Missie Who??? And is she still around???

Yes, I am still around. I have been hanging out around the house and making cards mostly for special occassions, birthdays and such. I did buy a new camera and talk about spoiled...still want a better one but this one is such an improvement. I work on my digi files everynow and then but not enough to be posting yet. I do have alot of pics to scrap so I will post them as I can complete the pages. With the holidays coming up, I will be working on my Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas cards soon, so keep your eyes peeled for them to show up here. I will be checking the links to my files from the past to make sure they all work and if you missed anything you have another chance to grab them. Kim has been quite over at her blog but I will say, "She is going to be a Grandma". Her family is quite busy these days with the wedding and the baby. Congrats to Ashley and Jason, and to Kim and the whole Family. I can't wait to call them Grandma and Grandpa full time.

The boys are doing great. Denver has glasses now, Devin stopped skateboarding and has a baby sugar glider...and Clayton well he has been working a full time job with his dad but starts back to college on the 24th...Thank goodness.

Well I have updated my links to Fav. Blog sites for Page Ideas, Cards, and Supplies so go see what is out there.

Take care,
Missie

Savings and more....

I was watching the NBC news this morning here in DFW and they had a spot on a man that was being paid to shop most of the time he walked into the store. I had to find out what all this was about. I found a link to a wonderful lady here in the DFW area that posts her savings and tracks her savings, so far in 2009 she has saved $645. Who couldn't use that kind of savings....go see her blog at Metroplex Savings, click here. To see the full News article click here

I have been spending time on writing my book lately and I know I said I would post some of the cards I have been creating but I was hit with a date change on my friend's wedding invitations. She moved her wedding up and I had to get to making those. I didn't even think to take a picture of them so I am going to try to recreate one for my files. I have been having difficulty finding all the pics because I had tried to reorganize my external hard drives and now I can't find anything...I even lost the family PowerPoint of all my layouts. I am really bummed about that one.

Here are the pics of the Birthday Card I made lately. I will have to get the supply list together, I am trying to make the list now as I make the cards. Learning as I go, so I do not mean any harm in not giving credit where credit is due so I will get this together and repost with the pic of the card.



I am having to take my pics with my cell phone now because the boys were using my digital camera to take pics of the wheelchair event they had here at the house and dropped the camera. Needless to say it won't work now...Wheelchair event??? They set up ramps and tied the wheelchair to a bicycle and were jumping the ramps in the wheel chair. I haven't pulled the pics off the camera disk yet but will have to post because this was the craziest thing they have done in awhile now.

Happy Saturday...
Missie

Hello out there!!!!!!!

August 6th, really now. I can't believe it has been this long since I posted on the blog, shame on me. Well here is the latest and greatest Top 10 (in no specific order).....
1. Still getting a divorce....it is hard at times but I am adjusting well and so is Denver. We are spending alot of time together and relearning a new town.
2. Denver is in his new school and loving it. We even have A/B report cards coming home and no phone calls from the school everyday...YEA ME!!!!!!!!
3. I have discovered that I have the landlord from hellllloooooooo...I have to laugh at their own insanity but this involves a whole new blog to fill you in. Just trust me when I say I am laughing at their stupidity, I am sorry...I meant to say insanity.
4. Work is still Work and busy as ever.
5. StarScraps (Kim) is blowing the doors off the digiscrap world, I am so proud of her and all her kits. Way to Go Kim!
6. Clay is still away in college, and we won't discuss his first semester there either. Okay all I have to say is, "Really, how exactly do you fail Freshman Orientation?" Enough said, I am proud of him either way he goes.
7. Designing...nope, making cards, YOU BET...My new found love but I do miss the digi world.
8. Devin is doing well and we are battling his desire to dye his brownish-blonde hair to black. I think he is really wanting to see where the stress test is failed by his father. Good Luck Shane! Devin is definitely doing it out of defiance. I sometimes wonder if he is pushing things to see where the burst point is on that vein in his fathers neck or he is trying to make me completely grey by my next birthday.
9. Our God is an amazing God, I have been blessed from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. I have so many stories to share with everyone and will start posting them soon.
10. I will also be posting a few pics I have taken of the cards I have been making. I am playing with stamps, embossing powder, my cricut, stain glass paints, watercolors (still working the bugs out on my pens though), you name it and I am probably looking into it. I am all over the place when it comes to making cards. I even made stationary for the family for Christmas.

If anyone out there is using metal to emboss with a stylus...let me know where I can go get some heavier metal. I remember seeing it in Hobby Lobby and Michael's but they are no longer carrying it. I even went out to the big world of the Internet but have not found anything that is just under the thickness of a soda can. Foils are not thick enough and in my desperation, I tried a heavy duty aluminum foil but that didn't work out so well....I am up for some tips.

Well it is sooo late and I have caught up on all my blogs that I have not been able to sit down and see what they have been up to lately. I am pooped now....but I will be back. I have so much to share with everyone.

How unproductive can one get???

Well today was a complete wash..I spent all day in bed sleeping, I mean all day. I had planned on working from home and getting some packing done around the house this week but NO..I was in bed all day. Guess I needed the rest but sure could have better spent the time packing. Now I will probably be up all night packing and be all tired tomorrow.

So what have we been up to??? I spent last week at Kim's place and came home Friday. I picked up my step son Ty and then went and picked up Devin and Denver. We were going to dinner and a movie and even Clayton joined us. He hardly ever goes anywhere with us so it was really nice being able to spend time with all the boys. On Sat. we hung out at the house and then went shopping for Denver's B-day, Ty got to have his Jack -n- The Box meal...he loves that place, and then I took the boys back to their dad's. I went out to Kim's and we were going to a concert but ended up hanging out at the house. I can't wait to get moved because it is so much more enjoyable there than at my house now a days. We went to church on Sunday and then parted ways to spend the day with our Fathers. I came home and packed for the trip...FIVE more days....YEA US. And that is about all that happened this weekend. Nothing big and kinda quite. Well I am off to try to get something done just not sure where to start.

Missie

Ready for Life to Slow Down...

Well sorry its been awhile since I posted, Kim has been on me to get busy. Unfortunately, I have been busy with life instead of my scrak habit. I can't wait to get moved into the new place so I can slow down. I finally started packing, five whole boxes in a 4000 sq. ft. home, got alot more to go. My baby has graduated from High School and I held together pretty well and we are making plans for college now. If I could only get him to get a job...that would be great.

Not bad for a girl that had him at the age of 16. This was a big day for us and I am so proud of him. He is such a good young man and I know he is going to do well in whatever he decides to do.

Denver finished 2nd grade and was awarded the Most Improved Wrangler for the Year. He really did a 360 this year and his grades really showed an improvement.

Devin did well in his classes and has decided to move to his Dad's next year and I wonder how long this is going to last. I figure he will either come home at the end of summer or at the very least by Christmas. But it will be a good learning experience for him.

Kim and I are getting excited about our cruise coming up. I am so blessed to be able to join her with her family and get to experience this with them. I wonder what work is going to do with both of us gone at the same time...guess they will either not miss us or appreciate us more.

Now lets talk The Great American Scrapbook Convention...here is Kim and I. The poor lady that took this pic really needs to take some classes on photo taking because I hope she is only scrapping her professional photos. It took forever to get the picture and when we finally got it this is what we ended up with. I mean no harm here but come on now.

I am going to scrap them anyway because it is all we have to work with. I have been at Kim's this weekend and we went to play pool last night and had a great time. I actually didn't play to bad, I really expected to be boo'd out of the place but I was able to hang with the Pool Shark Kim. Here is our pic of last night....yea, Michelle had way to much to drink and felt like I had a crew of men with jackhammers in my head this morning.

Then we went to church this morning and we started a new series today and looks like it is going to be a good one. Of course, I have yet to not see a good one...good stuff going on at church.

The divorce thing is moving along, I guess. I am hoping to get everything filed when I get back from my trip and start moving forward with my life. The boys are doing better and I actually got to see my step sons this past week. They have grown so much and loved spending the time with them before they had to go back home. I am going to have to get used to not being a part of their lives like I was but I hope to get to visit them every now and then. Plus their mom is a fellow scrapper and we have to find a time to get together for a full scrap weekend. Well I have bent your ear and need to maybe think of working on a kit for you.

Take care as always,

Missie

Are You CPR Certified?????

Well it was nice to have a three day weekend but I wasn't able to do anything that I really wanted to do, like work on the next kit, scrap stuff up for Clay's big day Friday, clean house (ok, this wasn't on my list), pack...this wasn't on my list either. However, I did have an eventful Monday. We were moving stuff around for a friend of mine and when we came back through town, I had to stop to feed the boys. I was pulling into Sonic and saw a lady lying on the ground, she had just bounced her face off the concrete when I drove past. I pulled around and parked on the other side. I saw her foot twitching so I thought she was having a seizure. I jumped out of the truck and when I checked her she had no pulse. No one else was certified in CPR so I started CPR. I worked on her for at least 4.5 to 5 minutes when the fire department showed up. They ended up taking her to the hospital and I turned to leave and noticed her husband standing there just lost. He wasn't from our area and I asked if he knew where the hospital was and he said no, then they put a baby in a carry all in the car and a four year old. I told him he could follow me to the hospital and I would sit in the ER waiting room with his girls. By the time we got to the hospital, she had a heartbeat and breathing. I was there with his girls for awhile and they were the sweetest things. When they were sending her for a CAT scan, the husband said he could handle the girls now because he had pulled himself together. We exchanged numbers and I left. At 10:30pm that night the police called me and told me to report to the station at 8am in the morning for questioning. I asked how she was doing and he said it didn't look good. I really thought that she would be okay because the CAT scan came back with nothing...no brain damage, heart damage, nothing. I showed up the next morning to find out that she had past away around 10:30pm. I felt horrible for the husband and her girls. It was really sad but I really thought she would make it.

When I began to perform CPR and no one was certified out of all those people, after it was all over I just wanted to go back to Sonic to tell them that they needed to have their staff certified because what if I hadn't been there. Even though she didn't make it, it still doesn't matter, more people need to get certified in CPR. I have been certified for many years now and this was the first time I had to use my training but even if you get certified and never use it....you may find one day that you needed to. So I would like to challenge all of you out there to get certified in CPR because you never know when someone's life may depend on it.

Bundle Of Joy-All About Girls Papers 2

Well it is Friday and what a week it has been. I finished up the paperwork on the new place, worked my tail end off, and seem to have a new annoying habit of waking up three to four times a night. I mean I can wake up and be wide awake at least three or four times a night ...this is so frustrating because when it is time for me to actually wake up, all I want to do is sleep because I am so tired. I have busted my tail on the kit and finished up another set of papers and a set of elements. I am posting the papers tonight and will post the elements tomorrow. Denver and I will be going over to the new place to meet Dad. Guess he wants to look at the window, wall and floor that needs to be replaced. He even talked about putting a new (bigger) window in my bedroom...that would be cool. I think he is bored and wants to get busy on the house, plus Denver hasn't seen it yet so it will be neat to show him his new school and everything around the house and what we are going to be doing to it.

Kim is now nicknamed Bitchy, Itchy, and Scratchy...we have both been bitchy the last couple of days (I am sure all work related) and she is itchy and scratchy because we started tanning and Miss Thing was in the oven just a little to long...of course I did the same thing but I just walked around scratching my butt. I spent tonight helping Clayton look for his new home for college and this is just to hard to deal with. I think I have him thinking more about an apartment instead of a house. We found one that is across the street from the college and he seemed to be real interested so here's hoping. So how about that Freebie.......

Download Here

Bundle of Joy-All About Girls

Well surprise...I have the the first set of papers ready for the kit. See, I pinky promised and came through. Wow what a day though, had to go to work and then do the walk through the house by Kim and sign all the paperwork so it is official...I am now Kim's neighbor but won't be moving in immediately. I have to make some repairs and paint and hopefully get the carpet pulled out are replace the flooring. Then we can start moving in. I really had such high anxiety on the way to meet the manager of the property because I had heard such horrible stories but when I arrived, this was the nicest lady and all went well, other than the to do list she gave me and gave me 30 days to get it all done..yeah right. Let me lay that golden egg and wiggle my nose for her and it will all be done. Of course, I am still working on the golden egg process because mine just keep coming up with IOU stamped on them. Anyway, I am excited but a little stressed on the things I need to get done so I can finally get moved and settled in before the end of July.

So how about that freebie kit:

Download Here

You have to go read Kim's Top 10

Kim and I are about to become neighbor's with me becoming single and not able to handle the 4000 sq. feet of a house that I have. So I am downsizing just like she did a couple of months ago. At least she can support me on telling me "No, you can't bring that in because you don't have room for it" I can see the house tilting to one side with all my scrap stuff. Anyway, she put together a Top 10 reasons it is good that I am moving next to her...she is so funny. I like the margarita and wine reasons though....guess I need to look for one of those frozen machines to put in the house. I already want an ice cream machine so maybe they can sit next to each other in my little bitty living room.

So see here Starscraps Kim's blog link.

Everyone have a blessed day and I will be posting the papers tonight...promise...pinky promise.

Working for the company lately but catch up on the Freebies you may have missed

Well being out of the office for almost two weeks while I was sick is killing me at the office. I am spending my days and evenings working trying to get everything caught up. I hope to have everything under control by the end of the week. So I don't know if you have snagged all the freebies I have posted but take a look and see if you missed anything. My Freebie link is to the left of the screen and should have all the kits I have created. I hope to post the new kit on Friday but that all depends on my workload from the office. I am putting together an girl version of Bundle of Joy so this ought to be interesting due to I have all boys and no girls to scrap but it will be fun working on it.

The family update...well the boys are going to spend the summer with their dad and I have been blessed with a cruise to Alaska with Kim (Starscraps ). I can not wait...this is going to be so much fun. Other than that I will spend the rest of the summer moving out of our home due to I am not able to keep it since the divorce situation..bummer, but we are going to be okay. God has a plan and this is working out really well for me and the boys. I just hate to move, but I will love my neighbor...yup, I am joining Kim and that is exciting because we can go to church together, scrap together, work together...you name it we will probably be doing it. Plus our boys are looking forward to being able to play with one another. I have been blessed so much in the last month but it is time to make a good financial decision and this seems to be the best route to go, especially with Clayton going to college in August. I will be able to do so much more for my boys now. Keep us in your prayers because it is still going to be very hard to leave our home because it has meant so much to us.

Good Night for now...
Missie

Yeah Me...I put music on my blog.

Well I started this adventure about 8pm tonight and it is now 2:45ish in the morning. I tried several sites that blogger had to offer until I finally found one that would work. If the volume is too loud, like it was on my computer just adjust your volume. I have no control over that. I have put a variety of songs on my list, (You can pick up to 100 but I think I will keep the list short) and they are all shuffled when they play. I am so excited...I have wanted this on here for awhile now and after much struggle it is done. So in the morning, oh wait, it is morning..ok once I wake up I will post the next part of the Bundle of Joy kit. I am going to the Kenny Chesney Concert tomorrow, opps again, today and want to get everything done before I leave. I will take lots of pics to share because his shows are usually really fun. Kind of like a step down from a Jimmy Buffett concert, now those are the best, if you haven't seen him try to catch one of his shows and go early the parking lot parties are fun and there is lots to see. Anyway enjoy the music and goodnight/good morning...I just really need sleep right now.

Oh and YES Kim I will show you how to put this on your blog too. Just make sure you don't start on it late because you will be up for awhile...well maybe not since I worked all the kinks out of how to do it...lol

Just hangin around but designing....

Well this whole divorce thing is really kicking my butt tonight. I have done pretty well until today. It is just amazing to me how people can be so heartless and have no integrity. I have stopped working on the "Anchors Away" Kit and started a new baby boy kit. You know that book I am putting together for Clayton's graduation...well I have to get back to working on this because I have one month left and he keeps adding more pics on me. Prom was this past Sat. and both kids were just beautiful...can't wait to start that kit for all those pics. Clayton won Prom King and I am so proud of him. He has been great around the house with all that is going on. God really blessed me with a good group of boys. All of the boys have been great. Well I have to get off here so I can start working on the kit.

Take care and I will be back very soon.

Michelle

Next Kit???

I am currently working on some kits to get caught up but the one I worked on the most this weekend was on the "Anchors Away" Kit. I was in the Navy Reserves and was recalled to active duty during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, so I wanted to work on a kit for all my pics from my cruise during the war and hopefully share this kit with others that have a sailor in their family. I hope to begin posting this kit soon but want to do some more work on it before I launch it. HAHA...sounds like I am commissioning a ship. I have stuff for several Aircraft Carriers, some F-18 stuff, and several enlisted ranks and rates for the US Navy. I am still working on the squadron stuff and hope to have it finished soon. This is a very large kit so it will take some time to get all of it out to you. However, in the meantime, if you do have a sailor and need a special base, rate, rank, ship, or squadron, please leave a comment here and I will be sure to add it to the kit.

As far as me and the boys, we are doing well. We have gone through quite an adjustment in the last couple of weeks but things seem to be leveling out somewhat. It is amazing how supportive everyone has been and thanks for that. Debbie, Thanks for all that you have done. Your words have meant so much. Kim, you have been great and I appreciate you allowing me to talk through all of this to you.

For those that don't know, I became a single mom again in the past two weeks and this has been such an adjustment to go from a two adult household to one. I am working out the kinks but the boys and I are enjoying the time we have had together lately. I do not know where this path leads to but like all have said, God is in control and he will protect and keep me and the boys as we travel down this path. I have put all my trust and faith in God because only he knows where we are going and we are learning new ways everyday.

Thanks for all the support and I will be posting those Freebies again soon.

Michelle

I am still around..

Well I have been out of touch lately and I do apologize for no freebies lately. Things around the house just seemed to fall apart at the seams and I decided I would take a break from things to figure out how to put things back together. I am almost to the end of this venture and have stood through many tests these past few days. The ulimate test was last night, we had storms blow through last night or let me say early this morning. I don't know exactly why I awoke but I turned the tv on only to find out about all the storm warnings and tornado warnings. This all started around 2am, then I found out that a tornado had touch down and was heading straight for us. I ran to get the kids in the bathroom and had only minutes to spare. I swear to you the train came straight down my hallway in my house. It sounded like my bedroom and closet were being riped away from the house. So as I sat in the bathroom, on my laptop, logged on to the local weather channel chat room. There was a man from OR. online and he walked me through the whole thing. I have never been through a tornado before and I was completely scared to death. I explained to him all the noises I was hearing and how it sounded like heavy objects were flying around the house. This all took place around 3am and it was over fairly quick. I remember how calm everything seemed after everything had passed. It was dark outside so I couldn't tell what damage we had until morning. The house was still intact and I didn't have any broken windows.

You don't realize the full meaning of living through a tornado until you realize how close you were and it miss you completely. When I was able to see outside their was alot of debris in the back part of the house but the house was fine. The kids lost their clubhouse and swing set and it is in pieces in the yard. I was explaining to a friend of mine what had happened and he swore it sounded like a tornado but he couldn't believe I didn't have house damage. He told me to look around for places where the grass was laid down in a circular motion, it would be real distinct. So I go out to look around, I don't find any of this in the immediate yard but then I looked out about 30 yards from the house and notice this huge circle where the grass was laid down. I called and he had to come check it out. It definitely was a tornado that touched down and to look at it, well the only way it missed the house was we had God's hands surrounding us this morning. I can not explain what this showed me today, other than, I see that God is in control and he is taking care of me and the boys.

I hope to begin posting again soon but I still need more time and I am working on new stuff but haven't spent alot of time on it. Take care everyone and I will be back in the swing of things soon.

Michelle

Going nuts this morning....

I can not believe that I am up so early and want to play with digital scraps and can't...I thought about working on the book but I keep hoping that 4 shared will come backup. I think maybe I am supposed to be doing something else this morning but my butt won't leave my seat or this computer. How unfair is it that I work all week and look forward to my cups (way more than one already this morning) of coffee and all the blogs and freebies out there and I get nothing this morning. I have been able to see everybody's new designs but heck no, Missie can't have any of them. Bummer. Well I could start working on Forever Young but I just really wanted to spend this morning seeing what everyone out there was doing. I have been so out of touch with my freebie collection lately because I have been designing away. But NO, can't do anything but window shop. These guys don't realize what kind of stress they are causing right now. Oh...what I was able to download something. Only from Rapidshare though...no 4shared. Thanks Scrap Stew Sue..go see her stuff...if you need your scrak hit.

Oh Lord, Please help me out here...I really would like to play with my fellow scrap friends out in this big ol' world. I promise to be good, Stop laughing at me Kim..not nice. Well guess God wants me to do something else this morning. Off to find out what that is.......

Texas Egg Hunt Papers #1

You should have the first set of elements from yesterday and now here is the first set of papers. Some are pretty busy but lets see what you can come up with for them. Please do not forget to leave a comment, they are appreciated and nice to see. Those that have left me comments here and on 4shared, I love hearing from you and glad to see everyone really enjoyed the Hot Pink Dreams Kit.

Download here

Well I am off to go grocery shopping, you knowI am feeding a tribe now days. And I have to work on my Easter Cards since Easter moved up on me this year. By the way, is anybody doing hybrid digital out there? I am interested in this and would like to find out what exactly the technic is for this. It sounds like to me you print off digital and add paper elements to the digital but I could be wrong. Let me know if anyone out there can explain this to me.

Thanks and Happy Saturday,

Michelle

Not a dull moment in my house...

Well so much for the quite weekend I had all planned out. My hubby came home late last night and I now have a full house. The boys are growing up so fast, it is hard to believe that they were all 3, 6, and 9 when Jason and I met. His boys just keep growing like weeds every time I see them. Last night, I was working on designing my kit for boys when I heard a loud noise in the house. I was all alone, so I grabbed the first thing I could...a airsoft gun, you know the thing that had me cleaning all day yesterday. So I walk down the hallway thinking maybe it was one of the cats or the dog but they were all in my room. So now there is a stranger in the house. I followed the noise to a closet under the stairs, I look in and saw nothing but heard more moving. Once Jason came home, we began moving everything out of the closet. Everyone thought I was crazy because we couldn't find the source of the noise. I went back to the computer and all the sudden I hear screaming from the other end of the house. They found my prowler, it was a stray tom cat, and how did he get in the closet under the stairs. I have never seen a more pissed off cat, he took off running and climbed several of the windows before he ran back into the closet. So here we go again with the blanket and gloves trying to wrap up the mean cat. This cat has made the most awful smell in that closet..I was ready to boil him because of the mess he had made and wasn't even one of my cats. We finally got him wrapped up and outside but now what do I do will all the stuff that he messed up. And again, how the heck did he get in there. Looks like he has been there for a couple of days. Darn Cat.

I Finally Did It....

Well I could not get the blog that Kim set up to work, so I have recreated the blog and tada...here I am. I am ready to play and share what has been keeping me up late at night but it has been so fun creating these kits. I will be posting my first kit soon called "Hot Pink Dreams", so stay tuned for the details. I hope all enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making the kit. I am off to put the finishing touches on setting everything up.

Take care for tonight.

Michelle