change of address...

please check out my new blog...customization in progress!

i'm doing a 2-week trial, and if i'm satisfied, i will also start a nemia creative blog...specific just to the company.

we've chosen a winner!

Congratulations to Heather H...our randomly chosen winner of a pack of custom designed holiday greeting cards!!

Thanks to everyone who took time to check out our website...and, feel free to visit the site anytime. Don't be shy! We are offering free shipping on all orders now through December 3rd...send out those Christmas cards early or on time this year!! We currently offer holiday greetings and birth announcements, but we hope to expand to many other types of invitations and special events.

We also hope to participate in future giveaways, so there may be more chances to win!

nemiacreative.com... custom photo greeting for any occasion.

Nemia Creative Bloggy Giveaway

My first participation in the Fall Y'all Bloggy Giveaway!!

This fantastic giveaway is just in time for the holidays! Send thoughtful, imaginative and truly unique greetings this season with photo cards or cardstock greeting cards from Nemia Creative.

Would you like to receive a pack of 24 cardstock custom greeting cards valued at $60.00? Here's what you need to do:

1. Visit nemiacreative.com and browse our holiday collection. Choose your favorite design.

2. Come back to this post and let me know what your favorite design is.

3. One winner will be drawn randomly Sunday, November 4 at 8P (PST). You could be the lucky recipient!

Thanks for participating, and good luck!!

By the way, check back at bloggy giveaways to enter other awesome giveaways!

i'm still here...

Although it may appear to be, the blog has not been abandoned...just on sabbatical for a bit. We've all been busy with various this and that...mostly related to nemia creative, me working night shift now, and Nemo getting into the kindergarten routine.

My plan is to post a link for a giveaway through a blog giveaway site...I have never participated, so I am going to attempt to figure out the logistics. Stay tuned.

my happyness...

thanks, mom and dad, for the movie recommendation, "the pursuit of happyness". i put it at the top of my netflix queue and watched it tonight. inspiring to say the least.

i'll admit that i'm easily impressioned by movies...i become absorbed and empathetic from the get-go. this movie was no exception. very moved by the story of this man who pressed on to make a better life for himself and his son...very moved by this level of perseverance. my life isn't so bad at all. i've never had to work as hard as he did to reach a goal. maybe i'm not reaching high enough. consistently. it's not to say that i don't work hard at what i do. but i am not facing true adversity. i am not that challenged.

i'm sure by admitting this i'm just welcoming a trial of sorts. for me, though, there's no satisfaction without growth. there's no growth without a bit of discomfort.

work, work, work...

The last several shifts at work have been money-earners. That means, when I finally come home, I say, "Boy did I earn my money today."

We had an absolutely full unit until yesterday, when the mass exodus began. 15 patients went home. That's half our unit! That's also a lot of work. I sent 4 of those patients myself...plus took care of twins, plus did baby bloodwork, plus monitored a 35-week pregnant mom, plus waded through the discharge paperwork for each mom and baby sent home (that's 8 charts), plus didn't eat lunch until about 3P...anyone feeling sorry for me yet?!!

It's days like those that leave me feeling restless for something different. My favorite way to solve the "restlessness" problem is to make a change. My favorite changes tend to be big ones. I need to learn to be satisfied with more subtle improvements. Like, why couldn't I just take up exercising? It's really good for me, I probably would have more energy to handle intense shifts and two busy kids, I might even drop those last ten "baby pounds". Or, maybe I could just pursue some additional certifications in my current specialty. If I pass a national certification exam (that the hospital would reimburse me for), I not only earn an extra $1.50/hr, but I get to sign my name: M Collazo RNC (not just RN). This is very impressive, and I'm sure I would enjoy this accomplishment. Or, I could pursue the clinical ladder in my hospital. This is a way for nurses to earn additional money by presenting proof (i.e. lots of writing) of their clinical skills and judgement. One can earn up to $4.00/hr extra. Both accomplishments and switching to night shift allow me to potentially earn up to $10.00/hr extra than my base pay. This is significant.

All I can think about, though, (and this is where the big change is) is when should I make the switch to critical care so I can start down the path toward anesthesia school? Should I apply this fall to switch specialties? Should I wait till the beginning of the new year? Maybe I should wait until we've worked through the new business for a bit. A completely new specialty would definitely consume a lot of my attention initially, and that might not be wise at this point. Lots to think about, better yet, lots to pray about. There's my answer right there. Acting on a dilemma (in this case, my recurring wanderlust/restlessness/need for change) always decreases the anxiety, so I guess prayer is a wise place to start.

Life was so much easier when I was 8...the biggest dilemma at this point in the summer was what outfit I'd be wearing on the first day of school.

happy thursday.

more work on the website today...it's really coming together. we just might make that aug 31 deadline yet. "go-live" here we come.

ian and i like to joke about those various cliche phrases used in the business world such as "go-live", "for all intents and purposes", "at the end of the day..." (as in, "at the end of the day, what really matters is blah blah blah"), and one of our most favorites "have a good one!" so, we've been teasing each other about the aug 31 go-live...maybe we should have a special celebration or something.

today was a beautiful sunny day...mia insisted on getting out the bubbles and would scream if i didn't let her dip the wand in the bottle. miss independent.

nemo spent the entire day dressed as spiderman again...we also listened to the colby's clubhouse record about 10 times.

ian and i got a little date tonight...first he went to tai chi while i drooled over scrapbook supplies in this very cool little store i discovered last week. it's called paperdoll, and they specialize in card-making supplies...lots of great patterned papers and mini-books and rub-ons...a lot of stuff i hadn't seen in some of the other stores in town. they all have their own little personalities, that's for sure. after my brief shopping stint, we met back up and ate dinner at la bonita taqueria on alberta. our favorite mexican place, for sure. i had fish tacos (yum) with the most fresh tasting pico de gallo and guacomole. ian and i both like to drink cokes when we eat mexican food...they just go together. we finished the excursion off with a frosty. cheap dessert that i never get tired of.

a good day had by all. 5 more sleeps till we leave for our trip!

entrepreneurial update...and other stuff

nemiacreative.com is coming along...keep checking on our daily-hourly, really-progress. talk about learning as you go. we are so fortunate that ian is patient and resourceful...the process of building the site, designing and redesigning each piece, the business details...it's all very tedious. and he manages to do it all in the company of a very active 5 yr old. the little boy in question is dressing as spiderman these days. he sings the spiderman theme songs constantly (the one from the 60s cartoon series and also the one from the electric company...thanks to netflix and youtube!!), climbs all over the furniture and even attempts to suspend himself in narrow spaces. he shoots webs at strangers, but then when they say "hey spiderman!!", he yells back "i'm not really spiderman, i'm just dressed like spiderman!" (i do not get this kid...he seems to want the attention, but has a hard time playing along. very literal about things.)

anyway, back to the business...the running spiderman commentary is a bit of a distraction for ian, though i think he has just learned to tune nemo out. and not that nemo is trying to engage ian (well sometimes he is), it's more that nemo is entertaining himself loudly in the background.
today we set up a couple e-mail accounts through our host site (homestead.com), and we even set up our paypal service. we will be able to accept credit cards through paypal without having to open a separate merchant account (yay....less hassle!) and our clients will be able to pay us with credit cards or their own paypal account. the cost is fairly minimal, 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.
i worked on writing nice descriptions of each piece in the holiday collection while ian sketched out a map for the ordering process...multiple pages, multiple links...all very virtual and time-consuming to set up.

this afternoon i took a break and drove out with the kids and vivien to babies r us to look for a new stroller. up until today, we were using a $20 umbrella stroller from fred meyer, which worked well enough, but was not very enticing to go out on walks with. i still wanted something lightweight and similar to a cheapy umbrella stroller, but a little more substantial. i found a nice graco model in a trendy chocolate brown...very easy to fold and open, and the best part is the handles. they come right up to my waist...so no more bending over to push the stroller. the cheap umbrella strollers are definitely sized for short people. this one was made for people over 5'2"!
the other motivation was my upcoming travel adventure with the kiddos. this stroller is perfect for travel.

so, travel. august 28 is fast approaching, and nemo and i are getting excited. he knows the trip is a week away, and i think he gets the concept of that much time. i did a little prep shopping today, and since i have the next couple days off of work, i'm going to try to have most everything organized and ready.

we don't have much of an itinerary, except to spend lots of time with the canups and grandma and grandpa...we get to meet molly the puppy, too. nemo is excited about that for sure. i'm looking forward to going through old pictures and old stuff...would really like to visit with grandma randall....maybe even my old elementary school so nemo can see where mommy went to kindergarten. we are very much looking forward to this trip! pray for safe and peaceful travels.

good intentions...

Not only a great little Randy Travis tune, but what seems to be one of my prevailing weaknesses...related to blog posting, anyway. I guess not too much is new around our house.

A recap of the last few weeks...Nemo and Mia recovered from yucky colds and are back to their busy little selves. Nemo visited the pediatrician this week for his five-year-old checkup. 44 inches (75th percentile for height...this ki d's going to be 6 feet tall!), 44 pounds, normal vision (no color blindness), he can hear (good to get confirmation of this since we must ask him at least a dozen times to follow directions), meeting all developmental milestones...ready for kindergarten in September. Ian did ask for some tips on how to teach him to blow his nose...Mia can imitate this one quite well, but Nemo can't seem to grasp the "blowing out" concept...he always ends up sucking all the snots back in. Yum. He ended the appointment with a whopping three shots...poor kiddo. Ian said he was very brave, and he got to pick out several prizes from the treasure chest. He woke up in the middle of the night, though, complaining of a sore arm. Sure enough, it was quite tender and swollen and hot to the touch. A little ibuprofen and Arnica oil rubbed in and I sent him back to bed.

We took Nemo to take in a great little fireworks show on the 4th...his first ever, and soooo much better than watching it on TV!! We were able to sit on the tailgate of the car, had the perfect view, and zipped on out as soon as they finished.

Our trusty Honda demanded a new battery today...I demanded a new hair cut. Both demands were fulfilled with great results. I think I've got the hip mom style going on (read: short), but I like it a lot. It suits me well.

No new updates on our website yet, but we were able to purchase Adobe Illustrator with some Flex Reimbursement money, and Ian is teaching himself to use it...he has about 10 holiday cards and 2 birth announcements completed. I think August will be website construction month. "Go live" will b e first part of September, hopefully!

The last two weeks have seen some new additions to our living room...looking much less "bachelor like" these days, I have to say! The couch came first, and Ian's mom was kind enough to take the futon off our hands. Then, the beautiful solid walnut wall unit we found at a vintage store. It's American made, Danish style, 1960s...so very nice and making our humble home very cozy.

With the toasty weather this week, we've been enjoying the window AC unit that Ian installed in the kid's room. Our upstairs is quite small, so the unit cools down the whole space when doors are left open. We spent an afternoon at Grant Park in Portland...very cool old wading pool and "Ramona Quimby" fountains...this was, after all, the park she played in! Mia scampered around in her swim suit...Nemo made a new friend. This new friend happened to be one of the children of a woman whom I had been friends with in a mom's group several years back...when Nemo was still a baby. We're going to play at the park again tomorrow and reconnect a bit.

Movies I've seen lately: Hot Fuzz (hysterical...definitely Netflix this one if you haven't seen it), The Devil Wears Prada (this was on my queue, and for sure a chick flick, though Ian was mildly amused as he watched it with me!), Arrested Development Final Season (ok, technically not a movie, but I loved every minute of this program...brilliant writing), Unfaithfully Yours (a Criterion Collection edition of a 1940s black comedy...very funny, and classic, beautiful ending...not at all bitter...me or the movie!)

Books I'm in the middle of currently: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (this was an Oprah Book Club pick some time ago...it is extremely well written, and with the help of my dictionary, I'm adding to my vocabulary...lots of interesting words in this one), The Abs Diet for Women by David Zinczenko (straight forward, "non-diet" plan to rediscover my abdominals...according to the author, we all have them!), and Starting an Online Business for "Dummies" (abhor the title, but love the content).

Some great used music finds at Everyday Music: Bebel Gilberto "Momento" (love, love, love this music), Juana Molina "Son", Talkdemonic "Beat Romantic", and the latest from Keane. Also found an old Raffi record "Baby Beluga" for the kids.

Some great garage sale finds: large terracotta pots 4/$1, wrought iron garden ornament $1, large Buzz Lightyear toy $1, cool old crocheted pillow that is now my desk chair cushion $2, antique "Kraft" cheese box $2 (great for holding my scrapbook supplies).

The final highlight of the day: Nemo found a pair of Spiderman flip flops at the consignment store where we have ongoing credit. His first pair of flips...he still has a little trouble walking in them, but he loves that he has a pair and I have a pair.

Whew...that's quite the update, and all for now.

so what do big boys do?

they ride bikes without training wheels, of course! nemo is officially a big boy in this category now, as yesterday was the big day. he had been talking about taking them off for awhile, and of course, pointing out the many bikes that didn't have trainers, but finally, both ian and i felt like he was ready. he had definitely backed off on the overuse of the brakes, and he was able to stand up while pedaling to get himself up a hill...also, going down a hill wasn't seeming very scary anymore.

so, we all agreed, and last night was a perfect night for it. 70 degrees, early evening, empty parking lot across the street...perfect. i was so impressed by how well he did. considering how cautious he was with the trainers initially, i expected this to take a lot longer. i worked with him at first, and he was very wobbly and nervous. he actually spent a lot of time talking while trying to ride, and i spent a lot of time reminding him to focus and keep his eyes in front of him...oh, and don't stop pedaling or you'll fall over!

but, we all know this is a dad's job to teach a kid to ride the two-wheeler, so ian gladly took over and nemo just kept improving! after about thirty minutes, ian was able to let go for longer and longer distances. we're still working on the starting, but today they went to the school playground (which has a very large asphalt surface) and practiced more...apparently he's excelling at the stopping part and catching his falls. i was so pleased with him mostly because of his attitude. he was truly delighted with the whole process and didn't get frustrated with the wobbliness and falling and having to have help...in fact, he'd smile and laugh when he fell, and then get right back up again. he may be on the cautious side, but he's willing to try. so proud.

the last couple weeks...

i haven't been saying much lately, but daily life continues...some days kind of exciting, most ordinary. trust me...i like the ordinary days the best. anyway, the photos and captions should suffice to recap our last couple of weeks...

we had a week at the beginning of the month with wonderfully warm weather...we went to jamison park in the pearl district to play in the fountain and wading pool...we brought a blanket and set it out on the grass, ate snacks, relaxed...like being at the beach in the city!

of course, june 9th was a big day for nemo...birthday number 5, and the theme in decorations and gifts (galore) was CARS....nemo was very pleased, even though the original party at the park got rained out and we had to bring it indoors at home...ian scrambled to the store for "pin the tail on the donkey" and goody bags for the four kids and we ordered a big american dream cheese pizza...topped off with a yummy chocolate cake from jaciva's...the rain did not ruin the day!

oh, and right around this time, mia was learning where her belly button was...we're also working on eyes, nose, mouth, ears, toes, etc....she's a smart girl, this one.

another big day for nemo was june 15th, preschool graduation! he talked about it all week, even to tell me that he was going to receive a "certificate"...then, immediately asked me what a certificate was. anyway, the ceremony was very nice...they sang songs like "america the beautiful" and "this land is your land", and then they each had their names called while receiving the special certificate. nemo was pleased, and we are even more so as we're graduating on to tuition-free school for the next 13 years!!

we went through another week and a half of cool, gray weather, and just in the last couple days have returned to sunny, summer-like times...we've been relaxing outside, and today mia is finally starting to return back to her usual, curious little self...high fever and crankiness since saturday, but today mostly smiles!

my projects...

In the last week, I created two layouts...just for me. I actually completed them both in one night, which is pretty amazing considering I'm painfully slow at times to finish. I enjoy the process and the thoughtfulness that goes into each layout, and I'm very proud of them once they're finished. I decided to go with one of Ali Edwards' ideas, which is to keep a scrapbook going just for me...and, to make it different by creating the layouts in this book in a different size. So, I'll be picking up a 3-ring binder from American Crafts that will hold my 8 1/2 x 11 layouts. The kid's books and the family book will all be 12 x 12. I also have a previous issue of Simple Scrapbooks to thank for releasing me from my inner "type A" obligation to chronologically scrapbook. Further, using 3-ring binders (which is what I'm switching to) will allow me to carry out my new method easily because I can conveniently throw the layouts in the book as I complete them...no more fussing with the post-bound shenanigans. What's better...if I decide to make an 8 1/2 x 11 layout for Mia's book, it will fit right in. If I don't want to use a page protector, no problem. Just punch holes. If I want to include a piece of the kid's artwork or memorabilia, that works, too. No more rules.



Today was fun for Ian. He received the new external hard drive that he ordered (250 GB...this is a lot of memory, I'm told) and a surge protector and a couple other little things. All for the business, and the eventual second computer.



Nemo and Mia just enjoyed playing with the box and packing material everything shipped in! Who needs toys, anyway?

The highlights of the earlier part of the week include: a date night on Wednesday...I asked Emily, my good friend from work, to watch the kids, and Ian and I met Julie and Jeremy and Ian's friend, Chi, at Ringler's (McMenamin's) before the concert. We played pool (I sank a few good, lucky shots!) and ate dinner, then went upstairs to the Crystal Ballroom for The Sea and Cake. The third time I've seen them play...superb every time. These guys are amazing musicians, and we all stood right up at the front of the stage. I love watching the interaction between the band members, and the expressions on their faces, and how they play their instruments. We bought a cool t-shirt, too. I spent Thursday assisting in Nemo's preschool classroom...I give his teacher a lot of credit, because it's hard work! Lot's of tattling, lot's of messes, lot's of reminders to follow directions, but lot's of impressive work from those kids, too. I really loved observing Nemo work on a new lesson (sink and float...testing which objects sink and which ones float). One day of assisting was plenty for me! Oh, the other highlight (besides the season finales of The Office and Scrubs...love those shows) was that i netflixed season 1 of Arrested Development. Hysterical. Great writing, great acting...how come all the good shows get cancelled?

nemia creative

our little baby of a company is coming along...certainly at the expense of tidiness in our small living space. oh well...we're happy and healthy and excited about our new venture.

ian is figuring out everything on his own. designing the website, designing the templates for our cards, teaching himself the various nuances of photoshop. he's itching for a faster computer, and maybe one with a bigger screen, as he frequently finds himself slouched over, neck bent at a funny angle, stiff and sore at the end of a few hours worth of work on the project.

speaking of projects, he is over at nemo's preschool today helping the class with the mother's day project. nemo loves it when he's there, but feels a bit possessive of him when he's trying to help everyone else. nemo loves doing art projects, and even has his own rubbermaid container of supplies...actually, a few containers is more like it. he often asks to "scrap" with me, and the other day we spent a few hours putting together a little accordian-folded book about our day at the everglades national park back in 2004. he had checked out a book from the library about alligators, and we had some great pictures of alligators up close from our bike ride. he took his scrapbook and library book to school on monday for sharing and got to talk about both.

anyway, you can follow the ian's progress on the website by going to www.nemiacreative.com.
it won't be completely ready for another couple months...we're shooting for a july/august start date. we'll be intially focusing on holiday cards and birth announcements and then go from there. we're pretty proud of it.

lately.

the collazo family is enjoying spring.

nemo is fast refining his technique on the cool bike he received for last year's birthday. he continuously points out every bike he sees without training wheels (which is most bikes, by the way) and asks when we will remove the training wheels on his bike. keep in mind that portland is quite hilly and nemo puts on his brakes 75% of the time even when not going down a hill...you can imagine how long it takes to go up the hills. he's quite cautious and vigilant about not falling. i have to say, though, that in the last month i've seen his confidence really blossom.

speaking of blossoms, i am loving the gorgeous lilac bushes right outside our apartment...so fragrant, so pretty. nemo is so sweet about pointing out all the "beautiful" flowers all over town right now. portland is gorgeous in the spring.

mia loves to be outside and is also very confident in the newly acquired walking skill. she doesn't quite understand the art of backing herself down stairs and will fearlessly begin to step right off the top, expecting us to be there to catch her, of course! we are also trying to teach her to hold our hand in less safe areas, for obvious reasons. she continues to become very excited when she spots a bird, ball, balloon, dog or cat, and yells out "bah!! bah!! bah!!", while pointing with her sweet little pointer finger. she also likes to imitate the sound of sirens, and as we live across the street from a hospital, she has ample opportunity to practice this.

work is work, and i'm still waiting to hear if i'll get a position on night shift. the extra $5.50/hr would help us out so much, so i'm praying for this opportunity. mia is much more manageable at night now, so i don't have that concern anymore. i'm not super excited about being up at night, but this is a rather temporary (for the next few years, anyway) solution for us and would help us get ahead. that, and if ian and i can get our new little business off the ground.

ian is dividing his time between watching the kiddos, finishing some more magnets for the next crafty wonderland (on mother's day), and learning all he can about photoshop 5.5...together, we're working on the website, coming up with our version of a simple business plan, and checking out what other little companies are doing in the area of photo invitations and announcements. our company will be called nemia creative (the website is not up and running yet, but the address will be nemiacreative.com). both of us are really excited about the potential of this project, but we plan to start simply. i would like to post on our progress from time to time, but eventually will have a professional blog just for the company (no links to this one).

another side project i hope to be starting soon is the sabbatical scrapbook. to my family, i will make up "questionnaires" to send out to each of you so that the final book will have some perspective from all of us...my goal is to have the book completed and distributed to each of you by christmas this year. so, start reminiscing...dig out any of your own photos and memorabilia, and prepare to give your side of the story. if anyone has the yellow t-shirt, i would really like a photo of it...i may still have mine, but not entirely sure.

happy spring.

boutique-y baby

Mia really doesn't have a care about what she wears from day to day...frankly, I don't care too much either. But, I have to admit, I really enjoyed dressing her in her only outfit from a baby boutique. We aquired this outfit last year at Nemo's school fundraising auction, and it fits her perfectly this year.
The cute little striped pants are "indoor-only" (my rule), delicate cold wash, and line dry...maybe that's why she has only one pair of these ultra-sweet pants!

God made robots, right Mom?

Ummmm.....I suppose so, Nemo. Yet another interesting thought swirling around in my little boy's brain. One of hundreds of "not sure how to answer" questions he poses every day. He just wants to know, and he doesn't stop asking until we actually acknowledge him. Ian and I could be in the middle of a fascinating discussion about our latest Netflix arrivals or the not-so-subtle presence of our noisy neighbors or Mia's most recent accomplishment, and Nemo will just start saying the same thing over and over and over, louder and louder and louder, until one of us sighs in irritation and mutters, "Never mind, I'm not going to try and talk over him". We then answer him quickly, but more importantly go on to attempt to convey to him yet another nuance of the art of conversation...namely, not respectful for little children to interrupt their parents. He usually makes eye contact briefly and then proceeds to ask another question or otherwise change the subject completely. Again, we sigh and shake our heads in a very slightly defeated sort of way. Oh, this child. Good thing we love him too much.

Speaking of Mia's most recent accomplishments....add walking and loving to look at books to the list. Every day I delight in sharing her enthusiasm and curiosity for all the bits and pieces she's learning about...the funny sounds she makes with her lips (not to mention how silly she looks!), the precise way she picks up a piece of food and puts in her mouth (and then proceeds to gag on it a minute later because she has put one too many pieces of food in her mouth), the smile and giggle as she's looking through her stack of board books, the excitement of propelling herself forward, arms outstretched for balance, toes curled into the floor for stability...sheer momentum getting her from point to point. Expert crawler, novice walker, but willing to practice at it every day. I could easily watch her for hours. The cheeks on this kid are just an added bonus. Very kissable.

Onto my more inner world. As far as work goes, when did birth become such a spectator sport? The woman with her 5 younger children and various aunts, uncles, and grandparents lined up on the couch...the woman who was absolutely fine with allowing both grandparents in the room while I catheterized her (grandpa hid behind a newspaper, revealing to the rest of us that he wasn't absolutely fine with this), the young woman who only allowed her three closest friends in the room (these grown women colored on black fuzzy posters all night while she labored), and most recently, the woman whose father sat in the "audience area" to view pushing and birth, while her mother and partner stayed in the more "modest zone" up by her head. Strange, huh? I admit, my mother and sister were present for Mia's birth (in addition to two midwives and Ian), but I asked them to be there for a specific purpose: to support me and take some nice photos of Mia and me just after she was born. I felt this was tasteful, I was grateful for their presence, and I know they were all equally touched by the experience. There are many births that I assist with that are special and meaningful like this...but often I feel uncomfortable for my patient because she might not realize how vulnerable and exposed she is. I feel protective of the birth, even though it is not my own. I know birth is a family event, but it is also intimate, raw, and private. Not unlike the process of conception which started the whole thing in the first place. Anyway, that's work.

Now, for my hobby. The scrapbooking convention was a hit with me, though I often shook my head and chuckled to myself at the crazed enthusiasm over stickers, ink pads, die cutting tools, and random products called "fabulous foil". Yikes. It was definitely worth going to, especially because I took two excellent classes led by two of the scrapbooking world's most popular "motivational speakers". These ladies are gracious and funny, excited about telling their stories through scrapbooking, and very down-to-earth and approachable. What a delightful job they must have! Their very healthy enthusiasm for scrapbooking is contagious and inspiring, and my list of potential projects grows longer every day. If only I could get paid to scrapbook full time!

In closing, God made not have directly been responsible for the creation of robots on any given day of the week of creation, but we certainly have him to thank for all these gorgeous spring flowers I've been feasting my eyes on. The daffodils are so perky and friendly...definitely my favorite spring flower...those and all the pink dogwood trees all over the city. Sunshine and warm temps made for a blissful weekend outdoors. Several neighborhood walks in the wagon, playing on the playground, riding bikes....ah, spring. Our transition out of hibernation. Refreshing, and well worth the wait.

creative block lifting

i'm finally meandering my way out of the "no scrapbooking for months" rut...actually working on my honeymoon photos. i made this cool cigar box/memory box thing with ephemera all over it and am working on the mini-scrapbook that goes inside. i started it months ago, but felt like i was going nowhere with it. so i sighed and felt sorry for myself and my lack of ideas and put it away. but now...now that i'm freshly organized and moved into my new "studio" in my bedroom, i find myself enjoying it again.

so the bedroom studio is interesting, but since i love the coziness of my room and it's rounded ceiling and surprising spaciousness, i think it's going to work. i actually have a closet big enough for my supplies, and i even cleared out half my dresser to make room for the essentials. it's kind of fun. i use the top of my dresser and ian's dresser as my workspace, lay out stuff on the bed, get the stereo going and sing to myself ...totally relaxing and rejuvenating. ian watches the little ones a lot so that i can have this time to myself.

looking forward to tomorrow, though, because i'm only working eight hours and then i'm off on a special birthday date with sweet husband. he took the kids out to get a cake today and when i asked nemo what kind of cake he said, "it's a surprise mom. i'm not going to tell you anything about the cake." since when was he in on surprises?

sunshine....what?

a surprisingly sunshiney, clear, mild winter day today. after organizing my photos and scrapbook supplies for the millionth time-actually using the photos and supplies is the next task-, i decided that we should not sit the day away inside, but immerse ourselves in it.

so we did. our weekly treasure hunt at the thrift store turned up some cute little things for mia, a very cool retro metal tray for me, and more books for nemo's huge collection. then, a relaxing meal at "no fish go fish" where we enjoyed the ultimate comfort food. homemade soup-i had mushroom barley today, ian had creamy roasted garlic-and two fish-shaped sandwiches fresh from the sandwich press. all for 5 bucks a piece, i might add. love this place. next stop, the park. where else on a sunny 50-ish degree day? nemo excitedly gathered acorns and bark and sticks so we could concoct a tasty acorn stew and mia enjoyed crawling around on the grass and getting really muddy. this was a tough one to let go of because i don't want my baby to have dirt in her fingernails and soil stained knees, but what the heck? the sun was shining, sky was blue, letting her scurry around and explore just felt like the thing to do.

must be trying to soak it all in during my last few days before i hit 29. and you know what comes after 29.

it's been awhile

as a way to distract myself from the "creative block" i'm experiencing as of late, i've rediscovered reading a good old fashioned book. from the library, even. my nose has been buried in two books in a series recently, and i'm not at all embarrassed to say they are in the "inspirational romance" genre. feel-good fiction, i like to think of it as. while the enjoyment is mostly effortless, it sufficiently does the job of stimulating my brain without clamboring for my constant attention like my children do...i use the term "clamboring" with utmost affection!
anyway, i plan to revisit oprah's book club list and pick up where i left off with william faulkner's classics. these were tough reads as i remember, and so will be more than enough to satisfy my need for brain stimulation.

nemo said something thought-provoking today. "the world, according to nemo" is daily discussion around here, half question/answer, half monologue, actually. questions like "why is mr. potato head a potato?" exclamations such as, "baby mia is bestroying my book!!" all day long, reasons why he shouldn't have to eat "regular food" before dessert, negotiating to use the computer or watch a movie, objecting to playing in his room by himself or taking a bath or going to bed or turning off the tv. all normal stuff. but today was a little different. he quietly sat at the desk, drawing his latest creation, and then proudly presented it to me and ian. this is how it went:
nemo: this is a sho-sho-sho
mom: what's a sho-sho-sho?
nemo: it's all things around you. like when i jump on the bed, there's a sho-sho-sho. all things around you comes.
mom: where did you learn about a sho-sho-sho?
nemo: i learned about it from me.
mom: what does it look like?
nemo: it looks like this. (he points to the picture he drew). it doesn't look black anymore. it looks like colors.
mom: is it around mia? and mama? and daddy?
nemo: yes.

very interesting. this post begins with the drawing that inspired this conversation.