Spitting Prohibited

And now it's time to embarass Dad

OK in the last episode in the continuing saga that is the World According to Sketch, I showed you some cute adorable pictures of my Mom that may or may not be from her 2nd birthday...I go today to ask my Aunt, who may or may not know because she is something like 8 years younger than my mom, but I will ask anyway...

In fairness I will now show you my favorite picture of my Dad growing up (and tell a few stories on him as well...sorry about that Dad...I did warn you in the title).

And here it is:    Look at those cute little cowboys!!!  I'm saying this is about 1951 (Dad looks about 5 there doesn't he?)  Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

Oh yes you wanted to hear the dirt right?  So in attempting to find a correlating picture to go with my favorite picture there of the Senior and Junior Cowboys, I found this one...

Wait, what's that there in Dad's hands?  Let's try to clean that up a bit...  Is that a kitten?  Why yes, I do believe that is a kitten...heh heh heh...time to tell stories.

Is it just me?  Or is that a distinct "little brother" look on John's face there that says "Ooooh you are so in Trouble!"  Is that a slightly guilty look on Steve's face?  And can you almost hear my grandmother yelling "Steven!  You put that kitten down now!"

Perhaps it's just me...maybe I've just heard the story more than once how Dad and Uncle John felt the need to test the theory that Cat's always land on their feet by taking the barn cats up to the hay loft and throwing them out the loft window.

                                                                ...is it just me?  or do you see it too?

*editorial note: I did not have room on the layout to mention my Dad telling me this story with a slightly guilty/slightly devious grin on his face.  And as a response to my question, "Well they almost always landed on their feet."

**perhaps I should add as well that it is my belief that said terrorized cats were tossed into piles of hay below.  Still plenty ornery, but better than being tossed out of there without anything soft to land on don't you think?

Oh and here's the strictly cute one:

What's next?

Today's my Mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!  Miss you.  (By the way if anyone knows if these pictures are indeed Mom's 2nd birthday or any birthday would you please let me know?  You don't have to even break your non-posting state, you can email me, or even telephone me.  I'm not to proud to pick up the phone.)

In 2 days from now it will be my great sister-in-laws birthdays!  (I also have 2 other equally great sister-in-laws who are not having birthdays 2 days from now...let no one accuse me of favoritism.)

Happy Birthday Pauline! 

Happy Birthday RaNell! 

In 2 days from that, Tom and I will be very happy as we will be going to see these blokes from England:

I suspect they will look a little older than this photo they are floating on their website.  But then again we are pretty far back, so maybe they will look like little vaguely man shaped ants...playing guitars.

And 2 days after that it will be this little guys birthday!

                                            

No word yet on if all he wants for his birthday is his two front teeth.  But I doubt it.

Yay!

PS: If you are wondering why you didn't get a birthday wish here, I promise it's not because I don't love you.

PS:  Brooke is home, she loved camp.  I'm waiting for pictures. 

PS:  I hate waiting.

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...

This is not your average every day out of focus and poorly taken shot.

No, this is the shot that says my Baby's gone.

"There she goes...

There she goes again..."

OK, not "again" because this is her first year.

But still, she's gone.  Off to girls camp.  And she won't come back 'til it's over over there...or Saturday.

Yesterday we made gifts for her "secret sister".  She needed 5 gifts and couldn't spend more than $5.00.  I'll just have to smother my sadness with the powers of craftiness.

All this for under $5!

A Bandanna (very camp chic)...

Gummy Bears...

A Flower key chain...

A Glow Stick Necklace...

And a journal...   (click for closeup)

OK I admit that last one wouldn't normally be in the under $5 gift category.  But the Composition book I made it out of was only 50 cents.  And everything else I had on hand. 

I know you'll think this is weird (well maybe not my scrapbook type buddies) but I really consider myself to have a very small stash of paper supplies on hand.  You should have seen it before we moved...

The Unveiling...

Now that all Christmas presents are officially given and hopefully appreciated I can show you my biggy projects this year.

The grandparent pages are pretty simple.  I've done this every year since Brooke was born, just a catalog of the year that they can keep at their house...

2005 - the Grandparent pages

Why 2005?  Well at first I did the immediate year, but it was complicated,  because I was still in the middle of that year they'd get December from the previous year to November of the current year and I could never remember exactly where I'd left off.  Was I really under the gun last year so it went up through Tom's birthday?  Or was I super organized (hey it happened once!) and got these pages printed up, wrapped and sent by November 15th.  And then, as I got busier and crazier with more kids and more activities and basically taking a whole crazy amount more pictures, (true confessions time) I am generally behind in my scrapbooking.  So since adapting this year behind business, this Grandparent's albums idea is a whole lot easier.  Oh and for those who have seen one version or another of these pages in person - this is the full meal deal...in other words, this album has layouts that were universal and family specific.  So you may not have seen all of these pages.

Grandma's trip to Pittsburgh

Tom's family does Secret Santa's and we were given Tom's mom.  So I put together a trip album of her visit to see us this last May.

YAY!  Completed projects!!

In case you are interested

I realize that I have not really been forthcoming lately on the goings on at 621 Sketchy Lane lately. It's been just easier to post a little here, a little there and not really delve deep into the inner workings of the beings that we know as "the family".    Some of you, no doubt, have been wondering if anything beyond "The Grinch" has been going on around here.

Oh verily...

So just in case you are interested, I present to you the latest updates of the Sketchy Family:

This guy is working hard as usual...just fixed the brakes on our van...got a grade level promotion to Sr. Engineer (wooohooo!)...is "Akela" or Cub Scouts leader and as such is putting together a night of "Indian Sign Language" and miniature tee-pee making, for which he was supposed to have figured out how to do last night, but is sure his wife will be able to figure it out (and his wife is not quite as confident)...cannot keep track of his ear buds for his mp3 player which is his wife a little nutsy...is determined to finish Digimon World 4 because his kids have challenged him.  Still has those great eyes and jaw bone that drives me crazy (and not in the nutsy way).

...

This girl is happy her hair is getting slightly less red, but still thinks its a little too dark, next time we are going up a shade in the brown...Has been working for the past 4 days on a tribute album for Jay Dye, which she was very happy to do, because usually when a friend or family member suffers a loss you say "Is there anything I can do?" and they say "Thanks but we're doing OK." And you know they're not but you also know there's nothing you can really do, so it was great to have something she could actually do to help. But she's glad that she's done now, she can't be creative for 4 days in a row with out getting a bit burned out...Is also preparing to be quite panicky soon, because she hasn't gotten nearly enough Christmas shopping done yet.

...

This girl is making excuses why she keeps missing her violin lesson...Is the new proud owner of Pokemon Blue Rescue (and her mom has to now think of a new Christmas present, darn allowance!  Why did I ever encourage her to save?  Why???)...Is enjoying Dance class, and picking the "coolest" song to for their next routine...is unfortunately done with F.A.C.S. class and its wonderful laundry assignments, but is enjoying E.A. (Expressive Arts), drawing, painting, singing...yeah I'm sure that this will be a favorite segment!

...

This boy is having a great time as a cub scout, especially with his parents as scout leaders (his parents wonder if he would behave a little better sometimes if they weren't the scout leaders)...Is practicing his cursive writing...Is developing a "Life as a Persecuted 8 year old" manuscript, with key chapters of "Why its not fair to me to do the dishes" and "Why do I have to do my homework?" and my favorite, "Why??????" - it covers everything...has, according to his orchestra teacher, good bowing skills and is liking playing the cello (soon we will have our own quartet, that is if Brooke ever goes to her lessons)...wants to have "cool" hair, but when his mom puts in the "cool" hair products, just wants to be "normal".

...

This boy is slowly adapting to first "level," and is proud of getting three stickers the past couple of days...his favorite class is Music...Is now reading on level "G" (which I'm not quite sure what that means, but it appears to be pretty good, his class goals is to be on level E by December...has not entirely mastered the art of knock knock jokes, but with all the extra practice he gives it, it should not be long now (we hope)...Favorite song is "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder? Nobody answers so we'll sing a little louder." and repeat and repeat and repeat...it is not his mother's favorite song...

...

This boy has a swollen nose from landing smack on the face on a concrete floor, while doing something his mother told him not to do...is spending a lot of time trying to either sneak a) candy, b)TV time or c)into his sister's room to play that game mentioned before...is liking preschool but not necessarily the required listening insisted on at preschool...wants to know if Ethan can come and live at our house so his new baby can sleep in Ethan's old bed (what do you think Steph?).

And now you know, that is if you were interested.

60 looks good on You!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

And the handsome 18 year old too...

 

This is a book of all the fruits I've ever tasted...

Oh my goodness this is too funny!! How's your addiction level?  You know you can't get help until you ask for it.

You know I could quit whenever I wanted to...

And I'm sure my Scrubby would agree!   (AT GUN POINT)

Finally!!!

Dad got his Father's Day present today (yes a day late...such a doofy story for that one).  But I can finally share it with the rest of you, I've been working on it for most of the past month and I love the way it came out.  My sisters, Stephanie, Lynzie and RaNell (OK she's a sister-in-law, but who's quibbling) shared photos and I put together a King Kid Kalendar for Dad.

OK now for the doofy story:

We were a little behind getting all the photos, but I just kept reassuring everyone that it was fine, I'd be able to finish up and get things together in time to get it mailed to Dad for Father's Day (which it would have if the doofiness hadn't happenned.)  I was the Father's Day events Mom this year with the cub scouts project and this project and helping my own kids with presents for Tom.  Father's Day...Father's Day...Father's Day...thats pretty much all I was thinking (well in between kids getting out of school, and is our house going to close ever?, and are our brakes going out?, and figuring out our summer schedule.  So in other words, not much going on right?) 

So Thursday I am trying to pull things together for the cubscouts project, and reassuring Tom who came home feeling po-ly that this was his week off of cubscouts anyway -- its our Father's day project.  And suddenly a bright light went off...Father's day is SUNDAY...for all FATHER's...including my own.  See all this time I had been telling myself, there was no problem I could finish up Dad's calendar the first of next week and get it in the mail to him, yeah once I took care of this Father's day business, then I'll get Dad's father's day present mailed...uhhhhh wait a minute!!!  What did I just say?  So yeah, I stayed up way past my bedtime Thursday night and got it to the post office Friday...Sorry DAD!! 

What a doof!

Check the Skills

Yep, chicks dig the skills...well Mom's do anyway!  Jon is very proud of his relatively new prowess in the area of winking.  Almost every picture I take of him lately looks similar to this! 

1 layout from the last day of school down...2 to go...

A Reader

Brooke was just sitting there reading and this layout just popped into my head.  She's been so excited about this book, she wants to finish it this weekend.  And for those of you who know all the struggles she's undergone -- you probably understand why moments like this make me stop and be a little in awe of just how far she's come.

The journaling reads:

Curling up in a chair and A Good Book

I love watching you read.  You were not really an intuitive reader early on.  You struggled actually.  I followed your Grandma King's advice and tried to encourage you and not stress you out, and tried to help you find your own Learning Style. This past year or so it has really paid off and you have grown to love reading.  It is a pleasure to me, to watch you read…It’s like watching you grow.