I love Photoshop!!

Okay, maybe that's not the best title for this post. I should've call it Lite Brite or something like that. Oh well. Here you go...A while back we got the old Lite Brite from my parents' house. It's not the best toy for the boys, but with a little supervision (or accompaniment) it works out okay. And the reason I have some different looking pictures is that post on MckMama's blog from te guest blogger. Her suggestion was to look at things from a different angle (get down on the floor, shoot from above), then I pieced them together with Photoshop.

Coming soon...

...to a blog near you AKA mine...I read a guest post on her blog and got inspired. So camera in hand, I got down on the floor with Xander (and later Zack and Daddy) playing with the LiteBrite and captured some cool stuff. I just have to photoshop them first! But I'll get to it, I promise!

Until then, tidbits...
Zack got in big trouble this week at school. I don't know how it will help, or if it will help, but I'm looking into magnet options for him. He finally was able to take his Super Zack cape to school for show and tell. His cousin took him to see Monster Jam again, and this time he got some signatures on his penant from last year. He has a teacher workday tomorrow, and I'm praying that I can make it through the day!

Xander got "yucky" all over me on Thursday night, after we turned the light off and started singing bedtime songs. In the morning, he was talking about getting yucky in the bed. He hasn't eaten much since then. He is amazing me that 1. he's talking in full sentences (it's funny when he says, "Yes I are!" and "yuh-huh") and 2. he can put together 24-piece puzzles without looking at the box. He likes to sit on his frog potty, but I'm putting off potty training for as long as I can!

Mark and I had a free date night tonight. We went bowling with Kohl's people. (Our game was with Nicole and Ray) The door prize for our "Christmas" party was an iPod nano for the highest male and female score. Well, I knew I had no chance of winning, but when I looked up at Mark's 115 in frame 7 (approximately anyway), there was hope! Someone came close with 132, but Mark won it out in the end!! He says he's going to give me his old nano and keep the new one for himself, but we'll see.

Oh, and I made some yummy chicken and mushroom lasagna last night! Go here for the recipe, but I used chicken instead of beef. It got the five-year-old's scrumP-tious seal of approval.

That's all! Good night!!

Act my age?

My birthday came and went with not much excitement about it, except for eating at Kanki, where Zack learned how to use chopsticks.

Sort of...

But act my age? Why should I do that? Just because I'm past 30 now?? It really is kind of scary, being past 30. I'm not sure what to think of it. I've never really been scared or concerned about getting older. I don't look it, and I certainly don't feel it. So who says I have to act it?

However, I did paint my nails yesterday (I think 30 years is long enough for biting them), and I did use a facial moisturizer and put on mascara before going to the store this morning. Maybe I do want to start looking my age, or at least somewhat closer to my age. I guess this is really coming out because there are so many products out there to make you look younger, but how do you look older, when you have a round, puffy face like me and have such a plain clothing style?

Okay, so that's my miniature soapbox for the day. I'm going to get back to the two other projects I was working on today and maybe some laundry. But act my age? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway...

MckMama posted this today, and I just had to share. It was written by Kent Keith, but Mother Teresa had a copy of his book, so she is often given the credit. Hope it lights up your day!

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
be kind anyway.

If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies;
succeed anyway.

If you are honest people may cheat you;
be honest anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the end, it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

A Christmas to blog about...

Here's a little about how our Christmas went, mixed in with a lot of pictures...On Christmas Eve, I went with the boys to pick up their cousins Simone and Evan from their hotel. We went to Stacy's house, where she had Alannah, Alyssa, Damien and Christopher. We rolled cut, baked and decorated Christmas cookies. (The pictures of that are on Stacy's camera because I forgot mine that day.) The plan for later that day was to go to the Children's Christmas Mass at our church, but it just didn't work out. So we went to Gramma's house and spent some time finishing her Christmas village and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with her and Uncle Mike.

Christmas morning...Amazingly enough, with their internal alarm clocks set for 6:30, the boys didn't get up until after 7! Zack came in the bed and snuggled for about two seconds, then jumped up, saying "It's Christmas, I'm gonna go see if Santa came!" When he discovered his Optimus Prime Transformer (the ONE thing he asked Santa for), he said "YESSSS!!" Xander was pretty excited about his train track and giraffe (the ONE thing he asked for), too. We got everybody dressed pretty quickly and went to Gramma's house again.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast is sausage balls, so we enjoyed them while opening presents and taking pictures...

Zack and Xander with Gramma (I couldn't get Xander to just smile!)

Zack's Geo Trax airport--both boys were excited about this one! Xander got more tracks and a remote control train, also.

Zack showing Gramma how his Christmas present for her works. It's a blinking rubbery rose from Dollar Tree. He also picked out an oven mitt and pot holders for her. He got Uncle Mike a birdhouse (so he could be friends with the birds) and a knock-off nerf gun.
Xander opening one of his puzzles

Zack and his sleep pants, but apparently, Zack's not big enough to fit into boys' size small, so they drag on the ground when he wears them.

Yeah, more transformers! At least he can transform these by himself.

I love this one because you can see Xander's cheek puffed out to where you know he's smiling.

After an easy lunch (of Christmas Eve leftovers), Mark and the boys and I brought Mike to the airport and headed over to The Hut. (When Jessianne was in college, this was where the Wesleyan Foundation met. She talked to someone and we were able to use it for our Christmas dinner. It had a fully-stocked kitchen, lots of seating, a pool table, and lots of room for the kids to run around. It was perfect for us!!)

Stacy and I while I was making truffles

The picture frame that I put together for Dad. It has 21 openings, enough for all of his grandchildren, grandchild-in-law, great-grandchild, and all (well, some at least) future grandchildren.

Eileen, Caroline and I

Super Zack's cape made by Aunt Mo! Zack loved it--he immediately put it on and started running around the room to make it fly behind him.

Daddy helping Xander with a puzzle

Most of the next generation: Simone, Tim, Zack, Xander, Stacy, Damien, Jenn, Christopher, Jessianne, Alyssa, Alannah, Charles and Evan. The only ones missing are Adam, Steve and Jonathan, and Dorothy and Addison, Adam's wife and daughter.

Four of the oldest grandchildren: Tim, Stacy, Jessianne and Charles. Whenever we get together, we have to have couch pictures.

Here's the whole crew...Eileen, Caroline, Jessianne, Keith, Damien, Alyssa, Danny, Dad, Christopher, Kevin, Cathy, Stacy, Tim, Charles, Alannah, Jeff, Simone, Mark, Xander, Ginny, Evan, me, Maureen, Jenn. Xander was kicking Ginny's head!

Wait a minute, someone was missing! He was playing "Zack-in-the-box!"

And here's our family...

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas season and a wonderful 2010!!!

A Decade Ago

I'm taking an idea from Kate's blog, looking back over the past decade at how things have changed.

2000...turned 21, realized it wasn't meant to be with someone, moved in with Susan, finished junior year of college, met my Cowboy, thought it would be "a summer thing," got engaged after four months, finished my last semester of classes

2001...turned 22, started student teaching at Gregory, watched my class at "Best Foot Forward," graduated from college, got my first car (a silver Chevy Malibu), Eileen got married, took a camping trip with Heidi and Matt, rappelled in open space!, got a teaching job at Gregory, sat in amazement looking at my very own classroom, watched in horror as two towers fell, started wedding planning

2002...turned 23, went to my oldest niece's graduation in Illinois, grieved with Mark and his family as we lost Grandaddy three days before our wedding, got married, spent our honeymoon on a cruise through the Caribbean, spent a night in New Orleans at Carnival's expense, found out last minute that I did have my job back at Gregory, started working for Papa John's

2003...turned 24, finished second year of teaching, worked at Papa John's, mostly during the day, while Mark was in class, got to be good friends with Beth, got pregnant, started one of my most difficult years of teaching, attended Matt and Heidi's Halloween wedding, watched my husband graduate college (even though I didn't hear his name because someone was cheering for their person)

2004...struggled with Mark starting his internship at PwC where he travelled Monday through Friday and was only home on the weekends, turned 25, had Mom attend an ultrasound with me on my birthday, became good friends with Liz as we went through pregnancy together, spent a week in a hotel room in Charlotte as Mark worked at his internship, went to the aquarium with 20-some kindergarteners while 35 weeks pregnant, went on bedrest at 36 weeks for high blood pressure, found out that Mom wasn't doing so well and wasn't going to have much longer, thought she was doing better, Mark quit his internship to take care of me and started working at Papa John's again, had labor induced at 39 weeks, had Zack 20 hours later, visited Mom in the hospital on my first Mother's Day and her last, lost her a couple days later, was told that my school didn't have a position for me, moved away from Wilmington to Mark's parents' house, looked all summer for a job, started teaching first grade at Rolesville, bought a house

2005...turned 26, took 11-month-old Zack on a roadtrip by myself, returned to a "While you were out" scenario at my house (Mark painted the bathroom yellow and decorated), went to Disney World!!!!, met Mickey Mouse for the first time in my life!!!!, bought my first NEW car (my Honda CRV), started second year at Rolesville as our grade chair

2006...turned 27, went to Erie, Niagara Falls and Saint Mary's on our second long roadtrip, became friends with Andrea, got pregnant again

2007...turned 28, struggled with teaching, found out that I was having another boy, watched Mark finish his first season of races, said goodbye to the principal that gave me a chance, spent the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy at home, spent time in the pool so I could feel weightless, had labor induced at 41 weeks, gave birth to Xander after 6 and a half hours with no pain medication or epidural, experienced life with two children!, went back to teaching when Xander was 6 weeks old, struggled with teaching some more, lost Mark's dad (Grandad) in December

2008...turned 29, struggled with teaching, decided that I wasn't going to teach anymore, bid a bittersweet farewell to the school when I had worked for four years, went to Disney World again!, looked for work, started working at Kohl's in August, opened the store in late September, applied for a promotion in December

2009...turned 30!!!, struggled with parenthood, celebrated Zack's 5th birthday, got a promotion to POS supervisor, took Zack to Tae Kwon Do, swimming lessons and soccer, took Xander to swimming lessons, went to the beach with the family!!, watched my sister grieveZack started kindergarten, struggled with good behavior, missed his celebration at the end of the quarter because of his behavior, accelled at reading!!! And now, well I'm still just trying to be the best wife and mother that I can be, and I hope that I can keep getting better!

Happy New Year (and decade) everyone!!