So this month Organizing Junkie's Org Round Up is for the "Command Central" - or "Happy Place" for the OCD afflicted.

A few weeks back I was in full panic mode thinking about back to school. My 3 older kids went back in early August and with that comes the barage of paperwork, artwork, calendars, flyers, fundraisers, and other random pieces of paper that make my eye twitch when they touch my counter. Add to that 4 backpacks (Lil Miss needed one too of course), 8 shoes & 4 jackets, 8 gloves & 4 hats. Add all that together and you have 1 stressed out mama!

So I decided to fix the problem before it started.

This is my happy place :) LOL

• I went to Kmart and got a whiteboard that had a calendar and I use this for the kids' events since I have them in 3 different schools and they have 3 different schedules.
• Each kid has a different color for their schedule. That way we all know who has a minimum day/birthday party/back to school night/whatever and it's right there for all of us to see.
• Next I got 3 clear wall mount file holders at Office Depot. There is one for Tween, Flower Child, & me. Lil Miss doesn't have any papers yet and The Boy's papers all go to his mother's house. The kids come home and put all of their paperwork in MY BIN and I go through it as needed. If I need to give something back I put it in THEIR BIN and then they know it's meant to go back in their backpacks
• Then we have the heavy duty double metal hooks from ACE for the backpacks & jackets. Since The Boy is only here one school night a week, he and Lil Miss share a hook ... mostly because 4 would have looked wrong lol.
• Below that is a table with a basket for all their sunglasses, hats, and gloves.
• Under that will go their shoes so they don't go trecking mud and whatnot through my house

So that, my organizing freak friends, is my solution to the back to school MAAAADNESS. They have been in school for 3 weeks and it is working out SPLENDIDLY! There are NO, count em, NO school papers on my counters and I haven't forgotten a kid at school yet! So we're doin pretty good!

So if you're in desperate need of a "Happy Place" check out Organizing Junkie's Round Up and see what every one has come up with! She's got an awesome giveaway going on for this post and it's got my mind all a tingle! lol

The last weekend before the girls went back to school, we decided to take them somewhere I've been wanting to take them for years ... Morro Bay ... where I was born :)

We left early in the morning on Saturday and got to Cayucus (a tiny little beach community just north of Morro Bay) in time for lunch :) We had sandwiches at a cute little park by the ocean then headed to the beach :D

It was a little foggy ... LOL ... but the girls are like their mama, ALL weather is beach weather :) After watching her try to find a way to pass over the dreaded sea weed without ... GASP! ... TOUCHING IT ... I picked her up and played in the waves with my babies on the very beach I played on as a girl :)

After taking a bunch of pictures and almost being eaten alive by sand crabs, we were off to destination!

This is the house I grew up in :) My grandfather BUILT this house and I lived here most of the time until I was about 7. I have so many memories playing in that house, it seems like just yesterday...

So while we waited to check into our hotel we went down to the waterfront to see how much the place had changed in 20 years ...

This little place has been here since I was a little girl. Kites and Crap. LOL the lady who ones the shop lives just above it and has the BIGGEST collection of garden CRAP you will ever find, and has for at least 32 years LOL

This is a waterfront rental that my great grandmother used to own. When she babysat me I would go and help her clean it. Man, I must have only been about 4 years old and I can remember it pretty well ...

LOL ... the funny story with this is that across the street from my great grandma's old place is a beautiful ritzyish Hilton hotel. So basically, their view is of this place. Needless to say that when the Hilton built there they assumed they would buy out my great grandma's place. She had passed on at that time, but the guy who owned it REFUSED to sell. So the Hilton did their best to impose all kinds of restrictions on the guy and MAKE him sell. One of the restrictions was that he had to paint the place ... well ... they made the mistake of not specifying the paint colors ... :) so he made that place as UGLY as possible!

They've kept up with trying to get the guy to sell, but he has been just as persistent in pissing them off LOL My great grandmother would have been PROUD.

This is a horrible picture of the aquarium I used to go to all the time when I was kid. They have a cute little gift show, aquarium with all kinds of cool sea creature life, and sea lions! It's so cute, there's a pen with sea lions that are being rehabilitated and/or need a home, and you get to feed them! I loved going here and the kids freakin LOVED IT! I don't have THOSE pictures though ... more on that later ;-)

So we headed out to the beach ... aaaaah the central coast fog lol ... but we headed out anyway :) because THIS is Morro Bay lol ... and this to me, is home

So my little beach babies played in the fog ... I mean SAND ...

And we relaxed for a bit on the blanket

Building fog castles ... LOL you can't see it but, Morro Rock is right there behind them ... I swear it's this HUGE rock LOL

The castle Tween built for Lil Miss

HEEEY! there it is! Just as we were leaving ;-) I think that was the most sun we saw that whole day LOL

My aunts used to take me to this beach park to play every weekend when my mom worked. We would get donuts and then play at the park ... it's funny how FAST the memories came flooding back when I saw all these places from my childhood

LOL I have NO IDEA where they get this poser-ness from ;-) lol

After checking into our hotel we walked up the street to the farmers market

then we wandered down the street a block and took the kids through the waterfront :) My family owned properties down here so we were down here A LOT when I was a kid. I have so many memories of being a girl and standing just where my family stands :)

LOL this is the Whales Tale ... you can't tell that because my husband has an obsession with CROPPING PICTURES lol >:-/ this is a restaurant we used to go to all the time when I was a kid :)

so we walked along the waterfront and saw the bane of the fishermans existence ... the SEA OTTER ;-) we watched him forEVER! he was SO cute! we watched him eat crab and swim around on his back eating on his belly it was SO freakin cute the kids LOVED IT! lol

Then we walked down and stopped for dinner at the Harbor Hut :)

We ate the BEST fish and chips and the kids were AWESOME!

It was so fun to have dinner in a place I ate with MY mom when I was just a little girl :)

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the bait and tackle shop ... Virg's. My grandpa took me here AT LEAST once a week when I was little :)

He was a HUGE fisherman and would even take me out on the boats when they went fishing! Every Sunday we would come to check out the fish count ... and ditch church ;-) lol The smells of this place haven't changed a bit. When we walked in I closed my eyes and could almost SWEAR I was with my Papa :) He always smelled like this mixture of sawdust and bait LOL

Hahaha ... posers ... this was THEIR idea!

For dessert we HAD to get some salt water taffy :) It's a MUST in Morro Bay ... NObody makes it like they do. So I let each of the kids take a basket through the place and pick out 10 pieces each, and we helped Lil Miss a bit ;-) it was VERY VERY good taffy ;-)

LOL - AGAIN ... THEIR idea ;-)

Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was the Shell Shop :) The place has not changed in 30 years. My little Flower Child is in LOVE with shells so I knew she would be in HEAVEN here :) The place is filled with tables full of separated shells so I told the girls to fill their baskets with whatever they wanted :)

The selection was all most too much for them lol

Late that night, we decided to attempt a bondfire on the beach. We couldn't find any signs saying we COULDN'T have one so we took that as a yes ;-) So we went back to the beach just before sunset...

We found a cool little spot snuggled in the dunes and Brandon got a campfire pit going. The girls ran around like crazy and talked about how much they LOVED being on the beach at night :)

THEN ... WE HAD SMORES! ON THE BEACH! AT NIGHT! IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME!

This was a first for ALL of us and I LOVED THAT. It got dark and we all sat around the fire toasting our marshmallows and making the best smores EVER :)

salty sea air + campfire + SMORES = BEST VACATION EVER!

It got late and we went back to the hotel, got the kids settled into their beds and sat on the porch just outside our door. We sat and talked and breathed in the beach air since we were only 2 blocks from the beach :) It was amazing and so relaxing ...

and THIS ... is the last picture that my camera did take. Yep ... it finally passed. After all the sea water that poor thing ingested this summer, it could finally take no more. The next day we got up early and had a lovely champagne brunch at a little place on the water. After that I took my girls to the aquarium and watched them feed the seals like I used to :) We went on a glass bottom boat in the bay and had lunch at a park on the beach. We had such an amazing weekend ... it was the most amazing way to end the summer :)

Hey! I finally remembered to post my scrap this week! And I finally remembered to ... scrap this week! lol

Actually, the first 9 pages I did a couple weeks ago but never posted so I can't take credit for ALL of these being done this week.

Friday I took the DAY OFF from my "job" and ran away to my friends house to get my scrap on :) We had a GREAT time and I got TEN pages done! I love my days off :)