Stamp Night Projects

I have finally taken some craft pictures to share and it will probably take me forever to get them all on here. :)

These projects are from a recent stamp night with a new instructor. She's a wonderful Christian woman and talented beyond belief.

All projects are made using Stampin' Up! papers and stamps - the Happy Heart Day set to be exact.

The card is probably one of my favorite projects ever. :)





Isn't this darling? She said that she had made a bunch of these and given them to the ladies at the bank. I'm thinking it might be something cute to make and put on desks at work for Valentines Day. Do you see the mini candy bar inside?










Or maybe this project for the work ladies instead! The cellophane bag holds chocolate kisses - the new ones with raspberry. I'm telling you it took every bit of self-control I possessed to put the candies in the BAG and not the BELLY!

Look Who Came Over!

First we all went out to lunch. Poor thing had to have apples and apricots instead of an enchilada, but she seemed to be ok with it. :)





Then we went back to our house and put a blanket on the floor so we could all play with her. She gets tickled so easy and has the best laugh! In this picture she's laughing so hard because her mama was moving one of her books around and kind of fanning her with it. Who knew it was that funny???



She sits up so pretty now. We still have the pillow behind her for those "just in case" moments, but really with a mama and a grandma sitting next to you there's not a big need for the pillow. I had forgotten that I could move that fast - LOL!

I'm not sure if it shows a lot in the picture, but with two bottom teeth in and more teeth on the way baby girls surely do drool a lot! Her bodice was pretty wet in no time at all. It truly doesn't seem to bother her though.


Happiness is Grandma being with Brooklyn!!!

Sick As A Dog

And please pass where that saying originated! (Thank you Joe for being my dog model.)

My head is stuffy and runny nose and a little fever and I don't feel good. Yesterday when I left work I stopped by CVS and stocked up on tissues and assorted cold remedies. Went home and was sound asleep by 4:30. Keith woke me up a bit later with dinner in bed (Awww!), then I was out again.

I told him that I'm convinced this is from running in the extreme cold, but he maintains that's an old wives tale. Speaking as an old wife, I still think it's true. ;)

Regardless, the cold is here and I'm a tad better today. No boot camp for me tonight - can you even imagine? Instead I'll probably head home to lala land again.

I DID IT!!!

Yes ma'am I did!

I finished my very first 5K race. My chip time (we wore an electronic chip on our shoe for timing) was 43:51:50 and I finished 406 out of 493 runners.

I'm not sure I really need to interpret the picture here, but just in case somebody can't tell - what you are seeing here is extreme joy from my very soul! Keith took this picture as I came across the finish line. I am still in a little bit of shock that I actually did this.

It was kind of funny starting out. I had my iPod ready to go with my Praise Playlist on shuffle. The first song that came up was Dive by Steven Curtis Chapman. I started running along the sidewalk right next to the lake and almost started laughing in happiness at the lyrics:

My heart is racing and my knees are weak
As I walk to the edge I know there is no turning back
Once my feet have left the ledge
And in the rush I hear a voice

That’s telling me it’s time to take the leap of faith

So here I go
I’m diving in,
I’m going deep in over my head I want to be
Caught in the rush, lost in the flow, in over my head, I want to go
The river’s deep, the river’s wide, the river’s water is alive
So sink or swim, I’m diving in

Is that not awesome? I tell anybody that stands still long enough that I give the glory for this accomplishment totally to the grace of God and here He is telling me to take a leap of faith and start running! I absolutely loved that. :)

The biggest problem I had during the race was the extreme cold. It was indeed the 27 degrees that had been forecast when we were running and I had a headband over my ears and another one that I put up over my mouth to try and warm the air up a little bit before I breathed it in.

I'm not going to kid you - by the end I was getting quite tired. But don't you know about the time I was so tired I look up and my trainer had finished her race and had come back to run me across the finish line! Happiness!

And yes I was tired. In fact, I went to bed at 7:00 again last night. :)

Today is good though and I love thinking back and knowing that I did it.

And I might even do it again! ;)

T Minus 3 Days.....

WHEW - I feel like a new woman today! I've been trying to get things done at home, work is crazy busy (but good!) and my head was starting to feel like it was going to explode from overload.

Always wanting to take care of myself, I went to bed at about 7:00 last night....and slept solid til 8:00 this morning! Oh did it ever feel good!

Until I realized that there was daylight streaming in the window and that today is yes, a work day. I did an olympic leap out of bed, tossed some crunchies at the dog and cat and hurried to the shower. Indeed yes I was late to work, but I have to confess that other than the guilt I sure feel good. :)

Tonight is boot camp and we have another gal from work joining us for the first time. I do hope she enjoys it.

And my trainer has been badgering me about the 5K, so I did sign up yesterday. I had talked myself out of doing it, more out of fear than anything else. She kept at me and pointed out that when I go to the mall I probably walk 5K, so if nothing else I can walk it.

So yes ma'am I am all signed up for my first 5K run this Saturday morning. Morning...when the forecast is showing it will be 27 degrees. I truly must be crazy.

On the way home from work today, after boot camp, assuming I can still form complete sentences, I plan on stopping at the store and getting new running pants, shirt and jacket. It's important for my clothes to look good during this race. Because maybe it will take the focus off my face and the fatigue that will surely be showing there.

Not to worry though - Keith is planning on being at the finish line with camera on hand, as are several people from work. Because this truly is a huge personal victory for me to be doing this.

"Do or do not - there is no try." - Yoda

Almost To Twenty - WooHoo!!!

Tonight was weigh in and I lost another pound, which brings me to 18.8 pounds in 15 weeks! Happy, happy, joy, joy! I'm still so surprised that I'm actually staying with it this time.

Our leader tonight had us speak to somebody we didn't know and since I just love opportunities like this I was in my element. Vicki, my new BFF, is a very nice person and we were both talking just as fast as we could before our time was up. Kind of reminded me of that newfangled Speed D@ating I've read about - talk as fast as you can to somebody until the bell rings and move on! We didn't do the move on part though. ;)

Last night I started back at Boot Camp too. Again I am so surprised at myself for getting out there. It really does crack me up too - I laugh so hard each time. One of our exercises last night was with a rubber band thingy with handles. She told us to hold one handle, wrap it around our back and hold the other handle, then we'd do some punches Mohammed Ali style. I'm just tickled beyond belief that she really thinks I can do this sort of thing! The other participant was ready and waiting for me while I was all entangled in the rubber band thingy. Of course I got tickled and started laughing, which didn't help one bit. I finally got it in place and looked up, which caused our trainer to laugh and come over and place my arms where they needed to be.

OK, check, ready to go. PUNCH! Except that my hand moved maybe about four inches or so. Holy moly - I'm standing there all tied up in this contrapation and can't even move! I swore at that point that if I ever got out of it alive SOMEBODY had some splainin' to do! Like a trooper I kept trying to do punches and nothing ever happened. This got my trainer to laughing - big belly laughs I might add - and she told me to do the punches without the rubber band thingy.

Great idea, but could somebody give me a hand here?

I finally got out of the thing and started punching like I meant it, but was so out of breath from the laughing that I just couldn't go on.

And did you know that you can get a charlie horse in your abs from crunches? Oh yes ma'am you can! I will say that my little size 0 trainer said she'd never heard of that before....as she's holding my legs out straight to get rid of the cramp. My abs are reacting like petulant children over this whole crunch thing and are NOT cooperating one bit.

I got the gentle suggestion that perhaps since abs are a weak area that I might consider doing some crunches every day to build them up. You think???

So that's what I just did. Except that I have a big Golden Retriever that is convinced any time I'm laying on the floor that surely I want him to poke a toy in my face.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

:)

She's Growing Up!

Last weekend the whole family spent the day together again, so of course I was a very happy camper.

Little Bit is sitting up now! Course let me point out the pillow and big stuffed doggy behind her for the inevitable wobbles. It just amazes me how quickly they can change when they are this little.

AND...I got a call on the way to work this morning and Brooklyn has her first TWO teeth! Loni had shown us this weekend that you could see the teeth through her gums and this morning they broke through.

She's not a baby anymore....*sob*.... LOL! Yeah I know, but really those first teeth just seem to be the start. She's very busy now too and she's started rolling to get where she wants to go. :)

Given Enough Coffee...

...I could rule the world!

And though I like several different flavors of creamers, I have two seasonal favorites - coconut (I could kiss your feet CoffeeMate for having this year round now!) and pumpkin.

So when Jeanie sent out the recipe for a homemade version of pumpkin creamer I had to try it out. First though it required a visit to two of my favorite thrift stores to find an exquisite little covered glass jar to store it in. I didn't find what I wanted, but I found one that is good enough and because it was half price kitchen day I only paid fifty cents for it. Good to go!

I love this creamer - and really I need to make some to bring to work. The only thing I would change is probably a tad less cloves as it is a little strong for my taste.

PUMPKIN CREAMER MIX

4 t cinnamon
2 t ground ginger
2 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground cloves
1 t allspice (optional)
1 cup non-dairy creamer

Mix it up!

Pass the Peas Please

Being the good Southern girl that I am I was very careful to have my black eye peas ready for New Years Day dinner. But my not-so-southern husband wasn't amused.

DH: So how many of these do I have to eat to have good luck?

Me: I don't really know a number, just eat a serving.

DH: But I don't like them. I'll eat two.

Me: Uh...ok.

After dinner while cleaning up the dishes:

DH: Do you want to save the leftovers?

Me: No, that's ok, just put them down the disposal.

DH: Oh, the magic doesn't work anymore after New Year's Day?

Me: Uh...ok.

{insert my eye rolling here}

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They say that whatever you do on New Year's Day you'll be doing all year long. This means I'm set for a great year!

Yesterday Keith, Joe (the dog) and I headed up to the lake for some winterizing (which means lake trips all year - woohoo!). On the way up I did some more knitting on the baby blanket (a knitterly year ahead!) and we stopped at several geocaches (geocaching in 2008 - yeah baby!).

Our favorite cache was the picture shown at left. There were several on this trail up by the lake and we never knew the trail was there. It ended up being way too cold to stay outside for any length of time, so we'll head back another time.

And when the three of us reached the top of the hill we couldn't help but stop and revel in the vastness and serenity. The only sound we heard was the wind through the trees. Then listening a little more closely we heard the waves of the lake in the distance hitting the shore. But really what we heard most of all was the panting of the three of us from the climb!

Surrounded by all the quiet and thick trees a person just can't help but feel reverant. How God must have enjoyed creating all of this splendor! The colors and textures were just beautiful.

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And then when we got home last night I was able to sit down and make some cards and got them in the mail (posts will follow soon).

The way I see it, once I add in the being with family and friends on top of everything else my cup runneth over. 2008 is shaping up to be very nice indeed.

Happy New Year!