steph's stuff

Where do you start?

Where do you start when your to-do list is so long that you can't even read it without breaking into hives? I keep thinking that I'll organize by deadline - just sit down and tackle the stuff that's due first. Makes sense, but it is not working. I'll get an idea for something else that's not due for 3 weeks and start to jot down ideas for that and get totally off track. I'm getting so sidetracked that nothing is getting done. grrrrrrrrrr...........

Part of the problem is that the stuff that needs to be done is all fun and all different, so my brain is going in a million directions at once. I have layouts to do (paper, digi and hybrid), photos to edit for clients, some marketing materials to create for a client, and website stuff to do. FUN fun stuff - all of it!!!!!! See the dilemma? Oh, and finding a job - gotta fit that in there, too, but it's easy to push that down the list because it is not fun.

And the other huge part of the problem distraction is that the kids are home. And they have swimming lessons, violin lessons, webkinz online parties with their cousins don't even get me started on this one, playdates, and sleepovers. So, keeping any kind of schedule is just impossible.

And for some reason Wendy made me do it, I also decided to upgrade from PSE3 this past week. The learning curve is not that bad, but it's still there.

So, let me know if you have any tips for me! I'll be making yet another list in the meantime. Can't ever have too many lists, ya know!

*eta: just found this adorable picture from my recent photo shoot with a local family

Goodness

Lots and lots of goodness can be found here.

And I'm thrilled to be on their Creative Team now. :)

Randomness

My head's spinning from so much time spent visiting with family lately. It feels like we went to Texas , came home and packed, went to Maine , came home and unpacked, and then my Dad arrived. My calendar has been very full this summer - more family visiting and scrappy stuff than ever and I'm just so grateful for both. And, yes, I did miss CHA because of all of this and I cried a bit about not getting to see Stef there, but it's all okay. She and I have caught up with a nice long phone call and it feels better.

So, since my head's spinning, here's just some random musings:

- we've decided not to get a dog this summer
- i'm job hunting - anyone need to hire an out of practice legal writing professor?
- i've got a freelance job designing marketing materials - kinda cool!!!
- lots of scrapping goodness happening and i'm just a bit surprised by it all
- i can't believe that elizabeth starts 1st grade this fall?!?!
- HP Book 7 was the best book of the series!!! still reeling from it all and rereading it already
- our cat is getting older and she's starting to neglect herself a bit - really makes me so sad
- my house is clean!!!!!!!! it must be the 8th wonder of the world! seriously - it must!
- now that i'm feeling more comfortable with photography and have a bit of confidence in myself, i'm kind of tired of doing it for other people. :p
- I really, really love doing graphic design work, but I sure don’t want to go back and get another degree
- still thinking about moving (even out-of-state) at some point
- someone who shall remain nameless suggested Nebraska
- did I mention that my house was clean? as in dusted, furniture moved around and baseboards wiped down. Whoa.
- webkinz are gonna drive me insane before the end of the summer – I’m considering banning them. :p
- my stepmother gave the kids a bath last night – totally reinforced the idea that it would be so nice to live near family
- i am now officially closer to 40 than 39. :p
- burch – make sure to read my blog on august 1^st and please do not kill me!!!
- okay – enough already of all this random blathering!! How about a photo? My new favorite photo ever!!!!!! My favorite barn in Maine. I used to drive past this barn/boathouse multiple times/day when I was in high school and finally stopped the car and photographed it.

DONE!

Em and I both finished Harry Potter by 1 pm today. Incredible!!!!

I took a ton of pictures last night and will be back to post them later!

**ETA: Two pictures - Emily and friends at the stroke of midnight as the entire Barnes & Noble store counted down! And Emily and friends outside at 12:07 am holding their books! What you can't see is the police officer to my right asking if I thought the middle of the road was a good place to take pictures. I looked at him, looked to both sides to see NO cars anywhere and laughed and said, "Tonight? Yes!" Didn't go over very well. :p

Harry

Is there really anything else but Harry today?!

We will be standing in line most of the evening with friends and some very excited 4th graders and hope to be home by 1 a.m.

I think I'm terrified to read it. Totally excited, but sad and scared, too. This is the first series that we've been able to enjoy so thoroughly as a family and read together as a family. To have this series come to an end is very sad. And terrifying - I have so many theories on what will happen and who will live and who will die and I'm totally scared to find out. So, who's the nine-year-old? :p

Lots of stuff

So much stuff going on around here that it's hard to even know where to start. So, a quick recap of a lot of little things.

Maine

Our trip home from Maine was very long, but thankfully uneventful after I got hit with the bike rack. And, as dh has been calling me, "Scarface" is slowly fading and I can pretty much cover it up with makeup now. I've been living with neosporin slathered all over my face and it's really working. I'm still working on uploading pics from our trip, but I'm also scrapping some already. Priorities, ya know! :)

The vacation itself was actually one of our best vacations that we've ever taken and we're very sad to be home. However, we've been so busy that it's hard to be focus on the sadness. I just wish we lived closer to family.

Scrappy stuff

My first assignments for ScrapSupply go out in the newsletter on August 1st and I'm terrified. I know I'm putting the pressure on myself, but it's still scary. But, I'm loving every single minute of it. :D  I've also had a couple of layouts picked up by CK and ST and that's fun, too. And, my absolute favorite digi site chose me to be the Featured Artist of the Month (scroll down to the bottom), so it's been an awesome scrappy month.

Health issues

Elizabeth's med levels are STILL not high enough. Sigh. I had to talk the neuro into upping her dosage again. The neuro said that if she wasn't having any symptoms that we could just stay at this level. Um, no, I don't think so. It's the same darn level she was at when she had this last seizure. I realize that we've upped her dosage, but if it's not changed the med levels in her bloodstream, it's still not enough. Hello! I hate having to stay on top of the doctors. It just seems crazy to me that she would keep Libby at this same level.

Emily's lab work came back as okay, so she's fine for now. Her next appointment at the Children's Hospital is in September and that's that. Aside from having to save her own life because her own parents didn't see her choking, anyway. :p I will have nightmares about that for the rest of my life. I have banned all ice cubes from the house. NOT kidding.

School

Sheesh - school orientation is August 23rd. Where does the summer go? We've actually started buying school supplies already because we waited until August last year and everything was gone already. :p Emily wants a University of Texas backpack this year and her father is grinning from ear to ear over that one!

Harry

Oh my gosh, Movie 5 is awesome!!!!!!!! Emily and I absolutely loved it and she's already gone to see it a second time with a friend. She doesn't know it but I'm going to take her to see it again, too, because I want to see it a second time. And need I even mention what happens on Friday at midnight? I think not - but Em and I will be in line by 11 pm, I have a feeling. :D

Family

I think this is going to be remembered as the summer of family. We spent time with Tom's biological family in Texas, time with my Dad in Texas, time with my mom, both brothers, many cousins, and grandparents in Maine, lots of time with my sister-in-law and her kids here, too, and now my Dad and his wife are headed up here to stay with us next week and then we're going to go and visit my grandmother and aunts and uncles at the end of next week. Love all these times! But, once again, I get the sad thing because we don't actually live near any of them. Gotta work on that issue. It's been bothering me for a couple of years now, so I really have to come up with something.

Whew - if you made it this far, thanks! I'm way behind on emails due to all of the above stuff, but I'm slowly catching up. :)

3 near misses and a road trip

We are slowly making our way home from Maine to Indiana. At the moment, I'm in a hotel outside of Albany, New York waiting for everyone to wake up. We're going to try and make it all the way home today, but it's going to be a very, very long day. Did I mention that our new DVD player died the first time we tried to use it? So, imagine a 22-hour drive with 3 kids, no movies or TV to watch, and totally exhausted and cranky from spending 2 weeks together in a tiny cabin. Sheesh - it might as well be the dark ages. Or maybe the '70s at least. :p So, that's the road trip.

The 3 near misses - the first was a pedestrian that we almost hit a couple of days ago. And I mean that we missed her by about 5 feet. She was walking along the edge of the road and because of traffic we didn't see her until nearly the last second. I'm still having nightmares. The second near miss is one that will give me nightmares for the rest of my life. We were having dinner and I realized that Emily had stood up. It felt like slow motion - I saw her pound her fist into her upper abdomen and couldn't figure out what she was doing. And then, I looked up at her face just in time to see a huge ice cube pop out of her throat. She was choking on the ice cube and couldn't make a sound to get our attention so she gave herself the Heimlich maneuver that she had learned in Brownies. I don't know who was more rattled by it - me or her, but I can't stop hugging her. And then, lastly, me. I'm a total dork, but then my faithful readers already knew that. I was packing the van up yesterday and forgot that the bike rack was on. I slammed the rear hatch of the van down as hard as I could to make sure it shut and the bike rack caught my face. I look like a car accident. It's amazing that I didn't break any bones in my face. So, I'll just have to settle for a black eye and a bruised and cut up left side of my face. Those headshots that I need? Well, it's gonna be a lot of photoshop work. :p

Home could not get here soon enough.

Postcards from Maine

Postcards from Maine - and I do mean that literally. Here's a couple of postcards from our gorgeous little cabin on the coast of Maine. I think we have found heaven. The first picture is of the sunrise the first morning we were here - I gasped when I woke up and saw it. The other pics show our lawn and the steps leading down to the water and Andrew at the water's edge. It is so beautiful that it feels as though I'm living inside a postcard and I want to keep pinching myself.

And speaking of pinching myself, being selected as the newest member of ScrapSupply also has me pinching myself! I'm totally thrilled and couldn't be more excited - can't wait to get home and get started!