The learning process can come easy or hard.

Lately my kids are really into those seek and find books. Kelly can usually find almost everything but Wyatt gets stumped easier. On this night Wyatt kept asking for help finding almost everything. So when I decided to bring the camera out he was in no mood for it.

Moooommm, Stop taking my picture, I'm trying to find Simba!

But Wyatt you're so cute.

Mom, I'm not cute I'm handsome.

Love this kid.

It's the end of the month and I don't believe I have complete any of my monthly goals.

Now granted I have started working on the kids' V-day goodies but I have not done a single card.

This might be remedied tomorrow because I have two birthdays and a baby shower this weekend.

Clayton my nephew is turning 7 on Saturday and my wonderful hubby is turning 39! on Sunday.

Rob's one request is to go to Gavi Italian restaurant. This tiny hole in the wall restaurant where the food is a little pricey but huge portions and tastes fantastic. I'm super excited about going, especially since we had to get our furnace fixed and I didn't think we would still be able to afford going.

What other exciting news do I have.....nothing really.....I have begun cutting fabric for a new quilt. It's called Enigma. I bought 20+ fat quarters when J's had them on sale and I really didn't have any specific plan for them so I just went for it a began cutting. We shall see. This will be the biggest quilt I have constructed so far.

On a proud photographer note, some of the parents in Wyatt's class have asked for copies of the class picture that I took. Also my quilting ladies have encouraged me to enter a photo into our local county fair. No cash prizes but I get a snazzy ribbon and my photo will be seen by hundreds of people. Pretty cool I think.

Plus I think I might try making a photo bucket list. It sounds like fun and I plan on having years and years to complete it so I might get a bit fantastical with it.

Let's see what the weekend brings.

*Carrie*

I caught a cold last week that knocked me on my bottom. Fortunately I didn't get a fever so I was able to attend and take pictures for the Winter prince and princess party in Wyatt's class.

Most of the girls wore their princess or halloween costumes and just a few of the boys dressed up. One young man came dressed more like a king then a prince and by the end of the day he wanted to dress Wyatt up in his costume.

Each prince had a princess or a few had princesses they took the girls shoe and had to find their princess and put the shoe back on. The kids then went out on the dance floor and swayed and twirled to some music. Later the kids were given snowflake fans and they did another dance. This dance they dipped and swirled and shook the snowflakes around.

It was just soooo sweet.

I think I took about 100+ photos of the event and I spent a bit of time last night sorting and deleting photos. They are now uploaded to Costco for printing and will turn them into the teacher tomorrow.

Wyatt's class is just adorable and now all the kids know me and will come up to me for help or to show me what they are working on. I now know each by name and the kids get a kick out of the fact that I know them by name.

On Sunday my friend Debbie and I, with permission from our pastor (inside joke), went to the quilt show instead of going to church.        

Just WOW! it amazes me what you can do with fabric, and if I would have had more money I would be have been willing to try and find out! I find myself drawn to brighter quilts but others are just as gorgeous. This one to the left was one of the first I had seen. It's all batiks and fascinating to look at. I think I might try my hand at making at least one big quilt this year.   

I also seem to be drawn to scrappy quilts. For those who quilt there is always bits and pieces left over and to make a quilt out of them is so freeing.

Right now sitting on my kitchen table is my cricut E. Yes my bug is back! I was told that a diode went out and it ended up costing me $85.00 to fix but that is better than having to buy a new machine.

Now the gypsy is still calling me but we will have to see how generous my hubby is at tax refund time.

Considering that he is getting his road bike for cycling, I'm getting a new lens and monopod plus some other scrappy and quilting stuff, I don't know if I can get up the nerve to ask for more.

Not that I'm afraid to ask him mind you I just don't want to appear greedy.

Carrie, you know you want me, you know how awesome I will be, you must buy me. You must get a pretty sleeve to put me in, you can take me anywhere and create with me. You can upload allllll your carts to one spot, you can weld words and create new files for what you want. Buy me. Buy me....

See this is what I hear in my head. That darn gypsy is calling my name.

But for now I must go fold laundry.

Sucks to be responsible sometimes.

Carrie           

What a nice week this is turning out to be.
Saturday was weather perfect for us to go to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
Too bad my kids weren't perfect.
There were several times I was tempted to leave them on the path and just keep walking.
Since I don't want this post to be all about my *ahem* brats, then I will tell you what I enjoyed while there.
Let's start off with the view. If you get down at waist/hip level you would think that there was not a soul around for miles. It can be breathtakingly beautiful.
Some of our local vegetation is fun to try and photograph and I'm hoping to head back soon sans kids to really work at getting the right shots.
This time though I just brought one lens and a relaxed attitude, the attitude didn't last long with the kids though.
Some of my favorite spots are the mountain lions, they were actually walking all around their habitat this time, making my wish I had brought my long lens.
My next favorite spot is the bear habitat. the museum has this really cool tree that you see on the left. The bear himself was asleep on the rock shelf so he was no fun but I liked his tree!
Toward the end of our visit I let Kelly carry around my camera and try to photograph hummingbirds.
I believe Kelly's moto was quantity over quality.
Now don't get me wrong, she got some interesting shots but I had to delete the ones of peoples cars and their tires and their license plates. Unless she has a undercover job for the DMV or CIA I have no reason to have such photos.
For the next time, when I plan to venture out on my own I will bring my gear, patience and pray for good weather. I really want a crack at the raptor bird flight. The museum has a couple of gorgeous hawks and owls that I would really, really like to take fantastic pictures of.

For this week the city of Tucson plans on getting plenty of rain!
Could you hear me cheering! I so love this weather. Today is another cloudy day with intermitent rain. The type of weather stuff that makes you want to curl up in a chair and read a good book.
Wait! Already did that yesterday.
Last evening I finished the Twilight series. I read all books in days. Rob is so glad that I'm finished reading them. Not bad, they're a good read but I'm not sorry to say I'm not into all the hype. I think this devestates my poor mom, big Edward fan, of course mom has not read the last book yet. Things changed for me when I read the last story.
Now I will start with the movies. I think this is the first time I have read the books before watching the movie. Well except for maybe Romeo and Juliet. But I was forced to do that.
I better get motivated. I called the repair shop where my big still sits and the owner said they have it apart and are looking at it right now, he will call me later.
Yeah dude you were suppose to call me Friday too.
I really hate waiting but I pray that they can fix her.
*whispers* even though I have been looking at and researching the Gypsy.
You know, just in case ;)
*Carrie*

I'm so tired I can barely think straight.
Last night Chelsea fought sleep until 10:30. When we are normally in bed by 10pm that extra half hour seemed so much later. I finally gave up and put her into bed with us.
Yeah, I know not a smooth move but I was tired and grouchy and just wanted to sleep.
So tonight I decided to pull a super nanny move and put her to bed at 8:30. I sat at the end of her bed, not looking at her, and every time she got out of bed I picked her up and calmly laid her back down.
Shortly after I started this bedtime showdown she threw up all over herself and her bed.
I just changed her and the bed and we continued.
It retrospect it was comical because she would get out of bed come and give me a kiss or a hug and then I would lay her back down. One time she got up came and patted my shoulder, when I turned to pick her up she crawled back into bed herself.
When I thought she had finally went to sleep I quietly came out to the living room. Less than two minutes later she followed. I picked her up and took her back to bed and sat back down on the floor. Within 15 minutes she was out and has not come gotten back out of bed.
The whole thing took about an hour.
This morning I was thinking about what I might post today and I had decided to do a kid update. Chelsea had her 18 month check up recently and she is talking so much I need to write down all the words she can now say.
With Kelly and Wyatt it is more them trying new things or not, what they like to do, etc.
I guess I will save it for another day because it will be a long post and right now I'm gonna head to bed.
PS I have not heard yet if they will be able to fix my cricut. The guy was going to finally look at it this afternoon. Hopefully I will get a call tomorrow.
PPS Tomorrow I am insane enough to take all 3 kids to the desert museum, mom will be along to help, I'm gonna need it.
Pictures soon
*Carrie*

I found these plaques at Target the other day and I would like to make one similar, I'm sure it is fairly easy I just need to get a crackin'. I should also ask my friend Julie, she did something close to it awhile ago.

Once you hear my bad news you'll say that I have plenty of time to work on this little project.

What's the bad news you ask???

My beloved Cricut Expression has become ill. It seems her eyesight is gone.

HUH???

Whatch talkin' about Carrie?

Okay the story:

Yesterday I was finally able to try out the new spring cartridges that mom bought and let me borrow. Well I was cutting out this real pretty, detailed flower that was going to take me a few to get off the paper. After I removed my mat I turned off the machine while I took the paper off the mat. When I went and turned my machine back on about 30 minutes later everything worked fine except the screen is blank.

Black, no flicker, nothing.

So I go online and look for the directions to reset.

Yeah, I tried once called Provo Craft and we tried again. I ended up trying 4 times!

Their words...

You need a new machine.

Gasp! NOOOOOOOOO!!!

The service rep offered one faint shred of hope, I could take it to a sewing repair shop and see if they could look at it. The rep thought that it sounded like a blown fuse, but that it was too cost prohibitive for them to do it.

So this morning I took it to a sewing repair shop.

the man looked at me like I had three heads.

He had never seen a Cricut let alone open one up. I hadn't even taken my bug out of my bag before he was telling me no. I proceeded to explain that it's the same type of screen that sewing machines use which he reluctantly agreed to look at it.

So, I whip the bug out of my bag and I show him how things normally work. I even had my manual to help him, just in case. Everything works great just the screen. I even told him that the screen should read no cartridge found.

Reluctantly, very reluctantly he agreed to look at it. He couldn't even give me an estimate to just look at it.

So my beloved bug is sitting in a waiting room and I'm halfway across town awaiting a phone call. Hopefully the guy will have some balls and try to take it apart. If he can't fix it I can accept that as long as I know he TRIED.

Rob has already said that if the bug can't be fixed it will be one more thing we have to buy with the tax return.

Did you catch that??

He said, We Have To Buy... isn't that great?! I love my guy. He knows how much I use my Cricut.

So now I wait. and pray.

I hate waiting.

*Carrie*

Happy Tuesday, I believe I have recovered from a fairly busy weekend.

Friday I was in a very bad mood and instead of spreading my venom around I worked on some laundry and cleaning the scrap room.

Rob is happy, he can finally get to his drums, but of course so now can Chelsea.

Yep I heard her banging away that afternoon while I was in the living room taking a break.

So some progress has been made, and again NO I will not post a photo.

Rob and I discussed it and we went out and bought a rain gutter and I'm using it for ribbon storage. I like how it works.

We took the gutter and cut it in half and already I have that one filled, now we are trying to find some room to put up the other one.

On Saturday I went on my very first photo walk!

Rob and I headed downtown early to explore. Downtown Tucson is very eclectic and I love the photographic opportunity. We spent about and hour and half walking around looking for angles and hidden gems to photograph.

I didn't really know some of the spots we explored, little courtyards and fountains.

As we headed for home Rob and I critiqued what we liked and what we would change.

We spent more time walking then taking pictures so next time we plan to "plan out" our next photo walk.

Later that morning we picked up our Girl Scout cookies!!

This is such a nostalgic time for me because I remember going door to door selling cookies.

This is Kelly's first year being able to go door to door and I'm excited for her.

I told Kelly how I wanted this picture to look and she was all for it.

Love her GS thumbs up!

As of this morning we are down to two and a half boxes of cookies left but I need to call the cookie mom to fill some orders cause I'm flat out of some of the flavors.

Tonight the girls have their meeting and I'm about to go make some thank you tags and get ribbon ready.

The Scouts are pushing bundles like my favorite, I love chocolate bundle. The troop leader wants to wrap some bundles in ribbon and I thought it would be nice to add a little Thank you tag.

I'm off to go be creative

*Carrie*

Happy hump day!

I have completed my Bethlehem saga on Facebook and edited my blog in December.

why not now you ask?

Cause I plan on having my blog made into a book yearly and would like to keep it all together.

So last night we had Girl Scouts and it was our cookie meeting.

I'm so excited, love cookie time. Kelly will be able to start selling cookies this Saturday! I sure hope she enjoys selling cookies.

I love their little troop and would you believe that in a troop this small there are 2 Kelly's? Yep both K's are in the pink pants.

We are slated to sell 150 boxes of cookies! Last year Kelly only sold 90 but with the new way the scouts are doing things and we have a longer selling period I don't see a problem getting to 150 boxes.

On a side note, I love comments, I really do, but I love it even more when I know whom they are from. If you are inclined to leave a little love or criticism, drop a name, even if you make that name up. :)

Back to regular programming

Yesterday I began the journey to a cleaner scraproom. For a while I thought I was going to get suck into the vortex of scrap crap but I managed to make a dent into things. The only unfortunate accident occurred when I bent myself into a pretzel tyring to put away a paper holder full of cardstock and I got a charlie horse in my calf. While trying to untie myself I kicked over a pile of "stuff "which included an open container of buttons. Sigh. It's okay you can laugh.

I must say though even Rob noticed the dent I made and we can up with a couple of storage ideas to try.

I will say that I do NOT need any more cute, open, baskets, metal tins, etc. the containers are great if you have the shelf space and I unfortunately at this time do not. Just like I don't have the space currently for the big dry erase board from my mom or the magnetic board I picked at Ikea. But I just HAD TO HAVE THEM!!

Yeah I found a lot of my just had to have them as I was cleaning yesterday. I can't begin to think of the thousands of dollars I have spent over the last few years, and some of it has never come out of the packaging. Just sick I tell you.

This year though I am making a goal and getting back to scrapping. I have missed it. Plus I really want to use some of this stuff up.

I'm not as covetous as I once was, well except for Cricut cartridges they are versatile. I don't have to have the latest and greatest. Maybe once my stockpile goes down I'll get rejuvenated but now I'm plain ol' disgusted at myself and my hoarding tendencies.

I'm gonna go slink off and continue cleaning now.

Have a happy Wednesday

*Carrie*

I was just uploading photos and I was smacked in the head with how bad of a blogger I have been.
I didn't do a Christmas recap, I didn't post about Chelsea moving into her big girl bed, or about our trip up to play at Mt. Lemmon.
I need to do some serious recaping.
I *need* a laptop.
sigh...I know, I know but I have to share with Rob and he is becoming a computer hog. :)
So last week, last YEAR!! we drove up to Mt. Lemmon to hopefully play in the snow.

Well we were a few days too late. Most of the snow was either gone, or frozen over and almost like ice. We did manage to find this one very icy and steep hill to try and sled down.

It was a treacherous climb but the ride was smooth and fun. Rob got a couple of very unflattering pictures of me as I manuvered to position for the ride down.

Kelly and Wyatt said forget the "sled" and just went down in their pants.

Chelsea she just wanted to eat the snow, thankfully not yellow, and try to stay upright on the ice.

We stayed up on the mountain for a couple of hours but in reality it was a bust. Who knows maybe we will get another storm before spring.

Soooo guess what Joann's got in the other day?? Aren't they cute. I have been making plans for cards and valentines for the kid's classes with these stamps.

It seems like there are really 2 sets of 12 each.

I think I'm more partial to the cutesy ones in the second photo. These stamps will be perfect for the kids's school valentines.
Well like most places in the US today the kids are back in school except Miss Kelly.

Lst night she complained that her stomach hurt. Rob and I both agreed we felt that it was just nerves and Kelly not wanting to go to school.

Yeah well, she is running a low fever and vomiting. Grand.

Around 1 am Wyatt joined the club but with no fever.

This morning Rob's tummy is "off" and Kelly is home and Wy man wanted to go to school.

Thankfully so far, fingers crossed, Chelsea and I are/will be fine.

I'm almost caught up on the laundry, dinner is defrosting, and I have a little over and hour before I pick up Wyatt from school to start cleaning up my craproom.

Seriously, it's hideous, you can barely get in the room, and then there is just about enough room to stand in one place. That is so not how I want my creative space to be. I must get it back in shape and no do not ask me to prove it by showing a photo, not going to embarass myself that way.

Have a great Monday

*Carrie*

Welcome to 2010!!
I've pondered most of the day what to write on today's blog post, not that it has to be anything prophetic, but today is a good of day as any to make some plans for this year.
Now I'm not a big resolution person because as most of us know we usually fail our resolutions by March, but I do want to have some realistic goals to work for in this year.
1. Be more creative and try new things
1a. make 5-10 Christmas/All occasion cards a month (this way there is little stress in December)
1b. Start the two school albums for Kelly and Wyatt
1c. Take some classes whether for scrappin, quilting or photography
2. Be more active and lose some weight
2a. Maybe try and do the 35 miler in the El tour de Tucson
2b. Plan some walk around's and scavengers photo hunts with the kids
Now I have been wondering what word or words should I focus on for this year (a la Ali Edwards).
I feel that this year they should be patience and simplify
As a mother of 3 hellions these two words just seem to scream at me.
3. Put my goals, wishes and wants in writing or a picture and place where I can see them.
Maybe I should make myself a "want to do list" and put it up on my board.

Most of this week after Christmas I had this feeling that it was a time of renewal, and maybe that was because the stress of Christmas was over but I also looked around my home and I see so much clutter and work to be done. I so want order back in my life.
Many years ago I was a great list maker and goal setter. I have really gotten away from that and I feel that I have somewhat spiraled into chaos. I need to get rid of stuff, organize, and simplify.
So that is my goal.
Happy New Year!
May 2010 be a happy, healthy and prosperous year


Love,
*Carrie*