Weekend Away

This is my very good and most funny friend. Yes, believe it or not, she is. Why does she have a pair of scissors clipped to her nose, you ask? Well, Jill is on a diet and we happened to be baking cookies. The aroma was too much for her self-control. Her solution? You got it! She's so smart! And no, she didn't have even one cookie. At least not that I know about. :)

This is the "Texas Cabin". This is the most popular of the cabins. Jill and I stayed in it this time.

This is in the crop room. This is Jill's and my collection of paper. She came up with this great idea last time. We each layed out all our paper so that it was within easy eye view when trying to come up with layout patterns for the pictures.

The bugs and spiders were outrageous this time! Especially the daddy long-legs and these annoying tiny flying things that kept getting in our faces and then falling to their doom in scrapping glue! This was one of those particularly beautiful spiders sitting in her web. Luckily, it was outside the crop room, not inside. It is a cotton spider. When we went to pack up to leave.....she was gone. Hmmmm. Hope she didn't come home with us!

These were just a few of the pictures. The only thing I didn't take a picture of that I wish I would have was this stuffed pheasant-like bird that was in our cabin. Jill and I are notorious for playing practical jokes - mainly on each other! She has the best sense of humor. Even better, she can dish it out as well as she can take it! Anyway, this bird kept 'disappearing' and 'reappearing' in strange places in the cabin.....my bag, the shower, the toilet paper basket, the bed. It traveled quite well.

I almost got Benjamin's book done. I decided to keep up with tradition and didn't do any journaling yet. I did manage to get embellishments on some of the pages during the trip. I only have March and April of '08 left to do. Then my goal is to add embellishments and journaling to all 3 books. Then what? Hopefully cards! I would like to scrapbook some trips, but who knows.

It was a great and relaxing trip. Jill and I left home Wednesday evening, a night before the others started arriving. We got back early yesterday evening.

I did get some running in, which felt great. Except for the tiny flying bugs threatening to enter my mouth and eyes, I adore running in the country. The air is so much cleaner! Those 2 lane roads are full of hills to add to the adventure!

Although we didn't get to bed until ridiculously late, I slept great, which is rare. I only got up once each night and got 8 hours of sleep each night. Woo-hoo!

We had great music. Everything from 80's to operetic to praise and worship. We had great conversation. Everything from trips to how the Lord is working in our lives. We even stayed away from politics.....way to go, Jill! And we had a couple of nice prayer moments for things that came up.

We watched our usual couple of movies. This time we watched Ever After, Day After Tomorrow, Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Return to Me. I don't think we actually sat to watch all of any of the movies. We'd watch for a while, then it became background while we scrapped.

Jim did great! The kids got fed, bathed, and made it to and home from school. I had left a card for him to find, which blessed him. Just wanted him to know how much I love him and was thankful for this time away. And to remind him what a great dad and husband he is.

Well, I think that catches you all up on the time away. We already have our next one booked in April. Now I'm looking forward to my time away with my husband for our 10 year anniversary next week!

Time for Fall, Time to Scrap!

I adore fall! It's my favorite season. We got married in the fall because we both like it so much. So I had to blog on this day, the 1st day of fall. There's just something refreshing about the season. I love being able to open the windows, which happens so little here because of heat, humidity or rain. Today I turned the A/C off and opened the windows. It's actually that cool outside, and it feels great.

Tomorrow I leave with some ladies to scrapbook. A good friend of mine puts this together and her goal is for us to do it twice a year to catch up on our books. Yeah, I say that as if I was a real scrapper! I really thought I was going to be, and maybe I still will be one day. That was before I had children. Now, I know a lot of people who have kids (and many who have more than me) who are still able to do all the mom/wife/family/etc. things AND still scrapbook. I am NOT one of those people. So, my goal is that each child will have a scrapbook from their first year of life...birth to 1st birthday. How far have I gotten? Well, I'm further than I was the last time we headed out to do this. I have Ian's pictures in his book. I still have embellishing and journaling to do (if I haven't forgotten everything already...it HAS been 5 years). I have Avery's pictures in her book and mostly embellished. I have journaling to do in hers. BTW, her book ended up being 1 1/2 times as thick as Ian's. Hmmmm, probably cause she's a girl. Or maybe because I somehow felt like I had to put every picture of the both of them in HER book? Regardless, it's thick! Tomorrow I'll be off to start (and hopefully complete) Benjamin's book. I would really like to have pictures, embellishings, and journaling done by the time we head home. Seriously, I'm there from Wednesday night to Sunday night. And we stay up nearly all night each night. So, that's my goal.

The big trick is going to be....can I totally enjoy myself without worrying how Jim is doing with the kids? I'm thinking I can once I get there. Right now, I panic. He's soooooo great to let me do things like this, and never complains about it, and is even taking off work 2 days. But he and I both know he gets a little more stressed having all the kids by himself for that long of time. Big bummer is that usually my in-laws are around to help out, but they're going to be out of town that weekend too. I'm sure he'll be fine. As he always says, "The kids will get fed and stay alive." He really does better than that, but it's a little joke we have.

So, I'm off to relish in the coolness of the air. Okay, I'm off to cook dinner. I'll catch up with everyone after I get back. Wish me luck! Ooooh, wish Jim luck!

HATE those ants!

Why oh why did God create fireants! Our first encounter with them left us taking a fully blown up Ian and absolutely crazed out mom to the ER where we were told that subsequent bites could be worse! WORSE!?

Today, Jim hollers for me after he had taken a shower. He was drying himself off and guess what rude guests he was met with! I guess because of all the rain we've had, they decided to take up residence in our linen cabinet!!! I'm currently doing 2 loads of towel laundry. Jim sprayed as much as he could around the bathroom and we've quarantined the kids from it and our bedroom. Luckily, all I have to do is mention Daddy getting bit and Avery won't go anywhere near our room. Not only that, but she doesn't want me to either!

I have NO MERCY for those.....those.....x!%###! I'm surprised no one has made a horror flick about them....or have they?

I'm disgusted!!!! And now, also living in fear that they will travel to my babies' rooms! Anybody have any suggestions??????? PLEASE! I'd take a picture and post it, but they don't deserve it.....unless it's a dead one!

The Little One Pooped! In the Potty!

OMG! He really did it! He'd been pretty consistent going tee-tee when I take him. He'd even come running when I say, "Benjamin, time to tee-tee." So, I heard him grunting in the living room after lunch and thought, hey why not. So I grabbed him up, stripped his diaper off and put him on the potty. After a little while of doing the grunts I taught him, I decided to quit staring and give him a book. Once he got engrossed in looking at it, I snuck away. When I came back I didn't think anything had happened. I picked him up and low and behold, there it all was! I'm sure he thought I was nuts. I praised, and praised, and praised him; he praised himself with a "yesssssss!", then I gave him his Smarties. Oh could this become habit?! Sorry for another poop pic. Only a mom, right?

Go Sooners! Or Not!

This is where we went for Jim's 40th bday. This is the OU/BYU game being played at the new Texas Stadium. The great thing is we went FREE. I actually had a surprise guys' night planned for Jim and his buddies to watch the game and eat, but then Jim called and said a co-worker had a friend she could get tickets from. This is what Jim originally wanted to do for his birthday, but the tickets were so stinkin' expensive, even for nosebleeds.....thanks Jerry Jones. :(

But it all worked out even better. We still got nosebleed (literally the next to the very top row), but they were free. Which meant we could actually pay the ridiculous prices for food/drinks. And we got to park at in a friend's garage that literally lives 2 mintes walking distance from the stadium.

This was our first time in the new stadium. It was incredible. Even with nosebleeds, with the largest HD jumbo tron around, there's really not a bad seat in the house (as long as you don't mind paying out the wazoo to watch the game on a TV). We are OU fans cuz my family lives in Oklahoma and I was raised an OU fan. Jim quickly adapted once we got married. Because they got paid boo-coo bucks, they played this "home" game 3 hours away at the new Texas Stadium.

Horrible thing happened.....THEY LOST! And looked bad doing it!