Hmm…I wonder if I can find a countdown thingie for my sidebar…well anyway…we’re down to 15 days until we leave on a jetplane and head to sunny California!!  Everything here is CRAZY…trying to tie up loose ends, get things ready, buying clothes that we need, saving any money we can…planning every last minute of our trip!

For those that don’t know what the heck I’m talking about…well, Mason got a Wish trip.  We registered him with the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada, and when asked what his wish was, we decided to make it a trip to California. Included in this fabulous wish package is:

• Lodging for the night before we leave (we leave at 7 am and live 2 hours from the airport)
• Flights for 4
• Hotel for 7 nights
• Rental vehicle of our choice (we chose a van)
• Attractions passes to: Disneyland, California Adventures, Legoland, Seaworld, and the San Diego Zoo
• Spending money
• Health insurance (with the “pre-existing condition” waived for Mason)
• Lodging for the night we fly back home (we land at 11:30 pm)
• Children’s Wish t-shirts

Isn’t that AMAZING?  We originally registered Mason just after he turned 3 (kids have to be 3 years old to qualify), but just couldn’t decide on when to go.  Finally I just put my foot down and threw out a date when I called them, and we went for it.  Trevor’s parents decided to come with us, and so did one of his uncles (along with his wife and 2 kids)…so there’ll be a lot of us having a blast together!

I’ve still got a lot of things to do preparing for the trip, and then there’s the designing and stuff that I want to do (I’m attempting to get ahead, for those 2 weekends I’ll be MIA from the digi world).  So, I should probably sign off (though now I’m off to find a countdown thingie)…

Well, she’s not so much a baby…but she’s MY baby…she’s nearly 4, lol.  But she’s just miserable…got the flu and it just all around not feeling very good.  She’s got a fever (fluctuated between 101 and 104 all day yesterday - with Tylenol) and was throwing up last night through the night…poor little thing!  She’s sleeping in this morning, though…thank goodness…yesterday I couldn’t convince her that she needed to sleep it off, lol.

But Mason is back to school today after over a week of being off - he went to school last Wed and got sick, they kept him there in the infirmary because they knew I couldn’t come get him.  He crashed when he got home and still wasn’t feeling good on his next day to school (Friday), so I kept him home.  Monday they cancelled school, and he went in for surgery (to get his port out) on Tuesday so I kept him home again Wednesday.  He’s healing up OK and I don’t want him to miss too much more school - the doctor said he could go - so he’s off to school with STRICT instructions that he’s to stay inside (they toboggan/crazy carpet during recess and lunch and he ALWAYS falls down the hill) and the kids are not to jostle him too much because he is pretty tender on his right side. I sent a bottle of tylenol for him as well, just in case he needs it (though he’s been refusing it even when he says his side hurts, so I don’t know if he’ll take it there either).

We’re busy planning Mason’s Wish trip - it’s coming up SO fast!  We got the paperwork a couple days ago and have a few guide books to the area…so I’m absolutely giddy with excitement as I read through everything and decide what rides we want to do with the kids.  Wheeeee…   It’s gonna be great, I can’t wait and I know that the more we count down, the more excited everyone is getting!

That title will make sense in a few minutes…LOL!

So, today I headed to the school to volunteer.  It was “Alphabet Fun Day” for the Kindergarten kids to celebrate finishing learning their alphabet (they learned one letter a day - what it looked like, how to write it in lower and upper case, learned a song that started with that letter,  learned what the letter sounded like, words that started with it, and how to do it in sign language…whew!).  So anyway, they were celebrating that by doing lots of fun activities and singing all the songs they learned.  But for lunch, which I was volunteering for, they were having Alphaghetties and alphabet shaped grilled cheese.  The kitchen was in the classroom, so myself, my MIL and another mom were there making the food while we listened and watched.  Natalie joined the class, as did the other mom’s little boy (they are the same age - so they’ll be in the same class as are Mason and her oldest son)…which was…interesting.

Anyhow, we got the kids their sandwiches and while we were cleaning up, the teacher started telling stories about Mason, who is by far the most talkative and friendly kid in the whole school.  She’s told me stories before, and they always make me laugh and shake my head because it’s so typically HIM and yet slightly embarrassing.  But anyway, I digress.  She tells me this story about Mason, which I just have to share here…

The other day, for whatever reason, Mason walked into the gym, where the grade 5/6 class was playing basketball - they were learning to dribble the ball, so they’re all standing there dribbling in place.  He walks up to the teacher and this is their conversation:

M: “Are you the coach?”
T: “Yes.”
M: “Are they playing basketball?”
T: “Yes.”
M: “Oh. Well.  I think you should teach them how to shoot the ball into the hoop!”

ROFL! I mean, seriously.  He’s gonna get himself in trouble!  I have no idea why he was in the gym telling the teacher how to do his job…but I guess they all laughed and thought it was cute.  Probably because he’s 5.  Well, or because he’s dang adorable, though I may be the only one to think so - I’m his mom. 

They tell me that the teachers all have started sharing “Quotes from Mason” with eachother at the end of the day.  I’m not sure whether that is funny or embarrassing.  He’s just so…open? Honest? I don’t know…but I know that one day it’s going to be bad…and I’m not looking forward to that.  But for now, I think I need to start a scrapbook…

Any of you who know me how much I forget.  I am constantly asking for reminders to do things - even the simplest of tasks - because I KNOW that I will forget to do it.  I start to-do lists and then LOSE them.  My mind is not where it should be…and it’s not like I’m daydreaming, I just get distracted.  I wasn’t like this before I had kids - I’m blaming them.  My husbands family likes to tease me because they’ll tell me something, thinking I’ll tell Trev…and I’ll forget.  Then when they mention it to him, he’s confused and tells them he didn’t know because I didn’t pass along the info.  Or someone will tell me something and I’ll forget I even know…”WHAT? She’s pregnant?!?”.  Seriously, something is wrong.  I should be taking some vitamins for this…isn’t it B12 that helps memory?  But…I forget to take them.  It’s a vicious circle…around and around we go.

This morning I was getting Mason ready for school and he asked where his snowpants were.  I replied “probably where you left them” because he is SO bad for taking his clothes off anywhere and then we’re not able to find them (case in point: his gloves - he wore them home on Monday and we haven’t seen them since…he says a boy at school stole them but that can’t be right…so he’s been wearing Natalie’s pink mittens to school).  So anyhow, I go running around the house to find his snowpants, and it finally dawns on me that I had thrown them in the wash yesterday morning.  And forgot to put them in the dryer.  Ugh!  Of course, today is their sledding/skating day at school - plus recesses…and while it was nice and warm the last 2 days, the temperature has dropped back down today.  He’s pouting and I have to remember to call the school in 15 minutes to talk to his teacher about if they have an extra pair of snowpants there he can borrow or if he can stay inside.  It’s too cold outside for him to wear just a pair of jeans.

And at the same time, I forget to do a lot of other random things.  Last week I was SO excited to do the Taste Test Thursday.  I thought about it ALL week.  Then Thursday came and I forgot.  I managed to get one up quickly - without looking at previous ones first, mind you -  and duplicated the one from the previous week.

I also had a blog post almost ready to be posted on here…all I had to do was insert the pictures.  You guessed it - I forgot.  It’s been 2 weeks since I wrote it.  Ugh.  Will have to start again - maybe it’ll be a recap of my scrapping adventures at the end of the month.

Let’s just hope on Monday, when I’m supposed to be volunteering at the school, I don’t forget to show up.

It seems that another internet company has decided to screw with me. I hate that. Why in the world would you promise the moon to a potential customer, and outright LIE when you are wrong?  WHY?  What purpose could it actually serve?

Alright, so anyone that has been reading my blog knows my internet woes.  Back when we moved here, we were told high speed was available (before we considered buying the house), but it wasn’t.  We then waited a few months before finding a wireless company who had high speed in the area. I wasn’t able to connect the first time they came out because of trees being in the way of a tower that is a LONG way away.  Then they installed a tower IN TOWN here, so I got them to come back and attempt it again.  No such luck - there was no signal in our direction.  I gave it another year and called them back out because it HAD to have been fixed by now, right?  Well, no…the guy came out and promised us (outright promise, we wrote it down and got it signed by him) that if we didn’t have our internet installed by Dec 25, 2007 that the installation would be free.  Guess what - it wasn’t installed.  Even though I talked to the guy TWICE between August and December and both times he promised that it was coming.

So, Friday I gave the company a call, asked for an estimated time that it would be done, only to find out that he LIED to me.  Our tower is at the BOTTOM of a list of other towers that need improvements, and it could be YEARS before I can connect.  They suggested that I go to a satellite company.  Now I’m steamed - the satellite company came into the area a few months ago, and I called to find out what that was about.  But I was told that if I had the chance to get wireless, to wait and get it.  So, alright…I waited it out, mostly because I knew I’d get a free install and didn’t think I’d have to wait more than a few weeks past Christmas to get it.  Now I got screwed out of the free install and was forced to wait ON DIALUP the whole time because of an empty promise.  Now I get to pay a $300 installation fee for satellite, on top of equipment and activation fees, for a slower speed internet for a higher price.  Sounds great, sign me up…I love getting screwed!  NOT!

I am going with the satellite company, only because I have no other options.  The only other options have both screwed me over, and told me they have no interest in having me as a customer.  But, 1 MB/s internet is better than 50 kb/s internet any day.  I was so upset last night when I found out though, Trev is going to call the jackass manager that promised us the free install and try to get him to pay the install fee for the satellite.  It’s only fair…I waited for him and he didn’t deliver - far from it.

I called the company that deals with installing the satellite internet this morning, and they said if we come in and buy the equipment, we’ll be hooked up by the weekend.  So I’m sending Trev in right after work to go do that…I want my high speed and I’m no longer willing to wait.  Even if it does mean waiting a few more months to get my Mac, since I have to pay for this out of that account.  I’m getting it.

So, over at SSD, there’s a thread about how many pages you’ve scrapped through 2007.  I went back and counted, and came up with 60 layouts, and at least 11 hybrid & printable projects (though I think there were a couple more that I never posted).  It should have been much higher…but I went through a bout with no scrapping, or very little scrapping when I got to it.

This year, I’m going to do better.  Just like I have the reading challenges for myself, I’m going to challenge myself this year to do 10 layouts a month.  I know I can do it…at the beginning of 2007, I was scrapping at least that many pages a month.  One or two of those layouts can be hybrid/printables, too…depends on what I’ve got happening that month.
And to go along with that, I’m challenging myself to take more pictures!  I got a new camera last year, and I have hardly taken any pics with it!

Now, I realize that it’s Jan 1, and these are probably considered “resolutions”, but since we don’t do that stuff here, these are just personal challenges to myself to see if I can accomplish them.  Just as much as my reading challenges are - just for fun.  No stress, I’m just gonna get back to the FUN part!

Really, I don’t think it’ll be too hard to do all those layouts.  I mean, I’m going to Disneyland/California for a week in April…my brother is getting married…I’ve got 1 new niece that I’ll get to meet soon, and 2 more nieces or nephews on their way (one coming in Feb, and another in June).  I’ve got 2 adorable kids, we’re renovating our house, Mason just had a big party…there’s LOTS of layouts in there.  I just need to kick myself in the pants to get scrapping!

I’m working on some templates tonight, but I think that once I finish up the one I just started, I’ll put them away and SCRAP something.  I’ve got the itch! 

Well, we had a fun week!  Mason has been off school since Dec 10, and Trev finished work on Dec 21, so we decided to take off and go see my sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s new house and visit them (and friends we have up there) for a few days.  We were originally planning on taking off on Friday, but left Monday because, really, we had nothing holding us here.

But something CRAZY happened when we got up there.  You see, they live on a farm, and have all sorts of fun toys.  Like quads and ski-doos.  In the summer, I got up the courage to drive a quad for the first time - had a blast!  So when the ski-doo came out on Tuesday morning, I thought “oh, it can’t be that hard” and took it for a spin. Um.  Apparently - I can’t drive a ski-doo at all.  Trev had taken both the kids for rides and so there were tracks for me to follow.  “Follow the tracks” he said. And that was followed by “don’t hit the hay bales”, and I laughed.  But when I took off, I found out that I wasn’t able to control it very well.  I ended up going way off the tracks almost immediately and was losing control of the machine, but it was still fun.  I was jumping snow drifts (not on purpose) and laughing cause the snow was spraying me in the face.  I was able to stop eventually and realized I was close to the big row of hay bales, so started moving again and attempted to turn and thereby avoid hitting them straight on.  BIG mistake.  I’d already discovered I couldn’t control the thing, well - it got worse.  I turned, but too late and I saw myself heading straight for the bales.  The machine threw me off and I literally flew into a bale.  I stuck my arm out to cushion myself…which was another big mistake.  Anyhow, I hit the bale and fell to the ground…the machine still had some momentum and ran over my leg before hitting the bales itself.  I wasn’t hurt too badly, so I pulled myself from under the ski-doo (and let me say, I got a lot of snow in my underwear…because I was laying down and pulling myself back, it was going down my pants)…saw Trev coming towards me and I started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh…oh and fall down a few times too.  He got the ski-doo unstuck and drove me back up to the house, where I continued to laugh.

Until things started to hurt. I had a huge welt on my leg from where one of the skis ran me over, and my right elbow was hurting.  It felt best when I kept it bent and a 90 degree angle, or perfectly straight - anything between, I would get sharp pains.  Soon after, I hurt from my wrist right to my shoulder…and by late Tuesday night, my back was killing me. I was in rough shape - taking Advil to help with the pain, but still not really able to do much at all.  I am right handed, and therefore use my right arm for EVERYTHING, so everything was difficult.  I mean that.  From getting dressed, wiping myself, washing my hair, washing dishes.  It hurt.  That was 5 days ago.

It still hurts.  Though not as badly as that first couple days - I am now off Advil.  My back seems to be OK, thankfully - because I wouldn’t be able to get it fixed as the chiropractor uses your arms as leverage.  I can’t really move my arm too much yet, but it’s slowly getting better.  It still feels best if I leave it bent at a 90 degree angle. Thankfully, I can type and use the pen for my tablet (the first day I could barely write with a pen).  Feeding myself has gotten easier and so have other everyday tasks.  I’m lucky I didn’t break anything.  Seriously.  Trev says I wasn’t going fast enough to break anything, but I beg to differ, lol!

Oh, and I think I’ll be avoiding ski-doos for a while.  I had no problem with Trev (an experienced ski-dooer) taking the kids out, but you can bet your butt I won’t be attempting it anytime soon!

Yeah, wow.  Sept 10, huh.  That was, well…quite a few months ago.  It’s not that I don’t want to post.  I just forget to.  And then I get behind, and don’t quite know where to begin again.  But, ugh.  I can’t just let this blog go…so gonna attempt this again.  Keep on my butt…I’ll post! 

So, what’s happened since Sept 10?  Hmm…

• Mason finished chemo at the end of October…it was so nice to count down those last few weeks!
• I decided to leave Scrapbook Graphics, and made my way over to Sweet Shoppe Designs - working with the GREATEST group of girls there EVER!  Everyone’s so sweet and awesome - even 2 months later I’m feeling like I have to pinch myself!
• We had a party for Mason to celebrate the end of his chemo - family came out and we stayed at a great hotel, played mini golf and went swimming at an indoor waterpark.  Oh, and shopped. 
• Mason went in for his final lumbar puncture and bone marrow aspirate to be sure that he’s fully in remission - which he is!  The tests came back good!  Buh-bye cancer!
• Trevor & I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary!
• We bought a new vehicle - a van!  We traded in our 2003 Chevy Cavalier for a 2007 Chevy Uplander…OMG…it’s amazing!  We LOVE our new ride!

I wish I could expand on all of those things…really, I do!  But, this post would be a million miles long if I did that…so there’s the past 3 months in a nutshell!

Some of you may know that besides digi scrapping and designing, I am an avid reader.  I LOVE to read…pretty much any genre, too!  I’m always finding more to add to my “to-read” list and so a few months back I joined www.goodreads.com where I could keep track of books I’ve read, want to read, etc.  Well, while there I discovered a group of people who were challenging themselves in different ways to read more books.  And so, I joined in.  There are currently 4 challenges going on in one group, and I’m participating in 3.  But, my brain wasn’t able to handle having 3 lists going on there, so…I decided to post them all on the blog here to keep track.  Check them out if you’d like, on the sidebar…join in if you’re a reader!  So, I will probably be posting occasionally about books I’ve read.

Hmmm…what else…

Oh!  My good friend Kathy Moore came up with a fun new blog called “Peace Love & Scraps” - a feel-good blog that brings the GOOD in the digital community together.  Anyhow, I’m helping her with the project now - so much fun!  We will be posting layouts that we found that make us smile, challenges we run across that sound fun…anything goes, as long as it’s positive!  And I know that Kathy has more up her sleeve, too!  I’m looking forward to working with her on this new venture - and hope that scrappers everywhere will stop in and check it out instead of those “other” blogs which do nothing but bring a person down.  I don’t personally read those ones, but the mood of the whole community has been sombre ever since the first one burst into the scene a few months ago - it’s time to start making this a HOBBY again and fun for everyone!  So, come visit us… www.peaceloveandscraps.com/, we’d love to have you!

I’m busy working away here…designing, doing a little bit of scrapping (though not enough!) and right now I’m working on a fun hybrid project that I’m hoping will hit the store soon!

Well…I’m thinking that it’s time to head to bed…midnight and my eyes are drooping.  I know the kids will be getting me up early in the morning - they always do when I stay up too late!  So, I will head off…and will post again soon!

Today was Mason’s first day of school. I’ve been anxious for it because he has been so excited about if for so long…but at the same time, I didn’t ever want this day to come. He’s my baby, well, the oldest of my babies, and as much as I was excited for him to grow up, I didn’t want him to, either.

This morning, I woke him up by telling him that he was going to school. We’d been counting down the days anyhow, but I figured it would get him excited at 7 am. It worked - I’ve never seen him get out of bed so quickly. I was worried about getting him to eat so early in the morning, when usually he’s up for an hour or so before eating…but he had no trouble deciding what kind of cereal he wanted, and making sure that I knew that he needed milk in it (until recently, I gave them dry cereal because they’d spill the milk everywhere) and that he needed a spoon. He helped me pack his lunch by choosing what he wanted for his snacks, and I’d already prepared his sandwich (he’d been telling me for days that he wanted a “ham and kraft single sandwich”, lol). He had a shower and brushed his teeth, got dressed and then got to sit down and watch cartoons for about 5 minutes.

I took pics of every single part of his routine this morning - let me tell you! LOL! We got his coat and shoes on, got his backpack up onto his back (is it just me that finds it funny to see kids wrestling to get their backpacks on?) and headed out the door. We were the first ones to the bus-stop, but the other boys (who live behind us and have come over to play with the kids and Elvis occasionally) weren’t far behind. We ended up waiting for the bus for about 15 minutes, which was OK because it was nice out. We were told to be out there 5 minutes early, but with all the extra Kindergarteners on the bus, it was a little bit late. The parents of Kindergarteners get to choose if they’d like “door step service” and while I declined for now (until it gets cold), I think a lot of the other parents chose to do it…it was comical seeing the bus across town weaving in and out of the blocks picking up kids who lived so close to eachother.

Finally the moment came. You know, the big moment when the bus rolls to a stop, with red lights flashing, and it’s time to send your child off to the big, bad world. I was trying to hold him back (for the photo-op, I promise) and let the older boys go ahead of him, but there was no stopping my boy - he was across the road and up onto the bus before I could get ahold of him. So, missed the photo op, lol…but did get a pic of him with the bus driver, when she made him come back because she saw the camera in my hand (and probably the look on my face). Before I knew what I was doing, I became the “embarrassing mom” too. I stepped into the bus and said “Mason, be good at school”. What was I thinking? I was pretty much going to be following the bus to the school, lol…I would be seeing him again in about 15 minutes.

Resigned to the fact that he was growing up, I walked across the street again. I thought I was doing OK…until I turned back to see the bus starting to move forward. Queue the waterworks. I started to cry, walking back to the house, holding Natalie’s hand. Natalie was crying too, which made it that much more difficult. I thought she was upset that she didn’t get to go on the bus, but she told me that she missed him already. Poor baby girl. Poor mommy.

A few minutes later, we were in the car, headed to the school. We ended up behind the bus for a minute or so, but it turned off and we beat it to the school. Mrs Webb, the Kindergarten teacher (and also the principal) was outside, waiting for the buses, and greeting every new child by name. It was so sweet. We chatted with her between buses and finally, Mason’s bus pulled up. At the same time, so did a carload of other Kindergarten parents, all with cameras in hand. Again, our bus driver noticed the cameras and didn’t open the doors until the parents were all crowded around the bus, and she let each of the 6 kids off the bus one at a time, perfect photo ops, lol. Before I knew what was happening, Mason was in the crowd of kids heading into the school, and I lost track of him before he went inside. I caught him inside, by the classroom, being led by another adult (I’m thinking it was another teacher or teacher’s assistant there for the first day of Kindergarten). He walked past me, didn’t say hi, and then said to the lady holding his hand “that was my mom”. Goofball…lol! I took a couple pics of him in the classroom, getting settled, and then ran in quickly (after seeing another mom go in, lol) and gave him a hug and a kiss and said goodbye. He wasn’t even looking at me or returning the love…but he did say “goodbye” as he put together a puzzle in front of him.

I headed back outside, as there were still a million parents and kids clamoring in the hallways, and I think the other classes were in session (at least, the kids were in the classrooms and they were quiet). My MIL headed into the school to say goodbye, and I guess he just looked at her and told her “Grand-MA…you have to go HOME now”. LOL! And so, we headed out. At least at the school I didn’t cry.

I wasn’t really in a mood to go home, and knowing it was my mom’s tradition to go out with other parents for coffee on the first day of school, I did too. Well, I didn’t know any of the other parents, so I asked my MIL to go for coffee, lol. And we did some shopping afterwards, as well.

Fast forward to 4 pm, when the bus pulled up just as we we got there to pick him up. He looked like this was old hat, he knew what he was doing…walked nicely across the road, the older boys guiding him over. Natalie was so excited and I had to actually, literally hold her back. Once he was near, I let her go and she gave him a big hug, lol. Maybe this is just what they need…to be apart, so they can stop bickering all day long. LOL! The walk home was a bit awkward with the older boys, but not too bad. I learned that the oldest boy asked Mason to play soccer with him and the rest of the soccer team (maybe at lunch, or a recess), and that Mason forgot to switch from his indoor to outdoor shoes during the first recess. Mason didn’t seem to want to talk about school, though…but as soon as we walked in the door, I asked what was in his backpack and he opened up.

He brought out a little worksheet of the letter A. Now, I have been working with him on his letters and stuff, and he knows the letter A really well by now. But, it was so darn cute. On the front, he had to write his name, and well…he did pretty well. I had to giggle, though…because I knew he tried SO hard. Opening it up, he excitedly told me that he had to color in all the apples with the letter A in them, and they also practiced writing it in upper and lowercase. On the back of the worksheet, they drew things that started with the letter A. I immediately recognized an apple, but the second thing on there I was a bit confused by. When I asked what it was he said with disdain “I don’t know, but it’s not an alligator”. LMAO!

So, their first day of school was centered around the letter A. They sang a song called Alligator Alarm, but he only remembered some of the words (I’m sure he remembers them, but he gets flustered when you ask him to repeat things). I prompted to find out what else they did and was told they had lunch, and recess. LOL! A little while later he told me they colored in apples and he had 3 colors: red, green and yellow. And they did the chicken dance.

It’s funny how at the beginning of the day, I was so apprehensive about sending him off, all day I walked around with a hole there in my heart, worrying about how he was doing. But as soon as he got off that bus, and I knew he was OK, that little hole filled back up…and after hearing him tell me about his first day, my heart swelled. I know he’s anxious for that second day to start, and I will be honest and say…I’m excited for it too!!

Since I now know that I have at least one blog reader, and she is now up-to-date on reading my blog posts - I will post again. LOL!

We’re counting down! Eight weeks of chemo left! YAY!

Actually, we didn’t get chemo today like we should have. We went in, got his bloodwork drawn and proceeded to sit around - Mason played games with another little girl his age (her sister is in for chemo) and I visited with some parents. I have no idea how much longer it was (3 hours? 4, maybe), but the nurse came over and told us that Mason wouldn’t be getting a leg-poke today and to stop his oral chemo for the week. Again. He’s back to being neutropenic….his neutrophils are down to 0.2. She saw my face and told me not to worry, ran and grabbed his chart and showed me what his counts have been like. A couple months ago he had that bloodcount crash and stopped chemo for 2 weeks, then it started to climb and got up to a whopping 3.6. But his last blood draw was only 1.1 so it was already on it’s way back down…and it being too low this week was not a surprise to them. They think he’s got a cold (he’s coughing a little bit and he did lose his voice on the weekend, but he’s not too sick) and that’s what did him in this time. So, we’re supposed to go back next week and get his blood counts done again to see if he’ll be ready to get back on the chemo. Hopefully he will be! But, he was VERY happy in the meantime to not have a legpoke today. LOL!

Mason is getting very excited to go to school. He knows it’s “11 more sleeps” until he goes to school (only “2 more sleeps” until we go up to see his aunt & uncle for the long weekend, though!) and can barely stand it. It’s tooooo far away, he says. LOL! Today at “the nurses” he told Cathie (one of the 2 regular nurses we get) that he was going to be starting school. He also informed her that he is still 4, but soon he will be 18. Chuckle. Then he says to her, in all seriousness “when I am 18, I will be in kindergarten”. She and I couldn’t help but laugh - so cute and so innocent…but sweetie, you don’t want to be in kindergarten when you are 18. LOL! Really, he pulled that out of thin air - he KNOWS that he will be 5 when he goes to kindergarten (actually he will turn 5 after he starts, but close enough), so I’m not sure where he came up with 18.

Oh, and FYI - Natalie WAS in the newspaper last week. At the very end of the parade, the firetrucks and ambulances all come through, sirens blaring. Well, she thought it was MUCH too loud and covered her ears with her hands - and the photographer caught that moment, lol. So, that was in the paper. She thought that was pretty cool when we showed her, it was right in the center page and I showed her the 2-page spread and asked what she saw. She pointed out a horse, a puppy, and a few other things before realizing what I was getting at was her own photo. LOL! Silly kid.

I did get a layout done last week sometime. I think Tuesday-ish? Yeah…something like that. It’s of the kids at the parade…I did manage to get some decent pics, but only these 3, so I did one page, lol:

It’s All About The Candy

I finished up a GREAT hybrid project a little while ago, too - I want to share it SOOO bad. But I can’t. It’s destined for one of two things. I originally created it for my new position as a hybrid CT member at Pink Poodle Studios. But then I saw a call for “hybrid” work as well as “mini albums” and so…in it goes to the submission ring. I hope it gets picked up - that would be AWESOME. But if not, well - I still will get to show it off at Pink Poodle!

I’m also finishing up a new Collection of Launch Pads.  Oh, and have a couple Landing Pads projects in the works.  So, new stuff coming up!  Can’t wait!  This latest Collection (#14!!) is quickly becoming one of my favorites!  Watch for those coming in a few days!

Well, it’s bedtime for me. I have been trying really hard to get up at decent hours for Mason’s sake - but it’s been cramping my style a bit. I can no longer stay up until 2 am! Wahhh! I have to go to bed at a decent hour like a NORMAL person. What the heck, really? Is that what I get to look forward to? My late nights are MY time. Though I guess when the kids are in school, the day time will be MY time, right…without anyone there tugging on my arm and asking me to play or go outside or put on a movie. I’ll miss it but thankfully the house won’t be completely quiet for a couple more years when Natalie starts school. Until then, gonna have to find some other time to be my ME time - if it can’t be night because I have to go to bed, and can’t be daytime because I still have another kiddo to work with - when will it be? LOL - Trev thinks I may become a morning person - one of those crazies that gets up at 5 am just to have some time to themselves. I laugh at the idea…I’m not sure I’ll ever get THAT desperate. LOL! But anyway…I bid you adieu as I am on my way to dreamland. Night night!