Torture at American Girl

Ahhhh, spring break...only the weather systems don't know it. Nonetheless, we are trying to make the best of it and we were off to a really good start. Yesterday we arrived at IKEA shortly after they opened. The kids checked in to Smaland to play and I bought a new down comforter with some birthday money. I picked up the kids and we headed over to get frozen yogurt cones. On our way to the bistro seating, there was a gal doing really cool face-painting...compliments of IKEA. Katie got an amazing tabby cat mask painted and Abby got a tiny Hello Kitty on her hand. Then we headed to Legoland where we played and helped comfort a little boy who was lost until he could be reunited with his mom. Katie picked out a couple of new outfits, a swimsuit and shoes for summer (thank you G'ma Karen and G'pa Jay!) Finally, we made our way to the American Girl store.

Katie has been devouring books lately...we love this! She has read through two of the American Girl historical series and is working on a third--Kaya (a Native American girl.) She's also read a couple of the contemporary stories about Chrissa. It seemed like a fun idea to visit the store that celebrates these stories she has enjoyed so much. Well, there was apparently a misunderstanding about the goal of our visit. She was convinced that she would get to bring home a doll. In case you don't move in this world, you ought to know that these dolls cost a hundred dollars...and then you add on any number of cool, period-specific accessories... Some time ago, I mentioned to Katie that if she was ever interested in getting one of the dolls, it would be a good birthday wish item and I'd like to know which her favorite was.

Recall that she had her face two-thirds covered in yellow and back cosmetics and you will understand the drama that ensued when she began to cry over not buying a doll. "Why did you bring me here if you were just going to torture me?" she wailed in her characteristically LOUD cry. The salty tears blazed a messy trail down her face and began to drip onto her white shirt. Accusations and recriminations rang in my ears all the way from Bloomington back to St. Louis Park.

Thus ends a great day together.

Here's a layout I did , featuring Abby and Ruby, with the Birdie Lou papers!

Birdie Lou Papers

My best ideas are always someone else's =) That's the teacher in me...you look and listen for good ideas and then you appropriate them for teh greater good. Some of us even try to observe the rules of copyrights! Scrapbooking is the very same. Digital scrapbooking allows you to take a great idea that isn't on archival paper (or even on PAPER!) and make it work for you. These "Birdie Lou" papers were inspired by the super-cute planner by Silver Lining that I bought at Barnes and Noble.

Free Scrapbooking Digi-Papers

A few papers to share from a set that began with a photograph of a cosmos blossom. They are on the bold side...what can you do with them?

Sad Blogger

Face it, if you blog, you want somebody to read what you write or check out what you post. When I first began to post, it was for a scrapbooking challenge posted on the Close to My Heart consultant bulletin boards. A few of us were taking part, so we tended to check on each other's progress from time to time. Plus, I conned a couple of girlfriends into checking the posts once in a while. I honestly think that was more interesting because it was a dark time for me. I was really struggling with my depression and anxiety and had tried to be off medication (bad idea) and then got back on a new Rx (not easy, either.) After I got happy again, I believe I started posting a bunch of my goofy house projects, random and only occasional thoughts, and a bunch of stuff about the kids. Well, at that point, maybe a blog is only interesting to the grandparents.

What does it take to get you to read a blog? Post a comment to tell me and I'll be high as a kite.

Here is what I like when I read blogs:
1. Something super personal by someone I know
2. Something funny by anyone
3. Free digital scrapbooking downloads (my fav right now!)
4. Cool photos from people I know
5. Lots of crafty things

Other than the few scrapbooking blogs I check regularly, my favorite blog is written by Kristi Elker from Rochester, MN. I met Kristi many years ago when I was at Bible College. We never really knew each other while we were both in Bemidji, but she married someone I had known. When I saw her on a mutual friend's Facebook, I got in touch. She writes well, is very thoughtful about matters spiritual and intellectual, says funny things, likes a lot of the same things that I do, and is a little further down the parenting path than I am. Last I had seen her was fourteen years ago, right after her daughter was born. Strange thing, I actually ran into her and her kids a couple of weeks ago at a truckstop on the way up north. (I recognized the kids from pictures on the blog!) Long winded way to say, you could check out her blog,too: www.stuffthingsaremadeof@blogspot.com

Seriously, I said, "LEAVE A COMMENT!"

Kids' Conferences

My children have split personalities. They have two apiece. Home personality and school personality. According to Mrs. H., Owen is charming, polite, always thinking about something. He is a superstar reader and a math prodigy. According to Miss K., Katie is a top-of-the-class kind of reader who's got math wrapped around her finger. She's a sweet girl and a great friend.

According to me, yeah they are both a couple of smartie pants... Holy cow, though, they must use up a lot of good behavior at school because they are uncooperative, combative, complaining and ornery with me and each other. I am being paid back for their father's childhood behavior.

Time Makes Everything Garbage

I had this realization last week. It sounds very pessimistic, but that is not how I mean it. I was cleaning the laundry room and utility room and clearing my crafting supplies out of the family room in the basment. In case you didn't know this about me, I like to keep stuff. For a long time. As I was sorting, I was just tickled with every item that I could throw away or donate. It dawned on me that the only difference between when I stored the throw-away items and now was the time elapsed. Apparently my attachment to a lot of things fades over time. SO...time had made garbage out of my stuff.

For some reason, I continued to think about this concept. It applies quite aptly to my physical body, for sure. I feel time making garbage out of that on a daily basis. It also applies to all the material things that we hold so dear. Why, if it will eventually be garbage, do we care so much? Maybe if I remember the destiny of this "stuff" I will hold on to it a little more loosely.

Owen=Artist

Every child has his or her own special "thing." Strength, talent, character trait...whatever it is. Since he was very young, Owen has shown an interesting aptitude for drawing. He has these super-stylized , comic-book characters. For a long time I wondered if these characters were people, but he assured me that they are aliens. (When the kindergarten teacher asked him to draw a person, it looked like a person.) He prefers to draw in frames. We have files on our computer that are called "Owen Grid" and "Owen Grid 2" so we can print off endless copies of his drawing frames in a couple different sizes. Every once in a while, we staple together a stack of his pages and add a book to his collection.

These are a couple of my personal favorites from this week. The first guy looks like an evil teddy bear. The second looks like Randolf from Monsters, Inc. (Owen explained that he was walking away from the viewer, turning back to snarl over his shouder!) Although these two are less eye-catching, they had to be included here because they are part of a dynasty...the Dynasty of Wonder Owl. In a drawing session with his dad, Owen created the character Wonder Owl and some villians to accompany him. He draws these characters over and over! I wonder if anyone sees the Ed Emberley inspiration? Mark and I both had copies of his drawing books...Mark had originals that he had pored over as a kid and I had copies that I purchased when I first started teaching because I remembered them so fondly. Now they belong to Owen. It's the perfect style for him.

So much of our daily life is consumed with kids being ordered around or yelled at, but when I can take a minute to single out something really special about one of my kids...well, there's plenty of reason to be proud. Look for upcoming entries about the girls!

Melted Circuit

Two out of five holes cut in the plaster in the living room...what price, electricity? The worst part is that I have to buy more of that ORANGE paint. I knew I should have purchased a gallon in the first place.

Crying Tired

Most of you will know what I'm talking about...you know how exhausted you feel after you have had a really hard cry. Your head is throbbing and your cheeks still feel the burn from the salt. Your muscles are tired and you just want to sink into some warm blankets to give into sleep.

That's how I feel today, minus the salty cheeks. I haven't been crying, it's just the anxiety over so much chaos. We were so blessed to have friends put us up for a couple of days (and cook for us!), but the disruption in routine was still tough. We were back and forth to the house, feeding pets and picking up forgotten necessities. The kids had to be shuttled back and forth to school (when they desperately wanted to ride their bus.) The dog barked like crazy and had to be watched like a hawk (it's one thing to clean up poop on my own carpet...) Plus, we still had normal things to attend to and the first three days of the week are crazy with tutoring, piano, prayer meetings, dance class, etc.

After the construction workday ended yesterday, the contractor said that the drywall tapers probably wouldn't be able to get here until Monday. This was the first time that we had to say, "That just isn't going to work for us." Leaving the house the way it is until then isn't an option and neither is moving it all again in five days. I haven't heard a resolution to the situtation, yet, but of course my phone died while we were gone and I can't track down the charger...

Betty Lou Wants a New Tatoo

I just saw Facebook photos of an old highschool friend as he got a full forearm tatoo. (It looked super, cool, by the way.) Thought I'd throw it out there that I have been thinking quite a bit about getting another tatoo...something a bit more spiritual than my cute little cherries. So, what do you think? I have two questions: What should I get? Where should I get it? (My criteria on this second one is that I want a place that can remain pretty private most of the time, but that won't embarass the heck out of me to reveal to the tatoo artist, either.) So...if you have any great ideas, I'd love to hear them. Maybe if I pick yours, you can come along with me for the tatoo ;)