my four year old child has an alias?

we ate dinner at pizza hut last night, along with a large gathering of biker folk. tim knew several of the bikers. not from arresting them or anything; just knew them from around, you know?

timmy was getting restless and wiggling around, acting up a bit, so tim pointed to one biker and asked, "do you want me to have that guy over there come and give you a talking to?" i gave him the most evil dirty look, so he changed it up a bit and asked, "would you like me to introduce you to that gentleman over there? mr. presnall?"

well, timmy is no fool. he got very still and answered, "i will tell him my name is shep o'brien."

am i bewildered that my just-turned-four child has already developed an alias, or am i proud of his sweet mad self-preservation skillz?

look out, johnny cash!

little timothy loves music. always has. other than his sleepie-time music (classical pieces we listen to while getting ready for bed) and his toddler tunes, timmy loves country music. george strait? yup. waylon jennings? absolutely. johnny cash? of course - you kidding me?!

but add waylon to johnny, and throw in some willie nelson and kris kristofferson? oh, boy. we are treated to this particular performance again. and again. and again. and again.

i'm no great cinematographer - the lighting in my bathroom is abysmal, the focus is . . . inconsistent and the fact that timmy's sitting on the potty seat? well, i hope it doesn't offend, but let's face it: this is my real life.

february 2009 twelve of twelve!

wow! february already! and it's half over. i have got to get my new email address to susan keuter so i'll get the 12-of-12 email reminders again. yep, i'm blaming susan for my memory loss. fortunately, i think i made up for my shortcomings by recreating certain parts of our day.

i wish i'd printed the title in a darker pink rather than red. but, i was rushing.

timmy was begging me to go to his room to listen to highwayman for the 100th, 101st, 102nd and 103rd time today. he likes to manipulate his cd to listen to a favorite song "again. and again. and again. and again..." did you know "many a maiden lost her marbles to my train"? it's true. timmy sang it to me.

January's 12-of-12

after all my planning and scheming to scraplift other people's 12-of-12 layouts, i ended up using the same ol' format. and i think i'll just stick with it. it's so easy, and getting the day documented is the point, so . . . we had a busy day yesterday! it was really hard for me to narrow the photos down to just twelve.

after putting this thing together this morning, i've learned two things. first, i have learned i am not above begging. i plan to call stan and beg him to get my laptop in sooner. i'll pay more; whatever. the second thing i learned is that i should not have been putting off taking the old desktop in for service. it is s-l-o-w. and i can't work like i'm accustomed, with fifteen different applications all going at the same time. uh, no way. one thing at a time, and so slow i had time to change laundry loads while each picture was opening.

the man in black

timmy: "mommy, when will i go to heaven?"
mommy: "when you're a very, very old man and you die; then you'll go to heaven."
timmy: "oh."

and yesterday: "mommy, when ethan hits me, it makes me sick, you know. and if he hits me too much, i will just throw him away. i will throw him in the landfill. and then i will tell the digger to come and get him. and the digger will take him home. and he will learn his lesson."

still plugging away

even though cz's design your life class at bigpicturescrapbooking.com is finished, i am not. i am so not. but i'm still plugging away.

this, for example, is week 8, sketch 2. it was originally a 2-page 8.5x11 spread, but i hated it. so i changed it to one 12x12 page and now i like it. oh, i would do some things differently if only i had planned ahead. the topic was emphasis. using big photos to create emphasis. but i wanted to continue my theme of using my most current photos to do the layouts and i didn't have a Christmas picture great enough to print in 8.5x11 size.

you can see, however, that i did use the design principle of repetition. red buttons (i'm not much of an embellishment user), red in the photos - and if i'd planned ahead, i would have printed the title in red, too. oh, well; live and learn. also unheard of? i included a picture of me! chubby and tired looking - yep, it's me. :)

p.s. a dirty pool board is a (most often) wooden game board handmade by the dad of the family for the kid of the family when s/he grows up and moves away. andrew got his the year before last. dirty pool is similar to wahoo and is a family tradition. we play whenever we can, but it's required on Christmas Eve and pretty much all day Christmas. this year, timmy and i basically got out the marbles, rolled the dice and counted the "steps" the marbles made. no rhyme or reason to our game. maybe next year.

p.p.s. tim's a rebel. he did not wear his Christmas jammies. stinkin' daddy!

December Twelve-of-Twelve

i'm not doing well this fall/winter with the whole blogging thing, or with the whole twelve-of-twelve thing, either! i anxiously awaited december 12th, only to have my memory erased at 11:59pm on the 11th and not think of it again until yesterday. what's up with that?! so, instead of the usual, present my december 12-of-12: