Great Air Show this weekend

Cool Cat

Life as a Scout

Megan's first Lost tooth

Megan's first lost tooth on 9/9/09-easy to remember! She was excited when she discovered it did not hurt. Now it is safely in a Ziplock where no one can have it, not even the tooth fairy. She said she's keeping it.

Tyler turns 9

The cutest puppy pics

While browsing around at 2 peas I ran across the cutest puppy scrapbook pages and had to share these: Too Cute

New Layout

((Okay no matter what it seems I just never can get good pictures of my layouts and the colors never look right. ))

Cool Blog I have got to share

(PLEASE NOTE NONE OF THESE PICTURES ARE MINE, ALL OF THESE I BORROWED FROM HER BLOG TO SHARE WITH YOU GUYS)


I have spent this evening on one of the coolest blogs: http://controllingmychaos.blogspot.com/search/label/crafts?updated-max=2008-09-20T00%3A01%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=20 . She is so talented and has so many wonderful ideas that I am dieing to try out. Just a little of what she has is cool covered clipboards:

Cool Backpack tags: A great idea for tracking your child's growth and you never have to worry about painting over it: The cool flower pens we always see everywhere and I even got one of these from Megan for Mother's day that she got from her Awana class: Plus there is way more!! I haven't even seen all of it yet. There's lots of great recipes, scrapbook pages and more. I am heading to Home Depot and Wal-mart tomorrow to get some supplies:)

Budget Homeschooling

While browsing forums there seems to be more and more discussions regarding homeschooling on a budget. I found this link and she has a great little ebook that she will email to you:
http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschool-newsletter.html
http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/affordable-homeschooling.html Check it out!

My List of Things

While I am not a make plans kind of person I still love to think ahead. As soon as I get a new calendar I jot down ideas and events under that month. These are my list of things I jot down, except I have them separated under the months I hope to do them (I feel like writing them down helps to keep me on track so that the time does not pass so quickly that I miss things):

My List of Things:

• Mad Science Homeschool days
  
• Park Days with our homeschool friends
• Swan Lake
• Nature Walks
• Canoe trip at Congaree National Forest
• Visit State Parks
• Zoo Visits
  
• Backyard Camping
  
• Swan Lake
• Lowe's/Home Depot Workshops
• Micheal's Craft workshop for the kids
  
• State Museum
  
• Awana
• SC State Fair
• Boo at the Zoo
• Hayrides
• Pumpkin Carving
• Lights before Christmas
  

Saturday all day crop

Got to spend all day Saturday cropping with friends. I never would have imagined how very much I love crops. I always thought it just made more since to scrapbook at home with all my stuff. Why spend the time to pack up? Well after attending a few crops I have a new outlook. I love packing up and spending the day with other scrapbookers in our own little world.

These are a few layouts I did recently:

VERY LATE Easter shoot

Scrapbook Poll, Give away drawing

Debby over at Debby's Dare has a scrapbook poll with questions about page kits. Please take a few seconds to do this and when you leave a comment tell her April Kelley sent you. And then you send your friends over to take it also. Okay! She will be having a fun drawing!

This is the link:
http://debbysdares.blogspot.com/2009/07/christmas-in-july-and-big-dare.html

Where I've been and blog update coming soon.....

Okay I know I have been gone for so long, I know.....
I love reading blogs!
I get tons of inspiration from other bloggers!
Blogs are such a great resource for homeschoolers and more!

The past few months I have gone though debates in my mind. On here, even though I have a tracker, I do not know who is reading, watching, judging. Let's face it we live in a world with many different people with many different backgrounds and opinions. While I have mostly had great positive people visit me; I have been unsure about sharing things with the world. No, I do not want to go private.
I have had people emailing me asking where I went. I have also discovered that my blog has helped other people, I never realized it in the past. I had considered shutting down my blog. But I now see that this blog can be a great tool and resource for many people so I have decided that I am going to work to improve and update my blog. I am planning to update and removed any dead links and hope this will become a place were other people can come for hope, guidance and inspiration. It may take me some time but here I go....

As always feel free to share anything that may be a help to others and I will try to get it on here.

4th of July

Blog Update

Okay so even though I am still taking pictures for my Project 365 I have not been uploading them to my other blog. Some days I just take a computer break and other times I just do not transfer my pictures everyday and then there are other parts of my day that I do not know if I really want to share with the world. So I think I am going to come back to my blog here. I miss just being able to randomly post here and there as I have time.

So I am back. I really want to take the time to reorganize a lot of my blog and change some things and update the links and such. I'm not sure what I will do with my Project 365 blog, Trying to decide if it's worth the time to try to move it all to over here. I wonder if there is an easy way to do that...

Blog Forwarded

Since I am really wanting to keep up with the project 365 I really do not think I can keep up with this one and that one so I will be posting on it for now. So please come visit me here:

http://aprilkelleypotd.blogspot.com/

Picture by Tyler

Since I am just getting over the flu I let Tyler run out to the street with my camera and take house pictures with the snow(I wish we could have got 3 more inches). This is one of the pictures he took.

South Carolina Snow

Well having lived 2 winters in Michigan with Todd I know that I do not ever want to live in a snow state but I do wish we could get a really nice deep snow that would last a week or two just for the fun of it but that will never happen. Today was the first time Megan got to really see snow, they have been begging for this day for 2 years. They attempted to sled and have a snow ball fight and even build a "giant" snowball....Poor kids

Cool Science Website

http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/alphalist.html

Someone shared this on the FIAR message board, so I thought I would pass it on. This look really neat!

Great Journal Starters

Just thought I'd share the link to some ideas for journaling your life in case anyone else was interested. She did a great job coming up with these": http://karenandkissablekids.blogspot.com/2009/01/journal-jar.html#comment-form

Our Christmas 2008

For events like birthdays and Christmas I always like to to take a picture of the kids along with the items they received. I feel like someday when they are grown it will be fun for them to look back on the time when they were young and see all the things they enjoyed during that stage of there life. I had told the kids this year we were getting the Wii and then they would each get 3 gifts: something they wanted, something to wear and something to read. But I could not help but want to thought in a few surprises for them. I tried to get them things they would get use out of and not just things that go in a closet and cause clutter. Our goal this year has been to reduce things and live a more simple life. I am wanting to continue this trend into the next year and did not want to add unneeded things. Megan called me on going against my word and said "but mommy you said only 3 gifts" I told her I was sorry and asked if she wanted the gifts still and she gladly said okay.

Both kids asked for Legos. Tyler also discovered playmobil and that was the toy he asked for and each year he has received socks so this year he actually ASKED for socks---these kids are such creatures of habit. My uncle mailed them Chocolate milk mixer cups and another gift. My aunt mailed them money in which we placed an order with www.awana.com. Megan had been begging me to make a vest for her "Cubbie bear" but I have no sewing skills so be bought the real cubbie some other things as there gift from there Aunt Dora. My very sweet "little" brother gave each of them 10 dollars of his own money, he has such a heart of gold. My mom got Tyler some Yo-yo's he was asking for and Lego Cat women and her motorcycle she was wanting. And then Todd's mom Mailed all of us Down Comforters which me and Tyler LOVE but Todd and Megan do not. My grandma also mailed the kids a little money before going into the hospital, how thoughtful, I need to get some more pictures in the mail to her since she lives so far away.

Despite Tyler having a bug(poor thing) we had a great Christmas and I am so thankful for my family and the day we all spent together. We did other things too of course like eating, discussing there meaning of the Candy Cane and Christmas, played the Wii(which we all LOVE, I asked for the Wii for 2 years).

POTD Blog

Along with doing Becky's Project 365 Scrapbook kit I have also decided this year to do a Picture of the Day blog. I hope I can keep up with it, we will soon see.
This is a link to it if anyone wants to visit: http://www.aprilkelleypotd.blogspot.com/

Becky Higgins 365 day kit

Well as all the dedicated Becky fans know her new kit is the project 365. I goes on sale Jan 1st. I have been counting down since my CK magazine came around 2 weeks ago. Check out Becky's blog for videos showing the contents and how-to's of this kit: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2008/12/project-365-kit-contents.html

Things I love so far about there kits:

• There's extra in the kit so if I make a mistake it's okay, I was a little worried about that at first
• Everything is pre-coordinated for me(no need for me to stress if something matches or if it looks right together
• the kit comes with everything I need to complete my scrapbook, except for the album and the other basics like adhesive
  
• It ships right to my door
  
• I feel like I get a lot for my money, the kits average around $40 plus shipping which has been between $10-13
• Also I am saving money and time by not browsing and buying things I will not use, also I do not even have to drive across town(therefore saving gas, wear on my car and time) or go to 4 different scrapbook stores to find what I want/ need to complete my album, it's all right there in the kit for me. I have also began purchasing the We R Memory albums on line from Ritz Camera

The only cons to the kits have been some of the customer service employees and the mistakes made with shipping. Also some things such as spelling errors in the kit, But i think it's still some what new and that things will improve over time. Also If you decide later you want the kit or if you can not afford to buy the kit when it first releases you can not buy it later(unless you pay the increased Ebay price) But I guess by only making so many of the kits they do not have inventory sitting and they are able to come out with all the nice new kits each month. So I think this will be my new thing!

So my birthday present this month will be Project 365, I can't wait!

Pictures Loaded!!!!!!!

So as many of you know blogger completely glitched out on me and many other people. I could not get a picture to load no matter what I tried to do. Well I began thinking I would just begin a new blog, but I wanted to give it one more try and guess what IT WORKED!!!!!! I can not tell you how excited I am(although I worry it could mess up again). If I have days when I have some extra time I may go back and try to add some of the missed days.

"Twilight" picture

After seeing some people doing a Twilight process on 2 peas and then hearing my mom talk about the movie and book I decided I would like to give it a try as well. So I took a picture from one of my photo sessions this month and began playing. These pictures took me hours to figure out. I know I spent 7 hours on the one. So here they are:

Savannah Cat--still on my wish list

In the future ..when the kids are older..when things calm down...when I have more extra time...when I have the kind of spare money these cost.....I want a Savannah Cat.

These are a few links to them(they are so gorgeous):

http://www.pbase.com/dougr24/dougs_savannahs

http://www.savannahcat.com/public/index.php

Just one more thankful reason to Homeschool

Black principal separated the children based on there race to have there picture taken with the one of 2 Santa's, one black and one white in South Carolina.

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=68820&catid=2


Unbelievable! I have such a long thought list for this but do not even know where to begin, there is already a long list of comments on the news site. No wonder our state is at the bottom for academics.
Would you believe she still has a job? So sad for the kids. Once again I count my blessings and am able to guide my children each day.

Sick, Sick, Sick

Everyone it seems has been sick the past few weeks, well this weekend was my turn. I had a photoshoot Friday night and another one Sat so the kids spent the night at my mom's house. Well the kids decided to stay Saturday evening with there nana too so they could go see the Christmas lights with them (but they decided not to because they said they were too cold) So Sat when I should have been getting pictures edited I went to bed instead. I just felt so exhausted. I woke up Sunday morning running a fever and have the only stomach flu I have ever been able to recall. It's awful. I did finally eat the sub Todd brought me during lunch but I still have such a headache and can not stand to get up. So today I have layed in bed with my laptop on and off.

I have so much I need to get done as I know each day I do nothing is double the work later. The kids will be home soon and I hope they will want to sit and read or play with the Legos because I am so spent. Sometimes I think when we get sick it's God's way of reminding us to slow down and enjoy life. It's so frustrating to lay in bed in and out of sleep thinking about all the wonderful things you could be doing instead. I really hope to feel better by tomorrow----last night I felt so bad I told Todd I could go to the hospital---I'm sure it was dehydration and fever talking.

Problems with Blogger

Well guys.....I don't know what to say. I have read the people are having problems getting pictures to load. I keep thinking they will fix it but I don't know what's going on. I have tried everything to get my pictures to load but nothing will work. I resized them to really small and everything but I still get an error. And I just can not blog with out pictures.
I may have to go with another server or give up blogging. I really hope it's fixed soon.

I did take some Christmas pics of Megan tonight. I'm working on getting them loaded to pbase.
If you would like to see them head over to: http://www.pbase.com/atkelley/family_christmas_pics