Thankful Thursday

Thanksgiving this year was amazing. I made a small album for each family (and a few family friends) to record 5 things they are thankful for this year, along with a picture of each family member. Below is our completed album. I made this digitally using a free download made by Jessica Sprague which I downloaded from CreatingKeepsakes.com. Sorry that these pics are not the best. I took them in the basement.

















In an effort to be more thankful all year long, I am now going to list 2 things each Thursday that I am thankful for. At the end of the year I should have a list of 104 things that make me feel gratitude. This could be an amazing list to be compiled into a scrapbook at the end of the year.

Mmmmm...do you smell that? The ideas are brewing!

1. The support of my husband in my creative endeavors.
2. Garbage Day

2

Nice People...

...are so NICE!

Received this email last week and it made me feel all happy, cheery and loved. Can you ask for anything more than that?

Emilie:

I stumbled onto your blog by accident through another person’s blog and I just wanted to tell you I think you’re great! I read your recent post about your “never met” friend and also your posting today about women and their cattiness and this prompted me to actually write to you.

I find myself hoping that you have written something new every day because I think you have a great outlook on life and I think we actually share similar feelings about many subjects. I appreciate your honesty. I admire your creativity and artistry. I used to scrapbook, back before it became so fancy and when people just used die cuts, stickers, and paper. I think what you do is so much more than scrapbooking, your pages are like mini-masterpieces that are so clean, hip, current and fresh.

I thought the Eva Las Vegas costume was about the cutest thing ever. I have particularly appreciated your Scrapfaith pages and your strong personal convictions to your faith.

Thanks for making my world a bit brighter. You rock!
Terri Clayson

Isn't that the sweetest? And here's the thing. It is a profound experience when you tell someone you appreciate them and it is a profound experience to feel appreciated. I am taking inspiration from Terri and emailing 3 people today to tell them how great they are. For no other reason than to spread joy. So a big THANK YOU to Terri for taking the time to pass on some positive affirmation.

I challenge each of you reading this to write an email to just one person for no other reason than to tell them they are great. Let's spread the love on this November 28, 2007. It will make this normally unremarkable day a remarkable one!

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Hello. My name is Emilie. And I am an...

Internet-aholic.



My Internet has been down since yesterday and it's amazing just how dead inside I felt without the capability to go online. Part of me thinks it's a sign to break my dependency, but most of me just hopes my Internet never breaks again.

Al Gore...I owe you a lot for inventing the Internet. Oh wait...you didn't, you're just kind of a delusional old guy.

P.S. Shout out to Jason the Computer Super-Genius. Thousands of miles away he was able to fix what our Internet provider's tech couldn't figure out in a 2 hour house call. Jason...I'd like to dedicate Hero by Mariah Carey to you and your mad-computer skills. Go ahead, listen to it and slow dance around your living room with a modem.

3

Two Widdle Teef

Ella didn't get any teeth at all until she was 13 months old. At her 1 year appointment I actually asked our Pediatrician if she might be a "freak of nature" who might never get teeth at all. But then she did and all was well.

This phenomenon has made me a skeptic for Evangeline ever getting teeth. I checked her gums once and there was nothing there. So I never check any more. Last week Evangeline was acting a bit fussy. Lo and behold, Matt stuck his fingers in her mouth two days ago and there were two widdle teef poking through. How cute are those tiny chompers?

No, it's not very exciting for others to read, but hey, our Grandparents read this blog okay!

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a smile on my face and fingers covered in ink

I have been doing a lot of scrapbooking with stamps this past week. I have decided stamps are interesting. What does that mean? I don't know, but I guess I am saying I kind of like them. There are times in scrapbooking and card-making when nothing will really do except a stamp.

Swirly stamps make me feel creative.
Kim Hughes' stamps make me smile.
Stamps of cute little birds make me feel young again.
Stamps of sophisticated birds make me feel inspired.
Stamps of trees make me feel grounded and strong, but beautiful.
Flower stamps kind of annoy me.

Yes...it's funny how stamps can make me feel.
This is the random musing of a true paper-crafter.
I may be crazy, but life is good.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

2

Standing Out

I was in a major hospital last month with our family visiting our friend who has Cystic Fibrosis. He is hospitalized every year for percussive breathing treatments. Whenever it's time for him to go in, we always take him and his wife a lunch from the "outside world" and have a little picnic on his hospital bed. We had a great visit.

On our way out we got lost and took an alternate route through the Pediatrics unit. There, in the main hallway was a little family, huddled together around a gurney, holding hands and saying a prayer. The father of the family stood tall with his head bowed and spoke to God, asking for His blessings on their little family and for the doctors who would care for their sick baby...to spare his life. I was struck by this deeply.

I believe strongly in prayer, but I wondered if I would have stood, unabashed, in the hallway and prayed with all of my heart in full voice. I thought about this today in my quiet moments and I remembered a verse of scripture which reads For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes... (Romans 1:16) If I were that family, I might have thought to myself, What will people think? Should we duck into another room and close the door? , but the truth was that today I was "people" and I overheard and I was uplifted and inspired and touched.

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1

Quote of the Day

Me: Can I borrow some table-cloths for Bunco?
*Scarlett: Sure, what kind do you need?
Me: Do you have any brown ones?
Scarlett: No.
Me: Well, do you have anything that is Autumnal?
Scarlett: You're gunna have to define Autumnal for me.
Me: You know...The colors of Autumn.
Scarlett: Wasn't that a character from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Me: No. That was Mr. Tumnus.

*names have been changed for the protection of the innocent.

1

True Beauty

Today was a glorious Autumn day.

I love Utah during this time of year.

Not so much love in the Summer.

I am soaking up these days while we still can by playing outside with the girls as much as possible. Today Ella and I played on the front steps while I admired the earthly beauty around me and then I saw my beautiful daughter, so cute and precious and beautiful and I was in awe of her little spirit and soul and the beauty that emanates from within her. She is a miracle.

Later I watched Evangeline while she slept and was again in awe of her beauty and what a miracle God gives when He sends these little souls down to our care.

It made me think of some lyrics from a Sarah McLachlan song.

It’s not that usual when everything is beautiful.

It’s just another ordinary miracle today.

Life is like a gift they say

Wrapped up for you everyday

Open up and find a way

To give some of your own .

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I {heart} Autumn

Yesterday the girls and I spent some time playing out on the front lawn. We had such a great time, that now I am a bit sad that the warm weather is disappearing. Although, Autumn is by far my favorite time of year.

Eva was looking all around and was interested in everything going on outdoors.

Ella loved playing in the leaves and then rode her bike for a while. At one point she said to me, Mommy...I want to go real fast. I said okay and then she peddled like a mad-woman and sped down the block. She has never done that before and I thought it was kind of funny and cute how she announced her intentions first.

Oh man...these kids are growing up. Ella has never stopped amazing me lately with her funny ideas and cooky sayings. A recent favorite was her waiting until we are in public and then wailing, Mommy...don't poke my eyes! Honestly, where did she come up with that?

And here's a video of Ella riding her bike and Mommy cheering her on. Does everyone hate the sound of their own voice on camera? Because I really do, but oh well....you'll love me anyway!

3

Make It Work!

If you know me at all, you'll know that Wednesday night was a special night in my life. The return of Project Runway...my most unhealthy obsession (besides eating that is).

And although no season will ever be as fabulous as Season 2, (What happened to Andre?) I have high hopes for this season. There were some really good and really drama-filled moments and some amazing clothes.

The winner of the first challenge was spot-on. I could not have agreed more with the judges decision. Here is Rami's dress. And you should have seen the back of it...gorgeous! When I saw this garment coming together mid-episode I had a clear favorite designer for this season. I'll be looking to see if his coming creations can also be fun and exciting and not just classic.

Could anything be more wonderful than PR? I'm not sure, but I intend to soak up this season with stalker-like fanaticism, like I have the other seasons.

2

Scrap-world Sadness

I got to scrap with a new friend last night and I had a great time! There is something magical about meeting someone who shares your passion. I feel it creates an instant bond and it's something that the competitive and catty women in this industry sadly miss out on.

I recenetly came into contact with a scrapbooker through my job who I thought wanted to be my friend. She did...but only because she thought it would get her somewhere. I came to realize through my experiences with her (where she constantly reminded me that she was not a name-dropper and then spent every minute dropping names) and through the related experiences of others with her, that she is only concerned with what you can do for her...not with who you are inside. It was deeply hurtful to me when I realized that, what I thought was sincere friendship with her, was one-sided. We are no longer friends.

This week I read a Newsweek article about a recent scrapbooking-world scandal and felt so bad for the women who can't seem to be happy for the success of others. There is a horrible blog out there whose sole purpose is to mock and belittle scrapper's work. Scrapper's personal, from the heart, passion to document their family's life. I would never write the blog's name here for fear that curious people would go there and be subject to it's vile ramblings. And I won't ever visit this blog because I would never add one more hit to their obscene reader hits counter.

I am always amazed that these people spend their precious time seeking out ways to be negative and bring others down. My life is too filled up with good things to make time for that. I recently heard someone say, The world is a mirror through which you view yourself. So true. It sounds trite to say, but when I hear about these women who blog about others and make life so difficult for the CK staff, I feel badly, because their criticism is a reflection of how they feel about themselves and that makes me feel very sympathetic for them. How easy it is to find fault with others when you find fault within yourself.

I guess I am writing this because I just wanted to put out there how amazing, uplifting and rewarding positive female relationships can be when they are free from jealousy, drama and competitiveness. I have learned this in the scrapbooking world and in life.

Remember...It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

5

1st day of School

Ella had her very first day of "school" today. She has been completely obsessed with this since we enrolled her a few weeks ago. All day on Tuesday she peppered me with questions...

Can I ride my bike to school?
Can I see my teacher?
Can I go to school with Brinlee?
Can I wear a Princess Dress to school?
Can I go to school today?

We arrived 10 minutes early and she insisted on knocking on the door herself and waiting for her teacher to answer. It was so cute.

Ella is enrolled at the Discovery Art Academy. They have classes for all age groups, including a toddler class. The teacher, Kate, has her degree in Art Education and teaches at a local school, but this academy is run from her home for now. She has an empty basement which she has decorated with inspirational pieces of art and fun projects for kids. It was very reasonably priced and I highly recommend it if you live in my area. Click here to go to their website. I looked over what the older kids do and was completely jealous. I want to do print making too!

Ella was so proud to show me her traced hand decorated with crayons and paint. Here are the photos of her first day. The sun was pretty bright in her eyes, but I tortured her anyway. You've gotta have photos!

3

Something Sonboul

I have a new friend whom I have never met. And, although I know that my growing list of internet friends lands me straight in the psychotic-nerd category, I don't mind. 

Heidi and Jason are pretty darn cool. So let me take a moment and pay tribute to the Sonboul Family (pronounced Sin-bull).

They are cooler-than-cool because...

- Their families are dysfunctional, just like mine.

- Heidi makes no apologies for loving food a bit too much. That sounds familiar.

- Jason jokes with me even though we have only spoken once.

- Heidi and I have a deal that we can tell each other about our triumphs without feeling like we are bragging...and we do.

- Heidi passed the phone to Jason once in the middle of a story so he could recreate some one's funny accent. And it totally made the story better.

- Heidi's a germ-a-phobe just like me.

- I never have to apologize for being too loud and crazy.

- They are firm in their faith and living their beliefs without excuse.

- Jason helped me buy a new External Hard Drive.

- Heidi once misread a job application and checked a box that said she felt it was appropriate to smoke marijuana on the job. Hilarious.

- Their kids call me Cousin Emilie when we talk on the phone.

- Heidi and I have both watched The Biggest Loser while chomping on pizza.

- Heidi once said to me, "I can't wait until my kids are teenagers so I can really punish them."

Friends like this are priceless.

I hope someday we can meet.

But if not, we will probably stay weirdy-internet-friends for many years to come.

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Scrapbooking Idea Books

Memory Makers Magazine has been running a contest to debut their new idea book, 601 Great Scrapbook Ideas. They had 4 small contests where participants had to showcase a layout which related to a particular topic from the new book.

You know nobody likes free scrapping stuff like me. Is the living on student loans part of our lives over already? So it's no surprise that I entered every day. This past weekend was the last chance to enter and the topic was "Open Heart". I entered a layout and today got an email that said I had won!

YAY! They said they are sending out my book right away and, of course, I will let you know what I think when I get to dive into it.

So while you are awaiting that review, here are some of my favorite scrapbooking idea books ever.

The recently released Real Life Scrapbooking by Rebecca Cooper. This is my fave so far. It is filled with simple, but striking layouts and projects for busy Moms like me. Rebecca's style is amazing and I related to it a lot. Many dog-earred pages on this one.

Also been loving Album Shortcuts published by Simple Scrapbooks. I am really getting into making more small albums on a theme and this is filled with incredible ideas and tips.

#1 on the wishlist is The Scrapbooker's Almanac. The author, Elizabeth Dillow, is a never-met friend of mine and this book looks like CRAZY FUN! She has arranged it along a calendar of events and created challenges that coincide with those events. Very cool. We'll see how my funds pan out in the next month. We are still awaiting Matt's scholarship check (which was due here on Nov. 1) so no chance of getting the book yet, but hoping to get it before the New Year so I can play along. Go check it out. It looks amazing!

2

Heaven-Sent Hiatus

I usually post almost every day, but I have been absent since Tuesday.

So what gives????

I have been setting up my new computer! WAHOO! I am using it as we speak and can I just say....I loooooooove it!

My old computer may have been manufactured during the same decade as the one pictured with this post. Amazing how primitive the year 2003 was.

Not only did I get a computer with 15 times the memory and 6 times the hard drive, but I also bought an external hard drive to store even more and keep this baby running smooth as a hot knife through buttah. Did I mention the flat panel monitor? Happy 30th birthday to me.

Joy. Bliss. Speed.

Heaven.

.

1

Polygraph Princess

2 years
8 months
11 days

until Ella told her
1st lie.

We were sitting on the bed and Eva tried to grab Ella's blankie. Ella freaked out and snatched the blankie away. I started to have a talk with her about the appropriate way to ask for something when Eva reached out and tried to grab at the edge of the blankie again. Ella shrieked.

Me: Ella...why are you yelling?
Ella: Eva kicked me.
Me: What??

And then she looked incredibly sheepish.
And the fibs begin.

.

5

Early morning rendevouz with VH1

I saw an amazing thing on VH1 this morning.
Prepare to be shocked.
It's probably been years since you saw this appear on a music channel.
It was...

music videos.

They had quite an interesting little run of 3 videos back to back featuring female artists. Let's go through them one by one.

Britney Spears Gimme More
This was completely stupefying to me. It seems that Brit has decided to fix her current monumental PR problems by appearing in her newest video as a stripper, complete with pole and trashiness galore. Amazing. Who exactly is allowing her to make these career decisions? The devil maybe?

Fergie
Not sure of the title of this one, but she was in a pop-up stroybook. More surprising (or not surprising) was the song itself. I still don't understand her appeal. Her music is completely shallow, lifeless and void of any substantial thought. Maybe that's what people like about it, but you can still have a fun beat and light music without compromising substance. Case in point: Regina Spektor.

Chrisette Michele Best of Me
This girl is a new-comer and I was very intrigued. She has a nice, unforced quality to her voice and is a bit like a Norah Jones with more "flava". Her first single, Best of me, is a sweet, melodic tune which showcases her sometimes mellow and sometimes raspy voice. I really liked it. I am thinking I am going to look into her new album and see what it's like.

3

Autumn Festival

We had such an amazing day yesterday. Most importantly it was our nephew, Porter's, baptism day. He was so cute (would he hate it if he read that since he's 8 years old now?) in his baptism clothes and later his suit and tie. The baptismal service was great and Ella was enchanted by a bathtub (a.k.a. the font) in the church.

After the baptism we all had a fabulous lunch and visited with family. Then we changed our clothes and headed to a fun day at Thanksgiving Point where we attended a day of Autumn fun! There was a corn maze, small rides, a pumpkin shooter, pig races, playgrounds, huge trampolines and more! I was so glad we got to go since we missed the Pumpkin Patch this year because of rainy weather.

We have so many pictures of our kids and other people's kids on this blog that I decided we needed a bit of adult face time today. And so, to break with tradition, a picture of grown-ups...US!

1

Halloween Costumes Reveal

I know...it's 2 days after Halloween, but we left the computer somewhere and didn't have it until today. we'll just agree that this was a ploy to get you all excited by having to wait an extra day or two. Yes...it is delusional to think that anyone cares what my children were for Halloween so much that they have been anxiously waiting since Oct 31 for the big reveal. They are pretty great costumes though.

So without further ado I present...

Ella as a Dancing Princess




And Eva as....
drumroll please....Eva Las Vegas
C'mon....how CUTE is this?



Clearly, I had to make the Eva Las Vegas costume. You just can't get good Elvis costumes for infants these days. And Ella's was bought. I figured 1 out of 2 ain't bad for the home-made costume arena. Ella really loved the Trick-Or-Treating this year and Eva...well...she loved it when we were back in the warm house.

P.S. In case you were wondering...no, Eva did not start standing on her own just in time for the photos...although that would have been nice. I just Photo-shopped Matt's hand out for the full costume effect.

7

Retro Tag from Vetsy

I was tagged by my good friend, Betsy (who I call Vetsy so feel free to do so in your mind as well). I had this tag once before a while ago so I am making it a Retro Post in case you missed it the first time.

The idea of this tag is to post 7 random facts about yourself on your blog. I decided, to give this a fun twist, I could make it jive with the 7 deadly sins. It might not paint the best picture of me, but hey, I am not hell bent on impressing anyone.

Gluttony It's no secret, I have a love affair with food. A good piece of chocolate or some killer creme brulee and I'm a goner. I could easily eat myself into a coma with Cool Ranch Doritos or those loaded cheesy bacon fries from Outback Steakhouse. Mmmmmmm.

Pride I know every single word to every single song on the ABBA Gold album. It's a crowning achievement of my life and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Greed I am the queen of working customer service reps (a torch recently passed to me from my mother). Give me enough time and a telephone and I can get money knocked off of your bill, acquire free stuff and pretty much get anything I want. My most amazing accomplishments? Removing $3,000 from my mother's cell phone bill, returning opened computer software to WalMart, paying half price for our internet/cable service for the last year (with NO promotions). I once bought a King size headboard and mattress from Craig's List for $100, kept the headboard and re-sold JUST the mattress on Craig's List the same day for $150.

Sloth I am absolutely positive that I have never brushed my teeth for the full 2 minutes recommended by dentists. I once bought a toothbrush with a timer and I really tried and it was the longest 2 minutes of my life! I'll never do that again!

Envy I really really REALLY want to get a tattoo. I almost got one when I was 15 and I freaked out and ended up with just a dot (a la Pheobe). I have always regretted not getting it. I watch "LA Ink" like a stalker and, as I watch, I am completely jealous of every person who gets a tattoo.

Wrath I love being a mom, but hate being pregnant. I hate everything about it. I'm not glowing or loving feeling the baby kicking...I am mostly barfing and telling the unborn fetus that I am saving up spanks for their arrival.

Lust I am infatuated with Lenny Kravitz. Besides being hot and talented, he exudes a raw sexuality that I find completely captivating...feather boas or not! If I weren't married and he was interested and we happened to be in the same....oh never mind. You get the picture.

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