Scrappin' in Medora

I got 22 pages done and a total of 7 hours of sleep the entire weekend. I'm dead tired and glad to be home. I got home this afternoon around 3:30p and we headed down to the Bismarck Civic Center to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. the Denver Nuggets. It was a nailbiter of a game with the Timberwolves winning 111-107. (You were wrong Dustin!) We went to the game because it was Scout night with the Timberwolves. Emma had a pass to meet with other Girl Scouts to do a "pregame tunnel" at 4:30. I had no idea what that meant, but we participated anyway. The girls were allowed to line up along the guard rails where the NBA players enter the gym from the locker rooms. They were supposed to get to slap hands with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Apparently there was some miscommunication (imagine that!) because the Timberwolves entered from the opposite corner. The girls did get to slap hands with the Denver Nuggets; however. It was also supposed to be the Cub/Boy Scout night with the Timberwolves as well, but as far as I could tell, there wasn't anything special for the boys? I asked for information from the Cubmaster over a month ago, but I didn't get a response. I did see a couple of other Boy Scouts when we left the Civic Center, so at least Gage wasn't the only Scout there in uniform! I have pictures from the game that I will post tomorrow.

As I mentioned before, I am dead tired. I will post more about the weekend events tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Stressed

This is a short post tonight. I'm totally stressed out trying to get ready for Medora. Most of the problem is that Scott is out of town and hasn't been here for a week, so doesn't know what's going on, so I'm trying to leave him a note with all of the information on it. I'm sure I'm forgetting some important things. It would be MUCH EASIER if I didn't even go. I can't believe I'm even saying that! I am just too stressed out. Thankfully the Girl Scout parent meeting is over and I don't have to worry about that anymore. It went well and we ended up with 2 extra girls from Emma's class. I sent Emma to school with some invitations to our meeting and it worked! We have 7 girls and I think that's a great number to start out with!

I won't be posting again until Sunday. I'll be coming home earlier than my friends because we have a Minnesota Timberwolves game to go to Sunday evening at the Civic Center. It's not every day that an NBA team comes to town! It's also a big scouting event. Both Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts groups will be there.

Man, I gotta get some more stuff done!

Have a great weekend!

Lost and not found

I have driven myself crazy today trying to find a library book that we apparently lost yesterday. I thought I would be wise, and bring a book for Gage to read while we were at gymnastics and while we went to Starbucks with Kara to talk about the Girl Scout parent meeting tomorrow night. I thought we brought it home, but I have torn the house apart looking for it and I can't seem to find it anywhere. I called Kara to see if maybe we had left it in her car. We hadn't. I called Starbucks to see if we left it there. They said it wasn't. I called the Bismarck Gymnastics Academy to see if Gage somehow lost it there. They said it hadn't been turned in. UGH! Later, after school when we were running errands, I even decided we would just go to Starbucks and ask them because maybe someone else would have had a different answer. Nope. I sent an email today to Mrs. Hocking and Mrs. Schmidt to tell them that we had lost Gage's library book. We have never lost a book before and it is driving me crazy trying to retrace our steps and find it. I asked in the email if they could tell me the exact title of the book so I can just go to Barnes and Noble and buy a new one. It was a paperback book, so it shouldn't cost as much as a hardcover would. Mrs. Schmidt was so nice and told me she was sorry this happened, but please don't worry about it and said to tell Gage not to worry about it. She said Gage would still be allowed to check out 2 library books. She said it would turn up, they almost always do, because they have Northridge Elementary School stamped inside the book 4 times and usually someone will get it to the right place. She doesn't know me very well, because all this is going to do is make me continue to worry about it and try and find it. I will get the title of the book tomorrow and buy them a new one so hopefully I can keep my sanity. I told her if it ended up being found, then the library would just end up having 2 copies. It is apparently a popular book because Gage had put it on hold for himself the next time it was available in the library. It was an Indiana Jones chapter book. I'm just totally irritated with myself!

A few weeks ago I had made an appointment at the Dr's office for Gage's 8-year-old well check. That appointment was for today at 3:40. I had completely forgotten about it until about 2:30 this afternoon. For whatever reason I picked up my new handy-dandy Mom's plan-it calendar and noticed I had written down that Gage had his Dr.'s appointment today! I'm sure glad I looked at it! We made it to the appointment on time and they actually called us in fairly quickly and the doctor came into the room after only about 2 minutes of waiting!! I'm not sure that's ever happened before! When I had made the appointment, I asked them if I could also bring Emma in and have both of them get their flu shots. They said that would be fine. I decided that I was not going to tell Emma about her getting a flu shot. I'm sure you can all remember what happened the last time Emma got a shot. Or even worse, when she got her 5-year-old shots. When I signed the form when we checked in at the desk, I noticed the form said Emma would be getting the flu mist instead of the shot. When the nurse mentioned that when we were in the exam room, Gage said, "Mom, I don't want that stuff! I want the shot!" Gage said that his cousin Colton said it feels like getting water up your nose. Gage said he doesn't like that feeling and said he would rather have the shot. I thought if that's what he wanted, I didn't care which way he got it. Well, Emma then heard that and she started saying she wanted the shot instead. I told her she could forget about that because I was not going to deal with her acting like she did the last time! The doctor said that the shot would cost us $17 more dollars because with that you have to pay an administration fee, and you don't have to with the mist. She also said that studies show it's more effective if you alternate between the shot and the flu mist every other year. So, Gage and Emma both ended up with the mist in their nose. It was completely painless, but Gage was ticked off and saying, "I'm getting the shot next year!" I think I was safe in telling him that that's what he would get. I just can't win I tell you!

Needless to say, I didn't get much organizing done as far as scrapbooking is concerned.

Costumes finally on order!

We had a fairly decent day today. The kids only tried killing each other once. The weather was much better out today than yesterday so we rode our bikes to school this morning. I stayed at the school and worked in the library for about an hour or so, then I went to Biolife. I had a pretty quiet day for the most part.


Emma had gymnastics this evening so while she was there, Kara, Kya, Gage and I went to Starbucks so we could talk over our Daisy Scout parent meeting that will be taking place Thursday evening. I'm anxious to get that over with so we can start having FUN meetings with the girls!!

Halloween is just around the corner and Emma has had the most difficult time deciding what she wants to be for Halloween this year. I feel a little bad, because it's probably alot my fault since I have tried to have Gage and Emma's costumes coordinate every year. I think the reason I've done that is because 1) I think it's cute and 2) it makes for a good scrapbook page. Gage has been quite determined that he is going to be Rex this year. For those of you who don't know, Rex is a Clonetrooper. The girl costume that is from Clone Wars is Ashoka and Emma has been saying she didn't want to be that for Halloween. I told her that was fine and that she could choose to be whatever she wanted to be this year (while I secretly hoped she would choose to match Gage). For a couple of weeks now I've been trying to get her to decide what she wants to be. I probably should be a "good Mom" and make their Halloween costumes, but I figure if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it! All that would do is cause me a lot more stress. This morning I told Emma she needed to decide what she wants to be for Halloween. She said she wanted to be a baby. Hmmm.........okay. I told her that there probably isn't a "baby" costume at the store I was planning to order Gage's costume from online, but I told her I could probably make one. Gage replies, "You mean you can make a costume Mom?" LOL! I told Gage that there are lots of Moms that never buy a costume, and they always make them. I remember my sister Kim making the neatest costumes for Ryan and Sara when they were growing up. One year they were Mickey and Minnie Mouse and she did such a good job that you would never believe they were handmade. I also remember the dinosaur costume she made Ryan and that same year Sara was a clown. I always admired her for that, and thought that I would do that myself for my kids. Well, that plan kind of fell through. I found the cutest sweet pea costume for Gage for his first Halloween and I haven't even thought about making their costumes since then. I guess the sewing machine intimidates me a little bit, especially if it involves following a pattern! So, my kids will probably always be wearing "store bought" costumes. While Emma was trying to come up with something this morning, Gage says, "Emma, come on, be Ashoka!" in the sweetest way he could. She apparently couldn't resist that (I wouldn't have been able to either) and decided to be Ashoka. I quickly logged onto the internet and ordered the costumes before she could change her mind. I think she's excited now that she has finally decided what she's going to be. I really wanted them to be Shrek and Fiona, but Gage wanted no part of that. I just think they would be cuter than ever dressed up like that, and Emma wouldn't even have to color her hair, or wear a wig! Maybe next year? Hopefully there's not another new Star Wars or Clone Wars movie out before next Halloween, and we can do something besides that!! I just can't find any Star Wars themed scrapbooking supplies!!

A cold Monday

Scott left bright and early this morning around 3:30am! I didn't get that great of sleep last night because Brie woke me up a few times when she was making licking noises. I'm not sure what her problem was, but Scott thought maybe her feet were raw from the pavement when we walked in the CROP Walk? I was more than happy when I found out that Brie would be going with Scott to Canada! She really irritates me first thing in the morning when my alarm goes off she is like a total spaz because she wants to eat her breakfast. As I walk past the stairway to go to the bathroom she's down and back up the stairs before I even get into the bathroom. Then she's all hyper and making so much noise with her tail banging everything she gets near, that by the time we get to the back door for her to go outside my nerves are shot. I'm just not that perky in the morning and it drives me nuts when she acts like that. Then she rings the bell on the back door all day long to go outside. She'll be out for awhile, then bark to come back in and not 2 minutes later, she's ringing the bell again. That too, drives me nuts. So it will be a nice and peaceful week with Brie gone.

It started spitting a little snow on our walk home from school today! It was quite chilly out today. We spent a couple of hours outside helping our neighbor, Dave, pick the apples off of his tree. It is supposed to freeze tonight so he wanted to get them picked. The kids enjoyed helping, but they were fighting over who got to be on the ladder, then they were fighting over the apple picker. I told Dave to be sure and let me know when he was tired of having us "help" him. He didn't seem to mind too much. He likes giving the kids a hard time and they enjoy giving it back.

I got about 7 scrapbook pages power laid out today. I know that doesn't seem like many, but I am up to Easter 2006 and I just hate doing those pages. I've done sooooooo many Easter pages (it's every holiday for that matter!) that I just have a hard time coming up with ideas. I was glad to get through those and now hopefully I can start going through them a little quicker. Each time I've been to Medora I usually seem to get anywhere from 32-36 pages done, so if I can just get that many laid out, I'll be doing well.

I think I have the issues with the kids on Friday worked out. Bonnie, my neighbor, is going to have them walk home with her from school, then my friend, Laura and her daughter Ellie, are going to come pick them up when Ellie gets out of school. Laura will drop the 3 of them off at the YMCA and Ellie will help them get ready for swimming lessons and then wait for them to get done and Laura will come back to pick them up and bring them here for the rest of the time until Scott gets home. Now I just need to figure something easy out for them for supper. It's hard enough for me to fix the kids' supper after a busy Friday, so I certainly don't expect Ellie to do it! I'm sure I'll figure something out. I'm just relieved I have the swimming lessons issue worked out. I can tell you one thing, if Scott had to do all of this juggling trying to figure things out every time he wanted to go somewhere, he might not go as often! He doesn't ever have to worry about a babysitter because I'm always here! I probably better not get started on that subject!

I'm going to try to get to sleep a little earlier tonight. My alarm went off too early this morning and I just didn't want to get out of bed. I had a Netflix movie that I wanted to watch this afternoon so I laid on the couch and got all snuggled up in a blanket. The movie sucked and I couldn't seem to keep my eyes open. The movie was "Left Behind" which is the series of books I've been reading for the past few months. The books are really good, but the movie just didn't trip my trigger. I don't even think I can finish watching it, so I'm just going to send it back and get something else. I think I have A Cinderella Story coming next?

CROP Walk for Hunger

The CROP Walk for Hunger was held today. It was cold and rainy but it made the walk that much more meaningful. We walked 4 miles and I tried to think about how that would feel, to have to walk that distance every day to obtain food and water for my family, rain or shine. As a mother, I would certainly do that if that's what I had to do to feed my family; however, I am thankful that I don't have to.

We had a decent group of walkers who decided to "tough it out" with the weather. There were times when it would have been very helpful to have some windshield wipers on my glasses, but I seemed to survive. It was mostly a drizzle, not a full blown rain like we have been having for the past couple of days. It most certainly could have been worse than it was! We could have had the 12 inches of snow several places in western North Dakota got! There were 11 of us walking from our church. The old people outnumbered the youngs ones (I consider myself one of the "old" ones in the group!), but it was a nice mix. Scott tried to bail out on the walk this morning by claiming that he wouldn't even hunt in weather like this! Yeah, WHATEVER!! He did change his mind after he realized I was walking, no matter what. Brie even joined us on the walk. There were many comments about how well behaved she was. If they only knew the "real" Brie. LOL! Actually, she was well-mannered today and is alot better than she used to be on a day to day basis, so I can't complain too much.


I was sure to have my camera with me to get a group shot of our CROP Walkers!

Here we go, walking down the path at the Capitol. The news cameras were off to the side filming the beginning of the walk. I saw us on the news.

Thankfully Gage and Emma did not have to participate in the walk. It would have been a miserable outing had they joined us, especially with the cold, wet weather. They went to my friend Shannon's daughter, Grace's, 3rd birthday party. I was glad they had an activity to go to while we walked.

After the walk we went to Shannon's to get Gage and Emma and stayed for a short while to visit. Grace sure is growing up fast! She is convinced that she is a princess! The Cinderella crown and gloves we found at Target for her seemed to be a big hit! Happy Birthday Gracie!

Scott is leaving for his week-long trip (for work) to Saskatchewan tomorrow. He is also hunting while he is there. Big surprise, I know! A few days ago he went to the trouble of assembling a "survival kit" for me. He asked me why I haven't blogged about it, so I figured I better give him his little pat on the back! :-) He had it all laid out on the dresser in our bedroom for me. He bought me a Starbucks gift card for some stress relief after the kids are dropped off at school, a McDonald's gift card for the days that I need something for lunch, 2 Papa Murphy's gift certificates for us to have a couple "easy suppers" and 4 cans of beer that already have Clemato juice added, so I can unwind at the end of the day. I'm pretty sure I won't be drinking the beer, but I am sure we'll be using the other things! That was quite thoughtful of him. I think he has been feeling guilty about this long trip, especially since there is some "fun" included in the so-called "work".

I will be spending my week getting ready for my weekend of R&R, scrapbooking in Medora! Hopefully I can get myself organized and can get my power layout done so I can get lots of pages completed this weekend! My friends Amy & Tonya are going as well, so it will be a good time. I think we're going to leave Friday morning right after dropping the kids off at school. I am going to have to work out some babysitting for Friday after school because Scott doesn't think he'll be home until around 6pm or so. It wouldn't be that big of a problem, except that the kids have their last swimming lessons for the first fall session that day, and Gage has already missed 2 lessons and I hate for him to miss 3. Not only is it a waste of money, but he can't pass if he misses too many lessons. He may already be unable to pass having missed 2, but I am hoping to be able to work something out with a babysitter. We'll see what I can come up with. Unfortunately the girls I have aren't at driving age yet, so that poses a bit of a problem with getting them to lessons, but I may be able to work something out. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Busy/Boring Day

Scott and the kids had a busy day. I, on the other hand, had a LONG and boring day. I spent all day at Girl Scout Leader training and I didn't learn anything that I haven't already read, or couldn't read on my own. I was hoping to get all excited and inspired with ideas, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Am I surprised? No. They had us get into groups SEVERAL different times during the morning session and do stupid things. Being the introvert that I am, I didn't enjoy any of that. In big groups like that, I just hate doing those sort of things. I guess I did learn a few games that we can play, but none of them will probably work until we're at least at the Brownie level. I don't know if I'll even bother with it next year? Kara, you didn't miss a thing, so don't feel bad about not being able to go!!!

I got a text message from Scott telling me that soccer was brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It was quite chilly out today, but we didn't have any snow. I guess that was good to not have to play soccer in the snow! Emma went on the Girl Scout hayride this afternoon with our neighbors, Hallie and her Dad Chris. Bonnie was at the leader training as well, so neither one of us was able to attend the hayride event. I was sure to text Scott back, just before my phone's battery died, to make sure he dressed Emma in her winter coat and hat and mittens. I would have had more fun freezing on the hayride than I did at the leader training. I had Scott send my camera with Chris to take some pictures. It's funny to see the different pictures men take when behind the camera. I always have something in mind (a scrapbook page of course) when I'm taking pictures, and I try to take enough good pictures to do at least one page; however, I usually end up with enough to do an entire album! Chris took 8 photos for me and I'm happy that he took the camera and got some shots for me! I'm posting the best 3.


Emma and Hallie being silly on the hayride. I was happy to see that Scott did actually dress Emma in her winter coat and a hat!

Emma eating a s'more. Apparently these were JUMBO s'mores and they used a whole Hershey bar in each one! I would have enjoyed one of those! This is off the subject, but what do you think of Emma's coat? I found this Columbia parka, in excellent condition I might add, at a garage sale early this year for $12!!!! What a find!

I'm not sure what's happening in this picture. Emma reported that she had alot of fun and she was excited to show Scott her new patch when she got home. I told her I would get it sewed on her uniform when I got some matching thread.

Scott had several errands to run today and he actually got all of them done. While they were out, they stopped at the video store and rented the movie, E.T. I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid and it was one of my favorites. I think we even got to go to the theater to see it. Did you take us to this movie Kysa? I seem to remember that, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was The Fox and the Hound that she took us to? Do you remember Jari Jo? I remember crying at both of them! It's been so long ago since I have seen it, that I had forgotten alot of it. The kids had been told by the neighbors that "It's freaky!" "E.T.'s head gets blown up!" "It's scary!" They decided after the movie was over, that none of those statements were true. I had forgotten all of the details of the part where E.T. gets sick and dies. When I looked at Emma, her bottom lip was quivering and she was trying her hardest to fight back the tears. She couldn't do it, and neither could I. Both Gage and Emma were crying and I was crying right along with them. They were happy again when he came back to life, and we were all crying again when they had to tell E.T. goodbye. It was a fun movie to watch with the kids. I like those older movies that take you down memory lane. I remember the Speak & Spell game that was on there. I don't think I had one, but one of my friends did. They also showed The Purple Pie Man, who was a Strawberry Shortcake doll, which I did have! When I saw it I hollered out, "Oh, there's Purple Pie Man! I had him!" Scott thought that was funny. I loved Strawberry Shortcake when I was a kid. Mom still has some of my dolls, although they aren't in the best condition. They've been through many grandchildren; however, they do still smell! Strawberry Shortcake is popular again, but she's definitely more "hip" and "stylish" than she was when I was a kid!

Tomorrow is the big CROP Walk that I said I would coordinate at our church. I had a table set up last week at church and actually did get some people to sign up to walk and/or make pledges. I did screw up initially though. I gave out 2 of the forms without taking down the names of the people who I gave them to. It wouldn't have been too big of problem, but I didn't know the people. I did tell them they needed to bring them back if they decided to do it or not. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll actually bring them back and I can write them down. I'm hoping that if I screwed it up enough they won't ask me to do it again next year! It's going to be a cold one! Thankfully the kids are going to a birthday party at that time, so I won't have to listen to them whine for 4 miles! I may be the one whining if it's too cold out!