My goddaughter turned nine this week. She was the first baby in my adult life and I can't believe how big she is! She is the only person that can get me to try new rides at amusement parks. She got me to go on a water one recently that I'd been too scared of before. Luckly for me it wasn't too bad - just the right amount of thrilling. Thank goodness she's still too little for the really big roller coasters.

First time out on the inflatable boat.....

With her godparents...

Some swimming photos....

Sophia posted a challenge on 2 Peas today to blog what inspires you.

There are two women I go to church with who both inspire me all the time. They are both named Joan. Joan D. is a super powerhouse. If anything needs doing for our church, she does it. If you need information about the church and Joan doesn't know it, you might as well give up because it doesn't exist. She has a very busy life but finds so much more time to give. She was the first person who ever reached out to me from this church, right after Esme was born.

Joan S. is not only an amazing person who has devoted uncountable hours to her community and her church, but is incredibly generous and helped me even from her bed in a long term care facility. Plus she is an extremely interesting woman who I feel I have a lot to learn from. I feel enriched every time I have the opportunity to be in her prescence. I feel so lucky to know these women and I am inspired by both of them!

I can't wait to get this book into my hands. It contains my second published page, and I heard from a few scrapping friends that the book is really good.

Tomorrow my baby will have her last day of nursery school. And at least for a while, it will be her last day of "school" because we are about to begin our homeschooling adventure. I am both excited and apprehensive. She is very much looking forward to learning to read, but asked me yesterday if I will still read books to her.

EDITED TO ADD: The book has arrived! They did a beautiful job and it's definitely a book worth looking at! My layout is on page 109.

Three years ago I taught high school for half a day and decided I never wanted to do it again. During the last few months I've been giving it some more thought and after successfully keeping 4 to 11 year old in control for these three years, I decided I would give it a go. Today I taught my favorite high school subject - history. And I survived! Hooray! Lucky for me I had mostly honors classes, and those kids are the most studious. I am going to do Health on Wednesday.

Today is Kim's shower and I made my first altered clock as her gift.

Life has been crazy the last couple weeks!

End of the year subbing is not so fun. Lots of hot, cranky kids do not want to be in school and some of the teachers are getting fussy as well. Last chance to earn an income though so I am trying to work as much as possible. I am even giving high school a chance next week. I usually only do elementary and I am likely to be eaten alive - pray for me on Monday and Wednesday. I love my job in September. Not as much in June.

We have been out on our little boat a couple times now. Went once to the Mount Tom Reservation and once to Hampton Pond in Westfield. Bray Lake at Mount Tom was fun, but Hampton Pond was wonderful. That is my new favorite place. Unfortunately on Memorial Day some teenagers threw a bunch of fireworks into the pond and killed a bunch of fish, and the poor dead fishies are still washing up on the beach. It's gross and sad. Won't want to swim there for a while yet.

I finished reading Robinson Crusoe (love Defoe, loved it), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (very good story of a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in poverty in the early 20th century), and Fun Home (a cool graphic novel with very strange family relationships that I identified all too well with) since I last updated my blog. I was talking to a lady at church who said she isn't much of a reader and I said I have to be to stay interesting to my husband. She told me that was a very smart way to think about it. Actually Ethan and I have been reading a lot of the same books lately and he is very interesting to me! We read Treasure Island together and he just started Robinson Crusoe.

My baby's last day of nursery school is this coming Thursday. I have very mixed feelings about this. I am so sad that she is leaving school and won't have the fun little kid experiences I had. On the other hand I am extremely excited and hopeful about staring our homeschooling together.

I am off to worry about the last details that I am responsible for for my sister-in-law's shower. It's tomorrow!!

I just finished altering a big wooden letter for the first time, and I had so much fun doing it, I think this might become one of my standard gifts. I used Anna Griffin supplies for this one - I loved how the one pieces paper was both pink and black and white. It's a gift for our church secretary, who I have come to realize has had a pretty thankless job these long months that we haven't had a rector. I really appreciate her and sympathize with her, so upon the new rector's arrival I suggested a staff appreciation week. It's so important to tell workers how much you value them - a pretty crummy job can get so much better with just a small thank you. Hopefully I'll get to chair up the appreciation committee.

Just finished this page for one of this month's projects at Scraptalk. This is my first time using Crate Papers and I loved them! And with this page I am celebrating! Esme and I have had great difficulties at bedtime since I starting putting her to bed, and as of tonight I am OFF for the summer! Hopefully in the coming months Ethan can get her back into a good routine and teach me how to do what he does! I would be so happy to leave that drama behind us.

On Saturday I got a big box of my grandmother's photos. There are some amazing things in this box, including one this one, which is one of my favorites. The happy couple coming out the door are my grandparents. I am so love photos of people I love, and old photos of my ancestors are one of my favorite things ever. I am my family's historian, and I feel so lucky to have this gift.

I survived two weeks of teaching the gym and science class! Phew! I am not used to working full time and I am WORN OUT. Even though I love that class i am so glad it's over. Now onto my busy weekend! Tomorrow I'll go see my mom and Sunday Esme and I will have the day all to ourselves.

Our new rector has finally arrived! I was on the Search Committee for over 18 months and I was thrilled to go to her first service on Sunday. Then I got to have a church school meeting with her on Tuesday, and I got to go out for a night on the town with her on Wednesday. She is a very nice woman and a pleasure to be around. I am so looking forward to working with her!

Just completed this layout - my first one for my second Pink Lady term! I am loving these Creative Imaginations patterns. I need to find a store that sells this line and buy it up.

Yesterday I had to do lab reports with the second graders. They had to examine fossils and then write several sentences describing them. Most of them wrote about texture, feel, colors, smell, etc. One kid wrote as his last sentence, "it smells like dicks." I was sitting there grading and came across this and was like COME ON why is this kid doing this?!?! Augh! Kids write obscene stuff all the time to see if we're really reading it, but then they have to be in trouble, deservedly so. So I took it to the teacher and said, "Please tell me this is a misspelling or not what he really means." She was disgusted and took it down to talk to him. She said, I love the way you set up your lab report, you did such a good job, now could you please read it to me? He read it to her as written. She said nicely, what did you mean by that last sentence? He said, "Dicks. Where they sell the basketballs." There is a store near here called Dick's Sporting Goods. The teacher laughed all the way back down the hallway, and then photocopied it and passed it around to the other teachers with the story.

We have the NICEST friends and family. While we were at our nephew's birthday party this weekend my best friend offered to take Esme for the night. Hearing that Ethan and I had the chance to go out my brother offered us free movie tickets so that we could go out and do something fun! Hearing that we were going out my mom insisted on buying us dinner! Due to the generosity of 3 people that love us, we got to have a great evening all to ourselves. This kind of night is very rare for us, and it was just so nice to spend a casual evening with my wonderful husband. One of the best things about my life is the people I am surrounded by. I am so incredibly blessed.

As a bonus, I happened to have my camera with me, so I got to get some shots of Ethan and me.

I am still PINK!!!!!!!! Hooray! I got the most wonderful message from Deb on my voicemail today inviting me to come back as a Pink Lady! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

I've been blog tagged by Amy Birch!!! I have to name 10 weird things about myself.

1. I have a poster of Captain Hook hanging in my scrapbook area.

2. I can't concentrate on tasks with music on, but I can listening to talk radio. (I love all-talk NPR!)

3. I love children and spend most of my time surrounded by them, but I do not consider myself a kid person.

4. Every winter I get used to not going outside, and start out each Spring having no desire to venture out. I have to spend every day outside for a week before I love it again.

5. I talk to my best friend on the phone for hours every day, no matter how long we talked the day before or what is happening in our lives.

6. I can fall asleep in less than 5 seconds, and can sleep anywhere, including standing up.

7. I have a large collection of tiny Uncle Scrooge figures.

8. I love the Wiggles as much as my daughter does.

9. I hate tomatoes passionately.

10. I must always sleep on the side of the bed away from the door.

I am going to start my blog tags with Sharon whose blog I saw for the first time today!

I just did my first layout for this year's Memory Maker's Masters contest!! Whoo hooo! I am sooo psyched! I love doing this contest. I've entered the last two years and two of the layouts I've entered have been picked up for publication by Making Memories or other books. It really helps me stretch myself creatively and make layouts I'm proud of. I love the satisfaction of having my 5 layouts done!

I've finally completed a layout about why I scrapbook. I was inspired by a challenge and really had to think about the reasons, as they have changed over the last 7 years that I've been scrapping. Journaling reads, "I scrapbook because: I love looking at photos of people I love. It's a way to meet and spend time with friends. Some of my thoughts and feelings can't be expressed through words alone. I love knowing special memories will be recorded. I like having a talent. I love being part of the scrapping community. I enjoy shopping for cool new supplies. I feel good about myself when I create."

I've been a Pink Lady at Scraptalk for approximately 18 months now. I have loved being on this design team so much. If you haven't ever been there, you must check it out. Check out my gallery while you're there too! It is sincerely the nicest scrapbooking message board out there. It's very friend and inviting and everyone is very helpful. There are no hard feelings, and it's very easy to get to know everyone. Deb, the owner, is going to announce the new design team soon. I don't know if I'll be on it or not, so I'm feeling very nostalgic for a time that really hasn't even ended yet. So the next few days I'll be waiting waiting waiting, to find out if my time is over or if I'll have another year.

I just finished reading Treasure Island! After seeing the new Peter Pan, I started reading a book about the legends and real history of pirates called Under the Black Flag. The author asserts that most of our modern images and idea about pirates are based on Captain Hook and Long John Silver. I hadn't read Treasure Island as a child so I had to see what it was all about. I LOVED IT! What an exciting story! Because it was originally published as a serial the end of each chapter is a cliffhanger and I couldn't put it down! Also, I love stories where a child is the narrator in a world of adults, and Jim Hawkins was a great narrator and ultimately the hero of the story. Now I am off to read Robinson Crusoe.

It's taken me a few weeks to get back into the swing of scrapping. But after scrapping with Lisa on Monday I have definitely got the bug again and I super happy to be back in the game! For Lent I gave up buying scrapbooking supplies and it was hard. I didn't even make a purchase when I saw awesome clearance deals at A.C. Moore. The last few days I've allowed myself a small treat or two if I saw excellent deals. Luckily lots of stores are in the midst of their spring clearance sales!

Esme and Irelyn are having a sleepover tonight. Both are famous for their fussies at bedtime, so I'm a bit intimidated. Hopefully the thrill of being together (I'm letting them both sleep in our guest bed) will knock them out. Yeah right. Pray for me!

Speaking of villains, I am so psyched that we are finally going to answer the question this summer: Is Snape on the side of good or evil?!?!

I had given only vague thoughts to Snape before I found out my favorite actor, Alan Rickman, was going to plan him in the first Harry Potter movie. All of a sudden I found him intriguing. The idea of Alan Rickman playing him seemed perfect, and suddenly in my mind he transformed from a terrible, greasy professor to a misunderstood, potential hero. Isn't that why girls love villains? We don't believe they are really bad, they are just misunderstood. Clearly they are from tortured backgrounds, and if only they have found some charming girl to love and be loved by at some point, it would have changed the entire course of their lives. In Captain Hook at Eton, J. M. Barrie even insinuates that love could have changed Hook's life. It may be too late for Jas., but it is not to late for Severus!

I will be one of the first to know, because I am working at the bookstore the night the new book is released! At midnight I will head home with my copy and begin immediately. I must know! I can't wait to have that new book in my hands. Until them, I am holding out for him to be the hero we girls dream him to be!

I can't wait to be out on the water this summer! A few months ago we got this Coleman inflatable boat so we can paddle around on the lakes when we go camping. I should say that so *I* can paddle around the lakes, because Ethan and Esme actually have very little interest in me paddling them around in an inflatable boat. I am still excited though, and I'm really looking forward to being out there with my waterproof camera!

I love holidays!

Yesterday Ethan, Esme, and I picked up my nephew, Dylan, and went to Vicki's house for the festivities. I couldn't believe how into dying eggs Dylan was! Normally Destructo-Boy, he stood there and slowly swirled the eggs around with deep concentration. He did 14 eggs - the most I've ever seen a 2 year old do, and had to be basically dragged away! I was so glad we'd taken him.

Speaking of Hook, if you love him like I do and haven't seen the 2003 live action version of Peter Pan, you MUST. The actor who played him, Jason Isaacs, brought him to life so wonderfully - just as I imagined him when I was a child. The rest of the movies was great too, but Hook was what really brought it to life for me. SEE IT!

Whew! Working full time can really wear you out when you don't do it all the time! I have been working full time the last few weeks - trying to get all our finances in order before summer. Luckily I like my job, but it sure has been cutting into my scrapping time.

We are making the decision tonight whether or not to send Esme back to nursery school in the Fall. I am wracking my brain over this. On one hand I really want her to develop good social skills, and on the other hand I really want to start homeschooling her NOW. We are having a tough time making a final decision. Sometimes I wish Ethan would put his foot down! But thankfully me for me he is not that sort of person.

Pray for me tonight that Esme goes to bed quickly and quietly, and that I will have time to finish reading Peter Pan so I can return it to school tomorrow. (Ahhhh Captain Hook - perhaps my very favorite of all the villains I love.)

I have been sooo neglectful of my poor blog! Getting our apartment ready for our new tenants has been all-consuming the last few weeks. Ethan and I have hardly worked on anything else. The good news though, is that we have someone moving in next weekend.

For now we are digging out of the still-falling snow! The weather this week was just a tease, up into the 60s, and now we are back to our typical Northeast weather again. Shucks - I really enjoyed not wearing a coat for a couple days.

In scrapbooking news, I have had another page picked up for publication! This one will be in the Memory Makers 601 Great Scrapbook Ideas book. I am anxiously awaiting my copy of the Mother Goose Guide to Scrapbooking which will feature my second pub and is due out April 1st. Esme loves seeing herself in print.

Sledding with the Girls

Lisa and the girls came up this past Saturday and we all went sledding! It was Esme's first time. Except for the occasional wipe out and ice cold slush, we all had a great time. Esme wanted to go again the next day!

I am a busy girl! Our church's Search Committee is in the last phases of interviews, so we are VERY close to selecting a candidate. I am so happy, and so ready for this to be done. I will be happy to have my evenings back, especially because Ethan is back on his regular shift.

My biggest news is that I got a gig teaching at Wiggles and Giggles in Connecticut! I am thrilled about this opportunity! It's a big store with a huge variety of supplies so I will have tons of fun designing pages to teach there. Plus so far they've been very flexible which I like also.

I am finally getting moving on scrapping some of our camping pictures. We camped as a family for the first time this July with the Bartholomews, and then we went just the three of us again this October. We had a blast both times. Ethan and I especially enjoyed the serenity of camping at a state forest. Esme had a loved being out of doors and making campfires and sleeping all cuddled up in our tent. We plan to open one of the state forests this April too.

Just a couple pics from Esme's first day of school - so far she is loving it. Her teacher is very nice and she has a new friend that she loves - she holds her hand every day during story time.

I finally finally got the page done for my next class! I have been out of comission due to colds for a couple weeks now. As soon as I got over the first one, I got an especially nasty second one. Hopefully I'm getting them all out of the way in time for the holidays!! 

Esme was so into Halloween this year! This was the first time she remembered it from the year before, and mostly she remembered getting candy! We did some fun activities leading up to the big day and this was one of them. 

I love baking with Esme! Last year we started a new Halloween tradition. We make some kind of special Autumn sweets to bring to our close neighbors and friends while we Trick or Treat. One house down our street always goes all out with decorations for EVERY holiday, so even though we don't know them, we include them on out list. This year we made Pumpkin Whoopie Pies that had a ginger filling. Mmmm they were delicious! I was amazed at how much work Esme put into them. She did all the pouring and stirred the batter constantly. They were a big hit! 

I am really enjoying teaching scrapbook classes! After a long day of subbing I taught a class using this page Friday night. I love these photos of my sweet nephew!  

This was actually the first layout I ever completed for the PSS challenges, but I am just getting around to using it this week!  

Oh my goodness....I am beat these days! I feel like I have 100 things going on. Every moment I'm awake my mind has something it's supposed to be working on. I love the new things I am doing, but they're wearing me out!

Mommy and Esme at the Sunday School Halloween party. 

I got a job teaching scrapbook classes! I am soooo excited! I am teaching at Cropper's Circle in Chicopee. It turns out I do all my teaching in Chicopee. I've been wanting to teaching classes for a long time now, and I was very lucky to get the job! I taught my first class last week and it went well, I'm currently developing two more. The owner is very nice and lets the teachers there choose their own supplies and themes, and go for whatever they'll do well.  

Did this layout tonight for this week's challenge. This week's really snuck up on me - I wasn't quite as prepared as I usually am. I loved doing this layout though - hearing Lisa's answers to the questions made me feel very good about myself, because she knows me so well and cares about me so much.

Here's a layout I did for the Pink Scrap Spark Challenge - this week's theme is Stars! Lisa and I tried using metallic tissue papers in on accents for the first time. I love this photo of Esme! I took it while we were at our last Wiggles show.

I love scrapping with Lisa every month. Once a month doesn't sound that often, but we really look forward to that time together. She is an awesome friend! I feel lucky ever time I get to spend time with her.

Here's a layout I did for last week's Pink Scrap Spark Challenge at Scraptalk. I cannot describe how much I detest tomatoes! It felt very good to do this layout! Gettign the photo was a bit of a challenge though. I know other scrappers have gotten tossed out of grocery stores for taking photos, so I went up and asked a bagger if it was okay first. She directed me to the head cashier, who paged the manager. He called her back and gave the okay, and then she walked me over to the produce section and watched me take the photo.

I have officially passed the 10,000 mark on my camera. Ethan got me the DRebel for Christmas 2004, so I guess that means I'm averaging just over 5,000 photos a year. I love being digital - it would have cost me a fortune to that many photos processed, but I'm able to take so many more shots because I can just delete the ones I don't want.

We had a fabulous time camping last week. We were so relaxed that we decided to stay an extra day. We cooked all our meals over the campfire, and slept each night all snuggled up together on the air mattress in the tent. It was a bit chilly at times, but we didn't mind because Ethan finally had some time off, and we finally had some family time all together.

It feels like things should be settling down now with Ethan's new hours, but I'm don't feel used to it at all. Usually at this time of year I ease back into work, and I've been working tons. I worked 9 days in September. Nine days in a month might not seem like much to someone who works full time, but 9 days when you've had the whole summer off is a ton!

Once I get into this new schedule I hope to be scrapbooking a lot more in the evenings. Right now it's difficult because I'm not used to putting Esme to bed, eating alone, etc. Ethan was always so good and quick about putting her to bed, and it takes me forever. I think she knows how to play me or something.

We have lots of exciting things coming up - we're camping this weekend, we're going to see the Wiggles soon, we've got to get apple picking, pumpkin picking, to Pumpkin People, etc. Fall is my favorite season to scrapbook. I love the colors and the fun events. Esme has a special Fall album, and my first published page is one of my favorites from it.