T.G.I.F.

Yes, it is Friday and the sun is shining. I am excited because tomorrow I get to go with Julie and Ed to crop all day at Cord Camera. I am putting together kits to work on so I make lots of progress. Progress or not, I just love getting out and cropping outside the home sometimes.
I told you that I went to Strongsville on Tuesday for a visit with my dear friend Lisa. Ed was doing a playing job at Don's Pomroy House for Fat Tuesday. It was very festive and crowded. I only took a couple of pictures because it was so dark in there and my battery was low on the camera. The reason the battery was low is because Lisa and I sat and looked at all the dozens of pictures I have on the card. She was so thrilled to see Larken and Jasper and all that has been going on. Anywho.....we ran the battery down.
Ed wanted to wear something kind of outlandish to this event and Jasper was quick to say, I know what you can wear.......my crazy green hat. So that explains it.
It was wonderful to have time to talk and visit with Lisa, she is always the same and comfortable to be with.
Well back to work getting organized for tomorrow. I also want to get my scraproom cleaned up a bit because I am planning to hold a workshop demonstrating my Close to my Heart products in the very near future. I really would like to get my business off the ground and here in Columbus I think it is going to be possible. See you all later...........

Gloomy Thursday here

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It is very gray and gloomy today, but it is still kind of warm so we are more likely to see rain than snow.
I think my gorgeous Christmas Cactus is confused or something, maybe the move threw it off....but it is blooming again. It bloomed at Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas and now it is covered with buds again. Love that plant.
Today I finally finished up a layout that I started so long ago. It is one of the challenges from Tami on Get it Scrapped. She is always coming up with some cool things to make us think and create. This particular one was supposed to be a layout based on the TV show "Project Runway" and using the same speaking style as the designer, Suede. He always refers to himself in the 3rd person. Just to add a little spark to this blog post, I have also put up a layout that I had done previously about Suede when he took my daughter Julie to the Winter Formal......our touch with fame.
Well back to work for me, I still have a great deal of catching up to do with my scrapbooking. So many classes and so little time. (Not really true in my case, I have nothing but time....but sometimes I lack energy.

American Idol time

I love this show for some reason. I like seeing the young people really put their best efforts forward. Some of them are really not talented, but they have a lot of nerve or self confidence. Ed does the actual music evaluations for me and I just kind of feed on the personalities. Good clean fun, and something else that we enjoy together.
Today was such a pretty day outside, I really should have spent some time in the sunshine, but I was very tired today just as I expected to be after the long drive yesterday. I wonder if we are going to see much more snow this winter or if it is going to be a nice early spring. I have some cute hat pictures to share because my dear sister in law has been knitting up a storm and making us all hats. Hope we get a bit more use out of them this year.




Now how about those snazzy hats??
Oh dear oh dear, Julie just stopped by to borrow some sugar and she is having a bit of a crazy evening. Little Larken came home from school totally traumatized because she was bitten by a little boy who she thought was her true love. Then Jasper was playing in his new bunk bed with a friend and fell out and hit his head. Ay yi yi, so she is keeping him up for a bit just to make sure he does not have a concussion or something. So she needed a little sugar to put on his strawberries.
A real crazy contestant on Idol who likes to change his identity and name is getting the boot from the judges tonight. His performance as Nick or Norman was absolutely crazy!!!

I am Home!!

Ed and I took a trip to Strongsville today because he had his annual Fat Tuesday party to perform at and I decided to visit with my dear friend Lisa while he was playing. It was so wonderful to see her and have a few hours of undivided time to just talk and catch up. Life takes on so many dips and turns sometimes and we needed to see what road we were both on. I have missed her so much, and hopefully not that much time will go by again before we get together. I am anxious to meet her little grandson that I know is the absolute apple of her eye. We were just a regular couple of grandmas sitting and sharing fantastic stories of the little ones. I loved it.
Ed did good with his band performance and hopefully tomorrow we will not both be totally exhausted. I love when he does a music job because I know that is such an important part of his life and he needs it just like therapy.
Just wanted to share an older layout that I did of Ashleigh on New Years. I have so much to get posted on here for everyone to see.
Let me explain this next photo of my lovely Larken. It is Right To Read Week at her school and each day is marked in some funny way. Monday was Crazy Hair Day and Larken went to school with a pink Boa tied in her hair. She not only looked glamorous but she won first prize for the Craziest Hair. She was so happy and so pleased to receive the book that they gave out as the prize. What could be better than that??
Well, I am off to bed now. I have so many thoughts racing through my head, hope I can get to sleep. I will read my Maeve Binchey book for awhile and that will get me to sleep. I love her stories and the lovely Irish touch they have to them. Night all.

Me and My Valentine

Just wanted to share this recent layout that I did in honor of Valentine's Day and the sweet guy that I love.

Just a note from my

Cozy chair. The weather has turned cold on us again and my fibromyalgia is in full flare-up. That means I just feel like I got run over by a truck and kind of blah. We recently got a new sectional sofa and it looks lovely in my living room but today I finally confessed to Ed that I really miss my old recliner which we banished to the basement. Being the sweetheart that he is, he hauled it back up the stairs and found room for it in the living room again. When my body hurts so bad, this old chair is the only thing that can comfort me. I love my chair and I love my sweet caring husband even more.
I am so far behind in my classes at Get It Scrapped and I feel bad about that, but the last couple of days I have not been able to get upstairs to my scrap room because I just hurt toooooooo much. I will catch up soon. I was just browsing through the gallery and I just can't believe the number of layouts that have been posted in the last couple of days. Absolutely wonderful inspiring pages. I am so thankful for my laptop so I can still keep up with what everyone is doing. I have also been visiting with people on facebook and was so pleased to talk with some of my nieces from both New York and Texas. People I have not talked to in way too long and it is so good to hear what is going on in their lives. My prayers are really being sent out for my niece Kim who is in the hospital with her little boy Christopher. Christopher has Charger Syndrome and in going through a heart catherization today. I just pray that all goes well and they can find an answer to his heart problems. So much for that little fella to go through. Kim is a saint and she is so strong, loving and just the perfect mother for Christopher. She has three other boys too and how she keeps up with a teenager and then 2 year old twins in addition to Christopher, I will never know. I wish I had a fraction of her energy.
Ed has finally gotten to see a new psychiatrist here in Columbus and I really think it is going to be a good match for him this time. A female doctor who is very thorough and really takes time to listen, I hope it continues. Although she did say he should go back to ECT treatments again, and I am not so thrilled about that. Of course I am not the authority on the subject and I trust that ED and the doctor will do what is best for him. Those Electro Shock treatments really play havoc with his memory though.
Oh I have some good news. Today I got a package from Karen Foster with some really cool patterned paper and stickers and various brads. The theme is all about field hockey and I won it as a prize when I commented on Mary France's blog. It is the 10th anniversary of Karen Foster products and they are giving all kinds of things away. How super is that? I love the paper and it takes me back to high school when I played field hockey everyday in Gym class. I loved the game and even though most people here in Ohio have never heard of it, in New York it was a big sport.
Just thought I would put in some February photos since a lot has been going on. Julie's Birthday was the 1st.
Then we had lots of fun making Valentines for Larken and Jasper's class.


Tomorrow Ed is going on a little journey with Julie and Larken to Akron. It is time for Larken's check up with the surgeon who works with her CP. Ed thought he would go along to help Julie with driving and all, then he can stop by the Akron Library to say hello to all his old friends. Really, the truth is that he wants to go to Wally Waffle after the doctor appointment because that is one of his favorite places to go. Everytime he had ECT treatments in Akron I would take him there after he woke up because he was always so starving. The funny thing about it though was he would forget each time and so it seemed to him to be the first time going there and such a treat. I told you those ECT treatments play havoc with his memory. After they get back home we are going to a Neighborhood Happy Hour. We will get to meet lots of people who live on our street and become part of the big family feel around here. I am really looking forward to it, hope Ed does not come home too very tired.
Thanks for visiting, hope everyone has a wonderful week end and has plenty of scrappy time to enjoy.

I just love that

we live on the sunny side of the street. Ed and I just sat outside on the porch and enjoyed our morning coffee. The sun felt wonderful and we were surprised to see so many birds and squirrels out and about. Afterall, it is still just mid-February. The dogs love being outside and were just rolling in the grass and enjoying the sun too.
Today I think I am going to get busy finishing up my Sense and Sensibility assignments so that I am ready and free to start the Photo Editing class with Lynn Weber. I am so excited about that class because it has frustrated me forever not being able to correct photos that are really a good shot but have some kind of flaw in them. I hope I am computer savvy enough to follow along in this class.

Happy Birthday Abe.....

When I was younger I had a real fascination with anything that was written by or about Abraham Lincoln. As we all know, he was a very unusual but very interesting person. He has always been portrayed as a very compassionate and sincere person, I like to believe that was really how he was and not just textbook propaganda. Lincoln, Kennedy and now Obama are all presidents that stand out from the others. Let us hope that Obama can live up to the high hopes that people have for him.
Guess I have been a bit lazy about my blog lately, but I do have good excuses. We have been busy doing some fine tuning of our little house here in Columbus. We put some carpet down in the living room and also upstairs in our scrap room. We moved our old recliners to the basement for the "playroom" and got a new sectional for the living room. I love it and I must say we did a good job of matching the carpet and the furniture. It just looks so nice and cozy in here now. The carpet upstairs in the scrap room makes a world of difference too.
Also this week I spent a couple of evening working on Valentines with Larken and Jasper. It is so much fun to be part of these little things again. I took some pictures and will have to post them later. I sometimes get very frustrated with putting pictures on my blog because they come up sideways and I have been totally unsuccessful in getting them to go straight. Ay yi yi
That wind storm last night was scary. I was just hoping and praying that we would not lose power for days again like we did in the Fall. As you all know about me, I can not hear in the dark and so I really do not like being without power.
Here's a layout that I did recently for one of the new classes that I am taking on Get It Scrapped.
Now here is one that I did about Jasper and all his funny faces at the table. You just have to love that boy!
We had such a wonderful time here on February 1st and I still have to do some layouts on that. It was Julie's 40th birthday and also Super Bowl Sunday. Both Jeremy and Ashleigh were home for the occasion and it was just so fun to have all the family together like that. Julie had a bit of a hard time handling this particular birthday and was in tears most of the day, but I do think the overall celebration was enjoyed by everyone. The Super Bowl game was exciting and loud because we had a division of supporters for each team. More people were rooting for the Cardinals than the Steelers so Ed had to yell twice as loud to get his cheering section heard. Sometimes it is very nice to be deaf. His traditional pot of delicious chili was devoured in no time and everyone ate way more snacks than any other time, but that is all part of the fun along with the crazy commercials on TV.
We have not been out scrapping in a few weeks now and I am starting to have withdrawal symptoms, maybe we can find a new scrap place to go to this week end.
Thanks for visiting and hope the day is going great for everyone.