Harmony in the Symphony of Life.

Forgiveness
Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. from: http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

See the Sweetness
No matter how bad people may seem, they possess at least one virtue. Be like the humming bird and pick out the sweetness of everyone's character. http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk


Tolerance
Someone who cannot tolerate small ills can never accomplish great things.
from: http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Silence
In the ocean of silence you may discover your eternal treasures of peace, love and happiness. In silence, you can let bad feelings and past sorrows dissolve. In silence you can hear the whisper of God saying "Come child and rest with Me. You are a peaceful soul."from: http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Thoughts And Actions

The thoughts you create and the actions you do have to be the same. Create good thoughts and bring them into action. Your actions will then be successful. from: http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

Create Harmony
To create harmony I have to co-operate with everyone. Through co-operation there is success. For this, I have to have the firm determination to keep working with love. Keep doing everything with love. from: http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/

After a busy week, I try to take a few moments of reflection before I start the weekend. This morning I went back and re-read the "thought for today", one after the other. Wow, how the week progressed and linked together. From Forgiveness to Harmony... here's my thoughts and musings:

Forgiveness. What a great foundation for the week and for life. We all have been hurt, wronged, tormented, etc... by another/others as individuals or as a culture. It hurts and is easy to hang on to the negativity and hate that is generated from such wounds. However, if we can't find forgiveness, we remain stuck in the past, unable to be truly in the present or look toward a better future. The past keeps us buried and stagnant, each step is through the mud and muck of anger, the darkness of hatred and a fear and pain of a hurting heart.

When we open our hearts to forgive we are allowing Peace, Love, and Compassion into our souls. The moment this happens, there is a feeling of lightness, of wholeness. The heart stops aching, and starts healing. The thoughts start changing and happiness fills the void that once was there. Now there is a feeling of Hope, Compassion, Peace and Love. Possibilities unfold before you. You are able to walk on firm ground and take your place in the sun. When we look with forgiveness, we start to see the goodness (sweetness) in others. We can celebrate our differences and see similarities we all share. There is a unity, a wholeness, a foundation, if you will, of humanity.

Once we build this foundation of forgiveness, we begin building a better, a stronger world. We see the sweetness and goodness inside each individual and find tolerance there. I may not live or believe everything as you do but, we can accept our differences and live together, as brothers and sisters of the world. It's in joining together that we become strong. Just like building a strong building, you have to have a firm foundation or all will eventually fail. Each and every individual part of construction must work side by side, together, to create a structure that will withstand the elements. Each individual board, each brick, each nail fits together, one next to the other, in this building called life.

Forgive, See the Sweetness and Tolerate each and every "brick" in this building of humanity. Then sit in silence and take in all that's around you, in you and let your thoughts go through you. Hear the rhythm of humanity pulse through you: each beat of Forgiveness, each beat of Compassion, each beat of Hope, each beat of Peace, each beat of Love ... listen to the Harmony of life. In this silent place you are not alone. There is a Guiding force, a Guiding Light, that envelops you, holds you, carries you, walks with you.... In Silence, listen, hear, feel, and know... it's there, it is part of you guiding you out of the past, into the now, giving you the knowledge and wisdom to create a better future. Listen.... to the Silence....The voice of the soul..... The Conductor of Life.

By listening to the Silence and hearing the voice of Love, we find a way to let our thoughts take form through our actions. We can take these Forgiving, Hopeful, Peaceful, Loving Compassionate thoughts and turn them into our daily actions. By doing this, we take our place next to our brothers and sisters of the world and create such a strong, wondrous building called Life. In, With and Through each of us, we join together in the Unity of Love and build a stronger world. With a Loving Heart All Things Are Possible.

May each of us find forgiveness in our hearts and see the sweetness in others. May we find tolerance; to accept with a loving heart, the differences we have and celebrate our similarities, and take our place next to our brother and sisters of humanity to build a stronger world. May we listen in silence to the wisdom of Life and hear the beat of our being, our soul, our unity. May our thoughts and actions be out of Compassion and Love to create Peace and understanding. May we each resonate our uniqueness, and join together in Harmony in the Symphony of Life.


We are all part of Life's Story, let's make sure it has a Happy ending.

Written with Love and Light, Nina P

The coke's on us.....

Reagan and I were driving past a local hardware store that is in our neighborhood and Reagan happened to mention that that's where we go to get drinks sometimes. I nodded (because we do run up there to grab a diet coke from time to time) and she proceeded to rattle along with some story that I was only half listening to (in my defense I was a little amazed at the fall colors!) I tuned back in to hear her saying "And little kids can't drink coke because cokes are only for dolts." LOL! The kid's really gotta work on not dropping those syllables!

Halloween Traditions

Happy Halloween Everyone! Last night our town celebrated halloween, so we're all finished here. The fam had a great time and I realized we've sort of started our own little Halloween traditions.

Now, to begin with, I am NOT a halloween person. I don't think I've ever enjoyed the so-called "holiday". I don't enjoy the ghosts, witches and other scary things that halloween abounds with. Not to say that some of that doesn't infiltrate our own celebration. We still watch movies and read books that talk about ghosts and witches--for example: Pooh's Heffalump Halloween and one of our favorite books "I Like Pumpkins" by Jerry Smath. But I don't like to center our thoughts around those types of things.

I would much rather use the day as a celebration of fall or even as just a silly, fun time. Which leads me to our Halloween Traditions. Our first halloween with Reagan was before she was even a year old and we handed out candy and ooohed and awwwed over all the costumes and watched (of course) It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

The next year Reagan was old enough to do a little trick or treating herself and we took her to the downtown trick or treating event, where she gathered a few pieces of candy and then we had dinner at a downtown diner, sitting at a table overlooking the street, watching all the kids pass by in their costumes. Then, we went home, passed out candy and watched...yep....It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! So this year, what did we do? We did a little of the downtown trick or treating, had dinner at that same diner, at the same table and came home to pass out candy and watch ....well, you know what we watched!

I have to say these are the three best halloweens I've ever had in my life. (Closely followed by that first year in Texas, where my brother and I traipsed through snow to collect FULL SIZE candy bars from all the neighbors!)

I love the fact that we're having such a great time laughing and making other people smile by handing out candy to crazy kids dressed in all manner of costumes. I love the fact that we can all sit down and watch a classic movie together and eat junk food and just enjoy some family time. Family time is hard to come by in this crazy world we live in and if halloween gives us an excuse to enjoy each other, I just might bump it up a couple of notches to a favorite holiday spot.

Enjoy the candy, but especially enjoy each other. Happy Fall Y'all!

Trick or Treat at Teal Corporation

All Stars Montessori has a Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating to area business.

Teal Corporation was happy to hand out treats to them this morning.

Alexa in the pink cheeleader outfit above.

It turned out to be a nice day for them to walk over. The sun even peaked out.

They all looked so cute dressed up in their costumes

There is my Lilli Bumble Bee

What a great Smile!

The Babies even came, too.

Adorable!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Big News!

Some big news at our house this morning! Alexa and Lillian slept in their own beds all night last night.

I woke up to my alarm and rolled over expecting to have the kids foot or arm in my face, but it was just Adam. I jumped up and said.."WHERE ARE THE KIDS?" Adam and I both rushed to the girls' room and sure enough, there they were sound asleep in their beds.

I think it's helped that I stopped nursing Lillian, she sleeps much better through the night. Adam and I sleep MUCH better, too, when we're not hanging off the side of the bed, holding on for dear life. I feel so refreshed this morning.

Let's hope this continues.

my happy ending

I’m staring the stars, wondering how many it is
Is it millions, billions, or trillions?
It's countless
It's equal with how much U love me

i see myself in the puddle
look to the man that U've been shaped for almost 25 years
U are creating Ur masterpiece inside of me
but it hasn’t finished yet

my characters, my talents, even my weaknesses
U are still shaping all of it until now
good or bad, best or even worse
U allows all of them happen in my life

My heart is full of scars
reflects all the bad experience i've been through
My faith is tortured
by the worst case scenario that happened, uninvited

Sometimes i run from U
question why this is happening to me
but in the end, i always realize
that i find nothing outside Your grace

"let Ur will happens, not mine"
It's the hardest lesson, Dad
but U gives me the strength to do that
every morning, I’m flooded by Your grace

i will let U become the painter of my life
to finish Ur masterpiece inside of me
by the time when U finish Ur masterpiece painting
U and me will see it together

a happy ending painting =)

Sew Many Card Friday Freebie

Does this bear not make you want to squeeze him? I think this image is absolutely adorable (well all of Angela's images are but.....this one is the friday freebie). I used a sketch from www.scrapsketch.com (cardsketch 5) and I had to alter it a little as I couldn't get a nice large scalloped rectangle the size I wanted. The nice ladies over at the cricut chat message board gave me some info on that but I was too impatient to put my card together and I decided to just go with some scalloped edges. I don't think about pulling kraft out very much but I do like the look of it with these pastel colors. Hope you enjoy and be sure to go over to Sew Many Cards and save your copy of this adorable image!

Oh what a night!

Oh my, tonight I experienced my first Gina K. Designs release party over at SCS. What I can tell you was it was FUN and fast moving. If you have a little time, you should go and check out the release party thread here. There were tons of cards and projects uploaded, it truly was a feast for the eyes. Three of the senior design team had challenges just for the release. There is still time to play and you will find the links to the challenges here. The card I am showing above is for Lee's challenge to use the festive colors of Cranberry, Gold and Black. The images/sentiment used were from the Vintage Borders and Festive Frame sets. I cut the sentiment panel with my nesties and stamped the sentiment with Adirondack Pitch Black ink. I overstamped the corner of the panel in gold with part of the poinsettia from the Festive Frame set and then embossed with detail gold powder. The pearls on the sentiment panel were white and I colored them with my Copic R89 marker. I just love how you can do that! The black bow was created by wrapping the some Midori ribbbon 3 times around the second largest template on the Bow Easy.

Don't ask about that gold embossed paper because I have had it in my arsenal for so long that I can't remeber what company it is from. I truly think I have had it somewhere between 5-7 years. Can you say "paper hoarder?"

Over the next few days, I'll be uploading a few more cards/projects using these great stamp sets.

All this from six pie pumpkins!

After several grueling days of trying to work through all the pumpkins Reagan and I purchased at the pumpkin patch, I finally have pictures of our labor!

Reagan was a huge help. She washed all the pumpkins for me in a sink full of soapy water, then I pulled off the stems and hacked them into halves with a butcher knife. (NOTE: If your child is the sensitive type and has formed a great attachment to the pumpkins, this may not be the kind of thing you want to attempt in front of her...just sayin'...because, well there were quite a few tears and lots of heart-wrenching sobs at our house that day!) After drying your child's tears and assuring her that you are massacring the grown-up pumpkins and NOT the baby pumpkins, remove the guts and seeds. Put those aside for later.

Oh, and if your butcher knife happens to get stuck in a problematic, stubborn, tough pumpkin, the best way to hack through that little puppy and get your knife back out is to sling the whole thing on the floor. It'll bust open. Just maintain your grip on the knife people...oh and make sure your child is NOT present for this little feat of strength.

Finally poke holes all over the pumpkin 'meat' and cook them on cookie sheets for 30 minutes at 350. The pumpkin skins should come off easily and you'll be able to remove the 'meat'. You can add a little water and mash them yourself OR use a food processor...but I do NOT recommend the blender. (Um, yes, I actually forgot I owned a food processor for the first batch of pumpkin cooking---oy vey!)

At any rate, you should have delicious pumpkin puree that you can use anyway you would normally use a can of pumpkin!

For a total of six dollars and TONS of mom-hours later, I had 17 bags of 2-cup pumpkin puree. Each of those bags contains approximately one ounce more of pumpkin than the cans do. Libby sells their 15-oz containers for $1.39. So, I saved almost $18.00.

Honestly, though, Libby's is a great value. You don't have to pay for the electricity cost of running your oven (or gas cost) or put in the constant time of making the puree or the cost of washing all the dishes. BUT you don't get the fun of doing it yourself, the delicious pumpkin seeds or the satisfaction of knowing that you're supporting a local farmer and feeding your child local foods. I think either route you wish to go is perfectly fine...and if there isn't a pumpkin shortage next year, I'll probably go back to purchasing Libby's pumpkin in the cans. After all, there is some research showing that the canning process actually enhances the nutrients in the pumpkin. Again, you say po-TAY-toe and I say po-Taaaaa-toe. Either way, enjoy the pumpkin season!

Telkom Rebrand

A couple of days ago, when i read newspaper, i saw this new logo of one of the biggest (if not the biggest) telecommunication company in Indonesia, Telkom. Im amazed about this re-brand logo. It's so fresh, young and modern. What do u think, guys?

THE OLD LOGO

THE NEW ONE

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This is the same poem, but I took people's advice and printed up copies to give away at our gift shop at work. There is a young man I work with that is an amazing artist. I gave him the poem just a day ago and asked if he would be willing to do an original drawing for the poem. Despite, his having to work and go to school, he still made time to come up with this amazing piece of artwork!! 

As always, I thank you all for your kind and inspiring comments.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

A Little Halloween Fun

It's Halloween come out and play

Ghosts and goblins have your way

Gathering in the full moon light,

As owls hoot and bats take flight.

Witches come with cape and hat,

Eye of newt and cat of black.

Let's boil a brew and cast a spell

So all will be happy and all is well

We'll sit around and cackle a bit,

Sharing our secrets and some wit

Then Fly around on brooms of old

Scare some people if we are bold

Spend some time and reminisce

Of caldrons past as dragons hissed

A night to be that witch we are

Fly the skies both near and far

Flap your wings or howl at the moon

Teeth grow sharp not all too soon

So phantom friend come fly with me

We've tales to tell and sights to see.

This is the night that's ours to run

Just having a little Halloween fun

Written  With Love and Light,

by Nina Pauline Ploetz

Original Artwork by Kyle Jackson (KyJackson89@aol.com)

Thank you Kyle!!

Reagan's new accomplishments!

This week Reagan did two absolutely amazing things! The first: she FINALLY learned how to blow a bubble! YAH Reagan!!!

And the second---she came up with her OWN magic trick. I was completely stunned sitting at the table with her. She's not even three! Where does she come up with this stuff!?!?

Reagan's Magic Trick: Mommy had made a playdoh pumpkin for her, but use whatever trinket around the house you have! Take one empty playdoh cup and put the pumpkin/trinket inside. Then take a second cup and put it inside the first cup. Have your unsuspecting mom shake the cans--laugh to yourself as she gazes perplexedly at the cup that appears empty yet sounds full! ;)

Sew Many Cards Release Party!!!

The release party at Sew Many Cards is in full swing! This image is just ONE of the adorable images from Angela's new Winter Bonus Pack!!! You can get the whole Winter Bonus Pack FREE with a $10 purchase the whole month of Nov. - more details and images on the blog. Be sure to come on over and check out the other cuties here. Also, be sure to check out Sarabeth's sneak peek of her project with one of the new releases coming on Nov. 3rd! There will be a new sneak peek every day until the release! Plus lots of fun games and challenges will be going on! There is a fun scavenger hunt going on right now!!! Come on and join us!!!

New Slideshow

I've posted a new slideshow of photos from over the weekend. Please scroll to the bottom of the page and ENJOY!

A visit from Uncle Benski

Uncle Benski met me at the girls' school yesterday at 5 to pick them up. They were out playing on the playground and then they saw us walk out of the school, they both ran to the gate. When we were close enough for the teachers to let them loose, they ran straight to Benski, completely bypassing their Mother. Ugh! Benski, of course, scooped them both up in his arms and carried them thru the school and to the car.

We got home and Alexa went inside and took Chip out of his kennel and brought him out to go to the bathroom. He, too, was excited to see Benski. We played outside for a bit, enjoying the nice weather. We raked leaves in the front yard and ran around with Chip. Once inside, the never ending battle to make a decision on what to make for dinner hit me. When Benski comes over I like to have a nicer kinda meal for him, but grilled cheese sandwiches and ramen noodles with fruit were the only things I could even muster through my head to make. It was that or frozen pizza and I'm pretty sure Benski eats plenty of those.

After dinner I had the girls hop in the tub and put Benski in charge of watching them while I took Chip for a walk. Benski was soaked when I got back, but the girls were clean and smiling. My boss and his wife gave the girls a little Halloween treat, so I bribed them with that to get out of the tub. My goal was to get them to bed in time to watch Dancing with the Stars at 8, but that didn't quite happen. I tuned in some time after 8:30 to see Melissa Joan Hart and Louie Vito get eliminated instead of Michael Irvin, who should have been gone weeks ago.

Adam came home and was starving because he hadn't eaten all day. It was hilarious watching him eat. He had 2 big quesadillas filled with cheese and lunch meat, 3 hot dogs, chips, crackers, 2 beers..he was a bottomless pit. Ick! Uncle Benski and I sipped on some wine, our first 'drink' together since he turned 21. Let's just say, he handled it better than I did. We watched The Insider, the News and then Nightline before deciding to go to bed. Alexa had woken up around 11 or so and thought it was morning and was quite disappointed when she had to go 'back to bed'.
Adam had to go to work early this morning because he had some training thing all day. So, I offered to take the girls to school, so he wouldn't have to 'rush'. I visited with their teachers a bit when I dropped them off and then came into work.

Adam will be home early tonight being he had an early start to his day, so we'll be either carving pumpkins or painting pumpkins. We'll see what kind of moods we're in when we get home.

Gina K Designs Preview Day 2-Vintage Borders

Hi there!

I am so happy to be joining in on the fun tonight and sharing a couple of cards for the preview of one of the new sets to be released by Gina K Designs on Thursday night. This set is called Vintage Borders and was illustrated by the talented Nina Brackett.

For my first I used Gina K Pure Luxury Smoky Slate cardstock that will be releasing on Thursday, immediately following the release party on Splitcoaststampers. The card front was embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I stamped and embossed the scallop border and scripture verse with silver ink and detail silver embossing powder. The light blue panel was embossed with a snowflake folder and the scallops borders were attached to each side. I added some snowflake and sprig punchies and lots of tiny rhinestones for sparkle. I finished the card off by using my Sakura Stardust pen on some of the embossed snowflakes.

For my next card, I embossed the ornament image from Vintage Borders with gold ep and punched out a section with a 7/8" square punch and mounted it to a black inchie square. The frames for the image were created using my Nesties Labels One. The cardstock is Gina K's Vibrant Violet which was released last month. The background of the card was stamped with Versamark ink and one of the images from the Vintage Borders. I embossed "peace" (also from this great set) in gold and finished it off with a little gold cording.

Thanks for stopping by tonight!

For even more inspiration, please visit the Illustrators of the stamp sets featured tonight:

Asela Hopkins: First Christmas
Nina Brackett: Vintage Borders

Tonight, we have several of our Center Stage Spotlight Designers joining in the previews. Here are their blog links:

Deb Felts
Sharri Seffens
Melissa Cash

Finally, stop by these GinaK Designers' blog for even more projects with tonight's stamp sets:

Gina Krupksy
Carolyn King
Cathy Tidwell
Cindy Lawrence
Erika Martin
Emily Giovanni
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Melanie Muenchinger
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber
Donna Baker

Our Release party will be held Thursday night over on SCS in GinaK's Forum from 7-10 pm CST. We'd love to have you join in the fun! There will be contest questions, challenges, chatter, and lots more samples from our designers throughout the party! See you then!

Sew Many Cards First Release Party!!!

Over at Sew Many Cards we are all so excited as our first monthly new release party and blog hop starts tomorrow! We have 6 days of sneak peeks and then on 11/3 we will reveal these incredible new releases! You don't want to miss any of the fun because there are lots of challenges and prizes starting today (here) with a scavenger hunt! There are several creations posted and all you have to do is find the name of the images used and leave a comment. I think if you can name the design team member who made the project you can even get extra chances! Be sure to go check it out and keep checking in here as I'll be posting my sneak peek later this week! You can also read more about our release party here.

Sew Many Cards Fall Challenge

This week's challenge over at Sew Many Cards is to make a fall card and to use buttons, brads, or flowers. I am loving these digital images because unlike traditional stamps I can size it to fit whatever size card I want to make. I chose to make a square card this time and I colored my image in with my copics and then used my nesties to layer him up. I also used my new nestie tags to make the sentiment and then placed buttons on either side with a little bling in the center. Hope you enjoy and will come on over and join in on the challenge!

Easy Halloween Treats

Materials:
Suckers
White Napkins or Cloth
Marker
Ribbon or rubber band

Simply secure the napkin over the sucker with the rubber band or ribbon. On one side make eyes, a nose and a smiley face---you have a cute little ghost sucker!

Ooh La La Posey--Just Us Girls

Good Morning! I will have a very special post a little later tonight, so stop back by.

I created this cute little card for this weeks challenge at the Just Us Girls Challenge Blog. This week the challenge was to create a 3-D flower. I used my Blossom Nesties to create my flower. I embossed my card with the Cuttlebug Textile Texture folder and then used a little bit of paper from the My Minds Eye Ooh La La/Her collection. The colors are so pretty in this paper! The Him collection is awesome too! I added lots of teeny rhinestones to the scallops and some of the petals in the flower. I love the leaf ribbon too, I think it was the perfect finish. I cased the layout from Kimberly Crawford (her card even had a cute cork flower on it) but I can't find her post to link back to, but you will want to check out her blog as she has lots of good stuff there!

After I was done, it dawned on me that I hadn't stamped on the card so I added a stamped sentiment to the inside so that I wouldn't have to stress over not stamping on my card. Yes, I am a goof nut sometimes! Need some of these goodies? Get them here.

hugs,

jakuote #2

Happy Halloween (almost)

A Little Halloween Fun

It's Halloween come out and play

Ghosts and goblins have your way

Gathering in the full moon light,

As owls hoot and bats take flight.

Witches come with cape and hat,

Eye of newt and cat of black.

Let's boil a brew and cast a spell

So all will stay happy and also well

We'll sit around and cackle a bit,

Sharing our secrets and some wit

Then Fly around on brooms of old
Scare some people if we are bold

Spend some time and reminisce
Of caldrons past as dragons hissed

A night to be that witch we are

Fly the skies both near and far

Flap your wings or howl at the moon

Teeth grow sharp not all too soon

Phantom friend come fly with me

We've tales to tell and sights to see.

This is the night that's ours to run

Just having a little Halloween fun

Happy Halloween!

written with Love and Light,
by Nina P

Let the previews begin!

In about an hour (10:00 CST) the previews will begin for the next Gina K Designs that will be released on Thursday night. You won't want to miss a thing so head over to Gina's blog and check it out!

Tomorrow night is my night to jump in and share in the preview fun! I can't wait to show you what I have been workin' on!

The release party will be held over in the Gina K Member Company forum at Splitcoaststampers. Prepare to join us for some fun challenges and amazing eye candy!

hugs,

Reflections Of Jennaa - <3 *elymode*

*elymode* has a fantastic new store at the ICON Lifestyle sim and to help celebrate, Elysium Eilde has put out a light brown version of the Tuxedo Shirt available as a gift for this week only. That's right for one week only! So hurry on down there and grab it while you can. It is a fantastic staple item for your wardrobe and I promise you, you will wear it again and again. Once the week is up Elysium will be putting it in her new-resident gift box and only those residents 30 days or younger will be able to get it. Lucky newbies, they seem to get everything these days.

This gorgeous brown version of the Tuxedo shirt goes amazingly with the brown tux pants and vest which you can pick up for L$250. As always the non-limited edition pants are L$190 and the vests are L$150 each. You can mix and match to your hearts desire and this is one of the things I love about Elysium's collection so much.....the endless possibilities, oh and the colors!

I have said it before and I will say it again, Elysium's seam work in her designs is second to none. The attention to detail that has gone into her garments is absolutely outstanding. The simplistic quality of each garment is an absolute highlight and in my opinion, is the immediate standout feature of Elysium’s clothing which will separate her from other aspiring designers.

Make sure you go and check out Elymode at the ICON Lifestyle sim and grab the limited time goodies!

*elymode at ICON Lifestyle sim*

Photo 1:

Shirt: *elymode* Tuxedo Shirt -limited edition light brown GIFT. (get it here)

Tux: *elymode* Tuxedo Pants & Vest -limited edition brown. (get it here)

Skin: [Bebae] Fabia > Creme 01. (get it here)

Hair:>TRUTH<>(get it here)

Eyes: pc eyes by LL - ocean - blue surf (m). (get it here)

Eyelashes: Eyelashes -4- MoulinRouge *REDGRAVE*. (get it here)

Shoes: Maitreya Neyya * Toe-cap Tan. (get it here)

Nails: [Detour] Nails - Satin - Mint Coffee. (get it here)

Earrings: :::Sole QUILTING piace:::(BROWN). (get it here)

Photo 2:

Tux: *elymode* Tuxedo Pants & Vest -limited edition brown. (get it here)

Skin: [Bebae] Fabia > Creme 01. (get it here)

Hair:>TRUTH<>(get it here)

Eyes: pc eyes by LL - ocean - blue surf (m). (get it here)

Eyelashes: Eyelashes -4- MoulinRouge *REDGRAVE*. (get it here)

Shoes: Maitreya Neyya * Toe-cap Tan. (get it here)

Nails: [Detour] Nails - Satin - Mint Coffee. (get it here)

Earrings: :::Sole QUILTING piace:::(BROWN). (get it here)

Jennaa XoXo

Yet another busy, fun filled weekend at the Lares'.

This is my new dye job. Thanks Inna. The picture doesn't do it justice. I have dark brown, red and blonde streaks.

Wow. This is me way too early in the morning for pictures to be taken. Please, just look at the hair.

The girls had their Halloween Party at school Friday night. All Stars Montessori sure knows how to throw a party - and the FOOD..Wow! They had Carbone's Pizza, lasagna, salads, ect. Delicious! Lillian's eyes were wide-eyed checking out all the costumes. You could just see the wheels spinning in her head, thinking, you look familiar, I think I know you, but what is that on your face and what are you wearing? Her young toddler teacher, Ms. Amber was dressed up as Thing 1 and her current teacher, Ms. Alli was dressed up as Thing 2 and Alexa's teacher Ms. Caroline was dressed up as their Mother. Hilarious. I have a ton of pictures that I will post very soon. Alexa was an adorable little pink cheerleader. I even let her wear make-up, which was her favorite part of her costume. Lillian was the cutest little Baby Bumble Bee ever. She even donned the most adorable pig tails to match her antennas. The popular costumes (that I noticed) were cheerleaders and snow white for the girls, Spiderman and football players for the boys and doctors and nurses for the adults. All very different and all very cute.

They had a dance party set up in one of the rooms, which we hung out in most of the time, but they played games, too. Bean bag toss, musical numbers, tattoos and decorated Halloween cookies. Overall, a fabulous night. (Besides me having a sinus infection in my left nostril that made my eye swell and paralyze half my face...Ick!)

Needless to say from the comment above, I took Nyquil as soon as we got home and crashed for the night. Luckily, Lillian had a good night sleep, too, and we both stayed in bed til 9am the next morning. It made for a hurried mess, though, as we had to get ready for the girls' pictures at JC Penny by 11:10. The girls needed baths and to be fed and dressed. Even though it seemed a bit hectic at the time, we made it there in plenty of time. The best part was that both girls were in excellent moods and the pictures went very well. Alexa listened to exactly what the photographer said and posed perfectly. Lillian was a little less into the whole thing, getting into one of her shy moods when we actually got into the photo shoot. But, the pictures turned out adorable and we're happy.

We treated the girls to Wendy's for lunch for being so good which turned into an experience, I soon wanted to forget. We usually all order the same thing when we go to fast food places, so Adam orders for us while the kids and I scope the place out for the perfect table, not to close too anyone, not too messy, near the condiment table, ect. Alexa grabbed a highchair for Lillian, that she didn't want to sit in anyway. She's a big girl now, you know. A big girl that still doesn't go potty on the potty chair, but that's a whole other story. So, we sat, waiting for Adam to bring the trays of food. Alexa got each of us a straw and unwrapped them for us, gave us all a napkin and patiently sat and waited. A little boy, just learning to walk, toddled over to our table, wanting to say Hi to someone his own size. His Mom followed, saying to him, "Look at how well those two little girls are sitting", implying that he should be doing the same. I made the comment back, "Oh, not for long, we just got here." Little did I know, I had just jinxed our whole meal.
Adam came with our food and I started doling out the chicken nuggets, french fries, cheeseburgers and ketchup. Lillian gets white milk and Alexa gets chocolate. We were all set up, eating and visiting when Lillian grabbed her milk to take a drink. They need straws of course, but Lillian doesn't quite get the concept, that when using a straw she doesn't have to tip her milk carton. You can probably see where this is going. She put her mouth around the straw and then tipped the carton up and all the milk came pouring out all over the front of her shirt, down the chair and onto the floor. In haste reaction, Alexa went to grab Lillian's milk out of her hands and ended up spilling her chocolate milk all over the table, covering all of her chicken nuggets, fries and half a cheeseburger. We made enough of a mess that napkins just weren't going to be enough, so a manager, a very nice one, too, came out with a bucket of water and a rag to wipe everything down. She was even so kind to bring us more milk and nuggets. After all was cleaned up we were able to enjoy the rest of our lunch, but I did want to say to the gal with the young boy that wouldn't sit still, who had already left before witnessing our catastrophe...It could be worse!

It was such a splendid day, sun shiny and dry. We got home and played outside. Adam cleaned the garage and prepared things for winter, the girls and I raked the little bit of leaves we had in our front yard and played with Chip. We all took a walk with the wagon down the street and bought some pumpkins from a little girl, whose Grandpa grows them on his farm. She is trying to raise money for an American Girl doll. We got 3 big pumpkins for $5.00 and a bunch of little gourds for decoration. I call that a steal! We hauled them home in the wagon and placed them on the front steps. The girls and I will paint them this week.

I threw in a frozen pizza for dinner and the girls and I sat and ate while Adam finished up outside. My plans to take Alexa to Glamour Shots at the Mall of America were quickly cancelled when I found out that each sheet of pictures was $60.00. I just can't say, No and Adam would kill me - literally. So, I came up with another idea, not as glamorous, but turned out to be just as fun. I took her to Target and let her pick out as many dresses and outfits she wanted to try on, brought her to the dressing room and let her doll herself up, pose and I snapped pictures on my camera phone. She had a blast, and so did I. In the end, I surprised her by letting her pick her favorite outfit to bring home. She picked an adorable outfit - that I will post pictures of SOON!
From there we went to the Ugly Mug for some ice-cream and hot apple cider, nice combo, I know. We curled up together on a big leather chair by the fireplace and listened to the band blow our eardrums out. We laughed hysterically and enjoyed being together, just us. She modeled her cute outfit for Daddy when we got home and shared her bubble gum, that I also bought her. She was so happy! Our much needed mother/daughter bonding time was a success and it didn't end there. Lillian was sound asleep when we got home, so we turned the monitor on, so Adam and the neighbors, Mike and Dave could be out in the garage. Alexa and I went over to Inna and Tori's for some more girl fun. We visited about James, ate ice-cream and laughed. Later, Jamie joined us and the Carissa. We had some cocktails and decided to dye my hair at 11 at night. Inna is a professional, who works at a solon in Minnetonka. She does hair and make-up for the MN Vikings cheerleaders as well as others for high fashion magazines. So, I trusted her. We had a blast and my hair turned out fabulous. She'll be cutting it sometime this week, too. YAY! What fun to live by a stylist. It calls for many more fun ladies/girls nights to come. Alexa actually stayed up the whole time. She fell asleep as I carried her home across the street. What a sweetie. 1:30 in the morning is late for a little 5 year old. Late for her Mommy, too.

Lillian was up bright and early Sunday, so I got up with her to let Adam sleep in. Alexa was up about 8:30, surprisingly. I figured she'd sleep in pretty late for sure. She even managed to go through the day without a nap. I napped through the whole Vikings game. But, the girls not having naps called for an early night. Both were in bed and sleeping by 7:08pm. I took Chip for a long walk and then enjoyed the rest of the evening with my wonderful husband (who did the dishes for me).

I have lots of pictures to share from the weekend - please look for an updated slideshow tomorrow, if not later tonight.

OUR DEPARTMENT'S TEAM BUILDING

Our department had its team building on October 15 and 16, 2009 at Megan's Paradisio Beach Resort in Brgy. Pundakit, San Antonio, Zambales, which offers a panoramic view of the very beautiful Capones and Camara Islands.

I took several photographs of the place as well as the various activities, mostly parlor games, eating and drinking, and videoke singing, that our department's personnel carried out.

Group 1 competing with Group 2

Enjoying every minute of it

Ying and Jeen joyfully playing with the waves

Singing all night long

I also captured on video the stupendous scenery as well as the roaring sound created by the waves as they crashed on the shore. Please watch the video below.

PRAYER WHEN AMBIVALENT

Have you ever experienced having ambivalent feelings? That is, you are governed by conflicting emotions—like loving and hating at the same time?

A good situational example is, when a girl just broke up with the boy she has learned to deeply love. The hurt feeling that her erstwhile boyfriend has caused her makes her hate him so much. But remembering the good old days when everything about their relationship was so sweet makes her pine for those happy days when they were still together. However, the wound in her heart is still fresh and whenever anyone or anything that has something to do with it comes into her mind, her good mood can easily be transformed to the negative, thus, hating him again as she feels the pain. Expectedly, the moment good memories come her way again, her fondness for him would reign over her.

I believe all of us experience such conflicting moods and feelings even once in a while. In many cases, though, they may not involve romantic relationship.

I do have my share of those feelings. And they concern my relationship with my loved ones particularly my siblings. Those feelings come to me so often that it seems like I’m engaged in a self-torture game. And this makes me feel really miserable.

In times like this, I try my best to be governed by reason and not to be blinded by my negative feelings. Since most of the time, negative feelings are overpowering, I wrote a prayer that would help me find my way back to reason as I say the prayer. I’d repeat the prayer until I’m back to the right perspective.

I am sharing with you that prayer I composed in the early 90s that has helped me every time I feel ambivalent. This has been posted earlier by my anak-anakan on his blog. I hope you will like it and in some ways help you do away or at least cope with ambivalent feelings.

Prayer When Ambivalent

Lord Jesus Christ, help me not to be impulsive. Help me not to be overwhelmed nor be governed by strong and powerful negative emotions or temporary passions that will soon fade and die down. Make me more patient and tolerant, Lord. Instead of giving in to people’s provocations, help me choose to understand and forgive those who have wronged and hurt me.

Most of all, help me forgive my loved ones, Lord, and understand that these people whom I oftentimes harbor resentment towards with, are the same people whom I love and the reason for my aspirations. Help me understand that harboring any negative feeling against them will be incompatible with loving and caring for them.

And during such times when I have conflicting emotions, help me do away with such ambivalent feelings, Lord. May my ambivalence not stop me from helping, loving, and caring for them.

Amen.

i want to live here!!

Find your dream house in here and here

Home

Title: Home
Medium: Digital Art
Full Size: 11 x 14
Price: $36.00 (unframed)

Our new van!

We are offically parents (which begs the question 'what have you been for the past three years??') Ok. So in terms of vehicles, we are now officially parents. This weekend we bought a Honda Odyssey. I absolutely love her!

Reagan is having some adjustment issues, however, asking us to bring back our old vehicle. But she does seem to enjoy being able to see EVERYTHING from her seat now.

Let me tell you about the van: She's gold and not new, but new to us (and as a former car salesman, let me tell you to NEVER NEVER buy a new car....quite frankly, you are literally THROWING your money away if you do). She's an EX model with beige interior and literally spotless. I love that she has dual sliding keyless doors and a CD player AND a cassette player (I have a lot of old music left over!) and Josh and I plan on putting a DVD player in for Reagan when we go on trips. She has a great tailgating feature and lots of power and handles like a car. These are all things I've always loved about the Odyssey (I sold Hondas in a previous life ;) )and really appreciate all the more now that I'm a mom.

Thanks Honda, for making a great, reliable vehicle! I can't tell you how happy I am to finally be back to a two-Honda family instead of just a one-Honda family....there is no other car I trust more and no other vehicle I'd rather have (ok, maybe the Honda Pilot!!).

I could go on expounding the virtues of Hondas for days, but unfortunately I need to get to bed at sometime tonight. At any rate, this has really been an amazing weekend for us and we're really happy with our new purchase!

SVG Cuts is having a Cuttlebug Giveaway

The Wonderful folks at SVG Cuts is having a cuttlebug giveaway. The winner will receive the Cuttlebug and 1 embossing folder (valued at 89.99), and you do not have to have Sure cuts a lot to participate. I am so excited for the winner on this one it's been on my wish list for quite sometime. Hope on over to SVG Cuts blog to check it out. While your there be sure to stop in the store and check out their beautiful files..