It's About TIME! :)

OK, that happens to be the title of my one of the layouts too. :)
It feels good to create... but I hate cleaning up after a crop! WHAT a mess I make! Geez!
Using my Studio Calico kit from last month...

Studio Calico also-using my new stamps-Spirograph, coffee stain and alphas (LOVE this coffee stain stamp! LOVE IT!)! YAY!
Kept it simple-this is also my Pink Sketches Sketch for this week!
I have one more that is my Scrapaganza Blog Challenge for September-wait for it... :)

ROFLM{tushie}O

If I ever have a bad day, I can go to this website, and I will be "crying laughing" within moments!
Maybe you have to be a cat person (I use to be) to get it, but Oh My Goodness this site makes me LAUGH! :)

Hope you enjoy!
(BTW, basement cats are black cats, and ceiling cats white. :) )

((Click on picture))

What have we been doing???

Saw another rainbow... (sans kids)

Got a pool visit in...

Gavin started soccer...
Teaching myself to look for photographic opportunity...
Got some reading in...
Went for a walk or two...
And I didn't scrapbook a THING-until today... but it isn't quite done. :)
So you'll have to wait...

Can you BELIEVE??

This is the 4th rainbow this year I could capture with my kiddos! One just a week and a half ago too! Geez!
This is from the storm just yesterday.
There was no lightning or thunder during the second downpour, so I let them go outside in their swimsuits-their idea... it was kinda cute! That had a ball playing int he rain!

Alicia is going to kill me, another rainbow picture! :)
But she is right-I am SO lucky to have these...

All back to school!

All three are back to school! WOW!
I went with Alicia and Karla Marti and met up at McDonald's with some other of the Dewitt moms!
I can't say it hit me, the sad twinge, until I was at home in the quiet.
I miss them, yet I am happy to get a start on getting the house back in order and starting a school time routine!
My family is my life, and my life is wonderful!
Thank you sweet Jesus! :)

So what is it with the boys and HOODIES?? Gavin wanted one,
and then of course his brother wanted one too... this picture was taken at Sears where we got them on sale when we went to get their new shoes...
Sears has MY business! I knew they would replace pants if they ripped out before they were outgrown, but I didn't know about the shoe policy being the same!
So we got our Sketchers at Sears this year!

I can not BELIEVE Gavin is in 3rd GRADE!! That seems so BIG to me!!
And there are SO many boys in his class! Praying for his teacher!
She has 3rd and 4th grade... Gavin's first combined class at Heritage.
I am sure she runs a tight ship and it will be great!
Cute story... I could tell Gabriel had been holding on to this worry a bit when he asked.
He said "Mom, I don't want to go to 1st grade, there aren't enough seats."
"What do you mean? " I said.
"There were only FIVE seats in there." (last years 1st grade class)
"Gabriel, they will bring in more desks so everyone has one." (He has a class of 11)
I cannot describe the relief on his face! LOL!
Little guy thought they wouldn't have any more seats for them all! LOL!
Too cute!
Here is Gabriel in his new seat! :)
Gabriel and Gavin at Chapel this a.m.
Sometimes I think to wonder if we should still send them to private christian school...
(Usually when we write that first check at the beginning of the year... :) )
Then I hear what they have to say at chapel, and the freedom to speak of God and Jesus.
The administrator reading a book to them all this a.m. of the doubt that Noah had of what God asked him to do, and how he never understood "how" he was to do what he was asked, but had faith that it was right-listening to that instilling in them that God, no matter their doubt or nervousness of a new year, would be there to see them through...
(I need to hear this too, since I am as nervous as they are about new teachers and tasks, etc.! Geez! :) )
And the parents encircling the children at chapel, praying, if they wish, for their children.
And my doubt is replaced with peace.
My children will not remember what we don't have (monetarily) because they are at a christian school, but they certainly will remember what they gained. I never know how we afford it, but we always do. Thanks to Grandpa's help and my ability to work part-time and Jerry having a stable job, we are blessed... but even if we weren't, I am sure that Heritage would do all they could so that my children could continue.
All because it is important that God is part of their everyday, freely. Amen. :)
(stepping down from soap box-LOL! )

And here are some pictures of Cora and her first day not posted previously! Isn't she cute in pigtails??)I hope to scrap tonight... and get some laundry done... and watch the movie I will owe back to Red Box by 9pm! :)

Have a great day!!

A Day Away...

We really needed a day away as a family. (OK, so it was last week already!) And with Cora starting school last Thursda, well, this last weekend was IT!
(The boys start tomorrow!)
We had a gift certificate from (hold on to your seat) FIVE years ago!
For Grand Harbor.
They in the past, would not book the room without it being pre-paid, and then reimbursed when we brought the gift certificate... so in the past we have passed.
But I called the manager again, and she booked me. We have another nights work of certificate left which we will use sometime this winter. :)

ANYWAY, we had a FABULOUS time!
This was the view out our window...And our other window...We played at the water park Sunday night until 9pm.
When my three walked in, they were so overwhelmed I think, that they weren't quite sure what to do first!(does Daddy look like he is having fun or what? :) )We ate junky snacks at the snack shack, then ordered Tony Romas appetizers via room service, and played Nintendo DS together,then in the morning we went to the cable car,walked a bit,doesn't he look like a little ad model? :)and I went to one shop while the rest of the family got ice cream,and then we headed back to the water park...
After the waterpark closed at 7pm (another 6 hours of swimming!) we went to Eagle Point Park and caught the sunset.
Got this shot on the way... I just thought this church was very pretty...
(Speaking of God... :) )
Sometimes God smiles. And it is obvious.
It was one of those moments and views that make you take pause. This view, this place has been and will be, the same for hundreds to thousands of years with little change. The river has no concern with iphones or finances... it just is. And when you are in the presence of it, you can just be too...
(no editing what-so-ever)And sometimes you get REALLY lucky...
When we left this view to head back to the car, we were met with HUNDREDS of bats catching bugs in the street lights that just turned on in the park! It was CRAZY how many of them there were!!! It was a wonderful couple of days together! CANDI and I take the Iowa State Fair!!
(*pictures are kinda rough... Candi "promised" her camera pictures, and I am still waiting-so I'll just post her phone pictures. I have a feeling I'll get the fair pictures when she gets her girls photo shoot pictures! LOL!)

What I didn't place in, she did and the other way around... except in "2-page layout". We both placed. :) Candi got ANOTHER blue ribbon for her Christmas layout (was a Mississippi Valley Fair winner last year!) and I got 3rd for my club layout... this was the category I thought I would throw my "conservative" layout into. :)
I got a 1st (below) in "Use of Embellishment" and a 3rd in "One page layout". ("Dang Cute" just published in Scrapbook Trends.) :)
I haven't made it up there and I am not sure I will. :(
I mailed my entries.
ANYWAY, Candi also got a 1st in stamping (other than a layout) -I was project lead on a stamp book, yet didn't submit a THING to the stamping categories!! LOL! WELL-they weren't LAYOUT catagories! I'm a LAYOUT girl!! :)

And for Projects, I think this was my biggest disappointed, but not for me (my flower frame got no placing...) Candi's TOTALLY awesome frame (old window scrapbooked) placed second behind a paper bag book. WHAT???????? I thought it would get first for SURE! I love her frame! :)

My fair theme layout below didn't place either... guess cuz I didn't cut my pictures into letters to spell "Iowa" or "Fair"! :)

ANYWAY, I reached my goal-get a ribbon at the fair! And the STATE fair to boot! :)
It was fun-I kinda had that feeling you do as a kid winning a ribbon at the fair!

I'll leave you with this picture... I just love Gavin's expression while I am kissing him! :)
Be blessed-and love each other! :)

Sick of this picture yet?? :)

Do-overs?

I could NOT find the layout I did previously of Gavin at the fair, which I was going to enter for "fair theme" at the Iowa State Fair... so I whipped this together.
Same picture (from a layout I did a couple day ago), different layout!

More American Crafts love! (Despite the fact I didn't make the DT. :( ) Congrats to all that did!

And I got some JilliBean Soup journaling sprouts too!

AND, to prove JUST how technologically challenged I truly am, my version of a sketch! LOL!
I can draw it MUCH easier than I could ever figure out how to do it digitally!
How pathetic am I??

Also for the fair, I whipped this together... (For the "other" papercrafts class)
The flowers are from Sweet Vintage 78 on Etsy...
The idea "sprouted" (couldn't help myself) from a frame I saw Ginger Williams do. She did these fantastic flowers (flowers she handmade out of paper) and framed them, all using Cosmo Cricket Early bird... I used a little early bird, and some of the swimming line... and the flowers were fabric and vintage sewing pattern!
Yes... I KNOW I could make them myself... but I don't have vintage patterns at the moment (though on my list of things to find) or much fabric... sometimes it is just nice to buy something pretty from another artist...
The chipboard button, Sweet Vintage also.
Can I just say... I LOVE my butterfly punches STILL? :)

I entered 4 layouts and one frame at the fair... we'll see. They might want all Jolee's and matted pictures. We all know that isn't me. (Disclaimer: Not saying there is anything wrong with Jolee's OR matting your pictures.)
Wish me luck!

Here are a few pictures of my alone time with Gabriel last week! We went to the farmers markets in Davenport.
Where Gabriel ate his way through the market. :)

I do NOT want to dwell on how many grams of sugar are in the above treats! :)

The climber below is in front of the freight house. It has been so long since we have been there, that I didn't know this was there!

And they have this weird slide that doesn't really work and the kids tend to fall off of. Hmmmm...

And for Alicia... since she just posted a comment about including Dad...

This one (below) was taken the other day when we decided to take the dogs for a walk.
I put the camera on the back of the car in the driveway and ran...
And yes, that is a dog in a front carrier (Baby Bjorn style) :)

Love each other...
And Be Blessed!!!