Andrew's First year Photo Montage!

Have been meaning to post this forever! I did order from One True Media.. Not only were they super fast but the quality of the DVD and the package (with photos from the presentation ) were awesome (NO I'm not getting paid to say that!).. I just really love this company! AND I love that over time I could put this together for Andrew's foster mom.. an incredible woman who devotes herself to caring for children as long as Andrew has been with us and then turning them over to someone else. I, for one, could NeVER do that... The foster moms I've met, they put their heart and soul into fostering and it hurts them to their very core every time they turn a baby over. I will always be sorry we didnt travel to pick Andrew up (we did for Alex and Ellie but just couldnt make it work for Andrew.. I now wish we'd found a way for so many reasons.).. Anyway, very, very pleased with the final product. On the TV, it's just sooo wonderful. I've said many times how sick I am of the music and had hoped to find a Korean equivalent but to no avail... so I kept the music. It just so fits. Hopefully she hasnt heard it! I hope she loves it. Our communication over the months has been poor at best and I feel awful and ashamed that our larger package has taken so long to get to her.... So hoping she will forgive us!.. Andrew is doing sooo much better but he's just had a really hard time.. Since he wont sleep anywhere but on me, I've at least gotten a few things like this done....

So here's the link:


Yoo, Dong Hyeon's First Year!

How many Hours does it take to Tear Apart 20 years of Memories?

And unfortunately this wasnt Extreme Makeover!

Well the exact answer is about 4! Kind of sad today.. it was just so weird, altho the kids got a kick out of it to a certain extent. Our friend and neighbor for the past 11 years lost her husband just after Christmas and it was def. time for her to move closer to family. I just loved this woman and guess I felt a little possessive about her little spot in the world. She and her husband just loved our children and were sooo sweet with them. When Alex was trying so hard to ride his two wheeler it was these folks who cheered him on so.

They lived across the street.. it's an RV park which is set up mostly for weekend or a tad longer traffic. It's done really nicely and we dont really feel like we live across the street from an RV park! Our friends were the last permanent residents to live there. It just felt so tacky to see them attacking her house with their little road excavator (eensie compared to what ultimately took it down).. like what she'd forgotten something?Thus the pics initially with damage to the front. BUT to give them credit I suspect it cost a pretty penny to do what they did today and know the mobile home was older and not worth much. I doubt it was safe to transport. However thru the day there were just little personal effects we saw going into the dumpster truck and it was disturbing and sad.

So yesterday AM in came the big guns - a HUGE excavator and this AM a very large double trailer dumpster truck showed up. It took about 4 hours to take it down to the ground and another few for trips to town to dump the contents. Tonight, outside of the excavator parked in the place our neighbor lived for over 2o years, you'd never have known there was a mobile home on that little spot of land...

Dh and I were Thieves in the Night last night ... there was a little twirly bird (Tweety bird) our kids loved seeing spin on their deck. Well she left it and we knew it would just be smashed. So while we attempted to explain to the kids that you never "steal" we did just that and if we hear from our neighbor in her new home, I hope to show her a pic of her rescued tweety bird spinner in our yard!

before altho the eensie ground paver had knocked into the wall a few times (not sure why - just because??.. handyman from campground did this)

excavator attacking the deck

got the exercise bike

going for front of home

ripping off roof - it was like it came off in one big sheet

kitchen cabinets exposed

down to bathroom....

Don't think I ever updated about Ellie's Dental

last Tues! BUT she ended up having 3 of her top teeth pulled! UGH.... and mom walked out with a co-pay bill of $500 - yikes! Once she was slightly sedated she did such a great job. She hates drinking the medicine but I finally got it into her (a tad of morphine flushed with a shot of Vistaril - oh joy!)....I've been meaning to get a pic of her and scrap it! Unfortunately the loss of that many of her top teeth doesnt do much for her speech challenges and we've had to put a few enunciation goals on hold til the perm teeth come in. All in all I was so proud and so glad we opted to take the third tooth (and that there was time) as it would have had to have come out soon (whether on its own or with help). It was also nice to spend time just with Ellie, altho we def need to find a different activity next time!

Soooo here's my latest digi layout.. Started this about a month ago and just really dislike it. But decided I needed to finish and move on. For me when I'm not working with a great photo, just have a hard time figuring what to do! Soooo here it is!

Acrylic Album Done finally!

Yay! Soo much fun.. i must admit I was kind of rushing at the end.. Need to clean up my space and get on with some things. I sooo wish I had more space (i.e. a dedicated scrap space) but a pipe dream at the moment. When I scrap, many other things fall behind (i.e. laundry as I often scrap on the washing machine) and housework..

But I'm thrilled with what I've finished and so glad it worked. Since it was my first attempt at an acrylic album wasnt quite sure.. will try to post all pics here......

I know dh has been wanting an album with the kids' pics and he's been thrilled seeing this go together so it was all worthwhile! If you're considering doing one, do it! LOTS of fun! :)

And on a final note, if you are an animal loving kind of person.... please keep a sweet kitty named JT in your thoughts/prayers. Well actually he's passed away. Was found by his owners today and I'm just sooo sad.. Also a little scared wondering who got to him (we have an outdoor kitty as well as small children, in an area with lots of wild animals).. BUT more than anything I'm just sad cause this little kitty was sooo sweet and just wasnt a fighter. JT.... we'll see you on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge sweetie! You're the best!

Two More Acrylic Pages on Ellie:

Very pink, but I still like how they turned out... Because of the color choice on one side - easier to do both sides with her pics... and was tight on time so pretty much covered up all the acrylic this time. Anyway, this size is nice ....hmmmm maybe I should start scrapping 8x8 instead of 12x12....

Speaking of my sweet girl - she's having oral surgery today - 2 teeth pulled (she bonked them a long time ago and they finally abscessed...), as well as a cleaning and xrays. She does NOT tolerate the dentist even for a basic cleaning so that means she'll be getting conscious sedation (morphine laced apple juice - oh joy!)....George is staying home with the boys since Andrew has never been left with anyone, and hoping that this is it... If she doesnt cooperate, we'll have to go to complete sedation with an adult oral surgeon. We've done this once before and it worked but getting her to drink the stuff was awful ... so think good thoughts if you dont mind! :)

Pics of Ellie were taken (one on bench, 8/06, and the other face shot, xmas, 05)

More pages to the Acrylic Album!

Well here are a few more pages to the acrylic album I started the other day. It's a lot of fun to do but challenging since you can obviously see thru it. You have to make sure what's on the back of one page (if elements show thru) - that they compliment the other side. I had to switch pics a few times for the back of the cover - to make it work with layout on cover.. All in all much fun! Should have been doing a million other things but this type of thing is very rejuvinating for me!

So here it is.. Still about 7/8 pages left... I took pics on counter this time so hopefully there would be more definition BUT was tired and didnt think to photograph them individually, so you're seeing some show thru as if the album were all together and pages in line with one another (if that makes sense). When I finish the whole thing I'll photograph each page individually... these pics didnt turn out so great anyway!

I added the Crystal word "Love" up top yesterday, so the album would have a title... oh and the pics are a compilation of some of my Favs over the years for dh

You can see how the quote from front cover shows thru but it doesnt look too bad (I didnt think)

The word there is "memories" and on bottom you're seeing show thru from next pg. The hardest part of this for me has been adhesive. I love my xyron and it's working well, but suspect there's perhaps something better I havent figured out yet....

Lots of Little Stuff... :)
Well Ellie started riding again yesterday and I just can't say enough good things about the organization she's with. It's called Giant Steps and it's a "Therapeutic Riding" organization for children and adults with physical, emotional, and developmental challenges. I was thrilled when I mentioned that of late we've realized the extent of Ellie's upper extremity tone issues (shoulder weakness, which contributes to her fine motor difficulties) that they immediately had her working on that. She rode Scarlett yesterday - a BEAUTIFUL young horse who is very mellow. Ellie loves her! She was doing make-shift push-ups (bad description - will have to get some pics!) on back of Scarlett yesterday as well as a ton of reign (sorry spelling wrong there) work, to help with strengthening.. I LOVE this org.. They recently moved and Ellie hasnt been since summer as they didnt have a Fall session. The horsese seemed raring to go! Almost too much so (not really, but think they missed being ridden). Anyway, the organization has relocated to an incredible, professional riding facility where every trainer literally has their own arena, barn etc.. We drove in (and Thank God I have a dd who can read.,. cause it didnt seem there was anywhere to go but Ellie saw the eensie sign saying "Giant Steps"...) Sooo as we're driving in, there are all these folks on these incredible horses in several arenas (I used to ride BUT never rode anywhere like this - yikes!.. so I was probably not really looking for signs as I was sooo intrigued watching all those riding).. TONS of hunter-jumper arenas as well as dressage.. Of course now THAT's what Ellie wants to do! God help us! LOL!.. Well I did it for awhile and manged never to really hurt myself... We'll see.. I'm thrilled she's so excited.. BUT the really exciting news is that after her session one of the gals who was with her who worked with her pretty consistently last summer, said "OMG, what have you been doing with her.,. her language has just taken off?! She didnt stop talking and yet last summer she would maybe say a few words each seesion!" Sooo for all my days worrying about homeschooling - are we doing enough? Is Ellie getting what she needs, etc? Wow.,. those are the comments that make me feel so good. I suspect she'd be doing that well if she were in a reg classroom but bottom line, being around big brother, talker extraordinaire, she HAS to be heard and I know she's been talking more, but since I've not been around her FT like I have of late, I had nothing to compare to.. SoOO I'm thrilled! OK some pics! Pics of Ellie/Alex with Salamanders, first pg of an acrylic album I'm doing and possibly some pics of Andrew (13 months ) if I dont get cut off before then~! :)

In the garden today! 2 Salamanders were the kids' friends for about 10 minutes!

Acrylic Album.. sorry you can't really see the detail, cause the pages are see-thru.. which is what makes it challenging. You have to make sure your adhesive isnt messy on backside and that whatever you do on one page will either be covered/ complimented by what you do on opposite pg.. Def a bit of a challenge but VERY fun!

AND FINALLY!



Our Sweet baby hoy!

Well the pics have def been lacking of late cause anytime I take the camera out, he crawls toward me! Yikes! Suspect its just a phase and we'll def be getting some good pics soon! But for now the pics are less than ok!

BUT loved this one and in process of attempting a digi layout (man you leave digi for a bit and COMPLETELY lose the ol' Mojo! Yikes.. feel I'm starting at square zero again.. oh well.. as long as the thoughts get recorded!) Andrew has got such attitude right now.. he's so cute and into everything of course - he's 13 months! He loves containers and putting things in and out... AND soo proud when using his walker (i.e. he's walking to him).. He's soo close but suspect it'll still be a bit.. He's such an incredible love .. can't imagine life without him! :)

Our Garage Makeover and a few Crafty things....

Well after talking about it forever, dh and I (mostly dh) did a major overhaul on our garage. It was not only desperately needed as it had become a storehouse for junk, but we wanted to make it useable space for the kids or us! This is the space that will eventually become 2 more bedrooms and is about 350 sq feet. With the built in cabinets currently there, it's def smaller than that. Anyway we moved all the crapola into our carport area and voila! LOVE how it turned out. We put indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot down and thusfar the kids are loving the space. We're thinking of re-purchasing (yes we had but once we moved outdoors it was history), a jumpolene - one of those gigantic pool looking things that can house a ton of balls.. actually I'll post a pic.. Great fun and sensory input too :)

Got a bit of scrappy/crafty stuff done. Did another stamped card that I dislike immensely and plan on redoing, tearing it apart, but enjoyed the coloring. These very cool prisma color pencils are awesome and so much fun to play with.... Finally did another digi layout.. been missing summer so it's a summery layout!

Santa Cruz, 05

xmas 03... as you can see, wasnt meant to stay in the living space for that long!

And another Card I've been Meaning to Post!

did this awhile ago.. from My Favorite things stamps... I like how it turned out but should have cut off the poor gals head at the paper cut (many of their stamps feature headless figures :) ) ... It was fun coloring in tho :) !!

NO, It's NOT Chocolate Cake!

Well, today we finally assembled our worm farm. We got this thru Montessori and our Charter paid for it. It took about a month for the worms to arrive - which they did last night....

The kit came complete with soil cubes. Unfortunately the directions had a typo and the first instruction on creating the soil, failed to mention that the water should be heated Figured that out when they said, "after the soil cools, ....." Anyway, it's done and the worms are happy! :) I must admit, I've had several moments the past 24 hours of "what was I thinking"? cause I can deal with a lot - no prob with spiders, most insects, but for whatever reason, creepy crawlers just kind of gross me out. BUT Ellie loves worms and I'm thrilled she'll be able to watch these little guys... Many they sent are truly little cause the package was supposed to include 200 worms.. Many were babies and barely 1/2 " long.... which is ok.. We've got a great garden they'll be going into very soon after we study for several days!

Here are some pics!

Making Soil

Our new friends exploring their new home!

Front view

Hey Everyone
well I was right! we did end up with a decent power outage - 2 days. when dh purchased $500 dollar generator long ago, thought he was crazed and money down the drain.. NOT.. What a blessing.. Yes the wires all over the house are a pain but we had HEAT! Even my friends in town - living in tract developments were out of power and had no heat, hot water.. some couldnt flush the toilet - YIKES!... It was an icky storm.. maybe I'm getting old and senile but to me, just didnt seem that bad - NOTHING like 01 when we were out of power for 4-5 days.. but then again, maybe I'm smug - we had heat! NO hot water but heat - we were happy! :)

Yesterday we went into speech and the roads are at that "flooding, breaking point" and then today it rained non-stop.. Ironically the sun came out late this PM.. BUT not sure dh will be able to even get home the regular way as most of those roads maybe flooded. Ahhhh... the beauty of living in the stix!

Truly, I do love it...The neighborhood pulled together, not that we dont otherwise... but since we had a gas stovetop since our summertime remodel, I dished up chile to others in need the first night of the storm and it was SOOO cold out.. Our hot tub cover blew off which may not seem like a big deal but we have this bar mechanism so anyone can remove the cover.. in other words the cover had to practically parallel fly off the tub - by only a few inches if that makes sense...... just weird, eerie stuff!

BUT that's living at the Coast,, Our winds only got into the 60's/70's so to me , seemed like a pretty moderate storm.. not too bad.. I DO know I"m hopelessly addicted to the internet as I used a generator and dial-up to get online! YIKES!

Andrew is doing MUCH better! I'm thrilled and as a matter of a fact actually seems to be sleepimg better/playing better by himself (for more than a few min at a time) since starting the antibiotics. I wonder if with his reflux and now this strep if his throat hasnt been a constant source of pain ??? Just soo happy he's feeling better and truly we're all sleeping better of late than in a long time!

Here are some project pics:












Pic NOt taken by me.. taken by a wonderful prof photographer closeby.. love him. could NEVER have gotten my two to pose like this!

PS: one last thing

In case you're trying to get ahold of us.. we're in the midst of a good sized storm with tremendous wind....I wont be surprised if we lose power for a chunk of time.. I'm just so grateful that our non-working pellet stove was restored to pretty much "new" condition with a new motor that dh kind of "guessed" was the problem last week after living thru several days of below 60 degree temps inside our house (and that's our sole source of heat - yikes!).... Anyway, we've only lost power 4x thusfar and just for brief periods.. hopefully we wont have a major loss like years ago when it was out for 4 days... that was a major pain! BUT the winds are up there, so crossing fingers and toes at this point!

After Andrew finally fell asleep in the backpack

I threw this together. I got the SU catalog (stampin up) yesterday - and OH sooo many cute things... I love not only the products but just browsing the catalog for ideas.. Anyway, this was a rip off from something they'd done in catalog. I have mostly acrylic stamps which I also love for storage and visual issues (being able to see where you're stamping) BUT love SU.. I do wonder if they'll ever move to acrylic.? The wood block stamps just take so much room.. .So I did this little altered jar. Well not too little (i'd gotten these long ago to house flours etc, but dont use much now that we're gf/cf)...... Did some sewing with some new funky varigeted thread I got for quilting. Love the look on paper... Anyway here it is...

Well Sick Boy has Strep Throat! UGH....

My poor little guy, no wonder he's been so miserable. I remember Strep from when I was a kid and it HURTS.. did me anyway and I have a pretty high threshhold for pain. Have to say i LOVE drugs.... at times I m not a big fan of antibiotics esp when prescribed "just because" BUT sooo thankful for them and Tylenol with Codeine at this moment. Andrew and I slept a whole 6 hours without waking - it was one of those sleeps of the dead - where I thought an hour had passed and it was morning... I feel like a new person! Havent gotten that much sleep uninterrupted since he's arrived.. Yahoo.... Sooo thinking I was on a roll, attempted to have him nap in the bed this AM... and it kind of, well started out ok... but he got to his max timeframe on naps and was wide awake and ticked off that I was gone - yep,,, guess how long? 15 minutes. Enough to tidy the kitchen! One day... I figure one day I'll get him to sleep without me!

Soooo now... he's got a rash - probably antibiotic related but it's not bad.. the doc wants us to hold out til tomorrow AM and see how it looks.. If it gets worst we'll have to switch antibiotics.. double ugh.. But at least he's an incredible trooper about taking the meds. I've not blogged too much about this, but Ellie has a thing about medicine which has at times been downright dangerous - NOT that she takes it.. she wont under any circumstances. And when she was super ill with sepsis one time it would take 2 of us to get the med into her and she'd immediately vomit it up. We almost had to go to IM injections! In other words it was such a treat to have Andrew open his mouth with no prob as long as he could play with the spoon - and yes.. could even use a measuring tsp to get his med into him - no prob! Each to his own.. I HATED liquid meds so can really empathize with poor Ellie!

Yep, he's been petty miserable of late, teething too!

SUPER Cute PJ's from friend Kelly, Gerald and Devon.. we love, love them!

Crawling to mom!

Thinking.. love his "looks"... his hair is now getting soo long.. Have already trimmed the bangs but think it's almost time for the all over layered cut.. I just LOVE his hair tho... so I've been reluctant to get it cut...

One of his fav. teeting items - a sponge bob toothbrush.... just LOVES it! Can't argue with getting started on loving a toothbrush! :)

My baby is oh sooo sick!

AND man oh man if I thought he was a lousy sleeper beforehand - he sleeps nada, not at all when sick.. hoping to hit doc later today.... doc on call yesterday felt it was probably viral - maybe.... but man he's in misery....

Did another card the other day and came to my senses and realized this isnt the time to do a 25 card swap....just too much going on. Gave my slot to someone who missed the call for folks and who was really dissappointed (so it all worked out)....

Hopefully next time, altho I'll def. enjoy making a few more cards to send out. And thanks Lori for the stamping suggestions (to keep kids busy)... Did that yesterday and that works pretty well with Alex. Ellie doesnt seem to have much interest (she's fascinated by my xyron and wants to permanently fix stuff around the house - yikes!)....but we'll find something that works I'm sure..

I can't wait to see the new Stampin' Up catalog - just havent been able to get to my friends to pick it up. I hear it's the best ever! Complete with very cool stamps, rub ons and more scrapping stuff... yahoo.... hopefully I can drum up some after holiday cashola somewhere! :)

OK So here's card

AND BTW, happy New Year everyone. I hope we all have a very Happy and Healthy, prosperous 2008!