I Am Hearing: Despicable Me We saw it in 3D. Did I mention I’m loving the free movie channels this week. It’s going to be really hard to give it up if we decide to.

I Am Thinking: Hoping for some good news for the hubs. A good opportunity is on the horizon. We’ll see, whatever will be will be. No worries either way. Still would be nice though.

I Am Hoping: Well I mentioned the hope thing already. I will say that I almost came this close to dropping my Flash class, but I persevered and although it wasn’t the greatest flash animation ever it was there and it was done. On to the next week. This seems like a normal complaint the first few weeks of the semester. I’ll make it.

Plans For The Week: We’ll see. We’re planning to sign the youngest up for soccer this weekend. Im actually more excited about soccer than football. Im hoping he’ll get more play time and love it. Did I ever mention that the hubs was a super soccer star at some point and could have easily (probably) gotten a scholarship for it? Yeah well he was and he didn’t. Any who maybe he passed his super soccer genes to his youngest.

Picture Thoughts; Yeah Im lame and took no pics this week. Let dig around the archives PS! Did you hear that Picnick is closing shop?! Say it ain’t so Google. I admit I weeped a little for humanity when I saw my e-mail. The small plus is they are giving all of their members free premium until they close. Sniff..Promise pics next week (fingers crossed behind back)

I AM Hearing: Battlefield LA the cable company offered free movie channels for the month so we are burning up the DVR.

I Am Thinking: Im at that point of feeling overwhelmed again with school. Im not overly proud of my quiz grades. You’d think after a good 3 weeks off the burn out would be over. It will iron out, it’s the first couple of weeks I guess. Eye on the prize folks..eye on the prize.

I Am Hoping: For a good week as usual. I had a pretty sick kid on Friday. It’s been a long while since I had a kid keep me up literally all night due stomach issues. No Bueno. He’s on the mend now and hopefully no one else gets it.

The Weekend: Was pretty quiet. The middle had a basketball things for special olympics. I hit the thrift store to kill time while waiting for the basketball pro. I admit my addiction to thrifting has gotten not quite out of control but it is almost a sickness. But when I can find a pair of Nikes (practically new) for $6.00 then Im sold. I’ve driven my little clan crazy with my score. Im so proud of my new shoes that I’ve literally worn them all day even in the house. Im usually not one to wear shoes in the house. I know it’s kind of sad really. The last pair of “new” athletic shoes I got were probably about 5 years ago when I was really into blogging and won a pair of Rykas. Those poor shoes have seen their day. (Am I really going all into a full paragraph about shoes?)

Plans For The Week: Not much that I know of. The boys (all of them) are off for MLK. Yay for them. At least I don’t have to get anyone up. Plus I can leave early and get off early.

Picture Thoughts: A few random pics from the week

This was really hard to choose as Im sure it was for everyone else. This kid and his dimple slay me everytime, hands down. His poor brothers just can’t compete with the dimple.

Check out more Best Faces at I Heart Faces.

Outside My Window: Dark and Cool. No complaints

I Am Hearing: Mario Kart. Did I mention that I somehow talked the boys into chipping in some of their Christmas money to buy their dear ol mom Mario Kart? As the youngest states “Mom Mario Kart is so Under Rated! I love playing it!” -He’s 7 it’s funny that he actually is stating it correctly.

I Am Thinking: School started off with a bang. Remember I mentioned my confusion about needing Flash for a Interior Design class? Yeah..it was interactive design…Big Difference! I had to order my book/software really fast so I’ll be a smidgen behind for the first week. I thought Dreamweaver would be scary and hard but Flash?! Im not sure how ready I feel about that.

I Am Hoping: To get a good “leg” up on my other classes as they won’t be too complicated and it looks like Flash is going to take a lot of my time. A 10 page site on a designer we admire! Gulp!

Crafty: I admit my love for pinterest will never die and each and every hour I’m on something inspires me. I’ve already created my Angry Bird ornaments, My nifty Star Wars snowflakes, some really cute “clock prints” glued to old CD’s of all things to add to my kitchen. I have even been completely inspired to re do my kitchen simply by sanding/painting the current cabinets and then putting some fancy hardware handles and drawer pulls. I’ve slightly mentioned it to the hubs. Im not sure how sold he is on the idea, but they actually have “cabinet redo kits” that I want to try to tempt him with. I also want to do both bathroom cabinets but one thing at a time since hello I am actively going to be crazy busy with school.

The Weekend: Was pretty quiet. I spent most of it doing as much as I can on homework and yep crafting. I also took a few fun shots for the boys of course and their new “mythical creature” dudes they got at Michaels. The youngest is such the scientist and picked out a prehistoric fish kit that came with a little tank and fish eggs. I told him there was no guarantee that these would actually hatch or live for any certain amount of time. He claims he wants to be a scientist and who am I to stop him from following his dream? I will take pics if they actually hatch and what not. First distilled water must be purchased. I also told him if he kept up with it that maybe we would look into getting him a Beta fish that might last longer than these strange dried (dehydrated?) fish eggs.

Plans For The Week: We’re back to a full week. Im not sure how I feel about that. It’s also going to be interesting work wise. Nothing really pertaining to me but lots of changes on the horizon. May be Im meant to stick around for a little while.

Picture Thoughts: A few mythical creatures

Speaking of school… My children don’t start back until this coming Tuesday. Which is crazy ridiculous. Supposedly there is a teacher inservice on Monday so naturally they decided to start back Tuesday. We used to have weeks like this back in the day. The kicker is we started back that Wednesday or Thursday of the New Year and the following week we did indeed have an inservice day for Martin Luther king Im sure. Im also thinking they may have anticipated a blizzard around this time and was expecting to be out anyway. Who knows.

I start back Friday. I know. Since it’s online it really doesn’t matter what day, I start as long as work that’s due is turned in on time. I mentioned this semester is Interior Design. The weird thing is my book for class is for Adobe Flash. I haven’t ordered the book yet. I’ve learned over the past few semesters, half the time the book is rarely used. Sure required reading is “required” but most of the time everything is online and little reading is done so yeah Im holding back on ordering this one until I see the gist of it.

Ive considered transferring to a brick mortor school (you know school that I actually have to physically show up for), the logistics sound like to much for my schedule to handle. Plus Im afraid if  I transfer I will be tacked on a dozen plus hours more before graduating. You know to suck every last drop of money out of me.

Wow look at this healthy post.

Next on the agenda….

My middle son is a Beatles fan. I have no idea how this happened, it just came over night. He knows all of their names, he knows who is still alive..and is not (and who was shot), he knows Abbey Road… Im afraid he probably knows a little more than I do. We set up accounts for the boys both savings and checking. I know that’s probably a bit excessive for younger boys but we’re odd. Anywho the boys get to design their own card from the bank. Wonderboy requested Lego men with Abbey road. Since Im always up for a photoshoot/photoshop challenge, I was all over it.  I need to start using Photoshop on a regular basis as I get rusty. I wish I had an advanced class coming.

Here is the result of my shoot…

the original

Can I just say Im kind of proud of it? You can totally see Ringo and George in this can’t you? Sure you can.

Can I also say I really wanted to make the Lego men take large steps but that’s difficult to do ..with Lego men. Atleast the arms give it that small walking touch. Right Right.

If I was really good I would know how to add the shadow effect. Im sure it’s kind of easy if I fiddled with it but yeah..it’s all good.

Im really going to try to get back in the groove of entering the challenges for I Heart Faces. That’s one small resolution I made. This maybe easier said than done right now since school for me hasn’t started yet and Im off work. I think I can I do it though.
Here’s my silly holiday outtake entry.

The youngest is not a big fan of getting all dressed up ecspecially in itchy sweaters.

He is however a fan of being in a “zen like state” for his ninja swords. At least that’s what he told me.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,200 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 53 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I can say it was a roller coaster of a year for sure. I can also say it was a heck of a lot better than 2010! Shall I post my top 12 pictures of each month? Of course I shall!

Look familiar? Is it sad that I would like some snow just so I can take more of these babies?

February brought us the great blizzard of 2011. We can’t seem to let a year go with out some kind of crazy snow storm.

March brought us this little dude. Plus the hubs had finally really got started with a few temp jobs that looked promising and then fell through.

April is always hard to choose from. Everything is so Springy and photos must be taken!

May Flowers

June- One of faves

Yeah this one was a given for July.

August was my awesome month for photos thanks to my photography class, so I have to add one more to grow on. You won’t mind will you?

Im not sure what it is about this pencil one. I could stare at it for hours. When it was my background screen at work…I sometimes did just sit and stare.

September was a good photo month too. Butterflies and Sunflowers two of my most favorite things.

I admit I was a bit bias on this one. Sniff he looks like a little boy still in this one, compared to “a man” in this one…

Novemeber:

Can I just say that the Fall colors were excellent this year?

I admit I slacked a bit on photo taking in December.

Here’s to a Happy and Healthy New Year! Maybe I’ll actually post more than just Day Book posts. Don’t hold me to that. Im really looking forward to the windows of opportunity that may or may not come our way. Who Knows? Plus by this time next year I should finally be a college grad! Bring 2012!

I Am Hearing: The TV is on and Im alone. No complaints

I Am Thinking: I enjoyed my little Christmas vacaction. I didn’t get as much done as I hoped but I got a little bit started. Plus I had good quality time playing with the boys and their toys. Some how I talked them into going in on Mario Kart with their Christmas money and I think it was a good idea all around.

I Am Hoping: To get our sun room done this weekend. I mentioned a friend of mine from work is giving us her old T.V. so the boys can have their own “game” T.V. 

Christmas: Overall was a success, no complaints! The boys (including the big boy) got a lot of toys (quanity over quality right?) although it wasn’t all exactly what they wanted, they were happy.

Plans For The Week: Not much else. I head back to work tomorrow for  a two day work week and then off again for another three days off. I think I can handle that.

Picture Thoughts:

Waiting For Santa

 Yeah..they are waiting for Santa too.

More to come.

On that note… I feel the need to jot down a few little traditions I’ve started with the boys. Mainly to help keep my memory jogged. Im thinking I may be a little old lady in the rest home trying to remember what it was we did each Christmas and might need to refer back to it thanks to the internets. Please may rest homes have interenet. Im pretty sure my addiction to Pinterest will last me well into my 80′s. Grandma will need her internet.

-First is the annual Dollar Tree gift exchange. Our little family of 5 and the dogs draw names for the $1.00 secret santa exchange. It’s mainly for the boys and it’s usually not so secret. You try coraling  3 boys in a store to get gifts for someone and be secret about it. It’s not that easy. Any who, the boys love to shop for whoever. I think it’s great to have them think more so on the thought than the price. They usually love their little $1 gift. I also have them wrap their persons gift for the most part on their own. This is usually the first and only gifts really under the tree until Christmas Eve. We have dogs that like to open presents.

-Second my name tag numbering system. When I first started this a million years ago it was when I could lay out presents under the tree with out concerns a dog would eat it. I’m pretty sure I got the idea from a blog somewhere, but instead of putting names on the presents and the boys snooping around see whos is whos I put numbers. No it’s not a chronological order, assuming that oldest would think #1 is their number and so on. It’s all random each year. This way they don’t know whos is whos and they can’t feel so and so got more presents and so on. It’s all a mystery. If my mom would have numbered my sister and I’s presents under the tree, I would have gone nutso crazy. I was a bad bad sneak. (One day I’ll do a full disclosure post on my badness…maybe). On Christmas morning the number is found on the gift in the stocking. So even on Christmas morning as they run to the tree to see what Santa brought all they see is wrapped gifts and numbers. Don’t try to out wit the sneakiest of sneaks..it won’t happen.

This year I’ve turned it up a notch. There is still the numbers but this time the numbers are well hidden somewhere on the gift. Im not sure if Im trying to be lazy about it as I usually piled each persons numbered gifts in each pile. This year they will all just be randomly laid under the tree and it’s up to them to find the number. We’ll see how this goes. I’ll keep you posted..of course.