Just stuff...

I came across this quote yesterday and it really spoke to me (things--paintings, a good memory, a really yummy taste, and quotes--really speak to me a lot! lol)--

"The grand essentials of happiness are:
something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
(Alan Chalmbers)

My life seems to always be about DOING something. We always have places to go, people to see, things to do. And sometimes that makes things tiring, but I think that's just what life's all about with three active kids!

But, you know? I've always felt sorry for people who don't have things to look forward , or who don't have things and activities that they truly love... or who don't live life expectantly and with joy for what's to do next or what's to come tomorrow! (Not that there's anything wrong with spending a few days in pajamas with a good book and nothing to do--there is definite joy in that too and we all need days like that!)

I guess what I'm saying is that, although I may complain sometimes that there's always somewhere else I've got to go or something else I need to get done, I wouldn't have it any other way! Because--

"The grand essentials of happiness are:
something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."

What do you have to do this weekend?
What do you love?
What are you hopeful about, what do you have to look forward to?

For me, the weekend we have planned is busy again, with lots of family and fun.

Let's see...
~ We've got a softball tournament tonight and tomorrow about an hour away (we are actually taking a camper up with us and gonna try spending the night that way; I like the idea of having an air conditioned couch to go to if it gets too hot tomorrow!). This is our State Championship, so it's a pretty big deal! There are eight teams in the tournament, and two or three of them could really give us fits. So, keep your fingers crossed for us!

~ I'm gonna go have a margarita (and dinner too!) with a friend tonight. Always a good thing!

~ After church on Sunday, we're gonna celebrate our nephew's birthday somehow (I'm thinking with a movie!)

Amidst these "big" things, I also plan on...

~ exploring a used bookstore with McKenna on Saturday (whenever we travel out of town for softball, McKenna and I do our research and find out what scrapbook and book stores we can find.) And, you know, one of my 20 summer activities was to go on used bookstore excursions so I guess I'm gonna get one of those accomplished

~ homemade ice cream, finally!!! (Butterfinger is the plan!! And, yes Adrienne, I will bring you a bowl full! It will probably be Sunday night !LOL)

I'm planning on putting some photos out here for you all to enjoy, but Gary has the camera card reader at work with him. So....check back in later today, and there should be some pics added.

(I've got some of the girls being goofy--always something to look forward to! lol--and a pic of my blog friend Mandy and I, who I met last night at my scrapbook class! And if you go to her blog today, she actually has pics of two layouts she did!! Fun!!)

Edited to Add--Yay, I'm back with some pictures!!! These are just a couple of fun ones from the last week or so that I hadn't had a chance to upload because this camera had been left at my parents'. So, for your enjoyment (ha!), here are just some recent random photos...

First are some pictures from when we celebrated Delaney's birthday down at my parents', while my Grandma was in town. (The cutie patootie boys are my nephews, and the cool and stylish lady is Grandma!)...

A few of my best buddy Angela, at Mellow Mushroom and Books-a-Million...

Here is just a funny one of McKenna giving Sydney an airplane ride. We laughed SO hard for a LONG time over this; she'd put S up and let go, then S would spread her arms wide and just scream/squeal at the top of her lungs. (But please forgive the messiness of Delaney's room in the background; this is what happens to her room over Summer--blankets get thrown on the ground for sister slumber parties and DVDs and CDs get spread all over the place! lol)

Here I am with Mandy at my scrapbooking class last night (sheesh, I look kinda rough--who knew that scrapbooking took the color out of ya!)

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!! Let me know what's going on in your world!

And, by the way, I also like these two quotes and they really speak to me right now as well--

"Life is a cup to be filled not drained."

and

"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. " (Ooh, really LOVE that one!!!)

Some Scrappy Goodness!

But, first, here are a few things I learned yesterday:

~ You should never ride a ride with a name like "Mind Spinner" AFTER riding two rides called The Scrambler and The Hurricane. McKenna assured me that the aformentioned ride wasn't bad, but then...it turned my stomach into a tornado. It made me SO sick!!! It literally took me 40 minutes to recover! (We wet last nignt to the local theme park where we have season passes. It was really nice, because Gary got to go with us, the wind was blowing ever so lightly and it actually felt good outisde, and we had a really yummy funnel cake...but the ride--NOT so good!)

~ Children will ignore you for a solid hour, but when you have to talk to someone important on the telephone (in this case, it was a source for an article I had to get done) they will find that exact moment to come yell in your face, get giggle fits, and poke you repeatedly on the arm!

~ Sydney can say the darnedest things (as if you guys didn't know this already! lol). My favorite quote of the day was when we left the bathroom at the theme park and I said, "Well, we're done. Let's go find the guys" (meaning Gary, McKenna, and Delaney). Sydney answered me, "Nope. Let's go find the two girls and the guy." I stand corrected!

~ Sisters can be irritating one moment (picking at each other repeatedly in the car, doing things that they know bothers the other!) and then so sweet the next (McK asking Sydney to come have a bubble bath; all the girls watching movies and wrestling together).

~ I have the coolest blog friends who gave me some wonderful reading recommendations! I loved all of your comments yesterday on my reading blog and now I have all sorts of books I want to check out. There is very little I like more than discovering new books and authors, so I'm very excited about this!

~ Did I mention that funnel cakes are really yummy? (Especially when they're hot out of the oil and covered in a blizzard of confectioner's sugar.)

Okay...now on to my Scrappy Goodness!!!

I decided that I would chronicle my list of 20 things I want to do this Summer (which I posted about last Friday, if you want to go read it) in a scrapbook. It will be an 8.5 x 11 book and will include photos of the activities we do and the things I accomplish (or won't have pictures, if that fits in better). I think it will be a cool place and way to document my summer.

This is the title page I made for it, with each of my 20 items listed out. (I also submitted this as my Scrapjack challenge for this week--which was to do a photo-less layout.)



And then I FINALLY got around to doing a page that I've wanted to do for quite a while. But I guess I knew I wanted it to be a special one, so I took my time to get around to it! (Do you ever do that?) I don't know if you'll remember, but back in March we went to Florida for a family reunion with Gary's maternal grandmother's side of the family. While there, we visited the old family homestead and I took this picture of Delaney with Gary on the front porch. I took the picture with these other two pictures in mind--I knew that I had photos of Gary as a little boy with his Mamaw and Daddy Bill in the same location. I knew that I would want to do a scrapbook page connecting the generations. And finally I did...



The journaling on it says, in part (on the two diferent tags) :

"What I learned:
1. to treasure moments
2 appreciate the past
3 . scrap old photos
4. go places
5. love my family
6. realize the connections"

I really believe that pages like this will be some of the ones I treasure the most as time goes by!

Now, on to today...
we're meeting my parents for lunch at Cracker Barrel (yumm...I'm getting me some catfish and dumplings! I can taste them already!) and then I 've got to get some assignments done (have I told you yet that I'm a procrastinaor? I like to wait until the last minute and they're both due tomorrow. So I gotta get to work!)

See you all again soon!

A Random Reading Tuesday

Well, here it is another Tuesday already... can you believe it?...
time to be random and learn a little more about each other!

One of my favorite things about Summer is that it usually affords me more of an opportunity to do some pleasure reading than usual. I will read at least a book a week over the summer, sometimes more, and always have my Beach Reads to take with me on vacation.

You'll also remember that one of my 20 things to do this summer (which I shared in last Friday's post) was to start a family reading program. Well, I have done this (I have a cute little posterboard hanging up on the wall, with room for everyone to write down the books they've read; then, once a week or so, we will have a family "book club" meeting where we'll share something about a favorite book we've read. Or at least that's the plan! lol) and it's fun to see what everyone's reading. So far, I just have two on the list, but I'm progressing!

I love books! I always have (I can still fondly remember lying on a beach towel under the tree in our front porch over Summer vacation and reading all afternoon long!) and I hope I always will!

So...on that note... I thought we'd do a fun little Random Reading Tuesday with some fun questions about our favorite books and our reading habits. This will be fun, since I LOVE reading so much; maybe I can even get some good recommendations for a good book to try!

First, though...and this is totally related to this post... look at this great little button I got over at www.itrustsnape.com. Yes, I am a total Harry Potter fanatic and I am one of those who thinks that Snape is still good (Gary and McKenna, on the other hand, think he is a total meanie and think I'm deluded to think otherwise! lol) That site is totally cool and you'll love it if you're a Potter Geek like me!

And now... on to my Random Reading Questions for the day! And, you know how it goes--answer a question or two, answer all of them, or post where we can see the answer son your blog!

1.Hardback or paperback?
I really would rather have a hardback, but I still buy a lot of paperbacks at the used store or when I’m reading something “just for fluff.

2.Buy on line or in a store?
I have bought plenty of books from Amazon (especially when it’s gift-giving time and I’m buying a lot of books as gifts, which I love to do!), but I really love going to the bookstore. Something about the smell, and touching the books, and browsing through them all… and usually there’s coffee!

3. Favorite bookstore?

For a chain store, I really like Barnes & Noble. Great selections, good comfy couches, and mine has Cheesecake Factory cheesecake in their coffee house. But, I love go to used stores and the thrift store to buy books (I have a thriftstore near me where I can always find good books! Nothing like $1.49 hardbacks!)

4. Bookmark or dog ear?
I can’t stand to dog ear a page, so I will use the bookjacket to mark my page (if it’s hardback), use whatever’s handy (a receipt usually! Lol), or just remember what page I’m on!

5. Keep, throw away, or sell?
I’m awful—I just can’t get rid of books, so I have HUGE piles all over the house!

6. Short story or novel?
I really like novels, but I’m actually readng a book of short stories right now and it’s very good

7. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
I really like to make it to the end of the chapter, but I’ve been known to wake up in the middle of the night with a book opened on top of my chest!
8. New or used?
However I can get them!
9. Morning, afternoon or nighttime reading?
I read more at night, as I’m going to bed. And I really like it then, because it’s when the house is quiet! (Besides, I feel guilty if I read during the day because there’s so much more I need to be doing!)

10. Stand alone or series?
I love mysteries and I love to find a great mystery series. And then there’s Harry Potter…my favorite series of all! But, most of my favorite books are actually stand-alones!

11. Favorite series?
I already mentioned Harry Potter, and it’s gotta be my all-time favorite series. I also love Joan Hess’ Claire Malloy series and Carolyn Hart’s Annie and Max Darling series (both mystery series). And then there are the classic Agatha Christie series (in high school, I went on a major Christie kick and must have read 25 of her books!)
12. Favorite books read last year?
Read a bunch of good ones, but I have to go with The Kite Runner by Khalil Hussein (one of my faves EVER!) and The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. Both had actually been out two or so years before, but I just got around to reading them.

13. On your “to read” pile right now?

I’m currently reading the 5^th Harry Potter book again (and am planning on reading the 6^th one again too, before the 7^th comes out in like 25 days!!! Woo hoo!), and am also reading The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende. Next on my pile? The Life of Pi and a few light mysterie.

14. Favorite books of all time?
This is a hard one, because I have loved so many over the years and something new always appeals to me And I always end up forgetting some. But, let’s see…in my top 5 or so would have to be To Kill a Mockingbird (my #1, for sure!), The Great Gatsby (I went through a major Fitzgerald phase for years and would recommend anything he wrote!), Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an amazing author and all of his books are incredible, but that one is my absolute favorite!), A Prayer for Owen Meany (a tour-de-force from John Irvingl wow!), and A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Eric Remarque is more well known for All Quiet on the Western Front, but his other books are amazing! You will love this one!) So many more that I could go on-and-on about, but it asked for just 5. LOL!

Okay... join in!!

Happy Reading...and Happy Tuesday!

Weekend Update...

How about some pictures to start us out?

We had a Saturday/Sunday tournament, and McKenna and Sydney and I went up all day long on Saturday to watch. Softball from 10 am to almost midnight!! Whew!

I usually LOVE it, but this weekend was not as much fun because we played really bad against the best competition we've seen all season. We need to play our very best and we didn't....BUT, despite the losses (we went 1-3), there were some definite highlights!

First off, Delaney had an AWESOME defensive weekend. She made some great plays and she's always ready for action (love that face!)...



McKenna ALWAYS has a book with her and she was excited to get The Old Man and the Sea read during the day (it's on her summer reading list for herHonors English class this coming Fall). It was so funny, though, because she was reading and listening to Delaney's IPOD at the same time. Once when I heard it blaring through I asked her, "Can you really pay attention to Hemingway and Gwen Stefani at the same time?" LOL She assured me that she could!!

And then, just LOOK at these two girls having a good time!You can't really see it, but Sydney and her friend Anna are abolutely DISGUSTINGLY dirty right here.There must have been three layers of dirt on her legs and three layers of sweat in her hair! But...they had so much fun playing together ALL day and that's what really matters!


Gary and Delaney went back on Sunday to play in the elimination round (the rest of us stayed home for church and some rest),but they were back by mid-afternoon after getting beat. They did say that the highlight of the day was playing for an hour in this water area at one of the ballparks! Even tough athletes forget losing when they get to get soaking wet...

And,okay...I couldn't let the day go by without showing off my Flip Flops by Dawn!!! She made them "to order"for me--purple and gold with little softballs on them!! Everyone just loved them,Dawn, so THANKS again!!! (I really doubt that you all want to see my feet, which I can see now were a bit dirty like Sydney's!! lol Just try and ignore the dirt! But, my legs are shaved....lol)


We have two more big softball events coming up and then we'll get some rest. Next weekend is a state tournament and then the week after is our World Series at Panama City Beach, Florida. I am SO ready for the beach, so that should be a really fun time! Can't wait!!

There wasn't much more left of the weekend after the busyness of softball,but...we did have a good day at church yesterday (a good Sunday School lesson and then a good Bible study last night) and I got a ton of clothes washed (which is ALWAYS a big deal to me!).

Last night, Delaney went to Sunday night youth for the first time (she will be in middle school and just moved into the youth department). McKenna, of course, is already up there in the hig school group. I was so proud of Delaney for going, but when I picked them up last night she had big tears in her eyes and as soon as we got out of the parking lot they started flowing! I asked her what was wrong, if anyone had been mean to her and she just shook her head. She said she just felt uncomfortable; it was just HARD to do it! And I knew exactly what she meant.

Having to grow up, fitting into new groups, adjusting to change...that is never easy (even for us adults) and it is especially hard for Delaney. She is most emotional child and she feels things so DEEPLY. I hugged her and just told her that it would get easier as she gets used to it (she, after all, has older girls who know her well because of McKenna; and only one other young girl was there last night with her, so it will be better when there are more of them there), but it was still hard to see herfeel that way.

But I was SO proud of McKenna. Before they left, I told her to be aware that Delaney is young and doesn't know all about the youth yet and to include her and any of the younger kids in the group. McKenna, of course, wanted to hang out with her friends instead. But, she sat with Delaney and the other younger girl the whole evening and then, when we got home, she went out of her way to do "sister"things with Delaney (they had a "slumber party" in her room and watched movies together). For sisters who can sometimes be rough on each other, it's nice to see them come together when it counts! It meant SO much to me!

I know it will be fine for Delaney--she is, after all, a very friendly and social child!! But it's hard when you have 15 and 16-year-olds around you too, in your own social setting! Change is hard! ( I certainly remember how I felt when I was 11 and 12; not the easiest time in your life, that's for sure!)

Anyway... sorry, that sort of rambled out there...

For this week, I've got--
*A few softball practices for Delaney
* McKenna has a few color guard practices
* I think we will take a trip to the Art museum later in the week!
* I will be teaching my Scraplifts and Sketches class again at Scrapbook Mania on Thursday (let me know if you want to come!)
* (hopefully), a night out with some girlfriends!!

I hope that all of you had an EXCELLENT weekend. I'm off to read some of your blogs!!

20 Things...

I was inspired by Maria, who was inspired by Ali's aezine online newsletter, to create a list of 20 things--as a way to motivate or encourage myself to get something accomplished that I may not otherwise do. I'm not a great list-maker (in fact, I'm not very organized at all!), but I jumped on this idea because I have actually been thinking of some things I want to do over the Summer. So this was a perfect way to think what I want to do between now and when school starts (which gives me not quite two months!).

So, here are 20 Things I Want to do This Summer...

(these are in addition to the "regular" things like going to the beach for a weeklong vacation and hanging out at the pool at our local water park; these are things I want to do either by myself, with Gary, or with the girls to make this summer more enjoyable and meaningful).

How about making a list like this for yourself?

Okay...

1. Make homemade ice cream.

2. Go to the art museum.

3. Start a summer family reading program.

4. Take a day trip with Angela.

5. Kiss on the beach at night.

6. Try at least two ethnic restaurants (food I've never tried before).

7. Consientiously work on my novel.

8. Try my hand at painting.

9. Go out on a date with Gary.

10. Have a girls-night-out with friends.

11. Do a Europe scrapbook of McKenna's trip.

12. Go on a used/thrift store book excursion.

13. Do at least 5 random acts of kindness.

14. Write a poem.

15. Read at least one book of the Bible all the way through.

16. Wake up one morning and go somewhere unplanned and unexpected.

17. Have a picnic.

18. Watch some DVDS that I've missed, just for myself.

19. Throw a party.

20. Run through a sprinkler.


I really want to do a lot of these things and hopefully I'll be able to! Some are very simple--but just scream out "Summer" to me. Others are things that are just hard to do with our crazy summer schedule. We'll just see how it goes (and, of course, I will use this blog as a way to keep track of what I've had the pleasure to do from my list!)

We are off for a fun weekend. Delaney has a softball tournament about an hour away tomorrow--it will be a hard one, with five really good teams in it (probably our hardest competition of the season so far!). It will be fun, but HOT! I also plan on doing at least one thing from my list--making some homemade ice cream!!

I also just need to give a quick shout-out to my sweet blog buddy Dawn. I got the cutest flip-flops in the mail yesterday from her and I will be wearing them this weekend to our tournament. They are SO cute! And, Dawn, I've been thinking of and praying for you!

Now...go have a GREAT weekend!!!!! Soak up the sun!!!! Lighten up!!!! And see ya on Monday!!

Don't let anyone tell you that you're not STRONG enough...
(and a tag, and my latest OLW scrapbook challenge further down the post...just keep scrolling! lol)

I loved reading all of your comments from my post yesterday. Apparently, a lot of you have young kiddoes who sing inappropriate songs at all sorts of inappropriate moments (the "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" at church from Corey was my personal favorite!). And apparently a lot of us have Fergie issues, because we all find ourselves quite Licious! I even wore my "Scrapalicious" t-shirt out in public last night, thinking of all of you! LOL

But just so you think that Sydney only has a one-artist repertoire, I thought I'd share what she sang last night OVER and OVER and OVER on the way to Delaney's softball practice. She sang this line from Hannah Montana--"Dont let anyone tell you that you're not strong enough"--at least 20 times in the car. I got to thinking that maybe God was sending me a message through her, letting me know that I am strong and that I can get through whatever I may be struggling with and that I need to believe in myself!

Or if any of you are thinking that about yourself, perhaps Sydney has that message for YOU. Believe it--you are STRONG ENOUGH!!

(Susie Q--I thought particularly of you while Sydney was singing, since I know your Grace is a big HM fan!!)

Now, let me quickly get to a fun tag that Southern Heart tagged me with. The challenge was to share some uniquely Southern things with my readers, so I thought I'd join in.

For those of you who aren't from the South, let's just say that it's a wonderful place to live--a place filled with genuine people, true hospitality, great accents, great food, and fun sayings! So...here are a few Southern tidbits that I came up with (although it was hard to come up with many unique ones, after reading Southern Heart's).

* In the South, when we want tea we don't want hot tea, we don't want unsweetened tea, and we don't want flavored tea...we want good, ole, simple sweetened iced tea. (When I was in Chicago several years back, I was at an Outback restaurant and tried to order a sweet tea. The waitress just laughed at me and said, "You must be from Geogia or Alabama," then proceeded to tell me that they didn't even have sugar packets I could use to sweeten my tea. It was a good meal, but definitely lacked something that would have made it much better.)

* In the South, we take our football seriously. Saturdays in the Fall are meant for one thing and one thing alone--college football! It is an all-weekend business and we build our days around when the right team comes on tv. There are weeks when it's literally all I think about! (No, I'm serious!)

* In the South, most girls have two first names. I remember one time when Delaney's softball team played another that literally had a roster of girls with names like Mary Claire, Mary Emma, Mary Clyde, Mary Page, Emma Grace, and Margaret Rose. She has had friends named Mary Suillivan and Ann Payton (not Mary and Ann, but the combined names). My mother still has hopes that we will refer to Sydney as Sydney Faith.

* In the South, a real man knows how to hunt a deer, pray before dinner, open doors for the women, and cry at good movies. And I like it that way!

If you are from the South, I'm tagging you right now!! Share your fun, Southern habits and tidbits with us all!

And now...finally...(this is becoming a very LONG post isn't it?)...I thought I'd share a scrapbook layout I did last night. It is for the One Little Word challenge, which has become one of my very favorites out there! Every two weeks, the gals there post a word and challenge you to create a scrabook page or project with it.

This week's word was "My" and, of course, I thought of a ton of different ways to use the word. My life...my family...my loves...my all sorts of things. But I eventually went back to a simple idea and did a page about MYSELF. And once I had the idea, it came together so quickly (like in 30 minutes!!) The title on the page is "Me, MYself, and I" and it goes something like this...

The journaling, which is really all over the page, says:

"thinking about me, june 20, 2007, cheryl sloan wray

"who am I? I am a mother, wife, writer, artist (in training!), Christian, dreamer, friend...

"i want to ...enjoy each day, read a lot of books, eat a lot of good food, see a lot of cool places, be a good mother and wife, share a lot of smiles, feel closer to God, and LIVE!!

"i love...McKenna, Delaney, Sydney, Gary, my parents, my brother, my family, my friends, my God, my photos, my books, my travels, my food, my home, my life!

"i'm almost 39 and i feel like i should be more than i am...more successful, more accomplished, just more...but i've learned that age is relative, because i have so much more of life to go and i'm still not sure what i want to be when i 'grow up.' that's okay, isn't it?"

Really like how it turned out. And it reminds me what scrapbooking is all about--I want my books to share part of who I am, so that my grandchildren will read it someday and feel like they knew me just a little bit.

Well...now that you made it through ALL of that... I hope you have a Fantastic Thusday!! I'm off to spend a few hours at the wave pool, then back at it!

Enjoy!!!

"I'm gonna kick your butt,"
"G-L-A-M...S-D-M-U-V-etc. etc."
& "Holy Gosh!"

Okay, I now know that there is something seriously different from having a three-year-old all by herself in the household or even in the household with a seven-year-old sister, than having one with eleven- and fifteen-year-old sisters.

When McKenna and Delaney were three-years-old, they were singing the "Barney" theme song and telling cute little stories about ponies and rainbows (or, something akin to that!)

But with Sydney things are a tad bit different...

Now, Sydney still loves to watch "The Wiggles" (alas, it's true!), sings "Jesus Loves Me" and tells cute little stories (usually involving penguins, or her super-powered family), but she also shows the tell-tale signs of living with a pre-teen and a teenager in the house.

Take the following two examples from yesterday as cases-in-point.

~ We were driving down the road, after eating at McDonald's, and Sydney was playing with her penguin toy from her Happy Meal when I heard "I'm gonna kick your butt." What did you say? I said, as I tried to stifle a laugh. (I seriously couldn't think of where she might have heard that, when I remembered an old rerun of Spongebob that had been on a few days before. A school bully kept telling Spongebob that he was gonna "kick his butt." And, I'm not kidding you, Sydney remembers EVERYTHING she hears, no matter how long ago it is. She has some sort of photogaphic memory!)

Anyway... I tell her over my shoulder, "We do not say that. It's ugly and I don't want to hear it again." Her response? "I didn't say it." My response? "I heard you say it, and I don't want to hear it again." And then her again: "I didn't say it. My penguin said it." She somehow convinced me that she didn't say the phrase, but her penguin did. She told me to tell the penguin not to say it again, so I'm driving down the road telling a Happy Meal toy: "Penguin, I don't want you to say that again. It's mean and we don't use that word."

~ I really don't know how it's happened, but Fergie (despite my protestations!) has become a favorite singer to just about all of us (well, except for Gary, who prefers country and an occasional Avril Lavigne; lol). I try and listen to contemporary Christian stuff, golden "oldies" (you know, from that glorious decade of the 80s), and I keep the Pop-40 as mild as possible when kids' ears are tuned in, BUT something about summer makes pop music more appealing (you know...driving down the road with the windows down, stuff like that!) and we're listening and singing along to grown people with names like Fergie, Akon, and Rhianna.

Well, I knew I was in serious trouble when Sydney started singing and spelling out "G-L-A-M-"... Am I a bad Mom or what? (But it's also kinda cute, because for the rest of the song she just starts adding random letters to it. "B-V-U-R-D-E-M-S.") I was most afraid that the Parenting Police would stop me when, at Walmart the other day, she was singing at the top of her lungs, "Champagne... champagne...champagne" in the same tune as in the "Glamorous" song. Dang it if she doesn't have that photgraphic memory and some musical ability to boot!

(and, yep, she can sing the song on my sidebar. ~ hangs my head in shame! ~ )

~ She just popped out with this one yesterday... "Holy Gosh!" I actually kinda like that one...it has a snappy ring to it!

So now, I'm going to...

Read Sydney some Bible stories and nursery rhymes,
put in a "Dora" dvd,
give her some goldfish crackers and a glass of milk,
have some serious cuddle time.

Anything to make her young again!!

It's Random Tuesday..
and I'm actually posting a fun, random list today!

I've been a Random Tuesday slacker, what with all the busy-ness of last week and the fact that I was posting at really weird times of the day (like at 11 a.m, times like that; I really like to post early in the morning so I can catch everyone from daybreak on. Ha!)

Anyway...I'm back on here this Tuesday and I have a fun one for all of us to participate in. (You know you want to!)

This one goes something like this. Come up with three answers in each category. Easy!

Three..

Things I fear: Heights, snakes, something bad happening to a close relative

People who make me laugh: Sydney, the gals on “Designing Women” (caught this show on tv just the other day and reminded me of how funny it was/is!), Ellen Degeneres

Things I love: Really good food, family, traveling

Things I hate: Negative people, mayonnaise, unmade beds

Things I don't understand: Why people get upset about little things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, Why people care about Paris Hilton, Teenagers

Things on my desk: A computer, picture frames with pics of the girls in them, lots of paper

Things I'm doing right now:(actually, I typed this last night around midnight) Typing, thinking I should really go to sleep, eating a toasted croissant topped with Nutella (it is SO yummy you can't even imagine!!)

Things I want to do before I die: Travel as much as possible, write a novel, make a Difference with a capital D!

Shows I watched as a kid: Electric Company, Three’s Company (I still think that John Ritter was one of the funniest guys ever!), Wonder Woman (I WANTED to be her!!)

Things I think you should listen to: That voice inside your head (because usually it’s right), The stories that you hear from older people, the laughter of children (they know what it’s all about!), the Bee Gees (ok, I know that’s four, but I was listening to some of them lately and how much do I still love them?)

Things you should NEVER listen to: Negative people, gossip (although I do fall into its trap a lot of times!), anything that's on tv at like 3 a.m.

Things I'd like to learn: To paint (canvases, not houses), to catch a softball (so I could catch Delaney pitching), to play a musical instrument

Favorite foods: Anything Southern, Anything Italian, and pretty much Anything Else!

Things I can't do: Roll my rrrrrrrs, curl my tongue, watch sitcoms or reality shows when people do embarrassing things or get in uncomfortable situations (I just can’t watch them because I feel so bad for them!)

Things I can do: Stand on my head for an inordinate amount of time, find the positive in just about anything, speak in public, hula hoop (oops that's four, but I think you needed to know I could hula hoop. Didn't you?)

So, you know the drill...

Answer these here in my comments section or link us to your blog where you've posted your answers. This is a FUN one, so I'd love to see some answers from all of you! (But no pressure, okay? lol)

Happy Feet and my Unpubbed scrapbook challenge...

Sydney is standing here, putting me on a "Happy Feet" show, while I scan and upload the scrapbook page I did for this week's challenge over at "Unpubbed." It's another cool challenge blog where you are inspired by a spotlighted layout and, of course, I've waited until the very last minute to get it done! But here it is (inspired by the original's use of flowers and bling, and using the general design feel of it all! And, using some of the fun Elsie products again!) . . .



Thanks for the inspiration, Unpubbed gals. Hope you--and the rest of you! lol--like it! I really like how it turned out and especially like that I've already gotten an anniversary page done. That's always a good thing!

(Oh, by the way, a Happy Feet show means Sydney's wearing her brand-new sandals that she got today and she's doing a fun little dance because they make noise when she does it. She says it's "a happy feet." Love it!)

TGIM!!

Yep, you got it right...that actually stands for Thank Goodness it's Monday!!

We had a FANTASTIC weekend, but it was so filled-to-the-brim and so exhausting that I'm really glad it's just plain ole Monday so I can do things like... sleep a few minutes late, do some housework, and get refueled all over again!

The writers conference was outstanding, as always (we had around 185 in attendance!), but it wore me out! My sessions went great, there were so many sweet people there, and I got to talk a lot about the nuts-and-bolts of writing, but I think that it was too much because my brain feels kinda fuzzy and overworked this morning. Too much intellectual stimulation, you know? (Maybe my plans for today should be reading a good, non-meaningful mystery novel! lol) If you want to check out a few pics, I've put them on the conference blog HERE.

Before the conference, the girls and I met my bf Angela for lunch and a birthday celebration (aka buying extravaganza) at Books-a-Million! Angela reads more than anyone I know and always knows what's "in" in books! She's a middle school librarian, but like no librarian you ever had. She's cool, and Delaney likes to point out that she's much cooler and younger than me! (although Ang is actually six months older than me! lol) Anyway...Angela always treats the girls to a shopping spree at the bookstore for their birthdays and since we hadn't met for McKenna's or Sydney's, she got to buy for all three girls! They were beyond excited, I gotta tell you, because they are all readers(well, Delaney and McKenna are; Sydney isn't quite reading yet, but soon... LOL). Their hands were full when they left the store!

While McKenna, Sydney, and I were in Tuscaloosa most of the weekend, Delaney was with Gary at a softball tournament. They got rained out Friday, but then played on Saturday and won the tournament. It was a qualifier for the ASA national tournament, so they qualified by winning. So that was great news for The Bolts!

On Sunday, I overslept and didn't get to church (which I almost never do!); I was just SO tired and it felt really good to sleep until 10:30. Not a habit I want to get into, but I think I needed it yesterday! We celebrated Father's Day by giving Gary a homemade ice cream maker!! We are SO excited about this (it really was a family gift!) and I plan on trying a few flavors this week!

We spent the rest of the day with Gary's family and I felt absolutely crammed and bloated last night because I ate SO much over there and over the weekend! We did homemade ice cream, roast, all sorts of good Southern veggies, a cookie cake for Delaney's birthday (we had to celebrate AGAIN!), and an angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

I think I really was still recovering from the food I ate down at my parents' too (my Grandma from Texas, who is the most AMAZING cook in the world, made me a big plate of fried green tomatoes and I was absolutely in heaven. Everyone laughed at me when I gave Grandma a big hug and said, "These just make me happy!"), so I seriously think I gained 5 pounds over the weekend. Not a good thing (but the food was absolutely good!), and I guess I need to go run around the block or something! lol

For this week...
doing my scrapbook class tomorrow night,
going to help Delaney buy an IPOD with her birthday money (she's beyond excited!),
doing some scrap challenges,
writing two articles that just got assigned to me,
going to the water park,
experimenting with homemade ice cream (I'm thinking butterfinger, or blueberry!)
and finding whatever other trouble I can get into!
It should be a good one!!

(Three favorite pics real quick from the weekend.

This one I love, although it's a little bit blurry. Sydney had her own name tag at the conference and it was too cute!!

Gary took this one at Delaney's tournament and, of course, I wasn't there. But Delaney told me how miserable it was to be at this location. She said it was SO hot all day Saturday and they could see, from their dugout, all these kids diving and sliding into the swimming pool across the street. She said it was torture! And you can see the pool behind Delaney pitching here!

And then Sunday, when we went to Gary's parents for Father's Day, I had to catch all the girl cousins being silly. They must have spent 30 minutes climbing all over each other. This one was one of my faves!


INSERT imaginary picture here of the girls and I with Angela, big smiles on everyone's faces and big bags of books in our arms!

INSERT imaginary picture here of me with my wonderful Grandma!

(I left our camera in Tuscaloosa, so I don't have those pics to download. Very sad about that, because I actually have a few scrapbook pages in mind already for some of them! Guess that will have to wait until later on!)

I will try and pop by your blogs sometime today and see what everyone is and has been up to! Hope it's a good Monday for everyone!

Scrappy and Words-y Creations

I'm excited, because I've got two of my FAVORITE things in the world coming up in the next several days. I absolutely love to teach and encourage other people. I started doing it with aspiring writers and now I also do it with scrapbookers--and I'll be doing both soon!

Next Tuedsay night at my lss, Scrapbook Mania, I will be teaching a Scraplifts & Sketches class and we will be doing these two layouts! (They use some really pretty Crate Paper and SEI papers and products.)



The idea for this class is that you can really reduce your scrapbooking time by scraplifting your ideas from magazines and idea books, and from using layout sketches. I used inspiration from Scrapbook Trends and Creating Keepsakes to do these two layouts. I will also be giving a lot of other examples of how I use both scraplifts and sketches and give tips on how to do both techniques at different levels.

If you are near Birmingham, I'd love to have you in my class. Just let me know if you can be there and I'll spred the word to India at the store!

Then...in mere moments, I will be heading down to Tuscaloosa to spend the next several days at the Southern Christian Writers Conference. We are meeting my bestest friend since high school, Angela, for lunch first at Mellow Mushroom (oh yeah!), then going to my parents' to get ready for the conference. (Doubly excited also because my Grandma from Texas will be in town and it is always SO much fun to spend time with her!)

I will be leading two sessions on freelance magazine writing (what I do when I don't blog, scrapbook, and hang out at the ballpark! LOL) and will also help do anything else that needs to be done! My parents are the founders and co- coordinators and I pretty much help out any way I can! It's always an awesome weekend, and I'm sure this one will be no different!!

We also have a book room, where workshop leaders and attendees can sell their books and other writing-related things. I will sell this book...


And I also enjoy making some creations using my scrapbook supplies. I've made altered journals and date books in the best. This year, I've made some cute little writing notebooks using some of the Elsie paper. This is one of them...


And I did some things with some of Gary's gorgeous photos, adding quotes about writing to them. Like this...

I'm really looking forward to the weekend. It will be tiring, but also rejuvenating. It always is!!

What do you have planned for your weekend? I would love to hear about it!

How Lazy Am I?...
Pretty lazy, because here I am doing a quick photo post again!!

Didn't wake up until 9 this morning
(and the girls didn't wake up until noon!).
But we had a GREAT time yesterday at the amusement park.
The girls loved the water park, then went crazy on the big roller coasters and rides!
(this could account for the late sleeping today!)
And now...I'm desperately trying to get ready for my writers conference this weekend.
Gotta get handouts and some handmade journals done.
Lots to do!
So, my apologies for another photo post.
It's just super easy!
Hope all of you are doing great!
I promise to return with lots of witty repartie and insightful, comment-worthy posts soon.
Just not today!!

So, on to some of the pictures from the too-much-fun-preetens are cool-happy birthday delaney party...






(this one cracked me up. Katie and Jaelyn were sitting there eating pizza, soaking up the rays, and just enjoying themselves. Katie looked at me and said, "This is the way we live." lol)









(My camera batteries died at this point, so I didn't get any pics of the girls riding either the Rampage--a big, giant wooden roller coaster--or the Pirate Ship. You should have seen the looks on their faces! Priceless!)

Ciao!