Happy Birthday Jeff

Today is my baby's birthday. I don't think he'd like for me to refer to him as my baby, but that is what he is to me even if he is 30 years old (or young) today. It doesn't seem like he should be 30 yet .... it just makes me that old + 30! But, indeed he is with a wife, 3 great step-daughters and a beautiful 2-year old son. He is a great dad and husband. When he married Darcie, he took on the responsibility of raising her 3 girls, Torri, Kennedy, and Cassidy, who has special needs. He never thought twice about it. That is the type of man he is and why I am proud of him. He and I have our difficulties at present, but I hope and pray, some day, we will get past our problems.

For his birthday, I put together a scrapbook of memories for him. I used the theme "Where has the time gone" because that is what I feel!! It seems only yesterday that I was holding him in my lap while he was sucking his thumb and holding fast to his tattered blanket.

Here are a few of the pages from the book.

This is a great quote that I got this summer from Quick Quotes and thought it was appropriate at the beginning of the memories.

I hope he will enjoy taking this walk with me through my memories and remember how much I love him. It was bittersweet making this album. I had tears and laughter all along the way - just like I did when he was growing up. Oh, the memories I have that are not in this book!!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy of mine!

Love, Mom

Joey's Name Frame

Well, I feel like I've been going non-stop for a long time & I'm ready to stop the train and slow down!!  We got back in town late Sunday afternoon and didn't even go straight home!  We stopped off at a local bar/restaurant to catch the Steelers game on tv.  At half-time, I called my sister who told me the game was on our local CBS station, so we headed home to finish watching them LOSE!!  But, I had unpacking, laundry and a lot of catching up to do on the DVR to do.  Monday was bridge day; Tuesday was a Newcomer's event in downtown Charlotte (details later) and Bunco that night.  Today .... was heaven!!  I didn't even get dressed until after noon and just vegged out .... well, actually I worked on a baby gift that I have been needing to get done. 

Our sweet neighbors in Gig Harbor had their first child the day of my birthday party.  Little Joey was born on early Saturday morning, Oct. 18th. 

Joe & Ramey have decorated his room with jungle animals so I thought that would be appropriate for his name frame.  I found some green striped paper in my stash and covered the cardboard backing of the WalMart frame.  Next, I used my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug to cut out the Always Artichoke & Vanilla cardstock ovals.  I stamped the letters in Chocolate Chip and embossed them with clear powder.  The animals are from 4 different SU stamp sets - Wild About You; Unfroggetable; Bugs & Kisses; and Sock Monkey.  The little saying (precious little one) is a SU rub-on.  I added a little ribbon on the side with a round clip from the Hodgepodge Hardware set and a brown plaid button that I found along with a little lady-bug button for accents.  I thought it turned out really cute!  Hope they do too.

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Why?

Why Is it?

Why is it that if someone tells you that there are a billion stars in the universe, you'll believe him, but if he tells you that a wall has wet paint, you'll have to touch it to be sure?

Why do we press harder on our remote control when we know the batteries are flat?

Deep in the jungle, why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

Why isn't "phonetic" spelled the way it sounds?

If money doesn't grow on trees, then why do banks have branches?

Why is it that people who spend their day sitting down often earn more than people who spend their day working on their feet?

Ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face he doesn't like it, but when you take him for a ride in the car, he sticks his head out the window?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every two hours?

~Quick & Simple Magazine

5 state in 5 days!

This has been a busy week. I have been in 5 state in 5 days!! Feels like that movie .... if it's Monday, it must be Paris - or something like that!! Sunday we went to Harper's Ferry in West Virginia and then to Virginia to a few wineries. Monday, we were in Maryland for the football game; Tuesday, we had dinner in downtown DC; Wednesday we went to Pennsylvania!

Yesterday we drove to Gettysburg. I don't know what I was expecting but it was really neat. I thought it would be just a bunch of graves and markers but it was nothing like that. The neatest thing was that at the visitor center, you had your choice of getting a map and driving all around the battlefield (which as really huge); boarding a bus for a tour; OR what we did .... get a tour guide to drive our car and give us a personalized tour. Our tour guide was probably about 80 years old and quite knowledgeable. He has been doing this for 16 years - since he retired, so you can imagine! Before we left the Visitors Center, he asked us where we were from and if we had any kin that fought in the Civil War. I wish I had been prepared because I don't know. But Sonny knew he had a relative who was a Butcher and his last name was Gibson. So, John (our tour guide) looked up Gibson in the Pennsylvania book & we narrowed it down to 2-3 men. Then we were on our way to find the monument from the Regiment our relatives were in. All along the tour, John made the battle come alive for us. If you ever get a chance to go to Gettysburg, this is the best way to see it. It was $55 for the 3 of us, but if we'd done the bus tour, it was about $25-30 per person!

After we finished our tour (about 2+ hours), we drove over to York, Pa. That is the home of York Air Conditioning & Heating (now Johnson Controls) which was Sonny's employer until he retired. York was also the first capitol of the US and very historic also. We didn't get there until dark so we just drove by the plant and found a nice restaurant for dinner. We wanted to go to Lancaster and the Amish area, but Ashley had to get back. We'll save that for another time.

Tomorrow, we'll leave here & head to Virginia Beach. I'm looking forward to meeting some of my NC stampin' sisters and learning some new tricks at SU's convention. Ashley will join us later in the day after having to work.

Election Spoiler - We were ready for some ..... football!

One of our signs we were waving proudly!

A sea of BLACK & GOLD & the final SCORE!

I just realized I haven't let you know about our wonderful Monday night WIN in the Redskins home. We started out with a little tailgating. Our cousins from Pittsburgh brought the Pittsburgh beer - IC Light & some kind of Churchyard Brew made locally in Pittsburgh. We provided the kielbasa and kraut plus chips and dips - the artichoke dip in a bread bowl was a big hit!! Of course, we all forgot about me - I'm not a big fan of beer and usually drink Hard Cider, but since there was none, one of Ashley's friends had hot chocloate and Caramel Bailey's. Of course, I had to try a cup!! Yum!

Our seats at the game were fantastic! We were 10 seats up from the field and at the corner of the end zone. We were real close to the Redskins Hog-ettes as you can see from this picture. If you're not familiar with the Redskins, these are men (old men at that!) who dress up each game like women and wear pig noses!! If you are interested, here is the history of the Hoggettes. The game started out a little slow - Washington scored 2 field goals in about the first 10 minutes. I was definately getting a little worried. It seems whenever we go to watch the Steelers play, they usually lose. The local fans were going wild and I thought I was going to have to knock the lady next to me out. But then things turned around during the second half and we never let them get a touchdown. Big Ben injured his shoulder in the first half and when our back-up quarterback came on the field at the second half, Redskins fans thought they had the game in the bag!! We showed them! The stadium was a sea of Terrible Towels waving. It's just amazing that wherever we go to watch a Steeler game, the Steeler fans almost out number the other team's fans. This was definately the case Monday night and especially at the end of the game - we Steeler fans were the only ones left!!

Enjoy my pictures!

This first one is of Ashley (#36) with her Pennsylvania cousins (about 2nd removed, I think!).

This is Ashley & me after the game - smiling big!!

This is Sonny & I - in our seats!

Swap Cards

I will be attending Virginia Beach Regionals on Saturday. Luckily, they did not fill up and Ashley is able to go with me. We went together a couple of years ago but weren't able to go last year. I'm hoping Shelly will be there this time. She wasn't in 2006. I'm hoping to meet up with some of my NC buddies (some who I've never met) and do some swapping with them. These are a couple of the swap cards I will have with me.

This one uses Pocket Silhouettes. I stamped on white cardstock in Chocolate Chip ink and then sponged chalks (using a powder puff!) on the top and bottom. I layered it onto Kiwi and Baja Breeze cardstock. I stamped the saying "friend to friend" in chocolate on Kiwi and punched it out. I used the white gel pen on the top and bottom of the Not Quite Navy card.

I have two versions of this card - one in bashful blue (seen below) and the other in Sage Shadow. The bird is from the stamp set, Always and everthing else on the card is from Bojo Backgrounds - a very versatile stamp set.

If you are going to Virginia Beach, I hope to see you there!

History in the Making

I'm here in DC as history is being made. America's first black president! In 1960, the question that loomed over the campaign was whether a Catholic could get elected president. Voters answered yes. Nearly five decades later, that milestone is a mere footnote to the Kennedy presidency. The question this time was whether a black man could win the presidency. Forty percent of all white Americans hold a negative view of blacks, according to polling by The Associated Press, and two-thirds of white Democrats express racial misgivings. Yet on Election Day, Obama won more than four of every 10 white votes. Americans said yes, we can overcome our original sin. Fifty years from now, President Obama will be remembered for more than the color of his skin. And this moment will never be forgotten.

About one in 10 voters said this was the first year they had cast ballots, and 70 percent of them backed Obama. To cap it off, Obama won the female vote. We who lived in the South and remember segregration all have, I am sure, different feelings on this issue. I'm sometimes ashamed to admit that I grew up in the South with a black maid (who was just like a family member to me) and grandparents (and parents too) who were very prejudiced, but that is all they knew. Because I saw first hand the way they were, I have strived hard not to be like them. And, I believe I have succeeded. I can remember when Kennedy and Nixon ran for president. We had an election in school and I voted for Kennedy. That night, we had dinner at my grandparents home and when I told them I voted for Kennedy in a mock election at school, you would have thought I had done something really horrible. They were just apalled!! I don't know if it was his partya ffiliation or the fact that he was a Catholic! My .... how things have changed.

But, to me, race was not the issue in the this election. Although, it's hard to believe that right now after watching all the television interviews tonight - the only people being interviewed on the DC NBC channel are blacks. To me, the reporters are making it about race. I did like the comment of one of the people interviewed - that she could celebrate this victory with all her sisters .... white, black, and gay.

I hate controversy. I generally go to great lengths to avoid awkwardness of any kind. I just want everyone to get along and live together in love and harmony forever and ever. This is why I do not wear my political affiliation on my sleeve and I do not discuss politics on my blog. But, tonight I followed another blog link to THIS and it scared me! Whether or not it is true, it sure makes you think!

I am worried with Obama in office about our health care, our social security, our welfare program, and mostly about our retirement money that my husband worked hard to get and we are quickly seeing it go away. I'm not saying that our system is without fault, but I believe there are better ways to care for the underprivileged and uninsured than to centralize our heath care and increase other government programs. I resent the implications and outright accusations that conservatives are selfish and tight-fisted. We just believe the private sector is far better equipped to handle the needs of the underprivileged in our society.

The war is another major issue. While I don't like war, I believe we need to finish the job before we come home. I trusted McCain on this issue given his experience in the military and in Congress for so many years. I have a vested interest in this issue since I have a daughter in the Army who could be looking at deployment next year and a son who has served this country and done a stint in Korea and in Iraq.

I truly believe we all want the same thing in the end - a safe, healthy, productive society where we can live and work and play with freedom and security. So, I sincerely hope that America comes together and supports our next leader no matter how you feel about him. I do not think there are any easy answers or perfect candidates but I do believe in our country. Just hold on .... in 4 years, we will be able to make another decision.

Obama received the huge wave of support he sought. But will he be able to do all that he promised? Will his ecstatic supporters be satisfied with anything less? And did Obama really receive a mandate, or was he the beneficiary of the nation's disgust with President Bush, and its unease with America's course? These are the questions that will be answered over the next four years.

Just remember ..... at the end of the day, God is still commander in chief of the universe!

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A lot of birthdays!!

Seems like all I've done lately is make birthday cards!! Last Thursday my husband's birthday. He turned 62 and is now waiting for his Social Security check!!! Guess he'll be stalking the mailman for the next month or so - it's not supposed to be issued until December. With the state of the economy, that'll be a raise for us!! Anyway, here's the card he got from me. It was one that I had done at a previous class at Stamper's Alley, but he doesn't know the difference & usually only scans a card. We tease him that if we put a bunch of stuff on the inside - mushy feeling, etc. - he doesn't really read it!! So this one is short & sweet!

Our good friend and former realtor had a birthday this past weekend also. Here is the card I made for him. I really like this "Older & Wiser SU set. I used some paper from a paper pack that I picked up somewhere a while ago. It's great for a man's card.