Sunday, March 30, 2008

Oo-La-La!

Oo-La-La! I just finished another scrapbook page for the website gallery this month, and I photographed my little decorated cupcake box and cupcake decoration. Both photos are made with goodies from the April ScrapRoom Kit. I've been wanting to do some scrapbooking, and the website gallery deadline seemed like the best motivator. :)

Last year, Jeremiah wrote on my Mother's Day card, "You Shine My Day Up!" How precious is that! It is just the most perfect expression of love from my sweet 7 year old boy. It was what he felt in his heart, so he wrote it down in words that made sense to him. He knows how much I love that expression, so he uses it on his cards and projects again from time to time. Gosh, this is the stuff of parenting that I just love!

And, this is my newly decorated cupcake box and decorated cupcake topper! I wanted to use the April kit, but I don't have anyone to give it to. My sweet friends, Ryan and Jessica, are having a baby ANY DAY NOW, and if I lived closer, I'd give it to them. But, I don't think the cupcake would fare very well through the mail. So, we'll eat the cupcakes in honor of Baby Hill, and I'll save my little box for a local new delivery. :)

I am just loving these little cupcake boxes. Cupcakes are the perfect size - just enough - and how fun to get a yummy cupcake delivered in a fun decorated package. The box has an insert that holds the cupcake in place so the icing doesn't get all over the inside of the box. (Genious!) Anyway, I've made two batches of cupcakes in the past week. I'm on a search for the perfect cupcake recipe so that I can make some yummy cupcakes and give them as gifts whenever the need arises! I tried a new recipe for my Grandmother's 86th Birthday Party, and they were good, but I think I can do better. I made a different batch yesterday, and they were just alright.

So, if you've got a GREAT cupcake recipe, send it to me at admin@scrap-room.com. :)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I won!

Yea! I was one of the winners from Stacy Julian's Blog Party this past weekend. I will be getting a copy of her new book, "Photo Freedom." She also posted my picture on her blog, along with the layout that I made about Jesse being his friend, Bryan's, role model. That is so cool! She is such a big-whig in the scrapbooking industry, and it is super fun to have one of my layouts on her blog! I look so bad in the picture. I decided late in the day to enter the contest, so I threw on a sweater and had Josiah take my picture - no make-up, no nice hairstyle, just me looking all of my 37 years! I'm sure I'll be mortified in a few days, after the "new" has worn off, when I think about all of the people that might see my bad picture on Stacy's blog - but I don't care today. I'm just happy to have won. I can hardly wait for my new book! Yippeee!! :)

SEE STACY'S BLOG HERE!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Favorite Sweater

In honor of what would have been Mister Rogers' 80th birthday for Stacy Julian's Blog Party, I am wearing my favorite sweater, a zip-front red cardigan. :)We really did have a beautiful day here in Northern Illinois, which is always a welcome surprise in March. It's Easter, and I made the most of this day by taking the opportunity to explain in a little bit more detail to my growing boys why we celebrate Easter and what Jesus' death and resurrection means to us. I am always grateful to be there for those "magic moments" when they are able to understand and appreciate a little bit more truth.

And since I mentioned Stacy Julian's blog party above and I'm hoping that she might actually follow the link that will take her here and see this, I wanted to write just a brief note of thanks to Stacy for sharing her Library of Memories scrapbooking system with me. I have been a scrapbooker for years and years, and when I began to get serious about it, I always found myself a little bit frustrated. While I loved the opportunity to preserve my precious photos and family stories, I felt like I wasn't able to really tell those stories that I most wanted to remember - you know, the ones that you sit around the table and tell over and over. Those stories never seemed to make it into the scrapbooks. I had countless pages about the first day of school or our trip to the apple orchard, but those weren't the real stories that capture our family. Stacy's Big Picture Scrapbooking concept allowed me the freedom to use the photos I want and tell the stories I want and then be able to share these random layouts in my scrapbooks. I enjoy scrapbooking again because I can scrapbook the things and the moments that I think are important, regardless of when it happened in the chronology of our lives. It truly is Photo Freedom. Thank you Stacy. I am grateful for your creativity and your organizational thinking and your ability and willingness to share this with others. Because of the freedom that I found with your system, I was able to create the layout about my son, Jesse, below. This memory never would have found a voice in my choronological albums a few years ago. :)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

California Pics!





I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the sound of the surf and could sit there there hours listening to and watching the waves wash onto the shore - definitely a God thing! We found a great little tide pool and were able to see lots of little sea creatures hanging around and doing their little sea creature activities - too cool (and a little gross)! The boys would have LOVED it!









We also had an opportunity to visit the old mission at San Juan Capistrano. It was a gorgeous day, and the the mission was really beautiful.







Okay, and this final picture is a little bit funny to Chris and I. We were sitting there waiting to board the plane and Chris noticed that the airline would call the first class passengers and tell them that they could board by walking across the red carpet. They would undo that little barricade across the carpet square and route the first class passengers across that little patch of carpet. We thought it was so funny that the "Red Carpet Treatment" for the fancy first-class passengers involved a little red carpet square. I took a photo of the coveted Red Carpet on our way home - and I even had a bit of a rebellious spirit and actually wiped my foot on the carpet when the airline people weren't looking. :)

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Just For Fun!

Okay, I was reading down through the old blog posts tonight just before getting ready to post that Mother Theresa quote (see below). I saw that I already posted the quote last year, and I haven't even blogged enough since then to move it to another page. So, I won't post it again. But, it is a great quote and speaks volumes to me as I struggle with balance and my annual case of the "chuglies." Her final line sums it up, I think, "You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway."

On a lighter note, as I perused my old blog entries, I did come across a quiz I answered last year, so I thought it might be fun to run that baby again with today's answers and see how they compare. (Stacia, if you read this, I'd like to see this quiz appear on your blog with your answers, so as they say in "blogdom," "Tag! You're It!") Okay, here goes...

1. where is your cell phone? charging in the kitchen
2. your boyfriend/girlfriend? Chris, my handsome husband for 17-1/2 years
3. your hair? driving me crazy; I can't do anything with it. It seems to be fried... (hmmm... no change here!) (In honesty, I'm just really way overdue for a trim. My hair is getting really long, and I don't know if that is good or bad for a 37 year old woman! In our family, we jokingly refer to my hair as my crown. Sandy, my mother-in-law, asked me at Christmas time, how long I was going to let it get. I told her that I liked it long because it made me feel like a Princess, thus the crown.)
4. where is your father? probably asleep in his chair in front of the TV
5. your favorite thing to do? enjoy an unhurried breakfast with my husband, especially when he is in the mood to chat
6. your dream last night? I can't remember it, but it was long and a little odd.
7. your dream car? a convertible Beetle :)
8. the room you're in? my bedroom, sitting in bed under the electric blanket, which is turned up to a 9 and is quite toasty
9. who did you hang out with last night? nobody - Chris took the boys to church, and I stayed home and filled ScrapRoom boxes for shipment
10. your fears? failure
11. what aren't you good at? many more things than I'm good at
12. muffins? not when I can have a scone (YUM!)
13. one of your wish list items? for complete wisdom and clarity in all things that I am responsible for; for my house to be decorated; to not have to be concerned with weight management issues (okay, I know that's three things, but the first one was too big and the last two are constantly hanging over my head!)
14. the last thing you did? finally saw the "praying woman" in the floral pattern of my comforter cover. Joe has seen it repeating all over the comforter for a long time and he was asking me tonight if I saw it - finally did! (It really does look like the silhouette of a praying woman. She's everywhere!)
15. your computer? I LOVE my laptop and my high-speed wireless internet connection. When it's all working, it's a thing of beauty!
16. your pet? Still no.
17. you are wearing? a pink SEI t-shirt that says "Make Your Scrapbook Splendid" in little velvet letters (What kind of slogan is that... "Make Your Scrapbook Splendid"? Nobody talks like that!)
18. your life? blessed with an amazing husband, amazing children, and a God who loves me even when I can't see Him clearly.
19. your mood? slightly melancholy; a little blah
20. missing? warm sunny days
21. your car? sometimes starts; sometimes doesn't - we finally replaced the battery in the red van, and I'm starting to trust it again. Big Green, however... there's this finicky anti-theft device embedded in the guts of this van, and this anti-theft system sometimes engages of it's own free will, and we are unsure of the proper way to disengage. We think it might involve a rhyming chant, some burning incense, and a very elaborate yoga-type pose done while clicking a series of buttons, but we are still unsure whether the door has to be open or closed while doing this. When the anti-theft system engages, we cannot start the car until the system has been reassured in our most calming voice that we are not burglars and promising it all sorts of treats after it starts again. We have been stranded in numerous places because of said device, including Yellowstone National Park (twice). We now say altogether as a family, "Good Stop" when the van starts again after we have turned it off. It is a shame that the quality of our roadside stop is determined by whether or not the van will start up again. At any rate, our little anti-theft friend kicked in today, and the van wouldn't start at the post office (AGAIN!) after we unloaded our boxes this morning. Chris must have completed the required appeasement techniques to start her up again, but the problem is that he doesn't know what it was that actually did the trick...)
22. what are you thinking about now? that I should probably stop typing in answers to these stupid questions and get to bed
23. your work? raising my boys and www.scrap-room.com
24. your summer? COMING!
25. your relationship status? Married with children
26. your favorite color(s)? to wear - black; just because I like it right now - aqua!
27. when is the last time you cried? I can't remember. I seem to be a little numb these days.
28. when was the last time you laughed? about an hour ago, when discovering the "praying woman" hidden in the pattern on my comforter
29. school? Thank God it's over for me. Thank God it's on for the kids!
30. favorite 90's group? I have no idea what any of the 90's groups were. I was in Bible College. Does Steven Curtis Chapman count?

Friday, February 29, 2008


Well, my last blog entry was a bit of a downer, as I was feeling a little overwhelmed, so I thought I should probably update it again on a bit more "balanced" note. While I'm sure I will always struggle with balance, especially during this season of life, most of the time I can keep it all in perspective. I just had a little meltdown - they're semi-regular. :)
Josh is with a buddy and his family this weekend playing at a water park in the Dells. I'm sure he's having a great time, but I wouldn't want to trade places with him - I'm too old for cold water parks. (Yes, I know they tell you that the water is warm, but I'm here to testify to the contrary. :))

Jesse, Jer, and Joe spent last night with Grammy, who took them to see Alvin & the Chipmunks at the theatre. Fun for them! Chris and I went to Parent-Teacher Conferences for the younger three boys last night, and we took Jake to Pizza Ranch for dinner before the conferences. (Okay, while Pizza Ranch is overpriced, they make a really yummy Buffalo Chicken Pizza, and their dessert pizza if pretty rockin' as well.) The conferences were encouraging, which is always a good thing.

Hey, we sold out of the February Flavors of the Month and Bazzill kits this week. It's been several months since we sold out, since we increased our numbers this fall - but it happened in February. I am grateful to God for His providence. We'll see how He provides next month. Maybe we'll sell out and maybe we won't, but either way I trust Him with this. We updated our site with the March kits today - above is our March Flavors of the Month kit. I'm pretty jazzed about this month's kit; I love the blue in the Scenic Route Sumner and Making Memories Noteworthy lines (top two for those of you not familiar with the names of paper lines. :))

I'm going to turn off my computer tonight and go and work on some stuff I want to work on in my scrap space. And, maybe I'll even watch a rerun of The Office before I go to sleep. Ah, the bliss... :)

Sunday, February 24, 2008

So much for regular blogging...


Okay, this is a picture of Josiah enjoying Cowboy Day at school, courtesy of Patty. I didn't attend Cowboy Day, and thus I am a sucky mom.

My list of things to "Be Better At..." just keeps getting longer, and I get frustrated that I can't seem to ever be able to cross one thing off of it. (I am reminded here that I need to "Be a Better Volunteer Mom at School.") I guess I get most frustrated that there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day and I never seem to have enough energy to move beyond the two biggies in my life... being a business owner and meeting those bare-bone needs of my children - (feeding them, hugging them, navigating my way through the myriad of papers that cross my path from the 3 different schools they attend, keeping their schedules straight and taxiing them from practices to games to lessons to appointment and home again.) I do not, however, seem to have any time to do anything else - to be a friend, a neighbor, a volunteer, a sister, a daughter, or even a Christian like I feel I should. I can barely get my kids shuttled around to where they need to be and keep everyone fed in a timely manner during the same evening. I'm not taking very good care of my spirit these days, and it's showing up in the resurfacing of my undisciplined "stress" eating habits, my inability to walk away from my job, and the over-scheduling of my days to try to accommodate all of those relationships and things that I'm striving to "Be Better At." I do believe that I'm now overdue to re-evaluate my priorities and activities and pare back.

I just think that I should be able to do it all - to add this relationship and that group and this activity into my life to "be a better Christian." I should join the Saturday morning "Prayer Group" and pray for my kids because what kind of mom and Christian am I if I'm not praying for my kids with the Prayer Group from 8:00-9:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings? Isn't that the least that I can do if I say that I love God and love my kids? And, I should start a BUNCO group for the ladies in my neighborhood so that I can begin to form relationships with my neighbors and be "Christ" to them because God put me in this neighborhood to be a light to this corner of the world, right? And, I should volunteer to serve coffee to the Seniors before their Bible Study every Thursday morning because I'm not volunteering in very many other capacities within the church, and I do have some flexibility in my schedule to be available in the mornings. And then I should probably join this small scrapbooking group here in our community so that I can get to know some women in my town who aren't members of my church. After all, it is good to make relationships outside of the church. Isn't that what we're called to do? And, of course I should still make time in my schedule to exercise for an hour 3-4 days each week and then keep attending my weekly WW meetings so that I don't gain back all of the weight I've lost. And, I can't forget to take the time to track everything I eat so that I can stay within my points for the day (yeah, right...). And of course, from time to time, I need to schedule lunches and coffees with the few friends that I have left or I won't have any left at all. And last but not least, there is my job, which consumes most of my thoughts and my energy - what Chris and I don't do doesn't get done. We are the visionaries, the planners, the labor force, the problem-solvers, the techno-wizards, the investors, the marketers, the innovators, the customer service specialists, the decision-makers, the "buck stops here." It's a lot, and I just wish that I were "Better at it..."

I have to ask myself if this is what God had in mind or if I'm missing it. I would really hate to find out too late that I missed the big picture while I spent my life managing the details. BUT, if I don't manage the details, then they are not going to get managed. So, how do I find that balance? Is it possible that this phase of my life honestly leave little room for anything except family and work? Is that okay? I am ever so grateful for my job, as I feel like it is a gift to me from the hand of God, so why do I feel like it is wearing me out? I find that I cannot be all things to all people, but I feel like I'm being selfish if I don't try...

Monday, January 21, 2008

Here I am, posting again!

Inspired by my brother-in-law, Mark, and my old friend, Chrissy King, Josiah and I have started a "PICTURE CLUB" for 2008. We are taking a photo a day with our cameras and I'll try to get them uploaded to the computer every week or so. So, after get them off of the camera, I will plan to share a few of them on our blog. I'll update this post with a "Picture Club" photos later today! (Josiah will be jazzed!)

The boys are out of school today, so it's a "Jammie Day" in our house. I was going to try to run errands later this afternoon, but it's really COLD outside today, and it's snowing again, so the chances that I will actually get dressed, bundle up, and venture out of the house is slim. I think I'll just have another cup of coffee instead. :)

One of my goals for 2008 is to cook more. We eat pizza and 99-cent double-cheeseburgers more often than I care to mention with our ultra-busy schedule, and well honestly, I'm not a big fan of cooking (and cleaning up the mess) that I'm always on the lookout for an opportunity to NOT cook. As a result, we're not eating as healthy as I'd like for us to, so I'm trying to cook more. Tonight, we'll be having taco salad. Coming up with the menu is the hardest part, so I'm feeling special-sporty since I already have a dinner plan before 10:00 a.m. :)

By the way, Mark, we tried the couscous on your recommendation, and we weren't big fans. Thanks for the idea, but I think we'll stick with rice, pasta and potatoes for now. :)

If anybody has any yummy and relatively easy recipes that I can add to my two-week rotation, please post them in the comments section. :) If they include couscous, then I'll know to substitute with rice. :)

More later!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job


I read a great book this week about how to manage employees in a way that helps them find satisfaction in their jobs. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, by Patrick Lencioni, is written in story format, so it's a quick read, and I learned a lot. Basically, Lencioni's premise is that people are more likely to be miserable in their jobs if...
1.) they have no way to assess their own progress and success
2.) they do not know who their work impacts and how
3.) they do not feel like the people they work for/with really know them or care about them as people

It gave me some good insight into how to help motivate and encourage those that I work with. It made the idea of regular-old-work seem like something that truly can be done for God's glory. I'm starting to feel like there might be more that I can do honor Him through my work at The ScrapRoom and through my volunteer work at the church - by helping others find satisfaction in their work. At any rate, the book opened my ideas to some new ideas, and I'm grateful. :)

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Christmas Vacation 2007

What a fantabulous Christmas vacation we had! Of course we've been home for two weeks now, and I'm just now updating my blog, but that's just the way it goes. :) We got to see my dad and Judy for a couple of days in Wichita. On our drive down, we hit that nasty blizzard that swept through the midwest during the week before Christmas. BAD driving weather: blowing snow on top of a layer of freezing rain and zero visibility. I praise God that He has grace when we make stupid decisions (like forging ahead in spite of the weather). It was great to see Dad and Judy and to share a little Christmas with them. :)

Arrived at Chris' parents house in Colorado on Christmas Eve and had Christmas with Chris' family that night. The boys got some fun new Denver Broncos pajama pants and Broncos hats. Our family Christmas exchange this year revolved around the theme "Growing Up In the 70s" (courtesy of my husband). Chuck and Llana gave us the first season of the A-Team on DVD! What a hoot! Christmas morning brought the Wii and Rock Band for PS2, so our boys had plenty to do for the rest of the vacation!

We got to spend lots of great time with Chris' sister and brother and their families! The boys LOVE getting to hang out with their cousins, and as much time as they were together, I still don't think the boys got their fill. Of course, Chris and I always enjoy chatting and laughing with his family, and it is always humbling when they take time out of their busy schedules and spend it with us. We missed having all of Chris' sisters and their families back this year, but it was much less hectic with fewer people. :) I did get to go to Archiver's and Barnes & Noble twice, and we made our annual pilgrimage to Chick-Fil-A to consume our standard fare Medium Party Platter of nuggets (80-100) and three large waffle fries (just the boys and I since Chris is allergic to poultry). (Yes, the boys and I are unapologetic pigs when it comes to Chick-Fil-A.) We did, however, help form the shoveling crew for the church parking lot, and I'm certain that we worked off all of those calories.

Anyway, we slept in until we woke up (no alarm clock), we stayed in our jammies until noon most days, we read, we talked, we played games, we were able to step away from work (mostly :)). It was a good trip.

Thank you Grandpa & Grandma for keeping us and for feeding us and letting us move in and make ourselves at home for more than a week. And thank you Mark & Caren and Chuck & Llana for making us a part of your Christmas vacations. And, a special thanks to sweet Alicia for giving us our biggest laugh of the trip and a great story that no doubt will be retold for years to come. I now have an excellent snarky comment to make whenever the need for one arises... "Shut up, (insert name); nobody likes you!" LOL!