Traci Todd

christmas lists......

i always write down the things that the kids keep coming back to but those lists usually get lost in our cluttered home.  i am putting the lists here along w/links as i find them.  hopefully this will help me along w/the family members who are wanting to know what chloe and hunter are asking for.  i plan to keep my own list here just in case someone wants to buy me a gift too.  :)

CHLOE:  

barbie girl jammin' jeep

barbie as the diamond castle

swimming mermaid barbie (this may be dora, not quite sure exactly what it is)

HUNTER:

mickey mouse race track

TRACI:

understanding exposure by bryan peterson {find it on amazon.com}

Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby {this can be found at barnes & noble}

JASON:

dress shirts & pants (this is what i think he needs, if he tells me what he wants then i will add it)

fall

fall reflections

for some reason typepad won't let me upload photos so i had to upload it to flickr.  click the link above to view one of my favorite photos of fall.

only 4 classes left...

then i graduate!!

i just got off the phone w/my advisor.  I am registered for the last 4 classes!! :)

i even have my first internship.   

recipe

i wanted to share a new recipe that i LOVE.  it is from southern living magazine, august 2008.

 

spinach-ravioli lasagna

2 words

hate.

can't.

Since I have had kids there are certain words that I would LOVE to be able to remove from our vocabulary.  I say "our" b/c I know that the kids have heard these words from me. Before the kids came along I would not think twice about these words but somehow they sound worse now.  This morning the kids were getting ready for school.  Chloe used to dress herself very easily but now that we are in school I have been doing it for her (this is b/c we are usually in a hurry).  I am trying to have her dress herself again.  I gave her the clothes I wanted her to wear and asked her to put her pants on.  "I can't" is what she told me.  Then I asked her to brush her teeth.  " I can't Mommy."  I have told my kids that they are able to do anything, they just have to try.  When she said "i can't" i responded with "well if you 'can't' do it then you might as well go back to bed."  Not sure why I chose that response but I did.  Jason ended up brushing her teeth b/c we had to get out of the door.  Does anyone else have words they don't like to use b/c of their kids?

water

for the last few weeks I have been talking to chloe and hunter about recycling.  i recycle everything that i can and would have a compost pile (or box) if I had a good place to put it.  they both know that plastic can be recycled and will ask to put things in the recycle box.  Since we live in Carlisle and do not have trucks to pick up our recyclables we have to take them to the dump/recycle center. They both know where the recycle center is and can show u if you come to carlisle.  last week hunter and i had a conversation about wasting water (chloe was at dance class).  hunter wanted to get the water hose out to water our plants on the porch. i told him no, we will just use the watering can.  (we have been in a drought and so i didn't want to use any unnesscery water) at first he got mad b/c he couldn't play w/the water hose but i explained that we cannot waste water b/c there isnt alot of water left.  i know that we still have water but i was doing my best to explain this to a 3 year old, so bear w/me :).  he seemed to get it and was fine w/me putting water in his watering can.

fast forward to the past weekend....

i went to kingsport for my 10 year reunion.  jason was home w/the kids.  when i came back on sunday i was asking about the kids.  jason had turned on the water in the bathroom and was just letting it run w/o using it. hunter tells him "dad, don't waste the water" jason had NO idea that I had talked to hunter about this so he was pretty shocked.  I think that it is great that Hunter understood what I was telling him.  He also made sure that "dad" understood that he was NOT to waste water. 

home.

i am back home from a weekend in kingsport.  i really enjoyed getting to spend time w/everyone at the reunion.  i cannot believe that maureen and i were together the entire weekend and only got one picture together and that was pretty much our noses (darn that 50mm!) MAUREEN- email me that photo please.  one day I will scrap it!  Whenever I go to Kingsport I miss living there, i suppose it is the comfort of going back to where I was raised.  On the drive home I thought about how it would be to live move back to Kingsport.  THen I arrive in Lexington and make sure to stop in at I-Ching and realize that I love it in Kentucky too.  I realize that what i like about Kingsport and Lexington is that they both have stores and things to do.  I like the fact that Carlisle doesn't have a variety of restaurants or McDonald's. We save alot of money b/c we do not eat out.  Unfortunately that means I cook almost 3 meals a day and have to wash the dishes afterwards. 

Today was the first day back to school after Fall Break.  The kids took it better then I did. I turned off my alarm and didn't wake up until 7:30, thank goodness jason had his alarm set.  I still have yet to take a shower b/c I have been editing photos since we dropped the kids off.  I need to head to the library so I can do homework. Why did I come back home?  :)

better get back to work.  i really hate that I don't have many photos from this weekend.  I do have some of Maureen at one of her sessions and a photo of Maggie & I, hopefully I can upload those tonight.

Happy monday!

hayride 2008

this is what my kid does

while the other kids are playing soccer.

another photo

of mine used on a blog