Monday, February 15, 2010

Another Day......Another Dollar!

Good Morning!


It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood.........



I am off today and tomorrow because of our school winter break. It's kind of nice to have that break. I am working on homework and I am OK with that. I did get a little goofing time this weekend.....my niece's birthday party.....Our VALentine turned four yesterday. Her party was on Saturday. It was a Barbie party and my sister made the cake. I though she did an awesome job on it! Val loved it and was so excited to show everyone when they came over. Uncle Larry and I got her the Princess Tiana Doll, and Pj's to match. She LOVED them!! She is also my God-Daughter so we also got her a pair of ruby heart earrings. For her 5th birthday I am hoping to start her on a charm bracelet. I have a year to find one.......


Yesterday Larry and I spent the day doing nothing!! Well I worked in the dreaded homework. We also watched goofy movies. High School Musical 3 and Hanna Montana. I know, I know!!!
We did redeem ourselves and watch Paul Bart Mall Cop. We aren't big on Valentine's Day because our wedding anniversary is in two weeks and that's when we do the celebrating!


I am hoping to maybe do a little stamping today. I have a mid-term test today in marketing so that will be my reward once the studying is done! (You'd think I was a kid!)


Enjoy your day!!! Do something just for YOU!


Until later...........................

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day!





What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork! ~ Pearl Bailey


Happy Valentines Day! Hope your day is filled with more love and less paperwork!


My Valentine's Day present to you......SAMPLES that I have promised!~
until tomorrow ..........

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Happy Superbowl!

Happy Sunday!!


As a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator this is my favorite time of the year.......SALE-A-Bration! For every $50 spent you get a free selected stamp set, punch or paper from Stampin' Up!
I am all about getting free stuff!! Check out my website at http://crazyboutstamps.stampinup.net/ for more information regarding the sale.
I have a 12 Card Birthday demonstration in Royal Oak next weekend. I love that my demo's have gone to the next level. I enjoy doing fun stuff like that. HOWEVER, I have yet to start designing any cards yet. I know, I know!!! I can't seem to get my act together in getting myself to plan ahead of time! I have tried, but I always think I have more time than I do. One day........


I am also working in a fundraiser scrapbook weekend for St. Vincent dePaul. It is set for the last weekend of April 23 -25, 2010. The cost is $85.00 for the weekend. If you pay by March 19, 2010 save $10 and pay only $75.00! The registration forms can be found at http://www.svdpdet.org/ozanam.html


Schoolwork has been a lot, but I hate to say this out loud......It is getting a little easier! Lots and lots and lots of papers to write, about 2 a week, but I am getting the hang of it.
I can't wait for the commericals tonight.....love the Superbowl Commericals!
Enjoy your day.......
Until next time.............................




Monday, January 18, 2010

I have a dream......

Martin Luther King Speeches
I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington
August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.


Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Saturday, January 16, 2010

SALE-A BRATE Tonight, C'mon!

We interrupt this blog to bring you this announcement!

SALE-A-BRATION
It's Stampin' Up! biggest promotion of the year. Spend $50 and get a free stamp set, or paper, or punch free! (before tax and shipping).

Hostesses ~ Receive a free Sale-A-Bration product for every $300 in workshop sales*, in addition to our regular hostess benefits. I would love to bring a workshop to your house!
*Note: This benefit only available on qualifying customer, demonstrator, and workshop orders. Online orders do not qualify.


Want to become part of my team? Recruits can choose any retail stamp set (valued up to $47.95) from the current catalogs when signing up during the promotion. Plus, get 15 percent off your Starter Kit (Standard or Digital+)!

Check out my website today!
http://crazyboutstamps.stampinup.net

Now back to our regularly schedule programing......

Hello!
Did you like my commerical? Why yes I am in rare form tonight. I have homework to do, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Not feeling it. I know, I know, who does, right? I know I will get my second wind around 10p and go until 3 or 4 in the morning. Funny how I work. I have always been that way. The whole kicker here is I really don't have too much to do!



My cousin Jennifer just went through the same program I am going through at Specs Howard. She's went 1 year straight. I am not sure I am disciplined enough to do that. I have yet to get my Adobe software yet (I guess you have to order it first before it comes, LOL!) She has loaned me her laptop.......... that is loaded with the software I need to get my graphics homework done. She is the bestest cousin I have!!! I am going to try and get myself ahead 3 or 4 projects tomorrow using her Mac computer. I would LOVE to purchase a MAC but that is not in my funds in the near future!

I spent today working on projects that I have put off way to long! I am helping host another scrapbook weekend shortly. So today I worked on goody bags and miscellaneous stuff that needs to get done. Once again, trying to get a head of the game. I need to cut card stock, and prep the items needed for my make n take. I will......maybe tomorrow......

Have you been reading my friend Patty's blog? She has posted some really interesting stories and pictures. As much as I didn't want her to go, I think this is a good thing for her. If you get a chance, please check out her blog: http://www.patguat.blogspot.com/.

I am going to leave you with this parting picture:

Awesome watch dogs don you think?

Until tomorrow........................

Sunday, January 10, 2010

HOLA!

Hola or Hello!

Today was a busy day. Had to make up for all that I didn't do yesterday. I got it all done....the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and dining room cleaned. My books ready for my class tomorrow night, dinner ready for the crock pot and an ABC book for the admissions director done. I am tired. Oh, and my laundry....done! I feel accomplished, but I am also tired! We also went to my parents for our weekly dinner.

My husband and I made dinner last night. We had burgers on the George Foreman grill and seasoned fries. We have had this before. Nothing new. However, for whatever reason, my husband had a reaction to the fries. His eyes swelled shut, he had red blotches and his nose was continually running. He looked like he was in a street fight and lost!! I gave him Benadryl and that seemed to help last night. This morning when we woke for church, he still looked bad. I gave him more Benadryl. He stayed home and went back to bed, and I church. He pretty much had swollen eyes the whole day. I guess I won't be making those fries anymore!

My friend Patty has gone to Guatemala for 8 weeks. She is doing "mission" work. She has gone to Guatemala through Safe Passage (www.safepassage.com). She will be teaching children who in the easiest terms, live in Guatemala City's landfill. Sad, very sad. You can read about her travels here www.patguat.blogspot.com. I have been posting notes back to her...in SPANISH. Now, I only know the few words that everyone knows Hello, How are you, Goodbye.....I will one day learn to speak Spanish! So until then, I have been cheating and using the Google translator to send her messages. Funny!! OK I thought it was!!! If you get a chance and read her blog, can you leave her a comment. She is kind of homesick and I think a kind word here and there will help her adjust! She comes home on February 26.

I have done a little stamping. I will post pictures soon.....I start school tomorrow night so I am not sure on how my time will be. I promise to post on Thursday when I don't have class.

Until then.................

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Baby it's cold outside!

Hello!


Well I started off posting everyday....then once again got sidetracked. I am working on it. It's one of my New Year's Resolutions.....get better at posting!


Today was a "funny" kind of day. It started out with really great intentions and then went down hill from there!


My husband I and decided we were going to "sleep in" today. Sleeping in for us lately has been 8:00am. Well, our furry friends decided at 7:30a that they needed to go "potty" and woke me up. So much for sleeping in. So I made a plan of action for the day. It was going to be a cold day and I decided I was going to hang out here and get needed stuff done around the house.


I had big plans to get my house cleaned, laundry done and some sample made for upcoming events. I started with the laundry, you know the yucky part of sorting? My husband and I each do our own laundry. When we were first married he shrunk a lot of my sweaters (I had the Madonna belly shirts going on, and with my belly, not a pretty picture) so we made a pack that we would each do our own. I started off well. Got the clothes sorted, and the first load in the washer. I had decided that I while I was washing I would hang out in my stamping area and get a couple of the samples I need done, you know get a head of the game. That is a new way of thinking for me!


Anyhow, got all the stampin supplies cut and laid out, when my husband called and said he made us "brunch". I came upstairs and he had a really yummy breakfast waiting for me eggs, hash browns, ham, toast, juice. It smelled good and it was a great surprise. We had a great meal together. I decided to sit on the couch (at 11:30a) for a "few" minutes. A "Law and Order" rerun was on that I had not seen....next thing you know, I look at the clock and it's 3:30p. 4 hours!! I slept for 4 hours!!!! My day shot....down the tubes....nothing done...nada......so I decided what the heck, kicked back for more laying on the couch and watching TV. My husband decided he was going to relax too and read a book. It was one of those kind of days that we have not allowed ourselves to have in such a very long time! It was great!! We even (and if he finds out I told anyone he'll have a fit) watched The Princess Diaries together! So everything I had planned today I just deferred until tomorrow.


Our weather in Michigan has been odd this winter season. We got our first "big" snowfall on Thursday evening. We got 6 inches of snow. We usually get a snowfall by Christmas but this year it didn't happen. I am not complaining. Snow is fun for the first couple of snowfalls, but then it get OLD! Anyhow after the snow, we are having a cold blast. Lows in the single digits. Not one of my favorite things........Our pets like to cuddle together except Tillie. Tillie likes to be on her own, but she is getting older and moving slower (who isn't). We moved the the furniture around after Christmas and our floor heat vent is more "available" now to the pets. Tillie has taken a liking to laying in front of it. I brought up a pillow from the basement, and as you can see she loves it!
none of the other cats even attempt to lay on it. The dogs leave it alone too. We find it quite funny!
OK I am back to the couch and to my book. I am going to finish off the day with me on the couch with my husband, the remote and a nice warm blanket. Maybe it's a cuddle alert!
Until tomorrow...........................

Monday, January 4, 2010

I'll be there for YOU!

...............It's like your always stuck in second gear,

When it hasn't been your day, your week your month or even your year

I'll be there for you.....................The Rembrandt's www.soundtrackslyrics.com/def/Friends.html#01

My life is blessed with friends. My husband, my mom and dad, my sisters, my work friends, my out of work friends, my previous work friends, my pets, my BFF's, my stampin friends, my scrappin friends, my facebook friends, my Girl Scout friends, friends of friends. I am blessed!


I was thinking today how wonderful it feels to have so many friends. When I returned to work today I felt good seeing my work friends or my work "BFFs". It makes going to work not so bad. My friend Karen celebrated her birthday while we were off, Sabrina got a lap top for Christmas so we can "facebook" each other at home, Robb got his much "needed" toaster and my friend Jamie celebrated her holiday with her husband and son. Jamie's husband has enlisted into the Navy. I can't even think on how hard it would be to not have Larry around for 4 months at a time.

Jamie is an outstanding photographer. We have used her services(the last 2 years) in the annual holiday pictures of my nieces and nephews. She also took pictures of my family this summer. That was my birthday present from Larry. It was so much fun! I hope we get to do that again next year~hint hint!~



She has such a great outlook on life, always fun to be around, and always has a smile. I enjoy talking to her and have many many laughs. If you are looking for a photographer, check out her website. A M A Z I N G! http://www.jamicarlson.com/




Here are a few she took for my birthday:


She has such FABULOUS pictures on here website that you should take a gander!


Friends seem to make bad days good, good days better and better days fabulous!! I am blessed beyond words........just a little ramblings today!! And if you are counting this would make 3 days in a row of blogging!


Until later.....................

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Two days in a row.......

.....that I blogged. See, I told you I would try harder :0)


Today was spent "un-Christmasing" our house. The Christmas tree was taken down, the stockings put away for another year and the Christmas cookies "finished up" (meaning my husband polished them off!). Yup, we are officially "un-Christmased". I just hate this time. The holiday let down. UGH!!


Anyhow, I did get some card making done yesterday and today. I made my new niece, Adrianna's baptismal invitations. I really liked the way they came out. Simple, but I added some glitter for that "TA-DA" and that is what it did, gave it that "TA-DA". I hope my sister liked them.


We also rearranged the furniture in our living room. Our house isn't all that big but moving the furniture around gives the illusion that it is. The dogs and cats are a little out of sorts. They seem a little confused. The way the furniture is, the cats are now fighting over who gets to lay in front of the heat duct.


I also received a call today from my friend Patty. Patty and I met at the Montessori school I work at. She was one of the team teachers in Upper Elementary when I started. Patty and I became fast friends and have been friends for 9 years now. I only got to work with her one year because she had an opportunity become available in Traverse City so she moved there and has been teaching there ever since.


Last year she started taking about doing some overseas work. First she was talking Afghanistan and I "expressed" to her that she shouldn't go. She listened, but said she was going to go and do this work. She has had strong feelings for this. She found a place that could use her help and is going overdseas tomorrow. She is using the group http://www.safepassage.com/ to do her work.

She leaves tomorrow bright and early on a plane to Guatemala City for 2 months. How, I will miss our phone calls and our finding answers to all the worlds problems. I was a little "verclumped" this afternoon. She promised to email me and update her blog. Here is the link to her blog http://www.patguat.blogspot.com/ in case you may want to follow along. If you would, please send good thoughts and prayers her way.


I also made a pot of split pea soup. Not my favorite, but my husband loves it. I do have to say my house smells good! I am going to share some of the soup with my parents. Funny, how all of the sudden I have the urge to cook. Gosh, what does that mean????

I thought I would share one picture with you this evening......maybe, just maybe there will be a few more tomorrow!

This was from the Christmas Cookie Exchange.

Until next time...................

Saturday, January 2, 2010

HELLLOOOOOOO 2010!!!

Happy New Year Everyone.....a day late, but none the less, Happy New Year!!

Let's get caught up, shall we? I finished this quarter with 2 "A's" and 1 "B", with a spot on the deans list. Not too shabby, huh?? One more week and the grind begins all over again. This time a marketing class, composition two and a graphics's class. Little excited to start the graphics's class, using Adobe Illustrator. I will have the same instructor as I had last quarter, so I have good idea of what this instructor will want and need so it should make it a little easier on me in completing the assignments.

Christmas was wonderful. I got a lot of nice things. However, I didn't get my Wii. Maybe for my wedding anniversary in February. OK a girl can dream a little, can't she? :0)

My husband and I went to the movies. We usually go a couple times a year. We did make a resolution of a date night once a month. Hopefully we will follow through with that! Anyhow, we saw "Blind Side" http://www.theblindsidemovie.com/ and thought it was a great movie. I use the cry factor as my movie "great" gage and I cried 2x's. We also saw "It's Complicated" http://itscomplicatedmovie.com/ we really enjoyed that movie too. The whole movie theatre was laughing out loud. I just love Steve Martin and have for years! We are hoping to see "Avatar" http://www.avatarmovie.com/ we are just waiting for line to go down.

New Years Eve was celebrated at my sister's house. As always it is a blast!! Being with my entire family sure makes a great start to the new year. We play games, eat dinner together and just hang out with each other. We also do a "Pollyanna" gift exchange and it gets funnier and funnier as the years go on. I love cleaning my closest cause you never know what you may find for the gift exchange. To my family reading this, you are in for a BIG surprise next year. Larry cleaned out his work gifts from MichCon! That's all I am going to say!

We were also blessed to have my Aunt Margaret there. If you remember last year at this time she was sick and we found out she had cancer. After a year if chemo and surgery, she is considered "cure". She will have to see her doctors every month for a while, but at this point, she is doing much much better. Thanks you for all your kind words and prayers. It meant a lot to me and my family.

I have been working on the St. Vincent dePaul fundraiser scrapbook weekend. It is set for the weekend of April 23, 2010. Here is the registration form....its last years, as the new one hasn't been posted/updated on the website yet, but it still can be used. The cost is still the same as last year. We would love to have you come and scrap with us!!! http://www.svdpdet.org/assets/CampScrapALot2009Flyer.pdf

Well I must be off. My husbands car didn't want to co-operate today, so I need to get ready to go and pick him up from work. In Michigan, it's a bit chilly here (-10 with the windchill) so too cold to walk.......have a wonderful day, until next time!!

OHHHH one more thing!! Happy Birthday to my friend Karen Y. Here's to many many more!