Fall is here

Oh the weather has been glorious the last few days.  We had some rain and nasty wind this weekend but once that blew over it has been absolutely perfect.  I just love this time of year.

The rain held off for K's game this weekend and I must say it was worth sitting in the cold to watch them.  They did not win but put up a REALLY good fight.  The team they played were ranked 3 divisions higher than her team and only won by 2 points, one of them which was a penalty shot.  Her coach has set up another scrimmage against them this weekend trying to get the girls ready for a tournament at the end of the month.  It should be good.

L's meet was a good show for their first meet of the season.  Although not perfect, I can definitely see a HUGE improvement from last year.  She is just so much more polished.  I am looking forward to seeing her compete more this winter.

In between rain drops we were able to get some fall pictures taken this weekend.  We literally had to dart to the car as the rain started coming down.  They always say that overcast days are good for photos and the proof was this weekend.  I was happy with so many of the photos.  These were taken on a hill near L's old school, not too far from here.

Found this great frame at Hobby Lobby and thought I would give it a try.

So now for a quick layout before I go and snuggle with my sick L.

Have a wonderful rest of your week!  Thanks for stopping by!

Family time

I spend a fair amount of time posting about my sweet girls.  It is so easy to get tied up in everything that they are busy doing that marriage can get put on the back burner.  I know I am not the only one in this position. :) DH and I have starting using their activities to our advantage for the last couple of weeks.  On Wednesday nights both girls go to youth group for an hour and a half.  DH and I have started going together to drop them off and then heading out somewhere for dinner.  Now, it may not be the best for our waistline, eating out every Wednesday but in this case I think it is worth it.  The girls can get pizza at church to it works out beautifully and I am loving this time for us to catch up and spend some 1 on 1 time.  I love the message it is sending to our girls too. The message that our marriage is important to us and that we want to spend time together.

Looking ahead to a very busy and hopefully healthy weekend.  L has her first gymnastics meet of the season. I am excited to see her perform her floor routine.  It is going to be cute.  She chose to do the routine to Walking on Sunshine (such a perfect song for her bubbly personality) and has been working so hard on it.  Her tumbling capabilities just blow me away. On top of a gymnastics meet, we have a soccer game this weekend for K.  This is going to be a tough one.  K and her team are probably in the wrong league.  They have been smoking every team they play.  The last game their coach told them they could only shoot and pass with their left foot for the whole first half to try and challenge them a bit.  So he has set up two scrimmages for this weekend and next against a local team that is really good.  I don't want to see them lose of course, but I think the challenge is going to be good for them.  Please say a little prayer for both my girls though.  They both need to be 100% on top of their game this weekend but they both are coming down with something.  K had a sore throat all day yesterday. This morning L, DH and I have one as well.  :(

Have you signed up for the Crafts N' Things newsletters?  You can get great holiday ideas sent to your inbox every day and then once a week there is a weekly newsletter that comes straight to your email.  These Halloween jars I created are part of the newsletter this week.  They were super easy  and quick to make.  It took no time to create a bunch to give to a few neighbors. Check it out here alone with lots of other great Halloween ideas.

So I have layout to share with you today.  This last week we focused on Carte Bella paper products over at Emma's Paperie.  Here is the layout I created using Beautiful Moments Line.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Happy Fall Y'All

I just adore fall. It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I love the cool crisp temperatures and the gorgeous colors.  I am actually more one top of my decorating this year and had all my fall decorations up by the beginning of October.  They just make me feel so happy.

I had to laugh at the saying that I used for my post today.  We have starting hosting a small group for our church at our house on Sunday nights.  The study is call "Not a Fan". We did not know any of the couples before we started meeting, but we all get along so well that after we finish up at 9, many of the couples stick around to talk. This Sunday we started talking about teaching, as it turns out several of us either teach or used to teach.  The conversation turned to schools in the south (I used to teach in TX). One of the women was talking about how she knew she was in the south when her daughter came home with a scarecrow that said "Happy Fall Y'All".  :)  It made me smile at the memories that this simple statement brought back.

There is another new challenge up at Challenge Me Happy.  This is an easy one to participate in, Anything Goes.  For this challenge I decided to focus on my sweet youngest DD.  Middle School has not been easy for her.  I decided that this was something that I really needed to document.  The hardest part was finding a photo to use.  She is such a goofy, happy kid that anytime I pull out the camera, she is in full goofball mode.  I actually snapped this photo on Mother's Day while she was sitting by a pond at a gorgeous park near here. I caught her off guard and got a great picture.

We would love to have you join us for this challenge.  You can use any theme and any embellishments for your layout, as long as it is created exclusively for Challenge Me Happy.  Upload it to the site using the inlinkz link provided by October 14th.  Good Luck!

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

Refocus

I don't know about you, but there are times that I find that I really need to refocus.  And so, I need to apologize to any of you who check my blog from time to time looking for a blog update.  My focus has been elsewhere lately.  

We have started a new sermon series at church, called Not a Fan. It has really got me thinking about what I am making the priorities in my life. Our pastor is fabulous and I recommend you give it a listen. Anyway, it was perfect timing considering that my sister decided to come for a visit. She spent last week with us and it was a great time for the two of us to spend some time together.  She is 5 years younger than me (which makes her 24-hahahaha). There was enough of an age difference that growing up we weren't super close. Don't get me wrong, we always got along fine but we didn't have a ton in common.  As I get older, those years do not make as much of a difference.  It was a very good visit. 

We took her to a big local festival here in town and she got to see K play soccer and L practice gymnastics. Before she left on Thursday she even went with me on my route to deliver groceries to my seniors for the SeniorPak program. I am so glad she was able to find some time to come visit. 

Even though I have refocused my priorities, scrapbooking is still a big part of who I am and what I love to do.  This last week Challenge Me Happy posted a new challenge.  The challenge is to create a layout using an embellishment or embellishment that you created. The perfect challenge for me because I love embellishments! :)  So after deciding to use the goofy pictures of my girls for the layout I decided to create arrows and a mustache as some of the embellishments for my layout.  Arrows are a great create-your-own embellishment.  If you are not comfortable creating your own, simply open a word document and create some arrows there.  Print them onto your paper and cut them out. It is that easy.  Here is my layout. 

Interested in giving it a shot?  You could win a spot as Guest DT for the next challenge.  Check it out here! Look forward to seeing your creations!

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

We will remember

It is hard to believe that it has been 11 years since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. I will always remember the people who lost their lives that day.  I am so thankful for all the emergency personnel who risked their lives that day and those who continue to risk their lives every day to keep our country safe. Thank you!

I am a happy mama.  We spent the weekend getting to watch K play soccer.  She had a game on Saturday and then another one on Sunday. I am so impressed with the new the club she is playing with.  She has improved so much over the last several months and is really becoming a great soccer player.  There are so many sweet girls on her team and we love the philosophy of the organization and great coaches. That said, I DO NOT have any photos of her yet.  I decided I would wait a bit before becoming that crazy mom with the camera. Hahaha :) On the gymnastics front, L is getting ready for her first meet in October.  She is now at a level where she can pick her own music for her floor routine.  I am thankful that we no longer have to listen to the same music 125 times in a row at every meet! :)  I the routine she and her coach created.  It is so perfect for L.  She chose the song Walking on Sunshine and they have added lots of tumbling (definitely her strength) and lots of cute dance moves.  It is a lot of fun to watch.

I have a layout to share this morning and then I am off to clean up the house for my sister's visit on Thursday. :)  I created this layout for Emma's Paperie this last week.  Our manufacture this last month was Crate Paper.   If you follow my blog you probably recognize these photos.  I have wanted to scrap these fun photos from L's birthday since her party. The birthday tags from Crate were the perfect inspiration!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a fabulous day!!!

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!