It's a Double Birthday Bash!

I've been so fortunate to work with some of the best designers in digi-land and I'm thrilled to be a new member of the Dream Big Designs team! I met Cheri back at Digiscrapapalooza 2012 and I love her designs which are perfect for my style of scrapbooking, and she has tons of kits that work great for little boys and for Disney.

This week we are celebrating her birthday and her design birthday! You came here from Kayla's blog, Keepscrappin' Designs. I've put together a fun portrait 4x6 birthday card using the kit Hawaii Honu. I've had this kit for awhile, and wanted to wish Cheri Hau`oli la Hanau - Happy Birthday in Hawaiian.

 

DOWNLOAD HERE

Your next stop is Kassie Scraps. If you get lost along the way head back to Dream Big Designs - and be sure to look around the new site!

Hmmm...Ready to try again?

WOW I haven't been over here in awhile. I just loved looking back over my posts from over a year ago. What changes we've had since then. I really should blog more, or do something to keep track of my memories but alas, life gets in the way. I have my photos, I have my scrapbook pages, and randomly I have this blog, my family blog, and random memos on my hard drive. I tried (am trying?) to get in the habit of using Oh Life to record a snippet of every day but it's been a few days since I've done that. So I will refrain from apologizing and just carry on.

So in my life since April 29th 2012 A LOT has changed. We did get moved out of Bob's and into our brand new custom built home in August 2012. They dug the big hole on May 22nd, so between that time our little family visited our home site nearly every day to see it getting built. We loved the whole process!

We also got older - Scott turned 40, I turned 36 and the doctors said either have a baby or be done. In July we finally got back to the RE, and decided we would just do three rounds of infertility treatments which would take us through the end of the year. I was sure there was no way it would work, and we did the first round of treatments in July 2012. I saw the first positive pregnancy test on July 25th at 11 dpo. Amazingly, our daughter was born just three weeks ago today! More on that later.

I still digiscrap, and hang out at Scrap Orchard most of the time. I also get to do some fun creative team work for four AWESOME scrapbook designers - Cheri of Dream Big Designs, SuzyQ Scraps, Tracie Stroud Designs and Melissa of Cluster Queen Creations. You'll be seeing some more of that soon.

We did go to Disney again, this time in November 2012 and got to be there during the holiday time frame. It was our first all Disney, only Disney trip and I can honestly say that it was my favorite visit so far. Seeing how different Connor is on each trip is so fascinating and he was truly entertaining on this visit. I still share my Disney memories over at MouseScrappers.

So if anyone reads this, enjoy a big wave hello from me! I hope I can keep on this for some time, and at least through April 22nd when I'll have a really cool digital scrapbooking freebie for you! Stay tuned.

49-Day Whirlwind

I have so much news to get through so I'll briefly hit the highlights. Decided to build a new home, listed our house, took a family vacation to Cincinnati, sold our house in just 20 days, left for Vegas for Digiscrapapalooza, had a mini-getaway with DH, DH changed job responsibilities, packed, moved to Grandpa Bob's and two storage units. :) Phew!

Before Bob passed we decided to build a new home, back in January. We signed an agreement on a lot, but hadn't moved on picking house stuff like cabinets, carpet and door handles yet. The second stroke happened and it took us until after Bob passed to get our current home listed. In the meantime, we learned Bob had left his home to us. So, what seemed so overwhelming fell into place and someone fell in love with our current starter home and bought it (the first couple who even came through the house!) and we had a place to live while our new one was being built. It's been a wonderful mix of grief, elation, bewilderment and joy.

We're settled into Bob's "mid-century modern bungalow" which means it's small and old. The baby loves it, the dog loves it, the cats love it, and I'm becoming more okay with it. The hubs loves that it's free and we have no house payment for a few months! Here's a LO that I did, redid and redid about our new home. This was journaled just two days after we sold our house:

CREDITS: My Girl by Laura Banasiak, Template by Cluster Queen Creations, Fuss Free Fancy Borders by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs. Font is 28 days later. {ScrapOrchard Gallery link}

Stick with me, I'm working on some fun posts! In the coming month I'll have a few recaps of Digiscrapapalooza including some software tips that have changed my scrapping life, details on the changes at Mousescrappers (go check them out!), fave layouts from April, review of SuzyQ Scraps new e-book Terrific Title Tricks and some thoughts on gallery comments and leaving love.

So, tell me about your last 49 days? Whirlwind, Tilt-A-Whirl or Calm, Cool, Collected?

Slowly but Surely

I'm starting to come out of that haze, you know the one. The 'What the heck happened over the last four months of my life?' feeling when you're a caretaker. I guess I should be grateful it was ONLY four months, but with a little one who grows by leaps and bounds daily, four months seems like an eternity.

I'm glad to be part of SuzyQ Scraps Project Love, Me 2012. It's been very interesting how one of the prompts speaks to me each time she releases the new details of each month. For March it's believe, and I put this together:

CREDITS: Sunshine by SuzyQ Scraps, Template by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs, Fuss Free: Tell-A-Tale

I'm surprised how I've been led on this journey, I miss Bob and I miss helping him. I still wish I could have done more, but I will make peace with that soon.

Spring is almost here in Indiana, and I'm anxious to get out and about and feel that sunshine for myself. I'm sure that will be the trick to snapping me back into reality.

That or the upcoming, most epic Vegas trip ever!!! And a little mini-vaca with the Hubs. What are you looking forward to? Are you down in the dumps waiting for better weather?

Someday was Tuesday

My Facebook status from Tuesday February 21st, 2012:

"That day is finally here, the call came that Grandpa Bob made his final journey home this morning. Scott and I are grateful for the time we got with him, and that his suffering is no more. The last thing he said to me was 'Thanks, Babe!' and I hope he knows how thankful we all were to have known him."


Ironic how I just posted on Monday, thinking the whirlwind was over and that Grandpa was 'settled' for a while. No doubt God has a sense of humor, since now Bob is at such peace. It happened so fast (again I acknowledge the irony of that statement given his illness), and just like that he was gone. With one phone call to us, that part of our journey was over.

I'm sad. Not upset, not angry, not confused, just plain sad. I'm sad that his last days were in a nursing home, not because they didn't take good care of him. It was a great place, he was very well taken care of. I'm sad because there wasn't a better way to help him. The comments I could make about Medicare and Medicaid and http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthe hoops you have to jump through just to get the RIGHT care - let's just say they are best kept to myself right now. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I met some great people along the way. Amy at the 4th Frog kept me hopeful with her forwards about Aging Care. Lorraine at Horizon Hospice - who we never got to use - talked me off the ledge and told me more about the health care system than any doctor or nurse did over the last four months. The ladies at the Cancer Center in Avon, who are the most caring and loving group of people you could ever wish to be a part of your grandpa's life. The nurses at Hendricks Regional Health, the doctors at IU West Hospital, and the doctors/staff at Westview Hospital did the right things at the right time to help us along our way.

Services are today, we're heading out in a few hours. I'm most proud of the flowers we picked out for him, I think he'd really like him. He was very generous man - sending Scott and I to Hawaii for a wedding gift so his flowers are built around a tropical theme. We're taking Connor - it's hard to explain it all to a two and a half year old.

God Bless you Bob - three bells for you dear sailor.

Scraplift Challenge #54 now open

I just posted the details of Scraplift Challenge #54 over at Mousescrappers, I'd love to have you play along! I've put together this mini kit for anyone who participates between now and March 4th.


I'm finishing up some bonus elements to give away here on the blog, as I've been practicing so I can participate in the first ever Design Challenge at Mousescrappers. Here's the swatch we've been given to work with:


So, what do you think? Any elements or kit items you think I should do? I'd love to hear your suggestions - feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email to meejay33 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Slacker posting apology

We all have one of these right? That first post that you write when you haven't updated in a loooonnngggggg while, and you keep putting it off because you don't want to admit defeat? *Sigh*

The best way to overcome that fear is jump in and start writing again. It's been a long road between that Disney trip and today. Yes, the trip was AWESOME, but just two days before we came home things starting to go awry with Grandpa Bob. You see, we take care of the hub's Grandpa, we're his only family. Shortly after we got home, the strokes happened. Then it was a whirlwind of hospitals, specialists, picking a nursing home, moving units in the home, more hospitals, more strokes and oh yeah, the holidays and a little event I've been working on for two years, the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl. Where we are with Grandpa Bob today:


Credits: Connected through Caregiving, Ties that Bind Add-On: Father & Son by SuzyQ Scraps and Template by Little Green Frog Designs (now at Scrap Orchard!)

This layout is part of a program I'm participating in this year - Project Love, Me by SuzyQ Scraps. I'm still loving being a part of her CT, and I've got to play with some awesome products over the last six months.

Things are picking up at Mousescrappers - I will be hosting a scraplift challenge starting tomorrow! They've also started a design challenge that I'm going to participate in, and it's a great way to build your Disney-inspired stash and support the site as well.

So welcome back if you've been around here before, and if not, welcome to my scrapbook journey! I'd love to have you follow along. I'll be back tomorrow (post is already done!) with details on the scraplift challenge, hope to see you around!