In Search of Myself

Jake-isms with Thomas

Jake has been learning more random stuff from Thomas the Train.
At one point in a video the narrator says "Thomas' driver applied the brake . . ."

So on Sunday when I was driving, whenever I came to a corner or a light, Jake would shout:

"Mom!  apply you brake!!!  Apply you brake!  We not crash in da ravine!"

Thanks, Jake.  that helps.

Annoying, I know.

I was too busy at work today to write anything, but I took this quiz last week and I thought the results were cool (perhaps just because it says my blog should be purple!) so I thought I'd share:

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything. You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey. You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Let me know what it says for you!

'doh

Ok, so we're 27 days into the month and into the new year -- and I JUST REALIZED TODAY that the received by (department)/date stamp we all share in this office?  NO ONE has thought to change the year from 2005 to 2006!  We have been date-stamping invoices wrong for A MONTH now.

We're ALL stupid.

(on that note . . . does anyone else LOVE NBC's "The Office"?  It makes me laugh SO SO HARD!)

Not just a hobby . . .

At the request of my child, I'm going to start making more scrapbook pages starring Thomas.  The other day I was showing Jake -- on the computer -- the last Thomas page I made for him, and he said "I think you have print that."  Then he said he needs more Thomas in his scrapbook.  He is SUCH a goof.

So here is the latest (click on each page to enlarge):

P.S. hidden in the journaling in this layout is something I haven't had a chance to make an official announcement about . . .

JAKE IS 100%, FULLY POTTY-TRAINED!  This happened in December and I just never bothered to blog it (I SUCK.)

New pages. Again.

Here are my two latest scrapbook pages.  I don't know what's up with my obsession with the KiMemories paper line -- I just love using it.  (Umm, these are paper and not digital.)  Anyway, I was mentioning on a message board last month that I was trying to buy Ki paper but apparently no one wanted my money because my local store AND an on-line store were sold out of everything.  A really sweet girl that I talk to sometimes e-mailed me and told me that she was getting rid of a TON of her Ki stuff (a lot of people who defect to digi get rid of ALL their paper scrapping supplies) and that she would just SEND me her Ki.  FREAKING WOW.  And it was all stuff I didn't have yet, so it was totally like Christmas.  And the crazy thing is, the turquoises?  The PERFECT match for Jake's new Thomas p.j.'s!!!  (oh, and in that page, the paper that "art" is on, folds out for a mini-book to talk about what Jake was doing.)  I took pictures of the pages, 'cause my camera does better than my scanner, somehow, for color.  That's why there's a black background.

Best. Friend. Ever.

Ok, I love my sista-friend Andrea-Ra.  In the 3.5 years since I've seen her (she was here in town when I was like 7 months pregnant), I don't think I've sent her one thing -- a letter, a card, a gift . . . nothin'.  ('Cause I SUCK.  And yes, I'm starting to feel REALLY guilty about this, especially since her birthday was on Christmas and I'm not sure now if I told her happy birthday.)  Andrea, though -- that girl sends me cards, presents, little scrapbooks, presents for my son . . . she freaking rocks.  Well yesterday I got a package in the mail from her, which completely surprised me -- and it was a BEAUTIFUL necklace for my birthday!  I absolutely love it.  And it was in the prettiest little bag and box (so I of course had to immediately get out my camera and black velvet for a photo shoot -- this is 3 pictures put together, the sizes aren't relative to each other.)  Andrea, you are a darling and I love you beyond expression.

I'll be under the couch.

hee hee hee.  I think this might be my current favorite scrapbook page.  (You have to read the journaling.)  The elements are from Janel Kretschman - Designer and owner of  www.thedigishoppe.com -- this is a combination of her free kits, "Thankful" and "Puppy."  Pictures were taken by my awesome sister Sheri.

Saturday

Saturday was quite a day.  It started off very lazily (which I'm all for, considering how insane my week days are.)  Jake always gets up at the butt-crack of dawn (ok, at 7 or 7:30) and comes in my room and says "Mom.  I hungry. Mom?  Mom?  I hungry, mom.  I need some cereal.  Mom?  You come downstairs and get me some cereal?  Mom?  I hungry, mom."  On and on until I drag my butt out of bed.

Usually I sit with him while he eats his Fruit Loops (with all the purples taken out first, of course), his bowl sitting on top of a kitchen towel (easier than fighting the spills), and then I put in a train video and let him play.  I lay down on the couch and I'm in and out of sleep most of the morning, as he's REALLY GOOD at playing independently now.  I help him with stuff when he needs me, but on the whole Jake will let me rest when he knows I'm exhausted.  (And I should note that I usually stay up late on Friday nights getting stuff done on the computer once he's asleep, so it's not like I'm going after 12 hours of sleep in a night.)  Lou on Saturdays is either working or out running errands.

Anyway, so this past Saturday I was meeting my college friend Kim at O'Charley's for lunch.  Poor Jake got confused and thought we were going to visit my COUSIN Kim, so on the way there he was like "Is yo' cousin Kim there yet?" and I had to explain to him (again) that sometimes people have the same name, and it's my FRIEND we're going to see.  Jake was absurdly super-shy during lunch, although he played nicely with his Thomas trains we brought along.  It was nice to hang out with Kim (who was my best friend first semester freshman year and then moved back home), and we're going to try to get together again next month.

The SECOND Jake and I got home . . . ok, it was like 10 minutes later . . . Lou told me that one of HIS college friends was in town and they had figured out a time we could get together.  We had to leave almost immediately -- and we drove to town and hung out with them in their hotel room for like 3 hours.  They have a little boy a year younger than Jake who also likes trains, so I got to see half of Polar Express (I thought it was dumb, but that's just me) and Jake played semi-nicely with the other kiddo.

Ok, THEN we went straight from there to downtown, where we were meeting Lou's family -- like, his WHOLE family -- at The Old Speghetti Factory to celebrate the four January birthdays.  We got there at 5:45 and our reservation for 15 of us wasn't until 6:30 -- so I had to corral Jake for almost an hour.  Jake hadn't had a nap all day AND hadn't had a chance to run around much since it was rainy and cold all day.  And the boy is 40 pounds, it's not like I can just stand there and hold him for more than 30 seconds, ever.  So that was a fun power struggle.  The highlight of the evening for Jake was after dinner when we were about to eat cake, the waiter (in a very loud voice) got everyone's attention, made us stand up, announced our birthdays and had everyone sing to us.  Now remember, Jake is OBSESSED with birthdays, so standing on a chair beside me as an entire room sings Happy Birthday is pretty freaking cool.  After they were done, he sat down for a minute, then said "Let's do it again" and starting singing it and kind of looked behind him like "why aren't you people singing?"  Lou and I about fell out of our chairs, we were laughing so hard.

I have a personal belief that for young children you should NEVER fully schedule your day, especially without nap breaks, and you should never take them to more than 2 events in a day.  It's just too much for them to handle.  So I broke my own rule -- completely unintentionally -- and I think we're not doing anything this coming Saturday but staying at home and watching TV.

Walmart takes over the world.

Does this freak anyone else out?  Watch this slide show at Forbes.com for some scary numbers.  (It will probably be easier to hit "stop" once you're there and click through "next" manually, 'cause it goes pretty fast.)

Interestingly, there is a blog called "Walmart is Pure Evil" (it looks blank, but you have to scroll down for the content), click here for a blog article with a similar thought, click here for another interesting article.  What's REALLY funny, is if you Google "Walmart is evil," you will get 2,540,000 links to wade through.  So if these links aren't enough, you can keep browsing and reading.

Oh, and here is a link to the movie that explains why Walmart is evil.  Good times.

Thomas the Train

I finally got around to making a page about how much Jake loves Thomas.  ;o)