Christmas card pictures

ACCCKKKK!!!! We took loads of pictures today and not one turned out good!!! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get 9 people and a picture of a person to cooperate all at the same time for pictures??? Seriously...it's insane!!! First of all, Cody didn't smile in any of them, so I had to take him out of the factor when trying to narrow down my decision. We had blinkers, non smilers, Chad's picture with major glare, baby crying, you name it, we had it going on. As you can see I decided to go with wearing camouflage at the Army National Guard base (in the museum part) They won't let you take any pictures outside. I thought since Chad is at boot camp right now, he'd like to know that we are all thinking about him and want to make sure he is included. His girlfriend Sandy is holding his picture. She's a doll! Please tell me it's okay, because I don't have the time or patience to re-do them. Here is the message that will be on the inside of the card with the picture. I hope it's large enough to read.

So did you all have a nice weekend???

And so it begins...

Thought I'd share part of the card making process since it's all I'm really doing lately, besides tending to family needs, of course. So far I lots have nice neat stacks of cut paper. The rest of my chatterbox paper came in today so I just finished cutting that. I started on the quickutz flowers and leaves, but that is going to take a few days to finish those. The messages for the inside have been printed and cut. The only elements still missing are the pictures, mailing labels and stamps. I actually think I can pull this off by my deadline, but it's not going to be easy. Two weeks and counting. I think I work best during crunch time anyways. :o)

Brittany is sick today...some icky stomach thing....poor girl! Tomorrow my kids have no school because of Veterans day. I had no idea until this evening. I know...good mom, huh?! :o) I let them have a cousin come spend the night, so they are happy campers. I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow for a crunch because something is out in my neck. I've had vertigo for the past two days, so my head doesn't feel so good. If I lean over it sends me into a spin...which in turn makes me feel nauseous. I'm off to bed. Thursday night means I get the remote...at least until Mark gets home from his ride. :o)

Be sure to honor the Veterans in your life!

***Updated*** All 240 poinsettia flowers are cut and all 480 leaves. My sister Rene came over yesterday so I could help her plan a 3 week menu, and in turn she cut all the leaves while I cut the flowers. I have 10 cards done...230 to go. Plus all the Merry Christmas from the Georges have been adhered to the red squares. Family pictures tomorrow! It's coming along.

Christmas cards of past

This will be my 5th year making Christmas cards. Last years were my favorite. They were just fun and cute! I made 200 cards that year. These two pictures show the front and the inside of the cards. Some years our pictures are on the front of the card and some on the inside...depending on the design. Last year had both because I couldn't resist using the silly one too. 2004 I stamped all of that on there. It took forever and my fingers cramped beyond belief. 200 cards this year too.

I couldn't find the cards from 2002 and 2003, byt this is the photo I used for 2003 It was navy blue, simple but cute. I can't even remember the design of 2002, but I remember we were all sitting on and around the diving board of the pool wearing different colored solid t-shirts and jeans and Cinnamon was in the picture too. That was before I had digital cameras. I made 100 cards in 2002 and 180 in 2003. My list keeps growing every year and I don't even give them to everyone I know. There is just no way I could do that. So to answer your question...yes I am really going to make 240 cards. Actually I've spent most of the day working on them. This is why I normally start October 1st and why I was stressed about not getting the Chatterbox paper early enough. I am WAY behind schedule. It's crunch time to get them in the mail by Thanksgiving weekend. :o)

Tuesday's happenings

Today was Brittany's dad's birthday and she wanted to make him a scrapbook page he could put on his bulletin board at work. We both worked on it together. It's a lot like the one I did for Carter. Brek and Brittany had dinner with her family tonight and she said he loved it.A close up of the layout
Do you see what I see??? Yup! Those are fishies...just like the cute little one Mark had while he was in the NICU. Jen sent it to him. Wasn't that just the sweetest thing ever?! Thank you so much Jen! We all appreciate your kindness. I'm getting batteries in the morning for it. He is going to be one happy baby!

Okay...here is the Christmas card design that I finally decided on. It was such a frustrating thing when I hated everything I did. This one I can live with. I so love Chatterbox paper. I picked up the valentine ones today appropriately called the Love shack...so dang cute! It's still a lot of stinking work when you think of making 240 of them...1 down...239 to go. :o) Not to mention the fact that I still need to take pictures and order 240 wallet size prints and write a cute little message inside. Anyone interested in card making assembly line work??? Didn't think so! :o)
I almost forgot...tonight me, Mark, Rodney (Marks brother), & Cam (Rodneys wife) went out for a motorcycle ride. We noticed a car behind us swerving and hitting the curbs on both sides and he almost hit us. We forced him to stop and Rodney asked him if he was okay and told him how he was driving, then the guy took off. He reeked of alcohol. We called the police and described the car and told them the direction he was heading. We wish we could have gotten his keys away from him. I hope the police caught him before he hurt someone. The thought of a drunk driver on the road makes me sick.

Okay...you know you're up to late when your eyes are burning and it hurts to see.

Framed Scrapbook page and Shots!

Here is the framed scrapbook page that I made on Saturday for my nephews 1st birthday. (Chatterbox, of course) I also bought him a really cute riding pooh and tigger airplane. He loves the airplane and his parents love the frame, so everyone was happy. We took baby Mark to the doctor for him 2 month check up yesterday. He is up to 10 pounds 6 ounces, so he's doing good. Brittany was reading Peter Rabbit to him while we waited for the doctor.

Here he is after she got him dressed, waiting for the nurse to give him his shots. He looks nervous to me.

One oral and 3 shots later...OUCH! Lots of screaming and one unhappy baby and mamma. She said Brek can take him to his 4 month check up.

My local scrapbook store called me yesterday to tell me that the Chatterbox Christmas paper came in and they pulled 2 of each sheet for me. They still don't even have it out on display yet, but I have it! Oh happy day! Problem is I still haven't gotten the sheets I ordered from Chatterbox for my cards. I emailed them about it and they sent me a shipping confirmation, so it will be here tomorrow. :o) Since I had the paper in hand and I could see it's true colors I was able to buy the matching bazzill cardstock. I came home and worked on my card design...sadly I hated everything I came up with, so I was very frustrated thinking there is no way I can sit here and make 240 cards and hate them. Finally about 10:00 last night I came up with a design I liked and could live with. Now I just need to beg some of my boys to quickutz me out 240 poinsettia flowers and 480 leaves. We will see if I get any takers...maybe if I with hold dinners..hee..hee...that is evil!

P.S. The Vemma website is up and runing now.

Today is election day, so be sure to vote...but it also means that these childish campain commercials are coming to an end...thank heavens!

2nd edition of the photo shoot

Here are a few more pictures form the photo shoot. I'm really looking forward to taking more of them. Thank you all for the sweet compliments...that is very sweet! I am planning on doing our Christmas card photos next Sunday. Should be fun..or at least, entertaining. By the way...I still don't have my Chatterbox paper so I can't even start making the cards...sigh...

Okay...gotta get in the shower and take the baby to his 2 month check up.

Photo shoot

Today I took some pictures of the new little family. I took 75 in fact. There was a lot of shots I didn't get to take because we lost the golden hour way too fast. I wanted to upload 12 of them, but blogger said no ma'am...you can only have 8....Well dang-it! Perhaps I will upload more tomorrow. I think I got some good ones. You have to take a bunch in hopes of a few good one. I just wish I had photoshop so I could fix them a bit....and more than that I wish I had the knowledge to use it. That's going on my Christmas wish list. :o)

I'm off to bed...I've had a very full 2 day weekend. It certainly wasn't restful.

Saturday

breakfast with Mark (every Saturday)

uploaded pictures of my nephew

bought a birthday present for that nephew

bought treats for Coles game

made a cute framed scrapbook page as a gift

went to Cole's game...he won

went to a birthday party

prepared my primary lesson

Sunday

went to church and taught primary

had lunch

took a very short nap

home teachers came over

took pictures of the cuties

baked 200 cookies

bagged and boxed up enough cookies for Chad's unit

wrote him a letter

uploaded pictures

updated my blog

It's 11:37 and I'm so done for the day.

Blogger troubles

I apologize on behalf of blogger. I was so upset that it wouldn't let anyone post comments all day long, but it appears to be working now because there are a couple of new ones, so please come back and comment because I want to read what you tried to say the first time...please! :o)
Also...another apology...I forgot that the Vemma website is down for the weekend. They are doing upgrades and will be up and running on Monday noon...so sorry! Don't give up...it's great stuff...honest!

Shopping and happiness!

Seriously...I have no self control. Without my knowledge my truck just steered my right into the parking lot of the scrapbook store. You know that feeling when you've been driving and you can't remember whole big sections of the ride or how you got there? However I did get out of my tuck and entered the scrapbook store of my own free will. I thought I could behave a just get a page stamped, but NOOOO! All that fun new stuff that was just released is hitting the stores as we speak. Everywhere I looked there were more beautiful things. How much will power can one obsessed scrapbooker be expected to have anyways??? The paper is the new Bazzill bling...and boy does it sparkle! Basic Grey game out with these amazing ornaments. I can't wait to make them. Making Memories has the very fun shimmer glitters. They are stinkers with the way they package things, because I like certain colors in each pack. The punch is the coolest thing! It's bigger than you'd think. I love it. Plus I need some new journaling pens. A son of mine likes to BORROW my pens, but is not so good at the returning part of the borrowing agreement.Ribbon...oh for the love of ribbon! Seriously, I can't get enough. I had one jar left over in my collection and this beautiful ribbon filled it nicely!
Made you smile didn't he??? I actually captured a few smiles on the camera today. How can you not be happy when you look at him.

You can't help yourself can you? Just SMILE!
I so love his teeny hands!
This is just the sweetest baby and I'm so blessed to be his Grammy!

There were some of you that asked me where to buy vemma. Click on my website, then click join vemma now (it's free). It will direct you from there. You can also click on the order and info button to learn more about the product. I like the 30 little V2 bottles...easy to use! They have a 100% money-back, risk-free, empty-bottle guarantee. I've been on it for 4 days now and I can honestly say I feel more alert today than I normally do....so I'm excited to see what happens.

Heading out to a high school football game!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Vemma

Do you remember me saying in a previous post that I needed to exercise due to being overweight? Well my problem is I'm in daily pain and have no energy to exercise. Being 38 really isn't that old, but my body feels SO much older than that. It's really kind of scary to me. I wake up everyday in pain after a restless night sleeping because of pain, and it continues throughout my day. I get severe headaches a few times a week...some of which turn into full blown migraines. I've been in search of something...anything that would help me. In my newly re-organized bathroom closet, one of those baskets is full of different vitamins that I won't take because I can't choke them down. They seriously make me gag. I'm a terrible pill taker...plus in reality pills can only really break down and give you 15%-20% of their value. My dad was introduced to this product and he shared it with me. It's a liquid supplement called Vemma...which stands for Vitamins, Essential Minerals, Mangosteen, and Aloe. Like the little sponge picture shows, a liquid supplement delivers to your body faster and more effectively...85%-95% infact. HELLO! To me it's a no brainer! Plus mangosteen is a natural anti-oxidant. The problem with me is that I am by far the pickiest eater I know. I was afraid to try it because of the taste. I just don't try new things...ever! I have taken my little shot bottle for the past 2 mornings. (and isn't it the cutest little bottle you've ever seen?!) I did chase it this morning with M&M's, but it wasn't necessary. (we just have all this halloween candy laying around) This product is also listed and approved in the physicians desk reference book for non prescriptions drugs and dietary supplements. Obviously I've only been taking it for 2 days and haven't seen a result yet, but I KNOW that I will and I will let you know when I do see results. If you want to read real peoples testimonials you can click HERE. It has things listed for:

Arthritis

Blood pressure

Cholesterol

Digestion

Energy-Vitality

Fibromyalgia

Food allergies

Hair and nails

Migraine headaches

Mitral valve regurtation

Multiple sclerosis

Prostate challenges

Psoriasis

Sjorgenes Syndrome

Sleeping disorders

Tennis elbow

Urinary tract infection

I was reading some of them and it was very powerful to see the difference this little bottle of minerals has made in the lives of so many. We all chat online, but we really don't know the challenges that each other are faced with, so I thought it was important to share this information with all of you. It's up to you whether you want to know more about it. I'm not a pressure kind of girl, as you all know. You just never know if there is someone reading this that this could help, and if it only touched one person and made their life better than it was worth it to me to post about. You can learn more about it HERE, you can ask me a question in the comments or email me craftygirlinaz@hotmail.com.

Tomorrow...or today (Thursday), depending on when you're reading this, two very well know doctors, Mehmet OZ M.D. and Michael Roizen M.D. will be on Oprah promoting there new book, YOU on a diet. Last year their book, YOU the owners manual was on the best sellers list second only to Harry Potter. These doctors love and stand behind this product and are working on a project with this company in the next few months. They have been on Oprah a few times and will not be talking about this product, because they are there to promote the new book, but Oprah loves them, so I plan to watch.

If you're still reading this, I really hope that you didn't take this post in a manner that was not intended. Hugs and love to all of you and Happy November...it's going to be a great month!