Creating time
My youngest daughter's birthday was this week. I made this banner for her and hung it in her bathroom so she could see it first thing in the morning. She was pretty excited. Then it was off to her school to decorate her locker. Compete with her favorite altoids. I love it when I surprise my children, it is so much fun!! Happy Birthday Sweetheart!! I know this year is different because of living in a new place. I still hope you had fun and enjoyed the lemon bars!! You are ALWAYS my JOY!!

Mental note

I think I forgot how to scrapbook without a messy desk!! In my former scrapbook corner I had a 8ft long table that I could put some of my mess on while working. Now I'm down by 2ft and I think I have to relearn to do everything!!! arrrgghhh!!!

Promise I will be back soon with a few cute things I have been working on this week.

Loved the class!!

Can I say just how much I loved Wilna's class. It really helped me to get my creative side back in line! It sure is a struggle when you can't find your place!! So here are a few things that we made that I have finished. I had to take a break from fun stuff to finish a wedding present scrapbook that should have been done 7 months ago! Terrible I know but sometimes life just gives big curve balls and you end up going in an unknown direction. I just have to remember that today is a NEW DAY! When I was living closer to my Granddaughter I would pick her up once a week if I could and we would go for 'coffee'. I would get real coffee and she would get her chocolate milk which she believes to be coffee. This little miss has also been known to sneak some of her mommy's coffee when she isn't looking! Both of the pictures of one of our outings.This photo is of the man I share my coffee with every morning on the couch. It is a silly picture taken at a local park with us sitting on the metal goat. He is actually kinda cool because he actually eats garbage if you give it to him.I ended up making this little album for my Mother so she could keep it in her purse. I filled it with photos of her and my Dad with their great grandbabies. She got it in the mail the other day and called to say it was very special. I like making people's day!

Sometimes

It isn't for me to ask why things happen in my life. I know, it is a statement that some people just have to ask but I try very hard to stay away from. If I allow myself to go their sometimes it is easy for me to get caught up in it. I find myself wallowing in self pity and that doesn't make it all better. I don't want others to feel sorry for me and bringing that kind of attention to myself isn't what I want.

I however have been reflecting over the past 9 months and I just wish I could take some of it away. The BIGGEST thing that I KNOW is through all of this stuff......some I have shared here.....He is HIGHER!! Nothing else matters, the good, the bad and even the ugly. He knows what HE is doing........I don't need to worry He has my bases covered and He is taking care of me for, forever and always. Please take time today to listen to this from Hillsong, it may just change your life.

I have the awesome privilege to take Wilna's class. What a wonderful group of women I'm getting acquainted with from all over the world. There are 100 of us! I don't know what would happen if we all chatted at the same time though, scary thought......lol.

Well back to balancing I go, regular chores, shower, and sorting a pile of patterned paper mess. Then I will KNOW where it all is instead of being in 5 different places.

Whirlwind

That is what seems to be happening around here! A whirlwind of happenings, we had out of town guests over the weekend. So much fun!! No agenda other than to just relax, enjoy each others company, play a few board games, and hit the Spokane's Pig Out in the Park. They city takes Riverfront park and divides it into sections, adding food booths and stages for music. I tell you what, going with a group of people is the way to go. You end up spending less on
food when you all are sharing what you buy!! The kids road the Carousel which they haven't done since we visited Spokane 4 years ago. I need to take them again before they close it down for the season, next year they will celebrate 100 years......amazing!! If you like Carousels their site is full of fun information and coloring pages.

The kids are back at school and adjusting to getting up early. Tonight we will be going to our first football game of the season, not because we enjoy football but because Ethen will be marching. It should be a good game as it is with the rival teams of the Mead district. I'm sure there will be a lot of energy!

I'm getting back into my mom routine and finding balance, it is so nice. The only thing I haven't been able to get back to, is my scrap booking. I've felt the pull to do things for months but other stuff has come first. I have plans to take a online class with Wilna, which I have done before and enjoyed so much. If you get a chance, go check it out and take her new class she will be offering soon. The information she gives is worth every penny.

Here's to routine, balance, fun and just living in the moment.

Finished and Cleaned, part 2

I'm glad I was able to get back to posting the rest of my corner for you today. So here we go, welcome again to my little corner of the world.

This wall took me a long time to figure out how I wanted to do it. It is the only wall that was long enough to handle all my Iris drawers except for two sets. I also wanted to utilize the track lighting as much as possible. The two things I've added to this space are two cheap curtain rods from Target, cost plus clips $15. Then a repainted box from Michaels that I got for 75% off before I moved. I actually got two but the other one is not shown here but is the same color. My goal is to take some of the paper that I've collected and cut paper to fit into the fronts of the drawers. I think this will make my dh happy as far as making it look pretty.

Nothing to special about my white cabinet that houses my paper. It is still to be organized by season so I am not going to show you the inside!! On the top of it was just enough space for a few photo boxes that don't house photos.....lol. The black ones are my newest Fun Find just this week........Photo and embellishment boxes from Becky Higgins and Lisa Bearson at a discount store I found for $5 each!!

I LOVE all my color and organizational stuff. It has been fun to collect pieces here and there over the last few months. Thanks for stopping by, it was fun to share with you. NOW just to get a few scrappy friends to come over and share this with me then my world would be perfect!!

Finished and Cleaned, part 1

Well, at least for the time being my scrapbook space is clean. I'm very happy with how it has turned out. Come on in and take a look around. There is still some fine tuning to do but everything is in it's general area. Tune in later today for the other half!

My two work areas, my oak desk which is going to be good for small projects and my 6ft table that replaces my 8ft. In moving into my new space I had to do some rearranging to make sure everything fit so out went my long 8ft table.

The wall above my 6ft desk is probably one of my most favorite things. It is built in so it made things go pretty fast when unpacking. Underneath the bottom shelf is a 3 1/2" space which I was wondering what I could use it for. Then at my local Michaels store I found these little tins for $1 a piece! Love Fun Finds! I also don't have my own computer and desk anymore so I these tins hold everything that would be in my desk. Everything is in my go to colors.

All better

It is nice to 'finally' be feeling better after my little knee mishap. It took over two weeks for the scap to completely come off and go figure that now that it is off, I have a bruise. Oh well, hopefully I will be more careful and not have something like this happen again.

The last couple of weeks has been busy with taking my son to marching band camp at his new school. They perform at football games and also several competitions throughout the season so it should be a lot of fun for him. It is wonderful to see him find his place. It is hard to believe that he is in High School now and registered for classes. He is taller than me now and more handsome than I ever could have imagined.

School starts in just over a week. I think everyone is anxious about getting life back to a little bit of normal, especially after this summer's move. After a couple of weeks of getting settled into a school routine my plan is to look for a part time job. I'm not exactly sure what I want to do but I want to like what I do. That is something that is extremely important to me, not that I'm going to be looking for the perfect job but just something fun.

Speaking of fun we will be having our first few visitors this weekend. It seems that a few have decided that they all wanted to come the same weekend. I sure don't mind! It is going to be so nice to see family and friends. I'm actually excited and I haven't been excited in months!!

Well, back to chores and finishing my scrapbook space! Yep, it is ALMOST done!! Can't wait to share.

Falling Down

It seems in life that we all have our ups and downs. The last few months for me have been somewhere in between. Moving for me hasn't been the happiest of things, leaving somewhere that I lived for 19 years has just hurt. I KNOW that this move was the right thing for our family. It just doesn't make it any easier to leave what you have known, a place that you have become comfortable with....safe.

It has taken me six weeks to get comfortable with my new house and all the new surroundings. I've learned that it just takes time but time is what you make it. Working on different parts of the house can be draining but also very rewarding. The photos of my children are up on the wall, I'm now surrounded by pictures of family, and my Grand babies......who I miss terribly! The comfort that I was missing is coming into view for me and I am becoming happier because of it.




About the only thing that hasn't made me happy the last few weeks is falling down. I felt pretty silly about how it happened and quite embarrassed. I was on my way to meet a new friend, Stacy who happens to be a Close to my Heart consultant at a local Starbucks. I was so excited about meeting her AND seeing the new catalog that I wasn't paying any attention to where I was walking!! I fell down directly on top of my left knee. Quite embarrassing to have to hobble into Starbucks and ask for a wet towel because you have blood flowing down your leg! Not to mention sitting down and then seeing your new friend and introducing yourself while you are cleaning your bleeding knee! I can laugh now but it hurt so bad and for anyone that thinks hydrogen peroxide doesn't sting you are soooo wrong!! It has healed nicely in a week and the scab is starting to fall off.



Today marks a mile stone in my Granddaughter Piper's little life.....she is "2", time goes by so fast even more so now that I have Grandchildren!! Happy Birthday to Granny's little princess! I can't wait to hear about your reaction when you get your package in the mail at the end of the week. Hopefully you will enjoy what I've made for you! I love you more Piper!!

More Settling

The house is getting better! We are actually being able to have some down time from working every waking minute, that is even better. Through this move I realized I like order. I'm not a mental case when it comes to it but I LOVE having everything in its place. OOOOOooooo, I was even able to vaccum for the first time in 3 wks!!

My feet were so swollen the week of the move that I couldn't wear any shoes. I'm so glad they are back to normal and that my feet aren't in so much pain. I don't wish feet pain on anyone!!

I have shared my boxes of my packed scrapbook room in an earlier post. So today I will share with you the continued moving of a scrapbook room. It looks something like this.........

My Iris drawers that I store everything in. They are getting ready to go into the truck

In the truck they go, along with everything else. The movers were giving me a bad time about all my stuff. How much stuff can a person have? I laughed and told them ALOT when you do a bit of everything.

Here we are in my new scrapbook corner. I had to open one of my boxes because it was crushed. I'm happy there was no damage to them, it would have been sad.

I've unpacked all these boxes and am in the process of organizing. I'm happy to report that things are shaping up quite well. The only tragedy I have had is my sun lamp for my desk was broken. I thought I packed it well enough but I didn't. I will have to make due with one of my other lamps until the other house sells. I found that my sun lamp really helped me during the winter months while I was working. I had found it a few years ago at Costco so maybe as fall approached they will carry them again.

So stay tuned later this week for my finished scrapbook corner. I'm sure you will find it a happy place!! I know I do!

Settling in

We are alive, sore and all around tired. We have managed to get everything into 50% of its finally resting place. Washer, dryer have been hooked up and I've been doing laundry for a couple of days. We used a lot of bedding to wrap things, then had a few things leak.....yuck! All in all nothing was broken durning the move. That makes me happy.

I will share more about the move in the next few days. I'm finally getting settle enough that I can actually sit down without the guilt of having boxes to unpack. The only major place that hasn't even been touched is my corner of the familyroom, which is my scrapbook space. I'm getting the itch to be creative so I'm sure it will happen in due time.

More Moving

Is there anyone in this world that really likes to move? To you I give you a high five! I've decided for me that moving just sucks.

My scrapbook room is 75% complete and these are most of my boxes. Okay, well maybe there are a few missing because they are housed in the garage.......lol. Yes, a lot of stuff but it will be time to do some serious sorting when I set up my new space. I just couldn't do it all before the move, so this just means I will have something big to do over the summer.

So it is official, we own our new home in Spokane, here's to owning two homes at once! Hope that doesn't last long. My step-mom was willing to drive the kids and I up to Spokane on Wednesday. I was just a little freaked out on driving by myself. I know, that I'm going to have to get use to driving it on my own so it was nice of her to be willing to do that. No sight seeing this time except for showing her the house. The kids love it and their rooms. The kids seemed mostly amazed about how green everything was and it really dawned on them that they are going to be 'real' city kids. I feel some ground rules coming on! Any advice?

This is our backyard, complete with trampoline left behind from the previous owners. Kids are voting to keep it, while dear hubby sees it as a emergency room visit waiting to happen. We shall see who wins out by next weekend.



The official moving date starts this upcoming Monday with our first load and the second following on Wednesday. DH thinks I have more than him because I have smaller boxes........hhhhhmmmm, not sure about that one. I did tell him at closing that he doesn't have any room to talk about what I spend on my scrapbooking supplies because of his two BIG hobbies, photography and music.(big amplifiers, guitar toys and at least 5 cameras) I guess we all learn to bend over the years for each other. This is just half of his room!

I will update more when I can. We make the calls to hook up the utilities in the new house today plus get our phone transferred, which means I will more than likely loose my Internet connection for a few days. I just have to remind myself that this to shall pass. I'll be back catching everyone up soon!

Moving

The day of moving is going to come faster than I think I am ready for, around the 30th. I sat for an hour and cried on Sunday night when DH asked me how fast I wanted to move. 10 years of my life has been in this house. I can walk into any part of it and see my grown girls at different ages, doing different things. It is crazy how emotionally attached I am to this house. It is easier to hand the keys over to someone else then to still have this house be ours until it sells.

When does the excitement come? Right now, all I can seem to think about it is not having 'go to' friends right away. Oh and the fear of getting lost, even though people have told me it is easy to get around. I've lived in this town for most of my life, at the drop of a hat I can tell you where the good places to go to shop are to get the best deal. DH asked if we were all getting excited yet. I told him I wasn't and he didn't like that answer. This all just takes time to get use to and you can prepare yourself for anything but when you are in the midst of it......well, it is hard.

I did promise pictures and I only have a few. I decided most of the photos I want to show you, are going to have to wait. However, these are among my favorites.

This is the entry way and my favorite here are the skylights. Everything in this house is open and I just love not feeling closed in anywhere.

And looking up from the landing. Yep, mirrors on the closets. It makes everything look bigger and I'm always wanted a banister like this!

This is going to be my scrapbook corner. For 10 years I've been in the family room so I didn't see any point in changing that now. I am in love with the built in shelves. Can't wait to make it my own!(no the TV doesn't stay, it belongs to the former owners.

Thanks for stopping by today and listening to rantings of a mean-o-pausal woman, Hot flashes included!

Series of events

So the series of events this week has left our heads in a cloud. It started out with two phone calls from my DH's boss. It made my DH nervous and he ended up not sleeping well on Monday night. This was one time I was glad he was working in Spokane! His boss was pretty general, asking how everything in his new position was working out. Only big stress is he isn't up there full time, so then that led to why. Truly there isn't much we can do about the sale of our house but in order to purchase a house in Spokane we have to have the equity from this house.

There conversation with my DH's company loaning us the down payment for the new house! What that says for my DH! He has been humbled this week, in relizing his position with the company now. They have faith that he can do this sales job, it is a big step. A job you work your whole life for.

So..............we made an offer on the house we love this week and it was accepted yesterday morning! We will have to carry two mortgages for a little while however I just exspect God to intervene and bring the buyers for this house, before we move completely to Spokane. No closing date yet, all I know is it will be soon! So I'm packing and doing more organizing.

I'm looking forward to taking the summer and moving into our new house. To be settled with everything in its place is important to me. It has been difficult the last few months for me to not have my normal things around me. I promise I will share more photos through the coming weeks!!

Fun Finds

So I have this problem.......I am always on the look out for fun organizational tools! It is an addiction that I'm not afraid to admit to, however what I fear is I may have to many....lol. Wait can you ever have to many??? HHHhhhhmmmm, I may have to think about that one.

So as my sights are being set on sometime soon moving into our new house, I'm looking for things that will work. I'm in LOVE with Target's $1 spot!! I don't have to feel like I have broken my bank account buying things. Oh and my other favorite is, Target end caps........a couple of years back I found 12x12 magnetic boards for like $3 each. To that I added spice containers with magnets on the bottom. That is what I use to hold a good deal of my scrapbooking accessories. This was in the $1 spot at Target but it was $2.50, it will be a nice addition to the medium and large size lime green ones I found this past fall at TJ Max!! I love using them for mini albums.

I also like going to my local Goodwill. Sometimes you can find cool things and I feel I scored big time this past week! I found these tins with hangers for .99cents each. I'm hoping to be able to hang them from a cool curtain rod.

Oh and another problem I have is dishes. Ceramic plates and bowls are among my favorites. As our children have grown up we have replaced all of our cheap dishes with Stoneware. Our main colors are Cobalt Blue, Lime Green, Dark Plum, and Tan. We have a few that have wine grapes on them. My favorite place to go for dishes is Pier 1. This week I struck gold.....see out of everything we have for dinner plate they have matching salad plates except my lime green ones. I've been searching for two years and guess what Pier 1 came out with for the summer? Lime Green plates with Daisies on them. Perfect! I haven't even used them yet, they will be for the new house. They just make me so happy.

I'm a firm believer in surrounding yourself with things that make you happy. So do that today, don't allow others to steal your JOY. Find what makes you happy, just sit and enjoy it. Soak it in and while you are slowing down, look at the beauty around you. You might be surprised what you see in a new way.

Just keeping busy......

Nothing new on the house. The weather around here has been weird which doesn't lend itself well to showing houses. sigh So we wait, mean while having to do everything we can to not get stressed out. It doesn't always work, it just gets to you not having a place to call your own. The kids are out of school offically Tuesday at 10am. So God if you are reading this.......please don't make us wait to much longer before an offer.

In trying to keep myself busy I am doing more sorting of things. This week the goal is to pack more boxes and my rolling scrapbook bag. That way when we do move, at least I can have a few projects to keep me creative at the new house. Speaking of being creative, I've been up to a few things and they have helped so much in keeping my stress level down. A few of the things I have been holding onto are dried flowers that belong to my oldest daughter from all of her dances. The decision was made to not take them with us when we move so I found these great frames with a felt background, mounted the flowers inside the frames then sent them on there way to my oldest daugther. Hope she enjoys them! The one to the right is a bouquet of flowers I gave to her for her 16th birthday. I had even found a teddy bear to match the coral colored roses. I think adding the picture of the bear was a nice touch.



At my local scrapbook store some wonderful paper came in! Well, most all of it is wonderful! My downfall beautiful and fun papers!! So here is to fun with some K&Company paper with the cutest mushrooms on it!! This is a stand up 5x7 arylic frame.

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Friends?

Over the last few months I've been thinking about so many things. There are so many, that sometimes, I HAVE felt like I am a horse with blinders on. It is what I have to do to keep my life free from stress because when I am under stress I tend to get migraines that will last for days.(even when I take my medication) I don't like my life with migraines!

One of the things that has been on my mind a great deal has been friends. With all the changes that have been made and that are going to be made very soon, you can't help but wonder. Do you really make a difference to those around you? Why in the face of a tragedy like the death of my brother do the friends you thought were your friends, are no where to be found? I know life is busy for everyone but I truly feel that, that is a choice. Anyone can make a choice to slow down enough to at least pick up the phone, post a email to just say you care. I don't expect anyone to have answers or special words for what I have faced.

Friends coming in and out of my life is something I am not sure I will ever get use too. I really don't like it, it makes it hard to trust people with who you really are. Now don't get me wrong I love my friends, each for a different reasons. I just don't understand the silence. I can count on one hand how many times someone has taken the time to really ask how I am over the course of the last 4 months.(and REALLY want to know the answer.)

I can say without any doubt for anyone that cares, I'm good. I've been able to step past Gregory's death, moving on. He would have wanted that anyway, he wasn't about being fussed over. So to those who haven't called, emailed or phoned. I still love you and I'm making it on my own. I am not angry with you, just realizing that you were in my life for a season. Hopefully, you will be a part of my new season too. It is going to be exciting!!

And the winner is.........

BUT before I tell you who the winner is I must say Thank you to everyone for stopping by the last few days!! It has done my heart good to know that at least a few people read what I write.

Mother's Day was relaxing, which was so nice to not have to do much of anything! I had already purchased my present from Royal Totes so I wasn't expecting anything else. My husband did make me a wonderful Pork Sparerib Dinner with our favorite special sauce.(right from Martha Stewart....lol) He ended up making them to spicy so he made me some plain ones. My son in law brought my daughter, granddaughter and grandson over to spend a little while with us while he went to work for a few hours. It was nice and Miss Piper was on her best behavior, if I do say so myself.

Today has been spent tiding up the house for the realtor walk through tomorrow. I made a trip to Costco and bought some muffins to set out for them. Along with some bottled Starbucks frappicinos and water, hopefully it will make them feel welcome in my home and above all help them to remember my house!!

So with my small highlights out of the way, I will now tell you who has won. I started by printing off everyone's name, cut them into strips and then placed them into a favorite small bucket. My youngest daughter Michaela drew out the name..........Kelly Westlund!!! Now, since Kelly and I are good friends, I decided to choose one more name because well I just LOVE making people happy!! So my second winner is Judy Anderson!!! These two lovely ladies will receive a handmade mini-book and Making Memories paint in there go to colors. Both of you please email me your addresses so I can get your Mother's Day present out to you.

I promise as soon as I know these ladies have their books in hand I will post them so you can see too. Enjoy ladies!!

Little bit of this and a little bit of that

So in the course of getting this house ready to sell I've been doing ALOT of reorganizing. One of my projects that I've been wanting to do for sometime is organize my chipboard. I LOVE chipboard but find it frustrating to remember where I stash it. Then I loose interest in finding just the right piece for my project.

I started by putting my chipboard into piles. On my clean desk I might add and that doesn't happen very often!

Then my piles went into these drawers. I put A-B, C-D and E-F etc. together. Drawers were purchased at Ikea and come unassembled. They are just plain pine boxes that you can do anything with. I LOVE them!! I'm so very happy with the result. They match my other drawers in my scrapbookroom which I painted about 2 years ago.

I drilled holes in the drawers and then tied on the tags.

Yes, my accessories are sorted according to color. I would never go back to them all in one drawer again.

Bottom two drawers here are my larger chipboard on sheets and rubons.

This drawer set I found at a business yard sale for $1. With each of these sets I painted the outside of it with Ceramcoat Caribbean Blue and the drawers with Americana Acyclic paint in Honey Brown. These colors with a few others seem to be my GO TO colors. They make me happy and that is why I've chosen to have them be a BIG part of my scrapbookroom. Tell me about your GO TO colors and why you GO TO them. I'll enter you in on a special drawing on Mother's Day for a special prize. Have a great weekend!!

Not much news


Well, off my list the other day everything got done! I was pretty impressed with myself. I usually start with a list only to get half of what I wanted to get done, then move the rest to another page for another day. Then the list gets misplaced and I have to start all over again. Then I find my orginal to do list. I think I have to made pads of paper or can you really have to many? Okay, that was random, sorry.

National Scrapbook Day was wonderful! I had so much fun and I got a lot done in the midst of teaching a couple of mini classes. My youngest daughter came with me and she worked on a teacher's gift. It is about 85% finished so that is wonderful.

This was part of one of my mini technique demonstration. I was going to have everyone do a hands on but they just wanted to look, so that is what I ended up doing.


The technique was resisting with clear embossing powder over patterned paper.(a nice reminder from Tim Holtz) Then I painted over the whole tag with Making Memories Black paint. Let it dry then wipped off the excess. Love it when people oooo and aaahhh over things they have forgotten they can do.




This card was created from some left over pieces from the above project. No special technique just a lot of tearing and inking with Vintage photo Distress ink from Ranger. Stamps used here and above: Make it count from Close to my Heart.

I didn't create this as part of National Scrapbook Day but for my daughter Nicole's birthday a few weeks ago. It is a 12x12 canvas painted a rust color. Then I modge podged the paper and photos onto it. These are some of the most favorite phtos of my girls I own. They grown up to fast. I did them each layouts for their albums with these same photos which I believe are somewhere in my archives.

Prayer

For anyone that comes across this little blog, that doesn't get updated very often PLEASE, PLEASE pray for the sale of our house. We made the decision this week to drop our price by $10,000. Our realtor agreed with us and did take a look again at the prices around Yakima. They are right in line with everyone else so we feel confident that this was the right thing to do. Next week will be another realtor walk through and probably an open house.

I'm remaining creative and cleaning up after myself, which is a big feet in itself!! I tend to leave my projects out until completed......hello, doesn't everyone? I made a decision to teach at my local scrapbook store this weekend for National Scrapbook Day, so I'm looking forward to doing something for me. It gives me the warm fuzzies to help other people with what I LOVE to do! So four mini classes, three demos with the chance of some hands on for those attending. Then one with just a talk about color, how it pertains to our life as scrapbookers,which will lead into how to pick mats for your photos. A number of years ago I taught this same class as part of a workshop I did. It went over well so with a new group that it would be fun to pull something from my archives.

On my to do list today, which I will bore you with since I'm hoping if I write it here it will get all done!!
*Day starts with picking up the house in case it is shown.
*Onto a couple of errands
*Another cup of coffee to drink
*A a quilt to start on for my niece, fabric is cut just need to start sewing
*Pull everything for my classes together, in one place
*Figure out what projects I'm going to work on for National Scrapbook Day. I will be at the scrapbook store for 14 hours. So help me I better get something done!! lol
*Figure out a meal for this evening.......... I'm thinking soup.
*Love on the man of my dreams, who is coming home today! It will be so nice to have him around more often. Yes, an adjustment but such a long time in coming!! I am sooo ready!

Dang, I'm getting tired just looking over the list.......best get started!! Remember to pray!!

Waiting

This is the hardest thing!! Waiting, everything hinges on the sale of your house. I'm finding it sooo hard to look at the big picture, of all the things that need to be done. I've taken a bit of time off from packing to just be creative. It has helped me to focus on the tasks that I can do now, until moving day. It still doesn't make the wait easier.

Our house has been on the market for two weeks, we have had two showings, a realtor walk through and an open house. Which NO ONE showed up too!! This darn cooler weather has managed to take everyone back indoors so much for global warming. I know I've walked into exspecting our house to sell right away, after all everything else has fallen into place.

So we wait.........dreaming of our new home. Yes, we have an eye on one which we are hoping doesn't sell until we have our dollars. We talk about having a larger home so we can still have a music room and then I would get my own scrapbookroom. However, that would mean more to clean and if I wait just a few years we will have two more out of the house.

Things to think about, while waiting!! Why does it always have to be about the WAIT?

Well it has happened!
Today is the day that we have put our house on the market. It still is hard to believe we are leaving here in a few short months, starting on a new adventure. We truly do love it here but sometimes life takes turns and you just have roll with it. That is what we are trying to do, just roll with it!!

I've been cleaning, sorting, throwing and packing. It seems like a never ending job when you have lived somewhere for 10 years!! I do feel a lot lighter in spirit and have been able to let go of more things than I thought I would be able to. I've made 8 car load trips to my local Goodwill.

All last week the kids and I worked on the upstairs, durning their spring break. They worked soooo hard!! I am terribly proud of them. They have been highly rewarded for their efforts.

As you can see the most to busiest rooms in the house look wonderful!! They have even managed to stay that way!!! Now, to finish the family room.

Time

Time goes by so fast anymore, sometimes I just can't believe it. This past month since my brothers death seem to be just a blurr. I've done so many things but then can't really tell you what I've done! The days of the week just get lost and I'm constantly looking at my calendar to make sure I don't miss important appointments.

Cleaning and sorting my house is what is happening. The goal is to be ready by the end of next weekend to list the house for sale. I'm letting go of things that I can easily replace and having a chance to consolidate my other craft stuff. I've realized through all of this how much stuff I've learned over the years. I've tried so many things but FINALLY found what I LOVE!! My scrapbooking, it is my life and I'm always excited about it.

So the goal this week of Spring break with my kids, is to finish the garage, and start the process of going threw my scrapbookroom. At least the iris drawers I use can be packed the way they are for the most part. Then when it comes to moving I can just tape the drawers shut. That will make moving day so much easier!!

So to those who visit my blog, do you have any suggestions for moving? Things I need to avoid doing? or maybe things you would have done different in your move of your scrapbookroom?

Calm in the midst of the storm.......

It has been 4 weekends since we as a family have had a quiet weekend. Between people being gone(me on my trip), my brother's death, and everyone getting the flu it just hasn't been very relaxing. Coming off of all this has left me emotional. I would like nothing better than to be able to just let things go for awhile and do my own thing.

However that can't happen, we now face my husbands promotion with needing to sell the house.(we do have a potential buyer, hope it works out!!) Finding a new house in North Spokane, moving, getting the kids into their new school, new doctors, new dentist.........it is hard to remain calm. Sometimes I swear I feel like I'm going to loose my mind!!

Then I feel the calmness and peace which allows me to concentrate on the tasks at hand.

To add to my week.........

we have my youngest sick home from school for two days, to this we add......Granddaughter coming down with her first case of the flu, her Mommy coming down with it too. Thinking everyone was getting better so bring Granddaughter to my house. Only to have Granddaughter start puking again in the middle of the night, to this we add..........going and picking up her Mommy to take her to the hospital for dehrdraion. Getting her back to my house and settled in 3 hours later because no one needs to be alone, with a 5 week old baby when you have the flu. Then we add to the mix again, cat puking on stairs, and son telling me he doesn't feel so hot.

Sigh.......can I just start my week over???

Sometimes in life we are not to ask why........

A week ago today I was having brunch with my step mom and my daughter. We had flown in to see family and spend a glorious week of loving on Grandbabies.

It was a week ago today that my step brother Gregory decided to end his life. It is in this that you DO question why, why did he feel that he couldn't change? Why did he choose of all places my house? Such much selfishness comes into play. He said that he knew the pain that was coming for all of us, but that he was just to lazy to change. You just don't know whether to be mad or sad.



I tried so hard to make him relize that he just wasn't my step brother. We were flesh and blood and to me that is the biggest thing. I didn't care if we only had the same Dad, it really didn't matter to me. He was my brother and always will be.
He seemed happier the last few months. Yes, he had tried to end his life two times before this, so when it happened everyone didn't seem so shocked. He would have found a way somehow, it didn't matter. He was just waiting for the right time. His note said that 'the third time is a charm'. I will never use those words ever again.


I truly thank God himself for protecting my children from finding him. I had a very dear friend coming at mid morning to take care of our little dog and cats. She and her husband were the ones that found him, called 911 and my husband. I can not imagine what they saw. I can't take the images away that are in their dreams. Oh how I want too!! I want to make everything okay. Time heals all wounds and I pray that it heals, taking the ugliness with it.

Gregory Lawerence Holmes, I will always love you. Your sister, Juel