Live Love Cards - Rainbow Challenge

Maybe things are starting to slow down a bit and I'll have some time to start blogging more often.  Seems like everything has been in a whirlwind since the week before Easter.  I was glad to get home last night after my granddaughter's birthday party and "chillax" for a while before bed.  Of course checking emails, Facebook, blogs, etc. is part of the chillaxin' routine, and I happened across an intriguing email from one of my favorite card makers, Darlene Devries. Long story short, I signed up as a member on her new blog, Live Love Cards, and decided to enter the April challenge, Rainbows.  I'm getting my entry in just under the wire!

Perfect Pearls Resist Technique

Valentines and Hearts

Friday began as a work day for me, but, as is often the case, I traveled that afternoon to visit my parents.  This wasn't just any Friday, though.  This one was special.  Dad and Mom were celebrating 61 years of marriage.  I met Cathy and Mark at their house first so I could deliver the menagerie (three dogs), and we left shortly thereafter to get together with the folks.  When we arrived at their place, Cathy and I were each given a copy of the Farmington Press, their local newspaper.  The top story was a feature article about Mom & Dad's Valentine annivesary.  Sweet!  They had been interviewed by the editor of the paper earlier in the week, and she had written a very nice article which included lots of memories of their years together.  Dad is able to get out to go shopping, so he had purchased a lovely Annivesary card for Mom and had given her a beautiful necklace and earrings.  She had just had her hair done, and, in the words of Fernando, "[She] looked mahvelous, Dahling. Abscholutely mahvelous."  We all went to one of their favorite restaurants and, as usual, had more than enough to eat.  I asked Mom is she is 61 times happier than she was on their first annivesary, and she nodded.  "I'm happy," she said.  It was a fun evening.

My three dogs and I spent the night at the kennel ... er ... Mark and Cath's house where the dogs outnumbered the humans.  Saturday morning after coffee and breakfast rolls, Cathy and I had some shopping to do.  Then she had a birthday party to attend, and I headed back to do some more visiting with Dad and Mom.  I called Dad when I was on the way.  He answered and sounded awful.  I asked if he had been sleeping, and he told me he had been ill for several hours and hadn't slept very much.  When I arrived at his room  carrying a four pack of Gatorade, a jar of peaches in light syrup and (at his request) a bottle of milk, he was sitting in his recliner.  He looked as bad as he sounded, if not worse.  He said that he thought he had food poisoning.  I doubted it.  We had all eaten the same thing at the same place, and the timing wasn't right for this to be food poisoning.  Naturally, I didn't want to stick around and catch whatever evil bug was possessing him, so I told him to try to get some rest and headed over to the other side of the facility to hang out with Mom.  She was doing fine.  A couple of hours later, Dad called me and told me he was going to get one of the nurses on his wing to help him.  Shortly afterward, he called me again and said they thought he should go to the ER.  The hospital is only a few block away, so I took him over there.  While we were waiting, I kept an eye on him while he sat with his eyes closed.  I started questioning him about body aches, etc. and noticed how he was holding his left arm.  I asked if he was having left arm pain.  "Yes."  "Are you having chest pain too?"  "Yes."  That did it.  I went back to the window and gave the young lady attendant the news.  Within a minute or two, a nurse was wheeling him back to one of the exam rooms.  After a thorough assessment and listening to the beeping monitors for about an hour, the decision was made to transfer him by ambulance to the hospital in St. Louis where his cardiologist is on staff.  In the midst of all of this, I had had an opportunity to send a text to Cathy before my phone died.  She had arrived at the hospital, and when the ambulance left with Dad as its cargo, she and I went back to let Mom know what was going on.  She wanted to go to St. Louis with us.  So we got her packed up and got on the road.  After spending several hours at the hospital in St. Louis and answering the routine battery of questions while getting Dad settled in to a room, we arrived back at the ranch at 2 o'clock this morning --  just in time for Cathy to get sick -- same symptoms minus the whacko heart problem.  Poor Cath.

Dad didn't have a heart attack, and he did not have to be put in the critical care unit.  The stomach virus had caused dehydration, and the dehydration had caused his heart to get out of whack (again) -- something with which we have become familiar over the last several years.

Tonight's good news is that his heart rate has gone back down, and the symptoms of the virus have subsided.  Cathy reports that she is feeling somewhat better this evening too, but she's not back to 100% yet.  This is some nasty stuff.

As for me?  I'm keeping a good thought, but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering if/when the other shoe will drop.  So far so good.  Same for Mom.  We keep asking each other "How are you feeling?"  I think I've washed my hands ten frillion times since yesterday afternoon.  Well, let's all hope and pray that Dad's lovely valentine in that picture up there dodges this bullet and that we'll celebrate #62 with them next year -- minus the extra activity, of course.

Catching Up

Obviously, I don't get overly stressed about blogging regularly.  I hadn't realized it has been nearly eight months since my last post.  Well, life takes on a life of its own. Sounds sort of Berra-esque, doesn't it?

I haven't felt up to par today, so I'm staying home.  It's just as well since we had freezing rain last night and it's still dreary and, I suppose, slick too. Anyway, I've been laying low and "Pinteresting" from the couch.  In doing so, I happened to run across a pin that I had posted to my "Card Making Inspiration" board quite a while back. I had seen this Penny Black “Joyful Noise” stamp on someone else's board from this site sometime before Christmas.  I loved it and ordered the stamp on line.

I admired her end result so much that I wanted to recreate it.  She had used Distress re-inkers, though, and I don’t own any of those.  However, I do have plenty of Copic markers, so I played around with them, testing the colors to match hers as closely as possible.  Here's a photo of my version. Sorry it's a little blurry (oops!).  Mom had admired the stamp even before I colored it in, so this card accompanied her Christmas gift.

 

For any of you card-crafters and/or scrapbookers who are interested, this is the “recipe” of the Copics I used:

Scarf and Socks:  C1 (Cool Gray), B0000 (Pale Celestine), B95 (Light Grayish Cobalt)

Hat and Knickers:  YG91 (Putty), W3 (Warm Gray No. 3), W5 (Warm Gray No. 5)
Hair:  E57 (Light Walnut)
Face and Hands:  E00 (Skin White), E53 (Raw Silk)
Coat and Dog:  E31 (Brick Beige), E33 (Sand), E35 (Chamois), Dog only E00 (Skin White)
Gloves and Shirt:  YG95 (Pale Olive) and YG97 (Spanish Olive)
Boots:  T1 (Toner Gray), C3 (Cool Gray No. 3), W5 (Warm Gray No. 5)
Drum Body, Patch on Hat, Dog’s Scarf:  RV34 (Dark Pink), R35 (Coral), and R56 (Currant)
Drum Rim:  Y21 (Buttercup Yellow), YR12 (Loquat), YR21 (Cream)
Drum Sticks:  E27 (Africano)
Drum Skin and Dog’s Fur Above Scarf:  C0 (Cool Gray No. 0)
Drum Strap:  B39 (Prussian Blue) Highlighted with  0 (Colorless Blender)
Ground: C3 (Cool Gray No. 3), C5 (CoolGray No. 5), BG93 (Green Gray)

L'Chaim!

Happy birthday, Mom!  Today is  her 82nd birthday (well, it's a bit after midnight now so actually yesterday, the 9th, was her 82nd birthday.) We started the day with coffee, as usual.  She had two very nutritious oatmeal cookies for breakfast, and then we went to church.  The text for the sermon was the story of the Widow of Nain.  As many of you know, Mom has had quite the bumpy ride lately, so it was quite a treat for me to spend the day with her, and spoil her as much as I could.  Cathy, Mark and I made lunch for everyone after church, and we had a fresh baked cherry pie for dessert.  More coffee too, of course.  It's a staple in our homes.

 

I have to admit that even before I got on the road to go to Dad and Mom's this weekend I was feeling melancholy about this particular visit.  What a blessing it is to enjoy having elderly parents!  It can be trying, frustrating, irritating, overwhelming, exhausting (you name it), but we don't take one moment for granted.  At the core, it's about love, and it's not just about the love we have for our parents or for each other.  It's the about the genesis of love.  This veil of tears is the constant reminder that, because of sin, our bodies will waste away and one day be void of life.  That fact was so easily dismissed when we were children and ignorant of our own mortality, and then, it seems, even more so as selfish adolescents and young adults.  And yet through it all, we know how things are going to be for those of us baptized in Christ!  One of our Communion hymns today was the Easter hymn, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives."  Though Mom continues on an uncertain and somewhat bumpy ride right now, she joyfully sang:

 

He lives to silence all my fears;

He lives to wipe away my tears;

He lives to calm my troubled heart;

He lives all blessings to impart.

 

He lives and grants me daily breath;

He lives, and I shall conquer death;

He lives my mansion to prepare;

He lives to bring me safely there. 

 

It's an Easter hymn, and yes, Easter is over for the church year.  But Easter is what it is all about for all of us. It is the same compassion that Jesus showed the Widow of Nain.  It's about God who gives life vs. sin which causes death.  "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  In Christ we live.

 

L'Chaim!

 

Home and Away Games

It's Sunday and I'm home!  I arrived at about 5 o'clock this afternoon.  I was thinking about this earlier in the day, and I counted the number of days that I've been home since Christmas Eve.  It's a good thing that 1 is a counting number, because that's it.  One whole day.  While it's true that I've had some evenings at home, the only whole day that I've been able to stay at home since Christmas Eve was New Year's Day. Come to think of it, I wasn't home for a whole day on Christmas Eve either, but at least I came close.  Anyhoo, it's good to be home where I can "Take a Load Off, Annie" ... or Fanny ... or whoever you are.

I've seen quite a bit of southeastern Missouri lately since Mom got hurt.  Things are going well for her, though, and there are plenty of blessings to go along with that bit of good news.  Yesterday, it was just my Pa and I who went to pick her up at the hospital in Cape Girardeau and bring her back to their little hometown hospital.  On the way to get her, I told Dad that I had heard the Floyd Cramer CD go around about five times since Friday, and I was ready to hear something else (no offense, Floyd).  He told me to open the console compartment and find something else to play.  Dad is a huge country music fan, and I'm a moderate country music fan.  I picked out a Hank Williams CD.  I knew he would appreciate it, and I wondered whether he might even sing along.  Worries about Mom have made him nervous and ... well ... kind of grouchy.  Okay, not just kind of grouchy.  I'll tell it like it is:  He's been balls to the walls grouchy, and it's really been hard to take.  I believe I have about 40% of my tongue left, having bitten about 60% of it off in the last several days.  But here's what I keep telling myself:  I can be slightly grouchy from time to time too.  Maybe even a little more than slightly.  I know! Who woulda thunk it, right?!  Here's the other thing I keep telling myself:  I'm not always going to have the time I want with my Pa, so I'd better take the good with the bad and be thankful for all of it.  By the way, since I've been home, I've spoken with him twice on the phone.  It's 7:35 p.m.  Once I called him to let him know I made it home safely; and the other time was him calling me to tell me he had found his hearing aid (it had been missing since Thursday evening).  He was so happy!


Back to Hank:  I put the CD into the slot, and it didn't take long for Dad to start crooning.  Good!  Maybe this will keep his mind off Mom's ailments while we are each other's captive audience for the next hour.  When I knew the words, I sang a little bit too.  I also got to hear a story I hadn't heard before.  Several years ago, Dad and Mom attended one of the "Old Goats Reunions."  This is a reunion of people who worked in AVSCOM or TSARCOM or one of those "coms" for the Department of the Army -- I'm not sure which since he worked for both.  So there was a guy there who had been hired to entertain them.  He was a guitar player, and he called Dad up on the stage with him, handed him a microphone and a sheet of lyrics and asked him to sing. The song was "Your Cheatin' Heart".  Turns out, Dad did a good enough job that people stopped to listen and even applauded when he was done. So how 'bout that?!

Here's the song from the CD that Dad seemed to like the best.  I must admit, even at 82, he does a pretty good job.  Move over Hank!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skE6j6oGLRY

Saying Goodbye to 2012 and Welcoming 2013

My goodness, it's been so long since I've posted that I'd almost forgotten what to do!  The Autumn months and the beginning of Winter tends to find me out more than in. In other words, there is not a lot of home time, and from the looks of The House at 304, it's evident that I have neglected it to some degree. Oh, I still managed to give it a little spit and polish here and there, but not nearly what it deserves for all the blessings I derive from living here.

That said, I've enjoyed the activities that have taken me away. Besides the routine work schedule at the office, once the school year begins, most of the other activities involve getting together with good friends to ring and sing. Bell choir and "regular" choir practices at St. Paul have filled many an evening as we prepared for the Thanksgiving holiday and the MAS of CHRISTmas. What a beautiful, joyous and especially lovely time of year this is when we are again reminded of the greatest love; The Word, begotten of the Father, made flesh. He who is the ultimate love. The Lamb sacrificed for each of our undeserving selves. The One who takes away the lovelessness of man -- all of it -- every loveless thought, every loveless word, every loveless deed. This is the love of heavenly peace; the assurance of  another promise yet to come. This is the peace which the old man, Simeon, knew when he held the Christ child in his very arms and rejoiced, "Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel!" One of these days, I'm going to take a turn sitting next to Simeon at the banquet table just to hear him tell about that day. That's one of my faves.

Well, in all that busy-ness of Advent and Christmas, the year 2012 ended with a bit of tribulation for us. Mom fell on December 8th and has been hospitalized since the 19th for what turned out to be two fractured vertebrae. I can't imagine the pain she was feeling before they figured out what had happened and she started receiving some much-needed medication. She is scheduled to have surgery in a few days. What a way to kick off the new year, huh? We are all hopeful of a complete and pain-free recovery, and the surgeon is confident that that will happen. If all goes well, both of my parents will be able to spend some time with the four of us "kids" (and three spouses) on Alabama's shore where we can all thaw out for a little while. If that comes to pass, I'll try to be a good girl and share some pictures upon our return.

It's not easy to look back on an entire year and recite all of the happenings, but, as with every year, 2012 had its share of ups and downs. Why waste time on the "downs" when it's more fun to recall the "ups"?

The first that comes to mind is my son's family's move from the big city out to the country.  It's one of the best decisions they have made. The kids have adjusted to their new little school, and they've made a lot of friends. Each of them are finding their niches. My oldest granddaughter, for instance, is a cheerleader now. I'm so proud of each of them. They're all great kids. My son and daughter-in-law are pretty cool too!

One of the biggest events for our extended family was celebrating the marriage of my niece in July. The icing on the wedding cake was that she didn't move to the wrong end of the state and away from us.  Just a couple of weeks before the wedding, we received the exciting news that my nephew and his wife welcomed the birth of their baby girl. She's a doll. Another doll is my other great-niece, born last December, who I got to meet for the first time at the bridal shower. Babies are da bomb!

Another one of the "ups" (albeit not as exciting as the birth of a baby or a wedding) was being allowed flexible schedules at work. Each member of our staff was given several choices. My first choice was to work four 9-hour days and one 4-hour day per week. As it turns out, serendipity was on my side. I got my first choice, but instead of rotating the 4-hour day each week as expected, my boss asked that it be a "standing" day each Friday to accommodate reception desk back-up duties. Score! I'm loving my Friday afternoons off.

In addition to a February vacation with my sister and folks to south Texas, my parents and I got together with some of our extended family out in Colorado. The accommodations were compliments of my Dad's first cousin. That was October, and the golden leaves of the Aspen trees dotting the Colorado Rocky Mountains were simply gorgeous. We had a great time.

Two of my cousins, Brad and Darla, visited from Idaho in October, and though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, we did have a nice dinner together before they returned home. Their father was a favorite of mine. He really knew how to "spin a yarn." My cousin, Darla, looks just like my sainted grandmother did when she was young.

Resolutions for the new year? Always. I hope, as I do most years, that I'll be better about keeping them. In the meantime, I'll be hanging out here at 304 trying to remember to take the "downs" in stride and be thankful for each "up" moment. Whatever 2013 brings, I hope each of you have a happy year!

Here are a few "out with the old" pics from 2012 in no particular order:

 

Dad and Mom's Dog Had Puppies in February.  The big guy is my grandson, Conner.  The little guy is Gus.  He's not so little these days.

 

 

 

Sometime in August or September, the six of us visited a winery near Perryville, Missouri.

 

 

 

Another pic from February.  This was taken near my friend's home in Edinburg, Texas.

 

 

 

This is my sweet little great-niece who was born in December, 2011.

 

 

 

This is another one of my sweet little great-nieces.  She was born in July, 2012.

 

 

 

I took this picture of my cousin at Williams Creek Reservoir near Pagosa Springs, Colorado in October.

 

 

Driving through western Kansas on our way to Colorado in October.

The most difficult part about photographing Kansas is getting the horizon line level.

But just remember: God loves Kansas too.

 

 

 

 

Random photo of one of my handsome brothers and our Dad.

I don't remember what they were working on, but it looks very important, doesn't it?

 

 

 

 

"The Shepherds' Farewell" pre-service practice by

the double-quartet.  Trust me, their voices blended beautifully, and

Carlo, the organist, is amazing.

 

 

 

Left to Right:  Darla, Me and Brad.  So good to see them!

 

 

 

 

This was taken during the recessional at Pastor Ball's installation

at St. Paul on December 16th.

 

 

 

Mom got a 4-hour pass to come home from the hospital on Christmas day.

She was tired by the end of it, but she said it was Merry nonetheless.

 

 

 

Here's another pic of Mom in her room at the hospital (12-28-12).

She had just had her hair done.  All of her caretakers have been wonderful.

 

 

 

My grandaughter, "Jazzie", at the top of the pyramid.

 

 

 

The Happy Bride and Groom

Already???

Two things about the "Already??" title above.  First: I haven't blogged since May, so you may think I'm making fun of myself with a hint of sarcasm. But that's not really the intent of the title. It's the second thing: I've begun the Christmas card marathon. Not sending them ... making them. It's only August, but I know myself too well to believe that I can start doing this after the busy-ness of fall begins. In just two short weeks, the evening trips to church will begin again so that the bell choir can start its practices. We always take a breather during the summer. Then, from what I gather, there will be more projects just around the corner at work which will likely keep me away from my humble abode more than I care to think about. The weekends are starting to fill up already. Labor Day weekend is reserved for a trip to Ohio to meet my new great-niece (grand-niece?); something I am looking forward to. October will take me away for a weekend to a high-school class reunion.  And, by the way, I've seen some pictures of my classmates, and they look like they've aged. Have I?  I'm going to bury my head in the sand on that one! Then, of course, there's Thanksgiving. I'm planning a trip to Minnesota to visit with my niece E, her husband J and their covey. I really want that to work out. It's still in the early planning stages, but I haven't been up there for four years. That's too long between the visits that I so much enjoy with them. Thankfully, they have traveled south to see us.

So anyway, this afternoon I decided I would begin a little assembly line for some cards that could be put together fairly easily.  My dining room table is going to look like a tornado hit it for a while.  First there has to be an idea. So I looked through my Christmas stamping stuff, and ran across a Penny Black stamp that I've had for a few years called "Winter Berries." I don't remember if I've used it for Christmas cards in past years, but I really like it.  I also have some Cotton White StazOn Opaque that I've been trying to figure out how to use. Since the stamp isn't a "line" stamp, I thought perhaps I could use the StazOn on black card stock for a snowy look and add a little color on top of it. My plan was to add a hint of green with Distress Ink. Well ... the best laid plans ... and all that jazz.  This one ended up NOT being an easy, assembly line type card, so it will be a one of a kind.  Here's how it went:

I stamped the Winter Berries randomly in a circular pattern to resemble a wreath (the stamp itself is just a branch of leaves and berries -- not a circle).  The photo below shows a hit of the green Distress Ink on the paper underneath the black card stock, but it wasn't showing up enough on the white StazOn.  So I tried a couple of green Copic markers, but that wasn't the look I wanted either.

I hadn't decided what I was going to do with it, but I knew I could make it work. I also knew my final product would be a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card (black base), so I put aside the coloring decision for a while and began cutting my DP and card stock for the layers. The green DP is 5 3/8" x 4 1/8"; The red is 3 1/2" x 4 1/8", and I cut the stamped image (hard to see here) down to 3 3/4" x 4".

I thought I might try Stickles in random areas to glitter it up but leave the snowy effect of the StazOn. What I hadn't thought of is that the Stickles are in a box in my attic room, and I'm too lazy to go up there and dig through everything. Then I spied my Sakura pens, and I thought, "Hey! That might look okay!"  So I tested a green and a red on a piece of black cardstock scrap, and knew I had found the solution. I had intended to add the color in a few random places, but I ended up liking the look so much that I colored the whole thing. Now only a tiny bit of the StazOn shows up, so I still don't know how I'm going to use that. I'll figure it out for another card at some point.  Anyway, here's the final product.



One down ... ?? to go.

Merry Christmas in August!!