Today I adopted a Soldier

Hi to anyone that may be reading this.

I am proud to say I adopted a soldier today. It may sound odd but I actually found out about this program from a Holiday Movie, "The Christmas Card". This was a wonderful story about a girl writing a letter to an unknown soldier serving our country overseas.
The soldier who recieved her letter carried it with him always. When the soldier got leave, he traveled to the town where the letter came from. Long story short...they fall in love and live happily ever after. That was the movie, but in the special features they talked about how much soldiers love to hear from home. Even if it is just a card or letter, once in a while, and the movie talked about Adopting a Soldier.

Recently I talked to my children about how hard it would be to be so far away from your family so we decided we would do this.

I am starting with one contact and hope to add more over time. I also hope my children learn something from this effort, as well.

Any one interested...
I did a google search and typed in "Adopt a Soldier' and was surprised how many organizations there are out there so I will not say one is better than another but the one I joined is called "Adopt a US Soldier".

I signed up on Saturday and was giving my soldier's name and contact information today, Monday. So there is a quick response time. I hope this does not mean that there are a lot more soldiers looking for supporter then there are supporter signing up for this program.

Any way I highly recommend everyone doing this!

Quick Update

My New Year's Resolutions are underway.
I joined weight Watchers to get their program books (then I quit, but I wanted the books to learn about the new point system) I plan on staying on the program on my own and I am journaling my food.

I have been searching for a location to offer monthly crops without any luck but I am not giving up. I will be hosting my first crop at my house.

I have been scrapping!! I have done 55 pages since Jan 1. So I am ahead of my goal of a page a day.

I am feeling better later, so plan to slowly start excersicing again.

new pages

It's been 5 weeks since I last posted anything. I've been sick more than not this past month. Sinus infection, cold, sinus infection, again!

A few updates...

We were Flocked last week.





It's a great fund raising idea. To raise money for the High School Senior's Senior Night Out Party families can pay $20 to have other families flocked. To get them removed we had to pay $20. Of course the day we were flocked we had 50 mile an hour winds. My darling Husband was afraid our Pink Flamingos might take flight and go through our bay window so he pulled them all out, the spoil-sport. LOL

Tim celebrated his 16th birthday. He wanted a tatoo. I convinced him it was not a good idea. I blackmailed him is more like it. I told him if he got a tatoo, I would do everything in my power to keep him from getting his driver's permit and license. He changed his mind about the tattoo idea. Instead he brought back up an issue when he was 13. He wanted to get his ears pierced. I told him at the time, " not at 13, if you still want them when you are 16, I will take you to get them done." So, he got his ears pierced. I am hoping it is just a phase and he will take them out.

I did scrap a layout about it, though.





Kelly made the High School Basketball team. That was a great accomplishment. Over 40 girls tried out for 15 spots. This means she is on 2 Basketball leagues so our evening and weekends will be spent courtside but she loves it!!





I can't take credit for this layout. It was a kit from www.outonalimbscrapbooking.com
It is a great company that puts out 2 - 3 new page kits a day!!! The price is great, too. they kits run $6 - $8 each. I paid up to $14 for kits from other companies so you should check them out.

Well, that is it for now. Time to start dinner.

Trying to find my groove

Haven't posted in a while. Started a new job back in September and it has really been burning me out. I am only working 25 hours a week, but I have been coming home exhausted every single day.
I went from working in the office of a Middle School which I absolutely loved doing!!! To this year being a Teacher's Aide in a special needs classroom. I can see myself learning to love this job, as well. I am just having a hard time adjusting to the major change in duties. There is a Teacher, 4 full time aides and 1 part time aide. We have 9 students all ranging from 3 to 5 years old and all have developmental or medical issues. So we are physically active every minute of the 25 hours we are there. All but one are still in diapers and need to get changed 3 times a day. Most need help eating snacks and lunching. All need help with their class work (coloring, cutting, glueing ect) We could have 9 adults and I think it would still be an exhaustung job. LOL

This week I finally let out my fustrations to the Assistant Principal. I love the people I work with as well as all the kids, I just have no clue what I am doing!!! I have never worked in a classroom before. She is planning some training for us but asked me to find what I do best and offer it up to the teacher. Duh? Why didn't I think of that. I love crafts!!! I can take over that part of our day. I can plan our daily craft project and run with it. Yes, maybe I did find my groove. I will see how it goes!

I already have something planned for next week. I Thanksgiving project. I will post a photo of what we make later.

Do you know how to use Copic Markers?

I have been playing with my markers today. Each time, I think I finally have the technique down then I learn something new. My WOW moment today was this.
When I color an image in I take my lightesst shade and color in little swirly circles. Then I would use the next shade and color right up to the edge of the lighter color. Next I would try to blend these two colors together with the blender pen. WRONG! I found out today that you start with the lighter color, but you color the whole area with the lighter color. Then you go over whatever part you want darker with the next shade. Then go back over the whole thing again with the lighter color. This is how the colors blend together!!!

So now I want more markers. I did find a chart to keep track of my colors. If you go onto the Copic website and search for Libary you can download a color chart then mark the colors you have. I thought I had a good start up set but after filling in this chart my collection looks pretty pathetic. LOL

My other classes

Xyron also has contacted me about teaching classes for their new Creatopia machine. My new toy arrived today and I have been playing with it a little. I plan to try it out alot more tomorrow.

What I do know so far is: This machine does the work of 5 other machines. The awesome thing about this one is, it can work on materials up to 12 1/2 inches wide!! It adds permanent or repostionable adhesive, it laminates, it has a fabric adhesive, It can add adhesive to thicker objects than the other Xyron machines can (foam, cardstock, Chipboard, cork, even thin wood) It also embosses, cuts with multiple blades, and it can replace your manual die cut machine using the dies you already own. I will get more familiar with it when I have a little more time to play with it. But I am loving it so far!

SDU Instructor

EK Success asked me to be an Instructor for them and teach SDU classes at the Micheals in Braintree. Anyone looking to learn basic Scrapbook Design skills should look into these classes. I took the class myself about 5 years ago and it was great then. Since then EK Success has updated the whole system and it is going to be Great class. Micheal's is just waiting for class supplies to arrive and we will set up the class schedule. I am guessing late August or early September these should start. The class is 4 weeks long with each class lasted 2 hours.