This day changed my life forever.
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Okay, pretend it is May 28 and you’re reading this on THAT day instead of today. Because that’s when I actually started to write it but didn’t finish it until today. Cause you know me, if I can’t do something LATE then I don’t even wanna do it. That’s how I roll, people!
Eight years ago today……..wow, it seems so long to actually see that number………my life changed and I will never be the same. I became a mother. But it’s so much more than that. I became a new person. A better person. I became a fighter. I became a protector. I found strength in me I didn’t know I had. I was handed happiness like I’d never known before. Oh sure, I was 30 years old, and there were times in my life that I thought I was “happy.” Of course. But in reality, I had no idea what the meaning of that word was until this day. This beautiful ballerina is my whole life, my reason for being here. I love her more than there are even words to write. Indeed.
Use old supplies and everyday items on your scrapbook layouts.
(click on photo to see it larger)
I’m all about saving things and using them in my scrapbooks instead of leaving them in a drawer for 50 years, ya know? So there are times in my personal scrapbooks when I don’t worry so much about something being acid free. I just use it anyway or I spray it with Archival Mist to take the acid out so it will be safe for the photos.
So this time I finally got around to using these photos from 5 years ago. Yeah, I know. I’m trying to NOT let that bother me! The photos are not some of my favorites, and I didn’t have a whole lot to say about them, no whole page of journaling or anything like that, but I did want to put them in the scrapbook for Summer to see something that she enjoyed when she was 3 years old. She actually went on afterward to get pretty good at gymnastics. I had gotten her at one point at the Dollar Tree the ribbon that says “Star Gymnast” so I stapled it to the layout as an embellishment.
Also, there’s the matter of the title block and the line of gymnasts going across the right side. Those are at least as old as the photos and I have purged and given away stuff from my studio dozens of times but always kept those elements because I knew I had gymnastics pictures to scrap. This is not really my style anymore and not something I would buy at this point in my scrapbooking life, but I kind of like the way this layout turned out mixing the old with the new.
Filed under Scrapbooking Inspiration, Scrapbooking | Comment (0)Today is my daddy’s birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!
I love you, Dude……..
High School Musical On Ice Tour
Back on April 1, I wrote about how I got last minute tickets to see High School Musical on Ice. I never got around to talking more about it, but it was really neat. And I hadn’t seen either one of the movies. (I know, have I been living under a rock or what?) The skaters were quite good, very energetic. It was a 2.5-hour show, which I thought was good. We had seats in the third row from the bottom on the side of the ice, so they weren’t bad seats either. Anyway, all 4 of us girls enjoyed the show. Everybody thought Troy was just “dreamy” and he looked a lot like Zac Efron from the movies. Here are some photos. Since then I’ve seen both the movies and sort of against my will kind of enjoyed them!
Of course, the girls had to have the $15 cotton candy bag because it came with a damn hat just like whats-his-name.
Note: Yes, I am aware these are crappy pictures, okay? I thought they wouldn’t allow cameras so I didn’t take one and these were taken with my cell phone!
Troy and Gabriella doing one of their solo performances.
Is she a fashion plate or what?!?
P.S. If you’re thinking of buying the High School Musical DVDs, click below and I might earn a couple of pennies. I buy lots of stuff from Amazon.com and they are so fast at shipping it out, sometimes the same day I order it! Love that.
Filed under Life, Scrapbooking | Comment (1)Laughter is the best medicine, right?
Ok, while I’m working on what I’m writing next I wanted to share this blog post with you from Momma Says So. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I especially love the guy who’s NOT laughing. I think it’s awful that the host is laughing so much, but I love the other guy trying to hard to explain why the host IS laughing!
Go here http://mommasez.blogspot.com/2008/05/oh-did-i-laugh.html.
Chicago (Mis)Adventures.
Back in April my daughter Summer and I took a trip to Chicago to see my friend Thea, who lives west of the Windy City. Summer wanted to take a train ride, so the original plan was to ride Amtrak to the city and Thea would pick us up. Unfortunately, we live about 3.5 hours away from Chicago, 45 minutes away from the nearest Amtrak train station, and the train doesn’t really go through there very often to Chicago, at least not a Saturday. So there was no way to get there on a train. Okay, I figure we’ll still go visit Thea, go out for dinner, spend the night at her house and Thea has the idea that we can just hop on a Metra train Sunday morning and ride it to the city and back so Summer gets her train ride, which was the whole POINT, right?
Yeah, it sounds good in theory. In reality, the Metra usually runs every half hour or hour so there’s not a long wait for the next train. BUT on Sundays the schedule is every TWO hours. So my option is to ride the Metra train to Chicago Union Station for an hour, wait TWO hours hanging out at the train station or walking around downtown Chicago with Summer (it was COLD by the way), and then riding an hour back to Thea’s. Which didn’t sound too terrible, except for the waiting two hours part and then after all that I’d have to drive home 3.5 hours. Umm…..not really interested, but thanks anyway.
So we discuss amongst ourselves and look at the train schedules and devise a plan. Oh, if it were only that easy, okay people? We drive about half an hour away to a small town where there’s a train station. Thea waits at a coffee shop while Summer and I get on the train. My plan was to ride the train for 15 minutes through 4-5 stops and then get off in another town where according to the SCHEDULE we would then have 8 minutes to get off the train and get on the next train to go back where we came from. So it was supposed to take like half an hour, Summer would get the train ride experience, hopefully the train ride was short enough I wouldn’t get motion sick, and we’d turn right around and go back. Not a problem.
Yeah. So we ride through maybe 4 small towns, stopping at each one to pick people up or drop them off. Then we get to the town where our stop is. I notice looking out my window that there is another train coming from the opposite direction pulling up alongside us also, but I think nothing of it because they come and go all the time, right? Uh-huh. Summer and I get off the train and were the only two people that got off at that stop and the only two people at the station. Period. Now, our first train was supposed to arrive at 11:08 so we’d have 8 minutes leeway before the second train left. But apparently our first train was LATE and didn’t get us there until 11:16. I realize the train that arrived at the same time as us is pulling away. Are you kidding me? I say to Summer, “I hope that’s not our train that’s supposed to take us back.” I look at my watch and sure enough it was 11:16. There was nothing we could do but stand there and watch the train leave us in its dust!
Now, on a weekday that might have been no big deal. But this was Sunday and the next train wasn’t coming for TWO HOURS and we were at a train station alone in a Chicago suburb that had nothing near it that I could see anywhere within walking distance. No grocery store, no gas station, no nothing. Now I’m starting to think, “Holy shit.” Thea is at the coffee shop in the other town where my car is parked, but I have the keys to the car. Why am I an idiot? Why didn’t I leave the keys with Thea “just in case?” I called Thea and said, “Guess what?” So we discuss. She says she will call her husband to come get HER and then come get US. That’s going to make Summer and me wait at least 45 minutes at this train station in the stupid freezing cold and I’m a bit nervous about that as you might imagine. Summer doesn’t care. She loves adventure. She’s all, “Mommy, let’s walk around and check the town out.” Um, honey there IS no town. There’s nothing to see! But we start walking away from the station and I notice there’s a cab sitting in the parking lot. I called Thea and said hey, there’s a cab here and do you think that’s why he’s here, to give people rides that have gotten off the train? She thinks so and tells me to go ask him! The more I look at him the more I think the guy looks like he’s either asleep or dead. Either way, I don’t like the looks of him and I figure I really don’t want a sleepy guy that I’ve just woken up to be driving me and my kid around, ya know?
About that time, I see another cab pull into the parking lot of the station and park next to the other guy. We go over to his window and ask him if he’s for hire and he says yes. I asked him how much and he told me probably around $25.00. To go ELEVEN MILES people. Holy crap. At this point, if I had the cash I would have paid him twice that much, ya know? So I agree and we get in. He’s getting directions with his little GPS thingie and we’re off to where we started.
Okay, so did I mention I get carsick? I mean, I KNEW that when I got into the cab, right, but I figured it’s only 11 miles, how bad could it be? And it was better than waiting 2 hours. Oh. My. God. I am 37 years old and I have suffered from car sickness/motion sickness for as long as I can remember. I have ridden on a 22-hour car ride to Florida TWICE and I have NEVER been as sick as I was by the time we got to our destination. Never. Ever. Oh, it was bad. When he stopped and we went to get out of the car, I just wanted to open the door and puke in the street. My world was spinning so bad I felt like I couldn’t walk! Thea saw us arrive and came out of the coffee shop and I said, “I’ve just gotta sit here for a bit.” There were some patio tables/chairs outside on the sidewalk and I sat down with my head on the table for a while. It didn’t help so I figured we might as well leave. We were going to get some lunch, and that always makes me feel better after getting carsick. Well, the more I drove the worse I felt. I finally told Thea she was going to have to go to lunch without me! We went back to her house so I could lie down and she took the kids to lunch. She brought me back a sandwich and I ate it and then went back to bed. Of course, this was all at the time when I was supposed to be driving on my way back home! My goal was to be back at MY HOUSE before dark (last time I drove home at night I fell asleep!), but I had to wait for my head to quit spinning so I could drive. After a 2-hour nap and some lunch AND some Dramamine I felt much better. Whew! I can’t even remember now what time we got on the road towards home, but I think we managed to get here before dark. What a TRIP! That $5 train ride cost me a $30 cab ride! Just when I think my life is boring, crap like this happens to me to make me GLAD that it is!
This kid loved every second of her train ride!
Took this in the taxi cab BEFORE getting sick. Course, she had to make sure her duck Crackers was buckled in safely!
Filed under Life, Scrapbooking | Comment (0)A little birdie told me…
My daughter’s birthday is next week and to save myself some cash this year I made her invitations with what I already had on hand. The bird is something she drew for me to use in my scrapbooks because she’s an artist and I traced it onto white cardstock. I love how these turned out! The front says, “A little birdie told me” and then in the inside it says “You’re invited to Summer’s birthday party” and the details.
She’s also an animal lover big time, so she’s going with a pet theme this year, and she’s asking everyone in their invitations to bring something for the animals at the local animal shelter so she can take presents to them. The animal shelter’s website has a list of things it desperately needs and we copied that and included it with the invites.
This year for the first time she’s having”boogie party” at the dance studio where she takes lessons so hopefully that will be a good time. She’s invited 10 kids and I don’t have to clean the house so what could be better?
To see other handmade items for sale, go to my etsy shop Summer Rose Scrapbooks.
Filed under For Sale, Summer Rose Scrapbooks, Scrapbooking, Projects | Comments (2)I love creative people.
I found this through another blog and it cracks me up! I love how they came up with the idea also. Go read it here. http://www.momspit.com/aboutUs/
Filed under Life | Comment (0)We have a winner!
Okay, I realize I said that I would draw the name on Saturday morning for the contest to win the note cards, but my daughter had rehearsal that morning then recital then Sunday was our Scouts picnic then…..then…..then I forgot.
Anyway, thanks so much for coming and leaving comments to all the people who did. I wrote everyone down, mixed them up, closed my eyes and picked out SHANNON at http://palmersf.blogspot.com/. Shannon, I have emailed you privately to get your details to custom make your cards. Thanks for entering the contest and hopefully this will make you smile today!
A Year of Memories mini scrapbook.
I was hired to make a mini scrapbook for a school fundraising silent auction as a donation, and the customer really wanted it to be kind of general so that anyone could use it and this is what I came up with. I tried to mostly use generalized things for the months such as the seasons instead of holidays since we don’t all celebrate the same holidays, but I did throw Christmas in there. I used a Karen Foster black chipboard spiral bound book for this project. Forgive me if the pictures aren’t so great here. They’re GREAT in real life, of course!
I am also going to offer a similar mini scrapbook in my etsy shop later today. It won’t look exactly like this one because I like for everyone’s items to be unique, but the main idea of the months/seasons will be the same. The book may be different also because I only had one of these.
Welcome Spring is my favorite page because my little girl made the birdie and she also told me that the butterfly had to have a trail of jewels behind it. That kid was born to be a scrapbooker!
