Hello JT!! Glad you're back!

I downloaded the album today.  Like what I'm hearin'.....  Glad to add another album from JT to my collection.

Tonight's Dinner

Breakfast for dinner is a great thing!!!!!

Sausage, eggs, and potatoes with melted cheese on top.  A simple crowd pleaser.

Happy Birthday Cameron!

On this day, I gave birth to my first child, Cameron W.C. Jackson.  I learned on this day what being a mother means.  It means putting your desires and wants on the backburner.  I learned that it was no longer about what was best for myself, but what was best for my child.  My life was no longer my own.  I learned that my biggest, most rewarding and significant job was taking care of, loving, nurturing, cherishing, and guiding this miracle of life my husband and I were blessed enough to have in our lives.  I learned that being a mom was a job that I did not know I wanted so wholeheartedly and completely until you were put into my arms and I looked into your eyes.

Cameron, I have learned so much from being your mom and have loved every minute of the journey.  You have brought such undeniable joy and happiness into my life.  It has been a pure blessing and gift to have you as my wonderful and utterly perfect son.  I have truly enjoyed watching you grow into the caring, smart, hardworking, and utterly funny young man that you are.  I am so proud to be your mom, so on this day my son, I say to you I love you and Happy Birthday!  xoxoxo - mom

Jackson December Daily album 2012 - FINISHED

I am so glad that I am finally posting the video of my December Daily 2012 album.  I finished this album on Jan. 30th.  I have spent the rest of that time trying to figure out how to get the video off my phone and uploaded.  Learned a lot about video size, video compression(not so much), and uploading video thanks to my tech savvy husband ;-).  So excited to finally get this one crossed off the list!  Enjoy!

Funny Moment

Q found out that he was too young to attend a sleepover with his siblings and cousins.  Cam said, "Well at least you will have mom and dad here all to yourself" in an attempt to make Q feel better.  Q immediately replied, "I know, we'll also have a lot of peace and quiet, too!" :-)

Valentine's Day Card and a Funny Moment

I made some Valentine's Day cards for my family yesterday.  I know I could have gone out and bought them each a nice card but I was feeling a little creative.  Besides any opportunity to use up my scrap-stash is a good one, right?  I could have a very lucrative yard sale selling some of my scrapbooking supplies but I am now off the subject:-)......  So here are some pictures of the cards I made.

The card above was for my oldest son.  The paper is from the Cobalt Edition of Project Life.  I also used an Ali Edwards stamp and some washi tape.

I made this card for my daughter.  The paper and the butterfly embellishment are from a Tim Coffey scrapbook kit that I have had for a LONG time.  The metal rim tag is from Making Memories.

This card was for my little guy.  Paper is from the Cobalt edition of Project Life and I just added again some washi tape and the metal rimmed tag.

This card was for my husband.  The paper is from the Clementine edition of Project Life and I also used some American Craft thicker letters and a strip of vellum.  I apologize for the glare, I am still trying to get better at taking clear well-lit photos, so bear with me.

So there you have it!  Four Valentine's Day cards all made in one day.

A Funny Moment|| My oldest son comes home from school and we begin the afternoon routine.  Snacks, talking about his day, what homework he has to do, etc.  My son walks up to me and asks "Mom, have you eaten any of the chocolate covered strawberries Dad got you for V-day?"  I tell him, no I had not.  Now, I am thinking to myself here it comes, he is going to ask me for one of the strawberries.  WRONG!!!!  He then proceeds to ask me, "So mom, are you and dad going to feed each other the strawberries tonight in bed?"  What?!?!  I  am trying so HARD not to burst out laughing because my son did not ask me this question in a jokey-joke type of manner, he had the weirdest look on his face.  The kinda look that says I really do not want the mental picture of what I am asking you in my head any longer, so if talking to you about it will rid me of this image then, Let's Talk!!!  I told him that no we would not be doing that tonight but asked him did the possibility of that happening bother him.  Needless to say, I had a very eye opening and entertaining conversation with my son last night!  Will definitely be adding this story to my Project Life.  

Enjoy the weekend!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I got up this morning and got the kids up and going for school.  I went downstairs and found this lovely sight on the kitchen counter. 

My sweet husband had left my daughter and I our Valentines Day cards :-).  Did not expect this at all, such a lovely surprise.  My two sons asked "No cards for me/us?"  Uh-oh, did not see this one coming.  So, I just told them that the day was just beginning and that you just never know what is in store.  To myself I am thinking "I will just have to get creative."  So I dropped the older two off at school, came back home and had to have a little chat with the Q-man who was still a little upset about not getting a card.  He says "Dad must love you and RyRy more because he got you both a card."  Sigh.....  I told him of course dad loves him just that he was doing something special for the ladies in his life.  I made him feel better, so Q-man went back to being Q-man.  Spent the rest of the morning making cards for the kids and the hubby.  Hopefully, I will get some good photos to post of the cards for tomorrow...  Got Q on the bus to school and went grocery shopping.  Got home and decided to make these for my babies.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The History Project

An on-line class that I am currently taking is called The History Project by Kerri Bradford.  I am LOVING it!  It is a year long class where every week you receive a topic to write about to document your years as a young adult (years 0-20).  Love this idea of documenting my early childhood/adult years for my children to read and cherish.  Such a great class concept and I also love the fact that my two older kiddies are doing this project with me!  I know that I will absolutely treasure this book at the end of 2013 once all my stories have been documented.  The thought that my children and hopefully future generations will have these stories is a priceless gift.  Thank you Mrs. Bradford!!!  You can read more about Kerri Bradford's class here.

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Of course, I began following Kerri Bradford's blog after finding out she was the designer of the Turquoise Edition of Project Life.   I just so happen to be using the Turquoise edition of Project Life to document 2013. 

Enjoy your evening!!

Today

On this day seventeen years ago, I married the love of my life.  On that cold snowy day, Ryan and I began our lives as husband and wife.  We have had our share of good times as well as bad times but through it all one thing has remained consistent for us - our commitment to one another.  We are by no means a perfect couple, we fight and yell with one another, we disagree on various topics, we do know how to push each other's buttons, and we each make mistakes.  In the end, we always get through it by compromising, letting the little things go, and sometimes just agreeing to disagree.  I know how blessed we are to have found one another.  I thank my lucky stars each and every day for the wonderful man I have in my life.  He chose ME to walk through this life with, to share each and every ordinary moment that makes up our lives, and I him.  In doing so, we have become stronger, more understanding and forgiving of one another, more willing to listen to each other and yes of course, to LOVE each other more.   It is so reassuring and comforting to know that no matter what, the man that I married has my well being at heart, wants to make me happy, and is happy and content to spend his days with me.  So after seventeen years (and three beautiful children), I can honestly say that I want nothing more than what I already have - the gift of love sent to me in the form of my husband, the love of my life.  Happy Anniversary HH!!  XOXOXOXO!!

Tonight's Dinner

Made a stir fry with Chinese noodles and added some pork and vegetable pot stickers.  This is what we will be eating for dinner.

Too Funny

One of the things I want to do more of this year is write down the funny things the kids say.  I always hear them say something funny and I tell myself not to forget what they said (which I always do) instead of making a note or writing it down right away.  I had to jot this one down today......

This morning Q asks for a cutie to eat.  I began peeling it and I don't know if I was peeling the cutie too slowly or what but Q looked at me and said, "Mom you know what would be great, if cuties had a zipper." :-)

So Proud of You

So Proud of You Q-man

I know this picture is not such a happy shot of our youngest.  I am so proud of our little guy, Q-man.  Yes, he was still sent to his room to sit on his bed for a bit, but the lesson has been learned and I think the light bulb has gone on for him.  Woo-hoo!!  Two rules (of many) that we have in our house is #1 Do NOT lie.  We tell our kids that there is no need to lie, we know you might be scared to admit to wrongdoing but if you tell the truth your punishment will not be as severe as it would be if we catch you lying to your parents or any adult for that matter.  #2 You must eat all you dinner before you can get dessert.  I have had to work at clearing up this rule to include the word dinner.  Q was under the impression that he could get dessert after EVERY meal including breakfast(it was hilarious seeing his face one day after he finished his cereal and ran to me asking for a cookie - what do ya mean, no cookie I ate everything?!?).  He keeps us on our toes, this one.   Continuing on, I was upstairs scrapping after fixing the kids' dinner plates and getting them situated to eat.  Q came upstairs and told me he'd finished his dinner and asked for a brownie.  I asked him twice if he was certain that he'd cleaned his plate and he assured me that he had.  In the past, I would have gone downstairs and checked his plate but this time I did not.  I gave him the ok to get his brownie and he was off.  A couple of minutes later, he came back to me and he had tears in his eyes and he said "Mom, are you gonna be mad at me?"  I knew immediately that he had lied about dinner and was about to get angry but instead I just answered "No Q, why?  Should I be mad?"  He told me that he had not eaten all his dinner.  I was still trying not to get angry because I thought he was coming to tell me all this AFTER he had eaten the brownie.  So glad I didn't.  He told me he DID NOT eat the brownie!!!  Happy Happy Joy Joy!!  I looked at his little face and gave him a big hug and kiss and told him I was so proud of him for telling me the truth.  I lifted him into my lap and let him cry for a little bit then had a nice long chat about lying.  I told him that I was still proud of him but he still had to go sit in his room for a while for lying in the first place, hence the shot above.  After I told him his time was up, he gave me a big hug and kiss looked up at me and asked, "Mom, are you gonna tell Dad?"  :-)

Choices

Two shows that I have programmed to record on our DVR are Super Soul Sunday and Oprah's Lifeclass series on OWN.  I think these are such inspirational shows.  Thought provoking and uplifting, these shows always make me feel better for having watched them.  They make me cry, laugh, smile, and leave me humble and quiet (usually because there was something said that rings true in my life, something that I have to improve/work on, change, etc.). 



I just finished watching one of Oprah's lifeclass programs with guest Pastor Rick Warren.  Topic of the show was dealing with the cards you were dealt in life.  Again, I cried and laughed and admit that I have some work to do.  Choices, choices, choices.  It all comes down to that one word in the end, doesn't it?  There are a lot of things we as humans on this planet cannot control - our DNA(and everything those three letters entail), our family, upbringing, etc., but we can control how we let those things affect us.  I admit to not always making the best choices, making choices out of fear, pain, anger, feelings of not being enough, the list can go on and on.  I know after watching this program that I am where I am meant to be in my life.  I want to make better choices in my life in regards to my health both physical, spiritual, and mental (that DNA stuff ) and in regards to my relationships.  I know I am a good person at heart, I just know that I have some work to do.

Did not write this post today to throw a pity party or anything, I know that I am blessed.  Just trying to keep it real.

Some favorite Project Life pages 2012

I am still in the process of catching up on my 2012 album.  This involves printing and editing A LOT of photos.  While my photos are being processed, I wanted to share some of my favorite layouts from 2012:

While I still have a ways to go to complete 2012, these layouts give me ideas on how I can keep it simple by using the same colors, elements, and products while still satisfying my need to be scrappy.  I apologize for the quality of the pics, working on this picture posting to my blog thing - bear with me.  So grateful for this project - LOVE IT!!  Project Life (created by Becky Higgins) has given me a place to scrap all the many pictures that I have on my computer and camera.  I am only limited by my own imagination, this system is so easy to use.  Words cannot describe the feelings I have at seeing my family flipping through our albums -  just PRICELESS.



Supplies used:  American Craft Thickers, Ormolu labels, Elles Studio labels, washi tape(from Cute Tape), My Mind's Eye labels, Ali Edwards Life Is Good brushes, Project Life Clementine Edition, Creative Imaginations epoxy stickers, Cathy Zielske Day of the week 3x4 cards (I believe they were a free download on her blog.).

Hello 2013!

Happy New Year!!  I spent New Year's Eve with family and friend laughing, joking, playing games, eating good food and having a great time.  Even though winter is not my favorite time of the year, I do love looking forward to a new year, starting fresh, the whole clean slate thing.  I spent yesterday afternoon going through my closet just getting rid of things that have been there too long, straightening things up, putting things where they should be.  It felt good.

As I begin 2013, the word resolutions come to mind.  I have set resolutions in the past only to get overwhelmed and discouraged.  Instead of thinking in terms of resolutions, I am going to use the word CHOOSE to set some goals and clear up my outlook.  I choose....
      -to get current on Project Life for 2012.  I am not stressing about this at all(this is my 3rd year of doing PL), I am up to date on my journaling and picture taking, I just have not printed pictures for the last three months.  It's just a matter of printing the pictures, and putting everything in the photo pockets and adding my journaling and whatever embellishments I want to include.  I have been behind in the past, so for me this is very doable.  Just need to GET IT DONE.
     -to complete my December Daily album.  Again, this is a doable project.  This is my 2nd year doing this album.  I LOVE my album from last year.  Again, I know what pictures I want to include and have journaled through the month.  I just need to sit down and put everything together.  The creative side of this is where I get stuck because I over think things.  Once I get going it is not quite a problem, it's just getting out of first gear.
     -to stop being a cyber peeker in creative galleries and get more involved whether it is just opening up and communicating in various member galleries to also maybe actually submitting/posting some of my own work!  For me, this is a big one.
     -to be more open and to just get out of my own way.  I want to stop hemming and hawing in my own personal life.  I have been sitting on the sidelines too long.  Not in terms of taking care of my family, my home and that sort of thing but in terms of my own life and goals I want to achieve.  

So, as the first day of 2013 cruises along I am looking forward to this year and everything it has in store.  I want to step out of my comfort zone and choose to be pleasantly surprised at the outcome no matter what.  I heard Paula Deen state this(someone else might have said this too but I'm quoting Paula :-)) and it has stuck with me:  "The sin is not in failing, the sin is in not trying."