Hello everyone... Gosh it has been a very long time since I have posted anything. I have been busy coming & going to Zion where my niece has been. She finally came home last Friday... The first time actually since Aug. 8th. She will be going back again the first part of Nov. to find out if the Radiation & Chemo has worked. The tumor needs to have shrank to the size of a tennis ball before the tumor can be removed. So, please say a prayer for her!!!

I went to a crop this afternoon, had a great time. I worked on a project I am doing to give to a friend. She makes "Totes" for patients diagnosed with cancer. She puts all kinds of goodies in the totes to pass the time of waiting. I decided to make bookmarks & a small photo book to be included along with the totes.

This upcoming week end I am going on a "Girls Week End Out" 12 of us are going to a cottage on a lake to do some serious scrapbooking. I have been looking forward to it for a very long time. I have many things to get finished. I also have some "Christmas" gifts that need to be made. I will post pictures of what I get finished. I will try to post again before I leave... Have a great evening!!!

Back at the C.T.C.A.

Well, here I am back at the C.T.C.A. in Zion IL. with my niece Chevon. She has been here since Aug. 7th. She has had 4 surgeries since being here. First, she had to have a colostomy done so that she could go the bathroom. The tumor is compressing the rectum so much that she wasn't able to have a normal bowel movement. This has help her greatly but, it has not taken all of the pain away. But it is so much better than it was. Then she had to have stents put into her ureters, this was done to help her, allowing the urine to drain into the bladder, as the tumor is also pressing on the bladder and the right ureter not allowing the urine to drain. This also has created extreme pain for her. After that she had to have urostomy tubes inserted because the tumor was still compressing on the ureters and the urine still couldn't drain this created a critical fluid gain. This has caused her to gain 60+ pounds in just a few weeks. Since having the tubes placed into the kidney the fluid is slowly beginning to come off. The Dr. want her to get up and walk, this is a hard process as she has so much pain that she fights us, WE ALWAYS WIN but it is so hard, knowing she is in so much pain , but I remind myself it is for her to get better, so we keep her going. Her mother is an amazing woman!!! She has been here almost nonstop, She left only for about 30 hrs. (back to Michigan) to get her F.M.L.A. taken care of. Then she was right back to Chevon's side. She is so lucky to have her mother!!!! I have seen the true meaning of what a mother really is, it overwhelms me more that words can describe!!!!! I have been busy getting a Benefit ready. It is going to be on Sept. 13th. The expenses are climbing each day. Her mother is staying in a hotel and it is reasonable but still it costs money. She is off from work and has no income coming in and The Family has decided the best way to help is to put on this "Benefit". I have never done anything like this ever, but I am trying my hardest to help with it. There have been lots of donations so far and hope we get more. The generosity of people is heart warming! I guess there still are good people in this fast paced world we live in... So nice to know them all!!!!!!! Well, with all this said... I am going to get ready and go over to the hospital and visit for awhile. I will update more later.
Have a safe and wonderful Labor Day Weekend!!!!!

Where does the time go? Seems like it was June and we were preparing for my 2nd sons wedding. Which, by the way went wonderfully! It was a beautiful Sunny day. Everything was perfect! Now here it is the end of Aug. and everyone is busy getting their children ready to go back to school. Myself included. Today I went with my youngest son to register for college classes at a local university. I never realized how much financial aid is avail. to minority kids. Boy, I know what I will be doing for the next few days... going to many sites to fill out the forms to see if he is a candidate for any of them. I also spent the last 12 days with my sister in law and my niece at the Cancer Center of America... my niece has neuroendicrine cervical cancer, squamous cell, small cell cancer. She had a radical hysterectomy done in Nov. of 2008 and went through chemo treatments and after finishing all of that she went back for her 3 month check and they found a very large tumor in her pelvis. She is now being treated at the Cancer Center of America. She has had 2 surgeries since going there and will be starting radiation therapy very soon. So, things have not quieted down at all... very busy trying to help get things done so I can get ready to go back to be with them at the center. Amongst all of this... I have been told I can no longer do my job. For those of you who don't know I have been off work since last April... issues with my back again. Seems like it is an ongoing battle with my back for the last 23 yrs. or so... long story short I won't be going back anytime soon. This sits very heavy on my heart as I so love my job, I have been doing it for the past 15+ years and thought I would be doing it for another 20+ yrs. Now I am going to have to keep myself busy doing things for my family and scrap booking my heart out. Well, my DH is calling me to come down stairs... bet he's hungry... LOL until next time......

Holy Smokes, here does the time go?????

Well, the Bridal Shower is over and we have 2 weeks until the big day. My 2nd son Luis is getting married as you all know from past posts. I had never given a Bridal Shower before.
I can say it went just like clock work. I served 3 different pinwheel sammy snacks, veggie tray, a cheese ball & 3 kinds of crackers and I had a Chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows, rice crispy treats, and mini cream puffs. Gosh, everything was so yummy! I didn't end up taking many leftovers home.... that's a good thing because none of us in my house needs to eat all those treats...LOL
I had shown the gifts that I had made for the winners of the games and the door prize, well everyone wanted them!!!! I guess they liked my creations. giggle...
I am working on the scrapbook for the Bride to be, when it is finished I will post for all to see.
Have a great day!!!! "GO RED WINGS"

Shower Gift #2 "Dry Erase Board"

This gift #2 of 3-4 gifts. I wanted something functional for 1 of the gifts. I was at Kohls the other day and they had a dry erase board that was so pretty. I looked it over and thought... I can make something close to it! I went to the Dollar Store, picked up a frame and a dry erase pen and came home to figure out what I was going to do with it. Everything on it is left overs from other projects. The paper in the middle & words are from the Notebook Collection from CTMH, I stamped an image on the corner of the mat frame (I used a 12 x 12 pc. of cream card stock, cut the size out of the middle that I wanted)added some ribbon and that's about it. I decided to go ahead and post the teachers gifts and another shower gift. The paper for the first teachers gift is all from SU, I used a stamp from SU. the inside is simply 6 clear envelopes. I secured it by putting 2 brads. The second one is an old CD case. I used paper I had left over from another project. I think the paper is from Creative Memories, but I am not sure. I added a flower from CTMH, Big Pinks and inked the edges and then added a little glitter to give some bling. Very easy to make. If anyone is interested in the directions for any of the projects I have been making, just let me know and I can get them for you. I have a few more things to make for the shower, when they are finished I will post them also. Good day to everyone!!!

Shower gift # 1... 3 More To Go...

Luis my 2nd son is getting married in June. For the shower I decided to make the gifts for the prize winners. This the 1st one that I have completed. I used paper from CTMH Promise of Spring Paper Pack. It was one of the past Heart of Winter Project Packs.I stamped a flower,added a little glitter, a pop dot,& some black ribbon... I also had to make the envelopes because the card ended up being a size that I couldn't find an envelope to fit it. These cards won't be able to go in mail, but they will be nice throw in a gift bag!

My DH

This is a picture of me and my DH. It's his birthday today. I just wanted everyone to see this amazing man I am lucky enough to be married to. He is truely the love of my life!!! Happy Birthday Baby!!!!!

Marisa's 3rd Grade Fun Days

Hello everyone!!!

Boy, sure has been a while.
I have come to the conclusion that I really am not a very faithful blogger. I have no reason why, I guess just busy doing other things, Physical Therapy, Pain Clinic, Dr. appointments... Really just haven't had much me time to sit down for alittle me time and fill everyone in on my scrapbooking. I am sad to say I am very behind!!!! I have always been prompt in getting events photographed, developed, cropped, and onto pages in a timely fashion... that is pretty much down the tubes for me! am hoping to get a little more time so that I can work on my sons wedding. I have it started and I will finish litlle more and I will share a few pages with you... I have 6 pages nearly finished... I posted a picture of myself and my hubby. The reason is I want everyone to know how amazing he is! We celebrated our 28th anniversary last week. I still get flutters when I am near him, so I just wanted to let everyone know that I am sorry but I HAVE the most amazing man that anyone could ever dream of being married to!!!!!!! So, with that said I am heading to the family room to watch a movie with my DH. Have a wonderful evening and I will be posting pages again soon!!!

April's Challenge Page

Wow, it's really been a long time since I have posted. I have not felt like doing much of anything. However, I have decided to force myself to get up and start moving around a little more. So, the first place I wanted to go was into the scrapbooking room! I feel like the first time all over again! I never realized how much stuff I have inside these 4 walls. Boy, if my husband had any idea he would ... well I don't even want to think about that right now! I finished my Apirl "All About Me Challenge" page before I started having all of this trouble with my back, just never got it posted.So here it is. I am not really very excited with it. To me it seems very choppy. But, since I refuse to tear a page apart it is just going to have to do. The topic was 5 thing I can not live without. It couldn't be a person or an animal. The challenge was easy, but I didn't like the way the page turned out. Oh well, I don't have to be in love with every page that I design, right... LOL

May's challenge is done with a partner. I am doing it with a lady from the Jacksonville, Fl area. I did an interview with her and am waiting for her picture to come and I will be off and running. I think it will be fun!

Well, I must get moving or I will have wasted my entire day sitting here, which would be easy to do... but it is a pretty nice day and I think it's a great day to go outside and get some fresh air!!! Also I can't wait to look at all of my flowers and blooms that are up since all the rain that we got last week. So,until next time...

Boy, I feel like I have been gone forever...

Well, I sure have had an interesting past few weeks. I have been having an affair with my heating pad and for all intense and purposes I have been cheating on it with pain killers. I have had lots of Dr. appointments, Physical Therapy, getting ready to see a Neuro Surgeon and trying to get into a pain clinic to have a few injections. Sounds like fun doesn't it... Well, I have a pretty bad back, several surgeries in the past and every once in a while I go through this. I don't really feel like scrap booking, can you believe I just said that! I have not stepped inside my scrap room in over a week. I have all these projects started and I don't feel up to going in and doing a thing. This makes me very sad because I so very much need to get a book done for my son! I wanted to give it to him for his birthday, but that won't be happening... his birthday is in 2 weeks and I barely have it started. I would like to go in and try to at least get some more page packs done so when I do feel better I can go with force. Wish me luck this next week... I go to the Surgeon on Thurs. Until then if I manage to get anything done I will post it.

It's All About Me

"All About Me" Challenge...

I recently joined a wonderful group of ladies from Jacksonville, Fl to do a Challenge. Each month a challenge is posted in the forum and the object is to create a page (or a 2 pg. L/O) about whatever the topic is for the month, and it has to be about yourself... using things that you have in your stash of goodies. I usually do not do pages about myself, so this has been a real "challenge". I guess that's why it's called a challenge... go figure. Anyhow, I have completed the last 3 months of the challenge, I started late so I had to catch up and I have now done that. Jan. is about your resolution for the upcoming year.It is the darker paper with the words resolution, family, friends, & work on it. Feb. is about something (or someone) that you love. It is the one with all of the pink on it. (I bet you can't tell what color I love most) March is about 25 things about me. This one posted above for some strange reason. I think this is a great thing to do, as I must make a point of getting the lost picture of myself out of the hard drive or off the dusty shelf (not really) and do something for just me. I am having fun reminding myself of times gone by. So, I am extending the same challenge to those of you who follow my blog or to those of you that just stop by. Feel free to post yours on my response posts. I am waiting for the new challenge to be posted. Have fun creating wonderful pages!!! Until next time

Up Early Today...

Gosh, the house is so quiet this morning! My oldest son left to go back to South Carolina at 5:00 a.m. this beautiful Michigan morning. He's a great son! I found myself feeling very sad as I watched him pull out of the driveway and be on his way. I never realized until now just how much I miss him. He's always been here for me, not that he isn't still it's just that he's so far away now. I have, I think kept him under my wing for a little to long, but isn't that what we do??? Anyway, I am so very proud of him for going out into this big world and taking the chance at a life on his own! His wife and daughter will be joining him there when my grand-daughter gets out of school in June. I think then it will hit me like a ton of bricks that they have left... They live with my husband & I until they move and having them here is created so many memories that will be cherished in my heart forever. I am going to have to make some frequent trips to visit... I have some things to post later today. I joined a challenge from the Scrapbook Oasis, I am having a blast with it. My niece is involved with a wonderful group of ladies there. Anyway, I was poking around online one day and stumbled onto the website and decided to "take the challenge" "All About Me" is the name of this challenge. Each month there is a new topic to create a page (or 2) about yourself. I find this to be pretty cool as I don't normally do much involving myself. So, later today I am going to post Jan., Feb., & March's pages that I have completed. I encourage everyone to do a challenge like this, it's a great way to leave your legacy on who you are... Talk to you later!!! So, until then...

OMG, today is a very lazy day... I am thinking that it would be a great day to create some beautiful pages. I have some pictures that have been laying on my work table for a while so I guess that it is time to get them onto a page or 2. I am also going to try to make a few cards. My stash is shrinking so I need to get moving and start... I will post some later... Have a great day!

Onsie Baby Cards...

This is my attempt to making a onsie card. I still want to do some tweaking to it but this is what I came up with on my first trial. I saw many templates and there are some other ideas out there but this is what I have for my trials. As you know, I was making a card for my friend for her baby shower invitations ... well, it turned out really cute. It has an alligator on it. The alligator is a stamp from CTMH from last years stamp of the month. It's a really cute set. I wanted to post it but she has that one. So, I posted the 2 cards I made to have as a congrats card for a new baby... If anyone wants the template I would be glad to share it. I have much to do today so I need to get myself up and get going... until next time... Have a wonderful day!!!

My Family...

I wanted to post a few family photos today. I must be feeling a little nostalgic or something. I was going through the files of my computer editing and getting pictures ready to send to my son in South Carolina and thought I'd put a few in a slide show. To my surprise I actually ended up with 2 slide shows. So take a look and enjoy my families past year of memories....