Just the two of us

Here's our Christmas photo taken yesterday. We didn't even plan the red and green sweaters! :-)

We may or may not be heading up to Chris' parent's house. He isn't feeling great, so we'll see what this morning brings. It would be nice to have a few days to ourselves here at home. We'll see.

I did work on a scrapbook layout last night. I am hoping to put the finishing touches on it this morning. That's the first thing I have created for myself in a *LONG* time. I'll post photos when it is done.

I am also going to get back into submitting my layouts to magazines and other calls. One of my personal goals for last year was to get published. I don't think I put the right amount of effort into it, so I am going to renew my efforts and continue to submit. I scrapbook for myself, but it would be incredible to see one of my creations in print. My friends are always so complimentary of my work and have encouraged me to continue working to get published. So here it is in writing. One of my goals for 2006 is to get a layout published in a magazine or other publication.

With that said... I am heading into my scraproom to create! :-)

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Last night was great. We had my immediate family over and we had a great time. I love my niece and nephews very much. I ended up opening the toys that Mommy and Daddy said no... LOL. We played with the play-doh right on my dining room table! What are aunts for anyway?

Thought I would share a few photos of our Christmas decorations this morning:

This is our tree. We decided to go artificial a few years ago... but I wanted to make sure it looked real. We're pretty happy with this one!

This is my table set for dinner. We really don't have room for any more at the inn! :-)

Here is my nativity set... LOVE it. It is from Willow Tree. Each year, I try to add a piece to it.

I am awake early this morning... it seems that I never can sleep in on Christmas morning. The magic of waking up knowing that today is Christmas is still alive and well. We are heading out to my Aunt's later this morning to share the day with my extended family.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Last Minute Gifts

So I totally forgot that we had a party with some dear friends tonight. I have made something for their three girls each year... altered comp books, altered paint cans, etc... I didn't remember that the party was tonight until 2:00! Yikes! So I decided to make paper bag albums for them this year. I like to use coordinated papers when I have to put something together quickly. The first one uses chatterbox, the second KI and the third Christina Cole. Love all of these papers. Here they are:

Reflections

Reflections

It’s 8 am on Christmas eve EVE.   There are so many emotions tied with the holiday once again, that I thought I would take some time to get some of them out.  So forgive me if you stumbled on my blog looking for scrapbook layouts!  :-)

Each year I tell myself that this will be the last Christmas that it is just Chris and I.  I tell myself that by this time next year, we will have a little one to share the holiday with.  That’s what gets me through the holiday.  I’ve been telling myself that for *6* years.  I really don’t think that I believe it this year.  I have my moments when I am really positive, but those seem to be far and few between.

You see, Christmas is so centered around Children- as it should be.  Every commercial, every mall, every store, every moment is geared to sharing the magic of Christmas with children.  Chris & I are blessed to have nieces and nephews to share the holiday with- but it just isn’t the same.  They aren’t OUR children.  We have to borrow them for a moment in time.  Our only children have too much fur…people might look at me a little funny if I took Romeo to go see Santa!

Chris keeps reminding me that we are very blessed to have each other.  I couldn’t agree more.  One “side effect” of our infertility is that fact that our marriage has gotten stronger.  There were moments that I didn’t think we were going to make it.  We aren’t perfect.  Our marriage isn’t perfect.  But we have each other and have shared so much of our lives with one another.  While I am so very grateful to have him and our marriage, I continue to feel that part of “us” is missing.  Yes, we are a family the two of us.  Yes, I treat our furry ones as children.  I feel as though Chris and I have so much to give a child.  I think our marriage would grow even stronger if we had the common mission to raise a child.

I am also frustrated because money is tight.  I know that this is not what the holidays are about.  Somehow having gifts to share with others and ourselves seems to take some of the “sting” out of the holidays.  Is it really the right way to do things?  No.  But I can tell myself that if we had kids we wouldn’t be able to have as many nice gifts for each other since we would be spoiling our child.  I’ve always been really sensitive about money.  I grew up in a home where money was usually tight.  I swore to myself that I wasn’t going to live that way.  However, both Chris and I have service careers without the salaries.  So, we live the life we have.  I don’t mean to sound materialistic… really.  I know how lucky I am to have a house over my head and food to eat.  There are more than enough presents under the tree.  I just hate having to worry about money.  I think that I am also frustrated because so much of our income has gone into fertility treatments.  And here we are… another Christmas just the two of us.

Christmas should also be a spiritual time of year.  I hate to admit it, but my faith is very challenged right now.  I look around at all of the children in the world without loving parents and wonder WHY?  I wonder why God has chosen to keep Chris and I from becoming parents.  I have pretty much lost my faith.  I’ve prayed and prayed for a child to come into our lives.  My prayers have gone unanswered.  In some cases, we have ended up with more heartache through miscarriages.  It’s hard for me to embrace the reason for the holiday when I feel lost.

I am working hard today to get into the holiday spirit.  The shopping is done.  The wrapping is almost done.  I need to make a few things, add some decorations, and clean house.  We are having my family over for dinner tomorrow, so I need to make sure I have everything I need.

Wishing you all peace this Holiday…

Holiday Hustle!

Well, it's been a crazy week! I've been in the Holiday Hustle FULL time for the past few days. It's keeping me busy and not letting me dwell on the fact that we are spending another holiday without our little miracle.

I thought I would share some of the recent projects I've been working on. I've been a busy little scrapbooker!

This is my final Christmas Card. The papers and embellishments are all from http://www.shabbyprincess.com I LOVE her creations! She is very talented!


I also created a card for one of my close friends. She even asked that I share it here on my blog! (Thanks Barb!) She had this photo of her kids that was created in one of those photo booths. She just loved it, so she asked that I use it for her card. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

So those are my digital projects. I really enjoyed working with them, but I don't think I will ever switch to 100% digital. I just like feeling paper and ribbon!

Things are tight here, so I wanted to make most of my gifts for my friends at work. It was a hectic few nights, but I am happy with the results. Here are a few of my favorites:

This is a frame that I made for my teaching assistant.

This is a plaque I made for my Secret Santa at work. I have to say that this one of my favorites. I don't usually use much blue, but I really like how this turned out!

This is a 5 inch canvas that I made for our special ed coordinator. Can you tell that I love the Blitzen papers?

Here is one final one (there are more that I will share later!) I think this may be my favorite. This was for our assistant principal's secretary.

I am off to finish shopping today. I have a good start... just have all of those hard to shop for people left!

I'm In! I'm going to CKU-A!!!

I am so very excited. I didn't realize how much I really wanted to go to the CKU-Albums until I actually registered! It is really tight right now for us financially... but this is something I have really wanted to do and Chris made it ok for me to do it!

For those of you who don't have a clue what I am talking about... CKU stands for Creating Keepsakes University. It is a large "convention" for scrapbooking. It is the premeir event and includes classes taught by the top scrapbook professionals in the country. It is pricey... but from what I have heard you get your money's worth! It happens to be in Chicago this spring. (Never been here before!) AND is over my spring break, so I won't have to miss any work! It was just too perfect NOT to go! :-)

I am taking the album track from Junkitz... LOVE LOVE LOVE their product and designers. I took a class from Teresa last summer and can't wait to take another one! I am also taking a class from Tim Holtz who is the premier Stamp Artist!

It's nice to be excited about something again. Can we really afford this? No not really. But it's nice to spend money on something other than fertility treatments for once....

Christmas Cards

So I had this great idea for our Christmas cards this year. I saw a great card in a magazine that had a little girl holding large letters spelling out "JOY." Why couldn't I do the same thing, but with the dogs and cat? I had these great photos in my head.

I went out to the store and bought the letters... Except they were out of "j" because they had all gone on clearance. They did have "u" so I bought those and had Chris cut it to make the J. Problem solved... I thought I would just put the "o" over the cat's head. Who was I kidding? Then I gave Romeo the J. All he wanted to do was chew on it UPSIDE down... And then when I sat on the floor to take the photo, he started licking the lens. At least Chris and I were laughing at all of this. I didn't even try with Patches.

Here are some of the rejects:

So onto Plan B. I have played with Digital Scrapbooking a few times. I thought this might be a perfect time to use some of the free kits I have been collecting. I am fortunate to have Adobe PhotoShop Elements on the computer. So here is the first prototype of the card:

I sent it to the online photo center at Wal-Mart. I am anxious to see how it turns out with the processing. I printed a few from my PictureMate here at home to see how they would look. I am trying to decide if I will make them postcards or if I will adhere them to a card front. Still have to decide that.

Then there is always the debate... write a letter or not? Last year I was so out of it that I didn't even send cards. I really don't have lots to say in the letter. Although we have made some life changes in the past two years that some of our distant relatives might want to know. We'll see if the mood strikes me.

We meet with the RE tomorrow. I am not anxious like I usually am. I am really at peace with everything. I am anxious to hear what he has to say. We'll see.