sahm.- con’t.   August 29, 2008

one more thing i neglected to mention. the other night, my dh and i are talking, and he pauses, then says to me, “you know honey, when you do go back to work, that will be the equivalent of adding a 3rd job to our house. in other words, it takes alot to just run the day to day upkeep around here. we’re going to have to take evenings and 1/2 days on the weekends to get it all done. that’s when the girls stay up later, since we’ve not seen them all day.”
so so thankful he GETS it.
love you, dh.

sahm.   

my role. my life. my love.
this was a big week for our family. the sisters have been much more appreciative and understanding and loving towards eachother, now that big sister has started school again. my heart literally sank when i dropped her off on monday. she walked in, so tall, so proud, so confident. sure, there have been moments of insecurity, doubt, and frustration, and i’m so happy i am HERE at home to help her work out any and all of those feelings she has! rather, than having her be at some daycare where they truly wouldn’t have the capacity to try and spend the 10 minutes one my child and help her the way either myself or my dh could. and there have been signs all week that we’ve made the right decision, to choose the school she is at and keep her there. signs i will share, some i will not. some come in the form of hearing from experienced parents at our school, at back to school night last night, some come in the form of knowing at the end of the day, when i say my prayers, i thank God for giving me the peace of mind that my child is loved, cared for, and appreciated at her school. a place that she LOVES and is so excited to go to, even after a horrific incident last spring.
we’ve had back to school walks, lunches, parents’ night, and a playdate. for some, it seems like alot in one week. when you’re at a school that is built on strengthening its community, and giving back to it, it really isn’t. thank you to those who reminded me to lead by example in giving back, you show your kids what it is all about, in helping eachother out. after filling out a pile of paperwork, ironing uniforms, getting settled into our routine again, i am fatigued, but so happy all at the same time. fatigue comes from adjusting to a new routine. happiness comes from being able to let her go, in a place that isn’t perfect, but offers what we have at home, in an enriching, supportive, and structured environment. and i couldn’t be happier with the reinforcement of the strong set of values and morals that are present each and every day at school, on and off campus.

we have families from literally all walks of life. and i can truly appreciate us all coming together, to make a difference in all of our children’s lives.

and i’m very very happy to NOT be room mom this year, and simply a MOM. this frees me up to simply help when it comes from a good place, not forced.

school in session also allows me to give extra time for miss mari. she has grown tremendously and i couldn’t be prouder of that lil girl! she keeps me grounded, focused, and not so lonely with emi being in school all day. she has gotten so much more independent, and will allow me to clean or start the laundry for up to 20 minute stretches, and then we will simply play whatever she wishes. i LOVE being able to just drop everything i’m doing at that moment for her, since she is that independent most of the time. she is a constant reminder, it truly is all about life’s little moments that matter!

on that note, she is screaming for me now…

off to enjoy some moments with her, before we start one of our chores. and tonight, i’ll be kitting for the garage sale…coming up tomorrow, overhere. hope to see you there!

prayer request, celebrations, 1sts, and is it tuesday already?   August 26, 2008

omgosh, i feel so behind, yet school just started! LOL. story of my life. but, we take each day as it comes, take nothing for granted, and count our blessings every time we pray.
if you could please take a moment from your day, as you’re reading this and please pray for my dear friend’s little boy, tanner. i shared last month, how he was diagnosed with Juvenile Xanthrogranuloma (JXG). it’s a skin disease that manifests itself as lesions and can occur on various areas of the body. it is a rare condition, in and of itself, however, tanner’s condition is critical because his granulomas are in his airways, causing his lungs to partially collapse. normally, this condition where the lesions are found on the skin, goes away in 3-5 years on its own. today, i received this email in my inbox from his heartbroken mamma:

Tanner’s big day for surgery is tomorrow, Wed at 4:30pm. He will get a port in his chest, a feeding tube that goes directly into his stomach and a trach. He will then get a CT scan from his head to his hips to make sure there are no other nasty cells hanging around and then a bronchoscopy to make sure his lungs are clear. Poor Tanner is going to wake up sore and scared and probably very confused about the trach for sure. He will need to learn to eat and talk with it. After about 5-7 days of recovery (it may take longer because all the mega does steroids he’s been on inhibit healing), he will start chemo.

please keep him in your prayers. he will surely need as many as he can get!

on a much happier note, we have officially now a *grader* in our home, and the same day she embraced her new role in school, her daddy celebrated his birthday! miss emi and i had gotten big girl haircuts just a few days before, and here’s the photos to prove just how grown up we are! LOL.

here they are… my two puffs on a roller coaster ride called go daddy! he just adores them, and vice versa. we celebrated sunday night, after the girls and i spent the weekend with my parents, so daddy could finish relandscaping the front yard, and do a thorough garage cleaning, along with a honey to do list inside the house. at least he took my advice and got a nap in! we went to our fave restaurant that night, along with my parents and my brother and his gf. and monday, we celebrated just the four of us.
this one was quite the entertainer! this is the face i get when she sees the flash on the camera come out. and the second photo is the face you get right before she decides to spit out her milk and then try to catch it and use it like lotion all over her face. quite special one might say, LOL. that’s our baby for ya!
i literally have to catch my breath, when i look at how grown my baby has become! just cannot stand it sometimes. she was very excited to see all of her classmates, esp the ones we hadn’t had playdates with during the summer. she has her own desk now, and she chose to carry a book bag this year, not a backpack. big decision for my grader girl! of course all of us parents and siblings were crowded around the front door and the kids are like…ok, you can go now. with tears in our eyes and cameras flashing like they are famous, we got our last hugs and kisses in, before we headed out to linger and chit chat in the parking lots. LOL. will we ever grow up?
in other fun news, my fellow DT member over at MLS, miss emily jones was just added to this DT. go emily, you know i love your work, and melody has great taste, too! big hugs and congratulations to you!

my sweet and amazingly talented girl, karla just tagged me with this fun award…

The Rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girl’s you nominated.

so, here are my nominations [drum roll please LOL]…

suzy
rocio
kristin
emily
kerry lynn
gigi
norma
i’m off to work on kitting some ultra yummy goodies for the upcoming garage sale, here this weekend. DO NOT MISS out! from what i hear, there’s tons and i mean tons of goodies we mechanics are saying bye bye to!

happy [omgosh i cannot believe it is] tuesday tuesday!!!

happy thursday!   August 21, 2008

today, after heading to the post office to send out some goodies to friends, we ran some errands, and then headed out to have a swim playdate, with her and her super sweet son, tanner! i wish i had brought my camera! emi and tanner liked splashing eachother, and mari was just all about being in the water! i loved hearing her giggles from the splashes, the kicks while on her back, trying to have her float and saying *mOaa* which means more when she wanted to put her head back into the water and keep on dipping it! she tried to figure out how to move alongside the edge of the pool with her little feet and hands, scooting along. so so cute to watch her enjoy being in the water, nearly as much as i do! and her not having fear, totally helped her big sis be more brave.
while we were out running errands, helen’s spot was finally aired on scrapbook memories tv! she did awesome, and big toots to rocio, pattie, michelle, krista, and nichole as well! it was so fun to see all of our work come together to highlight my little shoebox, and as we’re watching tonight, i’m like look honey [to my dh- that's my layout, the one with angel, titled amazing you!], and he’s like wow, you had to cut all those pieces out? and you know it is hard to scan all the poppy stuff, i think he meant pop up stuff. LOL! thank goodness for tivo! if you get a chance, you can watch it again, this saturday at 1:30pm on pbs.
mari actually transferred and got a real nap in, well sort of this afternoon. at least for a lil over an hour. starting next week, it is back to routines, and hopefully she can resume her normal nap schedule. i think she is over tired at this point. having a ball this week, but definitely over tired. we’re cancelling playdate plans tomorrow, and just play at home. we’ll also be creating daddy’s birthday gift and wrapping it!
after we fixed a dream dinners, miss emi and i went out and got our hair trimmed:) it is super cute for her first day as a grader, photos to come later on. after the girls settled down, dh and i caught up on some of the olympics…and he scanned my latest assignments for me, for PMP.
thank you, dh!

our first assignment, highlighted the new thickers from AC. love them!
for our second assignment, we got to play with sonburn designs latest goodness. YUM.
and our last assignment, was to be titled…*when i was little, i wanted to be* my layout reads…*a mom and a wise lil owl just like you 2*. i figure one out of two isn’t bad! no one told me my brain would spill out while giving birth. LOL. and i would have complete short term memory loss for who knows how long. if you happen to see mine, please put a return to sender on it and get it to the post office asap! LOL.
in other news, fellow DT MLS member, gretchen mcelveen, was just named a memory maker 09!!! big congratulations girl!

and finally, i chatted with my dear friend, nicole, who is at one of her 10 yr reunions, and her dear hubby, is today’s captain for the 49ers, and they WON!!! go niners! mari and emi will give uncle tony a big high FIVE next time we hang.

and last but certainly not least…i am proud to have this:

with my amazing friend, suzy! so, does that come with that perky set as well? LOL.
happy thursday! thanks for reading this long post.
blessings,
erin

our last week of summer FUN!   August 20, 2008

started on sunday! after church and lunch, emi and i headed out to her 1st grade picnic! we saw most of her old k class, and met some new friends as well. it was really nice to catch up with everyone and hear about their summers and vacas, esp the ones we haven’t had playdates with during the summer. after that, we joined daddy and mari over at miss addie’s 2nd birthday party…
addie celebrated her birthday with her daddy’s 49er friends’ family, as their sons turned three and one. it was all about the cake after we all ran around the jumping houses for almost 2 hours!
we all had a great sunday, tired but good!
monday, we did a bunch of errands and got those out of the way, after mari’s speech therapy session so we could just focus on playing the rest of the week!
yesterday, we hit the zoo with my parents. how sweet is that, on my dad’s day off, he wanted to come along with my mom and play with the girls for 1/2 the day. this time, we hiked up the hills to see the giraffes, zebras, and elephants. they are just wonderful to watch. hanging out. doing their thing. very peaceful creatures. the girls had a ball on the rides, after we visited the children’s zoo and had a picnic lunch.
today, after mari’s mommy and me class, we headed here with her and her beautiful daughter! she took the day off, and we had lots of fun! emi’s fave was the roller coaster with miss sierra!
and my favorite is simply running through the amazing waterfall they have! mari had fun on all the lil rides, her fave still being the carousel.
happy last week of summer…stay tuned for the rest of our week’s adventures!

blessings,
erin

recent MLS goodness.   August 18, 2008

i’ve only been designing for helen chu, for a few months, but i have to say that her products are hands down my fave right now! you know, as you collect, take a class here or there, collect some more, and then actually start creating your own style…it can change, evolve, etc. i finally feel that after 4 years of having scrapbooking as more than a hobby, but as a way of life now, that i’m more comfortable than ever in my own style. whatever that is! i can remember a time when i couldn’t sit down and start until i had sketched something out. and now, when i sit down to create, sketching is the furthest thing from my mind. i wouldn’t know how to! LOL.

anyways, i hope you enjoy the my little shoebox products as much as i do!

helen will appear this thursday, on the PBS show, scrapbook memories at 9:30am. tune in, and see her in action. she is such a sweet, caring spirit. and get ahold of her stuff asap, you too will fall in LOVE!

some of my faves…

tfl!

happy saturday!   August 17, 2008

i truly LOVE our family time. the days when it is just the FOUR of us. with emi starting school in just over a week, i want to hang onto the carefree feel of the summer, for as long as i can.
this morning, we spent a few hours at a local park. this past may, right before school got out, we were at the park, just mari and i with some of her little friends. one of my friends’ daughters, who was mari’s age [21 months] at that time, got up to the slide by herself and would just whoosh down! i thought to myself, wow…that will take mari a long time to GET. boy, was i wrong? what was i thinking? we’ve spent about one day a week at the parks this summer, and until today, the swing and teeter totter have been her favorites, with the slide coming in second, only if assisted. . . going up the stairs using the rail, and then on my lap going down the slide. well, today, emi and i were on the swings together, and i look over and see miss mari flipping over and tumbling off the end of the slide with this AMAZING look of PRIDE on her face! oh, how i wish i had my SLR! yet, a moment like that i’m glad in a way that i got to just take it in, because then i would have been all about the camera and not in those few precious moments! she then proceeded to walk/crawl up those stairs and literally F-L-Y down that slide for the next 20 minutes!!! my dh and i just looked at eachother and smiled with pride. so excited for her! after lunch, we caught up on some of the olympics we had missed from friday night [ since i got my scrap on... here] once it is scanned, there’s some i can show you, and some you’ll have to wait for:) suzy will be teaching in brazil for MLS, so excited for her!!! her classes are goin to be rockin!!! and did some drawing with miss emi. after naps, we headed out to see the circus! ringling bros. didn’t disappoint! mari actually sat through almost the full 2 1/2 hours! highlights included the super fast tiny dogs, super silva, the tigers, fireworks, and the girl’s faces watching and taking it all in! after dinner, i ran some errands, and then we settled on the olympics again. since we were caught up on tivo, we watched this mornings’ episode of scrapbook memories tv show, on PBS. they announced it was their first episode of their new season, and i noticed the products wendy smedley was using were recent from american craft’s new release from CHA. it was episode 1301. next week’s episode will be 1302, which will be featuring helen chu, our amazing friend and owner of MLS. one of my layouts will be featured as a step out, so i’m looking forward to seeing helen shine! the episode will air, saturday august 23rd at 9:30am on PBS. add it to your tivo, it should be good fun!

and last but not least, here’s some photos i stole from suzy’s blog. they are from our girl’s night last week, enjoying the tunes of mamma mia! these girls just bring me such joy. suzy, angel, janice, pattie, wei, and steph- so thankful you are in my life!!! and po- we missed you!

happy saturday!
happy weekend!
happy last days of summer!
blessings,
erin

l a k e t a h o e , c o n t.   August 15, 2008

my FAVE ones of the girls!!!
happy friday! i’m off to crop here, tonight, yippee!!!

l a k e t a h o e + p i c t u r e s = h a p p y t i m e s. 0 8.   

in random order…

after looking through the majority of the photos, i realized that we didn’t get a f a m i l y of f o u r shot. we’ll have to work on that next year. and more time for just daddy and mommy. since we had rented 2 houses again this year, mari would go home early with daddy and chill and head to bed earlier than mommy and emi. we had such an awesome time! one of my favorite things to watch was how nicely emi and cousin rich played together:) they were due one week apart, but he made his arrival at 28 weeks. you look at them now, and you would never know the difference! love that one arm HUG she has around him up the stair rail.

great way to end our summer vacas for 08!

big. full. wednesday.   August 13, 2008

today, was one of those mornings where you wake up to the alarm, wishing that you didn’t, but thankful, the girls were still sleeping, so you could hit that snooze one too many times before actually getting up and being productive!
we hit the ground running today. lots going on. some summer days are filled with nothings. today, quite the opposite. and i don’t just mean activity wise either!
there is a sweet lil family we’ve been hanging out with from mari’s mommy and me class this summer. her little friend, carisa, [who is weeks apart from our mari], has an older sister, kayla, who emi just adores! kayla will be entering k this fall. so, as we realize summer is quickly coming to an end, emi exclaims how she would love to have playdates with kayla, now that the two of them will be in school shortly, and won’t just have the lobby and front mirror room to play in. we will try to squeeze that in, emi!
during class this morning, mari just amazed me. she truly did. and she had all the love and support from the other parents who have now been with us over a year and a half ago. the ones that have literally seen her bloom and are now HEARING her do so in words as well! for a child like mari, who is still undiagnosed as far as her speech goes, it is very difficult for her to get out any sounds that require her to move her mouth horizontally. so you typically hear the lazy vertical sounds like AHHHHHH and UHHHHHHHH alot. well, prior to starting speech therapy, we barely even heard that. we’ve learned so much along this short journey. it is difficult for children who have things like apraxia or are simply delayed to end words in constanents [sp?]. ie: MAMA comes before MOM. and MAMA comes before MOMMY. because, it is also difficult to get the EEEEEE sound, since it is a horizontal movement for her. so, for those of you who may have questioned why start her in speech before she turned TWO, have we got news! today, after class, she YELLED out, *MOMMY, [pointed to her chest and rubbed it- the sign for ME], STAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPP!!! [aka stamp]*. also during class, she is just babbling constantly now, and has always been a social one, so i think people just appreciate who she is, w/ or w/o words. and while on the air track today, out of the corner of my eye, with her teacher spotting her, she just went upside down and did her very own sommersault!!! applause and praise filled the air from all around us [again, this is a very supportive group], and she had this LOOK on her face, like I DID IT mommy, and just ran over and dove into my arms! she is also now having one of her FAVE toys gymbo, sign thank you to her, after she pretends to give him her milk cup. just the sweetest thing, again, proves it is all in His plan, and own timing. today more than ever, i knew i had a sign that all will be just fine.
after class, we said our goodbyes, and headed out to check out a local event in the mall. there was face painting, balloon animals, and a puppet show. mari grew restless, so we just walked around, got some starbucks, and ended up at target:) next, it was onto miss emi’s swim lessons. so proud of this GIRL. every year she comes more and more out of her shell, and this summer in daily swim lessons is giving her more and more confidence in the water. we are in the process now of setting up a private one on one lesson with her FAVE teacher. see how that works out. mari was babbling up a storm, as she was proudly watching her sister swim w/o the kickboard now, the 1/2 length of the pool! after swim, we grabbed some lunch, and headed to miss emi’s summer camp. it was the day they brought in a puppy and the kids went nuts! they loved the sweet furry friend, and of course, mari had to get in there, too! i was able to get some laundry done while mari took her nap, before it was time to pick up emi again! phew- and we moved her art class to a make up day. then, daddy got home just before we got back from picking up emi. and we played symphony and teacher teacher before heading out for a YUMMY italian dinner, followed by sweet treats from cold stone. brian and emi just returned from golfing- so off to watch the olympics now.

big. full. wednesday. thank you, God. such a wonderful way to get to spend our day!