This blog is closed. Thank you.

You can now find me here.

My children...

Maybe a once or twice a year they let me pin them down and take some posed pics of them. Here are a couple from last week. :)





I'm glad volleyball is finally over. My darling daughter had such a good season. It was her first year playing and she ended up with the Most Improved award at the banquet. We also had our first meeting at the community college last week to get things rolling for my son to join the Running Start program his next (Junior) year. Did I mention he turns 16 next weekend? Time flies!!!

The week before last I had a bit of a health scare. While I was at work I had this funny tingling and odd sensation in one side of my head. The office thought I should call and check with my doctor's office to see if I should be seen. Long story short they (the doctor) urged me to come to urgent care asap. We were there for about 4 hours that night where I was poked and prodded and given a CT scan to rule out a stroke, tumor, and aneurysm which were all clean. I've had two follow up appointments and 1 more episode since. They have decided to consult a Neurologist and order a MRA and MRI. They think I may be having TIA's (mini strokes) and they need to rule that out. In the meantime, I am having a little reality check about my health. Now that we are living back in a bigger town there is no reason I can't make time to swing by the gym. There are 3 or 4 within walking distance of our apartment. I eat fairly healthy but really don't get much for exercise so the kids and I joined the YMCA last week. Until the doctor says otherwise I have to avoid the weights and can do low impact activity only but that is a start.

Friday was my birthday. I'm telling you because you NEED to see this monstrosity of a birthday my darling daughter made for me all my herself.



Check that out. And when you cut into it it was layered with white and pumpking cake. Here- I saved you some...



Wasn't it YUMMY! Heehehehe.

I think I'll leave this post at this. I'll be back in a few days with a scrappy/crafty update. :)

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Sunday.

Hey peeps!

I have been a bad blogger and I'm sorry!

About three weeks ago we went to the Great Wolf for the weekend and I had a cold. We got there and a few hours later I was down for the count. Yep. Me - the sole supervisor of 4 teenagers for that weekend - sick... not the best combo. The kids were really pretty good though and were helpful to me when they could be. Here's a few pics-



This last week I am finally starting to feel myself again. Just in time to get the seasonal flu shot today- yipee! Not. Lol! I don't mind getting the shot but the flu shot hits me harder than a tetnus and my arm is sore for a week with swelling, bruising, pain - the whole bit. But this is life. :)

Things haven't been all bad here by any means though. We bought this air purifier for our apartment and it is SO nice!



Although we are enjoying our apartment, it is an older one with single pane aluminum windows that get a little bit of a mold/mildew build up. Plus the city we moved to is one with many mills and thus has a fairly large pollution problem. On top of that, my daughter is asthmatic. So this little machine is our new best friend and boy does it do its job well. Lowe's baby!

For the month of September I was a guest for Lauren Reid doing some hybrid work. It was a lot of fun! Here are some of the things I created with her stuff-







And I've been busy creating for Val too - Spotted Dog Designs-









And now that I've flooded you with pics I should really wind this up. I'm feeling better and the kiddos too, so I should be posting more regularly. Darling daughters last volleyball game is on Tuesday this week. That will be the end of the season so we'll have more free time in the afternoons very soon... until the next sport starts that is. ;)

I hope you all have a super fantabulous weekend my friends!

A weekend get-a-way

The kids and I are heading out for a weekend away. A girl I went to high school with and reconnected with at our 20 year reunion this summer got a UNBELIEVABLE deal on a group rate at the Great Wolf. They were short one room to meet the group rate and posted so on facebook. (Thank you Angie!) It ends up that the kids and I were able to swing it and so...... Wahoo! Great Wolf here we come. :)

The kids are doing well in school. My son's been in a bit of a funk though and has a poor attitude lately. Daughter has a sinus infection and started a presciption yesterday. I have a cold. Run down a bit we are. I hope us getting away this weekend will rejuvenate us all.

Darling daughter had two volleyball games last week. She did awesome! She's been one of the team captains. And she's excited to be playing games now because she can really see all her hard work and extra practice in action. (This is her first year playing.) We have another two games this coming week too. :)

My son is a true testament to the old saying 'a way to a man's heart is through his stomach.' He's taking Spanish this year and quickly realized it was a lot of work. He got a bit scared and tried transferring out of it until the teacher held a "party" introducing Spanish food to the class last week. Ha! Now it's JR's favorite class. *rolling eyes here* Boys!

This year I am having lots of fun at work. I have a great schedule which is always a plus. I joined the secret pal thing the staff were doing. I love love love the pal I was assigned to. It has been SO MUCH FUN thinking up little gifts ideas for them. It's so nice to put a spring in someone else's step. It makes me happy.

I also love the little apartment we are in. We found one in a lovely area near a grocery store, a beautiful park, and the city lake. All last month we rode our bikes everywhere. It was great fun and exercise. Our apartment building has 12 and we've met most of the people living here. Many are elderly and so friendly. And it's usually nice and quiet. The people that own the apartment have been painting and doing some other repairs to the building this last month. It's an older building but kept up pretty well and has lots of charm. I'll have to post some pics one of these days. Just thinking this morning, while having my morning coffee, of how thankful I am to be here.



Scrappy news- One of my favorite designers opened her new store yesterday. While working at {we are} storytellers, I met Val. Shortly after I came on board there, she started designing. I *heart* her stuff. Love the bright colors, the whimsy and flare, and the theme of her kits. She is awesome! If you haven't had a chance to see her stuff, stop by The Lily Pad and look her up under Spotted Dog Designs. You'll be glad you did! :)

I'll leave you with a few layouts I've made with her designs and then I must go pack.










Thanks for stopping in. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The first day of school...

It's sometimes hard for me to believe that my kids are in 8th and 10th grade. Time goes by so fast.



Darling daughter is in the web "where everyone belongs" program which is basically a welcoming committee for the incoming lower classmen and new students. She's also in a leadership program this year. All the students that are in the web program wore the same shirts the first day.

The kids like the area of where our new apartment is. The other day is was bright and sunny so we rode bikes to the nearby park. Darling daughter is playing volleyball this year and so the kids practiced a little on the empty tennis court. I love it when they actually get along. heehee! Shhh! I took these on my cell phone when they weren't paying attention to me. :P











This summer the kids got together with all their cousins and had a fun couple of days at the beach. Here's a lo I did of their fun time. :)



Well, this evening I'm feeling bushed. So a quick post here and I'm going to try to get to bed early this evening. Thanks for stopping by. - I hope the rest of your week is so awesome and full of joy!

Summer is over so-

I’m baaaaaaaaack! Lol! It seems there is something in blogging that I just plain miss.

This summer was a whirlwind with the highs and lows – to many lows really - but alas the kiddos and I are healthy and well so I can’t really complain. As it appears, I’m going through the big D and don’t mean Dallas. The dear hubby has had a variety of problems lately which I thought was a midlife crisis we’d work through but it seems I was wrong. It takes two to want to marry and only one to divorce. So the kids and I moved last month to an apartment and are starting over.

Why is the unknown always so scary?

In many ways this move has been good for the kids and I. Lots of change and processing of things but we three are trying our hardest to make the best of things. Did I mention that I really do have GREAT kiddos!

And that was not all of the change this summer. In digiland – {we are} storytellers closed - which was a big deal in my little corner of the world. The site was my little scrapbooking home and had such a great purpose. It was sad to see them go.

I guess this summer was a season of change.

This past week, I returned to work after having the summer “off”. It’s nice to get back into a routine and focus on other things again. My kids have their first day of school on Tuesday. Darling daughter is playing volleyball this year and is in a leadership program so she has been doing things at her school for those programs the last couple of weeks. That has her very excited to return. My dear son – well, he would be just as happy to stay home and play video games rather than return to school. Boys! Lol!

As I am highlighting the major things from summer I feel compelled to make a grateful for list-

1. I am so grateful for finding a lovely little apartment in a nice area of town. And having such nice neighbors too is a blessing!
2. I am grateful that dear son completed his traffic safety classes this summer and earned his certificate.
3. I am grateful that I had opportunities of joining new scrapbooking creative teams when I lost my others this summer.
4. I am grateful that the kids and I have everything we need for going back to school and that I could afford (under the circumstances) all the fees at school associated with that.
5. I am so so so grateful that we are healthy and well.
6. I am thankful that this new life is teaching the kids and I the difference between needs and wants.

This summer before {wst} closed, I participated with a few of my friends in Battle of the Creative Teams. I was really fun. The challenge was to scrap certain themes, colors, styles, etc. together as a team and carrying the same vision between the 5 team-mates. It was four weeks long and it was quite a bit of fun. I think I’ll end the post with those four layouts from the contest.









And if you made it this far in my rambling post, thank you! It's nice to be blogging again. Have a super weekend my friends!!!