Out with the Old - In with the NEW!

OK, there have been enough changes already this year to write our whole Christmas Newsletter, and it's only January 7th!

I've been pondering over the past few weeks and have determined that I'm just not happy and my existence exists of getting up in the morning and doing the same thing over and over - and yep, the results are the same.
There's ALWAYS dirty laundry.
I have NO IDEA what's for dinner.
The house is a MESS! (Could it be anything else with 7 kids and a husband? LOL!)
Nothing is organized - can't find what we're looking for - everything is a shambles
and all this boils down to one thing...

STRESS!

SO, I decided we're changing things ...
I've reinstated my FLYLADY Routines.
I've got my ONCE A MONTH COOKING menu and recipes printed and ready to go.
I'm re-arranging all my kids' closets to get their clothes in order.
The Room Fairy is paying visits to the kids' rooms and leaving treats for clean rooms.
We re-arranged our chore chart so the kids are not skipping chores because they hate doing what they were assigned.
We're putting in new storage options so that there's a place for everything and (hopefully) everything will be in its place.
I'm rearranging my kitchen so everything is in a more logical place (AND I have my new colors picked out to redecorate it - AND the Dining Room!)
And above everything else ... We are attending a new church!! (YES!)

Things are feeling really hopeful and everyone seems to be happier (not to mention things are a lot more peaceful around here)!

I can't wait to get everything in place and get this place whipped into shape. (Then, I'll start working on the weight loss - LOL!)

Merry Christmas!

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas - all of my family was "home" (at my parents' house) and we had a great time. Christmas morning at OUR home was fun and joyous. The kids came down the stairs to see what Santa had brought along with the gifts that were already under the tree. They spent some time dumping out their stockings to see what was inside, then we stopped for a bit to read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible - because this is the TRUE meaning of Christmas.
After the reading, Dad began to pass out presents and everyone exclaimed that this was the best Christmas ever. (Which does a Mom's heart good!)

One of the greatest gifts I received was a new waterbed! We had a waterbed when we first got married, but when we moved to our last house, DH was afraid the floor in our bedroom (being an old house) wouldn't hold up the weight of 600 gallons of water. I have not had a decent night's sleep since we moved to THAT house! When we moved here, we bought an air bed (Comfort Aire). That was THE BIGGEST waste of money we ever shelled out! For many, many months, we've been getting up with a backache, the foam padding around the outside of the mattress shifted constantly and we had to keep unzipping the lining and putting it all back together. The fuse blew in the motor and DH had to tear it all apart to fix it. The baffle blew and the company had to send us another one. It was just a lemon as far as beds go.

SO, Every morning for months my first words to DH upon opening our eyes was "what I wouldn't give for our old waterbed back." (Of course we no longer had it - I think the frame became part of the chicken coop (no I'm not kidding) and the headboard is somewhere in the barn being used for something else - probably to hold feed or something.

So when I saw an ad in the paper the week before Christmas for a Queen sized waterbed - complete with frame, mattress and even sheets, I jumped with glee. DH called about it and told them he would take it over the phone. (When Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!)

Forward to our first night in our new waterbed - I don't remember it! I slept through it! (When did THAT happen last?) When I opened my eyes, DH was leaning over me asking - "well, how'd you like the new bed?"

My answer was something like this ---

I heard angels singing!
I was in a meadow filled with flowers next to a babbling brook - and I wasn't sneezing!
Ferrero Rocher was hand feeding me chocolates - a LOT of chocolates!
I was skinny again!
There were fireworks!
I was in the Shire!
and OUR HOUSE WAS SPOTLESS!! (That's how good it was!)

So how did you like it?
and he said...
"I'll have to get used to it again". (sigh)

He did get me some really nice girly things - a Cashmere scarf and a Cameo brooch, but then he always gets me something I need that I didn't know I needed - this year, it was a 500 gig external hard drive! (He loves me!)

Saying Goodbye : (

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, at 9 weeks pregnant, we said goodbye to our baby in the womb. I had my third miscarriage - the first being after #4, the second was after #5 and this third one was after #7. No matter how experienced I become at having miscarriages, they just don't get any easier!
The baby was tiny - only a little over an inch from head to rump, but every little finger and every little toe was perfectly formed. His face, too, had two little eyes, a little nose and mouth. We had a private ceremony and buried him in a little silver heart shaped box. It was a cold, rainy day and it seemed fitting for the occasion.
I have always been pro-life, but now that I've seen my baby, who had only been forming in the womb for 7 weeks, no one can tell me that he was not a child -- that he was "just a fetus" or "just a lump of tissue". He was a baby. He was MY baby. He was my son - and we named him Sean Emanuel, which means God is gracious/God is with us. He truly is!

Not a baby anymore!

We celebrated our baby's first birthday on Sunday. She had so much fun smashing her "smash cake"! I had to scrap it (of course!)
She is growing so fast! She's been walking since 9 months and has 4 teeth (and working on 4 more!) She brings so much JOY to our home!


And there will be more joy next Summer when #8 arrives!

So much for getting back to it

Here we are over a month since my last post, so I haven't done very well at keeping up with my blog! I'll start with an update. First, I didn't make the DET at DSP. I did make it to the Finalist Round, so I'll try again in March. : )

School is going well. The kids are enjoying it and learning a lot, but it's very time consuming. I'm at the computer teaching from 9 am to 3 pm with breaks in between. The kids aren't that much, but I'm teaching M & L 2nd grade and Mi 6th grade, so I spend time with all of them.

We had a great trip the end of September to a family reunion in KY and went to Cathedral Falls in WV and to Blue Lick State Park to the Pioneer Museum and learned about Daniel Boone. Then we went home by way of Cincinnati and spent the day at the Creation Museum. It was incredible and the kids (and my Dad) really enjoyed it - (well, Jeffrey didn't enjoy the Planetarium much - in fact, I got kicked out. LOL!)

What else, OH, our little one will be a year old on Sunday!!! Already!!! AND for her birthday, I got a little gift, too... a + pregnancy test. #8 is due June 26th!!! (Lord willing!)

OK, leaving off with a bit of fun... Irene grabbed this from Jamie's blog and I grabbed it from Irene's, so here's my little name game...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Snickers Express
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) - Strawberry Delectable
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) - VPAS
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) -Teal Cow :)
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) -Michelle Warren
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) -Pasvi
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) -The Purple Java
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Everett Everett (it really is!!)
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) - Red Kisses (LOL!)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) -Lou Gene (Redneck at that! ; )
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) -Smith Seattle
12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) -Autumn Rose
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) - Peach Panty (LOL! My kids aren't allowed to watch that one!)
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) -Coffee Birch
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) -The Digital Scrapbooking Fall Tour

MIA!

This Summer has been so busy that I have totally ignored my blog. Today's entry is an update of what's been happening...

SCHOOL
I'm homeschooling again! Last year for the first time in their lives, the kids went to school. They enjoyed a year at the Christian School, but this year it's just too tight to send them all, so our oldest daughter is the only one going and I'm teaching the other three at home. (AND taking care of the 3 little ones who aren't in school yet).

SCRAPPING
I'm trying to finish as much of my heritage album as I can before our family reunion in a couple of weeks. I'm also working on a heritage album for my mother in law, plus I entered the Digital Elite Team contest at DSP. The Digital Elite Team is a group of gals who use new kits in the DSP Store to make layouts that have a "Wow" factor to encourage other members to buy the kits. The contest is an elimination style challenge with 4 rounds. There were 99 layouts in Round 1 and almost half of those were eliminated. My Round 1 Entry was good enough to move me on to Round 2 (see left: Winter Sunset) .

For Round 2, we were given a kit to use that was totally out of my comfort zone. I'm not sure if I'll get past this one. The kit was called Rainbow's End and there was also a pack of Word Art. As soon as I saw the words, This HAPPY Face, I knew I had to use the pictures of Abby I had been saving for just the right layout. So here's what I came up with for Round 2. This one is called, Abby's Happy Face. I did five layouts before I was finally comfortable enough to upload this one. I finished it one night at 1:30 am and went to bed knowing that I had accomplished what I was trying to. I took the pictures one day when Abby was crawling around in her room. She was crawling on her comforter which is beige with roses all over it and it certainly did not go with the kit, so I just pulled the pictures into Photopaint and extracted her from her surroundings. Then I tucked her into a frame I made out of a strip of squares. The next picture I tucked into a circle of dots and added another circle to make it look like she was crawling through. Then the upper left corner was begging for something to balance it out, so I put the picture of her side profile. The final effect makes it seem like she is crawling across the page through the frames. I'm finally happy with it, though I'd MUCH prefer a traditional layout full of ribbons and paperclips and gold frames. LOL! This one is called Abby's Happy Face.

Another thing I did this Summer (well, actually it was the last week of August) was take a picture (well, actually, it was 27 of them) of all the kids together. It took 27 tries to get ONE good one - where they were all looking at the camera and smiling. So #27 was it and I quit. Here is a layout I did of it and if you click here, you can see a page I did with the "out takes". What fun! : )

That's all I have time for this time. I'll try to keep up with it a little better in my spare (haha) time. : )

DSP Blog Prompt - Elementary School

Let's move up to elementary school. What school did you attend? What was it like.. big, small, etc.? Did you ride a bus or walk? Take a lunch or buy? What was your best memory there and what was your worse?

Oh, I loved elementary school. I have so many happy memories. I went to a small school called Jackson Elementary School. There were several elementary schools in our town, so there wasn't much busing as you were sure to live within walking distance to one of them. The only time I rode the bus was for field trips and I always got car sick on the bus. LOL! (This is me in Kindergarten!)

Speaking of getting sick, my worst memory is when I threw up in the hallway in 4th grade. We were standing in line to go out to recess and I just had to barf. The teacher moved the class down the hall to a different door and the principal made an announcement over the loud speaker asking the janitor to please clean up the vomit in the hallway. I could have died. Like I didn't feel bad enough already! The kids were all saying, "Ewww, did you see the throw up in the hall?" "Who threw up? Vicki?" LOL!

It's hard to pick a happy memory because there were so many. Taking cupcakes to school on my birthday, dressing up on Halloween, spelling bees and school fairs and art class. I won 2nd place in the 50 yard dash which surprised everyone including myself. Band practice and getting chosen to play taps on veterans day on my trumpet. My first boyfriend - Fishface Smith - in 5th grade. LOL! Making the honor roll and having my name on the list in the hall by the front door.

I hope my own children have happy memories of their school days. We homeschooled up until this year and I often hear them talking about things we've done for school. I guess every parent hopes their children have a better life than they did. I had a pretty good childhood, so it's going to be a tough act to follow. I think I'll go call my Mom. : )