Not just a cactus.

Baldie is not just a cactus. Baldie is a member of our family.

Years ago we bought a cactus and named it Baldie.

Ever since then, we have watched it grow.

Comments are made almost daily about it's growth and height.

Yesterday while the girls were playing, I had a chance to play with my camera.

Here are some of the shots I took of Baldie and her flowers!

Did you notice the light green bug? You can even make out it's eyes.

Art Show 2012

Another year.

Another art show.

Here we (the district art teachers) are at the reception.

With more than 2000 pieces of art, I took some panorama's of the auditorium.

It is quite an overwhelming event. 

This year we had work from every campus in our district!

Click on the panorama's for a larger picture.

I love the art show.

People who aren't "into" art just rave, and that makes it all worth it!

Why I think all mom's should scrapbook :)

Proof Positive of why I love to scrapbook!!

Don't you just love these pages.  It makes my heart go a flutter. Granted they are my children, but I just love making memories and then putting them on paper.  My girls love looking at the books and it's almost like we are making the memory again!

I know. I'm a cheezeball.

One really cool thing about scrapbooking is the instant gratification you get looking at a page.  No, I'm not even close to being current on my scrapbooking.  Do I have pages of Lexi or Kylie made as a baby?  A few. But no worries. I scrapbook what I want with what I have and will worry about the rest later!

Here are the bluebonnet pictures from a few weeks ago. I went to my monthly scrapbook class Friday night and we made the base layout that I used for Maddie and Kylie's pages. The rest of the pages were "scraps"!! Yippee... The four little pages will be insert pages on Kylie's larger page.

All the paper and embellishments are Close To My Heart. 

Enjoy the pages and I hope they make your heart smile like they do mine!

An Investment in Myself

first, I'm writing this on Maddie's computer.  her default settings are neon green and pink text. I have no idea how this post is going to look. things like that happen when you drop your laptop. :(

Moving on.

I made an investment in myself.

I am rather proud.  I not only bought new running shoes, I bought new workout attire!  I spent a good bit, but I decided that if I wanted to do something about getting healthy, I needed to have something to get healthy in.

I bought the stuff on Saturday afternoon.

It is now Sunday evening and I run both days. Both days I have fixed my kids dinner, sat them down at the table and left. I know that I can't do that often. But, I decided that since I was itching to run jog (very slowly) that I just needed to do it.

And yes, I like jogging. I'm slow, but hey, I have to start somewhere!

12. It just can't be.

12. Maddie turned 12 today. 

Oh me Oh my. where did the time go? 

Hopefully I will load a timeline-ish picture thing later, but I'm on Maddie's computer and she doesn't have the pictures.  So for now, we will just say...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to my beautiful, smart, caring, and all around wonderful girl!!

How grateful I am to be her mother.