kaydub

Embracing Change

2009-11-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

It's not really my favorite thing to do, changing. In fact, it's really hard for me and I usually try to avoid it, choosing instead to stick with what I know. But inevitably change comes and rears its ugly head and I am forced to embrace it.

We are moving. Not something I expected to have to do right now, but things have gone from bad to shit here on the farm and it is no longer our home. It turns out that despite the words people may choose to say to you, you can never really know what's in someone's heart. And some people have really hard hearts. Now, I am in no way completely innocent here, I got fed up and said a few harsh words, but they were true and real. It's not the first time that speaking my mind has gotten me into trouble, but I just can't live inauthentically. The current adjective for me around here now is "difficult", but I prefer to view my actions in this situation as bold and passionate. It is my story, after all.

So I am ANGRY and SAD and HURT. But I am also EXCITED and RELIEVED and so very GRATEFUL for the outpouring of support from family and friends and our community. We will be moving back to town as soon as we find a place we can call HOME. And good luck to Box 4 Ranch, they're going to need it.

In the words of coach Eric Taylor from one of my favorite TV shows:
"Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose".
Good way to live, don't you think?

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

Go visit Mark,, I'm too sad to post today.

Tuesday Challenge

2009-11-10T09:12:00.000-08:00

My take on "GO".

Next Word Up: STOP.

Have a great Tuesday!

Happy Birthday Mark

2009-11-09T08:17:00.001-08:00

May the next year of your life be as magical and fortuitous as the last.
I love you babe.
Have a great day.

Words of Wisdom

2009-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

When our lives become pageants, we become actors.
When we become actors, we sacrifice authenticity.
Without authenticity, we can't cultivate love and connection.
Without love and connection, we have nothing.
-Brene Brown

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-04T13:49:00.000-08:00

One Little Word Challenge

2009-11-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

There is a blog I love called One Little Word. For the past couple of years they have been posting words on their blog and asking readers to link the art that the word inspires. They have completed 50 word prompts; I played along for the first 25 and then petered out, although I continued to visit and admire. I recently learned that they are calling it quits and it really saddened me because I always assumed I would have time to join in again. Well, I've decided there's truly no better time than the present, so each Tuesday I will post a word from the archives of One Little Word, starting at the beginning and continuing for 50 weeks. I'll share my layout the following week along with the new word. Anyone want to play along with me? Just share your layout (whatever size or shape or color you want, it's your art) as a link on the challenge post.
This week's prompt: GO
I'd love to see where you "go" with that.

Hello Monday

2009-11-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

Unlike many people, I like Mondays.

It's my "gown down" and catch up on blogs day.
It's the day I make my grocery list.
It's the day I usually bake bread.
And on Mondays, there's a little bit of quiet at my house,
that is until I crank up the music,
which I inevitably always do.

Here's my girl with her pumpkin.
It turned out to be a cute kitty cat.
Not an ounce of horror in that one I tell you.

And here's the crew before heading to town.
We met up with some friends for trick or treating.
The boys ran full throttle to each and every house.
The girls walked nonchalantly far behind and talked.
We combed two neighborhoods and have plenty of chocolate.
And I've had my fill of Reese's Peanut Butter cups.

First Graders Are So Stinkin' Cute

2009-10-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today I helped out in Ben's classroom for their Halloween party. The teacher let each student take a turn sharing what their costume was and why they chose it. One little girl stood up and said
"I am Robin Hood and I chose this costume because it was the only one for $9.95."
I love the brutal honesty of first-graders!

I'm mere hours away from the Design Team crop at Paper Pals tonight. It's been well over a year since I've scrapbooked with a group and I am giddily anticipating basking in all that creative genius. I'll (hopefully) be finishing my albums from Europe. And me, little thyroid-less, tired girl will be out past midnight. Woot! I hope I don't have to stop for a nap!

Happy Haunting!

It's Still Fall, Right?

2009-10-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's a balmy 32 degrees and SNOWING on the Palouse this morning. Granted the ground is not frozen so it won't be sticking around, but need I remind Mother Nature that it's not even Halloween yet? I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about this little winter preview; girls without thyroids and cold weather are not the best of friends.

Crazy busy around here. We've had to turn the shop over to the new farmers, so we are in the middle of a forced reorganization that has left no part of our house untouched. And it's parent-teacher conference week, so the kids only attend school in the mornings. Seems like we just get them dropped off and it's time to pick them up again. They are so ready for Halloween; Claire is going to be a pirate and Ben will be a ghoul with a "screamer" mask. We've already made an agreement about Mama's share of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which is that if I have to stand out in the cold while they ring doorbells, I get them all.

I get to spend a couple of hours visiting with my friend Jill today, then watch Grey's Anatomy with my friend Laura tonight. And tomorrow night I will be cropping at Paper Pals with the design team. It's been way too long since I got my "scrap" on!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

My friend Angela features Wordless Wednesday on her blog, and as I go about my Wednesday mornings I find myself wondering what photo she will post for me.
I'm totally stealing it.
Thanks Angela.

A Little Bit of This

2009-10-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

From a basket of these

To jars of this

And a pan of this

And then there's this

Have a great weekend!

Art Share

2009-10-15T11:13:00.001-07:00

Riding the laufrod full throttle down a steep incline and around a 90 degree corner without a helmet or any other protection. He's a maniac. Please don't turn me in to CPS.

Good friends visiting and laughing together in Olympia last summer.

What are you creating?

Living With Kids

2009-10-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Beside the noise level and the obvious "little people" contraband strewn about the house, I often find other small clues that children live here. I find that these little clues are welcome day-brighteners.

A can of homework pencils become weapons for Ben's robots after he finishes his work. This was a favored activity for a few days last week and I loved stopping to admire his formations on the kitchen table.

A little someone left a cache of chestnuts on a shelf in my office for me. These little piles of "things" that I find around the house are such indicators that Claire has been there. My little squirrel; she's always been a collector of "things".

Here's a sneak peek of this month's layout for Paper Pals Design Team, inspired by my children who love to wear santa hats and pose beneath the Christmas tree each year. If you're a scrapbooker, Anita is all about challenges right now over on the blog.

It's raining and I'm so relieved. It was a long, dry spell and I was starting to get cranky with all the static electricity. Fall is certainly exerting its influence around here: a fire in the wood stove, a bushel of apples waiting to be sauced, a deer in the freezer and steelhead running in the rivers (those last two make for a very happy guy, which makes for a happy me).

The Best Way to Have Horses...

2009-10-09T16:46:00.001-07:00

... is to have horses who belong to someone else.

This is Snowball. He and two of his buddies, Royal and Count, are spending some time in our lower pasture, eating down the grass and being cute.

How would you like to be this ten-year-old? She loves these horses. And she's a natural. She helped brush and saddle Royal and was very easy around him.

This one is a little more timid, but also in love. He's trying so hard to take the riding seriously, but he wants to burst out and laugh.

I did get upon the horse and Mark gallantly lead us around the pasture, but I'm definitely the most timid of all. I'm getting used to them, feeding them apples out of my hand and scratching their noses, but I wouldn't call it easy.

You never know what new things you might have to learn in a day.

Feelin' Stronger Everyday

2009-10-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

The "yuck" has moved on down the highway and let me just say how sorry I am for the next folks who catch it. It's times like these when I realize just how much Mark and I each do around here; it's so very hard for both of us to be down at the same time.

I did finish up my Big Picture Scrapbooking class with Cathy Zielske (on time) and I am so pleased with the results. It was a lot more work than I expected, but well-worth the effort and now I have this great little piece of me at this time in my life. I don't usually spend the money to take classes, but there was really no other way for me to do this project. I tend to leave projects without a timeline unfinished and I needed the parameters of the class to get it done.
So very glad I took the plunge.

My album, a 3-ring binder courtesy of Target.

My title page. I used patterned paper from the Early Bird line by Cosmo Cricket.

And the guts. All the pages followed this format, so once I completed the journaling it came together really quickly.

Trivia: does anyone know the band whose hit song is today's post title?

Hello October

2009-10-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

(cue whining)
On this first day of October, all four of us are sick.
Can't remember the last time we were all sick together.
Mark returned to work today.
He's been sick since Sunday and is missing his deer season.
I spent yesterday sleeping and reading in bed with a headache, chills and coughing.
The kids are both home from school today with sore throats and body aches.
I think I might be able to muster the energy to go to the mailbox.
There are movies from Netflix waiting there.
Looks like we'll be spending the afternoon cuddled up on the couch.

Have You "Scene" It

2009-09-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

Because if you haven't, hurry up, it'll be gone soon.
That's right, my favorite paper company, Scenic Route, is calling it quits.
My friend Shawna tried to tell me it was coming, but I refused to believe it until I received an email from the company this weekend confirming the rumor.
In commemoration, I hurried to make this layout with some of the old Metropolis line I had laying around.
I lifted it straight off the cover of the October issue of Creating Keepsakes Magazine because I loved the title across the upside down tags.

This company's paper was my "turn to product" when I was scrapbooking.
I'm sad that they're folding, and I'm even more sad that this seems to be the recent pattern in our industry as so many scrapbookers go digital.
I don't want to go digital.
My computer skills are minimal at best and I'm a very tactile person.
I need real paper to help me create.

I guess the job of my favorite paper is open until filled.

Since When Does the Tooth Fairy Take Orders?

2009-09-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Claire lost her first molar a couple of days ago, eating a Bit 'o Honey.
Now that she's aware that the tooth fairy is really Mark and me,
she feels like she can put her order in for what will be left beneath her pillow.
She wrapped her lost tooth carefully in an envelope and wrote on the outside
"Claire's Tooth. (Keep safe 'cause it's my first molar)".
Then she wrote us this note stating specifically what she thought was an appropriate gift for a molar.
Since when did the tooth fairy start taking orders?

Here's Bionicle Boy.
He loves them and he's getting very skilled at building them.
He recently waited 2 weeks for a Bionicle he ordered from Amazon with his birthday money.
Our order qualified for free shipping, so we had to wait extra long.
Horrible, horrible stuff for a seven-year-old.
You should have seen his beaming face when he and Mark finally brought it home from the mailbox. Priceless.

We're expecting Mark's Aunt Nancy from Arizona for a visit tomorrow.
I so enjoy spending time with her. I'm really looking forward to it.
And she's also gluten-free, so bonus.
I'm planning on baking some chocolate chip cookies.

Reading

2009-09-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Looks like I've got myself some readers.
That makes me so incredibly happy.
It's one of my parenting wishes, to have kids who grow up to love reading.
Claire is a very good reader and hates to ever miss reading a book before bed.
Ben is learning to read and I think he's getting a glimpse of the many fabulous places reading can take him.

Here's a couple of passages that struck me in my reading adventures lately.

That's when I came to know that to be left, sent off, abandoned, was not of the moment, but a black ditch to the side of the road of your life, a pothole that went down to China.
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

It was as if marriage had been a long, complicated meal, and now there was this lovely dessert.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Hope you're finding some time to read something good.

P.S. This is not a normal bedtime scene in our home. Usually someone's eyes are red from crying because they didn't get the sink on the right when they were brushing their teeth and they are professing very loudly how they are never, ever, going to play with the other person again let alone read them a stupid book. You've got to take your pleasures when they come.

Writing

2009-09-16T18:24:00.000-07:00

I've been writing about myself all day
I fear I may have nothing left to say
I think I'll go out tomorrow and play.

Working diligently on my class at Big Picture Scrapbooking with Cathy Zielske.
I've completed the journaling through the letter P,
sans the letter I, because it's eluding me right now.
I'm amazed there are people posting completed pages in the gallery already.

The little rhyme above is a tribute to the talented Dr. "Z"uess,
whose books have graced our bookshelves for many years
and who is featured as one of my entries under the letter Z.
I really liked Mike Meyers as The Cat In The Hat.
I'm grasping here people.

Whimsy

2009-09-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

My husband is sometimes overcome by whimsy
It's one of the things I love about him.
So he built a gigantic slingshot.
Just because he's always wanted to make a giant slingshot.
It is now the centerpiece of our garden picnic table.
It's actually quite beautiful.
He's using it to shoot apples into the barnyard.

H1N1 has left the building.
It was pretty mild, although Ben did puke 11 times.
He says he's sure he made it into the Guiness Book of World Records.

I am reading Olive Kitteridge for my book club.
I am writing for my class with Cathy Zielske.
I am planning a ton of layouts.
I am savoring the last sweet days of summer.

The First One Bites the Dust

2009-09-11T08:12:00.001-07:00

The flu is in da house and its first victim is little Ben, who is running a low-grade fever and puked and puked until 2:00 this morning. Poor kid; he'd sleep for about 15 minutes, then cry and and writhe and whine "Mama" for about 30 minutes, then vomit, and then we'd start all over again. For those of you who don't know, our little community is leading the nation in flu cases, and our infectious disease doctor says this is only the beginning, that we won't even peak until mid-October. Our clinics are no longer seeing patients with flu-like symptoms in an effort to slow transmission.

I don't think we'll be going to the fair this weekend. Any wagers on who's going down next? I hope it's not Mark. I do so love my boys, but sorry, you are the biggest babies when you're sick!

I Think I'm Satisfied

2009-09-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

Enough messing around, sometimes you just have to say good enough.

Feeling a lot of love for the blue. I hope there's not someone out there who gets a headache looking at my page though.

Super busy today. Orthodontist, eye doctor (Ben does not need glasses), a stop at the scrapbooking store, grocery shopping, and lunch at McD's all this afternoon. Homework and baths now. We skipped dinner. Seems like just a few days ago we had absolutely nothing to do. Funny how things sneak up on you.

Tomorrow I'm back in Spokane for a routine ultrasound, but there's a solo trip to Target in there for me, so feel no pity. Plus I get to listen to music as loud as I want. And it won't be Wee Sing.