Taking a short break

Hi everyone,

I am taking a week or two off.  Been teaching VBS and spending time with my sweeties.  Will see you soon!

Hugs,
Lisa

Loved ones near

If you are looking for the CMH Hoopla Challenge click here.

Morning everyone!

So happy to have my sweet K home this morning.  She spent the last 4 days at church camp.  She has a wonderful time but apparently not a lot of sleep. :)  We go for lunch today to pick up L from her grandparents. They were here visiting last week and took her to Illinois with them for a few days.  It will be nice to have the girls home with me again.  It has been way too quiet.

I have to take a minute to brag on my camper.  She is apparently a budding photographer.  They could choose different activities that they wanted to participate in at camp.  She chose soccer (no surprise there) which they took second place in, creative writing (she got third place for her story) and photography, which she walked away with a first place medal in.  The only help I gave her was to let her use my camera and suggested she take lots of photos at lots of different angles.  I then showed her how to crop the photo in Adobe.  This was her entry.

Pretty huh?

Speaking of family, I would like you to keep us in your prayers.  We have had lot of troubling news lately.  My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer while I was on vacation.  Thankfully it looks like they have caught it early and the prognosis is good. We also received news that my sister-in-laws dad has prostate cancer and DH's uncle has a tumor behind his eye that he will need surgery on.  It is a scary time around here and we would greatly appreciate any prayers you have.

We also have more loved ones on our mind.  I am so excited to have friends coming to visit us from Bloomington this weekend.  Miss them terribly!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Challenge Me Happy Anniversary HOOPLA!

Welcome to the Challenge Me Happy One Year Anniversary HOOPLA!!!

It’s hard to believe, but Challenge Me Happy has been dishing out challenges for a year today. This is something to CELEBRATE of course, and we hope you want to celebrate with us!!

You will have SEVEN challenges to complete, in FOUR weeks. You can participate in however many challenges you want, and there are prizes to win in EACH challenge.

 Aaaaand – something we are VERY excited about – if you upload a project to EACH of the seven challenges, you will be in the DRAW to win a BIG SHOT machine + two Tim Holtz dies. This has been generously sponsored by Adrienne at Scrappin’ Patch – she is one amazing lady!

So – how does it work?

Each Challenge Me Happy designer is presenting their challenge in detail on their blog (see list below). You will also find all links on the Challenge Me Happy blog – and the inspiration project to go with it. Each designer is offering a prize for their challenge – the winner will be chosen by vote. Each designer will ALSO draw a RAK amongst the uploaded projects.

Upload ALL your projects to the “inlinkz” page at the bottom of the hoopla post on the Challenge Me Happy blog. Please name your project with YOUR name AND the name of the designer who’s challenge you have interpreted.

Here is the list to all of the design team blogs:

1. Norine - http://thevelvetlemon.blogspot.com/
2.  Missy - http://littlenuggetcreations.blogspot.com/
3. Michelle - http://harbourgal.wordpress.com/
4. Marie - http://gulavillanivallen.blogspot.com/
5.  Lisa - (YOU ARE HERE)
6. Hannah - http://blairsboys.wordpress.com/
7. Annelie – http://swewi.wordpress.com/

One more thing before I reveal MY challenge. If you have ANY questions, please email challengemehappy@googlemail.com OR ask us on our Facebook page (which you have liked already – right?).

OK, so here is MY CHALLENGE: Use this fabulous ad I found from Traditional Home Magazine as your inspiration for a layout.

And MY PRIZE is:  My Little Shoebox kit

And here is my layout for the challenge:

And Norine also completed a layout for this challenge.  Isn't it awesome???

I am so glad you are here and I hope you find some inspiration with this piece.  Don't forget to post your layout using the "InLinkz" on Challenge Me Happy Blog and I would love if you could leave a comment and let me know what you think of the Ad Challenge.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Hope Springs

Morning everyone!

While I was on vacation, I did get a chance to read a little bit.  I was happy to have a brand new book on my iPad to read.  This book was provided by BookSneeze.com and I am so happy that I was given the opportunity to review this book!  The book is called Hope Springs by Kim Cash Tate.

Overview of the book:

The story takes place as family friends return to Hope Springs for the funeral of Rev. Jim Dillion.  One of the people who returns is Janelle Evans.  Janelle has not back for quite some time but chooses to stay, along with several of her cousins, to spend time with their grandmother who is sick.  

Review of the book:

As I said above, I am so glad that I had a chance to read and review this book.  I love how Kim Cash Tate writes about characters who are real and flawed just like all of us.  But through those flaws Tate tells the story of God's grace and forgiveness.  

When all the cousins, uncles, aunts and neighbors are introduced, the character list can be a bit confusing but the author includes a family tree at the beginning of the book.  Each of these characters add depth and interest to the story as they figure out how to accept God's love and grace and how to forgive those who have wronged them.  

Tate successfully draws the reader into each character's story and creates a connection with those characters.  She has successfully woven together stories of hope, forgiveness, romance and race relations so perfectly.

I would highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more books by her.

I'm still here!

Happy Friday everyone!

Yes, I am still alive. :)  Sorry I have been such a bad blogger.  Last week was the first week of summer vacation for my girls and immediately L and I headed south so she could go to FlipFest in Crossville, TN.  WOW, what an amazing camp.  I don't my photos yet to post of L but I pulled a few off their website and snagged one from Facebook that my friend Amanda posted. 

We stopped off in Bloomington and picked up my sweetest, dearest friend and her daughter.  The girls have been missing each other terribly, just like their moms so this was the perfect chance for them not only to get to go to a cool camp but also to spend time together. This first picture was taken right after we got the girls to camp.  The lake you see behind them is Lake Frances.  They got to jet ski and tube on that lake, as well as, swing on a giant swing over the lake.  (soooo jealous!)  LOL

The camp is run by John Roethlisberger and John Macready, two former Olympians.  I was not there for the whole camp but I have to say that I really enjoyed what I saw of them.  They had a dress up like the Olympians night and this girl won the prize.  I guess they have a haunted hike and one of the John's comes out with a flannel shirt and chainsaw.  haha

I think one of the best parts of the camp for L was meeting Courtney McCool and I really don't think it had as much to do with the fact that she was the silver medalist in the '04 Olympics as she was an incredibly neat person.  She took charge of warming the girls up on the beam.  She made if fun making them do karate chops and acting like cows. LOL She would stay during her free time to help anyone that wanted help. She just seemed like she absolutely loved being with the kids. Love this picture of Courtney and a few of the girls after the mud tug of war.

L had a really hard time the first full day she was there after we left.  She called me sobbing and it absolutely broke my heart.  I knew that if she could get past that she would have a great time but I still wanted to run to her rescue.  John Macready helped her as well.  I promised her that if she improved her attitude by the end of the week he would get a picture of her and Courtney and put it on the website.  How cool is that?  She definitely was doing MUCH better when we got there to pick her up.

Amanda and I decided that it was too far for us to be away from them if we returned to Indiana so we stayed in Nashville.  Amanda found a deal at the Gaylord hotel so we got to stay there for our first two nights.  What an amazing hotel.  This is a picture from our balcony overlooking one of the indoor gardens, truly stunning.

We had a lot of fun walking around and stopping in all of the shops and honky tonks but one of my favorite nights was the night we went to the Bluebird.  It is a small listening room with only about 15-20 tables.  The musicians sit in a circle in the center and everyone sits at tables around them.  Really neat place.  

I did several assignments before I left to get ahead and this is one of them.  This week  Emma's Paperie is spotlighting Echo Park.  Oh how I love this company!  Here is the layout I created of my sweet L.  You can find my supply list here.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!