October Kits are Up!

The October kits are up and ready for purchase at The Scrap Room, a fabulous monthly kit club!



These kits are so beautiful, and the SEI Moravia kit even includes FOILED papers that add an extra bit of shine and beauty! Opening the monthly box up and getting a wonderful whiff of flavored coffee makes it even better. :) Scrapbook supplies plus flavored coffee...brilliant.

Here are a few of the projects I was able to make with the October kit:

A Few More Disney Layouts...

I got a few more Disney layouts done over the past few weeks! No where near finished with my mile-high stack of photos, but at least I'm getting something done. I'm taking my time with these and reliving the fun moments...

The Most AMAZING Women You Will Ever Meet....

...and I've had the pleasure and total honor of meeting several of them in person already. I'm talking about my friends from Have Your Way With Paper. Wait, wait...I know what you're thinking: "Friends from an online message board? Really? How close could you possibly be online?" But I'm telling you....we are a close-knit family over there, and I have never in my life "met" such awesome ladies.

Yes, we all came to this message board because of a common interest in scrapbooking...but over time, it has become so much more than that. We have been through so much together. New babies, loss of loved ones, exciting times, devastating times...you name it. We have poured our hearts out to each other on the boards and in private conversations with one another. We share our hobby, but there is such a unique "sisterhood" with the ladies of this message board. Honestly, it's like something you'd see in a movie. Just good, loving, big-hearted women of all ages...the kinds of friends we all dream of having.

Today, I checked the message board as part of my morning routine, like I normally do. And to my surprise, someone had started posting encouragement messages to each member by name. Just look at what these precious women have said to me:

Trisha said: I can't even begin to put into words how I feel about my little sister. She's really stepped out of her comfort zone this year and started working alongside me at school. She loves those kids and they love her. She had mud all over her nice black pants today from picking up kids and loving them....does that tell you who she is?

Lisa said: Jenny...the pupeteer!! LOL!! Quiet up front...crazy inside!! I love your KIND KIND heart. it is the best word for you. Kind. you are concerned for all of us lucky enough to be in your world, and that world is never to full. for being my friend!! I love you a ton!

Elaine said: I do believe Jenny is the quiet type but I can tell she has alot of STRENGTHS, her actions speak for her and she - like her sister - is a sweet, kind and caring person. And what an AWESOME scrapper!

Josie said: Hey Jenny! You are such a great woman! You may be the quiet one - but when you have something to say - it is important - your whit, love and advice - you are a great asset to the boards!

Roe said: Oh Lisa...after Texas I know what you mean....Jenny, you are not just gorgeous outside, but inside too. You are a strong woman and a great role model for all who are around you. I am so glad I had a chance to give you those in person...!!!

Rita said: Jenny has such dedication to her family. You just know that she is doing everything humanly possible to make sure that her boys grow up knowing that they are loved. Such a dedicated wife, mother, and friend. I love the closeness that she shares with her family and such amazing talent!! Jenny, I truely hope that i get to hug you in person one day.

Wendi said: Oh man... here i go getting all teary eyed
Jenny is my ROCK!
I would NOT have made it this far as owner of hywwp without her. period.
She is SUCH a tremendous help to me and has been here with me, no matter what, ready for whatever comes next... willing to help. I could NOT do it without her. I dont pay her enough...on a more personal level... Jenny... You have brought me so much in my walk with the Lord. You always seem to have the right scripture and advice when I need it. When you type a prayer for me, I can feel it. Like you said, this hobby brought us together for some reason and in the last year, I think that has come full circle as to why. You are amazing, your faith and devotion inspires me and I couldnt do it without ya darlin. I mean that. Never have I "met" someone whom I have so much in common with LOL Pauly Shore, In Living Color, crazy little boys (both of them) a spaz dad and uncle ... the list goes on and on. Its gonna be the best day ever (aside from the obvious) when we meet!!! Love you girl....

Paula said: she's the yin to the yen (trisha). i don't think one could function without the other. she's smart and sweet and always standing there with open arms just waiting to give and love whenever.

Laticia said: Jenny, you are a doll. I love your face! We are both so busy these days that we don't get to hang out a lot but I think of you all the time. These other gals know what they are talking about....you are so very kind. You are a dedicated mother and wife. You always seem to have it together and I know if I ever need something planned that you are my girl. Thank you for your friendship. I love you!!!!

Robin said: Jenny strikes me as a very responsible, smart, and loving person. I admire her closeness with her sister and her wonderful creativity that shows in her LO's. She's a down to earth person always ready to help out.

Lynn said: Jenny is a beautiful woman..inside and out. She is an inspiration, I'm sure, to other young women in her church. She is a loving mother, wife, daughter and sister with a very generous heart.

Krissy said: The first thing I remember about Jenny is being FLOORED by her layouts when I started here and to this day my faves folder is overflowing with her beautiful work. But now when I think of Jenny the word FAITH springs to mind. Faithful to her family, faithful to do what she says she will do, faithful to all of us. Her to do list just astonishes me some days but she does it all...well...faithfully and still finds time to let love and creativity spill out on her pages...LOVES to you Jenny!

Chelsea said: Jenny, I truely love seeing your beautiful face on here!! You are a awesome mother,great scrapbooker,brave teacher and everything else wonderful!! Like many gals on here I can't wait to meet you IRL!!

Marlene said: Jenny, you are a rock, no doubt about it. Steady, easy, dependable, and a huge blessing to us all!

Erin said: Jenny rocks! I love her down-to-earth, creative, good momma self. Her layouts are incredible and I feel so blessed to have gotten much closer to her in the past several months. Muah!

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How's that for amazing encouragement?? I'm telling you...these ladies are the best. If you're a fellow scrapper and looking for a true online "home"....HYWWP is the place to be!

I cannot WAIT until we meet up again this summer! :) I love you, girls....you truly are the best friends a gal could ever ask for!

Wordless Wednesday - 9/23/09

What I've Learned from Teaching 2-year-olds So Far...

1. Patience truly is a virtue.
2. Never ask a room full of 2-year-olds who made a stinky in their pants....no one will claim it, even though you know who the smell is coming from.
3. Take all the puzzles out of your room and only bring them out for special occasions, or you will be cleaning up puzzle pieces and putting puzzles back together long after the kids have gone home for the day.
4. Speaking of toys, take ALL batteries out of electronic/noise-making toys.
5. Keep Kleenexes in your pockets at all times.
6. Germ-X is a MUST...several times a day.
7. Once you let your class full of 2-year-olds paint with their brand new set of watercolors, there will no longer be the option of 5 or 6 pretty colors. They will all be brown because 2-year-olds don't believe in cleaning off the paintbrush before dipping it into another color. So from now on...all painted pictures will be brown.
8. Have "Storytime" at the same time as snack time...their mouths are full, so they don't talk over you as much....and they sit in their seats a little longer.
9. The sillier and more annoying the song, the more they like it.
10. Glue sticks are not food.

Arrrrrrrr!

I finally finished up a pirate 2-pager I did from our trip to Disney World. (click on the picture below to see it bigger) I kept the little scroll the pirates handed out to the kids who took the "Pirate Oath" and used it for the right side of my 2-pager. I rolled and tore the edges, distressing it a bit to make it more pirate-y. (is that a word?)

Journaling:
We stumbled upon this friendly pirate show in the streets of Adventureland at Magic Kingdom. Captain Jack Sparrow himself appeared and even picked Brooklyn out of the crowd to teach her how to sword fight in true Captain Jack style. At the end of the show, all of the kids got to go up and take a Pirate's Oath and received a little rolled up certificate (see other page). Even little Aaron walked up to the front to take the pledge! :) So I guess I'm the mom of two little pirates now....arrrr!

Wordless Wednesday - 9/16/09

What's Been Going On.....

So my husband informed me that I haven't blogged in over a week. Oops!

So, what's going on, you may ask? Or, maybe you don't ask, but I'm gonna tell you anyway.

Let's see....Evan is doing great in 1st Grade. He's in a Dual Language program this year where he is learning English AND Spanish. We were a bit concerned to start him in this since he will "technically" be a year behind everyone else since they got to start the program last year in Kindergarten. However, his teacher informed us that he is in no way behind at all; in fact, he is already past the level that some of the kids that started this program last year are. Impressive! He is bringing home Spanish books and worksheets and actually telling me what they say!! Here it is only the fourth week of school, and Evan has already brought home an award from his computer class for completing a reading comprehension level. I'm so proud of him!

In other news, Aaron started preschool at The Learning Tree today!!! I have such mixed emotions about this. I accepted the position of 2-year-old class teacher here this year (today was my first day too), so technically I am up there with him, but he is in my sister's class since she teaches the 3-year-olds. It is only two days a week, so that's good. He looked so handsome this morning all ready for school with his little Mr. Happy backpack on! I had to hold back the tears....that's my baby! He did great and had a fun time...he loved the fact that Mrs. Trisha let them glue today and can't wait to go back on Wednesday to play with his paints and other school supplies we bought today. Such a big boy! *sniff

My 1st day went pretty well. I had a couple of kids this morning that cried for a while when their mamas left, but they got over it quickly thanks to some plastic dinosaurs and blocks. I was able to distract them and get their mind off of things so that they could just play and have fun. After we played in the playroom for a while, we headed to the classroom. I had no idea it was so hard to keep a 2-year-old boy in his seat for just 2 solid minutes! I have 4 boys and 2 girls in my class. The girls were little angels and sat in their chairs like they were asked to do. The boys....not so much. But I guess that's to be expected from 2-year-olds. They will get the hang of it. This is all new to them....and to me too, for that matter. My boys would sit and let me read stories to them for HOURS....these boys in my class - maybe 1 solid minute. We learned about the letter A and color red today. We went to chapel, colored a letter A coloring sheet, read 2 stories (or attempted to, anyway), talked about the color red and pointed out things in the room that were red, I took their pics for my bulletin board, had snack time, potty time, back to the playroom for a while, and then it was time to play in the classroom for a bit while I reviewed the letter A and color red and loaded their backpacks for them. Whew....it was overwhelming but fun too. I get to do it all over again on Wednesday! Maybe they will be a little more attentive on Wednesday?

Other than that, Van and I are crazy busy planning for our church's Pumpkin Patch that will open in October. It's gonna be a ton of fun, but MAN there has been a lot of planning put into this already...and even more to do! We hung the banner/signs out at the church today so that the cars that drive by can get the dates and times on their calendars and be ready to visit the patch when it opens. :)

I got my October Design Team box from The Scrap Room in the mail today. Eeeek! So exciting! I love the fact that the second you open the box, you smell a sweet aroma of flavored coffee, and all the papers smell like coffee. Yum!

My friend from Have Your Way With Paper, Krissy, had her baby boy today, so we are all celebrating over there! Congratulations, Krissy, Joe, and Jackson!!!

I keep feeling like today is Thursday and tomorrow will be Friday....but it's only Monday. Oh boy, it's gonna be a LOOOONGGG week!

The Scrap Room - September Kits!

The September kits sneak peaks are up at The Scrap Room! Check them out here: September Kits (scroll down a little).

What I love about Tammy's kits is that you don't get all of just one collection/theme in the monthly kits...you get 4!!! Great selection, and enough to make SEVERAL pages!

As a new Barista/DT member over there, I created eight 12x12 pages and two cards! I still have enough left over to create more, too! Be sure and check out all the funn add-on kits, too...they are awesome!

Here are a few of the projects I made. I'm not going to show my 2-pager since it will be in the "Recipe Card" section of the message board for kit members.

BELLA BOULEVARD CAMPED OUT:



COSMO CRICKET BOYFRIEND:



SASSAFRAS LASS VINTAGE YUMMY:



PINK PAISLEE FETCHING:

Would you like to be a Guest Design Team Member?

How would you like to be a Guest DT member for Have Your Way With Paper? Now's your chance! Find the details here. Guest DT members will have 3-month terms and will receive some free products to work with. Our online family is so special...truly a close-knit set of scrappers....and we would love for you to join us! :) Any questions, please ask!

Wordless Wednesday - 9/2/09

15 Years Ago Today

Fifteen years ago today, my hubby and I started dating. I was just a freshman in high school, and he was a junior....we were in band together and had all the same mutual friends. He asked me if I wanted to "go out with him" over the phone, to which I replied...."I guess." Nice answer, huh? That "I guess" turned into 5 years of dating, and now almost 10 years of marriage. I guess that I guessed right! :)

So happy dating anniversary, honey! I have officially now been with you longer than I have been without you...crazy, huh? Here's to the next 15 years....and many more.