Sunday Scrapbooking (7/3)

Good morning! Unless your like me, then congrats on not bashing heads when 2 of your 3 kids started coming in your room at 5:30 am to wake you up and kept it up every 5 blessed minutes. If you’re like me, pat yourself on your back and enjoy your coffee.

Yeah, in case that was a little too subtle for you, I’m in a pretty piss poor mood today. But lets not keep us from checking out this week’s pages or from me sharing a little news.

Last week I mentioned I was so happy because of some good news I got… so are you ready to hear the news??? ‘Cause I’m ready to share it. I got added as a contributor to the website Me So Scrappy. (taking a moment to bow to your applause) I am so excited. I actually have already started, I was officially added on the first, and have done two posts there. (You can see them by clicking here and here)

Now, for this week’s pages! I did 5, but only love 3.

I finally got around to scrapping some of my favorite recent pictures of Ryan.

Made with Zoe Pearn's C'est La Vie

The next two are where I wanted to try out a style that is rather different from my usual. I must say… I really like it!


Both were made with kits by Jazzmin Designs; the first was made with her Boys Only kit, and the second was made with her Spring Fever kit. (Scroll down to the bottom of this link to see the first of these two pages featured on the Gallery Stand Outs blog)

To wrap this post up, my boys are both home again. My step-dad brought them back yesterday afternoon. My mom’s uncle was hospitalized and she drove to Texas with her mom to be closer to him. Monday I’ll have some photos to share of John and I playing in the inflatable pool we got in the backyard with all three kiddos.

Saturday Snapshots (7/2)

I think I’m crazy and my daughter is cute.

Before I get into my adorable daughter and our newest potty training update, I have to tell you something. I think I might be slightly crazy. I have weird and random dreams a lot. Sometimes I dream about weird ways my day will go when I wake up. I’ve had dreams about getting horrible rejection letters from calls I apply to. I dream about whacky conversations I have with people online. I also tend to dream about just stupid things in regards to John and I.

Last night, I had a dream that I woke up this morning and had like 100 hate comments about my blog post I did yesterday about not wanting any more kids. I mean they got nasty, and some people were even saying I shouldn’t have the three I have since I didn’t want them. They were threatening to come kidnap my kids, and were going to hurt me. All sorts of crazy things. So I woke up this morning at 5, ran to my computer, turned it on, and went and checked my blog. Of course, there were no hate comments. lol After that I went back to bed, and thankfully, had no more dreams.

Now for a potty training update!

I’m not really sure we’ve had all that much progress to be honest, even though I’ve been steadily on her about it all week. She’s down to only one accident a day, but it’s not because she’s using the potty more. Because she’s not. Not even drops. She sits there, talks, plays, sings, does everything but actually go. Instead what she’s doing is just holding it all in until like naptime when she gets a diaper put back on. She only naps for somewhere between 1-2 hours, but when I get her up her diaper is completely soaked. Even the outside is wet. So, like I said, I’m not too sure if that’s actual progress or not.

And lastly, a few more cute pictures of Belly from playing out in the rain on Tuesday.

I would like to go on the record.

(image from here)

I would like to go on the record and tell everyone… I don’t really want to have anymore kids.
I love my three kiddos more than life itself, and could not possibly imagine my life without them. With that being said, before having Zach I was on the fence of if I wanted no kids, or just one kid. 75% of the time I was leaning more towards no kids. Then after Zach I was convinced I didn’t want anymore kids, ever. After I had Ryan I was convinced two boys would be good, it’d give them each someone to play with, but I absolutely did NOT want anymore kids. Then I got pregnant again and had a miscarriage. After that I thought maybe in about 5 years I could have one more, John thought this was a good idea too. He said we could try every few years until we had a girl. I said we could try one more time, and he better hope his sperm cooperates and gives him the girl he wants then. By the time we came to this decision it was like May or June and we were in the final stages of buying a house. By August I was freaking out in our new bathroom staring at the test that said “pregnant.”
If you know anything about my pregnancy with Belly then you probably know that it wasn’t exactly pleasant. Of my three pregnancies I carried to term, hers was by far the worst. And yes, that is a pretty big part of why I say I don’t want anymore kids. But really, growing up, as a child who was 6 years older than her next sibling I had to help a lot with taking care of my two younger siblings, plus help with both sets of younger step-siblings my dad went through, and help with all the babies and kids my mom watched. I knew being a mommy wouldn’t be all fun and sweetness, so I never dreamed of one day being a mommy. I dreamed of getting out in the  world and getting away from the responsibilities and hassles of children.
Now, I’m 24 and the mom of three kids. My baby is 2 and we’re working on potty training. Yeah, she’s a fussy, bratty two year old, but she communicates semi-understandably, and is fun. (Be honest, infants are sweet and cuddly but not so much fun) Both of my boys are mostly house broken and both in school. At this stage in my life a lot of my friends I had in school are getting pregnant or have little babies. A lot of moms who say they are done start feeling weepy or wistful when faced with pregnant friends or new babies. They may still say they are done, but inside they whisper “Awww, I want.” Me, not so much. I go “Man I don’t miss being that big,” and “I so don’t miss newborn poop,” things like that.
Unfortunately, everyone seems to think it’s time for me to have another kid. My relatives now seem to think I’m old enough to have kids and be excited about being pregnant… but I don’t want to. They had three other chances to get happy and excited. Ryan desperately wants a baby brother. Belly is on a baby-obsession kick. And John gets a little wistful look when babies get mentioned. The only person on my side is Zach who has threatened to move out if I have another baby.

OK, I’m a hypocrite. Sue me.

I’ve been a member of online groups for a while, the longest being my association with the forums on Justmommies.com, where I’ve been a member since May 2007. I’m also a member of various digital scrapbooking sites as well. On these sites I’ve developed many friendships, some spanning the whole time I’ve been active on those sites.

As a stay-at-home mom, who lives in a very rural area, and is rather young (compared to the moms of the boys’ friends), I get pretty lonely. Most of my friends are either all working, have moved away, or are just starting out on the mommy-frontier. Having online friends has a been a blessing.

Now all these years John has always made fun of my “computer friends.” He doesn’t think I shouldn’t have them, and he’s not as patronizing as some husbands are about online friends. He understands that as the years since high school have passed that I lose more and more of my real life friends, and that this is a way to keep me from going bat-poop crazy. BUT this doesn’t stop him from making fun of me for getting so involved in the lives of people who I have never physically met. He really thought it was really funny as I texted one of my online friends with updates to share while I was in labor with Belly.

Since John got Black Ops for Christmas he has been enjoying the online playing of it most every week night. He used to play primarily just with my brothers, but has been slowly, but surely, expanding his friends on there. Recently he has taken to playing with the same two guys over and over, even talks to me about these two. Generally when he plays I listen to my IPod, but last night I had already turned it off and was getting ready for bed when I hear John talking to one of these guys… about me and the kids. I tapped him on the back over and over and whispered “John, John, John” until he turned his headset to mute and looked at me. I asked him if he was sure he should be telling some random-make-believe Black Ops dude about our life. This is when he gave me that annoying look “do you really want to go there?” look and then pointedly looked back and forth between me and my computer. I explain to him there’s a world of difference between my group of trustworthy online family and friends and his random make-believe Black Ops friends. At this point John said I should probably just go to bed before he decides to call and cancel our internet in the morning. I wisely shut up and went to bed.

I can you hear in my head now.

…and for the record getting on to me never does any good.

I totally never posted my Sunday Scrapbooking yesterday. I kept thinking “Dangit! I only made 2 pages, and I’m actually not crazy about either one so I’m just not wasting my time.” But, um, I made three pages last week, and I kinda really like 2 of them. lol So… I’m not sure what I was thinking yesterday. I think my brain was too eager for the start of True Blood Season 4 yesterday to make much sense of anything else. As it is now Monday, and we did discuss this some Saturday, I am too much a creature of habit to actually do my Sunday Scrapbooking on Monday. That would just be… wrong. lol But I will post small clickable versions of the layouts, so if you want to see them you can.

Next, I got some pretty awesome news this weekend, but I’m not sure if I can share it yet. It has to do with scrapbooking, and no, I still haven’t gotten accepted to any full-time teams yet. I do have a few months of guest spots coming up though. I have the rest of this month through the end of August with SuzyQ Scraps. August I’m guesting with Stolen Moments. September I’m guesting on The Lily Pad’s site team. Finally October I have a guest spot with another designer, but since she hasn’t announced who/when her guests are I don’t know if I can tell who.

The boys went back to my mom’s Friday night. While I loved having them home, and miss them terribly again, I wasn’t too sad telling them bye. lol Of course they were pretty awful while they were here. They always are when they go and spend any real time at my dad’s; it’s like we have to reprogram them. Then when we finally got them back to the way they are supposed to behave it was time for them to go.

Last piece of news, John got his septum re-pierced. He originally got that and one of his tattoos done right after he turned 18. When he got the job at the shop he’s at now he was told it was OK to have, it just had to stay flipped into his nose, since he didn’t interact with customers. Then about 3 years ago they started sending him on part runs, and picking up and dropping off cars and it had to go. He decided since he was promoted again (a few months ago) to a full-time auto-body repair technician (fancy name for the guy who gets the dents out of your cars lol – OK he does a lot more than just that but still…) and has virtually no interaction with customers that he would get it re-done. It looks so funny now because before he had it stretched, and they didn’t give him a size option on the piercing so it’s this tiny metal thing in it now. He told me I can’t take any pictures of it till it’s stretched some more.

Not a piece of news, but I did my first actual attempt at drawing in like 4 years last night. The odd sketch to plan out stuff or to help a boy with school work doesn’t count. I drew a cartoon version of my favorite picture of Ryan from Friday. Oh the glasses are because every superhero needs to protect his identity. lol

Saturday Snapshot (6/25)

Since I never got around to posting the pictures I meant to yesterday of Ryan and Belly playing outside I’ll just post them today under the snapshot… which means this should technically be “Saturday Snapshots” but I’m too much a creature of habit to rename it. lol