Frustration

It is so frustrating
when you have lots of stuff to do
and then you get a sore throat
and can't talk
so you email your husband
and have him call in sick for you
and so you have a whole day ahead
but don't feel well enough
to do anything
so you sit in you chair
and sip lots of liquids
and read
and nap
and watch tv
and nap
and croak thanks to your
husband who brings
a frappe home for you
and at the end of the day
your throat feels a little
better but you know somehow
it isn't and you probably
still can't talk
but maybe
tomorrow will be better
and you will feel like
doing something
even if it is just sitting
outside in the sun

Brag alert...

 This is all about bragging rights. Our son Nick and his great friend Jenny have been working together creating photographic and video projects. They have started a website, etc. 

Please go and check it out at www.manazzi.com. 

And if you see Nick...tell him to be gentle with me-a mom's right by nature is to brag!

...taken from their website....

About Manazzi

We are in the business of telling stories.

Our philosophy here at Manazzi is simple. We believe everything has a story and every story is worth telling. Our vision is to creatively communicate to the world. We will develop, create and showcase your story. We will dream with you.

Our company is small, but for us this is incredibly valuable and an important part of the services we provide. We are able to offer a more personal experience that is fine-tuned to our client’s needs; each project gets our highest attention to detail and quality.

Waiting....

March 11March 25You saw that first photo in the last post but I just needed to put it here again for a comparison!

She is pretty close to having little peanut-today she was planning on putting her hospital bag together.

As I was looking at her photos I started thinking about the ones Gary took when I was pregnant. So I pulled out the box they were in and looked in our scrapbook for 1984 and found a few to share.

This is from December 1983-
we tried to "hide" our bellies then...

This is January '84-
Gotta love polyester dresses with big bows...

These were "artistic" ones Gary
took the week before Amy was born...

Every girl had photos taken with silk flowers then! Oh and the dress I am wearing...I wore to prom 6 years before.

February 1984

this angel came to live with us and we were all thrilled
especially her Nana-

This and that

This is a very image heavy post, but fascinating...

Yesterday Gary asked me to drive him out to see the swollen Lewis river. We love to take drives together and since I get motion sick so easily I'm usually driving.

As we neared Battle Ground we saw huge clouds of smoke and I realized the controlled burn of the old elementary school must be scheduled. So we headed that way, there were a lot of people out and the school was most definitely burning. I dropped Gary off as I headed to find a good vantage point from the car. It was nippy and windy outside. I found the perfect spot and headed to let Gary know where the car was parked. As I neared the street, the heat from across the road instantly warmed me. Wow, what power fire has! As I said in my facebook post- Gary had his camera so here are the best of the images he took...











Wasn't that amazing?! We did go to the river too but Gary forgot to get those images ready for me...

Now onto prettier things-

Amy convinced me that we needed to rethink the layout of the craft cottage. So last week Gary helped us move things around. We had to make a trip to IKEA for supplies and then this week
she came and helped with the finishing touches. She is so good at that! We always forget the BEFORE photo though. Here are the AFTER-thanks Gary for the cut rate photography!

What you see when you enter,

most of which I already had, we just reconfigured it....

what I see from my crafting chair,
the boxes in the rack are new-I had a whole bunch of mix matched
plastic bins that you could see all the supplies(crap) through.

Lots of cute vignettes to look at...

the view from Amy's crafting seat...

You know Amy can only come on the weekends...that crafting seat can be filled by anyone who doesn't like to craft alone...hint-hint.

Something to see

So--do you know Curly Girl products? Bet you've seen them and chuckled at the cuteness!


She is having a giveaway over on her blog, be sure to pop over and see what is going on. There are previews of her christmas stuff too. Oh I just LLLOOOOVVVEEE christmas!!

New favorite thing

Pinterest

Have you heard of it yet? Chances are you have, and either you're already obsessed (like I am), or you're wondering what it's all about.

Do you love to bop around different blogs and online stores gathering inspiration and just enjoying the fun things people are doing and making? Do you bookmark things you don't want to forget, projects you want to try, etc. -- but then you forget all about those things once they're tucked away in your bookmark folder?

Well, Pinterest is wonderful for visual people. It's like a virtual inspiration board, so you can keep track of all the great things you see online -- crafts, recipes, home decor, anything you like. Set up categories with your own titles, it's always easy to see at a glance whatever you're trying to find. You can also post photos of things you've done or find online. This is what my boards looks like right this now:It's also a fun social sharing thing, because you can follow other people whose taste you like, and others can follow you. If you want to see what I've been pinning, you can take a look here.
Oh, and one nice thing is that you don't have to follow every category a person creates. I have a few people that I just follow their craft posts. Their pins show up on my main page and if I want to add the items I just "repin" them onto one of my boards. It's great that it's not an all-or-nothing follower thing.

Let me know if you want an invite from the pinterest page) and I'll send you one! Be forwarned, you will start lots of conversations with "on pinterest I saw/got..."
This isn't a sponsored post -- I'm just loving all the inspiration that I can't help sharing the fun!

Confession is good for the soul

This is me a few years back. I don't know why I'm smiling I sure didn't look very healthy. I guess it's because I didn't want to have a dowdy "before" photo. I was embarking on an adventure of weight loss with Medifast products. I hadn't tried this type of program before in my 20+ years of trying to loose weight. I had high hopes.
and it worked- I lost 65 pounds within about 8 months. I was exercising. I was feeling pretty good. I was buying clothes a size or 2 smaller. But...
I had trouble seeing it!!! I still thought I looked fat, I still was bigger than everyone I knew. Then Satan got a hold of me and started playing bad things in my head. And before you know it I was missing a lot of things like this-
and this-
and this-
and this-
and most decidedly this-
and even this-
oh these too-
and so I gave up and ate and ate and ate. It didn't help much, it felt better for awhile. But those things I was hearing in my head were sure loud. My feet started hurting and my knees. The family went through some stuff and I ate to feel better. I ate to drown the voices in my head.

And then January came and I started my Soul Restoration class. I awoke from my stupor. I learned to shut out the voices in my head. Then I repeated the Soul Restoration class with some new and old friends and I remembered that people did like to be around me. During the Soul Restoration II class I started making goals and the steps to achieve them. I caught up with all my scrapbooking and saw A LOT of photos of me after I had lost the weight. I really did look different. I looked healthier, thinner and happy. I decided I wanted to be there again, I wanted to be content again. I wanted to be able to move. I have plans for hikes, and I want to bike and I want to smile for a lot more photos.

So I am back on Medifast. I have a better coach this time. I've asked some friends to come beside me and help me listen to the great truth teller.

And I am planning on looking at least this good come the next Christmas....
definitely not the end....

Getting things done

A few weeks back I did a post where I showed my travel journal I was putting together for our anniversary trip. Well I got it all put together and thought you might like to see a bit more. I have photos, journaling, bags, notes, business cards, postcards, maps...all sorts of stuff tucked in.
It is a bit loose and floppy but that makes it more interesting. I keep a bit of ribbon around it to store.

I even put in the lists I made for packing. And also one of the pages from when we played pictionary with all the kids.
Amy came over on Sunday like always. Even though I was still a bit loopy from the meds we still did some crafting. I made this for the kitchen with bits of this and that. The class we took had us not put faces on the ladies but I don't know if I like that on this one. I even added a pearl necklace, just what the 50's house wife always wore. Well at least on TV.

Today I finished up the last project for my "Soul Restoration" class. It was supposed to be a promises book. That has been stumping me for weeks. I finally decided that a book full of some
relevant scripture verses would remind me of the promises that God has made to me and that I have made to him. The class stuff had sent this embossed book and Amy added some paint and today I finished it off with glitter glue...just love that stuff!
some pages with random items from my stash of supplies-




I put ribbons and things sticking out the top and sides for interest-
It feels so great to get some items finished.

I signed up for a class called Be gentle, be love.
They send wise words and prompts for projects, journaling or blog posts.
You'll probably hear more from me on that soon...