It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's Back-to-school time! Last night I went out to Staples with the supply lists in hand from the school.
Here's what we had to buy:
3 rulers
packages of blue, black and red pens
packages of pencils (guess who has to sharpen them!)
3 pkgs of pencil crayons (I was smart and bought ones already sharpened!)
erasers
glue sticks
3 white out tape
pkgs of lined, blank, and graph paper
2 calculators (we were fortunately able to locate one from last year)
3 combination locks
2 scissors
highlighters
2 geometry sets
3 pencil cases
11 binders
8 duotangs
pks of page dividers
1 personal dictionary
2 backpacks

Grand total of $200 for 3 boys

I still need to buy 3 boxes of Klenex (yes, that's right, Klenex)
washable fine tipped black markers
Magic Markers (gotta first figure out what the heck these are!)
4 tennis balls (I beleive these are for the legs of the chairs so they don't scrape on the floor

And then there's new shoes and clothes that I haven't even thought about buying yet!

In light of Hurricane Katrina ...

If I had 15 minutes to evacuate my home before it was to be destroyed by a hurricane, what 10 things would I grab (not including people or pets):
1. all of my scrapbooks
2. all of my photos
3. all of my negatives
4. my camera
5. my computer
6. my toilettries (including my hairdryer and brush) ... does that count as more than one?
7. my Bible
8. my documents
9. water-colour painting we have of one of my boys
10. my wallet

I'm back from the trailer for a few days. I came home to some very sad news. One of the scrapbooking web sites that I frequent will be going shutting down as of September 1st. Creative Scrapbooks is closing their forums. I've only been a part of their board since February, but I felt a real kinship there and enjoyed sharing my hobby with the ladies there.



I still seem to be running around rather than sitting back and enjoying what little there is left of the summer. I spent the last week at the trailer with my friend Debbie. My oldest ds was away with my Mom and sister, and my middle ds was in camp (which is at the same place that our trailer is at.) So it was a nice relaxing week with just Deb, myself, and my youngest ds. The weather was perfect. We spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach. I had to come back one night for Cameron's baseball game and then this weekend for more baseball and soccer. Now, all the boys are home and bickering. You can tell that school starts soon.

My week this week will be spent getting the boys ready for school and then trying to enjoy the last few days of summer at the trailer ... that is if we don't suffer the remnants of Hurricane Katrina.

While we were away in Myrtle Beach we had to make the rounds of all the tourist beach stores. Most of the stores sold hermit crabs and lizzards. Cameron loves anything that moves and so as soon as he saw these, he started asking if he could buy one and take it home. They weren't that expensive so we said that on our way out of town we would stop and get one. I was voting for a lizzard as they were at least cute. The crabs were very ugly. He really wanted a crab. After spending a few days thinking about it, I figured a crab would be better because he could hold it and if it ever got out, it would survive the cat better than a lizzard. I made everyone aware of the fact that I would not be going near these things!

Well, the crabs were only a $1 a peice, and you actually got one free if you purchased a little plastic cage, which of course we needed. Crabs love company, so we had to get two. Then we needed food, and a hermit crab care book. Now we are at $20.

We read the book on the way home. We learned that they would need an aquarium, climbing toys, sand, food dishes, etc. We purchased an aquarium, sand, and gravel.
The first thing he had to do when we got home was set up this crabatat! Well, guess who did it all.

$1 crabs turned into about $40 so far. We have since been to the pet store and seen a few other things that we need to get to keep these things happy.

The worst part of the whole thing is that they have kinda grown on me. They are actually kinda cute. ...and, as usual, I'm the one who ends up taking care of them!

The things we do for our kids!!!!

Here's a fun little quiz to take. My summer ride is a VWBug convertible. Isn't it cute???

Your Summer Ride is a Beetle Convertible

Fun, funky, and a little bit euro. You love your summers to be full of style and sun!

What's Your Summer Ride?

I'm home from the trailer for a few days. We have appointments and games over the next three days so I'm trying to catch my breath right now.

Cameron, my youngest, turned nine two days ago. NINE! I don't think I like this whole growing up thing. Nine means that he's too old to hold Mom's hand. He's too old for me to hug him and kiss him in public. He's too old for cuddles. On the odd occasion he will still curl up with me. I guess I gotta take what I can get. I'm not ready for all of this yet. It means that I'm leaving all that little boyhood behind. I no longer have a little boy in my house ... just three big ones!

Happy birthday, Cameron.




I haven't been scrapbooking much since the spring but I think I finally got my groove back. I pre-planned some pages and took my stuff to the trailer and have been happily playing away.

Look what I got last week!



I'm having so much fun playing with this system and it's really helping me to crank out layouts again! If you haven't seen this, ya gotta check it out! It's very cool. It's called Pages By Design by Delsuxe Designs.

My baby is growing up

My youngest son, almost nine, has always been a little more attached to me than my older two ever were. He's had some sleepovers out of neccessity, but those were always accompanied by a lot of anxiety. The sleepovers that were by choice never made it through the night.

Well, yesterday, I was at my sister's and she invited him for a sleepover. Without hesitation he said "OK!" I asked him if he was sure and he said "Sure, why not!" I half expected him to chase me down the driveway as I was leaving but he just said "bye, Mom."

The last attempt at this was six months ago and he just couldn't bring himself to sleepover. In six months, my baby has transformed into a wonderfully confident young man. The best part was seeing the pride on his face.

The past month has been a whirlwind!

I feel like I've been away from home for ever. July is always a busy month for me and this was no exception. I spent a week at a Music Camp with my youngest son. He goes as a camper and I go as a counsellor. It's a fun week, but an exhausting week. After that we spent several days at a cousin's cottage where I was able to catch up on my sleep and catch my breath before moving on to the next thing.

We just got back from spending a fantastic week at Myrtle Beach. We've never been before so we didn't know what to expect. We all loved it. We stayed in a condo that was right on the beach.



This is where we stayed.

The weather was hot and muggy. Two days the temperatures broke 100 degrees F. Wow! That's hot! We did a lot of swimming, walking the beach, and going to some of the tourist traps. When the week was done I wasn't ready to come home.

The rest of the summer will continue to be busy for me as I will be spending what time I can at the trailer. I will be coming back and forth when the boys have their baseball and soccer games.