[BeckyM]

Welcome back, Kelsey! I can't wait to hear about your trip & hope you do get some scrappy time in soon to.

AFM, it was a hectic weekend and I didn't get any scrappy time in. I'm also back to work tomorrow while Mark stays with his buddy from daycare (and her Mom of course). Jackie is off work until school starts back, so this works out perfectly. She can watch Mark for 4, sometimes 5 days a week for us. In return, we'll watch Jocelynee on some weekends & evenings for Jackie when she goes back to work. Her DH works out of town for about a week every month. Tomorrow is an earlier day for us since we have to drop car off (with the tires we order) to be installed and an alignment done. They open at 6:00, and then we'll head into work/daycare. Hopefully my work isn't too piled up with stuff to do, that 1st day back after being gone can be a pain at times. wish me luck.

[Happy Song]

ugh I just feel like I have anything to say my life is pretty mundaine. it is hot here, I am scrapbooking during nap time. repeat.

[BeckyM]

I hear you, Nicole. I feel like my life is Wash, Rinse, Repeat all the time. I hope you get some more pages cranked out in these last 2 day so of the month.

AFM, it's been a hectic morning here at work, and I've got lots of little issues to deal with and I've yet to tackle my inbox. I really really hope to have some scrappy time tonight - I need some "me" time.

[babyloves2dance]

Becky - I hope your day at work gets better and I also hope you get some scrappy time in!

Nicole - Your schedule is definitely letting you crank out the pages though!

AFM - I should have never gotten out of bed yesterday! LOL! All of our stuff from our vacation and shopping got piled in the living room so that I could work through it. DH was trying to keep Josh occupied while I did some laundry...he tripped over something and fell on the sack of cans. Busted one can open, dented another, and gave himself quite the bruise. Of course it was instantly my fault because I hadn't gotten through the stuff yet. (Later he did apologize and fess up that it was his own fault for not paying attention to what he was doing/where he was going.) Kendra was sure quick yesterday to blame everything on me. And I got a flat (unfixable) tire on the car driving from my in laws home to grab something for putting up sweet corn. Got to walk over a mile in 100 degree heat. Today has gone much better though.

For those interested in what we did for vacation here it is...

We left about 7 am on the 21st and drove up to Rapid City SD. On the way there we stopped at Trout Haven but didn't catch any fish and also drove through part of Custer State Park. Spent 2 nights in Rapid City. While we were there we went to Reptile Gardens, Bear Country, a giant maze, Storybook Island and Dinosaur Park. From there we drove to Deadwood SD and stayed there 2 nights. While staying there we road tripped into Wyoming to see Devil's Tower and had a picnic lunch. We also did some window shopping (but no gambling since we had the kids with us...not big gamblers anyway.) Then we drove to Hill City SD and stayed there for 2 nights. While there we rode the 1880 Train to Keystone and back, drove through more of Custer State Park and took some of the scenic drives. We also went to the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore. We had planned on seeing Crazy Horse but they hadn't gotten much more of it done since DH and I was there for our honeymoon 9 years ago. We had also planned to eat at the Alpine Inn for our anniversary (the 25th) but at 7:30 the wait was 1 hour and it was raining. Decided not to torture the kids and drove back to Rapid City to eat at Olive Garden instead. (If you ever go to Hill City I definitely recommend eating supper at the Alpine Inn!! Sooooo good!) From there we drove to Loveland CO for the night. The kids got to spend 3 hours at the bounce house place with Jason while I did some shopping. And the next day was school shopping and back home. Kendra was on meds for a sore throat when we left, Josh ran a fever the first night at Hill City and into the next day, and Kendra played so hard at the bounce house place that she got sick twice that evening. Jason and I decided that we may have went a little overboard and should have settled for a 4 day vacation instead as the kids got pretty fussy about the 4th day and they were that way until we got home. The kids favorite things were definitely the water park and the bounce house. Not sure they really cared about the rest of the trip. It was nice to get away though....and now definitely nice to be home.

[Brittanie]

okay, I'm back. No more traveling for me for a while! I was going to say for the rest of this year, but my sister told me while at my brother's wedding that she and her boyfriend are planning on getting married October 20th (but they're not "officially" engaged yet). Man this is a busy year!

[Jessica C]

Nicole, had to laugh at your comment about "repeat"....sometimes life just feels like that. Kinda like making your bed....why do it when you're just going to mess it up again later. Glad to hear you're scrapping more.

Kelsey, I see TONS of pages coming out of your trip. Even tho it was long because of cranky kids I'm sure you all enjoyed it very much. I also could see DH getting upset about the same thing yours did...even tho it was more his fault than yours Hopefully you can get scrappy time in....are you going thru scrappy withdrawals?

Brittanie, glad you're back and hope you can get some rest before you have to leave again.....but mostly I hope you can get some scrappy "me" time in soon.

Good Luck with getting caught up at work Becky. I love being away from work for vacay time but hate having to go back to the piles of work.

AFM, potty training went a little bit better yesterday....well, a lot better. I had decided to wait a few days after last weeks fiasco. Yesterday Jaylen said she wanted to wear panties, which I said ok, but you need to use the potty before you put them on. I didn't get any fussing or crying...in fact she was quite happy about it. Got her all situated on the toilet (she likes using the big one and not her potty chair) and she told me to move, like get out of the bathroom move. Ok. Next thing I know I hear her yell that she peed in the toilet REALLY??? Sure enough she had. But she kept saying that she still needed to go, so we spent like the next 45 minutes playing that game...but at least she was going. Had some errands to run and because of this new game we got out of the house at 12:30 instead of 11 like I had hoped (wanted to be back about 1 for naptime). I asked her before we left if she had to go and I got a no...ok, I'm prepared this time with clothes, dipes, pull ups, panties. By the time we are headed home about 3 she's still dry! Told her she needed to use the potty before naptime. Get her situated, she told me to move and I barely made it around the corner when I hear her pee a lot....not just little bits like earlier, but a lot. Of course that made her very happy and excited....me more so than her. So hopefully we are turning a corner in the potty training.

Scrappy-wise, I got the scrapbuilder page and scrapbuilder card done yesterday. Need to get off here so I can work on another page and then hopefully another during naptime today

[BeckyM]

Kelsey - Glad to have you back sweetie!! Boo on DH getting upset, but glad he did apologize. My DH would have reacted the same way. I to look forward to seeing all kinds of scrappy pages from pics from this trip.

Brittanie - welcome back to! I hope you had a good time and that the October wedding doesn't involve traveling that far. I also hope you get some scrappy time in soon to.

Jess - yay, Jaylen!!! Now can she talk to her buddy Mark over here? I'm not having much success here, he doesn't want to sit still on potty for more then a few seconds at a time and prefers to run through the house yelling, "I'm naked!!!!". Silly boy. I just got your scrap/card builders so I'm off to prepare the post for the reveal. It's always amazing to see how much they change.

AFM - hectic here at work. I just jumped on to see how everyone was doing and to do the post for the reveal of the scrap/card builders. I hope to have time at lunch to update more.

[babyloves2dance]

Brittanie - Glad to have you back! I hope you had a great trip!

Jessica - Hooray Jaylen!!!! That is great! Now that we are back from vacation it is time for me to start working with Josh on potty training again. And yes I am definitely going through scrappy withdrawals!!

Becky - How funny about Mark running through the house yelling "I'm naked"! I got a good chuckle out of that one! Sorry work is hectic. Hope it lets up for you!

AFM - I forgot to tell about this part of the vacation. While DH was with the kids at the bounce house place, I was doing some shopping. DH had told me I should go to the craft store. I started by going to Carter's and then Target and then headed to Joann's. I had only been in Joann's for about 5 minutes when I got a text that the kids were starting to get tired. I had to laugh. Told him when I got back to the bounce house place that he must have known that I was in the craft store. It never fails that as soon as I get to the craft store I get a call or a text from him saying he is ready to go. LOL! I made him and the kids wait though. Bought 2 more paper packs.....like I really need them. LOL!

Not much else going on here. Still trying to unpack everything and catch up on the house work I got behind on before we left.