Sunday night (late, like 9 PM) I was settled in with my two oldest sons to watch an episode of "House" when I turned to my son and mentioned that he hadn't done a book report in a while and asked when the next one was due. He got that look that said, "Um, yeah, it is due tomorrow." I was NOT a happy camper. He pulled out the instructions and the book report required him to write a children's book version of the book he had read. Why, oh why can't they just write a report?!? In about an hour and a half (I was lecturing him for about 45 minutes of that) he wrote up the draft, downloaded some clip art and created his report using My Memories Suite, I thought it looked good for a last minute effort and he was able to complete it while I was lecturing him - very impressive. He came home on Monday he said his teacher was so impressed that she asked if she could keep it as a sample!! So much for for him learning not to put things off to the last minute.

PS: Do I get the mother of the year award for the best report or should I be guilt ridden that I didn't know that the report was due? In support of the guilt, Carter did have the due date of the report written very neatly in his calendar - if only someone had been looking at it!

Very Cool Bag and Free Giveaway

My cute friend is just posted the coolest bag on her blog and she has a give away too! You can change out the card in the bag's window and the cards she designed using the My Memories Suite software are darling! Just go leave a comment after her post about the bag and you could win a red mini tote. Here's a sneak peek of the bag.

Nicole and John

It is Sundance time here in Utah and my friend Nicole headed up to Park City under the guise of going to see a movie. The reality is that she was stalking her dream boy - John Kraskinski, aka Jim of The Office. There is a long story of how it all came to be but the short of it is that Nicole met him in a dark alley and though a proposal was not forth coming (darn it!), he did offer an autography and a photo op. Niocle is hilarious and several years ago sent out a Christmas card with a picture of her with Apollo Ono. Several months later, her grandmother saw Apollo on tv and called Nicole to let her know her "boyfriend" was on the tube! I thought Nicole might want to use this photo in her Valentines card so I created this for her using My Memories Suite. Then Nicole can tell her grandma that she can see her boyfriend every Thursday on NBC!

(I created this using one of the new design from the Design Shop. It is from the Ettes - their stuff is great. This layout is really just a tag - I imported it as a jpeg and then created this page.)

Hospital Bag

When my youngest son was born he spent his first few weeks in the hospital. People left all sorts of goodies on our doorstep - flowers, meals, notes, Diet Coke, bags of Cadbury mini eggs (that is all I ate for three weeks). My sisters would haul the goodies up to the hospital and it always lifted my spirits. One of my favorite gifts was given to me by friend from high school. She sent a bag with an egg crate cushion for the chair/bed I was sleeping on, a notebook, a pen some lotion and chapstick. It made my stay in the NICU a hundred times better! Now whenever someone has a child in the hospital I send them a "hosptial survival bag." More than once I found myself at the hospital with no purse, which meant no money, which meant no Diet Coke and we all know what that means. I have also gone up for a short appointment to find myself there overnight unexpectedly with no clothes, toothbrush, comb etc. So I encourage poeple to leave this survival bag in their car so that always have a few comforts of home. Here is what I include:

-An egg crate for that horrible bed/chair you sleep on (if the friend lives locally).

-A cute bag.

-A makeup bag with lotion, carmex, toothpaste and toothbrush, deodorant, a comb, tampons.

-A comfortable pair of sweats (in case of throw up, spit up, blood).

-A funny book you can read a little at a time and set down.

-A notebook and pen for taking notes when the doctors come in.

-Cash, including change for the vending machines.

-A nice note (I made a cute one in My Memories Suite software** that matches this bag which is for my girlfriend in Minnesota)

One of my girlfriends received a box of thank you cards when her son was in the hospital because the giver thought it might be good for her to stay caught up on her thank you's while she was sitting with her son. NEWSFLASH! That is not a good idea. If your child is in the hospital people should not give you stuff that makes you feel like you have to do ONE MORE THING! You have enough things to do. And I don't care what Miss Manners says, I think this is the one time the thank you notes are optional!

**The card I created was made in the MMS software from scratch. I simply opened up a background and flourish embellishment from the Tinkering Ink Designer Pack that is available in the Design Shop. The rest is created with my cool fonts. But the best feature of the software is the color matching/color picker...I can easily match the text with my backgrounds and/or photos and I think it's one of my favorite features in the software.