Spring into Summer

How about a little update on what's been going on around here?

1. Mom & I went to the big city Farmer's Market twice this month. Oh how I love the thrill of the hunt of every Farmer's Market I attend!
2. 

 We camped & boated & hung out on the beach for Memorial Day Weekend. I read this book, its good!

3.  I love having the fan in the window. this is not the ideal size for this window but it worked for us & it make a pretty cool phone pic I think.

 4. Our 'reading program' this summer.  Now that all of my childcare bigs have their own electronics of varying sorts, they want to bring them for quiet time. I have no problem with that & even welcome them for both of our sanities. I shook things up a bit this year & they have to earn their time on them. One minute of electronic for each 2 minutes they read from a real, live, paper book.  they took off running with it!! Its not perfect or even a spreadsheet but this is how we keep track, every single, day. LOVE.

 5. from a winter the didn't want to end to a stormy spring that has brought us a LOT of great cloud formations.

 6. the 17 year cicada is this year around here. we collected about 30 of them yesterday & had them 'have a party' on the roof of one of our playhouses, then the boys were walking around 'wearing them' as they clung to their shirts, I believe they even went so far as to name a few..

 7. New sand in the sandboxes. hip hip hooray! Happy faces all around.

So, what's going on in your world lately? 

WITL Sunday

Well, the photography leaves much to be desired but I plan to document as much as possible in words for Sunday & make up for it... yes I really only took 3 photos all day LOL

I did go ahead & create a 5x7 collage w/those 3 photos so they are ready to order when I am ready to do these pages. 

they appear to be in reverse order of the day but anyway...
We were camping & woke really early to thunder but chose to try to wait it out only to wake @715 w/sprinkles on the tent so we were packing up in the scattered showers, nothing drenching-THANKFULLY but just enough to be obnoxious :)  the bottom right photo is my biscuits & gravy breakfast we stopped for next to the menu.  we were out the door in a hurry when it started to rain again as we had left the sunroof open for the pups to have some air while we ate our breakfasts.
the top right photo is the dogs sharing the back seat for the first time all summer.
We were home, unloaded, unpacked & showered by 11-a record for us.
then I was a complete bum the rest of the day :) Tim put chili in the crockpot as soon as we were unpacked. YUM it was the perfect day for it.  the left photo is my supper bowl.
Exhausted from the weekend we were lights out way early. 

Hoping to do better on the photo count today :)

Scrappiness

So I got a little out of balance while reading those Janet Evanovich books this past few weeks & just couldn't seem to make time to scrap until they were finished. I just cannot balance my down time very well.  Just super thankful to have down time to need to balance!

 

here is the page I completed the other night. using lots of old goodies (need to make room to justify some future purchases of course) .  Also, I am especially proud of this one b/c it uses a 5x7 & 2! 4x6 prints! that's unheard of for me to get so many prints on a page.  Originally I had it all layed out over a 2 page spread but once I had the 5x7 & goodies down,  I thought that bottom left corner looked a little bare, sliding the photos around on it, I discovered I could trim them down & not miss the 'extra' & then it will all fit happily.  & so I did.  I love everything going on on this page.  the alternating title letters, the really old, really busy printed paper, the clock (love me some time pieces) then the 3 rub ons that refer to time, the really old tag from a swap & original Creative Memories tree die cuts. *whew* I love using up some old stuff!

 

This is still in the July 2009 chapter of the Lake Family album! I need to get a move on if I still plan to finish 2009 photos by Scrap Pink (October 26 & 27)!

mystery bite or sting + Kora = anaphylaxis

This past Saturday while hanging out on a beach at the lake, Kora got bit/stung & her face swelled up, when Tim got back from swimming across the cove to check the other side for accissiblity for the boats to beach up, I 'handed him the panic button' & I was the calm one, calling our vet for the number to the Centerville clinic since it was 1:30 but he didn't recommend rushing her in anywhere & working her up, said to admin straight up Benadryl (or any diphenhydramine-only product) & Sammy's prednisone, keep her calm & cool. So Tim & Hupp loaded in our boat & FLEW back to the boatramp, Tim ran up the hill to the truck, zoomed over to our campground (the courtesy dock at our campground boat ramp has been pulled out due to the high lake level) for the meds (luckily I hadn't unpacked the Benadryl from last year's allergy treatment for Sammy AND we had brought his whole bottle of prednisone instead of just his Sunday dose). by the time he got back she was recovering, but I still adminned them both. She crashed in minutes (when we got moved to the other-quieter- side of the cove) & Sammy snuggled w/her knowing she didn't feel good ....."awe", what a good big brother.... By the time we headed in to land @6:20 Kora was fine, had even already slept off the Benadryl!  By the time we were eating breakfast the next day she was running around like a crazy puppy again doing laps around Sammy & a nearby tree, almost laying her side she was going so fast & cutting the corners so close.

 Here~~~> is a pic of her from LAST Sunday , for comparison.  poor poor baby!

 

So, Benadryl goes w/us always!

Thankfully, that was it for the drama of our weekend!! :) How was yours??

Therapy..

I have been so busy-a good busy- that I haven't taken much time for blogging or facebook posting lately, or running, or cleaning, or napping, or much of anything really.  I have been staying true to my favorite form of 'therapy'-Scrapping- tho.  We must do something for ourselves to stay sane :)  So here are some from the June '09 Lake chapter I just finished on Saturday.  (in no important order)

a really busy page but there were so many important sentiments I wanted to include with the photos but keep them all to a single page. So I balanced it with the simpler page on the left.

And in true Kim fashion, working backwards, this is the pile that I started the left page with.This seems to be what's working best for me right now, pull out everything I think I might want to use on that page & pile it allright in front of me while I work on it.

 a single photo page, I don't do many of them but when I do, its usually because there is a pretty good story to tell.

 Gaaaa! amazing paper! so hard to scrap with!  the photo, letters & writing are all I added to this one & it took a long time to be able to use it.

the first time the girls were on the boat. Love the snuggly-ness of this page, the double meaning of the title, & the happy little 'pile' of blue wire at the top.

 I have a zillion of shots like this, our group of boats gathering, then passing trying to splash us. Now that its officially documented, Maybe I will stop taking the same photos every year ;)

AWE GUSSY!

 I was ecstatic to find some old star paper to use for some night shots! Kept this page really simple to keep the focus on the photos & the dry embossed stars on the paper.

 I LOVE sparkler photos! OH & giant letters! such a great page to create!

 odd for me to not use a color from the photos for the papers, embellishments & such but this was the closest paper I could find to plaid & I had it in my head I had to go plaid for this page about Shayne & his fashion sence :) I wasn't sure about the button/brad 'arrow' at first, but now looking at the photo of the layout, I am really pleased with it and its effect to direct my eye to the journaling.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this whole layout!

This amazing frame die cut came from a friend & I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it when I unpacked it!

and this!! is what's left of my 2009 photos to scrap, with the exception of a few 8x10s that didn't fit.  This basket was full & overflowing a few months ago. So exciting for me to see the light at the end of the tunnel! I very rarely finish anything!  crazy to think that 2009 will have 6 FULL albums of scrapbook pages! AND I will be able to say I have a year finished for the first time ever!

Thanks for looking!

 

What do you do for 'therapy'?

Gratitude Novermber 7

Incredibly grateful for our lake family!  LOVE THESE GUYS!!!!!

5 on Friday

5 BIG REASONS this girl is ready for SUMMER camping weekends...
(not in any particular order-HONEST)


1.  COCKTAILS TO PARTAKE OF

2. FRIENDS TO BE ENJOYED

3. ADVENTURES TO BE HAD

4. PLAYING WITH THE CAMERA IS MY ONLY PRIORITY

5. AMAZING SCENERY EVERYWHERE TO BE ENJOYED

ALL ARE PARTS OF A FANTASIC WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!
(photos from 2009 Memorial Day Weekend)

currently

Discovering: that my line drying addiction shouldn't control my laundry habits. some days it must be done & dried in the dryer-being ok w/NOT being an all or nothing factor HELPS.

Training for: Des Moines half marathon in October by running several days/week w/friends as well as keeping up on 5k races that pop up thru the summer.

the friends that also ran the Indianola Osprey Race this spring.



Loving: that some of my little garden experiments are working even tho some are not.

Enjoying: the summer with out any itty bitties in care.  No bottles to pack on walks, trips or events.
Wishing: the weather was a bit more summer like. Its fluctuated from spring to a dab of summer then right on to fall in the past month.

Counting: down the weekends until our next boating trip. Love our boating family.

Shopping: the farmer's markets as much as possible! I have done the Des Moines Downtown Market twice, our local Clarke County Market a couple of times,  as well as being lucky to happen upon the Grinnell Market on Saturday.

Eating: as much as possible from the grill.

Learning: how to make, use, perserve from our environment. Step 1: mulberry syrup.