Sunday, December 16, 2012

Project Life Week 48

I was delighted to learn that Kylie's Aunt Amy and her girl cousins all publish pictures online with the Instagram app. I've started following them and they follow me. It's been fun to snap easy iPhone pictures and then tweak and upload them via Instagram where the family can see them and comment. So for this week's Project Life, I decided to tell this week's stories via the Instagram 4x4 size.

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1. Multi-colored soap at the drive thru car wash.
2. LEAP! from Jack Russell park play structure.
3. Shake it baby! Kylie made bell bracelets (and anklets) from this month's Kiwi Crate. Then we had a dance party.
4. Kylie writing in her nature journal in our backyard.
5. Dice math on green tray at school drop off.
6. Frozen peas on sore knees and feet from hard run.
7. I've started braiding Kylie's bangs away from her face.

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Joy is finding a balloon at the park. Unhappiness (picture 3) is when the balloon pops.

I love these friends holding hands that Kylie made at home.

Kylie often repeats her school reading homework. This week, she decided to read "Dick and Jane" out loud to me for fun and extra homework.

Kylie was so tickled when Phoebe sat on her for the first time. Phoebe was drawn to the toasty warm girl inside her sleeping bag laying on the couch.

On Thursday, November 29th, Kylie did all the rungs of the monkey bars by herself for the first time. Way to go Kylie!

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Kylie finished her "red book" this week. She was the third kindergardener to finish in her class.

I love taking pictures of Kylie near the Magical Manatee statue.

Karen was consulting in PA this week. She took some nice Instagram pictures of her travels.

Karen brought Kylie some crocs and some other "trip gifts".

I love this picture Kylie took of our family hug. I love how we are all making the "mmmm" sound together, even Phoebe the cat.

Temperatures have been in the 50's. Cool enough for long sleeves and pants.

We got to meet our neighbor Lily and Sarah's newly adopted cat named Linus.

And that takes care of the month of November! Whew! Thanks for looking.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Project Life Week 46 and 47

While many scrapbookers are posting their December daily pages, I'm still catching up on November. As usual, you can click on the photo to view the credits. Thanks for stopping by and looking!

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Kylie has quickly grasped how to read “silent e” words like “home, time, huge and cake”. We are so proud of her reading skills.

Flipping fun! When Kylie comes home from school, she likes to do leanbacks, headstands and flips off of Momma. Kylie treats Karen like her personal jungle gym.

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Kylie plays The Hyena Game during recess at school. She is the Momma Hyena and she picks two friends to be her baby hyenas. The hyena pack circles the perimeter of the playground at a run. Then Kylie selects a target and pounces. (She assures me that she doesn’t actually pounce on anyone and that it is just pretend). She then divvies up the “meat”—giving a leg to one baby and an arm to another. When Kylie told me about this game, I had to work hard to keep my expression neutral and not gasp or laugh. But afterwards, I just cracked up. It’s easy to forget that children can be quite bloodthirsty in their pretend play!

Seriously? “Mommy I need to practice my funny faces. Can you take a picture so I can see if my eyes are crossing?” Life with you is one fun adventure!

On Friday 11/16, I picked Kylie up from school at 11:30 and we started our drive to TN. We drove to Columbia, SC and stayed at our usual room with the pullout bed in the sitting room. Kylie drew a picture of the view and then enjoyed playing in the jacuzzi tub bath.

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This first page is dedicated to the day we spent with my Dad and Margarita at the Children's Museum.

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The second page was about the day we took the family to MagiQuest.

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I included lots of pictures of our day at Look Rock tower with my Mom.

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A front and back page of 4x4 Instagram pictures taken on Thanksgiving Day.

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And this bit of artwork from Kylie where she writes that she is thankful for her cats and trees and family.


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Secret City Half Marathon 11/18/2012 Oak Ridge, TN

Personal best record on today's Secret City Half Marathon in Oak Ridge TN. Time was 1:53!

I didn’t really believe that I could beat my 1:57 time from last year’s half marathon. But I knew I wanted to try. I told Karen my strategy at our traditional pre-race pasta dinner the night before the race. “I’m going to go out fast- between 8:15 – 8:45 miles- and I am going to hold it there as long as I can. And if I slack off because of fatigue, I will hopefully have enough of a lead to see me through.”

It was a cold race. The temp was 30ยบ at the 8:00am start. I broke my rule of “nothing new” and wore gloves for the first half of the race. During the race, my legs were really cold and my toes were numb which made it hard to concentrate on my stride. I just couldn’t feel much. And my adrenaline was racing.

One enjoyable part was speaking with a British guy who kindly asked me the manufacturer of my water belt. He had to ask me 3 times because my music was cranked up so loud and it took a moment for me to comprehend what he was asking. He was very patient and friendly. He told me he hadn’t seen a waterbelt like mine before. I had to turn the belt around to read the name Amphipod. I offered him Gu which he politely refused and then he ran on ahead. I looked at my watch and was surprised and amused that I had held a conversation at an 8:30ish pace.

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This course was a double loop so I got to see my family at the halfway mark. There were no other fans on the course. I’m sure my family was freezing in the cold weather but they were smiling and cheering for me on the sidelines. It was a precious snapshot moment for me to treasure. I smiled and waved at them, so happy to see them. I tossed my gloves to my Dad and kept on running.

Math is not my strong suit when I’m running. Trying to figure out whether I was ahead or behind was making my head swim. I had printed out a 1:55 pace bracelet but had forgotten to put it on. I remember at 1:35, a man was yelling out times to us. He shouted 1:42 to me. I checked my watch and checked it again. I thought he was surely wrong but the fear he was right sent a fresh hit of adrenaline through me. I really wanted to slow down…just a bit…but I decided to push on. “Push on, push on!” I muttered to myself.

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The course had several hills and I was pleased I had done some hill training prior to the race. My “rabbit” was in a pack of runners ahead of me. I had watched as the gap between us kept increasing particularly on the flats. I knew I was doing my best but it was hard to see her slipping away. Between mile 10-11 there was a water station and my rabbit, along with a bunch of runners, stopped to walk though the station. I sprinted on ahead and was thrilled to pass my rabbit. I figured she would pass me again but I stayed ahead of her for the rest of the race.

As I passed mile 12, my mind filled with memories.
The metal stress of February and March as I struggled to decide if I would do a Summer triathlon.
The slacking off in April when I decided not to.
Pushing too far and too fast in May and injuring both feet with plantar fasciitis.
The horrible three weeks in June when I couldn’t run at all due to doctor’s orders.
Those terrible 2-3 mile runs in July when nothing felt right with my feet and legs.
All the stretching. Stretching my hamstrings and calves up to 5 times a day.
Sleeping every night since June 11th with a night brace on my right foot.
All the nights I wanted to rip the damn thing off so I could rest easier.
All the mornings when I was grateful I had once again left it on if it meant I could run.
That incredible 5 miles in July when I felt like myself again and how I kissed everyone for the rest of the day, so great was my relief.
The sacrifices my family has made so that I could have a gym membership, a pool membership and a marathon trainer.
Watching myself grow stronger and faster over the past six months.
And how desperately I wanted to cross the finish line, knowing with no doubts that I had given it my best. My very best.

And when I saw the race clock and knew I had beaten last year’s time. I went from smiling...
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to screaming...
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to crying in mere seconds.
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I crossed the finish line, sat on the road, and had myself a big ole crying jag.
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Karen tells me that my parents looked at me and her as if they were thinking, “Holy Crap. Is she hurt, is she upset?” But Karen knew. She grabbed my face and said, “You did it baby! You did it!”

My family covered me with a blanket and quietly let me have my tears. Karen fixed my recovery drink. And the race was done.
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I composed myself, changed clothes, and posed for pictures.
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There are moments that mark you for the rest of your life. November 18th, 2012 was one of mine.
Time: 1:53:45
Placed 135 out of 495 runners
Finished Fourth in my age group.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Project Life Week 45

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A Less Rushed, More Inspired Christmas: When I decided to run another marathon, I knew I wanted to do a better job with Christmas than last year. So this year, I started early. And when we drive to TN next week, we will be taking wrapped Christmas presents with us. There are still more gifts to prepare, but I’m proud of what I’ve put together and focused on finishing the rest earlier rather than later.

Kylie cut out each ornament and stamped it lightly with a K. We added a red ribbon. We will give them to our family for them to hang from their trees next week.


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Sight word lists: see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you, all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came.

“When I grow up, I want to be an artist. Except for one night a week, I want to be a rockstar”.

On Thursday, November 8th, Emily and her entire basketball team dedicated their season to Karen’s sister Amy who has Carcinoid Cancer. They had special tshirts made and zebra-striped shoe laces. They gave a special black-and-white striped basketball to Amy that was signed by the team. The black and white stripes are the signature colors for this type of cancer and the moto is “No One Fights Alone.”

I usually include Kylie’s artwork in letter-sized sheet protectors, but I loved this cut-out watercolor picture.

So that's it for another week. Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative

Friday, November 09, 2012

Project Life Week 43 and 44

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Yeesh, there are lots of shadows and glares on this week’s pictures of my Project Life pages. Hardly looks like the real thing. Playing catch up here. Thanks for looking!

We are thankful for Momma’s safe return home to Florida. We all drove to TN on Saturday, October 13th. Kylie and I drove home on Wednesday, October 17th. Karen stayed in TN to help her Mom and flew home to us on Wednesday, October 24th. We are thankful to all be at home together again.

Grandpa gave Kylie this garden that grows crystals.

Kylie loves the “mood” turtle necklace that we got for her in San Francisco. She wears it all the time and likes interpreting the colors and moods. She is wearing it in the picture below.

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Kylie & her American Girl Doll Riley ath AB elementary School track playground.

Lost Second Tooth: I was ready to pull Kylie’s second tooth after dinner and before bedtime but she decided she would rather do it herself! The tooth fairy brought her $2.50 and a new toothbrush.

I love how you’ve started to entwine your fingers in mine during your nighttime meditation and how you like to give me a “kissing hand”.

In her craft kit from Kiwi Crate, Kylie made her own kaleidoscope and shadow puppets.

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This page documents the Halloween craft I provided at Kylie’s school. I included an example of the superhero cuff along with one of the cards that I gave out with their bracelet craft. The cards suggests powers for the different stickers such as if the child presses the ghost on her bracelet, she can turn invisible. I made a “boy” card as well and tucked it behind the girl one. I had so much fun watching the kids play with their bracelets and enjoy their other Halloween classroom activities.

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On Wednesday, 10/31 we had our parent/teacher conference at Kylie’s school. We expressed our concerns about Kylie staying with “known and therefore easy” work and asked her Ms. Kirby & Ms. Elizabeth to encourage her to move on to new things. We also talked about Kylie’s tendency to want to do her work with the other children, particularly Emma. We are worried about some of the bossy behavior Kylie exhibits when she feels like she has to supervise a younger child so that they complete their work, like the 45 layout, perfectly. Again we asked for Kylie to be encouraged to do some work on her own which will enable her to focus on her own actions rather than try to control someone else’s. Lastly, we reviewed Kylie’s report card.

Kylie had her six month check up with her dentist, Dr. Alvarez at Safari of Smiles

Karen took me out to lunch on Saturday for my 42nd birthday. We did some Christmas shopping; I bought some shirts at H&M and we read at Starbucks.

Poor sweet Kylie vomited three times on Thursday night causing us to have to change her bed three times. She was sick again on Friday morning. This was the first time she has really puked a lot and it frightened her. We believe it was caused by something she ate, perhaps a bad grape. But it wasn’t until her belly was truly empty that she started to get better. We gave her anti-nausea medicine, fever reducer and pedialyte and by Friday evening she was a little better. The poor darling just lay on the couch all day and wanted either Karen or I sitting with her so that she could put her head in our lap.

Although Kylie wasn’t 100% by Saturday, she and Karen still went out for their usual Saturday morning fun. They brought home Madagascar 3 with a matching circus afro wig. We all took turns wearing the silly thing just to make Kylie smile.

So that's it for another two weeks. Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative


Thursday, November 01, 2012

Halloween Butterfly

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Project Life Week 39 & 40

This was a simple week--not a lot of pictures or stories. But I'm pleased with how these two pages turned out. As usual, click on the photo to view the credits.

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I loved all the pictures on this first page--Kylie throwing sand on herself and the swing pictures. And the one of Karen and I was impromptu yet came out so well.

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Kylie got her first box from Kiwi Craft Crates. The theme was “Farmer’s Market”. She had fun stitching together an apple and a grape and stuffing it with cotton balls. And she loved using fabric crayons and stencils to create her own apron.

Kylie made no-bake pumpkin bites. I took a pictures and included the recipe.

Training for September
Run: 16 runs for 98.76 miles
Bike: 4 rides for5-.2 miles
Swim: 6 swims for 12100 yards (6.87 miles)
Strength: 2 sessions
Walk: one with my friend Sarah

Next Week Granna Visits: Granna will take care of Kylie for the week that Karen & I are in San Francisco. I’ve been pretty busy typing instructions and cleaning house.

The bottom left card was part of the packaging for Kylie’s Kiwi Crate. And the bottom right card is a drawing Kylie made of some birds feeding chicks.

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For the first week of October Karen and I were in San Francisco. I used just my iPhone, the Instagram app to apply filters and to crop the photos to the 4x4 size, and the PostalPix app to order prints right from my phone. When we got home, my 4x4 pictures were waiting for me. I had so much fun taking these shots and creating these California pages.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Project Life Week 38

I was in a bit of a hurry and my photograph of my finished Project Life pages came out pretty crooked. Oh well! Thanks for looking! As usual, click on the photo to view the credits.
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Kylie’s classroom got a gerbil as a new school pet. They named him “Mono Sori” (like Montessori). Kylie got to feed him some seeds and pet him.

Kylie has been collecting coins in her bank since she was two. Since her bank was pretty full and hard to lift, we convinced Kylie to roll her coins and take them to the bank. She brought home $35.

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I picked up some new Studio Double D products during the quarterly sale, including Layer Works No 34 which I used for the “Love You” card. The journaling reads “I love it when you sit in my lap to read.”

To celebrate Jewish New Year, Kylie’s class ate the traditional apples and honey and shared a wish. Kylie’s wish was “to have lots of friends.”

The Athleta card reads “For years I’ve looked through their catalogs. I’m so pleased to finally wear their clothes.”

Kylie likes to drink cinnamon spice herbal tea.

Her sight word list: look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said.

I included a “yesterday and today” shot showing Kylie’s new smile with a tooth missing.

On Thursday, Kylie’s teacher read a book with interesting “If’s”. Afterwards, Kylie wrote in her school journal, “What if dolphins could climb trees?” Kylie was thoughtful for the rest of the day and I could tell she was pondering something. Right before we said goodnight Kylie said, “I have another ‘What if”. What if our hearts, the ones inside our bodies, could talk? Then we wouldn’t need words.” My darling Kylie, you truly are a beautiful miracle.


So that's it for another week. Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Project Life Week 37

So much cool stuff this week!
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Kylie brought home a Children’s Cook Book from her school library trip on Monday. She immediately wanted to make their blueberry pancake recipe and fortunately I had all the ingredients. I’m teaching Kylie how to read recipes and understand the different cups and teaspoons and how to level her measuring cups. She’s getting better at cracking eggs. And with her hands on mine, we flipped the pancakes cooking on the stove. The pancakes came out pretty well and were a good afternoon snack. On Wednesday, she wanted to make falafel of all things! I had never eaten falafel much less made it, but together she and I figured it out. Karen, Kylie and I each ate two of the small cakes. Kylie did decide to tell me that “Mommy, ours don’t look like the ones in the cookbook. ” I explained that it was because I am a simple cook and not a professional chef. On Thursday, Kylie got to cut, fold and twirl the dough for the garlic breadsticks we had with spaghetti. Kylie loves being in the kitchen with me and I look forward to many more years of cooking adventures with her.

Cooking with Kylie was such a big part of this week. I thought about making a separate 12x12 digital scrapbook page of our cooking pictures. But then I decided to play with the PL layout. I had a lot of playing with the "kitschy kitchen" scrapbook kit I found.

On Tuesday, Kylie came home with one of her journal entries that stated, “I went to the beach after supper at sunset” and drew a picture of she and I smiling together. Well, that worked kiddo! To the beach we go! I included her sweet picture, stored in a sheet protector, in this week's pages.

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I took a ton of pictures at the beach. I included two of them in the PL pages and put 12 more (you can see them here) in simple photo pages for our album.

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It's hard to see on the Thursday picture, but Kylie is wiggling her incredibly loose and wobbly tooth. On Saturday night, I pulled Kylie's first tooth. Such a momentous event!

On the Project Life page, I included a group picture of us grinning in the mirror together after the tooth was pulled, one of the tags from the tooth fairy kit, a picture of her showing her new gap, and the note the tooth fairy left for Kylie (along with $2.50). It's a bit hard to see but the fairy was stamped with gold ink onto cardstock paper and there are gold sticker stars attached. Here's a closer look:

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I enlarged this snapshot to fit onto a 6x12 photo:
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And on the back, I glued her first official tooth fairy record which I bought here.
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It's a beautifully embossed keepsake card.

I also included in a sheet protector, this lovely thank you note to the Tooth Fairy. It states, "Thank You. I love my teeth and you."

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One last note: If you look at Kylie's beach drawing and her tooth fairy drawing, you'll see that she draws herself with curly blonde hair. Momma Karen has curly brown hair. Me...I have what looks like a brown piece of cardboard for hair. Hmmmm...maybe the kiddo is trying to give me a hint about my hair.


So that's it for another week. Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative