Leaving for California

So in a few short hours I will be on the first leg of my journey to California. Part of me looks forward to the journey and the other part of me looks on it with dread. I hope and pray that Mother Theresa is with me on this trip and never leaves my side.

Quote of the Day

When the heart weeps for what it has lost,
the soul laughs for what it has found.
--Sufi aphorism

My emotional roller-coaster ride

It seems to me that when it rains it pours and today is no different. Through an odd series of events I've been informed that my Dad had been hospitalized and he's dying. I've been working on getting plane tickets to get me out of here ASAP that won't cost me thousands of pounds. As always my BT land-line has let me down and I can't reach my mom in California to let her know that I'm coming out. Of course my mom doesn't have internet...why would she, she's never bother to have cable TV.

So to add more to this today is my Hannah's birthday (Happy B-day Sweetheart).

So I saw my son off to the airport yesterday morning knowing that I won't see him again until December, last night spoke with my dad's doctor and she told me that he is gravely ill and that his death is imminent. I've been trying to call my mom repeatedly and I still am unable to get through-- I've about had it with BT!

Meanwhile I feel like a crap parent as nothing is going right for my Hannah's B-day. And I know that God doesn't give you more than you can handle but right now I'm at the edge. Please keep us in your prayers.

Quote of the Day

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost

Quote of the Day

Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most.
- Joseph Wood Krutch

9 months and counting

Let me start off by saying NO I'm NOT pregnant, LOL! Nine months is the time that I have let in this wonderful little country. What we first thought was a 2 year assignment was a dream come true- an overseas assignment! Then we found out that it was a 3 year assignment and we said "hmmm" moving with a teenager (again) the summer before her senior year- not a good thing. And now that my husband has put in his retirement paperwork, this will be once again a 2 year assignment for us.

I have been going through a roller coaster of emotions these past few weeks. Retire or not retire, son leaving a month early to bum around South Dakota with his friends before he starts college, living in a house that's making me crazy, making some wonderful new friends, thinking about my family and all of the things we'll have going on in the next months. To leave our daughter in boarding school for 2 months while she finishes up school. Yup I've got a lot on my plate right now!

I want to get this blog back to being a crafty blog alas, my life seems to keep getting in the way. I want to craft and create and be creative but worries and stress seem to keep my mind otherwise occupied at present. I've picked up a couple of counted cross stitch kits by The Historical Sampler Company and will be working on one shortly. Here's a picture of the one I'm starting now (it's for fun), the sampler is called "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and with my growing collection of lambs and sheep, well it was a must have kind of thing for me!







I love classic samplers and have bought the Autumn themed one to work on and will be getting the rest of these samplers before I leave England. To me, these samplers are fine examples of classic British needlework design at it's best!

Quote of the Day

Don't give up! I believe in you all.
A person's a person, no matter how small!
Dr Seuss- "Horton hears a Who"

Quote of the Day

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts...
-William Shakespeare, "As You Like It", Act 2 scene 7

Life in the Air Force

Since moving here a little over a year ago, I knew that I would be doing 2 moves within one year. This year is my "easy year"- no moves involved. Next year brings with it another move (no joke). Spring 2011 we will be moving back to the USA and enjoying retirement. That's right you read that correctly, my husband after 20 plus years in the Air Force will be retiring. So what does that mean for me? Well my brain is once again on "clear it out mode". I know that we have at least 9 more months here but as it is, I want to be prepared to be able to make this a smooth transition for us. Reduce, reuse, recycle and my favorite...just plain donate!

I'll have time for at least one more trip to Stoke on Trent to rake up on some more great Made in England pottery, not to mention to get in some more trips around England in general. There are loads of places that Hannah and I want to see while we're here and we're going to try our best to see them all!

Quote of the Day

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.
- Fred Allen

Scrapbooking the "every day things"

I'm a scrapbooker who is also a military wife. We move around every few years and that means a new to you house with a new view out the windows. Currently I am living in England. There are everyday kinds of things about my life here that I want to document...things like the light switches which are something we take for granted or my tiny microwave that I named Tivo simply because it looks like the Tivo character to Ken and Barbie- my very small but efficient washer and dryer. It's the little things that we take for granted that we tend to forget. There's the ever so small fireplace in the living room or as the British call it "the Lounge"- that would never fit a full sized log, you can even forget getting a half of a log in there. There's the entry way that is only a couple of inches wider than the front door and the fact that some of the walls are about 18 inches or more thick or the back door that opens outward. I want to document the flower beds that we worked so hard, we started with nothing but dirt and have turned them into something beautiful to look at.

Some scrapbookers feel as if they should only be scrapbooking major events such as birthday, Halloween and Christmas. Not me, I've always wanted to take notice of the little things. How we really lived, what we really did and what we were really like. I hope to be able to capture this is some of the photographs that I take.

Quote of the Day

“May those who love us, love us; and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.” ~Irish Blessings

I saw this quote on a friend facebook page and well, it gave me quite the little smirk-enjoy!

Storage Space or the lack of it

I know what I'm going to do after we retire from the Air Force (yes it's a "we thing")...it's to design closet organizing systems and help people to organize their storage spaces. Oh am I feeling more like ME again! All I need is a little challenge and I'm all over having something organized and working well!

When you move as much as military families do, you need something that you can take with you to help you stay on course and stay organized. I've decided that I'm going to design something to help us frequent movers to stay focused and keep our belongings more organized. I've got great ideas now to put pen to paper and to get them out of my head and onto something that I can look at. I love a new challenge and I'm giving myself one!

Quote of the Day

There comes a time in life when you walk away from all the pointless drama and people who create it, and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus on the good. Life is too short to be anything but happy!
author unknown

Holy Catfish- am I ever busy this week!

Just another week of go go go and go faster for yours truly. Some days it's just non-stop stuff and others it's not "as busy". I'm not trying to ignore my blog it's just that my time and days are so divided that I start something but can never get around to finishing it.

I plan on bringing my camera to RIAT and taking pictures. Apparently there will be some people there that we know from the bomber world- hopefully I'll have time to say hello -alas, my day is already preplanned for me (courtesy of the USAF protocol office).

It's been drizzling off and on for a couple of days now. I wish that we could have a good ole heavy downpour with thunder and lightening like we used to have in Texas and South Dakota, believe it or not but I miss that kind of weather.

Quote of the Day

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.
-Arthur Rubinstein

Quote of the Day

We are the people our parents warned us about.
- Jimmy Buffett

"manly" thank you cards?

The thing I don't get is why my husband and son are having such a cow of a few little flowers on a thank you card. All I'm asking is to have a manly thank you card- says the husband, LOL! Manly? What's this "manly" thing? Does that mean less flowers? Or is it no flowers? I made the cards in shades of blue with little flowers, but apparently they guys want it with NO flowers :-( I'm a flower lover, I'm surrounded by them how can I not put flowers on anything? So all I did was to hunt up a thank you stamp and use the same design that I did for the graduation cards and turned those into thank you cards. There- are those manly enough? Yes they were- now for me to move on to something else...Men!

Quote of the Day

for man with no forgiveness in heart,
life worse punishment than death.
-Mr. Miyagi

Greeting Cards

Alright I know that this is supposed to be my scrapbooking/paper crafting blog...so do I ever do paper crafts any more? Yes I do! Here are some examples...

Friendship cards-one can never have too many of these hanging around! I finally used up the rest of that striped Susan Branch paper that I've had in my stash for YEARS!!!!
Get Well - copied this card layout from an old card idea book. Please forgive me for not remembering which one it came from. This certainly is a cute get well card!

Congratulations- This little gem is my own design! I was getting frustrated at the poor selection of graduation cards at our BX- okay so it was more like our BX had NONE to speak of! So out of desperation I created this one! LOVE how handy my Quickutz dies are! The Graduation cap is a 2 piece die set, and now I can say that I finally got to use it!

Visiting my favorite place in England

Everyone has a favorite place that they enjoy visiting, mine hands down has to be Jane Hathaway's house in Stratford upon Avon. The flower gardens there are impeccable! I based my English flower garden in South Dakota off of hers! It was full of flowers in bloom and the Sweet Peas were delightful! Many different colors of them all on display for our enjoyment :-) The tour of the house was the same as it was 4 years ago- charming and delightful! For me, it's the gardens that captured my heart! From the willow hut (which I want to recreate in our own backyard) to the lovely flower beds full of color! I want to be able to bring a bit of Shakespeare's Britain home with me. The weather was perfect! It was in the lower 80's with a slight breeze, which is just fine for me!




Here's my Hannah being a goof as I was attempting to take a picture of the house.
A picture of me with my children...of the 10 attempts at a decent photo, this one turned out the best. The rest was a series of us laughing or looking in other directions.

LOVE this Willow Hut! Talk about simply too cool! We'll make one of these in our backyard when we retire. It's going to take a while (years perhaps) for the plants to cover. This is something that our future grandchildren will enjoy.

The diagnosis is...

Yes friends, it's broken! I'm glad that I have a removable splint versus a non-removable cast. As least this way I can get through airport security and not worry about getting a full body scan or a body pat down/frisk search, LOL! Now because I am an adult, the Doctor trusts me to keep this on (silly man). What's the alternative of not keeping it on while it heals? Oh I already know that one- it's extreme pain! It's amazing how wearing this for a couple of days has already helped to reduce the amount of pain I've been suffering from- now that's just plain weird! But then again I can't bend or twist my wrist and forearm what so ever so there it is. Which bone are you thinking is broken? It's the long skinny one on the under side of your forearm, the Ulna. So it's not a broken wrist it's a broken forearm-ugh! How on earth did I do that? That's the weird question that I can't seem to pin point really. I have a broken bone in my left arm and I don't know how on earth it happened!

Quote of the Day

In a country as big as the United States, you can find fifty examples of anything.
- Jeffery F. Chamberlain

Quote of the Day

I don't understand the sizes anymore. There's a size zero, which I didn't even know that they had. It must stand for: 'Ohhh my God, you're thin.'
- Ellen DeGeneres

Busy Military Spouse Syndrome

Being the ever so busy wife and mother that I am, I do tend to neglect myself from time to time. This time being that I have hurt my wrist and it hurts A LOT!
I hurt my wrist last week, and to be honest with all what I had going on, I never really had time to attend to it. It hurts to touch it or move it.I've been bullied by my daughter all weekend long to make an appointment to have it checked out. So today I do have an appointment to have it attended to and I will let you know what's up with it after my appointment this afternoon.

Yup this is what you get with Busy Military Spouse Syndrome-it's self neglect. You don't take time out for yourself and you end up 'squeezing in" a doctor appointment only because after a week and the pain is getting more intense you're afraid it might be a broken bone. I did this a couple of years May 2008 (check out the blog postings on my foot surgery) with my foot- ended up being a MAJOR thing wrong and having to have surgery to repair the damage. So everyone, please keep me in your prayers that the doctor can assess what it wrong with my wrist and that I get the proper medical treatment needed for swift healing.

A side note- I'm just wondering what a broken wrist feels like because if this is what it is...well can I get some better pain medication please? Because Motrin is simply NOT cutting it!

Quote of the Day

Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy.
- Robert Anthony

I survived the weekend!

It's hard to spend quality time with family friends when you're always running around. This past weekend was a busy one! From the Independence Day Celebration at the base on Friday to Speech Day at Kingham Hill School on Saturday and the Graduation party on Saturday night. Lets not forget the running around I did during the week in preparation for all of these things. I had once again made meatballs for the masses which is rather time consuming.


Now for pictures- I did take some, I promise to upload them.

Quote of the Day

They certainly give very strange names to diseases.
- Plato

Quote of the Day

Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary.
--Margaret Cho