A weekend get-a-way

The kids and I are heading out for a weekend away. A girl I went to high school with and reconnected with at our 20 year reunion this summer got a UNBELIEVABLE deal on a group rate at the Great Wolf. They were short one room to meet the group rate and posted so on facebook. (Thank you Angie!) It ends up that the kids and I were able to swing it and so...... Wahoo! Great Wolf here we come. :)

The kids are doing well in school. My son's been in a bit of a funk though and has a poor attitude lately. Daughter has a sinus infection and started a presciption yesterday. I have a cold. Run down a bit we are. I hope us getting away this weekend will rejuvenate us all.

Darling daughter had two volleyball games last week. She did awesome! She's been one of the team captains. And she's excited to be playing games now because she can really see all her hard work and extra practice in action. (This is her first year playing.) We have another two games this coming week too. :)

My son is a true testament to the old saying 'a way to a man's heart is through his stomach.' He's taking Spanish this year and quickly realized it was a lot of work. He got a bit scared and tried transferring out of it until the teacher held a "party" introducing Spanish food to the class last week. Ha! Now it's JR's favorite class. *rolling eyes here* Boys!

This year I am having lots of fun at work. I have a great schedule which is always a plus. I joined the secret pal thing the staff were doing. I love love love the pal I was assigned to. It has been SO MUCH FUN thinking up little gifts ideas for them. It's so nice to put a spring in someone else's step. It makes me happy.

I also love the little apartment we are in. We found one in a lovely area near a grocery store, a beautiful park, and the city lake. All last month we rode our bikes everywhere. It was great fun and exercise. Our apartment building has 12 and we've met most of the people living here. Many are elderly and so friendly. And it's usually nice and quiet. The people that own the apartment have been painting and doing some other repairs to the building this last month. It's an older building but kept up pretty well and has lots of charm. I'll have to post some pics one of these days. Just thinking this morning, while having my morning coffee, of how thankful I am to be here.



Scrappy news- One of my favorite designers opened her new store yesterday. While working at {we are} storytellers, I met Val. Shortly after I came on board there, she started designing. I *heart* her stuff. Love the bright colors, the whimsy and flare, and the theme of her kits. She is awesome! If you haven't had a chance to see her stuff, stop by The Lily Pad and look her up under Spotted Dog Designs. You'll be glad you did! :)

I'll leave you with a few layouts I've made with her designs and then I must go pack.










Thanks for stopping in. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The first day of school...

It's sometimes hard for me to believe that my kids are in 8th and 10th grade. Time goes by so fast.



Darling daughter is in the web "where everyone belongs" program which is basically a welcoming committee for the incoming lower classmen and new students. She's also in a leadership program this year. All the students that are in the web program wore the same shirts the first day.

The kids like the area of where our new apartment is. The other day is was bright and sunny so we rode bikes to the nearby park. Darling daughter is playing volleyball this year and so the kids practiced a little on the empty tennis court. I love it when they actually get along. heehee! Shhh! I took these on my cell phone when they weren't paying attention to me. :P











This summer the kids got together with all their cousins and had a fun couple of days at the beach. Here's a lo I did of their fun time. :)



Well, this evening I'm feeling bushed. So a quick post here and I'm going to try to get to bed early this evening. Thanks for stopping by. - I hope the rest of your week is so awesome and full of joy!

Summer is over so-

I’m baaaaaaaaack! Lol! It seems there is something in blogging that I just plain miss.

This summer was a whirlwind with the highs and lows – to many lows really - but alas the kiddos and I are healthy and well so I can’t really complain. As it appears, I’m going through the big D and don’t mean Dallas. The dear hubby has had a variety of problems lately which I thought was a midlife crisis we’d work through but it seems I was wrong. It takes two to want to marry and only one to divorce. So the kids and I moved last month to an apartment and are starting over.

Why is the unknown always so scary?

In many ways this move has been good for the kids and I. Lots of change and processing of things but we three are trying our hardest to make the best of things. Did I mention that I really do have GREAT kiddos!

And that was not all of the change this summer. In digiland – {we are} storytellers closed - which was a big deal in my little corner of the world. The site was my little scrapbooking home and had such a great purpose. It was sad to see them go.

I guess this summer was a season of change.

This past week, I returned to work after having the summer “off”. It’s nice to get back into a routine and focus on other things again. My kids have their first day of school on Tuesday. Darling daughter is playing volleyball this year and is in a leadership program so she has been doing things at her school for those programs the last couple of weeks. That has her very excited to return. My dear son – well, he would be just as happy to stay home and play video games rather than return to school. Boys! Lol!

As I am highlighting the major things from summer I feel compelled to make a grateful for list-

1. I am so grateful for finding a lovely little apartment in a nice area of town. And having such nice neighbors too is a blessing!
2. I am grateful that dear son completed his traffic safety classes this summer and earned his certificate.
3. I am grateful that I had opportunities of joining new scrapbooking creative teams when I lost my others this summer.
4. I am grateful that the kids and I have everything we need for going back to school and that I could afford (under the circumstances) all the fees at school associated with that.
5. I am so so so grateful that we are healthy and well.
6. I am thankful that this new life is teaching the kids and I the difference between needs and wants.

This summer before {wst} closed, I participated with a few of my friends in Battle of the Creative Teams. I was really fun. The challenge was to scrap certain themes, colors, styles, etc. together as a team and carrying the same vision between the 5 team-mates. It was four weeks long and it was quite a bit of fun. I think I’ll end the post with those four layouts from the contest.









And if you made it this far in my rambling post, thank you! It's nice to be blogging again. Have a super weekend my friends!!!