Thursday's Random Thoughts

If I thought I was blowing dust off my blog, last time, then right now I am wiping the layer of grime that accumulates when something has been allowed to catch dust for far too long.  Today I feel a need to write.  The urge strikes me, now and again, especially when I am feeling emotional or upset.  Today, I also felt a strong urge to connect with my most influential female family members.  Sadly, they are no longer with me, in the physical sense, so I headed to the basement where I keep my mom, and grandma, memorabilia... if you will.  I have boxes of letters, scrapbooks from my mom's theater days, poetry she wrote, artwork, photographs, etc.  As I was reading some of the letters, my mom and grandparents wrote back and forth while she was attending the Dayton Art Institute, it occurred to me how tremendous the love that they had for each other truly was.  Anyone that knows me knows how terribly much I miss my mother.  I miss my grandparents, as well, because they were such a huge presence in my life.  I will come back to that later but for now..... my mom.  She gave me such an amazing childhood.  I know how truly blessed I was to have that childhood.  Not everyone is as fortunate.  I grew up in a home full of love and encouragement.  I had two parents that were extremely in love so I witnessed, and learned, affection between a husband and wife.  I even had a pony for goodness sake!  It does not get any more quintessential than that!  Tragically, at least to my story, she was taken from us at the ripe young age of 42.  I was 18.  The childhood fairytale ends there. Luckily,  for me, I still had my amazing grandparents.  Grandma for 3 more years, and Grandpa for 10 more years.  My future changed entirely.  I was scheduled to leave for basic training on July 12th, 1993.  The day after her birthday, and just three short months before she passed away.  Even though nobody would admit it, we all knew the inevitable so I requested a discharge from the military.  There was no way I could leave under those circumstances.  I was my mom's only child.  After she passed I just could not bring myself to leave my grandma and grandpa. So into the workforce and Lakeland Community College it was.

Oops..... getting a little off topic there.  Back to the original point of this blog entry... Mom and Grandma.  My mom was a wonderful person.  She was compassionate, beautiful, intelligent, talented.  She was the kind of person that people standing in line behind her in the grocery store line felt compelled to tell their life stories to...  and she listened... she listened and she cared!  And then somehow that person was her new best friend!!  Haha.  A little exaggeration there but not much!  I remember one time we were shopping in the grocery store where the Craft & Antique Co Op is now.  I think it was a Giant Eagle at that time.  A man struck up a conversation about the items in her cart.  He looked over our soon to be purchases and told her he wished he was coming to our house for dinner.  He then proceeded to ask her on a date.  She thanked him and said, "That is very sweet but I am a  happily married woman!"  Ultimate respect!  Props to the momma.

My grandma was wonderful, too, but in a different way.  Where my mom loved everybody, almost to a fault, you had to earn my grandma's respect.  She didn't love everybody right from the get, in fact you were lucky if she kinda liked you until you earned that respect and place in her world.  She was smart, as a whip, and also extremely talented.  She was also very hip and had a great sense of humor.  You never knew what might come out of her mouth because she spoke her mind.  If you didn't like it she really didn't care that much.  Grandma did not take crap from anyone.  She attended The Andrews School, as a girl, and later earned her teaching degree from Lake Erie College.  She retired a high school art teacher.  Oh yeah!  Did I mention they were both artists.  Someone that had her as a teacher once told me that if a fight broke out in the hallway, Mrs. Kasper would be the one that was sure to be there getting in the middle of it to break it up.  Makes me laugh because.... yep!!!!  That was Grandma.  She also loved, and protected, her family with a vengeance..... and was a fabulous cook!

I turned out to be a combination of the two.  I won't bore you with a rundown of the specific qualities but I will thank my Mom for instilling compassion and Grandma for instilling the ability to recognize, and call out, the BS.  So, when I need to be close to those special women, I open those boxes.  You see, those boxes are full of truths.  Truth in the form of emotions, from the heart, placed on paper by a pen.  Truth in the form of the reminders of the accomplishments of their lives. Tangible truths.  Fortunately, if I am in need of a verification of a memory I had, I have my Godmother.  She was friends with my mom for as long as she can remember.  They did theater together, they worked together, they lunched, daily, together.  If anyone know my mom and her story.... it is Seabright.  She knew my mom on a level that I did not even know her.  She knew her dreams, her joys, her heartbreaks, and her secrets.  She was her soul sister, her confidant, her best friend.  I called on her, just yesterday, for clarity on a situation from the past.  Thank you, Seabright, for always being there when I need you!

The Goings On...

I am finally back to blow the dust off my blog! I realize January is almost over but I think I shall start with December. It was a very busy month. We had a visit from the stork, Santa Clause, my dad and stepmom, and two visits from the tooth fairy! Here is the gift we received from the stork.



Rush Jacob was born on December 12th, and weighed 8 pounds 1.5 ounces. He is my biggest yet. I told Corey no more because, at this rate, the next one is liable to weigh ten pounds. Yikes! He is such a good baby and only gets fussy when he wants to eat or has gas. Life is a little hectic with a new baby and a 17 month old that is into everything. It's amazing that a 5 minute shower has turned into a luxury instead of a necessity. At least I don't have to add work into that mix.

I know this is short, but I have to go make dinner.... more later.

They Just Keep Getting Less and Less Comfortable...

When I was pregnant with Rhiannon it was truly a breeze! I never experienced morning sickness, I never missed a beat at work... in fact I was in the office the day before she was born, and in the hospital later that evening to be induced. I only gained 35 pounds and was back wearing my size 6 wardrobe by the time she was 7 months old. My weight always fluctuates a little between a 6 and an 8. I decided in 2006 that maybe I should give my body a break from the birth control. My doctor told me that the birth control pills of today were not like the days of old, and that there were many benefits to the Yasmine I was taking. One of them being that it actually helps keep your weight down.... snort. Well, he was right! I stopped taking the Yasmine and quickly gained extra weight... not to mention ending up pregnant with Adrian! So everyone that knows me knows that pregnancy number 3 here was a surprise ( a pleasant one albeit). I weaned Adrian from breastfeeding at 8 months and was pregnant and didn't even know it. I thought I was going to lose my extra 40 pounds (to get back to my 6 and my HUGE closet full of figure flattering clothes), and enjoy some margaritas and appletinis throughout the summer! Snort again! Well I just have to say that this pregnancy is really uncomfortable... and I am not a wimp. Maybe I just didn't have enough time to heal completely between the two preganancies. That is what I keep getting told by the ladies of the older generations anyway. Have you ever noticed that when you buy a new car, all of the sudden you realize all of the other people driving around in the same make and model? I am now like that with mothers of children that are close in age. I feel compelled to ask them "how far apart in age are they?" You know what they say... misery loves company, and I guess I am finding comfort in the fact that there are so many people out there with children that are less than a year and a half apart in age like my two boys will be. 16 months apart to be exact. Yikes!!

Well as far as the goings on with the fam.... Adrian turned 1 year old on the 25th of August, and we had a little pary for him on september 7th. Here he is eating his cake:

Rhiannon started the second grade and just loves it. She is also in the midst of her midget football league cheerleading, and her first Brownie meeting of the new year is tonight. Here she is on her first day of school, and cheering at her first game of the season:

Corey is busy as ever at work! He wants a four wheeler so that he and Rhiannon can go trail riding together, so he has decided to sell one of our Mustangs. Here she is all pretty and waiting for a new owner...

And without further ado... here is everybody's first look at Rush Jacob...

He looks like he has a full head of hair already!! Hence this awful heartburn!!

My Problem is I Just Love Stuff!

It's been a long time since Corey and I have had an opportunity to go to an auction. Grandma watched the girls on Saturday night, and he, Adrian, and I did just that. It was so much fun! For those of you that know me already, you know that I like to go to the auctions to find stuff to re-sell.... whether it be on e-bay or in my booth at The Craft & Antique Co-Op. I picked up an old rocking chair for my booth, but mostly stuff for e-bay at this auction. There was a small collection of Wedgwood Jasperware and I pretty much bought all of it. The real find though was a gorgeous antique Gone With the Wind style lamp. It was originally kerosene but it has been converted to electric. Similar lamps sold on e-bay fetch anywhere from $200-$400. I'm pretty excited about this one, I just dread shipping it. It's rather large and very fragile. Corey is always such a good sport about the auctions... because you know what his job is... to load all of the crap I buy into the car or box truck (if we buy furniture). It happened to be pouring rain in sheets on Saturday too. He never complains though. Those of you that know me also know that I still have that basement full of stuff that I've inherited from three generations before me. Yes, yes I am still going through all of those boxes etc. Slowly but surely. That is actually what started my whole love affair with e-bay. My first item sold was a Kodak Polaroid camera from the 1940's (found in my basement of course) that was still in it's original box and included all of the accessories. Someone bought it for $40. I thought that was just awesome! Then I found my grandpa's old marble collection. A whole cigar box full of Peltier and Akro Agates from the 1920's. I was getting $40-$50 a piece for some of those little guys. I have to admit though, I have more but I just haven't parted with them yet. I don't know why since I certainly do not collect marbles. Sometimes it is hard to part with even the most trivial of items when all you have left of a person is their stuff. The problem is that I have so much of other people's stuff. My mom, grandma, and grandpa were all artists. I have paintings, woodcarvings, pottery, drawings, and on and on and on. I haven't parted with any of that... I'm sure I won't either. I think the part I enjoy most about the whole treasure hunt is the research. I know more about antique and vintage marbles now than I need to.

Anyway, here are a couple of layouts I did recently using som of Rachel's new kits. It is time to get back into the swing of scrapping and my creative team for Steel City Scraps.

I just fell in love with the photos I took of Rhiannon on her last day of 1st grade this past June. I have made three layouts with them. This layout was for Rachel's ingredient challenge at Divine Digital. The kit is called Weekend Getaway.

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This layout was done for a challenge at Stone Accent Studios. I used The Artisan's Garden by Booland Designs.

I'm a Blog Neglector!

I know, I know. I have been terrible about posting any blogs this summer. It has just been so hectic around here. I agreed to watch my stepdaughter, Sophia, this summer. It has actually turned out to be a lot of extra work. I am exhausted trying to entertain two seven year olds, chase around an 11 month old, and being pregnant to boot. Sophia was finally diagnosed with Asperger's at the beginning of this year. I don't even need to elaborate on the fact that Corey and I have known something was wrong with her since she was a baby... those of you who know me have heard at least six years worth of it. Anyway, it just adds to the difficulty of the whole situation. Enough about that or I will start to elaborate.

Some exciting news about Rhiannon. We had the National American Miss pageant in Columbus this past weekend. Now I just want to reiterate (for those of you that might not have read the earlier post explaining all about the pageant), that this pageant is NOT one of those freak shows where the moms dress their 5 year olds, etc. to look 25. I don't mean the children are freaks.... just any mother that would do that to their child. The girls in National American Miss are not allowed to wear any makeup until they are teenagers competing in the older divisions. I was really impressed with the whole shindig. It was a wonderfully organized, classy affair. It was apparent early on that we were mingling with little girls that have extensive coaching. Some of them show up with their coaches and their own personal hairdressers. But even given our lack of pageantry knowledge, Rhiannon made it to the semi-finals, and was in the top 25 out of 123 girls! I am so proud!! It was really exciting. We have been invited back next year, and she had a great time, so we will probably do it again. This time we will know what to practice. Here's a picture of Rhiannon after she was called back on stage as a semi-finalist.

So the weekend befor the pageant, I had a slumber party for the girls' birthday. I've decided that the person that created the whole "slumber party" concept should spend some time hanging from their toenails. The girls had a great time though. They played on the water slide and trampoline, threw water balloons, watched movies, and stayed up until 12:30 in the morning... which means so did I. Sophia didn't make it the whole night. She had a meltdown and Corey had to take her home at about 10:00pm. The really unfortunate thing about her disorder is that we never know what to expect. Here are a few pics from the party.

A week or so before the party, I finally got to meet Rachel, Mike, and the girls. I took the girls to the cottage, and they got to play on the beach a little. Then a few nights later, the four of us even got to go out without the kids!

So I will try not to be so neglectful of the blog from here on out. I have a lot of scrapping to get busy doing for the creative team too. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Rhiannon's Last Day of First Grade!

Today was Rhiannon't last day of first grade! They had a carnival, and she came home with red stripes in her hair and "Go Perry" painted in red across her face. Haha. Here is a layout I did with the pics I took this morning...

I used Adventurous Ty by Steel City Scraps for this layout.

Here is a layout I did of her first day of first grade...

I created this layout with a Pocketful of Posies by Leslie Emery Designs, and a template by RoseMcDigital Designs.

What fun I had yesterday. Vickie and I went to see Sex and the City. It made me realize just how much I miss that show! Samantha is still my favorite... she is such a hoot!

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Rhiannon was with her dad this weekend, so it was just Corey, Adrian, and me. On Sunday we went to Russ and Vickie's for a cookout. It was a great time... complete with a mean game of Catch Phrase. Yesterday Corey's folks came here for a cookout. The weather was amazing after the early morning rain.

Here is a layout that I created in honor of Memorial Day. The journaling reads: My grandfather served with the US Navy during World War II. He was a gunner aboard a destroyer escort named The USS Foss. He is the handsome fella in the middle!

I created this layout as part of a Memorial Day Challenge hosted by Steel City Scraps. You can check out the details on our creative team blog.

I used a kit by Steel City Scraps called Sentimental, and a template by Sweet Scraps.