The Choice by Robert Whitlow

The Choice is about a popular cheerleader by the name of Sandy Lincoln.  Sandy appears to have everything, but then she ends up getting pregnant and everything changes.  Everyone has a different opinion about how she should handle her situation.  Sandy chooses to keep the baby and move to Atlanta where she can stay with her aunt and attend an alternative school. This book is written in two parts, the first part telling Sandy's story as she deals with an unwanted teen pregnancy, adapting to life in Atlanta and the second part picks up after Sandy and her children are grown.

This is the first time I had read a book by Robert Whitlow, I have since read two more of his books.    He is a  master at character development.  He is able to bring the characters in his books alive and The Choice is no different.  His portrayal of Sandy is perfect. As a reader, you get to witness Sandy grow and mature as she deals with a serious issue that faces too many teenagers in our society. The second part of the book is equally well written.  He weaves the characters lives together in such a creative way. I was pulled into the story of Sandy's children and her life as an adult. Robert Whitlow was able to not only tell the story of a young mother and the choices she chooses to make, but he effectively incorporated mystery and suspense into the book that made the book impossible to put down.  I would highly recommend this book.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. Whitlow's work and hope to find even more of his work to read.

I was given a free copy of this book compliments of the BookSneeze program from Thomas Nelson publishing.  I was not required to give a positive review of this book.

Together

Happy Tuesday everyone!  We started our week back after a holiday with a 2 hour delay.  Gotta love that transition. :)  I have to admit, fog days are something a bit strange to me.  I do know that when we can't see the homes across the pond, the fog is a problem.  

I just love the pictures we got when we were visiting my parents.  I put a few of them together for this layout I completed for Challenge Me Happy this last week. Challenge #29 is a stitching challenge.  We would love to have you join us.  

I am so glad we had this time at home with my family.  This is one of my new favorite layouts. I love that we got so many good photos of our family. The layout is pretty simple because I wanted to include several photos and a fair amount of journaling.

Unique stitching adds interest without taking up too much space and gives me a place to add pearls (still one of my favorite embellishments).

Thanks for dropping by today.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

It's Why I Do What I Do

K had a friend sleep over this weekend.  Morning comes early when you need to get up for church and you stay up talking until 2 in the morning. Needless to say, my sweet 13 year old was a bit tired come Sunday night. When she gets tired, she gets weepy.  She still misses Bloomington and our backyard there (she hates the pond because her soccer ball rolls into the water :) ) and especially our neighborhood friends. I can't say I blame her.  I miss them too...terribly. But there are so many good things here.  And so we started a gratitude list while we laid in her bed talking.

What was on her list you may ask?  Many of the items didn't surprise me: a roof over our heads, food to eat, good friends, a soccer team that she loves. And then she adds..."your scrapbooking".  Really?  Why are you so thankful for my scrapbooking I asked.  Her answer, "I get really cool cards and gifts and you make pages about our memories."  Ah, makes my heart happy.  I will admit there have been times when scrapbooking and crafting have felt forced, assignments that I HAVE to get done.  I am truthfully back to enjoying this wonderful hobby again.  This is really why I started scrapbooking and I am thankful for the support of my sweet family.

So, I am sure one of the reasons this came up is because I altered an Altoids Tin for each of the girls and DH. I hid the tins in their bags. K's was in one of her soccer shoes and L's was in her brace she wears to gymnastics.  Will sneak DH's into his car when he gets back to town. The tins were inspired by this pin on pinterest.  FYI I took out the Altoids in K and L's tins and put in Ice Breakers. :) 

This is K's tin. 

 And this is L's tin. 

And of course, here is DH's tin. 

You can find the supply list on the Emma's Paperie blog.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope your week is wonderful!

We need each other

As the girls grow up I keep preparing myself for the day that they no longer consider each other to be one of their closest friends.  So far, we have been blessed that it hasn't happened.  DH and I started when they were very young trying to instill in them how important their sister is to them.  Even before L was born K started calling her "my baby".  I remember having to leave the two of them for a second when L was about 4 months and so K was almost 2 1/2.  I came back in to find L still in her bouncy seat but K had lined up Little People along the belt. She was sharing with her little sister.  :)  I love the relationship they have.

They are very different in many ways.  K is the diplomat while L is a bit more dramatic.  K is definitely more left brained while L is more right brained.  L has been talking since she was teeny tiny and the language abilities didn't stop there.  She reads constantly and is still very verbal.  K on the other hand does very well in math.  Take yesterday for instance, K needed to come up with definitions for words she already knew but was having troubles putting them down in words. L just whipped out definitions for her while trying to get her math done.  Although L has never enjoyed math like her sister she is a good math student and was placed in the advanced math class this year.  That may take some getting used to.  :)  She was getting frustrated with her math homework yesterday and before I could go over to help K was at her side and had L giggling about something silly.  I just HAD to snap a picture right? :)

Earlier this summer some of our sweet friends from Bloomington sent me a bunch of photos that they had on their camera.  L and L have pretty much been best friends since the day they started 3rd grade.  They had been placed at the same table and hit it off right away. So much so that when the teacher said they were short a few lockers and asked if anyone was willing to share, they volunteered.  The rest is history.  :)  As I was digging through some of these photos I came across some cute ones from a time they had a sleepover. I used the photos to create a layout for Emma's Paperie.

Our assignment was to focus on misting.  I had some old 7 Gypsies tags that have been sitting around for way too long so I decided to use my least favorite to create the tag that is tucked under the right hand side.  I used VersaMark to stamp the polka dots onto the back of the tag and then added clear embossing powder. After heating and letting it cool, I sprayed the entire tag with orange mist.  I also added the orange mist to Thickers, let it sit for a bit and then wiped the excess off to give them the soft orange color.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and thank you so much for stopping by!

Through Rushing Waters by Catherine Richmond

Through Rushing Waters by Catherine Richmond is the story of a woman who thinks she has her whole life planned out.  At the start of the story, Sophia is sure that she is going marry and become the wife of a powerful Congressman.  But God has a different plan for her and she finds herself teaching Ponca Indian children in a poor village in the Dakota Territory.  It is there, that Sophia's whole outlook on life changes through her interaction with the Ponca people and Willoughby Dunn.

I will admit that I had a hard time connecting to the main character at the beginning of the story.  She is quite shallow and self-centered.  I am so glad that I stuck with it though. The author did a wonderful job of transforming Sophia.  Catherine Richmond also did a wonderful job portraying the other characters in the story.  I instantly fell in love with Will's strong character and dedication to the people of the Ponca tribe.  My heart went out to each of her sweet students and their struggling families.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the historical aspect to the sweet love story and highly recommend it.

NOTE: I received this book free from the publisher through the Booksneeze program.  I was not required to write a positive review.

Quiet

Wow what a wonderful couple of weeks. Sorry I have been such a bad blogger the last couple of weeks.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with my girls.  

The house is quiet this morning though.  I can't believe I am now the mother of two middle schoolers.  

In between running around yesterday we took some time to paint their nails.  L decided she wanted to have watermelons painted on her toes and K wanted me to put soccer balls on hers. :)

A few close ups.  Notice the braces on my oldest?  She got those the week before last.

 Our new middle school student. :)

I tried a new recipe last week and everyone loved it, so much so that the girls asked me to make it for them for lunch on their first day. It is really easy but takes a while to simmer. You can find the recipe here.

Before I go I thought I would share a card I made for Emma's Paperie. You can find the supplies here.

Have a great week and thank you so much for stopping by!

Family Time

Hi everyone,

We are back home. Thanks everyone for all of your well wishes and prayers for my day.  His surgery went really well and he is back home recovering and doing well.  He was even joking with us after he woke up from surgery. :)

While we were home we took an hour to get some photos of our family.  It has been a long time since we were all home since my brother has been stationed in Hawaii.

This is one of my favorite photos. My brother loves to bug the girls. :)  As you can see they don't mind it too much.  He even spent some time with them on Monday afternoon taking them to the movies and shopping. Such a brave man. LOL 

There is a special post up at Challenge Me Happy this week.  We, not only have a new challenge up, but we are looking for some new designers.  I really recommend trying out for this team!  Annelie gives us such great challenges. This week's challenge is a recipe challenge.  These are definitely some of my favorite challenges.  This week we were asked to use the following:

• one or more stamps

• two photos

• ribbon or twine or both

• two or more paper clips

• no cardstock

• three patterened papers or more

Here is my layout for the challenge.  We would love to see what you create using this recipe.  You can find all the details for the design team call and challenge on the Challenge Me Happy Blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Have a great week!