Trick or Treat! and Barn Raising Day!

Here's Lauren's Saturday Sketch!

It's Saturday, and I think our news is starting to set in and become "real". I guess as real as it can. I wasn't even going to post, but here I am at 4:50 in the morning and I can't sleep, so I thought, why not. The kids are still nestled in their own beds (thats a rarity). I was sleeping with Ethan, but Ava is in her bed and Dave is in ours!!! We start Ethan's Barn Raising today at 8:00 am. I think this will be such a site to see. There is so much lumber sitting in our yard and today there will be so many helpers that are coming out for such a good cause. Ethan's Make-a-Wish horse, Sonador arrives on Tuesday (not Wednesday) like I thought so we are anxiously awaiting that. It will be such a sweet gift that Ethan so deserves.

On to my card (and back to Ethan in a bit). I used my new stamps from Pink Cat Studio, Limitless Limbs Stamps. It is such a cute set. It was a little time consuming cutting out, but oh so worth it. Isn't the tree wonderful and the kitty is oh so sweet. I chose to flip the sketch. I added some swirls with my piercing tool....thought it added a little extra to the card. The paper is Only Orange and Basic Black from SU. Hope you enjoy.

Ethan had a really good day yesterday. It was such a busy day. The kids and I got up around 7:00 or so and had a typical morning of watching a few cartoons, Ethan drinking his lemonade and then they both had eggs. We had so many people in and out all day getting ready for the big day. The watermain was put in yesterday, UPS delivered my big SU order from Stamp Club, they were getting the foundation ready for the barn, the AC man came to replace the motor in our unit (when it rains it pours), and then we had a ton of friends that cam last night and we hung out while the lumber was being delivered.

We didn't hear anything from Philadelphia yet, so we wait, once more. It will be Tuesday now since it is a holiday before we hear anything as to when we will be heading that way. As far as Ethan goes though, the words when the Doctor says "the cancer is back", couldn't be more numbing, but I think we are now ready to fight again! It takes a while for the initial shock to wear off and then start to move onward. Please keep Ethan in your prayers.....we need them now more than ever. Thanks for checking in and taking a peek at my card.

Here's links to the other gals too.

Tamara Harder http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com
Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com
Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com
Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com

MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Here are my sweet kiddos. Ethan is having a ball helping out Brick and Ava is getting to teeter totter with her friend Annabelle.

Just Hanging in there.

We found out some devastating news today. Ethan's biopsy is in fact neuroblastoma. We live here in west central Illinios and Ethan has been treated in St. Louis for the past year. Our Doctor is going to be sending us to a hospital out in Philadelphia next week to start another treatment option. We'll know more details today. I can't sleep......I just hold him and wonder, what is going on?

I wish all of you out there that check my site could meet our Ethan. Words can't really describe how cool of a boy he is. He's smart beyond his years, his witt is just amazing and is just so darn cute (I mean handsome as he would correct me!). I'm having a hard time with this at moments......last night I did pretty good, but this morning it feels like I've been hit with a truck.

Please say a prayer for our little boy. We don't know what lies ahead, but we are ready to fight again. Saturday we are having a Barn Raising for Ethan's Make-A-Wish horse, Sonador, that is coming on Wednesday. He is so excited. We haven't told him anything about what is going on and probably won't until we have to hop on the plane. Anyway, I know some of you reading this have been wondering.

I have Lauren's card finished for tomorrow.....we'll see if I get the energy today to take a picture and put it up. I like how it turned out. I'm going to have a hard time taking any time away from the kiddos now to do stuff like this. Before it was my escape, but I don't know now. Sorry to be so down for a Friday morning! Hope all of you have a good weekend. We're going to have fun with Ethan's barn raising!

Clean Up!!!

I'm trying to organize a little more in my stamp room so that means I need to go through my stamps and sort. I'd love to get rid of these sets below. Just send me an e-mail at twoengrs@adams.net and I'll get back with you on the shipping. I have more down stairs in a tub......but that will have to be for another day!



I don't have anything to share today! I decided to clean instead of stamp!!! I definitely can say that I like stamping a lot better than cleaning!!! Here are a couple pictures of my "small and cozy" stampin space. It's pretty well organized, but very tiny! It works though!

Circus Train $10
Bodacious Bouquet $15
Definitely Decorative Fresh Fruits $15
Definitely Decorative Crayon Fun $10
Fun Faces $7
Rhyme Time $10
Kids at Play $15
Define Your Life (Brand New) $25
Little Layers Plus $7
Mini Messages $5
Fun Filled $5
Along the Same Lines $10
Love Ya Bunches $7
Everyday Flexible Phrases (Brand New) $20
Mini Mates $15
Too Terrific Tags $7
Holiday Spirit $15
Little Hellos $10
Holiday Blocks $10
Fun With Shapes $15
Nature's Secret $15
Year-Round Fun II $10

A little Baby Card and some Concrete!

A friend of mine just had a baby.....Lilly and this is the card I made for her. She might actually see it online first, but that is okay!!! I saw one very similar on Papertrey's online gallery. I used the Bity Baby Blessings set and Berry Sorbet patterned paper. I'm really into paper piecing so I had fun making this card.

We are still waiting to hear back from Ethan's biopsy. We aren't just sitting around waiting though.....we had a very busy weekend visiting with friends and today we poured the concrete floor of Ethan's new horse barn for his Make-A-Wish horse. Sonador will be here next Wednesday so we have a lot to do before then. We are having a barn raising if everything comes together this weekend! I have some cute pictures of Ethan helping with the pour today. He helped Mommy with the trowel and then got to help with the Big Trowel and thought he was pretty big stuff! He is quite the little man. He had about a 1/2" sample taken out of his bone above his knee on Friday and couldn't walk Sat, walked and stood with some help yesterday and today he can walk and stand by himself with a limp. I'm very proud at how determined he is to walk again. Hopefully I'll get some more cards stamped this week, but I'm really wanting to scrapbook so maybe just maybe I'll have a page to share as well!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Whoooootin "Saturday" Hi!

It's Saturday and time for Lauren's Sketch! I absolutely love this sketch! I'm actually thinking about using it for my Christmas cards this year.....wouldn't it be perfect to use a picture as the background and the sentiment on the circle! I ran out of time to play with it so I'll have to work on that this week!


I'm typing this in the hospital as we wait on Ethan getting his biopsy. (It's not actually Saturday, but Saturday mornings at our house are too busy so I did this early!) I got to use my new Papertrey Ink Set "Wise Owl". I love it and can't wait to play with it more. The sentiments with it are great too! I love the one that says "Happiness is not having what you want, it is wanting what you have." Isn't that a great saying!


The colors I used are mellow moss, chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, and close to cocoa from SU. The background paper is something new from Basic Grey called "Mellow". The ribbon is from Papertrey Ink and the dew drops are from Michaels....although the last couple trips I can't find them there so hopefully I won't run out anytime soon! I broke out the sewing machine too for the first time in weeks. I love the added touch of the stiching!

Hope you give this sketch a try. Have a great weekend! We are going to try to keep busy and keep our minds off of Ethan's biopsy results. They say they won't have them back until probably next Thursday! Thanks for taking a peek! Don't forget to stop by the other gal's sites to see their creations for Lauren's sketch.

Tamara Harder http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com/
Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque http://www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com/
Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com/
Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com/
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Monkeys, monkeys, and more monkeys

Sorry son long for an update......oh how life has been crazy this week. The week started off great with good news on Ethan's bone marrow.....it was clear! THANK GOD! The Doctor is still trying to figure out what is going on with Ethan's knee and wants to make sure it isn't Neuroblastoma so we went yesterday for a consultation with the Orthopedic Surgeon and then found out today that he will have his biopsy on his knee tomorrow.....yep, found out about Wed's appt on Tuesday at 4:00 and found out this morning about Friday's appt! So we are now waiting once again on the biopsy and praying that all will be fine!

Now.....on to fun card related stuff. To top this week off, I had stamp club at my house last night....yep, a 2:45 Doctor's appt that was an hour behind and we live 2 1/2 hours away from the hospital, so I got home at 8:30 and everyone had gotten there at 7:00 or before! Thank goodness my Mom helps out and took charge once again! I think everyone had fun. I had made several samples using my new "Sock Monkey" set from Stampin' Up! Thought I would share my samples with you......don't have time for details as I should be fixing supper, but I'm on my blog. I needed a little cyberspace break to insure that I was still sane from the crazy week we've had. I'll post something again on Saturday mornning for Lauren's Saturday Sketch. I really like what she has for us this week!




Here's the same card, just flipped and with a few dew drops added. Very, very simple card, but I thought it was cute!














Thought I would try out a post-it holder. I used a sticky backed velcro circle to keep the flap down. I really like the color combo of pink pirouette and not quite navy.

Last, but not least, here is my last monkey card for the day! I'm really glad I got this set! I tried a new color combo for this card too, pink pirouette, not quite navy, so safron, and riding hood red.

One might wonder how I can stamp when we have so much going on with our son, but I truly use this as my "escape" from reality. I can get my mind off most anything when I stamp!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back on Saturday!

Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch!

Here's Lauren's Sketch!

It's Saturday already! This has been a long week of "waiting" here at our house....for results, good results. We found out a little bit of good news, but also found out we have to wait until Monday for the final results from our son's bone marrow biopsy! Ugghhhh the days just drag on and the worry is undescribable. So what else do you do when you are worried beyond imagine....."STAMP"! It's the best stress reliever. I just made the Christmas card this morning and the monkey card last night! I flipped the Monkey card around for the sketch.

I used my new Riding Hood Red on the Christmas card with some PTI Kraft paper. I'm borrowing my Mom's "BELIEVE" set from PTI. This card looks a little country, but I do like it. I colored with SU's watercolor crayons. I dobbed the entire card with chocolate chip ink to make the swirls stand out.





This is what I came up with last night and I didn't really think that it matched the sketch completely, so I decided to try again this morning with some sleep! Thought I would go ahead and upload the monkey card anyway. Isn't this monkey adorable. It's the new Sock Monkey set from SU and I just love it.

I better run.....Ethan had his cousin spend the night and they are camping out on his bedroom floor. I'm sure they had a ball.....now I don't know how much sleep they got though!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!





Take a look at what all the other gals came up with too!

Tamara Harder http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com/
Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque http://www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com/
Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com/
Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com/
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Quick Little Picture Frame

I finally stamped! I haven't been in the mood to do much of any stamping all week. Tomorrow we head to St. Louis so Ethan can have an MRI of his right knee. I'm probably the most worried that I have been since we were waiting on bone marrow results back in December. No fun at all! I've just been trying to keep busy this week with the kids. Today we went to play minature golf and Ethan had a good time. He had his cousin along with him so that was fun, but Ava would have rather of been at home! She was in a sour mood until we left!!!




Here is a picture of what I made for PTI's Guest Star Stamper for August. I finally got it to upload....I've been trying all day and couldn't get it to work, but it just did!!! I used one of their clear boxes and made it into a picture frame. I love how it turned out and it couldn't have been any easier or cheaper! I made basically a card front using my new favorite picture of the kids. I used two sets from PTI, "BELIEVE" and "Out on a Limb". The polka dot paper is new from last month. I borrowed my Mom's paper. I haven't gotten my "I want it all package" yet because the Wise Owl set is still on back order. Oh well.....that will give me something new to play with in a few weeks! I wrapped the clear box with wide brown satin ribbon to keep it shut! It's so light too and could be used on a refrigerator if you wanted to add a magnet! The cardstock is SU's new Riding Hood Red, and Kraft from PTI. I used Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red Ink from SU!



Funny story about my new Riding Hood Red ink. I was using it last week and I also was using my chocolate chip and noticed that my chocolate chip was getting a little dry. I went to reink it and after I was half way over the ink pad I realized that I had put it on my new Riding Hood Red pad....what do you do??? Guess I know what I'll be ordering this month! That will teach me to stamp at 5:00 a.m. again!

If you read my blog, "BELIEVE" is my sort of "Theme" if you will over the past year. I'm going to use this on my desk when I start back to work next month.....yep, that's right! I'm going to be heading back part time and work on Mondays and Tuesdays for the same engineering firm that I used to work for. I'll have to see if I can blow the dust off of my "Stamps", different kind than I get to have "FUN" with. My Dad always likes to rub it in that my "PE" stamps make a lot more money than my "rubber stamps!" One year for Christmas he even stamped his very own wrapping paper with his "PE" (Professional Engineer) stamp, just to be funny! It was too cute.....my Mom said that he actually wrapped all of my presents that year! Guess Dad is right.....I'm still not making money off of my rubber stamps, but I sure do have "fun" with them and that is all that counts!

As always, I had to post a couple pictures of my kids. These are of Ethan this week. He loves his new bike and was posing on our walk to the winery! The next picture he is standing in front of his new fence for his Make-A-Wish Horse. He's very excited about getting his horse, Sonador!


Now I'm off to bed.......6:00 am departure is going to get here quickly!!!

Thanks for taking a look. I'm hoping that I get good news about my son tomorrow so I can relax a little and start stamping a little more!

Sketch time with "Lauren Meader"

Here is Lauren's Saturday Sketch!

It's Saturday! I'm writing this before I even get the good news from our son's scans.....so I'm being optimistic that all is clear! I couldn't sleep Friday morning so I got up around 5:00 and worked on my card for the sketch......time was hard to find this week as we traveled to and from the hospital everyday since Wednesday. I really liked the sketch this week! I thought about using buttons, then about just circles and when I sat down to make the card, I decided on stars....why not! I flipped the sketch over and here is what I ended up with. Ethan just had his Cowboy Birthday Party and I need to make thank yous!

We just got him new bedding too for his room. He wants a cowboy room now. He has the cutest train bedroom, but he has been asking for quite some time now for a cowboy room with matching curtains and bedding.....no kidding, he is only 4, but he really did ask for matching curtains and bedding! It's adorable. He picked it out from Target.....so now my Grandma will have more curtains to make! She has made all of the curtains in my house.....expect Ava's room and my Mom made those! This time we are going to use extra bed sheets.

We are off to the Ozarks for the weekend with friends. This will be nice because we haven't been anywhere, just the 2 of us in well over a year......probably longer than that! We'll proabaly worry about the kids the entire time, but that's okay! This will be the first time we have left Ethan overnight since he got sick last year! He is perfectly fine now so we have no problem leaving him. Ava is used to staying at Grandma and Papa's so she probably won't think anything of it! Hope we have a good time and hope all of you have a great weekend. If you try out Lauren's sketch, let me know on a post and I'll take a look! Here's the other gals on Lauren's and their websites......so take a look at what everyone has created this week!

Lauren Meader http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Tamara Harder http://tamarastamps.blogspot.com/
Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/
Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Dubosque http://www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com/
Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com/
Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com/

MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

"It's early Saturday morning now as I update my post". Our news from scans today wasn't what we had hoped for. They saw a "Spot" on the bone scan on Ethan's right knee and an "area" on the MIBG scan on his right knee. They are working on setting up an MRI for early next week and we'll take things from there. Please keep our son in your prayers. This could be Neuroblastoma, infection, or trauma and we are praying that it is just trauma. Time will tell.

BELIEVE!

I'm sitting in the hospital cafeteria typing this! My son, Ethan, is back getting scans and we are waiting....patiently! It was harder this time around because he doesn't have a broviac so they had to use some gas today before they will give him an iv and tomorrow he'll have to get the iv prior to getting sedated. These days are no fun.....worry, worry and more worry! I just try to keep myself busy, so I decided to take a picture of one of my favorite cards. This is our Christmas card from last year! Ethan was in the middle of his chemo treatments and we weren't getting good news and they were switching chemo drugs again. We wouldn't find out if it cleared his bone marrow until Dec 28, 2007. It was a glorious day when I got the phone call that his bone marrow was clear. We needed this so we could get Ethan's stem cells collected for a transplant that he had this past February! Ethan is doing great! The scans he is having are routine and will check to make sure no cancer has returned. We BELIEVE and pray with all our might that it will never return. Thought this might be appropriate to show our Christmas card from last year! He truly was the "MIRACLE OF THE SEASON!"

This morning I got the kids to sit on the steps for a quick picture. They are both being so silly, but they look so cute!

I'll be back on Saturday with Lauren's sketch cards. This week has just been a little much to get too much of anything accomplished, but I plan to stamp tonight when we get home.

See you back on Saturday!

Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch Challenge!

Oh I can't tell you how excited I am about sharing these two cards with you. Lauren Meader has a Saturday Sketch and she now has a "team" of gals that are getting to play along with her sketch on Saturdays! I really love this sketch, especially after I started playing with it. This first card is so much prettier in person....you can see the sparkle from the added rhinestones.....click on the image so you can see that part close up. The main image is from "Out on a Limb" by PTI. I just love this set! The sentiment is from Small Sayings by SU. I used two of my favorite colors from SU, Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip. The flowers were punched with Martha Stewart's Hydrangea punch and the ribbon is Chocolate Chip Grosgrain from SU. There are tiny rhinestones added to the centers of the flowers for some "Bling!"


You'll have to check out the following blogs too as all of us have used the same sketch.

Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
Kim Gasper
MacKenzie Bruckler


I adore this set "Bitty Baby Blessings" by PTI and have made a card very similar to this in color style, but thought it would look cute with this layout too! The little sail boat is paper pieced using the 6x6 Hostess package from SU! This card has a ton of layers. The colors I have used are Aqua Mist from PTI and Real Red from SU! The star punches are the 2 sizes that SU carries and the Oval Punch is from SU as well. The ribbon is Aqua Mist Satin Polka Dot from PTI. I used my Swiss Dots folder for my Cuttlebug for the background on the Aqua Mist too. Hope you give this sketch a try this week. If you do, feel free to link your image here and please share your creations with Lauren too so she can see all of the great ideas!




Here is the sketch that Lauren designed this week!

A little story about my evening last night too!!! My Dear Sweet Husband scored some free tickets to the local theater to see "Urinetown". Oh my goodness....this play is very interesting to say the least. It is about exactly what the title says. The performers were amazing, but the plot was a little on the weird side! To top it off, me being the "germaphobe" I am, I was sitting next to this elderly lady that was hacking up a storm! She wouldn't quit coughing and she started taking some medicine that smelled like oral Vix. I always....always have Germ-x to wash my hands with and I was searching through my purse and I couldn't find it! So at intermission I was heading straight to the bathroom to wash my hands.....but my husband pointed out that when the lady stood up next to me, her pants were half way down and her butt crack was right before my very eyes. My mouth nearly dropped to the floor.....we couldn't stop laughing! Luckily for us, the lady didn't return to her seat after intermission! It made for an interesting "date night!"

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!