Meet Sandy Webb

This is the newest member of our family. Courtney got this cute guinea pig for her birthday. She has been asking for one off and on for over a year. We went through hamster torture with Jessica so I have said no to Courtney everytime the subject comes up. It seems the original idea was presented to her on the show "Little Bill", Bill has a pet guinea pig. Then someone brought one to show the class at school this year. For some reason I thought this would make a great birthday present. Yes, I went into this knowing that I would be the primary care giver. It really hasn't been that bad. I just wish she would stay this size. She is only about 7 weeks old now but she has the potential to be 11" long. She is very skidish and runs into her little house whenever someone walks into the room. I will be glad when she gets over that.
The guinea pig originates in South America where they are believed to have supernatural powers and they are a commonly eaten there. Evidently they taste like pork, hence the word "pig" in their name.
I'll keep you posted on her progress. Hopefully she'll learn some tricks and be more people friendly soon.

Our new favorite CD

It is "Here Come The ABC'S" by They Might Be Giants. This CD is so much fun. Courtney got a CD player for her room for her birthday. We had heard snipets of this CD on Nick Jr. and we are tired of all the usual CD's for kids. How many different versions of The Wheels on the Bus can one person take!?
Anyway, this CD's content is based on the alphabet but it is very hip. The girls are in their room listening to it right now. Kirsten even listened to it some the other day while Courtney was at school. She is starting to sing along. Of course it's like all the other songs she sings to, its usually just the first word and last word of a phrase that she mananges to get out. Any recommendations out there for some great kids CD's?
Here is a list of the song titles:
1. Here Come the ABCs
2. Alphabet of Nations
3. E Eats Everything
4. Flying V
5. Q U
6. Go for G!
7. Pictures of Pandas Painting
8. D & W
9. Fake-Believe
10. Can You Find It?
11. The Vowel Family
12. Letter/Not a Letter
13. Alphabet Lost and Found
14. I C U
15. Letter Shapes
16. Who Put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?
17. Rolling O
18. L M N O
19. C Is for Conifers
20. Fake-Believe (Type B)
21. D Is for Drums
22. Z y X
23. Goodnight My Friends
Bonus Tracks
24. Clap Your Hands (this is one of my favorites)
25. Here in Higglytown (Theme to Playhouse Disney's Higglytown Heroes)

Thursday looks good!

Thursdays forcast has me excited! I love 70 degree weather. Cozy clothes, hot tea and open windows. Friday looks good too. We are going to the football game and it will feel perfect for a game! Hot chocolate here I come. Except the hot chocolate there is not the best but it will taste good that night.
Mark says we should live in San Diego so I could have this kind of weather all the time. I might get tired of it all the time. One of the reasons I love living in Tennessee is the change of seasons. This extremely hot summer will make me appreciate the fall and winter even more. I'm hoping for some snow this year. A deep freeze will make me long for those hot summer days again.
This entry gives a glimpse into my personality. I don't like getting into a rut. I couldn't have a job where I did the same thing, all day, everyday. One thing that pulled me into design was the fact that every client would be different, every project unique. I probably drive myself crazy trying to make each project unique! There all certain elements that are similiar and I do have a process that I follow for each job.
Scrapbooking has the same appeal. Each layout is a new opportunity. Each set of pictures has its own story to tell. Maybe this new weather pattern will give me the push to do something creative! I know I will enjoy wrapping up in a sweater and airing out the house.

Date Night

For Father's Day, we got Mark tickets to see Stomp! at TPAC and this past Sunday night was the night. I have to admit that I wasn't too crazy about the idea. I assumed it was going to be a lot of nonsense banging on trash cans. Thankfully, I was wrong! But before I describe the night I'll tell you what happened before we left. About 3:00 Sunday afternoon we got a phone call from TPAC. I thought the show was being cancelled or something. Well, one of the producers was in town and wanted to watch the show from the tier level which is where our seats were. They wanted to know if we would switch seats with him. His seats were orchestral level, row J, practically in the center. So we said "Okay!" After I hang up I'm thinking, "This is not a good idea, it is going to be too loud that close to the stage." So we get there and the seats are great.
I don't know why I thought the show wasn't going to be enjoyable but I was pleasently surprised. I had no idea that comedy was involved. There is no plot and no speaking parts so the performers are very animated with their facial and body language. In one segment I was laughing so hard that I was crying! And it was not too loud. It was very interesting to hear all the different sounds and arrangements they made with everyday objects. These performers were practically non-stop for almost 2 hours. It was amazing. I highly recommend this show to anyone. And it was great to do something so grown up for a change!

Refreshing weekend

I was able to go to a women's conference this weekend in Knoxville with 7 other ladies from my church. It is unbelievable what mountains have to be moved and orchestrated for us to get out of town for more than 24 hours. We left on Friday at 11:00 am and returned on Saturday at 5:00 pm. We rented a brand new Suburban which was very nice! We actually went to Knoxville and back on one tank of gas! Of course that tank cost $80.00 but still I thought that was really good!
The conference featured Beth Moore. I wish I could live with this woman for about a month and just soak in her knowledge and attitude. She is a great storyteller, very passionate and unquestionably anointed by God. She lives in Houston, so with Rita coming this past weekend, just her story of how she got out of there is proof God is working through her.
Her lesson this weekend was on Loving Well. Meaning loving others with the love of God. I personally have been praying for the ability to love this way so it was uplifting to hear her speak on this. I just wish she could have talked for at least another day!
If you have the opportunity, please pick up one of her books or better yet, attend one of her Bible studies. You have to see her in person (or on video) to get the full affect of her love of God.
If anyone wants more info, I'll be more than glad to share in person. I could go on for days!

She's 6!

I'm sorry I've neglected my blog for so long. It's been a crazy past two weeks. Among all the things we've been doing, most importantly is that Courtney turned 6. As always, I am amazed at the passage of time. This year we had a mostly week long celebration. Her actual birthday was on Sunday and we had a church picnic. She received gifts from us, Jessica and Grannie Gayle (who was visiting from Virginia). On Monday, we took cupcakes for her class. They sang "Happy Birthday". And she picked a boy to take her birthday spanking for her! On the following Saturday Mark's parents, his brother and family, my dad and sister came over for supper and cake. Yesterday was her party with her friends. We celebrated at the local mini golf place. It was beautiful weather and all the kids seemed to have a good time. Needless to say, I'm exhausted!

Now to explain the photograph. This is Courtney pretending to take a bite out of her cake. For some reason, we have the tradition that the kids take a bite out of their cake after blowing out the candles. My mother says she got the idea from her sister. Her sister doesn't know why we decided to do this. Well, last year Courtney wanted no part of biting her cake. Being the scrapbooker that I am, I was disappointed. Later I thought, she acted that way because there were so many people surrounding her. So this year I took her in the dining room by herself and she acted like she was taking a bite (she didn't want to actually bite it but then stuck her finger in the icing to taste it). Those who know Courtney are not surprised by any of this. All and all, I think she had a good 6th birthday!

I've been tagged...

There is this wonderful thread going through the blog world where people are being "tagged" to list 5 random facts about themselves. Tiffany has tagged me, so here goes.

1. I live in the same town I was born in but my family moved around a lot while I was growing up. My mother was actually in the military. While I lived with her, she was stationed in Utah. I lived there for 1st - 3rd grades. Maybe that's where the scrapbook bug bit me!

2. Most people have some weird thing that really gets under their skin. Mine is that I can't stand to hear someone eating. We have the bad habit of eating in front of the TV right now because I need the TV on to drown out the food noises. Someone eating cereal is probably the worst.

3. Most people know this, but I love to read. Like Tiffany, I will read several things at one time. Currently I am just reading the last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. My love for reading started at an early age, in fact, I was given an award in 2nd grade for reading the most books that school year - 144!

4. I am actually an only child. My parents divorced when I was very young and they both remarried. My father and his second wife had 3 girls. My mother and her second husband had 1 boy. So I have 3 half sisters and a half brother.

5. Okay, I'm telling this because I can't think of anything else. We have a 60" big screen TV. This is not by choice! Mark and I went on a business trip to Chicago when I worked full time. It was Jacuzzi's 50 year anniversary so they had a big party at the aquarium in Chicago (fabulous!). As with events like this, they gave door prizes. Well, Mark won the TV. I still laugh whenever I think about it. Everyone at the table had their ticket in hand, waiting for each number to be called. Mark is pigging out (the food was unbelievable). So they keep calling out this number, several times to see who has it. Finally I turn to him and ask if he checked his number. Of course not! And he was the winner! We would never have this TV otherwise. It embarresses me whenever people see the thing! Whenever we move, it's going in a room that is not seen when you walk in the door.

So there are some not-so-interesting things about me. I'm afraid I don't know anyone else with a blog so I'm going to tag Karen - girl you have to set one up now!

First game of her senior year!

I am going to try and not be emotional over every little event but it's going to be hard! Friday night was the first football game of Jessica's senior year. I am not ready for this!

Every home game the band gets together in the same spot - in the parking lot next to what was the band building when Mark and I were in middle school. It is the site of our first kiss, by the way (this thought grosses Jessica out so I have to mention it often). It is a detached building from the main school building. These building now house the county school administration offices. Anyway, the band parks their semi trailer here and then once everyone is in uniform, they form a circle and begin warming up. This parking lot is between two buildings so the sound is always amplified. It makes them sound twice as big as they are. I think this is a psycological ploy to spook the visiting band! So this photo was taken as they were warming up.

I took a bunch of other shots with my SLR. I'm thinking about documenting this whole season just in b/w. I have a handful of b/w shots from other years but I want to do this differently. Also, I can scrap them in colors other than green and gold. I won't miss the break from that!

Who is this kid?

Okay, I cannot figure out what is going on with Courtney. She has mentioned off and on that she would like to be a cheerleader. For those who know Courtney well, just the fact that she has said that is baffling enough. So, a few weeks ago the local high school cheer squad had a fund raiser where they had a half day "cheer camp" for girls K-5. Courtney came home begging to go. So we said okay. I talked to her everyday for a week about how she would have to participate and what she was going to have to do. She never backed down. I imagined meltdowns and me standing there right by her side the whole time. Well, we went and it was great! She participated in all the activities and had a great time! They told the girls that they could come to the first home game and cheer with the big girls on the field. This past Friday night was it! The uniform she is wearing is actually one that is for the older girls so that is why it doesn't fit real well. I still wasn't sure she was going to go through with it but she did! They cheered on the field for the first quarter and she did great! None of the girls this age are very coordinated but they all looked really cute! I'm still trying to put this emerging piece of Courtney's personality into what I know about her so far. I mean, my idea of a cheerleader type personality is the total opposite of Courtney. We'll see how this progresses! While she is enjoying it, we'll enjoy it! Go, Waves, Go!

She's crafty!

If I've heard "I'm bored" once this summer, I've heard it a thousand times. Courtney is going through a stage where every minute of her waking hours needs to be filled with doing something. I'm trying to teach her the joy of just sitting and enjoying the peace and quiet but I'm not having much luck there.

One of her favorite things to do is anything crafty. Right after saying, "I'm bored", she will say, "Can we do a craft?" I had actually planned to do several crafts this summer but I think we ended up doing only 3 -4 of the things I had actually planned. One reason it frustrates me to do a craft project is that I don't plan ahead and then I don't have the supplies we need. This past Saturday, I actually did a little planning and picked up some things at the store. We belong to a Strawberry Shortcake craft book club and we just got a new book with this craft idea. So, Courtney made a marshmallow "Pupcake" dog with a graham cracker/peanut butter dog house. It was pretty quick and fun enough to satisfy her creative itch. Then she ate it all up!

Lovin' paper bag albums

I remember when I first started seeing paper bag albums on 2Peas. I thought "Okay, that is over the edge and I am not even going there". I think part of that thought was because I didn't know where to begin and I didn't get the concept of mini albums. Tracie and I went to Scrapaccino one day and they had some blank paper bag albums for sale already sewn together. I thought I would give it a try. I have to admit I'm lovin' it! I think mini albums are a fabulous way to get a project done quickly. And this medium of using paper bags is so crazy it's almost perfect. I have done three, as you can see. The pink one is for friends. I have to get some pictures of my friends which I have very few. So this album is also making me document important relationships that I would have easily overlooked. Not the relationships but the documentation of those relationships. The upper right one is titled "Summer" and has random pictures of things we do in the summer. I plan on doing one for fall, winter and spring also. The lower one is titled "Mom and Me" and contains pictures of a mother/daughter camping trip Jessica and I took when she was 9.

Another plus for me personally, is that sense of actually finishing a project. I have discovered I have real issues with actully finishing anything. I haven't quite figured out why I have this issue but there it is. It feels great to look at these little, creative albums and know that they are pretty much complete. They really satisfy the creative part of me. It is so fun playing with all the elements, getting paint and ink on my fingers and using some of my yummy ribbon. I really need to find a source for some fabulous ribbon.

I just need a scanner so I can post the whole album on 2Peas!

She did good today

Today Courtney's class went to music during their related arts time. Ms. Crider is her music teacher and she has a great personality. Jessica had her as a music teacher and I know her through Girl Scouts. I have a tape and songbook around her somewhere of her singing all those silly campfire songs.

Anyway, Courtney loves her and her silliness. Evidently today Courtney did a good job in music class. She got to pick out a stamp, color of ink and where she wanted the stamp. I have no idea why she picked her forehead! (Sorry the picture is a little blurry, having camera operator problems!) You probably can't see it very well, she has a red star stamped on her forehead!

Senior Year

Well, here we go. The first day of Jessica's senior year. I'm not quite sure how I feel. Is this the beginning of the end or the beginning of the beginning of the rest of her life? I guess it's both!

Of course, mornings are not good "let's stop and savour the moment kind of times". In fact, as I took this picture her cell phone was ringing by the person she needed to pick up on her way to school. I'm really going to have to slow her down so she can enjoy this last year. Teenagers think they will have more freedom as an adult but actually they have more freedom as teenagers because they don't have all of the responsibilities of adulthood. Why are we humans never satisfied with our current state of affairs? I really need to work on this myself but teaching that to these girls seems impossible.

Courtney and I discovered a quirky thought. Today is Jessica's first day of the twelfth grade and it's Courtney twelfth day of the first grade. How wierd is that! (okay, I had retype that sentence three times because Kirsten is hanging on my arm!)

BTW, Tracie, yes I have a digi camera. It's not great, not what I want ultimately but it helps me post things! TFL!

Note to self...

Do not update your blog, do laundry or go to the bathroom unless Kirsten is asleep, restrained (in highchair or baby bed) or supervised by someone else.

Yesterday, while typing the entry below, Kirsten desided to decorate herself. I cannot figure out where she got the ink pen but she had fun with it. She also wrote on the wall a little bit. When I walked into the room, she pointed to her leg and said "Mess!" I tried to explain to her that this was bad and that I was not happy with the situation. Then I reinforced that by taking a picture! Would that be seen as mixed signals? Oh, well. This will be the first of many 'Messes' I'm afraid. Neither one of the other two ever wrote on the wall, by the way. I think they both wrote on themselves at some point.

She is in her highchair watching Baby McDonald right now. I did learn my lesson!

Just coasting along

I knew it would be difficult for me to post everyday but I had hoped to do better than this! Actually I have been waiting for a band camp picture to post but that will have to wait a little longer.

It has been one of those weeks. Monday I actually got a lot done. I finished up two projects for a couple of design clients. I did 5 loads of laundry (it never ends). I made a trip to Wal-Mart which took longer than it needed to because I had Kirsten with me and there were so many people there. Why!? On a Monday, in the middle of the day! Shopping, loading them into the car, driving home, unloading the car, putting everything away. All of this really sends me over the edge! And of course doing all of this in the sweltering heatwave we are going through!

So I felt pretty good about myself by the end of the day. But I have managed to do a whole lot of nothing since then. I really need to do some cleaning around here but I can't get motivated to do it.

I've realized I need to find a way to have some "me" time. That is as constant a battle as laundry, it seems! I really just need an attitude adjustment. I remembered a book I had from several years ago, so I started reading it again.


It's A Fresh Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson. Some of the ladies at my church attended a Women of Faith conference in Nashville a few years ago. Nicole was one of the speakers. She is awesome! She has one of those funny, creative, outgoing kind of personalities that I wish I could have. She does these fabulous skits and sings. Anyway, this book is about waking up your soul. This definatley is what I need. I couldn't really put a finger on what my problem has been lately, but that sums it up-I need to wake up my soul. I find I'm not overly excited about anything right now. I really need to spend about a week with someone like Nicole to get me going again! It's a great book and her "voice" on the pages is just as upbeat as she is. She has a couple of new books I'm going to look for this weekend. Check her out!

First week of First Grade

We have survived our first week of First Grade. Courtney loves it! She loves her teacher and she loves her related arts teachers (PE, art, music, library). Kirsten is adapting better.

The school Courtney is going to is one of the oldest in town. It has gone through many phases. Mark and I actually attended fifth grade there. At the same time, but we didn't know each other then. It would be interesting to know how often we almost ran into each other. Many years later, Jessica attended fifth grade at this school. Now it is back to a K-5 school and Courtney is there.

When I pick her up in the afternoons, we drive around the back of the school to a back entrance. While sitting in line I looked to my left and saw the playground I played on in fifth grade. It shocked me at first. I had flashbacks to the good, the bad and the ugly! I can remember just starting to get into popular music. I had a best friend, Sonya. She and I would sit over to the side, near the tree line and sing whatever song was going through our heads at the moment. I remember "Jukebox Hero" and "I love rock and roll" specifically. It seems like this year was also when differences started to be made among the kids. For some reason all the rich kids where in a class together. My class had recess with that class. Not so good memories there.

As you can see from the photo, this playground is fenced in and no longer used. I guess that made it more surreal to me. Some days fifth grade seems like yesterday and other days it seems like a time so far away and distant from me I wonder if that was really me in those memories. I was imaging last night that I could jump on those monkey bars and start twirling and flipping like I did all those years ago. I just might go over and try it!

Here we go....

I guess we are going to jump onto this Blog band wagon. I have no idea what we will post about or who read it. But we will try to have fun along the way!

As of today, Mark and I are 34, Jessica is 17 (for 3 months and 25 days, do you think she is counting?), Courtney is 5 and Kirsten is 18 months.

Jessica is in her second week of band camp. These have been the hottest days of this summer so far. Those kids have worked hard and have most of the show on the field. We are excited about this year! We'll keep you posted!

Courtney started first grade yesterday. I had prepared myself for her being nervous and not wanting me to leave her but we had none of that! Kirsten and I had lunch with her and she was very happy and seemed comfortable with everything. Kirsten on the other hand has surprised me. She walked around the house all day yesterday, whining, "Cory! Cory!" Today has been a little better but she still misses her. They have played really well this summer.

Mark is settling into his new job. He is going to have to go out of town this week. Hopefully, there won't be much of that.

I met with a design client today who is building a new house. I am designing her cabinetry for the kitchen, bathrooms and family room. This is the kind of project I enjoy the most.

That is a summary of our current events. More to come soon!