because I have nothing else to do.........

So I was at the Creative Stitches and Craft Show with Monday Night Class this weekend, and in the booth next to ours was a girl selling beads. I have wanted to try my hand at beading for a while, so what did I do? Spent too much money on beads. However, I have also made three necklaces, two bracelets for myself, and one for Avery. I like how quickly something nice can come together. I just have to learn some interesting patterns now..... I mean seriously, don't I need something else to occupy my time? All I do now is sell Stampin' Up!, Discovery Toys, design and teach for Monday Night Class, substitute teach, and be a SAHM with a husband in the middle of harvest. So I am sure that I should take on yet another thing to do... Grant said he thought the necklaces were nice, and that he couldn't believe that I was doing something that a six year old would do for fun. That's not nice. ;)

Avery has preschool orientation today. I am excited that she will get a chance to go to preschool this year. Ever since our day home closed, I have been looking for ways to get her back into social situations. I have noticed that her ability to share and take turns has taken a very dramatic turn into nonexistence. I am only going to send her one day a week. She is only three, after all. But it will be nice to have a break and spend some time with just Cohen once a week. The best part is a neighbor and I have decided to alternate trips to town to take the kids, so that will be helpful in the driving and gas department.

And that is it... I think. For now anyway. What I should really be trying to do is going back to sleep. Everyone here is sleeping except me. I spent the night tossing and turning, so I finally got up at 5:30. WAY too early! It is still dark for crying out loud.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Thursdays............................

I love Thursdays. LOVE them. Tonight is the season premiere of The Office, Grey's Anatomy, and Survivor!!! Don't call, or facebook me tonite.... I will be busy. I have big plans of sitting on the couch and eating popcorn, and ignoring everything else around me. I am so happy that summer TV (aka reruns) are over, and life can get back to normal.

I am going to a jewelry open house today with Tara. I am NOT going to spend a lot of money. I WILL NOT..... (maybe it is a self fulfilling prophecy if I keep saying it?!?!?) In recent months I have become a bit of a jewelry fanatic. I have always loved accessories before, but I have never spent this much time, or money on it. Yikes. I need to stop. I have to remember that I don't have an official job that pays official money.

I have also started to sell Discovery Toys. I am really excited about it. Avery and Cohen have been playing with nothing but my new toys. That is a good thing. I have created a blog for it as well... just in case you are interested.
The link is:

www.kimberlysdt.blogspot.com

so much going on... good and bad.

well, the good news is they finally found my neighbor. By they, I mean another neighbor who is a part of the local volunteer fire department. Grant and Ryan (who works for us) were also out there today. I am glad they found her. I wish she would have been alive, but I knew that wasn't very likely considering how long it has been. Needless to say, the family will now have the closure that they need.

On Saturday was the Visions of Vulcan photo contest. It was a neat idea. Every entrant got a disposable camera (to keep things even) and a day to take 27 pictures. I tried to think of some interesting things in our area to photograph. These are some things that I took with my own camera. (I kind of cheated and took my DSLR and shot what I wanted to first, and then pulled out the disposable one...) These were taken down at the train bridge in Carmangay. I also took some of the kids around the barn, and in the yard. I don't expect to win, but it was a really fun way to spend the day!

(I can't get rid of the second train bridge pic)

tonite is my first class at Sheep River Scrapbook Co. I am teaching a Monday Night Class kit I designed. I am nervous. I don't know why. I am a teacher after all... and a scrapbooker. so it should naturally flow, right??? we'll see. If you never hear from me again, I was humilated and took off ;)

I have been working my little Monday Night Class tushy off. I am designing exclusive kits for the Okotoks store, and also now for Scrapbook Pantry in Calgary. Exciting, and a little nerve wracking. I hope I am up for all of this!

Still no news

I have still not heard anything about Lori. It is so very bizarre. The frustrating thing is that everyone has their own theory, and they are getting quite ridiculous.

My mom came down for a visit, and I am putting her to work. She is currently looking after the herd, while I am at school subbing. I also subbed yesterday. I was at the high school yesterday, and man oh man... I don't ever remember talking about sex that much...especially in front of an adult. Crazy. So when I was asked to come back to Champion today, I jumped at the chance. I needed to restore my sanity and the kids at this school do that.

I feel guilty about putting my mom to work, but I am sure that she will recover on her days off at home... it isn't like my dad is high maintenance or anything...(I am laughing out loud...seriously).

Anyhoo, I am also getting stressed because my first Monday Night Class on Tuesday Night is next Tuesday, and I hope I don't fail miserably.

don't feel like blogging

I don't feel like blogging. my neighbor has been missing since Wednesday, and I haven't felt the urge to scrapbook, blog, facebook...anything really. I just keep praying that this will somehow turn out to be a big misunderstanding, or maybe a miracle will happen. Who knows... but needless to say, life has been put on hold a little this last week.

Heel tap, shuffle ball change.... and sept lo #2

That's right. Avery has started dance again. She is doing tap this year. And I couldn't be more excited! I think it might have something to do with the fact that I was in tap when I was three, and took it for four years. I loved it. I love the sound of the shoes, and I love how shiny they are. I just love all of it. So far, she is the only one in her class, but that means private lessons! I am impressed with her already. She was able to march in time with her teacher, and learned ball, heel, toe, stamp and stomp. Plus she got to do a little dance at the end. The best part was when she went into the studio and introduced herself to her teacher. She told her that her name was Lightning. yeah. We should do something about that. She is supposed to start preschool next week and I can see her not answer the teacher because she was referred to as Avery.

This is a LO that has needed to be finished for a really long time. It is the last page in the first album of Cohen's first year album(s). Everything about it is old stuff. The cardstock has been around forever, the patterned paper is old, the ghost shapes, silhouettes, ribbon, and brads were all bought for something else. I love that I am using up stuff. However, what I should really be doing is going through my stuff and pulling things I know I will never use. I am going scrapbooking in Blairmore for a weekend in October, and we are setting up a table of stuff to give away. We did this in High River this summer and I got rid of a ton of stuff. Just another way to justify buying more stuff I guess.....

TFL.

Sept Layout #1

I can't believe how quickly this page came together. I just bought this Rusty Pickle paper on Saturday, and I have already used it up! I bought it with this picture in mind. I knew I needed something red and blue, and I saw this. I did have to get past all the red, white and blue and patriotism on it, and once I di d, I realized that Cohen's suckies have stars and swirls on them too, so how perfect??!!??

The picture itself cracks me up. Both of my kids have had soothers, and much to my dismay, Cohen is really attached to his...obviously. Anyhoo, this day, he was crawling around and found one of the soothers that I couldn't find. He somehow crammed both in his mouth, and got my attention. He was so very proud of himself.

As for old stuff on this page... I used old cardstock, old star chipboard, and old Basic Grey chipboard alphabets.

I hate dial up

I don't know how I ever get anything done online. Seriously. Living in the country is so bad for my picture looking, uploading, downloading habits... We can't get high speed from any of the rural providers because no one has a tower close enough to us. Nice.

anyhoo, I finished another MNC kit this afternoon. I like how it turned out, because there was a moment when I was cursing Christy for giving me this paper (even though I asked for it specifically ;) It is the Cosmo Cricket Jack's World line, and I think it will work really well for any of those school days pictures that are lying around.

I was also at Scrapbooker's Paradise yesterday and WAHOOOOOO!!!!! Chatterbox is back, and better if I do say so. I used to be the world's largest Chatterbox addict. I had every room, and all the tacks, and snaps to go with every sheet of paper for every room. I even had all the Chatterbox books full of Chatterbox layouts. And their albums..... LOVE them!! I love how big the page protectors are, and the suede... anyhoo. Let's just say, that as time went on, I became a little disenchanted with them. Everything started to look the same, and looked boring and uninspired. Well.... not anymore! I bought some of the cutest paper and chipboard glittery embellishments and brads yesterday! I can't wait to use it.

Yesterday was also the day that Grant decided it was time to get Cohen's hair cut. I wasn't too keen on the whole thing. I didn't think it was actually that long, and with the exception of what I affectionately called his anti-tails (because the back sides of his hair were longer than the middle back) I didn't think anything needed to be cut. I was vetoed. Grant and his mom have been mentioning a hair cut for months, so I told Grant that if we could make an appointment at Beaner's for either 11:30 or 12:30 I would go along with it. (I was fully expecting it to be impossible to just say a time and get in...) so 11:30 it was. He was really good through the whole thing, and we chopped about an inch off, and it is still quite long, so I guess he really was due.

This is the before. Doesn't he look like he just wants to take off and get into trouble?

This is the during. Please don't comment on the pink Jeep. We had no other choice. Besides...don't real men wear, and get their hair cut in pink?

This was the after shot. Isn't he cute? A little gel... and look out ladies.

not going back...

So it was the first day of school on Tuesday, and 99.9% of me didn't miss it. I didn't miss cutting my summer holidays short to return to school to plan for the upcoming year, I didn't miss having to attend "Rah Rah" day (as it is affectionately known in my district), I didn't miss having to go to the first staff meeting of the year...but a teeny tiny part of me did miss assigning lockers, making a seating plan, and passing out textbooks. Weird huh?
So I was so excited when I got to sub this morning. It was fun. I couldn't believe that I got to be there on the third day of school, and what is more exciting... I get to go back tomorrow!! Who would have thought that I would already have subbed twice, and school has only been in for four days...

So I miss being there. That is obvious. But what isn't as obvious to me is what to do about it. I resigned for a reason right? I WANTED to stay home with my kids, I didn't want to be spending 7 hours a day with someone else's when I could be with mine. So when I heard that they still hadn't hired a preschool teacher, I thought I should apply.

Now that I have mulled it over... I think I need to mull it a little more.
I need to look at the Pros and Cons of going back. (And this is assuming that I would even get the job, which isn't a certainty.)
So... the pros.

• income
• part time - two full days instead of four mornings
• break from home
• back at the school I love
• not as structured as "real" school - no marking

and now the cons.

• no childcare for Cohen that I know of
• less chance for subbing
• teaching my friends' kids
• not a break from both kids because Avery would be in preschool
• am already busy with SRSCo and Monday Night Class, and, oh yeah, being a mom...

UGH. I wish there was a way to do everything I love, and not have to sacrifice something else that I love. I left teaching because I couldn't devote the time I felt was necessary to all the outside of school things that teachers do in addition to everything they do at school, and I wasn't getting enough time with my kids...

So... I know I know the answer. I know I should leave well enough alone, and stay home. So there. I guess that was me mulling it over, and the decision is easier than I thought.?.?.?

so much going on...

I'm not gonna lie... even to make Haley feel better about not making the concert. Oasis was amazing. I love when you see a live show, and they sound better than their CDs. They were amazingly good. Sang great songs, kept the crowd engaged. It was one of the better shows I have seen. I can honestly say that Oasis has always been one of my real favorite bands, and they have always been one I want to see. I can check that off the list!

So Avery has been on the biggest "CARS" kick lately. I mean, she loved it before, but her obsession has honestly reached epic proportions. She won't answer us unless we address her as Lightning, and now she talks "Cars" meaning that she quotes the movie every chance she gets. Last night she was coming home from Grant's mom's house and Grant asked if she had fun at Grandma's. Her answer was, "Livin' the dream Mater boy." Hilarious. and a little annoying. I can't convince her to watch or do anything else. It is CARS 24/7.

I also can't stop watching CNN. I am waiting for something as horrible as Katrina to happen and hope and pray that it doesn't. I have an aunt and uncle who live in Luling, just outside of New Orleans. They are in Red Deer right now, so evacuation wasn't an issue for them, but it was for my uncle's son and grandson. I hate hurricane season, yet for some reason, can't stop watching it on the news. I hope that there is minimal loss of life, and that people have the chance to return home soon.