it has been awhile

Seriously??!!

I have not posted since August?

And here it is the end of October!

oh the shame......

Quick recap since I last posted-

School started for the kids. I was volunteering in the kindergarten room (totally loving it too) when I was offered a subbing position. It was a permanent sub while the school was working out the need for aides with the students. It was going pretty good, minus the part about the house falling apart and me being stressed out. I applied for the paraprofessional position and interviewed but did not get it. Now I am back to being a regular sub with a relatively clean house and able to volunteer with my favorite students the kindergartners!

Also we took an amazingly wonderful fun filled trip to Walt Disney World!! oh my what a great time we had. Cannot wait to go back and do it all again. We did stuff we hadn't done before and probably won't do it again (Expedition Everest) and totally loved Snow White's Mine Train ride!! While we were there, we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. It seemed fitting since that is where we honeymooned all those years ago. And it was fun to share it with the kiddos.

Picture taken at Be Our Guest in the ballroom on our anniversary

Once we got back, I had a card order to make up. My yoga friend wanted some more note cards and I was more than happy to oblige. Here they are.  

I am working on a new owl card and hope to have a couple of sets of them completed by the end of the weekend that I can post. We shall see!! Hopefully I won't be gone as long as last time.

disney 2008 and the fun continues

 Well look at that... more Disney fun and adventure to be had!!

The top layout was taken as we were exploring the resort. We found the giant Lady and Kira was looking for Tramp and couldn't find him.... until we turned a corner and there he was!! She was so tiny next to those huge statues!!

Yup she is there with Tramp.... you have to look real close at the base!!

Love how she is looking up at Lady! So sweet. I cut the Lady and the Tramp out of a piece of pattern paper I had and then pop dotted it. I used some of the paper at the top (the pink) I used the green to pull Kira out of the pictures!!

Our first experience with the Magical Express.... and we loved it. No driving for this family! Alex stole daddy's hat and was hiding while we waited for the bus to arrive. And then my oh so cute family on our way to the resort watching the video entertainment. The word magical is a rub on that I placed on black paper and then fussy cut out. Took a bit but I really like how it came out.

Remember Newmarket Peeps---

VOTE YES ON MARCH 11TH

february vacation

It is once again that time of the year where we get a glorious week off. It has been a long time in getting here. It seems like FOREVER since we had Christmas break, and it really hasn't been. Must be all that snow that we had and continue to look at.

oh yeah... we are expecting more on Wednesday??!! I am not expecting it and would not be disappointed if it missed us. The only good part if it does snow, we won't miss school!!

I do believe we will be laying low and having some indoors kind of fun and laughs. We all need it. I see naps and lazy days ahead of us..... ahhhh looking forward to it. (and some scrapping!)

**SCHOOL UPDATE**-Sunday it was discovered that the boiler at the Junior/ Senior High School stopped working. NICE. More money thrown at this aging building as a band aid when what it really needs is a bulldozer and a wrecking ball! Best part about that... there was a reporter that was in town working on a story about our issue and was able to get a tour of the school and see first hand the condition of the school.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR MY 

NEWMARKET PEEPS--

Do not give up! The No votes may have put a few more signs up but we are further ahead of them in educating the public. They are using scare tactics and misinformation to try to secure the No votes. It is heartwarming to hear talk of the discussions you have had to turn some of these No votes into YES votes just by giving them the TRUTH! Keep fighting the good fight!

The future of Newmarket rests on this vote.

Showing off the amazing drawing.

Reminder to vote yes on March 11th.

And all that has been done with our school since it was opened in 1925. It is more than time to build a new school!!

VOTE YES!!

little bit of disney fun

This was the last page I managed to scrap before I dove headfirst into valentine production. We had a ton of fun walking around the Pop Century Resort at Walt Disney World. As you can see below things are never their real size at Disney!! Poor Kira got stuck on top of a foosball thanks to a lift from daddy!! Her shirt got caught when she tried to drop off and her tummy was stuck!! 

And can you see my family tucked in under that Big Wheel?? That is them!! Even teeny tiny Alex in his stroller. It was a good trip and I need to finish working on it.

But first- the valentines need to be completed. off I go...

disney 2008 layouts

Oh yes I am a bit behind with my scrapping of our Disney trips. But it is so much fun to look back and see how tiny the kids were and remember the fun (and the craziness) of that trip. Kira's second trip and Alex's first. All I can say is thank goodness they are older now. So much easier to do Disney without a stroller or diapers!! Not that I would change the fact we went when we did, but glad those days are behind us.

In 2008, we stayed at the Pop Century Resort which was pretty new at the time. We had a fun time going around the resort when we got there and checking the place out. Disney always makes their resorts more than just a hotel. You have to go exploring and seeing everything!! For this layout, I took an alphabet and cut out the letters to create the top part. The first word on the left page and the last word on the right page spells Kira. When I was taking these pictures she didn't  understand what I was doing, but she went along with me- such a good girl!! This 'keyboard' was at one of the pools.

Cinderella's Castle. We had parked ourselves on Main Street to watch the parade and the fireworks and I was able to capture the changing colors on the castle. So magical and very Disney.

Again, more exploring around Pop Century. I can't believe how tiny the kids were. So long ago.

I snapped a couple pictures of my mom with Kira. Disney roses always smell so good. But watch out for the bees! They like the smell too.

My parents stayed after we had to go back home (stinkers) and my mom FINALLY got to hang with her favorite character Captain Hook. I love these pictures of her with him and Mr. Smee.

Just a tad bit sunny that day. Guess we all could have used our glasses for this shot. The papers I got while at Disney.

Later that day. As you can see, both Alex and I had a change of clothes. I was too hot in the black shirt and Alex had an accident. Still a happy group shot.

More Disney to come, but first I have to work on some valentines. Busy busy me!!

oh my!! Yes I have returned from vacation and hit the ground running. I can't believe how much time has passed since we returned. I am so sorry to have kept you all waiting for so long. oh the shame.

I need to get back into my office and create. Hoping that time comes soon. Until then, I am going to post a couple of pictures here and some more on my Family site.

On our day of arrival we headed to EPCOT after checking in at the resort. We were ready and raring to go. We went and saw Mickey, Pluto and Minnie and then stumbled onto Duffy (Disney's cruise mascot) Good start to the vacation.

vacation

Yup we are finally heading out to enjoy some much needed family time. I will be back at the beginning of May. Until then, blog surf without me. But don't forget me... I will return!! 

where i want to be

Yup... this is it... right where I want to be today. Not sure why since today has been a pretty decent day with the kiddos and the weather. I think I want to hang with my twin again. Missing her. 

I took this picture after the rain cleared up before the sun went down. Look how calm and still the lake is. Simply beautiful.

Then the sunset came. Seriously it was overcast all day and yet this is what happened at sunset. Totally amazing and peaceful.

The next morning before we had to leave this slice of heaven. The lake was a bit rougher than the previous day and oh so inviting. I sunned my toes on the dock before we headed out. I can hear the water hitting the rocks and the dock.

Yup... that's where I want to be today.

loons on the lake

What a sweet family portrait.

Last year there were twins born but they didn't make it, thanks to a hungry eagle. It's the circle of life but sad at the same time. This year it looks like mommy and daddy have decided to keep a closer eye on their offspring. I was happy to catch this moment.

what a difference a day can make

Same tree... different day.

Still totally amazing.

Working my way through my Boyd Lake pictures. Figuring out which ones to share. It would help if I could concentrate and just do it. I keep getting distracted. Must be the kids. They are always wanting to eat. I mean seriously... didn't I just feed you breakfast? And now you want a snack? oh my. This parenting thing is tough.

Off to the kitchen. The natives are hungry.... again.

slice of heaven

I was finally brave enough to spend the night at my twin's camp on the lake. Yes I will admit, I am not the rough and tumble crunchy kind of gal. I like my water in pipes and a toilet to flush. 

But part of me really wanted to wake up at the lake and to enjoy everything about camp. I am glad I did. So amazing. Totally get why my twin loves being there during the summer.

A M A Z I N G !

We went up Monday after I arrived at her house. Her girls had gotten the truck all packed up so it was easy to throw my stuff in the back and head out. One hour later and we were there at Boyd Lake. So peaceful... minus the throng of kids that were splashing in the warmer than warm lake water. But even they were totally relaxed.

Tuesday morning I awoke to find a heavy layer of fog on the lake. It was much too early for this chickie to be up so I failed to get a picture of the lake. I guess my brain doesn't function at 5am on the lake. When I woke up later, it was to the soft dripping of rain in the camp. I think that was even better than the sun the previous day. Very calming.

I took some pictures and I must say, this is one of my favorites. The drops were sliding off of the pine needles and the rain was hitting the lake. Perfect!

I'll leave you with this shot while I figure out what to share next. Stop and enjoy the rain.

what i did last week

Last week... it was a busy one and totally awesome. However, some of it was pretty darn boring. I'll share the boring photos first and the fun ones later. Cuz that is how I roll!!

Monday morning I headed north on 95 to visit my twin in Bangor, Maine.

Definitely a picture that will have to be cropped to show the welcome to Maine sign better.

On Wednesday, I headed out of Maine on 95 South and snapped this sign. I wasn't in New Hampshire long enough to get a picture.

I'm still motoring along. Now I am on the NYS Thruway.

I hate this bridge. It's too high, too long and they are always doing some sort of repair on it. Makes you wonder.

Here we are in Massachusetts on Friday. Hey... look at the traffic. This is near Lowell where Route 3 joins 495 which means about seven lanes of traffic must merge into three. We ran into the same thing last year coming home from Syracuse! Plus there was a minor accident ahead which everyone had to stop and look at. Hate that.

oh look... more traffic! There was a car off the road up ahead. Gotta peek again!

So to summarize last week.... I drove... A LOT! But I got to visit my twin and go to her camp on Boyd Lake. And I got to pick up my kids and bring them back home. I guess that means all the driving was totally worth it.

tinkerbell flies

When you are at Disney she sure does! Except when the wind is too strong or it is raining. But most nights she can be seen flying from Cinderella's castle to Tomorrowland at the start of the evening fireworks. Getting a picture of it... not so easy and I have to give credit for the four shots I do have to my amazing dad. All I got was blurs.

I used a PageMap for this layout. And it almost resembles the map! Strange how sometimes that happens. I used Heidi Swapp ghost letters for the 'flies' in the title. I used Diamond Glaze to attach them to the layout. Worked pretty good.

I am plugging away at these pictures but I took so many. Imagine that. But it is all good. Happy memories.

gonna see us a mouse

More specifically this one!!

Oh yes we are! We are gonna see him and his pals in the spring. The kids are excited as are hubby and I. We'll be staying at the new Art of Animation Resort in the Lion King section. We have been drooling over this resort online since they announced what they would be doing with it. Hubby signed up to get updates on the Disney Blog and has been forwarding it to me and showing the kiddos. I can see myself taking a zillion pictures just walking around the resort! My parents are staying in the Little Mermaid section which is the standard Disney rooms. Two people really don't need two bathrooms.

It will have been three years since our last encounter with Mickey. We would have gone this year, however they are doing some major remodeling of Fantasyland and we wanted to see it all done. Not partially complete. And they are putting in Beast's castle (from Beauty and the Beast) and I was not going to miss that! We are definitely going to be eating in all the restaurants in the castle!! The Beast better be there as well as Belle in her yellow ball gown. Just saying.

Guess this means I need to get my hind end in gear and finish scrapping the last two Disney trips! Talk about pressure. Then again... maybe I could at least finish our trip from 2008?

We'll see you soon Mickey!!

happy fourth of july

Yup, I am a bit late but aren't these two just the cutest sparkler holders ever??? Thanks dad for taking these great pictures for me to have since I have left the kiddos in your care.

Today I finished Kira's room. The carpet was cleaned by my fantastical hubby tonight and I should be able to get everything off of her bed and the bedding back on tomorrow. It's gonna look so purty in her room. And boy are we going to have a serious conversation concerning its upkeep. :)

floating in nana's pool

What a great vacation the kids are having with my parents. Relaxing. Swimming. Playing. Ice cream before bed. Swimming. Stella's Diner on Fridays. It is all good. They are making some fantastic memories. And my dad is doing his duty to keep me in pictures of all their adventures!! Thought I would share a couple with you all.

Here is my little man. I think we could put a couple more kids in there with him! Such a little thing. Love my peanut.

And here is my little lady. Looking mighty fine hanging in the pool. Love my munchkin.

Today I began cleaning up Kira's room. oh my. I seriously think we have every single Littlest Pet Shop animal ever made. I had to pick up many... many little critters today. I wished them well and shoved them back into their storage bin. Then I had to tackle the enormous amount of accessories that come with these pets. oh my word!! I think we are good with LPS.... FOREVER! I know she won't think so, but I sure do.

The good news is that this year it is not a trash dump like last year. It is more of putting things back where they belong and giving her new storage spaces for some things. Half a closet done and all the storage bins are cleaned up. Under the bed storage is done too. Hoping to crank through the desk, dresser and other half of the closet tomorrow.

Hubby wants to shampoo the rugs in the kids rooms so I gotta get these rooms done. Plus the kiddos want to see pictures of their rooms and the new improved playroom. Right now there is a large pile of Goodwill donation items in the middle of the playroom so no pictures of that will be posted. Out of sight... out of mind. Works for me!!

rainbows, big girl and day old balloons

Fun title for a fun post! We went home to Syracuse this past weekend to celebrate Kira's eleventh birthday with family and friends. We had a good time and even got to catch a few pictures of this great double rainbow at my parents house. The second one to the right (check down by the tree line) is the reversed image of the brighter one. The colors are backwards. Alex noticed right away. Such a smarty pants.

I grabbed Kira for a few outdoor pictures to remember her on this big birthday. I can't believe she is 11. I mean seriously... where has that time gone? This is my mom's Charlie Brown tree. At least it was until it grew up. Poor thing was decorated on its first year for Christmas and looked so sad and pathetic. Looking much better now.

The day after all the fun of the party and there sits the balloons. The mylar one is still hanging at the ceiling but the fun color ones are relegated to the floor.

The kids are in Syracuse spending some quality time with Nana and Papa. I'm sure they'll also get some time hanging with Grandpa too. This of course means that hubby and I are foot loose and fancy kid free adults. I love the kids vacation time!

pirate and princess party at walt disney world 2008

When we took our vacation in 2008 to our favorite place on earth, we were so excited that they were having a special after hours event. Mickey's Pirate and Princess Party. Was it worth the extra ticket price? Heck yeah. Was it worth staying up until well after midnight? Heck yeah. Would we do it again? You better believe it!!

The empty the park out of the regular visitors which are easy to identify since they don't have a special neon colored bracelet on. Of course there were a few who lingered but once the employees spotted them, they were escorted out.

I pulled out my pictures from this wonderful evening of total fun and started working on them. And then realized I had to finish up my end of the year gifts so the rest of the pictures are now waiting to be scrapped... but I am getting there!

Once again I have turned to my beloved PageMaps for inspiration on all of these layouts. I am truly a fan of these sketches as they can be used in so many different ways and they never look the same twice!

For the evening, I had purchased a princess Mickey ears hat. It even had the tulle on the back!! My family opted to be pirates. Kira was Captain Pluto and daddy was first mate even though he did try to be Captain a few times! The crown eyelets I have had forever. I purchased the Mickey pirate Jolee's just for these pages as well as the Captain hat and ship brads. The pattern paper is from a package of pirate goodies I purchased as Hobby Lobby. 

These pages include our tickets so we can look back and marvel at how much money we spent that night. Thank goodness Alex was free!! I had to change the title of the party since I couldn't very well cut apart the "party" part from the "pirate" part and still make me happy. The times flier as well as the map of the park that had where the "treasure" spots and the character spots were are in the pocket on the right hand page. I added the word stickers to make tabs for easy removal. The Mickey and Minnie on the first page was another flier. I had a couple of those so I put them on the page so that you could see both sides of it. I also had extra maps so that is what is on the front of the pocket.

Great pictures and even better memories!! Kira LOVES Abu. And he is one of those characters that they didn't have out so she was thrilled to see him. As the line was moving closer and closer to him, the character wrangler was letting people know that Genie and Abu would be leaving but that Princess Jasmine and Aladdin would be coming out. Kira was ready to get out of line and leave. Seriously, she is NOT a princess kind of girl (if you couldn't tell by her choice of attire that night) Thank goodness there was a little girl in front of us who only wanted to see Jasmine so her mom was letting people by so they could be in the front of the line when she appeared. Worked for us!! The 'flowers' on this are the Spellbinders Moroccan Motifs which I added a bit of stickles to make them happy.

The group picture was one taken by the Disney PhotoPass people and you could add the little graphic to the print. Works for me!!

Here is what my desk looked like as I started working on the next page. Hubby and kids got me the Cuttlebug Mickey Pirate ship die so that I could use it for these pages. (So sweet to encourage my hobby/ sanity saver) I had never even opened it and once I did, I wanted to put it back. Oh my word!! The number of pieces I had to cut and paste and work together! Holy smokes Batman! I have a much greater appreciation for all of you who do this type of thing free hand or even with the help of a Cricut. WOW!! You are truly special folks and I loves you for it! And happy I don't have many of this type of die. :)

And here is the completed ship on the layout! I think it came out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself (and I do) Plus it adds just enough to the layout since the pictures are stinking adorable!! That's my mom hanging with Kira. She didn't want her picture taken with me but wanted to be with Nana. Works for me. The flag on the bottom is also from that Cuttlebug die. I added some dimension to the flag by adding pieces of cardstock. Looks pretty nifty in person.

And here I am!! Of course I went all Princess colors for this page. So much fun and we were so tired!! The park was getting ready to close but we HAD to get these pictures. I'm glad we stayed for them. So fun.

I have more pictures that are needing to be loved. Hopefully soon I can finish up these teacher gifts. I'm getting there but somehow there always seems to be someone I have forgotten about. I think I have them all covered, but who knows.