Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. It is always great to be together as a family.

Pre Christmas Snow Storm

We had a snow storm the week before Christmas. Jack loved the snow. I almost had a breakdown because I couldn't get the snow blower started. Cody came over and saved me...

Lauren was mesmerized by the Christmas lights.

Jack is very jealous of the babies. He was practically sitting on Meghan's head. I had trouble rotating this picture...

Christmas Pagent

Joseph had his first Christmas program...it was with his preschool class. He did really good and even sang a bit and danced. There were little girls pulling their dresses up over their heads and little boys and girls crying for their parents. We were very proud of Joseph for being such a good boy.
When the "angel" came onto the stage with Mary and Joseph, Jaden said "look nana, a butterfly".

After the program I took photo for Jenni's Christmas cards. The kids are such "hams" it was hard to get a good picture of both of them at the same time.

Santa....I like him!!

We had Thanksgiving at my sister Ang's house. Earlier in the day I had told Jaden that we would be going to see a movie about Santa Claus after we ate. Her response was I like him... (Santa Claus). She climbed up onto my dad's lap and proceeded to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.....ponies, care bears...and then she gave him a big kiss and hug. I think she thought he was Santa!

Varsity Jacket

Sorry I have been MIA...
Meghan received her letter jacket last week. We are very excited for her. I think that by having her name embroidered in cursive, and adding the hood...it makes it look more girlie than the plain letter jackets!
Congratulations sweet girl!!

Jingle Shells

I designed this card for our friends and family who live in Florida. I think it is pretty cute!! The pail is full of glittery ornaments. And of course Mr. Crab has googly eyes and his Santa hat on. I can't wait to put this one in the mail.

My First (and last) Tattoo

Travis and I went to a tattoo party Friday night at the house of one of our friends. We had lots of fun and both went home with tattoos. I have wanted one for along time. They say that once you get one, you will want more. I can honestly say that one is enough for me...Mine is small 1 1/2" wide and it took no more than 10 minutes to tattoo. My friend Shawn's tattoo took 3 hours and Travis's took a little over an hour. Travis thinks he wants one more... Like I say, one is enough for me.

Meeting Lauren

Travis arrived home from Florida on Friday afternoon (yippee) and Saturday morning we went over to Cody and Adrian's so he could see Lauren. When we left their house, he said "we are really blessed to be able to have grandchildren.


Joseph and Jaden were very happy to see their grandpa too, they spent most of their Saturday sitting on Grandpa's lap watching cartoons.

Just One More Thing...

This is my Halloween display inside the front door of my home...not the best picture. I made the BOO banner hanging on the mirror. My friend Shawn gave me the wine glass candelabra...I love it. Ohhhh and I bought the creepiest raven from Target, you can't really see it in the picture. Next year I will take a better picture. Now I need to start thinking about a Thanksgiving display.

Trick-or-Treat Smell My Feet

The witching hour was between 6 and 8 o'clock tonight in Northern Indiana....I saw many ghosts and goblins, plus a really cute fairy, a sweet puppy and spiderman.

Capt. Jack was so good and posed for a Halloween picture and then watched the goblins come and go from the office window (without barking toooo much).

I love Halloween, first of all who doesn't love CANDY??? I love the cool autumn nights and the smell of burning leaves. I especially love to reminisce about my childhood and trick-or-treating with my brother and sisters. One year we grew a HUGE pumpkin in our garden and we had it on our porch and someone stole it. My dad chased the teenagers down in his car and got our pumpkin back...One time we tp'd our grandparents who lived right next to us. The next morning they paid us to come clean it up (I think they gave us a quarter each). So not only did we have the fun of being sneaky but we got paid to clean it up too. And our parents went with us...talk about family fun.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

My Pillow

I LOVE my pillow. I was looking for a craft that I could do while sitting at ball games or waiting in the car. I tried knitting....it was not for me. But embroidery, this is for me. I love how I can choose the color combinations and the form of whatever it is I am embroidering. I actually sewed five of these pillows tonight, all of the different. But I ran out of stuffing. I will make a run to Walmart tomorrow and get the rest of them stuffed and sewn up.
This is a close up of the "flower" Each little "knub" is a French knot.

New Winter Coats

It is that time of year....

Leaves changing color, carving pumpkins, colds (yes, I have one), and new winter coats. Our daughter Jenni stopped over this morning with Joseph and Jaden to show Nana (me) their new winter coats and hats.

I have been working on Christmas cards today. I am thinking of opening an Etsy shop and have been working on some samples. I also have some hand embroidered pillows that I want to put in my shop, unless I decide to keep them all, they are really cool. But then I probably don't need 10 pillows on my couch. Maybe I will give some of them away for Christmas presents...

Our Newest Little Sweetie Pie

LAUREN RUTH

Born 10/22/07 at 5:39 p.m.

6 lbs 12 oz.

20" long

Welcome little one....

A new vehicle

My daughter Jenni purchase a new vehicle. She was so excited that she could purchase it on her own (without a co-signer). We are proud of her too.

A new baby.....

Okay, not quite yet...

My son Cody and his wife Adrian are due to have their first child together any day. Actually Adrian is over due and spent a night in the hospital this week because she was going to be induced. But it didn't work and they sent her home. Boy was I surprised when I called the hospital expecting to see hear about my new grandbaby and instead the nurse tells me that they sent her home. Seriously I have never heard of them sending anyone home after starting to induce them. She goes back to the dr. tomorrow.

Cody, Adrian and Cameron

My First ATC

This is my first Artist Trading Card....It was fun to make....I had great visions of selling ATC's on Ebay or Etsy....but I swear I am ADD or ADHD; I just flit from one thing to the next...Right now I should be doing my homework but instead I started dinner (chicken & noodles, mashed potatoes) and took the dog for a walk. As a last ditch effort to procrastinate doing my home work I thought I would update my blog, seeing how it has been almost a month.

Here are some pictures of what I have been doing lately.

Meghan's volleyball games

Picking out the perfect pumpkin with the grandkids

And taking care of Jack (isn't he cute).

Stamp Camp Projects

Here are the stamp camp projects from this weekend.

And this is a picture of my 40 cards in 40 days for my 40th birthday. Can you see the card with a picture of a baby on it? That is ME!! My mom made that card!! It is obvious that my craftiness was inherited....

A new addition

We got a new puppy....His name is Jack. Actually his full name is Captain Jack Sparrow. I am a huge Pirates of the Caribbean fan (Johnny
Depp). He is a cockapoo (cocker spaniel/poodle).

So far he has been an excellent dog. He seems to be very smart and we have had no problems house training him. He loves his new Iams puppy bisquits I bought for him. So much that he snuck into the office and was trying to break into the box of bisquits. He does not like his kennel.

The Mission was Successful

Getting ready for the mission....

This is me sitting in the airport (we caught the train there) with my birthday tiara one (it was blinking). I had to wear the tiara until the train left the station.

For my 40th birthday, my sister and mom took me to Chicago to see the play "Wicked". We had an amazing time. The play was awesome, for those of you who don't know, it is about the Wizard of Oz....with a twist. We went shopping and took a carriage ride. Plus ate lots of good food and had lots of laughs.

Me in front of the marque.

All of this luggage for 4 girls for one night in Chicago....

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, time slips by so fast doesn't it. Looks like it has been 3 weeks since I have posted on my blog. I truly have been busy.

Meg has at least two volleyball games a week, sometimes more. My college classes have started back up again (I am taking 3). Meg and I went to Florida over Labor day weekend to see Travis. I have been working on stamp camp projects for the upcoming class (9/15). I am sure there is more, but those are the highlights.

This weekend is my surprise birthday celebration (Birthday Impossible).

When I received my package from Gina S. she gave me something extra, an awesome Artist Trading Card. I will be putting this in my scrapbook. Check out her blog, she has lots of amazing stuff. Plus she is much better about updating her blog.

First Day of School

Wow, where did the summer go?? Today was the first day of school for Wawasee kids. Meg has been at the school all summer long for volleyball and basketball, so I don't think it felt much different for her this morning when I dropped her off. Although she did get dressed up for the occasion. Her first class this morning is Marketing and the jv volleyball coach is her teacher. Meg said she was teasing him because now he will get to see her first thing in the morning and then several hours after school.
We (my husband and I) have made a decision to get another dog. Our dog "Babe" died this past spring. She was 10 years old. I was really, really sick of her hair (she was a horrible shedder). This time our number one priority is non-shedding and hypo-allergenic. We are looking at a soft coated Wheaten Terrier. With Travis gone so much, I get lonely being at home all by myself (especially on weekends).
There we some questions on the dream dinners that my sister, mom and I went to last week. When you sign up, you choose what meals you want to make, when you get there they have everything you need to make the meals, you just bag up all of the ingredients in freezer bags and pans. You take them home and pop them in your freezer and then just pull them out and cook them as needed.
I have not been stamping much the past two weeks. At first it was because I was missing my husband and didn't want to do ANYTHING. But then I got myself hooked on another project. I am making hand embroidered pillows. I have made 3 so far. Here is the LINK where I learned how to make them. I have the front panels all done, when I completely finish them I will post them.

Birthday Impossible

This evening I went with my mom and sister to Dream Dinners. We had a great time. On the way we stopped for dinner, when I got back in the vehicle there was a card on my seat that said:

Birthday Impossible.... You mission, if you choose to accept it, will be dangerous and fraught with adventure, excitement and if you are lucky, a cold drink at the end of the day! Plan to arrive at ...(my mom's house) on Sept 8th at 7:30, bring with you a backpack loaded with the following, a bathing suit, tennis shoes, shorts, a dressy undercover outfit, a toothbrush and $21.50 for admittance. Make sure taht you have identification for whichever identity you choose to assume on this mission. Have monetary resources available to you as you never know who you will need to buy off for information! You will need to inform your next of kin that you will be unavailable until after the mission so any minor children will be need to be covered. If you choose to accept the mission - we wish you the best of luck!! and Happy Birthday!

I am beginning to think there are multiple parties involved in this operation.....here is a mug shot of some of the people I think may be involved in this operation....

New Stamp Set

I was the lucky winner of an Autumn Leaves stamp set, "Nature" by Rhonna Farrer. I bought it off of Ebay. I am really drawn to bird images lately. I can't wait until I receive these in the mail and I can get some ink on them.....

Happy Birthday Meghan

My daughter and I had a great time in Chicago over the weekend. We did get lost in the "ghetto" on the way out of town, and that was a bit scary. We ended up getting home around 1:00 am Sunday morning. We were having so much fun it was hard to leave Chicago. My husband returned home from a Canadian fishing trip with my dad, brother and two other guys. He got home Sunday morning at 8:30. So we spent the day napping and then went to the "lake house" for dinner Sunday evening. My blog hasn't had much card making/stamping information on it lately. My husband returns to FL tomorrow, so then I will have lots of extra time on my hands to work on some projects swirling around in my head.

Today is my daughters 16th birthday. It is hard to believe that my baby is 16. We are taking her out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants tonight in Fort Wayne (Cork & Cleaver).

Here is a picture of my kids.

Jenni (22), Meg (16), Cody (21), Zach (19)