Tis the season for changes....RIGHT?

Hello all!!!! Seems like changes are all around me right now! We have known for months (since July) that our office would need to move out of our current location by the end of December. So our corporate office did what any paper pusher in another state would do....they waited until the middle of December to have us move. I guess a little snow, sleet, ice, and rain is good for a move....RIGHT???? Anyway, I have my office all unpacked and everything put away. I feel very blessed that I still have my own office. It is much smaller, but still I don't have to have a roommate which most of the other gals do.

About 3-4 months ago I got it in my head that it was time to trade our van in for a car. With my new job, I travel quite a bit and we don't really need the van and all of the space (just seemed to get dirty constantly!!!). So I asked my FIL (who loves to car shop) to be on the look out for a car that I could do an even exchange for our van. We waited patiently until we found what we thought would be a good trade. So I go to sign the papers.....then we pull out to get some gas and then the new to us car does not start. So they think it is the battery....no biggie. So my dear FIL takes the car to get a new battery and two front tires. It just went down hill from there. I won't go into all of the details, but we have put ALOT of money into the car and I have yet to drive it ONCE! So my loving husband realizes that I am getting stressed and says to me, "just take my car for the day so you don't have to worry." So I take his car and I am almost to work when I smell a horrible rubber smell.....so I barely make it to my new office and YUP...the tire is VERY flat! So I call for road side assistance (love this feature of our insurance!!) and the guy comes to change it to the spare and.....yes, you guessed it the spare is flat! So I barely make it over to the repair shop and to make this looooooong story shorter, it was not a normal flat tire, no the springs, shocks, and struts are all bad and that is what caused the flat tire! FUN!!!!! So right now we have one car back and fixed and hopefully will have the second car back on Monday. Remind me of this little story the next time I want to trade cars will ya??

So another new thing is that I have decided to go back to school! Yup, I am grabbing my pencils, pens, and paper and hitting the books. Although I have a feeling that students don't use pens and pencils anymore....rather it is laptops and printers! I have decided to go and get my Masters in Social Work. I am starting out by taking some pre-requisite classes for a while and then I will jump into the Master's program. I am excited, but nervous! Been a long time since I have gone to school!!!!

I think that is enough for one post! Sorry no layouts to share...no time to scrap with all of this craziness going on!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful week before the Holidays!!!!

We had a GREAT LONG WEEKEND HERE...

What a wonderful long weekend! We only had to work a 1/2 day on Wednesday and then had Thursday-Sunday off from work!!!! Not too long ago I worked retail, and I would have been working my little tail off this past weekend!!! So, I think that makes me relish the long weekend even more! Not that we did anything super exciting, we just spent time together and that was perfect!

We did catch a movie over the weekend...we saw the new Bee Movie. It was very cute and a great movie for the whole family. It managed to keep Collin's and our interest! Of course movie popcorn and milk duds always help!!

We had a wonderful time with my parents on Thanksgiving and let me tell you the food was spectacular!!! Definitely good food and wonderful conversation! Collin was lucky enough to get to go home with Nana and Papa. They had big plans that included: setting up the new train for Christmas, attending to the horses/barn cats and dogs, and visiting the animal shelter that my mom volunteers at. Needless to say there was not a dull moment in their visit and Collin loves going out there!!!

My dad gave me an extra hard drive that he did not need anymore and on the drive were hundreds of photos!!! I was so excited to get home and start pouring over them! I think I have already used up a cartridge of ink printing pictures out! Love the older pictures of myself and family and I can't wait to scrap them! It will be nice to use feminine colors, flowers, and some bling in my layouts!!!!! In fact I did a layout over the weekend....see below! Yes, this is me at age 3!!!! Love that look!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week....have you started your Holiday shopping yet???

The week before Thanksgiving...

I can't believe that next Thursday is Thanksgiving! Time has been flying by at warp speed! Don't worry, I do realize that I say something similar to this on every post! I know that I need to just accept that time flies!

This week brought some very sad news of the passing of someone that I admired as a strong, caring, family oriented, and very friendly woman. With her passing, I am reminded of my friends and how very important they are to me! I am truly blessed in my life to have friends that I can call on in times of need and in times of joy! So here is a huge "thank you" to all of my friends from the bottom of my heart! I love you all and am so proud that I can call you my friend!!!!

We are not busy at our house getting ready for Thanksgiving as we celebrate this holiday with my family. We all get dressed up and go out to a fancy dinner where we are wined and dined for hours and have great conversation. I absolutely love it!!!! After we are done, we usually stop over the in-laws house to say a quick "hello", and then off to watch some football and relax together as a family of three. It has taken our family a while to figure out what 'fits' for this holiday between the two families, but since we have been doing this for the last couple of years, I simply LOVE it!

I was very fortunate this week/weekend to get some scrappin' done! I completed two layouts for the Design Team that I am on over at Paper Popsicle . You should go over there and check it out! If you scroll down on the home page, you will see two of my layouts!!!! Very exciting! I also did a few layouts for the album I am doing for my mom and all of her animals. I am happy to report that I am almost done with the album!!! Only a few more pages to complete...which I hope to do today while watching the Colts play! When I finish it, I will post it!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week and I also hope that you know how truly THANKFUL I am for each of you in my life!

Here are the two layouts that I finished....sorry the scan makes the colors look so weird! Maybe Santa will bring me a 12 x 12 scanner for Christmas??!!??

Seems like we are busy....

but not really much going on! Does that even make sense? I can't believe that in less than two weeks we will be having Thanksgiving!!! I must admit that this is my favorite holiday! I love to get together with family and then well, the food is always a plus as well! I feel so fortunate that my family is close by and that we can be together!

This past Friday we had a surprise party for my brother-in-law as he just got back from Iraq. I am so glad that he came back safe and sound and I thank everyone who is over there serving our country AND their families! They are making a huge sacrifice for our freedom and our country!

So the first nine weeks of school has ended and Collin did very well! He made the High Honor Roll and received an award for his Christian Outlook. We are very proud of him!!!! I feel lucky that he really enjoys school! He has also decided to play basketball for the school team. The first week he had conditioning in which they basically run for two hours! I thought he would die and want to quit, but he said it was hard, but necessary....what a kid! I was tired just watching them!!!!

Collin had fun on Halloween. This was the first year that we let him be something scary and he got to go Trick or' Treating with two of his buddies! I have tried to steer him away from the scary/gory costumes, but this year we let him make his own decisions....man was it hard! Without even talking about it, he and his friends basically looked the same! Made me laugh! Guess for these pictures I will have to find some gory paper to use to scrapbook them!

Well, that is about all for now! I hope everyone has a great week...and have fun getting ready for Thanksgiving!!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Collin on Halloween.....warning they may scare you..LOL!

A Pumpkin Carver, I am NOT!!!

I have never carved a pumpkin before and I never thought that it would be as hard as it was!!! I went out and bought the book of patterns because I was going to have a cute little cat and Collin wanted to do a ghost. Yes, in the books there were different levels, but let's face it, these were level 1's so I was positive that I could do it!!! I even scoffed when Collin picked up the electronic saw blade for carving thinking "No way I am paying $8 for that thing...I can do it with a steak knife!!!"....WRONG!!!! That is why they sell those silly little tools...cause you need them!!!

So after about an hour and I only had the tail cut for my cat, I abandoned that thought! Poor Collin, I didn't even let him attempt his ghost....he went straight for the traditional triangular eyes/nose and the tooth crazy mouth. I soon followed right after him!

Luckily for us though we were with great friends! Brandie, Bob, Morgan, Collin and I had a great time laughing and gagging over pumpkin guts!!! Brandie made us a wonderful fall meal of pork chops, mash potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing....can you say YUMMY!

We did manage to roast the seeds which turned out pretty good as well! Here are some pictures of our adventures! Can't wait to scrapbook them!!!

Can you actually get a sunburn in late October???

Okay so I am feeling like a bad mom/wife right now!!! Who would have thought that our family would have sunburns at this time of year. Yes, right now....almost the end of October and I am sitting here with a red face that is burning! Today we were at a flag football tournament for a friend's child...I packed coats, blankets, chairs, water...but NOT SUN SCREEN!!!! The sun was shinning so brightly and not a cloud in the sky that the Levy family is now sporting sun burns!

Once again the week/weekend has gone so fast. Collin had his last football game...I know that I will miss not getting to see him play every week. The good news is that basketball practice starts in exactly one week!!!!

I leave you with a layout that I did this weekend with products from Paper Popsicle that you can view here. These are pictures I took of Collin in TN. He is trying to blow the golf ball into the hole....it actually worked!

Thanks and I hope you have a great week!

I can't believe that it is October!!!

Where does the time go??? Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating that school was out for the summer! NOW....the first 9 weeks of school is almost over, football season for Collin has come and almost gone, Halloween is around the corner, people are talking about plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations have been in the stores for weeks, and now you see/hear all around you a constant countdown with the number of days until Christmas!!! Where has the time gone?

Update with Collin and the contacts...he is still doing a wonderful job putting them in/taking them out. He gets frustrated sometimes in the morning, but after a gentle reminder to slow down, he does ok. He is lucky as he has the daily disposable kind so no cleaning!!!!

I enjoyed a weekend cyber crop at Paper Popsicle this weekend! They had tons of challenges, classes, and prizes! It was great to see everyone over there! Did I mention all of the great deals Melissa had in the store? We are talking Queen & Company brads for $1.50 a package, paper for $.39/sheet, rub-ons for $1.75....Awesome deals...I spent some of my paycheck there!!! I actually taught my first cyber class which was AWESOME!!! I was a little nervous as it has been a while since I have taught, and I have never taught a cyber class! It went great though!!!! Below is a picture of the class I taught on altering notebooks....try it, it is fun and makes great gifts!!!

I actually did a sketch challenge over there also. That is the second layout posted below. It was fun to try a sketch....I have been dying to use that clock and this sketch was perfect for it!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend...now who knows the secret to slow the hands of time down????

A funny afternoon!

Okay so it is Saturday evening and I just have to write the happenings of this afternoon down somewhere....so I figure that this is the best place for now! Collin had an eye doctors appointment after his football game so off we went to the mall for some lunch and then to the eye doctors. Patrick was actually able to go with us as he did not have to work today (a minor miracle in itself!) so it was the 3 of us.

We waited our turn and this was no ordinary eye doctor appointment....Collin was going to see about getting contacts. Not really because HE wanted them, but because the football coach would not let him wear his glasses. His MOTHER was forced to wear the sports goggles (not attractive at all!!!) so I was hoping to spare him from this! The eye doctor warned me that he MAY not be able to do contacts because of his age...."no problem" I thought, but let's at least try! So we go in the first room and the Dr. tell Collin, "put your head on the chin rest and look directly into the lens"....so my obedient son does just that. The next thing you hear is the noise of the tiny poof of air that they shoot into your eye and Collin about falls out of his chair because he is so taken aback from it. He clanks his head into the machine, holds his eye like he has been shot with a bullet, and screams, "WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR????". I am almost rolling on the ground laughing...see he has never had the pressure test done before (found out today that those start when kids reach double digits!) so he had no idea what he was setting himself up for! He looks over at me and snarls, "DID YOU KNOW THEY WERE GOING TO DO THAT?" I calmed down a bit and said, "yes, honey". The Dr. was laughing at this point too, and then had nerve enough to say, "ok Collin ready for the next eye"....uh yeah Collin was not falling for this trick twice! It took a lot of convincing to get him to put his chin on the chin rest again!

So we finish the pressure test and then are escorted to the next room. The Dr. asks Collin to read from the eye chart across the room. He tells him a specific line to read. So Collin starts and.....um I am looking at the same chart and the child has not gotten ONE letter/number right. I nervously tell him to slow down and take his time. Mind you this is him reading the chart WITH his current glasses on. He keeps going.....still missing them. I am thinking I am the worst mom in America....my child is blind and I didn't even notice!!!! Finally the Dr. says to him, "ok, how about the last line".....this is the biggest line, you know only one letter...E. Collin says "I don't see a line with one letter"......"WHAT??"....I am freaking out here, but trying to stay calm!!! "Oh, says the Dr, your chair is not up high enough for you to see the whole chart". ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I was about to have congestive heart failure at my inadequacies of parenting and the chair was not high enough up?????

So then we continue on....Collin is going through the whole thing, "which one looks better 1 or 2, A or B, 3 or 4" and things are starting to sail along. So we are almost done and he is checking a couple of last things having him read the eye chart again. Collin is reading along with the right eye and the Dr. says that he got them all right. Then the Dr. switches over to the left eye and Collin stops after like two letters. Oh no I think here we go again. The doctor encourages him to keep going that he is not done with the line yet and Collin says, "oh I know I am not done, I really can't see the next letter so I am trying to remember what I said for the other eye so I get them all right again." The Dr. and I both just laughed! My son!!!! Too funny!

So next we go to the actual putting in/taking out of the contacts...yeeegads I was nervous! But to my amazement Collin did wonderfully! He stayed calm and got the contacts in/out relatively easily! The lady helping us (after we were done) says, "wow, I have never had success with a child under 14, you did great!". Thank God she said that afterwards!!!!

So anyway, Collin, who did not really want the contacts LOVES them! He says it is like a whole new world....that he can see soooo good. Little mom knew that was because the contacts were clean and not dirty like his glasses!!! So he says at the end that he thinks he may want to wear them for more than just sports.

So this whole time Patrick is sitting in the waiting room as the exam rooms are very small. We come out after 3 hours and he looks at me like, "what the h#$$ just happened"...I just grinned and said that it was an adventure!

Sorry this is so long, hope you got a chuckle about our little adventure!

ABBA, The Carpenters, and Cruise Control...

What do these three things have in common??? ME! I have spent over 8 hours in the last two days traveling back and forth to Indianapolis!!!! I am doing some training for my new job and the training is in INDY! Love the city, but love it more when I am there to rest, relax, shop, or go to a Colts game (love those Colts!!!), not to sit in a cubicle and train!

So some of my good friends over at Paper Popsicle (have you seen the latest kits over there???) gave me some suggestions on what to do during those long drives! I took up the one suggestion and got out some old CD's that I love to sing (yeah but the boys in my life don't like to hear me sing them) and just belted out the tunes all of the way home! Yes, I got some weird looks and the van did shake from me beating out the tunes on the steering wheel, but in the blink of an eye, I was home!!! Loved it! Next time I am going to bring some more of my oldies, but goodies to belt out to the driving world! So if you are on 69 and you see a crazy woman in a blue van singing...yes, that is me! Give me a wave, I will wave back....and don't worry my windows are up so you can't hear me!

Hope you are all having a great week! Here's to not driving to Indy....at least until next week!

A great weekend!!!

Well, yes the weekend did go by fast, but it was a great one! I just love having 2 days a week that I can spend with my family, doing the hobby that I love, and yes, even getting caught up on the things that I can't seem to get done during the week (uh, that would be the housework!).

Collin had a football game again on Saturday and they TIED!!!!! A tie you say....well, that is not a win, but in our book it IS!!! The 5th grade football team has never won a game in Queen of Angels history so YES, we count a tie as a WIN!!!! I don't know what it is about the other teams...the kids seam to be giants! Literally some of them look like they are old enough to drive themselves to the games, and I am sure that some of them are already shaving....because they need to not just because they want to! LOL! It is all OK, the kids get excited about the little things...first downs, touchdowns, stopping the other team from scoring over 50 points...when it comes down to it, it IS the little things that are important in life, right?

The other good things of the weekend....

*Patrick's flag football team won

*Colts won

*Got my scrap room cleaned

*Found some school uniform pants for Collin (yeah nothing like waiting until the last minute...on October 1st they can't wear shorts to school anymore)

*Got to watch a movie with my hubby

*Enjoyed listening to Collin play with a friend from school....it is amazing how their imagination goes into over drive with a yo yo, stuffed animal, some yarn, and a bunk bed....we now have a spider web made out of yarn with a yo yo (for the spider) in Collin's room!

*Got to scrapbook...2 pages done in one weekend!!!!

*Got some other miscellaneous errands and housework done!!!

So I hope you had a great weekend....accomplished what you wanted to do AND took some time to just enjoy life!

I will leave you with pictures of the two layouts I did this weekend!

Tag, I am IT!!!

One of my dear friends that I have met through the wonderful world of scrapbooking, Becca, "tagged" me. What does that mean...well, I copied her post on her blog (yeah, cause I am lazy and didn't want to re-type it!), okay and I did change a few names....

from Becca's blog....
Thanks Becca (name changed here), I feel special (this is straight from her blog, but I do feel special that she thought of me!!)! Ok, so Becca (name changed here also!) tagged me. Here is how it works...I list 7 random things about me, then I tag 7 other people. This isn't just a scrappy thing, so if I tag you, you can play!

Here are my 7 random things:
*I don't like feet....I only like my son's feet when he was younger!
*I have a little OCD thing with numbers...don't really like odd ones so much
*I don't organize my photos AT ALL (I know gasp, shock amongst the scrappy community)...don't tell anyone about this ok?
*I love to watch my husband play football!!!!
*I love Sushi!!!! Don't knock it if you have not tried it!!!
*I have no directional sense at ALL!!! I am sure that this is NOT a surprise to some of you who have traveled with me or heard about my travel experiences!
*I love to play tennis!!! Didn't say I was very good, but love to play!

Here are my tagged people! If you don't have a blog, don't think that takes you off the hook, I want you to leave comments here!!! Come on..........it will be fun!!!!

1. Carrie
2. Samantha
3. Becky
4. Amy Saliek
5. Sue Ellsworth
6. Clara Cart
7. Amy Kline

Have fun with it!!!!!

What a GREAT night!!!

I had the best time last night scrapping (okay so I didn't really scrap THAT much!!) but I did talk, laugh, eat, and laugh ALOT! Over a year ago my good friend Becky Cates asked me if I would be interested in co-hosting a crop at her house....I said "YES!!!, would love to!" Well, it took us a while to get the timing right, but last night we hosted over 25 incredible women at her house! I have not laughed that much in one evening in a long time! It was AWESOME!!! We had a patriotic theme from our invitations to the decorations to the little project that we asked each scrapper to participate in. I made up little card bags with different "goodies" in them...and I use the word "goodies" loosely! They were not the best of products...they were very old and from my "never touch that stuff anymore stash". We asked each scrapper to create a card for someone in our Armed Forces so that we could collect them at the end of the night and send them out. Everyone was AMAZED at the cards created....they were fantastic!!!!! I am going to scan them and put them on my blog in another post.


So a huge thank you to everyone who was able to make it to our little event and an even bigger thank you to Becky for asking me to be a part of this!!!! What a great night!!!!!

Here are just a few of the pictures from the evening!!!

SAWEEEEEEET!!!

Did you see it? What you ask? Why the Colts game last night of course!!!! What a great game!!!! Yes, I stayed up late just to watch my Colts team kick some major butt!!! Love this team!!!! They have picked up some great players to add to their already awesome team!!!

I love the fall season with the start of football, fall leaves, cooler weather, it is one of my favorite seasons! Growing up in Florida, I have come to really appreciate all of seasons, even the one that starts with a W!!! Okay I will admit that I like winter better from the inside of my house, but in Florida we NEVER got a snow day....and those are a nice welcome break!

Well, this weekend we are off to my parents house in Columbia City where we will see my brother before he moves East. He just got a promotion to a Regional Manager with K Mart. We are sooooo proud of him!!!

Saturday, Collin also has his first 5th grade football game....yes you could say that dad and I are excited about this!!!! He was not super fired up about playing football, but we gently encouraged him and his comment this past week was, "I may have to play football again next year.....to perfect my skill, you know!". So funny! I am glad that he enjoys it! I will post pictures of him next week playing.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Wow...it has been crazy around here!!!

So it has been a while since I have blogged (is that even a real word??) so I thought I would take a moment before we head up to MI to spend the holiday weekend with my BIL & SIL at there new condo!!!

Collin has started school and he is enjoying the 5th grade. He was nominated by his teacher last year to be a "conflict manager" on the playground so he is very excited that he will start his new "job" next week! He was so darn cute when he was telling me what they learned in their training..."mom, I have to pretend like I don't even know the kids who have the conflict.....this way I can make a fair assessment (whoa...big word alert) of the situation and help both kids come to a good solution..." So grown up and big!!!

I just got back from a training session for my job. I spent the week in Indianapolis....had a good time, but I am happy to be home with my family again!!! The training was so that I would be able to train foster parents in the future. All foster parents in the state of Indiana have to go through a minimum of 20 hours of training using this curriculum....which is VERY interesting! I learned ALOT!!! There are lots of changes getting ready to happen at my work....but you will have to wait a while until I can post any details!

Also I did get to scrap with my good friends Cathy and Samantha not too long ago and we had a blast!!! I love that scrapbooking has given me such good friends!!! I am also looking forward to seeing LOTS of my good friends at an upcoming crop that we are all going to!!! Can't wait!!!!

So there is the run down! I leave you with some layouts that I did for my mom (shhh it is a secret) of all of her barn animals. Some of the animals have passed away so I know that she will cherish this. I only have a couple more pages to go!!! (This is a very long awaited project that should have been done months and months ago when she gave me the pictures...but it is almost done now!).

Thanks for checking in with me and I hope that you all enjoy your holiday weekend!!!

We are home....and the RAK winner is....

What a WONDERFUL trip we had!!! We got back late Saturday night, luckily before all of the rain and storms started up. It was a completely awesome time in a wonderful part of the country!!! We definitely plan on going back as there is sooooo much to do there! I will give a run-down of everyone's favorite things in another post.

So the question of the day is HOW MANY PHOTOS DID I TAKE???? Well, not as many as I thought I would that is for sure! I took 314 photos...wish I had taken more, but then again I was having fun with the boys and sometimes just did not take the shot. So that means my winner of my RAK is Dustanne....a great fellow DT member from Paper Popsicle! I will be sending out her goodies soon!

So with this being Monday....did anyone have their kiddos start back to school today? Collin started today with a half day. It was kind-of sad walking him to his classroom and seeing all of the little guys going down the kindergarten hallway....it seems like just yesterday Patrick and I were walking him down that hallway. Now he is in 5th grade and almost as tall as me! I feel so fortunate that he loves school and has always done well.

Okay....have a great Monday night and I will work on getting some pics up sometime hopefully this week!

We are hitting the road...

Whew....we are out of here! Moments away from leaving the front door and heading to our final destination...Gatlinburg TN!!!! I am looking forward to relaxing and have some much needed fun with my boys! We will try to forget that as soon as we get back the "S" word starts...shhhh....don't say that too loud!

Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week! Make sure you check back to see who wins the RAK for guessing the number of photos I will take on vacation.....warning I am taking two cameras!!!

Pencils, folders, erasers, pens, highlighters.....oh MY!

"Awesome!!!" That is what my son said when I told him that tonight we were going shopping for school supplies! He is MY SON!!! I used to love to go get new folders, binders, ruled paper, pencils, erasers....etc!!! He told me when we were in the store tonight, "mom, this is the best! I love the first couple days of school...we get to organize our desks, get all of our books, and use all of our new school supplies!!" Love this kid!!! We made a night out of it and went to Target, dinner (his choice KFC), and then to finish at Walmart. We also talked about how when we get back from vacation we will label everything and get it organized in his new backpack! Makes me smile to think about how much he enjoys this! We had a great time together...it has become a ritual that we do together (dad has NO interest in school supplies...his loss according to both of us). Well, dad does pay for the supplies!

Hope you have had a good time getting your kiddos ready for another new year!

Learning all types of new things....

Well, I should say that Collin is learning all types of new things and school has not even started yet!!! We gently "encouraged" Collin to play football this year. I know, I know, most parents try to steer there kids away from sports like football, but I really thought Collin would enjoy it. He went to the first practice and then came home declaring that he "was not going to do THAT again!!!". We told him to stick it out and that it would get better.....and he just told us tonight that he is starting to like it!!!! Whew....I thought for a moment that our son would disown us! I am proud of him as I know that it has not been easy. He still has a long road ahead of him, but I think he is actually looking forward to it.
Here is a picture of him getting his mouth guard to fit in his mouth.....what an ordeal that was! He thinks he is cool now though talking with this piece of rubber in his mouth!!!

A layout from the weekend...

I was so happy to get to scrap a little this past weekend! I was busy doing various projects, but it always feels good to get in a little scrapping!!!

Here is a layout I did with the monthly kit from Paper Popsicle. Love Melissa's kits...they are the best! Great value with great new products!!!

Sorry the picture is not so good, the layout did not scan well.....so I thought a picture would be better....may have to re-think that! Thanks for checking it out!

BLOG Challenge from my good friend Dustanne...

Well, my good friend Dustanne over at Paper Popsicle has been doing blog challenges for a couple of weeks now and I am late on the band wagon. So this one I am determined to complete! Here goes...

I am a blogger because...

I decided that I wanted to record my crazy wonderful life. From the little things to the major things in my life....that all of it was worth writing down.

I live where I do because (you don't need to give details of city/town/state/province...etc

Hmmmm...interesting question. I always thought that I would travel around and never really live in one spot. Here I sit in my home in Ft. Wayne, IN where I will probably stay for the remainder of my life. Not to say that this makes me sad in anyway at all. I love my hometown! I think it is a wonderful place to raise my son and I truly enjoy living here. I do love to visit other places, but I can't imagine not coming home to my city!

I like ________ about myself

I like my creative side. I have found ways to use my creative side in all of the "jobs" that I do. As a mother I find creative ways to play/learn/wonder with my son. As a social worker I find creative ways to do my job and make the kids and foster parents do their "jobs" better. As a wife I am always finding creative ways for my husband and I to be a better married couple. As a scrapbooker, I love to use my creativity...the possibilities are endless!!!!

I don't like ________ about myself

My temper....I wish I could control this better!!! This is something that I am always working on!!! As I have gotten older, it has definitely gotten better, but that makes me want to do even better!

I always wanted to be a _______

I always said that I was going to be a news reporter, never get married, and definitely no kids! Ha! I am so glad that I was wrong with all of those ideas! Love my job (social worker), love...love...love my husband, and wouldn't know what to do without my wonderful son!!!!

I see myself in the future doing _____________

Some type of social work....I love the feeling of helping people make a difference in their lives! Still loving my husband...getting old together and traveling more together. Enjoying my son as he gets older and cherishing every minute with him!!!!!


Thanks Dustanne for making me think....

So what do you think....answer a question for me about you in the comments section! I would love to get to know you better too!!!

This boy loves water...

It is true, Collin loves water....in the sink, the tub, at the pool, or just the hose in the back yard, he loves to play with water. It amazes me how he can entertain himself for hours with just plain old water! I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago, and just got them printed to scrap them....so look for them soon in a layout! Love the expression on his face...it was fun to take the pictures while trying to keep my beloved camera dry!

Love this kid!!!

A random thought...and A RAK Possibility for you!

Well, I am sad for one thing that school is looming in the near future! I couldn't believe that I got paperwork in the mail with school info on it! Yeeeegads....I am not ready for school, early mornings, making lunches, homework, and early bedtimes!!! I love the summer and the freedom that we have!!!!

We have had a wonderfully busy summer and the best is yet to come! We just booked our reservations to go to Gatlinburg, TN for 5 days in the middle of August right before school starts. Have you been there? Any suggestions of where we should go? We have only heard wonderful things about the county down there and I can't wait to soak it all up! Shall we take a guess at how many photos I will take? How about if I offer up a little RAK of scrapbooking supplies for the person that comes the closest to the actual number of photos that I will take. If you would like to guess to try to win the RAK, just leave a comment here in this post with your guess. I will give the RAK to the person who guesses the closest! What FUN!!!! Check out the picture below of the YUMMY RAK!!! Paper Crate paper, ribbon, Colorbok Cat's Eye Ink, buttons, Scenic Route Rub-ons, Daisy D's Rub-ons, and who could get a RAK without flowers!!!! So go ahead....post your guess! I will notify the winner via this blog on August 21st. Good Luck!

Live Love Laugh

Yeah!!! Here is a picture of me with my mom last Thanksgiving! I love the fact that we are laughing. Looking at this picture brings memories back about the great time that we had eating dinner with my parents and the great conversation. The after a great meal, we had a little photo shoot that I got the greatest pics from. This is a design team project for Paper Popsicle using her Urban Lily Mayella kit. I also got to play with the huge scallops from Technique Tuesday.....love these!



Happy Monday to all!

Well, we didn't win...

but the boys sure did play well! At one point after a comedy of errors, we were down 11-2 and came back to make the score 12-9, but it was just not meant to be! I felt awful for my little guy as he was the last batter and got the last out. He was crushed!!! I told him to hold his head up high and be proud of all that he accomplished this year!!! Once he got his medal and a cupcake with ice cream, he was smiling again though!!!

What a great season it was, but I am happy now that we have the rest of the summer to enjoy our evenings...baseball free!!!

Now football will begin in August....

Nerves of Steel....

For me not Collin!!!! LOL!! Collin was so excited to be chosen to play on the All-Stars team (see layout in previous post) and the games have been very good!!! They are playing a best out of five series and it is tied 2 wins for both teams. Collin was in a little bit of a slump at the end of regular season has really been hitting AWESOME!!!! He has also caught a couple of fly balls and made some great plays while playing second base. The whole team has played very well!!! Okay so we do have some moments where we look like the Bad News Bears, but they are 9 and 10 year olds so that is to be expected! I absolutely LOVE watching the games and cheering the team on! Brings me back to my own ball playin' days!!!



So the final game is either tonight or Thursday depending on the rain. I am sure that it will be an AWESOME game!!!!



Here is a picture of Collin at bat in an All-Star game....love my new camera!!!!

My First Paper Popsicle Design Team Project!!!

How excited was I to get a great goodie box from Melissa at Paper Popsicle filled with awesome scrapbook products!!! Well, I was so excited that I got straight to work! This project was done with supplies from her Happy Everything Theme Kit. I tell ya, Melissa puts together some awesome kits! I would love to see you over at her site!!!

So We All Fall Sometimes...

But yeah, I am talking about literally falling!!!! Let me set the stage for you... Our family decides to go to our local festival and they have all kinds of neat things to do. Collin decides to do the rock wall climbing, bouncy trampoline, and then he sees the helicopter ride. He says he wants to go and without hesitation, I say sure lets go check it out. Well, I didn't think it was that badly priced ($20 for 2 people) so I say let's do it! We wait in line for about 1/2 hour watching others come and go from the helicopter. Then finally it is our time....so the guy says "are you ready?" and then takes off running so Collin and I take off running towards the helicopter. I am thinking 'how exciting...I sure hope I don't trip and fall'. Then next thing I remember I am sprawled out like a pancake as I have fallen face first into the dry hard grass!!!!! I was in shock that I had just fallen and felt like I could not even get up! I was so embarrassed!!!!! Anyway, I got up and I had to keep running for the helicopter where I met my son and he is just looking at me. Of corse I am all right, just VERY embarrassed! It was hard to enjoy the ride, but I tried to force it out of my mind. When we landed, I didn't even want to get off and go back towards the crowd of people that had just witnessed my blunder, but I had to. Patrick (who stayed on the ground) told me that no one even saw me as they were all involved in their own conversations....I don't know if that is true, but it was nice of him to say that. We all had a good laugh over it later in the day!

Hope everyone has a great Monday!!!!

Okay...blog is not even one day old....

and I already changed the title of my blog. Maybe a little over zealous right now! We will see how good I am at keeping up and actually writing things down in my blog! I will say that I was super excited that I had two comments when I came to write this!!! Yipeeeeee!!! So I will show a couple of recent layouts here with this post as well. The All-Star layout was done for a challenge at Paper Popsicle...16 photos in a double page layout....talk about a challenge!!! The Being Silly layout was done with new Dude Design papers...they are awesome!!!!

Well Collin just asked to get the water hose out (his new favorite TOY) so I am off with the camera to try to get some good shots. I hope everyone has a great Sunday. I think we are heading off to the 3 Rivers Festival tonight for some good (but NOT healthy) eats!!!

I wasn't going to....but I just did!

I was not going to do a blog...who wants to hear....who would care....it would probably be hard to do! Well, I want to hear, I care, and it was so EASY to do! So here it is my official blog! If anything, I am hoping to just keep record of my crazy wonderful life! I love checking my friends blogs so that sealed the deal! So thanks for stopping over and I hope you come back often!