heading to syracuse

...on Sunday after I pick Kira up from Girl Scout Camporee. We need to get to Syracuse for MIL. She is slipping quickly or could be gone. I haven't heard from hubby yet this morning. She wasn't doing well when he saw her and hasn't eaten since Sunday. I wish I was there to support him as he sounded so lost when he called.


Such a hard time for everyone. Alex doesn't understand much but that Grandma is sick. Kira is scared of her dying but I don't think she really gets the concept. Hoping I can help her through this. It's not going to be the same world when she passes.

last day of school!

and I am so darn happy!! They have been doing nothing educational in the building for a week so not sure what the purpose of it was. oh yeah... government funding. sigh. I managed to get all the cards and card purses done- 66 cards and 5 purses over the course of two weeks. Can you say I am done with cards?? I think I need to crank out a layout or two just for something different to do. Guess I should find my desk so I have more than a card space to work in. Yeah... that's sounds like a plan.


And the best part of today... I get to pick Kira up at noon!! Half day for the last day. Gotta love that part. woohoo! Off to find my desk.

sunny tuesday

My very pretty lilies from Tania. They are starting to bloom and are simply lovely. I totally love them. Please ignore the weeds I need to pull as soon as the humidity chills.


Wondering if he has a future as a drummer?? This is his homemade drum set that he created all by himself. Thinking he is too clever for his own good. But loving him intensely!

One of hubby's managers was getting rid of a bunch of Lightning McQueen stuff and knew Alex was totally rocking it so we are the proud owners of some new goodies. Can you tell he likes the new sheet set a bit?? There is a pillow on top of his regular one that he sleeps on and a stuffed Lightning that has to lay next to him under the covers. So stinking adorable. Looks like we need to change out the Pooh walls for Lightning. sigh... I love the Pooh room.

Been working on the cards and got them done. Will have to post them later as I really really need to whip out those three card purses. Sure hope they play nice and don't fight me going together. Have I mentioned I cannot wait for Thursday 3pm?? Let the summer begin!!

field day and bridging up

Friday was Kira's Field Day event. They usually space the kids out very nicely for the parade portion but this year they took the students over to the Pines next to the school (nursing home) and then back to the school so the kids were pretty much all mashed together. This resulted in me not getting the best picture of Kira in the parade. I did get a couple but not worthy of sharing.


So I shall share these pictures instead. This is her class as they do their class cheer during roll call. Kira is the girl in red in the front row who has the 'as' in teases on top of her. LOL They did look cute with their star sunglasses. The theme this year was Heroes. It could be super heroes or just the everyday variety. Her class was the Incredible SuperNovas since they spent alot of time studying space this year. Very clever.


This is her with Christian. He's been in her class since first grade. Much to my hubby's shagrin. He thinks Chris has an alterior motive for hanging with Kira. Thank goodness Kira hasn't discovered how cute Chris is. As she says, they are friends.


Later that night, we had the bridging ceremony for Kira and her troop. Everyone of them bridged up into Junior Girl Scouts. Very exciting. The two wonderful ladies in the back are her troop leaders and they are simply amazing women. I really appreciate everything they have done for the girls.

And my little guy during the ceremony. After Kira bridged, he didn't really care what was going on. So he did a silly little dance which I caught a few moves of. Quite proud of himself.

Yesterday I spent Father's Day trying to burn the pictures on my computer onto CD's in case of computer failure. It has been awhile since I have done it so it seemed like a good time. Plus I had to create a CD of pictures for MIL of the kids. So in addition to that, I got all my memories saved and off of the computer. Feeling good about it!

Kira gets out of school on Thursday. I am counting the days cuz man, this morning routine is for the birds. She is fighting me about everything. But we can do this!! Then summer time. Even better, summer vacation for the kiddos with my parents for a few weeks. I am looking forward to it. This year hubby has said we don't have to do any big projects and I am so happy about that. Over the past four summers, we have finished painting up Kira's Disney Florida room, built a walk in closet for us, built a deck (and then broke my leg) and last year the biggest project of all... a new master bathroom. I think our biggest project this year will be painting the hallway and stair area. We have been talking about it for awhile and when there are not any helpers around would be a good time to tackle it. We have the paint and everything. Just need to do it. Oh yeah... and patch some holes from the baby gates. oh the joys.

I need to finish up these stack of cards that are looking at me. One for Kira's teacher, one for the previous PTA president and one for the school secretary. They may be put into the card purses, but not sure yet. Still debating that. off I go...

brownie troop leader gifts

Here they are! I have worked all week on these two card 'purses' for Kira's Brownie Troop Leaders. They are a couple of wonderful ladies who give so much of themselves to the girls. Kira is blessed to have them in her life. So I worked hard to give them something nice that they could enjoy. Kira gave them their gifts last night at the ceremony (which I need to upload the pictures off of my camera) Below are the pictures of the cards that I put into them. Some were duplicates so I didn't take pictures of those ones. Enjoy!



I used one of my two Cuttlebug embossing folders. After using them on these cards, I can see why everyone wanted them and feel I am late in getting on the bandwagon. Guess I know what I will be using my coupons for at ACMoore and Michaels. Not sure if my Joanns has them. Have to look. Anywho... all of the papers are from the American Crafts paper line- Tea Party. I have enjoyed using this paper on so many things, and I still have more left to use!! The Happy Day is a 3D embellie from Joanns clearance section.

Again the 3D embellie is from Joanns clearance section of card stuff.

I stamped the 'your special day' and used some stickles on the flame of the candle and the frosting on the cupcake. I tried to create another 3D embellie by using pop dots. The green celebrate card I was trying to use my nesties and emboss but somehow made my 'sandwich' wrong and cut the circle out instead. Happy mistake!! I inked the oops and made it work for me.

Loving the Joanns clearance section!! LOL

Using the Cuttlebug embossing folders again. Not sure which way is up or if it really does matter on pattern embossing. hmmm... I wonder. Guess I'll have to use them more and get the feel of them. Stamped the sentiment again and did the same stickle application as the previous card. Added some bling I had from Michaels dollar bins.

Cut out the circle in the pattern paper and then put the blue cardstock behind it and put the Joanns embellie on top of that. Pretty simple but lovely.

More fun Joann embellies. And the cuttlebug paisley embossing folder. Purty.

Simple one. I stamped the sentiment right onto the pattern paper since it wasn't that busy. I like how it came out for me. And buttons... can't go wrong with them!!

I have always wanted to try those flowers on the side and once again saw them in a magazine the night before I made the cards and went for it. I did find it would be a much easier process with patterns that don't matter which way is up! The stripes were a little tricky to keep the same direction. But I did it!! The Just a Note cards were fun. Simple stamping and a flower. I did add three brads to the lower left corner of the card to mimic the centers of the flowers. Thought it helped.

Thanks for looking! I will get the Girl Scout bridging pictures off of my camera and onto my computer soon and get them posted. I am also working on 30 more cards that need to be done before Thursday. Not sure if they will be in the card purses or just wrapped with a ribbon. We'll see how quickly I can get through the cards and how much time my kids let me have. Happy Scrapping!!

thought for today

Having OCD is hard.
Having OCD with one child is harder.
Having OCD with two children is even harder.
Having OCD with your kids friends playing in your house could result in a brain seizure.


They are not bad kids by any stretch of the imagination. They are always good. The hard part is the newness of not having these toys everyday so EVERY SINGLE toy must come out of its' location and looked at and dropped on the floor. So three boys ages 2, 31/2 and 4 in one house with two rooms worth of toys equals a HUGE mess and no room to walk.


I know having these playdates are good for me. It helps me let go of my OCD ways and be more go with the flow. Yet I still feel the pull to put everything away as soon as they leave. It's just me... and my OCD. I shall live through this.


And btw... it really should be called CDO since that is how the alphabet goes. It is more annoying to have a disease for being obsessive compulsive and yet the name itself goes against this 'illness'.


I think I need a glass of wine. And yes, the two rooms are back to their regular organized selves.

student council thank you's

Yes I have them done. Yes they have been delivered to the students. Yes I finally have gotten them posted here! Nothing slow about me at all! LOL I made thank you's for all the students who helped out this year at the school store. In addition to these fabulous one of a kind works of art, they each got an eraser stick. Pretty darn good deal.


The first one I made two of. Should have inked the stem and petals of the flower but it works okay in person.


My poor blank inkpad is dying out. I did manage to pick up a new one, but not before I got these cards done. Better late than never!! LOL

New thank you stamp I got at Joanns dollar area by Inkadinkado. I love it! Layout based on a pagemap card sketch June 2010.

Another card based on a pagemap card sketch June 2010. Love the look of the brads on this.

You can see how pathetic my black inkpad was!! Poor thing gave its all to these cards. Paper for these are from the American Crafts Tea Party line. Love using scraps!!

Bad blurry picture!! Tried taking it at night. Yes someday I will learn not to do that.

And I have finished up Kira's Brownie Troop Leaders gifts. I will post those pictures tomorrow as it is now getting to lunch time and my little man is pulling at me to feed him. Guess he's hungry. Now that I think about... I'm a little bit hungry myself! Have a great one!