we are very grateful for the gift of modern medicine, those who heal and for technology.....ENJOY his journey...

http://www.etsy.com They have some fantastic, one of a kind, all handmade gifts....here are some things that caught my eye TODAY (SELLER INDICATED)


SIMPLYSHELL



PURPLESAGEDESIGNZ



FUNWALLART



GHOSTGALLERY



FOUNDLING



EMEDEMARTA



happy shopping!

done for my Fiskateers Baker's Dozen (Groovy Deborah's) challenge...hard to incorporate embossing since I had never done it but after a turorial by my good buddy Bri, voila! ...had 13 things we had to use and here's my take:




Sorry pic is not so great and crooked!

for this quote she had posted on her blog-I've got to do a "Thankful" Challenge layout for this months cc challenge and this will be perfect for the page; I'm hoping to work on it tomorrow and post a pic here on Friday.


Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~

I've working on a class called
"Stories in Hand", offered for free at www.JessicaSprague.com {can't sign up now though; there was a deadline}. I haven't wrapped the idea of the notebook and the long stories of it all but I plan on sitting down with it tomorrow and giving it an honest shot. Am working on putting the basic book down; used the Cosmo Cricket blackboard and have yet to "dress it up" with embellishments and photos.

Lynn at scrapbook.com tagged me this week so I decided to post in both places.....very interesting questions! HAPPY READING :)

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends! Try not to be lame and spoil the fun! if you get tagged, copy this entire survey and paste into your own blog, change all of the answers so that they apply to you. Then visit the profiles of some of your friends and "Tag" them by simply leaving a comment, asking them to visit your blog, and state that they have been Tagged!

HERE WE GO:

1.What time did you get up this morning? Slept in -10 am (can u believe kids watched tv quietly and let me sleep while hubby was gone?)
2.Diamonds or pearls? pearls unless it's chocolate diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Beverly Hills Chihuahua
4. What is your favorite TV show? What Not to Wear {TLC}
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Coffee -toast, cheddar cheese and scrambled eggs
6. What is your middle name? No middle name
7. What food do you dislike? mashed potatoes, carmelized onions, Indian curry
8. What is your favorite CD at moment? John Legend Evolver
9. What kind of car do you drive? Saturn VUE
10. Favorite sandwich? Italian cold cut at the moment; it changes though depending on season
11. What characteristic do you despise? spinelessness
12. Favorite item of clothing? do boots count? If not, then long soft sweaters
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Right now? Caracas
14. Favorite brand of clothing? no favorite but if I could afford and fit into it, I'd love Tory Burch
15. Where would you retire to? haven't thought about it
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? When I turned 40 I got tons of cool silver jewelry, ate crabs and cheesecake and my family was there. Was important because my son was home from the hospital and everybody (my hubby, kids, my parents and my sisters) was together!
17. Favorite sport to watch? NFL FOOTBALL!
18. Furthest place you are "tagging" this? I have no idea!
19 . Person you expect to send it back first? Unknown
20. When is your birthday? July 13th
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? morning!
22. What is your shoe size? 11
23.Pets? Nope
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Nope again
25. What did you want to be when you were little? a police officer
26. How are you today? relaxed
27. What is your favorite candy? Old fashioned lemon drops from Cracker Barrel or Starburst Jelly Beans
28. What is your favorite flower? Gerbera Daisy or Tulips
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? I don't do that; you aren't promised tomorrow
30. What's your full name? katherine
31.What are you listening to right now? Little Jackie
32. What was the last thing you ate? Cashews
33. Do you wish on stars? no
34.If you were a crayon, what color would you be? unmellow yellow (new color in 1990)
35. How is the weather right now? windy and 50's
36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? My sister L
38. Favorite soft drink? IF & When I drink sodas-hardly ever but it's Mountain Dew for the rush
39. Favorite restaurant? TGI Fridays
40. Real hair color? black
41. What was your favorite toy as a child? Baby Drowsy Doll and later Barbies!
42. Summer or winter? summer
42. Hugs or kisses? Both
43. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla
44. Coffee or tea? Coffee and more coffee!
45. Do you want your friends to email you back? Sure that would be fun!
46. When was the last time you cried? Yesterday when my son said a complete 4 word sentence-A HUGE deal for us if you know my son's history and medical battles
47. What is under your bed? pair of flip flops, nothing else
48. What did you do last night? ACS! Private!
49. What are you afraid of? Fire
50. Salty or sweet? salty
51. How many keys on your key ring? 6
52. How many years at your current job? Let's see I've been a SAHM for a little over 2 years now ;)
53. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
54. If you can choose your talent, what would it be? languages-to be extremely proficient in ASL and maybe 6 more languages
55. Do you make friends easily? Yes!
56. How many people will you tag this to? Not sure, maybe 20
57. How many will respond? Hopefully all of them! :)

May have to tag some of my Fiskateer and other buddies so I can learn more about some of my scrappin' friends; it's amazing what we all have in common! The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known! Some of you may get tagged several times, so they can always refer back to your blog for your answers.

What Cancer Cannot Do
Cancer is so limited...

It cannot cripple love
It cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot destroy peace
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot suppress memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul
It cannot steal eternal life
It cannot conquer the spirit.

it's about time!




I thought Tyra & crew were never gonna tell this girl to go home! She started off strong and then got worse and worse as the weeks have gone by...JMO but then I'm still partial to this chick :)

When we have the pizza crusts, the kids have decided that Fridays are "make your own pizza" nights....works for me! Somebody was sick today but that never seems to stop him from eating!

since I wasn't sure if I could post one of her layouts, I'll just direct you to RachelK's gallery at scrapbook.com.... http://www.scrapbook.com/profiles/229351.html or else her blog here http://scrapperachelk.blogspot.com/ She's got some awesome pages and some of them are made just using her scrapbook scraps! Very inspiring! I need to get rid of tons of stuff so my goal for the next 5 layouts are to mix the old & the new and to use tons of scraps. I love how she used her Fiskars trimmers and punches to make different things so I'm inspired again to use the Fiskars goodies I rec'd last weekend and put them to great use!

by my online friend Jennifer...

Q1. Three places I have lived: Sagami Depot, Japan, Fort Lee, Virginia
Frankfurt, Germany

Q2. Three shows that I watch: Biggest Loser, Tyra's Next Top Model, Cash Cab
Q3. Three places I have been: (is that different from lived?) Wsh., D.C., Hershey, PA, Trelawny, Jamaica

Q4. Three places I have been this week: dermatologist, voter's poll, Chipotle
Q5. Three people who e-mail me regularly: Essandra, Debi S, Lynne
Q6. Three of my favorite foods: sushi, cheesecake, caeser salad with chicken
Q7. Three places I'd rather be right now: Australia (scrapbooking somewhere), Sedona at the spa, snorkeling in Bonaire

Q8. Three things I am looking forward to this year: My son learning to speak more words-that's the only 1 major thing I can think of; everything else is kinda basic.

Isn't the eye shadow rockin' ?????

I think Brianna is the only one who looked cute in this wig!

That would be sis Lynne!!!! She won the grand prize which was a Frankie!!!!!!!!!!




Yippee!!!

Shout outs to Michele, Kate, Amy, Debby, Pammy, Carrie and Sandra!!!! Hope to see you guys again!!!

was a blast...very beautiful town and combine that with candy and scrapbooking and that means FUN! My hat off to Wendy Jo for hosting what I hope is her first of many Fiskars bashes...it was a HUGE success. My favorite thing was meeting new friends and the second was the chocolate tasting with Carl! I don't normally like chocolate but it was nice to learn about chocolate from someone with so much enthusiasm, taste the different varieties {grownup choclate, not that crappy kid stuff} and then get my picture taken with Mr. Reese Cup!

I managed to get 3 pages done at the crop; here's one of them....I've been holding on to these photos for like forever and loved this Scenic Route paper and the embellishments from Me and My Big Ideas so here ya go!




and of course-we had TONS of givewaways; I'm not even sure if I got all of them..no I didn't..we were given adhesive, and more chipboard. I didn't do the make*n*take because I wanted to save that awesome foil chipboard for my Christmas layouts!

guess where we went this weekend? Here's a hint and believe it or not, scrapping was involved too! Am very tired since I stayed up way past be beddy bye time so, am off to bed early. Will post more tomorrow and will post Halloween pics!!!!!!!!!!