It came, it came!!! I am now a proud iPod owner :)

I am now proof that you really can get a free iPod. I got mine today and it is already charging. It is a 20MB color screen one that retails for $299 at Target. It is amazing how easy it was to get! I can't believe that they do next day shipping through DHL. Anyway, now that I have this little baby in my hands, I am now working on getting a few more toys. Check out my links on the right for the free XBox 360, iPod Nano, and iPod Shuffle. You are able to sign up for each one, but you cannot cheat and make up referrals to complete the requirements. Your referrals must complete 1 offer each and they have to have a unique IP address, email, and mailing address. They investigate all of your referrals once you try to order your free goodie. If you cheat, you don't get anything. I want to thank all the people that signed up under me for referrals. I hope you all are well on your way to earning your iPods. If you are interested in signing up for one of the freebies I have posted, click on the corresponding link in my right column of this page. Complete the required info. and then complete one offer. Right now, you can try a $.99 trial of Rhapsody (music website). That is all it costs. I did it for my iPod Nano requirement and it was super easy and instantly gave me and the referrer credit. I canceled it before the month was up and they didn't give me any trouble at all. There is also a Blockbuster movie delivery trial that is super easy to do. Heck, I had been meaning to try it out, so I signed up for it for my Shuffle referrer. That one is unbelievably easy to cancel (you can do it on the web). I decided to stay with it and not cancel because the service is fabulous! I think that you can still do this offer for free instead of $9.99 if you enter a code (USATODAY9).

Anyway, I hate to sound like a commercial and like I am using my blog to sell you something, but we are talking about *FREE* goodies that would otherwise be expensive. I think that everyone should know about this incredible deal. It is amazingly easy and the rewards are fabulous!

I am so S-O-R-R-Y!!!

I have not posted on here in forever, it seems. Trust me, I haven't fell off the face of the Earth. My whole family has been sick over the past couple of weeks and I have been slack about updating the ole blog. I just haven't felt like it. It only seems to have been a bad cold, but it has been a rough ride for us and the kiddos. Hayden has been the worst. He has been out of school for a long time(until today). Last Friday, he refused to sleep and complained of his ear hurting. We let him sleep in our room and the poor thing didn't go to sleep until 3am! We went to the doctor and got Hayden some antibiotics the next day. He seems to be feeling a LOT better now and he finally returned to school today.

Unfortunately, our friends(the Wolfes) had a birthday party on Saturday for their daughter Carson, but we weren't able to go. I hated to miss it because it was her first and the kiddos would have had such a fun time.

Good news-We will be taking off for Atlanta on Friday. Our surrogacy journey is finally going to the next level. We will be visiting with the intended parents and the fertility clinic. I will get a saline ultrasound and some bloodwork done to make sure that I am healthy. Clayton will also have to have bloodwork done to make sure that he doesn't have something horrible (like HIV) that could be spread to me. I think that he has forgotten about that, so I am not going to remind him until we are there. He gets kinda squimish over having anything to do with needles. Good thing that he never had to hunch over and hold completely still while having a *SUPER HUGE* needle stuck in his spine for an epidural :P Heck, he had a hard time even being in the same room as me when I had it done, LOL. Anyway, we are hoping for the best. I hope that I am completely healthy and capable of doing this. I want to do it so badly. My dream of being a surrogate began when I was pregnant with Hayden, so I have mulled over it for years. I just want to give the gift of life to these wonderful people. Wish us luck!

The boys will be staying at home while we are gone. My Aunt Judy and Mom are coming up to babysit. Hayden is so psyched!

Ahhhh, I just love the swing ride. 

The ferris wheel 

Hayden caught a fish 

Hayden driving a truck 

Austin and Hayden 

Poor Emerson was dying of heatstroke at the fair 

Ugh! Yucky disease has taken over our household!

Well, it has been a while since I updated the old blog. Sorry about that, but we have all been sick lately. I caught it hard-core from the kiddos on Thursday and Clayton finally got it today. Yippee.

Here's a recap from the past couple of days:

Thursday

Tracy and Austin came over to our house so that they could ride with us to the mall. We were meeting our friend Angela for a little bit of shopping at B. Moss. I watched Angela's 4 year old (Kaitlynn) and Hayden at the kiddie play area while the other moms went shopping. Naturally, Hayden decides he has to go pee shortly after, so I have to round up the two of them plus Emerson and the double stroller to go to the bathroom. We waited outside of the family restroom for ten freaking minutes! Both kids were doing the pee pee dance and I was about to kill whoever was in there. Some custodian walks past me and tells me that I can go to the regular restrooms. Yeah right. How in the heck do you suppose I am going to get the double stroller, all of our belongings, 2 toddlers and myself into a stall, hmmm? This bathroom that he is referring to doesn't even allow enough room for me to turn the stroller into it. What a nincompoop. Besides, if I really could have went to the regular bathroom, I WOULD HAVE!!! Anyway, the door finally opens up to the family bathroom and a mall employee comes out. It specifically says on the door that mall employees are not to use that bathroom. UGH. As mad as I was, I am surprised that I kept my mouth shut. I just couldn't say anything to the guy because he was old and was really slow. I felt bad for him, but I know that he could have used a stall in the men's room. Why can't people just follow the rules?

We had a birthday party for Sage at Chuck E. Cheese after lunch. The kids had a great time. Hayden loved spending his "money" (tokens).

That night, Tracy and I took the boys to the fair. Tracy's brother, Alex, came along too. Everything was going well until I felt dizzy, nauseous, and had a headache beyond belief! I didn't know what was going on. Tracy took the boys to ride several rides while I tried to rest on a bench. She said she knew that I was sick considering I hadn't even asked for a fried twinkie or Snickers bar yet, LOL. The smells and noises were killing me. I felt so guilty because I wanted to see Hayden enjoying the rides. This was his first year doing so. He was too chicken last year. I decided to go to the first aid station to see if they had any medicine. I got some motrin and a water. Thankfully, I began to feel alot better after that and was able to function again. I didn't ever feel good enough to get something fatty and fried, but I did get me a key lime pie slice on a stick. It was frozen and dipped in chocolate. Can we say "yummy"! Check out my photos above.

Friday

I kept Hayden out of school again today because I was incredibly sick. My throat was on fire and I couldn't even swallow my own spit. It was horrible. The kiddos were better, but I took a major dive into sickdom.

Saturday

Not much to say about that day except that we did nothing but hang around the house.

The Cold Bug Has Struck

Poor baby 

Those have to be the most matted eyelashes ever! 

Eeeeeeew, GROSS!

Oh my, both boys seem to have caught a bug on Monday. Hayden had a fever that evening and didn't sleep much that night. He kept waking up crying. Clayton found him in the sunroom, fast asleep on the couch, Tuesday morning. I guess he wasn't comfortable in his bed. That day, I made him lunch and got mad at him for not eating it. He said his tongue hurt and I ignored him. Later, Clayton discovered that Hayden's throat was bothering him. Then lunch-time made sense to me. No wonder he refused to eat and said his tongue hurt. I am so ignorant sometimes! Well, Big E's eyes were caked with goo this morning. He looked so pitiful. I already have him pumped with Tylenol and hopefully he will be fine tomorrow. Hayden is staying home from school today just in case. He seems to be feeling 100% better, but I just want to make sure before spreading the disease to his classmates.

A New View On My Hobby

I do not know what has come over me lately. I just want to scrap all the time! I rarely ever feel this way, so I am riding this wave while I can. My style is changing to an even simpler one because I am sick and tired of trying to make every page publish-worthy. It has been a long time since I have submitted anything to the magazines anyway. The last publication I had was in June for the Simple Scrapbooks special issue: Scrapbooking Secrets using Simple Schemes. I believe that was the last time that I had sent anything in for a call. It just doesn't mean as much to me anymore. I have had 16 published layouts by Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrapbooks, Leisure Arts, Memory Makers, Paperkuts, and Scrapbook Trends. That doesn't include the book that I just did for Lark Books. That one was funded by Michael's and should be out in 2006. I was the papercrafter for the book. I am not sure what the title will be, but it will be all about weddings. Anyway, I am not meaning to go on and on about my scrapbooking publications. I just need to remind myself of all of the accomplishments I have achieved. Now that I have done that, I am going to let it all go (for the most part). I do not need to be published any longer to feel the validation that I am an okay scrapbooker. From now on, I am scrapping for myself and my family. I may submit a couple here and there if there happens to be a layout that is a perfect fit for a call, but I will not make layouts especially for submitting. There is not enough time in the world to keep up with all the magazines and books any longer. I am burned out and I realize now why I haven't scrapped much this summer. The fun was taken out of it. It was work rather than a hobby. The Michael's book was the straw that broke the camel's back. I had 10 weeks of deadlines and each week a bunch of projects would be due. Sometimes, I would stay up until my hubby went to work the next morning just so I could get my stuff done. I had never felt so exhausted in my life! That book really hurt my desire to scrapbook for myself. Now that it has been said and done since July, I have rested up and I have a new outlook on my hobby. Who really cares if I get published again?
I am currently on 2 design teams-The Scrapbook Club and The Scrapbook Stand. Both are fantastic monthly scrapbook kit clubs that send me goodies every month to play with. I love the gals that own them and they are wonderful to work with. There are a LOT of gals that would give anything to design for these 2 clubs. They are both well-known and highly talked about clubs that produce magnificent kits each and every month. Subscribers stalk their mailboxes each month around delivery time and write about it on their respective message boards. The excitement on these 2 sites is phenomenal! I am so proud to be a designer for them. On The Scrapbook Stand, we are working on choosing a couple of new designers to add to the team. The try-outs were astounding. I am so glad that I am already on the team and am not being judged amongst the talented auditioners ;) Being in their shoes really stinks. You can be an A+ scrapper, but not make the team because the competition is so fierce. There are limited amount of spots to fill too. The thing is, I need to remember that I am lucky to be a part of these teams and that not just anyone gets to be in my position. That should be enough validation for me and it now is. If you want to check out these 2 sites, see the links in my right-hand sidebar.

Sorry about this crazy post, I just needed to type my feelings out. Now I feel better and I will be happier doing what I love to do. The layouts that you see are quick ones that I did yesterday and today. Since my style is less embellished now, I am able to crank 'em out a lot faster :)

Big boy Hayden on his way to preschool 

Hayden's new backpack 

First Day of Pre-School

Today, Hayden suddenly became a big boy in my eyes. I walked him to class and hung up his little book bag on his peg that had his name tag above it. It felt so weird. When he walked through the classroom door, he bolted for the blocks and that was the last I saw of him before leaving. Tears welled up in my eyes as I walked away. My little boy was finally a BIG boy in every sense of the word. Now that he is potty trained and going to school, he seems to have matured a great deal over the summer. I wasted the next 3 hours chatting with some gal pals in Black Bear (local coffee shop), walking Big E around downtown Hendersonville, and then waiting in Clayton's parking lot at work (I was picking him up before Hayden so that we could all go eat lunch together). I got to his classroom before they were dismissed, so I peeked in. All the little kiddos were sitting at a table and they looked like they were having fun. Hayden saw me and was excited that I was there. His teacher, Miss Gail, told him it was time to go home and he didn't even put up a fight. She just picked him up and handed him over. He was so happy that school was so much fun, but he was tired. I am SO glad that he likes it there. The school is wonderful and the teachers are fantastic. He is going to have such a great year there :)

Thanks to all my free iPod referrals!!!

I just found out that I earned a free color iPod. I got the 20GB one with the color screen. I saw it tonight at Target for $299! It sure will be nice to get it for the $1 trial offer of some stupid entertainment discount program I signed up to do for 7 days. Now, I am on my way to earning hubby an XBox 360. His old XBox has seen better days, so out with the old and in with the new. The XBox offer works the same way as the iPod offer did. I signed up for a month trial of Blockbuster movies by mail as my one obligation to get it. The fee was supposed to be $9.99, but I used a code (USATODAY9) to get the first month free. Essentially, the XBox won't cost me a penny because I plan to cancel Blockbuster as soon as the month is over. I love these marketing schemes! If you are interested in doing the same thing, click the link in the left column to get started. There is a whole article written on the legitimacy of this marketing company in one of my posts below. Check it out if you are skeptical. Come on, I need 8 referrals this time ;)

The view from the outside of our living room window, LOL. I took this photo last Monday.

Asleep in the Ultrasaucer-isn't that thing supposed to entertain him? 

This was taken today. 

My Poor Little Guy

Emerson is a human sloth. The poor little guy will fall asleep just about anywhere. If you put him in the jumper, he jumps himself to sleep. If you put him in the van, he falls asleep within 5 minutes of your trip. If he is playing in the Ultrasaucer, he just can't keep from dozing off. I don't know what it is. That kid could sleep just about anywhere. Actually, I bet he got it from me. I have been known to sleep during violent winds/thunderstorms in campers, on a bleacher at a Nascar race when I was little (not that I minded, LOL), in cars with my head between my knees (and yes, I WAS sober every time I did that!), and during movies at the theatre. I guess my slothdom has been inherited by my youngest.