Christmas Art Journal #4

My Perfect Christmas

Finally I have caught up with the rest of the group. At least until tomorrow, then another day, another page. I am not sure how I managed to kick out all three pages in one day. Well now that I think about it I know how....I neglected everything us that I should have been doing today, LIKE HOUSEWORK. Oh well, that can wait until tomorrow, I had fun!!

The script is kind of hard to read so I will retype it for you.

Inside the envelope reads...

Dear Santa

All I want for Christmas is...My Perfect Christmas Day!!!

Is that asking too much? I've been a good girl all year long. On Christmas Eve, as I am nestled in my bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, you will be giving me the Christmas of my dreams. As I wake Christmas morning, this is what I would see...

1. First on the list is to turn back time. See my grandfather died about nine years ago. He is deeply missed and to have my Christmas extra special my grandmother AND grandfather need to be present.
2. As a matter of fact all of my family would be present. I remember way back when our family actually had gatherings. It has been many years and I miss them.
3. The house would be beautifully decorated. A Victorian Christmas would be just about right for me.
4. You would bring with you the gifts that my children asked for. Don't go overboard we don't need to spoil them too much, but let me see their big smiles.
5. Someone special will be there for me also.
6. The meal will be the most delicious meal ever, with all the fixings. Don't forget dessert, you know how I love it.
7. Christmas carolers will come knocking at the door. Why don't we have them anymore? I love Christmas music.
8. Of course there will be a white Christmas. The snow glistening all around me. The tees resembling a crystal forest.
9. I will have plenty of batteries for my camera, since it will be working overtime.
10. EVERYONE will be happy!!!

This WOULD be my perfect Christmas. Santa this isn't too much for you is it??

Happy Holidays 2005

Goodnight....tomorrow is another day, see you then.


**Edit: Looking back at my page I realized I forgot to sign my letter to Santa, and to thank him in advance. I'll remember next year.

Christmas Art Journal Day #3

Almost caught up...just finished page #3...soon to work on #4. I am having a good time though with this. Nice to read all the posts on the message board from everyone, but I find myself having a hard time keeping up with them. There is no way that I can read them all.

I loved this box set of cards when I bought them, too bad I never mailed any of them out. I should be ashamed of myself.

The script on the page reads:

~~

Christmas cards...

I have many good intentions when I run to the local store to purchase several boxes of adorable Christmas cards, such as this one. Unfortunately I have the inability to follow through with my good intentions, because year after year I fail to drop them into the nearest mail box for delivery.

This I find interesting, because I am soooo interested in all of the other holiday traditions. I just can't seem to get motivated enough to send complete this one task. Other than that I am also one of those that probably have an address book around here somewhere, but I am sure with VERY FEW actual addresses in it.

My shortcoming is probably the reason why I receive so few cards in my own mailbox during the holiday season. I have not received any this year as of yet, and I will be lucky to receive five max.

This is going on my list of things to improve in my life. Of course it will probably be something to work on next year, the rest of this year is already full.

~~

*Notice the postmark in the righthand corner of the page. It reads "Merry Christmas..From the North Pole...Dec 25th." So cute, love that stamp.

Time to get back to work on day #4. Keep up the good work everyone!!

Christmas Art Journal Day #2

Okay, I'm moving a bit slow, but I am getting there. Finally completed is day #2 of my Christmas art journal. I am having fun with this, and loving all the other pages completed from the other scrappers in the group. I noticed that the smears on the page from glitter are only on my scanner, luckily not on my original page itself. Sometimes I tend to be impatient like today, so I refused to wait for the paint to dry.

Time to move now, I need to get busy with Day#3 & Day #4

Oh, and here in Michigan I woke up to a wonderful white Christmas this morning.

Christmas journal day 1

As I had promised here is day one of my Christmas journal. I know, I know, I am still behind, but I am working on catching up with the rest of the ladies. I will try to finish the other three tomorrow.

Just in case you can't read the script it states:

"I have decided to create this journal to express my thoughts & feelings during this holiday season."

See you soon, I'm late for a date, but I wanted to get this posted before leaving.

A Christmas Journal

One of the few blogs that I read regularly is written by a designer for Creating Keepsakes magazine, Ali Edwards. She has a great blog, great stories and great ideas. I just bought one of her books (A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking) yesterday at the scrapbook store. I was just sitting here this morning looking through it as I am waking up and trying to prepare myself for my busy day ahead.

The kids are all asleep so the house is still quiet. PEACE, ya gotta love it when you can get it.

Anyways, back to Ali....I was reading her blog and she recommended a online class for a Christmas journal. I have decided to take it. I actually started on December 1st, but I am going to try to play catch up. I signed up last night, and I am hoping to at least get one page finished today. Then hopefully the others tomorrow. I will try to display them on my blog as I get them finished.

There is a possibility that I may be flying to Florida with the kids for Christmas if we can get some plane tickets. My grandmother is 85 years old, and I get the feeling that she doesn't think she will be around for another one. She really wants us to come, so we are trying to make it. Last Christmas I gave my mother and grandmother a journal to write down their memories in. Unfortunately they have not gotten much, if any accomplished. I realize that not everyone is as good at preserving these memories as I am so some folks need a bit of help. So this year if I make it to Florida, I have decided to video record them as I ask them specific questions. Kind of like a documentary. Does anyone have any good suggestions of what I should ask? Let me say that this is my only living grandparent left. So after this everything will remain a mystery.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

I was thinking last night about some of my past Christmas experiences from when I was a child. I was taken back to a Christmas when I was about twelve years old. If I recall correctly I did my Christmas wish list out of a Sears catalog. One of the items on my list was a Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll.



I must have been a good little girl that year, because I did get my Christmas wish. I never did get very good with the doll, but I do remember that my sister was terrified of it. We shared a bedroom back then, and she didn't even want that thing in the room with us. It freaked her out so bad, she still has memories of it.

I just looked it up on ebay and they are selling a 1977 version of it for $9.99 so far. I could get one and give it to her for Christmas. Oh that would be so mean of me.

So it really wasn't the Ghost of Christmas Past, but instead the my Doll of Christmas Past that still haunts my sister. Actually if you look at him, he does kind of freak ya out. Like you are just waiting for him to turn his head and say something to you. Weird.

Word confusion

My son Jason was telling me about a field trip that was going to happen at school.

Jason: "Yeah mom, they want all the parents to go. They get to watch the movie for free, but they have to pay for the CONFESSION stand."

Mom: "Do you mean concession stand?"

Daughter listening to conversation and of course putting in her two cents.

Daughter: "That sounds like something they would have at a church carnival."

Of course knowing all along what he meant, but couldn't resist poking fun at her little brother.

Ha, Ha, gotta love those kids.

Some of the ornaments that adorn my tree

Christmas spirit

Oh yeah, Christmas is here!!!

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. I love decorating and the Christmas spirit. I love shopping during the holidays with the exception of Black Friday. I refuse to go out on this morning, although I have no problem going on Thanksgiving day. As a matter of fact, I went this Thanksgiving morning and got some awesome deals for my gift giving. I hate cold weather, but I love to look at the snow as I am sitting in my warm house looking out the window.

Above is a picture of my Christmas tree I just finished putting up today. The Santa is one of the ones from my collection. I have been collecting at least one every year. Since I love to save a buck I tend to buy them the day after Christmas when they have more great deals.

The destruction of my wedding dress

This weekend I have emptied out my storage unit, and managed to part with some things that I have held on to for too many years. One of those things just happened to be my wedding dress from 15 years ago. The dress was ruined on my wedding night, but that didn't make me get rid of it. I am horrible with holding on to things with sentimental value. I have held on to the dress for the past 15 years. Half of those years I have been divorced. So what possessed me to keep it for so long?

Well....it wasn't for me. I tend to collect things for my children, especially for my daughter. I hope that years down the road she will appreciate having it. I have even kept my wedding ring. Well....actually engagement ring, the wedding band is probably lying somewhere along a highway somewhere. Don't think I am too crazy for discarding it, it wasn't very expensive. We were both in the military when we had gotten married, and trust me they don't pay very well. Luckily I did have enough sense to keep the engagement ring. Although I did not trust myself enough to keep from tossing that out a window too, so I gave it to my mother-in-law to keep for my daughter when she gets old enough to have it herself. Again, the ring itself was not that impressive, but the sentimental value of having something from our marriage makes it priceless.

Off track I go again....back to the dress. Well today I have decided to ditch the dress. Before doing so I cut the dress into pieces, I know that sounds cruel, but I had my reasons. If I were not going to keep the dress in its entirety I can at least keep some of its pieces. I saved some of the most beautiful pieces of the dress, the lace, bead and sequins work. I gave one piece to my daughter, and the rest I am not sure what I will do with it, but I'm sure that I will find something special to do with it. I am sure part of it will make its way into my scrapbook.

Hey, at least I didn't totally destroy the dress.

Parenting

The other day I went to a parenting class offered by my kids' school. They invited a parenting expert to talk to us. She was pretty interesting and made the evening fun.

Before leaving for the class one of my sons came up to me and told me that I was a great parent and that I didn't need to go. How sweet of him, but I think that any parent that thinks they are perfect needs to think again. I believe that there can always be room for improvement especially as your child enters new age groups and new issues arise. There may even be some things that you already know, but you just need to be refreshed and motivated. Then again maybe you are perfect, and if that is the case I am sure that you may have something valuable that you can share with the group.

Part of the problem with today's children, not enough parents want to step up and take their parental roles seriously.

LET'S GET SERIOUS!!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving

I'm sitting here watching Christmas with the Kranks with the kids. Thinking about all the work I have to do tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner. I haven't been doing much blogging lately. Lots to talk about just haven't had the energy to do it.

Anyways, if anyone is reading HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Latest trip to scrapbooking store

Just a sampling of my latest trip to the store for some scrap- booking goodies.



I picked up these items on my shopping trip this weekend. My son of course wanted nothing to do with it. From the sounds of him you would have thought that it was killing him having to go shopping with me for scrapbook supplies. I didn't hear him complaining at any of the other stores. This was just pure torture for him.

Anyways, a love for scrapbooking can put a serious dent in your pocketbook, but worth it.

My weekend

My weekend plans didn't exactly go the way that I had planned them to, but it still ended up being a nice weekend.

My intentions were to go to the tree lighting ceremony in Detroit, but never made it. Actually I thought it was suppose to be on Saturday, but ended up being Friday night instead. So instead I took the kids to dinner, then to see the new Harry Potter movie.

This was our conversation before the show....

Daughter: "Okay mom, this time don't fall asleep in the middle of the movie."

Me: "What? I feel asleep during the last movie?" (last Harry Potter movie)

Daughter: "YEAH! Then you bought us the movie over the summer and were all surprised when we told you that we had already seen it WITH YOU."

Obviously I am not a Harry Potter fan, and trust me, it took everything I had not to fall asleep during this one. I should probably let you know that my bedtime is usually 9 pm, so I was ready to crash. The movie was like almost 3 hours long, geez!! The kids liked the movie though, so don't take my opinion about it.

Well that was my Friday night. Saturday morning I got up and took Joey shopping with me. The other two stayed with my nephew. I probably did more shopping than I should have, but I got some great deals especially for Christmas. Then last night I had a date with Todd. Usually we go out, but last night we decided to stay home and watch a movie and order a pizza. I ate two slices of pizza and lasted about twenty minutes into the movie and was out. I'm such a great date.

Sidenote: I'm just sitting here and watching my daughter. She is becoming quite obsessed with my Time magazines. She use to read my sister's celebrity magazines, but since I don't read them or keep them around she has now focused on my magazines. I just think it is funny to have my 13 year old running around saying, "mom where is that Time magazine, I had it ready to take to school, I wanted to read it and it disappeared." Yeah it disappeared into my bookbag so that I could take it to work and read it. Not like I actually get any reading time at work, but I take it just in case the opportunity arises.

Anyways, my weekend was the most exciting, but still came out pretty good. As for now I think I am off to the video store to get a movie or two.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

What a day!!

I woke up as usual at 5 am for work. My workday went fine, just a typical day at work. I called on my way home from work and told the kids and my nephew to be ready so that we could go to dinner and the mall. When I got home they jumped into the car and off we went. We had Chinese for dinner. I tried to convince Joey that I didn't have any money for dinner so he needed to pick up the tab. He didn't fall for it though.



My fortune read: "A smile is nearly always inspired by another smile."




After dinner we hit the mall. Approximately five minutes into our shopping spree (daughter & myself were at Maurices) a woman came over the loud speaker "TORNADO WARNING, ALL CUSTOMERS PLEASE GO TO ELDER-BEERMAN." Actually at that point we couldn't hear what she was saying, but a younger boy that looked to be about sixteen years old repeated it to his mother. She looked at him like she didn't believe him and went back to shopping. I of course was being nosey. Right after that shoppers began walking briskly past the doors. Of course this peaked my curosity, so I had to walk out to get the scoop. The kid was actually telling the truth. A security guard was trying to gather up all of the shoppers and head them into the right direction.

Now this was great!! My boys took off with my eighteen year old nephew. We didn't go where we were suppose to, we took off to find the boys. My daughter started freaking out. Isn't it funny how siblings act like they hate each other. You have no idea how many times she has told me that I should have stopped having children after her. As I have always suspected she had been lying. She was in tears as we looked around for them, saying "mom, we have to find them." Finally we ended up finding everyone (as soon as they saw us they started running) then we headed for Elder Beerman.

A torando coming wasn't about to ruin MY shopping experience. I continued to shop, I was just limited to the confines of this particular department store. Better this than a KB Toys, although the kids would have loved that. Of course Jason said, "Why couldn't we be stuck in a Radio Shack?" I thought this took about thirty minutes, but the kids said that it was more like an hour (from about 6-7pm). I guess I was preoccupied, you know how a woman can be while shopping.

Finally they gave the all clear so we wandered out to the rest of the mall. The boys got some toys, my daughter a sweatshirt from American Eagle and I ended up with a few ornaments for my Christmas tree.

Finally about 8:30 pm we left the mall and headed home. Driving home my daughter was sitting in the back seat and heard a faint noise, she said, "What is that noise?" I was too busy talking to my mom on my cell phone (yes, while I was driving in the rain). A few miles up the road we heard it again, this time not nearly as faint. We realized that it was the tornado siren again. Damn it!! I just left that about two hours ago, don't tell me another one. We were driving out in the boonies so it was dark as heck out. We could not have seen a tornado coming if it was. My kids then started freaking out. We just happened to be driving past a police department, so to calm them down we stopped to find out what was going on. The officer said that a small tornado was sighted in Monroe (where we had just left). He said that we were welcome to stay in the community center and wait, but we decided to go home. I gave them the speech though..."if you guys see any cows flying through the air, let me know, I'll stop the car and we can all jump in the ditch and take cover." ;)

Well that was about it for our excitement for the night, but let me end with just this one memory from my childhood.

I remember when I was in junior high we had a girlfriend staying the night. My parents woke everyone up in the middle of the night because of a tornado warning. They got everyone out of bed and into the car to go to the nearest shelter. My dad pulled the car out of the driveway, drove around the corner then said, "Where's Rhonda?"

See they remembered to take the girl staying the night, but they left poor little old me in bed sound asleep. Of course they turned right back around to get me. We all survived so it was a happy ending.

Campus Martius, Detroit

Besides my mishap with the family member, life was good this weekend. The kids were gone to their father's house for the weekend. I hung out with Todd, he is great about making me forget about whatever is on my mind.

We went to downtown Detroit, to the Campus Martius Park. Shops, skyscrappers, a deli and an ice skating rink surround the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. I tried to find a good photo of this monument to show you, that could do it some justice, but I have failed. Next time I go I will be sure to take some photos. If you clicked on the first link you will Campus Martius before and after pictures. The after pictures shows the new ice skating rink right in front of the Christmas tree display. The tree lighting will be next weekend, on November 18th. I would love to take the kids but I am sure that Detroit will be a mess, but I'll give it some thought.

Getting back to my trip to the city. Todd actually took me there for lunch. I love a good sandwich so he took me to the deli right next to the rink. Then he took me to see some of the sights, the architecture of the city. After that we went into Barnes & Noble to get a few books, and talk for a bit. Then we hit the Hard Rock Cafe' for some dessert. It was a nice experience. Even though I have always lived near Detroit, I have never really taken the time out to experience it's good qualities that exist there.

Jarhead

I had the day off for Election Day, so I decided to make my nephew go to lunch and the movies with me. We decided to watch the movie Jarhead. I am still not exactly sure what I think about this movie yet. It isn't your typical war movie, it is based on the experience of a single soldier. It shows how his experiences changed him. It brought back a lot of memories, and some things I found disturbing, but many things seemed so accurate. I guess that is part of why I haven't decided yet, because I think that I expected more, more of Hollywood. The movie wasn't about the special effects, it was about how war changes you.

Here is one story that I can share with you that I was reminded of in the movie. It has to do with trying to make a phone call home and our chemical suits.

When I first arrived I was at Kobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, this was an inprocessing center. It was an apartment complex taken over by the military. They had set up phone stations in parking garages. I'm not sure how many phones were in each structure, but there were a lot. When we wanted to make a phone call this is where we would go. Of course this took forever to do, this particular time the waiting time was approximately 4 hours. After standing in line for about 3 hours a voice came over the loud speaker in our compound "SCUD launch, MOPP 4." This of course meant that a SCUD missle had been launched and that we were to take cover and get into our chemical gear. Now remember at this time we still thought that Sadam was using chemical warfare. If you can, imagine people scattering everywhere. In the movie I was reminded of this when Jamie Fox went into the tent and said "GAS" and everyone hurried to get on their chemical gear. This is kind of how it went for us too. Some soldiers ran to take cover then put on gear. While others put on their gear right out in the open. Let me tell you those suits were hot, and sometimes it seemed like we had to keep them on forever. Eventually they called "all clear MOPP zero" and this was when it got funny. See MOPP zero means that we can take the suits off, but of course those of us that were smart, took that as an opportunity to get back in the phone line. I was one of the smart ones, although I was not smart enough because I ended up pretty much in the same position that I was before, but at least I wasn't further back. I just wish I had a video camera to record what happened after calling all clear. In the movie they show them in their chemical suits with boots on, this is not what we had to wear. We had these huge rubber covers that folded up and tied around your boots so they were very difficult to walk in. We had our chemical masks on still, just like in the movie which made it more difficult to see, but hey I only needed to look straight to see the phone line. Every time I remember this I have to laugh to myself, it was like revenge of the swamp monsters. All you could see were these things that resembled creatures running to the garage. I know it is one of those you had to be there to see it to find the humor in it things. One of my highlights of the war I guess.

Since Veteran's Day is this week I guess it is a good time to tell these little stories. Maybe tomorrow I'll think of another one to tell.

What a good day!

Today was a nice day, with a little upset in the end, but it all ended up good. I had a lunch date with Todd at a nice little deli in downtown Ann Arbor, Zingerman's Delicatessen. I ordered the #62 Jay's bbq chicken sandwich-pulled amish chicken in zingerman's own bbq sauce with vermont cheddar cheese on a soft bun. Served with a side of applewood smoked bacon-baked beans. It was pretty good. It had kind of a fun personality to the place, I will more than likely go back again.

After eating we walked up the street and looked at a few places, then he suggested that we go to the University of Michigan Natural History Exhibit Museum to see the dinosaurs. I can't remember how this actually got brought up, but I thought it sounded like a great idea. So we went, and it was really nice. I'm gonna take the kids there after they get back from their father's house. Of course next time I will remember to take the camera.

Did I mention that I love Ann Arbor?

Edit: oops I split up the link to the museum, only click on one, they both take you to the same place.

Making up for lost time

Well I guess today I have made up for all of the time that I have not been blogging lately. So there is the rest of my scrapbook pages, at least for now. The other ones are located at the beginning of my blog. My daughter is spending the night over her girlfriends house, so I am here with my nephew and the boys. Luckily my nephew helped me out again with the computer and showed me how to scan, merge and get my pages on my blog much quicker than my way. Thanks Nate!!

I am done for the night. It is time for me to give up the computer, and read my book a bit before heading to bed. My current book is The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I started Atlas Shrugged (also by Ayn Rand) a while back, but it managed to disappear before I finished it, so I will have to start that again another time. Both are great reads though.

Quote for the day...."Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth-a sense of humor."

Cherish the moment

Joey & Jason
summer fun 2003
on Lake Erie