First Day of School

Noah had a pretty good day. Ms. Allison said he was a bit fussy but she thinks that will improve as he gets used to everything.

Pictures taken this AM before he left….. (Notice the backpack!)

Brag book page by Ahhh Scrap

 

Registration and Open House

Noah had Open House and Registration at school today. We got to meet his new teacher, Ms. Allison. He was a little suprised to have a new teacher because he has had the same teacher for the past two years. While we were in the classroom during Open House he kept trying to escape and go to his old teacher’s room! I think the first few days might be a little rocky, but I’m sure he will soon begin to adjust to his new teacher, classroom, and new classmates.

Here is a picture of Noah in his big boy desk during Open House.

Frame by Digitreats

 

Back to School Word Cloud

I read about a website called Wordle on a scrapbooking blog and using Wordle you can make neat looking word clouds. You just type in the words you want to use and then it randomly scatters them about in different ways. Then you can edit the font type, colors, and what not. Once completed, you can use them in blogs, digi scrapbooking pages, on websites, etc.

Noah and I made a back to school one a few minutes ago. I asked him for the different words and typed them all in and let Wordle do it’s magic. Below is our finished back to school word cloud!

 

Before and After the Haircut

As you can probably tell by the picture, Noah desperately needed a hair cut. We had been putting it off as long as possible because getting his hair cut is such a huge ordeal! But with school starting next week, he could wait no longer. (He looks so unhappy in that picture because he knows where he is going!) 

Noah HATES getting his hair cut and will fuss and even cry. He just hates having his head messed with. I blame it on all the EEGs he had to have while he was a baby/toddler. 

We are lucky, the lady who cuts his hair, Ms. Julie, is a very patient and kind lady. She volunteers with an orginization that works with special needs children a lot so she is really good with Noah.

This time though, Noah did MUCH better. He only shed a few tears and then was excited because he got to see in Ms. Julie’s chair and eat crackers while Daddy got his hair cut. As, you can tell by the after picture, he looks much happier!

 

Wordless Wednesday: Boys in Blue

~ My Boys in Blue ~

This is one of my new favorite pictures! It’s of J and Noah taken after the All Star Miracle League game on 8/8/08. I just love this picture! And Noah does too. He already made me print it out and put it in a page protector thingie for him!

I didn’t add a frame or anything else to this picture because I felt that would take away from it. It’s beautiful just the way it is.

More Wordless Wednesday

 

7 Days and Counting

Noah starts school on August 19^th, just 7 days away! And yes, we are counting them down!Noah loves school. He thrives on routine and going to school is just part of his normal routine so when there isn’t school he gets a little thrown off. He’s actually done well this summer but he is getting restless. He’s ready to go back NOW! 

Each year, he gets a new backpack for school. I really don’t have to buy him a lot of school supplies like other parents do for their kids, so the backpack is thing each year. He always picks it out and in the past we’ve had Super Man, Spiderman, etc.. This year, he decided he wanted an orange or Clemson back pack. (Side note – orange is his new favorite color. Everything (including his Slushy from Sonic!) must be orange!) I knew we were not going to find a Clemson one easily in a store so we shopped online and found a purple one with orange tiger paws that he finally settled on. It arrived in the mail on Saturday and it’s quite cute and he really likes it! In fact, when he woke up Sunday morning, he had gotten it off the shelf at the foot of the bed and had it sitting in the bed with him!

Silly, silly boy.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Holly and Noah

My niece Holly and Noah at Holly’s wedding rehearsal

 

Weekend Trip for My Bro’s Birthday

This past weekend we (me, Noah, J, and my parents) took a little weekend trip to the Charleston area - Summerville to be exact to visit my little (ok, he’s taller than me, younger is a better word now I think!) brother for his birthday.

We drove up Friday afternoon and then met up with Andy and his friends Jon and Erin on Saturday morning. Jon and Erin were kind enough to take us out on their boat on Saturday on the Cooper River. Noah LOVED boating! I wasn’t too sure about boating as last time we went boating I got pretty sea sick but this time I thought ahead and got some motion sickness pills and they did the trick and I was able to enjoy myself almost as much as Noah did! Erin let Noah sit in her lap and drive the boat some. He loved this of course. He thinks that boats have two speeds. Fast and Stop. He’d put his hand on the trottle and just stop the boat in the middle of the river and then two seconds later - ZOOM! Hand back on the throttle and we go barreling full speed ahead.

Noah did great boating but got tired after awhile. He ended up laying down on the floor of the boat even though he had plenty of laps to sit in or people to snuggle with. We did get a little quality snuggle time in but he preferred lying on the the floor of the boat - I think he liked the sound of the motor too. After boating, we went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and so he could take a nap.

After napping we went over to Jon and Erin’s house for a little birthday party for Andy. Andy grilled out some chicken and veggie skewers. It was very yummy! Noah found Andy’s guitar and demanded (I mean requested) that Andy play for him. Noah then fell in love with the Grover sticker on Andy’s guitar. I have a little feeling that Noah’s going to want to decorate his guitar with stickers like Uncle Andy’s.

Sunday morning (Andy’s actual birthday) we had breakfast with the birthday boy early before heading back to our neck of the woods.

Let me just say this for the record: Noah was AWESOME on the way up to Summerville. He wasn’t too terribly bad on the way home but not near as good as he was on the way there. On the way there, he watched videos on his portable DVD player with the headphones on! However, Saturday evening, the DVD player decided to stop working and he had to borrow my Dad’s on the way home which wasn’t making him happy for some reason. I think he may have just been ready to come home!

A few more pics:

My new favorite pic of the 3 of us

And I love this photo of my parents. They are so cute!

 

Tired Eyes

I recently (as in last week) was diagnosed with an eye condition called keratoconus (sometimes referred to as “KC”) Here’s a small blurb about KC.  

KC is a degenerative disease of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and curve causing a substantial loss and distortion of vision. It usually reaches its severe state in the patients late twenties, early thirties.

My vision had been getting worse and I honestly thought I just needed new glasses and had been waiting for it to have been a year since I got my last pair as my insurance only pays for one pair of glasses a year. So, I went to the eye doctor thinking I needed new glasses. She realized that glasses were not going to help me and sent me to a specialist for more testing and that specialist diagnosed me with KC. I have KC in both eyes but my left eye is in the advanced stages and I may have to have a cornea transplant in that eye.

At this point, I’m cleaning and sterilizing my eyes with drops every 2-3 hours and then I go back to the doctor and we will talk about what to do next.

My vision in my left eye seems worse the past few days. I don’t know if it actually is worse or if I’m just more aware of it now that I know something is actually wrong. I can’t be on the computer for long periods of time at the moment and when I can tolerate it right now, I have to use my time wisely and do the things I get paid for first and then do the fun things, like write in this blog!

So, this blog may have to take a backseat for a bit. I do have several posts almost finished that I was working on before all of this so maybe I will finish those soon. I just wanted to let all of you know what’s up in case you were wondering why I wasn’t writing here as much as usual….

I’d appreciate your prayers as dealing with this whole eye thing is scary!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Cool Kid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just love that shirt! I actually found that shirt at WalMart. I was suprised to find an ASL shirt in just a regular ole’ store. Typically, I can only find things like that online!

Credits:
Paper - Silver Rocket Scraps
Clip - From Beautiful Day Kit by Danielle
Overlay - Grunge Overlay from My Wish Kit by Aja Abney
Name Tag - My Own Creation

More Wordless Wednesday

 

Word Art Freebie: Mother’s Love

As mentioned in the previous post, I created another word art. You can download it here if you like. I thought it worked really great for the picture of me, my mom, and my son as shown in the layout.

 

Mother’s Day Layout

When I had just started creating my Mother’s Day layout Noah came over to the computer, sat in my lap as he often does, and wanted to help. So we ended up with two layouts for Mother’s Day 2008; one created by Noah and one created by me. I created my own word art again and will post it in another post.

Noah is very proud of his layout. He did a good job and he’s getting good at working the mouse with my help so this was good for his motor and computer skills as well. So, here’s both layouts!

Noah’s page:

Credits for Noah’s Page:
Paper: Sunshine Days Paper Pack by Little Rocket Scraps
Flowers: Summer Doodles by Angelica E.

My Page:

My Page Credits:
Template: Neeceebee Designs
Word Art: Me
Everything else: Field of Dasies Kit by Scrappin Obsession

 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all of you out there! Hope you have a very safe one!

PS. Happy Birthday Bestest Bud! Hope it was a good one.

 

 

Writing at Knack Parenting

So for the past two years (in June!) I have been writing/working for AdoptionBlogs where I have been writing the Unplanned/Crisis Pregnancy, Open Adoption, and on occasion Adoption News blogs. I have enjoyed writing there and the opportunities it has provided me and don’t worry, I’m still writing there, but I just wanted/needed something more….. Something that wasn’t about adoption.

I belong to a writer’s group in which job leads are posted weekly. One job lead caught my attention and it would allow me to work with an old editor who’s style I really liked and I learned a lot from. I applied and got the job thus becoming one of the two Craft and Design Writers for Knack Parenting. Knack is a new (just launched in June) parenting (print) magazine and website.

I’m really enjoying it. I get to write and craft! Each department has a theme, like for June I had to write about 4th of July crafts and for July we are doing summer crafts. Each month there is a down-loadable PDF File/Guide (like a mini magazine basically) that has different stuff related to each department’s theme.

I will occasionally post projects of interest here and link to them. So, be sure and check me out at Knack!

 

Updated Best Things Word Art

Someone pointed out that I should zip the files for my word art that I posted in the previous post, so I did.

I’m really kind of getting addicted to the designing process and find myself wanting to learn how to design even more. I wish there were more hours in the day!!

 

My Very First Word Art Creation

I created my own word art for the layout I shared in the previous post since I couldn’t find any existing word art that fit. I thought I’d share it as a “freebie” with anyone who’d like to use it. If you download it, leave me some love. If you use it, I want to see it! (Please!)

Click here to download this word art.

Note: This is the first time I have uploaded and used 4shared so if you have any problems downloading this file, let me know. I might have done something wrong, but hopefully not! If it works without problems, I created another word art for a different layout that I would be willing to share.

 

 

Digital Scrapbooking

I’ve picked up digi scrapbooking again. I actually started about three years ago when I was working on a project that I wanted to finish quickly. I then decided that I liked digi scrapbooking better than traditional scrapbooking. It’s so much easier on me because I don’t have to drag out a ton of things only to be interrupted ten minutes later and have to put everything away. With digi scrapping, I just hit save and come back to it when I can. Then last year, when I had major computer problems I lost some of my programs but lately I’ve really felt the urge and need to scrap, so I took advantage of some of the many freebies in cyberspace. My only problem with that is I live in the boonies there for I only have dial up and it takes FOREVER for some of those kits to download! So, I typically just set it up to download when I’m ready to go to sleep and when I wake up in the morning, it has finished. In a future post, I’ll share some of my favorite sites that have free digital scrapbooking goodies.

When I started back up this go ’round and was looking at all the digi scrapbooking stuff on the net, I became a bit frustrated at first because everything had flowers or other girlie elements and I have a boy. But then I came to the conclusion that this is our family album, not an album soley for Noah, so the flowers and girlie elements (which I love!) are ok.

Below is my first page that I have created lately. I even created my own word art for this page since I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted anywhere else. I may even post the word art here on the blog as a “freebie” for others. It was easy to make and fun. I’d love to get in on the design end of this but I don’t have time for that at the moment. Maybe one day….

So, here’s my first page in forever. Whatcha think?

Credits:
Paper: Sunshine Days Paper Pack by Silver Rocket Scraps
Frame, Ribbon, and Flower: Grape Crush Elements by A Work in Progress
Word Art: Me!

 

Cock of the Walk Review

When we were in Mississippi we went to one of my all time favorite restaurants, Cock of the Walk. We used to frequent that restaurant when we lived in Mississippi and we try to go eat there every time we are back in MS.  They have the best catfish! 

I wrote a review for Associated Content about Cock of the Walk, so check it out here.

 

Wordless Wednesday: Look at him Standing

I love this picture of Noah. He is standing in our reclining chair. He pulls himself up to a stand in that chair and likes to lean over the top and look at my All You Plaque. There is a picture of me, my birthson, and his adoptive Mom in the plaque from when we were featured in the magazine last year. Noah likes to look at it and blow kisses at it. He also likes to look at the pictures above it which you can not see in this picture and blow them kisses as well. I love the pic just  because he is standing!

More Wordless Wednesday

 

For Darcy

Three years ago today our baby, Darcy, went to Heaven’s nursery. Our dreams were shattered and we struggled to pick up the pieces. I thought one day this would get easier and maybe I’d forget the date or something, but really how can you forget a piece of your heart?

I don’t feel like writing a lot today. Instead, I want to share the lyrics to a song. A friend had this you tube video on her blog. It is a song called I will Carry You written by Angie and Todd Smith. Todd is a member of the Christian group, Selah. They recently lost a baby girl. This song is just amazing.  

There were photographs I wanted to take
Things I wanted to show you
Sing sweet lullabies, wipe your teary eyes
Who could love you like this?

People say that I’m brave
But I’m not
Truth is I’m barely hanging on
There’s a greater story, written long before me
Because he loves you like this.

I will carry you
While your heart beats here
I will carry you
Long beyond the empty cradle
Through the coming years,
I will carry you
All my life
I will praise the one who’s chosen
Me to carry you

Such a short time,
Such a long road
All this madness but I know
That the silence has brought me to voice

And he says…..
I’ve shown her photographs of time beginning
I walked her through the parted seas
Angel lullabies, No more teary eyes

I will Carry You
While your heart beats here
Long beyond the empty cradle
Through the coming years
I will carry you
All my life I will praise the one who’s chosen me
To carry you.