Making progress...

...on so many fronts!

1. Annie had her yearly check-up. All is well. In fact, the doctor wants to try taking her off one of her asthma medications! It's been 4 years since her last hospitalization. If all goes well for a while, he's going to take her off her other medication as well. We're keeping our fingers crossed...sure would be nice to find out she's "outgrown" this. Watching your kid fight just to breathe...not an easy thing.

2. Max also had his yearly check-up. He is now falling on those growth charts at about the 60th percentile for weight and the 95th percentile for height. Makes it hard to believe that this is the same little babe who, as his doctor put it, was "just barely clinging by his fingernails to the bottom of the chart" at the time of his first year check-up. He made it up to about the 25th percentile by his second birthday. Looks like there's no stopping him now!

3. Gray has not had his check-up yet, but we have definite progress to report. He is wearing a "real" pair of pants this morning for the first time in years. (As opposed to sweat pants.) O.K., I realize this may not sound all that amazing. But truly it is! This kiddo is so sensitive to the feel of things on his skin. This is the same kid who takes weeks to adjust to the changing of seasons, because he has to readjust to the length of his sleeves! Nothing but sweatpants. No shirts with zippers or buttons. But this morning, I decided to see how he would react to this "new" (actually a hand-me-down from somewhere) pair of pants. A step up from sweatpants...still an elastic waist, but made of a "nicer" fabric than sweats. And not one word of complaint!

Sometimes everyday life just seems so overwhelming. It's nice to be able to step back from time to time to appreciate how things so very often do get better.

Now if we could just report some progress on the potty-training front...

living lime...

Your Power Color Is Lime Green

At Your Highest: You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary. At Your Lowest: You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in. In Love: You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated. How You're Attractive: Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room. Your Eternal Question: "What else do I need in my life?"

What's Your Power Color?

Hmmm...again, I'm not sure I agree with the description. But I do love lime green!

rainy days

You Are Rain

You can be warm and sexy. Or cold and unwelcoming. Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you. You are best known for: your touch Your dominant state: changing

What Type of Weather Are You?

Love these little quizzes. But I'm not sure I agree with this one. Can't imagine anyone but my darling hubby finding me "sexy" these days. But I am ever so grateful that he does! Nor do I think anyone would find me "cold and unwelcoming". That's just so NOT me. Oh well, still fun to do.

saying goodbye to babyhood

The last day that my "baby" will be a three-year-old. Waaaahhhhh!
Age three let me fool myself a bit. I could still try to pretend that Max was my little baby. Four-years-old, though...that's squarely into little boyhood!
I know I'll get used to it, but for now I need to be just a little bit sad about it all.

There is one thing I find entirely unfair about the whole thing, however. If I have to live with the fact that my baby is now a little boy, should I not at least get the reward of saying goodbye to diapers?!! Seriously, has there ever been another kid turning four who still adamantly refused to have anything to do with the potty? Surely, there must be...but I've never encountered one quite as stubborn as my little Maxidoodle.

Quote for the day:
"Youth comes but once in a lifetime." --Longfellow

and on a scrapping note...

O.K.--homeschooling is underway (though I think every day will involve many hours devoted to every aspect of this) and my scraproom has finally been whipped back into shape. This means the scrapping may again commence. Finally. Been going through severe withdrawal the past few months!

Started a layout last night (my brain was too fried to continue working on our "matter unit" any longer). Managed to finish it this morning while Annie worked on her math problems. Felt so good to get one under my belt. And I even like how it turned out (not something I can say about every layout I complete). Of course, those cute little binder clips made for a wonky scan here. Oh well.

Also managed to crank out a super quick little layout for my "other peoples kids" book. You know all those adorable photos you get in your Christmas cards? I have a spiral bound little 8x6 book that I scrap those photos in. (Actually, I'm on my second one--the first got filled up.) Hope to get that little album up to date here soon (have maybe four more pages to do), since before long a new round will be arriving. How can Christmas be creeping up here so fast anyway?!!

Anyway, my scraproom (not much more than a glorified closet, but I am ever so grateful to have it!) is bursting at the seams! I seem to do a much better job at buying supplies than using them. I'm pretty dang sure that I'm not alone in this. But, I have decided that I MUST do something about this. Like using up all the crap I already have! I've laid down the law with myself...I must do 10 layouts for each new thing I want to buy (before I buy it, of course). Wonder how long it will take me to break these newly imposed sanctions.

Hmmm...just tried 3 times and failed 3 times to upload that layout. Oh well, maybe another time.

Only 8 more layouts to go till I can buy a new piece of pattern paper. Geez-put that way, this new challenge of mine doesn't sound nearly as attractive.

back and meme-ing

I've really missed doing this...

Anyway, for today's 10 on Tuesday...10 Things You'd Do If You Had More Time:

1. Scrapbook (I've thousands upon thousands of photos calling my name)
2. Make cards for everyone I know, for every occasion and non-occasion
3. Make all my Christmas gifts
4. Read, both the collection of hundreds of thrillers I have sitting on my bookshelves, but also lots of non-fiction
5. Walk every morning
6. More projects with the munchkins
7. More hiking with the family
8. More anything with Rich
9. Try more new recipes
10. Write more letters

Geez-I think I could list another hundred or so.

hey, it's me again

Geesh---can't believe it's been over a month since I've stopped in. So much going in the last month, too. Lots good, some really bad, some I'm not sure how to categorize yet.

On the good side...we had a totally awesome vacation! Almost two whole weeks of fun. (Of course, not every moment was fun...Gray got some kind of 24-hour bug and had it coming out both ends for a while, the kids got mighty wound up some days when we spent too long in the car, traffic jams...you know, the to-be-expected pitfalls of driving across the country.) We hit so many cool places--Presque Isle State Park (in PA), the Columbus Zoo (in OH), Indian Mounds State Park (in IN), Rock Bridge State Park (in MO)--before we even got to our wonderful friends' home in KS. Spent 2 nights with them. They took us to a natural history museum and an art museum and a nature park. We also hit the local scrapbook store (well, Kara and I did). Then we headed north to Nebraska, where we met up with Rich's parents who had driven out from Pennsylvania. Rich's dad showed us the sights of his boyhood. Then we headed to Ash Falls Fossil Beds. And then Agate Fossil Beds. After that, we split ways with Rich's parents (they headed for home). We headed into Wyoming to the Bighorn Mountains. Then we started heading back east...first to Devils Tower, then to Mount Rushmore, then to the Mammoth Site, then to Wind Cave, and finally to the Badlands. It was a looooong ride home after all that excitement.

And on arriving home, we were absolutely crushed. Taco, our big, loveable lug of a baby boy kitty, died while we were gone. It's still so hard to talk about it. He was absolutely, positively Max's best friend. And it takes a special kitty to be best friends to a 3-year-old. Taco even slept with Max most nights. Poor Maxie, being only 3, was not exactly getting a great deal out of our vacation. For the last 10 days of it, he would ask at least 20 times a day if this was the day he got to go home and see Taco. He was so excited the day we told him we would be arriving home to his buddy. Little did we know that none of us would see the sweet ball of fur again.

Okay, back to some good news...I connected with a dear, dear, dear old friend again after several years. It feels so amazing to be back in touch! We were best friends all through high school. Then we lost touch for a few years. Both of us ended up living 400 miles from our hometown, unbeknownst to each other...but we connected again and found out we were living less than 10 miles apart. Were bestest, bestest of buddies again for several years. Even when I moved away when I got married we kept in close touch and saw each other when possible. But eventually, we drifted a bit. And I didn't hear back from her after a few letters and her phone number had changed. Always wondered what had happened. And then a couple weeks ago...she found me! And we've been e-mailing away, like we've never been apart. Geez, how I've missed her! Last I saw her, her youngest boy was a newborn...now he's 10! And she's never met any of my munchkins. Hopefully that will change soon. Our lives have changed so much, and we lead very different lives from one another these days, but I hope we never drift apart again!

And finally, on to the "I don't know how to categorize yet" news. Our homeschooling adventure has begun. It's fun. It's frustrating. It's EXHAUSTING. But most of all, I think it's worth it.

Well, I think I'll try to add a few pictures here...then I better get back to working on our "matter unit".

I hope I won't disappear for quite so long again.