Kelleigh Ratzlaff Blog Train

Hi there and happy Wednesday!

Welcome to my humble little stop on the Kelleigh Ratzlaff Blog Train! I’m just a newbie to the whole hybrid thang, and have found Kelleigh’s templates to be not just a helpful tool, but a real source of inspiration. The first thing of hers I ever downloaded was her standard envelope template, which is FREE (!), and really really easy to use. This gave me the courage to try my hand at her new Seed Packet Card template, also incredibly easy to use and fun! Here’s what I made:

Here’s the inside of the card:

(Also featured is the upcoming Adventure is Out There collection by Michelle Batton Designs, also available 4/26 at the Digi Chick) I made this card for my Week 2 project for Heidi Swapp’s Art of Observation class, in which we were called to make file folder about preparing for a special event. My special event is attending my son, Quinn’s college graduation (I know, right?) Here’s how the card looks when added to the project:

I’ve used it as an interactive element for recording the to do’s as you can see above, and also for inserting odds and ends in the little seed packet pocket. I adore it, and now that I have mastered two of Kelleigh’s more basic projects I will definitely be back for some of what I consider to be her more creative and advanced goodies!

Leave a comment below for a chance to win one of two $10 gift certificates to Kelleigh’s store at The Digi Chick! Be sure to visit and comment at all of the blogs for more chances to win! The deadline for comments is Thursday, April 26th at 9pm.

Here’s the list of participating blogs:

kelleigh ratzlaff – http://kelleighratzlaff.com/
The Hybrid Chick/Pattie – http://www.thehybridchick.com
Ria – http://www.dragonmagic.nl/
Nikki – http://onefaithfulstep.blogspot.com
Andrea – http://www.boyerville.net/ YOU ARE HERE!
Rabogner – http://rcbogner.blogspot.com/
Roelien – http://hellosunshinecreations.blogspot.com/
Donna – http://scrappydonna.blogspot.com/
Cathy – http://scrappycath.blogspot.com/
Elise – http://elisespieces.com
Ceci V – http://www.craftinginthenight.com/
Michelle P – http://ladyofleisureink.blogspot.com/
Joana – http://joanastamps.blogspot.com

Making some changes

Hey there, it’s me again! I’m making lots of changes around here, and I’m going to be blogging again regularly. No, really.

Meanwhile, what do you think of the new look? I am in need of some honest feedback. I think it looks better this way. But what do you think?

Here are some cute pictures, mostly from Easter:

Wally Eats

This is a post

about Wally learning to self-feed

Using honey wheat pretzels he dips in apple sauce

That I hope to find time to edit with more text later. But if I don’t get around to editing it, at least you have some great photos of a little guy who is learning stuff.

PS I didn’t teach him how to do this, he just figured it out. All I do is make sure that he doesn’t throw the bowl of apple sauce.

 

Addie’s Princess Party

Past few days I have been beyond busy. Just running around, trying to get stuff done, and not really doing it. Lots of bustle. Not a lot of substance. Tons of frustration. Switching our cable provider, trying to get the truck inspected (but there keeps being a long line) going to multiple parent teacher conferences, stuff like that. Going to the store and forgetting why I went. LOLLERSKATES. I have a powerpoint about obesity due on Monday that I haven’t started. But at this point I know so much about obesity I could probably wing it. I was telling somebody today that at this point I can’t let myself get fat again because it will have been an education wasted. Anyway.

Today was Addie Riggle’s birthday party with a princess theme. I guess you could say the girls were excited to go. 🙂 My GPS got me lost (probably need to update it), but I got there eventually after calling Clara several times. Anyway, I mention that because, by the time we got there, Walt was out cold. I put him down on a table, and I think he looked hilarious there.Like, “Hey, did somebody lose a baby?” Also, worry you not, I either stood right by him or had another mom do it the whole time he was asleep, and he never once fell off the table. Here’s a sweet close-up:

The girls wore their Princess finest to the party. You know, I never thought I’d allow my daughters to do this, get all crazy over Disney Princesses. Ugh, it’s just kind of crass commercialism, and they are, in some cases, terrible role models. Plus, it’s just not very interesting, is it? But whatever, I guess as I get older I am deciding what is worth becoming indignant over. What’s worth making a stand. And some dress up is not it. Knowwhaddimean? Not that it doesn’t slightly rankle me every time they do it. I mean, when I was their age, my dad was reading me Mark Twain, and my mom was reading me folk tales about Baba Yaga. I just LOVED Baba Yaga. And I’m letting them watch Barbie movies. Again, however, what’s worth kicking myself over, and what’s worth letting slide? Just a thought.

Anyway, here are the girls in their princess finest. First, lovely, fair Atha. Oh, I got her hair cut, by the way. It looks better, doesn’t it? Okay so we have lovely Atha, and we have Genny, who is, once again, a bit more punk rock. 

It was a lot of fun. Clara throws a mean birthday party. They put on nail polish, and made their own lip gloss, and then she made them crazy wild brownie sundaes.In this picture, I like to think Atha is saying, “Oh wow, I don’t think I can finish this.” (She didn’t.) In the next picture, I like to think Genny is saying, “I wish I could lick the plate.” (she didn’t. Thank goodness. But she did eat almost all of it.) 

Here’s another spunky photo of Gen, in which she’s just being casual hanging out. 

Well, I have some more photos for you, but I’m going to save them for tomorrow. This morning at breakfast, Walt figured out how to feed himself his applesauce. It was pretty awesome. But I have to get to bed, so we can go to church tomorrow and then come home and do homework, plus clean up this dump. It’s a big mess. Till then, I’ll leave you with this:Look at that dude!

Totally Blew it Off

I completely blew off blogging for two days! The first day was a complete accident, I just forgot. Then yesterday I was gonna, and I was gonna, and I was gonna, and then I just thought, nah. Hahaha. Anyway, I’ve been kind of running around in circles trying to get stuff done the last couple of days, because there is so much to be done this week, but of course not a lot is getting done. The main thing I managed to do was to make the switch from Time Warner to DirecTV. Well, the wheel is in motion. The folks are coming on Thursday to set us up. Let’s just say that Time Warner could not retain me. They have this kind of b*llshit policy where they can’t tell you how much your bill will be, should you change up your service. I was like, “Well, what if I disconnect the VOIP phone service, but kept everything else, then how much would my bill be?” Answer: “You will have to call back when your service is disconnected to see what promotions are running then.” Me: “WHAAAAAA? You can’t tell me how much my bill would be?” They: “no, because there may be different promotions on that day (5 days from now), and we wouldn’t want to give you the wrong figure.” Well, that is just bad policy. So we are leaving TW for tv and phone, but we are keeping Roadrunner internet because it is much, much faster than what DirecTV could offer. Bottom line is that we will be getting more for less. And that is good.

Here are pictures of children. First, Genny’s school picture, which I like a lot. Her school (Murray school) went with Carlton Hubbard Photo, which I think was a great move. The color is great on the pic, and it’s just a great job of a school photo. Friends and family, if you want a hard copy or a digital copy, hit me up at my email or on Facebook and I will get one to ya.

Okay, the girls were playing outside today, and when they do, Walt likes to press his face up to the open door and watch. I managed to get some pics

 

Don’t you just love those? They’re great. HE’S GREAT! Such a sweet boy. Here he is eating a cookie. Actually, not even a whole cookie. ACTUALLY it was a mere 1/16 fragment of a cookie. But he maximized the mess:Okay, now back to playing outside. Atha was playing some game where she was a mermaid or something who was hiding in the kelp, and I managed to get this scamp in the woods shot, which I love: And of course all raucous parties must come to an end. Children become tired, get overwhelmed, and upset each other Now the day has come to an end and I must go to sleep. Tomorrow at 9 am is my conference with Gen’s teaching team! WOW, we’re going to talk about the transition. EEP. Remind me not to forget the draft of her IEP they sent me. Actually, maybe I’ll put it and my notebook in my purse right now. Oh, this reminds me that I spoke to Mrs. Bear, the teaching assistant who was in Atha’s PreK class, and she says she’s nearly positive that they have Gen in their class, which makes me feel a whole lot better. I think Genny remembers them a bit, and I really like them. So I think it’s going to be alright.

On that note, TO BED!!!

 

 

Speedy Saturday

For all I did today (like, nothing) I am now out of time. Day-um. It’s my turn to be the daycare person at church tomorrow, and all the kids REALLY need baths (alright, EDIT-I just re read this, and I realize it looks like I plan on bathing the little church children. I am not. I just meant that I had to bathe my children so they will be clean for church. I could have edited this out, but I’m not because I just find it very, very funny).

Today, Walter officially started breakin’ stuff. Atha came running in the living room, screaming “WALLY’S BREAKING THE HOUSE!! IT’S DANGEROUS!!!” I need me some baby gates. Krap.

Here’s a layout I made today about leaves. It’s fall, 2011 and I am officially obsessed with leaves. It’s true. I used.. wow, a lot of things. The background paper is from In the Moment Papers by NRJ, the paper on top of that was made with my photo and Mixed 3 Madness Workshop by NRJ, the paper leaves are from Leaf Palooza by NRJ, the paint dipped leaves are from Dippers by creashens, leaf alpha is Fallin’ in love alpha by Ju Kneipp Designs, real leaves are from Autumn Sonata by Paula Kesselring, the photo is made wrinkly with Worn photo overlays 5 by Something Blue Studios, and the other alpha I made using the background paper and some cu alpha templates that are by Paula Kesselring and that I think are retired. It’s just a whole bunch of messing around.

And, you know, I gotta be off. Sorry about the brevity. But once again, I BLOGGED!!!

 

This post goes to 11- by now I’m a little bit tired of that myself, actually

Yes, yes, yes. It was Nigel Tufnel day. It was one louder. It was Veteran’s Day. Thank you for your service. It was cold! The girls went outside to play at one point, and both were back inside within a few minutes. Even Genny, who doesn’t feel the cold. Funny thing, she told me she she had a “sun bird,” meaning sunburn, of course. Her nose and fingers must have been tickling, and she mistook that for the sensation of a sun burn? Don’t know.

I have plenty of cuteness today. The girls have been spending lots of time listening to They Might be Giants videos on You Tube. I find a nice playlist, and they will watch for hours. They will watch the song “Blood mobile” over and over again. Anyway, Walter has been “dancing,” it’s adorable. All he does is kind of bop. Not even to the beat. But it’s definitely a reaction to the music. I tried to make a video of him doing it with my phone, but immediately when he saw me holding my phone up he started cheezin’ for the camera. That’s his daddy right there. The video is still super cute. Check ‘er out.

In honor of Nigel Tufnel, I put Walt in a Rock and Roll shirt, and he fell asleep while eating brown rice and sweet potato fries. He was all partied out. I made this layout using eNKay Design’s Boys will be boys collab with Find Your Bliss Designs.

And I also wanted to share these photos with you. Atha wrote a letter to Santa yesterday, and we made this envelope, added a stamp, and mailed it. This is the first time I have ever facilitated doing that. I wonder what happened to it. Whatever, I release it to the universe! It’s mystical! Anyway, here is a photo series documenting it. Atha with her envelope. I used Mixed 3 Madness by NRJ on two out of three of these photos, btw. I just love Nancie’s overlays. Here she is putting the envelope in the slot (no overlay on this one) And this is the best part, yes this is the best part! On the way back from the box, she was so excited she JUMPED FOR JOY. Now SANTA had better get some things from that list! The list was heavy with the mini Lalaloopsy side of the force, just in case you are out there, Santa!

Santa?

You ARE out there, right Santa?

That’s cute Thursday

I have been neglecting the cute lately. That’s terrible. So here you go. A whole post of cute.
(by the way, I just feel I have to add that for some reason this looks weird to me. This post-writing interface. I must have clicked something different; I have no idea what’s going on. So if this post looks weird, just know that I see this, but am currently either powerless to change it, or just really sort of indifferent. Or perhaps I’m curious as to how it will all work out.I’m not sure how I feel. AND YOU’LL NEVER KNOW!)

Okay so today I decided to mess with my camera with the fill flash off. I usually have it on. But this time- OFF. I was taking pictures of Wally eating a cracker. As you can see he is holding his cracker in his left hand. I think he’s gonna be a lefty. He kept reaching for me. First, he pointed:
Then, he reached:
And then he went for the full grab!

And there you have it! Cuteness! Oh, and if cute isn’t good enough for you, howz about something weird?

Oh and if you are my Facebook friend, and chances are good that you are, sorry. This is just kind of a condensed version of today’s Facebook activity. But I’ve been busy doing homework and finally trying to do some fun stuff with photoshop today, so. Eh. But at least I blogged!

Secret Project REVEALED + Report Cards

 

One of the things I’ve been busy with is this, I can now tell you about it, YAY! I am a 2012 Log Your Memory Design Team member! That means I have some layouts published in this year’s memory logbook! Click on the picture above to find out more! I have two layouts published in the book. I wrote blog posts for Log Your Memory the weeks that my layouts are featured, so I’ll link you up those days. This is a really cool project, you should all check it out! There are two books, one with just the weekly challenge ideas, and one that works like a planner. So you can get them combined or separately. The challenges are different from what you might be used to as well, they really make you think. Any questions, please feel free to ask. I’m all about this project!

Genny and Atha both got their progress reports the last few days. Everybody’s doing great, of course. Next week I’ll have their parent teacher conferences, so I’ll have more info then. We all know already that Gen’s transitioning to the regular PreK classroom after the holidays. OH and I got a book in the mail today. On the day that I blogged about Gen transitioning, I got a really nice comment from Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, who wrote a book called Sensational Kids about Sensory Processing Disorder. I am looking forward to reading this, since her sensory processing issues are among the most troubling. Hopefully I get a window of time to sit down with it.

Anyway. Atha. Some of you may remember how her PreK teacher told me that Atha was the most gifted child she had ever taught. But the principal minimized it, refused to test her. Then, last year her kindergarten teacher kind of put her in her own little program. Atha had independent reading modules she’d do, and she also used to assist in leading lessons from time to time. I think they did some preliminary testing for the gifted program, but Atha has her own agenda, she would much rather spend time creating than testing, and I guess she just was more interested in telling stories than in following instructions. I do think that Atha is gifted. I tested off the charts in some areas, Quinn is definitely gifted, although his desire to do exactly as much as required but no more caused him to artfully work around being identified or tested for his whole elementary school career. I have a theory that Genny is gifted, which is why she is so good at doing some things. I think that if her corpus callosum was intact, we’d be having the same discussions with her teachers that we had with Atha’s preschool teachers.

Now, sometimes I feel like people think I’m being, you know, full of myself when I talk about my gifted kids. But I don’t see it this way. I just see it as an attribute. Like somebody is good at sports, or is tall, or has thick hair. Or likes macaroni and cheese. I see it that way. My dad’s side of the family were all smart (but loony) and my mom is no slouch. I just think that I carry a gene or something. Hopefully I don’t carry that loony gene. Although, chances are…

SO anyway, I’m going to ask about that at the meeting next week. Blah. I’m not really looking forward to the meetings, but you gotta do etc etc.

Speaking of “dumb things I gotta do today,” the girls are bumping and bouncing around upstairs, and they should be in bed. I’d better go attend to bidness.

Where’s Atha?

I took this picture yesterday, and I love it. It’s poignant, and moving. There’s Genny, way off in her own little world, all alone, sucking her thumb… it’s sweet and it’s sad and it’s just a neat photo. I love it.

But where’s Atha?

Poor Atha. She had a great report card. She’s mastered almost everything, making great progress in everything else, smart, sweet, loving, creative, with a strong sense of right and wrong. Yet she’s not the baby, and she doesn’t have “special needs” although, everybody has special needs, right? Nobody’s needs are ordinary, or general, we all need what we need. We are all unique, each with unique needs. Sometimes I feel like Atha gets left in the dust just a bit.

Problem is, it’s not like I have a lot of time to spend individually with the kids. I’d love to do that. When Vince is home, we definitely make a point of that. Before he left, he took Genny to a ball, just the two of them. Then, a couple of weeks later, he took Atha camping. And I suppose Girl Scouts is just Atha’s thing. Still, I think it’s important to celebrate each of our children, because each of them is awesome.

Here’s an example. Last night, when I was saying goodnight to her, I asked Atha if she knew how much I love her. She pretended to think for just a minute, and then she said, “I cannot even estimate that number; it’s too big.”

See? Awesome!