50TH POST

It's hard for me to believe, here I am at my first milestone of my blog. The 50th entry!


This is a layout I did today of my "beautiful" daughter. Not only is she beautiful on the outside...but she has one of the most beautiful hearts on the inside.

Scrapping like a mad woman....
Saturday's Color Challenge was to use Green and Yellow. I found a few of Samuel's pictures from his 7th birthday that he had yellow and green cupcakes, and the layout just came together. I live the birthday kit I was able to use with this one.





Oddball Scrap: Thursday we were challenged to pick up an drink(some say soda, or pop) can and use it for inspiration. I of course chose COKE! Here is the boys are in 2006 when all three of them made "Student of the month" IN THE SAME MONTH! We were so surprised! (*Note Breanna was Student of the month the month after, being a girl she had to have her own month...LOL)

Go Steelers!!!

Yeah so they didn't do so hot this year, what does one expect with a new coach and a revamped team? Bettis is gone...dang it! Here is a "football" challenge I did for Scrapgirls, and it gave me a chance to scrap one of my HallowScream pictures taken at Busch Gardens in 2006, of Norm and I.

Hot off the presses!

Well I finally talked Norm into getting the printer I have been wanting for awhile now...instead of spending big bucks for a 12X12 printer, I settled for a Kodak 5500, that is just released, hot off the assembly line. I have ran into situations where I have to fax things occasionally so we went ahead and got the all-in-one (Copy, Scanner, Printer, Fax)....the biggest selling point is that the ink is much cheaper than the normal ink ($9.99 for the black, and $15 for the color cartridges). I have always preferred scrapbooking on 8.5X10 anyhow...and figure with the money I will be saving on ink, should I want another LARGER print then I can order it online. I have been printing pages like a mad woman this week. The kids are just thrilled to be finally adding the layouts to their scrapbook. Won't be long before I have to make some new albums for them. Breanna's three inch binder is starting to bulge at th seams. Today was a half day of school and the boys chose to stay home with me and Jadan promptly wanted to help me print, and file the layouts in their books. We got much accomplished.

While moving the office around, I ran into a couple of albums I knew where they were but wasn't sure what was inside of them...LOL. I hadn't seen some of these pictures since before our move into the new house, over a year ago. I found a good deal of the boys newborn pictures...call me a happy camper...let the scrapping begin. The next layout is one of the pictures I found of him, that I edited to make the butterfly. I had a sketch crop challenge last night and through the picture in the scanner....and here is what I come up with.





Oh to be young and in love. One never thinks about later down the road having pictures that are professionally done to cherish when you are only eighteen and getting married. Yep, May will be twenty years for Norm and I. I have started going through my wedding pictures and editing a few of them along the way, and hopefully will start scrapping my wedding album before too much longer. Much editing will be needed on some of the pictures...after all who wants a camper in the background?...LOL


I regret not getting professional pictures done...but will make do with the one's that I have...the pictures aren't the important part...it's the relationship and love that continue to grow. We have had our moments, but hand in hand we continue to make it work, and are blessed with children that make it all work our in the wash.
Norm, I love you and hope that the next twenty plus can be filled with laughter, love, and joy.

Boy it's been a long weekend. The kids were out on Friday and again on Monday, and Monday just seemed to drag by. I enjoy my free time and the peace and quiet...and I was missing that. Today (Tuesday) was refreshing!


I got a couple of layouts done in the last couple of days..so here they are:


The most recent one is of Jordan. This one goes from birth to six years old. The pictures were taken at different intervals. The Upper Left of course was before he came home from the hospital, the second one from the top is at six months old, the Third one is just after Norm left on his deployment to the Gulf, The Fourth one was of him painting his Father's Day Plate during his WestPac Cruise. And the last one is his school picture this year. He is truly my miracle baby, two months early and only 3.14 pounds at birth...now to a thriving SIX year old....where has the time gone. They grow up right before your eyes and when you look back, it so hard to know where all the time went. Cherish the moments...





This was my Monday's Challenge: Theme - Favorite song. I chose "My Baby Girl" (artist: Tim McGraw). This is a color picture of Breanna that I turned into sepia tones then threw it in the layout. It is a picture of her at about six months old as well. She and her daddy love Gummy Bears....imagine my surprise when at six months, while teething on gummy bears, she stuck it on her forehead and got the biggest laugh. I can still hear that silly little laugh in the back of my memory. Kids are amazing!





The Picture...LOL

You Are My Sunshine

This is a combined challenge on Scrapgirls using the colors of the "Wizard of Oz" DVD Color, and a picture of Norm I took a few years ago. I made it black and white so it would fit nicely into the layout. This is one of my favorite pictures of him.

Revamping the blog...I am making some slight tweeks here and there, and it's starting to look more personalized, the way I like it...LOL.

These are a few pictures I snapped of the boys (Breanna's is below) one morning when they were waiting for the bus to come. The kids love to get outside first thing in the morning and run around, explore what sticks have fallen out of the trees, what the squirrels are up to...and just get rid of that last burst of energy they may have from any sugar high's they may have got from breakfast. I would rather them do that then get on the bus and to school and be bouncing off the walls...LOL.

The boys were all playing around the tree next to our driveway and I thought what a perfect photo op, since I hadn't gotten around to doing any "fall" pictures. Various things have kept me from getting their "pile of leaves" pictures...either it was too early and we had no leaves yet, it was too cold, rainy, or what ever reason...so here they are. Jordan was being funny and playing a reigndeer with twigs...I couldn't resist.

Well there is a little lull in my posting as of recently. I am still waiting for my camera to get back...but I have been assured all the issues have been worked out between the repair place and Kodak, and I should have it home in a week or so.

Below is a layout I did of Breanna, and as the journaling says, I snapped this picture while they were waiting for the bus the first cold morning. I was just looking for a reason to use the new camera...and I found it...LOL.



The kids are all doing wonderfully in school. Norm took the Chief's test today, and back to work in full swing. I am hanging in there as always...some ask me what that's supposed to mean and I just say...well I am happily content, with my family.
I am always looking for something to come up, and see what path that takes us down..but for the most part, all is well.

Breanna and Samuel had a field trip to the Planetarium today, and want to go back and watch the evening program...so I am off to get dinner done, and see what kind of mood Norm is in when he gets home....I called him and he said "we will see"...lol, which translates into I am busy and don't know what time I will be home...but depends on traffic and what kind of mood I am in when I get home...MEN!

Off to get dinner done, and supervise the kids on the computers....until next time, thanks for looking into my little corner of the universe.

"Crappy Ham"

Well last evening Norm had duty, and I was going to make hot ham and cheese sandwiches (we have a sandwich machine that heats it up and makes triangle pockets)for the kids, and homemade french fries....both favorites of theirs....and when I went to get the ham, it was gone. Norm had finished it off on a sandwich he carried to work with him. I made dinner (we used turkey instead) and they were all happy....now on to what happened this afternoon.

Jadan: "Dad, we had homemade frenchfries last night."
Norm: "You did?"
Jadan: "Yep we did, mom was going to make hot ham and cheese sandwiches, but all the ham was gone."
Norm: "Yep, I took it to work on a sandwich. That ham wasn't very good, I won't buy the generic store brand anymore."
Jadan: "Well I liked it...it was good for me."
Norm: "Well buddy I am glad you liked it but it was crappy ham."
Jadan: "You mean I ate crappy ham?"

We had a good laugh, including Jadan: "Dad, don't buy crappy ham anymore."

Re-Scrapping

This week I have been reaching back into my collection of unscrapped photo's and pages I want to rescrap and doing layouts. Scrap Girls has had some great challenges, that has helped me a bunch.


This is a picture taken of Breanna while Norm was gone on his last deployment (WestPac) at one of the Easter gatherings. I love the colors of this picture, and my girl (yes, I am modest)is just beautiful. This is one of those pictures I have been waiting to scrap for awhile, but just hadn't decided what I wanted to do with it. I have some of the boys I will eventually get to as well.





This is a rescrap of some pictures taken of Breanna and Samuel on Christmas Morning 2003. The boys, I believe were still tucked in their beds..and they just couldn't wait to open presents. We hadn't had a good snow since 2001, and were/are always asking for snow..so I added that on the page.




The end of the year is always been a highlight in our home. We decorate, cook, spend time with the children and friends, and it's just my favorite time of the year. This year, like we usually do, we had our friends over to usher in the New Year. We had a wonderful time, and many funnies to look back at in pictures. This layout only has a few of those pictures...the incriminating one's were left out to protect the "not so innocent"......(laughing at Jamie). Anyhow....Thanks for looking and remember to double click on the pictures to enlarge for a better view

I love and miss you

This man (my stepfather) came into my life when I was 12 years old. Who would have known he would become one of the best friends a girl could have.

I was so torn when my parents divorced. All of my life they had a rocky relationship, and mom never seemed happy. During their divorce, my mom started a relationship with this man. He was so tall, and seemed so gruff to most folks, but as I grew up living with them, I come to know him as a big teddy bear. We rarely had words, and when we did..they were few and far between. He seemed to understand me, and drew me out of my withdrawn sense into reality. He encouraged me, and although wasn't home a whole lot (he drove a over the road long haul truck), we built a relationship that some cannot understand. We didn't have a drop of blood in common, but he I grew to love him, not only as a friend, but a father figure. I remember all too well my stepsister coming to visit and this big ole guy sitting in the floor while we put "curlers" in his hair.


In the summers, I used to go out on the road with my mom and him occasionally, before the laws got too strict, and got to see other parts of the country that I probably never would have seen any other way. There was never a dull moment. We were constantly up to something, and usually plotting on mom in some funny way.


This man that drifted into my life at that tender time, also was one of the best grandfathers any kid could have. He made a point to be here for every occasion he could be. He always dropped what he was doing and came running, full force. When Breanna and Samuel were about to be born, I called and told him I was scheduled for a C-Section, and they came off the road and came up to help me out however they could. He was standing outside the OR doors when they were born, and waited for me to come out of surgery before he would leave the area to even eat. This was a task all of it's own, he was a diabetic. His big heart was amazing. I never thought I would see tears in his eyes, he wasn't one to show that side of his emotions very often...but when he laid eyes on my little girl, this big ole truck driver broke down in tears, and he would just hold her hand or foot or stroke his big finger across her cheek. He was scared to pick her up, that he would hurt her...she was 5.4 pounds at birth.


These two especially, had a bond that was unbelievable. From the time she was big enough to walk/talk, she or if he thought it had been too long since he had talked to her last...would constantly be on the phone, thank heavens for Cingular's (now AT&T) roll over minutes, and large minute plans. He constantly showered them with kindness, love, laughter, and as most grandparents do spoiling their grandchildren...gifts. I was so glad they got to meet him and I hope that they will remember him always.


I was a good kid growing up, and he usually took my side, when mom wouldn't agree with me. Being an only child, mom tended to be overprotective of me. When I wanted to start dating, she didn't want me to....and he finally told me..."You go ahead and go out, I will handle your mom." I did some things kids probably shouldn't do along the way, but nothing to ever get me in trouble, that I couldn't get out of anyhow.



He wasn't the gushy "I love you" kind of guy, but he did little things, and picked/teased the ones he loved..that was just the way he was. I loved his warped sense of humor. But if I ever needed anything, you can bet at the drop of a hat...come hell or high water he was going to be there. I remember well December 15, 2001 the day my water broke with the boys two months early. We were all scared out of our minds, and I picked up the phone and called him and told them (my mom joined him on the road after I left home.) what was happening. Without hesitation he said he would be there as quick as he could, mind you they were in California and me on the Virginia coast at the time. He, not my mom, called the dispatcher and told them he was coming home...to get him a load or he was going to deadhead home without a load. I went into labor on Saturday evening, Sunday morning they were set to deliver their load...they dropped the load and another driver in the area picked it up and took it to it's destination. They picked up an empty trailer that needed to come back to TN (home for them) and came home. He drove from California to TN in 24 hours. They got home Monday night and Tuesday morning they walked in my hospital room. That meant so much to me..that he would drop what he was doing and do that.



Again, I seen tears in his eyes when we went in to see the boys. They were 3.8 and 3.14 pounds, even at two months early. I was in labor a total of five days and forty hours with the boys. That man stayed up here until I came home from the hospital, and he was sure the boys would be fine before he left to go back home and back on the road. He called me two or three times a day to find out how I was, and of course how the boys were.



They came back up when the boys were several months old, and although he didn't go to church...he went with me, when I had the boys dedicated on Mother's Day. He spent his birthday (and Breanna and Samuel's, the day after his) with us. Then again we seen him on Christmas. Just after Christmas he got pneumonia and was hospitalized. He refused to let me come home, said I needed to stay up here and take care of "his grandkids". He got out of the hospital, and they went up on the Tennessee River camping. He kicked a block of wood while leveling up the camper and it ended up lifting the nail on his toe. Being a diabetic he went back in the hospital, as it didn't take long to get infected.


The year before the boys were born, he also had gastric bypass surgery, as the diabetes, and a couple of other factors took a toll on his body and he was swelling so much. They did all the testing and never said anything about congestive heart failure....we learned later that even back then he had it. He had a hard time keeping anything down, and lived the best he could until a couple months before Labor Day 2004. His body finally broke down, and I received the call that I needed to get Norm home from the Gulf...and come home. I got in touch with Norm (he was deployed for 6 1/2 months at the time), and told him. Pop said he needs you to come home.....(he requested Norman to come home, something he wouldn't have done any other time, because he was so proud of him being in the military and taking care of "his daughter"). I was at Walmart with my friend Tracy when I got the call to get Norm home. I made the arrangements to get Norm home, and while on his flight late that evening, I got the call that Pop was gone. He drifted out of our lives...one of my best friends....gone. It was so very hard to deal with.


Norm finally got home and I made sure he got a good nights rest before we hit the road going home for the funeral. It was so precious to see my kids so in love with this man. They pulled chairs up beside the casket and would "Shhhhh!" everyone telling them that "granddaddy's sleeping". They had no clue, being so young what that meant.


It would break my heart for them to want to call "granddaddy" for the longest time, and I had to try to find a way to break it down on their level that they couldn't call him on the phone anymore. Somehow over time, they seemingly understood, and clung to my mom, calling her often..and let her pacify them. She eventually came to live with us for a little while, and is now back in Tennessee taking care of her mom.


Respectfully, admirably, and lovingly I share this layout with you all..."Pop...I love and miss you.

No one is safe, when I have a camera...

Here is another challenge from Scrap Girls. Our challenge today was to use a can of Tomato Soup and come up with something creative.....SO, I took a picture I snapped of Norm at Christmas Lunch and decided, it was the best picture to use, and hey I hadn't scrapped it yet...LOL.


The Word Art Reads:


F is for Familiar...there's no place like home;
A is for Always welcome, no matter how far you roam;
M is for Memories, more cherished each passing day;
I is for Inspiration given along the way;
L is for Love you feel each time you get together;
Y is for Years to come, for family lasts forever.


***Remember to double click on the pictures for a larger view***

Each month I will be adding a monthly calendar that I created as a Christmas Present to family members, with Templates found at Simply Sarah's website. You can find a link to her site in my sidebar.



(This is the front cover of the Calendar)

January 2008

Playing a little bit of catch up....

Well after several requests, here is a picture of Norm and I on New Years Eve 2008....2007 is gone and 2008 is upon us.

Yes, I am still trying to get rid of the black hair from Halloween, but it's coming along.

I was digging through some pictures the other day and look at what I found. This picture was taken about a week or so before the boys were born. They were born at 32.5 weeks and weighed 3.8 and 3.14 lbs. so you can imagine what they would have been at birth. Breanna and Samuel used to love to feel the boys move and to rub my belly. This is one of my favorite pics of the kids, Me...I think, I look hideous...LOL.

Happy New Year

Where did 2007 go? Here we are already into the end of the first week of 2008, gee that seems odd to say.

We had a wonderful holiday full of children, laughter, and holiday cheer. Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. I guess I just love showering my kids with presents and watching the look on their faces when they get something they have really been wanting awhile.


Below you will find Samuel opening his Shrek the Third Video game on Christmas Eve/Eve as my kids call it (12/23). He was just beside himself when he got that...little did he know on Christmas Eve when they open their gifts that he would get the Thrillville game he wanted as well. I have video of that I will have to upload at some point. So here is my Scrap Girls Challenge for the 12 Days of Christmas - Task 10 (Ten letter title) scrap page.

Following up on more pictures of Jordan and Jadan's Birthday. Another Scrap Girls Challenge, Scrap holiday pictures without using holiday kits. (Example: Christmas, don't use Christmas paper; Birthday, don't use a birthday kit.) So instead of the traditional Birthday layout with cake and balloons I chose to go with their theme "Pirates of the Carribean", and used a Pirates Themed Kit for their layout.

This is my final layout done in 2007, and my most challenging, so far.

Details:

Task 12 – Dec 28, Create a new layout that uses a TOTAL of 12 different items (i.e. 3 photos, 2 papers, 1 alpha, 1 brush and 5 embellishments for a total of 12).

I did it!!! I Conquered the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, and the TREE OF DOOM...ooh sorry the Christmas Tree Scavenger hunt, I also found ALL of the stars in the Stars Scavenger hunt on Scrap girls. Anyone from Scrap Girls reading this will know what I mean when I say I am WHOOPED!!!

I pray and hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and are having a blessed New Year so far.

Yes, I have New Years Pictures to add, I have just been so busy as of lately, I haven't had much time to scrap, be on my blog, or get things done.

Congrats to my Best Friend, and Partner in Crime, Jamie.... Last Sunday she became the proud beaming Aunt of Ms. Kelly Payton Dixon. I will be adding pictures of Kelly and my layout work on her when I get my camera back from repair.

(P.S. to Jamie....I haven't posted your pictures yet, but I did get your blog link added to mine...LOL, will pando pics shortly.)

Yep we had a small mishap on New Years Eve and my new camera had to be sent in for repairs...Will hopefully have it back in 7 to 10 days.

Well I am off to do laundry, unload the dishwasher, and feed the little monsters...I mean boys.