Launch

So Violet lately has been jumping down the stairs... taking them a few at a time, then, at the bottom, leaping off from 4 or 5 up. Riley has been soaking this all in, and tonight decided to try it for himself. From the top step. By himself. He launched right off. Rick was in the living room and heard a thud, then saw his son through the bannister - head on the step, feet flailing through the air, doing a perfect endo down the stairway. Rick caught him as he got to the bottom of the steps and other than being a little shook up, Riley was none the worse for wear. Thank goodness.

As for Violet, her favorite Christmas gift was from her Mama Lali and Papa... skate shoes... she hasn't taken them off since Christmas morning. She skates everywhere. She's already biffed it a few times. I am sure it's only a matter of time before I'll be able to share a launch story starring Violet too...

Christmas at the Publow house

Wasn't the same without Melinda...
so in your honor we took several photos of the little details of the day that you will appreciate. This is the first post of photos. More to follow, of course! Props to e-lan for her help in getting these uploaded. Sorry it was so difficult to do on mom & dad's computer!!


new Korean wine bottle holder


creepy Santa clinging to the tree


Liane's Christmas present from me... ;)


oooo the lighted village ornaments!


Joey McIntyre I love you!


the Liane shrine...


The Melinda shrine...


Nativity scene before Christmas. Where's baby Jesus hidden this year?


Oh! There he is! Don't tell Papa!!

coolness

The Chatterbox album I made has been selected as one of the 25 Finalists !
I'm pretty thrilled... just for being selected my album will be in the idea book (very cool!) and I'll get some nice product prizes from the company (good cause I need some new album covers!). I have to send the actual album to them for final judging, and I'll know in January if I won a cash prize... $1000 first prizes in each of the categoriesof photography, journaling, or memorabilia, and $10,000 grand prize for best album overall. Although I am pretty certain I won't win the big shebang, I am hoping for a memorabilia nod. That would be awesome!! Actually, just being a finalist is awesome!! :)

The village is up

The silver ornaments are up.
The dishes are in the cabinet.
The kids are napping.
I am about to quietly read my novel.

Now Christmas can come ;)

Since when did

throwing away a poopy diaper become a FIGHT between the kids?
I asked Violet to throw away Riley's diaper and Riley threw a FIT. He *demanded* to do it himself. He also has to be the one to turn off the TV. If *anyone* turns it off first, he goes to the TV, turns it BACK ON, and then turns it off himself. @@

The week's been a little nuts... we've put up Christmas decorations and made cookies, made cards, made crafts, and hosted a few parties. It's been fun but exhausting. And I still haven't got out the Christmas village or the Christmas dishes yet... hopefully today.

Tonight we're going to see Seussical the musical with the kids... I can't wait!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

It really was a great trip for us. My in-laws got us a portable DVD player for the car, which made the 4.5 hour drive *much* more tolerable for the kids! They watched Nemo, Home on the Range, and Lion King 1.5.

Our Disney tickets were waiting for us at the Concierge desk with a very nice note from the lady who dropped them off. It was a GREAT experience for us, and we'll probably keep doing the ebay thing for tickets!

The hotel (Hyatt Regency Orange County...we got it on Priceline for $45 a night) was VERY beautiful and VERY fancy. It had a 17 story atrium, which Violet realized *very* quickly made a lovely echoing sound. *giggle* we are just not the fancy hotel type. Our room was on the tenth floor and the kids loved arguing over who would push the elevator buttons. We dropped off all our stuff and drove over to a shopping center down the street... I wanted to get a pair of comfortable shoes (all I brought were my birkenstocks... comfortable, yes... but not for two full days of walking). We also saw a Wal-Mart and wanted to look in there for a beach cruiser bike for me, since we found one reasonably priced at Walmart.com. Sure enough, there was ONE bike at wal-mart! Already assembled and everything. I rode it all over the store and to the checkout counter. Rick made fun of me as I tried to scan the barcode (which was stuck to the front reflector) by picking up the whole bike. LOL. That wasn't working so I finally got it to peel off enough to scan it. Then I rode the bike through the parking lot to the car. I was having a BALL!! We leaded in the bike and got a pair of lace up canvas shoes for me at Payless, then we stopped at Baskin-Robbins for some ice cream dessert. Such a happy time so far and we haven't even gotten to Disneyland!! Back at the hotel we parked the car ($36 for 3 nights... OUCH!) and I rode my bike through the lobby up to the elevator. Rick thought I was insane. We tried to get the kids tired enough to go to bed, but they were pretty wired. We took them to the hotel pool, which was nice and warm but the air outside was so cold it wasn't much fun.. and the spa was waaaaay too hot. So back in the room the kids got a bath before bed and actually fell asleep at a decent time.

Kids got up at 5:30 am chanting "Dis-nee-land!!!! Dis-nee-land!!" and so we got up, took showers, and had breakfast downstairs in the lobby (buffet was $15 per person... OUCH again! I guess this cheap hotel thing wasn't such a great deal after all!). The shuttle to the park picked us up at 9 a.m. and we headed over. We met our friends Jim and Valerie at the entrance and went in and saw Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy right away! It was a great autograph and photo moment for the kids. You should have seen Riley talking to the characters! He LOVED it! He scrunched up his little shoulders and said, "Hi Mickey!" in the cutest voice! We did all kinds of rides and fun things for the kids... Small World at Christmastime is seriously my favorite. I was so excited to share that with them! Violet and I did the Matterhorn while Riley slept and she enjoyed it ("except for the scary parts," she said!). We were pretty much nonstop all day. Rick and I had a leisurely late lunch at Blue Bayou while Jim and Val took the kids to the Snow White show, which they said was awesome. The PARADE was wonderful and the fireworks were amazing. And that was just the first day!!!

On Day 2 we decided to have breakfast with the princesses at the park, and that was a GREAT choice! It was $22 for the adult buffet and $12 for the kids (Riley was free), but the food was OUTSTANDING and the fact that the princesses came RIGHT to the table to talk to us, take photos, and sign autographs was the BEST thing! Sooooo worth it! We hopped over to California Adventures and watched the Aladdin show (INCREDIBLE) and played at the Bug's Life Bugs Land (that was fun for the kids... kinda boring for the grownups). Finally at 2 we met Rick's parents and we all went back into Disneyland, rode the train, did Small World again, played in Toon Town (Violet's favorite ride was the Gadget's Go Coaster that she rode onwith her Grandpa Rich), met another family from Vegas (the Russos) for dinner, and watched the snow fall while we had mochas. Such a wonderful time. And great to do the trip with a couple of extra grownups (since I think *every* time we were halfway through a line Violet needed to go potty). Such great memories... and SIX rolls of film to develop! :)

di-nee-lan! di-nee-lan!

Riley's been chanting this for days.
I love that he really has *no* idea what is in store for him. I am so excited for him!!!
We leave tomorrow afternoon for Anaheim and will go to the park on Wednesday and Thursday. The house is clean and the bags are packed... Violet's been ready for days too. I am tooooo excited!

okeeee dokeeee

Time to get this house in order.
I neeeeeeeeeed to clean it before we go on our Disneyland trip on Tuesday. I am so excited. We bought our tickets on ebay, and actually I am a little *concerned* about that cause I've never done it before. What we did was find someone who was using the first 3 days of their 5 day passes and selling the last two days, apparently a common practice online. I found a great deal on ours ($170 for three 2-day park hopper passes... over $100 off regular price), and I am supposed to be meeting the lady who is giving us the tickets at our hotel the night before we are supposed to go. She's already got our money, so hopefully she comes through. If not it's definitely a lesson learned.

Thanksgiving was great, mostly cause there was *NO* drama!! (hard to do with 36 of us!) Tinty and Lukey were sorely missed, but we still had a great time... three turkeys (one in the oven, one on the rotisserie, and one in the deep fryer), tons of stuffing, yams, sweet potatoes, veggies, rolls, jello, and so much more. I was in charge of a relish tray since Melinda wasn't there and if I do say so myself it was great. It looked so beautiful and colorful with dill & sweet pickles, black & green olives, baby corn, grape tomatoes, and sugar snap peas in the pods. Mmmmmmmm! The kids loved the tomatoes and peas!

Tish and Leslie outdid themselves with a great Turkey Treasure Hunt for the kids, which brought the funniest line of the night, uttered by Violet.

Leslie: Where do you wash your clothes?
Violet: OOOH! THE DISHWASHER!!!!!!!!

We were all stuffed and then ate and drank some more. I think there were 8 pies. Rick and the cousins all played poker at the game table while I shared my Chatterbox contest album (woohooo!! FINISHED!) with mom, Pam, and a few others. They all loved it, especially cause Rick wrote his own journaling for the side that told his perspective.

Liane and I got up at oh-dark-thirty to hit the sales on Friday morning, making a 5:30 a.m. stop at Starbuck's for some shopping fuel. We did some GREAT shopping, and we even had to stop midway through our excursion to unload the car to make room for more stuff. Gotta love it!! She left for college this afternoon and I already miss her... it was really the best weekend I had with her in forever. I can't wait till she comes back for Christmas!!

And the pile of laundry still beckons me, so I must go...

stream of consciousness

random thoughts in my head tonight...

the house painting is rad. i love my blue wall. i love the cream walls. i love the taupe walls. i love it i love it i love it.
my scrap room is still not in order yet.
i have a butt-load of laundry to do. like i am not kidding htis pile is gi-normous. which of course is why i haven't done it. it's too big.
my inlaws will be here in less than 24 hours for a week long stay. they'll be at bob's house so there's one huge stress off my back.
my house is not ready for this week.
i want to put the kids together in one room, in bunkbeds or something and then turn violet's room into their play room. i think it would work great.
i found a great bunkbed set at sam's club... complete with SLIDE and clubhouse panels. of course it's $400 or something so it's not exactly something i will buy anytime soon.
i did a cool wedding gift for sammi and billy... got a picnic basket, put a couple of bottles of ibc root beer, those jiffy pop popcorn things you do over the stove, popcorn holders, movie theater candy, and dvds: my best friend's wedding, my big fat greek wedding, and return to me. good flicks.
our trip to az was good. we listened to shock by robin cook.
remember blindsight by robin cook? opthalmologist. lol
sammi and billy's wedding was just beautiful and perfect in every way. red roses everywhere. they were amazing.
i love the aults. i wish they lived closer to us.
i wanna move to this ranch in pagosa, colorado that has 300 acres, three houses and two buffalo. i think the buffalo is the best part. ;)
staying in a hotel with two small kids is challenging to say the least.
breakkie was awesome at the hotel too... yummy waffles, fruit, coffee, juice, cereal in the mini boxes (including GOLDEN GRAHAMS... hello! that's rad!!)... mmmm
the drive back was crazy - rain the whole way and even SNOW just outside of kingman!
getting home from trips sucks when your house wasn't clean to begin with.
i am trying frantically to finish an album to enter in a contest. i thought the due date was the 30th... but instead of being postmarked by the 30th it must be RECEIVED by then. that means really i should have it out to them by the 24th if i want to send it priority or the 27th overnight. i am looking at overnight right now. less stress for me.
lost is seriously an addicting show. i am sad there's no episode on wednesday.
i need a new printer.
we made chili tonight...mmm
the kids were on the counter helping me make cornbread muffins when violet yanked the mixing bowl out of riley's hand causing him to (topple? fall?) launch from the counter to the ground. I was down there and caught him just before he biffed it big time. or at least i thought i had. he looked up at me and i saw a cut on his forehead that was bleeding and a nice big goose egg forming just below the surface. i had to get him a little butterfly bandage to close up the wound, which probably sounds much worse right now than it actually is.
let's just say i am glad we took our family christmas photos last weekend.
we need to get thanksgiving scarves. and tint needs one too even though she's not around.
i need to go to bed.

I still have piles of scrapbook supplies everywhere.

of course here is why i haven't put my stuff away...
I need to rearrange the scrap room to make room for my stuff, including installing new shelf units.
This means I have to remove the current big cabinet that is not functional for my needs right now.
But I have nowhere to put the big cabinet.
So I decide the best place would be in the dining room... right where the piano is.
So I decide to move the piano. But there is our old ratty couch there. I move the couch out to the garage for now.
The walls are filthy. I need to paint (I've been putting this off for months).
It doesn't make sense to move the piano over there before I paint.
Now I need to decide on the color...
OH YES! I'll inspire myself with some of my prize paper :)
SEI Seasoned... the green, the cream, and the blue. You can see it on this page: SEI Paper
I have a red wall in the dining room, so this will go quite nicely.
Of course now I am painting my whole room instead of just the one wall I intended to do all along.
But I will be much happier. And isn't that what's truly important here?
Off to Home Depot. I buy paint, tape, new rollers, and brushes.
The paint department guy looks at me like I am nuts when I show him the paper that he needs to use to match paint colors. But he humors me and mixes the paint.
I come home and tape off all the walls, baseboards, and light fixtures.
Rick and I paint. ALL DAY.
It looks FABULOUS.
We still need to do the stairwell.
I'll get to that tomorrow.
Then I'll move the piano.
Then I can move the cabinet.
THEN I can put together the new shelf units.
And *THEN* I can put away my new stuff. Maybe ;)

The UPS man came to my door!!

And here's my haul - the prize package from Memory Makers!!! I am *swimming* in boxes right now. I really really need a bigger house LOL! Good LORD there are a LOT of scrapbooking supplies in my house! Thankfully Valerie helped me sort through and organize it all into manageable piles. I will be writing thank you notes for the next MONTH! hee heeeeee!!!

ThermoWeb - All their adhesives
Karen Foster - the ENTIRE line of products - papers, stickers, transparencies... everything!! It was about 5 inches thick.
Liquid Nails Perfect Glue - MORE adhesives - 12 packages of it!
Zig embossing pens, embossing powders, and the Inscriblio engraver from EK success
Paper Love Designs - their entire paper line
Go West Studios - a new company - really great embellishments of metal, wood, and acrylics
Making Memories - OH MY WORD! This was my FAVORITE!! Included: Fabric alphabet, fabric tags, fabric pockets, fabric swatches, Mailbox alphas and numbers, eyelet tag letters, rubons (several), jelly labels, metal frames, ribbon, woven labels, wordfetti, alphafetti, quotes, charmed plaques, dyeable trims, sewing kit, book binding tape, charmed words, jigsaw alphas (two!!), cards & envelopes (8 different kinds!!), embellishment paper, minibook album, scrapbook dyes, 12x12 cardstock, 12x12 patterned paper, and the book set: Fresh Paint, Sew Simpe & To Dye For!!! Oh and a COOL tote bag!!!
Magic Mesh - TWO sets of the entire line!!
Spellbinder Wizard machine and dies - personalized and in Violet color just for me!
Quickutz hand tool and Paige alphabet
Architexture sheet metal (2 sheets)
Prism Papers - a TON of cardstock - about a 6 inch stack!!!
Provo Craft - Eco Africa, Stickers, Embellishments, and an album
Chatterbox - the entire Sun Room , Reading Room, and Parlor collection, complete with the whole bookcloth set (7 sheets), Tacks, Tags, Rivets, Nails, Alpha stickers, Mailboxes, and the FONT CD TOO!!
Design Originals - Bottlecap papers, plain bottlecaps, and bottlecap stickers
Flair Designs - Their whole line - the number paper and stickers is VERY cool
SEI - Groovy Girl, Bee Bop, Sweetie, Seasoned, and a 12x12 album
Scrappy Cat - Double sided papers, cardstock tag stickers and alphabets
Meri Meri - An assortment of their line
Glue Dots - 2 each of Craft dots, Memory dots, Mini dots, and THREE of the Glue Lines
Rusty Pickle - Assorted papers, tags, letter stickers, and metal buttons
K&Co - Tim Coffey Album Kit
Sandylion - Papers and Stickers from various character lines (Disney, Spiderman, etc)
Deja Views - The Butcher Block collection (SOOO COOL!)
American Traditionals - Three collections of papers and embellishments: Party, World Traveler, Moments, and an accordian book
Sweetwater - Various papers (3 of each style), letter/word stickers, button hole strips, transparencies
Prickly Pear Stamps - Typewriter Key alphabet, various other rubber stamps
MAMBI - Paper Pads (Primary, Pastel), Cottage Collection papers, Soft Spoken, Frame Basics, Stickers, Ephemera, Woven alphas, Threads, and Jumbo Threads
Lands End - Memory Makers Master 2005 Polo Shirt

ALL THIS is in ADDITION to the Sizzix machine with Sizzlits alphas, the box of goodies from Pebbles Inc., the box of fibers from Fibers by the Yard, and the other stuff that has been promised to us once the lines from Memory Trends come out!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Words out of Violet's mouth recently...

At the basketball game... "So, when we say Butterscotch Underwear, the blue guys lose?"

Handing me a mango... "Mommy, can we have this flamingo before we go?"

so we went driving

and found seriously the coolest house. And of course there's a super deal attached to it, as there was a buyer who fell through on it - so all the upgrades (iron railings, granite slab countertips, fancy cherry raised panel cabinets, black appliances, etc etc...) - over $20,000 worth - are included for free on this one particular house since the buyer who fell through already paid for it. Not only that but it's offered at phase 9 pricing (they are currently in phase 14), which is another $15,000 savings. And it's HUGE. Check it Out.

Of course it's totally out of our price range. Had I gotten that @%&*! job with the Rotary Club we probably would have put earnest money down right away.

I wish we had a bigger house. I wish I could feel comfortable and not crowded. I wish money wasn't the biggest issue right now in our marriage. I wish we could just not worry about stuff like that.

Just feeling a little crabby this afternoon... :p

busy days

I never did a Halloween update, so here it is....

The kids had a GREAT holiday. We had a group of friends over at our house for chili, cornbread, salad, and hot apple cider. A group of us all took the kids out from 6:00-7:30 p.m. and only hit about a third of our neighborhood... but the bags were OVERFLOWING!! As usual, it was just about the coldest day of the year around here, so we decided last minute that Riley would be too cold in his costume, so we had him put on a great little giraffe coat and he went as a nice, warm, and toasty giraffe. Violet ran the show, leading the kids from house to house in search of the best candy. One house was giving out full sized crunch bars, and the kids were all thrilled about that!!

Back at the house everyone had a great time, and about 300 kids or so came by for candy. Maybe more! We did an informal costume contest for kids and adults. Rick wore his cloak and brandished his sword, and I was Kim Possible (although Violet kept telling me I was not really KP cause I didn't have the orange hair LOL). Kristopher won as Clark Kent (he had a little Superman shirt peeking out from under his clothes), and his son AJ won as "Illuzion," his character from the online game City of Heroes. He even had wrapped one arm in foil to serve as his "robotic arm." VERY creative!

The house has stayed remarkably clean, thanks to Melissa's vow to help clean up after the party. It's so lovely to have a clean house. I've been maintaining it for the last 2 days. I think that's a record around here!!!

Still waiting for the official election results, Rick and I were riveted to the TV last night watching the election returns come in. So much so that I fell asleep at about 9 p.m. Guess it wasn't as exciting as I thought! At least I had a good night's sleep. Of course as I wake up this morning the results aren't clear, but it looks like the president will have another 4 years in office.

A busy day ahead of us... I guess I'd better get going.

words heard from my mouth today...

"You do NOT use a chopstick to stab an apple, Riley!"

cleaned house

alll freaking day. Bleagh. It wouldn't have been so bad except that Rick watched the kids all day yesterday while I scrapped. And while he is an awesome dad and spent the whole day having fun and playing with the kids, the house suffered, and suffered badly. Today I found a banana peel on the side of the couch. ewwwwwwwwwwwww

Scrapping day was great fun yesterday. We had a good crowd, especially since it was a weekday and we were there for 12 hours! I didn't get much scrapping done, but had a lovely time giving away prizes and spending time with my friends.

Today we had to get the house back in order though... Melissa has decided to use our house to have a Halloween party tomorrow. Every year we would go to Shontell's house (down the street), but she has moved away. We would have done it at Mel's house but she only has one neighbor so far. Not much on the way of trick or treating. So next year the party will be at her place. This year it will be her party at my place (which is nice cause I don't have to provide food, favors, games, or really anything but the home and the great neighborhood).

I always like the "someone is coming over" incentive to get the house really good and clean. And I love starting with a clean slate when trying to get myself back into a routine. Last month when I was trying to get back into Flylady, I tried to get the house super clean so all I had to do was maintain it. But I didn't, so I was not completely motivated to keep it up. This time, though, we did some serious cleaning. Even our cabinets have been polished. It looks great. We have yet to do the upstairs, but that is actually in much better shape than the living area. We would have finished tonight, but it was our community's Halloween party tonight.

The kids dressed up - Violet in her Sleeping Beauty costume and Riley as an In-N-Out Burger Employee... white jeans, white shirt, red napkin around the waist (held with a giant safety pin, of course), paper In-N-Out hat, and spatula. He was hysterical! He didn't like keeping the hat on, though. We brought our pumpkin for the carving contest.... and it WON FIRST PLACE! Violet was so excited to claim her prize ($5 in McDonald's coupons and a goblet full of Hershey's Kisses!)! After we left the party, we went to Ritter's because it was Free Scoop Saturday, and let me just say I don't miss free scoop day for anything. I had the Lite Espresso (mmmmmmmm). Violet had Cookies & Cream, and Rick had Chocolate. Riley fell asleep on the way and missed out on the dessert, but that's fine. He'll have more than his fair share of candy tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning we will get to the upstairs... vacuuming and dusting and cleaning windows. After that we'll carve the rest of the pumpkins, and dress up in our costumes. If I get really inspired, I'll sew Riley's cape so he can be a Hobbit instead of a burger guy. We'll see how it all goes!

pumpkin carving

Violet really has been beggin me to carve pumpkins with her, so I decided that we could do a couple today. Of course, you may recall we bought a ton, so this is just the beginning. After doing a little bit of searching, we found the perfect design for our pumpkins. Violet was so excited to begin, and was a real trooper when it came to scooping out the guts and seeds. After we drew a simple face on our smallest pumpkin, she carved it out with her kid-safe cutting tool (with a little help from mom). Then I went to the task of carving the face on our largest pumpkin. We chose those two because we wanted them to look like this when they were done. They actually look pretty great, and the best part was the lighting of the gourds after the sun went down. Both kids were thrilled at how they looked! (although Riley was a bit concerned for that poor little "kun-kin")

Violet named our masterpieces when we finished. The little one is called "saddy" cause it's sad since it's being eaten. The big one is called "Jack" cause he's mean. (???)

Jack, you be nice, you hear me?

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you so much! I think the years are looking better and better on you. You seem happier and younger than I ever remember. Is that just cause I am getting older? In any case, I hope you are enjoying your special night. Have a wonderful time!!

The toe stretch

I love when I am cuddling Riley and getting him ready for bed and he's in that "almost ready to sleep" mode where his eyes are sloooowly shutting and I pull off his shoes and socks and I watch him s-t-r-e-t-c-h out his toes in that last little burst of energy before falling asleep.

Young Voters for Jesus.

I voted today. There's an early voting center about half a mile from my house so I thought it would be a good idea to just get in there adn get it done before the place gets crowded. As I headed over there with the kids, Violet asked me about what I was doing. As I explained to her the privilege that adults in our country have of choosing the right person to be the president, Violet pondered the facts. Then she said to me, "I know who I am voting for."
Bemused (and quite curious), I asked her, "Who are you voting for, sweetie?"
"I'm voting for Jesus," Violet replied proudly.
"Really?" I asked. "Why are you voting for Jesus?"
"Well," Violet said thoughtfully, "The president is supposed to take care of us, right?"
"Right," I answered.
"So, God always takes care of us! Jesus would make a great president!"
I had to agree.

We have officially started a new PAC (uhhh, that stands for "personal action committee, BTW) called Young Voters for Jesus, and you can send your checks payable to me. Or large bills. Those are fine too.

Vote early and vote for Jesus. That's my motto. ;)