random thoughts... all free today

monday, monday....la laaaa la la la la

i'm sure i am not the first and probably not the last that will EVER name a monday posting with that title.  sorry...sometimes i'm the shepherd and others the sheep...baaaaaaa baaaaaaaa.

i'm posting from work (shhhh!) and it's been a very uneventful day so far.  i'm glad but i'm also not.  if it's busy then the day flies by at LIGHTING speed but then again, we're busy and taking breaks or eating a hot meal is not something that usually happens.  if it's slow then the day drags on FOREVER and you begin to feel stir crazy and that quitting time will NEVER come.  You can only chat with your co-workers and eat so many snacks before you want to scream and run for the parking lot.

tonight we have swim lessons for jackson.  week #2.  so far he has shown great improvement since last summer's lessons.  he still doesn't:

1. listen to the teacher.  (like EVER - he's too busy in his own little world doing whatever he ever-lovin-wants)

2. let her let go of him AT ALL (she can't even *THINK* of letting go of him) or he freaks out and starts to verbally berate her for not "helping" him. :sigh:

3. allow anyone else to do anything better than him AT ALL.  last week they had a race with kickboards and he was CLEARLY pissed off that the kid next to him got across the pool first.  (mind you, it was only by a few inches and this kid is as tall as i am - i kid you not)  No one can swim, paddle, kick or spash as well as he can and if they DO then he proceeds to tell them why they are NOT better than he is or how they cheated to make him lose.

He's a little guy for his age and most definitely suffers from a Napoleon complex.  It's no fun being momma to this little hot-head when he gets into his moods.  I pray for my sanity daily and for his well being.  I just know one day i will receive a phone call that he either kicked some poor kids' butt for looking at him cross-ways or the opposite - that some kid finally kicked his butt for being the mouthy little turd that he is.

Either way it probably won't be good.  And that is my thought of the day.  God help my poor mouthy child and his larger than life attitude.  He needs all the help he can get.

Back to work for me - happy monday peeps.

~h

we survived...

...but just barely.  {i'm kidding}  we're fine after enduring the very hot temps from yesterday.  of course we stayed inside all day except for a brief one hour stint where i had to run to wal-mart, (out of coffee - DILEMMA) the post-office (been procrastinating sending a couple packages for a week now) and the gas station (totalllly on fumes, dude).  By the time I got back i was DRENCHED in sweat even though i had the A/C on full blast.  You know it's hot when the A/C in the car can't cool it to a comfortable temperature unless it's been running on HIGH for an hour or more.  HOT HOT HOT.

i didn't get but a few loads of laundry done but that's ok.  today i'll finish the God-bless-ed laundry or at least give it a valiant effort. Laundry is one of those chores that no matter how often you do it, it never seems to end like EVER.  same thing with dishes...they just keep multiplying. 

so laundry is waiting for me and i really wanted to get that knocked out so i can spend some time at my scrap table.  it's been soooo lonely since i made nana's birthday album and it's high time i spent some time creating.  might make me less bitchy.  notice i said *might*.

duces, (that one's for my brudder nate)

~h

help me rhonda....it's freakin HOT

Forecasted temps this weekend....113 today....114 tomorrow.  OUCH...that's hot folks.  i'm talking MELT YOUR FACE OFF hot.  Miserable-i-love-my-air-conditioning-can-you-freakin-believe-it HOT.  Plans for today include sitting on the couch and either watching TV or surfing the internet (both of which i'm doing right now - spongebob is on mostly for jack-jack) and maybe a few loads of laundry.  I was going to grill chicken tonight for dinner but FORGET THAT.  Standing outside in 113 degree heat over a grill?  I HARDLY THINK SO.  I might just attempt to fry some eggs on the sidewalk instead.  ;P

stay cool peeps,

~h

fun was had by one and all...

yesterday we went to the Chandler Ostrich Festival with our neighbors Tim, Shiree and their boy Chase.  not just during the day but until 11 o'clock last night.  We got there around 1:30 and left at 11:15.  It was one loooong day and we were all ready for bed as soon as our car drove into our driveway.  It was a lot of fun though.  the kids had a blast and we saw a lot of things that were pretty cool.  if you've never seen an ostrich race i highly suggest it as it is pretty funny.  how they stay on those huge birds i have NO CLUE.  the "GM" logo seat belt used to hold the "saddle" on might be a clue.  (yes it's a real seat belt like in a car...i tried to get a photo of one on the ostriches but those suckers move A LOT.)

We all left a little more sunburnt, a little more full of junk carnival food A LOT tired and pretty much broke.  It was a great start to a week of Spring Break.  A quick shot i took of these VERY funny looking birds.

Hope everyone else has a great weekend and a great week!  I for one will be looking for things to do with these easily bored kids of mine.  :(

~h

stuff i wanted to post yesterday

so HOPEFULLY typepad isn't being a sissy whiny crybaby this evening.

 

"Ventura, California" 

Materials used:

Papers: MME / cardstock: Bazzill / Arrow diecuts: Scenic Route / Brads: dunno / stamps: KI Memories / ink: Stampin Up! / pens: sakura (gray) american crafts (black)

This LO design was scraplifted from Cheri Mask's "Freedom" LO seen in the April 2008 CK mag.  I followed it pretty closely except hers was a double 8.5x11 spread and mine is 12x12 double.  that's a LOT of real estate my friends. :D  It looks horribly washed out and less impressive here but I tried getting a good pic of it and it just failed miserably.  Anyhoo...you get the idea.

The journaling reads: A day at the beach with Papa.  It was windy and cold by the boys didn't care. Cold was the last thing on their minds.  So much to explore and experience...the ocean something new and awesome to them being born and raised in the AZ desert.  The best part for them was time with their Papa...A willing accomplice in countless adventures.  Nothing beats that.  Not even the vast ocean. 

Next up...

 

"Boys Will Be Boys"

Materials used:

Papers: BoBunny / Arrow & title stamp: CK stamp kit/ journling lines stamp: Rusty Pickle / brads: Joann's / ink: Stampin' Up!

And just so you know...typepad IS being a snot-nosed, whiny crybaby tonight too.  Grrrrrrrrr........this may just be deciding for me the jump to switch to the free site.  This drives me BONKERS....not to mention it takes forever to post anything even without pictures.  I mean, i know i type pretty damn fast but when it takes 20 seconds for my screen to catch up to my typing?  that's just sad people...

Happy late thursday night and looking forward to an ENTIRE WEEK OFF NEXT WEEK!!!!  I LOVE SPRING BREAK!!!!  (now if i could just find a place to ditch these kids...kidding....but maybe for a couple days would be nice huh???)

~h

what i wanted to say BELOW was..

since typepad is being a royal pain in the ass and won't let me edit any text after i insert a photo (now WHY in the word would someone want to do THAT?)  i'm saying what i WANTED TO SAY DOWN THERE UP HERE INSTEAD....(i **hate** it when things don't work like they freakin SHOULD)

anyhoo...the LO of jackson i used the new-ish BasicGrey Urban Prairie line.  Those little birdies just made me smile and they were PERFECT for the pic i had of him in his chick magnet shirt.  i just wish the birdies were yellow instead of blue but i used a bit of yellow on the page so it's all good.

and please read to the bottom of the post below so you can see that the lovely Ms. Heather Bowser is the creator of the original page and i shamelessly scraplifted her.  she's a talented gal!

ok so i want to upload one more page that i did MONTHS AGO but i'm too frustrated with typepad to give a shit right now.  maybe next week when i have a bit more patience.  (hahaha like that will EVER happen :D)

~h

Lookee what I've been up to..

(just for the record this is the THIRD TIME i've tried to post this...typepad is being all exorcist on me and incidentally is really REALLY pissin me off...)

In addition to my lack of blogging I've also been sorely lacking at scrapbooking.  Even though the entire front room is dedicated to this craft and i pass through it on my way out the door EVERY DAY and again on my way back in every night, i've found it difficult to sit down and create SOMETHING in a very very long time.  But a few weekends ago i did.  i sat down and knocked out two pages.  Granted, i scraplifted a LO i saw in SBE last month but being i haven't created anything in a while i thought giving my mojo a much needed kick in the pants was the least frustrating creative avenue to take.

So here they are, my recent beauties!

(forgot how to load a photo to a post...hahahahaaaa....that's HILARIOUS)

 

"He's My Sweet Boy"

Materials: Paper, alpha stickers and tags: BasicGrey / brads: heck if i know / pens: american crafts (black) sharpie (white)

And who doesn't love some details? 

 

And a layout for jack: (gotta be fair)

   

"Chick Magnet"

Materials used:

Papers, diecut (lower right and vine) and alpha stickers: BasicGrey / snowflakey looking diecut: Quickutz / pens: american crafts / brads: joanns

And again, more details!

 

I totally lifted the design from SBE Feb/March 2009, page 60.  Original creator is Heather Bowser (hey i like that first name, lol)  I will definitely be using this layout for inspiration again.  it's very versatile and really lets you spotlight one special photo.

I hope you enjoy these cuz it might be months before i can make anything else.  :D

thanks for takin a peek!

~h

i'm deciding...

i've had this blog for a couple years now.  it's hard to let it go.  i have a LOT of good stuff on here that i don't want to get rid of but let's face it folks, i'm NEVER HERE.  and i'm paying for this thing....$9 a month to store all my good stuff.  which is a bargain when you really think about it but by the same token i'm starting to feel really really guilty for having this thing up when i'm paying for it but never updating and it's password protected so not anyone can see it.  it's borderline retarded, i know.  but yeah...these are the things that i think about sometimes.

anyhoo....i started a new blog over at blogger but i'm not sure if i'm gonna keep the blog or stay with this one.  i'm not one to be indecisive but here i am being INDECISIVE.

i am taking the password off because it's really silly.  the ex was being a nosey ass and wanted to dig into my private life. maybe he's forgotten about my blog, maybe not but i really don't care anymore.  i'm happy.  my boys are happy.  i've found a good man and i really like where i am in my life right now.  he can just go digging around if he wants to and my happiness can smack him in the face.   whatever...i'm not letting it rent anymore space in my head.

so i guess that's that.  the new blog is at http://cojackmomma.blogspot.com/ if you wanna come take a peek.  i warn you there's only one post so far and i can't promise anything cuz we all know how lax i am in keeping up with things like this.

time for another muscle relaxer...my neck is starting to scream at me.

until later,

~h

R.I.P. LeRoi....

I pulled this photo off of DMB's website.  I have tickets to the concert this Saturday which as of now might or might not happen. I'm still in complete and total shock and have been scouring the internet for the past two hours trying to find even a scrap of material that says it's really not true.  What a phenomenal talent and such an untimely loss.  My heart goes out to his family and to the band as they soldier on through tonights performance.  I think every true fan would agree that LeRoi would have wanted it that way.  The show must go on...

Dave couldn't have said it better than in these lyrics:

"and my heaven is a nice house in the sky"

"celebrate we will, for life is short but sweet for certain"

"don't burn the day....away....don't burn the day"

Godspeed, friend.  You will be SORELY missed.  Keep blowing that horn up there and showin them how it's done.

~h

happy birthday little man...

it's my jack-jack's fifth birthday TODAY.  Five years ago today at 6:10 am this little person made his apperance into the world and into our lives:

 

indellibly leaving his mark on us for the rest of our days.  he has made this journey of motherhood challenging, to say the least.  he's my little pistol, my spitfire, my headstrong, willful child.  he makes every day interesting.  some days i get the sweet nature of him that i hold so dear and others i get the bull by the horns.  you just never know with him, his spontaneity and zest for life are contagious and at times, truly wear me out.  the way he notices EVERY LITTLE DETAIL and how he NEVER forgets anything truly amaze me.  his mechanical ability at such a young age is truly astounding.  this boy is an observer.  he has to know how it works, why it works and can i take it apart to see?  :D  love this little man....soooo very much. 

and today he is turning FIVE... i still marvel at the passage of time.  it seems like only yesterday that we were bringing him home.  introducing him to Connor and how happy we all were to have this little boy in our lives.  now he runs at top speed most anywhere he goes and his attitude definitely is MUCH larger than his stature.  as norm likes to say, alligator mouth and a hummingbird ass.  TOTALLY TRUE and TOTALLY JACKSON.  our lives would definitely be a lot less brighter without him here.  Maybe quieter and less frustrating, but definitely not as filled with light.  We love you little baby boy.  Happy Birthday my sweet jack-jack...

love,

momma