20 years BAby!!!
Yep I've been in love with this man for 20+years.
He's so amazing and he's my best friend!

focusing on capturing the details of my ordinary life! Great idea!Right!

Yesterday6/23/2010, we came home and were just getting ready to sit down and relax when a storm rolled in. I guess it wasn't a tornado but winds were so bad that we ended up in basement, lost power for over 8 hours. There were shingles torn off, our patio was hit pretty hard, someones gutters ended up in our yard, potted plants blown everywhere pots broken to pieces, our poor grill blown all over, and our one strong tree had branches ripped right off.In the front our storm door was blown open and practically ripped off the hinges.Once the rain and wind calmed down Mike had to remove it because it was bent so bad it wouldn't close.Somewhere around 2:00 am power came back on,only to hear a crash in our garage. I was totally freaked out. Mike thought maybe an animal had gotten in WHAT! You know I was terrified. Well, it wasn't an animal but for some reason the bins I had stacked over 4 days ago had fallen in on themselves from the weight being wrongly distributed. I'm still not sure what the hell happened.We cleaned up the mess and tried to go back to bed. Needless to say Mike thought it was funny! So back to bed for two hours before getting up and make Mike oatmeal for breakfast at 5:30 am. Oh, today 71 degrees and beautiful!!!!!

OKAY! My Paijie went away for a weekend and came back with this! Even though I told her NO MORE TATTOOS!!!!!! I'm really touched. You see I have the same tattoo on my left leg and she now has the same. This was my first tat. It stands for being down with swirl. a saying I love. It stands for you support interracial, biracial, multicultural families. Swirling it up! I had no idea she was getting my tattoo, I think her's is even cuter than mine. How cool is that!
"Down with the swirl"
My new tattoo on my left calf I got, in honor of my crazy family. :)

justified

I will be so stressed. I have to keep busy when I'M STRESSED. My 16 year old daughter is leaving for Russia this Sat. It's a great opportunity for her but I'm so worried. You all know this is so difficult for me. I'm really trying to be positive but truly my stomach is doing flips. My baby......

Russia

Just 5 more days and Cai will be Leaving to Russia.....

Rejoice

rejoice [rɪˈdʒɔɪs]
vb
1. (when tr, takes a clause as object or an infinitive; when intr, often foll by in) to feel or express great joy or happiness
2. (tr) Archaic to cause to feel joy
[from Old French resjoir, from re- + joir to be glad, from Latin gaudēre to rejoice]
rejoicer n
rejoicing n
Rejoice is my word for 2010. I want to feel joy. Joy in my life, joy in my family, joy in sharing with the people I love. Rejoice in my peace of mind. Rejoice in good fortune and blessings.

update on my Paijey

Paije is doing so GREAT! Just finished her first semester of college. Yesterday Paije went and spoke to the students at Regency Beauty Institute. I think it was so cool for them to ask her to come back as a Alum and say a few words about her experience there. She being the youngest to GRADUATE high school and get her COSMETOLOGY licence and went right to working in a SALON and going to COLLEGE all at 19. too cool!

all good

Cai made it through her surgery Woo Hoo! I was quite pleased when we were at Cai's Post Op visit. When her Dr. noticed she was healing well and asked what was the contributing factor to her doing so well. Cai told him "my Mom". She told him how mom was right there comforting her and following his instructions to the letter. Wow! How cool is it my daughter at 16 showed appreciation for me for just being her mom. Love IT!!!!

Tonsillectomy

Today Cai had surgery. A Tonsillectomy. She's a real trooper. She did great except for spooking the doc when answering did she have any drugs alcohol or cigarettes, She answered " not today lol" , you should have seen the look he gave (classic). She only screamed once and, that was when the nurse was inserting the I.V. again the look on the doctors face priceless!

We are home now and she's doing good. She's sleeping and texting, she'll be fine. Of course I took pictures ( Scrapbooker ), cause she's soooooo cute!

Yesterday after laundry ,phone calls, running errands (which included picking Cai up from school and taking her to the dentist) when it came time to cook dinner I wasn't enthusiastic.
I was very surprised with Cai's help we sat down to a really tasty and healthy meal. You know I was even more pleased when Paije (who was hanging out with friends) came home for dinner she even stopped and picked up an appetizer for our meal. We all enjoyed Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp and asparagus, bruschetta, and fried mushrooms.
As a mom I'm feeling very pleased that at 16, and 19 my girls where happy to help with and enjoy sitting down as a family for dinner.
It made my day!

Wowzer! Cai is going to Russia for 8 weeks this summer. She just received her acceptance letter for NSLI for Youth Scholarship. Congrats to my baby!!!!

Hello April shower's. We had such an awesome weekend! We celebrated Easter and Paijie's Birthday with a good old pagan egg hunt and lot's of candy. The O'C spin on it was for the second year in a row an awesome Pinata filled with even more candy, confetti(to torture my BIL) and condoms(also a bit of torture for his son's). The kids ages 4-24+ competed for prizes in games like egg toss, and a fav believe or not red light green light.We ended with a special rainbow birthday cake for my baby girl. All in all we "all" minus a pout y faced female Who (why was she there?) we ignored. Yay! for April!!!!

Hi, this is my Spring travel bag.I chose a Burlap looped edge wired ribbon in natural, 1" Grosgrain Ric Rac in orange, 1.5" Twill in turquoise, and 1" Faux Suede leaves in brown.
I loved matching Spring fabric with the Beautiful ribbon from Maya Arts. I made a sturdy travel bag to carry everywhere from summer to fall. I used the ribbon not only to embellish (love how my flowers turned out!) but as binding to dress up the exterior seams. This all purpose bag has lots of pockets to carry magazines, books, water bottles, a phone, and of course my goodies from my shopping trips. I also made a mat, for a seat cover, that fits easily in a side pocket, and for impromptu picnics. I used a Dept. store bag as my pattern for the right fit. I can carry this and not only be green but be colorful and super cute all season!

So last day of the month. I have had a busy an eventful March. Started a few new ventures that I can't quite say yet. Made some progress in my personal life. Cried a lot. I've said a lot of prayers. I'm still praying. As far as my crafting I didn't get much done at all. I'm actually scrambling to finish a few projects I committed to earlier this month. Once I'm done with those I'll come back and share. Oh, April is my oldest daughter's Birthday and my own. April is always fun.

Sweet Taste of Serendipity Crop -March 26-28
Are you ready for another Amazing crop at Serendipity? Of course you are! The crop will be the last weekend in this month which is March 26th-28th and Pre-Crop challenges will be posted on March 21st. Our Design team has been working hard to come up with some enticing challenges, games and prizes. And as always you can look forward to some great Blue light Specials. I really hope to see you all there and I promise this crop will leave you craving more!

FY!.

I did 30 layouts during the month of Feb. Now added to slide show.

My stuff Monday.

I'm so behind for the month. So today Is catching up on my stuff. Like organizing my Feb. layouts. Here is some of my favs from Feb. Me getting my swirl tat. My girls being crazy while shopping.Pics from Christmas baking.

LOved it!!!! Love Johnny Depp!!!

I am so sorry about the news today of the lost of Chelsea King . My heart and prayers go out to the family.

beginning of the month

I have so much to share, I will be uploading my February layouts soon. My partner Dria, and I were the lucky winners, of the monthly team challenge @ Serendipityscrapbooks. Unfortunately, my eyes are broken ( I popped a blood vessel in my eye, and my husband is having to type this), and I am not allowed to look at a computer screen until I get a doctor's approval. I am planning to be back by the weekend. happy scrappin'!

I won!!!!

I'm so excited I won a beautiful Handmade apron from Chris at Scrapgal! Its' so cute Chris used the Basic Grey Blush Charm pack. Love the colors! Yay!Thank You Chris! I love it!

These are all cards I made fro my dd's school. She is raising Money to go to Russia with her class.

Hi, today I'm catching up on a couple projects. I thought I would feature some of the projects made this month. Thanks for stopping by.

Wow! I'm almost there. Cai helped me with set up. I feel so blogified!!! I have a music player, a slide show, a few more adjustments and whoopie! I'll be a full pledged blogger.

A couple more days to figure it out! Happy V-Day!

Nope haven't had time to take on the bloggin world!!!Yet!

Today trying to sort out the New Year. We have had a busy start to the new year everyone busy doing there own thing. I have of course been doing my mommy thing and loving time spent with my family. I have also slowly started my 2010 crafts. I have done a good bit of scrapbooking and am working on several other projects. In the near future I will share my completed pages. I will also try to do a better job with this blogging thing.
I also want to mention as we all know by now the Haitian situation is so sad. My heart and prayers to any and all touched by this horrible disaster. I agree with others who have said " do what you can to help" . We are all from different walks of life, we all can help in some way. Find a way that you can help and give from your heart.