Well, all three kids made it through their first day of school.  I was most worried about Kirby since this is his first year of middle school.  It's such a huge transition from elementary...all the changing rooms and teachers, figuring out lockers, alternating schedules, meeting new kids (and lots of them).  It's overwhelming and my Kirby does not do change well.  I really thought he might balk and refuse to get on the bus.  We had a bit of a melt down the night before where he proclaimed he was staying home in his pajamas for the rest of his life.  But he did it...got on the bus, made it through the day and actually smiled a bit when he got home.  Of course this morning he must have felt more nerves because his stomach hurt and he really wanted to stay home.  I had to be mean mom and made him go anyway.

Kyler and Kyra did great because they are now pros at their schools.  Ky in 4th grade and Kyra a Sophomore at highschool.  They both had good days and are ready to get back into a schedule after a lazy summer.

I spent my first day of "freedom" making a list and checking off items that desperately needed to get done.  I got about 90% of it done.  Today I woke up with a bad back, so I called the chiro and can't get in until tomorrow.  That meant laying on a heating pad and keeping Will occupied with movies.  Then Scott called and asked if I wanted to help him shoot some puppies (not with a gun, a camera...duh).  Second Chance Rescue had three 6 week Shitzu puppies.  Oh my goodness...cuteness overload!!  It took my mind off my back that's for sure!  I could have taken home the little girl...she fell in love with me too.  She followed me everywhere and cried when I left the room.  sigh...

I love back to school time because it feels like a new start, even for me.  I also felt this way after Christmas break and remember what happened...broken toe.  Now I'm all gung ho for this school year and what happens...bad back.  grrrrrr!!!  I don't get motivated to work out and clean the house that often so it's frustrating to have it curtailed with an injury.  Bummer.

Today started out weird.
Kyra has semester tests, so we got up extra early and got starbucks.
Then Kirby woke up really sick with a sore throat and fever so he's home. 
I have Will today (for the last time??) and I have to pick up Kyra at 12:30. 
I guess we won't be going out to lunch like we planned.  That might have to wait until tomorrow.

I found out that they are turning my local Ruby Tuesday into a freaking IHOP in a month.  All those yummy vegetables and now chocolate chip pancakes??  Grrrrrrr...  Kyra told me last night that she's going to think the official name is "Freaking IHOP" because that's all I've called it since I found out.

Did you see that the Gallery Standouts Blog is back up and running?  If you scrapbook, or just like looking at great LO's this is the blog to have in your blog reader.

I opened up photoshop to design some papers.  We'll see how that goes, since everytime I open something up I take a detour to play Bejeweled Blitz.  That game is worse than crack.

Does anyone want to come over and do some gardening?  I did some work Monday night and my hamstrings are still killing me.  I have so much grass and weed trees in my flower beds.  I'd love to dig them up and start over.  I also want to try my hand at square foot gardening and plant some veggies.  I was drooling over the seedlings coming up in this one.

-made that margarita cake last night, had to ask Kyra's boyfriend to bring me a 1/2 cup of sugar, forgot to add the oil, everyone liked it.

-Mother's day was nice.  Went to Fudruckers for a very late lunch/early supper.  Looked at puppies at Minicritters, went to Sam's and got my mother's day present, it's a point and shoot that has a manual mode!

-Will is on super duper laxitives from the doctor.  I got to experience the benefits this morning, half hour after he got here.  Can you say bath at Amy's house?

-Went and got the weeks worth of groceries.  How in the heck it came to $115 is beyond me!  I thought I was doing good!

-I've been on the treadmill almost daily for a week.  Such a difference in my energy level.  You know Newton's law?  An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acting on by an unbalanced force.  That's where I was...stuck in rest mode for almost a year.  First my back and then my broken toe.  It took some clothes shopping and some back pain to get me back into motion.

-I'm gearing up to scrap again.  Once again, that Newton's law applies.  Unless you do it you lose it.  And I've lost it.  So, I bought new stuff during NSD and I'm writing down stories that I want to scrap.  I also found a new outlet that will encourage me to scrap more often.  Let's just say that ditching all my creative teams was not the best idea for me.

-Speaking of scrapbooking.  I'm not really designing much.  I think I lost my mojo or even my desire to make stuff.  Are we over saturated with digi supplies at the moment?  I think yes.

-This is the last week of school for the kids.  So hard to believe...it goes so fast.  Kyra has summer school this summer, and I won't have extra kids for the first time in years.  It will be interesting to see if I can accomplish anything of substance.

-Baseball season has begun.  Kyler had a scrimmage game last Monday and two tournament games on Saturday.  I got rained on for 2 out of the 3 games.  You would think I could invest in an umbrella?  We lucked out this year and we have no double up games between the boys.  4 nights a week we'll be at the ball fields without worrying about who's shuffling who where and when.  Nice.

-Ok...off to do 4 more loads of laundry that I neglected over the weekend and to scrub my toilet, because Will said it was nasty. LOL!

Check back tomorrow for lots of updates.

Here's the kit, I'd give anything to have a baby girl to scrap with this!

Nothing else going on.  We got some snow yesterday and more coming today.  It was really feeling like spring earlier this week with 56 degree temps.  Guess that's gone for awhile.  Scott is bringing Hannah and Will over after lunch.  Hannah had to be picked up from school with a stomach ache and he has to run an errand so I said I'd watch them.  My day doesn't really feel complete without my Will fix! :)

Here are my top 10 (I'm positive that Amy Winehouse was the subject of many of these...esp. #2)

-Amy needs some helping drinking apparently
-Amy needs gloves to touch herself
-Amy needs to either wake up or start getting some extra will-power
-Amy needs help
-Amy needs to find a home where she can spend her golden years and be a cherished member of the family
-Amy needs a break
-Amy needs her prince
-Amy needs another cocktail before facing police
-Amy needs to contact her phone service and have her number listed so her adoring public may contact her directly and quit bothering me
-Amy needs to remember she’s married to someone

The boys are headed out of town this weekend for Twins fest.  I have plans to go to some movies with my Mom and maybe out to lunch with her and Kyra.  I would say that I could clean the laundry room or take on Kirby's disaster area of a room, but if the boys are going to be out having fun then so am I!

Cameron's job is going to be changing again.  He's been enjoying a local job that brings him home every night and regular days off, but it looks like they are cutting that job and he'll be back out of town half the time.  It's never routine with the railroad.  As long as he still has a job I'll be happy.  They announced 2500 BNSF employees were laid off.  Cameron should have enough seniority to stay on for a while, but who knows in this economy.

I released a new product today at the Lilypad.  They're called puddle jumpers.  Not a template, and not a quick page.  A flattened JPG that I've started and you get to jump in and finish.  The Pollywogs and my CT have enjoyed using them, check out their pages.

Amanda:

Crissy:

Claire (shades of bliss):

Alright...time to go make spaghetti and garlic bread.  Kyra is babysitting so no worries about meat sauce!

Nope...my big news is a little yellow sheet that Kyra brought home from school today.  She casually said something about being number one in her class, but sure that they made a mistake and someone had told her that other people had the same number on their sheet, blah, blah, blah.  I'm like...what are you talking about?  She said my class rank says 1 out of 643?  She goes on to say that it can't be right, they must have screwed up...blah blah blah.  Now I'm looking for the numbers on the sheet when my mom who was sitting next to me rips it out of my hands! LOL!  Sure enough...my girl is ranked #1 in her freshmen class.  Wowzers.  Like my mom said...we knew she was smart, but THAT smart?  She works so hard for her grades, it's not something that she breezes through easy peasy.  So that makes it all the more rewarding!!

In other news I broke my toe on Jan 5th.  It's still giving me grief and I guess I'll have to go back in and have it looked at.  I think the toe is healing fine, but the ball of my foot is really painful, I'm guessing the kitchen bench may have crushed more than my toe!

Kyra and I have trashed out the basement in a week long crafting/school project marathon.  She took the creative portion of her literary terms project literally and went to town altering a book leaving scraps of paper everywhere.  I've been making mittens and there are felt scraps everywhere.  I also decided to glitter up some papers and there is a very pretty sparkle everywhere.  I'm cleaning it up today, but decided to take pictures because it really is unbelievable!

My mom has the day off today so I think we're doing lunch and finalizing our Christmas lists.  I've already cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen.  I want to get the basement decent before we leave. Tomorrow is no TV/computer/video game day.  We are all cleaning our bedrooms.  We can have our privileges back after our rooms are clean.  And yes, I mean that for every member of the family, myself included. 

Who knows when I'm done I might do another blog post!