Dear Sweetness,
Yes, it was an day filled w/ vomit, putting the same child to bed no less than 8 times, leftovers, war movies, disability denials and a field trip, but that didn’t change the fact that 8 years ago today I married the love of my life. The craziness of today is a testament to the fact that we really do love each other for better and for worse.
I cannot put it into words as eloquently as you, but I love you. Thanks for always being here with me.
Love,
me
…that totally make your night.
Take a look at #3:
Today’s Creating Keepsakes Newsletter
I love this hobby. So glad that I get to share little things like how much my hubby means to me.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The travel season is OVER!
I have traveled 5 weekends (some of them rather long weekends) out of the last 7. I’m SO thrilled to say that this afternoon we came home from the last trip for April/May, and I have absolutely no others planned for quite some time. Halelujah. 
While the trips were nice, I think we’ll be thrilled to sit home and get some work done. I do not want to go into how badly my house is in need of a scrubbing right now. Anybody wanna send me a winning lottery ticket so that I can have a maid service for life? Anyone?????
Speaking of not looking so hot right now, my scrap room would be one of those places. Mean Emine (hey, look! that rhymes!) sent me a blog tag saying that I have to take pics of my room right now, as is. Oooooohhhhhh no. I cannot embarrass myself like that. While I did manage to get rid of 5 boxes out of here from the massive influx of HOF stuff (which, yes, I got more on Friday before leaving…pics coming soon), I do still have the biggest box of all on the floor, new Stampin Up stuff on the desk (cuz I needed to order something??????), a pile on the other desk chair, and we won’t even discuss the computer desk. I’m in the midst of a long-overdue, very cool project that is turning out to take much longer than I expected, and it has overrun my desk area.
However, I don’t want to completely deny Emine - she says she’s dying to see my room. HA! So, if you take a peek at Scrapsupply’s March newsletter, you will see my space. And that’s about as clean as it can get, which isn’t so hot. Imagine large piles on those desks and boxes on the floor, and well, it’s nighttime now rather than daytime, and you can figure out what my room looks like right now. 
Enjoy!
Forgot to mention these last night!!!!
First of all, there is a new feature up at the Village! This time the City Planners featured Sweetwater Products. And here is my contribution:
The pics were from last summer when we babysat Will. I miss that little guy! (and obviously so does Emily!) Hey Traci, when are you getting back here????
I also participated in a new, fun challenge with the HOF girls/guy. Because all of the companies that donated products have been SOO generous, we decided to do a monthly product challenge and feature them on the 15th of every month on the Creating Keepsakes web site. For our first month, we featured American Crafts!!! Take a look at the Challenge Gallery, and upload by Monday to win the CK book of your choice! I am truly blessed to be a part of this amazing group, and even more blessed to have received so many wonderful gifts from the manufacturers, and we just wanted to show some of our appreciation. Here’s my contribution for that one:
I also used the leftovers from that layout to create goodie bags for Gabe’s teachers:
Speaking of generous product donations, yes, we got MORE! We received a HUGE HUGE HUGE box from Me and My Big Ideas. (Jamie, I hope you don’t mind but I stole your pictures of the contents since they were so perfect):
And we also received MORE from Advantus, this time for the Heidi Swapp line:
Somebody…QUICK! Come scrap and help me get through all of this stuff!!! Or, even better, help me get organized so I can get the six boxes sitting behind me unpacked!
Off to take Gabe to school (and get the kids to quit arguing)…
Yeah, I’m late. I just ordered Mother’s Day gifts, um, today. (mom, don’t read that). But I had so much fun with my own family that everything got put on the back burner.
What did I do/get you ask?
I spent 8 1/2 hours at Busch Gardens. That was exactly what I wanted.
My husband tells me that the men in his office are a bit jealous that he got away w/ taking me to an amusement park for the day. We have season passes, so technically, on Sunday at least, it only cost him a dinner at the Irish pub in the park, and ice cream cone for the 4 of us to share, and a tube of chapstick.
Yes, one of my gifts was a $1.29 tube of chapstick.
Is that you asking me questions again? Why chapstick???
Because the REAL gift of the day was that I got to ride all of the coasters I wanted all day long, no questions asked. The first thing that totally made my day is that Gabe was willing to ride the Loch Ness Monster w/ me. This was his first time on a coaster that went upside down. He loved it so much that we rode four times together! Previously, he would only get on the Big Bad Wolf; yes, we rode that one, too - his first time in the front carraige!
But what REALLY made my day came in the form of an announcement during our 3rd ride on Nessy…they were opening Griffon for the day! It wasn’t supposed to open for another two weeks, but they must have known I was there. My little legs couldn’t make it from Scottland to France fast enough! I think I pulled something along the way. And before the end of the day, I rode it six times! Hey, they have a single rider line, and I was actually able to ride it every 10 minutes at one point! WOOHOO!
(that’s me in the front row, 3rd from the right w/ my feet sticking out. )
So, by the end of the day, I’d riden every coaster except Apollo’s Chariot, which I rode the last time we went and, well, it didn’t do it for me.
But, ahhhh, Griffon - that is my new love.
So yes, I’m a thrillseeker. Label me. I could NOT have asked for a better gift. The fam is now required to take me there every Mother’s Day (there were NO LINES!)
And to our mamas - thank you, we love you, we’ll see 2 out of the 3 of you this weekend and show you just how much.
So I’m starting to reap the benefits of this whole HOF thing, and it is amazingly generous! We have received so many donations from various manufacturers already, and there is still more to come! Pinch me!
The cutest, however, happened yesterday. That wonderful UPS man brought me two boxes, one of which was from Imaginisce. To say that Emily liked the product was an understatement. First she kept saying, “Mommy! Look at the pretty butterflies!” (um, they were flowers). Then I pulled out the paper, and she said, “Ooo! That’s mine!” (um, think again, little one!) When I put the paper back in the box, she said, “Mommy, this is mine. I lay down in it.” And that is exactly what she did:
This kid just might be my clone. Laying down in a box filled w/ scrap stuff? Yeah, she’s mine.
Yesterday I also received a box filled w/ two paper and embellishment kits from Stemma, several mini-album and page kits from Creating Keepsakes, and the motherload of organizational supplies from Cropper Hopper. Chris liked those 
He thinks that I’m actually gonna get organized - ha!
Last week before we left, I received two MORE boxes! One was filled to the gills w/ idea books and another mini-album kit from Creating Keepsakes:
And then there was THE box. OMG, this box was amazing! Take a look!
It included items from:
7gypsies
Tinkering Ink
Magic Mesh
Technique Tuesday
Paperhouse Productions
One Heart One Mind
ColorBox
Close to my Heart
Scraperfect
Hambly
DCWV
Doodle Bug
Basic Grey
Cosmo Cricket
Daisy d’s
Fancy Pants Designs
Crate Paper
American Crafts
Making Memories
Pressed Petals
EK Success
The cool part is that the HOFers are going to start doing a Manufacturer Challenge on the CKMB once a month on the 15th of every month. This month we will be featuring American Crafts. I’ll link it up when it goes live.
Back to scrapping!
Did you ever have so many things going on that you didn’t know what to talk about? I just did. Hence no post in forever. Let’s see if I can recap…
Friday, April 27 - Went to the Air Show at Langley. We should do fun family things like this more often. Of course, the lightening storm that came in after the concert killed the prospect of the night show, but the day show was great.
Saturday, 4/28 - Sleepover w/ the Kropp kids.
Sunday, 4/29 - A Busch Gardens evening. We finally broke down and got a season pass. No pics - I actually left the camera at home. When I got home I got to spend the evening w/ Erin at our local hot spot, Barnes and Noble.
Monday, 4/30 - So we got a wild hair up our butts and washed the van. Figured it was a good idea to see out the windshield while driving for 9 hours (see Thursday - Monday). Evidentally, this is something we shouldn’t do. When we were done, I put the wiper down and noticed that it wasn’t sitting flush w/ the windshield. No big deal - the blade had just come loose. So, I lift up the wiper and start adjusting the blade. The blade falls out. I lost grip on the wiper. And did this:
Let me also add that no one believed me. The glass place kept convincing me it was a rock. I knew otherwise. I saw it happen. I DID it. They still don’t believe me.
Tuesday, 5/1 - Kids watch cartoons in the am before school. Gabe goes to school, Em and I go to my physcial therapy appt. We come home. Turn on the t.v. so that Em could watch Dora. There were three Dora’s - one was red, one in blue, one in green. Evidentally the convergence was off, and the menu wouldn’t fix it. So, I had to find a t.v. repairman.
Wednesday, 5/2 - Weight Watchers in the am. Kohl’s for some clothes for the trip. TV repairmen carting our tv away in a truck. Glass men not believing my wiper story, but giving me a new windshield anyway. Mom spends the night.
Thursday, 5/3 - Hop in the van. Loaded to the gills. Zuzu to the doggie hotel. We drive 9 hours to Atlanta to spend 4 days in a hotel room w/ 5 people. Do NOT get me started on the customer service practices of this particular Hampton Inn.
Friday, 5/4 - Spend the day at the Mall of Georgia. Spend the evening at the rehearsal dinner and w/ the family.
Saturday, 5/5 - MY COUSIN’S WEDDING! I had the honor and privelege of photographing it. My first big gig. It felt good. Here’s a few previews…
Isn’t Suzanne gorgeous? How did my cousin get so darn lucky? Emily was enamored w/ her - she thought she was a princess. It was terribly cute.
Sunday, 5/6 - Chris’ fraternity brother, J.P., and his girlfriend met us for lunch. It was SOOOOO great seeing him. Been way too darn long. And yes, I left the camera at home again. Shocking, I know.
Monday, 5/7 - back in the van for 9 hours.
today - just playing catchup - on sleep, on Grey’s Anatomy… Oh, and I had my yearly MRI on my tumor. Had to spend 1 1/2 hours on the table. Ugh. Hopefully nothing has changed.
Soooooooo, like I said, so much going on that I didn’t know where to start. It has been a very crazy week and a half.
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