Baseball, Girl Scouts & Fireflies!

What a week this is going to be! I thought things were settling down but that doesn't seem to be the case so far. Baseball season is about to start. And since Nick and Austin are on different teams this year, that means twice as many practices and games. We have SIX practices this week alone!!! And on top of that, Lauren has decided she wants to join Girl Scouts so I have that meeting to go to as well. But they WILL NOT talk me into being the Brownie leader!! LOL! I was Nick's Cub Scouts den leader for a year and that took so much time! I am with kids all day at work and then all night with my own. It's hard to add even more to the mix.

The big news at our house is that Austin is about to go mobile! He has asked repeatedly for a cell phone for more than a year now. We have just laughed it off in the past. However, we have recently given him permission to go to places other than our street as long as he calls and gives us the address and comes home when the street lights come on. This is a good plan in theory, however, in practice, it isn't always the best. He always forgets to call and we have no idea where he is. So, last week, Austin gave us an ad for a Firefly cell phone ("The Mobile Phone for Mobile Kids"). It is a cell phone specifically designed for kids. It has buttons for mom, dad and emergency. We can program 20 numbers in there for him, too. But other than these numbers, he cannot call out. So watch out Grandma - you may be getting random Austin calls soon! We had planned to give it to him on his birthday which is Friday but it came in the mail yesterday and it is broken so we have to send it back and they are on back order. Guess he will have to wait a little while which is very hard for a soon-to-be 8 year old. He already knows he's getting it and talks about it constantly. Yesterday, he ran out of the car and headed to the mailbox. Then he spotted the box on our front porch and screamed "MY FIREFLY IS HERE!!!!" He is just too cute.

In other kid news, Lauren and Mackenzie have their first-ever spelling test this Friday. Mackenzie is having an easy time with the words but Lauren is a little slower to catch on. It's interesting having kids in the same grade because I don't like to compare them but it's hard not to when they are studying the exact same stuff.

And let's see ... I taught Nick how to right click and print a picture from the Internet last night. He had a homework assignment and had to find pictures of Texas things for a Social Studies project. I sure wish we had the Internet when I was a kid. I still had to go to the library and copy (I mean "use") encyclopedias.

On the work front, in May, we will be moving the gym. We are SOOOOO excited about this!! We're moving to a brand new, upscale open-air mall (see photo above for an artist's drawing of the new center). It's only a mile away from where we are now but it is WORLDS apart! The developer sent us some more drawings last night and it is really incredible! I just can't wait until May. It's going to be so cool. Our members have no idea just how much nicer the new gym will be. It's going to be like a different world over there. And we'll never have to leave the plaza. There's going to be tons of restaurants (including Mi Cocina, Hoffbrau Steaks and P.F. Chang's), a JoAnn's Supercenter, PetSmart, World Market, Border's Books, The Gap, Anne Taylor Loft, Studio Movie Grill, Coldwater Creek, James Avery, Shoe Pavilion, a postal outlet and on and on! It's over 925,000 square feet of retail heaven! Is it May yet? I am so tired of the old, worn-out plaza we're in now. Our anchor tenant (a grocery store) moved out over 3 years ago and it's just never been the same.

Wow, I didn't mean to ramble on. Sorry about that. I have been keeping busy with a top-secret project of my own. It is scrapbook-related and I will make a post about it soon. I am super-excited. Also ... more freebies are on the horizon so stay tuned.

The layout today is a scraplift of my dear friend Michelle Godin's (Mishou) "Me" layout.It was created with Kim Christensen's Thrift Chic kit, Nancie Rowe-Janitz's Shmootzy Stamped Alpha and lace by Iron Orchid Designs. Everything but the lace is in the Scrap Artist Shoppe. The lace came in a grab bag that Christine and I gave away for participants of our altered challenges at Scrap Artist.