Sometimes life is just so hard to understand.

Yesterday the two youngest sons of my friend Cliff Schrauger were killed in a car accident. Joshua was 17 and Timothy 14.

Cliff has been away from home in Texas for the better part of three months with his oldest son who was injured in Iraq and is still hospitalized recovering from his injuries.

The Schrauger Family

Cliff was interim pastor for our church for about a year. He and his wife Vicki have a daughter who is living on her own and another son who is a college student here in town.

Please hold this family in your prayers as they make their way through this unspeakable tragedy. If you are in a position to offer any practical support this would be appreciated so much as well.

Could I be any more excited?

First, I got a flyer last night announcing the adorable new Chatterbook from TLC:

If you are not yet familiar with a Chatterbook, this is how it works: It is a high-quality chipboard album. Each page is progressively larger than the one in front of it. The edge of each page is a letter of some sort, spelling out a word or phrase, in this case "I ~heart~ you"...could it be any cuter?

The kit includes everything you need to make the album shown...not only the album but the papers, ribbon, everything, for just $24.95. But I must warn you that the Christmas version of this sold out in record time so if you are interested please contact me ASAP.

And then this morning, what do I find in my email but


THIS LINK to the brand, spankin' new Memory Works Catalog Supplement! NEW Fancy Pants, NEW Basic Grey (including the gorgeous new Christmas line, Figgy Pudding, and their new stamps,) NEW Daisy D's, NEW 3 Bugs in a Rug, NEW Cosmo Cricket, NEW My Mind's Eye, NEW Piggy Tales, NEW We R Memory Keepers, NEW Scenic Route, NEW Autumn Leaves, the addition of a brand new vendor for us, Rusty Pickle...lots of felt, acrylic stamps, Halloween goodies, lots of choices of Christmas goodies...whew!)
And did I mention this is just the fall SUPPLEMENT!? All your favorites from our big catalog are STILL around.

Let me know what you are in need of. Better yet, now is the time to schedule a class, catalog party or crop and earn some goodies for free!

Cute Lillianism of the Day

Okay, if you are out of the little-kids-and-poop-talk-go-hand-in-hand stage of your life, it might not be that cute. But bear with me.

So, Lil approaches with a dirty diaper. She comes right up to both of her older brothers who, of course, both immediately go into the death throes, complete with fake passing out. Lillian...ever her mother's daughter...tells them "Calm down. No mine poop stinky." And being her mother's daughter, the story is complete with hand motions.

I dunno. Maybe you had to be there. But I'm still smiling.

New blog layout again!

The last one...it was nice but not exactly what I wanted. The day I was switching I was having all kinds of "issues" so just went ahead and settled. Tonight I decided to play around with it again and wound up with this one. I am not sure how long it will stay...I like it okay but again, don't feel like it is one for the long haul. But I like the message so much I wanted to put it up here for awhile anyway.

I've covered more area than I realized!


create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

For your viewing pleasure, by Gabe:

I just have to share a cute Lillianism before I forget it...

Yesterday Lillian was going to be doing some dancing for us in the way that toddlers like to do. So her sister was doing a little singing for her background music and Lillian was about to start her moves when she spots Arnel tapping his feet and wiggling his toes in time to the music. I guess this was an unaccpetable distraction from the main attraction because she told him (repeatedly)..."Stop singing with yours feets."

Well, don't you just hate when you've typed up a whole big long post and then your computer pulls a stunt and you lose it all? Yeah.

Trying again, I'm sure it was much more clever and witty the first time, though.

Point #1: We are finally joining the 21st century and getting real, grown-up cell phones with our very own contract and everything! We rode on my brother's coattails for way too long (Zak, we can never thank you enough, and now you are officially OFF THE HOOK!) and have dabbled in the world of pay-as-you-go. But soon Arnel, Julia and I will be the proud owners of these babies:

We are all getting the same phone in different colors. Arnel has slate, Julia has red, and I get this one, the one I like to call "pimp gold." (I'm thinking I can alter it somehow. Any of my scrappy friends have any advice?) But I am excited. I may or may not be getting a new phone number so check back with me for that information next week if you need it.

On another note, today is my birthday. My 43rd. The number is significant because about 20 years ago my father died at the age of 43. A few years later my maternal uncle died...at the age of 43. Obviously many other people in my life have died at different ages, but for years I've wondered how I'm going to handle being 43. It is not that I am scared I will die this year...but I'm scared of being scared of dying. That may not make sense to most people. But anyone who has dealt with anxiety or OCD-type issues knows exactly what I am talking about. So, now I'm 43. Today I feel fine. :-D So, we will see.

Oh, and one more thing! I had so much fun with the egg in my sidebar, that I have a new one. Keep watching!

It has been so long since I've posted, what's up with that?! And of all things, the thing that finally got me motivated to post again? My egg hatched!

Did you notice the egg over on the sidebar on the left? Well, it hatched today and I am the proud mommy of twins...I've always wanted twins!

Okay, since I'm posting...be sure to keep checking out

Creativity {Unbound}.

We are up and running with daily challenges and tips...how many other blogs can promise you that? You may especially want to check it out each Wednesday ~grin~ when I post my Word Wednesday journaling ideas, prompts, challenges, tips, etc. By the way...my "in real life" friends didn't seem surprised that my "niche" focused on 'words'...I can't imagine why not?

Last Friday I held our first monthly crop at my church, Grace Christian Fellowship. We are using this book by Courtney Walsh



It is light on text but with just the right amount of information to use as a springboard for ideas and then lots and lots of layouts by some fantastically talented scrappers!

Julia decided to drop yearbook from her load for this year. She is busy enough with her regular classes, Student Council and the ever-present soccer. Fall is travel-team soccer for girls so that is keeping our weekends busy. We also just made
Gabe the happiest boy in town by signing him up for a flag football league this fall! He wishes it was tackle but Mom isn't quite ready for that yet! I'm content knowing that our friend Jerry is the coach for the team. He has four games starting next month but we won't get his practice schedule until probably next week. We already know that we have both a soccer game and a football game scheduled for Laura's birthday, though!

We started school last week. I am trying very hard not to rush things as it is so much more enjoyable when we can take our time. Me presenting the attitude of "let's hurry and get done" really impacts how the kids view schooling in a negative way. But...we still have the same issue that caused that attitude on my part in the first place. Translation: we still have to make this work around The-Enemy-of-All-Things-Organized, aka "The Princess." It has involved starting our days earlier than any of us would really like but I think everyone is convinced that it is a sacrifice for the overall greater good. We try to get a chunk done before Lillian wakes up, and then Laura and Gabe have to alternate just playing with her while I work with the other one or Isaac, or the other one is working independently, etc. I will say there have been some really rough days, but I do believe we are getting into a groove. I find I really need to keep my own "tank full" in order to have the patience I need to to navigate our days! Our days go longer than we are used to as far as school goes, but it isn't like they are doing schoolwork for ten hours on end. It just takes that long sometimes with all the various breaks we need to build in for various reasons! It does provide a nice structure to our time, though.

We also started our small group meetings with the youth group this week. We had a pretty good turnout, eleven kids, and the time went quickly. We are starting the year using the Student Editions of the books The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith, which I am very impressed with.

Back to our homeschool year: all the kids are studying the Early Church and the Middle Ages for social studies. We are also all doing some art appreciation studies. For science the boys are doing some zoology focusing on flying creatures, while Laura is doing a higher-level General Science course. (I think it is about the first thing she's done that has really challenged her, in a good way. She is having fun with the various labs.) Other than that, it is the normal, greade-appropriate math and language things, and some Bible study stuff for each of them.

Well, Lillian is amusing herself with a box of Wiggles bandages and it appears she is about to hit rock bottom, so I think it is time for me to go. Talk to you all soon!