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Thursday, July 29, 2010

*Lovin' Summer Weather*

Calgary has been enjoying some truly wonderful summer weather the last week or so.... I'm afraid of jinxing it by saying anything....  but it's been wonderful!  Lots of sun, lots of warmth...  I was worried we wouldn't see much for summer this year.

For those of you who are following along, Mom has settled in well at the Hospice.  She was really upset about going there but I think she's felt very comfortable and at home from almost the first moment after arriving.  My sister tells me that the staff is all very awesome and caring.  Mom has been out and about the facility and gardens in her wheelchair which is a nice break from being in bed all day.  But it sure does tire her out by the end of the day.  Heather still has no plans to head back home to Ontario and I am uncertain of when I will head out to Regina to visit Mom for a bit.  For now my foot is too sore to make the 7 hour drive, but the foot is getting better...  once it's no longer swelling if not elevated I will decide when to go.

If anyone is interested, I know that Mom is still loving getting cards in the mail... she is decorating her room with them.  Heather brings her the mail every day and it truly is a bright spot in her day.  You can email me if you'd like her address....

I have spent a bit of time crafting this week....  I've made three cards.... nothing major, but at least it was crafty!
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  PTI White; Stampin' Up! Brocade Blue, Old Olive
*Images:  PTI Signature Greetings; Stampin' Up! Friendship Blooms
*Ink:  Stampin' Up! Brocade Blue; Memento Tuxedo Black; Copics
*Tools:  Stampin' Up! border punch
*Embellishments:  Stickles; unknown ribbon
*Challenges:  FTL95


I hope you all enjoy your Thursday!
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Monday, July 26, 2010

*I'm Back.... part 3*

I have a few cards I still need to take photos of but have honestly crafted NOTHING in the last few weeks... maybe I will try to today since I have nothing I have to do until taking Alex to the ortho for 3pm.  Oh, and laundry... but I can't start that until my sleeping boyz get up and sort the dirty laundry (which they were supposed to do before going to bed last night..... damn kids)

So, on to the card...
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Stampin Up! Basic Black, Brocade Blue
*Patterned Paper:  Die Cuts With A View
*Images:  PTI Signature Greetings
*Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black
*Challenges:  FTL96

Such a quick and easy card to throw together and I got to use paper I fell in love with but have never cut in the 2 years I've had it in my stash!  It just always seemed too much for a card....



Thanks for sticking with me during a dry spell as well as through three long posts today.....  hugs to all!


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*I'm Back.... part 2*

And then yesterday, I turned 40!  The big FOUR OH!  How on earth did that happen?  My birthday weekend was good and bad... Friday my BFF asked I wanted for my birthday and honestly I had no good ideas... then it came to me... I texted her with "you could take me to get my nose pierced".... and the next thing I knew I was in the chair at the tattoo shop getting my nose pierced! It didn't hurt nearly as much as I feared it would...  it made my eye water though....

A photo for you.....

Friday night we were at a friends house for a fire in the new fire pit, a few drinks, and cupcakes!  A very nice evening with friends....  I swear we have the best friends ever!

Saturday I got to meet up with my niece for lunch at the airport as she flew from Regina to London ON while the guys went shopping for my birthday present.  Saturday evening Bruce took me to our favourite hole in the wall for wings and I will admit to drinking a mini pitcher of vodka paralyzers.  We came home and since it was such a beautiful evening, we decided to take Milo for a short walk.... and about 3 blocks away from home I slipped on some rocks and gravel and fell.  I don't know exactly how it happened, but I managed to do a 180 degree turn and land on top of my left foot.  I thought my biggest problem was that my second to smallest toe was cut and bleeding pretty badly....  Bruce ran off to get the car and I decided to limp towards home... and then almost passed out so I sad on someone's lawn and waited.  I thought for sure I had broken my foot.  I spent the rest of the evening with my foot up with ice on it and went to bed still in a lot of pain.  Our plan was to head to get it checked out in the morning if it wasn't better.  Sunday morning brought less pain for my foot but the bruising and swelling were obvious.  Since it was my birthday I decided I would take it easy and sat in the yard (sometimes in the sun, sometimes in the shade) with iced tea, a good book and my foot up.

And Sunday was the big birthday.... the big FOUR OH.... the OMG I'm old birthday LOL!  I'm not sure how it happened, but here I am, 40.  I don't feel 40.  And that I think is the attitude to have.  It's just a number.  Bruce made a cake, we went out to dinner with a few friends and my father in law, came back here for cake... got a few presents including some more kitchen knives (I have started a collection of good kitchen knives) and a few nose rings for when I can change from this honking big "diamond" in 6 weeks.  I had a few unexpected phone calls as well as a call from Mom, after which I cried for a while...  I am so glad she was feeling up to calling me (I could tell how tired she was) but it was so sad knowing that this would be the last time she would wish me a happy birthday.  It still makes me cry....

My birthday festivities continue tonight with dinner at my Mother in Laws house....  and then, sadly, I will have to put away my birthday expectations until next year....

One more post for you to read today...  #3 will be all about the card!

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*I'm Back.... part 1*

Happy Monday everyone....  this may be a long post as I have a few things I need to talk about before I share some creativity with you...  I think I will do it in three posts.... so you can decide what you want to read...

First, the blog break....  late in the afternoon of July 16th I had a call from my sister who has been staying with Mom in Regina while I've been home.  Mom was admitted to hospital on Wednesday and wasn't doing great.  Friday a Dr told Heather that Mom's time was very limited.  I hopped on the first available flight (9pm) and went to Regina, prepared to say "goodbye".  We were so sure of this.  Mom was showing all of the signs of being near death.  We summoned some of the family to come say good bye.  We started keeping a vigil at her bedside.  Saturday she was worse.  She was seeing dead loved ones.  She wasn't make any sense.  She was hardly awake.  Sunday she was more alert, but she still wasn't with us for the most part.  And Monday she woke up relatively alert.  She rallied.  And she's still with us.  I came home on Tuesday and while she's very tired and very weak, she is still with us.  She wants to die.  She is ready to die. But she is still here.  Yesterday (July 25th), she was moved to the Hospice in Regina.  She was upset about going there, probably because she knows it is where she will live the last days of her life.  But once there she realized how caring the staff is and how comfortable her room is.  And she thinks that it is OK.

We have no idea how much longer she has left.... days?  weeks?  perhaps even months.

My plan from 3 weeks ago was to be heading back to Regina on the 27th of July to relieve Heather for a few weeks but Heather has decided that she just can't leave Mom so Heather has suggested that I stay home for a while longer.  I don't know how much longer, but I am home with  my family.

It's been a tough rollercoaster for the last 6 months and the last few weeks have been very difficult too... so sad to think that your Mom is about to die, but you come to terms with it and are prepared for it to happen.... and then it doesn't.  You can't even begin to imagine the emotions...  I couldn't have written here had a tried in the last week....

Please keep my Mom in your thoughts and prayers....  all we are asking for right now is comfort for her...
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

*Necessary Blog Break*

Just popping in really quickly to let you know that I won't be around much in the next few days or weeks...

I *will* be back!
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Thursday, July 15, 2010

*Bad Blogger*

Good morning all... I have to apologize for not posting more... I truly have no reason why.  I just haven't thought to post a card in the last few days.  Bad, I know.

I've been sitting in my crafty space here and there and have done only a bit of crafting since I got home from Regina.  I'm not sure where my Mojo is.  I'm not honestly sure I even *want* to craft right now.  I do, and I don't.  Does that make sense?

I created this card last week... quick and easy to put together once I found three flowers that go together...
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Melon Mambo, Bashful Blue
*Images:  AMuse
*Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black
*Embellishments:  Prima Flowers; Doodlebug Brads
*Challenges:  FTL97 (on the Clean and Simple blog)

Mom is back in the hospital... was taken there by ambulance yesterday after waking up and having no energy and not being able to get herself out of bed.  Sadly she spent the night on a ward in a hallway and there has been no diagnosis of what is going on.  There was talk it could be her heart but apparently they ruled that out.  I understand her spirits are low.  Not sure what this all means.

And that's my story for today....
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Thursday, July 08, 2010

*Ooops*

I am so sorry to have ignored my blog for so many days...  being away for 3 weeks means I have a lot to catch up on when I get home and this week I got to add several visits to the dentist for the kids and I to the list of things I had to do.  Thus the blog fell by the way-side.  I feel bad, but life happens sometimes...

I hope you'll forgive me ;-)

I'm sharing with you today, the last card in my stash of photos... the good news is that I threw together three Clean and Simple cards earlier this week when I had a few minutes here at there in my creative space.  I just gotta get out into the yard and get some photos of them....
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Going Grey, Ballet Blue
*Images:  Hampton Art
*Ink:  Stampin' Up! Ballet Blue
*Tools:  Big Shot; Nestabilities; Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder; Stampin' Up! border punch
*Embellishments:  Doodlebug brad; unknown grosgrain ribbon
*Challenges:  Mojo142
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Sunday, July 04, 2010

*Home Again*

Happy 4th of July to my American readers.... I hope you enjoy your long weekend!

Milo and I made the trek home yesterday after 20 days in Regina with Mom.  The first part of the drive seemed to take forever (like I was shocked that we had only been in the car an hour type thing), but at about the half way point things just sped along.  We only stopped for two pee/gas breaks as I wasn't at all hungry while on the road.

We arrived home to an empty but clean house... a plus and a minus.  I had really been looking forward to a night on my own in the the house (the guys are camping this weekend) but I will admit to being disappointed to find an empty house.  It was both good and bad.  Bruce and the boyz treated me to a clean house as well... they did some tidying and cleaning, ran the dishwasher... even washed the sheets so I got to enjoy "clean sheet day" on the king size bed all to myself.  I love clean sheet day!

I'm watching a movie this morning ("It's Complicated") and plan on running a few errands when it's done, before the family gets home.

I hope to spend some time in my craft space in the next few days.  The first thing I want to do is reorganize my Stampin' Up! ink pads and all of my 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock... I have decided to not keep my SU paper separate from my other stuff and with the big reorganization of colours in the SU world I think I will sort everything by colour instead of colour family.  I hope it works for me! LOL!!

Wow, I'm the Queen of Babble today....

Here, since you were patient... a card...
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White
*Images:  Amuse
*Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
*Tools:  Big Shot; Nestabilities
*Embellishments:  Michael's Bridal Flowers; Kaiser Pearls; unknown Ribbon
*Challenges:  Mojo141
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Thursday, July 01, 2010

*Happy 143rd Birthday, Canada*

Happy Canada Day to all of my fellow Canadians...  a day to show your pride at being a Canadian!

Not too much to report from my neck of the woods....  my sister arrives on Friday morning and I am heading home on Saturday morning.  Mom is doing OK... not great, but not terrible.

I'm dying to try the Blizzard of the Month from DQ... anyone wanna go get me one???

Anyway.....

I created this card thinking I'd bring it to give to my friend and her family when I came for her Dad's funeral... but I didn't love the card and then I forgot it on my crafting table.... it will wait until I need another sympathy card...
Items Used:
*Cardstock:  Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss
*Images:  Inkadinkadoo Dot Flourishes; Boxer Remembrances
*Ink:  
*Embellishments:  Michael's Bridal Flower; Dew Drops; Kaiser Pearl
*Challenges:  FTL93
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