Dad's Birthday Gift, Wendy's "Poof" Fairy and a Surprise for Maddy Moose (but don't tell her, Jodie! lol)

I finally finished the little scrapbook I was working on for my dad's birthday. I had done myself a "book of Dad" not too long ago, but I decided I would do one for him for his birthday, which is next week. Dad's not a sentimental kind of guy so I don't know what he'll think of this. I hope he likes it, though. He's so hard to choose gifts for. I think that's true of most dads, huh? Anyway, here's the cover (this book is only 6" x 6"): The next picture tells, on the left side, of 12 things my father taught me. The right side tells of twelve things my father never taught me. I used the same photo, but used a program that makes it look like a water-color painting. Then for the picture on the right, I reversed the image and changed it to black and white.These next pages show my dad's parents (on the left) and on the right is a picture of Dad with his brothers, individual pictures of his sisters and a single picture of me.

This next one shows, on the left, an action shot of Dad sliding into 3rd base. He used to play on a softball league out at Tinker Air Force Base. Those games were a lot of fun to watch. The right side shows Dad demonstrating his perfect bowling form! My parents were always in a bowling league when we were growing up. In fact, that bowling alley is where I got my first real job. First I was a waitress in the snack bar, but kept forgetting to give people silverware. Then they switched me to short order cook. I still can't believe they didn't just fire me and be done with it. lol I think it's because the owners liked my parents so much, they didn't have the heart to tell them their daughter was a dork!

The next page I did (below on the left) tells my dad about some of the things I feel certain I inherited from him. (most of which I'm sure he'll agree with!) The page on the right is a picture of Dad and his lovely wife, Wendy.

These next pages show Dad's kids on the left and Wendy's kids on the right. His and Hers.

And then "theirs" (below) - the left page is all the grandchildren that Dad and Wendy have, combined. I whited out the names because I don't know if their parents would want their names all over my blog. The page on the right is a note to Dad from me. I blocked out some of it because that part is particularly personal.

And here's the back cover, featuring my brand-spanking new stamp that I so love. I know you guys are wondering why I've started showing so much scrapbooking stuff lately, aren't you? Well, aren't you? You're interested enough to wonder, right? (Say yes. You know I need the validation. lol) Anyway, the answer is simple. It's the easiest way I know to show this stuff to my daughter-in-law, Jodie. Loading these pictures onto e-mail takes forever and a day. Unfortunately, it means I'm now boring you guys to tears, I'm sure, but bear with me. I at least tried to make the background of the pictures bright and happy so they'd look halfway interesting. :)

Moving on...has anybody else seen these "Poof" fairies? I love 'em. I found them at our local Hallmark store and they just crack me up. Wendy's birthday is a few days after Dad's so I got her a "Poof" fairy to celebrate. It says "Poof! You're 29!". LOL They have ones that say "Poof! The dishes are done!" and "Poof! The house is clean!" (I could really use one of those...). Here's what they look like, although the different phrases come in different colors. They're so ugly, they're cute.

This next picture is NOT FOR MADDY'S EYES, JODIE! Do NOT let Maddy see this! This is the new Build-a-Bear they came out with today. It's a Topaz bear. I had to get it for the Moose because Topaz is her birthstone (she's a November baby). This is the cutest little thing! I named her Daisy May. Shut up, you guys! I happen to like that name! Although I kind of wish now that I had named her Buttercup, 'cause that's what I think of when I look at her. Not that I've been playing with her or anything. ha! The trick will be for us to hold off giving this to Maddy before her birthday. It's hard to hang onto something that long. It's the reason I can't shop for Christmas gifts throughout the year...I always end up giving the gifts waaaaay before Christmas and then I have to buy more.

Okay - that's enough goofiness for now. It's almost midnight (Yikes!). Time for all little bear buying, fairy poofing, scrapbook making chicks to be in bed. Goodnight, ya'll!

More Therapy, er...I mean, Scrapbooking

I had a wildly narcissistic urge to do a book featuring pictures of me from the past. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that. I feel like I should be doing books of my loved ones rather than of myself. However, having said that, I also have to say that it was, surprisingly, pretty therapeutic to do. I used 15 pictures of myself, taken between 1965 and 1996 and put them into a 6"x4" chipboard booklet. The picture above shows what the cover looks like. Above is the inside cover page and the first picture.
I made little envelopes and tags for each page and wrote something about each picture on the tags.

I didn't include a picture of each page, but you get the idea, right? The pictures weren't all that thrilling to look at, but I found that remembering what was going on in my life at the time they were taken was somewhat...enlightening, to say the least. I realized several things. The biggest of which was that somewhere along the way, I forgot that life was about more than paying bills and disciplining kids and trying to please people. I realized that I have gotten into a strange little habit of focusing on everything that's wrong in my life and have stopped enjoying everything that's right. I'm telling you people...stop spending your money on a therapist and start scrapbooking. You'll find yourself swimming in a veritable ocean of mind-boggling epiphanies about your life and the path your life has taken. lol You'll also probably figure out that all those times you've worried about this or that have been moments wasted! Now before you all start thinking I've turned over a whole new leaf and will be leading the International Choir of Sisterhood and Love in a rousing rendition of Kumbaya, let me assure you that ain't gonna happen. I expect I will always be a little bit surly, especially when it comes to politics, celebrities and other great injustices of the world. (Hey, some things will always cause me to rant and rave and no amount of warm and fuzzy feelings will change that. I mean heck, I've been trying to improve my outlook on life, not trying to channel Mahatma Ghandi!) Let's just say that I'm making a humongous effort to acknowledge my blessings and embrace the good in life. Because, as I said on the inside cover page of my little "me" book, I don’t want to spend any more time wondering if I've lived the best I could. I want to know I did.

I'm Back. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe....

Hello. Anybody out there? Probably not. I only thought I was talking to myself before. Now I know I am. lol I'm slowly coming out of the darkness, so to speak. Too many personal problems, not enough clarity to address them all. That just about describes things for me. Anyway, some things are starting to look up and, at this point, I'll take what I can get! Meanwhile, as I wallered in my cesspool of pity, my father got sick. He was hospitalized for about a week. His lungs and heart are giving him problems. It was way hard to see him down like he was. Your dad is supposed to be Superman, right? Well I guess even Superman has issues with Kryptonite, doesn't he? Still...I would give just about anything for my dad to be happy and whole. He's earned it. When I came back from Oklahoma this past Monday, I decided to work on a little scrapbook about my dad. I guess I'm just looking for ways to express how much he means to me. Sometimes I don't think he knows his importance in all our lives. I remembered a project that Cheryl over at Life with Cheryl had done for one of her daughters using a child's board book. She claimed it was a fast, easy and fun scrapbooking project and she was right! I'm posting the pictures of it for Jodie to see. I went to Goodwill today and found 5 or 6 more board books because I can't wait to make more of these. Like Cheryl, I plan on keeping them in a basket in the living room. They're small enough (this one is about 8"x8") for people to browse thru just for fun. Kaleb and Jacob got a kick out of looking at some of the older pictures of Dad, too. Great project, Cheryl. Thanks for telling about it. The above picture is just showing the side "pages". I added a ribbon so that I can tie it shut since it doesn't lay flat.
This is the front cover. I printed the picture on cardstock instead of photo paper.
See that piece of sheet music I used for the background? I found a old hymn book at the flea market for about a $1. I tore out a sheet and burned the edges. I thought it looked pretty cool with Dad's old high school band pictures.

These are pictures of my dad's brothers and sisters.
Here's dad's military pictures and a picture of our family when my sister and I were young. It's a shame that just about the only picture I could find of the four of us together shows me with my back turned. Typical of me. lol
Here's some random pictures of Dad. The long one on the far left is my favorite. Jake was looking at it and he says, except for the hair, he thinks it looks like Nicholas. That's kind of funny since Dad and Nick both think they're the prettiest things on the planet anyway. ha!
Here's a picture of my sister, me and my dad that was taken at Bricktown in OKC a few years ago and, on the last page, a picture of Dad with his wife, Wendy.
The back cover was done with plain paper and stamps. Then I stamped Dad's name on the spine. So what do you think? Not bad for just a few hours work, huh? It felt great to "celebrate" my dad in this project and going through all the pictures was an experience, too. So many memories that I'd let slip to the background. Finding them again has given me even more ideas for ways to save them via scrapbooks. I've decided that scrapbooking may be even better for me than going to a therapist! ha,ha And probably cheaper, too. Hope to be back to regular blogging soon. As I said, things are starting to look up. It's good to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Just hope it isn't the proverbial train coming down the tracks to plow me over!

Christmas Catch-Up

Our Christmas season still hasn't completely wound down and I should be finishing up a few items to take to Oklahoma with us tomorrow, but I'm blogging instead. I'm afraid I'll be evicted from Blogland if I don't post something longer than a paragraph so here goes. (Got that cup of coffee or gallon of tequila ready? Okay...then let the rambling begin!) I was lucky enough to receive a lot of great things this year and I'm grateful for those who thought of me (and sometimes I really can't imagine why they chose to gift me with things...my attitude usually doesn't warrant such kindness. lol). Randey gave me a bottle of Brighton's Laugh perfume. I have Annie to thank for introducing me to the wonderful smells of Brighton perfumes. I bought myself the bottle of Dream - which I dearly love - way back in August, I believe, and Randey and the boys got me the bottle of Love for my birthday in September. Randey's decided that Laugh is his favorite (which is reason enough to wear it every day forever).
Randey also found me another Jim Shore cat, this one named Freedom. I already have Patience, Vigilance and Curiosity and Freedom fits right in with those three. There's something about these particular cats that I love. They just make me smile whenever I see them. Maybe because these cats don't make me sneeze!
Nick and Jodie sent me, among other things, a couple of Nicholas Sparks books and some clear stamps for scrapbooking and cardmaking. Actually, the "coffee" set of stamps were for my birthday (right, Jodie?) but I included them in the picture because I can't seem to quit looking at them. I'm all excited to use them. And Jodie, Susan got me an embosser for Christmas so I'll let you know how that works out (need to get some brown embossing powder so i can use my tasty looking Hot Chocolate stamp). Yum-o! As to the Nicholas Sparks books, Jodie's read them all and I've been saying for quite awhile that I'm going to read them, too. Now I have no reason not to. My only problem is getting hooked on them because then I'll feel compelled to buy every one he's ever written (Nick comes by his obsessive collecting honestly!).
Kaleb, who turned 17 years old just this past Thursday (Happy Birthday, son!!), got me this soup tureen for Christmas. Isn't it beautiful? I have developed this strange fetish for soup tureens lately and I can't even begin to tell you why. I just love them and feel the need to collect a couple (or a couple hundred, if I'm lucky -ha). I'm up to 3 now...and this one is my favorite, for obvious reasons. What a great kid, huh? And speaking of Kaleb being a great kid, look at what else he got me...this Darth Vader snowglobe! How goofy is this? I have to laugh at the thought of Vader making his list and checking it twice. Pretty sure this is one list no one wants to be on....

My Star Wars Christmas didn't stop there. My Aunt Ginger sent me this:
I don't care who you are, this is just plain funny. Darth Vader using a frozen Death Star to make snowballs. Oh come on! Yeah, yeah, yeah...so Vader and Christmas don't exactly go hand in hand. But it's still funny.
Aunt Ginger also sent this absolutely adorable figurine. It's R2-D2 all decked out for Christmas. R2 and Luke Skywalker are my all-time favorite Star Wars characters. I didn't even know they made this little Christmas figure so you can imagine how excited I was when I opened it. Awesome, huh?

Before Christmas, on the 20th, my very best friend in the whole wide world came to visit. Susan and her husband, Terry, drove in from Florida and stayed until Christmas Eve, when they drove back so they could spend Christmas Day with their kids and grandkids. It was so wonderful to see them - truly. Unfortunately, Randey did everything in his power to corrupt Terry with the Evil X-Box 360. It wasn't long before Terry started showing signs of addiction. So sad. Look at his eyes....

The "remove red-eye" feature on my computer couldn't get rid of that glow. (Click to enlarge). That oughta tell you something. He was almost possessed by this. It's far too late to save Randey from it, but I never saw it coming with Terry. I'm ashamed that his fever started in my home and I hope Susan was able to cure him before he made it back to their home. Tsk, tsk. That Randey. Some friend, huh?

Speaking of friends, I have a little bet to settle with Susan. She seems to think I was, perhaps, just a little bit...oh, what's the word...mean maybe?, when I bought her Christmas gift. She had told me that her doctor was making her check her sugar level several times a day because she was borderline diabetic. So, being the caring, understanding, full-hearted and loyal friend that I am, I chose gifts that I felt would help her in her on-going battle with keeping that sugar level at a reasonable level. I bought her these things:

Was that not nice? Don't these gifts just scream "I love you and want you to stay around for another 50 years" (yeah, that's another thing, Susan will be 50 years old this coming Tuesday, January 1st. Apparently, she's getting a tad bit cranky in her old age because she seemed to think I was being snarky and somewhat less than sincere with my gifts. Can you imagine????). I was only trying to help, I swear. She told me that she wanted me to pose the question to you, my blogging friends, to see what you thought of my gift. So tell me, guys: Was I being mean or snarky or sarcastic, etc., etc., etc.? Okay, before you answer that, let me add that I also got her a lovely Rachael Ray cookbook and a cookbook stand and a few bookmarkers and really nice smelling Morenci candle. The Splenda and Splenda Cookbook were bought for her own good. And it's not my fault that company named their book Diabetes for Dummies, now is it? Right? Nor is it my fault that Susan got me, among other things, a bag of Hershey's Chocolate Kisses while I got her something geared more towards a "healthy" lifestyle. In fact, I would say that I was the one who got her the nicer gift. She was just looking to fatten me up even further while I, her loyal, kind and loving friend was looking out for her health. So before you answer that question, people, be sure to consider all the facts. And if you chose to go with Susan's side, beware! I'll probably just delete your comments and tell her that everybody voted my way anyhow, 'cause that's just how I am. So don't even waste your time siding with her. Okie-dokie? Having said that, I'll go ahead and admit that I tried these same arguments on Susan and they didn't work with her either. (I've really got to work on not smirking when I'm trying to look sincere.) Now let's move on, shall we?
Hey,check out what Jayme sent me!

How sweet is this? I love that little notebook. I usually carry a small notebook around in my purse to write down those massively profound thoughts that flit through my head when I'm standing in line at Wal-Mart and now I can write them down in style. Jayme is just the sweetest person. I was surprised and touched by these gifts - I just can't tell you how much.
And how about this beautiful card from Debbi, who lives Down Under in the Land of Aus. Isn't this amazing? So many layers and so many little details. I love it and will keep it out year round in my little scrapbooking room (where all my treasures stay!).
Finally, (hey! WAKE UP! We're almost at the end!), Randey, Kaleb, Jacob and I went to see National Treasure II, the Book of Secrets. It was wonderful!! I have to go see it again because there is just so much in there that is interesting - it's well worth seeing twice. Or even 3 times. Maybe even 4. Yeah, people, I loved it that much. Go see it! What are you waiting on? Go! NOW! Let me know what you think. And don't forget to leave a comment telling me how great my gift to Susan was. (I need all the support I can get on this...there's no telling the revenge she's already plotting!)

The Haul

This is some of the stuff I bought when shopping with Jodie, my daughter-in-law. Hobby Lobby was having a ribbon sale so, naturally, I had to buy some for Christmas, right? And then Jo-Ann's Fabrics had a few items on sale so I had to stock up there and see that bright pink half sun in the upper left? My dad and Wendy bought that for me - it was marked 75% off at Jo-Ann's. I don't plan on leaving it that color, but I love the shape of it. It's actually a door topper - I'll probably put it up in the spare bedroom. Maybe. Or maybe I'll paint it bronze and use it downstairs. Who knows? First, before I do anything, I've got to go through this stuff and get it organized. That's the problem with power shopping - you shop so much so fast that you don't get time to put everything in it's place! And since most of this stuff belongs in the spare bedroom (aka The Scrapbook Room), and since Nick and Jodie were staying in that room, I was stashing stuff all over the house until I could put it away properly. As I lay in bed last night, I noticed the 5 rolls of Christmas gift wrap I'd stacked next to the armoire. (Tuesday Morning is having a really good sale on last years paper!) I think I may have even stuffed some bags under the stairs...wow...suddenly my shopping frenzy aftermath has turned into work! lol How'd that happen?

Scrapbook pages of Kaleb and Jacob

My youngest boys. Top page is for Kaleb's book. He's such a sweet child...unless he's holding a game controller in his hand. Then he becomes a totally different kid. Eeeck!
The second page is for Jacob's book. He's very....let's just say "strong in his views, opinions, likes and dislikes". I know these aspects will probably come in handy later in life. Right now, however, they may lead to excessive groundings and punishments because he occasionally has trouble grasping the whole he's-not-in-charge thing. :)

A Super Hero's Job is Never Done

My granddaughter - takin' care of her Uncle Kaleb

Scrapbook Page of my Granddaughter (Ms. Bathing Beauty)

My funny little granddaughter. I love this kid.

Conner's Page

This is a scrapbook page I did of my grandson, Conner. I'm not sure how this will be received. I suppose some people will feel uncomfortable, some people may feel sad, still others may think it odd that I did a scrapbook of Conner at all. But, unfortunately, pictures are all we have of him because Conner died the very day he was born. He was a beautiful little baby whose soul was just too perfect for this world. The caption on this page reads:

Some people dream of angels. I've held one in my arms.

That's his father, my oldest son, cradling him one last time before he was laid to rest. This is one of the few precious photographs we have of Conner. But I'm so grateful that he was born, I'm grateful I got to hold him when he arrived and I'm grateful that we have the tender memories created during his very short stay here on earth. I did the scrapbook to celebrate his being. I share this picture because he is and always will be a huge part of my life.

Scrapbook Page for Randey

This is my honey-bun. The writing is hard to read unless you click on the picture, but it says:

Randey, you are
Always with me.
No one touches me as you do,
Deep in my heart,
Every moment of every day...
You are why I breathe.

(I do so love this guy.)

Scrapbook Pages of My Kids When They Were Babies

Nick, Des, Kaleb and Jacob...my contribution to the future!

(At least 3 of these layouts were "lifted" from various magazines - I'm a true-blue copycat, what can I say?)

My Place

This is my scrapbook room. A place where I can create and play. It can be a little intimidating, though. All this inventory, all this space, all these gadgets...sometimes I feel like I'd better produce something extra special...or else. Sometimes I think I'm just pretending to be someone creative. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I don't know what I'm doing. And sometimes I think I should chill out, quit worrying about perfection and just PLAY!