January 16, 2011

Yesterday, our family (minus Jesse & Angie) gathered at Mom & Dad's to honor Dad's 75th birthday.....what a milestone!!!! His birthday was actually on the 12th but since Brian & Andrea live so far away and Brian is working in the evenings during the week, we try to hold these functions on the weekend.

As with any get together we have hosted since "the boys" arrived in May & July of 2008.....it is never boring, lol. Now that they are rounding the corner to the ripe old age of 3 they are two sticks of dynamite ready to explode at any given moment.....and they often do. Sometimes, it is an explosion of laughter and other times an explosion of a tantrum.

Here are some photos from the afternoon........our guest of honor with his hip new MP3 player!!!


























Here are a series of 5 photos where Caiden (thanks to Tanti's prompting) turned in to a vicious dinosaur and proceeded to attack Trevor. I love the look on both of their faces in this first photo. Caiden mustering up all his dino-powers and Trevor is like "um, Tanti....are you going to save me?"



















And, the attack of the Caidendinosaurus begins.....


















Classic!!!!!!!!!


















Trevor attempts to use his Spidy-powers to stop the Caidendinosaurus from attacking....


















Hee-hee, I love when I snap at just the right moment.....this looks like slo-mo!




















Trevor LOVES his trucks!

















And, he REALLY loves his CARS! Here we have Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Ramon, Tex, another Ramon, Lightening McQueen, Sally & Mator.....the entire cast from the movie, Cars! He is just a little obsessed :)

Okay, this one is kinda gross but it is just so TREVOR....mouth wide open being a goofball! He was eating lasagna in case you were wondering.

And this is classic Caiden......on the opposite side of the spectrum from Trevor (most of the time). Don't get me wrong, this boy can let his presence be known, too. I love this photo and cannot wait to scrap it!!!!

That was how January 16, 2011 was lived.........who could ask for anything more?

~Helen~

Dreamin' of Lunch

Is it wrong that it is not even 7 a.m. and I am already thinking about lunch? If you knew what I had waiting for me you would not be so quick to judge!



Now, if you are all about healthy food......no fat.....no carbs, etc. then I suggest you don't read this because there ain't nuttin' "healthy" 'bout this dish. 'Cept maybe the mushrooms.



So, went to Farmer's Restaurant for my dear friends birthday last night. In light of recent pay cuts I went with the intention of being money conscious and just getting an appetizer or something inexpensive. However, I did not get to eat prior to going thus I was s.t.a.r.v.i.n.g. when I arrived at the restaurant. No way was an appetizer gonna do it.


My fave dish here is called Peppermill Steak Pasta.

Pepper: good.

Steak: good.

Pasta: good.

You just cannot go wrong with this trio combination. Did I mention the steak is filet mignon?? The pasta is rigatoni noodles in a creamy white sauce (usually I am not a big fan of creamy white sauces but when mixed with the juices of filet mignon it's a different story). There are button mushrooms through out and they top it with a sprinkling of cracked peppercorns to add a nice little spice and crunch to each bite.

This delish dish will rob your wallet of $12.99, eeks! Honestly I don't think that is a bad price for the amount you receive and the fact it is......ummmm, I will say it again: DELISH!!! I ordered just water to drink and the meal came with a dinner salad (another yum) plus they bring you rolls/corn bread before your dinner. After eating a roll and the salad I was able to save 1/2 the pasta dish for lunch the next day. In total, my meal was $14.01 + 2.00 tip and that averages out to $8.00 per meal. Yes, it is more than I would be paying had I not just grabbed one of my $2 Smart Ones frozen meals but you also cannot put a price on spending a few hours with good friends....celebrating & laughing over a fabulous dinner. Amen? Amen.

Come on 11:30.....get here already! I'm hungry!!!!!!!!!!!

What are YOU having for lunch today?

xoxoxo

Hospital Visits & Birthday Wishes

It is so hard to believe that the little guy, smiling "that sweet smile" in the photos below is 23 years old TODAY! He still has that sweet smile. I was all of 16 when he, my first nephew, was born. I still remember the excitement I felt as we prepared to leave for the hospital to await his birth. I remember the baby bed I kept in my own bedroom for when I babysat him every Saturday while his mommy went to work. I loved those Saturday mornings when we would eat breakfast and watch Winnie The Pooh on TV. I loved taking him for walks in his stroller up to Main Street or taking him to the park to feed the ducks or to Olin Mills for a surprise photo shoot for his mom and dad. Now, he is all grown up with a toddler of his own (Caiden, the Mini-Josh). I don't know if Josh remembers all those times we spent together when he was just knee high to a grasshopper. That is why I scrapbook photos like these shown below.

Happy Birthday Joshua Ryan!!!

Something else I am struggling to believe is the fact it is FRIDAY already. Mom had her knee replacement surgery on Monday and due to trips to the hospital and various errands I have not arrived home much before 6 p.m. every night. Most probably think "that is normal for me" but it is NOT normal for me and when it continues for days on end it begins to take its' toll on me. Couple that with the fact Mom took a turn for the worse (after doing so awesome) when they discovered she had a blood clot in her lung that was causing the low oxygen levels in her blood. We are hoping and praying she can be weened off so much oxygen and be moved to a regular room. She is obviously bummed about the set back because she wants nothing more than to get to working on this new knee so she can get home again. Home for the holidays.

That is my week in review...hospital visits and birthday wishes! Here's too a "just as busy" weekend I am sure!

Bye!

Congrats to Miss A!!

My dear friend's daughter bought her first car today....a VW Bug. I grew up in the 70's playing the "Slug Bug" game on road trips with the family. My brother loved when we played this game because it gave him a chance to "slug" me without getting in trouble. If you DON'T know what that game is then you are probably a child of the 80's or 90's and I am so very sorry for you, lol!

Anyway, this post isn't about me....it's about Miss A. and how incredibly excited she must be feeling right now. I remember the feeling of owning my first car.....such a huge step to showing I could be responsible.

To honor her big day I did a layout using some of the photos her mom sent me....

The Day After

Like most I spent yesterday celebrating Thanksgiving with family and all the trimmings. It was very odd not having Brian, Andrea & Trevor with us this year. Caiden was in a full swing good mood and him and big brother, Blake, went straight for the "toy closet" and proceeded to entertain themselves. We ate about 4 and then came clean up. I tried to do my part to help since after all Julie was up at the crack of dawn preparing the meal for us. I was home by 7:30 and it seemed like it was one of the "fastest" Thanksgiving I can recall having.

I thought I might get up and go to Target about 5 a.m. but yeah, THAT didn't happen. Nope, I chose to sleep until 7:45 thank you very much!

And, following my usual day after Thanksgiving tradition, I ate a piece of pumpkin pie slathered in Cool Whip for breakfast and enjoyed a cup of Starbucks via instant coffee.

At 9:30 a.m. I grabbed a trash bag, some boxes, my black Sharpie, my phone, and all sizes of ziploc bags and headed down to the basement. Can you guess what I was geared up to do? No? Well, I decided to tackle the dreaded Scrapbook Room. I taped up several boxes and stood in the doorway for several minutes just trying to decide where to start. Folks, believe me when I say it looked as though a tornado had blown thru that little 6x8 room. After about 30 minutes I got my organizing groove on and soon was separating the items I was keeping from the items I wanted to craiglist as well as fill up another 30gal trash bag of junk. It took me a good 2 1/2 hours or more to sift through it all. The room is by NO means cleaned & organized. All I really did was fill up 3 average sized boxes of scrapbooking supplies to sell on craigslist. What was left over is still all just sitting down there without much order to it. I seriously need to borrow my dad's super-sucker to go over the carpet before using my real vacuum. I have so many little buttons, brads, staples, etc all over that floor. It would kill a normal vacuum cleaner in about 2 seconds.

At 1:30 I started to Craigslist all the goods. In addition to the scrapbooking items I also listed 5 other items. Hoping now that I get some hits.

I have enjoyed my 2nd of 4 days off work. It's nice to be able to say I accomplished something besides sitting on my bum eating left overs.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here are some of the things I am thankful for...

~~~Family
~~~Accomplished Tasks
~~~The puzzle time Blake & I had yesterday
~~~Sweet kisses from Caiden
~~~Tastebuds....oh how boring life would be without them!
~~~VOD - Video on Demand - I rented The Proposal while sitting on my couch in my PJ's last night...how cool! (cute movie by the way but not as good as I expected to be honest)
~~~Memory Boxes - I took a few moments to look inside one of mine downstairs today and smiled as I read some of the old cards/notes I had saved over the years.

Welcoming Miss O!

My sweet friends had a darling baby girl a few weeks ago! As all new, proud parents do, they sent out photos documenting the occasion. Below is a layout I did using one of the photos I just fell in love with. I adore the pose....the serenity of the moment. I had been waiting for the perfect kit to scrap with and it finally appeared in my inbox last night. It's another kit not being released until this Friday so you will have to come back then to get the low-down on where to get it! Until then, enjoy a little sample of this scrumptious kit.....

Welcome to the world Miss O! Congrats my dear friends, she is beautiful :)

Singles Conference Huge Success!

We said goodbye to Kent Bottenfield a little over an hour ago while outside of Farmer's Restaurant in Highland. It was such a let down to see him go. After the months and months of planning the FIRST Singles conference at FBC Maryville was an incredible success. Some might be inclined to follow that comment with the question, "So then, you had a large number turn out for the event?". To that I would reply "No, not a large number but the perfect number showed up." It was a success not because of numbers but because we honored God in every aspect of this event.

The preparation began Friday morning about 10:00 a.m. when my friend, Sheila, and I went to buy bottled water, soda, and various items for Kent's welcome bags. We arrived at the church at 12:30 p.m. and met up with others on the team to begin setting up tables & chairs in the gym. We decorated tables, arranged plates/napkins/utensils, stuffed carry-out bags, sorted through prize give-aways, etc etc. We left the church around 4:30 exhausted. We went to eat at Applebee's where we were entertained by Tyler and his impressions of Stuart & Lorraine. Okay, I was entertained and I entertained everyone with my hysterical laughter.

Saturday morning many of us arrived at the church by 10:45 a.m. to take care of the final details of getting registration tables in order, sorting t-shirts to sell, making copies of ice-breaker questions. The anticipation was mounting as 1:00 p.m. rolled around. We looked as though we would pounce on the first person to walk through the doors. It really was quite comical to look at. People began to arrive and the buzz started. My feet were insanely sore already. Soon it was nearing 2:00 p.m. and it was about to begin. Years of praying and a year of planning was about to unfold before us. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning eagerly ready to see the gift beneath the wrapping paper.

The worship band opened with 4 songs to bring us into an attitude of worship led by Brian Carr and the college band. Next was the human video by our very talented Steve Moutria. His ability to minister through these human videos just amazes me. I kid you not, you do not take your eyes off him the entire time he performs. We were so glad he had the forethought to ask us to move the video to the beginning of the conference vs. beginning of the concert.

Then it was on to the break-out sessions....1, 2 & 3. I was only able to listen in on 2 of the 3 due to a few glitches that came up. What I heard on the subjects of Flexibility, Unity and Purity was the heart of God and nothing short of that.

Now we are coming the really good part of this event. Yep, you guessed it, the food. Come on, we are Baptists and we love our food fellowships. Cuz let's face it, is there such a thing as a fellowship without good eats??? Oh no, no such thing! LOL We had purchased extra food just in case and there was SO much left over it was sickening! Farmer's restaurant out of Highland prepared it and we had Fried Chicken, Italian Roast Beef, Mostaccoli, Green Beans, Corn, Mash Tators, 2 Gravies, Salad, and bread. PLUS, delicious Boston Creme Torte Cake donated by our Sunday school teacher from his business. Seriously....insanely.....out of this world good eats!

We opened the concert at 6:45 with prize drawings and then Kent Bottenfield took the stage for his first set. Sitting in the very front row was bittersweet. While one moment I could sense Pastor Fred's presence and could easily picture him in my mind with that big grin on his face, lifting those eyebrows and doing that quick little head bob and giving us a thumbs up.....the next moment I was seeing the events of March 8th. Both visions would bring me to tears. And of course, I did not have my kleenex! Hello? I thought it was church policy to have boxes of kleenex in the front pews. If not, it should be!!!

The remainder of the concert was super and the presentation by African Vision of Hope was so informative but done in a way that did not bore you or turn you off. I pray their ministry was hugely blessed by the platform given through this event. Kent ended the night by grabbing the mike from Pastor John to make this announcement "I have NEVER, EVER done this in my performing career but I am asking you to please go out and buy my CD's. Every dime from those sales will go to AVOH." I just could have cried when I heard that. Humble, gentle, kind, compassionate, selfless man of God = Kent Bottenfield.

Afterwards we took Kent to......Applebee's! I don't eat there for 6 months and then I am there 2 days in a row. It was nice and relaxing to just sit and enjoy Kent's company.

Sunday Kent did the sermons of all 3 services. Wow!!! I could have listened to him speak all afternoon. He is a visual speaker and I LOVE visuals! He spoke on the subject of 'Intentional Pursuit of Godly Passion'. Purpose-Attitude-Satisfying-Sacrifice-Invest in Others-Non Negotiable was the acronym he used in his sermon. As always God gave yet another confirmation this was all HIS plan when Kent touched on several key notes of our class lesson from the previous hour.

After church our class & the speakers of the event took Kent to, no not Applebees, Farmer's in Highland. It seems most restaurants follow this code of architecture that states "Always design the dining rooms with high, open ceilings & tile floors so every sound echoes and when there is a room full of diners it is so loud no one can hear what the person sitting next to them is saying.....thus, your table turn around will be much faster and you will make more money" SERIOUSLY! Still, it was a delicious lunch and a great 1 1/2 hours of fellowship with Kent.

And then it was time to let Kent go so he could get back to his family and rest. This was an amazing weekend filled with great purpose....an attitude of worship....satisfaction of jobs abundantly well done....sacrificing of time and sleep....investing in others in our church and surrounding community....and the bringing forth of the non-negotiable Word of God. All this combined made for changed lives and what an incredible honor that God allowed me to be a part of it all.

Here I am with Kent outside the restaurant.

Photos promised....

Here are some photos from over the past week that I haven't had time to post. They are completely unedited but will have to do for now.....

Remember the Women's Event last Friday...I decorated 2 tables and this is a close up of the beach table....love how it turned out, thanks to my Diva Table Decorators, Sheila & Jackie



This is a close up of the Scrapbooking Table.....for confetti I used colored buttons, tiny ink pads, & large chipboard alphas.



A full shot of the Scrapbooking Table. For placemats I used 12x12 patterned paper and under each plate I placed a scrapbook magazine I no longer wanted. I chose white plates, cups, bowls since as a scrapbooker I usually start with a blank white page & build on that. My napkins were black & white with a flourishy design which totally spoke "scrapbooking" to me.



A full shot of the beach table....this table was all about color & lots of it! Pink & yellow plates, solid green napkins, orange napkins with hula dancers on them, the little take-out boxes I posted last week. Inside the orange bucket in the center of the table I put 3 whirly-bird toys that thanks to the a/c blowing in the gym...made them twirl. I also had some beach toys & some colorful flip flops stuck inside. Hanging over I had some sunglasses & sunvisors.

This was just another beautiful table I took a photo of...I had nothing to do with decorating this one.

This was the craft area where the ladies took turns sitting down to make a card. I only wish I had a photo of us actually doing the craft because this pretty, neat little area soon looked like a tornado had passed through it.

The day after the church event was my nephew, Jesse's graduation party. I ask, "could he look any more thrilled???"

This past Tuesday I spent a few hours with my dear childhood friend, Lori over at the Galleria in St. Louis. We ate, as I said before, at California Pizza Kitchen. This is a shot of my partially eaten Goat cheese/red, yellow peppers/japanese eggplant/carmelized onions pizza. I debated posting this photo since I had 2 missing pieces but it was still very pretty so I decided to do it. Man, is it ever making me hungry to look at it!

Oy, this is the one photo I wish I had edited....I look like a ghost next to the nicely tanned Lori. Isn't she beautiful? And she has an even more beautiful heart to match! We were in the parking lot snapping photos of ourselves and cracking up laughing at the results we were getting....chopped off heads....turned away faces, etc. The whole time we both had to potty so the laughing was not helping in that department. Thanks to me getting lost on the way home I stopped at a Walgreens on Clayton Rd....used their bathroom then called Sheila to Mapquest me home again. Not quite the same as "beam me up, Scotty" but close!

That's my life in photos for the last week. Thanks for stopping by!!!

Birthday Layouts

As promised here are the 1st two layouts from Trevor's big day. So hard to go through the 200 some photos and decide what to scrap about. The cake, of course, is a no-brainer. And there will be some gift opening layouts, too. But, the one photo I captured touched my heart for some reason and so, after the cake layout I decided to scrap with it before doing any others.

I used a pre-designed template for the cake photos above. All I added was the messy stitched border around the outside to define the borders somewhat.

And this is the photo I just loved. The look on his face as he is reaching for the curly ribbon is so calm and serene (something Trev usually is NOT...lol). The journaling reads...

"In this moment you were truly without want. You were surrounded by those who love you. You received a whole new set of toys with which to play. Your belly was full and thirst quenched. There were lots of colorful curly ribbons for you to touch. I hope someday you know how truly blessed you were in this moment."

Trevor's 1st Birthday Party...THE CAKE!!!

We celebrated Trevor's upcoming 1st birthday (7/07) on the 4th of July. I have gone through JUST the cake photos narrowing down to my favorites...then editing them for lighting & color. Here are the just the photos (layouts to come later) of the cake destruction and the bath that ensued :)

Four Generations!!!

On Father's Day I gathered the guys up and plopped them on the couch to get a Four Generation photograph. Next time we will take turns taking the photos because they didn't know which camera to look at, mine or Andrea's. Trevor & Caiden were being stinkers and would not look at the camera's. But, you know what, I got a photo with all of them at once so I am pretty happy.

Back row: Brian, Dad, Jeff, Josh (2 sons & a grandson)
Front row: Trevor (grandson), Caiden (great grandson)

Kit Credits: Urban Garden by Lorilei Murphy of http://www.roseyposeystudio.com/ As part of her creative team I had to do a layout using this kit. When I saw the wordart cluster, family, she made for the kit I knew exactly what photo I wanted to use. But, I was a bit concerned about my elements being too "girly". I think I made good choices with the metal elements & the netting to help in this area. It is a beautiful kit and I really like the colors....I do not have hardly any kits in these colors, yay!

Happy 50th Anniversary Mom & Dad

Who would have thunk it....50 years!!! I have had the Barry Manilow song stuck in my head for days, "Looks Like We Made It". God granted us a gorgeous, breezy, sunshiny day to celebrate this milestone occasion. Sorry I didn't take time to edit this photo so you don't see the mops/brooms, etc in the photo but I wanted to get this post posted before June 6th was over. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!! Love ya both so much.