Fun Friday!

Marisa and I went to see the musical Annie last night at the Masonic Temple with a friend of her's from school and her mom. Sheri and Kristine were so much fun to hang out with. First off we went to dinner at Papa Vino's -- oooo, good food. I love going out to dinner, but unforunately Dave doesn't. So it always happens that I either go with my sister or a friend, but I love to go to a good restaurant and enjoy the atmosphere.

The musical was lots of fun, but unfortunately we had the last row in the whole place. Tight seating and a big head in front of me kept me bobbing from side to side. Nonetheless, it was a good time had by all of us. There was only one downside -- when we left our seats at intermission, we left our coats on them. I asked Sheri if she thought they would be okay, and she said sure. We come back from getting a pop and low and behold someone stole her daughter's jacket. I couldn't believe it!!

Then we started putting 2 and 2 together and figured out the people that were next to her never came back to their seats. I didn't see their faces, so I couldn't recognize them if I were standing face to face with any of them. Well, I kept seeing Sheri look over and down to her left and not at the show. Right after the musical ended, Sheri started looking around and headed that way with us following. I was thinking she must have someone in mind so I just continued behind her. We come across these people and I look over as Sheri starts to ask if that's her daughter's coat in their chair. I see the coat and am first thinking maybe it was an accident that they picked it up. Oh, no, you should have seen the busted look on their faces. The lady says to her friend, "Oh, I thought I told you to take that coat back up there." Her friend says, "Ooops, sorry." Sheri just grabbed the coat and walked away. I gave a disgusted look and followed after her. I can't believe they would steal another child's coat and let her walk out in the cold. The little girl with them had a coat on!! Jeez, the nerve of people!!

After talking to Sheri, it was plain to see that they stole it. First off, she wrapped up the coat in hers and left it in the seat. When we got back to our chairs, her coat was laid on the back of her chair with Kristen's gone. So one of the ladies opened her seat and took the coat out. Second off, when Sheri thought she saw the people who were sitting next to her in another location, she noticed that they kept turning around and looking up our way. Anyway, I'm glad Kristin got her coat back and those people were exposed and didn't get away with it.

Talked to my favorite cousin today!!

You know who that is --- it's you Carla!! Are you checking this blog out now that I've given you the link. We can keep in touch this way, too. You know even though I don't pick up the phone all the time, doesn't mean I'm not thinking of you. Keep your chin up and pretty soon I'll have that basement done so you can come over and scrap with the girls. Love ya!!

Sad day :^(

Well, yesterday was the final day that Jaja was laid out. The funeral started at 9:30 a.m. I was only able to attend the viewing on Tuesday from 1-2:30 as I had to pick Marisa up from school. Collin was pretty good for the most part. He was so cute because he would look at Jaja in the coffin and say, "Shhhh, Jaja's seeping." Then he would tip-toe away with his finger to his lips.

I had never been to a funeral that you actually went to church for. In Hamtramck, where most of my in-laws live, there is a little funeral home and right down the street is St. Ladislaus the church they have attended their whole lives. The pallbearers, Dave being one of them, loaded the coffin in to the hurst where we then drove about 300 yds. to the church. It truly was a beautiful Catholic ceremony. The priest actually held my attention. I love what he said about death not having the last word - that most people think of our journey here on Earth in this order - birth, life, & death giving death the last word. However, he said it should go in this order - life, death, and then resurrection or the after-life, therefore you don't give death the last word. It only has just a short, but non-monumental moment in one's life. Anyway, those words really did stick with me.

Marisa was a big girl. We had debated taking her to the funeral, but in the end I thought she could handle it. She cried when she saw me crying in the funeral home, and then she cried at the church when they were walking Jaja's coffin back to the hurst. She said she knew he was in heaven with God, but she was really going to miss him. Collin was superb in church. I could've almost forgotten he was there he was so quiet. He loves his older cousins: TJ, Ashley, Kristy and Jennifer. They were helping me watch him.

I worry for Babcia. She will be all alone after 59 years of marriage. She broke down and cried really hard right before they closed the coffin and then when she walked up for the last look. She is a sweet little thing! Darlene, her daughter and my mother-in-law, had a really hard time, too. No matter how old Jaja was (he was 91) and the life he had, that is her "daddy". She held strong, crying only periodically, but you could see the deep sadness within. She is a great daughter, an only child, who has always taken care of her parents. She will take good care of Babcia, too! My only hope is that out of loneliness, Babcia doesn't let death take her too soon.

Here's a picture of them I took around October of 2005. It was at my MIL's house celebrating the October birthdays. Babcia's birthday is October 15th, and I wanted to get some photos of them together, not knowing when Jaja's cancer was going to finally take his life. God Bless you, Jaja!!

Painting

I started painting!! Yeah, now only 4 more billion walls to go!!! No, really I am just focusing on my little area right now. However, I was so excited to get the paint yesterday and when I was at the paint store I asked if I should only go half the strength being it was a darker color and going in the basement. I should know to go with my better judgement! The guy tells me no it will be fine.

The heck it was!!! I started trimming out the one wall and stood back and ***GASPED**** It was like coffee with a splash of cream. Of course they don't take the paint back, but they offered to add 4 oz. of white paint -- WHAT???? I went back and bought a gallon of white and started mixing 1/4, then 1/2 and then said screw it -- I added the whole half gallon. Now mind you I'm $40 in to this project and not liking what I have so far. I paint two small walls and let it dry. I went back down later and ***SHOCK*** I LOVE IT!!! Thank goodness because Dave will shoot me if I want to change the color and spend more money experimenting! It's nice and warm feeling.

So I'll be adventurous and post my before pics of my scrap space, so when I'm all done you'll be as shocked and amazed as me. This is the part of the basment I am working on right now. It will be my new area with a cabinet and longer counter top and shelves. The basement is sectioned off and shaped like an "L".


Now this is my scrapping area I work in right now. Disasterous!!! My sister just informed me today she doesn't have any "scrap mojo" that area as it is. Too funny, Pam! I'll get it done for you ASAP...lol We can't wait to move around the corner the the clean space. Oh, you promised to help organize the entire area, remember Pam?!?!?!

wHy?

that's the question I ask myself. Why do I sit here on the computer when I really want to scrap yet I don't know what I want to scrap. I feel a little bit of a scrapper's block coming on. I haven't had any pictures inspire me lately enough to want to tackle going down in the dungeon and play with my goodies. I have been just ordering tons of stuff lately and not using any of it. Why??? I ask myself once again. I really feel it has to do with my disorganized space. I was all gung-ho about painting tonight because I finally picked out a color to paint the walls, but the paint store was closed at 5. WHY?? I can't figure out why they close at 5 p.m. So now the desire to paint has subsided...sigh* Here's the paint colors I went with:


The red is actually the color of the boy's room. I had over half a gallon left and love that color so much I decided to make it an accent color on one wall. I couldn't decide whether to go with a deep glowing(but pretty)yellow or not. I feel I have too much yellow in the house already. Plus, the sectional that is in the basement is brown and this taupe color will look good I think.

Now the only thing is to get the basement to stop leaking!! I'm going to paint my area, and then Dave is going to take down the beadboard paneling which faces the front of the house that he just put up to try to locate where the water is coming in from when it rains. He's not a happy camper!

I'm off to read my new favorite book from Janet Evanovich -- Three to Get Deadly. I read books one and two, One for the Dough and Two for Money, in less than a week's time. Man, oh man, are they good! I have to thank my J4K buddies for turning me on to these and getting me reading again -THANKS!

Super Sunday Crop

I forgot to post that I partook in an online crop at J4K this Sunday. It was soooo fun. Every hour Kathy, the owner, would post a new challenge. I was only able to get three of the six challenges completed, but I loved it!

Challenge: Create a birthday card using a shape different than a rectangle or square.


Challenge: To create a treat bag --well, this was for Dave's treats and they tend to be pretty big...lol I redecorated a Yankee Candle bag.


Challenge: To alter a clipboard. This was my first attempt at one. I like how it turned out, but I was so peeved when I accidentally smashed the tip of the paint brush on the paper--ugh!! I can see that spot a mile away no matter how hard I try to cover it.

Feeling betta!

Pretty good day today. Collin and I finally went back to his little Parent/Tot class at the community center. The teacher wondered where we had been. He was pretty good today, but it's funny that he's nothing like Marisa was when she was in this class. She loved every part of it especially the arts and crafts. He wanted nothing to do with decorating his shoe box for the Valentine party next week. So I did it -- love playing with glue and sparkles!

I challenged myself to take him to his class with no diaper. I have never gone out of this house for that length of time with no diaper. He did GREAT!! I reminded myself to remind him to use the potty. He went a total of two times there and then once at the Joann Etc. store. Now we just got to get him doing the #2 on the potty!

I had to stop by Papertales today and look for the QK cupcake die. Nope, they sold out of it. However, she had all the new released dies and I had to buy four of those -- the tab, sparkle, flower letter hangers, and the asterisk plus the new pink zip-around binder. I deserved it!! Now to sneak away and go play with it...lol

I am trying to write a list to pack up my stuff for the second ever crop I will be attending at church this Saturday. One of the mom's at Marisa's school scrapbooks and we finally decided to get together and do this. She has attended the crops at church before, but not me. I find I want to pack the whole kit-n-kaboodle. This time I am trying to narrow down what I need for a few specific things. I need to make cards for my J4K gal pals whose birthdays are this month. I am going to attempt Sunday's sketch, and alter a notebook. We'll see what happens after that.

Sick again!!

Well, I've had a cold/sinus infection for just about a week now. It's driving me crazy because I feel like I'm walking around with a cloud in my head. Every morning I wake up, it's like I have to lift a brick off of my pillow. Why is it that husband's cannot be more understanding when their wives are sick? Dave did help out more than usual on Wednesday which I was very grateful for. You know what I think is because I don't just drop on the couch or bed and I keep somewhat of a good disposition, he thinks I don't feel that bad. All week I have just wanted to lay in bed, but my schedule and kids just don't allow that!! I think I'm going to have to break down and make an appointment for the doctor. To top it all off, Collin never wants to sleep when I'm sick, so he's got me up at 5 in the morning. Today I was having no part of that!!!! I picked his butt up and popped him right back in his bed. I had to go around the house turning every light off. We did sleep in until 8:50, but that put us in a rush to get out the door for Marisa's 10 am dance class.

Oh, I so need to find a real babysitter. I've got to start looking for one. I hope the Lord could send a really nice, honest, decent person my way. I'll pay just about anything right now for just one day of peace!!!

I forgot to post that I didn't make it to the next round at LSS contest at Just4Keeps. I was bummed, but I did like the fact that the pressure was off. With the way I felt this week, there's no way in heck I would have felt like competing in the next round. The exciting part is that now I get to see all the great stuff and vote for my favorite. I'm sure it's going to be hard because these are some talented gals.

Here's my layouts I made for LSSC II:

Wk. 1's Challenge was to create a layout about an event in your life that altered the path in your life. I chose to do one about my mother having me at a young age and her decision to not give me up for adoption. The baby picture is of my sweet little baby Marisa. No one I know has a baby picture of me.



Wk. 2's Challenge was to use and ad for a sketch that Kathy supplied and the layout had to be of some of our favorite things.


Wk. 3's challenge was using a 2 page layout sketch that was provided and we had to create an opening page for our BOM. We had to use the layout to describe what would be included in our BOM and who we were creating it for.



Wk. 4's challenge was to create a layout about a smell that reminded you of something about your childhood. I picked my dad's cologne which was truly his trademark. My mom saw the layout the other day, she laughed and said, "Oh my, Aqua Velva!! Yep, that smell sure reminds me of your dad." I didn't make it on to the next round with this layout, but I'm so glad I did it.