Wow, I lose internet access for several days and look what happens while I'm off-line...Kerry of http://kerrydawaydesigns.blogspot.com/ nominated me for the Kreative Blogger Award. Now how cool is that? Especially since I am quite the newbie blogger. THANKS KERRY!

Now there seems to be several expectations placed on this award, those being:

* Thank the sender for nominating you.

* Include a link to the person's blog who nominated you.

* Copy the logo onto your blog.

* List 7 interesting facts about yourself.

* Nominate 7 more Kreativ Bloggers

* List links on your website

* Leave a message on their blogs letting them know they've been nominated.

Who am I really? Have I done something interesting you might not already know about? Hmmm, let's see. Did you know...

1. My first paying job was scooping ice cream and designing party cakes for Baskin & Robbins Ice Cream parlor. I made a whopping $1.65/hour.

2. I parachuted out of a plane when I was just 18 years old. I came home for the weekend and did it without telling my parents til afterwards, because I didn't think they'd let me.

3. I was robbed at gunpoint TWICE when I worked as a cashier at Safeway when I was a college student.

4. I went to Egypt and climbed to the top of the pyramids when I was 20 years old.

5. I told my husband when I met him that if we chose to have children I'd have twins. Six years later we had twin boys born during a blue moon with snow falling.

6. In 35 years I've only owned 3 cars: a Ford Pinto (13 years), a Honda Civic (13 years) and now a Mazda MPV van (9 years and counting).

7. I once went to Bali for 21 days to assist with a seminar on only 4 days notice and I had to secure a passport in that time. I didn't even realize they spoke a different language until I did a crash course in Indonesian on the plane.

Enough tidbits about me, now for the fun part--nominating other bloggers! If I pick someone who has already been nominated please feel free not to repeat the steps. Blogging should be fun not a chore. I enthusiastically nominate:

1. http://stefstyleblog.blogspot.com/ Her Photoshop skills just leave me with my mouth open, and she is so helpful and fun.

2.http://common-sense-scrapbooking.blogspot.com/ Who can't help but be drawn to someone who adopts 4 kids at once and still manages to keep her sense of humor and finds time to scrap?

3.http://memories-that-matter.blogspot.com/ Kat is an avid scrapper and currently preparing her Christmas album which I'm just not organized enough to do yet, so I'm in awe of her.

4.http://jbond-janesblog.blogspot.com/ Jane likes color on her layouts and is great about scrapping pages I never think to do like beautiful fall days.

5.http://scrappygram.blogspot.com/ Deanna is grandmother to 14! Her daily LO's document her grandkids days and you'll usually find a bird on her page---her signature mark.

6.http://onpicnichill.blogspot.com/ Janelle along with Kerry just joined the new Creative Team at Two Peas in a Bucket http://twopeasinabucket.com/. Check out her awesome layouts in the digital gallery.

7.http://jenniferann75.blogspot.com/ Jennifer Martakis, another main player at Two Peas in a Bucket, is flooding the market with great new templates and digi-scrap kits. This is one very creative and busy lady.

Now I'm off to let them know. Happy blogging everyone.

Gobble till ya Wobble

Did you eat too much on Thanksgiving? My mom fixed a big turkey with all the trimmings and the two salads which we always have as part of our Thanksgiving meal but never any other time of the year--orange jello with shredded carrots and pineapple and fruit salad in Cool whip. I love both of them and usually finish off the leftovers by the end of the evening...burp! Excuse me!

I decided to scrap a few miscellaneous photos from this year's holiday to highlight some of the special moments about Thanksgiving. Here is my list of 26 items that I'm thankful for this year.
1. My mom
2. My kids
3. A chance to be with family
4. Great food
5. My favorite fruit salad
6. Orange jello salad with carrots & pineapple
7. My mom welcomes guests for holidays
8. New friends
9. Teasing each other at the dinner table
10. Pumpkin pie afterwards
11. Kids watching movies in extra bedroom
12. Puppy dogs looking cute
13. Scouring Black Friday ads to wee hours of the morning
14. Staying up all night
15. Quiet time on the computer to scrap
16. Kids playing board games after dinner
17. Late night snacks on dinner leftovers
18. Not having to cook dinner myself
19. Eating all the mashed potatoes I want
20. Talking to family long distance on the phone
21. Special time with Mom washing dinner dishes
22. Walking the dog,seeing who has Christmas lights up already
23. Visiting with the neighbors
24. Mom babysitting boys so I can Christmas shop
25. Hanging with Mom all the next day watching old movies
26. Listening to books on tape to and from Mom's with my boys

Now to go see if there is any pumpkin pie left?

Happy Thanksgiving

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

I love you VERRY much!

I didn't get picked for the team this time...but a lot of great talent did. Am I disappointed? Of course. I had already envisioned hanging the title 'CT for 2 peas" on my blog, but will it change how I scrap or how often? No. I scrap because I love it. It just means I wont' be adding more stash--well stash I'd otherwise have to purchase, to my collection and I'll have to keep refining my skills to continue to create my own digital elements. Nothing bad about that.

I'm practicing how to not take rejection personally. I know I have my own eclectic talent and I'm content with my artistic expression. It's sometimes hard to remember to give myself approval instead of looking for affirmation from the outside. But I appreciate praise, maybe too much, given my fine tuned co-dependency nature. This is just one more opportunity to accept let down gracefully. Besides how can I be sad when I am blessed with two little boys in my life who express their love daily through hugs, kisses, cuddles and occassionally cards?

I love this early attempt from Owen as he was learning to write. He may have a missplaced "r" but the sentiment is loud and clear. So how can I be sad for long when I have so much love in my life?

Anticipation

Anticipation...is making me wait! Today Two Peas in a Bucket is announcing their new creative team. I applied and now I wait, drumming my fingers on the desktop, refreshing the Digital Scrapbooking message board posts and checking my email. Will I be one of the chosen to showcase Two Peas designers' products? So many of my digi friends have applied. There are so many talented folks out there. I don't know how they will even decide between us. But if I don't make it, nothing has been lost. However I've gained a great deal just in applying. I was motivated to start this blog, thus learning yet another skill. I've been chatting with the other anxious digi-scrappers online and thus have broaden my field of virtual friends. You never can have too many friends even if they are virtual, right? And I've boosted my self-confidence simply by putting myself out there. It really isn't about whether I am selected, it's about feeling good enough to apply. Now don't misinterpret my words, I DO WANT TO BE SELECTED, but the hard part has already been done. Now back to waiting....waiting....waiting!

Christmas through a child's eyes

Everyone is talking about the holidays, especially Christmas, even though the turkey hasn't even been cooked for Thanksgiving yet. There are discussions about whether or not one will participate in the Black Friday sales and each store seems to open earlier than the next to try to outmanuver each other. Christmas is just coming too quickly. Heck I still haven't taken the Halloween costumes out of the back of the car yet. But in an effort to start fostering that Holiday mood, I remembered how much I liked Christmas as a kid. Now my own boys look forward to the holiday and let's not fool anyone, they like the presents. Looking back a few years, I found these drawings done by my son, Noah, when he was 6 year's old. I remember how he'd draw Santas, reindeer and Christmas trees with presents over and over in anticipation of the big day. After all Christmas is such a kid holiday. So here's a glimpse of Christmas through a child's eyes. It does have a magical quality to it, don't you think?