Final Marching Band Performance of 2009

Elizabeth & William after the performance.
Elizabeth

William scarfing down leftover popcorn. {Thursday is popcorn day in our building:)}

This was my view of the marching band squished into the auditorium after the 9th grade concert band performance.

We got to the auditorium with only a few minutes left because we had just come from Bryan's banquet. We had to leave early and it was pouring down rain. And I think it was probably about 85 degrees in the auditorium before the 250 some marching band members and color guard started moving around. But it was good times. This was the 3rd annual Marching Band Extravaganza and we have been to ALL 3. Yay for us! It was good times and one of my favorite performances of the year. Happy Friday! No performances and NO GAMES this weekend!

Self-Portraits

If you can't beat 'em...join 'em!

I don't have much time to upload photos so here is a quick post. I just spent over an hour babying my poor old laptop and deleting files and backing up photos. Here are some photos from Saturday when I got my hair cut. My hair looks a lot longer in the photo than it did in the mirror on Saturday. Have a great Thursday. We are ALMOST done with marching band and football. Banquet for football tomorrow night and the last marching band event after that! I am sooo happy. I had a few kids ask about science club at Bryan's concert on Tuesday, so I guess I better get started on that as soon as I have some extra time : )

I just like taking photos.

Looking forward to having more time very very soon.

Tuesday Band Concert

Getting ready for his first band concert (playing the trumpet).
I get this a lot.

Daddy loves to do embarassing things like wave at the kids. Stuff like that doesn't really bother Elizabeth and Bryan. William hates it though.

It's harder to get the zoom lens to focus on Bryan when he's in the back row. But at least we could see him. Elizabeth had a little trouble listening to 6th graders after all of her years in band. But we enjoyed it! Happy Wednesday! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

Monday

There are 2 things that I want to remember about today.

1. In honor of my husband...who can't even think about going to this store without chuckling...Elizabeth and I grabbed the camera on the way out the door so we could take a photo. So for everyone who knows my husband...everyone can have a good laugh imagining the boy that I am married to getting a good chuckle about these photos.

On our way out we even decided to take a photo of the 2 of us under the sign...heh heh...

2. We get a call today from Elizabeth that the truck stalled. She was in a parking lot. Bill looks at the truck. Tries to start it a few times. Has Elizabeth try to start it while poking the fuel line. "When was the last time we put gas in the truck, Elizabeth?" Ummm...the odometer said "36." She thought that we had put gas in the truck while she was at her dad's on Friday night. Which would have been a GREAT idea. So we drove to the nearest road ranger (just around the corner) and picked up a gas can and a gallon or 2 of gas. And took it back. And put it in the truck. And the truck started. So now Elizabeth and Bill have something in common. They have BOTH run out of gas in the truck now. :) A friend of Elizabeth's had worked on the truck the other day in shop class....and he cleared the odometer. He didn't know that the gas gauge didn't work...funny! (Because he did fix it so that it doesn't act like it's going to die anymore! ) Happy Tuesday! and don't forget to check your antifreeze!

Football

As one of the team captains tonight Bryan and Terence helped the J-Hawks start with the ball tonight. They played Kennedy Green (undefeated.) Kennedy Green has been undefeated for the last 2 years. Kennedy is the MAJOR high school opponent for the Jefferson J-Hawks. Guess what? The Jefferson team went 5-1 this year. And Kennedy Green? Oh, yeah. They went 5-1 too! Our boys played hard and beat them 24-8. It was pretty sweet. I'm so proud of our boys. That team was TOUGH! I would like to do another post later in the week about football through the years. We had an awesome coaching staff with some awesome parents too! Thanks so much to Coach Striegel who coached our team and had his BEST season ever! You deserve it!

Challenging Stories

Digital elements: template and word .pngs from Ali for Yesterday & Today. Paper from Ann Marie Paperpack (Katie Pertiet for Designer Digitals). Watch and stitching from Anna Aspnes for Yesterday & Today. Pinked circles and 31 days circle accents (Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals).

For Ali's class this week we worked on challenging stories in our lives. While I no doubt have MANY challenging stories, I decided to tackle high school this time. Maybe it is because two of my kids are in high school. Or maybe I have finally gotten over it and just accept the whole high school experience as something that I learned from and got out of :) Anyway, I decided to keep the story positive and added some lessons learned to share with the kids. There were so many things that I wanted to say, but I let a lot of them go. Instead, I focused more on how hard I worked while I was in high school. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with the journaling, but it will have to do for now. Above is the left side of the page and below is the right side of the page. I also created a paper version which will actually be the version that goes into my scrapbook. Most of you will get to see that. My right side page is different for that version. I put all of the ephemera that I dug out of my cedar chest onto that page. Happy Monday! Football update coming next!

Mom and I after graduation.

Found Photo~2002

I was searching for a particular photo in my photo albums and boxes when I found this photo of William from Flag Football. I thought it was very fitting to post it right now. This photo was taken in either 2002, or maybe 2003 (I'll have to check my other photos for dates). I don't remember if Sarah took it or if Mom took it, but one of them took this photo when they came to visit. When William was a Hawkeye, he was in 2nd grade. That was 7 years ago. Sunday will be our last game at the MYFA complex. That is a lot of years. Metro Youth Football has been a large part of our life for a long time. It is a fantastic program and I am thrilled that my boys had an opportunity to be a part of both Flag and Tackle football. Thanks for the memories!

Autumn Scrapbook Page

Template from Ali Edwards for Songbird Ave, Papers from Gretchen Thomas (designer digitals) and Sonja C (scrapartist) stitching and overlay from Anna Aspnes (freebie for YT class-week 3)

We got some freebies from Anna Aspnes for our Yesterday & Today class earlier in the week, so I had to use them to create a page for my favorite Fall photos. Hope you like it.

Have a great Friday and a Happy Weekend!

In the Studio...December Daily Prep

December Daily pieces. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do, but I am gathering pieces that I think I want to use.

It's been a long time since I did an "in the studio" post, so here it is! I have been slowly working on my December Daily pages-just sort of milling around, looking at last year's posts, looking at what I have, looking at what I may want to do.

I've been gathering chipboard stars and covering them with silver German glass glitter.

While I was laying things out on my desk, I saw that I had a metal "Believe" word in a package of metal words that I bought at the beginning of the year. Perfect for a Christmas theme...One of the things that I am DEFINITELY trying to do is to use what I already have. I ordered a few Christmas themed papers, but that is about it.

I will be soooo glad when football practice is over...no time...and I got distracted with the stuff that I was working on in the studio and started taking photos of the puppies instead. Here is Ralph in our bed.

Here is Pudge sacked out in our bed.

And here is Tigger sacked out on the floor.

Have a great Thursday. I will be having another great Thursday...since I thought most of the day today was Thursday instead of Wednesday...Oh well...Happy Day anyway!

Autumn Sunday

A beautiful fall Sunday afternoon. Elizabeth said she would go with us to take photos of us together. The only way I could get Bill to go was to tell him he could wear his slippers:) And we ran into Bryan at the park too! So they stopped for a photo (even though I wasn't supposed to take any photos of Elizabeth!)

Too cute!

Having fun.

Setting up the shot.

Left Tackle lined up across from some big guys. They were nothing Bryan couldn't handle.

J-Hawks win! We are 4-1! Good times! Too bad the Bears game didn't end like this....

Happy Tuesday!

Childhood Memories

Template is Ali Edwards for Yesterday & Today Class, Paper is from Ann Marie Paperpack by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.

This is my week 3 layout for the Yesterday and Today class. Love this template and loved telling random childhood memories. I could tell 50 more. So much fun going through old photos. Happy Saturday! A little bit of football, a little bit of work, and a little bit of scrapbooking this weekend. Looking forward to it!

Dirty Faces & Legos & Memories

Wishing we could do more of this...

Loving the dirty faces. I always loved playing legos.
Grandma B. had a HUGE thing of Legos at her house and I loved building houses with them.

What a cute photo of Sarah and Jakey! Sarah always was (and still is) the best dressed of all of us... Happy Friday!

Playing with old photos

So...it didn't take me long to scan in all of the B+W photos that were in the magnetic album. And now, of course, I have to play with them! These are photos from Easter 1958, 1959, and 1963. I love to look at photos of mom when she was little. And check out the photo right above the word, "Easter." It looks like Uncle Tom is just about to swing his arms and long jump into the mud! Having boys is great! Have a happy Wednesday and may all of your power supplies work like a charm!

Blast From the Past-Random Years-Edited

I scanned in some old photos in my "free" time this weekend. I LOVE old photos. They tell a beautiful story. Even when I don't know the story. Like the photo above. I didn't ever meet John and Nellie. I know very little about them, except that I think John was from Germany and Nellie was from Ireland (I think off the potato boat, but that could have been before her.) I know that they are responsible for all of the farmland that I grew up on. I know that I am very thankful for that too! I know that their lives could NOT have been easy at times. I love her hair! I wonder if that was the ONLY time that she had it done like that. I know that all of their children were born in the bedroom off the living room at Grandma's old house. (Can you imagine?) I love old photos...did I mention that?

Mom and Tom playing in the snow. I love seeing the old cars in the background almost as much as I love the people.

Mom in this poodle skirt is absolutely adorable! And I love her hair!

Loving those cowboy hats on Grandpa and Tom!

No blast from the past would be complete without a "Goofy" photo of me...

Happy Tuesday!

Football Sunday

Freezing our butts off at Bryan's game Sunday. It was warmer than it was at practice Sunday morning when it was snowing, but definitely not warm enough for me. J-hawks won: 36-6.

Bryan has to be at the game an hour early, so we stood around for awhile. Unfortunately, the game before ours was running late, so we started almost 45 minutes late.

Mom and Dad hanging out before the game.

Before the Carhartt hat came out.

After the game. Mom and I could barely feel our feet. And I was wearing my super warm UGG boots and 2 pairs of socks! But Bryan was VERY happy! Go J-Hawks! Good Job!

Happy Monday!

12 Stories Intro Pages

Digital Template and brushes by Ali Edwards-Paper from Designer Digitals.

I am SOOOO loving Ali's Yesterday and Today Class! This is the Intro page template. I decided to create my 12 stories in digital format. It is much faster for me-and it will free up more time for working on my "December Daily" album. December Daily is coming up fast!!! I just ordered a new line of Christmas papers from 2Peas Scrapbooking a few days ago-that is the last of my December Daily shopping-now I just need to create the album!

Anyway-I created the intro page and then decided that it was so much fun that I wanted to do another page! Happy Friday! It's almost the weekend!

Digital Template from Ali Edwards. Paper from Designer Digitals.

Random Stuff

Outside Gloria Jeans at the Metro Center-Photo by Mom

I was going through photos that I may want to use for Yesterday and Today and I ran across these photos from our visit to Mom's in May.

Mom driving & laughing at me :)

Elizabeth taking a photo of me taking a photo

Elizabeth took a photo of my flip-flops. Tevas are the best sandals EVER!
Happy Thursday!