Attitude adjustment

• The sun is shining, it's not too hot or too cold or too windy, the girls are napping & there's my favorite soft drink waiting for me in the fridge.
• School starts tomorrow and the boys are ready to go and excited about a new year and new opportunities.
• I am able to work from home, create my own schedule and pretty much control my days while contributing to the family income and having a little time left over for my scrapbooking hobby.
• Skylar starts Head Start next week - at no charge to us - and gets to ride the bus every day with her little friend from across the street.
• My friend & I have planned a day each week where we'll take both of the younger kids in exchange for the same favor later in the week, providing each of us a free morning all to ourselves.
• The chokecherries are about ripe and I have ample equipment and supplies to properly make syrup and jelly this year, not to mention the opportunity to share this experience with my friend.
•I am relatively healthy and have just about mustered up the motivation and ability to take on an even healthier way of eating and living.
• I have several supportive friends, mostly online, who share similar interests with which I interact on a daily - and sometimes hourly - basis.
• I have a great husband who comes home from a good job every day to help with the kids and share the load.
I'm sure I could continue this list for quite some time ... and probably should do so on a regular basis as it helps me shift from what seems to be an all-too-easy negative or pessimistic outlook on life to a more positive, realistic, happier view. My tendency to land here was brought to my attention again today when contrasted against a post by my friend, who is currently doing a great job of seeing her glass as more than half full...{thanks, Heather!!}
My husband has more than once suggested that I am simply destined to be unhappy. That he can't understand why, when everything seems to be going well for me, I can still find a way to be miserable. Though I don't exactly agree with him, there does seem to be at least a little truth to his statement. And I really don't understand why, especially since I've been aware from a very young age of the power to choose an attitude and basically create one's own experience. I've read tons of books in an effort to figure this out and the quote below has been a favorite of mine since high school ... but it seems I still have a lot to learn. For today, though, I choose to remind myself of all of the positive in my life ... and spare you (and myself) the details of my latest frustrations.


{Butterfly & patterned paper available free from The Shabby Princess Promise Collection}

Summer's End ... Take 3

So I just keep playing with potential contest entries for the Summer's End contest. I went out and took some photos Sunday of our crabapple tree, which is probably my favorite subject in our yard to photograph year-round. It's beautiful in all seasons ... my favorite, of course, is when it flowers. But right now, it really looks like the first sign of fall with its little apples.
Anyway, here's my current favorite ... what do you think?

Where did the summer go?

Wow... I fully intended to blog more about my trip to San Antonio while I was still there, but obviously since I've been home for over a week now, that didn't happen.
This last month has been a flurry of activity ... we spent 10 days at the family cabin at Pelican Lake, returning home on Sunday, Aug. 2. Then Monday, Aug. 3, my Uncle Lennie & cousin William from Texas came for a visit, as well as my Uncle Terry from Chester. They stayed until Wednesday afternoon. Then Thursday, Danica and I left for Texas, returning Sunday. On Monday, my uncle & cousin returned, this time with my Aunt Ceci and cousin Adelia. They left Tuesday morning.
It took me the rest of the week just to get back to some sense of "normal." Apparently, this did not include blogging. I did, however, manage to complete a 46-page scrapbook about our San Antonio experience. So instead of blogging about it, I will share the album below.
Now we are getting ready for school to start in about a week, as well as playing host to more company. Jacques' friend Wayne from Livingston showed up here tonight after calling this morning. Then Jacques' Uncle John & Aunt Mary will be here Thursday for a "few" nights. And hard to believe, but school starts next Monday ...
I hate to say it, but I think I'm actually looking forward to September and a more routine schedule!!
Anyway, here is the link to my San Antonio scrapbook.
I've also been playing around with a couple entries for the Summer's End contest at Designer Digitals. The only real requirement is that the page use a particular set of flourish brushes and/or paper letters. Here's what I've come up with so far ...


I may or may not use one of these. The deadline isn't until the 28th, so I have some time to play. Let me know what you think...

Destination: San Antonio

So the big weekend finally arrived - my trip to San Antonio for the Designer Digitals digi-crop! After dropping Skylar off at the neighbor's house around 8:30 a.m., Danica and I hopped in the van and headed for Billings. We arrived just before 11, which worked out great. Enough time to get through security unrushed, which went perfectly, and not so much time that we had to sit around and twiddle our thumbs for hours (that came later!!).

This was Dani's first time on an airplane and she did great, pretty much sleeping the entire flight from Billings to Denver. The ride was a bit choppy thanks to some cloudy skies, but otherwise all went as planned.

Things weren't quite as smooth for the second half of our trip. What was supposed to be about a 2 1/2 hour layover in Denver ended up being closer to 4 1/2 hours because of weather and mechanical issues. We did lots of wandering while we waited and ended up sitting with a young gal for a good deal of the time who did a great job of entertaining Danica.



We finally boarded around 7:15 and arrived in San Antonio a couple hours later. Once again, my little angel slept for the entire flight!! By the time we got our luggage and traveled across town on the SATrans shuttle (great service, by the way!!) to the Hilton Palacio del Rio, which is right on the Riverwalk, it was almost 11:30 p.m. with the time change. Too dark to see much, but it was fun to look at the lights from our 19th story room, complete with balcony.


Arriving this late may have been a blessing, since even at that late hour, it was still over 90 degrees outside - and humid. Breaking us in gently, I suppose, since it was only about 70 degrees when we left Billings!!
The motel is great ... very comfortable and lots of nice touches, like the pewter-like finishes in the bathroom, eight fluffy pillows to choose from on the beds, sinks both inside and outside the bathroom, a coffee maker that can make two different cups of coffee at the same time, and details like that.


The staff also brought me a crib for Danica right away, assuming I'm sure that she'd be needing it soon. She had other plans, however, and at 1:20 a.m. was still wide awake. If only she'd call it a day ... we're both going to need our beauty sleep for our big day tomorrow.
More coming later ... Looking forward to meeting everyone at the crop tomorrow afternoon!!!