I met my challenges!!!!

Yahoo! I don't know how to do those fancy edits where you line out what you wrote...but if I knew how, I'd be able to announce that I met most, if not all of my self imposed challenges for the weekend.

• I finished up Thing Two's Kindie album which, just as I predicted, was a huge relief to say "it is done, move on".
• I did a Clean Sweep/Mission Organization attack on my sticker binder. Yep, I started by dumping out all of my sticker/die cut stash and sorted into trash/donate/keep piles. Then I put back only the items I knew met my current style and projects on hand. Hopefully, having a cleaner storage system will making putting stuff away less of a chore.
• I made it to JoAnns and got my refills. And the scary thing was: that is all that I bought. I walked in, picked them up, paid for them (with coupons, Thanks Carol!) and walked out. Fear not, I still got some retail therapy in (just not at JoAnns) as I joined the Grocery Game this weekend. More on that some other time.
• I managed to finish up the 2004 pages. I was a bit worried about this challenge as it wasn't very specific and I know myself well enough that I need to be specific in my plans or else I lose my ability to stay on task. But, once I made a general list of which pics needed to be scrapped, I did fine. Can I just tell you how much I LOVE having a photo printing machine at home? I was able to print out what I was missing and move on without the lengthy process of ordering online and risking getting side tracked. My time is SO worth the 0.24/a print the machine costs when you balance it against the time involved in getting those 0.10/prints at other places. At least when you've decided to tackle a project last minute like I did!
  
• I counted my pages and although my numbers aren't as high as some (I thought I saw where someone is hoping to scrap 400 pages this year?! OH MY! That is SO not even a thought/desire or wish of mine)...I'm pleased to report that prior to this weekend, I'd scrapped 48 pages thus far for 2006. Add in what I worked on this weekend, and I'm pretty darn close to 60. But more than the numbers, is the huge sense of accomplishment I feel every time I finish a project or group of pictures.
• I didn't finish up the SS goodie bag items but that is really a quick "while watching tv" sort of project so I won't get too upset by not having "done it all"

And...I did this while not totally neglecting my family. I took the boys to the park on Saturday, we went for a bike ride this afternoon (oh my, me on a bike, what a fright, just ask Colleeen...she saw me go pedaling by). The Things had friends over to play and we tossed water balloons and had a water gun battle (Mom lost, what else is new?).

Long weekends are great...and now I know they are even sweeter when you manage to accomplish most of what you wanted on top of having a great time just being with your family!