Scribbles 'n Scraps

Reminiscing is something I have found myself doing a lot lately. Mostly because we have been cleaning out storage and boxes from years ago. It wound up motivating me to get my extra hard drive cleaned up. So this morning I was milling through some videos I took of my kids.

This one:

And this one:

These songs tend to make me feel almost sad, since I realize how fast my kiddos are growing up. My daughter is the one in this video, and I know exactly where she is in both. She was in 2nd grade when she performed this concert, and she had a speaking roll which I did not upload. I just started thinking about how badly I not only want to preserve this concert for her, but how much I want her to know how excited I was for her back then (which I have done in journaling) and then I almost want her to know how it feels today (three years later) looking at that video and hearing those words. Guess I better get busy.

Oh, and for anyone who cannot understand the lyrics. The first song is called Possibilities and the second song is called Big Dreams. The lyrics are below.

This is what the whelping/bed looks like now.

Two days of snow days for the kids and no work for me, because it takes everything I have to concentrate. I’ll be up late again tonight trying to stay afloat. I love snow, but I hate bad weather and I’m starting to not love snow days as much. Actually I was super happy about yesterday, today not so much. LOL We did have a great time, we made seasoned popcorn on the stove, cookies and other snacks. Today we are going to do cookie layer brownies. So yummy. (you’ll be able to see them here once they are done.)

Here’s my world today:

Okay, and I’m a weirdo. I take this same shot every year of my neighbors shed. I just like how it looks. I know I’m weird.

I need to go outside and get a shot – this was through my back window, so it doesn’t look as good as it usually does. I’ll get out there later. It’s just too freakin’ cold. LOL

I probably shouldn’t have used the word crap in my blog title, especially since for the most part this is a pretty PG-13 blog, and I can only imagine what in the world, kind of keyword searches will bring weirdo’s here. LOL

A few things:

Update on Brie: We have heard absolutely nothing and I am a bit perturbed – I put a call in middle of last week and have not gotten a call back. Guess what’s on the top of my TO DO list tomorrow morning. Yeah. Anyway, she is feeling great, you’d hardly know we went through any of that two weeks ago. Unfortunately, I am still a bit jumpy so any change in her coloring, her eyes, etc. and I get all panicked. LOL Honestly, she is doing great – thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts and well wishes!

Update on this site: I was scanning back a couple of weeks and realized it had been a VERY long time since I have shared ANY of my layouts, cards and other stuff on here. That is what this blog was designed for, but I know I use it mostly as a personal writing outlet. I’ll get back there really soon, as I have set my scrap area back up and am almost done getting organized.

Update on the Wii: I seriously had no idea how much fun that system would be. I am such an addict, as are my kids. If you don’t have Outdoor Challenge, I strongly recommend you get it. It’s a full body, outdoorsy game with tubing, kayaking, trampoline jumping, jump roping, running, hurdling, boarding and so much more. It is probably our favorite game. I’m still a Wii Sports addict, but now that we have Outdoor Challenge, it honestly sits collecting dust. LOL I also really like Mario Party 8 which I had no clue I’d like. LOL Weird, I know. I’m excited because I finally got the Wii to connect to the Internet after giving up early on when we got it. So now we can d/l the games that are there. And if you don’t have the free Check Mii Out downloaded – you really should get it. It kept my kids entertained for over and hour while they went through and checked all the different Mii’s out and then guessed who they were. It was hilarious – and to whoever made the few Mii’s we picked to download – you guys rock – they were so good!

So, I think that’s about it. I’ve got some scrappin’ to do and really want to post some stuff on here showing off what I’ve been up to so I need to get back to layouts.

~Hugs and Stuff~

Our Christmas was absolutely wonderful this year, however it ended with a twist. (photos included) First of all, I only wanted two things other than that, I really needed/wanted nothing and would have just been happy with some scrapbooking stuff. I actually didn’t get any, but I got a check so I could order my own – that’s even better. The only two things I wanted, was a specific coffee maker, and a specific bread machine. I’m not too picky – really. LOL Both were WAY expensive and seriously not anything I intended to receive. In fact, I really didn’t think my mom could pull it off before Christmas, since I only told her about a week and a half before and they needed to be ordered. Well, I got both and I will share in another post about what and how they are. In the meantime, this was my Christmas Night:

The repercussions of a UTI gone bad. It was spreading to her Kidney’s and her fever was almost 105. It was nuts, but she is feeling SO much better, and we have a pediatricians appt. in the morning as a follow up and we are hoping to begin working towards figuring out why she gets them so often. It’s terrible for this kid.

She had what the nurse coined “sick eyes”. She said it made her sad to see kids with sick eyes, and boy did Brie ever have them. She looks like she has a black eye, but honestly she didn’t. They were just that pink around them. The right eye (your left) was WAY worse than the other.

Again, she is doing so much better – two antibiotics, a pain med and plenty of Tylenol for good measure. Oh, and way more water than she’d like to be drinking (I’m not complaining at all!)

I love my son, I really do. But there are just some days where I love the ability to humiliate him. If you knew him, you would love it too. He takes great pride in being as silly and goofy as he can be, even when it is not appropriate. In addition, he takes more pleasure than I’d like, in seeing other people humiliated. So, with that said, here is my son in my daughter’s pink jacket. Isn’t he cute?

I love you Rye, I really do!

I promised in this post that I would update with clear photographs of the ornaments my two youngest made at my mom’s house last month.

This one is Brielle’s (age 10) and for the most part she did do it all by herself. My mom taught her shading awhile ago, and showed her how to first draw it and then my mom helped her a bit with the eyes. My mother is an artist and has every brush imagineable so many of the features were done with certain brushes. I was really impressed. Who is the girl she painted? Nobody actually knows. Including her. LOL

This one is Jesse’s (age 9) and she did this side the red with green polka dots and the other side is green with red polka dots. It seems simple, but looks really cute on the three. She’s still learning art techniques, and hasn’t been working with my mom as long, but I the ornament completely reflects her and her personality.

So there’s our two ornaments that are new to our tree this year. The kids always get new ornaments on Christmas eve, so that night there will be five new ones.

Brielle is finally riding again. We found her a great barn (quite by accident actually) run by this amazingly wonderful lady that I just adore, as does Brielle (which is the important part). So letting go of our old barn, was a blessing in disguise even though it felt like the end of the world to all of us (we miss the horses and many of the friends we made). After her former trainer left (much better job opportunity in the show circuit), we just couldn’t get into the new instructor. Riding wasn’t fun anymore.

Brie had her first lesson Wednesday night at the new barn and it was awesome. We are back to private lessons (they are FAR cheaper than the other location) and I am doing some marketing and web design work for her to get them even more discounted. Woohoo!

It was just really nice to see her on the horse again. I plan to keep updated on the pics and video as time goes on.

This is Sassy just before Brie got on her for the first time. She is a very smooth walk and trot, but Brie was a bit unsure about the whole bumpy canter thing. LOL We are so happy to be back in a barn again.

With the gas prices finally making a slow decline, it doesn’t feel quite as tight as it did, but we are still watching where every single penny goes and making sure we are living comfortably. I don’t think I ever knew I’d wind up as frugal as I am.

I don’t know what kinds of things your family does to be frugal, but we:

• cook nearly every single meal from scratch.
• keep the heat and/or air conditioner off and open the windows to get cool or layer our clothing to stay warm.
• have all unused appliances unplugged from the walls – do you know that even if something is turned off, it still draws energy? Yeah – unplug it.
• try to make only the necessary doctor and dentist visits and not go overboard or act a bit over protective (which I am know to be sometimes).
• spend loads of family time together rather than worrying about how much money we are spending on fun things, etc.
• purchasing items online we might not otherwise have purchased such as eyeglasses and other products.

The cool thing about ordering eyeglasses online is the quick and efficient way you can do it and they are so much cheaper than going and dropping $100-$200 at an optical shop. Face it, eyeglasses are expensive and if you shop online, you get a much better deal!

So what are you doing to be frugal in this money pinching economy?