So Lucky

The storm whose eye was supposed to pass right over Guam, totally changed it's course and we didn't even really get any rain from it. Unfortunately Saipan wasn't quite so lucky, not sure how bad they got it, but they were definitely hit by it.

I've been working on my Scrap Street Star layout for the week. Here was my original entry

I wasn't particularly happy with it, but it fit the criteria and it was done so I uploaded it.

Last night Kerrie came over to scrap and I was working on this Easter 06 page and when I was done I realized it fit all the criterie and I liked it a whole lot better.

So what do you think, did I pick the right one?

A typhoon, WHAT?

No this is not a drill we are really in the path of a typhoon, and yes it still is the dry season. Typhoon season isn't supposed to start until June, but we have a freak storm heading our way. What a way to start Sunday morning. We were five minutes from walking out the door to church when I got the call from Kerrie, thanks by the way or we would've still been getting ready. So after a quick change of plans I headed out for the grocery store instead of the commissary. Lucky for me not everyone had gotten the word yet and it wasn't getting crazy until I was in line to check out. I actually made it out of there in just under an hour, last time we were expecting a storm the line wound almost around the whole store and we were there for over two hours. Then when I got back Dave and I switched off and he went out for gas, propane and some odds and ends I forgot. Unfortunately by that time everyone else was busy preparing also so there was no propane to be found anywhere on base. We still have a bit left, hopefully enough to last until we can replenish.

I just ran our run for cover drill with the kids. Their key word is GO, if they hear me shout GO they are to go in an orderly fashion to the downstairs bathroom and close the door. The only windowless rooms in the House are our bathrooms, and they're also away from exterior walls so they're perfect safe spots. The kids did well, Caitlynn was ahead of the others and made sure they all got down safe and quickly.

Off to call mom and let her know what's going on and not to worry if she can't get a hold of us for a few days. Hopefully it'll be nothing but a lot of rain, but you never know, especially here.

Baseball!

WOW, what a week

The week started off bad with Caitlynn getting over the nasty stomach virus that blew through our house. Wednesday her class presented the Fairy Tale Garden. The kids learned about fairy tales and each wrote one of their own. I helped Ms. Skinner to make their stories into books, thank goodness there's only 18 kids in the class. Then Wednesday the class put on a few plays for the parents which were all parodies of classic fairy tales like Rafunzel. They were absolutely hysterical! The whole classroom was decorated with leaves, vines and garden lights and there was tons of food all with cute fairytale names like 3 pigs in a blanket and tooth fairy pudding.

Thursday was Dave and Elijah putting the finishing touches on his Lightning McQueen car for the Cub Scout pinewood derby Friday night. They did a really great job on the car. Friday was the races and it was insane. Picture about 50 boys 1st-4th grade in one room excited about racing their cars, talk about LOUD! Elijah was so happy, each car raced 4 times, his came in 1st twice, 2nd one and 3rd once, never last place. Go Elijah and Dad!

Saturday Caitlynn had a baseball game followed by a Birthday to attend. The whole team showed up at the Agat field ready to play, the kids were warming up, parent volunteers were ready to help out, everything was under control until we realized that there was no team showing up to play us. The game was supposed to start at 11am, at 11:10 the baseball commissioner shows up and tells us the game has been changed to Merizo field at the south end of the island, nothing like trying to coral the kids back into the car so we could haul tail to get there as fast a possible. I felt bad for the other team that had to wait on us to get there that whole time, it wasn't their fault. Unfortunately the communication has been terrible this baseball season, fields and times change every week and no one find out til the last minute. Since we started the game late and were farther away we got to Sabrina's birthday party much late than expected, but the kids still enjoyed it. We left the house at 10am that morning and didn't get home til just after 5pm. Needless to say I was NOT in the mood to cook dinner, we let Elijah pick where we'd go to dinner and he chose Pizza Hut, nice and close and casual.

Yesterday was another insane day. We lest the house for church at 8:30 am, everything was great at church, nothing out of the ordinary. Then we had to meet Sabrina's mom to drop off Caitlynn because they invited her to go to Tarza with them. After that we were off to Hannah & Elijah's game. We found out Saturday night that it had been changes to the Yona field, fantastic that's not far from church at all, plenty of time to get changed, grab a bite to eat and head over right? Well it would've been if I hadn't forgotten their cleats! So we had to rush home, grad the cleats, something to eat and rush back up to the field. The game started at 1pm and we literally were pulling into the parking lot at 12:59, nothing like last minute. Even better almost no one showed up for the game if Hannah & Elijah hadn't made it we would've had to forfeit because there weren't enough players. They played really well, Hannah was on 3rd and Elijah at short stop. He had about 50% of the balls get hit to him, so he didn't have time to get bored. When we got home I started a layout and threw together a homemade chicken noodle soup while we waited for Caitlynn to get home.

The layout I was working on was for the Scrap Street Stars contest at www.scrapstreet.com, my alltime favorite message board, I think it's the only one I've ever been a member of for almost 2 years. The challenge was to scrap you IT. Can you guess what my IT was? What totally consumes my life these days? Did you say Baseball? How did you guess? It's done and posted on the site, I'll upload it here when I get a chance along with the photos from the last week.

Here's to a much calmer week this week, I can dream right?

Hannah's a busy bee

I have been such a bad blogger, between baseball and all the other activities we've had going on, I just haven't had time.

The children at our school had the most awesome experience a few weeks back. Petey and Corey from the Missoula Children came to our school for a week. Every class pre-k through 8th grade had a theater workshop, anything from drama to theater makeup. But the biggest part of their visit was the play they would put on with 60 of our students. Monday afternoon right after school anyone who was interested gathered in the cafeteria for auditions. I know what you're thinking, auditions, scary right? Wrong! Not these auditions. All the children lined up around the cafeteria in height order, then they all went around and said their name and age. After that they went around and said it again, but in an excited voice, and this went on and on. Throughout the process they were moving the kids into different order based on what they saw. Then they sat down all the K-2nd graders, while the older kids continued their auditions. By this point it was pretty clear which kids were going to get the parts, because they were being asked to do additional things. Once they were done with the big kids they came back to the little ones. Their audition was even more of a game, when she said 1 they would throw their hands in the air and say tada. 2 was something like jump, 3 spin around, 4 blow kisses, 5 bow etc. Lucky for Hannah & Elijah, this was very similar to a drill they did in soccer this past season so they were very good at it. When that was done Petey and Corey went around and got the names and numbers of all the children that they chose for parts, the whole process took almost 2 hours. Hannah was among the lucky and got the part of a bee, the only part the K-2nd graders could get. Sadly for Caitlynn and Elijah they were not chosen, it didn't bother Elijah in the least bit, I was actually surprised that he tried out at all. Caitlynn on the other hand was heart broken, she had her heart set on being in the play and had a good cry when she wasn't picked. But she got over it quickly, since she's in 2 other plays in her class, another one in her gifted class and 1 the whole 3rd grade is putting on.

After a short break, the children with the main roles started rehearsal for another 2 hours. Lucky for Hannah being a bee only required two afternoons of rehearsal so she could come home. It had been a long emotional couple of hours and we all needed a bit of down time.

The most amazing part of all this is that in 20 hours of rehearsal time, the 60 kids that were chosen to participate, learned their lines, songs and moves; and were ready to perform it for all of us. That Friday evening and Saturday afternoon we were treated to an amazing performance of Rumpelstiltskin

Joy

I did it!

I finally took some photos in manual mode on my camera, I'm so proud of myself! After what seemed like forever, two weeks, the book I ordered Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson arrived this week and I haven't been able to put it down! I still need a ton of work of course, but to be able to make my own settings and have the picture not turnout black was a total improvement for me. Thursday I went to Plaza de Espana and played around a bit. Here's a couple of photos I took, keep in mind I wasn't too worried about composure, just exposure.

Photos from photography Thursday

Unfortunately when I went out a few weeks ago my mirror and sensor were dirty, so most of my shots were hopeless. In the water shot it actually made a pretty cool smudgy background, not that I'd reccommend getting your sensor dirty on purpose! The sky in the flag shot is awful, but I like the effect the sun had on the flag.

Brand New Life

here's the calendar page I made with my bird photo.

photography thursday

So I went out last thursday and planned to take pictures of Caitlynn as catcher during her baseball practice. Instead she told me about the bird nest she'd found the day before during Hannah & Elijah's practice. Of course the momma bird was not happy having me around so I got a few shots as quickly as I could and left them alone.

That's it!

I've said for quite a while now that I want to go to photography school and be a professional photographer. Going to school right now is out of the question for two reasons, there's no school here on Guam and with Dave going to school and working to be a diving instructor there just isn't time right now. But, that doesn't mean I can't get a few books and really start practicing in the mean time. There are hundreds of photo opportunities here just waiting for me, so I'm going to take them. I plan to spend one morning a week just on photography. Wish me luck!

No water?

We were supposed to have no water this weekend, and it's now Sunday and we haven't lost it. Definitely no complaints here, I'm just very surprised. Whether or not we lost our water depended if everyone followed the conservation standards set or not. I've seen them be totally ignored in the past, so I expected to lose water by yesterday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up and find we still had water this morning. Even if we lose it now it won't last long.

On meeting Akela

Sorry about cutting off the last line of journaling, I was so excited about the scanner working on the first try I didn't even notice. These colors are definitely not the norm for me, but they're the Tiger Cub colors, and it helps that they go together so well. Elijah worked really hard learning the Cub Scout Promise and other things to earn this patch, we're soooo proud of him!

Tiger Cub Hike

This is the first of many layouts I'll be doing about our hike at Ratidian on January 20th.

I really liked this KI memories paper, and we never really have a fall here, so I thought it would work for our hike in the woods. The layout isn't really all crooked like it looks, but my scanner has been tempermental and I finally got it to work after fighting with it for 2 days, I wasn't going to chance trying to get another scan.

learning to skate

I'm not happy with this one at all. I didn't want it to look like all the other skating ones I've been doing so I decided to try using 2 4x6s instead, but it's just blah to me. No focal point, blah blah. What's the saying, if it aint broke don't fix it? I should've stuck with the one large one small photo.

Rollerskate Diva

I'm noticing that I'm using less and less "stuff" on my layouts. Not sure why, just another phase I'm in I guess. I really thought with these bold papers it didn't need anything else.

By the Lanterns Glow

Sk8r Boy

It's fun to stay at the YMCA

I don't know what I thought of the YMCA's but this one here in Hong Kong is awesome. I'm sure they're not all this nice, but this one rocks! Are the rooms as nice as some of the more expensive places we could've stayed? No, but for the price it's much more than I expected. We have a view of Victoria Harbor, pool, two restaurants, a small shop and we're only 2 blocks from the Star Ferry. I would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling to Hong Kong.

Wow is all I can say about the shopping here! Every brand name you've ever heard of and thousands more can be found. Last evening we went to Harbor City and it was gigantic. It covered a few city blocks with over 700 stores. Of course the kids favorite store was Toys R Us, and they were spoiled with toys to bring back to the room to play with. Dave bought a gorgeous purple Chinese style jacket, I can't wait to get home and take photos of him in it.

Yesterday afternoon we walked through the antiques district where there were hardly any tourists. It was really nice to get out of the touristy district and see authentic Hong Kong, to see where the residents shop and how they live. While there I bought some tea (can't wait to share it with you Kerrie!) and Dave bought me a tea set like they use here., complete with slop bowl. We also found a beautiful mini screen with hand embroidered flowers and mini vases with scenes painted on them. I have o idea where these are going to go in the house, but I see hanging shelves in Dave's future.

Another great find was new glasses for Hannah & Elijah. We decided to go into the optical shop on a whim, just to see how long it would take them to get glasses for the twins. We ordered them yesterday and they'll be done this afternoon, and they cost less than $150 a pair. In Guam we pay at least $200 a pair and have to wait 6-8 weeks for the lenses to arrive on island. Plus they're getting better lenses this time, they're getting the light plastic ones that are scratch resistant, this is great because right now Elijah's lenses are about as thick as coke bottles and they're so heavy that no matter how we adjust his glasses they constantly slide down his face.

Well, looks like everyone's just about dressed and ready to start the day. Time for a good breakfast so we have energy to do some more shopping today. Today is electronics shopping, I'm looking for a pink ipod and a remote for my camera.

WOW Disney Rocks!!!!!!!!

Ok, we're a part of the Disney Vacation Club, which is basically a timeshare. We pay a certain amount every month and receive points to use for nights at disney hotels. It's always been cool, member receive discounts at parks stateside and on admission. Well here at Disney Hong Kong they took it to a whole new level! When we went to check in the woman at the front desk told us that she thought our reservation included our tickets. It was 1am when we got here, 3am Guam time, so we were a bit out of it, told her we didn't think so and she said she'd check into it. Come to findout yesterday Disney Vacation Club gave us 2 days of free tickets when we used our points to reserve a room. How cool is that? On top of that people staying at the Disney hotels here get a free days ticket for everyone that they buy, so for 4 days at the parks we only had to buy one day's tickets. And the tickets for the park here are much cheaper than stateside. We paid $1200 HK for the 5 of us which is about $150 , w usually pay at least that a day for 1 adult ticket. Off to breakfast and another day at the park!

Outside time today

We finally got a chance to replace Elijah's broken skateboard so I took the kids out for their first time with the skates and skateboard. When we got through all the tears of not being professionals right away they had fun. We made it down the path from our house to Kerrie's and back, and that was about all they could handle. Poor Hannah is going to have a bruised up tush because she kept falling on it. Caitlynn tended to fall more on her hands then anywhere else. Elijah didn't fall but once and even if he did I don't think he'd feel it, between the knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards he was pretty well covered.

Not sure what we'll do with the rest of out Saturday, maybe lunch and a movie and just a lazy day, who knows.

All or nothing

I went from not scrapping at all for months to completing 3 projects in 2 days. This one's by no means a masterpiece, but I love the paper salon paper and think I'll be doing more brown/green combos.

Here's another layout

I absolutely LOVE this photo of my mom! While she was here I took her on a tour of the south side of the island, which to me is the most beautiful part of the whole island because it is much less developed. This photo is from Inarajan pool, you can't relly tell cause it's so small here, but she looks so happy and carefree.

Feels good to scrap again

It felt so nice to actually sit down and scrap for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I've had this little file folder book sitting in my stash for over 2 years, probably over 3, so it was nice to pull something old and make something I love out of it.

Getting there

It's by no means perfect or spotless, but at least I can work in there now. The next issue is to decide what to scrap first, Christmas? The HUGE catterpillar I saw yesterday? Pictures I still haven't touched from Tokyo? Easter pictures I came across in my cleaning effort? The kids singing on Christmas Eve? Man the options are virtually endless.

Can't put it off any longer!

Now that Christmas is past I no longer have any excuse for not being able to scrap, or more to the point not even being able to walk into my scrap room. So since Dave's got a dive class tonight I'm working on organizing it all. Can you tell how into it I am, as I sit at the computer taking a break? lol. Here's a photo of the hallway with my organizing in progress, hopefully I'll have a done photo to post tonight also. Wish me luck, if no one hears from me in a week send help I was attacked by scrap supplies!

MMmmmm...

Dinner was super yummy! We didn't do much since it was only the 5 of us, but it was still delicious. We had a spiral ham, garlic smashed potatoes, corn and broccoli with cheese. The only thing left is a cheesecake when we're ready for dessert. What a wonderful day. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Last but not least, the presents

Children's Choir

The children's choir was so sweet. The sang Go Tell It On The Mountain and they did very well.

More Photos

Adult Choir Men's Choir

Christmas Eve service photos

There are more pictures to come as I get around to resizing them all.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Hark the herald angel sing, glory to the newborn King! Merry Christmas all! So far the day is fantastic, the kids got all kind of toys, movies and video games. Elijah got this insame Terrordactyl hotwheels playset that takes up about 5 feet of floor space. Caitlynn got a ballet dvd with barre and matte to learn how. Hannah got the twelve dancing princess dance mat with dvd. As we speak Caitlynn is honing her ballet skills, Hannah is resting after a grueling practice with the princesses, and Elijah is playing a new Scooby Doo Leapster game. I'm off to play the game with Elijah, I'll upload pictures later!

Christmas Caroling

The kids and I went caroling with the church last night and it was fantastic! I was worried because it didn't start until 6 and would end late, but the kids did real well, considering they go to bed at 7 usually. We visited all the homebound from our church and you could see they really enjoyed it! I'm not sure who was more blessed, I think it was probably me. The kids and I got to meet church member that we've never met before. The only thing that would've made it better was if Dave could've been there, he had duty last night. Of course we missed him, but I'd rather have him work last night instead of Christmas! Our last stop was at Sanctuary, a home for troubled teens. Of all our stops my kids really enjoyed this one the most. At the end all the teenagers were hugging them and telling them how cute they are. One young man called Elijah a little soldier and totally made his night, he thought that was so cool. Caitlynn was asking on the way home why those kids lived there and it was hard explaining it all to them, but I think she really got it, and realized what a great thing we did. By the time we got home it was about 10pm and we were all beat, as we pulled into the garage the kids were saying they wanted to go right to bed, like they had a choice hehe.
I just found this at www.claus.com, very cute:
Top 10 ways to make the naughty list
10.
Not wiping your feet before coming inside when it's snowy out (glad there's no snow in Guam!)
9.
Not bundling up like your mother tells you to when it's cold outside
8.
Not sharing your toys with your brothers and sisters
7.
Knocking down other people's snowmen
6.
Making a mess and then blaming it on the dog, cat or your imaginary friend
5.
Telling your brothers and sisters what they are getting for Christmas from Mom and Dad
4.
Knocking over the Christmas Tree while wrestling with you brothers or sisters
3.
Forgetting to put out carrots the reindeer with Santa's cookie's and milk. They need to eat too!
2.
Being bad all year and then trying to "nice up" just before Christmas. Remember- Santa watches you ALL year!
1.
Waking up early on Christmas morning to remove presents from everyone's stockings and replacing them with coal (this could be fun!)

See you in 2007

I can't believe Christmas is only 3 days away, it just all seems to have gone by so fat this year. Part of that was having my mom here for Thanksgiving, her visit just flew by. Today's the kids last day of school until January 8th. They actually won't go back until January 9th because we get back from Hong Kong on the 8th.
My house is a disaster, I've spent the last 3 days baking and running around like a chicken with her head cut off. And it continues today, I have a ladies lunch at Monica's house which I'm really looking forward to, it'll be the first relaxing I've done in a bit.
Kerrie and family left for Australia last night. I'm going to miss her, but I'm also soooo excited for her, this is her first Christmas home in 10 years. This is also the first time her family will get to see Ciara.
Caitlynn and I have some sinus thing going on, so we're both in fantastic moods hehe. The two of us butt heads all the time anyway, but right now it's even worse, I feel bad for everyone around us.

Who knew?

The kids and I went to watch Dave's basketball game last night. The kids have watched him play other sports, but never basketball. So we walk into the huge gym and the men all over shooting shot, dunking etc and they were in awe. They were in the stands cheering their little hearts out before the game even began. Then when it started? They went nuts. We will definitely be attending more games in the future!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

well not really, Guam is still very green and very hot, but that doesn't really matter. The tree has been up since a few days after Thanksgiving, all my favorite decorations and candles are out to help set the mood. All the hymns in Church are Christmas carols, and our family totally has the Christmas spirit. We're still trying to teach the kids the true meaning of Christmas, and they know it's a celebration of Jesus' birth, but I still don't think they really understand that's more important than the presents and other "signs of the season" Hopefully if we keep telling them it'll finally sink in one day. Hannah and Elijah's Birthday was the 10th and we had their parties this weekend. Hannah had a sleepover party with 4 girls from her class, and it was definitely an experience. Elijah had a bowling party yesterday with classmates and family friends. All in all it was a good but tiring weekend. And I've come to realize what good kids we have. You know how it is going through the day to day and it feels like your living with a bunch of heathens with no manners who you're embarrassed to take out in public, then you see some other kids and thank the Lord yours behave so well.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Here's my only photo from Thanksgiving Day. I was too busy enjoying great company to take the time to get the camera out. Isn't my turkey beautiful? I'm soooo proud of it, the first one I've cooked in about 5 years I think. What a fantastic day we had! Above all I'm thankful for my God and my salvation. Having my Mom here was outstanding! It's the first time we've all seen each other in over 1 1/2 years. Of course I've preferred to have all of our family here together, but I'm grateful for whatever God sees fit to give me. This is the first holiday we've had people over since GA, so it was great to have Mom, Kerrie & Chris and all the kids.

I also decided to go to the day after Thanksgiving sales for the first time in a few years. What insanity! I definitely couldn't do that every year. I was at the exchange at 5:15 and there were already no carts left. I ended up having to pay twice and make two trips to the van because I couldn't carry anything else. I have to say though, it was nice being done and home by 8 am. After that we lounged for a while and then took a trip up to Two Lovers' Point so everybody could see the view, since I'm the only one in the family who had been up there before. And it was a perfect day, a little overcast so it wasn't too hot, but plenty of blue skies to add to the gorgeous view. Here are some photos of us up there. I really love how this one of the kids turned out with the ocean in the background and the wind in their hair.

Our final destination was the PIC for a weekend of fun and relaxation at the water park. We had a blast and are now all home and worn out. Mom came with us to church this morning which was very nice. The kids loved introducing their Grandma to everyone they know. And of course all any one can say is that we look so much alike. It's funny, after all these years I still don't see it, but everyone insists so it must be.

Back to reality tomorrow. Back to work for Dave. Back to school for the kids. I'm not sure what's in store for Mom and I tomorrow, a lot depends on the weather and our energy level.

Time of death 9:15 pm

So my poor trimmer has finally bit the dust. A while back I broke the lift arm tha the blade runs along, I could still use it as long as I was gentle. Last night I thought I was being gentle but managed to break the fold out arm at the 6 inch mark. So I can still use it if my projects are smaller than 6 inches. Too bad scrapbook pages are 12 inches lol. So I'm in the market for a new trimmer, I want it to be sturdy but I don't want to spend a fortune. Anyone have any suggestions?

Cropper Hopper Ribbon Drawers

Anyone else buy them? I'm loving them for my ribbon on spools, but most of mine isn't. Is there anywhere that sells empty ribbon spools?

Please pardon the interruption

Just needed to update the mommy countdown, she will now be here in 20 day, that's right, less than 3 weeks. You may now return to your regularly scheduled web browsing.

Title Help

This project has been laying on my desk for at least 2 weeks now, and I still don't know what the title is. These are photos in Hannah's 1st grade classroom the night of open house. Anyone have any ideas?

Investiture Ceremony

Happy Halloween

Whew, we're home after walking the whole neighborhood and the kids just went to bed. Here's a photo of the kids. Caitlynn is Pocahontas, Hannah is Kim Possible and Elijah is a Red Mystic Power Ranger. You're jealous of me in my stylin costume aren't you?

Out of the mouth of babes

Kids crack me up, they come up with the most off the wall things. And usually it's totally unexpected. Today Elijah came into the kitchen while I was putting together lunch and tells me "When I get bigger I'll talk like a man, just like my dad!" And my answer, "Uh, yeah you will" lol. It took a minute register what he meant. I told Dave and he says "Does he mean yelling at kids like a dad?" I really think he meant he would have a deep voice like his daddy.

Only the Navy...

can change the date of Halloween. Trick or treating in Navy housing is this evening from 6-8pm. Try explaining that to a bunch of kid. All I've been hearing is but mom Halloween is Tuesday, so why're we trick or treating tonight? I'll try to get some photos up tonight after we get back.

The Mommy is coming, the Mommy is coming....

and I can't wait!!!!!!!! Mom will touch down at 1:30 am Guam time on November 20th. Only 23 more days till she gets here. And we get her for two whole weeks. Not nearly as long as it'd be in my dream world, but all take what I can get after 1 1/2 years! I hope we have lots of good weather while she's here so I can give her a proper tour of the island. Of course we'll have to do the beach thing, because we can. I really want to show her the beauty of the southern part of the island which is my fave by far. Maybe we'll do one of the water falls too, I think she'd like that. Man, I've got a LOT of cleaning and planning to do!

What are you into right now?

What's the tool or technique you're using on all your layouts lately? For me it's my scallop blade for my trimmer. Now sure why, but I'm loving it. My style usually isn't what I'd call romantic with scalloped edges etc, but I'm loving it right now! I just used it in my Happy layout and I also used it for my Christmas cards.

Happy

what is my problem?

I just haven't been in the mood to scrap for a few weeks now. I finally had a little kick of mojo last night and scrapped a page with my new paper salon papers. I LOVE this paper! Cutting out all those little circles was a total pain, but I love how it turned out. Not sure you'll be able to tell in the scan but I brought the color saturation down so there's just a hint of color. Otherwise the photo would've totally clashed with the papers. Now hopefull the mojo will stick around for a while so I can get back into scrapping again.

Unexpected Guest

So Friday evening was definitely interesting. I opened the back door and went to step out onto the back patio, when something flew over my head and into the house. My first thought was bat! I so didn't want to turn around and find out what it was, but with Dave not home I had no choice but find out. When I turned around I found this little birdie on my kitchen floor, definitely better than a bat! Luckily the cat didn't see it fly in so wasn't pouncing on it yet. Just as I bend down to pick it up the cat comes around the corner and jumps at it. So the frightened bird flew all the way under the kitchen table against the wall with kitty in how pursuit. The only way I could get the cat away was to pull her by the tail, which she gave me the cold shoulder for later. Then I climb under the table and finally get my hands on the bird, I was afraid that I might break it's wing, so I didn't hold it very tight, definitely a mistake! About 3 feet from the door it got out of my hand and flew away, and we went through the whole process again. This time I held a bit tighter and took the time to take a photo before putting it outside, definitely have to scrap this event you know. Finally the birdie is safely out of the house and in a total state of shock, I put it down on my patio tabke and it was so scared it didn't move for a half hour, then it flew away like nothing happened.

here comes the sun...ooops, sorry it's been delayed

So after a solid week of rain I can actually see a bit of blue peeking through the clouds this morning. The kids were so surprised when we got to go to the playground for the first time in I don't know how long! Glad we went when we did because the grey skies are back with intermittent drizzle.

Sorry for no updates lately, I just haven't spent very much time online lately. You know you're been gone a while when friends from message boards start sending you where the heck are you emails lol. Not sure what my deal is, just haven't been in the mood lately. I've been seriously reevaluating my scrapping goals and trying to decide what to do, if anything at all. Sometimes I wonder if God wants me to be published or on design teams, am I trying futiley to go against His will?Should I just give up the dream and scrap only for myself? Or is He just telling me wait or keep trying? Is He teaching me that good things come to those who wait and persevere? Anyway, that's what's been going on in my mind. So I've pretty much been pushing away all the chatter for a bit to try and figure out what I'm doing. I still love you guys and will be back soon!

So, since I've taken a step back from scrapping for a while I've been working on a few other projects. I've been making Bible verse cards and name tags for the ladies fellowship at our church Friday night. I've really enjoyed using my scrapping skills for His glory. I've also been working on my Christmas cards for this year using the Paper Salon stamps Love, Love, Love these stamps! I'm considering trying to sell homemade Christmas and all occasion cards this year. Anyone need some cards hehe? And I think my coolest project of all is a canvas for my living room wall. I love how this one came together, it's all red, white and blue which totally doesn't go with my livingroom, but it's one of my fave color combos, so who cares.