I'm choosing Happiness - Join me?

I recently received an email where the sender berated me for choosing to pursue my career in lieu of being home at 3:45 to meet my children at the bus.  To quote, the sender said "since when did getting a babysitter to get your girls off the bus become such a grand plan?...is deserting your family the best option?"

I actually took this criticism with a grain of salt, because I prescribe to the Maya Angelou school of thought...

But this experience made me step back and reflect on all of the wonderful people in my life who don't question my decisions and who love me unconditionally.  For you I am grateful...  thank you for laughing with me through the good times and the bad...

So I'm taking the email I received as a reminder to...

because

Sometimes even ugliness can be constructive...that's how I'm choosing to deal with this nastiness...and I also spend it laughing.... I hope you do too!

Playing in the Rayne...

Janet's team at Treasured Memories hosts the most wonderful scrapbooking event every summer in Rayne... the frog capital of the world... she thinks of every detail... the food, the prizes, the schedule, the tips before the event, the masseuse, and she has a backup plan for every mishap... an event done right!

Can you imagine over one hundred women scrapbooking together for four days... just laughing, soaking up the creative process and enjoying good company... it's a little bit of heaven...  My heaven even included some actual scrapbooking this year...

As I rummaged around my scrapbook room before Rayne, I found these pages from 2006 that just needed some finishing touches... look at my precious, SwEEt babies...I might need to keep these pages displayed in my room as a reminder that I did not in fact birth heathens...

fast forward to the present... and the heathens  precious children and Daddy all dolled up for the Baton Rouge General Father Daughter Dance...

I could only eek out one page for Halloween this year, must have been too much wine and too little camera...

 here are some of my crazy friends in Rayne, the zany frog capital, one of us is still kissing frogs to find her prince, so we helped her out....

during an exhilarating tax conference in December, Shane snuck down to New Orleans to meet me for dinner in the Quarter... and we actually got to stroll Fulton Street at night

Shane hit one of those milestone birthdays in December and we had quite the celebration.  Nothing like a party at the house to get those nagging unfinished projects completed... Steam clean all the carpets? Don't mind if I do... New decor for the living areas? why not...  10 trips to Goodwill?  absolutely!

so I actually have 4 mini pages that fit in between the two pages, but they are in clear dividers and didn't photograph well... trust me... everyone made the scrapbook...

nothing like spending the day in NOLA with Short Stop po-boys, Barq's root beer and a trip to the zoo...

I almost can't wait for the hot rolls from the school cafeteria.... It's a special treat when the Thanksgiving lunch invitation arrives...You've never seen so many carb counting moms scarf down a hot buttered roll!

Here's the not-so-little-one turning EIGHT...

and her skater girlz....

 I'm super excited to travel to St. Louis in a few weeks to scrapbook with some more great women. I'll keep you posted on my progress, and you keep me posted on your laughing!!