What a fast paced few weeks!

Boy life has been exciting this past two weeks. It has been freezing cold here (-7 on Friday!) so with the new baby my daughter has not been able to walk her children to the bus stop. So I have been trying to get there in time to get them on the bus at noon. However, Jazz missed the bus two times this week! Luckily I am able to wait for Trenton to get on his bus and drop Jazz off at school...no harm, no foul. :)

Chad and mommy are doing fine. I am going to be spending some time over the next few weeks putting together his baby album. My cuz Carol (***waving***) bought me a Simply Scrappin' kit for boys and Georgia brought me out some really cool pages and scrapping items for baby boys too. I bought a very nice baby boy album at Wal-Mart. It will all come together nicely. We took pictures at the hospital, when he got home and at the baby shower so that will be a nice start for her.

This is Chad's hospital picture. We decided to take a nice looking picture and print off a set of pictures as a gift for mom and dad. That would save them some money! They are gonna need it with. He looked so cute in his little "suit and tie"! And he is definitely a keeper!

I spent this afternoon cleaning the stamp room...which was in dire straits! I participated in VSN on Friday the 18th and never got a chance to clean it! Saturday I was sick with a sinus headache, had the church missions auction that night, church on Sunday and baby shower Sunday afternoon! Needless to say it had gone to the wayside through the week. At least I can once again see the table top! Not completely done yet but close! I have three new sets to mount and play with this week besides working on the baby album. I also need to start getting a February newsletter around! Can you believe it is the end of January already! Yikes!

New grandson has arrived!

Chad Josiah

January 14, 2008
8:24 am
8 lbs, 1 oz
19 1/2"

Chad and I - wearing a mask as I have a sinus infection!

Proud G-papa! Baby is about an hour old here and he had already drank 2 ounces of formula!

Big sister Jasmine and brother Trenton - before we took them to school - Chad is about 3 hours old in these pictures and had just had his first bath.

We will be posting more pictures later. We are taking the kids back up after school before coming home for the evening.

Sick again...

Here I am sick with sinusitis again! I had a bout in November and another in December! Ugh! My head feels like it is going to explode, my ears ache, my throat is raw. I am off to bed for some rest. Hopefully this afternoon I will be feeling better and can play with some of my new stamps! Ohhhh, I can't wait to make cards with the new DS paper either - Ginger Blossom will definitely be one that I will not be able to live without!

Gotta love Stampin' Up!

They have done it again. They have upgraded our demo web sites and I love it! There are so many new features for us including eCards, newsletters, and a contact me page! Yoohoo!

Visit today!

Sign up for Round Robin '08!

Now that the holidays are behind us let's do a Valentine round robin! You have from January 5-12 to sign up. I will prep the cards and send out the cards on January 15. You have 3 days to add your embellishments and send it on the next person on the list.

Join today for the fun!

January Challenges

Here is the sketch challenge for January. When saving it save as TSC Sketch 1-08.

Stamp Set: Cute Converse, Heartfelt Thanks
Cardstock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Inks: Basic Black
Accessories: Stampin' Write Markers (Rose Red, Certainly Celery),
Celery Prints DS, Square Punch
Technique: 2 Step Stamping, Huffing

The color challenge for January is Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate and Pretty in Pink. You can use any neutral cardstock. When saving it save as TSC Color 1-08.

Stamp Sets: Heartfelt Thanks
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomegranate
Inks: Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Stampin' Write Markers (Pretty in Pink, Sage Shadow),
Pomegranate Double Stiched Ribbon, Pink Gingham Ribbon
Technique: 2 Step Stamping, Huffing

You will have until January 31 to complete and post these challenges. Post them on your website and post the url in your comment on this post. If you would prefer you can email your url HERE with TSC Blog Challenge as the subject. The winners will receive an assortment of embellishments. Have fun!

HUFFING: When you use markers on your stamps they tend to dry out. So you hold the stamp to your mouth and breath (or huff) onto the ink to moisten it. :)

2 STEP STAMPING: Some SU! sets require 2 step stamping in which you stamp with one stamp and then stamp over the top with a "outline" stamp to add dimension.

New blog with new insights...

Please visit our new blog...Redemptive Ramblings. Here James and I will share our views and beliefs along with some everyday "ramblings". Today's "rambling"...Waiting on God's Time. :)

2008 - A brand new year!

Happy New Years everyone!

Today marks my wedding anniversary too - #9. :) I have to thank God for the man He placed in my live a little over 9 years ago.

I was looking for a different chat room in August of 1998 as I was bored with the everyday "stuff" that happened in the other chat rooms. I had to download a program in order to go into this chat room. I was getting frustrated when on my 4th try it finally went through! When I entered there were only two other women in the room. A few minutes later came "Trouble4u" and he was flirting with the other women...not in a bad way if you know what I mean!

I just hung back watching and then said hi to him. We got to talking in the room, then went into ICQ chat together. There were three questions he asked: Do you smoke? Do you drink? Are you a Christian? I could truthfully answer no to the first two and yes to the third. We continued chatting for three hours that day. It seems that it became a habit of spending a couple of hours a day on the computer together after that. During that time we had ICQ chats often and lots of days his family would join in too! It was nice to get to know them all a head of time! By September we were talking on the phone nightly. Some days I would call and he would be busy but would talk to his family members (mom, dad, grandpa or grandma - whoever answered the phone).

One day in October we were talking about what kind of wedding we each would like. He laughed and said, "I haven't proposed yet!" and I replied, "Yes I know". That day he proposed online in ICQ chat. :) We still had not met face to face!

I made plans to take the train out there and spend Christmas with him and his family. Now if you knew me this is TOTALLY out of character for me! It took four days to get there. We ran into all kinds of problems...we had to wait 45 minutes for a bus load of passengers from another train in arrive in Iowa, frozen train signals in Kansas so they had to stop the train at each bridge to make sure it was okay, etc. When we arrived in New Mexico we were four hours behind so I tried to call him to tell him we were late but he had already left to go to Flagstaff to pick me up. We were then delayed another hour between New Mexico and Flagstaff. During those last few hours of the ride I was so afraid he would be gone. We were now five hours late! Would he be there? What would I do if he wasn't? Where would I go? I expressed this to an elderly Amish couple that had boarded in Chicago.

When the train arrived in Flagstaff (12.23.98) the couple said, "If he is not here you are more than welcome to go with us tonight then you can contact him in the morning". What a relief! At least I had something to fall back on! But when I got off the train there he was. Freezing his tush off. (When you think of Arizona you don't think of freezing weather hut let me tell you otherwise!) We went to Denny's for coffee and then found a hotel to stay in as it was 3 am when I finally arrived! (Flagstaff is in the mountains and 2 1/2 hours from his home town. He had been up since 5 am as he had to work that day!)

The next morning we took off and I am so glad that we waited. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous! I remember stopping at a rest area that over looked the mountains and it was so awesome - we stayed there probably 30 minutes or so just soaking in God's creation.

When we arrived I had butterflies in my stomach! He lived with his mom and dad and I was horrified of meeting them! Here I was, a stranger, and invading their home for two weeks! What if things didn't work? What would I do? Where would I go? They were not there so he said, "We will go over to Grandpa's on the next road. Maybe they are there." WHAT!?!? Now I have to meet Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma? Luckily no one was there either! Whew! We went back to his house, lo and behold, they were all in the driveway! When I got out of the car they came over and all hugged me! What a relief!

My stay was for two weeks. I won't go into all the details of that two weeks but am going to highlight a few moments! On Christmas morning he presented me with a necklace, Green Bay Packer slippers (which I still have) and a set of rings! They were gorgeous!

On December 30 he said he had to talk to me. I thought, "Here it comes...he is going to say it is not going to work. Where will I go?" He took me to Barnes & Noble cafe and ordered us coffee. When we sat down he said, "I want to marry you but do not want to live in sin. We should get married." Whew! I was so relieved! I thought for sure it was the end. When I asked what he wanted to do about it his reply was, "Let's go to Vegas and get married!" I was shocked. Sure we had kidded about eloping, etc. during our chats but to actually do it!

On January 1 we loaded up in the truck and took off for Vegas at 4 am. The sunrise was beautiful and we had a wonderful trip. I was amazed at the site of Vegas and it was hard to take it all in for a small town country bumpkin from Michigan! We found a cute little chapel (The Chapel Behind the Courthouse) and went inside. They asked if we had a marriage license and James told them no. They told us where the courthouse was and yes it would be open (on a national holiday?). We took the long way around the block talking, making sure this was what we wanted to do. We each gave the other the opportunity to back out! :) When we arrived at the courthouse there was a guard who pointed us in the direction we needed to go...and there was a line of people waiting for licenses! We had to wait about 40 minutes. On the way out James asked the guard if it was always like this and she said, "Only on holidays and weekends!" with a big smile.

When we got back to the chapel we were now fifth in line. Our pastor was "Reverend Chip". We were all invited into the chapel for the weddings of the others. It was sweet...a young couple was first...so shy yet you could see the love they had for each other. I don't remember much about the others. We were the last in that group for the ceremony. We ate at a casino and walked around before deciding to head back. There were no open hotel rooms because of it being New Years and we had to drive 80 miles before we say a vacancy sign! By then we were so tired that we pulled into the first hotel. It was a dingy old place, with yellowed walls, worn sheets, lights that didn't work, a shower without a shower head. We dropped into bed exhausted.

Needless to say it was a trip to remember. I met my soul mate online, met face to face less than six months later, married him ten days later. I called my boss and extended my vacation for another week. I had to leave him on January 6th to come back to Michigan. The plan was that I would move back to Arizona the end of February...which didn't work out. He called me on January 15th and said, "I am moving there! I have already sent my things via UPS and will arrive on January 26!"

So that was the beginning of our courtship...quick and easy...nothing like me. I am very cautious on anything I do, feeling out the territory, over analyzing a lot of the time! Now here it is nine years later...I love him more today than I did when we met. He has been a gem with my family. There are many times that I think what if. But then I think of the blessings he has brought into my life over these nine years and I thank God for bringing us together over the world wide web.