Is visiting Benji!!!

His permanent teeth have been growing in behind his two bottom teeth for about a month now. This little baby tooth just decided to get loose last week. Today he was wiggling it like crazy, and I told him to go in the bathroom and pull it. He did! He was *SO* excited! It’s just another sign that my ‘baby’ is growing up. *sniff, sniff*

I got another page done today. Another “catch up” page for an old journaling challenge. This one to journal about a cliche.

(some old Basic Grey paper here. Prima flowers. Maya Road stamp. Pink Paislee letter stickers. Red letters cut with the Slice. Basic Grey rub-ons.)

Off to bed with the satisfaction that Stefan did not win Top Chef. *smile*

I don’t know where all of the inspiration/mojo came from, but I was scrapping like crazy this weekend. Three layouts and a card!

The card came first. I needed some cards to take to bunco and also to give to some friends who are going through some tough times…

(used the Making Memories Slice cutting tool to cut the butterfly out of the background. Pink Paislee papers. Prima flowers. Making Memories brads. Maya Road oval stamp. I think the “thinking of you” is Hero Arts.)

First layout for the weekend was a two pager. A few of my favorite pictures from South Dakota.

(Papers are BoBunny. Jenni Bowlin journaling spot. Title letters cut with the Slice.)

The next one I did for an upcoming journaling challenge. I’m not telling you what the challenge is, but you could guess if you wanted to. *wink*

(Papers are the Basic Grey Porcelain line. Random ricrac and lace. Making memories stickers. Basic Grey chipboard numbers. and lots of glitter!)

The last for the evening yesterday was a page for a previous journaling challenge. We were supposed to complete the sentence, “When I grow up…” I couldn’t go the serious route. I refuse to grow up!

(Papers are Basic Grey Porcelain line again. more glitter and random chipboard shapes. Heidi Swapp letters.)

Oh and I totally forgot that I hadn’t shared this one from last Tuesday for Emily’s journaling challenge to create a diamante poem.

(Pink Paislee papers. Making Memories stickers-letters, flowers, and photo corners. Prima flowers.)

Thanks for indulging me!!

Why, you may ask, am I showing you my perma-dirty, 8 year old, tired and damaged linoleum floor? Because it is dry. Huh? Dry? Yes, dry. For the last year my freezer has been filling up with ice at the bottom and then leaking. We called it incontinent and we just kept putting a hand towel under it to keep the floor dry. Well, we finally bucked up and called the appliance man. (We’ve been putting it off because we just didn’t know how much the repair would be, and were worried that it  would not be repairable. We were *not* in a position to buy a new one.) The good news…the refrigerator was *totally* fixable!! And $80 later, our fridge is as good as new. I am so stinking happy!!!!! And why am I so happy that I used five exclamation points? WE’RE GETTING A NEW FLOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooohooooooooooo!!!! We are going to be doing our part to stimulate the economy and we are putting in a new hardwood floor on our entire lower floor. I am beside myself. Our house is 8 years old. That means our linoleum and carpet is 8 years old. It’s starting to look like it too. To have a brand new floor has been my dream for so long.

So, next point of business…picking the floor. We’ve been out doing our homework and shopping and looking and comparing. It is amazing how much is out there. Luckily, we have two requirements that narrow the field. We want bamboo. And we want it dark. Last weekend we stopped by Lumber Liquidators and they had an amazing dark bamboo. The manager asked if we would like a sample to take home. Uh. Yeah! Check it out…

mmmhmmm…that dark. I can’t wait!!!

(Special editorial post by Wade)

No, this isn’t a post about how long we have left before our kids leave the house. That’s a post for another day! Today marks 18 years since Heather and I started ‘going out’. She mentioned it to me while I was getting ready for work this morning, and it just struck me what an accomplishment that is in these times of disposable marriage.

Along those lines, I wanted to pass on this petition request on behalf of the more than 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8.

http://vimeo.com/3089746

“Fidelity”: Don’t Divorce… from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Ken Starr, who led the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton, filed a legal brief last month — on behalf of the “Yes on 8″ campaign — that would forcibly divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8.

Watch “Fidelity” and sign our letter to the state Supreme Court before they hear oral arguments in the case on March 5. Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr’s case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE EXTENDED: March 2.

223,028 people have signed this letter (as of Friday, February 13). Our new Courage Campaign community goal is 250,000 signers. Will you add your name now?

couragecampaign.org/Divorce

of a boy leaving the house to have his braces removed. Thirty minutes later, he was not so happy. The orthodontist wanted to do “one more thing” before taking them off. Poor guy. He had even taken carrots in his lunch because he misses eating them so much. Two more weeks. Keep your fingers crossed.

The good news… Today I found these at Target on sale for 50 cents…

And tonight I made these…

and yes. we have already sampled. Yum.

It’s been so long since I posted any of my crafty work here. Actually toward the end of the year I wasn’t doing much crafting at all. I’ve been doing a little more since the new year began and feeling much better for it.

I’ve been helping out Mary Kay at her store (Scrapbook Destination) doing some make and takes, cards and such. “Frenzy days” as they are called are always so much fun! Here are a few cards I worked up…

and a more masculine version of the flower card above…

Something new I learned while at CHA in California last month. They called it a “bag bib.” You put it over the handles of a gift bag instead of using tissue paper. (We replaced the green bag with a smaller white bag at the make and take day.)

Over at the Journaler’s Junction, we’ve been doing some really fun challenges. This past week Ducky challenged us to journal a “tip or trick.” This one was fun to do…

The week before…I challenged everyone to journal about their BFF. I did my page about my newest BFF. I met her in California…

(yes. That is the real Paris Hilton.)

And now I am going to get a foot rub. I earned it. I called both the winner and the loser of Top Chef tonight. I will not list them here for fear that Christyn has not watched it yet. But let’s just say…I was happy. *smile*

in the winter sucks. Really. That is all.

Last Sunday Wade looked at me and said, “I am of the opinion that our children need haircuts.” Oh really. I said, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I already have haircuts scheduled for them on Wednesday.”

Avery will have to forgive me. I totally forgot about pictures until he was done. In all fairness though, his haircut is exactly the same, just shorter.

Benji, on the other hand, looked like some ragamuffin child off the street. His hair was almost as long as Tyler’s in the back. When I asked him how he wanted his hair cut, he said…”I want it short on top but stayed long in the back.” (direct quote there) A MULLET?!?!? Uh. No. When you move out on your own, you can cut your hair how you want. While I’m paying, there will be no mullets. Here’s my little stinker before…

And here he is now…I just love this boy with a bowl cut. Wade thinks this picture is a predictor of the trouble we are going to be in very soon…

Are you ready for the really dramatic change. Oh yeah. Tyler got his hair CUT. We’ve been struggling with him taking care of his long hair. He seemed to only want to comb the front third. The back side of his head constantly looked like a rooster made a nest in it. Here he is in the chair…

You should have seen the pile of hair on the floor after our stylist got done with these two. I thought she was never going to stop cutting on Tyler’s head. When she finally did, this is what he had left…

and from the front…

He’s so happy with it. He thinks he looks like some character from Guitar Hero. I’m just glad the whole thing went down without tears.

I was here….

and more specifically, here…

Tuesday we learned that Brandi (Carlile, if you aren’t on a first name basis like I am… LOL!) was joining Amy Ray (one half of the Indigo Girls) at the Fox in Boulder on Saturday night. First thing I did was get Wade to check on ticket availability. Second thing I did was check with the boys’ most favorite babysitter to see if she was available to babysit. Both worked out beautifully and we were on our way!

Doors were to open at 8:30 with show starting at 9. So of course we showed up at 6:30. Hahaha! We were the 5th and 6th people in line!! Exactly where I wanted to be. It was a little chilly waiting out there for two hours, but it was so worth it. When we were finally allowed in, Wade and I made our way to the front of the stage.

I will tell you now. That show was amazing. Really, amazing doesn’t even begin to cover it. I was tingly the entire time. And no, Brandi didn’t sing the whole time. It was Amy’s show. Brandi was mostly backup. But it was so stinkin’ awesome!!! I only had my small camera with me. (Wade talked me out of taking my SLR…but I forgive him.) I did get a few cool shots. And even better…I got VIDEO!! I didn’t have a lot of memory available, but I did get three songs. Sadly, the rockin’ amped up song didn’t do so well on my camera, but the other two songs were acoustic and sound really cool! As soon as Wade gets them on the web, I’ll hook them up here. In the meantime…some pics…

Amy. Those stage lights were brutal for taking pics…

Close up of Amy. She seriously rocked my socks.

Brandi joined Amy on stage for at least half of her songs. You know I didn’t complain!

Oh yeah…just a little bit closer…

Videos:
Amy Ray and Brandi Carlile – Johnny Rottentale – 07 FEB 2009

Brandi Carlile – The Story – 07 FEB 2009

But he wants to be 6 and a half. He keeps asking if he’s six and a half yet. hahaha

So…I’m just trying to get caught up here… On January 1st, Benji celebrated his sixth birthday. I can’t believe my ‘baby’ is six.

He wanted a cake with pink icing. I did my best…

After we sang the song, and Wade took off the candles, Benji was being silly and pretending to lick the cake. Quite a jokester, that one…

And because it is an all Benji post today… This is one of my favorite pictures of Benji from Grandma and Grandpa’s visit. We drove up to Estes Park the day after Christmas and they visited the Estes Park museum while I worked a photo shoot. They apparently had a great 60′s display and the boys had fun dressing up. Benji put on a beret and posed in front of this poster of John Lennon…

I’ll have to post some more of Grandpa’s pictures from this day. There were quite a few that had me **cracking up**! I promise to share soon.