Tomorrow is a BIG day.

Tomorrow is a BIG day. Drake heads off to junior high. He will not be walked to school on his first day as I have done for the last 8 years. He will not have me there to show him where to line up at the bell to meet his teacher. He will not have all his old friends to find each new class together. He will take the bus, he will make his way to the cafeteria, he will wait awkwardly and quietly by himself until his name is called. He will most likely struggle to find his 8 new classrooms. My heart hurts tonight and may break a little in the morning when I let him go. I know he can do it. He's smart and brave. I know that he is learning independence. I know that he will make friends. I know that after tomorrow he will find his way easier. It doesn't make it easier for me. I will smile through my tears, laugh through my fears, and hug him just a little harder.

Tomorrow is a BIG day. Cassidy heads off to grade 5. She will not be in the same school. She will not have any friends waiting for her. She will not have her big brother there to make her feel just a little safer. She will be the "new kid". She will have to stand with me while all the other kids laugh and talk about what they did all summer. She will feel excluded. My heart hurts for her. I know she will do it. She is a social butterfly. She is smart and caring. She will find her way. Quickly. It doesn't make it easy for me. I will walk her to school. I will smile to block the tears. I will hug her hard enough to last the whole day.

Tomorrow is a Big day. Just me and Quintin. The house will be empty. The house will be silent. There will be no noisy sibling play. No lazy mornings. No carefree afternoons. He will wonder where they are. He will get bored. He will want to go too. That makes my heart hurt.
I will hug him a little harder. I will saver this last year I have him home. I will smile to keep those tears at bay.

Tomorrow is a BIG day.

Turtle Baby.

Here's my completed challenge layout. My first sweet nephew, who you will also see staring in many of Mama never said there would be days like this layouts on her blog. I just love this cute little turtle outfit she had for him. She dressed him all up in it to do a little photo shoot for the grandma's birthday gifts.


I used:
Fun Times and Treasure Life SS
Clover Meadow ink and Chocolate distressing ink.
Journalling cards, and cardstock, all by Close to my Heart.
letters, embossing powder, photo clips, and transparencies, other.

My boy turns 12, Summertime, and a Challenge!

This past weekend my oldest son turned 12. 12! It seems like yesterday he was carefully placed in my loving, anxious, and exhausted arms for the very first time. In just 2 short weeks he will be pulling even further from my protective arms to enter Junior high. While he is probably just a little nervous, I'm freaking out. I have no idea what to expect. I know he's a good kid, but it's almost high school... My hope is that he meets a great bunch of kids and forges a bond that will last through the years and hopefully a lifetime. (I met my bff at the same age, and after humm xx # of years we are still bf's.) That he will continue to get almost straight A's, knowing that hard work will get him everything he wants. That he will fit in, that he will be every one's friend, that he will find his niche, whether that be sports, arts, or something else. Finally that he will always know we are his biggest fans and that he can come to us with anything.


This past weekend my family, my mom, and a group of our friends packed up our cars and headed to the beach. 13 in total. Yep 3&1/2 hour drive to the beach! It was worth every. single. moment. We had a blast. The kids played in the water for hours, we had a BBQ on the beach with tons of yummy food, and I got a wicked burn... Yes I applied sunscreen. I'm just really fair and should have re-applied every half hour. lol. The beach was wonderful. Sandy shores, beautiful water, and not a cloud in the sky. (Hence the burn.) Here are a couple of pics of our kids playing.

Here's the birthday boy!

The little miss and her friends who paid no attention to me. haha

Mr. Q "saving a lady bug from the water. There were a bunch of them, all over the place...

The kids had so much fun with all the blow up floating toys I brought. I was a little out of breath after finishing that one.

My little man splashing the girlies. Trust me this feisty little one gave it right back!

So moving on to the challenge, if there are any takers. It will be just like last week. I know mama never said there would be days like this will play. 3 techniques and 3 embellishments. they are. photo clips, transparencies, and dies(cuttle bug for example). Distress everything with ink, YAY, emboss, and only use cardstock. No patterned paper at all. Have fun, leave a comment when your done.

A challenge for myself.

In my attempt to keep the mojo going I thought I'd make up a little challenge for myself. I started by writing down a list of supplies/embellishments that I have, and a list of techniques to do. After I had them all in these bowls


I choose three out of each.


I ended up with use felt,pearls and waxy flax. Then I got random stamp paper, paint, and distress nothing with ink(those of you that know me KNOW this is a stretch for me) love those dirty pages!
I got my pictures and basic supplies together and the ones I was required to use with this layout. The challenge is to just use paper with these embellishments and techniques. This is what my random stamped page looks like.


The ink colours are:
Orange
Bamboo
Chocolate
Heavenly Blue
Clover Meadow
The stamp sets are:
Circle Around
Today's Date
Treetops
All by Close to my Heart

These are the completed pages.

left

right


Products used: pp sassafras, bungle jungle-treetops
heartfelt shapes in whimsy(ctmh)
ceramcoat in magnolia white
pearls Kaiser in Lush
Waxy flax in colonial white
This challenge only took me around one hour to do! If you would like to join me, use the three embellishments and three techniques I used and make your own(it can be one or two pages). Then leave me a comment so I can come see! Hope you like them. Have a great Friday!!!

It's been a while...

***Scroll all the way down if you only like to look at scrapbook layouts.***
Summer is always busy around here. So much to do so little time. Believe me when I say that is the understatement of the year. Since we generally like to do things outdoors in the summer our time seems to be limited to the HOURS that it is not raining. we clocked three wonderful days without rain in the month of July! That doesn't mean it always rained all day, but most days it did. When it wasn't we snuck out to do a lot of this.











I finally found some mojo. It left me weeks ago around the time school ended. It mysteriously reappeared last night and I made these. Must have been the food and the company.