happy friday to ya'll

i hope everyone has had a great week. we are gearing up here for noah's first BD shindig so that has been keeping me sorta busy. i know in the past that people have asked me what i do with my mini albums and such. well i decided that i would display some of them for noah's party. this way people can see how he has grown in the last year. i mixed it up with photos and put them all on our mantle like this:

this is a wonderful way for people to share in what you do.

ok i will pick the RAK winner but i might have to wait til sunday after noah's big party. there is a lot for me to do as i am also now signed up for "early half marathon training" which means at 6 am tomorrow i will be heading out to do a 5k time trial. ugh. but i need to get back into it.

i do want to answer some more questions so let me continue down the list:

• Which do you LOVE designing more - new goodies for Maya Road or layouts for your design team work? i think quite honestly i love the layouts the most. the new goodies are fun but really very stressful too. it isn't like deb and i have a slew of helpers that we just say "hey here is a concept of what we want in the colors we want" and volia we show up at the tradeshow and it is there. no, if only you all knew the gory details. it would make your toes curl a bit. but i love making and coming up with new goodies too but just not all the stuff that comes with it.
• Question for you is your thoughts on the publishing end of the scrapbooking craft. In other words, do you think publishing is on the decline with the magazines in different states of flux? Do you think most magazines are disenchanted with some scrappers that have "attitude" and are sticking to layouts from Manufacturer Design Teams to fill content and correspond with ads? wow, this one i could write pages about. i mean there are arguments both ways about this.

1. the magazines are a business. they need to do stuff that makes sense as a business. that means making money

2. if they have their own inhouse design team with people that met their deadlines and produce quality work, then it only makes sense to go with that.

3. at the same time, you could be missing out on someone with mad crazy talent out there if you limit yourself.

4. some of it is luck and timing - i will sometimes see 2 galleries of 2 people that to me have equal amounts of talent - one will turn out to be a huge name but the other will not - is it for lack of submitting? is it for connections? i don't know but some of it DOES have to be being at the right place at the right time.

• What is your secret to juggling baby, career, MR and also finding time to do things for yourself like run? you also forgot that i LOVE LOVE LOVE sleeping - i really don't function well without 8 hours a night! you know deb and i talked about this. and to be quite honest, we are both workaholics. i mean i LOVE my Maya Road job. that is fun to me. almost like not working. but you know what MR has also provided me? the ability to work on most days from home. that in turn means i get to see baby noah a lot. i am also blessed b/c God has worked everything out for me. my friend who lives down the street watches noah about 5 hours a day. then i get him and we hang out and then he goes down for a nap and i get to work again. then we hang out as a family most nights and when he goes to bed, i get back to work.

i don't run as much as i should but i am about to change that.

i am also blessed b/c the warehouse people LOVE noah. they ask for him to come visit.

• Is Noah going to have a brother or sister anytime in the near future? L, you are funny! LOL. um not anytime soon. but david and i are going to start looking at our journey to adopting a baby girl from China seriously in the next 6 months or so.

Ok that is all I have time for today but have a wonderful weekend and I will be checking back in with a winner soon!

PS I still need the last RAK winner to email me; if I don't get an email back in the next couple of days, I will choose someone else to replace that winner.