some Easter layouts

I have never created an Easter layout.. that is up until the past week or so; I have created 4 Easter layouts which is totally surprising to me. I generally struggle with theme pages, but I have been "forcing" myself to expand my horizons and scrap older photos, and more event topics and it's not as bad as I thought. lol These beautiful papers from My Minds Eye sure helped me along. The colors are perfect for Spring/Easter photos. Cathy carries them in the Ally Scraps store along with plenty of other fabulous new papers that just arrived.

I have a stack of older Easter pics that I am going to try to work through, but we'll see. ;)

Ashlyn has regressed a bit. She doesn't look or act as robust as she did earlier in the week. She came home from school today, put her jammies on and is now lying on the couch watching TV. She didn't even want to eat, but I am not going to let her not get something in her stomach. It's frustrating because I don't know what to do to help her. All we can do is wait and then have another blood test to see if she is truly getting better or if she is falling ill again. Time sure does move slowly when things are undecided.

Do you have any weekend plans? I am not sure what we will do, but I do know it will be low key. I think Kenny is going to take Emily and Ashlyn to see the new 3-D movie on Sunday afternoon. (I have no idea what it's called, but it comes out today)

Meghan is going to be with a friend all weekend, Kara works, and Skye is going to spend Spring break with her dad, so it's going to be very quiet around here. It's always weird to have quiet around here. It's not normal. lol I am hoping to scrap a bit, but we'll see.

Whatever you do, have a great weekend!

ribbon frames

Hello! Today has been such a great day! I haven't really talked about this, but it has been consuming me lately... Ashlyn has been sick for months and we were worried that she might be really sick. Her white counts and platlet counts have been below normal for over 6 weeks now (that have been documented), and she has been pale and lethargic and just not herself. She has something called Neutropenia, it's a blanket name for a condition where one's wbc is low. There are numerous causes from a virus to cancer to genetics. She was sick like this almost 5 years ago and she was tested for Leukemia, which fortunately turned out to not be the case, but there is always a chance that these symptoms can resurface and be cancerous. So, needless to say we have been pretty stressed about this. She has undergone several cbc's, and other blood tests to rule out arthridic conditions, liver conditions, lupus and several other things. They all came up negative.

She had more blood drawn yesterday and her counts are up. yay! They are still below normal, but the fact that they are up is promising. I was really dreading her having to get a bone marrow biopsy, so hopefully they will continue to climb and she won't have to undergo this procedure. She even came home from school with a bit of pink on her cheeks and mopped the kitchen floor because she was bored. Ha! My girl is coming back to me and it's beautiful!!! It's been difficult to see her so exhausted and looking like death (that's really how she looks; pale white with pale lips, blackish-redish circles around her eyes and no life in her eyes), not to mention ice cold all the time. The girl wears 2-3 layers of clothes each day and still shivers.

Anyway, I am hopeful that things are looking up and that she will continue to heal.

Right after I hung up the phone with the nurse, the Census called me and asked me if I was still interested in working for them. Heck yeah I am! I have been waiting (and hoping) for them to call. I start on April 8th for paperwork, have a 40 hour training class the following week and then I stay on for 10-12 weeks working at least 25 hours a week. I am really nervous, but excited.

I figure that things with Ashlyn are going to be better now because there was a reason that I wasn't called prior to this. Everything happens for a reason, and I know I wouldn't have been able to work with her being ill. God has a plan and it's not for us to understand, but to just go with the flow. That's how I roll and everything always works out. I truly am blessed.

These frames are what I created for Purrfect Projects #6 on Ally Scraps. The challenge was to use ribbons in a creative way. I really struggled with this, but at the last minute came up with this way to use my ribbon scraps. I have seen this idea in the past and have always wanted to try it, so now I have. It's super easy and doesn't take long at all. :) Check out the blog for other projects using ribbon, as well as a neat storage idea I came up with to store my ribbon. It has been quite useful for me these past two weeks.

Take it easy!

March Artz de Scrap projects

Hello! It's another Monday, but I for one am happy. It was a long weekend and as much as I love having the girls around, I am thankful to get a bit of peace today. :)

Skye decided that she was going to try to catch one of our cats, Molly, with some contact paper on Saturday. It could have been a potential disaster had I not heard Molly growling and hissing at Skylar. lol Sometimes that girl does the craziest things, but that truly is one of the things I love about her. Her ADHD is definitely to the point now though where I cannot allow her to skip a day, like I did on Saturday. She is so off task and more like a 6 year old than a 13 year old when she is not taking her meds. I hate to stifle her free-spirit, but at the same time her free-spirit is way out of control much of the time and it has to be kept in check.

'Twilight' came out on Saturday, and I was surprised when my husband watched it 3 times this weekend! He really likes the movie. The girls and I have been anxiously awaiting this release. I liked it, but there is so much that was left out, which I knew would happen. I think I am going to read the series again. Maybe my dh will as well since he had a lot of questions that we wouldn't answer for him. *insert evil smile* We told him many times to read the book. He didn't like that. lol

These are the projects that I created for Artz de Scrap this month. Our projects were an altered door hanger and a wall hanging. The team totally rocked these projects! Be sure to check them out.

CPS #7

Here is this weeks card I created for Card Patterns. I pulled out some older paper and embellies from WRMK and added some SR chipboard to finish it off.

Be sure to check it out and create a card based on this weeks sketch and post it on the site. :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a super week!

a slew of cards

I have several cards to share with you tonight.

"You Color My World' was created for Card Patterns using sketch #5, and 'You are my Sunshine' is using Card Patterns sketch #6.

The others are from challenges from Ally Scraps and just because.

I haven't felt much like typing lately, which is why I haven't been updating as much. I'll be back soon with more projects soon though. Take care!

some projects and layouts

I have been creating a bit and I have several things to share. Everything is for Ally Scraps. :)

Skylar was named Student of the Trimester! I was so proud of her for being nominated, but to have her peers select her is even more wonderful! I don't know who had the bigger smile, her or I when she told me. Sometimes it's a huge struggle for her with her ADHD and she works hard and totally desrves this. It's nice to know that her efforts are being recognized.

Emily seems to be adjusting well, even better than we had anticipated, and I am thankful for that. I know she is homesick, but she's doing well in school and seems to be happy most of the time. It makes it easier on all of us because we know that this is going to be a good move for her and she should get a lot from it. She is going to register for High School next week, which is bittersweet. I really wish she would have had more time in the Middle School here because they focus so much on the issues that are important to kids at this crucial time such as self respect, self esteem, peer ressure, accountability, responsiblilty, team building, and so much more. I hope that she can take what she will learn in the short time she will get to embrace it and make it count in the future.

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Card Patterns Sketch #4

Gosh, I have been neglectful. It's been over week since I have updated. I haven't really done anything, nor have I felt like hanging out on the computer much the past several days.

Emily arrived safely on Saturday and has been doing well. She started school on Monday and I have talked to most of her teachers and I feel good about how everything turned out. She didn't get to attend the same school as Skye which was a bit frustrating to me at first, but as always, things happen for a reason and I think she is going to do well right where she is. The homework is going to suck the life right out of me though; she had one math worksheet last night that took her all night to finish. She is really far behind and her IEP's haven't been sent over yet so we are just trying to find a balance. I had to spend the better part of 3 hours upstairs helping her, but she did OK and finished everything. Skye helped her a bit which was nice.

Here is my card for Card Patterns sketch #4. It's posted late so I apologize for that. I struggled trying to use the image and the sketch together so it really looks nothing like the sketch. I did have fun with the cute image though. I printed it out on several sheets of pp and then basically layered some peices on. The images we were sent to use are from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps, which you can check out for yourself here. You can get regualr stamps as well as digital stamps which you can tweak to suit your needs. It was the first time I have worked with a digital stamp and it was really fun! Thank you Korin for sponsoring our team!

Since my card looked nothing like the sketch, I decided to create another card which looks like the sketch. Be sure to check out the beautiful cards the other DT girls created.

Last night we had a huge thunderstorm, which really surpised all of us. We never thought there could be a t-storm with weather in the mid 30's. It was loud and at one point right over our house. The sky was light as day with all the flashing lightning, the house was rumbling and the hail was coming down hard and heavy. Odd indeed. I am sure it's going to be a topic of conversation around these parts today.

I don't know why my posts are so screwy lately. I cannot delete the duplicated image. Sorry about that.

Take care!