Fabulous Friday!!!!

Ok, so let me set the stage.... Thursday morning, Darcy took my youngest son Brayden, to see his mom and dad. 9 hours away. I am having a hard time with it, I have never been away from him for more than one night and that was barely a 12 hour time span. This time he is gone for 3 whole nights! That is FOUR DAYS! Ack! On the positive side, I cleaned house SO hard yesterday that I decided to dedicate today to ME. Which means scrapbooking.... ALL DAY LONG. Pretty awesome.... I don't have to jump up to get little monkey anything, get him OUT of anything, wipe his boogery nose, change his dirty diapers.... it's kinda nice. But I still miss him to the moon and back. :(

So anyhoo. I decided to actually get a sketch done first thing this morning... instead of leaving it until Wednesday morning like I have been doing lately. LOL! The sketch can be found here at Sketchy Thursdays so check it out and play along!! This is what I managed to come up with... pics of my oldest daughter, who will be *gulp* 13 in March. How? I have no idea. LOL!

I also did another sketch for a contest at Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine...

And I still have a whole uninterrupted afternoon to get some more done, plus a whole weekend as much as the other 3 kids will let me! :)

I Heart Wednesdays!

What I don't like about today is the new changes to Facebook. Yes, I'm unable to accept change. I am stubborn and set in my ways. LOL! I'll get used to it, I'm sure, just not today. Or tomorrow. Call me next month and we'll talk about it.


I worked on this weeks sketch from Sketchy Thursdays, and love how it turned out. I don't have any pictures of my friends and I.... when my friends and I get together, it's over coffee. We're all busy moms, and we don't have time to jet away out of town for spa days, or head out to the movies or a play. We sit down with our kids playing in the background, pull out the coffee, and chat. I love it. It's my time.... to talk to other moms and grownups. I smile, I laugh, sometimes we cry. Just being together is awesome.

I hope you all find some time to get together with your friends to do something that makes you smile!! It will do wonders for your sanity, I swear. :)

Happy Monday!

Yes... I am one of those crazy people who LOVE Mondays. Why? Because it is the start of a somewhat quiet week for me, something I have grown to really love and be thankful for. :)

The man is working nightshift tonight, so I decided to sit down and create. So many other things I should be doing, but I just felt the NEED to scrap. Everything else will still be there tomorrow, right? ;)

Taking the weekly sketch from Sketchy Thursdays, I created this layout using a few pictures from Braydens surgery. We haven't made many pictures of him after surgery public, they are mostly for just us.... but I thought I'd use some of them on some layouts....

Brayden surely has given us the gift of love... pure, sweet, innocent, unconditional love.

Have a fantastic week, everyone!! Make sure you have your camera ready when those leaves start turning and the kids start playing in your carefully raked piles!! LOL!

I love school

Ok, I'm not in school.

But my kids are.

Yup, I am thrilled that my kids are back in school and I have more time for some very important things in my life.... like SCRAPPING!! :)

I managed to get 2 more layouts done since yesterday.....

Are your kids happy to be back at school? Do you find yourself lost without them making constant noises and messes around the house? I admit it's sad seeing them walk away every morning, and it's sad hearing Brayden cry as they are leaving.... but still, I enjoy my days with just Brayden right now...

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Cutting it close!

I love taking part in the weekly sketches at Sketchy Thursdays, but this week I fell behind and didn't think I'd be able to get it done... Luckily, my kids went back to school today and I was able to sit at the scrap table for a little while this afternoon! :)

Here is my layout based on the 9.1 sketch, pretty simple and straightforward, sometimes that is the way to go!!

Some moments are special...

.... simply because they exist.

Such a simple phrase, but holds a whole bunch of emotion for me. Braydens surgery has given him a new lease on life, he is a completely different boy (but still very much the same if that makes any sense).... and his energy and enthusiasm for life and for learning new things on a daily basis astounds me. A few short months ago, he was using every single ounce of energy he had just to live.... and now he can use that energy to eat like a pig, run around like superman, and oh boy... is he ever giving me a run for my money. I love it. I love him.


I am grateful to the doctors who finally listened to me and diagnosed his Congenital Heart Disease and his Congenital Heart Failure, I am grateful to the amazing surgeon in Edmonton who fixed his aorta and against the odds managed to save his valve and give him better odds for future surgeries. I am grateful to have my sweet little monkey happy and 'well'. Yes, we've had a few glitches in recovery, but they are truly minor. I know we are extremely lucky that it was not anything more serious than it was. My heart goes out to all of those whose children don't have the positive outcome that we had, and who spend a majority of their lives in and out of hospitals and surgeries. Your little heart warriors are always on my mind.....


So yes, this layout..... is about enjoying the moments in life that sometimes get taken for granted. A fun day of swimming in a pool with Daddy, something so small... yet something so big....

Based on Sketchy Thursdays 8.25 sketch

Felt a little scrappy tonight!

Life has been pretty busy the last few weeks! Unfortunately our whole basement flooded, forcing us to rip about 70% of it out right to the cement foundation. :( This was SO not what we needed right now (or ever) with everything that we've been dealing with this year. BUT, things could still be worse and I tell myself that every single day. We have been sleeping out in the camper for the last 3+ weeks (me, my boyfriend, and 2 of the kids) because we lost the use of our bedrooms as they were in the basement. Let me tell you one thing... I love camping, but I am SO sick of sleeping in my camper. LOL!!! A few more weeks and we SHOULD be back into the house. I can't wait.

So scrapping hasn't been happening... until tonight. I thought I'd take advantage of having a few of the kids in bed early and the man at work, and see what I could do! I went to one of my favorite scrappy challenge sites, Sketchy Thursdays and checked out their weekly sketch, got some ideas, and went to work!

This is my finished layout, a few pics of my boy from Legoland last fall in California.... I laughed so hard every time I went to take a picture of him. My normally shy and quiet guy who really disliked having his picture taken, started posing for each and every picture I took! He fit the pose to what the situation was, and it was hysterical. LOL!! These were just 3 of probably 100 pictures of him posing... :)

Colors are a bit off, as it's night time and I don't want to wait until the morning to snap an outdoor pic... ;)

I hope everyone is enjoying what is left of the summer, and having some great weather!!!