Memories of Mom and How I Want My Kids to See Me

It has been 16 years today since Mom passed. But I'm not that sad, I choose to remember the fun and wonderful times and not focus on the sadness of this day. It was only one terrible, horrible day compared to a lifetime of wonderful, happy memories.
Cruising the photo albums today and what did I find? This gem. My mother in all her wacky glory...who gets this excited about sticking their head through a toilet seat I ask you? It's gotta be one special woman, right? LOL

Carly and I spent some time today watching old home videos of my Mom (who of course passed away long before little Carly was born) and laughing our butts off.
Was my mother perfect? Of course not, but she was close enough for me. I hope and pray that someday my kids will look back and feel about me the way that I feel about her.
I leave you today with the request that you take a few moments to think of your Mom, or a mother figure in your life, take joy in their presence in your life whether they are still with you or not.
Here is a layout I did a long time ago about my Mom, I might have shared it here before, I can't remember.

I also leave one that I completed yesterday (my apologies for the crappy photo of it, it's the best I could get for now) that talks about just how I want my kids to think of me.
As always, just click on the photo to make it bigger if you care to read the journalling
Have a wonderful day everyone!

It Ain't Right, G'Day Mate, and Silly String

I have to say it just ain't right that my children are so photogenic and every picture of me is horrific. Check it out, 3 kids with gorgeous blue eyes and angelic looks...check it out a mom with atleast 3 chins and a spare tire around her belly, and no that is not where my boobs normally are...it was the weekend, a girl shouldn't have to wear one of those things on the weekend..



We'll blame it on the fact that I was wearing my old sweats, and old sweatshirt and my niece's jacket. We'll also blame it on the way I am slouched so totally unladylike in that chair.
In reality,I am a very svelte lady, just so you know....... (I also have some prime real estate in the Brooklyn Bridge area if you are interested...)



Anyhooooooooo, This photo is of my niece Megan, nephew Tim, and of course my rugrats, Evan,Carly and Logan. Point of interest...Megan is heading to Australia in days. She is going as a volunteer and will be working at the Wildlife Walkabout Park just outside of Sydney for 2 weeks, and then spending 2 weeks doing those death-defying activities like white water rafting, rock climbing etc that I am way too much of a fraidy kat to do LOL Gonna miss her tons g'day mate!

And look what Megan did on Saturday night to her parents' nice clean house...she attacked...completely unprovoked...with silly string, see how she almost got it all over her brother Tim's plate and his friend Stephanie's plate? How rude LOL. It wasn't me...honest it wasn't... okay so it was my idea, but she didn't argue when I told her to grab the other can and help me LOL

Evan says

"You are the worst mom ever, and you have ruined my whole life"...sigh....another morning in the Waller household.
What prompted this statement? Well, apparently today is "Twin Day" at school...I know it's a ridiculous idea but the teacher in charge of "spirit days" is a coconut head to say the least..anyway, I digress.
Apparently Evan made arrangements with his buddy Bailey to wear the pants they both have (which ones? how the h*ll should I know???) and didn't tell me. So after a week of reminding him to get his dirty clothes picked up off his floor and put in the hamper to be washed, he finally did it last night. Now it would appear that the aforementioned pants were not washed...thus I am horrible. Oh well, crap happens...that should be his biggest problem today, right?
But...alas...my Evan is always the first(and usually the ONLY) of the kids (or husbands) in this house to admit he is wrong. He walked about 200 feet towards the bus this morning, came running back in the house, gave me a big hug and said "you know I didn't mean it Mom, you're the best....can you rent Zelda for Wii today?")...sighhhhhhhhhhhh Now I could of course think he was only sucking up, but today I am feeding on delusions and have chosen to believe that the whole Zelda thing was just a coincidence...
Well gotta run and put on my rose-colored glasses and head to the video store...Zelda, here I come!

I'll admit it..right here...I'm not afraid to say it...

I am not perfect, I am not a super mom, but I'm a damned good mom.
I read a lot of blogs and sometimes it just annoys me. Why can't people
admit they aren't perfect? Why do they always paint these rosy pictures
that their lives and families are absolutely ideal? Let's get real folks, everyone has a bad day, everyone has something that isn't going exactly right, don't they?
I'm not a Dr Phil fan, I find him to be condescending and just plain annoying, but I caught a bit of his show late last night on the dish and wanted to reach out and smack both him and his wife. I've always admired his wife, she seems so together and real (isn't that his catch phrase "get real"), well maybe they should
Phil's wife Robin said that never once in the entire lives of their children did she ever raise her voice to them, NOT EVER!!!!!!!!!! Anyone buying that? I sure as heck am not. There is no way in heck they raised 2 boys to adulthood without at least once in their lives yelling...bah humbug......

Boy, I am really on a tangent today, huh?
Moving on, be back later with something more interesting and relevant to say...just needed to get that off my chest....now I think I'll go yell at my children LOL (just kidding, even me with all my faults don't yell at the kids when they don't deserve it **wink**)

Oh and to prove that my kids love me with all my faults, here's a few pages of the "My Mother" book my 6 year old son Evan made for me. Also in the bottom photo is a gorgeous wooden tulip that my 5 year old daughter Carly made for me. SO THERE DR PHIL AND ROBIN

13 years on the 13th

Today, the 13th of May is my 13th wedding anniversary, do you think that's bad luck? LOL
I think Paul should give me 13 presents just to offset it, don't you agree?
Not much to say today, but I'll share a crappy scan of one of my wedding photos and a few layouts I did awhile ago that seems fitting today somehow.
Have a great day everyone!
There's another layout I wanted to share but can't find it on my computer right now, I'll have to go searching.
Again, to see the pics bigger, you can just click on them

Mother's Day...Gotta Love it

Well that is 2 hours of my life I will never get back LOL

Trying to upload the video of Carly's concert with no luck, I think it might have worked on you tube, but who the heck knows.

Anyway, hopefully you can see this, she is just too darned adorable in her High School Musical T-shirt, isn't she?

CRAZY busy....

Starting to figure out the winners of our Lovebug online crop for NSBD, so too busy to type today.

How about some eye candy? Here are the 4 layouts that I completed out of the 26....not such a hot average, is it? LOL but in my defense, I was a tad busy making sure everyone else got lots done

You can click on the image to enlarge them and hopefully make out the journalling if you are so inclined

Have a great day everyone!

Shout Out to my girl Kirsten!!!!! And Happy NSBD!!!

The internet is an amazing thing!
Through an online scrapping community I met a girl, and this girl is a sister that God forgot to give me(of course not to lessen my love for my real sister...see how I save myself there? *wink*).
She is my soul sister, so much like me it is almost frightening...or atleast it would be if it wasn't so darned awesome
Kirsten, my dear, sweet friend. I miss you to death and can't wait until we find time to get together again. Know that I think of you all the time and you are the BEST baby!!!!!! I was so happy to get your email today, gave me the biggest smile I have had for a long time.

Oh and a reminder tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day. Come and celebrate with me and the rest of the Lovebugs. Our online crop starts tonight at 7 pm CST and will run until midnight with new challenges each hour. Challenge posting will begin again Saturday morning at 9 am CST and run until midnight again. We've got lots of challenges, make and takes, games, surprises, prizes and fun going on. On and an amazing sale in the STORE too! (Did I mention that with the sale you can earn goodie bags AND get guilt-free shopping in June?)**And if this is your first time shopping at Lovebug, be sure to tell Denise in the comments section of your order that I sent you. Nice to let the boss know you are doing a good job, kwim?

Sorry no updates...sad days

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A dear friend and his family are going through a terrible tragedy that began last week. Too tragic and sad to share here, and really not my story to tell.

In honor of my friend Rob and his family, please hug your loved ones, tell them you love them and count your blessings today, you never know when your life will be forever changed.

Back when I feel a bit more "me".

Blessings to one and all.

My poor kids...I am "you tube" challenged

So little Carly wanted to enter a singing contest to sing onstage with Suzie McNeil at her concert here on Monday night, she learned all the words (sort of), practiced her little heart out, and guess what? You Tube will NOT upload the video no matter what I try.
My poor kids are being punished because their mother is YouTube challenged...
Oh well, it's probably safest for everyone's ear drums that the video isn't made public anyway LOL Maybe I'll try to upload it here for everyone's "pleasure" later, right now I have to do dishes and make it atleast look like I accomplished something today while the kids were at school and Paul was at work.

Done venting...onwards and upwards.

Hey Aubrey...so nice to see you on my blog, miss you girl! (watch your email, I am going to be sending you a little proposal in the next few days I think *wink*)

And on another note...my niece Megan is home from University in 2 days...YEAH!!!! Miss that girl to death when she is gone.

Okay, so I'm a sucky blogger...deal with it

So here we are and it is what 2 weeks since my last entry?
See how exciting my life is? It even bores me for crying out loud.
So, still nothing exciting to report, but 2 of my kids want to enter a singing competition so maybe I'll share their "videos" in the next few days for the awe and amusement of all.
In the mean time, here's a bit of eye candy to appease those who are complaining LOL
I "think" you can click on the images to see them a bit bigger and see the journalling.

Finally some sunshine~

It's a beautiful day here today and of course I am stuck here doing laundry and waiting for it to be time to head to bowling league.
Why did I join bowling league you ask? I haven't a freaking clue, but atleast the girls and I can share a few giggles and get out of the house for a few hours a week I suppose.

Been busy, busy, busy lately. Working on all the details for the LOVEBUG National Scrapbooking Day Online Crop May 3, 2008.

Better get off my duff and the computer and get ready to be laughed at by all the old ladies in our league...so humiliating to be out-bowled by 70 year olds...sighhh....LOL

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!

GOTCHA! No, I am not pregnant (she says thankfully, I figured out what was causing that and STOPPED) LOL

This your newest edition of "What Evan Says"

I'm sure you have all seen the commercial for home pregnancy tests, right? The one that says "The best piece of technology you'll ever pee on..."

Anyway, Evan too has seen these commercials and has a new annoying habit (okay, granted it was funny the first couple of times, now, not so much).
He heads to the bathroom and avails himself of the facilities (so that is my polite way of saying he pees). When he comes out of the best room, he grins as big as he can and says

"Ahhhhhhhhhh....toilets....the best piece of technology I'll ever pee on!" Bwahahahaha

Bad Blogger...Good Family Connections!

So once again I have neglected my blog...sighhhh...

Well Logan and his team went to the Provincial bowling championships, they didn't win Gold but they won the Bronze and I couldn't be prouder!

It is March break here this week and I am staring in the face of Hannah Montana overload. We broke down and let the kids get themselves a Wii and there is a HM game that has been on almost nonstop for the last 3 days....oh my......

Not much else to report, I am trying to finish a layout finally.

Oh, I forgot! While in Thunder Bay last weekend, my Aunt Bev gave me a bag full of treasures! Family heritage photos that made my heart skip a beat! I found one of my Grandmother as a baby, taken in 1904. The similarities of it along with other baby photos of the family reached out and grabbed me and I had to do a layout immediately. Here it is, blurry and colors out of whack but the layout is there LOL

ONLINE CROP THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!

Woohoo! It's time for another LOVEBUG SCRAPBOOKING online crop!
Come and play with us starting tonight Friday, February 15th at 5 pm PST (7 pm CST) and running through until 5 pm PST tomorrow. We are going to have some great challenges, lots of fun and PRIZES, who doesn't love prizes??
The theme of this online crop is "Travel the Lovebug World" and you will be coming to virtually visit all of us on the Lovebug Team in our hometowns, and maybe a few detours along the way too.
Hope to see you all there!