Busy Weekend Away

Spent most of yesterday getting caught up from being away. It was a busy weekend but a lot of fun. We got to my in-laws house around 9:30 PM on Friday night, we made good time despite the fact that it was pouring rain for most of the drive up.
On Saturday morning, Jeffrey let me sleep in a bit while he went to breakfast with his dad and Ian was playing with Grandma. After I got up we went over to the church yard sale. Found some great things: a CM accessory bag ($2), several Serendipity books (Flutterby was unfortunately not one of them but I picked up 4 others for $1), a scooter ($5), a baseball and bat ($2), strike zone net(don't know the right term... you throw the ball at it and it bounces back, it has a strike zone laid out on it too for $10 it was a steal cause they are normally about $50) and several baby girl outfits for my neighbors granddaughter.
While Ian took a rest, mom and I went to Gettysburg Village Factory Stores, so I could find some shorts or Capri's for this summer. We had a good trip, some laughs while trying to find my size though because most of the stores with my size are for old ladies... the one even smelled like my nana does, it was hilarious because we both just turned around to walk out. I love that I get along with my mother-in-law so well. Saturday afternoon Ian, Grandma and I went to the community park in Thurmont, MD. They just replaced most of the equipment there. Ian had a lot of fun on the rock climb (pretending he was King of the world) and the merry-go-round. After dinner we went back to the outlets because Dad and Ian needed shoes and Jeffrey decided he needed some shorts too. Dad drove this time so I was able to get a picture that I've been wanting of the sign for the stores, it's very pretty and sits right on the highway, I was impressed that I caught this picture pretty well through the back window while we were going 70 miles an hour.
Sunday morning we went to church. During the children's sermon Ian would not get a cross painted on his face until after Dad did, it was sweet. Then we went to Mountain Gate (a favorite family style buffet restaurant) for lunch. After lunch Dad went to a bowling fund raiser for the Boys and Girls club. So while we waited for him to get back, Jeffrey rested for the drive home and Mom, Ian and I went to two other parks. The first park is at a new Welcome to MD rest area that just opened up about 10 minutes north of my in-laws on route 15. Ian had fun on this ladder and the view of the mountains was great. After about an hour there, we went over the covered bridge to Loys Station Park. The bridge was restored in 1994 and it's a one lane bridge over the creek. Ian likes to go down under the bridge to watch the cars cross, Mom took this picture of us from the other side of the creek.
Ian likes the monkey bars at Loys Station better than the other parks because if he falls he isn't too high off the ground. So he does a lot better on them because he isn't worried about that.
When we went to leave Ian left one of his favorite "geeks" (blankets) for Grandma to bring to the hospital with her. It brought tears to her eyes and was very sweet. That was about the only mention the entire weekend of Mom's upcoming trip to the hospital, thankfully the weekend was stress free and relaxing.

Saturday Photo Hunt - Open

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This week I signed up to be part of a new (new to me) blogroll for this photo hunt. I thought it was a cool idea and it would help me to remember to post on Saturdays. Well unfortunately, the same week I sign up, I have to go out of town for the weekend and won't have web access, so I'm posting this as late as I can on Friday evening before we leave.
Here is my photo... the same day I signed up to be a part of this the Iris on the shady side, of the flower bed around the oak tree in my front yard, finally opened up. How perfect for the "Open" theme.

Prayer Request for My Mother In Law

My MIL has pancreatitus from a birth defect. They can do surgery to help but have to repeat it every few years because scar tissue grows back over what they've done to correct the problem. Well recently her numbers have gotten extremely worse than they've been before and they are going to modify the surgery a bit to see if they can make a drastic difference. One of the things requires that she be completely under with the anesthesia, previously she's only had a local anesthetic.
She was supposed to come this weekend to watch Ian for us before her surgery on Tuesday but is not feeling up to it. Also, she's a bit nervous and would like to see her only grandchild before she goes into the hospital. I think part of it has to do with the fact that the last time she went in, Ian got upset and had to see that Grandma was OK and some is fear of being completely under and some is fear of this unknown part of the surgery.
So we canceled our plans that we could go be with her instead. Hopefully it will be a fun weekend not too heavy/sad. I'm afraid it will be stressful, like you can feel the tention around you.
If you are so inclined, could you pray that she has peace of mind for this situation and that the surgery would go well? Thank you so much in advance.

Layout: Birthday Party

This layout was hard for me. I wasn't thrilled with it at first but now it's growing on me. The problem was I had way to many pictures at first... 16 of them... wasn't quite enough for a 4 page spread but way too many for a two page spread. I weeded out a couple pictures and narrowed it down to 14 pictures and was amazingly able to fit them all on these two pages.

Layout: Good-bye Fudge

Ian has always been afraid of dogs. But he started saying he wanted to get one last summer. We weren't sure though how it would go. So when one of Jeffrey's friends needed to place a Chocolate Lab, we thought we'd give it a go. Unfortunately Fudge was just a bit too hyper for us. The friend understood and thankfully was able to find another family for Fudge.

Layout: Birthday Blessing

Ian goes to a Lutheran private school. Each week they have chapel and in each childs birthday week they get a birthday blessing fromm the pastor.

Ian's birthday blessing week, he also got to be chapel helper and carried in the flag.

Layout: Happy 6th Birthday

I've always wanted to do paper tearing layouts but I was no good at it because I was too concerned with how straight or even looking the tear would be.... yes I know it's supposed to be random, I just don't do random well.
One of the ladies on SS recommended that I get a paper tearing ruler. This thing is awesome. I just lay it on the desk and tear the paper and it keeps it even and makes it easier. Love it!

Here is a double page spread I did with the paper tearing for Ian's 6th birthday, his Grandma made him the cake, I'm not that talented...

Layout: October

Well, I learned this technique at the retreat I went to last month. I thought it would make a great year's worth of borders. I made the twelve sets already, super easy only took me about an hour, they are all the same color this year for a change.

Test

Test

Ian and My Car

I'm not sure what started this but Ian likes to climb or sit on my car. Maybe it is that I let him do it at soccer practice while waiting for the coach or maybe it is that he can't believe I let him do it, since I'm always so afraid he will get hurt. Once when Jeffrey saw it he couldn't believe I was letting him... thinking I'd be afraid he might fall off... Well quite honestly, I am afraid of that but I'm usually within a few feet and watching that Ian doesn't get too near the edge... so I kind of let it go. Plus I'm starting to realize more and more that he's going to get hurt, not to say I'd let him run down the middle of the street or anything close but I do realize I need to give him a little freedom to be a boy...
At any rate, any time we are outside just relaxing, he's on my car... Well the other night, he climbed up there and I *happened* to have my camera outside, actually not a rare occasion, lol... and he was being a ham.

Gardens

Finally got around to uploading the pictures of our gardens around the house, so that I could share... been meaning to do it for a week at least, just kept forgetting.

Here are the front gardens, there are 3 flower beds in the front yard. Last year we added a rock garden and swing to the one side after tearing out a bunch of old holly bushes that were blocking the front window. Also, we found out last year that gerber daisies thrive in the garden to the left of the porch, so we planted them again this year. The iris around the front tree used to be in the middle of the back yard, which didn't make much sense, so we split them up and moved them out front. It's funny because each corner of that bed blooms in turn... the front corner blooms first because it gets the most/earliest sun.


Along the side of the house is a dogwood which I love. Aparently, according to our neighbor, the previous owner had given it to his wife for their 50 wedding anniversary. Beside the shed is a beautiful Japanese red maple tree. Ian made a birdhouse for that tree with his Grandma. It's been hanging there for about 3 years now and each year it's full of birds.

Finally on the other side of the house, is a small bed that runs the length of the house along the side walk. We are never quite sure what will survive there and what won't. The iris didn't make it there, neither did tulips, roses, hostas or lavendar... the problem is that the bricks get very hot in the noon sun and roast anything that is in that garden. It also makes the soil very dry... eventually we'll find something that will work... any ideas???

Layout: Soccer Practice

Another gift from SS from the RAK section. NowImScrappin cut me two titles, this is one of them, haven't used the other yet but I'm hoping to in the next few days.

Layouts from Swaps

One fun thing I've recently discovered at Scrapshare has been swaps. I've only participated in a couple, but they've been fun and the borders received back have been great and make it easy to get back into scrapbooking.
Didn't add anything for this one but put pictures on the page with it. Didn't she do a great job?

For this one I very simply added ribbon to a tag. I have to say it's the first ribbon I've ever used in a layout.

I added an extra side border for this one to make the two page spread, but that was easy, I mean the whole layout only took about five minute? Cool, huh?

Layout: Happy Birthday

This used one of the Mystery Pages ideas from Scrapshare.

Layout: Boys Toys

This layout has simple corners: a large triangle, a 1x6 inch strip and a small triangle. I love simple pages. I figure it's the only way I'll get caught up.

Ian's grandpa is a minister. The church "rents" (very inexpensively) one of the two houses to one of the church families who is in need. The family last year had many children, several are younger than Ian. So when grandma and grandpa bought him a larger big wheel and a new scooter, they brought the old over to the other family to share. Great way to teach him about giving things.

Layout: Months

Each month of a year gets it's own layout in Ian's albums. I use them for miscellaneous pictures that don't really fit anywhere else and for memorabelia. Each "year" gets a new layout style and they start in October with Ian's birthday because they are his years.
For his fifth year it was a page topper with a month sticker and squares with sprinkled stickers.

New Rule

One of Ian's newest homework assignments is to read a starter book each
night. This is a series of 26 books. They are only about 6-8 pages long
and each page only has two or three sentences. Each night after he reads
it I have to initial it off that he has read it, kind of like a
checklist. Then he brings the book back to get a different one.
Well last night he would not sit still and was having troubles with the
words. I know that he can read them, if only he would sit still and be
able to focus on the words on the page.
Also, I know that the boy can sit still, he is capable of doing that he
just doesn't like to. Now I can't get too upset over that because
neither his father or I like to sit still for too long. I gave him a
warning to sit still and made him start the story over.
He kept wiggling. So I told him that when he is reading for each time he
wiggles he will get 1 minute of time out and have to be still. At first
he cried that he didn't want time out. So I just told him then you have
to be still.
There is the new rule. Jeffrey thought I was being a bit mean. But I
felt that it might help to curb his new "problem" thing at school of
being still in his seat (on top of the talkativeness which is getting
better). He's not a bad kid really. He just has a few bad habits, at
least for a school setting.
TTFN
Pamela Lynn

Transitions and Glasses

My friend toemi posted a question about transitions lenses for glasses... My commnet to her was getting to be more like a book so I figured I'd just post about it.

Jeffrey recently got Transitions lenses for his glasses. They are great because I don't have to remind him to switch glasses to sunglasses or vice versa when out and about. He says they change pretty quickly now from light to dark, only about a minute to lighten up some and then only a few more to lighten completly when going inside. They darken just about instantaneously when he walks outside too which is great. He says he never has to squint so that must be good.
He only has one complaint about them. They do not stay dark in the car. The sales lady says the lenses need UV rays to change but the car windows are treated so UV rays won't be problematic.
Also, when Jeffrey got his last pair of glasses he made a frame change. This was a huge deal for him because he's always had oval shaped wire rimmed frames. This time the sales lady and I convinced him to go with a more rectangular fame that is a thin black plastic rim. They look great on him but it did take him a while to get used to the look/feel.

Hope the info helps toemi...

Tough Question

Last night, Jeffrey had a meeting so Ian and I went to IHOP for dinner.
While at dinner I explained to Ian that I needed to go to Target for
some baby shower presents and game things. He wanted to know who had the
baby. So I explained that this shower was being held before the baby is
here and I explained that it's for our neighbor's son's girlfriend
(nsg).
Well he had a bunch of questions about the baby, at first they were like
when will it be here? In a few more weeks I told him. Will I get to see
it? So I told him I'm sure the proud grandma will bring her over or let
us come over to meet her. Where will the baby live? Well she'll live
with nsg and her parents but will visit ns on the weekends.
Then they got a bit tougher... Well how are they having a baby if ns and
nsg aren't married? Well sometimes people do things they shouldn't
before they are married (just my opinion). Well wasn't the neighbor mad?
At first she was mad with her son but then she realized the baby was
coming all the same and wanted to be able to see the baby and her son.
Well why are we having a party for something they shouldn't have done?
Um, stumped for a minute on this one... Couldn't believe all this was
coming from my 6yo. Well Ian, we want to make sure the baby will have
things she needs, diapers/formula/bottles/wipes because ns/nsg won't
have a lot of money to be getting things for her.
Then he asked if he could pick some things out. Oh my gosh... He would
have gone nuts would I have let him. It was very sweet. He picked her
out a pretty pink soft geek (magic fleece blanket, geek is just an
Ian-ism), then he picked her out a pink little cat, a pack of pink
onesies and finally a bright colored teething ring toy. Along the way
though he wanted to know if she would need shoes, so I told him no she
wouldn't need those for a while. He also picked out some sippy cups but
I told him she wouldn't need those for about a year, how about we pack
up the ones you don't use and just save them for her. He wanted to know
if she would need a bath tub and I told him our neighbor had already
gotten one. The last thing he asked about is if she would need a stool
to climb on to reach stuff. All I could do is smile and say no buddy she
won't need that for at least a couple years so we'll just save yours
since you don't need it anymore.
It was a very sweet trip to Target but also hard with all the questions.
And I don't know what was harder, knowing how good a big brother he'd be
and can't, or answering the questions.

Anyone Want Two Cats?

No really you wouldn't want these two... they pee on stuff in the house and generally drive my husband crazy.

Don't know what we are going to do. We've already had to throw away a mattress (along with the comfy foam topper and the comforter), a throw rug, and now a futon mattress).

I love the cats but I can't have the house smelling of nasty cat pee. Yuck!!!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

PS this has not always been a problem... only the last few months... and they still do go to the litter box it's just like they forget to always go there. Frustrating.

Quote

OK, so after my realization the other day and then my daddy's email... I watched Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban. In it the headmaster Albus Dumbledore has this to say to the entire school "But you know happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light."

Three reminders in one day that I need to look towards the good.

Two Choices

Today I realized that part of my problems right now may be that my
depression is grabbing hold again. It scares me because I'm not sure why -
other times it has been a specific event... miscarriage, post-partum
depression after my son was born or after my tubal pregnancy.
I mentioned this to a friend today and she said maybe if I tried to focus on
the positive things that are in my life (that they are there and maybe I
just need to focus on them). Then I get home and the following was in my
inbox from my Daddy. Funny how things like this happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
READ THIS - LET IT REALLY SINK IN - THEN CHOOSE.

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and
always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was
doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how
to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked
him, "I don't get it!

You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices
today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a
bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood."

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can
choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their
complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the
positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the
junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations.
You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your
choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to
start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I
made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident,
falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from
the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins
Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his
mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my
soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I
remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could
choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

He continued, "..the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into
the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I
got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed
to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John.
"She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and
nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and
yelled, 'Gravity'."

Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as
if I am alive, not dead."

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his
amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to
live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

You have two choices now:

01. Ignore this.

02. Forward it to the people you care about.

You know the choice I made.

Gardening and Yard Work

Yesterday both Jeffrey and I worked outside in the yard all day.
Jeffrey mowed the grass twice since it had grown so much and was still a
little wet in spots. The first time he went one direction to cut it and
then the second time he went the other direction and used the bagger so
we didn't have all that cut grass laying on the pretty lawn. All his
hard work on the lawn paid off cause it looks great - very green, very
soft and about 95% weed free. (Unfortunately can't do much about that
other 5% cause our neighbors don't care for their lawn.)
I helped out by doing the weed-whacking and edging. I love his Black &
Decker grass hog... It's cordless so no chasing/un-knotting/pulling on a
long cord and it does both of those jobs (edging and whacking).
Unfortunately once I got all the edging done I had to charge the battery
before I could do around the house/gardens/trees/shed. So while it was
charging I weeded our veggie garden area to get it ready for planting in
a couple weeks. That was not a fun job, it was full of carpet weed that
didn't want to let go. Once I was done, Jeffrey borrowed our neighbors
tiller attachment for the weed whacker to give the soil a good turn -
looks pretty good this year I don't think we'll have to add anything to
it. While he did that I finished up the weed-whacking.
Then it was clean up time. Thankfully.
All that time, Ian was playing in the neighborhood. He and the neighbors
boy played on either Ian's swing set or next door and each time they
switched they were sure to tell us where they were headed. When they
needed drinks or a snack they just went inside to get it. It was great
and I think he's enjoying his independence. This is really the first
year we are giving him that freedom and it's saving us a bit of money
because we used to hire the girl down the street to be a mother's helper
for the afternoon.
(PS... Yes I know I still need to take pictures to share... This is my
reminder again.)
TTFN
Pamela Lynn

Cracker Barrel Trip

On Saturday we drove two hours (on a normal trip) away to Fredericksburg. It is the halfway point between here and my in-laws house. They didn't get to see Ian on Easter and wanted to see him and give him his basket. When we meet like this we stop for lunch a Cracker Barrel. Thankfully it wasn't busy because Ian had been complaining he was hungry since we'd left the house.
It was pouring rain so the trip was not fun, plus all the people who took their Spring Break in the south were heading home on 95. Thankfully Jeffrey was driving because I don't do well in Thunderstorms.
Ian had his normal, pancakes and a scrambled egg and he ate the whole thing. After we ate lunch, we shopped a bit because they were having 50 percent off to clear the store out for summer stuff. Then Ian and his Grandma sat in the back of Grandpa's van to open his basket. After we said our good-byes we headed for home... even though it was pouring so hard you couldn't see the car in front of you we made it home in about 2 3/4 hours... Understandably Jeffrey was exhausted so he took a nap.

TGIF!

Been a long week. a couple things happened at home this week that I have not posted about, didn't really want to until I knew things would be OK.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First I finally figured out what my "mother's curse" is... Ian's clutziness. There is no doubt that he got it from me. By the time I was his age I'd broken 5 bones, I was just that clutzy. Anyhow, Ian fell twice last week at school on the playground and got huge goose eggs each time. We thought he was OK at first but after the second one he got a lot quieter/less active than normal and he was really complaining about the resulting headache. So I took him to the doctor yesterday, I probably should have brought him sooner but we thought it would be OK. The doctor sent him for a CT Scan this morning. Yesterday was killing me, no answers, Ian's got a headache, he's afraid of this thing called a CT scan...
Well this morning we went to the hospital to get the CT scan done. The tech that we had was wonderful, already wrote her a thank you note and need to send it out. She was very calming but also upbeat which was very reassuring. She talked with Ian and got him used to the room. When we talked about his hair because it was sticking up I mentioned that it's his new Luke Skywalker hair-do, so she called him that the rest of the time, which he loved. Jeffrey stayed with Ian to hold his hand and I went with her in the little booth room. He thought it was cool, like going through a portal on Hot Wheels World Race/Acceleracers, had a thumbs up the whole time she took the pictures. When it was done Ian asked if he could have some pictures of his brain to show his friends and she gladly let him pick a couple out... he picked one of his scull, thought it was cool that you can see all his grown up teeth... then he picked one of his brain that actually looks like a smiley face. It's cool.
Once that was done she let us go home. For now I'm taking that as good news because the doctor yesterday had said it was a good sign if they let you go without seeing the radiologist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Second, is Jeffrey's school for his Master's degree. He's been going on-line and doing this year-long program. He was supposed to be done on Saturday.... unfortunately his school advisor informed him that because he has two C grades, he cannot graduate... doesn't matter that he tried to contest one of them because the professor was not helpful and because he only failed the midterm and got 100%'s on all his other course work... he didn't contest it soon enough, must have been done the semester immediately following that course which was two semesters ago... doesn't matter that he still has a 3.64 even with those two grades and that the rule in the handbook says you will get the degree as long as you have above a 3.0... doesn't matter that the professor doesn't work there anymore because of all the complaints the school received about him...
On Monday when Jeffrey got the news, he was frustrated/disappointed and angry... me, well I was disappointed too (we've looked forward to him being done it's been a long year) but I couldn't show it at home... thankfully I've had some friends that have let me vent about it else I would have gone insane... On Tuesday, he swore he wouldn't retake the course even if it meant he wouldn't get his masters after all the other hard work.
Finally on Wednesday he had calmed enough to realize he needs to take the course so he registered. This will be his final semester, he gets a week off before it begins and he will graduate on my bday (June 24th). I'm that he has to take it over again... but I'm glad he's calmed enough to take the course. Here is a new countdown... just for Jeffrey cause I'm so proud of all the hard work he's done!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sorry so long...
TTFN
Pamela Lynn

Shout Out ~ Blogging Chicks

Hey all,
I'm a blogging chick now. it isn't really hard to join in the fun... you just have to be a woman and have a blog that meets the following no porn, no hate sites, no excessive profanity, no spam)... click here to join... My Life Under the Sun.
TTFN
Pamela Lynn

Lost Tooth

Ian has been hanging onto this loose tooth for weeks now. Finally the other day when Jeffrey was brushing his teeth Ian told him to stop because his tooth hurt. So Jeffrey stopped and told him he must pull it out because that's why it hurt. So Ian got it out in one try but this time it was very bloody, very unlike his first two that he lost.

Ian was not happy with that at all. The taste was making him gag, poor guy. (Here he is in the bathroom showing off his new empty space.)

Finally distracted him from worrying about it by taking him to rent a game at Blockbuster. That made his day.

Egg Hunting

After we were all awake/showered/had breakfast on Sunday morning, which was amazingly late in the morning because we all slept till about 10:15 or so, I went outside to hide Ian's Easter eggs.
Fortunately, the day before Jeffrey and I had planted so flowers in a couple of the gardens (I should really take some pics of our gardens and post just about them, this is my reminder) so that gave me a few extra places to hide things. I put seven of them in the front yard and the other seven in the back. Once I was done hiding the eggs, I went in to get Ian and my camera.
Ian wasn't doing too well at first with finding the eggs. Walked around the front yard without checking the gardens. Walked by the dogwood and the shed without noticing the eggs. He found the couple that I had put on the swingset and kind of just stood there.
So trying to be nice, I just went near each of the rest of the eggs and held my camera up to take the pictures. He got the hint although a couple of times Jeffrey had to tell him to look harder (as a matter of fact Jeffrey wouldn't have even found a couple of them had I not pointed them out).
Here are some pictures from Ian's egg hunt (click to make them larger if you would like):

Easter Eggs

Saturday night Ian and I colored the Easter Eggs and Jeffrey ran to get my camera to take some pictures. That makes it a major event. Lol. He dislikes using the camera, especially the one he got me for Christmas because he doesn't know how to use it. I did have to help him a bit by opening the flash (the one thing I don't like about the is that it doesn't happen automatically other than that it's awesome). Anyhow, here are some pics of Ian and me (clicking on them should make them larger if you like.


With my son's gag reflex, I was very glad to find out I had gotten the kind of egg coloring that did not require the use of vinegar. That is something I will admit I hadn't though to check out when I picked up the colors at Walgreens earlier in the day.


Ian did an awesome job helping to color the eggs. He didn't splash when he stirred the color or poured the extra water in after the tab dissolved. He didn't even splash or get it on his fingers when putting the eggs in. His favorites were the green and blue. He was not too thrilled with the pink but I thought those turned out the best.

This last picture reminds me to mention that Ian has a new silly dance. Don't know where he came up with it but he does it when he's happy/just to be silly. Isn't he adorable?

Communications Skills

Last Friday for work I went to a four hour class on communication skills. We are getting ready to go through some major changes regarding the personnel system (evaluations, pay increases, etc) so they are having us do all these courses on accepting change and how to communicate. The hope is that we will understand better what is going on.
Friday's Communications Skills course was interesting. Definetly brought me out of my shell to say the very least during a couple of the participation parts.
First one was that we had to go around the room and find people for 6 appointment times. Once we had our 6 names the fun began... we had to go find each of those people at the appointed time (which was listed on the board) and discuss the question for on the board for two minuetes. I did OK, it was a little hard since I'm so shy and I only knew one person in the room. She was amazed that I wasn't even asking her to be one of the six people.
Once that exercise was done we did a DISC Personality Profile test. It's a 96 question test where for each box you list whether it is most like you or least like you. Then you graph it out in comparison to the norm or average (not sure which term would be more appropriate). I am a "C" (actually highest on the graph)and my next highest was "S". I'm way below average for "I" and "D". Once everyone had their graphs we went through strengths/weaknesses for each. "C's" are Cautious/Competent/Compliant/Careful. I had to agree with those and also with my weaknesses... need to be more positive and enthusiastic.
Once we'd gone through all that he requested that we talk to someone the oposite of us. So as a "CS" I went in search of a "DI" and I knew exactly who to go to because of her answers/comments during the class. The younger girl accross the room. The teacher was even impressed that I'd gone way out of my comfort zone to do that. (I'd been sitting in the back corner and he'd known exactly where I'd fall on the test.)
All in all it was a good course. I'm having fun now categorizing some of my co-workers. It will help me to communicate better with them. I'd also love for Jeffrey to take the test and would not be surprised to find out I'm married to an "ID" type person. ;)

Mom's Surgery

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that my mom was hurt while skiing. She tore her ACL (had to look it up... anterior cruciate ligament).
Well today she had her surgery. Dad said it went well, the doctor was able to repair the tear. The surgeon said this was a common ski injury.
My dad worries that she'll go back and get hurt again. I'm sure she'll go back and I'll just have to pray she doesn't get hurt.

Update iMood...

I no sooner posted about my bleh mood than Ian came in and gave me a huge hug, along with Eskimo and Butterfly kisses. My son knows me sooo well. He said they were just because... Gotta love him!
TTFN
Pamela Lynn

Bleh

Happy Monday... I should be happier... it's my Monday off and Ian choose to stay home with me rather than go to daycare (yes it was a choice we let him make). But instead I'm just bleh...
So I was blog surfing via blog mad... and one of the bloggers had a link to her mood on . I thought it was pretty neat and I added it to my side bar but thought I would also post about it.
It keeps a history of your selected moods, I'm thinking that might be neat to look back at.
TTFN
Pamela Lynn

Ian's Favorite Shows

Ian has three favorite shows... Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited and Static Shock. They were family friendly. Jeffrey and I even enjoyed watching them with him. On Saturday nights when new episodes were on we would curl up on the couch together to watch.
One by one they have been removed from the line up at Cartoon Network. We've emailed CN before about each of the shows being removed but today I found an address to write to them about Teen Titans. I've added a link/button to it on the sidebar.
Still keeping my fingers crossed that some new episodes will be made and it will be returned to the programming at CN.

Layout: Soccer

This is a three page spread, the first page is cut so that you can see the team picture on the third page. The border is from a sister swap on Scrapshare.

Layout: Busch Gardens

This is the other technique I demonstrated. The instructions are from a Mystery Page on Scrapshare. When everyone saw it done they couldn't believe I was making it look so simple but then as they tried it they realized that it wasn't as hard as they thought.