Get your money for nothing...

It was a good weekend, long & relaxing.  009 took a friend down with him to his dad's & they had a blast.  I took a truckload of stuff that I've emptied out of the house up to BTL to go into his mom's garage sale.  We sold so much, I couldn't believe it!  I think I got about $40 at the end of the day.  It feels so much better - lighter, freer! 

The weekend before was Easter/Bithday (my brothers', newphew's and Gadget's!) and I had taken over a bunch of old computer stuff for 018 to have & play around with.  Which started me stripping down the boys' desk they don't use any more.  And purging all the papers & stuff they keep.  Which started me cleaning out my old files.  Which led to more purging out of the closets.  And scrap stuff.  And getting rid of my right-handed desk.  A lot of stuff came out of this studio, and it is still a bit in boxes as I wait for my new, real furniture to get here, but it is going to be awesome!! Part of it gets here today, and then some more tomorrow.

There has been more talk on moving the studio upstairs and bringing the boys' room down here.  That needs more investigation. It might help with selling it, should I actually want to do that.  But if I don't it does help it be more functional too.

More gardening projects going on this year too.  Getting the front trees mulched again would be nice, and the pine trees on the east side are now getting big enough they are hard to mow around without looking like I got into a fight with a cat, so they need some too.  A tree needs to come down & 2 others topped.  And the roof.  It will be replaced soon as well.

Lots of stuff, will keep you posted!  Can't wait for 6/8 when we go on the Harold Cannon Flight Clinic!

Card Share on BenzilaScrapping

Good morning all I just posted a card share here Birthday Cards be sure to go check it out! Have a lovely day!

January 2012 Flickr Upload

Wow, I'm finally starting to get somewhat current!  LOL  As always, you can see the full stream here:
BenzillaScrapping's PhotoStream

And then for my favorites:

010 & 008 writing in the snow in the parking lot while they wait on me, too funny!
 

Impromptu meeting of friends at the movie theatres & getting to sit next to each other.  He & 010 have been friends since the second grade.  It has not been without trials & tribulations.

Yummy, yummy sushi! Although we have discovered the Playboy roll is our favorite.

And Bento Boxes.  I was STUFFED!  But it did make for yummy lunch leftovers!  Using chopsticks can drive Gadget crazy but he never stops doing it!

Surprise I found in my bed one night.  008 is such a trickster!

My favoritest shirt for one of my favoritest pilots - but not Gadget.  He took the joke well.

So proud of all of them.  A restaurant out west wanted signed pictures to hang - how awesome!

Gadget signing his.

We stopped off at the New Holland Brewery on the way back from Muskegeon - again lots of food!

Yummy!

Weekend Update

As many of you know, I've been busy getting my pictures from 2012 sorted into my Library of Memories system.  I had all of them through October printed out.  I really like it when Walgreen's (I think the best here in town) has their digital print sale.  But I can honestly say, it gets tough going through that many pictures at one time (almost 1000).  So perhaps doing a monthly print makes more sense.  Or two months.  At first, it is exciting to get them all organized.  Then I'm about to cry because I just want to get it done.  Well, it finally is done, the craft table is all cleaned off, binders are freshly labeled with new catagories.  I had to add a couple of new ones, as I didn't have enough space.  I also took time to organize more stories together.  And I had some spread out over too many places, so consolidation is was going on too.

And some catagories are hard to figure out.  Like where does Gadget go?  He's obviously a big part of my life.  He's in the "People We Love" category.  But what happens if we don't stay together?  I have always struggled with this, and have to some degree edited my life afterwards because of this.  Do the memories mean less because that person is not there any more?  Are the memories less valuable?  Should the stories not be told?  And now when I see them through my kids' eyes, that gets really awkward sometimes.

And don't worry, there are no plans of him not being in my life.  In fact, lots of plans together.  Just trying to understand how this relationship works I suppose.  And keep in mind I am neurotic, so I tend to get stuck on sticky points like this.

We had a good weekend.  Friday I had my massage, I love those & look forward to them so much.  I swear sometimes they are the only thing that keeps me sane.  Saturday morning was the Tae Kwon Do tournament down in Noblesville.

That was an educational experience.  Everyone gets broken down by belt & age.  009 got second in Forms & Sparring, 012 got fourth in Forms and Third in Sparring.  It was hard as they thought they would just kick butt.  But it was their first one, so they both were extremely nervous.  012 wants to keep trying, 009 not so sure.  But I hope he does.  It was amazing to see so many kids do this stuff & how they are from all walks of life but have this one thing in common.  We were competing against Illinois, Michigan & Missouri and the winners here are eligible for Nationals down in Florida. 

We went to see Iron Man 3 with Grampa at the Eagles Theatre in town.  It was really good, but had some tough stuff to work through too.  At least for me.  Mainly when he's talking about protecting the one thing he can't live without.  It is hard to be that vulnerable. I've always wanted to be on the receiving side of that too.

Sunday church was led by the kids, that was cool.  Mine didn't participate as it had been a busy weekend.  It was extremely cool to watch.  We did our grocery shopping afterwards.  The boys help.  We divide up the list & then they go out with their own carts.  It makes it go much faster, but it keeps them from driving me crazy as we're shopping, teaches them how to find stuff & they learn some economics too.

I took a nap after lunch, then read Scrapbook Trends (I usually save those for when I'm in BTL) but it was good to wake up to a cup of coffee, some cookies and a good magazine.

Then I actually scrapped a bit!  I finished a layout on Saturday that I had started earlier in the week, and then started & finished another! I felt so good! I had kitted up a bunch earlier this year, so it's so easy to just grab the next packet & have papers, pictures and a sketch ready to go.  I've been pushing myself super-hard to use more of my embellishments on pages, after all, what is the point of having them if I'm never going to use them?

Well, time to go get ready for work, have a great day!    

Card share over on BenzillaScrapping

Check out the KI Memories Cards here