As you saw from the previous post, little one is quite the artist. Well, when I was gone and hubby was not paying enough attention, she displayed this artistic talent ...on her table, chairs, wall and floors. From this, we discovered that our crayons are not washable. Well every house needs some artwork. Gives it character and will give us some grins as she grows up.

Today was our first meltdown. We have been really spoiled by the little one's great attitude toward life. Don't get me wrong, she has cried and carried on before but we have been able to quickly divert it and the storm quickly passes. Today, we were on a search for washable crayons at the Lakeshore Learning store (LOVE this store. It is a teacher supply store and has everything from arts/crafts to math/vocabulary, etc. A branch just opened about 3 miles from my house...oooh my credit card is going to get some exercise.) Anyway, to keep the kiddos out of trouble while the parents are shopping, they leave toys around for them to play with. Munchkin found a shopping cart full of plastic groceries. She pushed that thing around and around while I shopped. The problem started when I finished my shopping. We were at the back of the store. As Little One was not following me as I started toward the front of the store, I got behind her and reached for the cart and pushed it along with her. OOOOHHHH. She did not like that. She wanted full control of that cart. Well, she howled but I continued to "help" her push the cart to the front. Then it was time to go....Well, she was not ready to go. The howling escalated to laying on the floor and kicking. It was so obviously a show of baby attitude that I just had to laugh. She squirmed, wriggled and writhed but we left the store....then seeing that she was defeated, she happily grinned at everyone we passed in the parking lot. She is 21 months but guess this is an inkling of the "terrible twos" that people speak about.

I have to look up how one is supposed to handle these fits.

Have been going back and adding second pages to layouts where I have only one page. The page "Backyard Swinging" was one that I did one of the forums. Can't remember which...but uses MCA designs overlays. Then went back to creat the second page today. This is little bit with her normal cheery attitude ...not a tantrum in sight.

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. Keep the good thoughts going for New Orleans and that Gustav dies out before doing much damage to the south!

Made it home

After 26 hours in an airplane or airports, I made it home from Japan yesterday. It usually does not take this long but I changed my ticket to return home a day early. The penalty, one extra stop on the way home. An extra day home is always worth a little extra time in the airport.

Little Bit and I hung out today while hubby and mutt attended a dog agility competition. They came home with a first and two seconds and four qualifying times. Not sure what the Q times qualify for but hubby was happy.

Have been playing with the Back to School kit by MCA designs. As munchkin is going to Pre-Pre-school 3 days a week and starting to draw, this is a great kit to highlight these accomplishments. Love the colors and the elements.

Trip to Japan

Hello from Japan. Yep another trip. (This has been a rough couple of months - London, China, New York and now Japan.) This should be a good trip...but tiring, as usual. I arrived yesterday after a 14 hour flight, a one hour subway ride, a 2.5 hour ride on the bullet train and then a short taxi ride. With the 14 hour time change, I woke up at about 4am.

Boredom set in at about 6am so stumbled down to the swim pool for a few laps in the pool. I blearily signed in and took my dip. When I woke up a bit and looked at the sheet that I signed, I noticed that the price of the swim was 2100 yen about $21 (I thought that it has said 210 yen). YIKES! That will be my last swim of the evening.

Went out with a couple of Japanese colleagues tonight. They took us to a local (meaning no english) sushi restaurant in downtown Osaka. Was great sushi. On the way home, we passed a Pachinko gambling venue. As I had never been in one and I like put the occasional nickel in the slots, we went in. OMG...the loudest place I have ever been in. For 1000 Yen (about $10), the machine spits out about 500 little metal balls. Imgaine 100+ machine all dinging, clanging and smacking of little gray balls. I lost all my little balls in about 3 minutes. OK...now I can say I have played Pachinko ...and don't need to do this again.

Scrapping...nope. No time. Here is a layout I did a couple of weeks ago..when I came home from my last trip:

This was scrapped using MCA Designs Bday kit.

New endeavor

Here is my entry into the world of blogging. Will see how it goes. Will be a combo of keeping friends and family abreast of current events through words, photos and scrap pages. Yes, scrap pages.

I have been scrapping for almost 21 months. The impetus to scrap was the birth of our little one. A friend talked me into paper scrapping, which I dutifully did for the first year of little ones life. Paper scrapping was fun. However, dragging out all the paraphenalia got to be a drag...especially as little one became more mobile. Then, she would "help" and nothing would get done. Now I have moved to digital scrapping and am hooked.

While I admit to having little right side brain activity (ie no creativity), the various digital kits out there allow even me to put some good views together. I hope little bit enjoys seeing these pages as she grows.

Here is the latest page i made. The page was made using MCA designs Back 2 School kit. I cannot believe how big little girl is getting. She is so proud of herself carrying her nap mat and bag to school.

Well...that's it...my first real post.

Test Post

This is a test to see how this works. Hoping to get this going soon.