Surprise from a High School Friend

Thanks to facebook and other social media, I have had the pleasure to be able to reconnect with some high school friends and others from my home town.  Many of these people I haven't seen or talked for almost 30 years. 

As many of you may already know, I've been trying hard to overcome a 24 hour bug that went overboard on me thanks to my Crohn's Disease.  From what little time I wasn't sleeping or trying to force myself to drink more fluids, I've was able to talk to one of these high school friends while he was waiting on on his truck to load or unload.  Imagine my surprise when I answered the door to this:

Talk about making my day/week/month!!!  I really miss my gardens, so this really helped bring the garden into me.  Since I'm finally up and around again, I do believe that this is just the medicine I needed!  I can't thank Tim Malone enough for cheering me up with these gorgeous flowers!

Since I can never show you enough pictures of my grandkids, I had to show you all how fast Caleb is growing.  He's six months old now and weighs over 19 pounds!  Talk about wanting to always pinch his cheeks!  He is really into laughing hard as you can see by his picture below.

And of course, here's my version of a perfect little Gerber baby here:

~~~Lee~~~

I'm Alive!

I just wanted to let everyone in blogland know that I'm alive and well.  I've had major computer problems again, so I'm hoping this "fix" works longer this time!

I'm sorry I don't have anything new to show you right now.  I have lots of pics to download, so I hope to have something to show you soon.

I have one major thing I want to share with you.  My youngest daughter, Chelsey, just graduated on Friday from the Department of Corrections Training Academy, and she is now working as a Corrections Officer.  She is the mother of my newest grandson, Caleb, and she is also a sargeant in the Army National Guard.  While she was stationed in Iraq several years ago, she completed her associate's degree in Criminal Justice, and will be working on completing her bachelor's degree soon.  Thanks again to all that have kept her and her family in your prayers during her trying pregnancy and loss of her job because of being on bedrest for so long.

~~~ Lee ~~~

GingerLoft Hug Your Dog Card

Well, I'm still alive and without a computer.  They were able to fix the computer and save all of my pictures and digis, but the cost wasn't in my very tight budget so I need to make payments before I get it back.  I'm still using a loaner computer for now, and was actually able to download some pictures of the cards I've been making lately. 

I love this image called Playground by GingerLoft.  Since my daughter is a dog trainer and an Animal Welfare Officer (and a MP in the Colorado Army National Guard) when she's not on total bed rest during her pregnancy, I figured this image would be a perfect one to use to help cheer her up.  Well, it worked!  She loved the card, and she even took pics of it to send to her friends from work.

This was the first image I purchased from GingerLoft, and I know there will be tons more that I can't live without!  I printed this digi image onto Georgia Pacific cardstock and immediately heat embossed it with clear detail embossing powder.  Next came my trusty Prang colored pencils and baby oil as a blender.  This is the first time I just ran a shadow of blue around the image.  It definately saves time on the background, and it also seems to make it pop off the page without having to cut the figure out.  The paper is some more scrap paper that I've been trying to use up that probably came from Hobby Lobby.  The adorable felt ribbon is from K & Company, and the pearls are from Michael's.  There is also some Magic Mesh on the top section for a bit of extra zing.

What would a dog be without his bones?  These adorable embossed stickers are made by American Traditionals Designs that I found at Big Lots.  The corners were all rounded with a corner punch, and the front of the card is finished off with a paw print punched out of the design paper.  The inside mimics the front with the same design papers and paw print punch.  I can't remember who this saying is from, but I'll post it here when I get my computer back.  The tennis balls and bones are all from the American Traditionals Designs pack of stickers, and the I Ruff You sticker is from a Bubble-A-Bilities package from the Paper Studio.  The closeup below really shows the detail on this adorable bulldog.  If you like this stamp, you'll really love Tami's other stuff!  I can't wait to use the Winter Tree, Christmas Door, Cowboy, Nature's Song Collage and other digis I bought from her during some of her great sales! 

If you were wondering how my daughter, Chelsey, is doing, so far, so good.  She's now out of the hospital, but she's still on total bed rest.  The baby weighs just over 3 pounds now, and is doing well (except keeping mom up with his kicking!).  The 800 mg of Ibuprofen she has to take 3 times a day is really messing with her stomach, so hopefully the spasms in her cervix will stop soon.  She is almost 28 weeks along now, so we are very blessed to have him cooperate with the doctors and not want to pop out too early!  Thanks again for all of your prayers and words of encouragement!

I've actually finished a ton of cards for a craft show and a for a benefit for the youth football league, so now all I need to do is write up all of the details.  Now, I just need to remember what I used to make them! :o) 

~~~  Lee  ~~~

Challenges:

The Sisterhood of Crafters -  All things Bling
GingerLoft Challenge Blog - All that glitters or blings
The Crafty Pad - Make Something for a Friend
Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp'en Challenge - Girly Girl
Stamping Vacation - To Who - Someone That Needs a Hug

Finally Some Ups and a BIG Down!

Sorry I haven't been here lately, but if you've read the posts about my daughter, Chelsey, being in the hospital then you'd know why.  Well, yesterday we finally got some wonderful news.  The doctors decided to let Chelsey come home, since she can do bed rest just as well at home.  They did warn her that if she had anymore problems  she would be back in the hospital for the duration of her pregnancy.  I think that was a big enough scare for her to stay grounded!  She made out meal plans for her gestational diabetes, and the dogs are so close to her bed that she couldn't get up more often if she wanted to!  She is now at week 25, so please continue to keep her and the baby in your prayers.  We want to thank you again for all of your support and prayers during this trying time. 

Now, for my problems.  My computer crashed last week, and I still don't know if I'll be able to recover anything yet.  I'm on SSI, so needless to say a new computer isn't in the budget for quite a while even though this one was six years old!  My SIL has a buddy that fixes computers, so he said he would look at mine sometime next week.  Until then I've been going over to my DD's house and trying to use theirs when I can.  Their computer is older and doesn't have all of the ports for cameras, so there's no uploading any pictures for now.  I know people say it all of the time, but if you're like me you didn't do it.  So, now I'm saying it and want everyone to not only listen, but do it.  What, you say?  BACKUP EVERYTHING ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!  Yep, you guessed it!  I didn't and now my pictures and digis and all kinds of files may be lost forever.  Please, don't make the same mistake that I did!  Back your stuff up!

~~~  Lee  ~~~ 

A Different Kind of Fight This 9-11

Where were you when you first heard about the attack on the World Trade Center?  Most people can tell you exactly where they were and who was with them during this memorable event.  So many of us took so much for granted until the horrible events of this day came to pass.  Unless you lived on Pearl Harbor, we couldn't imagine this country ever being attacked.  The reality of this day has changed the world as we knew it.

I was in a hospital bed on this eventful day.  I called to the nurses to show them the first and then second plane hitting the towers.  Before long, the TVs went dead.  Was this some mass attack on our communication towers?  No.  It was just the doctors pulling the plug on TV, so they could be ever so cautious for their patients' health while they were under their care.  I missed out on a lot of things in the news the next few weeks while I was in the hospital, but my kids didn't.  My youngest daughter was only 16 years old when this happened, but it helped guide her into one of the biggest decisions in her life. 

That following summer, my daughter, Chelsey, enlisted in the Army National Guard as an MP between her junior and senior year of high school.  She went to basic training in the summer and came back to finish high school.  Chelsey has been to many places that many men couldn't begin to handle.  Her first "deployment" was to help maintain order in St. Bernard's Parish immediately after Hurricane Katrina.  A few years later when she returned from her deployment to Iraq, she told me that nothing she saw in Iraq would ever compare to the horrors she saw after Katrina. 

During Chelsey's deployment to Iraq, she was involved in the biggest overseas reenlistment ceremony on July 4th, 2008 in one of Sadam's former palaces in Iraq.  Even after all she had seen and done, she still decided to reenlist.  She is pictured above with General David Petreaus just after this ceremony.  I couldn't have been prouder of my daughter for her service and for signing up for another four years of duty.

Today, Chelsey is the one in the hospital.  This time, she is fighting for her unborn son's life.  She has been on complete bed rest for the past three weeks after having surgery to stitch her cervix together.  Many of you have already been praying for her, and we can't thank you enough for all you have already done.  We were hoping she would be able to come home this weekend, but the doctors want her to stay in the hospital because her cervix isn't thickening up and is showing signs of spasms.  The prednisone shots were started today to help develop the baby's lungs quicker, and her diet for her gestational diabetes is still helping to maintain her sugar levels without insulin.  Considering the fact that they have tried to get pregnant for over five years, Chelsey is going to do everything necessary to be able to give birth to this precious little boy.  He weighs just over 1 pound 15 ounces today, and has reached the magic 24 weeks on the gestational charts giving him much better chances of survival.  I know that this may not seem like the right time to ask for prayers for Chelsey and the baby during this solemn day, but since she has given so much in order to serve her country, I thought asking for prayers would be appropriate even now.  Many people wouldn't try this hard to save a life.  This is another reason why I couldn't be any prouder of her!

We can never give back to the families that lost so much following the 9-11 tragedy, but we can do what we can to make sure this event never happens again.  Please honor all of the people who have and will continue to serve our country.  One of the ways to help our service member's when they are stationed overseas is to make cards and/or send donations for postage to Operation Write Home.  The cards are sent to the soldiers free of charge, so they have something nice to send home to their families.  I know all too well what these cards mean to the soldiers and their families.  I should.  I started making cards for the troops when Chelsey's unit was stationed in Iraq, and the comments and requests from these soldiers was all that I needed to know that I was doing something that meant so much to them.  Why not try this out for yourself...you'll be glad that you helped!

Prayers Needed for Chelsey!

Our family is in need of prayers for my youngest daughter, Chelsey.  She is having some problems with her pregnancy and will be hospitalized for the next 3 -7 weeks.  She is in her 21st week of pregnancy, and had surgery the other day to stitch her cervix together.  They had been trying to get pregnant for over five years, so her pregnancy was truly a blessing.  The doctor initially didn't place any restrictions on her, but after her ultrasound on Wednesday they immediately sent her to a hospital in Colorado Springs which is about 50 miles from here. 

Needless to say, we are trying to think of ways to keep her occupied, so she won't go stir crazy laying in bed.  She wants to crochet a baby blanket, so I'll be taking her lots of supplies to keep her busy crocheting.  Chelsey tried her hand at cross-stitch while she was in Iraq, but she didn't last long with it since isn't as crafty as the rest of the family.  If any of you have been in this situation and have any ideas on things to do beyond word searches, I'd appreciate your help.  Please, continue to keep them in your prayers in the upcoming weeks.  THANKS!

~~  Lee  ~~