A Scrap of Life

Someone posted this on ScrapAddict.com and I immediately fell in love with it... it's exactly what I wish for my kids. Thought I'd pass it along. Enjoy. i wish you so much. but most of all i wish you to be your own true self. to take all the gifts that you were born with and make of them marvels of beauty and ingenuity and astonishment. -pam brown

As previously mentioned, Chase is playing the role of Wilbur in "Charlotte's Web". Time sure snuck up on us and all of the sudden his costume was due. Despite my diligence, I was unable to find a pig costume in his size. I mean, how many 10 year old boys chose "pig" as their Halloween costume? Seriously. So when Chase came home last week and announced that his costume was due on Tuesday I knew that meant that I had to make it. So off we go to find all the supplies needed for the costume. Keep in mind that my Mom had taught us to sew when we were kids but I haven't really sewed anything in a while ... anything besides scrapbook pages that is. So I'm about as rusty as can be at this. But I find a pattern that will work with a few small changes (no lions mane or bunny tail) and go in search of a suitable fabric. I found tons of things but none of them were right. The cottons were just too thin, they didn't have the right color of fleece (fuschia was NOT...

It's 1am and I've been up nearly every 20 minutes with Carissa who is suffering her first agonizing bout with growing pains. It seems just a few short years ago when Chase got his first growing pains, then Tristan got his first. And now Carissa is having them too. It serves as yet another reminder of how quickly the kids are growing. This school year is almost over and I'm staring at the reality of the fall, when all my children are gone from the house all day for school. I've been enjoying this last year with Carissa still home with me half the day. Next year that all changes. Motherhood has been such a quick-rolling ride ... always moving, always changing. I wish it weren't so. I wish it could stand still for a few more minutes. Because I know 15 years from now I'll be looking back at this moment and wistfully remember living through these growing pains.

so I thought I'd share some recent LO's of the kids with you. In case you're interested in seeing more of my layouts you can see them here at ScrapAddict .

Chase continues to amaze me. Last week he was offered a scholarship for Oregon Childrens Theater. His teacher has been so impressed with his work as Wilbur in Charlotte's Web that she suggested him for this scholarship. He probably won't be going, as it only covers half the tuition and driving to Portland every day for 2 weeks just isn't feasible with gas prices as they are. But it was such an honor for him to be suggested for it. Way to go Chase! Tristan is starting to blossom! He had such a hard time with pitching machine at the beginning of the year. Now he's finally got in the rhythm and is doing great. He's starting to hit regularly and beginning to get some power behind it. It makes him feel so great when he does that and it's great to see that happiness on his face. :) Carissa has really picked up the reading this year. Coming into Kindergarten she knew her letters and phonics and could read short works (cat, dog, man, etc.) but couldn't rea...

I'm still somewhat stunned by the days events. It's the day before mothers day, so we went into nearby St. Helens to shop for Mothers Day gifts. We didn't find anything there so grabbed some lunch for the kids at Taco Bell and then headed down the road to see what we could find at Fred Meyers. We were headed down the highway at 60mph when we it happened ... a deer broadsided us. Seriously. We didn't hit the deer, it hit us. I saw it in slow motion ... the realization that a deer had crossed 4 lanes of a busy highway and was right alongside our van. And the realization that, no matter what Brian did, it was going to hit us. When it hit the far rear window on the drivers side - right next to Carissa - the impact was monumental. I didn't realize that something so small in comparison to our van could make that much of an impact. The sounds of the deer thumping into our van and the window glass shattering were deafening. Then came wailing from Carissa and screams from th...

9 1/2 weeks down, 6 1/2 still left to go. It's been a long road and I'm ready for it to be over with. Everything here seems to keep me hopping. My new neighbor and I were talking last week and she said when she first moved in she thought I was just stuck up and never said hi to her, but it took her a few weeks to realize that I was focused solely on rushing to the next event and that I didn't even notice her waving to me. Yep, that pretty much sums up my life. Rushing from here to there and back again. Work, volunteering, scouts, parents organizations, baseball, more work, more volunteering, more baseball... you get the picture. It has all come to a screeching halt this week though, as Carissa got the flu. Poor girl. She's been home for 2 days already but I'm hoping she's better by tomorrow. Of course, she's enjoying the unlimited TV/game time (we limit our kids to 1 hour per day but give them a break when they're sick). She's watching yet another Ba...

After much procrastination, Chase (age 10) finally completed his homework for tonight. He had to write a paragraph telling why his Mom is the greatest. Here's what he wrote: "My Mom's the greatest because she does lots of things for us, such as: bringing things to school even if it makes her late for work, she lets us have our own pets, she takes us to the movies, she lets us sleep over at friend's houses and most importantly she loves and cares for us. That's why I think she's the greatest Mom."