February Has Come and Gone!

I can't believe it is going to be March tomorrow!! We have already been so busy this year. It just doesn't seem right that we are already pushing into Spring.

Most of this new year has been devoted to Junior Girl Scouts. This is cookie time and Olivia has been quite the salesgirl - almost 400 boxes already!! The sale doesn't end for almost three more weeks. She has really enjoyed going door to door and chatting up the neighbors. She did so well in the initial sale that she won the tie dye t she is wearing. You go girl! Today we have our first troop Booth sale - you know, set up a table in front of store and sell, sell, sell! And, of course, it is raining!! Thank goodness there is a TJ MAXX right next door to our location, I will be buying at least an umbrella and maybe a raincoat!

Rick has been to Alaska and is in England right now. He has been interviewing for a job (Alaska) and is teaching at Gary Oldman's alma mater in London. Yes, that Gary Oldman - Bram Stoker's Dracula and, more importantly, Sirius Black!! My hubby has been quite the world traveler! Oh, and the Alaska thing - so not going to happen . . .

I have been directing a show at school, dialect coaching a play at Actors Guild and, as always, doing the mommy and wife thing. Lately, the single parent thing too, yuck! I don't know how single parents do it really. I am in awe of their patience and energy. I have fallen asleep sitting up twice this week! What am I, 80 years old??! No, I am running after two darling children and all of their activities BY MYSELF!

Moving on . . .

Aidan has really been so much fun lately. He is really talking more and more, and I can understand him most of the time. He loves trains, dinosaurs, farms and dragons - such a little boy! I found this mini backpack at Target in the dollar aisle and, boy, does he love it. He wanted to wear it on a walk the other day - too cute!

More Layouts and Playdates

I finally finished the book order I have been working on for the last few months. I am SO thrilled with the result. I pushed myself to explore a new style and to use more vibrant colors than usual. I tend to use more vintage looking papers, but this client wanted colors that pop. Using those types of colors really shift the style of the layouts, at least I think they do! I also tried to use materials that I hadn't used before. I used lots more chipboard and, I can't believe I did this, I used my OWN handwriting! Eek! Yep, I did, really. Anyway, I am so excited about the books and about the new discoveries I made while making them. Yay, me!

This past week was mid-winter break for me. I was so looking forward to some quiet, just for me time. That time that all us moms dream of. But, it ended up being a few snow days for Olivia, preceded by a sick day! Once she was well we had fun, we got to spend time together that we don't normally have. One of the days, she invited her friend Grae over. They played and we made Valentine cookies. They had a blast icing them, well - EATING the icing really! The cookies turned out really cute after all the finger licking and we delivered some yummy treats to Livi's teachers on V - Day.

Heritage: Scotland

Olivia has been working so hard on her Heritage project. It was due last week; both the verbal presentation and her scripted research. I was lucky enough to see her present to the class and I was just beaming with pride!! She did a great job. I was also lucky enough to be asked for help on this project. Olivia came to me often to ask whether or not she was headed in the right direction or to tell me what new tid bit she had discovered about Scotland for her project. It was great to work on it together.

She chose Scotland because of my "Brier" side of the family. Our name was originally McBrayer which is, very Scottish! Our family members have done extensive research and have found out lots of information about our family and how they lived all the way back to the 1600s in Scotland. I am proud of that heritage and was so proud that Olivia wanted to learn more about it.