More Elsie Love

Kay, Elsie music must be affecting me. I've been listening to Plain White T's all morning - so inspiring. Playing with new Elsie product - woohoo. Love the way this page turned out, even though it took me forever to finish. It kind of kept evolving along the way, kwim? But now I need to take a break from my elsie paper or it won't be there when we return from texas next week. And I really am psyched to use the new Toby line on our vacation pictures, it couldn't be more perfect. Now if I could just find the Betty line in real life, I'd be pretty excited. Love this stuff though, she did a terrific job!!

another page

I did this about two weeks ago, and it's been in my brain for 2 1/2 months now. But I couldn't share it with you till after Lori shared it with the world. She's pregnant with number 3!! yeah! She told me via this weird IM conversation and I decided it would be fun to print it and scrap it. ha ha.

playing in the rain

So we were having supper last night, just enjoying some family time when all the sudden it just started pouring down rain. It was the weirdest thing - the sun was shining bright in the western half of the sky but it was raining like crazy! It was nice and warm too. So Rob and I decided to let our kids run out in the rain and they loved it. Eli was a bit tentative at first, but Sarah was splashing in puddles the second we let her off the porch. So cute.

ELSIE!!

It's finally here! I'm so excited about this stuff, picked it up on Thursday and hadn't gotten a chance to play with it yet. But it was worth the wait, let me tell you! These pictures are ancient and I know I look loopy tired, we did a garage sale today and I'm wiped. Shutting down the studio for the night (so sad, being responsible). More to come tomorrow!!

more pages

these are pages from my birthday playing. Have a bunch of new stuff now - the Elsie stuff FINALLY hit Archiver's, but haven't gotten to play just yet.

I FOUND IT!!!

This is my new favorite song. enjoy!!!

(PS - I love Youtube!)

a hundred years later

Too much going on again, the blog is falling to the bottom of the list. Hate that. I think of things I want to post and just don't find the time to post them. I'm getting ready to have a garage sale, so that's occupied some time. Also, we were in Peoria at the beginning of the week for district council, which was awesome. (a ton better than last year) The ordination service was extremely special and spiritual and definitely a mountaintop experience. I'm addicted to a new song "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong - it was introduced to us during that service. I'll have to look for a video on YouTube or something. Anyway, the point of this particular post is to share these two dresses on Sarah. Kim, let me know what you want. She loves them both. :) Oh, and sorry, I couldn't catch her still in either of them. A poofy skirt requires twirling in her book.

my sister sent this to me yesterday....

Greatest Hits

Did anybody watch LOST last night?? It's one of our favorite shows. Last night was a great episode (doesn't even seem right to call it that). Anyhoo, one of the main characters wrote a 'greatest hits' list of his life - the most incredible moments he'd experienced thus far. I was greatly inspired, especially it being my 28th year and all.

So, my greatest hits at 28....

1.) Making pancakes on the open fire while camping with my dad and brother and sister when I was 8. I think that's when I first started to love to cook. Funny, cause I really don't like pancakes. Anyway, it was an amazing trip. Everyone (remarkably) got along. We fished and camped and sang songs and told ghost stories. it was pretty amazing.

2.) Campfires at Lake Okoboji. I can close my eyes and hum "Sanctuary" and be back there in a moment. The cool dark night, the dancing firelight, the charred wood smell mingled with bug repellent. I can hear the voices and feel so close to God. Camp was my first brush with the Holy Spirit.

3.) The night Rob fell and broke his tailbone. It was our first official 'date'. He was messing around and fell hard on his bum. He didn't want to accept my help - driving, getting into the car, getting out of the house. I knew if he didn't accept my help that we wouldn't be a team and it wasn't a relationship that would work. I wanted to be someone's other half. He reluctantly accepted my help and we've been teammates ever since.

4.) Our wedding day. It was simply amazing to stand in front of our friends and family and make this lifelong commitment. I love that we live it out everyday and I had no idea of the incredible journey I was signing up for, but I remember feeling like I was stepping off into my future.

5.) Watching the second line turn pink. We tried for a year to have Eli and I remember vividly the excitement and fear when the pregnancy test finally came back positive. "What have we done??" Totally the beginning of our family and it's incredible to think how God has grown us since then.

6.) Sarah being born. She was scheduled c-section and I was awake. I remember realizing she would be taking her first breaths soon and waiting for it. Concern swelled in me as I noticed the doctors and nurses working quickly and efficiently. Finally she cried and I started to breathe again myself. I was so grateful in that moment.

7.) Standing on the second deck of the Eiffel Tower with my mom and sister last year. Surveying the city below me. Pinching myself because I couldn't believe I was actually there. The whole trip was unreal, but that was the apex of it all.

I suppose I need ten, but I'll post more if I think of them. Pretty cool, huh?

happy birthday to me.

I have a big long blog post coming for you today, but I'm not quite ready to do it. So watch for it later, but right now I'm scrapping and here's my first page of the day. enjoy!

oops

I forgot to post this picture the other day. This was taken on the top of the Hartford Tower. Pretty cool, huh?? Well, off to scrapbook for an hour. Yay!

catching up

wow. I think I let on already that it was a whirlwind weekend. But I didn't say that my mom and sister threw a surprise birthday party for me. And oh my, I was surprised. My cousin Sara was here with her boys that afternoon. I had just finished up the last of my day before cooking for the luncheon. I forced myself to sit and relax and catch up with her and mom. Char and Kavin drove in late afternoon. After they arrived Mom and I went for Casey's pizza for the clan. Mom kept dragging her feet, I was so confused. When we got back to the house, Sara wouldn't let me in the house. When she opened the door I realized they had totally decorated in the ten minutes we'd been gone! They all yelled "surprise" and it was so fun. We enjoyed our pizza, played psychiatrist (one of my favorite games, especially with people you really know), we busted a pinata (everyone loved that!) and then enjoyed cake and presents. I need to take some photos of the presents. They included these amazing red ballet slippers from Char - oh I love them!! And a new colbalt place setting of Fiestaware from Mom, some chocolates, new glasses from Ikea (yay!) and various other fun things. It was super fun.
I was up way too late every night this week, just enjoying having the house alive with people. Saturday was excruciatingly busy, but so fun overall and everyone at church yesterday is still talking about it. Mom and I did squeeze in quite a bit of scrapbook shopping - we hit Scrapbook Castle in Alton on Thursday and Archiver's and Scrapbook Factory on Saturday. So I have lots of new inspiration in my room just beckoning at me to come and play! Hopefully this afternoon!
We also hit Tuesday Morning on Saturday where Mom gifted us with new towels for our bathroom - much needed. It was her and Dad's anniversary gift for us. I was pretty disappointed that my dad didn't make it, but he was tied up at home and I understand.
Yesterday was a great day too, probably my best Mother's Day yet. I really feel like a mom this year, and understand what it is that is so important about what I do. We went to church like normal, and enjoyed a quick lunch of leftovers with my my mom and brother before they left. Then we had the opportunity to go up the Hartford Tower with the kids, and they just loved it!! It was a beautiful day to do it too! Incredible. We came home and the kids rested (for THREE HOURS) and Rob and I spent two of them talking and catching up. He went off to work and I puttered around the house, cleaning up and chatting with Kimmie on the phone. We went to church, had a great night there, took kids home as a family and then went to Applebee's for appetizers. Rob and the kids picked out a Pampered Chef Cheese Knife for me. Awww. I love Pampered Chef!! They did great. Just really in love with my family and my husband and my savior and my life right now!
But back to reality, the house is a disaster, we haven't done school and I need a shower! Time to get it in gear!!

a million things to tell you...

Wow. It's been a whirlwind week here. The mother daughter banquet threatened to take over my world, and it did for a short while. But it was a brilliant success, so it was worth all the hard work. Everyone had a wonderful time (or at least everyone that told me!), the food, and the program was pretty fun too. Mom and Char were great and my team was amazing.

I'd like to say more, but I'm too wiped out. Try to catch up tomorrow.

tonight

Pretty great day today. MOPs was awesome as usual. I've got a post coming later, but I'm waiting for some pictures to accompany it. Church was good tonight - then afterwards we set up for the MD banquet. We were walking home after locking up the church when sudden inspiration hit us and we threw the kids in the car and headed out for Coldstone Creamery. The kids were enthralled, it was a blast. So here are a few photos. Such a great time. You just have to love these kids, they are a blast.

the other day's pages

Lori is going to give me a high five. I did these pages on Monday and I'm finally posting them. Woo hoo for you. Not at all original, unfortunately, lots of garden inspiration, but fun none the less. Oh, except for the random PK layout, that's just me having fun. Rob was kind of "what??" about that one, but sometimes I like to do that to him just to keep him on his toes. :) I'm mean like that.

mother daughter preview

In case you can't wait until Saturday....

These are photos of ficus trees - pre-Anna-magnoliazation and post. They didn't photograph that well, but I love them just the same. Also, decent photo of the magnolias for the centerpieces, picture them centered on mirrors on ivory tables with sage green placemats. We set up the church tonight and I'm ecstatic. Can't wait for Saturday now!!

"You get in my head"

He said on this, our ninth anniversary. I was singing "I Really Don't Like You" by the Dirty White Tee Shirts as I finished getting ready this morning and Rob starting humming it. I said "yeah, I got it in your head, didn't I?" and he responded with the like. gotta love that. Today we celebrate 9 years of Mr and Mrs. I've said it before, but it's never been more true. My life began the day I met Rob. It's like I woke up and realized who I was and how the pieces of the puzzle came together. We've been together over a third of my lifetime now and I can't imagine life without him, or who I would be if our paths hadn't crossed during that strange and short time in my life. I guess I am just extremely thankful today.

Kimmie's Day

So you were probably starting to even wonder if I made it home from Springfield, huh? Yep, home safe and sound, no car problems. (yay!! the springfield curse has lifted!)

i had a great time. It was so good to take some space. I enjoyed being away, being on my own. But I probably enjoyed the drive the most of all, the quiet thoughtful time, moving at my own pace (which was, of course - F A S T) I really loved the freedom of I can stop when I want to, eat when I want to, listen to what I want to. I need to leave more often, it was amazing.

I had the distinct pleasure of dining with some old friends (LeAnn, Michele, Tina, and Miranda - and a new friend Sandra) on Friday night and that was really special and fun. I couldn't remember the last time I had dinner with girls. Of course, it helped that we went to Cheddar's - their fried chicken salad.. mmmmmm.

Then I went to Kimmies and hung out with her and Kellie and Kailey and Sally. We had fun, very low key other than a TCBY run at ten. Slept on the floor like a girls youth event and got ready for the shower in the morning. The shower was a lot of fun, Kim got some nice things. The coffee was really good too. It was good to catch up with Kellie and I had a chance to see Amanda too, so it was just really nice. After the shower I headed over to CU and caught up with my old boss for a while then headed home. My famiily was so glad to see me, it's pretty refreshing to come home sometimes.

Anyhoo, so this week we begin the race to the banquet, but I've checked all my lists multiple times and barring any disasters I think it will be a beautiful time for all on Saturday.

new page

yeah, you don't even want to know how long I spent on this page. To the point that I got lectured by Rob about not giving my full attention to LOST last night. :)

But I think it was worth it, what do you think???

An old stool made new.

Been working on this project off and on since yestereday. I also scrapbooked today, which was totally irresponsible of me. Not quite done with my page, it's really labor intensive, but fun. I'll post a pic when it's done. Off to church.

YES.

I got my quiet time in this morning. thanks for asking.

And take 3 minutes to check out this video. (It's our song)