A Confession

There is no doubt that I enjoy reading...That is pretty obvious, considering the fact that almost all of my posts lately have been book reviews. But there is more, I think it is a sickness. I can't seem to read just one book at a time. I am usually in the middle of two, sometimes three different books. I can usually logically explain why, but it really does seem crazy at times.

Sometimes I read more than one because one of the books I am reading is a bit slower going, yet still enjoyable. Sometimes I just have to read something that I can breeze through in a half a day. I want to be sucked in and just escape for a few hours into someone else's story. So I will read a nice, quick book, and then go back to the other book that I have started.

Other times I am simply reading several at a time because I have one book downstairs and another on my night stand, and yet another that I am reading on our iPad (since I can read ebooks with the lights off and not disturb others who are trying to sleep...namely my husband).

So, right now I have started and I am actively reading two books, and I picked up a few others at the library that seem to be calling for me to dive between their pages. So, likely, in the morning,  I will be reading another one or two..Sure, it is a crazy way to read, but it works for me.

So tell me, am I alone? Am I the only one who has more than one books going at once?

Aaaand We're Back!

Sorry for the drop off. The Christmas Holiday was crazy this year (good, but crazy) and I just didn't have time to blog. Right after Christmas a stomach flu hit our house with a vengeance and made its way through everyone except Joelle. Right after the flu, we finished our Winter Break with a great visit from Jared's brother and his family.  Below you will see a few photos of what I didn't blog:

The Tree on Christmas Morning

Right after Church Christmas Morning. Joelle did an amazing job singing with me in church that morning in-front of a large group!

Waiting to go downstairs at Grandma's house to open presents.

A crochet project I completed over the break! Showing our team spirit!

A photo from our visit with Jared's brother. We took a trip down to temple square (it was a first visit to temple square for my nieces and nephew). This is a picture with the missionaries who took us for  a tour.

I hope that you are all doing well. Look for more posting soon (including a book review post tomorrow!)

5 Kids = lots of laundry

Halloween 2011

While these little monsters are darling (they are pretty cute, if I do say so myself), they sure create a lot of laundry. I have spent the day trying to make a dent in the mountain of laundry that has build up in my home as of late. I spent the month of October sick with a bad cold/flu/sinus bug and I wasn't able to stay caught up (I did laundry, of course, just not enough). So now it is catch up time, and man...5 kids create a lot of laundry. Good thing they are cute, huh?

A Soccer Free Saturday

Last spring I took over as the Regional Coach Admin for our local AYSO region. My job didn't really begin until the Summer, as the prior Admin helped get us through the end of the year (I was his assistant for a few months before I was officially given his job).  My life has been soccer, soccer and more soccer since late July, and while there have been fun moments, there have also been many crazy days where I questioned my sanity in accepting this volunteer position. On top of this position, I have been coaching Max's team. So it has seemed that I was living and breathing soccer for so long, I wouldn't know what to do with myself when I had a soccer free Saturday.

But the day finally arrived. The Fall season officially over, I had my first soccer free Saturday this past weekend, and can I tell you how much I enjoyed it? We woke, after sleeping in, to snow on the ground. The kids bundled themselves in coats and gloves and proceeded to make trails through the snow in our yard (that is their favorite thing to do in the snow...trudge through it, making curving trails). It felt wonderful to be able to spend the day catching up on laundry, enjoying some family time.

I know, the Spring season will speedily make it's way into my life, but for now, I am going to enjoy my Saturdays.

But really, who doesn't love watching their kids play the most popular game in the word?



(please ignore the fact that my son is wearing the wrong shorts, two different socks and that one sock is falling down....when you have 5 kids to get out the door for games, 3 playing soccer, and one of them dancing, you never know what you will get)

Our Three Day Weekend

First I want to apologize for a complete lack of photos. I didn't have my camera with me at our various activities, and while I tried to take a few with my phone, I don't have a way to get them off the phone, so there will be no photographic evidence of the events of our weekend, but you will get to read about them (ok, so not as fun, but hey, better than nothing, right)

Jared (my hubby) took the older two boys to our Church Fathers and Sons camp-out on Friday night. They had a great time and came back VERY dirty! (The camp-out only lasted from Friday evening to Saturday morning but it is a fun event for the boys and their dads).

Because the Dad and the older boys were gone for the evening. My daughter, our younger two boys and I had a sleepover in Mom and Dad's room. We put on a movie and everyone fell asleep on my bed. The kids seemed to enjoy that and it gave them something special since they didn't go with Dad.

Saturday morning I got up early and headed out a little before 7AM for a 9 mile run. It's not a good sign when you wake up feeling off. My stomach didn't feel great, I couldn't eat much (but I often can't eat much pre-run). I had very little energy and almost went back to bed, but I knew I would be mad at myself if I did, so I headed out anyway. The run really didn't have very many high points. At the start, when I was fresh, I struggled to keep up a 10 min/mi pace...and it only went downhill from there. I had no energy, my hips tightened up the last couple of miles and I really had to force myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. But, in the end, I finished...an average pace of about and 11 minute mile, but I finished. I was pretty wiped out for the rest of the day and had a REALLY bad headache for most of the day on into the evening.

As if that wasn't enough to make for an exciting Saturday, my middle child (and 2nd son) Max was playing in his room with a stick he had apparently brought home from the camp-out. (I did not know that a stick had been brought home, nor that it was being played with indoors). I heard screaming and my husband calling for me to find a bandaid, so I ran to my bathroom, where I knew I had a supply of bandaids, but then I was called downstairs to inspect the wound. He had a nasty cut on his wrist, very deep and bleeding quite a bit. So we created a makeshift bandage using a papertowel and a strip of KT tape (hey, ya gotta use what ya have, right?) and headed to the urgent care center to get it stitched up (well me, my oldest son-who was brought along to keep pressure on his brother's wrist, and Max, who has the bleeding wrist headed to urgent care, the others stayed home). Three stitches later we headed home to get ready for our next Saturday activity.

As coaches with our local AYSO region, we received as a coaches gift, season tickets to the Ogden Outlaws, a local semi-pro soccer team. The games had started the previous Saturday, but due to an unforeseen event we were unable to make the first game. So, we were determined to go see this one, especially since they were playing the team from BYU. Our daughter had spent most of the day with my parents, and elected to continue her stay with them instead of joining us, but the other six of us headed off to South Ogden to see the game...in the rain. Needless to say it was wet and cold, but we had a fabulous time. The game was great (even if the Outlaws lost by 1 goal) and we can't wait for the next one (and we are crossing our fingers it doesn't rain). It was pretty funny walking out with a wet bum.

Sunday was a nice, low key day of church and dinner at my parent's home. (Especially since I did not have to prepare the meal). Monday was also pretty low key. I went for a run with a local friend (with whom I will be training for my first Marathon), which went great. Later that day hubby and I headed to the grocery store to fill out sadly empty refrigerator. We also cut down the tree in our front lawn that has been half dead for a couple of years. Having been unable to save it, we decided it was time to see it go. Later we meet my parents at Wendy's for a nice, easy dinner.

So that's my weekend..how was yours?

Can't think of a title...so...

This week has been a little crazy.

Monday I ran my first race of the year, the Buffalo Point Elementary 5K in 26:04. That is actually a PR for me, which made me quite happy, considering my training has been so incredibly patchy this year.

Tuesday: Actually a pretty quiet night. We had NO baseball games scheduled and the only thing on my schedule was a soccer meeting (oh yeah, I have taken over the position of Regional Coach Administrator for our local AYSO region, where my boys play and hubby and I have both coached..this is, of course a volunteer position...so no pay, but actually pretty fun-when not crazy and a bit stressful.

Wednesday: Two baseball games (I only made it to one, hubby got to head to the other game), a dance meeting and a cancelled hill session (I was heading to some hills with a friend, but she had to postpone).

Thursday: One Baseball Game. Liam's first actual game of the season (due to crazy weather, each of his previously scheduled games were cancelled) and his first game pitching. He pitched one inning (they can't only pitch so many pitches in a game before they are forced to sit out several days so kids usually only pitch one inning). He was so awesome. I was very impressed and nervous watching him. In these games a lot depends on the pitcher (as this is the first year they have kids actually pitching their games). It was great to see him do so well. After baseball I headed with a friend to try some hill training, as Ragnar is getting super close. Well I did alright running uphill (it hurt, of course, but nothing more than expected) but the downhill REALLY aggravated my right knee (I have been battling tendonitis in this knee, and while it has been great lately, obviously it is not completely healed). I got a whole 1.1 miles in before I had to quit. I have decided that I am better off just skipping hills and keeping to flat for now. I may not be prepared for the hills in Ragnar, but I also won't start the race injured.

Friday: A nice slow day. The kids were on early out schedule and hubby took the older two boys to a church fathers and sons campout. So my daughter, my younger two boys and I joined my mom for a yummy dinner at Holy Smoke BBQ and came home to watch Princess Diaries up on my bed. The little guys fell asleep before the movie was half over, but we had fun!

Tomorrow morning, I plan to run 8 or 9 (depends on how I feel) to finish the week off on a good note running wise.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I have been bad about taking photos lately! I will try to be better ;)

A little comic relief with #4

Kids truly say the funniest things sometimes. Here is a conversation I had this evening with #4 (who is three years old and completely precocious) while we were sitting on a chair together:

#4: "Mom, where'd you buy your hair at?"

Me: "Nowhere, it just grew on my head."

#4:"I bought mine at Wal Mart."

Little does he know that women have been trying to buy that color hair at Wal Mart for years! (Do you think we might do a bit too much of our shopping at Wal Mart?)

Changing things up a bit..

I decided to give the blog a bit of a face lift...the pics of the kids on top were getting pretty old and I was tired of the boring color scheme...what do you think of the new look?

Why, Oh Why, Oh Why...

...do I do this to myself?

What I really wanted was a Sonic Cranberry Limeade, but our local Sonic closed down a couple months ago. There is a Sonic in a neighboring town, but I needed to pick up a few things at Wally World (or as they like to say here in Utah, THE Wal Mart) and there is a Carls Jr in the same parking lot. I decided to hit Carls Jr instead.

Back in October I recieved a card that is good for a free Six Dollar Burger once a week for an entire year, so trips to Carls Jr are fairly frequent for us. You can't beat a giant, free burger. And to top it off they have some of the best fries around right now. Yummy. So, since I am running out, and I want a giant soda...I drive through Carls Jr and pick up one of these for Hubby:

Some of these to share:

And a LARGE one of these for me:

And here in lies the problem...I got that giant Dr Pepper at about 10PM last night...The caffiene kicked in and I was unable to fall asleep until around 3AM...It was completely my fault, but I just LOVE a good Dr Pepper...I can't seem to resist those 23 flavors....they just call my name, all hours of the day, and I often heed that siren call. And pay the price...my kids just don't understand that I was up all night because I drank a large Dr Pepper...they are up and at em and ready to go!

Summer update..

This summer has been a full one so far.

My parents joined us here in UT in early June, moving into a home about five minutes from our house. The children have enjoyed many visits to grandma's house. Their favorite is getting a chance to spend the night all by themselves. They are thoroughly spoiled and can't wait until it is their turn again. We have also resumed occasional Sunday dinners and other get-to-gethers that we missed while we lived here without family.

Joelle had her first Dance recital at the end of June and she looked so beautiful and grown up, I couldn't believe it! The photos are still on my camera for some reason, so when they are finally uploaded, I will post photos of my beautiful, grown up daughter. She is excited for another year of dance to start in the fall (I think she is just as happy that this means she does not have to continue playing soccer again this coming season).

The children enjoyed the Heritage Days parade again this year, especially Joelle, who was able to ride on a float from her Dance Studio. She got to throw salt water taffy to the people lining the street. She can't wait to do it again next year. The boys enjoyed catching candy and other fun stuff as they were thrown. I was the lucky one who got to walk down with the float to get Joelle at the end of the parade route. The evening ended with a fun fireworks show at the park, where we enjoyed visiting with friends and getting bit by mosquitoes.

When Joelle was in preschool in Sacramento (many years ago) I met a wonderful friend, Stephanie. We discovered a common love for books, especially young readers. We were both part of a fun music program for young children that I brought Liam to weekly. We developed a close friendship over the course of the year. At the end of the preschool year, Stephanie and her family moved away. I was so sad to lose such a great friend. Luckily, thanks to email and IM, we have stayed in touch over the years. Her family lives here in UT, so about once a year or so we have been able to meet up for a play date while she and her children were in town. This year we were lucky enough to have her whole family spend two days with us. Her three children are the same ages as my oldest three children, so they all had so much fun playing together! Thanks for a fun visit Steph, and come back anytime!!

This summer seems so full of great days! Early this month my sister went through the temple for the first time. For those of you who are not members of the LDS church, the temple is a sacred place where we go to worship God and make covenants with him. I was able to escort my sister as she had this new experience and it brought back many wonderful feelings from my first experience with the temple. Thanks sis for letting me be a part of your day!

Our next adventure is a trip to Sac for two family reunions...wish me luck camping with five kids!

Should I apologize again....

So, I haven't posted in ages. The longer I went before posting the more exciting I felt my next post should be...so I kept waiting for something huge to happen! Well, nothing huge has happened lately (well my parents have arrived safely here in Utah and are anxiously awaiting the day they can move into their new home) so I kept waiting. Yesterday I took my children to play with some of their friends and when I was picking them up my friend commented that I hadn't updated my blog in ages...so here I am with an unexciting update =)

The kids are now out of school, and I am loving it. NO more homework; NO more nagging them to get up and get ready for school; NO more braving the madness of drop off and pick up times at the school. Aaaah...summer time. The kids spend hours outside playing with the neighbors. This leaves me much more time for the things I need to get done. I am sure that by the end of the summer I will be anxious for them to return to school, but for now I am going to enjoy the freedom that comes with summertime.

Both Max and Liam have played baseball this year. Both are really enjoying this season. Liam has moved up to machine pitch and is on the Padres. Max started this year and is in T-ball on the Reds. Watching Max play is always entertaining...he seems to enjoy the downtime as much as the action. When he is not required to catch the ball or hit he is usually seen rolling around in the grass or goofing off in some other manner. Having said that, he has really improved and usually hits the ball off of a pitch as opposed to needing the Tee. Liam has done very well this year also and continues to amaze me with his athletic skills.

Before school ended, the children's school hosted their first annual 5K/Mile fun run. Joelle ran the mile and Liam, Jared and I ran the 5K race. I was so proud of both of the kids for how well they ran their races! I was not able to watch Joelle in the mile as it started just before the 5K, but my sister came to watch the younger kids and was able to watch Joelle during her race. Joelle took 2nd place in the 3rd/4th grade Girls division (and this is the girl who kept saying over and over again that she could NOT do it). Liam took 1st place in the 1st 2nd grade boys 5K. He ran it in just over 30 minutes! It was a hot evening and I am so proud of how well both of them ran. Neither race was easy in the heat, but they stuck with it and did so well. Here are some photos from race day:

Upcoming events include:
-Helping my parents move into their new home this weekend
-Jared and I falling over in the Wasatch Back next weekend =)
-Attempting to potty train Dane so he can go to Kiddie Kollege in the fall
-Watching Joelle in her first dance recital (her costume is sooo cute)
-Heading out to California for two family reunions
-Two of my friends will be coming to visit in July
-Getting back to scrapbooking. I haven't scrapbooked in over a month and I am truly missing the creative outlet it gives me. I am hoping to get going on that again soon (and don't worry, I will share when I create anything).
-Be a better blogger =)

Bad Mommy days

You know you all have them too, and today is one of those for me. I look out my window at the gray skies and rain and hope to get a call that my children's soccer games are cancelled. Our 9AM game was already cancelled, but no word yet regarding our 11 and 12 o'clock games. I know it is purely selfish, I just don't want to sit in the rain. I want to sit here in my cozy house, with my fireplace blazing and a good book; a steamy cup of cocoa would top things of nicely. Soccer games...not really what I imagine when I think of rainy days. Now a sunny, bright day, without a cloud in the sky... that is what I imagine when I think soccer game. So I will sit here, waiting for the phone to ring...willing it to ring. And if it doesn't...I will throw on a raincoat, get everyone bundled up and head out for some really soggy soccer games.

So..I kinda disappeared again!

So yeah, I haven't posted in a while. I really was waiting to load some photos here to my computer so I could post them here on the blog and just took way too long getting that done! Crazy, I know!

So, not really a ton going on around here. We are just busy with the normal, everyday activities. Joelle is loving Dance, Piano and Activity Days (church activities she attends every other week). Liam and Max will start baseball and T-ball in May, and soccer is starting up again in a week or so! Needless to say we will be busy, but that is good right?

I am trying to get rolling on my training for the Wasatch Back relay. We have been much more consistent the past few weeks, which is a good thing.  My legs are telling me they don't really agree with that assessment, but heck, what do they know? =)

My sister arrives early next week to stay with us while searching out apartments to rent, and will stay until she finds one and moves! So starting next week I get to have my baby sister here in Utah, permanently! Yipee! My parents should be joining us as well, later in the year (depends on when their house sells, and some other details!).  It will be so nice to have then nearby again.

The first graders had to do an Animal project, and the culminating event was a First Grade Zoo. Each child made a poster, that they could wear in some manner, about an animal of their choice. (Liam chose the Lion) At the First Grade Zoo, the children wore their posters and dressed as their animal for a parade through the first grade area of the school. All parents were encouraged to attend, and even invited to join our children for lunch in the cafeteria before the parade. It was fun to sit in the lunch room, eat my food off of a tray (I have to say their school lunches are 20 times better than what we were served when I was in school!), and enjoy lunch with this cutie! The scrapbooker in me insisted I get a shot of Liam and his lunch!

I wasn't able to get a good photo of Liam with his poster (the lighting in the school was so low, and Liam can't sit still for anything..LOL). But I got this goofy one of him close up!

Thanks to Mom Select I was able to take both Max and Dane to see Thomas and Friends Live on Stage last week. Look for a review this weekend, once I get my photos edited a bit! The boys had such a great time!

And last but not least, after two years of telling each other that we would go see a taping of Good Things Utah, my neighbor and I were houseguests (the people you hear clapping in the background...LOL)! It was really fun and we have decided that this summer we will take our girls to a taping!

Not much going on this week

Not much to report from this past week. Lots of running around and normal everyday errands, but not much in the way of excitement. 

On a positive note, I didn't forget to get the kids to any of their activities this week =) (This has been a problem for me lately. It seems that my kids have all sorts of new activities, and I like to forget about them). 

Everyone is finally completely healthy again, which is really nice after a couple weeks of sickness. Now I no longer have an excuse for not getting out the door and running. So tomorrow I am determined to start fresh and get into training mode. Jared and I have signed up with 10 other people from church to run in the Wasatch Back, which is a relay that goes from Logan to Park City. We are both very excited and nervous about this adventure! 

On the scrapbooking front, I was able to complete several layouts tonight, most of which were for challenges being hosted over at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking. I plan to take photos tomorrow and share right here on the blog (as well as the great, inspiring gallery over at SAS).

Another exciting development: I finally, after 3 years, bought a co-ordinating bedding set for our bed! Yep, we have been using non-matching, unexciting bedding for three years! When we moved into our current home, we finally had a bedroom big enough for a King sized bed, so we splurged and bought one (well the mattress, box spring, and basic bed frame, we still don't have a fancy bed)! But, since we hadn't determined a color scheme for our bedroom, we held off on buying much in the way of bedding, besides a basic sheet set and basic, solid colored comforter. Fast forward to this week: I am roaming the aisles at Wal Mart and on an end cap I see a bedding set that includes sheets, pillow cases, shams, a bed skirt, 4 decorative pillows and the comforter, all for 89.95 (well actually is it supposed to be 99.95, but they had it under a sign for 89.95 so they gave me that price). The bargain hunter in me realizes that this is an excellent deal.  Heck, sheets will run you around $50 most of the time for a King sized bed. As the colors were some of my favorite (brown and tealish blue) and it wasn't a floral pattern (Jared's stipulation..no girly bedding for him!); the price was excellent; and I have been itching to buy new bedding...I took the plunge! 

No I did not fall off a cliff...

We have had a lot of colds going around our house and I just haven't been keeping up with the blogging! I am resolved to be better and blog AT LEAST once  a week going forward, so check back soon!

Here are the highlights of what has been going on in our house lately:

This beautiful girl turned 9! (Which means I have been a mom for Nine years now...I can't believe it!) and started Dance Lessons (she also started Piano back in January)

This cutie started walking, FINALLY!
(in this picture he is really enjoying the frosting that I left from my slice of cake...I am not a big frosting girl and Lucas was thrilled to help me finish)

My sister came to visit for an interview with a local hospital, and should be joining us in Utah in May!!! (I am soooo excited!)

Other than that, it has been lots of colds, Jared had an ear infection, Liam is getting over Strep (knock on wood that nobody else came down with it!) and just general business a usual in our house. 

MIA

Life threw us a bit of a curve two weeks ago, resulting in my going MIA from the blogging world for a bit. My Mother-in-Law, who has been suffering from Alzheimers disease for several years, passed away on January 17th. The next morning we packed our kids in the car and drove to California in order to be with family.

Diane Jensen was a truly wonderful woman. She raised seven children and was grandmother to 34 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren. What a wonderful posterity. .She influenced so many lives through the drama productions and dance festivals that she headed over the years. A truly wonderful woman. Her loss will be felt by so many. I was blessed with a Mother-in-Law who treated me as a member of the family. Everytime we left her home she gave me a hug and told me that she loved me

a little funny from our trip

I wanted to add a photo to this post, but our camera battery was dead, and my sister took the pictures for us (thank goodness she had her new camera all charged and ready to go!). She uploaded them to snapfish for me, but I can't seem to copy the photo so I will have to wait to show these photos until I can get my hands on the files for them (probably at Christmas when we comes to visit! YEAH!)

So, while we were in Cali, we had a little party for Liam to celebrate his 7th birthday. We just had my sister, my parents and Jared's sister and her 5 children (who are my children's best friends! how perfect is that?). We had a great time visiting, eating Little Ceasars pizza and Crazy Bread, decorating christmas cookies, eating cupcakes with green frosting, and watching Liam open his gifts. While Liam was unwrapping one of his larger gifts, Joelle, in an attempt to hurry the process (or so I assume) yelled out, "Rip it like a MAN!" I swear we all cracked up! Where she came up with that I will never know, but it was too cute and funny!

I know...you are all on the floor, passed out from the shock that I actually posted twice today..You can get up off the floor now, I am done for the night! Maybe I will even see you again tomorrow! (and for all of you whose blogs I usually follow, I am slowly getting through the 700 or so posts that my google reader showed as unread this evening when I signed in after AGES of neglect...yeah, so I will get to you, I haven't forgotten about you!)

Wow, it has been ages!

Sorry for the extreme blog neglect! It has been a crazy few weeks!

We spent the week after THanksgiving visiting family in California. It was fun to see everyone again! We even were able to celebrate Liam's birthday (which is actually this Thursday) with a few family members! I will post pictures of the fun later!

Now we are just back to the normal routine, which with 5 kids is anything but routine! Yesterday Max had to have some dental work done, and since he is so young, he had to be sedated (not fully out, just given a pretty heavy sedative). A kid on a sedative is a pretty funny thing to watch. WHen he was done, he was numb all over and pretty loopy. I tried really hard not to laugh, but I just had to a couple times!

I haven't really found anytime to create the past few weeks, but I am hoping to change that as I have a few Christmas gifts that I need to make. I better get my rear in gear and work on those, as I have only 2 weeks from Thursday (did I just scare you all?)!! When I get to creating I will post and share (but not my CHristmas gifts, cause ya know, those are surprises!)

I'll be back later with photos of our trip, just need to dump some from the memory card!

Feelin the love!

My sweet friend Vicki gave me this blog award!!

Now it is my turn to pass it on!

I award:

Suzanne-such a sweetie and an amazing scrapper! And that little boy of hers is adorable!!

Andrea- Andrea is one amazingly talented lady. She has been so strong as she has endured some major trials lately. I truly admire her. What an awesome lady.

Mess(ok...it really is Melissa, but she will always be Mess to me!)-Now we go way back...art class in 8th grade! A truly great friend over the years. I am so glad that we have been able to keep in touch!

Kathy-such a sweet neighbor! One of the first people to greet us after we moved into our house. She came to the hospital when I was on bed rest (and bored to tears!) just to say hi and bring me a Jamba Juice! What a sweetie.

Melinda-Another awesome neighbor (and Kathy's SIL). You should hear the band that she is a part of! They are amazing! We spent many Sundays chatting in the Mother's Lounge at church with our little guys.

Stacy-I can't leave out my sister! She is an awesome Nurse working at Shriners hospital. So many memories together I can't even begin to list them! Love ya Sis!

Christy-My sweet cousin who shares my name! This truly has created a bond between us that, even if we don't see each other for years at a time, we are instantly close again! What an amazing woman and mother. Thanks for teaching me how to make Jam!

Make sure to collect your blog award and place it in your blog!!!
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated

Another year came and went...

and I was yet again not on the list of chosen designers of Creative Express...I have to say that I was really disappointed. I really felt like I put together a really good submission (well the best that I can do) and that I had a good chance. But, not everyone can be on the team, and I guess that I was not what they were looking for. Congrats to all of the ladies who made the team, and bug Hugs to those like me who did not! I may take some time off from DT submissions for a while, while I usually create my best work when working on them, I have a really hard time not taking the rejection personally. Thanks for listening to my complaining =} My next post will be more upbeat, I promise!