The Stand up and Scrap Challenge is finally over. It was a 6 week competition and it sure was a challenge for me at times so I’m glad it’s over. It did help me to try things in digital scrapbooking that I normally wouldn’t have done. I thought I’d share my 6 layouts.

Challenge #1 Dream Big

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has a genius, magic and power to it.” -Goethe

Dream Big – If you could have one dream come true what would it be? What does your dream say about you? Be creative and design a page that is meaningful to YOU and shares with the world a dream that you hope will come true someday.

Challenge #2: Life Is Sweet

“That it shall never come again is what makes life so sweet” – Emily Dickinson

What makes your life sweet? Where do you find sweetness in your everyday life? What about today do you want to remember for a lifetime? What happened yesterday that found you standing there with a smile on your face, or a tear in your eye? It can be as simple as an ‘I love you’, whispered across the room. It can be life altering; the birth of a baby, a brand new home. This week, we want you to tell us about your sweetest moments.

Challenge #3: Let the Music Move You

“Where words fail, music speaks” – Hans Christian Andersen

Music – ah, the sweet notes, the poignant lyrics, the melodies. There are times when a song or lyric captures exactly what we have on our minds. It can be the soundtrack that plays consistently through our lives. It can give us comfort when we are lonely, respite when we are tired. Music can convey so many feeling and thoughts. Music and lyrics can transport you back in time and invoke memories. Lyrics can also be a magical inspiration for creating amazingly powerful layouts. Our challenge to you is to let music be your muse – Use a lyric of a song to create a layout that is meaningful to you and the people you love.

Challenge #4: Color = Power

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

What color do you see when you think of your best friend? How about a new baby? What color would you use to describe your favorite food? How about your most romantic, or even horrible, moment? Color has the ability to portray emotion and the feelings you express through color can be just as powerful as your photos or journaling. This week we challenge you to use COLOR to create a layout which expresses emotion and captures a memory you want us to FEEL.

This challenge had to be monochromatic.

Challenge #5: A picture says 1000 words

“A true photograph need not to be explained, nor can it be contained in words.” – Ansel Adams

Many times a photograph says everything without a single word. It can capture a moment in time perfectly, express an emotion that will bring a tear to your eye, or bring a distant memory back to life as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. Oftentimes, photos express what our words cannot and this week we want you to prove it!

Challenge #6: What Will You Do Next?

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

You’ve spent several weeks thinking about the world around you, your dreams, loves and motivations. You’ve invoked powerful emotions through photography, the use of color and design. You’ve looked outside your typical places to find inspiration. You’ve done an amazing job. Now, we want you to tell us – “What are you going to do next? What are you going to do to make this world a better place?”

By this time I was sooo tired of these challenges that I decided to use this layout… look familiar? I added some words but that’s about it. Yea. I’m sure I didn’t win a darn thing.

Yea, I finally bought a new camera. It is just a point and shoot but I think that going from 3.o mega pixels to 8.1 is quite an improvement.

Yesterday we went to Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point. It’s a pretty fun place for the young’ns. They have cornmazes of all sizes, giant jumping pillows and tons of slides. Oh, yea, don’t forget about Gertie…

Hey all, how’s it going? I’m pretty good, at least I’m trying to be.

I’ve been feeling rather down so I’m trying to do something about it. I’ve been feeling so yucky -mentally and physically. So this week I tried to eat a lot healthier. For a day and a half I drank tons of lemon water and ate only fresh foods -fruits, veggies, raw almonds and such. It was kind of like my own made up cleanse. Lots of fiber and simple foods. Nothing processed. (Does anyone out there know much about cleanses? This was not a Master Cleanse…) I was planning on doing if for at least 3 days. Ya know, see how I felt and stuff. I want to start steering away from all the junk food -refined sugar and unneeded carbs. I felt pretty good and wasn’t too hungry. I just had to much on carrots and almonds a lot. I know I need to do it longer but I guess I just gave up or thought I needed a little more for my activities. Good excuse, eh?
I decided to eat a little bit more when Jer and I decided to go climbing last night…

We begged my mom to watch the kids because the weather was soooo lovely. We wanted to go outdoors before the winter came. So after work we headed up to American Fork Canyon… I love that place. The rock is limestone and it has these awesome pockets in it that are perfect for climbing. We went to a place we use to climb at when we were in college and dating. Ahhh… it was such a blast.

We were racing the sunset and trying to get in as many climbs as we could. We were pretty lucky though because a beautiful full moon came up after the sun went down allowing us to do a few more climbs. Ahhhh… Gorgeous. It’s been a while since we’ve done some serious climbing outdoors so I think it was exceptionally thrilling.

I wish I had some killer pics to show but unfortunately I forgot my camera. All I’ve wanted for about a month now is to get some nice pictures of us climbing. Oh well, maybe next time. Just to give you an idea it looked something like this…

I still don’t have a ton going on right now… I loaded the kids in the car this morning just to get out of the house. I drove around aimlessly until I landed in the mall parking lot. I found a super cute coat that I want to buy (I’ll have to check with my hubby though).

I did plan a little outing to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village last weekend for my Activity Girls. Emma wanted to come because she heard me talking about hot chocolate and donuts and that there would only be girls there. She loves anything that has to do with just girls. I can hear her saying it now… “just girls” in a high pitched, feminine voice.

Emma and I had fun dressing up. I made these getto homemade capes but I thought my little witch turned out pretty cute.

My little witch-princess decided to to take some self portraits of herself. I usually just delete these but her cute pouty lips were just too cute to get rid of. Do you like the food particles on her face as well?

What a darling girl.

I guess that is all for now. I have a lot to vent about but I guess I’ll spare you and keep it up beat and positive. (ie… one more week has gone past where I’ve failed miserable at making the top ten of the stand up and scrap contest (why am I torturing myself?) arggg… Also I have been a major witch in more ways than one.

Later ya’ll

I’m sitting around my house today waiting for something to happen. I’m not sure what… the phone to ring, Isaac to create a disaster, Emma to cry dramatically for something, the rain to fall, the laundry to fold its self.

I should find something to do with myself. Start a project, finish a project, read my latest book (The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho). Perhaps I could think of something to shop for, plan for, prepare for. Maybe I could bake something yummy on this blustery day.

Nope.

Nothing.

Instead I’m writing a post about how bored I am. I have done this recently so maybe I’ll bore you but ya know what… maybe then you’ll have an idea of how bored I am.

I guess I need to adjust to the slower paced life of fall. I think it’s actually this whole preschool thing. It’s restricting my activities. Blah blah blah. My fun and exciting activity today, while Em was a preschool, was a trip to Costco where I spent way to much on freezer foods and Halloween candy.  Oh fun… I usually wait until the last min to buy candy because then I don’t have to have it in my house, in my pantry, calling out my name…. “Manda… Manda… Come on, just take one to sweeten up your boring afternoon.”

So here is my question to you…. Do you find yourself looking forward to the next big thing… all the time? Do you look at the calendar and think, “Gosh, it’ll be so fun when such and such rolls around”? Do you think “As long as I can get to this date then I’ll be okay”?

I do…

My calendar is looking particularly blank this month.

I don’t really even like Halloween.

Or… are you content with the present? Do you like the quiet time at home with nothing to do? Are you glad you don’t have any errands to run? Do you enjoy every little moment with your kids? You adore them right now and wish they’d stay little forever.

Don’t get me wrong of course I love the kiddos but I can’t help looking to the future. I think “When the kids are bigger we can do this… certain activity… or they’ll entertain themselves better.”

So I guess my question is… What do you do to stay in the now? How do you keep your sanity on the slower days?

This time it was me who had an accident… I smashed my pinkie finger in my car door. Ya, it hurt. My dad tried to help me by drilling a small hole in my finger nail to release the pressure and let all the blood out. It worked for a little bit but them it kept coagulating so I just let it go and now it looks like a witches finger… great! just in time. The photo isn’t so great. (Have I ever mentions how much my camera stinks?) I think I’ll loose my finger nail. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to still rock climb but I managed. I just have to take it a little bit easy. Ya know… no more 5.12′s I’m better off sticking to the 5.10′s (he he)

Over the weekend we enjoyed some fall festivities. It was pretty fun. We went to a corn maze with jer’s family and bought some pumpkins. I looofffe fall.

I lost my voice today. It’s been lovely for the kids. I haven’t been able to holler at them at all. It must be a punishment- to teach me that I don’t have to yell to get through the day. It’s weird… my parents never yelled at us… and still I find my self yelling “What did I JUST tell YOU!!! Get your shoes ON!”

Shoot, maybe I shouldn’t admit my faults on line. You guys will all think badly of me. Really, I don’t yell that much… just as a last resort. It works but it just doesn’t have a lasting effect and quite often brings tears. I try to do the Love and Logic Method and I love the book Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood.  It makes me feel happier. I’ve started re-reading it because I find it helps to have it fresh on the brain.

Anyhoo, I sound like a tired, grouchy old man when I answer the phone.

“haalloo”

Hi all… I feel like I’ve been a totally boring blogger lately. I have nothing fun to say. I’ve just been trying to keep on top of the mothering thing lately.

Oh, how I long for nap time. Isaac seems to have been put into hyper drive lately. He’s out of control. Cute little man!! I hid away my kitchen stools today because I got tired of having them on top of the counter top. That’s what it’s come to.

I just finished my third week challenge up for the Stand up and scrap contest. I used a picture of Jer so I think it will be hard to miss. It’s not one of my favs and I tried to get some input from jer and my sis but I got impatient and put it up away. Go check it out if you want.

La te da…. later, ya’ll.

I titled this post Looking Up because I’m going to do a lot better this week than I did last week. (Although I’m pretty sure I can blame last week on PMS)

I’m planning on it- I mean being happier, getting things done around the house and having fun but not too much (this does tend to be a problem with me). I’ve made a nice To Do list and I’ve already tried to deal with Emma’s drama calmly and without hollering back when she didn’t want to go to preschool this morning. I organized the laundry room this morning and hopefully in a couple of weeks the house will feel nicer all over.

Emma’s doing well with her broken arm. It doesn’t seem to bother her at all. She likes to show off her pink cast. In fact she is yelling “PINK CAST” as I snapped this pic. The cool part is that the cast is waterproof. She can take a bath and go swimming. Gotta love technology.

Going along with my happy attitude this morning, I had a lovely weekend. My sis decided to pop on down to UTard this weekend for a quick trip. It’s always tricky to figure out what to do with all the kiddos and keep the husbands happy, the mom’s happy and not go crazy with all the chaos that the kids produce. Well, my lovely husband decided that he would take the kids to the farm while us women went shopping. Yea!! I love him so much for this because I wasn’t expecting it at all. We had a blast shopping. I bought these shoes from Aldo. Love them.

We also went out to dinner and to the Women’s Conference. It was lovely to go do dinner without worrying about loud noises and thrown food and then have a inspiring message to get me doing better.

That’s all for now. I need to get my week 2 challenge up on the little dreamers gallery. Later.