Friends

It is amazing the places you can make friends these days. Some of the people that I consider my best friends I have found through the internet, and we have never met in person.

One of those friends is Bonni, who I met through another friend Tasha. Bonni has become a very good friend, even though we haven't ever met in real life. When my Mom passed away in 2004, Bonni made me this gorgeous layout, based on a story that I told about the day my Mom passed away and on a photo that I had posted previously of my Mom and I. I was so touched that someone would go to the effort to make something so beautiful for me. Bonni was so worried that she would upset me with the layout, that she emailed me a picture before sending it and apologized in advance if she upset me. Dork! I love it and I can't believe I haven't shared it with anyone yet. I promised Belinda that I would post this - so here it is.



The day that my Mom passed away, all 8 of her children were there, along with various in-laws and neices and nephews, quite a crowd. We would take turns going into the house to spend time with her. At one point quite a few of us were sitting outside and a hummingbird kept coming over and hovering at the bush right by our shoulders and then would fly up to the tree next to us and just sit there. We all commented on how it was so odd to actually see a hummingbird just sit, and also on the fact that the bird hung around so closely to us. Hummingbirds were always my Mom's favorite and she collected hummingbird stuff. I commented to my sister that maybe it was Mom's spirit guide and by brother said maybe it's an angel. It is a special memory and I was so shocked when I got this from Bonni. All the thought and time that went into it. I cherish it!

Bonni you are a great person and I'm glad to call you my friend.

Melancholy

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I get this way every so often, since my Mom passed away in August of 2004. I don't think I'll ever heal completely, but I am able to handle the funks better, and for that I'm grateful and so is my family.

I've found that scrapping about my Mom is very therapeutic, so I've been scrapping these last few days to get through the funk.

I'm also running a Kit Smackdown Challenge challenging people to use up kits that they have been hoarding, and this is the start of mine. I've got 103 new, unopened kits and 28 partially used kits. So I've got a ways to go!




The kit is the Scrap Addict Ally Kit from Dec of 2004 and it features Basic Grey papers. This one is inspired by the 2005 AL Calendar on 8/20-8/21. I added MM Rub on Alpha, BG Wholly Cow Rub On, Scrapworks Rub On Alpha, Maya Road Ribbon, and used my Fastenator for the first time! If you want to see the journaling - you'll have to check out my gallery at Scrap Addict :)



This one is inspired by the 2005 AL Calendar on 12/30. I added MM rub ons, charms, mailbox letters and pins, along with unknown charms, Maya road ribbon, unknown ribbon, and again my Fastenator. This is one of my favorite pictures of my Mom, it was taken a couple of days before she passed.

TFL!!

Layouts

I promised you layouts - so here they are! And don't faint because I've got 3 posts today on my blog - lots to make up for you know :)



This is Mitch and the love of his life, his 2004 Dodge Hemi. Unfortunately, the Hemi had a chronic illness and we were forced to put it down in favor of a 2006 Honda Ridgeline and I think that I may have regained the throne as the love of Mitch's life! The kit is from Scrap Addict (of course!!) , it is the Dungarees Kit and my scanner totally screwed up the colors, IRL it is very pale yellow and blue. To the kit I added Big Honkin Stickers (my fave!!), MM Mixed rub ons and the sketch is by Karen (kadensmom) K18 and is turned for the 2nd page. I left the large blank area, so that DH could journal about his beloved, once he gets over the grief




This is Brett on the swings in 2004. Isn't he so stinkin' cute in those glasses??
Another Scrap Addict kit, Harvest Moon. I added the Sweetwater journal tag and it is inspired by the 2005 AL Calendar on 2/11. Thanks Mel (blessedintheUS) for the great challenges using the AL Calendar.

I've been tagged

Lacey and Jen both tagged me - so here goes. At least this forces me to update my blog :)

The tagged victim lists 8 different points of their perfect partner & give the gender. In order to avoid the meme curse I must tag 8 victims (they would be listed at the bottom of this post) to join this game & leave a comment on a post letting them know they've been tagged.

My partner: Male

8 qualities of my perfect partner (in no particular order of importance) :

1. sense of humor
2. shows affection easily
3. cute butt
4. awesome dad
5. beautiful eyes
6. intelligent
7. great work ethic
8. helps around the house

Guess I'm going to be a victim of the meme curse - whatever that is LOL, cause I don't have 8 victims to tag - ya'll beat me to it!

Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl!!

We aren't a big sports family, but I just know that we would have been kicked out of Washington State had we not watched the big game yesterday. Seahawks did Seattle proud and wiped up the Panthers. Awesome game - I am keeping my fingers crossed that they continue to play that well when they meet the Steelers!

Go Seahawks!!

I know I haven't updated my blog in awhile, and if you care - sorry. I just haven't had anything to say really and have been trying to scrap. Tomorrow I will post some of the recent layouts that I have finished.

28 days

It has now been 28 days of rain for those of us in the Seattle area. 5 more days to go to match the record for our area of 33 days set back in the 1950's. We have had brief glimpses of the sun, but mainly it has been a continual grey gloom. And even though everyone talks about how when the Seattle area is, I was suprised to learn that we don't even come close to other places, including Hawaii and Alaska. Hawaii once went 247 days in 1993-1994 and Alaska had 69 days in 1993-1994 (including rain and snow) And Otis, OR went 79 days and Centralia, WA 55 days.

So even though I'm complaining - it's not the worst thing :)

Happy Sunday all.

Tagged by Laura

Well, Laura tagged me, but fortunately it wasn't painful, as I had already done this on my yahoo list - LOL

Four jobs you’ve had:

• Receptionist at County Health Department
• Waitress at a Chinese restaurant
• Title Clerk at Used Car Dealership
• Clerical for Well Drilling Company

Four Movies you’d watch over and over:

• Sound of Music
• Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• The Cutting Edge
• My Best Friends Wedding

Four places you’ve lived:

• Phoenix, AZ
• Irrigon, OR
• Santa Rita, GUAM
• Norfolk, VA

Four favorite TV Shows:

• Alias
• House
• Lost
• Stacked

Four places you’ve vacationed:

• Hawaii
• Crater Lake, OR
• Disney Land
• Great Bend, KS

Four Websites you visit daily:

• Scrap Addict
• Pogo.com
• Military Scrappers Paradise
• Google

Four favorite foods

• Any Mexican food
• Cowboy pizza from Papa Murphys
• Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and cream gravy
• Steak with onion and mushrooms

Four places you’d rather be right now:

• Someplace sunny
• Someplace sunny
• Someplace sunny
• Someplace sunny

Four most used scrapbook embellishments:

• Metal of any kind
• Brads/Fasteners
• Silk Flowers
• Alpha stickers and stamps

I won't tag anyone, as most everyone I know has already done it!

My little Scrapper

Emma, who is 5, has been driving me insane as my little scrap helper for a long time now. So when Felicia from Scrap Addict began offering her Kids Kits, I jumped right on that subscription. Now anytime a box comes, Emma wants to know if it is her kit and gets upset when it isn't. This is the latest kids kit she got and what she did with it - isn't it cute??





She has stuck to this fascination with scrapping for awhile now, so we set her up with a little scrap area back in the laundry room with me. I bought her a little 3 drawer chest, some kid safe ink pads, a pair of scissors, a heavy duty glue stick, some glue dots and gave her some of my older papers. She is in hog heaven. Here is her little work area



She has happily spent many hours back there since I put it together for her. I love to watch her scrap - she is so free. She isn't worried about cutting into the paper, or making things look perfect. She is just joyful. I wish I could be more like her.

Catching up

Boy, time flies. It's been quite awhile since I've updated, so this could be long :)

Mitch came home on the 4th with an Anniversary card and a bottle of Pure Poison perfume. Guess he must have been feeling a bit bad about how our anniversary went down. Guess he is a keeper :)

And the rain, rain, rain, keeps pouring down. Seems like we are having Noah type rain lately. Yesterday there was enough of a respite to allow us to get our outside Christmas lights down, but otherwise it has been raining for weeks now. Blech - I want to live someplace warm and sunny!

Took Emma to see Narnia yesterday. She had been pestering to go, because we are reading the books, and she wanted to see it. I wasn't sure if she was too young or not, but gave in yesterday. She did great. Was very caught up in the movie and not scared at all, although the preview for Pirates of the Carribean 2 scared her. All in all it was a good movie, not as grand as I thought it would be, but still okay.

We watched some movies over the weekend, Wedding Crashers, The Island and Into the Blue, all of them were decent movies. I was a bit suprised that Wedding Crashers was more of a romance than a comedy, but it was still good. DH like The Island the best. I'm anxious for The Constant Gardener to come to video, Ralph Fiennes is fine!!

Anniversary

18 years ago today, Mitch and I got married. I look back at those wedding pictures and we were so stinkin' young. Both of us just 20 years old. We have been together for almost 21 years.

This is my guy - isn't he a cutie??



And he is the best too, although his special day abilities suck. Whatchya gonna do?? Guess I need to plan them myself :) Once again his idea of an anniversary date, was going to the casino and taking me to dinner. We were going to go to a movie also, but his back was bothering him, so that was out. Anyway, I don't like to go to the casino, I might as well take my $$ and throw it on the ground for someone else to pick up. I have NO luck, and I don't enjoy losing my money. I'd do like Felicia, if they had a lounge that had a TV and I could just sit, but they don't only the bar, with all the football fanatics and smokers. No thanks. Then the restaurant he was going to take me to was closed, so we ended up at Red Robin. And because his back was out, he didn't get me a card or gift or anything. I guess I shouldn't whine too much, we are planning a trip to Vegas. But still... sigh..

Grateful

I wonder sometimes why people are like they are. What makes one person ungrateful, when others in the same family are not that way??

I sent a christmas present to someone, and as of now I have not heard from them, no thank you, no nothing. This is someone that in the past has hurt my feelings with some hateful comments and a cold attitude, but I keep trying since they are family. But I think this might be the straw that broke the camels back. DH says I should send an email and ask her WTF, and I guess I will, but I hate being put in that position.

So I guess in honor of this situation and the new year - Happy New Year by the way!! - I will list a few things that I am grateful for and resolve to have a more grateful attitude for the new year.

I am grateful for:

1. Of course you know I'm going to say, my husband. Mitch is such a great person, and he has certainly become adept at dealing with my particular brand of bull shit. Love you babe!
2. My kids. They drive me insane at times, but more often they melt my heart! They are such great kids, and each so different. I am thankful for my little blessings.
3. The internet. When I became a SAHM several years back, I decided to pursue scrapbooking to help fill the time, so I searched for scrapbooking groups on yahoo, and decided to see if I could find one for military spouses in hopes of finding a scrapping friend in my area. I didn't find any friends in my area - instead I found them all over the world. I love my gals from MSP and am glad to have found them! I also found Scrap Addict and love the people on the board, and the fabulous kits and am grateful to be a part of the Altered Design Team.
4.The library - I love being able to order great books at the click of a mouse, and go to the local library to pick them up. Reading is a wonderful pastime for me and the library keeps me in books!!
5. Scrapbooking - I have met so many great people through scrapping, and explored my creativity. Scrap supplies have become my obsession and I wouldn't change a thing!

There are more things I am grateful for, but I don't want to bore ya so I'll stop at five.