To my Mom

Thank you for teaching me, especially how to clean.

Thank you for being so stinkin' funny and fun to be with.

Thank you for supporting me, even when you don't agree with my choices.

Thank you for being a great mom to me, and those darn boys.

Thank you for the example of how to be a mom and a wife.

Thank you for loving me.

To my Pun-kins

Thank you for making me a mom.

Thank you for insisting I brush your teeth and read you stories.

Thank you for listening to me, most of the time.

Thank you for going shopping with me, even when you really just want to go back home.

Thank you for the snuggles and the kisses.
Thank you for loving me. And telling me so.

fun with actions

Well, I've got another new hobby. Photo editing. Like I have time for this...;) With my new camera, I upgraded my photoshop to Photoshop Elements 7. Not top of the line or anything, but better than what I had. I've heard alot of people talk about running actions on photos to get a certain look and I was happy to find that there are actions out there that work with Elements. And some were, ah, FREE! I am learning that even with a fancy new camera, pictures don't always turn out great and that most of those awesome photos you see from professionals are edited. So this week I have spent some time learning how to run actions. I really like the vintage/urban look.

If you're interested, I found a great blog, coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com that offers free actions and textures (next on my to do list;). Another great site, which she mentions as well is digitalphotographyformoms.net.

Project 365-Week 18

Sunday, April 26th

Well, 2 weeks AFTER Easter, the kids finally were all well enough to go to church and wear their Easter best. I actually had them all ready in time (Joey had left for Pennsylvania early that morning) and thought I'd get a quick picture. Didn't work. Not only is it impossible to get all 3 kids looking and smiling, but after looking over the pictures, I realized I had the camera on manual focus (I though it was on auto) and they were out of focus in every pic! And by then, they were done.

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Monday, April 27th

So with Reganne in underwear full time, she's having a little problem keeping her 3T pants up...

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Tuesday, April 28th

Reganne had a nap today (see Week 17...). So here she is, up late with me, *helping* me sort through my scrapbook stuff. I enjoyed the company though. I hate when Joey's gone.

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Wednesday, April 29th

Marryn made a fun discovery today. I had put Christian in his walker thing in their playroom (to keep him occupied for a little bit longer...) and then later she pushed him out back onto the wood floors. And what do you know, he can push himself now! Well, he can push himself backwards under the kitchen table...;)

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Thursday, April 30th

We went to Target today. I'm a sucker for the dollar bins, and today the girls got little coloring/sticker books. Marryn proceeded to walk around *singing* from her book.

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Friday, May 1st

Yeah! Daddy came home tonight! And he brought the girls some fun presents, pig noses from the baseball game he went to, the Triple A team IronPigs. Any Office fans out there? Joey goes to Allentown, PA which is right next to Scranton. Just a little useless info;)

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Saturday, May 2nd

Yard Sale! I love yard sales. Not going to them (yes it's that whole, I like new things...see Week 17 post again), but having them. I hate clutter and well, stuff. We took 3 car fulls of junk to the Goodwill (after having a yard sale) before we moved, yet here we are a year later with more junk! Our HOA put it on, all we had to do was put out our stuff, so Friday I had everything ready to go and then Saturday we woke up and could hardly see past our driveway. I "opened" up anyways and made $168! Not too shabby. And I love when people get excited over something you would have thrown out;)

Project 365-Week 17

Sunday, April 19th

A Pony Show! Marryn loves to get her toys out and give us a "show." Although I think she enjoys the setting up part the most. She spends all her time setting up the stage and audience seating and ticket counter that by the time we sit down to actually watch the show, she really doesn't have a whole lot for us. And, surprisingly, she gets a little shy...and I do mean, surprisingly...

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Monday, April 20th

We had some nice weather that late in the afternoon, we all went outside to play...in the dirt. Can't wait to get our backyard put in. While the kids played, I pulled weeds. It was actually nice to get down and dirty outside.

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Tuesday, April 21st

Reganne fell asleep watching cartoons. She still needs her naps, but sometimes it's such a fight and then, just like her big sis, she's up until midnight with us, so sometimes I let it slide...only to find her like this later (like at 4-5pm, what a great time for a nap).

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Wednesday, April 22nd

In honor of Earth Day I thought I'd share a little something we have been doing to *Reuse*... (you know, reduce, reuse, recycle...) I have a hard time reusing. I like new stuff. Years ago we inherited a bunch of wide mouth canning jars that we turned into glasses. LOVE them, only they are a little mismatched. Which is fine if they all were, but there are 4 of one and then 2 other oddballs. So one day, after opening a jar of Whole Foods spaghetti sauce, we noticed what a nice jar it was. We cleaned off the label (which was really easy, not like other brands...) and decided we'd reuse the jars as our new glasses. We now are up to a set of 8.

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Thursday, April 23rd

My mom found 2 of my princess crowns (from my pageant days, he he...but seriously I did pageants as a little girl) and then gave us Garrett's (my youngest bro's) king wand thing he won in high school-what can I say, my family's royalty;) I'm a little protective of the crowns (everything else I won burned up in my family's house fire...a whole other story...it was on my birthday, a month after Landen died...rough summer for us...), but I will let them wear them a little, if they're good. And BTW, Reganne is wearing Christian's pj pants...OVER her pants. Don't ask how that worked...

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Friday, April 24th

So, my kids are still semi-sick. The girls are coughing up their lungs. But what can you do about it? Nothing really. I've got the humidifier on in their rooms and I've been giving them honey (not Christian!) by the spoonful. Marryn's been getting some breathing treatments. Helps a little. But I think it's just something that we have to wait out.

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Saturday, April 25th

So, if you know me, you know that I can be a little timid. A little shy. A little quiet. I've gotten better over the years, but still not great. So we need to have our lawn aerated. I was upstairs and saw our neighbors doing our other neighbor's lawn. I told Joey he needed to go ask them to do ours. Well, he had just got out of the shower and wasn't going to do it. If I wanted it that bad, I could go ask myself.

WHAT?!?!?! Ask MYSELF?!?!?!

And I am proud to report that I did.

Ten bucks and our lawn was aerated. I even talked to them about doing our sprinklers and putting up our fence.

Even Joey said he was surprised that I actually went out there;).