Found a new toy!

I found a new toy to use with my stamping. It's called "Glimmer Mist", made by Tattered Angels. I went on a hunt the other day for 1 thing, and ended up at one of the local scrapbook stores, only to find out they didn't have what I was looking for. And since I feel it's my duty to help support my local scrapbook stores, I just HAD to look around. Plus, they had just moved to a new location and I hadn't been in the store for a few months. It wasn't too long before I spotted these small, 2 oz, spray bottles in various colors.

"Glimmer Mist" it said on the bottles. "What's this?" I asked. Come to find out, Glimmer Mist is a spray containing a pigment. They have a pearly, shiny, sparkly, look to them. Would you believe me if I said the gal made me buy 2 bottles? Ok, so she didn't but I really did buy 2 bottles. "Winter Pine" & "Coffee Shop" are now added to my new toys.

I played with them Friday night, and here's what I created.

I used the Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist on one of the flowers from Stampin' Up!'s "Pretties Kit". It didn't take much of the Glimmer Mist to create the pretty brown flower! It really does have a pearly shiny look, but that doesn't really show in the scanned image. :-( The red flower was made using another flower from the Pretties Kit and dyeing it using Riding Hood Red Classic reinker (one of Stampin' Up!'s NEW In Colors).

I'm looking forward to playing some more with my two Glimmer Mist colors. According to the Tattered Angels website (http://www.mytatteredangels.com/), they have 52 different colors. I know the scrapbook store didn't have all 52 colors the other day, and that's probably a good thing...at least for my checkbook! LOL

Blog? What blog? (AKA Long Update!)

I almost forgot I had a blog! I think my memory leaks worse than I thought it did. LOL In my defense, I would like to say there's just been so much going on that my brain couldn't handle it all and had to shove things out. Yep, that sounds like a good story to me! :-)

We had a great summer here. The kids & I had lots of fun at Day Camp in June. The highlight of the week was Jordan wanting to accept Jesus as his Savior. Brad & I were concerned about the genuiness of this, so we asked our pastor (who's also one of our dear friends) to sit down with Jordan. So on June 29th, right after church, Brad, myself, and Jordan sat down with our pastor and talked. There's no doubt in our minds that Jordan knows exactly what he was doing or why it was such an important decision.

Jordan's sleep study went fine. I'm thankful for the Arkansas Children's Hospital and how hard they make experiences like this good for the children. Everything from the design and decorating of the main lobby to the caring staff. He got to watch a movie while the tech hooked him up to all the wires. (Although the glue they use really stinks, litereally!) Of course, I was there taking pictures all the way from waiting in the main lobby to getting hooked up. :-) The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, and I honestly thought it was the wake-up call or something. LOL We've gotten the results back though, and no sleep apnea. There was moments where his respiratory stopped, but his pediatrician said that could be sinus drainage causing that. So all in all, no need to worry about his sleeping. YAY!

Vacation Bible School was so much fun! I was paniced about VBS because I waited way too long to start looking at the materials, but God worked wonders. We even had to do some emergency substitutions the week before we started. We did the VeggieTales VBS, and it was their "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" theme. Myself, and "me crew" LOL, all dressed up as pirates. This crew really got into the pirate spirit, too! I know the workers had a blast that week, and that helped the kids have fun, too.

August started off with my parents coming to visit for Jordan's baptism. What a treat to have them here twice in one year! :-) An even bigger treat and blessing, was being able to watch my husband baptize our son. And to know, like with Elizabeth, that Jordan received his spiritual gift(s) the moment he asked Jesus to come into his heart, is just amazing. And I get to watch him grow and discover that! I'm blessed with two wonderful, beautiful, caring, loving, Christian children.

School started Aug. 18th, and between the two kids, I've seen their pediatrician twice already. Yikes! I hope this isn't how it's going to be the rest of the school year. They both have wonderful teachers, too. I've applied to be a substitute, but only for elementary. I'm not sure I'm ready for middle school or high school! LOL

A joyous occasion

Back in April, our daughter Elizabeth asked Jesus into her heart! This is something that God has been preparing her for for a long time. Unknown to us, some time back she filled out a response card at church saying she wanted to talk to our pastor about becoming a Christian. In a later conversation, he asked if I knew about that, which I didn't. So we setup an evening for him to come by and talk to Elizabeth. Yes, Brad is the Children's Pastor, but this wasn't something we were going to take likely, and we felt that our pastor would have the wisdom to know whether Elizabeth was ready or not. Well, after talking with her, asking questions, etc, she was ready to ask Jesus into her heart! It's been awesome to see the change in her!





My parents have said for a long time that they wanted to be there when she was baptized, so we made sure they could be here. On May 4th, Brad had the wonderful privledge of baptizing our daughter. It was his first baptism, so he was nervous, but he was wonderful.





In 1 Corinthians 12 - 14, the Bible talks about spiritual gifts. What an amazing thought that my daughter received her spirtiual gift(s) the moment she received Jesus as her Savior! And I get the joy of watching her discover her gift(s), whatever they are, and watch her grow in her walk with God.

Sure, she's not perfect. Yet, who of us are? I know I'm surely not perfect. I pray for wisdom, though, wisdom to know how to help my daughter continue to grow spiritually. Oh, and patience as we begin to enter the beginning of hormones! :-)

Jumping in!

It seems I've now joined the world of blogs! There was a time where I didn't think I would, but here I am anyways. There's a first time for everything, right? LOL

Here it is, the day after Memorial Day and my two kiddos are still in school. They think it's "not fair" that their cousin, 1 aunt, and 1 uncle are all done with school for this year. Of course, at the same time, my kids have at least 1 day off of school every month throughout the school year due to a holiday, parent-teacher conferences, etc. I just keep reminding them that they only have to survive until June 5th and then their summer will start! LOL

Summer! Summer! It's almost here! Sorry, but no matter what the calendar or weather says, it just doesn't feel like it's officially summer until the kids are out of school. LOL Usually, we make a trip to NM to visit my family. Alas, it won't happen this year. Instead, we're sending the kiddos to NM so they can spend 2 weeks with their nutty relatives out there. (I can say "nutty" because I'm related to them! LOL) Right after they get back, we jump right into Day Camp thorough our church. It'll be 4 days of fun, Bible stories, missions, and activities! This will be the first year Jordan gets to go. Of course, I'll be the counselor and I'll definately have my camera with me.

Right after that, Jordan gets to do a sleep study. He has various symptoms that all point to sleep apnea. Did you know kids can have sleep apnea? I didn't! But they can, and so Jordan gets to go through a sleep study. The sleep study will confirm whether or not he has sleep apnea. If he does, and depending on how severe it is, it will be treated with either medication, a breathing machine, or surgery. Personally, I would prefer either medication or the breathing machine!

So far, July plans are fairly quiet except for Vacation Bible School, in which I'm the Director again. But there's a whole month between now and then, so who knows! LOL Before we know it, summer will be over and we'll be getting ready for another school year!