silly as it sounds...

Summertime Soon!

I can't believe summer is almost here....the weather FEELS like it already, and after this looooooong weekend with the kids home, I already feel myself "getting in the groove."

This summer is going to be different.  Better.  Happier.

I've been working out a "Mom's Summertime Learning Program" for my older kids, as well as researching YMCA Summer Camps for activities.  We finally can afford it, and I'm finally healthy enough to taxi them around!  Yay!  Last summer found me in very poor health and endorsing a free-for-all summer that, while spontaneous and "fun", lacked any real merit or structure.....or sanity.

My kids have been home all day, and we actually kept the TV off until 2:30 this afternoon!!!   THAT is a major accomplishment.

My plan is to have enough fun, loosely structured activities to keep my kids busy while I create.

Anyone have any good online resources for me to check out?

for Bay...

in loving memory of her bird, Guido.

{photo by Bay and poem by Thena.}

{page by me, LOL}

SICK DAY.

I'mb all sduffy doday, baby is drowing gup, and hubby sdayed home.  No fair being sick on a sunny day!!!

10:45 a.m. Edited to Add:  uh oh.  add sore throat and cough to the list of maladies!

here's a fun new technique....

i just came up with, and want to share with you!  i'm too impatient to submit it to a mag and WAIT.....LOL!

use your large Heidi Swapp photo corners as points around a circle!  it's so "fun & funky" {the very definition of my style!}

Try it.....and let me know what you come up with!  I'd love to see it!

*whew* what a day!

Yesterday was funny.  First of all, I moved my computer station from my bedroom (which was *way* out of the way...) to the living/dining room (which is right *smack* in the middle of everything!).  It's a good thing.  Now, instead of my hubby complaining that I'm addicted to the computer, I can nod along with his conversation as he watches tv, keep tabs on which house in the neighborhood my daughter is going to play at *next*, and bounce along with baby to the barney tunes.

Except for yesterday.

See, in the midst of all this moving and shaking of furniture and whatnots, baby got a little neglected.  And we ALL know, you leave a baby-going-on-toddler to his own devices long enough, and you've got a royal mess on your hands!

Baylor decided to empty his diaper bag.....and found my secret stash of Hershey's Kisses.

Hey, at least the kid's got good taste.

However, he neglected to understand the finer art of chocolate eating.  Too much in one sitting leads to a disasterous emotional release soon after..........

So am I sick & wrong to think he's so dang *cute* when he's crying?  (Though this is more, like, TOTALLY TICKED OFF!)  Must be the curls--no one can take you seriously when surrounded by a golden halo of curly locks!

remember?

remember the HUGE treat when you were a kid to get a popsicle from the ice cream man?

there was even an 'ice cream truck alert system'.  as soon as one child caught the mere whiff of 'pop goes the weasel' in the muggy distance, he'd go running; jumping really, to his house for change, hollering it's arrival the whole way.  each child, in turn, would make the pilgrimmage to their piggy bank and ready themselves at the curb, alerting anyone who would take pause long enough to make sense of their cries.

i made the promise to myself, way back when i first became a mother, to always have 'ice cream truck money' on hand for my children.  and when they got old enough to toddle to the windows and point, i did.

along came the next summer.  which ushered in my secret loathe of the cursed musical money-sucker.  (i was suddenly without any change.....?  whoops!  sorry kids. darn.  we'll catch 'im next time.)

and the next summer, when i developed my theory of the 'secret ice cream man coalition', bent on undermining a mother's authority and destroying her sanity.  (....no way!  i'll buy you guys a whole PACK of popsicles at the grocery for the SAME price!)

and then there's today.

the last two arrivals of said truck have found me barefoot,  leaping skillfully around the sharp driveway rocks to the curbside, shading my eyes in the setting sun, shifting impatiently with my bills.

he's sucked me back in.

"yes, i'll take 2 choco tacos, 2 drumsticks, and a banana fudge bar, please."

$8.50 buys a lot of sanity, these days.

i would rather....

pull out every single one of my eyelashes one by one than keep trying to put a stinkin downloaded piece of shabby princess scrap paper onto a layer in my newly downloaded trial version of pse3.  i give up.  i can put a piece in something called a photo bin, but that's as close as i got.  it sits there all fat and happy down below, taunting the "untitled1" next to it; teasing; mocking.

i suppose it doesn't help that my baby is sick with two ear infections, a nasty cough, and awake all night vocalizing this semi-whine/moan/cry mantra, like a hungry mosquito in my ear, while thrashing about restlessly in my weak, bouncing arms.

all night.

(poor baby.....beginning day four of a five day antibiotic course, and still no better.)

but i digress.

if i don't find out how to make a stinkin page in pse3 asap i am officially swearing off digi scrapping forever.  **crying**

that's it.

i'm going home.

oh, wait...

i never left.

Sundays were made for

indoor putting. 

and so goes a typical sunday afternoon.

you can't tell very well from this photo, but in looking through my recent files, i'm noticing that i take a hefty amount of pictures from this exact spot in the house.  now, granted, it's by the biggest window, but i've become rather bored with myself.

today, besides attending church, i will take some delicious photos of my family from SOMEWHERE ELSE.  maybe even outside in the rain.  oh, the danger. 

what about you?

what do you think??

Well I re-worked my blog design, and i am LOVING these yummy colors!!!

THANK YOU, COLOR INDEX!

What do you think???

(please)??

pretty please?

i'm commentless.  :(

is anyone out there????????

am i too humorless lately?  maybe so.  just feeling a bit of the doldrums lately.  in a slump; depressed and mojo-less.  *sigh*  maybe it's all the yeuchy rain we've been having.

my buddy

who needs words, when you already tell me so much?

WHAT IS IT?

about a feverish baby asleep in your arms that makes you feel so important?

i always want to feel that kind of important.