Mel-o-drama

shaking the sillies out....

While all of the elves have been so sick,
Santa has been cyber-shopping to pass away the hours of worry.
Here are a few silly gifts that caught my  his eye.
(This post should be read with your sarcasm chip in place:)

This is just funny.

 

I am always prepared and unfortunately it won't be too long until I am needing this:

Evan would totally get into these.
Who am I kidding so would Elliott:)

and we would all have some fun with these:

and these:

 

My Uncle would get a kick out of this one:

and finally, who wouldn't love to have this?
There is a Mr. Rogers version too
I'm not hating on him or anything
but.... that would just be way weird. 
I don't want Mr. Rogers or his sweater anywhere near my pockets.

How about your Holiday shopping? Have ya started yet???

My kids are TOTALLY 110% done....so yeah that is huge. Just a couple of small gifts left for the rest of the fam and I am soooo done. Happy doesn't even begin to cover it!

I am also happy to report that we had the kids back to the Dr. today and he says they are good to go to school tomorrow. I knew they had turned a corner yesterday when they were back to pestering each other and full of the I've-been-in-the-house-for-6- days-straight giggles. Marlee still has a horrible cough but it is less seal barking and more small puppy barking now. A couple more nebulizer treatments and I think we'll kick this thing to the curb. Thank you soooo much for all of the well wishes.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week. Stay well my friends:)

See I told you....

my kids like to do EVERYTHING together.
Even the not so fun stuff.
They have both been so sick for the last 3 days.
We took them to the Dr. on Friday and they were tested for the flu.
The tests came back negative- they did NOT have it...thank goodness.
So the Dr. put them both on the antibiotic for an upper respiratory infection since they sound like 2 barking seals when a bucket of fish comes into sight.
Yesterday they started to run really high fevers so I call the pediatrician back and he is all... in the early stages you can in fact get a false negative on the flu test....so yeah good times...we may be headed back for another test tomorrow, because the first time they stick a 12" stick up your nose is so much fun that we want to go and do it again. I'm sure it will be even more fun holding Marlee down now that she knows whats coming. **Rant over**

Marlee did in fact have a slight burst of energy this morning where we thought she was on the mend. You don't know how happy I was when she decided suddenly that she wanted to be a Unicorn. You know I whipped up a sparkly paper horn just as fast as I could. The rest of the colorful ensemble was all her:)

I particularly love the slippers for hooves don't you? 
Too bad the magic only lasted about 10 minutes and then she was asking me to put cold washcloths all over her again. Followed a couple of minutes later by Hubby coming inside and begging me to cover him with a blanket because he had terrible chills....Yup he's sick too....like dominos..they are going down one by one...I am so screwed...although I would gladly be sick to not see Evan with a 104.9 in the middle of the night.  ***OK Rant REALLY over this time**

In happier news, my dear friend Lisa gave me this award!

Thanks Lisa!  

Here's the rule: I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Your hair? straight

3. Your mother? amazing

4. Your father? strong

5. Your favorite food? chinese

6. Your dream last night? none

7. Your favorite drink? milk

8. Your dream/goal? scrappy

9. What room are you in? mudroom

10. Your hobby? scrapbooking

11. Your fear? swine-flu

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something that you aren't? brave

15. Muffins? chocolate chunk

16. Wish list item? laptop

17. Where did you grow up? NY

18. Last thing you did? typed NY

19. What are you wearing? jeans

20. Your TV? old

21. Your Pets? Chewy

2. Friends? amazing

23. Your life? wonderful

24. Your mood? worried

25. Missing Someone? always

26. Vehicle? mommyvan

27. Something your not wearing? socks

28. Your favorite store? Target

29. Your favorite color? Orange

30. When was the last time you laughed? yesterday

31. Last time you cried? Monday

32. Your best friend? treasured

33. One place that I go to over and over? blog

34. Facebook? No

35. Favorite place to eat? Applebees

This was fun! Now I'm passing it on to Bobbi, Gina, Shelley, Jen, and Karen....but since I hate passing it on to just 5 feel free to take it if you'd like to play along:)

Happy start of a new week!  

Worktable Wednesday....

 
I've got a little Christmas going on in the scrap space today.

Working on this years December Daily. I did this last year and loved the result so I am totally in for another round this year. I decided early on that I would be keeping it very simple. In the words of Ali herself, I am going to let the photos and journaling do the talking. Very few embellies for me this time around.

Here are a couple sneaks of the pages:

The cover is one of those acrylic letters that goes in a sign outside of a business. My Hubby has a whole box of them from the commercial property he bought to open his shop so I just helped myself to an M (for our last name) The acrylic is really strong...just what I wanted in a cover.  I've also added a couple of these M's and our house numbers to my scrapspace. They are so fun.

Here are a few of the other pages:

I bound the whole thing together with one of Hubby's zip ties....I found a lot of stuff I could use the last time I went to visit at the shop;)

I have to say that if you are on the fence about taking this on during the holidays I say go for it! Getting all of your Christmasy, holiday-themed stuff in a pile can totally get you in the mood. It's nice to have an album already put together that can catch all of those extra photos that we all take during the holidays. 

Such a fun project! If you are making one remember to link me up! I'll share some more of mine soon:)
 

hello November....

 

Thank you for:

 that extra hour of sleep this weekend:)
 My Mommy's birthday!
 Lots of X's on the calendar which equals eXtra time with my babies!!
 Turkey and all the fixins...need I say more?
 being the last month standing between me and Christmas decorations!!
 (oh and probably for being the last hope for a warm day or two until spring.)

I love you November!! (although my love does tend to be contingent upon you coughing up those last couple of warm days....it's not all unconditional like when you overlook the little things that your family does you know. Consider yourself warned November....I can totally give my heart to...say April...if need be.) 

Happy Haunting...

from our goblins to yours!

 

 

Here in the spooky, slimy, eerie woods of New York a heavy rain was falling all around....drenching the ghosts, dampening the goblins, wetting the witches, pummeling the princesses, and putting out the candles of the spookiest of jack-o-lanterns. The skeletons were chilled to the bone and SOOOOOOO (said in your most ominous voice...try it with me SOOOOOOO...see isn't that fun? )  and Sooooooo....after haunting the houses of the Grand-ghosts and Great-Grand-ghosts, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and a couple of totally suspecting neighbors, we,  I mean they, returned to the safety of their ramshakle abode to sort through their sweets and have ghostly cocoa by the candlelight of the scary jack-o-lanterns who had come inside to find warmth. As they were tucked into their beds that night (after vigorously brushing their sweet-laden teeth of course...geeesh..even goblins know the importance of good oral health)  the goblins blew out the candles on their jack-o-lanterns while shrieking  "Until next year Halloween....until next year..... MooooHOOOhahaaha.

Hope you all had a frighteningly fun (and hopefully dry) night:)

  BOO!!! 

 P.S. I cannot STRESS ENOUGH how important it is to sort through your kids candy pile...ya know like you should probably just take all of the Snickers and Butterfingers right out and keep them in a bowl in the back of the fridge where the kids will be none the wiser to their dangers;) I'm just sayin.

More scrap...with a side of random...

I finally figured out how to customize my blog banner!!! WOOT!! Ever since I switched to Typepad I have wanted to make my own banner...with scrappy goodies... similar to the one I had on my old blog...so yeah...I'm pretty psyched!

Here are a couple more LO's I finished over the weekend. I am totally feeling Fall colors and Kraft papers.  Luckily, I have a large supply of both:)

      This is just a simple LO made entirely of scraps laying on my desk but I'm glad I got it done. Love these pics of Evan. He is pretty camera-phobic lately so I was glad to catch a glimpse of him smiling..ya know...naturally.

In other randomness, I only watch one sport...baseball...and since I am a NY girl born and raised... and I spent nearly 4 years living in Philadelphia teaching when I graduated college, I'm pretty happy with the playoffs. Can't wait for the series!!!

So excited about this! Are you playing along??? I did this last year and love the way my album turned out....so yeah...I'm definately in again this year. Now if I just had my own team of elves to clean the house and do the laundry while I get my supplies in a pile....hmmm...note to Santa...this year I want a couple of elves:)

Super excited to have a day off to do whatever my little heart desires on Friday. Now if my heart would just make up it's mind, I'd be all set. I'm thinking haircut and a little retail therapy. I don't get a day off very often so I have to use them wisely.

Well...that's about all the randomness this blog can handle for one day don't ya think???

Hope you all have a fantastic Monday.

Weekends are for....

a little bit of this:

 

   
  Can you tell he's thrilled?
 
 and a little bit of getting ready for that:

 
and unfortunately a whole bunch of this even if we would rather it not be:

 
and of course a little kiddie crafting & scrapping...which is always a good remedy for feeling like poo:

    

  Supplies used: Patterned Paper-Daisy D's, Bling-Basic Grey Bling it On, Flower-Sassafrass Lass, Letters-Pink Paislee/ Jenni Bowlin Studios/ Making Memories, Large Rectangular sticker (red, orange & yellow)- Sassafrass Lass, Other-Thank you card from my cousins baby shower;)

This is one of my favorite family photos evah!  Love that it's perfectly imperfect. Evan and Marlee love it because Evan got 2 fingers up behind my head w/out my Mommy senses kicking in...ahhh... the simple joys of childhood:)

Lots more LO's to share this week! Until then thanks for visiting with me...how did you spend your weekend??? 

hello fall....

 It never fails.......every year when you have nowhere else to go you come knocking on my door....I try to resist your charms but somehow you wiggle your way into my heart and steal it every time... even if only for a couple of short weeks. I always hesitate to let go of summer but you always know just what to say to convince me.  I know I will hate myself when you take off with that detestable Winter character, but I would rather love you and lose you then never love you at all.

  
   

Hope you have a fun FALL weekend planned!

because he's been feeling a little neglected...

In't he cute? Man I love that pup...and yes that is my foot in the pic...He likes to abide by the no more than 1 and a quarter inches from your human at all times logic.  He takes his job very seriously and I wouldn't have it any other way:)

Happy Tuesday Peeps!
 

scrap therapy...

My Mom.
She lives 2 houses down from me.
I'm not gonna lie...
sometimes she drives me insane (as Mom's will do)
still I am so Thankful that she is here to drive me crazy like only she can do:)
You see....my Mom just celebrated her 9th year of being cancer free.
Diagnosed with Breast Cancer when Evan was a baby, she has since gone on to see 3 other Grandbabies into this world.
I hardly ever talk about this because honestly the day she finished up radiation was the day I buried all of my feelings toward this disease and the scare it gave us under the RUG........that's not to say that I don't thank my lucky stars to have her here...it's just that I don't like to talk about it much.
Occasionally, I will allow myself to go there, you know like once a year when we get together to celebrate the fact that IT hasn't come back, but mostly I steer clear of the whole conversation. I know it is terribly immature and ridiculous of me. My Sister and Mom talk about IT often...at which time my Dad and I tend to hop on our rugs and take a magic carpet ride to another room...hey I am nothing if I am not stubborn just like my Daddy....but my real problem is that quite frankly IT pisses me off. It infuriates me to think that we are living at ITS mercy.......at anytime IT can just come back...without warning...without welcome...and just make ITself at home. Even though I am not one to live in fear or wait for something terrible to happen, this one thing...IT...well IT...has this hold on me and creates a pessimist where an optimist usually lives.

Fast forward to this weekend>>>>>>>>>>>>>the girls over at Serendipity Scrapbooks put together a Pimp My Bra Crop in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (you have until Monday to finish up your challenges so get your boobies over there and register to play along)   Anyway, yeah, they put together this crop and since we are being honest here I have to say that at first I wasn't going to participate, but something inside me said I had to....and I am SO glad that I did.  Seriously, I have never had scrapping be so therapeutic before. This crop just pulled that rug and all of those swept up feelings right out from under my feet.  All of that dust and dander and stone that constantly clouds my heart came flying right out........BAM. It all hit me.  For serious the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me in all of my Scrappy years. I have never really looked at scrapping as being healing....I guess because I always scrap happy subjects, but I have to say  that I truly feel like my rug has been steam cleaned and sprayed with Febreeze....even if the road to getting there required several gallons of tears and beatings with a broom. 
The biggest lesson in my weekend you ask?  Ahhh....I feel like maybe...just maybe I can talk about this subject and feel gratitude for the miracle that saved her life instead of attitude for the disease that changed us all forever....and that my friends is priceless.

Here are the LO's that I managed to finish so far:  
 For this one we had to use a black background, raised embellies, no journaling, and a title that described something we take for granted. (Title reads: That place in my heart that only she can fill.)

 This one required layers, masking, and photos of kids.

More to come soon. I am off to continue my therapy....the best revelations only come after hours and hours spent holed up in a room with paper and glue....Oh and Prima flowers never hurt the process either;)

P.S.  Please remember to put cleaning under your rug and getting your Mammograms on your to-do lists.... and soon!!  (((HUGS)))