And Cue Holiday Music

When I was a child, November was for Thanksgiving. We used to decorate for it - Mom had beautiful ceramic decorations of pilgrims and cornocopias that she set about the house. Food preparation began well in advance (Mom would pre-roll the dough for her famous croissants and store them in the freezer). At school we cut out the shape of our hands to make paper turkeys and studied the contents of the first meal the Pilgrims shared with the American Indians (we didn't say Native Americans back then, although I say it now). Christmas was only a distant idea.

Now mainstream retail and media treats November as the pre-cursor to Christmas, preparing everyone for Christmas shopping, baking and decorating just as soon as the lights go off on Halloween. I'm as guilty as anyone, I guess, as I buy into the Black Friday hype, but I do still enjoy the idea and celebration of Thanksgiving.

This year I'm participating in the unofficial 30 Days of Thanks challenge that is circulating around Facebook. Everyday I post something I'm thankful for - some days it's super serious and other days it's lighter fare, but I think it's important to remember to be grateful for everything we have when there are so many that have so little. Today when I walked out the door to what we consider arctic air (it was supposedly 51, but I'm not buying it), I'm thankful that Florida is not as chilly as Canada.

I'm thankful for so many things.

I'm thankful for my faith (my niece Tabatha, kit used is Elfin Magic by Katie Pertiet)

I'm thankful for my husband (John and our cruise waiter a few years ago, kit used is Grapevine by DigiZines by Teri)

I'm thankful for family (Mom and Connor, kit used is Give Thanks by DigiZines by Teri)

I'm thankful for Disney (me with Bianca and Libby, kit used is Best Day EVER plus coordinating alpha by Sweet Spot Designs)

And I'm thankful for my country, the good old USA (me as a child, kit used is All American by GreenEyedLady Designs)

Why are you thankful?

Stop. Getting. Injured!

Look, I know that getting injured comes naturally to our family. I am constantly hitting my toes on one thing or another anytime I forget to wear slippers for even 5 minutes. I get that it's hard to avoid. But the sheer volume of serious injuries in our family this year are starting to get me down. First Trinity broke her wrist, then Dad's knee, then Trevor with his burn scare, it's just been quite ridiculous, even for us. And now Nicole has her foot in a boot and Dad's knee had a flare up.

Nicole is on fire with her impromptu acrobatics lately. She is always doing handstands and cartwheels, and even has her youngest son joining the act. A recent failed attempt left her in even more pain that she apparantly has been in the month since originally (and secretly) injuring her foot. Enough pain that she finally admitted there was a problem and went to visit the doctor, where she told him not to give her any bad news. On the up side it isn't broken, but there was bad news to be had - she has a level 2 sprain. That means No Zumba. The amount of time is sketchy - the doctor told her what might have been 2 or 3 weeks, which she has interpreted as 2, and I personnaly think 5 is more appropriate.

My sister thinks I am being very unsympathetic to her plight, and that the boot is overkill. This is a girl that's been in pain for a month, didn't tell anyone about it, and continued doing 7 Zumba classes per week on a sprained ankle. Anything less than chains on her leg is too light a deterrant. I'm sure the doctor at least momentarily considered a full body cast. She didn't even give herself 24 hours to get used to wearing the boot before she was clamoring for its removal. Aye Carramba! This girl! I told her she needed to get used to it, and she responded that she didn't want to get used to sitting on her arse. (She wants me to tell you she used the word butt instead, but she didn't.) I told her: "If you didn't spend so much time on your head, you wouldn't have to get used to sitting on your arse." Someone tie the girl down!

Dad's knee swelled up earlier this week and that was quite a concern, but luckily he seems to be on the mend once again. He was impressively well-behaved as a patient during his stint in physical therapy earlier this year, but the bottom line is we never want to have to go through that again! I need my Dad well, and able to travel. We haven't been able to go anywhere together this year, which is not the norm.

I'll wrap up this post with layouts of each of them, during less injury-prone days:

Nicole has recently taken up archery, which opens a whole new line of superhero possibilities for her (or at least Olympic chances):

And here's Dad and I on our trip to Boston a few years ago:

That's it for today - happy scrapping!

When the Stars Align

Sometimes things just come together - running into your best friend at the store, finding out you have enough food to feed the extra person that shows up at your dinner table unannounced, picking up a new scrapbook kit that matches an old photo still waiting to be scrapped... It always feels so good to have things work out in a world where often you miss the boat by mere seconds.

I picked up these new templates from Katie the Scrapbook Lady, who is now selling amazing templates via her blog store. Then I remembered I had the perfect papers and embellishments hidden away on my external drive to match up with photos I'd taken at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventures on Spring Break. And wa-la, thank my lucky stars I have a layout I love - Sheer Seuss!:

Next I worked with Julie Mead's newest scrap kit A Linen Curiousity and a few pictures we took of our niece over the sumer. Ooh La La!

And finally, my last share for today is a layout I put together last week for Sus Designs' new 20/20 Vision kit, about my niece's goal to get herself into contacts, and soon:

Disclaimer: The kits from Julie Mead and Sus Designs can be found at E-Scape and Scrap, and were provided to me for free in exchange for layouts, as a part of my role on their Creative Team.

I Made It to 50!

50 hikes, that is! This weekend, in the company of Mom, Trevor and Trinity, I finished the last of the 50 hikes outlined in Sandra Friend's Guidebook "50 Hikes in Central Florida." And while some of them were admittedly harder than others, and on some of them we got quite lost (including this last one) and didn't exactly follow the trail laid out in the book, I'm still very satisfied with this accomplishment. Over the last 20 months I have:

• visited 50 places that I had never been before,
• discovered the joys of hiking in Florida,
• realized there are hundreds of hikes available in our surrounding area that can be explored as day trips,
• exposed my family to a world of outdoor fun nearly in our own backyard,
• pushed myself to physical challenges greater than reaching for the remote control,
• learned more about Florida's environment, wildlife, and history,
• glimpsed that wildlife in the form of fox squirrels, alligator turtles, gopher tortoises, alligators, deer, and even a not quite sighted Florida Black Bear,
• and become a more experienced (and safer) hiker.

I really am over the moon that I made my goal - perhaps not quite on my original aggressive timeline, but in a reasonable amount of time. So many people supported me in this endeavor, by hiking with me or by listening to my encounters after the fact - especially Mom, Dad, John, Lisa, Trevor, Trinity, Nicole, Dana, Logan, Libby and Bianca. In fact, of that list, only Nicole didn't actually make it onto a hike (but I know she wanted to be there). And now, before we move on to Life After 50 Hikes (did I mention there are over 600 trails in the State of Florida just waiting for me to discover them?!), let's look at a few more layouts from the hikes we completed.

Hike #6 - Lake Kissimmee State Park (broken up into 2 day hikes) - clicking on an image will take you to one of my galleries where you can view it larger and see the credits.

Hike #7 - Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve

Hike #8 - Hillsborough River State Park

Hike #9 - Lettuce Lake Park

Catching Up!

I've fallen behind on my scrappy goals all year (30 layouts per month was my goal), but as July draws to a close I find myself catching up, finally! If I keep going at this rate, I'll only be 5 short by the end of July and I'll be able to get ahead of myself in August! Ah, but there I go, already pushing my luck.

Here are a few of the layouts I finished this week:

Our nephew on vacation down by my dad this summer using the kit  Who Who Summer by The Busy Elf Designs.

My sister almost never gets in a picture, so I'm taking full advantage of all the candid shots I took of her on Memorial Day. Here she is with our other sister's oldest son. This layout was created using the kit - Seaside by GreenEyedLady Designs. The journaling is my take on the "conversation" between the two of them.

Thanks for looking!

Reliving Summer Vacation

Looking back at summer vacation, the majority of it happened before summer officially began. For example, Nicole and the boys were here at the end of May, and were gone by June 3. We had a blast, and I can't wait for them to come back. Those boys are FULL of character, and they got to meet some characters to boot.

Connor was not completely on board with character pictures, although he loved meeting them and even gave hugs. He just couldn't understand why we'd ever want to stand still when there was so much left to SEE!

Here's another layout (created with On the Go by Dee Bee Designs) - Logan loved the Where's the Fire game at Epcot, even if it was a little slow-paced for him. These boys are busy!

Bianca learned to walk the runway, and learned that she loves it! Here is Queen of 6-8 year olds in Miss Firecracker.

John and I just finished a quick Disney stay to celebrate our anniversary - that was so relaxing!

From breakfast at Boma's to drinks at Big River Brewery, we thoroughly enjoyed exploring Disney property, as we always do. We stayed at the Pop Century, my favorite value resort, and we were not ready to come home. A shout out to the events manager at Animal Kingdom who took time out of his day to teach John how to wear his Happy Anniversary button - it was hysterical and really set the tone of our morning that day. (This layout was created using Timeless Treasure by Algera Design).

There is more fun coming in July, see you soon!

A Successful June

June was a very happy scrappy month for me - so many layouts, and layouts I was happy with too. I finished 40 layouts for a cool 165 layouts in the first half of 2012. My goal for the year is 350, so I'm hanging in there. None of my paper layouts have been posted online yet, I'll get around to those in a few days, but here are a few of the digital layouts that are floating around out there.

Here's Logan in The Waves Roll In, created using SeaSide by StarSongStudio

Connor had his own beach experience in Escape to the Sea, created using SeaSide by StarSongStudio

This is Trinity in She Doesn't Need Pixie Dust, created using Blossoms and Fairytales by TheBusyElfDesigns

Proud to Be an American is about my sisters when we were younger; this layout was created using All American by GreenEyedLadyDesigns

Bianca recently had a proud moment, captured here in Bianca's Recital which is one of the layouts I created using the brand new Collab Kit A Moment of Thanks by the Nifty Designers

Tabatha also had a proud moment at her High School Graduation, and I couldn't help but reflect on her growth over the years into the lovely young lady we know today, captured in The March of Time is Persistent using the brand new Collab Kit A Moment of Thanks by the Nifty Designers.

Thanks for looking!