my boys

stamp club

once a month, some of my best friends in the whole world, come out to my house and we all stamp!!!! i am blessed and honored to be the leader and teacher of this extrememly fun and talented group of ladies!! and teaching and sharing with them keeps me grounded...... they help me remember every month that there is something good in this world!! and that by surrounding yourself with great people just makes your life that much better!!!! thank you my friends for being there for me over the past couple of very trying months!!! and for lifting me up in prayer.... and for coming to my aid when i needed you most!!!! i love you guys!!!!

Kathea, my BFF

my best friend kathea flew in from the Boston Mass. area this past weekend for a huge fun filled scrapbooking weekend!!!!

our online yahoo group, the Christian Scrapbooking Sisters, had their annual retreat this weekend.... and i couldnt make it because dan is gone...... so rather than go with everyone else to Chicago for the weekend...... Kathea decided to make a sacrifice and come hang out with her dear old friend..... ME!!!

what a great time we had!!! we scrapped well into the night every night....... and talked non-stop the entire time she was here!!! it was such a great time!!!!

here we are with another BFF of mine....... sue! who is also a member of CSS........ and we forgot to snap a shot when adina was here....... or we would have had a picture of all four CSS members here........ on our remote CSS retreat weekend!!! haha!!!

our nightly routine

while my BFF kathea was here, we went to two different work out places. both me and kathea are concentrating on losing weight!! and we are both doing great!!! i have been working out at this place called velocity and she works out at curves.... so we shared our work-outs with each other........ first on friday we went to velocity...... and man was it ever a work out!!! then on monday kathea took me to curves - and again - man what a work out!!! im glad that we stayed focused on our goal, even during a fun , relaxing weekend spent hanging out with each other!!! since the work outs were soo hard, each night while kathea was here, we would jump into a bubble bath (in seperate tubs of course) and soak in epsom salts - to ease our sore muscles!!! and then we would jump in bed with our books!! it was such a fun routine!!! most nights ended with us talking and giggling well into the night!!!

CTMH stamp club

once a month for the past....... oh i dont know....... 6 years?? has it been that long?? or has it been longer?? i get together with some of my good friends for Close to my Heart Stamp Club. we stamp and eat and talk and eat and talk some more.... sometimes we even get some stuff done!!! haha!!! but the funest part of it is that we set aside a day once a month for ourselves...... to get together with some good friends.......... and just catch up and reflect.... for me - it is a time to myself....... where i can regain some energy and focus....... so im ready to dig in for another month with the five kiddos!!!!

here is a picture of our little group........ as well as a picture of one of my BFFs Brenda and her family with the newest addition...... EMILY GRACE...... she was four weeks old recently and is just sooo incredibly cute!!! and such a good baby!!! she stayed and scrapped with us all day without so much as one little fuss!!!!

some new cards!!!

just a couple of cards i made recently...... i havent scrapped or stamped much this year........ so it's nice to finally get back into the groove.....

vacation Bible School

this week the kids went to VBS!! they had a great time! the grand finale was friday night and the whole family got to go!! there were hayrides and cotton candy and snow cones!!! the kids were in heaven!!!! the last picture is of all the cul de sac kids......

pouty mcpout pants

here are a couple pics of brynn doing her pouting routine.......

look mom, im a rock star!!

little miss brynn is always coming up with new and interesting outfits!!! here's her latest installation....... brynn, the rock star!

Im losing weight!!

on nov 4th of last year i started a huge, intense, lose weight campaign...... i was doing sooo good until the gall bladder surgery......... that was a big set back..... however im happy to tell you im back on track and losing weight again...... in fact im down 35 pounds since i started!!! yahoo!!!! here are a couple of pics of me from the past couple of days........ the second picture is kinda goofy...... but i thought it showed you a good 'body' shot.....

finally recovered......

man, has it been a long time since i have posted something on my blog!!! after the car accident we were in, i had gall bladder surgery and the recovery was much much harder than i expected!!!

since the begining of the summer....... we have been working on transforming our backyard...... cleaning, staining and sealing the decks, building pergolas over the decks, moving the outdoor shed to a better location in the yard, and filling in the yard and leveling it..... now we are busy growing grass on the newly poured topsoil in the yard..... it just looks incredible!!! i wish everyone could come over and sit outside with us and enjoy it!!!