TWO freebies...Cruisin' Susie Mini-mini kit & Chark Byte Calendars!

TGIF!!!! wow this week has flown by!
This week has brought about a LOT of changes for me!...
I have resigned my dtm position at Scrapbook-bytes.com in order to focus more intently on my designing...this was a hard and somewhat bittersweet decision, but one that had to be made none-the-less :(...I had to have my first parent/teacher conference for reasons other than to hear my children praised for their wonderful behavior (Elijah's teacher and I had to talk)...I got a comment from a wonderful friend whom i really must spend more time keeping in touch with (LOVE YA BETH)...I started a new Bible study (Power of a Praying Parent)....started focusing VERY intently on potty training Tink (Chloe).....AND working on several new things for my store at OneofAKindScrapz!.....
The parent/teacher conference was not b/c Elijah is being rude or bullyish or anything like that...He simply is defiant (in a somewhat respectful way). He tries to be sneaky about not completing homework, or about not "changing his color" when another teacher tells him to (they have to change a color card if they are not following directions), and then having melt downs when he is reprimanded...we have been having these same problems at home with him. He never wants to help out with anything, has to be told over and over and over to do simple tasks or chores. Freaks out if he is reprimanded, whether it is just a scolding or a grounding or a swat on the bottom.... Elijah feeds off of attention, good or bad, so his teacher and I have decided to try a new tactic with him. When he is told to do something it is said once, very simply "Elijah do this, this, and/or this"....if he does it immediately he is recognized for his positive behavior...if not, it is stated again, firmly but without any additional commentary from us ;).....
Each day I write a note to his teacher (in print so he can easily "snoop" and see what it says) telling her some of his positive accomplishments from home. Then she, in return, jots down something positive that he accomplished at school that day. Any negative incidents happening at school, she will call my cell phone (so it will not be on the answering machine) or email me to inform me of what is going on. Basically we are taking away his being able to feed off of the negative attention....He will still have consequences for misbehavior, but the focus is going to be mainly on what he can do in the future to correct it...
Tink and I ran into a friend the other day and we were discussing the fact that Tink has been horrendous at potty training. Nothing seems to phase her (wet pants, dirty pants, nothing). We have tried a sticker chart, letting her put stickers on herself, giving her treats for every successful potty time, dancing and singing and clapping the "Chloe pee peed" song.......sigh NOTHING has helped....and she just turned THREE this week (my boys trained EARLY...Lane trained himself at 18 months, just stopped wearing diapers and was done...Elijah had to work at it for ONE week when we was 2 1/2 yrs old and was completely trained...).... Anyway, this friend said to let her put the stickers on her potty chair...I explained that we did "the sticker thing" and it didn't work. She repeated "let her put them ON her potty chair".... SO i decided it can't hurt to try.... I sat her on the potty every 15-30 minutes yesterday (if she peed i set the timer to 30 min, if she didn't i set it to 15), after the first successful "sitting" she got to put a sticker on her potty chair....OMGosh you would have thought i handed her $1000!!!! we had SEVEN pee-pees yesterday (sorry if that is TMI, if you are a mom, you probably TOTALLY understand my excitement, if you are not a parent, just trust me, this is liken to hitting the lottery).
Lane, my oldest, is loving Jr. High (he is in 7th grade now). He actually gets upset if he is running late and doesn't want to miss a day for ANYTHING (he had a tummy bug and had to stay home and was MISERABLE about it)!!! He was mad yesterday b/c he got a B- on a homework paper lol, he is a bit of an over achiever. He has asked if he can start staying after school to help the Elementary art teacher (K-12 are in the same building, just separate wings of the building, and 7-12 get out an hour earlier than the Elementary). In lieu of Elijah's issues, I am going to be volunteering 2 days a week at the school, so I told Lane that on those 2 days he can stay after and just ride home with us. I am hoping that me being in the building specifically to help in "ELIJAH'S" school will help Elijah see that his education and day to day life are as important to me as anything else....we will see...
Anyway that is pretty much my last week. If you have made it this far, you SO deserve a freebie....lets make it TWO of them!!!
The first one is a wonderful gift that a dear friend of mine gifted to me! She had bought my new mini-kit "Li'l Bluebirch" and made a desktop calendar with it for October! She sent it to me and said "if you want to use this as a freebie on your blog, go for it!".....yeah, I love this girl!
Click on preview to be taken to the download :)
If ya download, leave some love if ya would! It really makes me and all the other designers/scrappers want to keep giving stuff away for free :D...


ok, now for the 2nd freebie :)....i am SO excited for a fellow scrapper who just got her license to drive!!! Susie (susieU.K.) always has a sweet comment or an encouraging word for those in the forums she is part of, and just this week she is officially road worthy!!!!!...she is from the UK so I am sure the street signs and such are a bit different there, but I did what i could ;)....this is the Cruisin' Susie mini-mini-kit! click on the preview to be taken to the download!
I'm really happy for ya Susie!!!!


Check back often, I have 2 or 3 Halloween kits on the way to the store and I am sure there will be freebies for all y'all to match the new kits!!!
Have a great weekend!
Quote for the weekend: "I have a great need for God, and a great God for my needs" (heard on sirius Christian station on satellite t.v.)