I’m still here – just busy and needed to let something slide to the bottom of the list – and for right now its been my blog. I am posting a few things on my Facebook page – if you haven’t liked my page go do that – Stamping Together at Monika’s Place – be sure to select GET NOTIFICATIONS – and then you should see whenever I post.
Recently we took Ryan our youngest son to college – moved him all the way from Georgia to Indiana! And he has never been away from home for very long. He did do a spring break trip with the school band this year and was gone for a week. But now we left him 10 hours away with a bunch of strangers. I think by now he has a whole pile of new friends though. He has been super busy. Here are a few pictures.
So proud of him! I’ll be back – hopefully soon with some more stamping projects for you.
It’s here. Graduation Day for Ryan! The ceremony is tonight at 8:00 pm. We are ready.
My baby is graduating. The youngest is graduating. Somehow about 8 years ago I knew this day would come. For some reason about 8 years ago was when I decided to join Stampin’ Up! as a demonstrator. I’ve loved it for 8 years but maybe the reason for doing it was that this day was coming. And now it is here. My boys have bigger and better things ahead of them and I am here. They are moving on and moving away and becoming amazing young men. I’m so proud of them! I can’t imagine being here today and not having Stampin’ Up! in my life right now. Perhaps it wasn’t the reason I joined to begin with but I’m so glad I did cause now that this day is here I need this more than ever. By August Ryan will go to college at Purdue in Indiana – so far away. And Kyle already moved to San Francisco in February. I told Tyler he needed to stay a little longer – all three can’t move away in the same year. I’m so excited for their opportunities and can’t wait to see where their lives lead. For now I’ll be here with my Stampin’ Up! business.
Congratulations to all the 2014 graduates and their parents! We did it!
I wanted to update you on the baby bluebirds. They hatched!
This picture is from Thursday – March 27th.
Mom was keeping them warm most of the day and dad was flying around peeking in the house. It reminded me of what an expectant father would be doing. Pacing around outside and then looking in – “are they here yet?” I watched for them both to leave so I could sneak in and snap a quick picture.
And look at the change in just one day – their little necks are now lifting those heads and they are opening those big beaks!
Theses two pictures are from today Friday March 28th. The babies will change a lot and I’m to keep taking pictures of them for the next few days until I leave to go on a scrapbook crop for a long weekend. I’ll be posting daily on Facebook but probably won’t post these pictures every day to my blog. So if you aren’t already you may want to LIKE my Facebook Business page – Stamping Together at Monika’s Place. According to Facebook my next milestone is to get 500 likes – are you one of them already? If not hop on over and get yourself on their. I do post stuff to Facebook that doesn’t get posted on my blog.
On another note today is the first day of Ryan’s spring break. Well his really started VERY EARLY this morning! At 4AM! He is going with the high school band to Hawaii! and I dropped him off at the school at 4 AM for a LIMO ride to the airport! How jealous am I!! He gets to go to Hawaii before me and ride in a limo before me. How did that happen?
When we first planned this trip I assumed the whole group was leaving from the school. Boy was I surprised when they told us we had to meet them at the airport at 5 AM on Friday morning – yikes! So when another mom volunteered to set up a limo service to take some of the kids – I was the first one to say “I’m in!. So it turned out 6 of them went in style arriving at the airport in a LIMO – now that is one way to start spring break your senior year of high school. They are now on a plane flying to Hawaii – about another hour or so and they should be landing.
Yes Tuesday January 28, 2014 needs to be forever called SNOWJAM here in the metro Atlanta area. I’m not sure yet what they are naming this storm or weather event but we definitely had a snow-jam yesterday and it is continuing today. Where we live the weather predictions were for a “trace” of snow occurring in the afternoon with greater amounts of snow occurring south of Atlanta. I kept hearing 1pm was when we would start seeing snow flurries. But that is not what happened here!
Greg went to work, Ryan went to school and Tyler was planning to head to school. I get made fun of because I keep close tabs on the weather situations that might arise – normally its tornadoes and such not snow most of the time. In the morning I got an email that school would be closing 2 hours early – for Ryan that would be around 1 – that sounded good because so far our weather was fine. Greg says I make stories too long so let’s just say the weather quickly turned for worse. Ryan’s principal decided the driving students could leave at 11:45 and the buses would go as soon after. I called Greg and told him that he needed to start coming home – he left about noon – and with no traffic it would be a 30-40 min drive. Tyler’s class was cancelled and then the campus closed at 1 – so he actually never left. I waited patiently for Ryan to get home – he finally arrived – with a friend (although I didn’t realize he had a friend for the first 30 minutes they were home – oops). Kyle was home. Now for Greg to get home – he said he left and would be home in about an hour – yeah right! I spent the remainder of the day on the computer checking traffic, watching the news, checking FB, and on the phone with Greg – trying to tell him which routes were blocked and how to best get home. Greg finally arrived home at 6:30 pm! A new record for him. But he was one of the lucky ones – he filled up with gas on Monday, his car handles the ice and roads so he was able to go around some others that were stuck. That was the problem – cars got stuck, cars running out of gas, cars blocking the roads keeping others from getting through and trucks clogging the interstates as they slid and jack-knifed blocking all the lanes. It was a mess a HUGE traffic jam all over the entire area – some people are now getting home more than 24 hours later – and some interstates are still clogged. There were kids stuck at school or on school buses some overnight! People sleeping in cars, stores, fire stations, and with strangers. Just the snow wouldn’t have been so bad, but the cars were melting it and then it was freezing into ice. I guess I’m making this long – Greg is right – I’m sure you heard it on the news.
Our trace of predicted snow turned into 3 inches. And most of it came down quickly by 12:30 pm the roads were jammed and no one could move. I was grateful when my family was home. Ryan’s friend spent the night and I sent out a request on FB for someone to get him home – and a friend of a friend came to help. I’m sure his mom is glad he is back at home too. School cancelled for today (my card classes cancelled too) – school cancelled for Thursday. We’ll see about Friday – I think tomorrow we will be over the freezing mark and with a day of sun it will greatly help get us dry. But tonight everything the sun melted is going to freeze back to ice.
Here are a couple of videos near us – this is what happens when you hit a fire hydrant –
and then you get this stranding everyone at school
The car –
I’ll add another post with all the Stampin’ Up! news….
This year was the first time that we hosted Thanksgiving at our house and my first time to cook a turkey! And I’m happy to report that it was all a success and the turkey came out great. There were 15 of us and we all ate really well. The boys took an afternoon trip to the movies and a large number of the adults (not me) took an afternoon nap. I thought they were watching the football game. I wanted to share some pictures including some of my decorations and Thanksgiving treats.
I made Thanksgiving Blessing Mix and bagged it up for all the kids. Well mostly they aren’t kids any more but that’s what I call them anyway.
I used the Gusseted Cello bags – they had them on the Stampin’ Up! Clearance Rack – filled them with the mix.
Tied the bags shut with some of the wide striped ribbon in Chocolate Chip – it is retired now but we have lots of other ribbon you could use. The Burlap ribbon would have been perfect too – it’s in the Holiday catalog right now!
The tag is from the Tags 4 You stamp set – I stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on Very Vanilla card stock and punched out with the Label Bracket Punch (you can get these as a bundle). I sponged some Tangerine Tango and Summer Starfruit ink over the image to give it some fall color. And attached them to the ribbon with a small safety pin. We have some in the Vintage Trinkets embellishments.
I set two tables and used the Thankful Tablescape kit to make the place settings and the candle wraps in the Dining room. Here are a few more pictures for you…
This is my first turkey that I have ever cooked. I bought a 20 pound turkey and did some research on the internet on how to cook it. I decided to put in in a brine and then roasted it – first in a really hot oven to seal the skin and then turned the oven down and used the probe thermometer that came with my oven (first time to do that too). It was all done at just the time I had planned – which I wasn’t sure that was going to happen but it did.
I tried a new salad recipe and a new green bean recipe (instead of the traditional green bean casserole). Both were a big hit so I need to add those to my recipe box.
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I was very grateful to have our families with us – parents, siblings, nieces & nephews – only a few people were missing.
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend!
Don’t forget the online Holiday Sale is still going on – through Dec. 2nd. Get savings up to 50% on lots of your Stampin’ Up! favorites. Online Holiday Sale – 11/20 – 12/2 – Get ready for some holiday shopping! This year’s online holiday sale (formerly known as Online Extravaganza) will be November 20-December 2. NEW ADDITION – more 24 hour specials will be added on Cyber Monday – Dec. 2nd – so be sure to check my online store that day to see what they are! See the Full List of Sale Items here – Holiday_Sale_Flyer_US.
Do you need a quick and easy little fall treat for school or your Thanksgiving celebration next week? Well I have one for you.
I made these for all the girls at the fall Stamp, Scrap & Create retreat. A little surprise for them during the weekend.
I bought a bag of wrapped mints – I used to buy York but they don’t package theirs this way anymore – darn – so instead I found some at the local drug store – some other brand wrapped in silver.
Die cut leaves from Sweater Weather Designer Paper using the Autumn Accents Bigz Die and the Big Shot machine
For the bottom I cut coordinating card stock with the same leaf
Use Mini glue dots to attach the leaf to either side of the mint
Tie a piece of jute twine around with a knot or ribbon. I used a left over piece of jute from the Build a Banner Kit.
Make up a bunch in no time!
And just a quick personal note. Today is Kyle’s 22nd birthday. Here is a picture of the two of us from last summer.
My little boy is all grown up! And he will be starting his first real full time job in 2014. I’m excited for him but will miss him since he will be on the other side of the US. He is moving to California. I guess I’ll be racking up some frequent flyer miles in the years to come.
Hi! I am a Stampin’ Up! independent demonstrator in Milton, Georgia. I love being creative and want to share it with you! On my blog I will share creative ideas using Stampin’ Up! products and you’ll also hear about my family and my dogs.
I look forward to helping you get your creative juices flowing!
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