She’s Crafty

It has been quite a while since I shared layouts on my blog! So here goes….

Remember you can click on the photo to get a larger view and a description with product links.

A deer and a camel that I took photos of on the safari ride we went on near our home town. This Summer we're having more of a staycation to save more $ for Disney next year!

Supplies: Paislee Press Est Alpha, Bella Gypsy Pasghetti Alpha (recolored), Merkeley Designs Stencil It Alpha, Deca Designs Perfect Garden Mini Kit, and Typewriter font.

Journaling: Jordan, When you have a Daddy who is a MAJOR NASCAR fan, you're bound to have Hot Wheels whether you're a girl or not. You decided to put yours to good use and you chewed on them when you were teething. I was constantly pulling them out of your mouth, but you thought they were yummy.

Supplies: Christina Renee Flocked Alpha, Tracy Ann Digital Art Zoom Collection (on Etsy), 1/2 of Manda Girl's two page template number 54, and EHI_SS_Scratched Overlay.

Journaling: Seeing my child graduate from Kindergarten is pure bliss. I am so very proud. She is amazing.
(A little back story... Jordan has cerebral palsy and has overcome a LOT to get through Kindy. We are so amazed by her each and every day. She's our little miracle.)

Supplies: I used Sue Cummings' Week 20 from the 52 Inspirations Subscription available at Oscraps.

Journaling: Maw Maw Florence sewed these outfits for her kids. 1962

I used my May Scrapbook Deals 4 You kit on this one. It features October Afternoon Thrift Shop Papers. This layout was semi-inspired by Piradee Talvanna's Together layout on page 41 of Creating Keepsakes May/June 2010 issue.
Other supplies: Pink Thickers, October Afternoon Thrift Shop Stickers and Alpha, and a Prima Flower.

I've been wanting to journal about my family's traditions and cooking. So when I saw this May 2010 Page Maps sketch with room for a ton of journaling, I decided it would work!

I used my May Scrapbook Deals 4 You kit on this one. It features October Afternoon Thrift Shop papers and embellies.

In other news (not scrappy related), Ronnie brought home a new car last night. It’s a Mocha colored 2010 Chevy Malibu. When I asked him why he bought a brown car with a two toned (gorgeous) cashmere and cocoa interior. He said, “Well, it reminded me of coffee.” “I know how much you love coffee, so I figured you’d love it.” “Plus, it matches the new living room curtains you’re obsessed with, so I figured it was a safe bet.” He’s too right! I love it. LOL

He will be driving it to work because it gets WAY better gas mileage than the huge truck he traded in for it, but that baby is mine on the weekends! He says it’s my car, he’s just borrowing it. What a guy! LOL

I didn’t get any photos of it yet because it was dark by the time he got home. These are from the Chevy dealer where he bought it.

Oh and it already has a name. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that my six year old names everything. Our new Malibu’s name is Bu. LOL She’s such a mess. Brandon is not thrilled with Bu at all. When Ronnie drove up, he started crying. He said, “Daddy, Where’s your cruck?” (Truck) I’m going to take Brandon in the car tonight and try to get him to like it. I felt bad, he was heartbroken. Jordan rode with me last night and we played with the satellite radio, and OnStar. I’m thrilled that they have a feature that will let me in if (okay WHEN) I lock myself out of it.

Alright enough rambling from me! Until next time…

Magic’s In The Makeup

My friend Nancy has been making me feel guilty for not wearing makeup and not being a stylish Mommy. In a case of perfect timing, I got a kit in the mail for being a Bzz Agent from Covergirl Blast the other day. It included eye shadow, and lip gloss.

I got Fire lip gloss which is an amazing color. When I first saw it in the bottle, it looked very bright and orange. Once I had it on though, there was just a hint of color and it wasn’t orange at all.

I got Bronze Fire eye shadow as well. This eye shadow is so easy to put on! It’s just like a crayon, and being the creative type… you know it’s right up my alley. Being a Mommy with no time to put on complicated makeup, this is a godsend. My only problem is keeping my kids out of it. I keep telling them it’s Mommy’s crayon!

Are you ready to see my new look? Here I am in all my glory (or not!)…

Next up on the Mommy Makeover agenda? Getting my eyebrows waxed. Yikes! Nancy, do you see what you’ve started? I might even have to come up with a hair style that doesn’t include a pony tail! LOL

Life is a Highway

The past few days have been absolutely insane! The story of my life I suppose. School had been winding down for the girls and the teachers sent home all of the girls’ notebooks and supplies. I was going through the stuff to see if there was anything I wanted to keep. I came across a note that Alexis had written… “I love Drew Brees!” I read it out loud to my mother in law who was over at the house. Alexis ran up to me and snatched it out of my hand and blushed beet red. I couldn’t help giggling. After a while, I thought about it and gosh eight years old seems to be too young to be having a crush on anyone.

Jordan had her kindergarten graduation this past Wednesday. She was so excited to get on the stage and sing. Here she is with her Kindergarten certificate… I think she was a little happy! We were all so proud of her. She is nervous about going into first grade. She told me this evening that she won’t know what to do when she gets in a new class. Ronnie and I assured her that the teacher would explain everything.

Thursday night Alexis had her fun meet at her gymnastics class. She won a first place medal in overall gymnastics. She also won first place ribbons in vault and beam, and second place ribbons in floor exercise and bars. She did an amazing job, and I took video but I’m having a terrible time getting it uploaded. You’ll have to be content with a photo instead.

On Saturday, Ronnie and I actually had a date for the first time in about a year. We went to a pool party at his friend’s house. Ronnie’s parents watched the kids for us, and we went out for about three hours. We ate crawfish, and got ridiculously sun burnt. I didn’t have the best time because I didn’t know all of the people there. Plus, I don’t drink at all and there was a ton of drinking going on. So I felt a little uncomfortable. Ronnie had a good time though, and it was nice to get out and get a break. On the way home the kids and I were goofing around in the car taking photos during our mini road trip. Here are a few fun ones I took!

She’s definitely sassy! See the mischievous sparkle in those eyes? LOL

I actually took a photo of myself in the side mirror! I thought it was a fun idea. The water off of the bridge is Lake Ponchatrain.

Here’s another view of the lake! We had stormy weather and sunshine all at the same time! I edited the goodness out of this one!

And last but not least… Lexie and Brandon. Pure cuteness!

Breaking Up

I just wanted to let all of my Facebook friends know that I’ve broken up with Facebook as of this morning. Facebook and I are fighting. Last night, it generously gave me THREE Trojan horse viruses. I had to do a system restore and everything. Between that and the privacy issues, I decided I was DONE! So this AM after getting everything back to running, I deleted it. You can always find me here on my blog, or through email.

That’s What Friends Are For

I found out that one of my best friends is having a scrappy RAK on her blog! You should definitely go check her out and become a follower. She’s trying to get more followers than I have! I SO don’t know why I’m helping her by posting here. LOL

Here’s a photo of the goodies!

http://homesclscrapper.blogspot.com/

P.S. I've fixed the link. My friend Agnes busted my in my diabolical plan to send you all to the wrong place. (Kidding! I just stink at linking in blogger! LOL)

Shake Your Groove Thing

One of the hardest parts of being the parent of a special needs child is learning to speak up and fight for what you believe your child deserves. I have had to argue with doctors, teachers, and therapists many times. At the beginning of this year, I gave Alexis’ teacher a long letter about her special needs and side effects to look out for with her medicine. I also included a prescription from her psychiatrist with all of her diagnosis on it. I asked her to schedule a meeting to talk about the fact that I believed she qualified for 504 accommodations. I kept asking her all year, and she kept putting me off.

About a month ago, Alexis got her 3rd nine weeks report card. Her grade in Math had fallen from an A to a D. On the report card was a note from her teacher stating that she would like a conference. My first thought was… “Well SO would I! It’s about time.” I went in for the meeting and the first thing she asked me was “Do you think Alexis might have ADHD?”. I sat there stunned for a moment, and then asked her if she had read the letter that I gave her at the beginning of the year. Her response made me furious. She said, “Well, honestly I did.” “I didn’t see any of the behaviors you were talking about so I decided not to worry about it.”

I was polite when I wanted to scream at her.  Mostly because in that letter was a very important side effect from the medicine that Alexis could DIE from. I had thought that she was watching out for her all year long, when in reality she wasn’t. She didn’t even remember that the child had ADHD. I doubt she even read the letter. It made me so upset that the teacher took it upon herself to decide that MY child didn’t need accommodations and MY child was “fine”. I demanded to have a 504 meeting within the month before school was over and actually threatened to meet with the principal with a lawyer. The meeting was scheduled within 5 days. It left me wondering why she couldn’t have done this at the beginning of the year?! Ugh.

They approved for 504 her based on her ADHD as a disability. Next year during the iLEAP test she will get extended test time, and someone will read her the directions. For regular class she will get extended test time, reinforced directions, and the teacher will keep an eye on her to make sure she’s actually paying attention to her tests. She gets distracted very easily. All I want is for her to have the best learning experience possible, which is what she is guaranteed by law! Anyway, sorry for the huge rant. The point I wanted to make is that if you feel your child needs something, don’t be afraid to stand up and make a little noise. (Or in my case, it took a lot of noise. LOL) The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

I also have some cute videos to share with you all. As you know, my Mom and I took the kids to Global Wildlife while Ronnie was in Talladega. I finally got the video I took uploaded. Youtube doesn’t like me sometimes. Please excuse me for being loud and Southern in this video.

Yeah, my Mom pulled hair off of the animal. I promise she didn’t hurt it though. The guide had been around a few minutes before showing us that they were shedding their winter coats.

I have one more that is sure to make you smile. Miss Jordan LOVES Rhianna. Every single song that Rhianna has made, I’ve had to buy for my ipod on Jojo’s demand. Here she is dancing to “Rude Boy”. Pretty good for a kiddo who was told she would never walk huh?!

That’s my girl! Check out those super cute Ni Hao Ki Lan pajamas too. Hehe This was early in the morning. She wakes up full of energy. I, on the other hand, do not! If you listen closely, you’ll hear Alexis singing in the background.

If It Makes You Happy

There have been quite a few things that have made me happy lately!

We found out that Alexis is moving up to the platinum level in gymnastics. It’s a big deal for her to be moving up at her age! She really wants to be on a team, and to be in competitions. Starting this Summer, she’ll go to two classes per week. One tumbling, and one regular class. I am so excited for her! All of her hard work is starting to pay off. She’s been saying she wants to do this since she was two!

Of course scrapbooking makes me happy too! I have a few layouts that I’ve recently completed to share. You can click on any of the images if you would like a larger view or a product list.

This one was for the NSBD challenge at Scrapbook.com. I used my May kit from Scrapbook Deals 4 You.

This one is with an older photo of the kids and I at the beach. I LOVE Cosmo Cricket paper!

I did this one today! I came across some photos of Ronnie and I on one of our dates and decided to do a layout about how we met. I can’t believe it was ten years ago.

I also made a card today using up the last of my Cogsmo paper from Cosmo Cricket. I’ve been on a kick lately to use up some of my older supplies. I’ve also been on a punch rampage. I got two border punches for my birthday a month ago, and I think I’ve used them on every single layout since then.

My new blog design also makes me happy! My friend Nancy showed me a link to Shabby Blogs, and I was hooked. I played off and on all day Friday to get the blog the way I wanted it. I think it turned out super cute. What do you think?

Mother’s Day is tomorrow, and my children brought home super cute presents from school. Alexis’ class made pens with artificial flowers. She chose a sunflower for me, and used floral tape to attach it to the pen all by herself. I thought it was so sweet that she remembered that I liked sunflowers. She also wrote me an adorable letter...

“I love you mom you are the best. You are so nice to me all the time. I know that you are the best because you love me alot. I love you mom! You do what I want all the time mommy. Love Alexis”

Isn’t that sweet?! It totally made me smile! Jordan brought me a marigold in a painted flower pot. She insisted that I take a photo of it, and it’s a good thing she did because I didn’t take any other photos this week to share in my blog post. See the rocks in the pot? The child is absolutely fascinated with rocks. She picks them up everywhere she goes. I figured I’d start putting them in the flower pot to keep them together. Maybe she’ll be a geologist?

Ronnie gave me some money and told me to go scrappy shopping, and that’s always a good thing! (Another border punch for me… Yay!) He also washed both vehicles, cut the grass, and barbequed dinner tonight. Definitely all things that make me happy! Alexis is planning to make me breakfast in bed, so while I was at the grocery store earlier I bought bagels. I thought that would be something easy they could do. I tried to convince them that the best present would be letting me sleep in, but I don’t think they are going to go for that.

I’m wishing everyone else a very Happy Mother’s Day! Especially my Mom, and my Grandma!