And the winner is...

My guess is 437 Thanks!

March 16, 2009 | Karen Gibson

The actual number is 443, so Karen is closest without going over. Congrats, Karen! Email me with your mailing info and I'll get this right out to you, okay? Thanks so much to everyone for guessing!! That was fun...thinking I may have to have more guessing games. ;)

Now. About catching up on what we've been up to...let's see. Back at the start of March (March 3, to be exact), the boys and I went on our first bike ride of 2009. We just headed over to our neighborhood park, but it was glorious to be outside. Micah wasn't thrilled initially...having discovered that he couldn't quite reach the swings there. But. Ingenious boy that he is, he figured it out:

This, btw, was just after I'd lost my voice and just before I headed for Portland for CKC...where I also miraculously remembered to get a picture of me with both my sisters:

Sadly, though, I neglected a great many other photo ops. Drat. Will work on that next time, I guess. While I was gone, Nathan got ambitious and took the boys up into Wyoming to go on a chilly hike:

Apparently, they all had fun, though Nathan's shoulders were hurting by the end since Micah wound up being carried the last bit. :) The boys regaled me with tales of cow-catchers and turtle rocks when I got home on Sunday night.

Monday morning we headed down to Denver for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science's homeschool day (they do this about twice a year). It's a special event package with an IMAX show (about the Ring of Fire...Noah particularly enjoyed this), admission to the featured exhibit (and all the rest, too...this year's was Nature Unleashed, all about natural disasters), and activities. This year, it was an awesome assembly done in a game show style with two fabulous hosts. It was the highlight for Nathan and I, though the boys were less impressed. Micah thought the infrared camera in the space exhibit was delightful (and we thought watching him was hilarious), Asher and Noah both loved the interactive displays in the space exhibit, and all three oooh'd and aaah'd over the gem and rock exhibit.

The rest of that week, then, was spent unpacking, catching up and starting the spring soccer season. Yup, Noah had his first practice on Thursday (would have been Tuesday but it snowed that day...weird). He's happy with his team and looking forward to the season, so that's good. Asher's practices will start next week after spring break. Don't be surprised if soccer season starts interfering with my time on the computer...adding in 3-4 practices a week and two games on Saturday does that. ;)

And that brings us pretty current. As I mentioned, Saturday Nathan and I celebrated 17 years of knowing each other...and Pi Day, of course. (Though we didn't actually eat any pie, an oversight I'm thinking we'll have to correct next year, LOL...) My brother and sister in law watched the boys for us that afternoon so Nathan and I could enjoy a lovely lunch and some time together. Then, we all went out to dinner to partially also celebrate my brother turning 30 (which officially happened yesterday!). My niece is 3 and adores Noah. It's precious to watch:

I snapped these at the restaurant before the food arrived. Fortunately, Noah doesn't seem to mind that Makenna was pretty much all over him all afternoon. :)

Sigh. And now it's spring break here. Since we homeschool, it's not drastically different than normal. But the absence of Options, religious ed and piano lessons this week makes it feel more open. We're still doing our own lessons (and Noah still has soccer practice) but it's a nice little break. I tackled the main floor yesterday and picked up and sorted through more toys than any three boys have a need for. The boys enjoyed some awesome outdoor time playing in the front yard with some neighborhood kids while I sorted (which was easier than trying to sort with them watching, LOL). This morning we finally sold our old van...yay! And, today I'm gearing up to tackle the boys' bedroom and toy room upstairs (in addition to our math for the week and Noah's soccer practice later today). Wish me luck!

The Ides of March...(and a giveaway!)

Didn't turn out so well for Julius Caesar, eh? But. My March 15th has been going okay. Getting stuff done. How about you? :)

Now. A quick recap of my first scrapbook teaching experience at CKC in Portland last weekend...I arrived Thursday with a still sore throat (I was still only getting soup and hot tea down...had been that way all week...joy) but had a lovely afternoon with my mom and baby sister, getting pedicures and then enjoying dinner at my aunt's house. I'll spare you the tales of directional woes, LOL! (Cas, you know what I'm talking about, LOL!)

Friday was a full day of classes...8 am to 8 pm roughly. Amazingly, I woke up finally able to get down solid food and was seriously thrilled. You honestly have no idea how sick of tea and soup I was. :) Plus, it made the whole teaching classes thing easier...being able to talk and all (thank goodness, too, for microphones). Now, about the classes. I think it went okay. I apologize to those of you who may have had me in one of the first few classes, as I was still learning the ropes. I know I could do a better job now and thank you for putting up with me. ;) Friday night, my other sister, niece and grandma got to town and we all spent the evening again at my aunt's. Good times.

Saturday I taught classes again until 5:30 and was definitely in a better groove that second day. I also got a chance finally to wander around the vendor fair and was so proud of myself for only buying two things. ;) My mom brought me some crisp meat burritos from Taco Time that I'd been craving (they don't have Taco Time here in Colorado and I'd be lying if I said that didn't factor into my decision to go to Portland, LOL!)...yum! I don't think I've shared this layout before, but here's a bit about my love of crisp meat burritos:

Yes. Really. I made this layout about my last birthday (made it in December I think). Incidentally, on this past Monday I discovered that Carl's Jr is now carrying a crisp meat burrito! Not quite as good as Taco Time, but I'll take it. Happy sigh.

Where was I? Ah yes. All in all, I had a blast chatting with everyone during the classes, holding the three babies I had a chance to hold (so adorable!), and just being around folks who scrapbook. I also want to sincerely thank the volunteers I had...Holly, Nadine, Kyda, Pattie and Michelle, you guys were great!

After I finished up on Saturday, my sister and I caught a movie and then some late dinner. Sunday, a group of us headed to Ikea (why, oh why, do they still not have an Ikea in Colorado?!) before my aunt brought me to the airport. Upon landing in Denver, Nathan and the boys picked me up and took me out to dinner. We finally made it home around 11:30 pm.

Whew. So, that was last weekend. Fun times, and it was wonderful seeing my various family members...thanks all! I'll catch up on more personal life and all in a day or two (still editing some photos). In the meantime, I promised a giveaway! :) In celebration of the luck of the Irish (bet Caesar was wishing he had some of that, lol), I have this fun jar of goodies and this adorable (and hilarious!) little book:

The jar is packed with random bits and pieces...three stamps, some paper ribbon rolls, and heaps of other goodies...some older, some newer. To win, just be the person to guess how many items are in the jar. Person who is closest without going over wins the jar, the contents of the jar, and the book. I'll leave the comments open for guessing until St. Patrick's Day at noon.

And. To be helpful, here are pics of the jar from each side. I'll also tell you that the jar is about 5" tall and that the number is fewer than 500...

Yup, there are some bottle caps, American Crafts shapes and such (foam, chipboard and acetate), flowers (felt, silk and otherwise), snowflakes, lots of metal pieces, a couple pieces of reindeer ribbon (each piece counts as an item, not each reindeer) and heaps of other stuff. As I said, to win, just be the person to guess how many items are in the jar. Person who is closest without going over wins the jar, the contents of the jar, and the book. I'll announce the winner after noon on March 17. Good luck!

Happy Pi Day!

Yeah. I'm behind and owe folks tales of CKC in Portland and other such stuff. I'll get to it. Really. ;)

In the meantime, happy Pi Day to all! Yes. Today is the celebration of the mathematical constant...pi. Generally shortened to 3.14, pi finds its glory on March 14. Why do I mention this, you ask? Well, part of it is that I'm a geek and once memorized pi to like 26 places just for fun (my high school algebra teacher had this poster that went all the way around the room with pi's value and let's just say that I wasn't always listening to the lecture, lol). The larger part, though, is that today is the anniversary of the day Nathan and I met. Yes, 17 years ago today, Nathan walked into my life and I continue to be grateful. Combining these two things brings us this:

Yeah. I bought these matching shirts. I'm weird like that. :) (Oh, and the photo was taken by Noah and edited using Maggie Holmes' awesome simple color boost and warmer antique actions.)

So. Happy Pi Day! I'll be back later this weekend with all that other stuff...I'll even throw in a giveaway to make it worth the wait. :)

A bit of housekeeping...

Sadly, not the type that gets my house actually clean, LOL! Just a few things:

- The February winner of my Month By Month challenge has been posted.

- The March MBM challenge is going on...please play!

- The April MBM challenge has been posted if you like to get a jump start on things. :)

- I just updated my own links and such here on my blog for the Month By Month stuff (see over there on the left).

- I also added a new gallery for the layouts in my Monthly To-Do's column in the magazine.

- I don't think I've mentioned that I'll be teaching at CKC in Portland this weekend. I will! Please come say hi if you're in the area. I'll be teaching ten classes in all. Oy. :)

- Just FYI, on the health front, we're pretty much recovered now and just catching up on that lost week. Thank goodness.

More to come...(more interesting, too, LOL)...

New month?

So. Tomorrow's a new month, right? Does that mean we get to start over with all new healthy vibes reverberating throughout our house? Ugh. Seriously. I can't remember a time...EVER...that we've been sick like this. The boys are generally extremely healthy...I can count the number of doctor visits that weren't well checks or for Asher's varied injuries on one hand. For all three of them together. Really. Yet we've been to the doctor twice this past week. And neither time appears to have done us much good, except that the second visit was at least able to confirm that there really wasn't anything we could do about it but wait. Lovely. Really, though, I suppose it's a good reminder to me of how blessed I am that this is unusual. I know I'm lucky. Honest.

Okay, and actually, I can remember a time when I used to be sick like this...every December from 1994 to 1999 without fail. (Yes, including the year we got married in December.) I'd lose my voice. Just like it's lost today. I hate losing my voice. I haven't done that since just before I got pregnant with Noah. Had to go to the ER that time and have an IV due to dehydration. That wasn't fun. Bleh.

In any case, status report here...the past week has pretty much been not fun. Noah, amazingly, continues to be healthy and seems to have escaped, but is pretty dang irritated with all of us sickies and his inability to do "fun" things. :) (Come to think of it, I can't remember a time when more than a couple of us have been sick at the same time either, so having four of us out is a first.) Asher's finally talking again and is on the mend, but it took him about 4-5 days of misery. He's still not up to playing tag in the backyard with Noah, which, of course, to Noah, means that he's still sick. Micah, we thought, was going to be fine after the stridor left, but now he's lost his voice, too, and has spent much of today just lying in bed with me. We're quite the pair. :) Nathan made it back to work on Thursday (having been home Monday thru Wednesday) in time to help with a big deadline Friday night. Hopefully he's not contagious still because he's still coughing quite a bit and is definitely not 100%. Sigh.

But. It could be worse and I know it. So I'll just be happy that there seems to possibly be a light at the end of the tunnel...and that communicating via the internet doesn't require me to talk. ;)

Oh. And in our efforts to make it up to Noah for having to deal with us all this week, Nathan took Noah and Asher to our local Little Shop of Physics Open House today. They're awesome. We've been to their Open House a couple times and have had a more private viewing with our homeschool group a couple times. The boys love it. Today, both came home talking about the million volt Tesla coil and how they want a plasma ball. (To which, Micah immediately chimed in that he'd always wanted a plasma ball, too...not even knowing what they were talking about.)

And, while I'm at it, I have two more layouts that I don't think I shared before:

This first one features one of my favorite new lines that was introduced at CHA. It's the Actopus to Zelephant line by K&Co and I LOVE it! See those "A" and "Z" cards there? They're heavy flashcard like cards with notes on the back about the animal on front and are about 5x7. They come in a pack of the complete alphabet. I'm totally thinking about framing the individual initial letters for each of the boys just as they are, because they're so cool. (If I hadn't already used some of the letters, I can totally see making a simple ABC book by just binding these all up...perfect for a toddler learning his letters, but actually we're a bit past that, hence I used them on layouts, LOL!)

This next layout is one I had a lot of fun with:

Not only do the pictures here make me smile every time (as does just thinking about my new bike), but I'm pleased with myself for using this awesome Little Yellow Bicycle bag for the background. Yup, that background was part of a bag that Little Yellow Bicycle was giving out at CHA. (The bags are kinda like those bags you buy to bring to the grocery store with you so that you don't need the plastic bags...very nice really.) Totally perfect for this layout, don't you think? And, look, I managed to use my new Fiskars Upper Crest border punch a bit more, too!

Now. I've just realized that if tomorrow is a new month that means that today is the last day of the month. (Hey, give me a break...those decongestants have me all messed up, lol.) Which means that today is the last day of the February Month By Month Challenge. Hopefully some of you remembered that while I was distracted this week. :) If not, get cracking on March's challenge, okay?