Dance rehearsal pictures

The twins' dress rehearsal went pretty well last night. They played the wrong piece of music for them - it was a longer version of the song with a part in the middle that isn't in the piece the girls are used to dancing to- so there was a bit of confusion for about 30 seconds. The girls hung in there though and started back in to the dance when it got to a familiar part. Considering nothing like that has happened to them before, I think they handled it really well. Mark had made an extra copy of the music CD for Beth to take to school last week for a little talent show their class did and she had that in her dance bag, so she gave it to her teacher to use tomorrow night. Toni had the class run through the dance for her down in the dressing room with Beth's CD and was assured that they all knew the dance. So, hopefully that is all straightened out and things will go smoothly during the performance.

It was neat to see some of the other dancers performances- this dance school teaches a really wide variety of styles. Everything from breakdancing/hip hop, to tumbling, to pointe ballet. We were at the rehearsal for 3 hours yesterday- and that was only for the first half of Friday's show! If the second half is as long as the first, I think the whole thing will be 4 hours long tomorrow night. The twins are in the first half of the show, so I think we will take two cars and Mark can take Bryce and the younger girls home at intermission. Beth and Carissa won't get to see the first half of the show at all since they have to stay down in the dressing room until intermission, so I will stay for the second half of the show with them. I learned we can't videotape the actual performance ourselves, so I guess I will be seeing if they are selling copies of the professionally videoed performance tomorrow night. I passed on ordering one when I paid for pictures at the dance studio a couple of weeks ago because it cost so much, but I thought we could video their dance performance ourselves. I think it will be good for the girls to be able to see some of what the other dance classes have done so they can make a better decision about what classes they want to take next year.

So, here are the pictures I took last night during the rehearsal. They are in a western 'scene'- a bunch of the classes did dances to country music this year and the stage is set up like a dance area at a hoedown. A couple of the classes sit in the back like an audience the whole time, the 'big girls' (the advanced dancers) are pretending to be a band and one of the teachers is pretending to be the person singing the songs for the dancers.

Ready for some photos?

We've been super busy, so I'm just going to give you all a show of everything we've been up to in a bunch of photos. Ready? Set! Go!!!

I bought a bubble gun at Target, just for fun (and of course to try and get some cool pictures!)

Friday was the last day of school, and they had a little graduation ceremony for the 5th graders. The teachers read off their names and whether they were on the honor roll, got an attendance award, etc.
Bryce and his teacher, Mr. DeFabioI crashed the girls' classrooms to grab pics of them with their teachers too.
Carissa and Mrs. Maruska.and Beth and Mrs. Edelson
After all of the school festivities were over on Friday, we headed to the zoo to check out the new summer exhibit:
over 100 birds in a free flying exhibit, and you can get seed sticks to feed them with. Unfortunately a big group had come through just before us and most of them weren't that interested in eating any more. You are supposed to be able to get some of them to come and sit on you, if you are lucky. Maybe next time, right?
and a few shots I got of the gorgeous birds

and outside in the wallaby exhibit (an encore of last summer's exhibit to complement the budgies) one of the peacock's was strutting his stuff for us. 20 pictures or so later, I finally got a great shot ;)Next we headed to the reptile house where they also have a free-roaming exhibit with sloths, lion tamarins, turtles and several types of birds. One of the toucans was out enjoying some space and keeping an eye on the people invading his territory. I think Sarah would have reached out and touched him, if we had let her.
One of our last stops for this trip was the Big Backyard exhibit and Sarah had to give one of the goats a hug. She is such a sweetie!

and lastly, Mish wanted to see what I saw when I looked out my window- heres the view out my front door: the view from the master bedroom window: we used to be able to see Pike's Peak, but the neighbor's tree has gotten rather tall and sits right in front of the Peak in our view :-P So, here's a pic I snapped from a parking lot on Friday. I loved the way the sunlight was hitting the side of the mountain that evening.

My movie is almost over- I've been watching 'The Holiday', good chic flick BTW- so I guess that is my cue to hit the 'publish' button and get myself up to bed. The girls' have their full dress rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. We'll see if I can get some decent pics at that tomorrow since they don't allow flash photography during performances....
Night everyone!

Lost in ACDsee land

yep, I'm lost in the land of ACDsee and going through all of my digital photos and trying to get them straightened out. I've got about 5 years of digital photos to go through. After getting some kinks worked out with ACDsee I have most of them that were in my PSEOrganizer retagged after 2.5 days of work. I discovered 6 GB of my first digital LO psd files that I didn't know were even on my hard drive, and I found a LO that I thought had been deleted before I had had it printed (it was stuck in obscure folder I would never have thought to look in). I've found birthday party photos- pirates, mermaids and princess themes, swimming lesson pictures, lots more zoo photos, vacation, camping, halloween and school photos from 2002. I don't think any of those have been scrapped in either paper or digi forms.

I also discovered that things I thought were tagged weren't, so there is still lots more to do. I have about 6 months of the newest photos to tag as well that I never put into Organizer because it was already so slow. I guess it is a good thing I have another week to get this computer cleaned up- it will probably take that long to get it done! I am impressed with ACDsee- it handles my thousands of photos with ease. I almost wish I had started doing this sooner. At this point I have no aspirations of getting any of my digital scrapbooking supplies tagged in the program. I think getting my over 10,000 photos sorted out is going to be enough for a while.

I have a LO I started at last night's crop that I think I will go finish up, and just maybe I'll come back which a few pictures of the last couple of days' activities to share.

can't scrap tonight, so I might as well get caught up here

I have so much I need to do, but I can't scrap tonight. My computer is busy putting all of my digital pictures into ACDSee 9. Just getting this far has been an all evening endeavor! and why am I doing this finally after thinking about and contemplating it for months? Mark is going to take a class in Orlando the first full week of June and he needs a laptop computer so he can do the homework in the evenings. His boss said he could use his government issued one- he brought it in today and there is no way that it will run Matlab. It has Windows NT and only 300 something MB RAM on it. So, guess who gets to donate her laptop for his use during this? yep, his ever-loving wife. It's making a me a bit nauseous thinking about being without it for a week! Yes, I have another computer sitting right next to me that I can use, but it isn't 'mine' and nothing is setup on it. So, I have to get everything backed up and clean off the HD so that he might actually be able to load the program on it... so, I am delving into the land of ACDsee this evening. I hope it doesn't screw everything up!!!! and I am praying that another alternative to my DH running off to FL with my baby comes around before he has to leave LOL Maybe I can convince him to go buy himself one of his own, since he keeps talking about that anyway.

We're down to 1.5 days of school. The 5th grade has pretty much been done with school work for over a week and each day has been one fun activity after another. Field day was today, and at least the rain held off long enough for them to do it. Tomorrow is a picnic, whatever that means- maybe eating lunch outside LOL? I didn't see a note saying we had to do something special for it. There is some sort of graduation ceremony on Friday morning. And there are a couple of outside of school parties during the next week for Bryce too.

Carissa and Beth got their first CSAP scores for reading back a couple of weeks ago and Carissa scored as highly as Beth! she has been working very hard this year to get caught up and she did! She has been taken off her IEP plan and won't need the after-school tutoring she got this last year any more! yeah for her!! She was so excited to be in SOAR for math and science with Beth the second half of this year. Since she scored so well on her reading testing, maybe she will get to do some of the other SOAR units next year too.

Brenna is officially potty-trained! yes, it has finally happened. I knew it would be a done deal once she decided to do it, and it was. I ran out of pull-ups about 3 weeks ago and she put on underwear and has done very well since. There were a couple of day-time accidents the first week, but they were small. She's still having night-time accidents every few days, but I don't think we should try using pull-ups at night. I just think that is the wrong tactic to take with her, so I've got lots of layers on the bed and we are dealing with it.

Beth and Carissa's dance recital is June 1 at 7P. They have a dress rehearsal Wednesday afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the other classes dance too.

Oh gosh, what else has gone on in the last 10 days? I can't believe it has been that long since I updated this!

The rosy finches started building their nest in the wreath on my door a couple of weeks ago. We even had 4 eggs in the nest, and then a cat got to it and knocked it down :( They've laid 5 eggs in years past, so I don't think they were even done with the egg-laying. You would think that this pair would figure out that our front door/porch is not a good place to try and raise chicks after 4 years of this! The tree in the yard they always seek refuge in when someone goes in and out of the house would be a much better choice. I always have a bit of hope that it might be year that it finally works though.

Let's see.... you know the Seamstress ATC I made and posted a couple of entries ago? I won one of the prizes for best hybrid doll project! 3 months of free product from the scrapartist store!!! I am in heaven!!!! If I want something, I can just go grab it. I've been stocking up some, though I feel a bit bad that I don't have a lot of time to devote to scrapping with it. But, I will eventually, I hope! I used a few scrapartist goodies on my last circle journal LO:
credits and journaling can be seen here
I've really enjoyed working with and getting to know the other Dani's Girls the last 6 months, and I'm sad to see our time together coming to an end. Here are a couple of LO I did for the last team scraplift
credits and journaling can be seen here
credits and journaling can be seen here

and speaking of Dani Mogstad, she has a new kit out called Rock Star that is fabulous! Here is a two page LO I did with it:

credits and journaling can be seen here
The girls have really enjoyed watching American Idol with their Dad the last 5 months. We were thrilled that Jordin won the title tonight!

and a couple more CT layouts to wrap up the post
this LO just goes to show that if you don't want a picture scrapped, then you had better not send it to me LOL!
credits and journaling can be seen here

and a couple more LOs from last summer's vacation
credits and journaling can be seen here
credits and journaling can be seen here
Kim has some new Concoctions that are so cool! The boy concoctions I used on the LO above, and I haven't had time to scrap with the girl concoctions yet. I have some pictures in mind though, just have to find the time to execute the idea!

and one last little bit of enabling before I go: my good friend Kristen is hanging up her official designer's hat and getting ready to close out her store at SOTB. Everything is 40% off, so go check it out and stock up before it all disappears! There are a couple of Hawaii kits I haven't bought yet, so I'll probably go grab those.

It looks like ACDSee is done importing my pics, so I'm off to see what has to be done next and if it can wait until tomorrow morning. Talk to y'all later!

Wish You Were Here

I've wanted to do this layout for a while now, but it took me a while to find the right pieces for and to be able to do it emotionally. I like how it turned out. I miss Daddy so much, but I wouldn't wish him back here. I'm looking forward to the day I get to run with the angels alongside him.

I took this photo of a beautiful sunset we saw as we were driving to Spokane to try and see my Dad one last time before he passed away from cancer last year. A few minutes after I took this shot my mom called to tell me that he had just passed away. I heard the song "Wish You Were Here" by Mark Harris for the first time a week after we got home from my Dad's memorial service. I knew it would somehow be a perfect addition to a page showcasing this photo when I got around to scrapping it.


Wish You Were Here - music and lyrics by Mark Harris
I wanted to tell you how closely I've kept
The memories of you in my heart
And all of the lifetimes that we had to share
Live even though we're apart
But don't cry for me
'Cause I'm finally free


To run with the angels
On streets made of gold
To listen to stories of saints new and old
To worship our Maker
That's where I'll be
When you finally find me


No don't you be weary cause waiting for you
Are wonders that you've never known
Just hold on to Jesus, reach out for his hands
And one day They'll welcome you home
And that's when you'll be
Finally free


And all of the dreams that you treasure
Will soon come together
And that's when your sorrow will find tomorrow
And you will rise again


credits: Rusty Grunge background paper from Urban Grunge BackPack by KristaMettler at scrapbookgraphics and scrapdish; envelopes and postcards from Queen of the Crop goodie bag by Krista Mettler at scrapbookgraphics; Mailbitz by Krista Mettler at scrapbookgraphics; Border papers, stickpin, heart and staples from Lovy-Dovy Day by Gwenevere Dupus; swirl and yellow rhinestone center flowers from Hurrah Spring by Windgefluester at TheDigiShoppe; mixed elements flowery stuff by Sausan Designs at scrapbookgraphics; torn edge action by Atomic Cupcake
fonts: Zapf Chancery

If you would like to hear the song, you can at Mark Harris' myspace site.
Find Your Wings is another song I love of his. I'm going to have to get his "The Line Between the Two" album. There is some background on each of the songs and the album title on this album here- it's kind of interesting to read the stories behind each of them.

Dance pictures, dressing a doll and painting a fairy

Today we had portraits taken during dance class, so the girls got to dress up in their full costumes. I had to get up extra-early so that I would have time to french-braid their hair before we left home. It only took me about 25 minutes to get that done, not too bad considering how rusty my braiding skills are. We even put makeup on their faces too. Aren't they cute?





and here is a digi-paper hybrid ATC that I completed yesterday for the altered doll challenge at scrapartist

I designed the ATC on the computer and then printed it out along with an extra dress mannequin and a piece of reduced size paper from the kit. I then crafted a dress from the paper for the mannequin. A heart punch was used to form the bodice and a part of the paper folded and trimmed to look like a pleated skirt. With the liberal use of double-sided adhesive and craft glue I got it all secured to the mannequin and finished it off with a small piece of ribbon, paper flower and a pearl bead. I then attached the finished dressed mannequin to the ATC card.
credits: In Vogue by Scrapartist designers, bodice from the Scrapartist charm doll, gingham ribbon by Offray, paper flower by Prima, pearl bead by unknown. font: 2Peas Beautiful

and finally a fanciful LO of Brenna in her birthday fairy costume. I had my own personal critic looking over my shoulder while I worked on this one. Brenna kept an eye on what I was doing the whole time I worked on this. She was fascinated that I colored the background in with my Wacom tablet. At one point I needed to work on the area that was behind her picture, so I just turned off the visibility of that layer. When she looked at it again she wanted to know where she had gone- the wand and crown were still visible at this point. I told her she was invisible now- she liked that idea LOL! She is fascinated with the finished LO and asks to see it all of the time. I should probably just print one out for her and stick it on the wall in her room near the bed; I'm sure she would be thrilled

credits: I Do Believe in Fairies I Do! by Beth Hesselberg at scrapdish.com; star sparkle brushes by Skip at Adobe Exchange; fonts: 2Peas Beautiful

I think we've decided to go out for dinner tonight instead of trying to wait until tomorrow after church. It will certainly be less crowded. Brenna and Sarah are always worn out after church is over and having to wait 30 minutes to get a table is never a good thing. Mama has some appointments with her realtor right after church tomorrow too, so this will work better all around, I think.