Home Sweet Home!!!

We're home!!!! We got a call Sunday morning from the dr. asking us if we wanted to bring the baby home. She was well enough to leave the hospital! The heart murmur wasn't detected, the rapid heartbeat is gone, the infection is gone, blood sugar levels are normal and the jaundice is gone! We were, needless to say, thrilled!! So after Emily's last round of antibiotics at 3 and then a couple of hours of bathing, changing, taking her newborn pics from the hospital and feeding her one last time (cause she was a hungry girl and couldn't wait) it was time to go!

After leaving the hospital we went to Emily's birth mom's house to visit. Such a wonderful visit.

Then we went back to the hotel

Monday afternoon (my dad's birthday, and Emily's 1 week birthday) was court where K signed relinquishment and consent forms and since there is no agency involved in our adoption, the judge signed legal guardianship of Emily to us.

Then it was time to come home!

What a wonderful few days it has been. K is never far from our thoughts. We owe her so much!

And finally, 9 years ago today, I married the most amazing man! Happy Anniversary Jacob!

Prayers for Emily and K

Dear Family and Friends,
As you all know our little Emily was born early Monday morning and has been in the NICU since shortly after birth. She is improving, and if all continues to go well, we should be able to take Emily home next Tuesday (which how cool would that be! That is our 9th wedding anniversary). This Sunday is Fast Sunday. We would like to ask that you and your individual families remember Emily and her birth mom K in your fasting and prayers on Sunday. If you are unable to fast, will you please say a special prayer. Please bless that Emily will continue to improve and that we will be able to take her home soon. Also, K is going to court on Monday to relinquish her rights which will allow us to bring Emily home when the time comes, and allow us to proceed with the adoption. K is doing well and is very much at peace with her decision. Please bless her, that she will continue to feel strength, peace and comfort in her decision. That she will always know of the love that we all have for her. Thank you for your continued prayers and love.
With Love, Sharon, Jacob, Tammy, & Emily

Request

I know I have been MIA these last few weeks. The day that I made my last post I found out that a very old and dear friend of mine had been involved in a horrific car accident (we met when I was 13 and she was 14). She was driving south on the freeway, was temporarily distracted (like for only a couple seconds), swerved a little too far to the left, and over corrected. She crossed both lanes of south-bound traffic and the Expedition she was driving rolled 3 times before coming to a stop on it's side. She and the two passangers in her car (including her 9 year old daughter) were wearing seatbelts, but my friend was partially ejected from the vehicle. The front part of the drivers side roof caved in on her and she suffered severe head trauma. My sweet friend also suffered a broken cheek bone/eye socket, broken ribs, and a broken arm in 3 places. Her daughter and the other passanger escaped virtually unharmed with only minor bruising from the seatbelts.

For 12 days my friend was in the ICU in critical condition in a coma. This past Saturday, January 16th, she passed away. It has been a hard few weeks. I was able to go to the hospital to see her the day after the accident and again shortly after she passed away. I have known her husband since 10th grade and he is also a dear friend. He is doing as well as could be expected. I also saw him for a few hours on Monday. He is devastated and misses his sweet wife dearly. They met in high school and were married for 12 years (this year would have been 13). Her daughter is doing o.k.. She doesn't really understand what's going on, how can you at 9 years old. My heart is breaking for her loved ones left behind, ecspecially her husband and daughter. I wrote this on my other blog the day of her passing, shortly after returning home from the hospital. It sums up what I have been feeling. http://jacobandsharon.blogspot.com/2010/01/god-be-with-you-till-we-meet-again.html

So this is why I haven't been around. The funeral services are on Saturday. I don't normally make posts like this, forgive me if it offends anyone, but please, please keep Matt & Dayna (her husband and daughter) in your prayers. They really need comfort and strength right now.

Hopefully soon I will have some projects for you. I have been stamping, a little bit, I just haven't been up to posting much. But soon, very soon.....

We're here!!

Just a quick note to let you know we arrived safely and are loving our new home. We have a lot, and I do mean A LOT of boxes to unpack so it may be a week or two before I have any new projects to show you. But I just wanted to update for those who were wondering, that yes, we are here, we're safe, we're tired, we're exhuasted, but more then anything, we are sooooooo glad to be home!!

Moving Cards (The rest of them)

I'm a bad blog mommy! I'm sorry, I have an excuse! 1 week from today we will be arriving back home in Utah at our new house! Which means, on Wednesday we load the truck, Thursday we clear housing (we live in Military housing right now and so we have to sign for quarters and then sign out when we leave, the housing office comes and inspects and everything) And on Friday we leave New Mexico and start the almost 900 mile trip to Utah!! So needless to I have been busy getting everything ready.

Anyhow, because I have been so busy I have been forgetting to post the rest of the moving cards. So here they are: This is the same set I used for last years moving cards but I wanted to use it again, since it is the only moving type card we have (hence why all the rest of the cards have been non-moving themed). So this time I made it an all white card by stamping the truck in the center and adding the guy driving and the moving items in the back of the truck. All were stamped with momento black tuxedo ink. I then colored the image using markers and a glitter gel pen for the hub caps, door handle and bumpers. I finished it off by adding the sentiment at the bottom. (Stamp set- Loads Of Love and Loads Of Love Accessories by Stampin Up!; cardstock- Whisper White Stamping Up!; Markers- Copic Markers; Gel Pen- unknown; Ink- Momento)
This next one I started out by printing the sentiment at the bottom of the cardstock (took a few tries on scrap paper to get the placement right) and then used the faux framing technique (also known as reverse masking) to sponge my Pale Plum ink all over. Once I got the coverage I liked I then stamped my images randomly using Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss. (Stamp Set- Heartfelt Thanks by Stampin Up!; Sentiment- My Printer; Ink- Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Mellow Moss By Stampin Up!; Cardstock- Whisper White by Stampin Up!) The pale plum ink started seeping through the mask after 5 cards and I didn't want to make a new mask so for the other 5 cards I did this way simple (possibly too simple, meaning I might tweak it later) card:
This one was simple, as you can see all I did was stamp 3 flowers using Pale Plum, Perfect Plum and Mellow Moss. So simple, So easy. (Supplies are same as above card)

So there you have it. The rest of my We're moving cards. I didn't have time to send them out before we left so I will do that when we get there. Probably not till we're settled though. Anyhow, today we are taking a break from packing (partly because we can't do anymore. What we have left is the stuff we still need, like clothes, so that will all get packed on Monday and Tuesday.) Instead, we are going out with some friends of ours who are also hoping to adopt. We're going to try a new wing place in town. Should be lots of fun! :D I probably won't post again until we are in our new home so see you then!

Adoption Blog Button, how you can help! :D

I want to thank my awesome friend Jill! She and I have been friends since high school. I posted on FB asking if anyone knew how to make blog buttons. Not only did Jill come through for me, but she came through in a fabulous way! Our new button is on the right. Isn't it fabulous! She asked what it was I was wanting I told her something blue and brown like our pass along cards (see our other blog for that story). Using that as a referrence she came up with our awesome buttons. *big grin* Now, why am I telling you this? Because you can help us with our hope to adopt! That's right! All you need to do is right click on our button (I posted it above) and save it to your computer. Then go to your blog dashboard, click on layout, click on add gadget, click on add picture. A box will come up with a place to link and also a browse box. In the link area put in our blog address (www.jacobandsharon.blogspot.com) and then where it says browse, add the picture you just saved to your computer of our button. Then click save. It's that simple. Then everytime someone clicks on the button from your blog they will be sent to our blog and will be able to learn all about us. With your help to get the word out, we know our hope to adopt will become a reality!

My latest creation

When we first started the adoption process everyone told us not to get too excited because it can take a long time to be chosen. Everyone was right I told myself. Fast forward a few months and here we are officially approved for adoption and I can't help but get excited and start preparing. Yes, we know that it may still be years before we are chosen, but here's the thing, even though we don't yet know our baby's birth parents, and we don't yet know our baby, and we haven't been chosen yet, we still love them all. We love our baby's birth parents and their families. And we love our baby. Already we feel like they are all part of our family. So yes, it may be years before we are chosen (we hope not, but it may be) we want to get excited and start preparing. So far we have a crib, a stroller, a car seat, and some blankets and burp clothes. We are going to start getting other things such as bottles and diapers and such with each shopping trip we make to the grocery store. A pack of diapers one trip and a pack of wipes the next trip, etc. That way when we get the call that we have been chosen, we will be ready. I'm someone who likes to plan ahead. I have no control over when we will be chosen, but I can prepare for when that day comes.

I have been working for the last two weeks on the quilt for the baby's nursery. My mom is working on the rest of the bedding (bumper pads, sheets, etc.). She made my daughter's before she was born so this is kind of carrying on the tradition. I wanted to make the quilt though. I chose a fabric set that has jungle animals and have tried to do coordinating fabrics in yellow or green so that the set will work for a boy or a girl. I hope I have done the job.

I hand quilted around all the animals and leaves and then the borders. I also hand stitched the binding on (well, sort of, I machine stitched the front of it on and the hand stitched the back so that it all has a nice finished edge, hand stitching the front allowed me to have better control over where the back was making it easier to stitch the back on) I love the way the tiger turned out! The quilting around the animals gives them a more dimensional look and actually makes them look a little like stuffed animals.

Why did I choose jungle animals? Because of this stinkin' cute elephant! If you know my husband and I or you have been a blog reader for a while, you know our story about elephants. Just in case you don't know, or may have forgotten here's a shortened version, an elephant never forgets. (it's true, look it up). I woke up one morning shortly before my husband left for basic training in the Army. I had a stuffed elephant that had been placed on my back. My husband then explained to me that an elephant never forgets. And then he said that no matter where he is in this world, no matter how far away he is from me, he will always remember me and be thinking of me and will never forget his love for me. So ever since then elephants have been our thing. This would also be why I make him cards with elephants on them. So when I saw this fabric panel at hobby lobby I had to get it.

Fantastic News!!!! (means a blog name change)

I just got word from our adoption caseworker. We are officially and approved adoptive couple! YAY!!! He has posted our profile on the agency's website. We are adopting through LDS Family Services. The great thing about them is that birth families don't need to be LDS in order to use their services (which are free to birthmoms). The services include counseling for birth families, and if adoption is chosen LDS Family Services will provide medical care for the birth mom as well as counseling after placement. Which was really important to me. I was a teen mom, I had Tammy when I was 16. I can't even imagine the hard decision and sacrifice that will be made by our birth mom so it was really important to me that she be given all kinds of support by not only her family, but by the agency as well. The agency is very low pressure. In fact, they even offer services to help those birth parents who choose to keep thier children. They offer counseling and parenting classes. The services there are numerous. We were so glad when we chose to go with them.

We hope to find a birth family who is wanting an semi-open adoption. We want to keep in touch through letters, pictures, and emails for years to come. We think that contact even after our adoption is finalized is essential to everyone, not only the families and us, but to the precious little baby who is so loved by all.

If you or anyone you know is considering adoption or is just in need of help making decisions in their pregnancy, contact LDS Family Services. Our profile along with a lot of other couples who are waiting for the blessing of adoption, can be viewed at http://www.beta.itsaboutlove.org/ Contact information to the agency are on the website as well. To learn more about us that isn't in the profile, check out our family blog at http://www.jacobandsharon.blogspot.com/

Now that we are officially approved I have to change the name of my blog. I am going to change it Crazy Crafty Creations. So for those of you who are subscribers to my blog, starting tomorrow your notifications will come through with that name. If you have my blog linked to yours, please change the name in your links.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support! We are so excited about this new path our lives are taking!

House Hunting, Books, Great Deals, oh my!

Greetings from the floor of my brother's house in Utah. LOL I am using hubby's laptop and for some off reason I planted myself on the floor rather then sitting in a chair. We have had a nice trip so far. The drive here was uneventful, which is to say, very good. We didn't even argue which we normally do when we are both tired and ornery and stuck in a car for a long time. ;) We spent the first two days at Jacob's mom's house. While there we got to meet our soon to be sister-in-law who came with hubby's brother (her fiance') for dinner. I showed them the picture of this cake I found and want to do for them. They loved it. Hopefully it turns out the way I am hoping. Hubby's sister and another brother and his wife were also there so it was so nice to catch up with them. After the weekend at my mother-in-laws house we came to my brother's house.

For the last two days we have been house hunting. While our intention was to just look for now and actually buy in a few months, we think we may have found the house for us so we are going to talk about it and pray about it and weigh some pros and cons and decide whether we want to put in an offer now or not. If we do we would request a closing date of July 1st which seems like a long way away, but really, it's only a little over two months. We figure if we close then, we will owe our first mortgage payment right around the beginning of Sept. which is when we plan to move back here to Utah, so the timing should work out perfectly. So we'll see what we decide. It is between two houses, one is just about perfect and wouldn't need any work done to it other then wall color (it's all white). It has new flooring through out, completely renovated kitchen and bathrooms, and a great backyard along with a 1 car garage where hubby would have his wood shop. 4 bedrooms, 2 bath, and a livingroom, and a family room. It's also a Tri-Level which would be great for me, I wouldn't have a huge amount of stairs to climb, which is tough for me to do on my bad days with my back. But this house is also a little more then what we wanted to spend. The other house is a lot less money, has the same amount of bathrooms and bedrooms, has a livingroom and a family room, but has an office that would make a great craft room. The kitchen and bathrooms all need updating, it's a split level which hubby hates, but for he likes this one, the backyard isn't very nice though and it also has no garage or wood shop so we would have to build a garage along with all the other renovations that we would need to do eventually. So we have to weigh the pros and cons of both. Both are good locations, good schools, nice neighborhoods etc. So we will see.

Anyhow, now, on to my great deal! We weren't going to get anything for the baby until we were officially approved for adoption (our case worker assures us it will be any day now) but, we were out shopping today and just looking at baby stuff for fun and we found a stroller/carseat combo regularly $170, for $104. We couldn't pass it up! Hooray for great deals! Not to mention that my mom just called and saw a listing on Craigslist for a new crib and mattress for $50 which would be awesome if we could get that!

Oh, and to top off the day, my mom gave me a present that she bought the baby while at a thrift store. She found one of my favorite books from growing up. I had several, you already know about Goodnight Moon, Stand Back Said The Elephant I'm Going To Sneeze and of course, The Runaway Road. But I haven't told you about another of my favorites, The Monster At The End Of This Book. It's a classic tale starring the lovable Grover who reads the title of the book and is so scared that there is a monster, monsters scare him. Over and over he tries to stop the reader from turning pages and tries tying the pages together, building a brick wall, and even nailing the pages shut. But the reader (who is so strong according to Grover) gets to the end of the book and they find the monster........ they find....... Grover himself. Grover says that he told you not to be scared (even though he is the one who was scared! hehehehehe It's too cute! And she found it in mint condition, not even a bent page. I love it! She is going to get the Runaway Road for me too. *grin*

Picture Tag

My Sister-In-Law Andrea tagged me. It's been a while since I have been tagged and frankly, this one looked like so much fun that I had to do it. Here are the rules:

1~ Go to your document/picture file

2~ Go to the 6th file

3~ Go to the 6th picture

4~ Blog about the picture

5~ Tag 6 friends

Anyone who knows me and/or has seen my house knows I like to be organized. Ask my husband. I reorganize my house probably once a month. Seriously, I try to find ways to make things function better. So I like to reorganize. (Does this translate into being a neat freak? Not really, I just like things clean, but I wouldn't say I'm a "neat freak") Anyhow, my pictures are no exception, they are organized into categories, and sub categories etc, so when the rules said to go to the 6th file and then to the 6th picture, I had to go a little further.

I went to the 6th file which was our family photos category, then to the 6th sub category file which was wedding photos, from there I had 3 files (bridal pictures, engagement pictures, wedding pictures) so I went to the 3rd one (since 3 twice equals 6 right?) which was my wedding photos. From there I found a 6th photo, now I want to share the pictures just before and after this one too (cause they are cute and I will use any excuse to show off my wedding pictures. *wink*)

So just before that 6th photo that I finally came to we see this:

My photographer was trying to get a photo of my sweet hubby and I with our parents. She told my father-in-law to scoot in a little closer. So he scoots in closer and hugs my mother-in-law. Rebecca (our photographer) realized where Jacob gets his affectionate ways from. So after she snapped that photo she took this one of us with our parents, (this one was the 6th photo that I was supposed to post in todays picture tag)After this photo she had Jacob and I kiss (again, we did a lot of kissing pictures, after all, it was our wedding day!) and have our parents act annoyed: And this final picture is my favorite in the line of photos with our parents. This time Rebecca asked the parents to kiss and for us to be shocked. Now, my stepdad right after Rebecca told us what to do for the photo asked why we would be shocked that they were kissing. And then he said, "after all, we are married", then he grabs my mom and plants one on her, so my look of shock, is real! I hope you enjoyed my little story through pictures. As for who I will tag, I don't know if any of them will do it, but just in case they want to, I want to tag, my mother-in-law Alice Ann, my sister-in-law Ruth, my other sister-in-law Janele, and my friends, Robyn, Lydia, and of course, Shelly.

Update!

Just wanted to post a quick update on our adoption. We had our home study today. It went fantastic! Our case worker was very impressed. He said they are just waiting on the background checks and 1 more letter of referrence (we have 4 of our friends who are writting letters and they are waiting on 1 still). After they receive those he will write up our adoption study and then we will be approved! He said that it should only be a few more weeks!!!!
We are so excited and beyond thrilled!

I am working on our online profile stuff. I am mostly done with that though, just tweaking a few things here and there. As soon as I am done it will be ready to be posted, so as soon as we are approved the agency will post that on their website. In the meantime I am also working on our scrapbook profile. I have 1 of the 2 pages done. Hopefully I will have those done in the next few days and will be able to show you all those.

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know how well it's all going. :) After we are approved we just wait to be chosen by a birth family. Hopefully that won't take too long to be chosen but we are prepared for it taking a while. Hopefully it won't, but it might. In the meantime we are so excited that the approval process is flying by!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Happy Birthday to my honey! My sweetheart turned 32 today! (the above picture is one that I took of him while scouting for picture locations the other day. I made him "model" for me so I could figure out if I liked that particular location or not. I told him to sit on the rock for me, he decided to strike some poses. hehe)

As you my faithful blog readers know, hubby asked me a few weeks ago if I would make him a birthday cake done with Chocolate Fondant. He said he didn't care what it looked like and I could use that as my opportunity to practice my skills. I haven't made flowers for almost a year so I thought that this would be a good time to try. This cake is a cake of firsts, my first time making Chocolate Fondant (recipe from Michelle Foster on Cake Central just sift 3/4 cup of cocoa when you are sifting your powdered sugar.) This was also my first time making chocolate buttercream frosting (Recipe from a Wilton tiered cake book that I have). And since I didn't have regular fondant, I use gum paste for my flowers. This was my first time making gumpaste flowers. The fondant was harder to work with them I thought it would be. I added 3 lbs. of powdered sugar like the recipe called for but it was a little too much. It was brittle in spots so I really had to manipulate it. But it turned out alright, ecspecially for my first time making it.

The cake is done in a heart shape. Hubby wanted chocolate cake (with chocolate fondant, that combined with the chocolate buttercream is a whole lotta chocolate)

Now I know what you're thinking, either you're thinking that "there is a rose missing in the front there" however,that was intentional, the roses cascade down the side and end up in front

Or you're thinking "that is a whole lotta roses!" That too was intentional. Hubby is 32, total there are 32 roses and leaves. :o) See, there is a madness to my method.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Would you let your kid do this?

Today was church. Boy was it a doosy. I almost didn't go because I was hurting so much. My back was killing me before I even left the house. By the end of 1st hour I was in major pain. By the end of the 2nd hour I could feel the fluid pressure building up in my spinal cord. Now having Syringomyelia, I know, fluid pressure is not a good thing, the step after that is blacking out, which has happened twice to me. But silly me decided to try and stay for the 3rd hour anyway. Wrong move!

I was sitting there in Relief Society (a meeting for just the ladies) and this other sister (we call each other brother and sister in our church) came and sat behind me with her two and a half year old. He should have been in nursery but wasn't. He was apparently acting up in the nursery so she brought him to RS. No big deal... until... the kid starts kicking the back of my chair! So much so in fact that he is actually moving the chair. Seriously, this kid wasn't big, he was pretty little, but yet he is kicking my chair and moving it! I'm not a small girl! So those were some powerful kicks to be doing that. What does his mom do? Nothing! She laughed and thought it was funny. O.k. back up a sec. He first started shaking my chair. She giggled and told him that wasn't nice. So he laid down and started kicking. She did at one point tell him that if he didn't stop she would send him back to class. O.k. I don't know about you, but nursery is a place where the kids get to play with toys for 2 hours while their parents are in other classes. It's not supposed to be a threat or punishment! Did she ever tell him to stop kicking my chair, or take him out? Nope! She just let him continue and when she noticed he was moving the chair with his He-Man kicks she laughed! So with each kick, I have sharp shooting pains going up and down my back. Luckily I didn't pass out. I was waiting for it because like I said, it has happened twice before when the fluid pressure got too bad. I did start seeing spots. I think if I had to sit there for any longer I probably would have passed out. By the end of the 3rd hour the pain was excruciating and unbearable!

Why did I just sit there and not get up you ask? Because, get this, I was afraid of offending her! She doesn't come to church that often, in fact it was the first time I had seen her there in a month. So I thought if I offended her she may not come back for a while. So I just sat there. In retrospect maybe I should have just got up and left, but like I said, I didn't want to offend her.

After the disastrous 3rd and final meeting, I endured the 30 minute car ride home. Not easy when you're already in excruciating pain. But I got home and had a hard time moving. I tried to do as much as I could in the way of getting things for myself. My hubby has a hard time seeing me like that so I try not to show it when I am in that much pain. He knew I was in pain but I think I hid the extent of the pain pretty well. I don't like taking my pain meds so I took 4 advil and hoped that would dull the pain a little. It didn't. After dinner I laid down on the couch with my heating pad. That did help slightly and I fell asleep.... for 4 hours! I didn't wake up until almost 10p.m.! So now here I sit, 12:30 a.m. and unable to sleep. Oh, and I am in almost as much paind now as I was by the end of that 3rd meeting.

Seriously, the next time I decide that I can make it through all 3 hours of church when I am already in a lot of pain before even leaving the house, just please, somebody kick me! Oh, wait... just have the little boy kick my chair again! *rolling eyes* Here's hoping next Sunday will be better....

Randomness

Why is it that I relish being able to work on multiple projects? Is it because I'm crazy? Probably! Is it because I have time on my hands? For sure... Is it because I get bored easily? Most definately!



Right now I am working on several projects. My hubby's birthday is in a few weeks and he asked me on Sunday if I was going to make him a cake. I asked him if he wanted me to make him a cake. He again asked the same question, was I going to make him a cake. I took that to mean that yes, he wanted a cake for his birthday. So I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. He answered by simply saying Chocolate Fondant. I asked him what kind of actual cake did he want under the Chocolate Fondant. He stated that he didn't care as long as there was chocolate fondant on the outside. Should I be a smart alec and make Chocolate Fondant and then put it in a cake pan and give that to him so that there is no cake, just chocolate fondant? I'm kidding. I will make the cake covered in chocolate fondant. My friend Belinda has a yummy recipe for said fondant that tastes like fudge. yum! So I will have to email her to see if she still has the recipe.



Another project that I am working on is of course baby blankets and receiving blankets. I realize that it may be a few years before we are actually chosen by a birth mother. I just would like to be working on something in the meantime. I have a bit of a control issue. Right now there isn't much in the adoption process we can be doing, so I figured I would go ahead and be proactive (in otherwards, have control over something in this whole crazy, stressful, wonderful, amazing process) and make blankets and such. Because, after all, it may be a few years, but it may also only be a few months before we are chosen. It happened with two people we know at church. Both couples were chosen very quickly. 1 couple was chosen with in 2 weeks of being approved for adoption, the other was chosen with in a few months. Although we know that it happening that quickly is not normal, but just in case.... Speaking of which, we have our very first appt. with the case worker on Friday. YAY!! Then we get to do mounds and mounds of paperwork and interviews and home studies. We are told that should only take a month of so depending on how quickly we get the paperwork done, which hopefully we will get on Friday as well.



Yet another project is the Christmas stockings for hubby and I. Since I have my daughter's done (had that done before this last Christmas of course) I can now work on the ones for the two of us. I will do one for the baby after we get him or her. But I don't have to have that one done until his or her 2nd Christmas. I want to have a baby's first Christmas stocking for the first Christmas. :)



I am also working on some scrapbooking and cardmaking as well. The scrapbooking is for our adoption profile. We will need to have that done in a month or so, as soon as we are approved, so I am getting a head start. Although I do have plenty of years to catch up on with other scrapbooking as well.



My photography is going well. I am getting more and more ideas. I am hoping to do a fundraiser for our FRG (Family Readiness Group, for hubby's Company- it's a military thing) where I will take family photos and put them on a disc and give each families pictures to them on the disc along with a copyright release so that they can then print any of the photos they want in whatever size they want along with posting them online as well. All my time and effort is donated. The money will go 100% to the FRG. But this way the FRG will be able to raise money and I will get photography experience taking family portraits. I went out today scouting for places to do said photos. Sadly, WSMR where I live is very dull and not in the slightest bit picturesque. So the hunt for a location continues. I find that photos on location are nicer then with a plain backdrop, but given with the surroundings I have to work with, I may have no choice but to go with a plain background.

I am also working on putting together the final details for the sale of ink storage units. The plans are all done and put together. I am just trying to figure out what we will be charging and all the details. But hopefully I will have that hammered out soon and up on this blog within the next week.

Anyhow, enough randomness for today. Tomorrow I plan to work on a schedule for myself so I can be a little more organized with this chaos that is currently in my head. ;) I hope to get some projects done to show you too in my stamp room. :)

Merry Christmas!

It has been a great Christmas. As my husband pointed out this morning at 10 a.m. when our daughter was still sleeping, this was the first Christmas in years where we were all together just the 3 of us. In fact, the last time was the 2nd year we were married. (We have been married for over 7 years now). Someone has always been gone on Christmas, whether it was my husband with a deployment, or my daughter being at her dad's (we share her on the holiday's normally). So it was great having all 3 of us here. Yesterday we had our Christmas dinner and then were getting ready to play a game. The neighbors came over so we had to postpone the game temporarily. While Jacob and I were talking to them Tammy decided that she was bored so she turned on Jeff Dunham's Christmas special (we DVR'ed it a few weeks ago). I walked in and this is what I saw, I just had to chuckle. In the background, our pretty tree, filled with family ornaments to include several nativity ornaments. In the foreground, Achmed. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Achmed The Dead Terrorist:

After we finished laughing our butts off we settled down to play a game. Clue Mysteries


The dog decided he needed to join us (he cracks me up!)




We also enjoyed the glow of our tree
I took this picture just for fun. It took forever for my daughter to decide to wake up, in fact we ended up waking her up at 10:15. (She fell asleep with her santa hat on for some reason, she's a teenager, I don't pretend to understand her)

Before we woke her up we made our Christmas breakfast of Cinnamon rolls. (we like things to be relaxed and easy on Christmas so it's Cinnamon rolls for Breakfast and leftovers throughout the day)

After everyone was awake and fed we opened presents.

Of course we started out with stockings. Speaking of which, Tammy loved her new one:



She kept rubbing it and commenting on how long it must have taken. I told her she was worth it. We decided to get the family a Wii this year and we each got a few other things as well. The only one that didn't know about the Wii is Tammy, so to start out the excitement we wrapped one of the controllers and put it in her stocking.

We spent the rest of the day playing games and napping. We also got to talk to some our loved ones on the phone. It really was a good day. I hope everyone else had a fabulous day.

For now, it is bedtime so A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Today was....

Today, Friday, August 3rd marked my 6th anniversary of being married to my DH. It was a fairly good day all things considered. DH and I got to chat online from 11 last night till 1 this morning. I woke up this morning wanting to cry and then Dh called me! We talked for 20 minutes. (commander gave him a free call for the occassion) *grin* I decided to go out and get some dinner rather then making it. On our honeymoon DH and I went to his favorite restuarant. Chili's and we got it to go. So I went to Chili's tonight and got it to go. *wink* I also watched a movie called Where The Heart Is. It was the first movie DH and I ever watched together. *sigh* All and all, it was a good day. It's hard to beleive it's been 6 years though. *wink*

Slight change

O.k. so your probably wondering why it's almost 10p.m. CST on friday and I haven't posted the weekly technique yet. There is a very good reason for it. This morning Anne, the owner of ASB IM'ed me and asked me if she could change my challenge day. So, the day for my techniques will no longer be Friday's. But just so you have a post to read anyway, I thought I would post some pictures of what I have been up to lately. As some of you know, I am moving next week from our current quarters:

(you can see where ours begins at the middle of the porch to the drain pipe, that's our whole place. *rolling eyes* This is an old picture too)

To new quarters:

(you can see where ours begins at the garage and ends in between the porch on the left) The new one is a much nicer and newer neighborhood. People more our age and not to mention, the house is a little bigger. AND! we will have a garage with tons of storage space too! I can't wait, 4 more days till I get the keys! In the meantime, here is what I have been working on. You can see what my stamproom looks like now. It is a stamproom turned storage rooms for all the boxes. The pictures don't do it justice. It has way more boxes and furniture then what you can see.
So now you know why there has been no stamping going on at my house. But, like I said, 4 more days and I will get the keys to the new place and will get to move all my stuff in, clean this place, clear these quarters and then unpack the new place and get back to stamping. *grin*

I'm baaaack!

O.k. so I took more then just a vacation from the challenges. I took an actual vacation. LOL I went home to Utah to visit family and friends, but most of all to visit my daughter who just turned 12 on Wednesday. Which is why I went home. I wanted to be with her on her birthday. She has just grown up so much. I came home though to some issues at home. We apparently had some rather large storms while I was gone and due to power surges and yes, lightning, I have to replace a few items. One of them is that I have to replace my computer. A dear friend let me borrow her laptop until I can get a new computer so I can still stay in touch with everything and everyone. This same friend is really good with computers so she is going to help me find a new computer. *grin* Payday is Friday so I plan to get one then. Then I will be able to create and upload and update more on my blog. For now, here is a picture of me and my daughter that my brother in law took while I was at home.

Guess what I got today!

I know, I have been really quiet this week. I've had good reason. I was car hunting on Monday, found one, sent the link to my DH so he could see, he emailed me back and asked me if I had seen the Blue 2006 Caravan. He found it online at the same dealership. It wasn't at the location that I had gone to so, nope, hadn't seen it. On Tuesday I called the dealership and asked about the blue van. I wasn't feeling well so I set up an appt. for the next day (that would be today) to go and look at it. Being the religious person that I am, I prayed that I would know if it was right. So I woke up this morning and felt great about it. I went down, test drove it, loved it and started the paperwork. I got to leave for about 2 hours for lunch and took that time to think it over. Even though I had been thinking about it for a good couple of days. Anyhow, I went back and signed the papers and so now my hubby and I are the new owners of a 2006 Dodge Caravan!! We got an awesome deal! I'm so excited! I still can't believe I bought it though. LOL I know DH will be happy when he finds out. I haven't talked to him since yesterday morning so he doesn't know yet that I bought it. But I know he'll be thrilled. Our old 2000 Neon was awesome and I am going to miss it but it had over 164,000 miles on it so it was time to trade it in. Here is a picture of me getting my keys from the owner, Jim Clark (he's the one I'm shaking hands with), then there's me in the middle and Bill is the awesome dealer who helped me out! That's our new van behind us. It's a really pretty blue with a little bit of silver in it. I love it!

Bloggers RAK Time!!!

I got two bloggers RAK's today! What timing too. I have had a busy and tough week and an even worse day so these couldn't have come at a better time. *grin* Without further ado:


I got a RAK from BEATE!!!!! OMGosh, you should have seen me, I was standing in the middle of the street practically screaming!!! Beate is so sweet. She even sent me some stamped images. Soo cute! Beate is awesome, and she is stamping royalty. I know you've checked out her blog, but I'm gonna link it anyway. Fresh & Fun is the name of her blog. Check it out!

I also got another RAK from Allison! I'm such a lucky girl! This is one of my favorite Bella's. This is the Sistah Hooda Bella! Totally cute and the flowers are just the right touch. Allison's blog is Stampin When I Can. Check it out!


You ladies totally made my day! Thank you! *grin*