my dreams v. my reality

I can't believe it's been six months since I posted anything on the blog. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to keep up with everything. In my dreams, I'm able to keep the house perfectly clean, be a patient and creative first grade teacher for James, cook gourmet and healthy meals for the family, craft in my free time and blog about it, and sail through the third trimester of pregnancy with grace and composure. In reality, I have a sink full of dirty dishes that I'm ignoring in order to blog right now. There's no way I can cover all that's happened in the last six months, so I figured I'd just hit the highlights and pick up where we are now.

As far as Project 365 goes, I just about finished January and then barely picked up the camera until April. In fact, I didn't take any photos at all in March. I decided I'd go ahead and scrap what I do manage to take this year anyway, so here's January & February's pages (as always, click to see credits)...


In the past couple of weeks, I've picked up my camera more to try to capture the craziness that is the Pranaitis family. I can hardly believe that we're only three months away from adding another boy to our motley crew. Simon already calls me the "token female" of the family! It's a position I really enjoy for the most part. The weeks when he's working out of state are always hard, but they make me even more thankful for the days he's home. Two months ago we were on our way to some event and were (miraculously) ready about 20 minutes early so we grabbed the tripod and took some family photos on self-timer. The 20 minutes consisted of me pushing the button to start the 10 second countdown, then rushing back to the front porch steps to try to get settled before the photo was taken. We only got one decent photo, and it would never win any awards, but I'm so happy we made the effort because I know we can never get these days back. The photo:

and one of the photos I snapped while I was trying to get the settings right...

Yep, these are my boys!

Okay! I'm off to go tackle those dishes. I really am hoping to get back to blogging more regularly though. I seem to have finally gotten a bit of energy back!

What I've Been Up To

I can hardly believe that it's been two months since the last blog post... life has been busy! I started kindergarten with James last month and it's been going surprisingly well. I had started him last year on the book Teach Your Child to Read in a Hundred Easy Lessons but he just wasn't getting it and I had taken too many breaks in between the lessons so we eventually gave up. We started at the beginning again last month and this time it's going great! I can't wait for him to be able to read on his own and if he's anything like me, I'll be prying his nose out of a book whenever I need him to do something else. I haven't had as much time to read as I used to (read: before I had kids) but I did discover that I am able to borrow audio books for free online through a program that our local library has. I just listened to a mystery book called Maisie Dobbs while scrapping, or doing housework, or before falling asleep. In fact, just this week I was extolling to Simon the benefits of listening to a book rather than reading it for, I said, "if I were reading it I'd no doubt be up all night in order to finish it, but when I listen it puts me to sleep." Of course, that very night I stayed up until two in the morning in order to hear the end of the book! So much for that theory.

In September we participated in a park outreach event that the church we are part of hosted. It was fun to meet people in the neighborhood and for the boys to jump in the jump house and get their faces painted. However I came home with three creatures:
this big tiger...

this little tiger...

and this furry dog...

who was a stray wandering the streets. We've had her now for a month, watched for signs advertising a lost dog, checked to see if she has a microchip, discussed multiple times whether we really want another dog, and named her Mocha. (Well, actually I named her Mocha, because the only thing better than coffee is chocolate AND coffee.) We're keeping her. The boys love her. She sleeps next to my side of the bed. She fills a little spot in my heart that's been empty since my last pomeranian died. And that's the end of that story.

I'll be back in a bit with some of the crafty things I've been up to; there's a stench wafting from the boys' room that needs to be attended to and I guess it's time to start school for the day...

One step forward, two steps back...

I felt like I had too many online commitments, so I left two of my teams over the past few weeks, but then one of the applications to a team that I had sent in on a whim was accepted, so I added a new team. Fortunately the requirements are much lighter than the two that I left, so I feel more confident that I'll be able to keep up with everything. It's been so long since I posted that I'll just share some of my favorite pages and projects that I've done over the last month or so. (Pages are linked for credits as always!)

First I want you to know that I have been using ALL those pencils that I bought! As I have time, I've been participating in the sketch challenges on the Stamping Bella blog. I'm really enjoying the coloring and blending process, and it's something that I can sit down and do with the boys... they LOVE to color together. The second card is made with digital paper and elements from Sugarplum Paperie's Pretty Little Picnic kit which is available in this month's Digi Files. I love being able to resize papers until the pattern is the right size for a card, and then just print what I need.


Nicole is putting one of the kits in her Twist collection on sale each Tuesday during the month of July. It's hard to believe that these are already a year old... she was releasing them right around the time that I first joined her team. I never got a chance to play with the Tangerine Twist when it came out, so it was fun to have a chance to scrap with it this week. I mixed it with a few other goodies and this photo of John from last year that's been sitting on my harddrive waiting to be scrapped and came up with this page. I love this picture of John; it seems to perfectly capture the carefree way he goes through life (well, that and his love for cereal. We go through cereal so fast in our house!)


I got to continue guesting for Kate Hadfield this month since she didn't have any guests already lined up. I was so excited that she asked us all to stay, because I'm loving her handcrafted style. These first photos are of Peter and my little brother when he got back from Marine boot camp last summer. Actually, I had accidentally deleted these photos from my memory card, and my brother was able to retrieve them for me so I'm doubly indebted to him for these photos now! The second photos are of James on the beach in Hawaii two summers ago. He loved playing in the sand and the beaches were not nearly as crowded as the Southern California ones are so there was plenty of room to build sandcastles and drive trucks and all those other boy things.


I've done two more projects for The Hybrid Chick blog. The first was for the Baby Shower and was a box to put in the back of your car to keep an extra set of clothes, some diapers, etc. That was actually for a giveaway and has since left my house via the ever-faithful postal service and is (hopefully) now residing in someone's trunk! The second project was a quick little album made out of printed digital pages and ordinary lunch sacks. I've linked the finished project pictures to the directions on the blog. There are some really adorable projects that the other girls have done so you definitely should go check them out! One of my recent favorites is these Hybrid Hairclips. I know what my nieces are getting as stocking stuffers this year!!


One last hybrid project; the first for my new team at Shabby Pickle Designs. I actually already owned this kit, but hadn't used it yet. This was probably the hardest hybrid project I've done so far because trying to figure out the measurements and how to cover it neatly when I was limited to 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper was very challenging! I think it came out pretty cute though (at least the front... notice there's no picture of the bottom!) and it actually was mentioned on the GSO blog yesterday. (That's a good thing Mom, in case you're reading this!) Anyway, now that I've done one, I'm thinking about heading back over to Michaels some more of these boxes to see if it gets easier the second time around.


Even though I'm not creating for Funky Playground anymore, I had to show you this page because I love how it came out. Kitty Designs is guesting there this month, and I used her Toy Box kit and made this page with a photo of my sweet Pete. This was definitely outside of my normal scrapping zone, but it was so fun to try to think of creative ways to use the same photo.


Last pages to share, I promise!! These are with Shen's newest products. The first one is just a photo of Simon and me that James snapped in the front yard a few nights ago after we got home from a walk. The camera's pretty heavy and you have to actually look through the viewfinder, there's no display like with a normal point and shoot camera, so I'm pretty impressed that he got both of us (mostly) in the frame! This is the "real" me... no makeup, hair's a mess, and "kick-around" clothes. (Kick-around is my word for anything that you would wear around the house, or maybe for a quick trip to the grocery store, but other than that you wouldn't want to be caught dead in it! I come from a family that's big into making up our own words... like gulch - defined as a pile of stuff that isn't junk, it's just where it's not supposed to be. For instance, "stop gulching up the dining room table; we have to eat there you know." I'm pretty sure it's a real word; look it up!) Returning from my rabbit trail, the second page is photos that I've been waiting for the perfect kit with which to scrap them, and when Shen created Lulu & Rocko I found it. Love, love, love this kit!!


Real life stuff alert: In under a week now, Simon and I are headed to India for two weeks to visit some friends who run a NGO there that does work on university campuses and in slums. The purpose is to work alongside them, but we will get a chance to do a little bit of sightseeing while we're there, so I'm going to do my best to update the blog and post some pictures of our days. Our boys are staying here with my mom and dad, and I know I'm going to miss them like crazy, but I have to confess that the thought of taking them on the 22 hour plane flight also made me crazy!

Well, we're having company for dinner tonight so I suppose I ought to pick up some of the gulch around this place and take the meat out of the freezer! Hopefully I'll be back before we leave on Thursday, but if not, I guess my next post will be from halfway around the world!

All kinds of stuff...

Since we got back from our Seattle vacation, I've been trying to catch up on all my CT pages! I was excited to start scrapping again, especially when I saw the fun new kit that Britt created: Hustle & Bustle. (Don't forget the coordinating alpha free with purchase for a limited time.)

We went to get our Christmas tree on Saturday afternoon after we got home, so now I have lots of fun pictures of the boys in their santa outfits to scrap. I took some cute ones right after we got to the tree lot and we could still coax a few smiles out of the boys. By the time we finally found our tree, "grumpy" was the operating emotion! Plus we suffered from the problem of having the too-helpful workers... they followed us around the lot, asking if we knew what kind of tree we wanted, if we wanted them to open up some more trees, pushing our stroller, taking pictures of our boys in their outfits, and generally adding to the stress level of the outing. I was hoping for a relaxing stroll through the trees, stopping to take some photos, but it was not to be!! For example...



Anyway, here's the page I did with Britt's new kit and some pictures that do NOT include strangers...


I am also guesting for Krystal Hartley this month and she's already put out two fun holiday kits this week! The first, Happy Feet, is a collab with Ziggle Designs, and is available at Scrap Orchard.

There's lots of fun elements in here and I didn't even get to the orange ones, so I'll definitely have to make another page with it! I took the snow pictures when we were driving through the Rocky Mountains three years ago on our way to Colorado for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was so beautiful, but as a Southern CA girl, I was glad that I didn't have to drive!


And at Funky Playground Designs is Heaven and Nature Sing, a kit full of fun, blue and green goodness.

I found a photo of my niece taken about three years ago that was perfect to use with this color scheme. I love those little chubby cheeks!


I ended up resigning from a couple of teams last month because I just didn't feel like I had enough time to keep up with everything, but I did stay on Sugarplum Paperie's hybrid team (even though I haven't done any hybriding in a couple of weeks... I'm planning to do some Christmas goodies!) Nicole has a brand new grabbag coming out tomorrow and it's full of sugarplum goodness, so be sure to keep an eye out for that at either her personal store or at her Digichick shop. Here's a page I created (and there's tons more I didn't use yet):


And one more *just for fun* kind of page... Sleepy Pete

It's good to be home!

Some graduation pictures

(If you're here for the blog train, scroll down a post... )

Out of all the photos I took the two days we were in San Diego for William's graduation from boot camp, most of them didn't come out very good. It was such an emotional time, that I guess I must have had trouble focusing the camera well. These are a few of the better pictures.
The first ones here are photos I took while walking to the stands on Family Day. These are all the new Marines that were about to be released for their first liberty in months, five hours worth.This is Will's platoon marching out and then all lined up, waiting to be dismissed.Our family
These are two of my favorites: My mom getting her first hug, and James who wanted to hold Uncle's hand.
These last two of Will's platoon are from graduation day. I wish I could convey to you the excitement that built in the crowd as they marched out; the amazement of watching 585 men move and speak as one; and the pride that radiated from the new Marines.And now he leaves in just a few more days for combat training, and I will miss him again but at least this time he'll be allowed to bring a cell phone! And I'm sure my mom will continue to update the blog as his exploits continue!

Thanks for dropping by!

So proud!

Just a quick update... see that handsome Marine surrounded by a beaming family? That's my little brother and us (well, not me because I was taking the picture) on Thursday at MCRD (Marine Corp Recruit Depot) in San Diego. Today we got to see the graduation ceremony which was amazing. I wish I could convey the sense of pride and history the ceremony had. I have to sort through the couple hundred pictures I took and then I can put up a picture of him in his dress blues. What a wonderful, emotional couple of days it's been, and I can't wait to get a chance to spend some time just talking to him and catching up on life. He's home for ten days on leave, then gone again, so for ten days, the world will be as it should for my family!

Just a few photos

It's been a few weeks since I posted any pictures of the boys, so I thought I'd share a few that I took this week. The first ones of Peter are from this morning... I think it's the first time he's worn a hat since right after birth. The weather here has been so cool in the mornings this week that it makes me long for autumn to really come. I even got out some of the fall candles and decorations yesterday (of course, it's supposed to be 101 on Monday, but maybe I'll just crank the air down to 68 and pretend!) Notice his two teeth; I think another one is coming in right next to the bottom right one. He's going to look pretty funny if he never gets any top teeth, don't you think?


Because it's been so nice, the boys have been able to play outside a lot. And because Simon's been working or gone much of the week, they've been sent outside a lot! I think these are from Thursday... if you notice the peanut butter on James' cheek that'll give you a clue about what kind of a day it was. By the time lunch was over they must have been bugging me so much that I didn't even bother cleaning them up before I sent them out!


This is John's newest "look" and we see it often now. It's the "I don't want to do what you are saying" look, the "I'm going to pretend I don't know you" look, the "don't touch me, James" look, the "things aren't going the way I want them to" look, the... well, you get the idea. It's pretty funny really, but we're trying to work on the attitude behind it, because it won't be too funny if it continues into the teen years!!

Peter, again. I can't help it. He's so doggone photogenic... must get that from his father! He is sitting up by himself pretty reliably now so we should finally be able to ditch the infant carrier this week. Thank goodness, his feet were hanging off the edge! He loves to be with the "big boys," especially if they're outside, so he's spent three or four mornings out there this week too. (If you're reading this, Mom P., he LOVES that blanket that you made for James, and we frequently go in to get him up from naps only to find him with his fingers through the holes all wrapped up in it. I'll try to get a picture for you!)


On Thursday night at Biblestudy, the girls in charge of childcare for the night brought gel to give Peter a mohawk. His hair wasn't thick enough or long enough, but guess who's was? This is the next morning and it isn't quite as impressive as it was Thursday night (when it was kind of like a preview of the rebel teen hairstyle that would go with his new "look") but it's still pretty wild. The best part about it was that when the boys went outside to play that afternoon, they threw dirt and little leaf pieces in each other's hair, and because of the gel residue -- well, let's just say that it wasn't coming out easily! You wouldn't have wanted to see the bathtub after that bath. So thanks girls! I can only pray that I will have the opportunity to return the favor someday when you're both married and have kids!


I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week! Only five more days until we get to see Will! (Not that I'm excited or anything! )