Updated my Slide

I updated my Slide this morning to include all of the layouts that I created for the scrap game as well as some older ones that some how never made it there. Nathalie, make sure you check out the one of Mark and Wonder Woman that was taken when we went to 6 Flags last summer. I have had that layout done for quite a while, but never had it ready for upload.

I am the mom of a college student

Wow, can you believe it... Adam started his first college class yesterday at Bethel College. He is just taking one course this semester....Spanish...and will get high school as well as college credit for it. He said it looks like it will be a good class and he likes his teacher so far. He and Logan are taking it together and Logan will be driving them.

We have a busy weekend coming up. Saturday Brad, my nephew, is getting married to Mallory and after the wedding we are having family photos taken. Sunday right after church we leave for Plymouth and the Blueberry Festival. Can't await for that! Our plans are the same as always....go to the festival on Sunday, picnic and fireworks on Sunday night, spend he night with Mom and Dad Sunday night and then to go the parade Monday morning. Dad is on the Blueberry board this year, so I am guessing we don't be able to spend much time with him. Last Thursday, the 23rd, we drove to Plymouth for the Gator Parade, just like last year. (Remember Nathalie...you got put in the sheriffs car!!) The weather Thursday night was very nasty, even some tornado warnings near Laporte, but even though the clouds looks very threatening, we didn't even get a drop of rain.

Saturday was our kick off party for Word of Life which was a Hawaiian Luau. We had planned on having the party up at Perry's, where they have a trailer up at a campground on a lake in Michigan. Because of the storms earlier in the week, they were without electricity, which means no toilets, plus there were a lot of trees and branches down. So we decided to have it at church instead. They came to our house for a bit to swim and then back to the church. We also had our parents meeting right before the party.

The "So You Think You Can Scrap" game at The Scrapbook Site is over now and of course I didn't win anything. I didn't expect to win, and it was just good to get some different kind of layouts done that I normally wouldn't have done. It was fun, but I am glad to be back to scrapping what ever and however I want.

We had Braden 4 days this week, so that was pretty good money which will help pay off this laptop. I am getting real close to having it paid for and since Lori and I have a show next weekend in Indy, I am sure I will make enough then to have it done. I have still been busy the last few weeks getting our school year planned. I am not sure I have ever spent quite this much time planning school, but it will be so nice having all of the plans ready and in the Homeschool Tracker. I just want to make sure that the next time I need a transcript report that all I have to do is click a button.

A day to myself

Mark and the boys are off this weekend to the men's retreat at Quaker Haven which means I have the weekend to myself. Such a totally rare occurrence!! With homeschooling I hardly ever get any time alone like this and I am sure if it was a regular occurrence that I wouldn't like it as much, but I have to say that I have been looking forward to this! Last night after they guys left, I took Tucker for a walk and then I went over to Bettie's with a few other ladies to scrap. I didn't get much accomplished, but it was fun any way. I got home around midnight, read for a little bit and then fell asleep with tucker at my feet. Today, I think I am just doing to stay home and do what ever I want. I am thinking about maybe taking myself out to eat at Panera, but I may just stay home. I will probably spend most of the day on the computer, reading, watching a movie and just simply enjoying the fact that no one will be demanding anything of me today except for Tucker. HA!

This past week was pretty quiet, which is always nice. Linda started back to school full time so we had Braden 3 full days this week and will have him 3 full days next week as well. He will start going to 5 day preschool after Labor Day and then I will still have him 3 days I think, but not until after preschool is over, which is just before lunch. I think his grandpa will drop him off here. I continued to work on lesson plans for our upcoming school year, and I think that it will be a long process to get everything done and caught up.

Jared and I watched 3 movies together this week, Cars, Hildago, and Jump In, which is a Disney movie. Both Cars and Hildago we watched at night and I fell asleep for just a bit during Cars and Jared slept through half of Hildago. Good things we had seen each of those movies more than once.

this week's challenge in the "So you think you can Scrap" game was "Ordinary Objects"
Take pictures of 3 (or more) ordinary objects that you rely on to help you get through your day or make your day complete.



One more week and the game will done. It will be interesting to see how it all comes out. We have no idea how we have been doing as all of the voting has been done in secret and they haven't been telling us any of the results. I am just happy that I have got this far and have created some layout that I never would have taken the time to do. Honestly, this week's layout is one that I really didn't want to do, it just isn't my type of layout all the way around, but I do like how it turned out. One thing about this layout is, I had to take a photo in order to have something to scrap on this topic and I actually printed it out from my new printer. That was pretty cool! I can't see printing photos out at home on a regular basis, but for something like this it was perfect so I didn't have to try to make a special trip to Walmart to pick up one photo.

Falling Behind

I had been so good about writing in my blog, but lately I just can't seem to get back into the swing of it. The last two weeks have been extremely hot, this week was the worst. Both week it has been in the high 80s or 90s most every day, but last week the humidity wasn't bad, but this week it has been very sticky and I just don't tolerate that very well. A couple of days I was pretty miserable. In the evenings I swam to cool down, but it just seems like during the day there wasn't much time for it for one reason or another. There really hasn't been much going on, in fact, I would say that this week has been rather quiet all week which really has been nice. Adam got home from Team Timothy a week ago tonight and so I have been taking him to work again, but that is about all. Actually, on Monday, Mark had to come home from work to take Adam to work because over the weekend, the an got a leak in the gas line and we had to take it in to be fixed and so I didn't have a way to take Adam to work. We have started to look for a car for Adam this week, and haven't really found much yet, but hopefully soon and then he will be more motivated to get his license.

I have really been enjoying my new laptop. I have been making a habit of sitting outside on the patio in the morning during my online time and it is so nice. We have an open field behind our yard and there is a woods on the edge of it. Because of that, our backyard can become quite a bird sanctuary and I just love sitting out here and watching them. They are always more active in the morning and it is a nice way to start my day.

One thing I have been doing the last couple of weeks is starting to pull things together for our next school year. We actually aren't stating school until after Labor Day, but I know if I don't start getting it planned now, it won't get done.

On Wednesday,which is Adam's day off, we were busy getting his application and other documents ready to apply to a local college. He is applying to Bethel College in South Bend for what they call the REACH program which will allow him to take a few college course his senior year in high school and get dual-credit for them. You have to apply just like if you were planing on going there full time, plus write an essay.
We got the application and essay sent off Thursday, but I still need to get his transcript printed off and get it in the mail. It has been quite a production getting it put together. I have an awesome computer program that I used to keep track of all of the boys school work and if everything is put in, than to get a transcript all you have to do is run the report. Unfortunately, I didn't start using the program until part way into his sophomore year, so I had o go back and add a bunch of stuff from before that. At least for Jared I will have it before we start high school in a few weeks and will make sure that I have kept better records.
The program that we use in called Homeschool Tracker

Earlier this week my old printer died and I just can't be without a printer so when we took Adam to work we went looking for one and when I picked him up later, I went and bought one that I had looked at. (Had to get it approved by Mark before I could spend the money!) I really like the one that I got..it is an all in one printer/copier/scanner. Thankfully, I found it for a good deal. I have used it a few time all ready and it works really well and I love how much easier it is to scan in my layouts.

As I mentioned in my last post, about the game I am playing at The Scrapbook Site, the Week 5 Challenge was to use music on a layout and I chose to use the Word of Life song along with some photos from our are TI Competition last March.


This week's challenge was called:
Power of 3
* 3 pictures
* 3 buttons
* 3 different ribbons
* 3 different patterned papers
* 3 word title
* 3 extra embellishments of your choosing
* Journaling