Life Sucks

This is not going to be a cheery post.

Right now things suck.

Currently going on in my life:

A tiff with a friend, in which we are currently not speaking.

Gas prices are on the rise.

Bills are on the rise.

I am still waiting on my raise.

And my sister's colposcopy results came back ..... they are pre-cancerous cells.

I might not be around for awhile.

There's a storm a brewin'

They are calling for another severe storm like we had Monday night.

Of course it has to come on a night that we have tickets to go see Bill Engvall at an outdoor venue. So, right now we're playing it by ear to see what happens.

And we're going to have to make arrangements to get things moved inside this time so we're not chasing down our belongings.

Too close for comfort

Last night we got an intense storm system that rolled through. We had gone to the village meeting, and when it wrapped up at nearly 10pm, we headed home. It was a crazy lightning storm at this point, and I've never seen it like that before. It was flashing so fast, it was like a strobe light. I had heard that we could possibly expect a storm, but I didn't think it was going to be anything serious since it had been a sunny, HOT day. I really thought the lightning show was more from the heat than anything.

Once we were home, I took a shower and had just finished washing my hair when we lost power. FABULOUS! I swore out loud, and figured I'd just tough it out and finish up before trying to find my way to a flashlight. It was only out for about 20 seconds, thank goodness! I finished up quickly, afraid I'd be in the dark again, and when I got out, I could hear the storm battling against the house.

It sounded as if the windows were going to break apart, and like the siding was being ripped right off the house. I heard clanking against the windows, and we could only assume it was hail since we couldn't see much out the windows.

We realized we forgot to bring in our flag from outside, and since it's been ripped clear off the house before in strong winds, we knew we had to get it inside, for fear of it being thrown through a neighbor's window or something. We couldn't even get out our front door! The wind and rain was coming so strong right in our direction, that we couldn't get our storm door open.

I went to the back of the house, and that's when we realized just how bad it was. We saw some of the kids toys in the backyard, which we kept in our shed on the side of the house. When it finally calmed down just a tad enough to get out the door, we went out to see the damage.

The storm completely tore apart the shed we had (plastic, like a 'rubbermaid' type thing, not super big) and tore through the storage totes and kid's toys that we had in there. We had balls, baseball bats, frisbees, chalk and other outdoor toys all over our yard and in the neighbor's.

We found a lid to a tote almost in the street, another lid a couple doors down (along with some more toys), and the bulk of our shed was taken 4 houses down.

We were drenched by the time we were finished, and we came inside to find that many of our neighbors were out across the street, picking up the pieces to their gazebos/canopies they had on their patios. Those are completely trashed, and when I went out on a walk tonight I saw a couple trampolines that looked as if they had been picked up, twisted and then thrown back down on the ground again.

We are lucky it wasn't worse.....this is the most intense storm I think I've ever witnessed, and I'm not sure I want to ever go through that again. What a night!

An Amazing Little Boy

I spoke before of an online friend who's little boy was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. He underwent a marrow transplant and the family just received news yesterday that there are still no signs of the disease - he is still in remission. The father of a little boy that was diagnosed with the same thing, and also had a transplant 9 years ago wrote to tell them they were using the wrong word; that Liam is CURED!

My arms and legs are tingling with goosebumps.....this is truly amazing, and I had to share. Please continue to pray, and be sure to stop by and visit his site.

I don't think I'll find it

Okay, so after searching and reading a bit further - what I thought might be the case - seems to be true. I'm guessing I'm not going to find any sort of Winnie the Pooh kits because of the copyrights and trademarks to Disney. This disappoints me greatly, as I'd love to create my own original invitation using the adorable Pooh Bear.

Now to come up with another idea....

Digital Scrappers, I need your help!

I'm looking for a Winnie the Pooh digital kit because I'm likely going to be throwing a small baby shower for a neighbor, and they are doing a Patchwork Pooh theme in the nursery, so I figured we'd carry the Pooh theme to the shower as well.

I've done a Google search, but haven't much luck. However, maybe you experienced digi-scrappers out there can help me!!!

Prayers Please

My sister came by yesterday to visit. She told me that on Friday she'll be going in for a colposcopy. Her pap came back abnormal. While she told me this, she had tears in her eyes. I'm worried, naturally. So, please .... any thoughts & prayers would be appreciated.

Christmas in July? ... Just another LO

Another LO. This is getting addicting.

Layout - Look Who's Two

Well, here's my second layout.



I'm not sure I really like it, but hey! I'm still learning!

Goin' Digital & A New Look

You may have noticed the new look here. I'm still learning, and I'd love to hear what you think, so be sure to leave a comment!

You see, I've taken a step into scrapbooking - digitally. I haven't been able to get into it with paper - it seemed I enjoyed things digitally much better, playing with PSP7 (a bit outdated now), editing photos I've taken and things of that nature. So when I continued to read and look at layouts on a friend's blog, I decided to see what it was all about.

I ended up finding a free kit online which I used to make the header, and the sidebar title graphics. I also used it to make my very first digital layout.

This is all still very new to me, but it's fun!

I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation

I swear I'm going to need another week just to recover from having this week off.

It's been practically nonstop. Parties, going here, get togethers, going there, houseguests, more visitors, the list goes on.

We had a house full of people on Saturday for the birthday party, then yesterday for the 4th of July, and now today we have more family over for a get together. Last night and tonight we'll have overnight guests, and tomorrow my Aunt & Uncle go back home to Connecticut.

I'm wiped. While I'm not looking forward to my family leaving, it'll be nice to return to a bit of normalcy for a few days before I return to work. Come Monday it's going to back to the daily grind.

Which, for my sanity, is probably a good thing. Don't get me wrong ... the kids have loved having me home, and I've enjoyed it as well. And they have been pretty good for the most part, but I think all the stimulation and the week's events are catching up to them, because they've been beasts today.

So, I'll end this so that I can go find somewhere to put my feet up and relax.

Hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th!

Pudding, Parties & Guests

I just finished making 2 big bowls of my "southern" banana pudding. It was the easiest thing I've ever made, and it was a huge hit last year when I made it for the first time. Now it's become a basic staple item for get togethers and bbq's.

In a little while I'll be heading to the bakery to pick up the cake & cupcakes and then coming home to do some decorating and getting the house straightened a bit more before guests start arriving for the Princess party.

It's hard to believe in less than 3 hours, our family will be landing at the airport, and shortly after they'll be here! It's been almost 2 years since we've seen them, so we are very excited. Braeden is over the moon!!! We've been having him cross off the days on the calendar so that he could track how long before they'd be here. On Thursday, he happily exclaimed "There's only ONE more day!" and yesterday he said "Tomorrow Aunt Kathy will be here!". Today he's staring out the window, telling me that it's a nice day, and that everyone will be here for this nice day. Hopefully the sun will come out a bit more rather than it being slightly overcast like it is now.

There's so much to look forward to this month. Today's party, our out-of-town guests, another game night, the block party. I even have a moderator bbq to attend next weekend, and we are attempting to arrange it so that we can attend a potluck open house tomorrow. I love being busy!