PHEW!

***edited to add pictures***

wow. That was a fun 4 day holiday. Seems like I did a lot. Here's a quick run down, in no particular order.

- Christmas threw up in my house, and it had snowmen and white lights for lunch. I'll have pictures soon. Like when I remember to take pictures during the day cuz I REALLY SUCK at night pictures.

The snowman wall. Only snowmen, nothing else. I have issues.

This doesn't look like many lights but that's because I suck. Peter did a kick ass job, as usual, on the house. I love it.

A new addition to the M household. I love them!

I can't forget about the Santa's They are more spread out.

- I rearranged our family room a little bit. Took out the fish tank, hung the curtains I've had for 2 years, arranged this huge clock and framed pictures I've had for a year, and basically gave the room a little face lift without spending any (more) money.

Here are the clocks. You can't tell how big or high this is. But if you remember this post you might have a better frame of reference. that top clock is like hugh! The bottom of it is higher than the top of my entertainment unit. That's up there and I totally love it!!!!

- I am extending the lifted sale through Cyber Monday. woo hoo for sales!

- I've finalized the project I've been working on for the free class. Still lots to do, like take a million pictures on the construction process and write up everything. But the creative part is done and that's a fantastic feeling.

- okay...I'm hesitant to even write this here, but what the hell, I think I'm FINALLY over being a fat ass and am ready to do something about it. This is going to be a MASSIVE undertaking, cuz I pretty much could be cut in half and still be bigger than most of my friends (skinny bitches! haha) but something must be done. I've started really reeeeeeeeally slow. Like giving up desserts after every meal. And yes, confession time, I've taken to having something sweet like all the time, even after breakfast. and YES - THAT'S freaking CRAZY - but true! So be prepared to hear about that from time to time.

and finally - We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. My bro came over as did our baseball friends who have 2 kids, and then one of peter's collegues and his wife. It was a blast having so many people around. I hope y'all had a great holiday!!!

m

getting in the spirit

Since it's officially the holidays and all,

and it's actually raining and FINALLY not feeling all summertimeish outside,

and I'm feeling like I wanna sell a book, or maybe two even,

and I messed with a new ad just for y'all,

I'm having a big ole sale on my one little product.

Thru the weekend there's 25% off the book AND free shipping.

Happy Thanksgiving,

and happy Black Friday,

and happy food hangover,

and happy finally not hot outside,

and happy 4-day weekend,

and happy cute kids saying cute things,

and happy clean house with new curtains,

and happy friends coming over (and cooking most of the dinner)

and happy my mom starting "visiting" me again,

and happy free lifted class coming up,

and happy not being sicky today,

and happy not enough days until Christmas,

and happy just to be happy,

YO!

m

talking talking talking

this is a post I wrote a couple months ago. I kinda felt bad so didn't post it. Then. I forgot all about it. I remembered it when we had a similar weekend with Sarah and figured WHAT THE HECK someone might know what I'm talking about.

Noah:good morning mom. how are you or you are sick that's too bad are we going to your work today - oh not for a while - you are meeting with the new cleaning person today - that's cool is she going to babysit too oh wait I don't need a babysitter anymore

Me: yes you do

Noah: no I just need someone to watch me so - when is she going to be - here are we staying or going to your work - can I have some cereal and this candy - maybe I could have this candy just this one time cuz you're sick and you can't eat it - are you feeling better now mom can I do anything

Me: kill me

Noah: what? what did you say I didn't hear you - are you okay - why are you putting those covers over your head don't you have to get up to meet the cleaning lady - are we going to work if you feel that bad you don't have to go to work - you need to have a glass of water

Me: noah let me get the door

Noah: okay I'll just go into my room and clean up what you told me to clean up like a million times but I ignored you because you were ready to die and I knew you wouldn't do anything but curl up on the coach and ask for your maker to take you whatever that means what does that mean mom - when are we going to your work

Me: I am taking a shower

Noah: okay I'll talk to Darbie.

Darbie: hello how are yo---

Noah: this is my room are you cleaning my room this goes here and that goes there and I have a game tonight and it rained a lot last night so it might get cancelled and I think it will because it's going to rain today and right now and it might rain in my room but you are here cleaning so you can just clean that rain right up those are my practice pants and shirt oh good you found my orange one

Me: noah get it the car, we are going to work

Noah: can we stop at mcdonalds can I have pancakes I know I usually get a biscuit like you but I just want pancakes today how long are we going to be at work are we staying long where are we going to eat lunch

Me: noah. hon. we won't be there long. I'm sick, remember. I will go as fast as I can. okay?

Noah: okay mom I understand we'll go fast how long is fast should we think about lunch

Me: let me do this work now. go outside and play

Noah: okay hello cars hello trees hello bird hello BINGO yellow car blah blah blah blah blah blah................

an hour later

Me: Noah let's go.

Noah: wow that was fast you were only there for like an hour I didn't know we were going to be there that long that was fast are we going home now I just love this blue bat I used to use the yellow one the slugger but now I use this one or maybe I should use the blue one I hit a lot with it see mom you can see all the hits I've gotten off it the letters are coming off

Me: I am going to bed noah.

Noah. okay I'll stay out here.....blah blah blah blah hello darbie still cleaing this is my blue bat blah blah blah blah blah I love this cartoon yogi is so cool he's the smartest bear of them all and then there's boo boo blah blah blah blah blah blah blah I hit so much with this blue bat.

Me: I need food. let's go.

Noah: wow mom you don't look so good do you feel okay where are we goi---mom? am I talking a lot today?

praise the sweet Lord Jesus he is listening to himself

Me: yes noah, actually you are.

Noah: well I'm just excited about this blue bat this bat is my favorite bat and I am going to use it tonig---

KILL ME

Noah: blah blah blah blue bat blah blah blah why are you sick blah blah blah am I going to california this year blah blah blah blah I love allstars blah blah blah blah blah blaaaaaaaaaaaah blllllaaaaaaaaaaaaa bllllaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

hooooooooooooours later.

Noah: mom you still don't look so good are you sick or something that was neat running to beth at target this present for eric is cool I hope he likes it at his party tomorrow when do I get to go again after my game or maybe during it maybe they will stop the game so I can go to the party and skate and then come back. are you sure you're okay mom you are hot you need some water here's some water water cools you down so does air. air cools you down too you should get some water and go outside in the air and cool down because you are hot.

Me: time for bed. i love you. goodnight.

Noah: oh it's time for bed already I didn't do a thing today I know I need to go to bed so I can be ready for my big game tomorrow can you believe it got cancelled today cuz it rained a lot but not in my room so darbie didn't have to clean that up do I really need to go to bed already I'm really not slee-------CONK! zzzzzzzzzz

Dear God, thank you for making night. Amen

laughed so hard I almost died

Me: Sarah, here's your lunch money.
S: FIVE dollars?!!!!

Me: Yep. go you.

S: I only have one dollar.

Me: No, you have 5.

S: No, see (waving bill) One. Dollar.

Me: Yes, but what is the number on it?

S: five

S: oh.

S: I have one five dollars

Me: Yep. You have One Five Dollar Bill.

S: who's Bill?

God, I love her!

m

double take

WARNING - DESPITE WHAT MY NEW HEADER SAYS, THIS POST CONTAINS SWEAR WORDS AND A QUESTIONABLE PICTURES.

NO LITTLE EYES PEEKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER.

You've been warned...

Imagine an old school strip mall. Little, dumpy, and in desperate need of a face lift.
Now imagine one of your favorite lunchtime pizza joints is in this mall. You're hungry and decide that peperoni and mushroom with light sauce is today's choice for filling the mound that is your stomach. (okay MY stomach is a mound. Yours is probably nice and flat, bitch)

You place your phone order and carefully figure out the drive time so you can arrive just as they pull that yummy pizza out of the oven. As you drive up you can smell the deliciousness soon to be yours. The mound (or flatness, bitch!) growls and your mouth waters, ah! the excitement.

The parking lot is full, which makes sense as this is a fantastic little eatery, so you have to park down the way a bit. There's a spot in front of Adam & Eve, a little lingerie (I think!) shop. Cool, not a long walk. Besides, it's late fall and the weather is perfect. Exactly why you live in Phoenix, so you can wear flip flops and capris when picking up your lunch and not catch a chill or start to sweat. My kind of day!

Then you notice it. The mannequin. You've always seen her but never really paid much mind because you've always loved their cool logo, with the half apple. "clever" you always think to yourself. Today, though, you notice the figure on the left. The one is a fancy red lace number. Pretty right? But WAIT?!?! back up that bus.... WTF IS THAT?

A MAN??? IN THE WINDOW DISPLAY??? IN A DRESS?

Sure as shit. That's a man,

in a nightie.

really?

WHY?

and as if that's not enough. Check out the woman. double wtf on her mouth?

SCREW LUNCH. now I just feel dirty.

m

wow, pure talent!

I could listen to this kid all day long. Who am I kidding, I damn near have :)
Check out the rest of this stuff. He's amazing.





m

free RIGHT NOW!

I've made some changes to the look of my site. It's not all it's going to ever be, but for now, while still with godaddy, it'll have to do.

Check it out and let me know what you think

while fooling around I decided to dump the shipping costs. Well, they still will get paid, I mean good ole USPS needs their mula, but I'LL PAY FOR YOUR SHIPPING! I'm pretty sure this deal will run through Christmas. If it doesn't I'll post a head's up. I won't go just getting rid of an offer this good.

And a good offer it is. :)

HAPPY SHOPPING PEOPLE!

m

how about something free?

Okay, it's not free YET. But I'm working on it. It's coming! For reals !

Here's the dealio. I've put into words what my book does with pictures. I've designed some cool tools to help grasp the concept of the book and to help with Lifting in general.

And it will be downloadable for free!




The design of my little project/class thing, called a "Lift Kit" is done. But I've got much to work out with the website and logistics of doing an online class.

If you wanna get in on the action before it's all official, just fill out the CONTACT PAGE at Paper Therapy. I'll add you to a special mailing list where I'll send out updates and final details. I'm hoping to officially launching the class Dec 1 with the class starting mid dec or beginning of January. It will be a free form class, so the timing will not be critical. Something that, for me, is a must over the holiday season. So it will be stress free - this much I know!

More to come soon!

m

my brain may explode

No joke, I think my brain is going to explode. Lots of things rambling around up in there. Beyond being actually busy at work (this is a good thing for sure!!!) I've got some personal/creative things going on.

first, my scrapbook room. I've been working on it like crazy. Rearranging the million M's I have. Making new ones. decorating old olds. Buying more, like this one:

This is not smart! I have no more room. The part of my brain that says, "STOP!" is broken. clearly. I've got the middle of the alphabet covering the walls of my room to prove it.

The room is finally clean and nearly ready for a picture to post. Had I not started that free Jessica Sprague Stories in Hand class it might be perfect right now. But since there's a project to do, there are scraps of paper all over the place making it not picture worthy, yet. I hope to get some good pictures this weekend to post. I'll also have to post the before picture. Proof that my creative mind does not require cleanliness. You can't even tell it's an actual room. I have issues. for reals.

second, this class. I'm super excited about Jessica's system to gathering stories. That's something I've struggled with in my scrapbooking. I know I've got stories in me, but getting them out in a more exciting way than "we went to Globe, ate ice cream and had a blast with the kids" is something I want to be better at. The timing isn't great for me, I'll admit. My brain is overflowing with crap and adding to it is causing the craziest dreams. My brain takes my creative endeavours and blends it into the real things I did or saw that day. so when I've got many creative things going on it turns into a crazy mess up there. If only I could remember them for more than an hour, I would share one with you. Peter gets to hear most, and he looks at me completely boggled, mumbling, "that's completely f'ed up" Next time I'll write one down so y'all can see what I mean.

third, a new idea. I've been working on some ideas with how to better explain and market my book. It's been super slow going as everything ties together. When I change one thing in one of my concepts it trickles down to the blog, and website, and adverts. Everything! I need to finish it all before I can move on. In the long run it's better, it just seems to take so long to make progress.

But in the spirit of a good blog entry, which means pictures. And to put a little teaser out there. Here's a graphic I've been working on. Hate it? well keep that to yourself. :) My dreams couldn't handle it!

m

photo/twitter post

let's get some pictures up in here!
This one's gonna be short and sweet, I'm all chattered out. OH SHUT UP! It could happen!

Jack-o-lanterns. HELLO CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!!! this was right before bed, after showers. I allowed them to sit up on the island to take the picture. I would not recommend doing this, as now they think they can do it all the time. Especially that little one in the middle who can pretty much get away with anything cuz those damn eyes.

----------------------------------------------------------

Halloween DUH! Mine are the grumpy army guy in the middle. The bright pink Bat Girl at right. and sweet little butterfly at left. This picture is proof I have NO STINKING CLUE how to take a good picture. ugh! Oh but check out that adorable pumpkin stand thing in front of the window. I have another that's a skeleton, found them at Michael's. Love them!

----------------------------------------------------------

The travelocity gnome. By far the cutest costume I've seen, like ever.

oh EWW!! Déjà vu. Do I say that every year? I mean do I say that EVERY year??? NO really? Do I say it every YEAR?

OKAY I think I need to be done with this before my brain twists itself into a crazy little pretzel.

m

EDITED TO ADD:

this was the question in the ponder thing after I updated and it totally cracked me up. I just couldn't leave it alone!

"Do toilet seats really protect us from anything?"

uh... hello? Ever heard of falling in?

a teeny reminder

Hey y'all! I just wanted to post real fast about the "i wear yellow" banners for the Emily Benefit. If you copy the little banner, and I see many of you have,

YOU ROCK!! THANK YOU

anyway, when you put it on your blog make sure you add a link back to

http://www.papertherapy.com/

so people can see what I'm up to over there :) and pick up the book.

I'm sure you know how to do that, but JUST IN CASE, in the "configure Image" pop-up just type in http://www.papertherapy.com/ in the "link" box

(or copy and paste if your uber lazy like me) and BOOM, you're done.

Parenting Tip of the Month (or not)

Don't let this title fool you, I'm not going to be adding a monthly parenting tip to my blog? Why, you ask? Because I'm like the crappiest mother ever. Oh yes, it's true.

Want proof? Our pet hamster Rascal died. Found him dead Friday morning. This, in itself, doesn't earn me "crap mother of the year" award, as pets are allowed to die. The problem? I'm not exactly sure when it happened. I know he was alive Wednesday, because I saw him climbing in his cage, but beyond that I'm clueless. I'm a monster!

Last night I told the kids. Noah first, since it was his birthday present pet. He burst into tears. I felt terrible. He asked how, and why, and was it his fault? I told him no and no and heavens no! all the while thinking it's your mother's fault. I probably put him in a diabetic coma feeding him too many carrots and grapes. Can hamsters get diabetes? Should they even eat carrots and grapes? See? These are things I should know! Monster I tell you!

OOH!!! And to top off this pleasure cruise of self loathing, I wrapped up little rascal and put him in the trash. WHAT???!! what are you supposed to do? I didn't know, and it was trash day. Turns out I might have thought to save him so Noah could see him, and say goodbye maybe. Hell if I know. All I know is I had to completely avoid Noah's question of what I did with him. He'll ask again, I'm sure. Still have NO idea what I'll tell him, "Mommy threw your beloved little pet in the garbage honey, and years from now you won't see her in heaven, Satan has a special spot for hamster tossing monster moms!"

I started this blog entry thinking about this super clever and incredibly brilliant idea slash parenting tip I came up with while dining with the kids the other night. But now I'm wondering if this is just another example of what a monster I am!

Here's what happened. We are with another family and that mom, her name is Renee, is like super prepared and actually brings things to entertain her children during dinner. Something I've long since given up remembering I should do. There we are, adults chatting away having a great time while the kids put together the puzzle Renee brought along. They started to get restless after putting it together twice. Oh bloody hell! I just realize they put it together a second time because I tore it apart right as they finished, laughed and said "uh oh, looks like you have to do it again!" What is wrong with me???

As I was saying, after they put it together, for the second time, no thanks to me, they were bored. I suggested they do it upside down and wouldn't ya know it - they did! I made Eric, the one who did the bulk of the work, hold off with the last piece so I could snap a picture.



So my parenting tip of the month, find someone else who is like NICE and THOUGHTFUL to get tips from. I'm for sure not qualified! :)

m

I need some cheering up

If you read my tweets, you'll know how I really feel about yesterday. You'll know what I can't say here {anymore} because I'm trying to be a good - less offensive - blogger. I'm still feeling funky today and thought a little uplifting post might do me so good. So here it is: my kids. Pretty damn cute huh? yes, I know, they're perfect. It's all in the genes!

BWHAHAHAHhahaaa

I love this little photo.

I love how they are all red from playing. There was no way I was going to photoshop/correct that. It's so them. Hard playing kids.

I love that it was their idea that all three of them get on the tire swing without a single thought of leaving someone off, or going it alone. The fact that really do like playing together is about the coolest thing on the planet.

I love how they have finally figured out that I'm going as fast as I can with the camera, and that I won't stop until I get a decent shot. So just be semi-still, smile, and I'll let you play after I get a shot. (thank you, Beth, for filling me on that little parenting nugget)

I love it so much it's my desktop right now, replacing the Microsoft furnished "window in a Mexican casita" photo. I works perfectly as a desktop image, too, because most of my folders are on the right side (yes, totally backwards, I know) and they don't get lost in the picture.

The only problem is its sheer size or their heads. I have a massively huge 24" monitor here at work. It's GIGANTIC and completely wonderful! As a result of this billboard sized monitor, the munchkin's faces are like bigger than life size. It took me a couple days to get used to having them all up in my face every day. Correction: it took some time having them all up in my face and silent.

Honest to God, it took a couple days to realize they weren't going to jump out of the screen with questions, or complaints, or requests, or demands, or tattlings, or anything that would interrupt the quiet, happy, perfection of them looking up at me.

Yep, that did the trick.

m

Y'all have no idea...

...how hard it is for me not to totally swear right now. Stupid less sweary blog ;)

Sorry, John, you got my vote. and at least 55 million other people believe you're the man for the job.

m

i wear yellow

I spent the day today at the ballpark with my family. It's been an amazing day, full of hot dogs and strong young men is uniforms. The weather was perfect, seats were in the shade, and each kid got a baseball. All in all it was perfect.

or mostly. there's been something on my mind all day.

I've been checking Emily's blog non-stop since finding out how grave her husband's situation was. I've been glued to the computer last night and all this morning. On my way to the game, around 12:30, I read her post that they were going to have to remove him from the breathing machine. I read later he passed around 2:30 this afternoon. My heart simply breaks for her. She's handling it so incredibly well, being a pillar of strength for her children. Her faith in God is strong and I know He will carry her through this. But still, it's so incredibly sad.

A couple weeks ago the Internet came together to help Kimberly after the sudden and tragic loss of her husband. Being a part of that felt wonderful. Paypaling a little chunk of change to a complete stranger during her time of need made me feel, I dunno, good. Like I was giving back. Even though I didn't know her, I felt I could be her, and that moved me.

But this. Man, this. It's different. closer. I know Emily. I've known her for years and years. Damn, I just posted about her a while back. Her children are the same age as my two oldest and we've always shared stories about whats going on in their lives.

I dunno, it's all just crazy to me. I can't imagine it. I want to do something. I want to help. But how do you help someone who's going through so much? Hell if I know. All I can do it pray. Which I will continue to do. And I'll hug my man a little tighter tonight, cuz I know she'd tell me to do that.

But I can do more than pray. With your help, we can do great things. I'm doing another benefit. But this time it's not a week. It's for the entire month of November. The profits from Lifted are going to Emily. So here's a way that you can give, but still get something in return. I mean something beyond the warm fuzzies you get from helpin' out a sister.

Really, it's the least I could do. I hope you'll join me.



m

p.s. feel free to copy the pic above and post on your blog. Or email me at michelle@papertherapy.com and I'll send you the file.