Gone For a Year, Lets Try This Again

Wow when I looked at my blog early this morning I realized that I had not been on my blog for over a year. What a bad blogger. The past two years have been more than trying as many people might know. Our family has dealt with unemployment for nearly two years. Although it has been very trying it has also brought our family closer together. It forces you to slow your lifestyle down to a different pace. You stay home, eat at home, and make do with what you have. Things.....materials things that use to be so important mean nothing. It makes you look at the world in a different way. You struggle to make ends meet, but you appreciate the things you have. I love my family more than ever. I praise and thank my God every day that we have each other, and our faith. Through him we have foraged through this storm. A friend said to me the other day, whatever is handed to you will only make you stronger. I feel that the four of us have bonded together and become strong. I am looking forward to the days and months ahead...

I believe......

.....in my awesome family they have been through so much and they have never once complained

.......we should forgive quickly

........in my awesome soul mate, not only does he put up with me, but he always does the laundry

........faith and prayer are very powerful

........follow through on all of your promises

........people in general try to do their best each day

........ we are all beautiful

........ we should concentrate on what we can do, not what we can't do

......... each of us has our own gift that the world would benefit from

......... in the power of our dreams

......... in hope, it's what drives us to never give up

......... in love

I closing this little mini session I am once again going to try to start blogging again. I love to write, scrapbook, and journal my thoughts and also take pictures. So with life back on the bright side I hope to blog more often.

"When you cry be sure to dry your eyes 'cause better days are sure to come And when you smile be sure to smile wide don't let them know that they have won
And when you walk, walk with pride don't show the hurt inside because the pain will soon be gone And when you dream, dream big as big as the ocean blue 'cause when you dream it might come true When you dream, dream big When you laugh be sure to laugh out loud 'cause it will carry all your cares away And when you see, see the beauty all around and in yourself and it'll help you feel okay And when you pray, pray for strength to help you carry on when the troubles come your way And when you dream, dream big as big as the ocean blue 'Cause when you dream it might come true When you dream, dream big"

Today this was so true of me. I felt all of these things today. But the one bright thing about today was that I went with a good friend with her daughter Lindsey to a special night to see her cheer and dance at the Albert P. Dance night with a bunch of her friends. It was quite delightful and fun to see these girls in their glory to perform in front of their friends and relatives. I was thinking on my way home that our own children play in many sporting events and different things and maybe these children never get to do some of these things. What a wonderful thing for them. All of the girls have down syndrome. They were so proud and innocent and had so much fun dancing and cheering. What a neat evening. I am thankful for everything that I have and the wonderful gifts that God gave each of those parents. Lindsey is a very special girl and I am glad that I went.

Lets Get Back Into the Blogging Mojo

I have been totally out of the blogging scene. I really like to blog, but I never make the time. I am going to try harder and post a little bit more often.

Today was a fun day at our house because we adopted a new dog named "PEANUT". He is a three year old Italian Greyhound. Just a little 9 pound boy. He is the sweetest boy ever. He already loves everyone in our family. About 2 weeks ago my youngest son suffered heat stoke at football and was in the hospital. During his stay we promised that we would get a new dog. We had originally said that we would get a dog when dad got a job. Well we are still praying for the job, but we do have the dog. Hang in there dad. At least you have Peanut to keep you company during the day. Here is a picture of him this evening.

Tidbits, Bits and Pieces

This post is a bit of what I have been up to over the last few months. I have not posted to my blog and decided to try to get back into the swing of things again. I am signing up today for an E-program to learn some new tips and tricks to on better blogging. This way I can do my blog and the blog for the Scrapbook Factory. Hope this will give me the needed help for better blogging.

First really cool thing that I did was attend at workshop in Boston with Ann and Lorie at the end of March. We went to a bunch of really great classes with many different companies and learned new things for upcoming classes to teach at Scrapbook Factory. The most amazing class was an all day seminar that was taught by Jennifer McGuire and Tim Holtz. The class was called Creative Chaos and was so fun and inspiring. I have used the line of Ranger products in the past somewhat, but I really want to use them now. I have so much more knowledge of them and I want to know more. This was so much fun. The class kind of went back and forth between Tim and Jennifer between their two different styles of crafting. I think I am in between the two of them. Just perfect for me.


We also did a few fun things in Boston......Cheers Bar, shopping, the Aquarium. I will post some more pictures. I am working on some class projects. Need to get back to that.






Just a little inspiration book that I made to put my thoughts down into. I have a thousand of them in my little mind since I have been doing all of these creative classes.

Just Another Friday Evening

Well I once again have not posted to my blog like I want to, but I have gotten a tiny bit better. My biggest problem is that I never take any pictures and so I rarely have anything to look at. I have really been loving my Copic markers. Just like being a kid all over again, oh wait, I don't think that I have ever really grown up. I have been making cards with some new stamps that I got. We are soon going to be getting them at the Scrapbook Factory also. I think next month, I am going to try and teach a Copic class at work so I need to practice.

I thought that earlier this week we were going to have to put our dog to sleep. She fell out of the back of our car on Sunday when we got home from my moms. She could barely walk and could not get up. She still is not real good and cannot bark or use her voice. We think she had a small stroke. I think that she has nine lives because last year at this time her back was out and we thought the same thing. She is now 12 and has been a part of our family for ten years. She and I are the only girls in the house. If she goes, I will be the only queen left. I am sure I will be the first one running off to pick out another dog, even though we said that we were not.

On Saturday, well that would be today, since it is 1:00 a.m. I have promised myself to get to the grocery store, buy some healthy food for myself and start and try to lose some weight. Me and Ann are talking about walking on Sunday before work. She started her week this week and she has done awesome. We both are so inspired by Shannon, a friend from work, at the amazing weight loss that she has achieved. We are both ready to give it a try. Maybe we can help each other.

Well I think that I may try and go to bed. My older son has about 7 or 8 friends over tonight spending the night. As of now they have been pretty quiet. Hopefully they don't get their second wind. At least I know where they are and what they are doing, even if they have ate a box of Little Debbies, a pack of oreos, a bag of Doritos, and some Skittles and at least a 12 pack of soda. 4 of the friends play in a band and they played tonight with 2 other bands. My son and his friends could not say enough about how much fun they had tonight.

BEING CREATIVE

Just a little house scrapbook that I saw in a magazine and I new that we had the chipboard books at the store so I could easily cut the paper to fit to book so the mini book went really fast. The pictures that we had taken were done in April of 2009. This is the kind of scrapbooking that I really love. I do make pages, but I love small project oriented things using lots of different materials and mediums. I really want to try and do more of my own projects this year. I want to try to get some pages done. I am working on doing more blog posts.

Tonight we were at Ethan's basketball game and Blake stayed home because he stayed home from school today sick. Ethan has a really busy schedule with basketball games this entire month. Blake is playing basketball on a team that he started through a Lutheran Church league that he kind of put together and his dad is coaching. He plays on Sunday afternoons.

I am looking forward to this weekend of scrapbooking with the girls from work on Friday evening and Saturday. We were going to have our Christmas party and that is now going to be changed to a different date. Maybe I can finish my Journal My Christmas for December. That would be a great idea for the weekend. Lots to do....... pack up my stuff, pictures to be developed, plans for the family.
Aleece

Let It Snow..Let It Snow...Let It Snow...

Well that is what my kids have been saying all night. They were awaiting a call that school would be called off. The public school was called off today during the day and they awaited patiently. The call did not come. They stayed up late until about midnight. I said, what if you do have school, they said they would be tired. Then on channel 4 they saw Metro East Lutheran and they were screaming and jumping around like two little second graders.......amazing that they are both in high school and I let one of them drive in a car. So now tomorrow they will want to have friends over, and go sledding and want me an their dad to do things and entertain them. I kind of wish that I had to work tomorrow and did not have to deal with the many trips outside and new sets of clothes. I thought as they grew older that this would change, but it does not. It just involves many more children at your house and they have bigger, wet clothing. Oh, well it will make for some good pictures. Snow is the best for some great scrapbooking stuff. Speaking of scrapbooking stuff, I just finished a little house book that I started on New Years Eve that I saw in one of the new scrapbook magazines. It really turned out great. I will put pictures on tomorrow. My camera battery is charging right now.

Karl and I went to Sam Club and did the monthly stock up of stuff and then went to the grocery store. What a nightmare that was. Everyone was there preparing for the big storm. I wander if everyone does this in places where there is a lot of snow all of the time. Then we went to Ethans basketball game at Metro. He played really well tonight and is now starting on the "A" team. I think he is happy that he has been starting. I think he realized that he had to put a little bit of hard work into the game. Well I think that I need to go to bed since it is 1:30 a.m.
Aleece