Tyler is 7!! My youngest son turned 7 today!! Here are some of my favorite pictures of him from the last year! What a cutie if I do say so myself! So it is off to Chuck E Cheese (AGAIN) tonight for a birthday celebration. I think Tyler thinks that is the only place to have a birthday party. When there is a birthday in our family, the birthday person gets to chose what they want to eat all day. So far Tyler has chosen - a can of Coke, plain cheerios (without the milk) and plain iceberg lettuce. Yech! But it is his day!!

Happy post Valentine's Day to everyone. We had a nice day despite me being sick and Timmy getting really sick later in the day (who actually just threw up again as I was typing this - nice!). I made it to work though and hubby surprised me with roses and a lunch date at Sumo - my favorite Japanese restaurant. I also got a nice Valentine suprise from my secret pal. A Starbucks card, stationery from Starbucks (which I had been eyeing) and chocolate. I had to include this other photo - it makes me laugh. Talk about a snapshot of everyday life. Every morning on Valentine's Day I make all the boys in my life heart shaped pancakes. So here they are bedheads and all in mid bite!

So My friend Shannon's blog reminded me of how old I am getting! Seriously, the four of us got to out Friday night and I am sporting one of those white icy hot sicky pads on my back. I have been wearing these more and more lately and when my husband first caught a glimps on one peeking out from above my pants he thought it was underwear! seriously he was a little worried my Mormon friends had influenced me a little too much. I think he was relieved it wasn't underwear, just his wife reeking of menthol from her removable icy hot pad. So I have been hobbling around with an arthritic back and aching knees this week and how old am I? Oh yeah back to the hot Friday night. So I am sporty my icy hot pad and we go back to Dave and Shannon's after dinner to play games. Ah like the good old days when we lived next door and would put the kids to bed, set up the intercom in the kids room and sneak over next door to play games late into the night. Well, this time I lasted till about 9:00pm thinking it was 11:00pm. I could barely focus so needless to say we were able to get the kids to bed at a decent time. Oh man - what it happening to me?! :-)

WOW - I actually had to be told to go look at a thread someone posted about me. Erin, fellow Garage Girl just blew me away. Me an inspiration really?? And what is so odd about this is that I have been thinking that I am a "Jonathan" to a lot of "Davids". If you are not familiar with the Bible - Jonathan and David were best buds but Jonathan was more in the background to David. David had all the drama in his life and all the attention but Jonathan was just kind of there being a good friend, a good support and a cheerleader for David. He believed in him and was so loyal. So a lot of the time I feel like a Jonathan. Yeah I may have some talents but I never really am great at one thing. I have been blessed to have people around me that are really great but I always feel I am "off" just a tad - not quite making it there. I try not to get too frustrated by it. It's good to be a cheerleader right? Another friend told me not too long ago they would "pay to have a little of the talent I have" and I was thinking what? Are you crazy - I am just good at figuring things out and doing what I can. But she was talented too just not in the ways I am. And that is the point. Everyone has a talent to share and everyone needs to have that encouragement. I would never want anyone to feel that they are not good enough or nothing is special about them or what they can do. Sometimes in the wacky scrapbooking world this happens. People aren't "in" or "known". I think that is why I subconsciously do not remember "who is who" in the scrapbooking world. I think everyone has something to offer that is awesome even if they aren't in magazines or in the spotlight. If I get any recognition, I just want to turn it into encouraging others to create and be happy with what they can do and not compare themselves to others. I better get off my soapbox now. See what you started Erin! :-)

Time to change out the calendar to February and I pulled out an old Garage Girl layout I did - thought it looked Valentinish. So far so good with the chipboard dates. Here is a pic of the first socks I finished for those of my knitting friends who wanted to see them. I had heard that once you wear knitted socks you will never go back to regular ones. Not sure if I agree with that or at least with this pair. They are nice but I knitted them on bigger needles so I can "feel" the stitches when I walk. But that hasn't stopped me from starting another pair! Here is the new pair I am working on and it will take me a skein per sock - yikes!! I thought I could get two out of one but it doesn't look like that will happen and I broke the cardinal rule of not buying enough the first time and the store is out so I am sure I can find it online.