I should be packing...

but I'm posting layouts instead.

You'll notice by the counter over there ----> that we go to Fernie in one day! The trip is on, although with the midnight ear infection and puking of the girl, it was iffy for a while. Not really - we got antibiotics at the clinic first thing this morning, kept her home from school all day, and she's good to go. Very happily for her as well as us, since she's going to winter camp this weekend while we're gone. Last year was the first year she did winter camp, and got an ear infection while she was there and had a miserable time, missing all the fun. We've got that beat this year, sending her pre-drugged... :) She loves camp and is counting down to summer camp already.

So here's some layouts I finished this week:


This is just a silly 8x8 for her little book - these are funny old photos from years ago.


This one needs something... it's my first 12x12 two page spread. Fun papers from that colorbok kit.


Mmmm - LOVE this picture. LOVE this guy. LOVE that I can look at that and have good memories and not remember how miserably out of shape I was. Although I honestly think it was the asthma, not my muscles.


December 2003. A long time ago. A lifetime ago? I remember that this was a nice break from crying... but that's another story, and I chose not to write about it on the layout. It was more important for me to make a fun page with this shot.

Web Pastor?

A friend made a comment about me being a web pastor (I think it was because I suggested we have a staff blog on our church website, and they agreed, and now we do). But that phrase made me sit back... I do connect with my people more online and through texting than face to face. Young adults are not program-goers, and while I've been frustrated over what I do and what I'm not doing in my role there, this is legit. I am staying connected. It's not a cop out, but where they are. And I should do more of it, and less stressing about not seeing them weekly. Hmmm - web pastor...

Here is the blog on our site if you want to check it out. It's new, so there's not much on there yet.

Tag... I'm it.

I got tagged by the Kenny's a while ago to write 7 things about myself on my blog. And then I got tagged by two people, Alexis and Kim, within the last week on facebook to write 25 things about myself.

Sh here are 25 things about myself that you may not know. This should be easy since I'll assume you know nothing about me. (Except you, Jess.) I'm doing this here instead of on fb because it's a little less public. Maybe I'll do a really random one there, instead.

1. I am a believer in Jesus. Wholly and completely, and that influences every other thing on this list.

2. I have a big brother and a little sister. They are both married and have wonderful families.

3. I have 12 nieces and nephews and 2 on the way. (Not all from that brother and sister!)

4. I have been to 13 countries on 4 continents. Canada, USA, Mexico, Barbados, Venezuela, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal, and Kenya.

5. I have been to Mexico 5 times, but never overnight.

6. My new summer hobby is being pit crew at the drag races.

7. My husband is playing poker online right now. With play money.

8. I am halfway through my masters degree.

9. My personality type is INFJ, which is the most rare type.

10. I played soccer for 10 years, basketball for ever, and rugby for 2.

11. I coached M's soccer team when she was 5, and co-coached basketball for 2 years. I'm not a very good coach.

12. I have one daughter who is going to be 10 this summer. She gets all her bad traits from me. That's so annoying.

13. I have a second daughter, Lucy, who was stillborn at 5 months.

14. I have been married twice.

15. My first husband died of cancer when we were 30.

16. Lucy and her dad share a plot in the cemetery. I find comfort in this.

17. I am almost 36, but as S (and Bon Jovi) say, it's not old, it's just older.

18. I have been on two missions trips.

19. My trip to Kenya was a scholarship, because God loves giving me good gifts.

20. My sister and her husband watched my girl for the month I was in Kenya, partly because I watched their 3 boys for the month they went to Kenya a couple of years back.

21. I love reading. There's nothing better than getting lost in a good fiction read.

22. I work part time at a church as a pastor to young adults.

23. I scrapbook, and have had 2 layouts published.

24. I quilt once in a while.

25. I have my own 'studio' in the basement for my hobbies.

Watch This

and then show your kids, if you think they're old enough. M and I had a good conversation after I showed her and asked, "What can we do?"



I saw this on Anne Jackson's blog, which I've been following for a couple of weeks now. She had a good post the next day, too about the 'shock value' of showing poverty like this. I hope by passing it on to you, it spurs you on to something - in my heart right now is 'how do we grow kids to know God's heart?' so talking to M about this was what I did.

Breakforth

is a great weekend of learning and spiritual renewal. I think you should go. Seriously. It's always the last weekend of January in Edmonton.

The driving was great for a change, and we had a really good weekend. There were 13 of us in a van, plus some friends from another church who caravaned with us.

The weekend has 4 main sessions and 5 options sessions, which you pick out of a couple of hundred options. (There are 7000 people at this event!) I had 3 sessions with Tim Kimmel about family stuff (Grace Based Parenting, Why Christian Kids Rebel, and the Strong Willed Child), one session with Shane Claiborne (have you read his Irresistible Revolution yet? If not, do.), and one with Brett Ullman, on culture, which was really good. Sean had the same 3 parenting ones (and our requests were really different - you have to pick your top 3 options for each spot) and then had 2 drumming ones.

Here are the main points from the main sessions, just in case you want a little peek at what we heard / learned:


Erwin McManus

If your greatest dream became your life, would it make the world a better place?

“You were a dream in the mind of God before you took your first breath.” Doesn’t it make sense that your life live out the dream God had of you?

Is there a dream that you’re supposed to be living that is trapped under the rubble of your past?

Are you willing to take the risk from the life you have today to the life entrusted to and controlled by God?


John Eldredge

God SPEAKS to us. And not just through the Bible.

Do you recognize his voice? Do you ask him what he is speaking to you?

Quiet down. Ask simple questions. Surrender.


Wayne Coderio

One common denominator in all successful Christian leaders: RESILIANCE.

Learn quickly. Train your eyes to see things Godly. Never forget who you are.

People are waiting for Jesus. They need hope. We are to bring hope to the world.


Phil Calloway

Keys for effective ministry in a fast paced world:

Laugh. Slow down. Where is your treasure?

New Store!!!

I had a great morning today! First I had a dentist appointment and was told I have great teeth - I knew they weren't terrible, but didn't know they were so above average. Got a kick out of that. Then I had a great visit with the owner of a little paper shop where I went to get a new journal. Nice meeting super friendly people like that, especially ones who have a passion for paper...

And between those, I met Carla at the new scrapbooking shop that opened today. We were among the first 10 customers and got free memberships! Yay! It's called Scrappin' Your Way, and was full of fun stuff. I spent a little today, but have my eye on some things for later, too.

Here's what I picked up:



And what I made with it tonight:

a thank you and some layouts

The thank you is to Jen and Clayton for this Christmas gift that got used for the first time last night with delicious results.




The stoneware is so nice and the stacking cooling racks are brilliant. Love it. Thank you!!


This one is my first 12x12 of the year. I printed out all these pictures thinking to use them on the game board for the Schneider Family Trivia Game, but ended up not using them. So I used them in a layout!


This is another one with the Colorbok Friendly Forest kit I got. So fun.


This one is an 8x8 and will go in Madeline's "Moments" album. I put a little journalling on the tag with the ribbon for her. The picture is from the summer of 2003, and I've had it printed and ready to scrapbook for a long time. Like the way it turned out.

A little excitement! We are getting a NEW SCRAPBOOKING STORE in town - they open tomorrow, so I'll be sure to post and let you know the scoop!

And finally, Happy Birthday to Kadence! She's 2 today. Another niece, Raelene turned one on Sunday, and another one, Laura, turned 4 on Saturday. Lots of little January girls.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

I was playing around with backgrounds from a free site, but messed up the changes I did before, and I can't put it back right!

So I'm going to work on it this week and we'll see what we come up with. Sorry if it looks slightly odd in the meantime...

2009 Word Wordle

Here's another Wordle I did...

My word for 2009 is light, and I'm realizing how much I need to think about that and let it inspire me, remind me, change me.

I don't think I suffer from depression, but then again, I'm not positive I don't. Life is often grey and hard and not as fulfulling as it should be looking at all that I am blessed with. It can't be that I'm a miserable anti-social lazy cry-baby naturally, can it? It must be chemical...

Or I can just think about LIGHT more. (And take a few extra vitamin D's?)

Being a light in my family. Being someone who makes their day brighter. Easier.

Being a light with my faith. Does it show? How can it show more? I just finished the book unchristian (I will write about that more later); am I being the change I want to see?

Being a light at work. What can I change there to make the most impact with my 20 hours? Staying cheerful through some controversy over the class I'm teaching has been a little hard, but I'm happy with the way the light has kept shining there.

Realizing that the light doesn't come from only from what I have to give, but that if I get out of the way, the light of Jesus is the light that shines through me. Isn't it crazy that he gives US that?

There's a few more thoughts on my word for 2009. I made the wordle by using some verses that go along with it. I increased the size to make it bigger, but it's fuzzy. You can also see it in the Wordle gallery.

Wordle Fun

Have you checked out Wordle yet?

I just made one with the text from that last post I just wrote... check it out!


And so much for blogger's block - this makes 3 posts in one day!

Photos...

Three things to notice in this photo:

1 - The Java House coffee beans. From my trip to Kenya last spring. Good memories.

2 - The granola bars. I MADE THESE. THEY ROCK! I finally got around to looking for a granola bar recipe online and found this one at allrecipes.com. It calls for 2 cups of mini chocolate chips or assorted stuff, like nuts, raisins or cranberries. The first batch I made had 1 cup mini chocolate chips, half a cup sunflower seeds, and half a cup of walnut pieces. They are SO good, but I remembered AFTER that M can't take nuts to school, found out Sean's boss is allergic to nuts, and remembered that my workplace is an "allergy aware" place - no nuts. They are still half gone in spite of that, and I only made them 3 days ago. I made a second batch today with the rest of the sunflower seeds, the rest of the mini chocolate chips and the rest regular chocolate chips. They're good too. Hearty and healthy!

3 - The new coffee maker! Go here to read what happened to the old one... Two weeks ago we spent all our airmiles and got this Cuisinart, a docking station for our ipod, and lift tickets for our trip to Fernie. Right now the beans are loaded in the top ready to be ground by the built in grinder and the timer is set for 7 AM. Nice.



I took this a couple of days ago of M sitting at her spot at the table doing homework; reading a book for a book report. She decides she HAS to go upstairs and get something, please??? It's to help me with my homework!! With reading your book? (What does she need for that? And she won't tell me what it is.) Ok, fine. And this is what she comes down with. "It's a mystery book, Mom!" And she's Roxy Holmes. Related to Sherlock somehow. The hat is authentic from one of Uncle Warren's trips to Baker Street, and the blazer is vintage, from Great Grandma Olive's closet.

Bloggers Block

Hi.

Do you ever have weeks where you have piddly to do lists?

Pick up holds and drop off at the library.
Take in a prescription.
Get water.
Drop something off in someone's mailbox.
Wash the van.

Sometimes it tires me out. Especially when I have places to be and no chunk of time to get it all done.

Maybe tomorrow.

And maybe tomorrow I'll come up with something more blog worthy. My brain feels shallow right now.

Our friend Holly

Our friend Holly is going to Australia for a couple of months, and we went to her sending off bash on Sunday. She just put these pics up on fb, and I wanted to share:


M spent all afternoon making her going away cards and an activity book so she wouldn't get bored on the long trip.


I like this one of us!!

burnout??

I just came across a new blog called FlowerDust.net (through Bring The Rain, which is a tearjerker, but worth the visit!). Anne Jackson is an author with a book coming out right away called "Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic". Looks like it may be a really good read, according to the review of it I read on Bring The Rain.

And she is giving away some Bible study software, so if you are a pastor (or just a studier!) check it out and enter!

Monday

Saturday I picked up a fun new kit at Michaels with my Christmas gift cards (Thank you, Carla and Madeline!) I played a bit yesterday and today and have one ready for the journaling (which will be slightly introspective and therefore needs the right mood to write) and then this one. It feels like so long since I've taken the time to have fun scrapbooking! I like working with the girls each week because of the social aspect of it (and I'm hoping there will be a lot of bodies there tomorrow since we're going to talk about doing a retreat!) but I like working at home alone better for the creativity side of things.

You might notice something different about this layout, if you are familiar with my usual style... It's 12x12. Yeah. My binder is full, so I need to pick up a new album, and on a whim, I decided that this year, 2009, I will scrapbook 12x12 instead of 8 1/2 x 11. The albums are prettier. I have downloaded cool templates. In 12x12. So yeah. A big trend I see is to take a photo a day, and scrapbook that way. I just got a new camera, so I'll be taking lots of pictures, but honestly, it's too big to lug around with me for every day shots, and while the little point and shoot will still come along lots of places, I'm just not as excited about pulling it out all the time. It needs a break, and I need to do what motivates me and inspires my creativity. So 12x12, here we go! And this awesome little kit has cool 12x12 pages that you just can't cut up.

Sadness

My mom called half an hour ago to tell me that my Granny died in her sleep early this morning.

She was a strong lady, but at 94, things were just shutting down. I am so glad we got to see her two weeks ago when we were there for Christmas. Madeline loves being in Winnipeg with family, and that was the one thing she wanted to do for sure when we were there. See Great-Granny. Mom sent some neat pictures from that day, but I can't figure out how to copy them from the email because they are in a strange format; I will post them when I can.

For now, here's a quote from an email mom sent last weekend.

"Granny is doing much better. She was pretty bad last weekend but is eating better and quite 'with it' today. You would have laughed at us yesterday. I got new ear phones for my iPod that just hook over my ear. I had it on one of her ears, playing her some old Big Band music. And at the same time I was playing Solitaire on my Palm Pilot and holding it up so she could watch - she used to play a lot of Solitaire. And in the middle of this, Dad called on my cell phone. For a couple of old grannies, we sure are wired."

Mountain Mom

This is maybe the nicest thing I heard today.

M and I were making poppycock to take to a party / games night tonight. I was at the counter and she was standing at the stove, stirring.

"You know the expression, 'the pits'? Well, this is the mountains - it's the opposite. This is fun, it's food, and I get to do it with you!"

Bubbles Returns

January 1
We ring in the new year with fireworks at the farm.







January 1
Grandpa and Raelene, the youngest grandchild (until May and June!)







January 3
Family Portrait











January 3
Sundogs on the way home. For those of you not from around here, sundogs mean it's REALLY cold.









January 7
M, being very responsible with her pet fish, asked Auntie Carla to watch him while we were gone so he wouldn't starve. We picked him up yesterday - here they are, reunited.

great translation

I was just checking my google reader that lets me know when the blogs I follow are updated, and Wilna, a scrapbooker from PA, SK had this thought for today - I thought it was a great fresh translation that I'd like to share with you. (And I'm not busy finishing supper because my crock pot did all the work!)

"A thought for today: Col 2: 6 My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving."

PS - Supper tonight is another new one from allrecipes.com - a slow cooker white chili with chicken and white beans... I'll link you to the recipe if it's good!

the word, and salsa fish

It's Monday night, and my assignment did get in on time, although it was short. I'm afraid I did not do my best in this whole class. Shame on me. But it's done and now forgotten. (All except what I learned, of course.)

I'm sad that I didn't get around to printing off pictures - we're back at it with the scrapbooking girls tomorrow. I do have some stuff I'm working on to finish up, and I have a bunch of pictures that I printed off for the game that I want to use...

The Game. The amazing Christmas gift I was telling you about? I think it went over ok - we played it a few times and had some good laughs. I picked up a Trivial Pursuit game at Value Village for $2 and altered the board, painted the box, made 126 of my own trivia cards and (my favorite part) made game pieces for everyone. I had a great time making it... The first time we played, I just asked the questions since I knew all the answers. We were all amazed at all the stuff Jen knew. The second time, they made up questions for me when it was my turn. Mom wrote them all down, so we've got a bunch more to add to the stash. Dave was awesome at coming up with questions. (For those not in the fam, Jen is married to my brother and Dave is married to my sister. They did not grow up with this insider knowledge, but proved they are true Schneiders!!) The third time the 4 older cousins played and I (selectively) asked them questions.





The Word. I've been reading Ali Edwards' blog - check out the list she's compiled of what a lot of people have picked as their words for this year. I've just started reading Jessica Sprague's blog, too (she's got Photoshop tutorials, and I need them!) and she was talking about her word of the month. I'm not one for jumping on a bandwagon usually, but I like the idea of having one word to keep reminding yourself of. If a lot of thought has gone into it, and it means something, it can be very powerful.

So the word I decided on is LIGHT. There are so many verses about light... if it weren't almost midnight I'd go into this a little more, but I think I'll save it for another day. I thought for January at least, I'd add a word for the month, too. I picked SUNNY. Because I wish it always were. And because it can be a choice.

One last thing - I want to share the recipe I made for supper tonight. We're trying to eat healthier for the next little while (getting over the holiday glut of goodies and get ready for the mountains) and thought we'd go with more fish and chicken. So I went to allrecipes.com and did a search for "fish." What would we do without computers... maybe open the fish cookbook I have in my cupboard?? Anyway, I found this Mexican Baked Fish about half a dozen down, and was it ever good. I used Sole instead of the cod it called for, then homemade salsa we got for Christmas from Jess and Dave (thanks, guys!), cheddar cheese and corn chips and baked it for 20 minutes. Topped with sour cream and avacado, it was so good. Pretty quick and easy, too, which is good in my books.

Have a good night!

home again, home again, jiggidy jig

We are home. Mostly. We had my staff Christmas party tonight, so M is overnight at her Grandma and Grandpa's. Tomorrow night we will all be home in our own beds. It's been a great week and a half of family holiday time in Winnipeg and on the farm - I won't deny that I am looking forward to being in my own bed tonight, though.

My last assignment for this Theological Overview class is due on Monday (yeah, I should have had it done before Christmas) so when that's done, or more likely, when I need a study break, I will come back on here and muse oh so eloquently about this year and what it will bring...

happy holidays... yes they really are.

We got to Winnipeg about 9 PM on Christmas Eve and stayed up with everyone that we hadn't seen since summer. My hair, which I thought was a pretty radical change didn't get much notice. I guess that makes sense since it looks different every time they see me.



Here's a picture of me and the new do, finally, not that you can really see it, and not that it's the most exciting thing in the picture... That's our new digital SLR we got for ourselves for Christmas. Yay for boxing day shopping in the city! I also got a new jacket and some dress pants and Sean got new shoes. But this camera. Oh, boy, is it fun. I like it a lot!!! We've been eyeing these up and pricing them out for a long time now.

Christmas was great - mom and dad and us three kids and our spouses and kids. Perfect. We shopped boxing day then most everyone was back for supper all together; today I watched the boys and then everyone was back together for supper. Tomorrow our aunt and cousins and kids will be here for supper too. Like my dad said at the table tonight - I don't think we've stopped eating! Happy Holidays!!

Funny story. My Dad has a PS3. Yeah, it's Papa's toy. Sean and Dave have been playing the racing game on it, and last night, Dave came back after he took Jess and the boys home (at 11!) So M went to bed at 11, Mom crashed at 12, I lasted till 1, and Sean and Dave and my Dad stayed up playing until 6:30 AM. We stay in the basement here, so I kept waking up to laughter - they had so much fun their stomachs hurt from laughing so much. At least I knew where Sean was - Jess woke up at 6:30 and thought that if Dave had been in an accident, someone would have called her, but she couldn't think of why he would have slept over here... She didn't consider that they were playing all night! And Mom commented that she knows Dad has been up late again when the paper is already in when she gets up!



That's them at what turned out to be the start of the marathon. And here's one of all the cousins.



So happy holidays to you all; hope they are as wonderful and restful and fun as ours.

Merry Christmas!

Just a wish for a very Merry Christmas before we head off to family!

This is a little something I made playing around in photoshop with the new Christmas brushes I got from scrapnfonts. (for free!) I got photoshop and a pen tablet last Christmas and haven't really done enough playing around with it...

don't mean to be greedy...

At church this morning my friend Karen asks M, "Did you write a letter to Santa?"
"Yeah...?"
"And did you say, 'I don't mean to be greedy'? And that you only get presents at Christmas and on your birthday?"
"Yeah...?"
"And you drew pictures on it?"
"Yeah, was it in the paper?" (She sent it in to the paper because then 'Santa' would write back, and they might even publish it.)
"No, we saw Santa read it on TV! On channel 7 there's a Santa that reads kid's letters and a lady dressed as an elf that helps him and they discuss the things that kids ask for (like a pony is pretty big and might not fit on the sleigh, so maybe that's not the best idea...) Chrissy thought it was the M we knew and I said, 'Oh, there's probably a lot of M's out there' but she recognized your handwriting, so we thought we'd check."

Blushing M and laughing me.

The Other Blogs

I have a blog that I set up as our young adult website at church. You can check that out here - I posted a big long one last night about books - what I'm reading and some new ones I just got to read and share. I don't write on there as much as here, because no one ever checks it out. I am going to try to change that in the next few months, I think, so I'd better have some good posts worth reading on there.

I also kept this blog about my trip to Kenya this year. I added one post to it this fall when I got to see some of the people again that I met there, but it's sort of a done deal. Interesting stories, I think - maybe I'll turn it into one of those blog books... Hmmm - there's an idea.

Now I'm off to take pictures of all the goodies I'm taking over for Christmas #1 tonight! Show you those later.

new little baby...

Congrats to our good friends Byron and Lori who had their baby on Sunday, December 14. Kaleb James was 9 days overdue and a day short of being induced. I got to see him the next morning, and on day two, too. So cute. They got photos done already, and they're fabulous. Check out Paper Moon Photography and have a look!!

the published one...

This is the one that got published in the edition of Canadian Scrapbooker that just came out. I like it - I love that it got published and it's nothing but cardstock, a couple of photos and a pen.

Have you ever thought I was blond? Yeah, me neither.

Cans for Comments... Check out this blog and leave a comment - Courtney is donating one can of food for each comment left on her blog this weekend. I saw that on Kayla's blog and she said she's matching each can that Courtney buys. What fabulous ideas. And these are girls who actually have readers on their blogs. lol.

Christmas Festivities... We went to Sean's work Christmas party last night. Each year they go to the small business Christmas party that the center of the arts puts on - good food, sketchy comedian, terrible sounding music with not many people on the dance floor. At least I know a few people a little better now that this is my third one.

The kid's Christmas piano recital was this week - she did not too bad - was the only one who didn't take their book up with them! The residents at the senior's home where they usually have it were sick, so it was at the church instead (her teacher goes to the same church as us) and so she got to play the big shiny black grand piano up on stage there. She's done that once before at the year end recital in June. That was Tuesday, and Wednesday her Girl Guide group went carolling at a senior's apartment. Tomorrow her choir at church is singing with the adult choir in both morning services and their children's concert is in the evening. They had a rehearsal for those this morning, and we had to pick her up early from the birthday party sleepover for that - and she missed swimming... three things at once. And neither Sean nor I had anything today. Other than brunch and a little Christmas shopping while she was busy. Then Wednesday is the school "Winter Concert." One week full of Christmas pagentry and goodness. Grandpa and two sets of aunts and uncles and two cousins came to the piano deal, and the Ward Grandparents are going to make it to the church one. Nice to have the Aitkens in town and sharing church and school concerts now!

Wish List... This is too funny. I read it and laughed the first time, then when I picked it up again this week (to carry shopping with me) I laughed and thought "I have to put this on my blog!" I should explain so it doesn't just seem pathetic - M is 9, and I think very bright, but she is in French Immersion, and they have yet to spend time in school on much English spelling. So here in all it's phonetic goodness, is my daughter's wish list:

1. Barbie make your own Lip gloss
2. 2008 cristamas doll
3. skip it
4. Biskut my fur real friend
5. tummbuls my rollover pup fur real friend
6. Webkinz
7. chees strings
8. fruit gushers
9. Epets (stuff yes you get it.)
10. Tamagishie
11. Littelest pet shop
12. fish
13. Odissy
14. Books
15. cds
16. slypers
17. cd holder
18. cloths
19. Barbies
20. polly pokets
21. Ponnies
22. money
23. calenders
24. shoes
25. paints
26. paper (Rysikled)
27. comik's
28. camira
29. sterio
30. fabrik
31. work serch
32. sadoku
33. markers
34. purs
35. Tikets for Ann of green gabils The musikl at the globle theater
36. more money!

And just for the record, she was not encouraged to write up a list... it might be the first time she's done this. I have to admit though that I have found it helpful! (If you find this helpful also, email me and I'll let you know what I've already got checked off!) She saw an ad in the paper telling kids to write to Santa there and that he'd write back. So she did, and got her reply yesterday. She commented that he didn't even use her name, so she's pretty sure it was photocopied and all the kids got the same one. She doesn't even believe in Santa.

New Look... One last note for tonight - I finally went and got something done with my hair. I was ready for it about 3 weeks ago. It's chopped off - it had gotten quite long - and it's darker underneath, and quite a bit lighter on top. I won't say blond, but I think you're in for a shock when I come for Christmas!! I'm still a little shocked when ever I see my reflection. I won't say I love it, but I am very happy with a change. I'll probably change it up again in a couple of months. Maybe I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it for you. And speaking of pictures, we got M's back (retakes again) so you'll get yours (if you're family!) when we see you next.

Good night, and may you have a blessed restful holy Sabbath tomorrow.

tree decorating postponed due to minor fire...

Monday night I thought we were finally going to set up the tree. We don't have any hard and fast traditions about when we do this, but I like the first weekend in December. Not too early, but up long enough to be able to anticipate Christmas. Plus gifts are getting wrapped and there's somewhere to put them...

But this year's been busy for some reason. So Monday was open, I had eggnog in the fridge, and decided to whip up a few eggnog lattes while Madeline was clearing supper off the table. First problem was that we were out of espresso beans. Not a big deal, we decided just to make them with coffee. (I ground some Java House beans from Kenya for it - yum!) The coffee maker has issues. We have (sorry, had - there's some foreshadowing for ya) a decent coffee maker / milk frother / espresso maker combo that we got as a wedding present, which decided a while ago that the warranty must be up and that it would quit working. Sean, being handy as well as handsome, took it apart, figured it out the problem and fixed it. The only catch was that you had to turn it off as soon as your pot was made, since it would no longer do that on its own. He had made a couple of pots since the fix; I had not. So I made the coffee, and turned it off when it finished, but apparently not quite soon enough, because something melted through somewhere and got places hot that were not supposed to be hot and caused a little smoke to become a lot of smoke... The child was banished to the basement to save her lungs, the hero husband grabbed the whole coffee maker deal (after I saved the coffee) to take it outside and I grabbed the key to unlock the front door. As the hero lifted the coffee maker, the oxygen mixed with the heat and fuel source and turned our microwave stand (on which the coffee pot sat) into a candle. Minor fire. Coffee pot out into the snow. Oven mitt on fire to extinguish it. Both doors open, fan in the window. House temperature plummeting.

The smoke alarms never made a peep.

Instead of setting up the tree, we spent the evening, delicious homemade eggnog lattes in hand, at multiple stores picking up all new smoke detectors and a new microwave stand. The child went to bed late, the tree is still in the box in the corner, and the living room was used as a workshop to put together the new bigger and better furniture.

And so instead of a tree, I have a new kitchen and a story.
And I still have two weeks before Christmas to try again.

Google Reader

Have I mentioned Google Reader to you? It's a great way to keep up with blogs that I like to follow - I just open the reader (I have it bookmarked right under blogs) and it shows me what's new in the blogs I'm interested in. I've been reading mostly stuff by scrapbooking people, but I'm starting to remember other blogs that I wish I was remembering to read more often...

Like this one. The Kennys are a family that we fell in love with when we were in Kenya this spring. It was so good tonight to catch up on all the stuff I haven't read yet. I love seeing some familiar faces and places in their pictures, too. It helps to not see that trip as an isolated time, but as a chance to step into a ministry and into lives that continue on long after we've left.

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I added a music player. :) I've wanted to do that for a while. Let me know if the auto start is annoying... I've heard it can be if you normally browse with tunes in the background. (It was while I was editing a few things on the blog and every time I opened a new window, a new song would start over top of the one already playing!) Also, let me know what you are listening to these days - I'd love to check out some new stuff. Two of the songs on my short list are ones I heard on other blogs first...

Advent Conspiracy and other stuff.

First, check out this video. Really.



Powerful, hey? So what 'cha going to do about it???

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I was surfing blogs on SIS to find one with tunes so I can add some to mine, and I saw a couple of girls had done this quiz and said the results were amazing. So I took it, and they are quite accurate. And you can post your results on your blog... but I'm not sure I know you well enough to post that. That would be some good vulnerability there, but nope, sorry.

But do try it yourself!! The COLOR QUIZ...

It's been a good Saturday - Sean and I spent the whole day together, doing nothing and taking M with the social life to swimming this morning, a swimming birthday party this afternoon, and a bowling birthday party this evening. I asked her if she knew what it said to me that she gets asked to all these birthday parties (there's another one next weekend, too...) She said, "That's I'm a nice person and a good friend and they like having me around?" Bingo.

I've been playing in my room (sorry, STUDIO!) today, trying to figure out how to rearrange it. I've also been working on magnets to sell (just got an order for 6 sets from Janet at work) and the most amazing Christmas gift ever (hopefully!), but I've been tidying and tossing stuff and moving stuff too, so I can get rid of the extra bookshelf and see if I can make better use of my space. I have a feeling that this will be a long process.

So this most amazing Christmas gift? I can't wait till it's done and I can photograph it to share with you after the holidays. I think it's cool, and I've been working on it all year. Little cost money wise, but big cost time wise. The best kind of gift, I think.

using the new technology...

to post a new page. I'm down in my "studio" and I scanned my new pages on my new scanner. It works, and I can figure it out - they are so simple these days.

So these are the two I finished this week (I did finish another for my wedding book, but I'm not posting those. For the family, I may bring it out at Christmas...)

I love this first comic book one - terrible pictures and plain black & white, but so much fun - and a great story!



And I don't LOVE this one, but it tells what I was thinking when I took this picture, and that's what counts.



I forgot that when I do this process upstairs, I shrink them down first... oops - those are big files!

PUBLISHED!!

Sean gets a lot of packages in the mail because of stuff he orders for his car... today I checked the mail, and there was a package pick up slip, for him, and another package... for ME! From Canadian Scrapbooker, with a copy of the winter edition coming out right away with my page in it! Yay! I was pretty stoked about that. When I get on the other computer, I'll post the page. Madeline still wants to be published (this one's of Sean), but now she wants a cover. Yeah, right, kid. Dream on! My page is on page 117, if you see the magazine and want to check it out...

I'm off to finish the price list for my craft sale on Saturday - the stuff's all made, but I'm thinking I could be in the mood for making a few more cards for the stash. I love that most of the stuff I made is stuff I could use myself if it doesn't sell, like the gift bags and the cards. Watch - they'll sell out and I'll be left with all the magic bags and magnets.

More machinery - we bought a Cricket the other week! They were on sale, and a group at the church is going to fund it for our scrapbooking group (thanks, ladies!!) We picked up a second cartridge yesterday, too, for 80% off at Michaels. I don't think I'd pay any more for them than that, but these two should do us for quite a while. If I ever bring it home to use, I'll have wall to wall machines down in my studio with the laptop and printer and sewing machine and serger! I really have to rethink the layout of that room.

flowers and toys and photos...

Here's a few snaps to illustrate my last month. This one is of the first snow. M's looking all slouchy trying to catch some flakes on her tongue - I love the narnia-esque feel of this shot through the front window.

I've been sort of busy with work - a new Bible study is filling one more night per week, and I'm in charge of the big Christmas banquet now. That combined with making stuff for the craft sale this weekend (I'm almost ready!) and trying to get around to finishing this paper have made my last month or so full. Not busy, and not stressed, which is really nice. But it is full. And I think life might continue to be full until January. Or April. Or someday. (That's why I have to enjoy it now!)

I got a new phone. My plan was up for renewal, so I upgraded my phone. For $0. Love that! And it's a dual flip with a full keyboard... still figuring out all the shortcuts, but it's kinda fun. And THEN - we've been talking about getting a laptop for a long time, and the time just seemed right, and we can use it now with me trying to work on papers in the evenings while Sean gets his only chance to be online... Doesn't seem right that we need two, but yeah. And it came with a *free* printer scanner copier machine that's fun, too!



November 18 is our anniversary - 2 years this year! We went out on the weekend before, since the 18th fell on a Tuesday, which happens to be the night of the new study I lead at the church. So we went for massages at Jane's Day Spa where my friend Kari works, then out for dinner, then out to another new restaurant to check it out for dessert. Just a nice night out. On Tuesday he surprised me with flowers. Our friend January owns a flowershop and does some great work. I should mention that I took this shot yesterday - this bouquet is almost a week old in this picture, and it still looks great!



Ok, that's it for tonight - remind me to blog about Lifehouse and the great show we saw... Later!

100 things...

I saw this on two different blogs today (by SIS bloggers...)
The ones I have done are in bold.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (On the Rhine in Germany)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David (I have been to Florence, though!)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (but never for myself)
47. Had your portrait painted (does by my daughter count??)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (nowhere exciting, tho)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

why do i need a blog when there's facebook?

I've finally got some new layouts to upload, and they're going here and on facebook and on SIStv... Mostly different audiences, I guess.

SO - love these new ones. Got lots of fun new stuff, as you saw in the last post. Now everything's got flowers on it! Hanging with the girls this week I mostly made fun cards with flowers for the sale.

This one's been in the works for a while, but I'm finally happy with it. The new flowers were the perfect thing for the title!



And I love this picture of Levi, so I had to get it in an album. New stamp and white ink. And the flowers...



And finally, this one - I love the summer part - I painted grunge board letters to match the kid's shirts, and it turned out better than I expected. Fun.



I want a new camera. (I almost said need, but it's NOT a NEED...) This one has had too many issues - look at how it's fading to black in the corners now. I have my eye on a Nikon D60. Mmmm.

This is why I blog - I throw the pics on fb, but none of the me stuff. This is me, all for you, an invisible audience. My imaginary friends. LOL.

speaking...

I spoke today at the Ladies' Coffee Connection at church. My faith story. Made lots of people cry. Sorry about that...! I thought I'd just get up there, read it off and get it over with. Yeah, right. God hits the cry button and off I go, but it's honest emotion, and I'm sure it moves people. I'm not doing it to manipulate people's emotions, but it does work that way! Glad it's done. Hope it made some people think. That'll be the Holy Spirit's job now.

New Stash! and an update on the stash to sell

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to a scrapbooking store located in a basement on South Albert. I like her selection of embellishments. I spent a little bit of cash.

On Wednesday, we went to Scrapbookers Delight, which is closing their doors forever tomorrow. Sad day. I stocked up on Bazzill, and I should be good for at least a year. Unless maybe I start scrapbooking more than I shop for supplies!!!

Here's a glimpse at what I got - watch for it on layouts to come! Sean's gone for a couple of days, so I'm thinking it's playtime down in the studio.



I really like Bazzill cardstock.



Here's a closer look at my new fun stuff!



Just for a laugh, I got a shot of our Chevy Ventures, all lined up outside the Accent Stitchery, Framing and Scrapbooking store...!



Finally, here's a shot of the two other patterns that I made gift bags out of. I sewed them up last night and tonight and they're all done! Now I have to get sewing the magic bag insides - I brought home the filler from the farm after Thanksgiving.



Actually, I'll leave you with one more picture - this beautiful tree is beside the church, and I can see it from my office window. I love that.

Autumn

Here's me doing my homework for the blog class... writing about autumn. I think I'll just say this - Fall is awesome when it's warm and not windy and colorful... then this happens.


Yep - we drove out to the farm for Thanksgiving IN A BLIZZARD.

BUT - It gave Sean a chance to be a hero and pull a couple of trucks out of the ditch. Together - one was towing the other. And Sean saved their day. :)

First things for the Show!

I said I was going to post pictures as things get made... here's the gift bags I made tonight. I've got two other fabrics to cut into (that I got on sale at the end of last season!) and there are a few bags that I made last year that I never used; I'll throw those in for the variety. And these are great, too, because I'll just use what I don't sell!

I had class this weekend, and sketched out about 10 layouts while I was trying to stay awake... Just ordered some photos that I'll need for them, too, so on Tuesday when we get together, I'll be ready to go. Unless I do them all up on Monday when I'm at home! It will be nice to relax on my day off and not worry about papers. I did two biggies in the last month, so I'll take a few days to breathe before the next one.

We're going on a FIELD TRIP on Tuesday with the scrappers! We're all looking forward to going down south and checking out the lady that sells out of her basement. She had a storefront for a while, but had just moved it home when I discovered her. None of the others have been there, so I'm happy to take them.

Craft Sale

I'm going in my first craft sale next month. Saturday, November 29th in Vibank, from 10-4. As I get stuff done for it, I'll post it up here so if you want something and can't make it to Vibank, you can put in an order...

Wednesday's Homework

We've had homework every day for this 'Bling out Your Blog' class that I'm taking, and I've been bad. I've done it, but cheating-like. Monday we were supposed to blog about Autumn, and Tuesday we were supposed to let song lyrics inspire what we blogged... Adding a poll about what your favorite part of fall is, and linking back to this post inspired by song lyrics from a couple weeks ago is still doing my homework, isn't it?

My excuse - I've been too busy with the BLING part! It's been fun playing around with the layout and changing things up.

I will come back to that other homework. I will.

And now Wednesday's homework: I have to invite you to be involved! My experiences with offering a challenge (in real life, yet!) were a smashing success (read that with lots of sarcasm and check out this post) so I'm making this nice and easy. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the blog, or vote on my poll. Super simple, hey? I just want to know you were here, and who you are (and why the heck you're reading my blog!)

Thanks for playing and humoring me.

All about Brandie

Brandie had sweet baby Adrian Cole on September 7 - right on her due date! I made this quilt for her, and got it done to give to her yesterday, on his one month day.


And this is a layout I did of them - we were hanging out the Friday night before he was born,and then I got to meet him on the Sunday!

bling...!

I talked to my sister today, and SHE was the one who voted on my poll. Not Mom. LOL By the way, Happy Birthday Jess! And Happy Birthday Mom!

I signed up for an online class! It goes all this week, and I'm pretty excited about it - it's called Bling out your Blog and it's by Kimberly Brimall, who is one of the fashionistas on SISTV. Now the pressure's on! I've told you about it, so you'll be watching for some great changes... We'll see what we can do!

live goodie bags?

M had two birthday parties this weekend.

She started a new school this year because they moved the french immersion out of the school down the street, and now she gets to ride on the bus. Very exciting. She's in grade 4, is confident, and all her friends and french teachers moved to the same school, so it was a pretty easy transition. She's got most of the same girls she's been friends with since kindergarten in her class, but now there are 20 new friends! Good thing she's so social. Which, we learned, means more birthday parties to go to.

Today was a 3 hour Hannah Montana karoke party (and apparently she rocked the mic - no suprise there). Friday night till Saturday noon was a sleepover on a farm, and they had Petcetera come out with 10 animals for the girls to see / hold / get slithered on (yes they had a snake). On the farm they have lots of other animals, too - and guess what the goodie bag was for this animal themed party? The goodie bag for this one was a fish. A blue beta fish in a big jar that they got to decorate themselves.


M has wanted a pet forever. We keep saying no. And now she has one. I'm kind of glad, actually. She's trying to prove she's reliable so she can get a camera with her birthday money. This will sure give her that chance! We went to the library yesterday so she could get out a book on pet fish and how to look after them...

one from this week

Layouts usually take me more than one sitting. I get the photos and background paper maybe, then play around with a basic idea, but it usually gets put back in the 'in progress' book a time or two until I am satisfied with the layout. This one I finally had all the pictures for last Tuesday (when we get together), printed off the title during the week and took it again this Tuesday and played around with the arrangement all morning until I finally decided I liked it. I'm not sure I like the white at the sides (although it looks a lot stranger on this white background than in real life!) Oh, well, it's done! And now I can go on to the next one that's in limbo. There's a few in there.

World Card Making Day

At our weekly scrapbooking get together last week, I took a couple of pages that I had put together of challenges from a dozen of my favorite challenge sites. **note - I have never actually participated in a challenge on any of these sites; I just like to check them out now and then.** So I circulated that to see if it inspired anyone - some people thought, "hey, cool" but no one jumped at the chance to stretch themselves, they just did what they brought with them to do. Which I understand. You pack what you're going to work on, and you don't have the photos, tools, colors, or whatever to do something different.

This week I gave them a verbal challenge - "This Saturday is World Card Making Day!" I told them, "So let's all make at least one card from our stash or scraps today!" I got a partially interested "Oh...?" a head tilt with questioning eyebrows, and the best, "Why? For who?" Ah, my friends make me laugh. And I am convinced that I do not need to spend my time coming up with challenges and fun things for them to experiment with; I simply need to unlock the door, set up the tables, and make sure the coffee's on.

In case YOU'RE interested, find more on World Card Making Day here.