Are You Practicing?

Madison has starting playing the clarinet in band. She is doing well when she practices.

And when she doesn't get interrupted by her PHONE!

Yes, the phone is still in her hand. LOL, gotta lover her.

Weekend Fun

We headed out this weekend with plans to have some family fun. The first stop was the zoo. We played at the children's area first and Spencer had a blast running through the forest, going down the slides and just running, moving and jumping. The weather was awesome! Sooooo, so beautiful. We stopped for lunch and afterwards we went to feed the lorikeets. Madison and Justin were covered immediately upon entering the lorikeet habitat. Spencer just kept repeating "bird" over and over.

We decided to go the Sea Lion Show and Spencer sat through most of it. He danced to the music and watched the sea lion swim and jump. By the time the second sea lion came out, he was ready to move on to something new. We called it a day and headed home.

Sunday was not too exciting for us, church, lunch, stopped at the mall and headed home. Justin headed out to play a round of golf. I headed over to my friend Becky's house and we watched a movie and scrapbooked until past midnight. FUN, FUN!

Monday came early (that's what happens when you stay out having fun). We headed to Tulsa to the Oklahoma Aquarium (yeah, it sounds silly when there are no bodies of water in this state that are not man made). We arrived right after they opened. Spencer was interested at first, but I guess to him, after he saw one fish moving in a tank, the other thousand look exactly the same. SO, needless to say, he was not happy. Madison went off with one of us while the other watched Spencer and tried to keep him calm.

Madison fed the turtles. Those little cute turtles are viscous when it comes to food.

We all went through the shark tunnel and it what really neat. Spencer did think that was really cool. I actually enjoyed the very, very large beavers. Ok, I seriously didn't know how big they were. The aquarium wasn't as big as we expected, so it didn't take us long to go through it. Spencer was done, over the aquarium, so we headed out to find some food. We went to Los Cabos for some mexican fajitas and once again, Spencer was in full fit throwing mood. Once we finally got his milk and food, things were a bit better. Thank goodness he slept on the way home.

We fired up the hose and filled up the baby pool and both Spencer and Madison cooled off. Justin was a dear husband and let me take a nap. We had a light dinner (still full from Los Cabos). Spencer and I played "ashi, ashi" - Ring Around the Rosie for those of you that don't speak Spencerese. We are also excited that football has started and we are all singing the football commercial:

"Game starting now"

"Dun net, dun net"

"Have Fun in the Basement"

etc., etc.

Spencer has now learned the "Dun net, dun net" part and will repeat it upon anyone in the house singing the commercial.

Justin is proud.

Sick and Tired

Spencer has had a fever the last few days and some crummy diapers. The poor guy never watches TV, but Elmo and Veggie Tales have saved the day. He fell asleep yesterday at 9am watching Veggie Tales.
This was taken before the large drool spot that ended up on the pillow.

He was completely zonked out and slept until 11am.

Waking up was hard to do.

The nap also produced some serious bed head.

The remainder of the day included lots of crying, whining, screaming, a lost blanket, tantrums and a forced second nap at 3pm.

Scrapbook Convention

Yesterday I left the house at 5:30am, stopped by Starbucks for a vanilla latte and picked up my friend Rae and headed to Tulsa. I spent the day and night with some of my scrapbook buddies, Rae, Karla and Tammy. Each year Creating Keepsakes magazine puts on a scrapbook convention. Our very nice young valet was brave and asked, "what is a crop party?" Later on our engineer fixing the room's air conditioner asked, "do your husband's understand why you do this?"
It got me thinking about why I scrapbook. Justin said it was because I enjoy it, which is true, but there is more to it than that. I work in a medical laboratory. My degree is in chemistry and my day to day duties involve molecular biology. I use the left side of my brain most of the time. Scrapbooking is an outlet for me to use the other half of my brain. I love the preservation of the stories behind the photographs. I love the process to create a layout and put it together. I love scrapbooking with friends because we all share our stories, ideas and inspiration with another.

Scrapbooking is a love hate relationship: I love it, but it also can be frustrating and expensive. I often wonder what will happen to the scrapbooks I have done years down the road. Will I give them to my children or keep them for myself. Will I continue to scrapbook? I think I will, because I love photography and whether it be putting pictures into an album, creating a layout on the computer or posting my thoughts to a blog, it is a scrapbooking to me.

With that being said, here are a few of my favorite items/companies.

Quick Quotes Canvas Kits.


These canvas kits are amazing. So beautiful. They come in lots of colors with all the directions. I can't wait to get one of these.

The Paper Loft - one of these BEST paper companies that I have found besides Little Yellow Bicycle
Dude Collection - a great set of papers and embellishments for all the guys in your life.

Cosmic - I fell in love with this set immediately. "I Love You To the Moon and Back" - melted my heart - FABULOUS

Lots of cool products, now to find the time to use all of them.

1st Day of Jr. High

My baby girl started Jr. High today.

Manners

This week has been stressful to say the least. Preparing Madison for Jr. High and Spencer's 2 year appointment, short staffed at work, preparing for the huge consignment sale and scrapbook convention this weekend has put me onto the OCD planet. If you don't believe me, just ask Justin.
Madison got her schedule on Monday and there were problems with it, so I called the counselor to find out what went wrong and left a message. That night I sent an e-mail.
Last night was orientation and it was mass chaos. Trying to meet teachers, unlock lockers, track down the counselor (never did find her) and sign up for PTA put me into a frazzle. It wasn't because it was hot or because there were tons of people, it was the complete lack of respect and manners that the PARENTS showed toward the principal and other parents.
Where have manners gone?
Here are some notes that I have taken over the last few days.

• When you are in a line to meet the teacher, it is customary not to cut in front of everyone else because your son was in his/her class last year.
• When the principal is speaking to the parents with a microphone, but I can't hear her over all of the parents in the back talking, it is rude.
• When someone calls you to leave a message and also sends an e-mail, it is appropriate to return the phone call or e-mail. Even if you don't have the answer, at least acknowledge that you received the message.
• If you are walking out the door, it is polite to hold the door, so it doesn't crash into the person behind you.
• If you are complaining about the dress code, you, as a parent, should look in the mirror. A cami with no bra and pajama pants are NOT appropriate attire for school.

So, to all of the teachers out there: I am sorry that you have to deal with rude, disrespectful and idiot parents. You all know they exist and many of you have probably had to deal with them.

Thank you, I feel better now.

Birthday Cake

We celebrated Spencer's birthday on Saturday with good friends and good cupcakes. It is amazing what difference a year makes. Last year Spencer really didn't get the whole gift thing. He definitely got it this year. Each gift that was unwrapped was followed with an ooooooo or aaaahhhhh. He REALLY figured it out this year. It was hilarious to watch.
He also REALLY likes cake.