So Sleepy

Yes, I am. It has not been easy adjusting to Cam's new schedule. I feel tired all the time. I am and have always been a night person. I have trouble falling asleep before midnight, usually. Well that has all had to change in order to be up early. It's getting easier everyday. Except days like today when I was up from about 4:30 to 6:00. Payton has obviously been having trouble sleeping as well and coming into our room every night. Well last night it was 4:30, and that was about it for sleeping for me. Not sure what her deal is, she has done it every night since Sunday. Hopefully she starts sleeping better again, soon.

And I am not the only sleepy person in the house. Poor Cameron has been plum exhausted. 8:30 is obviously too late for him to get to bed, so tonight we are shooting for 8. Last night, Eric and I are laying in the living room watching tv. At about 9:30, Cameron goes walking into the playroom, Eric and I look at each other puzzled. I hear Cameron messing with the light switch, so I go to see what he was doing, and there he is standing up by the wall with his pants down about to pee. Poor child is so sleepy, he thought he was in the bathroom when he was indeed in the playroom. Just imagine if Eric and I had been in bed. This morning I asked him about it and he got upset. Poor heart. Kindergarten has him soooo exhausted. And he told me he is napping at school, so we just need to get him in bed earlier.

Thankfully, the one year anniversary of Katrina came and went without a storm. Eric and I have been watching the specials on tv and it makes me angry all over again. Those poor people sitting out in the baking sun with nothing, waiting to be rescued. Waiting for buses. I mean really, Louisiana is a pretty big state, could we not find buses somewhere? Seeing the elderly and the young kids just sitting there lethargic. Amazing that this happend not only in the US, but in my own state, just a few hours away. So very sad. And scary. I just pray that this NEVER happens again. And not to take away from Rita, she was pretty darn potent too. That anniversary will be coming up on Cameron's birthday. Last year we had to cancel his party, because Rita hit the night before. And so many people had devestation like with Katrina, but for some reason you never hear about that.

Well I am off to do some cleaning and scrapbooking with Payton. This girl is seriously going to be very creative. From the time we get home from dropping Cameron off, she asks me to spread newspaper out on the coffee table and she paints, and she colors, and she plays playdough, and she cuts and pastes. She does this until naptime, then she wakes up and starts again. All day. A girl after my very own heart. LoL.

Senseless

A Saturday post? Shocking, I know. The thing is, I woke up to a completely quiet house this morning. Eric took the kids and went out to his mom's to put up some crown molding. So the house is completely quiet. So where am I? Where else, at the computer/scrapbook desk. Yes I have laundry screaming at me as well as dishes and floors, toilets, tables, you name it. But I am trying my best to ignore them. They'll still be there later right?

Eric was supposed to stop at the mall on the way home from work last night. (He goes 3 times a week to pick up from a store there.) Well for some reason, he didn't stop. He came home. So we got dressed and went with him. And we get to the mall and there are cop cars EVERYWHERE and there is yellow crime tape blocking the entire entrance that we normally park at. So we go around and park at Foley's. We get inside the mall and almost every single store is closed. We go to the store Eric picks up at and ask what happend. Apparently some young 21 year old decided to go into Victoria's Secret and shoot his 21 year old girlfriend and kill her right there in the stockroom. And as if that wasn't enough, goes out to the parking lot flashing his gun to the police and gets shot and killed himself right there in his car in the parking lot we always park in. You can read the whole story here:
http://theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060826/NEWS01/608260329/1002
Anyway, if Eric would have stopped at the mall, he would have been right there right at that time. This kind of thing gets me sooooo angry. How senseless. I mean could it really be so bad that he had no other option to kill her right there in front of her coworkers?

And as we are leaving, the little hair straightener guys right there in the mall still pull me over to give me a hair straightening demonstration. Yeah, because I'm really worried about my hair right now. I just found out a girl got shot and they wanna straighten my hair. And the crazier thing is I let them. And it was an awesome straightener. And I am even thinking about purchasing one in the future. Crazy huh?

We were planning to go eat somewhere after the mall. It was a rainy night and after finding out that had happend we just picked up food and went home. It's good to know that it was isolated and not just some nut job who just went in and started shooting randomly. But still, that poor girl. 21.

So that was our night in a nutshell. We have an outside party this afternoon, and there's 70% chance of rain. Poor girl. Her Hawaaiin Luau will be a soggy one. Before Jenny & Ali got married, we threw them a Luau engagement party. And it rained like it hadn't in years. Stormed. All decorations ruined. Maybe it's something about Luau's.

And speaking of storms, Ernesto. Supposedly heading to the gulf next week. Will have to keep an eye on that one. Katrina's one year anniversary on Tuesday. Hopefully Ernesto will be made aware of that and STAY AWAY!

Have a good rest of the weekend folks. Such a downer post, I know. Sorry!

Just Payton & I

Yep. That's it. Cameron off to school, Eric at work. Just the girls at home. Today she told me she wants to go shopping. So we are going to head out shopping. Not sure where or for what. Lol. Yesterday she helped me clean up the playroom. We were in there for over an hour and looked like we had hardly touched it. It is so very quiet around the house now.

Today is day 3 of kindergarten. He had a hard time waking up this morning. He seems like he loves it. He has a few new friends and one of the girls from his preschool class is in his K class. He loves eating lunch in the cafeteria. He loves that he has chocolate milk everyday.
And that's about it. 2 new layouts to share and not much else. Have a great Thursday everyone!

Sigh

My baby went to Kindergarten today. And he acted like he has been doing that everyday for the last 5 years. He was so excited. And I am too. Sad. Happy. Excited. Scared. All of the above. So many emotions. We brought him and his supplies to the class and got to meet the teacher. She seems very nice. Then we stayed for an orientation. I must admit, as hard as it is too leave him there and realize that he is not sad in the least, it's better than the lady who was in the hall with her son screaming at the top of his lungs "don't leave me mommy". That would have been too hard. I much rather my happy go lucky son who just said "bye Mommy & Daddy" and went off to meet his new classmates. Eric decided to take the day off so he could be there to pick him up with me on his first day.

As we were driving away, we saw him and his class out on the playground. We drove very slowly and just watched. They were the only ones out there, so we spotted him really quick. I don't think he saw us, which made me even more sad. LoL. I'm probably even more emotional than normal, because I barely slept last night. You would have thought it was mine or Eric's first day, we were up almost all night. Lol.

And not to leave Payton out of this entry, I've got something to share about her too. My family will really appreciate this. Last night we were doing our devotion and praying. Cameron was saying his prayer "Thank you Lord for our house, and thank you for dying for us, and thank you for living in our hearts, and thank you for... and Payton interjects "poopoo crunch". We were falling on the floor laughing. It was very hard to regain our composure and finish praying. That girl cracks us up sometimes.

Hope everyone has a great day. Cameron wanted spaghetti for supper on his first day, so I will be cooking spaghetti. And Eric thinks the occasion calls for a cookie cake. Yeah-he pretty much thinks that about all occasions. Lol.

Dentist Trip

Wow. All I can say about the dentist. We were actually in and out in 2 hours which was good. At about 9:20, they finally called us back and gave Cameron a drink to make him sleepy. After about 15 minutes, he started getting really silly. He dropped one of his flip-flops, so the hygentist picked it up and took his other one off while I carried him to the back. He starts giggling "He he, Mommy, I don't have any shoes on, he he. Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Until we got to the room, and they put him in the chair, and they strapped him in, and he threw up the medicine. It was all downhill from there. He started screaming and crying. The dentist came in and started all the while it took 3 of us to hold him down. The dentist asked "do you want me to stop?". I was like are you crazy? I told him if you can get it done, do it. I am not coming back here and doing this again. He was so scared. I was crying too, seeing him like that, but I wasn't going to let him stop and put either Cameron or myself through that again another day. He would stop crying and lay perfectly still and then just start screaming again. Wow, I got home drained. Physically and emotionally.

And I get home to find that Payton had a screaming bout of her own. She was with her grandma Monday, Tuesday and most of the day Wednesday (while Cam & I had our date day). Well when she saw her grandma show up to watch her while I took Cam to the dentist. She had a meltdown. Talking hiding in the dark utility room screaming. Wow. My poor children. Thursday was not a good day for either.

We went to the park after Eric got home from work to play tennis. That was fun. This time we played with shoes. LoL. And my feet are very thankful for that. Hoping that we can start playing that more often. It is a good cardio workout and let's face it, I need some cardio working out. There is a playground right outside of the tennis court, so the kids can play and we can watch them while playing. Now that baseball is over and school is in, there are never many people there.

Oh and I did not make it to round 3 of the Last Scrapper Standing. I am kind of bummed. But I'm just happy that I made it to round 2, I was scrapping alongside some great talent! And there are only 4 rounds.

Happiest of weekends to everyone! This is the last weekend before Cam goes off to school on Monday. I know I'm gonna cry and I'm pretty sure Eric is gonna too. He is going in late and taking off early so he can come with me to drop him off and pick him up. Pretty sure he's gonna cry too. We are going to be a big, blubbering mess. Cameron will be happy though. He is not even going to blink an eye. He absolutely cannot wait!!!

Date Day

Happy Wednesday everyone! Cannot believe the week is halfway over already. Cameron had his Kindergarten testing this morning. The teacher came up to me afterward and asked me if I had requested any certain teacher (I didn't even know you could do that). I told her no. She was so very sweet. Cameron told me when we got in the car that she told him she wants him to be in her class, so I am hoping that she gets him. She told me she was very impressed for how well he did for being so young. He will probably end up being the youngest in his class. She told me that lots of kids who are already five don't do as well on the test. Yay. That was nice to hear. He is so excited. We bought his school shoes today, so he is completely ready for school. Monday is the day. Wow. Will have several pics to post I am sure.

After the test, he and I went to the movies and out to lunch. It was Cameron & Mommy's date day. LoL. That's what he wanted to call it. Payton stayed at her Grandma's house. I wanted to have a day with just him and I before he starts next week. It was a nice afternoon, I just regret not doing that more often while I had a chance.

Tomorrow, we are off to the dentist to get his back teeth sealed. The dentist says that he has some watch spots that need to be sealed before they turn into cavities. Eric thinks that the dentist needs a new set of golf clubs. LoL. The hygenist tells me to be prepared to stay for 3 hours. I am bringing Elsie Flannigan and Ali Edwards to keep me company. lol. Hopefully learn some good scrappy tips while I wait. Those books are both sooo good!

After a looooong day at the scrapbook desk on Tuesday, I finally got a layout with 13 pics done. This was certainly a challenge for me. I knew the basic scheme of it, it was just very hard to get it down on the paper. Here it is.
You can click on it to make it bigger.

Have a great day everyone!!!!

Weekend Activities

What a great weekend! Went with mom & dad, Eric & the kiddos to Plano Texas to visit Jenny & Ali. And let me tell you, Texas is HOT! I thought it was hot here in South Louisiana (& it is) but Texas is hotter. We drove out there on Friday morning and came back Sunday evening. We did lots of shopping. We drove out to Frisco Texas on Saturday and did some shopping. Oh My Word!! That place is a shopper's paradise. Everywhere you look there is another shopping center. Visited some stores that I had never been to. Pottery Barn, IKEA, Pier 1 Kids. There were sooo many awesome stores. We only had time to hit a couple. Eric found a golf store with a putting green that he and the kids really enjoyed.
I went to a store called the Scrap Bucket. Very cool. They have buckets all over the store with stuff in them. From KI icicles to Heidi Swapp ghost shapes and buttons. This way instead of buying a whole pack, you can buy however many you need. Loved that! Very cool store. I also bought another book to ponder over.

Another great book! Hopefully now the inspiration will come pouring in. Just in case you may be wondering, I did make it to the second round of the Last Scrapper Standing contest. Our next challenge is to use 13 photos on one layout. AAACK! I am quite accustomed to using only 1, so that challenge is really going to test me (which is indeed the point). And since I scrap in 8 1/2 X 11, it's really going to be interesting. Have a few ideas floating around, I just hope it comes out like I have in mind. Will post the final product once it is completed. The kiddos are going spend a couple of days at my mother in law's house, so that should give me some good thinking and creating time.

The kids enjoyed the pool at Jenny & Ali's. Their apartment overlooks the pool. Cameron was jumping in and going under which is huge progress from the beginning of the summer. They also had a tennis court near the pool. Since Eric and I brought only flipflops, we played tennis barefoot. And in case you were wondering, tennis is not meant to be played barefoot. I got blisters under each foot from running on the court. Genius, I know. We really looked like country folks I'm sure. LoL. He and I hadn't played tennis in quite awhile so it was fun. We are going to have to go to the park near our house and play more often. The playground is right near the courts so the kids can play while we play tennis.
I just really liked the area, and the real estate is sooo cheap! No we are not planning on moving there. Eric says he wants to if we can live on a golf course and I could get a job teaching. He would be a stay at home dad who golfed all the time. Yeah-That's gonna happen!
When Payton woke up on Sunday morning she looked around and asked "Where are here?" In other words, where am I? LoL. She had forgotten where we were. She and Cameron had fun. He is already asking me when we can go back.
Hope that you all had great weekends as well. Have a great day Monday! Ugh!

Almost 30

So I entered a scrapbooking contest called the Last Scrapper Standing. Our first assignment was to do a layout with all of the journaling on the photo. This was my attempt.

I wasn't thrilled with the outcome, but it's grown on me a little. In case you cannot read the journaling it says "Almost 30! In a couple of months! Yikes! How can that be? I just turned 21 right? Yeah-8 years ago. But I couldn't be happier now. I am a stay at home mommy to 2 beautiful kiddies and a wife to 1 amazing man. At 21 I might not have pictured life exactly like this, but this is good-really good! So bring it on 3-0, I'm ready for ya! After all, age is just a number-right?"
Yes folks, in a few short months December 3, I will be 30. It's crazy, I remember when 30 seemed so old! Now it's just a few months away!

Not much has been going on here in our little world. With this unbelievable heat, we don't get out much during the day. We finally go out at about 7 in the evening when the heat has subsided some. Last night Payton was naming some of the neighbors that she wanted to come over and play. She says "Reese, Katharine & whobody else?" She couldn't remember the little boy Seth's name so she called him whobody else. Pretty funny.

Well Cameron has gotten his uniforms, oh my goodness! We did a trial run, dressed him in one of his uniforms and put his backpack on. Serious emotions there. I was tearing up already. I am pretty sure that there will be tears on the first day. I have been pretty emotional ever since I saw him in that uniform. It's like I have been home with him for the first 4 almost 5 years of his life and now this is it. Once school starts, that's pretty much it until he graduates and goes to college. Eric already has him at Duke on a basketball scholarship, LoL. But I would be happy with him at ULL. Not very prestigious I know. Maybe I could settle for LSU, that is just an hour away. Ok, I know he is just starting kindergarten, but I know that the next 12 years will go by in the blink of an eye.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week and weekend. We are leaving for Texas Friday morning, so I won't be able to blog again until Monday. And just want to say thanks to all the faithful readers of this blogitty blog. It has become something of a habit. I really enjoy sharing random bits of our lives with you all! Again, have a great weekend! See ya Monday!

The Weekend

I bought this over the weekend. And it makes me very happy.

Love this girl and her style sooo much! She is so stinking creative and talented.
I can just sit there and stare at her pages in awe. This is a great book, so inspiring. I shopped on Saturday with my mom, sister in law & niece for fabric for the girl's drapes. My mom will be doing the sewing, I was just helping pick out the fabric.

Does anyone out there watch the Apprentice? Not this past season but the one before, there was a girl named Felecia. I think that I may have seen her in Jason's Deli on Saturday. Now I would not have even given it a second thought a) had I not watched the show and not known what she looked like and b) not read in the paper that she had bought a hotel here in town. She pulled up in a beamer with a rock on her finger and a very stylish purse (that I am pretty sure she can fit in). Anyway, no one that was with me watched the show, so I was kind of out of luck. The male employees kept making a point of approaching her to talk to her though, so that made me think it was her even more.

Hoping to be going to Plano, Texas this weekend to visit with the fam. We are not sure yet though. Really would like a little weekend getaway before Cameron starts school 2 weeks from today!!! Yikes!

We drove out to the town of Washington, LA yesterday for lunch after church. Eric gets a gift card to the Steamboat Warehouse every year for Christmas from the store. We realized that if we did not go on a Sunday after church, we may never go. Ok, the first time we went to this restaurant, I remember loving the food. Yesterday, not so much. I'm just glad we had a gift card and it didn't come from our own pocket. Maybe they were having an off day. Eric wasn't too impressed either. What we loved the first time we went, was apparently just a special on that day, so we could not get it this time. Bummer, because nothing else was very good.

That's the weekend in a nutshell. Nothing too exciting. Hope you all had a great weekend (especially you Shaina)!

Athletic Ability (& the lack thereof)

Two words...Dora Candyland. We have been playing soooo much of this game. Cameron & Payton had a bag that they were saving money in that they could use to buy whatever they wanted. Well after going to MawMaw's house, of course they came home with some money. Payton really wanted a Dora game, so we took her to Target and she picked out the Dora the Explorer version of Candyland. We have played it almost nonstop ever since.

Cameron bought himself a junior sized basket ball. He and Eric have been playing lots out on our dirt court. LoL. Eric has big plans to pour himself and Cameron a basketball court sometime in the near future. He is hoping that Cameron will go to the NBA and he can retire early. LoL. Cam's doctor has always said that he will probably be no shorter than 6'4". So who knows maybe Eric's dream will come true. Let's just pray that he doesn't inherit my athletic ability (or lack thereof rather). Note: Height does not equal basketball ability. I should know, I'm a prime example. I am about 5'11" and can not make a ball into the basket to save my life. That was much to the dismay of the high school girl's basketball coach who literally sprinted up to me to tell me about tryouts on my first day of my freshman year. Sorry coach! But there is always that chance that he will take after his daddy who was indeed blessed with basketball skills. Although, thus far, Cameron seems to be a carbon copy of his mommy.

Sharing some layouts that I did this week. My scanner has been misbehaving. Scanning everything way too dark. Guess I'm gonna have to mess around with it. I must give props to my brother-in-law Ali. He completed his first digital layout. I must say, I'm pretty proud. We may have the next Tim Holtz on our hands! (A well known man in scrapbooking, for all you nonscrappers). You can find it on his blogaroo.
Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Not sure what's going on here just yet, but I'm sure it will involve lots of Dora Candyland. LoL.

Pics

Happy Wednesday!! Gonna try to post pics again today of my nieces rooms. Since that is been pretty much all I have been doing for the last 2 weeks (working on things for their rooms).
Had a fun day yesterday. Drove about 2 hours away to visit my MawMaw & my aunt who was in from Mexico. Only get to see her once a year so it was a nice visit. Had a good lunch and talked for awhile.

The kids had a good time. They played with all of their cousins toys (who was not there and ate tons of candy & ice cream).

My aunt and uncle live with my grandmother now, because she needs help getting around and taking care of herself. That's kind of a hard thing to see. She has been so independent up until about a year ago.

I have a friend coming over with her kiddies today for a play date. Love that! Kiddies play and I get adult conversation (woohoo)! Gotta love adult conversation & two days in a row! Awesome!
Cannot believe how fast this week is going! The weekend will be here before we know it! Yay! Just wanted to give an update on my friend's little baby that underwent heart surgery, she is doing well, on her way to recovery! She has been through so much in her short little life. Last August, she was in Tulane having her first heart surgery when Katrina hit. The water was rising in the hospital. She had to be air lifted back here. Her parents, had to hitch a ride on a helicopter and make their way back here. It was quite the ordeal. Then she is here at the hospital in town and Rita hits. That one was pretty bad over here. The hospital lost power, but the generators kicked on. So anyway, she has been through so much already, and she will be a year old in a few weeks.

Speaking of hurricanes. I saw last night that Tropical Storm Chris is probably going to turn into a hurricane. And of course our local weather man, bless his heart, loves to scare people in my opinion. "This has a huge potential to come straight into the gulf and threaten our area by early next week". Wonderful, something to look forward to. Hopefully he is way off, as usual.

Well I had a few more pics to share but I've been cut off at the source. Blogger really has picture issues. Well, everyone have a great day!