School's Out!

Today was the last day of school for my boys. I definitely think they are happier about this than I am. I am looking forward to taking a break from the daily routine (although I take great comfort in my routines...Monday is Laundry Day, you know). I am happy to not have to set my alarm for the morning, but I will get frustrated when I don't get myself moving to get to the grocery store before lunchtime.

The challenge of every mom in the summer, I suppose, is to keep the kids fairly occupied without resorting to eight hours a day of TV watching/video game playing. There will be several weeks that they will have something to do for at least part of the day, whether it's Cub Scout camp or vacation Bible school. There are plenty of things I could do with them. We have memberships to the zoo, the museum center, and the theme/water park. However, none of these places is much less than twenty miles from our house, and with ever-increasing gas prices, hopping in the car for an 80-mile round trip is less than appealing.

Added to the mix of keeping the kids entertained is keeping them relatively quiet. My husband works from home three days a week, with much of his job consisting of conference calls. On the occasions where I can convince them to get away from the TV/wii, their activities tend to be noisy. They are boys, after all.

Today, though, I should celebrate my fourth-grader getting straight A's and my kindergartner doing well also (primary report cards are much less concrete, as I'm sure many of you know). I will also celebrate getting to sleep in tomorrow (although the boys will still be up before 7:00am, I'm sure. It will take them a week or so to shift to a later sleeping schedule).

Tomorrow I can dwell on the fact that in just eleven weeks, I will finally have two children in school full-time.

Some New Pages

It feels like it's been a long time since I last posted. I've gotten some scrapbooking done, but not much. I seem to have lost my motivation, even with this giant pile of photos ready to be scrapped. I'll use the excuse of the miserable weather this spring, but I'm having trouble getting motivated to do much of anything these days.

It seems like there have been a number of Cub Scout activities going on in our house. This weekend is the annual camp out, and the youngest is even more excited for it this year, since he actually gets to go as a tiger cub, instead of a younger sibling.

I guess it's only fitting that most of my latest pages are for my older son's Cub Scout album.

Embellishments: K & Co.

Papers: DCWV
Title sticker: SRM
Brad: Eyelet Outlet (I think)

Paper and letter stickers: K & Co.
(Sometimes you just need to do a "premade" page to get things moving)

Papers: Provo Craft, Scrap Book Wizard
Punch: Fiskars
Stickers: K & Co.

Papers: Provo Craft
Stickers: K & Co.
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

2009 Finished!

I am generally a daytime scrapper, as my brain power diminishes greatly after dinner. Last night, however, I had started on the last layout for my 2009 album while the boys were watching their newest Netflix obsession, iCarly (It started with Sponge Bob, then Johnny Test, then Wizards of Waverly Place, then Phineas & Ferb. We don't have cable, so Netflix Instant on the wii is about the best thing that's happened in our house). You know how it is, though, when you get started on a page and then decide you just have to finish it.

Once I realized I could recycle a title from a previous layout, I was in the home stretch. This morning, I even did my title page (I never count those as actual pages), so I think this album is actually ready to go on the shelf.

I am now officially out of photos to scrapbook. I did manage to catch a 5-cent sale the other day at Winkflash (not the 4-cents I was hoping for, but still a good deal), so now I am waiting for the 498 4x6 prints I ordered to ship. They should come sometime next week, and then I will be overwhelmed with choices. Do I get the boys' albums current? Do I start my 2010 album? Do I dive in to the Disney album?

I have a few days to think about that, so here's the last of 2009. Christmas in May sounds silly, but that's what all these pages are.

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Calligraphy Collection
Punch: EK Success
Chipboard stickers: American Crafts

Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft (this was a chance to use up some scraps of old papers I've had sitting around)
Cricut Cartridge: Stretch Your Imagination
Stickles

Papers: DCWV, scraps
Punch: Fiskars
Sometimes you just need to do a "stick the pictures down and be done with it" page. It's always nice when I can make one of these "pre-made" papers work.

Papers: DCWV
Snaps: Making Memories
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Calligraphy Collection, Tear Drop
Stamps: Unknown (thanks Bonnie!)

Six More to Go!

I only have six more pages to complete my 2009 scrapbook! You'd think being this close, I'd have more motivation to scrapbook, but this has not been the case. Maybe since I don't have my next batch of photos printed yet, I'm savoring the last few pages I have to work on. Yeah, I'll go with that theory, instead of the one that with all the rain we've had the past month, I've been feeling too blah to do anything.

We are entering the home stretch for the school year here. Our last day is June 1. I'm looking forward to lazier mornings, but I am not looking forward to listening to the boys bicker. They do enough of that as it is; I don't want to listen to it for the extra four hours a day they'll be home together.

Our youngest's first T ball game of the season is scheduled for this Saturday, but who knows if the fields will ever dry out enough to play. All the rain has cut down a little on our busyness, since practices have been cancelled. The oldest opted not to play baseball this year, so that's a little less running around than last year.

Maybe over the next week or so I can crank out the rest of my 2009 scrapbook. I'm also hoping to catch a good sale to get my photos printed. Instead of tackling my 2010 album next, I think the next project will be last year's Disney World trip. Maybe I'll set an unofficial goal of getting that vacation's album completed by the time we go on our next vacation to the beach at the end of July. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, here are my latest 2009 pages.

Papers: DCWV
Border punch: Martha Stewart
Stamps: Hero Arts
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Fabric stickers & fiber: Plaid

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Chipboard letters: American Crafts
Punch: EK Success
Cricut Cartridge: Mini Monograms

Whole Lotta Layouts

It's been a stormy week here, so rather than being out running around in the rain, I actually stayed in and did some scrapbooking. The good news is, I am down to 10 pages to finish my 2009 album. The bad news is, I'm still waiting for a good sale to get some more prints made. If I finish the album before I get my next set of prints, I always have my fall-back project, the portrait album (this is a separate album of the studio 8x10s that used to be in frames).

I said before I was going to try not to post big batches of pages all at once, but I'm doing it again this time. Some of these I just didn't get around to posting before we went on vacation, and some I actually did all in one day.

Papers: DCWV (the background actually was a Christmas paper that I was able to cover up the holly and cardinal)
Border punch: Fiskars
Rubons: Making Memories
Letter Stickers: EK Success
Stamps: Stampin Up, Inkadinkado

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: old freebies from Creating Keepsakes

Papers: DCWV
Border Punch: Martha Stewart
Cricut Cartridges: Mini Monograms, George & Basic Shapes

Papers: DCWV
Rubons: Making Memories
Cricut Cartridge: ZooBalloo

Papers: DCWV
Border Punch: EK Success
Stickers: Paper Studio, American Crafts

Papers: DCWV
Border punch: Fiskars
Sticker: EK Success
Brads: Paper Studio

Papers: Provo Craft, K & Co
Die Cuts: K & Co
Cricut Cartridge: Tear Drop
Embossing folder: Cuttlebug

The Dream is Over

Well, our first cruise has come and gone. The Disney Dream is a beautiful ship and we had a wonderful time! A four night cruise definitely feels a little rushed, especially for newbies who want to check everything out. It seemed like we were always doing something and never really did get around to the relaxing part. A few more days on the ship would have helped that, I think.

We got home late last night, and I spent all day doing our laundry. At least while I was doing that, I was able to organize my photos. I got them all copied onto my computer and renamed the files. I even managed to post some of them on Facebook. We had a number of professional photos taken on the cruise, and I purchased the CD. I was disappointed to find that the second disc couldn't be installed. I sent an email to their customer service after their phone went unanswered (and FYI, the photographers are not employed by Disney). Hopefully I will get more than the automated response from them.

I did buy a scrapbook album and a kit, which has a few papers and some stickers. What I liked about this particular set is that it was dated 2011 and includes some "Inaugural Voyages" pieces. As usual, after a trip, I feel like I want to work on those scrapbook pages right away, but then I remember I am still stuck in 2009. I didn't take as many pictures on this trip, though, as I did during our Disney World vacation last year. I think the count for the cruise is a little over 300 photos between my new, waterproof point and shoot camera and my aging, yet beloved, Nikon D50. My poor Nikon had an accident a week before we left, though, and I broke my zoom lens. I still need to find a replacement, but fortunately, a photographer friend of mine had a lens he was willing to lend me.

Here is just a small sampling of photos from the trip:

This was in the terminal before we boarded the ship. The boys had no interest in character photos.

A view of the main pool area. Very tiny pools for such a large ship.

Our excursion in Nassau. The boys enjoyed this much more than the bus tour of the city which followed the zoo.

I was completely satisfied with how my new little Olympus Stylus Tough handled itself in the water.

Our whole gang before getting back on the ship at Castaway Cay.

One of the professional shots with the actual ship in the background, instead of a backdrop.

Another professional shot during dinner

We all dressed alike for Pirate Night. This was another pro shot.

Birthday Pages

We are less than a week away from our cruise now, so full-blown excitement is kicking in. It's fun to be able to say, "This time next week, we'll be on the boat." I even got the boys' suitcases out of the basement today and considered packing some of their stuff. For me, that is major progress.

I am still manging to sneak some scrapbook pages in here and there, and naturally, since I'm getting ready to leave town for the better part of a week, I can see the light at the end of my 2009 album. Unless I've forgotten to include anything else (I came across some pro portraits I needed to scrap), I think I am down to 14 layouts to complete the album.

I figured I'd share my pages from the boys' birthdays in 2009. These may be the last I post until after vacation. I have a few pages waiting to be scanned that I'll try and get posted before I leave, and who knows? Maybe I'll get a sudden burst of scrapping energy and crank out most of the rest of this album. Or maybe scrapping will have to be my reward for getting packed for the trip early....

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Alphalicious
Stickers: Hallmark

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Stickers: Paper Studio, Mrs. Grossman's

Papers: DCWV
Stickers: Paper Studio
Border Punch: EK Success