time for a vacation!

Let me tell you all from the bottom of my heart how much I appreciate all of yoru kind words during this rough week. It means more to me than I can say. God has really given me a peace about things over the weekend, and I am feeling much better now. Will miss her dearly though.

On a happier note, we are going to be going on our first ever family vacation in about a month's time!! Chris & I havn't been ANYWHERE since our honeymoon almost 7 years ago... Chris booked our tickets today and we have a condo rented down in Sanibel Island... yippee! And even cooler our good friends Heather & Jamie and their kidlets are coming too. I think we're going to have a great time! Heather & I just want to hit a target! How funny is that! Well when you don't have them...
I also started spring cleaning on teh weekend and we got rid of 4 bags of clothes just between the 2 of us!! Some of which were too big or just didn't wear anymore! It felt so great to get rid of stuff! I hope to do a lot more of it! Our little house is full up to the roof! (ok so I exagerate a tad).
1 final note, last week I got a copy of designing with greetings... very nice I highly recommend it!

Thanks again for all of the kind words, makes me feel good to know there are such good people out there!

sad day

I have been slacking on my blogging lately, apparently my little boy has decided to be more awake during the daylight hours... taking away from computer time.

I had some very sad news yesterday that a friend of mine passed away in her home in a fire. Her name was Stacey and she was 38 years old. She had 2 boys, one of whom is in Brianna's class. I drove by her house this morning on the way to taking Bree to school and I just burst into tears. The property is surrounded by yellow police tape. A police car in the driveway. Her front door wide open... I could see shoes by the door, into her kitchen with her things on the counter. I almost felt like I was betraying her by looking. The tears then followed again. As I walked into Brees class and I saw her teacher, with red eyes too, I couldn't even muster the words, I just started crying... I felt like such an idiot. Such a tragedy! Her boys were with their dad that night thankfully.
I went to my friend Julie's last night so we could support each other. Stacey worked for Julie up until recently, and Julie was very close friends with her and her family. Julie is an amazing lady. She was able to share the salvation message with Stacey over the time that she worked for her. I hope and pray that she took it to heart. By this horrible loss I am reminded that we do not know how long we have on this earth! And I really need to start living each day to it's fullest, and quit complaining about the little things. They don't matter in the grand scheme! I need to get some things together... we dont' even have a will!! How stupid is that??? I have 2 children and no will! Guess what we're going to be doing next week! As I was laying in bed last night thinking about those 2 boys growing up without their mom, I thought of what it woudl be like if it had been me and my family. And my first thought, although silly, was thank goodness I scrapbook! I always try to write from the heart so that my kids and family will never need to guess or wonder what I was thinking or how I felt about certain things. Of course I love to scrapbook, but it almost puts a new focus on it for me! As much as I would LOVE to get to the calibre of being published, I don't think that will be my aim anymore. My focus as cliche as it sounds, is to create memories/keepsakes for my family!

I think I just had an ah-ha moment there! I don't need(although I may argue this point later :) ) all the latest and greatest supplies. I just need to do it! Nike had it right, Just do it!

Saturday blog challenge

Got this from 2p's :)

Spring Fever!!!! 8 Questions about SPRING!
1. have you gone on spring break before? if so, where, and if not, why?
Havn't gone anywhere on "march" break in ages, probably since university and that was to Mte. Ste. Marie to ski the Laurentians.

2. do you take a spring vacation?
We are this year hoping to make it to florida in May!

3. if you had (or have) a spring vacation, what would be your first choice to do? skiing in vermont? a week in the keys?
Anywhere warm! I destroyed my knee on that trip I mentioned in question 1 and have had 2 reconstructive surgeries on it... so no more skiing for me. It's ok though, I don't much like the cold any more!

4. in your home/apartment, do you do spring cleaning?
If I can get someone to take my kids for a weekend I would love to do a good clean and purgefest in my home!

5. in your area, what is your weather generally like in mid-march?
Super mild winter we've had this year, so far temps have been above 0(celcius) and havn't had any snow really at all! Loving this winter!

6. spring is one of my favourite seasons ... do you share my sentiment, or do you prefer another season?
I do like spring, but the weather is rather unpredictable. Fall is my constant favourite. It's weather is generally more consistant

7. do you do anything differently in spring than you do any other time of the year? (plant flowers/garden, take off the snow tires, etc.)
I love to garden! I have 3 small gardens 1 in the front & 2 in the back. I always look forward to getting my hands dirty and planting some beautiful flowers in them. Something about nurturing them into healthy blooming plants I find fun and exciting!

8. what are your plans for this weekend?
We're having a quiet weekend for a change. Having a group of ladies over to my house Saturday night to scrapbook(what a surprise!) and hopefully we can get outside and enjoy the weather if it's nice!

Thursday!!

And it's gorgeous outside! The sun is shining!!! It's still chilly but nice!! I think I'm going to take Ian for a walk later on. I'm so glad Spring is on the way!
I think I've realized part of my "depression" recently... Ian has weaned himself the little stinker! I wasn't quite ready for that... Man I hate being such an emotional person. I need to realize he's not rejecting me, he just is ready to grow and not be a tiny baby anymore. As my wonderful hubby reminded me (between sobs) that he still needs me and that will never change. This momming thing sure isn't easy!
So hopefully now that I have figured thsi much out, I can move on and continue to enjoy ALL of the little phases that he goes through.
I worked on a layout yesterday about his early eating experiences... I can't stop laughing every time I see it(which is a good thing... ohhh I love to laugh!)
Here it is... hope it gives you a good giggle too! (if you click on it it will open larger in a new window)

me again

Ok so I don't post for over a week and now here we are twice in one day!
I decided to help get out of my funk ... scrapbook and take photos ! I did 3 8.5x8.5 pages for an online friends foster daughter! That was really fun and quick! and took a flurry of photos of Ian! I have been taking photos each month as he hits his "monthly" birthday. Ok so I'm about a week late, but still here it is!

March blahs

Who said the blahs belong to February! I am totally having the March blahs!!! I havn't even been blogging lately... you know there is trouble when!
It's yucky outside, I miss the sun. Ian still is not sleeping at night or the day. Grumbly me!

But I am hoping my scraptivity kit may be coming today! That could definitely help bring me otu of the blahs.
Chris and I have also been discussing going on a vacation. We really havn't been on one since our honeymoon 6 years ago, so I think we're well and truly due! We were going to drive down to Myrtle Beach, but we forgot about the long drive with 2 small children... that may not work out so well. So our current thought... he's going to book off the last week of May/first week of June, and we're going to get ourselves a last minute deal! How spontaneous! How unlike me! I'm all excited! I would love to go to an island or somewhere, but I think we'll stay somewhere in the US. So hopefully that will work out. I need something happy to look forward to.. especially as my return to work day continues to draw near! I know it will be ok, but still kind of sad.

Cropping fun

I had so much fun on the weekend getting together with a bunch of the scraptivity girls! I havn't laughed so hard in months! I was literally crying from laughing so much! It was great! Those ladies are so talented! It was great getting caught up with old friends and chatting wtih new ones too. The food was great(a little too great... not thinking I'm goign to do well at weight watchers this week).

And I actually got some work done too! Here are 2 of the layouts I got completed They're kind of hard to see, but if you click on them, they'll open larger in a new window.

blogging for survivor!!

Ok nothing like using my blog for a little shameless plug of begging for people's votes! Ms. Melissa (K23m) introduced me to a digital scrapbooking site that she's on the dt for, and they are having a Survivor contest, and so I promptly signed myself up! Each week 2 people I think will get voted off. This week's challenge was to create a "magazine Cover" for my team here it is. If you click on the image it will pop up bigger and in a new window, much easier to see!

If you happen to have a free moment(and I know those are a rarity for most people... apparently not for me! lol) and would like to help me out and vote, please follow the below directions!

Goto this site
http://www.doitdigi.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=596
You'll need to create a login...
Goto the gallery, look for digi survivor, goto challenge 1 and on the main gallery page that shows everyone's entries, you should see the word vote beneath each one(but only if you're logged in). THen you just click on my layout. My user name is patticakes(quel surprise huh?!)

I've also done a banner for the "immunity" challenge.. but I think you can only vote for one or the other.
Thanks again, and I totally understand if people are too busy!

mmm finger foods

Apparently we're ready for finger foods!!! lol He loves those baby mum mum rice rusk thingys... He actually got a couple in his mouth too!! what a sticky mess! I would expect no less from my boy though!

Oh and Bree made me laugh this morning:

Brianna: mommy the car is sad

me: why is the car sad?

Brianna: because it's dirty!

me: yep I think it needs a bath!

Brianna: Car, you come & have a bubble bath wtih me before bed?