Is it taboo?

They say one should not talk about money, religion or politics...

I want to discuss religion. Today we are starting at a new church and we are full of hope. With these changes I've been giving this area thought...

I've had an interesting relationship with religion in my life. My mother was "religious" and my father was agnostic. Growing up, my mother was not what I would consider a christian, but because she went to church most Sunday's she felt that was all that was necessary to qualify for the title. (Breezing through this period here because we all know people like that...) Growing up, I had real questions about religion which my mother "the christian" couldn't answer but instead embarrassed me telling others I was a "non-believer". This lead me, as a child, to feel that if her poor lifestyle was a "christian" one... Then heck yeah I was agnostic too!

Luckily, in my heart, I knew different.

So in most of my adult life I have chose to go to church. I have chose to live(and live being the operative word here) a christiam life. I have come to terms with the religion I grew up with and that which I know to be true. I don't preach or judge. I set an example in my every day living.

I left a church I attended many years ago when I moved and got married. My husband and I have attended another church which we came to love as a second family. The church began having trouble a few years ago which led to change. So we have been searching for a new home once again. The pastor of our old church who is also a great friend suggested the church we are attending this morning. I'm really looking forward to it. I hope this church is what our family is looking to become part of. It's very exciting!

I just read the post to this point and you know, I haven't also been able to sum that up so neatly. I've really come a long way. I'm proud of myself! :)



And moving on. So... Thanksgiving weekend here has been wonderful. We had tons of delicious food. I cooked and this year it seemed like a breeze. Really! Some years it feels like I'm in the kitchen all day and even need help at times, but this year it all come together so quick and neat. I even got in a nap!

Friday, dear hubby, daughter and I went out shopping. Four in the morning is too early to rise! Lol! But I did in fact get some most awesome deals. This was darling daughters first time out on Black Friday. She too loved the deals. I don't always go out the day after Thanksgiving, but with money being tight this year, I braved the crowds. Later that day we had left overs and watched a family movie.

Saturday, the husband and kids decorated the outside of the house with Christmas lights. I stayed inside and unpacked the village and other decorations. In the evening we headed to PIR. We had a great night. Dinner at BJ's, ice cream at Cold Stone, and a tour of winter wonderland lights. It was a wonderful evening... almost magical. The weather was just perfect- no rain but cool and crisp. I was able to have the window rolled down through the light show so I could take pics. It was awesome!

Today, we are going to church and then coming home to decorate the inside of the house and our tree. Fun fun fun! My camera is going to be loaded by the time this weekend is over. :)

I also scrapped a lo in the last few days-



I have a couple more things in the works but that I'll save for another post.

Thank you for stopping in. I hope you are all happy and well - and reflecting on a amazing weekend you shared with your family!

Dear Santa...

Can you somehow magically get my computer running ship shape by Christmas? I've been a good girl this year...

Okay so really, I had to start over with the ol' computer. It'll probably take me until Christmas to get her back.

I scrapped one layout this week between the chaos. Karah came out with this amazing christmas kit...



The kids and I have a half day at school/work and then we are off to enjoy the little Thanksgiving break. Yay! Always so much to be thankful for. I've really been looking forward to Thanksgiving break this year too. I'm embarrassed to share this but maybe it'll give you a giggle. I've had so much on my mind lately that when I went out and bought a big huge turkey the other day I got all the way home before I realized I left it on the shopping cart in the parking lot. Last month I did nearly the same thing when I bagged all my groceries and then walked out to my car with an empty cart. I so need a break. Lol!

We plan to spend lots of quality time together, decorate over the weekend for Christmas and put up the tree. We also collect a village scene. The kids love love love putting that up this time of year. And we are surpising the kids one night and driving up to PIR. We did this a few years ago and it was so much fun.

This is only a quick post but I wanted to wish all my friends the most merry and bright Thanksgiving. Much peace and happiness to you and yours!

In light of recent events

this seems small scale.

I know that it isn't.

I spent 4 hours yesterday afternoon with customer service at Microsoft because of computer issues. The automatic updates I did a week ago completely wigged out and disable much of my computer. We went through many steps and in the end removed the service pack 3 which is apparently notorious for being malicious to some computers. It corrupted files and there was loss of much. I am told the only option is to do a system restore. Recovery isn't even possible. *Sigh*

Guess what I will be doing this weekend.

Before this drama, I scrapped this pic with MK designs new kit. It's from some pics I took of the kids last Christmas. TFL!



Okay, I have a few more things to share but it'll need to wait. I've hopped onto the kids computer this morning and can't tie it up for too long because darling daughter is politely waiting for print something off before school.

Did I mention darling daughter and I have a date tonight to see Twilight? Are you going?

Have a super Friday!!!

Computer Ick

I mentioned in my last post about a trojan horse that slipped in with some automatic updates. Knock on wood, I've been so very lucky not to have problems like that before on this computer. I was able to get rid of it quickly. But it seems that things are running quite right either. I can't do a disk defrag. My antivirus quit working. I get a odd message upon start up of my computer. I spent all last night trying to hunt down and pin point the problem. I found the files that were downloaded the other day and I suspect there are some compatibility issues with them. Grrrr!!! So wish my me some much needed luck on fixing these issues this week so that I won't have to do a system restore or take the pc into the Geek Squad. Thank you!

On to brighter things... Here's a layout I did of darling daughter. :)



With my pc issues, I have yet to get started on the Stories in Hand class. My most favorite things project is only mapped out on paper too. Today. Today I will get those things started now that my computer is at least stable. I'll look forward to it this afternoon!

Monday's are our local movie stores .99 cent night. So somewhere along the way became our family movie night. Last night we rented A Perfect Christmas and it was an adorable family movie. We giggled and laughed. It was fun and lighthearted. I would reccommend this cute little show to you!

Gotta love children. My son comes home from school yesterday. He has a snack and visits for a short while. He does his chores. Comes back to me and says, "I've decided to play basketball. Will you drop me off at 5:30?" Basketball? He mentioned he was considering this a couple of weeks ago. When I followed up on it, he told me he decided not to play. Not another word. Now, a half hour before the first try out he asks for a ride? Good thing we didn't have plans to be out for the evening! So like I said, Kids! lol! Love 'em!

And the coffee has help alleviate some of the dull pain in my head this week. I have an eye appointment on Friday to get my eyes checked. I think they will be putting me back in full time glasses. Last time I had my eyes checked they put me into readers instead of the glasses I was wearing all of the time. That has worked until now. My right eye feels constantly strained. So I welcome this appointment with open arms. And yes... it means I'm getting old. lol!

Well, I gotta be off and running to work. I hope you all have a super fantastic week!!!

Caffine?

I quit drinking coffee a few weeks ago. No particular reason, I just found myself craving tea more and more. Every day since, I've had headaches though. I attributed it to my lingering cold at first. Then decided to schedule an eye appointment to have my eyes checked. Headaches haven't gone away yet and my eye appointment isn't until the end of next week. So last night while out grocery shopping I desperately bought some more coffee. This morning as I type this, GOOD MORNING COFFEE! I hope that it drives away this crazy headache. Could it be as simple as a morning cup? I cannot tell you how much tylenol I've gone through in the past few weeks.

And for those of you who have your windows xp set up to do automatic updates- beware! There's a trojan horse waiting to slip on in with your next update. I have had it twice this week. I suggest you change your settings for it to notify you of updates without downloading and installing them on its own. Hope that helps someone out there.

Our wedding Anniversary is coming up and I would really like to do something special for an evening. Any suggestion? Actually, we live closer to Portland than Seattle... but I'm willing to drive either way. I would love to hear some things you've done. Maybe it will spark an idea for me.

And as I'm thinking of dear hubby, here's a layout I did this week. It was taken for his 42nd birthday last month. TFL!



I have a project I'm working on and I'm so excited to get it done and post some pics here. Shall I give you a hint? Lol! I was inspired by one of Oprah's themes- My Favorite Things. I'll share more with you next post. :)

The Stories in Hand class I'm taking is moving way to fast for me this week. I've read the posts and that is it. Lol! Crazy week for me. So I hope to catch up with it this weekend. I'll post more about that then too.

At work there's one week a year we get to go down to half days. Guess what! That falls next week. Wahooo! If I get the house tidied up this weekend... there should be lots of scrappy goodness time for me next week. I'll have about three hours each day to myself before the kids get home from school. I'm so looking forward to it. The kids want me to use the time to dig out our village. We don't usually put it up until after Thanksgiving. Hmm? Scrappy time...Village....Scrappy time...Village. We shall see. ;)

Have a super great week my friends.

Mystery Solved

Upon returning to work after my last post, a teacher popped her head into my room and made the comment, "I bet you'll be in the spirit early this year." I was wondering what in the heck she was talking about and then it hit me. My room is next to the music classroom at school and they have been practicing Christmas carols in preperation for the upcoming concert. I just giggled. Clearly, the music doesn't bother me at all. In fact, she was correct- it has put me in the spirit early this year. Fa la la la la, la la la la....

Last weekend was dear son's 15th birthday. This is the birthday streak in the family... 3 of them in 3 weeks. Craaaazy! But really, it's all good. He had a wonderful birthday and celebrated with his family and a few close friends. Here's a pic of him and the "almond joy" cake darling daughter and I made for him.



Darling daughter went to her first boy/girl halloween party. It was fun to help her get all dressed up. She dressed out of her closet believe it or not. With the help of a little colored hairspray and some of mom's old jewelry she was a perfect little 80's rock star. :)



I have been feeling a bit under the weather lately and today, dear son came home from school with the same type of feverish symptoms. Flu season is here. I slept a lot this weekend. Luckily I have today and tomorrow off as well. I'm hoping that the extra rest will get us all back in shape before the holidays are here.

Speaking of holidays... here's a lo I worked on since my last post. It's of our Thanksgiving last year.



I also did a lo of our old lab. Cookie was a wonderful dog whom we loved very much. It's been three years now and we still think so fondly of her. Although she's no longer with us, when I came across this photo over the weekend I just felt compelled to scrap it.



I look at these lo's and always think I should journal more. It is something I always aspire to improve. I was lucky enough to get in on the "Stories in Hand" class taught by Jessica Sprague. It starts today and I am so very excited. I hope it inspires me to get those words down on my lo's more often. Fun fun fun! And I think registration has been extended through this evening. If its something you are interested in, you should stop by her website and sign up!

Today I've been sitting at the ol' computer and giving the blog a facelift. It's been so neglected lately. I have had such dreams for it but it seems to be the first thing cut out of the schedule when I'm running short on time. I am happy to say, I've added some hybrid tutorials today. I am trying to make the blog more informational and easier to navigate. Thanks for sticking with me through the changes.

I am getting ready to go pick up my sweet cat Harley from the vet soon ( he had the 'snip snip' today ), I hope things went well for the poor little guy. We'll pamper him this evening and we plan on picking up a few movies at the rental store to watch this evening and tomorrow. A lazy evening planned here in our household. I can almost smell the hot chocolate now. Soon- the couch, a cozy blanket or two, and the kids and I have a date. Hehehe!

Have a good one and thanks for stopping by!