rachel's continued ramblings

sunday: dave was a little bit tired. he fell asleep on the couch after church. layla drew a picture for him. I thought this was really cute. monday: dave brought me ‘my baby’ all warm and wrapped up in his ducky towel after his bath. I tried to hold him like a baby and convince him that he was still my baby… yeah, that didn’t go over so well. “no! I’m just a boy!” tuesday: layla, doing a cheer for me. excuse underwear-clad micah. wednesday: I NEVER let this happen. I’m usually super anal about keeping the sink empty and the dishes directly going into the dishwasher. wow. that was so depressing I had to take a picture! friday: for whatever reason, micah was totally wound up on friday night and couldn’t go to sleep. he finally passed out around 11 in the chair. saturday: uncle eric was in town and we had brunch with him on saturday. more saturday: they brought the kids paper and crayons while we waited. they had this wall where they displayed kids’ drawings, and micah and la...

the spread:   included this week is the letter that layla brought home from school about a BEAR that was spotted in the vicinity of the school grounds. in case you forgot, we do live in the boondocks! thank you, nature, for joining us! first half of the week: second half of the week: thursday’s slot if filled with the thank you card layla received from locks of love for her hair donation back in november. extras: the back of this page has the letter from the school. I also decided to do 2 5x7 collages this week instead of an 8x10. mainly because I only had a handful of extra pictures, but I had a bunch from our saturday brunch w/ uncle eric. so I did one that is just from that. I like it. works for me (and requires less extra pages in the book. I’m already a little concerned about reaching capacity before the year is half over!) and that’s week 21!

I’m catching up! the guilt (at least in the photo/memory department) is dwindling! my work on this year’s project life album got me itching to take care of the years of backlogged photos that have been haunting me from the depths of my external hard drive and enormous black box on the shelf of my closet. back in march, I plowed through 2010, followed quickly by 2009. what a relief! 2 years of of our family’s life, via photos and their stories, safely stashed in albums where they can be enjoyed! but then I had a problem. I was out of albums! the two albums I’d used for ‘09 and ‘10 were creative memories albums I had on hand, but with those used, what next? I weighed my options. no, seriously, I scoured websites, writing down prices, adding things up, trying to figure out what would be the most cost-effective way to accomplish what I needed to accomplish. I had at least 4 more years’ worth of pictures to deal with. I’m not real heavy on the embellishments, but I did want some nice pa...

okay, I’ve been considering quitting this whole thing. I hate taking/posting/looking at pictures of myself. I feel stupid. I feel self-absorbed. I feel vain or arrogant or any number of negative adjectives you might want to fill in. these pictures are from last week, and even they represent a half-hearted attempt at remembering to have someone take a pic. this is not to say that I think any of the other participants in WIWW are vain, arrogant, or self-absorbed. no, this is my own, personal dislike or insecurity, or whatever… I like looking at their pictures, and I fully appreciate the whole point of the exercise. and, (as I sit here in my workout pants, hoodie, and socks) I am fully aware that I should, indeed, be participating with a little more gusto. I’ll do better. I swear. anyway, here’s sunday, the 15th: dress: hand me down cardigan: aeropostle shoes: target necklace: target I used to have earrings that matched that necklace, but I lost one. wednesday, the 18th:...

a relatively straightforward week. nothing extra to add this week. the spread: the first half: the second half: and that’s week 20!

sunday: our friends, kat and cole, and their boys came for a visit on sunday. the kids played, kat and I chatted, cole and dave went for a long bike ride around the lake. they’re both training for STP in july. monday: typical micah – taking a break from his trains to play some mario kart. tuesday: with the weather nice, our indoor cat is just dying to get outside. he crouches by the slider, waiting for an opportunity to escape. so one day, I put his harness on him and took him out to spend some time in the back yard. I looped the end of the leash over one of the knobs on the climber and let him be. wednesday: sophie’s 15th birthday! FIFTEEN! holy cow, that is old for a dog. especially a lab. she had a vet appointment that day, for a check up and to see what was going on with this cough she’s been having. unfortunately, the news on that wasn’t great. thursday: layla has been desperate to make a water slide. you know how it is around here. as soon as the sun comes out, people st...

full week spread: first half: extra stuff: a picture layla drew for me for mother’s day. she’s playing t-ball and I’m in the stands. typical. her class picture came home from school this week. SO cute! I have a few of these from my own school days and I have always LOVED looking at them. I doubt this will find it’s permanent home in this PL album, but it’ll stay here for now. (if for no other reason than I won’t lose it here!) and the 8x10 of the extra pictures of the week. friday was a nice day and the younger kids and I took a picnic to the park. I took a ton of pictures, so I just decided to make a big collage of them for that day, rather than choose one or make a 4x6 collage to stick in the day’s slot. besides, I had a pic I wanted to use for that… the latter half of the week: and that’s week 19!

sunday: the flowers I got for mother’s day. monday: micah, helping grandpa with yardwork. tuesday: layla, on the front yard swing. wednesday: pigs in a blanket! a favorite lunch treat. thursday: the slug that showed up. friday: no comment. more friday: a trip to the park. saturday: layla’s garage sale tail. and the extras from the week:

this weekend, was the MOMS club garage sale. I was there today helping out (read: shopping). as is tradition, near the very end, stuff like clothes and toys can be snapped up for free, since they are just going to be donated anyway. as we were digging through some boxes, a friend came upon the PERFECT thing for my daughter… a tail. I knew it would make her happier than almost anything (other than, perhaps, a REAL dog bed, which has been on the top of her wish list forever now). I was right. she’s had it on since I got home with it. even wore it out to the bike shop with dave.

thank goodness. I was doing a little browsing on my computer. I had to get up to go chase micah down and make him get dressed. I returned, approximately 2 minutes later, and found this: yes, that’s a slug. and a pile of marginally defined goo of dirt, grass, and slug slime. on my dining room floor. where my chair had been only moments before. and my feet. eeeww. I have no idea how it got there. I assume it has something to do with the dog. or the kids. btw, simple green is excellent for removing slug slime from hard floors. in case you ever find yourself in such a predicament.

a little more stu ff this week. first half: I was still in florida on sunday, monday and tuesday, so I have the dueling pictures going on again. sunday’s pic is another collage of the pictures dave took that day. apparently, it was gorgeous here! monday is a pic he texted me of layla, waiting at the bus stop in the rain. I was on the beach when I got the text… I have a 8x10 collage for sunday: and another for monday: and then we have a little layla artwork: she made these w/ some big shape stencils I have. and another drawing: I thought this was hilarious. my mom gave her a sheet of smiley face stickers. she gave them bodies. LOL! and the latter half of the week: still not sure what I’m doing for friday. I really want shane to write something up for me, but I don’t think I’ll be able to convince him to do it. layla drew saturday’s picture for me. that’s her trying to dunk her t-ball coach in the dunk tank. it was the mid-season classic (fundraiser), and that was part of the f...