Another conversation with Annamarie

(Two minutes ago, listening to her own heart with a stethoscope)
A: Is that God thumping?
Me, laughing: No, that's your heart beating.
A: Can I push God out of my heart?
M: Why would you want to do that?
A: So I can meet him.

Stop me before I alter again!

I am supposed to be creating actual layouts, but instead I am altering everything that stands still long enough. Maybe I'll change the rules to my challenge. One mini album equals two layouts? Or maybe I'll just get cracking on those layouts tomorrow. Yeah, that's the ticket. I think I'm going to post these cool letters on Etsy.


While we were in Hawaii, I mailed home a postcard at the end of each day detailing what we did that day. I incorporated the postcards into this 6x6 album along with a few other photos.

More 29-in-29 layouts

This is another one I did for ScrapTalk, using the Magic Meals paper by CI.



And I can only give little sneak peeks of creations for March articles at Busy Bee. :)

Dog ownership

Yes, Ruby owns us completely. We spend a large part of our free time at the local dog park, and she gives us the privilege of sleeping with her at night.


We bought an expensive doormat at Plow and Hearth that promises to magically clean muddy puppy paws on their way in, but we haven't really been able to test it well because we have had to wash it THREE times in the 36 hours we've owned it. Apparently it is very good for throwing up your chewed-up rope toys on. She brought me flowers to say she's sorry.



How can I stay mad at her when she helps the kids with their homework?

Bingeing and Purging

Have I said before that I love Freecycle? We spent the morning cleaning out our garage and it's now the tidiest room in the house. I posted a bunch of things on Freecycle, and some of it has already been picked up by strangers who think my trash is their treasure. It's so much more satisfying to hand something over to someone who can actually use it than to add it to the heaps at the Salvation Army.

Among the things I got rid of was a big box of scrap supplies I'm never going to use. A sweet young man picked them up for his girlfriend, and my scrap space reorganization is one box closer to completion.

Oh, and the bingeing occurred when we went out for dessert at Pizza Bella. Thomas is sleeping over at a friend's house, and we wanted to do something special with Annamarie, so we indulged in some chocolate mousse for her and Chocolate Praline Domes for me and Ron. The domes are like giant truffles and I am certain that I do not wish to know their WW points value.

More 29-in-29 layouts to come tomorrow. I got sidetracked making about 20 cards and a mini-album.

She loves Shakespeare

One of Annamarie's homework assignments was to write sentences with her spelling words. She asked me what the word "pluck" means, and I responded, "Well, it means to pull something out. Like you can pluck a chicken's feathers, or you can pluck your eyebrows..."

Wonder what the teacher will think when she reads Annamarie's sentence: "I can pluck out my eyes."

Conversation on the way to pick up Thomas

Annamarie: Mom, what does "carpool" mean?
Me: It means that you share a ride with someone. Each person (or their mom) takes turns driving.
A: If I went to Oakland would you let me carpool?
M: It wouldn't be necessary. I'd just drive you when I was driving Thomas.
A: But if Thomas wasn't my brother and I went to Oakland could I carpool?
M: I guess so.
A: Who would I ride with?
M: I don't know.
A: No, WHO?
M: Benji.
A: That's not someone who goes to Oakland!

Apparently an imaginary carpool is OK, but it must be with a real person.

And is there something about being a mom that makes goofy little bits of wisdom pop out of your mouth? The kids were helping me carry groceries in and I said very cheerfully and out of the blue, "Many hands make light work!" Then I immediately thought, "Where the heck did that come from?"

29 in 29 Challenge

I started out to make this a scrapping blog, and I realize that none of my, what? four lame entries have anything to do with scrapping! So to rectify that I am going to track my progress with my "29 layouts in 29 days" challenge at Busy Bee. My first page is posted here at Busy Bee: She Cried.

Here are my second and third, created over the weekend:

I did these two last night as a design team assignment for ScrapTalk: