I should be writing something for my assignment, but I’m just rocking out to Aretha Franklin and surfing the net. Bleh!  Okay, enough is enough.  I saw that artsymama posted our first assignment of the Dream Journal.  It’s all about pockets.  How cool is that?  I can’t wait to get working on it.  I did rip out a bunch of pages from my book and also glued and did some folding of pages to make them thicker and ready to be worked on.  Okay, now really I am going to get working on my paper now.  Well, first let me check out Flickr, and then I swear I will getting writing.  Oh, I ended registering for a summer class on online searching. Although, it isn’t my first choice, it does sound interesting.  Okay, really now, no more writing. 

Mr. Elden is 9 months today.  It is unbelievable that I carried him inside of me for 9 months.  To see how much he has bloomed in the last 9 months, and to think about how much he grew in-utero, is really more than mind blowing.  He is certainly a cute little guy, and has blessed all of us so much. He is developing way too quickly for me, and certainly faster than I can keep track of.

He has this really cute crawl, where he crawls with one leg, and then he steps with his other foot.  He gets so excited when I hold his hand to walk him back and forth.  He gets so giddy when he stands up, that he throws his arms way up high in the air, and makes this loud laugh, happy shrill.  He is getting very curious about the edge of the stairs.  I do put the gate up at the top, but Brennan tends to pull it down, as soon as I put it up. Elden likes to crawl right to the edge and then peer over.  I sit at the step below the top and have my hands ready, just in case.  Brennan felll down those very stairs when he was younger, so it definitely keeps me on high alert.

He’s says a lot of gibberish, and of course he has started to say dadada, but not mamama.  He is overall a happy baby and actually very tough, which I will attribute to Brennnan. 

I let Den give him some formula on Monday because I admit that I am getting very lazy about pumping.  I have a feeling that I won’t be breastfeeding him as long as I did with Brennan.  We have such a different relationship, and I definitely have a different mindset about the whole thing, and I am so okay with it.

He eats a lot of food, and I mean a lot.  Not only that, he sticks all sorts of stuff in his mouth.  So, ya, he is growings tons and way too fast for me.

 

Thanks Robyn for directing me to ArtsyMama’s Book of Dream challenge.  I really enjoyed participating in Rhonna’s challenge, but it was kind of too fast paced for me. ArtsyMama was inspired by Citrus Faire.  Instead of doing a layout a day, the challenges will run once a week, with a different technique.  I was lucky to find this great book that was in our garage, that will be perfect to alter. I just don’t know what my topic will be. 

    

Den was home this weekend, and decided that he wanted us to do some Spring cleaning.  So he cleaned out the garage, and cleaned out all the stacks of crap everywhere. We also cleaned out this cabinet, and I am starting to put all my art supplies in it, freeing out a lot of room in my little scrap area.   It still looks cluttered, but it is definitely a lot cleaner looking than it has been.

So speaking of scrapping, I haven’t created anything in a couple of weeks. The last stuff I scrapped was for a DT tryout, which I didn’t make. I didn’t think that I would be bothered by it, but I guess it affected me more than I thought.  My goal is still to get on a DT this year.  I’ve seen this one person that is on 7 DT’s and has two kids.  What the heck?  How do they do it?  Anyways, I won’t let it get me down.  I can’t give up, right? 

 I do have this picture of Elden that has been waiting to be scrapped for a couple of weeks now.

I have some Oh Boy BG paper that I think will work nicely with this photo.  I just don’t want the patterned paper and embellishments to overshadow it.  I used to be so into putting as much embellishments and using the latest papers for my layouts.

I also purchased some square glass slides and some copper tape not to long ago to make some small photo charms.  I’ve been wanting to make photo charms for a while.  I also have a bunch of regular rectangular glass slides, that I wanted to make stuff with. 

So besides all this creative fun stuff, I am in the midst of working on our second and final assignment for my Information Retrieval class.  I have an online meeting with my group in a couple of hours.  We have to cut down our list of 138 terms, down to 20-30 terms.  It should be an interesting meeting.  I am not really looking forward to it actually.  But the class will be over in a couple of weeks. And tomorrow I am registering for a summer class, Technology Tools and Applications , which should be a breeze.  The summer class lasts about 6 weeks, so it will go pretty fast. 

And speaking of Elden, boy does that boy put a lot of stuff in his mouth.  I really don’t remember Brennan being so oral, but then again there is a lot more crap lying around on our floor.  He will be 9 months on Tuesday.  I can’t believe it.  I will have to formally write an update about his developments and such. 

And can you believe that April is quickly coming to an end?  I sure can’t. 

Sometimes when you get in a rut, all you really need is a new look.  So that is what I am doing.  Starting anew!  I have the basic theme in place.  This is called Hemingway reloaded, made by the Wordpress lab, which is based on a layout by Kyle Neath.  I am still working on adding my own touch. 

My mom’s here now, so I think we will head out to the beach, which will actually be my third time out there this week. I just love the air, the sand, the cool breeze, and the overall feel of being out there.  It certainly has put me in a good mood.

 

 

Joan Miro, the Spanish Surrealist painter and sculptor is one of my favorite artists in the world. I love the fact that google decided to showcase this artist. 

So I came home tonight from Mom’s night out to see Elden fast asleep on the beanbag downstairs and Brennan was asleep in his room, and Den was practically asleep in bed.  See, I stressed out for nothing!  This was the first mom’s night out, that I’ve been to in a while and I should have enjoyed myself more.  We actually went a nail salon and had manicures and pedicure done.  I got there a little late because I got a little lost, so I had to wait for a while. I was stressed about that and the fact that I had told Den that I would be home early.  I did enjoy chatting it up with everyone, and even managed to drink a couple glasses of white wine and munch on some yummy desserts.  It was close to 9:00, before I was able to sit in one of those nice, big ole comfy massage chairs, to soak my feet. At around 8:45, I even considered leaving, but some of the ladies convinced me to stay.  I’m glad I did. I ended up only getting a pedicure though because my nails are way too short for a manicure. It was nice to at least get my legs and feet massaged and get pampered a little bit.  And also, did I mention how wonderful my hubby is?   He is reallly a great dad. 

So anyways, the Easter weekend, which I can’t believe is already almost a week ago, was nice.  We went to Chuckie Cheese for an Easter egg hunt, last Friday.  Yep, that’s right.  You read correctly! I did say Chuckie Cheese.  It was raining on Friday and well, we couldn’t go to the park.  It was really fun for the kids. We had the egg hunt in the back of the restaurant,where there are a row of usually empty tables.  We hid the eggs on the seats and I got some really great pictures.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any to share because I lost my camera yesterday and I hadn’t gotten the chance to transfer the pictures yet.  I also had some nice pictures from at my parent’s house and of Brennan coloring Easter eggs for the first time. I apparently lost them at the Farmer’s Market yesterday.  We were in the bathroom, and for some stupid reason, I placed the camera on top of the toilet paper holder.  We left and got all the way to Target.  I went to check to see if I had it, but I didn’t.  So I drove back the Farmer’s Market and checked the restroom and lost and found.  It was long gone.  I am so upset, that I lost those pictures. I also had some cute ones from the day.  I am perved that some jerkoff would take off with it.  I can certainly understand why they would take the camera, but don’t they realize that it is someone’s cherished memories. I’ve will never get to see those pictures again. 

Instead of pictures of the weekend, I have this to share with you.

I’ve finally finished my belly cast of when I was pregnant with Elden.  I love the color purple, if you didn’t already know that.  I don’t get a chance to use flowers on my layouts.  This color combination on these ribbons are really quite lovely.  Elden will be 9 months next week.  I can’t believe it!

I really want to purchase a Flickr pro account, but I can’t get myself to charge the $24.99 on the cc.  Plus, I think i am just procrastinating because I have lots of work to do, and I really am not in the mood to do it.  I need to upload photos from Yosemite, Brennan’s Easter egg hunt from a couple weeks ago, and our visit to the Huntington Library.  I just posted some pictures up on Flickr.  I would have loved to see some of the exhibits, but there was no way that I was going to get a chance to see them.  We pretty much only stayed around the Children’s garden, and the Jungle Garden, which was so awesome.

I also just renewed quinntillion for another year.  I don’t remember when I exactly purchased this domain. It might have been either in 1998 or 1999.  I simply don’t remember. 

Tomorrow we have another Easter egg hunt, so that should be exciting.  So, what else?  Ho hum.  My body has been aching continuously everywhere.  I haven’t done any exercising. I for sure haven’t done any rollerblading.  I really would like to get a double stroller, so that I can take both of the boys out for a run on the strand.  I never purchase a double stroller anything because I figured that it was a waste of money, but what usually happens is like for instance, at the Huntington Library, Elden had fallen asleep in the stroller and Brennan didn’t want to walk anymore.  So I carried Brennan on my back with the Ergo.  So it’s fine and dandy, but hell, carrying a 35+ almost 40 pound on my back, is not a good thing.  Anyways, I don’t want to start complaining, I know, I need to do something about my physical health. 

I’ve also pretty much fallen off the RF track.  I started a fun entry on  #14, which consisted of a bunch of swirls on the double sided pages, but I never finished.  I really feel like I have too much on my plate, and that I can’t enjoy just one thing lately.  I think I mentioned that fact before.  I need to stop adding things on my plate because I feel like I don’t accomplish anything. 

 

 

This quote speaks volume. “It is not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something”. Most days, I feel like I am just living, but not really knowing why. What is my purpose in life? For now, it is for my children. Is there a higher calling? I really need to learn to enjoy life. Make the most of every day.