My So-Called Life

Christmas Card ~ Help Me Decide

I can't decide between these two designs.  I created card A first - easy, graphic, won't take a lot of ink to print, but part of me feels it might just be too simple.  Then I ran some actions on the photo and created a more vintage-feel to the card, and I think it's kind of cool that it's like a mini layout.

However, I just can't decide what to go with?  Help!  Which card would do you prefer?


I'm hoping that once I make a decision, I can get these out over the weekend...yay, another thing to cross off my list.

Here's a layout of a much younger Emma that I created yesterday for Designer Digitals:


For a full list of credits, please visit Little Doll at Designer Digitals.

Happy Thursday....it's almost Friday...which is almost the weekend...yay! :)

Thankful

In celebration of Thanksgiving, I created this layout last week.  All products are from Designer Digitals and for a full list of credits, please click on the link here: Thankful



This photo was taken last Thanksgiving. I can remember how sick Emma was with bronchitis in the two weeks prior.  You can't really tell here, but her lips were so chapped and cracked from being sick - poor baby.  Thanksgiving was the first day she really felt more good than bad. 

And here we are, a year later, and she is sick again. :(  Since she had the flu and then pneumonia in late September, she really hasn't totally recovered.  Then on Saturday night, she woke up crying with an earache.  Even a healthy dose of Motrin lasted just a few hours.  So off we went to the doctor Sunday morning to find out that her left eardrum was on the verge of rupturing and that her right was also infected.  She was still slightly wheezing, and had lots of chest congestion.  I swear, I feel like I practically keep her in a glass bubble, and make sure she takes her meds, and she still gets sick way more often than she should. 

I feel like this, and then I have to remember that Ryan was always sick as a little kid.  He always had fevers and tummy bugs, and boy, did he miss a ton of school.  Doctors and friends kept telling me that at about 7 years old, children's immune systems will finally kick into gear, and they won't get sick so often.  And you know what?  That was pretty much Ryan's experience.  Now, he hardly ever gets sick.  He used to have so many indoor/outdoor allergies, and now, he's hardly ever bothered.  I'm SO hoping and praying that this will be Emma's experience.  Of course, Ryan never had asthma like Emma does, but I've even heard from plenty of people how they have outgrown their asthma as well.  Crossing my fingers for sweet Emma Lou.... xxxxxx

I would love to hear from any blog readers what your experience or your children's experiences have been.  Does it get better the older they get?  Have your children 'outgrown' their asthma?  Hoping to hear some uplifting news.

Happy Wednesday!

Thanks for the Remembories

Emma Lou managed to tickle my funny bone once again the other day.  I was calling her to come to the kitchen to take one of her allergy medicines.  Finally, after the 3rd time, she came running to me.  When I asked her what she had been doing, she replied,

"I was reading my remembories in my room, Mommy."
"Your 'remembories'?" I asked.  "What are your 'remembories'?"
"You know, Mommy...my book that has the remembories.  I'll go get it!" and she ran back to her room.

I had no idea what she was talking about so I was totally caught off guard when she brought back this little 4"x6" photo book we had given her when she was a baby.  I'm sure you've seen one; it's made of soft squishy plastic, bright colors, a cute little handle, and each page has a clear plastic insert in which to display a photo.  When she was a baby, we filled it with pictures of her, Ryan, myself and Roland - you know - to help her identify her family.  So I guess she knew it was filled with MEMORIES but got that word confused with REMEMBERING. 

I did explain to her that the photo book held "memories" not remembories.  And you know what she said?

"I know, Mom...that's what I said."



Cheeky little monkey. 

In other news, I may have neglected to mention that not even a week after the football season ended for Ryan, he was trying out for the basketball team.  He's never played and really thought he wouldn't make the team since over 40 boys were trying out.  Being the athlete that he is, however, he managed to impress the coaches and made the team.  Yay! I'm really proud of him!  The bummer is that practice is at 6:45 in the morning - ugh.  Not so fun.  I have to hand it to him, though, he's been great about waking up at 5:45 each morning. 

His first game was last night, and boy, was it a good one!  They went into overtime but ended up losing by one point.  :(  There will be many more games though so his team will definitely have a chance to redeem itself. 

Here are some photos from last night.  Bear with me as I practice my indoor sports photography - that's a whole new ballgame (no pun intended!) for me!


And, of course, I can't post without sharing a layout.  Here's one I recently created for Designer Digitals.


Full credits can be found at The Perfect Pumpkin at Designer Digitals. 

Any big plans for the weekend?  I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, as I'm old enough to be Rob Pattinson's much older sister (no, not old enough to be his mother unless - I know what you were thinking!), but I'll be kicking off the weekend tomorrow night by seeing New Moon with my SIL and her SIL.  Should be fun!

And, of course, my to-do list for the weekend is long - wish me luck! ;)  Have a great one!

But I'm Too Tired to Say Amen...

"Time for bed, Emma," I said.

"I'm going," she muttered grumpily.

"Did you brush your teeth?" I asked.

"Yes.." she said as we moved toward the bed.

After she crawled in, I reminded her to say her prayers. 

She answered, "No."

"Emma, say your prayers," I urged.

"Uh un," she shook her head.

"Emma, why don't you want to say your prayers?" I asked, starting to get frustrated.

"Okaaaaay..."

She manages to recite Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep and adds a few personal notes but doesn't say Amen. 

"Emma, say Amen so you can finish your prayer."

"No..." she says as she struggles to keep her eyes open.

"Emma, just say Amen and then you can go to sleep."  Now it's become my mission for her to say Amen - I don't know why, lol!

"No way!" she breathed angrily, half asleep.

"Emma Grace, say Amen." Inside, I'm cracking up over this whole exchange.

But Mommy, I'm too tired to say Amen..." she finally says.

Well, there you have it. 

Ooooo, my little Emma Lou!  I never know what she's going to say on any given day.  She definitely keeps me on my toes, that's for sure!

And here she is in a fairly recent layout though the pictures were taken over the summer. 



Everything here is from Designer Digitals.  For a complete supply list, please visit Beautiful Braids at Designer Digitals. 

Have a fab Monday!  It's going to be a long one for me...wah...

Some Layouts and a Sale!

Well, I wish I could have posted about this earlier in the weekend, but a sick little girl (she ate some moldy turkey from a newly-bought Lunchable - long story for another time but consider me ticked!) prevented me from getting much computer time this weekend. 

Nevertheless, I'm here now, and wanted to share some layouts and let you know that there is still time to take advantage of the quarterly sale at Designer Digitals.  Just about everything in the store is 30% until Tuesday morning, 6am!!   Plus, there were so many new and fantastic items introduced this weekend; double incentive to shop! :)

Here's a layout of Emma and her beautiful (yes, I'm biased) natural highlights.  Where she gets this hair, I do not know...

For a full list of credits, please see Natural Highlights at Designer Digitals. 

And here is another football layout of Ryan.  This was taken after their last game about a week ago.  I'm just blown away when I look at this photo.  Where did my little boy go?

For a full list of credits, please visit Quarterback at Designer Digitals.

Some of my fave photos of Em are in this layout. This was for the Saturday Scraplift a couple of weeks ago at Designer Digitals. 

Full credits can be found by visiting Life Itself...at Designer Digitals. 

I'm hoping to get a couple of pages done this week.  All the new stuff in the store is really inspiring me to create. Now...if my crazy schedule will allow me some creative time this week...

Happy Monday!

Halloween 2009

Busy, busy, busy....that's all I am these days, but I wanted to show some photos from Halloween.  Here is Em in her pink kitty cat costume.  She had such fun coming up with "cat poses" and leaps and twirls in the air. 





Ryan and his friend decided to hang back from trick-or-treating and hand out candy (and scare kids).  Here he is with a predator mask and the afro wig he wore last year hiding behind one of our hedges and waiting for his next victim!



Em and I had a good time in the kitchen Friday night and Saturday morning.  We made these ghosts out of vanilla chips - super easy!


And here are the cookies we made from scratch and then decorated.


And though I probably won't scrap these photos for a while, I did manage to finally scrap LAST year's Halloween photos. 



All supplies are from Designer Digitals.  For a full list of credits, please visit Halloween 2008. 

And I don't know about you, but I'm still trying to get used to the time change.  I haven't been able to stay up as late as I usually do which is driving me crazy.  I mean, I'm WAY more tired than I should be, and it's throwing me out of whack.  Oh well, I'm sure it's only a matter of time to adjust.  Hopefully soon...

The Pumpkin Patch

What a weekend!  Roland and Ryan were out-of-town as Ryan had yet another baseball tournament.  Emma and I stayed home as there were a million and one things to do.  On Friday, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for my dear nephew's 6th birthday party.  On Saturday, we visited the Halloween Spirit store to pick out Em's costume (a pink and black kitty), then to the movies to watch Where the Wild Things Are, then on to my brother's for his birthday dinner (where Em was in doggie heaven with Hilo and Kona).  Finally, today, we cleaned house, started to put up the Halloween decorations, then, when we heard thunder, we realized we had to rush to the pumpkin patch before it started raining. 

We got to the patch as the dark clouds were rolling through, but the rain held off right until we were ready to purchase our pumpkins.  And even though we were a bit rushed, I think I managed to snap some decent pictures. 

This crow was too funny!








I can't wait to scrap these.  Katie Pertiet and the other designers at Designer Digitals Digital Scrapbooking have so many cool fall-themed products, and I'm dying to use them.  I'm feeling inspired after taking these photos AND after having some fall-like weather lately with more to come later this week.  Now, if only Halloween won't be so hot and humid like it always is.  Rumor has it that it might actually be pretty nice.  We'll see....

Helloooooooo...

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've blogged!  We have had a rough time in the Rodriguez family over the past few weeks, that's for sure.  In a nutshell...

• Emma came down with strep throat
• Ryan (who is never sick) was sent home from school with fever, chills, sore throat, etc.
• We spent 3 hours in the doctor's office for him to be diagnosed with the flu
• We had to cancel his birthday festivities that weekend
• Two days later, Emma began having flu symptoms
• This time Emma and I spent 2 1/2 hours at the doctor's office
• I began feeling sick but had to suck it up to take care of the kids
• Emma missed 5 days of school, and I missed 5 days of work
• I finally went to the doctor myself and found out I had bronchitis
• I was prescribed super strong antibiotics that had horrible side effects
• Emma had to go back to the doctor two more times, and we found out that she had mild pneumonia
• We did manage to celebrate Ryan's birthday finally

And of course, when I finally went back to work, I had tons of catching up to do and actually just had a big event on Sunday.  Em is still fighting the pneumonia, but she is doing pretty well all things considering.  She's back at school, just on restricted activity.

Anyway, I hope to be back and blogging more regularly now.  Here's hoping we all stay healthy! 

Here are a couple of layouts I created before we all got sick:



I created this with one of Lynn Grieveson's cool Scrap Express templates and with one of her school kits.  For a full list of credits, please visit First Day of Kindergarten at Designer Digitals.

And here is Ryan's first (and only so far) 7th grade football page!  Check out my little man as quarterback:


Katie's newest Grid Iron Brushes were perfect inspiration for this page!  For a full list of credits, please visit Game Day at Designer Digitals.

Tomorrow is Ryan's last game (I think), and I hope to take some more photos.  I've been taking lots of video, but I'd love to take some more photos.  This season has flown by! 

Rainy Day Football and New Puppies

Meet Ryan.


Meet Mark.


Both are football players for their 7th grade team.  Ryan is at the quarterback position, and his friend Mark is a receiver.  They decided to get in a little extra practice on Saturday before their first game this week. 

 

Obviously, a little rain didn't stop them. 



No sirree...after months and months AND MONTHS of no rain whatsoever, a little rain and mud didn't bother them one bit. 



And because my lawn was extremely happy, I was happy...and I didn't mind one bit either.

 

As you can see, I took lots of pictures. ;) 

Emma was dying to get in on the action, but that was where I drew the line.  I knew I would have to be the one to clean her up, and truly, I wasn't THAT excited about the rain.

After Ryan had had enough mud, we headed home.  Thank goodness the field was just down the block as there was no way Ryan was getting in my car!  I had driven over with Emma when the boys were already playing as it was pouring rain.  It had pretty much stopped by the time we made it to the field.  Anyway, I drove back while the rest of the gang headed home on foot. 



Emma raced to get to the house before her Daddy.  Ryan already had the hose...

 

Until Roland turned it on him! 
 

Hey, I was happy for him to get most of the mud off.  And Emma, well, she just wanted to get wet.


Later on Sunday, my brother had posted on his Facebook page that he and his family were at the Humane Society *looking* at dogs - emphasis on looking.  A bit later, I saw that he had updated with a picture of not one, but TWO cute little puppies in a basket with a pink collar on one and a blue collar on the other.  OMG! 

Both Emma and I are allergic to cat and dog dander and that is one among many other reasons why we don't have a pet ourselves.  That has never stopped Emma from absolutely LOVING animals - dogs especially.  When she saw the puppies her cousins now owned, she begged and pleaded and pleaded and begged for us to take her over so she could meet them. 



Needless to say, it was love at first sight. 

This is Kona on the left and Heelo (not sure if I'm spelling that right) on the right.


We had a hard time tearing her away from the two pups.  She was especially in love with the girl, Kona.

Since we left, all we've heard is how much she wants to go back!  I don't blame her, they are pretty cute.  I can only wish my brother and SIL good luck in dealing with TWO puppies - yikes!

Don't forget, you still have time to visit Designer Digitals, Digital Scrapbooking Community for the 30% off sale.  The sale is through Tuesday, 6am and boy, are there some awesome new things in the store!  Hope to see you there!

Football, Dinosaurs and a Sale!

When we found out that Ryan's first football scrimmage was going to be held this past Wednesday, I was excited for the opportunity to watch him play and to take photos of him.  Well, after more than a year of very little rain in the area, we got almost 3 inches on Wednesday alone.  And...you guessed it...the game was canceled. :(  Darn it!  He was very disappointed, as was I.  I mean, the last time he played football, he looked like this:

For one brief season at 8/9 years old, he played on a Pop Warner league.  And after that, he decided he liked playing baseball better.  I was kind of glad he'd decided football wasn't quite for him as I was always worried about him getting hurt.  Sorry, it's just the mom in me; can't help it!

So now, I get to worry about him all over again.  He'll have another scrimmage next week and then the *season* starts the week after.  Should be exciting and nerve-wracking, I'm sure. 

In the meantime, I wanted to post a couple of layouts I've created for Designer Digitals.  This is one I just finished a couple of nights ago. I've also wanted to scrap these photos of Emma, but had been uninspired until now.  Anna's Emergency Elements were just what I needed.  For a full list of credits, please visit Pneumonia at Designer Digitals Digital Scrapbooking Site.

  
Sweet girl!  She's had pneumonia two more times since these pictures were taken - can you believe it?!  This was the only time she was hospitalized, however.

And here is another one of a trip a couple of Spring Breaks ago.  We were actually in McAllen for a baseball tournament but decided to take advantage of the Gladys-Porter Zoo nearby in Harlingen.  Well, lucky for us, they had just opened a special dinosaur exhibit THAT day.  Emma was thrilled as she is a big dino lover.  However, when she actually encountered the huge animatronic T-Rex, she was scared!  It took a lot of coaxing to get her to realize it was not real.  It's easy to forgot how big things can look to a little kid! 



Notice how she is looking away in that one photo?  She couldn't take her eyes off the the giant T-Rex.  For a full list of credits, please visit Dinosaur Exhibit at Designer Digitals, Digital Scrapbooking Site.

I have actually scrapbooked some of these photos before in paper version. 



Pretty much everything used on the page is from Basic Grey, and I handcut the titles. 

And I just wanted to let you know that Designer Digitals is having their super fabulous quarterly sale right now.  Just about everything in the store is 30% off until Tuesday, 6am.  And today, there are chats around the clock with lots of freebies and prizes being given away.  Check out the Designer Digitals Chat Schedule!