Digital Scrapbooking

There was a time that I loved to scrapbook.  Actually, I still love to scrapbook, however, it has become a difficult hobby for me to maintain.  Supplies get expensive and space to spread out around here comes at a premium! 

Enter Digital Scrapbooking!  I learned of this from my husband’s cousin (thank you, Facebook), and when I saw her work, I knew it would be a much better fit for me.  You don’t need much, and once I got my layout software, I haven’t paid a penny for this hobby.  All of my ‘papers,’ elements, alphabets, etc. have been downloaded for free off of various sites on the internet.

Here are some of the pages I’ve been working on this week:

 

Some of these were quick pages (Kicky Boots and Whoo Loves You)- pages that someone else designed, and I just stuck in my photos.  Some were designed using a template, and some I came up with myself.

I love it!  Obviously, there’s no mess, no extra space needed (well, you need space on your hard drive!), and I love that it still looks cute!  And it suits me because I can pick it up at any time or leave it alone for months!

There’s no substitute for real paper, of course, and although I love digital scrapbooking, I can’t bring myself to get rid of my paper supplies.  I still plan on doing special projects from time to time, and maybe someday I’ll have some space to really get back into paper scrapbooking.  For now, however, I’m totally into the digital world!  One of these days, I’ll get these all printed out and place them into an adorable book!

 

Saturday Sillies

Okay, these are for my fellow nerds out there, copied from an uncle’s Facebook status a couple days ago.

Puns for Educated Minds

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.  He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .
3. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
4. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
5. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
6. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
7. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
8. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
9. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
10. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'
11. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
12. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
13. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
14. A backward poet writes inverse.
15. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
16. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
17. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine .
18. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger..'
19. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!'
20. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
21. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'
22. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
23. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Tomorrow!

My hubby’s home tomorrow!

My hubby’s home tomorrow!

My hubby’s home tomorrow!

My hubby’s home tomorrow!

If you can picture that I’m doing a little song and dance, you’ve got that picture right!

Midwives and OBs

Well, I called Tucson’s Birth Center (staffed by midwives) to make my first appointment.  I’m a little nervous about the change, but the lady was so nice on the phone, and she immediately started in with the ‘healthy pregnancy’ stuff.  You know, no drinking, no smoking, eat healthy, take your vitamins, and the like.  Not that I didn’t hear the same things from my previous doctor’s office, but never on the phone when making my first appointment.

Supposedly, the level and type of care will be very different with midwives in a birth center than with an obstetrician in an office.  We’ll see.

I LOVED my OB.  Very rarely do I click with anyone upon first meeting, but I did with her.  She has been with me through all six of my children’s pregnancies and births, with the exception of my Twinkle, who came so fast, the nurses caught her!  I’ve had good experiences in the hospital, and I’m so sad to leave her.  Why am I leaving?

Well, ironically enough, it’s because of her nurse-midwife!  I see her just as much throughout the pregnancy because she and my doc switch off on appointments until the very end, where the doc takes over complete care.  I’ve never particularly enjoyed her, but there was never any real reason for that.  I always thought she was a bit aloof and rough with her exams, but it wasn’t so bad because I got along so famously with my doc!

And then, my last six-week check-up happened.  Without going into detail, she made her opinions about our ‘reproductive habits’ abundantly clear (including loud sighing and dropping her head when I declined the Pill), to the point that I was sobbing all the way home!  I wish I had a bit more backbone and could have been a bit more firm with her.  It’s so funny because midwives are supposed to be so much more caring and natural about the whole thing.  Actually, my doctor was the one that told me it wasn’t her job to tell me how many children to have, she was just there to deliver them and help to ensure we all came out of it healthy.

So my husband and I discussed it, and he told me to do whatever I was comfortable with.  I know I can’t see that midwife anymore, whether I said something to her or not, and obviously, my OB can’t change her whole practice just for me so I’m leaving her.  And I’m sad.

At the same time, I’m excited for the new experience!  I’m curious as to how they will want to deal with a VBAC (I’ve already had one successfully, but AZ can be a tricky state when it comes to VBACs).  The birth center is way in town, so I hope I don’t have a speedy labor during rush hour!  It’s two minutes away from the hospital (a different hospital than the one I’ve gone to), and I have a feeling that because of my VBAC situation, they’re still going to want me to deliver at the hospital.  We’ll see.

Well, I guess there’s no point in speculating any further!  I’ll find out soon enough!

Announcing…

Baby number 7 is on his way!!!!

We’re all super excited!  Hero was (very) momentarily speechless, and Awesome McAwesome jumped up and down clapping.  Sweetheart Girl immediately said she wanted a boy, which surprised me!  I haven’t really said anything specifically to Minion 1, Minion 2, or Twinkle because they don’t really understand :)

Finding out I’m pregnant while my husband is gone is something new, and I debated whether to wait till he returns to tell him.  However, he’s with his family right now, and I thought it might be special for him to be able to tell them in person! 

On top of that, my hubby said to spread the word!  He doesn’t like to keep this kind of news a secret!  Since I am not the ‘stand up and make a big announcement’ type, I figured the kids could do the job.  And boy, did they!!  On Sunday, McAwesome was meeting people at their cars to tell them that we’re gonna have a new baby!

And I love that the kids say We are going to have another baby!  True, mom and dad are having another baby, but we are a family, and welcoming a new life is something we do together. 

I’m right about 6 weeks along and feeling pretty good.  Definitely a good bit more tired, but normally by now I’m completely wiped out and praying for a spurt of energy so I can show my other kids some attention!  Considering I’m still without a husband for a few more days, I’m soooo thankful that I’m still feeling good!

Potty Training Twins

So my husband is gone for 2 1/2 weeks (one week down!!!), and for some inexplicable reason, I’ve decided to try once again to potty train the twins!  We tried a few months ago, but there was zero progress so we stopped.  Recently, I’ve seen some readiness signs, and since we’re going to be moving soon, I thought I’d better take advantage of this window of opportunity before we’re thrown into a bunch of changes!

We’re on our fourth day, and it’s not gone nearly as badly as I’d thought it would!  They’re only wearing diapers during naps and bedtimes, and they’ve stayed dry through every nap.  All in all, they’ve each had a few accidents and a few successes, but overall they’re just not going very much!  Of course, they are soaked when they wake up in the morning so they must be saving it!  Neither one has yet told me that they need to go, but they both tell me when they’ve wet their undies.  That’s a good sign!?

One of the biggest obstacles so far is that they are afraid of the toilet!  I tried to take them at church last night, and they both freaked out when I put them up there!  I’m not going to carry their little potties around everywhere, so I may have to consider buying one of these foldable travel seats.

The funny thing is that all three of my older kids hated the little seats and wanted to sit on the real thing!  Ah, kids…

I’m not overly stressed out about this- after all, no kid ever went to college in diapers!  But, I don’t want to be inconsistent!  These two have a tendency to pounce on any inconsistency, and they have each other to back them up!! 

Somehow I believe we will survive this, but when my husband gets home…I’m taking a break :)

Oil Cleansing

I don’t consider myself an ‘all-natural’ type of girl at all- I believe the term is “crunchy.”  It’s just not me.  I shop at a regular supermarket, I use disposable diapers, and I’ve never made my own butter!

However, several months ago, I came across this thing called the “Oil Cleansing Method.”  We’re talking about cleaning your face with oil!  When I first read about it, I thought, “Well, how nice for you, weirdo, but there ain’t no way.”

I have a love/hate relationship with my skin- I hate it because I’ve been plagued with some sort of malady since I was a teen.  I had some serious acne back then, and I still get breakouts today.  However, my ‘grown-up’ skin is incredibly dry, tight, and flaky, until about 3 in the afternoon when the oil kicks in. 

On the other hand, I love my skin because it keeps my insides in where they belong :)

I’ve tried many different products, some better than others, nothing overly expensive because, well, I have a family of eight, and they like to eat.  In the end, none of these solved the problem, but some helped a bit to mask it.

Well, I kept coming across this oil cleansing stuff, and I began to consider it.  I finally bought the stuff a couple weeks ago, but it sat on my counter for those couple weeks because I was too nervous to actually put oil on my face!

Here’s the basic idea:  despite what we’ve been told, oil is not the enemy.  Oil dissolves oil.  There are really only two products to use.

Castor Oil:  This is your ‘cleansing oil.’  It draws away the dirt and oil from your pores.

EVOO:  This is your ‘moisturizing oil.’  In fact, there are many oils you could use for this purpose- Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sunflower Seed Oil seem to be the most common.  Since I don’t have any health food stores near me (where you would be able to find these other oils), I stuck with EVOO.

BTW (Mom, that means By The Way), this method supposedly works great for all types of skin and is a miracle worker for acne-prone skin.  But, don’t hold me to that claim!

Here are some sites with more info (because I don’t feel like typing it all out!):

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/OIL-CLEANSING-METHOD-Hi-t141871.html

http://simplemom.net/oil-cleansing-method/

I finally did it last night!  The results?

My skin still felt a little dry- but not nearly as much as usual, and it wasn’t flaky.  I did not use any moisturizer afterward, although you could use a bit of your oil mixture as a moisturizer (I’m still too paranoid to actually leave oil on my face).  I also think I overdid my efforts to wipe my face clean- again, the paranoia!

Despite the slight dryness (which I think I caused), my skin felt soo smooth.  But the real test for me came this morning.  When I took my shower, I just wiped my face with a washcloth.  Normally when I get out of the shower, my face would be a dry, flaky mess, and I would slather on moisturizer in an effort to hide it- but today…nothing.  I don’t feel dry, I don’t feel oily.  Just smooth.

I like it.

Maybe I’m becoming slightly crunchy.  If these results continue (I’ll keep you all updated), I may even try skipping my shampoo! 

Maybe.