Farewell Friends and Fame (a tad too dramatic perhaps??)

In scrapping news...I haven't been doing much of it. Okay, none. I was on 2 teams for years, and loved it, because my dear designer friends, Shawna Clingerman and Kim Giarrusso, are full-on amazing with their talents. And I got to play with all of their stuff! Well, Kim had a baby AND took over The Digi Chick (not as in hostile takeover, lol), so she stopped designing. Something about not having any time? Wha...? 4 kids under 5 and running a business, whatever! So Kim gracefully released all of us on her team a few months ago.

Shawna also had a baby, and was knock-down, drag out sick the whole pregnancy. So I'd been able to keep up with her team...UNTIL she popped that baby out. It's been kit this and kit that ever since (she's like a maniacal creative genius these days!) That's when I started falling behind until I finally feel like this huge dead weight on the team. You see, I have actually been able to be on my feet the last 6 months, and I've discovered that I've got A LOT of real-life making up to do. HURRAY that I've got that much energy back!!! But BOOOoooooo that every detail of raising a family and keeping a house waited around for me. (I don't know why...I don't even do it that well.)

So, although I LOVE scrapbooking, and it has quite literally saved my sanity during the last five years, I have to face the fact that I am just not team material right now. So I resigned from Shawna's team. Sniff. Of course, I can still scrapbook when I have a few minutes, so what I'll really be missing is the on-line community I've been a part of. Those relationships I've formed are as real to me as any I've ever had, and because of how these people got me through my illness, many of them are like family to me. What a gift that is! So I'm NOT giving that gift back, I just know that I won't be on expanding it. Sigh.

And THEN, I'm going through my old emails yesterday and find this one from Digital Scrapbooking Magazine:

I’m writing to you because Digital Scrapbooking magazine and Adobe needs your help for an upcoming project.

Adobe is holding an event in New York City for the consumer press including Family Circle, Modern Bride and Seventeen magazines on June 24. They would like to provide their attendees with sample scrapbook pages created using Photoshop Elements and have asked Digital Scrapbooking to provide samples.

Your layout “Ordinary Magic” from the December/January issue of Digital Scrapbooking magazine is one of the ones we’d like them to show off. We have your layout in smaller form but in order for Adobe to print it out at 12 x 12, we need a new file. Any chance you could use yousendit.com to send me a 12 x 12 300 dpi version of the layout? I will need to receive these files by Thursday evening at the latest so Adobe can have them printed.

NOT a good email to find a month too late. Sigh. But it feels good to (almost) be recognized for something artistic, and I'm thinking "Can I give this up?" Looking for reassurance, last night I say to Hubby, "Am I doing the right thing?" And in his own acutely perceptive way, he says... (wait for it) ... "I dunno."

And this is why I keep him around??? (JK, Honey, I wuuuuuuv you!)

Luckily, I know it's the right thing to do, and I am so grateful and happy to be at this place in my life. I need to dig my heels in and make some magic happen around here!

But is it too much to wish that somebody would recognize my contributions at "an event" in New York City? It could happen. Bathroom Weekly may want to showcase my tips on shining a toilet as only I can do.

(Note to self: Ask cleaning lady how she shines the toilet.)

Trading Spaces Home Edition

As I mentioned earlier, we have been doing some moving around here--not from house to house, but from room to room. (LOL, don't most people move from room to room, you ask? NO. They just sit in one room day after day after day. So there.) All of this relocation has caused quite a flurry of redecorating. Much more than one puny little woman can do on her own. Does this stop me? NO. Because it's obvious to everyone that no other human could do it as well as me. Therefore, it's pretty much me putting along while my two youngest nag me about my horrifically slow pace in getting their rooms done. Fun times.

Shnookie2 had the audacity to imply that I wouldn't be so slow if I weren't so picky about every little detail. I'm ashamed to even say it, but she actually said, "Everything doesn't have to be perfect, Mom." I gasped and retorted, "I don't even know you anymore!" Sigh. Where did I go wrong?

Okay, so now I'm ready to show a picture of the latest project, and I'm regretting ranting on about perfection. Talk about building up expectations! So take the picture you've created in your mind and scale it back several (5 or 20) notches. Maybe then you won't be so underwhelmed at the final product, lol!

This is Shnookie1's old room, which is now Shnookie3's new room. It was a total boy room...

BEFORE

To a girly girl glam room...

AFTER

We're still working on the details (rug, art, etc.), but at least she's in and loving it! And I'm exhausted. And Shnookie4 is breathing down my neck for her room to be done. Even Vern Yip couldn't work under these conditions!

Zac Efron can breath easy

About 3 months ago, Shnookie1 was at the mall with his friends, and he got stopped by a talent scout. They were looking for extras to be in High School Musical 3 (being filmed in Utah), so they took Shnook's number and the numbers of 2 of his friends. They actually called him in for an audition a week later. My little girls were OUT OF THEIR HEADS excited...sure their big brother would be the next Zach Efron. They were soooo bummed when he couldn't go to the audition because of work. Way more bummed than Shnook.

We somehow went on with our lives.

3 weeks ago, Shnookie1 was at a skate park with his friends. This time he was approached by a scout looking for skateboarders for High School Musical 3. They took his number and that of another of his friends. This time he was a bit more excited. Being paid to skate all day...be in a movie... sounded like a pretty good gig to him!

A week passed, then Shnookies 1 & 2 went to Park City for a week. Towards the end of the week, Hubby was checking his cell phone voice mail and found a call from the agency, asking Shnookie 1 to come in for an audition...ten days ago. (He doesn't check his messages often, since his mom leaves 8 to 10 a day for him and he needs a big chunk of time to wade through those...I mean, listen to them and take copious notes.) Hubby called the agency, and they said "Oh no, it's not too late, come on in!"

Since it was my turn to shuttle kids to odds ends of the earth (okay, it's always my turn for that), I ended up taking him to the appointment with his 'agent.' What ensued was definitely one of the oddest experiences of my life. First of all, we sat down with Mr. Hollywood Agent, and he said "So, you skateboard and you're good. Darn. We could've used you last week when we filmed for High School Musical. But that's all done." Great. "But since you're here, let me tell you about the books I've written, where to buy them, all the stars I've worked with, the five years I was a Navy Seal, my advanced degrees in political science and English, and the five languages I'm fluent in. Oh, and let me do it in character as the Colombian drug lord I played in my last movie."

Man, do I wish he said all of that so succinctly. Instead, he drew it out for an hour, all the while bestowing strange bits of wisdom upon my son, intermixed with reminders that he (Shnookie) was gonna have to do an emotional reading for the man and CRY during it. This process involved a lot of pontification on Mr. Agents theories about the "man walls" that keep men from crying.

Any one who knows Shnookie1 well knows that he displays only one range of emotion. Evidently, he feels more than that inside (or so he tells us), but on the outside, we see one guy...same expression...24/7. It's literally taken me ten years to figure out when he's feeling something. Even then, I cannot tell the difference between depressed and angry. Elated looks exactly like mildly amused. He's a tough nut to crack. So for someone to ask him to cry on cue; well, I laughed out loud. (Briefly. I didn't want to undermine his confidence. As if anyone would know.)

I've heard those stories about people who can't express emotions except through their acting, so I was trying to keep an open mind, waiting for Shnook to show a sign whether or not he really wanted to go further with this. Eventually, I could plainly see 2 things: 1) Mr. Renaissance Agent Man wanted my son to catch the acting bug so that we would shell out money to them for acting classes, and 2) Shnookie had no desire to cry for the odd little man. (I guess the hour of his squirming, foot tapping and sweaty palms finally tipped me off on that one.)

So I intervened. We left with 3 website addresses (written on a sticky for us by the agent himself): one for an 'extras' site, where you can sign up and they'll call you for extra's roles in Utah movies; one for a website where Shnook could view a clip of Mr. Druglord's latest movie; and one for a site where we could buy his book. I kid you not.

I think that was enough Hollywood to last both of us a lifetime.

No one is safe now

So very much to say, but no time. (See, not even enough time to form a complete sentence.) However, I just HAVE to post this picture of my little puppy, spying on the neighbors. I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants.

Yes, those are his own skinny legs holding him up.
I swear, he did this on his own, and it wasn't because he saw me do it! (I'm more of a binoculars pointed at the bathroom snoop.)

Black Look-alike Meter

Thanks to Jen for directing me to this look-alike meter. Hubby and I are really chuckling, because people always say Jayci looks exactly like him, and Libby just like me. That's not how this meter saw it!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family tree maker - Geneology

Black Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Either way you put it, it's hard

At the beginning of this, our first week of summer, I unveiled my brainchild: our motto for this summer:
Aren't I brilliant? Totally came up with that, all by myself. hee
And now it's on the fridge, so it's law.
Naturally, my kids are all for the second part, so they had mixed emotions. In fact, they were somewhat bipolar as we discussed this plan. Glaring and depression during the work parts, instant elation and giddiness at the play parts. Up and down, up and down. That roller coaster ride should count for at least one of the play hard rewards.

The reason I put this theme into place is this: I've been realizing lately how many fun things we've never done that are practically in our front yard. Granted, most of that is because I was in bed for several years, but THE TIME HAS COME. I've also been noticing how neglected our home is (again, the bed thing). That part isn't exactly an epiphany--it's more like I'm suddenly motivated. And with 4 slaves under my command, it will go faster, right? Also, a couple of our kids have been so whiny lately, and nothing cures that like hard labor! (or a few swift kicks to the shins, but that's frowned upon for some reason.)

Soooo, we sat down and made a list. For every 'fun' idea they came up with, they had to come up with a needed project around the house. And after days of negotiations and their lawyers meeting with my lawyers...we settled on a plan. This week we've been taking one room a day to clean, and as a reward (the BIG ONE, as they call it), we're going to Lagoon tomorrow. Wheeee! (<--only half sincere on my part)

Can I just tell you how EXHAUSTED this motto has made me? I still don't have my full energy, so working hard is hard work, and playing hard is even harder work for me. I've gone to bed every night (at 7:00 pm) physically sick from the exertion.

Which just goes to prove that while hard work cures the whinys (whinies?) in children, it has the opposite effect on me. It turns me into a whiner.

I want my mom.