Going Home Layout

Another page for the boys' book.  This one documents our trip home.  After 9 weeks of waiting you'd think I deserved a smooth trek home....Well, I have to say that while it was anxiety filled, the Lord had his hand on us the entire day :)

Scrapvivor #4

The last phase of this challenge! I'm so excited about taking part in this contest! It really helped me to expand my creativity.  For this layout I needed to use the three tickets, yellow/pink/orange fiber, believe tag and yellow star.  The way the colors all worked out I got to use some new Basic Grey papers I just purchased on ebay.  I love Basic Grey papers, but this pack (June Bug) is a lot "wilder" than the patterned paper I usually use.  I also used a Spellbinders die for the butterfly - another of the supplies I love but haven't used!

Another Beyond the Rainbow Bridge

Princess Cleo...we'll miss you. I wish you didn't have to get so sick.  I wish you didn't have to deal with so many unstoppable tummy aches this spring...I'm glad you are at peace now, playing with 'Dini, somewhere Across the Rainbow Bridge. I already miss your constant nose checks - prancing around the house making sure your entire family was accounted for.  I'll miss watching you eat your dinner, laying on your tummy, bowl held between your forearms.  And I'll miss you playing outside, jumping up to grab a ball with your front legs, and darting and playing "tag" with my two-legged kids.  I love you, girl...I'll miss you...

Scrapvivor #3

I made it to round three! We had to use 4 yellow popsicle sticks, a floral frame (I cut the flowers apart), 3 real flower stickers and a decortive paper clip with a flower tab (by the sign stake).  I was especially stumped with what to do with the popsicle sticks & the floral frame, but I'm pleased with how it worked out!  BTW - really old picture from 1999. I had to dig for something I could use with all the pink flowers!

Scrapvivor #2

Challenge #2.  Had to use frame, flower, newspaper print bag and bottle top.  I sanded the frame then inked the frame and flower with distress inks.  I opended the newspaper print bag and crumpled it. The bottle top has purple writing on the top.  I flattened it and then used the backside - it came with the cork backing. I was very excited to be able to complete two things at once: another page for the boys' book and the Scrapvivor challenge.

Journaling reads: June 27, 2008 – After two years of waiting, we finally received the last piece of paperwork from the US Embassy in order to bring the boys home. A little, innocent-looking stack of papers, which mean so much! A quick goodbye party, packing up (easy since I’m living out of a suitcase!) and catch a plane out in the morning! The Krew will soon be united!

Introducing Curious George & Boots

Since we lost Chess we needed a new outside cat to help keep down the rodent population in the barns. Do these look like good mousers?  They were born on March 4th and recently weaned.  We're going to try to keep them on the porch until they get a little bigger so they will be better able to defend themselves from dogs and other animals.  I said I didn't a litter box in the house, and of course on night #1 they are sleeping in the laundry room (with the litterbox available inside of course). 
We also saw Greyhound Galore's Eli again today and met a new dog, Merc at the Tractor Supply annual adoption day...Seems that these little kittens might not be our only new additions this spring/summer.  If only I could find my cuddly little lap dog!

Scrapvivor #1

I signed up for a challenge with one of my scrapping groups called Scrapvivor - after the TV show Survivor.  Each week we use an envelope full of supplies to make a layout.  By vote, the layout with the least votes is excluded from participating in the subsequent layouts.  I didn't have a clue when I signed up how hard this would be! I ALWAYS start my layouts with a picture, or pictures, and then find supplies to coordinate.  This challenge forces me to start with the supplies and find picture(s) to fit.  TOUGH!  I found this old picture and thought it turned out okay - it was enough to progress to the next round! BTW - I was very excited about the layout I did for part 2, but I can't post it yet as the voting isn't complete.  I hope to have it up early next week!

Welcome to the CGW

The last 12 months have been tough.  First Kane got cancer and we had to put him down. Then the three outside dogs escaped from our fenced in yard and we were never able to find Pumpkin.  Then our mouser, Chess, got cancer and had to be put down.  And through all this our two indoor dogs, Chief and Cleo, continue to age.  I hate watching them get slower, less playful.  Chiefie's getting deaf & blind and his heart problems are making him cough all the time.  Then there's Cleo who's wasting away from chronic diarrhea.  And as the days go by they seem to slow visibly.  A month or so ago Chief and Cleo got into a fight over food (Cleo's prednisone was likely a contributing factor).  Now, we never know from meal to meal if either of them will eat - often one of us has to hold the bowl or even handfeed in order to coax them to eat.  This picture is of our weekly ritual of getting all their meds into the divided container for ease at feeding time.  Since then Cleo has added two more meds, one by injection.  It's so hard going thru the grieving process day by day, while they linger by our side...Welcome to the Canine Geriatric Ward.  We thank God for our time with each of our four-legged family members, and pray for guidance and strength in coping with our dwindling time with them.

The Lord God Made Them All

Another layout from my time with the boys in Haiti.  I loved taking walks down the road in front of the Orphanage.  The Haitians would stake out their animals along the roadside to graze on the grasses growing in the ditches.  So along your walk you could see pigs and goats eating or napping along the roadside.  They would also take their cattle to fields during the day and then herd them down the road in the late afternoon to bring them back home.  Several times I saw young boys about 7 or 8 trying to coerce a cow or two down the road.  There were also some chickens, roosters, horses and donkeys in the area.  For this animal lover, it was a lot of fun to see what animals you'd find each day.