steph's stuff

Overheard

Overheard at our house this weekend:

Pancakes

Background: Tom and I each have different pancake recipes and the kids call them "Mommy pancakes and Daddy pancakes.

Andrew: "What's the difference between Mommy pancakes and Daddy pancakes? Are Mommy's actually made with love and Daddy's aren't?"

Football

Tom and Andrew were watching the 2005 National Championship football game between the University of TX and USC - a game we own on DVD and a game that they have watched a thousand times before. 

And Tom is yelling at the TV, "WHAT?! No!!! You can't do that!!!"

Fangirls

Emily: "MOM!!! Tickets for a One Direction concert are on sale for July 13, 2013! Tickets are only $180 each!!!! Can we buy tickets?????"

Cue to hysterical laughing by me. 

And Libby burst into tears and cried, "But I'll never get to see them in concert now!!!"

****

Working on a couple of Project Life posts for later today and tomorrow........ :)

Here's to a happy week ahead!

 

Happy family time

My gorgeous sister-in-law and my niece and nephew are in town this weekend and I always hate to see them leave. We have had so much fun!

My crazy husband (who wears shirts like that?!?!) and his little sister. 

My sister-in-law and I rarely get time to have serious talks when we get together because my kids swarm her and play with her hair, sit on her lap, snuggle her - they just can't get enough of their auntie. And I can't get enough of my niece and nephew - Caeleb isn't so much for snuggling (what 14-year-old boy is?) but my niece, Ari, and I could sit and snuggle and talk for hours. She's going to be a senior next year, is an amazing photographer and so smart and motivated. I can't wait to see what she does with her life!

But this visit, we have had kid time and adult time - perfect combination! 

Have a great rest-of-your-weekend! We're off to the food pantry and then shopping for bathing suits because the pools are open. :)

It's not "nothing"

There are some very nice people in this world and I don't think I am grateful enough for that some days. It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and get frustrated. Or to focus on the negative or rude people around you. But those nice people that enter your life - man, that's the good stuff. 

At Libby's last neurologist appointment, her nurse noticed her medic-alert bracelet. It's from Lauren's Hope and we've always been a big supporter of them. However, the bracelets are pricey and so Libby has had to make do with the same one for a couple of years. It's cute but she's outgrown it for sure. 

Well, I got a call yesterday from this wonderful nurse telling me she had a present for Libby. I was astonished - we don't know her outside of the doctor's office. I stopped by and picked it up and was almost moved to tears. As it turns out, she makes jewelry as a hobby. And she made Libby 8 - eight - EIGHT!!! - new bracelets to attach to her medic-alert tag. 

This wonderful woman kept saying "Oh, it's nothing. It's just fun for me." 

But you know what? It's not "nothing." To a soon-to-be middle-school girl who has had to deal with this crappy diagnosis since she was 5, this was HUGE - she has to wear the bracelet at all times and to be able to have cooler older-kid styles and colors for middle school - this was HUGE.

So Carol - thank you. You have no idea how nice this was!!! You have made my week. :) And it was a whole lot of "something."

Alice in Wonderland

A few weeks ago, Emily starred in her school's rendition of "Alice in Wonderland Junior." I've been wanting to blog these photos forever but because I have sooooooo many blog posts in my queue, I'm going to blog just a few and put the rest on Facebook. 

We were so proud of her and so happy to see her back on stage. It was a great experience for her that also included a lot of problems and, looking back, that's okay. It taught her so much and, more than anything, made her realize that she really does want to go back to theater in high school. She's a natural on stage and I am so excited to see her get brave again. :)

Without much more to say, here are just a few of the photos I took. My favorite photo of her is the picture with the little girl. This little girl was totally enamored with her and asked to have her photo taken with Alice. :)

Yet another weekend recap, Part I

I've been away from my blog so long that I don't even know where to start. I am uncomfortably behind on Project Life and uncomfortably behind on scrapbooking in general. I've been so busy writing and doing other things (LIFE) that I am beginning to feel a bit of panic about what I need to get done. 

And the summer is upon us - we only have 3 weeks of school left. Emily will take high school phys ed all summer long - she will have to be at school from 8-12 five days/week for 8 out of the 11 weeks of summer. Which really puts a dent in traveling time. Libby and Andrew will both go to a theater camp for a week and Libby starts cello lessons while Andrew will play on a summer football league. I'm sure there's more, too - I just don't want to think about it all right now. So I need to find a serious amount of time in the next few weeks to focus on scrapping before that craziness hits us.

In the meantime, here's another crazy-busy-weekend recap, part I. I'll try to add Part II this afternoon or tomorrow morning. 

On Saturday, our entire family worked at a super-fun local event! The food pantry that we volunteer at hosted an Amazing Race event in a neighboring town and it was sooooooo much fun. The five of us were all judges, along with three other kids from one of our favorite families while their parents competed in the race. I took more photos with the big camera but here's just a smattering of photos (unedited) that I took with my cell phone. 

Emily and Tom and I wearing our judges' hats at the first pit stop.

Our friends figuring out the clue to get to the second pit stop. And, Justin, why the evil eye???

The four oldest kids.

This team came in second place - they were a really fun group of guys. If you look closely, you'll see that the front guy is in a speedo. He competed that way all day long. And apologized to our kids. LOL.

And then here's our team starting off this challenge.

And, of course, the kids had to try it out! These 6 kids are the absolute best friends and get along sooooo well together. I am so grateful for their friendships.

And then at the end of the day. There were outside and working for almost 7 hours. I was so proud of all of them. 

I have so many more photos but I'm running out of time.....it was an absolutely fabulous event and I am proud to be a part of the fabulous community that came out and raised so much money for such a good cause.

Have a great Monday!

 

The best kind of weekend

Road trip!!!

Some people hate car trips with kids. But not us. We LOVE them! The girls take over the back of the van and call it "girl heaven." They have books, iPods, snacks, and a DVD screen. Andrew and the food get the middle row with his own DVD screen - see all the velcro attaching the screens to the back of the seats? We're old school like that. (If I went back to my Mainer roots, I would have used duct tape.) And then Tom and I in the front. Our kids travel sooooooo well - probably because they don't know any different - we've been road tripping since way before they were born and having babies didn't change any of that. 

We drove 8 hours to visit family for 4 hours and it was soooooo worth it! We had two graduations to celebrate and got to visit with new babies at the same time. 

On the way home, Andrew said, "Can we please do that every weekend?" LOL! It was a great weekend! 

And now today, we're back to the mundane and crazy schedule - Libby is home sick with a tummy ache and I'm hoping it clears up and I can get her to school in a couple of hours because I have no food in the house and a very busy calendar this week. 

I WILL work on Project Life this week, I promise!

I'm missing the interwebs

I've been missing the interwebs for the last couple of weeks. Between writing articles, doing layouts, keeping up with my kids' schedules, and rediscovering my love of my schoolgirl crush on Darren Criss - move over Matt Damon music, I haven't been on the interwebs much for a couple of weeks. 

But I'll be back soon, I promise! The girls have both finished some big year-long clubs-plays-lessons, etc...and my calendar is starting to look a bit less crowded. Which is good because I'm not a fan of craziness and no down-time. 

Some good news for today - Libby had a check-up with the neurologist - she's had a rough couple of months and needed a nice, thorough checking over. And I'm so happy to say that she's doing great!!! Our goal is still to go 24 months without a seizure or fainting episode (which are really small seizures) and we're 10 months into that countdown. She'll have to do another EEG and lab work next month but that's it. 

And, oh boy, the pre-teen years have hit. "MOM!!!! No pictures of me in the office!" 

"Well, okay, just my shoes."

"Mom, just post a photo of Darren. Not me. Gosh."

Oh, okay, sweetie. Your wish is my command. :)

Happy Thursday. :)

It's going by so quickly

I am getting so darn sappy about Emily finishing 8th grade. I know she's not moving away or going to college yet, but I know how fast high school goes and it just keeps hitting me that I only have 4 more years with our family under the same roof.  All supplies from Designer Digitals: Finer Things No. 01 Paper Pack: Black Finer Things No. 01 Paper Pack: Red Autumnal Artistry Paper Pack Fading Words Brushes and Stamps No. 01 Labeled Journalers No. 05 Geometric Hints Brushes and Stamps No. 02 Memory Grunge Strips All Bent Up: Hearts No. 01

 

Thank goodness for Mondays

Our weekends just get busier and busier and I grow even more thankful for Mondays as we get closer to summer. Don't get me wrong - the weekend busy stuff is usually fun stuff! But I always end up wanting a weekend to recover from my weekend. This past weekend was seriously fun - we needed that, honestly. 

This weekend, Emily was Alice in Wonderland.

And then she had an Academic Super Bowl meet where she was captain/member of three different teams.

There was a wee bit of fun on Saturday night, too. ;)

As well as a busy Sunday that started off by working at the food pantry.

Today will be spent doing all of the chores that I didn't do over the weekend. And I'm really hoping to blog another week or two of Project Life!

Happy Monday!

 

Ahhhhhh.....

Today is the first day in over two weeks that I have to myself. Ahhhhhhhh......although "have to myself" really means do the laundry, clean up the downstairs, and organize some food for the masses. But I'll take it. It has been crazy nuts around here. So I'm shutting off the phones and probably even putting away the computer. Gasp. At least until the kids get home. 

Here's just a few celll phone photos of the last week or two. 

Libby got contacts.

Tom and I visited a local stable and OMG there was a 5-week-old foal. I could have stayed there with him for hours and hours just watching. 

The Darren Criss obsession continues.

We've had friends over.

We've had crazy hair day. Which - with our blond kids - involves gelling your hair and then spraying it black.

We've had dance parties and dinners out at warehouses and in a construction zone (one of the best parts of last week!)

We've had lilacs.

And grandparents in town.

We've had more crazy (beautiful) hair days.

And 100lb. lap dogs.

Some of us have been playing with sharp objects.

While others of us run away with the spoils.

And one of us has met about 11 deadlines. 

So today is going to be an ahhhhhhh.......day.

See you tomorrow!