Is he really 7?

Its hard for me to believe its been 7 years.

 Just a few hours old.

2008 - First Birthday

2009 - Second Birthday

2010 - Third Birthday

 Zoomars Petting Zoo

2011 - Fourth Birthday

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour

2012 - Fifth Birthday

At our local rink.  The Kings won the Stanley Cup this year so I had the mascot come to the party to celebrate with us.

2013 - Sixth Birthday

Party was at the rink (again) with a Wreck it Ralph theme

2014 -

7

I have many reasons why I haven't posted anything since April 30th this year but we won't get into them.  They all fall under that 'life gets in the way' tab that involves work, traveling for work, another promotion and responsibility added to my daily tasks added by my manager.  All 'good' things but things that zap my energy and cause me to walk through the door at night exhausted and ready for bed. Instead of putting my almost 7 year old to bed, he's putting me to bed.  Sad.

I'm emerging from this difficult few months now.  This past Saturday, we celebrated my son's 7th birthday.  We had a small pool party at the local waterpark -  our favorite spot on the one day we all get to be together each week.  We typically get there right when it opens at 9 am and stay til 2-3pm.  I pack a lunch and snacks and we camp out.  His party was the last 'big' thing I had to do which means the next 6 weeks are pretty carefree and I am looking forward to that.

Some pictures from the party....

 Party favors.  I filled mini buckets from Party City with Shark tooth candy necklaces, sunglasses, gummy sharks and other treats.

 The food table.  We used larger buckets to hold chips and snacks.  We had surfboard shaped sandwiches (which I forgot to take pictures of....)

 Buckets of snack like pretzel rods and fish crackers.  I found the ideas on Pinterest to name the food after things like the pretzel rods were 'driftwood'.  Of course, I forgot to bring the labels with  me.  I had a cute set I purchased off Etsy and barely used it.  Time got the best of me.

 Our waterpark.  We love this place.  We spend every Sunday here.

And this is why we love it so much.  The big bucket that spills water.

 My 7 year old.  Its crazy to think he's 7.

 He was in the water already when his friends showed up.  They jumped right in and had a blast!

 Even Grandma got in on the action!

 Lunch time.

Shark jello.  This was a big hit.

 He was mad because I wouldn't let the boys shoot each other in the face with water guns.

 Goggle face...

 They had 10 minute safety breaks every hour to make sure all kids are accounted.  We quickly fed them lunch during the safety break so that they could head back out.  The whistle blew to announce the safety break was over and they all tried to escape.

 After the pool party, we headed back to our house for the family party.  My Grandmother has a tradition of birthday spanks.  One for each year.  This was the first year he let her spank him.

Sadly, it was so humid yesterday the frosting melted right off the cupcakes.  I threw a candle on one and we sang really fast.

After the party, he got to get the BIG Lego set out to build.  He'd been dying to do this all day but the house was crazy.

His real birthday is tomorrow and I have my sentimental post all set up.

Waiting.....

I'm the instant gratification type of person.  I don't like to wait, I don't like surprises.  You know Christmas was hard for me as a kid right?  My mom used to have the best hiding places for my presents.  I wasn't allowed in our garage once and I swore I was getting a mini fridge for my bedroom.  I swore.  So when the really expensive white wicker bookshelf showed up, I was pretty bummed.  Don't get me wrong, I loved that bookshelf and it held all of my precious books, but man, I wanted that mini fridge.

I had to wait until I got to college for one of those suckers.  It was my prized possession for 4 years.

Anyway, the waiting part.  So right now, I'm waiting on my house.  We thought we'd be moved in and partially settled at this point in the month but we're still waiting.  Underwriting was a bear to deal with (if you're in underwriting, I'm sorry) and then escrow.  I will say that my husband and I have dropped some serious 4 letter words in the past few weeks.  Every time they ask us for something new or have a question on something so dang obvious, it make me so mad I could spit nails.

The day after.  I scheduled that week off a long time ago but it was to relax.  Now I'll be moving.  The sad part is, we were given the green light about 6 times by underwriting (grrrrr) and we started packing.  I figured the first and easiest place would by my craft room.  First packed, first unpacked, right?  Wink Wink.

No.  Its all still packed.  That washi tape I need for that last minute project for school?  Packed.  My mist?  Packed.  December Daily materials?  Packed.  Grrrrrr.

I actually unpacked two boxes last weekend because I couldn't stand it anymore.  I actually unpacked before the move.  With all the stress I haven't felt much like crafting but the bug hit and I had to do something.

I threw together this simple tag.  Our elf has been quite active this month and I've got the pictures ready to go.  Tonight he brought a tree.  A small tree.  I wasn't up to anything more and I really don't have the room since the house is full of boxes!  I contemplated building a box tree.  You know, stacked boxes in the shape of a tree.  Yeah.  I'm sad.  I was going to put a string of lights around it too.  

Features a stamp from the Kelly Purkey set from SSS and flair from a {flair} for buttons.  There are a ton of new sets in the shop to chose from.  I've got a few sets ready for the DD book when it goes together.

I have a good reason....

for not posting more lately.  The job is still weighing me down but we've also been looking at places to buy.  Its just the right time for us.  We owned up until a few years ago and then between job changes and my parents moving to Canada for a couple of years - we've been renting.  Its an odd situation but it worked for all of us.

And now its time to move on and buy again.

We found the cutest place just perfect for our little family of 3.  (Our last house was 3000 sq ft.  I had plans on filling it with 2-3 kids but life had other plans for us.) We found the community just a few miles south of where we are now so we're still close to my parents and grandparents.

We're officially in escrow and it feels good to know our belongings will  be out of storage soon.  The place is perfect.  The colors go perfectly with what we already own.  I'm just going to throw in some accent colors here and there.

Of course, I've been looking at Pinterest and pinning things I want to do.

The most important part?  I still have a hidey-hole to craft in.  I have the perfect plan for my new space but I need to downsize some.  Since I don't craft as often, I'm perfectly okay with that.  I sold off all of my punches and half of my washi tape last week.  I'm going through paper now and trying to decide what I can and cannot live without.

I'm also deciding which furniture will make the move into the space as well.  Its going to be interesting but I'm excited to finally get a permanent space.

Here are some pictures of the place:

The entry.  Stairs head up to main living area.

 At the top of the stairs you go straight for the living room/kitchen or turn around to get into my scrap area.  Its about 10x10.  Nothing fancy.

 Looking back at the entry and the scrap space.

 The kitchen.

And this is the scrap space.  Its a lot bigger than the pictures make it out to be.  Once I get the furniture in there its going to be cozy and perfect.

And some of the furniture for my room:

I have one of these:

And a Alex/Linmonn desk from Ikea (I currently have one set of drawers.  I will be purchasing a second set for the opposite side).  I have the white desktop and the longest one which is I think 72 inches.

And a 2x2 Expedite

Along the long wall will be a 2x4 Expedite and a white kitchen hutch that I don't want to get rid of but have no other place to put it.

I am very excited to get escrow over with and move in.  Since I have some time I'm buying slowly.  A rug here.  A pillow there.  The floors are a grey color and the walls are a grey/brown color.  I love the neutrals.  The kitchen is white/black granite so I'm sticking with our greys/whites and throwing in teal as the accent color.

Ikea is my new best friend right now and I've made several trips just to price and size things.

Excuses and projects

I have 101 excuses why I haven't posted anything recently.  All of them have to do with Back to School week and a new position at work.  Without going into details, someone was let go in my district and the District Manager hand picked me to fill in temporarily with the opportunity to apply for it.  There were a few changes within the district (people transferring or being fired) so there are people moving all over.  I am the only Assistant Manager to get promoted though.  While I'm still interim, I am the front runner for the actual position.  I signed my official 'Temp' offer letter today so that my pay grade increases while I'm 'filling in'.

This all intermingled with Back To School week which was hectic.  At the last minute, my son was given a different teacher.  It was a hard pill for us to swallow since he had been with a certain teacher all summer and with no notice at all, he was moved to the other Kindergarten teacher.  She's less organized and 'cool' but we're making strides.  The one he has been with is a Pinterest freak like me and   just crafts in general.  The other is the complete opposite and we just didn't 'click'.

My son seems to think she's okay and he hasn't resisted going to school lately so I'm guessing its going better.  He's also not in the class with his friends.  They all made the move from Early Kinder to Kinder this year and the plan was to keep them together so the few that stayed would have each other to lean on.  His entire class is new.  There have been a few behavioral issues with him because of this but I keep in close contact with the school to make sure the behavior is getting better and not worse.  I snapped some quick pictures of him on the first day before we got the bad news that he was with the 'wrong teacher'.

 They got to bring a stuffed animal on the first day to help them get through it.  He picked Shamu.

 My Pinterest sign.  I had a chance to print it out but never got around to getting a frame to put it in.  Oh well.

 Teacher gift.  This was totally personalized for the teacher we were told we were getting.  She got it.  I told her it was a thank you for the great summer.  I have yet to make anything for his actual teacher.  I don't feel bad since none of the other parents brought anything on the first day so we rolled with it.

 My boy in his uniform.  He's starting to look so old to me.  He's almost 50 inches tall!

 His new 'big boy' backpack.  He picked this one out instead of a character backpack.  I tried talking him into a Cars or Thomas one but he said he was 'an adult' now and needed an 'adult' backpack.  I'm not a cryer but that made my eyes a little wet.

 At his desk.

I've had just a few sleepless nights over the changes going on both personally and professionally.   Its a busy time at work anyway.  This has really cramped my desire to craft.  I went almost 2 weeks without even setting foot into my scrap room.  I have orders and kit club boxes piling up on my chair.  I literally threw them in there thinking I would open them the next night and never got around to it.  Now I have 4 ziploc bags with various kit clubs organized for this month AND my paper purchases from my LSS and online have been filed away in the Cropper Hopper.

I also found a small stack of layouts I completed just before the you know what hit the fan at the end of August.  I am trying to pull an old kit and work through it until its gone.  I'm still underwater with kits.  WAY too many.  I cancelled all but Cocoa Daisy now so that should help.

This was made with the February 2013 Studio Calico kit.  Love the colors in this one.

 Some hand stitching to accent that zigzag pattern.

 Paper clips and enamel dots.