Monday Madness...(and being thankful)

The past few days have been such an emotional roller coaster for me. First YS returns to Michigan (which broke my heart), then I made my store debut (which had me dancing on CLOUD 9), and now I'm having networking problems and unable to access my files (which is causing me to stress out). However, with all of the ups and downs, I'm counting my blessings.

• I have a loving hubby that has been working 2 days (non-stop) trying to repair our networking so that I can have access to my files again.
• I'm learning more and more each day about being a better designer.
• Tina has been very patient and kind with me during my learning process.
• I have an amazingly talented daughter that has offered some of her artwork for part of my kits.
• I have 3 wonderful kids that I'm so proud of.

There are a million more blessings I have, and for each one, I only have one to truly thank for each...and that is my Heavenly Father. (Every good gift and every perfect gift...is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning...James 1:17 KJV)

Monday Madness...(new layouts!!)

I was finally able to stop working on my kits for a while and catch up with my CT layouts!! Trust me, it was SO HARD to do. Not the layouts...lol...cause I love doing them, but setting my kits aside!! I have so many ideas and want to get them all done at once!! ROFL!! Matter of fact, I even dreamed about kit ideas last night!! *giggles*

Anywhoos...no more talk of kits for today, I have new layouts to share!!

Journaling reads: As a child, you loved to explore.
Whether it was in my dresser drawers, or
the culvert in the ditch - you were fascinated!!

Kit: Cameron's Bug Jar by Kathryn Balint
(resized and added dropshadows)
Font: Fair Weather ttnorm
Layout Designer: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
Title: Fascination
Photo: Matt (age 7-Thanksgiving 1994)
Created: July 8, 2007
Program: PSP-9

This is my youngest son, Robert!!
This photo was taken 4th of July at the water park
where we spent the entire day.

PSP-Mask: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations
Font: Kingthings Spikeless
Layout Designer: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
Title: My Son
Photo: Robert (4th July 2007)
Created: July 5, 2007
Program: PSP-9

This page is actually going to be the front album cover of a
wedding album that I'm working on that features all of the family
weddings throughout the years.

Background (erased lower corner), lace,
cardboard (changed layer to soft light), flower (resized),
flowers (changed transparencies)
(ALL FROM "Hope" kit by Tina Williams Designs)

Bride: tubed by AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
WordArt: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
(Fonts: TheNautiGal and St. Valentine Note)
Layout Designer: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
Title: The Greatest Gift-Front Album Cover
Created: July 9, 2007
Program: PSP-9

Monday Madness...(**UPDATED**)

HOLY COW!! I've let the entire weekend pass me by and missed my daily posts!! I have a good excuse though...I was cleaning house and yard and preparing for the arrival of YS's 2 week visit!! He stepped off the plane at 4:55pm YESTERDAY!! *doing happy dance*

Being his first time on a plane, his Dad and my brother tried to explain all of the ins and outs of security, what to expect, and such. Saturday night he packed his bag and was all set. Thought all was good, and was enjoying his experience until he was thrown against a wall, patted down, and was carried off to a room. Seems my son didn't do such a good job of emptying his bag before he filled it with his clothes...he missed one of the pockets that had a Chinese Throwing Star. *sigh* In this day and age, it's a felony to carry a weapon into an airport...but we got lucky!! (Praise God!!) Due to my son's good heart and nature...being in tears and explaining to the officers the mistake, they gave him a misdemeanor instead of felony and he has to appear before a judge a week after he returns to Michigan. YS said the officers were really nice to him and even told him they didn't want to give him the ticket, but had to because of it being their job. They even called his Dad to tell him what had happened, and to let him know that YS had made it on the plane.

Y'all...my heart stopped when his Dad called me to let me know!! YS was in the air on his way, and all I could think about was my tender hearted boy (nearly 18) was probably in tears the entire trip, scared to death, and not able to enjoy his first flight. I was beside myself. He's not your normal teenage boy...from the age of 3, he was diagnosed with severe ADHD, along with a learning disability. Over the years we overcame every obstacle that challenged him (WITHOUT MEDS!!)...his grades have improved, and this fall he will be a senior!! However, with all of that said, he's still got a heart the size of Texas, and it's too tender for a world filled with today's violence. When he stepped off that plane and into my arms...he broke down and cried and was truly scared to death. My heart ached for the pain that was written all over him. He's never been a person of many words, I've always had to coax any type of conversation out of him...yesterday was no exception. I asked all of the right questions, but got the answers I needed. It was a clear mistake he won't soon forget.

**PREVIEW AND FREEBIE HAVE BEEN REMOVED**

Monday Madness...and 3 new LO's

It's been a strange day. I woke up at 8am this morning to take OS to work and had difficulty seeing!! Everything was one huge blur. So, hubby offered to be "TAXI CAB DRIVER" for the day. I headed back to bed and went back to sleep. Next thing I knew, it was 1pm, but the good news is my eyesight was back to normal. Not sure what caused the blurriness, but I've made an appointment to get it checked out.

My creativity exploded last night before bedtime...lol...so I've got 3 new LO's to share!!
(click each page for full credits and gallery view)

Monday Madness...Insomnia & LO's

Once again, I'm lying here in bed with my brain running 90mph!! Never fails, my body is completely exhausted, yet my brain isn't...ARGH!! What's a gal to do in this type of crisis?? SCRAP!!

So far, I'm up to 5 pages...and I'm afraid if I don't get some sleep soon, I may end up completing all of my required LO's for this month before daylight!! *giggles* Of course, that's not a bad thing...just means I get to play with more kits!! *smiles*

Speaking of kits...OMG!! You just HAVE to run over to Tina's and check out her new kit called "GRANDMA'S BEDROOM"!! The preview below doesn't even show half of what's in it!! Trust me when I say...it's just loaded with lots of wonderful goodies to play with!! (It's the next kit I'm itching to get my hands on!!)

You still here?? *giggles* Well then ya must be wanting a peek at my latest LO's...

(Click each page for full credits
at my Digishoptalk gallery)

Kit: Beauty by Tina Williams Designs

Kits: Down By The Sea
& Down By The Sea (Add-On)
by Jen Ulasiewicz

Monday Madness...Laundry, Scrapping and Tears

Late last night, I finally caught up on all of our dirty laundry!! It was at that moment, my brain went haywire and I began to wash anything and everything I could get my hands on!! I think I've found a new addiction...lol

In between each load, I was able to scrap 3 pages...

This is a photo of my Papaw Stone holding my Momma - 1942

Kit: Grandma's Kitchen by Tina Williams Designs
(found HERE)
Font: Elisia
Layout Designer: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
Title: A New Generation
Created: June 3, 2007
Program: PSP-9


Just having a bit of fun and whimsy with one of my photos of Kat.

Spiral Album by Kathryn Balint's Spiral Album Kit
(found HERE)
Main BG from Beginning Freebie by Weeds and Wildflowers
Great Oak Trees tubed by PJW
Grunge Overlay by Scrap Celina
BG on Spiral Album from Spiritless Paper Pack by BZArt
Faerie - share fromYahoo/PSP tube group
Wisteria tubed by Molly
Scenery Landscape by PJW

Font: VivianXtremeByWiescher Design
Layout Designer: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
Title: Think Of Happy Things
Photo: Kat - Summer '06
Created: June 3, 2007
Program: PSP-9


This page was created for the Deco-Pages CT-Call.

Kit: You Go Girl by Deb Ammerman
(found HERE)
Layout Designer: AlabamaStoneThrower Creations©
Title: You Go Girl
Photo: Kat - February '07
Created: June 4, 2007
Program: PSP-9

The tears have been flowing off and on all day. My fur-baby "Little bit" didn't make it. We brought her back indoors yesterday evening, and like the night before, my hubby and I took turns cuddling and feeding. Then this morning, I woke to find it just lying beside me, hardly breathing, not enough energy to mew. For 5 hours, hubby and I did all we could, but it wouldn't eat, and it's breathing was nearly non existent. I had hopes of it improving, but during the time I had to take OS to work, she slipped away. My heart shattered...

I feel out of kilter. I tried to scrap a few pages today, but I think my muse has exited - stage left.

Monday Madness...

At the moment I can hardly move...kinda over-did it yesterday working in the yard!! We have close to 2 acres, (mostly trees and weeds...hehehe) and unfortunately, a riding lawnmower that works only part-time and NO weedeater!! So, while hubby tinkered on lawnmower for 2 hours to get it running, I decided to get on my hands and knees and start pulling up some of the tall weeds that had grown around our back porch.

Well, that led to me pulling weeds around my clothes lines, and then to the front porch and left side of the house!! By 9pm, I called it quits...leaving the right side of house and inside the fence for today. Hurts to close hands...but I'm about to run back out there to finish. (Call me a sucker for punishment!! hehehe)

I'm hoping that once all of my yard work is completed, I can get started on cleaning off our back porch!! Over the winter, hubby had used it as a temporary automotive work-space. *sigh* Well, that temporary arrangement appears to being permanent...with TWO transmissions, and no telling how many other auto parts lying around. There is SO MUCH stuff there, that I have no room for my back porch furniture!! (Which will not do...cause I thoroughly enjoy sitting out there in the mornings drinking my coffee.)

***For those that left messages concerning my Vintage Bathroom Kit...the link has been changed from the freebie download to the kit download. I'm very sorry for the mix-up.***

Monday Madness...

WHAT A CRAZY WEEKEND!!

How many surprises can one person handle in just a few days time?? For me, guess more than I thought I could?!?! Late yesterday evening, while making dinner for the family, I was chatting with two dear friends (Faye and Idgie) when my latest crazy surprise happened!!

Faye and I were catching up from the past two days that we'd missed our daily chat, while I was asking Idgie about how she was feeling after her surgery. (For those that don't know...she's healing quite nicely.) Anywhoos, Idgie shared with me about her latest good news (getting promoted to Site-CT for KBandFriends) and told me that her regular CT position was now available. Wanna take a wild guess at what I did??

*GIGGLES* Ok!! Ok!! I'll tell!! I wrote a quick (practically begging) email to Kathryn Balint telling her I was very interested in filling Idgie's old position if given the chance!! Not two minutes later...Kathryn replied telling me I WAS IN!! (I scared more hair off of the cat from the scream that errupted!! hehehe)

After I was able to calm down, and share my amazing news with my friends....I had to go back and reorganize my files again...lol!! What can I say, I love to organize!! *giggles* Now I'm all set with the appropriate folders/sub-folders/text files/galleries/groups for each CT-Designer, and have already got some awesome ideas for pages!! *doing happy dance*

Once again, I have to give a HUGE "THANK YOU" to Idgie for bragging about me to ANOTHER designer that I just adore!!

TO TINA & KATHRYN...I hope I do each one of you proud!!

Monday Madness...

This is how I spent the day recovering from yesterday's excitement...
lying on a blanket in my back yard with my daughter...
surrounded by some of our fur-babies.

Just after dinner, I'd went to my room to check on some e-mail while Kat brought our dog inside. Next thing I knew, Kat was running to my room screaming, "MOM, GUESS WHO IS WITH ME?!?!" In she walked with my RUNTMIESTER!! (The little one that had been missing for 2 weeks!!)

And I've discovered that HE is a SHE!!
(Hubby has nicknamed her...Chuppa Cobbra,
and Kat has nicknamed her Chuppa Meow Meow.
Lawd only knows why...lol)
She is still the runt, being only half the size of the fur-babies (her siblings) that were crawling over Kat earlier in the day. I fixed her a tiny saucer of soft food, and the poor thing ate like she was starved to death...Now I have her in my room, on the bed with me, and trying to keep her off of my laptop...lol

Monday Madness...

Can you believe it?? Monday is here again, and I'm frantically rushing about to finish home-repair projects that should have been completed yesterday. Meaning...our utility room floor still isn't finished. Fortunately, after talking to the salesman that helped us at hhgregg purchase our washer & dryer, we now have pick-up extended until Thursday. Now if I could get hubby motivated enough to actually rip out the old floor...lol

The countdown is on!! (Can you tell I'm a tad excited??)

5 more days until the last day of homeschooling.
5 more days 'til I have to turn in OS's grades.
13 more days 'til OS's graduation.
19 more days 'til OS's 20th b'day.

Monday Madness should be called Monday Sadness today. It was a week ago that I posted a page I had created of RUNTMIESTER, one of my adorable kittens. Later that night, he went missing. Due to his very small size, and the fact he'd just recently learned to jump off of the back porch, hubby and I think he may have been carried off by an owl or dog.

Kit-hearts & pawprints by Calico Designs

Photo - my daughter Kat & runtmiester

My heart is broken that Runt is no longer with us, but the hole in my heart is slowly being filled with love for the other 5 kittens, the 3 itty-bitty ones, and now our latest additions - the 4 newbies. I think it is now official...I AM THE CAT LADY!! hehehe This brings our total to 21 that we know of, cause one of the momma cats just had her liter and won't show us their location. I hope they are safe, though I'm mighty afraid none survived being that this momma hasn't left the back porch since giving birth.

Monday Madness...

Today has started off horribly!! Hubby went to do some minor repairs to Matt's car, only to discover that I accidentally put a quart of power steering fluid in where I should have put transmission fluid!! ARGH!! What's worse, I DROVE a couple of times after doing so!! So today, I sit here patiently while hubby drains my mistake and waits for Matt's friend to come pick him up so he can buy MORE trans fluid to refill. *SIGH*

To make matters worse, I should have been at the power company this morning to pay the light bill since we were running late this month. Keeping fingers crossed they will let me come in tomorrow...??

On a bright note, hubby finally was able to cut our jungle in the back yard!! I'd tried to cut it several weeks ago, but our riding lawnmower decided it was tired and wouldn't restart...for 3 weeks!! Hubby tweaked, and repaired, and tweaked some more...only to have it sit there and do nothing. The finally, yesterday afternoon, it fired up!! WHOO HOOO!! My 5 foot tall jungle is now a thing of the past!! While hubby was plowing away, I had a someone trying to help me chat with a friend...My Little Runtmiester!!

Created using Felty Cat by Calico Corner.

Monday Madness...

OK...so I have a few minutes to pop on here and what happens?? I have a brain fart and can't remember what I was gonna let everyone know. GO FIGURE!! With all the stress that my mind has been under lately, it's a wonder that I can actually function...I'm mean SERIOUSLY!! Who knew that having a child graduating in just a couple of weeks would cause this much stress?? OH!! Now I remember...I was going to share with you OS's grad photos that I took yesterday!! I haven't had time to "SCRAP" them, but I'm sure I will soon enough...lol

I have to say, taking these photos was hard for me...my eyes kept welling up with tears. So many memories swirling in my mind...from birth to present...hard to keep it bottled inside. I'm SO PROUD of the man that he has become....

'Til next time...