Happy Thanksgiving!!!

1. Thanksgiving is one of the greatest holidays even if...

a. At 11:55 a.m. on Thanksgiving eve the school calls and says Adrian is puking please come pick him up
b. At 4:00 p.m. - you talk with your mom & explain that you won't be there for Thanksgiving but she expects all your older children to be there & you have to swallow hard knowing that you
really want them with you but don't want to ruffle family feathers.
c. At 8:00 p.m. - you are in line at Winco with the other 1000 people who decided to wait till the day before to buy their Thanksgiving dinner
d. At 10:30 p.m. - You realize you can't find your pie plates since the move to Moses Lake &
drive down to Walmart & realize there are still 1000 people shopping before Thankgsgiving
e. You wake up Thanksgiving morning and realize this is only the 2nd Thanksgiving you have ever missed with your family
f. You are very thankful Adrian isn't throwing up any more & his fever had tapered off
g. You are very thankful you were taught how to cook & were able to prepare a huge Thanksgiving feast for the sick & the healthy.
h. You are very thankful your brother is doing much better, being moved to the rehab floor until Seattle can get him in for surgery or until the 10th of December where Wenatchee can get him in.
i. You realize even though the past few days have not gone exactly how you planned, you have so many things to be greatful for..... a ) Heavenly Father
b) Kids
c) Family
d) Nick
e) Our Health ( The flu is nothing)

Hope you all had a great holiday!!!
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Home with the Flu - Another Mom Moment

When your son tells you his stomach hurts, he's really not hungry, and is a tad bit pale, you really should listen to him... Sorry Mrs. McCoullough.....

Dropped Elijah off at 8:00 - at work at 8:15 - phone call by 8:30 - please come get Elijah he has justed puked all over his class!!

Scott Update...

Scott had his surgery yesterday. What a zoo!! It originally was scheduled for 12:30 and they finally came and got him at 4:30. It was only supposed to be an hour to an hour 1/2 but it took apx. 2 1/2. The doctor was confident that he got all the dead skin, muscle, infected parts. As far as the bone that had rotted. He was able to scrape all the dead back and was able to find good bone so that was a huge positive. He said he'd never seen anyone that was that bad. He still has them baffled. They took cultures and biopsy's to see if they could find out what type of infection he has so they can make sure they are giving him the correct antibiotic. The plan is now to continue his vac treatments (wound care) at Wenatchee and as soon as a bed opens he will be going to the Uof W. He still has several surgeries ahead but seems that it's on the right track..
It was a very long day. Mom was nervous, antsy, a tad short (cranky) and then throw him into the picture - nervous, antsy, cranky, and on Vycadin - very confused. Oh my... it lead to several times of me stepping in saying "Mom, don't ask him, he isn't making total sense & if you do , don't question his answer."... and then "Scott, Mom didn't just bud in and start giving the doctors answer's I was there and you asked her too.".... I tell you... Dave owe's me *lol*.. I'm glad I was there... It was a long day though.. Thanks to all for your thoughts, prayers, calls.. I have the best friends!!!!!

Scott Update

As soon as I drop kids off at school, I pick up my mom & head for Wenatchee. Yesterday, his Wenatchee doctors conferred with the Seattle doctors & it was decided by the Wenatchee doctotor that they could no longer prolong this surgery. The infection had originally attacked Scotts tail-bone. And started eating it away. They have a specialist coming in to do that particular part of his surgery and are hoping that once they get in there it hasn't spread to his pelvic. Then they will also remove all the infected tissues, muscle and etc. They actually were trying to get him in last night to get this done but decided it would be today not sure on time just some time today... I spoke with him several times yesterday, he was in lots of pain so they gave him Vycadin (spelling??). Boy was he a tad bit loopy *lol*
Please keep him your prayers.. Thanks!!

Scott

I have a brother Scott, who is a parapalegic and has been for 24 yrs. He has had some severe health issues and has been working closesly with doctors in Wenatchee and Seattle. He actually had returned from Seattle apx. 2 weeka ago and they assured him his opened wounds were actually doing better and to keep treating them the way he was and in 2 months they would check him again and hopefully by then they would be able to get him in for the 2 surgeries he needs. Well last Wednesday, he went for his scheduled appt. in Wenatchee and all was good.
Saturday he woke up under the weather, had some swelling going on. Well, he had another scheduled appointment in Wenatchee yesterday and by the time he got himself transfered out of his car & pushed in to the Hospital he was exhausted. (He is normally a very strong & independent man).. His nurse took one look at him & pushed him down to emergency (Nobody is ever allowed to touch his chair). They immediately started pumping antibiotics into him & started making phone calls. His wounds that are normally a nice pink color are now black.
He has a systemic infection in his system. They don't know how, why, where. At this point it's a mystery but he is extremely sick. They wanted to take him by ambulance to Seattle to the
U of W yesterday but they have no available beds. I took my mom down last night - It was a good thing, I think it helped her see him & see he was ok , just sick & it helped him too (even if he doesn't want to admit it). Please keep him in your prayers.

Scrapbook Convention or Bust

Saturday, I rode with Deb and we met Donna at the Scrapbook Convention in Seattle. I haven't been in years. It seemed every time I planned on going the boys or I got sick.

We left early Saturday morning, and didn't get back until 11:30 that night.... long day but lots of fun. I had told myself I was going to limit the things I bought. After returning from the retreat the previous weekend I had organized my scrapbook room and decided I had enough supplies to scrap for 5 yrs and not need to buy anything besides adhesive or cardstock *lol* Deb & Donna had both signed up for classes, and being that you couldn't register for classes till you got there, I figured my chances were slim. So I packed 2 packets I had made for the previous retreats and decided that I'd do a few make & takes and work on those pages while they were taking them.

Donna called and she was able to get me in to the "Photo Freedom" class with Stacy Julian. Skeptical is a very real word when it comes to how I felt about Stacy, but $21.00 to sit between Deb & Donna was worth it :) One of my reasons for being skeptical was that I felt her books were hard to follow. She seemed way to perky in the books for me *lol* Well guess what she writes exactly as she sounds when she talks. It was hilarious. The excitement is so there. By the time we left, I was not only convinced, I loved her way of thinking, her organization ideas, and I left on a total high and ready to jump right in. Now the word budget does come in to play but I did stop and pick up the photo binder & a photo box that I can use to start implementing her plan. I was no longer overwhelmed with those 5000 pictures on my computer that needed to be gone thru, the years of pictures I was behind in scrapping & how would I ever find time to enjoy the hobby / obsession that I had grown to love. Thank you Stacy!!! Thank you Donna for getting there early & getting me in. Thank you Deb.. (yep you converted me *lol*)...

Sunday, I started going thru pics on the computer - deleting some (yep Stacy says it's ok to hit delete) *lol*, printing them & putting in the sleeves of the binder. Another thing I did was wrote the date, the event and some important facts that I didn't want to forget & put them in the sleeve with the pictures. I even jumped around.. No more chronilogical.. It's okay that I only have 2 events from last year scrapped... I can do more later... THANK YOU STACY!! I even found out it's okay to do those cute little books instead of scrappin Jenn's Softball.... I can always come back to it... I also got my start here jar done that she gave us....

Another cool idea she had was put little notebooks everywhere around your house, in your car, your purse & etc. And when the kids say something funny , you can write it down & then set up files in a recipe box with each child's name include yourself & spouse & then file it and when you need a funny snippet , you can always go to the box.

I tell you if you get a chance go get her book "Photo Freedom"... I, whom was very skeptical, thinks it would be a great addition to your Scrapbook Library.

P.S. Next time you see Deb, ask her how long I had my head out the window trying to get the perfect picture for her *lol*

P.S.S.

Do you know that organic grown vegetabes are so much smaller in size than ones that are grwon with chemicals & fertilizers? I really don't think those organic grown ones have all the vitamins & minerals that are needed, how could they they are 1/2 the size *lol*... (humor me - you had to be there)

Introducing "Daisy Doo"

The newest member - $150.00

Meeting Nick at 5:30 - $20.00 in gas for him

Puppy Supplies - $30.00

12:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m. - Potty break, food & playtime

Look on Boys Face and Elijah telling Adrian "Adrian are we dreaming.. are we dreaming, do we really have a puppy- PRICELESS!!!!

Nick thinks all boys should have a dog & I on the other hand didn't agree cuz I'm the one that has to take care of it. Well, when I moved into my new house the neighbors brought home a standard sized male Dachsund. They named him Scrappy Doo.. Well, the boys love him. He even comes in and visits once and a while.. Nick and I were talking one day & I told him the only dog I would want would have to be a lap dog. I like cuddly, snuggly, small dogs. I have had mini dachsunds before and absolutely love them.. So he has been on the watch.. The conversation yesterday went like this...

Nick - "If you had a preference would you want a male or a female??? "

Me - "What are you talking about?"

Well, I found some mini dachsunds and I'm going to go look at them.

I only want a female and she has to be a mini...

I know Darla *lol*

Next phone call...

Nick - "Well, can you meet me to pick up your newest member of your family???"

Me - You got it??

Yeah, after looking at her face there was no way I could walk a way.

In fact, I almost got 2, I felt bad that she would be alone...

OMG thank goodness you only got one :)

So here she is and yes she is adoreable... Welcome DAISY DOO to our family !!!

O-R-G-A-N-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N

Susan, I'm not copying your post honest. I think we had the same reveloution though :)

On my way home from the retreat, after I had packed ALL that stuff back into my car for 9 pages (lol), I couldn't remember the last layout I had scrapped. I had been so good about

staying up on the little guys & was slowly falling behind. Was wandering how Jane, Michelle, Megan, Alyson, Sandi, Sonya, Donna do all those cool projects for themselves and still scrap for their families. I was trying to think of reasons WHY I couldn't do that.. And the reason I came

up with was..... there wasn't one. Soccer is now over, our evenings are much more free. We

will be starting basketball but practice is afterschool & games on Saturday morning. The boys

are much more older, don't need quite as much attention... I even have my own room that I've waited for for 10 yrs. So I decided when I got home instead of throwing everything into the scrap room and walking away... I was getting organized & guess what I did.. I even scrapped on Sunday & Monday evening... Once again, thanks Jane for the mental down time & for all the motivational time....

Here's what it looks like :)

Sunday Morning Ritual................

For the past several month's Eric has been coming over for Sunday breakfast. At first it was a little spuratic but lately has been quite faithful.. This Sunday, Elijah kept asking when Eric & Kujo were coming over.. He kept peering out the window hoping to see him pull in..

Finally, Eric showed up (Elijah's words). Had bisquits, gravy & hashbrowns. Played with boys for a few, visited with us for a few & had to head home Seahawks were playing...

Even though it may only be for a short time he is here. I love it.. I love to see the anticipation of the boys waiting for him, I love having that little bit of time with him, and don't even mind cooking for him :)

25 Things I love about DJ's Scrappin Retreat

Thursday morning 37 (or so) women packed their cars, met their friends or family & headed up to Mountain River Lodge for the yearly DJ's Scrappin Retreat.

Here are 25 things I absolutely loved about this retreat....

1) Deb & Jane's Hospitality - Best Scrappin Fairies Ever :)

2)Seeing old friends

3) Meeting new friends

4) Jane's Ditties - "If you were an animal which would you be & why?"

5) The uncontrollable laughing

6) Tips- I love all the ideas, you guys are all so creative!!!

7) Circle Journal - What a great way to keep 12 women from different parts of the state in touch with one another & all the things we will learn about them (Thanks Sandi for heading this up)

8) Not having to Cook, Clean, or put my stuff away for meals or bed time

9) A.K. Designs - This year it was edible!!!! - You crack me up -

10) Yearly pictures - Triple D's
Losers
Heather & I ( and in 5 yrs we can scrap them *lol*)
Family pics
Westside Pics

11) Chinese Christmas - Cali you are such a good sport

12) Make & Takes

13) Sharing Ideas - Everyone is so crafty

14) Borrowing Fibers, inks, glue dots

15) Loved that my entire car was packed & I got 9 pages done *lol*

16) Finished 2 tie fleece quilts for Adrian & Elijah for Christmas

17) Alyson's projects - I've never seen anyone whip a small scrapbook out in 2 hours and have it be adoreable.

18) Everyone complained about the snowblower/leafblower/chainsaw/ sound until they found out it was the cocoa machine & then it was ok

19) The love of garlic

20) Crawling off the top bunk at 4:00 a.m. trying not to wake a room full of sleeping women to go to the bathroom

21) Visiting with Jane & Susan early in the a.m. before anyone else was awake

22) Michelle - I love all her organizational ideas & tools

23) Bantering back and forth with Heather, Anita, Tracy, Susan & DEB!!!

24) Watching how Cali's eyes sparkled when aka "Friend" stopped by... You so deserve to be that happy

25) Scrappin Maniac Jane - You were so focused this year - I loved all of your projects


Thank you Jane & Deb - you have brought all these women together not only made us friends but family. A weekend away with you two brings you home feeling like a new person. You take time away from your family to make this happen. I hope the two of you realize how greatful the rest of the 37 women are to you for makin' this happen!!!

P.S. Matt, not sure you are reading this but Cynthia was missed dearly, I missed her smile, and those silly headphones on her head so she could tune all us loud ones out *lol*

P.P.S - How could I have forgotten Nicole scaring the absolute jeebies out of me...