Pictures from last week!

Hula Party

This last month of school is already getting crazy. Victoria's class had a Hula Party Friday and Gramma went and got some pictures. She looked so cute, the girls got grass skirts and the boys wore lais. Her Hawaii shirt from Aunt Tiffany was perfect, the little girls even had on green skirts just like Victoria's! She has an Ice Cream Party, Awards Day and more still to come!

Today was the first day that baby Trey and I took Victoria to school, it worked out pretty good. We just need to adjust his feeding schedule in the morning so we have a little more time and so that I'm not feeding him while trying to help Victoria get ready!

BABY TREY

He's here! He arrived at 6:18pm on Wednesday April 18th, weighing 8 lbs. 15 oz. and 20 inches long. We came home Friday afternoon and Victoria was so excited that her little brother was home when she got home from school!
She's been a great big sister and a big helper to mommy and daddy!!
I'll TRY to keep this blog up better and add pictures more often..... for now here are some of our newest addition over the last week.

Pictures

Some shower pictures.

Busy, Busy

ok... how do you bloggers do it?? I don't know how some of you blog everyday!! I think about it everyday, lol, but it seems so hard for me to find the time to actually do it!

Anyway... got Victoria back to the doctor yesterday for her check-up. She got a clean bill of health!! Lets hope it stays that way for a while now!!

Not much else has been going on. My mom hosted a wonderful baby shower for me last Saturday, it was tons of fun and great to chat with ladies I don't see very often! Don't have access to my photos right now, but will post a few pictures soon.

Work on the basement is progressing... the agenda for this weekend is to get the studs up... there was a trip to Lowe's this afternoon, so all the wood should be ready to go. Victoria recently got a tool kit so she has been having a blast hammering and making things while Daddy works on the basement, it's so cute.

Off to our annual women's retreat this weekend....always lots of fun and very inspirational!

That's all for now.

Quick hello

Hello blog.....
Victoria was sick over the weekend again, and YES, it's another start of an EAR Infection!!! What are we going to do??? Third round of antibiotics in less than 2 months.
Then I've got a horrible cold too, so we've both just been laying around during her Winter Break from School.

We did get out Saturday to her teacher's wedding. Very nice, small wedding, only thing was it started nearly 45 minutes late!!!

We got out this morning, had some breakfast, went to the library and a short visit t0 her grandpa's house. Then a lazy afternoon.

I have gotten down to the basement yesterday and today, started packing up any pottery pieces that are old and throwing a bunch away that are bad pieces and over 10 years old!! I've got to take a "Before" picture before I get too much done!

Nothing too exciting....

Except my weekend at Camp Crop Alot... There were 5 of us from the 'Peaches' group. We had a great time and met some wonderful new ladies. I got 22 pages done and made layouts for all the pictures that I had ordered and brought, time to order some more for next month's crop! The new house is great and I can't wait for my next weekend getaway!

Victoria's appt went ok, still some fluids in her ears, but no infection. She's on a preventative medicine now for 6 weeks.... she's such a trooper when it comes to taking medicine.... no complaining at all, even when it tastes 'yucky'!

Hubby is finally feeling better. The cough is still lingering alittle, but it doesn't kill him each time now. He has most of his energy back and he and Victoria were playing around on the couch last night which they haven't done in quite some time. She even made a comment about the fact that Daddy hasn't been able to play around in a while.

Now it's my turn it seems. All stuffed up and a cough. Better today then yesterday, but now I'm constantly sneezing and my nose is getting raw from having to use so many tissues! I was able to get a bunch of rest this morning and that is the plan again for tomorrow.

One of Victoria's teachers is getting married on Saturday afternoon, so we are going to that. Victoria has never been to a wedding and is very excited about it! She has picked out a fancy dress to wear and wants me to dress up too, not sure how dressy I can get in my maternity clothes, and in this cold weather, we will see! The other teacher and 2 or 3 of the other girls in her class are also going so I'm sure she will have fun. It is not far from the house either so that is good!

Another Week...

* Transfer the tag for the new van.

* Get to the post office.

* Victoria has a follow up appt after ear infection, hopefully it's all cleared but she still can't hear normally!

* Pack for Camp Crop Alot!!! Got my pictures Saturday so now it's planning and packing time!

* Get Victoria ready to spend the weekend at her Gramma's house!

Belly pictures

Thought I'd compare 15 weeks in October to 28 weeks last weekend.... same outfit!

This week...

Brrr!! It is 1:30pm and still only 28 degrees outside!

Things to do and places to go....

* Had my one hour Glucose test this morning, fingers crossed that I passed!

* Victoria's Gran is visiting her school tomorrow to read a story to her class.

* Wednesday is early release day, Victoria will be home at 12:30.

* Pay day, woohoo. Pay bills, boohoo!

* Thursday, Gary is helping his brother coach so Victoria gets to spend some more time with Gran or Grandpa.

* Hunt down the mailman to get my pictures I ordered.... plan pages for my weekend at Camp Crop Alot.

* Laundry, dishes, laundry, dishes, laundry.....

* Start cleaning out extra closet, go thru bookshelf and clean out!

* Get some things ready to Ebay.

* Post some belly pictures. I have some from October and some from last week in the same outfit and then some that Victoria took too.

The Last 7 Days...

What a week it has been.... and now I just had this all typed out and ready to go and Blogger shut down on me.. augh!

Anyway... last Friday started with Victoria's doorhandle breaking off... went to the Kia dealership and it was going to be almost $200 to fix it! Well, I ended up coming home with a new '06 Kia van!!! We'd been looking at them for a while and it all worked out. It has the power doors and back lift and fold down back seats. It will be so nice not to have to take the seats out when I go scrapbooking!!

Then Saturday was a great day of cropping with a great group of the GA Peaches!! Always fun and it was great to meet new Peaches. I got 4 pages done and finished up 2 more that I had started a while ago!

Monday the UPS man came with my new maternity pjs from Old Navy. I finally have a comfy pair of pj pants to hang out in, I don't have anything to match the pink and green plaid, but that's ok! The shorts set is so cute with cupcakes on them!

Tuesday after dropping off Victoria at school I went to my brother's office and removed staples for 8 hours... what fun, but some extra $$ is always good! From there it was off to teach my class. I was glad that there was nothing going on Wednesday and I could rest.

During all this, Gary has had a flu-like virus and not feeling well at all. Then yesterday I had to take Victoria to the doctor and she has yet another ear infection!! This is the second in less than a month. So she's been home yesterday and today. I will say she is turning into quite the little scrapbooker!

Yesterday I finally got a huge pile of scrapbook pages into page protectors!! This pile has been homeless for months, I just keep forgetting to get the page protectors! So now that they are finally in the protectors, I just need to get them in albums!

I also have to order pictures... going to Camp Crop Alot in 2 weeks and don't have any pictures to work on!! Can't wait for CCA, excited to see the new house!

Well, that was our week... no plans for the weekend, just hanging out at the house and hoping everyone feels better!!

Nothing Special

Just an average Thursday, but hadn't posted in a while. Been really tired again and this little boy is kicking away!
Tomorrow is Friday!! Nothing planned tomorrow, but cropping with the Peaches Saturday... looks like I'm driving solo though.
I finally found my clear stamps that I have been looking all over for!! I got them in Orlando in November and haven't even used them yet...so glad I found them.
Off to watch Men in Trees.

Creativity....

where has it gone??
Here are pictures of the paint can I made and beads I found, details in Friday post.

It's FRIDAY!!

It seems like this has been a busy, crazy week! My teaching quarter started Monday night and now my schedule is FOUR nights a week, two classes. The first few classes always end early since the students don't have any supplies yet, not much you can do with a drawing style assignment when noone has paper or pencil! However last night was a regular class and I didn't get home till almost 10:00pm. It's going to be a long quarter and I already miss being home when Victoria goes to bed.

The rest of the week was fairly normal, getting Victoria back to the swing of getting up for school. She and Daddy went off in the afternoons, going to grandpa's, getting daddy's haircut and generally running around town.

Yesterday was Victoria's 4 year old checkup and shots. It is so hard to believe she is already 4 and a half years old, where has the time gone?? She did great at her check up until the doctor left and I told her we had to wait for the nurse to come back for her shots :( Considering the fact that she got 3 shots, some in each leg, she did great, she certainly has a great set of lungs on her! All I wanted to do afterwards was carry and hold her, but that's a bit hard to do when she is 35 lbs. and I'm almost 6 months pregnant!

And then there is my Creativity Slump!!! I made a paint can for a friend for Christmas and had fun with it, but since then have not felt creative at all! i filled her can with a variety of items, snowman ornaments, mug and coffee, some scrapping embellishments and chocolates.

We even stumbled on this great little bead shop while we were in Ellijay, Beaded Couture. I found some great beads and ideas, but haven't had any interest in making anything. I need to order pictures so i'm hoping once I get those I'll be inspired to scrap some, especially since I've gotten so far behind! I am looking forward to a crop with the Peaches next weekend too!

Soccer

As promised, here are a few pictures from soccer this past fall. One from her very first practise, Mommy was kicked out of practise after all she wanted to do was sit with me. So practise days became a daddy, daughter evening. Games were mostly spent with Victoria standing around watching everyone else. Every now and then she'd run towards the ball, a few times the ball hit her feet but it wasn't because she ran to it :) She did get to kick the ball in to the game!

26 weeks

Had my OB appt this morning. I'll will be 26 weeks on Wednesday and I'm already measuring at 26 weeks. Surprisingly after the holidays and great country breakfasts at the Bed & Breakfast, I only gained 2 pounds in the last month! My total so far is 12 pounds, not bad!! I go back in 3 weeks for the 1-hour glucose test, oh fun :)

A friend from church passed on some newborn clothes that her little one has already outgrown. It is hard to remember Victoria being that small. The outfits are so cute... bears, trains and sports!! His wardrobe is off to a great start, he's going to be a styling little fellow!

Another friend was talking about her kids and sports on her blog ... Victoria played soccer this fall, so cute though she just stood around most of the time. I'll have to find some more pictures tonight and post some soccer shots!

Some Pictures

All these are from mid-November or Thanksgiving weekend. The black and whites are some that we used for this year's Christmas cards. Then Victoria and I decorating our tree, she was such a big help and had so much fun putting the ornaments on and helping with the lights!

New Year - New Blog

Once again the plan is to be better about blogging! What better time to start fresh then the New Year?! I actually tried to blog a few times over the last few months but Blogger and my computer were not cooperating.

News from Cartersville -

Victoria's pre-K days still start with a tear or two each day, but as soon as Mommy leaves she has a great day and tells us all about it each day.

Around the middle of August we got some family news that Victoria will be a big sister!! We waited to share the news for a few months and then found out on Dec. 1st that we are having a little BOY! Victoria is already in love with her little brother and can't wait for his arrival is mid-April.

Gary seems to finally be over his ongoing battle with kidney stones! After a procedure to break it up he passed a stone the day before Christmas and has been feeling like himself again since then!!

We got away to a great little Bed & Breakfast for a few days before the new year, had a lovely time just relaxing and enjoying north Georgia.

We've started cleaning/organizing the basement to get it ready to finish off.... we'll move our office, video game and craft area to the basement and make that room the baby's room.

Everyone is back to school and work tomorrow, I've got two classes this quarter that I haven't taught in a long time so guess I'm off to get ready for class.

Tried to upload a couple pics but laptop not cooperating, I'll try again from the desktop tomorrow.

jinxed

Well I guess I jinxed us by telling everyone how good Victoria did yesterday. This morning she started crying as we walked in the door and they had to pry her out of my arms. I just wish I could drop her off at the door like we did last year, but at this school I have to go in, sign her in, and take her to her class. Maybe if we do hugs in the car first??!
No phone call so far, I guess she calmed down?

First Day Pics.

Pictures from the first day of Pre-K!

First Day!!

Victoria had her first day of Pre-K today!! This whole situation has been quite stressful for us due to registrations, wait lists etc. But on Monday we found out that she got in at our first choice location with has the GA Pre-K program! So she did really good when I dropped her off, no tears, just lots of hugs.

Her teachers said she had a few 'sad' moments where she wanted me to come get her, but overall had a very good day. She was in a great mood when I picked her up and is ready to go back tomorrow. She has breakfast and lunch at school and I was worried she wouldn't eat, but had biscuits, then chicken fingers & applesauce!

I took pictures at the house and in the car on the way, but she was doing so good, I didn't want to upset her with pictures at school. I did get one this afternoon of her by her hook and her Dora backpack.

I was great to get things done around the house and get to the gym again, but the day went awfully slow and 2:30 seemed like it would never get here!

Hope everyone else's first days for your kids have gone well!
Well I tried to load pics with this post, but Blogger isn't cooperating :( Will try again later!

Pictures

Some pictures from the birthday weekend.

Cake at the park, sliding at Chuck E. Cheese & her new Princess Bear at Build-a-Bear.

got thinking..

more about hubby and our anniversary.... He's the best because...

• he loves me even when I'm in an evil mood and look my worst.
• he's an awesome daddy.
• he supports me in all my hobbies and crazy ideas i might have.
• he's a wonderful, caring teacher.
• he's the best coach.
• as he says, 'i'm me!' :)

so happy (belated) anniversary hunny, i love you!

Busy, busy....

Wow, busy week!! Here's a pic I was able to find of our family from our June trip to New York....it will make sense in a minute.

My little girl is FOUR!!! I can't believe Victoria is 4 already! Her b-day was Sunday the 23rd. After church we took her to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, Gramma and her Uncle met us there. We then went to see the movie Cars, so cute!!! Her special gift from us came next, we took her to Build-a-Bear. We realized that she has helped both me and daddy make bears for us but she doesn't have one for herself. So she picked out a pink bear and named her 'Princess' :)

Then on Monday we had her 'Princess Pizza Party in the Park'! We had a great time, the kids ran and played on the playground and wore themselves out. Everything was princess related of course. And of course i took tons of pictures BUT for some reason I can't get to them from the laptop today so when hubby gives up the desktop i'll get some pictures up! (ok, found one of the family)

On wednesday we celebrated our 9th anniversary! We spent the morning at my mom's neighborhood pool, then dropped Victoria there for a few days. Hubby and I went to see Pirates of the Carribean finally, loved it!!! Then Friday night we went out to a new restaurant near the house, dh had steak and i have a crab & salmon cake entree....yummy, yummy but crummy service!

And the wait for Pre-K continues. The school where she is registered has a very bad reputation and the folks I've talked to on the phone have no clue. So we are waiting to hear from where she is 3rd on the wait list.... really hoping to get in there. Then there is the private school where she went last year, it is only half-day and costs $$ but apparently the inlaws have taken it upon themselves to get involved and register & pay for her to go there, Ugh! If that is the case it will completely mess up my work situation and we were really wanting her to go all day. Anyway, she should be starting around the 15th, we'll just see where!

Some pics....

Just a few pictures from the bike ride yesterday- my dad and I in my new jacket, and the group as we're about to get on the road after a quick pit stop.

Great ride.....dodged the rain!

Got home from my ride a little bit ago. It was a good ride but it started with the 'leader' being almost an hour late, we were about to leave without him, apparently he thought it was tomorrow.
Now here's the funny part.... we were planning on riding the long way to eat at Jim & Nick's BBQ in the same plaza as a local Scrapping store, lol!!
So we headed out north to Adairsville, Summerville, Rome then headed towards Rockmart to the direction of Hiram. This is where the storms were.... so before we got to Rockmart we decided to turn away from the lightning and black clouds and went back to eat and hang out at Chili's in Rome. From there we split a bit and all headed our ways home, my dad came back to the house for a bit. So we never made it to the bbq and store. It rained while we were eating but we never actually got rained on :) Legs got wet on the ride home, but overall a great ride and i met a lady who rides and she's in Dallas.

Somehow my dad is the one who had a camera along with some of the other guys and I didn;t even think to bring mine, that's got to be a first!!

Tomorrow is Victoria's 4th b-day!!! We taking her to Chuck E Cheese for lunch, build-a-bear then to see Cars. Monday is her party at the park.

I'll end with a 2 peas challenge, someone who is special to you....
With her birthday tomorrow, I've got to say my daughter, Victoria! She is such a sweet girl and just so smart. If I'm in a bad mood all i need is a smile or a hug from her and my bad mood is gone! She keeps me going all day!

Weekend plans

A pretty relaxed weekend.... this morning we spent at a friend's pool, always fun! Lazy afternoon, hubby and Victoria went over to her cousins for the afternoon while I got some cleaning and work done.

Tomorrow we didn't have anything planned, but I talked to my dad a bit ago and he is going on a motorcyle ride that starts in my town at 2:00. SO, I think i'm going to join him for the ride to north georgia...... just hoping that the weather cooperates! I haven't been on a ride in a while so i got the bike out this afternoon and went for my normal loop around. Had a great ride, just awfully warm out.

Then Sunday is Victoria's 4th birthday! So we are taking her to Chuck E. Cheese after church for lunch, then to Build a Bear and then to see the movie Cars. We realized that she has helped build bears for her daddy and for me, but she doesn't have one of her own! I'm curious to see what animal she picks out.

Catching up!

So, it has been almost 2 weeks since i blogged... busy 2 weeks! Attended and worked the Scrapbook Expo in Atlanta. I stayed within my budget (i think) and worked at the Scrapbooks & Stickers booth, great ladies and lots of good stuff! I also met up with all the Georgia Peaches from scrapbook.com for dinner and an evening crop as well as shopping and classes. 2 of my 3 classes were great, the third from SEI was just awful, absolutely unenthusiastic teacher and not very useful pages in my opinion. I love attending Expo because I always see friends that I only get to see a few times a year!! I live across ATL from where Expo is held so I love this chance to get over in that area.

In other areas, Victoria finished 2 weeks of swimming lessons this morning and did a great job!! In the beginning she was hesitant about just getting in the pool which surprised us since she is such a fish in the water! By this morning, she was jumping in off the edge and going under water. We are so proud!

While I still haven't heard from the temp agency about the possible interview I have started working with a scrapping company, Brindy's Giftables.
They make great titles, embellishments and more and i get to play with some new tools :)

We're also planning Victoria's 4th birthday party on Monday. It is so hard to believe she is about to be 4 already! My dad tried to age her even more and tell my uncle she was turning 5, what was he thinking, she needs to stop growing, lol!!

I will finish tonight's blog with a challenge from 2peas...
List 5 things that put you in a good mood..

1. Chocolate
2. Good music
3. Snuggling with daughter and/or hubby
4. Hanging out with friends
5. Completing craft projects
6. Going for a motorcyle ride

I had to add number 6 :)

I will try to get some pictures off my camera and post them soon!

What did you do before we had the Internet?

A blog prompt from a friend...

before the internet, there was such a time, lol :)

hmm...

• made long distance phone calls
• spent time with pen and paper
• writing friends
• making lists
• paying bills
• waited for friends to write back
  
• played board games
• spending more time with family
• had less friends - I've met some great friends online!!!

I'm sure there's more things, how about you?

Possible Employment

For the last 7 years I have been a teacher at a local technical college. It has worked out great because I was able to change to night classes when our daughter was born, so I'm home iwth her during the day and then hubby is home at night while I go teach. Unfortunatley I never know if I will defintaly have a class for the upcoming quarters due to registration, class number, and schedules. I have only had a class ONE out of the last THREE quarters, the current quarter started after the 4th and I do not have a class.

So I got a phone call today from a temp agency and I may have an interview later this week! It would be an administrative position at a real estate agency, working on PowerPoint, Photoshop etc making brochures and such. I'm not looking forward to the possiblity of going back to work full-time but since Victoria starts Pre-K in the fall it should work out good and it would be consistent work! It's awful not knowing every 3 months if you have a job or not!

So, we'll see what happens!

More weekend stuff

This somewhat goes with the latest 2Peas prompt. My brother has a Playstation game called Guitar Hero, it uses a guitar as the controller and you have to play the notes. He just got a second guitar controller so we can battle against each other! The best part was when i beat him at a song on the EASY mode (he's up to the Hard mode)!!! woo hoo!! I got 100% and beat him in points, i was quite excited!!

I know that this game is one thing that my brother loves to do to unwind. For me, after the little one goes to bed I like to get on the computer. The tv also tends to get my attention on quite a few nights! Then I love to curl up in bed with a good book! On an ambitious night I might get to my scrapping table and work on a layout :)

Challenges

Some challenges from 2Peas....

Do you listen to music or watch movies while scrapping?

The room where i scrap is aso the office and video game room. So usually there's an X-box game in the background and a tv show. I get more work done if it's a sports game or one of dh's shows, otherwise i tend to watch tv and not get work done.
When i go cropping a store or friend's i love to listen to music. One place i used to go monthly always had 80's music going, tons of fun!

What scrapbooking supply do you find yourself using on almost every LO?

It's been ink!! I'm addicted to inking the edges of everything :) I even inked the 3-d circle stickers that i used recently to mute the colors so they matched the papers better. Another thing i've been using on most layouts is flowers, love the primas!!

Crop Night

Friday night crop night.... it was fun, got my sister-in-law to come and a good friend. The space however stunk!! It's a new LSS in town, small store and even smaller crop area if you can call it that. We had to climb over each other and our bags constantly and we had about a foot and a half of table space, ugh. So the company was great and I got 7 pages done but don't think i'll be back there for a crop. The store next door has gone out of business so i tried to talk the owner into taking over that space and expand but she doesn't seem to interested.

it's FRIDAY!!

Since hubby is a teacher and I am currently not working my days are constantly mixed up, but it's always great when Friday rolls around! Especially when it's a Friday night crop day!

We have a fairly new LSS in town, she's gotten off to a rocky start and I'm curious to see how the crop will go this evening. It is free and no dinner included which is not what I'm used to and I'm also not sure about the space, it seems very small.

I've got a bunch of Christmas pictures preplanned so I hope to be able to get a lot done tonight!! My sister-in-law and a good friend are also going to be there, lots of fun!

Summer Movie

Haven't had alot of time for the movies lately, was out of town for almost 2 weeks and with a daughter about to be 4 it's rare that I get to a movie that's not a cartoon. I still need to take her to see Cars!

But hubby and I did get out to see MI3 not too long ago. While I think Tom has turned into a complete jerk, he's still nice to look at for 2 hours :) It turned out to be a great date night!

Today's Events...

• slept in a little
• got rid of yesterday's headache!
• Special K for breakfast
• got Victoria's b-day invites in the mail - not handmade though
  
• went to unemployment office
• watched Victoria and her cousin play - to be that young again!
  
• pork chops for dinner
• watching Big Brother 7
• going to plan for a crop tomorrow night

My Pet Peeves

This is a prompt from the 2Peas board.

One of my biggest pet peeves is waitresses/restaurant service. It drives me insane when they are slow and provide bad service. You would also think they would be considerate of us having a 3 year old with us, we usually order her entree at the same time as we do drinkis, but some people just don't have a clue!! I only waitressed for a few months in my younger days, but I don't think it takes much more than common sense to be a good server.

Another pet peeve I have would be people not picking up after themselves. Honestly, how hard is it to put the dish in the sink instead of the counter, or put your clothes in the hamper instead of the floor!! Gary is a wonderful daddy and gives Victoria her baths, BUT he never cleans up afterwards. Her clothes are all over the floor and the tub is filled with soapy wet toys and washclothes. You would think that he would get tired of me gripping and complaining, but I guess not because it doesn't change!

I'm back

So, it's been a while since I blogged and thanks to the friend who got me started I'm going to try to keep up better!

Just got home from almost 2 weeks out of town. Mostly spent with family at a reunion/retreat weekend. Had a great time and got to see cousins that I haven't seen in almost 9 years and their children that we've never met! I wanted to wait till I had a picture of all of the family to post (almost 20 of us) but my dad has that picture and I don't know how long it will be before he gets it to me! So, here's a pic of the cousins, minus the spouses.

We had a great fourth celebrating Freeom, Family, Friends and Food! We went to a cook-out at my brother-in-law's house and then headed to the park with their family and my dad and brother to watch the fireworks. We lucked out with the weather, had rain earlier in the day but cleared in plenty of time for the fireworks!

Scrapbook.com Challenge

I've never done the challenges or swaps on Scrapbook.com, but I've gotten into a few this month. One is the FLYlady challenge! The following is an introduction to me for this challenge.

My name is Nicole, I live nw of Atlanta, GA in a rather small town where everyone knows my family. My dh and my inlaws are all teachers so everyone know us somehow!

I live with my dh, our daughter who will be 4 in July and our three legged kids, Ashes, the cat and Rocky and Sammie, the dogs. Dh is a middle school teacher and is looking forwad to summer break! He coaches basketball and track.. track season just ended Saturday, YEAH!

My daughter, Victoria keeps up very busy and loves Dora! It seems that we're always running around. I am home with her during the day and teach night classes in the Graphic Design dept. at a local Technical College.

Of course I love scrapbooking, I also love to read, garden, throw pottery and have fun with friends and family.

Ready to scrap and FLY!