One last post for 2007

Just popped in to say that I hope everyone had a great 2007 and looking forward to 2008. We're home and getting ready for bed.

Do you have any resolutions for 2008? What are your favorite memories from 2007?

I hope everyone has a safe and blessed year ahead!

A Christmas Layout

I took this photo of Connor last year and have been waiting for the right time to scrap it. I entered this in a contest and won $50 prize package!! Woohoo!! You can also find it in the Basic Grey gallery!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

The best thing about Christmas this year is that Connor still believes in the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus. I just love his wide-eyed innocence. I wish it could last forever.

Some funny things that Connor's said this holiday season-

Sunday, we went over to Eric's mom's house so all the kids and grandkids could open their presents from her. Well, one of Eric's favorite memories of Christmas was his mom's cut-out cookies, so her friend Brenda's daughter, Rachel, who is a childhood friend of Eric went on Ebay and got Eric the original cookie cutters still in the package that are the same as the ones Shirley used when she made those cookies. So yesterday, we're driving around in the car and I hear a little voice in the back seat ask, "Mommy, did Daddy get cookie cutters for Christmas?" I said, "Yes". He thinks about it a second and replies, "Pathetic". LOLOLOL!!! I guess he doesn't think cookie cutters are a cool gift for a man. LOL!!

Then a little while later as I was sitting wrapping Shirley's gift, Connor's sitting on the floor next to me and his little wheels are just a turnin'. All of a sudden he says, "I hope I don't get a sweater for Christmas. I DO NOT need any more clothes, especially a sweater!" Ha ha ha..!

We had a great Christmas. Connor got all sorts of goodies- a couple Nerf guns, a light-etching draweing board, a kiddie MP3 player, a Fisher-Price digital camera (following in mom's footsteps), a pogo stick type thing, Magnetix, Rataouille movie, Trouble game and flash cards.

Ryan got 2 months of his car insurance paid for him, three $20 gas cards, a beanie from Hollister and gift cards to the movies.

For Josh, I just gave him money to spend how he chooses. Hopefully he won't spend it on his freeloading girlfriend, but don't tell him I said that. Urrgghhh....More on that some other time.

I got Eric a GPS I found on sale at Toys R Us of all places, and a portable table saw, which he's been eyeballing for months but would never buy for himself. Leave it to the shopaholic to break down and fork over the big bucks for it. It's a gift for the whole family since he'll use it to build our house. Oh, I almost forgot- a two pound box of See's Candies, but don't tell him I really bought it for myself! Hee hee!!

I got a new Canon Elph pocket camera and a beloved Mrs. Beasley doll. I had one when I was a little girl in the '60's. We lost it in the move from the Philippines and I've always wanted another one. I found her through Ashton-Drake. It's a remake of the original, but I love her just the same. I don't know how to transfer photos from the new Canon to the computer but when I do, I'll show you pictures of Mrs. Beasley and the pathetic Christmas Cookie Cutters. LOL!

I hope everyone is happy, healthy and blessed this Christmas!!

I'm ok!

The gall bladder surgery went off without a hitch, but not without a stitch, hee, hee!!

Yesterday I was so sick from the morphine. Everytime I opened my eyes, the room was spinning which made me so nauseas. Then late last night I had the worst hangover, ha ha complete with splitting headache. Today I feel much better- no nausea or headache, but I'm really sore.

Thanks to everyone who's been praying for me.

I'm having surgery tomorrow

Hi everyone,



I may not be up to blogging for the next few days due to having my gall bladder taken out. If I don't talk to you before then, I hope everyone has a blessed, safe and Merry Christmas!!

Love you all!
Theresa

Look at what Deb made for me!

Isn't she the best? I'm so blessed to have such great friends, and especially to have Deb as a BFF!!!

OMGOSH!! We have a WINNER!!!!

Guess who the winner is?? ME!! I'm the winner!! I got an "all clear" on my re-mammogram today!! YES!! I'm so happy! But you know what really surprised me was how relieved Eric was when I told him the good news. He actually took me to the hospital today to get my tests done. When I came back and told him they confirmed it was a shadow on the first test, he hugged me really tight and kissed me. I've never seen him act like this. LOL! I joked with him telling him he's only happy that now I won't be so sick that he has to honor the "in sickness and in health" vow and have to wipe my butt for me. LOLOLOL!!!! OK. That's my twisted sense of humor. LOL!!


I'm also so happy that I got all my cards addressed and stamped!! I actually got 165 cards done and most of them were handmade:







Now, the moment you've all been waiting for!!!!!
I worked on the cumulative RAK today. I used an excel spreadsheet to help me get the correct number of names for each person in the drawing!

Here's how I decided to make it fair. Everyone gave me their post counts. I made a ballot for each count you told me for your name. Then I had Connor draw names until he drew the same name twice!

Drawing 1:

Drawing 2:













Drawing 3:

Drawing 4:

Drawing 5:

























Drawing 6:
















Drum Roll Please!!!!



The winner is



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It's a little blurry... I got excited when Connor picked the name and moved!!!

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KELLY!!!

Y'all don't feel bad. Kelly had 145 posts! Odds were in her favor.

I'm sending everyone who played a little sumpin sumpin for playing so don't feel bad. Ok?

I'll be doing this again so please continue to visit. You never know when the next RAK will be!! I'm thinking about doing another Cumulative RAK every three or four months, so stay tuned!!
Congrats, Kelly!! Happy dancin' in your honor!

Is everyone's count in?

Comment on this thread and let me know for sure if your count is in.

So far, this is who I have down for the running on the RAK:

Cheryl P
Cheryl Y
Carla
Deb
Kelly
Morgan
Sollie
Christine
Carla
Margie
Robin
Kara
Joz

If I missed your name, send it to me now!!!

Updates

Hi all my loved ones. Thanks for your prayers, thoughts and concerns.

After a long day for running to Washington to the doctor, pre-registering at the hospital for surgery and then running back home in time to make Dezi's 6th birthday party, I finally have an update on my condition. I am scheduled to have my gall bladder taken out next Friday. I am scheduled to have my left breast reanalyzed on Tuesday. So next week will be alot of poking and prodding on me!

Now, what you all have been waiting for- I have to sift through my emails to find everyone's post counts. Please email me if you haven't done so already. It doesn't look like I'll be able to get the box out by noon tomorrow as I planned because I haven't put everything together for Connor to draw a winner. I will try to wrap things up by Sunday and get the box out by Monday. So stay tuned. I'll try to get Debbie over here as a witness to keep me honest. Not that I'd pick favorites, because you are all my favorites.

Everyone will get a little something from me, so there will only be winners- NO losers! Ok??

I'll write back soon!

Prayers again please

Gosh, I hate to keep pestering my friends and family for prayers, but last night Eric took me to the emergency room because something was seriously wrong with my stomach. I was in excruciating pain and didn't know what was wrong with me. Come to find out, I have 3-4 gallstones in my gall bladder and am afraid I'll have to have surgery to have my gall bladder removed. I have an appointment tomorrow at 12:15 to see the surgeon. I'm not worried about it as this thing happens to so many people and it's a common procedure anymore. I guess this is the right time to give up fatty, fried foods. Darn. Ha ha....

Gosh I feel like I'm falling apart! LOL!

I wasn't going to say anything, but I really need your support

I was just going to wait to see how I did in this contest, but I got to thinking, if my friends rallied around me and left me some love on my layout contest entry, I might have a shot at a free trip to CHA.

So, if it's not too much trouble, would you please go here and leave me some love?

http://ebbscrapbooking.com/Forums/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=si&img=1776

Thanks so much for your love and support. I really wanna win so I can go and work for Piggy Tales and have my expenses covered.

Cumulative Rak help

Don't forget to count up your posts for the grand finale. Don't be discouraged about counting up your posts. It's super easy, but time consuming. Just start by going here. Count the number of times you commented on this thread. Then open the next thread right above this one and count your comments there and so on.
To find old posts, look to the right on my blog on the side bar. Scroll towards the bottom of the page under Blog Archive. It has all the posts there month to month. Click on there and count up your comments per thread. Then email me your count. It's that easy. But as I said, it could take a bit of time.

I'll try to send each of you who plays a little something, so be sure you send me your count.

Thanks!

I'm in love with Tim Holtz

I know that's no big secret to all my friends who know me well. Right now, Tim is doing 12 Tags of Christmas. Every day for 12 days, he's doing tutorials on 12 beautiful tags plus he's giving away the most awesome RAK prizes!!

Visit him on his blog here:

http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/

You can find just about everything he's demo-ing at this store:

http://www.blockheadstamps.com/sheets_christmas.html


I can't wait to see him again. I wanna be him when I grow up.

Check out this video

It's hauntingly beautiful. I get goosebumps watching/listening to it. Can anyone tell me how to get the video on here?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTC2oEcZM4k

Important info regarding Cumulative Prize RAK! Please Read!!

Ok, since I'm SO lazy and since I trust all my friends, here's how we'll work the drawing for the Cumulative Prize Rak.

I announced the RAK on this post here. Go to that post, and from then until this Friday the 14th, please count up the number of posts you've made and email me your number to ttyree@fidnet.com. Remember, the more you posted the more chances you had to win. So everyone who wants a chance to win, please count up your posts and email me the number so I know how many times to enter your name in the hat to win.

Now, how I'll select the winner is this. I will place the names in a hat. I will draw and keep drawing until I pick the same name twice. So the drawing won't be based on just the first name I pick out of the hat. It will be based on the first person's name I draw out twice. I think that's fair enough.

So please count up your posts all the way until FRIDAY, the 14th including the posts you make this week and email them to me by 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time. I will draw in time to get the box into the mail to the winner by Saturday, the 15th!

Happy posting! You can increase your odds of winning by posting alot this week. Hee hee!!

Cumulative RAK prize

Here are a few more prizes going into the Cumulative Prize Rak box!! Of course, I have to put that 601 book in there since my layout is in the book. I'm giving one as a gift to Liz since she made my day asking me for my autograph. That's so funny.

Then there's a little fall mini album with papers already cut and placed inside. I'll include some extra papers to finish it off.

Then I found the cutest clear pail kit complete with Christmas chipboard shapes and embellishments- just in time for Christmas.

Remember, if you'd like a chance to win the prize box with all the presents in there from the last six or so months, please leave a comment. I promise to get this box a winner by the end of the week and hopefully will arrive to the lucky winner by Christmas time!! So don't forget to stop by and say hi!

Final challenge after 8 weeks! Glad it's done!

Now I can go Christmas shopping. We missed it tonight because I stayed all day working on the layout and it got too late to go to the city to shop. Journaling tag is hidden behind the photo and reads, "Shirley, I wasn't around when you had cancer the first time, but rest assured I'm here now and I'll be here for you. Together we'll get through this."- Theresa

Prayers for me please...

As I mentioned a few days ago, I went in for my yearly mammogram. I just got a call today from the doctor's office that there's a spot on my left breast that needs further investigation. Please say a little prayer that the other tests come back as nothing. This is why it's so important to have a mammogram without fail every year. If there is something nasty there, I'm praying that we will have caught it in the early stages and I'll be ok.

Thanks in advance and God Bless everyone!!

RAK winner!!

Just a real quick post before I run off to the dr. for my yearly mammogram. Speaking of which, is everyone current on theirs?? I've seen my mother in law suffer as a result of breast cancer. Everyone should have a yearly mam to prevent this from happening.

I have TWO winners for the TROUBLE BOX. I got the boxes from dollar general. They were 2 to a pack. I've altered one. But I haven't altered the other one yet. It's smaller and will say "Prayer" Box since the word prayer has fewer letters and will fit better on the box.

The winner of the Trouble box is:



JESS!! Woohoo, Jess! Send me your snaily and I'll get that right out to ya.

The winner of the Prayer box is:


ROBIN!! Robin, I need your snaily too!

Thanks, y'all for playing. I'll make more things to RAK in the future so stay tuned! Also, I'm going to post pics later this week of what is going into the Cumulative RAK box for November. It has to do with a Fall mini album with papers from American Crafts!!

RAK!!

I made this Trouble Box for a challenge at Scrappy Giraffe Kits

Our challenge choices:
Song Choices
1. Poprocks & Coke (Green Day)
2. Over my head (The Fray)
3. Trouble (Coldplay)

Scrappy Mission (choose only 1)
1. Alter a clipboard (front & back) using the song name OR lyrics on project
2. Use the sketch and song name OR lyrics
3. Alter small box, frame, or tin using lyrics OR song name on the project

Requirements (choose only 1)
1. Use all items from one manufacturer (this includes, cardstock, alphas, and flowers)
2. Use rub-ons and cardstock only, no pp
3. Use 5 pattern papers - any manufacturer (I used 5 different pp from Basic Grey's Phoebe line

Bonus 1. distressing (I distressed the chipboard title letters)

I chose to create a "Trouble" box to be used to put troubles/prayer requests. A favorite scripture, "Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you" 1Peter 5:7 is printed on a transparency and placed on the top.












So, to celebrate my second pub, I would like to give this prayer box as a gift to someone. If you'd like to have it, please say so in the comments. I'll have Connor pick a name soon.

XOX

Memory Makers 601 is in Da Howwwzzzz!!!

I got my comp copy of the book and my layout back yesterday!! I'm (or should I say, Connor is) on page 221. This book is chock full of inspiring layouts. I'm going to do alot of lifting from this one! ;o)






To celebrate my pub, how about another RAK? Hhhmmmm....I'll have to dig thru my stash to see what I have to give away. Stay tuned. I'll try to find something around here or pick something up at Archivers on Monday if I get the chance to go.

Christmas cards and a RAK I should've given away weeks ago!

I'm all set with my Christmas cards this year. I'd like to send everyone a card this year, so please email me you addy if you'd like to receive one from our family.

I've been so busy that I forgot to RAK this cute little Halloween album kit by Making Memories. There's all kinds of goodies in this kit- the album, stickers, fiber, etc. The first person who posts here gets it!!

Paranormal experience

I'm not a superstitious person. I don't believe in wacky, ghostly stuff. I don't summon spirits or delve in the macabre.

But something happened to me that makes me wonder. Last night, my sis and I were watching back 2 back episodes of Extreme Makeover she taped. After she fed the baby, she burped her and she spit up. I told her that I'd go get Savahn a change of clothes. I rounded the corner and proceeded down the long hallway. At the end of the hallway is my mom and dad's old bedroom. The light was on. As I rounded the corner, I caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure moving swiftly from right to left. I got cold chills. I am not fearful of spirits because I know that I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb and nothing can harm me. I went down the hallway and peeked into the room to see if there was anything abnormal in there. The two big dogs were in there lying on their pillows fast asleep. I wonder if my Dad's spirit still lingers there? Do people immediately go to Heaven when they die or do they just hang out until Jesus comes back to get us all? Anyway, I told my sister of the experience and she also got cold chills. Then I remembered that my mom told me of a similar experience she had. My sis ran to the grocery store for something. Mom was alone at the house. She heard a noise, turned and looked and saw a shadowy figure. She started calling out to my sister, thinking it was her she had seen. But my sister had not yet returned from the store.

I had forgotten all about Mom's story until last night when that happened to me. It's not like my sis and I had been talking about it and the recent conversation led me to imagine that I saw something. No, I know what I saw. It was really strange. I was so close to my dad. If it was him, then I'm happy that he's still near.

Has anything otherworldly ever happened to you?? What are your thoughts? This would have been more fitting a couple weeks ago during Halloween. Hee hee...

Black Friday

I took the boys to visit my Dad's grave. I was so glad the 5 of us were able to visit Dad together.

It was such a pretty, sunny day, that I decided to snap a few pics of the kids while we were there. It's such a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary. Ryan cracks me up with his big, cheesy smile, showing off his new teeth.



I don't blame Savahn for holding her hand to her forehead. I would too if I were surrounded by all those ornery boys!



Last but not least, of course I had to do a photo shoot of my sis and the baby. I don't have photosoop here, so what you see is what you get!!




So, did you hit any good black Friday sales? What'd ya get? I'm going back to Hobby Lobby with a coupon to get a pack of Basic Grey Mellow and Figgy Pudding.I went this morning since they have 50% off packaged paper thinking the BG packs would qualify for the sale only to be told, "no, these are considered 'kits', not paper packs", so I didn't get them cuz at the time, I didn't have a coupon, which is another story in itself. I went to print out a coupon and my sis's printer wasn't hooked up, so I thought I remembered her saying something about the print cartridge not working right. She was asleep so I didn't want to bother her. Chris came over so I asked if I could go by his house to print out the !@#%$ HL coupon, he said sure. So I went over there and his printer was out of ink. So I went to my aunt's to use her printer, and, you guessed it- no ink!! LOL! I'm like, doesn't anyone in Texas believe in refilling their printer ink cartridge?? So I went to HL w/o a coupon only to be frustrated. I came home and Leyanna was awake. I asked her about the printer, and she said all it needed was to be plugged in. So after all that, I know have FOUR !@#$% Hobby Lobby coupons, so away I go. Sorry to bore you with such a dumb story.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!!

I'm in Texas!!

I'm loving having all three of my boys in one place at the same time!!

My sister's computer doesn't have a port to take photos off my camera card, so I'll have to figure out a way to get these pictures loaded for y'all to see.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Obviously, I'm spending Thanksgiving in Texas with my boys, my aunt and uncle and cousin, my sister, her husband and brother-in-law.

Have a great and blessed Thanksgiving!

The roof is going on today!!

And the windows and doors are on! I can't believe our house is being formed right before our very eyes. It's so incredible to watch it go from our heads, to paper and now to real life. It's so exciting and amazing!!

I've been too busy to do a RAK this week. Stay tuned this weekend. I've got a bunch of Halloween stuff I wanna RAK.

My mother in law

As most of you know, my mother-in-law started chemo on Monday. She hasn't been feeling well for quite a while. I thought it'd be a good idea to take her for a day of pampering and have her done up and get her picture made at Glamour Shots. We had this done on a Tuesday. The very next day she went into the emergency room with severe abdominal pain. We have since found out that some cancer cells have attached themselves to her abdominal wall. I am so thankful I listened to my inner voice and had her picture made before all this went down.

Please continue to pray for a healing for her. We love her so much and can't imagine life without her.

Enabler alert!!

I love helping you spend, uhum, I mean, SAVE you money!! Hee hee!!



November is the month we think about what we are thankful for .
This week at Just Let Me Scrapbook I want to thank
my wildly creative Design Team
for the consistant inspiration they share with us!
I have to say these Ladies are AMAZING!

What is your favorite project that is currently shown in our DT Gallery?
Enter the project name and designer in the comments section
during checkout and use the code
THANKSDT to receive 25% off your entire order!

This code is good through SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18.
Thank you for shopping with us! We appreciate you very much!
xox,
Mary Beth

http://store.justletmescrapbook.com/shopbycompany.html

A month of celebrations!

Wow! This is a break the bank month for us!! First, Deb's birthday is on Nov. 8th. Happy Birthday, Deb!! You know I love you so much!

Then on Friday, Eric and I celebrated our 5th anniversary together. For this weeks challenge at scrappygiraffekits.com, I created an acrylic mini album. It was really fun to do.

Then on Saturday, my oldest son, Joshua turned 20. I can not even believe I have a child in their 20's! I'm getting so old!!

Today is Roger and Norma's 40th wedding anniversary. Roger and Norma adopted Connor as their grandson before Connor was born. They didn't have any grandchildren of their own, and Eric never had a dad and my dad passed away when I was 5 month's pregnant with Connor, so it was meant to be.

Eric took me out on Saturday for our anniversary as he spent all of Friday evening working on the house, so I went to a banquet with the Women's Ministries of our church.

Speaking of house, can you believe this??

This is the view standing in our dining area looking out towards the front door. Connor is standing where the front door will be. Eric says the living area will have a 16 foot vault. Even though the living area is small, it'll will have a much larger feel due to the loftiness of the vault.

Isn't this not the hunkiest honey you've ever seen? Well, as long as I think so, that's what's important, right?? Hee hee!! Eric is such a perfectionist, that since the framers didn't do things "just right", he's spending his weekend tearing down the porches and redoing them himself. Anyone who remotely knows him, should not be surprised at this. It's amazing how two polar opposites can make a life with each other. It truly must be a God thing. Hee hee....!!

The inspiration for this mini album is the song, "I Believe in Us" by Amy Sky which you can view the video here.


Please click on each image for a larger view. Let me know if you have any questions on any of it.

Tomorrow, Shirley starts her first round of chemotherapy. Please say a prayer for all of us as begin the long journey to recovery.

On a final happy note, here are the boys playing in the leaves. After a few thousand dollars, doesn't Ryan's smile look great??

Ryan's last day with braces, more house and an update on Shirley

Here's the very last photo of Ryan with braces. I'll have to get a photo today of the after. I thought I got one yesterday, but I didn't see a shot on my camera card.

This photo of the house is kinda grainy because it was really dark when I got to the property. As you can kinda see, the exterior walls of the house are up. Eric said that next week, the roofers will come. I hope the weather holds out by then. Please say a little prayer for weather favors.

On a sad note, my mother-in-law has to start Chemotherapy on Monday. It appears that some breast cancer cells are floating around and have attached themselves to her abdominal wall, wreaking (sp?) havoc on her. The fluid that was drained from her abdomen is the bodies' defense mechanism at work. Please say a prayer for her as she faces this difficult time. The doctor said that if she didn't take chemo, she'd have a year to live. We want her around as long as divinely possible so that Connor and Desi, her two youngest grandkids, can remember her.

A Couple Toots

My "Don't Blink" 6x12 layout made the basic grey gallery!

http://www.basicgrey.com/catalog/idea_gallery_info.php?idea_gallery_id=24638

I won a Rusty Pickle manufacturer challenge over at Crop Addict with my last minute entry, "Paci Pirate"

http://www.cropaddict.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5295&cat=860

Thanks for sharing my toot with me!

My little sweetie...

Soccer season wrap up, more home and RAK results!

Well the first few walls of our house are up!! The basement walk-out is framed, the floor is laid down and the garage walls are up. To the right is the first wall in Connor's bedroom. This is the view standing atop the huge dirt mound.

Here's my future scrap room! Yay!!

This week we wrapped up our soccer season with a trophy award ceremony followed by a pizza party!! It was kinda sad that I wouldn't be their coach anymore. It was such a great experience. The kids are just so sweet. Everytime they see me I always get a great big hug by every one of them. One of my girls cried when it was time to go home.

Connor's so proud of his trophy but was worried that the coaches of the other teams would say that he didn't deserve a trophy since he didn't play much and would tell on him and he wouldn't get a trophy. The next day after the party, I woke him up and as usual, he went to watch Sponge Bob on TV. I walked in to find him with the trophy held close to his chest as he laid on the couch. It was so cute. I should've snapped a photo of it. He's been taking the trophy everywhere with him. LOL!

Connor is taking a nap right now so I had to draw the name. And the winner of the Halloween stamps is

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drumroll please!

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Jozzie! Congrats, Joz!