THis blog will have a bit of a scrap hiatus

as I will have limited scrap time. My middle son has a brain tumor which we will have surgery on tomorrow am. We just found out late Wednesday in a freak way. He was having an eye exam for his "lazy" eye.

It is kind of out of the blue that we found out he has a tumor about the size of a golf ball in his cerebelem. He has been complaining of headaches and migraines for the last four months. We have been to the drs for the last three off and on about them with the doctor reassuring us there is no tumor. Hindsight is 20/20 of course but we had no reason to doubt the doctors. She was concerned though about his "lazy" eye and wanted an acutal opthomologist or full on eye doctor to check him out on in he needed eye surgery for his eye turning slightly which then we would patch for the laziness. We have patched on and off over the years as each eye doctor has a different theory so with each new insurance came different thoughts. So we had to come to Columbia MO at the univeristy of MO hospital due to insurance. it is an hour and a half away but a very good hospital we are told. The eye resident doctor dilated him then after our wait he viewed his eyes and saw his optic nerves were bulged. Very rarely a good sign. So we had an emergency CT scan which showed the tumor and later that night a three hour MRI as they did every test possible.

Good news it is not in the spine at all. Good news is it is in a forgiving part of the brain. Good news is they think it is a type of cancer that is fairly treatable. No way to know for sure until next week after the biopsy.

Bit of bad news is it is resting on his brain stem ... if it is just resting not too many worries if there are tendrils into it that is way riskier. The surgery takes at least six hours so it will be a long day.

He is scared of course and doesn't want another surgery. But has been a super trooper. He hasn't even really taken any pain meds. I finally kind of pushed him to take a little for bed. If he really thinks he doesn't need them then fine but I want him to know it is ok if he does need them.

So my husband brought me my laptop. I had just my blackberry before. I am glad as it keeps me a little distracted but I am debating on whether I should google the type of tumor they think he has or wait. My one friend says to wait no matter what kind it is. I don't know if I can hold out. I just keep telling myself for every bad story with cancer in children there are miracle stories. I feel my son will be a miracle.

I am going to part with a few pictures of how lively and silly he is. he has always been my cuddle bear. He would always sit for me for hours and cuddle and rock. Even to this day he loves (at 7) to take a nap with me. Thankfully they let me sleep with him in his bed here.

So please please pray for him. I don't really know what will follow but I have faith there is purpose.

Thank you!

Angela

Here he is as a baby with his Grandma Linda (my MIL)

Here he is at his seventh birthday party this June.
Here is on the last day of summer school putting on a play.
He is always my ham!!Horrible picture of me but funny how this is now my favorite picture in general. Just taken a couple weeks ago while in DSM for a wedding reception and funeral.

Just an little FYI

About my personality. A kind of get to know me post. I took a facebook quiz which are usually pretty bogus and time wasting but this one was neat. I like all that astrology and get to you know stuff. SO the quiz was what does your birthday month say about you and per the quiz mine says...

October

Loves to chat. Loves those who loves them. Loves to takes things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn't pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care of what others think. Emotional. Decisive. Strong clairvoyance. Loves to travel, the arts and literature. Touchy and easily jealous. Concerned. Loves outdoors. Just and fair. Spendthrift. Easily influenced. Easily loses confidence. Loves children.

I totally am most of those things... errr .. well all except the doesn't care what others think. I sometimes do but I usually tell myself not to and go about my business. It all depends on the situation. And the lieing thing I don't think lieing is smart but I do think I can be manipulative so I am assuming maybe that is what it means.

Oh and the clairavoyant I think I totally am. I can give a number of examples of when I have been "psyhcic". Now I don't think I am a totally see the future but I do get these ideas or vibes and they often come true. And I swear I can even have people back up my examples. It is kinda creepy sometimes.

I just thought it would be nice to give you all some insight into who I am.

Drum Roll Please

My son picked number 17 and if my counting is correct the winner is ....

Danielle at http://scrappy-arts-n-thoughts.blogspot.com/ So if you read this email me at superchick2006 at gmail.com Otherwise I will email you once I figure out how too. lol When I get back from the WATERPARK! Yay summer fun!

Ahhh.. Sweet procrastination

I am so bad at it! Or maybe good at it. Anyway I did not get a chance to hop to everyone as I spent way too much time helping with my church's VBS. But it is worth it as it looks amazing. THen I had to do a ton of homework I fearfully put off too long for fear of reading the emails I had put off. (does that make sense??) That was silly was there was no hate mail. I have just been in some funk... grrrr.... anyway I think I am coming out of it but I hate being a girl sometimes I swear!

My point of my whining is I did not get a chance to finish the hop (so I hope Maggi still has the list up) or do the drawing. Tomorrow I am going to have my oldest son pick a number between one and 24 (excluding my comment post so I might have to have him re-number) and announce a winner in the am hopefully as we are going swimming tomorrow at a waterpark.

So that is what is up. Also I am thinking of changing my scrap room from this dungeon area to one of the spare bedrooms. I just don't know if I want to start from scratch but I got burned out with the organizing and I think I just need a less confined area.

So again thanks to all who stopped by in the CIJ blog party and I am so exicted to have garnered some followers. I am so happy excited about that but the pressure is on. LOL!

Welcome and Merry Christmas **Updated with pictures :D

Ok if you were here earlier thanks and sorry this wasn't a complete post! I decided it needed some pictures! First thank you to Maggi at http://katamommydamacy.blogspot.com/ for hosting this blog hop. This is my first so thank you for your guidance and patience! And in appreciation I am adding this photo of my two favorite ornaments that stay in my scrap room ALL THE TIME! The white bear was is a cherished gift and the smore I HAD to get (duh) as it is the scrappin' smore. lolI must say that Christmas is my second favorite holiday. (Halloween is first because I love to dress up and pretend though I am a scaredy cat. ) I spend months planning. I always make a list that changes at least five times before I am done shopping. I always promise to stay in a budge and always go over. I spoil my children way to much on this holiday and always get irrtated at myself as they would rather play with the boxes then the actual gifts I spent MONTHS planning. Even with that irritation I still love it. Even before I had children I had a groups of friends who I spent more on then my parents. We would always try to out shop each other. Not in regards to money spent but on how well we could purchase and choose the perfect unique gifts. I did ok but my friend Heather ALWAYS out did us all. And she was/is an athiest. Funny how that works out.

Here is the give-away I have decided to send. I will randomly pick someone who leaves a comment to mail to. So check back and see if it is you. Or if you have a link in your name I will contact you. :D It is some christmas things but also some random papers because you never know what you can creatively do and make with any old peice of paper!
Anyway... I so hope you guys leave comments! And to help with what to write I encourage us all to take a moment and do a shot out to the person or people who made the holidays (if you don't do Christmas it can be Thanksgiving or Halloween, birthdays, etc) special for you.

For me....

My Dad only shopped for my mom and maybe one gift for me. I am an only child so I was pretty spoiled. but we almost always knew what mom's present was because it was shaped like the item. A skillet would be wrapping paper taped haphazardly around the skillet. Not only visibly seeing the skinny handle but all the way down to the circle flatness of the bottom. It is so comical.

He also provided me with the most memoriable Christmas holiday moment ever. It was right in the middle of the Cabbage patch doll craze. I wanted one SOOOO bad. And there wasn't one under the Tree. I pouted so bad but what could I do Santa didn't bring me one. Then about an hour or so later. My dad called me into the living room to tell me it looks like Santa accidently put one behind the couch. IT WAS MY CABBAGE PATCH DOLL!! A girl with dark corn colored hair. (see picture above) her name was Ginger and I LOVED her. But I will never forget how he tricked me into thinking I wasn't getting one. It makes me so happy now how cool my Dad was to play a trick on me. And I didn't care (or realize at that age) because she was here.

I had to add this photo as this is a picture of our Shetlend Sheepdog Pepper when I was a child. We LOVED him so much. I was an only child and him and I would play outside in the snow every winter!

Now my Mom I want to give a shot out because she grew up very poor and always made a point regardless of how wealthy or non wealthy we were to have an awesome birthday cake for me. She always told me how important the cake was because growing up she may never have gotten a present but she always got a cake for her birthday. It is those family traditions I think are so awesome and show how as a parent we want to build on how childhood experience and make them better for our children or hold on to those traditions.

One last thank you goes to my Grandparents who took me to church every weekend and taught me that Jesus is the reason for the season. I try hard to make sure my boys realize this. Especially growing up in the USA we so take things for granted and I try to make sure my boys do not.
My grandma and Grandpa... Grandpa I miss you but I know you are watching over me!

Here is three layouts I did with all the stash I found the other day organizing and cleaning. This was one of the things that sidetracked me from my day yesterday but scrap time is usually so worth it!


So thanks again for stopping by and this is lacking pictures but I wanted to post early and the day otherwise has gotten away from me. Does it for anyone else??

So the above was posted yesterday and now I have photos so YAY me! lol... But still do you get distracted way to easily?? I totally DO!

Oh and I feel like leaving with just one more picture... thanks for indulging me but I LOVE decorating the christmas tree. This one is from my Childhood 2nd grade... Hmmm... is my Cabbage Patch dolly under there? HAHA

Gah... I am so excited.

I am participating in my first blog hop tomorrow. I am so excited and nervous. I got some ideas in my head to make it fun for all who visit :D

I right now just want to write a snippet on how much I LOVE google reader. It has really helped me stay on top of what follower blogs I have on there. I am currently at the domestic violence shelter I volunteer at so I don't have my list to keep saving but within a half hour I am all caught up on the blogs I follow. I am amazed how we now use blogs as ways to have "friends" of sorts. Sometimes I feel foolish that I know so much of these people I will probably never meet. I feel closer to them then I do my neighbors. It also fuels my need for voyuerism which use to be just held for peeping in house windows and seeing if the family is eating or watching tv, etc. I wonder if I am the only one who feels this psuedo feeling of kinship to people out there? Maybe I am wrong being philisophical on this blog that I was going to just reserve for scrap layouts and occasional want or idea. But the more I blog the more I want to share my personal life on here. Is that foolish? To think people care? The few blogs i really do follow religiously I can say I care about them. I would be heartbroken if their children or selves were hurt. I also enjoy hearing of their good victories too.

Oh... I got sidetracked.... anyway If you don't use reader and view a lot of google/blogger blogs use it. it saves a ton of time! And thanks for indulging me in my rant/semi whine there :D I promise tomorrow will be good times only!!

PS sorry for that bizarre two songs playing thing. I am going to fix it when I get home. It is those slides from the other posts. I will have to reconfigure them I guess :D Silly Angela! lol

What I have been up too...

Cleaning and Organizing my scrapbook room! I am so proud of myself. I got rid of a tub of junk so far. YAY!

First here is a project I saw on you tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHH1WZDJfs4) and was brought my my attention on the LPS sight. (Thanks ladies :D) You take a lamp and make it into a clip it up thing. I am trying to think how I can make a lazy B Susan kind of thing so it swivels and some of the items are too long so I am thinking how I can clip those up easily. But it is very handy and I hope it helps me with my stash!

Before ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------After -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I saw this awhile back where you tie all your ribbon to a hanger. I found more ribbon cleaning so I think I will start a second hanger. I might move it to a different wall though. I haven't decided. It depends on how I organize the rest of the room.

Here is how I store my kits. I keep them in the plastic bags until there is nothing but a few embellies left. Then I put those away wherever they go. So I keep the together kits in the bags and in this plastic box thing.

This is how many kits I still have to work with. It is a lot if you ask me! I hope to make a dent as soon as I get this organizing and cleaning done. THough to be honest I will probably get bored with it and stop for a month. It seems to cycle for me. But I really HOPE to get it all organized! Keep your fingers crossed. lol This is how I have decided to store my extra paper. One is for just my cardstock and the the others are for my patterned misc paper. I don't have all that much so I am just going to leave it as is. I don't think at this point I need to sort it by colors or manufacturer as it really is just mutt stuff. This is also an example of a how you can recycle all those boxes we get from our kits or any other package really. The cardboard boxes are from those usps 14x14 boxes. I had my hubby cut them to match as close as possible to my two plastic cropper hopper paper holders to the left. I think I will use those for something else but wanted to take a picture with them to compare to boxes. Great way to recycle and conserve money! Oh and I saw it at you tube also from the lady who's website is http://www.theeverydayscrapper.com/ She had other ideas too and her layouts/mini books are really awesome!

And the layout I did before I started this endeavor.

Here is my submission for week four of scrapbookdeals4u.com's Summer camp challenge. The challenge was as follow:

1. Scrap a holiday (your choice)

2. Use one nontraditional element

3. Use at least 3 pictures

4.Use 3 cardstock colors

5. Use only one patterned paper

So I have four pictures, three cardstock (gray background, green tree, and red bulbs on tree) Holiday is of course Christmas, the single pattern paper is also non-traditional as a floral print paper. I LOVE how it turned out and I think I have a chance of placing this time. I hope so. :D But there are really a lot more talented people on that sight so I doubt it. It is still fun to play!

I Heart Cosmo Cricket Snorkel!

I did twelve layouts with the June kit from Life Preserver Scrap kits. This paper was so easy to use and almost off them I really like. Which in a kit I find one or two I don't really care for. Like I had good ideas or intentions but just didn't pull it off. So that is another plus if this paper/kit.

There is another sketch contest at Scrapbookdeals4u. #36. The first picture is the sketch and the second is my submission.

Here is my new planner/calendar I made today. I bound it with my Bind-It-All I don't use it often but when I do I LOVE IT!

Newest layouts....

I was able to get ten layouts done last night. I actually like almost all of them and think I am getting better at this layering more 3/d look :D I might even enter a couple in a DT call. Something I have NEVER done before. We will see. Life perserver scrap club is having a weekend crop but didn't do any challenge yet. I just felt like being free. I do plan on spending most of the day tomorrow scrapping though as my two older boys are away for camp. (though one called saying he already wanted to come home. he had only been there a couple of hours.) I did my shopping and laundry already and all I really need to do is write a paper for school but I procrasinate anyway so that is a no brainer. :D

Here is a slide of layouts. I ended up getting with 9 layouts out of 5 peices of paper in the kit and only two cardstock. So of course I supplemented. Then started on the June Add on kit from personal scrapper. It is older summer pics from when Alex was just a baby.

Yes I am posting a lot...

kinda weird I have a lot to say. Slowly this blog is becoming more then just photos of my scrap pages but a little more of my life. And I kinda like it :D

I have been meaning to post a couple pics just to demonstrate my weight loss. I try not to make my life all about that but when I see pics I can't believe myself what a difference pysically and emotionally it has made in my life. I have to thank God for a lot of it too. :D

I saw the picture my dad took of me in the middle last summer and I thought how neat to take a picture of me in the same top!! What a difference a year makes. The top one at the pool is from July 2007 so all three are summer pics.

Below is three new layouts I did. (sorry they are blurry) this afternoon watching Her Girl Friday (or my I am not sure). It is a Cary Grant movie who I just adore! They don't make them like him and

Lastly this is my submission for the next week in the scrapbook4u camp contest. It was to do a picnic or family theme, use scallop paper, chipboard, and rubons. I have them all here. This is all hodge podge stuff from my stash.

And please look below this post for the rest of my Basic Grey Lime Rickey kit. Nothing left but a few embellishments. Boy I am good lol!

Latest layouts using BG Lime Rickey

Announcement

Hmm.. did I spell the title above right?? Oh well. lol

I am going to participate in a blog hop.


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It is hosted by this awesome gal... http://katamommydamacy.blogspot.com/ and I think I will include in my hop a giveaway. I know I have several christmas papers, embellies I can gather up and make a decent package. I hope so anyway :D... so stay tuned folks! I am excited.

Blog Challenge

I was at scrapbook4u's message board and they know have a friday blog challenge. The first one is a blog challenge the last fun thing we did this summer. I would have to say for total fun is my youngest birthday. I can't believe he is now three! One Year old... I couldn't find any new borns pictures on this computer.
One Year old. Yum Alex LOVES ice cream! Almost two years old... already a ham! Alex and His Mommy at three years old! We love each other! :D My husband once said our little family would not have been complete without him and I totally agree.

I threw this one in as he is just so cute and I love this picture!

This weekend... 14 layouts!

First I bought the 39 drawer organizer for smaller embellishments. And I totally cleaned my desk. I don't remember the last time it looked this good. The space infront of the door is reserved for my laptop as I have to be watching or listening to something while I scrap. And the organizer is awesome as I have already used from my stash! Always a plus!
This is all that is left of the July Scrapbookdeals4U kit. It was called Sweet Celebration and is PERFECT! for birthdays which we have two in June and one early July. I usually finish a kit to nothing left except some embellishments. I decided to put some of it away to scrap some Alexander photos from his little gathering/party Wednesday. But think about it I have this much left in the kit and still did 13 layouts! I am sure I will get at least three more. I just have to find cardstock for it. I swear there is never enough cardstock! The next thirteen layouts are from that awesome kit.

This is the one layout I didn't due with sweet celebration and I love it jus as much. And it was all stash!!!