Vacation

I haven't really had a vacation in years. I guess it was our Honeymoon in Tortola - scroll down the link and you can see a picture of us at the resort). I dream of going on a fancy cruise around the Mediterranean . Why a cruise? Because i think it would be good for the boys to have a "home base" and the same place to sleep every night. I think most cruiselines offer children's activities/camps when they are 3 years old. Which means my dream will have to wait a few more years until Lukas is older. Disney Cruises are supposed to be amazing too....even for the parents. Can you imagine how much fun the kids must have on that? Have any of you taken a cruise with young children?

Ok, back to reality. This weekend we are going to Houston to visit the in-laws. Not exactly the Mediterranean. I am taking Monday and Tuesday off and we are hoping to take the kids to the beach on Monday. The drive to Galveston beach is about one hour from Houston. Its not exactly paradise but at least it is the ocean. I told my husband that I am going in to vacation mode Friday night. This means that in my head, I am going to pretend to be on vacation. I will not check my work email and I will enjoy some good food and drinks without stressing out about calories. Wish me luck.

Edited: My girls just informed me that Donna Downey was raving about a new scrapbook store in Houston. I am so going to check it out. thankyou!

be you

be you collage

is it normal for an almost 3 year old to have constant meltdowns throughout the day? he whines and cries for no apparent reason. is it that his vocabulary has not caught up with what he wants to say? is it that he misses school? is it that his little brother drives him to a jealous rage? I suspect that it is all of the above. It is going to be one long summer. i feel sorry for Rich because he has to be here all day in the home ofice, even though we have the nanny (who we are thinking of getting rid off -long story) its really tough for him to not get involved when he hears screaming and crying from the other room. lucky me, I get to go to work at an office.

Here's a little collage i did yesterday. my first time ever using a vintage photo of someone i don't know. it was a little strange, but i like how it turned out.

oops

sorry if you couldnt read the journal yesterday. please try my flickr link instead.

Moms

All stay at home moms amaze me. I admire and respect all of you. I am a wimp. Just read my art journal entry today....

missing posts

Strange..i could i have sworn i uploaded a post yesterday about how Lukas started walking on Monday and how Nikolas is doing well in the big boy Bed and that I love the new Mandy Moore CD - which took me by surprise. Yet, the post is not here.

Maybe I should switch to Typepad. It would make sense considering who i work for.

Anyway, here is my layout for upubbled. Beth's LO was so easy and fun to use as inspiration. The format allowed me to create my LO in about a half hour, which is pretty fast. Used some stickers and journaling square from Creative Imaginations. Also added a calendar page from a little calendar that came as junk mail at the beginning of the year.

Big Boy Bed

The time has come for Nikolas to leave his cozy little crib and sleep in a big boy bed. Yesterday, we ventured out to IKEA and picked up the cutest little bed and canopy for him. He was really excited about it until it was actually time to SLEEP in it. We started the usual night time routine around 7:30 which consists of - 1. tooth brushing, 2. put some lotion on (he loves to put lotion on, I'm sure because its another step to prolong sleepy time), 3. special tuck-in, 4. read his favorite book "little quack", 5. sing "somewhere over the rainbow" and then good night. That is when I usually exit the room and he goes to sleep. This time he just got up and followed me. Darn, i naively thought he would just lay there. Instead, he relished his new found freedom and kept getting out of his bed. I comforted him for a few minutes then I attempted to leave again. Rich tried a few times as well, then decide that cooking dinner was easier. By the 2 hour mark of doing this over and over, I was worn out. I decided to stand outside of the door and hold it shut to make him think he had to stay in his room. I could hear him jump out of his bed and run towards the door to see if it would eventually open. It did not and he would return to bed. After about 30 visits to the door...he fell asleep in his new bed until 6:30 this morning.

Saturday Morning Creativity

had a little spark of creativity this morning. We have been up since 6:30 with the boys, which is the norm around here on the weekends. We barely had enough coffee to make two large cups! Almost had a panic attack. Made this little collage thingy and we're heading off to spin class in a few minutes. we were invited to a party but i don't think we are going to go. Its rainy and we never really have fun when we go to these people's house. They are apparently inviting 70 people for a crawfish boil and I'm just not in the mood to deal with this particular person's "fat" head. Do you know what I mean? She and her husband are constantly showing off and trying to tell me how much everything they have costs. Seriously tacky and annoying. So i think its going to be family day, which means we can do whatever we want. Hope you have a great weekend!

Unpubbed Challenge

My challenge is up at unpubbed, please go check it out. I think you will have fun going through all your old layouts!

Boring

There is really nothing that interesting going on. I guess I'm not "living a life worth reading about". Good reminder to start thinking of ways to shake it up in my life. I think I will schedule some "me" time or a girl's night out.

I completed this layout a couple of days ago. The scan made it a little weird on the bottom of the first page. The background is all white card stock...but it came out grey.

Tomorrow I will post my challenge for Unpubbed. hope you enjoy it!

Happy Birthday Lukas

I cant believe that a year ago to day I was at the hospital weighing 198 pounds, bloated, miserable, and waiting for a c-section. The last year seems like a blur. Specially the first 6 months, I'm sure it is because of the sleep deprivation. I hardly remember the 4 months that I was on Maternity Leave. I guess that is why we scrapbook; for the times when our actual memory fails us. Its a little sad because I don't think I wrote enough details down during those first few months of his life. Then again, what is there really to report? eating every three hours, crying a lot, sleeping sporadically, and then one day around 3 months old he rewarded me with a big smile to let me know he knew I was his Mom and that I had been working like a mad woman to take care of him.

Happy Birthday to my son, Lukas. The baby with a huge toothy smile that lights up a room. My curious and proving to be stubborn little boy. I am so happy to have him in my life and I am so happy that I'm not pregnant anymore ! (no offence to currently pregnant ladies...Jude!)

Lastly, I had a personal goal of getting down to my wedding weight by the time Lukas turned one. I must admit i missed it by 3 pounds...but I am considering that a success :)

Unpubbed

Here's my laout for unpubbed. Go check out the site. We have some cool new give aways in the works!

Today we are havinga little birthday party for Lukas who turns one on Tuesday. Just a small group of people at the house - Rich's Dad's side of the family. long story.....

Melissa's CJ

Quick post to upload the layout I FINALLY finished for Melissa's beautiful Circle Journal. It was a little weird writing about me, but I think it came out nice. Chrissy, it will finally be on its journey to Seattle tomorrow.

Good night :)

Is it already Thursday?

Yesterday I:
- slept until 9am because Lukas kept me up all night. I'm trying to let him cry it out. He's almost one and doesn't really "need" a bottle at 3 am.
- worked from my laptop/phone throughout the day.
- took an amazing spin class and burned 900 calories in one hour!!
- received Melanie's beautiful CJ from Ronda.
- spent some time at the Ford dealership because our Expedition just keeps on dying and its only 1 year old! we're thinking of filing a Lemon Law suit.
- went to Costco to stock up on food
- hung out with my brother, Rich, and the boys in the evening. Rich made us rotisseries leg of lamb with salad and couscous for dinner.

Financial tip of the day. I think we need to invest in Crocs! http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/HowCrocsIsOutpacingThePack.aspx

No go

After hours of sitting in a room and going through archaic procedures of number calling and seat changing.... I got sent home because the people in the court room I was assigned to took a plea. They gave me my $6 dollar check and that was it. Too bad. I think it would have been interesting.
Other than that, there is not much new. I'm going to the chiropractor today to see if he can help with the nagging lower back problem i have had for a few months.
Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend of Lukas "swimming" in his baby pool for the first time:


And because I am starving and lately I love taking pictures of food, here is the delicious seared Ahi Tuna salad w/sesame seed vinaigrette Rich made me over the weekend:

Off to lunch...

Jury Duty

I got an invitation to see our legal system in action. Is it crazy that I am little excited about this? I'm sure I wont get picked just because of that! I'm off to the court house. Heading to the gym first....gotta work off the crab stuffed grilled shrimp and tortillas I had at Uncle Julio's yesterday for lunch! Why did you have to move in to my neighborhood Uncle Julio!!! Why?!!

Happy Friday

Went to my local scrapbook store before spin class today and picked up some goodies. Loving the Ki Memories Felt stickers and the Ek Success words! Heading upstairs to watch the Constant Gardener which I have had on Tivo for almost a year and keep meaning to watch. Since their is not much on TV I think tonight is the night. We don't have any plans for the weekend which is kind of nice. Hopefully the sun will come out and we can just hang out by the pool. Have a great weekend! Thanks for all supportive comments.
By the way, I realize that i have to stop this whole "tearing the paper" thing on all my layouts. I don't know what's come over me lately.....but i just cant stop tearing!