Alex's note to me on Skype. I just love that girl!!

[7:59:30 PM] jaam328: I LOVE WENE WE (skype)IT IS SOOOO MUCH FUN AND WENE WE GIT OFF I AWAYS CRY A LITTLE I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH AND YOUR A GREAT GAMMA AND YOUR HIAR IS FINE THE WHY IT IS AND I LOVE YOU YOUR SOOOOOOOO AWSOME THE MOST AWSOME GRANPARENTS IN THE WOLRD TELL PAPA I LOVE HIM AND I CANT WAIT TO SEE YALL IN 6 WEEKS I LOVE YALL SO MUCH AND TELL PAPA HE IS AWSOME TOOOO JUST LIKE YOU LOVE YALL ARE AWSOME AND GREAT GRANPARENTSAND THATS THE SAME FOR PAPA

My First Stampin Up Order

Not many people would understand my excitement about posting this picture, but anyone that scraps, stamps, or makes cards would understand. I have never ordered but just one or two things from SU and was sooo excited to place a large order. Their shipping fees have always held me back before, but I finally gave in and bought several things I had been drooling over. This is a pic of my first of three Stampin Up orders. Shortly after receiving this I was reading someone's blog and they mentioned SU just made tons of items available on clearance. So I went back and placed another order. The very next day, another blog saying more items placed in the clearance section. So I went back for a third and final time and ordered a few more things. I bought every paper pack they had listed, along with some stamping wheels, ribbons, and buttons. I have not looked since. Too dangerous for me. I meant to get a pic of the other orders, but totally forgot when I started looking at all of the pretty papers! I am totally loving everything I have bought so far!

This is my new niece...Mattisyn. She is sooo adorable and pretty in pink! She was born on March 02, 2010. My sister Audrey has waited many years to be a Granny and is loving every minute of this sweet baby. My sister Brenda just went to NY this weekend to meet her. Taunia is a little over thirty and has prayed for a family for many years. At one point she was considering artifical insemination before she turned 35. Then just a little over two years ago, she met her husband and they married in September 2008 and now they have this beautiful blessing. She also has a Wonderful Life!

These didn't upload with the egg. I'll try again!

The Easter Bunny

I was sitting here at the computer in the front of our house and saw this flash of white outside my window. I looked up and saw someone on a scooter dressed as the Easter Bunny. I quickly grabbed my camera and rushed out the front door. It was a friend of our neighbors who is having an Easter egg hunt at their house. He sweetly let me take his pic and then returned a few minutes late with an egg! How sweet!

I just talked with my Granddaughter and asked if they were doing eggs today for the EB and she said yes once her cousin comes over this afternoon. I sure hope someone takes pics of this and send me a few! I love my pics and it's hard to enjoy these Holidays when our kids all live out of state.

Madison's Pappy's

Alex and Madison was at my house for Spring Break the middle of March. After they got back home Ashley called and said "Mom, do you know what happened to all of Madison's pappy's? I don't have that many of them" I told her I would look, but that I tried to find all I could when she went home. Well, last week while sorting thru my punch drawer I found one of her pappy's and this morning Rick came in from the garage showing me one of my old containers he had placed in the garage. I can now tell Ash that I found two more! Sweet baby!!

Emily

This is my youngest daughter Emily Kay. She is also my favorite youngest daughter. I have a favorite oldest daughter too! We laugh about being Mom's favorite all the time. For years whenever I go on vacation to a condo or hotel, I always take a washcloth and bring it home. My husband scoldes me each time, but it's just something I do. While Em lived here I would just wash it and add it to my household linens. But when Em moved to Fort Worth several years ago I started giving them to her. She always knew when she unpacked her suitcase, somewhere in there she would find it. When Rick and I go on vacation alone, I still get one and whenever I see Em or happen to send a package to the girls, I will tuck it away in the box and a note on where it came from. She has come to expect them and enjoys our little exchange. Two weekends ago we drove to Monroe LA to meet my girls and Jeremy. We had both Grands here for one week while Alex was out for Spring Break and it was time for them to go home. My kids had spent the previous night enjoying a fun night at one of the casino's in Sheveport and spent the night at the casino hotel and left the following morning to meet us. After a nice lunch and then going to the cars to transfer the kids stuff back to Ashley's car, Em said "Mom, I got you something" and handed me a small bag. Inside it, you guessed it, it was a hotel washcloth!! I thought that was soooo sweet! A fun, small exchange that was full of sweet memories for both of us! I love you Emily!

Alex & Madison

I just received this cute pic from my daughter. These are my sweet Grands, Alexandria 9 years old and Madison 2 years old. Sweet little girls! Gamma loves you both!

Four Smirk cards

I bought these adorable stamps and paper pack from ScrapinKats in Cullman. Kathy has a FULL store of everything for scraping and card making. I just love visiting her store. The bonus is she is one of the nicest people you would want to meet. Anyway... I laid the paper pack out knowing I wanted to do a few cards today, but last night with me not feeling good with a sore throat and fever I sat up all night under the influence of Day-Quil and had a good time. My most favorite is the blue card. My least favorite is the one with the tree. I thought the little people would show up better on the paper, but didn't. I am thinking of redoing that card anyway. You can't tell by the pic, but I have little rain drops coming down under the clouds. Fun idea, but the card may be too busy. Oh well I just proud of myself that I used some of these pretty things and they didn't get filed away on a shelf! Yaa me!

Mom

I'm getting scared about my Mom's health and well being. Double bi-pass in August. They drove to Florida six weeks after surgery for the winter. Discovered their roof had leaked all summer and they had a moderate amount of mold and mildrew. Mom spent one month cleaning the mess and then had a nasty stroke on January 2nd. The wonderful thing was she recovered nicely, but now two months later, she has stepped back in her recovery. She tells us she has fallen three times in the last month, which I never knew anything about until this week. Now she feels like it's not easy to take a deep breath and she also is back to using her walker. She did see one of her doctor's today, but in her opinion they were just pushing her aside and she told them either take my symptoms serious or she would be changing doctor's. Very surprising for her to say that, because Mom is a great patient, more patient than I would have been over the last two months. They did a chest xray, but will not have the result until tomorrow. Mom has never mentioned the mold issue to any of her doctor's, but I think it's time to throw caution to the wind and call and inform them and see if this at all makes a difference in her recovery. I would be so heart broken if I knew there is an issue and I swept it under the rug. I may get Mom mad when she finds out I have mentioned the mold to her doctor's, but for me to sleep good at night...I have too whether she gets mad at me or not. Her life depends on us taking care of her to the best of our abilities. I love my Momma and cannot image life without her.

Changing the name of my blog

One of my most favorite movies is It's A Wonderful Life. George Bailey truly had a wonderful life and he realized it when it was taken from him. I feel the same way and like so many of us living in a too busy life, I feel I don't always show my appreciation of my husband, good health, and life in general. I do have a wonderful life. Totally happy in the middle of it, but neglectful in showing my love and appreciation in what little things I have that are actually large things. So....changing my blog title to remind me every day on how thankful I should be and am!

My Scrapbook Room

Both of my Granddaughter's will be at my house for springbreak in March. My oldest Granddaughter Alexandria, loves to scrap with me, but recently my room has looked like a hurricaine has gone thru it. Not sure why but when I cook and scrap, I have to use everything in the room and make a huge mess! I just spent three days cleaning this up and getting everything close to where it belongs. Not sure how long it will last! While it is clean, I thought I would take a few pics. May not be this clean again for a long time! This is my favorite new gadget. A ATG adhesive gun! Best of all I bought it for only $9.00 at my local Scrapbook garage sale! I almost ordered one online for $69.00. How lucky am I???

My Scrap room

Following my own blog

I know it's crazy, but I am following my own blog! I am hoping with me doing this, that when I go to other blogs and leave a comment, maybe someone will click on my link to see what my favorite blogs are, like I do to others, and someone would then see my blog and want to subscribe. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Snow!

Well, the Birmingham area was hit by another bout of snow. The total amount varies around town. We received around three to four inches. All expressway ramps are closed for the evening. A thaw out is expected between nine and ten in the morning. This is almost a record for our area. Third time for us this winter. I am hoping it's our last occurance. It's beautiful to look at, but too risky to drive in if it's not necessary.

Rick's Gall Bladder Surgery

Well, it hasn't been boring around our house! Sunday night Rick went to bed around 9:00 PM. Two hours later he woke up and said he was having horrible stomach pains. He took some mylanta and walked around some, but the pain just increased. From there we decided the next step was the emergency room. We were seen promptly on arrival. The clerk mentioned the night before there was a four to five hour wait. After two injections of Morphine with no help, he was given Dilaudid and was able to get some relief from the acute pain. From there he was admitted and put on the standby list for gall bladder surgery. His surgery was at 9:00 AM, he was out of surgery at 10:00 AM, eating jello at 1:00 PM, and home at 6:00 PM. We both fell in the bed early last night by 8:30 PM and slept thru the night. Man, we have had an eventful 2010 so far. It's someone else's turn to have all of this fun!

Well, I finally sat down long enough to use some of my stuff and made a Valentine card. I actually need about nine more, so I'll be busy this weekend. I started off with a total different idea, so maybe I'll do the next one like that.

Shopping!

I am sooo excited. One of our LSS is having a garage sale this weekend. I live an hour away and because of that I was allowed to go thru all of the goodies yesterday when I dropped my stuff off. I found tons of great buys! My best buy was an ATG 714 gun for only $9.00!! No tape in it, but I ordered three rolls today for $3.00 each here. http://www.cropandstick.com/p-300-3m-scotch-atg-908-gold.aspx I can't wait to recieve it and be able to use it for both card making and scrapbooking. From the same lady I bought several Stampin Up stamp sets and paper. Just loads of cool stuff. Then today I went to JoAnn's, Michaels, Sir Stamps A Lot, and then Hobby Lobby. Needless to say I need to stay away from anymore stores for the rest of February!

Mom is HOME!

Kind of late posting this, but boy...we have been so busy around the house. Mom was released Thursday afternoon and was sooo excited to step in the van and know she was going home! She felt like a bird being let out of it's cage. Her husband Wayne told everyone he met that his wife was in the hospital for twenty-eight days and finally going home. He was so tired of driving the fifty minutes round trip each day. But she is now home and happy as a lark. She will be on Home Health Care for several weeks, including physical and speech therapy. Her appetite is good, but she is very tired. She has been thru so much since August. Our family is hoping and praying that her life can now settle down and she can enjoy it!

Getting closer to going home!

Mom is slowly, but surely getting better every day. Sunday she was elevated to a moderate soft diet! I will have to ask again what her first meal was, but her second lunch was puried beef roast and gravy, mashed potatoes, puried peas, and applesauce. Today for breakfast she had Cream of Wheat and scrambled eggs. For lunch she had spaghetti and meatballs! I get excited with every increased step of her meal plan. When I talked with her EENT, she mentioned Mom will have to be on a regular diet for a twenty-four hour duration before they even consider letting her go home. Of course she still has a residual cold and slightly elevated heart rate. They are still tweaking her heartrate with medications. We want that to be totally in a normal range before she is discharged. Mom will be on pins and needles if it is not regulated. She'll upset herself unneccessarly if she is not comfortable with her home care. I am flying to Tampa tomorrow for a week. I can't wait to see Mom and have this special time with her. We have had two nasty scares since August. Her emergency double bi-pass surgery and now dealing with her stroke. I have always called my Mom a tough old bird and she has proved me right again! I am so thankful for every day I am given with my Mom and praying for many more years to come!