How do you know which is the right choice?

So I just applied to a fab scrapbooking paper company for their DT . Do you ever fret about which layouts and/or projects to send in. Ugh...I do. So I tried to show a little bit of everything,but who knows. I have been scrapping a little more than usual lately. Perhaps because I am trying to spend as much time as I can with a special friend who needs it right now. Hugs to her in this tough time.

Here are a few new layouts to share in this mini post of mine.






In other news, I was t...h...i...s close to being guest DT for Sketchy Thursdays. Last time that I checked I was in 2nd place and then I went to bed ;0) Melissa won first place and..she very much deserved it. I was so flattered and excited to find out that I was in the top five to being with! Perhaps in the next few challenges..I will take another stab at it.
For now, I want to just say, I am so thankful for my dear friends. I love them and am so glad to have them in my life. Nothing big is going on, I just felt like right now was a good time to say it..so..MUAH. You know who you people are!

Goodnight!

It has been a good scrappy week!

Oh for scrappy's sake it has been a good week! First I won a RAK on Pinky's Blog. She is on the Imaginisce DT and had some fun Imaginisce goodies up for a rak and yay me, I won!
Look at these goodies~

Next, I have been fortunate enough to be chosen in the top 5 at Sketchy Thursday's which just happens to be quite the cool blog with sketch challenges. This past sketch had an 80's them and looks like this:
So, this is what I came up with:
See and all these people thought that my ridiculous undying devotion to Duran Duran has gotten me nowhere...hmmph! I showed them ;0)

So if you haven't gotten over to vote...go go go. I would appreciate it! Go here!

Oh how sweet it is!

Hey friends out there had the best Valentine's day ever. It wasn't a romantic day,but it was a fun filled family day and I loved it. It started with making the kiddos Heart shapped chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. They loved that of course! Some of the chips were candy coated so that kind of made a pink hue to the pancakes. That's okay...they were happy!


Soon after breakfast we went on a family bike ride and then took Little Leila for a walk. Adam apparently didn't get the memo on it being a leisurely ride...he took off at warp speed because he needed to be "the leader". That kid...sweet,but very competitive. All in all, still a great ride.

We then ran off to Sam's b-day party. She was dressed as the prettiest princess in Placentia. Wish I got a pic,but I be that you can find them on Illyse's blog!
Later we went out to eat with another family. We went to Teppanyaki. The boys loved it! The cook even flipped rice at them to catch in their mouths.

Here are a few pics with our friends we went to dinner with and their kiddos!

Lastly to wrap up the valentine's day hoopla, the boys and my hubby gave me roses and my little ones also wrote me poems. Lucky me. They were really sweet! Although Nicholas did title his ROSES ARE DEAD, VIOLETS ARE POOP.Boys...what more can I say....

So up the scrappy/crafty part of my life I want to mention that there is a new challenge up at Scrap it Forward! It is an easy one to commit too and will help those in need. All for free...did I mention a prize is involved? Go check it out!
Here is the layout that I did for the challnege on SIF !

And here is a layout that just makes me happy when I look at it. :0) Sweet little Adam likes to cook! So I gave my Chef's hat from CHA.

Oh and... good news! My annual crop to benefit Autism Speaks is scheduled for April 17th at the Scrapbook Oasis, so save the date. Details to come!!

Lastly want to win one cool RAK...a Gift certificate to the scrapbook store of your choice...well go see Sarah at Red Oak lines and tell her Christine/scrappygal sent you by the way! 1. All you have to do is comment to her post saying, “Sarah needs to be at 50,000!” This is open until she is at 50,000 views. Once she reaches 50,000 views, she'll draw TWO WINNERS to receive gift certificates to their choice to any scrapbook store.

2. For an additional chance to win, share this post on your blog, facebook, twitter, forum, etc.

3. …and a THIRD WINNER will be chosen. The person that can direct the most people to her blog will win a stash worth over $50 in scrapbooking products! How will she know who sent who? Well, they have to make sure they leave a comment telling her who sent them her way.

ex. Sarah needs to be at 50,000. Jane Doe sent me!


So I guess that is it for now..But I did want to give a shout out to my new Scrappy, Kodak lovin', NY girl. Small world Julie..just crazy. I have more details to share with you!.

Like a broken record...

Umm yep..here I go again with the excuses. Yet again I am here trying to excuse myself for not being updated on my blog. Perhaps in 2010 I will keep up? You still love me anyway right?

Gosh so much has happened. I believe an entire season has passed. I have so many things to share..so many pics..so much of everything,but that would take forever so I will just share a bit from the last few weeks and leave it at that. ;0)

So let's start with this past week..WOOHOO CHA BABY! I had a ball. I love every moment of it and once it ends, I have a little empty spot..is it really all over?
It is so inspiring and it always revs me up to start things going. I was fortunate enough to meet so many beautiful people from all over the world..even Ecuador. I even have a new pen pal. I made a lot of contacts for our up coming crop to benefit Autism Speaks. AND I got a whole heck of a lot of fun pics! Here we go.....

Umm Hello MAKING MEMORIES...I LOVE YOU! I was a wiener yet again this year and so was Illyse. How fab is that? Thank you thank you! You are so amazingly generous!
What a way for us to end the show!

And Teresa Collin's booth..simply amazing! Always beautiful and love the new lines. Teresa is so sweet that she makes it all the more appealing!


I was able to spend the first day of the show with a good amount of my friends which makes it all the more fun! Here are a few pics of us having fun!


I also met a few new friends Like Kim and KIKI and Julie!
Kiki is the creator of Kiki Art and she is an amazing woman. Not only is she talented,but she is warm and giving. I know that we will remain friends. Love that chica. Check her out! Here is a link to giveaway to all good stuff KIKI ART. Check it out for a chance to win http://redoaklines.com/2010/01/26/kiki-art-giveaway/

Kim manages the DT at Dixie Pieces and she is the nicest gal. She spotted me on the floor the first day. Then later that day I spotted Sherry and Brenna the owners of DP. I met a whole group of great gals and I wish I had taken my pic with all of them as well! Next time I guess.


Julie is the creator of a blog called a These are a few of my favorite things. She is a fun chickadee and very creative. Her blog is fab and you must check it out!
I also met a lot of great people including the owners of The Robin's nest. They were kind enough to let us alter their CHA Badges using their products and they donated a entire bus load of papers and dew drops to our crop for Autism Speaks. They certainly ROCK!

Lastly, I believe that I have a good chance to become the next spokes model for Therm-o-web. What do you think?



In other news we have a new challenge up at Scrap It Forward with prizes of course! Here is the layout that I created for it ;0)

and here is the original photo before I er umm altered it.....judging from the bags under my eyes that day, I think that it was an improvement. Anyway please come by and check out the challenge :0) http://scrapitforward.blogspot.com

And just to leave a little bit of my latest crafty bits..here ya go!




Okay skip skip..needle is scratching..I am picking it up and starting again. No more broken record. Here I am bloggers. I updated!

We are all so very THANKFUL CHALLENGE!

We are all so very THANKFUL CHALLENGE!

I blame it on Facebook..an epic tale

Okay so really I just keep on saying the same thing over and over again. Oops sorry it has been so long..I will be back..etc. etc. I have realized what my problem is...FACEBOOK. I am ridiculously addicted to the up to the minute stats on my friends and have completely abandoned my blog. I may be writing this for no reason at all. I can't even imagine that I have any readers left.

So what has happened in the past four months..way too much to mention. It would take forever..so what I decided to do is put up a few pics and update a little bit here and there...so here ya go!

Autism speaks...Did I mention that my team and I raised close to $1800 for our walk back in April? Oh yes we did and look who I met at the walk... ..uh huh...lucky me..I did..move over Susan ;0)
So let's see school ended and we went to NJ to visit Joe's family and see where my DH grew up. Here is a pic at "the shore" which is what New Jersian's and I would imagine other East coasters refer to it ( translation..the beach).
We also took the train to "Philly" and visted the Liberty Bell. We also took a bus tour around the city. Can you tell how much Adam enjoyed it?


3 weeks after our trip I saw MY BOYS...DURAN DURAN. Illyse, Lisa, Dee and I were able to go! Lisa wound up having an extra ticket so my Illyse got to join us. Now I think she may be converting to a true durantard like the rest of us. I was us really close, so I was able to get a lot of great shots. Here are a few.....





A few weeks later we celebrated my b-day and here is the cake my sweeties made me! I am one lucky gal!
Next my good friend, Shauna and I celebrated our b-days, which are just one day apart.:0) We celebrated by going out to dinner and following dinner we saw Tears for Fears in concert!

And...I also had the pleasure of going to CHA Orlando with my friend Jennifer. It was a lot of fun. The show was small,but I didn't mind because we had The Magic Kingdom, Epcot and a lot of other fun things just waiting for us. We..(well I shouldn't speak for her..),I had a ball and I think that she did too. Here are just a few pics...




Now I have been home for about 2 weeks and once again I am leaving with the boys to go to the beach for a week in San Diego. Oops did I happen to mention that during my trip I am coming back home to go to Depeche Mode and then going right back to San Diego. Yep it is true. So perhaps for real..after my trip. I will have more pics to post and really write on this thing. I hope so!
Summer is almost over and school is coming! YIKES..pray for me. ;0) We will see how it goes. I do have good intentions ya know.

Anyway if you are reading this and are in the mood for some blog candy...then hop on over to Scrap it Forward. We have got a great bunch o' goodies for you there! Go check it out!

So there..I did it fellow bloggers. I hope that you let me back into your club ;0)

Umm hello anyone still out there?

Okay so the same old story..I mean to be here. I have so many things to share, I let time go by. Too much happens and I am not not willing to make you all go through a multi page post by me trying to catch you all up. So I will just go within the time constraints of the last3-4 weeks. Sound good. And if you are here and reading this..well thanks for coming around and being so faithful :)

So here it goes: My little Adam is now 7! Oh no, where does the time go? My baby is not a baby. He is still so cuddly,but a bit difficult to carry (ha!) Will I ever get over that need to have a sweet cuddly little one? I just don't know.

We celebrated his birthday on Feb. 28th. Adam is into science big time. Loves it! So for his birthday we hired Mad Science to come out and do a little hands on show. He loved it and so did all the other kids. I would highly recommend it for any boy's party. Here are a few pics:

Adam anxiously awaits for his guests to arrive

Guests enjoying Professor "whatshisname" Adam destoys an alien head
What was left..complete annihilation

What more....well Scrap it forward is on it's way..doing well and we are having fun. We have a new challenge supporting Project Cuddle. Come and check it out! There are some fun prizes as well.

The big news is that we have been published. Who would have thought! ? I am so excited about it! Scrapbook Business has published an article about us in their March/April magazine. Here is a little teaser :)

Went to Disney and Claifonia Adventure with kids an my mom and we had a blast. But I do have to say that I am not so much the Roller coaster kind of gal anymore. I went on California Screamin and have realized..that was a bit much...for me. Bummer. Anyway thanks to a special friend, we went to both parks and spent all day there. We had a blast and the boys were beyond thrilled. I even let them skip school. i know being a teacher, that surprises you ..right? Well I did it anyway..sometimes I can be a rebel (LOL).

And lastly my annual crop for Autism Speaks is coming up! Karen at Scrapbook Oasis will be hosting the crop. Thanks Karen again this year for your amazing generosity. Here is the Info:

Date: Sat. April 4th

Time: 10 - 6

Cost: $25

Place_ The Scrapbook Oasis in Irvine CA.

You can call and make your reservation now. The cost includes lunch, a goody bag, raffles, snacks etc. The donations this year are BIG! I have rec ieved donations from: Piggy Tales, Making Memories, Bam Pop, Creative options, Art Bin, Down Details, American Crafts, MAMBI, Cosmo Cricket, Best Creation, Quickutz, Bo Bunny, and many more!
Come join the fun ! It is for a great cause and the day will be a blast!

Come back in a few days to see a new post about a RAK..it will be big!