If you are the praying type

Some good friends and our community could use your prayers right now. Mark Cosens, our high school principal, high school baseball coach, good friend is fighting for his life right now. A fun-loving, vivacious guy, he was diagnosed in May of 2007 with a malignant brain tumor. It's getting the best of him right now. His family, our community, could use the power of prayer and well wishes. Please keep Mark, Darcy, Cory, Chad and Bo in your thoughts.

You can read his story and read about his journey here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/markcosens

His strength and determination have been such an inspiration, especially to the kids on our community.

Break OVER......

Yes, winter break has come to an end. Tomorrow it's back to school, back to the routine of the working life..... no more bumming around in my frumpies all day long. So, what have I been doing for the last few weeks (note absence of blog postings)

• The kids have been home. That's been the best part of the holidays for me. I just really like having them home and knowing when I lay my head down on my pillow at night to go to sleep they too are under my roof and I know they are safe and sound. Maybe someday I'll start believing they are growing up, but not today. See, they are still my babies, they can't be old enough to be in college can they?

I took this picture of the kids today. It's been kind of a bittersweet day and I've been a bit teary-eyed all day. Michael left to go back to school today. He starts classes tomorrow. I really hate that he is gone. I miss our nightly conversations. Hopefully we'll see him in a few weeks.

• My mom spent the last couple of weeks on quite an adventure. One of her older sisters passed away the week before Christmas. Mom & Uncle Frank left for Utah that same day since Fritzie was a widow and needing to take care of her estate. It was one thing after another while they were gone from sorting thru her belongings to the hassle of getting the death certificate. The trip originally planned to last just a few days ended up taking 2 wks! I could tell the time away was wearing on Mom so it was a relief when she finally got home Friday afternoon. We got to spend Friday night with her, celebrating Christmas, albiet a few days late, but together none the less.


• Celebrating and getting together with family proved to be a little difficult this year. We shook up the Nardini Family gathering this year by planning to go to church as a family followed by going out for brunch on the Sunday before Christmas instead of hosting the gathering here at the house - the family is just getting too large and Toby too grumpy for little kids. Mother Nature intervened in our initial plans blasting us with temps and wind chills of -25 that morning! Needless to say we postponed. We were able to reschedule the gathering for the following week. I was able to get these most adorable shots of the kids (if you'll notice, Michael has since gotten a haircut but that scruffy stuff on his chin still remains...)

• Other than that, I've been bumming around the house, enjoying the time with the kids and doing some scrapbooking (I know, no big surprise there). Scrappin' Sports and More will be debuting a couple of new lines of paper along with their samples of their custom papers at CHA in February. I can't wait to show you the projects I've been working on with that stuff - fun!fun!fun! I've been working on lo's and submitting them to a few magazines so keep your fingers crossed and help me hope for a publication this year!
  
  

Football and a few other things

Yesterday Leo and I traveled to Storm Lake for the player/parent football banquet at BV. What a nice experience. Of course, the highlight of the trip for me was seeing Michael. Let me tell you though, what a class act Coach Anderson and his staff are. As part of the scout team he was given one of this mini-replica helmets - isn't it cute? Does he look like an offensive lineman (Michael is in the orange shirt, his room mate Jason is in the blue)?

I'm really looking forward to Thursday of this week. The kids come home that day. I get to go get Micah and I can't tell you how happy I am to have that opportunity. We've been talking the last few days about a gift for her room mate for Christmas. We decided on a picture frame, so I've been busy creating the last couple of nights. This is what I came up with. Sure hope Jesse likes it. I thought it came out pretty cute.

I've also been working on an accordian fold album using some of the custom papers from Scrappin' Sports and More. I'm telling you, this paper is awesome - GET SOME!!! You can pick the colors, you can pick the text, it's great. (Here's the link to the custom catalog http://www.scrappinsports.biz/) Truely, this is fun stuff. I've been having a lot of fun with it. So far I've done this little prom album and I've done a graduation layout. Where else could I get something with Micah's name spelling right????

Prom Accordian Album:

Cover for Prom Album:

Graduation layout:

As you can tell, I'm not so great at this adding picture thing to my blog. Still don't know really how to format it all. Maybe that should be my project for 2009?

Thanks for stopping by.

MIA

Have I been missing in action or what? It's been a while since I last updated this baby. So, what's been happening?

• Call Me Grace ... Yeah, my new name. Seems I had a little up close and personal visit with the curb outside the administration building. The one day I get to work early and BAM! I decide to run a quick errand and on the way back to my office I trip on the curb and fall on my face. As I was quickly (or not so quickly in my case) tried to pick myself up off the ground, my shoes flying, the mail I was carrying strewn all over the ground, I realize it wasn't my face I landed on, but my knee - OUCH! It's now been a couple of weeks, a couple of visits to the dr. and a couple of visits with physical therapy and I'm almost back to normal. The knee is still sore, but hey, at least I can walk without a limp.


• The kids came home! ... As you know, I'm not wild about this "empty nest" thing. So, I'm sure you can imagine my joy at having the kids home over the Thanksgiving weekend. Micah came home on Tuesday, Michael on Wednesday. I was in heaven for 5 whole days. We spent Thanksgiving Day at Mom's with G'pa John and Nora and Toad all joining us. Micah and I ventured to Jordan Creek Mall for some Black Friday shopping (leaving home a little after midnight and getting back home around 4:00 AM). Didn't buy much, it was more for the experience. Michael spent a lot of time relaxing and playing Xbox. I learned more about Xbox and his little potty mouth on that thing than I care to know! Leo and I both enjoyed having the kids back under our roof for a few days. Needless to say, Sunday was kind of a rough day around here when they left. The good news is that they will be home a week from today. They both finish up their 1st semester finals on Thursday of next week and will be headed home right after. YEAH!!!


• A new tree ... Auntie called last week asking if I wanted a new Christmas tree. The one we've been using the last few years came from her as well and it's a gorgeous tree, looks absolutely beautiful all decorated up. But, since she offered up a new one, I took her up on the offer. The best thing is the new tree is a pre-lit one! OMG. Talk about a time saver. In less than a half hour that baby was up and shining bright. Heck, if I were still using the other tree, I'd probably still be putting the lights on it. Whoever came up with the pre-lit concept was a genius.

See, isn't it pretty. Now, if only I was motivated enough to get the rest of the Christmas decorations put up.

Favorite Layout Of The Week

Ok, so maybe this is the only layout I've done this week but it's still my favorite! These are the first pictures I've done of Michael playing football this season. As much as I love the vividness of the blues and golds of the color pictures I shot this fall, when I grabbed the papers from Scrappin' Sports and More my first thought was to try sepia tones in the pictures. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the results! I hope you do too.

One Scrappy Weekend

Talk about scrappin' the weekend away... that's exactly what I did and boy did I have fun! From 5:00 Friday night until 11:00 this morning I was pampered and treated like a queen (like that ever happens at home)at a great little B&B that caters to scrappers called P.J.'s and Pigtails! It was heavenly. I got so much accomplished.... got all of my Christmas Cards made, I put 3 calendars together (all Christmas gifts, also the extent of my Christmas shopping thus far) and started work on a football lo of Michael, and I met many new friends, we laughed and giggled all weekend long. Some of us (Darla) are still waiting for the scrapbook fairy to come finish our pages for us!

Talking about all this fun leads me back to why I started this post in the first place .... I'm here to brag on Tammy, her mom, Marie, and her sister Debbie. They are P.J.s and Pigtails. By the time you leave on Sunday, let me tell you, they are family! They are the best hostesses a scrapper could ever hope for. From that oh so yummy breakfast braid and fruit cup Saturday morning to the candlelight dinner Saturday night - but you can only come to this lovely, peaceful, elegant dinner wearing your p.j.s! Here's what the place looks like http://www.pjsnpigtails.com/ We stayed in Mary's room, it was so comfortable and homey.

I know I'll be seeing those girls in late January at a crop Tammy is hosting, always a good time! and in February 14 of the scrappiest chicks I know (and will get to know) are gathering together for another fun weekend at a local church camp. It's all good.

A Front Row Seat

Welcome to my blog. I appreciate your stopping by check it out. I don't really know what I'm doing here, but what the heck. Time's a wasting so lets get started:

Let's start with a few things about me - it's my blog, I can talk about me if I want to (it doesn't sound so selfish if you say it really snappy-like to the tune of "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To"!)

Can I really get used to being an empty nester?

The kids left for college in August. They handled it really well and have made the adjustment to college life quite nicely. Me, not so much. I just can't quite seem to get the hang of this empty-nester thing. It's so quiet around here. I have a lot more free time, so this is what I'm doing now.

My latest obsession:

I'm a night person. Really, I am. When my kids were babies, I learned to stay up late, or maybe it's a result of all the caffeine I consumed but anyway.... I think William J. Bell and the programmers over at Soapnet must know this too because not only do they re-show the daily episode of The Young and The Restless (forever now know as Y&R) at 6:00 PM, but for us night owls they re-play it at 11:00 PM too! How cool is that? So, for all you Y&R lovers out there, is Kay really dead? Ashley and Victor - really, again? Nick, Sharon, Phyllis, Jack - how will that one all play out?

A new gig:

Some of you may know I'm a scrapbooker. Alright, I admit, anyone that knows me knows that I'm a scrapbooker. It's who I am, it's what I do. Hey, I had to do something with the hundreds and hundreds of pictures I took while sitting in the bleachers cheering the kids on didn't I? Thanks to my dear friend Michelle, who introduced me to the craft, paper and embellishments can be found in every nook and cranny.

A few weeks ago I ran across a call for new DT members for Scrappin' Sports and More. I scrap, I scrap sports, I even scrap more..... I submitted. My first submission in 4 years! Guess what (I'm sure you guessed, why else would I be mentioning it) Yes, I was invited to join the team! I'm so excited to be a part of this team. They have a wide selection of papers and embellishments, perfect for a scrapper like me. So, if you become a faithful reader of my blog, you are sure to see lots and lots of layouts using the SS&M product lines all highlighting my kids - my favorite scrappin' subjects.

I've rambled on long enough for a first time poster. Thanks for joining me!

And Micah, you won the bet ... I didn't have the courage to name my blog "Queen of the Bleacher Butts" For some reason, Sammy Kershaw's double wide trailer song kept popping in my head.... But hey, thanks for your input.