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Project Life-Week 3

Runnning a tad bit behind on getting this finished, but finally got it done today...

Last week was a busy week, mainly at the beginning and towards the end...

The little bits and pieces of "stuff" I had for this week...Chaz's name badge from his church retreat..and I cut up the flyer for it and included it under the picture of him and his bud...

I also had one insert..bless their hearts at church..they took group pictures and had printed them for the parents..yay! I found 5x7 page protectors at Hobby Lobby, but they are way bigger than 5x7, so tried my hand at customizing them by cutting them down and sewing them...it would help if I could sew straight, but not going to let it bother me..no REALLY, I'm not...

They had even added the logo onto the picture :)

This second photo was of the brave (?) souls that took the challenge and went Polar Bear Swimming in the lake at 7am in JANUARY..yes, my son was part of that group :)

I made a little mini collage of the pics from when I took B and her friend to the movies..made it in Picasa...

and oh yes I did...I switched to computer journaling on my cards..and sigh, I feel so much better!I also made a little canvas in Photoshop and put two of my pictures on it and sized it to fit the 3x4 slot...

and here again, I am going to go on about how much I am enjoying this project!!! LOTS!

I'm linking up to The Mom Creative and to One Happy Mama...

I curse the friend that introduced me to these....

at our last scrapbooking retreat to be exact..ahem, Joanna Latham...

I really have no room in my life for new really good snacks..I'm trying to eliminate snacks from my diet, not add to them...and just cause they say "Veggie"..don't let that fool you, because if you eat half a bag, they really aren't sensible, right?

We had a great anniversary...

Brad brought me these beautiful flowers on Friday, and we exchanged cards...

(Chaz was grossed out because Brad's card had the word "sexy" on it...first thing he noticed when he came in from school..he yelled "ewwwwwwww"...funny)

On Saturday, my parents came to watch the kids (thanks Nannie and Poppie) while Brad and I went to our favorite restaurant, Houston's...

It was awesome as always...I got my usual Flying Chicken Platter and Brad got ribs..all of this was after the most delicious Artichoke dip and drinks...The Houston's on West Paces Ferry is our favorite one to go to..love the atmosphere there...

It was a nice weekend..despite the bad weather earlier Saturday that interrupted the basketball game we were in the middle of playing and sent the whole packed gym into the halls due to a tornado warning..interesting..I was really concerned that Brad and I were not going to get to go out for our date that night..lol

Both kids were crying because they were worried about Ace at home..Brad couldn't get a signal on his cell phone to call our neighbors..it was a trip..thankfully, the tornado didn't come our way although one did touch down not far from us...mercy! 

Today is our 16th Wedding Anniversary....

and I have to say that by the posts of congrats from people on Facebook, it's making me feel old...comments like "WOW, that's a LONG time"..and things of that sort..haha..kidding, I know people don't mean it that way...I guess...

and in writing this post, one thing I realized is that Brad and I need some new pictures of us together..that I like of myself...this is from our trip to San Antonio in December...(and I've never worn that shirt again b/c I realized in these pictures that it makes my hips look bigger, god love)

ANYWAYS, back to the matter at hand...

I've been blessed to have this man in my life for many many years...WAY before we were ever a couple, mainly due to the 7 year age difference between us cause it would have been illegal..but I had my eye on him since I was about 9...I used to swoon over him at church, but at that time, he was 16..lol...however, many years later, fate brought us together and since our first date (Feb 18th, 1993?), we've never broken up or been apart...I truly believe it was meant to be (and I truly know that I have a sixth sense or something if I picked my husband when I was nine..that's like Chaz having a crush on a girl now and they end up getting married many moons down the road..weird thinking of it that way)...

Anyhow, we've had a few bumps in the road over the years, but never anything we couldn't handle..and that's marriage...not always going to be perfect, but overall, it has been REALLY REALLY GOOD....we are team mates, "homies", partners, co-prison wardens to the kids, "lovers" (haha  I HATE that word, but I guess, technically, we are..ha), best friends, etc...recently Brad told me "I have your back" about some things I was struggling with and man, that just really meant a lot to me to hear him say that...THAT'S what it is all about, I think..having each other's back...Something about knowing that as long as we have each other and things are ok between US, gives me a great sense of calm and comfort...I have to be talked off the ledge every now and then, and Brad is good at doing that for me :) 

So, 16 years have gone by really fast and I hope to heck there's at least 16 more to come..actually more like 60 years, but you know what I'm saying...

Happy Anniversary Brad..I love you with all my heart :) xxxxooooxxxxooo 

Project Life- Week 2

Ok, so with this post, I'm caught up...

(click the pics to see them larger)

This was last week...

Left page: 

One thing I've figured out how to do is save a screen shot and print it...this one is of my new craft night blog that I've been working on and planning...and I talk about all that on a journaling card..

On the far left is a card with a ticket from our new sermon series ...we were invited to give those out to invite others to come (which I did ;)), but I also saved one to talk about...

and that picture of Ace? Just cracks me up everytime I look at it..love it!

Right:

Some things to note on this side...I had two doctor's appts this week, so that is what the top left is..my eye prescription and notes from my dental appt..and I talk about how I'm trying hard to keep up with things like appts for myself..I'm so bad about that...

We also went to eat a few times....and both times I forgot to take a picture, so I just Googled the name of the restaurants and downloaded some pictures of them for the internet and made the card on the far left...

Same thing with our new Life Group which we started on Friday..I would have felt like a dork asking to take a picture at the meeting, so I took a picture of our book we'll be studying to represent that instead...this project is challenging me to think of other ways to document different things even if I don't have a picture of the people or whatever...

I also added an 8 1/2 by 11" insert this week..the kids got their report cards, and they were awesome as usual..we took them out for ice cream and had a little gift for both of them...

I added their report cards and layered some pics of them from our outing on top...

Now that I'm caught up, I'm going to try to start posting my Project Life layouts each week on Tuesdays along with others on the internet....

Thanks for looking :)

Edited to add: Great post on Project Life here on Becky Higgin's blog...

Project Life- Title page and Week 1

Finally...here is my title page and week 1 of Project Life ( I did get a late start though, so really I'm pretty caught up..just need to add a few things to this past week and that will be ready to share)...

I do have to say that I am really enjoying this process..one thing I'm going to change is to computer print on my journaling cards..as much as I've tried to like my handwriting, I just don't...I've read posts where there are others out there the same way..and I found a way on this blog to do it...so week 3 will have computer printed cards (and I can't say that I won't go back and redo these ...lol)...

(click on the pictures to see them larger)

The letters for our name are nice and glittery...

Week 1...

Left page:

I like printing some journaling directly onto my photos using Photoshop...I'm using just a plain date stamp from the office section for my dates...

Right page:

I also like how the color pictures combined with the b/w pictures look..I put two pictures onto one 4x6 canvas and printed them...

I also like pulling little stickers from my stash to add here and there...

Off to a good start!

Clomp, clomp, clomp...

For some reason, Bailey has been obsessed with these shoes of mine (they have medium heels which you can't see here)...wears them constantly around the house....looking like a "hoochie Mama" with her skinny jeans and these...and she has her BFF over spending the night, they went to put their pajamas on at 8:30...and she has "the shoes" on...lol

She asked me if she could wear them to school too....ummmm?

Finding joy in the mundane tasks of the day...

Just a minute ago, as I was digging the hair out of my bathroom sink drain so that it would actually DRAIN (disgust)...and wiping crud from the toilet (gag), and cleaning funk off the counters (shudder)...I caught myself thinking how much I despise cleaning the bathroom...you can understand why, right? and as I was taking my dog for a walk and trudging my larger-than-I'd-like butt up and down hills and thinking how I wish I was just skinny by genes and didn't have to exercise and could eat whatever I wanted....I wondered to myself..how can I find joy in the mundane tasks of life that I may not particularly like doing (although I like walking my dog, it's the exercise part I was referring to)...and I found an answer, so I thought I would share to maybe help someone else...

One thing I think about that brings me back to earth and off my throne is to think about the cancer patients that I take care of at work...the sickness, the horrible fatigue that they feel, the non stop doctor's appointments and scans and xrays, the worry, the stress, the visits to the hospital, the not being able to go out and be around a crowd due to low blood counts...and THAT pretty much brings me back to reality..really, many of those people would give anything to be able to have the energy to clean the bathroom or their house or to be able to go for a walk...These things would actually be a huge blessing to them...

And then I felt horribly guilty that I was being such a jerk about doing a little bit of work...and I turned up the music on Pandora and started to sing as I cleaned...thank you Lord for reminding me of the blessings I have...

Just another thought to ponder....

*Edited to add..WOW, I turned the music from the mellow Dave Matthews channel to some old school hip hop songs...what a difference it made! Now, 'scuse me while I go get my dance moves on while I finish cleaning (where no one can see, of course) :P

To the hoop ya'll...

This Saturday, Chaz had his first basketball game and Bailey cheered for the first time in a game...they looked quite cute, I have to say....

(yes, I make them pose for pics before stuff like this..can't help it)

Bailey had to cheer two games before Chaz which = being there at 8:45..which made this late-sleeping- on the-weekend-Mom not so happy, but oh well...they cheered pretty well considering how they looked in practice..hahaha...

(click to see the collages larger)

(and I do have to mention that I'm working on my basketball photography...lol..it's not easy..and the lighting around the gym? Yikes! Very yellow color cast)

Poor poor Chaz had to sit through two games before HIS game..he was so ready to play, he couldn't stand it...and I have to say, I was SO proud of how he played his FIRST game..he looked like a natural out there..but one thing I really liked was seeing him go over to his teammates to give them a high five or patting a teammate on the back..Brad and I have discussed several times how he is so good to give other players props where deserved...we have had discussions on many of a car ride home from a baseball tournament where he sat back there and talked about how well so and so hit or how awesome that catch was that so and so made..love that about him :)

and if you look at this picture below, you can see how much shorter the majority of the players on our team were..lol..we're the "shawty" team..(we are the blue team on the backside)

I feel I must insert one definition of the word "shawty" for all you up north people from the Urban dictionary ..lol

shawty
	Shawty originated from Atlanta. It's the south's version of the word Shorty. It is used as a greeting, farewell, or in the place of peoples names or pronouns(he,she,his,her). 1) Wassup Shawty  2) Shawty trippin  3) Did you get shawty's number  4) Aight then shawty

Being a "shawty" myself, I told Chaz it's not how tall you are, but how you handle the ball and play your game...uh huh! and our shawtys ran all over that tall team (not that WE keep score in Upward or anything, but our coach does cause he's like us..a tad competitive) ..Chaz wanted to know why the scoreboard kept saying 0 to 0...which I get...I'd rather there was a score..it's called competition, but whatever, it was SO fun! I love watching a good basketball game!

He got a star for his two baskets he made....(he made a lot of assists too ...lots of good passes)..in Upward, after the game, they give out stars to iron on the arm of their shirts for different things...

We had a great time! That gym was packed...good times for sure!

Guess what I just ripped into?

Yep, I'm caving in and doing Project Life..After going back and forth between the Clementine and Cobalt, I finally decided on the Cobalt edition..going to use my own American Craft book...

I've got to get my Title page done and last week completed...

Crossing my fingers I can keep up with this all year...

(Gosh, I love getting packages in the mail :)  )