October's RR's Challenge

Since the store closed I really haven't been up to doing anything. I love having deadlines, but haven't really been doing any scrapping. So a few of us around the states met up in a group and are doing challenges. A lot of the girls really enjoyed the CJ challenges and so we thought of doing this group. We call it the Rocio's Rockets or RR's. I know crazy girls, but it's fun. Now I'll have two different deadlines each month with the CJ group which we'll start in February and the RR group. I'm excited. The RR's are going to be a challenge each month. To get us started, I posted the CJ challenge I had done awhile ago. Take 3 sheets of pattern paper and use it to the fullest. Leave no scrap behind. So last time I did layouts and cards. This time I created Christmas cards using the Bo Bunny Christmas line. And doing "ala Pattie" cards with the vintage images and such that Bo Bunny had. I ended up creating a baker's dozen of Christmas cards, yep 13 cards. It's had to get a picture of them together, but I tried. Here are my cards:

October's CJ Challenge

This month's CJ challenge was to make something for at least 2 people in the group and mail it to them. I couldn't make up my mind as to who I should pick, so I made one for everyone in the group. When I went to CE, I was really inspired with Tim Holtz Trunk Show. His stuff was so awesome, that I got inspired to do this little frame (he had done one similar at a past CE) and do some patching with his grungeboard paper. I inked every square with different color of distress inks, all of the embellishments are from Tim Holtz Idea-olgy line. Also added some rock candy distress stickles on the prima flowers.

It turned out really cute. As I was using the tokens, I knew that I had to give Patti the "Believe" token as this year is her word for the year. Everone else I wrapped them and randomly sent them. So I have no idea who got what. I ended up with "Artful". Such a cute little frame that I found at Michaels and here is the final project:


Hope everyone enjoys their little frame.

September's Challenge

Ok, so I'm way behind in posting my challenges, see this is what happens when I have no motivation do anything. But I did complete this challenge way before it was due, I finished it on Sept 18. September's challenge was to create something using the colors brown, orange and lime green. I must admit that orange and brown was no issue, it was the lime green that really go to me. But I finished the layout below.


I'll be posting more of my challenges next.

August CJ Challenge...

I totally forgot to post my August CJ challenge. This month was to create 3 cards with a given sentiment. I finished these before my trip to France. Also, tomorrow, I leave for Creative Escape. I'm really looking forward to get my creative mojo back.

Here are my cards, I used one of the newest lines from My Little Shoebox:

Long time coming...

So I know that I haven't updated my blog in a long while, but the reason is the same. Always busy trying to catch up on everything.

I have been busy keeping up at work. I'm leaving to France on July 29 and come back on August 9. It will be my last trip to Toulouse. I'm going to enjoy.

I also have been to 3 concerts in 5 days, crazy. NKOTB was on July 9, American Idol on July 12 and Coldplay on July 13. This Saturday I'm excited to be going to No Doubt. I have never seen them in concert and should be awesome. Paramore is opening for them. Funny story, I was supposed to be in France this week and therefore couldn't go to No Doubt, but my trip was moved. But I already had sold my lawn ticket, it cost me $30. So I was looking for lawn tickets so I can go but on Craigslist they are going for $70-75 in the lawn, which is sold out. So I went back to Live Nation (the ones that sell the tickets for the venue) and they still had seats available for $90. Yeah, I got seats for $20 more than the lawn where you have to get there early to get the best seats, because they are first come, first serve.

I just learned that I'm allergic to Chlorine. What gives, I went swimming a while a go and got a rash, it got better in a couple of days. Last weekend I went again and this time it got so bad that over the counter meds didn't help me. So I had to go to the doctor, granted the pool was over chlorinated, I'm on meds to help me and so far I'm doing better. But makes me not want to go swimming again.

I'm so sad and happy that Suzy has decided to close her store. I'm happy for her, she will be able to spend time with her family and adventure into other things. But I'm sad for me. I have loved doing this hobby and her store was very convenient for me, 5 minutes away from home so I can always take care of my fur baby and his insulin shots and come back and continue to crop. Now the closest store to me is 20 minutes away, not so easy to go home and come back and crop. So I have to really work on cleaning my stuff and organizing it so I can crop in the garage and I can have people over. I really enjoy this craft and feel sad that I won't be challenged in my monthly assignments for Garage Girl at the store. Also I won't be teaching so less challenges for me. I have really thought it and I know that I work best if I'm being challenged. I don't want to give up on this hobby I love it so much. So I have decided that I need to sign up to one design team. It will keep me challenged and will help me continue to enjoy this hobby. Which bring me to my July CJ challenge.

This month we had to work on the theme of "My Seven Wonders". At first it was hard to come up with all of them. But I then moved away from my family and friends and into what I enjoy in my life and so here is my challenge.


I love how it turned out. This is something similar to a class I taught last year. I love the colors and I can't wait to display it in my craft room/part of the garage.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

June CJ Challenge

This month's challenge was my idea, take 3 sheets of pattern paper, they can be double sided and use every little piece to create as many projects, layouts and cards. I ended up with 4 layous and 3 cards. My papers were 2 from Scenic Route Sonoma line and the other was from October Afternoon Daydream line. I have lots of fun with this, I can' believe all of these came out of 3 papers. So here is my work for the challenge.








I'll be back later to update on my mini vaca/birthday and plans for next month. For now enjoy the rest of the week.

Going to Disneyland...

I'm starting to get excited about going to Disneyland this weekend. We have an aunt (my great aunt actually, who is 75 years young) who is visiting us for a month from El Salvador, she has never been to Disneyland and my mom loves Disneyland so we are going to Disney this weekend. One of my aunts who lives in LA is going with us also. So that's 3 ladies who will not go on any rides with me. I will be going by myself on Space Mountain and all the other "big" rides. My cousin might be available and join us for one day so I can actually have a partner in crime to ride the "big" rides. But I'm sure I'll still enjoy the rides and the fact that Monday is my birthday, I will have some fun.

So I have been working hard. My 30k checkout is almost done, just have a couple of more follow up appointments tomorrow and that's it. Last week I did the sleep study, it was hard sleeping with all that stuff. I'll get my results tomorrow. But so far everything is checking out good. Just got to lose some weight and eat better so my "good" cholesterol can be higher.

My kitties are doing great. My parents are doing good too. I have been trying to keep not so busy but it never works that way. I finished my GG assignments for this month. I really enjoyed them. Now on to completing the CJ challenge, I got my 3 papers ready.

Here are my GG assignments:





Also, my next class is now available for signups at Picture Me Perfect. You can see it here and sign up at the store.

CJ Challenge for May

Also, here is my CJ challenge for the month of May. This month's challenge was to use 10 items from your stash. Yeah, since my stash is huge, I had no trouble doing this. I took it even further and all of my items used in the Layout are from my stash. Most of them came from Kerry Lynn's kit club - Kenner Road.


Pattern paper is October Afternoon and My Minds Eyes. Cardstock is Bazzill. Letters: American Craft and My Little Shoebox.

I love the red, white and blue, it all came together perfect for the photo of my family on Mom's and myself US Citizenship day.

Life is crazy...

So I have been told that I haven't updated my blog in forever. It truly has been a long time. But I swear there has been very little time for me. I'm overwhelmed. Work is extremly busy, I have been in training for the past 2 weeks. Had tons of stuff to do for scrapbooking assingments. Completed my CJ challege for the month. So right now I'm officially burnt out. I have no creative juices, I'm overly tired. What did I do, I scheduled a weekend, more like 5 days where I have nothing to do. No places to be nothing. I will be cleaning my scrap stuff, but that is it. No work, no nothing.

I'm so grateful that everything is great. I'm in the middle of my "30k tune-up" or as everyone else knows it yearly physical, eyes, women's health, etc. Everything is good. Have to loose weight, but I knew that. Just got a few more appointments to get thru and hopefully everything comes back good. Which BTW, if you are the person who is drawing blood from me and I tell you "Ouch that hurts as you poke me with the needle" it really means that hurts can you not hurt me any more. I bruise easily. I have a bruise for over a week that it looks really bad from the girl that drew blood from me and she said to my comment of pain, "you're OK", not I'm not ok. look at my arm now. Geesh. Now I think people are thinking that someone hurt me because the bruise is really bad, it's been a week and it looks ugly.

Anyways, those are my ramblings as I'm wiped out. I hope to come out of this weekend rejuvinated. Here are some of my work for Garage Girl.

Friendship by the Sea...

This month's challenge was to use as many circles as you want. I have always enjoyed how Erin does a bunch of thin circles on her LOs so I sort of did that. I used Creative Imaginations paper that went perfect with the sunset photo of the group last year at the beach house. I also used the new Hambly overlay, Creative Cafe ruler paper, Maya Road chipboard word, some stickles and glimmer mist.



I also used the new binder border punch from EK Success. I had tons of fun doing this LO, I just got to figure out how to put it in my typewriter to journal.

I had a lot of fun yesterday at the Copic Certification. I'm now certified. Watch out, LOL. What I do know is that I need to practice a lot of my techniques to get bettter. And as with anything, I'm a shopaholic step one, now I "need" more cool tools to use my copics.

As I write this, my parents are in flight, my sister called me to let me know that they had left El Salvador. If you read this before 1 am tonight, pray for them to have a safe flight. I can't wait to see them.

Have a great day.

I'm tired...

Well, it has been a while since my last update. I know, I'm really busy and sometimes forget to update until someone reminds me. But my parents made it ok to El Salvador, they come back on Friday. I'm excited to see them and see all the pictures and hear the stories. Kitties are doing great. Misifu no longer has the lump on her leg. She will most likely never be vaccinated again, so we don't run the risk. Diasque is doing great with his diabetes. I think we have him under good regulation. He is not going to be seen by the vet until July. Me I'm tired, this week I will be working really early. I was at work this morning at 5 am. On Wednesday I'm going to a Copic Markers certification. I have loved these pens since I first hear about them. I have quite a collection, but don't know how to use them correctly, Maria took this cert in Vancouver last year, so I know I will be learning some cool stuff. Shelly is also going with me.

Also thanks to Laurie G. I got a spot to Creative Escape. I'm excited, I even got the time off. Hopefully nothing prevents me from going. I can't wait to get my creativeness going on.

this past weekend I taught my message board class, all of the students were great. They went home with a wonderful project. Some were even gifts. We finished the class early, which is a first for me. I never, ever finish ontime. I went home to clean up my "corner" mess in the living room and tried to pull stuff for the garage sale that started yesterday and goes until Thursday at Picture ME Perfect. There were some great deals. I came home with canvas but I need nothing else, I have way too much. Wow I probably could have a garage store like Suzy had before with all of my stuff. Let's not talk about cardstock, way too much. I don't need any cardstock, but specially pink, green, blue, orange and purple. Way too much. I'm hoping once I'm all organized and cleaned up my huge mess of scrap stuff that I will be able to kit things before going to scrap. Let's cross my fingers. So this goal of cleaning my mess is the one that is hard to keep up with. Along with exercising more.

Well hopefully everyone is having great time. I will post soon my CJ challenge, it has been done for about 3 weeks but haven't had the time to scan it in. I will share soon.

Have a great week.

Wow that took a long time...

I just finished checking them in. That process bites. Their software was annoying it kept booting me out. Wow, I made a mistake and will have to get it taken care of tonight at the airport. But I got them checked in and seats where they wanted, up front, daddy on the window and mom on the aisle. Now on to sleep for the next 3.5 hours until kitty needs food/insulin. Today, shhhhhhhhhhhh don't tell my boss, I might be too tired and taking cat naps...LOL

April's GG Assignments...

Since, I want to make sure I'm done with all my projects as soon as possible, I also just finished my April Garage Girls assignments.

GG March 09 Assignments...

I totally forgot to post my Garage Girl Assignments. I love them, I'm so surprised that I have been getting all of my layouts done with out a problem, but I think that using 8.5" x 11" really makes it easier. I'm not stuck anymore, it must have been the "sqare" format. Anyways here are my March layouts and card:

Must keep busy until 135 am...

So my parents are leaving for 3 weeks Friday (early morning, 135 am to be exact). They are going to El Salvador to visit family. I'm really excited that they are taking vacation, but I'm also really scared. El Salvador is still a country with a lot of problems, people stealing with no shame, kidnapping, etc. So I hope and pray that they are ok and enjoy themselves for 3 weeks. They have plans to spend Holy week in Guatemala, my mom says that they celebrate it beautifully. So right now, I'm staying up until 135 am to check them into the flight and get them seating together. The airline let's you check in 24 hours before the flight. GRHHHHHHHHH. So I really have to keep busy. I'm going to be posting other stuff to make time go by quickly.

Where have I been the past few weeks...

FOREWARNING: Long personal post about this crazy life that is mine...

Well lets start off by saying work is incredibly busy, just like I knew it would be all this year and for a few to come. It's great to be busy and have so much to learn. But sometimes when you need time off it's not so great. You will soon know what I'm talking about. But since my work hours are flexible, I can fix my schedule as I need.

I got this terrible cold that took over me for a week. I can't even remember when, but it was bad. I was in bed for 2 days. All better now.

Misifu, my other kitty, she is a 7.5 year old Calico, has a lump on her right rear leg. When I first noticed it was pretty big. I think the vet said it was 1" x 2". I have been really watching all of my pets, checking them out being more vigilant and that's the reason why I felt that lump. We took her into the vet and she wasn't too worried and said to watch it over for a month and see if it grows or if we wanted she could aspirate it to find out what was in it. She still said she wouldn't do anything she still wanted to watch her for a month. So that's what we decided, just watch her for a month. In a week her lump has gotten smaller, I compare it now to the size of a pea. The vet is thinking is a reaction from the vaccines that she received in January. We'll know in April. But it looks good. Granted she still gave me a scare last Friday when I got home. She was limping from the same leg she has her lump. But I think she and Diasque got into a cat fight because he was crying from one eye and was a little swollen. By the next morning they were both back to normal.

Diasque has been doing great with his insulin. We have him regulated, I have been checking his urine for ketones and sugar levels. Both are negative, yippie!! He is letting us give him the shots easier than before. So a big victory there. We have had a few times when he is just fed up, but we get thru it. He is back to being an overjoyed kitty and plays all the time.

This week was especially hard. On Monday night my dad was admitted to the hospital. Around noon he was out for his normal walk, and he felt shortness of breath, chest pain and dizzy like he was going to faint. He went back to his car and he says that it just got worst, including pain down his left arm. He drove himself home and went to his room to try to get a blood pressure reading and the machine wouldn't work. I'm guessing his blood pressure was going crazy. He felt better about 20 minutes after that and was finally able to get a reading, he said that it was around 150/90. Because he felt better, he didn't tell my brother who was home, he went to pick up my mom later and didn't really tell her the full glory details. I got home around 730pm, just in time to give Diasque his insulin shot, when my mom tells me that I need to talk to my dad because he had a bad day and that he needs to tell me all of it. I tried to get him to talk to me but he wouldn't. After about 15 mins he started telling me. Suzy and Pattie were waiting for me outside to go to our usual La Fondue night. I sent my brother to tell them that I couldn't go with them. As I'm learning all of these things, I keep telling him if what he felt was the same way he felt before he had his cardiac arrest and whether his defibrillator had given him a shock. He said that it was different and that no he hadn't had a shock. But seriously, classic heart attack symptoms. Then he tells me that he still feels a little of pain on his left side of the chest. HELLO DAD let's go to the hospital right now or better yet 8 hours ago. We get at it, he is not budging, saying that they won't see him until maybe around 1 or 2 in the morning. I'm really stressed and walk away, my mom continues and she comes to me a little later and says that she almost has him convince that I should try again. I go and tell him, and he finally agrees.

We get to the ER, he is not even done with the admitting nurse and the triage nurse is calling his name. The triage nurse is not even done and he is already being taken to a trauma room. All of the nurses and doctors told him the same thing: "DO NOT WAIT THIS LONG, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HAVING A HEART ATTACK FOR THE LAST NINE HOURS" They did an EKG within 5 minutes, had him on oxygen and a heart monitor. His BP was still pretty high 160/94 or so, 94% on oxygen, 64 heart beats per minute. They ran a bunch of labs. The time went by fairly quickly, I think the ER doctor came in about an hour after we got to the ER. She said that they weren't sure if he had a heart attack but because of his history they were going to admit him, she was going to wait on the lab results, but most likely he would be admitted. Around midnight the admitting doctor came into see him and told us he was being admitted. That the test didn't show a heart attack but they wanted to run some more test the next day and do a stress echo. They only thing they found was that his potassium was a little low, but not dangerously low. So they gave him 2 horse pills of potassium. His breathing was better quickly 99% with the oxygen tank and his chest pain was taken care by Morphine. By the next day he was breathing without the oxygen tubes. He was in the hospital until last night. They didn't find any signs of a heart attack from the lab tests and the stress echo didn't reveal anything new. So they sent him home. He is so much more happy to be there. But seriously, I hope he has learned that when it comes to the heart, don't wait, just go. I even mentioned the case of Natasha Richardson on our way home. It's such a sad story, that I'm sure happens more often than we know. My dad could have been the same too, we never know.

So after all this, if you are still reading this. Please make sure to go see a doctor whenever you feel something is not right. Don't hesitate to go the ER if it's an emergency or urgent care after hours. My dad was lucky that it wasn't a heart attack, what they believe might have happened is that he overworked himself and as he was walking he was asking too much of his heart and his heart couldn't take it, so he needs to take it easy.

I'm excited that tomorrow will be a day of scrappin' all day long. I'm going to scrapbook expo and do the 8am-1130pm all-day crop with Debbie, Rhonda, Patty and Eva. I have even asked my family to help me with Diasque's insulin shot at night so I can stay the whole entire time. It should be so much fun. I have to finish a project. Hopefully tonight I can sleep, as this entire week I haven't been sleeping much.

Take care and hug your loved ones and make sure you tell them how important they are to you.

Live today as if there is no tomorrow...

Since I still don't know when I'm leaving to France, I decided to keep up with my obligations and try to finish early. With that I completed my March entry to the CJ Challenge. This month we had to use favorite quote or scripture. I decided to use a quote, "Live today as if there is no tomorrow", it really captures how I hope to live my life, hence the title of my blog.

Here is what I created:


It's a 12x12 Canvas. I used the K&Co Cut-n-Paste Paper line, I used the plain paper as my base and the glitter paper (same design) I cut it up and used pop dots to give me dimension. I also used pearls galore of all sizes. I cross-stitched over tulle and over some letters. Used some vintage music sheet, ribbon and lace. I glimmer mist the canvas with Vintage Pink, it worked so great with my colors. The chipboard letters were also glimmer misted with Olive Green. I love how it all came out. It's so shabby chic. I just love those colors, pink, green and ivory/pearl.

Enjoy.

Are you addicted to FACEBOOK?

I read this article and can think of at least 2 people who are. Are you one of them? Read below:

10 warning signs that you may be addicted to Facebook

1. Facebook is your home page.

2. You update your status more than twice a day.

3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met.

4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone.

5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you

a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo.

b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile)

c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!

6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year=old girl.

7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article.

8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB.

9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going.

10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people.

Ok, I'm not totally addicted, but I'm involved. It's pretty cool to be able to keep in tabs with old friends. This morning, even on XM radio they were talking about it. So are you addicted?

P.S. Yes, I already told one of them that she needs to say... HELLO I'M _________________ AND I'M ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK. Now the other one I won't be seeing her for a while, at least until July, she is enjoying being Irish. She is responsible for me staring Facebook.

Mini Class Kit...

Thanks so much to everyone who donated the $5 mini-class at the AHA Crop for Marshall. We collected $115.00, all of it going to the American Heart Association. If you didn't attend the crop, you can still make a $5 donation and get the kit at the store. I'm so proud to have been part of such a wonderful cause, it's so dear to my heart as my dad's side of the family all have had heart issues. All in all around $2000 were raised. For those of you that were in a groove and didn't take the class. Here are the photos.




Thanks again.

Things Change...

So my trip to Cannes, France has been postponed. I'm really excited that I will be at the American Heart Association Crop for Marshall on Sunday at Picture Me Perfect. It should be so much fun.

Diasque is doing ok, he has up and downs, with Diabetes we have to be very careful of his surroundings and any of his behavior. He started to drink and urinate more so I had him tested on Sunday and his blood sugar was around 350. So the vet told us to give him an additional unit of insulin at each shot. Today, I noticed that his back claw was still injured from earlier this year. So I took him in and had to stay at the vet as they were too busy to see him at his appointment time. It worked out for the best, his usual vet saw him. He was tested for glucose, ketones and looked at his claw. He is good to go and we are trying to keep him in under control. All his test were negative, no infection, no ketones and his blood sugar level is lower, around 280, not best, but he was stressed at the vet. So we are going on the right place, he still hates his shots. So if anyone has ideas on how to give him his shot without fighting and biting, please let me know.

Also, because I was leaving, I had finished all my projects ahead of time. Here are my assignments for Garage Girl, it's using one of the newest My Little Shoebox: Turtles and Trees Line





Enjoy.

February Challenge

This year I knew it was going to be a busy one so I didn't want to commit to something that if I can't complete it, then someone would be short my part. So I didn't want to do any more circle journals. I guess others were in the same boat as me in the group of Seasoned Circle Journal. There are 9 girls that are participating this year. Each month one person host the challenge and we are all to complete it by the 25th of the month. This month, Patti is hosting, who is also our den mother this year as Patty is taking a well deserved break from den mother duties.

This month challenge is to create something with green, blue and brown and with a red heart. Here is my take:


I decided to do a layout about my parents. I'm so lucky to have them in my life that who else can I celebrate about love than their love for eachother.

Here are the supplies I used:

My Little Shoebox
-Enjoy Life Line - Circle of Friends
-Red Lipstick Mini letters
-Cricket Sprinkle Glazed letters

American Crafts
-Character Line - Herald
-Craft Line - Elenore Battington
-Green Ribbon

Bazzill
-In Stitchz - Formal Flourish
-Parakeet Cardstock
-Parakeet Thread
-Red Flower

Hambly Lime Green Mini Graph Transparency
Fiskars Border Punch - Scallop Sentiment
Heart Doily
Bling

I cut out the center of the Circle of friends paper. Using the green graph transparency, layer all the other pattern papers and trim around to remove the excess. Using a sewing machine stich with read thread around the entire circle. All the pattern paper is scalloped using the Fiskars border punch. I used green thread (all 6 strands) and stitched with the pattern from In Stichz on the brown, Elenore Battington paper. For the flower medallion, I cut a 1"x12" parakeet cardstock. Fold every 1/4 of a inch. Adhere both ends together and a flower medallion is made.

I just love all the layers and textures in this layout. I'm so lucky to have so many people around me that influence my creativity. I learn from each of them

Enjoy.

Prayers for my friend...

My friend and her family are in real need for prayers to go thru this very trying time, her family member passed on this past weekend. She is not ready to talk about so if you can all please help me pray for her and her family. Thanks so much.

Crop in Memory of Marshall

If you are one of the lucky people that is attending the Crop in Memory of Marshall at Picture Me Perfect on Sunday February 15th from 10am-8pm. Here is a little sneak of the make-n-take I have designed and will be donating to every attending cropper.



There are a few extras and we'll be offering each kit for a $5 donation to the American Heart Association.

I'm so sad that I will be missing this event. Debbie has planned a fun filled event. My job is sending for 2.5 weeks to Cannes, France from February 14th - March 3rd. So Erin is going to teach this mini class in my place. Thanks Erin for helping out.

How to personalize your blog...

Well as promised, I have looked for information on how to change the layout of your blog. I found this great youtube video from http://www.digital-photography-how-to.com/.

Changing your layout


Adding/Removing/Changing page elements


Adding Widgets


I usually do a search on yahoo for "free blog templates" and find the one that I like and copy the HTML file. Make sure you do save a back up of your current blog layout in case something doesn't go right. I know it happened to me so I just restored it and started again. Enjoy. I'll be looking to see how many of you change you layouts.

Update...

Hello everyone, I have been pretty busy, as always, my kitty, Diasque is doing great. His insulin shots are working out great, yesterday the vet said that she won't see him for another 2 to 3 month. Yippie!!! He now hates his carrier, where before he used to love going into it. I'm still getting used to giving him his shot, I feel bad when he meows that he doesn't like getting poked or when he looks like he's choking from him horse pill for potassium. Only 4 more days of that pill and then only insulin shots. I'm going to post about how to change your layout. Stay tuned.

Well have a great week everyone.

So Blessed...

Today has been such a wonderful day. At 1027am, this morning I officially became a US Citizen. My mom and I were among 1354 people who were given the oath of naturalization, we were all from 102 different countries. It was such an emotional day. I don't have my camera right now, otherwise I would post some wonderful pictures that Suzy took of us. Also, I'm too tired right now to go and grab all the notes that Linda took for me with all the details of today, but that's how I know the time. I was way too emotional, I always cry when they sing "Proud to be an American" and today, I couldn't even sing it. I was bawling. Great day. Then the girls at PMP threw me a "Citizenship Party" at the store and it was so much fun, but couldn't stay that long as we got the greatest of all news today. Diasque was going to be released at 730pm. Thanks everyone who attended, I appreciate everyone who was there. Thanks so much.

My kitty is home, he is sleeping in my bed just like always and he is almost back to normal. He will be on insulin shots for the rest of his life. But he is alive and well. Too cute, I will try to take pics of him and his "battle wounds". But he is here and just like his old self. I'm so happy.

Thanks again for all you prayers, comments, emails, calls. They have been so great to read and to help me go thru this time.

Have a great day.

Today is a better day...

Well today, we have made history. President Barrack Obama has taken office.

Diasque is doing better. He is still not eating and they are saying if we can get him to eat, then he can come home. I will visit him tonight, and try to get him to eat anything, tuna, shrimp or turkey deli slices he likes. I will talk with the vet tonight and see how his doing.

Thanks everyone for the nice thoughts calls, emails, comments and prayers. I'm so happy to have such great network of supporting friends. I'm truly blessed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day too. It's finally the day we have been waiting my mom and I for the last nineteen years, one month and one day. I will become an official US Citizen. YEAH!!!! I'll even have my own professional photographer, LOL, my dear friend Suzy is going to be taking photos at the Oath Ceremony.

I will try to update on Diasque status. Thanks again.

When it rains it pours...

My heart is so broken right now. My precious little Diasque is not doing so well. He is at the Vet hospital as we speak getting treated for Diabetes. He has a really bad case, so they are giving him IV and insulin to try to regulate his blood sugar level. He will be there for the next 3 or 4 days. If he makes it he will most likely be on insulin for the rest of his life. I had noticed the signs, drinking more, peeing more, I mentioned it to the vet on his annual checkout and she diddn't seem too concerned and did mention that maybe if he keeps peeing that much we should run some test. But things occured too quikly from then to even catch up with her. I'm writing all the details below as a way for me to track his issues.

On Friday January 9, we gave him his annual shots and he must have had an allergic/antibiotic reaction to the vaccines and he scratched a patch off his fur near where one of the shots was give on Sunday January 11. By Wednesday night, January 14 he started to sneeze, so we called his regular vet and he was seen on Thursday, January 15. He was on steroids and he seemed ok that night, little sneezing. It all started to go bad this past Friday January 16 when he stopped eating and drinking. On Saturday we tried to give him food but just didn't eat much. So we force fed him a little bit to try to get him to eat but to no help. On Sunday we took him into another vet as my vet is not open on Sunday or Monday, around 9am because he didn't look good. We explain all the symptoms and the Vet thought he would bounce back and upped his does of steroids and gave him an appetite stimulant. But still he just didn't look any better and today we took him in again in the morning. The vet was at a loss and told us that he would like to do blood work. Around noon, he called us back and told us that he has Diabetes. And it's an emergency, he needs IV and insulin to control it. He would stay in the vet hospital for 3-4 days. Tonight, I'm going to go see him and bring him some food hopefully he will want to eat and he is better.

I know I have been pretty needy in the last months about prayers, but can you please pray for Diasque that he is able to bounce back from this little detour. Here he is, one of my favorite photographs of him.


Have a good day, I'll try to keep everyone updated.

Check this out...

My Little Shoebox (MLS) is releasing six different lines this CHA-W, which is at the end of the month in Anaheim, CA. Suzy is the lead designer for MLS and has asked me to design two projects using two different lines. I got my first project complete and I'm so excited as it will also be my April class at Picture me Perfect. The message board is using the line called: Flawless. Enjoy. I will post my other project when I get it finished.


Also, many of you have commented on my blog layout. I will find a mini tutorial to explain how everyone can update their layout. But it will be maybe next week, as work is really busy and have to complete other stuff too.

Have a good one.

What a start of a year...

I can't believe that the new year is in full force. It's going by so quickly. I have tons of stuff to do as always, but it's coming along. So many things planned for the upcoming year, with work, with scrapping.

I have been in purging mood, since Thanksgiving, that I was hoping I would finish during the Christmas break. But it didn't happen because I got sick with a cold and just stayed in bed all day. I guess it was good I got a break, but I really want to be over with the purging and organizing. We had a garage sale this week at Picture Me Perfect. It was great to see that some of my stuff is going to be used rather than just gathering dust in my room/garage. I still have more to purge but slow steps are in order. I may even show a picture of my garage once it's all clean and organized with my scrap stuff.

Last night, I got to scrap for the first time since last year, I can't even remember since when, and it was so much fun. I finished my two garage girl assignments. They came out great. I love them. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with each of them and I love them. Check them out:



The Sparky layout was very helpful and therapeutic. It has probably the best photo I ever took of him, it's my favorite. We just got his ashes back on December 30th. It was difficult day for us, but we know he is now in a better place. So we are trying to move on. As part of my self-imposed therapy to help me move on from Sparky's passing, I went to see Marley and Me with Suzy, Janice, Victoria and Maria. I cried non-stopped, but it helped me with closure. It's a great movie, well done, I can't believe how close it is to the book. I haven't read the entire book, only the chapter that deals with Marley's passing as I got the book the day after Sparky passed. I know I will read the book soon. It's such a great book. We miss our buddy, but it's getting better everyday.

As I mentioned last week, my dear Michelle lost her superhero of a husband, Marshall, on December 27th. I'm so proud to belong to a very special group of scrapping ladies that came together and helped as much a we could. With that note, my friend, Debbie is hosting a crop in Marshall's memory at PMP on February 15th, 10am-8pm. For more details go here or email Debbie. All proceeds will go to the American Heart Association. If you are in the area and can't make it you can still donate. I will be doing a demo during the crop. So come by and check it out.

Also, my class is coming up on Saturday January 24th at 2pm. Sign up for it at the store.

So, I'm one of the thousands of people who tried to get the Becky Higgins kit for the 365 Project, luckily, I got one of the kits and have been trying to take a picture a day. If I can't take the picture that day I have a spreadsheet where I make a note of what I wanted to take the picture so I can take it on another day. So far it has been working. I'm excited to be getting the kit and completing it this year.


I have been awarded the Lovely Blog Award from my friend Patti.

Rules of this award:

1. Add the logo to your blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.
4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog”

Now to choose 7 blogs to pass this award on to:
Erin
Kristin
Nicole
Lizz
Laurie
Noel
Satyn

One last note, I'm officially becoming a US Citizen on Wednesday January 21st, 2009. I'm so excited. Can't wait for the day to come.
Hope you have a great week.