HOME AT LAST

I'm such a lazy blogger. Forgive me please, or just stop reading my blog. Either way works for me.
We're finally in our home. We got the keys to the house last Friday, moved in the few items we had in our temporary apartment over the weekend, and received our household goods on Monday. I've been unpacking(slowly) and trying to make this house feel like home. We'll be here for about 3 years so I want to be comfy. So far, so good. I'll get pics posted on here soon, but I can't promise that they will be of a very pretty or organized home. Organization is going to take a long time. Ok, I have a million and 10 things to do and only about an hour to finish them all before the boys get home from school. Until next time!

MONTHS

Heads Up: This is just a "venting" post. If you don't want to hear some complaints and boring thoughts, don't read on. ;)
Wow, it's been months since I blogged, even though it feels like only a few weeks ago. SO much has happened since that last post in September. The husband came home from deployment and we PCSed all the way from Italy *longingsigh* back to Las Vegas *sadsigh*. Right now I am sitting in our new, temporary apartment and it's my 32nd birthday. I don't quite feel "32" but then again, I've never been 32 so I don't know how it's supposed to feel.
While living in Italy, life pretty much ironed itself out, things fell into place and I was LOVING it. Now that we are back in Vegas, I am craving that comfort again. The husband and I have been talking and I really need to get a job to help with the finances. I was able to help in Italy with my Thrift Store Management position, and I really enjoyed my job. I would love to find something here that I really enjoy. While contemplating what type of job to look for, I keep thinking that I just want to stay home for my kids! But I NEED to contribute to our household financially. SO, where's the happy medium? Do I go into "home sales" such as Tupperware, Stampin' Up, 31 Gifts??? I am not a fantastic sales person, but I do enjoy Crafting and the 31 products. Along with those 2 things, I love to MAKE things. Sewing projects bring me so much satisfaction. But for me to get to a place where I feel confident making and then actually selling things I make/sew, I need a lot more practice. Right now that isn't happening because I don't have any of my crafting or sewing supplies. Those things won't be here until we move into our permanent home on base, in March or April...
SO, what to do? I would love to craft from home and sell those products, but that isn't going to work for now. I just don't know. I think I will be looking in the classifieds and online and seeing what is out there. But now we come to another issue. Long-term stability. Specifically, Retirement.
Yes, I'm 32 and I have never had a "career" type of job that will contribute to any future retirement. I hold a Bachelors Degree in Business Management and the husband wants me to start using that. I totally agree. BUT HOW? My Mom has suggested I get into the GS system with the military. That can possibly move with us as the husband gets transferred with the Air Force, and it will build retirement and benefits for my future. But will I be happy and even more important, will it work for my family? We just don't know until it happens. Right now I don't know what to do, but GOD does. He always comes through for me and I need to just rely on him. BUT I am SUCH a worrier! I know I need to rely on HIM and not worry, and yet it's difficult. I must remember these 2 verses, and keep them in my heart:

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Matthew 6:34 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today"

Deployment Chain

I'm back again! Here's an update on our Deployment Countdown Paper Chain. This is the chain in April:

 The Chain in May:

 The Chain on David's Birthday, Today, July 21st:

We love you and miss you David. See you SOON!

Deployment

I know I said I was gonna take a break, but I just wanted to share these pics with you all really quick since it is Scenic Sunday. This is our deployment countdown chain in April: 

 And this is our chain today:

Shorter, but still a long way to go....

Break Time

Hey there friends. So, I've been absent from the blog for awhile. Honestly I'm debating on whether or not I want to keep this up. It's not that I don't have time, it's that I'm not making the time and I really don't have the motivation to make it. I am still crafting and creating, but in different forms. I'm learning to sew, organizing my home, purging and packing... And just trying to keep my head above water with all my responsibilities. Add the blog to my list, and it just adds to my feelings of being overwhelmed. I didn't come on here to complain, but I just want to let you all know that I am still around. I'm just going to be MIA until further notice. I hope to get back to a place where I feel like life is in order before I can commit to blogging consistently again. I hope you all understand. Until that time comes, I'm still on Facebook! LOL!

FINALLY FRIIDAY!!!

All I have to say is, THANK YOU GOD that I made it through this week! It's been a tough one. So much stuff has transpired over this last week, I can't even begin to talk about it all. Today is gray and rainy out (the weather is reflecting the week I had!). It is one of those days that I just want to pop in a movie, snack all day, and do NOTHING! It would be fabulous to have a pj/movie day today! But alas, I must finish laundry, wash dishes, sweep/vacuum/mop the floors, and clean up a little here and there. I plan on getting some crafting in too. I have a card to make for TGF's Royal Battle! My team and I are all making a card for each week's challenge, then we'll decide which card to submit into the challenge. That way we all get to play, even if our team is cut from the competition early on... but my team is so AWESOME I really don't see us getting cut any time soon!!!

So, let me tell you about a highlight of my week. Tuesday had some super fun parts to it. I was able to go with Ashton to the Aviano market for his school field trip. Here's a picture of him being goofy after we had walked around for a bit:We got to look at all the different vendors at the market, purchased some mele rosso (red apple) for his class to use in a fruit salad, and just hung out until it was time to head back to school (for him) and work (for me). This is him with his red mustache on the way to the market. (btw, I have no idea why that section of text is different and underlined! sorry!)Oh, and in case you were wondering... that little brown spot above his right eye? He ran into a pole and had to get stitches! Well, glue stitches but still! Silly boy. Now, onto crafty stuff!
I won a super candy from the fabulous Amy a bit ago, and I had to CASE the card she sent me and use the goodies I won to make a spring card!
I absolutely love Amy's Sweet November stamps, and coloring them is so relaxing. Obviously I didn't do a ton of coloring on this bunny image, but I did use one of my W Copic markers to make his outfit look white. It wasn't difficult, lol. The only thing used on this card that didn't come in the candy are the little pearls that I used in the flower centers. I actually got those because of all the beautiful pearls that Amy uses on her cards! So their purchase was inspired by Amy, lol. Now, on a lighter (whiter) note... look what I found! OMW!!!
Yes, that is a WHITE hair on the top of my head!!! It's not the first, but it is a repeat offender! lol! I get that annoying hair sticking out of my head every so often, and no matter how I try to hide it (pluck it, dye it, etc.) it keeps returning! ROFL! Just thought I'd end this post on a light (white) note! Enjoy the rest of your Friday!

a quick post

Hey Everyone! So, I have internet today, but I won't have it permanently until the end of next week. So here's a post to keep you happy until I can get another one done. First up, PIZZA!!! YUP, those are french fries on the pizza. Apparently it's a popular thing to eat here. It's actualy pretty good, depending on the type of fries used. This is the Pizzeria that we got the yummy pizza from:
It's a great little place just past Area 1 of the Base in a little town called Pedemonte. It's owned by a Sicilian family that doesn't speak english, but we communicate well enough to get some delicious pizza from them. Here is a picture of a gorgeous Italian home somewhere that we passed on one of our drives:
I love the rocks in the walls! And here is a beautiful flowering tree down the road from my house:
Someday I'll have a house with lots of beautiful trees like this around it. And here is something that I thought was pretty cool:
I love that lion spigot! Well, This Sunday is Easter but our base had their Egg Hunt early. Here is a pic of Ashton stealing eggs from a little 3 year old girl:
Don't worry, I made him give them back and he ended up with a hoard of eggs anyway. Here is Angel getting eggs in her first egg hunt:
She had a ton of fun, and even tried to walk a little to get the eggs but realized it was too slow to walk so tried to crawl. The grass was a little wet and there was mud so I didn't let her crawl much! LOL!
Well, I haven't gotten very crafty lately, hence the lack of crafty posts. I have a project I'm finishing up TODAY, so hopefully I can post that for you soon. Depends on the Internet...
I hope you all have a fabulous Easter (If I don't stop by before then) and I hope to hear from you ALL in my comments!
Until next post, be blessed!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey there readers! Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, things have been busy around here. It's a good thing I had Friday's post predone, because on Friday we got our household goods! Here's a picture of the trucks dropping off our stuff as seen from inside our front door: It was fun finding all our old treasures. Here's a picture of Ashton wearing his Daddy's riding gear:

And here is David, Andrew and Angel rediscovering some old treasures:

I think that box was full of movies and video games. The house slowly filled up with our boxes and furniture as you can see in the photo below:

We just enjoyed seeing all our stuff finally get to us. Angel decided to lounge on top of one of David's speakers that was on the couch:

Unfortunately, after the movers left and we started unpacking all our boxes, we discoverd many many things that were missing. We think maybe the movers didn't open up one of our crates (there were two trucks as you saw in the first photo, but they only opened a few crates from each truck), and a bunch of our stuff is still in a crate somewhere. Some of the missing items include most of my kitchen supplies including baking dishes, utensils, my favorite coffee mugs and wine glasses that were a gift from Julie; also most of our linens including our comforter that matches our bedroom curtains (but we got the curtains!); A lot of David's guitar stuff including an expensive pedal, tube screamer and guitar cords; and I know there is more. I need to go through the inventory list and file a claim. Maybe they'll magically find our missing stuff and bring it by sometime. Yeah, right! Well, needless to say, I haven't had ANY stamping time. I've been organizing, unpacking, and moving furniture. Our house is slowly coming together. I still need to pick up some special nails to hang our pictures because our walls are concrete (or plaster, or something hard to nail into) and we're still waiting on the rest of our entertainment center to be delivered. We ordered that a few weeks ago from the BX. I will get more pics of Italy posted soon (I promise Mel!) but until next post, be blessed!

Hatter and Rockstar

It's Friday! Woohoo! I am actually posting this early since the boys don't have school on Friday-Teacher work day. This way I can schedule this post to show up on Friday, but I can take the whole day to keep them occupied. I think we'll take David to work in the morning, come home and relax for a couple hours, meet David for lunch at Markos (DELISH gyros, OMG!) and then hang out at the skate/bike park until David gets off work. I think the kids will like that, and if the weather stays nice we'll all enjoy ourselves. Well, speaking of the boys, Ashton has been having a few typical "issues" with his responsibilities. He just refuses to do what needs to be done! Forget teeth brushing, hair combing, following directions and behaving! If it's something that a typical 5 year old needs to be responsible with, he will NOT do it. And I thought it was just at home... NOPE! Apparently he is having problems at school with getting his work done in a timely manner, getting up and sauntering over to his friends for a little chit chat, and just plain obeying the rules. I think it has a lot to do with adjsting to a new place and growing into his own independance. Well, I wanted to let him know that I was thinking of him and that I know he can do his best at home and at school, so I made him a little ticket: Ashton absolutely loves collecting things; especially little piecesof paper like tickets. I knew he would like this, so I stamped out my new Mad Hatter stamp from TGF and colored him with my watercolor pencils and OMS. I glued it onto some paper (Rockstar pack from DCWV) and cut the corner to look like a ticket. He liked it and will be keeping it in his backpack for a little reminder at school whenever he needs to start following the rules.

On another note, TGF is having another Case of the Curious Card Challenge! I participated in the first one (remember my Sumo card?) and had so much fun so I had to participate in this one too! The card we had to CASE is from GabbyYou can see her card HERE. I pretty much just made a female version of her card, afterall it is a CASE challenge! (Copy And Share with Everyone). And if that wasn't cool enough, Kristina Werner's Color challenge for this week is Black, Gray and White; so my card qualifies for that one too! Score!!! I've been wanting to participate in Kristina's color challenge for awhile now but I never seem to get it done on time. My handmade flower card (a couple days ago) qualified for her last challenge, but I didn't get it uploaded in time. Oh well. Here's another pic of the card. The first pic is better, but this second pic shows the glitter on her headband and dress.
I think it turned out pretty good, and hopefully Gabby thinks so too so I can win a stamp set! LOL! And double score if Kristina picks me as one of her top cards for her Color Roundup!!! I'll keep you all posted.
Well, my projects and pictures are winding down, so I think I'm going to take the weekend off from blogging. David is taking a friend of ours to the airport in Venice on Saturday, but since the five of us and our friend won't all fit in the truck, I'm going to miss out on a trip to Venice, POO! Maybe we'll still have an exciting weekend. Come back on Monday and I'll let you know what we did (hopefully there will be something worth blogging about, lol.).
Until next week, be blessed!

Random Kid Pics

It's Wednesday! Woohoo! Almost done with another week! Can you tell I'm excited? By the end of this week we're hoping to have a motorcycle for David (no more sharing one vehicle!:D), we will be one week closer to getting our household goods (Yea, comfy mattress!), it's payday at the end of the week, and we should have our tax return too! So, lets get this week over with already, yeah? LOL! As promised, here are a bunch of random pictures of the kids. I promise to get pictures of the house posted, but right now the house is still ugly with all the borrowed furniture the AF gave us, and there is nothing on the walls... in other words, not photograph worthy. Here's a pic of the three monstros, uh, I mean kids, eating afterschool snack. See how Angel's sitting in a chair like a big girl? She thought that was the coolest thing!
Here's Angel in her new highchair:

She loves it, thank goodness. Here are Ashton and Angel eating Girl Scout cookies. Angel is trying to steal Ashton's cookies:

Here she is trying again; Ashton made sure she didn't get any:

Here's Ashton hanging out across the street with some neighbor kids: (yes, they are all girls!)

The ice cream truck comes by our neighborhood now. They sell Gelato. Angel LOVES the chocolate gelato!

Oh Yeah, that's yummy stuff!

Andrew, Ashton and Angel: (yes, there is a stuffed animal on Ashton's head)

Here is Andrew in his room. He wouldn't take his eyes off the video game, but at least he smiled:

And last but not least, Ashton and Angel playing together at the foot of the stairs:

That's it for today folks! Stop by tomorrow to see my Rockstars!

Until next post, be blessed!

My Big Project!

Hey there! How are you all on this fine Monday? Have you adjusted to the Daylight Savings Time change yet? I was wondering how all that worked here in Italy and I found out that we don't change our clocks until the last Sunday of March. I guess that makes sense since we are on a different part of the planet... Anyway, remember the big project I was working on but I had to wait on a couple orders to come in to finish it? Well, BOTH orders came in on Friday, and I finished my project! First off, let me show you the card that inspired my card: My Mom sent this Valentine's Day card to Angel and I thought, "Hey, I can make something like that!" Here is the front on my card:

I used Imaginesce papers and cut out the tree, carriage, castle, and "Royalty" word then stuck them back over the images with pop dots to make them dimensional. At first I was going to put another panel over the patterened paper with a stamped image on it, but I loved the paper just as it was and didn't want to hide any of it. I stamped "once upon a time..." from my new Stampin' Up! stamp set along the bottom of the card front in Ballet Blue ink so it wouldn't stand out too much. The outside of the card came out very pretty, but I didn't want it to be too impressive because the inside is supposed to be the main focus of the card! Here it is:

What do you think? I love how it turned out, and I have plans for a lot more pop-out scene cards! TGF is coming out with some designer papers that coordinate with their stamps, and they are perfect for pop-out scenes like this! I used a lot more Imaginesce papers inside the card, along with some blue patterned paper I had in my scrap bin for the sky. I think it's Daisy Dee's paper but I'm not sure. The Castle, Carriage, Tree and Frog are all Imaginesce stamps that I stamped on white cardstock, colored and cut out to put into the scene. Oh, wait, the frog was actually stamped onto some green polka dot paper (K&Co paper) and colored with a green copic marker, then layered onto white cardstock for weight. Here's a closer pic of the inside, left:

The Unicorn is a digital image from TGF that I printed out and colored then cut it out and stuck it on the card with dimensionals. I wanted the Unicorn to look like it was closer than the castle. Here is a close pic of the inside, right:

It's hard to see in the pics, but I also stamped "Fairy Tales do come true" from the Stampin' Up! stamp set in the center of the inside of the card, in green ink. I wanted it to be a subtle sentiment, since this card is really just for decoration for my Angel Baby's room. Princess Anya is the other stamp I was waiting on to finish this card. Here is a close-up of her (since she is the star of the card!):

I paper pieced her dress with the Imaginesce papers, but the rest is colored with my copics. I stamped her twice and colored the crown and star on the wand and glued just those two items to the main image so they would have more depth to them. I really love this image and I already have another one waiting to be added to a card. I forsee using Princess Anya A LOT in the future! And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of my little princess after a yummy dinner:

See the noodle on her forehead? The silly girl!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my post today. Until next post, be blessed!

A couple pics and a trip to the ER

Hello again! I've got quite the chatter bug lately with all these posts, don't I? Some of you know that I applied to be on the design team for The Greeting Farm. I didn't make it, this time, but I'm going to try again in a couple months. I love that company and their images, and I have so much fun using their products. You may have already seen some of these, but here are the projects I submitted in my application for the Design Team.
Heaven Sent Unicorn frame: Birthday Wishes Dorothy Anya:

For You Anya and Ian:

Brotherly Love:

Note: the rest of this post is not stamping related, so if you don't want to read it, just skip down and leave me a comment, k? ;)

Well, living in a different country has its ups and downs. I love experiencing the different culture and seeing all the historical aspects to the country, but there are some things about living here that I just wish were more "American". Sunday night, the whole family decided we needed to go shopping on base at the Base Exchange. Our shopping trip was cut short because we had to take our Angel baby to the ER. While we were shopping at the BX, Angel was standing in the basket of the cart and flipped right out of it! She reached for something on a shelf, and did a complete flip out of the cart, onto the floor, and landed flat on her back. (let me get sidetracked here and say that I was RIGHT there. I was standing with my hands on the cart handle and Angel is just barely tall enough to have the top of her belly touch the top of the cart basket. Needless to say, she will never stand in the cart again. OK, back to the story.) She didn't land on her head, but her head did bump a little when she landed. Because the fall was more than Angel's height, the nurse advice line advised us to take her to the ER for a checkup just in case. She acted a little out of it for about 10 minutes, but she was crying and in shock. Then, 15 minutes afterward, she was fine, playing and laughing with the boys. She didn't pass out, or throw up, or get dizzy or have problems focusing her eyes, so I knew she didn't have a concussion. But we took her anyway. It was a scary place! The hospital in Pordenone that we use for emergencies and anything our base clinic can not do is so freaking old! I went into the ER area (straight out of a horror movie! There were disoriented people milling about, burnt out light bulbs, tons of people in huge wheelchairs just sitting around, and no one spoke English!) and they sent me to the pediatrics floor because that is where they see kids for emergencies (unless the kid is bleeding to death or has a gash across their face or has a limb hanging off, then they see them right away at the ER). So, I found my way to the correct building (after almost walking into an Intensive Care Unit-oops!), went in, took a tiny, rickety, old elevator to the 5th floor (the floor shook indepentantly from the walls, I was afraid we weren't going to make it all the way up!), and found the Pediatric area. There was no sign in desk, so I wandered up and down the hall about three times trying to figure out where to check in. I finally had to snag a nurse running through the hall and tell her what happened. She didn't speak very good English and told me to wait right where I was. She said "Wait." I said in the waiting room? She said "QUA!" as she pointed to the spot on the floor where I was standing. I figured that meant to wait right where I was. So, I waited in the middle of the dimly lit, old, funky colored hallway until they led me into a room to fill out paperwork. I did that, they tried to put it into the computer (about SIX times) then gave up and wrote out a manual admittance paper. During that time an interpretor was sent to help me out. That was a bit of a relief, but she was in a bit of a "mood" and really just stood around the whole time. THEN, we finally went into a exam room (pepto pink painted walls, with chipping chunks of paint). Of course, then it was time for a shift change for the ONE doctor that was working there. Well I finally saw a doctor (who happened to be fluent in English, even though they had sent me an interpretor to help out-figures) and after a quick 5 minute look-over, they told me Angel was fine (DUH!). Just told me to watch her for the next 24 hours to make sure she doesn't show any signs of a concussion. Well, that was quite the experience. At least we've been through it and know what to expect for next time because with my 3kids, I know there will be a next time.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog post for today. I hope to hear from you all, and any scary/wierd ER experiences you've all had.

Until next post, be blessed!

Who Wants CANDY???

Yes, it is finally time for my illusive blog candy. I have been planning on this since before we received our orders, but things kept getting in the way! I have had a lot to celebrate and I wanted to celebrate it with YOU, my blog readers and friends, by giving you the opportunity to win some goodies from me. Some of the reasons for celebration include our long awaited orders to Italy, our MOVE to Italy, Christmas, New Year's, My Birthday, My 1 year Blogaversary, and now Valentines Day and Our 8 year Wedding Anniversary! So here is the candy: Here is a list of the things included in the candy:
a pack of 3 ribbon spools from K & Company
a Martha Stewart Crafts paper bead kit
a Marthe Stewart Crafts charm bracelet kit
2 packs of oval page pebbles by Making Memories
a pack of black Pop Dots
Basic Grey Metal Art embellishments
a pack of 20 Studio K Round Word Brads
A STAMP SET By Melanie Muenchinger!!! ("hip hop accessories" from GKD; I have this set and LOVE it!)
And not pictured: a pack of SU! 6x6 paper and a black ink spot

So what do you think? You want to win this? All you have to do is leave a comment here on this blog post. That's all! AND, if you want 2 chances to win, mention my blog candy on your blog with a link to this post. I will randomly choose a winner on the 16th (because it's our 8th anniversary that day) and post the winner here on the blog. I hope you all try to win, and send some friends over here as well. Since the move, my visitor counter has SLOWED down and hopefully this will help pick it back up! LOL!
On another subject, I went to my first ACES meeting last night. The ACES are the Aviano Community Enlisted Spouses group. It was fun meeting new people and we even Stamped! Yes, we made cards for Valentines day. It was right up my alley. :) Here are the cards we made:
This first one will go to one of my boys, and this second one will go to my Brother:

This "Love Bird" card was actually supposed to use a different stamp set, but since the DP says "love bird" I needed to go back to the owl table and us the winking owl. It was just too cute not to ink up.

And we also made a little tag to go on a treat bag full of M&M's. It was quite difficult to photo this tag, hence the reason it is in my dry, wrinkled hand! lol!

AND, as if that weren't enough... they gave out prizes and I got one! I happened to have the biggest heart tattoo so I won this prize:

I plan on using these goodies to make my hubby an anniversary card. And finally, I'll leave you with this picture of my view from my kitchen window.

Aren't the mountains gorgeous? God sure knew what He was doing when He designed our beautiful world.

Well, that's it for this post. I hope to hear from you all (even you who come by but never comment) when you enter for the blog candy.

Until next post, be blessed!