Lynn’s Life, Love, and Leisure

Whoops!

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:37:01 -0700

Ok, so I completely forgot about my VOX account for a while. YIKES! It's not like I haven't been doing anything...

I started a blog over on blogger "Life According to the Wall Street Redneck's Wife" - that would be me, LOL.

Guess I'll have to try balancing things out a little more.

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Quit Enabling Me! (Not Really!)

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:32:21 -0700

Kmett_jbolt_bohopedd_all300

Honestly, I don't buy that many digital scrapbooking kits. My husband feels that fact that I've even purchased one is one too many. (We won't tell him how many I have really purchased!)

But now, there's this Digi Scrap Review. Ms. DigiScrap Review highlights one kit per day. I think I'm going to need a 12-Step Program - Ms. DigiScrap Review, please stop being my enabler!!!! ROFL

DigiPick of the Day sure doesn't help either. I've been reading Melissa's blog at least 2x a week for the past YEAR!! I've been a digital scrapbooker since February 12, 2006. I discovered Melissa's blog sometime during March 2006.

On 3/27, they both featured Bohemian Peddler by Krista Mettler and Jessica Bolton. I'm totally enamoured with this kit and MUST have it. Anyone want to send some money to my PayPal account? LOL Seriously. I can't do a lot of digital kit shopping, limited budget with a family of 8 (16 if you count the pets). I just have to get this kit!!

The elements are unique - this kit would definitely lend itself to some altered art projects. That's just what my husband needs... for me to take up making altered art projects out of my digital scrapbooking supplies!!

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ScrapbookGraphics: Fashion Week

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 06:06:09 -0700

Fashionweek

It's Fashion Week at ScrapbookGraphics! Fun... Fun... Fun!! Lots of great activities, challenges, and contests going on!

The highlight (imo) is tonight. Designer Debut!! Michelle Godin and Berna Datema are officially making their runway debuts tonight. Michelle is awesomely talented and I know that she's going to rock this industry, once she gets her wings! She's got some amazing freebies on her blog. Honestly, I haven't seen much of Berna's work, so I can't really support her the way I do Michelle.

Stop by the site and see everything that's going on! There's so much, I can't list it all here... but then, why would I when you can just follow the link to the site and check it out for yourself!

I'm so excited... I just hope I can get my pc to cooperate so that I can actually get into the chatroom!

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QotD: Strange Little Songs

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:42:17 -0700

What are the weirdest song titles in your playlist or music collection?
Submitted by Charline.

Wow! What is it today with both the Vox Hunt and the QotD... they both have to do with strange/weird song titles. Let's just say that I enjoy listening, ocassionally, to Weird Al Yankovic and Da Yuppers. Weird song titles from them! Go ahead, do a search on the them... if you can find tracks to listen to, I guarantee you'll be laughing your pants off!

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Where Do I Start

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:51:01 -0700

I'm not going to apologize for neglecting my blog. It had to take a back seat in the gi-normous van I call my life... a WAY back seat. Life happens.

At the end on January, we were notified by the case manager, that the boys in our home were going to be reunified with their mother within a week! EEK! We all (case manager, everyone) thought that these boys were in our home to stay. We were planning to adopt them if that was an option or something they were interested in. >> FF Nine days, they're all packed and we deliver them to the designate place to reunite them with Mom. My heart was ripped out, tossed - no thrown hard - to the ground and stomped on.

>> FF Ten Days - We get a call from the agency that we do foster care for. They have a sibling group of five children that need placement. Child Welfare Supervisor asks if we could take two or three of them. I ask the necessary questions and decide that we can take on the younger three children... ages 4, 3, and 3 months. The three month old I was told needed to be on oxygen. Didn't sound very complicated.

>> FF to today -

That baby that "just needs to be on oxygen" according to the Department of Human Services worker has MAJOR medical needs. When she first arrived, she weighed less than 8 pounds. Was on 5 different oral medications - one of which had to be given 8 times a day! She also had a nebulizer with medication she would need to breathe in twice daily. For those of you familiar with nebulizers, you know how time consuming this is. Oh! And the Apnea monitor!

Weekly home nurse visits. Weekly weight/growth checks at the clinic. Monthly appointments with specialists - since there's a cardiologist, an opthamologist, a hearing specialist, a pulmonologist (among others) - I've spent most of my past five weeks sitting in waiting rooms and being "interrogated" by these doctors.

The children (including the baby) have visits with their biological parents and their other two siblings once a week for two hours. More sitting in a waiting room for me. While they're visiting, I don't mind sitting there. That's my two hours of peace and quiet for the week. I usually take a book or magazine and read. My hubby got me this awesome laptop for my birthday - the intent was so that I could do some digital scrapbooking while I was sitting at the agency during the visits. With all of the equipment I have to carry for the baby, I just don't feel like taking my laptop also. Maybe once the baby is off of all this equipment.

My house is a shambles most of the time. I owe my friend, Pat, so much. She comes over once a week to help me clean - unfortunately, I'm so exhausted most of the time, she ends up working on it by herself. She's also a regular volunteer babysitter! Without the support of my friends and my family, we'd never be able to do what we do. The case manager is amazed that we've got it all pulled together - she feels the need to tell me this regularly (along with her periodic calls to see if we're still doing ok).

Yes, I'm stressed out. Yes, I'm tired. Is it all worth it, you ask?? YOU BET!! I wouldn't trade providing a loving supportive family to a child in need of that for anything in the world. Being a foster parent is the toughest job I've ever loved.

On the digital scrapbooking front - I've gotten a new laptop with 2GB of RAM, so when I'm scrapping, I don't crash anymore!! YAY! Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to scrap. In 2006, I did over 120 layouts. So far, for 2007 I've got 56 layouts completed. My original goal for this year was to average one layout per day. Not gonna happen! I need to eat and sleep some time and the laundry doesn't wash, dry, fold, and put away itself.

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Vox Hunt: An Interesting Life

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:07:49 -0700

Book: Show us a great biography or memoir.

I've got three to share....

The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux

Therese Martin (of Lisieux)

This is actually an autobiography. Absolutely marvelous reading. Inspiring.

StTherese_web

My second is also about St. Thereseof Lisieux, but I couldn't find it on Amazon, so I took the photo myself. It's not the greatest pic, but it will have to do.

The third and final biography I'll share...

Works of Love Are Works of Peace: Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity

Michael Collopy

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QoTD: Relive a Life Moment?

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:11:40 -0800

If I had to chose a moment in my life to live over again - I wouldn't. I'm not the same person I was at the time. Things happened in my life the way they did for a reason. If anything changed, I wouldn't be the same person - my life wouldn't be the same.

I guess it all boils down to...

I'm happy, in the here and now.
I enjoy looking back, but wouldn't want to relive anything. As a digital scrap book artist, I definitely enjoy looking back and preserving the memories, especially for my children... and potentially their children.. and their children's children... ad infinitum.

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Freebie Alerts: 2007-01-26

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 04:32:15 -0800

Thought maybe I should share some of the awesome freebies that I've found today with you all...

Mrs. Miles has some awesome doodles "Tea For Two Doodles" - So cute! Since I can't draw to save my life, I let others do my doodling for me! :)

Angie has a drop dead gorgeous template available!

Katie has some great freebie doodled hearts on her blog. If you scroll down a little further, you'll find some great arrow doodles also!

Priscilla has some great 4x6 Templates on her blog!! They're amazing looking and I can't wait to play with them. I'm currently working on a brag book album, so these will fit nicely and help me get the job done a little more quickly!

SeeBee has some great word art for that dream vacation to that magical place!

Jennifer has a great template up on her blog! :) I can't wait to use it!

MissHunniBunni has some doodles available as well!! I just love that all of these people can doodle way better than I can!! :)

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Layout Share: Cover of Vacation Brag Book

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:51:03 -0800

SBG_BBChallenge_BB10_cover_

As I mentioned in an earlier post, SBG has a great Brag Book Challenge going on. This is the cover for my brag book.
Credits: Template by Jenn V.; Papers, twine bow, twine stitching and flower all from Simply Irresistible by Debbie Pearson (available at SBG). The font is 2 Peas Wild Child

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Miscellaneous Mundane Musings

nobody@vox.com(Lynn) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:56:27 -0800

I really don't want to be whiny or anything - but will winter please go away! I'm sick of the snow, the cold, and the wind. Winter means sick kids. Unfortunately for Mommy (that's me) when the kids get sick, so do I. They usually get over it in a day or two, because I make them rest, drink their fluids, etc. I, on the other hand, tend to stay sick much longer, because a mommy never gets to rest.

On the baby budgies - the oldest two have emerged from the nest. Unfortunately, Huckleberry (dad) was picking on them quite badly, so I moved him to his own cage for a while. Maisy (the mom) started taking care of them again. This morning, I found her teaching them how to eat seed! :) I was very afraid that Huck was going to hurt the babies. I kept putting the first baby back in the nest, but he kept getting in there and pushing it back out. I'll have to post the new pictures of the babies, once I resize them for the web.

SBG_Launchpad_01-Monet_web

On the digital scrapbooking front, I did a layout I called "Cheap Monet". I posted it to several galleries. To my surprise, it was GottaPixel's Layout of the Day for Saturday, January 20, 2007. I've never had anything featured like that before, so it was definitely an honor. For this layout, I used a kit called "Enchantment" by Doris Castle (available at http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com ) I turned a photo I had taken of my waterlilies into an imitation Monet. I did more brush work and more use of blend modes for this layout than is typical for me. This layout was completed for LaunchPad Challenge #1 at SBG. Template by Bree Clarkson. I really love the result.

SBG has a lot of great challenges going on right now! Brag Books, Reality Scraps, LaunchPad (templates), and Scrap Therapy. Just a few of the offerings, most of which I am participating in.

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