the girl who scored some candy

Ok, so the BOYS scored some candy, but you know...a good parent should always supervise their kids' sugar intake. No gum, no really chewy stuff and definately NO CHOCOLATE. It's terrible for kids! lol! Anyway, here are the boys in all their Halloween glory!

Zachary was a zombie pirate. oooooh! Scary! Of course the eye patch only lasted for the picture session, but hey, it was cool. And this from the boy who originally balked at wearing "make-up" It was only after I started calling it "face paint" that he relented.

Here is Ian. He LOVES his batman costume, it suited his shy nature to be behind a cowl, lol! He was the most hesitant about going up to doors, but he got the idea pretty quickly. His picture taking session yielded the fewest photos because he was moving so much! Of course you can't explain to a nearly four year old that Batman doesn't fly...he has a cape, doesn't he? Why wouldn't he be able to fly?

Matthew got the most pictures. He's adorable as Superman. Of course, with his hat habit, it was hard to convince him Superman did not need a Miami Dolphins baseball hat. This is my fave pic of his. ADORABLE!

And here is me in all my witchiness. Yes, I am the booby witch apparently. Not the best pic, but the photographer (DH) was a bit unwilling. Oh well.

All in all, we had a good time. We did a complete loop of the complex and were home by 7. A quick dinner and the boys were put to bed by 8 after being allowed ONE piece of candy. Yes, I am a mean mommy. Of course, it's 9:30 and they are still awake. Time to go persudae them it is in their best interests to go to sleep. Because once they are asleep, I can go to sleep.

And then everyone will be happy!

the girl who butchered a vegetable

two, in fact. All to create my Halloween Masterpiece! Yes, I bring you the CANNIBAL PUMPKIN!!!! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!



I can't take all the credit. Well, none, actually. the idea came from Extreme Pumpkin! Really, if you haven't carved your pumpkin by now, check out this site! It's completely awesome!

the girl who went to the patch!

Went a pumpkin hunting with the little ones yesterday. Ok, let's be realistic, I went to a photo shoot and bought a pumpkin to pay for using their props! Celebration is beautiful, but it's growing closer and closerr together. What used to be quaint is fast looking overcrowded. Beautifully overcrowded, but overcroded just the same. The architecture is just gorgeous, but everything is RIGHT UP AGAINST everything else. A little overload.

We went around 5 after first picking up Coo-Pa. I called Miss Jen before we went because I thought she might like to go and I could help her wrangle her kids and she could help me with mine, but she wasn't home. So Coo-Pa got drafted instead. I could tell he didn't realize what he was getting himself into, poor guy.

There was a wedding that had just ended while we were there. The bride and groom (although it was probably the photographer's idea) were posing in the patch. Somewhere out there is a newly wed couple with pictures of a hyper 7 yo running around, behind, in front of their shot. After my fourteenth "ZACHARY EMERSON!!!" I heard a familar voice say, "Now that's a familiar voice!" lol! Yep, I couldn't get ahold of Jen because she was coming to the patch too! By that time I had my shots and Coo-Pa was reaching the end of his rope (or looking for some to tie the kiddos up with) so we only spent a few min together. But we took pictures of each other';s kiddos! lol! Only scrappers! I must say, Jen has a good scrubby. He held jackets, corralled kids, and made encouraging suggestions. She has him well trained.


I love the pp pics! They came out great, but they made me realize how much Ian needs a haircut! Poor boy! He's cute, but he's all hair! And just try taking a pic with three little boys and get them to all look at the camera at the same time. ONE semi-decent shot. Acceptable, but by no means phenomonal. Oh well, it DOES show their personalities.

Today I have some stuff to do around the house. Namely laundry. It NEVER ends! I also need to get to the store and pick up some stuff to recreate my layouts for Blue Media and get those articles finished. Hopefully I'll get my house clean enough to invite Miss Jen over to help! And now, off to watch all the episodes of Numb3ers that I have saved and get some laundry done!

the girl who hab a code

**sniff!**

**snif!**

AAAAA-CHOOO!

nubbin much gobing ob. mad ab work, but wonb go indo ib.

(nothing much going on. mad at work, but won't go into it.)

Cute Zack story to hold ya over 'till I stop sneezing on my key board:

Taken from his school journal. The assignment was to write a paragraph on how you would make the world a better place.

(grammar, spelling etc mistakes intact for the cute factor)

"The way I would change the world is I'll try to make it rain candy. An other way Is I will try to make it rain toys. An otter way is Ill try to make it rain chochlit. (chocolate)"

now THAT would be a worthwhile contribution!

the girl who is terrible at updating

Yes Jen, I got the hint...eventually.

Ok, so why the long time in between updates? No reason, really, except I realized that I pretty much talk to everyone who reads my blog on at least a weekly basis, so it seemed redundant. But, since this started really as ssort of an ongoing catalogue of events in my life so I'd have sort of a reference library when I started to scrap these events, I guess that really isn't an excuse.

First, the sad bit of rollercoaster I've gone through the past couple days. I've mentioned my Florida Mom's on-going dialysis and hopes for a kidney transplant before. Friday afternoon Mom and Dad got the call that a kidney was available. So I rushed home from work to give them the van. Mom was tested and it was a MATCH! Joy! I went to bed knowing that the next morning, Mom would be getting a new kidney around 8:30 am. Around 10:30, I couldn't stand it anymore and called Dad for an update. That's when I got the news: apparently the kidneys weren't viable and the surgery didn't happen. Mom is understandably upset. Depressed. B;ack hole depressed. Dad mentioned how she didn't want to go to diaylysis that day. Now I'M hrt and depressed and saddened by all of this and it wasn't even a kidney for me! I can only imagine how Mom is feeling--and yet, what do you say? I don't think Hallmark makes a card for this.

A bright spot in my past week has been the return of Jim & Holly to the Hard Rock Hotel. They are comic book artists, Tarot Witch of the Black Rose and School Bites, respectively. They vist HRH every year around Halloween Horror Nights and I love seeing them. I will be so bold as to put them in my "friends" category, even though atm we may be merely acquaintences, that's more my fault than anything else. I have been invited to email and call, and I just haven't pursued it. I have this weird feeling of not wanting to intrude on anyone who has a cadre of fanboys. Don't want to be accused of stalking ya know. I have to admit a girl crush on Miss Holly. I get these alot. There is an inner part of me who has always wanted a wardrobe from Hot Topic and hair courtesy of Manic Panic, and I've just never embraced it. In a sense, Holly lives my inner-goth-girl life for me, so I love her for that. The two of them are such supportive people too! Artists living their dream and they were so encouraging when I bragged about my little successes and showed them some of my work. It just seems so much more important when someone who is a success in a related field is complimentary of your work, ya know? Now some may find it hard to make a connection between Scrapping and Comic books, but it's all art in the end.

Speaking of encouraging my little successes. It's been a good couple weeks for me in that respect. Blue Media has requested two of my layouts for an upcoming idea book. Not only that, but they've asked me to write step-by-step articles for both projects! AND Cantana Books has a call out for AAM pages for their upcoming book, "hip chicks". I submitted some to that call (which isn't over, btw, so get on it!) and I got an email back from them that was very encouraging. Now they didn't request a page for publication, but I'm hoping I'm on their radar so when the calls go out, hopefully I'll be one of those lucky ones with an email in my box.


The boys area as cute and troublesome as ever. Matthew is totally without fear--check out that shiner! No, we have no idea where or how he got it. He just suddenly emerged from his room with it. Boys! That's all I can really say about that. We finally got the results from all of his cardiology appointements, and--well, I'll admit to being disappointed. I had thought that I'd be getting a clean bill of health from the cardiologist, She seemed so encouraging last time. But no, he still has the hole between his upper two chambers and she said there was some small leakage in two valves. Still not at a point where we **need** to worry, but how can I not worry? He's my baby! (For all that he is a little shit too!) And he knows how to work it too!

Ian, of course, is still my little loverboy. Sweet, relatively calm (well, compared to his brothers the Human Tornado and Spaz Boy) and terribly loving, Ian is doing great in school--except for his speech. We still can't understand him even a third of the time. His teacher recommended we get private speech therapy to supplement his speech therapy at school. I tend to think two half-hour GROUP sessions a week just aren't enough for what my little guy needs.


Zachary has recently discovered all things Pokemon, so he's convinced that Pokemon cards are now the end all be all of toys. At least they're smaller than action figures, but we still find them all over the house. He lost ANOTHER tooth and, after taking a good look at his gap-toothed smile, I figured it's time to divorce Aramis and find me a nice orthodontist to marry. There's no way I'm going to be able to afford the braces this kid will need unless I'm sleeping with the provider! lol! He's still reading like a fiend. I'm thinking it's time to get him the EB White collection. Stuart Little, Charlotte's Webb, the Trumpeter Swan. I'm reading Jouhn Irving's "The Fourth Hand" again and there's a bit about these books and the bond they create with children and parents. It reminded me how much I love these books.

Well, there ya go. About a month's worth of blogging condensed to one page or thereabouts. I'll try, but I can't guarantee that I'll be better at this!