Happy Father's Day...

Just a quick note to wish all the Daddys out there a very special day. We tried to do a little geocaching this morning, but church was in session, so we'll have to back on a Saturday! Off next to test drive a new minivan and then head off to the sweet Air Conditioning of the MOVIES! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Unofficial start of summer!

Time for an update here at the Khashab household as we get ready to wrap up the school

year and head into Summer. Memorial Day

weekend was quiet, and we played outside a bit. Aileen and her family came over for a bbq

and Joey spent a bunch of time outside playing with the girls and chasing Adam around the yard. It's been really hot here until today when we finally got a break from the heat. Last week, Adam had his first run in a sprinkler at our neighbors house. He wasn't too sure of it, but loved having Yasmeen grab him and run through the water with him. When not completely entertained, he will find his own amusement...usually in a way that is not to Mommy's liking. Take for example, his quiet retrieval of my makeup bag. After 5 minutes of him not responding to my calls and not coming into the scrap room like he normally does when

he's not barricaded in the family room, I found him looking like that picture above. Yep, full of makeup and the contents of my bag thrown everywhere. Gotta love toddlers!!! On a less naughty note, he is officially Daddy's car crazy son! Thanks to several moments of driving on Mohammed's video game steering wheel

and watching endless races on TV, he is absolutely nuts about cars. Way to go, Mohammed, grooming him early for a career in racing!! He won't even watch cartoons anymore. Today he loudly demanded 'CARS' when I tried to let him watch Barney. And when I didn't change the channel immediately, he made his proclamation even louder! I got stuck watching some weird racing wrap up show on the Speed channel while he happily watched the TV all the while saying "cars, cars, cars". We also had Leena's dance recital this past Saturday. She was gorgeous in her costume and danced confidently...we're very proud of her. Yasmeen has been absent from TKD this past week, but she did meet her requirements for the next promotional test later this month! I'm getting ready for my scrapbooking classes and tying up loose ends with service hours and Girl Scouts. Soon, the hazy, lazy days of summer will be here...well, not that lazy since we have summer enrichment, music camp, travel and all the fun of the outdoors to experience. See you soon!

All Caught Up...and just 1 day left...

Well, LOAD is coming to a close tomorrow and even though I finally caught up, I need a break and the house and family are in desperate need of some attention. I didn't get a chance to post today until just a few minutes ago, and we'll see how the last day goes, but I'm excited to have a nice stack of layouts done and the motivation to continue creating as time allows.

Today we went to the local pool club for our first swim. Well, the girls did most of the swimming, and I just gritted my teeth on the side of the pool while holding Adam in the water so he could have a little fun too. It was pretty, darn cold and Mohammed had the right idea staying out of the water and reading a book! I left early to get myself and Adam showered and dressed before picking up the rest of the clan. Afterwards, we headed out to a Mexican grill for dinner and a little ice-cream for dessert. Tomorrow is Memorial Day and we hope to get out and do a little shopping for some necessities, like a gate closure for our deck so that Adam doesn't fall off when we BBQ. I'll let you know how that goes...

Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend and making the most of the nice weather. Until next time...

Falling behind with LOAD...

So you know that I've been participating in LOAD this month, and had been doing pretty good with it until I went camping. Well, since then I can't seem to motivate myself to make a layout a day. I want to, but I'm too tired, too stressed, too busy, etc...I guess the motivation to "win a prize" at the end was more motivation for me in the past and now that I'm out of the running, well...I'm not that motivated. In fact, the last couple of layouts I've done, I'm not too happy with, so I guess I'm a little gun shy about doing one just to "do it". I'm home all day today, so I hope to hop back on that wagon. Good news is that I'll have the links to the challenges AFTER this month, so I can always try to catch up in June :-).

Here is what I've been working on this month so far...

Figuring it out...

So I am really starting to feel the Mac love...and have started to transfer some pictures over from the PC and it's working. Even figured out how to connect my DSLR to the computer for automatic uploads, so I have pictures, people!

Returned from camping last weekend and it went well. Leaving home, I was faced with the unfortunate circumstance of my AC dying out. Well, the fans in the back seats were blowing, but we were pretty hot up front. About 50 miles into the trip, my check engine light came on. I thought there was no way this camping thing was going to go well with such a rough start. Luckily, I had company going and coming (thanks Brenda and Marisa), so I felt as safe as I could given the circumstances. The van made it to Pennsylvania and back without further issues. The check engine light turned off after we stopped at a hot dog place on the way home, and after being thoroughly checked, nothing showed up. The AC is getting fixed Tuesday and all is well again.

At Camporee, the girls met up with the rest of their troop and had a blast wading in the camp lake (complete with water snakes, which they didn't know until one swam up to them), playing on the beach, paddling canoes, riding in kayaks, hunting treasures in the woods, roasting marshmallows over our first troop campfire, climbing walls, making crafts, playing trust games and overall enjoying themselves thoroughly.

Since we've been home, I've gotten back into the swing of LOAD for this month (despite missing a couple of days). I've just about caught up after 1 more layout tonight, and then it's time to hit the sack. Loving all the inspiration and layouts that I'm creating that normally wouldn't even occur to me if not for LOAD. Totally helps that I have a friend playing along this time, so that makes it much more fun.

Well, off to continue working on this layout. In the meanwhile, enjoy these photos (hope I

figure out where they all are to post).

Until next time,

Janet

Busy Again...

Well, it's nothing new, except that tonight is a little crazier than most. Tomorrow the girls and I leave for our annual Girl Scout Camporee. We'll be up in the Poconos and Mohammed and Adam will have a boys weekend! I'm looking forward to it, but truly wish I could skip the packing part (and the driving part, for that matter). Either way, it's close to midnight, and I just finished getting packed. Well, actually I also had to sew on some badges for the girls uniforms and make sure I had all the chargers I needed for the weekend...like phone, iPod, GPS, etc...

This month I also started up LOAD again. Remember, Layout A Day? Well, I was doing great up until today...no energy to come up with a page...and since I'll be gone all weekend, I'll be a few pages in the hole, but I still have made 12 layouts to date...so that's what it's really all about.

I'm also typing this update from my brand, spanking new Macbook Pro laptop. Yep, Mohammed, the sweetie that he is...listened when I told him I couldn't get up to the computer much anymore with that uber-energetic boy we have, AND that I really wanted to make the switch from PC to Mac. I got the computer, a new printer and a separate, desktop monitor for Mother's Day...that is one MAC-daddy of a present (pun intended!!). Still trying to get the hang of this new format, but I already LOVE MY MAC :-). Can't wait to start uploading pictures and editing them on this awesome machine. I am one happy girl!

Well, I guess that's it for now...once I transfer over the picture files, I'll be sure to add a few...and by then, I'll even have some of us camping!!

Until next time,

Janet

Waiting for...pictures!

Well, I've been dabbling here and there trying to organize my thoughts, photos and materials that I'm going to need to put my "Week in the Life" album together this week and it's going pretty good. Early last week, I chose a couple of complimentary paper lines by American Crafts that are bright and simple. I chose my favorite (at the moment) border punch and went to work cutting papers in the sizes I know I am going to need...4x6, 4x4 and for the title headers, 4x12. During the week I put my journaling down on the computer and printed it onto transparencies. Later in the week, I put the headers together. At the end of the week, I ordered pictures and more pictures from www.scrapbookpictures.com . Usually I print myself, but ink would cost me a whole lot more and I needed odd sizes, so this works for me. Today I finished the last of the headers (Sunday) and printed some other odds and ends relating to a week in the life to use as overlays in my album. Tomorrow, my page protectors and album arrives. The day after, I should start seeing my pictures arrive. Can't wait to see how it all comes together.