Health issue?

The other night Ken told me he needs to see my dermatologist. There is a spot on his temple that appeared about three years ago. He was a bit concerned becuase it was new, and although light in color, irregular in shape. He went to our primary psycician at the time and was advised to watch for it to change shape, get bigger, and/or get darker. Now, three years later, Ken has noticed the spot is bigger, darker, and more irregular. He has an appointment on monday, the 27th.

Please keep Ken in your prayers that all will turn out fine. I'm not too worried, but we are, of course, concerned.

Halloween cards

I had a great time making these cards!

This one is my least favorite. I think I made the middle square too big. My thought, though, was that if I made it much smaller it would look too small for the card. Eh. Whatever. Paper is Close to my Heart; Enchantment, stamp is Stampin Up. Lavender Stickles.

The card on the right in this picture shows what the inside looks like. I made 5 of these cards. Paper from Close to my Heart, Enchantment, stamps also from Closet to my heart, Halloween Dingbats and Happy Haunting. Fiber from Sam's club.
How cute is THIS!? Love the image of the three ghosts! I got the stamp at a local scrapbook store. There is orange stickles around the stamped image (great impressions) and liquid glass on the bat to make him glossy. The paper is from the scrapbook store, and I don't remember the company name. :(

I used black rain dots on the card below,
Happy Haunting!

Samples of my work

I took pictures of Will's book without the page protectors on. They turned out a bit better, but I still can't get a good close up.

I think if you click on the picture you'll see a bigger shot.
I stamped the title here, and highlighted it with stickles. Lots of gems, too.
This page has a lot of glitter. The snowflakes have glitter and gems as well as the stickles and gems I put around the pictures.
I put red stickles all around these pictures as well as on the word "Family" that I die cut from a Quickutz alphabet set.

I know the lighting isn't the best. I did play around with it. I'll look online and see what I can find about taking pictures of layouts. I've seen some layouts that are perfectly photographed, and I'd like to know how they do it.

Fun activities

Here's Nicolas on his first birthday!

Jen, Dan, and (tired) Nicolas
Me, Ken and the kids went to an apple farm in Peoria this past saturday. I tried to get some great pictures of the kids, but Abby was the only one cooperating. This picture is pretty good of the three of them.
The kids LOVED picking apples! I'll be making apple cake, apple bread, applesauce, baked apples, caramel apples. . .
After apple picking we went to Uno pizzaria nearby and had a fantastic lunch. We all split a dessert; a warm deep dish chocolatechip cookie topped with ice cream! See the boys' faces? That was what I had to work with all day as far as taking pictures went. I've posted the best, here.

I've got alot more to come!

So much goin' on!

Here's my cutie with his daddy!!

Hey everyone!! We went to Nicolas' birthday party last week, apple picking yesterday, and Ken and I are finishing staining the deck today! Plus I've done like 50 pages (of work) in my client's scrapbook album. I have ALOT of pics to show you, but they're all still in my camera. I need to get out to the deck so Ken and I can finish it today, but I'll upload pics either tonight or tomorrow to share with all of you--there's some great shots I can't wait to share!! Oh, and I've made some REALLY cute halloween cards--wait till you see them!! Don't give up on me. One day I'll get into a routine of uploading a few pics everyday!!

My husbands' sacrafice

Becuase Ken works 80 miles north of us, he stays at his parents' townhouse tuesday night through friday morning. After work on friday he comes home. (And he comes home monday night to see us all and spend some time at the home he works so hard to support.) His parents aren't home all summer long, so he gets the place to himself, but they're back from their summer trip now. So Ken spends the evenings with his parents. Or does he??

LOL! Beth and John put a hot tub in their party place recently. Here's Ken 'roughing it' away from home!

Seriously, I'm very glad he has good times with his friends while he has to be away. :)

I've got some pics in my camera to upload for you guys, I just need to find the camera. . .I'll get to that later today FOR SURE!! :-D

Some positive thoughts. . .

Ok, when things get too overwhelming you just have to stop, take a breath, and list some postives in your life. That's where I'm at right now.

It's too easy for me to think of all the negative things in my life; I ate alot of 'crap' last weekend. I haven't walked this week. I need to wait almost a month to deliver my work and get paid.

So let me list a few good things.

**After giving it a second thought, I put away the cinamon toast crunch cereal and opted for cheerios this morning.

**I didn't get Starbucks while I was out this morning. Instead, I waited till I got home and made my own caffinated beverage. (saved money and calories.)

**I have done 4 of the 5 things on my list for the day, and it's not even noon.

**The comcast man is coming today to fix my stupid phone issue.

Ok. I needed that.

I'll take a picture of the back deck. Ken stripped it and it looks brand new! (it's 16 years old) He's going to stain it soon.