Birthday card for co-worker

I made a birthday card for my co-worker. I used 5 papers, pink organdy ribbon, and a plastic j. Inside I wrote "happy birthday!" My co-worker is actually moving to another department and has been working half days with us and half days there. We're going to have cake and ice cream on Tuesday. I hope it turned out okay.

Cleaning the Carpets

Since we have company coming this weekend, we wanted to get the carpets cleaned before then. We could have the carpet cleaner for 24 hours so we picked it up Friday night thinking that we do some of the rooms Friday night and then the rest on Saturday.

The AFTER picture - the first room - the nursery!

The BEFORE picture of the office.

We did the living room and then had to barricade it from the cats. The vacuum cleaner is so threatening!

I was the expert cleaner (HA!).

We got our routine down and it didn't take too long... but we ran out of cleaner so we had to get more on Saturday.

The sad thing about it is that there are now two large stains -one in the living room and one in the office - that were not there before. It did clean the carpets pretty well which was good. I'm not sure what we're going to do about the stains.

Dreaded (but yummy) Donuts

These are my downfall! There is this local bakery who makes Krispy Kreme style donuts. It's right down the street and the guys on my floor are constantly going there! Sometimes they get back to the office and the donuts are still W-A-R-M!

Yum, yum!

Cards for Co-workers

I'm supposed to be working on cards to be sold at an Open House next week, but I just can't get into the groove! ARG! In any case, I've had a couple people that I needed to make cards for this week. This first card is for a co-worker who loves butterflies. I used a colorful background paper and then chose a matching solid color to use the die-cut and make butterflies. I added a blue circle underneath the butterfly and only glued the body so that the butterfly had some dimension. I added some pink organdy ribbon and another coordinating color on the strip on the left. I wrote her name on one of the butterflies.
This card has 4 papers, pink ribbon, a flower and a brad. I used a die cut to do the word friends and then just hand wrote "We miss you, Cindy!" Hopefully it will be a cheerful card during her recovery.

Best Guy Birthday Wishes

It's our nephew's birthday over the weekend so we had to get the card ready to mail. I had this idea with a Best Buy gift card. Do you get it?!

Inside it reads, "we know who's turning 14!"

Hopefully it's not too cheesy!

I've got a sickie...

Well.... We had to hit the pharmacy again after work because Barry is feeling so crummy. It's amazing how such a seemingly small thing can affect us! Look at all these drugs! He started off with DayQuil and that didn't work so well. So we moved on to the Alka Seltzer which was better but still wasn't doing the trick. We picked up the Walgreens brand of Sudafed to hopefully attack the sinus stuff and get it away. Also, my sister had recommended the Vicks rub to help with the cough.
And the KLEENEX! Boy, there are Kleenexes everywhere! He's taken packs to have in the car and at work and has gone through it all.

We're hoping he can hold out till Monday when he already has a scheduled appointment for the doctor. Since he was sick not that long ago, we're not certain if it just hung around or maybe that he's got allergy problems. YUCK!

Boss' Day

Since during this week it was Boss' Day, my team decided to celebrate it over a couple days. The first day we gave her flowers, the second day this gift basket, and the third day donuts from a local bakery.

Despite the craziness of this week, I think we showed her that she is appreciated.

Card Work Project

(Whew! It's taken almost a week to get this picture to come up straight instead of sideways!)

My boss asked me to make some cards to be sent to new leaders in the ministry. I found the red swirly paper and coordinating red solid paper at Hobby Lobby. I also found this plastic template thing to draw the swirly design. I added cream organdy ribbon and the emblem with 3d tape.

I plan to go through and add the individual's first initial to the bottom right corner in calligraphy to finish them off!

Working at My Parents'

My parents have bought a home that needs a bunch of work before they can move into it. Although they've had different individuals come and work on it, it's still got a ways to go before they can live there. My brother-in-law is a handy guy and has been going down every once and a while and doing projects here and there.

An aunt and uncle came down from Nebraska to visit my parents and they got in on the action too! My uncle does a lot of fixing up work and was a great resource.

Here's Barry, my uncle Bill, and my dad working on a cabinet for the kitchen.
Here's my nephew working hard outside!
Break time! My sister, my mom, my nephew, and my aunt Audrey hanging out in the "man cave".

The Wedding

Here are a few pictures from the wedding...
We didn't get to stay long enough to have cake, but heard that it was yummy! Aren't the fondant flowers beautiful?! Sorry for the poor quality, but this is their first dance as husband & wife! They were so cute!

Here's the table arrangements. They sprayed the branches gold and then added peacock feathers to the arrangement. On the table were little bowls with roses and a couple candles. It was very beautiful.
The party favor was some marshmallows as the couple had roasted marshmallows on their first date. The colors were navy blue and gold.

It was a great night even though we didn't get to stay for the whole time.

A wedding!

We are headed to a wedding tonight! My boss's daughter is getting married.

I made this card -- with the same papers that I've done several wedding cards, the black swirly with some white organdy ribbon, and I did calligraphy of their names. Inside I also wrote in calligraphy - "Congratulations!" It's not too fancy, but it gets across the message.

We'll tuck a gift card inside and call it good! :)

It happened!

Today, Thursday, October 13, we officially passed the 200,000 mile mark on the Jeep!

Crazy, huh?! God has taken such good care of us with this vehicle over the last 7 years. We hope there's more to come!

A family pic

Here we are - all three of us!

We actually took this picture at church - doesn't it look like it?! We set the camera on the Jeep and there you go!

23 weeks

October Birthday Wishes

Since the birthdays have passed, I can share these cards that I made for family who had birthdays this week.

This is for my mom's birthday. I liked this gray paper with the asterisks on it and since it had some blue in it, I used that as a complimentary color. This is of course a design template from CPS. This was the first time that I used the die cut that had the birthday things embossed into the circle. I used some white organdy ribbon and wrote "Happy Birthday!"

This card was for my niece who turned 6 on the 6th! (We also gave 6 gifts!) I just did a simple design with the three papers. I added pink organdy ribbon and a plastic e. I also wrote "Happy Birthday!"

Last, but not least, is a card for my dad. I liked the complementary colors that were matched with the cross paper and the blue, but wish I could find brown paper to match every shade of brown! I think it turned out okay and I wrote "Happy Birthday, Dad!" in my favorite font.

Barry-Free Evening

Barry had an opportunity to go out with some guys from church Thursday night, so I had the night all to myself. So, guess what I did?! I made cards! I am so behind on getting things done (Scooter zaps my energy, can you imagine that?!) that I've had a couple people that I've intended to do cards for and I haven't. This was the prime opportunity to do it. Plus, I got 2 extra cards made to give in the future. This one I used pink and brown as my colors. I used the giraffe print as the background and then added three patterned papers in strips down the left side. I wrote a simple message and added a piece of pink organdy ribbon with the friend's initial.
This one has a multitude of papers - 8 total! I used a design template from CPS and based the colors off of the middle paper. I miscalculated the size of the four squares and had to add a piece of black in the middle to make it work. This is just a thinking of you card.
This card is for a friend that just moved into a new house - her first home! I used the blue flowerdy paper as the basis for the other colors. I added the white die-cut flower and a pink jewel in the middle. I wrote "Congratulations!" in the white stripe.
This last card is for a co-worker who just had surgery this week. I wanted to make it cheerful so I used bright colors. I used 4 papers and some purple organdy ribbon. I wrote simply, "Praying for you" and then on the inside, "hoping you feel better soon!"

Tailgating Party at Work

We had a Tailgating party today at work -- sort of a celebration for October birthdays and then just something fun to do with the whole group. We had off from 11am-1pm to eat, play games, and socialize. The highlight of the time was the dunking booth.

This is my former boss, Gary.
Everyone cheered each time the participants fell in. It was hilarious!

Here I am with my Michigan t-shirt on (well, actually one of Barry's). I'm almost 23 weeks (1 day shy of it). The extra little bulge is my belt - these pants were so large that I needed it!Here I am with my co-worker, Mary. We used to work in the same department but now have gone separate ways. She's a great friend to me!

The first load of laundry

Sure, I know, who would post a picture of the first load of baby clothes? Crazy people like me, I guess! We've been saving up the clothes to get to a point to do a load and this was the first one.
We found a bunch of deals over the weekend at a consignment sale and then at a garage sale. I think that we might have spent about $12 to get all these things and some of them were brand spanking new!
We don't have a dresser to put them in (yet!) so they'll hang out in this caddy until we do. The little newborn stuff is so small. I don't think that Scooter is going to wear it very long (or at all). If he follows the trend that me and my siblings were on, he'll be a chunk when he's born.

Baby Spaghetti Squash

I got to my desk Monday morning and found this! According to Baby Center, at 22 weeks, the baby is the size of a spaghetti squash. I had no idea what that was and my co-worker decided to surprise me with one on Monday!

The squash wasn't quite as long as they said the baby should be (over 10 inches) and it weighed significantly more than what the baby weighs - 4 pounds, but it gives a good indication of the size of the baby.

Can you believe that Scooter is this big?!

Baby Card

I made this card and another exactly the same for two families that just had baby boys. I used the "It's a Boy" paper for the background and then some train paper as an accent. I made a large capital letter in the orange print for each child and wrote their name on the letter.

This particular one is for Tate who was born to a friend who was a co-worker with me. During the pregnancy they found some problems with his heart, but wouldn't be able to know for sure the extent until he was born as it had to do with the connection between the lungs and heart. He is doing pretty well.
The other card was for our friends who just had an emergency c-section on Friday. The little one's heart rate was so low that they felt for the safety of the baby they needed to go ahead and take him. Little Justice had open-heart surgery on Saturday. We went to the hospital on Sunday to see the family. He needs lots of prayers - they have a long road ahead of them.