an end in sight?

an end in sight?

just when you think you're almost there... they bump the date back a few days. ugh. but it's just a couple of days, right? we're still almost there. that's the attitude i'm trying to keep. we just found out last night, and i had to tell the girls this morning. i think that's the hardest part.

there... it's out of my system now (kinda)... all of the other prep is coming along well. our giant sign (12'x4') is making some progress after some internet research on what kind of paint to use on vinyl. from all i could tell, latex was the way to go... so hopefully it doesn't peel or run off (in the drizzle) before it's time. :)

{{hugs}}

flat rate, please

flat rate, please

my hawaiian coffee connection, joscie (oh and, she's my friend too), has taken a flat version of herself and sent her around the country to different scrappers for a visit. so you take this flat little lamenated lady wherever your heart desires... take pictures like a fool, and scrapbook it in her traveling flat joscie scrapbook. and when you're finished with your visit, you mail her off to her next destination. well, she's been visiting for a few weeks now, and we've had some fun times. (man, the girls have really gotten a kick out of this whole process!) so here are my pages, and some highlights from the visit. (the hidden journaling on the page is at the bottom of the post.

not entirely sure why i look white-headed and orange-faced here...

hidden flap journaling

visit to the fabulous log cabin espresso

and a trip to lasting memories... the very best scrapbook store... EVER!

HEY... CHECK HER OUT
(i admit it, that was quite possibly the dumbest pun ever.)

thank you lasting memories girls for being so much fun... we were doing a lot of laughing as i posed joscie all over the store. thank you, thank you!!!

flat joscie just after her arrival with some goodies sent by the previous hostess, amy.

joscie taking her love for making memories products a little too far... like right out the door.

joscie getting in my hair. :wink:

joscie helping the girls and i load homecoming signs (for stan's squadron) into the car.
we're down to about a week and a half now, by the way!

journaling on the flat joscie page:

there was brief knock at my door one afternoon... and my friendly neighborhood postal worker handed me a box. inside was the neatly bubble wrapped traveling mistress of the sb community... none other than flat joscie! she arrived via pixiedixie's (amy) house in the deep south. and let me just say, poor joscie came grossly under dressed for the drizzly northwest afternoon. amy, being as sweet as she can be, sent a little making memories gift along with miss flattie... well, i turn my back for a second and guess who is heading to the door with my present??? so needless to say, although i am very glad to see my dear little friend... she is got in my hair... :wink:

miss flattie pants had coffee at one of the fabulous Washington coffee stands, and headed down to my local scrapbook store for some shopping fun. She met all of my lovely friends at the store, and we had some good fun with posing her around the store.

i loved having you around for a visit, my dear. the girls showed you off to everyone who came by the house. the only thing that could have made it better was if it was the real live fabulous full size joscie. {{hugs}} noel joy 05.2008

the amazing blessing we call life

the amazing blessing
we call life

at a time when people barely know their neighbors, i was seriously blessed by one today. i'm not sure he even knows what a difference he had in our little lives... but nonetheless he did. after way too many days of rain to count, a seriously steep hillside yard, over knee high grass, and a mom-of-the-house (i.e. me) who is not particularly talented with a lawn mower... i had a serious chore on my hands. well, we finally had some sunshine quite by surprise today, so i decided to mow our small jungle. i had talked with stan via webcam last night to get the particulars on starting a mower that hadn't been started in awhile, and set off to my task.

step 1 - getting that sucker down the hill. we live on a hillside that's pretty steep. (the ups man once told me that i have the steepest driveway in town.) so when i started pushing the mower down to the flat part of the lawn, lets just say i wasn't exactly pushing. more like running behind a wild runaway machine... the only thing slowing it down was the sheer volume of grass it was rolling through.

step 2 - starting the mower & keeping it on. i took it down to the street and started it there just like stan told me. and started mowing. well, apparently mowers don't really like to stay running in tall damp grass. so not very far into my little adventure. it stopped. back out to the street i went to start her up again. no dice. i pulled and pulled and couldn't get it started again.

ENTER NEIGHBOR BLESSING #1
looking admittedly quite pitiful, my neighbor a few houses down must have seen me. (i didn't realize anyone else on the street was outside at the time, so consumed with trying to get the mower running again.) my neighbor came by and asked if i needed some help getting it started again. i was so grateful. he started it right up, gave me a few more mowing tips for my task at hand, and i was on my way again!

step 3 - mowing a jungle & not destroying your mower. slow and steady mows a jungle. and that was what filled the next hour or so. not that my yard is very big, but it was way out of control.

ENTER NEIGHBOR BLESSING #2
about 2/3 of the way through the bottom (flattish) part of the lawn, my neighbor in shining armor came back by. he asked if i'd like for him to help me finish up. i said i'd be alright... i should be able to finish. he said, well, i got my mower out and if i work on the hill and you finish up down here, we'll be done in no time.

to make a long story longer... he helped me finish. i am so grateful for my neighbors, my neighborhood, my small town, and all of its blessings... for all of those people that see someone struggling and help them out, and the reminder to me to do the same whenever i can. sometimes the littlest things can be the biggest blessings. thank you. :)

a forced visit from the tooth fairy

a forced visit from
the tooth fairy

who would think that there would be a problem with having PERFECT baby teeth... well, apparently there is! those cute little perfectly placed pearly whites need to be spaced out for the big daddy teeth to grow in. so off to the dentist we went to have the two adjacent teeth pulled to make room for what is coming in already. i guess this little process will be something she'll have to get used to. that is until there are enough teeth to smack some braces on that little smile!


so here's to wishing you a happy dental free day!

reduce - reuse - remake

reduce - reuse - remake

my dear friend just had her third sweet little red headed beautiful baby yesterday. i'm just about to take off to go see her, but thought i'd share my remade bag real quick. i was getting ready to wrap the little giftie and couldn't find a bag to match the sweetness of the recipient... upon some further digging in my scrap room i came across a white house - black market bag i had saved. since it was the perfect size and all black, minus the logo on the font, i decided to redecorate it.

with some sweet scraps and a rhonna farrer chipboard tag, we were in business. now i've got the camera battery all charged up and ready to go meet one of the world's newest bundles of joy.

** update: i just got back from the hospital and got the pics all loaded up. here is one of my friend's sweet baby girl and me that her dh took. doesn't she just look like a precious little angel? :) **

a couple of quickies

just a couple of quickie pages that i have in my stampin up album. quick and simple pages that can be made in a couple of minutes are sometimes just the trick for getting the juices flowing. sorry for the crummy scans... apparently it needs to be cleaned and the settings adjusted. :)

all supplies are by stampin up, except black chipboard flower which is cosmo cricket.

kids know just how to brighten your day

kids know just how to
brighten your day

today, out of the blue, emma came up and gave this little picture & note to me. it was in a hand made envelope with entirely too much tape on it. but it was so sweet and thoughtful... one of those things that hits you and you think, "how did i get so blessed to get to be the mom of such a sweet kid." anyway, nevermind the novelty of writing my name out because it just seems so much cooler than writing "mom".

deciphered: dear noel. i love you. i think you are the best scrapbooker i ever seen. i love you. to: noel. from: emma"

isn't that what it's all for in the end? leaving a little something behind for the ones you love? just put a smile on my face today. and just a note: this artwork has been posted with the permission of the artist. ;)

happy mother's day

to all you mom's out there... and to all of those who are mom figures to someone... go out, have a little fun on the house! it's your day! :) be silly. laugh a lot. think of the million and one reasons being a mom is the best thing that ever happened to you... even on those crazy weeks when life seems to be falling apart.

make a silly face behind your child's back when they're not looking...
my mother's day gift to me!

to my mom:
thank you for teaching me to laugh at life,
even the things you might not be quite ready to laugh about!

to my grandma:
thank you for taking the time with me to just be together.
thank you for painting with me when i was growing up and for painting with my kids now.

to my children:
thanks for making me a mom. i love you both.

oh, and i just had to share a little slice of my sweet day. this was my breakfast in bed. (planned and implemented solely by my girls.) the wine glass is filled with flavored water... that yummy kind from costco. and promptly after the tray was dropped in bed i was asked, "hey, can i have a bite of that buttered toast? i love buttered toast. buttered toast is so yummy! wha-aaat???"

my mother's day loot! :)

happy mother's day!!!

boxer cards

boxer cards

i am in love with basic grey's boxer line! if they made shirts with these prints, i'd buy one of each for my husband! the patterns are cool, guy'ish and yet you can dress them up if you want. i'm loving the color scheme too since orange seems to be a go-to color for me these days.

anyway, i taught a card class the past two weekends, and thought i'd share a couple of the cards here. now, i dressed these up with a few extras from my stash. the little muslin bag envelope mailer thing was something i purchased at impress rubber stamps years ago at their annual sale. i just thought they were fun. i love digging out old treasures from my stash and finding a new way to use it! :)

supplies:
i love you card: cardstock: wausau paper; patterned paper & rub-ons: basic grey, boxer line; chipboard tag & green ribbon: making memories; stamps: impress rubber stamps (phrase & heart), glitz design (grid roller doodle); lace: prima marketing; eyelets, ticket corner punch & rhinestone brads: stampin up; ink: stazon by tsukineko; other: staples
just a note card: cardstock: bazzill basics (orange), stampin up (vanilla); patterned paper: basic grey, boxer line; felt bird: maya road; felt flower, vellum tag, brad, ink & ribbon: stampin up; stamps & cream tag: impress rubber stamps; other: staples

getting closer...

there were a lot of questions about stan's homecoming. it's still coming up. (this was a pic from the last homecoming in '06.) we have about a month left. which sounds like a lot but really... we're 5/6 of the way there. :) (i'm trying to keep it positive!)

i always think that this is one of the hardest parts of the deployment... the close but no cigar stage... but it's getting a little closer everyday. and now we can say, "he'll be home next month!"

*note to stan... i'm missing you terribly today. hope we can talk tonight.*

pieces of the puzzle

pieces of the puzzle

the other day my friend, stephanie, from the ckmb asked me if i would be a little part of a project she was doing. she sent out these chipboard puzzle pieces to several people for them to decorate. then we send them back to her... and she's got a super cool decorated puzzle. little pieces of your friendships. the only requirement was that we needed our names on it... and no embellishments too close to the edge (so the pieces will fit together.)

anyway, after a few weeks of minimal project making because of a busy schedule... i sat down to work on my piece of the puzzle. so here it is! :)

supplies:
cardstock: bazzill basics; pattern paper: basic gray; stamps: impress rubber stamps; acrylic flower: heidi swapp for advantus; rhinestone flourish: prima; rub-on & net overlay: glitz design; felt bird: maya road; felt flower, rhinestone brad, marker & glitter embossing powder: stampin up; letter stickers: ek success; ink: stazon (white), versamark, colorbox (brown)

tulips - one last time

smile! we made it up to the tulips one last time. they were already starting to mow the big fields when we got there, but thankfully roozengaarde always keeps their flowers till the end! so i just had to share some pics from the afternoon. so this picture isn't that amazing... i just thought it was really funny. :)

this picture looks totally fake... but i assure you we were all laying on very damp real grass.

kissing this big stone frog is an annual tradition.

if you made it this far... WOW! you have perseverance! i just had a really hard time narrowing down my favorites. (that's a constant problem of mine!) anyway, have a great day!