ScrapHappy

Actually, maybe happy isn't exactly the right word for me today...I woke up with a headache that reached migraine level several hours ago...ugh!

BUT..I hate just sitting around thinking about how badly my head hurts when it's like this, so sometimes I attempt to "trick" it into feeling better by diverting my attention on some kind of task or project.

Recently inspired by all the crafty blogs I've visited, I decided to haul out my scrapbooking supplies and create something. Honestly, I don't enjoy scrapbooking as much as most people do...I get WAY too frustrated with sorting through the pictures, trying to do the journaling, thinking and RE-thinking my layouts until it takes me HOURS just to do one page. My sweet ya-ya junior (also knows as my mini-me...my daughter) LOVES to make fun of me for this.

However, I DO love to make cards or other types of paper crafts using all my scrapbook supplies. For some reason, I just don't feel the same kind of pressure and so I'm able to enjoy it more fully.

So today I made this:

The Irish Blessing that you can't really read in the pic says:

~May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your house.~

I miss getting crafty with my Ya-Yas!! When Anna and Leah were teenagers, we would play Christmas music, drink hot punch, and spend hours together making Christmas crafts. It's times like today, when I'm sitting alone with all my scrapping supplies surrounding me, that I long for the geographical gap to disappear in an instant so that I can have my two best gal-pals with me. Remembering old times can be bittersweet, sometimes...yes?

Anna...I made this particular project with you in mind =)....but I liked it so much that I decided to frame it and keep it (he-he)! If you get your ya-ya tushy out here and craft with me, I'll make you one of your own!

Leah...of course you're invited, too...except Major Pete and his class puts a wrinkle in things for the time being...(darn him!)

Ya-Ya

House of Horrors?

A couple of posts ago, Anna mentioned a journey....and asked for input from our devoted followers as to why or why not we sisters should throw caution to the wind and JUST DO IT.

Now... (mind you)... we 3 have been talking about a sister trip for many years. And EVEN NOW, with "nearly" nothing to worry about except for airfare and fun-funds, there will probably be a hundred roadblocks in our way.

Honestly? I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist based on historical fact when it comes to this kind of stuff. I know that one day it WILL happen...but it will probably be later rather than sooner. Usually, I abhor being wrong. In this case, I would be delighted if I were!!

That being said, I really just wanted to share with you my list of PROS for the trip...and though I try not to be selfish most of the time, I'm going to indulge (just this once...yeah, right!) myself tonight by listing just my own personal reasons for wanting to go on this journey....and I'm limiting my list to my HOUSE OF HORRORS.

Okay. My HOUSE OF HORRORS has nothing to do with the people who live in it...I happen to love them all dearly. Nor is my house haunted in any way, shape, or form (sorry to disappoint...since it's October, that would have been cool, huh?) . My house is actually just the worst "lemon" in the Used Car Lot. Only it isn't a car (don't even get me started on those)... it's a house.

SCREEEEEECH!!!!!

What the heck just happened? I was all ready to list my grievances against my house when I decided to look back over what I'd already written first...and then I couldn't do it. Why? Because it's just a house. It's the people inside that I love that make it my home. That will never change no matter where I live.

As for needing reasons to go on this JOURNEY with my sisters? It's pretty much the same. The only reason I need is that I love them. I love being with them. Every memory that we make together is something that I will cherish forever. Enough said.

Ya-Ya

Happy Memories and a Good Cry

These are for my two beautiful sisters...because sometimes, when life totally sucks, happy memories and a good cry can make you feel a teensy bit better.















LOVE MY YA-YAS FOREVER!!!!!

The Anna has Landed!!

Calling all Ya-Ya's... Grab a smoke, a mug of coffee or alternative beverage of choice, grab a bag of jalapeno cheetos and enjoy the ride!

Although some of us may be technologically challenged, I believe that making an entrance is always more interesting than being the first one to arrive to the party. As my endearing sisters of stated, I am in the Misadventure of my life at the moment. Things are so topsy-turvey that half the time I don't know what day it is, I spend more time in my car, I'm lucky if my socks match, and of course i can't remember the last time I ate anything other than a cigarette. I find myself in silent solitary reflection of how I ended up in such a "Dill"pickle of a situation. Don't get me wrong though, there have been some humorous adventures alongside my Misadventure. I could not have gotten through the past 3 weeks without the divine support of my sisters. They are the greatest people I know! Ya-Ya!

Communication is KEY...

...or in our case, more like KEYBOARD.

Anna and Leah live in the same state about an hour away from one another. I live 6oo miles away from the two of them. Cell phone texting has become a way of life for us. (not to worry, though...we all have unlimited texting plans!)

Before texting became such a huge phenomenon, we talked on the phone A LOT. But all three of us are mothers. With living, breathing kids. Every mother alive knows that one of the first "natural" laws of motherhood is that the minute you pick up any kind of phone to have an actual conversation with a person on the other end is the EXACT minute every child in your house will appear (seemingly out of nowhere) and demand every ounce of your attention in the form of food needs, beverage needs, homework needs, boy troubles, girl troubles, friend troubles, I'm mad at dad troubles, I don't know what to wear troubles, I can't find my shoes troubles, and so on......

A mother must have invented phone texting....absofrickinlutely genius!!!

So now my sisters and I can carry on conversations whenever we like no matter what form of chaos is going on around us AND not have to worry about daughters above the age of 7 quietly hanging around the corner eavesdropping, hoping to catch some juicy family gossip.

"Oh no!" I hear Phoebe call from the other room. ("who the heck is Phoebe?" I hear you asking....)
"Oh no!" There she goes again.
I go to the other room, grab my phone....two new text messages have arrived =)

You got it....Phoebe is my phone. I named her so because my text message alert is a voice clip of Phoebe from FRIENDS saying "oh no!" in one of her classic moments on the show. Why did I do this? Because news travels fast in my family. Bad news travels even faster. And often. And I have a twisted sense of humor.

Eighty percent of the texts I receive are from Leah or Anna....which makes me happy....MOST of the time. Except for one small, minor detail....
I HATE LEAH'S PHONE!

Leah's phone has serious issues when it comes to texting, which I've decided can only be explained by one of the following reasons:
1. It's in the early stages of dementia or alzheimer's and clearly it just can't help it's behavior
2. It suffers from a severe case of ADD
3. It's just plain evil and takes joy in the fact that it totally f***s with me by confusing the conversation so much that I just give up and then sit around wondering if I need to up my meds

So now I guess I should clarify the problem. Leah's phone doesn't always text in real time....sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Occasionally, it takes several hours to get one of her texts. OR, it will send all the texts it's supposed to within a reasonable time frame, but it will do so in a completely random order....so I have to try and make sense of the conversation on my end.

Case in point on the first instance: Once when I was visiting Leah, we were hanging out with a couple of friends on a Friday night. It was getting late and we still had to drive almost and hour to get back to her house, and she wanted to be subtle and inform me that she thought it would be best if we left before too long. So she texted me. I received that text about 2 hours later...just about the time that we were pulling into her driveway, ALREADY HOME!!!.....yeah, I hate her phone.


But I love my Ya-Yas. And if I didn't get to talk to them every day, I'd probably go crazy. So, evil phone or not, I'd just like to say God Bless Texting...and my girls.

Ya-Ya

Battle Cry

There is nothing in the world quite like the bond of female friendships...and when your closest girlfriends happen to be your sisters as well, it's like being twice blessed. It's also like having a bond that no ginsu knife in the world could possibly cut through... come hell, high water, or special low price of $9.95.



Anna and Leah are my very best friends in the entire world. They are also my younger sisters...twins, to be exact. Eight and 1/2 years separate us in age, but you'd never know it when you see us together. We come from a family of six children...two brothers older than myself, and one brother that was born between me and the twins. Our family is pretty much like any other family these days: full of dysfunction, drama, crisis, craziness, and love. Through the years, we sisters have evolved from being merely siblings into being friends, from being friends into being kindred spirits, and from being kindred spirits into being more like 3 parts of one whole. Occasionally, we're accused of being too co-dependent. Truthfully? We don't care. What happens to one of us happens to all 3 of us....Ya-Ya.



Ok. I know you've heard the Ya-Ya term before if you've read the book or seen the movie Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. We're not really trying to infringe upon rights or steal anything here. We've had a rough couple of years, though, and in the past year or so we sort of adopted the phrase "ya-ya" as our battle cry to signify our sisterly devotion to one another through whatever circumstances come our way....and believe me when I tell you that they DO come, and they come often! (that's where the adventures part comes in)



So what will follow in days to come will be the adventures of us: Lyn, Anna, and Leah. Three crazy, silly, warm, loving, frustrated, intelligent, witty, charming, sometimes b*tchy, mixed-up sisters who love each other more than any other sisters on the planet. Sometimes the adventures are just everyday stuff...but if you knew us, you'd know that every day with us is an adventure. Just ask our families....



Ya-Ya