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Happy Monday!

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Cracked...

Well... another week has apparently come and gone without too much happening on this blog.  I'm on Facebook regularly & occasionally on Instagram (mostly to keep up with what Bryn is posting on there ;-), but my blogging seems to be happening less frequently lately.  Whoopsie.  And it's not because I'm lacking on anything to blog about... I've been quite busy... but it's partially because my design responsibilities are currently non existant.  So lately,creating is happening just for FUN... a good thing, of course! 

If you follow Nikki Sivils' blog, you've already seen this post a couple weeks ago about her indecision with the future and whether she's going to create new collections for the Winter 2013 CHA trade show.  I, along with my friend Julie, have been designing for Nikki since day #1 of her company hitting the industry 3 years ago, so I will be really sad if she decides to make a career change.  It's been nothing but the most positive experience working with her & creating with her products.  I'm a huge fan of her paper crafting products, for sure!  I adore Nikki... as a person, designer and business owner.  But I wholeheartedly agree in following your heart & doing what's right for you, right now.  And whatever she decides to do, she'll be a success for sure! 

And speaking of Nikki Sivils... I made this page last week using some of her It's Your Day collection, some SRM birthday stickers & some other random coordinating stash I had on hand...

I'm looking forward to a very FUN week ahead, including the Madonna concert on Thursday!  And I even have a new Zumba class beginning this week that I'm helping to teach every few weeks at the butt crack of dawn... Tuesday mornings at 5:30am.  Whoa... gonna be different I tell ya... but lots of FUN! 

Oh... and I dropped my iPhone 4 for the 500th time on Thursday and totally cracked the front of it.  Yay me.  Good news though!  Bob called & I was eligible for an upgrade to the 4S for $99. 

Hoping my new phone comes in the mail tomorrow.  The little slivers of glass in my finger from too much texting, is kinda getting old... 

BUTT ugly...

There are 100's of reasons I'd like to slow down time and keep Bryn young & innocent forever.  The butt ugly glow-in-the-dark spider webs on our bushes that seem to bring her great joy for 2 years in a row now, are the one lone reason I'm ready for her to grow up. 

Oh and "we're the only house that doesn't have their yard decorated."  Which in layman's terms means... our yard has no giant inflatable pumpkins, no mummys coming out of a casket, no mammoth spiders on the roof...

Ummm nope.  Not gonna happen.  Can barely deal with the butt ugly spider webs. 

And before you start feeling sorry for Bryn & thinking she doesn't have a fun mom... I do agree to doing stupid stuff like this during 6th grader sleepovers...

I've always been into building pyramids, but it takes a glass of wine or two to agree to a butt hovering over my head. 

Ok then.  Moving on...

How about those CARDINALS?! 

Hmmm.  Not a great weekend for Cardinals baseball.  We're still in it though!  Game #7 is tonight and the winner goes to the World Series.  I'm thinking the Cardinals will do it!   

So... while watching that losing game last night, I got out my photos from the winning game we attended last week!  I used some SRM baseball stickers & some of Nikki Sivils It's Raining, It's Pouring collection... since it was POURING DOWN RAIN that night! 

I also used some Echo Park clouds & made my own rain drops...

Happy Monday!  It's time to go teach ZUMBA! 

And LET'S GO CARDINALS!!! 

Cardinal Nation...

What a FUN, FUN day yesterday thanks to having an opportunity to buy Cardinals tickets from my friend, Stephanie!  The day started with an early spin class in the morning, went to my hair appointment, put on my Cardinals gear, pulled Bryn from school a little early so we could drop her off at my parent's house, and then Bob & I went to Busch Stadium for Game #3 of the Cardinals vs. the Giants!  Even my band-aid from Monday's flu shot was RED! 

It's CARDINAL NATION, baby!  Nothin' but RED around here! 

Rally towels were given out to everyone with a paid admission... and we definitely used them too!  We had a blast at the game... until it started raining, that is.  And actually before it even started raining at the stadium, I had a couple friends text me to tell me there were tornado sirens going off where we live... about 40 minutes away from where we were.  Scary!! 

Oh & here's a photo with the woman behind me that clapped LOUDLY the ENTIRE game.  I mean, I'm all about clapping, don't get me wrong.  I do it so much in Zumba, I've been known to literally bruise my hand from my wedding ring hitting my other hand so hard, so many times in an hour.  BUT... her clap was so piercing, I wanted ear plugs.  And she would keep clapping, even when there was nothing to clap about!  LOL

It started POURING down rain in the 7th inning though.  Did I mention I knew there was a very good chance for rain during the game, so I wore a hat & rainboots, and I brought a rain poncho?  So... ponchos went on & we kept watching!  Until they called a rain delay in the middle of the inning with the Cardinals up to bat & 2 men on base.  Boooo!!! 

We stuck around for about a half hour tops & made a really good decision to leave.  It ended up being a 3 1/2 hour rain delay... in which time we had already had dinner at a nearby restaurant, picked up Bryn from my parent's house & drove home.  And then we watched the end of the game... all of about 15 minutes... in the comfort of our own home!  Another WINNER!!!

And we play again tonight!  Go crazy, folks!  Go crazy! 

GO CARDINALS!!! 

Believe in yourself, and you will be unstoppable...

Last month while I was in New York, Bryn participated in her 3rd "TRYathlon" at the YMCA... 150 yard swim, 1 mile run and 2.5 miles on the bike for her age group.  While she wasn't exactly amused by my not being there, she did have the support of her dad, her grandparents and my friend's daugther to cheer her on!  She gets her desire to compete and her love of sports & exercise honestly.  What she hasn't quite learned though is that you can't just go out and do something like this without training for it.  She finished the race, of course, but did complain that she could "hardly breathe" while she was running. 

And like the good mother I ALWAYS am... I said, "Well, I told you so."  LOL! 

As a side story to this race, one of the girls in Bryn's age group had her bike break shortly after she got on to ride so she couldn't continue to compete.  However, when Bryn was finished with her biking, she let this girl borrow her bike.  And by the time this girl got to the last portion of the race... the running... she was the only kid still left on the course.  Everyone else had already finished.  So... several of the kids, Bryn included, went back out & ran with her so she didn't have to finish the race alone.  Talk about a tear-jerker.  Bob said it was emotional to watch.  And I cried on the phone when he told me the story, dang it! 

To say that I'm proud of Bryn for a million reasons would be an understatement.  Girlfriend is going to be unstoppable in life...

A little favor...

Things have been somewhat busy around here, not necessarily doing anything of HUGE importance, but busy nonetheless.  Here's the lowdown if you're wondering where I've been & why I haven't blogged since well... Wednesday... LOL

• Helping my 6th grader with daily homework & studying for tests
• Having lunch with a sweet friend from Zumba
• Teaching my own Zumba class AND subbing for another instructor
• Got a card picked up for publication in Scrapbook Trends magazine for their March 2013 issue... Woot!  It's been awhile!
• A chemical peel at the spa.  This aging face ain't going down without a fight!
• Eating lettuce wraps while at a "skinny wrap" party at my friend's house
• Doing spin class at the Y & running on my treadmill
• Hiding in my house while my face is peeling
• Bringing dinner to my parent's house while my mom is recovering from hip surgery
• Watching the Cardinals kick some major BUTT on Friday night... WHAT A GAME!!!
• Ordering 11 Zumba tank tops for the instructors to wear at our upcoming Zumbathon (It's gonna be FUN!!)
• Doing lunch + shopping with my crazy daughter on her day off school
• Working on new choreography for my Zumba class
• Doing a little scrapbooking
• And making cards... which is where my favor comes in...

I received a very upsetting email from Nikki Sivils on Friday.  Her sweet former assistant, Lanie, who moved to Chicago earlier this year and who I met during the Summer CHA Trade Show 2010, has been diagnosed with malignant melanoma.  She has 20 cancerous tumors in her body... breast, ovaries, stomach, lung and tumors on her back & neck.  She's only 33 years old and she is very sick.  And quite frankly, I was just sick to hear this news. 

Nikki has asked for help sending cards to Lanie to keep her spirits up, as well as sending "thank you" cards for Lanie to have on hand to send to her friends & family that have been helping her during this time.  You can read all the details on Nikki's blog on how you can help. 

And if you're not a card-maker... perhaps you could just say a prayer for her?  I think she could use a lot of prayer right now.

Thank you VERY much, friends. 

"Pretty in pink... Isn't she?"

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as we all know.  Lisa Howard, a friend of mine who is also a breast cancer survivor, kindly asked me to be a guest blogger on her blog this month in effort to raise awareness for the disease.  She had remembered my own story from 3 years ago of a stressful experience with a routine mammogram & wanted me to share it.  And while most of the people she asked to help her this month have been affected by the disease & my story doesn't involve that... it is a reminder to get checked.  Sometimes we don't go to the doctor because we don't want to hear that something is wrong... but if they catch it early it can be treatable.  And I can vouch for the fact that they are VERY thorough if they think they see something. 

You can read my story here.   

And then go make an appointment for your mammogram... :-)      

The boys of summer...

It's October already.  Fall is in the air & summer is fading.  Love that!  And since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought maybe I should finally do something with my photos from last year's Halloween party.  And some brand new stickers that made a surprise appearance in my mailbox were just the inspiration I needed to get started... 

 

 

 

I really love all the SRM "We've Got Your Border" stickers & the new set of Halloween border stickers is just too cute! 

I used a few of those clear stickers on my page + a 2011 sticker on my journaling spot.  The rest of the page is a mix of Doodlebug Designs... paper, stickers & letter stickers.  I had received the Spooky Town set last year from Northridge Publishing after they published one of my pages in Scrapbook Trends magazine.  Gotta love free stuff... especially when it's CUTE free stuff! 

And speaking of October... that means it's baseball Playoffs time & guess who's in it?  Can you say CARDINALS?! 

What a game that was last night!  Woot wooooot! 

PS...

I'm guest blogging tomorrow for a friend, who's a breast cancer survivor.  It's on the topic of mammograms & my own scary experience I had a couple years ago.  Come back then & I'll link you up to her blog!   

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog... cryin' all the time...

I'm back from a memorable couples trip to Vegas.  3 nights went by fast!  I'm SO glad my friend took photos while we were there, since I just had a handful of photos from my iPhone.  Sometimes it's just less of a hassle to carry my phone than my big honkin' camera.  I sent all the photos to Target to be developed, so hopefully I can get them on paper soon while all the memories are still fresh in my head! 

Oh and while I'm at it, I might want to do something with my Bermuda & New York photos too.  No pressure. 

There's something about traveling that gives me the inspiration to create when I return.  Or maybe it's just that I miss my craftroom when I'm gone?  Whatever it is, I finished a new page yesterday, so I'll post that tomorrow!

In the meantime, it's Monday... & you know what that means...time to teach ZUMBA!!  And... I'm subbing a class on Wednesday so that means extra Zumba for me this week!  Love when that happens! 

Happy Monday, everyone! 

Making your choice...

You have the power to choose your attitude, your perspective,
your direction, your responses, your expectations, your
actions and so much more. Add it all together, and you have
the power to choose your life.

It's a waste of your time and energy to blame and complain
when you can be doing something much more positive and
powerful. You can be choosing to make real headway.

You have the power to choose, so do it. Figure out what you
really, truly want from this day, from this circumstance,
from this life, and go for it.

Make your choice, and then make the commitment to make it
happen. Make your choice, and then make all the other
choices along the way that will bring it about.

Take a positive, active role in your life. Make peace with
what is, with what you have, and then make your choice of
what to do with it all.

Life is what you most consistently and passionately choose
for it to be, and that most definitely includes the choices
you make in this moment. Spend each moment making the best,
most authentic choices, and you'll spend your days living a
rich and fulfilling life.

Ralph Marston

What happens in Vegas will probably end up on Facebook...

It's Monday...which means Zumba, of course!  Just finished a mad dash through the mall & now I'm ready to start packing again for Vegas... my 3rd time there this year. 

Wonder if this will finally be the time I come back home a millionaire?  Or I would at least like to have a bit of a tan anyway... LOL

Remember these free Facebook journaling cards I found awhile back? 

Well, I finally used one to make a birthday card.  Although, my original plans were to use them for a scrapbook page, so eventually I'll get around to doing that.  I also used a SRM birthday sentiment sticker on here...

 

And when I get home from Vegas, I finally get to see my sissy again, who I haven't seen since the beginning of August!  I can't wait... I can't wait!!! 

How can you not love Stevie Nicks, especially with BIG 80's hair?!  I'm just sayin...