it's the little things

I went outside this morning and found balloons tied to the fence. Totally made my day. I'm not exactly sure who did it, but I have my suspicions. It sure is hard to stay grumpy when people are so nice.

pity party

My birthday is this week. I'm usually so excited and expect everyone to treat it like a national holiday and cater to my every whim. Ok, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.

This year, however, I'm a grump about it. In a way, I would just like everyone to ignore it. I don't want to be reminded that I'm getting older. But then I would probably be upset if that really happened. I was seriously considering taking my birthday off Facebook so people wouldn't remember. But I haven't. Yet. I haven't been on Facebook much lately, and I may not get on it until next week. See? I'm a grump. People have asked me what I want for my birthday, but I really don't know what to tell them because I just don't want to think about it. I did tell Gaston that I want a cake from Baskin-Robbins and that's pretty much it. I was also hoping to set a wedding date by my birthday, but it's not looking like that will happen., which is one reason I'm not looking forward to my birthday. I've just had a hard time acting happy when anyone mentions my birthday.

I know there are a lot of people who struggling with much worse things in their lives. My sis who lost her husband, my friend who lost her grandparents at the hand of her cousin, my 10-year-old former neighbor who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and several other people I know who are fighting various forms of that terrible disease, just to name a few. But I can have a little pity party for myself every once in awhile.

But actually, I did start to feel a little better about my birthday the past couple days. I'm meeting a friend for dinner tomorrow night, and I'm going to lunch this week with a couple coworkers. That helped. I'm happy I get to spend time with my friend tomorrow; I haven't see her since around Christmas. I wasn't planning on taking a day off work for my birthday, because I need to be a little careful about how much time off I take this early in the year, but I just might take Friday off. That would make me happier too.

Anyway, if you've made it this far in reading my ramblings, I'm impressed. But don't feel like you have to comment on anything. It's just nice to write out some of the things that have been on my mind. Therapeutic, even.

And if you wish me a happy birthday, I'll try not to be grumpy about it. But no promises. :-)

valentines

I love Valentine's Day! I don't really care about the romance side of it, however. I like making little Valentines and the cute decorations and making heart shaped sugar cookies. I actually had two of my nephews and one niece over last weekend to help me decorate sugar cookies. It was a lot of fun. At least I thought it was. My 9-year-old nephew decorated about three cookies, which he proceeded to eat, and then he was done. The 11-year-old decorated a few more than the ones he ate before he had enough of it. The 7-year-old stuck with me until the end. She had fun and was very creative.

Monday night, I made Valentine tags for my Sunbeams (the 3-year-olds I teach at church).

I used Papertrey Ink stamps and Memento ink on some Neenah cardstock. Then I colored them with Copics. I added a little Fired Brick Distress Ink to the edges of the tags, and then added some Stickles because you can always use a little glitter. ;-)

Then I punched holes and tied them to Mini M&Ms with bakers twine (blue is from Twisted Sugar Twine; red is The Twinery). Oh, I used Tombow adhesive.

Simple, but cute!

I'm still trying to figure out this app, so I'm not sure where the photos will end up on this post. I guess I'll find out!

things I want to remember

My bro-in-law's (LP) funeral was a week and a half ago. To say his death was unexpected and a shock to the whole family would be a complete understatement. There are some things I want to remember about the funeral, so I thought I'd make a note of them here while I think about it, and since it's convenient.

*sitting next to my 11-year-old nephew, Connor, during the viewing, talking to him, watching him play games on his Kindle, trying to solve brain teasers from a book he had

*watching my 16-year-old nephew, Taylor, sit on the other side of Connor until people started coming for the viewing. Then he got up and went to stand next to his mom without anyone telling him to. He just did it. He has a new level of maturity about him that I hadn't noticed before. I'm sad that he had to grow up and be the man in the house so quickly.

*the family prayer my bro gave

*walking into the chapel and seeing the impressive line of a dozen or so pilots on the stand. Seeing them standing there, mourning one of their own, made me cry.

*my sis playing "I Stand All Amazed" on the piano

*my sis deciding at the last minute to speak. She read a post from her blog called "Dear Taylor and Connor"

*the Bishop telling how he was in California when he heard the news of LP's death, and so he drove home as fast as he could. He said he even got his minivan up to 90 at one point, and somehow he knew LP was proud

*the Bishop telling of a girl who was watching the house next door to LP and Tammy while that family was on vacation, and when the girl went in the house, she discovered the back doors were wide open. She got scared and went to my sister's house. LP answered the door, and she explained what was going on. He told her to wait there, got one of his guns, and checked out the house. Everything was fine, however. He only took a pistol with him, but I still picture him charging next door with one of his big guns like some kind of action movie hero.

*the Bishop saying how he called LP before calling my sis to serve as Primary president, and asking if he would support her in a big calling that could take up a lot of her time. LP's answer "Absolutely."

*the rainy day, just like a funeral you would see in a movie

*the love a lot of people have for my sis and the boys

*my other bro's prayer at the graveside

*watching the casket being lowered into the ground

*the slideshow shown at the luncheon

*hanging out with the fam at my sister's home after it was over

*Gaston by my side throughout it all

*how hard it was to leave my sis and my nephews. I can't even imagine how hard this is for them. I wish I could do something to make everything better, but I know there's really nothing that I can do, except pray.

For more of Tammy's story, go to tammystimeflies.blogspot.com (Some day I'll figure out if it's possible to add links via the app)

trying something new

New for me, anyway.

I just discovered there is a blogger app for my phone. Am I the only one who didn't know this? Now maybe I will blog more than once every couple years. We'll see how it goes though. I won't promise anything just yet. :-) I'll have to see how it works, and if I like it.

Ok, I'll just start out with a fairly quick post that I'm stealing from Amy Tan of amytangerine.com, who borrowed the idea from someone named Tina. Amy linked to Tina on her blog post. It's not her last post, but it was within the last month. Anyway...

Currently:

Drinking: ice water
Eating: nothing else for the rest of the day. I had a huge cheeseburger from a hotel restaurant for lunch, and even though I couldn't finish it, I'm still not hungry
Listening: to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire while I work
Reading: The List by Melanie Jacobson - I love that book!
Feeling: happy to be going home
Weather: cold! But it is a little warmer than it has been lately
Wanting: warmer weather
Needing: to take my car to the shop
Wishing: I could take my sister's and my nephews' pain away, or at least lessen it a bit
Thinking: constantly about my nephews and my sister
Enjoying: Emily Owens, MD - so bummed it was cancelled!
Loving: that the days are getting longer

red, black and white

I had a lot of fun creating this card. I did a resist technique using two different stamps on the background, and then on the little white piece of cardstock, I again used two stamps and used a paper towel to blot some of the ink away from the middle of the stamp before I stamped the paper. I hadn't really done that before and I like how it turned out.

Here's the card: (Sorry for the dark pictures. Something went weird with my camera and I lost all the pics I had taken since Sunday, so I hurried and snapped these but I didn't take the time to edit them.)
And here's the close up:


Supplies:

Cardstock: Neenah
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Ranger, Versamark
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Perfect Pearls: Ranger
Embossing Powder: Stampendous
Brad: BoBunny
Mini Paper Clip: Tim Holtz
Adhesive: Tombow, Stampin' Up
Crochet Thread: Unknown

My mom actually crocheted that flower. I don't know what pattern she used or if she just made it up herself. I love it!

Happy Friday Eve!

halloween card

I've been taking another online class these past 2 weeks. Even though I have learned a lot of new techniques, I haven't really been in the mood to make a ton of cards. However, I did make this Halloween card. I love Halloween!

Here's the whole card:

And a close up of the embellishments:

I used the traditional resist technique for the background. I haven't done that before and I like how it turned out.

Here's the supplies:
Paper: WorldWin Papers, BoBunny, Provo Craft, Ranger
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Ranger, Versamark, Colorbox
Punches: We R Memory Keepers, EK Success
Button: Bazzill Basics
Brad: Doodlebug Design Inc.
Adhesives: Stampin' Up, Tombow, Zig Memory System

Thanks for stopping by! I'll have another card up here as soon as I can. This slow internet makes it hard.