Hermmm... Procrastinate?

So there's iScrap tomorrow. I went into my loft tonight to locate my album and my small file with pictures ready to go. And it wasn't there.

I searched for about an hour. I'm pretty certain it's fallen into the void with the left socks.

So I looked for another one. Nope. My organization skills had extended only to that one little file. Oops.

Now I'm realizing that to organize all these pictures I'm going to need a very large accordion file and about three days. Seriously.

I should've started sometime before the night prior, methinks.

Some Pictures for You

Here's some recent photos from the 4th and Eli's birthday. Enjoy!


Eating the pizzas our little chefs made


Kiss the cook! (And the craft the kids made)


At the 4th of July golf cart parade


At the carnival the same day


The kids doing some climbing at the carnival


Happy Birthday Eli!


As for updates...

Izzy will be tested for Credit By Exam for Kindergarten next week. Pray for us... when did they start requiring so much of kindergarteners? I mean, did YOU know the difference between an author, illustrator, and publisher when YOU were in kindergarten???

Eli just turned 4. We started styling his hair a little differently:

It fits his personality a little too well.

Both the kids just finished VBS. First time for Eli, second for Izzy. I was a crew leader. We all loved it!

Need some home repairs and major prayer about them. Lots going on in the home department, and it's starting to wear on us. Some major decisions and paperwork ahead!

Sorry I'm so boring today, when I have a little more time I'll think of something cute to say. :)

Walking out of the home improvement store, I was hit with a sudden rush of warm wind. The sky was a murky color that it hadn't been a few minutes before when I entered the store.

I managed to make it home and get the kids and the dogs inside before the sky opened up, making me glad I'd run my errands straight from the gym, and that in those errands I'd forgotten to return the kids' movies. It's turning out to be a popcorn kind of day. I wish I had time to relax and enjoy it, but I'm caught in the mile-long to-do list that accompanies a last-minute decision to leave town for the weekend.

And if I ever get the hair-brained idea to have a birthday party at my house again, slap me. I'm tired of cleaning.

I'm hyphenating an awful lot today, which probably means I need a nap.

But the little monkey turns four on Saturday, and we will celebrate (again) in the midst of jet skis, fireworks, a big lake, and hopefully sunny skies. Because it's nice when everyone else is celebrating, too, even if it's not for the same reason. It means the hubby gets Friday off, and we get to see family. Maybe relax a little bit.

Haha.

Have a great Fourth!

(PS - I will have pictures up soon of the party, my camera is not so good so I'm waiting on the hubby to send me the ones he took with his Blackberry, which sadly are 100 times better than the ones our camera took.)

It's Official

I'm crazy. So any of you who were wondering can now know for sure.

I need to get to the gym. I feel bloated and gross and tired and cranky. And I know it's because my body is rebelling. I haven't been in almost 2 weeks. Yikes. Tomorrow morning the elliptical and I are going to form a close and personal relationship.

Things that were there no longer are... I'm wondering if I imagined them...

And above all, there's nothing like a good stress-fest to keep you up at night for a while. Makes you a hard person to be around, because I hate it when I realize all I've been talking about is my problems. I don't like being that friend who always complains. If I've been that way to you lately, I'm sorry. When I realize what I'm doing I feel so bad. And then I'm embarrassed. And then I crawl under my rock for a while.

Jamaica sounds good right about now.

Watched My Mom's New Boyfriend last night, and it was so surreal. Since it's located in my hometown, it was one moment after another.

Accch -- the Texas Street bridge!
Bllghck -- the Museum!
Fudge crackers -- the Revel!!!

Yikes. But amusing for Steph.

And I'm totally kicking Tom's butt for not letting me know that Antonio and Meg were in town for it. I would've made a road trip. Immediately.

Okay, I've got to go and reign in kids. If I still have any hair remaining later tonight, I may find time to update you on everything else. :)

Holy frijoles, Batman!

Summer is a time to relax, take a break, and enjoy life for a while. Slow down, rest, and recouperate.

*snorts*

Ha... haha... hahaha... hahahaha...

Okay, maybe that was getting a little maniacal. The first few weeks of summer have been anything but slow and peaceful. It's been a whirlwind of activity, and I'm beat.

Swim lessons, gymnastics, teaching on Mondays, hanging out with friends (yay!), friends moving back, birthday parties (planning and attending)...

Oh yeah...

And I'm going to have a bathroom again!

Thanks, Chris. You know we love you.

Anywho, I think I'm going to crash so I can actually make it to Pilates in the morning. Otherwise I'll start showing that bag of Fritos and bean dip I just snarfed.

iTunes Virgin

Wow. One sitting and it's gone. Whew. That went faster than a buttered jelly bean in an elephant's trunk.

In calming down recently, post-recital and best-friend-moving-back, I found a moment to actually use my iTunes gift card I received for my birthday back in March. Yeah, I took long enough, right?

Well, about a half hour later it's gone. And my player's not even close to being full. Wow. I told B that he could refill it for me for special occasions, and he mentioned that we have an anniversary coming up.

Holy crud, we do!

Good thing I purchased his gift a long time ago.

If I didn't mention it yet, my best friend's back!!!

I'm looking forward to only teaching one day, and getting several days off. I plan to try to keep it this way when fall starts. I can still fit in 16 students if I only teach 2 days, and I had 13 this year. If ALL my students take lessons again, not counting the one that's moving, I'll have 4 slots open for beginners. Yippee! Not bad for a part-time job that I adore.

I was just reading my playlist on my mp3 player, and I'm a weird cookie. You see genres, and it's about like this:

Hip-Hop
Alternative
R&B/Soul
Jazz
Pop
Rock
Comedy
Dance
Country
Christian

And then over and over again. I guess I just like music. I still haven't even copied songs off my existing CDs to transfer to my player, so I'm hoping when I'm done with that I'll at least have the thing half full. It's only a quarter full now. Love large memories. And I've been anxious to try my hand at having a soundtrack to my life. I can see grocery shopping to "I Like to Move It."

Anywhosit, I think I'm turning in early tonight. Got a day tomorrow. Another one, you know. They keep coming. It's some freakish cycle I haven't figured out yet.

Oh, and we've got some big decisions coming up. I need prayer for strength and the words of wisdom that need to be heard, and a heart open to hearing them. He's probably not going to be happy to hear what I've got to say.

Yesterday was weird. Totally off. Nothing exceptional, just off. Everything felt like it was the Twilight Zone. I was waiting for the truly weird part, and not just the expectation of the weird.

This morning has been medicine cabinet hijacking and chalk princesses. A failed attempt to get my guitar's strings put on, because Little Bit fell asleep on the way over, and my priorities shifted. Guess it will wait until tomorrow. Eating out because I thought we were going to get the guitar repaired, and regretting it when I got home because I could've just eaten here, and skipped the burger coma.

Ppppfffff.

I think it is another off day. Not as bad as yesterday, but probably not as good as tomorrow.

Crazy Me

So I'm in official countdown mode. In 9 days, 21 hours and 53 minutes, I will be giving my first recital as a teacher. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I know my students will do just fine, and if they don't it's just a recital anyway, but I still worry. I know that things will work out and keyboard, sound, accompanist, and everything else will fall into place, but I still worry.

I am excited for everyone to see the students, though. Some of my friends will be there, some of the band directors of my students, and of course the families of the students. And my MOM, which is so beyond cool. I'm probably expecting about 50 people, which is great.

So, I might not be much fun to talk to over the next couple of weeks, unless you particularly like talking about what a pain recitals are to put together.

Oh, except I've got an idea for our next girls' night. I want us all to go and get henna tattoos. Because our moms won't kill us for that one. So if you're up for it, I'll post when we decide to do it and whoever wants to come is welcome.

Oh, and Eli decided to MacGuyver open the cabinet again tonight, and has been asleep since 4:00 because he OD'd on children's Benadryl. But it's okay, Gil at the Poison Control Center says he would've had to drink half the bottle for it to hurt him.

So it's been a quiet night.

Long Time No Post - or Something Similar

Ah, the moments we have to simply take a breath and realize that the impatiens in the front yard survived your absence...

Just got home last night. Long long looooonnng trip. Not days, just the amount of the days we spent in the car. Yesterday we left to come home around noon and didn't get in until almost eleven.

We took a trip to the northern part of the state to see the hubby's parents. We ate at Babe's, located at Cherry and 4th in downtown Sanger, where there is a funny little yard sign proclaiming Discount Goods and Crisis Center. I wish I was kidding.

On Saturday we left Texas to go to Oklahoma... my sister-in-law was graduating from OU with her Masters. Of course, as soon as we were across the border, I had to break out into song. You know which one. Bryan didn't find it very amusing, I don't think.

40 miles out of our destination we saw an exit for Wayne and Payne. Wow. Apparently Wayne lives west of 45 and Payne lives east. Remind me not to turn east.

Every single billboard mentioned that their location was an "Easy on and off." I thought this was just a little weird until I realized when we got into Oklahoma City that one road could have 5 names within the span of 3 minutes. I kid you not. Then it would be a great seller to make sure that the gas station you're going to was an easy-on-easy-off of Broadway/77 S/44 E/235 S/ 35 W.

And apparently their construction signs are made by the same people that do fortune cookies. One said, "Expect No Delays."

Thanks, 'cause I was really worried about that. I'm so glad you had a sign up to let me know that there was no construction ahead. So I can just concentrate on what name the road I'm on is using now. I'm thinking Sean Combs/Puff Daddy/P Diddy was a major contributor to the construction of these freeways.

And the van has been named.

Helen.

Is this the van that launched a thousand trips?

*snickers*

I think I'm just tired.

So I'm going to post one or two pics that have been delayed in posting, since I just now found my media reader. These are from my last night out with Steph before she had to go back to AZ. I was too busy to take other pics while she was here, and now I'm regretting it.



OK, maybe not. They're on my MySpace anyway until I figure out what's up with Flickr. I'm going to go drink some coffee before I pass out during my lessons tonight.