Today was a bit breezy but still beautiful, none the less.
Big news on the home-front..... Rob sang the National Anthem at the High School Varsity Volleyball Tournament and did a great job. That was on Tuesday. Wednesday he auditioned for All State Choir and was told today that he made it. I am so stinking proud of him. He has a beautiful voice.

Meg is doing well and is growing, stretching, and learning lots of new things, even some wonderful things about herself and her heart. Love that.

Homeschooling is keeping me busy beyond belief. I haven't had much scrapping time, but did manage to squeeze in a few minutes here and there to create some fun things.
OK I know it's not Valentine's Day, but I have been in the mood for creating with hearts. I've also been playing with gold leafing. It's tons of fun and just adds a little something extra.Speaking of Hearts. I love the look of White on White and I love Vintage.. Vintage anything. So I dug through my old button jar and came up with this "Love" card. The top of the heart is not attached so a photo or love not could be slid into the center of the heart.
Another card... loving Vintage and old old things. Love Tim Holtz Designs and inks.
I have no idea why I made a "bon voyage" card. No one I know is going anywhere.. Maybe it's that I wish I was going somewhere...hmmmm
I put this layout together for a class that I taught on Creativity Unbound. It's an amazing blog that is devoted to nothing but encouraging, helping, inspiring artists to stretch their creative minds and push the edge. There's lots of stitching on this layout. I love the look of sewing and handwork on layouts. I am really happy with this style and will explore it a bit more in the future.

Just got off the phone with my doctor and the biopsy is benign.woo hoo... I feel so good knowing for sure. At least now I can go on and know that it's been checked and the mass is out of me. Thank you so much for all the prayers and good wishes.. God is so good to us all the time.


love you! Mary

Beauty Abounds....

It is such an incredibly beautiful day. The birds are singing and everything is so bright and green. I haven't seen the lawns this green without loading them down with fertilizer. You know the green where it all looks crisp and fresh? Well that's it. I am going to take a photo of it right now and post in a bit. I have made some decisions regarding home schooling. In the past I have treated my schedule much like I did when I was teaching in San Diego, very regimented. I had to when I was teaching in the public system; they have schedules to keep. But, with home schooling, I can make my own schedule and teach the days I want to teach. So here's the plan. We will hit the books hard Monday-Thursday and then take Fridays for projects and "me" time. I really need this because for those of you who do not home school, if I don't take a day, I will not get any time to myself. The weekends are spent doing "family" things and "God" things, ie. Church, etc. The kids are all for this schedule as well.

This year the boys, and Anabelle, have decided that they want to take foreign languages other than Spanish, which they have all had. Robby is in his third year of Spanish but wants to learn Japanese as well. Andrew wants to learn Latin, Nathaniel and Anabelle French. So, we did what every home school family does; we bought Rosetta Stone curriculum and they are taking those languages. Rob and Andrew are having it installed on their school laptops and had to be permission from the Principal at the High School. He was impressed that they are taking those classes and o.k.ed it for them to have it loaded.

Well, I am going to have a nice hot cup of tea and am going to sit out on the veranda and listen to the birds. Talk soon. Love you!
Mary

I think the title of my blog really fits my life, especially right now, this very minute. I am sitting here, trying to type, but am finding it a bit difficult. As many already know I have been having some health issues regarding tumors and some breast lumps that are suspicious. My world for the past four days has really be taken over by circumstances way beyond my control, but definitely in God's control. The short version is this.
Last week before we took Meggie to school I had a follow=up appointment from my mammogram and had to have an ultra sound done of my left breast. That was last Tuesday. We left for Northwestern on Thursday and got home Sunday late. When we arrived home I found a letter from the clinic stating that they tried calling me but were unsuccessful and that I need to get in contact with my doctor as soon as possible regarding the results of the ultra sound. So.. Monday morning I called my doctor and he told me that he wanted me to see a surgeon here in town. I called the surgeon he recommended and his receptionist told me that they already had my file and that the surgeon wanted to see me that very afternoon. I am thinking, "hmmm... something's fishy in Denmark" I went to the appointment with Bob at 4:45 and the doctor examined me and told me not to show him the area...to see if he could find it.. well.. he found it right away and told me that I had two options.. one was to have the area removed and biopsied and the other was to come back every two weeks for ultra sounds to see if there is growth. I opted to have it removed... so he set me up to have the area removed on Wednesday morning. The area removed was rather large, not my full breast, but about 1/4 th of it.. I am awaiting the results and should know tomorrow. In the mean time I have been taking the pain killers, but they make me sick to my tummy, so I am calling tomorrow for a different RX. I am glad that I had them remove the area instead of just sticking a needle in and hoping to hit the right area. it's not just a little bump. It was an area about 4 x 2 inches behind my breast but on top of the rib cage so they had to literally go behind to get to the area. Well.. that's probably more graphics than anyone would ever want so I will shut up now and just ask that you all pray about this. I feel good and really believe that the results are going to be good. Well.. enough for tonight, I am heading up to bed. Hugs.
Mary

Hi there!

Lots going on here. We are getting ready to take Megan to school on Thursday...two days from now... She is heading off to the big city and Northwestern, as you all know. She is super excited and a bit on the scared side. I can't blame her. I remember being a bit scared of facing college, but I didn't go away like she is doing. All will be fine. The kids are getting ready to start a new school year. Classes start on Thursday for them as well. Rob and Andrew are taking a few classes up at the high school...ie. Spanish III, Drama, Meistersingers, regular chorus, and Chemistry. They are taking the rest of their academic load here at home.

I have some great scrapping news.... I was just chosen as a team member for a new scrapbooking site, Creativity {Unbound}. It's a totally new concept of blogging where we go beyond just scrapping and will actually be teaching online classes, much like I already do for my site, but with a much larger audience. We will also be hosting swaps, posting challenges and have some interest in our site from manufacturers. Check it out... here's the link... www.creativityunbound.blogspot.com
seven gals were chosen because of our varied gifts and talents and as a whole group.. it's going to be amazing.

Well... It's gettng late and I have to run. Love you and I need to post some photos... so behind on that..

Mary

Whew! It's over! Woot Hoot. OK.... here it is... the Parade of Homes is over and I am so glad. It was the most work I have ever thought or imagined possible The kids and Bob were unbelievably helpful and worked so hard to get their rooms ready. You would be so proud of them. There were so many people that came through and the most accurate count thus far is... 440 presold tickets and 380 onsight tickets sold... that's a lot of people coming through. Everythinglooked great, especially using all of Nana's beautiful antiques and Bob's great grandmother's silver.. It's late and I am super tired so I will write more later. Love you.


Mary

OK... so we are now five days away from Parade of Homes and having about 800 people tour the house...and I AM GOING CRAZY.... Actually today wasn't as bad as yesterday, so I guess there is hope. I have been busier than I ever thought possible. Saturday I painted the upstairs bathroom and gave the front of the house an extra coat of white paint..on the original clapboard. It looks nice and clean and only took three hours to do. Yesterday I spent the day in the Library going through books and papers. That's all done now and that room looks great. I also did four loads of regular laundry and then washed all the feather beds, which took forever to dry, etc. So... I finally hit the sack at 3:35 am after cleaning the kitchen. I was really mad at the kids because I had asked them to clean the kitchen and instead they camped out in the living room and watched movies until 12:30 am. I made two huge meals yesterday and told the family that I was only cooking big meals so they would have energy to help.... instead, it was too much and they all wanted to sleep... hmm... going to have to use another tactic. So... this morning I was up at 7:40 and woke everyone up. Andrew finished cleaning his room. Nathaniel was in the dog house so I made him clean toilets...hehehe... Megan sorted material. Belle helped me, Robby was at work...as was Bob. I shampooed the bathrooms, library, living room, and the boys' rooms. Then.......

A reporter from our local newspaper, the Public Opinion showed up and wanted to take interior photos. The music room was clean and set so I let her take photos in there... whew... now.... It's dinner time and I AM NOT Cooking a thing...we are going out and I will get back to the house when we get back... gosh... there's such a difference in getting the house company clean and tour clean.... urch..... Bob just pulled up so I will post more late tonight....
until then...

Mary

It's an incredible day!
The sun is shining and the kids are actually happy cleaning their bedrooms. Can you believe that?
After posting yesterday I thought that I need to take the focus off me and share a few blessings with you all. I don't know if I have been holding back posting this because of selfishness or what. I don't like to share some things..lol.



The last Wednesday in July, my little brother and wife, Donnie & Shelly, became grandparents. Haley had her baby is she is so very beautiful. Elin Rosa-Lee arrived at 9:53 am weighing in at 6lbs. 30z and is 19.5 inches long. I have been selfishly enjoying myself whenever I sneak up to their place to hold the baby. She is sooooo stinking beautiful. Haley is doing well and looks fabulous. Watching her hold Elin and experiencing all those instinctive things that jump into action has been a lot of fun. It's a side of every woman that changes the moment she becomes a mother. She is so very intuned to Elin even though motherhood is so new to her. I think that's what makes all new moms so beautiful. I am very proud of Haley and her wisdom. She is getting ready to go back to school, is working full time, and now has her own apartment, which is really great. It's more of a town house than an apartment, with three stories, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a great lower level with washer and dryer.

So, now that Donnie and Shelly are grandparents, I can let the cat out of the bag... no I am not expecting.. whew! David and Brandi are expecting and are due in March, so that means I too will be a grandmother. I am just glad Donnie beat me to the status of grandparent. hehehehe.

Other happenings around here... I will post about the kids and all their adventures tomorrow.... Until then... Love you!

Hi all,
Seems like it's been forever since I blogged....well...it has. So much going on here with life in South Dakota. Kids are all getting ready for school to start and I am still winding down with some health related issues. Many of you know that I have been going through a series of tests and appointments due to my dentist discovering two rather large tumors in my lower mandible. Bob and I spent two full weeks down in Houston at MD Anderson with various doctors to determine the seriousness of these tumors. They are bilateral and are pretty close to identical to one another. To make a long story short, they appear to be benign and a biopsy cannot be done of them because of their proximity to the nerves that control my lower mouth and jaw. If these nerves are severed I will not have feeling, etc. Removing them at this point isn't a good option because it would neccesitate bone grafting, extensive dental work, and plastic surgery...so we are taking a wait and see approach to this whole thing. We will be monitoring them and rechecking them every six months. I completely trust the oncologists at MD Anderson for a few reasons. First, because they are the best in the US, rated above any other cancer facility including Mayo. Secondly they actually have DDS MDs in oncology whereas the other facilities do not... highly specialized. Thirdly, they see 100,000 patients a day and only come across a few cases like mine, where as other facilities have never come across something like this.

I told you it's a long story.... The bottom line is this... God is good! HE is in charge of my life, not me, not the doctors, so I place my trust in Him. If I hadn't waited and trusted the people God has put in my path during this journey I would now be jawless...and in need of several surgeries. But in God there is peace, direction, and hope....I am now awating to get an appointment down in SF for an MRI check of my left breast...I had a mammogram done and there is some concern that needs futher checking... I figure that dealing with the second concern is much easier than dealing with possible bone cancer. God is good.

Being away from the kids for so long really made me home sick. It also made me look long and hard at my priorities and direction of my life. Bob and I had some great quality time alone and after twenty years of marriage I can honestly say that I am blessed to be married to such a wonderful loving man. Soooo... now that I am home, we are getting ready to take Megan off to school, get her all moved in to her dorm, get boys' settled up at the high school, order curriculum for the school year, and get the house ready for the parade of homes which is in less than two weeks from now. It should be an adventure. Thanks again for all the wonderful prayers, notes, emails, and cards. I love you all.

In Christ
Mary

It's been forever since I posted. so sorry.

Well, Meg's grad party is over and all our out of town guests are gone and things are starting to get back to normal... whatever "that" is. This morning I went to Wal Mart to develop some film and while I was there I picked up a few grovery items and a cool summer dress. I don't like clohs shopping and rarely buy for myself. I hate malls and crowded centers. After coming home I decided that I need to reload xp onto my personal computer and the next few days are going to be spent trying to get everything back on the desktop where I feel comfortable where it is. Gosh, all this work simply because I can't remember my password...urgh.....

Well, hopefully I will be posting more in the next few days. So much to do around here and so little time. Hugs!

Mary

Just a few of Megan's recent Senior Photos. Isn't she so pretty? Thought you would like to see these. We have about 250 other shots...lol

May 1st can you believe this.... time has flown by so quickly. We are busy around here getting ready for Meg's graduation. She picked up her announcements today so please be on the lookout for your invitation to arrive shortly. We have been trying to get some major and not so major things done around the house. Not major would be planting flowers and getting my veggie garden in along with reinforcing my herb garden. I am going to plant a wider variety of basil this year since we all love it so much.
Major would be the undertaking of the front porch. We have hired Mike Farthing to replace the entire veranda...all 800 square feet of it! While Mike was tearing up the old cedar planks he was able to remove that ugly faux brick siding that surrounded the front door...and guess what? under that ugly siding we found the original slat siding from the 1800s. We also had him remove some boards that had been covering up the transfer window above the front door. Now we get to wait for Mike to finish the porch and then we will be painting the old siding. It's really exciting to be able to see what lies beneath the ugly siding.. I guess it wasn't so ugly forty some odd years ago when it was first put up there. I will have to post some photos a bit later.

Such a busy weekend. We spent our weekend at home, just the seven of us, reading, watching old movies, baking, cooking, drawing, painting, scrapping, and doing a little work around the house. I really enjoyed our weekend of rest. The kids all wanted to stay put. No one asked to go anywhere, which is a rarity around here. Meg did get to the movies with Stephanie. I worked on a few layouts for upcoming calls and finished some projects for Cut the Crop. I finished another layout and three cards for the site.

Love working with Dream Street Design papers. They are so much fun and very versitile. I am really enjoying these paper right now.

Well..... Here we are, April 5th and we still have snow.... God really has a sense of humor. It snowed on April Fool's day and it's been here ever since. I guess we are going to have a wintery Easter. We are going to spend Easter here at home with just us in our little world of Liberty Hall.
Bob and I are going to have to hide the eggs inside. We have decided to skip the candy thing. The kids are all for this. I am amazed. They all requested that we do books instead. Just shows you how nerding the kids are. I think I will pick up a couple classic movies for them as well.

well, I have to run. Hope you have a wonderful day.

Busy crazy day. It's snowing and I want it to stop. So tired of the snow and really really want spring to stay put. There is something good about being reluctant to venture out into the snow and that's having some time to scrap...that is after I did a bit of house work. My floors look great, by the way. Just sent some images to Cut The Crop for the Month Kit Designs. This is a really cool kit because it actually comes with some really cool Drawers that you can alter. This is

what I did with mine. I really love designing for Tove. She's super nice and always very encouraging. I love her kits because they include some really fun supplies. I also made a fun "Mom" wall plaque and have it hanging in my scraproom. So easy to put this together using some fun supplies. Love brads right now, tomorrow I may love buttons, or clips, or a combination of all

I think what also makes designing a lot of fun is pushing myself to create some fun different layouts using specific papers and supplies. Lots of fun. With Megan graduating this year I find that I need to get all her photos scrapped so I am not running around like a chicken with my head cut off next month getting ready for her celebration. Well. That's about all for now.

Seems like a long time since I took a few minutes to post. This past week has been a whirlwind. I cannot seem to even think of what the next few weeks will be like.
Rob and Megan just finished "Peter Pan" and that puts a close on Megan's High School Drama Career. This was her last play that she will ever do as a high school student. The play was pretty good. Lot's of crazy colorful costumes and great makeup effects. Rob had a good role and had quite a few lines. He was so handsome and looked so tall on stage. I cannot believe that he is only 15. Megan did his makeup and gave him a five o'clock shadow making him look about 25. When we saw him just after the play I couldn't help but think that he is going to be an extremely handsome man.

Bob took the kids, Max, and Nick, to see it again last night and they all had a great time. Max was a little on the scared side until he saw Robby close up and realized that he wasn't a real pirate.
Belle came down with a tummy virus so I stayed home with her last night and all of today. Bob took two of the boys to the Scout oh rama and then to set up for a pancake feed for tomorrow. He just walked in the door from taking the kids to see some Chinese Acrobat performance at DD Miller. It's been a busy day for him. Rob competed this morning in Jazz Choir and will find out how they did on Monday. Megan worked for a few hours at the coffee shop and I took care of Belle all day.

Well..... I feel like my writing is a little on the confusing, no focus, or continuity, side and it's driving me crazy. I know that I will look at the post tomorrow and will alter it. lol. I came across another scrapper's blog and was reminded of the important things... it's these daily adventures that we encounter that really gives excitement to our lives. It's seeing the ah ha moments. It's hearing the little voices of the kids as they communicate with one another in the next room. It's all about these little minute, seemingly mundane tasks and events that we overlook all too easily. I love my life and where I am right now at this very moment. I love being a mom of six kids. I love taking care of my family, doing laundry, washing dishes, and making meals for them. I am blessed...blessed because I have a loving family who loves me in return. I am going to run down stairs right now and tell them just how much I love them... Good Night.

Just thought I would post before hitting the sack. It's getting late and the kids are all tucked into their beds, hopefully sleeping away. We spent the past few days marking milestones. Bob & my 20th anniversary, Andrew's 14th Birthday, and Anabelle deciding she wanted to sew on her own without mom helping at all. Yes, this is a milestone. She is only 7 and loves to create things. I think she gets this from Megan. So this evening Belle comes into my room with a pink sweater in hand, a spool of thread and a needle and climbs onto my bed preparing to sew down the huge collar on her sweater. She hates big collars and asked if I would cut it off. If I did that, the whole sweater would unravel... so, she did the most logical thing in her 7 year old mind... she sewed the collar to the inside of her sweater. It's a little bulky, but I am not going to undo it. It's her creation and she is so proud of it. I will praise her when she proudly wears it to church in the morning and I will not undo and resew it. She would know. Looking at the sweater and the big stitches reminded me of something. You know how often we make sure that we repair things in our lives, whether it be a sweater or hurt feelings, or some other faux pax that we have created, with small stitches so it's not so apparent or visible to others? I do this. I want things solved with the least amount of attention. When I watched Belle sew, I thought of my silliness in trying to hide or minimalize things. I was reminded that it's ok to see the imperfections... that's what makes each of us beautiful, original, and flawed. Being flawed is a good thing... well, knowing that we are flawed and recognizing those flaws is good because we can never better ourselves if we think we are perfect. ha... there... that's the whole lesson God gave me today.. I am NOT perfect, I have flaws, and it's ok. Now to celebrate them, to embrace them, and to work a bit on them... that's the task at hand. Love you all! Blessings Always~ Mary

Today is Bob & My 20th Anniversary and he's away on business....he'll be home late tonight, though. I have had an incredible day. Memory Makers Magazine is putting out a book. Memory Makers 601 Great Scrapbooking Ideas...and....... they have asked for one of my layouts for publication in this book. This is really really really exciting for me. I am totally blown away. I was feeling kinda sad yesterday when I realized that Bob was going to be gone and that Creating Keepsakes isn't making their Hall of Fame calls til Monday and then I got the email. I guess it just goes to show you that good things do happen when you least expect them. I will post more later. I have to go make dinner for the kids.

I will start today's post out with a photo that was taken several weeks ago of Robby and Megan while they were on a theatre trip to Minneapolis. They had a great time. Isn't Rob getting tall?

What a fun weekend we had. Bob and the kids spent a lot of the day clearing out ice and melting snow chunks out of the driveway and off the sidewalks around the house. There was so much snow. There is still a lot of it left. I have been thinking of some interesting things lately. I was thinking of how wonderful my life is right now this very moment. The kids are all healthy. Dave is doing great in San Diego with his job and is gaining a lot of experience and responsibility with Smart Drive as a Field Service Supervisor. Megan is getting her things together for college in the fall. She's so excited that she will be studying theatre at Northwestern. Robby is busy with his piano lessons and "Peter Pan". Andrew, too, is busy with piano and Boy Scouts, as is Nathaniel. Anabelle has met two new friends who have moved into the house across the street. They seem to be really nice girls. I still can't let her go and play at someone else's house without me there. I am not ready to let her go. She isn't ready either, which is good. She is growing up too fast. Where are the breaks? She needs to slow down. Bob is healthy and is keeping busy with his job.....and me, well, I am here at home taking care of all the things that moms usually take care of and... I am loving my life, so Life is good.

As I was sitting with Anabelle this evening I looked at her and thought that I really wish my kids could stay at this point forever. I wish they would not leave home and not grow up, but that we could live in this perpetual state of March 12, 2007. Dave is proof that time flies. Megan is as well. I think of the next few days and all the different directions our daily lives are taking us and I am reminded that I really need to stress to my family that they are loved. Bob is heading down to Huron for meetings and won't be home til Wednesday night. Wednesday is our 20th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe that we have been married that many years. Time just goes so quickly.

Well... it's getting late and I am thinking that I should go up to bed. I love you and send lots of hugs and warm wishes.
Mary

I have been thinking that I need to start posting some photos and maybe get some inspiration from them for scrapping.. soooo here is my photo of the day.... Guess who this is???

It's Friday the 9th and it's been a long week. Hopefully this weekend will be nice and quiet around here. We have been working like crazy helping Megan fill out all her scholarship information, school questionaires, and trying to get some regular home schooling done at the same time. Megan did receive a small scholarship in the mail on Wednesday from our local American Leagion for her oratory that she gave on the Constitution. She used part of the money to buy a beautiful had quilted comforter that she found on clearance, for college. Other than that, she has been pretty frugal with her funds. She is looking for a good computer to take to school with her.

I have been working on more layouts for submitting to various magazines. I am still plugging away. I am amazed that there are so many calls out and so much wonderful talent out there. I have met a few ladies on 2Peas that are really very helpful and encouraging. I am really enjoying getting to know some other scrappers who are busy moms just like me.

Calls for Hall of Fame are not going to go out until the 19th instead of the 16th so I will be waiting three extra days to see if my scrapping is good enough to make it. If not, that's ok. I did give it my all and I have some really really really cool scrap items that I made to enjoy for years to come.

Well, I am getting tired and am heading off to bed. Love you all!

Mary