Hello, my name is Amy, and I have a problem

I am an addict. I have invested far too much time and money into my vice. It has kept me up nights, caused me to spend money I don't have, and robbed my children of hours of my awesomeness.

So I quit. Cold turkey. Last year I decided, "I cannot keep this up. I am the mother of three, a wife, and a professional. It is not in my character to let something like this consume my thoughts and my free time." That's it...I'm done. Forever. And being the strong person that I am I haven't caved in over a year and a half. I haven't even touched the stuff.

And y'all...my life is comfortably boring. I am totally talking about scrapbooking!

So seriously...I was too far behind, had too many little kids, not enough space. Yada yada yada. Blah.

Then I ran across this amazing coupon from one of my favorite photo sites. Shutterfly is so easy to use, has fantastic quality items, is super fast, and gives great coupons. I'm hooked. I have spent hours making beautiful albums for my mom and mom-in-law. I made an amazing book about our beach trip, full of fantastic memories and wonderful pictures. I couldn't have been happier. That was it! No more stealing a day here and there to haul out all of my JUNK to spend sleepless nights while my kids are tucked in cropping out detailed spreads. I could do online in hours what I would NEVER get done in real life.

And I was pleased with this and myself. I felt so saavy and smart. Then one of my great friends invited me to a scrap party at her house. Knowing about my affair with digital scrapping, she suggested I bring my laptop and put together albums while she and the girls gut and glue. I was so cocky when I ran into her in Hobby Lobby the night before. "So...buying supplies? I guess I don't need to, huh?" ha. haha.

Brad loaded up up my car with my homemade snacks and laptop bag. That was it! No dragging suitcases full of equipment from under the bed. No pulling tote boxes from closet shelves. "I am so smart!" I think to myself smuggly. "Why in the world would anyone mess with all of that when they could do THIS?!?!"

So I got to her house. She had cleared me a super comfy corner of her sectional for me to curl up and "scrap" away. We ate, we talked, we looked at each others' books. Time to get this thing rolling.

Only....They were sharing papers and gadgets and stickers and trinkets. And they were discussing layouts and colors. And there was all of this talk about your own handwriting for your kids to keep. Sheesh!

And I miss my cutters and punches! I long to flip through papers and stickers and real photos. Not to mention I have scrapped hundreds of boy pages, and now I finally have a girl to create layouts about! Did you know that there are glittery papers? Come on, now! I need me some of that!!!

So I went home all caught up from being 3 years behind on 3 kids (which combined with our family album is, like, 12 years in scrapbook talk.) But I was also sad.

So after thinking it over, I have decided that my Shutterfly album is going to be beautiful. It is even better because it catches me up. But as for me and my house...we need mom-made books. And now that I am not so far behind, perhaps I can keep up? I may even fanagle my way into getting to go to the famous scrapbook weekend. I figure that if I can make myself work on books regularly from now on, I won't get so far behind that I feel like I can never get it done.

Besides...even if that happens....Shutterfly will always be there!