steph's stuff

Chicago and Texas

The Chicago bit - I leave for CKU-A Chicago tomorrow to spend some fun, fun, fun time with the girls!  Back on Sunday.  Wish my mom luck here at home with the kids.  She flew in all the way from Maine to stay with my kids so I could have a get-away.  Thanks, Mom!

The Texas bit - My dh is obsessed with the University of Texas - his alma mater.  And their football team - National Champions this year.  And yes, we live in Indiana so it's a long-distance love.  But, not as long-distance as you might think.  Because the College Football Hall of Fame happens to be located here.  Conveniently across the street from dh's office.  So, today, he had me photograph the helmets in the Hall of Fame, complete with rankings.  It thrills him to no end to see UT under the number 1.  So, this picture is for my dh.  Hook 'em horns!!!!  And thanks, honey, for not griping about me leaving.

By a landslide

Dh wins!  ROFL!  And by a landslide!

Yep, I liked the second head shot (if you didn't read my blog yesterday, scroll down and look at the pics first).  No, I loved the second head shot - hot spot and all.  He thought that the second made me look submissive and that doesn't portray the real me. 

But, I told him I would go with the majority and he's going to hold me to it.  He emailed me all day yesterday letting me know when comments came in and that he was winning, so I guess I can't hide that from him. (Hi honey :p)

Although he won't be in Chicago when I do the album on Thursday.  =)

Thanks for your help, everyone!!!

Now, any advice on surviving being without my dh and kids for 5 days?  I've never left them longer than an overnight before and it's feeling a bit weird.

help settle an argument

Here's what happens when 2 lawyers get married and disagree on something.  They have to simply agree to disagree and walk away.  'Cause we can both argue until we're blue in the face and no one's giving in. 

The big disagreement today???  Take a deep breath because it's earth shattering.

Which of these headshots is the best?  Yep, that's what we disagreed on.  He's adamant and won't give an inch on this.  These headshots are for my upcoming CKU album and I need to pick one.  Only one.  And quickly.  And he totally disagrees with me on which one I should use. 

Help!  Which one do you like best?  Please!!!

And, no, I'm not going to tell you which one I like because you might side with me just on the dang principle of the thing. =)

a toilet and a tombstone?

Yep!  I had a toilet and a tombstone on the same layout for my HOF entry. =)  This layout started out as a blog entry and Sharyn gave me the idea to turn it into a layout. 

Journaling reads:

Ahhhhhh…….is the year over yet? Please tell me that 2005 is over! To say that it was not our best year is such an understatement. It started off with the loss of my beloved grandmother - whose death literally dropped me to the floor. And it ended horribly - literally in the toilet.

January - MeMe died - a loss still too painful to fully describe.

February - Andrew contracted RSV and it turned into double pneumonia – landing him in the hospital for a week.

March - I somehow had 2 abscesses on my leg and required emergency surgery.

April - My laptop crashed and burned - taking with it 5500 digital pictures that I had not backed up - my sobbing could be heard 4 states away.

May - We found out that we owed a whole lot more money to the IRS than we had thought - more sobbing and a few choice words thrown in here.

August - Elizabeth had mononucleosis and had a 104 degree fever for 8 very long and scary days - how does a 4-year-old get mono???

September - Emily, Andrew, and Tom ALL contracted mono and Elizabeth relapsed - you can only imagine my state of mind during this month.

October - Emily was diagnosed with Type I (juvenile onset) diabetes and our entire life changed forever.

November -At Tom’s annual checkup, he was diagnosed with a double hernia. He didn’t listen to me when I told him not to carry so much, did he?

December -Tom had the hernia surgery, we had 4 cases of strep throat, and all 5 of us ended up with a horrible stomach bug - you don’t want to know the details of this one.

So, I repeat the question - is 2005 over yet? Because I don’t think I could take much more.

----------------------------------------------

So, yes, 2005 was very hard for us in many ways, but it was also very good for me in many ways.  And 2006 has been great!

thank you

To those of you who have emailed me about the Hall of Fame contest, I thank you.  Thank you for thinking that I really could win.  Thank you for your surprise - real or not - that I didn't receive an Honorable Mention.  Thank you for being such great friends.  That's what it's all about to me - the friendships, the relationships, and the stories that document them.

Here's one of my favorites from my entry.

Journaling reads:

I’m starting to get old enough that my birthdays are making me think more about life. Not joking about my age kind of thinking, but really pondering what I’m doing with my life and if it’s what I want to be doing or what I should be doing. During one recent contemplation, the thought occurred to me that I spend about as much time trying to document my life as I do actually living it. And for a moment, that scared me. Was I wasting my life by living it through the lens of a camera or gluing it down with bits of pretty paper onto other bits of paper? The next day, I stumbled upon this picture - I remember taking the picture, but I didn’t remember Andrew looking as sad as he appears to be. And then I realized that his face was not the only one in the picture. Barely visible, but clearly there, was my daughter on the other side of the window – they were having a ball playing peek-a-boo with each other. And I laughed because I remembered that day and how cute they were. That’s when I realized that documenting the details of my life WAS living it.

my view

We finally finished the den (pics to come soon) and I just love sharing it with dh!  Our desks are together - front to front - facing each other and it's such a good set-up for us.  I'm scrapping more, he has less guilt about working at home in the evenings, w'ere together more - it's all good!

But, during the day, Andrew is my den-sharing little dude!  He gets to watch noggin.com on Daddy's computer for about 30 minutes.  It's a cute little view from my desk. :)

happy days

happy are the days when daddy plays with the kids all day and i get to scrap =)

happy are the days when it's 65 degrees and sunny outside in early march!

happy are the days when my entire house is clean and i get to play all day!

hope you're having a happy day, too!  :)

just added

to my top 10 favorite books of all time list.

An unbelievable book.  Read it.  It's even worth taking a break from scrapbooking to read.  Seriously, it is that good.

the best part...

of the new den is apparently spinning around in the office chairs.

A great day

A great day =

- getting to run errands by myself today and not having to deal with all three kids - do you have any idea how long it takes to get everyone buckled into their carseats?

- being able to be alone in the house for 2 hours - was joyful, I tell you!

- getting photos printed for 2 layouts to be done tomorrow

- getting an email from someone I don't know praising my work

- spending an hour at Barnes & Noble with Emily

- having a girls's night in with Em and watching a movie together - just the two of us

- having a clean house - sooooo relaxing!

- getting some fabulous new fontwerks stamps in the mail today!

- also getting these scrapworks papers in the mail, too!  yummy!