perfect photo op

Last night Liam was asleep on my bed and he looked so cute, that I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. Christian came in and wanted a piece of the action, so he posed for some pictures too. I have the hardest time getting them to pose for pictures together, now I know what to do, make sure one of them is asleep.


credits: cozy nights Digital Designs by Jannylyn at Elemental Scraps

Credits: Love Letters by Amanda Geils, Glitter Sprays by Grace Bennetn & Be Mine by Cori Gammon

I have been checking out DVD's of TV shows from the library to make up for the void formed in my life by the writer's strike. I am currently on a Medical kick. I have ER, House and the first Season of Doogie Howser M.D. I started watching Doogie Howser for the first time this century last night and it was very interesting. First of all...you have the whole "80's" thing, the hair (mullets), clothers, cars and even the cinamatic techniques. I love the whole showing a short scene using the actor then freezing it and scrolling the actor's name in the intro with that really bad sitcom music.
The thing that shocked me the most was the second episode (this is how far I got) in this episode, there is a new female radiologist who is in her late 30's. (my age). She goes out to a nice dinner with Doogie (16 years old) and tells him that she wants to have a baby and she wants him to be the father. Doogie being sixteen and more naive then a doctor should be thinks she wants to sleep with him. (very illegal), she really just wants his sperm. I discussed this with a co-worker who has a daugher who is almost 16 and asked how she would react if someone asked her daughter to be an egg donor at age 16. My friend said she would freak out, as I think Mrs. Howser would if she knew a woman who is my age was asking her sixteen year old son for his genetic matter. The other thing in the world of reality is that I think a parental consent would be needed for such a procedure.
In the last 20 years a lot of research has been done about the reasoning and decision making capabilities of teenagers and young adults and science has concluded that this age group lacks many of these skills (most of us can use personal stories to back of the science) I think it is reasonable to say that I would not want a 16 year old as my doctor. It freaks me out enough just to see a doctor who is younger then me, I don't think I would enjoy being seen by someone who is not old enough to vote.
Here are a couple of layouts I did this week. You can see the credits if you click on my gallery link to the right.

Swimming Rocks

I decided to make sure to boys get out of the house for hearty excersise. This is hard during January in a la Nina year in Western Oregon. We have a great swimming pool about 20 blocks from here. I have them on the waiting list to do swimming lessons in February, but until then, we decided to take them to open swim. We went yesturday afternoon. The session is great, it is not very crowded since schools are still in session during them time. Liam had a melt down and kept saying he wanted to get out, but I just kept him on my lap crying for a while. I got out to go to the bathroom and when we went back into the pool, he found his second wind and played hard.
When we got home, they ate lunch and then we were resting on the couch watching the Flintstones. Liam started falling asleep. (it was 3:45) at first I tried to wake him up, but then I realized that I was also very tired, so I took him to our room and layed down with him. Christian was happy watching the Flintstones. Liam fell asleep and I was able to rest for a while. I got up at about 4:45 to make dinner and Liam was still asleep. After dinner, I moved him to his room, he woke up a little and I layed down with him for a few minutes there.
He did not wake up until 7:00 am today! He is still a little moody this morning and did not want to get dressed, but it was nice to have the break yesturday.
We have a birthday party at a Burger King with a huge play area tonight. I expect another great sleep after that.
Here are a couple of layouts I did. I used One Bright Day by Cori Gammon for this layout

I used A Time to Dance by Sherri Tierney & One Fine Day for this as well as some pieces of My Shabby Valentines, which is Elememental Scraps Febrary Team Kit

Ikea Time

I did some serious shopping this weekend. On Saturday, I went to Home Depot and bought the electrical supplies to install a ceiling light and a new baseboard heater for the living room. It was quite a sight of me pushing that heater around Home Depot in a basket. On Sunday, I went to Ikea. I bought some long overdue (seven years) decorations for our room. I took the old mirror down in our room when we painted in the fall, it was plain and boring. I bought a pretty new one yesturday. I bought a Large frame with matte that holds 12x12 photos and put one of my layouts of the boys in it and hung it above the bed. We have curtains in our room for the first time since we moved in and I bought this magnetic chalkboard that we hung up in the kitchen for the boys to play with. They love it, but I am still trying to teach Liam to keep the chalk in the kitchen, not to use it as cargo on his trains or make designs with it on the carpet.
Speaking of carpet....in the words of Stephen Colbert, it has been put on notice and will soon be dead to us! My BIG purchase yesturday (keep in mind I went to Ikea alone) was 33 boxes, 30 lbs each of flooring. Enough to cover every room in our house with the exception of our Kitchen & Bathroom. I (by myself) loaded every one of those 33 boxes on to a cart. An Ikea employee helped me push it to the register, but I pushed 1600 lbs of flooring across the check out area to holding while I got my car. The woman working in the holding area is a customer of mine as Starbucks, so she had one of the men working with her help me to the car and help with loading the boxes into the car. I still loaded half of them. When I pulled into the driveway, David was in shock at how low our car was riding. David was gracious enough to unload all the flooring into the house. We will probably start installation this weekend.
I have to say....They have the BEST customer service at Ikea. It was a very busy day for them, but they were so helpful and pleasant.
Amazingly enough, I was able to move today. I am starting to ache now, so I think it is the whole 48 hours after work pain. I have MOPS tommorow, it will be very interesting if I cannot move.
One more purchase...I bought a ceiling light for our living room. We do not have any installed lighting in there. It is like an apartment. Paired with the turquoise carpet, it makes for a dark room. I cannot wait to enjoy a brighter carpet free living room, I even have the area rug picked out at Ikea.
Here are some layouts I did. As usual, click on my gallery link for credits and links to stores.

Sushi Dilema

We have been trapped in the house this week due to illness. Liam and I were feeling better today so I decided it was time for a little outing. Clackamas Town Center (a local mall, the one Tonya Harding used to skate) was just remodeled and since all the Christmas excitement is over, I wanted to check it out. We went to the mall and to the new Starbucks, since one of the partners trained at my store. I let the boys get drinks and decided to get my weekly mark-out of coffee while I was there. I always have Christian help me pick out the coffee. I give him the first letter of the name of the blend and then maybe a package color. He chose the Casi Ciello and put it on the coutner for me and I asked them to mark it out. I took the coffee and started going back to the table when the partner asked for my employee number again. As I was giving it to her, I could hear Christian yelling it out across the store. He seems to have it memorized.
We went to buy some butcher paper so the boys can have a big art canvas, then I took them to Sushi Land which is across the street. In theory, this is a good place to take kids. You just sit down and start grabbing sushi, so there is not a wait, its cheap, healthy and there is something to please everyone. We were eating when it was obvious that Liam was about to have a bowel movement. He is not potty trained or anywhere close, but if I can get him to a toilet on time, he will do his project there instead of his daiper, which makes less work for me. I grabbed him and headed to the bathroom. I had to take Christian and all our stuff with us. The bathroom is in the back of the restuarant. We made it on time and Liam pooped in the toilet (yeah!), but when we got back out our place had been cleared!
I asked them what happened and they said that they assumed that we left without paying!!! The bathroom is in the opposite direction of the front door, I do not know how they would mix it up. They suggested next time I tell them when we are going to the bathroom. I guess I am supposed to yell out "my son has to poop, we will be right back, please don't take our food away"
It is hard to go out to restuarants with kids, but tonight, my kids were fairly well behaved, the restaurant was lacking though.
Here is a layout I did today using Winter Whimsy by Pyralis Designs at 3Scrapateers, the alpha & glitter snowflakes are from Snow Biz by Linsey Jane Designs

I am getting tired of of the cold and the snow, so I thought I would get out some pictures from a hotter, more humid time in my life. This picture is from Kyoto, Japan in 1994. It was 100 degrees with 100% humidity during the trip.



Liam gets very creative when he is playing. Here are some pictures of him putting the toy space shuttle in his Play Doh.

You can find credits in my gallery link to the right

New Year's Day

Happy New Years. I am still feeling pretty nasty today. I kept losing my voice and choking at work today...Good times. I was able to switch shifts with someone so I get tommorow off and can get some rest. It is very cold and windy today. I bet it will stay this way through the weekend and then on Monday when school starts again and life is supposed to return to normal we will get either snow or freezing rain or a combo of both and the city will shut down. I wish the snow would hold off to February, when we are ready for another break. It always seems to come right after Christmas vacation.
Here is Liam's 2007 in review and again you can click on my gallery link to the right to get credits.