stressful. I know we'll have a great time once it is set and we are there. But there are so many scheduling issues and costs to juggle right now that it's a bit hard to figure out. We are going to Walt Disney World and also spending some time with family on Sanibel Island. At Disney, we are going to do Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party and some character meals. Other than that, we need to pin down details and get tickets!

Well, with no further ado, here are the layouts. The credits are here for CHP and 3rd Birthday. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

I did this one for the "Map of Me" challenge at SOTB that my friend Amy coordinates:

And, Chris Beasley came up with these cute "Code Words" so I did this LO and included those to get CT credit (but I also really like what it adds to the layout):

New LO and ::happy dance!::

The other night I was putting the kids to sleep and this layout popped into my head. So as soon as they were down, I got on the computer and put it together. I like the way it came out - very bright and sunny, just like that day was. Here are credits for Field Day.

And, today I got myself a little prize from my bonus money. I was going to get a laptop, but the Deac thinks he has a laptop around that we can refurbish pretty cheaply just to run Linux and the Gimp and the things I want a laptop for... so I didn't need to buy that. A tandem kayak would be nice, but chances are we aren't going to have a chance to get it in the water this year anyway... so - and this was the Deac's idea - he totally reminded me that I have been wanting a digital SLR camera for eons. Sure, I already have 2 film cameras and a point-and-shoot digital camera. Sigh. What's that question I've heard? How many *insert item of interest here* are enough? Answer: Just One More. That's why a brand new Nikon D40x with 2 lenses and a case (nice package deal) is on it's way to me even as we speak! I'm a bit intimidated by the learning curve, but also really excited!

Have a great weekend!

Hula Girl

I wasn't really planning on scrapping today... but then I got an e-mail about a kit being given away as a freebie today only at OScraps (here's the link - be sure to read the description, as it has a coupon code) and got inspired. So, I made this layout over my lunch hour. I think it came out pretty cute (of course, it's hard to go wrong when you have such cute material to work with - and I mean both the kit AND the photos). Credits are here.

I only scratched the surface of the fun goodies in this kit! I'm sure I'll use it over and over again. Well, off to pick up Emmelia from karate and take the kids to swimming lessons. Have a wonderful evening!

Campin' and Scrappin'

We had a great time camping this weekend. We drove up the Poudre canyon just west of Fort Collins until we got to State Forest State Park near Gould. I've lived in Colorado all my life and never been to this part of the state. It was so beautiful, I'm sure we'll go back again sometime. Our campsite was near North Michigan reservoir and we couldn't tell from the website if it would be a smallish reservoir or a big concrete/rock monstrosity. So, we were REALLY kicking ourselves when we got up there after deciding to leave the kayak home for this trip. It would've been *perfect* for kayaking. Sigh. Here's a photo I took from the shore. Those mountains in the back are actually in Rocky Mountain National Park.
In general, we enjoyed camping with the kids, but found it to be a much different experience than camping without them. For one thing, everytime we would start to sit down and enjoy the scenery, *someone* would be needing a potty break or having some other sort of kid-typical crisis. But that's okay. The kids enjoyed themselves, did GREAT the entire time (even on the long drive home - we decided to take the scenic route through Wyoming) and no one got hurt or eaten by bears. I was happy to have a chance this week to scrap our experience (credits here):
We were only out for one night and came home pretty exhausted. For our next trip, we *must* remember pillows and extra blankets or sleeping bags. It got pretty cold up there at 10,000 feet overnight.

On Sunday after liturgy we decided to stop by the Orthodox Food Festival at Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Denver. We all had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and eating delicious Romanian food while watching ethnic dancers and musicians. The girls got their face painted, played games to win prizes, had balloon animals made and in general had a terrific time. I bought myself a hand-painted enamel pendant from Russia - sort of like this one (only prettier). Then we had friends over for dinner. All-in-all, a fun weekend.

I also completed two other layouts this week, deciding to get my CT duties out of the way at the beginning since I've been itching to scrap for so long. There is this one about an evening spent with a good friend of ours and his girlfriend:
And this one of Emmelia's adventures at soccer camp last week. I didn't feel that either of these layouts really required a lot of journaling, so I just stuck with the basic photos and elements. I spent some time playing with blending modes for the backgrounds of each of them. Click on the links to see credits for Dancing and Soccer Camp.

Big news!

I can't believe how busy this week has been. I have often thought that Moms who can work part-time have the best of both worlds - more time with their kids and a steady income. But, having worked part-time this week, I can see that I would never have time to actually get my job done in half the time. It was fun going with Emmelia to soccer camp, though. Yesterday she had a violin lesson at 8 in the morning, and soccer camp didn't start until 9:30, so we went out to breakfast, just the two of us. It was really fun just spending some one-on-one time with her, and I think we need to work on scheduling that sort of thing in with both kids.

Both the Deac and I have big news today. I was chosen for another (fourth!) Creative Team! I'm very excited. This new one is for Mindy Armour and it's pretty relaxed as far as CT requirements go - 3 layouts a month. I can handle that! I think these are all the teams I'm going to apply for for a while, though. Four ought to keep me pretty busy and inspired. Now I can't wait until I have some time to scrap! We are going camping this weekend, so it will have to wait until next week. I just got a bonus at work, and I'm thinking very seriously about using part of it to buy a laptop. If I had that, I could scrap AND camp - hee! Okay, maybe it'll be better that I can just be out enjoying nature with my kids and scrap it later.

So, today the Deac accepted a position with a (computer) storage company in the town we live in. This means a very short commute and a lot more money! We are really excited. A good friend of ours works at the same company and referred him. She loves the work environment and the company seems very stable. The only part we have to work out is dealing with his work schedule, since he will likely be working the late afternoon-evening shift 4 or 5 days a week. But it might work out better because he can take the kids to daycare in the morning (after spending a little time with them) and I can get to work earlier. Then I can leave work earlier in the afternoon and the girls will be spending less time overall in daycare. That will be a bonus, too.

Well, before I get back to finishing up a few things so I can get out of here and get packed for our camping trip, I wanted to share a couple of blogs of friends of ours who are off on great adventures. Our friend Alexandra is off on a round-the-world mission trip and you can read all about her adventures here. Our friend Ben is riding his bicycle from Colorado to Alaska. Read about his trip here. Ah, the things you can do when you are young... ;-)

Better and Busy Week!

Well, we all seem to be recovering from our brush with pertussis. The antibiotics helped enough that I'm even more convinced it really was pertussis. Thank goodness we found out in time to treat it!

This week is incredibly busy. Such that I'm only working part-time and taking the rest off as vacation time. Emmelia is in soccer camp in the morning Monday through Thursday. She is doing an awesome job, even though it's in the 90's out there and these kids are basically running around in the sun for 2 straight hours (the coaches have been good about giving them lots of water breaks). So far, I've hung out and watched camp, but I really don't *need* to - maybe tomorrow I'll go run errands or something. But it's giving me a little time to just relax and catch up on my book club novel, too. Here's a photo of Emmelia dribbling the ball during a scrimmage on Monday morning:
Last night the girls started swimming lessons. Emmelia did great, but was disappointed to not get to play around in the pool afterwards. Since she has a field trip to the pool with her class every Friday, I'm hoping she'll be able to get over her disappointment. Maura didn't participate in her class, but at least she stayed in the water. I don't think she liked her teacher very much, but the director of the program tried to engage her a little last night and said she'd work with her tomorrow night, so I'm hopeful that by the end of the 4-week class Maura will be at least doing some activities with her class. It's all about feeling comfortable in the water at this age, anyway. Here's the girls at the end of their lessons last night. Emmelia's still disappointed at having to go home and eat dinner, so she wasn't that into smiling at the moment:
Other than that, we had Emmelia's occupational therapy appointment this morning, karate tomorrow, violin on Thursday, and are going camping this Friday! It's the first time we've actually been camping since we got married, despite having the desire to do so for all these years. I'm looking forward to it. It's only for one night, so I think it will be the perfect intro for the whole family and hopefully give us the confidence to try a longer trip next time.

My other big news is that I was accepted to be on a third digi-scrap Creative Team - for Chris Beasley (aka Seebee) at Digitals. I'm so excited! Being on a CT means that you get to use a designer's products in your layouts in exchange for doing a little marketing for them in the digiscrap world. This is the first CT I've been on that isn't for a designer I've known since their designing debut (although it is her first CT). I am really looking forward to being a part of this new group and working with her products! Chris makes some awesome freebies and gives them away on her blog - particularly her "Dream Trip" series for Walt Disney World layouts. I encourage you to at least check those out!

Speaking of which, we are definitely planning to take the girls back to Disney World this fall. We need to get to making actual plans, I suppose. I put it off until after the exam, but I did order a Disney vacation planning DVD we should watch pretty soon. The thought of arranging everything seems pretty overwhelming to me, but I'm excited to actually go there and know we'll have a blast.