Mean people suck

So I wake up this morning and I feel like I'm getting sick - you know that feeling, headache-y, sore throat, stuffy, weak, etc. And I'm very lucky that I have a laptop and can work from home and no one ever gives me a hard time when I need to do that. But today, I had to go in - there were a couple of things that I just had to do and I had to physically be there to do them. So I went, hoping I'd feel better. But I didn't, I started to feel worse and worse. Then I answered the phone to find a semi-psychotic student on the other end, who yelled at me for a good 5 minutes before I finally just hung up. I was drained and really feeling crappy now, and it's not even noon yet. I started to get ready to leave, only to be confronted by a fully psychotic angry Nursing student who thinks we should change the way we do things simply because she doesn't like it, is basically the bottom line. I have no idea why, but our Nursing students at the college where I work have always had a bad reputation. When I started working there, I thought it was weird that everyone hated the Nursing students. Four years later, now I know why. I'd say about half of them are complete nightmares. The other half are compassionate, bright, sweet people. Uunfortunately, the fact that half are rude, obnoxious, miserable jerks really stands out - half is a lot. I do not understand how or why people like this even want to be nurses, to tell you the truth. If you cannot have a conversation with another adult without yelling like a fool just because you don't get your way, you are NOT cut out to be a nurse. Actually, they probably won't end up nurses, and that would be a good thing. I would run screaming from the hospital room, IV pole trailing behind me, if any of those wretches showed up as MY nurse, let me tell you. HMPH! So I came home immediately after letting that horrible girl make me cry, and then cried even more cuz I was mad at myself for letting her get to me like that. But you know how it is when you just don't feel good - any other day, I probably wouldn't have let it bother me that much at all! I came home and crawled into bed and took a nap. I still don't feel good, but I can't sleep. I am going to eat dinner with the kids and take some night-time cold medicine and hope I can sleep tonight!

Some cards I made over the weekend, this one uses My Guy Ian from the Greeting Farm:

And this one uses CC Designs Sugar Plums Mermaid digital image:

Just got some new Pink Cat Studio digital images - cards to follow soon! Peace.

Sugar Nellies Challenge - Frog Prince

The Sugar Bowl had a sketch challenge this week for Challenge 20, and I love sketch challenges. This sketch had a "please include" option and what you had to include was paper-piecing. So here is what I came up with, her dress is paper-pieced. The image is by Diane Duda, Frog Prince:

Now the funny thing was that I was having so much fun following the sketch, that I completely forgot to paper-piece my first attempt. It came out so pretty, though, that I had to share anyway. This one uses Rope Swing (Sugar Nellie):
I've been busy stamping on this rainy day, so will share some more tomorrow. Peace.

The winner is....

LINDA! Linda - you are the only one who left a comment, so you win the new package of Stampin' Up! Designer Series background paper, it's a 6x6 package. I'll give it to you the next time we get together. Thank you for being my friend - and thank you for reading my blog and leaving comments, I really appreciate it. This has been a crappy week and I'm feeling sorry for myself - I'm sure raging PMS isn't helping. *sigh*

Work has been stressing me out - and it's funny because it's not the "work" itself - it's people. I have a really hard time with miserable people who like to make everyone else miserable. I am just the kind of person who tries to be happy and smile and... I'm just NICE to people. I have a particular co-worker (who thankfully does NOT work in my building) who I have tried to be friends with for a few years now. I say "tried" because I've realized that it's just impossible to really be her friend. She's miserable. She's depressed - she's always ready for a fight. She's the kind of co-worker that you cannot ask ONE question to or she thinks you are accusing her of doing something wrong. I'm just sick of it. Yesterday I had the worst day at work since that person who made all of our lives miserable left in June. It sucked, and I hate feeling that way. I do think it might be time to start exploring my options, though, because things cannot keep going the way they are at my work without the place falling apart. It's scary, though, because I really love my job and I hate change. So much to think about.

And then there's my 14-year-old daughter who is a true teenager now. She's going to give me gray hair VERY quickly and I am learning how hard it really is to be a good parent. I think we'll get through this all just fine in the long run, because I AM a good parent (and so is my hubby) and she is really a good kid deep down - but I have to remind her of that so that she'll STAY that way. It's going to be a long 4 years (and a lot of tears, I'm sure)!!! Wish me luck.

Gotta get ready for work. Peace.

Sugar Bowl Challenge

For the Sugar Bowl's Sketch Challenge this week:

Image is Dress-Up Maggie by Sugar Nellies - I got her from SCS Wish RAK. Paper & inks by Stampin' Up!
Peace.

Hellooooo? Anyone out there?

I had made the invitations for a birthday party for one-year-old Livvie, my friend Denise's daughter. Denise's mom-in-law asked her to have me make thank-you cards, too, so I had a blast making these yesterday using the pictures from the party that Denise dropped off. I made 20 and they were all different, here are a few of them:

I forgot to take a picture of the inside- I used a child's handwriting font and wrote in pink ink "Thank you for making my birthday so special. Love, Livvie"
Cute, eh?

OK so here's the part where I'm dying to see who is out there. I visit lots of blogs and leave comments all the time - I know people visit my blog but you're all so dang quiet. So I am offering up a prize for someone who leaves a comment on this post. That's it - just leave a comment. Let me know you're out there! Tell me why you visit my blog - do you like my stamping style? Do you like to read about my life? I will choose a winner on Wednesday night, so leave your comment by 6:00 p.m. Wednesday. Thanks. The prize will be a brand new sealed package of 6x6 Stampin' Up Patterns Pack II designer series background paper.

Now comment away... peace.

Decided to make a Halloween card for the Greeting Farm's sketch challenge this week. Here's the sketch:

Here's what I did with the sketch, using Rockstar Anya:

And then just because I was in the Halloween spirit, I made a few more:

Peace.

Busy stampin' day!

Spent the day in my stamp room today, here's some of what I did:

Above image is "Laundry" by The Greeting Farm, I just love her. Below image is Megan, one of the Wild Sprouts by TGF.

The next two are both digi images by CC Designs, Swiss Pixies Heidi Among the Flowers:

And this one is an image that someone from RAK or Wish RAK sent me (Splitcoast Stampers) - same with the apple background paper... I just had to put them together and make a card. The sentiment is a rub-on.

Last, a good friend of mine asked me to make a wedding card for her friends who were getting married this weekend. The colors were black and ivory, so she wanted to stick with that. I think it came out pretty cute - I used Stamping Bella's Togetha Forevah (Tiddly Inks):

Tomorrow I will post the Halloween cards I made, one is for the Greeting Farm's sketch challenge this week. Peace.

Halloween Birthday Party Invitations

A friend asked me to make her daughter's 8th birthday party invitations in a Halloween theme, and this is what I came up with:

I love them, I think they came out adorable! I used CC Designs Sugarplums Halloween digi images, Stampin' Up! cardstocks and inks and Watercolor Wonder crayons blended with Blender Pens. I used a 1 3/8" circle punch for the full moon.

It's rainy today, I am going to go do my errands and take Trev to pick up his cool new glasses. It looks like it's going to be a good day to come home and spend the day making cards, so I am thinking I'll probably participate in some challenges. I'll be back later to post my entries. Peace.

Grieving, death just sucks.

So yeah, death just plain old sucks. It's been a long, awful week. We miss grandpa so much. His services were wonderful - the visiting hours were from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. There was a line already before 5:00 and never slowed down much until it was almost over. He was such a wonderful man, he touched so many people's lives. From his family, friends of family, people he worked with, people who worked for him, people from the groups he volunteered with and just every walk of life that he was involved in. So many people. Everyone saying nice things - everyone with nothing but funny stories and smiles on their faces. And after 3 days of doing nothing but crying, it was good for me to see and hear all that. It helped me start to heal. Cuz really, it's selfish to be so damn sad - he would not have wanted to live suffering or unable to function on his own. His memory will live on with the people who knew and loved him, and there are so many!

So - the night before the services, I had to take my children shopping for funeral clothes. So not fun. But Trevor wanted a suit, and he picked one out that I thought was over $300 and it ended up costing about $80 total, and he looks like a million bucks, look at this kid, 16 years old:

Now here he is with his dad:

And the elusive princess, who was angry that I took this picture outside because "what if someone was walking by?" *sigh* She's 14 and a drama queen. But she's mine. :o)
I was very proud of the kids and how they handled this whole week, it wasn't easy on any of us. We are lucky to have friends and family who made it bearable and helped us to get through it, and we are so grateful to them all. It was even nice to see and spend time with so much of Jeremy's extended family, who we unfortunately don't see very often since they live in different areas of the country.

One thing I had always wondered was how people at visiting hours, the family, always seemed so calm. This made me realize that by the time the visiting hours are going on, the family is feeling numb, all cried out, exhausted. Now you just have to get through everything. But it helps, having these rituals and services and people around you, etc. It really does help. It forces you not to lie in bed crying all day - but instead to celebrate the life of the person you loved. To remember them fondly, with smiles instead of tears.

Rest in peace, grandpa. We will always remember you with smiles, and when we eat ice cream. hee hee ;o)

Crappy week, cute cards, I didn't win.

Yeah, I didn't win the spot on the design team. *sigh* I was more disappointed than I thought I'd be.

We had a traumatic event take place the other night. Jeremy's grandfather passed away. He was 81 years old and I really just thought he'd live forever. Silly, I know. It was the first time I'd been involved in something like this - we were at the hospital while he was on life support, we were part of the decision-making process. My husband was practically raised by his grandparents, these people mean the world to us. My heart just broke. It's been a rough few days, and it's going to be a long week. The visiting hours are tomorrow night, funeral is Friday morning. We're getting through it. My kids were close to grandpa, especially Trevor. This is their very first experience with losing someone they love. Death sucks, but it's a fact of life. They are dealing with it very maturely for teenagers, I think. I'm very proud of them.

OK - sorry to be so depressing, but I share my life here, so you gets the bad along with the good. Now here's some good - my friend Missy had me make thank-you cards for her daughters' birthday pool party, I made a variety of them, they came out pretty cute, I used Surfer Ian and Hula Anya from the Greeting Farm:

Peace.