It only takes one day...

It only takes one day at my job for one to realize how lucky they are!!! I love my job and I love the satisfaction of knowing that I have helped children come from a horrible time in their life to a loving and caring environment of a new foster family. The job definitely comes with its ups and downs and is incredibly frustrating and yet rewarding all at the same time; and all in one day!!!

At our agency we just got a 1 week old baby for placement in a pre-adoptive home...sounds incredible right?? Well, she is an incredible baby, who needs alot of prayers! She was born with only about 1/2 of her brain and she is struggling with the basics of life itself. We did find an incredible couple who are going to adopt this miracle baby knowing that her life expectancy is only about 1 year. But they along with everyone that I work with know that the power of prayer and love can work miracles and that is what we are holding on to. So if you are the praying type, please offer up some prayers for this little miracle baby girl. I would also ask that you pray for her biological mother as I can't imagine how much strength she must have had to have to give her child to someone who she felt could care for her better than she.

I don't want to be a downer, but rather I want us all to cherish the everyday and realize that it is the simple things that are so important in life! So think of a "every day simple thing" to be thankful for....let me know what you thought of!

Take care and know that I love you all!!!!

Wowsers!!! What a GREAT show!!!

Today Collin, Nana, Papa, and I were lucky enough to go see the show Walking with the Dinosaurs and let me tell you it was quite a show!!! I was amazed at what they did!!!! It was great to spend the afternoon with my parents and son and the show was simply amazing!!! After the show we went to one of my new favorite restaurants...Granite City. Fabulous food there and you must try it if you have not already!!!

There are lots of contest going on at my favorite scrappy website Paper Popsicles...check them out! Here are some recent layouts from the June kit....love the Basic Grey line!!!

BOO!!! Did I Scare YOU???

Well, I thought you may be a little scared since it has been over 3 months since I have updated the old blog! Thanks to some gentle encouragement from some beloved friends (ummmm, you know who you are....love ya!) here is the latest in the Levy home (yeah have to do bullet points as to not bore anyone from reading it all....there is a quiz at the end!)

• School is almost over and I can't believe that I will soon be the mother of a middle school student!!! That is such a crazy thought! Collin has done very well this year and has enjoyed school! I am always thankful that he likes to go (don't get me wrong, he loves vacation days as well!"). He got to try lots of new things this year like football, the trumpet, readings during mass, being a conflict manager during recess, Science Fair, and lots more! We are VERY proud of him!!!
• I have finished my first class on my journey back to school to get my Masters in Social Work. My final grade was a B, yes I wish it was an A!!! Towards the end of the semester, work got crazy and I have been working long hours so unfortunately school was what had to be put on the back burner. I am hoping to enroll again in the Fall....we will see where I am at with my work!
• Speaking of work, it is crazy! I love my job, but the hours have been insane lately! We got a new BIG boss as I like to call her so things have been changing alot lately! Change is good, but sometimes hard during the process of change! I have been traveling to Merriville and Indianapolis EVERY week so that is a lot of time on the road!
• What makes driving so much a little better???? A NEW CAR of corse!!! Well, I have had my share of car problems lately so I finally just threw in the towel and got a new car. It is a Ford Fusion and I LOVE it! We got a great deal on it so even the payments are not too bad!!! The car came with Sirus Satilite Radio and can you say LOVE IT!!! Makes those drives a little easier!!!
• Baseball season is in full swing (ha, I am so funny!). Collin did not make it into the upper league, but I personally think it was for the best. He gets to play every inning of every game and he even is pitching! Can you say "give mom a heart attack!!!" I get so nervous when he is pitching, but he loves it! He does quite well and it is so much fun to watch!!!
• This is my last month on the Design Team for Paper Popsicles. I love that place so much and sure wish I could spend more time chatting it up with the gals over there! I will be staying on Melissa's "Team" as a .....hmmmmm, I don't exactly know what my title is, but I am staying on doing monthly challenges and more. Check them out!!!! Guarenteed you will love the place!!

Well, I will leave you with some recent layouts/creations. I am working on some more so dare I say check back soon? Thanks for the love and support!

Okay....Don't fall over because I have blogged now again in the same month...

I told myself that I was going to try to get better and look, I am! It may be a short post, but it is a post!

We had a packed weekend with Regional Science Fair, Major League Baseball tryouts, and cousins coming over for a visit. It was a great weekend!!!

I am so proud of Collin!!! He was an alternate for the Regional Science Fair for his school and he was actually able to go to the fair because one of the other kids could not. Out of about 40 projects for the 5th grade, his came in 3rd!!! I was shocked and amazed! Of corse I am partial to his, but it was great to see him on stage accepting his award. His project did the best from his whole school! Now THAT is impressive!

Here is a picture of a paint can that I altered using products from Paper Popsicles...I am using it for Collin's Easter Basket...shhhhh don't tell him!!!!

Hope you have had a wonderful St. Patty's day and that you will have a blessed Easter!!!

So What is New With YOU?

Well, it seems like time has passed by again and the old blog has been ignored! Yet again life has flown by and now it is March already! Things here are just rolling along with a few speed bumps put in to make life interesting!

This weekend Collin and I will be at IPFW at the Regional Science Fair. The child was thrilled that his Science Fair project was chosen!!! I am so proud of how he is able to do speeches and give presentations at such a young age. I know that when I was his age, I was terrified of speaking in front of others. He, on the other hand, loves to do church readings and presentations in front of his class or even the whole school!

His class is also studying the United States and they have to be able to locate them on the map. I am pretty sure that this is one of those skills that when you don't use it...you loose it a little bit! I found a fun website (click here) for him to practice. Check it out! See if you are smarter than a 3rd grader...that is what is says on the site!

School is going well for me...I forgot that the word college basically means READING!!! I am having a little bit of a problem fitting time in for all of the reading that is required! I will be happy to see the snow go away. It seems like every Tuesday (when I have class at night) we have a major snow/ice/sleet storm pass us by! IPFW is on Spring Break this week although it doesn't seem to Spring"ish" to me! I will say that it is better so I am not complaining!!!

I also have been busy with some wonderful projects over at Paper Popsicles!!!! I tell everyone that I know that she has the best kits for the best prices around! I am in charge of doing a monthly challenge with the monthly kits so you should stop over and check them out! Here are the layout/cards that I did for March's Challenge where I focused on titles...

I must also tell you that I was fortunate enough to get some of my incredibly talented friend, Andrea's, paperline from her newest release and it is AWESOME!!!! Here are a couple of projects with her paper and rub-ons!! Check out where you can get some of your own here!

I may be a little partial, but I think Andrea's lines are awesome! Thanks again Andrea!!!

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers for our family with regards to the house fire that my brother-in-law and his family went through a little over a week ago. It is hard to imagine that in one days time how your life can change! We went from planning to go to dinner with them at Cebellos that night to them having a house fire and now not being able to "go home" for 2 or more months. We are so grateful that no one was hurt and that their house was not a total loss. There are lots of pieces to pick up, and I am so thankful that we have family and friends around to help!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Easter....I can't even believe that I just typed that!!! It is the second week of March....but I truly hope that your Easter is filled with many blessings!

Well, it has been over a MONTH...

It has been a loooooong time since I have last updated the old blog...guess that means I have been busy.....right? It has been crazy around our house with lots of things going on. I will try to update you all a little:

• Collin is done with basketball for the season. It was a great season and I really enjoyed watching their team grow both in their basketball skills and their team spirit! Their team went from not scoring a single point in their first game to becoming quite competitive and winning 6 games. It was great to watch them play and to cheer them on with all of the other parents!!! I do miss the games, but not the hectic schedules!!!


• We had a suprise birthday party for Collin at Laser X and boy was it a suprise!!!! I gave all of the invitations directly to the parents of the boys that we invited and they all did a wonderful job keeping the suprise from Collin. When he came into the building he was speechless!!! And for all of you that know Collin....that takes some doing to get him speechless! He came up to me after his first game of Laser Tag and told me, "mom, I have to keep pinching myself to make sure this is not all a dream!!!" So sweet and it was a great party! I am still having a hard time believeing that my "baby" is 11!!!!


• I have started my class at IPFW....AND I have my first test next Tuesday! It has definately kept me busy although I am enjoying it. Collin has been very "helpful" with suggestions on how I can stay organized and study for my test. Very cute!


• Our office has moved and that has come with lots of new and interesting problems...most of which have been solved. We were without computers/phones/faxes for over 4 weeks which made everyday tasks very difficult! I do love our new office, although I don't really like the location...you see I was spoiled with having our old office 5 minutes from my house!


• On the scrapbooking front, not much is happening. I have been in a creative slump for a while, but getting to host a new monthly challenge over at Paper Popsicles has helped me out of it! Check it out! I will be doing a new challenge each month to get those creative juices flowing in all of us!

So that is the short side of the story of the last two months. I am going to leave you with some pictures from our lastest snow storm. Patrick and Collin decided to build forts and then throw snow balls at each other! FUN! But yeah I stood and took the pictures....someone had to do that job! LOL!

I hope everyone is having a safe and fun winter season! Hey, did that groundhog see his shadow today??

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!!!!