One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days? One of those days when even though you tell yourself over and over that you love your children...you just don't like them very much? One of those days when you know you'll loose your mind if you find one more spill (even if it is only water!), trip over one more stuffed animal or clean up one more mess? One of those days when you know you're going to go horse from all the yelling about how nobody listens to you (and then you wonder why they're not listening?!?!?!) One of those days when you wonder why you even bother, is any of it making a difference anyway? Why don't you just go to work, and send them to daycare, and let somebody else do the hard part so you can do the fun stuff?

And then out of the blue your two year old runs up and throws his arms around you and says "mommy, I love you!", or your four year old (out of bed for the fifth time during nap time) comes in and says "I just want to give you a hug!" and then hugs your arm and goes back to her room.

And you realize that yes, today is one of those days, but tomorrow will probably be better! And you're probably not the only one having one of those days! And as much as it sucks at the moment to be part of that club, you know that you wouldn't have it any other way, because it's those days that make you grow. And it's those days that inspire change. And it's those days that you'll look back on years from now and say "Yes it was hard, but I survived and I'm better for it." (and hopefully they are too!)

Yes, today is one of those days. It's a good thing tomorrow is a new day!!!!!

Crop-o-lotta (Happy Birthday to me!!!!)

For my birthday I treated myself to a 12-hour crop up at St. Joe's. It's a yearly fundraiser for the school, and a great way for me to get some uninterrupted scrap time! I love these long crops- I used to do one that was 24 hours, and I could get 20+ layouts done at once! I loved it! They don't do that one anymore, so I "settle" for the 12 hour ones, and try to hit at least one a year. I also treated myself to some new scrapbooking goodies from my favorite store, Archivers! Yummy! I walked in there and felt like I had died and gone to heaven! It had been over a year since I had gone shopping for scrapbooking supplies, but I thought I reigned myself in very well!!

At the crop I was able to complete 18 pages, 9 for Bri and 9 for Jonah. Some of them are a lot more elaborate than others (you can tell which layouts I was working on after hour 10 or so!!!) but I am pretty proud of what I got accomplished! Thought I would share a few of my favorites with you!

These two are using Bri's school pics that were taken in September, and then I interviewed her about her favorite things right now! If you have time, and you can see well enough, I encourage you to read her responses! They are hilarious! She is soooo 4!

These two pages are using Jonah's 2 year portraits that we finally got taken last week! I loved doing this page- the photos were just so fun, and I loved the foam letters that I used to spell his name!


And finally, this page. My friend Lynn took this picture of Jonah last August and I absolutely love it! I love his eyes- they are just captivating, and I knew this had to be a one photo layout.

As always, I had a blast and I'm really glad that I went! I got so much done, and can't wait for my next crop (which hopefully will be in Oct. as a fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Foundation) and I can then crop some new baby photos! Oooohhhh! What fun!

On my birthday we went out to a little local italian resturant for dinner with mom, and Steven's parents and sister. My mom surprised me with a fabulous new digital camera! I was so excited! We've been wanting to get a new camera for a while now, but just hadn't gotten to it yet! This camera is awesome, and I can't wait to start playing with it and seeing what all it can do! It's gonna take great pictures though, I can tell! And I got some gorgeous yellow roses from my hubby (my favorite!) It was a good day. I am one lucky lady!