Challenge sneak peek..

Friday Friday... it should the gateway tot he weekend of relaxation but for the next few for us it will be the gateway to work weekend. We are moving a bunch of office items around and revamping a few spaces one of them is my craft room area. I already have my little CR moved into the living room so I can keep test cutting files while all the work is underway. Wew! But when it is all done it will be super nice. I had to map out a strategy because we also have some office space in town we are moving around and everything has to be done stages. Should be fun!! My hubby and I are always into something new.

Speaking of new... here is a sneak peak of the files the upcoming challenge. I will not be sending out the link 'til my birthday weekend some time. Please read the following before your email finger is ready to click send. I will post when you can email me and request the link. I am showing you a sneak peak early because I am getting emails daily now of folks waiting for the next one. So if you send me an email now requesting the link it may not go through. Just wait til midmonth when I announce I am ready to send them. Right now it will end up in my "file 13" lost to the world. :-)

This may not be my final set of Challenge files, but it is what I am dabbling with right now. These are pieces that I have found throughout my workings of files that I have abandoned for one reason or another.

Also, if you are a member of the QMC you are hopping with downloads over there. I think I uploaded 6 files in the last two days which puts us at 17 and I have about 5 more I know of and will continue to offer them as I can until the end of the quarter. So we will definitely be over the 20 files limit. Woohoo!! Love that and it is always my goal.

Well, I better get to some cleaning the house and getting things ready to move around. Hope you have a wonderful wonderful weekend!!! Don't forget to stop by in the next few days. Don't want you to miss out on Terrific Tuesdays next week. Enjoy!

Chris

Fishing pics of the guys, a few fisherman stories and new files to the QMC

So lots of fishing happened while we were in Wisconsin.My Husband, Son, and Dad went out two days in a row and fished away. I read books and made potato salad. (My Dad loves my Potato Salad.) So here are some of the pics.

First one is my hubby. Which my son took the picture. Hence the upward angle.

Then my little one and his catch of the day.

And Grandpa and his catch of the day.

So because of al the fishing happening. I put together this little card front for my Dad. He doesn't internet or blog so he won't see it. However, I am not sure which papers to use to create it. I will have to think on it. I uploaded this file to the QMC today and for those not in the QMC it will be in the store in the next week or so. There are two titles included. So you can cut it for more then one occassion.

I also uploaded this file to the QMC today. The leaning tower of cups. A word jumble and a title with a coffee cup. They can all be used together or apart.

And for a little kiddo story.

So my husband tells me they are in the boat and they float along towards the Dam where the fishing is better and my son cries out in joy. "It's a Waterfall look Dad." My hubby says. "Yes it looks like a waterfall, but its a dam." My son ponders this for a moment and not to be corrected says politely "A Dam Waterfall then" Apparently that ended the topic and not much else was said by the big guys. A fishing trip when the little one had the last word.

Well that wasn't that last of it. I asked my hubby when they got home how it went. He said a few fish each, but that our little one is taking credit for the largest one my hubby caught. (which we don't have pics of.. this happens on fishing trips I notice.. the big one never gets a pic) He left the room. I asked my strutting fisherman little son " How was the fishing? What'd ya get?" He looks at me serious as could be. "I caught the fish and Grandpa didn't catch non and Dad didn't neither. " I smiled, stifled a giggle and said "Well good job." My internal dialogue says to myself... "You are going to be an awesome fisherman. At 4, you're a bigger windbag then the big guys." Love my guys. Love my life.

Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!

Chris

I am home...

Woohoo!! I am home. After a very long travel day yesterday we finally made it home late last night. My kiddo had a fever most of the day yesterday so it was slightly stressful, but also he was very sleepy then for the drive and flight. Here is my new favorite picture of our threesome.





This was in Minnesota. My hubbies Aunt took the picture.

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And a big round of applause and thank you to Dana for keeping my blog running! What great projects. Also, there were a few posted at the Creative Teams blog. Using the Seashell file and the South Dakota Mount Rushmore file. What Great jobs. Thanks again Dana!! Was really awesome to know such creativity was going on over here while I was away.
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Well there should be some new files hitting the qmc because I got some done while away. I can't help but create I was definitely inspired.
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Have a wonderful day! And look for more pictures the rest of the week and then month of June should be a lot of fun!! No squirtgun party this year at the house, but Challenges and lots of fun here to celebrate my birthday.

Enjoy!
Chris

PS and yes I am trying to go to 3 column. However, I seem to be having font issues. After many emails from people asking that I post more of my images on my blog so they can look through I have decided to add a column on the right. However, if anyone has an idea on why my font issues are happening please let me know. I do not like the bigg blocky look. :-) I did try to change it in the font and colors editor but it keeps giving me errors. maybe it is blogger. Thanks for the help in advance.

Happiness is...

Happiness is a cool ice cream bar on a hot day... especially this hot day at DisneyWorld. Olivia was so hot and begged for something cold. So we bought Mickey ice cream bars for all of us. She was so hot that all she wanted to do was eat it. She wouldn't even smile at me when I took this picture. I cut the title from the Words of Happiness file. This is another of my favorite files because I love all of the words!

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day! Chris sould be back tonight so we'll be back to our regular scheduled programming! I had a great time posting for Chris!!! Thanks for all of your kind words!

More titles

Olivia loves Valentine's Day. She is in Kindergarten this year and this was her first real Valentine card exchange. She went through all of her Valentine cards for days after. I thought it was so adorable! One of my favorite files of Chris' is Words of Love. I cut the Sweet 4 U title from that file for this layout.

Another Fun Layout

My little one is such a ham when it comes to the camera. She is a ballerina and loves to dance any chance she gets. I had cut the heart from Chris' Be My Valentine Doily because it was so beautiful, but I hadn't figured out what I wanted to do with it. After I printed these photos, I decided to use it for the journaling on this layout. I love how it turned out!

I love titles

I love all of the titles that Chris has created! It makes it so easy for me to create a great layout without trying to find letter stickers or rub-ons. These are a few pictures I took of my daughter's Kindergarten trip to a local farm last fall. She made a face at me in every picture so I thought that "Autumn Beauty" was the perfect title! LOL!!!

I used Basic Grey paper and the title is from Chris' Autumn Beauty Jumble.

A quick project

This is a fun quick card! I love Chris' Love My Coffee designs. I wanted to use it for a cute card!

I absolutely LOVE this coffee cup!!! I am a Starbucks junkie, so I know I will use this a lot. I made the "Thanks A Latte" title myself using Funtime Scrapbooking software.

Hope you enjoy it!

Well... the cat's away...

Chris is off an her well deserved vacation. I hope she has the best time!!!

I will post every day while she is gone and try to have a new project to share every day. (I guess I better get busy!!! LOL!!!) The weather here in New Jersey is yucky, rainy. It's a stay inside and scrapbook kind of day!

I do have one project for today. I took this picture of my 2 kids and my niece a couple of years ago. Zach was 11 and Olivia was 4. My niece, Sophie, was just turning 1. I love this picture! Zach holding Sophie, who is as squirmy as a worm, while Olivia is not at all impressed with the whole thing. I got a few good shots, but this one was my favorite.



I used Chris' Jumble of Flowers 1. I love how it turned out! I hope you enjoy it!

A few loose ends..

It is Monday! woohoo!! Today I pack and clean up a bunch of loose ends... so here we go..

Challenge files... those who completed the challenge received an additional two files of their choice from my section of the store. Those files are almost all sent out. I have a few more to go and hope to send them out this afternoon. Those who need to make requests because you completed the challenge. Please do so soon. I do not wish to overlap the duties of challenges. So once the next one is up. This one is closed. I already have a few files put together for the challenge. It should be fun an eclectic again and absolutely without any theme it seems.

Guest blogger... if some of you have been visiting the Creative Teams blog then you know that Dana Tuskey is my guest blogger. I love Dana's work and I won't say to much and hopefully she can fully update you on herself and her crafty skills. I may pop in and post here or there, but really I will be pretty much off the grid. So .. Thank you again to Dana for helping me out.

If you are a QMC member then you have a few new files over the last week uploaded. So make sure to check those out.

If you have an AOL address and I can't get through to your email, my apologies, it seems there is a link blogspot issue with aol addresses. but this could be some of the issues and I am not intentionally trying to be slow in responding to you.

Faith.. from Paperthreads QMC.... I PMd you. If you get a chance send me an email. Thanks.

For all of those who have wished me well on my travels. Thank you! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful blog visitors and friends.

On to life..
My little one is soooo excited. He has a placemat for the table with a map of the US and has been talking about different states and who lives where. My husband probably thinks I am crazy with all my sneaky teaching tools. He needed a placemat and the one I found just happened to have a map on it. 96 cents at Wally World can't beat that. He wants to know what all the stars are and well those are the capitals. We are having lots of conversation about it all. He is super excited and I am praying that his DVD player battery holds out for most of the trip on the plane. I am not a good flyer. Makes me nervous. My tummy hurt. And I just want off. so luckily we are only making one flight and then we are off the plane. no connects. Wooohoo!! So I am sure we will have lots of pictures to share when we get back.

I gotta run. Doc Appt today. I must have been insane or delusional when I scheduled one for the day before I leave town. ugh. If I get everythng done in time I will post some of my new South Dakota files and my grumpy & silly Bison/Buffalo pair. Have you seen them? i think they are cute.

have a wonderful afternoon!
Enjoy!
Chris

Here I am... let me catch my breath for a moment and blog... :-)

Well the Creative Teams blog is off to a running start. 4 posts going and have you seen the new pieces posted? They are awesome. The designer who will be guest blogging on my site hasn't post yet I am sure she is saving her posts for the week here.

Where have I been? I have been preparing like a maniac for this trip. Why is it trips take a week to prepare for, a week to enjoy, and a week to recoup from. I have been doing laundry and going through things. Organizing, printing out maps, printing out plans and feeding tips for all our pets for the sitters. Planning for my "puppy" if she isnt super better.

I am headed to Minnesota and Wisconsin and a friend of my Mom's was just here and brough me a bag of cheese curds. How nice and awesome is that... A week early! Woohoo!

My Mom came out to show of her grandson. It was super nice to see her so impressed with his riding abilities. He is riding his little pony now like a real pro and tomorrow we are going to a Gymkhana to see if he is interested in any of their events. It is like obstacle courses for horses. We have been to the one before that we are going to and it was filled with kids of all ages. There was even a little handicap boy riding his sisters horse as she ran on foot around the pattern. He giggled the whole way it was phenomenal! So we will see if our bumpkin likes any of them and is interested. if so we will come home nd set up the cones and the barrels so he can practice for a month and then go back.

The end of the month is coming and that means it is into June!! June is my birthday month so we shall celebrate. But the May Sales files will be gone. So if you are interested in those please check 'em out. HERE.

Well my little one is buried in the fridge. I know because it has an annoying beep. Which is important in our house or he will stand in front of it and cool the house entirely while he zones on food.

So I will try to keep in touch before I go. But it is a busy busy couple days ahead. Don't forget to visit the creative teams blog!

Enjoy!
Chris

Creative Team gets a new home!

Have you seen it?? Well follow this link and visit my wonderful team. Each creative team member has acces to the Creativity Blog for Visual Designs by Chris and now can post their "recipes" for their projects and anything they'd like. So check it out. This is an answer to the numerous emails asking me which paper? how did they do that? What did they do it with and what's their story for their projects. So don't hesitate. Two Members have already posted!! You'll see some of their projects here, but more details there.

HERE IS THE LINK.

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On to life... I leave town next week and one of my Creative Team Members has agreed to be my guest blogger here to keep you busy and enjoying. (My favorite thing to do "enjoy") .. You'll have to guess which one, but I will say she is definitely looking forward to summer vacation and time to work on her projects. A very talented lady. More to come.

And because I am leaving town I am swamped with to dos and part of that is to take care of the "puppy", go to a doc appt, visit my sons school for his "last day" and get a ton and a ton and a ton done. So my apologies if my posts are short and sweet , but I am sooooo ready to head to Minnesota & Wisconsin. Can't wait. Spend time with the hubby and the bambino. Visit the in-law side of the family and see my Dad. My Dad is preparing for fishing extravaganza. I am preparing for reading extravaganze! Woohoo!! and also that means I have to go the library. Darn it. One more thing to add to the list. I have no idea what to pack. I have heard it's cold, it's kinda cold, it's sweater weather, it's jacket weather.... I can only take one bag! Sooo.. I am off to look for the weather website.

Have a wonderful day!!

Don't forget to check out the site. for the creative team. And thanks to my creative team members. They are without a doubt awesome!!

Enjoy!

Chris

Road Trip. BumbleBee and Flowers

My not so young "puppy" isn't feeling well today. So trying to keep an eye on her. So this will be short.

I uploaded 1 file to the membership and posted a poll for another file and then will be offering the flower and bees from below. These are what I cut on the bowl for Bella.

Enjoy!

Chris

Road Trip posted in membership & soon to store.

File coming to membership & Store

Bella's Bowl..and a new teeny saddle.

Did you have a wonderful weekend! I did. Saturday was a ton of fun at the auction. A relaxing and all around day spent doing very little and hanging out alot. We bought a few miscellaneous items .. like a purse even.. I buy the oddest things at auctions these days... but most fun was a little teeny saddle for my son. A children's saddle that will hopefully help him get his seat right. I have read many different opinions on this and decided that yes we shoudl have a saddle that is his size. Riding in one of Mom or Dad's would be like walking around in a big shoe and he would slide all around in it. He is very excited about it.

Saturday night when I got home I decorated this bowl with white vinyl for my niece. It is her birthday and she is my goddaughter. I loved the bright color of the bowl and filled it with fun craft items, but then also added her name to the outside. I think most kids like to get things with their names on it. So I hope she likes it. What do you think?
I am just finishing up my South Dakota files so I need the next state to work on. If you went somewhere for vacation and want the landmarks for that state put together email me with a few specifics and I will see what I can do. I should have some sample files to post this week and am compiling the next set of files for the next challenge.

Well I am off to take the kiddo to school. More on the weekend later. Have a wonderful monday!

Enjoy!

Chris

Happy Mother's Day!

These were sent into me by Dana on my creative team. Beautiful!! She does great work also.

Number Jumble

Seashell Borders and Corners

So the last few posts I have packed in all the Creative Team projects. I hope you enjoy them and they inspire you. My Creative Team is made up of a great group of people. I am loving working with them and seeing what they create.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day. I am off to a BBQ today and then home hopefully to get some horse riding in! More on the weekend tomorrow!

Enjoy!
Chris

Love Word Book for Mother's Day...

If you're trying to find something today to create for Mom for Mother's Day. This might inspire you. It was created by Ger on my creative team for last quarters Word book letters. I love the bright colors. I hope you do to.





Have a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow!
Enjoy!
Chris

Great Projects to see..

My Creative Team has been on overdrive lately and I am loving all the projects. I can't remember which ones I have shown. So I thought I would show a few of them. And if I have repeats I apologize!! I just love them all.

From Karen

Sting of the Bat

Be Our guest

Black Tie Affair

Clownin' Around
Alpha Jumble

From Sussann
Snowflake Jumble

From Wendy
Sting of the Bat

And there will be a few more tomorrow.

on to life...

It is Mother's Day this weekend. Hubby and I chatted about it and we like to see our Moms on Sunday. So Saturday has become my Mother's Day. This works out wonderfully because we are going to head to the horse auction for the day and hang out and just watch horses and enjoy the time together. My little one loves to go because he sees all the other boys hangin' out and wears his boots and hat and jeans like Dad and gets to be with us. It is very nice. Might hit the Mexican food restaurant on the way home. Might not depending on how the day goes.

But for now I have a ton of conversions to do for some new files. So I better stop delaying and get to it.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Enjoy!
Chris

Thursday Thank goooodness

It is Thursday. Woohoo!! Okay I have started going through the list of participants requests for files and sending them out. I hope to have them all out by next week. So they are a coming.

Thursday is also my busy day. Run the washer while I work on files and then put them away and work on one room at time to get it done in between files. And my little one is awesome help. He is 4 and catching on how to sort laundry. and which room we are headed to next. I keep him with me. Makes it take so much long however I notice that he keeps an eye on his things a little more when he has to be part of cleaning up.

I have lots of little things to say, but not completely formulated. I will get it together and have a show and tell post tomorrow or maybe late tonight. Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!
Chris

The Challenge The Challenge

I want to post really quick about the Poll for the Challenge. I have received many emails from participants of the challenge that requested their entry not be polled. That they enjoyed the challenge and one lady wrote "it inspired me to be creative and would like there to be more of this type". I have to say also that I received some of the most inspiring emails to me regarding the challenge files. And I liked everyones take on the files and it was interesting to me to see which ones were picked and how they were used. So after much deliberation I have decided to not poll the submissions. However, I am going to offer those who participated by sending in a submission an additional 2 files of their choice from my section of the store at Paperthreads. So everyone got the 9 files plus two more for participating. Email me your file choice (please choose two files that are listed as $5.00 or less). I thank you for participating and hope that so many will participate next time around as well. If you cut the SCUT files for the challenge. I have a list of files that are already converted. It can be found here. I will try to convert your requests to SCUT as soon as possible. but it may take me a little bit if it is not on this list. But I will do my best to get it done. Since I have to convert them all anyways I would rather start with requests.
I will be adding everyones submission to my mainsite page. Thank you again for participating!! it was wonderful to see them all. Enjoy!
Chris

Challenge.. More details later... Weekend Stories...

It's Monday Morning... Did you get your National Scrapbooking Day Challenge Entry in? I hope at least everyone got some scrapbooking done. I finally sat down to the computer Sunday night and tried to catch up on emails. I uploaded a bunch of pics to the paperthreads gallery and also to my main site. If you would like this figured out. As of this moment, I still have more to go, but I am working on it. Also, thank you to those who decided to participate. This was a fun challenge I hope it was for everyone. More details about the polls coming when I get a chance this afternoon to organize. Alot of you emailed and said you were using the Challenge to inspire you and get you moving. Really all of your emails inspired me. So thank you for your kind words and thoughts! Thank you! You have made this challenge very enjoyable for me.
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We went to a community fair for the local school and saw some of my little ones soccer teammates there and watched him run around and play. I went inside to check out the silent auction. I loveeee these things. I got a few cool goodies. My hubby being the awesome man that he is took our little one out to jump in the jumping castle and the air slide and do his things. All in all it was a very fun evening.

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Saturday morning I got a call from the head soccer coach, her little ones were sick. So that means me... I get to be the coach.. wooohoo. oh my goodness what have I gotten myself into. I don't know the rules of soccer. I know how to help the kids on the sidelines get into the game and those who need a drink to get swapped out and how to cheer them on and swing them circles and say GREAT JOB. So I ran into the closet got my extra coaches shirt and handed it to my hubby and said your the assistant today. He smiled and said sure no problem. So it wasn't. It was a lot of fun. My hubby was awesome helping out and the kids had a great time. So it all went well. My little boy kept yelling. Okay Coach mom and Coach Dad. Cute. Yeahh!!!
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We had a few friends over on Saturday night. And easy bring your own main course BBQ and we had sides. The guys went on a horse ride and the girls hung out and chatted. and the little ones played. Impromput and just lots of fun also. Sunday was a lot of work. I wasn't feeling so wonderful, but the hubby worked his bum off going through a bunch of storage. Time for spring cleaning. Getting rid of all the little baby clothes. For some reason I feel the need to hold onto them. My hubby smiles and understands and I told him. Leave them all there. So they are in a big pile waiting for a family member to come look and see what they want. And then off to goodwill they go. We need the space and every something feels heavy on the shoulders. So time to clean it out. So that was a good feeling.

And that's about it. Just an awesome wonderful weekend. I hope you had one to. I didn't get to my Craft Room, buttttt I really thought about it and all of you that were getting the chance to scrap. It is looking good for this week for me. I have a friend who might come over if all goes well. I better get the little one to school. Have a great day!
Enjoy!
Chris

2 more submission for the challenge and Spoon thieves??

2 more entries the top one is from Karon and the next one is from Debbie. 2 Great entries in the Challenge. I will be uploading these to the gallery. This weekend if I do not get your image uploaded to the gallery by Sunday night. It is only that the images have to be submitted by Sunday night. So if they are sitting in my in box then they are still considered in. More then a few have asked me to upload them for them and I would be happy to. Keep 'em coming! So excited to see them all. You can email me.. at.. cdurnan@

So another productive day. However.. instead of losing socks in our household we lose spoons. Does this happen to anyone else? Is there a place where you can just buy spoons in bulk that aren't plastic? I think my little one throws them away when he is getting up from the table. If he has a paper plate, I think that spoon just slides right into the trash with it.

I better run. I am making head way on laundry and wanted to stop in and say Hi!

Thank you for the entries already sent in. If you need more details you can email me. I will try to keep on top of email over the weekend. Or you can scroll down and read a few posts back. I started to give details on the challenge on the 24th. So what you may need may be there.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Enjoy!

Chris

Still Rock (ing) You..

It's Friday... I just wanted you to know...

We had dinner. Turkey Italian Sausage it was yum and good for last minute. i had a few emails from folks asking if I made it.

I made it!!

And we are still "Rock(ing) you"

More later.
Enjoy!
Chris

tada... lots done.... Challenge submissions...details... on to life..

Hello and Howdy! It's Thursday. I got so much done. added a file tothe QMC. Put up the Sales Flyer for May. Answered about 100 emails. (If you sent me one and haven't heard from me yet... I am a coming). Designed two files. Played Pirate ship with the kiddo. Did the dishes. Cleaned the kitchen. Read a book to the kiddo. Talked to my Uncle about hay for the horses ($14 bucks a bale already this summer). Made Nachos to eat with the kiddo. Talked to my Nan (who I enjoy talking to regularly to help make the emptiness go away since my Gramps passed). Looked at the laundry and rescheduled it for tomorrow. Talked to a few friends. Teased my friend Lori. Updated my Main Site for the Challenge and the Creative Pages (working on more.. but I got Vicki & Joni done) and now.........



I have no idea what the heck we are gonna have for dinner. I think I am proclaiming it Leftover night. oh man there are no leftovers. well lets put that aside and look at some awesome Challenge entries.

Blogger made Joni's entry teeny.. so here is a better link to see it.

There are more.... I will be posting them all here so everyone can see them. So send me your image.. Thank you to everyone participating!!
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I had a few emails today from people asking me if they had to participate if I sent them the link. Well.. honestly folkaroos. That was the point of me sending the link. If you plan to not participate that is fine. I am keeping a running list of those who have requested the link and who participated because I plan to give away a batch of files for other challenges all summer as well. Non-participation will be noted for future challenges. I think it is the only way to be fair to those who requested the link and then really put an effort into it. If you don't mind that you won't be apart of it next time then no worries. Your decision. Your choice.

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And on to more fun stuff of the world....
Oh man dinner... any thoughts??
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On to something else.
The world of blogs... Blogspot added a dated poster to it finally which means when I go out of town at the end of May to see my Dad and the hubbies family I won't have to miss a post. That is pretty cool. Means you will wonder if I was really around to post. :-) Should be fun and interesting. I am looking forward to this addition.
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On to life..
Did I tell you that we went to my nieces baptism a few weekends back. I am her godmother. What an honor. Anyways it was the third weekend of long involved religious celebrations for my little one. (2 confirmations and 2 baptisms) And he had been soooo good. Patiently waiting for everything to be over. (I think he knew there was a party after every function.) Sometimes sleeping a little to make it through. well at the baptism he was heard whispering. "I have had just about enough of this". My son loves to go to church. Loves to sit next to the drums. (Which means my ears ring for the whole day.) When he was about two his love was to clap after every song and say YEAHHHH!!!. So for him to say this he must have been exhausted. I tell you this story because I wonder where my son gets these little snippets of adulthood. His phrases totally come from us.. but his most recent one did not... As he runs down the hallway in his underwear today he starts singing (closer to yelling for my nerves)... We will We willl ROCKKKK YOU>>> ROCK YOU>>>Well now I must ponder.. Who was singing this with my little one present?? I am not sure but at the top of 4 year olds lungs in a pitch very nearing scream.... I must say... When I find the culprit .... I will Rock them ........or ....... force them to babysit and let them sing it with him or teach him more lyrics ..

Signing off!!
Have a wonderful enjoy!!
Enjoy!!
Chris
aka slightly strung out Mom who got a lot accomplished today, but forgot about dinner somewhere.