A Scrap of Life

As part of a ScrapAddict challenge, I will be posting regular blog entries about this years holiday season. Even if you don't visit ScrapAddict, feel free to play along and jot down your families memories from this festive season.

Just for fun some of the girls at ScrapAddict have been sharing the pages from their "Colorstrology" book. Something to do with your birth date and how that corresponds to a color and description. Mine is below. I will say that it's a pretty right on description. And it's interesting to note that I'm "compatible" with March 19, however Brian was born on March 20. LOL. The color itself might well fit my attitude, but not my coloring. With red hair and pale skin I look HORRID in yellow -- even if it is disguised as "daffodil".

Well, good karma caught up with us yesterday. If you remember, several weeks ago we found an envelope of money in our local grocery store. I turned it into the customer service desk hoping that they owner would come looking for it. They told us to check back on it so yesterday I went and inquired about it. It was still unclaimed thus, as the finders, we are now entitled to it. So yesterday we walked out of the store with much more money than we walked in with. It was a great bonus to be able to add that money to our vacation fund and to know that we did all we could to return it to it's owner. It was also a great lesson for the kids, who learned a lot about doing the right thing and being good people. Yesterday afternoon we went Christmas tree hunting. We'd seen the weather forecast and knew that the rest of the week would be rainy so we thought we'd sneak out and get a tree before the rains hit. We went to the tree farm right after picking the kids up off the bus. We ha...

Wow, has the phone been ringing off the hook here. No, it's not for me, it's all part of the newest shift in our lives ... kids phone calls. This is something that just got started last week and it has taken over like wildfire. Both Chase and Tristan have had friends calling them. Phone calls center mostly over strategy for their favorite video games. Tristan and his friend Noah are on the phone nonstop to talk about "Animal Crossing". They'll be on the phone for 1/2 an hour and will hang up, only to call back about 15 minutes later. This continues all day long! Chase and his friend Nick can talk forever about "Spectrobes". Sometimes they're on for an hour straight. This newest development is going to take some adjustment for me. It used to be that I jumped up and answered the phone every time it rang. Not so anymore. Tristan usually beats me to it and smugly says "It's Noah" when he reads the caller ID. The kids are growing an...

We took the kids to see "Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium" yesterday and this line just jumped right out at us: Life is an occasion - rise to it.

... that felt good. 3 months worth of photos finally edited and sent to Costco to be printed. What a weight lifted there. I usually don't let photos back up on me so this has been a thorn in my side for some time. I just feel the need to keep the photos edited and printed in a timely fashion and with all going on I just hadn't been able to do so. I did have a great time looking at all the photos while editing. There were some absolutely adorable ones. Like this one from one of our summer beach trips (Tucker LOVES the ocean!): And this one of the kids on the last weekend of summer: I love this "mirror" photo of my Dad when we were out on his boat: And the kids pumpkins from Halloween: This one my neighbor took of our kids on Halloween is great: So is this one of Carissa's soccer team: All in all, a great group of pictures and I'm so glad they'll be in my scrapbooks soon. :)

I had the chance to go on a ride-along with the local police department this weekend. I was originally scheduled to ride with one of the other officers but at the last minute I got assigned to ride with Brian instead. It was a bit of a surprise, as they do not customarily get to have riders during their probationary period (the first 18mos.). But I was happy to get to spend the evening riding with him, especially since I hadn't seen him all day as I'd been at Disney on Ice with Carissa. Anyways, I rode with him from 8pm until 4am ... quite a bit longer than I expected to ride. At first he just pulled over people who had headlights out (surprisingly, a LOT of people drive around with one headlight out), those who didn't stop at a stop sign or other minor traffic violations. But later on in the evening (or morning, as it was after midnight) he headed to the only place in town with traffic this late - the highway. We rode the highway for a while and he pulled over a few...

and left a huge pile of candy in it's wake. Ugh. What am I going to do with it all?!? And no, don't say eat it. I REALLY don't need it! Halloween was fun but very LONG this year. It started a week before Halloween with the scout Halloween party. Then there was the party at Abel & Nia's house last weekend. We topped it all off with Halloween and trick-or-treating here on home. Whew, am I glad it's over! This years costumes were a change of pace. Chase originally wanted to be the Egyptian God Seth, who is depicted by a person in a robe with a horse/dog head. I thought it was such a neat idea and I would have LOVED to make this work for Chase. But alas, no dog or horse head to be found and I didn't know how to make one so we went with his plan B, a skeleton. We bought the shirt at Old Navy and then I cut and sewed fleece "bones" to a pair of sweats. It took quite a while but it was worth it... he really liked it and I didn't spend an arm and a leg...

Oh my goodness … I just did it. I made the reservations and ordered the tickets. We’re going to Disneyworld!!! I am excited beyond words. I'm a certified Disney freak and would practically live at the parks if I could. Yet it doesn't exactly fit in with our family budget, you know what I mean?!? Well Mom to the rescue. She's letting us use her timeshare in Orlando. We'll be making a budget trip of it ... sharing meals when we can and not going out to the expensive character meals. I think the kids are even going to be asking for Disney dollars for Christmas. But even if we won't have a lot of extra money, I know we'll have fun just the same. Now here's the thing ... the kids don't know. We haven't figured out how to tell them yet and want to make it something fun and exciting. Do you have any great ideas? I thought about wrapping up their park tickets for Christmas but I'm not sure I can wait that long. Not to mention I have an 11 year old who...

You know sometimes you have those theoretical chats with people asking "what would you do if you just found $100 (or $1000 or a million $) on the ground"? It's never really happened to me... until today. Brian and I were shopping in Fred Meyers and were in the ice cream aisle getting a half gallon of Brian's favorite splurge when I noticed this ratty looking envelope on the ground. I pick it up and took a peek inside. The first thing I see is a small pile of bills ... the first few being $100 bills. Inside was a total of $340 cash. Wow, gee ... guess now it's happened to me. We knew immediately that we wouldn't keep it so took it to the customer service desk to turn it into lost and found. I'm really hoping someone comes to claim it. Written on the outside in crayon were the words "From G&G for Kaitlyns birthday". This was obviously money that someone was saving to buy gifts for their child. Brian and I came home from the store and were able ...

We're slowly falling into the rhythm of school life here. Slowly getting used to getting up early each morning (even though I really want to sleep in!), getting to work and school (quite often almost late thanks to Ms. Slowpoke Carissa) and taking care of all the "other" activities that fill our lives. School for the kids is going better. Chase has made a few friends and that has helped him acclimate a bit more. Tristan had a friend he knew before move over to that school and has a few other friends besides that one. Carissa is friends with a couple of the girls in her class too. So the social things are slowly working themselves out. The academic things seem to be going fairly well. Carissa is the best reader in her grade. Not that it's a stretch there. There are only 9 kids in 1st grade and all my kids have always been significantly above the other readers of their age anyways. We read a lot here. She will be starting speech class next month, which I'm...

One of my fellow ScrapAddict designers has a 1st grade daughter. They currently have a class project based on the book "Flat Stanley". Each child has made a flat version of themselves and are sending them out on a journey. Meggie started her journey in Floriday and has visited both Idaho and Colorado. She is now enjoying her time here in Oregon. I took her with my preschool class to Oregon Hill Farms where we got this great view of Mt. Hood. In Florida they don't get to see pumpkins growing on the vine so I took a pic of Flat Meggie hanging out with some pumpkin flowers and growing pumpkins and with a ripe pumpkin. On the way out she took a break in this wheelbarrow full of gourds. Meggie is on her way to Connecticut next to visit fall in it's full colors. Have a great adventure Meggie!!!

It's always interesting when your kids write something about themselves. I find out things I didn't know and it makes me smile just reading it. Here's the bio-poem Chase wrote for open house: Chase Funny, Happy, Helpful, Wishes to be an actor, Dreams of being famous, Wants to save the evironment, Who wonders if science can answer everything, Who fears for endangered animals, Who is afraid of crabs, Who likes rats, Who believes in supernatural creatures, Who loves basketball, Who loves rocks, Who loves school, Who loves watermelon, Who plans to help the poor, Who plans to have a good life, Who plans to write books, Whose final destination is the beach.

So the new October ScrapAddict kits are available so I thought I'd share some of the projects I did with these kits. I had a great time with them. This is the Sweet Street Altered kit. I FINALLY made a SeaWorld album from our Mar. 2006 trip: I also made this sign for Chase's door ... although I must admit that it's usually on the "Go Away" side and rarely on the "Welcome to Chase's room" side. *sigh* And lastly I made this layout of Carissa and Kayli at Kayli's 6th birthday party. This is the Walk the Plank Kit/OD:

I was editing photos tonight and came across something that shamed me to no end. Tristan's birthday is in late August, the last bit of summer. I took tons of pictures of his party. It was an event ... bowling with his friends. 12 kids in all. Cupcakes. Presents. Chaos. I captured it all. Even remembered to do some posed shots of him on his 9th birthday. Fast forward 2 weeks to Chase's birthday. Mid September. School has started. There's a soccer game. And the Sauerkraut festival. Chase has a slumber party with his 3 closest friend. I take one picture of him ... and a horrible one at that. Ugh. I suck!

because I'm officially a loser. Life has been so busy that I haven't taken the time to update my blog in weeks. So this is my catch-up post for you all. We did change the kids school. They started a week and a half ago. It's definately a change for us all. The frienship pool is smaller, since there are only 80 kids in all of the K-6 school. I think it's been a bit hard, especially for Chase, to make new friends at this school. Thankfully he still has his neighborhood friend Brenden and we've promised to try to have his friends over more often now that he isn't going to school with them. Tristan is a bit luckier, as he has one of our neighbors in his class. Plus he's already make friends with a boy who lives on the island. Good for him. Carissa is, of course, the social butterfly and has a new BFF, Gyllian. She seems to be doing well with that and is enjoying her new school. Academically the changes have been quite big. Carissa's teacher does individualiz...

Seriously. Why can't we just be mean people for once? Today Belle's previous owners called... again. It was our 3rd call from them since we adopted her 5 days ago. This time they were calling to ask us if we could find it in our hearts to give her back. Debbie has apparently been crying since she gave her up and realizes now that she should not have done so. They really wanted her back. After much deliberation between ourselves and after talking to each of the kids we decided to give her back. We just couldn't deny that our 5 days worth of attachment was nothing compared to the 5 months worth of attachment that Debbie had. And Belle had a good home with Debbie. None of us are particularly happy with the situation. We liked Belle. She fit our family. Sure, she had a lot to learn but she was doing fairly well here. But we really wanted to be good role models for our kids. We wanted them to learn that we must think not only of ourselves and our feelings but the feeli...

I won! I am one of Scrapbook Warehouses Queen of the Crops! I was the winner of the contest for the Newport store and will soon go pick up my prize package of $300 worth of scrapbook products. Thank you to all that voted for me! I truly appreciate the support. The other pressing subject is one that has me constantly worried. It's school. We have fairly good schools here in Scappoose. Sure, the class sizes are slightly large but the schools still have some extra programs and are fairly well supported. They work for most families, but I'm not sure they're working for ours. See, our kids are special. Really. I'm not just saying that. Tristan and Carissa are well ahead of most of their classmates. Chase in particular is a very, very bright child. I remember our first school experience with Chase. He was days shy of turning 3 and we decided to send him to 3 year old preschool. We walked into the classroom that first day and he asked where the puzzles were. Th...

Seriously? Why do I do this? Today was Tristan's birthday party. 8 boys invited blossoms into a total of 12 kids. It was at the bowling alley. There were 12 cupcakes, 4 pizzas and 3 pitchers of pop consumed. $5 worth of quarters were gone in a matter of minutes. Utter chaos I tell you, but Tristan sure enjoyed his 9th birthday party. We came home and low and behold the neighborhood friends want to play. We have a great little group of friends here though so I didn't mind. Then Tristan wants his friend JT to spend the night. Then Chase wants Brenden to stay. And Carissa wants Anwen. So guess where they all are right now? In my house of course. I started out with 16 kids in my preschool class. Then had 12 kids at a party. Now 6 kids to spend then night. Oh, I also have that 8 month old bulldog who loves to stealthily steal the kids shoes and toys. Why do I do this to myself?!?

Day 2 of school and we're already back in the swing of things. I started teaching again today too and I feel like schedule and order have taken over the chaos of summer. It is SOOOOOO wonderful! Of course, I must always complicate my life a little more. I guess I should say that BRIAN must always complicate my life a little more, since this next complication is all his. Meet Belle, the newest addition to our family. Belle has been a long time coming. Brian has wanted an English bulldog for as long as I can remember, but one look at the price tag convinced him otherwise. So for years and years he's planned for the day when we could afford one. No, that day did not come. Luck while doing a good deed came. You see, Brian's mom's dog died about 6 months ago and she's been looking for a new one. So he was being the good son and scouting CraigsList for her. Well, one of the days he was doing that he came upon an ad for an English bulldog. The owner was away from home 12-1...