THANKFUL!

I'm soooo thankful this morning for a God who loves us! I'm thankful that he listens to all my ramblings late at night when I can't sleep. I'm thankful that He has given me the sunshine and beautiful weather. I'm thankful for a loving and understanding husband who has the strongest arms when I need to be held tight when life gets rough. I'm thankful for my children that He has given me that has taught me alot about love. I'm thankful that He has made it possible that we have not felt the effects of the economy. I'm thankful that He keeps us safe. I'm thankful that I can see Him in everything!

What are you thankful for? Let's spend some time reflecting the blessings that He has given us!

Have a blessed day!

THE KNAT

Yesturday I was working in the garden and a bug flew in my ear! I almost got it out but it went further inside so I decided to pour peroxide in my ear to try to flush it out, of course that didn't work so when I went over to my parents for my dad's birthday he told me to hold a flashlight to my ear to draw it to the surface. Well he would come to the surface but we still couldn't get him, I came home and my honey held the flashlight and a qtip and got that stinkin bug out! I wish I would have taken a picture but my little ear was sore so I was just not up to it.

The field

Here's the Toledo Rockets football field, Robby spent the whole time on this field (the lineman did) while others worked on the practice field.
I couldn't get this pic upload on the other posts so I had to make a new one. Man I've got so much scrapbooking to do!

University of Toledo

Here's the dorm that Robby stayed at for football camp. It was really neat, when you first look at it it almost looks like a church.

This is the dorm room, it really surprised me how small they are. There are two beds, two desks, small "closets", but the cool thing was that you walked in the door and there was a huge room that had some couches and the "community" bathroom and past that was 3 little doors where the actual rooms were.

The huge weight room, Robby didn't get to work out on the weights though.

All the hand weights. I couldn't believe the size of those things.

Here's Robby along with the two other boys that rode up with us (Dalton and Charlie). Robby really enjoyed himself but he called Sunday night wanting to come home cuz he was hurting so bad. After a good nights rest though he was fine! Today we went up to pick him up and of course the coach done a little bit of braggin on him, they gave out awards to some of the boys and then they started saying things about "a young man that worked hard, is a good football player, and never complains unless he does it in the dorm "Ruby would you please stand up" at this time they are pointing at Robby! They had nicknames for some of the boys (I heard one guy call him ruby on sunday) so funny :). I'am such a PROUD momma!

Here's the card I made for my honey! I used paper from hobby lobby,ribbon from stampin up, and then I used my cricut with the markers to write the happy father's day, the silver brads are from creating keepsakes from QVC.

Here's the card I made for my dad. He loves his garden and spends all day in there so he has the "pretties garden". The dark brown and tan paper is from hollow's (the tan paper I got went then wrinkled it up and dried it out with the iron, I did this a few years ago and had a piece of scrap left which I used to make the "dirt") the stamps are from on the farm stampin up.

Father's day was really busy for us. Robby had to go to Toledo for football camp so we spent most of the traveling. We got him settled in though, he called 2 times last night he said he was very sore. They did alot of running and his legs hurt (good think I sent him activeon to rub on his calves he gets charlie horsed easy in his legs). We finally made it home about 4 and then Charlie had to go to work. Me and sis really just relaxed. I had a toothache in which I need to call the dentist to have my tooth pulled.

Hope every one is doing great!

Hopefully I'll be back later with a scrapbook page or two I'd like to get some pages done of the kids.

Have a blessed day!

Blog hopping again

http://www.donnadowney.com/index.php/campaign-for-creativity She is one of my favs! I love her work. Take a look at it and come and join us I know I sure could use some inspiration

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

It has rained and then sunshined here all day. Our garden really needed a good drink and so did the grass that just got planted, but I do hope it's just about done. I don't have anything crafty to share tonight now that Charlie's back to work I don't have alot of time :( I do have 3 anniversaries coming up at the end of the month (oh my that's like next week!!! uhggg!) that I have to get cards made for and I still need to do Charlie and my dad's father's day cards. We'll see if I can get crafty in the morning after bible study. There's not been a whole lot going on just back to the regular routine of the running the kids,grocery shopping,paying bills same ol' same ol'

I just wanted to touch base and hope that everybody is doing wonderful!

Oh by the way here's the recipe I promised

Gelatin Trifle

1 pkg. jell-o brand strawberry flavor gelatin

3/4 c. boiling water

1/2 c cold water

ice cubes

1 c. sliced strawberries

1 c. bananas sliced

2 c. 1/2 inch pound cake cubed

1/4 c. orange juice

1 1/2 c. cold milk

1 pkg. jell-o banilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling

1/2 c. thawed cool whip

completely dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Combine cold water and ice cubes to make 1 1/4 cups. Add to gelatin, stirring until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Stir in strawberries and bananas. Place cake cubes in large serving bowl; sprinkle with orange juice. Spoon gelatin mixture over cake in bowl. Chill 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile pour cold milk into mixing bowl. Add pudding mix. With electric mixer at low speed, beat until well blended. 1 to 2 minutes. Let stand a few minutes to thicken. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon over gelatin in bowl. Chill Garnish with additional whipped toppin, strawberry slices, and banana slices brushed with lemon juice, if desired.

Enjoy!

Hello!!!

Everything is back to normal I think. Charlie went back to work today, but man do I miss him being around. It's so much fun having him at home even though he thinks it drives me nuts but it don't I really do enjoy it. For the last couple of days we haven't done much, I froze the stawberries that I picked ( I got 5 quart size bags which isn't too good but not bad either, they'll be nice this winter we want a good taste of summer :)), saturday we rented some movies, we got bedtime stories, marley and me, mall cop, 300, and some other war movie that Robby got, we also got fireproof OMGsh that movie is so good if ya haven't seen it yet please do so, it's such an inspiritational movie (don't tell Charlie but it had him in tears also). Here's the website if ya want to read about it before getting it http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/. I don't want to return it :( It really hits home with me and Charlie cuz 9 years ago we seperated and I just wouldn't give up on him, he made the comment the other night that this movie was somewhat based on us it is a funny thing though at the time I was just doing what God told me to do, I had no idea what kinda outcome we would have but I plugged along anyway, 9 years later we are getting very serious about our faith and really working together. THANK YOU GOD FOR KEEPING ME ON THAT PATH!!!! I have a wonderful husband and someday with the good Lord's help he'll have a trusting wife again.

Have a blessed day!

Robby,Leesha and me picked about 2 1/2 gallons of strawberries at my dad's today. I'm going to freeze them so we have some really good strawberries this winter. I have this awesome recipe for a dessert that has pound cake,banana's,stawberries,cool whip and vanilla pudding all mixed together. If I remember I'll post it.

Here's 1 of the cards I made today for the women's group at church,we had some "sickers" that needed to get some get well cards so I made them. The cardstock is from stampin up (I know it was the "in colors" a few years ago so I'm not exactly sure the name) the white cardstock is from hobby lobby,stamp is from my mother-in-law (actually it's stampin up) I used my colored pencils for the coloring and I also used my blending pen so I didn't have such dark colors.

This is another get well card- I used a oval stamp I got from hobby lobby and shaded it with lovely lavandar stampin up ink, the stamp is from my mother-in-law (I think she just bought it by itself so it's not from a set) then I colored it using my new toy's I bought oil crayons last night from hobby lobby I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE EM' these things are awesome! The pink ribbon I got from JoAnn fabrics off the $1 rack. Hey I do actually shop at other stores not just hobby lobby (wait a minute when you read my past post it seems like my supplies are bought at hobby lobby) ok ok mayb I do love hobby lobby. Well it is the closest craft store to me so that's where I go!

This one is for a family who lost 2 of it's members last year, they died from a motorcycle accident so the ladies wanted a "thinking of you" card. The black cardstock is from hollow's (not hobby lobby??),flowers and stems is from doodle this (stampin up) I used my white craft ink, I made the red glitter brads from natalie's website again ( I love those things) I experimented with cutting grass (how hard is it to cut grass out of paper?) I didn't really care for the way it turned out but hey it was my first time.

Last night we took the kids to eat and was going down park avenue to go to hobby lobby (I needed more cardstock to finish the father's day cards) and low and behold we lost our brakes!!! You talk about 1 scared woman! We went right through a red light. Thank God Charlie is a professional driver. He got us home safely. THANK YOU HONEY!!!

Sorry I forgot to add the links DUH!!! here ya go http://www.angielucas.typepad.com/
and http://jenniferwozab.blogspot.com/ ENJOY!!!

This card I made for the gentlemen at my church. I was nominated the other night at the womens meeting to make all the cards for the guys for fathers day. The brown cardstock is from hollows, the orange cardstock is from stampin up, the blue is from hobby lobby, the stamps is from my mother-in-law (thanks maw for saving me :)) I used some brown chalk on cream cardstock to give the background a little worn out look. The sentiment read May happiness touch your life today as you have so often touched the lives of others. On the inside I'm going to print "happy dad's day from your father-God". Oh by the way I was blog hopping again today and came across these 2 blogs. Check em out! They are quit informative and humorous :)
Have a blessed day!

What we've been doing

Well as you know it's the first week of summer vacation for the kids and Charlie also took a week of vacation. We've really not been doing awhole lot this week, yesturday was a beautiful day so Charlie started cleaning out the garage, he sold his old lawnmower so the guy came to pick it up, Leesha and I took the dog for a walk around the resevoir while Robby was lifting weights for football at the school, I had a women's meeting at my church and I got nominated to make all the father's day cards (40-50 cards in a week!?!?!?!) I can handle it. Today it's suppose to rain so it looks like it's another day inside so I'll work on some of them today. Hopefully I'll be able to upload a pic tonight.

Have a blessed day!

Here's another card I made last night for a gentleman at our church. Again the base is just white cardstock and everything is from hobby lobby except the balloon they came from my mother-in-law a few years back which I do believe came from somewhere on the internet. I made both of these cards just simple ones since I run out of ideas for a man's card.

Charlie is on vacation this week and we really are just being lazy. Yesturday it was raining til the evening so we did a little shopping, me and Leesha went into Joann fabrics to get zig's 2 way glue so I could restick my cricut mat and I was looking around and found the cropper hopper paper storgage containers for 3.59 how cheap is that? I'll post a pic of my new holders once I get them filled. I also bought a new trimmer for 10.00 (from cricut) since my other one broke. Then we were off to walmart, Charlie was on a mission to find a gadget that would allow us to be on the internet and xbox live at the same time, we found one but it locks up the compute when both are running. :( Today we are taking junk to millirons and he's working in the garage. I might do some scrapbooking since I developed pics the other day of course these pics are about 1 year old from when robby went to washington dc with his 8th grade class. He got some really good pics.

I'm off to study my bible now, I was a little crouchy yesturday since I didn't take the time to study

Have a blessed day

Here's a card I made for my dad who's birthday is coming up on the 25th. The base is just plain white cardstock I bought at hobby lobby,the dot paper is from there also,the tab embellishment and brad I got from QVC,the "happy birthday" card came from a lss,the stamp is from stampinup (again I'm not sure which stamp set),I'm not sure where the ribbon came from either :(

http://www.providentplan.com/86/personal-finance-bible-study-contentment-free-e-book/
I found this and printed off the book, what a wonderful e-book and study guide for learning how to be content financilly. If you are struggling please download this book and study it along with the bible. It's really made me understand why this world is so "commerical". I don't believe that any of us were put here to be "consumers of stuff". Maybe that's why we are still in the economic downflow, those stimulua packages and such for creating "more" jobs, "more" money, "more,more,more".

Just Wanted to share thought this was pretty cool

ACTS - Adoration. Contrition. Thanksgiving. Supplication.
APE - Always Pray Everyday
ASAP - Always Say A Prayer
BASIC - Becoming A Soldier In Christ
BIBLE - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
BIG - Bold In God
BIG FISH - Believers in God, Faithful in serving Him
CEO - Christians Encouraging Others
CHRIST - Certainly His Resurrection Is Supreme Truth
CIA - Christ Is Alive
CIA - Christians In Action
COPS - Christian Operated Prayer Support
Added 6/03/08 DJWW (WWJD BACKWARDS) - Devil Just Won't Win
DOG - Depend On God
EGO - Edging God Out
EGR - Extra Grace Required
FAITH - For All I Trust Him
FEAR - false Expectations Appearing Real
FRETS - Focus Returned Exclusively To Satan
FRIEND - Fully Reliable In Each New Difficulty
FROG - Fully Rely On God
GAP - Gossiping About People
GIRAFFE - God Inspires Reverence Affection Forgiveness For Ever
GOD - God Our Defender
GOD - Great. Omnipotent. Deity
GRACE - God Really Covers Everything
GRACE - God's Riches At Christ's Expense
GUM - God Use Me
HOPE - He Offers Peace Everyday
IHL - In His Love, =Salutation
JAGUAR - Jesus Always Guides Us And Redeems
JCLU - Jesus Christ Loves You
JIM - Jesus In Me!
JOY - Jesus first. Others second. Yourself last.
JOY - Jesus Overshadows You
JUICE - Justified by GodUnder the BloodIn Christ ForeverChanged by the Holy SpiritEmpowered by His Love
LEOPARD - Love Everyone Offer Prays And Repent Daily
LICE - life In Christ Eternal
LOVE - Love Others Very Eagerly
POWER - Pray, Obey, Witness, Encourage, Remain (faithful)
PRAY - Praise. Repent. Ask. Yield.
PUSH - Pray Until Something Happens
SOAP - (Guide for preparing devotions)ScriptureObservationApplicationPrayer
SPAM - Serving People Aids Me
TED - Treasure Each Day
TGIF - Thank God I'm Forgiven
TGIF - Thank God I'm Free
THINK - (Regarding our speech. Is it…). Truthful? Helpful? Inspirational? Necessary? Kind?
TIGER - Trust In God & Everything's Right
WAIT - Wisdom and Answers come In God's Timing
WASTE - Worry. Anger. Self-Pity. Tattling. Envy
WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?
WWJD - Walking With Jesus Daily
WWYD - What Would You Do? (We know what Jesus would do)
YET - Yes! Emmanuel Triumphs

I have to share :)

Lately I've been feeling down about myself, I look at my house it's just a mess ( Imean I haven't dusted in ages) there are things on the table that need to be put away that's probably laid there for weeks and then I start to get this not so good opinion of myself. Growing up my mom would spend hours on the phone (that used to be my problem too) and then when the afternoon would hit and my dad would be coming home in about 2 hours she (and me and my brother) would rush around the house cleaning it up to make it look like we had cleaned all day (I wonder if my dad ever really knew?) The last couple of months I started studying my bible really hard (this is the website I use when studying http://bible.cc/ ) I found myself spending 2-3 hours studying then I would shut the comuter off and look at the clock by this time it's 10 or 11 o'clock sometimes it would be later if I would answer phone calls during bible study (on those days it is usually noon). I would eat some lunch and then get started on cleaning and laundry. When I would come home from picking up the kids and take a look at the house I'll tell myself "you didn't get anything done today your house is a wreck" on the weekends I find myself frustrated and talking not so nice to Charlie and the kids. Today I was looking on the net and googled how to be content, I'm really wondering how this is suppose to happen when I feel so low about not getting much done. Does the way us women keep our house reflect who we are? Does a clean house really mean we are contented with our life? My mom always says things about my "dirty" house and these comments hurt, it makes me feel like I'm not living up to her standards. Charlie and I rent our house and my parents make comments about us never owning our own home, Charlie and I tried to purchase a home a few months back and we were just not able too, does God have a reason? I always feel it's because I'm not doing something right, it has to be "ME" , I drive myself crazy over our finances (always have, I bet the amount of paper that I've went through in 15 years could replace a couple trees just from me alone) budget after budget after budget. Charlie makes good money now (we've not always had steady paychecks he used to get paid by the load or mileage this is the first driving job he gets paid by the hour) I mean steady income. It seems to never be enough for the amount of bills going out, why? Charlie works long hours and I feel like I've let him down when I can't get all the bills paid and the house is a mess. I start to evaluate what kinda of wife he has. I pray the God will show me his will for our life and help to be content in what he has given us. Maybe I shouldn't feel so bad that I spend so much time learning God's word. Isn't that what he wants us to do?

Here's a card I made last night for a couple at our church. The green cardstock is stampin up certainly celery I do believe, the flower paper came from hobby lobby, I used my decorative siccors to make the scalloped edges,the brads are from creating keepsakes that I added glitter to by using my versa mark ink,heat and stick powder,gold glitter and heat gun here's the link if ya would like to see complete instructionshttp://nataliesimmons.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html scroll down til ya come to custom made brads. Natalie is very talented and I love seeing her creations :)

This one is made for a gentlemans birthday at church I'm not to happy with it but I come to a creative block everytime I make a "man's" card :( anyway all paper is from stampin up I know the green is certainly celery but I'm not sure the name of the blue one, I used a cake stamp from one of my "early" stamp sets so there's no name on the box, I used my red and silver stickles to outline the flame and the inside of the cake, I made the holes using a hole punch ( didn't do to well with those I definalty can't do straight lines it's just not in my gene's hehehe).

I woke up this morning to beautiful God givin sunlight and birds chirping, is there really any other way to wake up? Um maybe breakfast in bed!

Have a blessed day :)

Good Day

Good late morning! I hope your day has had a great start. The kids are now officially out of school and both are moving on to the next grade. YAY!!! I was really stressing over Leesha but her teacher and I decided not to hold her back (this would have been the second retention for her). We started the "process" of getting her tested for a learning disability but that might take awhile to get her actually tested. She's just going to have to work harder next year and keep up with her website that I have her on.

Thanks again for looking and I'm sure that I'll have some crafting goodies for ya later today!

blog candy

http://nutcrafters-nutshells.blogspot.com/ I just thought I'd share this! I love looking around on blogs :)

Here's the card I made for Andi, Robby and Leesha's bus driver. She's such a wonderful person and the kids just adore her :) Yellow paper is from hobby lobby, black cardstock is from hollow's, the school buses are cut from a bus paper my mother-in-law gave me from Pat Catan's a few years ago, star driver is cut from the cricut using my doodletype cart, I added the white polka dots to the black cardstock with my white gel pen, glitter (hang on I have to go clean up cat upchuck YUCK!) ok and the star ( I was horrible at putting the name on the boxes so I have no idea what set it's from) are both from stampin up, I stamped the star using versa mark, added heat and stick powder then added the glitter.
Enjoy looking!!!

A Proverbs 31 woman

I love this http://www.thechristianwoman.com/christian-women-topics/things-not-in-proverbs-31.html Please check it out. Some really good insight on what kinda qualities us women are to have.

get well

I've been having a lousy mood today so I finished up the get well cards that I needed to make.

The top one is for our friend Anita, she's having gallbladder surgery on Wednesday. Please say a prayer for her. I made it from stampin up card stock (not sure what name), the stamp is from hobby lobby and the ribbon is from joann fabric.

The middle card is made for the gentleman Charlie works with. Paper is from hobby lobby and the stamp is from stampin up (loads of love I think is the name). I drew the stitching with black gel pen.

The last card is for my aunt who had gallbladder surgery on Saturday. Paper from hobby lobby, stamp is stampin up doodle this,buttons and ribbon are stampin up also. I used my cotton candy stickle in the center of the petals. ENJOY!

Wanted to share

This is a card that I made for my friend Denise who is graduating from college June 12. CONGRATULATIONS NISE!!! She loves purple and I thought spongebob went well with it. I hard time finding a graduation cap so I just punched out a square and added some thread. I've had these papers for awhile so I'm not sure where they came from SORRY! Oh by the way I was looking through my collection of stamps last night trying to find something that would work as a get well card for a man and I found a cap stamp DUH!! N C S stands for north central state college. She majored in paralegal.

UGHH! and other things

Well this morning I sat down to fiqure out the finances, man do I hate bills. It's going to be tight this month but we'll manage, God will make sure of that! :) Everytime I pay a bill that I just didn't see any possibility paying that week I praise God cuz I know if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been able to pay it. Charlie's job is such a God send that I feel horrible and ungrateful when I mess up the finances. I just feel like I'm telling God that I don't appreciate what he's givin' us but I do, I know that we could be having it alot worse and the He is keeping that devil at bay. I also know that since we are trying very hard that he will try to knock us down even more. Please pray that we don't give into his snares! This has been laying on me since yesturday and I need to say something. I know last weekend was memorial day but we didn't go to church, yesturday at church they showed the pictures of the veterans and current military men and women, our pastor was saying that memorial day is about show all military respect, my thought was "how are we showing respect when this country that our military has fought for and still protecting today is in the shape that it's in? They did not and do not fight wars for us to treat our country the way we have." Our lost soldiers fought for freedom for us but to misuse what we have and it's sad to know that we all have put this country and ourselves in danger.

On another note, there are some prayer requests: 3 gentlman that Charlie works with have some health issues, 1 is in the hospital now and we don't know what's wrong with him so pray that everything is ok there, 1 just got out of the hospital last week (I requested prayer for him a week or so ago)he had a blood vessel burst in his head which caused his nose to keep bleeding he's suppose to return to work on thursday so pray that he's recovering correctly, the other one I also asked for a prayer, he had quite abit of infection drained from his groin area a couple of weeks ago but he's still not feeling good, he goes for a ultra sound tomorrow so please pray that it turns out to be something simple. These are really good fellas who care alot about people and they need some protection. Thank you.

Have a blessed day!