I'm a Hunny!!! :D

I finally get to share my big news! I’m now a member of Haynay’s Hunnies CT! See the new blinkie? -> LOL!

Here's the list of all of us new Hunnies:


She does some amazing stuff, as you can see here at her Haynay Designs store: http://scrapmatters.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=52

I’m so excited to be on her team…….she’s got a new kit coming out tomorrow (Friday) and a grab bag for National Scrap Day (which I think is technically Tuesday, but I'm pretty sure the grab bag goes on sale tomorrow as well), so I’ll show you soon what I’ve done with all that! The grab bag is WELL WORTH it, btw, you’ll totally want to snag it up! :D So that was my big news…..I’ve been pretty busy this week getting to know the other gals on her team and admiring (ahem, scraplifting!) all of their work….and downloading all her stuff of course!

So that was my big news......back tomorrow with the layouts I've done and to celebrate (inter)National Scrap Day '09!! woohoo!! :D

Gallbladders are SO unecessary! :D

So yes, I'm a little later than usual with the blogging, as dear SIL and DH pointed out to me earlier this afternoon! But anyways, here I am!

And as I left off last week, we were headed out to celebrate Karl's big "3-4"......so Sunday night, we went out for Karl’s birthday…he had spent the afternoon shooting his new WWII gun he’d gotten with a student and his father…..while I hung out at their house teaching the wife/mom how to digiscrap! I think I might have converted her too! :D Then we went to dinner at a Japanese place, and here’s a layout of our dinner there:

When we got home from dinner, we had a quick piece of birthday cake for Karl before going to bed (which I put in the layout, even though it wasn't at the restaurant.....my layout, i can do whatever I want, darnit!) Happy Birthday Karl!

The rest of this week was kind of a blur really…..we did gymnastics lessons and flute lessons as usual. Thursday night, my parents came out to help out for the weekend as I was having surgery on Friday morning.

Yay fun, surgery! Karl and I got up bright and early Friday morning to be at the clinic by 6:45…..when I got there, Dr. Wagner (who could seriously double for Tom Cruise in a movie, I swear) was waiting for me, so they flew me through all the pre-op stuff like you wouldn't believe. the ONE TIME I'm running late and a DOCTOR is early? What the heck? :D they wheeled me to the OR at 7:40, and I opened my eyes at 8:40, minus one gallbladder! I dozed off again and about an hour later, they gave me some water to drink and brought Karl back to see me, and a little after 10, someone was helping me get dressed and by 10:30 I was in the car on the way home!! We’ve been joking about “getting fries with” my “drive-thru surgery” all weekend!!! :D It was definitely a quick turnaround, I’ll say that much!

Friday was Matthew’s class field trip to the high school in Jerseyville and since Karl and I were both occupied with my surgery, my mom went along to chaperone. I think they had a great time. The high school kids had fun too, entertaining the kindergarteners all day long. They made Puppy Chow in Home Ec, they made puppets, they planted a tomato plant, they painted pictures and tie-dyed t-shirts too. They even got to play some of the instruments in Band and sing on the stage in the auditorium. Matthew is CONVINCED that he needs his own drum set (Lord help us!), but I'm pretty convinced that not only can my nerves NOT handle that, but we have nowhere in this little house to put such a thing!

I know going to the local high school seems like a lame field trip, but the kids absolutely LOVE it!!! I remember that much from when I went with Alaina a couple years ago. Of course I sent a camera along, but was very leery of what I’d have to scrap with, as my mom’s not exactly well-known for being a good photographer…she’s the type that cuts off people’s heads and stuff like that! But there were plenty of good pictures, but sadly, I can’t post the layout yet (even though it’s done) because I scrapped it with a kit that doesn’t get released until the end of this week…..so check back later! :D (insert my evil laugh here! wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

Anyhoo, we got home from the clinic (my surgery wasn’t even in an actual hospital….it was like an office building…which I thought was kinda funny) around noon. I went straight upstairs to bed. We’d stopped to get some anti-nausea meds for me…..which didn’t help at all (since I couldn’t keep them down!), so I decided my best course of action was to just try and sleep it off as much as possible! So I basically laid around most of Friday afternoon and evening. I don’t remember much of it! We watched the Cards/Cubs game, and one of Karl’s former students ended up being the winning pitcher, which was cool! Go Cards! :D

Saturday, my mom took Alaina and Matthew to their swimming lessons, but since I couldn’t get in the pool with Zach and my mother’s terrified of water, he had to skip his water babies class. Ah well. I moved around a little more, going out on the porch to watch the kids play and such. It was a pretty lazy day for me really, but the nausea was gone, so I called it progress! Watched the Cardinals and Cubs play on TV again…..Cards won again, woohoo! Saturday night, we grilled out some dinner and watched Slumdog Millionaire with my parents…..Dad fell asleep and I’m not sure mom ‘got it’…..If it’s not a western or Cardinals’ baseball, my dad’s not interested!

Sunday, we had been invited to the First Communion of Alaina’s friend, Elsie. Elsie and her family came to Alaina’s baptism, so we decided we’d go to her First Communion. It was a nice service, and all the kids looked adorable! Then we went to their house for brunch, then home to change and head out for our afternoon activity: The science center! Unfortunately, we got stuck in “ballgame traffic”….which anybody that lives in St. Louis knows that’s the only REAL traffic issues we ever have….if there’s a ballgame downtown, all the bridges coming in from Illinois are just JAM PACKED! Took forever to finally get across the river, but once we did, we got to the Science Center with no problems.

We had a fun afternoon there….played around with some of the experiments there, looked at the exhibits, played in the discovery room….and watched the new IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon (really cool! I've decided that I need to go white water rafting down the Colorado....anyone care to join me?) Then we headed for home. Heard that the Cards lost to the scrubbies while we were inside the Science Center, so we were all kinda glad we missed out on that game! Headed home and watched some TV before bedtime, and that was the end of the weekend!

So here’s what I’ve scrapped this week….
With Vicki’s new kit, Punk Princess, I scrapped this layout of Alaina winning Student of the Month at school…she was SO PROUD of herself!


This is with another new kit from Vicki, a collab with Mel B Designs and Stacey’s Scraps, called Showers in Spring:


And for all the other stuff…….The China pavilion at Epcot:


The kids on our formal night on the cruise:


And brilliant me, my blessing for the week was perfect given recent events for myself……but again, in my brilliance…..I can’t post the layout yet ‘cuz the kit doesn’t get released until Friday. DOH! :D So I might post then, and I might just wait ‘till next Sunday, who knows! But I’ll post it eventually…..I’ll have to check out my SIL Nicole’s blog to see what week number we’re on, as I haven’t been keeping track at all, but she has! SOMEBODY has to keep me in line, right? :D
So that’s it for me for now……I’m slowly getting back to my old self….I’m sore and stiff from the surgery, and my stomach looks like a battlefield, but I’ll heal, and I’m glad the thing is gone….I’ll be back to my old self soon enough!

Spring is here at last!!!

I'm so glad to see these warmer, spring-like days finally here! It seems that it's been cold forever around here! I don't even mind some rain, as long as it's warmer out there.....I'm putting away the winter coats now, darnit! :D

So this week has been the usual....work/school, wash/rinse/repeat! :D We were going to go to the Science Center today after swimming lessons, but I threw my back out last night and it's still bothering me, so I didn't want to spend the afternoon walking around on it....I was diagnosed with some herniated discs a few years ago, so sometimes the back just bothers me. It STINKS getting old! I'm TOTALLY feeling it today! Plus, next weekend, Nanny and PawPaw will be visiting, and the kids decided it'd be more fun to go to the science center with them here. so that's the plan for next weekend......I'm having gallbladder surgery on Friday, so hopefully I'll feel like walking around by Sunday. I can bounce back that fast, right? We'll see! :D

I did get a few layouts done this week (I know, SHOCKING, isn't it?), so I'll just post those and head off to bed. I'm posting tonight vs. tomorrow because tomorrow we're meeting up with some friends of Karl's....he's going shooting with the guys, and us girls are going to digi-scrap...actually, I'm going to be teaching her HOW to digiscrap.....hopefully that goes okay! It's always nice to bring all those paper-schmaper scrappers into the digital age, kwim? :D Right Sarah? RIGHT! So that's about it for me for now....I really don't have anything cool that happened this week to talk about that I can think of.........I do vaguely remember looking out the front door one day and seeing 2 nekkid boy tushies as the older (Matthew) was trying to teach ther younger (Zach) how to pee in the grass. Yeah, having boys can be a real trip sometimes! When it gets warm, Matthew sees NO NEED to come and use the indoor facilities, kwim? And no (yeah, I'm kinda surprised too) I didn't take pictures of it. I have NO doubts it'll happen again.....and I'll grab the camera that time. :D

So anyways....pages to post:

First up, my only plug for this post.....Vicki's got a new kit coming out in her store tomorrow called "Flutterby Flowers".....that name just cracks me up. And the instant I saw it....well DUH, I just had to scrap this:


This is Minnie's Butterfly Garden that they set up at Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival that was going on while we were there. All the flowers they had growing all over the place made me feel pretty inadequate, as I can't seem to grow much more than a few impatients in baskets out on the porch! :D

Next up....the last of the Easter layouts.....here's the kids coloring eggs:

And all of us on Easter Sunday dressed up..........

you can kinda see it in the family picture (if you're looking), but the security tag on Alaina's dress is still on it! Grrrrr......I sent hubby back to Macy's Monday to get it taken off for the next time she wears it and he told them she wore it to church like that and they gave us a full refund 'cuz they felt so bad she had a security tag hanging off her dress for Easter Sunday! COOL! I should distract the saleslady the next time I buy a dress so she leaves the tag on, kwim? :D but yay for Macy's!!! Nice customer service there!

And here's the kids' Easter baskets (and the lamb cake I slaved over)


And since that caught me up with regular life stuff....I went back to our vacations to do a few layouts.......here's a couple from our cruise back at Christmas:
Us playing mini-golf up on the top deck of the ship.....and yes, Matthew is wearing reindeer ears...they made them at Camp Carnival (for any parents that go on cruises, we just LOVE Camp Carnival, don't we? yes, we do!)


Here's me and Karl on the first formal night.....It's always nice to get a picture of just the 2 of us sometimes:


And the second formal night....not AS formal as the first formal night.....and Karl and the kids were all pretty sick of pictures by this point, but I made them cooperate for this one shot!!!


And here's a few from our Disney World trip:

Meeting Tinkerbell:


And Rosetta:

and Silvermist:

and Belle:


And my blessing for the week......since Karl's birthday is Monday, he's my blessing for the week:


journaling: Karl is my best friend in the world. He knows me like nobody else does. He knows how to make me laugh when I really need to. He’s one of the most intelligent people I know and we love to sit and argue over nerdy-ambiguous things like the existence of black holes or time travel. He shares my love for traveling places, and together we’ve been all over the place and had a great time. Karl’s the best father I could have ever asked for. He loves playing around with the kids and knows how to get them to listen when I can’t He always tries to make my life easier by doing the lion’s share of the housework since he knows I hate it so much! He’s very supportive of anything I ever want to do, like digi-scrapping! I really couldn’t ask for a better guy as my husband. He’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. I love you, Karl!

So that's it........we'll be celebrating Karl's birthday tomorrow night......have a great week everybody!

Happy Easter from the Herman clan!!!

Happy Easter!!! I hope everybody's had a fun weekend like we have! :P

This last week was a little more relaxing than the previous weeks.....we're fully back into the groove after being back from vacation.......I've recovered from running around like crazy getting everything ready for Alaina's baptism last weekend....and so Easter weekend was kinda relaxing after all that, believe it or not!!!

We had the usual stuff this week.....work/school.....gymnastics and flute lessons. Karl and the kids didn't have school on Friday, so they got to sleep late and hang out with dad all day while mom was at work. Lucky!! They also don't have school tomorrow (Monday).....wish I got a 4-day weekend too!! :(

Wednesday was the Kindergarten Easter Bonnet fashion show. It's just too cute.....they pair the kindergarteners up with an older student and they make a 'bonnet' out of a paper grocery bag....so imagine how a big ol' grocery bag looks on a 5-year-old's head.....it was quite funny! They sang some easter songs and then they had an easter egg hunt and then some snacks back in their classroom. It was a lot of fun.....well worth skipping out on work a little early for! :P

Saturday we didn't have swimming lessons since the college was closed....and it also meant Karl didn't have to teach his class either....so we got some yardwork done. bah! I love having a big yard, but aside from planting flowers (which I haven't done yet), I'm not a big fan of the yardwork!!! Raking leaves is just NOT my idea of fun!! :P But it's done, so yay! Oh, and I made a lamb cake. not sure WHY this is a tradition for Karl, but he asked for it, so I made it:

We colored eggs Saturday night......

and got things ready for Easter morning when we'd have to be out the door early for church. Thankfully, our "sunrise" in our congregation is at 9:30, so we don't have to get up THAT early on Easter...yay....'cuz I cherish my sleepy time! :P We had a great service though....then we went to lunch with Barry and Jeanne at Red Robin afterwards....then home for naps! yay! I was so tired! :P

So here's the Hermans, all dressed up for Easter:

So that pretty much covers our week.......I've been trying to get caught up on my scrapping for this year so I can take full advantage of the sale they're having on printing layouts.....so I've got several pages to share:

Here's the egg hunt from last weekend:

Alaina getting rid of her booster seat since she's 8 years old now...

The Kindergarten Science night from a couple weeks ago:

Alaina's 8-year pictures I'm finally getting around to scrapping:

The Kindergarten Easter Program from this week:

And Alaina's baptism from last week....I really struggled with this layout since it was so important to me I didn't want to mess it up.....but I like how it turned out:

Here's my layout with Vicki's new kit, called 'Jurrasic Jungle'......I wasn't intending to scrap these pictures by themselves, but when I saw the "all boy" beads, these pictures just came to mind......everybody's got a picture of their kids like this, right?

And for my blessing this week....since it IS easter and all......journaling isn't really necessary, is it?

So that's it for now......have a great week!

Blessing catch-up!

I'm actually posting today like I said I would! I'm so proud of me! :D

Anyways, here's a couple layouts I should have posted yesterday but either they weren't done (the blessing) or I just plain forgot it was time to post (Vicki's new kit)

So.......Here's my layout with Vicki's new kit, called "Citrus Brights"......of the kids waiting on Daddy so we could leave for our first day at Disney World!! This layout also uses a template from the '2010 Calendar Vol 1' set by Sya's Blueprints....which I really need to start working on....I promised myself I'd do a calendar page each month so I wasn't scrambling at the end of the year to get a calendar made, and here it is, APRIL....and I've done nada. So like me! :D Anyways, here's the layout:



And this is my blessing for the week.....although the weather the last couple days isn't much proof...it really IS technically spring here....and spring is my favorite season (even with the allergies!).....

Journaling reads: Spring is my favorite season. Even with all the allergies and sinus problems I have, I love springtime! Waiting for all the flowers to bloom and seeing the trees bud out is like magic. Spring reminds me that everything is born anew again each year, rising from the dark cold winter just like Christ rose from his tomb. Spring is a beautiful time of year, and watching the world come to life again is a great blessing.

So that's it for now......

A Special Day for a very special little girl....

What an amazing day!!!

In our church, age 8 is the minimum age to be baptized…..so now that Alaina’s 8, she was eligible. She’d taken all the classes and was ready to become an ‘official’ follower of God. And as her parents, of course we were thrilled! It’s a big responsibility for Karl and I to make sure we’re raising her and her brothers to follow God and do the right thing….seeing Alaina choose to be baptized was like seeing your hard work pay off….we are so proud of her! She is such a sweet and precious child…..she is a little angel!

Here's our dear friend, Judy Loyd (who's a High Priest in our church) giving the baptismal charge to Alaina....I love how she came down into the congregation and spoke directly to her at times...it was so sweet:

Her baptism was also a big event because we’d asked my dad to baptize her. Karl and I were actually kidding when we told him he had to wear a black bowtie....He looks kinda like Colonel Sanders, don't ya think? :D

Dad's health isn’t that great, and he can’t walk very well anymore, so “just in case”, my brother Dean (also a Priest, like my father) went into the water with them in case my dad couldn’t physically handle the actual immersion part. Normally, it'd just be Dad and Alaina......and in the end, dad didn’t need Dean's help at all!

After her baptism, everybody else went downstairs for some snacks while I helped Alaina get changed…..

Next came her confirmation, by our dear friends Jeanne (who's an Elder) and Barry Murphey (High Priest):

Then she sang her solo……it was the sweetest thing EVER…..she sang it perfectly (unlike her mother who choked up and cried through HER solo earlier in the service! I’m such a sap like that! VERY glad I didn't let Karl video tape me!)

And yes, I am shooing Matthew away at the start of the song....because ALL WEEK LONG when Alaina would practice, Matthew would stand off to the side and either sing in a goofy voice mocking her or make faces at her trying to mess her up.....being the typical little brother I guess, but I didn't want to take the chance right then of him messing her up after she practiced so hard all week!!! And near the end, you can see him off to the side singing along and making faces....STINKER!!!!

After the confirmation was our communion service, and now that she was baptized…Alaina got to participate!

She was served the bread and the wine by her grandma Joyce (who's a Priest too):
Once the service was over, we had a potluck lunch in the basement. Karl and I had a cake made for Alaina, which was not only gorgeous, but super yummy too! (you know you want a piece!!)

Alaina had such a great day…she got lots of cards and lots of hugs from her family, friends, and our congregation. Her classmate, Elsie and her family came to help celebrate, one of Karl's coworkers came to share, and my entire family was there as well.

Here's one of her gifts from us....her very own 3-in-1:

It was such a blessed day for our family…

…for my eldest child to be baptized and for my dad to be able to baptize her…..it was so special to us all. I’ve almost stopped crying. Almost! :D

And now, for what I’ve scrapped this week……the only layout I got done was from Alaina’s birthday party a few weeks ago: I haven’t had time to do a blessing page yet, thanks to running around like a madwoman getting everything ready for today….hopefully I can get that done tomorrow. I finally did finish posting all the pics and such from our Disney vacation, so scroll down to the previous 7 posts if you want to check that out…..

Aside from getting ready for the baptism and getting back into the swing of things post-vacation, not much has been happening here. We took the kids to the easter egg hunt in Grafton yesterday (I'll post those pics later.....I feel like I've been on this thing forever!), and that was about it for the excitement around here! Just work/school/work/school for us!

And that's it for me for now!! Hopefully I'll post more tomorrow and maybe get some scrappin' done this week!!! :D later!