Neglect

I have been horribly neglecting my blog. I honestly haven't had much to say.

Leah had her first tball game this weekend and did great. Her team ended up winning 18-11 and I was so proud.

Baseball season finally started so you'll hear lots of talk about my Astros over the course of the next 161 games. I fear it's going to be a very long season, but I'm still holding out hope. I'm afraid we didn't get the pitching that we needed to have a successful season, but we shall see.

I've been religiously watching American Idol but now that tball has started I'm afraid I'll be missing quite a bit of it. I'm wondering if there's a place I can watch the performances on the internet somewhere even if I can't vote. I can at least keep up. There will be nights I can still watch.

Had a sickie in the house today. Laila managed to cover nearly the whole house in her "sick" and let me tell you, after cleaning that up, I'm glad it's over. I hope she was the only one. Pray no one else gets it.

Jobs are scarce this week, and I'm not sure why. I need to work enough to pay for my plane ticket to VA in June. I'm going to visit a very dear friend of mine and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just hoping it pans out like I'm thinking it will.

Well, I think I've exhausted about all of my conversation topics and my laptop battery is low. Hope all is well for everyone.

-L

All put together.

I finally got my Project 365 album picked out and all put together. Everything is ready and waiting for pictures and journaling. I did send off for my first set of pictures. I figured that with it being almost 1/3 of the way through the year I should get cracking on that. I feel a tremendous weight lifted since I got it all done.

Now I can't wait to use the paper (shhh, don't tell) that I bought at HL the other day. I was trying to restrict my paper buying, but I used so much paper on my Project 365 that my stash was really depleted so I bought some more to replace it. Didn't buy any solid cardstock, which I should have, but I did buy two really neat stacks, and I'm over the moon about them.

I love paper!

-L

No idea what # we're on/365

Could someone catch me up? What day # is this? I've actually been taking pictures, so I decided to share the one I took today. I doubt I'll be able to keep up once I start back to work, but I do want to be able to share every once in a while. This one is definitely worth sharing.

March 19-The azalea bush in our yard has bloomed like crazy and I took the opportunity to take some pictures of my only slightly unwilling subject. What a lovely day it was!

Never going to catch up

I'm never going to catch up with picture posts, and I think I'm okay with that. I may end up just posting my finished pages once I start getting these developed, which I need to do quite soon. We're already into month 3, and I haven't gotten any of my photos developed. I'll be working on that before the end of this month, that's for sure. I've already done the bulk of my journaling, so that's a good thing.

I've had lots of neat photo ops lately. Laila has started t-ball, and that's provided a lot of interesting subject matter. I can't wait until Opening Day. It's April 4. It seems like a lifetime away, but I know once practices get rolling, it will be here before I know it. I'm thrilled that she was able to get signed up and get into it because she's been asking to play since November when she decided that dance wasn't for her. I think she's more of an athlete anyway.

This week proves to be a pretty busy one as well. Tomorrow night we have talent show practice, (Leah wants to be in the talent show that's a fundraiser for the Prom), Tuesday night I'm thinking we have nothing. Leah needs to practice for the talent show that night, and she's also got a dance recital this weekend. The actual talent show is Wednesday night, so we'll be forgoing Awanas for that. Thursday night she'll need to practice more for her recital, and then Friday is the big day. She's dancing in a recital with my niece Kristin, who's a junior in high school. Each of the girls got to pick a little girl to teach the dance to and dance along with in the recital and Kristin picked Leah. I'm really excited to see the final product. All I know is that they're dancing to That's How You Know from Enchanted. I really can't wait. Saturday I'm supposed to go to a scrapbook get together, but we'll see how that works out. It really depends on the babysitting situation. I really would like to go, even if only for a little while, but I don't want to have to overuse my parents for non work related outings. Sunday is another girl scout cookie booth, and let me tell you, I'll be glad when that's over. The following week is Spring Break, and it can NOT come soon enough.

That's about everything that's going on for now. This time change has really messed me up, so I'm going to try to get myself to bed before my body tells me it's time. Night all.

Lauri

Journaling for my photos.

Okay, since I'm not posting the pictures at this particular moment, I'll need to journal so I don't forget. This won't make much sense since you can't see the photos, but it's more for my own records.

January 31st-Bathing Beauties just got out of the bath, all wrapped up and ready for the bedtime routine.
February 1st-Super Bowl Sunday, Leah bought me some I heart Football earrings and I decided to day was as good a day as any to wear them.
February 2nd-Starting reading the Twilight series today. Am loving it so far.
February 3rd-My absolute disaster of a scrapbook desk, this is where my mojo went. It's under all this mess somewhere.
February 4th-Subbed at the intermediate today. Some of the kiddos drew me some pictures and Valentines. They're so sweet at that age.
February 5th-My new bag. I heart shoes, it says. And I really do.
February 6th-Finally got my ID tag for work, so now I'm official! YAY!
February 7th-Finished the Twilight series today. It took me less than a week, and I'm still anxious for more. I guess the movie's next on my agenda.
February 8th-Seemed like a good day for everyone to have pigtails. They didn't last long, but they were still adorable, and I'm glad we did it. At least they left them up through lunch.
February 9th-The dam on the way to Livingston Walmart. We make this drive at least once a week, and it's a sight we see often.
February 10th-Starting making bows today. I'm having a blast. Like I have time for another hobby.
February 11th-Laila had to have shots today, and her daddy told me it didn't go well. She told me "I told the nurse not to do it to me, but she doed it to me, and it hurt!"
February 12th-Attempting to clean off my mess of a desk so I can get my groove back. Picture taken by Laila.
February 13th-Took the kiddos to the doctor today because everyone is sick. We got loaded up with medication.
February 14th-My valentine. Nyquil. This goes down in history as the worst Valentine's Day ever.
February 15th-In an effort to make me feel better, my sweet husband barbecued today. It was deliciously divine, as always.
February 16th-Still sick. This about sums up the entire mood in our household at the moment.
February 17th-Food Network helps me sleep. I love it.
February 18th-My new Paula Abdul-esque bracelet. Of course, mine was much cheaper than hers are, but no one has to know.
February 19th-Leah practicing her girl scout promise and girl scout law with utter and complete enthusiasm. Doesn't she look excited?
February 20th-Laila's pony, Alinda, and the homemade leash she made for her. Taken by one of the children as we were getting ready to go pick up girl scout cookies./
February 21st-They've taken over our home. The girl scout cookies are everywhere!
February 22nd-Freezing ourselves to death all for the good of the girl scouts. We sold 105 boxes today. Not too shabby.

That's all I've got for now. Maybe the pictures will come along at some point.

Nearing the end?

I'm hoping that this nasty sickness I've had is nearing its end because if it isn't, I'm going to find the nearest bus and jump in front of it. Not being able to breathe and not being able to sleep is really taking its toll on me. I cough all day and all night, and it's making me cranky. I'm thinking I might sit at my desk and scrap some today, but being upright doesn't seem to be the thing for me right now, so we'll see how all that goes. I was hoping to catch up on posting my pictures today, but that seems like too much effort. I have to go back to work tomorrow, so I'm trying to conserve my energy. *sigh*

-L

Still kicking...errrr...clicking...

I'm still keeping up with my Project 365. I've come to the conclusion that there's no possible way I have time to sit down at the computer every day and post my pictures. I do intend to post them at some point, but it will have to be in bunches, and it definitely can't be right now. LOL...the only reason I have time to write this is because my kiddo is home from school sick today. She's knocked out on cough medicine right now and that's my only window of time. I'm not working tomorrow either, even though I was supposed to sub at the junior high, but since I'm keeping Laila home from school tomorrow too I can't really go in to work.

That's about all I've got for now. Hopefully I can find time this weekend to make some effort to catch up. If everyone would just stop blogging until I have time to read them all, that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. ;)

-L

So far behind: 19-30/365

Eek! Can I really be over 10 days behind?? Okay, here goes the major catchup.

January 19

The kids didn't have school so I took Lucy and Leah to the park in Livingston to play for a little while. Also took them to CiCi's for pizza and BK for icees. Laila spent the night with her grandparents because it was her turn. LOL..she reminds them of that all the time.

January 20

I subbed at the jr. high this day, and when I came home I found the family outside playing "baseball" with some very creative sports equipment. The "bat" was a pink plastic rake, and they used a whiffle ball for that baseball. Bases were provided by whatever was laying around the yard. It was quite a sight.

January 21

Every night before I go to bed, I get the clothes for the next day laid out on the ironing board so that it's not such a rush in the morning to get everyone ready. Since I started subbing, we have to get up almost an hour earlier to get everyone ready to go and to their designated places on time. Every little bit of time saved helps.

January 22

For the last two weeks, we have eaten, slept, and breathed cookie sales. Leah's goal was 100 boxes, and we have already surpassed that by quite a few boxes. It's been an awesome experience for us to share together. We will definitely do it again!

January 23

Just a simple snapshot of Curtis and me relaxing on the couch. Since I started subbing, we don't see each other very much, so this was one of the few moments during this week that we actually got to sit down and have a conversation.

January 24

Went to a baby shower for my friend Stacie. We had a great time and she got lots of really neat stuff, including the adorable outfit I got for her, which someone else apparently thought was adorable too, because she got two of them.

January 25

One of my very best friends' birthday was today, so I went over to help her try to get moved back into her house (got destroyed in Ike and they're just now finishing the repairs) and give her the book I bought for her. She loves Shel Silverstein, so I bought her Where the Sidewalk Ends, which she's been wanting for a long time. She loved it. January 26

Nothing of note happened today, so I decided to take a picture of my collection, my music boxes, which I've been collecting since I was 16. I've lost count over the years of how many I have, some have broken, I've gotten new ones, and I just recently got a really neat one for Christmas. Some day I'd like to have a curio cabinet to put them in, but I've been saying that for years, so we shall see.
January 27

The hubby had to request that I fold clothes today, as the pile has gotten out of hand. I wish I hired help just to fold the laundry. I don't mind any of the other chores, but that's one that I detest!
January 28

The girls go to AWANAS every Wednesday night. They love going to church and seeing all of their friends and working hard to memorize their Bible verses so that they can be checked off. It gives them a great sense of accomplishment, and makes Mommy proud as well. :)

January 29

We went to El Burrito, a local Mexican restaurant, to celebrate Curtis' 30th birthday with the kiddos. My parents went too, their treat, and we had a good time. Food was delicious as always. I'm so glad he's older than me now! LOL, at least for the next 9 months.

January 30

Career Day at the elementary school. The kids had to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. Leah told me she wanted to be a teacher. So I did the best I could do dress her up that way. Couldn't find a little suit like I wanted, but I did wait until the last minute, so what can ya do? Not pictured is Laila, who had a doctor's appointment, but insisted she wanted to be a princess when she grows up.

Still Here

I'm still here, I'm still taking my pictures, and working furiously to get caught up, but I've started subbing every day and I can't seem to drag myself to the computer at the end of the day to post my pictures. I'll do a photo dump later in the week, maybe Wednesday. I don't have a job scheduled for that day yet. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still on board with the project but I'm uber busy. I'll do my best. Keep on keepin' on in my absence. (Yeah right, like I could stop you.)

18/365: Just Plain Silliness

Not a masterpiece. Just a picture of me and my youngest, Lucy, being silly together. It's been a very low key weekend, we were fighting the boredom.

January 18

Lucy and Mom

15,16&17/365: Homework, Awards, and Daddy's Girl

Got a little behind again. I had to work Friday. I substituted for a 5th grade science teacher. I prefer high school students, so I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't as dreadful and out of control as I expected it to be. After work, I had to run to the grocery store and then we went and visited my MIL. Today has been a very lazy day. No one in the family has felt very well, so we've spent a lot of time resting. So, here's my attempt at 1/2 a week's catch-up.

January 15

Laila attempts to do her homework. We had a very serious discussion about spelling. She wasn't understanding my point of view, and I wasn't quite understanding why she wasn't understanding. Here she's asking me "But Mommy! Why can't the A go in the front?? I want the A in the front!!" Then it doesn't spell Laila, you silly!

January 16

Leah's awards ceremony for the 4th 6-weeks grading period. All A's and the Character Counts award, which means she's had exemplary behavior all year long. If only we could see some of that character at home. I guess I'd rather her be a charmer at school than treat her teachers like she treats her sisters.

January 17

Leah spent most of the weekend at a friend's house, and she was very excited to be home with her parents. Of all three of my girls, she is the self-proclaimed Daddy's Girl. She looks the most like him as well. I like to see them spending quality time together.

14/365: ON HOLD?! *edit* Crisis Averted

In an effort to "help" me, my children have somehow run off with my camera and now I have no idea where it is. I was doing so well with my project! Must find camera!

**Edit**


After I searched the entire house top to bottom, and even asked my 4 year old what she had been taking pictures of when she used Mommy's camera, I started to get a little frustrated. Thinking of all of the time and effort I had spent on this project and then not having a camera to take the pictures in order to complete it brought tears to my eyes. It's silly I know, but PMS is my story and I'm sticking to it. I remember her telling me that she was taking pictures of the computer. Didn't make much sense at the time, but when I started thinking about where the camera could be, I decided to scour the desk from top to bottom, inside and out, to find my camera. Wanna see where it was hiding?

January 14

Found my camera hiding in a BOX inside my computer desk. Not just any box, but a box we don't even use. We don't even use that portion of the desk at all, that's where that box has been sitting there, packed, for the 9 months we lived in this house! Does that seem like the place I would have put my camera when I was done using it? I'm thinking two little hands were involved in this:

The Great Camera Caper of 2009!

13/365

I found a delightful little used book store on my way home from HEB. I had stopped to get a soda at Jack in the Box, so I went the scenic route home, and stumbled across a little treasure!

January 13

12/365: Photo Shoot

My youngest daughter, Lucy and I spend a lot of time together because she's the only child who doesn't go to school yet. My middle daughter, 4, goes to Pre-K half a day, and gets out at 11:30, and my oldest goes all day. So it's just the two of us from 7 am-almost noon. Sometimes we get bored and creative. This morning we opted to channel our boredom into an impromptu photo shoot. **Disclaimer** I in no way claim to be anything close to a professional photographer. I take pictures basically for the purpose of scrapbooking, and that suits me just dandy. I don't plan on making any money off of it, and if the pictures are blurry or poorly lit, well then I just try again. Today I made an attempt, however, to make them look a little less candid, with a minor amount of success. Some of the pictures look less candid, some look very candid, and some are a blur of three year old. But they satisfied my purposes, and we had a good time. That's all that really counts, right?





I want to share all of them, but being the shutterbug that I am, I accidentally took 59 pictures, LOL, and it would take me all day to post them all, so I'll just post the one I plan on using for my P365, and maybe throw some of the others in later.

January 12

Her royal Cuteness and her "mad face"

10&11/365: More than 16 candles and Running on Empty

Okay, this is my final day of catch-up and then I'll be back where I started. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to start posting every day again, but I just got a little behind this weekend because I wasn't home very much. I can't wait to get my page protectors for this project (I will be using the We R Memory Keepers 6 up page protectors from HL) so that I can start putting it together. I had planned on working on my journaling before I got my page protectors, but since I'm essentially journaling here, all I'll have to do is copy what is written here and then put them in the appropriate places. I'm a little confuzzled as to how my half week will work since I started on a Wednesday, and that's the main reason I'm waiting. I think it will be fine, in theory, since the first page of the album and the last page of the album will be half weeks. The week of December 27th, which is the last week of the year, only has 4 days in it until the end of the month, so I should be fine. That will be a single page also, so I am thinking it will work out perfectly.

On with the pictures......

January 10th

On Saturday, we attended a birthday party for my friend's husband, who turned 30 this year. Tons of jokes were made about him getting old, as he's the oldest of the group of friends that were at the party, and it came out that while he was at the grocery store that afternoon, the cashier addressed him as Pops. That was the running joke all evening. It got me to thinking though, that this is what my birthday cake is going to look like in 8 months. Someone call the fire department!!

January 11th
It seems like every time I get in my van these days the gas gauge says the same thing. It's not from traveling too much because I never go anywhere except to the school and the grocery store. And gas prices have gone down, so that's not the culprit either, but all I know is that every time I sit down in the driver's seat I'm faced with an empty tank!

8&9/365: Wrinkles and Beachy Fun

Okay, I find myself playing catch-up here even though I promised myself I wouldn't get behind on this project. It's not necessarily that I'm behind, I've been taking my pictures daily, but I have a slight backlog to post, which is something I definitely didn't want to happen. I mean, realistically we're talking about two days here, but by the time we get through tonight, which more than likely won't get posted until tomorrow, we're looking at three days and then who knows what happens? Okay, enough melodrama...so here's my backlog.

January 8

This is the year I turn 30. I've always had a young face, and always been mistaken for many years less than my actual age, but as the dreaded big 3-0 approaches, I become more and more afraid that I'm starting to...*gasp*...look my age. I think I found wrinkles the other day. My BFF says they're laugh lines, I say what's the difference?

January 9

With our unseasonably warm January temperatures, we've been spending much of our free time down by the lake with friends in the afternoons. We were playing around in the sand one afternoon and I thought it would be fun to make this little piece of beachy artwork in honor of my sweet little girls. It was fun combing the beach for the perfect shells and then putting it all together. May it be unseasonable forever!

7/365: Woozid

We had a squatter in our living room today. We were cleaning up the entertainment center and we found a woozid (lizard, according to 3 year old Lucy) frolicking amongst our dvds. We quickly escorted him outside, but I wanted to take a picture of him before he ran away. Unfortunately, I only got one shot at it, (no pun intended) because my Godzilla 4 year old came trampling outside and scared him away before I was finished with my impromtpu photo shoot. He moved very quickly, but if someone 100 times my size was chasing me, I'd probably hightail it out of there too.

6/365: Movie Madness and Creamy Goodness

Tonight after the children were tucked in snug as bugs in rugs, the hubby and I indulged in some delicious Blue Bell goodness and the new Batman movie. It was an enjoyable evening for just the two of us.

5/365: Fun with Friends

The girls and I got to visit some friends today, and we had lots of fun. We don't get to see these friends too much, because we both have very busy schedules, but we love to get together whenever we can. While my friend and I were in the computer room checking out some new music, Leah was testing out her photography skills, so this picture of the day is brought to you by the aspiring photographer herself.

4/365: Karaoke Divas

Leah the Karaoke Diva and her stunning backup dancer Lucy entertained one and all today with their rousing renditions of Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift. Leah is finally getting over her embarrassment of singing in front of people (evidentally I'm "people" now) and is really enjoying her Christmas gift. I'm really enjoying it to, but don't tell anyone I know all the words to the songs without the screen. LOL

3/365: Unseasonably Warm

The kids and I were outside enjoying the unseasonably warm temperatures (82 on January 3rd...less than a month ago, it snowed. Go figure.) when we discovered an oddly shaped stick.

The kids identified the shape immediately. See if you can. You have to turn your head sideways because my computer wouldn't let me rotate the image. Look <---- that way.

2/365: Long Night

I had quite a long evening last night in preparation for the scrapbooking portion of my Project 365. I sat on the phone with my friend Amanda from VA, who is an hour ahead of me time zone wise, and cut paper until I couldn't keep my eyes open. At almost 3 in the morning, I threw in the towel. 260 4x6 mattes, 365 2.5x3.75 journaling squares, and one very dull cutter blade later, I laid down on the couch and slept.

The "finished" product

L

1/365: Happy New Year

The ornaments have been taken down, stored, the lights have been taken down, untangled 687 times in the process, and packed away. The boxes have been stacked in the closet. It's official: Christmas is over. The new year has begun.






I have decided to revive my blog and use it as a springboard for my upcoming project. I am dedicated and determined this year to complete it. I have always had good intentions for Project 365, but never managed to finish it, or in most cases, even start it. So now I can at least say I started it, even if it ends up incomplete. I honestly think I have the drive this year to finish it.

So away we go!

L