Saturday Musings

A few layouts that I wanted to show you but forgot in my last post! Enjoy!

Friday Musings

Hello everyone! We've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for our big move next week. One week from today we begin our Adventure to St. Louis! WOW - time flies! I had to pack up my office today and ship everything to my new office in St. Louis which really made this whole moving thing feel REAL. and scary. and exciting. and did I say scary? lol

In honor of the move, I found a wonderful lady on etsy.com who makes the most adorable necklaces and she agreed to make me a ROCKIN' little momento of home which arrived today and is even better in person than it was in the picture that she sent me. I immediately put it on and plan to wear it to remind me of home when we move. Here's a picture of what she made for me -

Isn't it FANTASTIC?!?! I know, you're asking yourself, who is this lady and how can I get her to make me something just as wonderful? Well, never fear - you can find Kristen (aka matsudabunch) at her etsy shop here. I highly recommend her and I know you'll LOVE anything she creates for you. She's made several other pieces for me recently (which I can't share yet as they haven't been given to their new owners yet but I promise you they are fantastic!).

I've got a lot of laundry to work my way through since we've been traveling around so much in recent weeks to get in visits with family and seeing all of our favorite places/things/people before we move. So, I'll be back soon with some pictures from our recent trip to Pennsylvania. And I'll tell you all about it! More tomorrow, I hope!

Tuesday Musings

Things are really gearing up here for our big move to St. Louis at the end of the month. We're trying to cram in as much time as possible with everyone we love while also trying to purge more of our JUNK from the house. I'm also trying to stay on top of things at work which is pretty busy as I've just been assigned a brand new project and am heavy into another one. It's good to be busy, right?

The movers came out to do a walk through of our house and a analysis of our belongings which was interesting. Makes you realize how much 'stuff' you have all around you that you practically don't even notice until someone points it all out!

The move is becoming more and more real to me as I begin to try to figure out my moving to do list and get all the arrangements made for us. Yikes. This is big stuff! I'm feeling all over the place about it - excited, scared to death and totally/utterly overwhelmed. It's such a big thing for a girl like me who has never lived anywhere but here.

My friends Sarah and Peggy threw us a farewell dinner last weekend and some of our friends were able to make it to wish us good bye! It was great to see everyone but it really brought home that this is happening. I know it seems strange for me to say that but sometimes it feels like this move is happening to someone else. But, saying goodbye to the people you love and care about reminds me that this is real. We really are leaving! I hope to have pictures soon which I'll post so you can see some of the many people I'm going to miss after our move.

The kids are doing well - Meighan is sassy as ever and Alex is a ball of energy! Keeping up with these two is EXHAUSTING! They certainly keep us on our toes. We've been having some behavior issues - not listening, saying NO, doing things they know are off limits. So, we've reinstated the Naughty Mat/Time Out thing and it seems that it might already be helping somewhat. These are two very headstrong children and managing them is hard enough when they aren't being defiant. Meighan is almost 100% pottytrained during the day. She rarely has accidents any more. Alex isn't interested in the potty most of the time. He's a boy and I hear they take to potty training a bit more slowly so we're just giving him time ...

The next few weeks will be CRAZY. This weekend we head to Pennsylvania to visit with Paul's family and see a couple of his friends. Then next weekend is our LAST (yes, I said last) weekend living here so we've got several things planned - my friend Crystal's baby shower, Paul's going to get together with his buddies for the last time and my mom & Dave are taking the kids to the pool. Then, the movers are here packing us the following week and we close on the house on Friday of that week. And then we're heading for the midwest! Unbelievable!

I haven't had a ton of scrapping time lately but I did pull together a few pages that I can show you ...

This one uses a new kit, Summer Breeze, by ChereKaye that is so summery and fun!

And this one also uses some ChereKaye goodies - I love this photo of my grandmother and her friend Grace who were friends for a lifetime. I had to document their friendship for my heritage album!

And this one uses a freebie that my girl ChereKaye created that is COMING SOON to The Daily Scrapper which is a cool new international digital scrapbooking newsletter.

And one of my new favorite layouts - this is the FACE - the one that makes my heart melt. Who could resist that?!?!? This one uses more ChereKaye goodies from her portion of the Funky Playground Collaborative kit. That alpha ROCKS, by the way!

And last, but not least, I want to point out an incredible new kit by Rose Farver which knocks my socks off. This is what I intend to play with tonight if I have time to get a page done. It's called Just Hangin Round and can be found here. RUN over and pick it up. You won't be disappointed!

Have a good night and I'll be back soon with more Melniczenko Musings!