GRACE IS 4!!

I meant to do this all day yesterday but I just didn't have time. Yesterday was Grace's 4th birthday. We had her celebration on Monday so everyone could come down and Dave and Jan could enjoy it too.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and made it so much fun. Grace has said several times how much fun it was and she has played with all her gifts non-stop. EVERYBODY ROCKS!!


I have lots more to share but I'm going to have to continue later....

Day 2 of 28

Today's Photo Challenge: The mailbox

Nothing out of the ordinary about our mailbox but I do love the view.

Today's Task: Create a layout about you. I want you to make it specific to today...your agenda...your plans...what's on your schedule. This is not just a typical "about me" page but a page that addresses a specific question: what is your life like today?

I squeezed this into my agenda yesterday. The journaling reads:
In the shower at 5:45am
Chocolate Chip pancakes for breakfast
Take Tanner to school
Wash car and get new tires
Errands: Sam's Club and JoAnn's
Enjoy lunch at Olive Garden with girlfriends
Pick up Tanner from school
Clean up around the house
Dinner at CiCi's with baseball team
Enjoy my Anniversary evening with CJ! 10 years and lovin' every minute!
Thursday May 22, 2008

Happy 10th Anniversary to Us!!

Amazing! I can't believe it's already 10 years. Time really does fly when you're having fun. We've come a long way baby. It's amazing to me to look back and see how different our lives are now compared to 10 years ago. Our love is stronger than ever. We seldom argue and we never fight. We love having fun together. He's the one that usually reminds me to laugh. We have 3 beautiful children and a truly great life. We both long for a time when we might be able to run away together - just for a weekend would be OK, but I'm sure most couples have that same desire. Maybe the stars will align one day and we can. For now, Dave and Jan are in town to see the new baby and they are going to come down tomorrow night and watch the kids. CJ and I will get to go out to dinner and we're going to go see Indiana Jones at the drive-in. I can't wait!!

Catching up.

That's what I always feel like I'm doing. I'm told it never ends. What a bummer. Anyway...
Stamp Something Challenge #2: For this week, create a little something to say thank you. It's a phrase we say all the time, but sometimes you just need to show people you really mean it. It can be a card, a gift, a scrapbook page or what ever. Just a little something to say thank you!

Perfect for me because we ended our baseball season last night. We lost by 1 run in the semi-final round. The kids really played well and this was a fun season. So, I made a Thank you card for the coach:



On to the 28 Day Challenge. We (my girlfriends who are participating and I) thought that we had only been given photo challenges each day - come to find out there were also daily projects and now we are 14 days behind. I have decided I'll post my stuff as I get it done so this may turn into 28 weeks instead of 28 days :-)

Day 1 Photo Challenge: Take a picture of your pantry. As is - no straightening:

I followed the rules and didn't straighten before but now I'm feeling compelled to go clean it. The point is to photgraph things you normally wouldn't - (as my friend Jeanne so eloquently said...) duh, like I would ever take a picture of my pantry! Can't wait to see what we get to do with these photos we're taking!

The daily project: Decorate the outside of the journal that you'll be using through the course of this workshop. (In the beginning they said this workshop is designed to help you use what you have so feel free to substitute.) Well, I didn't have a journal laying around and I didn't want to buy one so I made one:


Ta Ta for now!

I cried for two and a half hours.

Clearly, I have a chemical imbalance. Yes, it's that time of the month. But still. CJ wanted to watch a movie last night so we PPV'd "P.S. I love you". I'm trying to hold back the tears and finally about 30 minutes into the movie I burst out and say, "this movie is terrible! It's not cute or sweet or loving or anything. To lose the love of your life is every woman's worst nightmare! Why am I watching this?!" CJ immediately gets up, comes over to me, holds me for like 5 minutes telling me it's OK, and tries to calm me. It didn't really work. I was in constant tears for the rest of the movie and for like 30 minutes after!!

For those of you who have not seen or don't know what it's about this woman's husband dies and he has this elaborate scheme preplanned to help her move on with her life and sends her letters and other stuff everyday for a year.

Still this morning it's not a loving feeling that I'm getting. My hormone imbalance I'm sure is adding to my feelings, but I just want to curl up in the corner and cry. I would hope that if something ever happened to CJ that I would have what it took to pull me and the kids through it, but right now I think someone else would have to take the kids and I would be in a mental institution completely unable to function. I'm sure it's not healthy to think you just absolutely could not live without someone else, but that's what I think today. I'm pretty sure that a broken heart physically cannot kill you, but for me it would come close. I love CJ more than I could ever express and I cannot even let the possibility of losing him enter my mind or I shall cry again. I do not like to think about our own mortality. I know - God's will, better place, yadda yadda. Today I cannot give it to Him.

Who would make such a sucky movie and do this to me!!!!!!!

Fish Tales

After baseball practice friday night CJ took the kids down to the little lake in our subdivision to see if they were bitin' and were they! Grace caught a bunch of bluegill and here's the photo to prove it...

Here is Tanner holding one of CJ's four catches....

And here's Tanner holding one of his own catches....

They had an absolute blast. Grace cannot tell you enough how excited she was about catching all her bluegill. I'm so happy that she has fun too and can go with the guys every once in a while. Makes a mom's heart melt to see her baby girl having so much fun with her daddy. *Smile*

Stamp Something Challenge #1

Our challenge this week will be "First Somethings." Challenge yourself to try something entirely new. Attempt a new layout or color combination or a new technique or fancy fold/card style that you've been wanting to try but have been putting off. You could also just keep with the theme of "Firsts" and make a card for a first birthday, a first baby, a first house, a first car, or any other first you can think of.

So here's my first attempt at a trifold card. Also my first time using my new Pick A Petal stamp set and my wheel. Here's to firsts!

Ouch.

Sunday morning about 5am Morgan woke up screaming. I couldn't find anything wrong with him. He calmed down pretty quickly and went back to sleep. When he got up at 7am I noticed his thumb and first finger on his right hand were red and swollen. I found two puncture marks - one between his thumb and first finger and one between the knuckles on his thumb. He was very cranky all day. The reaction was pretty localized to that area so we weren't real worried. Then the site developed a blister. Then it oozed clear fluid. Monday is was not any better, actually the swelling was a little worse. The whole back of his hand was swollen. I've already talked to the nurse once, CJ's telling me it's going to be OK and we should just watch it, but the mother in my head is overpowering the paramedic in my head so I called Jan (my m-i-l). She's always a good voice of reason when you need one and I needed one. Thanks Jan! The following picture is 48 hours post-attack.

I tore is bed and room apart and we don't know what got him. Scorpion? Spider? Something else? Anyway, he's been on benadryl every 6 hours and hydrocortisone cream 3x daily and I think it's finally getting a little better. Poor buddy.

My Latest Creation

You know what I love?

I love economic stimulus checks.

I love that I now have in my possession the title to CJ's truck.

I love that we now OWN both of our vehicles.

I love that we have ZERO credit card debt.

I love that we have more than 50% equity in our house.

I love that we have (some) money in the bank.

I love that hard work and diligence (mixed in with a few moments of shopoholic weakness and stupid decisions) has resulted in a stable financial situation for us, for now.

Excitement is in the air....

I am participating in two challenges and I'm SO excited. Thanks to my dear friend Jeanne, who's excitement and enthusiasm bubbles over for scrapping and stamping, I'm going to broaden my horizons:

Challenge 1: 28 days
We'll be getting instructions every day for the next 28 days and we'll be making a memory of "a day in my life". I think it will be really cool. I've never scrapped anything about me. Today's instructions were to photograph the pantry. The pantry? Yup. As is. No straightening or anything. I think I won't post it right now, but I took it. As is.

Challenge 2: Stamp Something
Stamping is a whole new world for me. With the help and encouragement of my scrappy friends I've accumulated several (that might be an understatement) sets of stamps and I think it's high time I learn how to use them more creatively. This will be a weekly challenge and it starts tomorrow. I can't wait!

Over and over and over

F - R - E - E that spells free, credit report dot com ba-by.

The marketing people accomplished their goal I can't get it out of my head!

Yeah I'm here.

I've been unusually angry this week about a multitude of things and when I'm mad I don't feel like blogging. I don't really like to complain to a million people and multiply the bad vibe (those of you who I called to vent to hold in your laughter please).

I did do something fun yesterday - I made a cake. For a friend of Beth's little girl for her birthday. My instructions were - Littlest Pet shop please, the dog. Well, you may or may not know there are like 50 dogs in Littlest Pet shop so I chose the one I liked the most and went with it....



I'm a little in awe of my growing artistic ability.

Just for curiosity's sake - this cake is a 12" 2-layer round cake which will feed about 40 people. How much would you pay for a custom cake that feeds 40?