Wanted to share this...

This is my latest creation. I'm super happy with it. I'm going to credit Chrissy for inspiration: 1). because she has enlightened me to the coolness of 8.5x11. I am in love with this format right now. And 2). I used patterned paper as my base. Chrissy does this a lot. I almost always use cardstock as the base of my page and then add bits of patterned paper from there. So thanks Chrissy! I have had this elephant paper from Basic Grey for like 5 months now. I love it, but I never could find a use for it. It worked out great here. This is my new thing...do you see, this is a journalling only page. No pics. I'm going to start doing this more often. 1). because sometimes I get kind of caught up in the ART of it all and then I run out of room or just feel like if I added anything else to a page it would be too much and I end up leaving out some good stories. And 2). because I don't really have a baby book for either one of my kids. So this is a way I can write down all their little milestones without having to necessarily create a layout based on it. You know what I'm saying? So I'm totally down with it. I really liked not having to worry about a photo. Refreshing. I have so much scrapbook stuff to do. I have to circle journals sitting here and I have not touched one of them. Well I look them both over tons, but I have not added my entry to either and uhhh I need to like send Carla's off to Jude like this weekend. *Crap* Oh yeah and I have another layout to do for Unpubbed. Well, I guess I'll have to get down to this weekend.

Did you all have a good Memorial Day? I hate the fact that most people kind of forget what the holiday is all about. (Totally ME included!) I'm not pointing fingers, just kind of stating a fact. I mean especially in that we are at war right now. We have young men and women fighting for our freedom right now. Today. Today they are dieing and crying, and fighting, and missing their families for the sake of you and me. Not trying to get all political. i definitely have a different opinion of this war now than I did when it all started. I really do wonder what it is we are fighting for over there. But most importantly, I want to remember and support our guys and gals. I want them to know that they are not forgotten. So if by any chance you are a passer by and you are a soldier...Thank you. For reals, Thanks.

Our Memorial Day did not have anything to do with America, or soldiers, or anything like that. We ended up going to the Oakland Zoo on Monday. We, meaning my MIL, all three SIL's and all 6 kids. It was super fun. And we had gorgeous weather. I'd never been to this zoo. It was actually really nice. Some of you might be familiar with Oakland and might be thinking the words "Oakland" and "nice" may not belong in the same sentence together! Well it is true, a lot of Oakland is totally ghetto, but the majority of it is very nice. The zoo being no exception. Jake had actually never been to a zoo before. He was so excited about everything. They had a reptile/amphibian house and that was by far his favorite. I thought I lost him at one point. Seriously, I started to kind of panic a bit. He was so excited that he wouldn't stand still. He would look at something and then just start running to the next thing 10 seconds later. It was crazy. So finally my MIL just went off with him by herself and let him lead the way. We couldn't find them for like 45 minutes. I thought for sure Jake had run off and she'd lost him! Good Lord. Thank the Lord he didn't and she kept up with him! So I got NO good pics of the zoo. Suck. I just uploaded them tonight and there's maybe one good one of a giraffe. hmm.

Outside the zoo they have a bunch of little kiddie carnival rides. So of course we had to let the kids ride. I took Jake on this little tiger roller coaster. He hated it! It was so funny sitting next to him. He didn't cry or anything, you could just tell he was not enjoying himself at all! Faith took him on another ride that was kind of a combination of the Tea Cups at Disneyland and a Tilt-a-whirl at your local carnival. Not only does it spin around, but it also has a wheel in the middle that you can turn and spin very fast. So before the ride even starts, Faith (she's 8) has the thing spinning like crazy. I didn't even know they made rides like that anymore. You should have seen Jake. His eyes looked like they were just going to pop out of his head. When he got off, he looked miserable and said he just wanted to go home. Long story-short--he lasted for another whole 2 hours maybe...we stopped to get something to eat and he didn't eat. But as soon as we walked in the door....BLAHHH. Yep. He puked. Poor kid. But he felt so much better after that! He went to bed at 6:30 and slept all night. It was a tough day for him!

Anyways, that's about it for now. Ended up being longer than I expected. Off to pay some bills (gross) and then go to bed.

night night. :)