We’ll be making a great project to help you tell your holiday stories both past and present, and I’d like to extend a personal invitation to EVERYONE. You don’t have to be a digital scrapbooker, you don’t have to know Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Registration is easy and free!

1. Log in to your account at JessicaSprague.com.
2. Copy this code by highlighting it and typing Ctrl-C (Cmd-c on your Mac): HIHFREE2009
3. Click the image above, or click right here, then paste (Ctrl-v or Cmd-v) the code.
4. You’re registered! Click on your My Classes link to view the introduction to the class! (I’ll be posting the supply list on Wednesday)

I know we’re going to have an amazing time together in class, and I would LOVE to share this information and experience with everyone! Please tell your friends and family, spread the word, share the love!

Welcome to Holidays in Hand!

So she wrote a letter to the Tooth fairy, and even decorated the envelope:

Translation (it’s in two columns):

“Dear Tooth Fairy, My tooth came out today. I put it in an envelope. Please give me a dollar or two.”

When I first saw this, my heart squeezed until it came out my eyes. She has been phonetically spelling for only a couple of weeks, like a switch that came on - suddenly sounds relate to letters, and letters make words. I’m so PROUD of this sweet girl, and this note is so purely, perfectly her - complete with the little toothy decorations to melt the Tooth Fairy’s heart. (It did).

Thursday was the Halloween party at Red Hat, so Jared dressed up to go to work that day. He was Nosferatu, which a surprising number of people haven’t seen. If YOU are one of those people, what the heck? It’s a classic spooky BW vampire flick! It rocks! Check this guy out:

Now check out Jared’s version!

HAWT!

He Bic’ed his head, and even shaved his goatee, which I think he’s had for all but maybe a month? of our entire marriage. I did the makeup, and he rented the FABULOUS long coat. It’s the first time he’s ever dressed up for Halloween, and it was awesome!

Now go rent ya some of that Nosferatu action, kay? Coolest part? It was filmed in Germany before World War II, and many of the buildings in the movie were destroyed during the war, so it’s a wonderful and rare view into what these parts of Germany looked like.

I have some Halloween pics, and pics from the Sprague-o-Ween party last week. More later. :)

Happy November!

• Rowen lost her first tooth! Yeah! Her permanent teeth on the bottom had been growing in already, and she wrote the SWEETEST  note to the Tooth Fairy. Scan to come.
• We visited a pumpkin farm and did the corn maze. It took us about an hour, and was awesome for almost all of it (less awesome when the kids got tired and Jared and I ended up hauling them on our backs through the end of it), we pretended that we were in a dungeon searching for the mini-bosses at the dead ends (they are the ones with the chests full of loot, of course).
• We had our first annual Sprague-o-Ween on Friday night, complete with pizza, coloring, cookie decorating, and we made starched fabric ghosts.

I know there’s more, dangit. This is what happens when I’m a bad blogger. But I’ll head through my pics and see what else. Hehe. Anyone else use their photos in place of an actual memory in your brain? Yeah.

But this one wasn’t so much a bright new idea as a little bit of a revelation. I feel like I’ve been sort of in survival mode, waiting for what I don’t know, but there it is. I’ve been out of habits, out of sorts, in high-alert mode for weeks, and I feel stretched pretty thin for it.

So today I read planet books with Ele after preschool. And I made chicken noodle soup, following this Paula Deen recipe called “The Lady’s Chicken Noodle Soup” - EASILY the best chicken noodle soup I’ve ever eaten. I  modified it as follows:

Here’s how it went:

• 1 rotisserie chicken
• 2 32-oz boxes of chicken stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cups sliced carrots
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 2 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 cup grated Parmesan, optional
• 3/4 cup heavy cream, optional
• Seasoning salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Bring the stock and the water to a boil, add carrots and onion, cook for 3 minutes. Add celery and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes. Add egg noodles and cook according to directions on package.

While the noodles cook, remove the skin from the chicken and shred the chicken breasts finely. When noodles are done, add chicken, parsley, and rosemary. Add Parmesan and cream, if using. Cook for another 2 minutes. Adjust seasoning, if needed, by adding seasoning salt and pepper. Enjoy along with a nice hot crusty loaf of French bread.

Oh my dear sweet reader, PLEASE make this soup. Your belly and your family will thank me. Fo reals. I wouldn’t lead you astray, would I? And plus, how can you go wrong with heavy cream and parmesan cheese?

So after our domesticated dinner, we played Bingo with M&Ms as the markers, and went through the kids’ school papers to sort them into big shallow plastic bins. These are the best solution we’ve been able to come up with to store their papers - we have been absolutely inundated with papers since we have one in kindergarten and one in preschool. It is crazy. Some of it is just homework, which goes into the bins, but so much of it is stuff we have to read and sign and whatever, I feel like I’m the one in school. And I have a sneaking suspicion (moms of older kids, confirm this?) that it only gets worse from here. *sigh*

But Rowen truly is loving kindergarten. She told us tonight at dinner all about the friends she’s making, and what she does during art class, and what she had for lunch. And as we looked through her papers, I told her how proud I am of all her wonderful work, and the words she is writing (an EXPLOSION of words! Suddenly she’s taking notes on EVERYTHING, sounding out and writing down, and it’s so cute), and that we love all she’s learning.

She lit up like the sun, and then put her hand on her chest and said, “I think I’m killed with happiness, and my lips are turning red!” Apparently, this is a very good thing. :)

And yeah, it’s 9:45 and I haven’t done anything else. But what I have done feels like what really mattered. And that feels good. :)

However, if it wants to delay Halloween just a bit, until I can figure out how to accomplish Ele’s request (that’d be, you guessed it, the planet Saturn), that would be fine.

How does a kid who is four want to be A PLANET for Halloween? Not an astronaut, (he didn’t want to be an astronaut last year, but we convinced him), he wants to be the planet. And of course he wants to be the ringed one. Thoughts?

Also, it’s 3:30 in the morning. TypeWriter 2 is keeping me up late these days. It’s tougher than I thought it would be in my head, getting it together enough to teach a class and live my life right now. There’s just so much .. life, I guess.

• Rowen is still loving school. Struggling a bit with getting up early and trying to adjust to how demanding a full day of kindergarten can be on a 5-year-old. And so are we.
• Ele, is our planet guy as always, and it is so much fun to hang out with him when Rowen is at school. Something neither of us have ever had before. 
• Struggling getting my sleeping back in order - maybe after being in Utah for a week? Maybe after being sick? Maybe after having Liv here, who does not need sleep, only coffee? Who knows? But I am certainly wider awake right now than I will be at 9 a.m., which is fine if I were a moth. As a mother, though, not so much.

Oh, and by the way, I am going to be teaching an introduction to digital scrapbooking class locally (I get asked this all the time), at the Family History Conference on Saturday morning, at the Apex NC LDS Stake Center.

You don’t need to register, just arrive (it’s free), and you’ll get three different family history related classes between 9-noon. I think it’ll be fun to talk about digital scrapbooking with an emphasis on the history part of family history. :)

Also, I think we might be winning the battle against the sickness AND the fleas of September. Cautiously optimistic. And thanks to Terminix, we got to spend 5 quality hours away from home yesterday, mainly shopping, while our house was treated. Just what I needed right now, right? But actually, it kind of was. And got some super cute pillows from Restoration Hardware. :)

Now if I can only get to sleep before 4 a.m., I might have a shot at some daylight hours tomorrow without feeling like I’ve been hit by a large vehicle. Wish me luck!

sigh.

It was. Wow.

I haven’t had as crazy a month as September in as long as I can remember.  My grandma passed the end of August, then my birthday, then the first weekend in September, our little kitten Cassie ran away. :( That weekend, Ele got sick. Then Rowen and Jared followed and were sick for another 10 days. I survived until mid-september, then got it too. We discovered that our other cat, Jane, has fleas (and consequently, so does our house). Liv arrived the 16th, which was awesome, and we had SUCH a cool, cool time. We spent from the 21-27 in Utah at the Digital Scrapbook Experience, which was also awesome. It wasn’t easy being sick during that entire thing. I’m SO grateful to be feeling better, just now feeling mostly myself. And frankly, I’m pretty grateful that September is over. I’m hoping that the new month means slowing down.

But, maybe that will happen tomorrow… cause it didn’t happen today.

Today was interesting. Rowen had her well-child checkup for kindergarten, had 4 shots, and failed her eye exam. So off to the eye dr., which we managed to get in today. So the whole day spent waiting in waiting rooms, getting shots, wiping tears, getting ice cream reward, getting eye drops (which for some reason freaked her out as much as the shots), wiping more tears, getting more ice cream, and I’m tired.

The eye dr says she is fine, and that it’s normal for little kids to fluctuate, mix up letters, etc. So she doesn’t need glasses.

I feel like I’ve run a marathon.

There was a funny from today, though.

I was bringing the kids home from the eye dr and dinner, we got a call from our babysitter, who has been on a vacation to Hawaii for the past 2 1/2 weeks (oh yeah, did I mention that our sitter has been gone during most of September?), called to say she’s home. She told us she had taken a helicopter over the volcanos, and had taken a submarine to the ocean floor.

So I got off the phone and told the kids I had talked to Ms. Linda, and that she had gone in a helicopter, and a submarine. I asked if they knew what a submarine was, and Ele said, “It’s a thing you get in and it takes you down under the water.”

“Yes, that’s right!”

Then Rowen said, “Yeah, and they are yellow!”

LOL.

But here’s to a smoother October. Goodbye September, hello smoother sailing. And if not smoother, then here’s to having the gift of strength to deal with what comes. After all, the meaning of life isn’t in the victory, but in the struggle, right?

Liv comes into town tomorrow.

And we’re beginning registration tonight for Type+Writer 1 and 2.

And I feel this relentless need for sleep that makes it hard to accomplish much.

She did pause for a few pictures yesterday morning. In the rain, no less, before heading out to the car. (Our school has a fairly stringent no-parents-sobbing-in-the-doorway policy, so you can only drop a kid off except in extenuating circumstances).

Here is a girl ready to take on the world.

Oh little-big girl. So beautiful on your first day of one of the Great Adventures of life. I am full to overflowing with pride (look at this person! this being of grace and intelligence and laughter and spirit!) and wonder (how did you get to be so big all of a sudden? you are the most beautiful creature I can possibly imagine) and anxiety (are you ready for this? have I prepared you enough? will this school experience be what it should be?), and I wipe a few tears, because what else does a mother have but a heart has expanded wide as the universe, and can’t be contained, and so it flows out her eyes?

And now, having held you cupped in my two hands for so long - having had you almost literally all to myself for these your years, I feel a rush of hope - tinged with, what is that? sorrow? which sounds like the wind through new leaves as I lift and open my arms, and watch you fly…

Alright, so everyone I have looked at or talked to for a week has given me that consolatory look - that mourning-with-gladness look that EVERY SINGLE MOTHER has who has sent a kid to kindergarten. I think you must learn how to give that look as part of the first day’s rites of passage.)

And here - my last view of her was rounding the corner of the house to ride with Jared:

p.s. I made those pigtails. Pretty proud of that.

As for her?

She climbed into the car at 3:10 yesterday and I said, “How was your day in kindergarten?”

She sat down in her chair with a supremely satisfied look on her face, and said, “It was pretty much awesome.”

Yeah, sweet girl. I knew you’d love it. It’s ME that we need to fix up. :)

Rowen had her Assessment Day at kindergarten yesterday. Jared and I both went, and pulled around (in the carpool line! an alternate universe!), and the teacher opened the car door, and helped her out, and led her inside. Better that it was quick, since it wasn’t really the Official First Day, right? And all day yesterday, I kept starting up and saying, “Where’s Rowen?” before almost immediately remembering she was at school. At school! It was like my heart went wandering - I could almost physically feel the tug. Ele and I went to pick her up at 2:00 and we went for ice cream. I asked her about her day, and she showed me the papers she had made. They were testing her on things like writing her name, coloring, cutting, tracing, and she had done well. But the weirdest? I asked her what she chose for her school lunch, and she said, “I had pink milk, and a hamburger, and peaches and pears.” She is making her own choices about FOOD! Without me there to say, no, let’s not have 7 desserts today. And she did pretty well, I think. She starts school as an official Kindergartener on Monday. Time. Washing over me. And the bitterly sweet feeling of opening my arms to let go.

Tomorrow’s my birthday, which I only mention here because I get a new purse and possibly a date with my honey. I somehow still feel 25, so some OTHER lady must be having a birthday tomorrow, that isn’t me. Couldn’t be me. Time. And the sweet satisfaction of utter denial. ;)

And lastly and most sad, my dad called today to tell me that my dear Grandma Bills, my last living grandparent, passed on into Eternity early this morning. It wasn’t unexpected - her health had been failing in the past few weeks, and she was ready to go. So my sadness here is only to lose one of the great Trees of my life - one of those monumental figures that I learned from, and respected, and admire so much. I grew up living next door to them, and she taught me about cooking and sewing, and showed me by her faithful example what real-life love and determination are. She had been a school teacher, and was a legend among my high school friends for being the absolute toughest second-grade teacher imaginable. I will always love that about her. I feel Time washing over me. And the bitterly sweet feeling of opening my arms to let go. I’m kind of too raw tonight to do a long memorial of her, but I do think that my Grandpa, who passed in 2005, came to greet her and escort her Home, and the thought of them reuniting with the love of their lives for all eternity brings me some great comfort.

Grandma’s funeral is in Idaho, of course - on Monday, the day that Rowen begins Kindergarten. As I talked to my dad today, he said, “Grandma of all people would tell you that you belong with your girl on her first day of school. Don’t worry about missing her service.”

So suddenly, sitting here tonight, I’m not immortal, and not immune to change and the progression of days and weeks that have somehow become years. Suddenly I’m hard up against Middle Age, and my little baby girl that I just held in my arms is starting school, and the last living grandparent has departed this life. I suddenly look up and glance around, a little bewildered, wondering how this happened? Suddenly my mission of the past few years since becoming a scrapbooker, to savor and save, becomes more immediate and more real.  Not from the fear of losing the beauty of today, but so that tomorrow, when today is gone, there is the looking back that gives the courage to turn and look ahead again. That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Savor and save.

It was great fun to see them - so much fun that they decided to spend a second day. We ended up at Monkey Joe’s for a couple of hours, and then hit up the Crazy Fire mongolian barbeque. I walked in and said words I never thought I would say - “Two adults and seven children for dinner, please” and I think I managed to say it smoothly enough. Turns out it was a very pleasant and surprisingly calm meal, and I was very proud of that. :)

Rowen and Elliott LOVED playing with their cousins. E- is 8, and Rowen latched onto her and barely let go for the entire two day visit. Elliott found a partner in crime in 4-year-old T-, and the two sat playing on the kids’ computer for FAR longer than either of their individual attenion spans would have indicated. We spent some time talking on the couch, watching the kids play, and loving just being related. :)

As they were leaving last night to go back to their hotel (they left town this morning), Rowen gave each and every cousin a huge hug and a kiss, and then ran back to Heather for seconds. As she was hugging, she told each cousin, “I love you! I just LOVE you!” and then to Heather, arms around her neck, she said, “I love you more because you’re the owner.”

Heather laughed and said, “The owner of these kids, you mean?”

“Yeah, you take such good care of these SWEET cousins!”

We both cracked up. We will miss them. It’s one of the VERY few things I miss about being on the East coast with almost all our family in the west (I have a brother in Cincinnati, but everyone else is west of the rockies). The casual time. The growing-up-together time. Did you grow up near cousins? What was your experience like?

And on a completely unrelated note: If you have a little girl, how do you contain her clothes? We have yet to figure out a hanging-up vs. folding system that actually works and keeps Rowen’s clothes from a pile on top of her dresser. Do you hang all? Fold all? Have a dresser+closet? Any help would be appreciated. :)