wet FEATHERS

that is what I would have if I were a duck and the eight inches or more of rain we have received this month are perfect if you happen to be a duck. However, I am not a duck, I do not like wet, ruffled feathers and I would LUV to actually see the sunshine again BEFORE i go back to school next week.

Okay, I digress, it has been a bleary couple of days around here. The pool is about to overflow, but that has allowed me to get a BUNCH of scrappin organizing going on. I ordered some more of the Pioneer albums that I am using for my Photo Freedom organization and I have filled the six I already have. I am luvin it.

I packed ALL my stuff for the crop this weekend and it is ready to be loaded in the car to go on Friday.
Aunt Sue got thru her colonoscopy this morning just fine and got a good report. YEAH. I did not enjoy driving her there at 6 am........can NOT remember the last time that I was on the road at that hour of the day, but it was well worth it.

I am looking forward to a weekend away and catching up with Helen, Miami Dawn and "Big Amanda". (she joined us for CEC and Target last night too). Joshy luvs his Big Amanda.

Verizon never even showed up yesterday which is not like them. THey are usually pretty good with customer service and were more than apologetic this morning when I finally spoke to them. They promised to be here between 8-10 am on Friday...........hope so.

I hope to run by school tomorrow and drop off another car load of stuff, including the Battle Books I have been attempting to read this summer. I haven't accomplished as many as I had hoped, but that is fine. I will get thru them all in plenty of time.

Well, wish there were something xciting to report, but that is probably a good thing. I have been up since 3am with a scathing sinus headache so I am going to take my meds and crash.

Let's hope for SUNSHINE tomorrow........and Friday. I hate driving long distances on po dunk roads in the rain.

Happy Hump Day Duckies.

I admit that I start and end most of my days reading blogs. I will also admit that it "bothers" me sometimes when I go to a blog I check daily and it hasn't been updated in DAYS, sometimes WEEKS and then there are those that haven't posted since XMAS.

While I am nowhere near as guilty as some, I realized this morning that I hadn't posted since last Thurs so I am going to attempt a catch up. Not too much going on which is why i am guessing that I didnt' get around to posting.

We had a nice weekend. Saturday we went to Jeffrey's 2nd birthday party at the spray park. OMG did the kids have fun. The black clouds held out long enough for them to really enjoy themselves. GR-8 party Lauren. Joshy was thrilled to play with Nina and Julia again. Twice in one week. What a lucky guy.

Saturday evening was amazing. I know this sounds silly coming from a 40+ year old woman but we got tickets to the Backyardigan's Live on Stage. We had fabulous seats in row "D" and the entire row in front of us belonged to the family of the wonderfully talented singer/actress playign the lead role of Uniqua........Okay I am laughing as I type how silly this sounds but for those of you that watch the Backyardigan's, this live show did not disappoint. My son was enthralled the ENTIRE time. He was mesmorized. They had the audience involved and at the end my kid was up and dancing in the aisle.(as were most others).
AWEsome show and I will tell you that it was so nice to see so many families there together.....all different races, colors, ethnicities. VERY well done performance.

Yesterday I had the chore of running errands around town-Wal Mart, Home Depot, Dollar Tree, Michael's, Verizon and some more I am sure. It was kinda nice to have a few hours to myself and the best part of it all was going to Verizon Wireless to have John's phone turned off. YEAH. contract fullfilled........$$ in our pocket.
Now some of you might know how much I HATE my chocolate phone. It is awful but I was not go ing to spend the $139 to upgrade early.
Well, this led to that and so on and so forth and by the time I left Verizon with my new motorola phone(that is PURPLE) i got it FREE and now save 15% off of my portion of the bill. So I walked outta there saving money woo hoo and got the phone service in my name with NO deposit.(which thanx to a certain someone many years ago who shall remain nameless), was a BIG deal for my credit.

So a quick catch up. Going to run over to school this morning and drop off the "stuff" that has been accumulating in the back of my car and then some more work to be done on the crop.
Miami Dawn & I did a whole lotta brainstorming last night on the phone and we will do even more when we meet up on Friday before the crop.

Have a great Monday-no it is NOT an oximoron..........

what a difference

a day makes!!

i truly thought that i would lose what was left of my mind yesterday....juts NOT a good day all around.
but today was like a different child woke up. he listened, followed directions and only went to time out once-lol.

it also helped that we got out of the house. we went over to my former teammate Patty's house. BEAUTIFUL house in Tarpon.......Joshy had so much fun playing with her two girls, Nina and Julia. It is amazing how well the 3 of them play together. Nina is going to start K in a few weeks and Julia is about 6 months younger than Mr. Joshua.

They were NOT happy when it was time for us to go so Patty and I had to schedule another playdate for before school starts just to get them to put the choo choos away. LOL.
My former teammate Lori was there too and after watching 3 rambunctious kidlets run around like crazy, she proclaimed that she was NEVER having children. I could empathize with her. LOL.

I tell you, I am not sure how people who have multiple kiddos so close in age handle it, but I guess they do it pretty well. I for one, am tooooo darn old for that. So, I will be thankful for the one I have and often be even more thankful that he is JUST one. LOL.

Dh got home at a reasonable hour tonite for the first time in a couple of weeks. We actually all got to eat dinner together for a change. I KNOW that he is working hard esp. with his buildings with new office managers and he got thru the audit they had yesterday. So, I am not complaining.

Well, the pool is calling my name so I think I will end here and go jump in and try to relax a bit .

Happy Thursday and hoping to get some scrappy time in SOON.

STAY @ HOME MOMS

can someone PLEASE tell me how you do it????????????????????????????

i am NOT kidding.

when we are home with no company, i feel like I am going to LOSE IT!!! my precious, adorable, ds(not so darling at this very moment) moves from one room to the other creating NON STOP destruction.

i can't seem to get him to clean up anything he does. if i "help" clean/pick up, he will, only to move to the next room and DESTROY it. i just literally threw half of his stuff downstairs in the trash and my heart is racing and I CAN NOT WAIT TO GO BACK TO WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

any and all advice is appreciated. someone, anyone PLEASE................

LISTEN

to what your body is trying to tell you.
when it is nearly 100 degrees outside and you are under the covers feeling "cold" and chilled-when u put on warm footie socks cause your feet feel like frozen popsicles, chances are-YOU ARE GETTING SICK!!

you would think after all these years, I would know that......duh.
so, I woke up this morning not feeling cold anymore, but feeling like i am getting a cold. YEAH.

so, i will try to take it easy today-yeah, that is likely to happen-NOT. back to bed for me..........

lifted from Ginni

I CASED this from Ginni's blog. (CASED by the way is a scrapbooking term that means Copy and Share Everything.)
1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Your significant other? working
3. Your hair? desp. in need of a GOOD cutting
4. Your mother? birth mother, Ft. Lauderdale, step mother, Hallandale
5. Your father? in my heart. he left me on jan. 27th, 2004
6. Your favorite thing? sunning myself
7. Your dream last night? ???
8. Your favorite drink? coffee
9. Your dream/goal? prof. fundraiser
.10. The room you’re in? kitchen
11. Your church? Jewish
12. Your fear? not living to see my son grow up
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? xactly where i am
14. Where were you last night? Aunt Sue's
15. What you’re not? PERFECT
16. Muffins? OK
17. One of your wish list items? Alaskan CRUISE
18. Where you grew up? New Jersey/Miami
19. The last thing you did? finished a layout
20. What are you wearing? t-shirt and ratty jean shorts
21. Your TV? HUGE
22. Your pets? 5 pekingese pups and a tank full of fish
23. Your computer? HP laptop
24. Your life? exhausting
25. Your mood? good
26. Missing someone? Daddy
27. Your car? Tucson 2007
28. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
29. Favorite store? Too many to list
30. Your summer? chaotic, LOTS of family but nearly over
31. Like (love) someone? LOTS
32. Your favorite color? PURPLE
33. Last time you laughed? every day. I live with a cutie patootie 3.5 year old
34. Last time you cried? not sure
I tag MIAMI DAWN!!

LONG time

since I have posted, I know.
That should tell you that something is going on. Internet connection is just fine, as am I and all that I am close to.

It was an incredibly BUSY BUSY long weekend. Cousin Jaime arrived last week to celebrate Aunt Sue's birthday. Step-mom arrived as did my Colorado family. We spent much time at the pool(s)(mine and hers), Adventure Island water park and at the beach. Thankfully the weather gods heard my pleas and we had glorious sunshine the entire time. YEAH.

Colorado(soon to be VA) family left way too early this morning and everyone else left last night.

I am DEAD tired and hoping for a great day of relaxation. I have laundry to do and get to the grocery store at some point. I might just go now while I have a little bit of energy(not very much) and then chill.

Back to school is weighing heavily on my mind and all that it entails. I am actually QUITE excited and the pirates(our theme for the year) are "ARRRGING" in my mind.

Well, the shower is calling me as is a cute lil guy who already misses his cousin, Amanda.

TTFN.

I will start by wishing Miss Linda and Barb a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Two great women sharing a birthday........and of course, both are Cancers!! Gotta luv the crabs.

Aunt Sue's birthday is also this week, another amazing woman.

I have finally unpacked and gotten very used to being home again. Like I have said before, "Luv vacations, but luv coming home too".

Our tropical paradise has turned into a rainy swampy mess outside. I do not think that I have ever seen our side yard so saturated. It is awful and dreary and I could def. use about a week of nothing but FL sunshine, so bring it on.

My sister and her youngest arrive tomorrow evening and have ordered some FL weather so that we can go spend time at the beach, AI and the pool. Hope the rain GODS are listening-pretty puhleeze.

I have spent about three days TOTALLY going thru ALL of my random photos laying all over the place and have nearly finished categorizing and organizing and becoming Photo Freedom-ed.
Let me tell you, it feels GOOD!!
Now if I could just get the rest of the scrappy stuff all organized and put away, I would be one happy camper.

I will attempt to do some more tomorrow and then the rest of the weekend will be FULL of family and houseguests. I am thrilled they are coming to visit and so is Joshy. he just luvs "little Amanda" as he calls my niece. They are very cute together and due to their upcoming move, only the "girls" are coming down while the guys stay in Colorado and attempt to begin packing and whatever needs to be done to move across country.

Everything else is going quite well. The MS Crop 4 Hope 08 is promising to be the biggest and best one ever. The response is overwhelming and some of the stuff we have planned is going to knock your socks off, but alas, I can't let it all outta the proverbial bag, just yet. Suffice to say, I am very xcited and it is going to be unreal.

Hope that everyone arrived safely in Chicago for CHA. I am vowing to NOT be too tempted with all of the fabulous finds they report in to us as I have wayyyyyyyy toooo much "stuff" at this point in time and very little budget to play with until I go back to work and have an income again.

Okay, off to figure out what we are going to do for dinner around here. That is one thing I do not like about being home, I admit it.

TTFN,
Scrappin Jax

Home Sweet HOME!!

There is nothing like a good vacation, which we most DEF. just had 9 days of, but to be 100% honest, there is NOTHING like coming home!!

I am a homebody and I luv my home, so sleeping in my own bed last night was a pleasure!! Mind you, after 13 hours on the road, I would have been happy to be sleeping anywhere that wasn't dh's car. LOL.

Seriously, we had a wonderful trip-full of lots of adventure. I promise to share some pics as soon as I am recuperated from it all and unpacked.

Thank GOODNESS for relatives that can be counted on. Aunt Sue called several times the other day to say it was hotter inside my house than it was outside. Now admittedly, I DID turn the thermostat up to 80 degrees and left ceiling fans on-thinking that was fine for the pooches.

Well, it was 98 degrees INSIDE my house, so clearly the a/c was NOT working. Got ahold of the company that I USED to have a service contract with(of course that had xpired), but $333 later our a/c is working again.

Once again, thank goodness for relatives you can count on. I can NOT live w/o air conditioning and Momma Bailey apparently wasn't luving it either.

All is well and I will post more when I have recuperated. We have a few down days before the Colorado clan arrives for a LONG weekend and Aunt Sue's birthday. My summer is flying by.

I NEED to scrap.
Jax

Thursday

Well, I just returned from the funeral of my teaching partner's father. It was very emotional for me(anyone losing their daddy) but it was actually quite a funny celebration of his life. He was apparently quite a character!! I had never met him, but it is clear that he will be terribly missed by many. My heart breaks for Charlotte and I know that the enormity will not hit her until everyone has gone home and Helen and I will surely be there to help her pick up the pieces. We told her hubby to call us when she has hit the bottom and we will continue to check in with her.

I am nearly all packed for our vacation. I have just a few more things to cross off my list and put into the suitcase or travel bag. I am oh so ready to spend a week up in North Carolina doing nothing. Helen just returned from there and says that we will LUV it. I can NOT wait.

So, hope that everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July and a fabulous week that follows. I am bringing my laptop with me, so I will try to post some pics and update during the week. I expect the photo ops will be plentiful.

Until then, enjoy your family and hug those you luv a little tighter.
Jax

MELTDOWN

OMG, in the last three and one half years, I have certainly learned MANY things about being a parent that I never thought I would. The first thing is for certain that I can actually be a good parent. You see, I had SUCH a bad role model that i never thought I would be able to.

However, my child just had a FULL FLEDGE total and COMPLETE meltdown in a store and I could NOT believe that it was MY child doing what I have watched other children do for so many years. I became the person that every single person in the store was saying in their heads or outloud for that matter, "Get that screaming child out of here". Except that I couldn't just scoop him up and go cause I had something at the front register to xchange and of course this all occured in the farthest back corner of the store.

I must say that I was proud of the way that I handled it, but WOW, that was truly a test I never want to have to sit thru again.............

Have a fabulous hump day everyone.

I was so dead tired yesterday, dragging allllll day and cranky from lack of sleep over the weekend. however, i am feeling better so far this morning.

i went to my doc yesterday to get a new rx for cholesterol meds. he gave me a month of samples while i was there which helps the bank acct a bit. i go back for blood draw in a month and hopefully this will bring it down some.

i did empty my car out finally of all my stuff. gosh, there are piles that you can not even imagine in my scrap room right now. i can't like it but really do NOT have time right now to go thru it all and put it in it's proper place.

i failed to mention that when i walked in my house on sunday, i literally said outloud, "am I in the right house?" you see, while the aunt and nanny were spending time with the kiddo on sunday, dh took it upon himself to de-clutterfy(is that a word?) the ENTIRE kitchen..........i mean the bill holder, the impt papers in the files, the bakers rack, you name it and it is GONE from my kitchen.
Now most people would say, wow, what a great guy. and i do NOT disagree. however, just like my father and his piles of crap on his desk that NO ONE was to ever touch, my kitchen desk may have been cluttered, but until sunday, i knew xactly where everything was. I knew where my bloodwork results were, my prescriptions to be filled, my bills to be paid, okay so you get it now.
while he truly was trying to be helpful and i DO appreciate it, I am going to have to spend a great deal of time that I don't truly have at this point trying to re-organize everything he decided needed to be somewhere. I told him I appreciated his efforts and knew what he wanted to accomplish, but I wished he had waited for ME so WE could have re-organized. Now i understand how my dad felt.

Speaking of dad.............yesterday was a HUGE day of emotion about daddy for me. You see, my teaching partner, Charlotte lost her 56 year old father last night when the family made the decision to remove life support. I talked(really just listened) for over 40 minutes yesterday about how she felt and what she should be doing/feeling at that point. She knew in her heart that the decision was going to be what it ended up being. I cried for her, I cried for her family and I cried for myself.
Her dad will not be here to see her 9 month old take his first steps..........but he will see. She believes there is a reason and a purpose for everything(as I do) and she hopes that ultimately she will know the reasoning behind all of this.

I pray for her and her family right now and hope that she realizes just how much she is loved. Mostly, and I know this firsthand, she DOES know how proud her daddy was of her as a person, daughter and now as a mother. It just hurts w/o measure how much losing your daddy can break your heart.
Hugs to you my friend and may your daddy be free of any and all pain now,

Have a good day all and say a prayer for Charlotte please.