This is using the A Million Memories September Kit.
Journaling Reads:
The way your eyes shine and your face smiles big and wide always makes me so happy to see. I hope that you’re always happy to be together. I love you.
Details:
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There is so much buzz around Little Bee that I just couldn’t decide if I wanted to read it. I knew it was going to be sad. But several people said they loved it. Others said they couldn’t get through it. I finally decided to pick it up and see. I read it in one day. It was a quick and painful read. And there were parts I loved. But overall, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it. The characters, I thought, weren’t very well developed. The story was very unbelievable in parts and got more so towards the end. I have no doubt the horrific events are similar to ones that actually happen and it did make me cringe, feel the horror, and devastation. But I don’t like reading about such terrible things and maybe that makes me ignorant. I am ok with that. I would have liked some more warning. I know the publisher didn’t want to disclose but I think that was a ploy and unnecessary in this case. All in all, I cannot say I recommend it even though I am glad I read it.
Fair warning: a lot of photos ahead. I’m still under some kind of crazy off-schedule schedule where I get nothing on my todo list done. Nathaniel woke up at 4am again but then I just ignored him and he went back to sleep until 7 but by then I was awake so I couldn’t fall back asleep even though I refused to get up from bed. Didn’t start the day on the best note. We dropped David off to the bus and then I had to finish a deadline so I worked while Nathaniel played. He’s loving the play table and being home without David for a bit.
I worked, he napped, I worked more, we ate and then it was already time to pick up David. When we got home, Nathaniel started taking the “outdoor” toys out.
And David decided to have fun with them, too.
We then practiced the smiling. He looks sweet here but oh so fake.
The kids were in such a good mood. Nathaniel kept hugging David.
And they would fall on the floor together.
And then he’d start to climb all over him.
David made a happy granparents’ day card at school this week.
Who knew my birthday was also grandparents’ day.
Then Jake’s parents came over and since they’re leaving tomorrow, I wanted to get som shots of them with the kids. Nathaniel and Meme first. Look at that smile.
And lots of love.
Then it was David’s turn.
I tried to get all three but it was quite the challenge.
Then it was Papi’s turn. Love the smiles here, too.
David wouldn’t give a non-fake smile so I told Papi to tickle him.
And then snapped this, too.
After the kids went down we went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It was absolutely fantastic. Now it’s 11pm and my class starts in one hour! You can still sign up!! Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: Thanks to my little boy, I woke up at 4:15am this morning. I spent the whole day in a daze and exhausted. This also meant that I was much crankier than usual. As I am sure it’s true for others, too, I tend to be quite negative when I am cranky. A few hours into my day, I was already tired, whiny, and angry. And I still had quite a few important to-do items on my list. Mid-morning, my older son called me from school to say that he’d lost his backpack and, with it, his lunch. I could tell he sounded really sad. I told him I’d be right there with another lunch and snack for him. I raced over there. All the way there, I was worried about the bag and its contents. Now we’d have to buy a new bag, lunch box, water bottle, jacket, and book. Not to mention an afternoon trip to Target which I really didn’t want to make. When I got there, I knocked on the door and gave the teacher his new lunch. And then I looked around and found his bag on one of the hooks one class over. I then knocked again and took the new lunch back and drove back home. On the way back, I was annoyed that I had to make the trip there for nothing and thought about all the time and effort I wasted. Then I stopped myself. I obviously needed a good talking to and there was no one else to give it to me so I gave myself a short, snappy lecture. I told myself that for the rest of the day I didn’t get to be cranky. Instead of looking at it negatively, how about turning it around and finding the thing to be grateful about? For example, I could be grateful that I was home when the school called and grateful that we live close enough to school for me to be able to deliver him another lunch. Grateful that we had some more of the same food he loves. Grateful that I had a spare lunchbox. And on the way back, I could be grateful that I now wouldn’t have to make a trip to Target or spend any more money. Or that David now gets to eat his original lunch. I could even be thankful that I now had tomorrow’s lunch mostly packed. For the rest of the day, I forced myself to change perspective and turn my negative conversations around. It didn’t make me any less tired but it did make me enjoy my moments more. And considering how precious each moment is, I figured it was the best gift I could give myself on a day like this. The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.
Last night I had trouble falling asleep. Possibly because I’d made a list of 42 to-do list items. And then Nathaniel decided 4am wake up was as good a time as any. He wailed and wailed so I finally gave up and just woke up. big mistake. it meant that my whole day was exhausting. It also meant that this little one napped at 7am to 9am and then not again.
Then David called from school and said he lost his backpack and had nothing to eat. So I packed another lunch and rushed to his school. After I delivered it, I then found his bag so I brought it back home. Then I had to drive to Michael’s to buy a punch I needed for an urgent scrappy project I am doing. I scrapped a page. And I can barely hold my head up. Then we picked up David from school and practiced smiling some more.
Yes, not really getting close. Honestly, I am too exhausted to write more. More tomorrow, I promise. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
After three nights of only few hours of sleep, I finally felt way too exhausted and worn out this morning, so I spent extra time on the couch as the kids played at their new table.
I love this table and I think they do, too. Legos, logs, trains, it holds them all.
And Nathaniel grabbed David’s legos the moment he left the room, of course.
Then we practiced smiling some more. We’re still working on that. We need more work, don’t you think?
Mid-morning, Jake’s parents came over while Nathaniel napped, they took David to the children’s discovery museum which he loved. And I got to stay here and work on my art book which was also great. When they came back, Jake and his dad went to meet with a neighbor and Meme and David played some more dodgeball.
And Nathaniel watched nearby.
When Jake and his dad came back, we went to the Elizabeth Gamble Garden over in Palo Alto. We walked around as I snapped hundreds of flower photos. Yep, got many many many to post. And I snapped one of my mother in law. Isn’t she beautiful?
And here’s the little boy, trying to touch (yank) one of those pretty flowers.
After we came home and put the kids down, I got back to work on my art book which I wanted to finally finish. So I did that and I am now off to bed. I need another six days of rest but this week promises to be super hectic and then my birthday is in six days. Oh well, rest is not crucial, is it? Happy Monday! Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
There are many many photos today. We’ve had a very full two days so feel free to skip this and the next post. Today was my husband’s birthday. 3-6. I wanted to make it extra special. So it started with my giving him his present the night before at 1am. I made him this book of stories from all of the people he’s had in his life. (more on the book later this week.) I had been working on it for months and I was worried he wouldn’t like it or it wouldn’t work ok. But he loved it. The only bad side effect was that he couldn’t fall asleep after getting it so he ended up staying up until 4am. But we let him sleep in, in the morning. We got up early and set the table and waited for him.
When he got up, I made pancakes and the four of us sat and ate. Amazingly, this was the best photo I could get of the three of them.
Before we began, David gave his card.
the inside of which he wrote all by himself. And on the back it says “2010.”
He then opened his friend Kendall’s present which was a boba fett sweater. I have no idea what that means but Jake was really happy and that’s all that matters.
As we finished having our little family breakfast, Jake’s parents showed up. David rushed to open the door and Nathaniel followed him.
I’d asked Jake’s parents to get a cake on the way and some candles. That’s a lot of candles, eh?
We ate some cake and then it was time to open more presents. David was all too happy to help open them.
Once Daddy’s presents were open (and there were many), David, Meme, and Jake went to Target to get David some legos and a playing table (I’ve had enough of having legos on my dinner table.) We then took a little break and went to a late lunch at a nearby cafe. When we came back, Jake setup the table and Meme gave David another present, too. So they went outside to play with it. David threw.
Meme’s jacket caught.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel woke up from his nap and saw the Lincoln logs Meme bought so he had some fun of his own.
Look at the way he’s crossing his legs, my little boy.
I made the house and he attacked it with vigor. It took many minutes to make and seconds to come down.
And David put his new legos together in split seconds too.
After a bunch more playing, it was finally time to put the kids down. They had dinner, bath and bedtime. We had reservations at Gary Denko (a fancy restaurant) in San Francisco so we got dressed and left for the city.
Our delicious dinner lasted a long time and we finally made it home around midnight and I basically crashed in bed. An amazing day and one I will remember for a long time. Happy Birthday, my love. You make each of my moments brighter. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
When I got the news that I made it to Tim Holtz’s team, I didn’t want to wait until my goodies got here. I had this idea of a white on white layout, this amazing photo of my husband and a lot of Tim Holtz goodies I’d already been hoarding so I sat to put it all together. This is a perfect example of a layout where there’s a generic photo coupled with a story I wanted to tell. It’s something I was able to put together thanks to my Book of Stories. You can still sign up for the workshop for a few more days. Journaling Reads: Tim Holtz Products Used: Details:
This is with the February Kit from A Million Memories.
At almost nine months old, you still make me swoon.
ps: these are some of my older layouts that I never shared which is why they might look different from my current style 🙂 The stories are still authentic and they are ours so I am going to post them even if some of them already make me cringe a bit. (Not this one, I love this one.)
again from the aquarium. not a fan of this one, but don’t have anything better at the moment. It was a short night but it didn’t take me as long to wake up today, maybe I’m getting better about being a morning person after all. After we all woke up, David played some Wii and Nathaniel napped and then Jake’s parents came over. While Jake went out with his mom, David played with his dad.
And Nathaniel and I played outside.
After they came back, we all went out to lunch and while there I got David some beginner reading books. when we came back, he read it with Jake’s mom as Jake and his Dad went out to chat and I rested while Nathaniel walked around.
He found the fabric ball I made and literally played with it and entertained himself for hours and hours with it. Giggling and laughing.
And laughing.
Jake’s mom snapped some photos and I snapped photos of her snapping photos.
And then they played legos.
And now we’re off to see Salt. I hope your Saturday is going well, too. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: We did this back in July but I just realized that I never checked it off the list, so here we are: Back on July the 4th, we went to Samuel P Taylor State Park. I wanted to go for one night to see if Nathaniel could go through with it. We went about 90minutes north of where we live. It was supposed to be a quiet spot and I figured if things go badly, we could always pack up and go home. Here are some of the photos I took and posted around then:
We had a really great great day. David loved every single moment of it and so did Nathaniel. Jake and I slept really badly but the kids snored like champs. I think there’s definitely more camping in out future. Or maybe some cabin-staying since I am not so sure my back can handle the ground as well as it used to. All in all, I am really really glad we did it.
More from the aquarium. Almost done, I swear. I’ve been trying to get up earlier so I can be up before the kids and give myself some time to wake up. It’s working better,too and I hope to get it to be 5am. Slowly. After we took David to the bus, Nathaniel did his share of playing and exploring while I worked. He’s drooling a bit and teething a lot.
When David came from school, he wanted to color and sat at his table. Nathaniel immediately went over to see what was going on and to watch his brother (and take the markers away of course.)
so he had to go sit at the big table.
and Nathaniel moved on to other toys like the wrapping paper my mother in-law had brought over to wrap Jake’s presents. (look at that hair!)
Don’t you love that “what, I’m not doing anything” look….
David and I practiced smiling some more. We’re not making a lot of progress. I am not sure what to do.
And then Daddy came home and they both rejoiced.
We all rejoiced. We love Daddy so much.
Once the kids went down, Jake and I got to go out again. We saw “inception” which I’ve been wanting to see for a long time and I was not disappointed one single bit. Loved it. Came home, finished my layout and I am now off to bed. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: |
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