Proof That I Love The Girl

If there was not enough proof already, Friday was proof that I love Natalie because I roughed it and drove through DC traffic to get to her. I hate driving through the city. I avoid it as much as I can. If I have to go into the city I try my hardest to take the metro around and never have to drive in the city. I did it yesterday and did it for Natalie. I got there without getting lost, but when I got there, I accidentally parked at the Children's hospital and had to hike a ways to the rehab facility. I needed the walk so no complaints!

The rehab facility she is in now is amazing. The physical therapy room is in an atrium. full of sunshine and cheeriness. She was sitting up in her wheelchair watching TV when I came in. She was watching a rerun of Home Improvement on a fuzzy station. I asked how the TV was and she said "it's crap." I had a feeling on my way out to grab two of her fav movies to watch at my house, "Walk To Remember" and "How To Deal" (both Mandy Moore greats). She climbed back into bed and we made me get my big booty into bed with her and we watched "Walk To Remember" from her mom's laptop. We did that until they came in to wheel her away to more physical therapy. Her mom and I snuck away for lunch during that time. Natalie still can't eat food. But she asked if she could go because she was hungry. I felt so bad. Her mom assured her that it was just hospital cafeteria food and that it was going to be gross. Natalie said, "I bet they have really good fries." I was so sad for her.

When we got back from lunch she was sitting in bed watching the movie. They took her to the game room during physical therapy. I asked how it was. Her reply was "lame." She said they played phase 10. I asked if she would want to play with me next time I came back. She said, "sunday." She begged for me to come back on Sunday, so I am going to go up there tomorrow. I am glad because I did not get enough time with her on Friday. I would spend each day with her if I could.

I think she is doing amazing. She is very cuddly. She is strong. I love her.

Check out her most current status and some more pictures at her site.
http://www.nataliesrecovery.com/Natlies_Recovery/Blog/Entries/2009/1/30_Pictures____.html

Another Forgotten Birthday

I really want to try to stay on top of things but I am channon and that is hard for me. But I know my sister and I know that she will forgive me. She is one of the most forgiving and patient people I know. She easily forgives people of their short comings. I am grateful to have her in my life as an example.

Happy Birthday Christen...(one week late)

Thank Heavens For Good Friends

Thank You Maranda For These. Maranda did a photo shoot for our family and I asked Scott to shoot a few of us together. Maranda sent them to me last night. They made me smile. Thank you! I needed a good smile. We have been friends since the summer before jr. high when we met at our first year of girls camp. We had an instant bond because of our love for cool music and cool shoes. We were a little different and recognized that in each other. We still have these two things in common....cool shoes and cool music.

www.urbanchicportraits.com

Strike A Match

Another fun Valentine's Day gift idea. The template is already created in Heritage Makers and the template can be found in the template gallery. Here is a view of it. All you have to do is go in, drop in your photos and then change the text. You have time to order them and then they will be on their way. Just cut them out, staple in the candy and you have a Valentine's Day card to impress all of your friends or make sure that your kid is the coolest kid in the class.

I have one more Vday gift that I am working on too. Now I have three wonderful gift ideas and just have to figure out which one or ones to use. I will post the third tomorrow.

Funny Fridays With Natalie

I saw Natalie yesterday, My Fridays With Natalie. My biggest fear in all of this would be that Natty would never be the same. She is a very uplifting and silly little girl. I was so scared that she would lose some of that. Yesterday confirmed that she is still Natalie. She is still so funny and silly!!!!! She was very alert. She smiles and communicates through sign language because her jaw is still sewn shut. She spells things out. Thank goodness she took sign language last year. She nods her head a lot.

When I first got there the physical therapists came in to work with her. They got her to sit up in a wheelchair. This was her first time up out of the bed. They wheeled her out to a window so she could look outside. This was painful for her back and her bum so they took her back to the bed. She tried getting out of the wheel chair by herself. We had to hold her back. The therapists asked her some questions like where are you? She signed h o s p i t a l.

After that her sister Kara came to visit. That sure seemed to make Natalie's day. Kara read her some letters and cards. While reading her a letter from someone the speech therapist came in. She had Kara ask Nat some questions about the letter. They asked her who the letter was from. They asked yes no questions and had her give thumbs up and thumbs down. They asked her if the letter was from a girl on her cheer squad and she gave a thumbs up. Then the therapist asked if the girl was good at cheer? First Nat shook her hand like "sort of" Then they asked her if Natalie was better than that girl and she gave a big thumbs up. No offense to the girl. I think it was Nat just being silly Nat. She is so funny. We all laughed really hard!!!

Kara and I worked on Nat's nails. We gave her a mini pedicure and manicure. Her mother massaged her feet with lotion. She loved that. In fact every time I would get close to her she would kick out her leg and wrap it around me to trap me in so I could sit with her and massage her leg and stretch it for her. Kara was sitting on her bed with her and when Kara left Nat tapped the empty space on the bed and I said, "you want your mom to sit by you?" She pointed at me sharply and tapped sharply. It was funny. So I took my place. What I did was read to her all of her facebook messages. She loved it so much.

Another sign that she is still Nat: Her mom and Kara made her a list of friends and she was supposed to look at the list and tell her mom who she wanted to come visit her the most. She pointed to everyone on the list. It was so funny. She is little miss social butterfly and that has not changed.

My other favorite thing: her listening to the IPOD. She listens to Kara's ipod and she is very funny about the songs she likes. She would make a funny face and that was sign to change the song. If she liked the song she would move her head back and forth and dance to it. You could tell she was trying to sing it. She would even start moving her arms and hands to the music. So cute. All of these signs made me so happy to know that she is still my natalie.

I gave her some cards Maelee made for her. One of them made me laugh so hard!!!! I wished I would have made a copy of it. It said Natalie on the front and on the inside it read, "We are friends but you say we are sisters." And that is it. So funny. Natalie is always trying to convince Maelee that they are sisters. Maelee has been very sad about not being able to see Natalie. I am going to take her up to see Natalie today. She is excited. Natalie is very cuddly and I know she will love Maelee crawling up into her bed to cuddle with her.

A Big Night Of Miracles

I found this picture yesterday in one of my photo files. I took this pic at a YW activity

Anyone who has been reading about Natalie on my blog and praying for her needs to read this. I am so happy. I can't wait to go see her tomorrow. It will not come fast enough. I am so anxious!!

http://www.nataliesrecovery.com/Natlies_Recovery/Blog/Entries/2009/1/22_A_BIG_night_of_Miracles!.html#

Had A Ball

(this is the only picture I have for now. I took my friends point and shoot so I did not have to lug my big camera around. I have not gotten my pics off of her camera yet. I don't have many, but I will post what I have when I get them. For now this is all there is.)

Scott and I attended the American Legion Inauguration Ball, In Salute to the Medal of Honor recipients. We scored tickets on Friday the 16th at 7am. I got on line and ordered dresses right away. I ordered two because I figured one of the two would work, but guess what....the dresses showed up Monday at 2pm and neither one of them worked....arghhhhh!!!!! So I called up my friend Sylvia, asked if she could watch Delana for me, I knew I could not go dress hunting with a 2 year old. Sylvia watched Delana while Maelee and I hit the mall. I tried on over 50 dresses. We were there for almost 8 hours. It was torture. I am a plus size gal which makes it very hard to find a dress. Plus I am most comfortable being very very covered up. And that is a hard thing to find these days. It took me 7 hours to realize that the dress for me was the 3rd dress of the 50 I tried on. I had to find a jacket for it though. I found a nice jacket at a dress shop. Funny story about the shop I found it in....

I saw a little dress shop. A nice cute girl greeted me. She was a skinny little nothing girl. I asked her if they sold any women sized dresses. She did not know what I was talking aobut so I said plus sizes. She said, "oh yes, we carry up to size 16." I kind of laughed and cried all at the same time. That little girl has no idea what plus size is. To her surprise, they did have a few dresses that were my size. I did not get my dress there, but I did like my jacket I got.

So now onto the ball ...... we had a great time. Scott was SO HANDSOME!!! We were standing in line for coat check and a gentleman behind us said, "You know the Marines really do have the best looking uniforms." Then a man in front of us turns around, I think he was Navy, and he said "Hey I take offense to that." One look at his uniform and Scott and I had to laugh. The Navy guy had these huge neon orange lapels. Scott really did have the best uniform.

During the reception in the beginning we walked around and everyone was so friendly. A lot of people walked up to Scott, they were very interested in talking to him and asking about his different medals. One of the honories of the Medal of Honor wanted to trade his Medal of Honor with Scott for Scott's Joint Chief Medal. Scott gets to wear a great medal and badge because he worked for the Joint Chief of Staff when he worked for General Pace. Mostly everyone else there were officers, and the people at our table were mostly interested in Scott and his job. They were all so impressed. One officer said to me, "you do realize that your husband is a rock star right?" I was so proud of Scott.

My favorite story of the night: Scott's boss, General Conway, the Commandant of the Marined Corps was one of the guests of honor. One of his office aides was there with him and came up to Scott and told him to make sure we go say hello to the boss. Scott did not want to because he sees him everyday and he wanted to leave the Commandant's time open for others to greet him that never get to see him. But I wanted to go see him. I have only met him once, at Scott's promortion a year ago. I drug Scott up to the Commandant and there was a little line and we stood back waiting. There was a three star General from the Air Force there and he called out to Scott, "Hey Staff Sergeant, come here. I will get you an introduction to the Commandant. I will take care of you." We kind of laughed and Scott said, "actually I see him everyday. The General looked confused. Scott explained that he worked at his house. The general asked what his specialty was and when Scott said cakes he asked him to come work at his house. Then we got up to see the Commandant and the Commandant turned to the other general and said "hey, he works at my house. " The airforce General said, "I know, I am trying to talk him into coming over to my house to work for me." The Commandant got mad and said "hey, he works at my house." It was funny, especially when the Air Force general offered to get us an introduction to the Commandant.

So we did not see the president. He did not make it to our ball. We were hoping for it. President Bush made an appearance at this ball at the last two Inaugurations. No Obama, but we did get to see Marg Helgenberger of CSI. I don't watch the show, but I did recognize her. She was the MC. Then at the end they announced a guest speaker. It was Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut. He gave a wonderful speech about the space program creating dreams and incouraging young children to study science. He talked about how we need to no longer compete with other countries over space programs, instead we need to combine our resources and research with other countries. I thought it was a neat idea.

There was a band there that played, no one famous unless you read Bride Magazine. They were voted number one three years in a row by Bride Magazine. The crowd chuckled when the band was introduced that way.

The night was wonderful. We made it up into the city with no glitches. Smooth traffic and the city was full of so much energy. Everyone was so happy. It was fantastic to be up there. I have to say thank you to my husband. I know he was exhausted and that he took me because I love this kind of thing. I love to get dressed up. I love to be with him and see him in his uniform and dance with him. Scott worked Inaugural events Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night from 4pm until 4am. And then he had to be to work this morning at 4am then go to help a friend out tonight at a dinner party until probably 11pm tonight. So he has been running on very very very little sleep. If he had his way he would have been home Tuesday night catching up on sleep. So thank you Scott for taking your girl out on the town. I loved all of it.

Check These Out

I am working on a project right now as a gift to give to the Young Women at church. I wanted them to have something special to keep with them about Natalie to help comfort them. Read all about them and see more pictures of my project here.

Natalie's Website

Many of you share concern about my friend Natalie, even though some of you have never even met her. Her sister has started a wonderful website about and for Natalie.

Click Here To Go To Nat's Website.

I spent the day with her today. On Sunday her mom asked me when I would be coming back up to the hospital. I was glad she asked me, because I was not sure who and how many visitors they wanted. I told her that I would go and be there as much as I could. She asked me to pick a day to be my day with her. I feel so blessed to get a day. I picked Fridays. The truth is that I really want to and long to be up there everyday but I have a full time job with my daycare and can't be there. So oddly enough I was anxious all week and at time excited and at times very nervous about Friday. Friday was on my mind all week long!!! I thought all week about what I could take to help Natalie. What I could say to comfort her mother. I planned out what I would do . First I made a poster for Natalie which I was very excited came on Thursday so I could take it Friday. And also planned a trip to the bookstore to buy Natalie a copy of her favorite book "A Walk To Remember" We share a love for anything written by Nicholas Sparks. Though I have not read "A walk to remember" I have seen the movies 100 times and always watch the ending with Natalie when I get home from being out and she is here babysitting my kids and is watching that movie. I always catch the end and sit and watch it with her before taking her home. She has been telling me for a long time that I needed to read the book because it is way better than the movie. I never have. So I wanted to pick up the book and read it to her today. I did not make it last night to do that. I did pull out another Nicholas Sparks book to read with her though. On my rush out this morning I forgot the book and I forgot the poster. My plans were spoiled and I was not sure what I was going to say or do while I was there. I told her mom about what I left behind, and like her mom said, "we have plenty of time. and there is always next week." There will be next week. I will be anxious again this week to get back to my Natalie on Friday again. This time maybe she will be awake to see the poster and alert to hear me read the book to her. I also want to say thank you to those that are helping me make my Fridays with Natalie possible, My friend Megan is watching my daycare girl, Ruby. And some of my other friends, Shara took the shift today, are watching my Delana. Thank you so much for allowing me time with my Natalie.

Natalie did great today. She opens her eyes a lot. Though still in a coma, she is getting close to waking up. She moves her arms around a lot and squeezes her hands a lot......that girl has got one tight grip on her. She is so strong. I loved looking into her eyes today. At times they said "Hello" to me. At others they said "help me"

How has this changed me so far???? I drive a little slower and always with two hands on the wheel now. Not to say that she was not doing these things, I am sure she was. I just want to be safe.

The biggest change is my love for my children. Last month I was visiting my friend Sabra, we were talking about our kids and I admitted to her that I often feel guilty because I am not the type of mother that misses her children. I have been away from them for days and even weeks and I don't miss them when I am away from them> I am always excited to see them again after a time of separation, but I don't miss them while I am away, I think of them, but never long for them. I blame part of this on daycare. because I am rarely just around my children. So being around my children, or coming back home again means I am around the daycare, and that is a daunting thought at times. Don't get me wrong....I truly fall in love with my daycare kids, but it is a job. Who likes to go back to work? No one!!! I admitted all of this to Sabra. But this has changed this last week. I hate sending Maelee to school. I want to keep her with me!!! I can't wait to see her when she gets home. When I think of her during the day I cry because I miss her. The schoool nurse called yesterday because Maelee was itchy all over. it was just dry skin and was cured with lotion, but I really wanted to run up and get her. And I hug Delana extra tight when she wakes up from her nap because I miss her while she is napping. I now know what it is like to miss my children. I hug them tighter and love them longer. Gifts that come from tradgedy.

Family Photos

***Just a Side Note, This is not a fake photo studio backdrop. this is my mother's beautiful tree. This was taken in my mother's living room. Her tree is photo perfect!!! ****

I got two of our family photos yesterday. I love my husband and our girls. I love how much these pictures show how much us girls adore him. And I love these pics of Delana. She appears to be such an Angel. My friend Maranda came to my parents house after my Grandmother's funeral to take family pics because it is rare that we all get together. **We were in Yellow because that was my Grandmother's favorite color**

We did a full family shoot one day when we were in Yuma, separate from the day these pics were taken. I am in the middle of looking at all 281 pics from our shoot. I can't wait to post those some of those.

All Photos By Maranda Peterson at www.UrbanChicPortraits.com

Deck Of Cards Sale

If you want a deck of cards like Maelee's or the template I made. Then give me a call on Monday. Leave me a comment here with your email address and I will email you my phone number so you can place an order on Monday.

Monday's sale is TWO DECKS for $30.

Click HERE to see the template I made.

Or if you are an ellie fan and have her kits laying around HERE is a deck you can make.

Do you like Go Fish? Check These Out by clicking Here

First step is to open up a free account if you have not already at www.storybookingbyyou.com

A sale a day

I feel strange posting anything about business. But on the same note of how precious life is, it is the reason I am in the business I am in. My books are not just about pictures, my book is about capturing life. I had a feeling before Christmas to publish two books, and of coarse I did not complete either of them. I was going to make a book for my friend Michelle and a book for my friend Natalie. I have seen them grow up over the past four years and I really wanted to let them know how much I loved them and how much Heavenly Father loves them. I was going to do this by making them a book. I have given each of the access to my HM account and they had both started projects on their own. And I am lucky enough to have pictures they have uploaded to my account. I was going to gather those plus the pics I have taken of them and make them each a book. I have three books that are priority right now and those are two of them. When prompted to tell someone you love them do it. I wish I would have given Natalie the book before the accident.

So if you have someone in your life you want to say I love you to there is a sale a day for the next week. Here is the list of items on sale and the day it is on sale. You must place the order on the day of that item before midnight. So mark down what you want and let me know to contact you on that day.

Friday, Jan. 9 - 2 5x5 storybook credits (#7164) $49.95

2-day special Saturday, Jan. 10-11 - 2 8x8 storybook credits (#7165) $79.95

Monday, Jan. 12 - 2 playing card deck credits (#7166) $29.95

Tuesday, Jan. 13 - 2 11.5x8.5 storybook credits (#7167) $111.95

Wednesday, Jan. 14 - 2 7.5x10 storybook credits (#7168) $95.95

Thursday, Jan. 15 - 2 7x5 storybook credits (#7169) $63.95

Friday, Jan. 16 - 2 16x20 canvas poster credits (#7174) $159.95

2-day special Saturday, Jan. 17-18 - 2 12x12 storybook credits (#7175) $119.95

Life is Precious

I wanted to write a little more tonight about those I love. Life is so precious. I know that death is part of Heavenly Father's plan. Life on earth is so precious. And I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us all and the part of his plan is that families are eternal and we can all live together again forever. I am so grateful for my family. There has been a lot of news of death and illness in our family and with friends in the past two months. I wrote last month about the loss of my Grandmother. She lived a wonderful long life. While we were in Yuma for the funeral my Aunt Wendy had traveled from San Diego California to be with the family. She got ill while visiting and ended up in the hospital. I do not have all of the details, but she battled cancer two years ago. We have been fearful ever since of it coming back. She had surgery last month and during the surgery they discovered that the cancer did come back. They removed what they could find and we are all hopeful that they did. I want to let her know how much I love her. I know she reads my blog. She is still in the hospital, but I want her to know when she is released and reads this that I love her very much. She is so much fun. Her name is Wendy Lou. Maelee has always called her MyLou. So MyLou we love you.



Yesterday I wrote about my friend Natalie. I spent the day with her today. She is in a coma. but She is a fighter. When the doctors would poke and prod her she would tighten up and make a fist like she wanted to hit them. It is a really good sign. It was good to see the fight in her. She is in there. We just need her to wake up.

Among all of this tragedy that has taken place in my family and my community I did get some good news today. Periodically I have blogged about my friend Doug Cloward. He is the president and co-founder of Heritage Makers, but most importantly my friend. He has been battling Lymphoma for almost a year now. He just found out that he is cancer free. His white blood cell counts are completely normal. I am so happy for him and his family. This is truly a miracle!!!

Miracles happen. I know there are miracles that are going to happen for others. Aunt Wendy hang in there. And Natalie is going to continue to fight!!!!!! God is with us and hears and answers prayers.

I love this girl

I have a dear friend of mine that was in a car accident today. She is strong and is going to pull through this. I love her very much. I am up late right now worried about her and I write this mostly for myself to remind myself of what a wonderful person Natalie is. She is a younger version of myself......but much much better. She is the youngest of five children, one boy and four sisters just like me. Her and I are so much a like it is scary. But like I said, she is better. ...she is so many things I wanted to be at her age, like a skinny beautiful cheerleader!!! She is here at my house as a friend and sometimes as a babysitter quite a bit. She was just here yesterday. Before she left she put her arms around my neck and her forehead to my forehead and looked me straight in the eyes and we had a little conversation locked in that position for a little while. She is so dear to me. She has saved me so much. It is weird to think that a 31 year old woman could be saved by a teenager. It was almost two years ago that she sent me a copy of an essay she wrote in school about her hero. I was the hero in her essay. Can you believe that? I have never thought of myself as a hero. Anyone that really knows me knows that I am very insecure and I doubt my worth at times. This essay she wrote was life changing for me. She saved me from my own insecurities.

As I was driving up to the hospital tonight with another friend of mine we were talking about Natalie. My friend said that she did not know that Natalie was Cheerleader. I told her that Nat was a very talented cheerleader and that she had been on Varsity cheer since she was freshman. I told her that Nat once told me that Cheer was the only thing she was good at....this is not true at all. She is so talented at so many things.

I want to list Nats talents:

1. She loves to make homemade cards. Her aunt was talking tonight about how on Monday Nat had just been to visit her very ill grandma in the hospital and had taken her a wonderful homemade card. Nat is very good at homemade cards. I don't even know how many of them I have received from her over the years. Usually one every time she comes over. She even makes them for Maelee when she hears that Maelee is ill

2. She is the queen of decoupage. She loves it. I went by their house to pick up some stuff for her parents and I saw a bottle of it out on her kitchen table. there was a an empty handpainted picture frame covered in decoupage. She was probably in the middle of making a gift for someone.

3. That leads me to list more of her talents....gift giving. and frame making and picture taking. All of these roll up into one. She loves the camera and the camera loves her. She loves to do things with these pictures. She likes to make frames obviously, in fact one of her friends showed up at the hospital with a picture frame she had hand painted for him with a picture of the two of them together in it.

4. She sings like an angel. I love going to her choir concerts. She is so talented.

5. She makes everyone smile around her. She is so happy.

6. She is a great essay writer. Not only did she write that life saving essay for me about me, but usually when she comes to babysit she will leave me an essay, a formal essay, about her evening with the girls. She usually titles it "my adventures with Maelee tonight." , or "my girls night" or "my date night with maelee and Delana" So funny.

I could sit here all night and list her talents. but I need to get to bed so I can rest and be strong enough to face tomorrow. I love her. I have three nephews around her age and I have told her and them that I don't care which one, but she is marrying one of them.

Here is a blog entry I made this summer about one of our outings. She always brightens my day.

I Spy Vanlentine's Day

Order Your Kids Valentine Day Cards From Me Today

Click Here to See The Cutest Valentine Day Cards Ever

I just made this template for Valentine's Day Cards for kids. This is a deck of 54 cards. The template can be easily divided into cards for more than one child and I have created it for younger and older kids and boy and girls. You can pick how many of each you will need. Leave a comment if you are interested in ordering some cards. www.storybookingbyyou.com

ADSR Challenge

I am taking the challenge of the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race. This is the fourth season, but my first time doing it. I am on a team with a new friend of mine from Jersey named Melissa. We will receive a challenge on Saturday and Tuesday. Then we have to turn in our submissions by Sunday.

I just finished my page for the first challenge that was issued on Saturday. The rules were to rip your picture into at least three pieces. And to add journaling. I had a hard time with the tearing because I don't use a sophisticated program like Photoshop, I use Heritage Makers. I think it turned out pretty creative for a simple free program like Heritage Makers. The title of my page was Three Sure Signs That Delana Is Tired


To view my pages at the gallery you can click here

I was checking out everyone else's pages and they are so fantastic!!! There are so many talented women out there. You can check out all of the other pages at this link by clicking here

Happy Birthday Craig

(This is his Bday present. a 18x24 poster for his room. last year I made two of his bros a poster so he reminded me at Christmas that it was his bday soon and that he wanted his poster)

It is my Nephew Craig's 11th Bday today. I want to tell him how much I love him. He is so funny. He makes the funniest faces and he is such a sweet heart. He gives the best hugs. Happy bday Craigie Pot Pie.

One of my favorite memories of him was when he was little, about two years old, every morning he would wake up and ask for a "happy birthday." what that meant to him was a peanut butter sandwich. How the two correlated I don't know. But everyone in the house knew what he meant. So as soon as he would wake up someone would take him to the kitchen, put him on the counter (the entire time him crying that he wanted a happy birthday), then give him his peanut butter sandwich. He would sit on the counter so happy to be eating his peanut butter sandwich.

Back From Our Trip

I just got back from my trip to Arizona. It was a very last minute trip due to the passing of my Grandma Craig. It was bitter sweet. Sad about her passing, but very happy to be surrounded by family. I have too many pics to post of our entire trip but I will post a few later.

I did want to post this one picture and trust there will be many more of these pics to come....my friend Maranda (www.urbanchicportraits) was kind enough to do a photo shoot of our family.

It was a cold (cold for Yuma and colder than I planned for when picking our wardrobe) and VERY windy day. You can tell how windy by Maelee's hair but I had to share these pics.