A new job

side note: my front yard looks horrible! yikes!
Well ok, not new but you get what I'm sayin', right?
so....
I think we're going to do this.
This being me staying at home. Being a stay at home mom. Can you believe it? As I said in my last post...I could either panic, or take this as a blessing/oportunity. I think Pete and I both have decided on the later of the two. I had this sort of revelation, so to speak, about it this morning. I'm taking this bump in the road as a sign or maybe a kick in the butt from God...Saying "Hello down there, isn't this what you wanted? Well you got it! Now do something about it!" The thing is, we never would have done this on our own. Oh, we've talked about doing it....but it was just talk. It's just that it's so easy to work. It's so easy to get that paycheck every week and put it in the bank and just know that next week there will be another one. You know what I mean? It's that whole comfort zone thing. Even with the ranch going and earning money, I know both Pete and I would still be like "well lets just see how this goes another month". And I'd still work. And a year from now, I'd still be working. Like that whole "we're not ready to have kids yet" or "we can't afford to buy a house" or "we're not ready to get married". Well it's the same thing....You're never really going to be ready, until you just do it.
So, it looks like we're going to try this stayin at home thing. We will have to tighten things up a bit and there may be a slight issue to work out with health benefits but I believe it's all going to work out just fine. We'll actually be saving a lot of money on gas, day care and lunches. Part of me still wants to freak out a little...that's just my nature. But I tell ya...when that corporate guy walked in the office Tuesday morning, I just knew something was up. And when I figured out what was happening, I almost had a smile on my face. Isn't that weird? And then as he's sitting there reading from a script, everything kind of went blank. I couldn't beleive it was actually happening. But when they handed over a box to go clean out our desks...I couldn't help but feel this overwhelming sense of relief. It was like Finally....I don't have to do this anymore.

Well,

I lost my job today. Not sure how to feel about it. Right now I'm kind of numb. But I figure I have two options.
A: Panic and cuss like a sailor.
or
B: Think of this as an opportunity/blessing.

I'm trying really hard to avoid option A.
But hey guess what? Tomorrow is casual day.

*whew*

Finally Friday. Sometimes short weeks seem to feel longer for some reason. I wonder why that is? hmmm.
Well I've been thinking about a whole bunch of stuff this week. All kinds of deep thoughts going through my head. I can't seem to consolidate them into any rational form of...well anything so I guess for now they'll all have to just stay in my head.
Oh, I wanted to clarify a bit about my last post. First, YES it really is that easy to get Jake to go to bed. He's so funny, because everything has to be just so. Not just with the words and actions, but like he has to have his jammies just so..the waist band can't be too high or too low, the tag has to be in...or the blanket has to be just right. If I haven't turn the fish tank light off before I come to tuck him in, he says "umm mommy, you are gonna turn the fishy light off, right?" He's just funny like that. It wasn't until recently that he's discovered he can actually get out of his bed. When he was a baby he never, ever tried to crawl out of his crib. And then at about 2 and half we put him in a regular twin sized bed and I guess he was just so used to us coming to get him out of the crib, it just transferred over to the bed. On Saturday mornings when I would sleep in (or try too anyways)I would hear him talking or singing to himself in his bed. He'd get tired of that and then start yelling for me. Instead of just getting up. I'd yell from my room, "Come here Jake! you can get up!" and he still wouldn't. Seriously, it's just been maybe in the last month where he now will get up and come knock on my door in the morning.
I've actually been blessed with 2 really good sleepers. Megan is quite the same way. She's been sleeping through the night since she was 7 weeks old and I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I've actually had to go in her room in the middle of the night. She has her own little bedtime routine too, and usually if she's got her sippy cup of water, she's good to go. Every now and then she cries a teensy bit, but not for long. She also will just sit in her crib and talk to herself in the morning too. I know, I'm pretty darn lucky.
Anyways, wow that was more of a tangent than I intended it to be. But I really don't have a ton to talk about anyways!
I have been having the WORST case of Spring Fever...or something. First of all, I feel a little silly complaining about the weather when my friend Nicole is experiencing -14* at her house. Minus 14?? My brain can't even process the thought. It's been pretty darn cold here too though. I mean, not minus 14 or anything. But still cold. It's been snowing for 2 days just up the road from us. Pete's ranch actually has about 6 inches of snow..I know that's nothing...but it kind of is for here. It's been raining since last Sunday. And I just looked at Weather.com and it's supposed to rain straight through next weekend. Blah! I'm just so sick of it. I'm tired of being cold, already! The weather on top of the fact that Pete is gone every single weekend is kind of making me have all this pent up energy. I seriously feel like I'm going to explode inside. Not in a bad way. Just like a claustrophobic way....like get me the heck out of here! I wanna go somewhere...stay in a hotel...see something I've never seen before. Anything. I just want to do something besides watch the freekin rain! LOL! Can we please just skip to Spring?
Ok enough complaining :)
Been slaking on the photo blog...not the photos, just the blog. Pete has been hijacking the computer every night this week. So hopefully tomorrow I can get that updated. Oh, and did you see Ali's new books on Shutterfly? Oh my heck! they look awesome! My step-sis and I made one of these photo books for my Dad and his wife for Christmas of our Hawaii pics...turned out SO nice. I've been wanting to make one for myself. Now I really want to do one like Ali's. Super cool. Check it out if you haven't already :)

A bedtime story

You give Daddy a hug and head up the stairs.
I feed the fish and turn out the light.
You feed Fatty the lizard and turn out his lamps.
I turn down the sheets.
You stand on the bed.
We hug and kiss.
You lie down.
I cover you up and tuck you in....one more kiss on the cheek.
"Goodnight. I love you."
"Goodnight Mommy, I'll talk to you outside"
I close the door.
you say: "GOODNIGHT MOMMY! I LOVE YOU!"
Through the door I say "Goodnight, I love you too"
"Mwah!"
"Mwah!"

It's the same routine every night and I love it.

Yes, this is a future scrapbook page :)

Saturday Sillyness

urr..uhh...maybe craziness.
I'll start with the boy. He's cute, yes? Yes he is. Too cute for his own good. And starting to act a little too big for his britches. Remember a few months ago when I was basically having a panic attack because someone had asked Jake to come out and play? And I stood in my living room pacing the floor and stalking the window every time I heard a car drive by? Well, I'm over that. Sort of. Ok not really..BUT I quickly began to realize...hey, it's quiet in here...and he's running off a lot of energy..and he's off just being a boy, doing what all boys should do. Of course I still kept a watchful eye/ear, and I set some pretty tough ground rules about playing outside. But I decided to go ahead and let go a bit on my tight lead around him. Today, I've decided he needs a little reeling back in.
This morning..it's maybe about 9:30. I'm not dressed yet and he wants to go out front to play. I say ok and I lay down the rules:
1. You must stay on the sidewalk
2. You can go from one end of the street to the other; this stop sign to this stop sign. (it's not a very long street at all...and hardly any traffic)
3. Don't go in any one's house.
4. Don't talk to strangers
I figure that covers most of the bases...and I planned on going out there anyways just as soon as I got myself and Megan dressed---10 minutes tops. So, I'm not dressed just yet but I'm just about to go upstairs and I look out the window to check on him. Don't see him. hmmm. Open the door. Don't hear him. hmmm...walk out on the side walk (in my jammies)...Look up one end of the street down to the other end. No where in sight. My heart starts racing and I'm just about to panic...Thinking I've got to be the worst mother in the world. How on earth could I just let him go out there alone? He'd only been out there MAYBE 3 minutes. Where on Earth could he have gone? I start running with Megan up the street when I hear him. He'd gone around to the back of the house...where our driveway is...Where our neighbors and their 2 boys were out playing. *Whew* My breathing settled but I was still hot. I was so mad that he didn't listen to what I had said. Yes, he was still technically at our house...he really didn't go anywhere he wasn't supposed to. But, he should have come back in the house and just said, "mommy, I'm going to go play in the back". I would have been totally cool with that. SO anyways, I've decided...No more going outside alone without mommy or daddy...or he's got to play with the other kids, as long as their parents are outside. That's it. And yeah, it's really for my own piece of mind. He's GOT to tell me what he's doing. Period.
2nd bit of craziness....My local scrapbook store. The LSS is closing down so I decided to go up there and stock up on some card stock. Everything is 50% off right now. So at 4 o'clock I pack the kids up and we head out. The store closes at 5 so I figure...it won't be that busy. Wrong! What the heck was I thinking? I walk in there and there's a huge line...like 20 or more people. Well...that can't be that bad, can it? I grab the card stock I wanted and walked around to see if there was anything else I had to have...not really, so I get in line. It's maybe 4:20 at this point. I finally leave the store at 5:30. Over an hour in line. What was I thinking? Was it worth it? eh. I guess. They didn't have any black or white card stock though...so that sucked. I have to say though, my kids were really good. I didn't pick Megan up out of the stroller until about 45 minutes into the waiting. She did real good. Jake buddied up with some other kids waiting for their moms. He was good too...until this real (ahem)nice lady comes up to me in the line.
Her: Ok who is the mother of that little boy in the orange shirt?
Me: (turning red I'm sure) Me. Oh no, what is he doing?
Her: (she holds up a piece of torn paper with one hand and has her b*tchy little other hand on her hip) HE is ripping up paper!
Oh well. My-jeez lady, it's ONE piece of paper. I'll pay for it for goodness sake. It's not YOUR paper or YOUR store, so why do you care? Ok wait...I'll back up. I just didn't like the attitude of this woman. But yeah, Jake should not have been ripping up paper. But you've got to give the kid a break...he'd been in there for over an hour. I'm surprised one piece of paper was the only casualty. Oh, and I did pay for the ripped paper-just for the record.
So then, after we leave there...I decide I haven't endured quite enough torture for one day...nor have my children, SO I head over to the grocery store. It's already 5:30 and it's dark and cold...people should be home eating dinner right? Wrong again. The place was packed. I do not like crowds...but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people stand in the middle of the isle and act like they don't even see you. Or when they bring their entire family including aunt Agnes and then they all stand shoulder to shoulder across the isle and are completely oblivious to the fact that you, your two kids and your basket full of food are trying to get by. Bugs the heck out of me because my mother always taught me to be conscious of others and to be courteous. If I ever even stepped in front of someone who was browsing the isle looking for something...I was to say "excuse me". And I still do to this day. Anyways, luckily we got out of there without too many scratches and hopefully I won't have to go back for another week.
So that's my Saturday ramblings for ya....I haven't eaten anything all day so I'm off to make me some dinner. Happy weekend!

Don't feel much like blogging lately

I think it might have something to do with having 2 blogs now...when I post on one I feel like I don't need to post on the other...I guess.
I got into a little accident today. It was NOT my fault. A guy in a truck decided to pull around some stopped traffic and decided NOT to even look in his mirror and he slammed right into me. Nice. Luckily, as you can see, the damage wasn't too bad no one was hurt. AND IT WASN'T MY FAULT. I keep stressing that because for some reason, I tend to be a bit accident prone. If we ever meet in real life..don't let me drive. I run red lights and I've bumped into a few things/cars in the past and about 2 years ago (when trying to avoid a head on collision) I lost control of my car and ended up straddling some rail road tracks. And for some reason, that story seems to make Pete's family laugh every time. IT WAS NOT FUNNY PEOPLE! ok..a teensy bit funny.
I realize this is all sounding a bit dramatic...I'm really not THAT accident prone. (well...the jury is still out on that one) But I've certainly had my fair share of unfortunate events when it comes to vehicles. I can't help but think that it's just me...that these things just seem to happen to me. But again, I'm being overly dramatic.
Anyways, I'm feeling ok...a bit of a headache and just some muscle soreness but otherwise ok. And thank goodness the guy had insurance!

short post...

not much going on around here...same old stuff. BUT I can't even believe it myself..I have been keeping up with my 365 project and posting them...with the exception of yesterday. I just can't bring myself to post it...it's a self portrait and it's just embarrassing. Anyway.
I've also been keeping up with my '08 book. It's turning out to be kind of a mod-podge of anything and everything. Some are from the prompts I have listed and some is just what ever I felt like doing. No pressure. I like it! I've actually added a few more pages since I took these pics.


I've also incorporated Emily Falconbridge's "thankful" idea to this book as well. I've just taken scrap pieces of paper as she suggested and used my date stamp and marked however many dates I can fit on that piece.
Lots of different sized papers/projects. Very simple elements-nothing fancy. So far it's been pretty easy to keep up. I hope the glitter doesn't wear off any time soon. I'm determined to have a finished product at years end.
Anyways, got to get ready for my day tomorrow. I'm up at quarter to 5 every morning now so I try and get at least all of our clothes set out for the next day before I go to bed.

Today:

I've been hit in the head twice with a toy cell phone. Once very hard. To which I now have a small bump on the side of my head. I've also been jumped on, hair pulled, and eye poked.
Today I've been overwhelmed with whining and crying. And sippy cups and screaming. And dirty diapers and food thrown on the floor. And "No"s and "I don't want to"s.
I've even been reduced to shed a few sorry for myself tears. It's just been one of those days.
But even after all that...I still got some good hugs and kisses and "I'm sorry I jumped on your head, Mommy."
And I guess that makes it all worth while.

Do you believe in ghosts?

This is such a complete random post! But it kind of lets you into a little bit more about me and where I came from...and I like talking about me. HA!
I don't know why I'm posting about this...but I was bored today and while blog surfing, I came upon a post about why someone believed in ghosts. I definitely think there are spirits...whether they are ghosts or not, I could not tell you. I used to turn my stereo off and it would pop back on like a minute later...I used to think that was a ghost. Could it have been? Or, was it just a glitch in my remote control or something? Anyway, as I was surfing, one thing led to another and I remembered the Vineyard House. This was a known haunted house not far from where I grew up. I lived near the town of Coloma in Northern California. Coloma was the site of the first gold discovery in California. In 1849 James Marshall was a working the water mill on the American River and came upon a large chunk-o-gold and the rest was history.....hundreds of thousands flocked to California from all over the world in search of fortune and fame. Anyways, back to the Vineyard House...this house is literally yards from the gold discovery site..it was built in the mid 1800's by a man and his wife and they obviously, by the name, were wine makers. The husband was said to have contracted syphilis...which in turn caused him mental health issues (umm which means he went crazy) the wife then chained her husband in a cell in the basement, where then, because of is mental issues, refused to eat and died of starvation. How crazy is that?!
In the 80's and 90's when I lived near there, the Vineyard House was a restaurant, bar and bed and breakfast. It was a known fact that the house was haunted. I'd been there several times, and don't recall actually seeing a ghost, (well, maybe...but not an actual apparition) but I do recall just an eerie feeling. Several people I know had been there and seen wine glasses explode on dinner tables, and once a chandelier dropped right onto a table. One time I was in there with my grandma...it was the middle of the afternoon and we were the only ones there except the lady that ran the gift shop. I remember standing there near the bottom of the stair well as she was talking. I could have sworn I heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs...like steps on the wooden floor and clothes rustling. But there was no one there. Was it a ghost?
Across the street from the house is a cemetery which I've walked through several times. I love old cemeteries! (is that weird?) I think I really love that there is history there. Like the evidence of humanity before me. If that makes sense. Like you read it in history books...but then you can see it for real. Ok, probably I only get that...that's ok! Back to the cemetery...that is supposed to be haunted too. The family who owned the Vineyard house is all buried there...along with many other settlers of their time. My good friend has family buried there dating from gold rush days to present day. I think that is so neat.
There is another cemetery not far from there in another little town...the Lotus Cemetery...Now that one..I can honestly say something very, very strange happened to me there. My parents had some friends visiting from out of town. So of course we had to take them to the "bone yard" as they called it. This cemetery is just as old as the first one I mentioned. Anyways, for some reason I decided to go off by myself...i didn't really want to be there and I was sick of listening to old people talk...I had this thing where I would never ever walk on a grave site..I stood in front of a headstone reading it and noticed it had a huge crack going right through the middle of it. I just kept looking at it...staring at it. And I it started swaying a little. Was I imagining it? I stood there and stared more. I started to feel a little dizzy. And then....the top half of the headstone fell flat on the ground. No joke. I ran so fast and found the adults. They completely did not believe me. They thought I was joking. "No! come look! for real, I'm NOT joking". We went back to the grave site and I kid you not....the broken headstone was back where it belonged. Was it a ghost? I have no idea...but I have no other explanation for it. And I've never forgotten it.
As I continued to surf the net today about the Vineyard House, I came upon several different articles which spoke about the "spookiness" of the California Gold Country. I'd definitely have to agree...there does seem to be something in the air there. I mean think about it. The gold rush was a tough life. Many people came here for fortune and wound up losing everything. Money makes people crazy. There was lots o killin going on in those days...so why not be haunted by it? But it is a beautiful place...and I really miss it.
So...do you have any ghost stories? Experience anything wacky? Know of any urban legends?
p.s....my other blog has been updated. Anonymous posters can comment now!

Creative Journey

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I want to try and focus on something creative..an on-going project. There are a lot of different ideas out there. I thought and thought about it...and remember that whole commitment thing I mentioned before? Yeah, I was kind of having a hard time committing to one idea. SO I've decided to take my own creative journey this year. No limits, no boundaries, no rules...no commitment other than to have a completed project by the end of the year. To the right I've listed a few different blogs with creative prompts. I plan on using these as a starting point each day...basically to pick whatever may be most inspiring me at the moment. Sometimes it may be paper, sometimes just words or a picture. What ever I feel like will help me tell my story. And if these don't work, then I'll just think of something myself. If you know of any other great blogs/challenges please let me know and I will add them to my list. I'm especially interested in photo prompts. I've created a new blog for my 2008 photo a day project. This one is going to be tough for me to keep up with, but I'm honestly going to try. I'm not planning on doing self portraits too often #1 because I suck at it. #2 Because I think that I am somewhat boring. #3 Because I don't wanna be like everyone else :P (J/K!) #4 because there's lots of other stories to be told.
The book~ The book is what I plan on putting my daily/weekly projects in. It's made of 2 pieces of 5x7 cardboard covered in paper from Scenic Route and 7 Gypsies and held together with book rings. The front says: '08 Paper, Pictures, Words. Oh! And I've also purchased a new photo printer so I can print at home to keep up with myself. If I had to wait for Costco or Snapfish I'd never do it.
So, we'll see how this goes. Anyone else doing something like this? Oh, I just remembered...I need to pick my word for 08!
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!