the girl who is upping the ante

doing time
The only punishment that seems to sink in with Mr. Matthew--the corner

"G"
Eli and his GranMary

Pumpkin Angel
My little bit snoozing in the Pumpkin Patch

Trouble
Self-explanatory, don't cha think?

So there! That's TEN layouts in 2 days. Although, only 8 that I am happy with. I believe tonight will end the competition and we shall see who is victorious! Although, in a way, we all are because we all will have accomplished something scrappy. I have a few more in my head just begging to be let out, so let's see what happens tonight!

the girl who is ready to RUUUUUUUUMBLE!

So the Jens and I, (Princess and Jen Jen) gave ourselves a little challenge this weekend. Since, sadly, none of us has been scrapping much lately (and you think I would be at least considering...) we challenged each other to see who could create the most layouts this weekend. The Jens obviously forgot that I really rise to the occasion when challenged. Nothing like a little competitive spirit to make me hop to it.

We are all donating to a scrappy stash to be awarded to the winner and this is my contribution:


A few of my favorite scrappy things: shiny brads, cool paper flowers, some delish Hambly rub-ons, a transparent title, and my favorite go to stuff--various epherma and buttons!

I think I might have an advantage here--I can afford to let housework stuff slide and stay up really late because I don't have work to worry about on Monday!

So behold what I accomplished last night:

tenacity
Very much on the simple side for me. I may have to go back and tweak it some more. (i.e. add more junk to it)

one happy kid
I love how this one turned out! My cheesy grin boy!

sandbox fun
These pictures are two years old, about time I scrapped them!

I'm Batman of course
My two pagers are usually really simple comparatively. this is Halloween before last.

Captain Me
A cute Shel Silverstein poem.

thumbsucker
Another Silverstein poem. He makes journaling so easy!

So there you go girlies. The gauntlet has been thrown. AND I have plenty more where these came from! Step it up!

Last night was all about Ian, tonight I think I will get some Matthew out of the way...unless the lo's I wanted to get to last night with Ian but didn't because it was so late call to me instead. We shall see.

Y'all are going down like Charlie Brown!

Muahahahahahahah!

the girl who has a tooth!

Well, not me, but this little guy.

Sorry I can't show a picture of the actual little nub, but at the moment, that's all it is. However, I am so excited to see that tiny sliver of white! I swear, this boy has been a cranky, drool monster for the past two months. I've been anticipating this little milestone for a good long while.

So he's hitting his milestones fast and furious now.


He is officially a crawler in the past week or so, going from the unsure, move my hands forward, flop on my belly, get up and repeat mode to full out, high speed clamber. And climber too. Nothing can hold him back it seems. Given the concrete floors and the plethora of small, chokeable toys (and pieces of toys) generated by his brothers, he has a very small, but well defined play area in our bedroom. It keeps him happy and me hopping, pulling him out from underneath our computer desks and the wires he loves to gnaw on so much.

He reached another milestone yesterday between morning and night.

Yesterday morning he was pulling up on his knees in his crib. Last night, he achieved full standing status. This, of course, led to the dismantling of the crib and lowering of the mattress. He also lost his beloved crib bumper. The boy is no fool and enjoys his comfort. He constantly would pull the bumper down and use it as a pillow. Awww! Now, of course, it can also be used as a step stool, so out it goes.


He is also fully Daddy's boy. His first word is "da-da" and full out "Daddy" And, yes, he has reached the stage where he isn't just stringing words together. He actually is using it to get Daddy's attention. He says "ma ma" occasionally, but usually when he is whining about something. I'm not sure if he's made the connection of Mommy responding when he makes that sound, but it follows the pattern the boys have set. When you want to play, call for Daddy. When you want something, call Mommy!

I'm doomed.

However, after seeing the latest pictures, I've had several people comment that Eli looks like me. All I have to say about that is...FINALLY! These little boys of mine favor their Daddy so much, it's nice that my last baby finally looks like me!

**************

A shot of my little mini-me-in-attitude:


Yes, Matthew is his own person. Not content to sleep in his bed (simply because he was told to) he begrudgingly goes to sleep, but must still rebel by not sleeping in his bed. This doesn't look at ALL comfortable, but he slept through the night. (At least until his usual three o'clock transfer to sleep at the foot of my bed at my feet)


***************

And about a week or so ago I alluded to a special project I had made for a friend. Since it has now been mailed and received, I can reveal that it was a Housewarming/Birthday/Feel Better pressie for my good friend Princess.

Here it is in its entirety:


And here are the detail shots of its gorgeousness. I know have a request from my mother to provide her with one as well. I'll have to see what I can come up with.

the girl who has scrapover

From the "What the hell was I thinking?" files:

Last night I continued work on my super secret project for a super special someone. I've been doing it in stages because the prep work involves several steps involving wet mediums, i.e. gesso, acrylic paint and mod podge, and I wanted to take it step by step with plenty of time in between so that things would adequately dry and not warp.

I reached the final mod podge stage last night. Ah, my old arch nemesis. You see, I have a love/hate affair with mod podge. I am not the type of girl to alter things. Really, I'm not. It's something that really keeps me from joining design teams. It seems they all want an altered project EVERY month. And that's just not me. I want to join a design team that allows me to do my own thing without having to do something I wouldn't normally do just so I can show you can use your scrappy supplies for something other than layouts. But once in awhile, I do like to get my alter on and I'd like to think I'm more or less successful. When I do get it in my head to alter something, mod podge is my medium of choice, but it took a bit of a learning curve to work with it.

My first efforts warped.

Alot.

The paper wrinkled, the finish was NOT smooth and, invariably, mod podged items would end up sticking to each other.

I think I've learned the trick of it now though. And it was no huge thing either. The trick is...be patient. Take it slow and let things dry in between coats.

See, I'm always in such a hurry to get to the "fun" part (the decorating) that as soon as the first coats are down and dry-ish to the touch, I start decorating.

Nope, you can't do that.

You have to apply your thin coat and let it dry. Then sand it ever so lightly, apply your second coat and let it dry.

That's a lot of time involved just to get something ready to go to town on.

But I was good and I took my time and I held myself under control.

Until last night.

I was finishing up the second coat of mod podge last night and had all my different elements drying neatly, so I took a break with the trusty ol' laptop and played endless rounds of Poppit (so addicting) until the low battery pop up, well, popped up.

At that time it was about midnight-ish, so I decided I'd call it a night.

I had the television on the local news (nice background noise) when I heard a reminder about the night launch of the shuttle.

Well, I've never seen a night launch and I have enough of a view from my backyard that I can see the flame trail going up. So I decided to stay up the extra two hours to see if I could catch the flames through the clouds.

So in the midst of putting up my project materials, I decided the project was dry enough that I could start on the fun part of decorating it.

I pulled EVERYTHING out and lost myself in artistic bliss, only to be interrupted by the shuttle launch.

I decided that I need to share this with one of the kiddos and went to go wake up Ian, and ended up accidentally waking Zacky instead. For that I felt a little remorse. You see, the FCAT started today and we had sent the boys to bed extra early so Zacky could get plenty of sleep. This kid was so pumped and excited about taking the FCAT (I'm sure the schools are really rah-rahing it) that he went to bed like a kid on Christmas Eve. Only MY child would be excited to take a test. Bless his little nerdling heart, I'm raising him right! So he was sleeping on pins and needles of anticipation.

So with the damage done, we set up a blanket outside in the backyard aimed at the sky and waited.

And waited.

and waited.

Didn't see a damn thing.

Apparently the clouds were too thick over here and we missed it. How anticlimactic.

So I shooed Zack back to bed with a promise I'd walk over to McDonald's with him in the morning and we'd have breakfast together, just the two of us, before school.

I went back to my project with the intention of cleaning up and going to bed, but ended up wanting to finish just one more thing. Which led to just one more little thing, which led to...well, we'll just say that when my eyes were burning and my head drooping and the project was 99.9% complete, I cleaned up and went to bed.

At 5:30.

Yeah, stupid huh?

And then at 7 o'clock the alarm rings and I grudgingly get up to take my eldest to his promised Mommy date.

When I get back, everyone else (except DH) is up so I round up breakfast for everyone and start to pick up around the house only to collapse on the couch in front of the Backyardigans and completely zone out. I swear, there was a vacant stare, glassy eyes and a teeny bit of drool leaking from the corner of my mouth. Somewhere after lunch and around "Maggie and the Ferocious Beast" I finished up the project, sent the boys off for their nap and finally went to bed for two hours.

So what do I have to show for it?

Something I think is purty darn spectacular. I can't wait to give it away and secretly hope she hates it so I can keep it for myself!

Would you like to see it?

Sorry, that will have to wait, lol. As much as I want to show it off to any and everyone, I want it to be a surprise.

But here is a sneaky peeky.

The bad part is that the recipient lives out of town, so I will have to mail it to her and I won't get to see her face.

But even though I will miss that reaction and I have had maybe four hours sleep total in the past 48 hours, I just know it was so worth it.

the girl who is waiting for a break in the rain

It's a rainy Florida Day and I'm waiting for it to clear so I can go meet the locksmith at Albertsons and pay him $200 to change out the ignition switch on the van which, inexplicably jammed up on me. (Although, apparently its a common problem on that particular make/model/year)

Matthew comes out to the porch and sees that its raining and proceeds to make the following statement:

"Mommy, it's raining. The sun is saaad. You have to make it happy. Sing Mommy, sing about cars. Go 'Cars, cars, cars!' (in sing-songy voice) Do it, Mommy! Do it!"

So I oblige by singing "cars" over and over.

"It's not working, Mommy! Do it again!"

I guess there are reasons I don't have a singing career as it is still raining. Lol.

******

So what to do when it's raining except take pictures of the little boys all together on the bed?

Here they are, all together on the edge of the bed. My two baldies and two Breck models side by side.

Now they are head over heels having fun.


And finally, it's tummy time for all.

*****

I love where we live. The location is excellent with the school across the street and easy access to grocery store, gas station and babysitter. The cons are pretty much that we are six people living in a 1200 sq ft space with all the "stuff" six people accumulate. Add to that the fact that the storage in this place is not overwhelmingly great and you find you have to get creative.

One of the purchases I was looking forward to making (but have since put on hold) was an IKEA expedit bookcase. Scrappers swear by it and I thought it would be a good place to store my ever growing collection of albums and possibly some scrappy supplies. The boys still get into things, but they have learned that Mommy and Daddy's toys are to be respected, so I was finally comfortable putting some of it more in the open. Sure it would have taken up the last remaining wall space in the living/dining room, but at least I had a place for it.

Well, after cleaning out my office at work, I had to find a place for the cradle my "assistant" used to occupy. My grandfather made it before he passed and it has been passed around to all the grandchildren for the great-grandbabies. I'm the most recent to have it, and possibly the last. So, until my parents come to visit from Texas, it's mine to take care of, cherish, and store.

Thing is, its big. I'm talking a nice sized wooden cradle that does break down to some extent, but we aren't talking pack and play here. So it took up the spot destined for my bookcase. However, I still had two problems. 1.) I just knew that the kiddos would look at it as an invitation to play on/in it and Ididn't want it damaged. 2.) I still have a ton of albums overflowing their storage. So, I found a solution.

Nice, huh? My "babies" all in one place. Now there are still a couple albums stashed away, but the bulk are here and it makes me happy.

*****

Speaking of creative storage solutions, I'm trying to streamline my stash. Now, I'm using more and more of it as I complete lo's (even though I've fallen off the wagon slightly.) but it still occupies my amoire and chest and some space in the bedroom as well. I got a clip-it-up last year and discovered that while it stores everything magnificently, it just doesn't work for me. It's awkward to turn without overbalancing it and it was sort of crowded. I dream for the day I have a room of my own (or at least a room I share with dh just for our playthings) and can use the clips on a rod type system. I think that will work better. Aside from the embellies, I also have a huge stash of ribbon. I really don't know why, I don't use it enough to justify all the ribbon I have, but there ya go. It's a scrapper's mentality. the second I get rid of it, I will probably need it for some project. I'll search all over for it, get frustrated, and finally remember I purged it Don't laugh! It's happened!

To that end, I've tried several systems: the all wrapped neatly on wooden clothespins system, the wrapped neatly on chipboard cards system, and the kept on spools and sorted by color system. Trouble was, I always seemed to revert to the carelessly unrolled and thrown in whatever storage container was handy system.


These were all the containers I was using to store my ribbon in. Yes, some have been repurposed since my revelation (more on that in a sec) and I'm not inclined to UN-repurpose them for the sake of a photo.

Now the revelation. My LSS was selling some ribbon organizers recently and I was skeptical as to how well they would work. I was certain that the ribbon would get all sorts of tangled. However, after seeing the owner work steadily during a crop (back in December) to fill this organizer, I was amazed. She managed to get a box about 2 ft square, filed to the brim with ribbon (on spools, loose, in baggies, all of it) into this little bag about the size of a makeup case...with room to grow!

So I sat on the idea for a little while and finally took the plunge. This is the result.

And there is plenty of room left over to grow. What I like about this is that I can still add ribbon and keep it separated by color without having to move anything else. Plus it's squishy and easily stores in a quarter of the space I was using before! And, I'm happy to report, I have had no issues with tangling (as of yet) All in all, a good $20 investment. Love it!

*****

Eli update: the little boy wants to crawl! He spends a LOT of time practicing. Raising up on his knees and rocking back and forth. All with a look of concentration on his face. Catch him at it and he drops down to his belly, so I'm going to have to go stakerazzi to get a shot, but this comes close.


He's still the happiest, most easy-going baby ever. I am so happy he joined the family! Every day I think about how, even though I had my hands full with three boys, I always felt the family had some growing to do. And when I was pregnant, I really didn't have the little girl longings I had with the others. I knew (or was resigned to, lol) I was going to have another boy. He's my ray of sunshine, my little Eli-phant, and I love him to pieces.

****

Well, there was a break in the rain and went to meet the locksmith at my stranded van. $210.00 later, I'm mobile again. Now to use it to go job hunting. It's funny how not having to go to work changes things. I'm using my down time to organize and purge, slowly but surely. We want to move to a house with more room to spread out when our lease is up. I'm hoping to find something in the area and same school district. Of course, being employed will make that a whole lot easier, lol, so I better get back on track.

the girl who is unemployed

Technically that is.

My last day on paper was Friday. But I'm going in tomorrow to make sure payroll goes off without a hitch, because I have good work ethic like that(and it's my pay that's being affected too!)

My "assistant came to work with me one last time and got smothered with kisses from everyone. I think that they will miss him more than me. He;s been a little mascot for them. They've seen him grow from the little not-quite-five-pounder that he was when I first started bringing him to work, to a robust, chubby little not-quite-fifteen-pounder. Plus he's adorable, how can you not get attached?

My babysitter is quite heartbroken over the possibility of losing the boys. She loves them and I love her for loving them. I can't exactly ask her to hold their spaces though. She's one woman running her own daycare and can only take a limited number of kids. Well, I'm taking up three spots. I can't ask her to do without that income. But, she's given me some tips on some things, and hopefully we can make it work.

She loves Eli, especially (who doesn't?) and has this thing about wanting him to be in real little boy clothes. I'm happy to let him stay in sleepers all day, but Miss Mitzi likes him looking like a little man. So much so that she started looking for clothes for him. This outfit is courtesy of her. He DOES look like a little man. He has just grown so much!

And he's Mr. Personality too. I'm sure he'll be just as much trouble as Matthew, because he is very much "look at me! play with me! pay attention to me!" But as a baby it's adorable.

Speaking of Matthew, I'm trying to figure out if its him or Ian who did this.


Yes, that's a Happy Face drawn right where Mr. Happy hides.

I'm leaning towards Ian, since he's the resident artist. But I was baffled as to why he would be drawing on his undies.

Then it hit me.

These are plain white undies. No decoration. No cartoon characters. Naturally he had to iven them up!

I have strange children, lol.

In other news...I was asked to be a guest designer for the Color Challenge on 2Peas. I had fun with it.

This was the Color Combo I was given:


And this is what I did with it.


I'm running out of stash, so my layouts are becoming more streamlined. I can only hope that I become employed soon, or else I won't be able to take advantage of all the yummy BOY goodies (finally) from CHA. I'm in love with several items and simply want to go crazy.

So this is kind of a rambling, pointless post, but I wanted to show off the pictures, lol.

Will post any job hunt successes as they happen!

the girl who tackled Mount Washmore!

So my washer is broken.

And I have four children.

One who regularly soaks his bed because diapers just aren't built to take that kind of overnight load.

One who is hit or miss with soaking his bed because he can't wake himself up to pee.

One who likes to change clothes a million times a day because dress-up is his favorite game and he hates being dirty.

And one who will go commando to school because he just doesn't like underwear--so I guess he saves me a bit on laundry there.

Plus there is myself who goes through a billion towels cleaning up messes around the house caused by these four lovely children.

And factor in pajamas every day in addition to the daily outfits, along with bath towels for six because no, we can't just hang a towel up and reuse it, we must toss it on the floor either intentionally to soak up the water or intentionally because we are too short/lazy to hang it up again.

Are you starting to get a picture of my laundry needs here?

My landlord, bless her heart, has been playing "second opinion" and between my schedule and DH's, well, its hard to line that up. I think we might actually get it fixed next weekend.

Pray for me.

So, because of the massive amounts of laundry that my family generates, I was in desperate need to do some washing. And a laundromat would have been hideously expensive. Luckily for me, I work at a hotel with an on-site laundry for doing towels and sheets and such. So asked for and got permission to come in and utilize the massive, industrial size washers and driers on property.

Want to see how much laundry a family of six can generate in two weeks time?

The four year old is there for comparison of size. That's two laundry hampers, two sterilite bins that I use for sorting and four sheets bundled with whatever didn't fit in the actual laundry containers. Yes, I am ghetto.

It took two loads in the industrial sized washers plus two loads in the smaller industrial (think extra-extra large capacity, it took one hamper and one bin) to complete this mess.

On the bright side, I got all of my laundry washed and dried in about four hours.

On the down side, now I still have to fold it and put it away. A task that may take another two weeks.


Ian is still bald. This is his new favorite hat. For today at least. The boy has always loved hats and now he has an excuse to wear them more often. Little fashion victim that he is. Yes, he is sleeping with it.


And we have a thumbsucker! I thought for awhile there that he was going to be a knuckle-gnawer (say that five times fast) but he recently found his thumb and seems quite happy at the discovery. Of course, I also suspect that he is teething. We have just started formula and cereal together. Next up will be veggies! Yum!


Want to show off my Target dollar spot find. Look at this cutie-patootie, totally Elsie inspired apron! $2.50! I lurve it so much!

And of course, my layout a day quest continues. I have done so well so far! I am four layouts away from finishing Zachary's 7 year old album and recently finished up year 6. And, since we are half-way through year 8, that means minimal catching up there. Once I'm done with Z, I'll work on Ian, then Matthew, then Eli. This is a good time for catch up as I seem to always have a slump in picture taking between Christmas and Easter.

Here are a couple from this week. Not all, as I don't want to overload you, but a couple of favorites.

"E"

This is Eli's title page to his album. It's 12x12 picture that I had printed at Scrapbookpictures.com on metallic paper. It is so much lovelier in person.

finding neverland in your own backyard

This one came together so quickly. And I love the journaling. I've had people say they love the "quote" but I gotta brag, it's all me! I wrote that! It says: "Never again will playtime be this free and unfettered, fluid and changing, limited only by your imagination. This is the secret to youth."

Which Way to Fun?

Another example of take everything you have and throw it on the page. I *think* this works. In any case, it's fun.

And I'll try to pop in a picture of it later, but my big news from the Z-Man is that he was chosen "Student of the Month" for his school! Unfortunately, I did NOT receive a tacky bumper sticker to slap on the back of my official Mom mini-van to thumb my nose at other people's apparently sub-standard children.

Darn!

the girl who had a typical day

A typical day with kids. More specifically, a typical day with boys. Ok, a typical day with my boys.

I was awakened this morning by my trusty alarm clock. After the third round of snooze, I was ready to get up and go to work (yes, it's Saturday, but circumstances dictated that I go in today.) and was just at that terrible point of inevitability where I really have to get up...the next time the alarm goes off.

Well, as fate would have it, I was destined to get out of bed much quicker.

You see, at 7 am the boys were awake. Don't they know Saturdays are for sleeping in? It's not like it was in my day, when cartoons were only shown Saturday mornings and you HAD to wake up early. They have entire channels devoted to cartoons these days, why not enjoy the comforts of your bed a little while longer?

As I lay on my sliver of the bed, snuggled up against my husband's knee (this is the penalty you pay for going to bed after your spouse--they spread) and wrapped snugly in a quarter of the blanket, I hear a distinct "WHOOMP", a quickly silenced shriek of surprise? shock? pain? and all the electronics in the bedroom suddenly go off. Coincidentally, my alarm clock (in the bathroom) starts going off again.

It's a sign to get up.

So I go investigating. Zack is on the couch watching HSM2, Ian is happily drawing away (good to know those Christmas presents are being appreciated) and Matthew meets me at the door to his in Eli's room with a pale face and wide eyes and immediately starts saying "I sawy Mommy! I sawy!"

"What did you DO?!"

Of course I can't understand what he's saying because now he's started to cry.

And then I see it.


The blackened socket.

After guesswork, a fair amount of translating Panicked-four-year-old into English and Mommy's intuition, I think I figured it out.

I think that there was a bug crawling on the wall and it went into hiding between the nightlight and the socket. (This from Matthew's anguished announcement that "The bug died-ed" ) Being unable to pull the nightlight out of the socket and also determined and resourceful, Matthew went after it with a piece of broken car toy. A metal piece of broken car toy.

Yeah, this is the result.



Yes the broken axle is now fused to the nightligh.

I'd like to think that it is only my child who does things like these, but I actually distinctly remember intentionally sticking a metal hair barrette into a socket to feel the tingle. I never blew one up though although apparently I'm lucky I survived to procreate and produce a child to carry on in my idiocy.

Matthew is the only one who has to burn his hand on the stove to be convinced it's hot. He is the only one to run away from home--twice (and let's not forget one of those times he was naked). He is the only one who has had stitches and a dislocated elbow--twice. In short, he is a BOY with a capitol B and one of those is quite enough for me. But no, I had to go and have FOUR. Of course, the other three are a little easier to handle. Sometimes.

So after our introduction to Mr. Electricity, Eli noticed I was awake.

He is a very good baby about sleeping through the night and actually will patiently wait for me to come to him in the morning. I've snuck up on him before and he'll be laying there quietly, exploring his hands or blankets or some such, just entertaining himself until Mommy starts his day. However, if he hears me or sees me and I don't acknowledge him right away, he will start to let me know, "I'd like breakfast and a fresh diaper RIGHT NOW, please!"

So I did not acknowledge him right away as I was resetting breakers and calming down older brothers. And by the time I got to him he was quite frantic.

Of course he was! He was SOAKED! Onesies have an amazing property--they wick any excess diaper leakage up the baby's torso, insuring even urine coverage. And we'll just say that that Pamper was just no match for the 8 oz of formula he had had some 8 hours earlier. Onesie, bedding, blankets--all soaked. So he got a bath, the bed got stripped and remade (helpful Mom tip, don't just buy multiple sheets for your crib, buy multiple mattress covers too. Trust me.) and I got to smell baby powder toes.


I think he is channeling Jabba the Hut in this picture. What do you think?

ok, ok, he is MUCH cuter than Jabba, but still...lol

So bath, baby powder toes and bottle and he's good to go, no one else has done anything life threatening and I've got to go to work. At least at work I won't have to deal with this for a few hours.

Right?

Wrong.

Throughout my relatively short day I received minute-by-minute updates from DH via phone on my children's behavior. Yes, it was always reported thusly:

"Your children have scribbled on the furniture with markers. "

" Your children just made themselves breakfast out of leftover pizza and milk. Yes together in the same bowl."

"Your children just tried to lasso the ceiling fan with a blanket."

"Your children just blew up the tv." (they didn't...it just got switched to the wrong output. You'd think my techie hubby would know that.)

My spontaneously generated, virgin birth children are destructive geniuses I tell you!

Let me show a picture of these tnt tyrants.


Adorable, right? Hmmm, Ian seems to be having some trouble seeing through his bangs. Note to self, take him with you when you go to the store tomorrow and get his bangs cut.

Oh, wait. Ian is the helpful child.

The independant child.

The loner.

The child I don't really worry about when I don't see for awhile because he likes to entertain himself by drawing or playing with his toys quietly.

So while making my pick up the house rounds I come across this.


Oh no!

Oh. Yes.

And, despite my begging Daddy that I could take him to the salon right now and they could fix it, Daddy reacted the same way he did when Coo-Pa tried to helpfully trim his bangs last year. (Remember?)

Yep, he broke out the clippers and fighting off the crazed, crying woman holding on to his child in the bathroom (no, not Britney Spears) he buzzed my little angel's head clean.

Sort of.

He did it half way and then told me to finish it up. I did through tears.

Matthew, seeing his half-shorn brother, starts crying, "I want my brother back!" Which put a touch of humor in the situation and lightened the mood. After calming Matthew (and now Ian) and explaining that hair grows back (please grow fast!) I finished the job and we were left with this.



Notice the divot in the head. There are about three of those on his noggin where he "trimmed" his hair right up to the scalp. So no, the salon would not have been able to "fix" it. Sigh!

Of course, now Ian is terribly embarassed by the whole situation and has decided that he is going to wear this hat until his hair grows back.



He even went to sleep with it on! (I'm sure Daddy calling him "Baldy" all night didn't help.)

So tonight, while tucking in the boys, I reviewed our lessons learned for the day with the boys:

1.) NOTHING goes in around or near electrical sockets. Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never do anything like that again!

and

2.) Scissors are for cutting paper not hair. If your hair is bothering you, please ask Mommy to get you a haircut. there are people whose job it is to cut your hair and they know how to do it and make you look good. I promise.

And Zachary is the only one who left me without a story for the day. Of course, he is on round 2 (3?) of battling this cold we keep passing back and forth and was pretty much self-confined to bed or couch for most of the day.

So now the boys are asleep, the kitchen is calling and once I get that squared away I am going to continue with my goal of creating at least one new layout a day so I can get caught up on my huge (over 100 and then some) backlog of waiting layouts. On top of what I showed last post, this is what I've accomplished since the first of the year.

just my size
(Eli in his little shoebox sized tub)

2 boys in the Wild West
(there is a little mini book with more photos and a brochure and map from the Fort hidden behind the pictures on the second page)

Every boy's Dream Job
(this screams "needs MORE" to me, but I'm trying to let things go. Not every page has to look like it belongs in a magazine)

pure charisma
(journaling reads: to pull off this look and still look this cool takes pure charisma)

stuck in the middle
(journaling about Ian's middle child status)

Goodbye
(saying goodbye to GranMary after our Spring Break visit in '06)

pzzt-ow!
(Matthew's reaction to his first encounter with static shock. Appropriate for today, don'tcha think?)

Every Dog Needs a Boy
(Parker when he was still of a size Zack could control him. The dog is a MOOSE now and much happier with my FIL who can give him the time and attention he deserves)

And that's it for now. We'll see how many I can complete tonight. Although, I think I might only do one and just set up some more for later in the week so I don't pull all nighters trying get one layout done.

I'm just hoping for some not so typical days in my future so I can do this!

*********************************

Ok, as I was finishing up this epic post, who should wake up but Matthew. He had a bad dream. Apparently a monster came into his room and turned the floor to lava. Now he's scared and says he needs a new room. Sure that this was a flashback to events this morning, I patiently explained that there was no monster, the floor was not lava, that was the only room we had to give him and this is why we don't mess with electricity. Matthew makes the great observation that "I didn't see it and it hit me!" Aramis, of course, pipes in with his wisdom, explaining how electricity powers the lights. And, of course, that Matthew might get super powers now that he's been shocked, but he has to watch out that he doesn't get EVIL superpowers.

Great.

Aren't we supposed to be DISCOURAGING the boy?

sigh!

Tomorrow is another day.





double sigh!

****************************

another update: no scrapping for me tonight. Matthew has a fever and started throwing up. Sheesh.

So, of course, my mind starts creating scenarios. What if this isn't the cold we've all been passing around? What if Matthew fried his insides and now has been cooked inside? Hmmm, After Hours Pediatrics will be closed by the time I get there, is this serious for a trip to the ER?

ER...don't I know someone who works in the ER? lol. My sister is the Manager of the Nurses for the ER in my hometown. I figure with the hour time difference I'm skirting on the edge of inappropriate time to call, but that also increases the chances that she is actually home. Besides, if she isn't home, my BIL is a paramedic/EMT so he could talk me down.

Which is exactly what my sister did.

She told me quite calmly that if he had "fried his insides" that he would have gotten sicker pretty much immediately and that he probably just caught the bug.

Ok, I'm fine. All the kids are fine (relatively speaking) and should live to see another day.

Let's see if I survive to see it.