Today I Took a Break...

..and boy, did I need it!  I don't know why I feel so guilty about taking a personal day from teaching.  Other people take vacation days from their jobs, and I think that's perfectly fine.  For some reason I always feel like I should be at work.  The fact that writing sub lesson plans takes me an hour and half is also a deterrant.  However, I have been pushing full speed ahead through 26 report cards, 26 parent/teacher conferences, planning and running the Scholastic Book Fair for our school, and going to meetings, meetings, meetings.  This past weekend I had planned on taking some time to recoup at home, and then we lost our power on Friday night due to a winter storm.  So we had to stay at a hotel on Saturday.  You'd think that would be relaxing, but it really wasn't.  The girls had the BEST. DAY. EVER!!  We checked in, they went swimming, they went roller skating at a birthday party, they went swimming, we ate out, they went swimming.  :)  The power outage was a boon for them!! 

So, today my amazing secretary at the school where I work tracked down a sub for me so I could have a day.  ALONE.  In my house.  I am NEVER alone.  I like being alone.  Alone is so nice.  Ahh...

I ate a peanut butter sandwich and potato chips for breakfast.  I watched the latest episode of Dance Moms (I know!  I know!  It's a terrible, awful show.  I know.  But I love it!  hee!).  I turned on my music and I sang along WHENEVER I wanted to!  (Jon doesn't like it when I sing along.)  Then I cranked out four layouts!  It was interesting that the headache I've had for almost three weeks straight didn't show up until 2:40 when I had to climb in the mommy-van to go to pick up my daughters.

Anyway, here are my latest layouts in all of their glory!

 This is Little Yellow Bicycle's Paradise collection.  The flower kit they sell is really interesting, but I admit I felt pretty dumb for a few minutes trying to get the accordian folding spiral flower to play nice.  Then, in the end, I didn't even use it on this layout!  I'm sure it will appear in the future.  Erin is just such a hilarious child.  She LOVES to talk, and today when I was playing on my iTunes I found five voice memo files from Erin talking and singing to herself on her iPod early in the morning.  Listening to them was such fun!  I laughed out loud over and over.

I have developed a fondness for gluing fibers down on my layouts lately.  I framed out Paige's picture with orange fiber, and then I decided to just go all the way with it and make a grid for embellishments to live in. 

 I was trying to be artsy and quirky.  Haha!  Basic Grey Picadilly collection here--I won it from playing along with one of Basic Grey's Monday sketches months ago, and this is the first time I've used it!

This is also Basic Grey Picadilly.  I really love the B sides of these papers.  I'm starting to wonder if I suffer from a pattern paper phobia??  I used to LOVE pattern paper, and lately all I want to use is really small patterns or just plain paper.  Hmm... 

Vanessa at my LSS--The Scrapbook Nook--sold me this totally awesome Martha Stewart heart border punch.  Can you tell I like it?  (I used it on Paige's layout too.)  The expression on Erin's face in the middle and bottom picture is funny here.  I might have been teasing her about a certain someone she thinks is pretty special in her class at school when I took these pictures.  (Mean Mommy!)

Then, I dove into Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan line for these last two layouts.  I adore this picture of my girls with their newest little cousin.  They love babies (especially Paige).  She is so careful and tender with them.

The colors in this line were soft and sweet and perfect for this picture.

Finally, I got the design for this last layout from  Susan Stringfellow's blog.  I just loved all of the banners and the heart for the title space.  I created this layout by following her sketch exactly.  It was great inspiration!

I hope you have a very peaceful and relaxing weekend with no power outages...unless you really want to go swimming for hours and hours at a party hotel where people stand outside your room late at night and holler!  :)
~Wendy