All I Want For Christmas . . .

Krish was so excited to lose his two front teeth this past week. The first one came out on Friday the 21st. The second came out on Tuesday night. He is pretty gung-ho about getting them out once they are loose. He asks us to pull it out with floss. Now he is so proud of his gap!

5 + 22 + 10 = 37

Yes, it's true. My birthdate has finally proven to be cool. For those of you who interact with me face-to-face, you probably know of my number obsession. I love figuring out if a birthdate "works" or not. My own birthdate has been ok--5 + 2 = 7, and 5 - 2 = 3; DH's birthday and mine have a unique crisscross relation . . . but I have always secretly wished it was better.

That said, DH pointed out to me in my birthday card this year that my month/day/year added up to my age this birthday. We thought about it and figured out that it has done so since the year 2000 and will continue to do that until I die. HOW COOL IS THAT??!!



So, now I'm quite happy with my birthdate. And for the rest of my life it will be easy to remember how old I will be that year (I always seem to forget).

This whole number thing drives me a little crazy but for some reason I can't help but try to figure things out. There's no rhyme or reason to my calculations--the numbers just have to work, according to me. If you really want to know if you have a good birthday, according to my calculations, I'll let you know.

But maybe it's better you don't ask. Case in point: Four years ago my friend was expecting a baby. She was due toward the end of the month. Her other girls had been born on the 6th and 15th of their respective months. My friend's birthday is on the 9th of her month. So, 6 + 9 = 15, 15 + 9 = 24. I told her she should have the baby on the 24th. On the 24th she went into labor and headed to the hospital that night. She called me the next morning to happily let me know her baby had arrived on the 24th. She was so stressed out about it during labor and it was almost midnight. She was pushing and saying she had to have the baby on the 24th. After the baby arrived she looked at the clock, it was barely after midnight. She looked at the doctor and asked, "When was she born?" He said, "11:59:59." Phew! She'd made it.

Anyway, that was much more than I needed to say. But it made for an interesting post.

BTW--that pic of me was taken by Bird, my 4yo, on my birthday. It's not my favorite, but it is me, right now, at 37.

Purple Potatoes

Each week we receive an organic produce deliver from Full Circle Farm. Two weeks ago we had purple potatoes in our box. I love the variety of items and the colors that are in the box each week. Anyway, DH whipped them up into some mashed potatoes to have with our steak last Sunday. We had leftovers and put them in the fridge. A few days later I took them out to warm up for dinner. They were blue!

But when I warmed them up they turned purple again! How fun is that?!

And for a side-by-side comparision . . . The kids thought this was so funny! It reminded us of "The Sound of Music" when the kids lie to their father about the strawberries being so cold they turned blue :)

My Little Shoebox cards

Making cards is so fun! When I stopped into the LSS on Friday I saw these cute My Little Shoebox products. We had a die-cut sheet of MLS in our Hip Kit this past month and I thought it was adorable. I love cutting up patterned papers. And little letter stickers--a fave!

A friend just had a baby, we have new neighbors moving in soon, and another friend is getting married next month so these cards will all be very useful.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Card Maps + Paper Posies kit = CUTE!

OK--I totally stole that title from Amy :) Yesterday I wanted to make some cards for a friend who has a birthday on Sunday. I think she likes my handmade cards :) So I grabbed the copy of September 2009 Card Maps and a Paper Posies kit from early last year, and Ta-Da!

I'm a big fan of butterflies so that makes me love these even more! Hope she likes them, too :)

Pressure

I feel so much pressure today. Yesterday afternoon I attended an parent-information meeting at the school. In a few weeks, the 5th graders are going to have some lessons on puberty and adolescence. And a lesson on HIV/AIDS.

I remember in 5th grade having the film telling us how our bodies work. Girls were in one classroom, boys in the other. But I don't remember seeing the boy film. At DD's school they will see both the boy and girl films. Does my 10-year-old really need to know what a "nocturnal emission" is right now? (In the film they also mention the more common name for it).

Then in the HIV/AIDS lesson, not only will they teach about safe sex but they will demonstrate the proper use of a condom. Um, excuse me, my 10-year-old doesn't need to know that yet.

I know lots of parents who have "the talk" with their kids at 8-years-old, or within the next few years. Our approach with DD has been a little bit of info at a time. Instead of sitting down and giving all the information at once, we've taken it step-by-step so she can absorb what we've told her at that time.

But now I feel like we have to do a crash course because of the presentations coming up at school. We can opt her out of the lessons--she would go to the library and work on other health-related issues. But you know her friends will be talking about it.

I'm just not ready. I hate feeling this kind of pressure. I understand there are kids in her class going through puberty right now--but couldn't the sex ed and HIV/AIDS info come next year or in 7th grade?

Maybe I'm just naive. Maybe it is because she is my first child and we haven't been through it before.

Any advice/opinions you can share with me would be awesome!

Smitten

Krish has a "friend" in his class--sweet Vanessa. She has given him notes all through the year. This past weekend was her birthday party. He was one of the few boys she invited. He always gets this sweet little smile on his face when we talk about her. After one of the party games, Krish had a little package of runts. He and Nessa sat in these chairs and shared the runts. It was so cute how she was looking at him.

Next year she is going to a different school because of boundary changes so I'm glad they got to have fun together at her party.

Saturday Morning at Pike's Market

This morning we visited Pike's Place Market. We arrived about 9am, just in time for some yummy breakfast goodies. We didn't exactly have cookies for breakfast but we did get some from Three Girls Bakery to have later. :)Our first stop was at a bakery where we bought some cinnamon rolls, sweet rolls, and cinnamon pull-aparts. Merek loved the pull-aparts. I love all of the fresh produce at Pike's. We didn't get any today though but I still had to take a picture.We cannot got to Pike's without stopping at Daily Dozen Donuts. The kids love to watch the donuts being made. Today was the first time we tried the sprinkle donuts.

My friend, Paige, has told me about the Pink Door in Post Alley. I've wanted to have dinner there with Brad for years but we haven't ever gone. Today we passed by the Pink Door (there is not sign for the restaurant) so I had to take a picture.

It was a little chillier than we had anticipated so after our stroll through Post Alley we stopped at Tully's for hot chocolate. The kids loved the Fred and Ted statues.

We always have to go check out the view from the park. I love seeing Qwest Field and Safeco Stadium. It was too hazy though to see Mt. Rainier today.

The Norwegian Star was docked at the port waiting for cruise passengers to head on up to Alaska. We saw quite a few people walking through the area with suitcases. That ship is HUGE!Merek was happy to get out of the stroller and chase birds.My cute family watching the cars below on the Alaskan Viaduct.

A ferry coming in--a common sight in Elliot Bay.
This duo, called Squirrel Butter, had a really fun twangy honky-tonk sound. The kids had enjoyed listening to them.

The first Starbucks coffee shop is in Pike's Market. It's funny that there is always a line coming out the door here--there's another Starbucks just around the corner. Guess people want to get their coffee from the original location.

We happened to visit Pike's on the same day as the Seattle Cheese Festival. Glad we got there early but it was quite crowded by the time we left. Lots of samples--DH was in heaven :)

Bird wanted to go see the cheese-making process at Beecher's. The picture only shows about 1/3 of the actual tub that the cheese is mixed in. It is really big. The curds get mixed up from the bottom. It isn't very appetizing to watch but the kids love it.

I love to see all of the fresh flowers at Pike's.

So glad to see this entertainer again. He was there a few weeks ago when we visited Pike's with my SIL. I was telling Des about him and, sure enough, he showed up. Two hula-hoops, two guitars, a harmonica, a maraca, and bells on his shoes. Emery Carl is his name, entertaining is his game. It is amazing that he can play, sing, hula hoop, and turn in circles all at the same time.

Just had to take a picture of the Public Market sign. :)

One last stop at the bakery for some bottles of water . . . and more cookies--molasses and pumpkin.

Then we were talked into getting ice cream (we are easily persuaded). Bird got bubble gum.

Miranda had cookies and cream. Lina order Rocky Road (which she didn't finish because she said she had enough sugar already--wow, I need that kind of self-discipline).

Krish and Des with their cookies and cream and double fudge brownie (that's what I got. DH ordered strawberry). We were going to share with Merek but he didn't want ice cream--he just wanted to drink water from the water bottle.

And on the way home, Merek crashed.

We had a fun morning at Pike's. We ate a lot of junk. But we did bring home some yummy cheese, fresh bread, and Copper River salmon to grill for dinner.

If you ever come to Seattle, we'd love to take you to Pike's :)

JMS Blog Hop WINNER!!

Thanks for playing along everyone. I'm so glad you visited my blog. Please come by again!

And the winner of my blog candy is . . .

Sherri!!

Congrats, Sherri (and congrats on your new grandbaby, too!) :)

Please leave me a comment with your email and I'll get your prize out to you right away.

More HIP layouts & Elle's Studio Blog Challenge :)

**JMS Blog Hoppers GO HERE** (today's the last day to comment!!)

Here are two more layouts that I created with the April Hip Kit. This first one also is for Elle's Studio May Blog Challenge
One of my favorite things about spring is Easter. I love seeing the kids all dressed up on Easter morning, dyeing eggs, their excitement of finding the baskets, egg wars, and the reason we celebrate Easter is very important to me. I used an Elle's Studio calendar circle to document the month and year for these Easter photos.

These pictures were perfect to use with the whimsical wavy American Crafts paper. The kids spent several hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon creating this masterpiece chalk drawing. Everyone who came to the house commented about it. I'm so glad that I took pictures of it because after a week and no fading in site, DH made them hose off the porch. (It was causing our hardwood floors to become quite chalky).

My Hip Kit is down to just a few bits and pieces. I may be able to get a few more cards out of it but I'm not sure how soon that will happen--I'm enjoying the sunshine too much :)

It's HIP . . .

2-B Square! The April Hip Kit is chock full of springtime fun :)

In addition to the Baby Mine layout I made for the **Just My Sketches blog hop found HERE**, I made the following projects.

The Design Team used an Allison Davis sketch for our 2-page layout. Each member of the DT also made a set of 4 3x3 mini cards. These were fun to do :)

For the border under the pictures on Hey There Sunshine, I cut 11 1x1.5 rectangles from the dotted paper and then layered them on top of a strip of the dotted paper.

I cut out the inside circle of the MLS die-cut paper for my blue circle. I love that striped October Afternoon paper.

This 2-pager is a Pencil Lines design. It had room for lots of photos so I thought these of Merek would be perfect. I used the brown AC foam Thickers from the February Hip kit for my title.

I have a few more projects to share tomorrow. See you then--I'm off to enjoy some sunshine :)

Happy Mother's Day!

**If you are looking for the JMS Blog Hop go HERE**

I'm so thankful for my five beautiful, healthy children. DH treated me to breakfast in bed--french toast, fruit & yogurt parfait, and sausages.

Lina made me lunch--tuna, sunchips, berries, and chocolates. She is such a sweetheart! After church, DH made an delicious dinner of BBQ ribs, potato salad, fruit salad, and baked beans. And he treated me to Ben & Jerry's ice cream for dessert (he bought 4 different flavors: Cinnamon Bun, Everything But The . . . , Phish Food, and Mint Chocolate Cookie). I received some beautiful artwork from the kids, along with new hand towels, plants and pots, paper towel holder, and a round of golf.

It really was a wonderful day, and the sun was shining all day! :)

JMS Celebrating Mothers Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog! At JMS the DT love their mums/moms and to show our appreciation for everything mothers do we are celebrating mothers in our blog hop this week. I used the April kit from Hip 2-b Square Scrapbooking. The song that inspired my layout was "Baby Mine" by Bette Midler.I've always wanted to do a page with photos of each of my newborn babies. This was the perfect opportunity. Don't laugh at the pics of me though--I'd just had a baby! :)

This is the sketch Deanne provided to us.

The hop officially kicked off Sunday May 9th at 9am (NFLD time) and ends at midnight (NFLD time) on May 14th.

There are 18 stops along the way, some have blog candy up for grabs SEE MINE BELOW (but you'll have to find them for yourselves--we don't want to ruin the fun!).

In your travels, don't forget to collect the words to complete the quote and take it back to Just My Sketches & The Blend to enter the major prize drawing worth $30!

If you have just only found the blog hop here, go back to JMS to the start. If you have been hopping along you will have come from Spardha and your next stop will be Janice.

The word you need to collect from me is:

. . . happiness, . . .

For blog candy, I am offering the following:

To be eligible for my prize, please leave a comment letting me know how a mother or motherhood has blessed your life. :)

Thanks for visiting--hope you'll come back again!

Thankful for inspiration

Sometimes I sit and just stare at my pictures. I want to put them on pages and tell the stories that go along with them. I'm thankful for inspiration through sketches, challenges, online crops, and kits that help me put together pages I love. Here are a few pages I've created recently--with helpful inspirations. This first page was inspired by a Julie Bonner sketch. I used the November 2008 Paper Posies kit, plus some Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type.PS.com's NSD crop had a Flower Frenzy challenge. Thought these flowers would fit the bill :) This layout is a Pencil Lines sketch design. I used the Personal Scrapper August 2009 kit.Paper Posies had a NSD sketch challenge using this May Page Maps sketch, and Personal Scrapper online crop had a die cut/punch challenge. I love this Martha Stewart star border punch! The products on this page are from the March 2009 Paper Posies kit, plus a few more of those CC Tiny Type alphas.AmyInKy held a scraplift challenge over at PS.com. She sent out an original layout and it was passed on to six scrappers, one after the other. This was the layout I made for my turn. I used a WIP kit. So glad to have this story documented.
What are some of your favorite sources of inspiration when you are stuck in your creative process?