SATURDAY EVENING POST

Quiet day here. Jim works on Saturdays, so the boys and I have been hanging out. Actually, I've been busy with a page while the boys play outside! Here are three pages that I've done in the last couple days. The one with Nathan was inspired by his computer time today and the songs he chose to listen to. I just grabbed the photo from a pile and voila!

I updated this, but I kept the original photo because it's clearer. In real life, the "B's" look like stitching. My original intention was to just doodle.

Just a simple page with cute pictures of Owen
playing the drums (practice pad kit) this summer.

I made this background paper -- actually it's cardstock. I wanted to experiment with a stamp that I have -- the squiggly square prints that you see all over the paper. Plus I inked it for a distressed look as well.

Thanks for looking at my blog! Feel free to pass it along to anyone that you think would enjoy reading it!

blessings, joie

THEY'RE GRRRRRREAT!

Recently, Owen learned to do something that he hadn't been able to figure out before. Up until a few days ago, he couldn't pronounce "r"s. It was always a "w" sound. I'd try to teach him, but he just couldn't figure it out. Y'know when you teach "th" you can show a child your tongue. Same with "s". When it comes to the "r", it's something you do way back in your mouth, and you can't show a child. I didn't think it was a speech problem, so we've just been waiting it out. Then I told him the other night that he's going to be 4 soon, so he HAS to learn to say his "r"s. He just did it! It's a riot to hear; it's such an exaggerated "r". Sometimes he forgets, and sometimes he'll just say the word with the exaggerated sound!

Here's a house warming card that I made for a friend of mine. There's a zillion ways you can make it. You can use ANY patterned paper, any message, or you can make it whimsical or not!

blessings, joie

SCRAPBOOK PAGES

Here are a couple pages that I completed today.

Me and my train on Christmas day 1966.
The title and tag are tea-dyed cream colored cardstock! Also I want to share with you how I overcame a mistake (or accident). See the candy at the bottom right? One morning, I realized that I had left a stamp pad uncovered, and this page was sitting on top of it. Needless to say, there were a couple of large black stains on it! I tried and tried to figure out a way to cover it up without looking stupid with a piece of paper just covering it up. So I cut out some candies from the patterned paper and voila! I thought that was pretty clever!
Remember in the old days when your mother used to take pictures at an angle like this one in order to get as much in the photo as possible?! Maybe it was just MY mother! That presented a problem as well, but I think it ended up looking okay.

This was a fun and simple page! You'll have to read the journaling to know what it's about!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

PAGE UPDATE

Updated scrapbook page:

My niece Leighanna on her 14th birthday

Even though the color shows duller on this page than it was when I scanned it, I just wanted to show an updated version. To make the faux stitching look more real, I punched holes with a paper piercer similar to what the sewing machine needle would make. It took quite a while -- since I had 2 "rows of stitching" -- but it gave it a more authentic look. I also added pink brads to the green flowers and added a little tag with flowers. Again, the actual page is much brighter. This is the original post from last week.

I've been purging and reorganizing my scrapbook studio AGAIN! I probably should say "still". I never have really finished it, so stuff just gets shifted around and nothing ever gets done! Right now I can't get to my work area, so I'm not able to work on anything... that's hard for me!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

GO-KARTS!

Sunday afternoon we headed out to the beautiful countryside of Schoharie, New York, to a go-kart track called Gobblers Knob! Each ride was for 5 minutes, and they all got to go three times. They, including Jim, had SO MUCH fun! Of course, I took pictures. By the time the 3 rides were over -- other people went in between their rides -- my face was cramped from smiling! I took over 200 pictures (of course I'm not keeping them all!) Once again, I LOVE the digital camera!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

RARE OPPORTUNITY

Yesterday, we had the rare opportunity to see Daddy at work TWICE! Occasionally he drives past the house, but that's been it. Yesterday, we were going to visit my sister, Donna. She lives about 25 minutes southeast of us. Unless we're going to visit my sisters and/or parents, we don't go that direction. HOWEVER, Jim does deliver gasoline in that area and beyond. (First of all, keep this in mind... we were supposed to go to Donna's on Friday. Jim was supposed to have Wed. off. That didn't happen; they needed him to come in. So then it was going to be Thursday... again, didn't happen. So Friday was going to be his day off... so we cancelled going to visit Donna. AGAIN, they called him in. So we decided, again, to go visit Donna, since Jim had to work.) Today (Friday) turned out to be a day when he'd be delivering near Donna's house. But before that, he had to pick up his trailer from being serviced in that same area -- so as we were heading for Donna's, I decided to stop and see if he'd picked up his trailer yet.

There he was hooking up the trailer and doing his pre-trip inspection! It was SO COOL! The boys were thrilled! I was thrilled that I could take pictures of him! (I rarely leave home without my camera!)

After picking up the trailer (tank) he had to drive back to Albany, get filled up with gasoline and then back down by Donna's. He called me to let me know when he'd arrive at the gas station. So we loaded up her car with boys, and we set off to watch Daddy at work, again! He had already put the hoses in the ground when we arrived, so he was just waiting for the tanks to fill.

I just want to say, and I've yet to tell him, that I was so honored to watch my husband working at his job. Jim is very conscientious about his work, and it was evident in watching him. There was no showing off; he's not like that. He was trying his best to ignore us -- and not in a bad way. Believe me, it had to be distracting to have me clicking away with my camera. But he knows how important that is to me, so I really don't think he minded... as long as I knew that he had to move quickly to get the job done -- and couldn't visit with us. I've always admired my husband's work ethic. * And how cool was it to get the price of gas in the picture?! Hopefully, in a couple years we'll look back and laugh at how ridiculously high it was back in the summer of 2008!! (we can hope, can't we?!)

God planned these moments. We couldn't have worked out all the details ourselves if we tried! Jim usually starts his day at 5 a.m.! Yesterday, since he thought he had the day off, he didn't get UP until 9! We haven't had dinner with him for 3 days because he's been called in late, assuming he wasn't going to work that day!

In Ephesians, chapter 5, we're told to have respect for the authority of our employers. Even if an employer does not deserve respect in his own right, it should nevertheless be given to him with genuine sincerity as if one was serving the Lord Jesus Himself. To serve one's employer well is to serve Christ well.

This week was a bit trying for all of us; we had plans to do something as a family on Jim's day off. But, again, God has perfect timing. I had been reading Ephesians a few days before and read this about respect for our employers. I had to teach it to the boys -- because they were angry that Jim kept being called into work on his day off. I had to remind Jim as well. AND I have to keep reminding MYSELF! God rewards us for our obedience to Him. We might not recognize it as a reward for a particular thing, but we have to trust Him...

Who knows, maybe getting to see Jim working was that reward. It works for me!

Until next time....

blessings, joie

BLAST FROM THE PAST!

This is me at 6 months. I love this picture.

This is me at 2 "helping" my father put together a swingset!

Love the POINT OF VIEW of this photo....through the front window of our station wagon on a trip to Prince Edward Island in the early 70's. My {immediate} family of 6 traveled with both grandmothers PLUS TWO (2) German Shepherds! In those days the front seat was a full seat and way in the back of the station wagon there were extra seats for at least 2 people.
PRICELESS!! My father with Owen looking at a scrapbook album. This is almost 2+ years ago.

until next time...

love, joie

Here's a powerful song called Praise You in This Storm by Casting Crowns. There are several songs of theirs that I like -- on a few different albums... This video is okay, but the video isn't what's important, it's the song I want you to hear. A storm that we had back in June. Damage was

insignificant compared to what others go through.

Enjoy!

blessings, joie

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

I'm doing pretty well keeping my blog updated. As long as I work on it a little bit each day or two (or three), it's not so overwhelming.

This was such a cool shot!

N & J watched men's volleyball at the Olympics today!

Not bad for a photo I took myself! Love these
warm and cozy moments! (after a swim)

blessings, joie

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Love this ultra simple page of my neice, Leighanna at her 14th birthday party. I "scraplifted" it from Scrapbook Etc. Magazine. I have REALLY got to concentrate on doing 8.5 x 11 pages. They're plenty big enough for one or two pictures. They're easy to copy. Quite honestly, if I don't have to recreate scrapbook pages for albums for the boys when they grow up, that'll be okay with me. This way, I can copy the pages that they like or reflect them growing up, and I can put them in 8.5 x 11 scrapbook albums! I think I can even submit photos of my pages to the digital photo companies and have hard cover books made up... This page of Leighanna has the faux stitching on the right hand side as well, but my scanner didn't pick it up no matter how much I adjusted it.

Two bean plants that the boys planted this summer -- that was IT for our gardening! Oh, except the stray tomato plants that sprouted on their own in our garden!

How Nathan LOVES to mow!
Forgot to take a photo of Jared!

My mother-in-law sent me this picture of my cute husband and (decent picture of ) me! And, of course, Tammy, Myra, Cara & Dylan from a couple weeks ago.

Until next time...

blessings, joie

ready for hire!

We spent 6 hours outside today! It was in the 80's, but it was beautiful! First we took a walk, and then we sat outside until it was warm enough to go in the pool (water very cold from the cold nights!). Then the boys mowed ours and our neighbors' back yards. After that, Jared and Owen got back in the pool, while Nathan made lunch. So we had lunch down by the pool! Between the trampoline and the pool, the boys played outside until 3 o'clock!

Scrapbook page title: READY FOR HIRE!

I'm crazy about this photo of Owen! (at almost 4)

Until next time...

blessings, joie

sunday, august 17, 2008

I took this photo of our table because I love that our placemats--that are out on the table ALL day (probably defying the laws of proper table etiquette) are "learning placemats"! We've been doing that -- changing them as they wear out -- for as long as I can remember! We all have them, and we rotate them.

I did this page a week or so ago. I'm just finally getting around to photographing it! Oh, I "made" the patterned paper. I took a piece of tan card stock and started stamping light circles with a similar (non-contrasting) color. Then I rubbed some ink on to make it look distressed.

Speaking of "distressed", this was a fun project for me today. I liked the papers on the right, but I wanted to make them look "old", "vintage"-like. SO I steeped up some tea and put the 12 x 12 papers in a basin of tea to dye them! Then I let them dry most of the way. After that, I crumpled them up, flattened them with my hands, and ran some brown ink over the creases and bumps. Then I ironed them out as smoothly as I could! I love the look! It's such a difference! With the crumpling and the ironing, the paper shrunk a little! These will be perfect with old Christmas pictures. I suppose the 'presents' one can be used for an old birthday page... I even did some sanding to take some of the color off, but you can't see it from here. I love knowing that I can alter paper or cardstock to make it just right for my project!

Keeping it short tonite!

blessings, joie

great song

I've been meaning to include some great songs in my posts. Here's a powerful song from Casting Crowns called Voice of Truth.

I'll try to remember to include another won in my next post.

blessings, joie

BONUS DAY!

Jim didn't have to work on Thursday, so we had a nice bonus day with Daddy! Jim decided that we should go to our church parking lot for the boys to ride bikes (and Big Wheel). It has a small playground because we also have a school. It sounded a little boring to me, but the boys had a BLAST! (I brought my scrapbook magazines, and Jim and I talked for a while) Jim ran out and got lunch at Burger King, then we sat at the picnic table by the playground and had lunch.

After that, Jim had to stop by his truck to drop something off. The boys loved climbing in and pretending to drive!

Later, after we got home, our neighbors invited us over for a campfire. We love doing that! After it got dark, we saw this incredible scene looking at the moon! There was a RAINBOW over the moon!! What a great way to end the day!!

I receive a few natural health newsletters regularly. This one gives a list of produce that you don't have to buy organic -- meaning they have the lowest pesticide load. There are 12 of them on the list. Unfortunately the 12 on the "highest load" list are so many of the fruits and veggies we eat! Check it out.

That's all for today!

blessings, joie

MAN, WE'VE HAD A LOT OF RAIN!

We have had so much rain lately! Our lower lawn is squishy all the time! Two days ago, it rained so hard, it flooded a section of the cellar. Jim was out with the boys, so I had to clean it up myself. It hailed, so the water I was dealing with was COLD! It's not even the middle of August! Yesterday I wore a long sleeved shirt outside while I sat watching baseball and racing in my backyard...

That's right! I said racing. Bless the hearts of my two older boys! They "raced" with Owen, and they had a blast! Yes, that's Nathan on the tricycle! When he and Jared ride on it, they look like they're trying out for the circus!

Owen JUST learned how to ride his Big Wheel yesterday! It's been hard for him on the gravel driveway, but he was able to get his little legs going to pedal. Big Wheels are weird. The way they're set up doesn't give you the leverage you need to push with your legs! I know... they've been around for years. My sister Brenda had one when she was 3 or 4. That was almost 40 years ago! (sorry Brenda!)

Jared is really into "AniMusic". It's computer animated music. This photo is taken from the computer, but our library system has one dvd. Needless to say, the boys have been watching it alot. Here's a link to the Animusic website to check it out! Don't know if you can view the sample clips, but here's a good quality video on YOUTUBE. You might want to check it out first. It's very cool!

This post was actually written a few days ago. More pictures since then, but I'll post this one and add another one over the weekend of early part of next week!!

blessings, joie