Every mom knows how expensive it can be to get professional pictures taken of your kids. Every time I take my kids to Sears (which is on the affordable end of the spectrum), I spend well over $100. So, I decided to experiment with my camera today. My two girls spent the night at their grandma’s house, so it was just me and my son this morning. I fixed his hair and told him what to wear and the two of us headed outside for an impromptu photo session. Some of the pictures looked awful. I’m certainly not a photographer, but I did get some that I really liked. So I went to Walgreens.com and ordered 8×10’s, 5×7’s, wallets and regular 4×6’s as well. My total was just over $15. What a major improvement! And you can see the pictures below! I’m happy with the photos and the price!

Jacob 1

Jacob 2

Jacob 3

Jacob 4

Jacob 5

I spent the day riding all over town inquiring about job openings at various places. After many dead ends, I think I’ve found something pretty promising at a day care just a block away from my children’s school. I spoke with the owner this afternoon and she asked me to come back Monday morning to speak with the girl who does her hiring. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll post more on Monday!!

When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they’re seeing angels.

Quoted in The Angels’ Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

Since my husband and I started trying for baby number 4 last year, I have been addicted to the baby shows on TLC and DHC. A Baby Story, Birth Day, Bringing Home Baby, Amazing Births… the list goes on. I’m not sure why I like watching these shows, because they don’t always make me feel happy. Sometimes, it’s pure misery to sit through these shows, especially when I just took a pregnancy test and it’s a big fat negative! But I keep watching them. Go figure. My husband comes home for lunch most days and he laughs at me because every time he walks through the door, one of these shows is on. I’m pretty sure he thinks that all daytime t.v. consists of is soap operas and baby shows (well, honestly there’s not much else except for talk shows and People’s Court type crap). I guess, if I’m not pregnant myself, I just as soon watch shows about people who are. I’d bet money that once I get the positive, I don’t feel quite as compelled to watch the baby shows. We’ll see soon hopefully.

I spent the entire day today at the school my children attend. One of the PTA moms called me and asked if I’d be interested in helping out with the book fair at school and I told her I would. It was my job to help the younger kids find items that they could afford and total up their merchandise and take their money. I got a bird’s eye view of exactly how much kids do not understand the concept of money. It made me laugh, and sometimes, it was sad. I can honestly say I will never send my kids to the book fair with only a dollar. Some kids showed up with loose change, not even enough for a piece of bubble gum, much less anything at the book fair. A lot of the really young kids had a dollar or two, but wanted ten dollar items. They would ask over and over again if they had enough money, hoping, I suppose, that we’d suddenly say they could afford it. Poor babies. Some didn’t have money at all and just shopped around, looking longingly at all the stuff they couldn’t buy. One kid told me 4 times that he wished he had money (hint, hint).
My kids were totally stoked that I was at school all day. Both my girls made a trip to the library to visit me and to pick out what they wanted, and my son came on his recess break and chose two books. It’s been a long time since I ate a school cafeteria lunch. Chicken strips, mac & cheese, salad, grapes and chocolate milk. I have NO idea why I was such a skinny child. LOL
Overall, I enjoyed my time at the school today. The librarian was really nice and I offered to come back and help in the future if she ever needed me to. She quickly told me Friday mornings at 8 a.m. would be wonderful.

How To Get Pregnant:
1. Donate your last piece of baby equipment to Goodwill.
2. Send your youngest child off to kindergarten with a dance of joy.
3. Start writing that novel you’ve always dreamed about ( or take golf lessens, join a bowling league)
4. Spend $ 500. 00 on a new wardrobe for work
5. Get a cat or a puppy.
6. Just finish all the paperwork to adopt a child.
7. Let your best friend or sister use the baby name you’d been hoping to use for your next child.

Unknown

I’ve been thinking that I might try to get a part time job in order to make a little extra money in time for Christmas. I still want to be able to drop my kids off at school every morning and pick them up in the afternoon, so whatever I end up doing, I’ll have to do it between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. I’m not even sure if there’s a place that would hire me a few days a week for those hours, but it sure would be nice if I could foot the bill for some of the Christmas expenses this year. Just an extra few hundred dollars a month would make the holidays a little more relaxed. I hate the feeling of stress during the holidays since that’s totally NOT what its supposed to be about.
So the search begins. I’ll probably put in a few applications and see what kind of feedback I get. I haven’t had a job since I was 20! That’s almost 10 years ago. Yikes! So, I have to admit, I’m a little nervous. If and when I find something, I’ll certainly post all about it here!

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

Oscar Wilde

Perilous, the butterfly’s journey across the highway.
Shimmering midnight wings, small flecks of electric blue,
flutter lazily, whimsical,
as burning, churning engines roar along
just inches from her carefree flight.

Across two lanes of molten blacktop
her wings carry her
safely to the tall, cool green of the
roadside grass.

09/11/2006

This is probably one of my favorite pages that I’ve done for my son’s scrapbook. I took some photos of him playing his drums and had them printed in black and white. I did the layout in grays, black and white. I just don’t think the page would have the same “POP!” if I hadn’t had the pictures printed in black and white. This layout was pretty easy, too, with no tedious, time consuming techniques. I used various rubber stamps for the background, the title, and the embellishments.

You Rock

You Rock 2

You Rock 3