Laura Vegas

i thought i’d share this one photo of sarah. i’ve been working on uploading and ordering pictures all day. fun stuff i tell you. NOT! anyways … i do edit every single photo i take … every single one gets personal attention of some kind. usually just brightening up the colors some and sharpening … it really only takes me about a minute or two. i do like the lighter look when it comes to my photos. but if you really knew my girls … they’re pretty dark skinned. especially sarah.

this is a recent photo of sarah … taken last week at grammies pool. this is the end result of my editing. but really … it makes her look lighter than she really is. she gets super, crazy dark … like a chocolate bar!

this is actually the original photo … and is very true to her actual coloring. look how dark she is!!! takes after her dad … certainly not me. lol! 

you ever have one of those "blahhhhhhhhhhhh" days? just a regular day. nothing stands out. just mundane stuff … stuff that tends to annoy me sometimes to be honest. i don’t mean that in a bad way. really, i don’t. just so much coming and going … in and out. there are honestly times when i turn around and discover a kid that i forgot i had for the day. lol!

• woke up to the first daycare kid arriving at 7:30
• my girls got up about 8:00
• made breakfast for the girls
• another daycare kid arrived at 10:00
• another one arrived at 11:00
• 2 more daycare kids arrived at 12:00
• made a later-than-usual lunch for 7 kids
• got 2 of the kids to nap
• cleaned up lunch dishes from 7 kids
• 2 daycare kids left at 2:00
• alyssa and i left at 4:30 for the orthodontist
• 1 daycare kid left at 4:30
• another left at 4:45
• another left at 5:00
• alyssa and i left the orthodontist at 4:45 and headed to soccer
• joe and sarah left at 5:00 for soccer
• alyssa and i left her soccer at 6:30 and headed over to sarah’s soccer
• all 4 of us left sarah’s soccer at 7:00
• dug up what we could for dinner
• sarah went for a quick night swim at grammies at 8:00
• the girls and i all took showers at 9:30
• joe and the girls in bed at 10:00
• it’s now almost 11:00 and i’m ready to go watch some tv before bed

and tomorrow morning it will start all over at 7:30. fun stuff i tell you!

making a mental "note to self" … always remember to double check the details when planning day trips. this is why i don’t travel … or go anywhere for that matter. because when i do try and do things … something will always manage to go wrong. it’s just the way my life is.

last year jenn and i took the girls to a concert at great america … a themepark not too far from here. they really wanted to do more of the water stuff there … but we didn’t have enough time and we were really there for the concert … just managed to squeeze in some rides (the ever famous "demon" which i’m convinced is to blame for all my current health problems. lol!). so we promised them that we would come back another day. and they have constantly reminded us of that promise for the past year!

so we planned it for tomorrow. i picked this date over a month ago. all the girls are still off school. and i found a day when i didn’t have any little daycare kiddos. a day when it was just ashlen, adyson, and amanda anyways. so we planned to take all 5 girls for a lovely day at a themepark. no reason to double check anything, right? i know where it is and how to get there … i know it will cost a small fortune and really didn’t think there were good discount tickets anywhere. what could i possibly need to check? we’d just load up all 5 girls and head out.

thank god that jenn happened to check online tonight (she wanted to get the shock of the ticket prices out of the way and prepare herself … which btw was about $52 a ticket!). because guess what … the park is closed tomorrow!!! i guess last week was the last week they were open during the weekdays … and now they’re just open on the weekends. guess they figure most kids are back in school. don’t they know we have year-round schooling over here? don’t they know we picked this week to get around it being so crowded?

so a big "thank you" to jenn … for being more of a planner than me! because we would have totally drove all that ways and found an empty park. remind you of an old classic movie?!?! lol!

so anyways … guess we’ll do something else tomorrow. this may be a blessing in disquise. one reason being it’s supposed to be in the low hundred’s tomorrow … too hot to be walking around a park. and another reason is that i tweaked a muscle or something behind my knee and it kills me to walk anyways. i was going to totally suck it up and take one for the team because i knew how much the girls were counting on this … although i know i would have paid dearly for it later! lol!

so maybe some jamba juice in the morning … i have buy one, get one free coupons and they all love jamba juice.  maybe some bowling or mini golfing and video games … too bad no coupons for that.  maybe lunch somewhere … i do have a $30 gift card for applebees that we got last time because they screwed up our to-go order, but joe would kill me if he didn’t get some.  maybe ice cream … we have gift certificates for that too. maybe swimming … grammie’s pool is free admission i think. lol! can you tell that me and jenn are all about some cheap fun right now?!?! lol! so i’m sure we’ll have fun … as long as the girls can hang out together they’re usually pretty happy!

and alyssa, sarah, ashlen, adyson, and amanda … i totally stink and i totally owe you girls!!!

today was alyssa’s big day. after almost a year and a half she got her braces off. check out those straight, perfect teeth!

it only took about 5 minutes to get them all off … we thought it would be harder. then they did the impressions for her retainers … involving some putty and some gagging. which i could barely watch … i was doing a little gagging just watching from across the room. lol! she’s still slurping like crazy … something she used to do all the time with the braces on. and apparently most kids do … because i hear others doing the same thing. and i’m sure she’ll be doing it even more once she gets the retainers. lol! she looks good though. throws me off a little when i catch a glimpse of her across the room … i see all that white now looking back at me. no shiny sparkely stuff to distract me.

so i’ll thought i’d share a few goofy pictures from our day! be forewarned … this first picture may make you burst out laughing and give you the heebie-geebies all at the same time (especially if you see it up close). lol!

today i took about 200 pictures of the girls! started this morning with some of alyssa since i had done sarah the other day. then this evening i convinced them both to take some more for me. that’s a lot of pictures to go through (and wasn’t i just saying that i was behind on my editing). lol! i will definately share some of my favorites in the next few days … but it’s really hard to narrow it down sometimes. i guess it’s nice when you have a lot of duds … easy to delete the pictures that don’t turn out good. but what happens when 70% of your pictures are keepers?!?! lol! darn me for having a good photography day! lol!

and in case anyone is wondering … no, i didn’t have them dressed alike. lol! i just found this shirt at target and thought it was the cutest thing … and loved the color. sarah got to it first and alyssa was bummed. so halfway through i had them change and then alyssa wore it for some pics. although she wasn’t too thrilled at that point. she had already gone back in the house and thought she was done. i dragged her back out with the new shirt … mainly because i had this one spot on the grass that was perfect lighting as the sun was going down. lol! anyways … i think they had 4 or 5 different outfits in all the pics today. and yes … they’re the same size … my just turned 8 yr old and my almost 11 yr old are the same size. does come in handy for buying cute clothes!

i was bummed since i had wanted to actually go somewhere to take some pics … but the girls just weren’t going for it. i have a spot in mind … and think it would be a great backdrop. but they wanted to just go in the backyard. luckily i have my little 8 foot square patch of grass off in the corner on the side of the house that is perfect lighting in the evening. perfect open shade that i have mastered. and luckily you really can’t see any of the unattractive part of my yard in the pics … all the toys, bikes, scooters, crappy patio table and chairs. lol!

i told alyssa tonight that i won’t bug her for any more pictures … until monday afternoon that is. lol! she gets her braces off on monday. you know i’ll need some new pictures without all that shiny metal!

make sure and head over to the making memories blog today and check out the guest designer challenge that i did. they've been doing a month long travel album theme … and this week's challenge was to create a  "what we did" layout.

and don't look for my pictures.  we never seem to travel. lol! but my good friend KORI had gone on vacation here to california a while back and had some great pictures. so i thought it would be fun to make a layout for her with some of her pictures. i had so much fun using someone else's pictures … and i hope she enjoyed seeing my take on them.

so nice to be able to share something! make sure and look HERE for the whole layout and more details! i will have to take this challenge for all the pics that alyssa brought home from her hawaii trip … which the tropical collection from MM will be perfect for!

i have lots of things i’ve been wanting to post on … but i can’t get an organized thought out of my head tonight. so i’m going with the "randomness" type thing. lol!

• alyssa got back home yesterday from hawaii! so glad to have her home and have the house back to normal. she was kind enough to bring me back a suitcase of dirty clothes … but made up for it by bringing my scrapbook supplies from hawaii! she also had tons of gifts for all of us … including the daycare kids. i know how much she was missing everyone while she was gone. she’s still adjusting to being back and getting into our routine … and also the time difference. and the girls are back to fighting their normal fights! lol!
• it’s been super hot here this week. i havn’t even been outside unless totally neccesary. lol! i did have to go out for soccer practice. glad i stayed at alyssa’s practice … she ended up having an asthma attack. she’s not the kind to stop and sit down … she doesn’t want them to think she’s not trying or just being lazy. but i told her she can’t mess with her breathing … if she’s having trouble she needs to sit, take her inhalers, and catch her breath. it’s not about not being able to keep up or not being in shape. she’s seriously in shape … i mean, she’s been playing soccer for the last year straight. i think maybe it threw her a little too since she had literally just back from vacation … it was super hot … and they were really pushing them harder than i think they needed too. we’ll see how tomorrow goes.
• finished up some scrapping assignments … i even turned them in a few days early. so unlike me. lol! i was determined to have them done before alyssa got home … and for once i accomplished something ahead of schedule. just waiting for final approval to see whether i have to make any changes … then i can send them off.
• and now since i’ve finished up some things … i feel like i need to re-group. i seriously havn’t made a layout in about 7 weeks now … i’ve never gone that long before. lol! i’m dying to just sit and create. but before i do … i need to get organized. i have so much stuff out from so many different things.
• need to put together some goodie boxes for a few people. have you checked out the blog-abration yet that i mentioned a few weeks ago? all sorts of good prizes (including 2 from me) so make sure and sign up. and you know me … i can always find some stuff that doesn’t inspire me anymore … but can maybe inspire someone else! you’d think at some point i’d run out of things … but i’ve been doing this for about 12 years now. so you can just imagine what i’ve collected over the years! lol!
• really trying to get my photos in order. i know, i know … i think i just did this a while back. lol! but apparently i’ve taken a ton more photos since the last time i was caught up. i try and be really good about sorting out all my pics, narrowing them down to the best ones, getting them edited, uploading them to the online storage, ordering some prints, and then choosing which ones to print here at home for scrapping. and i try and do all this with each month before moving them to the external harddrive. but that’s a lot of organizing … and a lot of work. so when i get a month or two behind … it gets a little overwhelming. but i’m making some progress.

i guess that’s enough for now. my mind went blank and i can’t think of anything else right now anyways. the girls have been going to bed later lately … even later then normal for when they’re off school. it’s killing my tv time. lol! so i’m off to watch a few shows before bed … plus there’s a big piece of fudge cake with my name on it. lol! i know … so NOT what i need … but it looks so yummy and will make me happy!

also keep your eye out tomorrow (although it’s 10:45 pm here right now so do give me some time till i wake up tomorrow. lol!) … i just remembered that i think i’ll have something to share involving a layout!

just wanted to share a quick photo of my neighbor … meet ziek … he’s ayana’s brother. he’s such a nice, kind boy. i was commenting to his mom the other day that sometimes you really don’t look at kids after a while … they’re just sort of "there". but i was really looking at him … and he’s turning into such a handsome young man! make sure and click on it to see all his freckles up close … i love freckles!

ziek is around all the time … and yet i never take any pictures of him. his sister is a different story. lol! the last picture i had of ziek was from a year ago … a whole year. i had to hang his super old picture on my new photo wall and told him i needed a more recent picture. so today he came by after school.

at first i though his mom wanted some karate pictures … i think we had talked about taking some of those. and he was wearing his karate gear. but he had on this tshirt that had a hand painted bright orange tiger on it (which i thought was a pumpkin and felt so bad for not seeing it right. lol!). i was thinking how i was going to make this tshirt work with his karate pants and his purple belt. then after a few pictures … i realized he was here to take a new picture for the wall! ok … we could totally do that! funny how he was still doing karate poses and moves for me … and thinking i was getting it all in the picture. i let the kids do that all the time … and they have no idea i’m only taking pics of their heads and upper bodies. lol!

sarah and i went to old navy today to make a few returns and i had to buy this shirt with my $10 reward … although she didn’t like it at first (but she has had it on all day). then i had some cute beaded necklaces and bracelets that i thought would look so cute with it. so sarah was cooperative and let me take some photos tonight!

i have a few spots in the neighborhood that i’ve been wanting to try out for some photos … so i’m hopeing she’ll be willing once again tomorrow. lol! i do have a few good spots in my yard (both front and back) … but apparently they all need some yardwork done. not my most favorite thing to do! thanks for letting me share!

btw … i’ve watched "high school musical 2" three times today! and you know i’ll be watching the sing-along version on sunday night. lol!

are you watching "high school musical 2"?!?! i can’t believe it’s finally here. we’ve been watching the countdown all week. we bought the CD first thing tuesday morning when it came out. we’ve watched the original movie a few nights ago. i’ve had phone calls left and right today about it … from my grown up friends even. lol! and tonight’s the big night!

although i have no one to watch it with. lol! my parents took sarah somewhere for the day … and she’s not back yet. and alyssa is still in hawaii … and she didn’t think she could even get it over there. and we even get the east coast disney channel … so i was recording it at 5:00 this afternoon. i ran out to do some errands after the daycare kids left today … and i did watch about 30 minutes of it when i got home. but i’m saving it until sarah gets back. i loved what i saw in those first 30 minutes though! this one is going to be packed with even more music … which is my favorite part.

can you tell i’m a huge "high school musical" fan?!?! and i read a few days ago … they’re already planning "high school musical 3"! how cool is that! so let me know if you’re watching … and what you think! i know i’m not the only one out there loving this movie! lol!