Unexpected Destination | Debbie Hodge's Blog | Get It Scrapped

Delivery, Sea Perch, Prescott Park

Week in the Life – Friday, July 29

Work. Neil took Isaac to camp and I started working on editing and rendering the August webinars. I messed up the video recording on one July webinar and one August webinar (seems when I record back to back computers need rebooting!) so I started on one – listening and plugging in every image.

Then off to have lunch with Isaac at tech camp. Neil left this note on the door.

Picked up Lily since Elaine was working

And had a fun fun fun lunch with this gang at Holloway Commons. Who happily let Neil, Linnette, Ian, Lily and me join them.

And then we settled in for presentations. What I discovered on this afternoon was how much FUN these kids were having at Tech Camp. That’s Daniel in picture on the screen with a mad-scientist pose.

There were 8 different projects they could have worked on the 2nd week and ALL 55 kids presented on these topics.

That’s Isaac and Caldwell in the photo on the left on the screen (and Isaac came home with a bunch of fun photos like this – and even video that I need to share). The engineer who introduced them said they often broke out in show tunes during the project. Isaac ROCKED his presentation. Don’t have a good shot of him but he was really fun and smart. (That is him under the screen looking up – with his “geek on” shirt.)

We went back to Kingsbury to pick up the Sea Perch – Isaac and Caldwell will have joint custody. Love how even here Daniel was sneaking into the sot and making a goofy face.

So . . . I mostly paid attention to the presentations . . . but I also installed the Hipstamatic app for my phone – and the rest of the photos here include some of my (mis)adventures with it.

Though it looked like rain, we took off for Portsmouth to see Tom perform (he was just finishing up Rock Band Camp at the Seacoast Rep). – Dropped Isaac and Lily at the gate and went to park. And they did get there in time to hear/see Tom! And we watched Adam’s group, too. Met Dawn’s sister & cousin, too. So glad we got there and that the rain held off a bit.

Elaine got off work and met us for dinner.

Came home to see that not only had the new flooring arrived but so had Josh’s friend. Isaac sank in to hang out with them for as long as he could (i.e., until Josh kicked him out).

First foray into hipstamatic prints

Ever since I saw Shimelle Laine's post on taking, printing and scrapbooking hipstamatic photos, the thought of trying it has been niggling at the back of my mind. 

Yesterday I tried it out :) And I really love it -- not going to use it for everything, but I love what it did for these photos at Prescott Park in Portsmouth last night.

The minute I got these pre-framed photos onto my canvas I thought of a page Cindy Liebel (turn off the volume on your computer before you click that link if anyone is sleeping nearby!) shared in a Masterful Scrapbook Design webinar on Wednesday (it'll be availalble for members this week). And then I remembered that during the Hybrid webinar (coming out this week, too) someone in the audience told me that Cosmo Cricket papers were availalbe in digi. I grabbed the Salt Air papers and made this page. Really shouldn't be sharing it because I'm working on 2 new classes and it would be perfect for one of them . . . but I'm impatient.

Supplies: Patterned papers by Cosmo Cricket (Salt Air). Solid papers by Maplebrook Studios (Just Linens 2) and Anna Aspnes (Layered tissue neutrals). Ribbon (Woven Ribbons 1) and borders (Oiselet Rouge Elements) and chipboard (King Me - no longer available) and alpas (Kraft Little Bits) by Katie Pertiet. Font is Pea Stacy Elizabeth.

 

This could be addicting. But not this weekend because I've got MANY hours of video to edit and render as well as notes to send to Jana Morton in preparation for this! 

 

Precarious ladder & weaving work around everything & more time with friends

Week in the Life: Thursday, July 28

8am - Out the door and taking Isaac to camp. The signs at the end of our street.

Stopped to get milk & a watermelon for Neil's guest tonight.

8:45am Sitting down with high hopes . . .

But then I saw the ladder set up on this old end table and moved my work to the laptop so I could be nearby.

11:45am - Woke Josh & Zak and took Zak home so he could take care of their new puppy.

Neil and Josh are becoming better and better friends -- here Josh is indulging Neil in figuring out what strategy to take with a new watch purchase. (I stink at this kind of conversation -- so glad Josh doesn't.)

2:00pm Josh to Sean's house for airsoft and swimming.

 

So happy to have this shot from Isaac's camp (his counselors sent him home with a data stick full of photos & even video). They were on floats at a 20-foot-deep tank/pool running their remote control sea perches through tests -- there were Navy divers there taking care of anything that got stuck at the bottom -- there's a diver in the water here.  

 
4pm - Jenna arrives. She & Neil go for a swim before working on her independent study and having dinner.

 
5pm - Picked up Isaac and headed to the pool. Confirmed Sean's mom will bring Josh home for dinner with Neil and Jenna.

Where we found Lily & Elaine, Daniel, Joseph, and Caldwell.

Elaine went home to feed Babooshki and I waited while Lily & Iz got dressed. 

7pm Rondezvous at La Paz.

The kids were loving running into friends.

Finished off with ice cream.

 

Webinars, Friends, Bike-Riding, Crash

Week in the Life: Wednesday, July 27

This was a huge work day for Masterful Scrapbook Design. Neil took Isaac to camp and I settled in here from 7:45 am until about 2:30pm for 3 back to back to back webinars.

Amy and I, along with 9 other scrapbookers, recorded 3+ hours of talk about making scrapbook pages. 1 hour before webinar time, I make sure I have bios & notes. I reboot 3 computers. On each of the laptops I register for and attend the webinars as a participant and load up Camtasia to make 2 recordings of the event. On the desktop, I get the slideshow set up and then login to gotowebinar and get the webinar pre-started and a recording going. Guests arrive about 20 mins before the start time and we take care of any connection and sound glitches, set things up so they can see attendees and questions and chat.

If all goes well, at 1 minute past the hour we begin recording and talk for about an hour, working in audience questions. We usually finish by 10 past the hour and then . . . . I save the recordings on the 3 machines  . . . and I reboot everything and get set up for the next webinar.

We recorded 12 webinars this month with 30 scrapbooker page designers – every single designer prepared fabulous layouts and comments. Every single scrapbooker arrived prepared and excited to chat. I am so grateful for their enthusiasm and insights. Now I just need to edit all those videos!

As soon as the webinars were done, Josh and I cleaned up the den a bit and then went to pick up his friend Zak. We came back and I crashed for 40 minutes and then left to pick up Isaac from camp.

And there was Neil on Academic Way when I pulled in. He’d just gone riding with one of the book reps – 20 hilly miles. The campers had traveled to western NH to tour Whelen Industries and weren’t back yet so Neil hung out with me in the pickup line.

We talked about his proposal, about how lucky each of us is to be doing interesting work, about my realization earlier in the day that we’d been together almost 20 years now – both of us immediately saying it was longer than we’d lived with our parents.

The campers pulled in after 5 in a gorgeous UNH team bus, and Isaac got off yakking about the one building at the plant that was completely run by robots and that could run unattended all weekend.

We realized he wasn’t going to make it to bowling on time . . . and then we coaxed Neil into coming out to dinner with us. (As I noted on day 1 of this week, it’s a really busy work week for me and I’m not cooking).

Early in the week before 6pm you can get a small dinner with a salad for $7.99 at Texas Roadhouse. Yay!

While, we’d offered to pick up Josh and Zac, they didn’t want to come so we got them meals to go.

And I was asleep by 7:30pm. The late Monday webinars plus preps for this day’s webinars and the actually running of them had worn me out.

SeaPerch, Soda, Shooting, Swimming, Gifts & a Movie

Tuesday, July 26 – Week In the Life.

Isaac going to tech camp. Today he was wiring his SeaPerch with Caldwell.

Yes, I do need to stop. But at least I’m buying it by the 12s now.

Neil and Josh were both looking forward to an afternoon together: dentist, Yummy Garden, range, orthodontist.

We didn’t get here until almost 6 and it should have stormed big time – but the storms went to our north & south. Russ left Russell & Ian with us (as I mentioned, we were late) and Caldwell and Nick were there, too.

We closed the place down.

Elaine wanted us to stop by so she could give us our gifts from Greece. She and Lily and Babooshki greeted us with a fresh cucumber and gifts: candy, a slingshot, and an awesome ring for me. Need to get a photo of it!

Came home poured a glass of wine and settled in to watch Purple Violets with Neil – and finish up the bios for the webinar-extravaganza the next day.

Why I wasn't going to do "Week In the Life" - and I why I changed my mind

Week in the Life: I wasn’t going to do it.

I tweeted that I wasn’t going to do it.

Why wasn't I going to do it?

• I'm barely leaving the house this week because of work.
• I won't be shopping at Anthropologie--just grabbing a new headset from Amazon.
• Our meals aren't going to look awesome because I'm not cooking this week. I won't be buying healthy food and preparing it in ways that just might look good in a photo. We'll be eating what Neil prepares and what I buy from takeout.
• My kids aren't going to be around much.
• We're not going to be doing the kinds of remarkable things I might usually put up on facebook to show folks what an awesome mom and human being I am.
• Our house is a mess with Neil's repair projects and Joshua's still-unpacked bags. Our vacuum isn't working right and I still haven't boxed it up for repairs (really, I'm playing a game of chicken over this with Neil, hoping he'll box it up because he's good at that stuff). We're getting our laundry from baskets and not drawers this week.
• The idea of gathering memorbilia and scanning it for my digital pages is stopping me (Heck, I put our West Side Story tickets through the washer earlier in the month so I know I'm not reliable around these things.)
• It's a nose-to-the-grindstone-work-week-to-end-all-work-weeks for me with lots of deadlines and big hopes for a lighter August.

So why did I decide to do it?

• Well, Ali Edwards tweeted to me, “Come on, Debbie. It's never too late and some days will have more photos than others.” And I really like Ali. 
• Right after she tweeted this, Neil dropped yet another board on the upper deck which keeps scaring the heck out of me, so I went and took his photo.
• I could see that this was a a shot emblematic of so many of our summers: Professors do home repair projects in the summer. When I first met Neil, he had mentors from the university showing him how to use tablesaws and hang drywall. Joe died two years ago and I wish I had a photo of him shaking his head at the sight of thousands of carpenter ants crawling from a torn-out wall.
• I like to scrapbook unposed shots. 
• I've previously loved grabbing scrapbooking material from my blog.
• Everyone else was doing it.
• Just maybe it would be the excuse I needed to get to Anthropologie and buy something cool that would look nice in a photo.

So here are the photos I took on day 1.

And as for day 2? Well I did get a shot of the diet coke I bought right after dropping Isaac at camp.

So anyway, right after Ali sent me that tweet and I jumped a few feet from Neil dropping yet another board, I took this photo.

While Neil had gone into the office this morning after dropping Isaac at camp, he couldn’t get the HP lemon of a computer (that was mine and that he graciously swapped for) to boot up, and his new one will be here tomorrow, so he came home to work on his laptop. He spent the morning polishing up a proposal he’s working on (it's pretty awesome-I edited it over the weekend), and here he’s staining the trim for the new sliding doors he installed earlier in the month.

Then I went back to work.

It’s an odd summer week for us. Isaac is at tech camp for long days & Josh is just back from camp and sleeping and playing video games and, for me, this is the last week to get everything nailed down so I can play some in August. Doing 12 webinars this month instead of the usual 4 and planning out the next 5 months at MSD to make things smoother for all of us (Tami, Amy, and myself).

Got a shot of Joshua’s life today. He came home this weekend from 2 weeks of video game development camp exhausted and with a cold – during a heat wave. We only have ac in the den and in our bedroom so we put a mattress in here and he moved his xbox in and has been crashed here for 3 days luxuriating in being alone and doing whatever he wants. There sure are a lot of food wrappers around him! We sure are happy to have him home.

Dinner was nothing to write home about. With both boys in camp last week and Isaac there again this week while Josh reunites with his electronics and his friends, I’m taking advantage of this to get work done. I’ve been working 12 to 16 hour days for 10 or 11 days now--even on the weekends in an effort to get 2 months of work done in 1 month. Neil is making some dinners and I’m buying a lot of dinners.

Neil went swimming, picked up Isaac, and the 2 of them picked up the pizza I ordered online. I did cut up the watermelon myself! And we did come together for a family dinner even if it was cooked by Domino’s.

Neil left for a meeting. Josh agreed to let Isaac into his lair for the evening and I finished off the day with 2 webinars.

Scrapbooking Oxford

The boys and I went to my parents at the end of June driving back July 4. I always love the photos I take there and love scrapbooking them – but I don’t do it all at once. I spread it out, which lets me dip back into the memories of being there. Here are three of the pages I’ve made.

Craze-d-

Joshua asked me to order a whole lot of paracord to be delivered to my parents’ house so he could teach his cousins how to make paracord bracelets. (He’s a big Instructables reader). Who knew it would be this compelling? Love the shot of Sara and Isaac in the haymow making bracelets. They were waiting for Uncle Matt to come back so they could  help him load his truck with hay but keeping their hands busy until then.

supplies from DesignerDigitals.com

Morning Bocce

We bought a bocce ball set on the way out – actually we bought a lot of things on the way out including a new game called “Dominion” that’s become a favorite. Isaac’s a bowler now (need to scrapbook that!) and he loves games and things he can work at getting better at – plus Grandma and Grandpa’s lawn is so perfect for this kind of thing. I’ve got more photos of Isaac and the girls playing. Saving those for another scrappy day.

supplies from DesignerDigitals.com

Market Fresh

One of the many differences between life at my parents’ home and life at our home is that they get drop-by visitors  A LOT! On this afternoon we were playing Dominion and making bracelets when two of Mom’s friends dropped by – they’d been out driving and shopping and were looking for a restroom pitstop. Pat and Linda have been Mom’s friends for oh-so-long and Pat has an incredible sense of fun. Somebody came running into the house telling me to get my camera and when I got outside, this is what I saw, Ethan riding in the market cart Pat was using to steady her walk across the rocky driveway.

supplies from DesignerDigitals.com

July Faves

Greatly inspired by webinar this morning with Lynnette Penacho about scrapbooking. We talked about grids and layering and list journaling and "faves" pages. Lynnette does a lot of these month by month (and sells great templates for them) and as I spoke to her I realized that while I'm never able to pull together photo-a-day or week-in-the-life or even monthly summary layouts full of photos --- what I could do is an awesome page with 1 photo and lots of patterned papers and a list of 10 things I'm into in any month.

So here's the beginning of "list of 10" for July with the hopes I will scrapbook it.

10 Things in July

1. Monk. Discovered this series a couple of months ago -- 8 years of unwatched episodes and I LOVE the show. Finished it yesterday. Cried and smiled. And now I say "Here's the thing" and "He's the guy" alot.

2. Kayaking. Must exercise. We got a couple of new kayaks and I'm DOING IT! Sometimes with Iz. Sometimes alone. Passed a couple of skinny dippers the other day. Should probably google "how to kayak."

3. New sliders in the bedroom! The sliding doors to our upstairs and downstairs decks were rotted and barely closeable. We bought new ones in 2010 to take advantage of the energy efficiency tax break and Neil installed the downstairs ones last year. And now the upstairs ones are in and he rocked the job -- in 2 days! 

4. Josh at Video Game Design camp. For 2 weeks. Missing him BIG time. We've spoken a couple of times and he's not complaining but he sounds exhausted (and now sick) and I think this may be the hardest he's ever worked in his life. Picking him up tomorrow!

5. Isaac at Tech Camp. He's *sparkling* talking about nanotechnology and prototype machines and networks and Blender and animation and robotics and more. SOOO incredibly fortunate to be near the university and having this chance.

6. Missing my friends! Elaine's been in Greece. Donna's kids were at camp. And I'm working like crazy trying to clear the decks to play in August.

7. Webinars webinars webinars. Recording 12 webinars this month. 4 for the July issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design and 8 for the August "smorgasbord" issue -- which means tons of first rate inspiration.

8. Trying to kick diet coke. Smoothies with bee pollen. Ice green and fruity teas every day in our new drink dispenser from pottery barn. Set it up on a cake plate for easy use.

9. West Side Story. I feel pretty! Oh so pretty! We started off the summer seeing this show in Boston. 

10. The Hunger Games. Wow! Boys and I listened to the first book in the series on the way to NY and back. Loved it. Missed the characters and the story immensely when it was ower. We pulled in the driveway on July 4 about 2:30pm and before unloading the car just came in and put my iphone on the dock and listened to the end together.

And I've already scrapbooked a couple of these individually

supplies from DesignerDigitals.com 

supplies from DesignerDigitals.com

With Friends

I’ve had a few awesome outings with friends lately. Here are a couple – I’ve got one more to make that involves a snake and palm reading.

This one’s from my birthday. Lunch with Donna and Elaine and then some “hippie-skirt” shopping.

Lifted the idea for making a frame from the Bingo Card from Emily Pitts (just one of her many awesome ideas during our “stash-busting” month at MSD).

click for supplies from DesignerDigitals.com

 

This was a fun outing to a pawn shop that could only happen with Elaine.

Hey, Paula! Look I scrapbooked with the paper supplies I bought at CHA!

supplies: Cardstock by Bazzill. Patterned Papers by Sassafrass, Studio Calico, Fancy pants. Alphas by Studio Calico, Jenni Bowlin. Die cuts, clip, twine, butterflies, postage by 7 Gypsies. Journaler by Webster’s Pages. Brads by Making Memories.

And this was from the Manchester CK event – with Paula and Erin. So different from past years but so fun.

supplies from DesignerDigitals.com

Spring Break

We kicked it off with Joshua’s birthday, which means boys + airsoft guns + xbox controllers + food + staying up all night. It was lovely. Truly!

After a sleepover, I picked up Isaac at Parker’s house and we decided to go play a little mini golf (via coming home first and waking Joshua and convincing him to come along and opening up a 99 and having lunch for breakfast.) Kind of crazy on such a windy day but it was what they wanted to do. Joshua and I got in a bit of skeeball, too. Though I’m convinced these skeeball machines were not to the regulation size that those at Chuck E Cheese are.

We bowled. Ok – so this isn’t an actual photo from that day, but I didn’t take any and I like illustrations. We grabbed Joshua’s friend Austin and met Donna and Eva there, and Erin and Maisie, and Wendy and Parker. It was a fun gathering that snowballed. I’d told everyone to meet at 1 because that would be after lunch – but no one had eaten lunch so we started at Margaritas before bowling. Love love loved seeing Maisie bowl for the first and loved seeing how much fun Josh and Austin had. (And . . . got in some more skeeball this time with Erin, again not to regulation size).

Boston by train! On a rainy Saturday, the boys and I rode the Downeaster to No Station (our first time!). We’d planned to go right to the Museum of Art but then made a quick decision to do a little store-gazing first – going to Newbury Comics and the Prudential Center. There was an anime convention going on and the boys (and I ) loved seeing the costumes – Josh, esp, since he could identify many. Also discovered that next week is Comic con and Josh is working on rounding up a gang to go with him.

Again, I didn’t take photos – until the end. At the Museum of Science, I spent a long time in the new Americas Wing and the boys hit their favorites: Ancient Egyptian art, Greek Art, Asian art. Joshua’s favorite moment was when a young boy came up to look at one of Joshua’s favorite exhibits of a sabre and several handguards. The boy said, “what’s so special about a bunch of belt buckles.”

And on Sunday we collapsed. The Easter Bunny skipped us . . . or so we thought . . . until there came a knock at the door!

Here’s a page from Joshua’s birthday party – the morning after. We’re getting ready to spend a month “stash-busting” at Masterful Scrapbook Design and I’ve done a few things on this page to use up what I already have – clipping papers to heart embellishments I originally used as-is and combing through several kits for vintage boys.

all supplies from DesignerDigitals

Talking nuts and bolts about making scrapbook pages

This is a favorite topic of mine and yesterday I spent almost 90 minutes on this topic with the the gang at Paperclipping Roundtable: Izzy & Noell Hyman, Nancy Nally, and Lisa Dickinson (yes, the Lisa Dickinson who just finished up sharing really remarkable ideas about using scrapbook page inspiration at Masterful Scrapbook Design).

We each shared a layout and talked in specifics about the making of these pages. Check it out! (layout images are included alongside the recording.

Isaac's Band Concert and Solo

The band played from Reflections in Moonlight from Moonlight Sonata and The Stars and Stripes forever. There were several solos and group performances. Isaac played New Soul (fabulously!). Here’s a photo of him with a new friend – another sax player!

Everyday Life

So, I’m not a “365-er” (unlike many of my friends hanging out at Katrina Kennedy’s awesome new website CaptureYour365.com). However I take a lot of everyday-life photos and really enjoy scrapbooking them.

There’s a chapter devoted to scrapbooking everyday life photos in my book Get It Scrapped! and I’ve recently updated my self-paced e-class “Scrapbook Everyday Life” with new layouts and ideas.

One of the prompts in “Scrapbook Everyday Life” is to consider your routines around particular seasons.

Climate changes and holidays trigger routines. Once winter arrives around here, we need to get our boots and snowpants out of storage. What’s more, we need to rearrange our limited storage to accommodate these extras clothes and make them accessible. When spring arrives, there’s yet another clothing change over. What’s more, spring where we live means a lot of raking of the sticks and additional leaves that came down over the winter.

In the layout above I journaled about how snow play routines are changing as my sons get older. Below my sons are thrilled to get an early snow-day release . . . and then, as the weather warms to get outside!

click on layouts for supply lists

February Break

We spent our Feb break with family in Oxford. The highlight (for me) was that my dad turned 70! He’s had lots of health problems for several years – and things lately have been especially tough – but he keeps on keeping on and we love spending time with him.

And, of course, my Mom is the one who makes all this happen—the food, the fun, . . . . the . . . angry birds!

Love playing with cousins.

And traditions continue.

click on scrapbook pages for supply list

Journaling the embarrassing stuff in 2nd person point of view

I wrote the journaling (which is below in full) for this page in 2nd person point of view. I think it's awesome for getting some self-deprecatory (or even sad/hard) humor into a piece. In fact, my first published short story (in a little literary journal called Amelia) was written in 2nd person pov.

In second-person point of view, write “you” and “your” instead of “he,” “she,” “his,” “her,” “I,” “me” and “my” when you’re referring to the main subject of your journaling. In this way, the reader becomes the main character or subject.

One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors is Self Help by Lorrie Moore. You can even read one of the stories from the book here. Second-person narration works with writing for guide books, self-help books, do-it-yourself manuals, interactive fiction, musical lyrics, and advertisements.

Writing well and considering point of view is one of the topics we covered in the January issue of Masterful Scrapbook Design. (You can buy the archive of all lessons, annotated inspiration pages, video and audio interview recordings for $14 -- or if you join Masterful Scrapbook Design before April 15th (for $10) you can take one archived issue FREE!)

 

Journaling: Wake and check clock to see it's 6:09. Roll over relieved to know you have 11 more minutes. When the alarm rings at 6:20, reach around to find your glasses then get out of bed and put on one of the already-worn sweaters piled next to the dresser. If you're not up on laundry, rummage through the baskets at the foot of the bed: socks for each son will be the hardest to find.
Say howdy to your oldest son and tell him his clothes are on the floor. Make sure you don't need to pee before you say howdy to your youngest son who will insist you "Come back!--I need you!" and then tell you that he doesn't feel good. Linger a bit. Tell him you love him and he can do it and his clothes are at the foot of the bed and you’ve got to go pee.
Know this: you shouldn't open the laptop. Fill the teapot and put it on the stove. Open a can of soup, pour it in a bowl, and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes. Put the small pan on a burner on low with a bit of butter--THEN go on over and open the laptop and quickly retrieve your email.
Realize it's 6:35 and everyone is in danger of being late. Do this every day. Without fail. Yell a less-friendly howdy to both boys, but not one that's loud enough to wake your husband. It would not be good to have his help at this moment.
If you think you can handle it, crack open two eggs and stir them in the pan--otherwise, turn off the burner and pour two bowls of cereal. If it's a good day, you’ll open the dishwasher and retrieve 2 clean soup thermoses, 2 water bottles, and 2 hot-drink thermoses (if it's a bad day: scramble!!!).
Tell yourself, once again, that these regular efforts make up for those less-frequent times when you yell at everyone to just shut up and move right now!

Pull out the cutting board and make one peanut-butter -and- jelly-sandwich and one turkey-salami-cheese sandwich. Retrieve soup from microwave and pour into thermoses. Remove teapot from burner and pour into hot-drink thermoses.
Call up the stairs that it's quarter of and everyone better get down here now, by gosh. Your younger son appears first, moaning about how much his stomach and head hurt. Give him some kind of fruit and tell him to put his socks on. Bag up something crunchy and something fruity or vegetably. Get lunches in the bags and put eggs on plates (if you went this way) and tell older son he better get down here, by gosh, and be sure to put on deodorant.
While your sons eat, get their lunches and waterbottles into their backpacks. Unlock and open wide the front door. Check the temperature. Check the time. It will be almost 7. Tell them to pick out their tea and get it in their thermoses. Rummage for shoes and throw them out by the front door. While your sons put on their shoes, grab their coats. While they put on their coats, comb their hair. Hold open the storm door and make sure they both have their hot mugs and stand on your tiptoes on the cold cement steps while they leave.
Say that you love them. That they're awesome boys. That you hope they have a good day at the salt mines. Watch briefly as they start up the driveway. Yell to the oldest to help the youngest with his sax. Yell again that you love them.
Finally: shut the door, pour a diet coke, grab a blanket and sink into your chair with your laptop. Your day has begun.

And just as an everyday life scrapbooking aside -- here's a page I did last year on a similar topic but approached differently.

click on layouts for supply lists & links at Designer Digitals

Scrapbook Pages inspired by . . . Video Games!

We’re finishing up a month-long study of inspiration at Get It Scrapped. Usually I get my inspiration from product and other pages, but this month has really pushed me to look at soooooo any other sources—esp since the guest teachers all have such different ideas and approaches.

When I look around our house there is no shortage of video entertainment inspiration and here are a couple of pages that get their looks from games.

This look of this page was inspired by the video game that my mom and boys are engrossed in here: Angry Birds. I didn’t have exact matches for things, but I could find some colorful hand drawn birds, a black-and-white pig and clouds to represent the sky the birds are being flung through.

And this one’s look came from the video game we were lined up to buy at midnight: Halo Reach. The logo for the video game inspired my color choices and the orange cloudy brushwork The journal that came with the game inspired my journaling treatment on the page.

The guest teachers this month pushed me to:

• get inspired by the shapes and colors outside my window.
• begin pages with inspired photo layout for quicker design.
• interpret inspiration in a non-literal way.
• take inspiration beyond the obvious lift.
• reuse and evolve my application of inspiration.
• use print media for sharp title treatments.
• translate the mood of an inspiration piece to the page.
• make inspired page embellishments.

Some days rock

It was a good day (I'm not saying all days are like this at our house but I'm going to celebrate the ones that are) that ended like this.

A good day despite the fact that just the night before Josh announced – oh, I’m in a Spanish play tomorrow night and you guys should come and I need to dress up –

“What time? You’ve got music lessons.”

He wasn’t sure – but he’d know when he got home. Button down shirt for Josh – check – oh, wait, he’s so flipping tall the sleeves are too short.

BUT . . . anyways . . . we went to lessons. Isaac quit lessons back in January but Mr Mitchell wanted him to come in for a lesson on the solo he’s performing tomorrow at the band concert. We walked in and Isaac came over to sit on the edge of the stage with me and get his sax out and he said, “I want to take lessons again.” Seriously? After all that complaining before? We’ll sleep on it. Mr Mitchell helped him polish up the song – New Soul – and gave him some kind of surprise ending to add. Isaac begged me to buy him a book that Josh has – and . . . I did.

We had Chinese food next door (needed to fill time until Joshua’s performance which wasn’t until 8pm). Our waitress was awesome. And both boys were ON and nutty. Isaac “won doing Leonardo daVinci for science.”

Me: “How’d you win him?”

Isaac: “At first I lost because we did rock-paper-scissors.”

Josh: “What did you throw?”

Isaac: “Scissors.”

Josh: “Why would you throw scissors?” and this devolved into a funny lecture on probabilities and uncertainty and how to win at rock-paper-scissors. Anyway – after losing daVinci and moving on to the Wright Bros his friend Tom traded him and he was back to daVinci.

Then came lots of talk of daVinci’s machines and arguments over them – “the screw. now that was not a good idea for a flying machine.” And Josh told us about the p.e. dance contest. He was out the first round. “One guy threw his partner across the gym but they moved him forward anyways. I’m thinking it’s because no one’s tried that move since ‘87 and the judges were impressed with his daring.”

We made it to the high school (listening to my new purchase Rare Bird Alert which Josh kept moaning over and (I think) Isaac liked)--- where Joshua went to get out this script (he’s the narrator of Jack and the Beanstalk in Spanish) and we realized his backpack was in Dover at the music store. I left the boys with Joshua’s pressed shirt (that still had too-short sleeves) and tie and went back to Dover and got the backpack.

And then were the plays. All of the first year language students were performing in their classrooms. They were awesome. The kids were really into it and there were lots of laughs. And satisfaction at how nicely all these kids are growing up. (Josh told me NOT to bring my camera but lots of other parents had theirs – so I grabbed some shots with my phone.)

And then we came home (everyone STILL had homework) and Isaac wanted to try his new music (which Josh thinks is too hard for him) and Josh had to show him how it was done. Amazing! All this begging to practice and now I was begging them to do their homework.

Which they did. Isaac almost fell apart . . . but then pulled it together and finished it all by 10pm.

And everyone made it to school today—though they had to ask a couple of times if it was a snowday and I kept telling them to look out the window! Awesome.

Blew Us Away - 6th Grade Endeavor Intl Music Concert

Really, I should have known/expected this would be a wow event. But, it's music class -- a night of international music. Hmmmm. Yawn? Songs I won't understand? I almost didn't take my camera -- and i didn't take the video camera (If anyone has a video of them singing the Waka Waka song, I'd LOVE it!)

But, then again, the music teachers at the helm of this are awesome--David Ervin and Alan Nasberg. There were (maybe) some mini stars in the show, but, really, EVERYONE had parts and was a star and was totally into the performance.

I was amazed at the sustained energy these 80 6th graders put out for over an hour. That's our Iz above at far left in the middle row.

The photo above is of them singing a song from a Japanese Anime show that they requested they perform. Listen below for the first vocals and look at them and imagine them belting this out! (This is the only song the teachers introduced, feeling that it, perhaps, need explanation--or maybe a disclaimer.)

They alternated international songs with funny and unexpected adaptations of fairy tales. In this one Isaac is the Pharoah's magician raising a sea -- the Pharoah is his friend Tom who high-fives his beloved when their devotion is mentioned.

There were tender moments, too. As when they sang my beloved Abba's "I Have a Dream" with a moving slideshow behind them.

And then came Waka Waka (This Time for Africa). Whoa. It starts out slow and by the middle ALL of the kids are jumping on the risers and dancing SO very joyously -- with totally planned breaks for soloists (and while three girls headlined, EVERYONE got a solo if they wanted one).

Isaac said that originally there were "no unplanned movements" in the show, but when they practiced at the high school a couple of days ago, someone started jumping while doing the hand movements on the risers and then everyone started jumping and Mr Ervin told them to keep it!

I didn't cry (I'm really not a sentimental type) but I ALMOST cried -- and I think it was because of the sheer JOY these kids were putting out :) Afterward, in the hall, they were just jumping as they met their parents and others who were telling them how awesome they were.

Big thanks to Mr Ervin and Mr Nasberg. It was fabulous.

P.S. In case you don't know the Waka Waka song -- here it is :)

 

This sucks

This was an all-too-familiar sight this fall – Isaac, you home from school early, in my bed doing schoolwork (with my help) while I tried to work nearby in my office. Your back hurt and you preferred reclining throughout these weeks. It just sucked. The diagnosis was post-infectious or post-viral (who knows?) myalgia and fatigue. A few days before this had been a tough meeting with your doctor who told you to “think happy thoughts.” Seriously. Ok. We’ll try that.

On this Friday you were working on a model of a plant cell—writing up the key to identify all those clay pieces that you then wired into a basketball. You were also redoing your journal entries which you’d done a lousy job on the week before. And I helped you figure out how to graph and analyze some economics statistics for social studies. You’d made it through school the day before and gone to your band concert that night, but today your head and your back and your stomach and your ears all hurt. You wept when I dropped you off and I agreed to get you at noon. We were worrying about you worrying about getting behind in school but now it was becoming my worry too---more homework that you missed the lessons for? More stuff for me to research and explain? Really? When WILL we be caught up?

You were often infuriating in the midst of all this. It was all infuriating. Daily trying to figure out how much to push you and how much to hug you. Feeling like I was being judged by others for over coddling you and by you for not being soft enough. I felt like it was on MY shoulders to make this decision every day all day and there was bound to be someone (you, Dad, your doctor, your guidance counselor) that I would be letting down. Running a business has become more and more difficult because of the unpredictability of everything and all the extra driving you around and holiday activities.

Over the weekend after this photo you finished wiring up your plant cell and you discovered that it really is possible to memorize all the countries in Africa quite easily—you are a smart kid, after all, why can’t you trust it? You went reluctantly off to school on Monday. I picked you up early and brought your swimsuit and took you to a health club and we joined on the spot and the two of us swam. I think being in the water released a lot of stress and tension and just made you happy. This was also right around the 4-week mark when the meds from the rhematologist are supposed to kick in and perhaps they were. And we’d been working on minimizing sugar and carbs and getting lots of good food in you. Getting your probiotic 3 times a day. Getting your vitamins. You made it through the short week, even going ice-skating with your class and having a great time.

Tomorrow is back-to-school since the holidays, You’re doing better now. A lot better – over the break you played racketball and swam several times and went sledding and even joined the big gang at the Jeffries running through the woods with your airsoft gun despite the head and backache you were complaining of. There are still days when your head and back hurt all day. There are days when you’re so difficult you lose yet another privilege – your xbox is gone for a week at this point. I wish I knew how much anxiety drives this. I wish it would all go away. I wish I knew the right things to do. I am not looking forward to tomorrow morning. I love you.

Cookies for Santa

This is my most favorite layout I’ve made in a long time. I love that Isaac takes this tradition so seriously and that he made sure we did it (yes, you may think you’d never forget . . . but some of us have . . .). I love all the papers and embellishments here and I love the layout design. I’m working on a new self-paced class – sort of like Building Pages but more for those starting out OR those who want quick go-tos for getting pages with a particular number of photos. I’ll be using some new interactive training “stuff” to make this.

click on the layout for links to supplies at DesignerDigitals.com

Christmas Eve

The Mangans (with Elaine’s cousin’s daughter Julia), The Lents, The Guerettes (without Chris who is in Quatar but with Donna’s parents who are so lovely).

Ham & chili & lots of treats.

For years I've had this collection of beads and pins and ribbons for decorating styrofoam balls and make ornaments -- some years I dig these goodies out and others -- no. Loved how our guests of all ages dug into creating.

Caroling

This was a fabulous neighborhood evening. When Sheri sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to carol, I responded: YES! Because you guys have NEVER caroled and I have awesome memories of doing this myself as a child. (Yes, I did live in the country, but we HAD a town, too!) I pushed Isaac into coming. Neil & Josh initially stayed home, but I called from pre-caroling party saying that most of the neighborhood was there & you might enjoy saying “hi.”

I never expected that the two of you would take up candles and bells and join the group so happily - It appeared to me that you were having an awesome time even though you acted like you were just indulging me.

Dear crazy boys

This year:

As last:

click on layouts for supplies at Designer Digitals.

Holiday Fair Day in Durham, NH

This is the day our churches hold their fairs.

The first stop for anyone should be the cookie walk at St. George’s – the them while there’s an awesome selection.

My kids always end up purchasing more stuff to put in their already over-stuffed rooms. This year, though, Josh didn’t buy anything. His friend Adam, though, continued his annual pursuit of buying up all the lights and small trees at the fair to decorate his own room – I found them stowed in our car so his parents wouldn’t know until later.

Along with Logan he helped out with the Community Church fair – a bit—in the kitchen, loading purchases for buyers.

Isaac, Lily, and Erin did do some shopping – with the fave spot being the vintage room at the Community Church. Isaac got a mortar and pestle, a victorian watch pendant, and sheet music. Lily bought old books and a gift for her mom. Erin found sheet music, too.

There was face-painting.

Old friends

And, of course . . . lunch.

A lovely day.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

Isaac was sad we weren't in NY with family. Joshua slept til noon and then was surprised it was Thanksgiving when I told him to go get showered. Isaac lamented that it wouldn't be any fun without kids.

And then we walked through the door at Robin and Don's and the boys remembered that Robin, Don, Lucy, and Norma have known them since they were born, and, what's more, LOVE THEM. I always find such comfort when I'm at the Lent's home.

We ate a delicious dinner. Robin and I drank a lot of bubbly wine. We talked about: ancient aliens, Nordic myths, town politics, college life, local landlords, university goings-on, daVinci, and . . . pumpkin chunkin' -- because once Paul and Clea arrived there was no lack of childlike fun (turns out Paul wanted to watch the Mythbusters Thanksgiving special in which pumpkins are catapulted, too). Once the pumpkin chunkin' was over Don pulled out a beautiful book of daVinci illustrations that the boys and men poured over for very a long time.

 

click layout for supplies at Designer Digitals

Thanksgiving Morning

What’s going on?

Isaac, You have been obviously feeling badly for a month, now. Strep? Turns out: no. Mono? Turns out: no. Lyme Disease: you test negative.

You’re tired. It started with headaches, stomachaches, arms, legs . . . You started the antibiotics for Lyme and initially got worse . . . then . . . about 5 days in, you seemed to be getting better. But then your stomach and chest started to hurt even more – and your head and back hurt a lot.

You then went off antibiotics to see if they were causing problems – this has lessened your stomach and chest problems. But your legs ache. Your arms hurt if you lift something. Your head hurts all the time. And your back hurts a lot.

This photo is from the day I realized things weren’t turning around. Saturday morning. You’d seemed better Tues and Weds and made it to school all week. Then you had Thurs and Fri off from school but seemed to be getting tireder – so Saturday I thought I’d get you out, get you fresh air, see friends. You were just blah. Tired. There. And things continued to go downhill. We spent the rest of Saturday and sunday playing games. You’d play a while then rest.

Monday – about three weeks of being sick. You went in Monday and the nurse called at 11:15 for me to pick you up. Tuesday you stayed home. Wednesday you went in at 11:30 – then we went to your doctor appointment and music lesson.

Dr. Hassett doesn’t know what’s going on. The antibiotics haven’t taken care of you. Going off the antibiotics hasn’t taken care of you. The plan is to have you see a pediatric rheumatologist. All our friends think you should have your spinal fluid tested for Lyme. Dr Hassett had you go down to the lab and they drew 6 vials of blood – out for test. Thursday, Dad took you to school --- you were miserable and they called me by 10 to pick you up. By Friday, we’d decided to just keep you home through Thanksgiving. We’re waiting on test results. Worried. Confused. Loving you. Just wondering what’s going on.

Quiz Bowl at Oyster River High School

Josh, Logan and Aidan were spurred to put together a trivia quiz team after a look at the big and generous list of prizes AND, of course, by their love of just … knowing stuff! They needed a fourth to compete and so brought Neil along. Isaac heard about prizes and really wanted in but these high-schoolers weren’t so sure about him . . . thinking it might be an event something like this:

But it was even BIGGER and more confusing. There were lots of flags waving during the lightning round and it was never clear who waved first. There were competitors of all ages and Isaac was quickly allowed in.

Of course the other rounds gave everyone time to think, disagree, say what the heck and then either remonstrate the others for a lack of faith or cheer over unanticipated success.

No one will let me forget that I didn’t believe the multiple suggestions that Edgar Allen Poe might be the 19th century poet who married his 13 year old cousin.

And no one wants to forget that while most were thinking that “earth pig” translated to groundhog, the whole team took a chance on Aidan’s belief that it was aardvark.

Everyone contributed some point-winning answers --- and there were a lot of questions we couldn’t answer (In fact, do you know what child actress –and now adult actress-was the model for Belle in the Disney cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast?)

There were several small victories – but it really didn’t seem there were enough . . . . but, then, the team unexpectedly (I say unexpectedly because there were so many flags waving, getting called on was not easy) won TWO lightning rounds.

The Sci Fi round was won with Aidan’s knowledge of The Green Lantern’s name, occupation, and place of work. Aidan got first choice from this box packed full of sci-fi goodies from JetPack Comics. Everyone actually got what they wanted from the box and loved what they got. Isaac took some figures and Josh took a shirt and gift certificate. Aidan took a graphic novel and puzzle. Logan went for the two sets of drinking glasses. Big thanks to Jetpack Comics in Rochester.

The Durham round was won when the question was asked: Who is the chair of the Durham Town Council. The first person chosen said it was . . . Neil Niman! Our Neil! Nope – not anymore and Isaac waved his flag vigorously enough to be chosen and he gave the correct answer of Diana Carroll (knowledge gained from way too many Monday nights spent in bed with me watching Neil and the council on our cable access channel)--- to which at first we were told: no! Wait a minute, Neil said. I’m the vice chair of the town council. and she is the chair. What about Terry Sharpe asked the moderator? It was agreed that there is  no Terry Sharpe on the town council – and so another lightning round was won.

This box of goodies included t-shirts and gift certificates from local restaurants. (I got the BNG). Big thanks to Bagelry, DHOP, BNG, Youngs, Stats, and Franz’s.

Their team came in 20th . . . I’m not sure how many teams there were total – almost 40 I think. The top winners were veteran teams with teachers, staff, and a few students. 20th wasn’t good enough to take prizes from the main table, but these boys were already fabulously rich in prizes from the lightning rounds---- lots of folks went home empty handed and a little disappointed. These guys had an awesome time.

And it was very cool to see such a big turnout of students and teachers and families and all the fun people were having.

Mornings Now

Josh is in 9th grade and Isaac in 6th. After years of buying lunches, this year they both want packed lunches, with soup, and, now that it’s cold in the morning they need something hot to drink on the walk to the bus and the ride to school.

So this is how my morning starts --- and this is just lunch! (Though breakfast is a bowl of cereal and a pear for Isaac and a banana for Josh)

Joshua: peanut butter and jelly sandwich (once in while turkey, cheese & chips sandwich), chicken or veggie noodle soup, something crunchy (like goldfish), and fruit – apples have to be cut up because of the braces. A big bottle of cold water and a hot thermos of green tea.

Isaac: turkey, provolone & salami sandwich, Raman, something crunchy, and fruit – apples have to be cut up because he’s our little prince and that’s how he likes it. A big bottle of water and a hot thermos of orange tea.

There he is! Joshua just out of bed and 5 minutes til he’s out the door. He’s never missed the bus this year – doesn’t want to be driven in—though I do often end up driving him down to the busstop. No Isaac in this photo because he does like being driven in and he’s still in bed (for about 5 more minutes). On Tues and Thurs Neil teaches at 8 and drives him in.  Also, we’re just finishing up 3 weeks of Isaac sick (we think with Lyme Disease) and it’s actually a pleasure to be packing him lunch and sending him to school for a full day.

  Joshua on his way. Yes, there are a lot of leaves still on the ground --- AND we’ve spent a lot of time raking. Boys are off on Thurs and Fri – hoping to finish those leaves up then and be ready for snow!

Columbus Day Weekend with Neil's Family

We haven’t seen Ron and Holly for nine years – and it was really wonderful to spend time with them last weekend. Here are the photos I’ve scrapbooked. I still need to scrapbook Ron and Holly’s introduction of geo-caching to Isaac --which he loved.

(all supplies are from designer digitals and all layouts are linked to my gallery where there is a full linked supply list)

News at Get It Scrapped!

Awesome quick & useful free digital scrapbooking how-to from Pattie Knox: how to give a photo a curled effect (with awesome shadowing).

Cleaning up the storefront. We’re moving to offering more and more self-paced / ebook classes. There’s an affiliate program in place for all of our self-paced classes. If you’re interested contact me!

More Digital Techniques for Art Journaling with Pattie Knox starts today --- and registration closes tomorrow (no exceptions!)

New art journaling class from Dina Wakley starts next week: Art Journaling 103 – Composition and Color Techniques for Art Journalers

Michelle Houghton has developed a class on using Copic markers that will start November 8th! We’ve got an awesome early-bird registration special through Oct 22nd.

Awesome new self-paced class / ebook series is now in the store. Study scrapbook page design with Doris Sander. She rocks.

Once again, we’ve got Trish Turay’s fun ideas for combining fall and halloween cooking with papercrafting. Sweet Treats Fall is an ebook/cookbook you can download, print and bind right now.

More Vegas Cropping with the Get It Scrapped! Gang

The first night several of us stayed nearby the crop room --- stopping for a little pizza and then continuing on. We were so happy to see several of the buffet girls come on back and hang with us, too.

I want to say this was at . . . like . . . midnight . . . but it couldn’t have been because Celia and I would have been wiped out. . . so does anyone remember?

On Saturday night most of us went out to a family-style Italian Restaurant. Michelle’s family met us there and that was really lovely. Celia realized she’d lost her wallet --- but then remembered she’d been buying drinks for everyone at the hotel!!! ;)  Luckily the hotel had her wallet all safe.

These scrapbook pages are digital pages made with supplies from DesignerDigitals.com. You can find them in my gallery there along with linked supply lists.

Scrapbooking in Vegas with old & new friends from Get It Scrapped!

Thanks so very much to Tami Taylor for an awesome weekend of cropping. And to Dina Wakley, Michelle Houghton and Katrina Kennedy for incredible classes. Here are just a few shots of the faces there. Will be back with more. And I will get a couple of posts up at Get It Scrapped with some of the work folks did that weekend :)

Brenda & Amy

Linda & Michelle

Michelle & Judy

Katrina & Mary

Dina (her variation on the Elle Wood’s “bend and snap” is '”bend and flick”

Veronica & Angela

Me and Celia! (photo by Brenda)

Tami, Veronica & Amy

Country Collection at the Marlborough Cash & Carry

Last weekend, the boys and I made our October jaunt down to see my mom at a wholesale show in Marlborough, Mass. We got in Saturday afternoon – had an awesome dinner, swam at the hotel, got cozy sharing a room & then made it to the show first thing.

As soon as we got in, I realized I need to hike back to the car and get my camera before the shelves were emptied. The skate wreaths are new this year. As are those trees with the frosted . . . walnuts, were they? Something like that.

 

If you’ve got a store and want to get some of these awesome products, you can find contact info for my mom at The Country Collection NY.

Josh spent a lot of time manning the cash register and even the store when Iz and I were being lookie-loos and mom was taking care of everyone.

September Highlights

Lee Fair

Labor Day Party

Summer End

 

August in Oxford: Hendrickson Family Reunion

While I have not been blogging well --- I *have* been scrapbooking --- feeling like I better get those memories recorded somewhere :) On August 8, over 50 of the Hendricksons came to Oxford for a reunion. These pages begin to scratch the surface of the photos I have --- AND the awesome memories.

All pages are digital and are in my DesignerDigitals gallery with links to supplies.

Playing croquet in Oxford

Evenings on this trip were all about croquet.

More from our trip to Oxford in June

The front yard and the porch are the hub

Sad to be losing our neighbors

Oxford via Syracuse

It's rare Neil comes to NY with us in the  Summer -- he usually comes at holidays. This time, though, he had a meeting in Syracuse so we all went out together. The boys and I stayed a couple of nights with him then went over to Oxford --- and we came back and got him in a couple of more days.

School End for Isaac

 '

School End for Josh

Mother's Day and thoughts before Neil's surgery

It's May

time to fly a kite and for Neil to finish up school.

Oxford at spring break

Josh's Birthday