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