happy Saturday :)

As usual, it was a pretty lazy day here. I was up til about 3:30am this morning scrappin'. Like I said in the last post, Friday nights are the only night I can stay up late. I was able to sleep in a little, but not nearly as much as I wanted to. I'm really looking forward to winter break in 2 weeks. I know we only get 2 days off but that's 2 days when we get to sleep in and don't have to be anywhere!

Anyway, while the hubster was outside chopping up the tree that came down a week ago, I sat and scrapped while my son played on the computer. It was really fun being in here with him. He's such a computer nut! Amazing what these little ones can pick up...and how fast! My daughter was busy cleaning her room after we moved her bed around to try and give her some more floor space to play. Unfortunately, her room is the one stuck with the double bed for company. However, I'm really reconsidering that since we only have company about 2-3 times a year. Just not fair for her to give up that kind of space for such limited company.

I managed to get my 20 layouts uploaded to Two Peas to get my $20 credit. Yippee!! Since I can't really buy scrappy stuff right now (saving my pennies!) that'll come in handy.

BTW, just got done watching my last episode of Jon & Kate plus 8. I say last because her behavior has just become disgusting to watch. I can't even believe that she's supposed to be some kind of roll model for the rest of us lowly moms who only have a couple kids. Whatever. I may have to post a separate post about that. Y'all know how I have to voice my opinions! I've never been known for keeping my mouth shut! lol

Anyway, here's a few of my favorite layouts I did last night. I dug into my kids' baby pics. Oh how they make me smile!!
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This was one of my absolute favorite outfits when Olivia was a baby. She was only 4 mos old in this photo. Yep, she was a chubster!

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Another cute picture of Olivia. What can I say, she rocked the baby hats!! Oh, and the shades to match, too!

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As you can see, I put hats on her a lot ;)

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Ok, finally, a picture with no hats! lol Yes she's sleeping. Yes, there's food all over her face. Yes, she nodded off in the middle of eating!

And no, I'm not playing favorites. I did some layouts of my son. I just have more pictures to catch up on with Olivia than I do for Ben.

That's it for now. I'll share some more on Monday. Tomorrow we're going to a Superbowl party. A couple from church called us this afternoon and invited us over. Apparently they put a big movie screen out in the backyard and everyone sits outside watching the game. Should be fun! I still can't get over doing stuff like that. Hey, I grew up in the north. You know, where it's cold and snowy in February!

Ok, I need to catch up on some sleep tonight if I'm gonna stay awake at church tomorrow...

visitor

Yesterday I had a visitor at my house. You know, the 4 legged kind??

This dog was THE spazziest dog I've ever seen. His hyper-meter would rival that of a Jack Russell's! He was running alongside the road as we were coming home from picking my daughter up from school. I was so scared that he'd get hit by a car. Last month I tried to catch a dog that was doing the same thing ~ he wouldn't come to me and I saw him hit by a car just a few hours later. Anyway, I pulled over and he turned around. When I called him he came right to me and in the van he went! I didn't get a hold of his owner for almost 2 hours and then he couldn't pick the dog up til later that night. But I was sure glad he made it home :)

Well, in scrappy "news", I finished organizing my scrapbook albums. Now I'm back to getting some layouts done. I want to get that $20 credit from Two Peas that ends tomorrow (just found out about it a day or 2 ago). Hey, I'm ALL about free stuff!!

Today I played around a bit with the new Love You Much stamp set from SU. These little birdies are just too cute! I've seen this little treat bag on a few different blogs so I tried one out of my own
I shaded the birds' wings a bit with a blender pen. The background hearts on the bag are from the Short & Sweet set. (cardstock & inks are Riding Hood Red & Pink Pirouette)

I also played around with my favorite candy jars from Hobby Lobby (remember, I decorated these before with the Tart & Tangy & Batty for You stamp sets). Here's a Valentine's version

Don't you love how there's candy corn for other holidays besides Halloween?? So cute :)

Well friends, I'm off to do some scrappin' into the wee hours of the night. Saturday's the only day I get to sleep in! Sweet dreams!!

random Wednesday post

I haven't had much time to scrap the last few days :( But I have been getting my albums in order. Finishing up putting them all in chronological order. Man, it feels SO good to get them all in order and organized!!! Now I just have to figure out where to put them! Up until now, I had my family albums in my scrap room closet and all of the other albums (baby albums, 8x8, 6x6 albums, Disney albums) on a bookshelf in my kitchen. I want to put all of my family albums on that bookshelf so that they're all together but, as you can see, there's no room

You can also see that I have a HUGE old CD player that I'm thinking has to go. I can always go and buy a cheapie one that takes up much less room. I also need to reorganize my cookbooks cause they're just getting out of control. I think they multiply when I'm sleeping but I haven't caught them yet.

The front of my new albums has a window for a photo and I originally was just going to use die-cut numbers for the year. But then I decided to put a photo from that year and I stamped the date with black StazOn.

The year we had my daughter:

Trip to Disneyworld:

Sorry for the bad photos. I was running out of light yesterday. Today there's no good light cause it's raining. It's kinda hard to tell, but I added a sepia tone to the photos but there's still a little color left. I'm thinking one of Ali Edwards fun digital thingies would look good on these. But since I can't get photoshop til I get a new computer...and I can't get a new computer til I get my tax check...I'm just gonna have to wait a bit. So these will do for now!

And I mentioned before some old layouts...you know, before I kinda knew what I was doing!! So here goes. These layouts were my first EVER. Not too bad. Keep in mind, I did these nearly 7 years ago so go easy on me! Totally not my style anymore but I guess it's not AWFUL. Notice the hand cut letters?? Yep, didn't have die cutting machines back then!

Man I was so proud of myself when I finished this Star Trek layout. hee hee
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Don't you love the coloring on the title?? Oh, and the little doodle lines around the photos! I had just gone to a creative doodling class. Can you tell??

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My first instinct in seeing some of my older layouts is to redo them all. But then I think, it's fun to see the progression of this hobby of mine. However, when it comes to my kids' baby albums I've decided that something needs to be done! My son's album that I did about 4 years ago I still like. I followed Becky Higgins sketches for several layouts and I still really like them. My daughter's album is another story. I won't even show you some of them cause quite frankly I REALLY don't like them.

But here's one. I followed a Becky sketch but I still just don't like it at all

Now here's one from my son's album Much better. Not perfect but I still like it. For his album I didn't really use babyish papers. It just didn't feel right. So I stuck with more boyish thank baby papers. And I'm still happy with how his album turned out.

The problem with redoing my daughter's album? The pictures aren't digital. Ugh... We get so spoiled with digital cameras, don't we?? Well, I didn't get one til my son was about 10 mos. old. So, if I don't have enough of the photos them I'm going to have to take the negatives in and get copies. The good news? I usually got doubles (and even triples) of the baby photos so hopefully I'll have enough.

I think this is a long enough post for today. I'm off to get some scrappin' done before my son get's out of school!! Take care everyone!!

Are you kidding me?

Don't they have better things to talk about? Like the economy, abortion, war, terrorism??? Apparently telling viewers about this for the last year was not enough notice.

Read here.

Why you don't watch The Bachelor with your husband

...because you'll hear comments like these

Ok, she's just a stalker

Are we gonna be able to hear them slurping in the tent?

They haven't even kissed yet?

Now, which one was the one with the nice rack?

Hubby: When's the bathing suit competition?
Me: Oh, he already saw them in their bathing suits on the first episode
Hubby: But I didn't get to see it!

Yeah, that's what every guys wants, is to be told what to do.

She needs to go home.

When do I get to sign up for The Bachelor?

She's a NUT!

Ok, that dress is awful! It's so frumpy looking.
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He stayed up and watched the whole thing, all 2 hours of the show. He's gotta get some credit for that! Yep, I love your comments sweetie. They always crack me up!!

A good episode this week. Now that we've weeded out all the loopy girls it should get pretty interesting!

not much happenin' here

This is where I got to spend some time yesterday

Ben woke up around midnight Sat night/Sun morning saying his ear hurt. He was up off and on all night and by 6am he had a raging fever. So I waited til the pediatrics after hours opened at 1pm and when I got there the waiting room was already full. *sigh* But thankfully we were in and out withing 45 minutes. Turned out he had one *major* ear infection. The dr let me look in his ear. Ewww... So weird cause the day before there were *no* symptoms. And my kids are not ear infection kids. The flu, colds, viruses ~ yes. But not ear stuff.

Anyway, getting the prescription took just as long as the office visit. But today he's already feeling better. AND, today we also had an appt with the orthopedist and got the all clear for Ben to do sports, gymnastics, whatever. His x-rays looked great, so much better than just 4 weeks ago. YEY!!!

Today the hubster had to fix my shelves that hold all of my patterned paper & cardstock

I guess they were too heavy and the little brackets fell right out and my paper holders came a tumblin' down. Is that a sign that I have too much paper?? Nahhh!! Actually, I've been very good about not buying much of anything. I'm determined to use up what I have before getting anything new....namely, my *huge* reserves of patterned paper. I know I have a problem. I'm in a 12 step program.

Step 1 ~ DON'T BUY ANYMORE PAPER!!!

Anyway, hopefully these little braces will hold up

Although my installer said that there is no warranty with these ;-) Hmmm, gonna have to get another handyman!! lol

The rest of my albums came today (needed 3 more) so I'm gonna finish up my album reorganizing project and hopefully get my dining room table back to normal!

Oh, and have you heard the new Darius Rucker song?? LOVE it! It's the last song on my playlist, just scroll down and click on it. You have to pay attention to the words :)

One last thing, with all of my cleaning and organizing I've come across some things that I just don't need. So be on the lookout in the next week for a giveaway!

chicken soup weather

It's dreary out. No sun. The hubby's sick. Yep, it's chicken soup weather! I have chicken soup simmering on the stove (homemade of course!). And after, we're gonna make some treats in my daughter's Easy Bake oven. Mmmmm!!

Last weekend I worked on reorganizing my scrapbook pages into new albums. You may (or may not) remember quite a while back (like about 9 mos ago) I bought some new Making Memories albums from www.joann.com. These are what they look like:
Now, I *really* like these albums. But at $30 a pop that's just not in the budget. I like the Making Memories albums because they're leather, have a nice stitching around the edge, and the price is very nice ($12 each plus free shipping on www.joann.com). I changed over all of our family albums to the chocolate, my daughter's albums are meadow and my son's are navy. All matchy matchy!

I added the Snaploads to each album so I wouldn't have to mess with the posts (such a pain!). I found them on sale at Joann's this week for $3 each. I really would prefer the D-ring albums but I couldn't find any I really liked that were in the price I could afford (I had to buy10 albums).

I may at some point get a few of the red for family history albums, layouts of my hubby and me as kids, etc but I haven't gotten that far yet. And one other side note, I found that the Paper Studio page refills at Hobby Lobby fit my albums perfectly and they're $10 for 25. Or, if you're like me, you buy them when they're on sale like last week. I got them for $5 a pack!

By the way, you can find D-ring albums that are in a lower price range. But none of them are the nice leather (that I've found anyway). I knew I didn't want corduroy, linen or any similar material like that because my albums are used. My kids are always looking through them (which is exactly how I like it) so they need to hold up. I've found that the material albums tend to get marks on them...or crayon, marker, you name it!

So I started with arranging the layouts in piles by year. Then I took out the layouts that needed to go in my kids' albums (previously everything was in the family albums).

Don't you just love a big stack of layouts?? Makes me feel like I've accomplished a lot! That is, til I start putting them in the albums and realize there's months with no layouts. *sigh*

I put my layouts in chronological order, each album is a full year. And as I was going through my albums I came across some layouts that just made me laugh. Not cause the photos were funny, but I laughed at the layouts themselves. Boy, I sure have come a long way in the last 7 years!! Maybe I'll share some of those with you guys. Hey, I betcha you'd laugh just as hard at that as you did at my 80's hair!!!

But for now, I'll just share a couple more layouts I did last week

BTW, to everyone that has commented, emailed or called over the last few days ~ thank you! It's amazing what a few good thoughts can really do!!! They're MUCH appreciated :)

feeling better

Still feel a bit yucky physically, but mentally I'm back to normal. Well, I don't think anyone would call me "normal" but I'm back to my goofy self for the most part! I've spent the last few days praying a lot. Not just for myself, but for Parker, and Harper, and Brayden, and so many others. It's amazing how spending some time in prayer can release all of the bad stuff bouncing around in your brain. I have a renewed sense of happy and I can say for certainty that it is all because of Him.

This morning I got to sleep in a little. My sweet hubby (thanks sweetie!) took Olivia to school. He's not able to do that often, maybe a couple times a year, but when he does it's such a welcome break!! So Ben and I got up this morning and had some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Yep, that hit the spot!!

Oh, and speaking of food, I made some yummy pasta last night that I saw when watching the Food Network the other day. The best part? My kids ACTUALLY ate spinach!! Score 10 pts for the picky eaters team!!!

Even my husband, who claims to not like spinach, ate it. Although next time I'll cut the recipe in half cause it made a TON. And since I served it as a side dish to baked chicken we really didn't need this much pasta!! You can find the recipe here.

The good thing about being a bit down this week is that I managed to get some layouts done. Scrapbooking is *so* therapeutic for me. I can just sit in my room, enjoy looking at my photos and reliving the memories as I scrap.

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Here's a few pages that I put together. The first one is my favorite. I managed to snap these photos while my son was eating a hot dog. I simply zoomed in on his face while he was eating and snapped away. He didn't even know I was taking pictures of him!

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This layout is pretty self-explanatory. My kids *love* swimming in our pool. And it's a big production in this house getting everything ready to go swimming...right down to their gargles (what my kids call "goggles"). I don't correct them cause I love how they say it :)

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And I scrapped some older photos. I had to scrap the photos I had cause my printer decided it didn't want to print very well this week. I think it's about ready to bite the dust. Kinda like my computer. My computer is 7 1/2 yrs old and my printer is 3 1/2 yrs old. We're hoping to get a new computer very soon. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

Anyway, this layout is from a visit to a local farm in Alabama that we went to in October '07. We were there for hours. The kids had *so* much fun!

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Another layout from the same trip to the farm. Only this one will go in my son's album. This little pony was so cute and Ben was just in love with him. The pony kept trying to nibble his ear...or bite it off, I'm not quite sure! But it made for cute pictures!

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I have a couple more that I'll share tomorrow. I've also been rearranging my albums and I'll share that soon, too. And maybe I'll even share some of my first-ever layouts. That should be good for a laugh or 2!!

full blown funk

I won't lie, I feel like crap...mentally and physically. I ache. My face feels hot. I feel nauseous. No, I don't have the flu. I'm used to this feeling. What I can feel coming is that ever-so-unwelcome-reminder that I'm not prego...again. Along with a huge pain in my side. That feels like you have a knife in your side pain. Great.

I was told after my last surgery (see last post #3) that I might not be able to have more children. (Oh, and I got all these lovely "side effects" from aforementioned surgery, too. Nice) Or if I could have more kids it would probably be very difficult. Yeah, not something you really want to hear when you have a 6 inch incision down the front of you with tubes coming out of everywhere sitting on a morphine drip that's much too weak. Not to mention I'm not exactly a spring chicken. I don't really have the luxury of time. I've given it a year. Nothing. So I'm bummed. Well, to be quite honest I'm a bit peeved (to put it mildly). Oh, and to add insult to injury the diet was totally blown today. I don't care.

I sometimes question why God would do this to me. I realize that's not always the best way to think. And on most days, like 99% of the days, I accept the life that He has given me. I accept that it might be His will that I do not have any more children. But come on, I'm doing my best here. I go to church. And I don't just sit there, I actively listen and take to heart what's being said. I take my kids to Sunday School. We *never* miss either one. We pray. I teach my kids right from wrong and about God's lessons for us. It's a daily discussion in our house. So it's confusing to me. But I'm trying to learn. Learn what He is trying to teach me. It's frustrating and it's hard. And some days, like today, I just don't want to accept it.

Tomorrow will be better. I know it will. He'll show me that despite everything that I want but don't get, there are still many more blessings that He has given me. Blessings that I didn't even ask for. Sometimes the journey that we take might not necessarily be our first choice, but it ends up being the right one for us in the end. Learned that one at church last Sunday (see, I listen!!)

So for now, I'm gonna give my kids great big hugs. That'll make me smile. And somehow sharing all of this makes me a feel a little bit better. Because quite honestly, most months I feel like I carry this all by myself.

16 things about me

I saw this on Ali Edwards' blog and I thought it'd be fun to do, too. Maybe it'll help me get out of my funk. I've been in and out of one for the last few days, along with feeling like crap. Hope it ends soon...

Anyway, on to 16 things about me cause I know you're all dying to see this!!

1. I went to Catholic school from 1st grade through 12th. Yep, wore those cute uniforms til I got to high school. Sister Remi always got me for dress code in high school cause I cropped my pants which was against the rules. Gasp!! There were many times I had to dodge her in the halls (and she was hard to see coming cause she was all of 4 ft tall! You usually didn't see her coming til she was right next to you)

2. My favorite thing to wear, and also the most unflattering, is sweatpants, a big sweatshirt, and comfy white socks.

3. I had 5 surgeries in 7 years ('99-'06) including gall bladder surgery, 2 c-sections, and a bowel resection (ouch!). Won't share surgery #5 cause it's a bit personal... (and if you know me then you know it wasn't a boob job!!)

4. I shamelessly watch Survivor and The Bachelor. Can't help it. Don't judge me.

5. I have a HUGE soft spot in my heart for dogs, all dogs but especially golden retrievers. I adopted my golden (aka "old man") from the Golden Retriever Rescue almost 11 years ago. He was severely neglected. Also, I will always stop when I see a dog running on the side of the road to try and "save" it. And if I can't I will feel bad for the rest of the day. Especially when I see that same dog hit by a car later that day (which is what happened just a few weeks ago)

6. If you would have told me 10 years ago that I'd be living in Georgia as a stay-at-home mom I would have said you're crazy. Not the mom part, but the "moving 800 miles away from home part"

7. I love numbers. I love bookkeeping. Probably why I was a financial analyst in my former life. And I loved it. I love to crunch numbers. Call me a nerd, I can take it.

8. I love Disneyworld and all the fantasy and wonder that goes along with being there. I'm a big kid when we go there. I get just as excited about it as my kids!

9. When I go to the movies I must have popcorn and huge Coke. Always.

10. I don't like coffee, any kind of coffee. I love Coke and I have to have one in the morning.

11. I can be pretty impatient at times. I work on it and I've gotten better over the years. What can I say, it's my dad's fault!!

12. I was married in Jamaica, overlooking the ocean. And it was the most beautiful day EVER!

13. I want another baby. And it's not happening. 'nuff said.

14. I LOVE chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. I'd take that over most other desserts. Simple tastes :)

15. I like some kind of noise when I sleep, whether it's a tv, fan, whatever. Dave is the opposite but we've seemed to compromise on that.

16. I'm not a morning person. I'm not grumpy, I just hate getting up early. This has always been a problem for me. There were SO many days in high school that I barely made it in the door before the bell rang. My ideal day would start around 10 or 11 am. Along those same lines, I'm also a night owl. I love to stay up late scrapping, watching tv, whatever.

There you go, a little bit of insight into my ever-so-exciting life! ya right :)

If you read this blog, consider yourself tagged!! If you blog, leave me a comment to your blog and your 16 things. Or feel free to leave your 16 things in the comments!!

a few Valentine's things

I'm trying to get some scrappin' done on this long weekend. Not being as productive as I'd hoped. But I did manage to get a few things done. I got this in the mail last week

It's the Love You Much Bundle that's on special at Stampin' Up! right now (check out the link on the right -->). The stamp set is super cute, as is the paper, and I love that the punch works perfectly with the stamps. (I don't like cutting that stuff by hand!!) I haven't had a chance to make any cards yet but I did make a layout with a picture I found of my daughter when she was just 6 weeks old. Check out how chubby she is!!

Yep, she sure was a chunker!! lol Don't you just love the cute little birdies at the bottom?? The 3 punched out hearts are with the new punch, papers are Candy Lane DS papers all from the new catalog that came out TODAY :)










Also, when I was at Archivers last Friday I found this cute little "LOVE" chipboard book from SEI. I found that the Candy Lane papers matched perfectly. I also decorated it up with ribbon, flowers, charms, brads, etc and I just listed it on ebay. (I might have to make another one for myself!)

Ok, back to all the other usual stuff...laundry, lunch, shower (yes, I admit it, it's noon and I have not showered yet!!) Bye all!!

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2009

To borrow the post from Kelly:

Say what you will about George W. Bush as president of the United States. He was not a perfect president, nor were any before him (those after him will not be either). But I tip my hat to him for having the common sense to declare that every human being, born and yet-to-be-born, deserves protection as a gift from our Creator.

Read here.

hockey layouts

Just been working on some layouts of my son's short-lived hockey career. But after that one night of hockey I ended up with lots of stuff to scrap! His first night of hockey practice, first visit to the ER, first broken leg, visit with the Cottonmouth's, etc. I've been using up some of my papers from past Studio Calico kits to finish them up. Some with go in his album, some in the family album.

This first layout just makes me want to cry. Look how excited he was to play hockey! And for it to end up like this is such a bummer. Will he play hockey again? Not sure. He goes back and forth. One minute he thinks it's cool and the other minute he's saying "I hate hockey". Hey, he's not even 5 yet so who knows what the next few years will bring!

A couple weeks after he broke his leg I took him down to hockey practice to get his coaches to sign his cast. I thought it'd be a good way to put a more positive spin on what happened. A couple of the Cottonmouths also came out and talked with him and signed his cast. And, his coaches got him a few gifts including a "break-a-leg bear" (it has a broken leg!), a Cottonmouths hat and a hockey puck. He thought all that was pretty neat! Definitely helped in the "emotional" dept if you know what I mean.

I'm working on some more stuff. We just got back from a day trip to Atlanta yesterday so I'll be posting about that later.

I'll give you a hint as to where we spent a good chunk of our time

My sweet hubby promised that he'd take care of the kids tomorrow so I could scrap all day after church :)

Scrap room organization ~ part 2

I'm back with more pics!! I've been meaning to share more but, you know, life happened! Anyway, you might remember this picture of my bookshelf

I snatched this bookshelf from my son's room since it wasn't being used effectively in there and basically was just taking up space. I found it at Sam's Club a few years ago for $199. The main function of it is for paper and stamp storage. The bottom shelves hold idea books, projects in progress, etc. I use one of those nuts & bolts holders from Lowes to hold most of my chipboard/alphabets. Originally I used to keep all of my alphabets together in their original packaging. That takes up a lot of room so I finally I organized them by letter and I love it this way.

I decorated the fronts of the drawers with more Basic Grey Mellow paper. Makes that holder a bit more pretty :)

All of my paper is organized by manufacturer. I used to organize by theme but I've found that this way works much better for me. Paper organizers are all Stampin' Up!

All of my Stampin' Up! cardstock is organized by color.

I keep all of the scraps in these plastic holders. Not the prettiest but it works for me. If I keep the scraps in the paper holders with the rest of the paper I find that I don't use them up...and they grow and grow and grow!

When I was reorganizing everything I came across and index file and discovered that my Cuttlebug embossing folders fit perfectly in it

I keep all of my buttons in a plastic container that I found (I think) at Hobby Lobby for around $5. I don't organize them by color since I'm usually using several colors at a time. So I just dig around for what I need!

Just into my room I have this little wall that I keep all of my flowers and an old table (covered with some fabric) that holds my Sizzix stuff

My husband made me this shelf for my flowers with some scrap wood

My flowers are organized by color. Some are in Making Memories jars and others are in leftover Prima cans. I've also used some of those leftover cans for stamps

And finally, next to my table I have one of those Cropper Hopper carts that I got for a super deal years ago
On top I have one of those organizer totes from Hobby Lobby that holds adhesive, scissors, punches, etc. I keep it there so that when I go to a crop or something I can just grab the bag and go. Of course, I don't really go to crops anymore (except out of town) but I still like keeping it there.

Below I have 2-12x12 paper organizers, one holds cardstock scraps ~ organized by color (SO much more useful) and the other one holds patterned paper scraps.

I think that's about it. I could share more but then this post would have about 100 photos!!

one more thing for Parker

I've added a link to the right hand column that looks like this:

Click on it and head over to 5MSS and play some games. And every time you do a donation will be made to Parker's medical fund!

inspirational & very moving videos

In the last week I've come across some very moving videos. Be warned, you WILL need kleenex to watch these...several.

The first is on Layle Koncar's blog. Click here to view.

The second video is on Jessica Turner's blog, click here to view. This one broke my heart and uplifted me all at the same time. For a description of what's going on in that video, you can go here and view the video. I am *so* inspired by this family's strength and faith. I felt so honored to have had the chance to watch this video. Because there are many in this world who wouldn't have allowed this sweet baby girl to enter the world. It teaches us all about the sanctity of life. And the joy that she brought to her family, if only for just a few hours, shows God's faithfulness to all of us. And I know that they are thankful to God for having had a chance to see their daughter, to be able to love her and to say their goodbyes.

Lastly, with everything that is going on this month with abortion "rights", I would not feel right with myself if I did not post at least one thing on this issue. I know that most of you head over here for all the scrappy stuff! And I don't like to get too serious most of the time. But this is an issue that has come near and dear to my heart. I've been slammed with some quite negative comments in the past but most of you have been *so* wonderful. I would encourage you to head over to Priests for Life and click on the videos in the right sidebar on "various abortion procedures" and judge for yourself whether or not a "fetus" is a life. I wholeheartedly agree with Father Frank when he says this isn't just a "religious" issue. If we're going to talk about abortion, let's know what we're talking about. Everyone always talk about this issue but do we all really know exactly what we're talking about? We wouldn't think twice about looking at an x-ray or CAT scan when receiving medical advice so this should no different.

As a side note ~ I understand that there are those of you out there who do not agree with me. I get that. And maybe you'll watch the videos and still not agree with me. And I do not judge you so I would respectfully ask that you do the same. It is simply my hope that maybe you will change your mind.

thank you cards....& stuff

I've been working on a bunch of thank you cards this morning. I'm just now getting a chance to get them all out. We have *many* to send ~ first for all of the wonderful well wishes and gifts that Ben received when he broke his leg. Also, Christmas and my daughter's birthday. And my son's birthday is coming up soon, too. Lots to send out this time of year for me! I normally don't have the kids send out thank you's for Christmas but I thought it'd be a good thing to start this year since all of our family is out of town and don't get to see the kids open presents and to hear their excitement and "thank you".

I got the idea for these cards on Jennifer McGuire's blog. I used scraps (love using up scraps!) from the Basic Grey Infuse line, the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and my Marvy jumbo heart punch. Popped them up with Stampin' Up dimensionals and stamped "thanks" from the Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp set.

Here's a few different versions that I made. This one is my favorite :)

These cards were super easy and I was able to make 20 of them in less than 1/2 hour.

We also had stamp club yesterday and we made this cute little 3x3 note card box

I found the instructions on splitcoaststampers under "Resources". I did change one thing ~ I made the box lid 6x6 (instead of 5 3/4") and scored at 1 1/8" (instead of 1") because I used the scallop edge punch instead of the corner rounder punch. Everything else was the same.


The front was made with the Marvy mega scallop square punch, giga square punch, and the bird w/leaves & flower Sizzix die for Stampin' Up! We also made a 3x3 card to go inside the box.

I could also see filling this box with candy and giving to a teacher, Sunday school teacher, coach, dance teacher, etc. Already thinking of idea for end of year gifts!

Other supplies used: Bella Rose DS papers, riding hood red CS, pink pirouette CS, riding hood red taffeta ribbon, silver embossing powder.