happily random

Under the wire

I just got back from Fed-Ex where I delivered my Scrapbooker of the Year entry to be delivered to Creating Keepsakes for Saturday delivery to the tune of $42. Ugh. But I did it. I really did it. At this point, I don't care about winning, I'm just happy it's out of my hands and on its way. I nearly cried when I gave it to the lady. If you only knew what I went through to get it all finished. Now tomorrow I'll just be biting my nails until I get delivery confirmation.

I have officially scrapbooked more this week than I have any other week of my life. I completed 30 layouts and a mini album in the past week. *phew* I'm beat. Only 2 more to do in the next week. That ought to be a breeze by comparison. It's for Scraps Ahoy Idol Contest. Just 2 layouts for this round.... just finished the audition round. It looked like fun, so I decided to participate. I love their site. :)

On a family note, my 7-month-old, Samantha took her first crawling "steps" today. Oh no!!!! ;)

I'm off for some R&R (kids are going to Grandma's)... heading to dinner & a movie. Good day to celebrate. I did it! :)

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

Okay, I know I was complaining about it being rainy, rainy, rainy. Well, be careful what you wish for! The last 2 days it's been 100 degrees and very sunny. EXTREMELY unusual for North Idaho in June. Have I ever mentioned that I am not a fan of summer? I don't mind it warm, but I HATE being hot. And it's hot. And we don't have A/C. And I'm uncomfortable. I kept waking up throughout the night last night because I was hot, so now I'm hot AND tired. And I have a headache. Ugh. Okay, the rain isn't looking so bad now. LOL.

On a positive note, I'm finished with all my 'required' scrapbooking. My design team work is finished and mailed off, my Junkitz entry is submitted and I finished and mailed that assignment I had to do. I completed 20 layouts and a mini album in 3 days. Yes, I know, you're in awe. And I'm exhausted.

What I haven't finished is my Scrapbooker of the Year entry. Don't know if it's going to happen now. I'm going to keep working on it, but I might just have to pass. Which I HATE to do. I know if I don't enter I'll wonder, "What if?" But I am SOOOO tired. These last few days of late nights and heat have taken their toll. But I remind myself, I can always sleep once my entry is done, right?

I was going to whine some more about the state of my life, my dislocated toe, the swimming pool I just bought Monday and that the dogs got into and popped last night, but I'll stop now. I'm actually feeling better and don't want to be a downer.

I listened to a message a couple days ago by Lucy Swindoll on Focus on the Family (they have a Podcast... awesome!) that was so encouraging. It was about how life is what you make it. Savour the moments. Take a risk. It was really enlightening. When I find myself getting into the "wo is me" thoughts, I just stop the process and start thinking of all my blessings. I really do have a wonderful life, even if it is hard. How could it not be? I have FOUR kids. LOL.

Speaking of podcasts, one of my favorites is called Manic Mommies. 2 working moms in Boston. I always feel like I've just had a gab with my friends when I listen to it. I just love podcasts. I think that's what I listen to on my iPod 95% of the time.

I'm making headway...

I got 10 design team layouts done yesterday and finished my entry for Junkitz contest. Wanna see? Here's my entry. :) Click on them for a bigger view.

I'm pretty happy with how my entry turned out. And what's better, it's done, it's sent and they got it. Ball's out of my court there.

Now, back to my design team work! :)

Scrapbook swamp

I shouldn't even be writing this right now. I really don't have the time. I have 25 layouts to finish by Wednesday. Really? How did I get so busy? Like I said, it's always feast or famine for me in this industry. Why is it that everything always hits at once? For example, CHA is right when the deadline for CK's Scrapbooker of the Year contest is due. So I have all my CHA stuff plus my entry to SBOTY to finish up. And then on top of that, I decided to enter Junkitz Designer Draft contest, which is due Monday. Oh, and I got an assignment that I couldn't pass up last week (I finished that one already though). So I counted them up and I have 25 things to do. I am swamped.

Why do I always wait till the last minute? I am a master procrastinator. I can't seem to work unless a deadline is looming. But this time really wasn't my fault. SBOTY I have been working on here and there for the last 2 months. CHA stuff I just got in the mail so I couldn't get it done until now. The assignment just came up last week. And Junkitz Designer Draft... well, I had decided not to enter, but then I changed my mind. I love Junkitz stuff and would just love to work with them. :) So really, it isn't all my fault. Oh, and did I mention I have 4 kids to take care of and a husband who just worked a 90 hour work week?

So please keep me in your prayers that I can get all this finished. A week from today it'll all be done...

Bandaids

It must be universal. Either that, or genetic. My kids LOVE bandaids. It starts when they're about 2, which means Tyler is right in the middle of it. Any fall, scrape or not, requires a bandaid to make it feel better. And of course, not any bandaid will do; there must be characters on it. For Ty it's Spiderman, but I think that's because that's what Lucas likes. Or Dora. He loves Dora (why oh why can't they make Diego bandaids? or at least not pink Dora bandaids?) For Rebekah it was Disney Princesses. Lucas loved Spiderman, as I've mentioned. As Rebekah and Lucas got older, it was easier to explain to them that only BLEEDING cuts need bandaids. But Tyler can't be convinced, and neither could the other kids when they were his age. So he ends up wandering around looking like he took a tumble down a steep hill. What no one knows is that there is no actual cuts underneath those bandages.

And then there is Lucas and Rebekah who have both taken tumbles down steep hills this week. On different days both of them have tripped and wiped out. Both of them scraped both knees, one a lot worse than the other, and one elbow. Lucas even managed to cut his lip in the fall. Poor kids. And of course Tyler, not to be outdone in the bandaid department tripped on the stairs and without injury but insisted on as many bandaids as his siblings. I really ought to by stock in BANDAID brand. LOL.

It's that 'season.' Summertime = shorts = scrapped knees. It makes me want to put them all in pants and long sleeves all summer.

ETA: They really need to invent something that releases the stickiness of bandaids to make them easy to take off. I'm tempted to get out my Undu...

Cosleeping and garage sales

Don't I have some cute kids? Okay, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about today, but I just had to share this photo. It's not easy to get a picture of all of them with pleasant looks on their faces (and Ty without his thumb in his mouth), so I had to share. Gosh, I love them.

Anyway.... I cosleep with my kids. No, no, no, not all of them. I don't think they make a bed big enough for that! LOL. I coslept with all of them when they were babies. I'm cosleeping with Samantha right now. Well, not right now. LOL. I never thought I would share sleep with my babies. Never. Babies belong in a crib in their own rooms, right? This is what I thought before I had my kids.

When I was pregnant with Rebekah we bought this beautiful crib with custom-made bedding. Her room was the loveliest shade of green with a window seat and bookshelves that my husband built. And she didn't sleep in there until she was 10 months old. Rebekah was born 5 weeks premature and was so tiny. Just 6 lbs. And she would not be parted from me. Really, she wouldn't. If I put her down she would cry and cry. I guess that I could have tried, but I was a new mom who had just had an emergency c-section and an early baby that nursed every two hours. I was wiped out. So she slept with me. Right on my chest actually. She was so small! As she got bigger, she just moved beside me and there she slept until she was 10 months old.

Lucas only last 5 months in our bed. Tyler was 8 months. Samantha is 7 months and I'm still happy cosleeping with her. Basically the babies stay in our bed until I start sleeping worse with them than I would without them. Samantha is a great cosleeper, just up once a night, which I usually don't even remember. I just nurse her in bed and off I go, back to sleep.

No, I have never rolled over on my kids. Neither has my husband. I have a bedrail on my side of the bed so she doesn't roll off onto the floor. She just snuggles up next to me and there she sleeps. She's a little heat-seeking missile. LOL. It has never been that hard to move them to their own cribs when the time is right. Just a few tears... most of them mine.

I really never thought I was that mom. You know, the cosleeping, sling-wearing type. Turns out I am. I even did cloth diapers for my first 2 kids. Yes, really. My second two wear Pampers. Not that I love them less, I just don't have as much time for it like I did with just 1 or 2 kids.

So Samantha and I cosleep. As I snuggled up with her last night I realized that we only have a few months left. Even if we share sleep until she's 10 months, that's only 3 more months. *sigh* She wakes up so cheerfully... I just love seeing her smiling face when I wake up in the morning. I love her snuggling up in the crook of my arm. But Samantha is our last child, so it's hard thinking that these moments are so quickly fleeting. I have a hard time moving from moment to moment in our lives, watching my kids get older and move further and further away from me. Moving out of my bed into their own cribs is just one of many rites of passage in my home. They just grow up too fast, don't you think?

I think feel a layout coming on....

Subject change: Garage sales are a big thing here in North Idaho. Maybe it's because we have actual weather as opposed to when we lived in So Cal and it was always sunny and warm. I never went garage saling, and there really weren't that many anyway. Here we have a warm season and along with that is the garage sale season. I have definitely caught the bug. Friday mornings I open up the Nickel's Worth and search out the sales that interest me. Today is no exception. So I need to get to it. Have a great Friday!! :)

We have lift off!!!

So I'm just sittin' here on the couch doing a little online shopping. Samantha was rolling around playing on the floor when all of the sudden she just pushed herself into a sitting position!! Of course I practically threw my computer off my lap so I could grab the camera. She fell over as I was getting it (of course), but quickly did it again. So I got pictures of her second time sitting alone. She'll be 7 months old in 3 days. My baby is growing up!!

And on an unrelated note, Gymboree is having their Red Hot Dot sale, so I'm a little distracted this morning. I don't know how long it's actually been since I've been through the doors of a Gymboree... Christmas I think? It's really hard to drag four kids to the mall. But I love their website. I think 90% of my kids clothes are from there, with the other 10% from Target, Old Navy and the Gap. Yep, I'm hooked. So if you're love Gymboree like me, their sale is on WITH Gymbucks! :)