July 12th

Felt very lucky that the 12th occurred on our trip~my family is much more agreeable to pictures while on vacation than at home~ha! But this was also the day that my camera broke. Fortunately it was toward the end of the day, but my picture taking came to an abrupt halt.

The pictures aren't numbered, but here's a description of each of the columns going from top to bottom and then left to right:

• An early start at the beach. That little wave right there was about as big as they got.
• Morgan with her hair braided.
• Jack's absolute favorite things to do. One of the things I liked most about the beaches here is the sand never got hot.
• Morgan having her hair braided. When we were approached she said it would be $25, but I talked her down to $18.
• The spa on the property. I treated myself to a Swedish massage and it was a great way to spend the afternoon.
• Ice cream for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner? Not sure, we had a lot of ice cream!!
• Jack's breakfast-Nutella sandwich and sausage and it NEVER varied from that.
  
• Not the best picture, but once I describe it, you'll be glad. This bird was munching on a gecko. Poor little gecko, didn't look like a great way to go.
• The sports court, Garrett was there most days practicing soccer and played in a few pick up games with people from Italy and England.
• Morgan and one of her MANY new friends. She loved the kids club and when she wasn't there, she easily found a friend to play with.
• Shopping in Carmen del Playa. We bought very few souvenires, but I did get this silver necklace. Chris did the negotiations on this one so not sure if it was a good deal or not.
• And one more of us on the beach. I could lay there all day with the great breeze, it was so relaxing.

I have a few more pictures I want to share. Garrett and I had the most amazing excursion we went on and I've got some great pictures from that day as well.

12 on the 12th

Yay, finally remembered this month. The 12th fell on a Saturday which was the day after the last day of school.


1. Nobody had to remind Garrett it was the first day of summer break-9:30 and still snoozing.
2. World Cup Soccer-USA v England (tie). The last World Cup we were traveling in Europe when Italy won. We were very much caught up in soccer fever then.
3. And it proved to be enough motivation for Garrett to go out and practice some moves.
4. The garden this month. Everything is looking good. The bell peppers look healthy, but have hardly grown at all. Most of the other plants are beginning grow something that resembles the vegetable.
5. A close up of the tomato plant. Lots of little tomatoes, but waiting for them to ripen.
6. Morgan is the Skype queen. It really has helped her maintain her friendship with Megan who moved last year to Wisconsin.
7. Looks like several people got cut off, but this is my car being loaded up with kids to head to the movies. Chris and Morgan saw Karate Kid and Garrett and two friends saw A-Team.
8. And this is what I was left with. He does not like being left behind.
9. Finally got him settled and we watched Toy Story. Just a couple more weeks till Toy Story III is released and we'll be taking him to his first movie at the theater.
10. In his big boy bed...It was a rough week or so, but he has transitioned well and is back to a sleeping champ.
11. Took Morgan to Borders to pick out a new book to start off the summer.
12. And when Jack went to bed and the house was quiet, I scrapbooked.

12 on the 12th

You'd think when you have one child that has a birthday on the 11th, you'd have no problem remembering the next day was the 12th. But nope, it didn't occur to me until late in the afternoon. So saved it for the 13th this month.

1. Chris off to work around 7:00 every morning.
2. Morgan continuing to enjoy riding her bike to school. She has a flat tire, so she's been riding Garrett's bike.
3. A few minutes together before Garrett is off to school. Garrett has never been late for school, but every morning I hear, "c'mon, I'm going to be late". EVERY MORNING!
4. Jack started out with the trains inside, but moved them outside.
5. We ran some errands and after the last store Jack said, "Let's go get chicken nuggets, french fries, and chocolate milk." And we did. And we don't do that very often, but this was the first time he asked and he had such a cute smile on his face I couldn't turn him down.
6. A view of the garden. It's growing!
7. Jack has rediscovered the sand box. Unfortunately the lid was left off during some storms, so it's really wet sand.
8. This little guy isn't looking so little. He's 4 months away from turning 3.
9. Morgan is the family gardener. She's watering the garden before heading off to gymnastics with the help of her little assistant.
10. Garrett in the final regular match against a team at Round Hill Country Club.
11. He came up to me before this putt telling me that he had a rough round, but ending up parring that hole with a nice long putt.
12. This picture represents what I did for the last half of the day. In summary, I picked up the kids at 3:00, dropped off Morgan, drove Garrett to the tournament which was about 20 miles away, returned home and picked up Morgan to take her to gymnastics, ran a couple errands, then headed back to the country club. Garrett thought he'd be done around 6:00, we didn't leave until 7:15. He also arranged for 2 boys to come over to work on a group project. So I drove Garrett and his teammate to the house and without even getting out of the car, turned around and picked up Morgan. Pulled in the garage at 8:20 and had put 104 miles on my car since 3:00. I think the only reason I'm smiling is because Chris was able to watch Jack so I didn't have to listen to Life Is a Highway over and over (although that is quite fitting!).

April 12 and a few scrapbook pages (photo heavy)

These are a bit out of order this month, but here's a look at our day.
1. Filling out the final paperwork for Jack's preschool next year.
2. Last photo of the day, picking up Morgan at 8:30. The one thing I love about her gym is they work hard, but they give the girls time for socialization and play (probably the biggest factor Morgan stays with the sport).
3. Already thinking about growing her hair long again.
4. Yet another rainy day. Morgan I'm sure would share, but it would so uncool to be under an umbrella with your sister.
5. Jack heard Chris' car pull up and ran out to say hi.
6. A glare...smiling for pictures is another uncool thing to do. Do you see a pattern here?
7. Used Jack's naptime to finish up some scrapbook layouts. I really never am able to work for more than 2 hours at a time and never can finish an entire layout, but I'd say I'm doing about 8 to 10 layouts a month. I'm pretty current on my pictures.
8. I wish I had photographed the inside of that bowl, it was filled to the brim with cereal. That's just the after school snack.
9. Just a few books to be read around here. Morgan loves the Princess Diaries series. The other two were recommended to me, hopefully they draw me in fast, I don't have interest in slow books.
10. Morgan doing her homework. I think I can officially say "fifth-graditis" has hit and it's been such a struggle to keep her focused.
11. Ahh, the Thomas trains. Such a daily part of Jack's life. He plays at the train table or over on the ottoman. He recently has gotten a few new ones, so the trains become longer and longer, but everyday he asks about getting a new one, pounding his chest and saying "for me, for me".
12. Sick little boy with a cold that turned into a pretty bad cough. After playing for a bit, he'd just run over to me and snuggle.

Sometimes, the pictures/stories that I share here become scrapbook pages. Here's a couple recent ones.
Locks of Love


and here's one that uses the picture that I turned into a canvas print:



Other times, I mean to, but don't get around to sharing some favorite moments.
Like our visit to Daffodil Hill, which has become an annual tradition.


or Chris and Morgan's last Indian Princess Father Daughter Dance:


or one of the layouts with some of the gazillion soccer pictures:


and this one was a bit different for me, but it's all about Morgan missing Outdoor Ed this past fall.



Anyway, there's a sampling of some of my latest pages. I've got several that I'm working on, but you can expect a few pink layouts in the not so distant future. Afterall, 300 pictures of one baby girl is a very inspiring prospect.

12 on the 12th

Well Friday the 12th was a wet and dreary day, but we woke up to sunshine on Saturday and it's been nothing but blue skies. Just gorgeous.



So here's a look at our day.
1. It was one of those days with lots of running around. Jack got a bit of a break later in the day, but I felt like spent a good part of the day in the car. 8:00 drop off Garrett and Morgan at school. 10:00 leave for playgroup only for the rain to start coming down. Head to the grocery store instead. 12:30 pick up Morgan from school. 3:03 pic up Garrett from school. 3:30 drop off Morgan at gymnastics. 7:30 pick up Morgan from gymnastics.
2. As you can tell from picture 1 to picture 2 Jack fell asleep on the 1 mile drive to pick up Morgan. They had a minimum day today.
3. This is my drive back to pick up Garrett who would rather wait in the rain than bring an umbrella. So uncool!
4. Chris working part of the day from home. Him being there allowed me to do some of the driving without Jack or you could imagine what kind of day he would have had.
5. Jack LOVES the rain! Can't you tell.
6. Morgan's gym performed at a college meet last week and they were practicing for an upcoming performance.
7. Just a note, when I picked her up (without my camera) Morgan was very excited because she had gotten her flyaway off the bars. This and her round off back handspring back tuck were the two skills she needed to move up to level 6. She was so proud especially considering she's only been without a cast for a month.
8. Even though it didn't feel like spring, I pulled out some Easter decorations including this new table runner. I just love this design.
9. And here's a little craft/decor, the vase is filled with daffodils but the outside is surrounded with Peeps.
10. More weightlifting for Garrett. He's up to 90 pounds.
11. Jack is Mr. Snuggly with me lately. If I get a chance to sit, he is either by my side or my likely in my lap.
12. Just another picture. Those rainboots are on backwards, but he did it himself. Just the amount of things Jack is doing by himself makes me appreciate that he still cuddles in my lap. He's 2 1/2 and getting to be such a big boy.

But wait! There's more :)

Here's a better picture of my daffodil vase.


But wait! There's more :)

This arrived this week. I realize it's plain, but I can't tell you how much I love it. Inside this book are all the collages and the journaling that I've shared each month about our life on the 12th. The quote I used on the back sums it up best, "It's the little things that make the big things possible."



But wait! There's more :)
Don't you wish you had this much energy?



That's all for tonight!

12 on the 12th

1. Still loving his train table from Christmas.
2. Talking to Daddy.
3. I am soooo lucky. That's Jack after telling me he was ready for a nap, hopping off to bed.
4. I got to go to Morgan's Valentine party at school.
5. After school we raced over to gymnastics, no time to go home and change. This is Morgan's second week after getting the cast off and she is so excited to have just learned a fly away off the bar and a round off back handspring back tuck on the floor.
6. Took advantage of having a babysitter to run a few errands: bank, post office, and Old Navy.
7. Picked up Garrett and just decided to grab some subs from Subway for dinner.
8. Was at a friends house after school so I only had this opportunity to take his picture today.
9. Chris emailed me some pictures. He is in Sydney and did a walking tour of the city. Even though it's summer, it rained most of the day.
10. And again, in front of the Opera House. He's 19 hours ahead of us.
11. Garrett's flower that was received at school from a secret admirer.
12. Morgan's school had a book exchange. She couldn't find many books that interested her, but found lots of Thomas books. So she decided to wrap up a couple and let Jack open them. It was very cute, he said, "Thank you Morgan. Thank you very much."

Back with 2010's 12 on the 12th

You know when I went to add the picture I accidentally pulled up the collage from January 12, 2009. Wow, look at the difference!

Anyway, here we are at the start of 2010 and ready to begin a new year of 12 on the 12th (or sometimes on the 13th as it is in this case :) )

1. New fun, climbing on the tub deck and turning on the water. Clothes are usually wet and anything he decides to throw in there like his blanket or the nearest towel.
2. Morgan and her new curling from Aunt Cinda and Uncle Mike.
3. The never-too-happy-it's-the 12th Garrett wearing one of his favorite outfits. This is the first pair of jeans he's worn in YEARS (at least 5 if not more).
4. A quick trip to the store and took a snooze after getting up at 5:40.
5. Mommy and Me gymnastics. Today's theme was CARS and he loved it. We might be making progress.
6. Most requested dinner: cheeseburger pizza.
7. Sprouting all over our yard.
8. Morgan and Jack doing "homework" :)
9 & 10 Jack was in a super silly mood, jumping off the ottoman into our arms.
11. Morgan @ 11 years old.
12. A group shot for the new year.

Final Installment of 12 on the 12th

And the final installment of 2009's 12 on the 12th (and once on the 13th). I'll be keeping my eye open for a good photobook deal and will be getting these printed.

1. Jack's 3rd visit with Santa. Not scared, but not exactly enjoying it.
2. Decorating cookies at the club party.
3. Cute, but not a big hit!
4. After the brunch.
5. On our way to a futsal game.
6. It doesn't seem like the season is starting again so soon.
7. A stormy day, a small break in the rain.
8. Morgan-one month shy of 11.
9. A win, second week in a row.
10. Keeping Jack occupied-we went through snacks, a sucker, books and toys-last resort-iPhone.
11. Bench pressing in the garage.
12. Garrett's pretty faithful and works out every other day.

4,589

Any guesses?
Would you believe that's the number of pictures I've taken in the last 12 months?
Wow!
So what have I done with them?
Well the vast majority are on the computer and occasionally backed up (I know, very bad!!).
The rest?
The best are scrapped in one of three albums: Garrett's, Morgan's, or Jack's.
Up until this year I had a family album, but it was just too many to keep up with.

This year I'm attempting to do Project 365 by Becky Higgins. This was a totally new concept to me and I was one of the fortunate ones to get the kit. Unfortunately I didn't get it until the end of March so I was way behind when I started and I'm still behind. But I will finish! And I plan to do it next year. Curious, want more info? This year it is called Project Life. Check it out. If you don't want to scrapbook, this is a great alternative. If you want to improve your photography skills, this will make you think out of the box. She will also be offering a digital version, but I think I'm going to stick to the traditional. I'd love to nudge a few people (you know who you are!) into giving it a shot this year. Have I taken a picture EVERY day? No, almost. But I do think I have a collection of pictures that reflect our year so I've achieved my goal.

Because I didn't have the kit until March, I opted to organize my pictures on a a site called Shuttercal. You'll notice I have it linked on my blog and it shows the most current picture that I've uploaded. My sister says she loves looking through this so between her interest in it and the fact that it visually organizes my pictures, I'll keep it up. Not ready to commit to Project Life, try this next year. It's free and there's not much guilt involved if you don't complete it. And they have a wonderful new feature where you can order the prints and they are coded with the date on the front. Take a look at the video, what a great system! And can I toot my own horn? Go to the homepage of that site. See number 14? That's my picture. Yep, little ol' me! I wrote them a quick email and thanked them for making my day and here is their response, Thanks Julie,

This is Scott (DefaultArtist) I design the site, and I just pick the images for the front out of my favorites section ;) It's a very nice photo! Congrats on making the front page ;)
How cool is that?

Lastly, I've been doing 12 on the 12th. I saw some paper layouts with this concept last year (before I ever heard of Project 365) and thought it was a neat concept. I mentioned this to a few friends and there's a group of us that remind and motivate each other each month. I never planned to scrap the pictures, but in December I'm going to create a photo book so I'll have a collection of my 12 on the 12th collages for the year. My Nana is my biggest fan of these each month. So I will definitely continue with those next year.

So there's the long winded summary about the number 4,589. Is it too many? Better to have too many than too few. Time just goes by too quickly and who regrets having too many pictures when they are feeling nostalgic? I'd certainly regret having too few.

So now the question I have for you...are you going to join me? The more the merrier!

ETA: I just realized that I wrote a post about 4,589 pictures and didn't even post a picture...the irony :)

November 12th

1. Quick breakfast. Loving the honey Chex.
2. Just 4 trips in the car today. Always in jammies for the drop off at school.
3. Weekly fill up of gas.
4. Good to the last drop, literally!
5. Playgroup at the park, but nobody showed up!
6. Pick up...Morgan's out at 2:50 and Garrett at 3:03, takes about 15 minutes just to get through the school.
7. Soccer practice.
8. Carpool with 3 other boys and tried to get a picture, they are an uncooperative crew. But it's quite a site seeing them all packed in my car with their gear with Jack right in the middle of it all
9. Cool enough for a new fall sweater.
10. Loves shoes, taking them off and putting them on.
11. Probably by the next 12th, her hair will be much shorter.
12. Had new hardware put on my cabinets.

October 12

Not my best attempt at 12 on the 12th...I've got 2 busy kids who weren't home a whole lot yesterday, a missing husband, so it was just me and the little man most of the day. Anyhow...you can't plan the 12th, it's just a slice of life.

1. First mess of the day...took out tons of wipes.
2. Dora-totally obsessed right now.
3. Trips in the car today-5
4. Bed head!
5. This kid can't get enough to eat.
6. Off to soccer practice.
7. Morgan's snack before practice.
8. Burning off some energy.
9. She doesn't know how to be still.
10. Monkey see, monkey do.
11. playin'
12. Leaving tennis class. I'm terrible, but I do have fun

Yep, it was the 12th

And, nope, I didn't forget. Just got busy.

1. Woke up early to a big lightening and thunder storm. Morgan says it was the first time she's seen lightening that wasn't on tv. Very light rain, but huge plops.
2 & 11 At the end of the day, Chris, Garrett and Jack went to the golf course. Technically Jack is supposed to be 5 to play there, so they sneak him on.
3. Played for an hour in the sandbox.
4. Wrapping some presents for Jack.
5, 7 & 8 Morgan had a 1 hour private lesson. Still working to that vault and getting her score up. She was absolutely red in the face after that work out.
6 & 9 Garrett's first league game. They lost 0-1.
10. My last day with my one year old. How independent he has become this year.
12. Playing with cars. He will do this for at least an hour at a time.

August 12th

1. Back to school clothes shopping.
2. Meltdown at Justice...couldn't get out of there fast enough.
3. Probably will change Jack to forward facing by the end of the month.
4. This is the 6.7 seconds between my housecleaners leaving and our arrival home where our house is clean.
5. 8 loaves of banana bread were mailed to us. Great surprise, but don't know who to thank.
6. Calling to wish Nana a very happy birthday.
7. Morgan...after being lost a month, happy to have found her iPod.
8. Big boy on the slide.
9. Little boy on the slide.
10. Playing with Garrett is possibly Jack's favorite part of the day.
11. Last golf tournament in Vallejo, CA.
12. Garrett's 4th place finish. Had he competed as a 14 year old, he would have tied for first.

And here's a little golf video. Chris took this at the golf course. I would say at this rate, he could probably finish 18 holes in 4 days :-).

It's the 12th again...oops!

Well it was about noon today before I realized it was the 12th. Luckily I had my little camera with me so I was able to catch up.

1. Morgan with her friend Caitlyn. Since kindergarten they've always been the same height...apparently not anymore.
2. Garrett and his new push cart. Played 18 holes today.
3. Morgan picking berries. She loved the idea, but hated the thorns. She assumed the role of pointing them out.
4. Jack at Gymboree.
5. Morgan and Chris at Gymboree. For the first 15 minutes we had the place to ourselves.
6. More golf...
7. A rare moment of Jack sitting still.
8. My last weight watchers weigh in before vacation. I wanted to lose 8 pounds and I lost.....drumroll...8.6!
9. I was surprised how into the berry picking Garrett was.
10. These were some bushes at the golf course filled with blackberries. The best ones were on top, totally unreachable, but we got plenty of juicy ones.
11. Chris and I went out for a belated celebration of our 18th anniversary.
12. Over dinner we made a list of things we wanted to do.

12 on the 12th

Well the 12th landed on the last day of school this month.

Here's a peek at our day:

1) Spent the afternoon golfing and the evening with friends.

2) Morgan with her teacher gifts.

3) Before gymnastics.

4) Doesn't everybody have a fleece blanket in the toilet? Lucky me, got to fish out a pacifier as well.

5) That's me!

6) They've had this sign up for a month, just torturing the kids.

7) Taking off...

8) Reviewing her very excellent report card.

9) The scooter has been dusted off, learning tricks now.

10) Eating on his terms.

11) I'll be so glad to get these backpacks out of the way.

12) He looks so angelic. Looks can be deceiving.

Post script~

The author of the last article I posted didn't take into account the picture taker's ability. Clearly there are some people who are just not up for the job.

12 on the 12th

1. Lunches...NOBODY likes making them!

2. Garrett getting in some early morning practice.

3. Monkey boy

4. Nap time messed up by falling asleep in the car.

5. Trip to the park...putting climbing skills to good use.

6. Loves the swings.

7. A little fun time in between school and gymnastics.

8. Afternoons, living by the clock. 3:30-Garrett to golf, 5:00 Morgan to gymnastics, 5:30 pick up Garrett from golf, 6:00-8:00 parent soccer meeting, 9:00 pick up Morgan~phew!

9. Golf practice

10. Birthday present....very excited to use.

11. Gymnastics practice.

12. Practicing her front tuck.

April 12 (AKA Easter)

Well it just so happens that the 12th fell on Easter this year. So my normally unwilling participants also known as my family knew that they better cooperate today and I think they did.
I normally number my pictures, but it seems they are pretty self explanatory this month. The Easter baskets for Garrett and Morgan consisted of candy and a few small gift cards to Jamba Juice and iTunes. Jack had a bucket filled with some Little People vehicles and sand toys. G & M still searched for eggs, but on the lawn I had eggs filled with goldfish. Jack was eager for about the first three and then lost interest.
Prior to that we attended the 8:00 church service and went to their pancake breakfast. Chris and Garrett lounged the entire day watching the Masters. Easter is probably my favorite holiday to cook probably because I cook what I like and it's pretty easy to coordinate. This year's menu consisted of ham (from the Honey Baked Ham Shoppe), Boursin scalloped pototoes, sauteed green beans with shallots, salad, foccacia, and yellow cake with a strawberry filling and homemade vanilla frosting. Jenifer was here this year and the weather was beautiful.

12 on the 12th

 
This really snuck up on me this month. Here's a peek at our day on March 12th.
1. The daffodils are in full bloom.
2. Last picture of the day. It's 9:45 p.m. Morgan just got home from gymnastics and is famished some nights. A little snack before bed.
3 Spent the afternoon at the park, beautiful day. Jack spent a lot of time in the swing.
4. First picture~Garrett (and Chris and Jack) out in our garage getting some before school practice time in.
5. Morgan had a minimum day so she came to the park and was the official baby pusher until her friend showed up and then she was "outta here".
6. My little cutie pie.
7. I took a similar picture in December, at the time Garrett was a half inch shorter than me. Today I'm a half inch shorter than him!
8. Giving Jack the Abuteral. He really fights this and it needs to be done 3 times a day.
9. Morgan arriving home from school, Jack had just woken up and was thrilled to see her.
10. A view from my house of the green, green hill that surround us. Unfortunately these indicate allergy season has arrived, but this is my most favorite time of the year. Perfect weather, beautiful surroundings.
11. A forced haircut the other day and I think Garrett is so handsome. He was doing homework really late tonight.
12. Vroom, vroom~such a boy. He doesn't spend a lot of time with his toys, but he does like cars.

12 on the 12th February

Here we are on month two of twelve on the 12th.

1. Morgan is home sick for the second day. She's had a cough for a few weeks, but has had a fever on top of it. Today she was fever-free and feeling much better.

2. She's also feeling a bit bored so we played one of our favorite card games, Blink. We each won a game (and I don't let her win). And then she found something else to do with the cards.

3. Later in the day when we were going a bit stir crazy from being stuck inside for the past two days we made a quick trek to Michaels (and Safeway). Case in point, you don't have to go to school to learn a life lesson. After we checked out, Morgan noticed that a pack of sticker letters had been left in the cart so we weren't charged. So we turned right back around, got back into line and paid for them. The motto at their school is "character counts"...it is our motto at home too.

4. Just after waking up, I had a lot of anticiption for some great pictures of Jack today, but the light was poor and we didn't go outside because it was too cold. Note the collared shirt under his pajamas. Sometimes we let him sleep in the shirt he wore the day prior just to add some extra warmth. We decided he looked like Elvis...old Elvis, that is. He's our Chunk a chunk of burning love :-).

5. End of the day, Morgan and I made at least 6 dozen sugar cookies (Nancy's recipe). I doubled the recipe which meant we seemed to be baking and frosting forever. But they are the BEST cookies...so worth it.

6. Garrett before school. But really this could be Garrett just about any time.. He is in the laptop program so technically he needs his computer to complete all assignments, but just this year he's spending time on iChat with his buddies. Thankfully no girls yet, I suppose that will be next year?

7. This kid is a snacker. We have a lock on the pantry, but he makes a beeline for it when somebody goes in there and raids the boxes. Today's choice, Life Cereal.

8. And he's just as quick when the dishwasher opens.

9. I really try to be an organized person. I mean this appears to be a well organized albeit full filing cabinet. I needed to locate a warrenty and much to my surprise I found it in five minutes. I truly expected this a big source of frustration today and it wasn't.

10. Day 3 of golf tryouts. Although a returning member, there is no guarantee especially with such a strong team. Anyway, he shot 35 today with a combined round of 71. Results will be posted tomorrow, but he shot in the middle of the pack. I think it's safe to say you can send your congratulation cards.

11. With Morgan at home, I turned the camera over to her. Just putting Jack's shoes on before we head out. Shoes, or "sus" is one of his growing vocabulary words.

12. The high today was 52 degrees. It didn't rain, but was cloudy all day.

12 on the 12th

Some new projects are on the horizon and here's a look at one of them. This year I've picked a few photography goals that I want to work on and here's something I've been wanting to try: 12 on the 12th, meaning on the 12th day of every month I'm committed to taking 12 pictures that give a snapshot of our life. So today, armed with my camera by my bed I began snapping. I think I ended up with over 50 pictures and narrowed it down to 12. I didn't have the most cooperative participants to work with, in fact, they were down right hostile! I'm trying to convince the subjects that they will indeed appreciate this someday, but it seems to be falling upon deaf ears.

1. Monday is laundry day here. We opened Jack's new magnets for him to play while I folded clothes. Brilliant boy, can't you tell?

2. Homework, a staple throughout the week. Usually we have few homework wars here, but tonight Morgan left a book at school so we needed to borrow it from a friend.

3. Milk-we go through a gallon of whole milk and about 1 1/2 gallons of 1% every week.

4. Independence-Every day Jack is demonstrating a little bit more independence.

5. The "good" toys. Computers, real telephones, real cell phones, etc...these are the things that Jack really wants to play with now.

6. There are some days when I think it would be great to leave California-cheaper houses, less congestion, seasons, etc...but not today~beautiful sunny skies and 70 degrees. I just need to remember this when I pay the mortgage bill.

7. Preteen-He puts up a good front that he doesn't care how he looks, but he sure has a way with the hair dryer.

8. Carpool~Driving 2 other kids means I only drop off in the morning. It's a beautiful thing!

9. Grocery shopping. Today we went to Trader Joes. The bill was only $80 which means I probably can expect a couple more trips to the grocery store this week. Note the recyclable bags I'm using-making an effort in 2009 to be a little more green.

10. Monday morning...Why when you have all weekend do you need to finish getting your stuff together on Monday morning?

11. Static electricity.

12. Routine-Still in his pajamas after his morning nap, Jack and I don't rush through the morning, just enjoy slowly getting ready.