Blessing #5

My sister, Pam. (You're not less of a blessing than #3 - it was just a good day to post that one! :) )
Wow, where do I start. I have the wonderful privilege of being her older sister and her sister in Christ. We had our rough times growing up, but we have become such fabulous friends. We can laugh, share, cry, pray and play together. I know that I can call her anytime I need an ear to hear and a heart to join in my happiness or sorrows. She has the most amazing tender heart that overflows with mercy and grace for who is there to receive it. She also knows how to be silly. Thank you for teaching me to be silly! (I often bust out with random dance moves - ya know!)

I can't wait till this spring. She'll being doing a clinical - her last one before graduation - here in town! That means that we'll be able to see each other more than just every other month or less! This will probably be the most we've been able to spend time together since we lived together during the summers between my sophomore and junior year of college. I'm so excited to get to share life with her in a more practical, everyday sort of way.

Then shortly after graduation, she'll be marrying a wonderful guy! I am so thrilled for her. She has walked with the Lord through this whole dating/courtship thing and it really shows in their relationship. He is such a blessing - a follower of Christ - who overflows with his love for others. I will be proud to call him my brother-in-law!

OK, I've been long enough today. I'm off to do some housework! Love you Pam!!

Blessing #4

Have you voted yet?

Well, today's blessing is our country and the freedoms we are granted. My purpose here today is to reflect on the good and positive things about our country and freedoms rather than take sides or pit the parties against each other. I also am focusing on what we as country are striving for - the ideal, rather than the reality; because it is not the constitution's error, but rather our error as imperfect citizens.

I'm so thankful for:
-Our constitution says that all are equal and should be treated so. I pray that each of us strives to make this so very true on a daily basis as a citizen of the US.
-Religious Freedoms. That we all can worship without fear of persecution.
-Freedom of Speech.
-All that our country does to aid others. Bush's administration has given more aid to Africa than any other before and this is only one example.

These are just a few, but my kidlets are needing my attention. Thanks for 'listening.'

And don't forget to vote!!

Blessing #3

My children! Jedidiah and Stella are so wonderful! I absolutely love them and everything about them, even though at times it can be hard to admit that I love being up in the middle of the night when they're not feeling well or just learning to sleep through the night. Or when they whine or spit up all over you at least once a day. It's moments like these - when you see that they have the capacity to love and do good, to learn and apply that you feel the most emotion.Credits

Blessing A Day

I have been challenged by a friend to do a blessing a day for the month of November to prepare for the upcoming holidays. At first all I could think about was the burden of blogging/journaling or scrapbooking a blessing a day for a WHOLE month - and one of the longest months at that - AND during the busy holiday season. But what better way to take time out and reflect?! So, since I'm a day late, I have 2 blessings for today.

Blessing #1: The LORD. He is my rock, my foundation. Even though my hormones are way out of whack since I'm still nursing Stella and I feel as though I'm tossing and turning in the sea of life, I am not in a boat. I am standing on solid ground. He loves me. He cares about every little detail of my life. He forgave all my sins - past, present and future. He will continue to do a good work in me and continue to transform my likeness into that of His son, Jesus. And as a few of Jed and my favorite songs chorus' go, "He'll never let go."

Blessing #2: Jarrod, the man God gave me as my husband. I can't quite put into words how I feel about him. He is my best friend. He knows me as no other human being does. I can just be myself around him (I often break out with random dance moves). I feel safe with him. I feel understood. I love so much about him - how he loves other people, how he asks great questions, how conversation with him is never awkward, how he leaves twist ties on the counter, how he plays - like he's never really grown up, his imagination, his love for the LORD, how he can encourage me and pray with confidence. And those are just a few! Babe - I love you!

Here's a LO I just finished up. I just love Stella's toes. I loved Jed's but since it was winter they were always covered up and didn't manage to get any pictures. Hope you enjoy it!
Credits

Our Umbrella

I finally finished this LO. I started it over a month ago. There was so much that I wanted to include, but it just wasn't coming together. I ended up putting it away for over a month and a half. In keeping with my commitment (see earlier post), I needed to finish it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, but I still feel that it is missing something.


The pictures are from last summer. Jed was toddling all over the place. He also loved to be without clothes. So it was always a challenge to get a picture and maintain his dignity. : ) But I managed to snap a few great shots of Jed & Jarrod.

We bought this umbrella when he was too young for sunscreen so that he & I could spend the afternoons outside playing. When my husband would get home, he'd spin the umbrella & sing to the tune from Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Jed will still point to many-colored objects & request a song from Daddy!

Naptime

Don't get me wrong - I love my kids, but naptime is a wonderful break in the middle of the day. I'm thankful for the time to myself. I don't always clean - as you can see, I'm updating the blog. Though, I should get to sweeping and mopping as we have some guests coming late tonight and staying through breakfast. My sister has been gone to WA State all summer completing a clinical for her physical therapy program and I get to see her first when she enters back into good ol' WI!
I made a commitment yesterday to not start anymore pages until I finish all the "in progress" ones. And to post more often to the blog. I upload my pages to my gallery on a regular basis, but don't always put them here.
Here's a new LO that I finally finished. I started this about a month ago, but never finished it because it just wasn't what I wanted. I pulled it back out a couple days ago and it finally came into it's own. I ended up almost starting over from scratch. Hope you like it too!

The verse around the edges is from Phillipians 2:14-16 and reads, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." This is something that I decided to pray for Stella - because I think I may complain and argue too much sometimes and I don't want that for my little girl, but more importantly for Christ.

I'm off to finish some housework - then maybe I'll have some time to scrap! :)

Long Time No Scrapping

It has almost been a year since I've created a scrapbook page. Last August, my trial of Photoshop Elements 5 ran out and I was left with no program to use. In November I was blessed to be given PSE 6 as it was just released. I installed it the next day and tried scrapping with no luck. The first problem I noticed was that some elements of the program were moved, but worse was that our computer did not have enough RAM to run it. This summer Jarrod bought more memory and we just installed over the weekend (Thanks for your help Jeremy!).

Instead of posting my most recent pages, I'm going to post the ones that I had finished last summer that didn't make it here. Then I'll start showing you my new stuff.

As far as the credits go, my chicken scratches on scrap paper have since been thrown away. So as far as who made what & which kit - my apologies! I've now learned how to type that into the file info as I create the pages so this won't happen again.

This was my VERY first page, followed by my second. Can you tell?

This page was really important to my - I never want to forget how precious my little boy was & that he was my first. The tag was inspired by my mother-in-law, Jeanne. (I hope you get a laugh out of it.)

I made this one using a template. I didn't realize that it wasn't 12x12 until I was finished. Nuts!

These pics are from the LaX county fair last summer. I know that it's a combine in the picture, but Jed would call it a "truck" which is why it says "big truck" rather than "big combine."

Jarrod got a little jealous that all the pages I had scrapped were about Jed. So, I had to switch gears a little bit. This page was my first attempt at drop shadows.

I love this one. It's one of my favorites. I created it for a challenge - use the same picture at least 3 times. I'm thankful for the challenge, because otherwise I wouldn't have thought to make the picture transparent. That's my favorite part w/ the text following the outline.

Next time . . . new pages with newer pictures . . .