headache

So as I was scooping my ice cream just now, I was brainstorming blog topics. Here is what I came up with:

• excerpts from a letter written to Aaron
• a story about how I am a lazy mom (blame it on the headache) and let my kids make a mess with food

I will blog about these (or at least the first one) another night. Tonight I have a headache. And I have that ice cream to eat. So I hope at least one of my shows has a new episode posted online.

Goodnight, dear readers, all two or three of you...come on, surely there are at least two of you!

Twilight

Have you seen Twilight yet? No? Well, go ahead and see it! I have to admit that I'm not a die-hard fan of the books (hard to put down but fomulaic and somewhat cheesy), but the movie is beautiful and worth seeing.

The main reason to see this film is the gorgeous scenery. There are many, many breathtaking shots. I don't know if the movie was really filmed in the Pacific Northwest, but it definitely makes you want to pack up and move there.

The second thing that makes this movie good is that there are several electric scenes of Edward and Bella together. They mostly stare at each other, but the actors have great chemistry. The bedroom scene was probably my favorite. And have no fear, this movie was made to include the tween set, so there isn't any hardcore contact.

Now, let me warn you: there are a fair share of corny scenes. This should be expected, though, because there is plenty of corn in the book. And if you've seen the trailer where Edward makes Bella say, "Vampire" outloud, and you didn't vomit - then you can handle the few other corny scenes.

One reason not to see this movie: Kristen Stewart. She was terrible. She overacted in most of her scenes, and she did this strange mouth stuttering thing where she opened and closed her mouth and made weird breathy noises. I think she was trying to act confused, but the director should have seen how annoying it was coming across on film and stopped her. She was pretty wooden, too, but the mouth thing bothered me the most. Then again, I have a thing with mouths.

So, overall, I'd definitely recommend the movie. I would tell you to wait until it comes on video, because it's not a spectacular movie by any means, but the cinematography is worth the price of admission.

feeling good

I'm really working on trying to be a better parent. And the past few days have really felt progressive. Look at these happy kids:


Aaron took these pictures. Amelie had on her puffy vest and her Supergirl cape. Aiden's happy as usual.


I've been trying really hard with consistent discipline. Not yelling, not repeating myself, following through with a consequence immediately. It's been slow this week, but Amelie seems to be responding just a tiny, tiny bit, and that really encourages me to keep it up.

I also got up early yesterday and today, and it's amazing how a few extra hours in the morning can really change the pace and feel of the day. I've been crossing things off of my to-do list, and that feels awesome!

Last night was one of the best nights in recent memory. Aaron and I took the kids to a drive-in movie to see Madagascar 2. The movie was really cute, and we danced with the kids to the songs. It was so much fun I couldn't stop grinning. That was my first drive-in movie experience, and I can't wait for the next family movie to come out so we can take the kids back.

Tonight I'm going with Meleah to the Twilight premiere. She's pretty excited so I hope the movie doesn't disappoint her.

Well, I'm off to get more things done!

Halloween

Here they are: my little Halloween babies, as promised several days ago. I think they're pretty much adorable.

As for the picture, well, not so much. I'm thinking of asking for a flash attachment thing for Christmas. I think it was called a Puffer or something like that. Basically it's this thing that attaches to your flash and diffuses it so you don't end up with the harsh shadows like you see here. I wonder if it helps with red eye reduction? I shoot with a Canon Rebel. It generally shoots great pictures, and it has a red eye reduction feature, and yet...I mean, come on, that red eye is horrible!

I need to find some good photography blogs to stalk. I keep stalking all of these scrapbooking blogs and getting inspired, but I rarely ever harness that inspiration. I take way more pictures than I actually scrapbook. Improved photographs would improve my scrapbooks, too, right?

We had an awesome day today. We took an hour long walk on the Rose Rudman trail. It was a gorgeous day, and I love spending time together as a family. Aaron and I were reminiscing about when we were dating. It reminded me of all the fun we used to have together - carefree, crazy, spontaneous fun! We already have a plan for tomorrow which includes more outdoor fun and a trip to the library. I'm looking forward to that because we haven't been to the library here in Tyler. I hope it's cool.

Heavy is the cost.

Well, it looks as if it's official. Obama is our President-elect. I am deeply worried about the next four years. I am looking forward to 2012. Unless this guy just shocks the pants off of me, I cannot see that he will be successful enough to last eight years.

These next four years are going to be trying. I don't have a crystal ball, but I truly feel we are in for a treacherous journey. I think many will come to regret the vote that they cast. Too many people put themselves over their country, whether it was based on identity politics or misguided notions.

We as conservatives need to take this opportunity to draw closer to God, regroup and refocus our political philosophies, and stay involved politically. We cannot be complacent or downtrodden. There will be Congressional elections in just two short years. They will be crucial. We also need to get involved with non-profits. If we can't change policy through political channels, we must change people's hearts at a grassroots level. (I hate the word grassroots, by the way.)

I have so many thoughts on what went wrong this time, but right now it doesn't matter. We have a new President (or will in January), and we will have to live with the ramifications of that. Even if the near future looks dim, there will be better times ahead. I pray America isn't lost in the meantime.

I had hoped to post about my day and to show you some Halloween pictures, however, I think I need to take some time to reflect on what has transpired and to spend some time in prayer.

God bless America.

Back on track...

Wow, it's been a while. Best piece of news to give you: I made it into the nursing program for the spring!

Other than that, things around here are pretty much business as usual. Aaron and I had a break from the kids last week. They spent the week in Mesquite with my family. It was nice, but we both kept commenting on how much we missed them.

I came across a really cool blog last week, SouleMama (see blog list for link). She is very inspiring. This is the kind of mom I want to be. I keep finding these blogs, and I just feel like I can do so much better than I'm doing. I do feel like I am on the right track, but it is just so tough with school and our money crunch. I'm trying to really focus on what Aaron and I can do to make things run more smoothly around here.

We had a talk last night about us, schedule, money, etc. Just talking it all over out loud lifts a little of the stress. We really need to re-focus on getting Aaron a better paying job. And I have to find a better way to balance the demands of our family/house/etc with the demands of school.

And here is what makes the stress worth it:



Driving a fire truck! No, seriously (and obviously), the kiddos. This picture is from a couple of weeks ago when Aaron and I took them to the World of Wildlife Museum. They have a neat playground outside.

I'll try to post some Halloween stuff tomorrow. Don't forget to vote!

school started today

Well, I officially started the fall 2008 semester today. I'm taking Pathophysiology, Concepts of Nursing, and Microbiology (and its lab). My Microbiology lecture class and my Concepts class are online. I have the Micro lab on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the Patho class on Wednesday mornings.

I wish I was taking French or a literature class of some kind. I feel very unbalanced with all of these science and math classes I have been taking over the past few years. I don't want to risk my GPA over a non-essential class, though. I suppose I'll have to round out my corners another way.

I'm a show-off!

Just a quick post to let you know that I'm in the show-off slideshow on Britt-ish Designs blog today! I'm so excited! Check out her post and her new kit. It is so cute! And the other show-offs...wow! I can only hope to one day have LOs as great as those.

my LOs (so far...)

Well, I'm up late. Amelie's birthday party is on Sunday, and I'm heading to Dallas tomorrow, so you know what that means...last minute chores. I don't have much to say tonight, but I finished two layouts that I wanted to share.

First, though, here's my very first digital LO that I finally uploaded to photobucket so I could show you.

credits: everything by britt-ish designs except for the gray ribbon which was a freebie off of the catscrap blog

Now, here's the LO I did for my hybrid project (aka Amelie's birthday T-shirt).

credits: pink glitter stars and yellow rub-on swirl by britt-ish designs; star dust by ellie lash; blue stamped stars by miss mint; green cardboard stars by kylie m designs; alpha by eva kipler designs; stitches by gunhild storeide (re-colored); star brackets by sharing creations

And here's a LO that I have been working on that I finished up tonight.

credits: background paper and photo frames by lsds designs; border overlay, glitter spills, and linen flower by weeds&wildflowers design; journaling block by mandy mystiques

Happy 4th of July!

I meant to post on the actual 4th, but we got home pretty late. I hope everyone has had a nice holiday weekend. Ours has been pretty good. The kids and I drove into Mesquite with Meleah for a surprise visit to our grandparents' house. We ate dinner with them and my parents and then played Chickenfoot. We tried to see fireworks, but the show ended up being on Saturday instead of the actual 4th, so we were a little bummed there. But Amelie saw a lot of fireworks on the drive home so it turned out alright.

My phone is still cut off. :( It's really hard to not have a phone to call people with. I thought we might get the funds together after Aaron's shifts this weekend, but he's been getting the early cuts plus the restaurant has been slow so far this weekend. That all leads to poor cash at the end of the night.

I've been thinking of getting a part time job just to save for some trips, but now it looks like I'm going to have to buckle down and get a serious job. We are simply drowning. Well, on that downer I'm going to end this post.

weekend update

Well, I finished my first digital layout last weekend...and I haven't digi scrapped since. I did finish a couple of pages in my family album. A big "thank you" to Mama for buying me that little craft table. I've finished 4 pages since I got the table. And I have another two pager in progress. I'm so thankful for having my own little scrap space (even if it's tiny) where I'm able to leave my stuff out and come back to it when I'm able. I've only been scrapping at night after the babies are in bed, but it's been nice. Several times this week Aaron and I have stayed up, drinking coffee, talking, watching movies, etc. And I've been able to scrap while I sit right next to him! :)

We had a great week. All of us went swimming several times up at the apartment pool. Mia came one day, too. Granny and Grandaddy drove out yesterday. They took Amie back with them which is turning out to be a really good thing because Aiden ran fever all night. Poor little baby.

Aaron has to work the day shift today so it's pretty quiet around here with him and Amie gone. I've been enjoying my coffee and downloading and organizing digital files. I'd like to do a layout, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not...

Hi :)

So, I doubt anyone that knows me IRL has found this (except maybe my sister - Hey, Mia!) so, for today at least, I'm not going to post about my real life. :)

I mostly wanted to at least have one post up on my blog because the site looks funny without some kind of rambling in the middle.

I guess I will set this post up as an introduction to me and why I created this blog (in case you don't read the About Me section).

My name is Amanda, and I live with my fiance, Aaron, and our kiddos, Amelie and Aiden. We are currently residing in Tyler, TX about two hours from Dallas. I am attending the University of Texas at Tyler for nursing. I'm not actually in the program, yet; I'm trying to get in for next spring.

I started this blog mostly as a place to keep all of the digital scrapbooking blogs I like together in one place. If you've stumbled across my blog, please visit the blogs listed. These are some really talented girls. I hope to one day have LOs that look as great as theirs. :)