My Heart Is So Heavy... I've Lost My Dad!

It came as a shock to our whole family last week when my Dad passed away unexpectedly last Tuesday, April 15th at the age of 60. He would have had his 61st Birthday next month. I am still in a fog... I can't wrap my brain around the fact that I will NEVER see, talk to, listen to, or hug and kiss my Dad ever again in this life! And what pains me the most right now is that he'll never meet his new Grandchild who is on the way... he was looking so forward to this new baby ever since I told him on Easter Sunday! I never thought this would happen.


My heart hurts for my Mom... she's been married to her best friend for 43 years and now he's gone so suddenly... my brother and I and our spouses have been trying to stay so strong for her, but it's hard when ALL of our hearts have been ripped open. My dad was a wonderful and caring man. He was a loving man devoted to his family and to his Lord. He was a dedicated spiritual leader... an understanding Pastor whose teachings were a blessing to so many! I have admired and loved my Dad my whole life and I will never know another man quite like him... he was one of a kind, and I'll be spending the rest of my life missing him! I have been blessed beyond measure to have him as my Dad!


Jesus has assured us: " I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
(John 11: 25-26).



Pictures of my Dad and I on my wedding day...



Picture taken of Dad this past Christmas 2007...



My Dad's favorite past-time... reading... he read 2 to 3 hardback books a week!

Here's my Dad and Mom stealing a kiss...



With so much love in my heart for you Dad, I will forever and always be your little girl!

More Bump To My Lumps!

Well, here I am in all my 10 weeks glory! I can hardly believe the bump I have going on already... it's really popping extra early this time, but I am not complaining... I love it! I just can't wait to start feeling this lil' peanut move... I hope that comes early too!


I had a good appointment with the OB this week, and everything is looking real fine so far. I haven't been experiencing any early complications as I did with the past two prior pregnancies... no bad cramping, and no spotting or bleeding, so I am very thankful for that. My cervix is also closed (very good thing)... so we are still not sure about my cerclage. My Dr. said he'd like to check me in another 3 weeks and we'll discuss more about everything then. For now, I just continue to take it easy day by day, in other words, I have permission to be lazy ALL day long, and I am :)

One more thing to add before I scoot off here. I am involved on the team for a new on-line magazine that is now making it's debut, called Scrapbook News + Review. It's pretty exciting to finally see the first issue up, so if your interested in a new scrap source via the net please do check SNR out! I have 3 pages in the Reader's Journaling Spotlight and I'm sure I'll get around to sharing more about them later.

Not much else happening here today, sooooo I guess I'll go and get back to my relaxing state! Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

"Positively" Perfect News!

Okay... I'm not going to beat around the bush with this news any longer! We've known now for 3 weeks and I can't contain our excitement much more! I'm ready to share with everyone that we are finally expecting a baby once again! Gosh, it feels great to tell this because we are so overjoyed and at the same time, equally nervous and scared about these next few months. We are taking everything one day at a time and ever since seeing the double pink lines, I have been taking extra care and getting tons of relaxation in. We are so relieved that God is providing us with another chance for us to bring a child into our lives... we pray with all our might that we will hold our child in our loving arms for a lifetime to come!

Easter Day was wonderful yesterday! Our whole family was together at my parents. We went to a beautiful church service in the morning and then my mom made a fabulous feast of food for us all at lunch. She made so much... ham, crabcakes, sweet pototoes, pierogies, asparagus, corn, cabbage slaw, and her home-made rolls... and for dessert, we had coconut cream pie, cream puffs with hot fudge sauce, and then my sister-in-law also brought along a strawberry shortcake type receipe that she made! Like I said, soooo much food! I paid for it too last night because soon after we got home, I developed a bad case of heartburn! Ahhh, one of the joyous ailments of pregnancy!

Toward the end of lunch was when we told everyone that I was pregnant. Thursday was our first appointment with my new OB, and I did have an ultrasound and everything checked out to be fine and on schedule according to my dates. Anyway, right before lunch yesterday I tucked the u/s picture in my pocket. My dad later started conversing about dieting and how much he's lost recently. Then he asked me how my dieting was going... well, I had fallen off the diet wagon a few months ago... but I replied that I didn't really have a set diet anymore and then I said, "do you wanna know why?" and I pulled out the sonogram and gave it to him. Everyone was stunned and shocked! We definitely surprised everyone. I know they are all happy for us, but at the same time I know they are all very scared for us too. And we understand that! Not only have we lost our own precious babies, but those babies were a part of all of them too!

So, there is a very long road ahead of us. I am currently heading into my 8th week. And by the way, here's a little peeky of our lil' peanut's first picture...

Looks pretty fuzzy to me, but the lil' heartbeat was flickering away! Takes my breath away everytime I see that! My next appointment is scheduled for 2 weeks and then we will discuss more about when I'll be scheduling my surgery to have my cervix stitched shut (Cerclage). I know I will be much more relaxed after that's done!

Well I supose that's all the information I have to share for now as far as the pregnancy news. I still haven't gotten any scrapping mo-jo going. I think the lil' peanut taking up all my energy has alot to do with that! Hopefully soon though because I really do miss scrapbooking!

I am going to get back to my resting spot ( I spend alot of time snuggled in bed watching movies these days) and I'll be sure to update you on the peanut and I whenever I can... please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! :) Andrea

It's 3:15 am and I'm still awake...

I hate nights like this! I was all cozy in bed and drifting off to sleep quite nicely when out of no where I start choking and coughing on my saliva... ummm yea, sounds attractive. Anyway, as not to disturb the dh who has to get up in the morning and go to work, I thought I'd come out to the computer room till I get myself together again, lol! Now I'm wide awake because my mind is, so I guess it's the perfect time for a blog episode. Not much to discuss though, as my week was pretty chill.

Last Monday I ended up going to the Dr. because late Saturday night while we were playing cards at our friends house I realized my gland on the left side of my neck was getting pretty swollen. It progressed then on Sunday and I felt lousy so I called the Dr. and luckily there was a cancellation and they got me in at 11. They did a throat culture and it turned up negative for Strep... thank goodness! Anyway, it's all better now... it's magically disappeared. I'm just gonna blame it on the wacko weather that we've been having here this month in PA. I'm sooooo very ready for Spring to hop on in for good. Actually, I'm looking even more forward to Fall. I LOVE Fall, and I think this year is going to be awesome... I just have a feeling! Afterall, it's been a heck of a longgg Winter, hasn't it?

Ohhhh how I wish I could get some Scapping mojo to strike! I don't think I've scrapped a single page or card in like 2, 3 weeks and it's irritating me because I have all this new stuff that I bought from the week in Lancaster that I'm itching to put to use. I pick up the paper and then I'll go through my pictures to find just the right ones to scrap, and I'm just at a total loss. I think maybe I'll just need to get on-line and pick a challenge to work on. Maybe I'll give that a try this week... something's gotta give soon. It feels odd not to be working on something scrappy!

OK, I think this blog has occupied my brain, because I finally find myself getting sleepy, so I'm going to sign off and get back to my cozy flannel sheets! Good night, errr, morning... and have yourselves a nice week :)

Staying Busy...

Yep, and I guess that'll be my excuse for not keeping up with the bloggin' in over a week or two. My big fat Birthday occured this month, on the 16th. The roses up in the top photo there were from my sweetie... to help brighten my day a bit! They were gorgeous, and the first time he ever got me "pink" ones. But, those roses were thee ONLY bright spot of my day. There was nothing else great about turning 35 I'll tell ya! It just kills me that I'm that age already. Sooo much more that I wanted to accomplish by this time and it just makes me sad that I don't have either of my babies here with me (I wanted to have our family complete by this age). I guess I need to resort to the fact that those were my plans, but God obviously has others! Now I can be glad that I still have 5 years left til that #40 creeps up, lol! My parents also sent me the perfect Birthday card and it was actually the first time I ever cried from reading a Birthday greeting. Here it is...

It says, " Daughter, In the scrapbook of my heart, there are so many pages that carry your name...I have so many memories of you laughing and having the time of your life, celebrating milestones, sharing hugs with family and friends. Every year you keep adding to that collection, precious keepsakes that show how much you love and how very much you are loved". What a terrific card, and so perfect for a scrapbooker!

This week Mugi has vacation so we've been having a lot of fun doing this-n-that! Earlier in the week we took off to Lancaster, PA for a few days and did some shopping at the outlets and eating out a ton, cause we both love to do that. I even got to drag him around to some scrapbook places too, but he doesn't mind because that gives him more opportunities to play with his GPS system! We did some antiquing too, but didn't get anything. Here's some fun new stuff that I did get while we were there though...

Of course, a good heaping of scrap stuff (just what I needed)!

At the Yankee Candle Store I stocked up on some of my favorite new fresh scents, Vanilla Lime, Sage & Citrus and Island Spa. These are all sooooo good, but that Vanilla Lime is just insane!

At one of the Tanger outlet shops I found these adorable teddy bears wearing smocks embroidered with names. Of course I looked and they had an "Ava bear". Mugi told me to get it, and so I did...

Then last, I bought a sweet lil' birdie that I found at the "Flower & Craft Warehouse" (A favorite place to shop around for needful things)! Isn't he a cutie?

The rest of the week we've been just hanging out at home and doing some early spring cleaning of sorts. I had him go through his closet and get rid of clothes he no longer wears, or didn't want anymore. It's amazing because we bagged up 2 large trash bags of his dress pants and jeans and shorts, plus about 15 hangers of shirts, and yet it still doesn't look like a dent was put into his closet. So later next week I'll make a trip to Goodwill to drop it all off. Today we tackled organizing and re-arranging stuff in our computer/scrapping/guitar room I'll take some pictures of all my changes soon. I still have a bit yet to organize.

I think tonight we are gonna play some Sequence, and stay up late together watching some TV and I think I'll pop a pizza in the oven.

I must say that I love when my hubby is at home... it's the best to spend so much time together. I wish he didn't have to go back to work next week!

Rusty Pickle Challenge for Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to quickly share my page that I made to enter in Rusty Pickle's February Blog Challenge! I love my Rusty Pickle stash, so I couldn't pass this one up. We had to use one of their Valentine related lines and add a pocket to the page somewhere. Fun! I used their "Sweethearts Ball" paper and stuff from their Fair Verona line, including the quotes & sentiments coupons and acrylic stamps. I used one of the coupon sheets and created my pocket from that. The flowers were made from paper flowers and some of Rusty Pickle's fabric button brads as flower centers. My stems are strips of denim cut from an old pair of jeans! The photo is of me and my "valentine" on our vacation to Inner Harbor, Baltimore this past summer.



And here's my favorite photo of my guy from today that I wanted to show...

Lol! I LOVE it!! And I LOVE HIM!
Hope everyone had a sweet Valentine's Day!

A Missed Photo Opp!

Ohhh my word. What a morning! I have always wondered if our smoke alarms went off while we were asleep...would I hear them and get up, or would I sleep through it? Got my answer and it's YES -- I sure did hear them! Sometime after 7:30 am this morning, we were lying in bed sleeping and I heard beeping. I kept listening, in my sleepy state and then quickly realized it was our smoke detector beeping. I sniffed the air and it smelled funky so I get up and open our bedroom door and see smoke billowing in our hallway. I open the front door of our apt. which leads to a stairway to our basement section where the washer and dryer and apt. furnace are all located and the smoke is even thicker. So Andrea goes into panic mode and dials up 911! All is okay though, so no worries, thankfully! Seems as though the furnace was in need of a good cleaning:) It was a scary hour or so this morning and I felt kinda sorry for chasing the Fire dept. here when there wasn't actually a fire, but it's like they say...better safe than sorry! So yep, that was my exciting missed photo opportunity for the day :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I thought it went rather quick... I spent all day Saturday scrapping away with the CHA In Spirit Day challenges over at the Pub on TwoPeas. I didn't do so bad... I managed to scrap 4 pages and 1 card. I even won one of the drive-by prizes (BG Mellow collection pack and chipboard)! I LOVE the Mellow collection too so I'm happy to be getting the entire pack now. Here's one of the pages I did from the day...

Still scrapping last year's Prom, and it'll soon be time for another. I guess my niece just ordered her dress this past week, and it's going to be RED! Hope there will be some new awesome red papers to play with :) Lol, my wheels are turning already and Prom's not even here!

I made somethin' today!

My Saturday didn't go completely wasted. I actually got off my lazy can and made a card today... and an Easter one at that! I woke up this morning with the sneezes, and thought that wasn't a good sign, so I stayed in bed for awhile longer. Needless to say, I've been using almost a whole box of tissues today and tonight I'll be taking Nyquil before I go off to bed... it can't get any worse because I've got food to prepare for tomorrow nite's SuperBowl matchup. I'm not at all thrilled about either two teams playing in it this year, but hey, it's always a great excuse for a party with good food! We'll be going to our friends' house, where we've gone for the past 3 years in a row. My guy has already given me my orders weeks ago that I'm to make my Country BBQ Pork Ribs (well, actually my mom's recipe)! Ohhh, and just so you know where I stand... I hope the Giants knock the living crap outta the Patriots :)

Okay, onto the card I made. The other week when my mom was in here visiting us,her and I went over to The Street of Shops in Lewisburg, which is one of our favorite places for antiques and all types of crafty treasures. So there I rummaged through a huge box of old vintage cards and I picked out 3 really cool ones that I decided would be really neat to give a revamp... make them into new greeting cards. Two of them are Valentines and the other is an Easter theme.

Here's the 2 Valentines...

(This one is a fold out card, and it didn't have a year on it... but I'm assuming it's from the 60's)

(And this one is a post-card... very unusual on a chipboard-like backing and made with velvet and ribbon with sculpted flowers and gilded heart... so pretty!) I may leave this one just so and put it in a frame. I couldn't find a year on this card either, and it wasn't sent through mail, so no postmark either.

Now here's the adorable Easter post-card and this one did have a date... it was postmarked from the year 1913! Yea...real old!

I also found these vintage floral ribbons and thought they'd be sweet for card making and on scrap pages...

And here's that Easter postcard that I translated into a card for today..

I used some of that golden yellow floral ribbon along with some baby blue stretch lace, a chipboard flourish that I painted and antiqued from Making Memories and {Note}Worthy paper too. I didn't want to adhere the backing of the vintage card to the "new" card, so I used photo corners to hold the post-card. Cute, eh? I'll be making more of these type cards!

And before I forget, I've been tagged by my ohh so talented friend, Allison!

Here it goes... (I'm making this part short and sweet).

FAVORITE SITES

* Most all are listed on my side-bar, along with

QVC.com ( where a good portion of our income goes...)

The Thrift Shop Romantic (My latest favorite blog site)

The Polka Dot Pixie (A second latest fav. blog site)

The Scarlet Lime (I don't subcribe... but I drool :)

Target.com (= all of what's left of dh's paychecks :)

CHALLENGE FAVES

*How Much Is Too Much

Scrap My Scraps

GUILTY PLEASURES

*Sleeping in til noon :)

Mucho Mud-Slides or Pina Coladas from Applebee's :) :)

Babysitting Faves

* No need for any!

Creative Faves

* Way too many to name, but Allison would top it off I believe!

Clothing Faves

*Sweater and jeans... but I must wear my jewelry too!

Now I will tag...

Rachael

Aleta

and Stacy

Good night all! :)

A New Look...

and a first! I've never had a designed blog banner until now. Do you all dig? I kinda do... I finally got a chance to make one up with my scraps ... get it? I'm livin on scraps... ahhhh-ha-ha! Well, most of it was scraps at least. I even changed the background color from black to light pink, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it this way. I may just switch off every week or so, lol!

Certainly not much going on here this week for me, although I did just finish up a bunch of Paper House dt projects that will be used at CHA which is fast approaching. That all did keep me quite busy and I'll be showing you all pictures of all the cute things I made a little bit later. You can also catch glimpses of my stuff as well as other dt members creations over on the Paper House Blog if you'd like. I'll tell you that there are some mighty cute themed collections being debuted at CHA by Paper House... including NEW Chipboard :) So if you are a pet lover, or in need of some way cute Birthday embellishments keep checking out Paper House, because those are just a few of some of the fun new product being released soon. I almost forgot... you'll also want to keep checking out the PH blog because there will also be some cool give-a-ways to be offered leading up to CHA! Who doesn't LOVE new schtuff?!

Okay, I'm calling it quits for the night. The hubby is home so I think I'd better pay him some attention ;) Later you all!

Big Bummer!

Well you all, thanks so much for all the good luck wishes regarding my entry for the CMK dt, but I'm sad to say that I didn't get a spot on the new team.
I was disappointed :( but certainly not surprised... I'm kind of used to the rejection as far as dt's go, lol! There are two or three on-line store or kit clubs that I'd be *thrilled* to design for, but it ALWAYS seems like there are so many other talented ladies out in the huge cyber world beating me to that glorious finish line. Ohhh well, I suppose I'll keep throwing myself out there and maybe someday I'll measure up!

The snow is falling, and I guess it's just in time to ruin the weekend plans (of course). My mom was planning on coming in here for a weekend visit tomorrow, but now she probably won't since she freaks out about driving in the stuff. So now perhaps I'll stay put and get some scrapbooking mojo going! It's been a long while since I've done any scrapping for just me... geez, I can't even remember the last time.

Hey, it's time for you all to meet a special lil' girl... her name is Ginger!





Isn't she the sweetest wittle puppy? I could just snuggle her all day... but she's not mine :(




Ginger belongs to our good friends, Jen and Jason and their boys. They just got her a few weeks before Christmas... Santa's helpers made an early Christmas delivery! We all just love her to pieces, as you can probably tell.


Okay, I'm off to try and get some scrapping underway. Don't know how much I'll actually do, because if all this snow keeps up, I just may go into hibernation mode. I'm starting to feel a bit sleepy, and a nice long nap just may be a better option right now, but we'll see ;)