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A few pictures from the first day of summer break.
Did a quick little layout last night.
Been a while since I made a page.
Feeling inspired to do more.
If only my back didn’t hurt so bad that I can’t sit at my computer for more than fifteen minutes at a time. 
Wow! Two blog posts in one day! I haven’t done that in a while. But I wanted to share a little layout I put together with Heather’s new Land I Love kit, now available over on her site. It’s perfect, and not just for 4th of July pics. A couple of the girls on the design team are not from the US and they had no trouble using the kit. Check out the gallery HERE.
Look what popped up on my Google Alerts today!
One of the editors from Shutterfly contacted me a few months ago. They had seen my Year In Review album that I made for mom last year in their gallery and wanted to feature it on their site. I thought it would just be a picture of my album on the front page of the gallery section with a link or something, but they actually did an interview with me and everything. Click on the image above to go to the Shutterfly webpage and there is a whole article there. So fun! I was actually surprised to see it on there today because I didn’t think it was going to be up there for another couple months, but it was a happy surprise! I’ve been dying to share this and now that it’s online I can. 
This new school year schedule is kicking my butt. Jake is on second shift now so he takes the kids to school in the morning since it’s the only time during the week that he even gets to see Zach now and I crawl out of bed, make coffee, get cleaned up, check email and get to work. Jake leaves for work and I go pick up the kids from school. Then it’s dinner, homework, reading, TV, baths and bed. This isn’t bad, right? But I’m so used to working in the afternoon/evening/early morning. Now I struggle to get one or two things crossed off my to do list because by the time I get started on my work in the morning I’ve only got a few hours left until I have to pick the kids up. And on the days that Chloe’s home, I get to work a little because Jake is here for most of the day, but it’s not the same as a quiet house with no distractions. During the day, I’ve got all these responsibilities and I am just not getting done what I want to for the business. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but right now … I’m exhausted. I can no longer work in the evenings after I put the kids to bed because once they’re snoozing and I get their lunches all packed for the next day and pick up the living room and answer emails from the afternoon, all I want to do is collapse on my bed. I’m so tired by 10pm. It’s a crazy adjustment.
One positive thing that’s come out of this. I tend not to eat in the evenings like I did before. We have dinner and that’s it. I don’t even drink coffee in the evenings anymore. And I’m beginning to see how true it is that to lose weight you shouldn’t eat after like 6 or 7 o’clock. I’ve lost 21 lbs. as of this morning. I was so excited to see the numbers on the scale. I’m the weight I was a couple years ago before Jake lost his job and all the craziness started. And the numbers continue to go down, which feels so great. I’ve been sticking to my usual diet each day – coffee for breakfast with a little sugar (I haven’t cut out all the sugar and it hasn’t made a difference as long as I don’t use a lot.), a banana or a granola bar usually with my coffee, lunch is a salad of romaine lettuce, raisins, almond slices and a little bit of caesar dressing sometimes with some broccoli tossed in, dinner varies – lately I haven’t felt that hungry at dinnertime and I’ve had little things like crackers, cheese, grapes, toast, milk or a green smoothie. Last night, I actually ate chicken nuggets from McD’s and a Coke (gasp!), but this isn’t something we do a lot anymore. (We are getting strict about our budget and about eating things prepared at home.)
Excited for this weekend. Going to hang out with my college roomie Julie tomorrow – lunch, movie, a little shopping (window shopping for me). 
A couple photo shoots this weekend, too.
Thanks so much for the sweet emails about that cover layout. It’s so flattering that they even asked me to submit it for consideration so to see it on the cover was awesome!
And I can’t possibly post without a picture. My mom gave me a disk of pictures she took over the past few months. I like this one of me and Chloe walking at the zoo a few weeks ago. Not my best angle, but I like how we’re walking in sync. Me and mini me. hehe!
Have a happy weekend everyone!
AJAXed with AWP
