Cuteness Personified

I am taking a break from our 3 day long basement work fest to share a digi scrapbook page I made for X. The pic is from last Friday. He fell asleep in the car on the way home from dinner. Once home, he crashed out on the couch looking this adorbs. He is definitely cuteness personified!

Spring Break, I mean Work..

Hope everyone had a great Easter! Sam and I have worked the last 2 days in the basement. We took 1 truck load of trash to the dump, 1 truck load to donate to good will and I'm still cleaning. I also have about 4 boxes of baby clothes for my great nephew. Sam got almost all of the flooring laid in the basement- YAY! We will finish it tomorrow and start moving things around. We should be able to use the new part by this weekend! How awesome is that?! I will share updated pics when we get farther along. I'll also share another digi scrapbook layout tomorrow. Oh btw- I almost missed The Killing season 2 starting. I got caught up quickly though. Fantabulous show!

Angels among us...

So today was an interesting day. A stressful trip to Target made a surprisingly good turn. After having N and X both act like crazy men and getting stuck behind a lady with a bag full of coupons, I could not find my check card. So I'm looking and stressing- it was getting busy. They decided to suspend the transaction so I can look and take the next person. A-OK with me. However, the next person pays for my entire order! $145!! I was in shock and really, kind of ashamed. We're don't need it nearly as much as others. I couldn't believe the kindness. She said "enjoy your day!" and I walked out feeling truly humbled. The rest of the day was a little more stressful as the kids continued to run amuck. However, the trim got painted and lots of things finished in the main room of the basement. On top of that, the stairs were carpeted. Our next mission is flooring followed by cleaning- throwing away, donating, saving. We have way too much crud back there! Happy Easter! I will be paying it forward as we remember why we celebrate this event.

Sweet Spring Evenings

I really wanted to create tonight but nothing is ready for that. I'm not going to go dig stuff out, move it all upstairs and then probably NOT have time to stamp. So, instead, I redownloaded My Digital Studio by Stampin Up. I figure since I have all these pics (love my iPhone 4s.. beautiful pics at my fingertips!), I should be doing SOMETHING!! This is what I came up with:

This uses the New Heights MDS download. Perfect for spring! Oh, and btw- I've lost around 10 lbs this month. Wahoo!! Have a great weekend and for many, start of our spring break!

A constant battle for change..

From midnight to 5 am last night there was little sleep in my house. Why do you ask? Well, Nate constantly wanted something. Juice, gummies, and then dvd changes every 5 mins. To give some background, Nate only sleeps with a tv and dvd on. We fought a good fight but sleep was more important than following some hidden parenting rule about no tv in the bedroom. Anyway, Nate's collection of 30 some dvds is apparently boring him. If you watched the same dvds for 5 years, I guess you'd be bored to. Bad thing is he isn't liking any of the new shows we're introducing. There has to be some sort of music. I tried A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Jimmy Neutron.. no dice. I am thinking I will try Phineas and Ferb next... any suggestions from ya'll out in blog land? Help a sista out! On the craft room front, my Dad found some great cabinets at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store! We'll paint a hollow door to go on top and voila! Instant table. I was inspired by this great DIY site: The Ivy Cottage Blog As spring break begins for us Saturday, I am looking forward to cleaning out the other part of the basement and setting up my craft room. This should be awesome. Oh yeah, and finishing my 2 projects for grad classes.... Happy Friday friends!

Some splainin to do...

So, I posted this morning my intentions. And yes, they were the hurried before work kind of intentions. I've been inspired reading the blogs of others and how candid they can be. While there is a certain level of privacy to maintain, there is always something cathartic about putting it all on the table. My previous post before today was dated July 10, 2009. I mentioned having a headache.. boy was that an understatement! In fact, that post happened 4 days after I found out I was pregnant with DS #2. I promptly had my first migraine ever and ended up in the hospital over night. It was just the beginning of a stressful but so worth it pregnancy. We struggled to get pregnant the second time. No real answers were given but after 2 rounds of clomid to adjust my cycle, we conceived off meds. I also had what I now know was a gallbladder attack and passed a stone right before I conceived as well. So anyway, I had spotting until about 12 weeks. I stayed nauseous and was losing weight. Seriously, what pregnant woman LOSES weight?! At 17 weeks I had a major scare- bleeding. That was when we found out for sure we were having son number 2, Xander. From that point on, I stayed on modified bed rest and almost lost my job. 2 days before I was supposed to be induced I had what I now know was gallbladder attack #2. I ended up hospitalized early. They thought I had HELPP which is like pre-eclampsia but a little worse. After having an epidural not work right, X was born after 21.5 hrs of labor with the cord wrapped around his neck twice and with a knot. I barely remember asking if he was going to be okay and the doc saying "we're not sure." Fast forward to today and at 25 months old I can say that he is more than okay :) So, 6 weeks later I start having these intense chest pains about once a month. I get a stress test and echocardiogram and all is well with my heart. I get an MRI on my gallbladder, all is supposedly well. That year we had an extended Christmas break. 1 week before going back I get extreme pain like I had right before having X. I go to the ER- nothing, just muscles. I go to the doctor- nothing, no clue. I go back to the ER while turning a nice shade of orange. Why yes, there are gallstones but they're not causing this pain. At 1 am 4 days after the initial onset of pain, I call an ambulance. DH thinks I'm nuts- I mean 4 different doctors have said I'm fine. I can't move the pain is so intense. I wait and I wait in the ER. The ER doc comes in and thinks, well maybe it's a blood clot (I have a clotting factor because of Lupus) and sends me for a CAT scan. The hospitalist comes in and says "did you know you are orange?". I say, "yes, I was when i left here less than 12 hrs ago." He explains I have pancreatitis. I just want to be hospitalized. Then the surgeon comes in and says "I think you threw a stone and it's stuck in your pancreatic duct. We need to get the pancreatitis down and then we'll get the gallbladder out." All I care about are pain meds. Pancreatitis isn't that bad is it?! Turns out, it is bad and I was very close to not doing well at all... Thank God they finally found it! So no foods or drinks, stone passes, pancreatitis is down, I go for surgery. I should be able to leave the hospital on day 5. Well, I come out of surgery and my Oxygen levels are down. They think it is a clot again. Oh no, it's not. Instead my lungs filled up with fluid and are injured because of the pancreatitis (did I mention I had trouble breathing previous to surgery?) So I spend a day in ICU. By the grace of God I go home 2 days later and the rest is history... So that was Jan 2011. Meanwhile Nate has entered Preschool and speech is still a mystery for him. He has more trouble communicating as he's gotten older. To say that the last 2 yrs have been difficult are an understatement. I still get panicky about the medical mishaps and we still struggle to deal with the life impact of Autism. I've found myself struggling with happiness since the pancreatitis event. So, I've made a couple of goals and I'm sticking to them! 1- Eat better!! Seriously! 2- Lose weight! 3- Exercise (walk, etc) at least 3-4 times a week. 4- GET BACK INTO CRAFTING! To help all this, I'm getting back into blogging as well. We all need some sort of release. I truly miss the fun and enjoyment of crafting and sharing it with others. I'm getting back with Stampin Up and I'm going to get my creative juices flowing! First, we need to finish the craft room but that'll be soon enough. Until then I'll be posting randomness but I hope to keep things updated for my sake over all else!

Forever and ever and ever...

Wow has it been a LONG time since I posted here! I've unsuccessfully tried to have 2 other blogs since then. I've decided I'm going to stick with my precocious crafter blog and just incorporate any and all about me here! Since my last post here I've had a baby, lol, who is now 2 years old. My original cause of falling off the face of the earth was said baby. My pregnancy with Xander was rough, to say the least. We've also had lots of challenges as Nate's diagnosis of autism has been more evident. As we get ready to go into spring break I'm going to make a better effort at blogging. We're getting our basement finished (FINALLY!) so I'll have a place to craft and get busy!! So excited!! I will take some pics and upload them later cause everyone needs pics of my beautimus room! Here is an updated pic of my boys for your viewing pleasure. Happy Wednesday, all!

and a really bad but quick invite done for a friend. It's amazing what you get done in a 2 ft space with no real table!