Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 2008!

I didn't send out a letter this year with my Christmas card so I thought I would do a post instead. As most of you know our year didn't have a very good start and because of that, writing a letter this year wasn't something I was looking forward to doing. Christmas letters are supposed to be filled with fun and exciting events from the year. However, God uses all of our experiences to teach us and make us stronger and no matter how tough the situation is that we face we know he is there with us. The most difficult part of 2008 for our family was the loss of our nephew Alex Slaymaker. It is hard to believe he has been gone for 11 months. Yesterday we had Dale's family at our house and it was very hard knowing that the last time Alex was with our family was Christmas last year. Not a day goes by that we don't think about him and miss him dearly. We struggle with understanding and wish somehow the pain wasn't so great. You go through life hearing everyone say that life is short and to treasure every minute. I have learned that lesson more this past year. Although it can be hard during the "frustrations" of parenthood and daily life. I treasure my children and my family and know they are God's gift to me.

With that said 2008 has been a challenging year but we are thankful for all that we have and try each day not to take those things for granted. So from our family to yours we wish you a great new year and pray that you to can treasure each moment, as the gift that it is. A quote that I came across this year and really like "There will come a day when I can no longer do this, today is not that day."

A great Fall day

Today was a fantastic day to get my fall photo shoot of the family. I have a co worker that has a relatively new house just outside of town and she said I could come out any time to take pictures. Here are just a few of the day....

Reminisce DT call 2009

Reminisce DT call 2009

Here are my submissions for the design team call. I have included many of my Reminisce layouts, cards, projects and mini albums on the slide show. This is my latest project. I found this divided wooden box at a garage sale. It was ugly!! It was plain wood and had some really outdated ribbon on it. I decided to make it into a fall center piece/napkin/salt/pepper holder. I painted it in brown and green and distressed it a bit. I then used paper and stickers as well as these foil leaves to decorate the outside of the box. I also put paper and ribbon the salt and pepper. I covered chipboard with paper and then ribbon and the foil leaves to make the adorable napkin rings. I cannot wait to use this for Thanksgiving and throughout the fall. I love these colors.

Playground

The time is here. One year ago I headed up a committee to raise money for new playground equipment in our town park. What we had was old, out dated, and not safe. So, with my committee of 8 in place we began raising money and our goal was 100,000!! Well, we successfully made our goal in July (much sooner then we had anticipated) and ordered our equipment in August. So, today and tomorrow is the community build. We have many volunteers lined up (we still need more if you are available) and as a community we will spend the day creating this amazing new park for our town. I cannot wait to post pictures. Trust me, I will be taking plenty!!

Scrapfest

Well, this is the second year I have had the privilege of going to Scrapfest and working at the Reminisce booth. It is something I look forward to doing. This year didn't start off so well, but overall the rest of the weekend went great. We originally were to have four people going to do the booth and then Andria was there to do the classes. Two of the four ended up with medical issues that prevented them from coming. One of those was my good friend Stephanie so needless to say I was very bummed that she was not going to be able to come. So, Shelly and I headed out and decided we would make the very best of it and we did. Working at the booth was fun but very busy all three days. I then also helped Andria with her jungle safari class all three days. The album is so cute, I will have to post some pictures. We stayed at the Embassy Suites which is a very nice hotel. We ate really good food and even got some shopping in!! I also got to see two of my college friends, Ann and Corrie, who live in the cities so that was a treat as well. I was very tired when I arrived home at 10pm on Sunday but it was all worth it. I definitely missed the family, but it seems like they all survived just fine with out me! I will have to gear up for next year!!!

My Story

It all started in February of 2008. I had my routine yearly physical with my doctor. I stepped on the scale only to notice the number to go higher then it ever has for me, 158lbs. I left there that day knowing I needed to make some changes in m life. I talked with Dale and we started shopping for a recumbent bike and I tried to watch what I was eating. We bought a bike and I tried to exercise when I found the time (which wasn’t real regular). By April I had lost 5lbs, but it seemed like no matter what I tried, I couldn’t lose any more. With the encouragement of a new co-worker of mine I decided to join a local Weight Watchers group and this is one of the best decisions, in terms of my physical health, that I have made in a very long time. I joined on May 5th and weighed in at 153lbs. I knew for me that just watching what I ate was not going to be enough, I needed to get in a good exercise routine. Dale and I watch the show the Biggest Loser and I am always motivated by the amount of exercise they do and how the ones that really lose the weight become runners, so I decided if I was going to do this I needed to give running a try. I started waking up at 5am and started running. Shortly after I started running I saw that Marengo would be having a 5K run on August 23rd. With that in mind I made some goals. I decided that I would run in that 5K and I would be at my goal weight with WW by then. I was working at running and also doing weight training and I began to fall in love. I found myself day dreaming about my next run. I would wake up excited in the morning to go for my run. These were feelings I had never experienced before when it came to exercising and I have NEVER enjoyed running. I dreaded having to run laps in gym class!!
On July 26th I ran a 5k distance on my morning run and I felt great about it. Unfortunately, as the day wore on my left foot was not feeling so great. The short story is that I had tendonitis and it took 3 weeks before I was able to run again. It was very painful and even more discouraging that I had found a routine and found something I enjoyed but had to stop doing it. I rode my bike to keep the exercise going but it just wasn’t the same. One week before the 5K I was able to start running again and I ran in the Marengo 5K on August 23rd. It was a very hot and humid morning, but I did it. It was a great run and I crossed the finish line, that was all I cared about.
Throughout all of this, I was losing weight each week as I stepped on the scale at the Weight Watchers meeting. I was learning great tips each week at the meetings and found myself looking forward to each meeting.
On Monday, September 8th, 4 months after joining weight watchers, I became a life time member by meeting and maintaining my goal weight. I am thrilled to say that I have lost a total (since my doctors appointment in February) of 25lbs. I am at 133lbs today and have never felt better!!

More pics

I have a few more pictures of Jackson that I took that I want to share. He is so precious.

Jackson Carl Juel

We got to meet Jackson yesterday. He is so sweet. We are so glad to have him in the family. Derek was a blast yesterday as well. He is full of energy and a total show off. It was so much fun. Here are some pictures I took.

New Nephew

We have a new nephew in the family. My brother Devin and his wife Krista welcomed Jackson Carl Juel into the world on Tuesday August 26th. Everyone is doing great and they went home today. I am not so patiently waiting to go and get my hands on him. He is so darn cute, I cannot wait. We will venture over on Saturday to see the family, we are all so excited to meet him and to see big brother Derek. I will have pictures posted after we get to meet him.

Scrapbooking

Here are a few of the layouts I have been working on. Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest. I need to work on my photography skills!!

School is in session....

Wow, where has the time gone?? I officially have two children in school and no day care bill, YIPPEE!! They were both very excited to start school, which made it so much easier for me to drop them off on the first day. I thought I might have some tears leaving my "baby" at school, but how can you have tears when he is so excited and so ready to start? It is the next phase of his life and I need to rejoice and share in his excitement.

so much SNOW

Okay, it seems like the snow this winter is never going to go away. Saturday is March and I have a feeling this white stuff will be around for most of March as well. We live on a dead end street so all of the snow is pushed to the end of the block and we have massed a pretty large pile of snow. We got more snow last night so today they came through and ran a path through the middle of the giant mountain in front of our house. I had the boys all go out and stand in the path so that you can get a feeling for just how tall and deep this snow pile has begun. They have all enjoyed playing on the "mountain" so I guess it isn't all bad. I am a little nervous to think about where all of this snow/water will want to go when it starts to warm up!

Valentine's Day.....not what I expected.....

I haven't really felt good all week, but just assumed it was a common cold. I stayed home from work on Tuesday and felt well enough yesterday to work all day. This morning I felt pretty run down again so I stayed home and decided I should go see the doctor. So, they did a great little test that invovled sticking a q-tip up my nose to collect some snot (no better way to put it) and from that little test they were able to determine that I have influenza A. My doctor said I am only the second case of this that she has seen in someone who had the flu shot! Yes, I had the flu shot and still have the FLU!!! So, I am now waiting for the pharmacy to drop off a big barrell of tamiflu for the entire family. She said that since I have it we will treat everyone and hopefully they won't get it. They all had the shot to so I am hopeful with the shot and the medicine that I will be the only one who gets this, it is pretty miserable. It is like a really nasty cold with no energy and my entire body aches. Yes, I did say that my pharmacy will be delivering our meds. Isn't that great? One of my friends has recently opened a pharmacy in a neighboring town and she wants to keep her customers from when she worked here in Marengo so she offers free delivery....gotta love that. Our pharmacist here in town is not a friendly person and you have to wait forever to get your prescription filled, so I am more then happy to not have to go there, thank you Beth!!
So back to today. Yes, it will be a quiet evening at home. We don't typically do anything to celebrate and I actually had a hair appointment tonight so I am really bummed to be missing that (ladies you know how that is, missing a hair appointment is a big deal!)

See my published work

Well, it is finally February, so you can go to the following link and find my project in the e-magazine Scrapstreet.

http://www.scrapstreet.com/mag08/y308feb/features/loving3.htm

I made this sign in December as a gift to my grandmother for Christmas. Her favorite color is purple and she loves spring. She had recently moved to an assisted living program and most of the residents had items hanging on their doors, so I thought this would be perfect for her. I gave this to her at our family Christmas on December 29th and she loved it. That Monday my grandmother became ill and on January 3rd she passed away. When I found out that this item was selected to be published in this magazine I was so touched. My grandmother loved all of the cards and other items I would make for her over the years and I found out at her funeral how she would "show off" my cards to all of her friends. I have a feeling that grandma had her hand in helping me have my first project recognized by someone other then her!!!

I'm Being PUBLISHED!!!

I am so excited that I can hardly contain it!!! I got a notification yesterday that one of the projects I submitted to an online magazine has been selected and will be in their February magazine. I don't know how much I can say about the project so for now I will keep it quiet. However, I will tell you that the website is www.scrapstreet.com and then on the home page you can click on magazine and it will take you there. Again, this will be in the February edition. I will post on my site as soon as the February edition is available and will tell you what page my project is on. I would love to get published more and in many more publications and I think this is a good start!

Reminisce "scrap" contest

So here is my entry for the latest Reminisce contest. For this contest you were to use a Reminisce collection (or 2 or 3) and then create a card for a friend from the left over scraps from that layout. So, I used two of their collections, the black and white collection and the girly girl collection. I had so much fun completing this challenge. Their black and white collection has been around for awhile now but it is a line I will never get sick of. It is so versatile and goes so well with just about anything. Thanks for the challenge!

All a part of God's plan

This New Year has begun with some highs and lows. On December 30th, we celebrated Christmas with my extended family on my mom's side. It is always a great time see my cousins and their families as well as my grandmother and aunts and uncles. We had a fabulous day and this is a picture of my grandmother with all 15 of her great grandchildren. That following Monday my grandmother got sick and on Thursday January 3rd she went to be with the Lord. She was 88 years old and had a wonderful life. It is comforting to know that we will all have the special memory of being with her to celebrate Christmas and what a wonderful day it was for all of us. She will be missed!!

On a much more happy note, I was thrilled to learn that my entry for the Reminisce "what's your type" contest has been selected as the winner. You can see my submission here on my blog. It was thrill for me to win. I have entered several of their contests and this was my first win. My next post on my blog will be for their latest contest so be watching for that. I love scrapbooking and even when I don't win, it is fun to be inspired by their contests to try new things. It is my ultimate dream to some day be a part of their design team, but I guess only if it is part of God's plan!!!

Gift Card Challenge

I completed this page as a challenge on the http://www.scrapattackscrapbooking.blogspot.com/
The challenge was to take a gift card and use the color schemes and layout of the card to make a page layout. I used the Panera gift card because I love the colors and I also love Panera! I truly had a blast doing this layout. Give it a try sometime if you need some inspiration to get a page layout completed.