Stamping Bella color challenge

This week, the Stamping Bella color challenge was timed in a way that we had the weekend to play, so I was able to participate. I have become a total Bella-addict, I must tell you!

Here is my first card, using Underwatergoddessabella:

And here is my 2nd card - I couldn't pick just one, so I sent in both. This one uses Cruisabella:The paper and inks are Stampin' Up! The background paper is left over from some odds and ends I had laying around. Peace.

Contest & more...

Thanks to my friend Shelly for suggesting that I enter this contest! Here are the 2 creations that I came up with using the free digital image that Shirley's 2 Girls provided - if I have to pick ONE to enter, it'd be the first one - the catch was that you had to use some hardware on the card:

Then of course I got on a roll and made some more:


That's all for now. Peace.

The dangers of being a teenager...

Every time one of my kids leaves the house, I feel an ache in the pit of my stomach that doesn't go away until they come home. It's not like I can't function while they are gone - I'm not overly dramatic about it or anything, I just have this little sense of uneasiness that won't go away until I know my child is back at home, safe. With me.

My kids do not know the things that go through my mind when they go out. They have no idea what a scary, dangerous world it is out there. In a way, I envy their naivete - but mostly, I worry for them. My daughter is going to be 14 next month, but she could easily pass for 16/17. She has absolutely no idea how beautiful she is. She has a body that I would die for, and thinks she's "fat." (God damn media, models, peer pressure, etc. - but that's for another day...). She's strong, and she's confident - and that's great. But I also want her to be aware of the dangers, aware that if she's alone she will not be able to fend off a 200-pound man if he decides to hurt her. I don't think teenage girls should go anywhere in public alone, and she knows that. I talk to her often and I hope she is listening. I told her about what happened to Molly Bish, Polly Klaas, Holly Piirainen. I read both of my kids news stories like these ones:

Just this past weekend, a 17-year-old boy from Fitchburg died after a car accident early Friday evening. Apparently, the boy was driving the car with 3 of his buddies and when they crashed, they all ran. Although all of the circumstances haven't been released yet, it appears that the kids were driving too fast and lost control. Police also found alcohol at the scene. Police managed to find 3 of the kids and questioned them, and assumed the fourth was alright, but still not willing to come forward. The kids themselves started to get nervous when they had not heard from their friend by the following day. They returned to the scene and searched themselves, finding him just in time for him to basically die in their arms.

About a month ago, a teenage girl in Andover was at a sleepover party with her girlfriends. She got into an argument, either with her friends or on the phone with her boyfriend, and she took off running away from the house wearing only her shorts and T-shirt at 5:00 a.m. Her friends got worried when she didn't return within an hour, and her boyfriend became concerned when she didn't answer her cell phone. When she ran from the house, she ended up on a pond and fell through the ice. By the time authorities came looking for her, it was too late. She was officially pronounced dead at the hospital that afternoon.

Neither of these towns is very far from my own. Trevor is going to be 16 in July - he's a big kid, and he's also strong. But he also has a false sense of his own ability to fight off someone bigger and older than himself, and that worries me. These kids are my LIFE, my heart and soul. And so I try my best to be a good mom and I let them go because I know I have to, it's good for them, but I won't be able to breathe a sigh of relief until they come back. I know the day will come when they'll be walking out the door and won't be coming back... not permanently, anyway. I'll deal with that when it gets here, I have enough to worry about for now! LOL Everyone is home safe and sound at the moment, a good feeling. Peace.

Ghosts and I've been published!

I am pretty sure that we have a ghost. Or ghosts. Don't tell me you don't "believe" in ghosts, please. Ghosts are just energy left behind, there's no "believing" it or not. They just are. Some people are more sensitive to them, some energy is more.... active, I guess. I'm a skeptical person, too, trust me. I watch some of those "ghost hunter" shows and I laugh my ass off at how fake some of them are. It's a shame because it makes a mockery out of something that should be taken seriously, as far as I'm concerned.

So anyway, we've had quite a few freaky things happen since we moved into this house on December 19, 2008. Yeah, 3 months ago. I'm not going to tell you all of them, but most recently it's been lightbulbs. Almost every day for the past week, a lightbulb has blown or fallen out of the ceiling and smashed all over the floor. Bathroom, kitchen, living room, cellar, and my craft room. The kids hear noises at night in the hallway, like someone walking - the floorboards are very creaky, you cannot tiptoe around up there. Things move - like knickknacks rearrange themselves overnight. LOL It's mostly harmless stuff, but the lightbulbs are starting to freak me out a little bit.

This house was built in 1920 as a small 1-bedroom ranch. Jeremy's father, Richard, added the 2nd floor to this house when Jeremy was a kid, probably around 1980, and they lived here for several years. After we had already had a few freaky things happen, Richard casually mentioned to Jeremy that he thought this house might be haunted. Then we were talking to Jeremy's 20-year-old cousin Matt, who told us that he has 2 friends who have lived here and both said it was haunted.

It's weird, though, I don't feel threatened or anything. I can't help but wonder if it goes upstairs wondering how the 2nd floor got there, you know? LOL Like it's just curious, maybe? I can't find anything online about the history of the house, but I'm thinking about going to the library in town and seeing if there is anything there. You can be sure I'll post if I find anything!!

OK So I had a card chosen to be published in the April issue of Crafts N' Things magazine - thanks, Dawn!!! This is the card:

I'll be posting more cards tomorrow. Peace.

Cards

Just sharing my latest creations with you all:

Peace, man.

I absolutely LOVEY this new Bella, Predictabella - the sentiment says "I see a birthday coming..." So cute!

Another new Bella - Underwatergoddessbella:
This is another new Bella image, so adorable! This image reminded me of Meg :o)

I sometimes force myself to make things that I wouldn't normally make... like color combinations (why is Blogger telling me that combinations is spelled wrong? It is not!) and stuff - this is one of those creations, it actually came out cute! I covered a chipboard flower with designer series paper:
The colors in this one are 100 times prettier in real life:

The front piece pulls off to use as a bookmark:
I love the mermaids - making cards with this stamp is so much fun:
The sun was shining yesterday and it was about 60 degrees for a while, so nice - gave me a little bit of Spring fever and I think I got ahead of myself... hee hee
That's all for today - peace.

Facebook

When these social networking sites first came out, I joined MySpace simply to keep an eye on my daughter and her friends. I started finding some old friends and quickly became a fan myself, finding myself logging on every day to "check my MySpace." LOL I joined Facebook, too, but wasn't too crazy about it at first. Well - let's just say that over the past 6 months, my resistance has turned into an obsession. I rarely log in to MySpace anymore, unless it's to literally check on one of my kids or their friends, but I am logged into my Facebook account at least a few times a day! I have found literally hundreds of old friends from high school, from old jobs, etc.

What I love about Facebook the most is that I've reconnected with old friends who I most likely would not have without it. A whole bunch of us ended up meeting at a local bar the other night and we had the best time, it was so nice to see so many of my oldest, bestest friends. Most of my best friends have always been guys. It was nice to finally meet their girlfriends/wives, who were all sweethearts!

OK so this is my sister Shell and our friend Amy who we have known since we were in elementary school. Amy is in the middle:
Me and Shell being silly:

Me and my girl, Shannon:
Shannon and my hubby Jeremy:
Me and Shannon's hubby Tim:
Shannon and HER hubby, Timmy:
Shannon and our friend Sean, who we all adore:
Me and Sean (Sean is Amy's brother, I've been friends with him my entire life):
Shannon posing on the pool table with Jeremy, Tim, and Bob - cuz that's how she rolls (hee hee):
Me and my Christopher, we've also been friends for just about our entire loves, I love him like a brother:
Me and another life-long friend, Chunny - let's just say we're a very lovey-dovey group of friends and I'm lucky that my husband is so understanding of my relationships with my friends, since the majority of them are men! LOL
Me, Tanya and Shannon:
This is Dana, Kristen, me and Dave. Dave and Dana are identical twins - Dave is one of my very best friends in the world (I love you, too, though, Dana! hee hee):
This is Dave and his girlfriend Karen, who I finally got to meet! She's a sweetheart and I am so glad that Dave has such a wonderful woman in his life, he deserves it!
This is my old friend Dan from high school and his wife, Jen - who it turns out I have several mutual friends in common with - it really is a small world! This was the first time I had ever met Jen, too, and I loved her!
We had a great time and I hope even more old friends show up next time! I'm very thankful to have these people back in my life. Peace.

Life update - with pictures!

So happy March - we are supposed to be able to look forward to flowers blooming and tree buds blossoming, right? ha ha ha Today, we woke up to another snow day thanks to a fresh foot of snow that fell last night. Working for a college, I don't mind snow days at all - I don't have to make them up! My poor kids, however, are working on weeks of "extended days" to make up for the ridiculous number of snow days we've had this year. Enough is enough, Mother Nature!

About a month ago I wrote a blog about my old friend Tim, who I went to my junior prom with. I wished I had a new picture to put up next to the prom one. Well, my wish came true when we went out again a few weeks later to my friends' parents' anniversary party and my friend Melanie had her camera. Here is the prom picture again:
And now here we are, um, exactly 20 years later (the pic above was in the Spring of 1989), this is Tim's wife Shannon, Tim, me, and my husband Jeremy:

Not only do I adore Tim and I'm so thankful to be hangin' out with him again, but I also LOVEY Tim's wife Shannon. It's always nice when you meet up with old friends and totally hit it off with their spouse, isn't it? For me, it's especially nice because most of my old friends are guys! You know how some people you meet you just know you're going to become good friends with? That is how I felt about Shannon, and I was right. I think everything happens for a reason, as you all know, and I'm so thankful to have met Shannon! So anyway, this is Shannon, me and Melanie, pretending to be Charlie's Angels. Hey, we had fun:
Mel is the little sister of one of my oldest friends, Kevin. You will not hear me call them Melanie or Kevin very often, it's just Kev and Mel. When we were REALLY young, like 14/15, Kev and I hung out at "the park". One day we were sitting on the bleachers and someone said they had a headache, so I offered them an aspirin. Kev was known to be, uh, sensitive - he was standing kind of far away and thought I called him an asshole. It became a joke that has lasted for more than 20 years - every time I see him, he hugs me and says "Hey aspirin!" hee hee :o) This is me and Kev, Mel is taking the picture saying "Say aspirin!" ROFLMAO I love old friends and memories, this is what life is all about, you know?


My hubby and I:
This is "us":

I love the Internet. I've been online for 10 years, but many people are just getting addicted now. Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with a ton of old friends and we have all started talking more and making an effort to get together and get our social lives back. My almost-14-year-old daughter has been making fun of me - when I told her we were going out next weekend she said "Mom! You are OLD - you are not supposed to be a party animal." (Says the girl who stays out later than we do.... LOL)

It's not about going out necessarily, but more about having a life outside of home, work, repeat. You know? Lately, Jeremy and I have been going over to Missy & Dan's or Timmy & Shannon's house (you'll always be TIMMY to me, Tim, sorry! hee hee) and playing pitch. I love doing that stuff - just getting together and talking. Talking about old times, our children, the future, our families. Many of my friends have small children, but mine are teenagers now and able to be left home alone for a few hours - often, they have their own plans! It's nice to not have to worry about babysitters and stuff anymore.

This afternoon I am going with Tim to attend the wake/calling hours of an 18-year-old young man who is the son of friends of ours from high school. He was diagnosed with brain cancer not too long ago and he passed away last week. They are a very religious family and take a lot of comfort in their faith, so I am thankful for that. Please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. Peace.