Thursday, October 20, 2011

Sleep struggles of epic proportions

Life has been one crazy rollercoaster of crazy these past few months. I thought Aeryn was challenging in the early months, but I think Mary-Anne is more so. Or perhaps it just feels worse, since I can't nap during the day with her to ensure she stays asleep for more then 15 minutes at a time, like I could when it was just me and Aeryn. If Aeryn and I were having a bad day, we would just nap the day away. I don't have that luxury with Mary-Anne....since Aeryn no longer takes daytime naps.  And I'm not joking about the 15 minute cat naps. That is it. And they probably don't even really total and hour and half of sleep a day. Then it's 1am or so until she falls asleep "for the night". I should be thankful that she generally lets us sleep until 10 or 11, but I'm sure this time would be halved if we didn't co-sleep. It wasn't my intention to co-sleep again. And I'll admit, for the first few months of breastfeeding, and recovering from my second c-section, it sure makes life easier. But I'm kinda ready to have my nights back. I desperately need some quality alone time. And I don't mean alone time with my husband. I need time from ANYONE wanting me to do ANYTHING for them. Period. Dot. Since Aeryn was born 2 and half years ago, I bet I've had three hours of "me time". I went out with friends for lunch, once. And since we moved to this dreadful town where none of our friends live a year ago, I have had zero time to myself. I am going out of my mind. All I'm really asking for is a couple of hours each night before I got to bed, that I don't have to hold a screaming, whining, overtired infant before I get fed up and just go to bed, only to lay in bed for an hour with a screaming, whining overtired infant for an hour before she finally passes out. And it's not like I don't start the "going to sleep" process at 7 or 8. And she will generally  nap for a little bit before 10pm (again, one of her 15 minute cat naps), but after that, all bets are off. Perhaps sleeplessness runs in my family. Aeryn hardly slept, my little brother barely slept as an infant according to my mom. He would sleep for a few hours, then be up for a few hours, all the way until he started kindergarten. I had one cousin that was colicky as a baby, and another that only went to sleep in his carseat, in the car. So I know I'm not the only person that has ever had to go through this, just in my family alone, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. At least the other members of my family only did this with ONE child (two only children, and my brother is five years younger then I) not with two, barely two years apart. Heck, we have just barely gotten Aeryn to sleeping in her own bed, all night through. For over two years, she woke up every few hours for something, whether it be a drink, her pacifier  or someone to snuggle with. She finally started sleeping for longer stretches, four to five hours, but would wake up and wouldn't go back to sleep unless someone laid down with her. It's only been in the past few months that she has started sleeping in her bed all night on a regular basis, and when she does wake up, she goes back to sleep on her own. I guess I should be thankful for that, right?

You see, I have this terrible secret. I cannot stand the sound of my own children crying. It's like fingers on a chalkboard to me, and after about 15 minutes or so of uncontrollable crying, I come unglued. And heaven help us all, if we are in the car when one of these episodes hit (oh, more stories on that later!) A few nights ago I was having a particularly bad night, Mary-Anne wouldn't stop crying. I had rocked, fed, sang, bounced and medicated (tylenol and mylicon) till I was blue in the face. She had already woken Aeryn up and I had to put her in the big bed. We all cuddled up in the bed, and she would still not stop. She would quieten down long enough for Aeryn to fall back to sleep, only to start again. I cursed at the wall a few times (I'd be a liar if I said this was a one time occurence)...which oddly makes her stop crying and smile for a minute, only to start back up. I have NEVER seen a child FIGHT SLEEP so hard in my LIFE. So I did the only thing I knew to do at that time, which was to throw her in her crib, turn off the lights, shut the door, and go take a long hot shower. It had to be 10 or 15 minutes or so.

I would LOVE to tell you this worked a miracle, and that when I had calmed down and made it out of the shower, I was pleasantly surprised to walk into the bedroom only to find her peacefully sleeping.

No dice.

She was shrieking so loudly I immediately felt bad and was totally surprised child services and the cops were not already at my door. Thankfully, unlike her sister, who would continue to sob for hours, even her sleep, after crying so hard, Mary-Anne quietened once I picked her up, but it was still another hour or so before she went to sleep.

I used to get a small break on nights the hubby didn't have to work, because he was able to walk her about and get her to go to sleep (this never worked for me) and she would actually sleep for a few hours. Not so much anymore. Apparently we are officially in the No Sleep Zone because that didn't even work this week. Last night was the final straw for me, and after about 20 minutes of her uncontrollable crying upstairs in bed, I brought her downstairs, packed her into her carseat and told the hubby to take her for a drive till she screamed herself to sleep. It only took him about 15 minutes to return. I didn't even bother taking her out of her carseat. He carried it up stairs, and put it beside the bed. I left her in there, in nothing but a diaper and a blanket, and went to sleep. She slept in that thing, all night long. From 2am till 10am.


Aeryn also slept all night in her bed, so I was hoping today would move along smoothly. Ugh, no such luck again today. After being up for about 2 hours, she started the sleep fight again. We ate, took a bath, and it was finally rocking that got her to settle down and go to sleep. She is currently in her crib (a miracle in itself) on her side, snuggled between two stuffed animals. It's been about two hours, so I'm hoping this will make the rest of the day go easier...

I know "sleep issues" is one of the biggest stuggles parents have with kids. And it's even worse trying to get advice on what to do about it. I don't know how many people tell me to just leave my kids to cry themselves to sleep. And while this might work for some parents, with some kids, I can't help but think there are consequences to doing this. Not to mention, that even for all my frustration, I really can't let my child cry senselessly for the sake of getting them to sleep. I personally think this is the root cause of insecurities in children, fears of the dark, and other fears and neediness that could just be avoided. My in-laws got custody of their grandson when he was about a year old, and in order to get him to sleep on his own, they would put him in his crib and let him cry for awhile, then peek into his door to soothe him (NEVER entering his room) and get him to go back to sleep..only to repeat this all night long.

He's now 8. He still wakes up alot during the night, needing someone to sleep with him, or a drink, or nightmares or any other various reason. They have to leave his door open, the hall light on, and with a whole trail of stuffed animals guarding his door...just to get him to even get him to go to sleep. And my father in law still goes in there to lay in bed with him on some nights to get him to go to sleep. Yet, my mother in law swears that is what I needed to do with Aeryn. She needed to sleep in her own bed, from day one (her own words). Even though her method had already failed on one child. She medicated one of her own children to get them to sleep (apparently her pediatrician gave her something to give my sister in law, to put her to sleep at night) and let the other one scream themselves to sleep while never going in the room to soothe. 

I tried the "cry it out" method with Aeryn. And it had the absolute worst reverse effect.At about 8 months, for a week or so, I would take her in her room, tell her goodnight, blah blah blah......and she would scream and scream and scream,  I would check on her for a few, calm her down...and we would repeat the whole thing as soon as I was out of the room. IF she did manage to go to sleep, it was only for a few minutes, and she would not go back to sleep. After a few nights of that, she would start screaming as soon as I took her to her room, she would wrap herself around my arms and not let go if I tried to put her in her crib, she would cry so hard she would stop breathing. I WISH I was exaggerating. I don't see how ANYONE could do that to their child. So I quit. It just didn't work for us. And it doesn't look like it's going to work for Mary-Anne. I don't expect getting them to sleep to be easy, but apparently I am awful at it. And while we have some long nights ahead of us, I don't think I could live with myself I just left her to cry it out in the dark, all alone. It's my job to, at the VERY least, try and be there for her, even if that means she is still co-sleeping till she is two as well. 

I really just want getting her to sleep to be easier....I don't care where she sleeps!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Exhausted.

The hubby has been on overnights for two whole nights, and I'm already exhausted. Funny, I felt like I was doing everything before, when he was on days...and now, I REALLY feel like I'm doing everything. It was kinda nice to be able to pass off the kids for 15 minutes so I could go take a hot shower. Now it's a quick lukewarm shower while one baby plays on the floor, or crib, while the other one demands to take a shower too....only to start shrieking the instant water touches her face. Mommy meltdowns are at an all time high, especially since Mary-Anne has decided day time naps are for wimps, and has limited them to no more then an hour a day.

Exhausting.

My computer time has been nixed. I get to check blogs/forums on occasion, but that is mostly from my sweet new HTC phone (LOVE!) It takes me days to do a layout (Well, except for that TTMIS at SO the other night, fun! Don't know how I pulled it off, but I did) But for the most part, scrapping is slow going. And blogging. I'll get caught up one day. I'll get a routine going eventually....when the girls are in kindergarten. Ha.

Anyhow, changes are coming again. I'm going to relaunch this blog (and myself). I just have to find the time to do it. This time, it will probably be a long and drawn out process. We will see. I still have some outstanding CT assignments to work on before I can delve into it. I guess I need to work on getting the kids to bed earlier so I can stay up later. This seems to be my only quiet time. Unfortunately, I should be using it wisely to do things constructive...like sleep.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Random Early AM Banter

Hello, my  name is Crystal. And I am a morning person. I know. Shocker.

Don't get me wrong..I LOVE sleeping till noon and rolling out of bed in my pjs...and staying that way all day. But the reality of the situation is, I have a ton more energy and "good vibes" when I wake up early and meet the day head on. With two kids who I can keep in bed till about 10am or so on  a good day, having a few hours in the morning without them is AMAZING. Mary-Anne didn't go to "sleep" last night till around 1am. I was gonna finish the LO I was working on, but decided I would just go to sleep. When Aeryn woke up this morning at 6am (Third night, in a row, she has gone to bed kinda early and slept in her bed ALL NIGHT! WOOT!) I couldn't really go back to sleep, so I said "Screw it, I'm just gonna get up". In and hour and half I have enjoyed two cups of coffee, cleaned up the kitchen a little bit, surfed alot of internet (I've been doing that ALOT lately), read all my blogs, entered in a few RAKs, cleaned out the kiddy pool so it can dry and be packed later, and well, I'm writing this blog post! That's a long list for me to have completed before 8:30AM. Maybe if we can keep this up, I'll start sneaking in a work out and getting rid of all this extra poundage!

I've got a whole list of goals I want to start doing everyday, and one of them needs to be "being in a good mood" and "not throwing temper tantrums". I feel so bogged down and tired and cranky all the time, being home with two kids (which don't get me wrong, I LOVE, and starting this week, things have started getting easier) with noone around that I can really "relate" too. So if I can't get 8+ hours of sleep a night, and a shower by myself, I really need to find another way to rejuvenate. And apparently watching the sunrise is just that.

It's at times like these that I remember the good things in life, like Pandora. I've got music playing that I've never even heard before, while in the background I get to hear the morning rain beating on the canopy we have over our little porch. Reminds me of that David Gray song. I don't remember which one, but you can hear the rain in the background where it was recorded in his home, with the doors open in a storm. Beautiful stuff. I need to remember things like that more often.

I took the liberty this week of starting Mary-Anne on "solids". Yeah I know, she's only three months, but so far she is LOVING it! I gave her some of the Yobaby yogurt last week, and it was a big hit. I mixed up some applesauce and terribly over-ripe bananas and that was a success as well. So I bought some rice with apple cereal, mixed it with whole milk (GASP!) and some applesauce.....and she ate and ate and ate! NOT that she NEEDS to eat more, goodness no. The little porkchop already weighs in at 17.5 pounds, so no worry that breastmilk isn't enough for her, it's just that, sometimes, my boobs ache for a break. And while I am not opposed to formula, Mary-Anne is. I don't blame her, it's nasty. I can't stand the way it smells, much less taste. So I don't blame her. So I'm not gonna give it to her. And yes, I know you're not supposed to give infants "cow's milk"...I say "meh". I'm not allergic, Aeryn wasn't allergic, the DH isn't allergic, and really a dab or so in her cereal isn't that big of a deal. And it's just more cost effective.

But hey...at least I'm not smoking and breastfeeding like my ex-sister-in-law.
That's right smoking and breastfeeding. I'm furious. And to top it all off, her baby is three months old, and only weighs 8 pounds. EIGHT POUNDS! And they act like it's perfectly normal. Granted, she was only 5 1/2 when she was born (guess smoking while pregnant really IS bad!) but STILL.
I should feel guilty for throwing her under the bus just now, since she can't really defend herself but I needed to rant. And I don't really feel her opinion has any merit.

I also dug Aeryn's old exersaucer out of the closet for Mary-Anne to use. I was a little apprehensive about it at first. Not for Mary-Anne's sake, but for Aeryn's. Of ALL the toys she owns that were "baby" toys, this one had to be her favorite. When we lived in the house and I had stored it in the basement, any time we were down there, she has to play with all the toys on it, or anytime I moved it from one place to another, there was always a brief time period where I had to leave it out for her to play with, then sneak it into it's new home. Putting it in the top of the closet in the apartment was a challenge, especially since she could still see it. There were times where I had to politely remind her that it was a baby toy, and she was a big girl, and didn't need it anymore. So I was very conscious to ask her if Baby Sister could use it before I went and got it out of the closet. She paused for a minute, but then nodded and said "yash" (her way of saying "yes", so cute!) so I went and got it out. She was SO excited to see it again, but was perfectly ok for me to put sister in it. I guess really, she just likes playing with the toys, and isn't really interested in sitting in it. Amazing, there were no tantrums when I put sister in it at all, and Aeryn actually pulls it out so I can put Mary-Anne in it whenever Mary-Anne is awake for more then a few minutes.


So far, they are playing together pretty well in it ;) And just in case you are wondering, yes, that is an ENORMOUS Hello Kitty standee in the background Mary-Anne is staring at in awe. DH brought it home from work a few nights ago. Since the Largest Retailer In The World is now carrying Hello Kitty stuff, they are making a big deal about it, and had a little event to celebrate. Apparently you could get your picture taken with Hello Kitty in front of this backer. I thought about taking Aeryn, but I really didn't feel like walking all the way down there just for her to be weirded out by it and not get her picture taken. So DH just brought the backer home instead. It was alot more fun. He brought stickers and a crown too, so she had fun putting her stickers all over it, and then coloring on it. Hello Kitty and the Poodle even got kisses goodnight that night.

Speaking of goodnight, I've been trying to get Aeryn in bed around 10pm each night, in her room. So far, it's been working. I take her upstairs and we get in bed and read a story, then lights out and she is out in like 5 minutes. Other then maybe a few stirrings at night (most of the time I don't even have to go in there) she sleeps till 6am or 7 without calling for me. And most mornings I can refill her milk cup and lay back down in her bed with her for a few and she is back asleep till about 10. If Mary-Anne is awake it gets a little trickier. I never thought I would have so much trouble convincing Aeryn to sleep in the "big bed". I don't think she likes sharing it with baby sister.

We've been working on the potty training (notice the temporary tattoo on her arm). I can generally get her on the potty, but she won't go very often. I have the most success in the mornings, since she keeps waking up dry. But forget it during the day. It doesn't matter how often I take her. I thought we were doing good yesterday. She got to the potty in the morning, I didn't even put a pullup on her for a few hours, with no accident, so I put her training pants on her. And she peed. And then again an hour later. You'd think peeing on yourself would make you want to use the potty, but no dice. So back in a pullup she went and I let it go for the day. She won't tell me when she needs to go, nor does she really remark that she's peed or anything, and while she likes the tattoos, she isn't really bribed by them, so maybe she isn't quite ready yet. I've got my hands full enough as it is, so I'm not pushing it.

I really need to get to packing. We are leaving to go to Kentucky to stay with my family for a few weeks (I say "we" and I mean me and the kids, hubby is coming back to work :( ) I'm excited to be able to stay more then just a few days to visit. We generally only make it over there for a few days after christmas, so I'm really looking forward to visiting in the summer! I really hope to make this a tradition, since I really want the kids to know my family, and I'm just not sure we will ever be moving closer. But while I am looking forward to the visit, the drive is going to be a nightmare. I think we have about decided to get up at 4am and give it a go. What's the worse that can happen? Mary-Anne will stay awake and scream in her carseat the whole time? She's guaranteed to do that if we leave later in the day, so I'm willing to take my chances. I'm also a little unsure as to what to take. A few weeks, out of their comfort zone, out of the house, is a big deal to the kids. I don't want to be at Mimi's and realize that I forgot something super important. But I also don't want to over pack the vehicle lol. Guess we will just have to make do!

Anyhow, I hope you have enjoyed my "one helluva blogpost" but I need to mosey off here and get something done! 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Been so busy!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while! Somehow I have managed to loose most of my free time this week! The kiddos haven't being going to sleep till after midnight, which eats up a large chunk of my alone time! I've  just been so tired by that I point, I just pass out! I feel like I've been living on coffee this past week. At least the hubby and I swithced "rooms", meaning I get to sleep in the bed with the babies, and he sleeps on the couch. We went shopping this week and got a portable DVD player for Aeryn. Hubby was tired of not having a TV or computer to play with, since I generally have the computer, and Aeryn is a TV hog! LOL. ( I also got a sweet new laptop out of the deal) But since Aeryn has the DVD player, she takes it upstairs and curls up on a pallet in the floor and watches Toy Story 3 till she passes out. I know I'm a horrible parent, but I just get so tired of fighting with her over bed time, so whatever keeps her occupied till she is ready to sleep is fine with me! And with the new laptop, I'm finally portable, so I can take it upstairs as well. The only downside really has been that little Mary-Anne still wants constant attention up into the wee hours of the morning, so all my late night computer time is limited to when I get an arm free from her.....lol.

I'm loving the new laptop, and have been playing around with getting all my files reorganized. On the old laptop I had been using the photo organizer that came with Photoshop Elements, but it completely crashes 100 times on this Windows 7 machine, so it just isn't feasible. Unfortunately, it also means my organization system needs to be redone. Which is time consuming! But once I get it all "fixed", it will be a much more effortless system to maintain. Windows Live Gallery is a pretty effective organizer and editing program. I've also realized how more effective it is to save my layouts in .TIFF format instead of .PSDS, so I've been trying to convert those too. I know, I'm OCD, and should really stick to one project at a time! PLUS I keep getting side tracked by challenges and such in digiland I want to participate in, so I have to squeeze in some scrapping time as well! I need a better time-management system or something! Perhaps I should make myself a schedule until I get everything done I want......except with two kids, that wouldn't last long either!

I've also become addicted Google Reader, which actually lets me read all the blogs I have subscribed to, without me actually having to "visit" each one. A GREAT time saver, but I spend way to much time browsing now! lol. At least before I just skipped it most days....and missed TONS of cool stuff! I've actually learned a few things this week, found out about some pretty nifty programs, and caught some great sales!

Speaking of great programs, I got turned onto to Evernote. It's a niftly little program that lets you organize, well, everything!! I can make "Notebooks" for my layouts for challenges, and CT works, and each layout can have it's own note! I can keep track of my layout, the credits, where all I have to post (complete with checkboxes if you so desire!) I'm gonna open one for each of the girls as well, and just jot down fun details about them as we go along, each month getting its own page! If you haven't checked it out yet, it is certainly worth a go! You can even sync it to your phone or other gadgets if you so desire, so you can take all your notes with you where ever you go! Of course, I figured out the trick, if you just really use a laptop, or don't have an awesome smart phone, if you turn the sync off, none of your stored data goes toward your monthly free 60mb "storage" total!! This is great if you are "pinning" alot of layouts to notes to keep track of! Essentially it becomes limitless! Cool, huh?

I was a scrapping fool yesterday! And by that I mean, I got two layouts done, instead of the usual none! Unfortunately, one of them I have to hold onto till later (check back around the 25th for the reveal, and a freebie!) but I am going to show you my Iron Scrapper Week 2 layout! As soon as I saw the kit, I knew what I wanted to scrap with it! The final layout didn't turn out like I had originally planned but I LOVE it! And apparently others did too, because it got GSO on Scrap Orchard's Facebook page!! I am SO excited!! Here is the layout!

(image linked to gallery for credits)

If you aren't participating in Iron Scrapper, you should be! It's a great chance to win some great prizes, including an IPad2! So head on over to the forums and jump in!

Friday, July 8, 2011

So what lesson did I learn today? Instead of repeating "no" for every one of my daugther's "outside play"'s,(mostly because it was torrential downpouring outside, and even our covered porch was soaked) I simply opened the kitchen door and let her out. It took her all of five minutes, less then half the time I argued with her, to decide she really didn't want to go out anyway. Mommy wins!

Since I was up at 4am yesterday, I was rather ambitious and made myself a little list on the refrigerator of things to do. It looked something like this:

Fold Laundry
Fix Air Mattress
Put Up Dishes
Fill Dishwasher
Make Lemonade
Scrub Downstairs Toilet


Today, it looks exactly the same. On a bright note, I did manage to get a much needed 4 hour nap yesterday, and a shower today. Two things that may not have made it onto the list, but certainly needed done! The only way I was able to take a shower is because DD has decided she likes showers, as long as she doesn't really get wet......I'm still not sure how DH manages to wash her off, but hey, I don't have to know.

Speaking of DH, I do believe he will be moving to the third shift sometime by the end of this month. While I'm a little stressed on how I'm going to manage two kids all by myself for 4 days and keep DD from banging down his door while he sleeps, I am slightly looking forward to nights sleeping in the bed, and not on the couch. It's not a terrible arrangement, unless it's one of those frequent nights when DD is awake hours past DH going to bed, and I have to occupy her, and the baby. And then get them both to sleep. LittlestDD has to have perfect conditions for sleeping, and DD has to have a hold of at least my arm in order to go to sleep. Last night was tricky. And by tricky I mean I was in the floor between both girls, nursing one and trying to cuddle the other. It was most uncomfortable and very frustrating. I guess we have officially made it out of the honeymoon phase (was there even one to speak of?) and DD just wants her mommy back.

I've successfully taught DD that it is perfectly acceptable behavior to yell and throw things when you're having a bad day. I think we might be tied for "most tantrums thrown" this week. Last night's was a doozy, on both ends. I don't generally mind what we watch on TV. At one point in time we were letting DD get her own DVDs out and change them, since both were in her reach. This worked well for a while, until the novelty of it wore off, baby sister arrived, and it became a battle for her not to changed them every two seconds (a literal two seconds). Or she just opened them all, took them all out, and strew them all over the floor, which was just as annoying. So all the DVD's got put up out of her reach, though the DVD player is still accessible (much to our dismay). We finished watching Toy Story 3 for the hundredth time, DH was in bed (for only a few minutes) and DD decided she wanted to change the dvd's instead of rewatching Toy Story again. So I asked her what she wanted to watch, to which she replied with silence, while pointing and grunting at her DVD's (she can say the titles to just about everything she watches). I could feel my blood pressure rising, so I picked her up so she could just grab what she wanted. She progressed to pointing out everyone of her DVD's all the while not deciding on a single one. I asked again what she wanted to watch, even making suggestions, I told her to pick one or I was counting to three and then it was my turn to pick. So I did. And she started screaming and crying. So we went through the WHOLE PROCESS AGAIN. She still didn't pick anything out, so I put in something for her, again. (I'm sure at this point in time I had yelled a few times to "just pick out something" and other less kid friendly phrases) More tears and crying and screaming and massive temper tantruming. So I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder and carried her upstairs and threw her in bed with DH and told her to just go to sleep. Of course, this just resulted in 15 minutes of her screaming and kicking and crying upstairs.

At least when I finally went back up and got her, she sat on the couch quietly and let me watch Tangled. (SUPER CUTE!) And to anyone who says the Terrible Two's are a myth (my mother), they obviously never had a toddler, or gave them away for a few years!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Good Morning!

It's been a busy day already and it's only 11am. DD#1 decided to wake up at 4am this morning, wanting to come downstairs and play. I thought perhaps she would go back to sleep when she crawled into bed with Daddy, but alas she didn't. Nor did she go back to sleep when I went upstairs and took her back to her bed. So I have been up since then. Thankfully she went back to sleep around 7am, but by then I had drank a cup of coffee (or two) and was wide awake.(I'm probably going to pay later for letting her sleep in till now as well, but.......god it's so quiet!) So I've been playing on the computer. I paid all our bills, which wasn't nearly as depressing as it used to be (Yay for the DH's promotion!). I've decided to try and do something I haven't in a while, which is keep a paper ledger. I.hate.balancing.a.checkbook. It has always been so much more convenient to check the bank account online for my daily balance. But more money in the bank, means more spending and it takes our bank a literal forever to post a transaction. And while we may be experiencing a substantial increase of pay, I don't really feel like paying it to my bank in overdraft fees.

For the first time in my life, I paid for an antivirus program this morning as well. I am LOVING my new laptop, and quite frankly am tired of the gradual descent into bogdowndom that every computer I have ever owned has inevitably suffered.(And I just couldn't wrap my head around paying so much for a MacBook, which are apparently lifetime-virus-free) While I am not entirely convinced relying on free antivirus protection is to blame, it certainly can't help it much. So for the first time in 10 years, I'm giving Norton a shot again. It came pre-installed on this bad boy, so I might as well use it, right? If it starts giving me fits though, it's the first to get the boot and back to AVG I will gladly go!

I finally got to see Toy Story 3 this week. Such a cute movie! Even after watching it 700 times in three days, it's still enjoyable. And now our Toy Story collection is complete! Even though the first two are about due to be replaced since they are both original copies! I'm hoping DD#1 will let me watch Tangled sometime this week. She has been rather set in her ways and unwilling to compromise with the DVD selecting, regardless of the fact that I'm pretty sure she will enjoy it immensely as well.

Anyhow, I do believe I have rambled on long enough! Perhaps I will be back later today with more fun news, but the babies are stiring and need attention!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Whew what a day! I would say I had a constructive day, but no, not really! Haha. One of the girls over at Scrap Orchard turned me on to "Google Reader" and I have literally spent all day subscribing to all my blogs on there, and moving all my non-blogspot blogs to it as well. I will NEVER miss a blog post again!! I'm so excited to have it all in one place, right at my fingertips with no links to click! No redirecting my browser, unless I really just want to go to the actual website. I can follow all the designers I love, all the stores I want, any fellow scrappers...all of it! In one spot!! If you aren't using it, you should be!! Apparently I've been using the web like it was still 1999 and it's time to step it up and keep up with technology!

It's actually making me a little excited to "blog" again. I haven't done an online journal of any sort it YEARS. I used to journal a little with my old Myspace account, and well, I haven't logged into it in over two years. So needless to say, I'm a little rusty. When I started this little blogspace, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with, and other then use it as my "scrapping" blog, I'm still not sure how much of my personal life I'll let creep out, but who knows!

As far as my 4th of July goes, we had a small cookout for the In-Laws. Of course, it came a torrential downpour and the grilling had to be done on the patio under the canopy, and socializing was done inside rather than out! But that's okay, DH still made his AWESOME grilled potatoes. Did I mention they were AWESOME? We are one potato loving family...! :) We skipped the fireworks, since DD has a chronic fear of loud noises (only recently has she gotten over her fear of moving vehicles) and the littlest one is entirely too little to take as well, we are saving it for next year!

I've been severely lacking in scrapping this past week. I've been playing around in a new community, the babies have been pretty touchy, and due to the hardrive on the laptop busting at the seams, I've been hesitant to push Photoshop and risk an unrecoverable hard drive crash. Thankfully, pay day is a few days away, and I'll be picking up a passport drive of some sort and alleviate some of my fears of the laptop dying. I've snuck in a bit of shopping this week, and am eager to get to scrapping with it! :)

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

In with the New, out with the Old

I decided to go ahead and partake in the STS Retirement Sale going on now. I got a few kits that I will actually do something with, rather then the ton of freebies I scoured the net for, that I may or may not ever use. Trust me, I have some ugly stuff! haha I think for every purchase made, I'll delete twice the size worth of old freebies, until I have a collection full of stuff I'll use! Sounds like a sound plan, right? I guess we will see! I've actually made 7 layouts this week! Yaaaay! So this was my little reward for actually doing something creative finally! I hope the trend continues..I really need to start working on the photo book for my mom's mother's day present!

Friday, February 4, 2011

After spending countless hours "organizing" my digi scrapbooking files I've decided.....I have to many haha. I guess that is what happens when you spend a ton more time downloading then creating. I get sucked in by pretty colors and designs and don't pay attention to just how much I download! So I think I'm going to start deleting a few collections that, realistically, I'm probably never going to use!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

My First Speed Scrap!

At this rate, I'm never going to get all of Aeryn's baby stuff sorted through and ready for Mary-Anne's arrival in May! ;)

I participated in my very first ever Speed Scrap at Stuff to Scrap today! Thanks to the extended time frame, I was able to pry myself from mommy duties long enough to piece together a rather decent layout! Yay me!


The page was created using Christin's Creations and Scraps By Andrea's kit Holly Jolly Christmas.

Hopefully this will the start of me actually doing something with the massive amounts of digital scrapbooking supplies I have acquired that has just been sitting on my computer!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Now that my toddler can occupy herself for more than a few moments at a time, I might actually be able to snag a few moments of me time...(just in time for the arrival of baby #2..haha) I guess we will see! I truly want to get a hang of this Digital Scrapbooking thing, and I have quite the collection of kits and papers and such, just not totally sure and/or creatively inspired enough to do anything with them ;( I get so caught up in the downloading and organizing of the files, I forget why I even started!