Busy weekend...

Emily and I are in Tampa for her very first dance competition. She danced this afternoon and that dance took 2nd and qualified for the Nat'ls competition in July. The girls did a fantastic job on stage and they all looked like they were having a great time. Since this was Em's first experience, we only put her in one number this year so we really weren't there for long.

The morning started off very challenging. Em was in a mood and man oh man...I was almost ready to leave and go home. LOL! I think she was nervous but man, she wasn't very nice to me AT ALL. Then, a friend of mine was helping with me with her bun and scraped her head with a bobby pin. The tears started almost immediately...I was worried we'd have to do her makeup again. But, I got her calmed down quickly and no damage was done. We took a walk outside and got a few pictures. This seemed to cheer her up and get her back on track. There was a cool fountain outside and this is one of the shots that I took by it...

Alex and Josh drove over to watch her dance. We had lunch together and they headed back home to Orlando. Em and I drove to St. Pete and to visit WHIMSODOODLE. They always have the coolest stuff at the expos but I'd never seen their shop. It was definitely worth the 30 minute ride. What a fun scrapbook store!!! LOVED IT! I may try to visit two other stores tomorrow. One is very close by, the other is a little drive. A scrappy buddy might come over to visit me while I'm in town. She's willing to take me to the one that's on the other side of town. I'm just not sure if I'll have time to get there and back while Em's doing workshops. The one that's close is only like 4 miles away...I can run there and back in no time. LOL

On the way back, we stopped by Walgreens for snacks, drinks and Advil for my headache. Em and I have gotten along beautifully all afternoon. We've just hung out at the hotel...doing NOTHING. We've watched Enchanted and played Webkinz...we even ordered room service for dinner.

Now, we're off to bed. Workshops start bright and early tomorrow morning and the wakeup call is coming in at 6am.

Before I close...here are a couple of the other photos that I took today... This one was taken just after we had some of her makeup on and the eyelashes. I love her hair down around her face like this...but I cannot get over how much older she looks in this shot!
This is just a quick shot taken in the dressing room. I wanted to get a great shot of her in a mirror with the lights around her face. It was so wicked crowded in the dressing room though...there just wasn't any way to get that done. Oh well...maybe next time.

Goodnight my friends...I'm off to tuck my little one in and get some sleep. It'll be another long day tomorrow!

Photo a day...a couple days to post

I've taken my pics each day but haven't had the chance to get here and post them. So, with Wednesday being my day off, I thought I'd do this first thing this morning. I've got a list of things that I need to do today, but this will be the first thing that I can mark from my list. Today's photo has a lot of meaning so I'll start with it and then go back to the last couple of days...they're not as exciting as today's photo, IMO. LOL

Today's photo of the day. Emily woke me this morning with a "I made you coffee this morning, Mommy". And within a few minutes, she was standing at my bedroom door with this towel and coffee cup in hand. She had pulled the stool out of the pantry, grabbed one of my favorite cups, added the splenda and milk and voila. I have to say, she did a great job too! A little heavy on the milk, but it didn't make it "undrinkable". Alex makes a fresh pot of coffee each morning and sometimes greets me with my cup waiting for me when I wake up. I have to say, this cup of coffee topped it all. What a sweetheart my little girl can be sometimes. I love days like this! I wish I'd have thought to take this shot this morning while Emily was holding this in her hands...but I was struggling to wake up today and the camera wasn't right next to me anyway. So, I've staged this one...it still has a lot of meaning. KWIM?
Feb 4th, my mess!!! I joined a card swap at Willow Traders. I haven't participated in a swap like this in some time, so I figured, why not? So, Monday night, I gathered my stuff together and moved to the family room so that I could spend some time with Alex AND work on my cards. I took my photo of my mess. Or at least, part of my mess. This was taken after I'd cleaned up a bit. I did leave it all on the table though and finished last night. Alex doesn't like the mess to be left overnight...but didn't say anything about it this time. I finished the cards last night and the mess will be picked up today. So the photo of the day for the 5th is a shot of my finished cards. I used some old patterned paper from my stash and a stamp from AUD DESIGNS I love the colors and designs of this My Mind's Eye paper. I know I've had it for well over a year...if not two years. I will probably add a bit of stickles in the center of the flower on the stamp though. I feel like the cards still need something. The theme of the card swap is "GIRLFRIENDS" so this stamp worked perfectly. Oh, and I used the template from this month's SHEETLOAD E-Zine. This has become one of my monthly favorites. Check it out! I'll get these packaged and in today's mail. One more thing off the to-do list! YAY!!!

Now I'm all caught up on the photos and the laundry is ready to be folded and a new load started. Laundry...sheesh...the story of my life! Maybe THAT should be tomorrow's photo, eh?

Can it be???

Emily planted a tiny little garden of her own last summer. Its just a patch of space in a corner of our backyard. She planted a bunch of seeds, watered it a few times and that's about it. Right now, it looks like a patch of weeds, and not much else.

Well, except for this...
Today, Emily noticed that a nice sized stalk with these tiny yellow buds, was growing in her garden. She insists that they are the sunflowers about to open. (because she remembers THAT'S where she planted the Sunflower seeds) Me, knowing absolutely NOTHING about flowers and gardening, can only hope that she's right. How cool would this be? She'd be so excited to have her own sunflowers. And if they ARE sunflowers about to open then maybe it'll encourage her to get out there and pull some of the weeds that she's nurturing. LOL I'll have to remember to check on these in a few days to see the progress...and maybe I'll take another picture of them too.

Oh, and I need to add too...I mentioned the Photo a Day thing to Em on Friday and she asked if her "sunflowers" could be my Photo of the Day today. She's right on with helping me get this going. She's such a cool kid!

Can you say DORK????

This is Koda...our dork of a dog. She does silly things...like toss her food kibbles in the air and pounce on them...recently she ran into the sliding glass door, even though we had left it OPEN for her to come in and out. She just isn't the smartest dog in the world...but she is a sweetie. And I love her.

Since we put Sunny down back in December, Koda has learned to be the focus of attention. I think she's enjoying not having to share the attention with Sunny. Even though she was always figuring out a way to get most of the attention anyhow. She's not very photogenic...not like Sunny. Sunny would almost smile for the camera. I have to fight with Koda to get her to sit down long enough for me to snap the pic...and she won't look at the camera for anything. Oh well, we'll keep her.

Alex and I are headed to our favorite little Irish Pub tonight for PUB TRIVIA. The first Saturday of each month we head over to meet some of the other Crew parents for a fun night of trivia and beverages...and sometimes some good irish food too. (tonight's one of those nights)

Maybe I'll take my camera and get a shot or two there. Of course, Alex will probably tell me to leave the camera at home. Darn it.

Layout a Day and now a Photo a Day

Well, January 2008 has come and gone already. And I'm pleased as punch to say that I participated AND finished the "Get a L.O.A.D of This" class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The goal was to do a layout a day (L.O.A.D) and post it in the class gallery. There were prizes given out daily, but I didn't win any of them. I'm still waiting now to hear if I won either one of the big end of the month prizes. I doubt I'll win, but it sure was nice to start scrapping at home again!

Since I did so well in the layout a day thing, I'm now going to challenge myself in a "PHOTO A DAY". Each day, I'm going to take a photo of "whatever" and post it here with a little note about it. This will give just a little glimpse into my every day life. Nothing exciting...but it'll be fun to journal a bit more and to see what fun and excitement might happen each day. HA!

Today's photo is of Emily. She woke me at 4:30 this morning crying and complaining that her throat hurts really bad. I gave her drink and a throat lozenge and sat up with her for a little while to make sure she didn't swallow the lozenge in her sleep. When it was time to get up for the day, she had a low grade fever, glassy eyes and you could just tell that she wasn't feeling well. Poor baby girl. She's been either on the couch or in my bed all day. She just feels awful! She was supposed to have dance rehearsal this evening and we were camping tonight with the crew team. Looks like those aren't happening. Instead, we're here together...pumping her with gatorade and motrin...hoping she's feeling better by Monday and certainly better by next weekend's dance competitions.

I'm off now to work on cleaning up the scrapbook room. After a month of scrapping, things are in a bit of chaos in here right now. I might even scrap again later...if I get it all cleaned up and I can get Emily in bed at a decent hour.

Wish me luck!