We Did Not Check With Each Other

Honest... Looking at the pics here and I just said to Darrel it looks like we checked with each other before we got dressed yesterday.... Trust me. We had no idea we matched until we met up at home after work yesterday. Maybe after 25 years together we are just that much on the same wave length these days? Ha!! He thinks that is entirely possible. Isn't he just the cutest?

So this folks would be Date Night at Red Lobster the sequel. Ha!! We headed to the big city for date night and our options for dinner were Crazy Buffet for Chinese and yummy stir frys, Logan's for their 2 meals for $13.99, Chilis for their 2 for $20 thing... OR last chance at Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp... I am guessing you are not shocked at which one we picked!

I'm going to have to start hiding the camera back in my purse after I take his picture cause these days he keeps grabbing it to take my picture... See... we like totally match. Insert big grin here. Yes... I think dinner was just as good as the first time. I had the hand breaded shrimp, shrimp scampi and the Cajun. No Teriyaki for me this time. Not sure why. Guess I got full! Ha! That would be a good thing. It was even nicer that there was no wait at all, and we got a decent table and a decent server. It left us with plenty of time to get to the mall for birthday gift shopping. What did we get you ask? Well I thought that was going to be a hard one. Turns out, I am really happy with what we settled on.












Lindsay just turned 13... I think... as an Aunt of 12 I get a little confused here in my old age. I have heard she is redoing her bedroom in purple and silver. So how cute are these pillows? Plus they are SOFT. I am in love with the silvery one myself... I am thinking it would be pretty nice to keep and cuddle up with. It feels like mink. Serious! My mom just bought her one of those fuzzy mink type blankets at Covered Bridge and I am thinking this will go well with it. We had looked around about 1/2 the mall and hadn't seen too much we liked. Claire's had a few things. I saw a couple things here and there with monkey's which she likes but nothing was grabbing me like "this is it!" Then we went in Dillard's and for some reason headed towards a part of the store we don't think we've been in before. I think I was looking for like a teen section but ended up in housewares and linens. These pillows caught my eye and were soooo soft... Oh I think I mentioned that all ready. Are you getting the idea I like soft cuddly pillows? Ha! Soft cuddly husbands aren't bad either. bwa ha ha ha ha.. Wait... what were we talking about? Pillows! Turns out the purple one was marked down twice so it was like 70% off. The silver one was new and not marked down at all. These were grabbing me like "this is it" so I really wanted to get them for her. Since the one was marked down so much, we ended up being able to afford them both. Yay!

Now...if you want to see something funny, you should have seen the bag! Goodness... Talk about tall and bulky... Good thing I had a tall husband with me. Plus, just prior to that we had been to Hallmark and I had purchased 4 of the large willow tree figures for church. The church gives an angel for memorial gifts at funerals and we have been trying to have some on hand rather then having to rely on and go thru the florist all the time. Well... you should have seen how tall that bag was! Darrel ended up going back to the car with bags and driving the car 1/2 the way back and meeting me before we hit the rest of the mall. I am about back to our meeting spot and I get a text from my husband which says "did you make it down the escalator?" Ok isn't he funny? See I do NOT like high places. Makes my stomach hurt. The escalator at Dillard's is all open and glass at the top and getting on it makes my stomach hurt! Darrel usually gets on first so I can get on right behind him and like bury my head in his back so I don't have to look! Ha!! So it's too funny he was teasing me about it when on my way out of Dillard's to meet him I thought... "oh no... I have to go down the escalator by myself!" I know... I'm such a baby aren't I? Don't answer that. See while he had taken packages to the car, I had made a visit to the girls room... plus I saw these and had to have a box... Let me give you a little tip too. If you plan to purchase some... JC Penney's carries them too and they are cheaper... um like $5 cheaper! yikes! They are SO good though. We(yes.. we) got the dark chocolate with Carmel. YUM. I've already decided Santa should put some in my stocking...














Sometime this past week I had received a 40% off coupon from CJ Banks... so what is a girl to do except stop there and use it right? This is the sweater I got. I totally would never have paid full price, but 40% off was pretty good. It is quite different but I think that is what I like about it. The collar and cuffs are like these soft little balls of chenille. The buttons are really cute too. This may be my outfit for church in the AM. I considered this one in burgundy or this one in blue... but the green won out. I also liked this vest online... but not as much in person. Let's just say too that I was very thrilled that everything was fitting in a size SMALLER oh wait smaller.... ha ha ha .. then what I was buying from them last year.

Also while at the mall we stopped at Helzberg jewelers and asked about if they have/do ring guards. I didn't even know if that was what they were still called these days. Turns out yes, they are called that and yes.. .they do have them. They will put one on for you while you wait. It took like less than 5 minutes. AND guess what? We weren't buying a thing, yet they didn't charge us a thing. Said it was just a service they did. How nice! See.. my wedding rings are about falling off! Especially when my hands get cold which is just about all the time these days. I had tried the little ring snuggy things from Claire's and found that way uncomfortable! Um its this little plastic tube that you can feel between your ring and your hand. NOT enjoying that. The first time we had asked a jeweler about a ring guard she had suggested that because she said a ring guard would scratch my rings up. Well... would rather have a scratch and a secure ring and this is working great! I figured if I could put one on my engagement ring which is on top of the stack, it would hold the other two on. And so far... so good.. Plus huge shout out and recommendation for Helzberg. They are awesome. We have always had good luck and good service there. Spotted this while we were there... might need to add that to the Christmas list huh? I also would like to have this for my charm bracelet.

After the mall we headed to Target for a giant gift bag for the pillows. Last thing we did was stop at sonic for a date night treat. We have come to like their hot fudge sundaes. YUM. We were sitting in the car, listening to 80's love songs... yes... I picked the music... and eating hot fudge sundaes at the drive in. Felt like a sort of retro date night. I then realized it was very similar to some dates we had back in our dating days.... which of course then caused me to wonder... does this mean I am old? Again ... do not answer that.

Speaking of Christmas lists... we did speak of them didn't we? What is on yours? How about this CUTE Vera Christmas stocking!!! I have a complaint though... why does it not come in PINK? I am sure you saw that coming didn't you. On my dream wish list... otherwise known as "things that are too expensive and I don't really need and I know I won't get list..." would be things like this Dell mini netbook in PINK... And to the rich person that wants to get that for me, could I also have a monthly sub/fee for wireless Internet please? Ha!!! This is the dream list remember... might as well complete the dream with the wireless oh and a pretty pink case too please.. How about this Kindle with the booklight and a pretty pink skin and/or case. How about a Nikon D5000 too as long as we are dreaming.... Darrel would like one of those too... so I guess that could be a joint gift. Ha! I have also considered on occasion that I might like a pink cricut expression. Not sure because I've never really used a cricut. Everyone that has one though seems to love the thing.. Of course the pink would be a must you know.

Been thinking about the actual... might have a chance of getting it gift list too... Not too many ideas yet. Guess we should see what the budget will be this year with all this economy stuff huh? I know I'd like some charms for my bracelet like I mentioned above. Probably will have some Vera stuff on my list... I'll need to pin that down and yes.. of course I will have to share it with you...

I better go stuff some tissue paper in the pillow bag! Ha! Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight! At least we get an hour more to our weekend right? I am liking that. Tomorrow is church, lunch at the fav place probably.... and then birthday party in the afternoon. Other than that still need to get some reading and studying done and now the November 2 a week scrapping challenge begins! Yay! Hope your weekend is awesome. Blessings!

Random Thursday Thoughts

I didn't have a picture to share with you today... so look... you get to see a picture of our dinner. Now don't you feel special? ha!!! It has been literally years since I have made Lasagna. I wanted to do something special/nice for my husband today so I put in some extra effort on dinner. I forgot how much work this dish can be.. The recipe I like you make the sauce and then that has to simmer for an hour or so. Then of course you have to mix your cheese mixture, cook and drain your noodles, and then layer the whole thing together. It had to cook for like 70 minutes too... I know... all normal for a Lasagna recipe right? The one I make is from an issue of Taste Of Home. I had a sub. to that magazine for years.... there is like a whole tub of them in my pantry! Ha! Maybe I should actually cook something out of one of them more often then like once every 6 years or so.... Darrel pronounced the Lasagna as "really good" and he made this face he makes when I can tell he really likes something. I liked it OK. I am actually not that big a fan of Lasagna.. It's a cheese thing... so see... again... it was meant to be a nice thing my husband would enjoy... Actually I think I checked a couple things off of his top 5 list today! Ha! After all that has happened since Sunday night I am feeling especially in love with him I think....

Thank you for all the amazing notes and comments I have received since my last blog post. You guys had me crying all over again. It's been such a blessing which is pretty amazing resulting from feelings that were pretty traumatic to me. I still have a few notes and e-mails to answer and I absolutely will so please be patient with me. Many people have said they have felt that same way in their life. It's also been quite eye opening to hear from several people who knew me during my growing up years and who didn't realize I had those struggles. It's been very cool and touching to see me during those years thru their eyes. Wow... I've been amazed. I've heard myself described as pretty and confident and um again... wow... I never thought that about myself (and most often still don't) and I sure NEVER thought anyone else thought that about me. Just these past couple years, I've been dealing with old feelings from some of this stuff and I've realized that a lot of the people close to me had no idea I felt the way I did nor did they know I was treated the way I was. I've realized its because I didn't talk about it. It was hurtful, humiliating and embarrassing for one thing. I think the other reason is because generally the advice I was given was "ignore them and they won't bother you." Well I am here to tell you that doesn't work. They will bother you. The only thing that I ever found that caused someone to stop harassing me was back in high school. There was a girl and her group... I still remember her name... who would come after me every day in gym class to call me names and intimidate me. I was scared of what she would do and what she would say. At some point, I guess God put it in my head that I should pray for her. Not pray about her.... but pray for her. So, I started praying for her. Know what happened? She never bothered me again. Pretty cool huh? I think I took the ignoring thing further than just trying to ignore people who were hurting me. I tried to ignore it all together and therefore did not talk about it. I realize now that resulted in very few people knowing thus the reactions I get now when I do talk about it. If I were helping someone who was going thru this now, I would tell them to tell someone they love and trust. Let someone comfort you. Let a friend or family member help you and pray for you! Do not ignore it. The hurt doesn't just go away.. What ignoring it does is get you into therapy for depression when you are in your 30's which is where it got me... Sitting there talking about it still hurt and angry all those years later...

So maybe you've noticed I've not had any layouts to share this week... I am officially a Willow Traders October Thaw drop out... boo hoo... I did not get my layout done last weekend that was due this past Monday and that was my 4th skip so that put me out. I decided to take this week off to get my blogging for books reading caught up and then dive back in to the November 2 a week challenge which starts in ... you guessed it... November! They cut it back to 2 a week due to the upcoming holidays. Good idea!! After doing so much scrapping in Sept. and October I have missed it! I am eager to get started again. I've been hoping to put in some work on my album from the Doodlebug class last week and on a zoo album I've been trying to do for months but I haven't had time to do even that. I have a book and a half to finish by early next week and then another book to complete next week.. yes... I know.. how do I get myself into these things.

Also coming up next week.. I have agreed to be a WWJD teacher at church for 1 week. The teacher of the older girls class asked several ladies to each take a week. I was one of them. My week is on obedience... I am thinking NOT a coincidence. This is very outside of my comfort zone and NOT something I would choose to do on my own. I know she prayed about it before asking me and I prayed about it before accepting so I am now praying God will give me some clear guidance here on what and how to teach these girls. I had an idea pop into my head while walking today... hmmm... so pondering that to see where I can go with it. The age of the girls is like Jr High/High school... I have never taught that age before and again... very outside of my box... I haven't taught anything in YEARS unless scrapbooking in VBS counts? Maybe you can say a prayer for me too?

Have you seen any of the new Vera stuff? I got an e-mail about this today. Now how cute is that. I have like 2 Vera lunch/cooler bags. I do NOT need another one right? I was wondering if it comes in the new Paprika... but its not looking like it from the web site. I wonder why? I am thinking this reversible tote is kind of cool too! By the way... I am not all that impressed with their new web site... Why did they change it?

I have a Walmart question.... why.... why....why.... does the shopping cart NOT start making some annoying noise until you either reach the back of the store OR have it too full of stuff to want to hassle with switching? Is there a shopping cart conspiracy? I am thinking YES there is because it drives me NUTS when the cart is going lub... lub... lub... I mean you might as well be walking the aisles with a flashing light on your cart or something because everyone looks anyway to see who is coming and what is making that noise... I always think that something must just be stuck funny so if I could just like cram the cart into something hard enough it will stop the noise and save my sanity... Of course when I try this... which yes I did.... Darrel finds this quite entertaining.. I had mentioned this on facebook and my friend Erica pointed out to me that I am really good at wanting to destroy objects that do not work correctly (um copiers, microwaves and computers come to mind....) Bwa ha ha ha ... good point.. I think this trait is hereditary... although I told her this technique of dealing with frustrating things is straight out of the impatient person's handbook... I need to look up the page number for her! Ha!! She thought perhaps her husband (our youth Pastor whom I work with) should watch out that I don't get frustrated with him and throw him out on the sidewalk... Darrel mentioned that he has survived this long so Grant will probably be OK too. Ha!!!

I was on someone's blog a few weeks ago and they had linked this video clip. Have you seen this before? Oh my gosh I love that... if we were planning our wedding now I could totally get into doing something like that! I mean what a cool way to start off your life together with so much fun and excitement and joy! LOVE it!!! The video keeps buffering at the moment... hope it runs OK for you.

Have you seen the peeks Lisa has been posting of her December Daily Album class? Check it out here. Isn't that gorgeous? I love, love what she did with the cover especially. This is going to be a class at both the Doodlebug and The Scrapbook Tree. I did a Dec. Daily Album on my own last year and was thinking of doing it again this year. Loving Lisa's so much I'm starting to think I need to get myself signed up!

Well... heading to bed. Work in the AM and then date night! yay!!! We are heading to the big city I think. We have a birthday gift to get and are going to have dinner somewhere. Not sure what else. Do you know its supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow, but then 55 on Sat? Wow! Hope you've had a good week. Blessings!

Let Me Tell You A Story

Once upon a time there was a girl who grew up often feeling like an outcast. She was never part of the "in crowd." She struggled with her self esteem. She often felt like if she wasn't being one of the best at whatever it was she was doing then she was failing. One of the hardest things she had to deal with was her weight. She was thinner when she was a little girl, but oh, 3rd, 4th, 5th grade.. the weight started to be an issue. She had to get the "chubby" sizes in girls jeans. She was so disappointed one year for her birthday when her aunt gave her this pretty sundress for a gift and it didn't fit... and they didn't have one in her size... Already being more of an outcast and then adding the weight issues to it... it just gave the other kids more reason to make fun of her, call her names, laugh at her, tell her how ugly she was. Somewhere along the line this girl started to believe the other kids and agree with them about who and what she was. There were many, many times in school when she felt surrounded and traumatized by the other kids as they taunted her. She is an adult now and can not remember one time when anyone ever interceded and stuck up for her or defended her.

The cruel comments, the pointing, the staring continued on into the teen years and adulthood. She never went to a dance in high school. Never want to a party. Never went to prom. She was never invited to these kind of things because now she was not only different because of weight issues, she was also looked at differently because she was known as a Christian. She is an adult now and when she looks back at these times and at pictures from these times... she doesn't see a fat girl.... but it seems like once she was labeled as that.. the name stuck and no one ever bothered to take a second look. She graduated high school early 1/2 way thru her SR year in the top 10% of her class. She got out in the world and at just the right time God sent this amazing man into her life. He put them together as children at church so they had many years to get to know each other and develop a deep friendship which was later a firm foundation for a deep love. They fell in love and got married and the wonderful man remained her dear, good and best friend and always made her feel loved, accepted, understood and yes... somehow even beautiful.

The girl went to work at a church as the church secretary/administrator. She loved her job and knew God had brought her here. It was the first time in her life where she felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be doing exactly what she was supposed to do. She did all she could to help others and try and make things work well and efficiently and easily and to try to live following Christ's example. While she was working at the church, an idea was presented by the youth minister for a fund raiser for the youth. A fish fry was being planned and the idea was that at the end of the fish fry, people would be asked/allowed to donate money towards throwing a pie at the staff member of their choice. The girl was immediately uncomfortable with this idea. The first time it was brought up she hoped it would blow over and didn't say much. She went home and talked to her husband about it though and he immediately understood why this would be a hard thing for her. The second time the idea came up at work, she protested but tried to remain light hearted and one of the team and wanted to do her part since all the others were participating. Since everyone else had agreed to this, she didn't feel like she could or should say no, plus several people assured her that they were sure it wouldn't be her anyway.

The evening of the pie throwing event comes and the girl and the wonderful husband head to church. The husband knows and understands the girl so well, he knows why she feels nervous and why she has objections to this kind of activity. It wasn't because she didn't want to be a good sport. It wasn't because she didn't want to help the youth. It wasn't because she wanted to disappoint anyone. It was because of her history. As a child, as an adult, as recent as the past year, she had endured a lifetime of being teased, picked on, laughed at, and being the recipient of cruel hateful comments. Whomever said words can't hurt you lied... because this girl would rather be punched then to hear more words sometimes. Because of this, any activity which was going to place her at the center of being pointed at and laughed at made her want to be sick and cry..... As the girl and the wonderful husband arrive at the event, the girl is told, you don't need to worry, two other people are way ahead. It won't be you. She breathes a sigh of relief and goes to the dinner. At the dinner she is asked to come on stage with the rest of the staff as they announce one by one who is safe and who is not... she agrees to do this still thinking she is safe. When they get to her name they say she is NOT safe.... She thinks this is part of the build up and waits for the joke.... It turns out she is one of the two people picked.. She is told a last minute donation made sure it was her. The girl tries not to panic. She prepares herself that this is going to happen. She tries to remain calm and appear like she is fine. She is evidently doing a poor job of this because a friend next to her asks her if she is ok. The youth leader starts saying something but she is feeling panicked and is busy searching the crowd for her husband's face for strength and misses most of what he says. She finds her husband walking towards the stage and he is saying something to her. She can't hear him so she walks over towards him to see what he is saying. The awesome and wonderful husband looks at her and tells her that he will come up on stage and take the pie in the face for her. She is amazed... At this point she also understands and realizes that what the youth leader has been saying was that he was also willing to take the pie for her. Wow.... she is stunned. Since the leader of the activity is apparently saying this is OK she accepts her husbands kind offer and he comes up on stage and takes her place.....





















Many in the crowd are amazed. Many say to her wow.... I don't know if my husband would do that for me... The girl who was feeling very trapped in the moment on stage feels like her husband rode in on his white horse and rescued her. She is touched and blessed beyond words. The next day the Pastor tells her when this happened he thought "wow.. sermon illustration about Jesus taking our place."

Prior to the evening the girl had talked to a friend about her reasons for being apprehensive about this activity and the friend wonders if this is something the girl is supposed to go thru to help her get over all of the old ghosts from the past. The girl agrees this could be true and also wonders if this is possible. Over the past 20 months, God has been changing the girl and taking her thru a lot of things so this seems very possible. This was another reason why she was willing to do it. Why she was standing there ready to do it even though she hated it. In those moments on stage she felt like she was sucked back in time in that moment. She felt surrounded again. She felt traumatized and frightened and sick to her stomach. She wanted to cry knowing that this room full of people were ready to point and laugh and enjoy her discomfort like so many times before. After being rescued, she wondered about it on the way home. She wondered if she had done the right thing and what was she supposed to learn. She begins to talk to her husband which she can barely do without crying. She says how she is 43 years old and how many times the teasing, and cruel ganging up on her moments have happened. She says how much they hurt then and how much they still hurt now. What she realizes though is that this was the very first time someone stood up for her. This was the first time she felt defended. She says to herself, this is the first time someone took my place. She is amazed by this and in that next moment the thought that God puts in her head is ... "Jesus took my place." He took my place first when he died on the cross for my sins. She knew in that moment that was the lesson she was supposed to learn.

She also realizes what a treasure these moments were. She has this amazing memory of her husband walking up there and saying I'll take her place.. She remembers how her friend stood beside her and without even being told, sensed her discomfort and asks if she is OK. She remembers how the youth minister sensed her unease and also started to volunteer to take her place. She hears her husband say that if he had been given an opportunity to say why he did it, he wanted to say that the Bible tells us that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church and therefore he wanted to love his wife by taking her place as Christ took our place.... wow...

The girl takes a few days to even look at the pictures. Although there are very, very good memories, the pictures are still a bit traumatic to her. Yet as she walks thru the whole thing one more time in her mind, she realizes that as she looks at her heart now, she can still see these old scars but they look different now. There is a mark over the top of them. If you look closely you will see that it looks like a fingerprint. The fingerprint of a Savior that touched and healed the girls heart...

You've heard of Jack in a box?

Well this would be Jack in a tree...I think I've mentioned how all 4 kittens have found this spot way up high (Darrel says like 15 ft) in one of our trees. This part of the tree is dead and hollow to some extent so all 4 of them have been spending their days there. It is so funny when you get home from work. They know its time to eat so all these little heads start popping up out of this branch and then they begin their descent one by one... One or two of them usually needs to sit and cry for a minute or two about how they can't get down, before finally jumping to the next branch and then climbing down. They are too funny! Well this was Jack peeking out of this branch at us today. How cute is that? Next thing we notice is Radar was up there with him... look...














Look at the two of them. I think a bird had their attention at the moment... I was just saying to Darrel that would be a pretty dirty trick to some bird to be minding its own business and land in a tree, just to find it occupied by 4 cats! Ha!!










So for date night last night we decided to stay home. I had a class at the Doodlebug at 4:15 with Sally McDonald. It was pretty cool! We got to play with lots of tattered angels products as well as some great prima stuff. We started work on a gate album which is very cool. She taught us several techniques with the glimmer mist and the stencils and then pretty much turned us loose to do what we wanted. I got my book misted, and did a little inking, but not much else yet. I'll have to take a picture and share it with you on the next post. Fun class. I like how the Doodlebug has been able to have classes with instructors from some of the top manufacturers! Good job Doodlebug girls!

So after class the plan was to meet Darrel at home for pizza and a movie. See while I was at class he rented a movie and went to Bobe's and picked up a pizza for us. Pizza and bread sticks from Bobe's YUM. Well when I got here, he wasn't home yet. As I am walking up to the back porch.. I immediately notice 2 mums on the porch (in the pic above). The thought that went thru my head? Oh my gosh.. awwww look what he did!!! ... I've been having some stressful emotional times the last few weeks. Nothing in particular, just one of those times when life gets overwhelming. Well a few days ago I was having a day where I was struggling and thinking about this and realized I was also feeling like I was missing fall. I love and adore the fall and look forward to it all year... It's better than Christmas to me. I was telling Darrel about this and told him I had just about given up on decorating our back porch and was thinking it was no big deal, but maybe this was one of the things bugging me. I usually really enjoy decorating the porch. We wrap the columns with leaf garlands and get mums, pumpkins, etc. and I just love, love, love seeing that in the fall. Well it's gotten so late this year, I was thinking, maybe it wasn't worth the trouble, and no big deal. But.. as I mentioned.. now I was missing it. So like the next day, I come home and find that my husband has brought home 2 mums and left them on the porch for me. I could have totally cried... He is just SO amazing. I know I say that all the time but you have to know how sincerely I mean that. He is the best ever 24/7 and wow... to even care enough about his wife missing her favorite season to bring her mums...I just love him...












Once Bobe's finally gave him our pizza he got home and we enjoyed pizza and watched the movie Bride Wars.. and yes, he rented that all by himself.. But don't worry, after watching a "chick flick" the next thing we did was play video games together. Darrel really enjoys video games and yes, sometimes we have fun playing together. We like the Crash Bandicoot games, and last night we were playing Crash Kart I think? This is Darrel taking his turn. He is very good at video games too... did I mention that? I like doing things with him that he enjoys, just the same as he does for me. Plus.. let me be all nerdy here for a minute and mention that I know that one of my husband's top 5 needs is companionship, and what better way to be his companion that doing things with him that he enjoys. See we've been to lots of marriage conferences so we have discussed things like each other's top 5 needs... And nope.. I am not making you a list of the other 4. Ha!















Look at some of the beautiful color in our side yard. wow. Good job God. The colors can just take my breath away. I took this today when I got home from my walk. You know what I did? I walked SIX stinkin miles. SIX!!!! I said on facebook that I walked so far way from home, I wasn't quite sure where I was part of the time. I told Darrel I was wondering if I was going to have to call him to come find me! Ha!! I headed out to walk to Prides Creek and then walk my normal route. As I got to the entrance though I thought why not keep going straight today for something different? So I walked way out into the middle of nowhere... turned left and walked into more nowhere which finally brought me into Petersburg... didn't even know I had left Petersburg! Ha!! Then I recognized the road that took me to, but wasn't positive what part of the road I was on. I just figured I'd keep going and if I got too lost or too tired.. well call my husband! Finally came up on the back side of Prides Creek and knew where I was. This took me on into town so I walked all the way down main street, turned by the Hucks Gas station and went back to IL street and then took that to 61 and then that to home. wow... 6 miles!!! Yay me. Guess I can be officially in training for the next Carry the Cross since that would be 1/2 way!














Some more fall colors behind the garage. Pretty huh? Didn't get a whole lot else accomplished today. I haven't gotten sicker, but still not feeling fabulous so I cleaned up from walking and rested some. This evening we watched the movie The Notebook. I had this on the DVR for maybe over a year and have never watched it. Oh my goodness.... I now need to own the soundtrack and the DVD. Darrel watched it with me and we were both emotional after watching it. One reason would be that my husband is very much like Noah in the story and we could totally identify with the way they loved each other. I had read the books years ago and it touched me so much that I asked Darrel if he would read it too and he did. That meant so much to me I still have this image in my head of him sitting on our couch reading that book. Well the movie did a good job of being like the book! We loved Noah and Allie as the older couple too and how sweet that he reads her their story while never making her feel bad for not being able to remember. Loved that! When Noah's kids want him to move away from the nursing home, I loved how he said that was his sweetheart, and his home was with her. Man I could hear those words come out of my husband's mouth, and it also reminded me of 2 of his uncles. The story also touched us because Darrel's mom struggles with dementia and it was hard to see that depicted. Your head wonders if she will get that bad where she doesn't recognize us anymore. So sad, yet so heartfelt and sweet. Loved this movie!!! Loved the music and yes... it is already on my ipod!

So now I need to get myself in bed. Church in the AM and I am filling in on praise team for someone. Love singing so love doing that! Then we have lunch at our fav. spot and some time at home in the afternoon. We have a youth fund raiser fish fry in the evening. They are also doing a thing to raise money where you can put money towards which staff member you would like to see get a pie in the face. Um I am a staff member and yes.. my picture is on that envelope. Praying people love/like me enough to not subject me to this... I am willing to be a good sport and go along with it but this kind of thing makes me really uncomfortable. I was teased and picked on and laughed at a good deal as a child. Because of this, even though I am now 43 years old, I get really uncomfortable when I feel like people are laughing at me. It's really hard for me. So hoping I don't have to do this, but leaving it in God's hands. I am sure I will survive and as 1 friend pointed out, maybe it will be good for me and help me get past some old ghosts? Um maybe but I'd still rather sit this one out.

Hope you are having a great weekend! Blessings!!

I'm Not Getting Sick... I'm NOT getting sick...

Ok everyone ... say it with me.. I'm not getting sick... See I woke up today with that funny feeling you get in your throat and ears.... I've had a bad headache all day and I am sure I've taken about 1/2 bottle of ibuprofen by this point... I've even had a chill or two... but like I said... I'M NOT GETTING SICK... I refuse.. Darrel prayed for me... that's the end of it right? I don't have time to be sick...

So let's talk about cheerier things.. Here is my layout for Willow Traders Thaw challenge #9. Our challenge this time around was to "lift" or be inspired by a layout(s) in a current magazine. I had just received my issue of Scrapbooks Etc. for Nov/Dec 09 so I used that. I combined ideas from a couple of layouts. One by Janna Wilson on pg 100 and one by Vicki Boutin on pg 17 I believe. Vicki had a cluster of trees on hers and Janna had the stitched frame and pat. paper strips. I grabbed those two ideas and ran with it. Did quite a bit of sewing on this one.. Well... after praying over my machine that is. Not kidding. It was sounding terrible and I could not figure out what was wrong... I'm like God... I don't know what is wrong with it, I don't want to break it... I don't know what to do!! Next thought that went thru my head was that the tension on the bobbin was wrong. Bingo! I had recently wound a new bobbin and evidently did not do a good job. Soon as I popped in a new bobbin and re-threaded... problem solved. Thank goodness... I can just barely sew here people and when problems pop up.. I am like lost!

I sewed the frame around the photo like Vicki did but then also decided to stitch on my little trees! Then I used my sizzix big kick and die cut the little ornaments and thought maybe it would look cool to "hang them" from some zig zag stitching. Cool huh? I am really happy with the result. I also did quite a bit of inking with my distress inks and foam blending tool. Loving the vintage photo (mine and Lisa's fav) and the Shabby Shutters colors. They both worked well here. I added a little wire to decorate my trees and also used some of my stickles... WHY does it take soooo stinking long for stickles to dry? Is this another thing on the list this week that is supposed to teach and/or test my patience... I finally had to take a hair dryer to it! PLUS every stinking time I use stickles I somehow manage to immediately stick my hand, my arm, or some piece of paper or something right into the middle of it. I am just so talented like that aren't I?

The patience test this week had its high point yesterday.. I was at the office, holding down the fort on my own because the rest of the staff was away at a conference. I had the newsletter and bulletin to get done which is a full day... By the end of the day I had posted on facebook that people should be very impressed that I made it thru the day without tossing my computer, the microwave and the stinking copier right out the window! Grrrr..Once I finally got the newsletter done.. the stinking copier would copy, collate and staple 3 or so and then misfeed.. To clear the misfeed you have to clear the paper out of the finisher, the copier, and then had to take a drawer out to grab a piece from there. It ran 18 copies. I did the whole misfeed process um like 5 or 6 times for 18 copies... GRRRRR At that point I quit and called the copier guy. He better have shown up today so I can finish tomorrow. Then there is my computer... which is slower than a turtle on vacation... It is driving me insane... I am ready to bring my pretty pink computer to work and use it instead. Darrel is going to try adding some more memory for me so that perhaps I won't lose my mind. Have I ever mentioned the work microwave? I have decided that it would benefit greatly from a visit with a hammer. Dumb thing has buttons that don't work.. Thing is, it is not consistently the same buttons that won't work. The latest button to be annoying is the um START button... this makes it rather difficult and very patience testing to just heat up your lunch.. And yes.. You'd think I'd learn and walk down to the kitchen right? That was my day yesterday. I am just thinking that I mentioned the microwave in my last post... must REALLY be annoying me huh?

Today was waking up feeling sick, but for the most part, doing ok. I did go walk and yes,even got rained on... Don't worry though, I had my umbrella. Then I also accomplished laundry, vacuuming, cleaning off the porch, straightening the house, making chicken and noodles for dinner and completing my layout! Not too bad for a person with a pounding headache...

However that person is now going to take herself to bed so she can hopefully get lots of sleep and feel all healthy in the AM.. I have work and then that class at the Doodlebug at 4:15. Need to get off work by 3 to accomplish that so need to get there early tomorrow... all the more reason for an earlier bed time today... Hope your week has been good! Blessings!

My Favorite Nut

Willow Traders Thaw #8 completed! Yay!! OK, so of the 8, I've only completed 5 but hey, even 5 layouts a month is pretty fabulous compared to my normal (well before now normal) scrapping pace! The challenge this time was to "scrap our favorite nut." It seems like most of the participants thought of a person to scrap about, but as soon as I heard the topic, I thought of this picture of our kitten Jack. Jack has the same goofiness as his mother... Goofyness...Goofiness... Is that a word? The goofy thing is apparently hereditary. He is just like her... throws himself down on the ground like head first like he is going to do a somersault or something... Rolls all around.. Is quite the purrer and loves attention and affection. Totally like Gracie. Well on this particular day we found Jack rolling around in the bird bath. It cracked me up.. .I'm like what... is he waiting for lunch? That would not have surprised me as Gracie and all her kittens seem to be quite the hunters! You might also remember that Jack started off life being called Jac... which was short for Jacquelyn... we thought he was a girl! Darrel thought Jac suited her.. um him... because he was all pretty and prissy with his longer hair and white tipped ears yet was quite the tomboy mischief maker... Turns out there was a good reason for that.. Lesson learned... do not determine if your kittens are boys or girls until they are a couple of months old at least... You might give them a complex! ha!! Darrel tells me that Jack's latest stunt included charging across the yard after Darrel and Tanner... jumping over the back of the dog and running up a tree... He probably didn't know what to do with himself once he got up there!

I used clip art again on this layout. The cartoon cat and the paw prints were clip art. I laid it out in Microsoft Publisher and then printed that part directly on my white cardstock. I then took the white cardstock and stitched it to the gray cardstock to mat it and the scrapped the rest from there... I even.. *gasp* ... .used eyelets.. Does anyone use eyelets these days? I still like my eyelets and decided they would add a little detail.. Besides I have tons... So I put the MM eyelets and my pink cropadile to use too on this one. Most of the papers are sassafrass lass. Their stuff is so whimsical and fun I thought it suited the picture. Kind of a different style for me but I liked the result. I am having fun with the clip art additions... maybe I'll start a new trend huh?

I need to close for today and head to bed. I am holding down the fort at work again tomorrow. The rest of the staff left for a conference this morning and won't be back until later tomorrow. Things were mostly quiet today. It's a big building to be alone in... A few observations I made were... 1. I don't know exactly what MSG is.. (I mean I know what MSG stands for... but what is its purpose?) but I am thinking they should have left it in the soup I had for lunch... So apparently.. I like MSG.. I posted this on facebook to find out that also apparently many people think MSG is bad for you... I'll make note of that... 2. The work cafe microwave would benefit greatly from a few whacks with a hammer... trust me.. Stinkin thing.. 1/2 the buttons don't work and they do not appear to be the same buttons from day to day... The latest button that does not work consistently is um Start... this is a problem when trying to heat your no MSG soup.... You'd think I'd learn and just walk to the kitchen microwave...

Hope you are having an awesome week! Blessings!

Yes I Can

To try to keep myself out of detention for the Willow Traders Thaw challenges... I managed to complete a layout today! This is for challenge #7. Our challenge was to do a layout evaluating ourselves. (excuse the crummy scan... this was the 2nd time around and I was NOT in the mood to mess with it any longer... it does have a very cute sewn border all the way around the edge.) Wow huh? Well, for the past 19 mos or so I've been doing lots of self evaluating... so for me.. this was a welcome challenge. I took the opportunity to get my 81 lb weight loss photo scrapped. Could not seem to get happy with this page but finally got to at least an OK place and called it complete. It was based on somewhat of a "lift" of this page by Michelle Lanning. I think I like hers better so maybe that was my problem with mine? Maybe I do better just doing my own work. I am not usually much of a "lifter" so to speak. Whatever the reason, I am glad to have this one completed and glad to have this event documented.

Did not get a whole lot else accomplished today. Felt pretty good, but tired this morning, but made it to church. We had a good service. Pastor Mark is starting a new series about being "fearless" which is really a topic I need to hear about. I struggle with fear and anxiety at times so I plan to have my ears and heart wide open. We went to La Carretta for lunch and that was good, but our waiter was a bit slow today. I think when we didn't order right away he forgot us or something. This was not usual though. Normal is good and quick service so I won't hold the 1 time against them. Got home and visited with the kittens for a bit and then headed indoors. Had planned to scrap in the afternoon, but fell asleep instead. Even with that I just haven't felt awake today and been feeling a little nauseous too.. not sure what is up with me.. Hoping to head to bed here shortly and wake up feeling ready to jump in to the week right?!

Was browsing the net for a bit today...um between naps... and came across these shoes on QVC. Um fur lined clogs.... fur lined anything is my new best friend so I thought I'd give these a try. They look pretty cute and I thought they'd be good for work with jeans. I picked the sand color. I was browsing QVC hoping to find a pair of gloves like I had bought from them in the past. The ones I have are brown. I'd like a black pair to go with my new coat. I am thinking a fuchsia/black plaid scarf would be pretty cool too.. wondering if I can find that anywhere. I had no luck on the gloves so far either. Guess I'll have to shop... what a pity huh?

Today on the TSS message board, Cathy had posted a link to the pink paislee blog with this cool tutorial for a paper flower. Check it out here. I love that flower! Have to try that.

Have you heard about this new book coming out by CK? It's by Liz Kartchner and it has 52 scrapping challenges. As much as I've been enjoying the Willow Traders challenges I am thinking this book might be a great one to check out! I like Liz's work (and her blog) so I am thinking that is a another reason this might be a good book to have.

Anyone else like Michael Buble? Jen I know I see your hand up there... .anyone else? I swear he has a voice like velvet. Love his music! Did you know he has a new album out? It's called Crazy Love. So far my fav song is Cry Me A River. His version of Georgia on My Mind is pretty awesome too. I haven't even gotten to listen to the whole thing yet so I'll have to get back to you on the rest. Just love his big band style and retro look/feel....Good stuff... oh my goodness.. just discovered "At This Moment" is on this album... Remember Family Ties? Alex and Ellen? I know... showing my age right?

Oh--- I mentioned more kittens didn't I? Guess what Darrel found eating the cat food? Um 2 fuzzy little gray kittens probably about 8 weeks old (he was guessing). They just appeared. We have no idea where from. I am guessing one of the practically stray cats that live next door had babies. They want NOTHING to do with people and run if you try to get near them. They took off when they saw Darrel. That was a few days ago and now since then, only 1 of them has reappeared. We have some old blankets and a cushion on our garage porch for our kittens and this new little guy(or girl) likes the cushion and creeps up there when it thinks no one is around. When I went out in the yard yesterday Darrel was crouched down talking to it like the cat whisperer or something trying to get close to it. He almost had it in his hand when it took off again. We now think it is living in the wood pile about 1/2 way back on our property. Just what we need... that would make um 7 cats... goodness... kids are going to walk by my house... pointing up the hill... saying the old cat lady Koontz lives up there... bwa ha ha ha ha

Well better head to bed. Busy work week coming up and I am holding down the fort on my own for 2 days while the others attend a conference. Pray for a quiet week for me OK? Hope you have a blessed week!

And The Winner Is......

Comment #4 from Angela! Angela wrote:

Angela L. said...
Not only do I love Christian Fiction but I love any books set in Amish Country. What a lovely cover and the review makes it sound so wonderful! Thanks for the giveaway, I'd be beyond thrilled to win this "beauty" of a book.

Congrats Angela! I left a comment on your blog earlier today to notify you along with my e-mail address. Please e-mail me with your mailing address and I will get the book sent to you asap! Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks everyone for playing our game.. I wish I had some lovely parting gifts for you. Please tune in again next time.

So last night was date night. We met at home after work and then headed out for the big city. I looked forward to it alllll day because I knew we were maybe going to Longhorn and we had such a nice dinner together the last time we were there. Most of the way there we debated... Longhorn... Red Lobster... Red Lobster still has the endless shrimp thing going... Longhorn was good food and nice atmosphere... We finally settled on Longhorn. It was not busy, and we got a table right away. The time difference sure helps us with that because if we leave home at 5 then we are getting there about 5 their time so the dinner rush hasn't started yet. Dinner was YUM again. I had the steak and shrimp scampi and Darrel had steak. Everything was actually hot and cooked correctly and just very good. Their bread is pretty yummy too. As usual here lately I was cold... so what a good excuse to have your husband come sit next to you in the booth rather than across from you. I mean he is pretty cuddly for one and quite a heater for two plus even though we are old married people.. we actually still like sitting together.. holding hands.. actually talking to one another... all that mushy stuff. We shared a ghirardelli brownie sundae for dessert. That was fun and yummy.

After that we headed to the hot, happening date night spot.... Rural King. Yes... Friday night... out on a date and I find myself standing in the middle of Rural King. Too funny. Darrel needed some jeans and they had some there he had heard about and wanted to check out. As I have been losing weight, my handsome husband has also dropped some pounds. He tried on some jeans a size smaller than the last time he got jeans and um... lets just say he looked pretty stinkin' cute... Have you ever seen the dressing room at Rural King? I think a porta potty might be bigger... So serious. This little claustrophobic room he went in was built on a pallet... um why is that I'd like to know??? And, it had no mirror... You had to wrestle your way back out of the little room to see how nice you looked in your new jeans. Um do you not go in a dressing room to SEE how the clothes look on you or is that just me? For more fun.. there were 2 dressing rooms and one was locked or stuck or something and I had a guy standing there waiting to get in Darrel's dressing room like the whole time. Turns out all he needed to do was go ask an employee to unlock it which is what we found out when Darrel needed to go back into the closet room to try on a different pair of jeans. While standing in the check out line.. I heard Jeff Foxworthy redneck jokes going thru my head as I look over at the magazine rack and see titles like "turkey"or "pig"..... um lets see... if you are standing in the check out line paying for your new jeans and while you are waiting, you can read about how to raise and then pluck a turkey ... you might be a redneck... bwa ha ha ha ha ha I swear... there was like 8 magazines that had a title that was just the name of some animal.. I should have taken a picture. I also have another question because it's "rural" king and they have farm stuff... therefore by definition is the store like then required to be filthy dirty? ... Ok.. moving on.

After rural king we headed back for civilization over at the mall.. I wanted to get a birthday gift for a friend. We did that and then decided to walk and browse as we so often do. We hit bath and body and bought 5 more little hand sanitizers since I seem to be going thru them quickly here lately. I mean hey, if you need to use hand sanitizer it might as well be cute and smell good don't you think? We had also been talking about whether or not I needed a new winter coat and we had not decided... Well Darrel had decided Yes... I was still on "maybe I can make due with the old one I made due with last year." We were walking thru JC Penney though and they were having a 60% off "doorbuster" sale and I found a $225 wool jacket for $90... now if you have to get a coat I am thinking that was a pretty good sale/deal. So.. now it may officially be cold because I am prepared! It's just a simple black wool jacket but it felt good and comfy. I am hoping it will be WARM too.. I tried on the old... old... like I bought it back in the 90's old coat when we got home. See the old coat was a black leather winter coat I had gotten to big for and had stopped wearing. Then last season when I got smaller, my winter coat got too big and rather then buy one, I pulled the old leather one out and yay! It fit again. So I used that last year. I was willing to do that this year, but now it is pretty big!! Yay!!! And the zipper is ripping and it looks old... and now it doesn't matter because.. new coat! Of course... now it will probably go up into the 70's and 80's or something and we'll have Indian Summer.

Now I must bid you tonight... church in the AM you know. I am hoping to get some scrapping done in the afternoon. I had to take 2 skips on the Willow Traders Thaw Challenges last week... I am probably in detention now or something... I hope to keep up with the rest until the end of the month. We are allowed 3 skips so I am still not out of it yet! The 3 challenges for the coming week are doing a layout to evaluate yourself (lots of people seem to be squirming about that one... its right up my alley though... ), doing a layout about the favorite "nut" in your life.... I am thinking about our kitten Jack... and then the 3rd one is to make a layout inspired by/lifted from a magazine. I have 3 new mags so I am up for that one!

Speaking of kittens... would you believe there are 2 more hanging around? But.. that story shall have to wait for tomorrow. Goodnight and blessings!

The Famous Group Shot - Take 2!

Do you remember "The Famous Group Photo" - take 1 from last year? I think we did a little better this year. We were at lunch and I took this picture.














Not too shabby right... except of course I am missing... Well as soon as I snapped this, a lady standing near our table asked if we wanted her to take one of all of us.. We said yes of course and that was the first photo I shared. Cool huh? We don't even look frozen or soaked or anything do we?











This was the good group photo from last year. Remember how we took like 19 on our own and kept cutting off people's heads and hair and um whole faces, trying to hold our own camera and squeeze everyone into the photo? It was way too funny. So see... for this year.. calmly, easily.. .we got a great group shot.











With the weather forecast today we weren't sure how to dress and we were afraid it was going to rain all day. Well, we all did a pretty good job of dressing warm enough and for the most part, no rain! It just like misted on us at the end of the day..., As far as warmth, I got dressed this morning and let's see... let's count the layers... long john top.. .camisole... denim long sleeve shirt... scarf... sweater/poncho... jeans.. Not to mention warm socks and my warmest fuzziest crocs. I got all dressed and then went and stood on the back porch. After like oh.. a minute and 1/2 I came right back in and added the long john bottoms! Ha! Actually it was about perfect. I didn't need a winter coat (um which I don't have...) and I didn't have a lot of bulky stuff on either. I am still yet amazed at just how much warmth is added with gloves and a scarf! It can even be a cute scarf!





















So pretty near when we got there, Jen and I were waiting on the others and decided to take our picture.. First we get a great picture of her and um where's the rest of me? Ha! So... we try again.. Is this sounding familiar to anyone?




















So of course now we lost most of Jen and got me... Too funny... same pattern as last year.. It's worth one more try right? Here we go...





















Ta da! Most of both faces... so we will call this one good and move on!

So let's recap the day.. We started out meeting up at my sis-in-laws. Mom had spent the night with me which was fun! We stayed up talking to late, but hey, isn't that what girls are supposed to do? So we are on our way and usually we stop at a gas station in Terre Haute for a bathroom break.. Well today... I'm like um instead of stopping at the dirty gas station bathroom.. how about we stop like at Starbucks or Panera bread? It didn't take much to get a unanimous vote on that one! Starbucks it was! We have decided this was a much better choice especially since some of us scored a yummy hot chocolate not to mention a bagel!














Back on the road and we had maybe another hour.. a little less I think to hit the festival. We made pretty good time, and really had pretty good weather all the way there. Here are Lauryn and Lindsay in the car.













We usually spend the first 1/2 of the day browsing the lower 1/2 of the fest which is like "below" the bridge. After that we crossed and had lunch before checking out the rest of the festival. Lunch was good! I had a slice of pizza, part of an order of fried veggies (yum!) and part of an order of warm, fresh... mini cinnamon sugar donuts. OH MY GOSH those were good. I have not had a donut in more than a year and I have been like craving them lately. This was the perfect answer to that. I did pretty good food wise because I shared everything I bought except for the 1 slice of pizza and 1 cookie. I avoided this giant like submarine size eclair at the bake shop too.. It had about a foot of icing on top and custard leaking out everywhere and oh my did it look good.. but yay me.. passed it up!!













I didn't buy a whole lot. I found these cotton henley shirts for 4.99 and bought 3 of those to probably use as PJ shirts. I've been having a PJ shirt crisis lately.. so crisis averted! Ha!! I bought 2 lipsticks from an avon booth and I bought a bag of fresh cashews to bring home for Darrel. I think that was it! I missed Darrel. He has gone with sometimes on other years and we just have a lot of fun together when we go to stuff like this. I think it would be cool if next year we could go together and then go back a 2nd day and hit some of the other areas in Parke County that are part of the festival.













Did I um mention it was MUDDY... It seems every year it is either rainy, or had rained recently so that leaves lots of mud.... This was one of the worst ones we walked down so I of course needed to share... I thought we might sink to our knees on this one! We left once things started closing up and headed back to Terre Haute for dinner at Ryan's before heading home. It was a good day and thank you Lord for decent weather when it could have been like constant rain like it has been here recently!

Speaking of scarves.. I think I did speak of them up above here somewhere right? Avon has a couple of cool new ones that I ordered from my friend Julia recently. This one and this one were on my order. Tonight I got an e-mail from Julia that the first scarf had been featured on this blog. I went to check that out and found this page which shows all kinds of cool ways to tie scarves... so... if you are loving scarves this year like I am.. you might want to check that out!

With that I better bid you goodnight. I have to get my purses switched back and get myself in bed for work in the AM. Tomorrow is date night. We think I have enough funds left over from the funds set aside for Covered Bridge today to have a "nice" dinner out tomorrow... Yippee!! Hoping we can both get off work soon enough to do that which means getting to the big city early! I hate having to wait an hour for a table... We may hit The Longhorn since we've only been once and loved it the other time.. or back to Red Lobster for Endless Shrimp... wow.. how is one supposed to choose between those things?

Blessings!

Because Pink makes everything better...

OK... LOOK at this.... Bwa ha ha ha ha How cute is that?!!! It's a pink mug with little shoes!!!! Shoes with Bling on them!!! Ok.. I need more exclamation points or something cause this is just too stinkin cute!! This was a gift to me this evening. I LOVE gifts... We've talked about that right? LOVE gifts... especially PINK gifts and gifts that come like this - LOOK.





















Not only was it the perfect pink gift, it was in the cutest gift bag with pink ribbon and pink tissue and a beautiful pink card! This is from a sweet family at church who remembered me for clergy appreciation month. OK I am not a clergy member. I am the church secretary/administrator. So this makes me feel very special to be included and remembered. Thank you so so so much. This is so cool and ok again... how CUTE is that mug!! It has little feet!!! Plus.. did i mention.. I love gifts....oh yeah.. I think I told you that... well it makes it even more special when someone cares enough to even know what you like and go out of their way to make it all PINK!





















Now the funny thing is, just a few hours ago, I was using this! This was a gift from my sister for my 40th birthday. Let's not talk about how long ago that was ok? I love this mug... and this evening I was cold enough to have my first mug of hot chocolate.... It was yum... So now... two pretty pink mugs! Loving that! A girl can never have too many pink anything right?

Doodlebug sent an e-mail today about a cool class coming up next Friday with Sally McDonald for Enchanted Garden Glimmer Mist Technique. She is also certified with Prima and Copics! Cool huh? I am signed up and looking forward to going! You should see the album sample... very cool... Anyone else going? Would love to see you there!

Tomorrow .... or I guess now that would be today... ha... is the Covered Bridge! I think its going to be rainy and cold but I am determined to have fun anyway!! I mean hey... I walk all the time in the rain these days and don't mind so should be good right? I hope to have some photos and fun to share with you from that. Maybe Thurs. night.. will depend on when we get home.

Hope you are having a great week.

Blessings!