Belated 4th and holy crap I've been busy.

Did this patriotic LO just before the holiday and meant to share it here, but plans (dinner at mom & dad's), company (sis & co.), and my new high-powered workout schedule have left me little time to update.

This concert was held mid-May at Tess's school. Local military, police, and firefighters were invited. Her class learned about 15 patriotic songs (as did Ben & I, as Tess practiced them all relentlessly at home!) and speeches (she recited the poem and info about it from the Statue of Liberty) BY MEMORY. So impressive!

This tradition was started almost 20 years ago by a teacher at her school (who recently passed away, making this year's concert especially poignant) during the first Gulf War. She was shocked that her students didn't know the words to our national anthem; well, now several generations do!

(everything on this LO is from Designer Digitals: template by the super-inspiring Cathy Zielske, who is 6 months into her fitness program. Kit is Summer Bright by Lynn G.)

So here's the real reason I've been MIA for the last couple of weeks. Since it's officially Bathing Suit Weather, I've finally found the motivation to get. moving. Since drastic measures were needed, I've tried exercising every day (skipping the weekends, but even those will get in on it, very soon) since about June 28th, when I did a warm-up (weak) 6 laps in the outdoor pool at our gym.

This week I'm up to 24 laps (working toward 36, a full mile, 2 or 3 times a week). I've also started the Couch to 5K podcast program (you can pay for it at coolrunning.com but someone has uploaded a listen-along version for free at iTunes). My only goal with that so far is maybe a 5K run...my village has one in December (brr) called the Holiday Hustle. Ann Arbor is a runnin' town, so I'll have no problem finding 5Ks+ in my neighborhood. But for right now I'm taking it slow, since I've never followed a running program before!

Tess's dance recital was mid-June. The first hairdo I did for her was PERFECTION; too bad the one I did for her actual recital fell out! Eep! She was a trouper, though...she just kept dancing! I used a Summer Night kit from Digitalcrea.fr but also a template from 2peas, not the usual look for a Digitalcrea LO but I had fun with the colors! Still not sure I love it...

This gang of gals has been taking up some of my free time as well. This week I've been a bit of a slacker, though (see workout routine, above, and oh my it's so dang HOT out! Too hot for weeding. Bad virgin!) Everything here -- template and all -- is from Shabby Pickle Designs. LOVE all the kits from As You Wish...here I just went with one, Checkered Apron.

This was a challenge over at ScrapArtist. Everything except the snail is from there. We were to put wings on something unusual...someone had suggest to me, at a fairy tea I attended with my mother, that since I didn't have fairies in my garden, "Just snails, LOTS of snails!" that I should put wings on them and see if they flew away! Then this challenge came up a voila! I made my fantasy come true. Sort of.

Hoping you have lots of strawberries this year, since the snails ate all of ours. Peace out.

Spring Has Sprung

I seem to be getting out of doors every day. School wrap-up events are happening fast and furious; Tess participated in her Patriotic Concert this past week and I attended my last (sniff) Creative Play class and last MOPS meeting, both with Ben. He will be a big bad 4 year-old preschooler next fall, and I'm moving my time and talents to the cooperative preschool he will be attending.



I've come to realize I can only take on ONE volunteer activity at a time and keep my sanity; for the last 2 years it's been as Publicity Leader for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). My steering team duties ended this year, and I'm looking forward to getting to know local moms through work with the co-op next year. The MOPS moms, while a FANTASTIC bunch of ladies, are sadly in a different school district, so while it's been a beneficial program for *my* mental health, there's not been a lasting connection made for my kids. I'm hoping that working with the co-op will help me get to know more moms in my town.



I'm "virtually" attending Marit's amazing Creative Art Journey class, but I haven't done any pages for it yet; I'm hoping that will change this weekend!


I have been scrapbooking digitally lately...again, the fastest and easiest way for me to scrap on the go, but I need some paint and glue on my fingers, STAT!



Supplies: Farmer's Market paper and tag, Sandy Kreiger for 2peas (freebie). Template and border courtesy of Jessica Sprague [dot] com...she has some fantastic tutorials called "Photoshop Fridays" -- buy them for $1 on Wednesdays, and watch the video tutorial after downloading the materials...easy & informational! Fonts: Antsy Pants and Pea Jack and Jill.


One of my new spring/summer activities is volunteering as a "Dirty Virgin" at a community garden in my MOPS village. So far the work has not been hard, but we've only done some seed planting; the watering needed has been taken care of for the most part by heavy rains. The only requirement for becoming a DV was that you not have any experience in gardening; I let E start our garden last year (disaster! I've done more for it this year, thanks in part to my DV work).



The food we grow will be served at a one-day-a-week local food harvest, called "Yellow Door" (the private home it is held at has a bright yellow front door). I have been to breakfast there on occasion and the food is amazing -- all of it grown within a 60-mile radius, including the beef, flour, and dairy! It can be done!



I would love to do more canning and hope to harvest enough from the 4 tomato plants in our backyard garden to put up a good crop. Last year was a terrible year for tomatoes...not enough warm nights...hopefully this year we will do better. I did buy cages for our tomatoes, as last year (ahem), hubs left our plants to fall over on the ground, thus most of the fruit rotted away uselessly. I tried helping him set up the garden this year and he is QUITE crabby about it...I think he is planning on me taking it over completely...grr...not my plan but if I want to eat food I've grown, I guess I'll have to.