chop chop...and no, I don't mean hurry up

I got my HAIR CUT OFF! :)

Isn't it amazing that getting a really over-hauled dramatic hair change can just give you a whole new outlook on life. :) It is a complete attitude adjustment and it just makes ya feel pretty darn sassy! You've seen before pictures because I've posted pictures of the long mop here...

and HERE is a photo (albeit a less than beautiful one) of the end result. :) I hate self portraits b/c it always has horrible lighting b/c you can only hold the camera away so far from your body before you'd have to dismember yourself to get an ideal distance. :)



and here is a side view of all the awesome highlights and layers...



and another view of the layers


AND...

just because she's adorable. :) My little Lola. :)

Divorce.... a church?

***started this post on 7/10 at 4:50 p.m. and finished today 7/16***

Ok... this is a serious topic for me... and I'm going to dig as deep as I can into it for now -- well, as deep as one can while listening to the "mouse-ka-dance" "hot dog, hot dog, hot dog hot dog hot diggidy dog"... and and a scrawny, Dum Dum sucking, miss-matched, new-from-McDonalds transformers Optimus (sp?) Prime driving 3 year old can let me be... so you can understand that while this is a very serious topic, I'll do my best to give it my attention but you see, it just may not be entirely possible. :) But at least I'm attempting.

When I moved back to Texas 8 years ago and the whole divorce thing happened (long time coming but it DID happen) I knew that I really needed to get my head and heart back into church. I needed to learn and focus and keep my child grounded in the Word.

Looking back.. I grew up in a Church of Christ. I don't really remember what we did there. I remember not liking it because I was a tom-boy and really didn't like wearing dresses and that's just what you did there. There was no music - it was all a capella which I just don't really care for either.

But, since it was all I knew when I was old enough and had my own car (I think 17 years old), I actually phoned the church office and talked to someone in the office for a while. I said I'd gone there as a child, my uncle was an elder there and I was really interested in coming back. My parents were divorced and my mom wasn't a church going kinda lady. My dad went but since we weren't always with my dad and sometimes he worked weekend part-time extra jobs, we didn't always go with him either. That being said... I really didn't go much. SO, when I got old enough to realize what it was all about and I knew it was up to me to seek OUT the Word, I wanted to... So, after I'd talked to someone there and gave them my address, within 2 days I had pamphlets in the mail about how much money I needed to give them... ??? That COMPLETELY turned me off... completely. Not that I didn't believe in giving to the church, but they didn't try to do anything to make me feel welcome, it was just all about what I could do for them.

((sidebar)) right now Drew is "de-venoming" his snakes with neon orange tinker toys and dumping the venom into a squish ball. Isn't that so sweet he's keeping me safe? Ha ha...

so, that turned me off and I maybe went a handful of times... knew it wasn't for me, though. So, fast forward to getting married and moving to Colorado Springs. I knew we wanted to find a church and we began attending various churches in the area. My ex was raised in a very traditional Lutheran church (pipe organs, men in robes, etc.) I wasn't too keen on this either but we found one church that had 3 services on Sundays. We missed the first one and decided to attend the second. It was CONTEMPORARY! It was AWESOME! The minister, yes, he wore a robe but beneath it, he wore jeans and cowboy boots! I knew that was the place for me. I immediately became plugged in and was actually baptized there.

Then we moved to Ohio (military) and never really found a place we both liked going but we'd on occasion go to this one church with one of my best friends up there... it was nice... just not "home" for me.

Fast forward to moving back to Texas... I looked for another church... I looked and tried out several... going through the divorce, I really NEEDED one for Josh and myself. I just happened to try one church, Irving Bible Church, and I never looked for another one again. Its a really big church but I fell in love with it. I loved the worship team (very contemporary), I love the minister and his messages and how they actually apply to my life. I love the children's ministry team (I actually joined it teaching Sunday school for several years and also leading an AWANA class for 3 years on Wednesday nights.) I love the children's live music team. I love their outreach programs. I love their single parent ministry. I love this church. I love it.

Then I met Andy and we married and moved to Keller -- 30 minutes away. For the longest time, I made the drive... for me, it was worth it to fill up my spiritual bank. We haven't been going in a long time. My MIL was strongly encouraging finding a church in our neighborhood so that Josh could be plugged into the church and participate in extra curr activities and such... that he'd be in church with friends from his neighborhood... that it'd be more of a "community" church than us being one of only a few couples from Keller to go there. That made sense but... the thought of disassociating myself with this fantastic church just to have to go through the motions somewhere else... ??? do you do it? I feel like I'm going from a Bentley to a 70's VW Bug. It seriously breaks my heart to think I won't go there anymore.... at least if I DON'T go anywhere... I'm not NOT a member of IBC any longer. I can see the benefit to finding a neighborhood church that's only 10 minutes or so away... And with gas at $4 a gallon... I guess it does effect the bottom line but... at what cost?

We tried out another church but it felt so fake.... I honest to goodness don't feel like we should try to "fix" something that isn't broken...so is this ME being selfish or is this a message from God that I've found my home and I need to realize that it's my home... isn't home what you make of it? Your family are the people that you love and that love you.... does it matter that they're 30 minutes away? Is it really detrimental to my son's feeling of "community" if we don't attend a church that's down the road.... to one that's down the highway?

Sigh... I dont want to go through another divorce...

Silly mis-pronunciations - I love 'em!

I love toddler talk. Well, he's not really a toddler anymore but I like the aliteration that has... "toddler talk"... maybe I should say preschooler prose perhaps... ha ha.. :)

OK. So, we were loading up to take the 15 minute trip to swimming lessons and Drew asked to bring his "gameboy" (it's a Leapster, but hey, if he wants to think he has a gameboy like his big brother, more power to him). I said, "sure" as it provides a great distraction and if he's learning his upper and lower case letters, why not? Right? So he turns it on before we're even out the back door and he says to me, "dis my ick name." I questioned, "pardon?" He showed me the login screen. One says "Drew" and one says "SDGYKGN". He says, "dis my name, dis my ick name." That just cracks me up.

Wrong lyrics

Have you ever heard a song, kinda dug it and then started trying to sing it only to discover you've been singing the wrong lyrics? :) I did that today. But I'd only heard the song like 2 times in my life. It's by the Pussycat Dolls. It's called "When I Grow Up"

They say all these things they want to do/be/have when they grow up...

Here's the ACTUAL lyrics

When I grow up
I wanna be famous
I wanna be a star
I wanna be in movies

When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have groupies

When I grow up
Be on TV
People know me
Be on magazines

When I grow up
Fresh and clean
Number one chick when I step out on the scene


OK... see the part where it says "I wanna have groupies"... you'd actually think that would make sense but after seeing these waif chicks... the first thing that came to my head was plastic surgery -- "boobies".. hey, it fits!...ROFL... SO yes, I April sang the wrong lyrics to this song until TODAY when I actually looked them up and was like... oh yeah, well, that'd work too! LOL

Carry on with your biz.

Getting creative in minutes

I was going to post a challenge for Christmas in July for everone to do a Christmas-y-ish layout in the month of July and post it to the gallery but thought...well, I need to do one too to get the mojo going. :) Here is mine. :)

This is from last December when we all went to the Gaylord Texan to see Ice! It's an AMAZING display they have basically an entire Chinese village come in and carve all these sculptures out of ice that's as clear as crystal. They give you these lovely, fashionable and ultra colorful coats to wear while you tour the area. It was chilly but VERY cool... even indoor ice slides! :) Josh loved it.

That's one tradition that is a HUGE pain in the butt because of the crowds (my birthday is 12/20) but it's something that I really look forward to doing every year.

I think I left the picture a little large but... I wanted you to be able to click on it and see the sculptures behind us... I'll do more layouts with the actual ice tour in them later on but this was the picture I closed my eyes and picked out of the ones to scrap so that's what got scrapped! :) Sue me! ha!

Check the previous day

Check out the pics from 7/13! I just uploaded his party pics. ;) I know it doesn't send you updates for that but LOOK LOOK LOOK! :)

Creative but lazy

I have been creative over the last few days but been lazy about uploading the goods. :) Until now...

Here is a card I created with a beautiful kit put together by Christa, site owner at The Mosy Scrapper. :) She's working on getting her CHA orders in and will be having some AWESOME kits up for sale soon! :)

This is a 6x6 card created from beautiful flocked paper. :)


Here is a 2 pager feauturing a LOT of pictures - 14 in all. The journaling reads: What's the recipe for a morning of fun in Fort Worth? How about a couple of moms ready for some fun, a couple of energetic boys to keep you on your toes and a little one to make things interesting. Oh, and throw in a few lions, tigers and bears! Oh My! It was an afternoon of firsts for all of us. This was our first trip to the zoo with Drew. This was Drew's first time to ever hold his own bottle (huge in Mommy's book). This was also Drew's first time to ride a merry-go-round. It was so great to imagine all the other fun times we'd have together in the years to come at this great sanctuary.
Drew 7 1/2 months, Josh 5 1/2 years
Photo taken: February 21, 2005 / Journaling July 2008





This is a photo from when I was a couple month's pregnant with Drew and in NYC for my birthday (December). We were at Ruth Chris' steakhouse. The journaling is tucked behind but is easily removable for review.


This is a 2 page layout I took at the GASC in June - Rusty Pickle (LOVE THEM!)