Halloween

Sara is so excited about Halloween!!! All she wants to do is go trick or treating!!! We took her to Southworks Outlet Mall on Sunday for some trick or treating -- well, Gary did -- and she loved it!!!! Everybody thought her and Sam were super cute (of course)!!! The photos are all from Sunday --- meeting the clown, the blurry one (sorry) of her meeting Snow White, walking through the puddles in the parking lot, and the grape lady.

Today we took them to the Cambridge Centre for the Mommy-a-Go-Go Halloween parade. They had a great time!!!! Every time someone put a treat in Sara's treat bag she begged us to take it out and let her eat it :) It was amazing how many people were there with children in costumes -- and so many adorable costumes!!!!! It was a lot of fun, but I was really tired by the time it was over. Thank goodness Gary was there too.

Tomorrow should be exciting!!!!

Layouts for WeScrap's Wicked Halloween Online Crop

My friend Patty and I have been enjoying the challenges and games at the WeScrap Wicked Halloween Online Crop. We played an amazing bingo game that had everyone on the edge of their seats it was sooooo close. I would have loved it if I could have completed all of the challenges posted, but this was a busy weekend for me. These are the ones I did get completed.

"Fear" is a layout for two challenges actually: the Scared Yet challenge at WeScrap and  Tara's blog challenge (see previous post for the journaling and a link to Tara's blog) -- it is all about the journaling, with some doodling to support it.

"Happy 1st Birthday" was for the Wing of Bat, Eye of Newt challenge. We were given instructions on how to create the layout (i.e. 3 photos, piece of ephemera, double mat one photo, etcetera) and then were told to put it all together. It was fun and very interesting to see how all the different layouts turned out even though the instructions were the same.

"Talk About Spooky" was for the Let's Face It challenge. I had to create a face to use on the layout. Gary was a very good sport about this one :) He actually loved what I did with his face lol.

"My Guys" was completed for the Wicked Layout Sketch challenge. I turned the sketch on it's side and made a few slight changes. Love my guys!!!!

"Wild Thing" was for the Batty Layout Bingo challenge. I chose the following three things: 1) use something Halloween related (paper and photo), 2) add some stitching (mine is doodled, around the photos), and 3) use two types of ribbon. Isn't Sara adorable in her giraffe costume? Oh, guess now you know what she is going to be for Halloween LOL!!!!

"Little Lion King" was for the really cool Haunted Halloword challege. I had to select some words from a Halloween list (I chose nine) and then each of those words was assigned a layout requirement that I had to use on my layout. I chose All Hallows Eve (brown and yellow), ghost (white), magic (doodle), ogre (one photo), pointed hat (handwritten journaling), raven (3 circles), web (bling), witch (black cardstock) and wizard (tear paper). And now you know what Sammy is dressing as for Halloween too!!!!

Thanks for looking and thanks to all the folks at WeScrap for a great online crop!!!!!

Fears Challenge

Tara has posted a challenge on her blog to blog about Fears, so here goes.

Fears

There are a lot of things I worry about --- bad storms, tornadoes, car accidents, money --- but they don't occupy my mind all the time. Then you have the things that I'm afraid of, which I only think about when they are actually right in front of me usually. 

I'm afraid of spiders -- Gary knows if I see one that he has to come running as soon as I scream. I lived in a house once that was infested with the grossest spiders -- they were huge and if you stepped on them they would make this crunch sound and KEEP WALKING!!!!!! Yuck!!!

I'm afraid of snakes -- doesn't matter what size they are, I see one, I'm running the other way. That was the worst part of growing up in the country, there were always snakes. And having two brothers didn't help. Oh I hope my children don't take an interest in snakes.

I'm afraid of heights -- anytime where there is the possibility that I could fall scares me -- ladders, trees, edge of a cliff. Strangely enough I'm not afraid of being in tall buildings like the CN tower (although I did keep my eyes closed on the way up), or airplanes, but put me on a ladder or stand me on a chair and I'm scared!!! Maybe it is because I have lousy balance and I'm always afraid I'll fall.

I'm afraid of tornadoes (see worry above) -- they are the one type of weather that can really get to me. Thunderstorms don't bother me. Snowstorms only bother me when I have to be out in them (or someone I love is). But as soon as I see the tornado watch or the tornado warning I get scared. I watch the sky to see if it looks funny. I wait for wind to change. I listen intently for animals. I saw what one could do up close and personal as a child. I came very close to losing people I loved -- if the tornado had zigged instead of zagged I would have. It was closer than I ever want to get again. I respect tornadoes, you have to respect something with that much power and the ability to destroy everything it touches in the blink of an eye - and I would be happy to stay out of their way for the rest of my life.

I'm not afraid of blood (love medical shows where you see the surgery) or scary movies (a lot are so fake they make me laugh) or wild animals (as long as they aren't charging me, but since I won't go to Africa or inside cages at the zoo I hope I am relatively safe in that respect).

But I do have a fear. I have a big fear. A fear bigger than anything else I've ever been afraid of. 

It's a health related fear.

My fear is that something will happen to someone I love very much or to myself that will tear our lives apart forever. I fear something horrible happening to one of my children's health, something that I can't fix with a bandaid and a kiss. I fear something happening to my husband's health, something that can't be healed or cured. I fear something happening to me that will take me away from my wonderful family. I fear leaving my husband without a wife and my children without a mother. 

It happened to someone I cared about very deeply -- she was one of my dearest friends. She was an amazing wife and mother to three small children. Her whole life was devoted to her family. She did everything "right" -- never smoked, never drank, exercised, ate right. She didn't have a mean or evil bone in her body. I don't think she was capable of thinking bad thoughts about anyone -- family, friend or stranger. She was my inspiration, she was someone I looked up to, she was someone I have always wanted to be like. She was an angel here on earth and then one day she found out she had cancer. She fought with everything she had, spent every moment she could with her children, tried to leave them each gifts of love for when she wasn't there. And one day God needed her in Heaven and the angels took her home.

So give me spiders and snakes and wobbly ladders and even tornadoes, but please don't take away the people I love -- my children -- or take me away from them.

That is my biggest fear. 

Sneak Peek

We celebrated Sam's birthday with his little friends on Saturday. As part of the party we had the children put on their Halloween costumes and get their pictures taken. What a cute group they were!!!!! Of course, I can't give away what Sara and Sam dressed as -- must keep it a big secret until Halloween -- but I thought I'd give you a sneak peek!!!! Enjoy!!!

Cool Class : Stories In Hand

I just signed up for this cool class at JessicaSprague.com. It is free and should be a lot of fun. Would you like to join me?

It's Here!!!!

Woo hoo!!! This morning in my mailbox I found this large package from Cindy at StampingScrapping.com. I was so excited!!!!! My prize had arrived!!!!! The yummy Core'dinations My Chocolate Box paper!!!!!

Check out these 'color' names: cherry cordial, caramel, amaretto, orange cream, maplenut, bananas foster, pistachio nut, key lime, chocolate chip mint, french mint, dewberry, cool mint truffle, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry cordial, berries jubilee, black cherry, hazelnut, strawberries n' cream, and french vanilla.

Yummy!!!!!!

The only thing lacking is a yummy chocolate scent (which I'm told you can get in embossing powder lol).

Thanks Cindy!!!!! I'm delighted to have my paper!!!!!

50 Things About Me

I posted this on the Cricutlovers and Cutters Creek Yahoo groups that I belong to, so I thought I would post it here as well. It was kind of fun thinking of 50 things to share.

1. My Mom wanted to name me Audra after the character in The Big Valley
2. My middle name is Lori Ann Marie
3. The Lori and Ann are from my Mom's name Lorraine
4. I am the youngest of three and the only girl
5. I got my first job when my middle brother decided he no longer wanted to do it - working on a neighbour's chicken farm collecting eggs -- yuck!!!
6. Growing up I dreamed of becoming a doctor -- I wanted to be an ER doc where I thought the excitement was
7. I buried my medical dreams with my best friend when he died in 1986, I decided to become something 'safer'
8. I used to drive in fields and on back roads before I had a driver's license
9. I had guinea pigs when I was a child -- they got together one night and we had more guinea pigs
10. At one point I had 13 cats as pets (mostly outdoors - we lived in the country), when we were down to only two my Dad decided they were bothering his allergies and shipped them off to a farm
11. I've never been out of North America
12. I've never been to Disney -- although I hope to take my children some day
13. I love Eeyore
14. I hate to cook -- that's why it took me so long to find my hubby, I needed a man who loved to cook!!!
15. I hate to be alone
16. I watched all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies with my youth group at my pastor's house
17. I love Science Fiction -- movies and novels
18. My Dad and I saw the original 3 Star Wars movies at the theatre multiple times by lurking in the back after the early show so that we could watch them again at the next showing
19. I have two wonderful and precious children - the million dollar family -- a daughter and a son
20. I was in Beckers when I first heard that Elvis was dead -- I was too young to know exactly what that meant at the time, but I knew it was awful and started to cry -- I love Elvis
21. I still sometimes think about going to med school, but only because I'd like to find a way to heal myself
22. I live with a headache 24/7 and most of the time it is migraine strength
23. I wear my heart on my sleeve
24. I love to do crafts -- especially scrapbooking
25. I like my toenails painted and love to wear sandals
26. My hubby made all of my dreams come true -- every one of them (except the doctor thing)
27. I was married on my Grandma's birthday, which was one of my childhood dreams
28. I was a 4H'er growing up
29. My Lord carried me through the death of my best friend and helped my find my way without the person I thought I would grow old with
30. Until 1986 I was convinced that I was destined to be the wife of a farmer, but God had different plans because my hubby has never even lived on a farm
31. The most difficult thing I have ever had to live through was the death of my Daddy -- I had a hard time finding my way in a world without Daddy in it -- I miss him every day
32. I got a head injury while riding my bicycle when I collided with another cyclist who was going the wrong way -- people joked that I was literally throwing myself at men!!!! -- that was exactly one year before 9/11
33. I met my hubby to be on a blind date sort of thing -- I was the only female invited to an all male card party so that I could meet him -- scary!!!!
34. I realized that I was in love with my boyfriend (now hubby) after getting a concussion from being hit in the head with a basketball (concussion on top of head injury does not make a good combination)
35. I LOVE the tenth doctor in Doctor Who (David Tennant)!!!! I hope he never leaves :)
36. I started collecting scrapbook supplies in 2002 when I wanted to do my wedding album --- it still isn't started LOL -- didn't start scrapbooking until 2006
37. I hate seafood and most vegetables
38. When I'm not doing things with my children I am usually on the internet
39. I recently got my Mom into scrapbooking
40. I love my Cricut, but don't get to use it as much as I want
41. I love being able to chat with my good friend Patty
42. I love to bake -- especially chocolate chip cookies
43. I am a peanut butter and chocolate addict -- the only thing that comes close are peanut M&Ms
44. I hate cleaning and like to think of my decorating style as "organized chaos"
45. I love to write short stories and have been working on a novel since I was in high school -- I was 'famous' for writing it at school
46. I'd love to publish my novel, but I'm too scared to try
47. My favourite music is Contemporary Christian/Worship -- I love Michael W. Smith
48. I grew up watching John Wayne movies with my Daddy -- I used to know most of the dialogue by heart
49. I love being a Mom, a wife and a teacher
50. My Lord is my Saviour and I wouldn't be where I am without Him -- thank you Lord!!!!