Easter layouts

SEI kit from the Scrap-room. I used a sketch from lucy chesna designs and Gretchen's Got Sketch's challenge.

Catching up

Catching up on Class 5,6,&7 for Scrap Yourself with Debbie Hodge at NYCScraps

Check out my Slide Show!

Easter & a BDay Party

My 3 year old princess rec'd the bomb of a castle cake from her grandma. It was a cold easter morning but the kids still had fun at our church egg hunt.

Weekend Agenda

*I hope to get caught up on classes for Scrap Yourself. With today's new class, I'm now 3 behind.

*It's Good Friday so we'll go to church tonight and I doubt I'll have any scrap time with a house of 6 bored kids that need to be constantly entertained. Kenzie rec'd a pink fishing pole from her Aunt Nok since all the boys wanted to go fishing in our backyard yesterday. Micah is catching yet another round of the cold. He has a runny nose, scratchy voice and was up all night crying.

*My sister is coming home from Colorado so they'll probably drop by tomorrow to spend time with the kids. Easter Sunday we're having Kenzie's birthday party at Pump it Up then going to mom's for dinner.

More challenges

Joyride was a layout for Scrapdango's challenge to complete a layout with 2 photos, 4 papers, 6 stamps, and 8 stickers. Lucky charm was this week's sketch that Gretchen posted at the scrap-room. And I'm so excited I won a prize today for the Bunny Hide & Seek game that Paper Popsicles hosted at the Willows.

Yesterday we took Kenzie to her 3yr checkup. It was the first time she was excited to see the doctor. She's 39 lbs and 40 1/4 inches which puts her at >97% on the charts for height & 96% on weight. She was so good while the nurse and doctor examined her, sat still and just nodded her head with every question and as soon as the doctor left the room, she asked me "Mommy can I go get my Princess sticker now?"

WIP

These two layouts were from the challenges hosted by Work In Progress. One was to use the word Work in Progress in your title and the other was based on a sketch created by Janelle Richmond. I didn't win either but I got two pages done over my 1 hour lunch break which is record time for me.

Last night I came home to a house of 6 kids. Yep we also inherited another cousin for the week, Tevin. They got bored and wanted me to pencil draw their portraits for them. I used to be really good at drawing but since I haven't practiced in so long they turned out really funny. Then I showed the boys how to play Phase Ten by 10pm Kenzie was ready for bed, Micah was out by 10:30 or 11 and the rest of them were still playing the wii.

Willow Challenges

I got a couple layouts done while the kids napped over the weekend. Willow Traders is celebrating their 3 yr anniversary with some fun challenges all month long.

It's official,we are having four additional houseguests for this entire week for sure and who knows for how long. My MIL and 3 nephews just moved in last night and are staying until they get their house remodeled. The good thing is I now have an extra 30 minutes in the morning since I don't have to drop off my kids and it may mean more scrap time for me but the privacy is out the door!

New Do

Chop, chop, I got a lot of inches cut off. This is my new spring do. I like it when I curl it but haven't gotten a good style for it being straight.

My childhood

This is the 3rd layout for my BOM. Debbie's class at NYCscraps is awesome. I've done more journaling in the last 3 layouts then I've done in all 50 scrapbooks I've completed in the last 8 years. It's also taking me a lot more time! This one took me almost 2 1/2 hrs.

Journaling: As I reflect on my younger years, I have nothing but happy memories. Well, up until my teenage years when I rebelled against my parents for not letting me date. But my childhood was filled with friends, family , and lots of laughter. Summers were spent riding our bicycles to the neighborhood park, playing softball, attending the annual Marion day in Carthage, MO, taking piano lessons on the weekends, and going to birthday parties. My mom's hobby and FT job was decorating cakes so birthdays were always a big celebration and I'd always get a beautiful and different cake each year. My best freinds were Ngan & Ngoc since their mom worked with my mom and Lisa Gruenbacher. We grew up in a small town of Colwich where you knew everyone. I'd walk to and home from school with my brother, sister, and cousins who lived across the street. I'd also have to walk the five blocks to the post office to get our mail. We'd clean the church after school a couple days a week. Our house had two big old walnut trees and a blackberry tree. Our grandpa lived with us and kept a big garden in the backyard. I remember hanging our clothes out on the line to dry, swinging in the hammock and playing ball in the yard. We moved out of Colwich during my Freshman year in college to the big city of Wichita. Even though we're just a 30 minute drive from the town and I was so excited to be near the big shopping malls and entertainment, I still miss the quiet little town and home we grew up in.

I got my hair cut short yesterday during my lunch hour. I needed a spring change and it feels good. I'll have to post a picture this weekend.

Gymnastics

Last night was Kenzie's last gymnastic's class for the session. They have one week off for spring break then she starts a new session. Since her b-day was this week, she could move up to the class for 3yr olds but I don't know if she's ready. Even her instructor commented after her class that she's ready to move up skill wise but not emotionally since she still looks for me and needs me in the room with her. Ugh, I don't know what to do...should I keep her with the rest of the 2 yr olds or just enroll her with the older kids and make her tough it out. She needs to get used to the idea of being around other kids without me if she's going to start school this fall but I can already sense there will be lots and lots of crying before she lets go.

for the kids

Blogging trouble

It's 3:30am and I can't sleep so I'm trying to upload my layouts from the weekend but it's given me an error for the 2nd time! Grrr, how frustrating.

**edited** It works now :)


Journaling: I was only three when our family fled from Vietnam so I was too young to remember a thing. I wish I could witness what my parents went through to make a better life for us today. I’ve heard the stories of how we had to camp out in the refugee island of Malaysia & my cousin Viet tells me I owe him big time because he was the one who carried me across the waters as we hid out in the boats. In January of 2000, twenty years after leaving the country, we took a family vacation to Vietnam. My grandfather had just passed away and it was in his will for my uncle, the newly ordained priest, to go back and say mass for our people. I was 23 at the time & had no idea what to expect. The land was beautiful and I quickly realized all the things I took for granted.

We would wake up each morning at 4:00am with the rooster crowing and walk to mass. Bicycles are the number one vehicle of transportation and there are no stoplights! There is only one community telephone for the neighborhood, no indoor plumbing so the bathroom is in the out house and mom hand washed our clothing for us. It was the first time I’ve seen dog meat served and wasn’t about to try it. We slept on hardwood beds with mosquito nettings around us. For 3 weeks, I was very fortunate to see first hand the place that was once called home.

3 years ago

Three years ago today, my water broke at 3:30am one week before my due date, we headed to the hospital and after 2 1/2 hours of monitoring & pushing, a beautiful baby girl blessed our lives! Happy birthday Makenzie! She woke up crying for Mommy this morning when Lam tried to carry her to the car, she was still crying for me not to leave for work when we dropped her off at grandma's house.

I took her to ToysRus this weekend to let her pick out a toy and she chose three things: a purple tellitubby that comes with a matching headband (she can now be tinkywinky) a tinkerbelle umbrella, and a pack of gum.

Not a very fun weekend but productive. I completed 4 pages, 3 tax returns, cooked, cleaned the house and watched the backyardigans with the kids. Lam actually helped cleaned the bathrooms and a few loads of laundry, I was sooooo impressed with him!

Oh, I almost forgot the highlight, Micah used the little potty two times! He wanted his diaper off and the minute I took it off, he of course went all over his little chair & floor so I got out Kenze's old potty chair and he went in it. At 17 months old, we're off to a good start. Maybe we can finally stop buying diapers.

Scrap Yourself

Today is the first day of class at NYCScraps, Scrap yourself with Debbie Hodge. I really like how my page turned out. I wrote the journaling during work today so putting the page together didn't take as long.

Simple

Cha Ching!

My meeting went fine, my boss really helped lead the discussion and filled in the quiet spots so now I can let out a big breath of air and relax. Lam and I both found out how much our raises were today. It was a good year for our company so we both got decent increases. I am so relieved about our finances...now I can take Debbie's on-line class after all.

Nervous

I am soooo nervous about my meeting tommorrow. In order to get my greenbelt certification for work I have to lead a Kaizen which is a meeting that goes over the tools we learned. So I have to present my topic to 19 engineers/business project leaders including my boss. I HATE public speaking, that's why I went into the field of accounting. I thought we sit behind our desks and don't have to do these kinds of things! Hopefully I don't faint. I usually just talk too fast and forget half of the things I planned on saying.

On the home front we aren't doing much better than we were on Friday. Kids are still sick and my throat is aching so bad from all the coughing. We did bring them to Sesame street live yesterday because the tickets were already paid for & they seemed to be doing better. Kenzie was scared of the characters but Micah loved all the music, he was entranced and danced right along. I can't believe the price of souvenirs $15 for an elmo hat that Kenzie wanted because the girl sitting in front of us had one but she hates wearing hats.