Fired up!

A not so happy monday here in souther california. Our dear area is being bombarded with tons of fire. Luckily where we are at (Norwalk) there's no fires around but as you can see from my pictures, it is evident that it is close by. From what I heard in the news last night, there are 10 going on and the closest to us would probably be the Irvine one. The top picture is a shot in the south direction. I turned around and took the other photo which is to the north and as you can see the sky is still blue. And to make this all worst there's still that naughty Santa Ana winds and the hot weather predicted this week won't help either.



I pray for all my friends and family that is or might be affected by this. Please be safe!

Have a great day,
Grace

Happy Monday

it is truly a happy monday here!

Didn't go to preschool today, we are in the process of switching over to a better one so instead of school today it will be for tomorrow. I didn't have to clean that much today, although I did the usuals and laundry is still going. I did some organizing too. My pots and pans cupboard was needing some rearranging and so was my hallway closet and shoe rack. I got rid of some shoes that I don't want/need/fit in anymore and even got out the label maker and labeled all the rest of the boxes so I know what's in them. Yeah, im an organized freak! Makes me think of Monica from the "friends" show. Hehehehe.

I was able to play with my kids (did candyland, hide and seek, charades and green light, red light). Plus I brought out my camera and took some pics.

Here's a shot of our small tree in the front yard. I saw it this morning and thought that it was a perfect proof that autumn/fall has arrived, even here in sunny california.
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I was even able to bake brownies with the help of the kiddos which we will eat at FHE (family home evening) tonight.

So there you have it- a nice, worry free monday for me.

Now the challenge is to be able to continue this pace for the rest of the week. That will be something!

Have a great day,
Grace

Photos and Stories GALORE!!!

Ok braised yourself for another very lengthy but hopefully engaging post. Much has happened since my last entry.

First on the list is Maddie turning two. Her special day fell on a thursday and not much happened that day. But that night we figured we will celebrate a little (which was mainly my idea so I can get a night off from making dinner. Hehehehe, sneaky) so we went to McDonald's. Our trip was two fold; one to have the bday girl enjoy a dinner that she would like rather than going to a restuarant and just have chaos and two so we can see Amanda (who's been working there for a while now) in action. Here are some pics from that. My camera and I weren't getting along that night so a lot of stuff are blurry but here's some of the best shots.

Then on Saturday we had our BIG party. It started with a tea party with her "friends". My kids are lucky to have kids that are the same age in our ward. Not hard for me to find kids that they actually hang out with to invite. :) So the planning for this started about three weeks ago. I was a little scared to push through with this but thankfully I found some ideas online and magazine clippings that fit perfectly for what I wanted to happen. There were six girls, including Maddie, at the party. They made bonnets from paper plates, got dressed up with some fancy clothes and played with a tea set and made their own food with playdough. After washing their hands, they ate "real" food which was mini sandwiches, mini cupcakes, cream puffs, strawberries and jello. Hmmmm.

Here's the banner I made. Besides this, I also used my paper stash to make the party favor purses, invites and thank you cards.

Here are all the girls in attendance. Totally cute! :)

The birthday girl trying to figure out why she should open all these gifts. Hehehe. After a while she understood the concept and loved being surprised at what she will get next.

After the children's party, I had the rest of the family come over for some more fun. I made lasagna for dinner. Take note: lasagna from scratch!!! Our little bday girl blew out her candle and opened up more gifts. She got ton's of girly stuff. Pretty cool! She got shoes, boots, princess make up set, baby stroller and a little baby. It was so fun seeing her reaction as she opened each gift. One word to describe her was bliss. So cute!

And to think that day was pack as it is, I did get some breathing time during general conference sessions. Gotta love the internet. The fact that I can sit and watch/listen to general authorities speak about topics that pertain to me at this time is truly a blessing. Great talks and learned a lot. Also very excited about the new position of Pres. Henry Eyring and Elder Quentin Cook.

Whew I was pooped by the end of Saturday and thank goodness we had conference the following day which meant I can stay home and rest. Yippeee! Even with resting in mind, I did manage to make my thank you cards for Maddie's gifts. Here they are just ready to be written in and mailed.

And finally...... another happy news for me....... just found out in an email that I'm finally getting published in print!!!! A christmas card that I made will be featuren in the december issue of the Scrap and Stamp Arts magazine. I will probably post a pic of the mag and the page I'm in when I get a hold of the issue.

So there, if you read till here you truly are awesome and know that you are special to us so leave a comment when you can .

Have a great day,

Grace

One little word

I'm participating again this week in the one little word challenge.

The word for this week is GONE.


I got inspired by this when my little Maddie turned two yesterday. I was driving to costco to get stuff for her bday party tomorrow and started thinking that when my older one was two I was pregnant with her but right now there's no "bun in the oven". No baby waiting to add to our family hence the title for my page- "Gone are the days of" and then I started enumerating in my head the things that are not visible in our home anymore cause we don't have any babies here.
Journaling:
Gone are the days of.....
late night feedings; baby coos and sweet scent; shoes that can fit in my hands; frequent visits to the doctor; little babies in our home. Fall 2007

Have a great day,
Grace

Happy days!!!

Ok so being MIA again here, sorry! Got lots of things brewing here in the Tolman home but all is well.


First thing in the agenda is a birthday announcement. Yup our little Madelyn is no longer a baby and a full pledged (and totally acting like it) toddler. She turns two today. Here's a pic of a cupcake to represent her big day. Of course she's going to get a bigger cake than this but not till Saturday for her party. I've been somewhat consumed by preparations for her first tea party. I thought about this only about three weeks ago. I wanted a nice girly party for a change since in the past 3 years it's all about my boy. I'm so excited and I hope it will be a blast for Maddie and her friends.





Second happy news is this layout being accepted in the Basic Grey gallery. I've tried to get in there for the loooonnnggeessstt time and this one got me in the door. They say that when you get in their gallery, it's a great exposure. Kinda like getting published. Woohooo!



I do have another great news but can't post the layout yet. I am a finalist for the Scrapstreet.com November layout cover contest. I'm so pshyced. Let's all stalk that website on Nov.1st to see if I win. :)

Will keep you guys posted.

Have a great day,


Grace

White drawers and a Dora explosion!

So last saturday we originally have planned to go on a hike at the LA mountains but weather had a different plan. It rained pretty much all night friday and some more on saturday.

I was so bummed out bec. I was planning on using this time to take my camera and take some nature pics. But none was more upset about the cancellation than Marcus. He was so sad and could not comprehend in his little brain WHY we weren't gonna go.

Anyways, the day wasn't totally wasted cause we used up the time spent indoors to put up Maddie's new toddler bed and also a white shelf that we purchased at biglots. My brother in law lent us his crib and changing table back when Marcus was a baby and now he is expecting one of his own so we figured it was time to return the baby furnitures.

Maddie was so excited when her bed was put together. Even Marcus was envious about it. He kept on asking for a toddler bed. The excitement got more intense when I placed her new Dora the explorer sheets on her bed. Wow I can still hear the excited screams Maddie let out that afternoon. Needless to say the transition from our bed to hers was no problem at all.

Here's some pics of what we've accomplished.

Have a great day,

Grace

Updating......

Like what you see? Well I thought the blog needed some refreshing. I'm getting a hang of photoshop. Yipee! And this is all from self teaching myself and searching through free tutorials online. One more reason why I'm an internet girl through and through.
Well this past week's main event would be Mitch turning 39. He celebrated his big day on Monday (sept. 17). We had dinner at Don Jose's (the restaurant he picks every year) with his mom and dad. Then we went home and tasted my first ever german chocolate cake. I asked him before his special day what dessert he wanted me to make and he said german chocolate cake. At first I was scared. Didn't know how to make it!!! You know me I'm a cake in a box + frosting in a can kinda gal. But after talking to my mother in law, she made me feel a lot better. Did'nt even know they had german choco cake in a box plus the coconut frosting in the can. You really learn something new everyday. I thought I had to make everything from scratch! Woohoo! Crisis averted!
Here he is sharing the blowing of candles with Marcus.

And of course a birthday in the Tolman home won't be complete without a handmade card and a cutsie gift. The candy container is a recycled soda bottle which I thought was absolutely cute! So even if I don't drink soda very often, I was very happy chugging this sprite knowing I'm going to alter the bottle. Hahaha!

As for scrapbook stuff. Here's a page I did this week. Journaling read: A good snapshot stops a moment from running away- Eudora Welty"

I only did one page this week, can you imagine that?! I haven't really been inspired lately. There's some major things weighing on my mind and haven't been myself.
I am hopeful and faithful that everything will work out for us. Will keep you guys posted on this.
Have a great day,
Grace

Droppin in.......

to say things are rolling around here. Don't have much time to update my blog. Sorry, but it's kinda good cause it's a great sign that we are living our lives. Loving that perception.
Today I will go to my sister-in-law's baby shower. I have my diaper cake all ready and went to target yesterday to get a cute outfit. Got it on sale which is the icing to the cake. I thought I was good to go then last night my sister in law which was hosting the shindig called me up and asked if I could be the photographer for the event. Ngeeek! totally not prepared for that so this morning I went online and just browsed through some stock photos of showers to see what kind of shots I can/should do. Feeling better now and we'll see how it goes. I'm happy about the opportunity to do this but at the same time, I'm still learning! I'll have to post some of my shots later on.
As for scrapbook stuff (of course I have to post some kinda of papercraft here. LOL) Here's the smallest minibook I've ever done to date, with measurements of only 1 1/2x2". It's a necklace too, so I can wear it when I teach my classes or go on crops.

Speaking of classes, I just got done with my september one last thursday. It went well with 8 students. ( I do have some more kits leftover, if anybody is interested in purchasing some). Click on this post for the pics of the projects- http://tolmanchronicles.blogspot.com/2007/08/back-to-school-fun-projects.html
Till next time.

Have a great day,
Grace

And were off......

to school that is. Yes, it officially started today for all my kids. Amanda's a senior now. Wow can't still believe that!

And as for Marcus and Maddie, well I've enrolled them in a mommy and me preschool program in our provided in our adult school. Whew, it was a total relief for me when the teacher said we can join the class. You see, Maddie is still to young for the age bracket of the class but I prayed that we will get in. I've been in this program before when I only had Marcus and you can totally see the improvement on him. I would've hated it if we couldn't continue on his progress. With this one, we have the flexibility since the class in only mondays and wednesdays plus both kids get the "classroom" experience that will help them. Marcus is even in the line up of kids that can graduate by the end of the year since at 5 yrs old he can go to Kindergarten. Now that will be cool!

I didn't bring my camera to school bec. I didn't know if we would be able to stay or not there but I will definitely bring it along on monday. Here's the pics of the kids all ready for their first day of school though.

BTW Maddie was all decked out in a new outfit and guess what their activity at school was..... painting and lots of it!!! Well from now on, no new and cute outfits for my kids when at school. hehehehe.

Oh and I'm in a photo daily assignment group. The leader gives us a subject to photograph each day. The second assignment was to take a photo of something that was passed on to me and my idea for the theme was this one.

Totally funny huh! well the explanation is- I don't really have any heirloom things that's been passed down to me (nothing I can really think of , I guess) but anyways, I thought of my big "behind" bec. all my life they said that my hips and deriere (sp?) is from my dad's side. So that's what I wanted to use. Of course, I cracked up all the ladies in the group and so I thought of sharing it to all you too. Laugh out loud with it. :)

Have a great day,

Grace

Inspiration hunt

So doing some follow up on what I said on a recent blog entry as to how "I'm going to stop acting like a teacher and start thinking like a student". I went on an inspiration hunt at my local library on thursday. I always bring my kids to the library cause they LOVE books. While I was there, I decided to get my fave type of books- magazines. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE magazines. Don't get me wrong I read books too but I'm totally the visual person so I need things to see so my brain can turn. hehehehe.
I got a few that dealt with the paper craft hobby but I also got some other ones that I thought would be great place to gather new ideas. I figured I needed to think "outside the box" if I needed to be unique and noticed.


So I'm off to "study" my textbooks by the electric fan of course, it's scorching hot today here in socal.

Have a great day,
Grace