So You Think You Can Craft

It should totally be a new reality show. And Cally should be a contestant. She would win.

She is one of my crafty heroes. Her work is beautiful and fun. She is talented in so many ways.

Go visit her -- she's doing a blog giveaway you do not want to miss!!!

(And no, I am not sucking up to Cally -- I am being truthful. But should my observations help me win, I shall not complain!) ;)

Not Quite Awake...

but I thought I'd blog anyway. My youngest decided 5:40am was a great time to get up today and now he's grumpy and I'm sleepy. I'm afraid we are going to have a loooooooonnnng, interesting day!

First, I need to tell you who WON my blog giveaway from last week. I was supposed to draw Friday, but never got around to it, so I did it this morning. All names were put into a pile and I drew not one, but two names because one is just never enough! My winners this time around are......my lovely cousin Teresa and the wonderful Jen!!!! Woo Hoo!!! You will be receiving a little something from me in the mail soon ladies!

(Speaking of winning....my Bears won last night! Woooo Hoooo! Just had to throw that in so I could have my own little mini celebration this morning...hee hee...)

This past weekend I went to a crop at my favorite local scrapbook store. It was a 12-hour crop, but I only made it for about seven hours. We had our usual soccer craziness/fun to deal with first, then I was able to go. I am SO bad at preparing for crops -- it's so much easier to just scrap at home with all my stuff at my fingertips. But crops are fun for some time out of the house and for socializing. I didn't really socialize too much -- the other ladies there came in groups -- I was the only "loner" -- but they were all very nice and I actually got several pages done and enjoyed some quiet time! And all the proceeds from the crop went toward breast cancer research, so you can't beat that.

I did re-do the page I shared with you last week that was bugging me so much...here's the new one...


This is a bad scan -- that "tree" paper does not have yellow streaks through it, but I could NOT get a scan without the yellow, so just imagine the page without it! :) This page is so much more "me" than the last one, so I'm happier now! LOL

I also did a page about our sweet Apollo -- we're still missing her very much.

Isn't she the prettiest dog ever? I just love her.

I did four other pages and made three birthday cards last week as well. Plus, I am in a circle journal swap (where a group of us make pages for each other) and I finished up 19 - 8x8 pages for that! That is a lot of craftiness for me in one week! I rarely if ever do that much.

I am so tired right now...I am completely rambling about nothing so I will take pity on you and hush up for today.

Hope you had a marvelous weekend. Enjoy the week -- can you believe it will be OCTOBER already???

My Six-Year Old Discovers Feng Shui

Today as I was driving down the highway with all three kids in the car, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw my daughter doing what appeared to be meditating. Hmmm...I thought. Interesting and strange. What would a six-year old be doing meditating? And how did she learn to do it anyway? Kung Fu Panda perhaps....

Before I had a chance to question her she pipes up from the backseat, "Hey mom -- me and Kenzie made a new game at school today. It's called China people."

My first thought is oh great... please tell me she's not inadvertantly making fun of people of Chinese descent. Please tell me she wasn't doing anything offensive without even realizing it.

So I reply, "What's it called?" -- just to make sure I had heard her properly.

Rachel replies happily, "China people!"

With baited breath (or bated breath depending on where you look -- wow -- this is a popular argument online -- I had no idea until I just checked on my spelling that "bated" is apparently the correct spelling, not baited.....but I'm not completely convinced -- so anyway, let's get on with it...) -- With baited breath I asked, "Why do you call it China people?"

"Because you do this (she resumes the meditating stance) and you're very calm and quiet and peaceful. It's what people in China do and they are very calm. Except for China kids, who aren't that quiet -- kind of like me while I'm talking and talking right now!"

"Ohhhhh, I see!" was my simple reply. But really, I didn't see completely, because I was wondering where she had gotten this idea that in my mind, is along the lines of the calming effects of feng shui. When had we discussed feng shui and when has my home EVER been an example of harmony and balance?

So I pressed on..."Did Kenzie tell you that China people are calm?"

"No," Rachel tells me matter-of-factly. "We heard some China music in the gym and it was really calm and peaceful. So China people must be quiet and calm."

Okay. Makes sense to me.

Perhaps I should go out tomorrow and buy a CD filled with the harmonious music of China. Perhaps then I will find the calm and quiet I am searching for.

The things you can learn from a six-year old....

I *Heart* Fall

What is not to love about Fall?? The cool, crisp mornings, the beautiful evenings, the vibrant colors, the intense blue skies, watching football, making soup and chili, enjoying hot coffee and cider....I just love everything about Fall. It energizes me more than any other time of year. I only wish it would last longer. Although I guess here in the South, it isn't too bad...our worst winter months don't seem to hit until the new year, so I guess Fall does hang on a little longer.

These photos are from last year, but they make me anxious for the changing colors and our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.

This week, I am determined to have a good, productive week. I think I had at least three days last week where things just did not go as planned. I kept busy -- yet at the end of the day I felt I had nothing to show for it. I absolutely hate when that happens.

I was also forgetful -- like Saturday, when I was in charge of soccer snacks for my son's team -- and I COMPLETELY forgot! I have never done that. Do you know how awful it makes you feel when eleven hungry, hot and tired boys are looking at you for snacks and drinks and you don't have a darn thing for them??? I felt so terrible.

My mind was full of too many things last week and there literally wasn't room to write everything on my calendar. I need everything on my calendar -- or as I proved to myself -- I forget! This reminds me of a favorite saying of my old boss -- "A short pencil is better than a long memory!" That is definitely the truth!

This week will be better -- I am even going to re-do that darn scrapbook page from my previous post -- it is really bugging me! LOL

I think I need to do a blog giveaway to start my week off right. Leave me a comment about one or more of your favorite things about Fall -- I will then randomly select one name on Friday for a little prize!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend -- have a fantastic week!

(By the way -- several of you have asked where I got my "favorite quotes" box on my sidebar. It's from the site Goodreads.com -- if you are a member, it's under explore and you can pick a bunch of your favorite quotes then get a link to add to your blog! And if you are a member and want to link with me as a friend -- send me an invite! I'd love to see what you're reading!)

I think I've forgotten how to scrapbook...

It's official. I have been so terribly "uncrafty" lately, that when I try to scrapbook, it just looks bad.

This is my latest page. I don't really like it and am seriously considering re-doing it. I think I should have left off the blue letter paper and done something else. Anyway -- I love this picture of my little guy on his first day of pre-school and I ruined it with an ugly page.

I hate when I have gone too long without doing something crafty and then when I try again, it's like my hands and brain don't work. I can't make things look the way I like them. Drives me crazy.

I've also decided that part of my lack of creative mojo is due to too much stuff that is STILL horribly unorganized. I can't seem to find an organizing system I like. I found a great new organizer at AC Moore the other day that I really want and I think it will help, but it's pricey. So I have to wait for a sale -- and a coupon.

I am the type of person that cannot function in the middle of a mess. When I had a job outside the home, if my desk got too piled up with stuff, I would have to stop everything -- re-organize -- and then get going again. That probably explains why I feel so unproductive this week. My house is somewhat chaotic. I have boxes of stuff for a rummage sale this weekend, my kids keep making obstacle courses with my couch and chair cushions and I have an unruly stack of school papers and junk mail that got out of hand when I was sick a couple of weeks ago. And don't even get me started on my husband and his soccer messes everywhere -- clothing, gear, papers, and so on. Everywhere I turn -- messes.

I have GOT to focus next week and pick a room/project to work on each day. Then maybe I can think, breathe and accomplish things. And if I can organize my scrap space, maybe, just maybe I can remember how to scrapbook once again!

Would You Like a Job???

Because I think I need a personal organizer. Or maybe I just need someone here to shake me once in a while -- shake me up, kick my butt into gear, knock me around a little....

I make myself so frustated some days. I like to think I have some sort of organization about me, but truth be told -- so many days I get to the end of the day and think, why oh why did I not accomplish more today?? Why am I so unorganized?? It is a constant struggle.

Some day I'll get it all together. I can hope anyway.

I subscribe to the quote of the day emails from The Foundation for a Better Life. If you like quotes I highly recommend them. Here is the quote for today --

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'” —Mary Anne Radmacher; author

Thank you God, for giving me yet another day to try again. Goodness knows I need it.

Hope you are having a good (and productive!) week.

There's Nothing Like Kindness

After today, I won't dwell with you on the loss of my sweet dog, Apollo. But I wanted to share a few things before I move on.

Friday was a really horrible day. I seriously felt like I cried out every single tear I possibly could that day. My two older kids were also devastated when they found out Apollo was leaving us and many tears were shed. All three of us had huge crying headaches by the end of the day. Nicholas was quite confused the whole time, and is still asking when we are bringing Apollo home.

Friday, we went as a family to say goodbye to Apollo. She came into the room with an IV -- just like someone in the hospital with an IV on a rolling cart. She was so happy to see us, but honestly, I could tell she wasn't feeling well. We spent a bit of time with her, then I sent the kids out with Matt and I stayed with her until the end. It haunts me a little -- but I think I needed to be with her.

On the way home, Ryan cried and cried until he finally decided he couldn't be so sad anymore. All on his own, he decided, "Mom, I really want Apollo here with us, but I am going to feel happy that Apollo is in heaven now with the babies you lost. They can have a turn being with her and Apollo will be happy." I was so glad he found a way to comfort himself and I thought it was really sweet.

As soon as we got home Rachel drew this picture. You can see she drew herself with a sad face and Apollo with an arrow pointing to a cloud with an "h" for Heaven. She misses her dog a lot. We all do.
I know it will get easier, but for now we are realizing how much a part our dog was of our daily routine. We keep catching ourselves looking for her behind her favorite chair or thinking we forgot to let her out before bedtime.

We have a new neighbor who is recently widowed and also a huge animal lover. She has four dogs and three cats. She and my kids fell in love with each other immediately and I'm telling you, she is truly one of THE nicest people I have ever met in my life. We have only known her a few months and when she found out about Apollo, she invited the kids over for a donut party. She had decorated her kitchen table with ribbons like confetti and had their favorite donuts. She also had wrapped presents (books) for each of them and on Nick's present she taped at least a dozen pennies in a design, because Nicholas is addicted to pennies. Once her dogs warmed up to us, spending time with them was actually a really happy thing for my kids. The dogs crawled in their laps, gave them kisses and my kids were grinning from ear to ear. She has a Bull Mastiff that is 100 pounds, so we kept the kids away from her just because she is big and likes to jump. I however, spent some time with the big dog and she put her front paws in my lap and snuggled her big puppy head on my shoulder like she wanted to comfort me. She was the sweetest thing and those puppy snuggles did me a world of good.

This act of kindness by my neighbor (and her mother, who lives with her) touched my heart in such a big way. She barely knows us, but here she is going completely out of her way to cheer us up. That is the kind of person I want to be.

Finally -- thank you all SO, so much for your kind words, hugs and prayers. It really has helped and I appreciate it more than words can convey.

I hope you've enjoyed your weekend. I will be back soon and I promise to be back to my usual mindless chatter! No more sadness....life goes on.

(((BIG hugs))) to all -- have a great week!

My Heart is Breaking

The day I’ve been dreading has finally come. We knew it was coming, but it doesn’t make it any easier. We had to make one of the most awful decisions of my life today. That may sound dramatic to some, but deciding to put my dog to sleep has absolutely broken my heart.

Apollo has been with us eleven wonderful years. She has been the sweetest, most wonderful pet a family could hope for. As I type this, my kids do not even know what we are going to have to do and I am dreading telling them. Apollo has been a part of their ENTIRE lives. How do you tell your children their beloved pet is leaving their home for good? They are all quite attached to her – even Nicholas, at age four. I hate the thought of our home without Apollo and I know they will too.

One thing that I will always, always remember is how attached Apollo was to me right after my late term miscarriage. It may sound crazy, but I’m telling you – the dog had a sense that I was very, very sad and lonely during that time and she rarely left my side. She was such a great comfort to me and always has been. Losing her – well, I really have no words. I am having a really hard time today.

If you have a furbaby or furbabies – be sure to give them some extra love today.

It's the Little Things In Life...

My youngest has always had a fascination with things that are little. It started at an early age with his toes. When he was about a year maybe younger, he would rip off his shoes and socks and spend 15-20 minutes at a time just studying his little bitty toes like they were the most fascinating thing on the planet.

He went through a toothbrush stage too -- I know those aren't "little" so to speak, but he would have three or four toothbrushes at any given time and carry them with him everywhere. Since then we've gone through a marble phase, a penny phase (now he likes any and all coins) and a small Lego phase. He also went through a "tokens from the board games" phase where he always wanted to hold the tokens from our board games and carry them around. I know I'm forgetting something. But let me introduce you to our latest phase.

It's the miniature flocked animal phase. Mostly teddy bears, but we also have some horses and bunnies. Look at this obnoxious collection.

At just twenty-two or twenty-five cents a piece, it's hard to say no when he asks for one. And originally, this collection was half his, half his sister's. But somehow, he has managed to talk her out of almost all of her collection and he carries these things in a "purse" or lunchbox everywhere we go.


At last count we had about 30 bears, eight or ten ponies and about six or eight bunnies. We also have some plastic bears that go along with a counting book we bought at Target. (Evil money-sucking Target...I can always find something to buy at Target....)

I figure at $.25 a piece Nick's "collection" is still a lot cheaper than the Littlest Pets my daughter thinks she can never have enough of -- and my oldest son's first choice of something to "have" is a video game. I can buy quite a few miniature bears for the cost of one video game!

(I guess it is also much cheaper than my scrapbooking hobby too...hmmmm.....)

And then, as just another justification to myself that it's okay to have such a ridiculous amount of mini flocked bears....surely Nicholas is learning the life lesson that it's the "little" things that matter -- right? :)

I am FINALLY feeling much better today and want to thank all of you for your well wishes. It means a lot -- I appreciate you all so very much!

Have a great week!!!

Alive, just not kicking...

Hello my friends! Several of you have been emailing and/or sending messages to check on me (thank you so very much). I am just popping in to say I have been sick with a nasty old stomach bug since Wednesday. I finally had to get a prescription to stop the sickness so I could keep something in me and not get dehydrated.

I am starting to feel somewhat human again today, but not nearly back to normal yet. I am quite out of it and just praying by tomorrow I will feel somewhat like myself again.

So if anyone has emailed and I have not replied -- I am simply out of commission for now, but hoping to be back up to speed very soon.

((HUGS)) to all of you! Thanks for thinking of me!

My One & Only Political Post

I do not like to talk politics on my blog, or anywhere really. I'm not an expert, nor do I want to push my views on anyone. But I'm going to say a couple of things right here -- just this once. It is basically me venting, so please -- take no offense to my ranting and raving. I am now stepping on my soap box....

First, can I just say how much I DON'T CARE ABOUT CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS!?!?!?! It really gets under my skin that a big deal is made about them. Do I care who Susan Sarandon is voting for? Will I vote for someone because Oprah or George Clooney thinks I should?? NO! I will vote for whomever I feel will best serve this country based on my own beliefs and convictions. Oprah can recommend a book to me -- she can tell me how I can help other human beings or bring an end to puppy mills -- but don't expect me to vote for someone because she or any other "celebrity" tells me I should.

Next -- the media drives me crazy! There just always has to be drama. I am not an advocate of teen pregnancy -- but personally, I do not feel Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy is any reflection of what type of VP Sarah Palin will be. Nor do I care that her husband had a DUI many, many years ago in his twenties. Are they expected to be perfect?? Do we really think they didn't ever make any type of mistakes in the past? Are they supposed to be superheroes?? I know there are PLENTY of things I did in my early twenties that I am not proud of and would never repeat again. (Thank goodness I'm not running for office! hee hee..)

But it's called growing up -- making mistakes and the wrong choices and learning from them. Give them a break.

It especially irks me because Bill Clinton cheated while IN office -- initially LIED about it -- and yet people still admire and adore him and pay him tons of money to speak. His wife can stand by his side, run for president and all of the Monica Lewinsky crap is forgotten. Give me a break. And quit looking for stupid petty things to make the candidates look bad. Shouldn't we be focusing on what they are promising to bring to the table right now if they are elected? Shouldn't we be looking at their past political history and voting records?

In my opinion there is NO perfect candidate. I don't really trust any politician 100%. They make their promises and we have to make our choices based on our own belief system and who we HOPE will lead our country with integrity and to the best of their ability.

I hope I have not offended anyone -- it was not my intent. I just had to get that off my chest. I want to be informed when I vote, but trying to read the news or watch it on TV is like wading through a ridiculous three-ring circus and it gets me fired up sometimes. (Can you tell??? LOL)

I am now stepping off my soap box. My next post will be much calmer! :)