Friend Survey (along with some NEWS!)

Even if you don't normally read these things, you HAVE to read #24!!!!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:15am

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Wall-E

4. What is your favorite TV show? Chuck (about the only one I watch)

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Breakfast sandwich or toast with PB

6. What is your middle name? Lynn

7. What food do you dislike? Brussels sprouts

8. What is your favorite CD (song) at the moment? Anything by 3 Nickleback or Aerosmith

9. What kind of car do you drive? 2006 Toyota Sienna LE

10. Favorite sandwich? Jimmie John’s #9

11. What characteristic do you despise? Hypocrisy

12. Favorite item of clothing? Jeans

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Italy, among 7000 other places I want to go/go back to

14. Are you an organized person? Depends…

15. Where would you like to retire to? Somewhere scenic, but depends on where family lives also.

16. What was your most memorable birthday? ? Maybe 16, when my friends drug me out of bed and hauled me off to McDonald’s in my pajamas and glasses (ie. they didn’t let me put my contacts in)…not sure if that is a fond memory or not;)

17. What are you going to do when you finish this? Put Michael down for a nap.

18. Furthest place you are sending this to? ??

19. Person you expect to send it back first? ??

20. When is your birthday? May 29

21. Morning person or night person? Night

22. What is your shoe size? 7.5

23. Pets? Daisy the beagle

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? We are expecting our third child in January!

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Author

26. How are you today? Great

27. What is your favorite flower? Blue hydrangeas for looks, lilacs for scent (and looks)

28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? ?

29. What are you listening to right now? Michael’s Scooby Doo show

30. What was the last thing you ate? Pasta and chicken

31. Do you wish on stars? Not in recent decades

32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple or lime green

33. How is the weather right now? Sunny and beautiful

34. Last person I spoke to on the phone? Mom

35. Favorite soft drink? Coke Zero

36. Favorite restaurant? HuHot Mongolian Grill

37. Hair color? red

38. What was your favorite toy as a child? Strawberry Shortcake and friends

39. Summer or Winter? All 4 seasons, thank you very much

40. Chocolate or Vanilla? Softserve…vanilla. GOOD quality hard ice cream…chocolate!

41. Coffee or tea? Neither…good “unknown” fact about me: cannot stand the taste of either

42. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes, or share on their blogs

43. When was the last time you cried? Last week

44. What is under your bed? A big fat nothing…not even dust (thank you Jeff for Roomba, among its many other attributes, the darn thing fits right under the bed to vacuum!)

45. What did you do last night? Read my book.

46. What are you afraid of? Fire at my house.

47. Salty or sweet? Usually sweet, but I won’t turn down a good chip!

48. How many keys on your key ring? 2

49. How many years at your current job? Free clinic: 6.5, motherhood: 5.5, Fast Track: 1.5

50. Favorite day of the week? any

51. Do you make friends easily? Depends on the situation

52. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? Yes

Peekaboo from the Hayloft

Supplies: Kristin Aagard -Oink Cluck Moo (Plain Digital Wrapper)
Diane Miller -Typo Embellishment templates (curve shape) (Scrap Girls)
Chatterbox Wednesday font (from the hayloft)

I think you can read the journaling; let me know if not!
This one is a bit different from my usual style (assuming I have one, I'm so eclectic)...the unusual pics demanded something different:) The barn drop shadow is skewed using a tutorial I found online.

TFL:)
PS: Kindergarten is still "long" but he tells more stories each day. Today they had a substitute teacher in the am b/c his teacher's child was ill. Assumedly the dad watched the child in the pm b/c Mrs. Fisher was back. Anyway, he didn't seem freaked out about this at all (yay), but that may be b/c Grandma Pauline is a substitute teacher and he therefore knew all about it.

Kindergarten, scrapbooked already

Journaling: The big first day has come and gone! We biked the first morning while Jeff stayed home with
Michael. Christopher looked sad, but didn't cry, when I left him off. Christopher thought school seemed long and wouldn’t tell many stories. Two days later at the mini-conference his teacher said he’s doing very well, participates, and seems happy. He has brought his lunch every day so far: The first day he had a turkey sandwich, grapes, cottage cheese, baby carrots, and a tiny bag of Lego fruit snacks for a treat. It’s hard to believe he is really old enough for kindergarten!
Supplies:
Scraplifted from Vivian Masket's layout in 9/08 CK magazine
Robin Carlton Bears 'n Blossoms 'n Blooms kraft paper (bottom layer)
Shalae Tippetts Freedom special (stripes)
Angie Briggs Beloved red paper for apple
Erica Hite Fabric Buttons apple
Angelica E. Almost Solids ledger paper
Thao Cosgrove Typography Scrap Simple Paper Template (words overlay)
E-lena calendar
Ursula Schneider Mini Calendars Emb Templates
Shabby Miss Jenn pencil
Impact and Candara fonts
Jan Hicks Coin Folder Chip style on "off"
Katie Pertiet Defining Moments -Love (circle brush at bottom)

Phew, the first week of school is done!:) C actually admitted school was "good" today, though still said it was too long. Y'all should have seen me getting to school to pick him up today. A bit of background first: Jeff drove the van to work this morning and left M's carseat here, and at 4:00 we are riding with our friends in their big van down to Des Moines to have dinner with them. Then we will ride back with Jeff in our van:) Anyway, the boys don't fit in the bike trailer together anymore, and fight when they try, so C would have to ride his own bike home. M and I didn't want to have to run any errands today, so we didn't have a chance to drop off C's bike at school. So M rode in the stroller, I pushed it, and pushed C's bike off to the side, the whole 1/2 mile to school this afternoon. :) I'm sure I was quite the spectacle. And C did just fine riding his bike home with us. He isn't super fast yet, so didn't seem to mind waiting for us to catch up on foot. M slept most of the way there and back, but of course woke up when we got home. Guess he'll be a bit sleepy tonight at Grandma & Grandpa's, oh well!

You have GOT to see...

Ok, everyone who thought the last post was funny...you HAVE to go see Jeff's latest title idea!!!! ROTFL!

This is What I Deal with...

Disclaimer: I will freely admit that when I saw this picture that Jeff took while we were on vacation in the Twin Cities a couple weeks ago, I came closer to PIMPing than ever before, I was laughing so hard.

Description: The Children's Museum in St. Paul is wonderful! This was one of the last areas we visited, and is set up as a town with post office, grocery store, restaurant, bus station, etc...oh, and a doctor's office. Well the crutches were taken by a girl and her mother, who proceeded to parade around on them (nostalgia here...I acquired somebody's old crutches as a child and had ENDLESS fun walking around with them. In the days before PC, I wrapped my arms and a leg with ACE wraps and went around on crutches for Halloween. I knew even then I wanted to be something medical when I grew up.) So the only enticing thing left in the doctor's office were 2 dolls. Christopher proceeded to disrobe them and was absolutely delighted to poke at their "bottoms" (Miss Delphine at preschool says we say bottom, not butt...he took that one good message to absolute heart and NEVER says butt unless he's with a certain friend...who just happens to be the reason why Miss Delphine had to say this to begin with two years ago!) LOOK, look at the baby's bottom....LOOK, LOOK! This is the most fabulous grin he's had on his face in a photo for at least 2-3 YEARS!!!! (What is it with a scrapbooker's child not liking to have his picture taken? Is this some special curse?)

Request: If I'm going to scrapbook this one, I need ideas from those way more creative than me...bring it on! Oh, and I'm thinking this pic DEFINITELY makes an appearance at his high school graduation and wedding *evil laughter*

Kindergarten

The big first day has come and gone!:) We biked this morning while Jeff stayed home with Michael. Christopher looked sad, but didn't cry, when I left him off. I was quite impressed that he smiled for a (yes, a) picture...he's on a 2-3 year kick of not liking to have his picture taken (must be a scrapper's curse or something, lol). Michael and I biked to pick him up at 1:45 (shortened days this whole week for mini-conferences with the teachers). M fell asleep on the way there:) Christopher seemed a bit too proud of himself for not saying anything at school. Later it came out that he talked with a couple children he knew from other classes at recess, but apparently didn't say anything in his own class. I think within a couple-three days he'll be talking TOO much in class;)

He was adamant that he bring his lunch and liked that, but unfortunately I'm not sure how many turkey sandwiches a kid can really eat! (Or how many lunches a mom can make). He brought: turkey sandwich, grapes, cottage cheese, baby carrots, and a tiny bag of Lego fruit snacks for a treat. He knew he could buy milk there but drank the water in his lunch box. Now that I know it stays cold enough, I think I'll just send milk with him. It sounds like we're going to keep up the bringing the lunch thing! And speaking of, he just fell asleep so I better get downstairs and make his lunch!

Finally, a layout...and a funny story

Kristin Aagard (Plain Digital Wrapper): Bubble Bath, Bubble Bubble, and Just a Boy collections
Ariadna Wiczling (Scrapgirls) Date Seals Embellishment Templates
Mandy Steward (SG) Acrylic Bubble Buttons Emb Templates (acrylic bubble over date seal)
Becky Fleck Aug 08 round page map

I am LOVING Kristin Aagard's style! She is a new-ish designer and can be seen HERE and also HERE.

Anyway, on to the family info: This is Michael playing in the tub with their all-time fav bath toy. We purchased a brand new pirate ship bath toy with Elmo and Ernie for a friend's son in 2001, then of course wanted one for our own son in 2003. And of course by then it wasn't manufactured anymore, but behold the lovely Ebay had it!:)

And a funny story from today, in Jeff's words:
When I got up this morning, I noticed that Michael's door was still
mostly closed, like it was when we put him to bed last night.

After my shower, I went downstairs and was surprised to see Michael
already down there with a large serving spoon and an opened box of cake
mix, which he was helping himself to as his breakfast!

He had gotten out of bed, closed his door so it looked like he was still
in bed, gone downstairs, used a chair to get into the pantry and get the
cake mix (and maybe opened the plastic wrapper by himself), got a spoon,
and was eating the cake mix like it was no big deal.

Back to Cheri's own words: It's not unusual for him to go downstairs in the morning without telling anyone...it is highly unusual that he took it upon himself to find breakfast! If this becomes a habit we might have to put a toddler lock thingie on the doorknob to the pantry...