Broadway at the Beach...

This was just the coolest place I think I've ever been to shop. Even cooler than the Mall of America I think! The mall was layed out around a lagoon and the little groups of shops dotted the walkway around the lagoon. There were two Christian store there where we found lots of cool goodies to take home. The mall also boasted a mini golf course and some wonderful rest- aurants. Surely there was more than I could fit into a 2 page layout! It was certainly an experience I can't wait to enjoy again!

More Vacation stuff...

Can you tell I really want to get this album finished? These are actually two of the first pages, besides the Title Page which I will hopefully get to show you later! This was the kid's first "com- mercial" airplane ride. They have been in a six-seater before. They were so excited to leave for vacation and they behaved so well, even though we were running on very little sleep! Enjoy!!!

Good Friday

I had the most wonderful evening tonight, immersed in the love of Christ. We gathered a group from 6 local churches tonight to present the Stations of the Cross to our church at Peace Lutheran. It was the first time most had seen the Passion this way and it was such a uplifting experience to be a part of. For me, each time I participate in the presentation of the Stations of the Cross, it is moving and powerful and most definitely Christ-filled. Tonight was no exception. Each person who gave of their time was just a part of the body of Christ. Without each one, we would not have been able to for a whole. From the ushers to the soloist, you could feel the movement of Christ in the church and it's almost overwhelming. I am so thankful for those who were willing to give of their time and talent for tonight. I pray that it brought each person who attended closer to God. I hope you had a peaceful day! Blessings!!!

More pages to share...

Here's another page with the Flatten family and us on the beach in MB. And a page about the fun and slightly weird things we saw there.

A Day of Firsts

I am going to do my best to get something in here at least several times a week if not more. It's sad that I got it all started and set up and then never continued with it! Here is a layout that I made, also from our South Carolina vacation. It is Jonas' day of Firsts. He got to dip his tootsies in the ocean and he got to float in the pool back at the house. He is such a doll!

One Cute Picture to Share

This is my little sweetie Gabriel yesterday in our backyard. :)

I am a terrible poster!

You know, this always happens. I get busy with things in life and some other things seem to get a break. For instance, my blog. I didn't realize it had been 7 months since I had posted something!

I have been swamped in scrap land lately though! I finished 134 paper-scrapped pages as a challenge from myself. See, I had a bin full of older pictures from 2004 and earlier! How sad huh? So I told myself 3 weeks before I was going to spend a SCRAPPING weekend at a friend's house that I needed to finish all those paper layouts if I was going to head to her home sans paper supplies. I finished them in 2 1/2 weeks with a little time to spare to get my digi goodies unzipped and ready on my hard drive. I left here with enough stuff to do her Stampin' Up workshop and then just a laptop, hard drive and some photo CDs. It's was soo nice to pack to light! I only got 5 whole pages completed and one more that I need to add drop shadows to, now that I've figured out the new program on the new laptop. It took me the better part of the big scrapping day to figure out just shadows. But I will be moving along now that I am getting the hang of it and I really would like to finish my vacation scrapbook soon. It's almost a year later! So glad I journaled it during and right after vacation!

Hopefully I can photograph some of the 134 layouts and get them uploaded here soon. I am going to try to do a better job of keeping up with that!

One More Page Before Work

I managed to finish one more page this morning. This is my son with Mark and Amy's son. Gabriel was so enamored of him! The kit is again Boy Fashion.

Mark Amy & Jonas

This is the first page of several with our friends who came to visit us in Myrtle Beach. Isn't that little boy a sweetie!!?!?! The digi kit is call Boy Fashion and is by Ilona Hamp, The Heart eyelet is from Misty Cato, The chipboard date pieces are by Janel Kretschman, and the torn corner was created by Sara Ellis.

Arrrrrr, I'm on a roll!

Ok, one more set of pages for the day, then I think I am done for the evening. This completes one whole CD of pictures though, which means I have 3 more to go! These photos were also from the Ripley's aquarium, in the Pirate exhibit. This kit if called "His Stuff" and is made by Jeanelle Paige.

Ripley's Aquarium

More pages from today's rather productive scrapbooking session. These are from the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. The digi kit is called "Boardwalk" and is from Sara Carling. Thanks for taking a look!

CANNONBALL!!!!!

This page was so much fun to make, but a little difficult. If you read my previous post, you know my computer hates my photo program, well, I did both these pages at the same time, now it hates me even more, but I did it! With no crashes to boot! I love my camera, I can do so many cool new things with it, including live action continuous shooting. These pages and the previous ones are so fun! Digi kit is called "Surfin' Safari" by Jennilyn Designs. Just so cute and soooooo much fun stuff in there! Perfect for the SC vacation! These are the two pages side by side.

So can ya tell yet...

that's it's often not until Tuesday that I have time to scrap or stamp? Here's two more pages from the South Carolina album. One I had to start from scratch because apparently my dinosaur of a 'puter hates my scrapping program. I told it to get over it, lol!

Finally, Some Southern Comfort

Here's the first two pages I've finished for our vacation scrapbook to South Carolina. I bet it's about as hot there as it is here in Wisconsin, only they get an ocean breeze! These two pages are of the rental house our family shared there.

Ah, Digi Scrapping at last!

It's been a while since I've had the bug to get some scrapping done and today I got bit but good! I am itching to start on my vacation pictures from South Carolina, but first I whipped up this page. It's photos from last weeks fishing trip my kids took with grandpa Dave. Catera caught a Brown Trout, her first, which was an exciting adventure.

Another Tuesday, Another Color Challenge

I figured it was the perfect time to make a card with splitcoaststampers color challenge, my mom's birthday is tomorrow! The colors are Bashful blue, Certainly Celery and Close to Cocoa.

Prayers for safety!

I mother-in-law left yesterday morning for Tanzania Africa on a missionary trip. She is traveling with the rest of her group (they have not arrived yet...LOOOOOONG FLIGHT!) Any prayers you can offer up for their safety and their mission would be wonderful. They are going to be working with a school/orphanage for 2 weeks. She is very excited that God has called her to use the skills He has equiped her with for this mission.

Give Me a Great Big "C"

I found this little (big) cutie at the Hobby Lobby in Manitowoc, WI while on vacation. I wished I would have picked up a bunch more because I think they would make awesome Christmas gifts! This one I made for my daughter. She is IN LOVE with anything tropical, so made this one for her door. My son wanted to know if I bought a "G" for him. Well, of course I did, but when will I get to it is the next question. I used to sell paper piecings on ebay, so the palm tree was a cinch, detailed with a bit of pastel and a white signo gel pen. The paper came from a "Petals & Paisleys" pack I had purchased a few months ago from Stampin' Up. Then I added Primas with brad centers to up the embellishment factor.

Tremendous Undertaking...

People who know me say I work better under pressure. I HATE when they say that. I've always dreamed of being a person that doesn't wait until the last minute. I feel so in control of things when things are ready to go ahead of time. Well, here I am again, about to take on a huge project, more because I didn't think of it until this morning and less because I procrastinated on it, but, I digress. My MIL is leaving Sunday for a two week mission trip to Tanzania. She is a bit nervous and some of her family is not supporting her choice to use the skills God has equipped her with for HIS mission. They would prefer she kept her feet firmly planted in the United States. My husband and I fully support her choice to go and use her God-given skills to further His kingdom and I know she will be blessed many times over for it. So, with that being said, I am starting a project to make some sort of paper treasure for her to open each day, including, but not limited to hand-drawn treasures from her grandkids, hand-made cards, mini scrapbook pages, etc.

Well, here's the first card, made with the Boatloads of Love stamp set from Stampin' Up's new Fall/Winter Collection catalog. This also encorporated the Color Challenge 123 from Splitcoaststampers.com.

We're Back!!!

We arrived home from Lake Michigan yesterday after almost a week of odd schedules and lots of fishing and family time. I took some fabulous photos of Lake Michigan that I will share soon, but for now, one will have to suffice. Two of the mornings, we did the traditional Two Rivers thing and woke up at ZERO DARK THIRTY to get out and set lines before the sun rose. I got some really awesome shots, but this one was my favorite. This was the sunrise that greeted us Saturday morning. We don't often get up early enough to see the sunrise, and both days it was spectacular!