EA SOCIAL KICKOFF

As some of you reading this know I am very involved with the EA at our church. For those of you wondering right now, what is the EA it is a group of women who have lost children due to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death. Through this ministry I have a made several lifelong friendships and hope to make more as I meet these ladies that join this ministry. I have said several times that this is one of the most special ministries to be a part of because God has chosen us to be a part of this group, it is not just a group you sign up for to help out, you are here because you have had a loss...there is a poem that compares this to a pair of shoes...and the poem talks about not liking the shoes I am wearing and I think I can say that the ladies in this group do not like the shoes we are wearing but that is what we have been given and that is the shoes we wear everyday...a lot of people do not want to talk about our shoes but this group of ladies will listen at any given moment.... I was matched with a wonderful person in October 2005 after we lost Kate. She opened the EA door to me...I often introduce my friend as my "angel friend" when I am introducing her because she was and still is an angel to me. Then, in December two other wonderful ladies did the "12Days of Christmas" for me. One of these ladies "J" and I had a telephone conversation and then met in January 2006 at church one morning....and hit it off immediatley...and I did not meet the other lady "D" until many months later and last year we had the opportunity to get to know each other much better...and I am so glad that God has placed her in my life as well. All three of these ladies were angels to me during our loss and still are..I treasure each of their friendships..and to think we would have never met had it not been for our losses...friendships God has chosen for each of us....even though they did not know me when we first lost Kate, because we all go to church together they knew about the loss....and they knew the pain and grief that we were experiencing. I could go on and on about what a great ministry I believe the EA is, but I will save that for another time... It is amazing sitting down with these women and knowing they are not thinking anything that you might say sounds "crazy".....so, back to the title...we decided to start having a social every other month for this group of women.....a girls night out....so last night we all met at a Paint Your Own Pottery Studio down on the square and had a wonderful time painting our pottery, just chatting and having a little celabration for all the babies that had a birthday in January, February or March. I am very curious to see what my coffee cup that I made turns out like....I love to scrapbook and stamp but have never said that I could paint....I MIGHT post a picture of the finished product when I get to pick it up next week...just according to how it looks! Here are a few pictures from our EA Girls Night Out last night.

"MY ANGEL FRIEND"


"WORKING ON OUR PROJECTS"


"FINISHING UP OUR PROJECTS"


"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL THE LITTLE ANGELS"

YOU ARRRR INVITED

Ok, I am not going to post cards everyday, but this is another cute birthday invitation for a little boys birthday.....you know we even altered this card once and turned the pirate into a little girl....and then had tinkerbell sitting on top of the sword....that of course was for a little girls birthday....this card is made using a StampinUp© stamp set.

Front Of Card


Inside Of Card

THE CREATIVE SIDE OF ME

Here is a card I made to put a giftcard in for a baby shower this past Sunday. The stamps used on the card are by StampinUp©. Ok, I hope that is how you show that Stampin Up has the copyright on the stamp...other techniques used on this card include sewing, sponging/inking, and paper tearing.

SADIE'S IS NOT FEELING WELL

Sadie kept her daddy up until somewhere between 2:30 & 3:00 Sunday night and kept me up until between 1:00 - 2:00. We took her to the vet yesterday and poor little puppy has an ear infection. Hopefully it will go away quickly with the medicine we are using on it!

PICTURES FROM SADIE'S ALL DAY PLAY DATE THIS PAST SATURDAY

Here are a few pictures of Sadie and her little furry friends when they were over on Saturday playing.



This is little Holly....she actually semi-posed for this picture!!



You can tell Noel is always ready for the camera! Say cheez....



Sadie and Noel....just chillin' and playing with their rawhide bones.

PICTURES OF SATURDAY'S HAIL STORM

I thought I would post a couple of pictures I took after the hail storm. These pictures were taken about 3 hours or so afterwards. Both of these are from the flower beds in the front yard.

ANOTHER DIGITAL PAGE

I did another digital page last night. I did this one in a different program....I am playing around with both programs to decide which one I like best. Anyway, just thought I would share the page with all of you. This is a picture of us from fall 2005.

(Photo was taken by Dave P.)

(Digital Kit - Harvest Spice by Shabby Princess)
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/

SADIE HAS AN ALL DAY PLAY DATE

Today, Holly & Noel stayed with Sadie.....they got here around 10:00 this morning and they will be here for a while longer tonight. It has been a very interesting day because they could not go outside. It rained last night and today. Actually we woke up around 6 something this morning to golf ball size hail falling outside. I wanted to take a picture of the hail coming down and then Keith reminded me that it was lightning outside...maybe not such a great idea. Anyway, I did take some pictures aroudn 9:30 this morning, so 3 hours or so after the hail storm.....Sadie went outside and was in "Ice Heaven"....she absolutley loves ice!! Anyway, Sadie, Holly and Noel have had fun playing in the house today. Each time one of them needed to go outside we would put the collar and leash on them and take them out front. Earlier this morning, I had let Sadie and Holly out and looked outside and they were having fun in a mud puddle....anyway, both of them were covered in mud, (Keith was not too happy) so both Sadie and Holly ended up getting a bath!

Sadie and Holly are playing together right now as I am typing this. It looks like they are playing tug of war with a rawhide bone.

1st Digital Scrapbook Page

Tonight, I did my very first digital scrapbook page. It is definitley different than the way I normally do it....but I don't think I will ever be able to give up paper scrapbooking completly! This was fun but I love all the paper and adhesive and embellishments.....anyway, my digi page is Sadie's Valentine's Page.

(That's Amore Kit - by Cinzia Loosemore)
http://www.digitalfreebies.com/freebies.php

WINTER IS FINALLY HERE....AT LEAST FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS!

I think winter is finally coming here! It is getting cold outside and I think the temp is going to drop to around 39 degrees tonight in the city...so it will probably be a little cooler out here. Tomorrow should be an exciting day at our house. We are keeping Noel and Holly, 2 of Sadie's playmates. I am sure they are going to all have a great time....it is supposed to rain here all day tomorrow so hopefully they will have fun playing in the house. Tomorrow is also my mother-in-laws birthday! Happy Birthday from all three of us! Hopefully I will have some pictures to post tomorrow of the 3 pups playing.

Valentines Day

Well, yesterday was Valentines Day so I thought I would share the cute picures of Sadie with her Valentines Scarf and the bone she got for Valentines. We actually went out to dinner on Valentine's night...something we do not normally do because of the crowds....so, by the time we checked out the 5th restaurant we were able to get right in....so our Valentine's dinner was mexican food and then I also recieved a beautiful dozen roses at work on Wednesday. Hope you all had a great Valentines Day! Would love to hear from you all.

(Double click on the arrow to play slideshow)

MEET OUR GODPUPPY

I posted earlier about Sadie's playmate that is another black lab....two of her other playmates are Noel and Holly. Noel is around 8 years old I think and Holly is 3 1/2 months old. Sadie plays hard with Noel....but we all think she gets on Noel's nerves sometimes to. Well, for Christmas, Noel got a sister, a little golden retriever named Holly. Holly stayed with us from December 21st and went to her new home around midnight on Christmas Eve. We are the offical godparents of Holly....I guess that makes her our godpuppy. She is almost big enough to get to play outside with Noel and Sadie when they come over..right now she gets to stay in with all of us and we get to play with her and spoil her....Sadie can't wait for her to be able to play with them outside....she had so much fun playing with Holly when she stayed with us for those four days...we had to watch them very closely because Holly was so small at the time. Here is a picture of me and Holly that was taken in the past few weeks. Isn't Holly just a little doll.
(This picture was taken by Dave P. - Holly belongs to Dave & Amy P.)

SADIE

I thought I would give you all an update on little Sadie. Well, first of all she is not so "little" any longer....she went to the vet a couple of weeks ago and she now weights 77 pounds...I believe that is all muscle! She is a very strong dog!! Sadie has a playmate that is a black lab also - his name is Elvis. Elvis comes over every other week on Bible Study night and plays with Sadie. Those to so wear each other out....after Sadie plays with Elvis she comes in and is normally ready to go to bed. Sadie and Elvis had a play date on Sunday, so Alexia (Elvis' mommy) and I got to scrapbook while they played. I will have to take a picture of the two of them playing next time he is here....for now, here is a recent picture of Sadie.

CHEESECAKE/VALENTINE SOCIAL

Well, our BFG (Bible Fellowship Group) that is what we call our Sunday School Class.....had a cheesecake competition this past weekend. Our teacher gave us his Cheesecake Recipe that we could use if we chose to and then alter it.....so I used his recipe along with a recipe I found on the internet and I made a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.....and GUESS WHO WON FIRST PLACE....yes, I did, can you believe it? I was just praying that it was cooked in the middle!!! So here is a picture of my cheesecake. (I can't take credit for the picture of my cheesecake....the picture was taken by Dave P.)

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PAST TIMES....SCRAPBOOKING

Last month, I did my first online scrapbook crop. I did several different layouts for different challenges and thought I would share them. I actually won best journaling on one of the layouts....I am pretty sure it is the one about Kate.

The D's Meet Sadie

This was a progressive challenge that I did for the online crop. The pictures were taken in the Fall of 2006 after we got little Sadie. This family was one of Sadie's first visitors.

REASONS I SCRAP

This was another challenge for the online crop that I participated in last month. The challenge on this one was to make a layout using REASONS I SCRAP. Here is the layout I made for this challenge. Click on the picture to read the journaling.

"OUR LIVES WERE CHANGED IN A TRICE"

This is the page that I really think I won best journaling on during the ISCRAP online scrapbooking crop. The challenge was to choose a word from a list of words provided (along with the link to dictionary.com). The word that I chose was "trice", which means "in an instant". Click on the picture to enlarge to read the journaling.