havocandmayhem.com

I've been busy this past week. I did a layout last week for a Sugar Free challenge at Sweet Shoppe. The theme was "Why Can't I?" and as I had just recently gone through my crochet UFO bin, I chose "Finish Things" for my layout I decided to make it a goal to finish one of these things & I chose the granny square afghan in the middle. Even though it is the largest of the projects & will take the most time, it is actually the one I am most likely to finish. Most of those projects are UFOs because I get bored with them. The same stitch, the same yarn, over & over. It gets a bit mindless. I can do quick little projects, like the tarot deck bags I used to make, but larger ones, like scarves, ponchos, sweaters, and afghans bore me after awhile, unless there are changes in pattern & yarn. The granny square afghan works well for me because every round is a different yarn, they are relatively short and by the time I get bored making popcorns

The morning started off promising. I had 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time in a couple of weeks. No one had any bad dreams, no one wet the bed, no one woke up at 3:15am just for the hell of it. Everyone slept solidly. The boys got their own breakfast & quietly watched TV from 6:30 until 7, when I get up. Then it went downhill rapidly. My mistake, as I now realize, was getting out of bed. Had I stayed in bed I would not have seen that DH had failed to load & run the dishwasher as he had said he would last night. Had I stayed in bed, I would not have had to say "Get dressed" to Havoc repeatedly over a 10 minute period while he ignored me in favor of teasing his brother.  These 2 things combined to ruin the rest of the morning. I admit having to load & turn on the dishwasher put me in a bad mood. I was expecting it to have been done & was irritated that it was not & now I would have to hand wash things if I was going to get dinner started th

I decided to do Project 365 this year, taking at least one photo a day, ever day. My theme is the boys' toys. Every day I take a picture of whatever toy is handy when I get around to taking the photo. These are the most recent. I'm going to try to post them weekly. Jan 21 - Havoc's favorite bedtime toys Jan 22- trains trapped under track. Life on the Isle of Sodor is dangerous Jan 23 - The gate is to keep our elderly cat out of the boys' room but they play a game called "puppy' with it. The one in the room is the puppy & the other one is the daddy & has to find food & blankets for the puppy Jan 24-We've had this 4 inch helicopter for almost a year. The fact that it still has it's blades is miraculous Jan 25-This seems to be a parade of race cars. Not sure why the big Lightening McQueen is on the firetruck though Jan 26 -Long awaited birthday present Jan 27 -Another birthday present that is getting all the play time today

You Are a Plain Ole Cup of Joe But don't think plain - instead think, uncomplicated You're a low maintenance kind of girl... who can hang with the guys Down to earth, easy going, and fun! Yup, that's you: the friend everyone invites. And your dependable too. Both for a laugh and a sympathetic ear. What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

Have you seen the Backyardigan's episode - The Volcano Sisters? It features Pablo, Tyrone & Austin as the Legendary Luau Brothers and Tasha & Uniqua as the Volcano Sisters. The Sisters are not happy & the Brothers have to make them happy before they erupt. hhmmmm. The Sisters sing this song with a chorus that says "We know what we want, we know what we don't want, so get us what we want" and includes lines about how they won't tell the Brothers what they want, the Brothers have to figure it out with no hints, and they'd better get it right. hhmmmmm again . The Brothers first get a big mask, which is rejected, then a big pearl, which is also rejected and then at the last minute Austin gives them flowers & invites them to their party, which is what the Sisters had wanted. hhmmmmm indeed . I find this episode hysterical, practical and sad all at the same time. It's hysterical because it is a very funny exaggeration of the interaction be

Less than 2 weeks after the last prompt was sent, I completed my Journal Your Christmas album. I am so pleased with myself for seeing it through. There are only 2 days of prompts missing, because I just couldn't think of anyway to do those 2 prompts. That is pretty damn impressive for me. I just ordered my viovio book of all the layouts. It's a 8.5x8.5 book. It is a 34 pages long (the 35th layout is the cover), full bleed, soft cover book and cost $15.51 plus $4.38 for media mail shipping (super saver shipping is available on orders over $30). I found the order & book creation process very easy. I'm not sure how long it will take to arrive. According to my invoice they expect it to ship by Jan 29. Media mail can take up to 21 days. So I'm guessing end of February I will have my book. I'm looking forward to it.

Mayhem needs a haircut. He has coarse curly hair. It has reached a length where the back will lay ok but the top stands up, as if he had been laying on his back while it dried - even if he has not. You can't spray it down either. I've tried. Plus he won't stand still for it & I'm not up for chasing him around the house with a spray bottle at 7:30 every morning. It used to grow out smoother & softer with bigger curls and I could let it get girlishly long before I had to trim it. I'm not sure what happened to his hair texture in the past year, but the only way to deal with it seems to be to cut it. He hates having his hair cut. He will not sit still for a barber or hairdresser. Not on his own, not in my lap, not with the promise of a lollipop if he is good, not with a lollipop already in his mouth, not if they use scissors, not if they use clippers. Even if I manage to persuade him to sit down calmly, he will wiggle, flinch and wail non-stop as soon as the

14 - the King 15 - The best thing about this ship is the anchor 16 - George - he hates rails 17 - We had 4.5 inches of snow today. Get the plows out! 18 - Sledding on the slick melting snow 19 - Weather related car crash 20 - Still snow snow left

Reinds me of my pre-mommy days. I used to date the subject of this song. um...actually I married him. :) D & D song

I did my last photo layout for my Journal Your Christmas album I still have to do Day1, the Manifesto page and I am going to try & do a page for Day 13, Christmas past. But they will both be journaling only. I also did a layout with my daily photos (plus a few extra) We had snow for awhile today! It snowed for about 5 hours & we had 4.5 inches. Then it turned to sleet. Now it is doing nothing. I got some good photos of the kids in the snow. Havoc managed to do some sledding, but the snow was rather deep & damp for it. Mayhem, once he finally ventured outside played with his loaders, plowing the yard. He stayed out longer than I thought he would considering his mittens are too small & we cannot find his boots (which are probably too small also) so he was out in his sneakers in snow up to his ankles. So sometime this month I have to take him to Wal Mart & get some mittens & boots, or maybe get Havoc new boots. One wears 11 and one wears 10/10.5 so the passing

We made it 13 whole days into 2008 with no ER visits. I'm starting to think I should have a sign out front like the factories do "XX accident free days so far". Of course that sign would have only read "41 ER visit free days" due to my own trip there in early December. Havoc was in pain on Saturday, bad cramping. We assumed constipation due to ongoing bowel related issues, possibly he was finally catching the virus that laid DH & I low shortly after Xmas. Only the barest of a temperature - 100.2 at the highest. So we gave him his usual dose of Miralax, some ibuprophin & a heated bean bag. 20 miutes later he was fine. 3 hours later he was back in lots of pain, but once again, heated bean bag to the rescue. This would happen 4 times between 3:30am and 5pm on Saturday. Sunday he was low energy but otherwise pain free. Monday he doubles over in agony during snack time at school & starts panting, which seriously freaks out his teacher (it's his resp

My biggest goal this year is to shop my stash first. I have so many kits that I have used once or not at all and I want to get more use out of them. I also have a lot of random element packs that I am not using. My second is to keep things backed up and purged on a regular basis. My third is do at least one layout a month using some of my Project 365 photos for that month. My fourth is to participate enough in the Sweet Shoppe challenges to regularly earn at least a 30% off coupon every month. My last goal is to get caught up on printing out my layouts & photos

Jan 7 - Harvey's magnet has resulted in a lot of playtime recently Jan 8 - Lizzie can fit on the train tracks Jan 9 - the Troublesome Trucks spent today on time out, one of them makes this hideous noise that sounds like rainforest parrots but is billed as 'giggles'. Too much of it & they are removed. Jan 10 - Emily's tender was discovered in the race car bin today. Still no sign of Henry's tender or the missing Malcom Jan 11 - Fergus Jan 12 - Elizabeth Jan 13 Gordon, the favorite to send off of bridges.

I post my children's photos on the internet. That's them, up there in the header. I do have my personal rules on what sort of photos I post & how much information I give out. They must be clothed, or at least have actual pants on.  They must wear no identifying clothing, like school logos. They must have no identifying landmarks in the background, unless it is a vacation. The photo file name must be neutral, like H086856.jpg. Mostly though, they have to not mind their photos being posted. They are too young right now to understand privacy. They *like* seeing their photos posted. They ask me to put their photos in posts. Someday they may change their minds about this and ask me to stop. I will honor those requests when they come. Until then though, it is my choice. I had a creepy experience 3 years ago when I had a personal website that I used to keep my family informed of my kid's development & latest photos. I had a photo of Mayhem up that was absolutely adorable

Jan 1 - a day of trains Jan 2 - Thomas the Tank Engine - 'he's the one' as the song says Jan 3 - Calling all engines! Roll Call! We have misplaced Henry's tender, Emily's tender and Murdoch, though we have *his* tender. Jan 4 - Bill & Ben, the current favorites to take to bed Jan 5 - Diesel 10, a favorite for all day play Jan 6 - the 'race car bin' after cleaning up

I decided this year to try the photo a day idea. But because random doesn't really work for me on an ongoing basis I decided to have a theme. That theme is boys' toys. Every day this year I will take a picture of at least one of the toys the boys are playing with or have played with that day (or the previous day). Basically whatever toy is laying around when I have a chance to grab a camera. 'Toy' is open to interpretation - my kids play with chairs, blankets, boxes, rolls of duct tape, random tools, stacks of wood, my Swiffer broom, and other non-toy items. These too will be photographed.  I hope at least once a month to do a layout featuring the overall toy of the month. I'm fairly certain January's will be all about Thomas the Tank Engine. My camera is having issues offloading my photos at the moment. Hopefully this is not a sign of a serious problem.   I do at least have my 6 year old Olympus to fall  back on if there is a problem & my el cheapo pocket

I have never had any of my digital photos printed, except for occasional ones by myself on my non-photo printer.  You can probably imagine just how many photos a digital scrapbooker with 2 small children has taken over a 5 year period. A couple thousand easily. My kids keep asking me to go through photo albums. Why don't we have photo albums to look at like their friends do?  "Mommy, photos cost to much?" Yeah, Mommy would rather spend the photo printing money on magazines,  bad Mommy, not thinking about her kids wanting to see real photos, not just slideshows on the computer.   I did go through them by month & year and narrow down my very favorites and then I uploaded them to Wal Mart. Even after the narrowing down I still uploaded well over 600 photos, and have not gone though 2007's photos yet.  I cannot afford to have 600 photos printed at one time, so I had just 2002-03 printed this month.  168 photos, all of Havoc. They arrived today. Mayhem was so ups

It came upon me last night. Must. crochet. scarf. Probably this is due the fact that it is now cold enough to wear one. Winter seems to begin here shortly after Xmas. Sure it is often cold before Xmas, but not consistently. You can't rely on it being cold or snowing until after the first of the year. Hence the desire for a scarf. It was 8pm when this need came upon me, so I decided to go browse my yarn stash, in search of the scarf I had begun last year at this time. I found it in it's project bag, minus the hook, making the project impossible to complete. I cannot begin to guess what size hook I used to dc the rows already completed. Most of the UFO's in their bags have their hooks or a note saying what sized hook was used. Anything lacking hook or note must be experimented with & failing any easy match is scheduled for unraveling. But I did not feel like unraveling 2 feet of already crocheted yarn & eyelash yarn. So I poked around the bins & shelves to find

Most of the Xmas stuff is packed away. A 3 foot tree takes about 5 minutes to undecorate & fold up. The rest of it took about 15 minutes.  The only things still in evidence are the strings of lights. They are a bit higher up than I can reach, even on a step ladder. So they await DH's return. Even if I could reach them I'd leave them up because he has gone to purchase a new bin to store them.  I've told him that I'd like *us* to clean out the junk room closet sometime in the coming weeks. Most of it is his stuff & if he leaves it to me I'll pitch it all. My theory is, the stuff has been in there 5 years without being looked at or missed, so it's all garbage.  I have stuff in there too & I feel the same way about my stuff.  The space is badly utilized now. I want to clean it out, re org the stuff we want to keep & use the regained space to store the xmas stuff, which is now in the boys' and our closets. Plus maybe store some of the stuff that

Day 30 Day 32 Day 33 I have days, 31, 34 & 35 still to do plus the title and the 2 prompts we will receive today and tomorrow. I can't believe I only have 5 pages left. I really thought I would be much farther behind than I am.

First there was a sentence in Real Simple that went something like "Another good use for a used toothbrush is to scrub out the tracks of your sliding glass door" Ok. I know that sentence is in English because I recognize each of the words individually, but taken as a whole it is foreign to me. I have lived in a house with 4 sliding glass doors for 10 years and the whole concept behind that sentence has never occurred to me. Toothbrush? Scrub out tracks? huh? Then I came across this product 2008 Motivated Moms Chore Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading So I am not only expected to scrub out my sliding glass door tracks with a toothbrush (what is this, prison?) but read the Bible at the same time? I am such a failure at this stay at home mom thing. I don't even sanitize my kids toys after other kids have played with them. CPS should be here any day now. Oh, and apparently for this bible study class my other personality signed up for, I am going to need a, um, BIBLE.

First I backed it all up onto my back up drive.  Then I deleted the stuff I don't want to keep - mostly digi scrap stuff I have not used in 6 months and cannot imagine ever using.   Then I burned to DVD the stuff I wanted to keep, but wanted off my HD - audiobooks I have already listened to, the .psp versions of my layouts,1hour scrap product I have created & uploaded, receieved files.  Then I went through ACDSee to burn disks of the stuff I think I may not use, but am not sure about, yet still want off my hard drive, but still want in my 'catalog'.  Then,after confirming the DVDs actually have the stuff on them, I press the delete button. Deleted digi stuff - 8GBs .psp files - 6GBs audiobooks- 4GBs 1hourscrap-4GBs Received files-4GBs ACDSee burn-8.5GBs Approximately 35GBs of stuff cleared from my HD, almost half of it being unwanted or poorly chosen digi supplies.  Many of them were freebies, some were things I have been holding onto in the 'unlikely&