How not to take photographs

We went berry picking yesterday and Porter was in the stroller. I had helpfully brought the camera with me - like any good scrapper would - and Porter, well...

I was preoccupied with finding the last of the black raspberries until I saw the flash going off. "Cheese!" Porter announced. He actually took 18 photographs but they are pretty much all the same. I must say, I'm impressed with this kid: he figured out how to turn the camera on AND how to work it, and he is only two.

I'd be even more impressed if he'd managed to convert them into black and white.

Speaking of Porter... I went in to check on him last night, and he was curled up on the foot of his bed wearing the following:

1) His pajama top

Matt and I had a pretty good laugh over that, and I managed to change the sheets without even waking him up.

grab a hanky, Mom...

So, my little sister Molly is here for a visit. And when I say 'little,' I mean she's eight. Molly is nineteen years younger than me and four years older than Betsy. In fact, everywhere we go people assume she's my daughter (perhaps because Molly looks more like me than Porter does). Anyway, since I was in college when Molly was born, I've never really spent any time around her, so I thought it would be fun for her to come out for a week. Betsy is, of course, over the moon excited. We've been to the childrens museum, the library, Hobby Lobby (that mecca of crafts) and if it ever stops raining, we'll go berry-picking and to the waterpark.

Betsy and Molly have matching butterfly nightgowns that Grammie sewed. (That's Betsy's grammie and Molly's mom... oh never mind) They were so cute last night, I had to take some pictures.

R.I.P Daisy

This is, or rather was, Matt's Pontiac Sunfire named Daisy. Matt bought Daisy in 1998, when he was in college, before we even met. (And isn't he cute in this picture? He was working at the MTC then.) Anyway, Daisy had 130,000 miles and she needed a new transmission, which would have cost more than the car is worth. And we've been wanting something that gets better gas mileage, because although gas has finally dropped below $3/gallon, it's still painful, isn't it? I mean, I've bought gas for less than a dollar, and I am... not that old.

Anyway. So Matt took a day off from work and we went around to all the dealerships. We looked at everything from the Ford Focus to the Chevy Aveo to the Hyundai Accent (we considered one of those but the only one they had in stock was bright green... umm, no) but we settled on the Yaris because it gets ridiculous gas mileage. Like, 34 mpg city... the best you can get short of buying a hybrid. And since it's a Toyota, Betsy will probably drive this car when she's in high school.

It's kind of weird. We've never bought a brand new car before; we've actually had pretty good luck with low-mileage used. On the other hand, we also built a new house last year, so maybe we are becoming snobs? On the other hand, I bought a huge sack of clothes at Goodwill on Saturday, so maybe not.

Grams to moles, moles to moles, moles to grams

It's one of those things that's permanently burned into my brain!

Our old babysitter Pick-toria (I think her name is actually spelled with a V but not according to my kids) came over last night for some chemistry help before her final exam. I always think that it's funny how even though A) I have a chemistry degree and B) I work part-time as a tutor, I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually done chemistry tutoring. Mostly what I do is math. I don't think I even took any math classes in college... but being a science major means you at least have to be good with algebra. And if I was better with higher math, I probably would have gotten above a C-plus in P-Chem.

Anyway. Victoria was having some trouble with chemistry, especially the mathy bits, and I've done some tutoring for her family in the past so her mom called me up. And it was really interesting, being able to explain things that I know in a way that another person can understand. (I think I scared her a little, though; I'm probably the only person who gets excited about stoichiometry.) I still have my well-preserved notes from the excellent GenChem course I took freshman year. There were some of things I didn't even have to think about to remember because I actually used them during my (so brief) professional career - molarity, dilution, titrations, that sort of thing. And that reminded of me of how much I liked working in a lab. I still keep going back and forth about what I'm going to do when the kids are in school - and I've got a while, Porter's only two - but I think that I really, really want to do chemistry again someday.

so far, so good...

Well, it's the first of June so I thought I'd look back at my resolutions. Because I'm a dork, everything I vowed to do in 2007 has to do with scrapbooking. Let's see how I'm doing so far, shall we?

1. Seriously, it’s time to start using the stash. Buy no more than 3 new patterned papers + 2 embellishments a month! Use what I’ve got! Mmm... pretty much. I did blow the wad when I went to Scrap Etc. in March, but I actually spent the exact amount I had budgeted for myself. I think that 3 papers + 2 embellishments is a bit too restrictive, though. Some months I buy 5 patterned papers, other times I'll get 4 embellishments and 1 paper. As for using my stash? Still working on that.

2. Keep submitting to the magazines. Try out for a manufacturer’s design team as well. I'm still submitting like a crazy person. I did get my Thanksgiving layout picked up by Scrapbook Trends for their holiday idea book, so I'm pretty excited about that. As far as design teams... well, it's a total pipe dream, but I've heard that American Crafts gets a new DT every September...

3. Do a no photo layout. Not yet, but I have one in the works. Hey, does anyone know where I can find some clip art of a cardinal, a peony and an ear of corn?

4. Use more than 1 brand of patterned paper ON THE SAME PAGE! Yes, it happens occasionally...

5. Finish up my CK Hall of Fame entry. Though I don’t expect to win, I’ll have 8 awesome layouts that might not existed otherwise. I did enter HOF, and it was a really neat experience. I made some layouts I love and I bonded with some of my scrapbook buddies... what's not to like about that?

6. Get outside my ‘bubble’ and attend a crop. Not yet. I'm really quite antisocial when I scrap.

7. Use my handwriting more often. Actually, I'm doing this a lot, thanks to the Autumn Leaves journaling stamps I got at Hobby Lobby (half price!) Seriously, those things are great.

8. Try something ‘old’ (like clear stickers or die cuts) I did a page with Jolee's, for the first time in like five years.

9. Try something ‘new’: machine stitching, digital technique… There aren't a lot of things out there that I haven't done (short of getting 'I Scrap' tattooed on my bicep) but I do machine stitch on a lot of my pages. (Which has a lot to do with my no longer being terrified of sewing machines.) I still haven't done anything digital, despite Jenny's urging. I'm really just too attached (not to mention heavily invested) to paper, glue and stickers to go digi.

10. Take some more self portraits. (And no, these goofy ones don’t count!) I did take a bunch more pictures of myself... but I was making silly faces. (Don't worry: it's for a layout.) After Emily cuts my hair, then I will be so gorgeous I will just have to bust out with the camera timer.