crossrhodes

Today was a pretty good day.  Layla and I went to our first Mom’s Time Out fellowship at church this morning.  She made new friends in the nursery while mommy met other moms over brunch and crafts.  I heard a good message, too, from an experienced mom of 5 kids who is also a licensed family counselor.

When we got home, there was a package waiting for me at the door.  I ordered a set of scrapbook albums on clearance, vowing to get cracking on my scrapbooking again this year.  At the very least, I will have our individual pictures organized into these albums, even if it means slipping most of the pics into photo sleeves and only making a handful of scrapbook layouts.

Also today, Layla mastered the use of sippy cups!  Yeyyy!!!  We’ll soon be saying bye-bye to her bah-bah.  Now, if she would only start walking so I can start potty training.  She has been pulling herself up to a stand this week.  The funny thing is, she doesn’t seem to know how to get back down.  Once she’s in a standing position, she’s stuck =)

Before dinner and with James’ help, I organized and purged boxes of Christmas decorations in the attic.  I grouped them by use (i.e. tree decorations, tabletop decor, string lights/garlands, etc.).  This way, if I’m too lazy to totally deck the halls during the holidays, I can still take down one or two boxes of essentials… like the kids’ annual ornaments and the ornament trees I got for them.  I disposed of 2 or 3 boxes worth of old stuff, mostly dollar store knickknacks.  Now I have empty storage boxes for the ever growing pile of baby clothes!

Overall, I had a blessed morning and productive afternoon.  The evening is another story.  But, as the song goes,

“Oh, Lord, for all the worst and all the best, I am blessed.”

I love this picture.  It looks like she’s holding the camera, taking a self-portrait for her Facebook profile =)

Anyway, I don’t watch daytime TV anymore nor am I a fan of Obama, but I couldn’t peel myself away from the boob tube this morning.  Layla and I watched history unfold.  My daughter’s generation began with the first HALF Black man in the Oval Office.

People keep forgetting the “half” part.  If I am brown (a full Filipino) and my daughter is beige (half white, half brown), then Obama is… hmmm… grey???  LOL!!!  Well, what does half black and half white make but grey???  My point is (and I do have one), Obama’s father was essentially nothing more than a sperm donor, right?  He was raised by white people in a white family and culture.  Now, if Oprah was elected president, then it would truly be an historical event!  A full black AND a woman in the White House!

Speaking of women, if I were Laura Bush, I’d be sighing a great, big sigh, “Thank God it’s finally over!”  And if I were Michelle Obama, “What do you mean I only have $100,000 with which to redecorate the White House?”  (Yes, that is exactly how she would say it.  A lawyer would use correct grammar and not end a sentence with a preposition.)  For a country in debt, it sure is a lot of money.  But for the scale of the White House, $100k will only cover the west wing!

Made a few more cards in the “Care & Concern” category.  Although I enjoyed making these, I hate having to send them.  It means a loved one is suffering.

In the last few weeks, I have friends who are going through a divorce, who lost her mom to a rare incurable disease, who suffered a miscarriage, and whose health is rapidly deteriorating. *sigh*

I think I’ll go make more happy cards now.

I haven’t scrapbooked a single picture since… since… before Layla was born.  (She’ll be 9 months old soon.)  When I do have free time, it comes in small increments of half an hour or so, which is just enough time to crank out some cards.  And by that, I do mean I’ve been cranking… the handle on my Cuttlebug machine, that is.  (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can watch this YouTube demo.)  Embossing is so addicting!  I know, I’m such a craft geek =)

I’ve been using up my scraps; lots of paper scraps and 3D embellishments I stopped using in my scrapbooks long ago.  (I found out they put dents in the pictures I work hard to preserve.)  So, if you’re in my family (Yayas included), you’ll receive one or more of these cards in the mail this year.  Hope you like them!

I missed a party last night because meteoroligists called for a winter storm.  We barely got an inch of snow on the ground!  Stupid, stupid weather!