Where have you been?!

March and April so far has been much of a whirlwind.  I'm here to let you know, I am here.  And I've been busy!!

I saw the Broadway production of "Mary Poppins" with the two big girls, my sister, my Mom, and Grandma.  Then I saw "To Kill A Mockingbird" at the Rep Theater with my Mom (one of my very favorite books).

In March and early April I kicked off my Thirty-One business with multiple parties.  I was pleasantly surprised when two packages from the company came for ME by surprise for meeting sales incentive promotions (that I didn't even know about! : )

Also in March, the dreaded deadline loomed...the school yearbook.  Make no mistake, I really do enjoy putting it together.  It becomes a headache though trying to obtain the necessary pictures to fill the pages.  I ultimately end up taking a good chunk of the pictures (which I don't mind either, really) but deal with parents who send me pictures after the yearbook has been submitted, or ask me to retrieve their photos off of facebook pages (the pics never have high resolution!), one who gave me a CD with 600+ photos to go through, and also parents who send cell phone pics that just can't be used.  I am glad to say the process is over, and I am so excited for it to arrive.  It's so time consuming; I estimate I spent about 15+ hours on it.  Much like a Shutterfly book I suppose.

In March we also had a surprise 50th birthday party for my Stepmom.  I enjoy doing things like this, too, but again, it kept me busy.  I also made a Shutterfly book for her of her 50 years (like I also did for both my Mom and my Dad for their 50th's.)

Kaycey celebrating St. Patty's Day & Oma Ria's birthday!

There were school projects.

Cal's Civil War battle project

There were trips to the zoo and first pony rides (we had beautiful record temperatures in March!)

first pony ride for Sadie.  Sadie, what does a horse say?  Sadie says, "Yee-haw!"

I taught classes at the Scrapbook Store, I worked a ton of hours in March, soccer season started, & baseball practices for Cal have been going on for months already.

Maddie, wearing Kaycey's uniform : )

I photographed my pregnant friend on two different occasions and coordinated a scrapbooking event at her baby shower by her request.  I put "kits" together, and everyone created a page or two at her shower.  I was up late working it all out, and worried about how exactly it would work, but it turned out great and everyone had fun with it.

little treat bags for guests filled with snickerdoodle flavored popcorn

the cake (professionally made)

our scrapping area at the shower

Jess (the creative party planner!), Nikki (mom to be), and that's me on the end!

I've been emailing with a couple newly diagnosed Neuroblastoma families.

Then over Easter Break, Mike, the two older kids, and I drove to South Dakota & Colorado.  Mike flew home by himself to get back in time for work (he could only miss a couple days of work).  I drove cal and Kaycey home.  From Denver.  All by myself.  And it really wasn't so bad.  In fact, I'd do it again.  Look for a post this week in more detail about our trip!

at Mt. Rushmore

Lots of squinkie playing going on.

Finally, this past weekend, I went on a much needed scrapbooking weekend.  It had been way too long since I had gone (and it was planned before we went to Colorado.  Trust me.  I was freaking out about getting home in time from Colorado for my scrapbook weekend, unpacking and repacking, doing laundry, and missing the two little girls since they didn't come to Colorado.  But all went just fine!)  I will post my finished pages this week : )

So I can't say "here's my past month or so in a nutshell", because it's more like a small novel ; )  but as you can see, I've been busy.

The next several months probably won't wind down much, either.  We have plans to possibly go to Mackinac Island (with kids), take a vacation in early fall (just Mike and I), maybe go back to Colorado, go to an insane amount of baseball games, putting a deck and patio in back, finishing the front porch and the swingset, and more....and SHHHHHH....getting a dog (kids don't know that yet, though ; )