Just Some Stuff.....

First of all look at these WAY gorgeous roses of my mama's. Such a pretty color tone.....LOVE.
















And second of all, look at this WAY gorgeous Sir Cuteness.........
I mean those eyes..... Yep, gets me EVERY time!!!!!















I wanted to share with you a few projects I'm working on.....
First of all this is a mini that I'm working on right now and I LOVE it!!!

In fact, I will be working on a Spiritual version of this that the Lord has laid on my heart. I'm REALLY looking forward to it.

It is "a week of life list" and in it there is a page everyday of one week to write comments for the same prompt (you'll see in just a minute).....















On the left side you were suppose to put a current picture of you and some sort of tape strip or paper strip to highlight, but y'all know me.....

Let's mix it up .....

My first page is a little tree and on it are 5 circles and I have since written the names of our family of five, one on each circle, with the big gold button in the middle representing Jesus. He is the center. Oh yes He is!!!!!















Then this is the prompt that you are to print 7 of and then write the answers for that day.

Like yesterday Listening: Blessed Redeemer - Glorious - I Hope You Dance (you get the idea).....




















This is another page. I'm loving sewing things for my page and sewing on my page. I made this cute little flower and then used a gold marker to outline. So cute.....
















LOVE this page.....so many cute elements.
The tag says: "forgiven.....redeemed.....sanctified....."
Love it.....
















This is just some strips of lace that my mama had that has cute little hearts, and I just distressed it to make it look really vintage.....love.....

Just some fun elements.....

Now here is a mixed up hodgepodge of a page that just went from bad.....

to worse.....

to beautiful page.....with the help of a BPC (Big Picture Class) online scrapbook teacher.

She helped me totally revamp this page and I love how it turned out.
Isn't my mama beautiful?

Then I wanted to share this with you. This is a mini that I sent to a friend, but it turned out so cute I just had to share this page. The dress in the corner is a chipboard dress and I thought, "Hmmm.....I bet I could sew a little tutu on it....." Yep, worked beautifully. Turned out REALLY cute.....

And the chipboad "grace" at the bottom is just perfect for my dear friend.....

Our lives have so been touched by Grace.....thank you Jesus!!

Here are the charms that I added to the goodies on the ends of the mini.....

So there are just a few things I'm working on.

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Oh BTW, Dak is loving his job and enjoying his summer and Sir Cuteness now has a sandbox, and he never wants to leave it. I think he could live in it. No really, I think he could =)

Have a Blessed and beautiful evening ~~

Sunday Letters ~~ New Job Edition

My dear Dak,

This has been a BIG week for you!!! You started a new job at Price Cutters on Thursday. You love your job so far and are really liking the independence this will give you.

Here you are on the first day of work.
















You look so cute in your "uniform", which is black pants and a white button up and then your apron and hat you have at work.




















I love you so my boy!! And I'm so proud of you.















So sweet.....















In other news, you are hanging out with your friends after work and loving being out of school.

In July we will have SOAR, which is your student orientation and then in August you move into your dorm. tear. You are SO excited!!!

You are such a sweet boy and I love you so ~~ Always, MOM

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My Dear Sir Cuteness,

You have been sick this week. We've had you to the doctor once and then Urgent Care yesterday, but you are feeling better today. I'm so glad!!! Gamma doesn't like to see you sick.

We've had some fun moments with you this week. You crack.me.up.

Here you are in my running walking shoes. So cute!!















Be still my heart.....
















Ahhhh..... I love you so my sweet boy.....
















Here are you and KoKo at McDonald's the day before he started work. So sweet!!!
















And me and you......

I love you so Sir Cuteness.....

Now let's have a week of NO sickness, shall we?......... =)

Love you to the moon, Moon, MOON ~~ Gamma

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My Mr. Winslow,

You continue to be such a great help to me. With the doctor news this week of six more months of rest and exercise and balancing stuff with this knee, you are complete strength. I know it hurts you that I hurt. I love you ~~

You are my hero.

I love you Sweetie ~~ Petrii

Updates.....

Ok, so let me start with some fun stuff. Dak started his new job at Price Cutters today. I have a few pics I took before he left, but I don't have my camera cord right here, so I'll post when I get those downloaded. He was so cute in his "uniform".





He just texted me a few mins ago and said he was on his first break and had had his first customer. He said she was a little old lady and was really patient with him. He is so cute (have I told y'all that? heehee) He was eating a piece of pound cake on his break, so he was one happy boy. He loves all things pound cake =)





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Sir Cuteness is off his breathing treatments and doing just fine. We are so thankful that it cleared up.





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Joplin is still in HUGE need of our prayers. I am including a link that is just heart breaking. It is a before and after look at some of the buildings in Joplin, like the Wal-Mart and Home Depot and neighborhoods. It is devastating. Please go over to this site, and please pray for our dear friends in Joplin.

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I went to my knee doctor yesterday and he said that my knee is still very stiff and to give it SIX MORE MONTHS. That is all I will say about that.....

I go see him again in November.....

hmpff.....

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I'm hoping to find that camera cord and get some fun pics and fun Random Friday stuff up tomorrow ~~

Have a Blessed Day ~~

Tornadoes and Our Time in the Bunker!!

Oh my....The tornado that hit Joplin is just devastating. Joplin is about an hour and twenty mins from here and it is where Missouri Southern College is that Dak and I toured and it was one of his final two picks.

Our hearts are SO sad for the city of Joplin. The tornado came upon them so quickly. They only had five minutes warning. It formed just west of them. And it has destroyed 25 - 30 % of the city. Just devastating.

If you would like to see pictures or read more about this devastating tornado you can go here or here. These are two of our local tv stations.

After the tornado hit Joplin it headed our way. Our neighbors have moved to California, but still have their house here and before they left they put in a storm shelter, so my husband went around the neighborhood and gathered up people to tell them to get to the shelter. So we got in the bunker and rode it out. Sir Cuteness did so well. He was so brave. We were all so proud of him.

It blew over us and didn't hit our town at all. But it did damage south of here.

Dak was not here when it hit, but he was at a friend's house with a basement, but it hit harder there than it did here. It was hard to be away from him in such a severe storm.

Today we have LOTS of storms in the area and right now is bearing down on Joplin again. Please pray for them!!!!!

The storms are headed this direction as well, so I had Dak get dressed and ready to go to the buker if we need to, and I have Sir Cuteness ready to go as well. So we can just go quickly if we need to.

My sister is a nurse and she is calling her local hospital to see if they need her to go to Joplin and volunteer. Dena you are a hero to me. I love you so!!!

Please pray for all in Joplin and hold them up. The death toll is 89 and they fear that will go up.

Thank you for reading and remembering Joplin and this entire area in your prayers.

Father,
You are God and You are in control. I praise You and love You Father. Please help the people devastated by this storm. Be with everyone in Joplin and all who will come to help. Father, help those of us who can't be there, to hold the hands up of those who are there, by praying. May we be Your hand extended to those who need You so. I love You Father and I trust You.
In Jesus Christ Name I Pray, Amen

Random Friday

So I am feeling a bit out-of-sorts. We have a new normal with Dak graduating High School. Our schedules are different. It's weird, because I keep wanting to set my alarm at night to make sure he's up for school. Weird.

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He starts college August 19th. And he keeps reminding me. Hmpfff.... I am really proud of him and really want him to Soar. I know it is time.....I will just miss him so much.

So we decided that when he moves out (GASP!) that I can use his room for my scrapbooking. It was so funny, because when I told him, he said, "But mom, I'll still come home on break. Where will I sleep?" Silly boy. I told him, of course his bed will still be in there, I'm just gonna use the room. I asked him if he just wanted his room to be unused and me walk by it several times a day and just be sad because he's not in there. Since I said it that way =) he thought it was a good idea.

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In other news: I never talk about my job on here. I'd venture to say that y'all didn't even know that I had a job, but I do. Well, kind of. I take appointments and do secretarial stuff for my stepson's business. He owns a carpet cleaning business. He does the cleaning and I do the appointments and customer service type of things. Well this past weekend, his Groupon came out. And can I just tell you that it has been CRAZY!!!

He sold 167 and it is just the two of us. WOW!! I thought things were going to slow down when Dak graduated. Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. But we are SO proud of Chase (Sir Cuteness's daddy). He is a great guy!!! Just a really good person and great dad and business owner.

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And speaking of Sir Cuteness, at this moment he is in his high chair singing at the top of his lungs, "YES JESUS LOVES ME.....YES JESUS LOVES ME.....YES JESUS LOVES ME....." Oh my, I love this child so. And yes Sir Cuteness, Jesus definitely loves you, you sweet thang!!!

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Thanks for spending a few minutes in my randomness. I have fun packages that are suppose to be coming in the mail today for Chase, Mr. Winslow and myself. Oh bring on the mail!!! =)

Hope you all have a Blessed and Beautiful weekend and remember.....

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14

(I'm loving SSMT!!)

Love you ~~

Fun Projects .....

WOW things are finally calming down in the Dak department. At least kind of. He calls today to find out what day he starts work. He is so excited!!! He hopes it is the sooner date. The boy is ready to make some money =)

Well, I wanted to show you a few things I have been working on in "Sunrise Designs". There are so many things I've been doing, but I wanted to share a couple of fun sewing projects I worked on yesterday to add to some of my up coming Scrapbook projects and then wanted to share some of Dak's Senior Memory Scrapbook Album with y'all.

First of all, I found a youtube tutorial for these CUTE, CUTE birds. First I made a couple of folksy flowers and then tackled the birdies. I used for the flowers a snowflake cookie cutter as my template and made it work. I think they turned out really cute.
















This is the snowflake cookie cutter I used.....















For the birds I went back to the youtube video and since I didn't have a template like she did, I decided to freehand it. I really like how they turned out and Dak LOVED them!! He wanted to know if I could use one on one of his pages. How sweet is that?!!

Now here is the really great part. The outside of the birdies are material of course, but in between the cloth are three layers of paper towels. Yep, just regular paper towels that you have in your kitchen. And you just rough up the edges with a little sand paper and it gives them such a vintage look. LOVE. I used a little bling for the eyes and added a little material and paper towel wings and there you have it. Easy-peasy and oh so cute!! (I'll add the video to the end of this post, so you can try it yourself =)















I am taking a Scrapbook class "May with May" from Big Picture Classes, the entire month of May. Everyday I get a new e-mail with a challenge or tip or layout, etc. It is really cool and I'm learning SO much!!

Here is one of the first layout challenges that I did. It was a challenge to use paint on your pages. So that is what I did. I painted green paper brown. It was so much fun, so then I tore the corner and used a distressing ink and made it look vintage and used a ribbon for my frame. I love how this page turned out.

And what a great picture of Dak and Alyssa!!!















Here is another layout of Dak and I that I just loved as well. Again I used ribbon as my frame and used a Prima flower that I distressed and then added a bling brad. So cute!!!















This was a challenge page I did on National Scrapbook Day (a week ago). I did a free all day class that had 12 challenges. It was so fun. This was a 10 10 10 page. 10 elements, 10 techniques, 10 words. Okay so it was more than 10 words (go figure =) but I love the quote.....
















"Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs, since the payment is pure love." by Mildred B. Vermont

LOVE this quote and SO true!!!!!















Fun page.....
















Simple, but fun family page.....
















I LOVE this banner I made out of just some fun elements I had laying around.....

I wanted to show you this page for the edge. I am now sewing on my scrapbook pages.

Who knew? How cute!! Today I think I'll try some zigzag stitiches on my pages.

So fun!!

I also added some shiny Stickles to my page. It brightened up everything and gave it a little more dimension.

This is still a work in progess. I'm wanting to get a bottle of royal blue Stickles to add to my distressed letters. They are not quite the right color blue.....

Here is a little chipboard tage I covered and stamped on, and then added a Thickers "D" for Dak on the side of the journaling..... OOPS Blogger just lost this picture, but please look up at the bottom of this page, so cute.....

I'm showing you this undone page because of the stiching on the top and bottom of my journaling. This was handstitched with embroidery thread. I love how it turned out. It isn't perfect, but it adds dimension and interest to the page. I haven't finished this page.....

Please let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your feedback or questions. I'll do my best to answer.

Also, for a GREAT story of love and God's redemption in a young person's life, please read the post directly after this one that I posted last night.

(I tried to post the youtube video but it wouldn't let me. If you'd like to see it email me and I'll send it to you that way.)

Love you all ~~ have a Blessed day ~~

The Rest of the Story and SSMT #10

I told y'all about Dak's Baccalaureate and how the speaker gave an altar call. It was hands down THE BEST Baccalaureate messages I have ever heard. She was so focused and knew exactly what God wanted to say and she delivered it beautifully.

She gave the altar call in such a way that she asked you to pray the Salvation prayer after her if you needed to and then tell someone after the service.

So after the service we set at the beautifully decorated tables and ate and fellowshipped and then Dak was ready to go, but I knew I needed to meet the speaker. So I found her and headed her direction.

She was so nice and really sweet, but a focused lady on her Jesus. It.was.beautiful. SHE.was.beautiful. I told her how Dak and I read Psalm 139 on the first day of school and how this just put a beautiful bookmark to his High School career. God is so good!!!

Then as I was standing there a young man came up and spoke to the speaker. He was in the 6th grade and had given his heart to Christ during the altar call. AWESOME!!!

I was so excited for him and gave him a hug and told him that he'd just made the best decision he would ever make. He looked at me and saw a kindred spirit....a fellow Christian. It was a beautiful moment.

Since that moment to this, God has been reminding me of that moment. The look that sweet Blair gave me. The moment that meant something to him from someone he didn't know, and yet he knew. In Christ he knew me and I knew him and we will be in heaven together, me and this young one. Beautiful moment and one that I will remember.

God keeps reminding me that I am Light. You are Light. If you are in Christ, You Are Light!!

So for my memory verse this time God led me to:

Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden."

He has been reminding me who I am in Him, but also that others are watching and that it is important how I act and what I do. Others can see Christ in us, we must remember that. We truly are the light of the world if Christ is in us and He is the hope of glory and we can give that hope to others. I'm so thankful for that reminder.

Love y'all so much ~~

Sunday Letters ~~ Project Grad Edition

My Dear Dak,

What a week it has been. On Monday, May 9th 2011, you graduated from Clever High School with honors. We are SO proud of you!!!

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of fun activities. Now that it is over, I feel like we can breathe and enjoy the next three months before college. I'm so proud of you my boy.

On Monday night, after graduation, we went to Project Grad. What a blast!!!

Here is Miss Alyssa being beautiful on the bus. You took this picture. What a GREAT picture. It captures her foot-loose-and-fancy-free spirit perfectly.
















You and Alyssa rocking it out =)



















~~ Graduated Seniors Class of 2011 ~~




















Pizza ~~ need I say more .....















Some of the girls hanging out!!















Me and Alyssa ~~ she is so mean to me =) hahaha
















You and Kaili ~~ What a sweet girl.....















Okay, really? heehee















Okay, so this totally and completely cracked.me.up.
You have a lot of aggies in your class who apparently wanted to play basketball and didn't bring (or don't own) tennis shoes.

So what's a boy to do? Play in your boots, of course!! =) hahahahahaha heeheeheeheehee
















Okay so Airelle's swimsuit wins BEST swimsuit of the night in my book.
So pretty and modest. Loved it and LOVE her!!!!!

















You had such a fun time. I'm so glad things went SO well!!



Well that was Monday night. We slept Tuesday, and then Wednesday here I come!! I went in your room and told you graduation was over and now life begins. You need to get up and get to looking for a job. hahahaha



You obliged and on Thursday found a job at Price Cutters in the deli department. You will be training in the cold meat deli first and then you will go to a different store and train in their Bistro and then you will be trained in both, because the PC that you will be working at is building a Bistro as we speak. So proud of you!!!



(You call Tuesday to find out what day you start. It will either be Next Sunday or the following Saturday, depending on payroll.)



You've been enjoying BBQ's and hanging out with friends and lots of Tennis Districts. Things will be slower for you this week.



I found a quote that I will be using in your Senior Scrap-Memory Book. It says:



YOU ARE CAPABLE OF DOING AND BECOMING

MORE THAN YOU REALIZE ~~



I love that quote!! And it is so true son. THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!!!!! With God ALL THINGS are possible. You can do ALL THINGS through Christ!!!



I Love you for always ~~ mom



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My Dear Sir Cuteness,



You are SO hilarious!! Yesterday you even told me something was hilarious. Cracks.me.up. to see such a BIG word come out of such a little dude =)



You have been sick this week and even ended up at the hospital. You have a really bad cold that went respritory, so you are now on breathing treatments for a while. You have a dragon mask that is so cute. You told your mama that you wanted "to wear it forever" =)



So we were playing outside this week and I had to come in and get something. When we came in you were wheezing, so I told you that you couldn't play outside for a while. So you crawled up in my lap and started tugging at your mouth. I asked you what you were doing, because it looked like you were trying to pull a hair out of your mouth. You looked at me with all seriousness and said:



"I'm trying to get the wheeze out my mouth."

hahahahahaha You crack.me.up.



You've gotten to where you like PaPa to start our evening prayers at bedtime, but then you take off and say your own. It is the sweetest thing I've ever seen, Sir Cuteness. You kneel on our bed and bury your little head in your hands and pray for Granny (my mom), Papa Wesley (Dick's Dad) and then last night for Frosty, as in the Snowman. LOVE that and LOVE YOU!!!



Love you to the moon, Moon, MOON ~~ Gamma



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My Mr. Winslow,



You are on 7 10's again. WOW that is a lot of hours. You are working so hard, and I'm so proud of you. You have a hard job, but NO ONE does it like you!!!



You are coming home a little early today. I hope you can rest.



We ordered you a couple of books yesterday too. You love to read. I hope having a couple new books will also help you to relax =)



Thank you for all that you do for us.



You are my hero.



I love you Sweetie ~~ Petrii