Check It Out

www.stacyjulian.com - she's giving away an ITOP Brad Maker this week. So cool - great blog. Enjoy!

Halloween Costumes

(photo - circa 2007)

Here we go again.

I love this holiday. Always have. A night to dress up and get free candy? Someone was thinking when they came up with this one. Thinking like an eight-year old, but thinking none-the-less. I still like to dress up - even though I'm no longer 8. And as the primary shopper in the family - I only buy candy to give away that I like. And sometimes I forget to put a bag or 2 in the Halloween bowl by the door. Oops.

The madness is in the Halloween costume selection process - which begins, at our house, in July. My kids begin listing costume possibilities and looking through costume catalogs and websites for ideas - as if a bride selecting a $5,000 gown.

Which is fine.

Except I can only hold them off until September to purchase one when they are "absolutely", "positively", "definitely", "100 percent sure" what they want to be. So - like the year before - I buy the costumes. Knowing in my heart that they are, in fact, NOT what they will end up wearing on Halloween night.

Two years ago my son had not one, not two, but THREE costumes (2 of which were purchased in previous years). He changed into each one throughout the night. "Who are you, Madonna?" I said after he showed up in the 3rd one and met up with us down the street. He didn't get it.

This year, my 3-year old daughter wanted to be a "pincess" - that much she's known all along. She just didn't know what kind of "pincess" she wanted to be. "You have 15 princess outfits upstairs in your room right now," I said sweetly - as only a mother can. Nice try. "You have to buy a new one every year, mom," she said sweetly back.

Duh.

So it should be no surprise to you to hear that we recently purchased - pieces scattered about throughout the house - a Strawberry shortcake costume.

My older son was going to go "old school" and get a generic skeleton costume. I was really excited. Not buying into the commercialism of the latest movie, cartoon or products - what a boy. So proud.

We have that cool skeleton costume, hanging nicely by the front door. With the receipt attached because it's going back. He's decided to be a character from Terminator. I fully expect that the Terminator costume will go back....or worse yet - will be lost forever in his room. And my sweet shortcake hasn't even seen the Disney princess costumes available.

I'm a sucker, I know. I should stand my ground. But I myself can't decide if I'm going to be a witch, pink lady or Daphne from Scooby Doo - so I can't really blame them.

Grrrrreat Scrapbooking Resource

I've been a scrapbooker for many, many years. I met Stacy Julian - a guru in the industry - at CKU Houston several years ago. She's the bomb. Her approach to simple scrapbooking and memory preservation is the bomb and she's just a really neato gal.

She just launched her own website and it's great. A class I took online at BigPictureScrapbooking.com awhile back that she taught, Library of Memories, taught me a lot about getting out of the chronological mindset and capturing relationships. One of the sections on her website is a Library of Memories follow-up section. I just completed her page layout idea under this section and had so much fun.



Love it, love it, love it. Check out stacy's site http://www.stacyjulian.com/ and her blog. You'll love it, too.

Cut the Crazy Out of Christmas

This year I am going to really, really, really, really try to enjoy the holidays. This is my favorite time of the year and although it's still hot and humid in good ol' Texas, I keep the A/C on overdrive so it will feel like the season has changed, albeit just inside my house.

One of the things that I love is fallish food. Nothing like a pot roast simmering in the crock pot. And yesterday my husband and kids made homemade pumpkin muffins. Yum! Delicious. (I'm so upset that I didn't capture the moment on my camera.)

So in an attempt to enjoy this time of the year, September through December, to it's fullest - I've started a class with http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com. It's called Cut the Crazy out of Christmas and we're putting together a binder so that we're more organized, earlier in the season, which SHOULD cut down on the crazy....leaving more time for the celebrate.

With binder sections like preparations, lists and recipes....I've started to plan things like Christmas cards (I make mine and have already started this years!), meals and traditions. One of the things I want to focus on is what we do, as a family of 4, that is special to us.

Which is why I'm really bummed that I didn't get pictures of the pumpkin muffin baking activity. Guess we'll have to do it again, right?

Some things that I want to do as a family, like going to the nutcracker ballet or riding on the Polar Express train, we just can't do this year because of money - so I'm looking for ideas of special family holiday-type things to do that don't cost anything (or much). Send me your thoughts. And, hey....Merry Christmas!

Slipping Through My Fingers

So by now, if you know me in person or have gotten to know me through my blog, you certainly know that I deal with most of life through humor. And that humor usually includes a bit of sarcasm. Gasp. No.

Yes.

My husband doesn't get my humor - but some of my friends do and it gives me a kick to make them laugh and so I continue my wicked ways (you enablers, you know who you are---Karen!)

But I will drop my sarcasm for a bit for just a minute. Jackson turns 8 Sunday and I'm feeling a bit....emotional.

Did you see Mamma Mia? I saw the movie in the theatre and cried like a baby when Meryl Streep watched her daughter get ready for her wedding and sang, "Slipping Through My Fingers". When I get too wrapped up in the day to day stuff that consumes me and makes me say things like "hurry up...let's go" and "there's no time to play" or "I'll be with you in a minute" then I listen to this song and I remember sometimes we don't have to hurry....there's time to play...and the minute is now.

Slipping Through My Fingers, By ABBA

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning,

Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness

And I have to sit down for a while

The feeling that I'm losing her forever

And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter

That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what's in her mind

Each time I think I'm close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table

Barely awake, I let precious time go by

Then when she's gone there's that odd melancholy feeling

And a sense of guilt I can't deny

What happened to the wonderful adventures

The places I had planned for us to go

Well, some of that we did but most we didn't

And why I just don't know

Slipping through my fingers all the time

I try to capture every minute

The feeling in it

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Do I really see what's in her mind

Each time I think I'm close to knowing

She keeps on growing

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture

And save it from the funny tricks of time

Slipping through my fingers........

House Does Not Disappoint

Well - I'm hooked again on House. Last night was the 2 hour season premiere. I tried to watch uninterrupted in my room while my son was downstairs with his math tutor and my daughter put barbie and hello kitty band-aids on anything that would stay still for 30 seconds. Needless to say, it didn't work out well - so thank goodness for the DVR.

House's 2 hour recovery in the institution wasn't as gloomy as I expected it to be. I loved his manic, rapper roommate and the talent show scene where they performed together.

He's better and happier but hasn't lost his edge. I'm ready to have the rest of the crew back next week, though. There was only 1 scene with his best buddy over the phone - where House asks him to run a license plate number so he can find out if his doctor is having an affair and then blackmail him so he can get out early. Classic.

And only House can hook up with a girl while fighting depression and addiction in a hospital. Geez. Go figure.

It's going to be hard to wait 7 days to see what happens next. Luckily I'll have something to do to keep me busy. Thanks to Annie I'll be prying band-aids off everything in MY house!

House

The season premiere is tonight and I'm so excited. Are you going to be watching? :)