We got back pretty early yesterday, so I was able to participate in my Friday night speed scrap. I scrapped one of our Florida pictures since I had just gotten them off the camera. I used What's Up, Buttercup? by Geek Chic Scraps.

I am sick now, but hopefully it's just a normal cold. We are leaving tomorrow for Tucson!

I need to force myself off the computer and to bed here soon, due to our 6 a.m. flight in the morning. I am already feeling withdrawals from my little computer community, but I am forcing myself to leave the laptop at home and have a real vacation. Scot is bringing his so I will check my email, but that's about it. There is plenty of other stuff to do in sunny Florida!

The layout I posted last time with my mom and the kids in the background was voted layout of the week at Plain Digital Wrapper, much to my pleasant surprise! It is such a nice forum, and I'm happy to be a part of it. I am also being featured as a scrapper of the week on the blog at Brownie Scraps tomorrow. That is one of my other favorite forums, so I am feeling honored this week!

Owen had his performance at the talent show tonight, and managed to get through it despite being nervous. I think he did a good job, especially since it was his own song that he did. We weren't able to stay for the 2nd half of the program because of not wanting to keep the kids out late, but it was fun to watch and there were some really cute acts.

I have been scrapping our Georgetown day trip from last summer. I have another layout that I can't post yet until Friday.

I went out and got all my Easter shopping done today. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time between trips to get stuff, and I would rather not wait until the last minute and everything is picked over. They had a lot of cute stuff at Target, like these frames with a little soccer ball in the corner. I also had to get some new sandals since we only have one pair that fits anyone. I got out all the short and t-shirts and the kids were trying stuff on yesterday to see what still fits. Luckily most of it still does so we are all set for the trip!

Between dentist appointments and rehearsal for the talent show, we have had to get up earlier than usual the last two mornings. I am looking forward to a normal schedule tomorrow, even though it does include work.

These are the layouts I did with Marni Designs new kits Little Boy Blue and Little Buddy. I think I will be using Little Boy Blue to scrap the rest of my 4th of July pictures since the colors match the outfits the kids were wearing that day.

Marni Designs has two new kits coming out tomorrow. I have a sneak peek for one of them. I had an easy time working with these since they are both boy-themed with great colors. I can't wait to post my layouts tomorrow!

I ordered a new toy today, a Flip Video Camera. It's digital and small, and you can put your videos on the computer easily, unlike our other one with the tapes. I picked 2-day shipping so it will be here in time for our trips, plus the talent show on Friday.

I just found out an hour ago that tonight was spring forward night. I hate this time change! I would much rather gain an hour. I will have to force myself to go to bed a little early, I guess.

Owen has been complaining about not feeling well off and on since Friday evening, and I've had a mild sore throat. It seems we always get sick at this time of year, but hopefully it's nothing much.

Lots of layouts to post today! This first one is from a new kit by Julie. It is. called Vivre:



After dinner, I decided to my usual Friday night speed scrap, and this is the result. I used a kit that I won just today from Modern June called Bohemian Chic. I think I will be using it again soon since I didn't get to use a lot of the great paper. We had to pick solids for this speed scrap.



I also decided to get a bunch of my layouts printed up since there was a sale going on. I can't wait for them to arrive! I had 92 pages to print, which didn't even include my layouts from the last few weeks. I won't save up so many next time, but at least I got a nice discount from the sale!

This is using the new kit You Sham(rock) My World that came out today by Geek Chic and Sweet Tomato Designs. I used a template by Kate Designs for the template challenge over at MLAS. These photos are old, but I've always liked them. We were dogsitting Daphne a few years ago and Declan was hanging out with her in the yard.

Just a little sneak peek of the new Geek Chic collab kit coming out tomorrow at Polka Dot Plum!

Our trips our coming up here soon. I am going to have to pull out the summer clothes and see what we've got, I hope! I haven't checked Florida or Tucson weather yet. I'll wait until we are closer to departure. I have the rental car and kennel booked for the Florida trip, and then Scot will be home while we are in Tucson, so no kennel needed. I don't think we'll need a rental car for Tucson, either. We will have laundry facilities in Florida, so I will try, as always to pack light, especially considering luggage charges these days! All four of us will have the biggest carry-ons allowed, so maybe we'll only have to check one bag.

I have been completing some pages, but they can't be posted yet. There are releases coming out on Wednesday and Friday this week, and I'm also hoping to get a page or two done for my new CT!

I did my usual Friday night speed scrap this week. I had to use two photos that were in a sequence. I used a kit called Urban Jungle by RebeccaPSP, and it worked well for the rustic setting of the YMCA.



I was excited to get the news yesterday that I was accepted to a CT for a local Colorado designer, Julie.it.is. She uses such great jewel and earth tones for a lot of her kits, which I find very easy to work with. I can't get into her forum yet to find out all the details, but I love all her kits that I've seen of hers.

I spent the day and evening at a recorder workshop. We played in the morning and part of the afternoon, and then we learned some English country dances so some people played and others danced. I did both, and it was pretty fun, but made for a long day!

Scot is going skiing tomorrow so I will have to think of something fun to do with the kids. They went to a Home Depot workshop this morning and Owen practiced his archery later at home. I can picture him getting into a solitary sport like that rather than a team sport, eventually. He really liked it when we tried it at the YMCA last year. We actually all had a lot fun with it.

Report cards came out on Friday. Both did well although Owen had a couple comments about him getting easily frustrated. Hopefully that is getting better over time. We talk about it a lot, but who knows if it's helping. They also got a packet of the school photos that I didn't order. I don't really want to get two packets of photos a year, and seeing this did not tempt me to order them! Declan was having a bad hair day because I didn't even know it was photo day and didn't fix it much before he left for school. What cracks me up is he has one photo where his eyes are closed, and that's the one they featured, but another version is shown on a couple of them with a nice smile, but it's not the main photo they focused on. Does anyone even look at these before they do them up?? I might scan them before I return the packet since they are kind of funny.

Today was...not a great day at work. We had the crier, the screamer, the whiner, the hitter, and more than one kid for those categories! To top it off, I walked in to see the one kid that gets on my last nerve. I used to get her every Monday night and it was just too much after awhile. I didn't expect to see her with my new Wednesday shift since usually she is in school. I don't know why she was there, but she was for my entire shift. I forgot my purse so I had to go without my usual before-work coffee, so I'm sure that didn't help my frame of mind! Anyway, I am looking forward to a lazy day of nothing tomorrow. I have barely been home this week, so I am already stressed by that. I am a homebody at heart and it's my favorite place to me most of the time!

Scot is working the early shift for the next few days, so he got home earlier than usual. He took the kids swimming while I was at my exercise class, so they were thrilled to not have to be in the treehouse like usual. They ate dinner poolside, so I came home after the class and had a relaxing dinner by myself, with one of my favorites, grilled cheese!

These are my Color Me Happy layouts. The softball one was a challenge at Digital Scrap Cafe to use no background paper. That was different for me!